'A me stesso di me pietate vène.' Lyric Subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti's Rime

This thesis examines articulations of subjectivity in the love-lyric corpus of Guido Cavalcanti (c.1258-1300). That Cavalcanti has a central role in the development of the modern lyric subjectivity is widely accepted in scholarship. The present study aims to deepen current understanding of Cavalcanti’s poetry by analysing ways in which the subject of the enunciation is articulated in the Rime. This research adopts a traditional critical approach (i.e. philological, lexicographic, and semasiological) in conversation with linguistics, narratology, and literary theory. The main textual strategies which contribute to the expression of subjectivity in the cavalcantian corpus are analysed in the context of the Duecento Italian love-lyric tradition. Chapter 1 historicises and maps the main debates concerning the issue of subjectivity in medieval texts which prove significant for reflecting upon the cavalcantian subject and defines the thesis’ methodological framework. Chapter 2 and 3 discuss the most significant results of a comprehensive indexing and analysis of deictics. It provides an examination of the ways in which subjectivity is encoded in the Rime, as related to the main coordinates of the discourse (person, time, space). Chapter 4 examines Cavalcanti’s use of apostrophe and the direction of the poetic message as strategies to redefine the lover-beloved polarity of the lyric tradition. Chapter 5 analyses voices that are “other” to the traditional one of the poet-lover in the Rime and their contribution to the articulation of a specific subjectivity in the lyric discourse.Keith Sykes Postgraduate Fundin

Visual Underpinnings of Body Aesthetics: A TMS Study

The 'Dual route model' for visual body processing suggests that occipital-lateral cortex and premotor cortex may have complementary influences on body perception. In particular, while the Extrastriate body area (EBA) may be involved in body form processing, premotor cortex (PMC) is necessary in body action processing. Here, we applied rTMS over bilateral EBA and PMC to investigate the neural mechanisms of esthetic of body perception. Female and male healthy volunteers were required to express VAS judgments of how much they liked virtual model bodies that varied either in body size and implied motion. After a 500-ms fixation cross, the stimuli were presented for 150 ms at the center of the screen and were followed by a mask for 500 ms and, finally, by the 100 mm VAS scale. Five 10 Hz rTMS pulses were delivered after 150 ms from stimulus onset. The analysis on the esthetic liking VAS revealed specific effects of EBAvs. dPMC-rTMS according to the size and posture of the bodies. While, rTMS over right EBA specifically decreased the liking judgments of fat models, stimulation of left EBA decreased the liking judgments of slim dynamic models. Importantly, only the left PMC, but not the left EBA, decreased the judgments of slim static bodies. Our results provide evidence of lateralization effects for the positive vs. negative evaluation of the body of conspecifics. Crucially, both EBA and PMC seem to play a complementary role in esthetic processing and their individual contributions influence the final esthetic judgment

Le interiezioni della 'Vita Nuova': il caso di 'deh'

This article examines the presence and the semantic, pragmatic, and textual function of the interjection deh in the Vita Nuova, as well as its potential stylistic function. A comparative overview discusses the occurrences of the interjection in the Vita Nuova and in the pre-Dantean lyric tradition, paying special attention to the poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. L’intervento discute la presenza e la funzione semantica e pragmatico-testuale dell'interiezione deh nella Vita Nuova, nonché la sua eventuale funzione stilistica, analizzando i contesti e l'uso dell'interiezione nel libello e comparandoli alle occorrenze della tradizione letteraria italiana pre-dantesca, con attenzione specifica alla poesia cavalcantiana

Dynamics of policy change: three Italian cases

The common research interest of this thesis’s chapters is the dynamics of policy change in the context of the Italian governmental system. The collection of three published papers each included as a chapter in the core of the thesis is preceded by an introduction explaining the theoretical approach and research strategy. The chapters are consistent in following a middle-range processual theory of the politics of public policy decisions in a country case, an event-centric approach to explaining policy choice and an elite-interviewing approach to data collection. The first two chapters, respectively entitled “Government Innovation Policy in Italy (1993-2002): Understanding the Invention and Persistence of a Public Management Reform” and “Dynamics of Electronic Government Policies: The case of Italy (1992-2003)”, examine the dynamics of public management policy change in Italy over the period of a decade, employing the case of the Policy for Government Innovation and the case of the Electronic-Government Policy. The analysis of these two newly reported cases of enduring public management reform is suited to question the argument set by previous literature; that the country’s legalistic administrative culture inevitably suppresses meaningful reform. In particular, the chapters set forth two significant reservations about this argument, namely that the outcomes of public management reform initiatives are more varied than the current literature shows and the theoretical approach in the established literature attributes exagerate causal influence to the governmental system’s legalistic traditions. The third chapter, entitled “Explaining the Unexpected Success of the Smoking Ban in Italy: Political Strategy and Transition to Practice”, analyzes the episode that unfolds in a domain that addresses a general interest reform, very visible to public opinion, unlike public management reform. The chapter follows the issue beyond the pre-decisional stage, uncovering the dynamics of transition to practice: a phase between the formal passage and the full application of a law. A concluding section compares the three chapters, explores the interactions between analytically significant features of the Italian context and the policy cycle, and distils analytical refinements to the notion of policy entrepreneurship

Effect of three species of herbage (Medicago sativa, Lolium multiflorum, Avena sativa) on in vitro ruminal production of conjugated linoleic and vaccenic acids

Little information is available about the effect of different forage species on the rumen biohydrogenation process. The aim of the present work is to compare the in vitro production of CLA and C18:1 isomers after incubation of three different herbage species in rumen liquor from sheep. Pasture herbage samples of lucerne (Medicago sativa; MS), ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum; LM) and oats (Avena sativa; AS) were submitted to in vitro fermentation with sheep rumen inoculum. Samples were collected at 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours of fermentation. The fatty acid profile of MS was characterised by 11.62 (g/100 g of lipid extract) of linoleic acid (LA) and 27.08 (g/100 g of lipid extract) of α-linolenic acid (LNA), whereas LA in the other two herbages was 6.60 (g/100 g of lipid extract) and 6.95 (g/100 g of lipid extract) in AS and LM, respectively; LNA was 52.20 (g/100 g of lipid extract) and 54.49 (g/100 g of lipid extract) in AS and LM, respectively. The crude fat content of botanical species was respectively 11.90 (g/100g DM) for AS, and 15.77 (g/100g DM) for LM and 26.17 (g/100g DM) for MS. Rumenic acid (RA, cis-9, trans-11 CLA) was the predominant CLA isomer and the maximum yield was attained with AS after 6 hours of fermentation (0.81 g/100 g of lipid extract); RA concentration remained quite low with the other two herbages. The concentration of the other isomer (trans-10, cis-12 CLA) was always very low; the maximum yield (0.09 g/100 g of lipid extract) was reached after 6 hours with AS. The maximum yield of vaccenic acid (VA, trans-11 C18:1) was reached after 8 hours with MS (2.64 g/100 g of lipid extract). This herbage also produced the highest amount of trans-10 C18:1 at 6 and 8 hours (0.17 g/100 g of lipid extract). AS appeared to have induced the highest amounts of RA relative to the other two forages. The differences in conjugated dienes and C18:1 isomers content during fermentation could be due not only to different amounts of LA or LNA in the herbage, but also to different releasing times of FA from the plant substrate

The innovative approach of Biomimetica and its application to sustainable retrofitting of existing buildings

In recent decades, elements and technological systems inspired by the natural world have become more widespread in architecture and construction industry, in order to improve the energy efficiency and thermal behavior of buildings. The best known example are green facades, increasingly used to improve the energy efficiency of new buildings and the bioclimatic comfort of urban settlements. Through biomimetic studies, innovative solutions are being proposed, from the use of living biological systems (e.g. bio-reactive facades) for climate control to new natural materials (e.g. metal-sensitive wooden sheets) that react directly to external factors such as light, heat, humidity, opening and closing without the use of energy or mechanical aids. All these systems contribute to improving the energy efficiency of both buildings and the urban system in which they are located. The contribution aims to examine technological solutions based on biomimetic methodology, to assess their applicability in the retrofitting of existing buildings

Response of rumen microbial ecosystem to diets integrated with chestnut or quebracho tannins in dairy ewes

The aim of this study was to evaluate the response of rumen microbial ecosystem to diets integrated with chestnut or quebracho tannins in dairy ewes. The experiment was conducted as 3 X 3 Latin square design and the trial was repeated 2 times. Three fistulated ewes fed 3 diets based on chopped grass hay ad libitum administered and on 800 g / head and day of 3 experimental concentrates containing 84.5 g of soybean oil / kg of DM and 52.8 g / kg DM of bentonite (CON) or chestnut tannin extract (CHT) or quebracho tannin extract (QUE). At the end of each experimental period rumen liquor was analysed for fatty acid and microbial profiles. On the basis of the molar stoichiometric relations between rumen volatile fatty acid and CH4 production (CH4=0.45 x acetate-0.275 x propionate + 0.4 x butyrate), the CH4 emission was also predicted for each diet. A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed in order to find potential connection between microbial community, fatty acid composition of rumen liquor and potential CH4 emission, and how these connections are influenced by the different diets. DGGE bands were used as "species" data, while fatty acids and potential CH4 emission as "environmental" variables. The microbial profile was affected by the presence of tannins. The bacterial community of QUE and CHT samples of rumen liquor was positively correlated to vaccenic acid, conjugated linoleic acid and C18:2 trans-11 cis-15. Moreover, the bacterial communities as affected by CHT resulted mainly positively correlated to butyric acid, acetic acid and with potential CH4 emission. In contrast, the bacterial communities as affected by CON resulted mainly correlated positively to C18:2 cis-9 cis-12 and C18:0 production

Nutrient withdrawal rescues growth factor-deprived cells from mTOR-dependent damage

Deregulated nutrient signaling plays pivotal roles in body ageing and in diabetic complications; biochemical cascades linking energy dysmetabolism to cell damage and loss are still incompletely clarified, and novel molecular paradigms and pharmacological targets critically needed. We provide evidence that in the retrovirus-packaging cell line HEK293-T Phoenix, massive cell death in serum-free medium is remarkably prevented or attenuated by either glucose or aminoacid withdrawal, and by the glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxy-glucose. A similar protection was also elicited by interference with mitochondrial function, clearly suggesting involvement of energy metabolism in increased cell survival. Oxidative stress did not account for nutrient toxicity on serum-starved cells. Instead, nutrient restriction was associated with reduced activity of the mTOR/S6 Kinase cascade. Moreover, pharmacological and genetic manipulation of the mTOR pathway modulated in an opposite fashion signaling to S6K/S6 and cell viability in nutrient-repleted medium. Additionally, stimulation of the AMP-activated Protein Kinase concomitantly inhibited mTOR signaling and cell death, while neither event was affected by overexpression of the NAD+ dependent deacetylase Sirt-1, another cellular sensor of nutrient scarcity. Finally, blockade of the mTOR cascade reduced hyperglycemic damage also in a more pathophysiologically relevant model, i.e. in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) exposed to hyperglycemia. Taken together these findings point to a key role of the mTOR/S6K cascade in cell damage by excess nutrients and scarcity of growth-factors, a condition shared by diabetes and other ageing-related pathologies