Immigrants, Roma and Sinti unveil the “National” in Italian Identity

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in the first half, the essay goes on in the second half to examine the powerful contribution to the debate by leading Italian Romaní intellectual, Santino Spinelli (2012), and Romanologist Lorenzo Monasta (2008). The depth of the current identity crisis in Italy makes this country an ideal laboratory to probe new approaches on the subject

Hannah Arendt and Natives as Extras: Towards an Ontology of Palestinian Presence?

The essay grew out of Hannah Arendt’s reflection on the roles and uses of the mask, a meditation on the ontology of the transient public figure or persona vs. one that restitutes the person to the unadulterated Selbstdenken dimension of the Epicurean philosopher-in-hiding. The author individuates in the resulting caesura between the donning and the taking off of the mask the primal source of that paradox in Hanna Arendt’s political behavior that alternately compelled her to confront the ontological presence of the Palestinian people, and made her withdraw into philosophical hiding without ever really coming to terms with it. In her writings, the Palestinians are never protagonists, rarely enjoy supporting roles, and most of the time remain unfortunate extras on a stage controlled by external actors who, sustained by the imperialist powers, suddenly donned their masks making themselves protagonists on a stage that was not theirs. To illuminate Arendt’s conceptual trajectory the author adopts as his guiding signposts W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz (2003), Palestinian artist Larissa Mansour’s Nation Estate (2013), Emily Horne’s and Tim Maly’s work The Inspection House (2014),and Hermann Broch’s The Death of Virgil. The adverb ‘towards’ in the title points to a path that has remained, as a result, without destination in Hanna Arendt’s political activity and philosophical thought pivoting around the native people of Palestine

A prospective, single-arm study on the use of the da Vinci® Table Motion with the Trumpf TS7000dV operating table

BACKGROUND: The da Vinci® Table Motion (dVTM) comprises a combination of a unique operating table (Trumpf Medical™ TruSystem® 7000dV) capable of isocenter motion connected wirelessly with the da Vinci Xi® robotic platform, thereby enabling patients to be repositioned without removal of instruments and or undocking the robot. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between May 2015 to October 2015, the first human use of dVTM was carried out in this prospective, single-arm, post-market study in the EU, for which 40 patients from general surgery (GS), urology (U), or gynecology (G) were enrolled prospectively. Primary endpoints of the study were dVTM feasibility, efficacy, and safety. RESULTS:Surgeons from the three specialties obtained targeting success and the required table positioning in all cases. Table movement/repositioning was necessary to gain exposure of the operating field in 106/116 table moves (91.3%), change target in 2/116 table moves (1.7%), achieve hemodynamic relief in 4/116 table moves (3.5%), and improve external access for tumor removal in 4/116 table moves (3.5%). There was a significantly higher use of tilt and tilt plus Trendelenburg in GS group (GS vs. U p = 0.055 and GS vs. G p = 0.054). There were no dVTM safety-related or adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: The dVTM with TruSystem 7000dV operating table in wireless communication with the da Vinci Xi is a perfectly safe and effective synergistic combination, which allows repositioning of the patient whenever needed without imposing any delay in the execution of the operation. Moreover, it is helpful in avoiding extreme positions and enables the anesthesiologist to provide immediate and effective hemodynamic relief to the patient when needed

Preliminary genetic characterisation of Southern Smooth Snake Coronella girondica (Serpentes, Colubridae) populations in Italy, with some considerations on their alpine distribution

The Southern smooth snake, Coronella girondica, is a small-sized colubrid found in Northwest Africa and Southwest Europe. Mitochondrial DNA-based studies showed that the species can be split into five clades: two from Northwest Africa (one Moroccan and one Tunisian-Algerian) and three from Europe (one in the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula, one in the south-east of Spain and one in the rest of the European range). With regards to Italy, to date, only two samples have been analysed both from the Province of Pisa, Tuscany, pointing at that fact that genetic characterisation of Italian populations is still lacking. Accordingly, we have increased the sampling coverage with 19 new samples from northern and central regions of Italy, including two populations, apparently disconnected from the rest of the known range, and analysed their phylogenetic relationships using a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Our results confirm the general phylogenetic arrangement detected in previous studies; specifically for Italian populations, no variability emerged from the Apennine populations, and a slight differentiation could be shown for the Alpine and subalpine ones. This pattern can be explained assuming past spread and recent isolation of C. girondica relict populations in the Alpine region, likely during the Last Glacial Maximum. Later, during the Holocene, the Italian Alps and the Po Plain went through various climatic variations and high anthropization which may have influenced C. girondica distribution through expansion and contraction processes

Immigrants, Roma and Sinti unveil the “National” in Italian Identity

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in the first half, the essay goes on in the second half to examine the powerful contribution to the debate by leading Italian Romaní intellectual, Santino Spinelli (2012), and Romanologist Lorenzo Monasta (2008). The depth of the current identity crisis in Italy makes this country an ideal laboratory to probe new approaches on the subject

Hannah Arendt and Natives as Extras: Towards an Ontology of Palestinian Presence?

The essay grew out of Hannah Arendt’s reflection on the roles and uses of the mask, a meditation on the ontology of the transient public figure or persona vs. one that restitutes the person to the unadulterated Selbstdenken dimension of the Epicurean philosopher-in-hiding. The author individuates in the resulting caesura between the donning and the taking off of the mask the primal source of that paradox in Hanna Arendt’s political behavior that alternately compelled her to confront the ontological presence of the Palestinian people, and made her withdraw into philosophical hiding without ever really coming to terms with it. In her writings, the Palestinians are never protagonists, rarely enjoy supporting roles, and most of the time remain unfortunate extras on a stage controlled by external actors who, sustained by the imperialist powers, suddenly donned their masks making themselves protagonists on a stage that was not theirs. To illuminate Arendt’s conceptual trajectory the author adopts as his guiding signposts W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz (2003), Palestinian artist Larissa Mansour’s Nation Estate (2013), Emily Horne’s and Tim Maly’s work The Inspection House (2014),and Hermann Broch’s The Death of Virgil. The adverb ‘towards’ in the title points to a path that has remained, as a result, without destination in Hanna Arendt’s political activity and philosophical thought pivoting around the native people of Palestine

Work-family conflict and facilitation among teachers in Israel and Switzerland

In this paper, we examine the attitudes toward integrating work and family in a sample of 247 teachers in Switzerland and Israel. More particularly, we focus on the national context\u2019s role in mediating the relations between professional and private spheres. The data were collected by a questionnaire implemented and administered in the two countries. The analysis reveals differences between Israeli and Swiss teachers regarding the importance of attribution to life roles and their attitudes toward conflict and facilitation. Findings suggest new insights into the consideration of cultural elements in shaping the teachers\u2019 attitudes toward the integration of family and work