Towards a practical, empirical and social education, at the school of architecture

Como profesionales y docentes-investigadores de Arquitectura, nos planteamos hacer un aporte a la enseñanza creando un escenario alternativo la posible incorporación de recursos provenientes de residuos de construcción y demolición y sólidos urbanos. Se propone una forma de enseñanza donde el estudiante interactúa con los docentes y situaciones del mundo real, investiga, crea y vuelve a estudiar. El objetivo específico es el desarrollo de productos y sistemas con la incorporación de uno o más agregados provenientes de reciclado y que estos productos y sistemas sean aptos para la generación de empleos en ámbitos cooperativos o de micro emprendedores con desarrollo local. Estos productos que se realizan en el ámbito de esta materia forman parte de sistemas constructivos llevados a la práctica en ejemplos de extensión universitaria en diferentes cooperativas. Esta práctica horizontaliza la relación docente-estudiante para convertirla en un grupo de trabajo con intereses comunes, que se acerca más a la filosofía ambiental.As architects and researchers we plan to make a contribution to education. we adhere to a form of teaching where students interact with teachers and individuals from real world situations, investigate, create and then return to study. This methodology not only generates knowledge but passion and challenge, continuous research and teaching dynamics are included. With scarce natural resources, little sustainable extraction and high costs, we propose as a possible alternative scenario the incorporation of resources from construction and demolition and municipal solid waste, exploitation of materials that were separated at source for re-use or recycling. Our Center develops within an empirical philosophy of practice - theory - practice with student interns, gatherer cooperatives and micro-entrepreneurs, building systems including post-consumer recycled materials, thus avoiding sending them to landfill. In such form, and no flow of energy and water, the Center promotes the flow of residues redirected to production in Social Factories, experimenting in connection with all the aforementioned actors, a possible way to build in the future that is suitable philosophy.Eje: Educación y formación en sustentabilidad (Comunicaciones).Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanism

Carriers of ADAMTS13 Rare Variants Are at High Risk of Life-Threatening COVID-19

Thrombosis of small and large vessels is reported as a key player in COVID-19 severity. However, host genetic determinants of this susceptibility are still unclear. Congenital Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by uncleaved ultra-large vWF and thrombotic microangiopathy, frequently triggered by infections. Carriers are reported to be asymptomatic. Exome analysis of about 3000 SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects of different severities, belonging to the GEN-COVID cohort, revealed the specific role of vWF cleaving enzyme ADAMTS13 (A disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif, 13). We report here that ultra-rare variants in a heterozygous state lead to a rare form of COVID-19 characterized by hyper-inflammation signs, which segregates in families as an autosomal dominant disorder conditioned by SARS-CoV-2 infection, sex, and age. This has clinical relevance due to the availability of drugs such as Caplacizumab, which inhibits vWF-platelet interaction, and Crizanlizumab, which, by inhibiting P-selectin binding to its ligands, prevents leukocyte recruitment and platelet aggregation at the site of vascular damage

Brain energy rescue:an emerging therapeutic concept for neurodegenerative disorders of ageing

The brain requires a continuous supply of energy in the form of ATP, most of which is produced from glucose by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria, complemented by aerobic glycolysis in the cytoplasm. When glucose levels are limited, ketone bodies generated in the liver and lactate derived from exercising skeletal muscle can also become important energy substrates for the brain. In neurodegenerative disorders of ageing, brain glucose metabolism deteriorates in a progressive, region-specific and disease-specific manner — a problem that is best characterized in Alzheimer disease, where it begins presymptomatically. This Review discusses the status and prospects of therapeutic strategies for countering neurodegenerative disorders of ageing by improving, preserving or rescuing brain energetics. The approaches described include restoring oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis, increasing insulin sensitivity, correcting mitochondrial dysfunction, ketone-based interventions, acting via hormones that modulate cerebral energetics, RNA therapeutics and complementary multimodal lifestyle changes

All in, against all odds. Path shift in family policy via cross‐party agreement: the case of the Single Universal Allowance reform in Italy

The introduction of the Single Universal Child Allowance in 2021 marked a sharp turning point in Italian family policy. Presented as a major revolution aimed at combating the country's alarmingly low birth rates as well as child poverty, the reform was also meant to rationalise the benefits system while overcoming the historical fragmentation and uneven protection granted to families. Against this backdrop, the article contributes to the literature from two different angles. First, the study offers fresh empirical evidence of the path-shifting scope of the reform, marking a rupture with the longstanding weak model of income support. Second, the article engages from an interpretative standpoint with the puzzling emergence of a cross-party consensus around approval. Drawing from the comparative literature on institutional change and the modernisation of family policies, the article asks which factors made it possible-after decades of substantial inertia-to overcome path dependency through cross-party agreement in Italy, providing an in-depth, original examination of parties' positions throughout the legislative process and identifying key elements of agreement and conflict

Do you guys take showers with your children? Gendered Embodiment and the Legitimation of Italian Fathering Practices

This work aims at investigating gendered embodiment in fathering practices in a national context, Italy, where understandings of fatherhood, at the institutional as well as the individual level, are still more centered on the provider ideal than on a model of nurturing and caring fatherhood. This qualitative research on Italian first-time fathers of children under three years old focused on men’s participation in routine, instrumental and material childcare practices, exploring the potential for a transformation in both the meanings attached to fatherhood as well as to aspects related to embodiment and constructions of masculinity that sustain inequalities. The findings show that, while participation in hands- on childcare plays an important role in the construction of intimate father-child relationships, a legitimation of men’s bodies’ involvement in interaction with children is still missing, especially for care practices that overlap with constructions of motherhoo

‘Being old’ and ‘feeling old’ in contemporary Italy: Active ageing and COVID-19

Over the last 20 years, ageing has been studied through the lens of an active ageing perspective, which considers older adults as responsible for their own conditions. However, the COVID-19 health emergency has highlighted its limits. Drawing on a sample of semi-structured interviews - collected before and during the pandemic - with people aged 65 years and above who are self-sufficient and live in Turin, Italy, this article explores the representations and perceptions of ageing, to highlight the possible effects of the COVID-19 emergency. The results show that representations of ageing revolve around two fundamental viewpoints: one considers older adults as a cost for the community because of their unproductiveness; the other overlaps the loss of self-sufficiency with a definition of 'real' old age. Furthermore, the interviews introduce a distinction between those who - considered productive despite their age - were called to provide a service to the community during the lockdown, and those who were judged vulnerable because of their age. Such ambiguous messages have raised new questions about an active and successful ageing imperative