Social web e generazioni: identità, relazione e comunicazione tra online e offline

2011 - 2012The aim of this research work is to present the results of a research project which investigates the social media use among four different generational cohorts – Baby Boomers, X Generation, Y Generation, Z Generation. Within a generational approach publics were analyzed in their peer-to-peer relationships and cross-generational implications. Across an ethnographic approach focus groups were conducted by means of age and gender variables. The emergencies highlight the changes among the generational publics in relation to three main categories: reflexivity, concerning topics such as the awareness and meta-communicative competence in understanding social practices and relationships, the self-narration, the digital intimacy; the category of space, concerning topics such as the 'space' and the sharing of social media in intergenerational relationships online and offline plus the individual’s own 'position' in the generational space and the memory one, concerning memory repertories and generational we sense topics. Particularly investigated was the re-configuration of identity in its generational aspects especially regarding the adults cohorts. [edited by Author]XI n.s

Once upon a time the Self: cinema and online identity playground tales

ABSTRACT More than any other medium, Cinema can express the ‘spirit’ of modern industrial civilization (Abruzzese, 2006; 2008; Casetti, 2008), by telling about other media (Frezza, 1996; 2014) through the post-modern phase up to the present Post-Media age (Krauss, 2004) even foreshadowing the mediascape evolution (Young, 2006). Over the last decade Cinema has told about social media as complex contests where identity building or re-configuration take place. Identity’s building is an on-going and almost infinite process, well expressed by the concept of identization (Melucci, 1991). This process grounds on the reflexive project of the self (Giddens, 1992), and on individuals’ abilities to assume each other’s perspective in order to be self-reflective (Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934; Schutz, 1962); it spreads from the internal conversation (Archer 2003) and the narrative process (Bruner, 1990; Ricoeur, 1991; Pecchinenda, 2008). Social media make these perspectives cutting-edge since they allow subjectivization practices and offer the opportunity for identity textualization (Salzano, 2008), enhancing the dialectic between the embodied self and the desired self (Salzano, 2014). For instance, Memorable moi (2013) is a short film which tells the obsession regarding the identity acknowledgment. Some scholars claim a sort of disconnection between online and offline: late modernity identity — by means of digital media — is uninhibited and non-conforming (Reid 1991), or fluid and fragmented (Turkle, 1984; 1995) — because of the disembodiment — or alone despite always connected (Turkle, 2011). This kind of disconnection is told by several cinematic storytelling (Catfish, 2010, Acht Blumen, 2012). According to other scholars, the digital Self is stable and sustained (Baym 1998), though disseminated along multiple relationships and conversations: it is rather enriched thanks to the connected reflexivity (Ito, 2008; Baym and boyd, 2012; Boccia Artieri, 2012) and anchored to the body presence — even though in a mediated form. Two movies, among others, tell about the body as an ‘identity stake’ through the digital interactions: Me, You and Everyone We Know (2005) and Her (2013). In particular, social media platforms work as identity playground during Adolescence (boyd, 2008; 2014; Buckingham, 2008): young people’s identity-in-action (Weber and Mitchell, 2008) builds up between on line and offline interactions (Hine, 2000; 2013). Many movies tell about these identity performance, ranging over the sexual identity building (InCONTACT, 2012) or the political one (The Real Social Network, 2012, #chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on A Dictator, 2013); others focus on the reputation management of the online identity (Chef, 2014), or on the offline augmentation of mediated relations (Face 2 Face, 2012). Cinema also describes the other side of the coin. Many movies about young people and media — which can be analyzed by means of an anthropo-mediologic approach (Frezza, 2014 ) — tell about the risks regarding the online identity building: the cyberbullying (Disconnect, 2014), the problems in the identification processes (Adoration, 2008, Chatroom, 2011), the good judgment (Hard Candy, 2005) and the mourning (UnFRIEND, 2014). Matrix (1999) is the founder of those movies which tell about the online dark side where, following Foucault (1988) the Self fluidity is intended as a consequence and expression of Power. As for this point of view, social media are interpreted as cultural device that trigger — by means of technical constraints (Couldry, 2010) and individuals’ control — a sociable power (Colombo, 2013) which imposes to conform the imagined audience and the social stereotypes. Documentaries like We Live in Public (2009), Generation Social (2012), Online Now (2012), InRealLife (2013), Terms And Conditions May Apply (2013) and the short movie Look Up (2014) describe the complaint of social media power and effect in the individuals’ daily life. Once upon a time the Self: cinema and online identity playground tales (PDF Download Available). Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/280224702_Once_upon_a_time_the_Self_cinema_and_online_identity_playground_tales [accessed Nov 22, 2015]

Taking on new challenges in multi-word unit processing for Machine Translation

This paper discusses the qualitative comparative evaluation performed on the results of two machine translation systems with different approaches to the processing of multi-word units. It proposes a solution for overcoming the difficulties multi-word units present to machine translation by adopting a methodology that combines the lexicon grammar approach with OpenLogos ontology and semantico-syntactic rules. The paper also discusses the importance of a qualitative evaluation metrics to correctly evaluate the performance of machine translation engines with regards to multi-word units

Synthesis, self-assembly-behavior and biomolecular recognition properties of thyminyl dipeptides

This article describes the synthesis of Thy-(Phe-Phe) and Thy-(Tyr-Tyr), two thymine-bearing dipeptides based on L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine, the circular dichroism (CD), UV and dynamic light scattering (DLS) characterization of their self-assemblies, and a CD study of their interaction with nucleic acids (using homoadenine DNA and RNA) and serum proteins (employing BSA as model protein). DLS studies, alongside with CD and UV investigations conducted on aqueous solutions of the derivatives under different concentration and temperature conditions, showed the formation of extensive molecular architectures with hydrodynamic mean diameters higher than 300 nm, with Thy-(Tyr-Tyr) forming at pH=7.5 particularly large and stable networks, involving multiple units, connected by H-bonding, aromatic and hydrophobic interactions. Finally, the findings of our study suggested that Thy-(Phe-Phe) and Thy-(Tyr-Tyr), very stable in human serum, were able to bind BSA protein altering its secondary structure

MENTAL ILLNESS AND PREJUDICES IN PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSIONALS Data from the social stigma questionnaire for psychiatric professionals: a multicentre study

The prejudices about mental illness and the related social stigma are still present in the population. People suffer from both the disease and the marginalization behaviors implemented by the "so-called healthy" towards them and their relatives. Even psychiatric professionals can get sick and suffer for the same reason. The authors of this multicentric study have focused their attention on the presence or absence of groups of psychiatric pathologies among the "insiders". The most frequent pathologies encountered were the mood and anxiety disorders, in a percentage similar to that of the general population. To continue the research on the stigma begun in a previous study, the authors asked themselves if there could be prejudices and/or stigma among psychiatric professionals towards sick colleagues, how they relate in the workplace and how they react to the behavior of colleagues. The stigma questionnaire has been used on psychiatric professionals, and 130 Italian colleagues were tested in the provinces of Avellino, Brindisi and Trento. The data were compared with those of the research on the stigma "Thinking of Psychiatric Disorders as" Normal "Illness" (Tavormina et al. 2016) and it emerged that among the attending professionals there are no statistically significant behaviors of marginalization, exclusion or stigma against sick colleagues, even if there is a certain discomfort in working together. Above all, it emerged that 80% of the interviewees, who have had work experience with sick colleagues, have replied that the latter can treat those who are also sick of their own disease, thus showing esteem and confidence in their work, in analogy with the Jungian thesis of the "wounded Healer" in the myth of the centaur Chiron

Las tres edades de la mujer: un análisis de las visiones distópicas de las mujeres y la maternidad en The Handmaid’s Tale

Women’s identity, as feminist studies have shown, is a cultural and social construction that is closely related to motherhood. Since the media have a central role in the social construction of reality, analyzing a series such as The Handmaid’s Tale, focused on women, motherhood and (in)fertility, can shed light on the models of femininity and motherhood present in our own society. Through a qualitative methodology, the first season of the series is analyzed, focusing on the representation of women, the female body and motherhood. The television text allows us to reflect on three aspects in particular: the interconnections between fiction and reality, the misogyny in the female gaze itself, and the stigma of infertility.La identidad de las mujeres, como han demostrado los estudios feministas, es una construcción cultural y social que está estrechamente relacionada con la maternidad. Ya que los medios de comunicación tienen un papel central en la construcción social de la realidad, analizar una serie como The Handmaid’s Tale, centrada en las mujeres, la maternidad y la (in)fertilidad, puede permitir arrojar luz sobre los modelos de feminidad y maternidad presentes en nuestra propia sociedad. A través de una metodología cualitativa, se analiza la primera temporada de la serie, focalizándose en la representación de las mujeres, el cuerpo femenino y la maternidad. El texto televisivo permite reflexionar sobre tres aspectos en particular: las interconexiones entre ficción y realidad, la misoginia presente en la propia mirada femenina, y el estigma de la infertilidad

LAS TRES EDADES DE LA MUJER: UN ANÁLISIS DE LAS VISIONES DISTÓPICAS DE LAS MUJERES Y LA MATERNIDAD EN THE HANDMAID'S TALE

La identidad de las mujeres, como han demostrado los estudios feministas, es una construcción cultural y social que está estrechamente relacionada con la maternidad. Ya que los medios de comunicación tienen un papel central en la construcción social de la realidad, analizar una serie como The Handmaid's Tale, centrada en las mujeres, la maternidad y la (in)fertilidad, puede permitir arrojar luz sobre los modelos de feminidad y maternidad presentes en nuestra propia sociedad. A través de una metodología cualitativa, se analiza la primera temporada de la serie, focalizándose en la representación de las mujeres, el cuerpo femenino y la maternidad. El texto televisivo permite reflexionar sobre tres aspectos en particular: las interconexiones entre ficción y realidad, la misoginia presente en la propia mirada femenina, y el estigma de la infertilidad

Bioactivity of Different Chemotypes of Oregano Essential Oil against the Blowfly Calliphora vomitoria Vector of Foodborne Pathogens

Blowflies play a substantial role as vectors of microorganisms, including human pathogens. The control of these insect pests is an important aspect of the prevention of foodborne diseases, which represent a significant public health threat worldwide. Among aromatic plants, spices essential oils (EOs) are the most suitable to protect food from insect pests. In this study, we determined the chemical composition of three oregano EOs and assessed their toxicity and deterrence to oviposition against the blowfly Calliphora vomitoria L. The chemical analyses showed that the EOs belonged to three chemotypes: one with a prevalence of carvacrol, the carvacrol chemotype (CC; carvacrol, 81.5%), and two with a prevalence of thymol, the thymol/p-cymene and thymol/-terpinene chemotypes(TCC and TTC; thymol, 43.8, and 36.7%, respectively). The bioassays showed that although all the three EOs chemotypes are able to exert a toxic activity against C. vomitoria adults (LD50 from 0.14 to 0.31 L insect1) and eggs (LC50 from 0.008 to 0.038 L cm2) as well as deter the oviposition (Oviposition Activity Index, OAI, from 0.40 0.04 to 0.87 0.02), the bioactivity of oregano EOs significantly varies among the chemotypes, with the thymol-rich EOs (TCC and TTC) overall demonstrating more effectiveness than the carvacrol-rich (CC) EO

Spatial distribution of fungal microflora in the sediment of a brackish lake (Lake Alimini Grande, Italy) used for fish production and bathing

A study of the distribution of fungal microflora was conducted on the sediment of Lake Alimini Grande in order to contrib- ute to the evaluation of the ecosystem characteristics that can effect the process of decomposition. The isolation and identification of fungal species and ergosterol analysis were performed on sediment samples taken from 33 monitorin stations in autumn and winter .Altogether, 24 strains belong- ing to 8 genera were isolated. Trichoderma spp (41.6%) and Aspergillus spp (20.8%) were the dominant genera: in par- ticular, Trichoderma was present near the Traugnano marsh, whereas Aspergillus was isolated in the area of connection to the sea