Braccia italiane al servizio del Reich. L\u2019emigrazione dei fremdarbeiter italiani nella Germania nazista (1937-1943)

Nel periodo che intercorre tra il 1937 e il 1943 circa 500.000 lavoratori italiani lasciarono le proprie case e si recarono, pi\uf9 o meno volontariamente e spinti dalla propaganda nazionalsocialista, verso la Germania di Hitler. Seguendo il percorso delineato dai due storici italiani che, pi\uf9 di ogni altro, si sono occupati di tale evento (Brunello Mantelli e Cesare Bermani), si cercher\ue0 di comprendere, a partire dalla ricostruzione dei fatti intercorsi in quel periodo e del rapporto politico tra autorit\ue0 naziste e fasciste, che cosa l\u2019emigrazione italiana in Germania abbia significato per i protagonisti

No Expo Network: multiple subjectivities, online communication strategies, and the world outside

Technological devices are supporting the convergence of individuals and groups, sharing and implementing common repertoires of contention: these opportunities redefine possibilities for arranging at distance, defining a common minimum frame, and allowing multiple adhesion paths and ways of participation. Moreover, the ability to attract political and media attention and the maintenance of the internal solidarity play a strategic role both for successful protests and resistant movements. According with the theoretical framework deepened in the first part, this paper analyses the mobilization against the Universal Exposition 2015 held in Milan. After a brief overview of the context and the mapping of the main organizations belonging to No Expo Network, an assessment of their involvement in the coalition is presented. Thereafter, the online communication strategy is explored through a systematic analysis of the No Expo website and its visibility in websites, blogs and social network sites of the various groups belonging to the Network. In a mixed perspective, both as scholars and as activists, in this article our purpose is, on the one hand, to describe and also to critically analyse the coalition and its dynamics; on the other hand, to underline the main criticalities of Universal Expositions, by supporting the No Expo arguments

The impact of carbon based materials on hippocampal cells: from neurons to networks.

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine require the constant development of synthetic materials to manufacture scaffolds thatbetter integrate into the target tissues (O\u2019Brien, 2011; Ku et al, 2013; Harrison et al, 2014). In this framework, newly synthesized nanomaterials made of pure carbon, in particular Carbon Nanotubes (Ijima, 1991) and Graphene (Novoselov et al, 2004) applications to biology received particular attention due to their outstanding physicochemical properties (Hirsch, 2010). Our team has performed pioneer works during the last decade, about the interactions of neural cells with carbon nanotubes (Lovat et al, 2005; Mazzatenta et al, 2007; Cellot et al, 2009; Cellot et al, 2011; Fabbro et al, 2012; Bosi et al, 2015), and with graphene (Fabbro et al, 2015; Rauti et al, 2016) or, more in general, with synthetic substrates (Cellot et al, 2016). The major aim of my work has been to use traditional and novel physiology tools to investigate further these \u201cneuro-hybrid systems\u201d, and to understand how far Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene can be pushed in neuroscience applications. With this aim, in the first part of my PhD I further elucidated the behavior of newly formed synapses in primary dissociated neurons when interfaced to bi-dimensional substrates of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes. I then addressed the homeostasis of invitro neural networks interfaced to pure graphene and I characterized for the first time the changes induced by this material in neurons. As last step, I set up a more complex biological in-vitro model, consisting of lesioned organotypic Entorhinal-Hippocampal cultures (Perederiy and Westbrook, 2013) and we described the regenerative features of Carbon Nanotubes in this lesion model. During my PhD I was also involved in two side projects: in the first one, in collaboration with Sebastian Reinhartz and Matthew Diamond (SISSA), we refine the possible approaches of the optogenetic technique, by manipulating neuronal responses with different light waveforms (Reinhartz et al, MS in preparation, in the appendix). In the second one, in collaboration with the group of Manus Biggs, from the National University of Galway, Ireland, we tested the biocompatibility and addressed the neural behavior of primary neural cells interfaced with Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrates with different roughness, thickness and conducting profiles (Vallejo-Giraldo et al, 2017)

Digital Animal Advocacy: A Study on Facebook Communication Styles of Italian Animal Rights Organizations and their Followers\u2019 Reactions

Despite online media having become an increasingly valuable tool for social movements to achieve their goals, the digital presence of animal advocacy organizations is still under-explored. This paper contributes to fill the gap by analyzing the social media communication of Italian animal advocates against the backdrop of a typology developed in the offline context that distinguishes political, anarchist, anti-political and mainstream animal advocacy. By using text and data mining techniques, the Facebook pages of eight Italian organizations representative of each type of advocacy were analyzed, based on over 7,000 posts and followers\u2019 reactions. The findings complicated the offline typology by showing elements of continuity, discontinuity and hybridization between offline and online activism. They also shed light on the online communication of animal advocates and provided some initial insight into how online media can affect animal rights activism, thus providing a contribution to the emerging field of digital media and social movement studies

Effect of densification conditions on specific energy requirements and physical properties of compacts made from hop cone

Hop cones, due to their essential flavor, are one of the four main ingredients for beer production. The paper reports the results on an investigation of the densification process of hop cones. This experiment investigated (i) the effects of compression pressure in the range of 40 to 80 MPa and pressure application time in the range of 10 to 40 s on the final density and durability of the compacts made from hop cones and ii) the specific compression energy required for the process. The specific compression energy requirements to compact hop cones ranged from 14.20 to 24.48 kJ kg−1. The final compact density values ranged from 515.2 to 876.6 kg m−3, while the durability percentage calculated ranged from 71% to 91%. The obtained results highlighted that compression pressure—in the range of 40–80 MPa—significantly affects the specific compression energy requirements, the final density and the durability of the produced compacts. In this experiment, pressure application time plays a key role in determining compacts density, while did not affect durability and compression energy requirements. Considering the specific compression energy values calculated in this experiment, it can be stated that the pressure agglomeration method described to compact hop cones is more efficient than pelletizing process which is typically characterized by specific energy values ranging from 19 to 90 kJ kg−1

Nanoroughness, Surface Chemistry and Drug Delivery Control by Atmospheric Plasma Jet on Implantable Devices

Implantable devices need specific tailored surface morphologies and chemistries to interact with the living systems or to actively induce a biological response also by the release of drugs or proteins. These customised requirements foster technologies that can be implemented in additive manufacturing systems. Here we present a novel approach based on spraying processes that allows to control separately topographic features in the submicron range ( 3d 60 nm - 2 \ub5m), ammine or carboxylic chemistry and fluorophore release even on temperature sensitive biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL). We developed a two-steps process with a first deposition of 220 nm silica and poly(lactic-co-glycolide) (PLGA) fluorescent nanoparticles by aerosol followed by the deposition of a fixing layer by atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ). The nanoparticles can be used to create the nano-roughness and to include active molecule release, while the capping layer ensures stability and the chemical functionalities. The process is enabled by a novel APPJ which allows deposition rates of 10 - 20 nm\ub7s-1 at temperatures lower than 50 \ub0C using argon as process gas. This approach was assessed on titanium alloys for dental implants and on PCL films. The surfaces were characterized by FT-IR, AFM and SEM. Titanium alloys were tested with pre-osteoblasts murine cells line, while PCL film with fibroblasts. Cell behaviour was evaluated by viability and adhesion assays, protein adsorption, cell proliferation, focal adhesion formation and SEM. The release of a fluorophore molecule was assessed in the cell growing media, simulating a drug release. Osteoblast adhesion on the plasma treated materials increased by 20% with respect to commercial titanium alloys implants. Fibroblast adhesion increased by a 100% compared to smooth PCL substrate. The release of the fluorophore by the dissolution of the PLGA nanoparticles was verified and the integrity of the encapsulated drug model confirmed