Rudolf Steiner.

Il filosofo austroungarico Rudolf Steiner  (Kraljevec 1861- Dornach 1925)  tra il 1882 e il 1897 è chiamato a curare la pubblicazione degli scritti scientifici di Wolfgang Goethe per la Deutsche National-Literatur.   Lo studio delle opere di Goethe si offre alla sensibilità di Steiner come il principio di una nuova e moderna visione del mondo in cui filosofia, scienza e arte si possono efficacemente integrare nel processo conoscitivo. Goethe rappresenta per Steiner l’artista che ha sentito la necessità di passare dall’attività poetica allo studio scientifico per scoprire che « l’arte è una delle rivelazioni della legge primordiale del mondo; la scienza l’altra ». Da qui ne deriva per Steiner l’elaborazione di un sapere che pensa la natura come teorema e l’arte come problema

Jean-Luc Godard vs Jean-Luc Godard

Nanà, protagoniste du film de Godard Vivre sa vie (1962), au point culminant d’un interrogatoire par la police, répond à la question ‘Qui êtes-vous ?’ : « Moi je ne le sais pas. Moi je suis une autre». Phrase qui indique toute la complexité de l’articulation du sujet avec son propre Moi et surtout avec l’ordre- dispositif- du discours que le sujet entretient avec lui-même et avec l’autre. À la question d’individuation le sujet au pied du mur se déclare excentré par rapport à l’ordre du discours imparti par les autorités. Ce faisant il se livre et en même temps se sauve, parce que ce qu’il laisse sous surveillance est un sujet désindividué dont, du point de vue de la loi, il reste difficile de disposer. À partir de ce noyau de vérité Jean-Luc Godard affronte le dispositif cinéma, une matière linguistique pré-instituée et légiférante avec laquelle le sujet autorial va devoir compter, pour déclarer, à l’extrême, l’impossibilité de devenir l’auteur de ce qui se dit

Carmelo Bene. Ricominciando dal tramonto del giorno.

Carmelo Bene coglie nella caduta residuale d’un frammento acustico involontario, letterario o poetico, estraneo al soggetto, la possibilità di dar vita a un’infinità di mondi impossibili. Attraverso la rielaborazione d’un accadimento che  prende il soggetto costantemente impreparato, nella ripetizione d’una percezione costantemente rinnovata, l’attore, nell’atto del porsi in ascolto, scopre attraverso il dire che l’essere umano è condannato a trovar posto all’interno d’una esteriorità già data che lo precede, da sempre. Non resta dunque al nostro artefice che dribblare le direttive del senso imposte all’essere parlante, operare, all’interno di una sorta di fucina del senso, la materia di cui si compone la phoné, per invocare al grado ultimo della sua arte teatrale l’attenzione d’uno spettatore sordomuto che incapace di restituire l’inaudito  è in grado di preservare l’assoluta purezza d’una voce  esterna al soggetto che si dica senza intenzione: «Ah soltanto esser solo UNA VOCE!

Ribelli dello Spirito tra estremo oriente ed estremo occidente

Durante gli Anni Sessanta del secolo scorso, all’apice dello sviluppo della cultura giapponese riformata secondo i canoni liberaldemocratici di stampo occidentale, lo scrittore giapponese Yukio Mishima (Tokyo 1925 - 1970) decide di deporre le armi della poesia e della letteratura per incarnare l’eroe della restaurazione. Contro la progressiva colonizzazione del mondo orientale da parte dell’occidente, Mishima oppone l’antico mondo dei guerrieri e dei samurai ribellandosi alla parola e ai suoi regimi discorsivi in quanto responsabili del radicale fraintendimento del soggetto, costantemente ecceduto da qualcosa che discorre e, soprattutto, legifera al suo posto. Nel 1970 Mishima porterà a termine il suo compito infliggendosi un taglio nello stomaco alla maniera dei samurai. Resta tra gli esempi più rimarchevoli di ribelli dello spirito

Enjoy your journey: the bergamot polyphenols from the tree to the cell metabolism

No abstract availabl

Beneficial Effects of Citrus Bergamia Polyphenolic Fraction on Saline Load-Induced Injury in Primary Cerebral Endothelial Cells from the Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat Model

High salt load is a known noxious stimulus for vascular cells and a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in both animal models and humans. The stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) accelerates stroke predisposition upon high-salt dietary feeding. We previously demonstrated that high salt load causes severe injury in primary cerebral endothelial cells isolated from SHRSP. This cellular model offers a unique opportunity to test the impact of substances toward the mechanisms underlying high-salt-induced vascular damage. We tested the effects of a bergamot polyphenolic fraction (BPF) on high-salt-induced injury in SHRSP cerebral endothelial cells. Cells were exposed to 20 mM NaCl for 72 h either in the absence or the presence of BPF. As a result, we confirmed that high salt load increased cellular ROS level, reduced viability, impaired angiogenesis, and caused mitochondrial dysfunction with a significant increase in mitochondrial oxidative stress. The addition of BPF reduced oxidative stress, rescued cell viability and angiogenesis, and recovered mitochondrial function with a significant decrease in mitochondrial oxidative stress. In conclusion, BPF counteracts the key molecular mechanisms underlying high-salt-induced endothelial cell damage. This natural antioxidant substance may represent a valuable adjuvant to treat vascular disorders

The Impairment of Cell Metabolism by Cardiovascular Toxicity of Doxorubicin Is Reversed by Bergamot Polyphenolic Fraction Treatment in Endothelial Cells

The beneficial effects of bergamot polyphenolic fraction (BPF) on the mitochondrial bioenergetics of porcine aortic endothelial cells (pAECs) were verified under the cardiotoxic action of doxorubicin (DOX). The cell viability of pAECs treated for 24 h with different concentrations of DOX was reduced by 50%, but the negative effect of DOX was reversed in the presence of increasing doses of BPF (100 µg/mL and 200 µg/mL BPF). An analysis of the protective effect of BPF on the toxic action of DOX was also carried out on cell respiration. We observed the inhibition of the mitochondrial activity at 10 µM DOX, which was not restored by 200 µg/mL BPF. Conversely, the decrease in basal respiration and ATP production caused by 0.5 or 1.0 µM DOX were improved in the presence of 100 or 200 µg/mL BPF, respectively. After 24 h of cell recovery with 100 µg/mL or 200 µg/mL BPF on pAECs treated with 0.5 µM or 1.0 µM DOX, respectively, the mitochondrial parameters of oxidative metabolism impaired by DOX were re-boosted

INFN ScienzaPerTutti: 20 years of science for society

A groundbreaking and ambitious project took shape within the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclare (INFN) community 20 years ago. The driving aim was the intent to popularize physics, and all this started through a web portal. Since then, the general public and, in particular, students and teachers have been engaged with cutting edge topics of modern research in particle and nuclear physics, astroparticle, theoretical and applied physics. During the 20 years from its birth, the ScienzaPerTutti project evolved in many different directions, becoming a reference point in the Italian landscape, with an average of 3000 contacts every day on the web pages and thousands of followers on the facebook profile. The project encompasses a variety of multimedia products like didactic units, research materials, infographics, interviews, book reviews, and, more recently, podcasts. A particular feature of many of these activities is a constant call to action to directly involve the audience, providing a continuous challenge for the ScienzaPerTutti editorial board to improve contents and devise new approaches. This contribution focuses on some of these activities, even if it does not provide an exhaustive description of all the programmes and opportunities that are offered to our public for lack of space. Finally, we provide an outlook on new activities

Regulation of uric acid metabolism and excretion

AbstractPurines perform many important functions in the cell, being the formation of the monomeric precursors of nucleic acids DNA and RNA the most relevant one. Purines which also contribute to modulate energy metabolism and signal transduction, are structural components of some coenzymes and have been shown to play important roles in the physiology of platelets, muscles and neurotransmission. All cells require a balanced quantity of purines for growth, proliferation and survival. Under physiological conditions the enzymes involved in the purine metabolism maintain in the cell a balanced ratio between their synthesis and degradation. In humans the final compound of purines catabolism is uric acid. All other mammals possess the enzyme uricase that converts uric acid to allantoin that is easily eliminated through urine. Overproduction of uric acid, generated from the metabolism of purines, has been proven to play emerging roles in human disease. In fact the increase of serum uric acid is inversely associated with disease severity and especially with cardiovascular disease states. This review describes the enzymatic pathways involved in the degradation of purines, getting into their structure and biochemistry until the uric acid formation

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe