Popular songs, social struggles and conflictual identities in Mestre-Marghera (1970s-1980s)

Through the analysis of popular song the chapter examines some of the ways in which local radical identities have been transformed as a result of changes in radical cultural practices in Mestre-Marghera, the industrial district in the mainland of Venice

A phytosociological investigation on the mixed hemycryptophitic and therophitic grasslands of the Cornicolani mountains (Lazio Region – central Italy)

Abstract In this paper a phytosociological study on the dry grasslands of the Cornicolani mountains is presented. The Cornicolani are a group of isolated limestone hills which emerge from the slightly ondulating grounds of the Rome countryside in the Tyrrhenian side of the central Italy. Eighty-nine relevés were performed using the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological approach. These were further subjected to hierarchical classification and to NMDS ordination. Five major types of grasslands were distinguished: short therophytic grasslands developed on shallow soils dominated, in turns, by Hypochaeris achyrophorus, Plantago lagopus and Plantago bellardii; sub-nitrophilous detriticolous perennial grasslands dominated by Dittrichia viscosa and Helichrysum italicum; Dasypyrum villosum and Vulpia ligustica lawn and fallow annual tall-grasslands; Ampelodesmos mauritanicus grasslands of the rocky S-facing slopes and sub-mesophilous Lolium perenne and Cynodon dactylon grasslands of the flat and pastured areas. From a syntaxonomical standpoint a new associations named Plantaginetum afrae-bellardii was proposed and included in the class Stipo-Trachynetea. In addition the association Helichryso italici-Inuletum viscosae Trinajstić 1965 (nom. inval.) was here validated

Italian anarchists in London (1870-1914)

This thesis is a study of the colony of Italian anarchists who found refuge in London in the years between the Paris Commune and the outbreak of the First World War. The first chapter is an introduction to the sources and to the main problems analysed. The second chapter reconstructs the settlement of the Italian anarchists in London and their relationship with the colony of Italian emigrants. Chapter three deals with the activities that the Italian anarchists organised in London, such as demonstrations, conferences, and meetings. It likewise examines the ideological differences that characterised the two main groups in which the anarchists were divided: organisationalists and anti-organisationalists. Italian authorities were extremely concerned about the danger represented by the anarchists. The fourth chapter of the thesis provides a detailed investigation of the surveillance of the anarchists that the Italian embassy and the Italian Minster of Interior organised in London by using spies and informers. At the same time, it describes the contradictory attitude held by British police forces toward political refugees. The following two chapters are dedicated to the analysis of the main instruments of propaganda used by the Italian anarchists: chapter five reviews the newspapers they published in those years, and chapter six reconstructs social and political activities that were organised in their clubs. Chapter seven examines the impact that the outbreak of First World Word had on the anarchist movement, particularly in dividing it between interventionists and anti-interventionists; a split that destroyed the network of international solidarity that had been hitherto the core of the experience of political exile. Chapter eight summarises the main arguments of the dissertation

Giuseppe Farnara. Storia di un anarchico italiano a Londra

The article focuses on the arrest and the trial of Giuseppe Farnara, an Italian anarchist in London, who was arrested for detention of explosive materials with another young Italian anarchist, Francesco Polti, in 1894. Farnara was a member of the large colony of Italian anarchists who found refuge in the United Kingdom escaping from the political repression which existed in all other European countries at the end of the nineteenth century. This case offers also a general view over a world of political immigrants, spies, poverty, and loyalty to the anarchist cause

The Secondary-Tertiary Transition in Mathematics. Successful Students in Crisis

The transition from secondary school into university mathematics – also referred to as secondary-tertiary transition (STT) – is a sensitive moment for many students, also for those who have achieved high marks at the end of their schooling and are considered excellent in mathematics in the school context. The cognitive aspect has interested researchers since the late seventies, but the interest in other two aspects (social and emotional aspects) is growing. Recently we have investigated the emotional aspect further and we will report here on some of our findings underlying the necessary developments

Chlamydia pneumoniae and oxidative stress in cardiovascular disease. State of the art and prevention strategies.

Chlamydia pneumoniae, a pathogenic bacteria responsible for respiratory tract infections, is known as the most implicated infectious agent in atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Accumulating evidence suggests that C. pneumoniae-induced oxidative stress may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of CVDs. Indeed, the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within macrophages, endothelial cells, platelets and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) after C. pneumoniae exposure, has been shown to cause low density lipoprotein oxidation, foam cell formation, endothelial dysfunction, platelet adhesion and aggregation, and VSMC proliferation and migration, all responsible for the typical pathological changes of atherosclerotic plaque. The aim of this review is to improve our insight into C. pneumoniae-induced oxidative stress in order to suggest potential strategies for CVD prevention. Several antioxidants, acting on multi-enzymatic targets related to ROS production induced by C. pneumoniae, have been discussed. A future strategy for the prevention of C. pneumoniae-associated CVDs will be to target chlamydial HSP60, involved in oxidative stress

Evidence from multivariate morphometric study of the quercus pubescens complex in southeast Italy

The name Quercus pubescens s.l. encompasses a complex of deciduous oak taxa with mainly southeastEuropean distribution and a large ecological niche. As the easternmost region of Italy, Apulia is rather isolated from a geographical and physiographical viewpoint and counts the highest number of oak species (10). In the taxonomic and phytosociological literature, the occurrence of several species belonging to the Quercus pubescens collective group is reported for this region. In order to verify if different sets of morphological characters are associated with different taxa, 24 populations of Quercus pubescens s.l. located in different ecological-geographical areas of Apulia were sampled. A total of 367 trees, 4254 leaves and 1120 fruits were collected and morphologically analysed. Overall, 25 morphological characters of oak leaves and fruits were statistically treated using both univariate and multivariate analysis. Nested ANOVA showed that leaves collected from a single tree exhibited a degree of morphological variability higher than that observed when comparing leaves coming from different trees of the same population and from different trees of different populations as well. Almost all the morphological characters analysed exhibited a continuous trend of variation so that none of them can be used as a character to discriminate between populations. Only leaf and fruit “size” and fruit petiole length emerged as slightly discriminating characters. Our results suggest that it is unlikely that more than one species belonging to the Quercus pubescens complex occurs in the Apulia region. Comparison between the Apulian populations and a genetically pure Q. pubescens population coming from a different area (the Molise region) strengthened the assumption as to the existence of a single species that can provisionally be classified under the name of Q. pubescens s.

The main plant community types of the alpine belt of the Apennine chain

This paper deals with the occurrence of the main plant community types occurring within the alpine bioclimatic belt in the Central Apennines. The study area was represented by three mountain groups, the Gran Sasso, Maiella and Laga mountains. These three mountain chains are those in which, out of the entire Apennine area, alpine vegetation is best expressed. The vegetation has been investigated following the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological approach. During the field work 135 releves were collected. The raw data were further treated with multivariate analysis procedures to find objective clusters on a statistical basis. Several plant community types, belonging to different phytosociological classes, such as Elyno-Seslerietea, Salicetea herbaceae, Thlaspietea rotundifolii, Asplenietea trichomanis, were identified. In particular two new phytosociological associations, Galio-Silenetum acaulis and Potentillo-Festucetum alfredianae, and several new sub-associations are described in this paper. In order to express the occurrence and autonomy of the Apennine alpine bioclimatic belt also in coenological terms, a new Seslerion apenninae sub-alliance, named Leontopodio-Elynenion, is here proposed

Banal and everyday (inter)nationalism: French and Italian anarchist exiles in London, 1870s–1914

This article explores the anarchists' multilayered theoretical and practical engagement with the concepts and performance of nations, nationalism and national belonging, by applying the frameworks of banal nationalism (understood as an ideology) and everyday nationhood (the daily practices in which nation and nationhood are enacted) as analytical categories, to investigate the Italian and French anarchist exile groups in London between 1870 and 1914. Adopting these theoretical categories proves fruitful in probing the anarchists' perception and enactment of the idea of nation and national belonging, contributing to the literature on the relationship between pre-1914 socialist movements and (inter)nationalism and highlighting the specificity of anarchism therein. Using Fox and Miller-Idriss's four categories of everyday nationhood, we show that while the anarchists explicitly subverted the everyday performance of nationhood, redeploying it along internationalist lines, some forms of attachment to the national did endure and were in fact not always contradictory with anarchist internationalism. Looking at the exilic rituals of this intensely diasporic group thus complicates the simplistic but still pervasive view of a monolithic ideological internationalism and rejection of the national on the part of anarchists