The Majoritarian Epistemology on Religious Symbols. A Religiously-Based Stereotyping Technique to “Package Others’ Religious Rights”

The paper will focus on a particular form of stereotyping technique which aims to narrow religious rights for non-Christian believers, moving from an exclusively Judeo-Christian epistemology on religious symbols that, no by chance, defines them as “ostensive”. According to this perspective, freedom of religion is eminently a heartfelt attitude, therefore the term “ostensiveness” is intended to emphasize not mandatory behaviors, which are conceived as a redundant way to live faith. Starting from its philosophical assumptions, the article deals with the stereotyping tools related to religion, functional to conceal the social complexity and to deny legal protection, through a legal and political concept like state neutrality. The piece seeks to show how the concept of religious right, when it cannot be declined as a majoritarian right, is rife with plural levels of intersecting stereotyping, concerning other categories of diversity like gender and ‘ethnicity’. This approach flatters each dimension and does not take into account coexisting identities within the same person, ignoring that intersectionality highlights the necessity of assessing religious diversity as fundamentally socially located. This stereotyping attitude can be traced back to the complex relationship between law and religion that provides a direct way to assess crucial issues like belonging, identity, community and authority. Law, as a cultural and non-neutral construct, regards religion as a valuable fact and worthy of legal protection since it is attributable to an individual phenomenon and as quintessentially private matter. Therefore, to assess identity or belonging in the fault lines of the interaction of law and religion means find an opportunity to legitimize targeting law related to religious diversity making it seems like a way to deal with religious ‘differences’ that cannot be assimilated. In this respect, we discuss about the radical secularist claims through a case-study, namely the “affaire Québécois” within the Canadian system, not only in a geographical sense, but in the theoretical field mapped out by religious pluralism as the focal point of the multiculturalist approach, on one hand, and the secularist revival, on the other hand

The Majoritarian Epistemology on Religious Symbols. A religiously-based stereotyping technique to package others' religious rights

The paper will focus on a particular form of stereotyping technique which aims to narrow religious rights for non-Christian believers, moving from an exclusively Judeo-Christian epistemology on religious symbols that, no by chance, defines them as “ostensive”. According to this perspective, freedom of religion is eminently a heartfelt attitude, therefore the term “ostensiveness” is intended to emphasize not mandatory behaviors, which are conceived as a redundant way to live faith. Starting from its philosophical assumptions, the article deals with the stereotyping tools related to religion, functional to conceal the social complexity and to deny legal protection, through a legal and political concept like state neutrality. The piece seeks to show how the concept of religious right, when it cannot be declined as a majoritarian right, is rife with plural levels of intersecting stereotyping, concerning other categories of diversity like gender and ‘ethnicity’. This approach flatters each dimension and does not take into account coexisting identities within the same person, ignoring that intersectionality highlights the necessity of assessing religious diversity as fundamentally socially located. This stereotyping attitude can be traced back to the complex relationship between law and religion that provides a direct way to assess crucial issues like belonging, identity, community and authority. Law, as a cultural and non-neutral construct, regards religion as a valuable fact and worthy of legal protection since it is attributable to an individual phenomenon and as quintessentially private matter. Therefore, to assess identity or belonging in the fault lines of the interaction of law and religion means find an opportunity to legitimize targeting law related to religious diversity making it seems like a way to deal with religious ‘differences’ that cannot be assimilated. In this respect, we discuss about the radical secularist claims through a case-study, namely the “affaire Québécois” within the Canadian system, not only in a geographical sense, but in the theoretical field mapped out by religious pluralism as the focal point of the multiculturalist approach, on one hand, and the secularist revival, on the other hand

L'antinomia del reato culturalmente motivato. Ipotesi giusfilosofiche per un ripensamento

The essay intends to problematize the epistemological perspective which, in the Italian system, upholds the judicial interpretation related to the cases that can be ascribed to the category of the so-called cultural offence. In this regard, the article is focused on the case-law concerning the religious practices of the sikh believer and on the legal recognition affair of Sikhism in Italy, identifying this empirical field as a privileged observatory. The topic of the analysis, through the Canadian approach, makes it possible to assess the canons of the prevailing hermeneutics in matter and to envisage hypotheses toward a rethinking of the theoretical assumptions underlying the criminal law enforcement, especially considering non offensive conduct of a religious nature

L’antinomia del reato culturalmente motivato. Ipotesi giusfilosofiche per un ripensamento

SOMMARIO: 1. La figura del “reato culturalmente motivato” e l’idea di multiculturalismo - 2. L’eterogeneità della categoria dei reati culturalmente motivati. Il principio di offensività come canone ermeneutico e veicolo di un approccio interdisciplinare - 3. Il “porto” del kirpan: l’approccio ‘fonografico’ del giudice di legittimità nell’ordinamento italiano - 4. La reasonable accomodation nell’interpretazione pluralista della Corte Suprema Canadese attraverso il caso Multani. Spunti per una comparazione - 5. L’„accomodation” alla prova del paradigma sicuritario. La vicenda del riconoscimento della personalità giuridica della comunità sikh in Italia. Rethinking the antinomy of the cultural offence. Hypotheses from a legal-philosophical perspective ABSTRACT: The essay is intends to problematize the epistemological perspective which, in the Italian system, upholds the judicial interpretation related to the cases that can be ascribed to the category of the so-called cultural offence. In this regard, the article is focused on the case-law concerning the religious practices of the sikh believer and on the legal recognition affair of Sikhism in Italy, identifying this empirical field as a privileged observatory. The topic of the analysis, through the Canadian approach, makes it possible to assess the canons of the prevailing hermeneutics in matter and to envisage hypotheses toward a rethinking of the theoretical assumptions underlying the criminal law enforcement, especially considering non offensive conduct of a religious nature

Levofloxacin-loaded star poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds by additive manufacturing

The employment of a tissue engineering scaffold able to release an antimicrobial agent with a controlled kinetics represents an effective tool for the treatment of infected tissue defects as well as for the prevention of scaffolds implantation-related infectious complications. This research activity was aimed at the development of additively manufactured star poly(ε-caprolactone) (*PCL) scaffolds loaded with levofloxacin, investigated as antimicrobial fluoroquinolone model. For this purpose a computer-aided wet-spinning technique allowing functionalizing the scaffold during the fabrication process was explored. Scaffolds with customized composition, microstructure and anatomical external shape were developed by optimizing the processing parameters. Morphological, thermal and mechanical characterization showed that drug loading did not compromise the fabrication process and the final performance of the scaffolds. The developed *PCL scaffolds showed a sustained in vitro release of the loaded antibiotic for 5 weeks. The proposed computer-aided wet-spinning technique appears well suited for the fabrication of anatomical scaffolds endowed with levofloxacin-releasing properties to be tested in vivo for the regeneration of long bone critical size defects in a rabbit model

Tailored star poly (ε-caprolactone) wet-spun scaffolds for in vivo regeneration of long bone critical size defects

One of the most challenging requirements of a successful bone tissue engineering approach is the development of scaffolds specifically tailored to individual tissue defects. Besides materials chemistry, well-defined scaffold’s structural features at the micro- and macro-levels are needed for optimal bone in-growth. In this study, polymeric fibrous scaffolds with a controlled internal network of pores and modelled on the anatomical shape and dimensions of a critical size bone defect in a rabbit’s radius model were developed by employing a computer-aided wet-spinning technique. The tailored scaffolds made of star poly(ε caprolactone) or star poly(ε-caprolactone)– hydroxyapatite composite material were implanted into 20-mm segmental defects created in radial diaphysis of New Zealand white rabbits. Bone regeneration and tissue response were assessed by X-rays and histological analysis at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after surgery. No signs of macroscopic and microscopic inflammatory reactions were detected, and the developed scaffolds showed a good ability to support and promote the bone regeneration process. However, no significant differences in osteoconductivity were observed between star poly(ε-caprolactone) and star poly(ε-caprolactone)–hydroxyapatite scaffolds. Long-term study on implanted star poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds confirmed the presence of signs of bone regeneration and remodelling, particularly evident at 24 weeks

Integration of Baseline Metabolic Parameters and Mutational Profiles Predicts Long-Term Response to First-Line Therapy in DLBCL Patients: A Post Hoc Analysis of the SAKK38/07 Study.

Accurate estimation of the progression risk after first-line therapy represents an unmet clinical need in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Baseline (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) parameters, together with genetic analysis of lymphoma cells, could refine the prediction of treatment failure. We evaluated the combined impact of mutation profiling and baseline PET/CT functional parameters on the outcome of DLBCL patients treated with the R-CHOP14 regimen in the SAKK38/07 clinical trial (NCT00544219). The concomitant presence of mutated SOCS1 with wild-type CREBBP and EP300 defined a group of patients with a favorable prognosis and 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) of 100%. Using an unsupervised recursive partitioning approach, we generated a classification-tree algorithm that predicts treatment outcomes. Patients with elevated metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and high metabolic heterogeneity (MH) (15%) had the highest risk of relapse. Patients with low MTV and favorable mutational profile (9%) had the lowest risk, while the remaining patients constituted the intermediate-risk group (76%). The resulting model stratified patients among three groups with 2-year PFS of 100%, 82%, and 42%, respectively (p < 0.001)

Genetic and phenotypic attributes of splenic marginal zone lymphoma

Splenic marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (SMZL) is a heterogeneous clinico-biological entity. The clinical course is variable, multiple genes are mutated with no unifying mechanism, and essential regulatory pathways and surrounding microenvironments are diverse. We sought to clarify the heterogeneity of SMZL by resolving different subgroups and their underlying genomic abnormalities, pathway signatures, and microenvironment compositions to uncover biomarkers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. We studied 303 SMZL spleen samples collected through the IELSG46 multicenter international study (NCT02945319) by using a multiplatform approach. We carried out genetic and phenotypic analyses, defined self-organized signatures, validated the findings in independent primary tumor metadata and in genetically modified mouse models, and determined correlations with outcome data. We identified 2 prominent genetic clusters in SMZL, termed NNK (58% of cases, harboring NF-κB, NOTCH, and KLF2 modules) and DMT (32% of cases, with DNA-damage response, MAPK, and TLR modules). Genetic aberrations in multiple genes as well as cytogenetic and immunogenetic features distinguished NNK- from DMT-SMZLs. These genetic clusters not only have distinct underpinning biology, as judged by differences in gene-expression signatures, but also different outcomes, with inferior survival in NNK-SMZLs. Digital cytometry and in situ profiling segregated 2 basic types of SMZL immune microenvironments termed immune-suppressive SMZL (50% of cases, associated with inflammatory cells and immune checkpoint activation) and immune-silent SMZL (50% of cases, associated with an immune-excluded phenotype) with distinct mutational and clinical connotations. In summary, we propose a nosology of SMZL that can implement its classification and also aid in the development of rationally targeted treatments