The Biopolitical Quest for Individuality as a Reactionary Device

With the advent of digitization and the affirmation of a symbolic value on social exchange within capital, public demonstrations of discontent are nowadays being performed along an aesthetic canon, thus losing their possible revolutionary potential. Once we internalized that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, our struggles be-come individually symbolic and turn to aestheticism. Rather than stopping discontent, the power chooses to allow it because its performative content has already been neutralized. These demonstrations happen within a democratic culture – they play within the rules of the game. This is the imperial domination: to guarantee a resemblance of global peace for capi-tal to develop, at the price of local omni-crisis. If Empire is born and shows itself as crisis, this crisis is felt at every peripheral point of the Empire. Solutions of governmentality have worked until now, but at a cost: even though there still are cathartic events, they don't man-age release social tension completely – they always leave a mimetic residual. It's on those physical and psychological spaces of individual recognition that the Empire exercises its domination. And it’s there that forms of resistance can be tested

Unmasked Vertigo

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Electrode displacement after intracerebral hematoma as a complication of a deep brain stimulation procedure

Domenico Servello1, Marco Sassi1, Stefano Bastianello2, Guy Umberto Poloni2, Francesca Mancini3, Claudio Pacchetti31Functional Neurosurgery Unit, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy; 2Neuroradiology Unit; 3Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorder Unit, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Mondino, Institute of Neurology, Pavia, Italy Objectives: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is nowadays considered a safe and effective procedure for various movement disorders in which conservative treatments have failed to show significant therapeutic results. One of the most common complications of definitive electrode positioning is intraparenchymal hemorrhage.Materials and methods: Authors report the case of a 55-year-old female patient treated for Parkinson’s disease in which intraparenchymal hemorrhage developed after DBS procedure, leading to significant (about 8 mm at the neuroradiological controls) displacement of an otherwise correctly positioned DBS electrode.Results: After conservative management, the hematoma spontaneously resolved. Late neuroradiological controls documented correct, symmetrically positioned electrodes, comparable to the immediate postoperative controls.Conclusions: Six months follow-up endpoint results of the DBS treatment were considered satisfying by an independent neurologist, with modest residual neurological deficits, demonstrating that re-positioning of the electrode was unnecessary in this rare complication.Keywords: deep brain stimulation, electrodes, outcomes, implant, case repor

Assemblaggio e test di laboratorio del Compact Triband Receiver di Medicina

Descrizione delle attività di assemblaggio e test del Compact TriBand Receiver per l'antenna parabolica "Gavril Grueff Radio Telescope" della Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina dell'INAF-IR

Realizzazione di un nuovo sito web per l’INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia

Questo report illustra l'attivita` del gruppo di lavoro incaricato della progettazione e sviluppo del nuovo sito web dell'INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia. L'utilizzo di tecnologie di sviluppo web basate su CMS ha consentito di superare le difficolta` nell'aggiornamento e gestione del precedente sito basato su pagine html statiche. Con il nuovo approccio si è ottenuto da un lato un notevole miglioramento dell'aspetto grafico e della coerenza tra le pagine, dall’altro una notevole semplificazione nella produzione e nell’aggiornamento delle pagine stesse. Cio` consentira` ai diversi gruppi di ricerca, servizi e uffici di farsi carico delle pagine di competenza e di poter facilmente apportare modifiche ai contenuti via via che queste si renderanno necessarie, garantendo allo stesso tempo una maggiore sicurezza informatica. Nel report vengono descritte le varie fasi dell'attivita` del gruppo di lavoro: dalla iniziale identificazione delle linee guida e progettazione di struttura e contenuti, sino alla realizzazione vera e propria delle pagine web e ai successivi step di verifica conclusi con la pubblicazione online del sito

Centrin 2: a novel marker of mature and neoplastic human astrocytes

As microtubule organizing centers, centrosomes play a pivotal role in cell division as well as in neurodevelopment and neuronal maturation. Among centrosomal proteins, centrin-2 (CETN2) contributes also to DNA repair mechanisms which are fundamental to prevent genomic instability during neural stem cell pool expansion. Nevertheless, the expression profile of CETN2 in human neural stem cells and their progeny is currently unknown. To address this question, we interrogated a platform of human neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells derived from post-mortem developing brain or established from pluripotent cells, and demonstrated that while CETN2 retains its centrosomal location in proliferating NES cells, its expression pattern changes upon differentiation. In particular, we found that CETN2 is selectively expressed in mature astrocytes with a broad cytoplasmic distribution. We then extended our findings on human autoptic nervous tissue samples. We investigated CETN2 distribution in diverse anatomical areas along the rostro-caudal neuraxis and pointed out a peculiar topography of CETN2-labelled astrocytes in humans which was not appreciable in murine tissues, where CETN2 was mostly confined to ependymal cells. As prototypical condition with glial overproliferation, we also explored CETN2 expression in glioblastoma multiforme, reporting a focal concentration of CETN2 in neoplastic astrocytes. This study expands CETN2 localization beyond centrosomes and reveals a unique expression pattern which makes it eligible as a novel astrocytic molecular marker, thus opening new roads to glial biology and human neural conditions

Nuovo progetto del ricevitore SXL per l’antenna parabolica dell’ IRA di NOTO (SR)

Con il seguente lavoro vengono descritte le varie attività e azioni intraprese per riprogettare ricevitore SXL per l’antenna di Noto. Il nuovo progetto del ricevitore riguarderà in particolar modo la parte elettronica di trattamento del segnale raccolto dai tre feed systems. Nel nuovo progetto, inoltre, saranno introdotte alcune variazioni rispetto alla configurazione originale in particolar modo sul sistema di instradamento dei segnali verso il back-end dove verranno utilizzati dei link in fibra ottica anziché la classica discesa in cavo coassiale. Il progetto ha seguito le linee guida di “massima semplicità” e “massima robustezza” (anche da un punto di vista delle sovratensioni causate da scariche atmosferiche)

Life during COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the influence of cognitive state on psychosocial, behavioral and lifestyle profiles of older adults.

Few studies have examined lockdown effects on the way of living and well-being of older adults stratified by cognitive state. Since cognitive deficits are common in this population, we investigated how cognition influenced their understanding of the pandemic, socio-behavioral responses and lifestyle adaptations during lockdown, and how these factors affected their mood or memory.Telephone-based survey involving 204 older adults ≥65 y/o (median: 82) with previous assessments of cognitive state: 164 normal-old (NOLD), 24 mild-neurocognitive disorder (mild-NCD), 18 mild-moderate dementia. A structured questionnaire was developed to assess psychological and socio-behavioral variables. Logistic regression was used to ascertain their effects on mood and memory.With increasing cognitive deficits, understanding of the pandemic and the ability to follow lockdown policies, adapt to lifestyle changes, and maintain remote interactions decreased. Participants with dementia were more depressed; NOLDs remained physically and mentally active but were more bored and anxious. Sleeping and health problems independently increased the likelihood of depression (OR: 2.29; CI: 1.06-4.93;NOLD and mild-NCD groups showed similar mood-behavioral profiles suggesting better tolerance of lockdown. Those with dementia were unable to adapt and suffered from depression and cognitive complaints. To counteract lockdown effects, physical and mental activities and digital literacy should be encouraged

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a Multisystem Pathology: Insights into the Role of TNF\u3b1

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is considered a multifactorial, multisystem disease in which inflammation and the immune system play important roles in development and progression. The pleiotropic cytokine TNF\u3b1 is one of the major players governing the inflammation in the central nervous system and peripheral districts such as the neuromuscular and immune system. Changes in TNF\u3b1 levels are reported in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and nerve tissues of ALS patients and animal models. However, whether they play a detrimental or protective role on the disease progression is still not clear. Our group and others have recently reported opposite involvements of TNFR1 and TNFR2 in motor neuron death. TNFR2 mediates TNF\u3b1 toxic effects on these neurons presumably through the activation of MAP kinase-related pathways. On the other hand, TNFR2 regulates the function and proliferation of regulatory T cells (Treg) whose expression is inversely correlated with the disease progression rate in ALS patients. In addition, TNF\u3b1 is considered a procachectic factor with a direct catabolic effect on skeletal muscles, causing wasting. We review and discuss the role of TNF\u3b1 in ALS in the light of its multisystem nature