Gender Inclusivity in Italian: Can Gender Neutrality be Reached in a Gendered Language? Difficulties, Proposals and Public Perception of the Phenomenon

Italian is a gendered language in which reference to grammatical gender has been constant and inevitable. As language reflects and shapes society, grammatical gender reinforces binary views of social gender and the invizibilization of non-binary identities. Movements for social justice have inspired gender-fair linguistic innovations, such as the feminization of job titles and gender-neutral markers, to promote gender equity and challenge hierarchies of power and dominance in society. This research aimed to explore gender-neutral forms in the Italian grammatical system and public perceptions of these innovations through two studies with two groups of participants. The first group of participants (n=27) identified as trans or non-binary. They provided information in the form of a survey about the pronouns and gender markers they utilize, together with information about the contexts in which gender-neutral forms are implemented and encountered. Quantitative results showed that while pronoun selection in Italian still relies heavily on binary categories, gender-neutral markers are used by the transgender, non-binary Italian community, with a preference for the asterisk and the schwa. Online communities were indicated as the main environment in which linguistic innovations are encountered, while usage was described as limited to people inside and outside of the LGBTQ+ community who would understand and accept innovative forms. Qualitative data collected from this first group of participants shed light on the limitations of the binary grammatical system of gendered languages and highlighted the marginalization and invisibilization that result from the lack of forms of language expression for non-cisgender identities. A second group of participants (n=102), who were overwhelmingly cisgender, completed a survey where they were asked to rate the comprehensibility and agreeableness of fifteen statements including the asterisk, the schwa and standard gendered forms for control. Quantitative results indicate that both innovations are largely comprehensible in written form, with a slight preference for the schwa over the asterisk, while the innovations are low in terms of agreeableness ratings. These data suggest that the reason behind resistance to linguistic innovations is rooted in prescriptivist and conservative views of language more than intelligibility. Qualitative data provided by the second group of participants indicated that reasons behind acceptance for these forms are social in nature. Linguistic innovations were framed as necessary to promote a more inclusive and gender-fair society. On the other hand, participants who showed resistance to them claimed that gender-neutral forms are unnecessary, overly complicated, hard to understand, and difficult to pronounce. These findings help to elucidate linguistic strategies for gender neutrality in Italian, clarifying their usage and capturing the experiences of non-cis Italian language users with gendered language and language reform. This research also advances our understanding of reasons behind resistance or acceptance of these forms by cis persons. In this way, they fill a knowledge gap in the literature on gender-neutral forms in Italian and enrich the scholarship on gender inclusivity and neutralization strategies in gendered languages. Moreover, they provide a foundation for further research on their implementation in spoken language and their potential application in world language classrooms to foster a gender-just education

Feynman Diagrams and Rooted Maps

The Rooted Maps Theory, a branch of the Theory of Homology, is shown to be a powerful tool for investigating the topological properties of Feynman diagrams, related to the single particle propagator in the quantum many-body systems. The numerical correspondence between the number of this class of Feynman diagrams as a function of perturbative order and the number of rooted maps as a function of the number of edges is studied. A graphical procedure to associate Feynman diagrams and rooted maps is then stated. Finally, starting from rooted maps principles, an original definition of the genus of a Feynman diagram, which totally differs from the usual one, is given.Comment: 20 pages, 30 figures, 3 table

Energy Demand and Supply Simultaneous Optimization to Design a Nearly Zero-Energy House

The effective design of nearly zero-energy buildings depends on a large set of interdependent variables, which affect both energy demand and supply. Considering them simultaneously is fundamental when searching for optimal design of nearly zero-energy buildings, as encouraged by the EU in the second recast of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD). This paper presents the application of the new energy demand and supply simultaneous optimization (EDeSSOpt) methodology to optimize the design of a single-family house in the Italian context. Both primary energy optimization and financial optimization are carried out in the context of European regulations. Robustness of the resulting optimal solution is studied through analysis of optimum neighborhoods. The resulting cost-optimized solution relies on a moderately insulated envelope, a highly efficient system, and 34% of coverage from renewables. The energy-optimized solution requires a higher level of insulation and a higher coverage from renewables, demonstrating that there is still a gap between energy and cost optimums. Beyond the results, integrated optimization by means of EDeSSOpt is demonstrated to better minimize cost functions while improving the robustness of results

Nitinol Carbofilm coated stents for peripheral applications: Study in the porcine model

Purpose: Testing the safety and foreign body reaction (FBR) of a nitinol self-expandable carbon-coated stent system in the porcine animal model at different follow-up (FU) periods. Methods: Fifteen minipigs received 30 carbon-coated self-expandable nitinol stents in iliac arteries. Explants were carried out at 7 (3 animals), 30 (4 animals), 90 (4 animals) and 180 (4 animals) day FU, for evaluation of acute, sub-acute and chronic biological response to the implanted devices. Histological, immunohistochemical, histomorphometric and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were performed to assess inflammatory reaction, endothelialization process, neointimal growth and cellular composition. Results: Thirty stents were successfully implanted. No mural thrombi were observed at gross examination or by angiography. Histologically no significant inflammatory reaction was detected: the stents appeared covered by a thin monolayer of endothelial cells even at 7 day FU. The neointima presented homogeneous growth and moderate thickness after 30, 90 and 180 days explants (0.38± 0.36 mm, 0.33± 0.30 mm, 0.27± 0.25 mm respectively). Internal and external elastic laminae were intact in 95% of stented arteries. Histological data validations of vessel endothelialization was obtained with SEM for the seven day follow-up group. Conclusions: This study showed good remarkable technical performances, minimal FBR and biocompatibility comparable with other available pre-clinical experimentation

Structure based modeling of small molecules binding to the TLR7 by atomistic level simulations

Toll-Like Receptors (TLR) are a large family of proteins involved in the immune system response. Both the activation and the inhibition of these receptors can have positive effects on several diseases, including viral pathologies and cancer, therefore prompting the development of new compounds. In order to provide new indications for the design of Toll-Like Receptor 7 (TLR7)-targeting drugs, the mechanism of interaction between the TLR7 and two important classes of agonists (imidazoquinoline and adenine derivatives) was investigated through docking and Molecular Dynamics simulations. To perform the computational analysis, a new model for the dimeric form of the receptors was necessary and therefore created. Qualitative and quantitative differences between agonists and inactive compounds were determined. The in silico results were compared with previous experimental observations and employed to define the ligand binding mechanism of TLR7

From acute injury to chronic disease: pathophysiological hypothesis of an epithelial/mesenchymal crosstalk alteration in CKD

Observational clinical studies link acute kidney injury to chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. The pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie this process are currently unknown but recently published papers suggest that tubular epithelial cells and interstitial mesenchymal cells emerge as a single unit, and their integrity alteration as a whole might lead to renal fibrosis and CKD. The present article reviews the biological findings supporting the hypothesis of an altered epithelial/mesenchymal crosstalk in fibrosis development and progression toward CK

RNAseq analysis of heart tissue from mice treated with atenolol and isoproterenol reveals a reciprocal transcriptional response.

The transcriptional response to many widely used drugs and its modulation by genetic variability is poorly understood. Here we present an analysis of RNAseq profiles from heart tissue of 18 inbred mouse strains treated with the β-blocker atenolol (ATE) and the β-agonist isoproterenol (ISO). Differential expression analyses revealed a large set of genes responding to ISO (n = 1770 at FDR = 0.0001) and a comparatively small one responding to ATE (n = 23 at FDR = 0.0001). At a less stringent definition of differential expression, the transcriptional responses to these two antagonistic drugs are reciprocal for many genes, with an overall anti-correlation of r = -0.3. This trend is also observed at the level of most individual strains even though the power to detect differential expression is significantly reduced. The inversely expressed gene sets are enriched with genes annotated for heart-related functions. Modular analysis revealed gene sets that exhibit coherent transcription profiles across some strains and/or treatments. Correlations between these modules and a broad spectrum of cardiovascular traits are stronger than expected by chance. This provides evidence for the overall importance of transcriptional regulation for these organismal responses and explicits links between co-expressed genes and the traits they are associated with. Gene set enrichment analysis of differentially expressed groups of genes pointed to pathways related to heart development and functionality. Our study provides new insights into the transcriptional response of the heart to perturbations of the β-adrenergic system, implicating several new genes that had not been associated to this system previously

CEMIP ( HYBID , KIAA1199 ): structure, function and expression in health and disease

CEMIP (cell migration-inducing protein), also known as KIAA1199 or HYBID, is a protein involved in the depolymerisation of hyaluronic acid (HA), a major glycosaminoglycan component of the extracellular matrix. CEMIP was originally described in patients affected by nonsyndromic hearing loss and has subsequently been shown to play a key role in tumour initiation and progression, as well as arthritis, atherosclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Despite the vast literature associating CEMIP with these diseases, its biology remains elusive. The present review article summarises all the major scientific evidence regarding its structure, function, role and expression, and attempts to cast light on a protein that modulates EMT, fibrosis and tissue inflammation, an unmet key aspect in several inflammatory disease conditions