El rapto de Europa

Translation of Paolo Puppa's monologue 'Il ratto di Europa

The Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Mass and Mitochondrial Biogenesis by gp130/STAT3 Signaling during Cancer Cachexia

Cachexia affects nearly 70% of all cancer patients depending on the cancer, and decreases cancer survival. Cachexia is associated with muscle mass loss that is accompanied by a loss in muscle oxidative capacity, a decrease in protein synthesis and an increase in protein degradation. While progress has been made in understanding some of the mechanisms underlying the cachectic condition, there are currently no approved pharmaceutical interventions to slow or stop cachexia progression. The purpose this study was to determine the role of skeletal muscle gp130 and STAT3 signaling in the regulation of cachexia induced muscle atrophy and mitochondrial loss. Specific aim 1 examined the regulation of cachexia-induced mitochondrial loss by IL-6 trans signaling, systemic STAT3 signaling and muscle specific gp130 signaling. Inhibition of systemic inflammatory signaling attenuated muscle and body weight loss; while, muscle gp130 inhibition did not. Inhibition of inflammatory signaling at all levels attenuated skeletal muscle mitochondrial loss and while systemic STAT3 and muscle gp130 inhibition relieved cachexia-suppression of mitochondrial fusion, only inhibition of trans IL-6 signaling blocked cachexia-induction of mitochondrial fission protein. Specific aim 2 examined the regulation of muscle protein turnover by skeletal muscle gp130/STAT3 during cancer cachexia. Inhibition of muscle gp130 attenuated muscle loss during LLC-induced cachexia. This was associated with suppression of protein degradation pathways without relieving the inhibition of muscle protein synthesis. The third specific aim was to determine if acute contraction could activate mitochondrial biogenesis in severely cachectic muscle. Contraction alone was unable to up regulate muscle mTOR signaling and mitochondrial proteins in cachectic muscle; however, STAT/NFκB inhibition relieved cachexia-suppression of contraction-induced mTOR signaling and up-regulated markers of mitochondrial biogenesis. In summary, inflammatory signaling through STAT3 and muscle gp130 regulate the suppression mitochondrial content and the induction of muscle protein degradation; however, it does not mediate the cachexia suppression of muscle protein synthesis. These findings provide insight of potential targets for pharmacological therapies for the treatment of cancer cachexia. Additionally, combination therapies involving inflammation inhibition with exercise may be most beneficial for the treatment of cancer cachexia

El Brecht de Strehler o la poesia del distanciament

Revista de l'Associació d'Investigació i Experimentació Teatral

Bagatelle sul teatro tradotto

In Italia non c?è accordo, sintonia, nel rapporto tra sala e scena, tra la lingua parlata fuori del teatro e quella pronunciata in palcoscenico, tanto che gli autori devono inventare una propria lingua. Infatti, il palcoscenico italiano s?è privato altresì di un codice preciso di tradizioni che costituivano quasi i fondamenti organici per la stessa recitazione. Questi questioni permettono diverse riflessioni in torno alla lingua teatrale, sia nel caso della compagnia veneta che mette in scena i Consigli a un giovane scrittore di Danilo Ki?, sia la revisione, tra altre, del sincretico esperanto linguistico di Eugenio Barba

Escenas carcelarias

El espacio clausurado de la prisión se presenta a menudo en el drama moderno y contemporáneo tanto en su condición real como en la de metáfora de los conflictos que suceden dentro de él. De hecho, Jean Genet puede ser considerado como un verdadero cantor de la prisión, sobre todo por su obra Haute surveillance (1949). Sin embargo, en un teatro que cambia, y que juega con los rasgos de todos, la equivalencia entre teatro y prisión –en el sentido de un aspecto metafórico nuevo y no literal– se puede encontrar asimismo en el drama moderno y contemporáneo. Desde Dance of Death (1900) de Strindberg hasta Huis clos (1944), de Sartre, desde Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), de Albee, los protagonistas se atormentan unos a otros. Incluso en Questa será si recita a soggetto (1930), de Pirandello. Armando Punzo, con su Compagnia della Fortezza, una cárcel en Volterra, se ha convertido desde 1988 en verdadero paladín del teatro carcelario. Él utiliza el gran ejemplo del teatro de las vanguardias y de las neovanguardias, especialmente en la reciente y brillante Hamlice (2010), última combinación de sus Hamlet (2001) y Alice in wonderland (2009). La metáfora escena/cárcel se realiza plenamente en Uno straordinario silenzio, derivada de Krapp’s last tape de Beckett (1958), centrada en un hombre escindido en las varias escenas de su ego.Palabras clave: Teatro & cárcel; Armando Punzzo; Luigi Pirandello; August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett.   The locked space of prison is often present in modern and contemporary drama, either as real condition or metaphor of the conflicts that rage inside it. As a matter of fact, Jean Genet can be considered a real bard of prison, first of all for its play Haute surveillance (1949). However, in a theatre that alters and plays with everyone’s features, the equivalence between scene and prison in the sense of new metaphorical and non-literal aspect can be found elsewhere in modern and contemporary drama. From Strindberg’s Dance of Death (1900) to Sartre’s Huis clos (1944) from Albee’s Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?(1962), the protagonists keep on tormenting each other. Even in Pirandello’s Tonight we improvise (1930). Armando Punzo, with his Compagnia della Fortezza, a prison in Volterra since 1988, becomes a true paladin of theatre in prison. He uses the great example of theatrical avant-gardes and neo avant-gardes, especially in the recent, latest mix between Hamlet (2001) and Alice in wonderland (2009), that is glowing Hamlice (2010). The metaphor stage/prison is fully realized in his Uno straordinario silenzio, from Krapp’s last tape by Beckett (1958), centred on a man divided in the various stages of his ego. Keywords: Theatre & prison; Armando Punzzo; Luigi Pirandello; August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett

Dom med bidesh in shodesh: domestifikacija življenjskih prostorov, identiteta in spolne izkušnje v bangladeški diaspori

This article deals with the housing strategies and changing living styles of the Bangladeshi population in a small town in north-eastern Italy. It analyses the re-use and “domestication” of everyday public spaces, as a way of exploring how bidesh (foreign-land) space is transformed into a shodesh, home-like space. A parallel process of re-functionalization occurs in the private sphere. Different forms of cohabitation are put in place to deal with immigrants’ family-based needs, against deteriorating economic conditions. The process is not without contradictions. For instance, family reunification allows men to recover an important component of their emotional universe, possibly healing the loneliness of migration. Reunified women, though, may experience their new home as an ambivalent place of solitude. Along these lines, the paper also highlights the gap between men’s and women’s views of “home” and “homeland”, in order to make sense of their evolving ways of “feeling at home”.Članek se ukvarja s stanovanjskimi strategijami in spreminjanji življenjskih stilov bangladeškega prebivalstva v majhnem mestu v severovzhodni Italiji. Analizira ponovno uporabo in domestifikacijo vsakodnevnih javnih prostorov, da bi raziskal, kako je bidesh (tujina) preobražena v shodesh, prostor domačnosti. Vzporedni proces ponovne uporabe poteka tudi v zasebni sferi. V vedno težjih ekonomskih pogojih  zadovoljujejo družinsko usmerjene potrebe priseljencev različne oblike sobivanja. Proces ni brez protislovij. Na primer, ponovna združitev družine omogoča moškim, da okrepijo pomembno sestavino svojega emocionalnega sveta in pozdravijo osamljenost, ki jo povzroči migracija. Za ženske pa lahko združitev družine pomeni, da doživljajo svoj novi dom kot ambivalentni prostor samote. Članek osvetljuje tudi razliko v razumevanju »doma« in »domovine« med moškimi in ženskami, da bi lahko pojasnil razvoj njihovih načinov, kako »se počutijo doma«

Italian-Bangladeshi in London. A community within a community?

Based on a multi-sited ethnography in Italy and the United Kingdom, this contribution focuses on the onward migration of Italian-Bangladeshis to London, that is, Bangladeshi migrants who acquired EU citizenship in Italy and then moved to the British Capital. After the presentation of the reasons for this onward migration, the article will analyse the representation, constructed by the Italian-Bangladeshis interviewed in London, of the relationships between them (coming from different districts of Bangladesh) and the members of the “historical” British Bangladeshi community, in London since generations (originating primarily from the Bangladeshi district of Sylhet). Specifically, it will focus on the on mistrust – sometimes a fully-fledged hostility – between the two communities as it was narrated by the Italian-Bangladeshi respondents, framing it as a dichotomy between British citizens and (Southern) European citizens; as a wider dichotomy between residents of Bangladeshi origin in London, but originating from different regional contexts in Bangladesh; as an effect of the social stratification of the “Bangladeshi Diaspora” in the world