Nuove traiettorie del diritto del lavoro nella crisi europea. Il caso italiano. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 111/2014 = New trajectories of labor law in the European crisis. The Italian case. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 111/2014

No abstract

Contratto a tutele crescenti tra politica e diritto: variazioni sul tema = The Contract with increasing protections between politics and law: variations on the theme. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 265/2015

This paper focuses on the introduction of a new “permanent employment contract with growing protection” (the so-called “Contratto a tutele crescenti”), provided by the combined provisions of Law no. 183/2014 and the legislative decree no. 23/2015, as a part of a wider reform process included under the label of “Jobs Act”. Firstly, the Author focuses on the wide debate caused by the introduction of the growing protection employment contract – not only with regards to its exegetical aspects, but also about its assumed political and cultural consequences on the founding paradigms of Labour law. Secondly, the attention is devoted to the concrete regulation of dismissals introducted by the legislative reform (both to its positive and negative aspects). Then, in the last paragraph, the analysis of the reform leads the Author to some reflections on the persistent fundamental regulatory function of Labour law, even in the contest of the shift of some of its traditional protective functions

Testo Unico sulla Rappresentanza = Consolidated Text on Representation. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 227/2014

The paper analyzes the contents of the Consolidated Text on Union’s Representation within the perspective of a possible legislative reform in this field. The Consolidated Text – incorporating three previous peak level agreements on the matter – is the result of an agreement signed by Confindustria and CGIL, CISL and UIL on 10 January 2014. After focusing on the regulatory changes introduced by the agreement, on its structure and on the most critical issues arising from its application – deriving from its "voluntary" nature and as summarized by the first case law on the subject – the paper deals with the possibility of a legislative implementation of the Consolidated Text’s regulatory contents. Beyond the major juridical and theoretical issues arising on this point (e.g., the limitations deriving from art. 39 of the Constitution; the different theories, and ideologies, on trade union’s democracy and representation), this path of analysis leads to face the problematic aspects of a heteronomous intervention, in Italy, on the subject of trade union’s representation and representativeness and on the binding force of collective agreements

Verso il diritto del lavoro della responsabilità: il contratto di ricollocazione tra Europa, Stato e Regioni = Towards labor law of liability: the relocation contract between Europe, State and Regions. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 283/2015

The essay focus on the “contratto di ricollocazione” (reallocation contract) which is an important step of a vast program of Italian labour market reforms enacted by Renzi Government (so called Jobs Act). In the first part (§§ 1-4), authors pose the theoretical framework of positive legal analysis and do it around three pillars: the flexicurity paradigm; the responsibility principle as new trajectory of post fordist labour law; the workfare model of individual activation red through the capability theory (activation and empowerment). They qualify the new contract as partnership contract, considering it an original and hybrid form of public/private regulation. In the second part (§§ 5-6) authors analyze national and regional discipline, emphasizing “lights and shadows” of various legal solutions. In the conclusion authors point out six potential

Monitoraggio dei prezzi del GPL nel settore residenziale, dalle serie storiche uno strumento per valutare le differenze a livello locale

A differenza dei principali combustibili utilizzati in ambito domestico (energia elettrica, gas naturale, gasolio) per il GPL distribuito sfuso o in bombole non esiste un’Autorità che raccolga periodicamente i prezzi al consumatore a livello nazionale, bensì i dati sono pubblicati dalle singole Camere di Commercio. Dal monitoraggio e dall’analisi dei database provinciali nel periodo compreso tra il 2012 e il 2017 sono emerse significative differenze locali nei prezzi di listino, che riflettono un contesto di mercato liberalizzato

Smoking, health and ageing

On March 19, 2008 a Symposium on Pathophysiology of Ageing and Age-Related diseases was held in Palermo, Italy. Here, the lecture of V. Nicita-Mauro on Smoking, health and ageing is summarized. Smoking represents an important ageing accelerator, both directly by triggering an inflammatory responses, and indirectly by favoring the occurrence of several diseases where smoking is a recognized risk factor. Hence, non-smokers can delay the appearance of diseases and of ageing process, so attaining longevity

Autophagy processes are dependent on EGF receptor signaling

Autophagy is a not well-understood conserved mechanism activated during nutritional deprivation in order to maintain cellular homeostasis. In the present study, we investigated the correlations between autophagy, apoptosis and the MAPK pathways in melanoma cell lines. We demonstrated that during starvation the EGF receptor mediated signaling activates many proteins involved in the MAPK pathway. Our data also suggest a previously unidentified link between the EGFR and Beclin-1 in melanoma cell line. We demonstrated that, following starvation, EGFR binds and tyrosine-phosphorylates Beclin-1, suggesting that it may play a key inhibitory role in the early stage of starvation, possibly through the Beclin-1 sequestration. Furthermore, EGFR releases Beclin-1 and allows initiating steps of the autophagic process. Interestingly enough, when the EGFR pathway was blocked by anti-EGF antibodies, immunoprecipitated Beclin-1 did not bind the phospho-EGFR. In addition, an extended binding of p-Bcl2 either with Beclin-1 or with Bax was observed with a decreased activation of the stress-induced JNK kinase, thus avoiding the transduction pathways that activate autophagy and apoptosis, respectively. For this reason, we advance the hypothesis that the activation of the EGFR is a necessary event that allows the ignition and progression of the autophagic process, at least in melanoma cells

In vitro effects of fluticasone propionate on IL-13 production by mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes.

BACKGROUND: Corticosteroid administration produces multiple immunomodulatory effects, including down-regulation of cytokine production by CD4 T lymphocytes. Fluticasone propionate (FP) (Glaxo Smith&Kline, Greenford, UK), a highly lipophilic topical corticosteroid, has been shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of asthma and of both seasonal and perennial rhinitis. AIMS: To gain insight into the mechanisms of FP therapeutic effects, we evaluated interleukin (IL)-13 (a type 2 cytokine that seemingly plays a pivotal role in allergic mechanisms) production by mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNC) in vitro, treated or not with FP. METHODS: MNC from 10 healthy subjects and 10 asthmatic atopic patients with Parietaria allergy were stimulated v/v with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) (50 gamma/ml) or with complete medium alone as a control. Culture supernatants, in vitro treated or not with 10(-7) or 10(-8) M FP, were collected after 48 or 72 h incubation. IL-13 production was assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In random selected samples, after 4 or 24 h of cell cultures, RNA was extracted and IL-4 and IL-5 reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) products analyzed. RESULTS: At 48 h, there were no differences in IL-13 concentration in PHA-stimulated cultures between healthy subjects and asthmatic patients (93.6 +/- 18.9 versus 111.0 +/- 25.1 pg/ml). At 72 h, similar results were obtained (63.9 +/- 3.0 versus 73.3 +/- 2.5 pg/ml, respectively). At this time, however, IL-13 concentrations were significantly decreased versus 48 h both in asthmatics (p < 0.001) and in controls (p < 0.001). Treatment with 10(-7) M FP significantly reduced IL-13 production in healthy subjects and asthmatic patients both at 48 h (93.6 +/- 18.9 versus 50.50 +/- 10.6 pg/ml, p < 0.001, and 111.0 +/- 25.1 versus 59.3 +/- 13.6 pg/ml, p < 0.001, respectively) and at 72 h (63.9 +/- 9.6 versus 35.5 +/- 4.4 pg/ml, p < 0.001, and 73.3 +/- 8.0 versus 40.7 +/- 4.5 pg/ml, p < 0.001, respectively). Similar results were obtained with 10(-8) M FP at 48 and 72 h. Accordingly, evaluation of RT-PCR products from selected cell samples showed a FP dosage-dependent inhibition of IL-4 and IL-5 mRNA production both for healthy subjects and asthmatic patients. CONCLUSIONS: FP in vitro impairs IL-13 production by PHA-stimulated MNC from asthmatic and control subjects. This strengthens previous suggestions that IL-13 inhibition by steroids may, at least in part, account for their therapeutic effects

Bone marrow ectopic expression of a non-coding RNA in childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a novel t(2;11)(q11.2;p15.1) translocation

Chromosomal translocations play a crucial role in tumorigenesis, often resulting in the formation of chimeric genes or in gene deregulation through position effects. T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is associated with a large number of such rearrangements. We report the ectopic expression of the 3' portion of EST DA926692 in the bone marrow of a childhood T-ALL case showing a t(2;11)(q11.2;p15.1) translocation as the sole chromosome abnormality. The breakpoints, defined at the sequence level, mapped within HPS5 ( Hermansky Pudlak syndrome 5) intron 1 at 11p15.1, and DA926692 exon 2 at 2q11.2. The translocation was accompanied by a submicroscopic inversion that brought the two genes into the same transcriptional orientation. No chimeric trancript was detected. Interestingly, Real-Time Quantitative (RQ)-PCR detected, in the patient's bone marrow, expression of a 173 bp product corresponding to the 3' portion of DA926692. Samples from four T-ALL cases with a normal karyotype and normal bone marrow used as controls were negative. It might be speculated that the juxtaposition of this genomic segment to the CpG island located upstream HPS5 activated DA92669 expression. RQ-PCR analysis showed expression positivity in 6 of 23 human tissues examined. Bioinformatic analysis excluded that this small non-coding RNA is a precursor of micro-RNA, although it is conceivable that it has a different, yet unknown, functional role. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report, in cancer, of the activation of a small non-coding RNA as a result of a chromosomal translocation

differential tbxa2 receptor transcript stability is dependent on the c924t polymorphism

Abstract Background In order to better characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in processing mutated transcripts, we investigated the post-transcriptional role of the C924T polymorphism (rs4523) located in the 3′ region of the TBXA2R gene. Methods and Results Experiments of dose response with Actinomycin D on MEG-01 human cell line showed a significant decrease on cell viability that was more evident on cells treated for 24 h. In addition, we showed that treatments with 5–10 μM, 15 μM and 20 μM of actinomycin D reduced cell viability by 44%, 72% and 75%, respectively, compared to the control group. Conversely, the samples treated with 1 μM of actinomycin D did not show significant difference on cell viability as compared to the control group. Analysis of the steady state mRNA level of TBXA2R by qRT-PCR evidenced an increase in mRNA stability for the wild type (C) compared to the mutant (T) allele. Furthermore, the expression levels of TBXA2R on wild type (CC) and mutant type (TT) patients, based on C924T polymorphism, were analyzed. The wild type showed a higher expression of TBXA2 receptor also with two different degrees of glycosylation (55 and 64 kDa), when compared to the mutant. These observations correlated with platelet aggregation, which was reduced in TT, independently of the platelet aggregation stimuli. Conclusions The instability of the TBXA2R transcript and the lack of effect on platelet aggregation might suggest a protective role for the TBXA2R TT genotype against atherothrombosis and its complications in high-risk aspirin-treated patients