Modi à la mode: Narendra Modi’s fashion and the performance of populist leadership

Examining the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's performative approach to politics, this study offers an interpretation of populism as a style of governing. Central to this style is the visual appearance of the populist leader, heavily coded by their manner of dressing. The article offers an analysis of the ways in which the Indian Prime Minister uses fashion and clothes to articulate three fundamental features of populist leadership: the appeal and identification with the people, the anti-elitist discourse, and the presentation of the leader as saviour. I call these the performance of ordinariness, of difference and of extra-ordinariness. The article demonstrates how, by employing various polysemic sartorial choices, Modi’s modulated performance of populism has been critical to his electoral success and in broadening the appeal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Representing the nation: Competing symbolic repertoires in India.

In order to fully understand and appreciate India's contested national identity, one must look at the emergence and evolution of India's national symbolic repertoires. Indeed, political symbols are necessary elements for the defining national identities. Besides facilitating the process of identification, national symbols also generate powerful visions of the nation. Significantly, at the heart of the battle for the definition of the nation there is often a struggle over symbols and myths, which is fought, in good part, through rituals. Indeed, the more problematic the definition of nationhood, the greater the need to create symbolic structures which may substantiate and support a particular idea of the nation. Throughout the contemporary history of India, competing nationalist ideologies have engaged in a search for appropriate symbolic repertoires that could be meaningful and acceptable to most of the Indian population. In the absence of familiar parameters of national identity such as ethnicity, language, religion and culture, unusual registers of national belonging became important markers of India's contested national identity during the colonial and post-colonial period. Given the importance of symbolic politics, it is surprising that so little attention has been devoted to a systematic study of the symbolic repertoires of India's competing nationalist ideologies. Therefore, this thesis intends to make a contribution in this field. The main aims of this study were to obtain a general picture of the evolution and establishment of symbols of nationhood in India. I have drawn on modernist and constructivist theories of nationalism and based on the identification and analysis of India's symbols of the nation and of national identity during its anti-colonial struggle, the Nehruvian era, and in the contemporary moment, and on an in-depth review of the existing literature. While bringing to the fore the complex relationship between the nation and pre-existing ethno-symbolic resources, the findings of this study help to shed light on the operational dynamics at play in the construction of nationalist symbol complexes and national identity in India

Taking ‘development cooperation’ and South-South discourse seriously: Indian claims and Ghanaian responses

Indian interaction with the global South is at a crossroads. For a long time wedded to Nehruvian values of South–South cooperation, there are now considerable claims that economics underpins relations. This article looks at the current Indian ‘development cooperation’ in Ghana and, crucially, also asks what form Ghanaian responses take. The article concludes that while the rhetoric and ideas behind South–South cooperation are toned down, it is not simply about national interests; rather Indian ‘development cooperation’ is still partly ideologically and normatively informed. In addition, the overall approach of the Indian government is worthy of consideration as it certainly adds to global re-conceptualisations of development assistance

A novel LMNA mutation (R189W) in familial dilated cardiomyopathy: evidence for a 'hot spot' region at exon 3: a case report

We describe a case of a patient with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and cardiac conduction abnormalities who presented a strong family history of sudden cardiac death. Genetic screening of lamin A/C gene revealed in proband the presence of a novel missense mutation (R189W), near the most prevalent lamin A/C mutation (R190W), suggesting a "hot spot" region at exon 3

AGILE detection of a rapid γ-ray flare from the blazar PKS 1510-089 during the GASP-WEBT monitoring

We report the detection by the AGILE satellite of a rapid gamma-ray flare from the powerful gamma-ray quasar PKS 1510-089, during a pointing centered on the Galactic Center region from 1 March to 30 March 2008. This source has been continuosly monitored in the radio-to-optical bands by the GLAST-AGILE Support Program (GASP) of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT). Moreover, the gamma-ray flaring episode triggered three ToO observations by the Swift satellite in three consecutive days, starting from 20 March 2008. In the period 1-16 March 2008, AGILE detected gamma-ray emission from PKS 1510-089 at a significance level of 6.2-sigma with an average flux over the entire period of (84 +/- 17) x 10^{-8} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} for photon energies above 100 MeV. After a predefined satellite re-pointing, between 17 and 21 March 2008, AGILE detected the source at a significance level of 7.3-sigma, with an average flux (E > 100 MeV) of (134 +/- 29) x 10^{-8} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} and a peak level of (281 +/- 68) x 10^{-8} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} with daily integration. During the observing period January-April 2008, the source also showed an intense and variable optical activity, with several flaring episodes and a significant increase of the flux was observed at millimetric frequencies. Moreover, in the X-ray band the Swift/XRT observations seem to show an harder-when-brighter behaviour of the source spectrum. The spectral energy distribution of mid-March 2008 is modelled with a homogeneous one-zone synchrotron self Compton emission plus contributions from inverse Compton scattering of external photons from both the accretion disc and the broad line region. Indeed, some features in the optical-UV spectrum seem to indicate the presence of Seyfert-like components, such as the little blue bump and the big blue bump

AGILE detection of extreme γ -ray activity from the blazar PKS 1510-089 during March 2009: Multifrequency analysis

We report on the extreme gamma-ray activity from the FSRQ PKS 1510-089 observed by AGILE in March 2009. In the same period a radio-to-optical monitoring of the source was provided by the GASP-WEBT and REM. Moreover, several Swift ToO observations were triggered, adding important information on the source behaviour from optical/UV to hard X-rays. We paid particular attention to the calibration of the Swift/UVOT data to make it suitable to the blazars spectra. Simultaneous observations from radio to gamma rays allowed us to study in detail the correlation among the emission variability at different frequencies and to investigate the mechanisms at work. In the period 9-30 March 2009, AGILE detected an average gamma-ray flux of (311+/-21)x10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1 for E>100 MeV, and a peak level of (702+/-131)x10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1 on daily integration. The gamma-ray activity occurred during a period of increasing activity from near-IR to UV, with a flaring episode detected on 26-27 March 2009, suggesting that a single mechanism is responsible for the flux enhancement observed from near-IR to UV. By contrast, Swift/XRT observations seem to show no clear correlation of the X-ray fluxes with the optical and gamma-ray ones. However, the X-ray observations show a harder photon index (1.3-1.6) with respect to most FSRQs and a hint of harder-when-brighter behaviour, indicating the possible presence of a second emission component at soft X-ray energies. Moreover, the broad band spectrum from radio-to-UV confirmed the evidence of thermal features in the optical/UV spectrum of PKS 1510-089 also during high gamma-ray state. On the other hand, during 25-26 March 2009 a flat spectrum in the optical/UV energy band was observed, suggesting an important contribution of the synchrotron emission in this part of the spectrum during the brightest gamma-ray flare, therefore a significant shift of the synchrotron peak

Multiwavelength observations of 3C 454.3. III. Eighteen months of agile monitoring of the "crazy diamond"

We report on 18 months of multiwavelength observations of the blazar 3C 454.3 (Crazy Diamond) carried out in the period 2007 July-2009 January. In particular, we show the results of the AGILE campaigns which took place on 2008 May-June, 2008 July-August, and 2008 October-2009 January. During the 2008 May-2009 January period, the source average flux was highly variable, with a clear fading trend toward the end of the period, from an average γ-ray flux F E>100 MeV ≳ 200 × 10-8photonscm -2s-1 in 2008 May-June, to F E>100 MeV 80 × 10-8photonscm-2s-1 in 2008 October-2009 January. The average γ-ray spectrum between 100 MeV and 1 GeV can be fit by a simple power law, showing a moderate softening (from ΓGRID ∼ 2.0 to ΓGRID ∼ 2.2) toward the end of the observing campaign. Only 3σ upper limits can be derived in the 20-60 keV energy band with Super-AGILE, because the source was considerably off-axis during the whole time period. In 2007 July-August and 2008 May-June, 3C 454.3 was monitored by Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The RXTE/Proportional Counter Array (PCA) light curve in the 3-20 keV energy band shows variability correlated with the γ-ray one. The RXTE/PCA average flux during the two time periods is F 3-20 keV = 8.4 × 10-11ergcm-2s -1, and F 3-20 keV = 4.5 × 10 -11ergcm-2s-1, respectively, while the spectrum (a power law with photon index ΓPCA = 1.65 0.02) does not show any significant variability. Consistent results are obtained with the analysis of the RXTE/High-Energy X-Ray Timing Experiment quasi-simultaneous data. We also carried out simultaneous Swift observations during all AGILE campaigns. Swift/XRT detected 3C 454.3 with an observed flux in the 2-10 keV energy band in the range (0.9-7.5) × 10-11ergcm-2s-1 and a photon index in the range ΓXRT = 1.33-2.04. In the 15-150 keV energy band, when detected, the source has an average flux of about 5mCrab. GASP-WEBT monitored 3C 454.3 during the whole 2007-2008 period in the radio, millimeter, near-IR, and optical bands. The observations show an extremely variable behavior at all frequencies, with flux peaks almost simultaneous with those at higher energies. A correlation analysis between the optical and the γ-ray fluxes shows that the γ-optical correlation occurs with a time lag of τ = -0.4+0.6-0.8 days, consistent with previous findings for this source. An analysis of 15 GHz and 43 GHz VLBI core radio flux observations in the period 2007 July-2009 February shows an increasing trend of the core radio flux, anti-correlated with the higher frequency data, allowing us to derive the value of the source magnetic field. Finally, the modeling of the broadband spectral energy distributions for the still unpublished data, and the behavior of the long-term light curves in different energy bands, allow us to compare the jet properties during different emission states, and to study the geometrical properties of the jet on a time-span longer than one year. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved

Controllo endocrino e metabolico del processo di autofagia-proteolisi nel fegato e le sue alterazioni senili

Dottorato di ricerca in patologia sperimentale. 7. ciclo. A.a. 1995-96. Coordinatore A. Fonnesu. Supervisore E. BergaminiConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal