Terremoti e monumenti in Sicilia: la facciata campanile tra continuit\ue0, catastrofi e \u201cottimizzazioni\u201d (XII-XVIII secolo)

La facciata campanile \ue8 un archetipo dell\u2019architettura religiosa siciliana. Dal Medioevo al Tardobarocco sono state costruite nell\u2019Isola imponenti facciate torre con cella campanaria nell\u2019ultimo ordine. Fino al XVI secolo questa tipologia, di matrice nord-europea, contemplava un avancorpo parallelepipedo addossato al prospetto, avente anche funzione di contrafforte a contenimento delle spinte impresse sulla facciata dalle arcate longitudinali interne, amplificate in caso di terremoto. La scarsa efficienza statica di queste prime strutture, verticalizzanti e monoblocco, \ue8 dimostrata dai crolli in occasione dei forti sismi che hanno colpito la Sicilia in et\ue0 moderna. Nonostante le distruzioni, il ricordo di alcuni \u201cprototipi\u201d \ue8 sopravvissuto nella memoria costruttiva siciliana nell\u2019elaborazione, in epoca tardobarocca, di facciate torre aggiornate nella morfologia, forse anche in virt\uf9 di valutazioni connesse alla resistenza ai terremoti. L\u2019ibridazione con lo schema piramidale guariniano, con le relative articolazioni (sezioni curvilinee, telai di colonne libere, volute di raccordo), oltre a manifestare rinnovate relazioni con l\u2019architettura centro-europea, potrebbe infatti, mediante una ridistribuzione pi\uf9 equilibrata delle masse e dei pesi, offrire al sistema della torre caratteri vantaggiosi in termini di resistenza strutturale. Il presente contributo intende ripercorrere la vicenda attraverso l\u2019analisi di esempi significativi, individuando l\u2019origine di questa tipologia e verificando le ragioni di determinate \u201cottimizzazioni\u201d sia di natura estetica sia in termini di risposta strutturale, che ne giustificano la persistenza nella storia dell\u2019architettura siciliana

Ricostruire: storia e rappresentazione. Prospetti chiesastici nella Sicilia del Settecento

La Sicilia del Settecento offre numerosi casi di prospetti chiesastici distrutti, incompleti e ancora pi\uf9 ampia \ue8 la casistica di progetti non realizzati. Terremoti, risorse finanziarie limitate, cambiamenti di linguaggio e di gusto - da parte dei promotori o dei progettisti - sono tra le probabili cause della scomparsa, della mancata realizzazione e completamento di architetture cancellate, parzialmente costruite o mai iniziate. I prospetti analizzati in questo volume - santuario della Madonna della Consolazione a Termini Imerese, duomo di Salaparuta, chiesa di Sant\u2019Antonio a Buscemi -, poco noti e studiati, meritano, per qualit\ue0 degli esiti, delle strutture di significativo livello nel contesto della produzione siciliana del Settecento. Approfondire la conoscenza, comprendere genesi, valore, ruolo e significato, ricostruire cio\ue8 l\u2019identit\ue0 originaria di queste architetture attraverso la ricerca storica e l\u2019ausilio del ridisegno costituisce una sfida che potrebbe perfino determinare una differente considerazione, una virtuale rinascita. Quanto riscoperto potrebbe anche modificare la percezione complessiva che si ha dei manufatti ancora esistenti e degli eventi interconnessi e rendere pi\uf9 ampio, ricco, probabilmente anche pi\uf9 aderente alla realt\ue0 il quadro generale a cui si fa riferimento ogni qual volta si fa ricerca, si confronta, si valuta e si inserisce un\u2019opera di architettura nella storia.The eighteenth-century Sicily offers numerous cases of church fa\ue7ades which have been destroyed, are incomplete or projects that have never been realized. Earthquakes, limited financial resources, changes in language and taste - by developers or designers - are among the probable causes of the disappearance, a lack of implementation and completion of architecture canceled, partially built or never even started. The buildings analyzed in this volume \u2013 The Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, The Duomo of Salaparuta, The church of Sant\u2019Antonio di Padova in Buscemi \u2013 not well known or studied, deserve for the quality of outcomes, structures of significant level in the context of Sicilian eighteenth century production. In the Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, in the province of Palermo, a watercolor drawing was recently discovered relating to a sophisticated solution of the fa\ue7ade straight between two towers, different from the present, apart from the mixed-line stairway entrance to the religious building. It is an unrealized project that shows close ties with the fa\ue7ade of the church of Sant\u2019Ignazio all'Olivella in Palermo, among the most advanced sites of the capital and also in western Sicily, but that in some respects betrays affinity with some religious buildings of eighteenth-century Naples. The bell tower fa\ue7ade of the duomo of Salaparuta, in the province of Trapani, collapsed due to the earthquake of 1968 in the Belice Valley. Aside from a few photographs taken before the disaster, this fa\ue7ade, which stands as the only alternative to the type of tower built in western Sicily compared to the many, impressive and also the most popular solutions built after the earthquake of 1693 in Val di Noto, is virtually reconstructed through the numerous stone fragment survivors. Of the project for the fa\ue7ade of the church of Sant\u2019Antonio di Padova in Buscemi, in the province of Siracusa, only the first order characterized by a bold sinusoidal shape was built without regard to the previous Sicilian construction sites and in the context of the intense Sicilian eighteenth-century phase of reconstruction in eastern Sicily. This would mean to ideally complete the artifact from what was built and from only an archived document. Deepening knowledge, understanding genesis, value, role and meaning, that is, reconstruct the original identity of these buildings through historical research and the help of redesign (carried out in this occasion by the architect Mirco Cannella \u2013 who currently holds a research grant as part of the Cosmed, Europian Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant 2011 -) is a challenge that could even lead to a different view, to a virtual rebirth

Development and characterization of an amorphous solid dispersion of furosemide in the form of a sublingual bioadhesive film to enhance bioavailability

Administered by an oral route, Furosemide (FUR), a diuretic used in several edematous states and hypertension, presents bioavailability problems, reported as a consequence of an erratic gastrointestinal absorption due to various existing polymorphic forms and low and pH-dependent solubility. A mucoadhesive sublingual fast-dissolving FUR based film has been developed and evaluated in order to optimize the bioavailability of FUR by increasing solubility and guaranteeing a good dissolution reproducibility. The Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) analyses confirmed that the film prepared using the solvent casting method entrapped FUR in the amorphous state. As a solid dispersion, FUR increases its solubility up to 28.36 mg/mL. Drug content, thickness, and weight uniformity of film were also evaluated. The measured Young\ue2\u80\u99s Modulus, yield strength, and relative elongation of break percentage (EB%) allowed for the classification of the drug-loaded film as an elastomer. Mucoadhesive strength tests showed that the force to detach film from mucosa grew exponentially with increasing contact time up to 7667 N/m2. FUR was quickly discharged from the film following a trend well fitted with the Weibull kinetic model. When applied on sublingual mucosa, the new formulation produced a massive drug flux in the systemic compartment. Overall, the proposed sublingual film enhances drug solubility and absorption, allowing for the prediction of a rapid onset of action and reproducible bioavailability in its clinical application

Force balance and membrane shedding at the Red Blood Cell surface

During the aging of the red-blood cell, or under conditions of extreme echinocytosis, membrane is shed from the cell plasma membrane in the form of nano-vesicles. We propose that this process is the result of the self-adaptation of the membrane surface area to the elastic stress imposed by the spectrin cytoskeleton, via the local buckling of membrane under increasing cytoskeleton stiffness. This model introduces the concept of force balance as a regulatory process at the cell membrane, and quantitatively reproduces the rate of area loss in aging red-blood cells.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Eta photoproduction off the neutron at GRAAL: Evidence for a resonant structure at W=1.67 GeV

New (preliminary) data on eta photoproduction off the neutron are presented. These data reveal a resonant structure at W=1.67 GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Published in Proceedings of Workshop on the Physics of Excited Nucleons NSTAR2004, Grenoble, France, March 24 - 27, pg.19

Eta photoproduction off the neutron at GRAAL

The gamma n -> eta n quasi-free cross section reveals a resonant structure at W ~ 1.675 GeV. This structure may be a manifestation of a baryon resonance. A priori its properties, the possibly narrow width and the strong photocoupling to the neutron, look surprising. This structure may also signal the existence of a narrow state.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of Workshop on the Physics of Excited Nucleons NSTAR2005, 12 - 15 October 2005, Tallahassee, Florida, US

Eta photoproduction on the neutron at GRAAL: Measurement of the differential cross section

In this contribution, we will present our first preliminary measurement of the differential cross section for the reaction gamma+n->eta+n. Comparison of the reactions gamma+p->eta+p for free and bound proton (D2 target) will also be discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon, August 29-September 4 2004, Beijing, Chin

Limits on light-speed anisotropies from Compton scattering of high-energy electrons

The possibility of anisotropies in the speed of light relative to the limiting speed of electrons is considered. The absence of sidereal variations in the energy of Compton-edge photons at the ESRF's GRAAL facility constrains such anisotropies representing the first non-threshold collision-kinematics study of Lorentz violation. When interpreted within the minimal Standard-Model Extension, this result yields the two-sided limit of 1.6 x 10^{-14} at 95% confidence level on a combination of the parity-violating photon and electron coefficients kappa_{o+} and c. This new constraint provides an improvement over previous bounds by one order of magnitude.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure