OVERVIEWING RESEARCH ON BELF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES From professional practice to ELT materials

The present paper focuses on the use of English in BELF contexts, bearing in mind both teaching and practice in the professional field. After an overview of the state of the art in ELF and BELF research over the last twenty years, the topic is tackled from three different perspectives, which mirror the studies carried out by the unit of the University of Verona in a three-year-long nationally funded research. Firstly, we will address BELF in professional settings, to shed light on what facilitates success in online interactions, with a special focus on e-mail exchanges. Secondly, still addressing e-mail exchanges, we will suggest a broadening of the notion of BELF communication strategies that goes beyond sheer successful, mutual understanding in the professional field. Finally, bearing the first two steps of our research in mind, we will turn to the teaching environment, overviewing if and to what extent international business ELT coursebooks deal with BELF communication strategies at different levels of competence, so as to provide hints and suggestions for more effective materials in this field

mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 controls folding and stability of Akt and protein kinase C

The target of rapamycin (TOR), as part of the rapamycinsensitive TOR complex 1 (TORC1), regulates various aspects of protein synthesis. Whether TOR functions in this process as part of TORC2 remains to be elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that mTOR, SIN1 and rictor, components of mammalian (m)TORC2, are required for phosphorylation of Akt and conventional protein kinase C (PKC) at the turn motif (TM) site. This TORC2 function is growth factor independent and conserved from yeast to mammals. TM site phosphorylation facilitates carboxyl-terminal folding and stabilizes newly synthesized Akt and PKC by interacting with conserved basic residues in the kinase domain. Without TM site phosphorylation, Akt becomes protected by the molecular chaperone Hsp90 from ubiquitination-mediated proteasome degradation. Finally, we demonstrate that mTORC2 independently controls the Akt TM and HM sites in vivo and can directly phosphorylate both sites in vitro. Our studies uncover a novel function of the TOR pathway in regulating protein folding and stability, processes that are most likely linked to the functions of TOR in protein synthesis

Self-RNA–antimicrobial peptide complexes activate human dendritic cells through TLR7 and TLR8

Dendritic cell (DC) responses to extracellular self-DNA and self-RNA are prevented by the endosomal seclusion of nucleic acid–recognizing Toll-like receptors (TLRs). In psoriasis, however, plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) sense self-DNA that is transported to endosomal TLR9 upon forming a complex with the antimicrobial peptide LL37. Whether LL37 also interacts with extracellular self-RNA and how this may contribute to DC activation in psoriasis is not known. Here, we report that LL37 can bind self-RNA released by dying cells, protect it from extracellular degradation, and transport it into endosomal compartments of DCs. In pDC, self-RNA–LL37 complexes activate TLR7 and, like self-DNA–LL37 complexes, trigger the secretion of IFN-α without inducing maturation or the production of IL-6 and TNF-α. In contrast to self-DNA–LL37 complexes, self-RNA–LL37 complexes also trigger the activation of classical myeloid DCs (mDCs). This occurs through TLR8 and leads to the production of TNF-α and IL-6, and the differentiation of mDCs into mature DCs. We also found that self-RNA–LL37 complexes are present in psoriatic skin lesions and are associated with mature mDCs in vivo. Our results demonstrate that the cationic antimicrobial peptide LL37 converts self-RNA into a trigger of TLR7 and TLR8 in human DCs, and provide new insights into the mechanism that drives the auto-inflammatory responses in psoriasis

La Deputazione di Borsa e gli spazi economici della Trieste di fine Settecento

2004/200

DETROIT, SHRINKING CITY, SHRINKING PLANNING?

The case of Detroit has been regarded and studied, both by disciplinary and non disciplinary chronicles,as a paradigmatic example of the effects of the financial crisis on the American city as well as a unique and exceptional one. On the one side, in fact, Detroit’s crisis can represent some of the mechanisms, processes and outcomes generated by the recent economic crisis all around USA; on the other, Detroit’s exceptional situation can be read and understood only in a long term perspective, as the result of a number of different historical facts. Detroit, in this perspective, can provide space for a stream of storytelling, crossing by social, political, economical, institutional processes and, last but not least, planning practices and rationales. Exploring the case, in fact, one can also reconstruct and discuss the recent history of urban planning and urban policies approach in the USA and go deep inside a case in which some of the consolidated assumptions of planning theories and practices are evidently under question. The authors’ contribution will therefore present a first multi-focused reconstruction of the case (DETROIT-plural storytelling on a shrinking city) as a different “storytelling exercise”, dealing, among others, with unsolved social conflicts and the incomplete process of construction of local political leadership, the failures of traditional planning approaches, the problems generated by the institutional organization of local power in the USA, the spatial challenges introduced by the post-fordist organization of economy and space). The second part of the contribution (DETROIT- plural storytelling about shrinking planning) will focus more in depth, in tight connection with the first part, on the premises and results of the planning process promoted during the last few years by the Major and city government. The preparation of the planning document DETROIT FUTURE, published almost in the same days in which the city has declared bankruptcy, will be presented and discussed critically. In particular the authors will focus on the apparent paradox of a spatial planning process launched under a similar dramatic and ultimate situation, on its “expected” – and desperate- propulsive role in trying to address the above mentioned wicked problems of a conflictual political community, of a changing urban economy, of an unclear institutional status of local urban governments, and finally of a urban model result of a consolidate planning tradition. This contribution is the draft outcome of a research project that the two authors have started almost 2 years ago, and main elements are linked with the results of a study trip in Detroit in 2012 and the exploration of existing literature and press-revie

Città e crisi economica internazionale: la pianificazione al centro dell’attenzione?

paper pubblicato in Atti della XV Conferenza della Società Italiana degli Urbanisti, L'urbanistica che cambia. Rischi e valori, Pescara, 10-11 maggio 201