Un’eruzione retorica: studio dell’ipotiposi nella letteratura catastrofica dei Caraibi francofoni

Hypotyposis is a figure of speech which often appears in written descriptions of natural disasters (e.g. in Voltaire’s Poem on the Lisbon disaster, 1756). Its ability to show in the eye of the reader the unfolding of a tragic event through a vivid and dynamic description makes hypotyposis a useful tool in catastrophic and post-apocalyptic fiction. The aim of this contribution is to study the presence and function of hypotyposis in three novels which belong to French Caribbean literature, concerning two volcanic eruptions that took place in the 20th century (Montagne Pelée, Martinique, in 1902 and Soufrière, Guadeloupe, in 1976). By a stylistic and thematic analysis of some selected texts from Raphaël Tardon’s La Caldeira (1948), Raphaël Confiant’s Nuée ardente (2002) and Daniel Maximin’s Soufrières (1987), we will focus on the role of hypotyposis as a creator of pathos and emotional reactions in the reader’s mind by which the author can also convey a social and political message.Già utilizzata da Voltaire nel suo Poema sul disastro di Lisbona (1756), l’ipotiposi è una figura retorica ricorrente nella rappresentazione letteraria delle catastrofi naturali, particolarmente adatta alla descrizione viva e dinamica, quasi cinematografica, degli avvenimenti narrati. Il presente articolo si pone l’obiettivo di definire la presenza e la funzione dell’ipotiposi in tre romanzi appartenenti alle letterature dei Caraibi francofoni che trattano il tema di due eruzioni vulcaniche avvenute nel XX secolo (quelle della Montagne Pelée, in Martinica, nel 1902 e della Soufrière, in Guadalupa, nel 1976). Attraverso un’analisi tematica e stilistica di alcuni passaggi de La Caldeira di Raphaël Tardon (1948), della sua riscrittura Nuée ardente di Raphaël Confiant (2002) e di Soufrières di Daniel Maximin (1987), verrà illustrato il ruolo fondamentale dell’ipotiposi come figura creatrice di pathos, capace di generare reazioni emotive nel lettore, e come il possibile veicolo di un messaggio politico e sociale

Des secrets sous les décombres : la (dis)simulation dans le roman post-sismique haïtien

In January 2010 a major earthquake strikes Haiti, especially its capital Port-au-Prince, and its consequences are still shaping Haitian life, politics and culture. The works of fiction published in the aftermath, from 2010 until today, are a vivid example of the intrusion of catastrophic events into literary production. The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamics between simulation and dissimulation in two novels published after the earthquake: "Aux frontières de la soif" (2012) by Kettly Mars and "L’escalier de mes désillusions" (2014) by Gary Victor. In Mars’s novel the main character keeps an horrible secret and makes many efforts in order not to reveal it to his friends and family, showing all the contradictions of everyday life in the post-catastrophic Port-au-Prince. In Victor’s novel, the function of the apocalyptic event is to awaken some forgotten memories of the past which brutally reappear in the present. By analyzing these two novels, we will focus on the role of (dis)simulation as a survival strategy adopted by the characters to go on with their lives

NMR-based metabolomics in Alzheimer’s disease research: a review

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and represents the most common cause of dementia in the elderly population worldwide. Currently, there is no cure for AD, and the continuous increase in the number of susceptible individuals poses one of the most significant emerging threats to public health. However, the molecular pathways involved in the onset and progression of AD are not fully understood. This information is crucial for developing less invasive diagnostic instruments and discovering novel potential therapeutic targets. Metabolomics studies the complete ensemble of endogenous and exogenous metabolites present in biological specimens and may provide an interesting approach to identify alterations in multiple biochemical processes associated with AD onset and evolution. In this mini review, we summarize the results from metabolomic studies conducted using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on human biological samples (blood derivatives, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, saliva, and tissues) from AD patients. We describe the metabolic alterations identified in AD patients compared to controls and to patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Moreover, we discuss the challenges and issues associated with the application of NMR-based metabolomics in the context of AD research

KODAMA exploratory analysis in metabolic phenotyping

KODAMA is a valuable tool in metabolomics research to perform exploratory analysis. The advanced analytical technologies commonly used for metabolic phenotyping, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy push out a bunch of high-dimensional data. These complex datasets necessitate tailored statistical analysis able to highlight potentially interesting patterns from a noisy background. Hence, the visualization of metabolomics data for exploratory analysis revolves around dimensionality reduction. KODAMA excels at revealing local structures in high-dimensional data, such as metabolomics data. KODAMA has a high capacity to detect different underlying relationships in experimental datasets and correlate extracted features with accompanying metadata. Here, we describe the main application of KODAMA exploratory analysis in metabolomics research

Differential Network Analysis Reveals Metabolic Determinants Associated with Mortality in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients and Suggests Potential Mechanisms Underlying Different Clinical Scores Used To Predict Death

We present here the differential analysis of metabolite-metabolite association networks constructed from an array of 24 serum metabolites identified and quantified via nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a cohort of 825 patients of which 123 died within 2 years from acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We investigated differences in metabolite connectivity of patients who survived, at 2 years, the AMI event, and we characterized metabolite-metabolite association networks specific to high and low risks of death according to four different risk parameters, namely, acute coronary syndrome classification, Killip, Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events risk score, and metabolomics NOESY RF risk score. We show significant differences in the connectivity patterns of several low-molecular-weight molecules, implying variations in the regulation of several metabolic pathways regarding branched-chain amino acids, alanine, creatinine, mannose, ketone bodies, and energetic metabolism. Our results demonstrate that the characterization of metabolite-metabolite association networks is a promising and powerful tool to investigate AMI patients according to their outcomes at a molecular level.</p

Exploring Serum NMR-Based Metabolomic Fingerprint of Colorectal Cancer Patients: Effects of Surgery and Possible Associations with Cancer Relapse

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed and third most deadly cancer worldwide. Surgery is the main treatment option for early disease; however, a relevant proportion of CRC patients relapse. Here, variations among preoperative and postoperative serum metabolomic fingerprint of CRC patients were studied, and possible associations between metabolic variations and cancer relapse were explored. Methods: A total of 41 patients with stage I-III CRC, planned for radical resection, were enrolled. Serum samples, collected preoperatively (t0) and 4&ndash;6 weeks after surgery before the start of any treatment (t1), were analyzed via NMR spectroscopy. NMR data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate statistical approaches. Results: Serum metabolomic fingerprints show differential clustering between t0 and t1 (82&ndash;85% accuracy). Pyruvate, HDL-related parameters, acetone, and 3-hydroxybutyrate appear to be the major players in this discrimination. Eight out of the 41 CRC patients enrolled developed cancer relapse. Postoperative, relapsed patients show an increase of pyruvate and HDL-related parameters, and a decrease of Apo-A1 Apo-B100 ratio and VLDL-related parameters. Conclusions: Surgery significantly alters the metabolomic fingerprint of CRC patients. Some metabolic changes seem to be associated with the development of cancer relapse. These data, if validated in a larger cohort, open new possibilities for risk stratification in patients with early-stage CRC