Sperimentazione e normatività. Periodici ebraici italiani e letteratura fra Otto e Novecento

This essay analyzes the structure and function of the literary texts published by the main Jewish periodicals in Liberal Italy. It explores them as part of a polifonic conversation, an experimental debate on identity, a redefinition of boundaries, an endless search for a balance between integration and preservation of Jewish peculiarities. This textual production, of low literary quality and mainly written by rabbis and teachers, had a clear normative and moral character: it depicted models of positive and negative behavior, intending to sketch the ideal modern Italian Jew/Jewess. Literature, or better domestic fiction, allowed for a consciously vague but insisted reference to the existence of a collective Jewish identity that should be preserved after emancipation, through – among other things – the condemnation of intermarriage

Historical Layers of Refugee Reception in Border Areas of Italy: Crossroads of Transit and Temporalities of (Im)mobility

In border areas, time and space are constantly suspended from the usual rules along a liminal pathway transforming status and identity. In order to understand how different regimes of mobility and reception influence the experience of time and the subjective actions of both asylum seekers arriving via the so-called Balkan route and Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war, the paper puts forward an analysis of the multiple scales of migration and reception policies as historically situated practices. How and to what extent has the increasing role of the humanitarian regime contrib- uted to improving or worsening the lives of asylum seekers in borderland places where the memory of wars, civil conflicts, and experiences of refoulement is very much alive? Building on a multilocal ethnography of the temporalities of migrants’reception, the paper aims at disentangling the historical layers of hospitality in the northeastern Italian border areas of Trieste and Bolzano and the intersecting forms of (im)mobility at play. By addressing “reception” as an entanglement of spatial andtemporal practices carried out by migrants, institutional, and humanitarian actors, we discuss not only how time reduces the existence of asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees to an empty and meaningless human condition by exerting control over the subjective experiences, but also how the migrants’ experience of waiting translates into an active state of being with the creative potential to trigger new forms of sociality, solidarity, and senses of belonging

Borders within. An Ethnographic Take on the Reception Policies of Asylum Seekers in Alto Adige/South Tyrol

The “processual turn” in the study of borders has opened up to the analysis of how borders and border regimes, conceived of as social practices, are created/recreated in many ways, for many actors, at any place and time; however, this perspective still coexists with traditional approaches to borders, characterized by a fixation with the notion of border only as a tangible entity, the physical outcome of political, social and/or economic processes. These studies develop through sophisticated and erudite conceptual analysis, not always balanced by equal empirical anchorage. Conversely, based on an ethnographic account of asylum seekers’ reception policies in Alto Adige/Südtirol, the article empirically frames the concept of “border” by retracing the experiences of the so-called “out-of-quota” asylum seekers (profughi fuori quota/Asylbewerber fuori quota) in light of their categorization prompted by local policy and media discourses. The author unveils the performative dimension of labelling practices by arguing that these not only fuel misrepresentation but translate into bordering practices that exacerbate juridical and social vulnerability and hinder access to reception facilities and welfare services.La “svolta processuale” negli studi sui confini ha aperto all’analisi di come i confini e i regimi di confine, in quanto pratiche sociali, siano prodotti e si riproducano sotto una pluralità di forme, coinvolgendo molti attori e in una molteplicità di tempi e luoghi; tuttavia, questa prospettiva coesiste ancora con approcci tradizionali allo studio dei confini, caratterizzati dall’adozione di una nozione rigida di confine inteso esclusivamente come realtà fisica e tangibile, esito di processi politici, sociali e/o economici. Questi studi si sviluppano attraverso articolate ed erudite analisi concettuali che tendono a non essere bilanciate da un corrispondente ancoraggio empirico. Di contro, prendendo le mosse da un’etnografia delle politiche di accoglienza verso le persone richiedenti asilo in Alto Adige/Südtirol, l’articolo elabora un’analisi empirica del concetto di “confine” ripercorrendo le esperienze dei cosiddetti “profughi fuori quota” (Asylbewerber fuori quota) alla luce dei processi di categorizzazione promossi dagli attori politici e da alcuni media locali. L’autore svela la dimensione performativa delle pratiche di etichettamento, dimostrando come non contribuiscano ad alimentare soltanto distorte rappresentazioni dei richiedenti asilo, ma si traducano in pratiche di bordering che acuiscono la vulnerabilità giuridica e sociale e ostacolano l’accesso alle strutture di accoglienza e ai servizi di assistenza sociale

Control of pituitary adenoma cell proliferation by somatostatin analogs, dopamine agonists and novel chimeric compounds

The antisecretory effects of somatostatin (SRIH) and its analogs are widely recognized and provide the basis for treatment of hormonal hypersecretion in patients with pituitary adenomas, especially in the settings of acromegaly. Dopamine (DA) agonists have also been used for medical treatment of prolactin and/or GH hypersecretion, and recent evidence points to an even greater antisecretory effect for a chimeric molecule, having high affinity for both SRIH and DA receptors. Evidence for an antiproliferative effect of these compounds has also been provided. This review focuses on the antiproliferative effects of SRIH and its analogs, of DA and chimeric compounds on pituitary adenomas, and on the clinical consequences on tumor volume of pharmacological treatment of pituitary adenomas with these drug

IGF-I influences everolimus activity in medullary thyroid carcinoma

Context: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare tumor originating from thyroid parafollicular C cells. It has been previously demonstrated that insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) protects MTC from the effects of antiproliferative drugs. Everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, has shown potent antiproliferative effects in a human MTC cell line, TT, and in two human MTC primary cultures. Objective: To verify whether IGF-I may influence the effects of everolimus in a group of human MTC primary cultures. Design: We collected 18 MTCs that were dispersed in primary cultures, treated without or with 10 nM-1 mu M everolimus and/or 50 nM IGF-I. Cell viability was evaluated after 48 h, and calcitonin (CT) secretion was assessed after a 6 h incubation. IGF-I receptor downstream signaling protein expression profile was also investigated. Results: Everolimus significantly reduced cell viability in eight MTC [by similar to 20%; P < 0.01 vs. control; everolimus-responders (E-R) MTCs], while cell viability did not change in 10 MTCs [everolimus-non-responders (E-NR) MTCs]. In E-R MTCs, IGF-I blocked the antiproliferative effects of everolimus that did not affect CT secretion, but blocked the stimulatory effects of IGF-I on this parameter. IGF-I receptor downstream signaling proteins were expressed at higher levels in E-NR MTC as compared to E-R MTCs. Conclusion: IGF-I protects a subset of MTC primary cultures from the antiproliferative effects of everolimus and stimulates CT secretion by an mTOR mediated pathway that, in turn, may represent a therapeutic target in the treatment of aggressive MTCs

The Small Molecule BIBR1532 Exerts Potential Anti-cancer Activities in Preclinical Models of Feline Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Through Inhibition of Telomerase Activity and Down-Regulation of TERT

Expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and telomerase activity (TA) is a main feature of cancer, contributing to cell immortalization by causing telomeres dysfunction. BIBR1532 is a potent telomerase inhibitor that showed potential anti-tumor activities in several types of cancer, by triggering replicative senescence and apoptosis. In a previous work, we detected, for the first time, TERT expression and TA in preclinical models of feline oral squamous cell carcinoma (FOSCC); therefore, we aimed at extending our investigation by testing the effects of treatment with BIBR1532, in order to explore the role of telomerase in this tumor and foreshadow the possibility of it being considered as a future therapeutic target. In the present study, treatment of FOSCC cell lines SCCF1, SCCF2, and SCCF3 with BIBR1532 resulted in successful inhibition of TA, with subsequent cell growth stoppage and decrease in cell viability. Molecular data showed that up-regulation of cell cycle inhibitor p21, unbalancing of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and down-regulation of survival gene Survivin were mostly involved in the observed cellular events. Moreover, BIBR1532 diminished the expression of TERT and its transcriptional activator cMyc, resulting in the down-regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), phospho-ERK/ERK ratio, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)-1/-2 and−9, likely as a consequence of an impairment of TERT extra-telomeric functions. Taken together, our data suggest that BIBR1532 exerts multiple anti-cancer activities in FOSCC by inhibiting telomerase pathway and interfering with signaling routes involved in cell proliferation, cell survival, and invasion, paving the way for future translational studies aimed at evaluating its possible employment in the treatment of this severe tumor of cats