805 research outputs found
Elizabeth SchÀchter, The Jews of Italy, 1848-1915. Between Tradition and Transformation, London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2010, pp. 268
Nadia Valman, "The Jewess in Nineteenth-century British Literary Culture", New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 270
Sperimentazione e normativitĂ . 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 â among other things â 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 migrantsâreception, 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 âreceptionâ 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 migrantsâ 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 âprocessual turnâ 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 seekersâ reception policies in Alto Adige/SĂŒdtirol, the article empirically frames the concept of âborderâ by retracing the experiences of the so-called âout-of-quotaâ 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 âsvolta processualeâ negli studi sui confini ha aperto allâanalisi di come i confini e i regimi di confine, in quanto pratiche sociali, siano prodotti e si riproducano sotto una pluralitĂ di forme, coinvolgendo molti attori e in una molteplicitĂ di tempi e luoghi; tuttavia, questa prospettiva coesiste ancora con approcci tradizionali allo studio dei confini, caratterizzati dallâadozione di una nozione rigida di confine inteso esclusivamente come realtĂ 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 unâetnografia delle politiche di accoglienza verso le persone richiedenti asilo in Alto Adige/SĂŒdtirol, lâarticolo elabora unâanalisi empirica del concetto di âconfineâ ripercorrendo le esperienze dei cosiddetti âprofughi fuori quotaâ (Asylbewerber fuori quota) alla luce dei processi di categorizzazione promossi dagli attori politici e da alcuni media locali. Lâautore 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 vulnerabilitĂ giuridica e sociale e ostacolano lâaccesso alle strutture di accoglienza e ai servizi di assistenza sociale
Review of La societĂ udinese e gli ebrei fra la Restaurazione e lâetĂ unitaria. Mondi cattolici, emancipazione e integrazione della minoranza ebraica a Udine 1830-1866/70, by Emanuele DâAntonio
Asher Salah, L'epistolario di Marco Mortara. Un rabbino italiano tra riforma e ortodossia (Giuntina: Firenze 2012), pp. 269.
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 andâ9, 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
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