Stumbling on the verge of catastrophe? The media and the transforming world order

By LSE MsC student Luca Bertuzzi An article published on Le Monde Diplomatique of last month (September 2016) reports the alarming fact that the United States is preparing for a major confrontation with a World Power. An alarm bell that has curiously passed undetected in the mainstream media

Niccolò Tramontana: la pittura come percezione visiva della sostanza

Si è aperta il 30 settembre 2011 a Foligno (PG) una mostra personale di un giovane artista emergente dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna: Niccolò Tramontana. L'esposizione consta di una decina di opere: tra dipinti olio su tela e incisioni ad acquaforte, i lavori si presentano tutti senza titolo. Questa scelta è dettata dalla volontà dell'artista di creare opere che siano svincolate da una lettura forzatamente connessa al loro nome. L’intento, infatti, è quello di sollecitare un numero infinito di interpretazioni, perché è la rappresentazione artistica stessa ad essere proposta allo spettatore come problema. Questo processo diventa emblematico per una storia dell’arte che presenta una molteplicità di significati e ambiguità all’interno di un linguaggio non figurativo

Il CIAC: Centro di Arte Contemporanea di Foligno

«Il CIAC nasce da un’esigenza di documentare l’arte contemporanea in questa città che ha una sua piccola, ma molto significativa e penetrante, tradizione del NUOVO». Con queste parole Italo Tomassoni , curatore dello spazio espositivo del Centro di Arte Contemporanea (CIAC) di Foligno, parla di questo nuovo e importante complesso museale di Arte Contemporanea del centro Italia. Come spiega Tomassoni, infatti, la gestazione per avere un vero e proprio centro dedicato all’arte nella città di Foligno è stata lunga e comincia nel 1967 quando, con il titolo Lo spazio dell’immagine si aprì la mostra che ispirò apertamente la Biennale di Venezia del 1968, in quanto rivoluzionò, da quel momento, tutto ciò che era la concezione dell’arte staccando i quadri dalle pareti per metterli in un contesto spaziale. L’idea di progettare il museo nasce alla fine degli anni Novanta, ma solamente nel Novembre del 2009 sarà inaugurato il Centro di Arte Contemporanea di Foligno. Il museo viene in questi anni costruito con l’idea architettonica di un grande artista italiano, Getulio Alviani (Udine 1939-), che ha una lunga storia alle sue spalle, anche in riferimento a questa città per le sue frequentazioni costanti e per il contributo dato a questo museo. Come spiega Tomassoni, sembrava in un primo momento, che si dovesse creare questo museo per ospitare stabilmente la sua grandissima collezione, cosa che poi non è stata possibile per difficoltà di natura logistica, perché Alviani abita a Milano e, naturalmente, «un museo non si costruisce con i fax o con le email»

Il facsimile dell'Hortus amoenissimus di Franciscus De Geest: una recensione

Aboca museum, in collaborazione con la Bibioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, ha presentato la riproduzione facsimilare dello splendido florilegio Hortus amoenissimus del celebre pittore olandese del Seicento barocco: Franciscus De Geest (1638-1699). L’Hortus amoenissimus edito da Aboca è una raccolta di 201 disegni originali, splendidamente colorati con tecnica mista, testimonianza della varietà di piante da fiore coltivate nei giardini botanici dell’epoca e delle ricche collezioni dei tanto ricercati tulipani d’Oriente. L’opera è inoltre accompagnata da un Commentario di 96 pagine. La riproduzione è fedele nei colori e riesce a riportare sulla pagina la freschezza dei disegni e la vivacità delle tinte. L’originale è conservato presso la Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma (manoscritto Varia 291) ed è datato Leeuwarden 1668 ed è introdotto da una suggestiva tavola di presentazione

The Italian Animal Advocacy Archipelago and the Four Animalisms

Italian animal advocacy is extremely divided and fragmented: in this article, we focus on its political dimension. Based upon prior studies, we expected the Italian animal advocacy archipelago to be clustered into three strata: old welfare, new welfare, and animal rights. Quantification of our survey (704 respondents throughout Italy) instead indicated a dichotomy between the animal rights area and both types of welfarists, particularly in terms of ethical values and localization on a progressive/conservative political axis. However, when we used qualitative interviews to probe the views of Italian animal advocates in greater depth, we detected a greater fragmentation and identified four ideal types of activism, defined as follows: political animalism, anarchist animalism, anti-political animalism, and moderate animalism. These ideal types are separated primarily along two dimensions: relationship with neo-liberal societal and economic structure, and degree of intersectional approach with other social movements. In the conclusions, we also offer general reflections on the coexistence of lobbying and protest, the phenomenon on NGOization, and the influence of individual activism and frame personalization on contemporary social movements

Synthesis and functionalization of a lactam-pyrazole molecular scaffold as a promising anticancer compound

The importance of pyrazole and lactam-based molecules in medical and pharmaceutical fields is underlined by the multitude of active ingredients on trade, such as Sildenafil or Apixaban, by Pfizer. In this work, a synthesis of an organic molecule with promising anticancer activity has been developed. This molecular scaffold is characterized by a δ-lactam-fused pyrazolic core, with a well-known biological activity and amenable of further functionalization. The synthetic strategy adopted for the obtainment of the core was based on a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of a nitrilimine with an α,β-unsaturated δ-lactam. Secondly, in order to give the final compound an elevated pharmacological activity, a functionalization with a double “side chain”, namely molecular fragment able to improve the interaction with particular biological receptors, was achieved. The target compound was thus obtained, with a highly convergent synthesis, and will be tested for antiproliferative activities towards different cellular lines

Innovative solutions for distribution transformer cores and windings

Focusing on the real needs of the transformer core manufacturing process, the first step is to improve existing solutions and find new, innovative solutions at a whole process level, with the aim to produce highly efficient transformer cores in a both productive and competitive way. The first innovative improvement concerns the automation of the stacking process, so far operated only manually, which can now be included in line with the core cutting process, thus responding to one of the major manufacturing issues: the productivity. The second innovation refers to the automation of the lamination replacement into the cutting machine, thus drastically reducing the average time for this operation from current approximately 10 mins to only 15 seconds, with significant improvement of the productivity, especially with different lamination widths. The third major innovation concerns the core-filling factor of the distribution transformer. The current compromise between optimized shape and a minimum number of different widths of lamination, results in a core-filling factor ranging from 94 % to 96 %, using in general 7 to 11 different widths. Our revolutionary solution implies the use of octagonal shaped cores to reach a 99 % filling factor, with a significant saving on materials, and a correspondent improvement of no load losses (core losses), due to the extra 4-6 % of increased material. This process patented (patent no. 102017000022419 [1]) under the name of TWINCORE exploits the optimized results from the unification of core cutting and stacking implemented by an inline slitting head, covering the entire production process with only 2 different sizes of mother rolls and using a single automated machine, thus avoiding intermediate storages and reducing lamination scrap. Finally, the article will explore the optimization of the windings, resulting in a complete optimisation of the transformer’s most crucial components

Hone the Means of Production: Craft Antagonism and Domination in the Journalistic Labour Process of Freelance Writers

The works of Karl Marx have been central to the formation of a body of critical communication scholarship in Canada. But as Nicole S. Cohen adeptly shows, the influence of Marx’s thought has been absent, mostly, as it relates to questions involving cultural labourers. Of particular interest to her is Marx’s formulation concerning exploitation and its relationship to the field of journalism as it affects freelance writers. This dissertation extends the notion of a “missing Marx” by incorporating other concepts from his oeuvre. His writings on alienation help to address one of two major research questions posed in this dissertation. The first being: why is it that freelance writers in Canada are willing to work for such low levels of remuneration? Historically, a dichotomous rendering has prevailed as to whether exploitation or alienation provides a better explanatory framework for understanding the experiences of workers—in this case, freelance writers. One of the aims of this work is to bring alienation and exploitation into conversation with one another. This requires an analytical investigation of the journalistic labour process. Ideas of craft have helped shape identity and understandings of work in the journalistic field over a few centuries now. This understanding segues into the second research question: at this juncture of deepening capitalist crises, and subsequent renewed interest in craft modes of production, what relevance do these forces have in the lives of contemporary freelance writers? This dissertation addresses both of the above research questions as well as the aforementioned phenomenon through interviews of Canadian freelance writers in the spirit of Marx’s workers’ inquiry. These 25 interviews in combination with documentary analysis of the historically changing conditions of journalism explore the pertinence of the field’s craft sensibility upon its freelance workforce under circumstances of intensifying alienation. Statements from informants reveal the craft dimensions of the labour process as both a source of domination and of resistance as well as playing a possible future role in the enactment of broader class struggles

Discovery of a human VNTR allelic variant in Nprl3 gene intron that enhances its transcription in peripheral blood

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slowly progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that is classically defined in terms of motor symptoms consequent to degeneration of specific subsets of mesencephalic dopaminergic (DA) cells within substantia nigra (SN) pars compacta. No pharmacological treatment is currently available to slow or arrest the neurodegenerative process. Furthermore, accurate early diagnosis suffers from the lack of reliable biomarkers. By the time motor symptoms appear, PD patients have already lost 60-70% of DA-producing cells (Dauer & Przedborski 2003) proving that sporadic PD is diagnosed many years after the onset. It is therefore reasonable to expect that potential pharmacological treatments could be more effective if patients can benefit from it in the premotor phase. Given the systemic nature of the disease, it is not surprising that many alterations of blood physiology have been described in PD patients (Kim et al., 2004; Shults and Haas, 2005; Bongioanni et al., 1996; Migliore et al., 2002; Petrozzi et al., 2002; Salman et al., 1999; Larumbe et al., 2001; Bessler et al., 1999). In this context, a blood test to predict PD would impact the ability to identify new treatments for this incurable disease. Furthermore, it could be applied to a large number of individuals since blood is commonly used in diagnostics for being easily accessible. Gene expression analysis is a powerful tool to study complex diseases such PD and it has been extensively employed to find peripheral biomarkers (Papapetropoulos et al., 2007). In the laboratory of Prof Gustincich, in collaboration with Dr Carninci at RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan, nanoCAGE technology has been previously used to find alterations in the blood transcriptome of 20 drug na\uefve de novo PD patients compared to 20 Healthy Controls (HC). NanoCAGE allows the identification of Transcription Start Sites (TSSs) and therefore of the associated promoters providing an unbias quantitative description of the cellular transcriptome targeting virtually any RNA molecule present in the sample. The most up-regulated nanoCAGE tag in PD patients is located in the third intron of the gene Nitrogen Permease Regulator Like Protein 3 (Nprl3). Nprl3 gene lies on the telomeric region of human chromosome 11 and contains in its intron the major regulator elements of \u3b1 globin (Hughes et al., 2005). Neklesa and Davis in 2009 (in yeast) and Bar-Peled et al. in 2013 (in mammals) proved that Nprl3 is a component of a protein complex that inhibits mTORC1 activity. In eukaryotes TOR is the major sensor of nutrients, energy and stress. Alterations in its pathway have been correlated with diseases and conditions where growth and homeostasis are compromised such as cancer, metabolic diseases and aging. The aim of my PhD thesis was to identify the full-length transcript associated to the nanoCAGE tag, validate it, and to test whether it may represent a peripheral biomarker of PD. Taking advantage of rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) assay, I demonstrated that the tag represents an alternative Transcription Start Site of Nprl3 (TagNprl3). It is associated to a TCT motif (YC+1TYTYY) for initiation of transcription, which has been found to be specific for ribosomal protein coding genes and those involved in protein synthesis. The tag maps to a 29nt minisatellite that is found repeated 16 times in the reference genome. High-tag expression is associated to an allelic genomic variant of 13 repeats. To our knowledge this is the first time that a minisatellite variant is both a TSS and an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL). Unfortunately, high TagNprl3 expression resulted not to be correlated to PD but to heterozygosity. Furthermore, allelic frequencies were not correlated to PD. I then showed that TagNprl3 is expressed in red blood cells (RBCs) both at mRNA and protein levels giving rise to an isoform truncated at the N-terminal. This is able to interact with its protein partner Nprl2 and its overexpression inhibits cell proliferation. This work provides hints for Nprl3 protein function in blood and may suggest a testable hypothesis linking mTOR activity to genomic polymorphisms in modifier genes