Western powers in China between 1920 and 1930: Focus on the Minutes of Meetings of the Shanghai Municipal Council

The 1920s were a pivotal decade in the modern history of China and particularly of Shanghai, which steadily increased its power on the international arena, from politics through finance to communication. Shanghai gradually became the focal point of many activities that would eventually shape modern China. Such privileged role was also due to the fact that the city held a special status since, unlike other Chinese territories, its Municipality witnessed the presence of foreigners as rulers but not as owners of the land. This led to a situation where foreigners and locals coexisted with their own cultures and styles. It is against this socio-historical background that we need to view the Municipality of Shanghai between 1920 and 1930, whose Council’s Minutes of Meetings (henceforth MoMs) are analyzed in the present paper. MoMs are a text type which has long been ignored by scholarly research, at least from the linguistic point of view, possibly due to its ‘hybrid’ status that places it halfway between legal documents and (press) reports. Bearing this in mind, the present study has a twofold aim; in the first place, by focussing on Shanghai MoMs from the early 20th century, we delve into the evolution of the Western (largely British) management of municipal affairs on Chinese territory, paying special attention to the relations between such Western powers and local Chinese citizens at the time. Secondly, we shed more light on MoMs as a textual type, with special reference to their structural and linguistic distinctiveness. Specifically, first we overview the Shanghai International Settlement and its Municipal Council at the time under scrutiny; then, we illustrate the corpus exploited for this study; finally, we focus on the linguistic analysis of the corpus, to detect possible structural changes that may have occurred over the last century to MoMs as a textual type. The present study intends to place itself at the crossroads between linguistic analysis, on the one hand, and socio-historical research on the other, viewing both as two sides of the same coin, under the conviction that historical-linguistic research cannot do without an adequate socio-historical contextualization, especially when intercultural aspects come into place, and that the study of historical documents for linguistic purposes can—and needs to—be of help to other disciplines like History and Sociology, but also International Relations and Public Diplomacy, in a fruitful interdisciplinary way

Dizionario Giornalistico Italiano-Inglese

La padronanza del lessico gergale è centrale per il successo nel proprio ambito lavorativo, in modo particolare se si tratta di un contesto internazionale, dove l’inglese è la lingua veicolare per eccellenza. Il Dizionario Giornalistico Italiano-Inglese è studiato soprattutto per studenti ed esperti del settore giornalistico, che desiderano migliorare le proprie competenze – sia in lingua italiana che in lingua inglese – nel gergo tipico della redazione giornalistica, dai giornalisti esperti a chi lo diventerà. Specificità del dizionario è la contestualizzazione esemplificativa di ogni termine illustrato, sia italiano che il corrispondente inglese; ogni esempio è tratto da un corpus di linguaggio giornalistico appositamente realizzato dall'autrice. Tale esemplificazione aiuta a comprendere ciascun termine e porta anche ad un ulteriore approfondimento della lingua di specialità

Corpus linguistics and ELF

Corpus Linguistics and English as a Lingua Franca (henceforth respectively CL and ELF) have been strongly interrelated since their early stages; this is largely due to the assumption shared by scholars in both fields that empirical analysis of natural text(s) is an indispensable prerequisite for theoretical discussion – and viceversa. Such prerequisite is even more cogent if we bear in mind that the majority of the world's English users are non-native speakers of English and largely exploit it as their working language. Hence, sheer intuition-based methodology cannot give adequate account of the manifold actualizations of a language that systematically trespasses its national borders, imposing deep sociological, ethnographic and cultural considerations on everyday real-world language use. In this article I first focus on the common ground shared by CL and ELF; secondly, I illustrate a case study on news-related blogs as a potential instance of online ELF (professional) communication, where mainstream journalists, independent experts and ordinary citizens meet on the online ground to provide content on the same event from all over the world

English dictionaries as cultural mines

Dictionaries are mines whose word-gems encapsulate centuries of language history and cultural traditions; they are store-houses of meanings and uses, \u2018lamp genies\u2019 to be set free at the very moment readers set their eyes on their entries. This book is an attempt to free such lamp genies, by discussing the role of dictionaries in the identification and expression of cultural aspects in language, with special reference to English. As such, its eleven chapters have been arranged to focus on general, genre-specific, monolingual and bilingual lexicography, both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. The book will be of use to lexicographers and lexicologists, as well as to corpus linguists, historical and contemporary English scholars, students of English, and anybody interested in the juice of culture(s) that can be fruitfully extracted from dictionary entries

A Cultural Journey through the English Lexicon

The book is a metaphorical journey through the English lexicon, viewed as a vehicle and a mirror of cultural identity. From the translatability of phrases and metaphors to genre-specific terms, from English as a Lingua Franca to English language teaching, the studies collected here testify to the fact that in English \u2013 and overall in language \u2013 word contextualization or lack of contextualization impinges on linguistic utterances and leads to differing interpretations of the textual message. The book may be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students who are concerned with the study of the English lexicon, bearing in mind that lexicon provides the bricks of any language and language, in turn, needs the cornerstone of Culture to stand firmly and thrive

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

Palmitoylethanolamide dampens reactive astrogliosis and improves neuronal trophic support in a triple transgenic model of Alzheimer’s disease: in vitro and in vivo evidence

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder responsible for the majority of dementia cases in elderly people. It is widely accepted that the main hallmarks of AD are not only senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles but also reactive astrogliosis, which often precedes detrimental deposits and neuronal atrophy. Such phenomenon facilitates the regeneration of neural networks; however, under some circumstances, like in AD, reactive astrogliosis is detrimental, depriving neurons of the homeostatic support, thus contributing to neuronal loss. We investigated the presence of reactive astrogliosis in 3×Tg-AD mice and the effects of palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a well-documented anti-inflammatory molecule, by in vitro and in vivo studies. In vitro results revealed a basal reactive state in primary cortical 3×Tg-AD-derived astrocytes and the ability of PEA to counteract such phenomenon and improve viability of 3×Tg-AD-derived neurons. In vivo observations, performed using ultramicronized- (um-) PEA, a formulation endowed with best bioavailability, confirmed the efficacy of this compound. Moreover, the schedule of treatment, mimicking the clinic use (chronic daily administration), revealed its beneficial pharmacological properties in dampening reactive astrogliosis and promoting the glial neurosupportive function. Collectively, our results encourage further investigation on PEA effects, suggesting it as an alternative or adjunct treatment approach for innovative AD therapy

News as changing texts: Corpora, methodologies and analysis (second edition)

The updated and revised edition of this volume maintains its focus on the dialectic interrelation between \u2018news\u2019 and \u2018change\u2019. News is intended as a textual type in its evolutionary \u2013 and revolutionary \u2013 development, while change is discussed with reference to the form, content and structure of news texts. The news texts in question range from the first forms of periodical news in the seventeenth century up to the news blogs and social media of the present day. Divided into four chapters, representing key historical moments in the process of news writing, each chapter makes use of a set of corpora specifically designed to suit the needs of scholars working in those particular fields. Topics that the authors examine include pronominal usage and the interrelationship between news writer and reader, heads and headlines, the language of advertisements and other text classes, the trend towards conversationalization, and impartiality and \u2018perspective\u2019 in modern-day news. These and other topics, coupled with the varying corpora that are exploited to analyse them, call into question basic methodological issues that are examined from different perspectives. Throughout the volume, the authors contextualise the news publications of the day so as to better understand the continuous process of adjustment and renewal that news texts are subject to over time

Use of strictureplasty technique for surgical treatment of ileal endometriosis: a case series

Intestinal deep infiltrating endometriosis is the most frequent extragenital localisation and its traditional surgical treatment is segmental resection of the affected tract. The need for implementing alternative techniques in the treatment of intestinal endometriosis arises from those cases of multiple ileal and recto-sigmoidal localisations, in which removing excessive lengths of intestine could lead to a higher rate of adverse events. Ileal endometriosis represents 4.7% of all intestinal localisations, often associated with multiple lesions and yet, to the best of our knowledge, there are no data on techniques other than intestinal resection for its treatment. Since its capacity to solve fibrostenotic lesions without removing centimeters of intestine, strictureplasty is widely implemented in the management of Crohn's disease. We propose the use of strictureplasty for the treatment of ileal endometriosis. We performed surgical treatment for symptomatic deep infiltrating endometriosis in two patients with either ileal and sigmoidal localisations. We approached ileal nodules with strictureplasty technique, while sigmoidal nodules were removed by traditional segmental resection. No complications occurred and both patients are now asymptomatic after a 12 months-follow up. Therefore, strictureplasty could provide a tool to eliminate small bowel endometriosis maintaining a regular caliber of the ileal tract without modifying its length

Anti-Irritant and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of DHA Encapsulated inResveratrol-Based Solid Lipid Nanoparticles in Human Keratinocytes.

We recently found that the dietary long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-\u3c9-3 PUFA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), showed enhanced antineoplastic activity against colon cancer cells if encapsulated in resveratrol-based solid lipid nanoparticles (RV-SLNs). In the present study, we investigated whether the DHA enclosed in RV-SLNs (DHA-RV-SLNs) could have the potential of attenuating irritation and inflammation caused by environmental factors at the skin level. To this aim, we used two keratinocyte lines (HaCaT and NCTC 2544 cells) and exposed them to the cytotoxic action of the surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), as an in vitro model of irritation, or to the pro-inflammatory activity of the cytokine TNF-\u3b1. We found that DHA enclosed in RV-SLNs significantly enhanced its ability to contrast the cytotoxic effect of SDS and to inhibit the SDS- and TNF-\u3b1-induced production of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1\u3b2, IL-6, and 1 MCP-1, in the two keratinocyte cell lines, as well as the NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Moreover, it more efficiently reduced the upsurge of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels obtained in the presence of a pro-oxidant (H2O2). Overall, our findings suggest the possibility that a sustained dietary supplementation with DHA-RV-SLNs could efficiently protect skin from the pro-irritant and pro-inflammatory activity of environmental attacks