Dalla “Jamesian idea” alla “Jewish idea”: il caso di "Trust" di Cynthia Ozick

The present paper focuses on Trust, Cynthia Ozick’s first novel. In my reading, the text epitomizes a significant transition, in the novelist’s career, from the “Jamesian idea” to the “Jewish idea”. The “Jamesian idea” can be traced back to what Ozick calls her “youthful intoxication” with James’s work, i.e. an idolatrous worship of his prose, which led her to an unnatural isolation from life in pursuit of a literary achievement that would emulate the Master’s legendary prowess. Ozick saw her mistake when, having decided to educate herself on Jewish theology and philosophy, she became familiar with Leo Baeck’s work. His essay Romantic Religion started her on a path that she would go on to pursue throughout her long career: the exploration of Jewish theology in literary form. Written during the aforementioned self-study period, Trust is characterized by two dimensions: a conspicuous intertextual dialogue with James’s prose, and an equally noticeable emphasis on Jewish themes. In that respect, the novel shows Ozick’s evolution from an “American” writer to a “Jewish writer”

Using Glycerol to Produce European Sea Bass Feed With Oleaginous Microbial Biomass: Effects on Growth Performance, Filet Fatty Acid Profile, and FADS2 Gene Expression

Using a circular economy concept, the present study investigated the use of crude glycerol, a primary by-product of biodiesel production, as a low-priced nutrient source for heterotrophic cultivation of the fungus-like protist Schizochytrium limacinum SR21 strain. The whole biomass of this oleaginous microorganism, rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and high-quality proteins, was then paired with a vegetable oil (VO) source and used to replace fish oil (FO) in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) feeds. Four nutritionally balanced diets were formulated: diet FO (a FO-based diet), diet VO + 0 (a VO-based diet without S. limacinum), and diets VO + 5 and VO + 10 that were VO-based feeds supplemented with 5 and 10% of S. limacinum, respectively. After a 3-month feeding trial, fish of all dietary groups tripled their initial weight, but growth and feeding efficiencies of D. labrax were not significantly different among treatments. Although the formulated diets were balanced for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), fish fed with feeds containing either VO or VO plus 5 and 10% of S. limacinum biomass had significantly higher levels of PUFAs in the flesh than fish fed the FO-based diet. Values of health-related lipid indexes, such as atherogenicity index, thrombogenicity index, and flesh lipid quality as well as n-6/n-3 and PUFAs/SFAs ratios confirmed the high nutritional value of sea bass filet, thus representing a healthy product for human consumption. Although the PUFAs/SFAs ratio showed a significantly higher value in fish fed with VO-based diets supplemented with S. limacinum than in those fed with FO diet, suggesting a better filet quality, the n-6/n-3 ratio clearly indicated that filet quality of dietary group FO was best (value of 0.55) and that of group VO + 10 second best (value of 0.98). We also evaluated the nutritional regulation of 16-desaturase (or fads2) gene expression in European sea bass liver. European sea bass fed the VO + 0 diet had the highest number of mRNA copies for 16-desaturase (or fads2), fish fed with diet VO + 10 the lowest. Our study adds to the growing body of literature concerning the use of thraustochytrid biomass as a valid alternative to marine-derived raw materials for European sea bass feeds

Brain Activation Patterns Characterizing Different Phases of Motor Action: Execution, Choice and Ideation.

Motor behaviour is controlled by a large set of interacting neural structures, subserving the different components involved in hierarchical motor processes. Few studies have investigated the neural substrate of higher-order motor ideation, i.e. the mental operation of conceiving a movement. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to segregate the neural structures involved in motor ideation from those involved in movement choice and execution. An index finger movement paradigm was adopted, including three different conditions: performing a pre-specified movement, choosing and executing a movement and ideating a movement of choice. The tasks involved either the right or left hand, in separate runs. Neuroimaging results were obtained by comparing the different experimental conditions and computing conjunction maps of the right and left hands for each contrast. Pre-specified movement execution was supported by bilateral fronto-parietal motor regions, the cerebellum and putamen. Choosing and executing finger movement involved mainly left fronto-temporal areas and the anterior cingulate. Motor ideation activated almost exclusively left hemisphere regions, including the inferior, middle and superior frontal regions, middle temporal and middle occipital gyri. These findings show that motor ideation is controlled by a cortical network mainly involved in abstract thinking, cognitive and motor control, semantic and visual imagery processes

Peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and infants: NEonate and Children audiT of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe: A prospective European multicentre observational study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about current clinical practice concerning peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and small infants. Guidelines suggest transfusions based on haemoglobin thresholds ranging from 8.5 to 12 g dl-1, distinguishing between children from birth to day 7 (week 1), from day 8 to day 14 (week 2) or from day 15 (≥week 3) onwards. OBJECTIVE: To observe peri-operative red blood cell transfusion practice according to guidelines in relation to patient outcome. DESIGN: A multicentre observational study. SETTING: The NEonate-Children sTudy of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe (NECTARINE) trial recruited patients up to 60 weeks' postmenstrual age undergoing anaesthesia for surgical or diagnostic procedures from 165 centres in 31 European countries between March 2016 and January 2017. PATIENTS: The data included 5609 patients undergoing 6542 procedures. Inclusion criteria was a peri-operative red blood cell transfusion. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary endpoint was the haemoglobin level triggering a transfusion for neonates in week 1, week 2 and week 3. Secondary endpoints were transfusion volumes, 'delta haemoglobin' (preprocedure - transfusion-triggering) and 30-day and 90-day morbidity and mortality. RESULTS: Peri-operative red blood cell transfusions were recorded during 447 procedures (6.9%). The median haemoglobin levels triggering a transfusion were 9.6 [IQR 8.7 to 10.9] g dl-1 for neonates in week 1, 9.6 [7.7 to 10.4] g dl-1 in week 2 and 8.0 [7.3 to 9.0] g dl-1 in week 3. The median transfusion volume was 17.1 [11.1 to 26.4] ml kg-1 with a median delta haemoglobin of 1.8 [0.0 to 3.6] g dl-1. Thirty-day morbidity was 47.8% with an overall mortality of 11.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate lower transfusion-triggering haemoglobin thresholds in clinical practice than suggested by current guidelines. The high morbidity and mortality of this NECTARINE sub-cohort calls for investigative action and evidence-based guidelines addressing peri-operative red blood cell transfusions strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT02350348

“My One Story is Hunger”: il languore metafisico delle protagoniste di Anzia Yezierska

This essay focuses on “hunger”, the Leitmotif of Anzia Yezierska's literary production, a powerful mixture of feelings experienced by her protagonists, Jewish women born and raised in the poverty and oppression of the shtetlach under the Czarist domination, who fled to America in the 1880s to look for opportunities of freedom, spiritual development and personal growth that they believed they could find only in the New World. Sadly, their longing turns out to be a metaphysical one that can never be satisfied, which consigns them to a destiny of messianic wait and unfulfilled desire where hunger remains the only possible existential dimension, i.e. their one stor

Postmodern, or else? The case of "Maus" by Art Spiegelman

In a 1986 interview, the comic artist Art Spiegelman confessed to having made an initial decision counter to his Pulitzer-winning graphic memoir Maus being postmodern… and yet, it turned out to be one of the most controversial  – and convincing – examples of postmodernist rethinking of historical writing.  The working hypothesis discussed in the present essay is the ‘inevitability’ of the text’s postmodernist structure, due to two main factors: firstly, the author’s second-generation perspective, which prevented the mimetic representation of a reality “beyond his darkest dreams”. Accordingly, Spiegelman chose to portray the various nationalities involved in the conflict with an animal mask, modeled on the American mainstream funny-animal comic heroes. This resulted in a hybrid form, originated in a conflation of highbrow and lowbrow art, which is considered typical of the postmodernist literary production. Secondly, the peculiar narrative matter at the heart of the project – an oral history document of his father Vladeck’s true testimony of imprisonment at Auschwitz during World War II – determined a highly self-referential structure in which the process of history-making was made explicit, and where History was replaced by two petit récits, which proposed two multiple and even contradictory histories.In a 1986 interview, the comic artist Art Spiegelman confessed to having made an initial decision counter to his Pulitzer-winning graphic memoir Maus being postmodern… and yet, it turned out to be one of the most controversial  – and convincing – examples of postmodernist rethinking of historical writing.  The working hypothesis discussed in the present essay is the ‘inevitability’ of the text’s postmodernist structure, due to two main factors: firstly, the author’s second-generation perspective, which prevented the mimetic representation of a reality “beyond his darkest dreams”. Accordingly, Spiegelman chose to portray the various nationalities involved in the conflict with an animal mask, modeled on the American mainstream funny-animal comic heroes. This resulted in a hybrid form, originated in a conflation of highbrow and lowbrow art, which is considered typical of the postmodernist literary production. Secondly, the peculiar narrative matter at the heart of the project – an oral history document of his father Vladeck’s true testimony of imprisonment at Auschwitz during World War II – determined a highly self-referential structure in which the process of history-making was made explicit, and where History was replaced by two petit récits, which proposed two multiple and even contradictory histories

Section detachment in immunohistochemistry: causes, troubleshooting, and problem-solving

Section detachment in immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a common phenomenon, increasing times and costs of diagnosis and research. However, it has poorly been investigated. The aim of this study was to identify the causes of section detachment, with the purpose of defining a quality assured laboratory procedure to minimize detachment frequency. We screened 3349 IHC sections from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, identifying 177 cases with section detachment (5.3% of the sample). Detachment regarded mainly samples of surgical breast tissue and IHC procedures in which heat pretreatment was used. Focusing on pre-analytical factors, we investigated seven main critical issues: (1) section aging; (2) section thickness; (3) slide contamination; (4) slide aging; (5) slide brand; (6) \ue2\u80\u9chuman\ue2\u80\u9d influence; and (7) sample size and fixation. Each of these issues was individually investigated to establish their influence on detachment. Targeted experiments were performed by varying section age, thickness, cleanliness, slide brand and age, and sample size and fixation. Finally, to investigate operator-dependent causes, sections were cut by different operators blinded to aim. The most important factors influencing section detachment were demonstrated to be: section thickness, slide aging, slide brand, \ue2\u80\u9chuman\ue2\u80\u9d influence, and size and fixation of samples. The pre-analytical phase, including all the aforementioned issues, should be standardized within a quality assurance program. By adopting these recommendations, we obtained a 34% drop in section detachment. Although section detachment remains difficult to eradicate completely, many other influences can be addressed and corrected in any laboratory leading to an increase in efficiency and cost saving