Border Studies

In the last two decades, a novel interdisciplinary field of inquiry has emerged under the label of Border Studies. This area of research has mainly reflected on the nature and functionalities of borders and boundaries, bringing up discussions on space, politics, economics, and culture. In particular, Border Studies have significantly contributed to the understanding of the role of borders in shaping migratory movements. In order to map this very large field of investigation, numerous state of the art reviews have been published. However, none of the reviews encountered has addressed the following issues: first, the main assumptions informing different theoretical perspectives in Border Studies; second, the application of Border Studies to analyse human mobility in the Global South. Thus, in order to participate in producing a more complete understanding of the knowledge produced in this field, the present paper pursues a pair of objectives. One objective is to critically present the main theoretical approaches employed in the field of Border Studies, reflecting on their heuristic possibilities and limitations as well as their political implications. The other objective is to explore the intertwining of Border and Migration Studies with a specific focus on Africa, Asia and Latin America, devoting particular attention to the way this body of research has analysed the condition of migrant women workers. Overall, the essay generates suggestions for future significant investigations

Challenging women’s vulnerability

This paper considers explanations of rape related to perceptions of women’s vulnerability and of men’s violence and strength as problematic, because of the limitations they impose on women’s agency. Under the framework of poststructuralist feminist politics of rape and politics of representation, it analyses how to bring about change, in relation to these beliefs, at the level of discourses. The principal justification to focus on the production of discourses rests on the argument that ideas of women’s vulnerability and men’s strength participate in constructing discourses that legitimise and normalise rape. These reflections are then used to look at the experience of “Sexto Sentido,” a Nicaraguan feminist telenovela, produced to incite stimulating critical reflection and debate on different oppressive relations of power. More specifically, this study discursively analyses how this soap opera challenges dominant discourses on masculinity, femininity and rape in Nicaragua. Overall, the paper critically discusses the potentialities and challenges of fostering social change through discourses

CMB signal in WMAP 3yr data with FastICA

We present an application of the fast Independent Component Analysis (FastICA) to the WMAP 3yr data with the goal of extracting the CMB signal. We evaluate the confidence of our results by means of Monte Carlo simulations including CMB, foreground contaminations and instrumental noise specific of each WMAP frequency band. We perform a complete analysis involving all or a subset of the WMAP channels in order to select the optimal combination for CMB extraction, using the frequency scaling of the reconstructed component as a figure of merit. We found that the combination KQVW provides the best CMB frequency scaling, indicating that the low frequency foreground contamination in Q, V and W bands is better traced by the emission in the K band. The CMB angular power spectrum is recovered up to the degree scale, it is consistent within errors for all WMAP channel combination considered, and in close agreement with the WMAP 3yr results. We perform a statistical analysis of the recovered CMB pattern, and confirm the sky asymmetry reported in several previous works with independent techniques.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRA

Feminism and migration into Italy : the Intersectionality of Gender and Race

This study explores feminist uses of ‘gender’ as a social category in relation to the phenomenon of cross-border migration and its regulation. Specifically, it examines feminist narratives produced from lived experiences of struggle that contest and contrast with the current governing of migration into Italy during the period 2007-2013. It focuses on ‘gender’ as (1) a structure of power affecting both migrants and citizens in destination societies and (2) a source of identification shaping the construction of feminist subjectivities. It argues that this category may be both distinguished from and interlocked with ‘race’ in ways that normalise or deconstruct the production of ‘irregular’ migration as an object of governmental power. Epistemologically, this work draws on feminist theories of knowledge in the social sciences to illuminate the making of ‘gender’ from the situated perspectives of predominantly white feminists. A number of tools from Critical Discourse Analysis are employed to analyse the feminist narratives collected during one year of fieldwork. The combination of feminist epistemological theories and Critical Discourse Analysis enables the study to bring to the fore the central role of resilient processes of racialization of the Italian national community in the feminist signification of ‘gender’. In particular, it shows an underlying tension that drives and shapes contemporary feminist politics, one which combines the aspiration to fight racism with the sub-conscious reproduction of dominant racialising processes. Theoretically, this study promotes the collaboration among, and dialogue between, three bodies of literature: the Autonomy of Migration approach, which helps us to unravel tensions between the phenomenon of migration and governmental processes; Intersectionality, which serves to bring into view the role of ‘gender’ and ‘race’ in these social phenomena; and Transnational Feminism, which assists us in revealing methodological nationalism in applications of intersectionality. Fine-tuning these theoretical approaches, this work aspires to open up new possibilities to critically rethink the meanings of ‘gender’ so as to participate in the moulding of an intersectional feminist approach to migration

MicroRNAs and cancer metabolism reprogramming : the paradigm of metformin

Increasing evidence witnesses that cancer metabolism alterations represent a critical hallmark for many types of human tumors. There is a strong need to understand and dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer metabolism to envisage specific biomarkers and underpin critical molecular components that might represent novel therapeutic targets. One challenge, that is the focus of this review, is the reprogramming of the altered metabolism of a cancer cell toward that of un-transformed cell. The anti-hyperglicemic agent, metformin has proven to be effective in reprogramming the metabolism of cancer cells even from those subpopulations endowed with cancer stem like features and very high chemoresistenace to conventional anticancer treatments. A functional interplay involving selective modulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) takes place along the anticancer metabolic effects exerted by metformin. The implications of this interplay will be also discussed in this review

A pragmatic benchmarking study of an evidence-based personalised approach in 1938 adolescents with high-risk idiopathic scoliosis

Combining evidence-based medicine and shared decision making, current guidelines support an evidence-based personalised approach (EBPA) for idiopathic scoliosis in adolescents (AIS). EBPA is considered important for adolescents\u2019 compliance, which is particularly difficult in AIS. Benchmarking to existing Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) as paradigms of single treatments, we aimed to check the effectiveness and burden of care of an EBPA in high-risk AIS. This study\u2019s design features a retrospective observation of a prospective database including 25,361 spinal deformity patients < 18 years of age. Participants consisted of 1938 AIS, 11\u201345\u25e6 Cobb, Risser stage 0\u20132, who were studied until the end of growth. EBPA included therapies classified for burdensomeness according to current guidelines. Using the same inclusion criteria of the RCTs on exercises, plastic, and elastic bracing, out of the 1938 included, we benchmarked 590, 687, and 884 participants, respectively. We checked clinically significant results and burden of care, calculating Relative Risk of success (RR) and Number Needed to Treat (NNT) for efficacy (EA) and intent-to-treat analyses. At the end of growth, 19% of EBPA participants progressed, while 33% improved. EBPA showed 2.0 (1.7\u20132.5) and 2.9 (1.7\u20134.9) RR of success versus Weinstein and Coillard\u2019s studies control groups, respectively. Benchmarked to plastic or elastic bracing, EBPA had 1.4 (1.2\u20131.5) and 1.7 (1.2\u20132.5) RR of success, respectively. The EBPA treatment burden was greater than RCTs in 48% of patients, and reduced for 24% and 42% versus plastic and elastic bracing, respectively. EBPA showed to be from 40% to 70% more effective than benchmarked individual treatments, with low NNT. The burden of treatment was frequently reduced, but it had to be increased even more frequently

Flexibility properties in Complex Analysis and Affine Algebraic Geometry

In the last decades affine algebraic varieties and Stein manifolds with big (infinite-dimensional) automorphism groups have been intensively studied. Several notions expressing that the automorphisms group is big have been proposed. All of them imply that the manifold in question is an Oka-Forstneri\v{c} manifold. This important notion has also recently merged from the intensive studies around the homotopy principle in Complex Analysis. This homotopy principle, which goes back to the 1930's, has had an enormous impact on the development of the area of Several Complex Variables and the number of its applications is constantly growing. In this overview article we present 3 classes of properties: 1. density property, 2. flexibility 3. Oka-Forstneri\v{c}. For each class we give the relevant definitions, its most significant features and explain the known implications between all these properties. Many difficult mathematical problems could be solved by applying the developed theory, we indicate some of the most spectacular ones.Comment: thanks added, minor correction