La violenza contro le donne come questione (trans)culturale. Osservazioni sulla convenzione di Istanbul

Sebbene l’eguaglianza delle donne nei diritti fondamentali sia stata più volte riaffermata nel diritto internazionale, la violenza contro le donne è ancora diffusa in tutto il mondo. Concentrandosi sugli stati (multiculturali) dell’Europa di oggi, la Convenzione di Istanbul mostra grande consapevolezza politica e giuridica sia delle radici culturali di questo fenomeno sia della sua diffusione transculturale. Da qui l’importanza di un’analisi che sottolinei il contributo della Convenzione alla continua ricerca di politiche sempre più efficaci per combattere questa forma di violenza. Nondimeno, dal momento che il percorso si prospetta ancora lungo e difficile, è opportuno anche mettere in evidenza alcune possibili debolezze della Convenzione e alcuni ostacoli che possono ridimensionarne l’impatto giuridico, politico e sociale

Interlegality, Agency and Empowerment. A Different Take on the Feminism v. Multiculturalism Conundrum

By looking at the strategies of agency and empowerment enacted by women in contexts of interlegality, the article attempts to overcome the uncritical perpetuation of both cultural and gender stereotypes that still fuel the feminism v. multiculturalism debate, arguing that, on the one hand, interlegality creates spaces for the exercise of agency and, on the other hand, the exercise of agency unleashes the empowerment potential of interlegalit

Radio-over-modes for C-RAN architecture with smart optical resources assignment

In this paper we consider a centralized radio access network (C-RAN) architecture with a fully analog fronthaul link between remote radio heads (RRHs) and baseband units (BBUs) based on the radio over fiber (RoF) paradigm. Mode division multiplexing (MDM) and frequency division multiplexing (FDM) are employed to provide an additional multiplexing signal dimension to meet the huge bandwidth requirements of next generation (5G) wireless mobile systems. The main contribution of the paper is to prove that a smart resource assignment between the radio antennas and the mode/frequency dimensions allows the communication over the RRH-BBU link at rates that are comparable to those achieved by an ideal fronthauling where BBU and RRH are assumed to be co-located, even without any complex and costly optical equalization technique. Validation is on the radio-link capabilities employing multiple antennas to meet the demand for massive MIMO technology

Long Wavelength VCSELs Exploitation for Low-Cost and Low-Power Consumption Metro and Access Networks

Long wavelength VCSELs are demonstrated to be able to support metro and access networks in order to achieve low-cost and low-power consumption transceivers. In particular, the exploitation of discrete multitone (DMT) direct modulation allows to achieve high transmission capacities and the availability of widely tuneable MEMS-VCSELs to sustain agility, reconfigurability and colourless features of networks

Beyond 25 Gb/s Directly-Modulated Widely Tunable VCSEL for Next Generation Access Network

We demonstrate capacities beyond 25Gb/s up to 40 km in the whole C-band range without any dispersion compensation by DMT direct modulation and direct detection exploiting widely tuneable MEMS-VCSELs for future low-cost high-capacity access networks

Impact of SOA-Based Add-Drop Switch Nodes on High-Capacity Multicarrier Transmission for Metro-Access Networks

Internet-generated traffic growth is forcing the development of new low-cost solutions in metropolitan area networks (MANs), in particular in the transceiver and network node architectures. Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based wavelength blockers can be used as fundamental building blocks to add and drop optical channels in the node architecture of several network hierarchical levels. Even if its employment is advantageous in terms of costs and amplification bandwidth, the SOA can operate in a nonlinear regime. This work analyzes the impact of SOA-based node crossing on high-capacity discrete multitone (DMT) signals. In order to properly evaluate the interplay between optical channels and SOA self-gain modulation, both external and direct modulations are considered. Dual-sideband (DSB) and single-sideband (SSB) DMT variants are taken into account, showing no significant difference in the impact of SOA crossing for external modulation of a DFB laser. On the other hand, an important effect of subcarrier suppression arises on DSB DMT direct modulation of a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), less consistent for SSB DMT direct modulation. The analysis allowed to properly choose the bias current for the SOA employed in an experimental setup used to evaluate the transmission performance in a MAN scenario including add-drop lossless switch nodes. The experimental results demonstrate that a target capacity of more than 50 Gb/s per channel can be achieved in a 116-km MAN network composed of an SOA-based metro-access node and two metro-core aggregators, considering the transmission of three 25-GHzspaced DMT channels.</p

Impact of SOA-Based Add-Drop Switch Nodes on High-Capacity Multicarrier Transmission for Metro-Access Networks

Internet-generated traffic growth is forcing the development of new low-cost solutions in metropolitan area networks (MANs), in particular in the transceiver and network node architectures. Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based wavelength blockers can be used as fundamental building blocks to add and drop optical channels in the node architecture of several network hierarchical levels. Even if its employment is advantageous in terms of costs and amplification bandwidth, the SOA can operate in a nonlinear regime. This work analyzes the impact of SOA-based node crossing on high-capacity discrete multitone (DMT) signals. In order to properly evaluate the interplay between optical channels and SOA self-gain modulation, both external and direct modulations are considered. Dual-sideband (DSB) and single-sideband (SSB) DMT variants are taken into account, showing no significant difference in the impact of SOA crossing for external modulation of a DFB laser. On the other hand, an important effect of subcarrier suppression arises on DSB DMT direct modulation of a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), less consistent for SSB DMT direct modulation. The analysis allowed to properly choose the bias current for the SOA employed in an experimental setup used to evaluate the transmission performance in a MAN scenario including add-drop lossless switch nodes. The experimental results demonstrate that a target capacity of more than 50 Gb/s per channel can be achieved in a 116-km MAN network composed of an SOA-based metro-access node and two metro-core aggregators, considering the transmission of three 25-GHzspaced DMT channels.</p

Biomarkers in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: Ready for Prime Time and Outcome Prediction?

Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) is still one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures all over the world. The results of this procedure have been constantly improved over the years with low perioperative mortality rates, with relatively low complication rates. To further improve these outstanding results, the clinicians focused their attention at biomarkers as outcome predictors. Although biological testing for disease prediction has already been discussed many times, the role of biomarkers in outcome prediction after CABG is still controversial. In this article, we reviewed the current knowledge regarding the role of genetic and dynamic biomarkers and their possible association with the occurrence of adverse clinical outcomes after CABG. We also took into consideration that the molecular pathway activation and the possible imbalance may affect hard outcomes and graft patency. We analyzed biomarkers classified in two different categories depending on their possibility to change over time: genetic markers and dynamic markers. Moreover, we evaluated these markers by dividing them, into sub-categories, such as inflammation, hemostasis, renin-angiotensin, endothelial function, and other pathways. We showed that biomarkers might be associated with unfavorable outcomes after surgery, and in some cases improved outcome prediction. However, the identification of a specific panel of biomarkers or of some algorithms including biomarkers is still in an early developmental phase. Finally, larger studies are needed to analyze broad panel of biomarkers with the specific aim to evaluate the prediction of hard outcomes and graft patency

Association of Microvesicles With Graft Patency in Patients Undergoing CABG Surgery

Abstract Background Graft patency is one of the major determinants of long-term outcome following coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Biomarkers, if indicative of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, would suggest strategies to limit graft failure. The prognostic value of microvesicles (MVs) for midterm graft patency has never been tested. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate whether MV pre-operative signature (number, cellular origin, procoagulant phenotype) could predict midterm graft failure and to investigate potential functional role of MVs in graft occlusion. Methods This was a nested case-control substudy of the CAGE (CoronAry bypass grafting: factors related to late events and Graft patency) study that enrolled 330 patients undergoing elective CABG. Of these, 179 underwent coronary computed tomography angiography 18 months post-surgery showing 24% graft occlusion. Flow cytometry MV analysis was performed in 60 patients (30 per group with occluded [cases] and patent [control subjects] grafts) on plasma samples collected the day before surgery and at follow-up. Results Before surgery, cases had 2- and 4-fold more activated platelet-derived and tissue-factor positive MVs respectively than control subjects. The MV procoagulant capacity was also significantly greater. Altogether this MV signature properly classified graft occlusion (area under the curve 0.897 [95% confidence interval: 0.81 to 0.98]; p Conclusions The pre-operative signature of MVs is independently associated with midterm graft occlusion in CABG patients and a cumulative MV score stratifies patients' risk. Because the MV signature mirrors platelet activation, patients with a high MV score could benefit from a personalized antiplatelet therapy