Incorporating a new technology into agent-artifact space. The case of control systems automation.

We contribute to the debate on innovation theory and policy by exploring, through the interpretative framework provided by Lane and Maxfield’s theory of innovation (1997; 2005), a set of case studies concerning the implementation of a new technology for system automation and its incorporation into the structure of agent-artifact space (Lane and Maxfield, 1996). Our purposes are, on the one hand, to illustrate to what extent this theoretical approach can help us make sense of innovation processes, and, on the other, to derive some general implications for innovation theory.innovation, technological systems, complex systems, innovation networks, control systems automation

Accelerated aging in perinatally HIV-infected children: clinical manifestations and pathogenetic mechanisms

BACKGROUND: Premature aging and related diseases have been documented in HIV-infected adults. Data are now emerging also regarding accelerated aging process in HIV-infected children. METHODS: A narrative review was performed searching studies on PubMed published in English language in 2004-2017, using appropriate key words, including "aging", "children", "HIV", "AIDS", "immunosenescence", "pathogenesis", "clinical conditions". RESULTS: Premature immunosenescence phenotype of B and T cells in HIV-infected children is mediated through immune system activation and chronic inflammation. Ongoing inflammation processes have been documented by increased levels of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPS), increased mitochondrial damage, higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and a positive correlation between sCD14 levels and percentages of activated CD8+ cells. Other reported features of premature aging include cellular replicative senescence, linked to an accelerated telomeres shortening. Finally, acceleration of age-associated methylation pattern and other epigenetic modifications have been described in HIV-infected children. All these features may favor the clinical manifestations related to premature aging. Lipid and bone metabolism, cancers, cardiovascular, renal, and neurological systems should be carefully monitored, particularly in children with detectable viremia and/or with CD4/CD8 ratio inversion. CONCLUSION: Aging processes in children with HIV infection impact their quality and length of life. Further studies regarding the mechanisms involved in premature aging are needed to search for potential targets of treatment

Altered Gene Expression, Mitochondrial Damage and Oxidative Stress: Converging Routes in Motor Neuron Degeneration

Motor neuron diseases (MNDs) are a rather heterogeneous group of diseases, with either sporadic or genetic origin or both, all characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. At the cellular level, MNDs share features such as protein misfolding and aggregation, mitochondrial damage and energy deficit, and excitotoxicity and calcium mishandling. This is particularly well demonstrated in ALS, where both sporadic and familial forms share the same symptoms and pathological phenotype, with a prominent role for mitochondrial damage and resulting oxidative stress. Based on recent data, however, altered control of gene expression seems to be a most relevant, and previously overlooked, player in MNDs. Here we discuss which may be the links that make pathways apparently as different as altered gene expression, mitochondrial damage, and oxidative stress converge to generate a similar motoneuron-toxic phenotype

La rappresentazione cartografica del paesaggio fra arte e geometria

Entre le XVIIe et le XIXe siècle, la cartographie occidentale inclut la représentation du paysage et en particulier du relief terrestre. Dans les cartes géographiques du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle, la perspective cavalière domine par son adoption « schizophrénique » de deux points de vue : vertical pour les éléments planimétriques et horizontal pour les éléments altimétriques. Le paysage se trouve ainsi au croisement entre représentation artistique et technique, entre imitation naturaliste et abstraction géométrique. Au début du XIXe siècle, suite à l’invention des courbes de niveau, les milieux scientifiques et militaires de la France napoléonienne s’orientent vers l’adoption d’une cartographie exclusivement abstraite. L’article étudie ce moment crucial à partir des documents liés à la réalisation du plan-relief du Golfe de la Spezia, confiée par l’empereur à Pierre-Antoine Clerc, capitaine du Génie, et à sa brigade topographique. Il s’agit d’un vaste corpus qui montre une fusion parfaitement équilibrée entre figuration picturale et rigueur géométrique

Chapter Raccontare, raccontarsi. Massimo Quaini fra biografia ed ‘egogeografia’

Intertwining biographical method and autobiography. Massimo Quaini had shown much interest in the ‘egogeography’ genre, practiced by different French geographers. The work traces back, on the basis of published and unpublished writings, some significant aspect of the intellectual personality of the Italian geographer. In particular, passages are presented in which he recalls his scientific and professional training and some letters that account for the highly critical positioning towards academic power, against the management of competitions based on personal relationships rather than on scientific merits (to the detriment of the discipline itself). Some original documents testify the interest in history and philosophy and the acceptance of historical materialism that has shaped his youth work and, more generally, founded his interpretation of geographical reality

O combate ao tráfico de pessoas: uma análise acerca da Lei nº 13.344/2016

O objetivo central do presente trabalho é analisar a eficiência da Lei 13.344/2016, responsável pela mais recente alteração no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro relativa ao crime de tráfico de pessoas, ao incluir o artigo 149-A e revogar os artigos 231 e 231-A, todos do Código Penal brasileiro, frente ao que foi determinado pelo chamado Protocolo de Palermo. Ressalta-se que esta lei também visa estabelecer os meios de prevenção, repressão e as medidas a serem tomadas para a proteção das vítimas, tanto diretas, quanto indiretas, do tráfico de pessoas. Para que seja possível atingir este determinado objetivo, far-se-á um exame acerca das modificações mais significativas anteriores à Lei nº 13.344/2016, além de um estudo minucioso acerca do que foi estabelecido no Protocolo Adicional à Convenção das Nações Unidas contra o Crime Organizado Transnacional Relativo à Prevenção, Repressão e Punição do Tráfico de Pessoas, em Especial Mulheres e Crianças, mais conhecido como Protocolo de Palermo. Tal Protocolo é tido como o marco global no combate ao tráfico de pessoas, visto que é responsável pela conceituação mais adequada e completa deste determinado crime, além de estabelecer os objetivos e as medidas a serem alcançadas pelos Estados signatários, dentre eles o Brasil, que o promulgou através do Decreto nº 5.017/2004. Ademais, serão apresentadas as principais discussões acerca da efetividade da nova Lei 13.344/2016, objetivando apontar os erros e acertos do legislador brasileiro segundo a doutrina atual, com destaque à Bitencourt e Nucci, demonstrando, assim, representar um progresso no combate ao tráfico de pessoas, porém, aquém do determinado no Protocolo de Palermo. Por fim, visto que apenas a tipificação do tráfico de pessoas no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro não se mostra suficiente no seu combate, é imprescindível uma análise acerca dos principais Organismos Internacionais que estão à frente do enfrentamento do tráfico de pessoas em âmbito internacional e da Política e dos Planos Nacionais de Enfrentamento do Tráfico de Pessoas, pois visam concretizar o que foi previsto na Lei nº 13.344/2016

Re-framing writing (support): centring audience and purpose in a community nursing course

This presentation examined the collaboration between our Learning Development team and a community nursing course. It began with the question; “Are our demands of students concerning paraphrasing and referencing reasonable?” The assignment was a formal report on a semester-long group project where students partnered with a community agency. The coordinators worried that students (and lecturers) were over emphasising referencing and the technicalities of paraphrasing, to the detriment of engagement with the community nursing process itself. Our LD team eventually realized that the problem was not one of expectations, but rather a genre-audience mismatch. Although the assignment was called a report, the emphasis on integrating scholarly sources made it more like an academic essay, and the tone and length of the report limited its practical use by most partner agencies. Over time, by emphasizing genre, audience and purpose, we have contributed to a gradual loosening of the hold on the original report format. Last year, we provided feedback on a range of digital deliverables, including infographics, videos, and mind maps, each one designed to meet the specific partner agency’s needs. Our model of providing feedback on the report during one-hour in-person meetings has also evolved into a flexible combination of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration with students. We continue to guide students towards thoughtful, transparent source use, but the conversations around referencing and paraphrasing are now more holistic. In this presentation, we’ll share how our discipline-external perspective has supported meaningful student learning about authentic (and impactful) writing for different contexts

Mensaje y audiencias. El programa Gran Hermano - El sueño de Orwell

Este trabajo analiza el formato televisivo del programa Gran Hermano, emitido entre abril y junio de 2000. La finalidad de esta investigación está relacionada con la detección de los elementos formales que convierten a un espacio en un producto de éxito, así como la respuesta que puede generar en los telespectadores. La vivienda artificial enclavada en las proximidades de Soto del Real (Madrid) se convirtió en una ventana que abría la vida cotidiana del prójimo a la curiosidad de millones de hogares. Este experimento televisivo, que no científico, es la excusa programada por un complejo financiero de cifras y letras que marcó un precedente en la historia de la pequeña pantalla. La filosofía del liberalismo mediático limita en unas reglas donde la intimidad forma parte del mercado. Ahora, la demanda televisiva se vende en un “mercado” orquestado por las emociones.This article analyses the elements from the Big Brother's broadcast, the TV program emited from April to June in Telecinco. The purpose of this research is explaining the key points of these production an their influence over the audience. The artificial house created for this play seems a window where people look their neighbour's life. Big Brother's experience supposes a way from the media's liberalism, because it opens a commercial behaviour that is based in emotions

Fra visibile e invisibile: il paesaggio nelle fonti cartografico-storiche

This work, which summarises the results of prolonged archival research, deals with the role that historical cartography can have in a territorialist perspective. The works carried out by French topographers in Piedmont and Liguria, between the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, exemplifies the capabilities of displaying territorial phenomena of these figures and therefore their current ‘value in use’. Heirs of the Enlightenment’s advances in astronomy, mathematics and geometry, from a topographic point of view they are indeed witnesses of the pictorial paradigm of imitation of nature. During the nineteenth century, the growing trend towards standardisation, objectiveness and abstraction, would have defined the almost complete disappearance of landscape from maps