antonio di meo

The early detection and monitoring of inflammation is a primary challenge in veterinary medicine. The circulating concentrations of acute-phase proteins may provide an objective measure of both the severity of insult and the intensity of inflammatory responses in the horse. A clinical study on the possible role of serum amyloid A (SAA), fibrinogen, and haptoglobin as inflammation markers in the horse was conducted in 40 horses, with a significant correlation emerging between the patterns of SAA concentrations and clinical assessments of the patients being monitored during their hospitalization. The results of this preliminary study support the use of SAA as an important parameter at diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic stages. The sequential levels of SAA appear to be particularly useful in the postintervention monitoring of surgical patients.

1. La “leggenda” negativa più operosa è quella che vede Gramsci come vittima del comunismo-stalinismo dell’epoca piuttosto che del fascismo. Ciò comporta la percezione delle diversità – anche serie – delle posizioni politiche fra Gramsci, Togliatti, l’IC, il PCR e il PCd’I, come una lotta per la vita o per la morte; senza esclusione di colpi e la trasformazione in intenzioni “criminose” di alcuni atteggiamenti – ritenuti erronei da Gramsci – dei dirigenti del PCd’I dell’epoca e la raffigurazi..

1. Giacomo Leopardi ha analizzato ripetutamente (talvolta con sarcasmo) alcuni aspetti della società della sua epoca che poi si sarebbe detta «di massa»; e ciò anche in riferimento al problema di una istruzione meno elitaria e perfino democratica, cioè, in linea di principio, accessibile a tutti. In effetti, la questione di una educazione generalizzata degl’individui, già a partire dall’infanzia e anche mediante una scuola di tipo pubblico era continuamente dibattuta. I riformatori più radica..

Twenty-five years after Levi’s tragic demise, the deepest links between his scientific education and his literary work are still waiting for a full investigation. Levi himself repeatedly insisted he was a writer not despite his being a chemist but thanks to it: yet, this statement is oft-quoted but rarely considered seriously. Levi himself has openly revealed his chemical spontaneous approach, his insight , concerning his own psychological and intellectual behaviour in the Lager and in his thought after it. It was the ‘naturalistic’ approach he got from chemistry which made of Levi a ‘saved one’. Most Levi scholars have emphasized the analogy between his style and the chemical analysis. Few have wondered why there must be such a strict relationship between chemistry and the need for a strong linguistic rigour, i.e., what is the chemical specificity of the problem. Such relationship, in fact, is the outcome of the very historical development of chemistry, which consolidated itself th...

Background Abnormalities of the ventral lamina of the sixth cervical vertebra (AVL-C6) are thought to exert abnormal stress on the articular process joints (APJs) of the cervicothoracic junction. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between AVL-C6 and radiographic findings in the caudal cervical area and between clinical signs of neck pain and ataxia and radiographic findings. Methods Medical records of horses subjected to cervical radiography were reviewed. Horses were classified into those with neck pain (group C), those with ataxia (group A) and healthy horses (group H). Presence of AVL-C6 and increased size, dysplasia, remodelling, fragmentation and osteochondral fragment at the APJs (C5–T1) were recorded. Univariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the associations between explanatory and dependent variables. Variables with P<0.2 were included in the multivariable analysis. Results One hundred and sixteen horses were included (44 in group C, 29 in group A, 66 in group H); 24 of 116 horses had radiographic AVL-C6. Age, AVL-C6 and overall/C6–C7 increase in size remained in the final models. Conclusions The presence of AVL-C6 and moderate/severe increase in size of the caudal cervical APJs increase the odds of showing neck pain and, if severe, ataxia.

Septic arthritis/tenosynovitis in the horse can have life-threatening consequences. The purpose of this cross-sectional retrospective study was to describe ultrasound characteristics of septic arthritis/tenosynovitis in a group of horses. Diagnosis of septic arthritis/tenosynovitis was based on historical and clinical findings as well as the results of the synovial fluid analysis and/or positive synovial culture. Ultrasonographic findings recorded were degree of joint/sheath effusion, degree of synovial membrane thickening, echogenicity of the synovial fluid, and presence of hyperechogenic spots and fibrinous loculations. Ultrasonographic findings were tested for dependence on the cause of sepsis, time between admission and beginning of clinical signs, and the white blood cell counts in the synovial fluid. Thirty-eight horses with confirmed septic arthritis/tenosynovitis of 43 joints/sheaths were included. Degree of effusion was marked in 81.4% of cases, mild in 16.3%, and absent in 2.3%. Synovial thickening was mild in 30.9% of cases and moderate/severe in 69.1%. Synovial fluid was anechogenic in 45.2% of cases and echogenic in 54.8%. Hyperechogenic spots were identified in 32.5% of structures and fibrinous loculations in 64.3%. Relationships between the degree of synovial effusion, degree of the synovial thickening, presence of fibrinous loculations, and the time between admission and beginning of clinical signs were identified, as well as between the presence of fibrinous loculations and the cause of sepsis (P ≤ 0.05). Findings indicated that ultrasonographic findings of septic arthritis/tenosynovitis may vary in horses, and may be influenced by time between admission and beginning of clinical signs.

Science is by its very nature an intersubjective, public, collaborative and democratic (at least in principle) enterprise. The modern scholar of nature, in fact, cannot but communicate first of all to his/her colleagues the results of his/her research, since, in the final analysis, science is a socially shared and socially validated corpus of knowledge. The results of research must therefore be made public but non only among the specialists. The modern way of communicating science has triggered a progressively accelerating circulation of documents (rather than researchers), reversing a more than secular trend in which scholars reached the places where knowledge was deposited and archived. The modern databases, that host books, newspaper and periodicals like actual libraries and are accessible online, represent the last expression of this inverted mobility between documents and consultants.

Twenty-five years after Levi’s tragic demise, the deepest links between his scientific education and his literary work are still waiting for a full investigation. Levi himself repeatedly insisted he was a writer not despite his being a chemist but thanks to it: yet, this statement is oft-quoted but rarely considered seriously. Levi himself has openly revealed his chemical spontaneous approach, his insight, concerning his own psychological and intellectual behaviour in the Lager and in his thought after it. It was the ‘naturalistic’ approach he got from chemistry which made of Levi a ‘saved one’. Most Levi scholars have emphasized the analogy between his style and the chemical analysis. Few have wondered why there must be such a strict relationship between chemistry and the need for a strong linguistic rigour, i.e., what is the chemical specificity of the problem. Such relationship, in fact, is the outcome of the very historical development of chemistry, which consolidated itself thr...

The concept of "chemical machine" is currently very much in use in studies of the physiology of living bodies especially at the level of their intimate structure. Its appearance, however, has a long history that begins as early as the sixteenth century, when it became apparent that the living body was the abode of complex and fundamental chemical processes. When this awareness met the equally widespread idea that living bodies could be described as "machinery", the problem emerged of reconciling the two approaches, which gave origin to the concept of "chemical machine."

Ringrazio questo Istituto, al quale mi onoro di appartenere in qualità di socio corrispondente non residente, per avermi consentito di presentare in questa prestigiosa sala di Palazzo Franchetti i risultati di uno studio pluriennale svolto dal nostro Comitato in previsione del centocinquantenario dell'unità d'Italia. Sono cosciente, e perciò sono particolarmente grato a voi tutti che siete qui venuti, che questa commemorazione può sembrare prematura, se non addirittura inopportuna. Siamo a Venezia, in quel Veneto il cui anniversario d'unione alla patria cadrà tra cinque anni e che è amministrato da una parte politica insofferente verso l'unità. In relazione a questo, però, è mio convincimento che proprio qui a Venezia sia opportuno ricordare in congruo anticipo tutto ciò che è accaduto dopo la data fatidica del 17 marzo 1861: quella della proclamazione dell'unità d'Italia. Fu allora, infatti, che in Parlamento fu ribadita la fortissima volontà di unire all&#3...

La pubblicazione nel 1543 del De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri sex da parte del canonico polacco Niccolò Copernico provocò nel tempo un grande sconquasso intellettuale. Esso coinvolse non solo scienziati, filosofi, teologi e uomini di Chiesa, ma anche i poeti. La crisi della vecchia immagine dell'Universo diede luogo a reazioni di entusiamo, come nel caso di Thomas Digges e Giordano Bruno e, ovviamente, di Johannes Kepler e Galileo Galilei; oppure di ostilità, scetticismo, angoscia e preoccupazione.  Fra i grandi poeti e filosofi che parteciparono al dibattito sul nuovo "sistema del mondo" vi sarà da protagonista Giacomo Leopardi

Leopardi and the theories of happiness in Italy between the 18th
and the 19th century – One may wonder what is the red thread that
connects the parts of what Giacomo Leopardi defined more than
once as my system. Undoubtedly, the answer is the theme of unhappiness
(or happiness). Especially in the last phases of his thought,
Leopardi declared in fact that there wasn’t any remedy for unhappiness;
most importantly, even if unhappiness had a purpose or a
meaning, it would be impossible to know them. The impossibility
to know this purpose or meaning represents the non plus ultra of
human reason and imagination. It is obvious that every scholar of
Leopardi’s thought has to face the presence of the issues of happiness,
pleasure, pain, and evil. And it is impossible not to, given their
pervasiveness is his work and in modern culture, in which Leopardi
played an important role. Yet Leopardi’s position was independent
of any sources on which it was formed, making it non reducible to
them. The aim of this article is to reconstruct the path of the theme
of unhappiness in Leopardi within the Italian thought of the 18th and
the 19th century that dealt with the same topic, especially in the various
«progressive» fields.

Primo Levi defined himself more than once a hybrid between industrial chemist, writer, but also ex-deportee to Auschwitz, non-believer Jew, Italian and Piedmontese. The issue of his hybridity can be found through his whole literary work, in fact the term recurs frequently. The purpose of this article is to consider almost exclusively the chemist/writer/deportee-witness hybridization, considering that the concept of hybridization is largely used not only in biology, but also in modern chemistry. The article will also examine Levi’s style, literary intentions and some neglected aspects of his works, even the most famous ones.

Twenty-five years after Levi‟s tragic demise, the deepest links between his scientific education and his literary work are still waiting for a full investigation. Levi himself repeatedly insisted he was a writer not despite his being a chemist but thanks to it: yet, this statement is oft-quoted but rarely considered seriously. Levi himself has openly revealed his chemical spontaneous approach, his insight, concerning his own psychological and intellectual behaviour in the Lager and in his thought after it. It was the „naturalistic‟ approach he got from chemistry which made of Levi a „saved one‟. Most Levi scholars have emphasized the analogy between his style and the chemical analysis. Few have wondered why there must be such a strict relationship between chemistry and the need for a strong linguistic rigour, i.e., what is the chemical specificity of the problem. Such relationship, in fact, is the outcome of the very historical development of chemistry, which consolidated itself through «a terrible confusion of languages» (Levi). The repeated statements by Levi on the conditions for his own writing, allude to a true discourse on style.