Il punto sulla crisi

La tavola rotonda su “Gli studi classici nel terzo millennio” (Roma, 16 marzo 2015) ha offerto l’opportunità di un confronto sulla crisi degli studi umanistici e del modello educativo fondato su di essi. Tre sono i principali spunti di riflessione emersi dalla discussione: le cause della crisi, che alcuni attribuiscono ad attacchi esterni, altri a una sorta di esaurimento interno; le prospettive future, per molti tutt’altro che incoraggianti, per altri viceversa ricche di opportunità grazie soprattutto alle tecnologie digitali; le possibili risposte sul piano didattico: un tema, quest’ultimo, che ha visto i relatori divisi tra coloro che sostengono la necessità di continuare a insegnare il greco e il latino con rigore in tutti i loro aspetti e coloro che propongono al contrario di adottare nuovi metodi e di rinunciare contestualmente a quanto può apparire troppo complesso per l’attuale livello degli studenti

Esse y sta: selección de auxiliar en el dialecto del Aquila

This paper presents data on auxiliary selection in Aquilan dialect. It focuses on the two auxiliary verbs esse and sta, which respectively express a permanent and temporary property that holds for a given predicate. The goals of the paper are twofold. A first goal is to offer data on the distribution of these auxiliary verbs, filling an empirical void in the literature. A second goal is to offer a formal syntactic and semantic treatment of these two auxiliaries. This treatment is shown to make several predictions on the properties of these auxiliaries, and their interaction with other parts of speech.En este trabajo se presentan datos sobre la selección de auxiliar en el dialecto del Aquila. Se centra en los dos verbos auxiliares esse y esta, que respectivamente expresan una característica permanente y temporal que se mantiene para un predicado dado. Los objetivos del artículo son dos. El primero es ofrecer datos sobre la distribución de estos verbos auxiliares, llenando un vacío empírico en la bibliografía. El segundo es ofrecer un tratamiento formal de carácter sintáctico y semántico de estos dos auxiliares. Este tratamiento permite hacer varias predicciones sobre las propiedades de estos auxiliares y su interacción con otras partes del discurso

On the syntax and semantics of Italian spatial Ps

This paper offers a unified approach to Italian spatial prepositions, such as di fronte a ‘in front of’, verso ‘towards’, in ‘in’, dietro a ‘behind’, and nel mezzo di ‘in the middle of’. Three assumptions play a key role. First, Italian spatial prepositions can differ sensibly in their morphological structure, but share the same syntactic properties. Second, their sentential distribution is in part context-sensitive, thus based on the categories with which they combine. Third, their semantic contribution is “layered”, in the sense that it includes the meaning dimensions of both aspectual boundedness and specificity. The main result is a generalised theory on the structure and semantic interpretation of these prepositions

The NuSTAR view of the Seyfert Galaxy HE 0436-4717

We present the multi epoch spectral analysis of HE 0436-4717, a bright Seyfert 1 galaxy serendipitously observed by the high energy satellite NuSTAR four times between December 2014 and December 2015. The source flux shows modest variability within each pointing and among the four observations. Spectra are well modelled in terms of a weakly variable primary power law with constant photon index ($\Gamma$=2.01$\pm$0.08). A constant narrow \ion{Fe} K$\alpha$ emission line suggests that this feature has an origin far from the central black hole, while a broad relativistic component is not required by the data. The Compton reflection component is also constant in flux with a corresponding reflection fraction R=0.7$^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$. The iron abundance is compatible with being Solar (A$_{Fe}$=1.2$^{+1.4}_{-0.4}$), and a lower limit for the high energy cut-off E$_c$>280 keV is obtained. Adopting a self-consistent model accounting for a primary Comptonized continuum, we obtain a lower limit for the hot corona electron temperature kT$_e$>65 keV and a corresponding upper limit for the coronal optical depth of $\tau_e$<1.3. The results of the present analysis are consistent with the locus of local Seyfert galaxies in the kT$_e$-$\tau_e$ and temperature-compactness diagrams.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN]{Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN: confirming INTEGRAL results on the high energy cut-off

We present the 0.5 - 78 keV spectral analysis of 18 broad line AGN belonging to the INTEGRAL complete sample. Using simultaneous Swift-XRT and NuSTAR observations and employing a simple phenomenological model to fit the data, we measure with a good constraint the high energy cut-off in 13 sources, while we place lower limits on 5 objects. We found a mean high-energy cut-off of 111 keV (standard deviation = 45 keV) for the whole sample, in perfect agreement with what found in our previous work using non simultaneous observations and with what recently published using NuSTAR data. This work suggests that simultaneity of the observations in the soft and hard X-ray band is important but not always essential, especially if flux and spectral variability are properly accounted for. A lesser agreement is found when we compare our cut-off measurements with the ones obtained by Ricci et al. (2017) using Swift-BAT high energy data, finding that their values are systematically higher than ours. We have investigated whether a linear correlation exists between photon index and the cut-off and found a weak one, probably to be ascribed to the non perfect modelling of the soft part of the spectra, due to the poor statistical quality of the 2-10 keV X-ray data. No correlation is also found between the Eddington ratio and the cut-off, suggesting that only using high statistical quality broad-band spectra is it possible to verify the theoretical predictions and study the physical characteristics of the hot corona and its geometry.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Le "Metamorfosi" di Ovidio come poema dell’«indistinzione», dell’«illusione» e dell’«incertezza»

This paper discusses three very influential contributions to contemporary Ovidian criticism: Italo Calvino’s "Ovid and Universal Contiguity" (1979) and "Six Memos for the Next Millennium" (1988), Gianpiero Rosati’s "Narciso e Pigmalione" (1983) and Nicola Gardini’s "Con Ovidio" (2017). Within the essays of these three Italian critics and authors emerges an idea of the "Metamorphoses" as a grandiose depiction of the precarious and deceptive nature of reality: an idea which is not, of course, the only interpretive option from a critical point of view, but is doubtless the best suited to the "Zeitgeist" in the «Age of Uncertainty»

Which Side are You On? The Worlds of Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a key figure among the first wave of authors of the so-called British Generation (Sandifer and Eklund). The works of the other two creators, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, have been the basis for a wealth of scholarly research within the field of comics studies and whole constellations of literary scholarship (Sandifer and Eklund; Sanders; Krueger and Shaeffer; Millidge). Morrison\u27s fictional worlds, however, remain understudied, despite the fact that, as Marc Singer observes, Morrison\u27s work and career seem to be evenly distributed along a continuum ranging from the alternative Vertigo material to the mainstream superhero comics (Singer 10-30). Furthermore, what should be of interest to comics scholars is the peculiar character of Morrison\u27s method, which seems to lie in his unique approach to the creative process. A chaos magician, shrewd comic entrepreneur, self-proclaimed geek and a closet workaholic, Morrison has always juggled several projects at once, often transferring ideas and concepts across series as a result, using subtle references to Borges and Calvino together with obscure mentions of silver age characters of DC comics, as for instance Buddy Baker/Animal Man (Callahan; Shapira). Since Morrison has spread his intense commitment to artistic production over a vast continuum of work, the net result is that the boundaries between mainstream and alternative productions have become thin

Efficacy of 1998 <i>vs</i> 2006 first-line antiretroviral regimens for HIV infection: an ordinary clinics retrospective investigation

Purpose: The evidence suggesting increased HAART efficacy over time comes from randomized trials or cohort studies. This retrospective multicenter survey aimed to assess the variation over time in the efficacy and tolerability of first-line HAART regimens in unselected patients treated in ordinary clinical settings. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data of all patients starting first-line HAART regimens in 1998 and 2006 at adhering centers in the Italian CISAI group. Results: For the 543 patients included, mean age was 39.1 ± 9.8y in 1998 and 41.0 ± 10.7y in 2006 (p=0.03), with a similar proportion of males. Baseline mean log10 HIV-RNA was 4.56 ± 0.97 copies/mL in 1998 vs 4.91 ± 0.96 copies/mL in 2006 (p&lt;0.001); baseline mean CD4 T-cell counts were 343 ± 314/mm3 in 1998 vs 244 ± 174/mm3 in 2006 (p&lt;0.001). The following outcomes were significantly improved at 48w in 2006: proportion with undetectable HIV-RNA (86.3% vs 58.0%; p&lt;0.001); mean increase in CD4 T-cells count (252 ± 225 vs 173 ± 246; p&lt;0.001); HAART modification (20.1% vs 29.2%; p=0.02); HAART interruption (7.3% vs 14.6%; p=0.01); proportion reporting optimal adherence (92.2% vs 82.7%, p=0.03). No differences were observed in the prevalence of grade 3-4 WHO toxicities (26.4% vs 26.6%; p=0.9). Multivariate logistic regression showed that being treated in 1998 remained an independent predictor of virological failure after several adjustments, including adherence. Conclusions: Our data from patients not included in clinical trials or cohort studies provide an additional line of evidence that the effectiveness of HAART significantly improved in 2006. Treated patients, however, were significantly older and more frequently late HIV presenters in 2006 than in 1998.</br

Polysemy and semantic relations in Aquilan prepositions

The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis of polysemy and related semantic relations emerging in prepositions belonging to Aquilan, a dialect of Italian. The data are based on fieldwork research, in which different polysemy tests where used in an experimental setting. Two key results emerged from the study. First, Aquilan prepositions display a degree of polysemy inversely proportional to their morphological complexity, with some prepositions being monosemous (e.g. a, a destra de, ‘ngima a). Second, prepositions’ senses can stand in relations of colexification, partial synonymy, or hyponymy. Colexification holds when related senses become part of a preposition’s sense range; hyponymy and partial synonymy (overlap) when one preposition denotes all or some of the places denoted by a second preposition. The work thus offers a paradigmatic view of the polysemy of Aquilan prepositions that sheds light on seldom attested polysemy patterns, and contributes novel insights on the ongoing debate on this phenomenon