Language as purposeful: functional varieties of texts

This volume, "Language as Purposeful: Functional Varieties of Texts", is the third of the first three e-books of a new series entitled, "Functional Grammar Studies for Non-Native Speakers of English", which is contained within the superordinate: "Quaderni del Centro di Studi Linguistico-Culturali (CeSLiC)", a research center in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages of the University of Bologna. The series proposes a metalinguistic description of English grammar in a functional, socio-semiotic perspective and is proving to be an effective teaching/learning resource for improving English literacy in the L2 pedagogic setting. The principal ‘consumers’ of the series are the students of the English Language Studies Program (ELSP) in Bologna’s Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature, for whom it provides the basic course-book in each of their three years of the first-level degree course. This third volume applies the descriptive model taught in the first two years to the analysis of diverse text-types, and thus at the same time seeks to empower students through an increasing awareness of the typical functions of the English language in a variety of concrete situational and cultural contexts

Structural Covariance in the Hard Sphere Fluid

We study the joint variability of structural information in a hard sphere fluid biased to avoid crystallisation and form fivefold symmetric geometric motifs. We show that the structural covariance matrix approach, originally proposed for on-lattice liquids [Ronceray and Harrowell, JCP 2016], can be meaningfully employed to understand structural relationships between different motifs and can predict, within the linear-response regime, structural changes related to motifs distinct from that used to bias the system

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and hexachlorobenzene, semen quality and testicular cancer risk

PURPOSE: We carried out a case-control study to investigate the possible role of occupational and environmental exposure to endocrine disruptors in the onset of testicular cancer (TC). METHODS: We evaluated 125 TC patients and 103 controls. Seminal fluid examination and organochlorine analysis were performed in all subjects. Cases and controls were also interviewed using a structured questionnaire to collect demographic information, residence, andrological medical history and dietary information. RESULTS: We found that a higher level of reproductive tract birth defects was associated with a higher risk of TC. With regard to diet, cases reported a higher consumption of milk and dairy products than controls. Overall, there was a statistically significant increase in TC risk in cases with detectable values of total polychlorinated organic compounds against controls (14.4 vs. 1.0 %; p < 0.001). TC patients with detectable levels of organochlorines had lower mean semen parameters than those with undetectable levels, although this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The International Agency for Research on Cancer recently included dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Group 1 of known human carcinogens. Our study confirmed and identified various risk factors for testicular cancer: cryptorchidism, consumption of milk and dairy products, parents' occupation and serum concentration of hexachlorobenzene and PCBs and, for the first time, we showed the correlation between semen quality and the serum concentration of these pollutants

Transport on a Lattice with Dynamical Defects

Many transport processes in nature take place on substrates, often considered as unidimensional lanes. These unidimensional substrates are typically non-static: affected by a fluctuating environment, they can undergo conformational changes. This is particularly true in biological cells, where the state of the substrate is often coupled to the active motion of macromolecular complexes, such as motor proteins on microtubules or ribosomes on mRNAs, causing new interesting phenomena. Inspired by biological processes such as protein synthesis by ribosomes and motor protein transport, we introduce the concept of localized dynamical sites coupled to a driven lattice gas dynamics. We investigate the phenomenology of transport in the presence of dynamical defects and find a novel regime characterized by an intermittent current and subject to severe finite-size effects. Our results demonstrate the impact of the regulatory role of the dynamical defects in transport, not only in biology but also in more general contexts

Human biomonitoring in the area around the petrochemical site in Gela, Sicily-Italy

Close to the town of Gela (Sicily, Italy) a petrochemical site is operating since 1962. A power station, chemical plants and an oil refiney plant incleded. In 1990 a large area around the site was declared " at high risk of environmental cirsis" in 2000 a subarea was designated " Reclamation Site of National Inerest" Extremely high concentrations of hazardous chemicals have been measured in soil, surface and groundwater, in marine water and sediments. Mortality, hospital discharges and birth defects were reported higher than neighbouring areas and other references

Comparative analysis of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 post-translational modifications of Tax proteins in relation to their intracellular localization and activation of gene expression

Poster presentatio

Toxicity of lunar dust

The formation, composition and physical properties of lunar dust are incompletely characterised with regard to human health. While the physical and chemical determinants of dust toxicity for materials such as asbestos, quartz, volcanic ashes and urban particulate matter have been the focus of substantial research efforts, lunar dust properties, and therefore lunar dust toxicity may differ substantially. In this contribution, past and ongoing work on dust toxicity is reviewed, and major knowledge gaps that prevent an accurate assessment of lunar dust toxicity are identified. Finally, a range of studies using ground-based, low-gravity, and in situ measurements is recommended to address the identified knowledge gaps. Because none of the curated lunar samples exist in a pristine state that preserves the surface reactive chemical aspects thought to be present on the lunar surface, studies using this material carry with them considerable uncertainty in terms of fidelity. As a consequence, in situ data on lunar dust properties will be required to provide ground truth for ground-based studies quantifying the toxicity of dust exposure and the associated health risks during future manned lunar missions.Comment: 62 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Planetary and Space Scienc