Disegni come documento e disegni come monumento : Giovanni Ciampini, Sebastiano Resta e la fortuna del Medioevo artistico nella Roma di Bellori

La tesi di Dottorato, condotta in accordo di colutela tra l'Università di Roma Tor Vergata e l'UNIL di Losanna, ha affrontato l'analisi di un gruppo di undici disegni custodia presso la National Gallery of Scotland di Edimburgo, copie di alcuni dei più significativi mosaici medioevali delle chiese di Roma, ricostruendone la genesi, quindi le vicende legate alla committenza, e il percorso collezionistico. I disegni scozzesi, oggetto di un importante articolo di Julian Gardner pubblicato sul Burlington Magatine nel 1973, furono commissionati intorno agli anni Settanta del XVII secolo dall'antiquario romano Giovanni Giustino Ciampini (1633-1698) in connessione alla stesura della sua opera di erudizione più avvertita e famosa: i Vetera Mommenta in' quibus praecipue Musiva Opera, sacrarum, profanan,mque, Aedìum structura, ac nonnulli antiqui ritus dissertationibus iconìbusque illustrantur. La composizione dei Vetera Mommenta - un'opera riccamente illustrata che nasce per rispondere alle esigenze della ideologia della Chiesa di Roma in un momento di rinnovata crisi del sistema - impone a Ciampini di porsi da un lato nella prospettiva della più alta tradizione antiquaria cinque e seicentesca, di cui recupera i metodi di lettura e di analisi applicati allo studio delle monete e dei monumenti antichi interpretati quali prove per la ricostruzione storica, e dall'altra, come è emerso dalle mie ricerche, lo pone immediatamente in contatto con gli avamposti del più moderno metodo di indagine storica e filologica applicato alle fonti e ai documenti della storia ecclesiastica, inaugurato dall'ambiente bollandista e inaurino. I monumenti paleocristiani e medioevali assumono in quest'ottica lo status di 'fatti incontestabili', le fonti primarie attraverso le quali Ciampini ricuce le tappe salienti della storia della Chiesa, da Costantino fino al XV secolo. Nel 1700 le copie di Edimburgo arrivano nelle mani del mercante e connoisseur milanese il padre oratoriano Sebastiano Resta (1635-1714), di stanza a Roma presso la Chiesa Nuova della Vallicella dal 1660, che decide di rilegarle tutte insieme in un volume da donare al suo maggiore acquirente e patrono, il vescovo di Arezzo Giovanni Matteo Marchetti. Come spiega Resta in alcune sue lettere, il presente avrebbe dovuto costituire insieme una curiosità ed offrire un confronto: infatti «le copie delli mosaici di Roma che erano di Monsignor Ciampini» - afferma Resta - avrebbero mostrato al Marchetti «le maniere di que' tempi gottici, barbari e divoti de cristiani e [fatto] spiccare i secoli seguenti». Questa indagine infatti ha fatto riemergere aspetti della precoce attenzione di Sebastiano Resta per l'arte dei "secoli bassi", mai debitamente affrontata dagli studi. E' infatti sulla scorta di una profonda conoscenza dei testi della letteratura artistica, e in connessione alla esplosione vivacissima della controversia Malvasia/Baldinucci sul primato del risorgere delle arti in Toscana, che Sebastiano a partire dagli anni Ottanta del Seicento comincia a meditare sul Medioevo artistico con il fine di spiegare l'evoluzione del linguaggio tecnico e formale che ha condotto alla perfezione dell'atte moderna. In questa prospettiva ι disegni del XIV e XV secolo che egli riuscì ad intercettare sul mercato valgono quali testimonianze delle maniere degli artefici più antichi e sono imbastiti nei molteplici album che Resta compone nel rispetto della successione cronologica dei presunti autori, e ordinati in base alle scuole pittoriche di pertinenza. La tesi permette perciò di descrivere nelle loro diverse specificità: da un lato il modo dei conoscitori come Resta, interessati nell'opera al dato stilistico, con immediate e sensibili ricadute sul mercato, e disposti anche con passione a ricercare i documenti relativi all'opera in quanto pressati dall'urgenza di collocarla nella sequenza cronologica dello sviluppo del linguaggio formale e tecnico; dall'altro gli antiquari come Ciampini e come Bianchini, per i quali le opere del passato valgono come prove irrefutabili della ricostruzione storica, e divengono quindi esse stesse, anche nel loro statuto di copia, documento della stona. Sono due approcci che si manifestano nel Seicento, e talvolta in una medesima persona, come mostra il caso anche per questo cruciale di Giovati Pietro Bellori, ma che hanno radici cinquecentesche, di cui i protagonisti di queste vicende sono ben consapevoli: e se dietro Resta c'è palesemente Vasari, dietro Ciampini e soprattutto Bianchini c'è la più alta tradizione antiquaria del XVI secolo, da Antonio Augustin a Fulvio Orsini.

Comment évaluer le risque oncologique d'un patient souffrant de dermatomyosite [Can we predict the risk of malignancy associated with dermatomyositis?]

Dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) are idiopathic inflammatory muscle diseases which remain a therapeutic challenge. The association between DM and malignancy is relatively well established while this relationship is weaker with PM. The clinical management and research for an occult malignancy as well as the follow-up of patients with DM or PM is a matter of debate. Herein we report a case of DM who, despite an extensive clinical, radiological and biological work-up developed an occult ovarian cancer 12 months after the initial diagnosis. This case report was used as support to review the actual expert recommendations for the search of an occult malignancy in presence of DM or PM.

A hormonal regulatory module that provides flexibility to tropic responses.

Plants orient their growth depending on directional stimuli such as light and gravity, in a process known as tropic response. Tropisms result from asymmetrical accumulation of auxin across the responding organ relative to the direction of the stimulus, which causes differential growth rates on both sides of the organ. Here, we show that gibberellins (GAs) attenuate the gravitropic reorientation of stimulated hypocotyls of dark-grown Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings. We show that the modulation occurs through induction of the expression of the negative regulator of auxin signaling INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID INDUCIBLE19/MASSUGU2. The biological significance of this regulatory mechanism involving GAs and auxin seems to be the maintenance of a high degree of flexibility in tropic responses. This notion is further supported by observations that GA-deficient seedlings showed a much lower variance in the response to gravity compared to wild-type seedlings and that the attenuation of gravitropism by GAs resulted in an increased phototropic response. This suggests that the interplay between auxin and GAs may be particularly important for plant orientation under competing tropic stimuli.

Abnormal sensitivity to negative feedback in late-life depression.

AIMS: The purpose of the present study was to probe sensitivity to potentially misleading negative feedback on cognitive tasks as a possible mechanism of cognitive impairment in elderly patients with mild depression. METHODS: A total of 22 mildly depressed elderly subjects were compared to 22 healthy controls, using a computerized Tower-of-London task. RESULTS: Failure and magnitude of failure were significantly worse after negative but not positive feedback. Depression predicted failure after negative feedback but not the magnitude of failure. Neither failure nor magnitude of failure increased as a consequence of repeated negative feedback. CONCLUSIONS: Altered sensitivity to negative feedback occurs in mild late-life unipolar depression and may represent a subtle context-specific phenomenon.

Consequences of sleep deprivation on neurotransmitter receptor expression and function.

Several pieces of evidence suggest that sleep deprivation causes marked alterations in neurotransmitter receptor function in diverse neuronal cell types. To date, this has been studied mainly in wake- and sleep-promoting areas of the brain and in the hippocampus, which is implicated in learning and memory. This article reviews findings linking sleep deprivation to modifications in neurotransmitter receptor function, including changes in receptor subunit expression, ligand affinity and signal transduction mechanisms. We focus on studies using sleep deprivation procedures that control for side-effects such as stress. We classify the changes with respect to their functional consequences on the activity of wake-promoting and/or sleep-promoting systems. We suggest that elucidation of how sleep deprivation affects neurotransmitter receptor function will provide functional insight into the detrimental effects of sleep loss.

Analysis of the beta-oxidation of trans-unsaturated fatty acid in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing a peroxisomal PHA synthase reveals the involvement of a reductase-dependent pathway.

The degradation of fatty acids having cis- or trans-unsaturated bond at an even carbon was analyzed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by monitoring polyhydroxyalkanoate production in the peroxisome. Polyhydroxyalkanaote is synthesized by the polymerization of the beta-oxidation intermediates 3-hydroxy-acyl-CoAs via a bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase targeted to the peroxisome. The synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoate in cells grown in media containing 10-cis-heptadecenoic acid was dependent on the presence of 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase activity as well as on Delta3,Delta2-enoyl-CoA isomerase activity. The synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoate from 10-trans-heptadecenoic acid in mutants devoid of 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase revealed degradation of the trans fatty acid directly via the enoyl-CoA hydratase II activity of the multifunctional enzyme (MFE), although the level of polyhydroxyalkanoate was 10-25% to that of wild type cells. Polyhydroxyalkanoate produced from 10-trans-heptadecenoic acid in wild type cells showed substantial carbon flux through both a reductase-dependent and a direct MFE-dependent pathway. Flux through beta-oxidation was more severely reduced in mutants devoid of Delta3,Delta2-enoyl-CoA isomerase compared to mutants devoid of 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase. It is concluded that the intermediate 2-trans,4-trans-dienoyl-CoA is metabolized in vivo in yeast by both the enoyl-CoA hydratase II activity of the multifunctional protein and the 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase, and that the synthesis of the intermediate 3-trans-enoyl-CoA in the absence of the Delta3,Delta2-enoyl-CoA isomerase leads to the blockage of the direct MFE-dependent pathway in vivo.

Plutonium from above-ground nuclear tests in milk teeth: investigation of placental transfer in children born between 1951 and 1995 in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: Occupational risks, the present nuclear threat, and the potential danger associated with nuclear power have raised concerns regarding the metabolism of plutonium in pregnant women. OBJECTIVE: We measured plutonium levels in the milk teeth of children born between 1951 and 1995 to assess the potential risk that plutonium incorporated by pregnant women might pose to the radiosensitive tissues of the fetus through placenta transfer. METHODS: We used milk teeth, whose enamel is formed during pregnancy, to investigate the transfer of plutonium from the mother's blood plasma to the fetus. We measured plutonium using sensitive sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry techniques. We compared our results with those of a previous study on strontium-90 ((90)Sr) released into the atmosphere after nuclear bomb tests. RESULTS: Results show that plutonium activity peaks in the milk teeth of children born about 10 years before the highest recorded levels of plutonium fallout. By contrast, (90)Sr, which is known to cross the placenta barrier, manifests differently in milk teeth, in accordance with (90)Sr fallout deposition as a function of time. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that plutonium found in milk teeth is caused by fallout that was inhaled around the time the milk teeth were shed and not from any accumulation during pregnancy through placenta transfer. Thus, plutonium may not represent a radiologic risk for the radiosensitive tissues of the fetus.

Version brève du DISCERN, une voie d'amélioration de la recherche d'information médicale sur le net [Brief-DISCERN, a possible way to improve patient's search on the health-related web]

Internet is increasingly used as a source of information on health issues and is probably a major source of patients' empowerment. This process is however limited by the frequently poor quality of web-based health information designed for consumers. A better diffusion of information about criteria defining the quality of the content of websites, and about useful methods designed for searching such needed information, could be particularly useful to patients and their relatives. A brief, six-items DISCERN version, characterized by a high specificity for detecting websites with good or very good content quality was recently developed. This tool could facilitate the identification of high-quality information on the web by patients and may improve the empowerment process initiated by the development of the health-related web.

A fetal sheep liver extract containing immunostimulatory substances including LPS acts as leukocyte activator in cells of LPS responder and non responder mice.

Purified fractions from a fetal sheep liver extract (FSLE) were investigated, in a murine model, for induction of leukocyte stimulating activities. The fractions FSLE-1 and FSLE-2 induced splenocyte proliferation in vitro in C57Bl/10ScSn (LPS responder) mice comparable to LPS, and in C57Bl/10ScCr (LPS non responder) mice. They also stimulated the release of nitrogen radicals in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) from several mouse inbred strains including both C57Bl/10ScSn and C57Bl/10ScCr mice. Stimulation of NO production could be blocked by L-NMMA, an inhibitor of iNOS, and enhanced by the simultaneous addition of IFN-gamma. Moreover, stimulation of macrophages by FSLE-1 and FSLE-2 induced a cytostatic effect of the activated macrophages for Abelson 8-1 tumor cells. The stimulatory activity of the purified fractions is partially due to trace amounts of LPS derived from the fetal liver extract which was enriched during purification. Our results may help to explain the beneficial effect of the extract in patients which has been observed clinically.

Characteristics of eyes with secondary loss of visual acuity receiving variable dosing ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

PURPOSE: The aim of this work is to investigate the characteristics of eyes failing to maintain visual acuity (VA) receiving variable dosing ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) after three initial loading doses. METHODS: A consecutive series of patients with nAMD, who, after three loading doses of intravitreal ranibizumab (0.5 mg each), were re-treated for fluid seen on optical coherence tomography. After exclusion of eyes with previous treatment, follow-up less than 12 months, or missed visits, 99 patients were included in the analysis. The influence of baseline characteristics, initial VA response, and central retinal thickness (CRT) fluctuations on the VA stability from month 3 to month 24 were analyzed using subgroups and multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Mean follow-up duration was 21.3 months (range 12-40 months, 32 patients followed-up for ≥24 months). Secondary loss of VA (loss of five letters or more) after month 3 was seen in 30 patients (mean VA improvement from baseline +5.8 letters at month 3, mean loss from baseline -5.3 letters at month 12 and -9.7 at final visit up to month 24), while 69 patients maintained vision (mean gain +8.9 letters at month 3, +10.4 letters at month 12, and +12.8 letters at final visit up to month 24). Secondary loss of VA was associated with the presence of pigment epithelial detachment (PED) at baseline (p 0.01), but not with baseline fibrosis/atrophy/hemorrhage, CRT fluctuations, or initial VA response. Chart analysis revealed additional individual explanations for the secondary loss of VA, including retinal pigment epithelial tears, progressive fibrosis, and atrophy. CONCLUSIONS: Tissue damage due to degeneration of PED, retinal pigment epithelial tears, progressive fibrosis, progressive atrophy, or massive hemorrhage, appears to be relevant in causing secondary loss of VA despite vascular endothelial growth factor suppression. PED at baseline may represent a risk factor.