An ethnopharmacological approach to multidrug -resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Evaluation of Italian plants used in the traditional healing of skin disease

One-third of botanical remedies from southern Italy are used to treat skin and soft tissue infections (SST's). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a common cause of SSTIs, is responsible for increased morbidity and mortality from infections. Therapeutic options are limited by antibiotic resistance. Many plants possess potent antimicrobial compounds for these disorders. Validation of traditional medical practices is important for the people who rely on medicinal plants. Moreover, identification of novel antibiotics and anti-pathogenic agents for MRSA is important to global healthcare.^ I took an ethnopharmacological approach to understand how Italian medicinal plants used for the treatment of SSTIs affect MRSA growth and virulence. My hypothesis was that plants used in folk remedies for SSTI would exhibit lower cytotoxicity and greater inhibition of bacterial growth, biofilm formation and toxin production in MRSA than plants used for remedies unrelated to the skin or for plants with no ethnomedical application. The field portion of my research was conducted in the Vulture-Alto Bradano area of southern Italy. I collected 104 plant species and created 168 crude extracts. In the lab, I screened samples for activity against MRSA in a battery of bioassays. Growth inhibition was analyzed using broth microtiter assays for determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration. Interference with quorum-sensing (QS) processes, which mediate pathogenicity, was quantified through RP-HPLC of δ-toxin production. Interference with biofilm formation and adherence was assessed using staining methods. The mammalian cytotoxicity of natural products was analyzed using MTT cell proliferation assay techniques.^ Although bacteriostatic activity was limited, extracts from six plants used in Italian folk medicine (Arundo donax, Ballota nigra, Juglans regia, Leopoldia comosa, Marrubium vulgare, and Rubus ulmifolius ) significantly inhibited biofilm formation and adherence. Moreover, plants used to treat SSTI demonstrated significantly greater anti-biofilm activity when compared to plants with no ethnomedical application. QSI activity was evident in 90% of the extracts tested and extracts from four plants ( Ballota nigra, Castanea saliva, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Sambucus ebulus) exhibited a significant dose-dependent response. Some of the plant remedies for SSTI identified in this study can be validated due to anti-MRSA activity.^

Fauxciutto- Is Italian-American Cuisine Really Italian?

Chef and Florida International University faculty member Mike D'Alessandro lectures on the evolution of Italian and Itlalian-American cuisines in the United States. Event is a part of the Food for Thought lecture series, and was held at the Village Gardens at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens on October 9, 2013.

From Mare Nostrum to Insula Nostra : British Colonial Cyprus and the Italian Imperial Threat

Peer reviewed

Italian-American women demonstrate against Channel 9's renewal of the television program "Untouchables"

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Italian Journalist Oriana Fallaci at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Italian Journalist Oriana Fallaci at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Italian-American women demonstrate against Channel 9's "Untouchables" program

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Italian harness race driver Loredana Moretti

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Italian bakery on Bleeker Street

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Italian-American Civil Rights League booth at the Fiesta of Maria S.S. della Grazie on Mulberry Street

General note: Title provided by Freda Leinwand.

Italian festival in New York

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Italian-American Civil Rights League sign at the Fiesta of Maria S.S. della Grazie on Mulberry Street

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Reimagining the Baroque in Italian Modernism. From the fin-de-siècle to Lucio Fontana

While Italian art of the twentieth century is usually associated with either the avant-garde practices of Futurism or the classicism of Fascist visual culture, the Italian modernists' complex engagement with concepts of the ‘Baroque’ has yet to be explored. Through an extensive analysis of paintings, sculptures, publications, collecting practices, and exhibitions, my dissertation addresses this lacuna by investigating how the Baroque was discursively constructed and visually represented in Italian modernist artistic and cultural debates between 1880 and 1945. I study how artists and critics such as Umberto Boccioni, Giorgio De Chirico, Adolfo Wildt, Lucio Fontana, and Roberto Longhi championed or disparaged the Baroque in the context of heated debates over the import of Italy’s rich cultural heritage, its status in modern Europe, and the potential role of avant-garde art as a catalyst for national regeneration. In contrast to previous scholars I argue that the development of modern art in Italy was actively shaped by cultural perceptions about the Baroque. My dissertation therefore sheds new light on the role of style in the cultural politics of Italy, which in turn will transform our understanding of visual culture in modern Italy, and of twentieth-century representations of the Baroque in art, literature, and aesthetics.

Towards an Archaeology of Media Ecologies: The Case of Italian Free Radios

This article looks at the contemporary reinvention of the term Media Ecologies in the work of Matthew Fuller, arguing that its provenance is less form Postman's Media Ecology Association andmore form the work of Felix Guattari. It then presents an account of free radios in Italy and France in the 1970s and contemporary pirate radio as exemplary cases of media ecologies in Fuller's sense of the term