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Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects, ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in the life sciences, physics, and engineering. These include accurate force and torque measurement at the femtonewton level, microrheology of complex fluids, single micro- and nano-particle spectroscopy, single-cell analysis, and statistical-physics experiments. This roadmap provides insights into current investigations involving optical forces and optical tweezers from their theoretical foundations to designs and setups. It also offers perspectives for applications to a wide range of research fields, from biophysics to space exploration.

Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects, ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in the life sciences, physics, and engineering. These include accurate force and torque measurement at the femtonewton level, microrheology of complex fluids, single micro- and nano-particle spectroscopy, single-cell analysis, and statistical-physics experiments. This roadmap provides insights into current investigations involving optical forces and optical tweezers from their theoretical foundations to designs and setups. It also offers perspectives for applications to a wide range of research fields, from biophysics to space exploration.

Publicerad i Kluwer Arbitration Blog 2021-11-05

Background: Limited and wide-ranging data are available on the recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) incidence rate. Methods: We performed a cohort study with the aim to assess the incidence of and risk factors for rCDI. Adult patients with a first CDI, hospitalized in 15 Italian hospitals, were prospectively included and followed-up for 30 d after the end of antimicrobial treatment for their first CDI. A case-control study was performed to identify risk factors associated with 30-day onset rCDI. Results: Three hundred nine patients with a first CDI were included in the study; 32% of the CDI episodes (99/309) were severe/complicated; complete follow-up was available for 288 patients (19 died during the first CDI episode, and 2 were lost during follow-up). At the end of the study, the crude all-cause mortality rate was 10.7% (33 deaths/309 patients). Two hundred seventy-one patients completed the follow-up; rCDI occurred in 21% of patients (56/271) with an incidence rate of 72/10,000 patient-days. Logistic regression analysis identified exposure to cephalosporin as an independent risk factor associated with rCDI (RR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1-2.7, p = 0.03). Conclusion: Our study confirms the relevance of rCDI in terms of morbidity and mortality and provides a reliable estimation of its incidence.

Potassium (K) is closely related to plant water uptake and use and affects key processes in assimilation and growth. The aim of this work was to find out to what extent K supply and enhanced compartmentation might improve water use and productivity when tomato plants suffered from periods of water stress. Yield, water traits, gas exchange, photosynthetic rate and biomass partition were determined. When plants suffered dehydration, increasing K supply was associated with reduction in stomatal conductance and increased water contents, but failed to protect photosynthetic rate. Potassium supplements increased shoot growth, fruit setting and yield under water stress. However, increasing the K supply could not counteract the great yield reduction under drought. A transgenic tomato line with enhanced K uptake into vacuoles and able to reach higher plant K contents, still showed poor yield performance under water stress and had lower K use efficiency than the control plants. With unlimited water supply (hydroponics), plants grown in low-K showed greater root hydraulic conductivity than at higher K availability and stomatal conductance was not associated with leaf K concentration. In conclusion, increasing K supply and tissue content improved some physiological features related to drought tolerance but did not overcome yield restrictions imposed by water stress.

The interaction between engineered nanoparticles and the bacterial lipopolysaccharide, or endotoxin, is an event that warrants attention. Endotoxin is one of the most potent stimulators of inflammation and immune reactions in human beings, and is a very common contaminant in research labs. In nanotoxicology and nanomedicine, the presence of endotoxin on the nanoparticle surface affects their biological properties leading to misinterpretation of results. This review discusses the importance of detecting the endotoxin contamination on nanoparticles, focusing on the current method of endotoxin detection and their suitability for nanoparticulate materials. Conversely, the capacity of nanoparticles to bind endotoxin can be enhanced by functionalization with endotoxin-capturing molecules, opening the way to the development of novel endotoxin detection assays.

The Salt-Overly-Sensitive (SOS) pathway controls the net uptake of sodium by roots and the xylematic transfer to shoots in vascular plants. SOS3/CBL4 is a core component of the SOS pathway that senses calcium signaling of salinity stress to activate and recruit the protein kinase SOS2/CIPK24 to the plasma membrane to trigger sodium efflux by the Na/H exchanger SOS1/NHX7. However, despite the well-established function of SOS3 at the plasma membrane, SOS3 displays a nucleo-cytoplasmic distribution whose physiological meaning is not understood. Here, we show that the N-terminal part of SOS3 encodes structural information for dual acylation with myristic and palmitic fatty acids, each of which commands a different location and function of SOS3. N-myristoylation at glycine-2 is essential for plasma membrane association and recruiting SOS2 to activate SOS1, whereas S-acylation at cysteine-3 redirects SOS3 toward the nucleus. Moreover, a poly-lysine track in positions 7–11 that is unique to SOS3 among other Arabidopsis CBLs appears to be essential for the correct positioning of the SOS2-SOS3 complex at the plasma membrane for the activation of SOS1. The nuclear-localized SOS3 protein had limited bearing on the salt tolerance of Arabidopsis. These results are evidence of a novel S-acylation dependent nuclear trafficking mechanism that contrasts with alternative subcellular targeting of other CBLs by S-acylation

Speed is often touted as an advantage of arbitration. In recent years, however, some have worried that investment arbitration risks losing this advantage. Concerns about the length of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) proceedings have also been raised in the discussion about IS DS reform. This article analyses the duration of IS DS proceedings applying a data-centric approach and evaluates the impact of proposed ISDS reforms on the duration of proceedings. After some terminological clarifications on when proceedings are 'excessively' long, the article sets out the evidence on the length of proceedings using several data-sets. As a comparator, we present data on the length of World Trade Organization (WTO) proceedings, even though we urge caution as to the usefulness of such a comparator. The article then discusses the impact of various reform proposals on the duration of proceedings, namely improving ISDS, adding an appellate mechanism, establishing a multilateral investment court and abolishing ISDS.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the works regarding two trilingual Italian-Canadian female writers, Dôre Michelut and Mary di Michele who have chosen to concentrate on the Friulian language, either as bridge or mediator to gap the distance between cultures and languages (Michelut in “Loyalty to the Hunt” and “Ouroboros”) or as inspiration and source for translation and poetic creation (di Michele in “The Flower of Youth”). In an attempt to come to terms with my own tricultural identity I will include a few poems that I had translated from English into Friulian or vice versa.Tradurre l’identità friulana incessantementeIl presente contributo mira ad analizzare alcune opere di Dôre Michelut e Mary di Michele, due scrittrici italo-canadesi che ricorrono alla lingua friulana, da un lato come ponte per mediare la distanza tra le proprie lingue e culture (Michelut in “Loyalty to the Hunt” e “Ouroboros”) e dall’altro come fonte d’ispirazione creativa per le proprie poesie e traduzioni (di Michele in “Flower of Youth”). Nella parte finale sono incluse anche alcune poesie che l’autrice del saggio, anche lei trilingue, ha tradotto dall’inglese al friulano e vice versa al fine di venire a patti con la propria identità transculturale.

Rice (Oryza sativa) stands among the world's most important crop species. Rice is salt sensitive, and the undue accumulation of sodium ions (Na+) in shoots has the strongest negative correlation with rice productivity under long-term salinity. The plasma membrane Na+/H+ exchanger protein Salt Overly Sensitive 1 (SOS1) is the sole Na+ efflux transporter that has been genetically characterized to date. Here, the importance of SOS1-facilitated Na+ flux in the salt tolerance of rice was analyzed in a reversegenetics approach. A sos1 loss-of-function mutant displayed exceptional salt sensitivity that was correlated with excessive Na+ intake and impaired Na+ loading into the xylem, thus indicating that SOS1 controls net root Na+ uptake and long-distance Na+ transport to shoots. The acute Na+ sensitivity of sos1 plants at low NaCl concentrations allowed analysis of the transcriptional response to sodicity stress without effects of the osmotic stress intrinsic to high-salinity treatments. In contrast with that in the wild type, sos1 mutant roots displayed preferential down-regulation of stress-related genes in response to salt treatment, despite the greater intensity of stress experienced by the mutant. These results suggest there is impaired stress detection or an inability to mount a comprehensive response to salinity in sos1. In summary, the plasma membrane Na+/H+ exchanger SOS1 plays a major role in the salt tolerance of rice by controlling Na+ homeostasis and possibly contributing to the sensing of sodicity stress.

A group G is said to have finite Prüfer rank r if every finitely generated subgroup of G can be generated by at most r elements, and r is the least positive integer with such property; if such an r does not exist, we will say that the group G has infinite rank. (Generalized) soluble groups of infinite rank in which all subgroups of infinite rank are either normal or self-normalizing and groups in which all subgroups of infinite rank are either normal or contranormal have been considered. In both cases it has been proved that subgroups of finite rank have the same property satisfied by subgroups of infinite rank. The lattice-theoretic interpretation of normality is modularity. It has been proved that if G is a finitely generated soluble group such that every infinite set of cyclic subgroups contains two subgroups H and K which are modular in , then G is central-by-finite. Finally we can remark that permutability has some generalizations. In particular we say that a subgroup H is nearly permutable if there exists a permutable subgroup K of G containing H such that the index |K:H| is finite. Generalized radical groups of infinite rank in which all subgroups of infinite rank are nearly permutable have been considered. First of all it has been proved that the commutator subgroup G' of G is locally finite and then it has proved, in non-periodic case, that either G is an FC-group or G/T(G) is a torsion-free abelian group with rank 1.

Earthquakes are unexpected, destructive, terrifying and traumatic. Albert Chiarandini’s painting, “God Abandoned Us for Seven Days” can be seen as portraying the tragedy caused by the earthquake that destroyed Friuli on May 6, 1976. Now, forty years later, my personal memories of that tragic event are mixed with an overview of how the Friulians reacted to the relentless drama which marked the historical, social, financial and cultural evolution of Friuli. L'Orcolât: Memorie del Terremoto del 1976 in Friuli I terremoti sono imprevisti, distruttivi, terrificanti e traumatici. Il dipinto di Albert Chiarandini, “God Abandoned Us for Seven Days” (Dio ci ha abbandonato per sette giorni), raffigura la tragedia e la disperazione causata dal terremoto che ha distrutto il Friuli il 6 maggio 1976. Ora, quarant'anni dopo, i miei ricordi personali di quel tragico evento si mescolano a una panoramica di come i friulani hanno reagito al dramma implacabile che ha segnato l'evoluzione storico, sociale, culturale e finanziario del Friuli.

“La terra del ritorno”, conosciuta all’estero come “Lives of the Saints”, di Nino Ricci, è il titolo di una miniserie televisiva diretta da Jerry Ciccoritti nel quale s’intrecciano tradimenti e abbandoni, superstizioni e traumi, spostamenti e ricollocazioni, tutte raccontate da Vittorio Innocente, un ragazzino di Valle del Sole nel sud d’Italia obbligato ad emigrare in Canada per causa della condotta enigmatica della madre. Costretto a far luce sul mistero del passato, Vittorio, dopo tanti anni ritorna nel villaggio, dove era nato, e dove riconosce finalmente la sua identità e apertura transculturale costruita in Canada mentre le secolari superstizioni continuano a influenzare le azioni degli abitanti ingenui di Valle del Sole.From Memory to History: Transformations into Film of the Lives of the Saints, a Trilogy by Nino Ricci“La terra del ritorno”, the film version of Nino Ricci’s “The Lives of the Saints”, set in Italy and Canada, and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, offers a series of interesting adaptations which forego fidelity to the novel in order to engage in socio-cultural discourses on immigration and diaspora, and impose new meanings on the original text.

Various forms of imaging schemes have emerged over the last decade that are based on correlating variations in incident illuminating light fields to the outputs of single “bucket” detectors. However, to date, the role of the orthogonality of the illumination fields has largely been overlooked, and, furthermore, the field has not progressed beyond bright field imaging. By exploiting the concept of orthogonal illuminating fields, we demonstrate the application of optical eigenmodes (OEis) to wide-field, scan-free spontaneous Raman imaging, which is notoriously slow in wide-field mode. The OEi approach enables a form of indirect imaging that exploits both phase and amplitude in image reconstruction. The use of orthogonality enables us to nonredundantly illuminate the sample and, in particular, use a subset of illuminating modes to obtain the majority of information from the sample, thus minimizing any photobleaching or damage of the sample. The crucial incorporation of phase, in addition to amplitude, in the imaging process significantly reduces background noise and results in an improved signal-to-noise ratio for the image while reducing the number of illuminations. As an example we can reconstruct images of a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy sample with approximately an order of magnitude fewer acquisitions. This generic approach may readily be applied to other imaging modalities such as fluorescence microscopy or nonlinear vibrational microscopy.

Nella prima raccolta di poesie, Flower of Youth, Mary di Michele si trova a Casarsa delle Delizie dove viaggia attraverso il passato giovanile e problematico di Pier Paolo Pasolini, rispecchiandosi nella sua ricerca di creatività, passione, comprensione, perdono. In Solitaria, Genni Gunn viaggia in Puglia, alla ricerca dei luoghi, miti, superstizioni e credenze degli antenati di sua madre: attraverso il personaggio di Davide, ragazzo italo-canadese e suo alter ego la scrittrice dà voce ad una duplice cultura, doppia lingua e capacità meta-creativa. Entrambe le opere presentano il viaggio di ritorno in Italia come trasformazione e specchio delle proprie capacità creative.A Mirror for the Self. Getting back as a WriterIn her first collection of poems, Flower of Youth, we find Mary di Michele in Casarsa della Delizia moving through Pier Paolo Pasolini’s troublesome youth, projecting herself in his own creativity, passions, sympathy, forgiveness. In Solitaria, Genni Gunn, instead, travels to Puglia, searching for places, myths, superstitions, beliefs of her mother’s ancestry. Tha main character, the alter ego of the writer, is Davide, an Italian Canadian young boy who represents the ambiguity of a double culture, a double language and meta-creative skills. Both these works focus on getting back to Italy as an experience of transformation and projection of their creative ability.

The Old Brown Suitcase by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, who survived the Holocaust in Warsaw and Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, have moved the world for the simplicity yet intensity with which they describe this devastating moment in the history of the Jews. These are books which can teach children about the horrific events but they can also offer alternative readings on issues of racism, identity and diaspora. By learning of the cultures, traditions and languages of others, children are encouraged to be observant, receptive and more open-minded, a first step in eradicating stereotypical prejudices and intolerance towards those considered ‘diverse’.Storie di valigie: bambine da Auschwitz al CanadaThe Old Brown Suitcase di Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, sopravvissuta all'Olocausto di Varsavia e Hana's Suitcase di Karen Levine, hanno commosso il mondo per la semplicità e l'intensità con cui descrivono questo momento devastante della storia degli ebrei. Questi sono libri che possono insegnare ai bambini gli eventi orribili, ma possono anche offrire letture alternative su questioni di razzismo, identità e diaspora. Imparando le culture, le tradizioni e le lingue degli altri, i bambini sono incoraggiati ad essere attenti, ricettivi e di mentalità più aperta; un primo passo per sradicare pregiudizi stereotipati e intolleranza verso coloro che sono considerati ‘diversi’.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is believed to be effective in treating refractory angina. The need for SCS-related chest paresthesia, however, has hitherto made impossible placebo-controlled trials. Subliminal (non paresthesic) SCS, however, might be also effective on anginal pain. In this trial we compared subliminal SCS with paresthesic SCS and with sham SCS. Twenty-five refractory angina patients, who had never received SCS before, underwent SCS device implantation and were randomized to three groups: paresthesic SCS (group PS; n=10), subliminal SCS (group SS; n=7) or "sham" SCS (group NS; n=8). After 1month group NS patients were randomized to either group PS or SS. After 1month, changes in angina episodes (p=0.016), nitroglycerin use (p=0.015), angina class (p=0.02), quality of life score (p=0.05), and items 2 (p=0.008) and 3 (p=0.009) of Seattle angina questionnaire differed significantly among groups. Group PS showed significant improvement in outcomes compared to group NS, whereas there were no significant differences between groups SS and NS; furthermore, only nitroglycerin use differed significantly between groups PS and SS. At 3months, a significant difference between groups PS and SS was observed in angina attacks (p=0.002), but not in other variables. Thus, in this study, paresthesic, but not subliminal SCS was superior to sham SCS in improving clinical status in refractory angina patients. The lack of significant differences between PS and SS groups in this small study suggests that a possible role for subliminal SCS in individual patients deserves to be assessed in larger trials with appropriate statistical power. Copyright © 2010 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lo studio evidenzia le relazioni esistenti nella letteratura d’immigrazione, tra il cibo e l’identità culturale ed etnica della famiglia. Inoltre si sofferma ad analizzare le esperienze transculturali nel nuovo mondo che traggono forza vitale da valori, credenze memorie storiche della propria comunità d’origine.Garlic, the most eloquent of plants, with the grace of a lily: Smells and Tastes in Canadian Ethnic LiteraturesThis essay examines how the relationship between food and the family’s cultural-ethnic identity is foregrounded in immigration literature. It also analyzes how the transcultural experiences of the new world are rooted in the values, beliefs and historical memories of the community of origin.

In the biomedicine field, scientists act as detectives working hard to unravel the mysteries surrounding cells. To this end, Raman spectroscopy has revealed itself particularly useful, providing information concerning both the chemical composition and the structural conformation of the investigated samples. If compared to many other techniques devoted to the identification of microorganisms (as for instance fluorescence spectroscopy), Raman spectroscopy presents the relevant advantage of providing sharp peaks correlated to vibrational modes of the investigated sample. Moreover, it is a noninvasive technique, not requiring the addition of chemical agents or labels for a sample identification. Therefore, Raman spectra behave as the fingerprints of the analyzed sample. Hence, the Raman spectroscopy technique represents a powerful tool to detect cellular transformations in real time, contributing to elucidate many biochemical processes even in living cells. However, the analytical capabilities of Raman spectroscopy are limited by its inability to manipulate, and therefore analyze the samples without making physical contact or disturbing their unique environment. This limitation has been resolved by coupling Raman spectroscopy to a technology called Optical Tweezers (OT). The new method, termed Raman Tweezers (RT), employs Optical Tweezers to trap a microsized object in order to confine its motion for Raman spectroscopic analysis. Optical Tweezers are based on the force exerted on micrometer-sized particles by a strongly focused laser beam. They allow trapping and manipulation of single particles without any mechanical contact. The technique, which was first developed by Arthur Ashkin et al. in 1970, has the ability to control objects ranging in size from 5 nm to over 100 micron, among which atoms, viruses, bacteria, proteins, cells, or other biological molecules. In such a way, a single selected particle can be spectroscopically analyzed in its natural environment, with

Per il soggetto migrante friulano che si ritrova in un paese (franco-)anglosassone come il Canada, ed in particolare per la donna friulana, la presenza del proprio gruppo etnico diventa un mediatore importante nel processo di ricostruzione della propria identità. Lo testimonia l’opera di Marisa De Franceschi, di Genni Gunn e di Dôre Michelut, scrittrici nate in Friuli, ma emigrate giovanissime in Canada.Experiences of Migrant Writing: The Accounts of Three Canadian Women of Friulian OriginFor Friulian migrant subjects in Canada, and in particular for Friulian women, the ethnic community is a crucial mediator in the process of identity reconstruction. This is witnessed in the works of Marisa De Franceschi, Genni Gunn and Dôre Michelut, three women writers who were born in Friuli and emigrated to Canada during their childhood.

Spesso autobiografiche, le poesie scritte principalmente in inglese anche se in alcune l’inclusione di titoli, di parole o di versi in italiano conferiscono maggiore liricità in quanto la scrittrice trascrive la duplicità linguistica e culturale tipica dell’immigrante. Esse raccontano la triste storia di tanti immigrati e la loro difficile assimilazione in un mondo anglosassone disattento o forse inconsapevole delle lotte della nuova società e a volte anche della famiglia stessa.Female Worlds and Other Canadian Tragedies: Gianna Patriarca’s PoetryGianna Patriarca’s often autobiographical poetry recounts the sad stories of many Italian immigrants and their difficult assimilation to the Anglo-Saxon world which is often unaware of the new conflicts they face vis-à-vis the new social context and their families. The poems are mainly written in English but include titles, words and verses in Italian so as to transcribe the typical linguistic and cultural duplicity that distinguishes immigrants.