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Come hanno dimostrato differenti studi (tra cui Taylor, 2018; Gandolfi, 2020), Twitch.tv è una piattaforma di streaming fortemente connotata intermedialmente la quale, recentemente, ha contribuito sempre più a rinegoziare i luoghi e le pratiche di fruizione di un’eterogena pletora di contenuti. Partendo da tale considerazione, nel presente articolo si tenteranno principalmente di analizzare i Let’s Play in diretta, tipologia di giochi video predominante sulla piattaforma, in un’ottica di rimediazione (Bolter & Grusin, 1999) e rilocazione (Casetti, 2015) di esperienze cinematografiche. A tal fine, l’analisi che segue si concentrerà sul rintracciare alcune convergenze tra le due pratiche mediali e gli spazi a essi connessi, approfondendo soprattutto la ricorsività di una figura cardine del cinema delle attrazioni, l’imbonitore. La volontà, dunque, è quella di evidenziare, ponendosi all’interno di una ricerca media-archeologica, la capacità dell’era digitale di riproporre strutture mediali del passato (come quelle del cinema delle origini) sotto la facies mutata e intermediale di contenuti apparentemente così differenti come quelli dei giochi video su Internet.

The paper identifies what is meant by culture and examines approaches to mapping it, while suggesting alternatives. It notes the global spread of action learning, expressed through the prism of Western values, although practice is not necessarily reflective of the original ethos. It offers some rules of thumb on the use of action learning in different cultural settings and suggests a need for mutual adjustment and for research on action learning in a variety of cultural contexts.

Abstract Both CDKN1A (p21 Waf1/Cip1) and Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) play important roles in tumorigenesis. The role of p21 Waf1/Cip1 in attenuating ASK1-induced apoptosis by various stress conditions is well established. However, how ASK1 and p21 Waf1/Cip1 functionally interact during tumorigenesis is still unclear. To address this aspect, we crossed ASK1 knockout (ASK1KO) mice with p21 Waf1/Cip1 knockout (p21KO) mice to compare single and double-mutant mice. We observed that deletion of p21 Waf1/Cip1 leads to increased keratinocyte proliferation but also increased cell death. This is mechanistically linked to the ASK1 axis-induced apoptosis, including p38 and PARP. Indeed, deletion of ASK1 does not alter the proliferation but decreases the apoptosis of p21KO keratinocytes. To analyze as this interaction might affect skin carcinogenesis, we investigated the response of ASK1KO and p21KO mice to DMBA/TPA-induced tumorigenesis. Here we show that while endogenous ASK1 is dispensable for skin homeostasis, ASK1KO mice are resistant to DMBA/TPA-induced tumorigenesis. However, we found that epidermis lacking both p21 and ASK1 reacquires increased sensitivity to DMBA/TPA-induced tumorigenesis. We demonstrate that apoptosis and cell-cycle progression in p21KO keratinocytes are uncoupled in the absence of ASK1. These data support the model that a critical event ensuring the balance between cell death, cell-cycle arrest, and successful divisions in keratinocytes during stress conditions is the p21-dependent ASK1 inactivation.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is characterized by early metastasis, resistance to anti-cancer therapy, and high mortality rate. Despite considerable progress in the development of new treatment options that improved survival benefits in patients with early-stage or advanced CRC, many patients relapse due to the activation of intrinsic or acquired chemoresistance mechanisms. Recently, we reported novel findings about the role of Jagged1 in CRC tumors with Kras signatures. We showed that Jagged1 is a novel proteolytic target of Kras signaling, which induces Jagged1 processing/activation resulting in Jag1-ICD release, which favors tumor development in vivo, through a non-canonical mechanism. Herein, we demonstrate that OXP and 5FU cause a strong accumulation of Jag1-ICD oncogene, through ERK1/2 activation, unveiling a surviving subpopulation with an enforced Jag1-ICD expression, presenting the ability to counteract OXP/5FU-induced apoptosis. Remarkably, we also clarify the clinical ineffectiveness of γ-secretase inhibitors (GSIs) in metastatic CRC (mCRC) patients. Indeed, we show that GSI compounds trigger Jag1-ICD release, which promotes cellular growth and EMT processes, functioning as tumor-promoting agents in CRC cells overexpressing Jagged1. We finally demonstrate that Jagged1 silencing in OXP- or 5FU-resistant subpopulations is enough to restore the sensitivity to chemotherapy, confirming that drug sensitivity/resistance is Jag1-ICD-dependent, suggesting Jagged1 as a molecular predictive marker for the outcome of chemotherapy.

Nowadays, there is an increasing focus on knowledge input and output measurement rather than assessing the characteristics of the knowledge itself. This phenomenon happens since knowledge becomes central into capitalistic production processes: the competitive advantage of countries is the principal engine for the production of high-value, non-ubiquitous and complex knowledge (see Dicken, 2007). In this paper, we present the reaction-diffusion equations and their application to a particular economic phenomenon: in which way knowledge complexity diffusion might affect or not affect the labour productivity across the Eastern European countries. More profoundly, the aim followed by the present research work is to provide Eastern European countries with a substitute approach: a strategy. This strategy has the objective of enabling these countries to avoid acting as knowledge predators towards other countries (i.e. those such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark, referred to as prey countries, which invest their resources in knowledge and therefore in technology). We simulate the knowledge competition and the spill-over productivity effects across the Eastern and some European countries using specific reaction-diffusion equations types: the Lotka-Volterra equations which are able to describe a complex dynamic system of the prey-predator phenomenon. Our approach is based on the two steps of analysis. In essence, the first step, we compute the Knowledge Complexity Index of patents, for quantifying the European knowledge complexity; describing the possible spatial patterns and transformation of the European knowledge. Furthermore, we use the canonical Lotka-Volterra models of patents from the European Patent Office and the labour productivity data from the Eurostat database from 2000 and 2017 for Eastern European countries and some European countries, such as Finland, Sweden, Austria and Germany. More specifically, we have identified the presence of lagged knowledge between the Eastern European countries and some Northern European, such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In conclusion, the implementation of specific knowledge diffusion policy strategies could be helpful for future applications. It may avoid intra-guild cannibalism phenomenon from being engaged in some Eastern European countries.

Nowadays, there are numerous initiatives in response to contemporary socio-economic challenges. One possible response could be the social innovation phenomenon defined, according to Avelino et al. (2017), as the changing of social relations and involving new way of doing things. In this context, the aim of the paper is to discuss the empowerment and the social innovations concept by developing the empowerment mechanisms under a social psychology point of view, at one side, and exploring, in an empirical way, how people are empowered through transactional linkages, the translocal network. In particular, it is necessary to identify which translocal empowerment dimension is present across the European countries via the selection and the analysis of the possible social innovation proxies. To do this, it is necessary to comprehend the social innovation determinants at the macro-economic level across the European countries. Using the Akgüҁ multivariate regression model (2019), the paper studies the role of one possible social innovation proxy: the social protection expenditure. Under a methodological point of view, this model is used since it allows the combination between the traditional macro-level variables and the innovative ones, such as cultural norms and fear of failure; and it permits the inclusion of the country-specific characteristics. It also takes into account the macro-economic circumstance, the international financial crisis of 2008 until 2017. This period of analysis permits to control if the international economic crisis in 2008 might have influenced in some way the translocal empowerment dimension and brings together a panel data of different indicators from different data sources, such as Eurostat and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which provides measures of the entrepreneurial behaviour within countries. As part of the robustness check, we have used social innovation measures that could include country fixed effects accounting the heterogeneities across European countries. What emerges from the present empirical study is that the translocal network could be considered as a crucial factor for the social innovation implementation, since social innovation actors might access the local resources, developing, at the same time, the ability to interface with the local institutions, present in the current socio-economic system.

Nowadays, it has been besetted with knowledge input and output measurement instead of analyze the quality of the knowledge produced. Since knowledge become central into capitalistic production processes, the competitive advantage of countries is the principal engine for the production of high-value, non-ubiquitous and complex knowledge (see Dicken, 2007). The aim of the present study is to measure the knowledge complexity of the European countries from 2004 to 2013, designing the knowledge evolution and distribution. One consequent intention is to examine in which way the spatial knowledge diffusion might be connected to complexity. To achieve these purposes, we identified the presence of the European country-tech knowledge network, used as starting point to compute the Knowledge Complexity Index, in which the technological classes are composed by the countries having an relative technological advantage in terms of patent spread. Subsequently, we used two distinct types of statistical analysis: the first, based on non-linear clustering with Self-Organizing Map (SOM hereafter) neural network, for evaluating the performance development of the European countries between 2004 and 2013, where, for example, Eat countries, located at the top of the map, show low values in almost all considered variables; and the second one, based on the Knowledge Complexity Index (KCI hereafter) of technological classes, for quantifying the European knowledge complexity; describing the possible spatial patterns and transformation of the European knowledge. What emerges from the present study is an inactive spatial state of art, in which only the Northern European countries produce the most conglomerate knowledge and technologies. In this structure, it is necessary to stress out that what affirmed previously could be considered the basis for the improvement and the achievement of the specific country’s innovation policy. However, under complex knowledge terms, the previous innovation policies might be assimilated with a useful tool for the increment of that technologies that present more complexity than the original ones.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted the way in which individuals, government and society interact each other. As a consequence, ICTs represent a dynamic and new way by which it could be possible to explain the countries’ development into the Knowledge-Based Society. Why is it possible to consider ICTs as a dynamic instrument for explaining this phenomenon? ICT can create networking, to connect learning experience and innovation to each other. Alongside the growing increase in ICTs, the concept of social capital in the twenty years has found interest in all sectors due to the rise of the concept of virtual community. In this context, researchers have focused on the role it could play in building communities, increasing economic productivity and contributing to country development. In this sense, ICT and social capital concepts interlink with each other in a variety of ways: social capital could contribute to the diffusion of ICT but, at the same time, ICTs could have a role in the social capital formation. Given the possible interactions between the two concepts, this paper aims to map out the relationship between ICT and social capital studying the related variables’ disparities among European countries. This paper shows evidence of the geography of this relationship in Europe. For the statistical and geographical analysis, we used a non-linear cluster neural network, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). This tool was used to analyse the performance of European countries in 2015. The properties of the algorithm lead the SOM map to be a representation of the statistical property of the original dataset used to create it thanking the learning nature of the algorithm; the statistical dissimilarity is translated into space distance and vice versa. Also, it was possible because the dataset has been mapped onto the surface of the SOM by adding each neuron up to colour gradient. The results show the isolation of Balkan and Eastern European countries. In particular, we found that ICT may promote social capital, that is, ICT could play a decisive role in creating and developing social capital. These results prompt the formulation of new policies for European countries.

Dissipative accounts of structure formation show that the self-organisation of complex structures is thermodynamically favoured, whenever these structures dissipate free energy that could not be accessed otherwise. These structures therefore open transition channels for the state of the universe to move from a frustrated, metastable state to another metastable state of higher entropy. However, these accounts apply as well to relatively simple, dissipative systems, such as convection cells, hurricanes, candle flames, lightning strikes, or mechanical cracks, as they do to complex biological systems. Conversely, interesting computational properties—that characterize complex biological systems, such as efficient, predictive representations of environmental dynamics—can be linked to the thermodynamic efficiency of underlying physical processes. However, the potential mechanisms that underwrite the selection of dissipative structures with thermodynamically efficient subprocesses is not completely understood. We address these mechanisms by explaining how bifurcation-based, work-harvesting processes—required to sustain complex dissipative structures—might be driven towards thermodynamic efficiency. We first demonstrate a simple mechanism that leads to self-selection of efficient dissipative structures in a stochastic chemical reaction network, when the dissipated driving chemical potential difference is decreased. We then discuss how such a drive can emerge naturally in a hierarchy of self-similar dissipative structures, each feeding on the dissipative structures of a previous level, when moving away from the initial, driving disequilibrium.

Microwave tracking, usually performed by on ground processing of the signals coming from a spacecraft, represents a crucial aspect in every deep-space mission. Various noise sources, including receiver noise, affect these signals, limiting the accuracy of the radiometric measurements obtained from the radio link. There are several methods used for spacecraft tracking, including the Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging ( Δ DOR) technique. In the past years, European Space Agency (ESA) missions relied on a narrowband Δ DOR system for navigation in the cruise phase. To limit the adverse effect of nonlinearities in the receiving chain, an innovative wideband approach to Δ DOR measurements has recently been proposed. This work presents the hardware implementation of a new version of the ESA X/Ka Deep Space Transponder based on the new tracking technique named Wideband Δ DOR (W- Δ DOR). The architecture of the new transponder guarantees backward compatibility with narrowband Δ DOR.