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The essay dwells on the relationship between ancient myth and its modern and contemporary rewritings. It argues that, in order to better understand this relationship both morphologically and historically, it is necessary to consider myth as part of a polysystem. Therefore, after discussing what is to be considered as “myth”, it uses the so-called “Polysystem Theory”, as developed by Itamar Even-Zohar, to suggest a new insight on classical myth and, especially, on its reception., CoSMo | Comparative Studies in Modernism, N. 18 (2021): Morphology and Historical Sequence

Muovendo dai numerosi studi che negli ultimi anni hanno riportato al centro del dibattito critico i Dialoghi con Leucò e il loro rapporto col mondo antico, il contributo intende proporre una lettura di due dialoghi, Il fiore e Schiuma d'onda, attraverso cui ricostruire l'importanza ipotestuale delle Metamorfosi di Ovidio e, conseguentemente, analizzare le valenza simboliche affidate al fenomeno metamorfico. Dopo una premessa metodologica e una discussione delle interpretazioni del rapporto col poeta augusteo già proposte dalla critica, il saggio analizza i dialoghi menzionati proiettandoli sul duplice asse del passato antico e della principali interpretazioni e riscitture ovidiane del Novecento. In questo modo vengono individuati gli scarti e le assonanze col testo latino e, al contempo, viene evidenziata la particolarità della riscrittura mitica di Pavese, che può emergere in controluce anche rispetto alle più significative riprese del poema latino. In conclusione, si dimostra come la riscrittura di Ovidio e la risemantizzazione della metamorfosi possano essere considerate quali significative spie ermeneutiche per la categorizzazione del recupero mitico pavesiano all'interno del modernismo e del suo rinnovato interesse per il mito classico., Ticontre. Teoria Testo Traduzione, N. 13 (2020)

Recensione del libro Miti a bassa intensità. Racconti, media, vita quotidiana di Peppino Ortoleva., Between, Vol 10, No 19 (2020): The Cultures of Dissent in Europe in the second half of the Twentieth Century

Inserendosi nell’alveo dei più recenti studi sulle rappresentazioni artistiche delle emozioni e muovendo in particolare dall’analisi del rapporto tra vergogna ed espressione letteraria proposta recentemente da Timothy Bewes, il contributo intende analizzare la rappresentazione e la funzione della vergogna nella cosiddetta “trilogia americana” di Philip Roth. Attraverso un close reading dei tre romanzi – American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), The Human Stain (2000) – si mostrerà come il sentimento della vergogna sia alla base della dialettica tra accadere storico e vita individuale problematizzata dai testi in esame. Verrà inoltre dimostrato come un’idea di identità fluida e sempre condizionata dal rapporto con l’altro sia il territorio simbolico dove la costruzione romanzesca porta a collidere i destini generali e quelli privati, causando così quella caduta dei protagonisti che sarà possibile interpretare tramite la categoria del tragico.

Oggetto della tesi sono i Dialoghi con Leucò, ventisette dialoghi tra dèi ed eroi del mito antico, pubblicati da Cesare Pavese nel 1947. Muovendo dai molteplici studi che negli ultimi anni si sono interessati alla raccolta e al suo rapporto col mondo classico, riconducibili nell’alveo più ampio dell’ interesse verso la dimensione intertestuale dell’opera pavesiana e in quello ancor più generale delle riscritture del mito classico all’interno della letteratura italiana, il presente lavoro intende colmare una lacuna: nonostante gli indubbi passi avanti compiuti nell’interpretazione dei Dialoghi, il panorama critico è tuttora mancante di un’analisi complessiva di tutte le tessere della raccolta, cioè uno studio che si mostri capace di integrare i risultati raggiunti sino a oggi in una cornice sistemica che includa e consideri tutti i componimenti – obiettivo specifico del lavoro qui sviluppato. L’analisi, dal taglio spiccatamente comparativo, si snoda sul duplice binario della sincronia e della diacronia: da un lato vengono chiarite le strategie di adattamento e riscrittura dell’antico, mentre, dall’altro, l’indagine è arricchita dal raffronto con altre riscritture mitiche, letterarie e non solo, nella convinzione che solo da un’analisi globale dell’opera se ne possa produrre una nuova interpretazione e che questa non possa prescindere dal confronto e dalla contaminazione con tendenze, motivi ed emersioni mitiche successive, anche non immediatamente riconducibili a Pavese., The thesis is an in-depth analysis of Cesare Pavese's Dialoghi con Leucò (1947). Through a deep reconstruction of all the classical sources rewritten by the author, the work is studied in comparison both to the classical authors and to the most important modern and contemporary version of the same myths. Therefore, the dissertation is the first attempt to study every dialogue, and, for this reason, it fosters a new interpretation of the overall work, which can finally emerge in all its deepness and richness.

Soffre la Sicilia di un eccesso di identità, né so se sia un bene o se sia un male. Certo per chi c’è nato dura poco l’allegria di sentirsi seduto sull’ombelico del mondo, subentra presto la sofferenza di non saper districare tra mille curve e intrecci del sangue il filo del proprio destino». Con queste parole Gesualdo Bufalino, in Cere perse, metteva a fuoco le ambiguità di un forte sentimento di appartenenza all’isola, sentimento che si accompagnava, quasi come un destino ineffabile, alla sofferta consapevolezza di tutte le contraddizioni culturali, politiche e sociali della Sicilia., Review of the book L’invenzione della Sicilia. Letteratura, mafia, modernità by Matteo Di Gesù

The use of antiemetics for vomiting in acute gastroenteritis in children is still a matter of debate. We conducted a double-blind randomized trial to evaluate whether a single oral dose of ondansetron vs domperidone or placebo improves outcomes in children with gastroenteritis. After failure of initial oral rehydration administration, children aged 1-6 years admitted for gastroenteritis to the pediatric emergency departments of 15 hospitals in Italy were randomized to receive one oral dose of ondansetron (0.15 mg/kg) or domperidone (0.5 mg/kg) or placebo. The primary outcome was the percentage of children receiving nasogastric or intravenous rehydration. A p value of 0.014 was used to indicate statistical significance (and 98.6% CI were calculated) as a result of having carried out two interim analyses. 1,313 children were eligible for the first attempt with oral rehydration solution, which was successful for 832 (63.4%); 356 underwent randomization (the parents of 125 children did not give consent): 118 to placebo, 119 to domperidone, and 119 to ondansetron. Fourteen (11.8%) needed intravenous rehydration in the ondansetron group vs 30 (25.2%) and 34 (28.8%) in the domperidone and placebo groups, respectively. Ondansetron reduced the risk of intravenous rehydration by over 50%, both vs placebo (RR 0.41, 98.6% CI 0.20-0.83) and domperidone (RR 0.47, 98.6% CI 0.23-0.97). No differences for adverse events were seen among groups. In a context of emergency care, 6 out of 10 children aged 1-6 years with vomiting due to gastroenteritis and without severe dehydration can be managed effectively with administration of oral rehydration solution alone. In children who fail oral rehydration, a single oral dose of ondansetron reduces the need for intravenous rehydration and the percentage of children who continue to vomit, thereby facilitating the success of oral rehydration. Domperidone was not effective for the symptomatic treatment of vomiting during acute gastroenteritis.

Objective: An active surveillance system to estimate adverse drug and vaccine events in children is coordinated by the National Institute of Health in Italy. The study is conducted in some Italian paediatric hospitals and departments. Methods: The study includes children hospitalised through the Emergency Department for thrombocytopenia, esophageal and gastroduodenal lesions, neurological disorders, muco-cutaneous diseases. Drug exposure is retrieved through interview to parents. The association between drugs (or vaccines) and events is estimated with a case-control study design. Results: 2,887 children hospitalised have been enrolled from November 1999 to June 2006. A 2.2 risk of thrombocytopenia has been associated with antibiotics. An increased risk associated with MMR vaccine has been confirmed (OR 2.7). An increased risk of non febrile seizures has been associated with hexavalent vaccines (OR 2.7). Conclusion: The study confirmed and quantified recommendations coming from the spontaneous reporting system and it is an important support for the Italian national pharmacovigilance.

Introduction Variants in the CACNA1A gene on chromosome 19p13 result in a spectrum of neurological phenotypes ranging from familial or sporadic hemiplegic migraine to congenital or progressive encephalopathies. Patients with CACNA1A variants often show acute attacks with ataxia or hemiplegia till coma, sometimes related to unilateral brain oedema. No guidelines for the medical management of these attacks are available since treatment is empiric, and many cases do not respond to common antimigraine drugs. Case description We report on the emergency personalized treatment protocol used in an 11 year-old girl with CACNA1A-related encephalopathy for the management of acute attacks of headache, hemiconvulsions and hemiplegia with coma. Discussion Combined corticosteroid pulses and hypertonic solution led to a reduction in severity and duration of acute attacks when administered in the early stages, characterized by migraine, seizure, fever, vomiting and impairment of consciousness associated to hemispheric slowing on the EEG.

•Vaccine effectiveness in children visiting an Emergency Department for influenza.•Test negative case-control study in 11 paediatric centres in two influenza seasons.•Vaccine effectiveness in preventing ED visits: 38% (95% CI -52% to 75%).•Add information for recommendation for vaccination in children. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine in preventing Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalisations for influenza like illness (ILI) in children. Methods: We conducted a test negative case-control study during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 influenza seasons. Eleven paediatric hospital/wards in seven Italian regions participated in the study. Consecutive children visiting the ED with an ILI, as diagnosed by the doctor according to the European Centre for Disease Control case definition, were eligible for the study. Data were collected from trained pharmacists/physicians by interviewing parents during the ED visit (or hospital admission) of their children. An influenza microbiological test (RT-PCR) was carried out in all children. Results: Seven-hundred and four children, from 6 months to 16 years of age, were enrolled: 262 children tested positive for one of the influenza viruses (cases) and 442 tested negative (controls). Cases were older than controls (median age 46 vs. 29 months), though with a similar prevalence of chronic conditions. Only 25 children (4%) were vaccinated in the study period. The overall age-adjusted vaccine effectiveness (VE) was 38% (95% confidence interval -52% to 75%). A higher VE was estimated for hospitalised children (53%; 95% confidence interval -45% to 85%). Discussion: This study supports the effectiveness of the seasonal influenza vaccine in preventing visits to the EDs and hospitalisations for ILI in children, although the estimates were not statistically significant and with wide confidence intervals. Future systematic reviews of available data will provide more robust evidence for recommending influenza vaccination in children. © 2014 The Authors.

The publication explores the impact of the global financial crisis and of the European sovereign debt crisis on democratic principles in Europe. They have been democracy as much as financial crises. They not only emerged in democratic countries – first in the United States than in European countries – but caused the worst consequences on other democratic countries, where they had an impact on democratic governance. The two crises produced a number of institutional changes in Europe, which will be explored in the following paragraphs. Some patterns will appear as we go through this list of institutional novelties: first of all, the expanding role of the top political bodies (European Council, Eurozone Summit) and of the technocratic ones (IMF, European Commission, ECB, EMS). This evolution was legitimated by the circumstances, in particular by a sense of urgency, that limited the debate – and the time-consuming parliamentarism – and validated «technical» solutions. Such trends go hand in hand with technocratic solutions used as recipes for recovery, like the preference for regulatory solutions or the extensive use of the conditionality mechanism. As we will explain, the approach inspired by austerity is nothing but a natural consequence. After a comprehensive examination, a fact crops out: there has been a compression of democratic governance at national level through decisions stemming from less than democratic procedures represented to citizens as the only possible way out of the crisis. The scenario might look gloomy, but the goal of this analysis is to prove that the current crisis opened up a window of opportunity not only to address the original flaws of the EMU’s institutional frame as well as the limits of crisis management mechanisms but also to increase European citizens’ awareness and their demand for a more democratic governance.