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Why do rebels enter formal politics whilst at the same time seeking to preserve their informal military force? Scholars tend to see armed political parties as either a transient phenomenon when states transition from war to peace or, conversely, as a failure of the peace process. Whilst some view armed political parties as signalling a move towards democratisation, others consider them as examples of the failure of the post-war democratisation. Based on rebels’ political participation in the Middle East, this chapter puts forward an alternative explanation. It argues that rebel groups enter formal politics when the threat to their informal role increases. They enter politics to secure their autonomy from it.

Europe’s cultural heritage is among the richest in the world, and draws millions of visitors to archeological sites, museums, monuments, castles, and other sites each year. The protection and conservation of European heritage is of utmost importance for our society, not only in order to preserve the European cultural identity, but also because cultural heritage is a wealth creator bringing tourism-related business opportunities on which many communities depend. However, Europe’s heritage assets are extremely exposed to climate change and natural hazards, which threatens their integrity and may compromise their value. The goal of the STORM (Safeguarding Cultural Heritage through Technical and Organisational Management) project is to provide critical decision-making tools to European cultural heritage stakeholders affected by climate change and natural hazards. Here, the STORM project will be presented with a focus on climate change and natural hazard risk communication to the involved stakeholders. However, climate change communication is not a one-way process, and discussions with stakeholders are necessary to identify their specific needs. Hence, the STORM concept is tested through pilot site studies in five different countries: the Diocletian Baths in Rome, Italy; the Mellor Heritage site, Manchester, UK; the Roman Ruins of Tróia, Portugal; the Historical Centre of Rethymno on Crete, Greece and Ephesus, Izmir, Turkey. Furthermore, the past and future climatic conditions at the project’s pilot sites are analysed in terms of mean state and extreme events (for example temperature and precipitation changes evident from observations and climate scenarios), which will be discussed with regard to their relevance for the local cultural heritage protection based on discussions with the stakeholders.

8th International Conference on Building Resilience – ICBR Lisbon’2018 Risk and Resilience in Practice Lisbon, Portugal

Precious corals are some of the most valuable living marine resources, growing and commercially exploited only in limited areas of the world, namely the Mediterranean Sea and the Northern Pacific Ocean. Their skeleton is formed by calcium carbonate crystallized in the form of calcite whereas their color is because of the presence of partially demethylated polyene pigments. Recently, Pacific corals have been included in the appendix II of CITES list, while Mediterranean corals are still excluded. Different Corallium species of Corallidae family (e.g. Corallium rubrum, Corallium elatius and Corallium secundum) collected from different locations of the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean were analyzed by Raman spectroscopy for the characterization of the reddish pigment and by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for the determination of the chemical composition of their skeletons, in order to obtain molecular and elemental data with two relatively easy and non-destructive techniques, which can be used quite steadily for authentication purposes. Raman analysis demonstrated the presence of specific vibrational bands useful to identify the colored pigments as a mixture involving methylated and demethylated polyenes such as carotenoids and parrodienes, characterized by the presence of -CH3 groups along the polyene chain. The ratio between the Raman signal and fluorescence background was found to vary as a function of the macroscopic color of the coral, but Raman analyses resulted inadequate for distinguishing between corals having similar color but different origins. On the other side, XRF data provided reliable information for an appropriate separation between Pacific and Mediterranean corals at the elemental level. The results of this study will be of great relevance for the authentication and identification of the origin of corals in trade market by means of completely non-destructive techniques. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Elevated intraocular pressure may lead to retinal ganglion cell injury and consequent visual deficits. Chronic intraocular pressure increase is a major risk factor for glaucoma, a leading blinding disease, and permanent visual deficits can also occur following acute pressure increments due to trauma, acute glaucoma or refractive surgery. How pressure affects retinal neurons is not firmly established. Mechanical damage at the optic nerve head, reduced blood supply, inflammation and cytotoxic factors have all been called into play. Reasoning that the analysis of retinal neurons soon after pressure elevation would provide useful cues, we imaged individual ganglion cells in isolated rat retinas before and after short hydrostatic pressure increments. We found that slowly rising pressure to peaks observed in trauma, acute glaucoma or refractive surgery (50-90 mmHg) did not damage ganglion cells, whereas a rapid 1 min pulse to 50 mmHg injured 30% of these cells within 1 h. The severity of damage and the number of affected cells increased with stronger or repeated insults. Degrading extracellular ATP or blocking the P2X receptors for ATP prevented acute pressure-induced damage in ganglion cells. Similar effects were observed in vivo. A short intraocular pressure transient increased extracellular ATP levels in the eye fluids and damaged ganglion cells within 1 h. Reducing extracellular ATP in the eye prevented damage to ganglion cells and accelerated recovery of their response to light. These data show that rapid pressure transients induce acute ganglion cell injury and unveil the causal role of extracellular ATP elevation in such injury.

8th International Conference on Laser Ablation, Banff, Canada, September 11-16, 2005

4 - ICPEPA, Lecce, Italy, 5-9 September 2004

The occurrence of mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene is a specific and recurring genetic event in solid tumors. P53 plays a pivotal role in multiple cellular processes such as cell growth control, DNA repair and programmed cell death. Genotoxic damage, also induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, induces p53 overexpression in order to control the rate of proliferating damaged cells, thus triggering the mismatch repair or apoptotic pathways. P53 inactivation determines a condition of genetic instability, justifying the subsequent susceptibility to acquire mutations of different other genes. P53 mutations are associated with worse prognosis and with chemo/radioresistance, due to the inability to trigger p53-dependent programmed cell death. Molecular diagnostic strategies show 32% p53 mutations in breast cancer. The analysis of the p53 gene performed by FAMA (Fluorescence Assisted Mismatch Analysis) in high-risk breast cancer patients withor = 10 involved axillary nodes may help identify a subset of very high risk BC patients (vHR-BC) with poorer prognosis and a subset with better prognosis, potentially responsive to medical treatments. The accurate evaluation of the p53 status can predict prognosis and sensitivity to chemotherapy, thus representing the first step toward better definition of therapeutic strategies according to the molecular characterization of the individual patient.

In this paper we propose an optical switch exploiting the ferroelectric properties of liquid crystals. The electrodes of indium and tin oxide (ITO) are substituted with aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) films in order to reduce their shielding effect on the coupling strength between the two waveguides.

Optical transitions of Er3+ ion in tellurite glasses were investigated. It was found that these glasses have high and broadband absorption and stimulated emission cross sections at 1.5 ?m. For the metastable 4I13/2 level, quantum efficiency higher than 80% was found.