Search results for " Mediterranean."

La strategia europea delle macroregioni. Opportunità e criticità

2018

Le politiche regionali europee hanno offerto nuovi spazi per promuovere l’azione ai livelli subnazionali di governo, nonché la possibilità di sperimentare nuove strategie per lo sviluppo territoriale. In questo lavoro prenderemo in considerazione la strategia macroregionale dell’Unione Europea al fine di identificare opportunità e aspetti critici delle esperienze già maturate (macroregioni del Mar Baltico, del Danubio, Adriatico-Ionica e Alpina), con particolare attenzione alla possibilità di istituire una macroregione del Mediterraneo occidentale. Alcune riflessioni e questioni critiche vengono proposte nella parte finale del contributo. European regional policies have offered new spaces t…

Between Wakes and Waves: An Anti-Geopolitical View of a Postcolonial Mediterranean Space

2020

The Mediterranean Sea is today a crucial space for the contemporary globalised world. This essay aims to explore the Mediterranean Sea as a geopolitical space of conflict and dominion through the lens of border and diasporic studies, and to look for those voices coming from “the colonial” as a process that put in crisis the Western hegemonic narration. In this postcolonial and diasporic sea, different powers, interests, dominions, but also voices, dissonances, trajectories, coexist and intersect. Following Paul Gilroy’s argument in The Black Atlantic, today the Mediterranean is both a reduced Middle Passage with the migrant’s routes, and a counter-archive of the contemporaneity. Indeed, the…

Fare rotta verso nuove terre: la diaspora greco-albanese della prima età moderna

2021

The contribution aims to frame the diasporic phenomenon of the 15th-16th centuries of the Balkan populations from areas roughly corresponding today to Albania and Greece, reading it according to a plurality of levels and intertwining that characterize the Mediterranean modern age history. Specifically, the paper summarizes the most recent reflections on the subject and focuses on the reasons that triggered the migration flows and on the historiographical narration over the centuries.

Pirati nel Mediterraneo: Benvenuto e Giorgio Graffeo tra Siclia, Sardegna e corte aragonese

2020

Il saggio ricostruisce il ruolo di Benvenuto Graffeo, barone di Partanna, e del fratello Giorgio, barone di Adragna, in un complesso periodo della storia siciliana caratterizzato dal conflitto angioino-aragonese e dagli interessi della Corona d’Aragona sull’isola. Consiglieri e sostenitori della Corona, la loro storia si affianca a quella di altri nobili che nel XIV secolo esercitarono l’attività di pirati e di corsari nel Mediterraneo. Il rinvenimento di documenti inediti ha permesso di chiarire alcuni dubbi e fornire nuovi elementi per la storia della famiglia. The essay reconstructs the role of Benvenuto Graffeo, baron of Partanna, and of his brother Giorgio, baron of Adragna, in a compl…

Mediterranean Diet as a tool for achieving successful ageing

2017

Targeted interventions to slow or postpone ageing and to favour an active life expectancy represent the new perspectives in ageing investigation. Some mechanisms that delay or prevent the onset of ageing disabilities and pathologies have been identified. In general, maintaining a healthy lifestyle seems to reduce many risk factors. In particular, eating habits represent the most concrete and low-cost method to address ageing. Of all dietary habits analysed, the Mediterranean diet has received much attention since it has consistently proven its beneficial influence on health and longevity. The Mediterranean diet is characterized by low glycaemic index and low animal protein intake, it is ric…

Healthy eating as a strategy to achieve successful ageing: focus on Mediterranean diet and functional foods.

People want to live longer. To date, it is impossible not to grow older, but it is desirable to get older in good health, avoiding age-related disabilities. To do this, it is necessary to have a healthy lifestyle which can limit the damage caused by the environmental hazards that face us each day. In humans, healthy ageing and longevity are modulated by a fortunate interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Regarding the latter, physical activity and healthy dietary habits are the most important modifiable factors that can affect the maintenance of a healthy ageing phenotype. A feasible diet that reduces the risk of ageing-related diseases, promoting health ageing and longevity,…

Misdiagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease

2013

Fabry disease (FD) is an underdiagnosed pathology due to its symptomatology that overlaps with various systemic and rheumatic disorders, including familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). We examined the Mediterranean fever (MEFV) and α-galactosidase A (GLA) genes, whose mutations are responsible for FMF and FD, respectively, in 42 unrelated patients diagnosed with FMF, which revealed significant ambiguity regarding some of the symptoms which are also present in FD. The objective of this study was to determine the spectrum of mutations present in these genes, in order to identify cases of mistaken diagnosis of FMF and/or missed diagnosis of FD. Ten out of 42 patients had one mutation in homozyg…

Slow-Ageing Diets

2019

Ageing is a complex, unavoidable phenomenon than cannot be exhaustively defined. However, it has been described as a process leading to death, characterized by a gradual decrease of the ability to adapt to stress, causing a decline in functional capacity. This event, marked by a progressive loss of physiological integrity of many interrelated systems, determines an increased risk of morbidity and mortality (Avery et al. 2014). With increase of the proportion of older adults worldwide (United Nations 2017), it is necessary to carry out prevention policy for a healthy ageing (HA). Good nutrition plays a significant role in determining the well-being of older people, and in delaying and reduci…

ApoE polymorphism in a small Mediterranean island: Relationships with plasma lipids, lipoproteins and LDL particle size

2001

Polymorphisms of apoE gene are able to modulate lipoprotein metabolism at different steps and to influence LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels and also other lipoproteins features. Population studies documented large differences in the frequency of apoE alleles which could be even related to the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. In this study we evaluated the apoE genotypes and allele frequency in 576 subjects living in a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and the relative contribution of apoE polymorphism on plasma lipid and lipoprotein profile, including LDL particle size. We found a cumulative frequency of 0.073, 0.866 and 0.061 for ε2, ε3 and ε4 alleles respectively. Moreover ε3 subjects…

OLIVE OIL CONSUMPTION AND RISK OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE AND/OR STROKE: A META-ANALYSIS OF CASE-CONTROL, COHORT AND INTERVENTION STUDIES

2014

Increasing evidence suggests that the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of CVD. Olive oil is the hallmark of this dietary pattern. We conducted a meta-analysis of case–control, prospective cohort studies and a randomised controlled trial investigating the specific association between olive oil consumption and the risk of CHD (101 460 participants) or stroke (38 673 participants). The results of all observational studies were adjusted for total energy intake. The random-effects model assessing CHD as an outcome showed a relative risk (RR) of 0·73 (95% CI 0·44, 1·21) in case–control studies and 0·96 (95% CI 0·78, 1·18) in cohort studies for a 25 g increase in olive oil consumption. In co…