University for Foreigners of Siena

Language and cultural barriers can compromise the quality of healthcare by generating misunderstandings that affect diagnosis, treatment, and patient satisfaction. As societies become increasingly multilingual, the need for professional language and cultural mediation is growing (Angelelli 2004; Gattiglia and Morelli 2022). Research has shown that emotional well-being is crucial to both mediator performance and care quality (Baraldi and Gavioli 2016; Curi et al. 2020). Both professional interpreters – though trained to maintain neutrality and emotional distance (Hsieh 2008) – and non-professional interpreters – e.g. family members or community brokers – tend to be deeply emotionally engaged. In both cases, exposure to patients’ suffering may lead to vicarious trauma, particularly in healthcare contexts (Du 2024). When mediators focus solely on meaning transfer, patients’ emotions risk being silenced, weakening empathic communication (Krystallidou et al. 2020). Drawing on multimodal ethnography, discourse analysis, and data from the THE (Tuscany Health Ecosystem) project, this article examines the emotional labor of language and cultural mediators within broader sociopolitical frameworks. Findings highlight the interplay of motivation, frustration, ethical dilemmas, and burnout in mediation work, emphasizing the need for targeted training that integrates medical language, AI-assisted tools, and emotional resilience, alongside institutional recognition of the mediators’ role and well-being.

The overseas Chinese population in Italy exceeds 300,000 (ISTAT 2023), making Italy one of the main European destinations for this demographic. In Tuscany, approximately 68,000 Chinese residents live across 210 municipalities, representing over 16% of the total foreign population and one of the most prevalent nationalities in the region (Regione Toscana 2023). This contribution presents findings from Subproject 3 of THE (Tuscany Health Ecosystem) – Spoke 3, which investigates foreigners’ attitudes towards the Italian public healthcare system and their interactions with medical personnel. The study first provides an overview of formal and informal Language and Cultural Mediation (LCM) practices in Tuscan healthcare settings. It also reviews specific programs aimed at promoting professional mediation, including initiatives implemented in other Italian regions, evaluating their success and effectiveness. The core findings are based on a questionnaire administered to 208 Chinese-speaking patients who interacted with the Tuscan healthcare system. The survey was designed using the Wenjuanxing 问卷星 platform (Bing and Brown 2018) and distributed mainly via WeChat in 2024 to Chinese-speaking residents with prolonged experience in Tuscany. The questionnaire aimed to examine the types of mediation available to Chinese patients in healthcare settings and to assess their attitudes and perceptions regarding these services. The contribution presents quantitative results from data collection, followed by a statistical analysis of heterogeneous attitudes towards mediation services according to age, gender, and length of residence in Italy. Results confirm the importance of LCM, including for long-term residents, while also highlighting the widespread use of informal mediation and language brokering alongside professional services. The study ultimately examines the differing impacts of formal and informal mediation on Chinese-speaking patients in Tuscany, with the goal of informing future interventions to strengthen this essential service.

Тема монографії наукового співробітника Відділу рукописів НБУВ Людмили Петрушко на перший погляд видається передусім філологічною та частково психологічною, однак методологічна перспектива дослідження значно ширша. Авторка – кандидат історичних наук, робота виконана під науковим керівництвом знаного українського історика Василя Ульяновського, що багато в чому визначає характер аналізу обраного матеріалу. Саме історичний підхід забезпечує монографії високу точність, аргументованість і зважене, об’єктивне ставлення до аналізованих текстів. Дослідниця уважна до розбіжностей між різними редакціями Києво­Печерського патерика, широко залучає додаткові матеріали, зокрема текстологічні, і послідовно працює з джерельною базою, що вигідно вирізняє книжку серед тематичних студій, побудованих переважно на інтерпретації окремих сюжетів.

Background: Cystic echinococcosis remains endemic in many regions, with the liver representing the most affected organ. Surgical treatment is still required for large, symptomatic, or complicated hepatic hydatid cysts.Objective: To evaluate surgical outcomes and postoperative complications associated with different surgical approaches for hepatic hydatid cysts in a single-centre cohort over 19 years.Methods: This retrospective observational study included 146 patients who underwent surgical treatment for hepatic hydatid cysts at Mureș Clinical County Hospital between 2004 and 2023. Patients were classified into four groups according to the surgical technique: open conservative surgery (Mabit-Lagrot, with or without Kehr drainage), minimally invasive procedures (PAIR/PAIR-D), radical or complex surgery, and ultrasound-guided drainage. Demographic, operative, and postoperative outcomes were analysed.Results: The Mabit-Lagrot technique was the most frequently performed procedure (45.9%). Overall, postoperative complications occurred in 25.3% of patients, with recurrent abscessed hydatid cysts representing the most common event. Minimally invasive procedures were associated with shorter hospital stays and lower complication rates in selected cases. Postoperative total bilirubin and amylase levels differed significantly across surgical groups, with higher values observed after more invasive procedures.Conclusion: Postoperative outcomes following surgical treatment of hepatic hydatid cysts vary according to procedural invasiveness. While open surgery remains effective, it is associated with higher morbidity. Minimally invasive approaches represent valid alternatives in appropriately selected patients. Early postoperative bilirubin and amylase levels appear to reflect surgical invasiveness rather than predict complications.

Young Nabokov, during his Berlin emigration, writes a text titled Rech’ Pozdnyshev (Pozdnyshev’s Speech, 1926), a short work that originates from Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata and is intended to be declaimed before an audience of Russian emigrants. In letters to his wife Vera in June and July 1926, Nabokov mentions the work in progress and then the final result. His statements – about rereading Tolstoy, his impressions, the reaction of the audience gathered in Berlin to attend the recitation of Pozdnyshev’s Speech – constitute in the present work a starting point for developing a comparative analysis between the two texts, Tolstoy’s and Nabokov’s, with the aim of bringing out thematic and stylistic similarities and differences, and reflecting on the value of both. What emerges is that this work, born as a playful exercise and with an ending opposite to Tolstoy’s, fits fully into Nabokov’s «unique text».

Il contributo esplora alcuni dei risultati principali di una ricerca sul campo condotta nella città di Liverpool, analizzando il ruolo del Linguistic Homescape nelle famiglie con retroterra migratorio nella promozione, valorizzazione e mantenimento delle lingue. L’analisi mette in luce come l’ambiente domestico non sia solo un semplice sfondo, ma un luogo che può svolgere un ruolo attivo nella promozione del plurilinguismo. L’homescape emerge come spazio di agency familiare e continuità culturale, capace di sostenere l’apprendimento linguistico e rafforzare il legame con le proprie radici, anche in contesti anglofoni dove l’interesse istituzionale per le lingue straniere è limitato. Questo studio arricchisce il panorama della ricerca nel campo dell’analisi del Linguistic Landscape in contesto privato, evidenziando le relazioni tra spazio domestico, pratiche linguistiche e identità, sottolineando l’importanza simbolica e affettiva della casa nelle famiglie migranti. Linguistic and symbolic practices in the homescapes of families with a migrant background: a case study in the city of Liverpool The paper explores some of the main findings of field research conducted in the city of Liverpool, analysing the role of the Linguistic Homescape in families with a migrant background in promoting, enhancing and maintaining languages. The analysis highlights how the home environment is not just a background, but a place that can play an active role in promoting multilingualism. The homescape emerges as a space for family agency and cultural continuity, capable of supporting language learning and strengthening ties with one’s roots, even in English-speaking contexts where institutional interest in foreign languages is limited. This study enriches the research landscape in the field of Linguistic Landscape analysis in private contexts, highlighting the relationships between domestic space, linguistic practices and identity, and emphasising the symbolic and emotional importance of the home in migrant families.

Il saggio propone un’analisi metrica e tematica di Vanno via i tuoi occhi, a partire da un dettaglio apparentemente esterno al testo: la citazione in epigrafe tratta da La luna e i falò, «era morta la vecchia del Nido». Nella prima sezione si esplora il rapporto fra il tragico in Pavese e l’elegiaco in Benedetti, con particolare attenzione all’immaginario fiabesco che caratterizza il testo scelto. Per tutto il saggio si inseguirà la seguente domanda: e se l’influenza di Pavese agisse a un livello metrico? Nella seconda sezione si applica al verso di Vanno via i tuoi occhi la Teoria della Griglia con Parentesi di Fabb e Halle (2008), ipotizzando un concetto di metricità latente per collegarlo – attraverso l’anapesto – alla favola e all’elegia.

Il contributo illustra alcuni materiali manoscritti provenienti dall’archivio di persona di Francesco Flamini, conservato presso i suoi eredi. In particolar modo, l’archivio restituisce due lezioni universitarie databili entro il 1905, in un periodo in cui Flamini insegnava all’Università di Padova e si stava imponendo nella cultura letteraria italiana l’estetica crociana.

This paper details an analysis of the derivational process in Hittite of collective nouns for animals characterized by the suffix -eššar, which is one of the Hittite heteroclitic suffixes in -r/-n- together with -(ā)tar and -war (-mar). As well as deriving action and abstract nouns from verbs and adjectives, this suffix seems to originate also some collectives from nouns. In particular, the three collective formations lalakueššar ‘colony of ants, anthill’ < lalakueša- ‘ant’, šuppaleššar ‘livestock, animal fence’ < šuppal(a)- ‘animal’ and the uncertain ellueššar < illu-, usually presented in relationship with the etymology of Hitt. illuyanka-, were taken here into consideration. The purpose of the analysis is firstly to investigate how these collective formations in -eššar fit the framework of collective nouns offered by the other Indo-European languages, and secondly, to examine the relationship between collective and place nouns using a comparative approach, since these collective formations in -eššar seem to develop a locative meaning.