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Exploring the Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Pragmatic Language: Do Executive Function and Grammar Comprehension Have a Mediating Role?
No full text: This study explores the relationships among socioeconomic status (SES), executive function (EF), grammar comprehension (GC), and pragmatic language (PL) in children aged 8-11. By employing a structural equation modelling approach, we aimed to investigate the direct and indirect effects of these variables on PL, a crucial aspect of child development involved in the formation of social relationships and general well-being. Our final sample consisted of 128 children from a heterogeneous socioeconomic context. Participants were assessed using the APL Medea, TROG-2, and TeleFE tests to measure their PL, GC, and EF, respectively. The findings reveal that GC and EF are important predictors of PL, with GC playing an important role in mediating the effects of SES. In conclusion, this study highlights the key role of GC in connecting SES and PL, with strong practical implications for the interventions aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of socioeconomic factors
Hyperventilation Syndrome in a Child: Electrolyte Disturbances and Cardiac Involvement in Anxiety-Related Presentations
No full text: Background: Hyperventilation Syndrome (HVS) is a well-recognized physiological consequence of acute anxiety, often resulting in respiratory alkalosis and subsequent electrolyte imbalances. Among these, a reduction in ionized calcium levels can lead to neuromuscular irritability and electrocardiographic abnormalities such as QTc prolongation. Although well-documented in specific settings, including autism spectrum disorders and drug-induced crises, such complications are rarely described in otherwise healthy pediatric patients presenting with isolated anxiety episodes. This report aims to raise awareness of anxiety-driven somatic manifestations, particularly in the context of the rising prevalence of mental health disorders among children and adolescents. Methods: We report the case of a previously healthy 10-year-old girl presenting to the emergency department with acute agitation and hyperventilation. Clinical examination revealed neuromuscular symptoms, including Trousseau's sign and flexion posture. Initial laboratory testing and arterial blood gas analysis indicated respiratory alkalosis with decreased ionized calcium levels, and a resting ECG showed QTc prolongation (510 ms). Treatment included intravenous midazolam, a balanced electrolyte solution, and oral bromazepam during intensive observation with cardiac monitoring. Results: The patient's symptoms progressively improved following anxiolytic and supportive therapy. Electrolyte abnormalities normalized within 48 h, with complete resolution of the prolonged QTc (430 ms). No arrhythmias or other complications occurred. Outpatient psychological follow-up was arranged upon discharge. Conclusions: This case underscores the importance of considering anxiety as a primary etiology in pediatric patients with apparent metabolic or cardiac abnormalities. Early psychiatric recognition and targeted supportive care can prevent overtreatment and reduce the burden on emergency and cardiologic resources
Exploiting Information Theory for Intuitive Robot Programming of Manual Activities
No full textObservational learning is a promising approach to enable people without expertise in programming to transfer skills to robots in a user-friendly manner, since it mirrors how humans learn new behaviors by observing others. Many existing methods focus on instructing robots to mimic human trajectories, but motion-level strategies often pose challenges in skills generalization across diverse environments. This article proposes a novel framework that allows robots to achieve a higher-level understanding of human-demonstrated manual tasks recorded in RGB videos. By recognizing the task structure and goals, robots generalize what observed to unseen scenarios. We found our task representation on Shannon's Information Theory (IT), which is applied for the first time to manual tasks. IT helps extract the active scene elements and quantify the information shared between hands and objects. We exploit scene graph properties to encode the extracted interaction features in a compact structure and segment the demonstration into blocks, streamlining the generation of behavior trees for robot replicas. Experiments validated the effectiveness of IT to automatically generate robot execution plans from a single human demonstration. In addition, we provide HANDSOME, an open-source dataset of HAND Skills demOnstrated by Multi-subjEcts, to promote further research and evaluation in this field
Riflessioni giuslavoristiche sul reato di sfruttamento del lavoro nel diritto vivente
No full textIl contributo propone un'analisi del reato di sfruttamento lavorativo dal punto di vista del diritto del lavoro. Molti elementi di disciplina del rapporto di lavoro assumono infatti rilevanza ai fini della configurazione del reato di cui all'art. 603 bis cp: l'articolato rapporto tra tale fattispecie di reato e alcune essenziali regole relative al rapporto di lavoro (in primis, quelle che riguardano la retribuzione) è analizzato sulla base della più recente giurisprudenza penale sul reato di sfruttamento
Metronome-guided training accelerates the adaptation to an aerobic training pace in swimming
No full textSwimmers often use metronomes during training, but their effectiveness in learning a new swimming pace is unclear. Adapting motor skills to new timing is complex and occurs in stages. This study investigated these stages by assessing the ability of swimmers to reproduce a learned pace without a metronome. In total, 24 participants were divided into two groups. The main group completed 4 days of training/testing and 3 follow-up days. Each training day included a 100 m front crawl trial without a metronome, followed by three 2 × 100 m training sets with metronome synchronization and a further 100 m test without the metronome. The performance measures were total 100 m time, 25 m lap times, temporal errors over 100 m (Err100) and 25 m (Err25), and the coefficient of variation of Err25 (CV). The control group followed the same protocol, but only for 2 days. Results showed that in the main group, Err100, Err25, and CV improved after the first training day and remained consistent throughout the week. Notably, Err25 and CV improvements persisted up to 10 days post-training. The control group showed no improvement after 2 days. These results suggest that metronome-guided training effectively helps swimmers adapt their pace to new motor timing, with effects lasting up to 10 days
Artificial water sites increase amphibian resilience in a changing Mediterranean landscape
No full textAmphibians are highly vulnerable to climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation, particularly in agricultural landscapes, where land use practices are a substantial driver of biodiversity loss. However, in the Mediterranean region, the continuation of traditional land use practices over centuries has shaped the landscape, determining the coexistence of natural and artificial habitats, such as Mediterranean artificial water reserves, that are supposed to exert a positive effect on biodiversity. Our goal was to assess how landscape configuration, land-use heterogeneity, and the presence of artificial water bodies in the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot shape amphibian community composition. Using spatial multi-species occupancy models, we analysed detection/non-detection data from 11 species across 1729 freshwater sites along the entire Apennine Mountain chain in Italy. Our findings indicate that among environmental variables, elevation is the only driver affecting the whole amphibian occupancy patterns. At the species level, the presence of artificial water sites is the factor which contributes the most to amphibian occupancy. Although the majority of species generally showed lower occupancy in artificial sites compared to natural habitats, these structures are capable of increasing amphibian resilience amid increasing droughts and changing climate conditions by modulating the ecological effect of environmental predictors. Amphibian resilience in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes can be strengthened by fostering the coexistence of natural and artificial habitats. The latter sites offer a cost-effective management solution that facilitates positive interactions between biodiversity conservation policies and agricultural stakeholders, supporting broader conservation goals in light of future environmental changes
Impact of the Oxygen Vacancies of the LSCF (La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3–δ) Perovskite on the Activation Energy of the Oxygen Reduction/Evolution Reaction
No full textLa0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3–δ (LSCF) perovskites, in the form of in–house electrospun nanofibers and commercial powders, have been tested through synchrotron x–ray diffraction and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in the 800–1200 K range. The former analyses make it possible to evaluate the oxygen vacancies (OV) concentration, and the latter allows to assess the electrokinetics of the oxygen reduction/evolution reaction. Equivalent circuit modeling is carried out to identify the basic electrochemical processes and evaluate the associated polarization resistance Rp. One high-frequency process and two intermediate-frequency processes are recognized. For all electrochemical processes, OV concentration and Rp behave similarly with temperature in both nanofiber and granular electrodes. This led to the proposal of a new equation. For each electrochemical process, it was shown that the activation energy is the sum of an intrinsic electrochemical activation energy, plus the formation energy of OVs. For the LSCF perovskites tested in this work, the intrinsic electrochemical activation energy was found to be independent of the preparation procedure and crystal structure. In contrast, the OV formation energy was found to be strongly dependent on the preparation procedure and crystal structure, with values ranging between 0.5 and 24.1 kJ mol−1. A complete set of data is provided, which can be useful for future simulation studies
Moving in the Dark: Enlightening the Spatial Population Ecology of European Cave Salamanders
No full textSpace use and movement are fundamental aspects of organisms' ecology, mirroring individual fitness, behavior, and life-history strategies. These mechanisms are shaped by environmental heterogeneity, which often makes it difficult to understand these dynamics. Subterranean habitats are simplified and understudied environments, potentially ideal for evaluating the fine-scale spatial ecology of organisms. Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) methods allow us to investigate animal space use and movement, including spatially explicit observation data on individuals, to assess the relationship between population dynamics and landscape ecology. In this context, we assessed individual interactions, movement ecology, and activity patterns of a subterranean population of the cave salamander Speleomantes strinatii, applying SCR modeling to a photographic capture–recapture dataset of 104 identified individuals (43 males, 35 females and 26 subadults). Analysis of overlap indices showed that the proportion of males' home range (HR) was more covered by females' HR than vice versa (U = 25, p = 0.038). During the monitoring, females traveled longer distances in less time than males (0.60 vs. 0.22 m/day). Finally, salamanders tended to be more active during summer periods, showing a preference for the inner sectors of the cave and rougher cave walls. Combining the analysis of spatially explicit capture history (overlap and movement estimates) and SCR (activity pattern, sex-specific density and space use), we enlightened new features and confirmed previous knowledge of the spatial ecology of S. strinatii. Our study demonstrates how structured capture–recapture data can be used to infer individual interactions and movement in low-complexity habitats and is open to the application of SCR methods in more complex environments for revealing finer-scale ecological variation with important conservation implications
Pelvic Floor Muscle Training: From Individuals’ Experience and Empowerment to the Development of a New Biofeedback Device
No full textBackground: Pelvic Floor Muscle Training (PFMT) is a key treatment for Urinary Incontinence (UI). This intervention presents various challenges, including taboos, the need for patients’ empowerment and self-management, and the use of invasive approaches. Quantitative and qualitative research are crucial to enhancing PFMT engagement and satisfaction.
Methods: The five studies investigated: 1) users with UI experience with PFMT (qualitative study); 2) empowerment strategies of pelvic floor physiotherapists (qualitative study); 3) efficacy of internal devices in addition to PFMT for UI post-prostatectomy (systematic review with meta-analysis); 4) users with UI experience with invasive devices (qualitative study); 5) feasibility of a non-invasive device for PFMT and the synergistic roles of obliquus internus and multifidus muscles, in pelvic floor muscle contractions, in healthy men (proof-of-concept study design).
Results: In Study 1, we found that proper PFMT improved users’ understanding of pelvic floor health and led to self-management. Study 2 revealed that empowerment requires a holistic, patient-centred approach, integrating communication, education, collaboration, and continuous support. Study 3 found uncertain evidence for internal devices as adjuncts to PFMT. Study 4 highlighted that invasive devices often cause anxiety and discomfort but are valued for enhancing pelvic floor muscle awareness. Study 5 reported that an external pressure device showed promising results in monitoring pelvic floor contraction in healthy men, with the co-activation of core muscles providing an additional opportunity for non-invasive biofeedback.
Conclusions: PFMT enhances pelvic floor health, continence, and self-management by fostering body awareness and empowering users through active exercises and patient-centred physiotherapy. While invasive devices may cause discomfort, non-invasive alternatives, like an external pressure device and core muscle synergy, might be a future solution
Sustainable, Battery-Free Wireless Sensor Node with LoRaWAN Connectivity in ABP and OTAA Activation Modes
No full textIn the Internet of Things (IoT) era, the demand for sustainable and autonomous wireless sensor nodes has surged, driven by the need for efficient environmental monitoring and management. This paper presents the design and implementation of a sustainable, energy-autonomous, and battery-free wireless sensor node leveraging LoRaWAN connectivity. The proposed node operates seamlessly in Activation By Personalization (ABP) and Over-The-Air Activation (OTAA) modes, ensuring robust and flexible network integration. Powered by energy harvesting techniques, specifically solar cells, the sensor node eliminates dependency on traditional batteries, enhancing sustainability and reducing maintenance costs. Comprehensive experimental evaluations demonstrate the node's capability to maintain reliable communication and data transmission over long distances while effectively managing energy resources