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Monitoring of Learning Path for Business Process Models
No full textIn modern society the employees of complex organizations are under pressure to constantly improve their knowledge and skills. Novel approaches and tools to support effective and efficient workplace learning in collaborative and engaging ways are needed. On the other hand, Business Process Management (BPM) is more and more employed to support and manage the complex processes carried out within organizations. BPM can be used as well to guide workplace learning, with the advantage of naturally aligning training tasks to real tasks. We introduce a specification of learning path that maps BPM tasks and activities into sequences of learning tasks. Our learning path specification can thus be used to both drive learning sessions carried out by simulation, and to inform a monitor that can assess learner\u27s progress. The goal is to combine work and learning in natural and effective way and use available business monitoring techniques to monitor the learning progress of the learners. In the paper we describe our specification, the e-learning platform under development, and the approach to derive monitoring rules. The approach is illustrated through a simple motivational example
Workplace Learning - Providing Recommendations of Experts and Learning Resources in a Context-sensitive and Personalized Manner
No full textSupport of workplace learning is increasingly important as change in every form determines today\u27s working world in industry and public administrations alike. Adapt quickly to a new job, a new task or a new team is a major challenge that must be dealt with ever faster. Workplace learning differs significantly from school learning as it should be strictly aligned to business goals. In our approach we support workplace learning by providing recommendations of experts and learning resources in a context-sensitive and personalized manner. We utilize users\u27 workplace environment, we consider their learning preferences and zone of proximal development, and compare required and acquired competencies in order to issue the best suited recommendations. Our approach is part of the European funded project Learn PAd. Applied research method is Design Science Research. Evaluation is done in an iterative process. The recommender system introduced here is evaluated theoretically based on user requirements and practically in an early evaluation process conducted by the Learn PAd application partner
Long-term ecosystem responses to multiple stressors in a large lake: a functional principal components analysis
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Mapping brain morphological and functional conversion patterns in pre-dementia, late-onset bvFTD
Get PDFPurpose The diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is challenging during the predementia stage when symptoms are subtle and confounding. Morphological and functional neuroimaging can be particularly helpful during this stage but few data are available. Methods We retrospectively selected 25 patients with lateonset probable bvFTD. Brain structural MRI and FDG PET were performed during the predementia stage (mean MMSE score 27.1? 2.5) on average 2 years before. The findings with the two imaging modalities were compared (SPM8) with those in a group of 20 healthy subjects. The bvFTD patients were divided into two subgroups: those with predominant disinhibition (bvFTD+) and those with apathy (bvFTD?\u27). Results Hypometabolism exceeded grey matter (GM) density reduction in terms of both extension and statistical significance in all comparisons. In the whole bvFTD group, hypometabolism involved the bilateral medial, inferior and superior lateral frontal cortex, anterior cingulate, left temporal and right parietal cortices and the caudate nuclei. GM density reduction was limited to the right frontal cortex and the left medial temporal lobe. In bvFTD+ patients hypometabolism was found in the bilateral medial and basal frontal cortex, while GM reduction involved the left anterior cingulate and left inferior frontal cortices, and the right insula. In bvFTD?\u27 patients, atrophy and mainly hypometabolism involved the lateral frontal cortex and the inferior parietal lobule. Conclusion These findings suggest that hypometabolism is more extensive than, and thus probably precedes, atrophy in predementia late-onset bvFTD, underscoring different topographic involvement in disinhibited and apathetic presentations. If confirmed in a larger series, these results should prompt biomarker operationalization in bvFTD, especially for patient selection in therapeutic clinical trials
Involvement of subcortical brain structures during olfactory stimulation in multiple chemical sensitivity
Get PDFMultiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) patients usually react to odour compounds and the majority of neuroimaging studies assessed, especially at the cortical level, many olfactory-related correlates. The purpose of the present study was to depict sub-cortical metabolic changes during a neutral (NC) and pure (OC) olfactory stimulation by using a recently validated 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography/computer tomography procedure in 26 MCS and 11 healthy (HC) resting subjects undergoing a battery of clinical tests. Twelve subcortical volumes of interest were identified by the automated anatomical labeling library and normalized to thalamus FDG uptake. In both groups, when comparing OC to NC, the within-subjects ANOVA demonstrated a relative decreased metabolism in bilateral putamen and hippocampus and a relative increased metabolism in bilateral amygdala, olfactory cortex (OLF), caudate and pallidum. The between-groups ANOVA demonstrated in MCS a significant higher metabolism in bilateral OLF during NC. As in HC subjects negative correlations were found in OC between FDG uptake in bilateral amygdala and hippocampus and odor pleasantness scale, the latter positively correlated with MCS subjects\u27 bilateral putamen FDG uptake in OC. Besides FDG uptake resemblances in both groups were found, for the first time a relative higher metabolism increase in OLF in MCS subjects at rest with respect to HC was found. When merging this aspect to the different subcortical FDG uptake correlations patterns in the two groups, the present study demonstrated to describe a peculiar metabolic index of behavioral and neurological aspects of MCS complaints
Phytoplankton assemblages in Lake Orta: has functional structure recovered in one of the largest acidic lakes in the world?
Get PDFLake Orta (Northern Italy) became one of the world\u27s largest acidic lakes, following industrial pollution, beginning in the late 1920s. Prior to pollution, Lake Orta supported a rich and diversified phytoplankton community dominated by diatoms, cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates. Their taxonomic composition was comparable to that of the nearby Lake Maggiore, which provides a useful reference comparison. After pollution, Lake Orta was so acidic and contaminated with trace metals that only a few tolerant phytoplankton species persisted, supplemented by sudden and short living outbursts of occasional colonists. The lake was limed in 1989-1990. This has permitted the gradual recovery of its chemistry and biology, and many phytoplankton species that inhabit Lake Maggiore are now re-appearing in Lake Orta. I tested the two hypotheses that Lakes Orta and Maggiore would now have a similar phytoplankton taxonomic assemblages, and similar diversity of functional groups given their similar morphometry, physical features and trophic states. The two hypotheses were tested by comparing the phytoplankton assemblages of lakes Maggiore and Orta for the first 10 years after liming, i.e. 1990 to 2001. Phytoplankton was classified according the Reynolds\u27 Morpho Functional Groups and five diversity indices were calculated (S, number of units; H, Shannon-Wiener; E, evenness; D, dominance; J, equitability). SHE analysis (an analysis of diversity changes based on the relationship among species richness (S), H Index (H) and evenness (E)) was also carried out, in order to compare the long term trend of both functional groups and taxa biodiversity. Both taxonomic and the functional composition differed in the two lakes, likely because chemical quality have played a role in taxaselection. Moreover, it was quite clear that, during the first post-liming decade, Lake Orta\u27s phytoplankton was characterized by low diversity and evenness and by marked year-to-year fluctuations. However, SHE analysis showed that the colonization rate was higher in Lake Orta than in Lake Maggiore, and that the environmental modifications caused by the liming were opening new ecological niches, allowing some colonists to thrive in the changing, albeit still unusual chemical environment of the lake
Co-selection of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance in freshwater bacteria
Get PDFAntibiotic resistant bacteria are found in most environments, especially in highly anthropized waters. A direct correlation between human activities (e.g., pollution) and spread and persistence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and resistance genes (ARGs) within the resident bacterial communities appears more and more obvious. Furthermore, the threat posed for human health by the presence of ARB and ARGs in these environments is enhanced by the risk of horizontal gene transfer of resistance genes to human pathogens. Although the knowledge on the spread of antibiotic resistances in waters is increasing, the understanding of the driving factors determining the selection for antibiotic resistance in the environment is still scarce. Antibiotic pollution is generally coupled with contamination by heavy metals (HMs) and other chemicals, which can also promote the development of resistance mechanisms, often through co-selecting for multiple resistances. The co-selection of heavy metal resistance genes and ARGs in waters, sediments, and soils, increases the complexity of the ecological role of ARGs, and reduces the effectiveness of control actions. In this mini-review we present the state-of-the-art of the research on antibiotic- and HM-resistance and their connection in the environment, with a focus on HM pollution and aquatic environments. We review the spread and the persistence of HMs and/or ARB, and how it influences their respective gene co-selection. In the last chapter, we propose Lake Orta, a system characterized by an intensive HM pollution followed by a successful restoration of the chemistry of the water column, as a study-site to evaluate the spread and selection of HMs and antibiotic resistances in heavily disturbed environments
In memory of Oscar Ravera
Get PDFOscar Ravera was one of the most lively and active protagonists in the field of ecology. A man of great culture, Oscar had a genuine interest in knowledge, an interest fed by his insatiable childlike curiosity. Arriving young, at Pallanza, he found fertile ground to develop his passion for aquatic ecology, a passion that led both to important scientific achievements, and to very large-scale initiatives..
A distributed architecture for monitoring and controlling geo-distributed computer networks
No full textGeo-distributed dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6), computer networks are systems which allow computers to share information and software/hardware resources. Monitoring and controlling this kind of systems is not a trivial task for a network administrator of a generic organization, who might want to use a distributed network monitoring software tool to efficiently perform it. In order to monitor the real-time geo-distributed network traffic, by constantly sensing the carrier with a network interface card working in promiscuous mode, the tool\u27s architecture has to be distributed too: i.e. a Remote Component must be physically connected in each of the subnetworks and VLANs, forming the organization\u27s network. In addition, all of the information gathered by the latter has to be processed and sent to a Central Collector Component. All of this Components have to be properly designed in order to accomplish the overall task in an efficient a reliable way. This report will describe how to address the latter issue, presenting a distributed architecture for real-time monitoring and controlling geo-distributed dual-stack network, detecting eventual anomalies in it. The proposed architecture has been implemented and it is fully functionally monitoring the campus network of "The CNR Research Area of Pisa". The tool\u27s name is 6MoN
Tuttoscuola n.562: A scuola di web TV con il Cnr
No full textL\u27articolo illustra l\u27esperienza di alternanza scuola lavoro all\u27interno della web Tv del Cn