1,721,033 research outputs found
Storytelling e autismo. Uno studio teorico ed empirico
Full text linkL’antropologia filosofica, le neuroscienze e la fisica quantistica concordano nel definire l’essere umano come un essere intrinsecamente sociale, naturalmente volto alla relazione e alla condivisione delle proprie emozioni. Talvolta, però, questa dimensione socio-emotiva tipicamente umana sembra essere fortemente compromessa, come nel caso dei soggetti con disturbi dello spettro autistico (ASD), i quali faticano a stabilire relazioni e un contatto visivo con le altre persone. Baron-Cohen descrive il cervello autistico come un Systematic brain, caratterizzato da una scarsa o assente familiarità con emozioni ed empatia, a differenza del cervello Empatico delle persone a sviluppo tipico (TD).
Alcuni autori, tra cui il neuroscienziato Antonio Damasio, individuano un nesso fondamentale tra emozioni e coscienza, definendo quest’ultima come l’apice di un processo di progressiva emergenza di un senso del Sé compiuto (o autobiografico) dall’inconscio. Le emozioni e i sentimenti costituiscono due stadi intermedi fondamentali di questo processo e, quindi, una chiave di accesso privilegiata al pieno risveglio della propria coscienza emotiva. Da tale punto di vista, lo storytelling si rivela essere uno strumento terapeutico, in quanto capace di attuare nei partecipanti un processo di progressivo risveglio interiore.
A conclusione della prima parte di questa ricerca, a carattere teorico, si propone un confronto tra le varie forme, già sperimentate, di storytelling educativo per bambini autistici in età scolare, tra cui: storie a computer (Emotiplay, di Baron-Cohen), Storie Sociali e conversazioni a fumetti. La seconda parte, invece, a carattere empirico, presenta un progetto di storytelling sperimentale personalmente ideato e attuato per due fratelli gemelli autistici nel corso di due anni scolastici successivi (quarta e quinta elementare), in un contesto classe inclusivo.
Il progetto vantava un obiettivo euristico, di accrescimento delle conoscenze nell’ambito dello storytelling terapeutico, e un obiettivo educativo, consistente nel fornire a tutti i partecipanti gli strumenti necessari per maturare una buona consapevolezza emotiva e imparare a riconoscere e verbalizzare emozioni e sentimenti personali.
Si è scelto di adottare un metodo fenomenologico, sospendendo quindi il giudizio sulle persone autistiche come soggetti incapaci di provare emozioni, e un approccio dialogico, che ha permesso ai partecipanti di lasciare emergere il loro sapere implicito sulle emozioni e alcune esperienze emotive significative registrate a livello inconscio.
Nella prima fase del progetto, i due bambini ASD sono stati coinvolti in un ciclo di sei incontri, incentrati sull’esplorazione delle loro emozioni a partire dalle rispettive manifestazioni esteriori (approccio occidentale). Ciascun incontro rispettava la medesima sequenza di attività: lettura di un episodio della storia scritta dalla ricercatrice per i bambini (Il mulino dei colori di Leo e Cloe), conversazioni socratiche o conversazioni a fumetti, produzione di un racconto autobiografico da parte di ciascun bambino. La seconda fase del progetto (cinque incontri) è stata concepita per aiutare i bambini a riconoscere i sentimenti generatori delle proprie emozioni e ad acquisire così una maggiore capacità introspettiva (approccio orientale). A tal fine, le attività di storytelling, incentrate sulla lettura di Raffi l’aquila bianca, sono state accompagnate da attività di Mandala Art Therapy.
L’analisi qualitativa di tutti gli elaborati ha permesso di corroborare la tesi secondo cui il deficit emotivo tipicamente autistico si configura non tanto come una mancanza di emozioni, quanto piuttosto come una mancanza, peraltro riducibile, di consapevolezza dei propri vissuti emotivi.Philosophical anthropology, neuroscience and quantum physics agree that human being is characterized by an innate predisposition to socialize and share emotions with other persons. Despite that, some people seem to lack this social and emotive competence. This is the case of children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). They generally find it very difficult to interact with other persons and even to look them in the eyes. The British neuroscientist Simon Baron-Cohen defines their brain as a Systematic brain, characterized by extremely poor familiarity with emotions, empathy and social interactions, at odds with typical development (TD) persons’ Empathetic brain.
Some important authors, such as the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and the psychiatrist Francesca Erica Poli underline a fundamental link between our emotions and our awareness, which they define as the summit of a process of gradual emergency of a complete and autobiographical Sense of Self from our subconscious. Emotions and feelings represent two fundamental levels of this process and, therefore, a preferential key of access to the full awakening of our own emotional consciousness. In the light of this, storytelling can be consider as a therapeutic instrument, that means an instrument able to activate a process of gradual inner transformation and awakening in the participants.
In the first part of this research, developed on the theoretical grounded, I compare different type of educative storytelling for autistic school-age children, most of all computer-based stories, such as Emotiplay, by Baron-Cohen, Social Stories and comic conversation by Carol Gray. By contrast, the second part is an empirical one and describes a project of experimental storytelling personally implemented with two autistic twin brothers, aged nine, for two consecutive school years (fourth and fifth grade).
The project was meant to achieve two objectives: an euristic one, which was defining the fundamental characteristics of a therapeutic storytelling specific for autistic children, and an educational objective, which was promoting the growth of a self-emotive consciousness in all the participants, autistic and non, and educating them to verbalize their emotions and feelings.
I used a phenomenological method, to investigate autism spectrum disorders suspending the judgment about autistic people (children in particular) as persons with poor social skills (especially empathy) not able to feel complex emotions, and I adopted a dialogical-socratic approach, which let all the participants’ emotional experiences naturally emerge from their subconscious.
In the first phase of the project, the autistic children and their TD classmates were involved in a series of six sessions focused on exploring their own emotions starting with their exterior manifestations (occidental approach). Each session consisted in three moments: reading an episode of the story that I specifically wrote for the children (Leo and Cloe’s mill of colours); conversing in circle (Socratic method) or drawing comic conversations and writing a personal emotional experience (autobiographical account).
The second phase of the project was articulated in five sessions aimed to lead children to recognize the sentimental cause of their emotion and to develop a greater introspective faculty (oriental approach). For this purpose, storytelling activities, focused on the story Raffi l’aquila bianca, were combined with those of Mandala Art Therapy.
The qualitative analysis of all children’s works allowed me to corroborate the thesis according to which autistic emotional deficit doesn’t consist in an irretrievable lack of emotions, but in a correctable/reducible lack of emotional consciousness
Moho depths for Antarctica Region by the inversion of ground-based gravity data
No full textIn the last years the scientific literature has been enriched with new models of the Moho depth in the Antarctica Continent derived by the seismic reflection technique and refraction profiles, receiver functions and seismic surface waves, but also by gravimetric observations over the continent. In particular, the gravity satellite missions of the last two decades have provided data in this remote region of the Earth and have allowed the investigation of the crust properties. Meanwhile, other important contributions in this direction has been given by the fourth International Polar Year (IPY, 2007–2008) which started seismographic and geodetic networks of unprecedented duration and scale, including airborne gravimetry over largely unexplored Antarctic frontiers. In this study, a new model for the Antarctica Moho depths is proposed. This new estimation is based on no satellite gravity measures, thanks to the availability of the gravity database ANTGG2015, that collects gravity data from ground-base, airborne and shipborne campaigns. In this new estimate of the Moho depths the contribution of the gravity measures has been maximized reducing any correction of the gravity measures and avoiding constraints of the solution to seismological observations and to geological evidence. With this approach a pure gravimetric solution has been determined. The model obtained is pretty in agreement with other Moho models and thanks to the use of independent data it can be exploited also for cross-validating different Moho depths solutions
A new procedure to build a model covariance matrix: First results
No full textIn order to validate the results of geophysical models a common procedure is to compare model predictions with observations by means of statistical tests. A limit of this approach is the lack of a covariance matrix associated to model results, that may frustrate the achievement of a confident statistical significance of the results. Trying to overcome this limit, we have implemented a new procedure to build a model covariance matrix that could allow a more reliable statistical analysis. This procedure has been developed in the frame of the thermo-mechanical model described in Splendore et al. (2010), that predicts the present-day crustal velocity field in the Tyrrhenian due to Africa-Eurasia convergence and to lateral rheological heterogeneities of the lithosphere. Modelled tectonic velocity field has been compared to the available surface velocity field based on GPS observation, determining the best fit model and the degree of fitting, through the use of a χ2 test.
Once we have identified the key models parameters and defined their appropriate ranges of variability, we have run 100 different models for 100 sets of randomly values of the parameters extracted within the corresponding interval, obtaining a stack of 100 velocity fields. Then, we calculated variance and empirical covariance for the stack of results, taking into account also cross-correlation, obtaining a positive defined, diagonal matrix that represents the covariance matrix of the model. This empirical approach allows us to define a more robust statistical analysis with respect the classic approach
Statistical inference in comparing DInSAR and GPS data in fault areas
No full textDInSAR and GPS data are nowadays currently used in geophysical investigation, e.g. for estimating slip rate over the fault plane in seismogenic areas. This analysis is usually done by mapping the surface deformation rates as
estimated by GPS and DInSAR over the fault plane using suitable geophysical models (e.g. the Okada model).
Usually, DInSAR vertical velocities and GPS horizontal velocities are used for getting an integrated slip estimate.
However, it is sometimes critical to merge the two kinds of information since they may reflect a common undergoing geophysical signal plus different disturbing signals that are not related to the fault dynamic. In GPS and DInSAR data analysis, these artifacts are mainly connected to signal propagation in the atmosphere and to hydrological phenomena (e.g. variation in the water table). Thus, some coherence test between the two information must be carried out in order to properly merge the GPS and DInSAR velocities in the inversion procedure. To this aim, statistical tests have been studied to check for the compatibility of the two deformation rate estimates coming from GPS and DInSAR data analysis. This has been done according both to standard and Bayesian testing methodology.
The effectiveness of the proposed inference methods has been checked with numerical simulations in the case of a normal fault. The fault structure is defined following the Pollino fault model and both GPS and DInSAR data are simulated according to real data acquired in this area
Quasi-geoid BG03 computation in Belgium
No full textThe estimate of a high precision quasi-geoid is nowadays a relevant goal in Geodesy, since from this surface can be derived the geoid. As it is well known, the geoid, i.e. the equipotential surface of the Earth gravity field which is close to the mean ocean surface, can be used in combination with GPS observations to estimate orthometric heights. This is of particular relevance, since this can be done in a faster and cheaper way than using spirit leveling, although with lower precision (which is however sufficient in many practical applications). In 1996, the last estimate of the Belgium quasi-geoid BG96 was computed with the Stokes and the least square collocation methods (Pâquet et al 1997). This quasi-geoid has a precision of 3 to 4 cm in the area well covered by gravity data , which was assessed through comparison with GPS/leveling derived undulations with 36 BEREF points. Since now the gravity coverage of Belgium is completed a higher precision for the geoid could be reached for the south-eastern part and in the northern part of the country.
In this paper, a new estimate of the Belgium quasi-geoid (BG03) is presented. The main improvements with respect to the previous computation are related to gravity data coverage, DTM refinements and new global geopotential models. So, this estimate can be considered a significant step forward in quasi-geoid computation for this area and a basis for a future estimate which will be obtained by merging gravity and GPS/leveling data
Le tecnologie 3S (GIS, GPS, Remote Sensing) per il rilievo e la gestione del territorio nell'era della geomatica.
No full textGeoide gravimetrico e ondulazioni puntuali da osservazioni GPS/livellazione nel territorio del Trentino-Alto Adige,
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