1,721,424 research outputs found
Digital tools to combat educational poverty: examples of best practices. Strumenti digitali per contrastare la povertà educativa: esempi di best practices
Full text linkLa tecnologia, oramai da più di un decennio, è entrata in maniera preponderante nel mondo della didattica provocando incondizionati entusiasmi grazie alle miriadi di possibilità offerte anche dalle innumerevoli applicazioni e, allo stesso tempo, timori e aspre critiche soprattutto per le conseguenze legate all’eccessivo tempo dedicato alla navigazione sul web. Ma oltre l’iperconnessione, la preoccupazione maggiore è stata per anni il pensare che la tecnologia potesse rappresentare il fine dell’educazione e non il mezzo, lo strumento per aiutare i soggetti più “deboli”, per sopperire ad alcune mancanze in alunni con bisogni educativi speciali, per agevolare taluni stili di apprendimento, per contrastare la povertà educativa.
Il periodo pandemico appena trascorso ha messo in evidenza la vera natura della tecnologia applicata alla didattica che integrandosi con il progetto educativo e formativo, ha rappresentato una vera risorsa, un valore aggiunto, un supporto indispensabile per il gruppo-classe per il docente e per il singolo alunno dando la possibilità di lavorare in modo interattivo e cooperativo. Sicuramente c’è ancora tanto su cui lavorare e sicuramente il Covid-19 ha fatto emergere alcune lacune che sono anche alla base della diseguaglianza sociale; lo stesso Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione e l’U.E. attraverso i Fondi Sociali Europei, compresa l’importanza del digitale nella didattica, propongono “interventi di adeguamento e adattamento funzionale degli spazi e aule digitali (Smart class, aule 3.0, ecc) e realizzazione di progetti volti al contrasto del rischio di fallimento formativo precoce e di povertà educativa” in conseguenza all’emergenza sanitaria Covid-19.
Con questo contributo intendiamo dimostrare, attraverso i lavori svolti dagli studenti di Scienze della Formazione Primaria, come le tecnologie ed in particolare i tools digitali possano aiutare e sostenere i docenti e gli alunni, facilitando soprattutto quelli con bisogni educativi speciali
The culture of sustainability in schools: old and new pedagogical paradigms
No full textPedagogical sustainability has become a challenge that has involved not only the institutions of the various governments of the European states and the whole civilized world but also all the aware citizens who are able to offer an effective and concrete contribution through direct personal and social intervention. responsible. The pedagogical world continues to question itself on this theme, highlighting how the term sustainability is indissoluble from human development and social responsibility; it must be understood as a horizon, a multidisciplinary perspective. Even at an institutional level, schools of all levels and levels must and want to intervene. In this paper we want to rethink, also through the analysis of Italian and European documents, the way of making school and training future citizens through pedagogical reflection about sustainability. This reflection was also the basis of an action research organized within the Course in Primary Education Science, Department of Science of Education, Psychology and Communication of the University of Bari “A. Moro”.La sostenibilità pedagogica è diventata una sfida che ha coinvolto non solo le Istituzioni dei vari Governi degli Stati Europei e di tutto il mondo civile ma anche tutti i cittadini consapevoli in grado di poter offrire un contributo fattivo e concreto attraverso un intervento personale, sociale diretto e responsabile. Il mondo pedagogico continua ad interrogarsi su questo tema evidenziando come il termine sostenibilità, è indisgiungibile da sviluppo umano e responsabilità sociale; esso deve essere inteso come orizzonte, prospettiva multidisciplinare. Anche a livello istituzionale la scuola, di ogni ordine e grado, deve e vuole intervenire.
Il presente contributo intende ripensare, anche attraverso l’analisi dei documenti nazionali ed europei, il modo di fare scuola e formare i futuri cittadini del mondo attraverso la riflessione pedagogica attorno al tema della sostenibilità. Questa riflessione è stata, inoltre, il tema fondante di un progetto di ricerca-azione avviato presso il Corso di Laurea in Scienze della Formazione Primaria del Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione, Psicologia, Comunicazione presso l’Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Unveiling of the AS-NMD-mediated regulation of Peptide/Histidine Transporter 1 (SLC15A4/PHT1) gene products under physiological or inflammatory challenges
No full textIn vertebrates, the SLC15A4 gene codes for the peptide/histidine transporter 1 (PHT1) protein, which transport activity of di-/tripeptides and histidine across plasma and subcellular membranes has been generally described [1]. Recently, several studies have pointed out that the human SLC15A4 gene codes for a late endosome/lysosome carrier taking part in TLR7-, TLR9-, and NOD1-mediated pathways, thus putatively involved in inflammatory, immune and autoimmune diseases. Accordingly, SLC15A4/PHT1 altered activity has been associated to conditions such as type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and systemic lupus erythematosus [2]. In mammals, the Slc15a4 genes are abundantly expressed by immune and nervous cells, in which they undergo alternative splicing (AS) events which physiological meaning is still unknown. Here, we report of a unique SLC15A4/PHT1 AS-mediated regulation which we found conserved from zebrafish to human. We show that this regulation is physiologically facilitated by the Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD) surveillance pathway, in human nervous-derived and immune-derived cells too; in these latter, both the canonical and AS variants are sensitive to inflammatory molecular triggers. Furthermore, in an IBD murine model, we show that GI inflammation seems to differentially affect the expression levels of the alternative SLC15A4/PHT1 gene products in different GI tracts. Overall, by unveiling the AS-NMD-mediated gene regulation, our findings might introduce a key analytical element for stepping forward the comprehension of the mechanism of intervention of SLC15A4/PHT1 in inflammatory and immune processes. [1] Verri T, Barca A, et al. (2017) Di- and tripeptide transport in vertebrates: the contribution of teleost fish models. J Comp Physiol B. 187(3):395-462. [2] Griffith AD, Zaidi AK, et al. (2018) A requirement for slc15a4 in imiquimod-induced systemic inflammation and psoriasiform inflammation in mice. Sci Rep. 8(1):14451
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Comparison of the electrophysiological properties of the two paralogues of Salmo salar oligopeptide transporter PepT1: new insights from PepT1a vs. PepT1b
No full textDi and tripeptide (di/tripeptide) absorption in the intestine occurs via PepT1, an electrogenic transporter that uses an inwardly-directed proton electrochemical gradient to drive the transport of more than 8,000 different molecules inside the cells. Studies in mammals indicate that PepT1 also exhibits peptide sensing function(s). In teleost fish, two genes, namely PepT1b and more recently PepT1a, have been identified. The two paralogues – the result of (at least one) round of whole-genome duplication during the early evolution of the ray-finned fish lineage – encode proteins that share 64-67% similarity at the amino acid level. While PepT1b has been widely studied in several teleost fish species, including S. salar, PepT1a function is fully unknown to date. The aim of this work was to characterize and compare S. salar PepT1a and Pept1b after heterologous expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes, and study their role(s) in peptide transport and/or sensing. Injection of cRNAs into X. laevis oocytes allowed high functional “in membrane” expression of both proteins. Function was verified by Two Electrode Voltage Clamp (TEVC), as currents elicited by perfusion of di/tripeptides were regularly recorded for both proteins. Notably, ours is the first experimental evidence that PepT1a is an electrogenic transporter of di/tripeptides. Measuring the transport currents at two different pH (6.5 and 7.6) and in the presence of increasing concentrations of glycine-L-glutamine (GQ) (from 0.01 to 30 mM) allowed to investigate kinetic values, as the maximal current (Imax) and the substrate apparent affinity (K0.5), for each transporter and pH. Results suggest that the two transporters interact differently with the substrate and that the external pH influence the substrate affinity and consequently the transport efficiency, which is definitely lower for PepT1a with respect to PepT1b. Moreover, preliminary results suggest that L-lysine-containing substrates elicit transport-associated currents of different amplitude in the two isoforms. Large currents are recorded from PepT1b in the presence of L-lysine-glycine (KG), and currents similar to GQ are recorded for glycine-L-lysine (GK); conversely, small responses for both substrates are obtained in PepT1a. Overall, these data support the idea of a different role of the two isoforms, opening the possibility to investigate on PepT1a as a “transceptor” involved in nutrient sensing.
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Romano, A., Barca, A., Storelli, C. & Verri, T. J.Physiol 592, 881-897 (2014).
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Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Structural analysis of saposin C and B. Complete localization of disulfide bridges.
No full textSaposins A, B, C, and D are a group of homologous glycoproteins derived from a single precursor, prosaposin, and apparently involved in the stimulation of the enzymatic degradation of sphingolipids in lysosomes. All saposins have six cysteine residues at similar positions. In the present study we have investigated the disulfide structure of saposins B and C using advanced mass spectrometric procedures. Electrospray analysis showed that deglycosylated saposins B and C are mainly present as 79- and 80-residue monomeric polypeptides, respectively. Fast atom bombardment mass analysis of peptide mixtures obtained by a combination of chemical and enzymatic cleavages demonstrated that the pairings of the three disulfide bridges present in each saposin are Cys4-Cys77, Cys7-Cys71, Cys36-Cys47 for saposin B and Cys5-Cys78, Cys8-Cys72, Cys36-Cys47 for saposin C. We have recently shown that saposin C interacts with phosphatidylserine-containing vesicles inducing destabilization of the lipid surface (Vaccaro, A. M., Tatti, M., Ciaffoni, F., Salvioli, R., Serafino, A., and Barca, A. (1994) FEBS Lett. 349, 181-186); this perturbation promotes the binding of the lysosomal enzyme glucosylceramidase to the vesicles and the reconstitution of its activity. It was presently found that the effects of saposin C on phosphatidylserine liposomes and on glucosylceramidase activity are markedly reduced when the three disulfide bonds are irreversibly disrupted. These results stress the importance of the disulfide structure for the functional properties of the saposin
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