177,131 research outputs found
Improving school settings and climate: What role for the national operative programme? insights from a learning analytics perspective
No full textAlthough students are increasingly involved in extra learning activities aimed at enriching the attributes and the contents of conventional educational programmes, still little is known on the main implications of these initiatives. Embracing a Learning Analytics (LA) perspective, the article sheds light on the effects triggered by students’ involvement in innovative educational activities and learning processes co-financed by the Call no. 10862/2016 issued by the National Operative Programme (PON) 2014/2020. We implemented a three-step study design, which consisted of: 1) a descriptive analysis; 2) a principal component analysis; and 3) a discrete choice regression analysis. Our findings pointed out that educational activities and learning processes were especially effective in improving social relationships at school; moreover, they contributed in increasing the students’ willingness to expand their horizons. © 2019, Italian e-Learning Association. All rights reserved
School bullying as a quality issue in educational institutions
No full textPurpose
School quality relies on the educational institutions’ ability to establish an environment which enhances the pupils’ social and emotional well-being. School bullying negatively affects the school climate; hence, it is likely to trigger side effects on pupils’ behaviors and performances. This is especially true when socially disadvantaged students are concerned, such as those with a migrant background. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of school bullying among pupils with a migrant background living in Italy and suggests several insights to address this relevant school quality issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed quantitative research has been designed to investigate the relationship between school bullying, victims’ socio-demographic attributes, school behaviors and school performances. Secondary data were collected from the study on the Integration of Second Generations performed in 2015 by the Italian Institute of Statistics.
Findings
Verbal and relational bullying were prevailing. Physical bullying was also recurring, but it primarily concerned male pupils. Bullied students were more likely to self-report lower school performances; moreover, they showed greater willingness to dropout from school. Victims of school bullying suffered from social exclusion; they were also used to perform working activities beyond mandatory schooling. They expressed lower trust in their teachers as compared with their peers.
Practical implications
School bullying is thought to deteriorate the school climate and, consequently, to impair educational services’ quality. Timely management interventions are needed to address school bullying and to prevent its negative effects.
Originality/value
This study conceives school bullying as a critical quality issue and paves the way for further developments intended to enhance school services’ effectiveness
Mixed Reality Platform Supporting Human-Robot Interaction
No full textHuman-Robot Interaction (HRI) is an interdisciplinary research field aiming to study and develop platform in which robots (and in particular collaborative robots, also called cobots) can interact and collaborate with humans to execute dedicated tasks. Usually, cobots are intended as passive robotic devices for direct collaboration with a human operator within a shared workspace. They are designed to be used in open and uncontrolled environments; the robot shall be able to adapt its behaviors to the dynamic input of the surrounding environment. In this optic, Mixed Reality (MR) can play a crucial role supporting the flow of data between the actors (cobot and human) working in the shared environment, it can offer a simply, but remarkably advanced, communication interface between human and robot. Thanks to MR, tools to allow human operators, without particular experience or knowledge of robotics, to easily interact with the cobot can be developed. Our work is focused on development of a MR platform that integrates cutting-edge technologies, i.e. a Head Mounted Display (HMD), and a cobot in a shared environment. The experimental setup includes the Microsoft’s Mixed Reality HMD HoloLens 2 and the Franka Emika Robot System
First report of powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe platani in Ailanthus altissima, the tree-of-heaven, in the Mediterranean basin, Italy
No full textIn August 2018, a tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) showing symptoms of powdery mildew was found in Pisa, Italy. Morphological characteristics of the anamorph and molecular sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region of rDNA verified the fungus as Erysiphe platani. In a pathogenicity test, powdery mildew patches were present on leaf surfaces 2 weeks after inoculation with the isolate. This is the first report of E. platani causing powdery mildew on ailanthus in the Mediterranean basin. The fungus, whose historical host range was confined to the genus Platanus, has expanded its host range to Ailanthus in Italy
Validação de processamento térmico de calzone
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Alimentos.Calzones são massas alimentícias recheadas, semelhantes a uma de pizza dobrada, com forma de meia lua. É um produto originário da Europa e hoje muito difundido no consumo brasileiro de massas alimentícias. Encontrado freqüentemente em pizzarias, a forma de consumo tipo alimentação rápida, tambem chamada de Fast Food, está cada vez mais disseminada nos grandes centros, e no Estado de Santa Catarina possui diversos pontos de venda. O objetivo deste trabalho foi validar o tratamento térmico deste produto, produzido por uma grande empresa de produção/distribuição de calzone do Estado de Santa Catarina, caracterizando o pré-assamento realizado na fábrica e o assamento final realizado no ponto de venda, imediatamente anterior à venda ao consumidor. A análise do processamento térmico teve como objetivo a obtenção de dados, para a validação do binômo tempo/temperatura utilizado no processo, frente a possível presença de microrganismos patogênicos ou deteriorantes no produto, ou seja, a capacidade do processo em garantir um produto seguro ao consumo humano. O estudo envolveu a determinação do perfil de temperatura do interior dos fornos utilizados na fábrica e na loja teste, o monitoramento da temperatura no interior do produto ao longo do processo térmico na fábrica e, também, na loja teste. Testes microbiológicos de produto final também foram realizados para se avaliar a eficiência do processo térmico utilizado. Verificou-se que o processo térmico realizado na fábrica não possui a capacidade de inativação térmica dos organismos esporulados testados, nem mesmo frente às células vegetativas de importantes patógenos alimentares. Este processo parece ter somente a função de conferir sustentabilidade à massa e proporcionar um pré-assamento, que agilizará o processo posterior no ponto de venda. O processo realizado no ponto de venda consegue a inativação térmica das formas vegetativas das espécies testadas. No entanto, não foi válido para a inativação das formas esporuladas das espécies analisadas. O estudo oferece ao processador subsídios para que o melhoramento do processo térmico utilizado hoje, oferecendo sugestões, e dados para que o processador e seu corpo técnico possam corrigir o processo e propor outras melhorias que se façam necessárias. Calzones are stuffed pasta, very close to a folded pizza, which shape looks like a half moon. It is a product originally from Europe and nowadays is very common Brazilian pasta. This product is a kind of fast food and is frequently found in pizzeria. Fast food restaurants are very popular in big cities and in the state Santa Catarina there are lots of those places. The aim of this study was to validate the thermal treatment f this product, made by company of calzone production/distribution from Santa Catarina, during the pre-baking (made inside the producer) and the final baking, applied at the sell point, immediately before the sell of the product to the consumer. The thermal treatment analysis of the calzone was done to obtain data to validate the binomio time/temperature used in the process against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, that is to say, the abiliy of the process in guaranty safe product for human consumption. The study envolved the determination of the temperature profile inside the ovens used in the company and in the test store and the monitoring of the temperature inside the product throughout the process in the producer and also in the test store. Besides, microbiology tests were made in the final product in order to verify the efficacy of the thermal process. It was verified that the thermal process made in the producer was not able to inactivated sporulated organisms tested and also vegetative cells of the pathogens important in food safe. The process at the factory seems just to confer support to the pasta and to pre-bake the product. The thermal process, made in the test store, was able to inactivate the vegetative cells tested. However it was not efficient to inactivate the sporulated organisms tested. This study yield data and suggestions to the processor to improve the actual thermal process
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
Identification and treatment of late onset Fanconi's anemia.
No full textWe diagnosed Fanconi's anemia (FA) in a 34-year-old lady, daughter of consanguineous parents, from a small Southern Italian town. The patient was pancytopenic when she was 31, and was found to be aplastic at the age of 34. Spontaneous chromosomal breakages were not evident in peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures but the diepoxybutane (DEB) test, carried out during the aplastic phase, was clearly positive. Danazol treatment significantly improved her hematological condition, yielding a Hb peak value of 13.4 g/dL. Four years later moderate pancytopenia has recurred. This case demonstrates that even adult pancytopenic patients may have FA and that a test detecting chromosomal hypersensitivity to cross-linking agents is the only key to a correct diagnosis, which in turn is essential to avoid improper treatment
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Letter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer, Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, October 2, 1942
No full textLetter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer at The Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, regarding property owned by Dave Tatsuno. Zellick mentions a dispute between current tenants and Tatsuno, and that Tatsuno has asked Goodman to help locate trustworthy tenants.Personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens' League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, organizations opposing forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about forced removal and incarceration created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide
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