205 research outputs found
Cultural Mediation for Museums. Driving Audience Engagement
No full textThe most relevant resource for museums is their audience. The new definition of museums released in August 2022 by ICOM, the International Council of Museums, puts at the core their activities “in the service of society” through the offering of “varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing”. The audience actively contributes to creating experiences, but their engagement remains a difficult challenge for museums.
Especially the recent pandemic has shown that museums face multiple difficulties in reaching and engaging their visitors, making their engagement a top priority. To that end, cultural mediation is a key driver to make arts accessible even to the most distant visitors. Thus, cultural mediation has raised the interest of many museums. Traditionally cultural organizations design mediation in accord with “the one-best solution” principle, providing one single concept of cultural mediation to the entire audience. However, this model does not work out, and better cultural mediation services can be designed to increase audience engagement. But how? To solve this issue, as marketing management teaches, museums should segment their visitors’ market, and design accordingly cultural mediation.
This book explains how to adopt this customizing strategy. Based on a multi-method research project run in 2021 by the University of Roma Tre for (and in collaboration with) the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Arts in Rome, this book presents a marketing management model to tailor cultural mediation according to visitors’ profiles for the benefits of museums’ educational services offices.
Chapter 1 focuses on the processes of cultural mediation adopted at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. Isabella de Stefano, Head of Communication and Education at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, presents the challenges that the Gallery has to deal with and how cultural mediation helps the museum in engaging visitors.
Chapter 2 presents the state of the art of studies related to audience engagement in the arts. After providing the definition, Michela Addis identifies the drivers of audience engagement. Among them, the visitor's ability to fully immerse in the experience is a key driver that cultural organizations must leverage. By providing visitors with useful, enriched, and customized information, museums design labels, apps, and cultural mediation to engage them. Thus, audience engagement emerges as the ultimate goal of museum cultural mediation.
After the setting of the goal of museum cultural mediation, Chapter 3 presents the state of the art of this service for the benefit of visitors. Starting with the results of a multidisciplinary literature review about museum cultural mediation, Zoe Giannotti focuses on managerial practices. By discussing the findings of two benchmarking analyses run on 33 educational programmes worldwide and 68 worldwide examples of museum cultural mediation, a list of the competencies and skills needed for cultural mediation emerges.
Although knowing the state of the art about museum cultural mediation is important, certainly it is not enough to design more engaging experiences. Towards that goal, a comprehensive understanding of the visitors’ point of view is needed. Chapter 4 addresses this topic. By leveraging in-depth interviews with visitors who experience museum cultural mediation for the first time, Rosina Baldo and Anna Minici identify the visitors’ value chains regarding the museum cultural mediation, depicting four different visitor profiles.
The following Chapter 5 builds on the full set of findings presented and proposes an innovative model. Different cultural mediators target different visitors’ profiles. Walter Altamirano Aguilar and Valeria Bellusci suggest a customized model of museum cultural mediation able to satisfy both the needs of the museum and visitors and achieve audience engagement. Four kinds of the cultural mediator – namely, the Guide, the Educator, the Designer, and the Manager Mediators – differ regarding their education, key skills, communication abilities, and target audience; each of them satisfies the need of a specific target profile.
Finally, Chapter 6 focuses on the organizational structures that sustain cultural mediation. As Valeria Guerrisi explains, this educational service can be fully explored only if the museums (1) set up a clear audience development strategy; (2) design a proper organizational structure; (3) know their visitors; and (4) customize their cultural mediation offerings.
Together, the six chapters contribute to better designing museum cultural mediation. However, each of them is self-standing, addressing a specific step of this strategy making cultural mediation easier and more effective from the managerial, organizational, and operational points of view
Diffusion-weighted MRI in cervical lymph nodes: Differentiation between benign and malignant lesions
No full textEur J Radiol. 2011 Feb;77(2):281-6. Epub 2009 Aug 28. Diffusion-weighted MRI in cervical lymph nodes: differentiation between benign and malignant lesions. Perrone A, Guerrisi P, Izzo L, D'Angeli I, Sassi S, Mele LL, Marini M, Mazza D, Marini M. Source Department of Radiological Sciences, Sapienza University, Policlinico Umberto I, Rome, Italy. Abstract OBJECTIVE: Purpose of our study was to assess the potential role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant nodes. SUBJECT AND METHODS: We enrolled 32 subjects: 14 with benign lymphadenopathy, 17 patients with histologically proved malignant disease before beginning treatment and 1 patient with lymphoma after chemotherapeutic treatment. In all patients we used fast spin echo T2-weighted images in axial and coronal planes, fast spin echo T1-weighted images before and after contrast medium of administration in axial and coronal planes. Before contrast administration diffusion sequences were acquired on the axial and coronal plane (b factor of 0.500 and 1000 s/mm(2)) and then apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were reconstructed. RESULTS: On diffusion images, 13/14 patients with benign nodes showed low signal intensity and had high signal on ADC maps, whereas all patients with malignant diseases appeared hyperintense on diffusion images and with low signal intensity on ADC maps. Only a patient with tuberculosis showed a low ADC value. The mean ADC value of malignant nodes was about 0.85 × 10(-3)mm(2)/s, the mean value of benign nodes was 1.448 × 10(-3)mm(2)/s; this difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01). The mean ADC value of treated nodes was 1.75 × 10(-3)mm(2)/s. The best threshold value was 1.03 × 10(-3)mm(2)/s, obtaining a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 92.9%. CONCLUSIONS: Diffusion imaging could be considered an important supportive tool for the diagnosis of enlarged cervical lymphadenopathies. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PMID: 19716671 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Maxillo-facial fractures: diagnostic role of multiplanar and 3D TC imaging with multislice technique
No full textThe purpose of our research was to verify, in a selected series of 37 patients, not only the real validity of multislice CT employment with 2D and 3D reformatted images in pre-surgical evaluation, but also the real necessity to use this technique as elective methodological procedure for maxillo-facial fractures in emergency. Material and methods. 37 selected patients (24 males, 13 females), with age ranging from 17 to 63 years (mean age 33 years), underwent multislice CT examination at the casualty department of the hospital San Camillo of Rome, from October 2004 to March 2005. In all the patients the computed tomography was carried out with spiral technique (General Electric Light Speed - 8 crowns), using thin acquisition of 2.5 mm, with configuration of the eight detectors 8 x 1,25 or 8 x 2,25, with values of pitch equal to 1 (in some cases 1, according to thickness of the anatomical volume to appraise), with interval and thickness of retro-reconstruction respectively of 1 mm and of 1,25 mm. The parameters of exposure were: 280 mAs, 120 Kv and a time for total scanning of 10-15 sec. (for only maxillofacial structures). Results. The results of the study were: 7 out of 37 patients reproduced a facial smash, 26 out of 37 patients showed a complex fracture: 8 patients with a nasal-ethmoidalorbital fractures, 7 patients with a zygomatico-maxillary fracture, 5 patients with a nasal-maxillary fracture; 4 patients with a condylar or subcondylar fracture, 1 patient with multiple fracture of jaw, 1 patient with fracture of the orbital floor (blow out); and 4 patients showed a picture of malar fracture. On the total of the examined patients, 26 (70 %) showed solitary or multiple fractures of the orbital walls. In particular in 9 cases were found fractures of the orbital floor, of which 6 with sinking of bony fragments in the underlying maxillary sinus (blow out). The medial walls of the orbit were involved in the complex fractures in 7 cases. In 11 cases presented fractures of the orbital lateral walls. Discussion. The most important aspect emerged by this experience was the absence of patients in which the classical pattern of fracture, in accordance with the historical Le Fort classification, was reproduced faithfully, and the clean prevalence of complex fractures, that come out from the normal canons of classification. We wanted to underline the role of CT in the diagnosis in this type of fractures, and in particular of the spiral multislice technique, with axial volumetric thin acquisitions supplied with coronal/sagittal and 3D with volumetric rendering reconstructions. Conclusion. In comparison with the traditional CT examination that, in prevision of MPR and 3D reconstructions, results incompatible with the necessary time and accuracy request for emergency conditions, the spiral technique reduces drastically both the times and the radiant dose, allows to work in the phase of post-elaboration on the raw data of volumetric scanning, obtaining from the axial scans multiplanar and three-dimensional reconstructions of superior quality. Emphasis was placed also on the fact that the possibility to appraise the entity of the skeletal damages, the concomitant muscular lesions, of cerebral parenchyma and of the cervical rachis made this techniqueelective in this field. The MPR reconstructions hold particular importance because undoubtedly better underline the presence of suspected or badly definable lesions compared with axial scans and complete the diagnostic supply
Interventricular coupling coefficients in a thick shell model of passive cardiac chamber deformation
No full textMechanical interplay between the adjacent ventricles is one of the principal modulators of physiopathological heart function, and the underlying mechanisms of interaction are only partially understood, hence hampering clinically useful interpretation of imaging data. In order to characterize the influence of chamber geometry on ventricular coupling, the ventricles and septum are modeled as portions of ellipsoidal shells, and configuration is derived as a function of pressure gradients by combining shell element equilibrium equations through static boundary conditions applied at the sulcus. Diastolic volume (v) surfaces are calculated as a function of pressure (p), contralateral pressure (clp) and intrathoracic pressure (pt) and match literature data where available. Ventricular interaction is characterized in terms of partial derivatives in v-p-clp-pt space both under physiological and altered (selectively stiffened walls) conditions. The model allows prediction of diastolic ventricular v-p-clp-pt interplay in a variety of physiopathological circumstances. © International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering 2008
Echo state network models for nonlinear Granger causality
No full textWhile Granger causality (GC) has been often employed in network neuroscience, most GC applications are based on linear multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) models. However, real-life systems like biological networks exhibit notable nonlinear behaviour, hence undermining the validity of MVAR-based GC (MVAR-GC). Most nonlinear GC estimators only cater for additive nonlinearities or, alternatively, are based on recurrent neural networks or long short-term memory networks, which present considerable training difficulties and tailoring needs. We reformulate the GC framework in terms of echo-state networks-based models for arbitrarily complex networks, and characterize its ability to capture nonlinear causal relations in a network of noisy Duffing oscillators, showing a net advantage of echo state GC (ES-GC) in detecting nonlinear, causal links. We then explore the structure of ES-GC networks in the human brain employing functional MRI data from 1003 healthy subjects drawn from the human connectome project, demonstrating the existence of previously unknown directed within-brain interactions. In addition, we examine joint brain-heart signals in 15 subjects where we explore directed interaction between brain networks and central vagal cardiac control in order to investigate the so-called central autonomic network in a causal manner. This article is part of the theme issue 'Advanced computation in cardiovascular physiology: new challenges and opportunities'
Septal and ventricular deformation in a shell model of the human heart: chamber wall geometry and ventricular interdependence
No full textVentricular interdependence is one of the principal controllers of heart function, and hence a key mediator of most pathological consequences of its impairment. It can only be explained by accounting for overall chamber deformation resulting from internal bending and twisting moments as well as cardiac dimensions and nonlinear material properties, and clinically useful interpretation of imaging data about pathological alterations in chamber geometry is hampered by lack of understanding of its significance to cardiac function. In order to characterise the influence of chamber geometry on ventricular function, a model was developed which describes the ventricles and septum as portions of generalised ellipsoid shells of non-uniform wall thickness whose interacting walls are subject to local and global stresses/strains as well as torques. Chamber configuration is derived as a function of pressure gradients by combining shell element equilibrium equations through static boundary conditions applied at the sulcus, where the walls exhibit a mixed state of stress. Diastolic pressure (P)-volume (V) curves are calculated for both ventricles as a function of contralateral (constant) pressure and ventricular interaction is characterized by calculating coupling coefficients represented by surfaces in pressure-volume-contralateral pressure space. Further, the alterations in PV relationships determined by a number of pathological conditions (constrictive pericarditis, septal or left ventricular wall hypertrophy, dilatative cardiomiopathy) are characterized. Our results are in good agreement with experimental literature and clinical data, and our model allows simulation/prediction of cardiac chamber behaviour in a variety of physiopathological circumstances
Ventricular interaction and cardiac pathologies in a thick shell model of cardiac chamber deformation
No full textVentricular interdependence is an important part of heart function, and hence a key mediator of most pathological consequences of its impairment. It can only be explained by accounting for overall chamber deformation as well as cardiac dimensions and nonlinear material properties. Further, clinically useful interpretation of imaging data about pathological alterations in chamber geometry is hampered by lack of understanding of its significance in cardiac function. A model has been developed which describes the ventricles and septum as portions of ellipsoid shells, allowing structural characterization of diastolic ventricular interaction over arbitrary ranges of chamber pressures and volumes as well as intrathoracic pressures. Chamber configuration is derived as a function of pressure gradients by combining shell element equilibrium equations through static boundary conditions applied at the sulcus. Coupling coefficients between state variables are then calculated by letting the system evolve quasistatically through the solution space. The model is used to simulate a number of cardiac pathologies (constrictive pericarditis, restrictive myocarditis, left/right free wall and septal hypertrophy, left dilatative cardiomyopathy) and quantify their effect on ventricular pressurepressure coupling as well as diastolic pressurevolume relationships. Results match experimental observations where available. The model can aid in interpreting diagnostic data about chamber geometry in a quantitative manner, and the differential effect of cardiac pathologies with otherwise similar phenomenology on ventricular interaction can serve as a discriminating diagnostic criterion. © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company
Simultaneous estimation of the in-mean and in-variance causal connectomes of the human brain
No full textIn recent years, the study of the human connectome (i.e. of statistical relationships between non spatially contiguous neurophysiological events in the human brain) has been enormously fuelled by technological advances in high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as well as by coordinated world wide data-collection efforts like the Human Connectome Project (HCP). In this context, Granger Causality (GC) approaches have recently been employed to incorporate information about the directionality of the influence exerted by a brain region on another. However, while fluctuations in the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal at rest also contain important information about the physiological processes that underlie neurovascular coupling and associations between disjoint brain regions, so far all connectivity estimation frameworks have focused on central tendencies, hence completely disregarding so-called in-variance causality (i.e. the directed influence of the volatility of one signal on the volatility of another). In this paper, we develop a framework for simultaneous estimation of both in-mean and invariance causality in complex networks. We validate our approach using synthetic data from complex ensembles of coupled nonlinear oscillators, and successively employ HCP data to provide the very first estimate of the in-variance connectome of the human brain
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