446 research outputs found
Dubbing vs. Subtitling: Complexity Matters
Get PDFDespite the claims on the potential disruptiveness of subtitling for audiovisual processing, existing empirical evidence supports the idea that subtitle processing is semi-automatic and cognitively effective, and that, in moderately complex viewing scenarios, dubbing does not necessarily help viewers. In this paper we appraise whether the complexity of the translated audiovisual material matters for the cognitive (i.e., regarding comprehension and memory) and evaluative reception of subtitled vs. dubbed audiovisual material. To this aim, we present the results of two studies on the viewers’ reception of film translation (dubbing vs. subtitling), in which we investigate the cognitive and evaluative consequences of audiovisual complexity. In Study 1, the results show that a moderately complex film is processed effectively and it is enjoyed irrespective of the translation method. However, in Study 2, the subtitling (vs. dubbing) of a more complex film leads to more effortful processing and lower cognitive performance, but not to a lessened appreciation. These results expose the boundaries of subtitle processing, which are reached only when the audiovisual material to be processed is complex, and they encourage scholars and practitioners to reconsider old standards as well as to invest more effort in crafting diverse types of audiovisual translations tailored both on the degree of complexity of the source product and on the individual differences of the target viewers
Impact of 12-Week Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Training on Inflammasome Complex Activation in Elderly Women
No full textAging often associates with a chronic low-grade inflammatory status that can be consequent to the activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the downstream NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and causes a chronic secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Since exercise has known anti-inflammatory effects, we investigated the effect of Nordic walking training on inflammasome activation and downstream effectors in elderly women. A population of elderly women was divided into EXP (n = 29) that completed 12 weeks of the moderate-intensity aerobic training program and CTRL (n = 29), performing no activity. Blood samples were taken before and after the first (T1-pre and T1-post, respectively) and last (T2-pre and T2-post, respectively) exercise unit. Inflammasome activation status was assessed by whole blood NLRP3 and TLR4 expression by RT-qPCR. Serum levels of IL-1 beta, IL-6, TNF alpha, and IL-18 cytokines were assayed by multiplex fluorescent beads-based immunoassays or ELISA. NLRP3 and TLR4 levels were reduced 2 folds between T1-pre and T2-pre and induced at T2-post, compared to T2-pre, by 2.6- and 2.9-fold, respectively. A single exercise bout elicited a 1. 38-, 1. 5-, and 1.36-fold rise of IL-1 beta, TNF alpha, and IL-6 concentration, respectively, although not significant, at the beginning of the training (T1-pre vs. T1-post), a 1.4-fold decrease for IL-1 beta and TNF alpha at the end of the training (T1-pre vs. T2-pre), and a 2-, 1.8- and 1.26-fold increase after the last exercise session (T2-pre vs. T2-post) for the three cytokines. When stratifying the population based on BMI in normal weight (NW) and overweight (OW), NLRP3 and TLR4 expression was affected only in NW. As for inflammatory cytokines, IL-1 beta was modulated in NW at the beginning of the training, whereas in OW at the end of the training; for TNF alpha, this time-dependent modulation was significant only in OW. Applied aerobic training affected the resting expression of inflammasome constituents (NLRP3 and TLR4) and levels of downstream effectors (IL-1 beta, TNF alpha, and IL-6). However, at the end of the program, participants acquire an acute inflammatory response to exercise that was absent at baseline. Future studies would have to define the molecular mechanisms associated with, and how to potentiate, the exercise-associated inflammatory response
Convenience in Funding Upgrading Works
No full textWith reference to upgrading actions on existing building stock, Construction Procurement Guidance, No.7 Whole Life Costs (Office of Government Commerce) states: ‘All procurement must be made solely on the basis of value for money in terms of the optimum combination of global costs and quality to meet the user’s requirements’. Cash-flow analyses allow showing the economic value of investments for alternative technological upgrading works extended all along their service lives. Optimisation of choices is not only a matter of cash-flow analyses—choices should not be made only according to the lowest costs but also considering several aspects that can be brought back to the concept of ‘technical-sustainable value’, which mainly derives from competent functional and environmental assessments of the reference analysis system. The mentioned interrelation should theoretically be adequately considered but this is seldom the case in the common building practice. Cost estimate for an engineered system has to entail much more detailed analyses on costs, energy, sustainability and technologies. Possible technological solutions would be convenient in terms of technological/technical utility, but less convenient in monetary terms for the funding subject. Under the economic point of view, cash outflow means less economic convenience in funding a given technology. All that stated above, nowadays effective data-display global cost-quality indicators are rarely available in literature. The present manuscript introduces to the reader fundamentals of an economic tool proposal designed by the author with the use of synthetically displaying interrelations between cash-flow scenarios and quality-sustainability in upgrading processes on existing buildings. Fundamentals have been tested on a reference case study. Then, fundamentals have been contextualized to the Italian Legislative framework: in Italy, in multi-owner existing residential buildings, expenditure allocation is carried out based on thousandths. The thousandth type to be considered is due to the configuration of the case under review and to balance-sheet expenditure to be allocated to owners. Property thousandths allocated to housing units have been used to allocate expenses for technological/energy upgrading works. The author has tried to find out the amount of a possible bank investment that a user might start at building Time ‘0’ to theoretically clear possible economic losses, trying to highlight technical utility of the technological solution that would be disadvantaged in economic terms. ‘Neutral’ mathematical finance formulas have been used to calculate the theoretical capital to be invested by an owner based on the reference cash-flow scenario. Conclusion will be drawn at the end of the manuscript
Recupero edilizio e nuova costruzione. Non solo risparmio energetico. Importanza della valutazione della fattibilità applicativa a monte della modellazione energetica
No full textThe expressions ‘low environmental impact’ and ‘energy efficiency’ mean much more than ‘compliance to regulation and technical specifications’ (89/106/ EEC, article 4).
Nowadays, solutions implemented in actions on buildings at least have to comply with regulatory values or parameters with reference to a specific time outlook. This is due to policies and guidelines issued at several levels, starting from the European one to get to the local one, promoting: for new buildings, reviews of design processes so as to create sustainable buildings providing for high-quality housing, for existing buildings, reviews on as-built assets so as to limit energy consumption.
Designers selecting potentially applicable ‘sustainable’ technologies should not only assess their profiles in terms of energy and performance which, of course, are essential.
Together with the abovementioned issues, in addition to convenience, critical points and viability constraints should be reasonably taken into account during the selection process.
For this purpose, some ideas are introduced in form of a journalistic discourse, which, according to the author, can be useful to those designers who have to select from different ranges of viable technological solutions, both based on traditional building practices and on new or emerging practices
Mitogenomes from Two Uncommon Haplogroups Mark Late Glacial/Postglacial Expansions from the Near East and Neolithic Dispersals within Europe
No full textThe current human mitochondrial (mtDNA) phylogeny does not equally represent all human populations but is biased in favour of representatives originally from north and central Europe. This especially affects the phylogeny of some uncommon West Eurasian haplogroups, including I and W, whose southern European and Near Eastern components are very poorly represented, suggesting that extensive hidden phylogenetic substructure remains to be uncovered. This study expanded and re-analysed the available datasets of I and W complete mtDNA genomes, reaching a comprehensive 419 mitogenomes, and searched for precise correlations between the ages and geographical distributions of their numerous newly identified subclades with events of human dispersal which contributed to the genetic formation of modern Europeans. Our results showed that haplogroups I (within N1a1b) and W originated in the Near East during the Last Glacial Maximum or pre-warming period (the period of gradual warming between the end of the LGM, ~19 ky ago, and the beginning of the first main warming phase, ~15 ky ago) and, like the much more common haplogroups J and T, may have been involved in Late Glacial expansions starting from the Near East. Thus our data contribute to a better definition of the Late and postglacial re-peopling of Europe, providing further evidence for the scenario that major population expansions started after the Last Glacial Maximum but before Neolithic times, but also evidencing traces of diffusion events in several I and W subclades dating to the European Neolithic and restricted to Europe
Interference between cognitive and motor recovery in elderly dementia patients through a holistic tele-rehabilitation platform
Get PDFTo improve the quality of life of elderly subjects affected by dementia, the rehabilitation environment has to translate from the hospital to the patientâs home. A holistic tele-rehabilitation system can be successfully used to support and enhance a home-based rehabilitation process. The ABILITY platform foresees mobile and wireless technologies, integrated into a unique environment in which patients can become primary actors in their own care. In this work, we present a Pilot Study (N = 10) about the motor recovery, and in particular the relationship between the motor recovery and the cognitive recovery, in dementia patients. A group of control patients followed the usual care treatment and another group used the ABILITY platform at home. The results of the study suggested that the use of the tele-rehabilitation platform could improve both the motor skills, the cognitive skill and the interaction between them
Extended Reality for Special Educational Needs: From the Design Process to Real Products Through 3D Printing
No full textGlutamate synthase genes of the diazotroph Azospirillum brasilense: Cloning, sequencing, and analysis of functional domains
No full textA 10-kilobase EcoRI fragment of Azospirillum brasilense genomic DNA was cloned in Escherichia coli. Two open reading frames of 4548 and 1446 base pairs (bp) were identified within the fragment as the structural genes for the α and Î2 subunits (gltB and gltD, respectively) of A. brasilense GltS. The organization of the gltBD region of A. brasilense differs from that of the corresponding region in E. coli: in A. brasilense, gltD is upstream relative to gltB, and its stop codon is separated by 141 bp from the first ATG of gltB. The deduced amino acid sequences reveal a high similarity with GltS from E. coli and with the ferredoxin-dependent GltS from maize. Binding domains for flavin cofactors and NADPH, a domain for glutamine binding and activation, and cysteine clusters for iron-sulfur centers formation were tentatively identified on the basis of sequence comparison with flavoproteins, pyridine nucleotide-dependent enzymes, amidotransferases, and iron-sulfur proteins
Bottom-Up Assembly of Micro/Nanostructures
No full textGreen Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic Components, Technology and Material
Applying computerized linguistic measures to explore the clinical features of different diagnostic groups and the psychotherapy change process
No full textAlthough mental and interaction processes like those emerging in psychotherapy and psychopathology should somehow be reflected in the vocabularies and linguistic style of the speakers involved, to date few studies investigated the linguistic manifestation of psychological functioning of patients with specific diagnoses in clinical or naturalistic contexts. This lack of studies is probably due partly to the difficulty of getting sessions and interviews transcripts, partly to the complexity of the interactions between verbal and non- verbal linguistic variables, and partly to the lacking clinical relevance of some linguistic variables so far investigated in the analysis of day-to-day conversation.
The studies in this symposium describe two computerized linguistic analysis programs: The Computerized Reflective Functioning (CRF; Fertuck, Mergenthaler, Target, Levy, & Clarkin, 2012) and the Italian Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (IDAAP; Maskit, 2011; Maskit, Bucci, & Murphy, 2012) that calculates the linguistic measures of referential process phases as described by Bucci (1997, 2016). These programs have been used to empirically examine three linguistic styles that the authors associated to different psychological functions or states: emotional arousal; narrating/symbolization; and reorganization/reflective functioning. These functions have been investigated on narratives posted by borderline Instagram users; on the Adult Attachment Interview of women victims of intimate partner violence; on Relationship Anecdotes Paradigm Interview of patients suffering from unipolar and bipolar mood disorders; and on a large sample of psychotherapy sessions to which is possible to compare the single session or treatment.
These studies are ones in a growing line of research exploring how patients speak rather than just the content of what they say, revealing aspects that are largely undetectable by both speakers and that bypass the biases of self-report or observer-based measures
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