156 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
Combining the Versatility of Polyurethane Chemistry and 3D Bioprinting to Design Tissue Engineered Scaffolds
No full text
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
Novel Thermo-sensitive and Photo-curable Hydrogels as Potential Bioinks in Regenerative Medicine
No full textAspetti diagnostici e terapeutici della Sindrome da Iper-IgE: considerazioni su di un caso.
No full textOxidative Stress Mitigation by Chitosan Nanoparticles in Durum Wheat Also Affects Phytochemicals and Technological Quality of Bran and Semolina
No full textIn our previous work, durum wheat cv. Fabulis was grown over two consecutive seasons (2016–2017 and 2017–2018) in an experimental field in the north of Italy. With the aim of mitigating oxidative stress, plants were subjected to four treatments (deionized water, CHT 0.05 mg/mL, CHT-NPs, and CHT-NPs-NAC) three times during the experiment. Chitosan nanoparticles (CHT-NPs) reduced symptom severity on wheat leaves and positively influenced the final grain yield. The present work aimed at investigating whether CHT treatments and particularly N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)-loaded or -unloaded CHT-NPs, while triggering plant defense mechanisms, might also vary the nutritional and technological quality of grains. For this purpose, the grains harvested from the previous experiment were analyzed for their content in phytochemicals and for their technological properties. The results showed that CHT increased the polyphenol and tocopherol content and the reducing capacity of bran and semolina, even if the positive effect of the nano-formulation remained still unclear and slightly varied between the two years of cultivation. The positive effect against oxidative stress induced by the chitosan treatments was more evident in the preservation of both the starch pasting properties and gluten aggregation capacity, indicating that the overall technological quality of semolina was maintained. Our data confirm the role of chitosan as an elicitor of the antioxidant defense system in wheat also at the grain level
Molecular, pro-technological and functional characterization of yeasts isolated from Tuscan sourdoughs to be used as potential starters
No full textYeast populations of traditional sourdoughs collected from four Tuscan bakeries were investigated. Among 200 isolated strains, 81 were randomly selected and molecularly characterized. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was dominant, representing the only species detected in three out of the four sourdoughs. The fourth one harboured also Kazachstania humilis. Inter-delta regions analysis revealed a high intra-specific polymorphism discriminating 18 biotypes among the 80 S. cerevisiae isolates, which clustered based on their origin. Twenty representative isolates of the biotype groups were singly used to ferment soft and durum wheat flour, aiming at evaluating the main pro-technological and functional properties. During fermentation under standardized conditions, all strains were able to grow of ca. 2 log cycles but only S. cerevisiae L10Y, D18Y and D20Y had a significantly shorter latency phase in both the flours. Strains D5Y, D8Y, D9Y, D12Y, D20Y and D24Y caused the highest dough volume increase. K. humilis G23Y was the only strain able to increase the total free amino acids concentration of the doughs. K. humilis G23Y and S. cerevisiae D20Y and D24Y were characterized for a phytase activity more than three times higher than spontaneously fermented control. Although without relevant differences among them, almost all the strains led to the increase of the antioxidant activity. Besides the evaluation of the properties related to bakery applications, the resistance of the strains to simulated gastric and intestinal conditions, that is considered a pre-requisite for the selection of probiotics, was also investigated, revealing a relevant in vitro survival for many of the strains considered
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