7,731 research outputs found
Mapping Learning and Game Mechanics for Serious Games Analysis in Engineering Education
In a world where students are increasing digitally tethered to powerful, âalways onâ mobile devices, new models of engagement and approaches to teaching and learning are required from educators. Serious Games (SG) have proved to have instructional potential but there is still a lack of methodologies and tools not only for their design but also to support game analysis and assessment. This paper explores the use of SG to increase student engagement and retention. The development phase of the Circuit Warz game is presented to demonstrate how electronic engineering education can be radically reimagined to create immersive, highly engaging learning experiences that are problem-centered and pedagogically sound. The Learning MechanicsâGame Mechanics (LM-GM) framework for SG game analysis is introduced and its practical use in an educational game design scenario is shown as a case study
Clinical Processes - The Killer Application for Constraint-Based Process Interactions?
For more than a decade, the interest in aligning information
systems in a process-oriented way has been increasing. To enable operational
support for business processes, the latter are usually specified in
an imperative way. The resulting process models, however, tend to be too
rigid to meet the flexibility demands of the actors involved. Declarative
process modeling languages, in turn, provide a promising alternative in
scenarios in which a high level of flexibility is demanded. In the scientific
literature, declarative languages have been used for modeling rather simple
processes or synthetic examples. However, to the best of our knowledge,
they have not been used to model complex, real-world scenarios
that comprise constraints going beyond control-flow. In this paper, we
propose the use of a declarative language for modeling a sophisticated
healthcare process scenario from the real world. The scenario is subject to
complex temporal constraints and entails the need for coordinating the
constraint-based interactions among the processes related to a patient
treatment process. As demonstrated in this work, the selected real process
scenario can be suitably modeled through a declarative approach.Ministerio de EconomĂa y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de EconomĂa y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED
The chemical composition of the aerial parts essential oil of Acinos alpinus subsp. nebrodensis (Lamiaceae) growing in Sicily (Italy)
Acinos is a small genus of economically important plants belonging to Lamiaceae family whose botanical collocation is quite problematic due to the disagreement among the botanists and the presence in litera- ture of several names and synonyms from different sources. In the pre- sent study the chemical composition of the essential oil from aerial parts of Acinos alpinus subsp. nebrodensis (Strobl) Brullo & Brullo col- lected in Central Sicily was analyzed by GC-MS. The result showed the presence of large quantity of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons with germa- crene D (37.9%) as the most abundant component followed by (E)- b-caryophyllene (5.1%). Among the oxygenated monoterpenes thymol (8.3%) was the most abundant; good quantity of hexadecanoic acid (6.8%) was also observed. Chemotaxonomic considerations with respect all the other oils of Acinos taxa, studied so far, were carried out
High Glucose Impairs Expression and Activation of MerTK in ARPE-19 Cells
MerTK (Mer Tyrosine Kinase) is a cell surface receptor that regulates phagocytosis of pho-toreceptor outer segments (POS) in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. POS phagocytosis is im-paired in several pathologies, including diabetes. In this study, we investigate whether hyperglyce-mic conditions may affect MerTK expression and activation in ARPE-19 cells, a retinal pigment epithelial cellular model. ARPE-19 cells were cultured in standard (CTR) or high-glucose (HG) me-dium for 24 h. Then, we analyzed: mRNA levels and protein expression of MerTK and ADAM9, a protease that cleaves the extracellular region of MerTK; the amount of cleaved Mer (sMer); and the ability of GAS6, a MerTK ligand, to induce MerTK phosphorylation. Since HG reduces miR-126 levels, and ADAM9 is a target of miR-126, ARPE-19 cells were transfected with miR-126 inhibitor or mimic; then, we evaluated ADAM9 expression, sMer, and POS phagocytosis. We found that HG reduced expression and activation of MerTK. Contextually, HG increased expression of ADAM9 and the amount of sMer. Overexpression of miR-126 reduced levels of sMer and improved phago-cytosis in ARPE-19 cells cultured with HG. In this study, we demonstrate that HG compromises MerTK expression and activation in ARPE-19 cells. Our results suggest that HG up-regulates ADAM9 expression, leading to increased shedding of MerTK. The consequent rise in sMer coupled to reduced expression of MerTK impairs binding and internalization of POS in ARPE-19 cells
Distinguishing cancerous from non-cancerous cells through analysis of electrical noise
Since 1984, electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) has been used to
monitor cell behavior in tissue culture and has proven sensitive to cell
morphological changes and cell motility. We have taken ECIS measurements on
several cultures of non-cancerous (HOSE) and cancerous (SKOV) human ovarian
surface epithelial cells. By analyzing the noise in real and imaginary
electrical impedance, we demonstrate that it is possible to distinguish the two
cell types purely from signatures of their electrical noise. Our measures
include power-spectral exponents, Hurst and detrended fluctuation analysis, and
estimates of correlation time; principal-component analysis combines all the
measures. The noise from both cancerous and non-cancerous cultures shows
correlations on many time scales, but these correlations are stronger for the
non-cancerous cells.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; submitted to PR
Vaccines and Senior Travellers
Background: International tourist travel has been increasingly steadily in recent years, and looks set to reach unprecedented levels in the coming decades. Among these travellers, an increasing proportion is aged over 60 years, and is healthy and wealthy enough to be able to travel. However, senior travellers have specific risks linked to their age, health and travel patterns, as compared to their younger counterparts. Methods: We review here the risk of major vaccine-preventable travel-associated infectious diseases, and forms and efficacy of vaccination for these diseases. Results: Routine vaccinations are recommended for older persons, regardless of whether they travel or not (e.g., influenza, pneumococcal vaccines). Older individuals should be advised about the vaccines that are recommended for their age group in the framework of the national vaccination schedule. Travel-specific vaccines must be discussed in detail on a case-by-case basis, and the risk associated with the vaccine should be carefully weighed against the risk of contracting the disease during travel. Travel-specific vaccines reviewed here include yellow fever, hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, typhoid fever, cholera, poliomyelitis, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne encephalitis and dengue. Conclusion: The number of older people who have the good health and financial resources to travel is rising dramatically. Older travellers should be advised appropriately about routine and travel-specific vaccines, taking into account the destination, duration and purpose of the trip, the activities planned, the type of accommodation, as well as patient-specific characteristics, such as health status and current medications
RECENT SEISMICITY (2000-2007) IN THE TIBURTINI-PRENESTINI MOUNTAINS REGION (LATIUM, ITALY)
A detailed knowledge of the seismicity distribution enables us to gain a better understanding of the recent tectonic evolution and
the present-day state of stress of the Tiburtini and Prenestini Mountains region, whose seismic importance is related with the
nearness to the town of Rome. It has been carried out an analysis of the seismicity of the region using the data recorded by the
permanent stations belonging to the Italian National Seismic Network (RSNC) from 2000, and subsequently integrated with data
of local seismic network from 2003 to 2007. The increase of the number of stations in the last years allow us to obtain better
quality earthquake localization as before done. We have produced a large database of re-picked events collecting arrival times of
P and S waves of local earthquakes with magnitude larger than 2.0, belonging to the 2000-2007 period.
The work is subdivided into three step. The first one consists in the determination of the VP/VS ratio using the modified Wadati
method. In the second step we perform the analysis of the 1D velocity model that better approximates the structure of the crust
in the studied area using the VELEST code (Kissling et al., 1995). Finally, we have the step with earthquake locations and focal
mechanisms computation using the first motion polarities method. Fault plane solutions are selected following the two quality
factors defined by the FPFIT code (Reasenberg and Oppenheimer, 1985). For the determination of the regional stress field it is
used the focal mechanism inversion method elaborated by Gephart and Forsyth (1984). These results are compared with those
available from the historical seismicity that struck the region under study
Multi-frequency observations of a superbubble in the LMC: The case of LHA 120-N 70
We present a detailed study of new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA)
and XMM-Newton observations of LHA 120-N 70 (hereafter N 70), a spherically
shaped object in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) classified as a superbubble
(SB). Both archival and new observations were used to produce high quality
radio-continuum, X-ray and optical images. The radio spectral index of N 70 is
estimated to be indicating that while a supernova or
supernovae have occurred in the region at some time in the distant past, N70 is
not the remnant of a single specific supernova. N70 exhibits limited
polarisation with a maximum fractional polarisation of 9% in a small area of
the north west limb. We estimate the size of N 70 to have a diameter of 104 pc
( pc). The morphology of N 70 in X-rays closely follows that in radio
and optical, with most X-ray emission confined within the bright shell seen at
longer wavelengths. Purely thermal models adequately fit the soft X-ray
spectrum which lacks harder emission (above 1 keV). We also examine the
pressure output of N 70 where the values for the hot (PX) and warm (PHii) phase
are consistent with other studied Hii regions. However, the dust-processed
radiation pressure (PIR) is significantly smaller than in any other object
studied in Lopez et al. (2013). N70 is a very complex region that is likely to
have had multiple factors contributing to both the origin and evolution of the
entire region.Comment: 21 pages 8 figures accepted for publication in A
On the isoperimetric problem with respect to a mixed Euclidean-Gaussian density
Abstract. The isoperimetric problem with respect to the product-type density e â |x| 2 2 dx dy on the Euclidean space R h Ă R k is studied, with particular emphasis on the case k = 1. A conjecture about the minimality of large cylinders in the case k > 1 is also formulated
Healthcare Insights: Evaluating the Access to the Italian Healthcare System
The Italian health system is organised on a regional basis and services are provided by both public and private operators, affecting the planning of services, access to services by citizens and their health rights. The creation of an observatory monitoring the methods and times of access to healthcare services has been pursued. The preliminary phase of the project is presented, which will lead to the comparison of the data obtained from 2019, with an eye on the Covid-19 pandemic impact
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