Teaching with What you Are: The Importance of Teachers’ Positive Resources and of the Neuropsychopedagogical Training Envisioning the Future on Adolescents’ Well-Being. A Correlational and Analysis of Variance Study

The literature shows that teachers’ psychological characteristics can influence adolescents’ mental health. Additionally, neuropsychopedagogical interventions, like the Envisioning the Future (EF) training, can positively impact wellbeing. The study aims at: (i) exploring the relationships between teachers’ and students’ characteristics and (ii) investigating the impact of EF on students’ wellbeing. The sample consists of N = 113 Italian adolescents, whose data were matched with their teachers’ (N = 12). Participants completed validated self-report questionnaires on self-compassion, emotion regulation, resilience, and an ad-hoc scale of frequency of bullying episodes. Correlational analyses highlight that: teachers’ avoidance, social isolation, and self-judgment negatively correlate with the frequency with which students perceive bullying episodes; teachers’ self-kindness, optimism, and self-efficacy in regulating emotions positively correlate with the frequency with which the students’ perceive bullying; teachers’ cognitive focus positively correlates with students’ self-determination toward future decisions; students’ self-judgment negatively correlates with teachers’ resilience and self-efficacy in managing positive emotions, while it positively correlates with teachers’ avoidance. In addition, after EF training, students had improved in negative emotion regulation, frequency of perceiving bullying, common humanity, and self-determination. The study underscores the importance of the relationship between teachers’ and students’ resources and the impact of EF training on adolescents’ wellbeing

Borexino : geo-neutrino measurement at Gran Sasso, Italy

Geo-neutrinos, electron anti-neutrinos produced in beta-decays of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the Earth, are a unique direct probe of our planet's interior. After a brief introduction of the geo-neutrinos' properties and of the main aims of their study, we discuss the features of a detector which has recently provided breakthrough achievements in the field, Borexino, a massive, calorimetric liquid scintillator detector installed at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory. With its unprecedented radiopurity levels achieved in the core of the detection medium, it is the only experiment in operation able to study in real time solar neutrino interactions in the challenging sub-MeV energy region. Its superior technical properties allowed Borexino also to provide a clean detection of terrestrial neutrinos. Therefore, the description of the characteristics of the detected geo-neutrino signal and of the corresponding geological implications are the main core of the discussion contained in this work

Observation of ortho-positronium formation in Double Chooz

International audienceThe aim of the Double Chooz experiment is to measure the neutrino mixing angle θ13 by detecting the reactor electron anti-neutrino via inverse beta decay. The positron-neutron delayed coincidence yields a sizeable background suppression; a further contribution might come from the development of techniques for an efficient identification of positrons. Pulse shape discrimination, a well-established technique for background rejection in liquid scintillator detectors, fails in separating positrons from electrons, as they give rise to identical light pulses. However, in some cases the positron decay is delayed by the formation of a positron-electron metastable bound state, called ortho-positronium (o-Ps), which introduces a delay between the light signal from the positron energy deposition in the scintillator and the one from the annihilation gammas. The consequent deformation in the positron-induced light pulse can be exploited to identify positrons with the pulse shape discrimination, as already successfully done statistically in Borexino.In Double Chooz, we performed the first o-Ps formation tagging on an event-by-event basis. We also measured the o-Ps formation probability and its lifetime, finding (44 ± 13)% and (3.68 ± 0.23) ns respectively. These values are in good agreement with independent measurements obtained with a dedicated setup

Envisioning the Future: a Remote Neuropsychopedagogic Intervention for Inmates

[EN] The pandemic has implied a massive digitalization of psycho-pedagogical and educational interventions in different contexts, including the prison setting. Patrizio Paoletti Foundation (Assisi, Italy) has created Envisioning the Future (EF), a neuropsycho-pedagogical program aimed at increasing personal wellbeing, that was also remotely conducted among the inmates of the Padua (Italy) prison. The program was remotely implemented from May 2021 to June 2021, at the climax of the pandemic emergency, with the collaboration of the University of Padua (Italy) and of Padua prison (Italy). Through key neuroscientific findings and daily practices for wellbeing, EF aims at increasing inmates’ emotion regulation abilities. The responses of nine inmates to the Scales of Personal Self-efficacy in the Management of Negative and Positive Emotions, before and after EF, were paired and subjected to analysis of covariance, revealing an increase in the ability to manage positive emotions after EF.  To date, EF is one of the first remote neuropsycho-pedagogical experiences in Italian prisons, able to positively impact on individual well-being.Di Giuseppe, T.; Perasso, GF.; Maculan, A.; Vianello, F.; Paoletti, P. (2023). Envisioning the Future: a Remote Neuropsychopedagogic Intervention for Inmates. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 11-19. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2022.2022.15706111

Envisioning the future for families running away from war: Challenges and resources of Ukrainian parents in Italy

Since February 2022, 7.8 million people have left Ukraine. In total, 80% are women and children. The present quali-quantitative study is the first in Italy to (i) describe the adaptation challenges and the resources of refugee parents and, indirectly, of their children and (ii) investigate the impact of neuropsychopedagogical training on their wellbeing. The sample includes N = 15 Ukrainian parents (80% mothers, mean age = 34 years) who arrived in Italy in March and April 2022. The parents participated in neuropsychopedagogical training within the program Envisioning the Future (EF): the 10 Keys to Resilience. Before the training, participants completed an ad hoc checklist to detect adjustment difficulties. After the training, they responded to a three-item post-training questionnaire on the course and to a semi-structured interview deepening adaptation problems, personal resources, and the neuropsychopedagogical training effects. Participants report that since they departed from Ukraine, they have experienced sleep, mood, and concentration problems, and specific fears, which they also observed in their children. They report self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support, spirituality, and common humanity as their principal resources. As effects of the training, they report an increased sense of security, quality of sleep, and more frequent positive thoughts. The interviews also reveal a 3-fold positive effect of the training (e.g., behavioral, emotional-relational, and cognitive-narrative)

Boosting and consolidating the proprioceptive cortical aftereffect by combining tendon vibration and repetitive TMS over primary motor cortex

Tendon vibration of a limb elicits illusory movements in the direction that the vibrated muscle would be stretched, followed by a transient perception of movement in the opposite direction, that was demonstrated to correspond to a \u201ccortical\u201d aftereffect (Goodwin et al. Science 175:1382\u20131384, 1972). Primary motor cortex (M1) excitability of the non-vibrated antagonist muscle of the vibrated muscle increased during vibration and decreased thereafter. The cortical aftereffect is of interest when considering the possibility to use tendon vibration in rehabilitation for restoring unbalance activity between antagonistic muscles but, due to its short-lasting duration, has not been explored so far. We investigated the possibility to consolidate the cortical aftereffect by combining tendon vibration with a concomitant high-frequency 5-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocol. The distal tendon of the flexor carpi radialis muscle (FCR) was vibrated and concomitantly a 2-min 5-Hz rTMS protocol was administered on the left hemi-scalp hot spot of the vibrated FCR or its antagonist muscle (extensor carpi radialis (ECR)). We found that this protocol induced a pattern of unbalanced M1 excitability between vibrated muscle and its antagonist with increased excitability of the FCR and decreased excitability of ECR cortical areas, which persisted up to 30 min