Cyberfeminism: A Relationship between Cyberspace, Technology, and the Internet

The current of cyberfeminism has been active for 30 years now, also referred to as the “third wave” of feminism. Despite being an ambiguous and multifaceted movement involving multiple instances, cyberfeminism is represented in the imagination by women with strong knowledge of media and digital technologies. The purpose of this article is to analyze the socially and culturally constructed value that the media assume in this movement. The very concept of identity is undergoing a phenomenon of control whereby it is redefined by “control grids” (D. Haraway) that prevent free access to participation in life on the web. The utopian theories of feminists actually alternate with fundamental gender analyses within cyberspace that determine the amount of access to resources. The last phase of this phenomenon is instead characterized by the intent to break down gender inequalities through a series of digital products that produce changes in common perceptions: online magazines, YouTube channels, webinars, and entrepreneurship actions on the web. New media and, more generally, access to information are fundamental to social and political participation, in which the phenomenon of exclusion or production of inequalities is more visible. Gender divisions on the web also reinforce sociocultural barriers and sometimes create regressive and destructive forms of social bonds. Globalization also affects these dynamics and accentuates exaggerated forms of individualism and cognitive stiffening, which further accentuate the distinctive traits of gender inequalities in cyberspace

Innovating university teaching with micro-credentials: an ongoing research experimentation

Abstract The experience of the Covid-19 lockdown has suddenly accelerated the awareness process of the entire university faculty about the need to hybridise their teaching with digital tools (Trentin, Bocconi 2015; Perla, Scarinci, Amati 2021) transforming traditional scholarship of the Italian University in a gigantic field of experimentation of innovative practices (Perla, 2020, p. 562). This has brought out the importance of supporting the quality of university teaching through the commitment to address precise Faculty Development policies, specifically through the development of innovative experiences and the design of paths based on micro-credentials. This contribution reports some actions promoted by the University of Bari aimed at the innovation of university teaching and the results of a pilot course on micro-credentials

Qualitative learning analytics to detect students’ emotional topography on EduOpen

What emotions can students experience in digitally mediated learning processes? In this paper, we connect Learning Analytics to the Grounded Theory in order to analyse the emotional world of students of 11 courses within the EduOpen (www.eduopen.org) massive open online course (MOOC) platform. Namely, we have used NVivo 11 Plus software and have adopted a bottom–up process to analyse the forum dedicated to students’ selfpresentation from all the courses. Proceeding with the analysis, we defined a set of categories composed of a three-level system. At a more general level, we have two dimensions that we named, respectively, ‘Sentiments about shell’ and ‘Sentiments towards the pulp’. Each of these dimensions is composed of a number of ‘child’ categories and subcategories (which are the nodes in NVivo’s language). After defining the entire set of categories and categorising all the texts (which was a circular process), we run some graphs on NVivo showing the hierarchical structure of the dimensions, the relations between the dimensions and the sources and the clusters of dimensions by coding similarity. The results show how some courses are composed of more negative or more positive sentiments (towards the topic and/or the logistic arrangement of the course) and how the motivation dimension characterises the broad emotional dimension of students heavily. In an evidence-based action-research perspective, these results provide interesting suggestions to personalise the learning activities proposed to students by EduOpen

Il cammino dell’inclusione e la sfida del digitale

Il saggio propone alcune riflessioni critiche all’interno del dibattito pedagogico odierno, riguardanti la didattica e la pedagogia speciale ed i connotati assunti alla luce della pandemia, in particolare per  il processo di digitalizzazione e della media education. In questo panorama si intercala la formazione dei docenti, sempre più orientata verso l’acquisizione di skill inedite, utili nella prospettiva di un’istruzione personalizzata, individualizzata e tecnologicamente mediata.

Il cammino dell’inclusione e la sfida del digitale

Il saggio propone alcune riflessioni critiche all’interno del dibattito pedagogico odierno, riguardanti la didattica e la pedagogia speciale ed i connotati assunti alla luce della pandemia, in particolare per  il processo di digitalizzazione e della media education. In questo panorama si intercala la formazione dei docenti, sempre più orientata verso l’acquisizione di skill inedite, utili nella prospettiva di un’istruzione personalizzata, individualizzata e tecnologicamente mediata. The essay proposes some critical reflections within today's pedagogical debate, concerning special didactics and pedagogy and the connotations assumed in the light of the pandemic, in particular for the digitisation process and media education. Interspersed in this panorama is the training of teachers, increasingly oriented towards the acquisition of new skills, useful in the perspective of personalised, individualised and technologically mediated educatio

X-ray phase contrast microscopy at 300 nm resolution with laboratory sources.

We report the performance of an X-ray phase contrast microscope for laboratory sources with 300 nm spatial resolution. The microscope is based on a commercial X-ray microfocus source equipped with a planar X-ray waveguide able to produce a sub-micrometer x-ray beam in one dimension. Phase contrast images of representative samples are reported. The achieved contrast and resolution is discussed for different configurations. The proposed approach could represent a simple, inexpensive, solution for sub-micrometer resolution imaging with small laboratory setups

The Social Brain and Emotional Contagion: COVID-19 Effects

Background and objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease, responsible for a global pandemic that began in January 2020. Human/COVID-19 interactions cause dierent outcomes ranging from minor health consequences to death. Since social interaction is the default mode by which individuals communicate with their surroundings, dierent modes of contagion can play a role in determining the long-term consequences for mental health and emotional well-being. We examined some basic aspects of human social interaction, emphasizing some particular features of the emotional contagion. Moreover, we analyzed the main report that described brain damage related to the COVID-19 infection. Indeed, the goal of this review is to suggest a possible explanation for the relationships among emotionally impaired people, brain damage, and COVID-19 infection. Results: COVID-19 can cause several significant neurological disorders and the pandemic has been linked to a rise in people reporting mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. Neurocognitive symptoms associated with COVID-19 include delirium, both acute and chronic attention and memory impairment related to hippocampal and cortical damage, as well as learning deficits in both adults and children. Conclusions: Although our knowledge on the biology and long-term clinical outcomes of the COVID-19 infection is largely limited, approaching the pandemic based on lessons learnt from previous outbreaks of infectious diseases and the biology of other coronaviruses will provide a suitable pathway for developing public mental health strategies, which could be positively translated into therapeutic approaches, attempting to improve stress coping responses, thus contributing to alleviate the burden driven by the pandemic

Analysis of tapered front-coupling X-ray waveguides.

The coupling and propagation of electromagnetic waves through planar X-ray waveguides (WG) with vacuum gap and Si claddings are analyzed in detail, starting from the source and ending at the detector. The general case of linearly tapered WGs (i.e. with the entrance aperture different from the exit one) is considered. Different kinds of sources, i.e. synchrotron radiation and laboratory desk-top sources, have been considered, with the former providing a fully coherent incoming beam and the latter partially coherent beams. It is demonstrated that useful information about the parameters of the WG can be derived, comparing experimental results with computer simulation based on analytical solutions of the Helmholtz equation which take into account the amplitude and phase matching between the standing waves created in front of the WG, and the resonance modes propagating into the WG

The Orexin-A serum levels are strongly modulated by physical activity intervention in diabetes mellitus patients

The Orexin-A (hypocretin-1) is a neuropeptide secreted by neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. This protein regulates physiological and behavioural processes that have an essential impact on energy balance and metabolic status, physical activity, blood glucose levels, and food intake. Furthermore, that orexin-A regulates insulin sensitivity, energy expenditure and metabolic rate and is involved in immune processes and then regulate inflammatory response, with an anti-inflammatory action. Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a worldwide health problem associated with obesity and sedentary lifestyle. High glycaemic levels and lipid serum profile, low col-HDL, or hypertension and increased body mass index (BMI) are significantly associated with increased T2DM risk and with increased cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in T2DM patients. For these reasons the aim of this study is to evaluate the biochemical and anthropometric parameters, orexin-A levels by ELISA test and western blotting analysis, and inflammatory cytokines levels such as TNF-a, IL-8 and IL-10 by ELISA test in subjects affected by diabetes mellitus following an accurate physical activity program at baseline, after 3 months and after 6 months. We found that there is a ameliorate of many anthropometric and biochemical parameters; furthermore, there is a statistical increase of orexin-A serum levels already after 3 months compared to baseline in T2DM subjects and also there is a strongly modulation in inflammatory cytokines expression. These found indicates that the physical activity has beneficial effects not only on anthropometric and biochemical parameters but also on orexin-A levels, and then on CNS

The beneficial effects of physical activity and weight loss on human colorectal carcinoma cell lines

Recent studies have demonstrated that obesity is a significant risk factor for the development of several malignancies such as cancer. Colorectal cancer is among the most common cancers worldwide and is strong linked to obesity. A healthy lifestyle, characterized by hypocaloric diet and physical activity, is important to reduce a chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and metabolic disorders typical of obesity (Messina et al, 2018; Messina et al, 2017; Messina et al, 2015). It is well known that the chronic inflammation state and oxidative stress are responsible for the aging and development of many diseases, such as cancer. Dysregulation of cytokine’s secretion probably participates in the establishment of cancer in obese patients. The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of sera from obese patients subjected to a physical activity program before and after weight loss on cell viability, apoptosis and oxidative stress in HCT116 carcinoma cell line treated for 24, 48 and 72 hours through MTT test. We analysed the expression of cytokines in HCT116 cells. We found that sera from obese after physical activity intervention compared to treatment with sera from obese patients before physical activity intervention reduce the survival rate of HCT116 cells through induction of apoptosis and oxidative stress. Finally, we found a reduction of mRNA levels corresponding to the pro-inflammatory IL-6 and IL-8 cytokines together with an increase of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine. We can conclude that the physical activity has numerous beneficial effects also in colorectal cancer cell, indeed the physical activity and weight loss in obese subjects have an inhibitory and anti-inflammatory effects in a short period on carcinoma cell line