Analisi comparativa di due casi di studi di progetti di ricerca sugli Organismi Geneticamente Modificati in Italia e Inghilterra

Questo articolo esplora due casi di studio di progetti di ricerca, Farm Scale evaluation e OGM in Agricoltura, sugli Organismi Genticamente Modificati, e si domanda quali fattori politici, sociali ed economici hanno contribuito a costruire le risposte della scienza alla resistenza del pubblico verso gli OGM. I dati che vengono utilizzati includono, articoli di giornale, documenti governativi, articoli accademici, siti web e interviste con giornalisti e ricercatori che hanno partecipato direttamente o indirettamente a questi progetti. Paragonando questi progetti emergono sei fattori dominanti che sembrano maggiormente influire sulla capacità degli scienziati di ascoltare il pubblico. Questi includono: il governo, la posizione della scienza nel contesto culturale italiano, le aziende private, i tipi di pubblico, il ruolo dei mass media nella comunicazione scientifica, e la natura del dibattito relativo al Public Understanding of Science. In conclusione, come suggerisce Brian Wynne (2006), i discorsi relativi alla comunicazione della scienza si collocano in stretta relazione alla cultura locale relativa alla comunicazione e politica della scienza

Applying a Change-Point Detection Method on Frequency-Magnitude Distributions

A method based on nonparametric statistics (hereafter called "Median-Based Analysis of the Segment Slope,(MBASS)) is applied for the detection of change-points in Frequency Magnitude Distributions (FMD). The determination of the lowest magnitude for which the Gutenberg-Richter relation still applies is a key point for the computation of reliable b-values. The change-point detection method presented here is used to determine automatically this threshold magnitude (called m0 in this study) for large subsets extracted from four seismic catalogues. Results are successfully compared to those of a previous benchmark study from other authors. Moreover, the MBASS procedure is able to detect a magnitude artifact in the FMD of a regional catalogue. The results of the MBASS procedure confirm that a break in slope in a cumulative frequency distribution may be misleading when FMDs are analyzed by eye

From public understanding of GMOs to scientists’ understanding of public opinion: a case study of the listening capacity of scientists in the UK and Italy

Genetically modified organisms have been accompanied by hopes and concerns regarding the potential of this technology to reshape agricultural practices, our environment and the food we eat. The controversy surrounding GMOs raised questions regarding the present and future relationship between science and society. This thesis contributes to this debate by exploring GM scientists’ thoughts about public opinion and its influence on their work. I contend that how scientists listen to public opinion is mediated by national context, which I explore through a comparison of the United Kingdom and Italy. Within the public understanding of science, and social studies of science more generally, the listening capacity of scientists has largely been ignored. Asking if, how and under what conditions GM scientists listen to public opinion on GMOs, I address this gap in the literature. A mixed method approach is used to answer these questions. This combines descriptive statistics with a range of qualitative methods, including narrative analysis, case study and situational analysis. This methodological approach is meant to bridge qualitative and quantitative methodologies, historically polarised within PUS scholarship. This thesis is structured by my own changing understanding of the listening process. Initially, I assumed a stimulus-­‐response model of scientists’ listening, in which the public talks and scientists respond. Following my data collection and analysis, I developed a new model for listening that includes three moments: hearing public opinion, interpreting it, and responding to it. Using this model, I identify two typical patterns in GM scientists’ listening process. Both of these patterns are associated with the ‘deficit model’, which scientists used differently according to their national contexts. Drawing on Jasanoff’s (2005) concept of civic epistemology, I contend that these patterns are indicative of scientists’ civic epistemologies, which are informed by a number of different factors

Optimal Cost-Preference Trade-off Planning with Multiple Temporal Tasks

Autonomous robots are increasingly utilized in realistic scenarios with multiple complex tasks. In these scenarios, there may be a preferred way of completing all of the given tasks, but it is often in conflict with optimal execution. Recent work studies preference-based planning, however, they have yet to extend the notion of preference to the behavior of the robot with respect to each task. In this work, we introduce a novel notion of preference that provides a generalized framework to express preferences over individual tasks as well as their relations. Then, we perform an optimal trade-off (Pareto) analysis between behaviors that adhere to the user's preference and the ones that are resource optimal. We introduce an efficient planning framework that generates Pareto-optimal plans given user's preference by extending A* search. Further, we show a method of computing the entire Pareto front (the set of all optimal trade-offs) via an adaptation of a multi-objective A* algorithm. We also present a problem-agnostic search heuristic to enable scalability. We illustrate the power of the framework on both mobile robots and manipulators. Our benchmarks show the effectiveness of the heuristic with up to 2-orders of magnitude speedup.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 202

Emotional virtual agents: How do young people decode synthetic facial expressions?

Given the need of remote learning and the growing presence of virtual agents within online learning environments, the present research aims at investigating young people’ ability to decode emotional expressions conveyed by virtual agents. The study, involves 50 healthy participants aged between 22 and 35 years (mean age=27.86; SD= ±2.75; 30 females) which were required to label pictures and video clips depicting female and male virtual agents of different ages (young, middle-aged and old) displaying static and dynamic expressions of disgust, anger, sadness, fear, happiness, surprise and neutrality. Depending on the emotional category, significant effects were observed for the agents’ age, gender, and type of administered (static vs dynamic) stimuli on the young people’ decoding accuracy of the virtual agents’ emotional faces. Anger was significantly more accurately decoded in male rather than female faces while the opposite result was observed for happy, fearful, surprised, and disgusted faces. Middle aged faces were generally more accurately decoded than young and old emotional faces except for sadness and disgust. Significantly greater accuracy was observed for dynamic vs static faces of disgust, sadness, and fear, in contrast to static vs dynamic neutral and surprised faces

High-resolution resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering as a probe of the crystal electrical field in lanthanides demonstrated for the case of CeRh2Si2

The magnetic properties of rare earth compounds are usually well captured by assuming a fully localized f shell and only considering the Hund's rule ground state multiplet split by a crystal electrical field (CEF). Currently, the standard technique for probing CEF excitations in lanthanides is inelastic neutron scattering. Here we show that with the recent leap in energy resolution, resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering has become a serious alternative for looking at CEF excitations with some distinct advantages compared to INS. As an example we study the CEF scheme in CeRh2Si2, a system that has been intensely studied for more than two decades now but for which no consensus has been reached yet as to its CEF scheme. We used two new features that have only become available very recently in RIXS, high energy resolution of about 30 meV as well as polarization analysis in the scattered beam, to find a unique CEF description for CeRh2Si2. The result agrees well with previous INS and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Due to its strong resonant character, RIXS is applicable to very small samples, presents very high cross sections for all lanthanides, and further benefits from the very weak coupling to phonon excitation. The rapid progress in energy resolution of RIXS spectrometers is making this technique increasingly attractive for the investigation of the CEF scheme in lanthanides

Humanoid and android robots in the imaginary of adolescents, young adults and seniors

This paper investigates effects of participants’ gender and age (adolescents, young adults, and seniors), robots’ gender (male and female robots) and appearance (humanoid vs android) on robots’ acceptance dimensions. The study involved 6 differently aged groups of participants (two adolescents, two young adults and two seniors’ groups, for a total of 240 participants) requested to express their willingness to interact and their perception of robots’ usefulness, pleasantness, appeal, and engagement for two different sets of females (Pepper, Erica, and Sophia) and male (Romeo, Albert, and Yuri) humanoid and android robots. Participants were also requested to express their preferred and attributed age ranges and occupations they entrusted to robots among healthcare, housework, protection and security and front office. Results show that neither the age nor participants and robots’ gender, nor robots’ human likeness univocally affected robots’ acceptance by these differently aged users. Robots’ acceptance appeared to be a nonlinear combination of all these factors

The Effect of Metabolic Substrate on ROS Production During Muscle Contraction

Many different disease states are characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction, which results in excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. In contrast muscle contraction induces ROS generation suggesting there is an optimal range of ROS production necessary for proper cell function. It is unclear if ROS production is influenced by metabolic substrate flux as a result of the energetic demand of contraction. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate and source of ROS production in contracting single muscle fibers (SMF) cultured with different metabolic substrates. ROS production was assessed in SMF isolated from adult male mice exposed to different stimulation conditions and/or different sources of metabolic substrate. Mitochondrial membrane potential was also assessed in SMF under similar conditions. The results of this study demonstrate ROS generation is significantly influenced by metabolic substrate and larges increases in ROS do not affect mitochondrial membrane potential in intact SMF