Intervista a Luigi Ballerini

The text presents two thematic blocks. The first describes the author’s positions concerning the poetical currents of the second half of the twentieth century, in order to highlight any relationships (of type style, composition, subject, content) with other authors. The second part of the interview aims first to circumscribe the author’s poetry in general and second to describe its particular application in Cefalonia, recently published in Spain (Vaso Roto, 2013)

Ressenyes

Obra ressenyada: Guido GOZZANO, Los coloquios. Madrid: Visor Libros, 2014

Intervista a Luigi Ballerini

Il testo propone due blocchi tematici. Il primo descrive le posizioni dell'autore riguardo le correnti poetiche del secondo novecento, in modo tale da evidenziare eventuali relazioni (di tipo stilistico, compositivo, contenutistico, tematico) con altri autori. La seconda parte dell'intervista si propone in primo luogo di circoscrivere la poetica dell'autore in generale e in secondo luogo di descriverne la sua applicazione particolare nella raccolta Cefalonia recentemente pubblicata in Spagna (Vaso Roto, 2013).The text presents two thematic blocks. The first describes the author's positions concerning the poetical currents of the second half of the twentieth century, in order to highlight any relationships (of type style, composition, subject, content) with other authors. The second part of the interview aims first to circumscribe the author's poetry in general and second to describe its particular application in Cefalonia, recently published in Spain (Vaso Roto, 2013)

An Integrated Multi-Sensor Approach for the Remote Monitoring of Parkinson’s Disease

The increment of the prevalence of neurological diseases due to the trend in population aging demands for new strategies in disease management. In Parkinson's disease (PD), these strategies should aim at improving diagnosis accuracy and frequency of the clinical follow-up by means of decentralized cost-effective solutions. In this context, a system suitable for the remote monitoring of PD subjects is presented. It consists of the integration of two approaches investigated in our previous works, each one appropriate for the movement analysis of specific parts of the body: low-cost optical devices for the upper limbs and wearable sensors for the lower ones. The system performs the automated assessments of six motor tasks of the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale, and it is equipped with a gesture-based human machine interface designed to facilitate the user interaction and the system management. The usability of the system has been evaluated by means of standard questionnaires, and the accuracy of the automated assessment has been verified experimentally. The results demonstrate that the proposed solution represents a substantial improvement in PD assessment respect to the former two approaches treated separately, and a new example of an accurate, feasible and cost-effective mean for the decentralized management of PD

A Self-Managed System for Automated Assessment of UPDRS Upper Limb Tasks in Parkinson’s Disease

A home-based, reliable, objective and automated assessment of motor performance of patients affected by Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is important in disease management, both to monitor therapy efficacy and to reduce costs and discomforts. In this context, we have developed a self-managed system for the automated assessment of the PD upper limb motor tasks as specified by the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The system is built around a Human Computer Interface (HCI) based on an optical RGB-Depth device and a replicable software. The HCI accuracy and reliability of the hand tracking compares favorably against consumer hand tracking devices as verified by an optoelectronic system as reference. The interface allows gestural interactions with visual feedback, providing a system management suitable for motor impaired users. The system software characterizes hand movements by kinematic parameters of their trajectories. The correlation between selected parameters and clinical UPDRS scores of patient performance is used to assess new task instances by a machine learning approach based on supervised classifiers. The classifiers have been trained by an experimental campaign on cohorts of PD patients. Experimental results show that automated assessments of the system replicate clinical ones, demonstrating its effectiveness in home monitoring of PD

The XMM Cluster Survey: the interplay between the brightest cluster galaxy and the intracluster medium via AGN feedback

Using a sample of 123 X‐ray clusters and groups drawn from the XMM Cluster Survey first data release, we investigate the interplay between the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), its black hole and the intracluster/group medium (ICM). It appears that for groups and clusters with a BCG likely to host significant active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback, gas cooling dominates in those with T X > 2 keV while AGN feedback dominates below. This may be understood through the subunity exponent found in the scaling relation we derive between the BCG mass and cluster mass over the halo mass range 10 13 < M 500 < 10 15  M ⊙ and the lack of correlation between radio luminosity and cluster mass, such that BCG AGN in groups can have relatively more energetic influence on the ICM. The L X – T X relation for systems with the most massive BCGs, or those with BCGs co‐located with the peak of the ICM emission, is steeper than that for those with the least massive and most offset, which instead follows self‐similarity. This is evidence that a combination of central gas cooling and powerful, well fuelled AGN causes the departure of the ICM from pure gravitational heating, with the steepened relation crossing self‐similarity at T X = 2 keV. Importantly, regardless of their black hole mass, BCGs are more likely to host radio‐loud AGN if they are in a massive cluster ( T X ≳ 2 keV) and again co‐located with an effective fuel supply of dense, cooling gas. This demonstrates that the most massive black holes appear to know more about their host cluster than they do about their host galaxy. The results lead us to propose a physically motivated, empirical definition of ‘cluster’ and ‘group’, delineated at 2 keV.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91324/1/j.1365-2966.2012.20764.x.pd

Strategie e metodi di rilevazione dei catalanismi nel siciliano

Il presente articolo si divide in tre blocchi tematici. Il primo ha come obiettivo la descrizione delle difficoltà che contraddistinguono la rilevazione dell'eredità linguistica catalana nel siciliano e degli studi che propongono una metodologia per individuarla. Il secondo descrive le procedure di individuazione dei prestiti catalani nel siciliano ed evidenzia come tali metodologie si siano strutturate in funzione delle difficoltà rilevate. Nel terzo punto si traggono alcune conclusioni rispetto agli esiti dello studio dell'eredità linguistica catalana nel dialetto siciliano attraverso una breve esplorazione di termini siciliani di origine catalana.Aquest article es divideix en tres blocs temàtics. El primer té per objectiu la descripció de les dificultats que caracteritzen la individuació de l'herència lingüística catalana en el sicilià i la dels estudis que proposen una metodologia per individuar-la. El segon descriu els procediments per individuar els manlleus catalans en el sicilià i evidencia com aquestes metodologies s'han anat estructurant en funció de les dificultats a què s'han hagut d'enfrontar. Al tercer bloc, s'extreuen algunes conclusions respecte als resultats de l'estudi de l'herència lingüística catalana en el dialecte sicilià mitjançant una breu exploració dels termes sicilians d'origen català.This article is divided into three thematic blocks. The first one focuses on the description of the difficulties that characterize the recognition of the Catalan linguistic heritage within Sicilian language and on the studies that investigated how to build a methodology for the detection of Catalan loanwords in Sicilian language. The second one describes how these methodologies have been developed as an answer to the detected difficulties, and shows examples of how they work. The third block finally gives a conclusive overview through a brief exploration of terms of Catalan origin in Sicilian language