456 research outputs found
Seismic reflection data in the Umbria Marche Region: limits and capabilities to unravel the subsurface structure in a seismically active area
Before seismic data were made available, the subsurface setting of the Umbria-Marche area was mainly derived
from the extrapolation of surface data and from models resulting from analogies with other mountain chains
around the world. During the ‘90s industrial seismic data availability considerably increased, allowing the definition
of new, previously unknown features. Beside the industrial seismic data availability, a deep crustal, near
vertical seismic section trending E-W was acquired (CROP-03) across the Italian peninsula from the Tyrrhenian
to the Adriatic coast. The subsurface data defined the compressional deformation style (thin- Vs thick- skinned)
and the extensional deformation style. A set of east-dipping low-angle-normal faults, which dissect the previous
compressional structures and which are the dominant features controlling the extension of the Apennines were
recognised. The subsequent application of the seismic data interpretation to seismotectonic issues, defined in
more detail the subsurface geometries of the active faults and the relationships between upper crust structure and
seismicity
Source Code Classification for Energy Efficiency in Parallel Ultra Low-Power Microcontrollers
The analysis of source code through machine learning techniques is an increasingly explored research topic aiming at increasing smartness in the software toolchain to exploit modern architectures in the best possible way. In the case of low-power, parallel embedded architectures, this means finding the configuration, for instance in terms of the number of cores, leading to minimum energy consumption. Depending on the kernel to be executed, the energy optimal scaling configuration is not trivial. While recent work has focused on general-purpose systems to learn and predict the best execution target in terms of the execution time of a snippet of code or kernel (e.g. offload OpenCL kernel on multicore CPU or GPU), in this work we focus on static compile-time features to assess if they can be successfully used to predict the minimum energy configuration on PULP, an ultra-low-power architecture featuring an on-chip cluster of RISC-V processors. Experiments show that using machine learning models on the source code to select the best energy scaling configuration automatically is viable and has the potential to be used in the context of automatic system configuration for energy minimisation
The undergraduate as global citizen: A survey of student attitudes and engagement on global issues
Benchmarking a many-core neuromorphic platform with an MPI-based DNA sequence matching algorithm
SpiNNaker is a neuromorphic globally asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS)multi-core architecture designed for simulating a spiking neural network (SNN) in real-time. Several studies have shown that neuromorphic platforms allow flexible and efficient simulations of SNN by exploiting the efficient communication infrastructure optimised for transmitting small packets across the many cores of the platform. However, the effectiveness of neuromorphic platforms in executing massively parallel general-purpose algorithms, while promising, is still to be explored. In this paper, we present an implementation of a parallel DNA sequence matching algorithm implemented by using the MPI programming paradigm ported to the SpiNNaker platform. In our implementation, all cores available in the board are configured for executing in parallel an optimised version of the Boyer-Moore (BM) algorithm. Exploiting this application, we benchmarked the SpiNNaker platform in terms of scalability and synchronisation latency. Experimental results indicate that the SpiNNaker parallel architecture allows a linear performance increase with the number of used cores and shows better scalability compared to a general-purpose multi-core computing platform
Women in geosciences within the Italian University system in the last 20Â years
Abstract. This work aims at providing an updated scenario on the underrepresentation
of women in the Italian university system in the area of geosciences in the
last two decades. The retrieved official data on permanent full and
associate professors in the 19-years considered highlight some positive
trends: an increase in the number of female full professors from 9.0 % to
18.5 % and in female associate professors from 23.6 % to 28.9 %.
However, although the number of female full professors almost doubled in
this period, such increase still represents an excessively slow trend.
Slightly better is the trend related to associate professors. The picture
portrayed for non-permanent researchers, called RTD-b, as introduced by the
Italian Law no. 240/2010 (essentially tenure-track associate professor
position), instead raises strong concerns for the future seen that the
female percentage is just 26 %, thus exhibiting a significant gender
imbalance. This is even more significant if we consider that the student
population in geosciences shows a gender imbalance of about 37 %, no
gender gap at PhD level and a relatively high Glass Ceiling Index (GCI)
during the career progression of women. An analysis of the geographical distribution of female researchers in
geosciences has evidenced that, although the percentages of women are
comparable, the GCI calculated in Southern Italy has been alarmingly high in the last 2–3 years and is divergent from the decrease observed in Northern and Central Italy. The work also analyses the gender balance over different areas of geosciences, showing that in Paleontology and Paleoecology the gap is
inverted with more female than male professors, both at full and associate
professor level, whereas the gap is almost closed in Mineralogy for
associate professors, far though from being balanced for full professors.
All remaining geological disciplines suffer a gender imbalance. Further analysis carried out in this work unveils that the number of female
full professor is low (<10 %) both at national and regional level in the 2000–2009 decade, consistent with a GCI higher than 2.5–3. From 2010
to 2013, likely in response to the Italian Law no. 240 of 2010, an important progressive increase, associated with a decrease of GCI, is visible. However, from 2014 to 2019 the percentage remains constant (∼20 %) with the exception of Southern Italy, which displays a return to lower values (<15 %). Finally, an international comparison with countries like Germany and the USA definitively indicates that the Italian university system is more equal in terms of gender balance. Even if some significant and positive steps have been carried out in the
Italian university system, still much effort is required to fight a general
and crucial problem which is the gender balance issue. Results could be
achieved promoting work-life balance policies that better reconcile family
and work, stimulating a reorganization of the work system still currently
set on the male model but, and more importantly, changing the prevailing
patriarchal mentality. The Italian university system has already a great example to follow: the
zero-pay gap. This is possibly the only system worldwide where male and
female professors earn the same identical salary, compared to the salary gap of between 15 % and 30 % of countries richer than Italy, and must be the target to reach, in the near future, for gender balance
To be or not to be a germ cell: The extragonadal germ cell tumor paradigm
In the human embryo, the genetic program that orchestrates germ cell specification in-volves the activation of epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms that make the germline a unique cell population continuously poised between germness and pluripotency. Germ cell tumors, neo-plasias originating from fetal or neonatal germ cells, maintain such dichotomy and can adopt either pluripotent features (embryonal carcinomas) or germness features (seminomas) with a wide range of phenotypes in between these histotypes. Here, we review the basic concepts of cell specification, migration and gonadal colonization of human primordial germ cells (hPGCs) highlighting the analogies of transcriptional/epigenetic programs between these two cell types
Building Research Capacity in Botswana: A Randomized Trial Comparing Training Methodologies in the Botswana Ethics Training Initiative
Background
Little empirical data are available on the extent to which capacity-building programs in research ethics prepare trainees to apply ethical reasoning skills to the design, conduct, or review of research. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in Botswana in 2010 to assess the effectiveness of a case-based intervention using email to augment in-person seminars.
Methods
University faculty and current and prospective IRB/REC members took part in a semester-long training program in research ethics. Participants attended two 2-day seminars and were assigned at random to one of two on-line arms of the trial. Participants in both arms completed on-line international modules from the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. Between seminars, intervention-arm participants were also emailed a weekly case to analyze in response to set questions; responses and individualized faculty feedback were exchanged via email. Tests assessing ethics knowledge were administered at the start of each seminar. The post-test included an additional section in which participants were asked to identify the ethical issues highlighted in five case studies from a list of multiple-choice responses. Results were analyzed using regression and ANOVA.
Results
Of the 71 participants (36 control, 35 intervention) enrolled at the first seminar, 41 (57.7%) attended the second seminar (19 control, 22 intervention). In the intervention arm, 19 (54.3%) participants fully completed and 8 (22.9%) partially completed all six weekly cases. The mean score was higher on the post-test (30.3/40) than on the pre-test (28.0/40), and individual post- and pre-test scores were highly correlated (r = 0.65, p \u3c 0.0001). Group assignment alone did not have an effect on test scores (p \u3e 0.84), but intervention-arm subjects who completed all assigned cases answered an average of 3.2 more questions correctly on the post-test than others, controlling for pre-test scores (p = 0.003).
Conclusions
Completion of the case-based intervention improved respondents\u27 test scores, with those who completed all six email cases scoring roughly 10% better than those who failed to complete this task and those in the control arm. There was only suggestive evidence that intensive case work improved ethical issue identification, although there was limited ability to assess this outcome due to a high drop-out rate
Collection and use of human biological specimens in research: Is there adequate ethics governance in Africa?
Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach for the Study of the Geothermal Potential of Umbria (Central Italy)
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