Screencasting Information Literacy. Insights in pre-service teachers’ conception of online search.

Information Literacy (IL) has been named a key competence for the XXI century and is being progressively introduced in many compulsory school curricula. Nonetheless, the actual implementation of effective IL education cannot be carried out without the sound preparation of teachers. This study explores the naïve, pre-instruction, conceptions of online information search of pre-service pre-primary and primary teachers through the structured qualitative analysis of participant-produced screencasts. The results indicate that teachers have a mainly technical view of IL, leading to focus on technical skills (e.g., how to use a search engine) and to overlook mental processes (e.g., definition of the information need or strategy). Implications for the development of pre-service teachers IL education are discussed

Screencasting Information Literacy. Insights in pre-service teachers’ conception of online searching

Information Literacy (IL) has been named a key competence for the twenty-first century and is being progressively introduced in many compulsory school curricula. Nonetheless, the actual implementation of effective IL education cannot be carried out without the sound preparation of teachers. This study explores the naïve, pre-instruction conceptions of online information searching of pre-service pre-primary and primary teachers through the structured qualitative analysis of participant-produced screencasts. The results indicate that teachers have a mainly technical view of IL, leading them to focus on basic computer literacy skills (e.g., how to use a search engine) and to overlook mental processes (e.g., the definition of an information need or strategy). Implications for the development of pre-service teachers’ IL education are discussed

On the determination of ischemic regions in the monodomain model of cardiac electrophysiology from boundary measurements*

In this paper we consider the monodomain model of cardiac electrophysiology. After an analysis of the well-posedness of the model we determine an asymptotic expansion of the perturbed potential due to the presence of small conductivity inhomogeneities (modelling small ischemic regions in the cardiac tissue) and use it to detect the anomalies from partial boundary measurements. This is done by determining the topological gradient of a suitable boundary misfit functional. The robustness of the algorithm is confirmed by several numerical experiments.Peer reviewe

SAFETY AND HEALTH SITE INSPECTIONS FOR ON-FIELD RISK ANALYSIS AND TRAINING

The field of construction is always affected by a large number of accidents at work that have many different causes and responsible. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to focus on all these issues, in order to reduce all risk factors that can undermine individuals’ safety on building sites. The objective of the research is then the development of a method for quick on site analysis of all critical issues that can create accidents and identification of the related causes in order to directly provide a correct and focused training identified as the best method to act on the causes to reduce accidents. The research was carried on during construction of the Universal Exhibition of Milan – Expo 2015 – that counted almost 70 contemporary construction sites. To reach the goals further research steps has been followed and in particular: (i) inspections on building sites through all the Expo area; (ii) analysis of the main identified problems; (iii) development of a methodology to quickly identify the cause of problems; (iv) validation of the method through back office analysis of site documents; (v) correct on-site training according to found problem. During the whole construction site, the improvements in criticalities solving have been visible thanks to the focused training. The developed method, carried on in a high-risk environment, is applicable in any other building sites and environment as independent from the boundary conditions of the place

Ultrasound applied to nursing in the Emergency Medical Service (EMS): a scoping review

Background: In recent years, ultrasound has represented a new field of application for nursing. Point of Care UltraSound (POCUS) has been defined as an essential skill in the pre-hospital setting. The primary objective of this scoping review is to describe what are the main ultrasound techniques applied by nurses in the pre-hospital emergency setting. The secondary objective is to identify the different training courses implemented in the various studies selected to learn the necessary ultrasound skills. Methods: We conducted a scoping review. The following databases were consulted: PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and Google Scholar. For the extraction of useful articles, after identifying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the PRISMA methodology was used, two authors independently analyzed the identified records, in the event of a conflict a third author intervened. Results: The identified records were initially 815. After the duplicates removal, and screening made by the researcher for inclusion criteria, 6 articles were retrieved for qualitative analysis. The most discussed topic is the recognition of pneumothorax: two studies analyzed a specific educational program on ultrasound for flight nurses, three articles evaluated the us of US to verify the correct insertion of devices, and two explored the skills of nurses in performing ultrasound scans. The first study stated that nurses had 86.4% accuracy, 66.6% sensitivity and 100% specificity in ultrasound using; in the second one, nurses had a sensitivity and specificity of 100% in non-traumatized patients and a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 93% in trauma patients. Conclusions: Despite the methodological differences of the selected records, the main ultrasound techniques implemented by nurses in the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) are Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST), Extendend Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (E-FAST), evaluation of pneumothorax and visualization of correct insertion of devices (Endotracheal Tube, Nasogastric Tube). At the level of training in the ultrasound field, on the other hand, a certain heterogeneity is highlighted in the structuring of training courses, both in terms of hours of theory and of controlled practice

Kisspeptin-mediated improvement of sensitivity to BRAF inhibitors in vemurafenib-resistant melanoma cells

Metastatic dissemination is still one of the major causes of death of melanoma’s patients. KiSS1 is a metastasis suppressor originally identified in melanoma cells, known to play an important physiological role in mammals’ development and puberty. It has been previously shown that expression of KiSS1 could be increased in lung cancer cells using epigenetic agents, and that KiSS1 could have a pro-apoptotic action in combination with cisplatin. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine in human melanoma vemurafenib sensitive- and -resistant BRAF mutant cells characterized by different mutational profiles and KiSS1, KiSS1 receptor and KiSS1 drug-induced release, if peptides derived from KiSS1 cleavage, i.e., kisspeptin 54, could increase the sensitivity to vemurafenib of human melanoma, using cellular, molecular and biochemical approaches. We found that kisspeptin 54 increases vemurafenib pro-apoptotic activity in a statistically significant manner, also in drug resistant cellular models. The efficacy of the combination appears to reflect the intrinsic susceptibility of each cell line to PLX4032-induced apoptosis, together with the different mutational profile as well as perturbation of proteins regulating the apoptotic pathway, The results presented here highlight the possibility to exploit KiSS1 to modulate the apoptotic response to therapeutically relevant agents, suggesting a multitasking function of this metastasis suppressor

Discovery and development of novel salicylate synthase (MbtI) furanic inhibitors as antitubercular agents

We report on the virtual screening, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new furan derivatives targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis salicylate synthase (MbtI). A receptor-based virtual screening procedure was applied to screen the Enamine database, identifying two compounds, I and III, endowed with a good enzyme inhibitory activity. Considering the most active compound I as starting point for the development of novel MbtI inhibitors, we obtained new derivatives based on the furan scaffold. Among the SAR performed on this class, compound 1a emerged as the most potent MbtI inhibitor reported to date (Ki = 5.3 μM). Moreover, compound 1a showed a promising antimycobacterial activity (MIC99 = 156 μM), which is conceivably related to mycobactin biosynthesis inhibition

Blood serum amyloid A as potential biomarker of pembrolizumab efficacy for patients affected by advanced non-small cell lung cancer overexpressing PD-L1: results of the exploratory "FoRECATT" study

Background: Identifying the patients who may benefit the most from immune checkpoints inhibitors remains a great challenge for clinicians. Here we investigate on blood serum amyloid A (SAA) as biomarker of response to upfront pembrolizumab in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Patients with PD-L1 ≥ 50% receiving upfront pembrolizumab (P cohort) and with PD-L1 0-49% treated with chemotherapy (CT cohort) were evaluated for blood SAA and radiological response at baseline and every 9 weeks. Endpoints were response rate (RR) according to RECIST1.1, progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The most accurate SAA cut-off to predict response was established with ROC analysis in the P cohort. Results: In the P Cohort (n = 42), the overall RR was 38%. After a median follow-up of 18.5 months (mo), baseline SAA ≤ the ROC-derived cut-off (29.9 mg/L; n = 28/42.67%) was significantly associated with higher RR (53.6 versus 7.1%; OR15, 95% CI 1.72-130.7, p = 0.009), longer PFS (17.4 versus 2.1 mo; p < 0.0001) and OS (not reached versus 7.2mo; p < 0.0001) compared with SAA > 29.9 mg/L. In multivariate analysis, low SAA positively affects PFS (p = 0.001) and OS (p = 0.048) irrespective of ECOG PS, number of metastatic sites and pleural effusion. SAA monitoring (n = 40) was also significantly associated with survival endpoints: median PFS 17.4 versus 2.1 mo and median OS not reached versus 7.2 mo when SAA remained low (n = 14) and high (n = 12), respectively. In the CT Cohort (n = 30), RR was not affected by SAA level (p > 0.05) while low SAA at baseline (n = 17) was associated with better PFS (HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.16-0.90, p = 0.006) and OS (HR 0.25, 95% CI 0.09-0.67, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Low SAA predicts good survival outcomes irrespective of treatment for advanced NSCLC patients and higher likelihood of response to upfront pembrolizumab only. The strong prognostic value might be exploited to easily identify patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapy. A further study (FoRECATT-2) is ongoing to confirm results in a larger sample size and to investigate the effect of SAA on immune response in vitro assays

Characterization of a debris flow event using an affordable monitoring system

This study presents monitoring data of a debris flow event in the Central Italian Alps. The debris flow occurred on August 16, 2021 in the Blè basin (Val Camonica valley, Lombardia Region) and was recorded by a monitoring station installed just few weeks before. The monitoring system was deployed to document the hydrologic response of the catchment to rainfall, and was designed to be lightweight, relatively cheap, and easy to deploy in the field. To this purpose, we combined video cameras with geophysical sensors (geophones and infrasound) and optimized the power supply system. The data recorded during the event allowed to identify the triggering rainfall, document the flow behaviour, and estimate surface flow velocity and flow rate using Particle Image Velocimetry algorithms. Moreover, the seismic signal generated by the debris flow revealed a peculiar frequency spectrum compared to regular streamflow. These results show that even a relatively simple monitoring system may provide valuable data on real debris flow events