Augev Method and an Innovative Use of Vocal Spectroscopy in Evaluating and Monitoring the Rehabilitation Path of Subjects Showing Severe Communication Pathologies

A strongly connotative element of developmental disorders (DS) is the total or partial impairment of verbal communication and, more generally, of social interaction. The method of Vocal-verb self-management (Augev) is a systemic organicistic method able to intervene in problems regarding verbal, spoken and written language development successfully. This study intends to demonstrate that it is possible to objectify these progresses through a spectrographic examination of vocal signals, which detects voice phonetic-acoustic parameters. This survey allows an objective evaluation of how effective an educational-rehabilitation intervention is. This study was performed on a population of 40 subjects (34 males and 6 females) diagnosed with developmental disorders (DS), specifically with a diagnosis of the autism spectrum disorders according to the DSM-5. The 40 subjects were treated in “la Comunicazione” centers, whose headquarters are near Bari, Brindisi and Rome. The results demonstrate a statistical significance in a correlation among the observed variables: supervisory status, attention, general dynamic coordination, understanding and execution of orders, performing simple unshielded rhythmic beats, word rhythm, oral praxies, phono-articulatory praxies, pronunciation of vowels, execution of graphemes, visual perception, acoustic perception, proprioceptive sensitivity, selective attention, short-term memory, segmental coordination, performance of simple rhythmic beatings, word rhythm, voice setting, intonation of sounds within a fifth, vowel pronunciation, consonant pronunciation, graphematic decoding, syllabic decoding, pronunciation of caudate syllables, coding of final syllable consonant, lexical decoding, phoneme-grapheme conversion, homographic grapheme decoding, homogeneous grapheme decoding, graphic stroke

The Space Between “Seen” and “Unseen:” Queer People and the 1915-1945 New Negro Renaissance

In November 1926, a group of Black artists, writers, and activists created the first and only edition of Fire!!, edited by novelist Wallace Thurman. Fire!! was created by a younger generation of New Negroes and “devoted to the younger Negro artists” who dissented from the mainstream ideas of the New Negro Movement and used the magazine to spread their own views on the 1915-1945 New Negro Renaissance. Fire!! and other texts speaking to this dissent against a Black intellectual middle class image of the movement will be studied in reference to showcasing the multi-faceted elements of the movement touching on queerness, working class struggle, and other points of non-conformity and contention. This project will analyze the development of the dominant New Negro image and points of contention within the New Negro movement. Furthermore, it will study how both overt and covert queerness fit into the idea of the New Negro despite public reception of homosexuality and oppression of Queer people by the heteronormative mainstream. The intersection of race, sexuality, and gender within the movement will further be analyzed within the context of a heteronormative middle class mainstream and the pressure to conform to those standards. Notable, but often lesser known figures such as Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Maple Hampton, Countee Cullen, and Nella Larsen will function as central figures to this narrative and analysis of queerness and non-conformity within the hegemonic ideology of the movement. Furthermore, this project will provide an in-depth analysis of both physical and literary spaces forged by Queer New Negroes

virtual maintenance simulation for socially sustainable serviceability

Abstract In order to achieve more sustainable development processes, industries need not only to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs, but also to increase the operators' wellbeing to promote social sustainability. In this context, the present research focuses on the definition of a methodology based on human-centred virtual simulation to improve the social sustainability of maintenance tasks by enhancing system design and improving its serviceability. It is based on the operators' involvement and the analysis of their needs from the early design stages on virtual mock-ups. The methodology proposed merges a protocol analysis for human factors assessment and an immersive virtual simulation where immersive serviceability simulations can be used during design phases. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, an industrial use case has been carried out in collaboration with CNH Industrial

a mixed reality digital set up to support design for serviceability

Abstract Design for serviceability begins with understanding the customer needs related to availability, reliability, accessibility and visibility, and aims at designing optimized systems where maintenance operations are easy and intuitive in order to reduce the time to repair and service costs. However, service actions are difficult to predict in front of a traditional CAD model. In this context, digital manufacturing tools and virtual simulation technologies can be validly used to create mixed digital environments where service tasks can be simulated in advance to support product design and improve maintenance actions. Furthermore, the use of human monitoring sensors can be used to detect the stressful conditions and to optimize the human tasks. The paper proposes a mixed reality (MR) set-up where operators are digitalized and monitored to analyse both physical and cognitive ergonomics. It is useful to predict design criticalities and improve the global system design. An industrial case study has been developed in collaboration with CNH Industrial to demonstrate how the proposed set-up is used for design for serviceability, on the basis of experimental evidence

Characterization of a bean landrace from Sicily: the ‘fagiolo Badda di Polizzi'

Inside the project “Piano per la Produzione di Proteine Vegetali in Sicilia” investigations were carried out to characterize a bean population cultivated in the Parco delle Madonie area, the ‘Fagiolo Badda di Polizzi’. The producers’ interest for this landrace and the appreciation of the consumers could justify the start up of a valorization program through a product certification. Researches on the morpho-physiological aspects and on the nutritional profile were made in trials conducted between 2005 and 2007. All the Badda bean accessions showed an indeterminate plant growth habit, white flowers and a very delayed flowering time. In particular, a certain variability was seen and described for the size and shape of pods and seeds. Two types of Badda are cultivated, differentiated by the secondary seed colour: the “white Badda” and the “black Badda”. Both have ivory has a primary seed coat colour, but the “white Badda” has a brownish spot on the hilum, whereas the “black Badda” shows a black spot. In addition, the secondary colour of the seed coat of the “black Badda” showed two different pigmentations: violet and black, that suggested a genetic differentiation into different sub-populations. Finally, the “black Badda” resulted less susceptible to viral infections than the “white” one. At the molecular level, three accessions of Badda bean (two ‘white’ and one ‘black’) have been compared with control varieties, including one accessions of ‘Fagiolo del Purgatorio’ from Gradoli (VT), seven landraces of the Borlotto type collected in the Marche region and the cultivars Bat, Jalo, Clio and Big Borlotto. The analyses were carried out using 12 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) primers yielding a total of 140 bands. Although no specific band for the Badda landrace were detected, two amplicons were found only in the accessions of Badda and in Monachello, a bicol-seeded type from the Marche region, morphologically similar to the “black Badda”. The dendrogram obtained from the genetic distances based on ISSRs indicated that the Badda type belongs to the Andean gene pool and that it is distinguishable from the tested controls being grouped into a separate cluster. Within the Badda type, the ‘white’ accessions were not separated from the ‘black’ one

The value of immunohistochemical research on PCNA, p53 and heat shock proteins in prostate cancer management: a review.

This review addresses the significance of the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), p53 and some heat shock proteins (Hsps) in prostate carcinoma (PC). In fact, PCNA and p53 are two widely discussed tools in PC diagno- sis, mainly because of the controversy regarding the signifi- cance of their expression during prostate cancer development and progression. At the same time, only few studies have shown the potential role of Hsps in carcinogenesis and their overexpression in pre-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions of the prostate. We briefly describe the physiological roles of Hsps in normal cells, and the significance of their immunohistochem- ical detection in PC as well as in pre-cancerous lesions of the prostate. We will also discuss the possible functional interac- tions of these molecules in both dysplastic and neoplastic cell

The cytotoxic and growth inhibitory effects of palladium(II) complexes on MDA-MB-435 cells

The antitumorigenic potential of two palladium(II) complexes, [Pd(ca2-o-phen)Cl2] – C1 and [Pd(dmba)(dppp)Cl] – C2, was evaluated, using MDA-MB-435 cells, a human breast adenocarcinoma cell-line that does not express the estrogen receptor α (ER−). Growth inhibition and induced alterations in cell-morphology were analyzed. The sulforhodamine B test showed that, compared to control cells, both C1 and C2 significantly inhibited (p < 0.5) cell growth. The maximum effect with both was achieved with 1 μM complexes, after 24 h of treatment. No further cell-growth inhibition was achieved by increasing concentration or incubation time. Cell morphology was analyzed after staining with hematoxylin-eosin (HE). The morphological changes noted in the treated cells were cell rounding-up, shrinkage, nuclear condensation and reduction of cell length (p < 0.05), thereby indicating that both C1 and C2 are cytotoxic to breast adenocarcinoma cells. All together, there was every indication that, by decreasing cell growth and inducing morphological changes, the tested complexes are cytotoxic, hence their potentiality as promising candidates for antineoplastic drug development

Extracellular Vesicles-Based Drug Delivery Systems: A New Challenge and the Exemplum of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Research for the most selective drug delivery to tumors represents a fascinating key target in science. Alongside the artificial delivery systems identified in the last decades (e.g., liposomes), a family of natural extracellular vesicles (EVs) has gained increasing focus for their potential use in delivering anticancer compounds. EVs are released by all cell types to mediate cell-to-cell communication both at the paracrine and the systemic levels, suggesting a role for them as an ideal nano-delivery system. Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) stands out among currently untreatable tumors, also due to the difficulties in achieving an early diagnosis. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment of MPM are both unmet clinical needs. This review looks at indirect and direct evidence that EVs may represent both a new tool for allowing an early diagnosis of MPM and a potential new delivery system for more efficient therapeutic strategies. Since MPM is a relatively rare malignant tumor and preclinical MPM models developed to date are very few and not reliable, this review will report data obtained in other tumor types, suggesting the potential use of EVs in mesothelioma patients as well