Learning to learn: comparing learning and teaching style

The essay concerns a survey that has been made with the students and teachers of two secondary and high schools in Città della Pieve (PG - Italy). The aim of this survey is the knowledge comprehension and comparison of the students’ learning styles 1and the teachers’ teaching styles. In the educational environment the relevance of individual differences is unquestionable; the knowledge of students’ learning styles allows the teacher to take advantage of individual abilities. Two different questionnaires have been submitted and the results have been examined to analyse the students’ learning styles and to study the teachers’ teaching styles. The obtained data concern the fundamental themes related to the learning and teaching process.Imparare ad imparare: stili di apprendimento e di insegnamento a confrontoIl contributo descrive l’indagine, condotta in due classi delle scuole secondarie di primo e secondo grado di Città della Pieve (PG), volta a rilevare e comparare gli stili di apprendimento degli studenti e gli stili d’insegnamento dei loro docenti. L’importanza di considerare le differenze individuali è per l’ambito educativo indiscutibile, dal momento che solo conoscendo le modalità attraverso cui gli studenti apprendono, un insegnante può riuscire a valorizzare le attitudini di ognuno. I risultati emersi dalla somministrazione di due distinti questionari, sono stati esaminati con il duplice scopo di: approfondire la conoscenza degli stili di apprendimento e avviare una riflessione sugli stili di insegnamento dei docenti. I dati raccolti toccano aspetti fondamentali delle tematiche legate ai processi di apprendimento e di insegnamento.

Acute decompensated heart failure in the emergency department: Identification of early predictors of outcome

Identification of clinical factors that can predict mortality and hospital early readmission in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) patients can help emergency department (ED) physician optimize the care-path and resource utilization.We conducted a retrospective observational study of 530 ADHF patients evaluated in the ED of an Italian academic hospital in 2013.Median age was 82 years, females were 55%; 31.1% of patients were discharged directly from the ED (12.5% after short staying in the observation unit), while 68.9% were admitted to a hospital ward (58.3% directly from the ED and 10.6% after a short observation). At 30 days, readmission rate was 17.7% while crude mortality rate was 9.4%; this latter was higher in patients admitted to a hospital ward in comparison to those who were discharged directly from the ED (12.6% vs. 2.4%, P\u200a 104\u200amm Hg, POS\u200a>\u200a94%, may guide the ED physician to identify low-risk patients who can be safely discharged directly from the emergency room or after observation unit stay

Non-contact elastography methods in mechanobiology: a point of view

In recent decades, mechanobiology has emerged as a novel perspective in the context of basic biomedical research. It is now widely recognized that living cells respond not only to chemical stimuli (for example drugs), but they are also able to decipher mechanical cues, such as the rigidity of the underlying matrix or the presence of shear forces. Probing the viscoelastic properties of cells and their local microenvironment with sub-micrometer resolution is required to study this complex interplay and dig deeper into the mechanobiology of single cells. Current approaches to measure mechanical properties of adherent cells mainly rely on the exploitation of miniaturized indenters, to poke single cells while measuring the corresponding deformation. This method provides a neat implementation of the everyday approach to measure mechanical properties of a material, but it typically results in a very low throughput and invasive experimental protocol, poorly translatable towards three-dimensional living tissues and biological constructs. To overcome the main limitations of nanoindentation experiments, a radical paradigm change is foreseen, adopting next generation contact-less methods to measure mechanical properties of biological samples with sub-cell resolution. Here we briefly introduce the field of single cell mechanical characterization, and we concentrate on a promising high resolution optical elastography technique, Brillouin spectroscopy. This non-contact technique is rapidly emerging as a potential breakthrough innovation in biomechanics, but the application to single cells is still in its infancy

Low grade endotoxemia and oxidative stress in offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction

Background and aims: Offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction are at higher cardiovascular risk, but the underlying physio-pathological mechanism is unclear. NADPH oxidase-type 2 (NOX-2) plays a pivotal role as mediator of oxidative stress and could be involved in activating platelets in these patients. Furthermore, altered intestinal permeability and serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) could be a trigger to promote NOX-2 activation and platelet aggregation. This study aims to evaluate the behavior of low grade endotoxemia, oxidative stress and platelet activation in offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction. Methods: We enrolled, in a cross-sectional study, 46 offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction and 86 healthy subjects (HS). LPS levels and gut permeability (assessed by zonulin), oxidative stress (assessed by serum NOX-2-derived peptide (sNOX2-dp) release, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production and isoprostanes), serum nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and platelet activation (by serum thromboxane B2 (TXB2) and soluble P-Selectin (sP-Selectin)) were analyzed. Results: Compared to HS, offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction had higher values of LPS, zonulin, serum isoprostanes, sNOX2-dp H2O2, TXB2, p-selectin and lower NO bioavailability. Logistic regression analysis showed that the variables associated with offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction were LPS, TXB2 and isoprostanes. The multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that serum NOX-2, isoprostanes, p-selectin and H2O2 levels were significantly associated to LPS. Furthermore, serum LPS, isoprostanes and TXB2 levels were significantly associated with sNOX-2-dp. Conclusions: Offspring of patients with early myocardial infarction have a low grade endotoxemia that could generate oxidative stress and platelet activation increasing their cardiovascular risk. Future studies are needed to understand the role of dysbiosis in this population

Experimental antiproton nuclear stopping power in H2 and D2

Data about antiprotons slowing down in gaseous targets at very low energies (E<1 keV) show that the stopping power in D2 is lower than in H2; the right way to explain this behavior seems to be through a nuclear stopping power derived from the classical Rutherford formula

Fatality rate and predictors of mortality in an Italian cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Clinical features and natural history of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) differ widely among different countries and during different phases of the pandemia. Here, we aimed to evaluate the case fatality rate (CFR) and to identify predictors of mortality in a cohort of COVID-19 patients admitted to three hospitals of Northern Italy between March 1 and April 28, 2020. All these patients had a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection by molecular methods. During the study period 504/1697 patients died; thus, overall CFR was 29.7%. We looked for predictors of mortality in a subgroup of 486 patients (239 males, 59%; median age 71 years) for whom sufficient clinical data were available at data cut-off. Among the demographic and clinical variables considered, age, a diagnosis of cancer, obesity and current smoking independently predicted mortality. When laboratory data were added to the model in a further subgroup of patients, age, the diagnosis of cancer, and the baseline PaO2/FiO2 ratio were identified as independent predictors of mortality. In conclusion, the CFR of hospitalized patients in Northern Italy during the ascending phase of the COVID-19 pandemic approached 30%. The identification of mortality predictors might contribute to better stratification of individual patient risk

Learning to learn: comparing learning and teaching style

The essay concerns a survey that has been made with the students and teachers of two secondary and high schools in Città della Pieve (PG - Italy). The aim of this survey is the knowledge comprehension and comparison of the students’ learning styles 1and the teachers’ teaching styles. In the educational environment the relevance of individual differences is unquestionable; the knowledge of students’ learning styles allows the teacher to take advantage of individual abilities. Two different questionnaires have been submitted and the results have been examined to analyse the students’ learning styles and to study the teachers’ teaching styles. The obtained data concern the fundamental themes related to the learning and teaching process. Imparare ad imparare: stili di apprendimento e di insegnamento a confronto Il contributo descrive l’indagine, condotta in due classi delle scuole secondarie di primo e secondo grado di Città della Pieve (PG), volta a rilevare e comparare gli stili di apprendimento degli studenti e gli stili d’insegnamento dei loro docenti. L’importanza di considerare le differenze individuali è per l’ambito educativo indiscutibile, dal momento che solo conoscendo le modalità attraverso cui gli studenti apprendono, un insegnante può riuscire a valorizzare le attitudini di ognuno. I risultati emersi dalla somministrazione di due distinti questionari, sono stati esaminati con il duplice scopo di: approfondire la conoscenza degli stili di apprendimento e avviare una riflessione sugli stili di insegnamento dei docenti. I dati raccolti toccano aspetti fondamentali delle tematiche legate ai processi di apprendimento e di insegnamento.