Apprendimento permanente ed attività produttive per lavoratori in età avanzata

Skills and competences are subject to a so rapid obsolescence which cause falls in productivity and activity rates of older workers; to this situation is added the demographic phenomenon called “population aging”, whose repercussions will be felt on social and welfare systems. The science of education must, therefore,identify lines of action to ensure the real inclusion – life long – in educational activities for individuals in old age, giving them the opportunity, not only to avoid leaking out prematurely from the cohorts of the working population, charging the pension system, less efficient than ever, but also to participate more consciously and for long time to social life.Here it’s presented the model of the “double helix of learning and work,” by Giarini and Malitza, which aims at the opportunity to revisit the concept of lifelong learning, powered by a cultural and structural reform of the educational system which should be more integrated and linked whit the working system, and characterized by interdisciplinarity and professionalization.Nell’attuale congiuntura economica non può sfuggire all’attenzione pedagogica la necessità di ritrovare e ri-praticare una delle sue funzioni più “moderne”, quella di consentire all’individuo, fornendogliene gli strumenti più adeguati, una piena partecipazione, duratura e di qualità, alla vita sociale eproduttiva della comunità. A tal proposito, questo breve paper vuole solo suggerire alcune linee di ricerca possibili in uno degli ambiti nei quali la pedagogia tout court, intesa come capostipite e capofila delle scienze della formazione, può e deve intervenire, al fine ritrovare una delle sue “utilità” possibili: affrontare le problematiche tipiche di un “economia della conoscenza”che ha nell’inadeguatezza o assenza di competenze adeguate il rischio maggiore di esclusione sociale. In particolare, viene introdotto il modello della “doppia elica fra apprendimento e lavoro” di Giarini e Malitza, cui scopo è quello di rivisitare il concetto di lifelong learning, potenziato dalla riforma cultural e strutturale dei sistemi educativi ai quali si reclama la necessità di essere più integrati con il mondo del lavoro, e più caratterizzati dall’interdisciplinarietà e lo sviluppo professionale

A fully Eulerian solver for the simulation of multiphase flows with solid bodies: application to surface gravity waves

In this paper a fully Eulerian solver for the study of multiphase flows for simulating the propagation of surface gravity waves over submerged bodies is presented. We solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the volume of fluid technique for the modeling of the liquid phases with the interface, an immersed body method for the solid bodies and an iterative strong-coupling procedure for the fluid-structure interaction. The flow incompressibility is enforced via the solution of a Poisson equation which, owing to the density jump across the interfaces of the liquid phases, has to resort to the splitting procedure of Dodd & Ferrante [12]. The solver is validated through comparisons against classical test cases for fluid-structure interaction like migration of particles in pressure-driven channel, multiphase flows, water exit of a cylinder and a good agreement is found for all tests. Furthermore, we show the application of the solver to the case of a surface gravity wave propagating over a submerged reversed pendulum and verify that the solver can reproduce the energy exchange between the wave and the pendulum. Finally the three-dimensional spilling breaking of a wave induced by a submerged sphere is considered

Warm-season turfgrass species generate sports surfaces with different playability

Synthetic sports surfaces are increasingly subject to standardization of athlete-surface and ball-surface interactions (playability parameters). Such standardizations have led to an increase in the level of the engineering and predictability of these surfaces, and as such may be beneficial also for natural turf. In warm and temperate climates, many natural turf sports surfaces are established with warm-season (C4) turfgrass species due to their suitability to the environment in such areas. This study was aimed at evaluating the Féderation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)-standard playing characteristics of different sports turf surfaces obtained from three commonly used C4 turfgrass species: 1) ‘Tifway 419’ hybrid bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon var. dactylon × C. transvaalensis), 2) ‘Zeon’ manilagrass (Zoysia matrella), and 3) ‘Salam’ seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) for factors concerning leaf tissue (silica, lignin, water content) and canopy structure (shoot density, leaf architecture, stolon density, etc.). Results showed that surfaces of different C4 turfgrass species generate different playability parameters, with seashore paspalum being a harder faster surface, manilagrass being a softer slower surface, and hybrid bermudagrass showing intermediate characteristics. These playing quality results were associated with certain specific canopy biometrical/morphological parameters such as shoot density, horizontal stem density (HSD), leaf section, and, to a lesser extent, to certain plant tissue compounds (lignin, silica)

Development of acid-free chitosan films in food coating applications: Provolone cheese as a case study

Chitosan has been extensively explored in food coatings. Still, its practical application is largely hampered by its conventional wet processing in acetic acid, whose residuals negatively impact food quality and safety. Here, we propose a new method to formulate chitosan coatings for food applications by avoiding organic acid processing and validate them on a cheese model. The procedure entails modifying a previously reported process based on HCl chitosan treatment and neutralising the resulting gel. The obtained chitosan is solubilised in water using carbonic acid that forms in situ by dissolving carbon dioxide gas. The reversibility of water carbonation allows for easy removal of carbonic acid residues, resulting in acid-free chitosan films and coatings. The performance of the coating was tested against state-of-the-art chitosan-based and polymeric coatings. We preliminarily characterised the films' properties (water stability, barrier, and optical properties). Then, we assessed the performance of the coating on Provolone cheese as a food model (mass transfer and texture profiles over 14 days). The work demonstrated the advantage of the proposed approach in solving some main issues of food quality and safety, paving the way for an effective application of chitosan in future food contact applications

Shape and Morphology Effects on the Electronic Structure of TiO2 Nanostructures: From Nanocrystals to Nanorods

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Layer 3 Pyramidal Cells in the Medial Entorhinal Cortex Orchestrate Up-Down States and Entrain the Deep Layers Differentially

Up-down states (UDS) are synchronous cortical events of neuronal activity during non-REM sleep. The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) exhibits robust UDS during natural sleep and under anesthesia. However, little is known about the generation and propagation of UDS-related activity in the MEC. Here, we dissect the circuitry underlying UDS generation and propagation across layers in the MEC using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. We provide evidence that layer 3 (L3) MEC is crucial in the generation and maintenance of UDS in the MEC. Furthermore, we find that the two sublayers of the L5 MEC participate differentially during UDS. Our findings show that L5b, which receives hippocampal output, is strongly innervated by UDS activity originating in L3 MEC. Our data suggest that L5b acts as a coincidence detector during information transfer between the hippocampus and the cortex and thereby plays an important role in memory encoding and consolidation

Precision medicine for lysosomal disorders

Precision medicine (PM) is an emerging approach for disease treatment and preventionthat accounts for the individual variability in the genes, environment, and lifestyle of each person.Lysosomal diseases (LDs) are a group of genetic metabolic disorders that include approximately70 monogenic conditions caused by a defect in lysosomal function. LDs may result from primarylysosomal enzyme deficiencies or impairments in membrane-associated proteins, lysosomal enzymeactivators, or modifiers that affect lysosomal function. LDs are heterogeneous disorders, and thephenotype of the affected individual depends on the type of substrate and where it accumulates,which may be impacted by the type of genetic change and residual enzymatic activity. LDs areindividually rare, with a combined incidence of approximately 1:4000 individuals. Specific therapiesare already available for several LDs, and many more are in development. Early identification mayenable disease course prediction and a specific intervention, which is very important for clinicaloutcome. Driven by advances in omics technology, PM aims to provide the most appropriatemanagement for each patient based on the disease susceptibility or treatment response predictionsfor specific subgroups. In this review, we focused on the emerging diagnostic technologies that mayhelp to optimize the management of each LD patient and the therapeutic options available, as well asin clinical developments that enable customized approaches to be selected for each subject, accordingto the principles of PM