The first-time phenomenon: successful students' mathematical crisis in secondary-tertiary transition

The huge difficulties related to the transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics are documented by several official data. The analysis of these difficulties is a main issue in educational research at undergraduate level. It is of particular interest the case of the students who choose mathematics as a major. In fact, for the most part, they are students considered excellent in mathematics during secondary school, they seem to have the cognitive resources to succeed, but, in many cases, they encounter several difficulties during their university experience. Therefore, it appears particularly interesting to study also the affective sources and consequences of these difficulties. With this aim, we developed a qualitative and narrative study focused on students’ reflec- tions about their mathematical difficulties in the university experience

The role of affect in failure in mathematics at the university level: the tertiary crisis

The tertiary transition between secondary school and university appears to be an insurmountable struggle for many students. This is also the case, surprisingly, in a certain sense, of students enrolled in Mathematics degree courses, and therefore students considered “gifted” with respect to mathematics. This case seems particularly interesting from an affective point of view: these students often live failure in mathematics as a tragedy, and – above all – initially they are not able to interpret their failure. For these reasons, it appears crucial to investigate which role is played by emotions in the emergence and management of this crisis, and how the students’ view of mathematics and their self-perception develop in the tertiary crisis period

The Secondary-Tertiary Transition in Mathematics. Successful Students in Crisis

The transition from secondary school into university mathematics – also referred to as secondary-tertiary transition (STT) – is a sensitive moment for many students, also for those who have achieved high marks at the end of their schooling and are considered excellent in mathematics in the school context. The cognitive aspect has interested researchers since the late seventies, but the interest in other two aspects (social and emotional aspects) is growing. Recently we have investigated the emotional aspect further and we will report here on some of our findings underlying the necessary developments

The secondary-tertiary transition in mathematics: Successful students in crisis

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Modeling Resilience in Electrical Distribution Networks

Electrical distribution networks deliver a fundamental service to citizens. However, they are still highly vulnerable to natural hazards as well as to cyberattacks; therefore, additional commitment and investments are needed to foster their resilience. Toward that, this paper presents and proposes the use of a complex simulation model, called reconfiguration simulator (RecSIM), enabling to evaluate the effectiveness of resilience enhancement strategies for electric distribution networks and the required resources to implement them. The focus is, in particular, on one specific attribute of resilience, namely, the readiness, i.e., the promptness and efficiency to recover the service functionality after a crisis event by managing and deploying the available resources rapidly and effectively. RecSIM allows estimating how and to what extent technological, topological, and management issues might improve electrical distribution networks’ functionality after the occurrence of accidental faults, accounting for interdependency issues and reconfiguration possibilities. The viability of implementing RecSIM on a real and large urban network is showcased in the paper with reference to the study case of the electrical distribution network (EDN) of Rome city

Enhancing counting bloom filters through Huffman-coded multilayer structures

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Effect of the αs1-casein genotype and its interaction with diet degradability on milk production, milk quality, metabolic and endocrinal response of Girgentana goats

We studied interaction between diet degradability and genotype at CSN1S1 locus in lactating goats.•We evaluated productive, metabolic and hormonal response of goats at different αs1-casein genotype.•Little effect of diet degradability and interaction with genotype on production and quality.•Higher milk yield, casein percentage and lower urea in goats with strong alleles at CSN1S1 locus.•Higher tyroid hormones in goats with strong alleles

Toll-like receptor 2 promotes breast cancer progression and resistance to chemotherapy

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the main drivers of disease progression and chemotherapy resistance in breast cancer. Tumor progression and chemoresistance might then be prevented by CSC-targeted therapies. We previously demonstrated that Toll-like Receptor (TLR)2 is overexpressed in CSCs and fuels their self-renewal. Here, we show that high TLR2 expression is linked to poor prognosis in breast cancer patients, therefore representing a candidate target for breast cancer treatment. By using a novel mammary cancer-prone TLR2(KO) mouse model, we demonstrate that TLR2 is required for CSC pool maintenance and for regulatory T cell induction. Accordingly, cancer-prone TLR2(KO) mice display delayed tumor onset and increased survival. Transplantation of TLR2(WT) and TLR2(KO) cancer cells in either TLR2(WT) or TLR2(KO) hosts shows that tumor initiation is mostly sustained by TLR2 expression in cancer cells. TLR2 host deficiency partially impairs cancer cell growth, implying a pro-tumorigenic effect of TLR2 expression in immune cells. Finally, we demonstrate that doxorubicin-induced release of HMGB1 activates TLR2 signaling in cancer cells, leading to a chemotherapy-resistant phenotype. Unprecedented use of TLR2 inhibitors in vivo reduces tumor growth and potentiates doxorubicin efficacy with no negative impact on the host immune system, opening new perspectives for the treatment of breast cancer patients

Understanding Tumor-Stroma Interplays for Targeted Therapies by Armed Mesenchymal Stromal Progenitors: The Mesenkillers.

Tumor represents a complex structure containing malignant cells strictly coupled with a large variety of surroundingcells constituting the tumor stroma (TS). In recent years, the importance of TS for cancer initiation, development,local invasion and metastases became increasingly clear allowing the identification of TS as one of the possibleways to indirectly target tumors. Inside the heterogeneous stromal cell population, tumor associated fibroblasts(TAF) play a crucial role providing both functional and supportive environments. During both tumor and stroma development,several findings suggest that TAF could be recruited from different sources such as locally derived host fibroblasts,via epithelial/endothelial mesenchymal transitions or from circulating pools of fibroblasts deriving form mesenchymalprogenitors, namely mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC). These insights prompted scientists to identifymultimodal approaches to target TS by biomolecules, monoclonal antibodies and, more recently, via cell basedstrategies. These latter appear extremely promising, although associated with still debated and unclear findings. Thisreview discusses on crosstalk between cancers and their stroma, dissecting specific tumor types, such as sarcoma,pancreatic and breast carcinoma where stroma plays distinct paradigmatic roles. The recognition of these distinctstromal functions may help in planning effective and safer approaches aimed either to eradicate or to substitute TSby novel compounds and/or MSC having specific killing activitie