A Playful Experiential Learning System With Educational Robotics

This article reports on two studies that aimed to evaluate the effective impact of educational robotics in learning concepts related to Physics and Geography. The reported studies involved two courses from an upper secondary school and two courses froma lower secondary school. Upper secondary school classes studied topics ofmotion physics, and lower secondary school classes explored issues related to geography. In each grade, there was an “experimental group” that carried out their study using robotics and cooperative learning and a “control group” that studied the same concepts without robots. Students in both classes were subjected to tests before and after the robotics laboratory, to check their knowledge in the topics covered. Our initial hypothesis was that classes involving educational robotics and cooperative learning are more effective in improving learning and stimulating the interest and motivation of students. As expected, the results showed that students in the experimental groups had a far better understanding of concepts and higher participation to the activities than students in the control groups

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) bioclimatic suitability in Central Italy: future potential scenarios under climate change

The ecological and economic relevance of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has long been related to its wide geographical distribution and multipurpose products potential. In Central Italy and especially in Latium, sweet chestnut finds optimal environmental conditions for growth, supported by the application of traditional silvicultural practices. Thus, its distribution has been radically modified and controlled by man in order to manage it in profitable and diversified ways (e.g., by coppices or orchards) to produce a wide range of ecosystem services, marketable (wood, fruits) and not marketable (landscape, water regulation, etc.) products. Over the years, due to climate change, some productivity changes have been observed and new challenges are expected to manage and cultivate this species. Based on this background, this work aims at investigating the possible impacts of climate change on sweet chestnut in Central Italy in medium (2041-2060) and long term (2081-2100). Adopting a standard protocol for reporting species distribution model (ODMAP - Overview, Data, Model, Assessment, Prediction), four Earth System Models have been combined into two Shared Socio-economic Paths and two Time Horizons, to produce potential chestnut bioclimatic suitability maps. The outlined scenarios represent valuable information for future chestnut policy and management for defining specific strategies, considering the adaptive capacity of the species in terms of resilience from pathogenic attacks and response to innovative silvicultural treatments

videodermatoscopic approach to porokeratosis of mibelli a useful tool for the diagnosis

Sir, Dermatoscopy was introduced in dermatology to support the clinical diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions, and after a long period of development it is now commonly used in dermatological practice (1± 5). Porokeratosis of Mibelli (PM), a dermatosis characterized by an alteration of epidermal keratinisation, has a wide variety of morphological clinical presentations: classic PM, linear PM and punctate PM (6). It is characterized by single or by a few papules and plaques, varying in size, with elevated borders and a slightly evident longitudinal furrow, usually located in the extremities; their central portion is generally hypopigmented, hairless and atrophic. The histopathological hallmark is the presence at the borders of the lesions of the cornoid lamella, formed by parakeratotic cells ® lled in invaginations of epidermis through the orthokeratotic stratum corneum (6, 7). We performed a dermatoscopic examination in 10 patients with classic PM in order to point out dermatoscopic features enabling a nonFig. 1. Dark-brown close globules and dots (arrowhead) circumscribinvasive diagnosis, always taking into account the clinicoing a central hypopigmented scar-like area (asterisk) with multiple pathological correlation. scattered brown globules and dots (arrowhead). Red dots (arrow) in the centre of the lesions ( 3 50 lens)

Seismic Hazard Mapping inside the Project SIGMA

The Project SIGMA (Sistema Integrato di sensori in ambiente cloud per la Gestione Multirischio Avanzata) arises from the fields of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and advanced applications for the control, monitoring and management of high-risk processes of natural and social origin. SIGMA is a multilevel architecture whose main aim is the acquisition, integration and processing of heterogeneous data from different sources (seismic, volcanic, meteorologic, hydric, pluvial, car traffic, marine traffic, and so on) to manage and elaborate risk mitigation strategies which are important for the emergency management planning. Within the several experimental activities included in the project, there is the designing and realization of a prototype of application platform specialized to provide the operating procedures and software to the public administrations and the industrial companies, for constantly monitoring both the anthropic and natural phenomena in Sicily. In this framework, of course, the seismic risk analysis plays a very important role since Sicily is one of the Italian regions with high seismic risk. Seismic risk assessment may be approached in two different ways: i) as average seismic risk of the buildings and facilities in question during the period considered, combining the vulnerability of different building types and the seismic hazard for the site, which are then expressed in terms of the effects of the events derived from an earthquake catalogue that exceed a specified threshold during a given period; ii) as estimated damage of the buildings and the critical facilities using a scenario input described in terms of the source parameters of the hypocenter as location, magnitude, and so on. Here we deal with the hazard calculation through the code CRISIS (Ordaz, Aguilar and Arboleda) and with the code PROSCEN (PRObabilistic SCENario, [Rotondi and Zonno, 2010]) to obtain earthquake scenario to be used in the latter approach. Indeed, an earthquake scenario is a planning tool that helps decision makers to visualize the specific impact of an earthquake based on the scientific knowledge. An earthquake scenario creates a picture that the members of community can recognize and, at the same time, improves the communication between the scientific, emergency management and policy communities to seismic risk reduction

Thalamopeduncular Tumors in Pediatric Age: Advanced Preoperative Imaging to Define Safe Surgical Planning: A Multicentric Experience

Background: Thalamopeduncular tumors are challenging lesions arising at the junction between the thalamus and the cerebral peduncle. They represent 1-5% of pediatric brain tumors, are mainly pilocytic astrocytoma and occur within the first two decades of life. To date, the optimal treatment remains unclear. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed pediatric patients who underwent surgery for thalamopeduncular tumors in the Academic Pediatric Neurosurgery Unit of Padova and Verona from 2005 to 2022. We collected information on age, sex, symptoms, preoperative and postoperative neuroradiological studies, histological specimens, surgical approaches, and follow-up. Results: We identified eight patients with a mean age of 9 years. All lesions were pilocytic astrocytoma. The main symptoms were spastic hemiparesis, cranial nerve palsy, headache, and ataxia. The corticospinal tract was studied in all patients using diffusion-tensor imaging brain MRI and in two patients using navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation. The transsylvian approach was the most frequently used. A gross total resection was achieved in two patients, a subtotal resection in five and a partial resection in one. In three patients, a second treatment was performed due to the regrowth of the tumor, performing an additional surgery in two cases and a second-look surgery followed by adjuvant therapy in one. After the surgery, four patients maintained stability in their postoperative neurological exam, two patients improved, and two worsened but in one of them, an improvement during recovery occurred. At the last follow-up available, three patients were disease-free, four had a stable tumor residual, and only one patient died from the progression of the disease. Conclusions: Advanced preoperative tools allow one to define a safe surgical strategy. Due to the indolent behavior of thalamopeduncular tumors, surgery should be encouraged

Somatic Embryogenesis in Vitis for Genome Editing: Optimization of Protocols for Recalcitrant Genotypes

New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs) protocols have been developed to produce new grape varieties with improved quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Reliable transformation protocols for grapes are based on the generation/induction of embryogenic callus cells that are then transformed. Varieties such as Italia have proven to be very recalcitrant to regeneration via somatic embryogenesis. In this work, the development of a protocol for improved production of embryogenic calluses is described. Two sterilization protocols were tested: (a) a lower active chlorine concentration for a longer time (LS); and (b) a higher chlorine concentration for a shorter time (HS), in combination with the absence or presence of citric acid in the growing substrate in the first growth media. The embryogenic calluses formation in Chardonnay, a cv. with a high embryogenic response, was significantly higher in presence of citric acid in the initial growing substrate regardless of the sterilization protocol. In Aglianico, a cv. with a lower embryogenic response, no significant differences were observed. Instead, in a recalcitrant cv. as Italia, we obtained a 13-fold increase in embryogenic calluses formation performing sterilization of flowers with the HS protocol compared to LS

Non-pharmacological Approaches for Headaches in Young Age: An Updated Review

Headache disorders are common in children and adolescents. Most of the studies on non-pharmacological treatments have however been carried out on adults. In this review we provide information on recent studies examining non-pharmacological approaches for managing headache in children and adolescents. Our search of SCOPUS for primary studies conducted between January 2010 and July 2018 uncovered 11 controlled studies, mostly addressing behavioral approaches, in which a total of 613 patients with a diagnosis of primary headache, and average age 10.2–15.7 years (30–89% females) were recruited. Non-pharmacological treatments were shown to produce sizeable effects on the classical primary endpoint, i.e., headache frequency, with reductions from baseline ranging between 34 and 78%. Among commonly reported secondary endpoints, particularly disability, quality of life, depression and anxiety, marked improvements were noted as well. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that non-pharmacological treatments constitute a valid option for the prevention of primary headaches in young age. Future research with higher-quality studies is needed. Particular attention needs to be given to studies that randomize patients to condition, blind researchers in charge of evaluating treatment outcomes, routinely include headache frequency as the primary endpoint, include adequate-length follow-up, address changes in biomarkers of disease and other possible mediators of outcome, and that employ predictive models to enhance the level of evidence for these approaches

Mystery(n) Phenotypic Presentation in Europeans: Report of Three Further Novel Missense RNF213 Variants Leading to Severe Syndromic Forms of Moyamoya Angiopathy and Literature Review

Moyamoya angiopathy (MMA) is a rare cerebral vasculopathy in some cases occurring in children. Incidence is higher in East Asia, where the heterozygous p.Arg4810Lys variant in RNF213 (Mysterin) represents the major susceptibility factor. Rare variants in RNF213 have also been found in European MMA patients with incomplete penetrance and are today a recognized susceptibility factor for other cardiovascular disorders, from extracerebral artery stenosis to hypertension. By whole exome sequencing, we identified three rare and previously unreported missense variants of RNF213 in three children with early onset of bilateral MMA, and subsequently extended clinical and radiological investigations to their carrier relatives. Substitutions all involved highly conserved residues clustered in the C-terminal region of RNF213, mainly in the E3 ligase domain. Probands showed a de novo occurring variant, p.Phe4120Leu (family A), a maternally inherited heterozygous variant, p.Ser4118Cys (family B), and a novel heterozygous variant, p.Glu4867Lys, inherited from the mother, in whom it occurred de novo (family C). Patients from families A and C experienced transient hypertransaminasemia and stenosis of extracerebral arteries. Bilateral MMA was present in the proband's carrier grandfather from family B. The proband from family C and her carrier mother both exhibited annular figurate erythema. Our data confirm that rare heterozygous variants in RNF213 cause MMA in Europeans as well as in East Asian populations, suggesting that substitutions close to positions 4118-4122 and 4867 of RNF213 could lead to a syndromic form of MMA showing elevated aminotransferases and extracerebral vascular involvement, with the possible association of peculiar skin manifestations

Case Report: Liver Cysts and SARS-CoV-2: No Evidence of Virus in Cystic Fluid

Background: In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia, caused by a new type of coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It quickly spread worldwide, resulting in a pandemic. The clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 range from mild non-specific symptoms to severe pneumonia with organ function damage. In addition, up to 60% of patients have liver impairment or dysfunction, confirmed by several studies by the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the liver tissue.Methods: We report two cases of symptomatic liver cyst requiring fenestration after recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Both patients had hospital admission due to documented SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recently, after the infection, they developed symptoms caused by an enlarged hepatic cyst: one had abdominal pain, and the other had jaundice. They underwent surgery after two negative swab tests for SARS-CoV-2.Results: Cystic fluid was sent for microbiological test, and real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 nucleic-acid assay of the cyst fluid was found to be negative in both cases.Discussion: Although there are no current data that can document a viral contamination of cystic fluid, there are data that document a hepatotropism of COVID-19 virus. Herein we report that after viral clearance at pharyngeal and nasal swab, there is no evidence of viral load in such potential viral reservoir