THE ERASMUS + PROGRAMME AS A CHANNEL FOR THE EU AGENDA The experience of the Project Managers in PRISM Impresa Sociale s.r.l. in dialoguing with the EU Institutions.

openThe study planned to carry out in this research concerns the relationship between the EU institutions and the Project Managers that operate in the framework of the Erasmus + programme. The idea of this research has been inspired by the experiences lived during my internship experience in “PRISM Impresa Sociale s.r.l.”, a social enterprise that works in the field of international cooperation and social and cultural development of local communities. This research draws from a broad literature in the fields of Europeanization, multilevel governance and project cycle management as elements that constitute a system of inputs that can be interpreted in a double dimension of both top-down and bottom-up; moreover, the literature review brings to the conceptual framework elements concerning the neofunctionalist conception of policy spillover, that is consequently applied to the research question as key feature in describing both the variables and the hypotheses underlying the research analysis. The methodology applied consists mainly of qualitative instruments with a few quantitative features set to enable a more stable interpretation of the responses collected via questionnaire using the EUSurvey platform. The main purpose of this research is to highlight the ways and modes in which the Erasmus + Programme is affected by both the intervention of the European Commission and the Project Managers at different levels and phases of its policy process.The study planned to carry out in this research concerns the relationship between the EU institutions and the Project Managers that operate in the framework of the Erasmus + programme. The idea of this research has been inspired by the experiences lived during my internship experience in “PRISM Impresa Sociale s.r.l.”, a social enterprise that works in the field of international cooperation and social and cultural development of local communities. This research draws from a broad literature in the fields of Europeanization, multilevel governance and project cycle management as elements that constitute a system of inputs that can be interpreted in a double dimension of both top-down and bottom-up; moreover, the literature review brings to the conceptual framework elements concerning the neofunctionalist conception of policy spillover, that is consequently applied to the research question as key feature in describing both the variables and the hypotheses underlying the research analysis. The methodology applied consists mainly of qualitative instruments with a few quantitative features set to enable a more stable interpretation of the responses collected via questionnaire using the EUSurvey platform. The main purpose of this research is to highlight the ways and modes in which the Erasmus + Programme is affected by both the intervention of the European Commission and the Project Managers at different levels and phases of its policy process

Pharmacological properties of oral antibiotics for the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections

The therapeutic management of uncomplicated bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs) is based on short-term courses of oral antibiotics. The preferred drugs are nitrofurantoin trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, fosfomycin trometamol, fluoroquinolones and β-lactam agents. The choice of agent for treating uncomplicated UTIs should be based on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the molecule so that clinical benefit is optimized and the risk of antibacterial resistance is minimized. This article discusses the general pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) aspects of antimicrobial chemotherapy, the PK/PD characteristics of oral antimicrobial agents for the treatment of uncomplicated UTIs and the pharmacological and therapeutic strategies for limiting or preventing bacterial resistance

Current-Based High-Sensitivity Differential Detection of Light Power Using Si Photodiodes in Bridge Configuration for Chemical/Biological Optical Sensing☆

Abstract We present a new optoelectronic technique based on the differential measurement of currents for the detection of the variations of low concentrations of chemical and biological substances by measuring light power absorption through two Si-photodiodes (SiPD) in a bridge configuration. The solution exhibits high sensitivity, linear response and allows the compensation of the initial bridge unbalance without changing its elements so optimising signal amplification gain and detection resolution. The technique shows unique performances with respect to voltage amplitude measurements performed by lock-in amplifiers. Moreover, the experimental apparatus is simple and suitable for portable integrated sensor systems. Its main performances have been evaluated through a prototype PCB demonstrating the capability to detect light power variations with a settable maximum sensitivity of 30mV/nW and a resolution of 33pW

The impact of sensing parameters on data management and anomaly detection in structural health monitoring

The massive and autonomous structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges is a problem that is of growing interest due to its importance and topicality. However, a considerable amount of data must be elaborated and managed in such an application. This paper proposes a set of machine learning (ML) tools to detect anomalies in a bridge from vibrational measurements using the minimum amount of data. The proposed framework starts from the fundamental frequencies extracted through operational modal analysis (OMA) and clustering, followed by a density-based time-domain tracking algorithm. The funda- mental frequencies extracted are then fed to one-class classification (OCC) algorithms that perform anomaly detection. Then, to reduce the amount of data, we analyze the effect of the number of sensors, the number of bits per sample, the observation time, and the measurement noise on damage detection performance. As a case study, the Z-24 bridge is considered because of the extensive database of accelerometric measurements in both standard and damaged conditions. A comparison of OCC algorithms, such as principal component analysis (PCA), kernel principal component analysis (KPCA), Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and one-class classifier neural network (OCCNN)2 is performed, and their robustness to data shrinking is evaluated. In many cases, OCCNN2 increases the performance with respect to classical anomaly detection techniques in terms of accuracy

Il formative assessment nelle convinzioni e nelle pratiche degli insegnanti. Analisi secondarie da una indagine sui docenti di scuola media di due regioni italiane

All around the world, several scholars are reflecting on the role of the so-called «teacher variable» for orienting changes towards quality and equity in the education. In this field, it is stressed the importance of the relationship between teachers’ beliefs practices. Following this tradition, this paper aims to prove the existence of a relationship between democratic beliefs of the teachers and their adoption of formative assessment (FA) practices. Secondary analyses are conducted on data collected during a study, which involved a sample of more than a thousand middle school teachers. In this work we focused on data from two Italian regions: Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte. These data are re-analyzed to prove the relationship between the declaration on the adoption of FA practices and three beliefs variables, namely teachers’ beliefs on the FA, on the existence of natural gifts of students, and on the utility and dynamicity of instructional design. Personal, professional, and experiential variables are included to prove the existence of significant differences. The results suggest that the teachers who adopt FA practices more often and who present more democratic beliefs are: women, experienced teachers, those who teach literature or scientific disciplines, and those who are specialized in special needs teaching. Multivariate regression analysis, finally, confirm the relationship between the adoption of FA practices and positive beliefs towards the formative assessment and instructional design

Optical Measurements by Phase Shift Based Technique for High Sensitivity and High Resolution Detection of Chemical/Biological Substances

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L'invecchiamento riduce la produzione del brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) e l'innervazione autonomica cardiaca nel cuore

Introduzione: l'invecchiamento porta ad un aumento dei livelli di catecolamine circolante che contribuiscono alla disfunzione del recettore adrenergico cardiaco e alla sua desensibilizzazione. Nel cervello, i fattori neurotrofici, in particolare il brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), promuovono il benessere dei neuroni, quindi funzionano, incluso il riassorbimento dei neurotrasmettitori vitali per la comunicazione sinaptica. Scopo: In questo lavoro di tesi, abbiamo testato se nel cuore senile, una riduzione dell'innervazione autonomica, insieme alle neurotrofine associate, potesse comportare una perdita nel controllo autonomico della funzione miocardica e nello spillover delle catecolamine. Metodi: Abbiamo usato ratti Fisher giovani (3 mesi; n=10) e anziani (24 mesi; n=11) e cellule di neuroblastoma umano (SH-SY5Y). Risultati: Rispetto ai ratti giovani, quelli anziani mostrano una marcata riduzione della densità complessiva delle fibre nervose autonomiche, che colpisce sia i compartimenti simpatici che colinergici, secondo la colorazione immunoistochimica con dopamina β-idrossilasi (dβh) e del trasportatore di acetilcolina vescicolare (VaChT). L'analisi immunoblot eseguita nei lisati di ventricolo sinistro dei ratti anziani ha anche rivelato una pronunciata sottoregolazione dei fattori GAP-43 e di BDNF. Successivamente, abbiamo cercato di determinare se l'invecchiamento compromette la capacità autocrina delle fibre autonomiche. A tal fine, abbiamo stimolato le cellule SH-SY5Y in vitro con siero ottenuto da sangue periferico dei ratti giovani o degli anziani. Entrambi i sieri aumentavano la neuritogenesi delle SH-SY5Y (saggiata tramite saggio cristallo violetto); tuttavia, questo effetto risultava notevolmente ridotto in cellule coltivate con siero di ratti anziani; e in queste stesse cellule, è stato evidente un marcato calo sia dei livelli GAP- 43 che BDNF rispetto a quelli trattati con siero di ratto giovane. Conclusione: L'invecchiamento favorisce un depauperamento generale delle fibre autonomiche, e la mancanza di BDNF neuronale probabilmente contribuisce a questa perdita quantitativa e qualitativa

Un Confronto tra Tecniche MPEG-DASH e SVC

Il concetto base di questa proposta risulta essere lo streaming dei media e di preciso quello dinamico. Veranno presentate varie proposte che hanno cercato di affrontare questo grande problema. Nel dettaglio, sono presentate due tecnologie [SVC, MPEGDASH] usate per lo streaming adattivo, le loro architetture, come raggiungono lo stesso risultato prendendo strade diverse e dove devono essere applicate rispettivamente. Inoltre, si discute per capire le loro funzionalita' in termini di compressione di flussi multimediali, decodifica e flessibilita' prendendo in considerazione vari test effettuati da terze parti

B-Mule: A Blockchain based Secure Data Delivery Service

Trying to modernize rural areas of the globe should be considered an important achievement. Nowadays being able to have an internet connection can prove life-saving. Although technological progress made sure to make the latter accessible to almost anyone, there are places that are hard to reach. The B-Mule project aims to bring messaging services to rural areas that cannot or do not have access to the internet. A data mule that can provide useful and trustworthy services to people inhabiting those areas in order for them to be able to communicate with the outer world without having actual access to the net. The aim of this work is to display the feasibility of creating a data delivery service (MULE) with the aid of blockchain technology. In particular, the ideal goal would be to launch the service on the Ethereum network. The reason for using the aforementioned technology is that we try to take advantage of the fact that data on the blockchain is immutable and thus, creating a delivery service that is natively tamper-proof would have a positive outcome in how data is delivered around the world