Collaborative tour guides and Pbworks: the case of "Viaggiare in Italia”

Este artigo apresentará uma reflexão sobre as peculiaridades da linguagem do turismo e dos guias turísticos que, mesmo em sua recente evolução digital, continuam a representar um dos gêneros textuais mais conhecidos e populares do setor. Na segunda parte do artigo será apresentado o projeto "Viaggiare in Italia", uma experiência de escrita colaborativa realizada pelos alunos do terceiro ano do Departamento de Língua e Literatura Italiana da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Istambul. A experimentação, que utilizou a plataforma wiki PBworks, teve como objetivo prioritário contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma consciência pragmática sobre as peculiaridades da linguagem do turismo. O projeto buscou atingir seus objetivos por meio de uma abordagem proativa, que envolveu ativamente os alunos por meio da produção de um mini-guia multimídia colaborativo sobre cidades italianas.In questo articolo sarà presentata una riflessione sulle peculiarità del linguaggio del turismo e delle guide turistiche che, anche nella loro recente evoluzione digitale, continuano a rappresentare uno tra i generi testuali più conosciuti e popolari del settore. Nella seconda parte dell’articolo sarà presentato il progetto "Viaggiare in Italia", un’esperienza di scrittura collaborativa svolta dagli studenti del terzo anno del Dipartimento di "Lingua e Letteratura Italiana" della Facoltà di Lettere dell’Università di Istanbul. La sperimentazione, che ha utilizzato la piattaforma wiki PBworks, ha avuto come obiettivo prioritario il raggiungimento di una consapevolezza pragmatica sulle peculiarità del linguaggio del turismo. Il progetto ha cercato di raggiungere i suoi obiettivi attraverso un approccio proattivo, che ha coinvolto attivamente gli studenti attraverso la produzione di una mini-guida turistica multimediale collaborativa sulle città italiane.A reflection on the peculiarities of the language of tourism and travel guides will be presented in this article. Travel guides, also in their recent digital evolution, continue to be one of the most well-known and popular text genre in this specific area of research. The project "Viaggiare in Italia" will be presented in the second part of the article; it is a collaborative writing experience carried out in the Department of "Italian Language and Literature" by the third year’s students of the Faculty of Literature of the Istanbul University. The primary aim of this experimentation, which used the PBworks wiki platform, was the achievement of a pragmatic awareness on the peculiarities of the language of tourism. The project tried to reach its objectives through a proactive approach, which involved actively the students through the production of a collaborative multimedia travel guide on Italian cities

Il linguaggio della CMC... il «Dolce Stil Novo» del web? Un percorso di riflessione linguistica all’Orientale di Napoli

La comunicazione mediata sincrona ed asincrona nel web e nei mondi 3D, è costellata dall’uso sempre crescente di nuovi termini e dall’impiego di abbreviazioni, acronimi ed emoticons divenuti oramai parte integrante della nostra vita virtuale. Dal punto di vista linguistico un aspetto interessante del Cyberspeak è il processo di formazione morfologica. Autorevoli linguisti (Crystal, 1995; Algeo, 1999) hanno messo a punto una tassonomia che ha reso possibile la classificazione dei diversi tipi di formazione lessicale in atto nella nuova microlingua. Si intende qui presentare un’esperienza sviluppata nel laboratorio di «Informatica Umanistica» del corso di laurea in «Linguaggi Multimediali e Informatica Umanistica» della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli «L’Orientale» rivolta agli studenti di lingua inglese e finalizzata allo sviluppo della competenza e consapevolezza linguistica nell’uso dei corretti ed appropriati registri linguistici richiesti dai vari con(testi) d’uso

Why tackling late government payments to businesses should be a key priority

Every year, many businesses across Europe go bankrupt as a result of payment delays. For this reason, the EU established a Late Payment Directive in 2011. Maurizio Conti, Leandro Elia, Antonella Ferrara and Massimiliano Ferraresi assess the impact of the directive, finding it has had some notable positive effects for the financial position of firms. Given the strain many businesses are under as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, it is now more vital than ever for policymakers to address the problem

Taking on new challenges in multi-word unit processing for Machine Translation

This paper discusses the qualitative comparative evaluation performed on the results of two machine translation systems with different approaches to the processing of multi-word units. It proposes a solution for overcoming the difficulties multi-word units present to machine translation by adopting a methodology that combines the lexicon grammar approach with OpenLogos ontology and semantico-syntactic rules. The paper also discusses the importance of a qualitative evaluation metrics to correctly evaluate the performance of machine translation engines with regards to multi-word units

Immunohistochemical patterns in the differential diagnosis of rhinopharyngeal granulocytic sarcoma

Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is a rare extramedullary manifestation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). GS may develop simultaneously to AML or as a relapse of leukemia, particularly following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Subperiosteal bone, lymph nodes and skin are commonly involved, whereas rhinopharyngeal involvement is less common, with only 14 cases reported in the literature. Due to its rarity, rhinopharyngeal GS may lead to diagnostic pitfalls, particularly when it is poorly differentiated or is without concomitant marrow involvement. Thus, immunohistochemical findings play a key role in diagnosis. The current report describes a case of a 53-year-old female suffering from rhinopharyngeal GS and with a history of AML treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, focusing on the importance of the immunohistochemical pattern to assess the right diagnosis. Recent studies have demonstrated that the immunophenotype is of utmost importance for the diagnosis of GS. The high expression of myeloperoxidase (MPO) is common in GS; however, ~30% of GSs do not contain MPO. Therefore, the presence of other markers is required to confirm the diagnosis of GS

Strategy for the treatment and follow-up of sinonasal solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma: a case series

Extramedullary plasmacytoma is a rare neoplasm characterized by monoclonal proliferation of plasma cells outside bone marrow. It accounts for 4% of all non-epithelial sinonasal tumors. According to the literature, radiotherapy is the standard therapy for extramedullary plasmacytoma. However, the conversion rate of extramedullary plasmacytoma to multiple myeloma is reported to be between 11 and 33% over 10 years. The highest risk of conversion is reported during the first 2 years after diagnosis, but conversion has been noted up to 15 years after diagnosis. Once conversion to multiple myeloma is complete, less than 10% of patients will survive 10 years

Pulmonary hypertension and chronic lung disease: where are we headed?

Pulmonary hypertension related to chronic lung disease, mainly represented by COPD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is associated with a worse outcome when compared with patients only affected by parenchymal lung disease. At present, no therapies are available to reverse or slow down the pathological process of this condition and most of the clinical trials conducted to date have had no clinically significant impact. Nevertheless, the importance of chronic lung diseases is always more widely recognised and, along with its increasing incidence, associated pulmonary hypertension is also expected to be growing in frequency and as a health burden worldwide. Therefore, it is desirable to develop useful and reliable tools to obtain an early diagnosis and to monitor and follow-up this condition, while new insights in the therapeutic approach are explored

Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Malignancy of Solitary Pulmonary Nodules in the Elderly

Solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) are a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for thoracic surgeons. Although such lesions are usually benign, the risk of malignancy remains significant, particularly in elderly patients, who represent a large segment of the affected population. Surgical treatment in this subset, which usually presents several comorbidities, requires careful evaluation, especially when pre-operative biopsy is not feasible and comorbidities may jeopardize the outcome. Radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) are progressively being applied in predicting malignancy in suspicious nodules and assisting the decision-making process. In this study, we analyzed features of the radiomic images of 71 patients with SPN aged more than 75 years (median 79, IQR 76–81) who had undergone upfront pulmonary resection based on CT and PET-CT findings. Three different machine learning algorithms were applied—functional tree, Rep Tree and J48. Histology was malignant in 64.8% of nodules and the best predictive value was achieved by the J48 model (AUC 0.9). The use of AI analysis of radiomic features may be applied to the decision-making process in elderly frail patients with suspicious SPNs to minimize the false positive rate and reduce the incidence of unnecessary surgery

Comorbidities in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an underestimated issue

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fibrosing lung disease with a poor prognosis. Between 60% and 70% of IPF patients die of IPF; the remaining causes of death may be due to comorbidities occurring in this ageing population. Interest in the role played by comorbidities in IPF has increased in the past few years. The optimal clinical management of IPF is multifaceted and not only involves antifibrotic treatment, but also vaccinations, oxygen supplementation, evaluation of nutritional status as well as psychological support and patient education. Symptom management, pulmonary rehabilitation, palliative care and treatment of comorbidities represent further areas of clinical intervention. This review analyses the major comorbidities observed in IPF, focusing on those that have the greatest impact on mortality and quality of life (QoL). The identification and treatment of comorbidities may help to improve patients' health-related QoL (i.e. sleep apnoea and depression), while some comorbidities (i.e. lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases and pulmonary hypertension) influence survival. It has been outlined that gathering comorbidities data improves the prediction of survival beyond the clinical and physiological parameters of IPF

Symptoms of mental health problems among Italian adolescents in 2017–2018 school year: a multicenter cross-sectional study

Background Identifying individual and contextual factors that influence adolescent well-being is a research priority. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of symptoms of mental health problems and some related factors in Italian adolescents in 2017–2018. Methods The present study was a cross-sectional survey among 3002 students aged 15–16 years who resided in two Italian provinces, in North and South Italy. Symptoms of mental health problems were assessed using the SDQ and CES-DC, and students’ risk-taking behaviors and school climate perception were assessed. All information was collected anonymously. Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of tobacco and alcohol use, screen time, bullying, and school climate with symptoms of mental health problems. Results One student out of five reported symptoms of mental health problems, with a more than double proportion among girls than boys (28.7% vs 10.4% with depressive symptoms, respectively). Thirty percent and 40% of students smoked tobacco or drank alcoholic beverages at least once in the past month, and more than 40% reported being victims or authors of bullying in the past 6 months. Smoking behavior, alcohol consumption, screen time, bullying, and negative school climate had 1.2- to 3.3-fold increased odds of symptoms of mental health problems without substantial differences between sexes and geographical areas. Conclusions Tobacco and alcohol use, screen time, bullying, and school climate were independently associated with symptoms of mental health problems in a large sample of 15–16-year-old Italian adolescents without substantial gender and geographical differences