Verso il canestro e oltre! Baskin per promuovere inclusione e prosocialità: uno studio pilota

The action research, that results, focuses on the hypothesis that an inclusive education, based on integrated sports (baskin) could promote prosocial behavior in young people with and without intellectual and relational disability.The research methodology involves the administration of a battery of validated questionnaires to assess the prosocial behavior and related dimensions such as the empathy quotient, emotional intelligence and creative thinking in two groups: one experimental and one control. The experimental group consists of 32 young people with intellectual and without disabilities , who practice integrated sports (baskin); The control group consists of 35 persons without disabilities, which have characteristics comparable with those of the experimental group, and they never practiced sports inclusive nor attended training courses together with people with disabilities. The questionnaires are administered before the activity (pre-test) and after four months of practice of baskin (post-test). To study and monitor the quality of the inclusive process in place, we are used traditional instrumentals of qualitative research, such as systematic observation, interviews and reflections on groupdynamics.About statistical data analysis it is observed that a major variation dates the activity are found in the group with Disabilities. Non-parametric tests reveal a "beneficial effect" significant of Creativity and Emotional Intelligence, and other effects although not significant on prosociality. As for the group that has practiced the activity is improving, although not statistically significant, for Creativity and prosociality. The comparisons with the control group, showing an improvement for Creativity. The motor and sports education assumes, therefore, cultural meanings, educational and social ethics, as a privileged vehicle of inclusion and development of education to health and citizenship.The action research, that results, focuses on the hypothesis that an inclusive education, based on integrated sports (baskin) could promote prosocial behavior in young people with and without intellectual and relational disability.The research methodology involves the administration of a battery of validated questionnaires to assess the prosocial behavior and related dimensions such as the empathy quotient, emotional intelligence and creative thinking in two groups: one experimental and one control. The experimental group consists of 32 young people with intellectual and without disabilities , who practice integrated sports (baskin); The control group consists of 35 persons without disabilities, which have characteristics comparable with those of the experimental group, and they never practiced sports inclusive nor attended training courses together with people with disabilities. The questionnaires are administered before the activity (pre-test) and after four months of practice of baskin (post-test). To study and monitor the quality of the inclusive process in place, we are used traditional instrumentals of qualitative research, such as systematic observation, interviews and reflections on groupdynamics.About statistical data analysis it is observed that a major variation dates the activity are found in the group with Disabilities. Non-parametric tests reveal a "beneficial effect" significant of Creativity and Emotional Intelligence, and other effects although not significant on prosociality. As for the group that has practiced the activity is improving, although not statistically significant, for Creativity and prosociality. The comparisons with the control group, showing an improvement for Creativity. The motor and sports education assumes, therefore, cultural meanings, educational and social ethics, as a privileged vehicle of inclusion and development of education to health and citizenship

Position-based dynamics simulator of vessel deformations for path planning in robotic endovascular catheterization

A major challenge during autonomous navigation in endovascular interventions is the complexity of operating in a deformable but constrained workspace with an instrument. Simulation of deformations for it can provide a cost-effective training platform for path planning. Aim of this study is to develop a realistic, auto-adaptive, and visually plausible simulator to predict vessels’ global deformation induced by the robotic catheter’s contact and cyclic heartbeat motion. Based on a Position-based Dynamics (PBD) approach for vessel modeling, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed for an auto-adaptive calibration of PBD deformation parameters and of the vessels movement due to a heartbeat. In-vitro experiments were conducted and compared with in-silico results. The end-user evaluation results were reported through quantitative performance metrics and a 5-Point Likert Scale questionnaire. Compared with literature, this simulator has an error of 0.23±0.13% for deformation and 0.30±0.85mm for the aortic root displacement. In-vitro experiments show an error of 1.35±1.38mm for deformation prediction. The end-user evaluation results show that novices are more accustomed to using joystick controllers, and cardiologists are more satisfied with the visual authenticity. The real-time and accurate performance of the simulator make this framework suitable for creating a dynamic environment for autonomous navigation of robotic catheters

Refining the genomic profiles of North African sheep breeds through meta-analysis of worldwide genomic SNP data

INTRODUCTION: The development of reproducible tools for the rapid genotyping of thousands of genetic markers (SNPs) has promoted cross border collaboration in the study of sheep genetic diversity on a global scale. METHODS: In this study, we collected a comprehensive dataset of 239 African and Eurasian sheep breeds genotyped at 37,638 filtered SNP markers, with the aim of understanding the genetic structure of 22 North African (NA) sheep breeds within a global context. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We revealed asubstantial enrichment of the gene pool between the north and south shores of the Mediterranean Sea, which corroborates the importance of the maritime route in the history of livestock. The genetic structure of North African breeds mirrors the differential composition of genetic backgrounds following the breed history. Indeed, Maghrebin sheep stocks constitute a geographically and historically coherent unit with any breed-level genetic distinctness among them due to considerable gene flow. We detected a broad east-west pattern describing the most important trend in NA fat-tailed populations, exhibited by the genetic closeness of Egyptian and Libyan fat-tailed sheep to Middle Eastern breeds rather than Maghrebin ones. A Bayesian F ST scan analysis revealed a set of genes with potentially key adaptive roles in lipid metabolism ( BMP2, PDGFD VEGFA, TBX15, and WARS2), coat pigmentation ( SOX10, PICK1, PDGFRA, MC1R, and MTIF) and horn morphology RXFP2) in Tunisian sheep. The local ancestry method detected a Merino signature in Tunisian Noire de Thibar sheep near the SULF1gene introgressed by Merino's European breeds. This study will contribute to the general picture of worldwide sheep genetic diversity

On the origin and diversification of Podolian cattle breeds: testing scenarios of European colonization using genome-wide SNP data

During the Neolithic expansion, cattle accompanied humans and spread from their domestication centres to colonize the ancient world. In addition, European cattle occasionally intermingled with both indicine cattle and local aurochs resulting in an exclusive pattern of genetic diversity. Among the most ancient European cattle are breeds that belong to the so-called Podolian trunk, the history of which is still not well established. Here, we used genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data on 806 individuals belonging to 36 breeds to reconstruct the origin and diversification of Podolian cattle and to provide a reliable scenario of the European colonization, through an approximate Bayesian computation random forest (ABC-RF) approach

Runs of homozygosity in the Italian goat breeds: impact of management practices in low‑input systems

Background Climate and farming systems, several of which are considered as low-input agricultural systems, vary between goat populations from Northern and Southern Italy and have led to different management practices. These processes have impacted genome shaping in terms of inbreeding and regions under selection and resulted in differences between the northern and southern populations. Both inbreeding and signatures of selection can be pinpointed by the analysis of runs of homozygosity (ROH), which provides useful information to assist the management of this species in different rural areas. Results We analyzed the ROH distribution and inbreeding (FROH) in 902 goats from the Italian Goat Consortium2 dataset. We evaluated the differences in individual ROH number and length between goat breeds from Northern (NRD) and Central-southern (CSD) Italy. Then, we identified the signatures of selection that differentiate these two groups using three methods: ROH, ΔROH, and averaged FST. ROH analyses showed that some Italian goat breeds have a lower inbreeding coefficient, which is attributable to their management and history. ROH are longer in breeds that are undergoing non-optimal management or with small population size. In several small breeds, the ROH length classes are balanced, reflecting more accurate mating planning. The differences in climate and management between the NRD and CSD groups have resulted in different ROH lengths and numbers: the NRD populations bred in isolated valleys present more and shorter ROH segments, while the CSD populations have fewer and longer ROH, which is likely due to the fact that they have undergone more admixture events during the horizontal transhumance practice followed by a more recent standardization. We identified four genes within signatures of selection on chromosome 11 related to fertility in the NRD group, and 23 genes on chromosomes 5 and 6 related to growth in the CSD group. Finally, we identified 17 genes on chromosome 12 related to environmental adaptation and body size with high homozygosity in both groups. Conclusions These results show how different management practices have impacted the level of genomic inbreeding in two Italian goat groups and could be useful to assist management in a low-input system while safeguarding the diversity of small populations

Conservation status and historical relatedness of Italian cattle breeds

Abstract Background: In the last 50 years, the diversity of cattle breeds has experienced a severe contraction. However, in spite of the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several local cattle breeds are still farmed in Italy. Genetic characterization of breeds represents an essential step to guide decisions in the management of farm animal genetic resources. The aim of this work was to provide a high-resolution representation of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using a medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Results: After quality control filtering, the dataset included 31,013 SNPs for 800 samples from 32 breeds. Our results on the genetic diversity of these breeds agree largely with their recorded history. We observed a low level of genetic diversity, which together with the small size of the effective populations, confirmed that several breeds are threatened with extinction. According to the analysis of runs of homozygosity, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong in some local breeds, such as Garfagnina, Mucca Pisana and Pontremolese. Patterns of genetic differentiation, shared ancestry, admixture events, and the phylogenetic tree, all suggest the presence of gene flow, in particular among breeds that originate from the same geographical area, such as the Sicilian breeds. In spite of the complex admixture events that most Italian cattle breeds have experienced, they have preserved distinctive characteristics and can be clearly discriminated, which is probably due to differences in genetic origin, environment, genetic isolation and inbreeding. Conclusions: This study is the first exhaustive genome-wide analysis of the diversity of Italian cattle breeds. The results are of significant importance because they will help design and implement conservation strategies. Indeed, efforts to maintain genetic diversity in these breeds are needed. Improvement of systems to record and monitor inbreeding in these breeds may contribute to their in situ conservation and, in view of this, the availability of genomic data is a fundamental resource

On the origin of European sheep as revealed by the diversity of the Balkan breeds and by optimizing population-genetic analysis tools

Background: In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation. Results: We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of common analysis tools: geography-informative supervised principal component analysis (PCA), breed-specific admixture analysis, across-breed f 4 profiles and phylogenetic analysis of regional pools of breeds. The regional Balkan sheep populations exhibit considerable genetic overlap, but are clearly distinct from the breeds in surrounding regions. The Asian mouflon did not influence the differentiation of the European domestic sheep and is only distantly related to present-day sheep, including those from Iran where the mouflons were sampled. We demonstrate the occurrence, from southeast to northwest Europe, of a continuously increasing ancestral component of up to 20% contributed by the European mouflon, which is assumed to descend from the original Neolithic domesticates. The overall patterns indicate that the Balkan region and Italy served as post-domestication migration hubs, from which wool sheep reached Spain and north Italy with subsequent migrations northwards. The documented dispersal of Tarentine wool sheep during the Roman period may have been part of this process. Our results also reproduce the documented 18th century admixture of Spanish Merino sheep into several central-European breeds. Conclusions: Our results contribute to a better understanding of the events that have created the present diversity pattern, which is relevant for the management of the genetic resources represented by the European sheep population