Promoting the choice behavior in a person with multiple severe Intellectual and Motor Disabilities with the help of an optical pointer

People with multiple and severe disabilities find it difficult to develop verbal and non-verbal language, thus remaining passive or inadequate in communication (Ricci, Miglino, Alberti, Perilli, & Lancioni, 2017). Increased communication skills would promote active participation. An example of communicative application is represented by the Walden Personal Communicator (WPC): a hybrid system which uses images and/or physical objects with radio frequency identification technology (RFID), with the aim of promoting the development and increase of communicative and social skills (Ricci, Di Ferdinando, Romeo, & Miglino, 2013)

Application of Dynamic Numerical Simulation to Investigate the Effects of Occupant Behaviour Changes in Retrofitted Buildings

The term rebound effect is commonly used in literature to identify the gap between the estimated and the real energy savings due to changes in the occupant behaviour after a building energy retrofit. In the present article, the rebound effect for some Italian residential building types is investigated through dynamic simulation. The energy efficiency measures determining the highest rebound effect are identified and discussed. The results point out that the major renovation generally leads to the highest benefits as the efficiency measures are mutually reinforced. In contrast, single measures may lead to the opposite goal of increasing the energy consumption

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

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Applications of the Bio-Functional Assessment in the management of self-injurious behavior

As part of the development of the various behavioral functional analysis models (Sturmey, 1996; Ricci & Sturmey, 2017), different aspects were taken into consideration within the relationship between behavior and context. The latter is intended as an environment external to the person who manifests the behavior in accordance with the assumptions of the science of human behavior in the Skinnerian sense. The Bio-Functional Assessment (BFA) is part of that tradition of studies and research that attempted to resort to the Skinnerian paradigm by referring, however, to an internal environment of the individual, represented by the so-called psychophysiological repertory

In situ photo-polymerization of soil organic matter by heterogeneous nano-TiO2 and biomimetic metal-porphyrin catalysts

Two oxidative catalytic systems, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and a biomimetic Mn-porphyrin linked to montmorillonite through a spacer (MnP-M), were used to photo-polymerize soil organic matter (SOM) directly in situ on soil, with the aim to sequester organic carbon (OC) and reduce CO2 emissions from soil. We first validated, by infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and proton spin–lattice relaxation time (T1ρH) in 13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (13C CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, the capacity of the nano-TiO2 catalyst to photo-oxidatively couple humic molecules together by covalent bonds, as already proved under MnP-M. Both catalysts turn the loosely associated humic superstructures into more stable and larger molecular masses through a photo-oxidative free radical coupling mechanism. Then, the addition of either nano-TiO2 or MnP-M to soil induced an in situ photo-polymerization of SOM, since exposure of catalyst-treated soils to solar light determined a significant reduction of respired CO2 and an increase in thermal stability of humic components and, consequently, in SOC content. This suggests that both nano-TiO2 and immobilized metal-porphyrin photo-catalysts effectively promote OC sequestration in soil and reduction of CO2 emissions from soil to atmosphere. Soil treatments with heterogeneous photo-catalysts may become a promising technology for the development of future agricultural practices aimed to increase SOM stabilization and contribute to mitigate global climate change

A Psychosocial Genomics Pilot Study in Oncology for Verifying Clinical, Inflammatory and Psychological Effects of Mind-Body Transformations-Therapy (MBT-T) in Breast Cancer Patients: Preliminary Results

Several studies have highlighted the key role of chronic inflammation in breast cancer development, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic outcome. These processes are mediated through a variety of cytokines and hormones that exert their biological actions either locally or distantly via systemic circulation. Recent findings suggest that positive psychosocial experiences, including psychotherapeutic interventions and therapeutic mind-body protocols, can modulate the inflammatory response by reducing the expression of genes/proteins associated with inflammation and stress-related pathways. Our preliminary results indicate that a specific mind-body therapy (MBT-T) could induce a significant reduction of the release of different cytokines and chemokines, such as SCGFβ, SDF-1α, MCP3, GROα, LIF, and IL-18, in the sera of breast cancer patients compared to a control group, suggesting that MBT-T could represent a promising approach to improve the wellness and outcome of breast cancer patients

Independent Quality Assessment of Essential Climate Variables: Lessons Learned from the Copernicus Climate Change Service

If climate services are to lead to effective use of climate information in decision-making to enable the transition to a climate-smart, climate-ready world, then the question of trust in the products and services is of paramount importance. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has been actively grappling with how to build such trust: provision of demonstrably independent assessments of the quality of products, which was deemed an important element in such trust-building processes. C3S provides access to essential climate variables (ECVs) from multiple sources to a broad set of users ranging from scientists to private companies and decision-makers. Here we outline the approach ­undertaken to coherently assess the quality of a suite of observation- and reanalysis-based ECV products covering the atmosphere, ocean, land, and cryosphere. The assessment is based on four pillars: basic data checks, maturity of the datasets, fitness for purpose (scientific use cases and climate studies), and guidance to users. It is undertaken independently by scientific experts and presented alongside the datasets in a fully traceable, replicable, and transparent manner. The methodology deployed is detailed, and example assessments are given. These independent scientific quality assessments are intended to guide users to ensure they use tools and datasets that are fit for purpose to answer their specific needs rather than simply use the first product they alight on. This is the first such effort to develop and apply an assessment framework consistently to all ECVs. Lessons learned and future perspectives are outlined to potentially improve future assessment activities and thus climate services.This work is funded by European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) implemented by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) under the service contract Independent Assessment on ECVs led by the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) with the service contract number as ECMWF/Copernicus/2017/C3S_511_CNR.Peer reviewe