From research to clinical settings: validation of the Affect in Play Scale \u2013 Preschool Brief Version in a sample of preschool and school-aged Italian children

Affect in Play Scale-Preschool (APS-P) is one of the few standardized tools to measure pretend play. APS-P is an effective measure of symbolic play, able to detect both cognitive and affective dimensions which classically designated play in children, but often are evaluated separately and are scarcely integrated. The scale uses 5 min standardized play task with a set of toys. Recently the scale was extended from 6 to 10 years old and validated in Italy preschool and school-aged children. Some of the main limitations of this measure are that it requires videotaping, verbatim transcripts, and an extensive scoring training, which could compromise its clinical utility. For these reasons, a Brief version of the measure was developed by the original authors. This paper will focus on an APS-P Brief Version and its Extended Version through ages (6\u201310 years), which consists \u201cin vivo\u201d coding. This study aimed to evaluate construct and external validity of this APS-P Brief Version and its Extended Version in a sample of 538 Italian children aged 4-to-10 years. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a two correlated factor structure including an affective and a cognitive factor. APS-P-BR and its Extended Version factor scores strongly related to APS-P Extended Version factor scores. Significant relationships were found with a divergent thinking task. Results suggest that the APS-P-BR and its Extended Version is an encouraging brief measure assessing pretend play using toys. It would easily substitute the APS-P and its Extended Version in clinical and research settings, reducing time and difficulties in scoring procedures and maintaining the same strengths

Interface agents personalizing Web-based tasks

The volume of information available on the Web is constantly growing. Due to this situation, users looking for documents relevant to their interests need to identify them among all the available ones. Intelligent agents have become a solution to assist users in this task since they can retrieve, filter and organize information on behalf of their users. In this paper we present two experiences in the development of interface agents assisting users in Web-based tasks: PersonalSearcher, a personalized Web searcher, and NewsAgent, a personalized digital newspaper generator. The main challenge we faced to personalize the tasks carried out by these agents was learning and modeling specific and dynamic user interests. Our proposed approach consists of incrementally building a hierarchy of users' relevant topics and adapting it as agents interact with users over time.Fil: Godoy, Daniela Lis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software; ArgentinaFil: Schiaffino, Silvia Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software; ArgentinaFil: Amandi, Analia Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software; Argentin

Anorexia and attachment: dysregulated defense and pathological mourning

The role of Defensive exclusion (Deactivation and Segregated Systems) in the development of early relationships and related to subsequent manifestations of symptoms of eating disorders was assessed using the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP). Fifty-one DSM-IV diagnosed women with anorexia participated in the study. Anorexic patients were primarily classified as dismissing or unresolved. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of defensive exclusion were carried out. Results showed potential benefits of using the AAP defense exclusion coding system, in addition to the main attachment classifications, in order to better understand the developmental issues involved in anorexia. Discussion concerned the processes, such as pathological mourning, that may underlie the associations between dismissing and unresolved attachment and anorexia. Implications for developmental research and clinical nosology are discussed

Introduction to the Special issue on Qualitative and Quantitative Research in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

Not available

Early evidence of parental attachment among polish adolescents

Parental attachment is important for adolescents' development as well as cultural context. Poland used to be collectivist but now is closer to individualistic due to social and economic transformation. Few studies have examined parental attachment and self-esteem among Polish adolescents. This descriptive study (N = 303 Polish adolescents) investigated the levels of parental attachment, gender differences, preferred attachment figure, association with self-esteem and cultural differences with collectivistic (China) and individualistic (Italy) cultures. The results indicated that: (1) there was no gender difference in parental attachment; (2) mother was the preferred attachment figure; (3) parental attachment was related to self-esteem; and (4) cultural differences were found. Findings were discussed in terms of Polish sociopolitical situation

Determination of dimensionality of the psychosocial risk assessment of internal, individual, double presence and external factors in work environments

In the present work, the dimensions of the psychosocial risk assessment instrument are defined considering internal, individual, double presence and external factors for work environments. Those corresponding to internal, individual and double presence factors are not subject to a process of validation of content since they come from the ISTAS 21 model validated by the Trade Union Institute of Labor, Environment and Health of Spain. The variables corresponding to external factors are obtained from the Social Determinants of Health Model of the World Health Organization. These measurement tools are used for companies with a high number of workers, so a large amount of data is generated. The construct validity of the external factors is carried out by calculating the sample adequacy measure of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin together with the Bartlett sphericity test and the communalities analysis. Of the internal and individual variables there are twenty dimensions and of the external variables, are reduced to 14

Filoni di ricerca in psicoterapia nella Facoltdi Psicologia dellUniversitdi Padova

Il moltiplicarsi di proposte di intervento psicologico e la crescente richiesta da parte degli utenti e delle istituzioni di cura di misurare efficacy ed effectiveness delle psicoterapie, rende necessaria una valutazione empirica dei modelli di intervento applicati, attraverso lo studio di ciò che avviene in psicoterapia e dei relativi meccanismi di cambiamento e azione. Scopo del presente lavoro è introdurre il lettore ai diversi disegni di ricerca per la valutazione empirica della psicoterapia nel complesso contesto di alcuni servizi Universitari dell’Ateneo Patavino. L'interesse sarà posto sui diversi progetti e strumenti per la valutazione dell’esito, dei macro e dei micro processi di cambiamento di terapie ad indirizzo psicodinamico, caso singolo e di gruppo, anche in relazione alle neuroscienze

Como a pandemia pelo novo Coronavírus afetou o desenvolvimento dos discentes do 5º semestre de biomedicina de um centro universitário do Estado do Pará: Um relato de experiência / How the pandemic for the new Coronavirus affected the development of discents in the 5th semester of biomedicine at a university center in the State of Pará: An experience report

A pandemia causada pelo novo Coronavírus obrigou a população a adotar o isolamento social como medida de prevenção contra o vírus. E nesse contexto, instituições de ensino públicas e privadas, em todos os níveis educacionais, adotaram os recursos de Educação à Distância (EaD) para minimizar as perdas educacionais de seus discentes. Objetivo: Avaliar como a pandemia pelo novo Coronavírus afetou o desenvolvimento dos discentes do 5º semestre do curso de Biomedicina de um Centro Universitáro privado do estado do Pará. Materiais e métodos: Este estudo é embasado nas experiências vivenciadas pelos alunos do curso de Biomedicina, e em artigos disponíveis nas plataformas SciELO e Google Acadêmico, no período de 2009 a 2020; e também em dados publicados pelo Ministério da Educação (MEC) no ano de 2020. Discussão: Os discentes relataram pontos positivos e negativos em sua nova metodologia de aprendizado. Como ponto negativo destaca-se as dificuldades no uso da plataforma virtual de EaD, preocupações com a sua saúde física e mental, e de familiares, além de questões financeiras. Como pontos positivos, eles salientaram o empenho de alguns docentes para aplicar novas metodologias e facilitar o processo de aprendizado. Conclusão: Ao final do trabalho, foi percebido que os discentes desenvolveram uma maior autonomia no processo de busca por conhecimento, além de melhora na escrita. Porém, os prejuizos que tiveram em seus aprendizados ainda são incertos, carecendo de um tempo maior para que possa ser mensurados em suas vivências práticas.

The use of antimicrobials in Italian heavy pig fattening farms

Data on antimicrobial use (AMU) in heavy pig production (>150 kg) are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the AMU in this production. Data from 2015 were collected for 143 fattening farms. The AMU was estimated through a treatment index per 100 days (TI100) using the defined daily dose animal for Italy (DDDAit). When possible, a comparison with the European Medicines Agency's defined daily doses for animals (DDDvet) was performed. The median TI100 was 10.7 (range, 0.2-49.5). Group treatments represented 94.6% of overall consumption. The AMU calculated using DDDAit and DDDvet were strongly correlated (rho = 0.976; p < 0.001). The AMU was negatively correlated with injectables use (rho = -0.46, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with oral products (rho = 0.21, p = 0.014), premixes (rho = 0.26, p = 0.002), and mortality (rho = 0.18; p = 0.027). Farm size was negatively correlated with AMU (rho = -0.29, p < 0.001). Smaller farms were more frequently above the median TI100 (odds ratio = 2.3, 95% confidence interval = 1.2-4.7), suggesting that they may have lower biosecurity and management standards. The results of this study should provide useful insights for the development of an Italian monitoring system

Viability of zebrafish (Danio rerio) ovarian follicles after vitrification in a metal container.

Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue has been studied for female germline preservation of farm animals and endangered mammalian species. However, there are relatively few reports on cryopreservation of fish ovarian tissue and especially using vitrification approach. Previous studies of our group has shown that the use of a metal container for the cryopreservation of bovine ovarian fragments results in good primordial and primary follicle morphological integrity after vitrification. The aim of this study was to assess the viability and in vitro development of zebrafish follicles after vitrification of fragmented or whole ovaries using the same metal container. In Experiment 1, we tested the follicular viability of five developmental stages following vitrification in four vitrification solutions using fluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide fluorescent probes. These results showed that the highest viability rates were obtained with immature follicles (Stage I) and VS1 (1.5 M methanol + 4.5 M propylene glycol). In Experiment 2, we used VS1 to vitrify different types of ovarian tissue (fragments or whole ovaries) in two different carriers (plastic cryotube or metal container). In this experiment, Stage I follicle survival was assessed following vitrification by vital staining after 24 h in vitro culture. Follicular morphology was analyzed by light microscopy after vitrification. Data showed that the immature follicles morphology was well preserved after cryopreservation. Follicular survival rate was higher (P < 0.05) in vitrified fragments, when compared to whole ovaries. There were no significant differences in follicular survival and growth when the two vitrification devices were compared