TACTILE GRAPHICS WITH MATHEMATICA

Tactile diagrams require considering specific features like resolution, size, density and even fonts to be perceived properly. Mathematica, as a powerful tool, provides integrated environment for technical computing, and has introduced a new generation of mathematical and algebraic capabilities. By the way, by default it does not respect the features necessary for graphs to be drawn to be fully tactile perceivable. In this paper, we have studied different aspects of graphing with the package and have investigated a criterion regarding the density feature for the drawn graphs to be judged how far are tactile perceivable

COMPOSITE PHOTOCATALYTIC MATERIALS FOR SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONS

The PhD project focused on the synthesis, characterisation and testing of metal modified TiO2 powders and thin WO3 films for solar energy conversion and photocatalytic oxidation reactions. In the first part, two industrial processes, i.e. Flame Spray Pyrolysis and Magnetron Sputtering, were employed to modify TiO2 powders with Cu and/or Pt nanoparticles. These photocatalysts were tested in the methanol photosteam reforming reaction for hydrogen production. The most promising materials were further tested in the same reaction at different temperatures to observe the effect of heat over photoactivity and selectivity. In addition, ME-XAS analyses were performed to better understand the behaviour of metal nanoparticles over TiO2 under operando conditions. In the second part, WO3 films were synthesised by sputtering techniques and the effect of several deposition parameters, such as total pressure, O2 partial pressure, applied power, number of deposited layers, were investigated by means of photo-electrochemical techniques

A \u201cnoisy\u201d electrical stimulation protocol favors muscle regeneration in vitro through release of endogenous ATP

An in vitro system of electrical stimulation was used to explore whether an innovative \u201cnoisy\u201d stimulation protocol derived from human electromyographic recordings (EMGstim)could promote muscle regeneration. EMGstim was delivered to cultured mouse myofibers isolated from Flexor Digitorum Brevis, preserving their satellite cells. In response to EMGstim, immunostaining for the myogenic regulatory factor myogenin, revealed an increased percentage of elongated myogenin-positive cells surrounding the myofibers. Conditioned medium collected from EMGstim-treated cell cultures, promoted satellite cells differentiation in unstimulated myofiber cell cultures, suggesting that extracellular soluble factors could mediate the process. Interestingly, the myogenic effect of EMGstim was mimicked by exogenously applied ATP (0.1 \u3bcM), reduced by the ATP diphosphohydrolase apyrase and prevented by blocking endogenous ATP release with carbenoxolone. In conclusion, our results show that \u201cnoisy\u201d electrical stimulations favor muscle progenitor cell differentiation most likely via the release of endogenous ATP from contracting myofibres. Our data also suggest that \u201cnoisy\u201d stimulation protocols could be potentially more efficient than regular stimulations to promote in vivo muscle regeneration after traumatic injury or in neuropathological diseases

Educational Dialogue Systems for Visually Impaired Students: Introducing a Task-Oriented User-Agent Corpus

This paper describes a corpus consisting of real-world dialogues in English between users and a task-oriented conversational agent, with interactions revolving around the description of finite state automata. The creation of this corpus is part of a larger research project aimed at developing tools for an easier access to educational content, especially in STEM fields, for users with visual impairments. The development of this corpus was precisely motivated by the aim of providing a useful resource to support the design of such tools. The core feature of this corpus is that its creation involved both sighted and visually impaired participants, thus allowing for a greater diversity of perspectives and giving the opportunity to identify possible differences in the way the two groups of participants interacted with the agent. The paper introduces this corpus, giving an account of the process that led to its creation, i.e. the methodology followed to obtain the data, the annotation scheme adopted, and the analysis of the results. Finally, the paper reports the results of a classification experiment on the annotated corpus, and an additional experiment to assess the annotation capabilities of three large language models, in view of a further expansion of the corpus. The corpus is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license and available, only for research purposes, at: https://zenodo.org/records/10822733

Asbestos Fibers Enhance the TMEM16A Channel Activity in Xenopus Oocytes

Background: The interaction of asbestos fibers with target cell membranes is still poorly investigated. Here, we detected and characterized an enhancement of chloride conductance in Xenopus oocyte cell membranes induced by exposure to crocidolite (Croc) asbestos fibers. Methods: A two-microelectrode voltage clamp technique was used to test the effect of Croc fiber suspensions on outward chloride currents evoked by step membrane depolarization. Calcium imaging experiments were also performed to investigate the variation of 'resting' oocyte [Ca2+]i following asbestos exposure. Results: The increase in chloride current after asbestos treatment, was sensitive to [Ca2+]e, and to specific blockers of TMEM16A Ca2+-activated chloride channels, MONNA and Ani9. Furthermore, asbestos treatment elevated the 'resting' [Ca2+]i likelihood by increasing the cell membrane permeability to Ca2 in favor of a tonic activation of TMEME16A channels. Western blot analysis confirmed that TMEME16A protein was endogenously present in the oocyte cell membrane and absorbed by Croc. Conclusion: the TMEM16A channels endogenously expressed by Xenopus oocytes are targets for asbestos fibers and represent a powerful tool for asbestos-membrane interaction studies. Interestingly, TMEM16A channels are highly expressed in many types of tumors, including some asbestos-related cancers, suggesting them, for the first time, as a possible early target of crocidolite-mediated tumorigenic effects on target cell membranes