Code Generation based on IFML for the User Interfaces of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is responsible for developing the SKA Observatory, the world’s largest radiotelescope ever built. In this context, a number of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) have to be designed and built to be used for monitoring and control, testing, simulation, integration, commissioning and maintenance. The Tango framework and its UI tools, selected for SKA in 2015, support the types of basic control interfaces currently used at both radio telescopes and within high energy physics experiments. This paper reports on the development of a Qt/Taurus code generator prototype based on the IFML (Interaction Flow Modeling Language) standard and respective modeling tools, that are extended for supporting the platform-specific code generation. The purpose of this work is to enable the use of low-code development in SKA GUI design, thus enabling increased efficiency, reliability and coherency of the produced UI. We present a simple GUI use case as complete example of software development cycle starting from requirements and including IFML modelling, Qt/Taurus automatic coding, interface evaluation and validation

Food Habits and Sport Practice According to BMI Categories and Rural/Urban Origin

The juvenile obesity is correlated to dietary and physical activity. Moreover, the rural or urban context could affect other aspects like time available to practice sport or the availability of sport facilities. Thus, this brief report investigated the relationship be- tween origin and food habits in children belonging to different BMI categories. Over than 1400 primary school students were interviewed with their parents about their food habits. All answers were stratified according to origin (rural/urban) and to BMI categories as defined in literature. The percentage of normal weight, overweight and obese children between rural and urban context were similar (p > 0.05). All the BMI categories were familiar to have breakfast and no differences were found between rural or urban context (p > 0.52). Over 70% of children had the principal meal in at least 15 minutes. In particular, all of them used to watch TV during this moment: no differences were found between urban/rural or BMI categories (p = 0.87 and p = 0.98). In general, most of urban children performed physical activity less than seven hours/week, while normal weight subjects were more active than obese one (p = 0.04). We concluded that school promotion and municipalities/institutions interven- tion could be a good solution to reach all children in environment where the amount of facilities is often poor

Projections of leaf turgor loss point shifts under future climate change scenarios

Predicting the consequences of climate change is of utmost importance to mitigate impacts on vulnerable ecosystems; plant hydraulic traits are particularly useful proxies for predicting functional disruptions potentially occurring in the near future. This study assessed the current and future regional patterns of leaf water potential at turgor loss point (Ψtlp) by measuring and projecting the Ψtlp of 166 vascular plant species (159 angiosperms and 7 gymnosperms) across a large climatic range spanning from alpine to Mediterranean areas in NE Italy. For angiosperms, random forest models predicted a consistent shift toward more negative values in low-elevation areas, whereas for gymnosperms the pattern was more variable, particularly in the alpine sector (i.e., Alps and Prealps). Simulations were also developed to evaluate the number of threatened species under two Ψtlp plasticity scenarios (low vs. high plasticity), and it was found that in the worst-case scenario approximately 72% of the angiosperm species and 68% of gymnosperms within a location were at risk to exceed their physiological plasticity. The different responses to climate change by specific clades might produce reassembly in natural communities, undermining the resilience of natural ecosystems to climate change

Haemato-oncology and burnout: an Italian survey

This cross-sectional survey aimed to evaluate the prevalence of burnout and estimated psychiatric disorders among haemato-oncology healthcare professionals in Italy. The aspects of work that respondents perceive as stressful and satisfying have also been examined. The assessments were made using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), General Health Questionnaire and a study-specific questionnaire. Logistic regression models were applied to show associations between different sources of work-related stress and burnout. Three hundred and eighty-seven out of 440 (87.95%) returned their questionnaires. The scores on MBI subscales indicate a high level of emotional exhaustion in 32.2% of the physicians and 31.9% of the nurses; a high level of Depersonalisation in 29.8 and 23.6%, respectively; and a low level of personal accomplishment in 12.4 and 15.3% respectively. The estimated prevalence of psychiatric disorders was 36.4% in physicians and 28.8% in nurses. Statistical analysis confirmed age, sex, personal dissatisfaction, physical tiredness and working with demanding patients to be associated with burnout. In conclusion, haemato-oncology healthcare professionals report a level of burnout and estimated psychiatric morbidity comparable to other oncological areas. Knowledge of the mechanisms of burnout and preventing and dealing with them is therefore a fundamental requirement for the improvement of quality in health services and job satisfaction

The contribution of online reviews for quality evaluation of cultural tourism offers: The experience of italian museums

In the cultural tourism field, there has been an increasing interest in adopting data-driven approaches that are aimed at measuring the service quality dimensions through online reviews. To date, studies measuring quality dimensions in cultural tourism settings through content analysis of online user-generated reviews are mainly based on manual approaches. When the content analysis is automated, these studies do not compare different analytical approaches. Our paper enters this field by comparing two different automated content analysis approaches to evaluate which of the two is more adequate for assessing the quality dimensions through user-generated reviews in an empirical setting of 100 Italian museums. Specifically, we compare a ‘top-down’ content analysis approach that is based on a supervised classification built on policy makers’ guidelines and a ‘bottom-up’ approach that is based on an unsupervised topic model of the online words of reviewers. The resulting museum quality dimensions are compared, showing that the ‘bottom-up’ approach reveals additional quality dimensions compared with those obtained through the ‘top-down’ approach. The misalignment of the results of the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches to quality evaluation for museums enhances the critical discussion on the contribution that data analytics can offer to support decision making in cultural tourism

Solid lipid nanoparticles and vesicular systems as carrier for lutein: comparing results.

Lutein is one of over 600 know naturally occurring carotenoids. Present in green leafy vegetables, wheat, egg yolk and coloured fruits, lutein plays the role as an antioxidant. The molecule, well know for its role in eye health protection, has also be detected on significant quantities in other tissues including skin, breast and brain. Lutein is a lipophilic molecule and it is insoluble in water. In this work colloidal systems (liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles) have been studied as carriers for thi antioxidant. The encapsulation in lipophilic structures could be a useful strategy to obtain controllode release of the active compound at different level of skin layers, realizing a more complete cutaneous protection