Nuovo realismo e metodi di ricerca misti

Il nuovo realismo ha evidenziato i limiti del costruttivismo sociale e del cosiddetto \uabpensiero debole\ubb, che rischia di sfociare nel nichilismo. Sono stati recentemente rimossi dei pregiudizi che impedivano di cogliere la realt\ue0 dei fatti educativi nella sua concreta evidenza. Tuttavia un\u2019apertura alla prospettiva metafisica offrirebbe al nuovo realismo ulteriori spazi epistemologici. In tale senso il contributo del realismo critico potrebbe aiutare a superare l\u2019artificiosa antinomia tra il ruolo attivo del soggetto conoscente e la rilevazione oggettiva dei fatti educativi. Se si realizzasse questa apertura la conoscenza scientifica e la conoscenza corrente non sarebbero pi\uf9 viste come antinomiche perch\ue9 la seconda costituirebbe un approfondimento della prima, in una linea di continuit\ue0. I metodi sperimentali di ricerca in campo educativo si sono recentemente avvalsi delle riflessioni filosofiche dei realisti per integrare l\u2019approccio qualitativo e quello quantitativo allo studio della realt\ue0 dell\u2019educazione. Anche i nuovi disegni di ricerca che intendono seguire e rilevare, senza ingabbiarli, i processi educativi sono per lo pi\uf9 misti.\uabNew Realism\ubb has highlighted the limits of social constructivism and of so-called \uabweak thought\ubb that risks producing nihilism. Some prejudices have recently been removed that prevented researchers and theorists from grasping the real core of educational facts in their concrete evidence. However, an opening to a metaphysical view would offer \uabnew realism\ubb further epistemological perspectives. In this sense, the contribution of critical realism might help to overcome the artificial antinomy between the active role of the knowing subject and the objective measurement of educational facts. With this \uabopening\ubb, scientific knowledge and current knowledge would no longer be seen as opposites because the latter would be considered as a deepening of the former, in a line of continuity. The experimental methods of research in the education field have recently made use of the philosophical reflections of realists to integrate the quantitative and qualitative approach to the study of education. New research designs, aimed at monitoring and observing educational processes, without \uabencaging\ubb them, are mainly of a \uabmixed\ubb kind

Educación personalizada y formación del carácter

En el presente artículo se sostiene que el conocimiento de la caracteriología permite al educador utilizar las tendencias naturales de los jóvenes para orientar su crecimiento como personas, ampliar los márgenes de su educabilidad, y servir de base a la personalización de la enseñanza, porque permite diversificar las intervenciones educativas en función de las características de los alumnos. Seguidamente, se proponen nuevamente las aportaciones de la caracteriología de Heymans y Le Senne desde una óptica educativo-metodológica; se analizan los distintos significados de los términos “temperamento”, “carácter” y “personalidad”; se presentan los principios fundamentales para poder determinar el temperamento de los alumnos, y se aborda la educación del carácter, fundamentalmente, como una educación en la virtud

Гидронимия верховьев Дона

В публикации (носящей пробный характер) представлен фрагмент первой части каталога названий всех водных объектов бассейна реки Дон - от его истоков до устья его правого притока р. Таболы.У публікації наводиться гідромінікон верхів'їв Дону від його початку до гирла правої притоки Таболи, а також суміжні географічні назви з однаковою лексичною базою. Подається велика кількість синхронних і діахронних варіантів і дублетів цих назв.The article investigates hydronymicon of upper reaches of the Don from its beginning of river head of the Tabola and adjacent geographical names with the equal lexical base. The great number of synchronous and diachronous variants and duplicates of these names is adduce

Volatile opinions and optimal control of vaccine awareness campaigns: chaotic behaviour of the Forward-Backward Sweep algorithm vs heuristic direct optimization

In modern societies the main sources of information are Internet-based social networks. Thus, the opinion of citizens on key topics, such as vaccines, is very volatile. Here, we explore the impact of volatility on the modelling of public response to vaccine awareness campaigns for favouring vaccine uptake. We apply a quasi-steady-state approximation to the model of spread and control of Susceptible-Infected-Removed diseases proposed in (d’Onofrio et al., PLoS One, 2012). This allows us to infer and analyze a new behavioural epidemiology model that is nonlinear in the control. Then, we investigate the efficient design of vaccine awareness campaigns by adopting optimal control theory. The resulting problem has important issues: (i) the integrand of its objective functional is non-convex; (ii) the application of forward-backward sweep (FBS) and gradient descent algorithms in some key cases does not work; (iii) analytical approaches provide continuous solutions that cannot rigorously be implemented since Public Health interventions cannot be fully flexible. Thus, on the one hand, we resort to direct optimization of the objective functional via heuristic stochastic optimization, in particular via particle swarm optimization and differential evolution algorithms. On the other hand, we investigate the non-convergence of the FBS algorithm with tools of the statistical theory of nonlinear chaotic time-series. Finally, since the direct optimization algorithms are stochastic, we provide a statistical assessment of the obtained solutions

"Ex vivo" and "in vivo" studies to assess chemical effects on steroidogenesis in fish: development and application of methods

The aquatic environment receives many chemical substances of natural or anthropogenic origin, which can influence the endocrine functions and health of wildlife. Various examples of endocrine disruption in wildlife were documented in aquatic organisms, for which associations between reproductive and developmental effects and exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been demonstrated. Since most of the endocrine-disrupting effects reported appear to be a consequence of feminization of males, most ecotoxicological research has been directed to identify estrogenic chemicals. However, the endocrine-disrupting effects exerted by EDCs can result from different mechanisms such as agonism or antagonism of endogenous steroid hormones via interaction with steroid hormone-receptors, or interference with the sex steroid hormone synthesis. Given the potential threat of these EDCs for wildlife, effective testing methods are required by regulatory agencies and industry to identify and assess the different mechanisms of action by which the EDCs exert their adverse effects. Testing strategies for endocrine disruption are being developed, in particular with fish test assays. These strategies are based on tiered approach, starting with fish in vitro and in vivo screening assays that identify and inform on potential endocrine mechanisms and effects. The results of the screening assays have then to be confirmed by higher tiered fish in vivo assays that characterize any apical adverse effect resulting from endocrine mode of action. Although the assays to screen for chemicals interacting with sex steroid receptor are widely available, tests to identify and inform on effects of chemicals that act via disrupting sex steroid biosynthesis still need to be developed. The aim of this thesis was therefore to develop and evaluate the potential of different fish test methods focused on chemicals that may interfere with the sex steroid biosynthesis. In a first step, an ex vivo gonad assay from juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) was developed to specifically identify substances that disrupt the activity of enzymes involved in the sex steroid biosynthesis. The ex vivo gonad assay was applied to test model chemicals, known or suspected to inhibit sex steroid biosynthesis: 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD), an aromatase inhibitor pharmaceutical; prochloraz, an imidazole fungicide; tributyltin (TBT), an organotin compound and persistent organic pollutant. Their effects in the ex vivo gonad assay were assessed by measuring 17ß-estradiol and testosterone concentrations from the culture medium. The different profile of sex steroid concentrations obtained for each chemical exposure showed that the ex vivo gonad assay cannot only identify the chemicals disrupting the steroidogenesis, but has also the potential to inform on their specific mechanism of action. To further evaluate the ex vivo gonad assay and its potential to inform on in vivo effects, the responses to prochloraz and TBT exposure were compared in the ex vivo and in vivo exposure assays of juvenile brown trout. The effects were again assessed by measuring 17ß-estradiol and testosterone concentrations, and also by analyzing somatic indices and histopathology of gonads from fish exposed in vivo to the test chemicals. The results of this study demonstrated that the ex vivo gonad assay has the potential to inform on in vivo effects of chemicals disrupting the steroidogenesis and accordingly on their potential to affect sexual development of fish. This study highlights the potential of the ex vivo gonad assay to be a sensitive and informative tool for such EDCs. The ex vivo gonad assay was then used to further analyze the potential of the steroidogenic inhibitors to impair the regulation of early sexual development of fish. This was investigated by comparing cellular and molecular effects of ex vivo and in vivo exposures to ATD, prochloraz and TBT. The ex vivo 17ß-estradiol and testosterone concentrations were measured and ex vivo/in vivo gene expression of the aromatase and insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), involved in the regulation of sexual development, were compared. It was shown that the test chemicals could interfere with both the sex steroid and IGF systems and potentially lead to altered sexual development. Finally, to confirm the potential of steroidogenic inhibitors to impair sex differentiation and development, a higher tier fish in vivo test, a Fish Sexual Development Test (FSDT), was applied. Two model fish species, zebrafish (Danio rerio) and fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) were exposed, from embryo to sexual maturity, to prochloraz and the effects on their sexual differentiation were compared by assessing the sex ratios, the histology of gonads, and the vitellogenin concentration. The results of this last study demonstrated that, although the different strategies of sexual differentiation of zebrafish and fathead minnow influence the response of their gonad morphology and their sensitivity to prochloraz exposure, the exposure to steroidogenic inhibitors has the potential to alter their sexual development and subsequently the reproductive success and population structure of fish. To conclude, we suggest that the evaluation of the ex vivo and in vivo methods in our different studies are sensitive and valuable tools for application in environmental risk assessment of chemicals interfering with the sex steroid biosynthesis. Although further characterization and validation studies of the ex vivo gonad and FSDT assays are still required, the combination of both ex vivo and in vivo assays represents a good testing approach

Genetic and morphological studies of Trichosirocalus species introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand for the biological control of thistles

Trichosirocalus horridus sensu lato has been used as a biological control agent of several invasive thistles (Carduus spp., Cirsium spp. and Onopordum spp.) since 1974. It has been recognized as a single species until 2002, when it was split into three species based on morphological characters: T. horridus, Trichosirocalus briesei and Trichosirocalus mortadelo, each purported to have different host plants. Because of this taxonomic change, uncertainty exists as to which species were released in various countries; furthermore, there appears to be some exceptions to the purported host plants of some of these species. To resolve these questions, we conducted an integrative taxonomic study of the T. horridus species complex using molecular genetic and morphological analyses of specimens from three continents. Both mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and nuclear elongation factor 1α markers clearly indicate that there are only two distinct species, T. horridus and T. briesei. Molecular evidence, morphological analysis and host plant associations support the synonymy of T. horridus (Panzer, 1801) and T. mortadelo Alonso-Zarazaga & Sánchez-Ruiz, 2002. We determine that T. horridus has been established in Canada, USA, New Zealand and Australia and that T. briesei is established in Australia. The former species was collected from Carduus, Cirsium and Onopordum spp. in the field, whereas the latter appears to be specific to Onopordum

The influence of light attenuation on the biogeomorphology of a marine karst cave: a case study of Puerto Princesa Underground River, Palawan, the Philippines

Karst caves are unique biogeomorphological systems. Cave walls offer habitat for microorganisms which in-turn have a geomorphological role via their involvement in rock weathering, erosion and mineralisation. The attenuation of light with distance into caves is known to affect ecology, but the implications of this for biogeomorphological processes and forms have seldom been examined. Here we describe a semi-quantitative microscopy study comparing the extent, structure, and thickness of biocover and depth of endolithic penetration for samples of rock from the Puerto Princesa Underground River system in Palawan, the Philippines, which is a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. Organic growth at the entrance of the cave was abundant (100% occurrence) and complex, dominated by phototrophic organisms (green microalgae, diatoms, cyanobacteria, mosses and lichens). Thickness of this layer was 0.28 ± 0.18 mm with active endolith penetration into the limestone (mean depth = 0.13 ± 0.03 mm). In contrast, phototrophs were rare 50 m into the cave and biofilm cover was significantly thinner (0.01 ± 0.01 mm, p < 0.000) and spatially patchy (33% occurrence). Endolithic penetration here was also shallower (< 0.01 mm, p < 0.000) and non-uniform. Biofilm was found 250 m into the cave, but with a complete absence of phototrophs and no evidence of endolithic bioerosion. We attribute these findings to light-induced stress gradients, showing that the influence of light on phototroph abundance has knock-on consequences for the development of limestone morphological features. In marine caves this includes notches, which were most well-developed at the sheltered cave entrance of our study site, and for which variability in formation rates between locations is currently poorly understood

A Supplemental Approach to Analyzing Trade Data

The objective of this article is to demonstrate the application of statistical process control (SPC) techniques to analyzing U.S. trade data including exports, imports and the overall balance of trade as supplements to existing methods. The major benefit of using these techniques would be to reduce unnecessary intervention (i.e., unnecessary corrective action) to trade policies. The basis for employing these techniques in analyzing trade data stems from an article written by Nolan and Provost (1990) in which they discussed the importance of understanding statistical variation and the importance this concept holds for managers and intent of this research is to show how SPC principles and techniques can help in an analysis of trade data so that the correct and accurate interpretation of the data will emerge and subsequently can be conveyed to decision-makers, policy-makers and other related stakeholders. The article does not intend to promote the idea that SPC techniques could or should replace the existing econometric models; it just proposes that these models (i.e, SPC) models) can be considered as supplements to the current models. The article discusses several examples of SPC applications as well is a brief description of the techniques

Assessing Metacomprehension and Metacognitive Reading Strategies

The aim of the study was to establish the similarities and differences among existing instruments for measuring metacognition, in particular the awareness of reading comprehension and further to construct an original instrument for measuring features of metacognition, henceforth referred to as the Metacomprehension and Metacognitive Reading Strategies (M&MRS) Inventory. The M&MRS Inventory was distributed to 115 students at University of Palermo. The results revealed a good reliabilit