The Distant Horizon: investigating the relationship between social sciences academic research and game development

Research in the social sciences devotes a great amount of attention to investigating the impact of video games on the individual and on society. However, results generated by this research often fail to inform game development. The present study investigated the outreach of research conducted by the academic community by interviewing 30 game developers and 14 researchers, highlighting critical aspects in the relationship between game research and game industry. Specifically, we found that the difference in priorities, speed cycles, and dissemination practices between these two contexts hinder communication. Subsequently, we carried out a focus group for a set of developers and researchers (N=6) with the aim of eliciting recommendation for improving communication between academics and developers. Among the recommendations to emerge were calls to diversify dissemination channels, promote joint conferences and develop research-production partnerships. It was felt such measures could strengthen the influence of research results outside the academic community

Reologìa de suspensiones de esmaltes cerámicos para monococción: estudio de la influencia de los aditivos utilizados.

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos a partir de la caracterización y el estudio del comportamiento reológico de suspensiones de fritas cerámicas para la elaboración de esmaltes para baldosas de monococión porosa.En particular se evidencian los efectos que los distintos componentes y aditivo, ejercen sobre los parámetros reológicos que oontrolan las fases de preparacion y de aplicació

Ranking Meets Distance Education: Defining Relevant Criteria and Indicators for Online Universities

University ranking systems are being implemented with the aim of assessing and comparing higher education institutions at a global level. Despite their being increasingly used, rankings are often strongly criticized for their social and economic implications, as well as for limitations in their technical implementation. One of these limitations is that they do not consider the specific characteristics of online education. This study used a participatory approach to define a set of criteria and indicators suitable to reflect the specific nature of distance education. This endeavour will help evaluate and rank online higher education institutions more appropriately than in current practice, where indicators are devised for traditional universities. To this end, several stakeholders and informants were involved in a Delphi study in an attempt to reach the broader higher education institutions (HEI) community. According to the study participants, apart from students’ achievements and general quantitative measures of HEI performance, which are quite common in traditional ranking systems, teaching and student learning experience turned out to be the most important criteria. Student support, teacher support, technological infrastructure, research and organization were deemed middle ground criteria, while sustainability and reputation were regarded as the least important criteria

Molecular diversity, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium in a worldwide collection of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) germplasm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The goals of our study were to assess the phylogeny and the population structure of tobacco accessions representing a wide range of genetic diversity; identify a subset of accessions as a core collection capturing most of the existing genetic diversity; and estimate, in the tobacco core collection, the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in seven genomic regions using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. To this end, a collection of accessions were genotyped with SSR markers. Molecular diversity was evaluated and LD was analyzed across seven regions of the genome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A genotyping database for 312 tobacco accessions was profiled with 49 SSR markers. Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) and Bayesian cluster analysis revealed structuring of the tobacco population with regard to commercial classes and six main clades were identified, which correspond to "Oriental", Flue-Cured", "Burley", "Dark", "Primitive", and "Other" classes. Pairwise kinship was calculated between accessions, and an overall low level of co-ancestry was observed. A set of 89 genotypes was identified that captured the whole genetic diversity detected at the 49 loci. LD was evaluated on these genotypes, using 422 SSR markers mapping on seven linkage groups. LD was estimated as squared correlation of allele frequencies (<it>r²</it>). The pattern of intrachromosomal LD revealed that in tobacco LD extended up to distances as great as 75 cM with <it>r²</it>> 0.05 or up to 1 cM with <it>r²</it>> 0.2. The pattern of LD was clearly dependent on the population structure.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A global population of tobacco is highly structured. Clustering highlights the accessions with the same market class. LD in tobacco extends up to 75 cM and is strongly dependent on the population structure.</p

Comparing the comparators: How should the quality of education offered by online universities be evaluated?

Comparing universities and courses is of interest to a variety of stakeholders including potential students, policy makers, news and media organisations, ranking providers, and universities themselves. There are a range of existing university ranking schemes that provide comparisons (e.g. Academic Ranking of World Universities) but typically these are designed with face‐to‐face teaching and learning in mind. There is also a growing number of quality assurance tools and approaches aimed at ensuring the quality of online education This article reports on an analysis of a range of quality assurance systems for online higher education institutions and courses, together with variety of ranking systems targeting conventional universities—with the aim of establishing what they measure, and the metrics used to assess quality. The findings from this analytical study were compared with a meta‐analysis of the literature about how students choose their university in order to understand how these instruments influence current student opinion and can be used more proactively by universities themselves. The findings reveal: (1) current ranking systems are of limited value for most potential undergraduate students, particularly with reference to online education, (2) comparison systems that can be of value to students from a variety of different backgrounds are likely to be complex to set up and run, and (3) quality indicators that promote both formative and summative evaluation may be beneficial to both institutions and students

Automatically detecting Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis from endoscopic imaging

Background The SI-CURA project (Soluzioni Innovative per la gestione del paziente e il follow up terapeutico della Colite UlceRosA) is an Italian initiative aimed at the development of artificial intelligence solutions to discriminate pathologies of different nature, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), namely Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), based on endoscopic imaging of patients (P) and healthy controls (N). Methods In this study we develop a deep learning (DL) prototype to identify disease patterns through three binary classification tasks, namely (1) discriminating positive (pathological) samples from negative (healthy) samples (P vs N); (2) discrimination between Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease samples (UC vs CD) and, (3) discrimination between Ulcerative Colitis and negative (healthy) samples (UC vs N). Results The model derived from our approach achieves a high performance of Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) > 0.9 on the test set for P versus N and UC versus N, and MCC > 0.6 on the test set for UC versus CD. Conclusion Our DL model effectively discriminates between pathological and negative samples, as well as between IBD subgroups, providing further evidence of its potential as a decision support tool for endoscopy-based diagnosis

Influence of Antisynthetase Antibodies Specificities on Antisynthetase Syndrome Clinical Spectrum TimeCourse

Introduction: Increased cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality is observed in inflammatory joint diseases (IJDs) such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis. However, the management of CV disease in these conditions is far from being well established.Areas covered: This review summarizes the main epidemiologic, pathophysiological, and clinical risk factors of CV disease associated with IJDs. Less common aspects on early diagnosis and risk stratification of the CV disease in these conditions are also discussed. In Europe, the most commonly used risk algorithm in patients with IJDs is the modified SCORE index based on the revised recommendations proposed by the EULAR task force in 2017.Expert opinion: Early identification of IJD patients at high risk of CV disease is essential. It should include the use of complementary noninvasive imaging techniques. A multidisciplinary approach aimed to improve heart-healthy habits, including strict control of classic CV risk factors is crucial. Adequate management of the underlying IJD is also of main importance since the reduction of disease activity decreases the risk of CV events. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may have a lesser harmful effect in IJD than in the general population, due to their anti-inflammatory effects along with other potential beneficial effects.This research was partially funded by FOREUM—Foundation for Research in Rheumatolog