Teaching Materials and CLIL Teaching

The Reform of the Italian school system that came into effect in 2012 introduced CLIL into the upper secondary school curricula. As a result, it has created ad-hoc teacher education programmes for subject teachers to learn to teach their subject in a foreign language using CLIL methodology. This revolutionary step has involved the University Language Centres in the teacher education and it has generated the publication of a large quantity of teaching material (TM) for all school subjects, as well as academic research in this field. It is relevant both for the teacher trainer and for the subject teacher to develop a critical perspective of the TM available. Thus, this article aims to examine the published TM currently available on the market from a methodological viewpoint. The material analysed and the methodology applied here were used in teacher education programmes for future CLIL teachers in which the author of this paper was involved as a teacher trainer of the University of Cagliari Language Centre. Certain critical aspects of language learning, such as comprehensible input and adherence to the 4Cs (communication cognition, content, and culture) of the CLIL methodology framework were carefully considered in the study

'We are a global community': communicating knowledge through MOOCs and teacher training platforms

A socio-rhetorical discourse community consists of a group of people who come together to pursue objectives that predate those of socialization and solidarity, and who aim to develop and maintain their own discoursal characteristics. We have examined MOOCs (Massive Open Online courses) and teacher training educational platforms in order to ascertain whether and to what extent they may be identified as networked learning tools and discourse communities characterized by a commonality of goals, mechanisms and procedures of intercommunication, exchange of knowledge, information, as well as specialized genres and their terminology. MOOCs and learning platforms have dramatically changed the way people learn. Starting from ongoing research, we analyze the metadiscoursal features of an ad hoc corpus of online filmed lectures drawn from two MOOC providers (FutureLearn and Coursera). We look at both interactive and interactional resources (to guide the listener through the texts and to involve the listener in the subject), in order to discover how these features are used to control, evaluate and negotiate the communicative goals and impact of the ongoing exchanges. The quantitative and qualitative analysis shows a significant use of metadiscourse markers in the video lectures with a higher frequency of interactional features such as self-mentions, engagement markers, hedges and boosters, rather than interactive ones. These commentaries in the lectures signal the instructors’ attitudes towards the texts and their listeners. Additionally, they were found to perform a rhetorical function since they persuasively reinforce the instructors’ attitude and stance. Thus, their use engages the participants as members of a digital community, where commitment, dedication, and common goals seem to be fundamental features

Netlore, Memes and the Pandemic: Adjusting Virtually to the New Normal

Abstract Starting from the assumption that “(t)he worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has monopolised news reports and public discussion in traditional media and on social media” (Dynel 2020, 2), this paper explores the relevance memes have had in the COVID-19 emergency (Giordano and Marongiu 2021a; 2021b). Memes represent the vernacular discourse of netizens, or user-created derivatives produced by Internet users belonging to the participatory culture (Shifman 2014), otherwise deemed as netlore (Sánchez 2019), a kind of folklore comprising humorous texts and art. Internet memes, as a virus, have a high power of replication (Wiggings 2019). This work looks at how virtual platforms became the space for social participation on the pandemic debate. In particular, proand anti-vaccine memes were a way to cope with the stressful times throughout the period 2020-2021. A corpus of static online memes in English is investigated to ascertain how the treatment of the disease and the vaccine issue are framed figuratively, both verbally and visually, through the use of metaphors, similes, intertextuality, and other rhetorical features. Memes are considered as examples of Netlore, or digital contemporary folklore aimed at adapting to life in the new normal

Neuronal and peripheral damages induced by synthetic psychoactive substances: an update of recent findings from human and animal studies

Preclinical and clinical studies indicate that synthetic psychoactive substances, in addition to having abuse potential, may elicit toxic effects of varying severity at the peripheral and central levels. Nowadays, toxicity induced by synthetic psychoactive substances poses a serious harm for health, since recreational use of these substances is on the rise among young and adult people. The present review summarizes recent findings on the peripheral and central toxicity elicited by "old" and "new" synthetic psychoactive substances in humans and experimental animals, focusing on amphetamine derivatives, hallucinogen and dissociative drugs and synthetic cannabinoids

ShowTel: a solar alarm system and real-time monitoring tool for the INAF radio telescopes

This technical note describes the open-source Python package ShowTel and guides the user/observer to use this tool properly. ShowTel – successfully tested – is aimed at the real-time monitoring of the operations of a radio telescope during an observing session, such as (1) the status of the antenna control system, (2) general information about the observing session, (3) the angular distance between the Sun (and the Moon) and the radio telescope pointing, (4) the sky position of the Sun, Moon and the astrophysical object under observation, and (5) the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) of the sky region pointed by the radio telescope, at the running observing frequency. ShowTel appears as an interactive widget that compactly and smartly shows in real-time all this information to the observer, to (1) mitigate unpleasant inconveniences during observation campaigns, and (2) check the proper working of the radio telescope. These inconveniences are reported to the observer thanks to an efficient alarm system, whose sound is audible also when the observer is temporarily far away from the control room of the radio telescope. This Python package is designed for the observing operations of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), but it can be easily suitable – with a specific tuning – also for other radio telescopes of the INAF Network (such as the Medicina "Gavril Grueff" Radio Telescope and the Noto Radio Telescope) in the near future. ShowTel represents a crucial tool to complete – and not to replace – the Sun avoidance system soon available in the DISCOS control system of the INAF radio telescopes, to automatically prevent the direct pointing of the antenna in the Sun (or in its proximity) during no-solar observation sessions. ShowTel will be enhanced through the upgrading of SRT with the new cryogenically cooled receivers, operating in the frequency range 33 – 116 GHz, in the context of the National Operative Programme (Programma Operativo Nazionale-PON); this project will provide in the near future an upgrading with the new receivers up to 116 GHz also for the Grueff and Noto Radio Telescopes, to provide the scientific community with the instrumentation suited to the study of the Universe at high radio frequencies

Bioarchaeological analysis of Castelsardo’s Mummies

In the early months of 2011, during the restoration of Sant’Antonio Abate’s Cathedral in Castelsardo came to light environments remained hidden so far, which aroused considerable interest both for the archaeological and anthropological point of view for the discovery of a cemetery crypt with numerous human remains dating from the eighteenth to nineteenth century. Archaeological investigations took place at different times and in different ways during the months of January to April of 2011, which allowed to detect a burial site, with a great number of individuals organized in several layers piled up at the bottom of the crypt, and to define some stages in the building of the church, mainly in its monumental transition from Romanesque structure to new cathedral seat of the diocese. Eighteen individuals of both sexes, were finally identified at different levels, including 16 partially mummified and 2 almost entirelly mummified deposited on a sort of open plank, that, from the archeological point of view, represented the crypt closing point. The found remains were studied in order to obtain interesting bioarchaeological information determining some peculiar characteristics regarding the medical and the scientific aspects, more precisely age of death, sex, stature in life, pathological conditions, and to evaluate the state of conservation of mummified tissues, describing the morphological characteristics by histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural techniques

Transcriptome organization of white blood cells through gene co-expression network analysis in a large RNA-seq dataset

Gene co-expression network analysis enables identification of biologically meaningful clusters of co-regulated genes (modules) in an unsupervised manner. We present here the largest study conducted thus far of co-expression networks in white blood cells (WBC) based on RNA-seq data from 624 individuals. We identify 41 modules, 13 of them related to specific immune-related functions and cell types (e.g. neutrophils, B and T cells, NK cells, and plasmacytoid dendritic cells); we highlight biologically relevant lncRNAs for each annotated module of co-expressed genes. We further characterize with unprecedented resolution the modules in T cell sub-types, through the availability of 95 immune phenotypes obtained by flow cytometry in the same individuals. This study provides novel insights into the transcriptional architecture of human leukocytes, showing how network analysis can advance our understanding of coding and non-coding gene interactions in immune system cells

Solar radiation effects on the Sardinia Radio Telescope performances

The Sardinia Radio Telescope, a 64-metre diameter fully steerable radio telescope operated by INAF, will be upgraded in order to extend its current operating frequency range 0.3-26.5 GHz up to 116 GHz, thanks to a National Operational Program (PON) funding assigned to INAF by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. The PON project is organized in nine Work Packages, one of which is dedicated to the accomplishment of a sophisticated metrology system designed to monitor the cause of the pointing errors and the reflector surface deformations. The entire antenna structure will therefore be equipped with a network of sensors, like thermal sensors, inclinometers, accelerometers, collimators, anemometers, strain gauges and others, to study environmental stresses and how they affect the SRT performances. This work is devoted to the investigation of the thermal stress effects produced by solar radiation. In particular, two analyses are carried out to confirm the relevance of a thorough temperature monitoring system, both conducted using Finite Element Analysis. First, a possible approach for the simulation of realistic thermal scenarios due to insolation is proposed and the effects on the pointing accuracy are analysed. Second, a feasible method to study the impacts that a differential heating of the Back Up Structure (BUS) produces on the radio telescope main reflector surface is presented. Finally, these effects are analysed as optical aberrations and modelled in terms of Zernike polynomials

The high-frequency upgrade of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

We present the status of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) and its forthcoming update planned in the next few years. The post-process scenario of the upgraded infrastructure will allow the national and international scientific community to use the SRT for the study of the Universe at high radio frequencies (up to 116 GHz), both in single dish and in interferometric mode. A telescope like SRT, operating at high frequencies, represents a unique resource for the scientific community. The telescope will be ideal for mapping quickly and with relatively high angular resolution extended radio emissions characterized by low surface brightness. It will also be essential for spectroscopic and polarimetric studies of both Galactic and extragalactic radio sources. With the use of the interferometric technique, SRT and the other Italian antennas (Medicina and Noto) will operate within the national and international radiotelescope network, allowing astronomers to obtain images of radio sources at very high angular resolution

Status of the High-Frequency Upgrade of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Sardinia Radio Telescope is going through a major upgrade aimed at observing the universe at up to 116 GHz. A budget of 18.700.000 E has been awarded to the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics to acquire new state-of-the-art receivers, back-end, and high-performance computing, to develop a sophisticated metrology system and to upgrade the infrastructure and laboratories. This contribution draws the status of the whole project at eight months from the end of the funding scheme planned for August 2022