EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Osteomyelitis of the pelvic bones in patients with spinal cord injury: Is magnetic resonance useful for preoperative diagnosis?

Aim of the study: We report a prospective, observational, single-centre study on adult patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and pressure sores undergoing surgical debridement and reconstruction at Montecatone Rehabilitation Institute from July 2013 to January 2016. The aim is to assess usefulness of magnetic resonance (MR) in pre-operative diagnosis of osteomyelitis. Materials and methods: All the patients underwent preoperative MRI each MRI was evaluated independently by two radiologists and the exam was considered positive for osteomyelitis only when the two radiologists agreed on the diagnosis. All the surgical procedures consisted of a wide debridement of soft and bony tissues and reconstruction: bone specimens were collected and sent for culture and histopathological evaluation. Results of MRI and histopathology were compared. Results: 85 patients were included in the study. The two radiologists working independently agreed on the diagnosis of osteomyelitis in 96% of the cases. Pre-operative MRI was considered positive for osteomyelitis in 45 cases. According to histology, osteomyelitis was diagnosed in 40 patients. MRI findings and histology were concordant in 61% of cases; 19 false positive and 14 false negative cases were found. Sensitivity and specificity of MR in the diagnosis of osteomyelitis were 65% and 58% respectively, with a positive predictive value of 58% and a negative predictive value of 65%. Conclusion: In our cohort sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of MR for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis in patients with SCI and pressure ulcers are lower than previously described. Our findings suggest that MRI cannot be considered a reliable diagnostic technique for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis. We can conclude that MRI is not indispensable pre-operatively in SCI patients with pressure sores, and that all the patient should undergo a wide soft and bony tissues debridement as if they were all affected by osteomyelitis. Histological diagnosis is useful to decide the timing of antimicrobial therapy, that should be planned based on the results of the surgical specimen culture. Further studies are needed to investigate this topic

The present knowledge of mod F/sub pi / mod and the value of a low- energy (e/sup +/e/sup -/) storage ring

The present knowledge of the modulus of the pion electromagnetic form factor mod F/sub pi / mod in the spacelike and timelike regions is reviewed. The interest in studying the low-energy range of the e/sup + /e/sup -/ annihilation into pions is discussed as well as a possible storage ring. (11 refs)

Serological evidence of an early seroconversion to Simian Virus 40 in healthy children and adolescents

At present Simian virus 40 (SV40) infection in humans appears to be transmitted independently from early contaminated vaccines. In order to test the spread of SV40 infection in children, an immunologic assay employing specific SV40 synthetic peptides corresponding to its viral protein (VP) antigens was employed to estimate the seroprevalence of this polyomavirus in Italian infants and adolescents. Serum samples from 328 children and adolescents, up to 17 years, were investigated. Serum antibodies against SV40 VPs were detected by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The seroprevalence of this polyomavirus was calculated after stratifying the subjects by age. Anti-viral capsid protein 1-2-3 SV40 IgG antibodies were detected in 16% of the study participants. The prevalence of antibodies against SV40 VPs tended to increase with age in children, up to 10 years old (21%). Then, in the cohort of individuals aged 11-17 years, the prevalence decreased (16%). A higher prevalence rate (23%) of SV40 VP antibodies was detected in the cohorts of 1-3 years and 7-10 years old children, than in children and adolescents of the other age groups. This age corresponds to children starting nursery and primary school, respectively, in Italy. IgM antibodies against SV40 VP mimotopes were detected in 6-8 months-old children suggesting that SV40 seroconversion can occur early in life. SV40 VPs antibodies are present at low prevalence in Italian children (16%), suggesting that SV40 infection, although acquired early in life, probably through different routes, is not widespread. The low SV40 seroprevalence suggests that SV40 is less transmissible than other common polyomaviruses, such as BKV and JCV. Alternatively, our immunologic data could be due to another, as yet undiscovered, human polyomavirus closely related to SV40

The use of near infrared spectroscopy to predict faecal indigestible and digestible fibre fractions in lactating dairy cattle

The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of faecal near infrared spectroscopy (FNIRS) to predict undigested neutral detergent fibre at 240 h of fermentation (uNDF240) and other fibre fractions in lactating dairy cattle faeces. A total of 130 faecal samples (600 g) were collected directly from the rectum of dairy cows randomly selected across the lactating groups of 6 herds located in northern Italy and fed grass/alfalfa hay forage based total mixed ration. Reference values were matched with FNIRS spectra. Prediction equations were developed for each trait using external validation. Our results showed that the calculated uNDF240 (DM basis) to ADL ratio in faeces averaged 2.84, ranging from 1.58 to 4.10. The similar ratio of acid detergent fibre (ADF) and uNDF240 to NDF (66–67%) indicated that potentially digestible NDF in faeces is mainly represented by hemicelluloses, whereas uNDF240 is mainly composed of lignin and cellulose. The coefficient of determination of external validation (R2 V) of uNDF240 was 0.59 when expressed as percentage of DM and 0.36 when expressed as percentage of NDF, and the corresponding ratio performance deviation of external validation (RPD) values in validation were 1.52 and 1.26, respectively. Values of R2 V ranged from 0.54 to 0.63 for fibre fractions and RPD in validation ranged from 1.45 (ADL, % DM) to 1.68 (ADF, % DM). Despite the low accuracy of the prediction models, this study contributes to the knowledge of the FNIRS application to uNDF240 and other fibre fractions in faeces. Further investigations with different diet composition should be addressed

Serum antibodies, IgM and IgG class, reacting in indirect ELISA with SV40 VP mimotopes, from five pediatric subjects aged up to 8 months.

*<p>SV40-positive sera were those samples above the cut-off.</p><p>+SV40-positive sample.</p><p>−SV40-negative sample.</p><p>IgG cut-off value: Peptide B (0.135 OD), Peptide C (0.143 OD).</p><p>IgM cut-off value: Peptide B (0.130OD), Peptide C (0.125 OD).</p

Comparison of SV40 age-specific seroprevalence of antibodies.

<p>Comparison of SV40 age-specific seroprevalence of antibodies among 214 Italian children and adolescents, <1–17 year old (this study), Panel A; compared to 288 Swedish children aged between 1 and 13 year old <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0061182#pone.0061182-Lundstig1" target="_blank">[16]</a> Panel B; and compared to 629 U.S. children and adolescents aged between 1 and 18 year old <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0061182#pone.0061182-Kean1" target="_blank">[17]</a>, Panel C.</p