University students at work with mathematical machines to trace conics

This paper aims to investigate the way past experience with some tools to draw conics becomes part of the experience of designing a new drawer. In particular, it centres on the thinking processes of a group of university students who have the following task: to design a hyperbola drawer. The analysis is carried out using the perspectives of transfer of learning and instrumental approach, and focuses on utilization schemes and the interplay between scientific and technological aspects

Are mathematics students thinking as Kepler? Conics and mathematical machines

Our interest is the analysis of the thinking processes of some university students who worked on the design of a machine that uses a tightened thread to draw a hyperbola. Previously, the students worked with other machines for conics. We focus on the way past experience becomes part of a new experience, in which making of the machine is the end point of the task. This implies the presence of technological and scientific aspects, whose interplay is fundamental to shape thinking

Contributo allo studio della storia della Camera dei conti di Piemonte in et\ue0 moderna (1660-1700)

La tesi cerca di rispondere ad alcune questioni inerenti la funzione, la composizione sociale e il peso politico della Camera dei conti di Piemonte in et\ue0 moderna, concentrando le ricerche nella seconda met\ue0 del Seicento. Essa affronta lo studio dell\u2019amministrazione dei territori piemontesi costituenti gli Stati sabaudi: territori in cui vigevano pratiche differenti, che un\u2019istituzione come quella camerale puntava ad omologare. Attraverso la progettazione e la creazione di nuovi uffici, emerge lo straordinario sforzo che il governo stava tentando di compiere per creare una classe dirigente pi\uf9 fedele alla dinastia e un popolo meno insofferente ai provvedimenti ducali. La provenienza sociale dei suoi membri \ue8 quanto di pi\uf9 variegato uno storico possa immaginare: nobili di antico lignaggio e di recentissimo, mercanti, banchieri, arricchiti, favoriti del sovrano repentinamente caduti in disgrazia. Dopo lo stato dell\u2019arte, trova spazio un capitolo dedicato alla storia della Camera dei conti e del suo importante archivio. La storia della Camera sabauda \ue8 ripercorsa dalle origini alla fine dell\u2019Antico Regime, e termina con la proclamazione del Regno d\u2019Italia e con l\u2019istituzione della Corte dei conti. L\u2019unico storico dell\u2019et\ue0 moderna che si \ue8 occupato della Camera dei conti, limitatamente a quella di Savoia, \ue8 stato il mastro auditore savoiardo Fran\ue7ois Capr\ue9, che pubblic\uf2 la storia ad essa dedicata nel 1662. Il solo piemontese che si ciment\uf2 in una simile impresa, per quanto riguarda la Camera torinese, non complet\uf2 mai la sua opera, che ci \ue8 giunta sotto forma di brogliaccio e in appendice di questo studio se ne riporta un\u2019edizione critica con apparato filologico

Reply to: Comments on “Goals and gaps: educational careers of immigrant children”

WE THANK MELISSA DELL, REBECCA DIAMOND, AND LAURA GIULIANO for their insightful comments. For the sake of exposition, we summarize such comments into three main questions. First, which are the reasons for the educational choices of immigrant students? Second, what is the role of teachers? Third, what are the long-run effects of the intervention and its spillovers to non-treated students? We next discuss each issue in turn

The "state of teh art" of Art Therapy in psychiatry: reflections on international evidences and italian experiences

The complex and reciprocal dialectic between art and psychiatry has represented the object of investigation of many researchers for many years in last century, although a specific role of art-therapy in psychiatric. The art-therapies are currently conceptualized as forms of psychotherapy employing artistic media (painting, dance, theatre, music etc.) as a expressive and receptive communication modalities. In Italy, along the XX century there has been a growing diffusion of art-therapies as rehabilitation techniques in several settings. The currently available empirical evidence suggests a relevant role for art-therapies in psychiatry, especially for psychotics patients with negative symptoms, and depression. This brief summary has not set as its objective a critical re-evaluation of all the studies present in the literature on Art Therapy, a task left to the experts of the meta-analyses and reviews, but wants to be a reflection on some limits of the current studies. Final point is on the Italian reality: despite the evidence and the ten-year tradition on Art Therapies in Italy, they have a fairly wide spread in the rehabilitation services of the Mental Health Departments and Art Therapy is still confused as "socialization" or as techniques of which little is known about the effect. This confusion refers to the need for training on the subject to be constant for psychiatric service operators and for scientific researchers to produce evidence that can be used to finalize its use in a personalized way with a view to an increasingly modern precision medicin

Test and optimization of a multi-modal phase-based x-ray microscope for soft tissue imaging

Tissue imaging is a pivotal component of both biomedical research and clinical practice. In order to identify tissue structures down to the cellular level, it requires the capability to image mm-size unstained tissue specimens with micron to sub-micron resolution. Tissue imaging is normally performed either using x-rays or visible light. While the latter is limited by light scattering in relatively thick tissues, the former often suffers from poor contrast in absorption-based systems. Phase-contrast x-ray microscopes exist but they often lack the required quantitativeness, entail acquisition times of the order of tens of hours for 3-D imaging and are limited to narrow fields of view. We propose a novel multi-modal phase-based x-ray microscope capable of imaging mm-thick tissue samples on a mm-size field of view using intensity-modulation masks. They act as optical elements allowing the quantitative retrieval of tissue properties such as transmission, refraction and scattering. Additionally, given that the system’s spatial resolution depends only on the mask aperture size, a multi-resolution approach is possible by selecting masks with aperture size matching the resolution requirements (micron and sub-micron) of specific samples. The design and optimization of the x-ray microscope is presented in this paper together with exemplar images of a thin foam sample resulting from the retrieval of the three contrast channels. The final paper will include details of the system parameter optimization (e.g., propagation distance, mask aperture and period), their effect on the retrieval algorithm and imaging performance as well as the first images of biological samples

Tryptophan-derived Catabolites Are Responsible for Inhibition of T and Natural Killer Cell Proliferation Induced by Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase

Macrophages exposed to macrophage colony-stimulating factor acquire the capacity to suppress T cell proliferation; this effect is associated with de novo expression of the tryptophan-catabolizing enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). We have purified IDO and tested its activity in in vitro models of T cell activation. IDO was able to inhibit proliferation of CD4+ T lymphocytes, CD8+ T lymphocytes, and natural killer (NK) cells; proliferation of B lymphocytes was not affected. The inhibitory role of tryptophan and of its catabolites was then tested. In the presence of tryptophan, only l-kynurenine and picolinic acid inhibit cell proliferation. In a tryptophan-free medium cell proliferation was not affected. In the absence of tryptophan inhibition induced by l-kynurenine and picolinic acid was observed at concentrations below the lowest concentration that was effective in the presence of tryptophan, and quinolinic acid acquired some inhibitory capacity. Inhibition of cell proliferation induced by the tryptophan catabolites resulting from IDO activity was selective, applying only to cells undergoing activation. Resting cells were not affected and could subsequently activate normally. We suggest that IDO exerts its effect on cell proliferation by (i) starting the cascade of biochemical reactions that produce the three catabolites and by (ii) enhancing their inhibitory potential by depriving the extracellular microenvironment of tryptophan

Underhand ball-throwing test assessing eye-hand coordination in 6-11yr children

Ball-throwing is a basic open skill common to several physical activities and sports. It is strictly related to eye-hand coordination, a neuromuscular ability affecting many expressions of human movement, including daily living activities (Houwen et al., 2008). The accuracy of underhand ball-throwing task was studied in 538 girls and 583 boys aged 6-11yr, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Within range of age, the ages of boys and girls did not differ (ANOVA, p>0.05). Using the dominant hand, each participant performed 2 consecutive sequences of 5 repetitions of a standardized underhand ball-throwing test (UBT). It consisted in underhand throwing a tennis ball into the floor area delimited by a 80cm diameter wooden hoop, lying on the floor 9m apart the standing child (Grassi et al., 2006). Within subject, the centered targets of each sequence were scored. Descriptive statistics of UBT were computed within sequence, age, and sex group. The effects of age and sex, and sex × age interaction on UBT scores were compared by ANOVA (statistical significance 5%). UBT scores significantly increased with age (p=0.003). Boys obtained larger UBT scores than those obtained by the girls of the same age (p=0.002). The age-related differences of UBT scores were similar in boys and girls (p>0.05). On average, UBT scores recorded in the second sequence were larger than those of the first sequence. Differences were significant in boys, and increased with age (p<0.01 for all comparisons). The effects of age was similar in boys and girls (p>0.05). UBT could be used in both sport activities and rehabilitation to quantify either the level of motor learning and training or the effects of physiotherapy treatments

Learning from the past to improve the future-vaccine hesitancy determinants in the italian population: a systematic review

: WHO identifies vaccine hesitancy (VH) as one of the ten threats to global health. The authors bring to the international scientific community an Italian episode that offers the opportunity to renew the discussion on the extent of the VH matter. The purpose of this systematic review is to analyze the factors determining vaccine hesitancy in the Italian population, to understand its roots, and suggest potential strategies to mitigate it. A systematic review of the literature according to the PRISMA guidelines was carried out using the SCOPUS and Medline (via PubMed) databases, using the following strategy: (COVID-19 vaccines) AND (vaccination hesitancy) AND (Italy). After the selection process, 36 articles were included in this systematic review. The most frequently detected factors associated with VH in the Italian population can be grouped as vaccine-related factors, socio-cultural factors, and demographic factors. Currently, we are facing a gap between the population and science, governments, and institutions. To heal this breach, it is necessary to strengthen the trust of the population through the implementation of health communication and public education strategies, while scientific literacy must continue to support families and individuals in discerning evidence from opinions to recognize the real risks and balance them with the benefits