The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Rotated canonical correlation analysis for multilingual corpora

This paper aims at proposing the joint use of Canonical Correlation Analysis and Procrustes Rotations (RCA), when we deal with a text and its translation into another language. The basic idea is representing words in the two different natural languages on a common reference space. The main characteristic of this space is to be lan-guage independent, although Procrustes Rotation is performed transforming the lexical table derived from trans-lation by minimizing its distance from the lexical table belonging to the original corpus, while the subsequent Canonical Correlation Analysis treats symmetrically the two word sets. The most interesting RCA feature is building a unique reference space for representing the correlation structure in the data, inducing the two systems of canonical factors to lie on the same space. These graphical representations enables us to read distances be-tween corresponding points in terms of different way of translating the same word in relation with the general context defined by the canonical variates. Trying to understand the distances between matched points could rep-resent an useful tool for enriching lexical resources in a translation procedure. In this paper we propose the com-parison of the most frequent content bearing words in the two languages, analyzing one year (2003) of Le Monde Diplomatique and its Italian edition

Assessing Emerging ICT-enabled Governance Models in European Cities: Results from a Mapping Survey

The paper presents the preliminary results of an exploratory survey conducted by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission. The main goal of the research is to deepen the understanding of the interplay between ICTs and governance processes at city level in the EU by looking at what new ICTenabled governance models are emerging in European cities and what are their key socio-economic implications. In this preliminary phase efforts have been directed towards addressing the following research question: what key city governance policy areas ICTs impact most and what governance changes are driven by ICTs? This questions have been investigated through a questionnaire based online survey. The evidence collected provided a comprehensive mapping of the use of ICTs in European cities as well as the views of policy makers, city government officials, practitioners and researchers, on the way ICTs are influencing governance processes. The evidence collected shows that new ICT-enabled governance models are emerging, and it allowed to identify the main dimensions of change, drivers, barriers, enablers and characteristics, as well as opportunities, risks and challenges associated with them.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ

The Ideal Candidate. Analysis of Professional Competences through Text Mining of Job Offers

The aim of this paper is to propose analytical tools for identifying peculiar aspects of job market for graduates. We propose a strategy for dealing with daa tat have different source and nature

Single setting 3D MRI-US guided frozen section and focal cryoablation of the index lesion in low/intermediate risk prostate cancer

Objectives: To explore the reliability of frozen sections to diagnose prostate cancer (PCa) and to describe surgical steps of a 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)– ultrasound (US)-guided prostate biopsy (PB) and focal cryoablation of the index lesion in a single setting procedure. Patients and Methods: Patients with suspicious PCa, based on prostatic specific antigen (PSA) value and on a PIRADS 4 or 5 single lesion, as well as the steadfastness of avoiding any kind of radical treatment, were considered for enrolment. IRB and written informed consent were obtained from the patients. The entire procedure was performed transperineally, in two consecutive surgical phases: 3D MRI–US-guided plus systematic template PB and real-time TRUS-guided focal cryoablation. Three cores were taken from the index lesion (one for frozen section and two for final pathology), three cores from the surrounding area and systematic sampling was performed for the rest of the gland. Focal cryoablation of the index lesion was performed once confirmation of PCa was obtained by means of frozen sections. Follow-up schedule included PSA test at 3-mo interval, MRI 3-mo and 1-yr postoperatively and prostate biopsy of the treated area at 1-yr. 31 Results: This report includes 14 patients with a minimum follow up time of 12 months. All patients were potent before treatment, complained no severe low urinary tract symptoms and denied consent to any radical treatment. PCa diagnosis was histologically confirmed in all patients by frozen sections. All other cores were negative. At final histology, there was a Gleason score upgrade in three patients, from 3+3 to 3+4. The postoperative course was uneventful and all patients were discharged on the first postoperative day. Mean PSA value decreased from 6.37 (baseline) to 0.83 ng/mL at 3-mo evaluation. Three-mo postoperative MRI images showed complete ablation of the index lesion in all patients. Urinary continence and erectile function were preserved in all patients, without clinically meaningful changes at EPIC questionnaire. At one-yr follow-up, eleven patients showed no signs of persistent or recurrent disease at MRI imaging and treated area biopsies; three patients had a suspicious area at MRI and they needed treatment for confirmed disease at biopsy. Conclusion: Single setting 3D MRI–US-guided frozen section and focal cryoablation of the index lesion could represent a step forward towards a “patient-tailored” minimally invasive approach to diagnosis and cure of low and intermediate risk PCa

Human-centered Electric Prosthetic (HELP) Hand

Through a partnership with Indian non-profit Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti, we designed a functional, robust, and and low cost electrically powered prosthetic hand that communicates with unilateral, transradial, urban Indian amputees through a biointerface. The device uses compliant tendon actuation, a small linear servo, and a wearable garment outfitted with flex sensors to produce a device that, once placed inside a prosthetic glove, is anthropomorphic in both look and feel. The prosthesis was developed such that future groups can design for manufacturing and distribution in India

Valutazione angiografica della perfusione miocardica mediante myocardial blush in soggetti con coronarie indenni e confronto con valutazione funzionale mediante Coronary Flow Reserve.

Il blush (Myocardial Blush Grade, MBG) è una semplice misura angiografica della perfusione miocardica a livello capillare. E’ stato finora utilizzato per valutare il grado di integrità del microcircolo dopo angioplastica primaria nello STEMI e, molto recentemente, nelle sindromi coronariche acute senza sopraslivellamento del tratto ST. Non esistono evidenze in letteratura della utilità del blush nel valutare la perfusione miocardica in pazienti con coronarie indenni da stenosi epicardiche critiche. La valutazione del blush sarà effettuata, in pazienti con coronarie indenni, sia mediante visualizzazione soggettiva da parte degli operatori, sia mediante analisi oggettiva con software “QuBE” (J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2010;56;B88), ritenendo valida quest’ultima analisi oggettiva ai fini dello studio. Sarà quindi possibile, tra l’altro, verificare la eventuale differenza tra analisi soggettiva del blush e calcolo del blush mediante software validato. Le cineangiografie registrate per il blush saranno ottenute in RAO cranializzata, iniettando in coronaria sinistra, a ingrandimento 17. A questo punto, dopo eventuale ulteriore bolo di eparina 40-60UI/kg in base ad ACT, si effettuerà l’analisi della CFVR mediante flow wire posizionata nell’IVA, e successivamente nella circonflessa, dopo bolo i.c. di adenosina (90-120 mcg), in modo da poter confrontare il metodo angiografico di valutazione della perfusione del microcircolo con il gold standard funzionale per lo studio della riserva coronarica. Scopo principale dello studio non è di proporre interpretazioni fisiopatologiche, ma di valutare se il blush può essere adottato come metodo semplice e virtualmente privo di rischi (e di costi) rispetto alla misura della riserva coronarica mediante guida di flusso in pazienti con coronarie indenni

Envisioning Digital Europe 2030: Scenarios for ICT in Future Governance and Policy Modelling

This foresight exercise was conducted as part of the CROSSROAD Project – A Participative Roadmap for ICT Research on Electronic Governance and Policy Modelling, a FP7 Support Action that aimed to provide strategic direction, define a shared vision, and inspire collaborative, interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder research in the domain. This research set out to help policy makers implement the Digital Agenda for Europe, the flagship initiative of the EU 2020 strategy launched to increase EU growth and competitiveness in the fast-evolving global landscape and address the grand challenges our world is confronted with today.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Renouveler la gouvernance à l’ère du numérique

Le présent article dresse un survol de l’évolution de la gouvernance électronique au cours de la dernière décennie, en examinant l’état actuel des stratégies de gouvernement électronique et en posant un regard particulier sur l’évolution du domaine en Europe. Il propose un cadre d’interprétation permettant d’évaluer les valeurs publiques qui servent de fondement à la construction virtuelle des systèmes de gouvernement électronique et établit des fondations tournées vers l’avenir en abordant la question de l’emploi de la gouvernance électronique dans le champ de l’élaboration des politiques, c’est-à-dire la relation entre, d’une part, l’emploi de systèmes de gouvernement électronique afin de favoriser une administration participative basée sur des données probantes et, d’autre part, les processus organisationnels et sociaux qui s’y rattachent. Un aperçu sur les défis politiques que l’avenir pourrait réserver aux gouvernements électroniques et sur les directions que pourrait prendre la recherche dans le domaine clôt l’article. This article presents an overview of the evolution of digital governance in the last decade, with a special emphasis on the current state of e-Government strategies in Europe. To that end, it proposes an interpretative framework for assessing the public values underpinning the abstract construct of ICT-enabled governance. It also creates a basis for future discussion in the emerging field of ICTs for governance and policy modelling, an umbrella term indicating the interplay between collaborative ICTs implemented for the purpose of achieving participative, evidence-based governance and performing the related organizational and social processes. The article concludes by outlining policy challenges and research directions for the future of e-Governance.JRC.J.3-Information Societ