Compensazione Geodetica della rete siciliana UNIPA-NetGeo

Come è noto un servizio di posizionamento GNSS materializza un sistema di riferimento e distribuisce all’utenza che opera nel settore geodetico dati, prodotti e stime delle coordinate nel medesimo sistema. Per questo motivo si rende necessaria un accurata e continua stima delle coordinate, delle stazioni permanenti che compongono la rete, effettuata attraverso opportuni processi di compensazione. A tal proposito, considerato il notevole incremento delle stazioni permanenti presenti nel territorio Italiano, l’inquadramento geodetico delle reti regionali dovrebbe essere effettuato nel sistema di riferimento globale, per non incorrere nelle notevoli differenze di coordinate stimate tra le reti contigue gestite da Enti diversi. Il presente lavoro si colloca nel contesto della compensazione geodetica di una rete di stazioni permanenti regionale e il conseguente inquadramento nell’attuale sistema di riferimento globale. La rete studio è costituita da 19 stazioni permanenti materializzate nel territorio della Regione Sicilia con l’aggiunta di 3 stazioni permanenti appartenenti alla rete IGS (International GNSS Service), materializzate a Cagliari, Matera e Noto, utilizzate per l’inquadramento geodetico. In particolare, le stazioni permanenti utilizzate, appartengono alla rete Nazionale NetGEO in Sicilia della Geotop s.r.l. di Ancona e nove di queste appartengono alla rete dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo. I dati utilizzati per l’analisi e le relative procedure di elaborazione dipendono dal software utilizzato e la costruzione del grafo di rete è stata condizionata sia dai dati registrati dalle stazioni permanenti attive nel periodo considerato per l'elaborazione, sia dalle caratteristiche e metodologie di elaborazione inerenti al software

Individual Differences in Phonological Feedback Effects: Evidence for the Orthographic Recoding Hypothesis of Orthographic Learning

Share (1995) has proposed phonological recoding (the translation of letters into sounds) as a self-teaching mechanism through which readers establish complete lexical representations. More recently, McKague et al. (2008) proposed a similar role for orthographic recoding, i.e., feedback from sounds to letters, in building and refining lexical representations. We reasoned that an interaction between feedback consistency measures and spelling ability in a spelling decision experiment would lend support to this hypothesis. In a linear mixed effects logistic regression of accuracy data this interaction was significant. Better spellers but not poorer spellers were immune to feedback effects in deciding if a word is spelled correctly, which is consistent with McKague et al.’s prediction that the impact of phonological feedback on word recognition will diminish when the orthographic representation for an item is fully specified. The study demonstrates the importance of considering individual differences when investigating the role of phonology in reading

Lexical Stress and Linguistic Predictability Influence Proofreading Behavior

There is extensive evidence that the segmental (i.e., phonemic) layer of phonology is routinely activated during reading, but little is known about whether phonological activation extends beyond phonemes to subsegmental layers (which include articulatory information, such as voicing) and suprasegmental layers (which include prosodic information, such as lexical stress). In three proofreading experiments, we show that spelling errors are detected more reliably in syllables that are stressed than in syllables that are unstressed if comprehension is a goal of the reader, indicating that suprasegmental phonology is both active during silent reading and can influence orthographic processes. In Experiment 1, participants received instructions to read for both errors and comprehension, and we found that the effect of lexical stress interacted with linguistic predictability, such that detection of errors in more predictable words was aided by stress but detection of errors in less predictable words was not. This finding suggests that lexical stress patterns can be accessed prelexically if an upcoming word is sufficiently predictable from context. Participants with stronger vocabularies showed decreased effects of stress on task performance, which is consistent with previous findings that more skilled readers are less swayed by phonological information in decisions about orthographic form. In two subsequent experiments, participants were instructed to read only for errors (Experiment 2) or only for comprehension (Experiment 3); the effect of stress disappeared when participants read for errors and reappeared when participants read for comprehension, reconfirming our hypothesis that predictability is a driver of lexical stress effects. In all experiments, errors were detected more reliably in words that were difficult to predict from context than in words that were highly predictable. Taken together, this series of experiments contributes two important findings to the field of reading and cognition: (1) The prosodic property of lexical stress can influence orthographic processing, and (2) Predictability inhibits the detection of errors in written language processing.NICHD grant R01HD058566-02 Author fees paid for by the Northern Illinois University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fun

Universal reading processes are modulated by language and writing system

The connections among language, writing system, and reading are part of what confronts a child in learning to read. We examine these connections in addressing how reading processes adapt to the variety of written language and how writing adapts to language. The first adaptation (reading to writing), as evidenced in behavioral and neuroscience data, is achieved through a universal constraint that language places on writing and through the tuning of reading procedures imposed by specific features of writing systems. Children acquire skill in reading through increasing specialization of procedures tuned to their writing system, while also acquiring more general (universal) procedures that serve language mapping and cognitive control. For the second adaption (writing to language), we present examples from several languages to suggest that writing systems tend to fit their linguistic properties, thus providing adaptive variation in writing-to-language mapping. We suggest that this writing-language fit facilitates the child’s learning how his or her writing system works

Monitoraggio della diga “Castello” di Bivona (AG) con tecniche GNSS

Le dighe di grandi dimensioni, di terra o di cemento, sono infrastrutture che rivestono un ruolo critico nella fornitura idrica e nella produzione energetica. Come è noto in letteratura, il carico e lo scarico delle forze sottopone la diga a elevate sollecitazioni strutturali che devono essere monitorate. Queste possono essere dovute alle fluttuazioni del livello dell'acqua, all'assestamento della struttura, all'attività di frane situate nelle vicinanze o all'attività sismica. Rilevare preventivamente i potenziali problemi consente di adottare le misure necessarie per evitare che si verifichi una catastrofe, o mitigarne gli effetti. Il lavoro proposto è in corso di svolgimento presso il Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale Aerospaziale, dei Materiali (DICAM) dell'Università degli Studi di Palermo e ha come scopo il monitoraggio della Diga “Castello”, sbarramento di materiali sciolti situato tra i comuni di Bivona e Alessandria della Rocca in provincia di Agrigento, mediante il posizionamento sul coronamento di tre ricevitori GNSS. Le antenne sono state monumentate su appositi pilastrini in acciaio fissati al suolo mediante piccola fondazione in cls; il rate impostato ai ricevitori è stato di 30 sec., l'angolo di cut-off di 10°. La campagna di rilevamento è in corso e ad oggi sono stati archiviati 12 mesi di dati con cadenza settimanale. Verificata la buona qualità dei dati a disposizione si è proceduto con l'elaborazione degli stessi mediante i software NDA Professional e Bernese GPS 5.0

Error-related negativities during spelling judgments expose orthographic knowledge

In two experiments, we demonstrate that error-related negativities (ERNs) recorded during spelling decisions can expose individual differences in lexical knowledge. The first experiment found that the ERN was elicited during spelling decisions and that its magnitude was correlated with independent measures of subjects’ spelling knowledge. In the second experiment, we manipulated the phonology of misspelled stimuli and observed that ERN magnitudes were larger when misspelled words altered the phonology of their correctly spelled counterparts than when they preserved it. Thus, when an error is made in a decision about spelling, the brain processes indexed by the ERN reflect both phonological and orthographic input to the decision process. In both experiments, ERN effect sizes were correlated with assessments of lexical knowledge and reading, including offline spelling ability and spelling-mediated vocabulary knowledge. These results affirm the interdependent nature of orthographic, semantic, and phonological knowledge components while showing that spelling knowledge uniquely influences the ERN during spelling decisions. Finally, the study demonstrates the value of ERNs in exposing individual differences in lexical knowledge

Writing quality predicts Chinese learning

To examine the importance of manual character writing to reading in a new writing system, 48 adult Chinese-as-a-foreign-language students were taught characters in either a character writing-to-read or an alphabet typing-to-read condition, and engaged in corresponding handwriting or typing training for five consecutive days. Prior knowledge of orthography and phonology was assessed before training. At the end of each training day, improved orthographic quality was assessed via increased skill in producing Chinese characters at both the component and global levels. In addition, pretests and posttests were administered at each training day, and the proportional changes were used as the measure of learning gains. Outcomes replicated earlier findings of improved phonological knowledge following pinyin-typing practice and improved semantic knowledge following handwriting practice. Improvement in handwriting quality played a significant role in predicting reading gains after controlling for prior knowledge