Nuevas pantallas para la televisión pública argentina

Las nuevas pantallas como espacios donde es posible la circulación de material audiovisual son plataformas con un creciente consumo. De ello que los medios de comunicación tradicionales como la televisión se valgan de estos espacios para dar la posibilidad de ver o volver a ver materiales realizados para la televisión, como también para acrecentar su visibilidad y compartir otras informaciones. Entre las nuevas pantallas encontramos, de algún modo, a la propia televisión digital, que se posiciona como una nueva vieja pantalla. Las posibilidades de multiplicación y de interactividad la ubican en la línea de los nuevos medios aunque capitalizando los valores del viejo medio, como la proximidad en los hogares y una educación de la mirada casi generalizada en la población por penetración, tradición y costumbre. El estadio actual de los medios públicos audiovisuales y su presencia en nuevas pantallas tiene anclajes fácticos en decisiones estatales de trascendencia política, social y cultural. Es por eso que, a modo de partida, consideramos ineludible hacer referencia al contexto político-comunicacional. De ello que proponemos repasar medidas como la Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual, la implementación de la Televisión Digital, y adopción de la norma y los planes de fomento a la producción audiovisual. Este trabajo explora y se presenta como una categorización de la presencia de los medios públicos en nuevas pantallas como páginas Web y redes sociales virtuales -Facebook, Twitter, YouTube y Flick. En este recorrido no subrayamos la cantidad de seguidores, amigos o visualizaciones de los espacios y videos ya que no es nuestro interés evidenciar popularidad o “rating”. Asimismo, no es un dato fiable ya que los canales públicos van apareciendo a lo largo de los últimos años y los de más reciente lanzamiento cuentan con menos popularidad en la Web, dada su novedad. Por ello, los números de seguidores, amigos o visualizaciones, cambiantes de modo vertiginoso en la Web, no representaría un índice o un dato necesario y valorado para los fines de este artículo.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

Italian natural history museums on the verge of collapse?

The Italian natural history museums are facing a critical situation, due to the progressive loss of scientific relevance, decreasing economic investments, and scarcity of personnel. This is extremely alarming, especially for ensuring the long-term preservation of the precious collections they host. Moreover, a commitment in fieldwork to increase scientific collections and concurrent taxonomic research are rarely considered priorities, while most of the activities are addressed to public events with political payoffs, such as exhibits, didactic meetings, expositions, and talks. This is possibly due to the absence of a national museum that would have better steered research activities and overall concepts for collection management. We here propose that Italian natural history museums collaborate to instate a “metamuseum”, by establishing a reciprocal interaction network aimed at sharing budgetary and technical resources, which would assure better coordination of common long-term goals and scientific activities

Harmonizing neuropsychological assessment for mild neurocognitive disorders in Europe

INTRODUCTION Harmonized neuropsychological assessment for neurocognitive disorders, an international priority for valid and reliable diagnostic procedures, has been achieved only in specific countries or research contexts. METHODS To harmonize the assessment of mild cognitive impairment in Europe, a workshop (Geneva, May 2018) convened stakeholders, methodologists, academic, and non-academic clinicians and experts from European, US, and Australian harmonization initiatives. RESULTS With formal presentations and thematic working-groups we defined a standard battery consistent with the U.S. Uniform DataSet, version 3, and homogeneous methodology to obtain consistent normative data across tests and languages. Adaptations consist of including two tests specific to typical Alzheimer's disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. The methodology for harmonized normative data includes consensus definition of cognitively normal controls, classification of confounding factors (age, sex, and education), and calculation of minimum sample sizes. DISCUSSION This expert consensus allows harmonizing the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders across European countries and possibly beyond

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

ATR72 OVERALL DRAG REDUCTION STUDY

In the framework of the product enhancement initiative ATR has decided to investigate on methods to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the ATR72 aircraft airframe and the consequent improvement of the performance. Among the aircraft design parameters, drag characteristics due to secondary structures have been selected. The aerodynamic effect of the shapes of the “Belly fairing” and the “Karman” at the wing to fuselage junction will be analyzed and compared to alternative shapes that could provide with better aerodynamic characteristics (lower drag). Other two effects will be investigated. Effect due to the boot extension on wing leading edge and effect of wipers will be investigated via semi-empirical methodologies. The boot will be investigated through 2-D CFD computations. The aerodynamic analysis and the optimization of the shapes at the wing fuselage junction(“Karman”) and of the belly fairing of ATR72 aircraft will be performed. This will be done through the discrete panels modeling of the airframe to be analyzed using 2D and 3D methods with Subsonic 3-D panel methods with compressibility correction and integral boundary layer calculations.. The utilization of more complex and precise codes could be envisaged to be implemented later on if necessary. Following the analysis of the model the results will be validated possibly by comparison of the polar and wing pressure coefficients with the real data available from ATR. In the next phase, modified surfaces of the nose, Karman and belly fairing will be identified for the aerodynamic analysis and a sensibility study that should allow identifying the best new geometric configuration(s) of nose, Karman and belly fairing for minimum drag will be performed at different Mach numbers and AOA. A performance study is then required to show the advantages of the proposed design configuration in comparison to the current one

Near infrared technology for material identification and selection

The increasing demand for recycled wood to produce particleboard and MDF panels has resulted in the need to improve the cleaning process of post-consumer material, eliminating in a more effective and efficient way plastic impurities. We have developed a new method based on the NIR diffuse reflectance spectral analysis for the identification of different classes of materials that can be used in the selection process. We have investigated the diffuse reflected light in the range 1100 - 2500 nm of a wide sample of materials including plastics, ceramics, tiles, woods and laminates as representative of garbage dump materials. We have considered the typical features of the different classes of materials and looked for those spectral regions that present some difference among the classes. We have studied the correlation among the various features characterizing the spectra of each class and identifying the spectral bands potentially most effective in the discrimination process. Accordingly, six indices able to distinguish different materials have been defined. The results show that the near infrared spectral analysis can be used as an efficient analytical technique to identify different objects facilitating rapid separation process

Multi-feature detection for quality assessment in laser beam welding: Experimental results

Laser beam welding (LBW) has been largely used in manufacturing processes ranging from automobile production to precision mechanics. The complexity of LBW requires the development of strategies for the real-time control of the process. Most of the available feedback systems lack of temporal and/or spatial resolution and, therefore, they hardly allow observing more than one characteristic of the process. In the last years, we proposed some high-speed visual algorithms for image feature extraction from process images. The detection of the full penetration hole (FPH) allowed controlling the laser power at rates of up to 14 kHz. Another strategy enables observing the occurrence of spatters at monitoring rates of 15 kHz. The achievement of these results was made possible by the adoption of a visual system including a focal plane processor programmable by typical Cellular Neural Network (CNN) operations. This paper is focused on a new visual algorithm for the simultaneous detection of FPH and spatters, which led to real-time control rates of about 8 kHz. Besides the algorithm description, some interesting experimental results will be presented

Development of a Male Turbo-prop Unmanned aerial vehicle for civil application

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) increasingly are seen as the next step in aircraft evolution with the potential to replace manned aircraft over a broad range of civilian roles. Industry, who recognise the cost effectiveness of UAV, is keen to grasp this potential and the technology is rapidly developing with numerous projects currently in operation of development throughout Europe and worldwide. In response to this needs University of Naples has developed a MALE configuration TurboProp engined using innovative structural and aerodynamic solutions. Regarding the structural aspect the extensive use of composite materials led to the definition of a weight efficient vehicle capable to carry on up to 500 kg of payloads covering a wide range of medium altitude missions. With reference to aerodynamic solution, an Eppler modified profile, numerically optimized, has been adopted for its efficiency that has granted long endurance and, coupled with the power provided by the chosen engine (PT6A – 67 B), high performance. The aeroelastic assessment has revealed that no critical phenomena occur in the flight envelope. Once defined the aerodynamic and structural aspects, an analysis of reliability and safety has been performed aievaluate MTBL (Mean Time Between Loss) and MTBCF (Mean Time Between Critical Failure) features