Italian Grammar in Practice: Exercises,Theory and Grammar: Unit 1

Esercizi e schede grammaticali chiare ed essenziali con istruzioni e grammatica in inglese. Questo libro permette agli studenti anglofoni di esercitare la grammatica italiana in modo completo ed efficace. Attraverso schede grammaticali chiare ed essenziali, vengono spiegate tutte le principali regole della lingua italiana. A ciò vanno aggiunti moltissimi esercizi, quiz, giochi, che oltre ad “allenare” lo studente nell’uso della lingua, consentono di ricavare anche informazioni sulla vita, la società, la cultura e la storia italiana. Sia nella presentazione delle regole che negli esercizi, particolare attenzione è riservata alle forme più utili e frequenti, nell’intento di fornire una lingua pratica, autentica, di immediata utilizzazione. Sempre a questo scopo, non vengono trascurate le espressioni idiomatiche e gergali e le forme tipiche del parlato.Degli utili test a punti aiutano lo studente a verificare il livello di conoscenza della lingua. Il volume è fornito di chiavi. Le istruzioni sono in inglese

Come Si Fa?: Can Virtual Worlds Help Us Promote Intercultural Awareness

This paper describes the author’s experience with a pilot course of Italian in SL®2. The course is part of a PhD research on Exploring the potential of virtual worlds to promote Intercultural Awareness in students learning Italian as a Foreign Language. In the paper the author will justify her choice of virtual worlds for the development of language competence and Intercultural Awareness and will present some results of her activity theoretical analysis of the data. Problematic areas and potential moments for the development of Intercultural Awareness were highlighted during the analysis

Plating Authenticity in the Eternal City

While culinary history is rife with disruptions driven by myriad factors, in this paper, derived from an in-progress article, I argue that the course of culinary evolution in Rome has been disrupted most recently by a fossilized dependence on gastrotourism, manifesting in what I term the “template menu” – an artificial construction intended to satisfy consumer demand for the authentic Roman gastronomic experience. While past research into culinary heritage tourism has emphasized the experiences and expectations of tourists and the preservation of traditions (World Tourism Organization, 2017; Richards, 2012, pp. 13-14) or more explicitly the efforts of destination marketing and national tourism organizations (Chang and Mak, 2018, p. 2), little attention has been paid to the concerns of chefs and restaurateurs. Here I address that discrepancy in a Roman context in which chefs are seeking to carve out a space for individual expression amidst the rigidity of a market-propelled ‘traditional’ menu and yet remain commercially viable. The aim of this study is to investigate this predicament by qualitative engagement, focusing specifically on the perspective of food service providers. This exegesis speaks broadly to questions arising in other cities with a high influx of tourists and well-established gastronomic standing, operating in conditions where authenticity has become commodified, although, granted, there is no place like Rome

Le variazioni climatiche dell'Olocene ottenute dallo studio delle concrezioni dell'Antro del Corchia (Alpi Apuane)

Lo scopo della presente Tesi di Laurea è quello di ricostruire delle curve paleoclimatiche in grado di rappresentare come le condizioni climatiche siano cambiate nel corso dell'Olocene. A tal scopo sono state prese in esame tre stalagmiti provenienti dall'Antro del Corchia, il più esteso sistema carsico italiano, articolato in 60 km di gallerie e pozzi, sito nella porzione occidentale delle Alpi Apuane, nel settore nord-occidentale della Toscana. Le stalagmiti in esame rappresentano solo una piccola frazione di tutto il materiale a disposizione riguardo tale grotta, poiché, fin dall'inizio dei lavori per l'apertura al pubblico, essa ha destato nei ricercatori un grande interesse. Queste concrezioni, denominate CC53, CC4 e CC27, come la maggior parte dei campioni, provengono dalla "Galleria delle Stalattiti", una condotta freatica all'interno della grotta, posta alla quota media di 871 m.s.l.m. Esse sono state campionate ed analizzate presso il Laboratorio della Facoltà di Geologia dell'Università di Newcastle, per quanta riguarda gli isotopi stabili, e presso il laboratorio della Facoltà di Scienze della Terra dell'Università di Melbourne, per ciò che concerne le misure di età. Le analisi degli isotopi stabili, ossigeno e carbonio, sono state effettuate con uno spettrometro di massa GV2003 ed hanno permesso di costruire delle curve preliminari in cui si sono potuti riconoscere dei picchi positivi e negativi, rispettivamente riferibili a periodi più freddi/aridi e più caldi/umidi. In seguito sono state condotte misure di età, mediante il metodo 234U/230Th, con lo scopo di inserire in un contesto temporale le curve costruite. Per la loro realizzazione è stato utilizzato uno spettrometro MC-ICPMS per la determinazione dei rapporti isotopici. Sulla base delle misure di età ottenute sono stati costruiti dei modelli di età per trasformare i dati isotopici in serie temporali. Le stalagmiti CC53 e CC4 sono state, in particolare, oggetto di studio della presente Tesi di Laurea. La stalagmite CC53 ha mostrato un periodo di concrezionamento compreso tra circa 6000 e 400 anni fa, cioè la seconda parte dell'Olocene, e negli andamenti di ossigeno e carbonio è stato possibile riconoscere la parte terminale dell'Hhypsithermal, seguito dal Neoglaciale, caratterizzato da un trend in aumento dei valori. Nella transizione tra questi due periodi, tra ca. 5000 e ca. 4000 anni fa, è stato possibile riconoscere dei picchi positivi, caratteristici di deterioramenti climatici, a cui è associato anche il collasso di importanti civiltà mesopotamiche. Molto evidenti risultano inoltre il Periodo Caldo Medievale (intorno a 1000 anni fa), in cui i valori sono nettamente più negativi, e la Piccola Età Glaciale, registrata negli ultimi 100 anni di concrezionamento. La stalagmite CC4, per cui non si dispone ancora di un modello di età convincente, mostra un periodo di accrescimento compreso tra ca. 6000 e 2000 anni fa. Nei record isotopici si osservano, anche in questo caso, alcune variazioni, in accordo con quanto evidenziato per la stalagmite CC53

From Half Baked to Homogenized: Risorgimento - Unita - Fascismo and the Rise of the Borghese Cookbook

Italy, in the early 1800s, saw the rise of the professional and merchants classes mostly concentrated in the central and northern regions of the country. However as this class, the borghesia Italia, developed over the course of the 19th. century, concurrently with the development of a new nation, it is possible to trace how the Italian cookery book both reflected and influenced the forging of a united culinary identity, which would, eventually become the pride of Italy

Understanding Presence, Affordance and the Time/Space Dimensions for Language Learning in Virtual Worlds

Notwithstanding their potential for novel approaches to language teaching and learning, Virtual Worlds (VWs) present numerous technological and pedagogical challenges that require new paradigms if the language learning experience and outcomes are to be successful. In this presentation, we argue that the notions of presence and affordance, together with the time/space dimensions of interactions in virtual worlds (e.g. Bakhtin’s (1981) chronotope, Foucault’s (1984) heteropia, and Lemke’s (2000) heterochrony), provide new insights into language learners’ trajectories as they attempt to carry out tasks that are designed to make use of virtual worlds’ characteristics and potentialities. We explore and analyse a critical incident that occurred during the realisation of a language learning task by university learners of Italian in Second Life©. Recordings of the session, teacher observations, learner reflections and interviews have provided large amounts of data highlighting a number of critical incidents that emerged during their execution. Analysing these critical incidents through the lenses of presence, affordance, and time/space inseparability allows us to highlight the non-linearity of temporal and spatial aspects of interactions in virtual worlds, and to reveal the emergence of affordances and learning chronotopes linked to such interactions. In turn, the analysis of these emerging learning chronotopes helps us refine the design and implementation of language learning tasks in virtual worlds

Italian: AS/A2 Digital Reading Practice Tests 2009

AS/A2 Digital Reading Practice Tests 2009 consists of authentic reading material and practice test questions. This resource is ideal for practising, improving and building up students’ reading skills in preparation for the AS/A2 Level exams in the UK.The tests are also suitable practice materials for students preparing for other advanced level exams, such as Irish Leaving Certificate, International Baccalaureate or Advance Placement

Exploiting Sentinel-1 amplitude data for glacier surface velocity field measurements. Feasibility demonstration on baltoro glacier

The leading idea of this work is to continuously retrieve glaciers surface velocity through SAR imagery, in particular using the amplitude data from the new ESA satellite sensor Sentinel-1 imagery. These imagery key aspects are the free access policy, the very short revisit time (down to 6 days with the launch of the Sentinel-1B satellite) and the high amplitude resolution (up to 5 m). In order to verify the reliability of the proposed approach, a first experiment has been performed using Sentinel-1 imagery acquired over the Karakoram mountain range (North Pakistan) and Baltoro and other three glaciers have been investigated. During this study, a stack of 11 images acquired in the period from October 2014 to September 2015 has been used in order to investigate the potentialities of the Sentinel-1 SAR sensor to retrieve the glacier surface velocity every month. The aim of this test was to measure the glacier surface velocity between each subsequent pair, in order to produce a time series of the surface velocity fields along the investigated period. The necessary co-registration procedure between the images has been performed and subsequently the glaciers areas have been sampled using a regular grid with a 250 × 250 meters posting. Finally the surface velocity field has been estimated, for each image pair, using a template matching procedure, and an outlier filtering procedure based on the signal to noise ratio values has been applied, in order to exclude from the analysis unreliable points. The achieved velocity values range from 10 to 25 meters/month and they are coherent to those obtained in previous studies carried out on the same glaciers and the results highlight that it is possible to have a continuous update of the glacier surface velocity field through free Sentinel-1 imagery, that could be very useful to investigate the seasonal effects on the glaciers fluid-dynamics

Italian: AS/A2 Digital Listening Practice Tests 2009

AS/A2 Digital Listening Comprehension Practice Tests 2009 consists of a book and audio files with authentic listening material and test questions. This book is ideal for practising, improving and building up students’ confidence in listening skills in preparation for the AS Level,A2 Level, the Irish Leaving Certificate and other advanced level exams

Efficacy of spa-therapy, mud-pack therapy, balneotherapy and mud-bath therapy in the management of knee osteoarthritis. A systematic review

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common musculoskeletal disease in the world. OA is the result of an inflammatory and degenerative process affecting the entire joint. Osteoarthritis, especially involving the knee, has a relevant socio-economic impact in terms of drugs, hospital admissions, work absences and temporary or permanent invalidity. Therapy of knee osteoarthritis is based on pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the studies published between 2002 and 2017 on spa-therapy, mud-pack therapy, balneotherapy and mud-bath therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis in order to investigate the evidence of the efficacy of such treatment on pain, functional limitation, drug use and quality of life. Overall, 35 studies were examined among which 12 were selected and included in the review if trial comparative. Each report was reviewed to identify the criteria used for study enrolment and for assignment to experimental vs control groups, sample size, type and characteristics of treatment, features of mineral water, control intervention, assessment point, endpoints, outcome measures, tests used for statistical analysis of the results. We have been able to illustrate the main results obtained in the individual studies and to elaborate these results in order to allow as much a unitary presentation as possible, and hence an overall judgment. Results: Because the studies we reviewed differed markedly from one another in terms of the methods used, we were unable to conduct a quantitative analysis (meta-analysis) of pooled data from the 12 studies. For the purposes of the present review, we re-evaluated the results of the different studies using the same statistical method, the Student’s t test, which is used to compare the means of two frequency distributions. Among all the studies, the most relevant indexes used to measure effectiveness of spa therapy were improved including VAS, Lequesne’s and WOMAC Score. Conclusions: The mud-pack therapy, balneotherapy, mud-bath therapy and spa therapy has proved to be effective in the treatment and in the secondary prevention of knee osteoarthritis, by reducing pain, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug consumption, functional limitation and improving quality of life of affected patients. Is a noninvasive, complication-free, and cost-effective alternative modality for the conservative treatment of knee osteoarthritis