Perspective taking in narrative understanding in preschoolers: the role of emotion comprehension and ToM

openLa comprensione narrativa è un’abilità complessa che emerge solo in seguito allo sviluppo di diverse abilità linguistiche e cognitive. In particolare, la capacità di immedesimarsi, ovvero il perspective taking, e il lessico psicologico, sembrano essere delle abilità chiave per la comprensione narrativa. Questo studio, effettuato in una scuola dell’infanzia di Padova negli ultimi due anni, prende in esame un campione di 104 bambini di età prescolare (Metà=4.5 anni, DS=10.53 mesi). L’obbiettivo è quello di ampliare la letteratura rispetto all’influenza della Teoria della Mente, tramite il test S01 della Nepsy II, e della comprensione emotiva, tramite il Test di Comprensione delle Emozioni (TEC), costrutti interconnessi con il perspective taking, sulla comprensione narrativa, misurata tramite la MAIN

Using compact GML to deploy interactive maps on mobile devices

As users get connected with new-generation smart programmable phones and Personal Digital Assistants, they look for geographic information and location-aware services. In such a scenario, developers need infrastructures and standards in order to provide geographic data and cartographic tools to a wide set of applications and small mobile devices. GIS market offers a rich set of powerful tools for geographic information management, but a simple and lightweight protocol to easily add cartographic functionalities to mobile applications is still missing. This paper presents the compact Geographic Markup Language (cGML), a custom version of GML tailored for mobile devices. By using small tags, server side pre-projected and pre-scaled coordinates, it allows development and deployment of map-based software for mobile phones and PDAs with strong constraints on connection, CPU and memory

Itv as a community-to-community collaborative system

Web-forums and Instant Messengers provide a unique opportunity for the users to create and support spontaneous communities. However, such systems tend to focus on the one-to-one and one-to-many approaches. Community-to- Community interaction, described as two groups of people which communicate by means of a network, is still missing. This work describes early implementation of an interactive television (iTV) chat system, which dynamically creates chat rooms where users can discuss, share their TV experience and access web resources.337-33

Soy Expansion, Environment, and Human Development: An Analysis across Brazilian Municipalities

In the last decades, Brazil has become one of the largest soybean producers and exporters in the world. Although dedicated policies have been implemented since the 1960s, the recent rapid transition towards an agricultural system largely based on soy has had a strong impact on the country’s socio-economic structure—not only in terms of land and labour markets but also on its diverse ecosystems. According to the extant literature, soy has had a beneficial impact on local human development, measured by the human development index (HDI) of the municipalities. However, there is a lack of empirical studies assessing the impact of soy expansion on the single dimensions of the HDI (longevity, education, and income) to disentangle the indirect effects of socio-environmental change while controlling for other local dynamics. To fill this gap, we applied econometric methods to a novel dataset combining municipal-level data on soy production with socio-economic and environmental data for the period 1991–2010. Our findings confirm the positive relation between soy expansion and the HDI at local level, but this relation differs between different HDI dimensions. The marginal benefits of soy expansion are increasing for the income dimension but decreasing for education and longevity. On the other hand, changes in soy productivity (a proxy for agricultural intensification) have a more complex impact on the HDI and its dimensions, but in general its marginal benefits are decreasing over time. Further research could expand the time series once more up-to-date information becomes available.Peer reviewe

Il cgml: una soluzione basata su xml per la rappresentazione di mappe vettoriali su dispositivi mobili

L’evoluzione tecnologica dei dispositivi mobili, in termini di potenza di calcolo, capacità di visualizzazione e memorizzazione, e il proliferare di sistemi di connessione a banda larga su rete locale wireless (WiFi) e cellulare (UMTS), permette la gestione di dati complessi quali le mappe vettoriali e l’accesso ai Location Based Service (LBS) per mezzo di un telefono cellulare o un palmare. L’uso di linguaggi XML nel settore dei LBS condiziona la struttura delle funzionalità e dei dati ma garantisce l’interoperabilità dei servizi. Un esempio è il linguaggio GML (Geographic Markup Language) standard de facto nello scambio dei dati tra sistemi GIS e nella rappresentazione dell’informazione geografica. Il GML non è orientato alla rappresentazione di mappe vettoriali, è quindi necessario trasformarlo in un altro linguaggio XML, ad esempio il linguaggio grafico SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Per evitare la separazione tra il dato geografico (GML) e la sua visualizzazione (Mobile SVG) ma usando comunque le mappe vettoriali su dispositivi mobili, abbiamo definito il cGML (compact Geographic Markup Language). La rappresentazione di un dato tramite cGML è una mappa vettoriale e come tale può essere utilizzata nella presentazione grafica, ma allo stesso momento è anche un contenitore di insiemi di dati geo-riferiti, omogenei per semantica, utilizzabili in elaborazioni locali sul dispositivo mobile.Enhanced mobile device performances, in terms of CPU power, memory capacity, display capabilities and adoption of wideband connectivity based on local wireless (WiFi) and cellular (UMTS) networks, bring interactive mapping and access to Location Based Services (LBS) to mobile phones and PDAs. The use of XML language in the LBS influences data structure, functionalities and performances; although it could be time and memory expensive, it guarantees service interoperability. The GML language (Geographic Markup Language) is "de facto" standard in data exchanging between Geographic Information Systems. The GML has not been designed to represent vector map: it has to be transformed into another XML language, for example the graphical-oriented XML language Mobile SVG. To avoid the separation between the geographic data (GML) and its visualization (Mobile SVG), keeping vector mapping on mobile devices, we have designed the cGML (compact Geographic Markup Language). The data encoded using cGML is a vector map, so that it can be used in the graphic representation, but at the same time it is a container of geographical related data set, homogenous for semantic and usable in local processing on the mobile device

Compact gml: merging mobile computing and mobile cartography

The use of portable devices is moving from "Wireless Applications", typically implemented as browsing-on-the-road, to "Mobile Computing", which aims to exploit increasing processing power of consumer devices. As users get connected with smartphones and PDAs, they look for geographic information and location-aware services. While browser-based approaches have been explored (using static images or graphics formats such as Mobile SVG), a data model tailored for local computation on mobile devices is still missing. This paper presents the Compact Geographic Markup Language (cGML) that enables design and development of specific purpose GIS applications for portable consumer devices where a cGML document can be used as a spatial query result as well

Lightweight client-pull protocol for mobile communication

Consumer mobile devices, such as cellular phones and PDAs, rely on TCP/IP as main communication protocol. However, cellular networks are not reliable as wired and wireless LAN, due to both users mobility and geographical obstacles. Moreover, limited bandwidth outside urban areas requires an application level data priority management, in order to improve user experience and avoid communication stack deadlocks. This paper presents early specification and first prototype of the LCPP (Lightweight Client-Pull Protocol), a UDP-based communication protocol specially designed to provide better performance, fast responsiveness and save processing power on mobile devices. Using some concepts adopted in the field of P2P file sharing, LCPP provides data priority management approach, which enables application to negotiate concurrent access to communication channel and to be notified about delaying, network congestion or remote device inability to process data

The cgml: a xml language for mobile cartography

Increasing processing power and storage capabilities encourage systematic adoption of high-end mobile devices, such as programmable cellular phones and wireless-enabled PDA to implement new exciting applications. The performances of modern mobile devices are bringing innovative scenarios, based on position awareness and ambient intelligence paradigms. The market is moving from old 'Wireless Applications' approach to Mobile Computing, which aims to exploit mobile host capabilities. This paper presents the compact Geographic Markup Language (cGML), an XML-based language defined to enable design and development of LBS applications specific for mobile devices, and an example of client-server architecture using it