Personal Need for Structure: Indiscriminate Classification Systems As Barriers to Processing Mathematical Complexity

This study applied previous research findings on stereotyping and individual differences in the need for simple structure to an investigation of math anxiety. The same kind of indiscriminately broad categorical thinking that underpins social stereotyping was observed in math anxious students confronted with mathematical complexity. Study participants who scored high in the need for simple structure were significantly more likely to experience math anxiety and to have adopted the belief that math intelligence is fixed. In addition, this investigation revealed that participants’ implicit assumptions about the origins of math intelligence covaried with math anxiety. The potential benefits of introducing the conceptual underpinnings of math problems in a simple, straightforward fashion prior to increasing task difficulty were explored through the presentation of two progressively challenging counting tasks. While math anxious participants did significantly worse than their non-anxious peers on the initial simpler task, as complexity increased, math anxious individuals’ degree of success on the second, more challenging task paralleled that of their non-anxious peers. Taken together, these study findings inform our understanding of math anxious students’ cognitive barriers to mathematical comprehension and fluency and suggest specific teaching strategies that might be employed to address these issues. Keywords: simple structure, math anxiety, implicit theory, education, gende

In vitro rumen fermentation of feed substrates added with chestnut tannins or an extract from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Rumen fermentation parameters and microbiota were evaluated in 3 in vitro rumen fermentation experiments after addition of chestnut tannins (CT) or an extract from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (SB) to substrates. A control (CTR) substrate was fermented alone or added with 1.5% of CT or SB extracts in a batch culture system (Exp. 1, fermentation in 500 mL for 24 h) and in a subsequent continuous culture system (Exp. 2, fermentation in 2 L bottles for 9 d). Experiment 3 used the fermentation system of Exp. 1 and tested 7 doses of each extract added to CTR (additions of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, 1.0%, 1.2% and 1.4% for 48 h). The addition of CT lowered (P < 0.01) the in vitro rumen ammonia concentration in all experiments and reduced the protozoa counts in Exp. 1 (P < 0.05). In contrast, the SB extract did not modify the ammonia concentrations, but significantly lowered the protozoa counts in all 3 experiments (reduction of 47% and 20% in Exp. 1 and 2, P < 0.05; and a quadratic reduction in Exp. 3, R2 = 0.63, P < 0.01). Neither extract affected the fermentation in terms of gas production (Exp. 1 and 3) nor volatile fatty acids (VFA) yield (Exp. 1 and 2), if we exclude a reduction at the highest CT concentration in Exp. 3. Changes in VFA profile were induced by CT and were limited to reductions in the iso-valerate (P < 0.01, in Exp. 2) and iso-butyrate levels (P < 0.01, Exp. 2). The CT increased the abundance of Prevotella ruminicola and Selenomonas ruminantium and decreased that of Ruminobacter amylophilus (P < 0.01, P < 0.05 and P < 0.05, respectively). The SB extract increased the relative abundance of Treponema saccarophylum (P < 0.05). Both of the studied substances had an impact on rumen metabolism, with SB reducing protozoa counts and CT lowering the rumen ammonia concentration. The effects of both extracts on the rumen were appreciable at low dietary doses, and the negative impacts on fermentation were limited to the reduction in protein degradation with the addition of CT

La migrazione egiziana in Italia da una prospettiva transdisciplinare

La mobilità sistematica di alcuni gruppi di popolazione rappresenta una sfida per tutte le discipline del territorio: essa infatti mette in crisi l'idea della stanzialità su un territorio unico che è considerata la norma nelle scienze sociali, sin dall'idea di Durkheim che la popolazione sia un 'fatto territoriale fisso' (1895). In questo articolo, i tre autori analizzano la complessità delle trame socio-spaziali create dalle "non-comunità egiziane" (Ambrosini, 1994), nel costruire reti transnazionali che influiscono sulle dinamiche interne di un territorio periferico di una metropoli europea. A questo fine, si analizza la testimonianza di un giovane egiziano del paese di T., mettendo in luce le tattiche di insediamento nel territorio europeo, la porositˆ o ostilitˆ delle realtˆ urbane, la molteplicitˆ e fluiditˆ delle identitˆ etniche e religiose dei migranti, e i diversi significati delle loro pratiche spaziali. I tre autori (una urbanista che studia la costruzione di spazi transnazionali da parte dei migranti egiziani in Italia, una esperta di cultura arabo-islamica con un focus sull'organizzazione socio-spaziale dei quartieri informali al Cairo, un antropologo che ha lavorato e fatto ricerca in diverse strutture di accoglienza) illustrano l'utilità di questa 'propensity to trespass' (Hirschman, 1981) tra diversi ambiti scientifici, pi che mai indispensabile nello studio dell'attraversamento delle frontiere, in direzione di una mediazione "esperta" che sappia tener conto di come le nuove articolazioni dei movimenti migratori generino resistenze e risignificazioni degli spazi urbani

Impacts of rumen fluid, refrigerated or reconstituted from a refrigerated pellet, on gas production measured at 24h of fermentation

3noRumen fluid is used as fresh inoculum for gas production fermentations to predict the nutritional value of feeds and rations for ruminants. However, collection of rumen fluid from animal donors is invasive, expensive, time consuming and results in fluids of variable quality. The general aim was to identify a procedure to manipulate rumen inoculum in order to facilitate its storage and transfer between laboratories. This strategy would also limit fluid collections from animals. Two experiments were completed based on gas production from graduated 100 mL glass syringe with five feeds as substrates. In experiment 1, the gas production and some fermentation parameters of fresh rumen fluids were compared with those preserved at 4 °C for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. Refrigeration did not modify concentration of volatile fatty acids and pH, but ammonia in liquids refrigerated for 48–96 h was higher (P < 0.05) compared to fresh. In contrast, rumen fluid refrigeration for 24, 48 or 72 h did not depress gas production at 24 h, but it was lower at 96 h. In experiment 2, the rumen fluid was centrifugated at 13,000 x g and sedimented material (i.e., pellet) was refrigerated for 48 h at 4 °C. The asymptote of gas production kinetics from rumen fluid regenerated from the pellet was 8 % lower (P < 0.05) than that from fresh. However for 24 h gas production, the correlation between fresh liquid and pellet inoculum, calculated for five ingredients, was high (R2 = 0.94). Results support the use of rumen fluid preserved by refrigeration for up to 72 h, and rumen fluid reconstituted from refrigerated pellet, as an alternative to fresh. This would reduce the need for laboratories to maintain animal donors and/or frequently collect rumen fluid.openopenFabro C.; Sarnataro C.; Spanghero M.Fabro, C.; Sarnataro, C.; Spanghero, M

La comunicación (in)visible: enseñanza de la comunicación no verbal en el aula de E/LE para alumnos italófonos

Treballs Finals del Màster de Formació de Professor d'Espanyol com a Llengua Estrangera, Facultat d'Educació, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2018-2019, Tutor: Marcelino Jiménez LeónEl presente trabajo se centra en el análisis de las estructuras no verbales propias de la lengua española, a fin de evidenciar su importancia dentro del contexto edu-cativo de E/LE. Las programaciones didácticas de E/LE, de hecho, no contemplan gene-ralmente la enseñanza del lenguaje no verbal, lo cual perjudica el desarrollo holístico del estudiante de español y de su competencia comunicativa. Además, la mera enseñanza de los elementos verbales de una lengua resulta falaz e insuficiente, ya que puede provocar malentendidos a la hora de relacionarnos con hablantes de otras culturas. El presente es-tudio se propone de demostrar la importancia de la enseñanza del lenguaje no verbal y su aplicabilidad en el aula de E/LE a través de una propuesta didáctica dirigida a alumnos italófonos. Al mismo tiempo, el trabajo quiere fomentar una educación intercultural crí-tica mediante la realización de un inventario comparativo de gestos español-italiano.This study focuses on the analysis of non-verbal communication of Span-ish language. The aim is to highlight the importance of non-verbal communication in the teaching practice of Spanish as a foreign language. In this process, teachers generally disregard the non-verbal aspect of the language, which then compromises the holistic development of the communicative competence of Spanish language students. Moreover, the mere teaching process of the verbal elements is deceptive and insufficient, since it may cause misunderstandings when socialising with people from other cultures. This study plans to demonstrate the importance of teaching non-verbal components and their applicability to Spanish through an educational project addressed to Italian-speaking stu-dents. In addition, this paper is aimed to encourage a critical education based on intercul-tural processes by developing a comparative inventory of Spanish and Italian gestures

An Integrated Decision Support System for the Sustainable Reuse of the Former Monastery of “Ritiro del Carmine” in Campania Region

Nowadays, many public administrations have abandoned and underused heritage buildings due to a lack of public resources, although the effective contribution of cultural heritage as a driver and enabler of sustainable development is strongly recognized. Currently, investments in cultural heritage have multidimensional impacts (social, economic, historical, and cultural) and can contribute to increasing overall local productivity; improving the wellbeing of inhabitants; and attracting funding from the public, private, and private–social sectors. Lack of public resources has pushed local administrations to favor new forms of valorization of public property that can promote the “adaptive reuse” of historic buildings in order to preserve their social, historical, and cultural values. At the same time, administrations seek to stimulate the experimentation of new circular business, financing, and governance models in heritage conservation, creating synergies between multiple actors; reducing the use of resources; and regenerating values, knowledge, and capital. The objective of this paper is to propose an integrated evaluation model, based on multicriteria analysis, and a financial model to support the choice of an alternative reuse of an ancient monastery in the municipality of Mugnano in the Campania region in order to define a “shared strategy” based on a “bottom-up” approach. This starts from the needs of the local community but does not neglect the historical and cultural values of the heritage building, as well as the economic and financial feasibility. The positive results obtained show that the model proposed can be a useful decision support tool in environments characterized by high complexity such as cultural heritage sites, where the objective is to precisely highlight the elements that influence the dynamics of choice for building shared bottom-up development strategies

A new equipment for continuous measurement of methane production in a batch in vitro rumen system

A new rumen batch fermentation system that allows continuous measures of total gas (GP) and methane production (MP) was tested. The fermentation system is composed of glass bottles connected to gas counters (Ritter Apparatebau GmbH & Co. KG) and an infrared gas analyser that measures the methane concentration. The system allows direct and continuous measurement of GP and MP for accurate kinetic studies. The aim of the work was to test the rumen fermentation system and compare the GP and MP kinetics obtained. Barley meal (BM), alfalfa hay (AH), corn silage (CS), and soya bean hulls (SH) were used as substrates in four consecutive fermentation runs. Cumulative volumes of GP and MP and the percentage of methane on total GP were recorded continuously until 48 h and average values at 1 h intervals were fitted with an exponential model with a lag phase reaching a good fit (R2 > 0.992). GP and MP reached the highest plateau levels for SH (1836 and 370 ml, respectively; p < 0.01) and the lowest for AH (1000 and 233 ml, respectively). The remaining substrates showed intermediate values. MP kinetics showed a discrete lag phase (from 0.09 to 1.12 h), whereas it was equal to zero for the total GP (except for SH). The methane concentration in gas flowing increased rapidly at the beginning of fermentation (from 0.35 to 0.95 h−1) and reached a plateau after approximately 8–12 h. In conclusion, the rumen fermentation system evaluated generates methane data comparable to those reported in the literature and allows simple continuous measurement of methane release throughout fermentation

Process Design for the Production of N-Butanol from Ethanol

This project aims to produce n-butanol from ethanol using a catalyst and pressurized hydrogen. Our process converts 100MM gallons of ethanol to 71.4 MM gallons of 95% pure butanol per year. The fixed-bed catalytic reactor contains spherical pellets of Ru(acac)3 with a void fraction of 0.391, and operates at 374 °F and 725 psi. Following the reaction, the hydrogen is removed from the product stream using two flash separation units before being recycled to the reactor. The butanol product is then taken from the bottoms of a distillation tower. The remaining ethanol and water are separated using two distillation units and ethylene glycol as an entrainer. The plant will be located in Iowa, U.S.A. where an adjoining ethanol plant uses corn as a feedstock for its process. Since this project assumes a future market for butanol biofuel, and our process uses ethanol as a feedstock, the price of butanol is assumed to be some multiple of the ethanol price. At the current ethanol price, assuming that butanol is 1.5 times the price of ethanol, our process is not profitable. It was found that in order to have a positive Net Present Value after 15 years, the price of butanol would need to be 2.225 times the price of ethanol, which would currently be $6.54 per gallon of butanol. Therefore, while profitability is not achievable in the current market, this process should be seriously considered in the future due to the high volatility of biofuel prices and policies