Treebar Maps: Schematic Representation of Networks at Scale

Many data sets, crucial for today's applications, consist essentially of enormous networks, containing millions or even billions of elements. Having the possibility of visualizing such networks is of paramount importance. We propose an algorithmic framework and a visual metaphor, dubbed treebar map, to provide schematic representations of huge networks. Our goal is to convey the main features of the network's inner structure in a straightforward, two-dimensional, one-page drawing. This drawing effectively captures the essential quantitative information about the network's main components. Our experiments show that we are able to create such representations in a few hundreds of seconds. We demonstrate the metaphor's efficacy through visual examination of extensive graphs, highlighting how their diverse structures are instantly comprehensible via their representations.Comment: 27 pages, 32 figures, 1 tabl

Omission and compromise : The sacredness of moral foundations in political groups in Italy

Sacred values are moral foundations that may make public and political debates among groups hard to resolve. A taboo trade-off framework offers the opportunity of measuring the inviolability and the "sacralization" of moral foundations. In this study, moral foundations in a taboo trade-off framework were assessed in a convenience sample of Italians (N = 224) using a new measure to assess sacred values, the Omission as a Compromise on Moral Foundations scale (OC-MF). The OC-MF measures the willingness of individuals to omit moral foundations in exchange for money. It was predicted that Italian center and left-wing participants would be less willing to compromise individualizing moral foundations as opposed to binding ones, and that center and right-wing participants would be less willing to compromise on binding moral foundations than left-wing participants. Confirmatory Factor Analyses demonstrated the two-factor structure of the OC-MF: individualizing and binding. As predicted, Repeated Measures Anova showed that political orientation was related with differential adoptions of moral foundations as sacred values, with center and left-wing participants refusing to compromise more on individualizing than on binding moral foundations. Moreover, left-wing participants were more willing to compromise on binding moral foundations than center and right-wing participants. The OC-MF shows the hypothesized differences between Italian political groups and offers a new understanding of moral reasoning. These findings provide opportunities for improving ideological debates concerning sacred values.Peer reviewe

Students' University Identification: An Exploratory Study in the United States and Italy

Students’ identification with schools or universities predicts many positive aspects such as cooperation and completion of studies. Two hundred and eleven Italian students and 226 U.S. students wrote responses to open-ended questions about a time that they either felt connected (identified) or disconnected to (not identified) with their university. In Italy, students prompted to identify with the university mainly focused their descriptions on didactical aspects such as academic training experiences. Italian students prompted not to identify with the university mainly described their experiences with the university’s organizational and administrative aspects. U.S. students prompted to identify or not with the university mainly focused on the social aspects of their university experience such as their involvement with fraternities and sororities. In both nations, students rarely mentioned instrumental aspects of their university experience such as the evaluation of how much the university matters for professional training. These qualitative results help to fully understand the contents of the experience of university students. Understanding students’ identification can be vital in order to improve the quality of university teaching and to support professors in developing their roles

Attitudes toward “Non-Traditional” Mothers: Examining the Antecedents of Mothers’ Competence Perceptions

Mothers are the protagonists in a widespread narrative that emphasizes motherhood as prolonged and exclusive attention to children, accompanied by references to natural competence in child-rearing skills. The present research aimed to investigate the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the perception of mothers’ competence. Cisgender heterosexual Italian participants (N = 230) read one of four vignettes describing a situation in which a mother (i.e., heterosexual biological mother, heterosexual stepmothers, lesbian stepmother, and lesbian biological mother) interacts with her two children who had misbehaved. After reading the vignette, the participants rated the depicted mother’s competence and to what extent the children’s misbehaviour was attributable to the mother. Moderated-mediation analyses indicated that all the non-traditional mothers were perceived as being less competent compared to the heterosexual biological mother, by giving them greater responsibility for their children’s misbehaviour, among participants with medium–high levels of traditional gender-role beliefs. Sexual orientation and biology relatedness were not cumulative variables, but intersecting categories creating a unique way to perceive mothers. As the number of non-traditional families grows, negative societal attitudes toward non-traditional parents and their children should be increasingly considered

Grapevine field experiments reveal the contribution of genotype, the influence of environment and the effect of their interaction (GxE) on berry transcriptome

Changes in the performance of genotypes in different environments are defined as genotype x environment (GxE) interactions. In grapevine (Vitis vinifera), complex interactions between different genotypes and climate, soil, and farming practices yield unique berry qualities. However, the molecular basis of this phenomenon remains unclear. To dissect the basis of grapevine GxE interactions, we characterized berry transcriptome plasticity, genome methylation landscape, and within-genotype allelic diversity in two genotypes, cultivated in three different environments, over two vintages. We identified, through a novel data-mining pipeline, genes with expression profiles that were unaffected by genotype or environment, genotype-dependent but unaffected by the environment, environmentally-dependent regardless of genotype, and GxE-related. The GxE-related genes showed different degrees of within-cultivar allelic diversity in the two genotypes and were enriched for stress responses, signal transduction and secondary metabolism categories. Our study unraveled the mutual relationships between genotypic and environmental variables during GxE interaction in a woody perennial species, providing a reference model to explore how cultivated fruit crops respond to diverse environments. Also, the pivotal role of vineyard location in determining the performance of different varieties, by enhancing berry quality traits, was unraveled

Diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition disease by ultrasonography: how many and which sites should be scanned?

ObjectiveTo develop the optimal US scanning protocol for the diagnosis of CPPD disease.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, consecutive patients with a crystal-proven diagnosis of CPPD disease, and age-, sex-matched disease controls and with a negative synovial fluid analysis were prospectively enrolled in two Italian Institutions. Four rheumatologists, blinded to patients’ clinical details, performed US examinations using a standardised scanning protocol including 20 joints (shoulders, elbows, wrists, metacarpophalangeal joints from 2nd to 5th fingers, hips, knees, ankles). CPPD was identified as presence/absence, according to the OMERACT definitions. Reduced US scanning protocols were developed by selecting the most informative joints to be imaged by US using the LASSO technique. Patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets. Their diagnostic accuracy was tested comparing the area under the ROC curves.Results204 participants were enrolled: 102 with CPPD disease and 102 disease controls [age (mean±standard deviation) 71.3 ± 12.0 vs 71.1 ± 13.5 years, female: 62.8% vs 57.8%].The median number of joints with US evidence of CPPD was 5 (IQR: 4–7) and 0 (IQR: 0–1) in patients with CPPD disease and controls, respectively (p< 0 01).The detection of CPPD in ≥ 2 joints using a reduced scanning protocol (bilateral assessment of knees, wrists, and hips) showed a sensitivity of 96.7% (95%CI: 82.8–99.9) and a specificity of 100 (95%CI: 88.8–100.0) for the diagnosis of CPPD disease and had good feasibility [(mean±standard deviation) 12.5 ± 5.3 min].ConclusionBilateral US assessment of knees, wrists, and hips had excellent accuracy and good feasibility for the diagnosis of CPPD disease

Desarrollo de una metodología para la identificación de estudiantes en situación de vulnerabilidad académica a su ingreso a la FCE UNLP

El ingreso a la Universidad Pública es un tema que en los últimos años ha estado presente en la agenda de los estudios sobre educación y en los discursos mediáticos. En relación a esta problemática, las estadísticas no son alentadoras: cerca del 50% (con variaciones según la Universidad que se considere) de los ingresantes a la Universidad abandonan sus estudios durante su primer año. El valor, antes mencionado, alarma y preocupa a quienes gestionan las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES) y da cuenta del problema al que se enfrentan: aún no se ha logrado romper completamente con la lógica de la exclusión. Motiva este proyecto la permanente y continua preocupación de un grupo de docentes de primer año de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (FCEUNLP), quienes sumergidos en la problemática que representa el primer año del sistema universitario nacional, trabajan activamente para atender, especialmente, la efectiva integración y permanencia de este grupo de estudiantes. En esta línea, se buscará poder utilizar y transformar el conocimiento que los docentes de primer año de la citada Unidad Académica, poseen, a fin de poder sistematizar esta información de manera de poder construir los registros que configuran la base de futuros programas de acceso, ingreso y retención.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

Consumption of energy drinks among Italian University students : a cross-sectional multicenter study

Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the caffeinated Energy Drinks (EDs) consumption among a large sample of Italian undergraduates and its association with some of the major lifestyle risk factors. Methods Students attending twelve public Italian universities were involved between October 2021 and May 2022. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, ED consumption, and on health-related behaviors of participants was collected by the use of a web-based questionnaire. Results A total of 2165 students participated in the study and 15.2% of them reported having used caffeinated EDs in the last six months, mainly once a month (41.5%). In comparison with non-users, ED users showed a higher proportion of males (p &lt; 0.001) and a higher father’s educational level (p = 0.003), came mainly from Northern universities (p = 0.004) and life sciences degree courses (p &lt; 0.001). Besides, ED users reported higher BMI values (p = 0.003), more particular dietary regimens (p &lt; 0.001), higher levels of weekly moderate–vigorous physical activity (p &lt; 0.001) and participation in sports (p &lt; 0.001) and in team sports (p = 0.003), and higher proportion of smokers (p &lt; 0.001) and alcohol drinkers (p = 0.005). ED use was negatively related with female gender (OR 0.546; 95% CI 0.374–0.798), the Mediterranean diet (OR 0.587; 95% CI 0.362–0.951) and coming from the center of Italy (OR 0.500; 95% CI 0.275–0.909) and positively associated with tobacco smoke (OR 1.712; 95% CI 1.176–2.492) and participation in a team sport (OR 1.686; 95% CI 1.051–2.707). Conclusion These findings could encourage figures engaged in education to increase the students’ awareness on this issue in order to prevent the excessive use of EDs and associated unhealthy behaviors, especially in the most interested subgroups

Clinical features and outcomes of elderly hospitalised patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure or both

Background and objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) mutually increase the risk of being present in the same patient, especially if older. Whether or not this coexistence may be associated with a worse prognosis is debated. Therefore, employing data derived from the REPOSI register, we evaluated the clinical features and outcomes in a population of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine wards and having COPD, HF or COPD + HF. Methods: We measured socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, severity and prevalence of comorbidities, clinical and laboratory features during hospitalization, mood disorders, functional independence, drug prescriptions and discharge destination. The primary study outcome was the risk of death. Results: We considered 2,343 elderly hospitalized patients (median age 81&nbsp;years), of whom 1,154 (49%) had COPD, 813 (35%) HF, and 376 (16%) COPD + HF. Patients with COPD + HF had different characteristics than those with COPD or HF, such as a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations, comorbidities (especially chronic kidney disease), higher respiratory rate at admission and number of prescribed drugs. Patients with COPD + HF (hazard ratio HR 1.74, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.16-2.61) and patients with dementia (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.90) had a higher risk of death at one year. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher mortality risk in the group of patients with COPD + HF for all causes (p = 0.010), respiratory causes (p = 0.006), cardiovascular causes (p = 0.046) and respiratory plus cardiovascular causes (p = 0.009). Conclusion: In this real-life cohort of hospitalized elderly patients, the coexistence of COPD and HF significantly worsened prognosis at one year. This finding may help to better define the care needs of this population