Becoming Support Teachers at the University of Foggia During the Pandemic. An Exploratory Survey

The paper aims to deepen the characteristics, training needs and critical issues related to the initial training of the support teachers in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part offers a synthetic theoretical framework about the problem. The second part presents the results, still in the initial phase of elaboration, of an exploratory survey conducted among some students attending the active training internship (TFA, fifth cycle) at the University of Foggia. An initial analysis of the results reveals the profile of a rather motivated aspiring support teacher, eager to acquire new skills, with a good level of confidence in technology. The article proposes, in the final part, paths for reflection and action that can be used by training designers and academic decision makers in order to optimize future specialization training for support teachers, at multiple levels

A non-intrusive and continuous-in-space technique to investigate the wave transformation and breaking over a breakwater

To design longshore breakwaters, the evaluation of the wave motion transformations over the structures and of the energy they are able to absorb, dissipate and reflect is necessary. To characterize features and transformations of monochromatic wave trains above a breakwater, both submerged and emerged, we have designed and developed a non-intrusive and continuous-in-space technique, based on Image Analysis, and carried out an experimental campaign, in a laboratory flume equipped with a wave-maker, in order to test it. The investigation area was lighted with a light sheet and images were recorded by a video-camera. The working fluid was seeded with non buoyant particles to make it bright and clearly distinct from dark background and breakwater. The technique, that is based on a robust algorithm to identify the free surface, has showed to properly work also in prohibitive situations for traditional resistive probes (e.g., very shallow waters and/or breaking waves) and to be able to measure the free surface all over the investigation field in a non-intrusive way. Two kind of analysis were mainly performed, a statistical and a spectral one. The peculiarities of the measurement technique allowed to describe the whole wave transformation and to supply useful information for design purposes

Comunità per minori e strategie di prevenzione educativa dei comportamenti antiso- ciali

Child and Youth Residential Care, in welcoming the child and the young person coming from the net of social disadvantage, existential marginality and educational poverty, aims to counter the development of antisocial behaviors by offering personalized planning to guarantee: well-being, healthy spaces for growth and socialization, support and continuity in school attendance, criteria of action and self-regulation rules, alternative behavioral models, compared to those experienced in the family. The educational intervention is aimed at the person, at the defense and enhancement of the human profile towards which the entire educa- tional project extends. The contribution sets out some criteria for planning and conducting the educational intervention of community workers and thus offering crucial protective factors of prevention against the onset of antisocial behavior in children and young people in care.La comunità educativa, nell’accogliere il bambino e il ragazzo proveniente dal circuito del disagio sociale, della marginalità esistenziale e della povertà educativa, si propone di contrastare lo sviluppo di comportamenti antisociali offrendo una progettualità personalizzata per garantirgli benessere, spazi sani di crescita e di socializzazione, supporto e continuità nella frequenza scolastica, criteri d’azione e norme di autoregolazione, modelli comportamentali alternativi, rispetto a quelli esperiti in famiglia. L’intervento educativo punta alla persona, alla difesa e alla valorizzazione del profilo d’uomo verso cui si protende l’intero progetto educativo. Il contributo enuncia alcuni criteri per progettare e condurre l’intervento educativo degli operatori di comunità e così offrire cruciali fattori protettivi di prevenzione rispetto all’insorgenza di comportamenti antisociali nei bambini e nei ragazzi presi in carico

La prima infanzia online

ItIndagini recenti, di respiro internazionale, indicano che l'accesso ad Internet, da parte di bambini sotto i nove anni, continua a crescere e che essi accedono in rete ad un età sempre più bassa.EnRecent researche, of international scope, indicate that access to the Internet, by children under the age of nine, continues to grow and that they access the network at an increasingly lower age

Il disagio sociale infantile e la comunità educativa di accoglienza. Strategie educative di promozione del benessere

The paper aims to respond to the existing pedagogical research gap on the problem of childrenin conditions of disadvantage and social marginality who spend their childhood in residentialeducational communities. We look at social disadvantage as a complex device that inhibits theachievement of personal and social well-being and that generates “special” educational needs,even if not medically certified.A criteria system is offered to respond to the needs of growth and development of the child, toobtain a better quality of life, well-being, emancipation and inclusion

How to Promote Healthier Shopping Behaviour: Which Are the Most Effective Retail Marketing’ Levers in E-Commerce Grocery

The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests people to eat at least five portion of fruits and vegetables a day, but the level of consumption of this category is far from been reached. Considering that the majority of food purchases occurs in grocery context, increasingly in e-commerce channels, understanding how retailers could improve food choice, both in physical and digital stores, is paramount to healthier living. This paper aims to understand which are the most effective retail marketing’ levers in stimulating impulse buying in fruits and vegetables category, therefore in promoting healthier shopping behavior. Since fruit and vegetable is known for its healthy vocation and its role in differentiating and enhancing the perceived image of retailers, this category is the ideal place to host nutritional marketing initiatives. We used a quantitative survey method to explore shoppers’ behaviour in an online setting, focusing on fruit and vegetables’ category. Respondents were exposed to nine marketing stimuli, according to different communication contents (price versus non price). All the data was considered for linear regression analysis. Our results show that the pre-shopping preparation has an effect on purchasing behaviour, limiting its impulsiveness. Furthermore, price levers and communication levers influence the intention to buy impulse in the online channel, with the latter more effective than the other ones. Therefore, as this process takes place in the digital context, marketing efforts need to focus on dimensions that increase the propensity to make impulse purchases online: communicative and price stimuli

Diversity of cervical microbiota in asymptomatic chlamydia trachomatis genital infection: a pilot study

Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection continues to be an important public health problem worldwide due to its increasing incidence. C. trachomatis infection can lead to severe sequelae, such as pelvic inflammatory disease, obstructive infertility, and preterm birth. Recently, it has been suggested that the cervico-vaginal microbiota may be an important defense factor toward C. trachomatis infection as well as the development of chronic sequelae. Therefore, the investigation of microbial profiles associated to chlamydial infection is of the utmost importance. Here we present a pilot study aiming to characterize, through the metagenomic analysis of sequenced 16s rRNA gene amplicons, the cervical microbiota from reproductive age women positive to C. trachomatis infection. The main finding of our study showed a marked increase in bacterial diversity in asymptomatic C. trachomatis positive women as compared to healthy controls in terms of Shannon's diversity and Shannon's evenness (P = 0.031 and P = 0.026, respectively). More importantly, the cervical microbiota from C. trachomatis positive women and from healthy controls significantly separated into two clusters in the weighted UniFrac analysis (P = 0.0027), suggesting that differences between the two groups depended entirely on the relative abundance of bacterial taxa rather than on the types of bacterial taxa present. Furthermore, C. trachomatis positive women showed an overall decrease in Lactobacillus spp. and an increase in anaerobes. These findings are part of an ongoing larger epidemiological study that will evaluate the potential role of distinct bacterial communities of the cervical microbiota in C. trachomatis infection

Specializzarsi on line durante la pandemia: un sondaggio esplorativo su insegnanti di sostegno nella fase di formazione iniziale

The paper aims to deepen the characteristics, training needs and critical issues related to the initial training of the support teachers in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part offers a synthetic theoretical framework about the problem. The second part presents the results, still in the initial phase of elaboration, of an exploratory survey conducted among some students attending the active training internship (TFA, fifth cycle) at the University of Foggia. An initial analysis of the results reveals the profile of a rather motivated aspiring support teacher, eager to acquire new skills, with a good level of confidence in technology. The article proposes, in the final part, paths for reflection and action that can be used by training designersand academic decision makers in order to optimize future specialization training for support teachers, at multiple levels.L’articolo intende approfondire caratteristiche, bisogni formativi e criticità legati alla formazione iniziale del docente di sostegno in epoca di pandemia da Covid-19. Nella prima parte si offre un quadro teorico di sintesi sul problema. La seconda parte presenta i risultati, seppur ancora in fase iniziale di elaborazione, di una indagine esplorativa condotta presso alcuni allievi frequentanti il tirocinio formativo attivo (TFA, quinto ciclo) all’Universitàdegli Studi di Foggia. Da una prima analisi dei risultati emerge il profilo di un aspirante docente di sostegno piuttosto motivato, desideroso di acquisire nuove competenze, con un buon livello di confidenza con la tecnologia.L’articolo propone, nella parte finale, delle piste di riflessione e di intervento che possono essere utilizzate dai progettisti della formazione e dai decision makers accademici allo scopo di ottimizzare i percorsi di specializzazionefuturi per i docenti di sostegno, a più livelli.&nbsp

Can implicit or explicit time processing impact numerical representation? Evidence from a dual task paradigm

Whether the human brain processes various types of magnitude, such as numbers and time, through a shared representation or whether there are different representations for each type of magnitude is still debated. Here, we investigated two aspects of number-time interaction: the effects of implicit and explicit processing of time on numbers and the bi-directional interaction between time and number processing. Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned into two experimental groups that performed, respectively, a Single task (number comparison, with implicit time processing) and a Dual task (number comparison as a primary task, with explicit time processing as a secondary task). Results showed that participants, only in the Dual task, were faster and more accurate when processing large numbers paired with long rather than short durations, whereas the opposite pattern was not evident for small numbers. Moreover, participants were more accurate when judging long durations after having processed large rather than small numbers, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for short durations. We propose that number processing influences time processing more than vice versa, suggesting that numbers and time might be at least partially independently represented. This finding can pave the way for investigating the hierarchical representation of space, numbers, and time

Experimental Studies for the characterization of the mixing processes in negative buoyant jets

A negatively buoyant jet (NBJ) corresponds to the physical phenomenon that develops when a fluid is discharged upwards into a lighter environment or downwards into a heavier receptor fluid. In a NBJ the flow is initially driven mostly by the momentum, so it basically behaves as a simple jet released withthe same angle, while far from the outlet the buoyancy prevails, bending the jet axis down and making it similar to a plume. The coexistence in the same phenomenon of both the characteristics of simple jets and plumes makes the NBJs a phenomenon still not entirely explained but, considering also the numerous practical applications, very interesting to study. Here some of the experimental results are presented. The laboratory experiment were obtained on a model simulating a typical sea discharge of brine from desalination plants: a pipe laid down on the sea bottom, with orifices on its lateral wall, releasing brine (heavier than the sea water) with a certain angle to the horizontal, in order to increase the jet path before sinking to the seafloor. A non-intrusive image analysis technique, namely Feature Tracking Velocimetry, is applied to measure velocity fields, with the aim at understanding the influence of some non-dimensional parameters driving the phenomenon (e.g. Reynolds number, release angle) on the structure of the NBJ and of the turbulence. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013