Promoting STEM via UMI: an Ecological Framing of CoPs in Networking and Networked Robotics

Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing and Internet of Things (UMI) technologies, are widely diffused in the everyday life. In addition to their primary usage (e.g., supporting the implementation of the future 5G network),these technologies can be used in the context of Science Education.According to this perspective, the innovative psycho-pedagogical approach here presented has been ad-hoc developed for the Horizon 2020 Project “Exploiting Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing and the Internet of Things to promote Science Education” (Umi-Sci-Ed). The aim of the project is to enhance knowledge and skills of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and to promote positive attitudes towards these disciplines. In order to reach this goal, the UMI technologies, framed in the Community of Practices (CoPs) paradigm, will be introduced in the learning process of secondary schools’ students (i.e., 9thand 10thgrade). Specifically, the students will attend to innovative learning activities, such as hands-on activities, concerning with Networking and networked Robotics. In the present contribution, the theoretical framework that constitutes the rationale for the Umi-Sci-Ed projectwill be described. In particular, the “bottom-up” socio-constructionist perspective will be presented, aswell as the main technological tools (e.g., UDOO) that would be used to implement an integrated STEM learning environment. The expected results of the project will be discussed

Fate of terrigenous organic carbon in muddy clinothems on continental shelves revealed by stratal geometries: Insight from the Adriatic sedimentary archive

Continental shelves host 90% of modern Organic Carbon (OC) burial and play a key role in the sequestration of terrigenous OC over geological timescales. The efficiency of OC burial in these systems, however, varies greatly depending on the duration of exposure to oxic-suboxic conditions during sediment transport. In this study, we use observations across a wide range of stratigraphic and sedimentological scales coupled with geochemistry data from muddy shelf deposits along the western Adriatic to investigate the relation between sediment transport and burial of terrigenous (land-derived) fraction of OC (OCTerr). Our analysis focused on the Little Ice Age (LIA, 1500-1850 CE) interval, which was characterized by wet, cold, and stormy weather conditions, before the time of widespread regulation and damming of rivers. On the Adriatic shelf, LIA deposits are organized as clinothem: strata that dip gently seawards. The LIA clinothem becomes progressively steeper and deeper from north to south. Basin-scale seismic-stratigraphic analysis and biogeochemical data show evidence of elongated stratal units associated with low OCTerr content in the northern sector of the LIA clinothem, whereas farther south, where clinoforms are steeper, the LIA clinothem exhibits wavy stratal units with limited cross-shelf continuity and high OCTerr concentrations. Based on these data we infer two contrasting scenarios for OCTerr deposition during the LIA: 1) protracted sediment redistribution under the influence of coastal currents with efficient OCTerr degradation prior to final burial in the northern sector; and (2) rapid deposition of OCTerr-rich event beds as a result of flood-driven hyperpycnal flows with limited dispersion across the shelf in the southern sector. The latter scenario of deposition resulted in scattered hot spots of OCTerr burial along the apparently homogeneous western Adriatic shelf deposit. Our work documents significant lateral variability of a fine-grained system in which hot spots of OCTerr can be preserved in scattered prodelta bedsets (<1 km in across-shelf lateral continuity) over a 600 km long shelf. Shelfal clinothems worldwide should not be considered as homogeneous pools of OCTerr because of the influence of river, storm, and oceanic currents

Rapid Atlantification along the Fram Strait at the beginning of the 20th century.

The recent expansion of Atlantic waters into the Arctic Ocean represents undisputable evidence of the rapid changes occurring in this region. Understanding the past variability of this “Atlantification” is thus crucial in providing a longer perspective on the modern Arctic changes. Here, we reconstruct the history of Atlantification along the eastern Fram Strait during the past 800 years using precisely dated paleoceanographic records based on organic biomarkers and benthic foraminiferal data. Our results show rapid changes in water mass properties that commenced in the early 20th century—several decades before the documented Atlantification by instrumental records. Comparison with regional records suggests a poleward expansion of subtropical waters since the end of the Little Ice Age in response to a rapid hydrographic reorganization in the North Atlantic. Understanding of this mechanism will require further investigations using climate model simulations

L' impatto del COVID-19 sull'economia. 10 proposte per la ripartenza. Un'analisi fondata sullo studio della provincia di Pisa.

Il presente lavoro, ultimato a inizio luglio 2020, e' il frutto della collaborazione di un gruppo di docenti e ricercatori che operano nei Dipartimenti di Economia e Management, Giurisprudenza e Scienze Politiche dell’Universita' di Pisa. Nato sulla base di una richiesta della Prefettura di Pisa all’Ateneo pisano in piena emergenza sanitaria, esso si propone lo scopo di fornire un’analisi degli effetti che l’emergenza COVID-19 ha avuto sul tessuto economico e sociale della provincia di Pisa e, alla luce dei risultati ottenuti, effettuare alcune “proposte per la ripartenza” per i prossimi mesi. Il convincimento degli autori che questo contributo di analisi e proposte, ancorche' riguardante la realta' territoriale della provincia di Pisa, possa avere una qualche utilita' anche per altre realta' provinciali e regionali, nonche' per quella nazionale. La ragione di tale convinzione e' duplice. Da un lato, l’approccio utilizzato, basato sulla multidisciplinarieta' e sul coinvolgimento delle realtà socio-economiche e istituzionali del territorio, rappresenta un metodo essenziale e generale per la piena comprensione di una realta' nuova e assai complessa quale quella derivante dall’emergenza COVID-19. Gli autori, provenienti da settori scientifici diversi quali l’ambito aziendale, economico, statistico, giuridico e sociolopsicologico, sono stati i primi a rendersi conto di quanto tale metodo di “messa a sistema” delle informazioni e degli attori economici e istituzionali della provincia fosse cruciale, ancorche' inusuale rispetto al carattere tipicamente specialistico delle ricerche in ambito accademico. Dall’altro lato, le proposte contenute nel lavoro, e che sono riportate in modo sintetico val termine di questa introduzione, sono il frutto dell’analisi quantitativa e qualitativa contenuta nei primi capitoli e rappresentano un esempio di come le scienze sociali possano fornire una base informativa essenziale per processi decisionali basati sui fatti (quelli che in ambito scientifico vengono definiti “evidenze empiriche”). In altre parole, le proposte hanno valenza generale, in quanto mettono in evidenza problemi e ipotizzano soluzioni che sono comuni a tutto il territorio nazionale. Il lavoro, organizzato come segue. Il primo capitolo presenta un’analisi strutturalee dinamica dell’economia della provincia di Pisa nel periodo precedente alla crisi sanitaria. Il secondo capitolo contiene una lettura dell’impatto economico, sociale e sanitario dell’emergenza COVID-19 e delle misure di contrasto messe in campo dal governo nei mesi iniziali della crisi (marzo-giugno 2020). Il terzo capitolo contiene un approfondimento dell’analisi economico-aziendale svolta. L’impatto del COVID-19 sull’economia alcuni settori emersi come rilevanti per l’economia provinciale. Il quarto capitolo svolge riflessioni e proposte in ambito giuridico, il quinto capitolo chiude il lavoro presentando alcune proposte di policy. Gli autori desiderano ringraziare il Prefetto di Pisa, per l’attivita' di supporto istituzionale, il Rettore dell’Universita' di Pisa, e tutti gli attori istituzionali e socio-economici che hanno collaborato direttamente – mediante incontri e interviste ‒ o indirettamente – attraverso la messa a disposizione dei dati e informazioni ‒ alla stesura del lavoro

Towards a Muon Collider

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10 TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work.Comment: 118 pages, 103 figure

Towards a muon collider

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10 TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Funder: Funder: Fundación bancaria ‘La Caixa’ Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: Grifols SA Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: European Union/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Number: 115975 Funder: JPco-fuND FP-829-029 Number: 733051061Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer's disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer's disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer's disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer's disease

Erratum: Towards a muon collider

The original online version of this article was revised: The additional reference [139] has been added. Tao Han’s ORICD ID has been incorrectly assigned to Chengcheng Han and Chengcheng Han’s ORCID ID to Tao Han. Yang Ma’s ORCID ID has been incorrectly assigned to Lianliang Ma, and Lianliang Ma’s ORCID ID to Yang Ma. The original article has been corrected