A DIGITAL BRIDGE FOR COLLABORATION IN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Abstract. The importance of history and the role that culture plays on the population is well defined, but we have never researched culture in a truly collective way. Data digitisation and archiving could be transformed into an exceptional tool for connecting all different users and sectors of cultural heritage into a "Global heritage" interaction and communication. The research undertaken is summarised to the development of a crowdsourcing, interdisciplinary platform, under the name "Heritage for People".The paper consists of 6 sections. The first of these concerns a general description of the problem, linked to the risks of cultural heritage. A closer analysis of the risks present in the historic center of Vienna follows. The third paragraph deals with the tools for planning and protecting the cultural heritage of the Austrian capital. The fourth section introduces the "Heritage for People" tool in which a new online platform is outlined. The fifth chapter is instead dedicated to a description of the possible technologies to be used, while the last section illustrates how the proposed platform can have other applications depending on the cultural heritage

Protocols and strategies to use emergency psychology in the face of an emergency: A systematic review

Background: Trauma survivors are at a high risk of developing mental health problems. Hence, mental help in the form of emergency psychology has to be availed in the aftermath of a traumatizing event. When studied in-depth, emergency psychology comprises protocols, strategies, and techniques that establish it as an interventional activity. Objective: The main of this review is to analyze how emergency psychology services are provided to people, to verify to what extent these interventions are homogeneous in the delivery methods and consequently, facilitate the creation of relevant measures. Consequently, the general view of emergency psychology is reviewed and analyzed to identify the protocols, guidelines, and strategies used. Methods: A search was done on the ScienceDirect, APA PsycINFO, Emerald, and Scopus databases for articles published from 1st January 2017 to 1st April 2022. The reference lists of the identified studies were also screened. Results: After the non-duplicate articles were removed and after filtering the articles according to inclusion criteria, 20 articles were included for the thematic analysis: nine research articles, 10 case study reports, and one randomized controlled trial (RCT). During the analysis, different aspects of emergency psychology were categorized: Responders, Crisis Management and Structure, and types of psychological interventions. This categorization led to the identification of protocols, guidelines, and strategies that can be placed in a sequence to give a general direction of how an emergency psychology intervention is supposed to be carried out. Conclusions: The adopted protocols, guidelines and strategies may vary from one disaster management to another but the main goal will always remain the same

Serious games and eating behaviors: A systematic review of the last 5 years (2018–2022)

Background: Serious game intervention has emerged over the years as a popular strategy for solving the problem of unhealthy eating behavior. This has prompted several scholars to explore its significant impact on eating behaviors, identifying its positive effect on nutritional knowledge and eating behaviors. However, since this research field is yet nascent, an update in knowledge is required to further inform the real-world practice as an alternative intervention for instating healthy eating behavior. Therefore, this current research utilized a systematic review method to reveal the latest state of this concept of a serious game and eating behavior, to identify the position of the literature and shed light on under-researched and emerging areas by recommending future investigations. Method: To achieve the object of this research, four electronic databases- Science Direct, Web of Science (WoS), APA PsyclNFO, and Emerald- were searched using predefined keywords (search string) relating to the review topic. A total of 15,107 results were retrieved from the databases. After title, abstract, and full-text screening, 15 studies were included following inclusion criteria. Key findings: The result of this research demonstrated that various designs of serious games comprise an effective intervention for changing eating behavior in both children and adults and addressed the risks of childhood obesity and overweight. The findings also show that the design of the games is co-designed by different specialists such as a nutritionist, psychologist and developer, among others, as either single or multiple players. The effectiveness of the games was attributed to behavior techniques (BT), cognitive theories (CT), and socio-cognitive theories (SCT) of behavior change technique (BCT), incorporating an element of implicit learning in serious games. Feedback and reward were the most reported influencing strategies and self-reporting the evaluation approach. Conclusion: This research contributed significantly to the body of knowledge in the field of serious games as the most recent review of evidence in the research area. Evidence from 93.33% of the included studies confirmed the effectiveness of serious games in addressing eating behavior. This study concludes that serious games are an effective intervention for improving healthy eating behavior and decreasing unhealthy eating behavior and that various elements of behavior change techniques are essential components of implicit nutritional learning through the games. In addition, it is concluded that the risk of childhood obesity and overweight can be reduced or prevented by leveraging the strength of these games. The need for future research in this field was also pointed out by this study

Robot Assistive Therapy Strategies for Children with Autism

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a category of neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. Social robots offer clinicians new ways to interact and work with people with ASD. Robot-Assisted Training (RAT) is a growing body of research in HRI, which studies how robots can assist and enhance human skills during a task-centred interaction. RAT systems have a wide range of application for children with ASD. Aims: In a pilot RCT with an experimental group and a control group, research aims will be: to assess group differences in repetitive and maladaptive behaviours (RMBs), affective states and performance tasks across sessions and within each group; to assess the perception of family relationships between two groups before and post robot interaction; to develop a robotic app capable to run Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM), a test typically used to measure general human intelligence and to compare the accuracy of the robot to capture the data with that run by psychologists. Material and Methods: Patients with mild or moderate level of ASD will be enrolled in the study which will last 3 years. The sample size is: 60 patients (30 patients will be located in the experimental group and 30 patients will be located in the control group) indicated by an evaluation of the estimated enrolment time. Inclusion criteria will be the following: eligibility of children confirmed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule −2; age ≥ 7 years; clinician judgment during a clinical psychology evaluation; written parental consent approved by the local ethical committee. The study will be conducted over 10 weeks for each participant, with the pretest and post test conducted during the first and last weeks of the study. The training will be provided over the intermediate eight weeks, with one session provided each week, for a total of 8 sessions. Baseline and follow-up evaluation include: socioeconomic status of families will be assessed using the Hollingshead scale; Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) will be used to screen the communication skills and social functioning in children with ASD; Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, 2nd edition (VABS) will be used to assess the capabilities of children in dealing with everyday life; severity and variety of children’s ripetitive behaviours will be also assessed using Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R). Moreover, the perception of family relationships assessment will be run by Portfolio for the validation of parental acceptance and refusal (PARENTS). Expected Results: 1) improbe communication skills; 2) reduced repetitive and maladaptive behaviors; 3) more positive perception of family relationships; 4) improved performance. Conclusions: Robot-Assisted Training aims to train and enhance user (physical or cognitive) skills, through the interaction, and not assist users to complete a task thus a target is to enhance user performance by providing personalized and targeted assistance towards maximizing training and learning effects. Robotics systems can be used to manage therapy sessions, gather and analyse data and like interactions with the patient and generate useful information in the form of reports and graphs, thus are a powerful tool for the therapist to check patient’s progress and facilitate diagnosis

Double mutant cycles as a tool to address folding, binding, and allostery

Quantitative measurement of intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in protein structure is an elusive task, not easy to address experimentally. The phenomenon denoted ‘energetic coupling’ describes short- and long-range interactions between two residues in a protein system. A powerful method to identify and quantitatively characterize long-range interactions and allosteric networks in proteins or protein-ligand complexes is called double-mutant cycles analysis. In this review we describe the thermodynamic principles and basic equations that underlie the double mutant cycle methodology, its fields of application and latest employments, and caveats and pitfalls that the experimentalists must consider. In particular, we show how double mutant cycles can be a powerful tool to investigate allosteric mechanisms in protein binding reactions as well as elusive states in protein folding pathways

A Project to Promote English Learning in Primary School: “An English Island®” E-learning Platform

The present study was aimed to investigate English learning as second language, in school, in first, second and third graders of twelve classes randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group. Children in the latter are exposed during English school teaching to the method “An English Island®” and to its platform activities. The method “An English Island®” offers a variety of strategies for teaching English in primary school, an innovative digital tool that promotes teaching/learning English language’s communicative approach, lead students to become familiar with the language in a sort of continuous, inclusive workout, in which everyone participates and talks. English skills as well as cognitive abilities are tested in both groups at the beginning and at the end of the school year with the aim to compare control and experimental classes in both a longitudinal and a cross-sectional design

Elevated 8-isoprostane levels in basal cell carcinoma and in UVA irradiated skin.

Isoprostanes are prostaglandin isomers produced from the peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids from the cellular membrane. They have been used as a specific index of cellular lipoperoxidation and as an indirect measure of oxidative stress. However, these molecules also present several biological activities. An oxidative environment measured as the presence of other indirect measurements of reactive oxygen species lipoperoxidation has recently been described in basal cell carcinoma, the most frequent type of non-melanoma skin cancer. This study aims to measure the levels of 8-isoprostaglandin F2α, an isoprostane widely studied in other models as a by-product of ROS-induced lipid peroxidation, in basal cell carcinoma and in UVA irradiated healthy skin. We found that 8-iso-PGF2α is present in higher levels in BCC specimens compared to healthy non sun-exposed skin, confirming previous studies on the production of lipoperoxidation in this tumor. Moreover, we demonstrated that topical pre-treatment with a compound containing vitamin E is capable of reducing 8-iso-PGF2α formation in UV irradiated skin suggesting a role for isoprostanes in UV induced inflammation and eventually carcinogenesis and confirming the function of vitamin E as an antioxidant in this model

Templated folding of intrinsically disordered proteins

Much of our current knowledge of biological chemistry is founded in the structure-function relationship, whereby sequence determines structure that determines function. Thus, the discovery that a large fraction of the proteome is intrinsically disordered, while being functional, has revolutionized our understanding of proteins and raised new and interesting questions. Many intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have been determined to undergo a disorder-to-order transition when recognizing their physiological partners, suggesting that their mechanisms of folding are intrinsically different from those observed in globular proteins. However, IDPs also follow some of the classic paradigms established for globular proteins, pointing to important similarities in their behavior. In this review, we compare and contrast the folding mechanisms of globular proteins with the emerging features of binding-induced folding of intrinsically disordered proteins. Specifically, whereas disorder-to-order transitions of intrinsically disordered proteins appear to follow rules of globular protein folding, such as the cooperative nature of the reaction, their folding pathways are remarkably more malleable, due to the heterogeneous nature of their folding nuclei, as probed by analysis of linear free-energy relationship plots. These insights have led to a new model for the disorder-to-order transition in IDPs termed “templated folding,” whereby the binding partner dictates distinct structural transitions en route to product, while ensuring a cooperative folding

Urinary Malondialdehyde (MDA) Concentrations in the General Population-A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.

Oxidative stress has been associated with various inflammation-related human diseases. It is defined as an imbalance between the production and elimination of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can oxidize proteins, lipids, and DNA, and some of these oxidized products are excreted in urine, such as malondialdehyde (MDA), which is considered a biomarker for oxidative damage of lipids. To interpret changes of this biomarker as a measure of oxidative species overproduction in humans, a background range for urinary MDA concentration in the general population is needed. We sought to establish urinary MDA concentration ranges for healthy adult populations based on reported values in the available scientific literature. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using the standardized protocol registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020146623). EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases were searched from journal inception up to October 2020. We included 35 studies (divided into 47 subgroups for the quantitative analysis). Only studies that measured creatinine-corrected urinary MDA with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with mass spectrometry (MS), fluorescence detection, or UV photometry were included. The geometric mean (GM) of urinary MDA concentration was 0.10 mg/g creatinine and 95% percentile confidence interval (CI) 0.07-0.12. Age, geographical location but not sex, and smoking status had a significant effect on urinary MDA concentrations. There was a significant increasing trend of urinary MDA concentrations with age. These urinary MDA values should be considered preliminary, as they are based on mostly moderate to some low-quality evidence studies. Although urinary MDA can reliably reflect excessive oxidative stress in a population, the influence of physiological parameters that affect its meaning needs to be addressed as well as harmonizing the chemical analytical methods