Making the body tangible: Elementary geometry learning through VR

Given increasing evidence of the importance of sensorimotor experience and meaningful movement in geometry learning and spatial thinking, the potential of digital designs to foster specific movements in mathematical learning is promising. This article reports a study with elementary children engaging with a learning environment designed to support meaningful mathematical movement through the use of two shared, but alternative, representations around Cartesian co-ordinates: a 3D immersive virtual environment, where one child collects flowers from target co-ordinates selected by another child using a 2D visual representation of the virtual garden and person location in space. In this design, the body becomes a ‘tangible’ resource for thinking, learning and joint activity, through bodily experience, and where body movement, position and orientation are made visible to collaborators. A qualitative, multimodal analysis examining collaborative interaction among twenty-one children 8–9 years old shows ways in which the ‘body’ became an instrument for children’s thinking through, and reasoning about, finding positions in space and movement in relation to Cartesian co-ordinates. In particular, it shows how the use of different representations (tangible and visual 2D screen-based) situated the meaning-making process in a space where children, using their bodies, crafted connections between the different representations and used transcending objects to facilitate an integration of the different perspectives

Designing for oral storytelling practices at home: A parental perspective

Storytelling at home is typically an oral practice that supports parents and children to make sense of their family identity. Parents play a key role in crafting the story plot and facilitating the child’s participation in the storytelling process. Yet in the context of digital technology, interaction design researchers have tended to focus on children and how digital storytelling tools can support them in their learning. Adopting a “family lens” the aim of this research is to understand the character of oral storytelling practice and identify opportunities for digital storytelling design. The findings outline a co-design workshop that involved a team of designers and parents, who regularly engaged in oral storytelling. Grounded in a systematic video analysis of the workshop alongside a reflection of the design decisions that unfolded, we contribute four new design opportunities centring on the themes of flexibility, shared experience, minimalism, and autobiographical memories. These opportunities can guide interaction design researchers interested in designing new digital oral storytelling tools for families

Cooled perch effects on performance and well-being traits in caged White Leghorn hens

We assessed the effects of chilled water cooling perches on hen performance and physiological and behavioral parameters under “natural” high temperatures during the 2013 summer with a 4-hour acute heating episode. White Leghorns at 16 wk of age (N = 162) were randomly assigned to 18 cages (n = 9) arranged into 3 units. Each unit was assigned to one of the 3 treatments through 32 wk of age: 1) cooled perches, 2) air perches, and 3) no perches. Chilled water (10◦C) was circulated through the cooled perches when cage ambient temperature exceeded 25◦C. At the age of 27.6 wk, hens were subjected to a 4-hour acute heating episode of 33.3◦C and plasma corticosterone was determined within 2 hours. Egg production was recorded daily. Feed intake and egg and shell quality were measured at 5-week intervals. Feather condition, foot health, adrenal and liver weights, plasma corticosterone, and heat shock protein 70 mRNA were determined at the end of the study at 32 wk of age. The proportion of hens per cage perching, feeding, drinking, panting, and wing spreading was evaluated over one d every 5 wks and on the d of acute heat stress. There were no treatment effects on the measured physiological and production traits except for nail length. Nails were shorter for cooled perch hens than control (P = 0.002) but not air perch hens. Panting and wing spread were observed only on the day of acute heat stress. The onset of both behaviors was delayed for cooled perch hens, and they perched more than air perch hens following acute heat stress (P = 0.001) and at the age 21.4 wk (P = 0.023). Cooled perch hens drank less than control (P = 0.019) but not air perch hens at the age 21.4 wk. These results indicate that thermally cooled perches reduced thermoregulatory behaviors during acute heat stress, but did not affect their performance and physiological parameters under the ambient temperature imposed during this stud

Publisher Correction: Prokineticin receptor 2 affects GnRH3 neuron ontogeny but not fertility in zebrafish

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Indentation of the Pamirs with respect to the northern margin of Tibet: constraints from the Tarim basin sedimentary record

The Pamirs represent the indented westward continuation of the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, dividing the Tarim and Tajik basins. Their evolution may be a key factor influencing aridification of the Asian interior, yet the tectonics of the Pamir Salient are poorly understood. We present a provenance study of the Aertashi section, a Paleogene to late Neogene clastic succession deposited in the Tarim basin to the north of the NW margin of Tibet (the West Kunlun) and to the east of the Pamirs. Our detrital zircon U-Pb ages coupled with zircon fission track, bulk rock Sm-Nd, and petrography data document changes in contributing source terranes during the Oligocene to Miocene, which can be correlated to regional tectonics. We propose a model for the evolution of the Pamir and West Kunlun (WKL), in which the WKL formed topography since at least ~200 Ma. By ~25 Ma, movement along the Pamir-bounding faults such as the Kashgar-Yecheng Transfer System had commenced, marking the onset of Pamir indentation into the Tarim-Tajik basin. This is coincident with basinward expansion of the northern WKL margin, which changed the palaeodrainage pattern within the Kunlun, progressively cutting off the more southerly WKL sources from the Tarim basin. An abrupt change in the provenance and facies of sediments at Aertashi has a maximum age of 14 Ma; this change records when the Pamir indenter had propagated sufficiently far north that the North Pamir was now located proximal to the Aertashi region

The Euphrates-Tigris-Karun river system: Provenance, recycling and dispersal of quartz-poor foreland-basin sediments in arid climate

We present a detailed sediment-provenance study on the modern Euphrates-Tigris-Karun fluvial system and Mesopotamian foreland basin, one of the cradles of humanity. Our rich petrographic and heavy-mineral dataset, integrated by sand geochemistry and U–Pb age spectra of detrital zircons, highlights the several peculiarities of this large source-to-sink sediment-routing system and widens the spectrum of compositions generally assumed as paradigmatic for orogenic settings. Comparison of classical static versus upgraded dynamic petrologic models enhances the power of provenance analysis, and allows us to derive a more refined conceptual model of reference and to verify the limitations of the approach. Sand derived from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen contains abundant lithic grains eroded from carbonates, cherts, mudrocks, arc volcanics, obducted ophiolites and ophiolitic mélanges representing the exposed shallow structural level of the orogen, with relative scarcity of quartz, K-feldspar and mica. This quartz-poor petrographic signature, characterizing the undissected composite tectonic domain of the entire Anatolia-Iranian plateau, is markedly distinct from that of sand shed by more elevated and faster-eroding collision orogens such as the Himalaya. Arid climate in the region allows preservation of chemically unstable grains including carbonate rock fragments and locally even gypsum, and reduces transport capacity of fluvial systems, which dump most of their load in Mesopotamian marshlands upstream of the Arabian/Persian Gulf allochemical carbonate factory. Quartz-poor sediment from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen mixes with quartz-rich recycled sands from Arabia along the western side of the foreland basin, and is traced all along the Gulf shores as far as the Rub' al-Khali sand sea up to 4000 km from Euphrates headwaters

Epidermolisi bollosa acquisita a IgA

L\u2019Epidermolisi Bollosa Acquisita (EBA) \ue8 una rara dermatosi bollosa ad andamento cronico della giunzione dermo-epidermica clinicamente e istopatologicamente polimorfa. E' caratterizzata dalla presenza di autoanticorpi circolanti di tipo IgG, forniti di specifica attivit\ue0 patogena, rivolti contro la porzione C-terminale del procollagene di tipo VII nella sua porzione non collagenica. La variante ad IgA \ue8 ancora pi\uf9 rara (82 casi in letteratura), analoga dal punto di vista clinico e prognostico all'EBA a IgG. Si pu\uf2 associare ad alcune patologie reumatiche o neoplastiche come l\u2019artrite reumatoide ed il linfoma di Hodgkin o all\u2019assunzione di particolari classi di farmaci. Descriviamo il caso di una donna di 61 anni, affetta da LLC a cellule B dal 1996, in progressione di malattia ed in trattamento con Fludarabina, anti-CD20 e Ciclofosfamide, che giungeva alla nostra osservazione per la comparsa di lesioni vescico-bollose al dorso delle mani e dei piedi associate a fragilit\ue0 cutanea al minimo traumatismo da circa 2 anni. Gli esami ematochimici mettevano in evidenza un incremento delle IgM sieriche e la presenza all\u2019elettroforesi sieroproteica di una componente monoclonale IgM kappa in zona gamma1 e di una componente monoclonale IgG kappa in zona gamma. L\u2019IFD su cute sana perilesionale rivelava la presenza di depositi lineari di IgA alla giunzione dermo-epidermica ed una positivit\ue0 nucleare (lupus-like) e intercellulare (pemfigo-like) dei cheratinociti con depositi anche a livello della giunzione dermoepidermica con anti- IgM; IgG e C3 risultavano negativi. L\u2019 IFI su cute splittata dimostrava la presenza di depositi di IgA a livello del pavimento della bolla, mentre su cute sana rivelava la presenza di anticorpi IgM anti-nucleo e anti-giunzione dermo-epidermica. Inoltre si evidenziava la presenza di anticorpi circolanti di tipo punteggiato e fuso mitotico di classe IgM su HEP-2. Il quadro clinico-anamnestico e laboratoristico erano compatibili con un\u2019 epidermolisi bollosa ad IgA e reazione lupus-like/pemphigus-like in assenza di manifestazioni cliniche di queste ultime patologie. Alla paziente, in terapia con anti CD20, \ue8 stata consigliata l\u2019assunzione di Prednisone 12.5 mg/die in caso di aggravamento del quadro clinico. L'interesse del caso risiede nella coesistente presenza di una variante rara di EBA (IgA) con un quadro laboratoristico lupus like e pemphigus like dimostrato all\u2019IFD e IFI in una paziente affetta da LLC

Integrating Human-Centred Design Approach into Sustainable-Oriented 3D Printing Systems

Modern 3D printing systems have become pervasive and widely used both in professional and in informal contexts, including sustainable-oriented ones. However, the risk to create very effective but non-sustainable solutions is very high since 3D printing systems could potentially increase the environmental emergencies and the unsustainable growth. In the transition process toward sustainable ways of production and consumption, the so-called human factor still plays an important role in the achievement of sustainable-oriented actions; it drives the adoption of proper lifestyles that directly and indirectly influence the ways through which such technologies are used. Therefore, future Sustainable 3D Printing Systems should integrate the humans in the systems’ development. This study presents two important results: (a) it presents a set of interdisciplinary ‘Sustainable 3D Printing Systems’, which compose a promising sustainable-oriented scenario useful to support the transition processes toward sustainable designs and productions, and (b) it proposes a new strategy for the integration of human-centred aspects into Sustainable 3D Printing Systems, by combining insights from human-centred design approach

Un caso di linfoma-B sottocutaneo a grandi cellule other (T-cell/histiocytic rich B-cell lymphoma)

Secondo la nuova classificazione WHO/EORTC 2008, i linfomi cutanei rari rappresentano il 5-10% dei linfomi cutanei. Un'entit\ue0 di eccezionale osservazione (1-2% di dei linfomi non-Hodgkin, 16 casi descritti in letteratura) \ue8 rappresentata dal linfoma cutaneo B diffuso a grandi cellule "other" definito T-cell- histiocytic rich B-cell lymphoma. Tale entit\ue0 \ue8 stata descritta per la prima volta nel 1988 e viene riconosciuta come una variante del linfoma B a grandi cellule diffuso. E' pi\uf9 frequentemente primitiva nodale, ma pu\uf2 esordire anche in sede extranodale, come cute, fegato, milza, nasofaringe. Descriviamo il caso di un uomo di 20 anni in buone condizioni di salute; due anni prima il paziente aveva presentato linfoadenopatia laterocervicale sinistra di verosimile natura reattiva. Da circa 1 anno una lesione eritemato-infiltrativa ad evoluzione ulcerativa centrale si sovrapponeva alla linfoadenopatia. L\u2019esame istologico evidenziava un abbondante infiltrato linfo-istiocitario nel derma con una quota di cellule blastiche con immunofenotipo B-linfocitario CD20+, CD79a+, Bcl-6+, MUM-1+; le indagini molecolari evidenziavano una banda di riarrangiamento per la catena pesante delle immunoglobuline. La diagnosi istologica e molecolare era suggestiva per un linfoma B diffuso a grandi cellule \u201cother\u201d, definito T-cell-histiocytic rich B-cell lymphoma; l'analisi citogenetica con microarrays-CGH non evidenziava sbilanciamenti cromosomici. La stadiazione era risultata negativa per la presenza di localizzazioni secondarie/extracutanee del linfoma. Il paziente \ue8 stato sottoposto ad un trattamento di polichemioterapia \u201ctradizionale\u201d, secondo lo schema CHOP, con risoluzione del quadro clinico. Nel nostro paziente l'interessamento primitivo cutaneo/sottocutaneo \ue8 stato associato ad un decorso favorevole con un approccio terapeutico adeguato ai primi stadi della patologia. Nelle forme extracutanee, la progressione della patologia \ue8 associata ad una prognosi generalmente sfavorevole, con frequente coinvolgimento midollare e splenomegalia