Performance Prediction using Neural Network and Confidence Intervals: a Gas Turbine application

The combination of Condition Based monitoring techniques with the predictive capabilities of neural networks represents a topic of central importance when it comes to maximizing production profits and consequently reducing costs and downtime. The ability to plan the best strategy based on the prediction of potential damaging events can represent a significant contribution, especially for the maintenance function. In fact, optimization of the management of the equipment is a fundamental step to guarantee the competitiveness of companies in the current market. In this paper, a tool based on the implementation of Radial Basis Function Neural Networks was developed to support the maintenance function in the decision-making process. In addition to providing an indication of the status of the equipment, the current approach provides an additional level of information in terms of predicting the confidence interval around the prediction of the neural network. The confidence interval combined with the prediction of the future state of the equipment can be of fundamental importance in order to avoid strategic decisions based on a low level knowledge of the system status or prediction performance of the applied algorithm. The developed tool is tested on the prediction of a naval propulsion system gas turbine performance decay, where the statuses of both the turbine and the compressor of the system are predicted as well as predicting their confidence intervals

Silent circulation of Chikungunya virus among pregnant women and newborns in the Western Brazilian Amazon before the first outbreak of chikungunya fever

The prevalence of immunity to Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in pregnant women and newborns in the Western Brazilian Amazon was assessed at a time when previous studies did not report chikungunya fever in the area. In 435 asymptomatic pregnant women and 642 healthy unrelated newborns, the presence of IgM and IgG antibodies to CHIKV were determined by a commercial ELISA. All participants were negative to IgM anti-CHIKV. Anti-CHIKV IgG was identified in 41 (9.4%) pregnant women and 66 (10.3%) newborns. The presence of anti-CHIKV IgG was positively associated with the lowest socioeconomic status in pregnant women (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.15-5.62, p=0.021) and in the newborns’ mothers (OR 5.10, 95% CI 2.15-12.09, p< 0.001). Anti-CHIKV IgG was also associated with maternal age in both, the pregnant women (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.11, p=0.037) and the newborns’mothers (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.03-1.12, p=0.001). Pregnancy outcomes in which the mother or the newborn was anti-CHIKV IgG positive proceeded normally. Negative CHIKV serology was associated with being positive for DENV antibodies and having had malaria during pregnancy. These findings showed that there was already a silent circulation of CHIKV in this Amazon region before the first outbreak of chikungunya fever. Furthermore, seropositivity for CHIKV was surprisingly frequent (10%) in both, pregnant women and newborns, affecting mainly low-income women

Writing to argue: Writing as a tool for oral and written argumentation

This chapter reports an exploratory study conducted by the authors on the role of note-taking, drafting, mapping, and outlining in learning strategies for argumentative writing and speaking. Previous research has highlighted the epistemic function of writing tools in content learning. Further investigation is needed, however, in order to explore the role of writing in supporting strategic learning in argumentative discourse. The aim of this study is to investigate the positive influence on the quality of written and oral argumentation of an intervention about strategic writing tools for argumentation. In particular, we expected that students who attended four workshops on writing tools would show greater improvement in their argumentative performances than students who were involved in curricular activities about written and oral argumentation. The participants were 124 secondary students attending either 11th or 12th grade, and were assigned either to the writing to argue group or to the argumentative discourse group. Participants were administered pre- and post-intervention tests to analyze their performances in argumentative speaking and writing, using several indices of quality. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed a significant effect of the intervention about writing tools for argumentation on the quality of persuasive essay writing, and a moderate effect on the quality of debate speaking. Instruction in writing tools for argumentation thus has the potential to influence the learning of strategies for argumentative writing and speaking, especially when strategic writing tools support the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies

The pleasure of reading and its components. An empirical survey in the primary and secondary schools.

This study investigate the pleasure of reading and its components in children aged 8 to 13 by an empirical research conducted in the primary and in the secondary school. The pleasure is often associated to affective response to reading, but recent studies underline the strong relationship between cognitive and emotive elements. Our attention is focused on the aesthetic area of young reader\u2019s involvement. It was tested the validity of Tellegen\u2019s questionnaire (2001) in Italy. It was administered to 799 pupils. The questionnaire has 50 items and the data have been analyzed by Factor analysis, Path analysis and Analysis of variance. Some principal components of pleasure emerged: the first refers to reading for mood control. It emerged also from Tellegen\u2019s results as the second factor and it was described as a motivational element that promotes rest and distraction. The second factor highlights the power of imagination, while the third factor is an emotional component, which explains a significant part of the pleasure of reading. The latent variables were used to construct a path model, which offers an immediate picture of the multidimensional phenomenon of pleasure, showing the strongest correlations. The analysis of variance found differences of gender, age and sociocultural context. Females are more imaginative than males. There is a substantial difference between the responses of primary school pupils and those of secondary school. In fact, it was found that the pleasure of reading declines with the advancing of the age

Academic Writing: Future primary teachers\u2019 approaches and beliefs.

This research aimed at exploring the implicit theories on academic writing of first-year Education undergraduates, focusing on those who will become primary school teachers. Several studies reported actually how teachers\u2019 beliefs can be strongly related to their students\u2019 beliefs. Of special interest for the present study, Lavelle\u2019s work on writing beliefs and strategies of college students (1993, 1997) yielded five styles in managing writing tasks, associated with two different approaches to writing: deep-elaborative vs. surface-transmissional. We expected that most students involved in the study would express a scholastic approach to writing, with prominence of Procedural and Spontaneous-Impulsive styles. Participants were 231 first-year college students enrolled at a big university in North-East Italy in 2010-2011. Each student was administered the Italian translation of the Inventory of Processes in College Composition (IPCC), a questionnaire developed and validated by Lavelle (1993). Before answering the questionnaire, which took 20 minutes to be completed, participants were also administered a writing test, suitably designed to assess their writing skills. From the results, five patterns of writing beliefs could be yielded, as in Lavelle\u2019s study (1993). Different components emerged though, and new labels had to be assigned to the underlying factors. A prominence of the first pattern could be observed, associated with a Deep-Elaborative approach to academic writing. Participants in this study tended to conceive writing as a transactional process and were aware of its function in the search for personal meaning. Their beliefs about writing as an activity of deep cognitive and affective investment reflect a mature approach, highly desirable in college students

Academic Writing Abilities in Education undergraduate

Past international research highlighted students\u2019 writing difficulties in academic contexts. Particularly our study aims at exploring the writing abilities of Italian college students who will become primary school teachers. 150 freshers were administered a set of writing tasks, suitably designed to assess linguistic (spelling, morphosyntax, punctuation, vocabulary) and textual measures (coherence, cohesion, comprehension and composition). We expected students getting higher scores in linguistic rather than in textual section. Correlations between coherence, cohesion and composition were also hypothesized. Moreover, we expected a relationship between participants\u2019 instructional background and the application of elaborative strategies in composition. Focusing on the synthesis writing task, we analyzed some linguistic and textual features using two indexes built in a previous study by Boscolo, Quarisa & Arf\ue8 (2007). The results indicate that future primary teachers have considerable difficulties in writing, both at linguistic and textual level. Our findings also highlight the need for an improvement in students\u2019 writing competences, whose mastery has proved to be essential for academic success and in future professional contexts

Deep Learning Techniques for Improving Digital Gait Segmentation

Wearable technology for the automatic detection of gait events has recently gained growing interest, enabling advanced analyses that were previously limited to specialist centres and equipment (e.g., instrumented walkway). In this study, we present a novel method based on dilated convolutions for an accurate detection of gait events (initial and final foot contacts) from wearable inertial sensors. A rich dataset has been used to validate the method, featuring 71 people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 67 healthy control subjects. Multiple sensors have been considered, one located on the fifth lumbar vertebrae and two on the ankles. The aims of this study were: (i) to apply deep learning (DL) techniques on wearable sensor data for gait segmentation and quantification in older adults and in people with PD; (ii) to validate the proposed technique for measuring gait against traditional gold standard laboratory reference and a widely used algorithm based on wavelet transforms (WT); (iii) to assess the performance of DL methods in assessing high-level gait characteristics, with focus on stride, stance and swing related features. The results showed a high reliability of the proposed approach, which achieves temporal errors considerably smaller than WT, in particular for the detection of final contacts, with an inter-quartile range below 70 ms in the worst case. This study showes encouraging results, and paves the road for further research, addressing the effectiveness and the generalization of data-driven learning systems for accurate event detection in challenging conditions

Scrivere testi in 9 mosse. Curricolo verticale di scrittura per la scuola primaria e secondaria di primo grado

Il volume propone un metodo innovativo per accompagnare docenti e alunni di scuola primaria e secondaria di primo grado nell\u2019insegnamento e apprendimento dei processi di scrittura, con proposte operative flessibili.Facendo riferimento agli studi di matrice cognitivista e socio-costruttivista, si forniscono indicazioni metodologiche e materiali per allestire contesti laboratoriali centrati sulle tipologie di testo narrativo, espositivo, argomentativo.Una serie di Guide procedurali, metacognitive e per l\u2019autoregolazione con schede, questionari e percorsi di automonitoraggio promuovono l\u2019autonomia degli alunni nell\u2019impiego di strategie per la produzione del testo scritto.All\u2019insegnante sono rivolti suggerimenti e strumenti per allestire ambienti funzionali all\u2019apprendimento dello scrivere, condurre percorsi laboratoriali per insegnare a comporre testi, valutare le produzioni scritte.All\u2019alunno sono destinate schede e attivit\ue0 per imparare a scrivere per raccontare, scrivere per studiare e per esporre, scrivere per sostenere idee e convincere.La sezione dei Repertori presenta ricche risorse per produrre testi in un contesto partecipativo ancora pi\uf9 coinvolgente e motivante

Didattica generale e disciplinare

La collana è intitolata al rapporto tra la Didattica generale e le Didattiche disciplinari. La possibilità di individuare una relazione tra i due ambiti di studio nasce dall’esigenza di riconoscere, in senso sia epistemologico sia pedagogico-didattico, che essi intercettano lo stesso campo di esperienza: quello dei processi di insegnamento e apprendimento scolastico. Tuttavia, pur guardando allo stesso oggetto esse vi scorgono prospettive, dimensioni e problematiche differenti. In altri termini, pur prendendo in esame lo stesso campo di esperienza, la Didattica generale e le Didattiche disciplinari individuano e studiano fenomeni e questioni didattiche ciascuna a partire dal proprio sistema di costrutti concettuali, di modelli teorici ed epistemologici di riferimento e adottando metodi di indagine adeguati ai rispettivi impianti teorici e alle problematiche specifiche. Da questo punto di vista, la relazione tra Didattica generale e Didattiche disciplinari riguarda la possibilità di rivolgere alle situazioni di insegnamento e apprendimento uno sguardo molteplice, che integra e modula quadri epistemologici, approcci e strumenti metodologici diversi, promuovendo una costruzione di conoscenza più acuta, ricca e pluralistica di quella che saremmo in grado di raggiungere a partire da un unico campo di ricerca. Peraltro, l’espressione Didattica disciplinare, declinata al singolare anziché al plurale, evidenzia il tentativo di rintracciare, attraverso il confronto tra categorie e metodi di indagine, una matrice comune tra le diverse Didattiche disciplinari, allo scopo di illuminare e approfondire lo studio delle relazioni e dei processi che hanno luogo all’interno del triangolo didattico Insegnante-allievo-sapere, inteso come struttura concettuale invariante delle situazioni di insegnamento e apprendimento. Una tale condivisione appare d’altra parte auspicabile in vista sia della reciproca intelligibilità delle acquisizioni della ricerca, sia della applicabilità di queste ultime ai contesti della pratica educativa e didattica. La collana si articola in due diverse sezioni. La prima, Fondamenti e modelli, accoglie contributi di ricerca teorica e empirica tesi a definire gli assetti epistemologici degli approcci generale e disciplinare alla didattica. La seconda, Ricerche e pratiche didattiche, accoglie da un lato le ricerche empiriche che mirano ad indagare aspetti specifici delle pratiche didattiche con sguardo trasversale rispetto ai diversi ambiti del sapere; e dall’altro lato raccoglie contributi esperienziali e di riflessione sulle pratiche stesse, corredati da impianti metodologici sistematici e rigorosi, che possano offrire ad insegnanti e professionisti dell’educazione strumenti utili per ripensare la progettazione e l’azione didattica