Paths and Technologies in the Life Project of People with Disabilities: International Perspectives and Educational Potential

The purpose of this paper was to analyse the core of the quality of life, intended as a complex construct with specific and transversal features. The approach to this issue, by linking it to the great emergency of disability in adulthood, pushes the analysis into deep conceptual pedagogical reflections, which lead the authors\u2019 initial reflections to focus on the theoretical framework related to the quality of life model and subsequently on the identification of some areas of intervention as a tangible application of the quality of life model. New perspectives and innovative potentials for the quality of life of adults with disability are investigated to reach new awareness, which can also be applied in different life contexts. The paper mentions meaningful trajectories, also from the international scene, aiming to guarantee significantly oriented life trajectories

‘‘Different" bodies: hybridisations and transformations in the biographical storylines of people with disabilities

This article, moving within the conceptual framework of Embodied Cognition (Merleau-Ponty, 1945/2005), aims at investigating the embodied representations of the bodies of people with physical disabilities in identity construction processes. In this way, the article helps to shape a culture that embraces differences and values body diversity. As described by existing literature on the subject (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004; Giaconi, Del Bianco, D’Angelo, Taddei, Caldarelli & Capellini, 2021; Giaconi, Del Bianco, D’Angelo, Taddei & Rodrigues, 2020), the life stories of people with disabilities, including athletes, represent a privileged way to access the processes of signification of corporeity, interpretation of diversity and overcoming of binary logics (male/female, natural/artificial). Indeed, when the hybridisations and transformations of “different” bodies emerge directly from the words of people with disabilities, one can gauge their profound distance from media representations of disability, awash with ableist narrative styles (Bocci, De Castro & Zona, 2020; Giaconi & Capellini, 2019). Following this direction, this article will highlight the possibilities of a pedagogical work intentionally focused on the narratives of athletes with disabilities

Inclusive University didactics and technological devices: a case study

This paper provides a review of projects related to new technologies used to favour the teaching-learning processes and the inclusive practices in the University context for students with disabilities and with Specific Learning Disorders. Authors present a review of strategies, trajectories and perspectives activated in the national and international scene, aiming to guarantee a significant pedagogical framework of reference. Furthermore, the paper focuses on a meaningful path activated at the University of Macerata, the project Inclusion 3.0, a relevant example of new technologies in support of teaching- learning processes and inclusion practices among all students

End-to-end approach to flexible and sustainable commercial spaceflight initiatives: Evaluation of operational scenarios, safety aspects, spaceports and associated economic elements

Multiple initiatives are going on today, aimed at developing new technologies for commercial exploitation of space. The potential benefits of widening up the access to space to a broader users community affect different applications ranging from space tourism to microgravity experimentation to astronauts and pilots training; moreover, in the new space economy users communities may include parties that do not traditionally operate in the space business but can take advantage of microgravity exploitation as an opportunity to carry out experimental activities with potential more significant outcome. The present paper initially approaches commercial access to space by evaluating different mission concepts, technologies and platforms such as suborbital spaceflight, orbital spaceflight, air launch and deployment of small satellites. In order to select the most promising alternative, trade off methodologies, making use of safety, cost and complexity as figures of merit are suggested for the specific case of the suborbital flight. Moreover, the paper describes the outcome of simplified mission simulations, encompassing both suborbital vehicle as well as satellite air launch trajectories predictions. The trajectories simulations can also provide useful inputs to the vehicle design and performance analysis and are instrumental to planning air space operations after lift off from the launch site, as well as to assess logistics and operational aspects. Thus, simulations of really operating environment provide the link to the Spaceport selection process aiming at defining an adequate operating base and a set of proper ground infrastructures that efficiently support in integrated fashion the execution of the planned activities with the selected platforms. An integrated end-to-end approach is also described, that basing upon the specific users' needs identifies the appropriate platform and delivers the associated service matching the relevant goals. The paper finally discusses some economic and organizational aspects for developing a sustainable commercial spaceflight initiative. Ideas for next activities are drawn too, mainly focusing on trajectory validation simulation with real data coming from the initial test campaigns

How the Cathedral Embraced the Bazaar, and the Bazaar Became a Cathedral

Peer reviewe

The Application of Quality of Life in Services for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Lines of intervention in Spain and Italy

The concept of quality of life (QOL) has become a measurable construct of great value to all people, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In particular, the field of IDD is currently experiencing a paradigm shift related to beliefs, assumptions, policies, and practices concerning people with disabilities and their families and the place and role they play in society. This article starts by reconstructing the state of the art of the application of QOL in Social Services, reconstructing its research developments, operational declinations and influences in social policies in Spain and Italy

Characterization of gaze in handwriting of High and Low Frequency Word of Schoolchildren with Dyslexia

Writing is extremely important for our academic and professional life and can affect our performance in productive educational activities, favouring us or not. Schoolchildren with dyslexia bring difficulties and reduced school performance due to their condition of deprivation in written production. This is because schoolchildren with dyslexia have difficulty acquiring spelling knowledge and show poor phonological skills. This study aimed to characterize the performance of schoolchildren with dyslexia in “gaze” for the handwriting of High and Low-frequency words. A total of 24 schoolchildren participated in the study. They were between 8 to 11 years and 11 months of age, of both sexes, and they were attending the 3rd to the 5th year of Elementary School in the city of Marília-SP. The schoolchildren were divided into groups: GI, composed of 12schoolchildren with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of developmental dyslexia, and GII, composed of 12 schoolchildren with good academic performance, paired with GI according to the school grade level. These schoolchildren were submitted to computerized handwriting evaluation using a Brazilian adaptation of the Software Ductus. All schoolchildren were submitted to a copy of words already selected according to Brazilian Portuguese criteria of frequency and codification rule. A measure of “gaze” was used, that is, when the schoolchildren stopped their handwriting to search/look up at the screen to confirm the information about the words. The results indicated a significant difference between GI and GII, with GI schoolchildren performing more gaze when compared with GII, i.e., taking longer motor breaks to perform the gaze. Therefore, there was a rupture in the central processing with the peripheral when the child performed the gauze more times since he had to confirm the characteristics of this word during the writing process (difficulty in accessing the orthographic lexicon) and with that, there was a break in the movement of handwriting (since there was not enough information in the central plane to complete that motor memory and finish the word). It was concluded that there were gaps between the central (orthographic) and peripheral (motor pauses processes, suggesting deficits in the formation of motor programs for GI and the lack of automation of motor processes

Speed and pressure of handwriting as critical issues of the contemporary age: A research in Italian students in early literacy

Among the present critical issues that pedagogy and special teaching have to deal with it is possible to notice the contrast between writing and technology, up to the pertinent field of prevention and observation of dysgraphies. The authors present in the following article a study conducted in Italy aimed at evaluating writing, specifically in the speed and pressure parameters in early literacy using NeuroScript Movalyzer Software. The aim is to implement suitable research paths to support the dissemination of observation procedures and inclusive teaching practices, capable of enhancing the fluidity of writing by all students

The cost function of the data fusion process and its application

When the complete data fusion method is used to fuse inconsistent measurements, it is necessary to add to the measurement covariance matrix of each fusing profile a covariance matrix that takes into account the inconsistencies. A realistic estimate of these inconsistency covariance matrices is required for effectual fused products. We evaluate the possibility of assisting the estimate of the inconsistency covariance matrices using the value of the cost function minimized in the complete data fusion. The analytical expressions of expected value and variance of the cost function are derived. Modelling the inconsistency covariance matrix with one parameter, we determine the value of the parameter that makes the reduced cost function equal to its expected value and use the variance to assign an error to this determination. The quality of the inconsistency covariance matrix determined in this way is tested for simulated measurements of ozone profiles obtained in the thermal infrared in the framework of the Sentinel-4 mission of the Copernicus programme. As expected, the method requires sufficient statistics and poor results are obtained when a small number of profiles are being fused together, but very good results are obtained when the fusion involves a large number of profiles.</p