Spice-up your coding lessons with the ACME approach

It is nowadays considered a fundamental skill for students and citizens the capacity of undertaking a problem-solving process in various disciplines (including STEM, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) using distinctive techniques that are typical of computer science. These abilities are usually called Computational Thinking and at the roots of them stands the knowledge of coding. With the goal of encouraging Computational Thinking in young students, we discuss tools and techniques to support the teaching and the learning of coding in school curricula. It is well known that this problem is complex due to the fact that it requires abstraction capabilities and complex cognitive skills such as procedural and conditional reasoning, planning, and analogical reasoning. In this paper, we present ACME (“Code Animation by Evolved Metaphors”) that stands at the foundation of the Diogene-CT code visualization environment and methodology. We discuss visual metaphors for both procedural and object-oriented programming. Based on them, we introduce a playground architecture to support teaching and learning of the principles of coding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scalable code visualization tool using consistent metaphors in the field of Computing Education Research (CER)

Diogene-CT: tools and methodologies for teaching and learning coding

Computational thinking is the capacity of undertaking a problem-solving process in various disciplines (including STEM, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) using distinctive techniques that are typical of computer science. It is nowadays considered a fundamental skill for students and citizens, that has the potential to affect future generations. At the roots of computational-thinking abilities stands the knowledge of computer programming, i.e. coding. With the goal of fostering computational thinking in young students, we address the challenging and open problem of using methods, tools and techniques to support teaching and learning of computer-programming skills in school curricula of the secondary grade and university courses. This problem is made complex by several factors. In fact, coding requires abstraction capabilities and complex cognitive skills such as procedural and conditional reasoning, planning, and analogical reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a new paradigm called ACME (“Code Animation by Evolved Metaphors”) that stands at the foundation of the Diogene-CT code visualization environment and methodology. We develop consistent visual metaphors for both procedural and object-oriented programming. Based on the metaphors, we introduce a playground architecture to support teaching and learning of the principles of coding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scalable code visualization tool using consistent metaphors in the field of the Computing Education Research (CER). It might be considered as a new kind of tools named as code visualization environments

The chemical etching as a method for post-processing of 3D cellular structures obtained by electron-beam melting: limitations and difficulties

Chemical etching is a promising method for post-surface treatment and the removal of residual powder from implants obtained using electron beam cladding. Partially sintered powder particles that remained on the implants surface can be difficult to remove from the internal structure of the additively manufactured specimens. In order to remove residual powder from scaffolds' interior, an aqueous solution of HF and HNO3 acids was used. Multiple immersion was more effective to remove the remaining powder, which was explained from the chemical point of view. The influence of the chemical etching on mechanical properties, mechanical behavior, fracture modes, and morphology was investigated

Legal linked data ecosystems and the rule of law

This chapter introduces the notions of meta-rule of law and socio-legal ecosystems to both foster and regulate linked democracy. It explores the way of stimulating innovative regulations and building a regulatory quadrant for the rule of law. The chapter summarises briefly (i) the notions of responsive, better and smart regulation; (ii) requirements for legal interchange languages (legal interoperability); (iii) and cognitive ecology approaches. It shows how the protections of the substantive rule of law can be embedded into the semantic languages of the web of data and reflects on the conditions that make possible their enactment and implementation as a socio-legal ecosystem. The chapter suggests in the end a reusable multi-levelled meta-model and four notions of legal validity: positive, composite, formal, and ecological

A problem solving model for regulatory policy making

In this paper we discuss how the interests and field theory promoted by public administration as a stakeholder in policy argumentation, directly arise from its problem solving activities, using the framework for public administration problem solving we proposed in [1,2]. We propose that calls for change of policy in public administration mainly arise from model-based diagnosis problem solving

Computational Discovery of Transaction-Based Financial Crime via Grammatical Evolution: The Case of Ponzi Schemes

The financial sector continues to experience wide digitalization; the resulting transactional activity creates large amounts of data, in principle enabling public and private actors to better understand the social domain they operate on, possibly facilitating the design of interventions to reduce illegal activity. However, the adversarial nature of frauds and the relatively low amount of observed instances make the problem especially challenging with standard statistical-based methods. To address such fundamental issues to non-compliance detection, this paper presents a proof-of-concept of a methodological framework based on automated discovery of instances of non-compliant behaviour in a simulation environment via grammatical evolution. We illustrate the methodology with an experiment capable of discovering two known types of Ponzi schemes from a modest set of assumptions

Computational Discovery of Transaction-Based Financial Crime via Grammatical Evolution: The Case of Ponzi Schemes

The financial sector continues to experience wide digitalization; the resulting transactional activity creates large amounts of data, in principle enabling public and private actors to better understand the social domain they operate on, possibly facilitating the design of interventions to reduce illegal activity. However, the adversarial nature of frauds and the relatively low amount of observed instances make the problem especially challenging with standard statistical-based methods. To address such fundamental issues to non-compliance detection, this paper presents a proof-of-concept of a methodological framework based on automated discovery of instances of non-compliant behaviour in a simulation environment via grammatical evolution. We illustrate the methodology with an experiment capable of discovering two known types of Ponzi schemes from a modest set of assumptions

Hemodialysis vascular access: everything you always wanted to know about it (but were afraid to ask)

Vascular accesses are essential for effective dialysis treatment. Arteriovenous fistulas, grafts and central venous catheters are the options available to the nephrologist, but they all have their pros and cons. All of the 3 types of vascular access share the same complications but at different rates, and their costs vary enormously, with on balance the arteriovenous fistula being the best choice. Nevertheless, recently the number of incident patients starting dialysis treatment with a venous catheter as vascular access has been steadily increasing. This is true even for more advanced countries such as the United States, where despite the efforts made to promote the use of fistulas, their prevalence is still low compared with Europe. Moreover, nowadays nephrologists are required to master technical skills that once were those of surgeons and to perform interventions to preserve the patency of the access. The aim of this paper is to review the prevalence, benefits and complications of the different vascular accesses in light of the most recent finding

Hemodialysis vascular access: everything you always wanted to know about it (but were afraid to ask)

Vascular accesses are essential for effective dialysis treatment. Arteriovenous fistulas, grafts and central venous catheters are the options available to the nephrologist, but they all have their pros and cons. All of the 3 types of vascular access share the same complications but at different rates, and their costs vary enormously, with on balance the arteriovenous fistula being the best choice. Nevertheless, recently the number of incident patients starting dialysis treatment with a venous catheter as vascular access has been steadily increasing. This is true even for more advanced countries such as the United States, where despite the efforts made to promote the use of fistulas, their prevalence is still low compared with Europe. Moreover, nowadays nephrologists are required to master technical skills that once were those of surgeons and to perform interventions to preserve the patency of the access. The aim of this paper is to review the prevalence, benefits and complications of the different vascular accesses in light of the most recent finding