STOP: A gamified approach to support obese patients in changing their health habits

Obesity is a challenge for the whole world and it is necessary to find new ways to reduce it and to help people in this situation by facilitating the acquisition of healthy habits to replace unhealthy ones. STOP is a project aimed at facing the challenge of obesity through a digital methodology and through a synergy between experts from the industry and academia. By tracing patients' habits, integrating these data with other data already present in databases and providing personalized paths and feedback the «STop Obesity Platform» can be a valuable help for both patients and Healthcare Professionals. All this is inserted in a gamification frame by the creation of an app that establishes an analogy to the wellknown Dorian Gray mirror with the aim of encouraging the performance of the user or the acquisition of healthy behavior through a stimulating and engaging experience. This paper shows the main objectives of the project, defines the general structure of the app and provides some examples of prototype application

Analysis of tourism in Campania as a tool for the development of high-quality cultural services for sightseers: The “Reale Osservatorio Vesuviano” case history

The purpose of this work is to identify the guidelines for the development and diversification of the cultural touristic offer achievable at the Reale Osservatorio Vesuviano (ROV). Founded in 1841, it is the oldest volcano observatory in the world and it has always had the vocation for scientific-naturalistic and formative tourism. The present study investigates the connections between the sociology of tourism and the ROV’s sustainability and competitiveness as a tourist destination. Here it is performed a study of the tourist flow, based on the sociology of tourism and on the correct processing of data sets, distinguishing the ''statistical information on tourism" from "tourism statistics", as such a study is the basis of a proper market strategy in different sectors. Tourism remains, in fact, an important phenomenon in world economy: despite the economic crisis of recent years, international tourist arrivals show a positive development of the trend in all the major sub-areas into which the large international areas are traditionally divided. The principles for a future marketing plan were outlined after collecting all the relevant information. The plan was designed to enhance the overall touristic offer of the ROV, never ceasing to consider the integration of natural- scientific aspects and cultural events to be offered within the observatory itself.Published64-872TM. Divulgazione Scientifica6TM. Poli Museali1VV. AltroN/A or not JC

Adjuvant chemoradiation in pancreatic cancer: Impact of radiotherapy dose on survival

BackgroundTo evaluate the impact of radiation dose on overall survival (OS) in patients treated with adjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).MethodsA multicenter retrospective analysis on 514 patients with PDAC (T1-4; N0-1; M0) treated with surgical resection with macroscopically negative margins (R0-1) followed by adjuvant CRT was performed. Patients were stratified into 4 groups based on radiotherapy doses (group 1: <45Gy, group 2: 45 and<50Gy, group 3: 50 and<55Gy, group 4: 55Gy). Adjuvant chemotherapy was prescribed to 141 patients. Survival functions were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared through the log-rank test.ResultsMedian follow-up was 35months (range: 3-120months). At univariate analysis, a worse OS was recorded in patients with higher preoperative Ca 19.9 levels (90U/ml; p<0.001), higher tumor grade (G3-4, p=0.004), R1 resection (p=0.004), higher pT stage (pT3-4, p=0.002) and positive nodes (p<0.001). Furthermore, patients receiving increasing doses of CRT showed a significantly improved OS. In groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, median OS was 13.0months, 21.0months, 22.0months, and 28.0months, respectively (p=0.004). The significant impact of higher dose was confirmed by multivariate analysis.ConclusionsIncreasing doses of CRT seems to favorably impact on OS in adjuvant setting. The conflicting results of randomized trials on adjuvant CRT in PDAC could be due to <45Gy dose generally used

Regulation of HuR structure and function by dihydrotanshinone-I

The Human antigen R protein (HuR) is an RNA-binding protein that recognizes U/AU-rich elements in diverse RNAs through two RNA-recognition motifs, RRM1 and RRM2, and post-transcriptionally regulates the fate of target RNAs. The natural product dihydrotanshinone-I (DHTS) prevents the association of HuR and target RNAs in vitro and in cultured cells by interfering with the binding of HuR to RNA. Here, we report the structural determinants of the interaction between DHTS and HuR and the impact of DHTS on HuR binding to target mRNAs transcriptome-wide. NMR titration and Molecular Dynamics simulation identified the residues within RRM1 and RRM2 responsible for the interaction between DHTS and HuR. RNA Electromobility Shifts and Alpha Screen Assays showed that DHTS interacts with HuR through the same binding regions as target RNAs, stabilizing HuR in a locked conformation that hampers RNA binding competitively. HuR ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation followed by microarray (RIP-chip) analysis showed that DHTS treatment of HeLa cells paradoxically enriched HuR binding to mRNAs with longer 3'UTR and with higher density of U/AU-rich elements, suggesting that DHTS inhibits the association of HuR to weaker target mRNAs. In vivo, DHTS potently inhibited xenograft tumor growth in a HuR-dependent model without systemic toxicity

The DoCENT role play game: A tool for the training og the digital creativity for teachers

In the framework of the DoCENT project (Digital Creativity ENhanced in Teacher education) co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the authors developed a serious game, based on role playing game methodology. The paper shows the structure of the game with particular results on the management of feedback for the teachers derived from an adaptive tutoring system. The teacher has the possibility to interact with a classroom in a virtual and safe environment and could train the teaching of digital creativity in a real context. In the paper the authors describe the DoCENT game developed on the pedagogical framework of digital creativity, a set of six different students' competences areas. The game includes different scenarios designed in order to cover all the competence areas and train the teacher on each aspect and that cover different digital creativity activities, namely: 1) coding activities for children (i.e. Scratch), 2) tangible user interfaces applications, 3) STEM application with digital interfaces. the feedbacks

An agent-based modelling approach to build up educational digital games for kindergarten and primary schools

Most of the educational materials, such as the exercises contained in activity books or the Montessori-like games that are commonly used in kindergartens and primary schools share a common deep structure and have similar features. Capturing these commonalities in an explanatory model leads to a general framework that may be useful to develop games engine, in particular, digital games for children that enhance the learning and teaching experiences. In this paper, we analyze the structure of above mentioned educational materials and propose to describe it in terms of interacting agents' model. Moreover, we present Block Magic and SNIFF, first two examples of educational Montessori-like games to better explain how this general framework can be employed in educational game developmen

STOP: A gamified approach to support obese patients in changing their health habits

Obesity is a challenge for the whole world and it is necessary to find new ways to reduce it and to help people in this situation by facilitating the acquisition of healthy habits to replace unhealthy ones. STOP is a project aimed at facing the challenge of obesity through a digital methodology and through a synergy between experts from the industry and academia. By tracing patients' habits, integrating these data with other data already present in databases and providing personalized paths and feedback the «STop Obesity Platform» can be a valuable help for both patients and Healthcare Professionals. All this is inserted in a gamification frame by the creation of an app that establishes an analogy to the wellknown Dorian Gray mirror with the aim of encouraging the performance of the user or the acquisition of healthy behavior through a stimulating and engaging experience. This paper shows the main objectives of the project, defines the general structure of the app and provides some examples of prototype application