An optical study of interdiffusion in ZnSe/ZnCdSe

Copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 69, 1579 (1996) and may be found at

Virtual Reality and Spatial Augmented Reality for Social Inclusion: The “Includiamoci” Project

Extended Reality (XR) technology represents an innovative tool to address the challenges of the present, as it allows for experimentation with new solutions in terms of content creation and its fruition by different types of users. The potential to modulate the experience based on the target audience’s needs and the project’s objectives makes XR suitable for creating new accessibility solutions. The “Includiamoci” project was carried out with the aim of creating workshops on social inclusion through the combination of art and technology. Specifically, the experimentation involved ten young people between the ages of 28 and 50, with cognitive disabilities, who participated in Extended Reality workshops and Art Therapy workshops. In the course of these activities, the outputs obtained were two: a virtual museum, populated by the participants’ works, and a digital set design for a theatrical performance. Through two tests, one on user experience (UX) and one on the degree of well-being, the effectiveness of the entire project was evaluated. In conclusion, the project demonstrated how the adopted solutions were appropriate to the objectives, increasing our knowledge of UX for a target audience with specific user needs and using XR in the context of social inclusion

A Video Mapping Performance as an Innovative Tool to Bring to Life and Narrate a Pictorial Cycle

Video mapping is defined as a particular form of augmented reality capable of transforming any surface, flat or irregular, into a dynamic surface capable of enriching human sensory perception. Video mapping projections can become a medium to link the historical facts and the location by means of the valorisation of the monument and narration of its story through images and sounds. This paper aims to show how video mapping, beyond its purely technological aspect, can be linked to cultural heritage and represents a tool capable of becoming a mediator of culture, tradition, and legends. It is used to pass on and tell the legend of the foundation of the present Cathedral of Maria Santissima della Madia in Monopoli through the animation of the pictorial cycle by Nicolò Maria Signorile preserved in the church

Virtual reality for the enhancement of cultural tangible and intangible heritage: The case study of the Castle of Corsano

This paper concerns the development of an immersive VR application for the enhancement of an inaccessible old Castle in Corsano, a small village in Salento - Italy. Starting from the 3D reconstruction of the building, the project allowed the development of an interaction system aimed at providing the user with the historical information about the Castle. These contents come from the analysis of the tangible cultural heritage (such as the architectural elements, the furniture, the decorative motifs of the castle, and their evolution through the centuries), but also from the collection of intangible heritage, such as reminiscences on folk customs and traditions related to the context of the castle. Moreover, in order to evaluate the user experience of the developed application, some tests were carried out on a heterogeneous sample of users, obtaining positive feedback on the degree of immersiveness and sense of presence of the application

Structural and Functional Analysis of Murine Polyomavirus Capsid Proteins Establish the Determinants of Ligand Recognition and Pathogenicity

Murine polyomavirus (MuPyV) causes tumors of various origins in newborn mice and hamsters. Infection is initiated by attachment of the virus to ganglioside receptors at the cell surface. Single amino acid exchanges in the receptor-binding pocket of the major capsid protein VP1 are known to drastically alter tumorigenicity and spread in closely related MuPyV strains. The virus represents a rare example of differential receptor recognition directly influencing viral pathogenicity, although the factors underlying these differences remain unclear. We performed structural and functional analyses of three MuPyV strains with strikingly different pathogenicities: the low-tumorigenicity strain RA, the high-pathogenicity strain PTA, and the rapidly growing, lethal laboratory isolate strain LID. Using ganglioside deficient mouse embryo fibroblasts, we show that addition of specific gangliosides restores infectability for all strains, and we uncover a complex relationship between virus attachment and infection. We identify a new infectious ganglioside receptor that carries an additional linear [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid. Crystal structures of all three strains complexed with representative oligosaccharides from the three main pathways of ganglioside biosynthesis provide the molecular basis of receptor recognition. All strains bind to a range of sialylated glycans featuring the central [α-2,3]-linked sialic acid present in the established receptors GD1a and GT1b, but the presence of additional sialic acids modulates binding. An extra [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid engages a protein pocket that is conserved among the three strains, while another, [α-2,6]-linked branching sialic acid lies near the strain-defining amino acids but can be accommodated by all strains. By comparing electron density of the oligosaccharides within the binding pockets at various concentrations, we show that the [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid increases the strength of binding. Moreover, the amino acid exchanges have subtle effects on their affinity for the validated receptor GD1a. Our results indicate that both receptor specificity and affinity influence MuPyV pathogenesis

Extended Reality Technologies and Social Inclusion: The Role of Virtual Reality in Includiamoci Project

In recent years we have witnessed a great change in the school and education system, that shifted from a culture of integration to a culture of inclusion, aimed at creating a condition of equal opportunity and making the uniqueness of individual, strength, and enrichment for all. Digital technologies are important to support the social inclusion of people with physical and mental disabilities because they enable the overcoming of some real-world barriers, and among these technologies, Virtual Reality plays an important role. The purpose of this paper is to examine the partial outputs of the activities carried out by the Augmented and Virtual Reality Laboratory (AVR Lab) as part of the “Includiamoci” project and to discuss the first results. In particular, the contribution concerns the implementation of a virtual museum aimed at ho using the works of art created by participants as part of Art Therapy sessions: within this, participants are active subjects, prosumers of the experience, as they generate it, narrate it and enjoy it, by means of a Virtual Reality (VR) headset