Semantic and inferencing abilities in children with communication disorders

Background: Semantic and inferencing abilities have not been fully examined in children with communication difficulties. Aims: To investigate the inferential and semantic abilities of children with communication difficulties using newly designed tasks. Methods & Procedures: Children with different types of communication disorder were compared with each other and with three groups of typically developing children: those of the same chronological age and two groups of younger children. In total, 25 children aged 11 years with specific language impairment and 22 children, also 11 years of age, with primary pragmatic difficulties were recruited. Typically developing groups aged 11 (n = 35; age‐match), and those aged 9 (n = 40) and 7 (n = 37; language similar) also participated as comparisons. Outcomes & Results: For Semantic Choices, children with specific language impairment performed significantly more poorly than 9‐ and 11‐year‐olds, whilst the pragmatic difficulties group scored significantly lower than all the typically developing groups. Borderline differences between specific language impairment and pragmatic difficulties groups were found. For inferencing, children with communication impairments performed significantly below the 11‐year‐old peers, but not poorer than 9‐ and 7‐year‐olds, suggesting that this skill is in line with language ability. Six children in the pragmatic difficulties group who met diagnosis for autism performed more poorly than the other two clinical groups on both tasks, but not statistically significantly so. Conclusions: Both tasks were more difficult for those with communication impairments compared with peers. Semantic but not inferencing abilities showed a non‐significant trend for differences between the two clinical groups and children with pragmatic difficulties performed more poorly than all typically developing groups. The tasks may relate to each other in varying ways according to type of communication difficulty

A Terminating Evaluation-Driven Variant of G3i

We present Gbu, a terminating variant of the sequent calculus G3i for intuitionistic propositional logic. Gbu modifies G3i by annotating the sequents so to distinguish rule applications into two phases: an unblocked phase where any rule can be backward applied, and a blocked phase where only right rules can be used. Derivations of Gbu have a trivial translation into G3i. Rules for right implication exploit an evaluation relation, defined on sequents; this is the key tool to avoid the generation of branches of infinite length in proof-search. To prove the completeness of Gbu, we introduce a refutation calculus Rbu for unprovability dual to Gbu. We provide a proof-search procedure that, given a sequent as input, returns either a Rbu-derivation or a Gbu-derivation of it

Anticancer activities of fatty acids and their heterocyclic derivatives

Traditional chemotherapy relies on the premise that rapidly proliferating cancer cells are more likely to be killed by a cytotoxic agent, but in reality, the long-standing problem of chemotherapy is the lack of tumor-specific treatments. Apart from the impact on tumor cells, the drugs’ major limitation is their severe adverse side effects on normal cells and tissues. Nutritional and epidemiological studies have indicated that cancer progression is correlated with the consumption of fatty acids, but the exact mechanisms still remain unknown. In the first part of our review, we discussed the beneficial effects of free fatty acids (saturated and unsaturated) on the progress of carcinogenesis in different tumor cell lines. We presented various mechanisms proposed in the literature, which explain the possible impact on the cells metabolism. The second part describes modifications of different fatty acids with existing anticancer drugs and heterocyclic moieties by condensation reactions. Such conjugations increased the tissue selectivity and made chemotherapy potentially more effective and less toxic in in vivo and in vitro studies. This fatty acid modifications, which change the activity of compounds, their uptake selectivity and alter drug delivery methods, may be the key to unlocking true medical potential of fatty acids

Sviluppo, messa a punto e sperimentazione di un sistema combinato batterie al litio-ferro-fosfato/FER per applicazioni in bassa tensione. Report 1 –Sviluppo sperimentale e perfezionamento degli apparati di controllo e comunicazione.

Il presente documento costituisce il report dell’attività svolta nel periodo ottobre 2012 – marzo 2013 avente per oggetto: “Sviluppo, messa a punto e sperimentazione di un sistema combinato batterie al litioferro-fosfato/FER per applicazioni in bassa tensione”. L’attività s’inquadra come avanzamento delle ricerche svolte nel corso di collaborazioni precedenti con lo sviluppo sperimentale e la realizzazione prototipale di un sistema di controllo ed interfaccia verso la rete di un sistema combinato di accumulo elettrico-generazione FER, della taglia di 20 kW, progettato per applicazioni in bassa tensione tali da consentire l’implementazione di funzionalità innovative improntate al modello “smart” (di tipo Virtual PowerPlant, Demand Response, ect.). Il sistema, progettato e realizzato per operare sia in base a logiche di controllo locale, sia in risposta a segnali di controllo da remoto provenienti dal gestore della rete di distribuzione e/o dal mercato, è dotato di una doppia interfaccia, verso il sistema di potenza e verso i sistemi di telecomunicazione, in entrambi i casi con caratteristiche di bidirezionalità dei flussi (di potenza e di dati). Nel corso della precedente annualità (PAR 2011), sul sistema sviluppato è stata già svolta una campagna di test condotti in laboratorio utilizzando un sistema di accumulo elettrochimico di tipo tradizionale (batterie al piombo). L’attività svolta nella presente annualità ha avuto come obiettivo precipuo l’integrazione nell’apparato di un sistema di accumulo al litio (in sostituzione delle batterie al piombo) con il perfezionamento e la messa a punto, attraverso una campagna di test sperimentali, dell’intero sistema (logico e fisico) di controllo dell’apparato secondo il modello MASs (Multi Agent Systems), integrando i controllori delle unità costituenti il sistema di power conditioning, l’unità di controllo del sistema di protezione d’interfaccia e di comunicazione verso la rete e il BMS (Battery Management System) del pacco batterie. Più in particolare, l’attività di ricerca del DEIM si è articolata in due fasi successive. Nel corso della prima fase, l’attività ha riguardato l’integrazione fisica e funzionale, nel sistema ibrido accumulo-FER, di un pacco batterie costituito da 250 celle al litio-ferro-fosfato (per una capacità complessiva di 16 kWh). A tal fine è stato necessario procedere allo sviluppo hardware e software degli apparati di interfaccia e comunicazione tra i controllori delle unità costituenti il sistema di power conditioning, l’unità di controllo del sistema di protezione d’interfaccia e di comunicazione verso la rete e il BMS (Battery Management System) delle batterie al litio. Il presente documento riporta i risultati di tale attività. Nel corso della seconda fase, oggetto di un successivo report, si relazionerà sui test e le prove a cui il sistema sviluppato sarà soggetto. Le attività di cui al presente report sono state condotte in sinergia con il personale tecnico di ENEA e con la collaborazione dell’azienda Layer Electronics s.r.l. di Erice (TP)

Sviluppo, messa a punto e sperimentazione di un sistema combinato batterie al litio-ferro-fosfato/FER per applicazioni in bassa tensione. Report 2 -Test e prove di funzionamento, anche in connessione con la rete elettrica di distribuzione.

Il presente documento costituisce il report dell’attività svolta nel periodo aprile - settembre 2013 avente per oggetto: “Sviluppo, messa a punto e sperimentazione di un sistema combinato batterie al litio-ferrofosfato/FER per applicazioni in bassa tensione”. Nel corso di tale attività, sono state eseguite molteplici prove in condizioni reali di funzionamento, integrando il sistema sviluppato (comprendente il pacco-batterie al litio-ferro-fosfato per una capacità complessiva di 16 kWh e l’insieme degli apparati di interfaccia - di potenza e di segnale - di controllo e di protezione), in una rete elettrica di distribuzione di bassa tensione attualmente in esercizio, al fine di verificare sperimentalmente sul campo l’operatività delle funzioni di protezione e comunicazione implementate. Nel presente Report: - è descritta la rete alla quale è stato collegato il dispositivo per l’esecuzione dei test e delle prove sperimentali; - sono elencati i test e le prove eseguite; - sono riportate le modalità di esecuzione dei test e delle prove; - è descritto e testato un nuovo algoritmo di gestione del sistema di controllo del dispositivo di accumulo; - sono riportati i risultati dei test e delle prove. Le attività sono state condotte in sinergia con il personale tecnico di ENEA e con la collaborazione dell’azienda Layer Electronics s.r.l. di Erice (TP)

The Influence of the Aspect Ratio on the Lateral Response of the Sheathed Cold Formed Steel Walls

The influence of the aspect ratio on the lateral response of cold formed steel walls is analyzed by three design methodologies. In particular the prediction provided by the AISI Lateral Design, that is at the moment the main document for the design of CFS buildings under horizontal loads, is compared with the results obtained by applying the principles of mechanics and with those provided by non-linear finite element models. This paper presents and discusses in terms of strength and stiffness the validity of the different design methodologies in case of non-conventional wall aspect ratios comparing the numerical results with available experimental data

PO-0940: Feasibility of planning CT to MVCT deformable registration for ìdose of the dayî calculation in helical Tomotherapy

Núm. a Art públic: 1135Digitalitzat per Tecnodo

Music Teacher Education at a Liberal Arts College

In 2012, a committee at a small Midwestern liberal arts college, Lake Forest College, embarked on a journey to create a music education teacher licensure major. Drawing from narrative inquiry, this article reports how the dean of faculty, education department chair, music department chair, and assistant professor of music/music education coordinator collaborated on a curricular creation. Findings from this process included (a) the created music education major, (b) each participant’s rationale for wanting the new music education major, (c) valued components of the music education major, and (d) unique elements of a music education major at a liberal arts college. Implications from this experience could be valuable for music education programs at small liberal arts colleges, those involved in university/school partnerships such as professional development schools, and those looking to advocate for their music education programs across campus

Sequent Calculus in the Topos of Trees

Nakano's "later" modality, inspired by G\"{o}del-L\"{o}b provability logic, has been applied in type systems and program logics to capture guarded recursion. Birkedal et al modelled this modality via the internal logic of the topos of trees. We show that the semantics of the propositional fragment of this logic can be given by linear converse-well-founded intuitionistic Kripke frames, so this logic is a marriage of the intuitionistic modal logic KM and the intermediate logic LC. We therefore call this logic $\mathrm{KM}_{\mathrm{lin}}$. We give a sound and cut-free complete sequent calculus for $\mathrm{KM}_{\mathrm{lin}}$ via a strategy that decomposes implication into its static and irreflexive components. Our calculus provides deterministic and terminating backward proof-search, yields decidability of the logic and the coNP-completeness of its validity problem. Our calculus and decision procedure can be restricted to drop linearity and hence capture KM.Comment: Extended version, with full proof details, of a paper accepted to FoSSaCS 2015 (this version edited to fix some minor typos

Implications of Polarized Pupil Degradation Due to Focal Shifts in Dynamically Ranged Rayleigh Beacons

A dynamically ranged pulsed Rayleigh beacon using sensed wavefronts across a system’s pupil plane is proposed for tomographic quantification of the atmospheric turbulence strength. This method relies on relaying light from a telescope system’s pupil plane to a wavefront sensor and having precise control of the light-blocking mechanisms to filter out scattered light from the unwanted scattering regions along the propagation path. To accomplish this, we tested and incorporated design features into the sensing system that we believe, to the best of our knowledge, are unique. Dynamically changing the range of the beacon source created focal shifts along the optical axis in the telescope sensing system. This effect induced polarization degradation in the optical pupil. As a result, polarization nonuniformity within the Pockels cell resulted in light leakages that corrupted the sensed data signals. To mitigate this unwanted effect, an analysis of the polarization pupil had to be completed for the range of possible Rayleigh beacon source distances, relating the change in polarization to the ability of a Pockels cell to function as an optical shutter. Based on the resultant polarization pupil analysis, careful design of the light relay architecture of the sensing system was necessary to properly capture sensed wavefront data from a series of intended ranges. Results are presented for the engineering design of the Turbulence and Aerosol Research Dynamic Interrogation System sensing system showing the choices made within the trade space and how those choices were made based on an analysis of the polarization pupil. Based on what we learned, recommendations are made to effectively implement a polarization-based Pockels cell shutter system as part of a dynamically ranged Rayleigh beacon system