Intelligent Agents supporting user interactions within self regulated learning processes

The paper focuses on the main advantages in the defnition and utilization of an open and modular e-learning software platform to support highly cognitive tasks performed by the main actors of the learning process. We present in detail the integration inside the platform of two intelligent agents devoted to talking with the student and to retrieving new information sources on the Web. The process is triggered as a reply to the system’s perception that the student feels discontented with the presented contents. The architecture is detailed, and some conclusions about the growth of the platform’s overall performance are expressed.

Analisi filogenetica condotta su ceppi di Bovine Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) isolati in Sicilia

La Diarrea Virale del Bovino-Malattia delle Mucose, è una malattia infettiva che colpisce i bovini, ampiamente diffusa a livello mondiale. L’agente infettivo responsabile è un virus provvisto di envelope e con un genoma ad RNA a singolo filamento e a polarità positiva, appartenente al genere Pestivirus, famiglia Flaviviridae. A causa dell’elevata capacità di andare in contro a mutazioni genetiche, esistono numerose varianti di BVDV con diverso assetto antigenico e differente patogenicità. Ad oggi sono noti due genotipi: il BVDV-I e il BVDV-II. Il BVDV-I comprende almeno 13 sottotipi, mentre ne sono stati descritti solo 2 per il BVDV-II. Quest’ultimo, poco diffuso nel nostro territorio, è re…

Quality controls for cell cultures: identification of interspecies cross-contamination by PCR-RFLP analysis of the cytochrome b gene

Cross-contaminations of a cell line with cells of different species represent a potential risk in laboratories handling human and animal cells. Therefore, it is necessary to control such contaminations. Tests based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are used in forensic analysis, phylogenetic studies and in food authentication. However, the use of mtDNA in quality controls of cell cultures is recent. Mitochondrial sequence differences of closely related animal species are five- to tenfold higher than those of nuclear genes. On the contrary, intraspecies variation in mitochondrial sequences is low in most animal species. Moreover, each cell contains 100–10.000 mitochondrial genomes. The amount of …

Analisi biomolecolare di ceppi di Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) in furetti domestici (Mustela putorius furo)

L’agente eziologico del cimurro (CDV) appartiene alla famiglia Paramyxoviridae, genere Morbillivirus ed è causa di una patologia infettiva e contagiosa in canidi, mustelidi e procionidi. Gli Autori, descrivono un caso clinico di cimurro in due furetti domestici vaccinati con un ceppo Onderstepoort avianizzato. e la caratterizzazione biomolecolare del CDV isolato. I furetti presentavano un quadro clinico caratterizzato da dermatite pruriginosa e squamo-purulenta, alla regione del mento, peri-labiale, peri-vulvare ed al condotto uditivo esterno. I soggetti venivano a morte tre settimane dopo l’esordio dei sintomi. I campioni di croste prelevati sono stati sottoposti ad estrazione degli acidi …

Diagnosi di enteriti infettive di origine virale nel cane

Canine Viral Enteritis are widespread in farms and kennels. Responsible viruses are Parvovirus (CPV), Coronavirus (CCoV), Rotavirus (CRV) and Distemper Virus (CDV). Aim of this study was to assess their prevalence in Sicily and to characterize the strains isolated during 2009-2012. For this purpose, samples (stools, rectal swabs, intestine, liver, spleen, heart, lung, brain) collected from dogs were analyzed by PCR, RT-PCR and Real Time RT-PCR. Positive samples were processed for virus isolation on cell lines. Viruses isolated were analyzed by RFLP and sequencing for molecular characterization. Results show an high prevalence of CPV infection in dogs, followed by CCoV, CRV and CDV. CPV prev…

Formal Description of Web User Interfaces for Automatic Generation

Evidenza di un caso di epatite infettiva del cane in Sicilia

L’Adenovirus Canino di tipo 1 (CAV-1), appartenente al genere Mastadenovirus, famiglia Adenoviridae, è l’agente causale dell’epatite infettiva del cane (ICH). Il virus replica negli endoteli vascolari e negli epatociti, causando epatite necrotico emorragica acuta. I sintomi neurologici sono rari e sono causati da una vasculite del SNC. Negli ultimi anni, la diffusa vaccinazione ha ridotto la circolazione di CAV-1 ed i casi clinici segnalati sono diventati rari ed isolati. In questo lavoro, gli Autori descrivono un caso clinico in un cucciolo di 2 mesi, non vaccinato, con febbre, prostrazione, convulsioni, vomito, diarrea ed esito infausto in una settimana. A seguito dell’esame autoptico, so…

In vitro production of differentiated Endotelual Cells from Mesenchimal Stem Cells, collected from adult rat Adipose Tissue (AD-MSCs): preliminary results

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that reside within various tissues, including adipose tissue and bone marrow. Research concerning the potential therapeutic role of MSCs has advanced significantly over the last decade. Many studies have demonstrated that adipose tissue is an excellent source of MSCs (AD-MSCs), easily accessible in experimental animals. AD-MSCs can be expanded in vitro over the short term and they can differentiate toward a variety of cell types of mesodermal lineage. Therefore, they are thought an attractive tool for cell therapy. Selection of appropriate animal models for preclinical evaluations is crucial for optimization and validation of therapeutic p…

A computer support system to support diagnosis by imaging and its experimental application to images of patients affected by multiple sclerosis

Canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells from visceral and subcutaneuous adipose tissue for cell-based therapy

This study compared some characteristics of canine Adipose tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cAD-MSCs) from subcutaneous and visceral fat. These findings were directed to obtain high quantity and quality cAD-MSCs for clinical cell-based therapy.

An innovative method for the detection of contaminant viral genome in cell cultures

The use of cell cultures involves different fields of biology, from diagnosis to research. Moreover, technologies based on animal cells represent a useful tool to the development of biological products for the prophylaxis and therapy in humans and animals. Therefore, it is necessary to perform quality controls, including virological tests. Several tests performed in research laboratories are able to discriminate one or more viral species, but it is not possible to demonstrate the presence of contaminant viral genome with one non-specific method. The aim of this work consisted on the realization of a biomolecular method able to detect and to identify by sequencing extraneous viral genome in …

Managing conversation uncertainty in TutorJ

Uncertainty in natural language dialogue is often treated through stochastic models. Some of the authors already presented TutorJ mat is an Intelligent Tutoring System, whose interaction with the user is very intensive, and makes use of both dialogic and graphical modality. When managing the interaction, the system needs to cope with uncertainty due to the understanding of the user's needs and wishes. In this paper we present the extended version of TutorJ, focusing on the new features added to its chatbot module. These features allow to merge deterministic and probabilistic reasoning in dialogue management, and in writing the rules of the system's procedural memory.

A Combined Fuzzy Semantic Similarity Measure In Owl Ontologies

An algorithm is presented in this paper to calculate a semantic similarity measure inside an OWL ontology. The formulation is based on a combined measure taking into account the two most important aspects involved in the similarity computation. These are the structural properties of a concept, and the information content inside the ontology. We define a fuzzy system to blend these information sources with a training process over some ontologies. Finding a similarity measure between concepts of an ontology is a fundamental topic to accomplish information exchange on the Web. Through this measure it is possible to perform sophisticated queries over the web where the user is able to request co…

Haemorragic syndrome in cattle by subgenotype BVDV-1h

Bovine viral diarrhoeaemucosal disease (BVD-MD) is caused by a Pestivirus. Two genotypes are recognized: BVDV-1 and BVDV-2. BVDV-1 causes diarrhoea, respiratory disorders and reproductive disorders. BVDV-2 causes a haemorrhagic syndrome. We describe several hypervirulent outbreaks characterized by severe haemorrhagic signs caused by BVDV-1 in Sicily.

An intelligent assistant for medical knowledge discovery

Nowadays the availability of a huge amount of raw medical data makes it possible to use suitable data mining techniques to produce new knowledge. Usually, only data mining experts are able enough to carry out such tasks, and not so many researchers in medical ¯eld are also skilled in data analysis. This paper describes the Medical Knowledge Discovery Assistant (MKDA), a web based framework able to advice a medical researcher in such tasks. MKDA plans a Knowledge Discovery Process (KDP) on the basis of the requests of the user and of a set of rules in a knowledge base. The requests of the user are related to accu- racy, computational load, type of the produced model. They de¯ne the goal to b…

Messa a punto di un protocollo sperimentale per la ricerca di Enterovirus in sedimenti marini

In riferimento al Decreto Ministeriale del 24/01/1996, il controllo dei fondali marini utilizzati per il ripascimento dei litorali, costituisce un passo importante per la valutazione della salubrità dell’ambiente marino e dei prodotti ittici da allevamento, con particolare riferimento alla coltivazione di molluschi eduli lamellibranchi. Diversi studi, infatti, hanno dimostrato come i sedimenti, per le loro caratteristiche chimico-fisiche, rappresentano dei “serbatoi” di agenti microbici di varia natura che, da qui possono essere risospesi nelle acque, compromettendo la salubrità dell’ambiente. Poiché i molluschi eduli lamellibranchi sono organismi filtratori e trattengono agenti patogeni ca…

A framework to induce self-regulation through a metacognitive tutor

A new architectural framework for a metacognitive tutoring system is presented that is aimed to stimulate self regulatory behavior in the learner. The new framework extends the cognitive architecture of TutorJ that has been already proposed by some of the authors. TutorJ relies mainly on dialogic interaction with the user, and makes use of a statistical dialogue planner implemented through a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). A suitable two-level structure has been designed for the statistical reasoner to cope with measuring and stimulating metacognitive skills in the user. Suitable actions have been designed to this purpose starting from the analysis of the main question…

Platform session

Awareness Mechanisms for an Intelligent Tutoring System

In this work an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is presented that is able to enrich its knowledge base, merging both partially structured and unstructured information in a unique internal representation framework. The system gathers new information about the domain in response to both a curiosity mechanism and sensory stimuli coming from the interaction with the user. The architecture is an evolution of TutorJ, an actual ITS already presented by some of the authors. The cognitive framework is a very promising one to overcome the limitations of classical ITSs, and to achieve the stated goal. The use of cognitive architectures is intended for a double result: a lower effort for a knowledge-…

Towards Mkda: A Data Mining Semantic Web Service

Nowadays a huge amount of raw medical data is generated. These data, analyzed with data mining techniques, could be used to produce new knowledge. Unluckily such tasks need skilled data analysts, and not so many researchers in medical field are also data mining experts. In this paper we present a web based system for knowledge discovery assistance in Medicine able to advice a medical researcher in this kind of tasks. The experiment specifications are expressed in a formal language we have defined. The system GUI helps the user in the their composition. The system plans a Knowledge Discovery Process (KDP). The KDP is designed on the basis of rules in a knowledge base. Finally the system exec…

Genotyping of bovine diarrhea virus (BVDV) isolated from cattle in Sicily

Bovine Viral Diarrhoea - Mucosal Disease (BVD-MD) is a widely spread infectious disease that cause economically important losses in farms. Several epidemiological studies indicate a high genetic heterogeneity among Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) strains circulating in Italy. The aim of this study was to investigate the genotypes of BVDV in Sicily, a region in the South of Italy. For this purpose, 17 BVDV strains collected from cattle breed in Sicily between 2005 and 2008 were genetically typed by sequencing of 5'-untraslated region (5’-UTR) of the viral genome. In this study, phylogenetic analysis showed that all 17 examined strains were clustered within the BVDV genotype 1. Particular…

Tree dimensional computer model in a case of azygos lobe discovered during adenocarcinoma surgery

Automatic concept maps generation in support of educational processes

A VLE is a system where three main actors can be devised: the teacher in the role of instructional designer, the tutor, and the stu- dent. Instructional designers need easy interaction for specifying the course domain structure to the system, and for controlling how well the learning materials agree to such a structure. Tutors need tools for having a holistic perception of the evolution of single students and/or groups in the VLE during the learning process. Finally, students need self regulation in terms of controlling their learning rate, reflect on their learning strategies, and comparing with other people in the class. In this work we claim that sharing an implicit representation of the…