Dealing with missing participants in the opening phases of a videoconference

2023

Abstract The paper explores the social interaction that takes place during the initial phases of videoconferences. The focus is on the problem of absent participants, which is often considered a reason for delaying the official beginning of the meeting. One of the resources that the participants have is to reach the absent participant by cellphone. We observed a recurrent pattern of action whereby one of the participants disengages from the video meeting to reach the missing person by phone. This negotiation process moves through four steps: (1) the detection of the problem, (2) the offer to call the missing person by one participant, (3) the acceptance of this offer by the moderator, and (…

“Doing Family” and Religious Belonging of Immigrants. Case Studies in South Italy

2023

The immigration and integration policies reveal the difficulty of the host society to institutionalize new models of social differences accompanying integration process. What happens when people of different cultures, values, religion live together? Immigrants who “arrive” continue their life in a place where they do not passively participate over time but become actors. Pressed by the hegemonic culture of the host society, immigrants do not cease to practice their religious and origin cultural expressions. Considering the impact of religion and origin cul¬tural values on public and private expression of differences, it is important to consider their role (between persistence and innovation…

Editorial: Minimally invasive surgery as a mean of improving fertility: What do we know so far?

2023

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Diallyldimethylammonium Chloride (DADMAC) in Water Treated with Poly-Diallyldimethylammonium Chloride (PDADMAC) by Reversed-Phase Ion-Pair Chromatogr…

2023

Poly-diallyldimethylammonium (PDADMAC) chloride is a flocculant agent extensively used in water clarification treatments. Commercial polyelectrolyte formulations often contain residual monomer (DADMAC), reaction by-products and other reactants as contaminants that could potentially affect human health. In the present study, we optimized an analytical method based on reversed-phase ion-pair chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry for quantifying ultra-trace levels of DADMAC, without preliminary treatments, in drinking water distributed by the Palermo aqueduct. The method was validated in terms of accuracy (recovery between 80 to 120%), precision (RSD < 10%), linearity range (from 0.…

Conventional tillage versus no-tillage: Nitrogen use efficiency component analysis of contrasting durum wheat genotypes grown in a Mediterranean envi…

2023

Very little information is available for Mediterranean areas about the soil N dynamics and crop N use efficiency during the transition phase from conventional tillage (CT) to no-tillage (NT). Hence, a 2-yr experiment was conducted under semiarid Mediterranean conditions in three sites to study how soil N dynamics, crop N uptake, grain yield, and N use efficiency vary with N-fertilization rate and crop genotype in the switch year from CT to NT. Treatments consisted of two tillage systems (CT and NT), five N-fertilization rates (0, 40, 80, 120, and 160 kg N ha−1), and two durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) genotypes (one modern variety and one old landrace). Irrespective of the genotype, NT r…

Impact of FIGO type 3 uterine fibroids on in vitro fertilization outcomes: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

2023

Background: The effect of FIGO (the International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics) type 3 myomas on in vitro fertilization (IVF) is uncertain. Objectives: To evaluate whether FIGO type 3 myomas affect IVF outcomes, through a systematic review and meta-analysis (CRD42022379700). Search strategy: Electronic databases were searched until November 15, 2022. Selection criteria: Studies evaluating the effects of FIGO type 3 myomas on IVF outcome. Data collection and analysis: Pooled results were expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed using Higgins I2 . Sources of heterogeneity were explored with sensitivity and subgroup analyses. Mai…

Imaging Cultural Heritage at Different Scales: Part I, the Micro-Scale (Manufacts)

2023

Applications of non-invasive sensing techniques to investigate the internal structure and surface of precious and delicate objects represent a very important and consolidated research field in the scientific domain of cultural heritage knowledge and conservation. The present article is the first of three reviews focused on contact and non-contact imaging techniques applied to surveying cultural heritage at micro- (i.e., manufacts), meso- (sites) and macro-scales (landscapes). The capability to infer variations in geometrical and physical properties across the inspected surfaces or volumes is the unifying factor of these techniques, allowing scientists to discover new historical sites or to …

An experimental investigation on performances recovery of glass fiber reinforced composites exposed to a salt-fog/dry cycle

2023

The main goal of this paper is the evaluation of the properties reversibility of glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRPs) under discontinuous exposure to aggressive environmental conditions, typical of marine applications. To this aim, the GFRP manufactured through vacuum infusion process has been initially aged in humid conditions (i.e., exposure to salt-fog at 35 ◦C) for 15 and 30 days and then stored under controlled dry conditions (i.e., 50% R.H. and 23 ◦C) for times varying between 0 and 21 days. In order to evaluate the recover capability of this material, its water uptake has been monitored along the quasi-static flexural properties during the entire humid/dry cycle. Moreover, both 3D…

The Experience of Living through the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood for Young People with Cerebral Palsy

2023

This study explored the lived experience of transition from adolescence to adulthood for young people with cerebral palsy to inform occupational therapy practitioners as to what might promote positive life opportunities. A phenomenological methodology was used with six participants, aged 18 to 25 years with cerebral palsy. The findings are presented in the form of hermeneutic stories and three themes: The storm of uncertainty; time, space and the body, Capsizing in a world of others and, Securing anchorage; being heard and understood. Recommendations include service integration across health, social care and education based on partnership and provision of coordinators. peerReviewed

Politik der Debatte

2023

Prevention and Mitigation of Rural Higher Education Dropout in Colombia: A Dynamic Performance Management Approach.

2023

Background: Dropout in higher education is a socio-educational phenomenon that has the scope to limit the benefits of education as well as to widen social disparities. For this reason, governments have implemented various public policies for its prevention and mitigation. However, in rural populations, such policies have proven to be ineffective. The aim of this paper is to simulate public policy scenarios for the treatment of school dropout in rural higher education in Colombia from a Dynamic Performance Management approach. Methodology: To achieve the aim, a parameterised simulation model was designed with data from Colombian state entities in rural higher education. Five simulations were…

A cropland application of Enhanced Weathering in the Mediterranean area to face climate change and preserve natural resources

2023

The goal of limiting the use of natural resources and combatting climate change has led to the improvement of agricultural techniques and the development of some Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) techniques, given their proficiency to sequester carbon from the atmospheric CO2 and to store it in more stable forms within oceans, plants, soil, or other terrestrial environments. Among them, Enhanced Weathering (EW) is regarded as one of the most promising. This consists of amending soils with silicate minerals, such as olivine, so as to speed up the weathering process that naturally occurs in soils. This work aims to couple a model for the resolution of the agro-hydrological balance in the active so…

Pro e contro dei rimedi domestici: prospettive di sinergia europea nel contenzioso climatico collettivo

2023

Human rights-based national climate litigation is a growing phenomenon. In Europe, this type of litigation is essentially based on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, whose human rights obligations are used as a means of interpreting climate obligations of States towards their citizens. The analysis of domestic jurisprudence produces a complex picture. On the one hand, we find elements facilitating access to environmental justice, such as more flexible eligibility criteria and the issuing of immediately enforceable judgments. On the other hand, this comes up against obstacles arising from the risk of the lack of impact that a single decision may have. A possible solution to …

Imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation

2023

Abstract Liver transplantation (LT) provides the highest survival benefit to patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The Milan criteria have been developed for the selection of LT candidates with the goal of improving survival and maintaining an acceptable risk of HCC recurrence. Despite this, recurrence of HCC after LT occurs in up to 20% of cases and represents a major concern due to the poor prognosis of these patients. Furthermore, several extended criteria for the selection of LT candidates have been proposed to account for the growing demand for organs and the resultant increase in the risk of HCC recurrence. Radiologists should be aware that HCC can recur after LT…

Liberal Governmentality and Urban Culture: Governing Differences and Diversity in the Policies of Helsinki and Sydney

2023

This article uses Michel Foucault’s understanding of police and liberalism to discuss the governance of diversity and differences, and how they appear as a regulatory form of power in urban cultural policy. The data consists of interviews conducted with policymakers in Helsinki and Sydney. The article asserts that the policing of cultural spaces of encounter at the city level is not limited to the regulatory practices and controls that produce a sense of safety and order for citizens in the city. This governance has great significance for representing excluded people and the socioeconomic identity of their neighborhoods. Finally, the use of language as a means of communication in cultural p…

From intensive car-parenting to enabling childhood velonomy? Explaining parents’ representations of children’s leisure mobilities

2023

Intensive parenting has become a key term for analysing the pressures and priorities of contemporary western parenting culture. For mobility studies it provides a discursive framework for understanding why children’s leisure has shifted from free play and mobility towards various adult-led organised activities and why parents deem it necessary to control children’s leisure journeys in an unprecedented manner. Most of the research on parenting and mobility has explained these trends with urban risks and safeguarding, but this paper highlights how parents also control, manage and enable children’s mobility to resource and enrich them with various dispositions. We use children’s mobility exper…

COVID-19 and the Housework Gender Division: Traditional or New Gender Patterns?

2023

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the gender dimension of its more visible socio-economic impacts has been the topic of study by several researchers. The current paper takes this further by focusing on the invisible chores done in the families at home. This paper studies how people’s behavior towards housework changed during and after the confinement period in Spain. We analyze whether people did more housework during the lockdown period than before it, the way this housework was distributed between women and men, and whether this has changed since the end of lockdown. The empirical analyses point to a new trend in the housework gender gap: differences between men and women have…

Subsidizing private childcare in a universal regime

2023

AbstractAll families in Finland have the freedom to choose between subsidized home care, universal public childcare, and private childcare. We study the impact of the introduction of private childcare subsidies in Finland. Private childcare subsidies have causal effects on take-up but no impact on home care or employment among women with small children. Instead, private services seem to crowd out public childcare. Private services have a socioeconomic gradient by mother’s education that steepens when the subsidy increases. Families’ preferences between home care, public childcare, and private childcare do not explain the result.

Evolution and decay of an Alice ring in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

2023

We use first-principles-derived numerical simulations to investigate the long-time evolution of a half-quantum vortex ring, an Alice ring, arising from the decay dynamics of an isolated monopole in the polar phase of a dilute spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. In particular, we study the lifetime and decay characteristics of the Alice ring under different experimentally relevant conditions. We observe that, in a 87Rb condensate with a homogeneous external magnetic field, a well-centered Alice ring may survive for over 160 ms, and that during its lifetime it can contract back into a monopole, which again converts into an Alice ring. Interestingly, we notice an additional Alice ring, with an op…

Heat waves and climate change: an application to Sicily (Italy)

2023

Nowadays, the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly evident and dangerous at every latitude of the planet. In such a context, the Mediterranean basin turns out to be a "hotspot". Reductions in precipitation, especially in the summer season, and increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme events, such as droughts and heat waves, have been observed in regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea in recent decades. In particular, heat waves may have numerous negative impacts on human health, environment, agriculture, and the energy sectors. Indeed, consecutive days with extremely high temperatures, combined with high humidity, poses a high health risk to the population. Moreov…

A Perturbed Cauchy Viscoelastic Problem in an Exterior Domain

2023

A Cauchy viscoelastic problem perturbed by an inverse-square potential, and posed in an exterior domain of RN, is considered under a Dirichlet boundary condition. Using nonlinear capacity estimates specifically adapted to the non-local nature of the problem, the potential function and the boundary condition, we establish sufficient conditions for the nonexistence of weak solutions.

Pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of sustainability and its implementation in language teaching

2023

In both the school environment and teacher education, sustainable development is usually linked to the natural and social sciences and is rarely incorporated into language education or encouraged as part of language teacher education. As more research is needed on the practical implementation of sustainable development in language teaching and language teacher education, this study elucidates Finnish pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of sustainability dimensions (i.e. ecological, economic, social, and cultural) and their role in language teaching. We used a questionnaire comprising open-ended and Likert-scale questions to examine pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of and a…

Clinical manifestations of cancer in patients with acute pulmonary embolism

2023

Background Neoplasmatic disease increases the risk of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) by different pathophysiological mechanisms that favor thrombosis in patients with cancer. Recently, the role of cancer (active and occult) in the prevalence of venous thromboembolism has been discussed more thoroughly in the subject literature. Material Medical records of 366 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of APE (aged: mean = 65.0 ± 16.6, median = 68, range = 19–94; men = 41%/women = 59%) were collected with a wide range of demographic data, medical history of coexisting diseases, computer examination, and laboratory tests. Methods The APE patients were analyzed in two groups: negative cancer cases …

Peer Reputation Configurations and Associations with Friendship Adjustment

2023

Peer reputation (PR) refers to how peer groups collectively view an individual in terms of socio-behavioral characteristics, such as aggression, social withdrawal, leadership, and prosociality. Despite considerable research on PR, few studies have considered PRs in relation to indices of friendship, particularly with a person-centered approach. The goal of the current study was to adopt such an approach and identify peer reputation configurations and their defining characteristics, and to examine how such configurations are linked to friendship prevalence and quality. Four hundred and twenty-six Italian seventh-grade students (57.3% male, M-age = 12.07) completed peer nomination measures of…

CZT-Based Harmonic Analysis in Smart Grid Using Low-Cost Electronic Measurement Boards

2023

This paper validates the use of a harmonic analysis algorithm on a microcontroller to perform measurements of non-stationary signals in the context of smart grids. The increasing presence of electronic devices such as inverters of distributed generators (DG), power converters of charging stations for electric vehicles, etc. can drain non-stationary currents during their operation. A classical fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm may not have sufficient spectral resolution for the evaluation of harmonics and inter-harmonics. Thus, in this paper, the implementation of a chirp-Z transform (CZT) algorithm is suggested, which has a spectral resolution independent from the observation window. T…

VIRTUAL REALITY AND BIM FOR INFRASTRUCTURES

2023

Abstract. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been widely adopted in the construction industry as a means of improving project efficiency, reducing errors, and facilitating collaboration among stakeholders. However, its potential for the infrastructure sector has not been fully explored. Infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and airports, are often complex and require the integration of multiple systems and disciplines. BIM has the potential to provide a digital representation of the infrastructure project, allowing for improved design, construction, and maintenance. This paper aims to explore the potential benefits of BIM in the infrastructure sector, examine the c…

Quantification of the contribution of weed seed predators to crop yield

2023

30 book of abstracts; International audience

Alcune considerazioni su Storia della Sicilia e stereotipi

2023

Which stereotypes are at the center of a cultural tradition aimed at representing Sicily as a land "sequestered" and substantially refractory to the acceleration generated by the break of modernity? The essay follows these plots, between historiography, philosophical and literary culture, to make explicit the procedural character of this discourse and its ideological nature. A new historiographical representation emerges, aimed at eliminating the ideological matrix of this debate. It is a matter of taking charge of the lesson tending to give back to the island a realistic story devoid of self-aggrandizing tendencies

Searching for the competitive ability of the alien seagrass Halophila stipulacea with the autochthonous species Cymodocea nodosa

2023

The tropical seagrass Halophila stipulacea (Forsskål) Ascherson, 1867 entered in the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal more than 100 years ago. In coastal-marine ecosystems the spatial niche of H. stipulacea is often overlapped with that of native Mediterranean Sea seagrasses and therefore it might out-compete them. Aiming to better understand its invasiveness potential, we monitored a Southern Mediterranean shallow coastal-marine water habitat from August 2010 to August 2011, where H. stipulacea co-occurred with the native seagrass Cymodocea nodosa (Ucria) Ascherson, 1870. Besides, the year-round dynamics of H. stipulacea was also monitored in four periods. To test the hypothesis th…

Procedimento per la biodegradazione di oli e/o grassi esausti

2023

Early detection of Solanum lycopersicum diseases from temporally-aggregated hyperspectral measurements using machine learning

2023

AbstractSome plant diseases can significantly reduce harvest, but their early detection in cultivation may prevent those consequential losses. Conventional methods of diagnosing plant diseases are based on visual observation of crops, but the symptoms of various diseases may be similar. It increases the difficulty of this task even for an experienced farmer and requires detailed examination based on invasive methods conducted in laboratory settings by qualified personnel. Therefore, modern agronomy requires the development of non-destructive crop diagnosis methods to accelerate the process of detecting plant infections with various pathogens. This research pathway is followed in this paper,…

A reckoning with the maintenance of the built environment, a Sisyphean task

2023

Maintenance concerns most of the artifacts, referring simultaneously to the socio-cultural, technical and managerial spheres. Contemporary scenarios impose an overall rethinking, where key-topics such as tradition, consumerism, sustainability and digitization become pivotal in the search for suitable production models, between post-industrial and neo-craftsmanship, in order to have fresher references for the maintenance activities.
 In the construction field, maintenance is not limited to the objective of prolonging the duration of quality levels that only affect direct users, but also has important implications of a social and collective nature, in the case of both public and private …

Understanding the Role of Social Media Content in Brand Loyalty: A Meta-Analysis of User-Generated Content Versus Firm-Generated Content

2023

The enormous growth of social media has increased interest in this platform among marketers and marketing academics. However, the previous literature has not provided a clear consensus regarding the influence of social media content on consumers’ brand loyalty. The meta-analysis presented in this article integrates results from 223 independent samples, with a total of 97,709 respondents. The study synthesizes previous research to develop a conceptual framework around the dimensions of brand loyalty (cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty), user-generated and firm-generated social media content attributes, and the moderating effects of contextual characteristics and control variables. S…

Associations of active commuting to school in childhood and physical activity in adulthood

2023

AbstractThis study examined whether active commuting to school in childhood and adolescence predicted active commuting to work and overall physical activity (PA) in adulthood. Participants from the Young Finns Study (N = 2436) were aged 9–18 years in 1980 and followed up until 2018/2020. Their commuting modes to school were assessed with a self-reported questionnaire in 1980. Adulthood PA was assessed through self-reports regarding commuting modes to work (2001–2018), leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) (2001–2018), and objectively measured daily steps (2007–2018/2020). Associations between childhood commuting and adulthood PA were evaluated using regression analyses and multilevel models…

Performance-related physiological changes induced by one year of endurance training in young athletes

2023

IntroductionAlthough maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is generally recognized as the single best indicator of aerobic fitness in youth, interpretation of this parameter and the extent to which it can be improved by training remain controversial, as does the relative importance of VO2max for performance in comparison to other factors such as power production. Here, we examined the influence of endurance training on the VO2max, muscle power and sports-related performance of cross-country skiers attending a school specializing in sports, as well as potential relationships between any changes observed to one another and/or to perceived stress scale (Cohen) and certain blood parameters.MethodsOn t…

Genetic basis of STEM occupational choice and regional economic performance : a UK biobank genome-wide association study

2023

Abstract Background Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals are regarded as the highly skilled labor force that fosters economic productivity, enterprise innovation, and international competitiveness of a country. This study aims to understand the genetic predisposition to STEM occupations and investigate its associations with regional economic performance. We conducted a genome-wide association study on the occupational choice of STEM jobs based on a sample of 178,976 participants from the UK Biobank database. Results We identified two genetic loci significantly associated with participants’ STEM job choices: rs10048736 on chromosome 2 and rs12903858 on chrom…