Search results for "Children"
showing 10 items of 1661 documents
Child-display interaction: Exploring avatar-based touchless gestural interfaces
2019
During the last decade, touchless gestural interfaces have been widely studied as one of the most promising interaction paradigms in the context of pervasive displays. In particular, avatars and silhouettes have been proved to be effective in communicating the touchless gestural interactivity supported by displays. In the paper, we take a child-display interaction perspective by exploring avatar-based touchless gestural interfaces. We believe that large displays offer an opportunity to stimulate child experience and engagement, for instance when learning about art, as well as bringing a number of challenges. The purpose of this study is twofold: 1) identifying the relevant aspects of childr…
PHD Thesis: Investigating Perceptual Features For a Natural Human Humanoid Robot Interaction Inside a Spontaneous Setting
Since robots have become part of human life, several studies have been done with the aim of discovering salient social rules at the basis of the collaboration between human beings and humanoid robot (Human Humanoid Interaction - HHI). The purpose is to have a common environment where human and humanoid robot could engage a proficous "dialogue" in order to share the "sense of co-presence" for common empathic tasks and goals. The humanoid robot must be in a position to interact with the human, and learn day by day from external environment, exactly as it occurs in human beings in the real life. In this sense, significant progresses have been reached, having a strong impact in each aspect of e…
La Sicilia negli Orsi di Dino Buzzati e Lorenzo Mattotti
2022
Nella fiaba illustrata di Dino Buzzati La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia (1945) e nella sua trasposizione filmica ad opera di Lorenzo Mattotti (2019) l’ambientazione siciliana è determinante. In entrambi i casi la Sicilia è un’isola con un grande vulcano – trasfigurata in un ambiente fantastico o riscritta secondo alcuni stereotipi – che i due autori utilizzano con accezioni diverse nella costituzione dell’ecosistema delle loro narrazioni. Soltanto attraverso una comparazione tra le due opere sarà possibile distinguere la rappresentazione delle due Sicilie che vengono raccontate con un intervallo di circa settanta anni. Se non si considera la storia degli Orsi soltanto una fiaba per…
Who are children in care and care leavers
2020
The chapter focuses on the characteristics and experiences of minors accepted in public structures and care leavers. Most of the children housed in the facilities come from problematic families, punctuated by recurrent crises. Precisely for this reason in many European countries the awareness has matured that the minors accepted in the social-welfare structures are strongly disadvantaged compared to their peers, as their life is generally marked by traumas and contexts of educational poverty and psychological poverty which they do not allow adequate psycho-social development.
European fitness landscape for children and adolescents: updated reference values, fitness maps and country rankings based on nearly 8 million test r…
2023
Objectives (1) To develop reference values for health-related fitness in European children and adolescents aged 6–18 years that are the foundation for the web-based, open-access and multilanguage fitness platform (FitBack); (2) to provide comparisons across European countries. Methods This study builds on a previous large fitness reference study in European youth by (1) widening the age demographic, (2) identifying the most recent and representative country-level data and (3) including national data from existing fitness surveillance and monitoring systems. We used the Assessing Levels of PHysical Activity and fitness at population level (ALPHA) test battery as it comprises tests with the h…
Pediatric exercise programs in children with hematological cancer: a systematic review
2013
In the world today, there are roughly 25 million cancer survivors. Progress in treatments have greatly improved cure rates, with 5-year survival now approaching 80%, but are associated with numerous negative physical and psychological side-effects and a deterioration in the quality of future life. Cancer survivors are at increased risk for second cancers, other forms of comorbidity (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis), and functional decline. Lifestyle factors, such as a healthy diet, regular exercise, and smoking cessation may prevent these conditions and improve survivors’ quality of life. Observational research has shown that the physical activity levels of survivors of…
Evolving role of physical education on psycho-motor development in children with disabilities
2012
Physical Activity and Sports Practice in Children and Adolescents at the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Hypothetical Future Scenarios and Preventive …
2021
As a logical and direct consequence of the closure of schools and sports facilities, an expected reduction in the practice of physical activity (PA) and sports has been detected in both children and adolescents all over the world. Hence, we analysed the short-term and long-term consequences of the lack/low level of PA and sports activity in this population, which we referred to as primary and secondary risks, respectively, the latter of which have to be considered in hypothetical future scenarios.
How Does the Amount of a Physical Education Intervention Affect Gross Motor Coordination in Early Childhood?
2022
Little is known about the dose–response of physical education interventions on motor coordination in preschoolers. Our aim was to investigate whether the development of motor skills changed depending on different amounts of a physical education program (PEP) in children aged 3–5 years. One hundred forty-five children were recruited from kindergartens and randomly divided into a control group (CG, n = 28), which did not perform any PEP, and two intervention groups, which performed 4 h/week (I1, n = 78) and 10 h/week (I2, n = 39) of a PEP for 16 weeks. Each lesson was set in the form of a programmed game in order to produce fun, thus increasing enthusiasm for participation. Before and after t…
Disturbing Weight Cutting Behaviors in Young Combat Sports Athletes: A Cause for Concern
2022
Problematic weight cutting behaviors in combat sports have been addressed in the scientific literature since the 1930s (1). Indeed, given the available evidence it may be the case that making weight/weight cycling [i.e., rapid weight loss (RWL) prior to weigh-in followed by rapid weight gain prior to competition] has been practiced in combat sports since weight divisions have been introduced. These practices have led to several fatalities (2), which occurred as a consequence of making weight rather than any sports-related injury. Unfortunately, RWL-related deaths still persist into recent times (3). Existing literature has detailed patterns of weight cycling (e.g., methods, magnitudes, freq…