Integration in Italian schools: teachers' perceptions regarding day-to-day practice and its effectiveness

Italy is famous for having the highest percentage of students with disabilities attending ‘the school for all’ (integration). However, in recent studies, the reality of integration seems to be more complex. Integration has reached some important goals (e.g. longer school careers), but while the Italian school system envisages the full participation of all students in normal class activities, there are various problems with the way in which integration is managed day-to-day. This study has two aims: to ascertain the extent to which the Italian legislation on integration is applied in practice and to assess the effectiveness of integration in terms of reaching the learning and social development objectives for students with disabilities and the class as a whole. The article describes the data collected though an online questionnaire compiled by 3230 Italian school staff members, mostly teachers. First, it shows that the integration experience of most of the students with disabilities takes the form of partial participation in class activities. Reasons for it are hypothesised. Second, the teachers' level of satisfaction with the learning and social skills of both students with disabilities and the class is generally positive. A although by no means outstandingly so.     

Entering the European Information Society: Four Rural Development Projects

This article compares four European information and communication technologies (ICT) development projects spawned by national and EU initiatives to create the “European information society.” These projects, which sought to support learning and better use of ICT, were all the result of opportunities opened up by political initiatives. The analysis indicates that the main problems that afflict these projects stem from varied expectations and interests of the major actors. These problems can be mitigated considerably if a feeling of ownership is generated among the participants. This sense of belonging, however, is difficult to foster in a “top-down” project. Hence there is a need for a better balance between the “top-down” and “bottom-up” influences in the development of such projects.     

A microfluidic platform for controlled biochemical stimulation of twin neuronal networks

Spatially and temporally resolved delivery of soluble factors is a key feature for pharmacological applications. In this framework, microfluidics coupled to multisite electrophysiology offers great advantages in neuropharmacology and toxicology. In this work, a microfluidic device for biochemical stimulation of neuronal networks was developed. A micro-chamber for cell culturing, previously developed and tested for long term neuronal growth by our group, was provided with a thin wall, which partially divided the cell culture region in two sub-compartments. The device was reversibly coupled to a flat micro electrode array and used to culture primary neurons in the same microenvironment. We demonstrated that the two fluidically connected compartments were able to originate two parallel neuronal networks with similar electrophysiological activity but functionally independent. Furthermore, the device allowed to connect the outlet port to a syringe pump and to transform the static culture chamber in a perfused one. At 14 days invitro, sub-networks were independently stimulated with a test molecule, tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin known to block action potentials, by means of continuous delivery. Electrical activity recordings proved the ability of the device configuration to selectively stimulate each neuronal network individually. The proposed microfluidic approach represents an innovative methodology to perform biological, pharmacological, and electrophysiological experiments on neuronal networks. Indeed, it allows for controlled delivery of substances to cells, and it overcomes the limitations due to standard drug stimulation techniques. Finally, the twin network configuration reduces biological variability, which has important outcomes on pharmacological and drug screening.     

Telecommunications and Transnationalism: The Polarization of Social Space

This article critically assesses the policy orientation, social impacts, and linkages of telecommunications in the United States within a government deregulated policy environment and an increasingly globalized economy. Deregulation has been driven by both ideological and technological demands, stemming from several political and economic transformations in the world economy, the collapse of state socialism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and greater oligopolistic competition among transnational corporations. An expanded infrastructure of new digital information and communications technology (ICT) is the foundation of a worldwide political economic regime of accumulation. ICT increases command and control capabilities of large corporations, together with the mobility and liquidity of capital, making it essential to the restructuring of the world economy, the new international division of labor, and the creation of global "information city" networks. At the same time, government deregulation and rapid technological change are associated with a number of spatial, economic, and social dualisms.     

A New Method of Revealing Armourers’ Marks

In this research, we performed radiographic experiments exploiting polychromatic phase-contrast imaging, a method for contrast enhancement in transmitted neutron beams by measuring a sample made with a homogeneous material but exhibiting a different microstructure induced by mechanical actions. We were able to reveal the armourers’ marks now obscured by polishing that are present in these examples of medieval armour.     

Topological interpretation of the inverse connection matrix A.sb

This paper discusses a new algebraic model of electrical networks by which a deeper understanding is achieved of the interrelation existing between a system of independent cut sets and the corresponding system of independent “contours”, in the sense of orthogonal network theory (1).The new model allows, by a redefinition of f-cut sets, to give an interpretation in terms of linear graph theory to the inverse connection matrix A^.s_b, i.e. to the transformation matrix between voltages in the orthogonal and the primitive reference frames, for a general choice of independent contours.Furthermore, a directly algebraic derivation of the voltage transformation is presented, recalling the properties of dual vector spaces and without invoking the principle of invariance of the instantaneous power.     

Weighted Word Pairs for query expansion

This paper proposes a novel query expansion method to improve accuracy of text retrieval systems. Our method makes use of a minimal relevance feedback to expand the initial query with a structured representation composed of weighted pairs of words. Such a structure is obtained from the relevance feedback through a method for pairs of words selection based on the Probabilistic Topic Model. We compared our method with other baseline query expansion schemes and methods. Evaluations performed on TREC-8 demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method with respect to the baseline.     

A computer science and robotics integration model for primary school: evaluation of a large-scale in-service K-4 teacher-training program

Education and Information Technologies - Integrating computer science (CS) into school curricula has become a worldwide preoccupation. Therefore, we present a CS and Robotics integration model and...     

Knowledge coherence, variety and economic growth: Manufacturing evidence from Italian regions

This paper elaborates a view on knowledge as a result of a combinatorial search activity, so as to investigate its effects on economic growth at the regional level. Empirical estimations corroborate the hypothesis that knowledge coherence and variety, besides the traditional measure of knowledge stock, matter in shaping regional economic performances. The check for spatial dependence suggests that cross-regional externalities exert additional triggering effects on growth, without debasing the effects of knowledge properties. Important policy implications stem from the analysis, in that regional innovation strategies should be carefully coordinated so as to reach a higher degree of internal coherence and trigger economic performances.     

Students in the Forest: The Role of Design-Build Pedagogies in Repairing Material Disconnections in Architecture Education

This article explores an intellectual disconnection in architectural education about the conception of wood as a building material. It explores initiatives to develop in future architects a deeper consciousness of the complex ecology of timber, promoting its sustainable use in the building industry. It explores six case studies drawn from architectural education to explore the ways in which the properties that make timber sustainable are explored through research and design, and how this deep understanding is transferred to students through hands-on applications.