L'irriducibile complessità del pensiero scientifico : ostacolo o sfida per la diffusione della cultura scientifica?

none3noneP. Fantini; N. Grimellini Tomasini; O. Levrini O.P. Fantini; N. Grimellini Tomasini; O. Levrini O

La formazione iniziale degli insegnanti di fisica da una prospettiva culturale

none2noneN. Grimellini Tomasini; O. LevriniN. Grimellini Tomasini; O. Levrin

Evaluation of biomechanical effects of interocclusal surfaces on the mandible

ABSTRACT Introduction: Only few studies in the literature employ a mathematical model in the evaluation of the stress which follows the application of loads and constraints onto the mandible. Therefore, new approaches are needed so that the study of this phenomenon can rely less on the clinical hypothesis and experience of the operator, while taking advantage of the many benefits that virtual representations and mathematical calculations present. Aim of the study is to determine, by means of the finite element method (FEM), the stress produced onto the mandible as a result of the application of a force on itself, in association or not to the perioral musculature and according to the dental support given by the positioning of an interocclusal surface at three different levels: mesial, intermediate and distal. Aim: The aim is to allow a more objective evaluation of this phenomenon, its absolute repeatability, as well as to acquire important clinical informations concerning the role of orthodontic and gnathologic appliances. Materials and methods: Starting from a 1:1 scale model of the mandible (human adult male), a virtual three - dimensional (3D) representation was first obtained thanks to a dedicate software; it was then imported into a second software in order to permit the discretization into finite elements of the virtual model and the attribution of its mechanical properties. Finally, thanks to a specific software, it was possible to simulate the presence of load and constraints and to evaluate the stress status by using pseudo - colors. Results: The stress generated following the application of a force onto the mandible, undergoes significant variations in relation to the dental support and the presence or absence of the perioral musculature. Conclusions: Following the results of our research, we consider FEM as a valid and interesting method for this purpose, however additional FEM conducted studies are necessary in order to assess this phenomenon in more detail and determine the role of the perioral musculature as well as the possible clinical implications

Oral Signs and HLA-DQB1 1702 Haplotypes in the Celiac Paediatric Patient: A Preliminary Study.

Celiac disease (CD) diagnosis can be extremely challenging in the case of atypical patterns. In this context, oral signs seem to play a decisive role in arousing suspicion of these forms of the disease. At the same time, the different expressions of the HLA-DQB1 1702 allele apparently seem to facilitate the interpretation of signs and highlighted symptoms. The aim of this work was to verify whether it is possible to identify a correlation between the development of oral signs and different DQ2 haplotypes in celiac pediatric patients. 44 celiac patients with a medium age of 9.9 were studied. Oral examinations were performed in order to identify recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) and dental enamel defects (DED). The diagnosis of DED resulted as being related to allele expression (P value = 0.042) while it was impossible to find a similar correlation with RAS. When both oral signs were considered, there was an increase in correlation with HLA-DQB1 1702 expression (P value = 0.018). The obtained results identified both the fundamental role that dentists can play in early diagnosis of CD, as well as the possible role of HLA haplotype analysis in arousing suspicion of atypical forms of the disease

Responsible Research and Innovation in Science Education: the IRRESISTIBLE Project

The EU funded IRRESISTIBLE-project (Project Coordinator: Jan Apotheker, University of Groningen, Netherlands) develop activities designed to foster the involvement of high school and elementary students and the public in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). In the project, awareness about RRI is raised in two ways: increasing content knowledge about research by bringing topics of cutting edge research into the program; fostering a discussion among the students on RRI issues about the topics that are introduced. Responsible Research and Innovation focuses on six key issues: Engagement, Gender equality, Science education, Ethics, including societal relevance and acceptability of research and innovation outcomes , Open access, Governance. The project combines formal and informal teaching to familiarize schoolchildren with science. Sixteen partners in ten countries are involved and coordinated by Science LinX. Each participants will establish a community of learners (CoL). The communities include school teachers together with university experts in the field of science communication and science centre staff. Each CoL will develop materials that the teachers will use at their own schools and students will develop an exhibit for a science centre in their own country. Once they have completed their teaching module, the teachers will each train five colleagues, in using the developed modules from the first year. Ultimately, this project will train almost ten thousand pupils to consider the social impact of scientific research

Habilidades de leitura e competências de compreensão de texto de estudantes bolsistas oriundos de comunidades da Amazônia: estudo de caso com a utilização de Eye Tracker

The objective of this research is to analyze the reading skills of scholars with eye tracking device from native Amazonian communities contemplated with universities scholarships from the Government of Peru using biometric, linguistic and psychological techniques. Two group of escolar were selected as experiment sample: the first group 48 selected scholarship students from five different Peruvian Amazon public and private universities; and the second group, used as control, contained 46 scholarship student from three different universities based in metropolitan Lima. Literature research explore educational potential in relation to the individual characteristic of reading comprehension skills, which, by definition, is related to learning from text reading.The main research conclusions are: a) on average, scholarship beneficiaries from indigenous communities have a greater fixation duration than recipients from Lima based students’ in all the Areas of Interest; b) on average, grantees from Amazon communities had more fixation points in all the areas of interest, which could mean greater difficulty understanding the texts, in some AOI, significant differences were found between the groups; c) grantees from Amazon communities had greater fixation duration and more fixation points, which indicates longer reading time and potential problems in reading comprehension; d) Scholars also showed more difficulty to understanding texts. Nevertheless their proved that their major effort in the reading process also represents a major greater success for them as scholarship members.El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las habilidades de lectura de los académicos con dispositivos de seguimiento ocular de comunidades amazónicas nativas contempladas con becas universitarias del Gobierno del Perú utilizando técnicas biométricas, lingüísticas y psicológicas. Se seleccionaron dos grupos de escolares como muestra experimental: el primer grupo seleccionó a 48 becarios de cinco universidades públicas y privadas de la Amazonía peruana diferentes; y el segundo grupo, utilizado como control, contenía 46 becarios de tres universidades diferentes ubicadas en Lima metropolitana. La investigación literaria explora el potencial educativo en relación con las características individuales de las habilidades de comprensión de lectura, que, por definición, se relaciona con el aprendizaje de la lectura de textos. Las principales conclusiones de la investigación son: a) en promedio, los beneficiarios de becas de las comunidades indígenas tienen una mayor duración de la fijación que los beneficiarios de estudiantes con base en Lima en todas las Áreas de interés; b) en promedio, los beneficiarios de las comunidades amazónicas tenían más puntos de fijación en todas las áreas de interés, lo que podría significar una mayor dificultad para comprender los textos; en algunos AOI, se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los grupos; c) los beneficiarios de las comunidades amazónicas tuvieron una mayor duración de la fijación y más puntos de fijación, lo que indica un mayor tiempo de lectura y posibles problemas en la comprensión de la lectura; d) Los académicos también mostraron más dificultad para entender los textos. Sin embargo, demostraron que su mayor esfuerzo en el proceso de lectura también representa un mayor éxito para ellos como becarios.O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar as habilidades de leitura de escolares com dispositivo de rastreamento ocular de comunidades nativas da Amazônia contempladas com bolsas de estudo de universidades do Governo do Peru, utilizando técnicas biométricas, linguísticas e psicológicas. Dois grupos de escolares foram selecionados como amostra experimental: o primeiro grupo selecionou 48 estudantes bolsistas de cinco diferentes universidades públicas e privadas da Amazônia peruana; e o segundo grupo, usado como controle, continha 46 bolsistas de três universidades diferentes localizadas na região metropolitana de Lima. A pesquisa em literatura explora o potencial educativo em relação à característica individual das habilidades de compreensão de leitura, que, por definição, está relacionada ao aprendizado a partir da leitura de textos. As principais conclusões da pesquisa são: a) em média, os beneficiários de bolsas de estudos de comunidades indígenas têm uma duração de fixação maior do que os beneficiários de estudantes sediados em Lima em todas as áreas de interesse; b) em média, os beneficiados das comunidades amazônicas possuíam mais pontos de fixação em todas as áreas de interesse, o que poderia significar maior dificuldade de compreensão dos textos; em algumas das AOI, diferenças significativas foram encontradas entre os grupos; c) os bolsistas das comunidades amazônicas tiveram maior tempo de fixação e mais pontos de fixação, o que indica maior tempo de leitura e potenciais problemas de compreensão de leitura; d) Os acadêmicos também mostraram mais dificuldade em compreender textos. No entanto, provaram que seu maior esforço no processo de leitura também representa um grande sucesso maior para eles como membros da bolsa de estudos

Understanding first-year students’ curiosity and interest about physics : Lessons learned from the HOPE project

This paper focuses on results of an interview based survey of first-year university physics students, carried out within the EU Horizons in Physics Education (HOPE) project (http://hopenetwork.eu/). 94 interviews conducted in 13 universities have been analyzed to investigate the factors that inspire young people to study physics. In particular, the main motivational factor, which was proven to consist of personal interest and curiosity, was unfolded into different categories and detailed interest profiles were produced. The results are arguably useful to help academic curriculum developers and teaching personnel in physics departments to provide guidance to students in developing and focusing their interest towards specific sub-fields and/or to design targeted recruitment and outreach initiatives.Peer reviewe

Second quantum revolution: The progressive design of an approach to value its cultural and conceptual scope

Quantum information science and technology is a growing field. Programs like Quantum Flagship in the EU and the National Quantum Initiative Act in the U.S. have called for science education and science education research to provide efforts and competencies for preparing the workforce and the next generations of quantum experts and promoting quantum literacy. The second quantum revolution is similar to the Newtonian one in that it has the potential to question worldviews in our society. We present our approach to design a teaching module for secondary school students that aims to value the cultural scope of the second quantum revolution. The model of educational reconstruction was used as a theoretical reference to reconstruct content for educational and cultural purposes. Renn’s elaborated historical analysis of knowledge evolution provided the criteria for characterizing the cultural scope in content reconstruction. The module has been iteratively refined following a design-based approach involving back-and-forth dynamics between educational hypotheses and empirical results. The process started in 2018, and the module was refined through 5 rounds of implementation in extracurricular courses with secondary school students (for almost 130 students). The main finding underscores the importance of finding a balance between a process of simplification or elementarization of the content and its enrichment to foster learners to develop a deep understanding of quantum technologies, their conceptual intricacies, and their cultural scope

Peripheral Mechanisms of Dental Pain: The Role of Substance P

Current evidence supports the central role of neuropeptides in the molecular mechanisms underlying dental pain. In particular, substance P, a neuropeptide produced in neuron cell bodies localised in dorsal root and trigeminal ganglia, contributes to the transmission and maintenance of noxious stimuli and inflammatory processes. The major role of substance P in the onset of dental pain and inflammation is increasingly being recognised. Well-grounded experimental and clinical observations have documented an increase in substance P concentration in patients affected by caries, pulpitis, or granulomas and in those undergoing standard orthodontic or orthodontic/dental care procedures. This paper focuses on the role of substance P in the induction and maintenance of inflammation and dental pain, in order to define future lines of research for the evaluation of therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating the complex effects of this mediator in oral tissues

FAILURES IN BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SOCIAL PROGRAMS TO REDUCE EXTREME POVERTY: case study Porto Alegre for all

Poverty can be an economic circumstance, but it is also a political issue, since it directly influences several political decisions. The academic literature agrees that fundamental human needs have had, in fact, little development in their concept and scope within recent decades, although significantly changed happened in the Western way of accomplishing needs. We seek to understand different perspectives on possible different paths to a humanist articulation in the development of society. The goal of the research is through a humanistic approach based on Max Neef's theoretical precepts to understand the failure of the social program called Porto Alegre for All, in which less than 10% of the target population adopted the program. The research design had a qualitative phase with interviews with six target individuals, aiming to gain insights for the development of attributes and hierarchy of values for the use of the quantitative technique of joint analysis, made with a sample of 98 individuals. In our research the most important result was the attribute freedom, and the maternal pillar of the family is the great reference of these individuals.Keywords: Extreme Poverty. Freedom. Social programs. Fundamentals human needs.ResumoA pobreza pode ser uma circunstância econômica, mas também é uma questão política. A literatura acadêmica concorda que o conceito das necessidades humanas fundamentais teve, de fato, pouco desenvolvimento na sua atualização e escopo nas últimas décadas, embora mudanças significativas tenham ocorrido no modo ocidental de atender às necessidades. Buscamos a compreensão de diferentes perspectivas sobre os possíveis caminhos diferentes para uma articulação humanista no desenvolvimento da sociedade. O objetivo da pesquisa, é através de uma abordagem humanística baseada em preceitos teóricos de Max Neef compreender o fracasso do programa social denominado Porto Alegre para Todos, no qual menos de 10% da população-alvo adotou o programa. O design da pesquisa teve uma fase qualitativa com entrevistas com seis indivíduos target, com o objetivo de obter insights para o desenvolvimento dos atributos ehierarquia de valores para utilização da técnica quantitativa de análise conjunta, feita com uma amostra de 98 indivíduos. Na nossa pesquisa oresultado mais importantefoi o atributo liberdade, sendo que o pilar materno da familia e a grande referência destes individuos.Palavras-chave: Extrema pobreza. Liberdade. Programas sociais. Necessidades fundamentais humanas