scholarly journals The International School of Crystallography: an example of continuing education

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1274-C1274
Author(s):  
Annalisa Guerri ◽  
Giovanna Scapin ◽  
Paola Spadon

2014 has been declared by UNESCO the International Year of Crystallography. Following the declaration, many initiatives have flourished with the intent of spreading the science and culture of crystallography, since among the major objectives of the IYCr2014 are increase of public awareness on the science of crystallography, promotion of education and research in all fields of crystallography and fostering of international collaborations. The International School of Crystallography is an internationally recognized meeting that was started in 1974 by Prof. Riva di Sanseverino, with the similar goals of promoting high level crystallographic education, scientific exchanges and collaborations. In 2014 the school celebrates its 40th year of activity. During these forty years, courses have been held on many different topics addressing all aspects of crystallography, from crystal growth theory to practical applications in drug discovery to the use of cutting edge technologies; students and teachers have been brought together in an environment that fostered high level scientific discussions as well as unique interpersonal relationships. Many of the students moved on to become well known personality in the crystallographic community, while retaining collaborations and friendships started during the School. Through these years the School teaching methods have also evolved, taking advantage of the fast technological progress of the past 10 years or so. The School offers both traditional lectures and practical computer-based workshops, to guarantee the students not only a theoretical background, but also hands-on experiences on applied crystallography. The dedication of the organizers and lecturers, the unconditioned support of the local staff, and the unique location of the School have made it a great success and a very popular meeting for generations of crystallographers.

Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 2691-2720
Author(s):  
Benedetto Benedetti ◽  
Ilaria Abbondandolo ◽  
Marco Gaiani

A discriminating, multi-disciplinary knowledge is a necessary expertise that all the actors who operate in the management, conservation, and communication of Cultural Heritage (CH) must have. They are, therefore, expected to be seriously prepared in many fields. However, a proper training program for them, which effectively combines humanistic studies with scientific ones, is difficult to be arranged when there is lack of comprehensive perspective in the education system. This paper introduces the experiences of the postgraduate programs that were established for many years at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. Through a calibrated mixture of theoretical background and practical applications taught by high-profile scholars, those programs proved to be effective in the preparation of figures later dealing with the CH at different levels. The clear organization of those specialized lectures, the innovation introduced with hands-on practical case studies and the adoption of state-of-the-art techniques, led to an educational paradigm that is still efficient, whose outcomes also demonstrated how it can be inspiring for future high-level learning programs, which must be oriented towards fostering an aware preparation for leading operators involved in the conservation and dissemination of CH.


1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 2107-2141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Dohnal

Qualitative model is a theoretical background of commonsense. Complex qualitative models can have prohibitively many solutions (qualitative states). Therefore a qualitative analogy of such classical quantitative tools as e.g. the decomposition is developed. Practical applications of decomposition principle is nearly always ad hoc. Therefore two case studies are presented in details, a chemical process (mixer, chemical reactor, separator) and an anaerobic fermentor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Chenning Li ◽  
Zhichao Cao ◽  
Yunhao Liu

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), many kinds of wireless signals (e.g., Wi-Fi, LoRa, RFID) are filling our living and working spaces nowadays. Beyond communication, wireless signals can sense the status of surrounding objects, known as wireless sensing , with their reflection, scattering, and refraction while propagating in space. In the last decade, many sophisticated wireless sensing techniques and systems were widely studied for various applications (e.g., gesture recognition, localization, and object imaging). Recently, deep Artificial Intelligence (AI), also known as Deep Learning (DL), has shown great success in computer vision. And some works have initially proved that deep AI can benefit wireless sensing as well, leading to a brand-new step toward ubiquitous sensing. In this survey, we focus on the evolution of wireless sensing enhanced by deep AI techniques. We first present a general workflow of Wireless Sensing Systems (WSSs) which consists of signal pre-processing, high-level feature, and sensing model formulation. For each module, existing deep AI-based techniques are summarized, further compared with traditional approaches. Then, we provide a view of issues and challenges induced by combining deep AI and wireless sensing together. Finally, we discuss the future trends of deep AI to enable ubiquitous wireless sensing.


Author(s):  
Suzanne Hoff

This article calls for an increased use of strategic litigation in the anti-trafficking field to ensure long-lasting systemic reforms. While generally, the prosecution of human trafficking or related severe forms of labour exploitation, like forced labour, is quite challenging and prosecutions and convictions lag seriously behind, it is argued that strategic litigation, meaning continuing legal action, aimed at achieving rights-related changes in law, policy, practice, and/or public awareness, can help to ensure that justice is delivered to victims, as several landmark cases also show. Efforts to counter human trafficking through strategic litigation by NGOs remain in their infancy, among others as they are resource-intensive and require access to experienced lawyers in high level courts. The author discusses some examples and dilemmas and identifies needs for NGOs to use strategic litigation more often as an effective tool to effectuate systemic change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Kelly-McHale

The terms culturally responsive teaching and culturally responsive pedagogy have become more common in the vernacular of public-school teaching. However, practical applications of cultural responsivity are not often clearly presented due to the nature of being responsive. Responsivity requires knowledge of students and community (context) specific to each teaching context. Content and materials should then be derived from the development of the contextual understanding. This is why presenting a tool box of culturally responsive practices is not possible when seeking to become more culturally responsive in the classroom. This article seeks to situate cultural responsivity as a mind-set as opposed to an approach or method within the elementary general music classroom. Practical steps that can be taken toward the development of this mind-set are then presented with a focus on context and content.


Author(s):  
Maria Kaczmarek ◽  
Sylwia Trambacz-Oleszak

Higher stress reactivity during adolescence is a vulnerability marker of exposure to various environmental stressors. This study aimed to investigate the association between a high level of perceived stress experienced by adolescents and stressful stimuli induced from school environment, peer, and parental relationships. The data used were from a cross-sectional, observational study conducted in a stratified sample of 1846 adolescents (13–18 years) in the Wielkopolska province, Poland. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires and anthropometric measurements. Perceived stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). The association of a high level of perceived stress with school-induced exposures was determined using multivariate logistic regression after adjusting for gender, age, height and weight status and interpersonal relationships (STATISTICA 13.1). It was found that girls were over three times more likely than boys to experience a high level of perceived stress. Moreover, girls appeared to be more vulnerable than boys to school-related stressors and weight status, while boys to stressors that can arise from interpersonal relationships. School environment was the only predictor factor of high perceived stress level with a large effect size in both boys (OR = 4.45; 95% CI: 3.11–6.36) and girls (OR = 6.22; 95% CI: 4.18–7.59). Given the findings of the present study, preventive programs are critical to mitigate the effect of stress from school on adolescents’ health and well-being.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Ellis-Soto ◽  
Kristy M. Ferraro ◽  
Matteo Rizzuto ◽  
Emily Briggs ◽  
Julia D. Monk ◽  
...  

Ecosystems are open systems connected through spatial flows of energy, matter, and nutrients. Predicting and managing ecosystem interdependence requires a rigorous quantitative understanding of the drivers and vectors that connect ecosystems across spatio-temporal scales. Animals act as such vectors when they transport nutrients across landscapes in the form of excreta, egesta, and their own bodies. Here, we introduce a methodological roadmap that combines movement, foraging, and ecosystem ecology to study the effects of animal-vectored nutrient transport on meta-ecosystems. The meta-ecosystem concept — the notion that ecosystems are connected in space and time by flows of energy, matter, and organisms across boundaries — provides a theoretical framework on which to base our understanding of animal-vectored nutrient transport. However, partly due to its high level of abstraction, there are few empirical tests of meta-ecosystem theory, and while we may label animals as important mediators of ecosystem services, we lack predictive inference of their relative roles and impacts on diverse ecosystems. Recently developed technologies and methods — tracking devices, mechanistic movement models, diet reconstruction techniques and remote sensing — have the potential to facilitate the quantification of animal-vectored nutrient flows and increase the predictive power of meta-ecosystem theory. Understanding the mechanisms by which animals shape ecosystem dynamics may be important for ongoing conservation, rewilding, and restoration initiatives around the world, and for more accurate models of ecosystem nutrient budgets. We provide conceptual examples that show how our proposed integration of methodologies could help investigate ecosystem impacts of animal movement. We conclude by describing practical applications to understanding cross-ecosystem contributions of animals on the move.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-234
Author(s):  
A. Berdichevsky ◽  
M.A. Padun ◽  
M. Gagarina

The article presents the adaptation process of the modified Spenn-Fisher code of co-dependence, which allows to measure the severity of co-dependency. The study was conducted on a sample of students (N=227) and cadets (N=38) of higher educational institutions. The theoretical construct of codependency as a psychosocial state, which includes an external locus of control, a tendency to suppress emotions and an increased importance of interpersonal relationships, confirmed by the data of cluster analysis. The questionnaire showed acceptable rates of both reliability-consistency and retest reliability. The constructive validity of the methodology was confirmed by significant correlations that substantiate underlying construct of codependency. The high level of codependency positively correlates with the external locus of control, the suppression of emotions, anxiety, and negatively correlates with the affective component of interpersonal relations, the benevolence of the external world and beliefs about control. The psychometric data obtained during the study are largely consistent with the results of the authors of the original scale and indicate a successful adaptation of the methodology in the Russian sample.


Author(s):  
E. G. Ayodele ◽  
C. J. Okolie ◽  
O. A. Mayaki

The Nigerian Geodetic Reference Frame is defined by a number of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) that constitute the Nigerian GNSS Network (NIGNET). NIGNET is essential for planning and national development with the main goal of ensuring consistency in the geodetic framework both nationally and internationally. Currently, the strength of the network in terms of data reliability has not been adequately studied due to the fact that research into CORS in Nigeria is just evolving, which constitutes a limitation in its applications. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the reliability of the 3-dimensional coordinates of NIGNET to inform usability and adequacy for both scientific and practical applications. In particular, this study examines if the 3-dimensional coordinates of NIGNET are equally reliable in terms of positional accuracy. Accordingly, this study utilised GNSS data collected over a period of six years (2011 – 2016) from the network to compute the daily geocentric coordinates of the stations. Exploratory and statistical data analysis techniques were used to understand the magnitude of the errors and the accuracy level in the 3-dimensional coordinates. For this purpose, accuracy metrics such as standard deviation (𝜎), standard error (𝑆𝐸) and root mean square error (RMSE) were computed. While One-way ANOVA was conducted to explore the coordinate differences. The results obtained showed that SE and RMSE ranged from 13.00 − 56.50𝑚𝑚 and 14.38 − 73.16𝑚𝑚 respectively, which signifies high accuracy. Overall, while 88% of the network showed a high level of positional accuracy, the reliability has been compromised due to excessive gaps in the data archiving. Therefore, due attention must be given to NIGNET to achieve its purpose in the provision of accurate information for various geospatial applications. Also, any efforts directed at understanding the practical implications of NIGNET must be well-embraced for the realization of its set objectives.


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