scholarly journals The cartographic heritage of the University of Florence. Historical maps of the Geography Library

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Margherita Azzari ◽  
Camillo Berti
Keyword(s):  
Historical Maps ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
Cartographic Heritage

scholarly journals Insights into the Predictors of Attitude toward Entomophagy: The Potential Role of Health Literacy: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted in a Sample of Students of the University of Florence

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5306
Author(s):  
Chiara Lorini ◽  
Laura Ricotta ◽  
Virginia Vettori ◽  
Marco Del Riccio ◽  
Massimiliano Alberto Biamonte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
Self Administered Questionnaire

In Western countries, one of the main barriers to entomophagy is repulsion toward insects. Few studies have investigated the factors that influence attitudes toward entomophagy. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study involving a sample of 248 university students, focusing on disgust and other potential attributes that can influence insect consumption, including health literacy. We used a 17-item self-administered questionnaire. Consistent with the literature, two items were chosen as outcome variables to evaluate the predictors of the propensity to consume insects: “Have you ever eaten insects or insect-based products?” and “How disgusting do you find eating insects?” The data analysis shows that having already eaten insects is inversely associated with the level of disgust (OR: 0.1, p < 0.01); and it is positively associated with higher levels of health literacy (OR: 3.66, p > 0.01). Additionally, having some knowledge and information about entomophagy is inversely associated with a higher level of disgust (OR: 0.44, p = 0.03 and OR: 0.25, p = 0.03, respectively), while being female is positively associated with disgust (OR: 3.26, p < 0.01). Our results suggest the potential role of health literacy, in addition to other factors, in influencing the willingness to taste insects. However, further studies involving larger and non-convenience samples are needed to confirm our hypothesis.

scholarly journals ASA 2021 Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Six Sigma ◽  
Applied Statistics ◽  
Italian Association ◽  
Quality Culture ◽  
Marketing Social ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
Evaluation Of Policies

This book includes 25 peer-reviewed short papers submitted to the Scientific Opening Conference titled “Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation”, aimed at promoting new statistical methods and applications for the evaluation of policies and organized by the Association for Applied Statistics (ASA) and the Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications DiSIA “G. Parenti” of the University of Florence, jointly with the partners AICQ (Italian Association for Quality Culture), AICQ-CN (Italian Association for Quality Culture North and Centre of Italy), AISS (Italian Academy for Six Sigma), ASSIRM (Italian Association for Marketing, Social and Opinion Research), Comune di Firenze, the SIS – Italian Statistical Society, Regione Toscana and Valmon – Evaluation & Monitoring.

scholarly journals Teachers’ Professional Development on Media and Intercultural Education. Results from some participatory research in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Maria Ranieri ◽  
Andrea Nardi ◽  
Francesco Fabbro
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Intercultural Education ◽  
Intercultural Understanding ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
The Media ◽  
Teachers Professional Development ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University

Abstract Media and intercultural education are being increasingly recognised as a fundamental competence for teachers of the 21st century. Digital literacy and civic competence are facing several new challenges in response to the intensification of migratory phenomena and the unprecedented spread of fake news, especially among adolescents at risk of social exclusion, but teachers’ professional development is still far from coping with this emerging need. Intercultural understanding and a critical use of media among adolescents have now become primary goals for the promotion of active citizenship. This article intends to provide some recommendations on how to support teachers’ professional development in the field of media and intercultural education. To this purpose, it presents and discusses the results of an action-research project aimed at teachers’ improvement of teaching skills about the media in multicultural public schools. The results are part of a larger European project “Media Education for Equity and Tolerance” (MEET) (Erasmus Plus, KA3), an initiative promoted in 2016–2018 by the University of Florence (Italy).

scholarly journals Measuring logical competences and soft skills when enrolling in a university degree course

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-46
Author(s):  
Bruno Bertaccini ◽  
Riccardo Bruni ◽  
Federico Crescenzi ◽  
Beatrice Donati
Keyword(s):  
Soft Skills ◽  
Entrance Examination ◽  
Exit Examination ◽  
University System ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Subject ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
University Degree ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

Logical abilities are a ubiquitous ingredient in all those contexts that take into account soft skills, argumentative skills or critical thinking. However, the relationship between logical models and the enhancement of these abilities is rarely explicitly considered. Two aspects of the issue are particularly critical in our opinion, namely: (i) the lack of statistically relevant data concerning these competences; (ii) the absence of reliable indices that might be used to measure and detect the possession of abilities underlying the above-mentioned soft skills. This paper aims to address both aspects of this topic by presenting the results of a research we conducted in the period October – December 2020 on students enrolled in various degree courses at the University of Florence. To the best of our knowledge, to date this is the largest available database on the subject in the Italian University System. It has been obtained by a three-stage initiative. We started from an “entrance” examination for assessing the students' initial abilities. This test comprised ten questions, each of which was centered on a specific reasoning construct. The results we have collected show that there is a widespread lack of understanding of basic patterns that are common in the everyday way of arguing. Students then underwent a short training course, using formal logic techniques in order to strengthen their abilities, and afterwards took an “exit” examination, replicating the structure and the questions difficulty of the entrance one in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. Results show that the training was beneficial.

scholarly journals Dealing with a hangover of Public Archaeology: Scattered thoughts on the Italian ‘Archeologia Pubblica’

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Francesca Benetti
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Archaeology ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Conference ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time ◽  
Scientific Topic

Public Archaeology is a young discipline, we all know that. It’s even younger in Italy, where public archaeology has not even reached ‘adulthood’. Cited for the first time by Armando De Guio in 2000 (De Guio and Bressan 2000), it was only a decade later that Public Archaeology has started to become ‘a thing’, thanks to some pioneering experiences at the University of Florence (Bonacchi 2009; Vannini 2011), and especially after a national conference in 2012 (in Florence: see Zuanni 2013 for a summary). Italian archaeologists’ first reaction was to overlap the new discipline with the experiences already in place, which in Italy were under the category of ‘valorizzazione’ (enhancement). They were not exactly the same: while Public Archaeology is characterised by a reflection on the objectives of the research from the very start, a focus on having a reliable methodology, and a strong element linked to evaluation, ‘enhancement’ experiences – while often valuable and successful – lacked the same structure and reliability. This is probably due to an underestimation of these practices as a scientific topic, thus deserving the same structure required for any other type of research. Often this resulted in a mere description of the activities carried out, with a generic objective like ‘increasing the knowledge of archaeology in the public sphere’ without really evaluating if the activities worked or not. Public Archaeology became a sort of a trendy subject, outdating the term ‘valorizzazione’, at least in most of the university milieu, and creating confusion on the subject and the methodology. This sometimes has led to a sort of ‘hangover’ effect, similar to what happens with summer songs: they sound fun when you first hear them, but after months you just want to move on! Few doctoral theses awarded in Archaeology have been devoted to topics related to Public Archaeology up to the present date and the risk is that after this ‘hangover’ the subject will be penalised in comparison to others.

scholarly journals THE CITY WALLS OF FLORENCE, A METHOD TO MANAGE INFORMATIONS OF A COMPLEX SYSTEM

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽  
pp. 457-464
Author(s):  
J. G. Vitale
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
History Of ◽  
City Walls ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
Historic City ◽  
The City

Abstract. The city walls of Florence constitute a complex system: six circles and at least nine distinct phases of use and transformation, from the foundation of Florentia to Florence Capital, to contemporary adjustments. The DIDA, Department of Architecture of the University of Florence with the Municipality of Florence, has been carrying out since 2012 the FIMU project with the study of the various walls circuits and diachronic surveys of the surviving wall sections. The aim is to combine and harmonize the historical data with technical-scientific innovation, expressing its own vision of the relationship between the history of the city of Florence and the correct valorization of one of its important Landmark. Every citizen must be able to recognize in the traces of the past his belonging to a community, the results expected from this research are the realization of an informative-didactic and informative apparatus that will emphasize this important historical testimony of Florence and its transformations occurred over the centuries. Data acquisition, processing and visualization methods define this research as ‘experimental’ for the knowledge and evolution of a historic city that would contribute to elevating services for the technical scientific community and the citizen, to which data would become available currently ‘raw’ with the preparation of an apparatus based on a database through the ‘Open Data’ platform of the Municipality of Florence.

scholarly journals Introduction: Nicolaus Steno and earth science in early modern Italy

Substantia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Stefano Dominici ◽  
Gary D. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Living Things ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The University ◽  
Scientific Context ◽  
Accademia Del Cimento ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University

A group of scientists interested in history of science and fascinated by the figure of Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686) gathered in Florence for the 350th anniversary of the publication of his De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento prodromus dissertationis. A public conference held at Palazzo Fenzi on 16 October 2019 and a geological fieldtrip on the following day were occasions to discuss different points of view on the last published work of the Danish natural philosopher, dedicated to "solids naturally enclosed in other solids" (De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento, or De solido in short). The title of the gathering, "Galilean foundation for a solid earth", emphasized the philosophical context that Steno found in Florence, where in 1666-1668 he established tight human and philosophical bonds with renowned Italian disciples of Galileo Galilei and members of the Accademia del Cimento. For participants to the 2019 gathering, the Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence, hosting some of Steno's geological specimens, and the region of Tuscany itself, formed the perfect location to discuss the phenomena that Steno had observed from 1666-1668, the motivations for his research, the methodology of his discovery and, generally stated, the European scientific context which informed his inquiry. Some of the talks given in that meeting are included within this volume, kindly hosted by Substantia, International Journal of the History of Chemistry published by the Florence University Press. In addition some of the invited speakers who were unable to attend, also contributed a paper to this publication. The collection is about earth science in the early modern period, when the study of minerals, rocks, and the fossilized remains of living things did not yet form a distinct path to knowledge about earth history, but was an integral part of the wider "philosophy of nature".

scholarly journals Academic Education in Complementary Medicine: A Tuscan Methodological Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
pp. 33-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gian Franco Gensini ◽  
Andrea A. Conti
Keyword(s):  
Medical School ◽  
Complementary Medicine ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Teaching Objectives ◽  
Specific Implementation ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University

The implementation of complementary medicine (CM) involves a large number of persons in Italy, and in the nineties, the percentage of Italian citizens adopting the most frequent and relevant practices of CM almost doubled. Appropriate academic education in CM is an important and fascinating challenge for current didactic systems in the Italian University. Already in 2004, the Joint Italian Conference of the Deans of the Faculties of Medicine and of the Presidents of Medical Degree Courses released an official statement regarding the relationship between CM and health area degree courses. The main teaching objectives embedded in the institutional framework proposed by the Joint Italian Conference are now finding specific implementation modalities in the University of Florence. For many years, the Florence Medical School has had strong and fruitful contacts with institutional bodies in Tuscany and, together with these institutions, has established a continuous dialogue with the world of CM. This exchange has given rise to various teaching activities within the academic setting. With specific reference to the undergraduate curriculum in Medicine and Surgery, a methodological course regarding CM has been designed and conducted, with selective attention being given to the CM practices having an enhanced rate of supportive scientific evidence, such as herbal medicine and acupuncture. With regard to the postgraduate curriculum, a Master degree in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine and a Master in Clinical Phytotherapy are already active in the University of Florence and are having a remarkable success among the attending health professionals. This high degree of satisfaction well documents the importance, need and feasibility of structured academic education in CM and, in particular, of a methodological didactics such as those currently implemented in the Florence Medical School.

Commercial gigahertz-class NMR magnets

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Wikus ◽  
Wolfgang Frantz ◽  
Rainer Kümmerle ◽  
Patrik Vonlanthen
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
High Temperature Superconductors ◽  
Proton Resonance Frequency ◽  
Proton Resonance ◽  
Analytical Technique ◽  
Structure Of Molecules ◽  
Control Food ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University

Abstract Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a wide-spread analytical technique which is used in a large range of different fields, such as quality control, food analysis, material science and structural biology. In the widest sense, NMR is an analytical technique to determine the structure of molecules. At the time of writing this manuscript, commercial NMR spectrometers with a proton resonance frequency ≥ 900 MHz are only available from Bruker. In 2019, Bruker installed the first 1.1 GHz (25.8 T) NMR spectrometer at the St. Jude Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, followed by the installation of the first 1.2 GHz (28.2 T) NMR spectrometer at the University of Florence in Italy in 2020. These were the first commercial NMR spectrometers operating at magnetic fields in excess of what can be achieved with conventional low temperature superconductors, and which depend on high temperature superconductors to generate the required magnetic field. In this paper, the requirements on commercial NMR magnets are discussed and the history of high-field NMR magnets is reviewed. Bruker’s R&D program for 1.1 and 1.2 GHz NMR magnets and spectrometers will be described, and some of the key properties of these first commercial NMR magnets with high-temperature superconductors are reported.

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