Testing web-based solutions for improving reading tasks in dyslexic and neuro-typical users

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This study investigates the readability of web sites for users with dyslexia as well as neuro-typical readers. The aim of the paper is twofold: on the one hand,...     

Leveraging social semantic components in executable environments for learning

Learning can benefit from the modern Web structure through the convergence of top‐down encyclopedic institutional knowledge and bottom‐up user‐generated annotations. A promising approach to such convergence consists in leveraging the social functionalities in 3.0 executable environments through the recommendation of tags with the mediation of lexical and semantic resources. This paper addresses such issues through the design and evaluation of a tag recommendation system in a Web 3.0 Web portal, ‘150 Digit’. Designed for schools, 150 Digit encourages students and teachers to interact with a set of four exhibitions on the historical and social aspects of the Italian unification process in a virtual environment. The website displays the exhibits and their related documents promoting the users' active participation through tagging, voting and commenting on the exhibits. Tags become a way for students to create and explore new relations among the site contents, orthogonal to the institutional viewpoint. In this paper, we illustrate the recommendation strategy incorporated in 150 Digit, which relies on a semantic middleware to mediate between the input expressed by the users through tags and the top‐down institutional classification provided by the curators of the exhibitions. Following this, we describe the evaluation process conducted in a real experimental setting and discuss the evaluation results and their implications for learning environments.     

A synthetic biology approach to bio-chem-ICT: first moves towards chemical communication between synthetic and natural cells

In this article we present novel aspects of the impact that synthetic biology (SB) can express in a field traditionally based on computer science: information and communication technologies (ICTs), an area that we will consider taking into account also possible implications for artificial intelligence (AI) research. In the first part of this article we will shortly introduce some recent theoretical and experimental issues related to our approach in SB, discussing their relevance and potentiality in the field. Next, we define an original SB research programme that aims at contributing to the development of bio-chem-ICTs and AI based on chemical communication between natural and synthetic cells. In particular we present (i) a mathematical model that allows us to simulate the main features of the system under construction; and (ii) preliminary wet-lab experiments showing the feasibility of our research programme. Based on the bottom-up construction of synthetic cells, the traits of this novel approach and their connections with recent conceptual and technological trends are finally discussed.     

New results on the Gaussian projection filter with small observation noise

In this paper we define a one dimensional Gaussian projection filter (GPF) for a one dimensional diffusion and show that it behaves as nicely as the previously studied two dimensional GPF w.r.t. the true state. We extend part of the results on its nice behaviour to systems with bounded but not necessarily Lipschitz drift, and observe that in this case the resulting efficient filter does not depend on the drift itself.     

Observational Equivalence for the Interaction Combinators and Internal Separation

We define an observational equivalence for Lafont's interaction combinators, which we prove to be the least discriminating non-trivial congruence on total nets (nets admitting a deadlock-free normal form) respecting reduction. More interestingly, this equivalence enjoys an internal separation property similar to that of Böhm's Theorem for the λ-calculus.     

Integration of biocontrol agents and food-grade additives for enhancing protection of stored apples from Penicillium expansum

Forty-nine compounds currently used as additives in foods were tested in combination with three biocontrol agents, the yeasts Rhodotorula glutinis, Cryptococcus laurentii, and the yeastlike fungus Aureobasidium pullulans, to increase their antagonistic activity against Penicillium expansum, the causal agent of blue mold on apples. Twelve additives dramatically improved the antagonistic activity of one or more of the tested biocontrol agents. In a two-way factorial experiment with these selected additives the percentage of P. expansum rots on apples was significantly influenced by the antagonist and the additive as well as by their interaction. The combination of the biocontrol agents and some additives resulted in a significantly higher activity with respect to the single treatments applied separately, producing additive or synergistic effects. Some of the selected additives combined with a low yeast concentration (106 cells per ml) had comparable or higher efficacy than the biocontrol agents applied alone at a 100-fold higher concentration (10(8) cells per ml). Some organic and inorganic calcium salts, natural gums, and some antioxidants displayed the best results. In general, the effect of each additive was specific to the biocontrol isolate used in the experiments. Possible mechanisms involved in the activity of these beneficial additives and their potential application in effective formulations of postharvest biofungicides are discussed.