Studio di un team guidato dalla Sapienza e pubblicato su Scientific Reports reso possibile grazie a tecniche non invasive realizzate con luce di sincrotrone a Trieste
Lo studio dei fossili permette di ricostruire la storia del nostro pianeta e l’evoluzione della nostra specie. Ma che tipo di informazione si può ricavare dai fossili di un feto del Paleolitico superiore? È quanto indagato da uno studio, recentemente pubblicato sulla prestigiosa rivista Scientific Reports, realizzato per la Sapienza da Alessia Nava e coordinata da Alfredo Coppa e da Luca Bondioli nell’ambito del corso di dottorato in Biologia ambientale ed evoluzionistica. Alla ricerca hanno collaborato anche il Museo delle Civiltà di Roma, il Centro Fermi di Roma, Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, il Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam di Trieste, l’Università degli Studi di Bari e la University of Wollongong in Australia.
I ricercatori hanno analizzato i reperti provenienti dalla sepoltura “Ostuni 1”, rinvenuta a Santa Maria di Agnano in Puglia nel 1991 dal paletnologo Donato Coppola (Università di Bari) e datata a oltre 27 mila anni fa. In particolare, si sono interessati ai denti del feto che una giovane donna di circa vent'anni portava in grembo. Da questi denti ancora in formazione è stato possibile ricavare dati sullo stato di salute della mamma e del feto nelle ultime fasi della gravidanza, stabilire l'età gestazionale del feto, identificare alcune peculiarità dello sviluppo embrionale.
Professor Roberta Capello (Politecnico di Milano) is awarded the ERSA Prize in Regional Science 2017
The ERSA Prize in Regional Science 2017 has been awarded to Professor Roberta Capello, full Professor of Regional Economics at Politecnico di Milano, School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering.
This € 5.000 price awards Professor Roberta Capello’s scientific achievements in urban and regional economics, in particular her work on spatial spillovers and externalities from innovations, knowledge creation and the impacts on urban and regional growth. As an author, Professor Roberta Capello has made a tremendous impact in the field of regional science with her textbook in regional economics, Routledge (2007), and her several books and papers published in refereed journals. The jury acknowledges her outstanding and prolific contributions to the advancement of regional science.
Does everyone play outside even when it rains?
For an entire week, the Spanish and British kindergarten were able to be flies on the wall at Sandvedhaugen kindergarten in Norway. They shadowed their Norwegian colleagues to see how they work, how Norwegian kindergartens operate and to pick up good practices they might bring with them back home and apply in their own kindergartens.
Testing manuals
The secondments were part of the EU project “Enhancing Opportunities for Toddlers’ Wellbeing” (ToWe). The aim is to let more kindergarten employees carry out secondments or “job shadowing” with partner kindergartens from other countries. ToWe is an action research project where the overall objective is to improve the quality of life for toddlers, with a focus on disadvantaged children, to ensure they are given a good start in life and to fulfil their learning potential. The kindergarten teachers who are involved in the project will be able to gain new knowledge. Early childhood education departments from the University of Stavanger, Kingston University in London and Universitat Ramon Lull in Barcelona have together developed a number manuals that kindergarten employees may use to learn more about the wellbeing of children during meals, how they can work with children’s ways of expressing themselves and how they can contribute to language learning for toddlers. The material that has been developed, currently being tested in the partner kindergartens, is available on the ToWe project website.
Many funny moments
During the job shadowing, the English, Spanish and Norwegian kindergarten teachers participating in the project had some revelations, and there were many moments of insight – including some funny ones. “For me the amount of time spent outdoors in Norwegian kindergartens came as a big surprise. It was also strange to see children sleeping outside in their prams. And I must admit that I was somewhat shocked when one of the kindergarten employees said that everyone had to go out and play in the rain. My response was simply: What? Are we going out now? Isn’t it raining? I was afraid the children would get cold, but that was only until I saw the suits and rain clothing Norwegian children wear. This is not common in Spain”, says Mireia Miralpeix, who works in the kindergarten Escola Bressol Mas Balmanya outside of Barcelona.
