Imaginary (Italy)

Three-dimensional (3D) rendering of biomedical volumes has become essential for faster comprehension of anatomy, better communication with patients, surgical planning, and training. However, depending on the algorithm, level of detail, volume size, and transfer function, rendering can be quite slow. A multi-target optimization method – voxelization – can be applied to biomedical volume rendering enhancement for empty space skipping, optimized maximum intensity calculation, and advanced Woodcock tracking. Empirical results indicate that the voxelization technique can increase the performance of Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) by up to ten times, Monte Carlo Path Tracing (MCPT) by five times, and Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) by two times of the original velocity. In this study, we investigate the influence of a 3D fractal dimension of the rendered volumes to the rendering speed and the optimal super voxel size, used in voxelization process, to guarantee the best performance of DVR, MCPT, and MIP, using voxelization. 3D fractal dimensions are calculated for five common transfer functions applied to the Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scans of exotic animals and human extremities (postmortem). Preliminary findings suggest that volumes rendered with similar transfer functions have comparable 3D fractal dimension and, moreover, there is a statistically significant relationship between the DVR and MCPT speed and the 3D fractal dimension. Furthermore, the structures with higher 3D fractal dimension require the smaller super voxel sizes for empty space skipping, meanwhile, optimized maximum intensity calculation and advanced Woodcock tracking are 3D fractal dimension independent. The research encourages the further exploration of the structural complexity to 3D rendering optimization for biomedical volumes.

The story is part of the psychological fantasy, the limit situations in which the characters fall due to an imbalance between culture, related to their inner or personal life, and respectively civilization, social life, the external world in which the characters evolve. The innovative element of the story emerges from the balanced ratio between the real and bookish, by recreating a legend in a real situation, by adopting the theory of personality migration. The psyche of the heroes is marked by unusual experiences that lead to the modification of their ways of perception. In Magical Love, Vasile Voiculescu presents the psycho-erotic mechanism caused by the complex play of the poet's imagination and intelligence, the character in the story, an erudite with a scientific mentality, based on logic, wanting to write a replica of Goethe'swork, Faust, with roles reversed. His intention was to reverse the pact with the devil in Faust, switching the action to heaven and overturning the senses. However, the effect will be totally unexpected: she will not have a pure and loving Margaret, but a witch-Margarita, a real female Mephisto. The hero of the story realizes that the condition he perceives is an obsession that reaches the level of personality substitution, a psychological phenomenon that occurs under the effect of the substitution in imagination of the feminine ideal. The fact that the tempted woman accumulates attributes of cerebrality demonstrates Voiculescu's confidence in a possible restoration of androgynous perfection. Voiculescu's intention to demystify the supernatural element from folklore traditions, resorting to psychology, is evident. The events related are subject to a process of derealization, the author distancing himself from the action by multiplying the points of view, the perception of the facts by the large number of narrators. The first narrator, serving as a mere narrative convention, recedes to make way for the poet, the doctor, and the painter. The triggering element that has an effect on the poet is the discussion about the folkloric influence of the sea, the result being the recollection of an incident from his youth, when he had accompanied a friend, a collector of folklore, to an isolated mountain village. The description of the events is direct and sprinkled with many details, their interpretation depending on the attitude of the storyteller. Although there are signs of the unnatural and suggestions of magic, the narrator tries to find a logical explanation, precisely to discourage a perception of a secondary reality, visibly belonging to the occult, not surprising in the cultural psychology of the world of the rather deserted village, without social life, without church and priest. Vasile Voiculescu's story does not focus on the events and situations, but on the way of perception of the female character by the male characters.

"Upper Silesia is a region that still defines itself (despite the ongoing closure of mines) using the symbolism of coal. In the article, I analyze this symbolism, indicating four levels on which, in my opinion, this symbolism is manifested. These levels – stereotypical, idealizing, conjectural, and mystical – combine in the carbon myth that constitutes the identity of the region and its inhabitants."

Concepts, terminology, structures, no math, no code. Free open-source libraries do the hard work. My background: consultant, writer, director, etc.

This study focuses on Persephone myth as reflected in the popular trilogy Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The novelist uses the frame of this myth, with its implicit motifs of descent to the underworld and abuse, in order to reveal the anxieties of an adolescent girl, Katniss Everdeen, in her search for an authentic identity. The aim of this study is to show that Suzanne Collins also makes use of Artemis myth in her trilogy, but her eventual insistence on Persephone myth in her narrative reveals that the novelist’s purpose goes beyond the depiction of private experience of coming of age inherent in this myth, extending its function to issues related to the discovery of a social identity. The most important reason for using the mythemes of the popular myth of Persephone in her work is to represent the anxieties about societal collapse, expressed by the novelist through the images of panem et circens, hunger and predatory behaviour of eating and being eaten, which is characteristic to contemporary world. The mechanism of the cyclical death and rebirth, integral to the myth, contributes to the creation and validation of some social customs and beliefs. Therefore, Katniss Everdeen’s journey and her traumatic experience could be read as an attempt to transmit the fears of anarchic existence, the anxieties concerning politics of authority and power, but, at the same time, the hope in the emergence of a new social identity which would be built on some newly acquired and acknowledged values, such as hunger for justice, compassion and nourishment.

We apply Ant Colony Optimization concepts to the problem of finding appropriate reward values after successful task completion in serious games. Our algorithm is deployed within the InLife platform...

IntroductionFor the optimal management of children with cystic fibrosis, there are currently no efficient tools for the precise adjustment of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, either for advice on appropriate dietary intake or for achieving an optimal nutrition status. Therefore, we aim to develop a mobile application that ensures a successful nutritional therapy in children with cystic fibrosis.Methods and analysisA multidisciplinary team of 12 partners coordinate their efforts in 9 work packages that cover the entire so-called ‘from laboratory to market’ approach by means of an original and innovative co-design process. A cohort of 200 patients with cystic fibrosis aged 1–17 years are enrolled. We will develop an innovative, clinically tested mobile health application for patients and health professionals involved in cystic fibrosis management. The mobile application integrates the research knowledge and innovative tools for maximising self-management with the aim of leading to a better nutritional status, quality of life and disease prognosis. Bringing together different and complementary areas of knowledge is fundamental for tackling complex challenges in disease treatment, such as optimal nutrition and pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy in cystic fibrosis. Patients are expected to benefit the most from the outcomes of this innovative project.Ethics and disseminationThe project is approved by the Ethics Committee of the coordinating organisation, Hospital Universitari La Fe (Ref: 2014/0484). Scientific findings will be disseminated via journals and conferences addressed to clinicians, food scientists, information and communications technology experts and patients. The specific dissemination working group within the project will address the wide audience communication through the website (http://www.mycyfapp.eu), the social networks and the newsletter.

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives: Aging society is a social health issue that digital gaming solutions can address by enabling both infrastructures as advanced environments for care and patients as active people in their aging. Cost-effective patient management may be emphasized thanks to the communication protocols that allow remote monitoring and intervention by medical professionals. Services for elderly depend on their behavior and lifestyle toward personal health management. Digital games could increase seniors' engagement and motivation. However, a few studies have looked at the acceptance of digital games by the elderly. The study here presented aims to evaluate the feasibility of a gaming rehabilitation platform. Materials and Methods: In Singapore, fifty elderly practiced 30-min sessions and evaluated their experience with a new tool based on game scenarios for rehabilitation. Results: Results are discussed in the light of Davis' Technology Acceptance Model, highlighting mainly a good perceived usefulness of the service. Conclusions: This preliminary study is encouraging the spread of digital medical games for old patients.

Augustine's opinion on the conditions one must fulfil in order to be able to understand and practice philosophy, namely to become a philosopher, depend on his use of a comparison between philocaly and philosophy that he may have learnt from the platonic tradition. In his Contra academicos and De ordine he discusses these terms showing that philocaly refers to a love for trivial beautiful things that can be coverted into a love for authentic beautiful things, and finally this will be converted into the love for wisdom or philosophy by liberal arts. There are three stages of love for beauty: love for the trivial beauty, educated love for attested beautiful things, and love for beauty understood as wisdom. Augustine applies this discussion to his friends and dialogue partners, Licentius and Romanianus, making it a subject of practical philosophy or philosophy as a program for life.

In this paper, textual superstructures and mental models that twenty children with typical development and twenty with Asperger syndrome produce are compared. With this purpose, a task of oral narration was designed from a graphic support for pragmatic training and, afterwards, the narrative skills of participants were assessed, as a part of their semiotic-discursive competence. Results suggest that a great homogeneity in scores, usually successful, exists when both groups compose narrative structures. Finally, mental models are also coincident in a high proportion.