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The University of Naples Federico II (Italy) offers a nine-month formative training program aimed at software development for the Apple technology ecosystem to ~400 learners per year and utilises the Challenge Based Learning ("CBL") methodology as a framework for learning. As a collaborative and self-guided, inquiry-based learning method, it focuses on learners' intrinsic motivation while working on real world problems organised in projects ("Challenges" in "CBL") with an experiential and progressive approach to apply acquired knowledge in real world scenarios, ideate solution concepts and build innovative digital products. To overcome limitations of spiral curriculum or elaboration theory, the authors applied narrative theory to design the program's educational experience for the academic year 2019/2020 as a cohesive journey within a communal learning environment with a coherent and connected structure of narratively driven learning Challenges. The authors present concepts to develop their approach further towards an emergent narrative experience design system to manage the educational journey as it develops, rather than scripting it. This paper evolves the authors' Narrative Experience Design Canvas to model educational experience design that encourages unscripted, emergent narratives for experiential education with the goal of fostering learners' engagement, agency and creativity. Derived in part by models developed for digital interactive storytelling or educational video games, it categorises the components for designing an educational experience that allows the learning progression to be driven by learners as co-authors and describes mechanisms that allow unscripted narratives to emerge based on intrinsic motivation. Additionally, the authors present considerations for synchronous and asynchronous learning to evolve their framework for application in blended or remote learning scenarios. Drawing upon findings for remote learning and experiential e-learning - ee-learning - presented by scholars as well as implications identified during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting switch to remote learning within the program at University of Naples Federico II in 2020, it is shown how combining narrative elements with experiential e-learning principles can result in increased engagement, motivation and sense of community in learners. Using the example of an individual learning unit - a Challenge - considerations from overall course design down to day-to-day learning activities within the course are presented. For the future, the authors indicate action points to develop this model into an Emergent Narrative System for designing narratively driven and experiential software development education programs and indicate areas of further research on learning activity design for blended or remote learning experiences.

The existence and function of Lgr5+ cells within the developing esophagus remains unknown. Here, we document multiple discrete Lgr5+ populations in the developing mouse esophagus, predominantly within nascent epithelial and external muscle layers. Lgr5 expression initially emerges in the developing proximal embryonic epithelium, but progressively extends distally and persists within the distal epithelium of neonates. Fate mapping and ablation analyses reveal a long-term contribution of epithelial Lgr5+ cells to esophageal organogenesis. Additionally, Lgr5-expressing cells are present in the developing external muscle layer, particularly during the development of the striated component. Fate mapping reveals a significant contribution of these embryonic Lgr5+ cells to the adult muscle layer. Embryonic Lgr5+ epithelial cells are also found to be important for regulating epithelial development, serving as a key source of Wnt6, among other ligands, to promote epithelial cell proliferation and formation of epithelial layers. These findings significantly enhance our understanding of esophageal development and shed light on the involvement of Lgr5+ stem/progenitor cells during organogenesis. Importantly, this study lays the foundation for investigating esophageal diseases related to the Lgr5+ stem/progenitor cell pool. The role of Lgr5+ cells in esophageal development has been unclear. Here, authors identify Lgr5+ cells in the developing mouse esophagus and reveal their crucial role in epithelial and muscle development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satélite Argentino de Observación COn Microondas (SAOCOM-1) constellation operates in three acquisition modes: Stripmap (SM), Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans Synthetic Aperture Radar (TOPSAR) Narrow (TNA and TNB), and TOPSAR Wide (TW). Since repeat-pass SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions are not synchronized, the generation of the related interferometric products is not guaranteed, as it happens instead for the synchronized repeat-pass TOPSAR acquisitions, such as those of Sentinel-1. In this work, we assess the suitability of SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions for generating interferometric products. To this aim, we first discuss the constraints that must be fulfilled by the repeat-pass nonsynchronized TOPS acquisitions in order to make it feasible the generation of usable interferograms. Then, we verify whether SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions fulfill these constraints. For this purpose, we present an analysis based on the use of a dataset composed by 18 TNB images relevant to a single subswath illuminating a region located in the southwest of Argentina. From this dataset, we were able to select 48 pairs that guarantee the spectral superposition needed for interferometric purposes. We verified that 50% of these 48 pairs fulfill the constraint required to avoid in the corresponding interferograms the presence of noncoherent azimuth stripes, whose azimuth extension depends on one side on the mis-synchronization percentage between the repeat-pass acquisitions and the other side on the overlapping percentage between adjacent bursts of the same acquisition. Summing up, the presented analysis proves the potential of SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions to obtain interferometric products, despite the absence of bursts synchronization between repeat-pass acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African swine fever (ASF) continues to spread worldwide, and has reached multiple countries across Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific, representing a serious economic burden threatening pig health and welfare, as well as food security. The disease affects domestic pigs and wild boar, and in several European countries the disease is endemic in wild boars. The lack of vaccines or effective treatments highlights the importance of effective control measures used to keep domestic and feral pigs separated to prevent the spread of the virus. However, the study of the livestock–wildlife interface is quite complex and has many aspects to consider, including the uncertainty of wild-boar population data. In this study, we determined the risk of spread of the ASF virus at the interface between domestic pigs and wild boars using indicators that can indirectly indicate the presence of wild boars in order to target specific control measures in the highest risk areas. The results of the study were compared with those obtained by Pittiglio, in which the population data for wild boars was estimated using a geostatistical method and similar results were obtained. However, the present study used specific information relating to the wild-boar population and this allowed us to use fewer variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]