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Based on a qualitative study of school-to-university transition focused on working-class first-generation university students, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, it illustrates the multiple intertwining dimensions of the process of moving from school to university within an ‘open-door’ admission policy context such as the Italian one. Second, it emphasizes the role of students’ social networks and secondary school institutional habitus in differentiating how working-class students experience university decision-making. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this paper show that family habitus and cultural capital influence the decision to transition to university. However, the paper also shows that these influences are mediated by schools’ institutions according to their positions within the Italian tracking structure. In this respect, it is argued that institutional habitus constitutes a relevant heuristic to provide deeper understanding of barriers encountered by working-class students to access to university and to acknowledge the existence of important dimensions of differentiation among these students.

In questo capitolo faremo riferimento all’istruzione – concetto che useremo in modo ampio e a volte come sinonimo di educazione e formazione – come a un importante settore dell’economia fondamentale provvidenziale. Un settore che, in Italia, dipende ancora in misura notevole dal finanziamento e dal governo dello Stato e che si è costituito, a partire dalla fine dell’Ottocento, come un servizio pubblico universale che avrebbe dovuto sostenere non solo lo sviluppo delle forze produttive, ma anche il più ampio e ambizioso progetto di democratizzare la società. Allo stesso tempo, ci preme mettere in luce la specificità dell’istruzione rispetto ad altri settori dell’economia fondamentale. I dirompenti processi di privatizzazione e finanziarizzazione che hanno coinvolto altri settori come trasporti e acqua e, in misura minore, welfare e sanità, non sembrano essere in atto in quello dell’istruzione. In questo capitolo ripercorreremo le tappe fondamentali del farsi dell’istruzione come fondamentale provvidenziale e della profonda crisi che questo processo sta attraversando negli ultimi decenni.

Case del popolo e circoli ARCI costituiscono una delle più evidenti forme di radicamento territoriale delle culture politiche di sinistra. La loro evoluzione è parte integrante della storia dell’associazionismo popolare, il cui impulso ha origine tra Ottocento e Novecento sullo sfondo dei processi di industrializzazione e urbanizzazione. Attualmente, a fronte dei cambiamenti intervenuti con la crisi del modello fordista e con il passaggio a un capitalismo finanziario e dei servizi, case del popolo e circoli ARCI vivono una stagione di dinamismo, rinnovando le loro funzioni sociopolitiche. Non solamente spazi di socialità, solidarietà e riconoscimento per una certa subcultura rossa, questi luoghi associativi possono agire alla stregua di attori politici locali, in quanto sedi di azione sociale diretta. Il contributo mette a fuoco percorsi e ambivalenze del potenziale inclusivo e conflittuale espresso da case del popolo e circoli ARCI, anche attraverso il racconto di due realtà del nord Italia.

The outer capsid viral protein 2 (VP2) of African horse sickness virus, encoded by the most variable genome segment 2 (Seg-2), is the primary target for AHSV-specific neutralising antibodies and thus determines the virus serotype. Full length segment 2 sequences from more than 100 AHSVs isolated over the last 80 years were compared and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified between the reference strains and recent field viruses. Regions unique to each individual serotype were identified and primers designed to differentially amplify each of the nine serotypes. The sequences of resulting amplicons contained a significant amount of SNPs to discriminate between field viruses and reference strains or live attenuated viruses. The new serotype specific RT-PCR were subsequently used to determine the prevalence of different AHSV serotypes associated with samples submitted to the Agricultural Research Council - Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute during the 2016 / 2017 season. Subsequent sequencing of the PCR products were used to determine if the infections were caused by field or vaccine-derived strains. The serotypes of 70 AHSV positive diagnostic samples submitted to the ARC-OVR were determined. Serotypes 2 and 6 were the most prevalent, while Serotype 1 was the only serotype where sequences identical to the ALV or reference strains were detected in field samples. Based on this study, the incidence of vaccine-derived AHS infections submitted from southern Africa were low. This serotype-specific RT-PCR and sequencing assay could assist with the surveillance and control of equines movement nationally and internationally. It could also provide valuable scientific guidance on the policies and guidelines regulating vaccination and trade of equines in South Africa.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic, viral, mosquito-borne disease that causes considerable morbidity and mortality in humans and livestock in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In June 2018, 4 alpaca inoculated subcutaneously with live attenuated RVF virus (RVFV) Smithburn strain exhibited pyrexia, aberrant vocalization, anorexia, neurologic signs, and respiratory distress. One animal died the evening of inoculation, and 2 at ~20 d post-inoculation. Concern regarding potential vaccine strain reversion to wild-type RVFV or vaccine-induced disease prompted autopsy of the latter two. Macroscopically, both alpacas had severe pulmonary edema and congestion, myocardial hemorrhages, and cyanotic mucous membranes. Histologically, they had cerebral nonsuppurative encephalomyelitis with perivascular cuffing, multifocal neuronal necrosis, gliosis, and meningitis. Lesions were more severe in the 4-mo-old cria. RVFV antigen and RNA were present in neuronal cytoplasm, by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization (ISH) respectively, and cerebrum was also RVFV positive by RT-rtPCR. The virus clustered in lineage K (100% sequence identity), with close association to Smithburn sequences published previously (identity: 99.1–100%). There was neither evidence of an aberrant immune-mediated reaction nor reassortment with wild-type virus. The evidence points to a pure infection with Smithburn vaccine strain as the cause of the animals’ disease.

We consider the stochastically forced Burgers equation with an emphasis on spatially rough driving noise. We show that the law of the process at a fixed time $t$, conditioned on no explosions, is absolutely continuous with respect to the stochastic heat equation obtained by removing the nonlinearity from the equation. This establishes a form of ellipticity in this infinite dimensional setting. The results follow from a recasting of the Girsanov Theorem to handle less spatially regular solutions while only proving absolute continuity at a fixed time and not on path-space. The results are proven by decomposing the solution into the sum of auxiliary processes which are then shown to be absolutely continuous in law to a stochastic heat equation. The number of levels in this decomposition diverges to infinite as we move to the stochastically forced Burgers equation associated to the KPZ equation, which we conjecture is just beyond the validity of our results (and certainly the current proof). The analysis provides insights into the structure of the solution as we approach the regularity of KPZ. A number of techniques from singular SPDEs are employed as we are beyond the regime of classical solutions for much of the paper., Comment: 49 Pages

Le ragazze e i ragazzi che, nella propria famiglia, frequentano per primi l’università rappresentano una quota rilevante della popolazione studentesca, ma in Italia non sono stati ancora oggetto di un’analisi sociologica. L’obiettivo dell’indagine presentata nel volume è comprendere, attraverso interviste che ne hanno seguito il percorso nell’arco di tre anni, i modi in cui essi definiscono, organizzano e danno senso alla propria esperienza. Dialogando con la letteratura internazionale più recente, e con strumenti concettuali e teorici provenienti da diverse tradizioni di ricerca, vengono fornite alcune chiavi di lettura per capire la complessa natura dei meccanismi di differenziazione e disuguaglianza che coinvolgono il corpo studentesco: i modi concreti in cui si producono, si trasmettono e si intersecano il capitale culturale e quello sociale; i diversi modi di vivere l’esperienza universitaria in base all’intreccio delle identità di classe, di genere e razzializzate. Attraverso le storie di Amina, Monica, Adil, Mario e altri si interrogano i modi ordinari in cui è organizzata la vita universitaria e si comprendono inoltre i processi di abbandono, affiliazione e disaffiliazione, ponendo una sfida alle definizioni convenzionali delle transizioni universitarie “di successo”.

In this paper, we discuss the case of the recent introduction of a career guidance software within Italian schools with the aim to explore the use of digital devices in the governance of educational processes within the field of lifelong guidance. First, we provide a semiotic analysis of the software and its online platform with the aim of exploring how it articulates a complex network of material and discursive relations. Second, we show the types of practices the software makes ‘affordable’ within the Italian school context, and the organisational and cultural tensions it creates. Following recent studies on digital governance and adopting a policy instrument approach, we show how the introduction of a digital object within the school environment mobilises school actors around new ways of conceiving and delivering education that transcends the local dimension (looking towards national and European ideas) and favours the penetration of economic imperatives and rationales within Italian schools. The career guidance software analysed constitutes in this regard a meaningful illustration of how the governance of the European education space is mediated, activated and accomplished using digital instruments. Software, platforms and websites exert a persuasive power on their users, who in turn contribute to transform the educational order while transforming themselves.

During 2008–2015 in South Africa, we conducted West Nile virus surveillance in 1,407 animals with neurologic disease and identified mostly lineage 2 cases in horses (7.4%, 79/1,069), livestock (1.5%, 2/132), and wildlife (0.5%, 1/206); 35% were fatal. Geographic correlation of horse cases with seropositive veterinarians suggests disease in horses can predict risk in humans.

Current social policy discourse defines educational and career guidance as a key tool to enhance individual self-realisation while pursuing collective social objectives (economic growth, reduction of drop-out rate, social inclusion). Relying on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, critical research has long destabilised this mainstream narrative by stressing that guidance polices constitute a technology of government through which the political ambition to govern is realised by shaping citizens’ desires and ambitions. This article aims to provide an in-depth empirical analysis of how governing practices unfold within a concrete guidance setting. Based on ethnographic data, the essay focuses on guidance practices addressing 13–14-year-old students in Italy moving from comprehensive education to a tracked educational level. Particular emphasis is given to the role played by guidance forms, questionnaires and exercises. These materials, it is argued, enable particular technologies of the self that are key to involving individual in practices of self-government.

We consider the Mean Field limit of Gibbsian ensembles of 2-dimensional (2D) point vortices on the torus. It is a classical result that in such limit correlations functions converge to 1, that is, point vortices decorrelate: We compute the rate at which this convergence takes place by means of Gaussian integration techniques, inspired by the correspondence between the 2D Coulomb gas and the Sine-Gordon Euclidean field theory.

In this article, we discuss the results of qualitative research carried out at an Italian university for shedding light on the transition students undergo on entry to university, and for understanding associated difficulties that lead to student drop out. We use Vincent Tinto's and Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical apparatuses for analysing drop out in higher education as a process in which inequalities are expressed and reproduced. The intertwined social and institutional mechanisms, and flawed decision-making processes, that precede entry to university are explored. Particular attention is given to student perceptions of their experiences at university and the factors leading to progressive disen-gagement and drop out. The empirical material analysed shows that, although access to university is relatively easy within the Italian context, hurdles to the pursuit of a university education are largely hidden. Students who withdraw are those who are unable to embody the codes, rules and functioning of higher education: those who do not manage to internalise the type of disciplined autonomy needed for responding to academic demands. Personal characteristics and background resources are key for enabling students to fit in the academic environment. The ways in which higher education institutions regulate access and structure university life contribute to drop out processes and unequal path-ways based on the social background of students. Following Coulon, we conclude by arguing that higher education institutions should develop systemic approaches that com-mit their structure and personnel to the goal of developing a “pedagogy of affiliation” aimed at fostering—particularly among students from underprivileged backgrounds—the cognitive, social and practical skills needed to prosper in higher education.

We consider Canonical Gibbsian ensembles of Euler point vortices on the 2-dimensional torus or in a bounded domain of R 2 . We prove that under the Central Limit scaling of vortices intensities, and provided that the system has zero global space average in the bounded domain case (neutrality condition), the ensemble converges to the so-called Energy-Enstrophy Gaussian random distributions. This can be interpreted as describing Gaussian fluctuations around the mean field limit of vortices ensembles. The main argument consists in proving convergence of partition functions of vortices and Gaussian distributions., 27 pages, to appear on Communications in Mathematical Physics

The last major Rift Valley fever outbreak in South Africa was between 2008 and 2011. Viruses isolated between 2008 and 2010 were phylogenetically assigned to Lineage C, Lineage K and the novel lineage H. The 2011 outbreaks occurred primarily in the Eastern, Western and Northern Cape provinces, with no sequence data or phylogenetic relationship published. Samples from these outbreaks were submitted to the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pretoria, for immunohistochemical confirmation of Rift Valley fever phlebovirus presence. These samples were formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and stored at the Pathology section for several years. This study describes a modified extraction method used to obtain RNA from the FFPE samples, as well as the primer combinations used to phylogenetically classify them as belonging to the novel lineage H.

In bringing digital devices to the interior of social sciences and of educational policy studies, science and technology studies are an important contribution in stressing that neither should technology be seen as something external to other social realms, nor should we think of it as the cause of social transformations. Technological developments are themselves permeated by axiological and political dimensions and inevitably related to power dynamics. Digital devices are social phenomena themselves: objects that are socially produced (MacKenzie, Wajcman, 1985; Wajcman, 2015) while contextually capable of producing the world they inhabit. In this respect, software studies are also valuable, by pointing out the need of paying attention not only to digital devices’ characteristics and the meanings they carry from the moment of their design, but also of looking into their appropriation by social actors, into the relational dynamics surrounding these objects (Kitchin, Dodge, 2011). It is specifically departing from such nondeterministic complex view of digital devices that research on this subject would find an interesting path to be developed. Departing from an empirical research we carried out in 2018 whose main results have already been published (Romito et al. 2019; De Feo et al., 2019), this short paper aims to move forward our previous analysis by deepening the theoretical and methodological grounds of our study in order to set the basis of future works in this field.

Our paper outlines how lifelong guidance policies constitute a crucial device that solicits the reshaping of teachers’ professional culture. Using a policy instrument approach, we analyse how teachers are recruited into a new educational paradigm and the key role played in this respect by technological mediations enabling particular educational and guidance practices. We discuss, in particular, the case of SORPRENDO, a guidance software used in Italian schools, that was developed by a private company as the main output of a European project involving a public-private partnership. By looking at this software, in the first place, we emphasise how digital devices are not simply neutral and technical solutions to specific problems. They are impregnated with symbolic and political dimensions, carry meanings and constitute the material manifestation of policy orientations. We also show that although this digital tool mobilises teachers with new visions and ideas about guidance and teaching more broadly, it is incapable of ensuring their immediate adherence to this project. Teachers’ professional culture, their everyday practices, the inertia of schools’ organisation and administration constitute a terrain where processes of negotiation and accommodation create tensions and contradictions

This article introduces the special issue of Scuola Democratica – Learning for Democracy on the subject of school digitalization, providing some general reflections and interpretative keys on this topic. In the contemporary debate on education modernization strategies, innovation through digital technologies is identified as one of the privileged ways to reform and improve education systems. In line with an international literature that deals critically with the relationship between education and new technologies, the article opens a space for reflection on how to recognize and understand the transformations taking place and the effects produced by the introduction of digital technologies in the Italian school system, trying to avoid the pitfalls of ‘technological optimism’ and the a priori rejection of ICT and digital technologies for schooling.

In the latest educational policies at national and European level, lifelong guidance is increasingly identified as a key instrument to innovate and strengthen the provision of schooling to reduce school dropout and develop students’ adaptive capacities in a context of growing job flexibility. Guidance activities constitute indeed a key setting for the development of Career Management Skills (CMS), those abilities needed to support students in their transitions through education, work and training. By looking at the Italian context, our paper outlines how lifelong guidance policies, and the technological mediation used to make them operational, constitute crucial devices promoting changings in teachers’ professional culture. In particular, we analyse how teachers are recruited into a new pedagogical paradigm and we reflect on if and how this opens or closes spaces for developing processes of empowering or domination, especially for students from an underprivileged background. In the paper, we discuss the case of the recent introduction of a career guidance software in Italian schools, named SORPRENDO, whose aim is to improve the quality of guidance services in Italy and provide an e-learning platform where teachers can support and evaluate the future planning of students. First, we provide a theoretical reflection on the agential effect of digital devices in the governing of education, in particular through their interaction with teachers’ practices; secondly, through an empiric case study research, we show the types of educational practices the software makes ‘affordable’ within the Italian school context, and the organisational and cultural tensions it creates. We conclude by reflecting on the impact of the lifelong guidance project on the pedagogical relationship between teachers and their students, highlighting limits and opportunities.

We extend the validity of a simple method for the existence of a density for stochastic differential equations, first introduced in [DebRom2014], by proving local estimate for the density, existence for the density with summable drift, and by improving the regularity of the density., Comment: Added a section with examples and applications

We give a rigorous proof of the validity of the point vortex description for a class of inviscid generalized surface quasi-geostrophic models on the whole plane.

In Italy, as in other European countries, students of foreign origin are over-represented in the vocational school tracks, with relevant consequences on their limited chances of attaining a university degree. While research has long underlined the weight that a family’s social, cultural and economic capital has on a child’s school performance, educational expectations and choices, the role that school and teachers themselves play in the transition from lower to upper secondary school has been rarely explored in Italian sociological research. The present study aims to bridge this gap in the literature, showing how teachers’ orienting practices, interacting with highly differentiated patterns of family participation in the school guidance process, can play a relevant role in reproducing foreign-origin students’ segregation into the lower tracks of the school system.