The great competition is over, the judges have given their marks and the chalk dust has settled over the arena. A few hurt prides pick themselves up off the floor, and set about the painful task of finding out what went wrong and why they did not fare as well as they expected. This is not the aftermath of the winter Olympics, rather the results of the PISA study, the Programme for International...

Danilo Neglia, Alberto De Caterina, Paolo Marraccini, Andrea Natali, Marco Ciardetti, Cecilia Vecoli, Amalia Gastaldelli, Demetrio Ciociaro, Paola Pellegrini, Roberto Testa, Luca Menichetti, Antonio L’Abbate, William C. Stanley, and Fabio A. Recchia Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Council for Research; Department of Medicine, University of Pisa; Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Ital...

Giuseppe Battaglia,1 Carla L. Busceti,1 Gemma Molinaro,1 Francesca Biagioni,1 Marianna Storto,1 Francesco Fornai,1,2 Ferdinando Nicoletti,1,3 and Valeria Bruno1,3 1Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, 86077 Pozzilli, Italy, 2Department of Human Morphology and Applied Biology, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy, and 3Department of Human Physiology and Pharmacology, University La Sapien...

In 2000 nearly 3,700 New Zealand 15 year-old secondary students took part in PISA 2000 (Programme for International Student Assessment1), a two-hour assessment to measure their reading, mathematical and scientific literacy (definitions of these literacies for PISA can be found on the back page). This same assessment was given to a sample of 15 year-old students in 31 other participating countries.

1Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt 2Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt 3Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt 4Pharmacology and Toxicology Division, Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy ...

Mario Lucio Puppio 1,*, Martina Pellegrino 1,*, Linda Giresini 1 ID and Mauro Sassu 2 ID 1 Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering; University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy; [email protected] 2 Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]...

protection for pressurized tanks engulfed by fires Simone Larcher, Gabriele Landucci,Alessandro Tugnoli, Valerio Cozzani (1) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Mineraria e delle Tecnologie Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Bologna Via Terracini 28, 40131 Bologna, Italy (2) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Chimica Industriale e Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Pisa Via Di...

We present a generalisation of the IRT framework that allows to discriminate between examinees. Our model therefore introduces examinee parameters that can be optimised with Expectation Maximisation-like algorithms. We provide empirical results on PISA data showing that our approach leads to a more appropriate grouping of PISA countries than by test scores and socio-economic indicators.

†Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, Via Bonanno Pisano 6, 56126, Pisa, Italy ‡ Department of Chemistry, University of Bari “A. Moro”, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy § Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Medicinaregaten 9C, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden ∥ Institute of Biostructures and Bioimages, National Council of Research (CNR), Via P. Gaifami 18, ...

the early stage design of hydrogen storage plants Gabriele Landucci,Alessandro Tugnoli, Valerio Cozzani (1) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Chimica Industriale e Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Pisa Via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy (2) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Mineraria e delle Tecnologie Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna Via Terracini 28,...