This book describes the design, development, characterisation and application of two novel fluorescence imaging instruments based on spectrally resolved detector arrays (SRDAs). The simplest SRDA is the standard colour camera, which integrates a Bayer filter array of red, green and blue colour filters to replicate the colour sensing capability of the human eye. The SRDAs used in this book contain many more colours, ranging from 16 to over 100 colour channels. Using these compact, robust and low-cost detectors for biomedical applications opens new avenues of exploration that were not possible before, in particular, the use of spectral imaging in endoscopy. The work presented shows for the first time that not only can this new type of camera be used for fluorescence imaging, but also that it is able to resolve signals from up to 7 different dyes - a level of multiplexing not previously achieved in tissue with such compact and robust equipment. Furthermore, it reports the application of a bimodal endoscope performing both reflectance and fluorescence imaging using these cameras in an ex vivo pig oesophagus model.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This comprehensive collection discusses topical issues essential to both scholarship and policy making in the realm of lifelong learning (LLL) policies and how far they succeed in supporting young people across their life courses, rather than one-sidedly fostering human capital for the economy. Examining specific yet diverse regional and local contexts across Europe, this book uses original research to evaluate differences in scope, approach, orientation, and objectives. It examines the embedding of LLL policies into the regional economy, the labour market, education and training systems and the individual life projects of young people, with a focus on those in situations of near social exclusion.

This book describes the design, development, characterisation and application of two novel fluorescence imaging instruments based on spectrally resolved detector arrays (SRDAs). The simplest SRDA is the standard colour camera, which integrates a Bayer filter array of red, green and blue colour filters to replicate the colour sensing capability of the human eye. The SRDAs used in this book contain many more colours, ranging from 16 to over 100 colour channels. Using these compact, robust and low-cost detectors for biomedical applications opens new avenues of exploration that were not possible before, in particular, the use of spectral imaging in endoscopy. The work presented shows for the first time that not only can this new type of camera be used for fluorescence imaging, but also that it is able to resolve signals from up to 7 different dyes - a level of multiplexing not previously achieved in tissue with such compact and robust equipment. Furthermore, it reports the application of a bimodal endoscope performing both reflectance and fluorescence imaging using these cameras in an ex vivo pig oesophagus model.

Women and girls with disabilities find themselves constantly having to deal with multiple, intersectional discrimination due to both their gender and their disability, as well as social conditioning. Indeed, the intersection made up of factors such as race, ethnic origin, social background, cultural substrate, age, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, gender, disability, status as refugee or migrant and others besides, has a multiplying effect that increases discrimination yet further. Where conditions are equal, women with disabilities do not enjoy equal opportunities in terms of their participation in all aspects of society; rather, they are all too often excluded, amongst others from education, employment, access to poverty reduction programmes, from taking part in political and public lives and, moreover, some legislative deeds actually prevent them from making decisions regarding their own lives, also as regards sexual and reproductive rights. History, attitudes and prejudices of the societies to which we belong, including of families, have created and continue to feed into a negative stereotypical image of women and girls with disabilities, thereby helping further isolate and marginalise them yet more. Very often, they are also ignored by information media and, when they do gain media attention, the approach tends to considers them from the perspective of medical-assistance needs, silencing their abilities and valuable contribution to the society in which they live. The book seeks to pay the right attention to the condition of women with disabilities, offering points for reflection, also on the different, often invisible, cultural and social undertones that continue today to feed into prejudicial stereotypes.

The student dropout phenomenon affects every level of educational systems in countries all over the world, including the most socio-economically developed ones. Success in education is crucial for jobs, productivity and growth. Low levels and low completion rates create a skills bottleneck in the economic sectors and inhibit innovation, productivity, and competitiveness. The early detection of the phenomenon, at all levels of education, and the deepening of the causes that determine it are necessary prerequisites for any initiative aimed at reducing the factors affecting the decrease of the rates of formative failures and dropout at all levels. This book aims to contribute to the continuing debate on the possibilities of how to improve educational processes with the help of data mining techniques. The book closes with a fascinating application of the principles of Artificial Neural Networks to help students at risk of university dropping out. It presents the case study of the dropout phenomenon in many degree programs at the University of Genoa (Italy). The analysis model, at the moment experienced on the Genoa University reality, is proposed as a simple and flexible instrument to support the activities of monitoring and evaluation of all the educational systems, an instrument available to decision-makers in identifying programs and strategies to support the persistency and the success in educational systems, but also to the families, in the recognition of the problems in which the intervention of the family, accompanying or not the institution, is decisive. I hope that this book will be useful for educators, counsellors, administrative staff, and researchers alike.

What does it mean for a person to move from work to retirement? What characterizes this experience? The significant demographic, economic and socio-cultural changes that have taken place recently have also had an impact on ways of achieving full withdrawal from work. Retirement is a difficult transition in which people lose some material and psychosocial resources, but they can experience new opportunities for enrichment and define new projects. However, this potential positive outcome is not promptly achievable and requires personal commitment as well as social and organizational facilities to master it. Retirement is not an event, but a process that begins to foresee progressive forms of exit and re-entry into a social reality to be defined by the person. Therefore, we do not refer to a simple or automatic conclusion of "active life", but to the possible construction of a new composite system of self-manageable activities that has to be supported by organizations and institutions. In the cultural imaginary, in fact, the condition of the elderly is associated with the idea of a general process of decay, deriving from a progressive loss of psychophysical, social and productive functions. The traits that are most frequently attributed to older people are those of weakness and disengagement, starting from the fact that the birth of the separation of old age from adulthood is anchored to the escape of the subject from the productive system. The lengthening of a lifespan is reshaping the structure and demographic profile of our society and the generational system, with consequences on the economic and social system. It represents one of the great challenges with important consequences for contemporary societies.