Entender el lenguaje oral : la diferencia entre escuchar y oír

En el mundo, muchos niños, jóvenes y adultos pueden oír, pero no escuchar, lo cual afecta su calidad de vida. Debido a esta dificultad, que se conoce como Desorden de Procesamiento Auditivo Central (DPAC), afrontan diferentes problemas: pobre comprensión del lenguaje oral, respuestas inapropiadas a las preguntas que se les formulan, necesidad de evitar distracciones, dificultad para seguir la información que se dicta en el aula y tomar apuntes. De acuerdo con estos síntomas y signos, este problema suele ser diagnosticado como desórdenes del lenguaje, déficits de atención, o trastornos de hiperactividad, limitaciones cognitivas, trastornos sociales o emocionales, y en los casos más severos, autismo, cuando en realidad se trata de un déficit de procesamiento auditivo. Al respecto la evidencia científica apunta a reconocer que la habilidad para procesar la información auditiva es responsable en gran medida del acceso fluido a los aprendizajes; además, permite al individuo desempeñarse adecuadamente en su contexto y ser eficiente comunicador. Por todo ello, el diagnóstico acertado es el camino a la solución.

Procedures of quality control and data analysis of multi-site ground-based observations for the absolute flux calibration of Gaia

The Gaia space mission is a major project for the European astronomical community. As challenging as it is, the processing and analysis of the huge data-flow incoming from Gaia is the subject of thorough study and preparatory work by the DPAC (Data Processing and Analysis Consortium), in charge of all aspects of the Gaia data reduction. This PhD Thesis was carried out in the framework of the DPAC, within the team based in Bologna. The task of the Bologna team is to define the calibration model and to build a grid of spectro-photometric standard stars (SPSS) suitable for the absolute flux calibration of the Gaia G-band photometry and the BP/RP spectrophotometry. Such a flux calibration can be performed by repeatedly observing each SPSS during the life-time of the Gaia mission and by comparing the observed Gaia spectra to the spectra obtained by our ground-based observations. Due to both the different observing sites involved and the huge amount of frames expected (≃100000), it is essential to maintain the maximum homogeneity in data quality, acquisition and treatment, and a particular care has to be used to test the capabilities of each telescope/instrument combination (through the “instrument familiarization plan”), to devise methods to keep under control, and eventually to correct for, the typical instrumental effects that can affect the high precision required for the Gaia SPSS grid (a few % with respect to Vega). I contributed to the ground-based survey of Gaia SPSS in many respects: with the observations, the instrument familiarization plan, the data reduction and analysis activities (both photometry and spectroscopy), and to the maintenance of the data archives. However, the field I was personally responsible for was photometry and in particular relative photometry for the production of short-term light curves. In this context I defined and tested a semi-automated pipeline which allows for the pre-reduction of imaging SPSS data and the production of aperture photometry catalogues ready to be used for further analysis. A series of semi-automated quality control criteria are included in the pipeline at various levels, from pre-reduction, to aperture photometry, to light curves production and analysis.