ITALY

This course examines some features of the disciplines that study animal behavior and focuses on the most relevant methods of investigation. The different aspects of behavior are examined from a comparative perspective and with a particular focus on cognitive and perceptual processes. The course discusses topics including a brief history of ethology and comparative psychology, approaches to the study of behavior, the evolution of behavior, phylogeny and behavior, physiological mechanisms and behavior, learning and cognition, motivation, early experience and learning, comparative cognition, social behavior, living in groups, social cooperation, predators and preys, optimal foraging theory, and anti-predatory behavior. The course recommends students have basic knowledge of general biology, psychobiology, and genetics as a prerequisite.

This course is part of the LM degree program and so is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course discusses fundamentals of the most important multivariate techniques that help to make intelligent use of large data base by recognizing patterns for predicting or estimating an output based on one or more inputs. At the end of the course the student is able; to represent and organize knowledge about big data collections; to turn data into actionable knowledge; and to choose the best suited methodology for the problem at hand to critically interpret the results. The course discusses topics including an introduction to supervised statistical learning; resampling methods: Cross-Validation, and Bootstrap; classification: Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbors, Logistic Regression, and Linear Discriminant Analysis; Dimension Reduction and Regularization; Tree-based methods: Regression and Classification trees, Bagging, Random Forests, and Boosting; and an overview of the main machine learning methods: Support Vector Machines, and Neural Networks.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the history of Iran and Central Asia from the arrival of Islam to contemporary times. Special attention is placed on the methodology of historical research, and the treatment of historical themes in original and autonomous ways. Students are encouraged to evaluate sources and to know how to orient themselves with regards to specialized bibliographies. Emphasis is placed on how to prepare and communicate knowledge and how to make valid judgments in the historical field. The course is intended as a general introduction to the history of Iran and Central Asia in the Islamic period. Single historical periods are, broadly speaking, indicated below. Students are warmly encouraged to focus on specific thematic topics and to carry on, if possible, with further readings according to their personal interests. Basic historical periods covered: the Islamic penetration in Iran and Central Asia; the Mongol and Timurid periods, Iran and Central Asia under "Turkic" dynasties; the Safavid period and the formation of the so called "national state" in Iran; the contemporary condition of Caucasus and Central Asia and the relations of Iran with Ottoman Empire and Moghul India; contacts with Western countries: missionaries, diplomats and travelers; Iran under the Pahlavis, Caucasus, and Soviet Central Asia: "Cold War" challengers; the present-day situation: a "non-exotic" approach.

The contents of the class are arranged around the following topics: the concepts of health and illness, why do we care about health; the social determinants of health, why is health social, beyond mind and body, construing in inter-action; a systemic-constructivist model of health and illness; and caregiving experience. Depending on the nature of discussions and research articles, the class content may be adapted to promote students’ interests and engagement, and develop their research and evidence based readings. The course requires a foundation level of psychological literacy developed throughout the first to second year of undergraduate study in psychology as a prerequisite.

The course offers an introduction to contemporary philosophy and language and focuses on the nature of truth through an analysis of the main philosophical theories regarding truth as well as issues related to the value of truth, relativism, and the debate on post-truth. The course includes traditional lectures, slides, quizzes on the e-learning system, and experiments with peer instruction methods (Kahoot software). Assessment is based on a research paper and a final oral exam on lecture notes, the required readings, and the research paper.

This course examines the fundamental techniques of some significant approaches within Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the solution of difficult problems. In particular, the course discusses local research techniques in a space of solutions, systems with constraints, soft constraints, planning techniques, representation and manipulation of knowledge with and without uncertainty, decision theory, reasoning techniques with preferences, and aggregation of preferences in a multi-agent context. The structure and the topics of the course is as follows: problem resolution, and local search algorithms; constraint-based systems and soft constraints; preference reasoning and preference aggregation in multi-agent systems; decision theory; treatment of uncertainty and probabilistic reasoning; planning; and artificial intelligence in society. The course recommends students have basic knowledge of programming and algorithms as a prerequisite.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. Students acquire the fundamental knowledge in history of Medieval art and develop the necessary skills to familiarize themselves with the artistic production of the period. Students analyze some of the main works of the history of Medieval art using specific methodologies and compare these appropriately. The first part of the course focuses on the study of artistic phenomena and their development with particular attention to the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians). Attention is paid to the material aspects, techniques, form, and function of the works of art (architecture, paintings, frescoes, illuminated books) in relation to the liturgy, architecture, accesses, and pilgrimage routes. The second part of the course focuses on monographic terms of the spatial and decorative restitution of one of the most significant European monuments: the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.