What does a critical period for second language acquisition mean?: Reflections on Hartshorne et al. (2018).

Hartshorne et al. (2018) used a very large sample in order to disentangle the effects of age, years of experience, and age of exposure from each other in context of second-language acquisition. Participants were administered an online test of English grammar.

What happens to children with PDD when they grow up? Prospective follow-up of 219 children from preschool age to mid-childhood.

Objective: To describe the psychological development of children with pervasive developmental disorders over a period of 3 years and to identify the factors linked to their developmental paths.

Method: The study was a collaborative and prospective follow-up study of 219 preschoolers. Retrospective data and enrollment data were collected at the beginning of the study and 3 years later.

Initial characteristics of psychological development and evolution of the young autistic child.

This longitudinal study assessed multidisciplinary data on 219 children with autistic spectrum disorders from the median age of 5 (Time 1) to 8 years old (Time 2). The evolution of psychological and adaptive data was subjected to cluster analysis. Four clinically meaningful clusters emerged.

Impaired coronary vasodilator reserve in the immediate postcoronary angioplasty period: analysis of coronary artery flow velocity indexes and regional cardiac venous efflux.

The ratio of peak hyperemic/basal mean coronary flow velocity, an index of coronary vasodilator reserve, immediately after coronary angioplasty normalizes in less than 50% of patients. To evaluate other indexes of coronary vasodilator capacity, both intracoronary arterial velocity and cardiac venous efflux were measured at rest and during vasodilator-induced coronary hyperemia (intracoronary nitroglycerin and papaverine) before and after angioplasty in 27 patients; 17 patients had measurements of intracoronary velocity alone and 10 had thermodilution measurements of great cardiac vein flow. Coronary flow velocity responses were also measured in 6 angiographically normal segments in patients undergoing angioplasty and in 10 normal left coronary artery segments in patients with normal coronary arteries or isolated right coronary artery disease.