Development of language-specific stress discrimination in European Portuguese: an electrophysiological study.

European Portuguese (EP) is a language with unpredictable stress. Previous behavioral studies have shown that without vowel reduction EP adult speakers displayed a stress deafness effect akin to that observed in speakers of fixed-stress languages, suggesting that vowel quality may be the primary cue for stress discrimination in EP. However, an event-related potentials (ERPs) study reported that EP adults were able to discriminate stress contrasts pre-attentively in the absence of vowel quality cues.

Prolonged COVID-19 related effects on early language development: A longitudinal study.

Background: There is growing evidence that COVID-19 brought changes that immediately affected early language development. Little is known for how long these COVID-19 related changes shaped development. The current study systematically and longitudinally addressed this issue, following up children's language development throughout the first 2.

Three-dimensional Transesophageal Echocardiography in Infective Endocarditis: What Does It Add?

Infective endocarditis (IE) diagnosis is based on a clinical suspicion supported by consistent microbiological and instrumental data. Evidence of involvement of cardiac valves (native or prosthetic) or prosthetic intracardiac material is a major diagnostic criterion of IE. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the initial technique of choice for the diagnosis while transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is recommended in patients with an inconclusive or negative TTE, in patients with high suspicion of IE, as well as in patients with a positive TTE, in order to document local complications.

[Persistent Polyclonal B-Cell Lymphocytosis (PPBL): An Entity That Is Not What it Seems].

Persistent polyclonal B-cell lymphocytosis is a rare disease with chronic lymphocytosis of polyclonal origin, which is more frequent in mostly asymptomatic middle-aged female smokers. The hallmark of this entity is the presence of bilobed/binucleated B lymphocytes, which are polyclonal as demonstrated by immunophenotyping; an elevated IgM level is common. This disease shows, in most cases, an indolent course over many years and, although controversial, it may rarely convert to malignant lymphoma.

Adaptation and validation of the European Portuguese Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales Developmental Profile™ (CSBS DP™) Infant-Toddler Checklist.

Background: As delays or disorders in early language and communication are the most prevalent symptom in children with disabilities, early screening is crucial to promote prevention, early diagnosis, and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, no screening tool is available for the joint assessment of early language and social communication skills in European Portuguese (EP)-learning children, which is critical for screening, monitoring and enrolment in appropriate early intervention services.

Aims: (1) To adapt and validate the EP version of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales Developmental Profile™ (CSBS DP™) Infant-Toddler Checklist, a parental report for the screening of early language and social communication skills.

Development and validation of a parental report of toddlers' prosodic skills.

This study describes the development and validation of , a parental report of toddlers' prosodic skills that aims to assess early prosodic development in European Portuguese. The development and validation of proceeded in three phases. Phase 1 was undertaken (a) to establish the structure of the parental report and select the items considering previous work, (b) to collect input from experts on prosodic development, and (c) to revise the report after a pilot study.

Early Word Segmentation Behind the Mask.

Infants have been shown to rely both on auditory and visual cues when processing speech. We investigated the impact of COVID-related changes, in particular of face masks, in early word segmentation abilities. Following up on our previous study demonstrating that, by 4 months, infants already segmented targets presented auditorily at utterance-edge position, and, using the same visual familiarization paradigm, 7-9-month-old infants performed an auditory and an audiovisual word segmentation experiment in two conditions: without and with an FFP2 face mask.

Early Visual Attention Abilities and Audiovisual Speech Processing in 5-7 Month-Old Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Infants.

Communicative abilities in infants with Down syndrome (DS) are delayed in comparison to typically developing (TD) infants, possibly affecting language development in DS. Little is known about what abilities might underlie poor communication and language skills in DS, such as visual attention and audiovisual speech processing. This study compares DS and TD infants between 5-7 months of age in a visual orientation task, and an audiovisual speech processing task, which assessed infants' looking pattern to communicative cues (i.

A Model Procedure for Catalytic Conversion of Waste Cotton into Useful Chemicals.

Cotton is grown in about 90 countries and accounts for 24% of the fibers used in the global production of textiles. In 2018/2019, 25.8 Mt of cotton were produced around the world.

European Portuguese-Learning Infants Look Longer at Iambic Stress: New Data on Language Specificity in Early Stress Perception.

The ability to perceive lexical stress patterns has been shown to develop in language-specific ways. However, previous studies have examined this ability in languages that are either clearly stress-based (favoring the development of a preference for trochaic stress, like English and German) or syllable-based (favoring the development of no stress preferences, like French, Spanish, and Catalan) and/or where the frequency distributions of stress patterns provide clear data for a predominant pattern (like English and Hebrew). European Portuguese (EP) is a different type of language, which presents conflicting sets of cues related to rhythm, frequency, and stress correlates that challenge existing accounts of early stress perception.

Nanofibrous TiO produced using alternating field electrospinning of titanium alkoxide precursors: crystallization and phase development.

High-yield, free-surface alternating field electrospinning (AFES) was effectively used in the fabrication of titanium oxide nanofibrous materials from the precursors based on titanium alkoxide and a blend of polyvinylpyrrolidone and hydroxypropyl cellulose. The alkoxide/polymer mass ratio in the precursor solution has significant effects on the precursor fiber production rate as well as the structure of resulting TiO nanofibers after thermal processing of precursor fibers at temperatures from 500 to 1000 °C. Within the range of tested process parameters, the best fiber production rate of ∼5.

Can Clinical and Surgical Parameters Be Combined to Predict How Long It Will Take a Tibia Fracture to Heal? A Prospective Multicentre Observational Study: The FRACTING Study.

Background: Healing of tibia fractures occurs over a wide time range of months, with a number of risk factors contributing to prolonged healing. In this prospective, multicentre, observational study, we investigated the capability of FRACTING (tibia FRACTure prediction healING days) score, calculated soon after tibia fracture treatment, to predict healing time.

Methods: The study included 363 patients.

Ethosomes for enhanced skin delivery of griseofulvin.

Griseofulvin (GRF) is an important antifungal drug with low bioavailability and, for this reason, a topical formulation with a targeted action and minimal systemic effects, appears to be a preferable solution. GRF poor solubility has limited the development of topical formulations and their release to the market. The aim of this work was to prepare a new GRF formulation for topical application using lipid-based nanosystems; to study its permeation and penetration, cell viability and to evaluate its therapeutic action.

Interactive Cognitive-Motor Step Training Improves Cognitive Risk Factors of Falling in Older Adults - A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Interactive cognitive-motor training (ICMT) requires individuals to perform both gross motor movements and complex information processing. This study investigated the effectiveness of ICMT on cognitive functions associated with falls in older adults.

Methods: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted in community-dwelling older adults (N = 90, mean age 81.

A randomized controlled pilot study of home-based step training in older people using videogame technology.

Background: Stepping impairments are associated with physical and cognitive decline in older adults and increased fall risk. Exercise interventions can reduce fall risk, but adherence is often low. A new exergame involving step training may provide an enjoyable exercise alternative for preventing falls in older people.

Effect on falls of providing single lens distance vision glasses to multifocal glasses wearers: VISIBLE randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether the provision of single lens distance glasses to older wearers of multifocal glasses reduces falls.

Design: Parallel randomised controlled trial stratified by recruitment site and source of referral, with 13 months' follow-up and outcome assessors blinded to group allocation.

Setting: Community recruitment and treatment room assessments in Sydney and Illawarra regions of NSW, Australia.

Levosimendan in cardiac failure after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The aim of this study is to report the development of cardiac failure after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) with recovery of heart and cerebral function. This is a case report of a 38-year-old woman who was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Policlinico di Modena, Italy. This woman developed a deep state of coma because of severe SAH.

Preventing falls in older multifocal glasses wearers by providing single-lens distance glasses: the protocol for the VISIBLE randomised controlled trial.

Background: Recent research has shown that wearing multifocal glasses increases the risk of trips and falls in older people. The aim of this study is to determine whether the provision of single-lens distance glasses to older multifocal glasses wearers, with recommendations for wearing them for walking and outdoor activities, can prevent falls. We will also measure the effect of the intervention on health status, lifestyle activities and fear of falling, as well as the extent of adherence to the program.

Asthma is not a common cause of severe chronic respiratory failure in non-smokers: ALOT study.

Background: Little is known about the long-term natural history of asthma and the long-term clinical and functional consequences in non-smoking patients. From a functional point of view, non-smoking asthmatic patients may have a significantly greater decline in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) compared with non-asthmatic subjects and may develop chronic irreversible (fixed) airflow limitation. This has been related to the physiological consequences of chronic airway inflammation causing airway remodeling.

Autoantibodies against oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and LDL oxidation status.

Oxidized low-density lipoproteins (ox-LDLs) and their autoantibodies (OLAB) are involved in the development of atherosclerosis in animal models, but their role in humans is still not clear. For this reason we studied 54 patients with beta-thalassemia major (TM), as a model of chronically low circulating LDLs with a high level of oxidation; 44 patients with primary hypercholesterolemia, as model of chronically high circulating LDLs; 24 type 2 diabetic mellitus patients (T2DM) before and after 3 months of atorvastatin treatment (20 mg/day), as a model of acute changes in circulating LDLs; and 41 normolipidemic subjects as a control group. ox-LDLs were measured by the determination of baseline diene concentration in the plasma LDL lipidic fraction after 12 hours fasting and were expressed as the amount of conjugated dienes/ liter (BDC/I) or BDC/LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), which indicate respectively LDL oxidation degree and status.

The Trp64Arg beta3-adrenergic receptor amino acid variant confers increased sensitivity to the pressor effects of noradrenaline in Sardinian subjects.

The beta(3)-adrenergic receptor (beta(3)AR) plays a critical role in lipid metabolism, and thus alterations in its function may be involved in the metabolic syndrome. Indeed, we have found previously that the Trp64Arg amino acid variant of the beta(3)AR is associated with hypertension and higher serum triacylglycerol levels in the Sardinian population. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the Trp64Arg beta(3)AR variant on the regulation of triacylglycerol levels and blood pressure during the exogenous infusion of noradrenaline.

Low-dose dexamethasone in the rat: a model to study insulin resistance.

The main aim of this study was to set up a new animal model to study insulin resistance. Wistar rats (6 or 7 per group) received the following for 4 wk in experiment 1: 1) vehicle, 2) 2 microg/day subcutaneous dexamethasone, 3) metformin (400 mg x kg(-1) x day(-1) os), and 4) dexamethasone plus metformin. In experiment 2 the rats received the following: 1) vehicle, 2) dexamethasone, 3) dexamethasone plus arginine (2%; as substrate of the nitric oxide synthase for nitric oxide production) in tap water, and 4) dexamethasone plus isosorbide dinitrate (70 mg/kg; as direct nitric oxide donor) in tap water.

Autonomic nervous system activity and life threatening arrhythmias in experimental epilepsy.

In the present study the possible derangement of the autonomic system and its influence in life threatening arrhythmias were analysed during paroxysmal activity. In hemispherectomized rats a paroxysmal activation of the hypothalamic and mesencephalic cardioarrhythmogenic triggers was performed by topical application of penicillin-G. Blood gas parameters and electrical activity of the thalamus, hypothalamus, vagal nerve fibre, ECG and arterial blood pressure were simultaneously monitored in basal conditions and repeated after the appearance of paroxysmal activity.

Aspecific bronchial hyperreactivity in pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Aspecific bronchial hyperreactivity (A.B.H.

[Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia. Can radiologic features suggest the etiologic agent?].

The present study was aimed at evaluating whether Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) pneumonia presents with typical X-ray patterns which can help its diagnosis. The chest films of 32 adult patients with serologically proven MP infections were reviewed. Confluent or patchy consolidation was the most common finding (66% of patients), interstitial involvement was much less frequent (19%), and so were "mixed" patterns (15%).