Reading and Phonological Awareness in Williams Syndrome.

This article describes the relationship between reading, phonological awareness abilities (PA), and intelligence in a group of 16 individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and in a group of 16 typically developing children, matched for mental age. The individuals with WS were impaired in passage comprehension, in some areas of PA investigated (syllable deletion and rhyme detection), and in nonword reading accuracy, a measure of grapheme-phoneme conversion. This latter finding is relevant, considering that in Italy regular print-to-sound correspondence is the most practiced teaching routine in the early phases of learning to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Molecular modeling of the voltammetric oxidation at a glassy carbon electrode of the antimalarial drug primaquine and its prodrugs succinylprimaquine and maleylprimaquine

The 8-aminoquinoline primaquine (PQ) is the only antimalarial drug used as tissue schizonticide and relapsing malaria. Antichagasic activity was also reported. Nevertheless, as it also shows serious side effects, prodrugs such as succinyl and maleyl derivatives have been proposed to decrease its toxicity. Although PQ mechanism of action has not been completely elucidated, the promotion of oxidative stress is an advanced hypothesis that could explain its activity in both plasmodia and trypanosome parasites. The oxidation of PQ and its prodrugs, maleylprimaquine (MPQ) and succinylprimaquine (SPQ), was studied by cyclic voltammetry using glassy carbon electrode. All compounds were oxidized in aqueous medium, with the charge transfer process being pH-dependent in acidic medium and pH-independent in a weak basic medium, being the neutral form more easily oxidized. This indicated that the protonation of the nitrogen atoms displays a determinant role in the voltammetric oxidation, being both prodrugs more easily oxidized than PQ protonated forms, in the order: SPQ < MPQ < PQ. For a better understanding of this behavior, a molecular modeling study was performed using the AM1 semi-empirical method from Spartan 04 for Linux (v.119, Wavefunction Inc.). The medium pH showed to be fundamental not only to the electronic density of the quinoline ring but also to the rearrangement of the nitrogen side chain. The electronic density of primaquine non-protonated quinoline ring is higher than that in its protonated and diprotonated species. Also, the use of prodrugs and the degree of saturation of the carriers (maleic or succinic acid) interfere with this feature. SPQ and MPQ have a slight increase in the quinoline electronic density in comparison to PQ. Nevertheless, the carrier in the side chain of SPQ is closer to the quinoline ring than it is in MPQ, which accounts for the higher electronic density in the former. The most significant effect occurs in the correspondent protonated forms of the nitrogen quinoline. The application of molecular modeling study associated to voltammetric techniques showed to be an important way to understand the redox mechanism of electroactive drugs. These results may be related to a biological activity and can be useful to future primaquine derivatives design.     

Simulating Single Event Transients in VDSM ICs for Ground Level Radiation

This work considers a SET (single event transient) fault simulation technique to evaluate the probability that a transient pulse, born in the combinational logic, may be latched in a storage cell. Fault injection procedures and a fast fault simulation algorithm for transient faults were implemented around an event driven simulator. A statistical analysis was implemented to organize data sampled from simulations. The benchmarks show that the proposed algorithm is capable of injecting and simulating a large number of transient faults in complex designs. Also specific optimizations have been carried out, thus greatly reducing the simulation time compared to a sequential fault simulation approach.     

Local impairment of immunoreactivity in HIV-infected women with HPV-related squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix

The effect on the nasopharyngeal bacterial flora of therapy for 10 days with co-amoxiclav or cefprozil was studied in 50 children with acute otitis media. Before therapy, potential pathogens (Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis) were isolated in 14 (56%) of those treated with co-amoxiclav and 15 (60%) of those treated with cefprozil. Following therapy, the reduction in the number of these pathogens was the same in the two groups. However, differences between the groups were noted in the recovery of organisms with interfering capability, namely alpha-haemolytic streptococci, Peptostreptococcus anaerobius and Prevotella melaninogenica. Fifty interfering organisms were recovered from each group before therapy. After therapy with co-amoxiclav or cefprozil their number declined to 11 and 42, respectively (P< 0.001).     

The use of magnesium silicate (talc) in a potentiometric sensor for hydrogen ions

The construction and analytical evaluation of a pH sensor based in a matrix containing 20% of [(Mg₆Si₈O₂₀)](OH)₄, a magnesium silicate, talc and 30% graphite dispersed in an epoxy resin (50%) is described. The data obtained from various acid–base titrations were compared with those using a glass electrode in the same conditions. The proposed electrode presented a linear response in the 1–12 pH range with a slope of −39.9±0.3 mV/pH (at 25 °C) and ca. 15 s of response time. The lifetime of this electrode was higher than 8 months (ca. 1500 determinations) and it showed a good performance for pH determination and end-point indication in the potentiometric titrations of acids and bases.     

Anticancer Activity of Two Novel Hydroxylated Biphenyl Compounds toward Malignant Melanoma Cells

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is still one of the most difficult cancers to treat despite recent advances in targeted and immune therapies. About 50% of advanced melanoma do not benefit of such therapies, and novel treatments are requested. Curcumin and its analogs have shown good anticancer properties and are being considered for use in combination with or sequence to recent therapies to improve patient outcomes. Our group previously published the synthesis and anticancer activity characterization of a novel curcumin-related compound against melanoma and neuroblastoma cells (D6). Here, two hydroxylated biphenyl compounds—namely, compounds 11 and 12—were selected among a small collection of previously screened C2-symmetric hydroxylated biphenyls structurally related to D6 and curcumin, showing the best antitumor potentiality against melanoma cells (IC₅₀ values of 1.7 ± 0.5 μM for 11 and 2.0 ± 0.7 μM for 12) and no toxicity of normal fibroblasts up to 32 µM. Their antiproliferative activity was deeply characterized on five melanoma cell lines by performing dose-response and clonal growth inhibition assays, which revealed long-lasting and irreversible effects for both compounds. Apoptosis induction was ascertained by the annexin V and TUNEL assays, whereas Western blotting showed caspase activation and PARP cleavage. A cell cycle analysis, following cell treatments with either compound 11 or 12, highlighted an arrest in the G2/M transition. Taking all this evidence together, 11 and 12 were shown to be good candidates as lead compounds to develop new anticancer drugs against malignant melanoma.     

Different rearing systems for fattening rabbits: Performance and carcass characteristics

To evaluate the effect of different rearing systems and sex on productive performance and carcass composition and quality, 80 rabbits (40 males and 40 females) of Carmagnola breed were reared from 9 to 16 weeks of age in individual California type cages (0.12 m²) or in group ground pens (0.25 m²/head). The animals were kept in standard and uniform environmental conditions and fed the same ad libitum pellet feed. Data on live weight and feed intake were recorded. At the end of the fattening period 10 animals per group were slaughtered and data provided in the World Rabbit Science Association (WRSA) standard method were collected, as well as pH and meat colour. Animals reared in ground pens showed lower productive performances, while, as to slaughtering performances, rabbits reared in cages showed the highest slaughtering weight and also the highest weights for most body parts. Gender slightly affected productive and slaughtering performances: females showed higher feed consumption and higher perirenal fat weight than males. Meat colour parameters showed significant differences in Longissimus lumborum and Biceps femoris due to housing systems and gender effects. In both muscle, rearing system affected pH only 24 h after slaughter.     

Multivariate Decision Trees

Unlike a univariate decision tree, a multivariate decision tree is not restricted to splits of the instance space that are orthogonal to the features' axes. This article addresses several issues for constructing multivariate decision trees: representing a multivariate test, including symbolic and numeric features, learning the coefficients of a multivariate test, selecting the features to include in a test, and pruning of multivariate decision trees. We present several new methods for forming multivariate decision trees and compare them with several well-known methods. We compare the different methods across a variety of learning tasks, in order to assess each method's ability to find concise, accurate decision trees. The results demonstrate that some multivariate methods are in general more effective than others (in the context of our experimental assumptions). In addition, the experiments confirm that allowing multivariate tests generally improves the accuracy of the resulting decision tree over a univariate tree.     

A double flow cytometric tag allows tracking of the dynamics of cell cycle progression of newborn Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells during balanced exponential growth

Studies on the dynamics of growth of single eukaryotic cells and their relationships with cell cycle regulations are generally carried out following cell synchronization procedures or, on a relatively low number of cells, by time-lapse studies. Establishment of both time-lapse studies and synchronous cell populations usually requires elaborate experimental efforts and is prone to perturb the physiological state of the cell. In this paper we use a new flow cytometric approach which allows, in asynchronous growing Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations, tagging of both the cell age and the cell protein content of a cohort of daughter cells at the different cell cycle set points. Since the cell protein content is a good estimation of the cell size, it is possible to follow the kinetics of the cell size increase during cell cycle progression. The experimental findings obtained indicate an exponential increase of the cell size during growth, that the daughter and the parent subpopulations grow with the same specific growth rate, that the average cell size increase rate of each individual cell is almost identical to the specific growth rate of the overall population and provide the opportunity to estimate the cell cycle length for the daughter cell population as well as the identification of the complex structure of asynchronously growing yeast populations.     

Interpersonal concomitants and antecedents of depression among college students.

Depressed college students were compared with other-psychopathology and normal controls regarding the relationship they developed with dormitory roommates during a 9-month period. Diagnostic status was periodically assessed via SADS interviews, thus also permitting identification of new cases of depression during the year. Psychosocial characteristics found to be uniquely associated with current depression were: (a) low social contact with roommates, (b) low enjoyability of these contacts, and (c) high life-event stress. Roommates of depressives reported low enjoyability of the relationship and high levels of aggressive behavior towards the depressive. No features were found to be uniquely associated with new cases before they became depressed; however, several antecedents of general psychopathology were identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)