Unagreement is an illusion

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11049-015-9311-yThis paper proposes an analysis of unagreement, a phenomenon involving an apparent mismatch between a definite third person plural subject and first or second person plural subject agreement observed in various null subject languages (e.g. Spanish, Modern Greek and Bulgarian), but notoriously absent in others (e.g. Italian, European Portuguese). A cross-linguistic correlation between unagreement and the structure of adnominal pronoun constructions suggests that the availability of unagreement depends on whether person and definiteness are hosted by separate heads (in languages like Greek) or bundled on a single head (i.e. pronominal determiners in languages like Italian). Null spell-out of the head hosting person features high in the extended nominal projection of the subject leads to unagreement. The lack of unagreement in languages with pronominal determiners results from the interaction of their syntactic structure with the properties of the vocabulary items realising the head encoding both person and definiteness. The analysis provides a principled explanation for the cross-linguistic distribution of unagreement and suggests a unified framework for deriving unagreement, adnominal pronoun constructions, personal pronouns and pro

Transcribing "Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience": Scholarly Editing Covid19-Style

This article describes a methodological experiment conducted during the 13th Annual (Virtual) Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, November 18–20, 2020. The experiment consisted of a “relay style” event in which three teams transcribed, revised, and prepared for submission to this journal a full edition of the “Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” and other texts from UPenn Ms Codex 660, ff. 86r–95v within the three-day timespan of the conference. The project used methods typical of crowdsourcing and drew participants from all over the world and from all different stages of their careers. After one group completed its work, the results were passed into the hands of the next. The final result—in the form of a finished manuscript edition, ready for submission to Digital Medievalist—was presented on the last day of the conference. The main purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate how the work of the transcriber and editor might be structured as a short-term digital event that relied wholly on virtual interactions with both the source materials and among collaborators. This method also reveals the positive aspects of the many challenges posed by working simultaneously, remotely, and globally

Gliflozins and cardiorenal outcome: EMPA-KIDNEY trial, subsequent analysis and clinical implications.

reservedINTRODUZIONE: la malattia renale cronica (CKD) è una condizione progressiva che interessa il 10% della popolazione. Rallentarne l’avanzamento agli stadi avanzati è fondamentale per ridurre le complicanze, mortalità, l’impatto sulla qualità di vita ed i costi. Nonostante vi siano strategie efficaci rimane un rischio residuo considerevole, evidenziando la necessità di individuare nuovi trattamenti da aggiungere allo standard of care. Una nuova classe di farmaci, gli inibitori di SGLT2, ha dimostrato una riduzione del rischio cardiovascolare e di progressione della CKD in pazienti con nefropatia diabetica ed albuminuria (CREDENCE, 2019). Un recente studio (DAPA-CKD, 2020) ha evidenziato un rallentamento nella progressione della CKD anche in non diabetici (42% del campione senza DM), arruolando tuttavia soggetti con eGFR > 30 ml/min/1.73 m2 e uACR > 200 mg/g, non potendo estendere i risultati alle categorie con eGFR e uACR inferiori. Considerando la popolazione globale con CKD emerge come la maggior parte dei pazienti abbia basa albuminuria (uACR < 300 mg/g) e la metà non sia diabetica. SCOPO: in questo contesto si inserisce lo studio EMPA-KIDNEY, trial disegnato per valutare l’effetto di empagliflozin su outcome cardio-renali in un ampio numero di pazienti con CKD, e mira ad includere un’elevata quantità di soggetti senza diabete e nefropatia dovuta ad altre cause, eGFR < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2 e ridotta albuminuria. MATERIALI E METODI: lo studio è un trial clinico multicentrico internazionale randomizzato in doppio cieco empagliflozin-placebo, condotto su 6009 pazienti arruolati da 241 Centri di 8 Paesi. Sono stati inclusi soggetti con eGFR 20-40 ml/min/1.73m2 o eGFR 45-89 ml/min/1.73m2 e uACR > 200 mg/g. I pazienti sono stati seguiti per 2 anni con visite di follow-up raccogliendo campioni ematici e di urine, valori pressori, peso corporeo, eventuali avventi avversi o variazioni terapeutiche. Outcome primario: tempo al primo evento composito di morte per causa cardiovascolare (CV) o progressione CKD (ESKD; calo sostenuto eGFR 40% del basale; morte per causa renale). Outcome secondari: tempo alla prima ospedalizzazione per scompenso cardiaco o causa CV, ospedalizzazione per qualsiasi causa, progressione CKD, morte CV. Outcome di safety: chetoacidosi diabetica, amputazione arti inferiori, insufficienza renale acuta, infezioni genitali, alterazione indici epatici, frattura. In seguito alla chiusura del trial sono state eseguite analisi aggiuntive sull’impatto della causa della CKD sull’effetto di empagliflozin e sull’effetto della gliflozina sul declino annuo (“slope”) di eGFR. RISULTATI: l’empagliflozin riduce in modo sicuro il rischio di outcome cardiorenali del 28% in un’ampia popolazione di oltre 6000 pazienti con CKD, di cui oltre il 50% senza diabete ed il 35% con eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73m2, con ampia gamma di albuminuria fino 30 mg/g. Il rischio di ospedalizzazione per qualsiasi causa è ridotto del 14%. Si osserva un calo acuto di eGFR di circa 2 ml/min/1.73m2, reversibile alla sospensione della terapia, seguito da un dimezzamento del declino cronico dell’eGFR a lungo termine. L’efficacia non cambia in base all’eziologia della CKD. Empagliflozin ritarda di 1.9 anni il raggiungimento dell’ESKD se iniziato a eGFR di 20 ml/min/1.73m2 e di 26.6 anni se iniziato a eGFR di 85 ml/min/1.73m2. CONCLUSIONI: lo studio EMPA-KIDNEY e le analisi successive espandono lo spettro di CKD che potrebbe beneficiare della terapia con SGLT2i a soggetti con uACR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2 ed eGFR fino 20 ml/min/1.73 m2 indipendentemente dalla presenza di diabete e con varie cause di malattia renale cronica. Questi dati si affiancano a quelli di altri importanti trial, confermando con evidenze solide la riduzione della mortalità cardiovascolare, ospedalizzazione per scompenso cardiaco e progressione di CKD con utilizzo di SGLT2i

The use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to assess cognitive impairment in Prader-Willi syndrome

Purpose When a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment cannot be carried out, a quick and discriminant tool of good psychometric properties can be useful to practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in patients with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) and to test its reliability for cognitive assessment in a population with intellectual disabilities. Design/methodology/approach Thirty-seven adults with PWS took the MoCA. Reliability of the battery was tested using Cronbach’s alphas. The performance of PWS adults in each subtest was then compared to that of a normative population of healthy adults. Findings The MoCA was found to be unreliable in PWS. The subtests analyses indicated that the PWS sample underperformed the normative population of healthy adults on most subtests of the MoCA. A sub-sample aged between 17and 29 years showed normal performance on Naming and Memory, and a sub-sample aged from 30 to 39 years showed similar performance on Language, Memory and Orientation relative to age-matched normative healthy adults. Research limitations/implications Results showed that the current version of the MoCA, if taken as a whole test for cognitive assessment, does not present with adequate psychometric properties, which the authors interpret as reflecting the heterogeneity in PWS cognitive profiles. If used in PWS, the MoCA may however be useful in examining cognitive functions separately using subtest-based comparisons to normative data. Originality/value This research contributes to a better assessment of cognitive profile in PWS and people with learning disabilities by arguing that the use of psychometric tests should depend more on the specificity of the population under evaluation. </jats:sec

Study of decision-making capacity in Prader-Willi syndrome with a Gambling Task

International audienceBACKGROUND The present study investigated decision-making in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) using the Soochow Gambling Task (SGT). The objective was to assess whether adults with PWS have impaired hot executive functions and whether the deficit is specific to PWS or linked to intellectual disabilities.METHOD The SGT performance of 26 adults with PWS was compared to that of 26 healthy adults matched on chronological age, and to that of 26 adults with intellectual disabilities but without PWS, matched on intellectual quotient level and chronological age.RESULTS The PWS adults showed an absence of learning pattern over trials in the SGT, unlike the healthy individuals, and showed equivalent performances to adults with intellectual disabilities.CONCLUSIONS The results suggest a deficit of hot executive functions in PWS, which is linked to intellectual disabilities and not specific to the syndrome

De la lecture d’un mot à sa mémorisation : influence des processus lexico-émotionnels.

Comment et dans quelle mesure les caractéristiques émotionnelles d'un mot écrit influencent-elles les processus cognitifs d’accès au lexique et de mémorisation de ce mot ? Dans cet article, nous présenterons 2 études empiriques visant à préciser les processus lexico-émotionnels sous-tendant les performances dans des tâches de décision lexicale et de mémoire de travail chez des jeunes adultes. Nous discuterons ensuite les intérêts et limites et présenterons les perspectives ouvertes par ces études

The use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to assess cognitive impairment in Prader-Willi syndrome

International audiencePurpose When a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment cannot be carried out, a quick and discriminant tool of good psychometric properties can be useful to practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in patients with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) and to test its reliability for cognitive assessment in a population with intellectual disabilities. Design/methodology/approach Thirty-seven adults with PWS took the MoCA. Reliability of the battery was tested using Cronbach’s alphas. The performance of PWS adults in each subtest was then compared to that of a normative population of healthy adults. Findings The MoCA was found to be unreliable in PWS. The subtests analyses indicated that the PWS sample underperformed the normative population of healthy adults on most subtests of the MoCA. A sub-sample aged between 17and 29 years showed normal performance on Naming and Memory, and a sub-sample aged from 30 to 39 years showed similar performance on Language, Memory and Orientation relative to age-matched normative healthy adults. Research limitations/implications Results showed that the current version of the MoCA, if taken as a whole test for cognitive assessment, does not present with adequate psychometric properties, which the authors interpret as reflecting the heterogeneity in PWS cognitive profiles. If used in PWS, the MoCA may however be useful in examining cognitive functions separately using subtest-based comparisons to normative data. Originality/value This research contributes to a better assessment of cognitive profile in PWS and people with learning disabilities by arguing that the use of psychometric tests should depend more on the specificity of the population under evaluation

Etude pilote d’une thérapie non médicamenteuse dans un syndrome génétique rare : la stimulation transcrânienne par courant direct appliquée au syndrome de Prader-Willi

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