Connectivity, Not Frequency, Determines the Fate of a Morpheme

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful parts of words and therefore represent a natural unit to study the evolution of words. To analyze the influence of language change on morphemes, we performed a large scale analysis of German and English vocabulary covering the last 200 years. Using a network approach from bioinformatics, we examined the historical dynamics of morphemes, the fixation of new morphemes and the emergence of words containing existing morphemes. We found that these processes are driven mainly by the number of different direct neighbors of a morpheme in words (connectivity, an equivalent to family size or type frequency) and not its frequency of usage (equivalent to token frequency). This contrasts words, whose survival is determined by their frequency of usage. We therefore identified features of morphemes which are not dictated by the statistical properties of words. As morphemes are also relevant for the mental representation of words, this result might enable establishing a link between an individual’s perception of language and historical language change

Rectal mesh erosion after posterior vaginal kit repair

Introduction and hypothesis: The present video shows a rare case of erosion through the full rectal wall into the rectum after a transperineal implant of a double-arm polypropylene kit. Methods: A 70-year-old woman underwent a transperineal implant of a double-arm polypropylene kit. One year after surgery, she developed bothersome symptoms in the posterior perineum including heaviness, pain and rectal bleeding during defecation. A clinical examination showed the presence of a part of the prothesis traversing the rectal cavity. A minimally invasive transanal approach was performed to remove the mesh and restore the rectal integrity. Results: This surgical technique demonstrates rectal mesh removal with a transanal approach. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is a rare complication of rectal erosion of a posterior transperineal mesh kit. The aim of this video is to show a complete transanal approach to treating this serious complication avoiding the more invasive and traumatic abdominal procedure

Is There a Role for Bladder Biopsy in the Diagnosis of Non-Hunner Lesions Interstitial Cystitis?

Introduction: Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is either Hunner lesion interstitial cystitis (HL IC) or non-Hunner lesion interstitial cystitis (N-HL IC), differing in the presence of HLs on cystoscopy. Cystoscopy is essential in diagnosing HL but are bladder biopsies useful in N-HL IC patients? Our objective was to assess bladder biopsy in patients with N-HL IC, evaluating whether the count of mast cells (MCs) and percentage of activated MCs could measure severity. Materials and Methods: This is a single-centre retrospective study. Inclusion criteria: diagnosis of BPS/IC by ESSIC definition; absence of HLs. Each patient had three bladder biopsies. Statistical analysis: chi(2)/Fischer's exact test; Wilcoxon signed-ranks test/Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical significance: p < 0.05. Results: We separated 48 women into Group 1 with <50% of MCs activated and Group 2 with >50%. We compared the results of the O'Leary-Sant questionnaire between the two groups and did not find any correlation between the severity of the pathology and either the MC count in the detrusor or the percentage of activated MCs in the lamina propria or detrusor. Discussion/Conclusion: These findings cast doubt on the usefulness of bladder biopsy for the evaluation of severity in N-HL IC. (C) 2022 S. Karger AG, Base

Rule learning over consonants and vowels in a non-human animal

Perception studies have shown similarities between humans and other animals in a wide array of language-related processes. However, the components of language that make it uniquely human have not been fully identified. Here we show that nonhuman animals extract rules over speech sequences that are difficult for humans. Specifically, animals easily learn rules over both consonants and vowels, while humans do it only over vowels. In Experiment 1, rats learned a rule implemented over vowels in CVCVCV nonsense words. In Experiment 2, rats learned the rule when it was implemented over the consonants. In both experiments, rats generalized such knowledge to novel words they had not heard before. Using the same stimuli, human adults learned the rules over the vowels but not over the consonants. These results suggest differences between humans and animals on speech processing might lie on the constraints they face while extracting information from the signal.This research was supported by grants Consolider Ingenio CSD2007-00012 and PSI2010-20029. Also by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2008-02909) and ERC Starting Grant agreement n. 312519 to JMT