<i>Gobius ater</i> Bellotti (<i>Pisces, Perciformes</i>): specie valida ed inclusa nella fauna italiana

Gobius ater Bellotti (1888), hitherto known from Nice and Balearic Island, is also inc1uded in the Italian ichthyofauna. It was found on Posidonia beads near Alghero (Sardinia). The study of its morphological characters confirms that this is a good species well different from G. niger L

Another case of language death? The intergenerational transmission of Catalan in Alghero

PhDThis thesis is a study of linguistic contact in Alghero, a multilingual town on the north-west coast of Sardinia characterised by the presence of three main language varieties: Italian, Catalan, and Sardinian. By looking mainly at the contact between Catalan and Italian, I aim to analyse and explain the language shift process in favour of Italian, the dominant language. Attention is focused on the family domain - and intergenerational language transmission in particular - as a clear indicator of the state of affairs of language contact in Alghero. I propose to establish what is happening (i.e., what are the dominant norms of linguistic behaviour within the family domain), and to determine which socio-psychological factors lie at the root of behavioural patterns among family members. The study is therefore both descriptive and explanatory. The description is made possible by a quantitative study, by means of which the interactions are quantified and discussed in terms of percentages of Alguerès being used between different family members. By contrast, the explanation emerges from the analysis of the reasons and motives behind the language choice in the qualitative study, and aims to answer the question ‘why do parents choose one language rather than the other(s)? Two main instruments have been used to collect the data: a self-administered questionnaire completed by eleven- to fifteen-year-old children, and a semi-structured interview conducted with a small sample of selected parents.One year grant Beca Batista i Roca. Anglo-Catalan Societ

A Relationship between bruxism and orofacial-dystonia? A trigeminal electrophysiological approach in a case report of pineal cavernoma

Background: In some clinical cases, bruxism may be correlated to central nervous system hyperexcitability, suggesting that bruxism may represent a subclinical form of dystonia. To examine this hypothesis, we performed an electrophysiological evaluation of the excitability of the trigeminal nervous system in a patient affected by pineal cavernoma with pain symptoms in the orofacial region and pronounced bruxism. Methods: Electrophysiological studies included bilateral electrical transcranial stimulation of the trigeminal roots, analysis of the jaw jerk reflex, recovery cycle of masseter inhibitory reflex, and a magnetic resonance imaging study of the brain. Results: The neuromuscular responses of the left- and right-side bilateral trigeminal motor potentials showed a high degree of symmetry in latency (1.92 ms and 1.96 ms, respectively) and amplitude (11 mV and 11.4 mV, respectively), whereas the jaw jerk reflex amplitude of the right and left masseters was 5.1 mV and 8.9 mV, respectively. The test stimulus for the recovery cycle of masseter inhibitory reflex evoked both silent periods at an interstimulus interval of 150 ms. The duration of the second silent period evoked by the test stimulus was 61 ms and 54 ms on the right and left masseters, respectively, which was greater than that evoked by the conditioning stimulus (39 ms and 35 ms, respectively). Conclusions: We found evidence of activation and peripheral sensitization of the nociceptive fibers, the primary and secondary nociceptive neurons in the central nervous system, and the endogenous pain control systems (including both the inhibitory and facilitatory processes), in the tested subject. These data suggest that bruxism and central orofacial pain can coexist, but are two independent symptoms, which may explain why numerous experimental and clinical studies fail to reach unequivocal conclusions.</br

Normalització, codificació i complexitat sociolingüística. Oralitat i escriptura a l'Alguer: una relació difícil

L'alguerès és, per raons de caràcter diferent, la varietat més distant i diferenciada dins del domini lingüístic català. Des d'un punt de vista estrictament fonètic, fenòmens com ara la metàtesi (pobre > probe), el rotacisme (vida > [víRa]),  l'assimilació (pedra > perra), la despalatalització (any > [án]), etc. fan de l'alguerès un dialecte del català ben peculiar. D'altra banda, les dades sociolingüístiques més recents ens informen d'un procés de substitució lingüística en fase molt avançada. El català ja ha deixat de transmetre's de pares a fills, l'italià és la varietat dominant en gairebé tots els contextos comunicatius, i, consegüentment, les competències (entre les generacions més joves) són mínimes o, en molts casos, nul·les. El planificador, a l'hora de posar en marxa un procés de normalització lingüística a l'Alguer, cal que tingui en la justa consideració les dues qüestions suara esmentades; altrament, s'arrisca al fracàs -total o parcial- del procés. I això vol dir que l'assoliment de la plena recuperació de l'alguerès no es podrà realitzar si no es planifica en funció de les condicions sociolingüístiques existents. Amb aquest article ens plantegem, per tant, la necessitat d'elaborar estratègies normalitzadores que no prescindeixin d'una anàlisi atenta del context. Ens cenyim en un aspecte molt puntual del procés de normalització -la codificació-, tot posant de manifest les repercussions que l'escriptura pot tenir en la parla col·loquial. Això és, els nouparlants (els parlants que no tenen l'alguerès com a llengua inicial) podrien tenir dificultats a reconèixer els nombrosos desajusts que es donen entre sons i grafia normativa, a causa de la poca familiaritat amb la varietat oral. Així, el sistema fonològic de l'alguerès corre el risc de ser alterat per la pressió que el sistema ortogràfic exerceix sobre la llengua parlada, allà on els grafemes normatius no s'ajustin plenament als fonemes de la parla col·loquial. Les peculiaritats lingüístiques i sociolingüístiques de l'alguerès imposen, per tant, un nou discurs a l'entorn de la normalització i, en concret, del procés de codificació. Aquí, s'intenta tornar a encetar el debat a partir de dues propostes normalitzadores contraposades: 1) aplicar les normes ortogràfiques catalanes o bé 2) adoptar una ortografia fonèmica que més s'ajusti a les característiques de l'alguerès

Gobius aterBellotti (Pisces, Perciformes): specie valida ed inclusa nella fauna italiana

Gobius aterBellotti (1888), hitherto known from Nice and Balearic Island, is also inc1uded in the Italian ichthyofauna. It was found onPosidoniabeads near Alghero (Sardinia). The study of its morphological characters confirms that this is a good species well different fromG. nigerL

Bacteremia from streptococcus constellatus revealing a gastrointestinal stromal tumor

Background: Pyogenic Liver Abscesses (PLA) are the most common type of visceral abscess. They generally develop in a context of biliary disease or hematogenous seeding, but a complete diagnostic work-up is always required in order not to miss other important causes, including above all malignancies of the gastro-intestinal tract. Case presentation: Herein, we report a particular case of a 80 years-old immunocompetent woman hospitalized for sepsis. At the end of the diagnostic process, Streptococcus constellatus (Sc) was identified as the cause of sepsis, multiple PLA were found together with a previous unknown ileal malignancy. We speculated about a possible correlation among these three entities (i.e. sepsis from Sc, PLA and tumors). Conclusions: Detection of Sc in blood should raise red flags in clinicians as aggressive clinical presentation are possible