Simplification or complexification : auxiliary selection and anti-agreement effect in Brazilian Venetan

In this paper we discuss a change in the auxiliary selectional pattern of Brazilian Venetan, a heritage Italo-Romance variety spoken in southern Brazil. Venetan varieties display a default form of the past participle in constructions with postverbal subjects and a fully agreeing form in constructions with preverbal subjects: this is true both for the homeland varieties of the language, spoken in northern Italy, as well as for the heritage variety under analysis in this paper, spoken in southern Brazil. A crucial difference emerges in unaccusative constructions: while Italian Venetan uses the same form of the auxiliary BE in presence of preverbal and postverbal subjects, Brazilian Venetan uses a specialized form of the auxiliary in the constructions with default agreement on the past participle, when postverbal subjects are present. We argue that the specialized auxiliary form emerges as a necessary resumption in the case of lack of agreement. The heritage variety becomes, therefore, morphosyntactically more complex than the non-heritage counterpart.En aquest article analitzem un canvi en el patró de selecció de l'auxiliar del vènet brasiler, una varietat d'herència italo-romànica parlada al sud del Brasil. Les varietats vènetes mostren una forma predeterminada del participi passat en construccions amb subjectes postverbals i una forma totalment concordada en construccions amb subjectes preverbals: això és cert tant per a les varietats de la llengua nativa, parlades al nord d'Itàlia, com per a la varietat d'herència parlada al sud del Brasil que s'analitza en aquest article. En les construccions inacusatives es produeix una diferència crucial: mentre que el vènet italià fa servir la mateixa forma de l'auxiliar 'ser' en presència de subjectes preverbals i postverbals, el vènet brasiler fa servir una forma especialitzada de l'auxiliar en les construccions amb concordança per defecte del participi passat, amb subjectes postverbals. Argumentem que la forma auxiliar especialitzada sorgeix com una represa necessària en cas de manca de concordança La varietat d'herència esdevé, doncs, morfosintàcticament més complexa que la variant nativa

Focusing and orienting spatial attention differently modulate crowding in central and peripheral vision

The allocation of attentional resources to a particular location or object in space involves two distinct processes: an orienting process and a focusing process. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that performance of different visual tasks can be improved when a cue, such as a dot, anticipates the position of the target (orienting), or when its dimensions (as in the case of a small square) inform about the size of the attentional window (focusing). Here, we examine the role of these two components of visuo-spatial attention (orienting and focusing) in modulating crowding in peripheral (Experiment 1 and Experiment 3a) and foveal (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3b) vision. The task required to discriminate the orientation of a target letter "T,'' close to acuity threshold, presented with left and right "H'' flankers, as a function of target-flanker distance. Three cue types have been used: a red dot, a small square, and a big square. In peripheral vision (Experiment 1 and Experiment 3a), we found a significant improvement with the red dot and no advantage when a small square was used as a cue. In central vision (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3b), only the small square significantly improved participants' performance, reducing the critical distance needed to recover target identification. Taken together, the results indicate a behavioral dissociation of orienting and focusing attention in their capability of modulating crowding. In particular, we confirmed that orientation of attention can modulate crowding in visual periphery, while we found that focal attention can modulate foveal crowdin

Non-canonical proteolytic activation of human prothrombin by subtilisin from Bacillus subtilis may shift the procoagulant\ue2\u80\u93anticoagulant equilibrium toward thrombosis

Blood coagulation is a finely regulated physiological process culminating with the factor Xa (FXa)-mediated conversion of the prothrombin (ProT) zymogen to active -thrombin (T). In the prothrombinase complex on the platelet surface, FXa cleaves ProT at Arg-271, generating the inactive precursor pre-thrombin-2 (Pre2), which is further attacked at Arg-320 \u2013Ile-321 to yield mature T. Whereas the mechanism of physiological ProT activation has been elucidated in great detail, little is known about the role of bacterial proteases, possibly released in the bloodstream during infection, in inducing blood coagulation by direct proteolytic ProT activation. This knowledge gap is particularly concerning, as bacterial infections are frequently complicated by severe coagulopathies. Here, we show that addition of subtilisin (50 nM to 2 M), a serine protease secreted by the non-pathogenic bacterium Bacillus subtilis, induces plasma clotting by proteolytically converting ProT into active Pre2, a nicked Pre2 derivative with a single cleaved Ala-470 \u2013Asn-471 bond. Notably, we found that this non-canonical cleavage at Ala-470 \u2013Asn-471 is instrumental for the onset of catalysis in Pre2, which was, however, reduced about 100 \u2013200-fold compared with T. Of note, Pre2 could generate fibrin clots from fibrinogen, either in solution or in blood plasma, and could aggregate human platelets, either isolated or in whole blood. Our findings demonstrate that alternative cleavage of ProT by proteases, even by those secreted by non-virulent bacteria such as B. subtilis, can shift the delicate procoagulant\u2013anticoagulant equilibrium toward thrombosis

Subject Clitics in Microcontact: A Case Study from Heritage Friulian in Argentina and Brazil

In this paper we present data from first generation immigrants (G1) and second and third generation heritage speakers of Friulian, a Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in North-Eastern Italy and also found in Argentina and Brazil. The target phenomenon is subject clitics (SCL s). We show that SCL s in heritage Friulian are in a process of being reanalyzed from being agreement markers to pronouns. While SCL s are obligatory in Friulian as spoken in Italy, they are often dropped in heritage Friulian in Argentina and Brazil; this phenomenon, we argue, needs to be interpreted as the drop of pronominal subjects, and not of agreement-like SCL s. We also demonstrate that the use of SCL s (reanalyzed as pronominal subjects) is conditioned both by grammatical factors (it happens more in some grammatical persons than in others) and by discourse factors (they are used more in the case of a continuation topic than in other topicalization contexts). This means that in heritage Friulian, discourse constraints on the expression of subjects are not being lost or weakened; in fact, against the general grammaticalization trend of pronominal forms, new discourse constraints are introduced

A regressão de regime em decorrência de notícia de fato novo definido como crime doloso: um estudo das divergências doutrinárias e jurisprudenciais sob a perspectiva do princípio da presunção de inocência

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso, apresentado para obtenção do grau de Bacharel no Curso de Direito da Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, UNESC.O presente trabalho visa abordar um tema que atualmente gera controvérsias na doutrina e jurisprudência pátria, a regressão de regime prisional em decorrência do cometimento de fato novo definido como doloso. A Lei de Execução Penal (nº 7.210/1984) traz um rol taxativo das hipóteses em que ocorrerá a regressão de regime, sendo sua primeira causa o cometimento de fato que se possa definir como doloso. A controvérsia consiste, basicamente, na necessidade ou não de que tal fato tenha sido alvo de sentença transitada em julgado. A Constituição Federal de 1988 positivou o princípio da presunção de inocência, que garante ao indivíduo o tratamento de inocente até o trânsito em julgado da sentença penal condenatória. Para devida compreensão do tema selecionado, estudou-se, primeiramente, os princípios constitucionais aplicáveis ao processo de execução penal, bem como o princípio da presunção de inocência. Fez-se, também, um estudo acerca da teoria da pena, dos sistemas penitenciários existentes, assim como do sistema progressivo de penas adotado pelo Brasil, e as hipóteses de regressão de regime prisional. Por fim, foram expostos os posicionamentos doutrinários e jurisprudenciais do tema, apontando as divergências encontradas, e os argumentos utilizados. Para tanto, utilizou-se o método dedutivo, com pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, sendo a pesquisa jurisprudencial qualitativa

Perfil do cirurgião-dentista que utiliza sedação com óxido nitroso em Santa Catarina

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências da Saúde. Odontologia.O uso do óxido nitroso e oxigênio é uma das técnicas mais efetivas no controle da dor e da ansiedade, que favorecem tanto o paciente, quanto o profissional durante o ato operatório. Embora seja uma das técnicas de sedação mais segura, é pouco conhecida, restringindo-se a uso em hospitais e em alguns consultórios odontológicos. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar o perfil do cirurgião-dentista que utiliza sedação com óxido nitroso no estado de Santa Catarina. Para isto, foi enviado um questionário estruturado para os profissionais que estavam devidamente cadastrados no CRO / SC, como habilitados para Sedação com Óxido Nitroso. A taxa de resposta ao questionário foi de 58,53%. Conclui-se que os cirurgiões-dentistas que utilizam a sedação com óxido nitroso no estado de Santa Catarina são a maioria homens, e estão concentrados na grande Florianópolis; além disso, a principal especialidade que faz uso da técnica é a Implantodontia, seguida pela Cirurgia Bucomaxilofacial, sendo que, além de ser pequena a frequência de uso, está havendo uma queda no número de profissionais que utilizam o gás em sua prática diária, principalmente pelo alto custo da aquisição do aparelho

Documenting Italo-Romance minority languages in the Americas: Problems and tentative solutions

This article describes the process of preparation and implementation of a data collection enterprise targeting Italo-Romance emigrant languages in North and South America. This data collection is part of the ERC Microcontact project, which aims to understand language change in contact by examining the language of Italian communities in the Americas

Predictors of stigma in a sample of mental health professionals: Network and moderator analysis on gender, years of experience, personality traits, and levels of burnout

Abstract Background. Stigma is one of the most important barriers to help-seeking and to personal recovery for people suffering from mental disorders. Stigmatizing attitudes are present among mental health professionals with negative effects on the quality of health care. Methods. Network and moderator analysis were used to identify what path determines stigma, considering demographic and professional variables, personality traits, and burnout dimensions in a sample of mental health professionals (n = 318) from six Community Mental Health Services. The survey included the Attribution Questionnaire-9, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Results. The personality trait of openness to new experiences resulted to determine lower levels of stigma. Burnout (personal accomplishment) interacted with emotional stability in predicting stigma, and specifically, for subjects with lower emotional stability lower levels of personal accomplishment were associated with higher levels of stigma. Conclusions. Some personality traits may be accompanied by better empathic and communication skills, and may have a protective role against stigma. Moreover, burnout can increase stigma, in particular in subjects with specific personality traits. Assessing personality and burnout levels could help in identifying mental health professionals at higher risk of developing stigma. Future studies should determine whether targeted interventions in mental health professionals at risk of developing stigma may be effective in stigma prevention

Adding the microdimension to the study of language change in contact. Three case studies

Syntactic change in contact is generally explained as a result of cognitive, structural/typological, or sociolinguistic factors. However, the relative weight of these factors in shaping the outputs of contact is yet to be assessed. In this paper, we propose a microcontact approach to the study of change in contact, focusing on microsyntactic points of variation across multiple language pairs that are structurally very close. We show that this approach makes it possible to more accurately identify some of the factors that are involved in change. By considering three case studies centered on the syntax of subjects, objects, and indexicals, we show that the outputs of syntactic change in microcontact diverge from what is expected under otherwise solid generalizations (avoidance of indeterminacy, avoidance of silence, the Interface Hypothesis, a tendency towards simplification, and the general stability of the indexical domain) regarding change in contact. Microcontact offers a finer-grained point of observation, allowing us to go beyond broader typological assumptions and to focus on the link between structure and cognition. The results of our case studies demonstrate that the outputs of change in contact are an interplay between cognitive and structural factors (see also Muysken 2013 for additional processing considerations), and that the micro-variational dimension is crucial in drawing a precise picture of heritage language syntax