Dutch home-based pre-reading intervention with children at familial risk of dyslexia

Children (5 and 6 years old, n = 30) at familial risk of dyslexia received a home-based intervention that focused on phoneme awareness and letter knowledge in the year prior to formal reading instruction. The children were compared to a no-training at-risk control group (n = 27), which was selected a year earlier. After training, we found a small effect on a composite score of phoneme awareness (d = 0.29) and a large effect on receptive letter knowledge (d = 0.88). In first grade, however, this did not result in beneficial effects for the experimental group in word reading and spelling. Results are compared to three former intervention studies in The Netherlands and comparable studies from Denmark and Australia

Effect of the relative shift between the electron density and temperature pedestal position on the pedestal stability in JET-ILW and comparison with JET-C

The electron temperature and density pedestals tend to vary in their relative radial positions, as observed in DIII-D (Beurskens et al 2011 Phys. Plasmas 18 056120) and ASDEX Upgrade (Dunne et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 59 14017). This so-called relative shift has an impact on the pedestal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability and hence on the pedestal height (Osborne et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 063018). The present work studies the effect of the relative shift on pedestal stability of JET ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) baseline low triangularity (\u3b4) unseeded plasmas, and similar JET-C discharges. As shown in this paper, the increase of the pedestal relative shift is correlated with the reduction of the normalized pressure gradient, therefore playing a strong role in pedestal stability. Furthermore, JET-ILW tends to have a larger relative shift compared to JET carbon wall (JET-C), suggesting a possible role of the plasma facing materials in affecting the density profile location. Experimental results are then compared with stability analysis performed in terms of the peeling-ballooning model and with pedestal predictive model EUROPED (Saarelma et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion). Stability analysis is consistent with the experimental findings, showing an improvement of the pedestal stability, when the relative shift is reduced. This has been ascribed mainly to the increase of the edge bootstrap current, and to minor effects related to the increase of the pedestal pressure gradient and narrowing of the pedestal pressure width. Pedestal predictive model EUROPED shows a qualitative agreement with experiment, especially for low values of the relative shift

LARYNGEAL INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA (LIN) - AN ANALYTICAL MORPHOMETRIC APPROACH

Laryngeal Intraepithelial Neoplasia (LIN) is graded in 3 levels (LIN Grade I-II-III), corresponding to the classic aspects of mild, moderate and severe dysplasia-in situ carcinoma, on the basis of the number and position of mitoses and of the undifferentiated or atypical cells limited to the basal or extended to the intermediate or the superficial layers of epithelium. In order to reduce the subjective imprecision of these parameters we have applied not only traditional dimensional evaluators but also procedures of analytical morphometry to the nuclear shape. By using the software system S.A.M. (Shape Analytical Morphometry) we have examined fifty nuclei of the basal layer in LIN grade I, II and III, fifty nuclei in normal laryngeal mucosa and fifty nuclei in invasive carcinoma of the larynx (twenty-five cases in all). Normal and dysplastic nuclei did not show any dimensional differences, while the carcinomatous nuclei were significantly larger. An asymmetric distortion of the nuclear contour was noted in the moderate and severe dysplasia, but not in carcinomatous cells. Also the Fourier parameters, increased in severe dysplasia, decreased dramatically in carcinomatous cells which showed nuclei with minor contour irregularities than the normal cells. These findings outline the discriminative power of the analytical morphometry and suggest a possible correlation between nuclear shape and cell biology

Multivariate analysis of metastasis risk in laryngeal carcinoma. II. Immune response.

The presence of inflammatory reaction, plasma cells, and eosinophils in peritumoral connective tissue and in neoplastic stroma was evaluated with morphometrical method in 181 patients affected by laryngeal carcinoma. A logistic multiple regression model was applied making it with the use of an independent variable represented by the "infiltrating" or "expansive" types of tumor growth, in order to evaluate the probability of nodal metastatsis of each parameter. The results suggest an inverse correlationship between plasma cells and inflammatory infiltration and incidence of nodal metastatsis only in the comparison of the extreme conditions: those with scarce infiltration versus the ones with large infiltration. Inflammatory or plasmacellular infiltration may represent both a defense mechanism against cancer and an aspecific or allergic reaction. The eosinophilic infiltration shows no value in the prevention of nodal involvement

Variations of lymphocyte sub-populations in vulvar condylomata during therapy with beta-interferon.

Several experiences induced us to consider genital HPV infection as an expression of a local immunodeficiency. The aim of our study was to research the effect of immunotherapy on the lymphocyte subpopulations and Langerhans cells in vulvar condyloma. Twenty women with persistent vulvar condylomata, treated with 2,000,000 IU/die of beta-interferon for 15 days, were submitted to vulvar biopsy before and 2-5 months after medical treatment. The frozen sections obtained were assayed with the following monoclonal antibodies: OKT 4 (T helper lymphocytes), OKT 8 (T suppressor lymphocytes), OKB 7 (B lymphocytes) and S-100 protein (Langerhans cells). Using a morphometric evaluation, the average number of both intraepithelial and stromal lymphocyte subsets and of the intraepithelial Langerhans cells was assessed. In all the biopsies preceeding the medical treatment we found a low number of T helper lymphocytes both in the epithelium and stroma, with inversion of T4/T8 lymphocyte ratio and rare presence of Langerhans cells. In patients with a good therapeutic response (50-100% of condyloma reduction) we observed an increase in intraepithelial T4 lymphocytes and a decrease in both intraepithelial and stromal T8 lymphocytes. In cases with persistent disease after therapy, the histological pattern was similar to that observed in the first biopsy, with the exception of a significant increase in the average number of Langerhans cells. Our data correlate the clinical response to the immunotherapy with the histology of lymphocyte subsets in the vulvar condylomata. The increase in Langerhans cells observed in patients with negative response may be interpreted with a probable inability of these cells to promote the immune reaction

A new approach to the histologic study of ovarian tumors by analytical morphometry.

In recent years, borderline epithelial tumors of the ovary have been investigated by morphometric techniques to allow for a differential diagnosis from benign and malignant neoplasms. In order to enhance this discriminant power, we have applied a new analytical procedure to the evaluation of the nuclear shape in epithelial ovarian tumors. Sixty nuclei of benign ovarian serous neoplasms, 60 nuclei of serous borderline tumors and 60 nuclei of serous carcinomas (18 cases in all) were examined using the software system SAM (Shape Analytical Morphometry). The morphometric procedure consisted of three different phases: (i) extraction of nuclear fundamental curve: this is a function curve giving the smoothing of the original contour by two parametric equations (separately for x and y values as dependent variables); (ii) evaluation of nuclear contour irregularities by Fourier analysis; (iii) evaluation of nuclear shape asymmetry by SAE (Shape Asymmetry Evaluator): this is the ratio between the length of a segment of a parabola interpolating the original curve points and a straight line joining its extremities for a 180 degrees barycentric rotation according 10 degrees steps. All the obtained independent parameters were submitted to statistical analysis. Nuclei of borderline tumors showed dimensional parameters which were intermediate between those of benign and malignant tumors. Both the asymmetry and the irregularities of nuclear contour were greatest in carcinomas