57 research outputs found
Etude Clinique des niveaux de perturbation de la metacognition, de la cognition sociale et du contrÎle exécutif dans la pathologie frontale
Recent and convergent studies in neuropsychology have suggested the importance of frontal regions to the integrity of a number of functions such as metamemory capacities, executive functions, and social skills (Theory of Mind : ToM). In this original work, following Stuss et Anderson (2004), we assume a link between disturbances of these functions. We proposed to 16 frontal patients and 20 matched healthy subjects a protocol designed to test metamemory, ToM and executive functions in order to analyze the relations between disturbances of self-awareness (metamemory) and awareness of others (ToM), and cognitive control (executive functions). Our results confirm the importance of frontal lobes on these capacities. No correlation was found between measures of metamemory, measures of ToM and executive scores. The observation of individual profiles emphasizes the existence of dissociations between self awareness and consciousness of the others, and between these two forms of metacognitive control and the executive functioning. These results confirm the importance to engage more studies combining aspects of ToM, metacognition and executive control, to better understand the organization and architecture of the functions supported by frontal lobe
Contraception and screening for cervical and breast cancer in neuromuscular disease: A retrospective study of 50Â patients monitored at a clinical reference centre
AbstractObjectiveTo analyse contraceptive methods and the extent of screening for breast and cervical cancer in women with neuromuscular disease, compare these results with data and guidelines for the general population and determine the environmental and attitudinal barriers encountered.Patients and methodsA retrospective, descriptive study in a population of female neuromuscular disease patients (aged 20 to 74) monitored at a clinical reference centre.ResultsComplete datasets were available for 49Â patients. Seventy percent used contraception (hormonal contraception in most cases). Sixty-eight percent had undergone screening for cervical cancer at some time in the previous 3Â years and 100% of the patients over 50 had undergone a mammography. Architectural accessibility and practical problems were the most common barriers to care and were more frequently encountered by wheelchair-bound, ventilated patients.ConclusionsIn general, the patients had good access to contraceptive care and cervical and breast cancer screening. However, specific measures may be useful for the most severely disabled patients
ContrÎle exécutif, cognition sociale, émotions et métacognition
Cette synthĂšse aborde la question de la cognition sociale (thĂ©orie de lâesprit en particulier), du traitement des Ă©motions et de la mĂ©tacognition dans une perspective de neuropsychologie clinique. Nous nous attardons sur les Ă©tudes examinant les relations quâentretiennent ces diffĂ©rents aspects du comportement humain avec les fonctions exĂ©cutives et les structures frontales. Les rĂ©sultats rapportĂ©s montrent que les liens potentiels entre la thĂ©orie de lâesprit et le fonctionnement exĂ©cutif font encore beaucoup dĂ©bat, et que lâĂ©tude des relations entre thĂ©orie de lâesprit et lobe frontal mĂ©rite dâĂȘtre affinĂ©e. Les lĂ©sions frontales perturbent le traitement des Ă©motions, mais les relations entre perturbation des fonctions exĂ©cutives et troubles du traitement des Ă©motions restent inexplorĂ©es. La mĂ©tacognition a Ă©tĂ© peu Ă©tudiĂ©e chez les patients dysexĂ©cutifs par lĂ©sions frontales, si ce nâest au travers de quelques Ă©tudes sur la mĂ©tamĂ©moire qui montrent que les patients frontaux ont globalement tendance Ă surestimer leurs performances. Cette surestimation ne semble pas nĂ©cessairement procĂ©der dâun dĂ©ficit exĂ©cutif, dâune incapacitĂ© de jugement, ni dâune mĂ©connaissance du fonctionnement mnĂ©sique normal et pathologique. Il ne sâagit pas non plus dâune difficultĂ© dâutilisation de connaissances. De plus, les diffĂ©rentes mesures mĂ©tamnĂ©siques obtenues chez les patients frontaux corrĂšlent peu entre elles, indiquant quâelles engagent probablement des processus du contrĂŽle mĂ©tamnĂ©sique relativement indĂ©pendants quâil conviendrait de spĂ©cifier. Enfin, il faudra aussi vĂ©rifier, avec des malades porteurs de lĂ©sions frontales et/ou de syndromes dysexĂ©cutifs, les propositions thĂ©oriques les plus rĂ©centes voulant que les concepts de thĂ©orie de lâesprit et de mĂ©tacognition soient finalement assez proches
Bilingualism and adult differences in inhibitory mechanisms: Evidence from a bilingual stroop task
The present investigation examined the functioning of inhibitory mechanisms in younger and older bilinguals using a bilingual version of the Stroop test. The study predicted different patterns of age related decline in inhibitory mechanisms (inter- and intralingual interference) in bilinguals depending on their level of proficiency. Consistent with expectations, older bilinguals were slower when they responded in their non-dominant language. Furthermore, older unbalanced bilinguals showed greater interlingual interference when they responded with their second language to visual stimuli written in their dominant language. Balanced bilinguals showed equivalent interference effects between all conditions. These findings suggest that manipulating two languages may enhance the efficiency of inhibitory mechanisms
A Unified Approach to Distance-Two Colouring of Graphs on Surfaces
In this paper we introduce the notion of -colouring of a graph :
For given subsets of neighbours of , for every , this
is a proper colouring of the vertices of such that, in addition, vertices
that appear together in some receive different colours. This
concept generalises the notion of colouring the square of graphs and of cyclic
colouring of graphs embedded in a surface. We prove a general result for graphs
embeddable in a fixed surface, which implies asymptotic versions of Wegner's
and Borodin's Conjecture on the planar version of these two colourings. Using a
recent approach of Havet et al., we reduce the problem to edge-colouring of
multigraphs, and then use Kahn's result that the list chromatic index is close
to the fractional chromatic index.
Our results are based on a strong structural lemma for graphs embeddable in a
fixed surface, which also implies that the size of a clique in the square of a
graph of maximum degree embeddable in some fixed surface is at most
plus a constant.Comment: 36 page
Prognostic significance of cortactin levels in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: comparison with epidermal growth factor receptor status
Cortactin is an actin-binding Src substrate involved in cell motility and invasion. In this study, we sought to examine the prognostic importance of cortactin protein expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). To do so, cortactin and EGF receptor (EGFR) expression was retrospectively evaluated by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray composed of 176 HNSCCs with a mean follow-up time of 5 years. Cortactin immunoreactivity was weak to absent in normal epithelial tissue. Overexpression of the protein in 77 out of 176 tumours (44%) was associated with more advanced tumour-node-metastasis stage and higher histologic grade. Cortactin overexpression was associated with significantly increased local recurrence rates (49 vs 28% for high and low expressing carcinomas, respectively), decreased disease-free survival (17 vs 61%), and decreased the 5-year overall survival of (21 vs 58%), independently of the EGFR status. In multivariate analysis, cortactin expression status remained an independent prognostic factor for local recurrence, disease-free survival, and overall survival. Importantly, we identified a subset of patients with cortactin-overexpressing tumours that displayed low EGFR levels and a survival rate that equalled that of patients with tumoral overexpression of both EGFR and cortactin. These findings identify cortactin as a relevant prognostic marker and may have implications for targeted therapies in patients with HNSCC
Nonrepetitive Colouring via Entropy Compression
A vertex colouring of a graph is \emph{nonrepetitive} if there is no path
whose first half receives the same sequence of colours as the second half. A
graph is nonrepetitively -choosable if given lists of at least colours
at each vertex, there is a nonrepetitive colouring such that each vertex is
coloured from its own list. It is known that every graph with maximum degree
is -choosable, for some constant . We prove this result
with (ignoring lower order terms). We then prove that every subdivision
of a graph with sufficiently many division vertices per edge is nonrepetitively
5-choosable. The proofs of both these results are based on the Moser-Tardos
entropy-compression method, and a recent extension by Grytczuk, Kozik and Micek
for the nonrepetitive choosability of paths. Finally, we prove that every graph
with pathwidth is nonrepetitively -colourable.Comment: v4: Minor changes made following helpful comments by the referee
Combining farmers' decision rules and landscape stochastic regularities for landscape modelling
International audienceLandscape spatial organization (LSO) strongly impacts many environmental issues. Modelling agricultural landscapes and describing meaningful landscape patterns are thus regarded as key-issues for designing sustainable landscapes. Agricultural landscapes are mostly designed by farmers. Their decisions dealing with crop choices and crop allocation to land can be generic and result in landscape regularities, which determine LSO. This paper comes within the emerging discipline called "landscape agronomy", aiming at studying the organization of farming practices at the landscape scale. We here aim at articulating the farm and the landscape scales for landscape modelling. To do so, we develop an original approach consisting in the combination of two methods used separately so far: the identification of explicit farmer decision rules through on-farm surveys methods and the identification of landscape stochastic regularities through data-mining. We applied this approach to the Niort plain landscape in France. Results show that generic farmer decision rules dealing with sunflower or maize area and location within landscapes are consistent with spatiotemporal regularities identified at the landscape scale. It results in a segmentation of the landscape, based on both its spatial and temporal organization and partly explained by generic farmer decision rules. This consistency between results points out that the two modelling methods aid one another for land-use modelling at landscape scale and for understanding the driving forces of its spatial organization. Despite some remaining challenges, our study in landscape agronomy accounts for both spatial and temporal dimensions of crop allocation: it allows the drawing of new spatial patterns coherent with land-use dynamics at the landscape scale, which improves the links to the scale of ecological processes and therefore contributes to landscape ecology.L'organisation du paysage influe sur les problĂšmes environnementaux. ModĂ©liser les paysages pour les dĂ©crire Ă l'aide de formes significatives est une Ă©tage clĂ©. Les paysages agricoles sont principalement construits par les agriculteurs dont les dĂ©cision d'assolement peuvent ĂȘtre gĂ©nĂ©riques et dĂ©terminer des rĂ©gularitĂ©s dans l'organisation du paysage. Cet article contribue Ă l'agronomie des paysage qui est une discipline Ă©mergente. Nous cherchons Ă articuler les Ă©chelles du paysage et de l'exploitation agricole en dĂ©veloppant deux mĂ©thodes : l'une consiste Ă identifier les dĂ©cisions des agriculteurs par le bais d'enquĂȘtes, l'autre consiste Ă retrouver des rĂ©gularitĂ©s stochastiques dans le paysage par le bais de fouille de donnĂ©es. Nous avons appliquĂ© cette approche au paysage de la plaine de Niort en France. Les rĂ©sultats montrent que les dĂ©cisions des agriculteurs en matiĂšre de tournesol et maĂŻs sont gĂ©nĂ©riques et ont des effets sur le paysages que des mĂ©thodes de fouille de donnĂ©es rĂ©vĂšlent et quantifient
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