Formal language hierarchy reflects different levels of cognitive complexity

Formal language hierarchy describes levels of increasing syntactic complexity (adjacent dependencies, nonadjacent nested, nonadjacent crossed) of which the transcription into a hierarchy of cognitive complexity remains under debate. The cognitive foundations of formal language hierarchy have been contradicted by two types of evidence: First, adjacent dependencies are not easier to learn compared to nonadjacent; second, crossed nonadjacent dependencies may be easier than nested. However, studies providing these findings may have engaged confounds: Repetition monitoring strategies may have accounted for participants’ high performance in nonadjacent dependencies, and linguistic experience may have accounted for the advantage of crossed dependencies. We conducted two artificial grammar learning experiments where we addressed these confounds by manipulating reliance on repetition monitoring and by testing participants inexperienced with crossed dependencies. Results showed relevant differences in learning adjacent versus nonadjacent dependencies and advantages of nested over crossed, suggesting that formal language hierarchy may indeed translate into a hierarchy of cognitive complexit

Effects of Interactive Musical Activities on the Well-being of Children with Urogenital Anomalies during Hospitalization for Surgery

Background: Hospitalizations and surgeries are stressful situations mainly for children. It is extremely important to search for strategies that can help to reduce suffering and stress in children during medical treatments, contributing then to the process of humanization in health care. Due to the therapeutic potential of music, we believe that it could be an alternative to help children to cope better with the situation of anxiety and stress arising from a hospitalization. This research intended to evaluate the effect of interactive musical activities in reducing stress in children hospitalized for urological surgery. Methods: Fifty-four children were invited for the study of which 40 participated. Twenty-two of those were part of the experimental group and 18 of the control group. The experimental group participated in 15 to 30 minutes daily sessions of playful interactive musical activities during hospitalization (~5 days), except on the day of surgery. The Child Stress Scale - ESI, the drawing-and-story procedure for analysis of the feelings towards surgery and salivary cortisol at 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM were used to evaluate the degree of stress in these children. Results: The stress score obtained before and after surgery significantly decreased in both groups, mainly in the experimental group. There was no significant difference in positive and negative feelings towards the surgery in both groups. Salivary cortisol levels between the 2 groups were also similar. Conclusion: A positive effect of musical activities in children’s stress reduction during the hospitalization period was observed, indicating that these procedures can contribute to the well-being of these patients. Keywords: Hospitalized child, Music, Stress, Music therapy, Urogenital abnormalities/surger

Impact of absorptive capacity on project success through mediating role of strategic agility: Project complexity as a moderator

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of potential and realized absorptive capacity on project success through both the mediating roles of strategic agility and the moderating role of project complexity. A simple random sampling was used to collect data from 285 respondents working in the IT sector of small-medium sized Portuguese enterprises (SMEs). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, data were collected from and distributed on, several online channels (Gmail, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook). Smart PLS-SEM, version 3.2.8 was used for the analysis. The results indicate that the two absorptive capacity sub-dimensions, potential and realized absorptive capacity, not only directly affect a project's success but also indirectly through the mediator of strategic agility. Although the moderating role of project complexity has a positive and significant effect on the relation between potential absorptive capacity and strategic agility, it is insignificant concerning the relation between realized absorptive capacity and strategic agility. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions are made, research limitations are stated and future research is suggested.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Security and Forensics of Internet of Things: Problems and Solutions

The Internet of Things (IoT) has experienced significant growth over recent years and Gartner predicts that, by 2020, 21 billion IoT endpoints will be in use. The potential behind widespread usage of small devices capable of collecting, transmitting, or acting upon data has been fueling interest both from industry and academia. Security and forensics are two of the topics facing major challenges in this paradigm, on par with or even more prominent than other computing paradigms. Aspects such as low processing power and small storage capacity of such IoT devices contribute to their typically poor built-in security and forensics capabilities. Their reliance on cloud computing and mobile apps to operate and provide services increases the attack surface, distributing the collection of digital evidence and making reconstruction activities (to answer questions as what, where, when, who, why, and how) harder

Polyneuritis cranialis: portuguese hospital case series

Objectivos: Caracterização clínica, etiológica e prognósti- ca das polineuropatias cranianas. Métodologia: Revisão dos processos clínicos dos doentes internados no serviço de neurologia de um hospital distrital de Janeiro/2003 a Dezembro/2007 com o diagnóstico de poli- neuropatia craniana. Resultados: Incluídos 11 doentes, 7 do sexo feminino e 4 do sexo masculino, média de idades de 50,6 +/- 17,9 anos. Sete doentes tiveram envolvimento de 2 nervos cranianos e 4 doentes envolvimento de 3 nervos. Os nervos envolvidos foram III, V, VI, VII, VIII, sendo os mais frequentemente afecta- dos o III e o VII, em 5 e 6 doentes respectivamente cada. Em 4 casos a instalação foi aguda e nos restantes subaguda. Em 9 dos doentes foi estabelecido diagnóstico definitivo: um linfo- ma leptomeníngeo não Hodgkin B de alto grau, três s. Tolosa- Hunt, um s. Ramsay-Hunt, duas meningites tuberculosas e duas borrelioses. Dois casos foram considerados idiopáticos. O doente com s. Ramsay-Hunt teve recuperação parcial com Valaciclovir, dos doentes com s. Tolosa-Hunt, dois apresenta- ram recorrência do quadro clínico após suspensão da cortico- terapia, nos restantes casos secundários houve remissão total da sintomatologia após terapêutica dirigida em 1 a 8 meses. Dos casos idiopáticos um remitiu espontaneamente e o outro após terapêutica com corticoides. Conclusões: Na nossa série a apresentação clínica foi pleo- mórfica, de predomínio motor e afectando exclusivamente movimentos oculares e mímica facial. A etiologia foi predomi- nantemente infecciosa / inflamatória. O prognóstico foi glo- balmente favorável, com melhoria/resolução completa dos sintomas apresentados

Headache as the sole presentation of cerebral venous thrombosis: a prospective study

Headache is the most frequent presenting symptom of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), most commonly associated with other manifestations. It has been described as its only clinical presentation in 15 % of patients. There is no typical pattern of headache in CVT. The objective of this study was to study the characteristics of headache as the sole manifestation of CVT. From a prospective study of 30 consecutive patients diagnosed with CVT over 18 months, we selected those who presented with headache only: they had a normal neurological examination, no papilloedema and no blood or any parenchymal lesion on CT scan. All were submitted to a systematic etiological workup and a structured questionnaire about the characteristics of headache was provided. Headache was the sole manifestation of CVT in 12 patients; it was diffuse or bilateral in the majority. Seven patients referred worsening with sleep/lying down, Valsalva maneuvers or straining. There was no association between the characteristics of headache and extension of CVT. Time from onset to diagnosis was significantly delayed in these patients presenting only with headache. In our series, 40 % of patients presented only with headache. There was no uniform pattern of headache apart from being bilateral. There was a significant delay of diagnosis in these patients. Some characteristics of headache should raise the suspicion of CVT: recent persistent headache, thunderclap headache or pain worsening with straining, sleep/lying down or Valsalva maneuvers even in the absence of papilloedema or focal signs

Loss of Ccbe1 affects cardiac-specification and cardiomyocyte differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells

Understanding the molecular pathways regulating cardiogenesis is crucial for the early diagnosis of heart diseases and improvement of cardiovascular disease. During normal mammalian cardiac development, collagen and calcium-binding EGF domain-1 (Ccbe1) is expressed in the first and second heart field progenitors as well as in the proepicardium, but its role in early cardiac commitment remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that during mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation Ccbe1 is upregulated upon emergence of Isl1- and Nkx2.5- positive cardiac progenitors. Ccbe1 is markedly enriched in Isl1-positive cardiac progenitors isolated from ESCs differentiating in vitro or embryonic hearts developing in vivo. Disruption of Ccbe1 activity by shRNA knockdown or blockade with a neutralizing antibody results in impaired differentiation of embryonic stem cells along the cardiac mesoderm lineage resulting in a decreased expression of mature cardiomyocyte markers. In addition, knockdown of Ccbe1 leads to smaller embryoid bodies. Collectively, our results show that CCBE1 is essential for the commitment of cardiac mesoderm and consequently, for the formation of cardiac myocytes in differentiating mouse ESCs.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [SFRH/BD/82280/2011]; FCT [SFRH/BPD/46506/2008, CEDOC/2015/36/iNOVA4Health/Multi/04462, SFRH/BPD/87114/2012, PTDC/SAU-ENB/121095/2010, HMSP-ICT/0039/2013]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia / Ministerio da Educacao e Ciencia [UID/Multi/04462/2013]; FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreemen