Poor written and oral text comprehension in third grade children. A multiple case study

In this multiple case study we analyzed oral text comprehension, reading profiles and underlying cognitive abilities (attention, executive functions, working memory, narrative memory, rapid automatized naming and vocabulary) of 9 children identified as poor written text comprehenders after a school screening on 75 third grade children. Four out of the 9 children were named Language-Minority (L-M) children, since they had immigrant parents. The remaining 5 children were born in Italy from Italian parents. The comparisons of the two subgroups suggested that the lexical route of reading was particularly impaired in the L-M subgroup and that written text comprehension was weakened by restricted vocabulary which, in turn, was not supported by efficient phonological short-term memory. In a second type of data analysis we examined the individual profiles of the 9 children, irrespective of their belonging to the L-M or Italian subgroups, and identified different patterns of associations among reading performance, written text comprehension and oral text comprehension. The findings showed that poor text comprehension always co-occurred with word and/or text reading difficulties which, in turn, were associated to slow naming and weak verbal working memory. Moreover, when children had both written and oral text comprehension difficulties, not only verbal working memory was impaired but also narrative memory, suggesting a weakness in the episodic buffer (Baddeley 2000; 2010). The implications of poor working memory associated to slow naming and/or weak episodic buffer for text comprehension are discusse

Topological map of the body in post-stroke patients: lesional and hodological aspects

Objective: It has been repeatedly hypothesized that at least 3 distinct types of body representations do exist: body schema, a representation derived from multiple sensory and motor inputs; topological map of the body, a structural description of spatial relations among the body parts; and body semantics, a lexical-semantic representation. Although several studies have assessed neural correlates of the topological map of the body in healthy participants, a systematic investigation of neural underpinnings of the topological map of the body in brain-damaged patients is still lacking. Method: Here we investigated the neural substrates of topological map of the body in 23 brain-damaged patients, both from a topological and an hodological perspectives, using Voxel Lesion Symptom Mapping and atlas-based track-wise statistical analysis. Besides neuroimaging investigation, consisting of T1-weighted and FLAIR sequences, patients underwent the frontal body-evocation subtest (FBE) to assess the topological map of the body. Results: The present results reveal a large-scale brain network involved in the topological map of the body assessed with FBE, encompassing both regions of primary elaboration and multisensory associative areas, in the temporal, parietal, frontal, and insular cortices. Hodological analysis revealed significant association between processing of the body topological map and the disconnection of the frontomarginal tract. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the topological map of the body is built up basing on both external and internal information that comes from the body and are constantly updated and integrated. The theoretical and clinical relevance of these results is discussed

Spelling in adolescents with dyslexia: errors and modes of assessment

In this study we focused on the spelling of high-functioning students with dyslexia. We made a detailed classification of the errors in a word and sentence dictation task made by 100 students with dyslexia and 100 matched control students. All participants were in the first year of their bachelor’s studies and had Dutch as mother tongue. Three main error categories were distinguished: phonological, orthographic, and grammatical errors (on the basis of morphology and language-specific spelling rules). The results indicated that higher-education students with dyslexia made on average twice as many spelling errors as the controls, with effect sizes of d ≥ 2. When the errors were classified as phonological, orthographic, or grammatical, we found a slight dominance of phonological errors in students with dyslexia. Sentence dictation did not provide more information than word dictation in the correct classification of students with and without dyslexia

Syn-kinematic sedimentary systems as constraints on the structural response of thrust belts : re-examining the structural style of the Maghrebian thrust belt of Eastern Sicily

We are indebted to the generosity of the late Fabio Lentini. While he may not have agreed with our findings, he nevertheless openly and cheerfully shared his mapping and insight of Sicilian geology. This work also builds upon many years’ collaboration between us, initiated by the late Mario Grasso (the Pantagruelian Master of Speranza et alii, 2018). The mapping of Lentini, Grasso and colleagues represents a remarkable resource for future geologists. We dedicate this contribution to their memory. We thank Sveva Corrado and an anonymous referee for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Butler’s Sicilian field research has been variously funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society. Maniscalco acknowledges “Fondi per la Ricerca di AteneoPiano per la Ricerca 2016/2018”. Pinter was supported through a PhD grant funded by the BG Group (now Shell) and Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

CAFA Judicata: A Tale of Waste and Politics

The Class Action Fairness Act has taken on its real form through construction by the federal judges. That form emerges in this empirical study of judicial activity and receptivity to the Act. Our data comprise the opinions under the Act published during the two and a half years following its enactment in 2005. CAFA has produced a lot of litigation in its short life. The cases were varied, of course, but most typically the resulting published federal opinion involved a removed contract case, with the dispute turning on the statute\u27s effective date or on federal jurisdiction. Even though the opinions shed some light on issues such as jurisdictional burden and standard of proof, most of the judicial activity was socially wasteful litigation. It emphasized transitional efforts to interpret the sloppily drafted provisions on effective date and on federal jurisdiction. More interesting, we saw wise but value-laden resistance by judges to CAFA, as they interpreted it in a way to dampen the early hopes of overly enthusiastic removers. Regression analysis confirms the suggestion of percentages of cases decided in favor of a narrow construction of the statute. With the exception of Republican male judges, the federal judiciary has not warmly embraced the statute

CAFA Judicata: A Tale of Waste and Politics

The Class Action Fairness Act has taken on its real form through construction by the federal judges. That form emerges in this empirical study of judicial activity and receptivity to the Act. Our data comprise the opinions under the Act published during the two and a half years following its enactment in 2005. CAFA has produced a lot of litigation in its short life. The cases were varied, of course, but most typically the resulting published federal opinion involved a removed contract case, with the dispute turning on the statute\u27s effective date or on federal jurisdiction. Even though the opinions shed some light on issues such as jurisdictional burden and standard of proof, most of the judicial activity was socially wasteful litigation. It emphasized transitional efforts to interpret the sloppily drafted provisions on effective date and on federal jurisdiction. More interesting, we saw wise but value-laden resistance by judges to CAFA, as they interpreted it in a way to dampen the early hopes of overly enthusiastic removers. Regression analysis confirms the suggestion of percentages of cases decided in favor of a narrow construction of the statute. With the exception of Republican male judges, the federal judiciary has not warmly embraced the statute

CAFA Judicata: A Tale of Waste and Politics

The Class Action Fairness Act has taken on its real form through construction by the federal judges. That form emerges in this empirical study of judicial activity and receptivity to the Act. Our data comprise the opinions under the Act published during the two and a half years following its enactment in 2005. CAFA has produced a lot of litigation in its short life. The cases were varied, of course, but most typically the resulting published federal opinion involved a removed contract case, with the dispute turning on the statute\u27s effective date or on federal jurisdiction. Even though the opinions shed some light on issues such as jurisdictional burden and standard of proof, most of the judicial activity was socially wasteful litigation. It emphasized transitional efforts to interpret the sloppily drafted provisions on effective date and on federal jurisdiction. More interesting, we saw wise but value-laden resistance by judges to CAFA, as they interpreted it in a way to dampen the early hopes of overly enthusiastic removers. Regression analysis confirms the suggestion of percentages of cases decided in favor of a narrow construction of the statute. With the exception of Republican male judges, the federal judiciary has not warmly embraced the statute