Developing knowledge on languages and cultures in intercomprehensive multilingual chatrooms: which role in the enhancement of multilingual education?

Since Doyé’s Reference Study (2005), the concept of intercomprehension gained clear relevance in Language Education and the amount of publications, projects, networks, platforms are an evidence of that (Araújo e Sá, 2011). It became a complex concept which represents its richness and flexibility, but threatens the immediate understanding of its potential as a language education approach. Intercomprehension is aligned with the most recent language and education policies. However, it is still struggling to be recognized and operationalized in the educational context, due to its methodological inconsistency (De Carlo, 2013). Thus, the Référentiel de compétences de communication plurilingue en intercompréhension (REFIC) (De Carlo, 2015) was recently developed 1 This work is financially supported by National Funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UID/CED/00194/2013 and under a PhD grant SFRH/BD/103005/2014. and one of its aims is to allow a consistent evaluation of the plurilingual and intercultural communicative competences involved and developed in an intercomprehensive experience. In this study, an interactional perspective of intercomprehension is favoured. It is assumed that the interaction between students that live in different languages and cultures allows them to develop plurilingual and intercultural competences, which is intensified by new forms of communication associated to virtual mobility, such as chats, forums or blogs. In order to contribute to the piloting and further validation of REFIC, which is still in a conceptualized version, we will be analyzing the multilingual chats and forums from the session “Poliglotta? No, plurilingue!” from the Galanet platform using its categories. We will be focusing on a cognitive dimension and the research questions guiding this study will be: which knowledge on languages and cultures and how is it mobilized and developed in multilingual chatrooms in a pedagogical session on intercomprehension? The “Poliglotta? No, plurilingue!” session took place in 2014, between February 3rd and April 10th, and was attended by 168 Secondary School students from Spain, Italy, France and Portugal, whose participation is directly related and connected with their language learning at school. There were 7 multilingual chat sessions and 64 discussion forums, which will be analyzed bearing in mind the categories from “II. Les langues et les cultures” from REFIC. We expect to find evidence on the development of knowledge on different dimensions of language and culture, such as organization and social usage of a language and role of culture in communication. This approach puts multilingual virtual communication and interaction in the centre of learning, which is one of the trends in multilingual education that can only be fully recognized once a framework of competences in intercomprehension in validated and adopted

The Correlation between Retinal and Choroidal Thickness with Age-Related White Matter Hyperintensities in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Choroid; Optical coherence tomography; RetinaCoroide; Tomografia de coherència òptica; RetinaCoroides; Tomografía de coherencia óptica; RetinaProgressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare neurodegenerative disease. Recently, several retinal layers in PSP compared to healthy controls. were found to be thinner. However, no studies evaluating the correlation between retinal layers and cerebral white matter changes, nor eventual choroidal changes in PSP, have been conducted so far. The goals of the present study were to explore potential differences in choroidal structure between PSP and healthy controls, and to describe the relationship between retinal layers’ thickness and volume, using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and age-related white matter change scores (ARWMC) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Choroidal structures of 26 PSP patients and 26 healthy controls using standard SD-OCT with an enhanced depth imaging (EDI) approach were analyzed; then, retinal the structures of 16 of these PSP patients using standard SD-OCT were examined; finally, the same patients underwent brain MRI, and their cerebral white matter changes were calculated. Non-statistically significant differences between PSP patients’ and healthy controls’ choroidal structure were found. On the contrary, PSP patients’ inner retinal layers (INR), retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and all retinal layers’ thicknesses in the macular region were found to be significantly correlated with ARWMC, independently from age and axial length (AL). PSP patients’ neurological alterations go hand in hand with retinal ones, independently from age and axial length. Our results suggest a mutual relationship between cerebral and retinal structure pathological alterations. On the other hand, no significant differences in the choroidal evaluation compared to healthy controls have been found

The detail is more pleasant than the whole: global and local prime affect esthetic appreciation of artworks showing whole-part ambiguity

Esthetic experience is the result of the coordination of different cognitive processes. It has been widely reported that top-down processes of orienting of attention interact with bottom-up perceptual facilitation occurring during esthetic experience of artworks. Here we use whole-part ambiguity as a tool to test the effect of global and local prime on esthetic appreciation of complex visual artworks. To this aim 139 healthy young individuals completed an esthetic judgment of Arcimboldo’s ambiguous artworks, which were preceded by a local or global prime. Their perceptual style was also assessed using a Navon task. We found that local prime significantly enhanced esthetic appreciation of ambiguous portraits. Also, we found that prime level interacted with individual’s perceptual style: participants showing local perceptual style liked less ambiguous portraits when they were preceded by global prime. Overall, the present findings shed some light on the processes involved in esthetic experience, pointing towards a pivotal role of re-direction of attention towards perceptual features of the artworks and its interaction with individual factors, such as perceptual style

Symptom Recognition as a Mediator in the Self-Care of Chronic Illness

The recognition of a symptom is needed to initiate a decision to engage in a behavior to ameliorate the symptom. Yet, a surprising number of individuals fail to detect symptoms and delay in addressing early warnings of a health problem

Measuring self-care in the general adult population : Development and psychometric testing of the Self-Care Inventory

Background Self-care is important at all stages of life and health status to promote well-being, prevent disease, and improve health outcomes. Currently, there is a need to better conceptualize self-care in the general adult population and provide an instrument to measure self-care in this group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the Self-Care Inventory (SCI), a theory-based instrument to measure self-care in the general adult population. Methods Based on the Middle Range Theory of Self-Care, the 20-item SCI was developed with three scales: Self-Care Maintenance (8 items), Self-Care Monitoring (6 items), and Self-Care Management (6 items). A cross sectional study with a US-based sample (n = 294) was conducted to test the SCI. Internal validity was assessed with Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Internal consistency reliability was assessed with Cronbach alpha for unidimensional scales or composite reliability and the global reliability index for multidimensional scales. Construct validity was investigated with Pearson correlation to test the relationship between general self-efficacy, positivity, stress, and self-care scores. Results The Self-Care Maintenance and Management scales were multidimensional and the Self-Care Monitoring scale was unidimensional. The global reliability index for multidimensional scales was 0.85 (self-care maintenance) and 0.88 (self-care management). Cronbach alpha coefficient of the self-care monitoring scale was 0.88. Test-retest reliability was 0.81 (self-care maintenance), 0.91 (self-care monitoring), and 0.76 (self-care management). The General Self-Efficacy Scale was positively related to all three self-care scale scores: self-care maintenance r = 0.46, p < 0. 001, self-care monitoring r = 0.31, p < 0. 001, and self-care management r = 0.32, p < 0. 001. The positivity score was positively related to self-care maintenance (r = 0.42, p < 0. 001), self-care monitoring (r = 0.29, p < 0. 001), and self-care management (r = 0.34, p < 0. 001) scores. The perceived stress was positively related to the self-care management (r = 0.20, p < 0. 001) score. Conclusions The SCI is a theoretically based instrument designed to measure self-care in the general adult population. Preliminary evidence of validity and reliability supports its use in the general adult population

How Agrobacterium rhizogenes triggers de novo root formation in a recalcitrant woody plant: an integrated histological, ultrastructural and molecular analysis

Adventitious rooting might be induced in recalcitrant woody genotypes by infection with Agrobacterium rhizogenes, and, in some cases, might also require exogenous auxin. The objective of the present study was to determine how agrobacteria trigger root formation in the stem of a recalcitrant woody microcutting, which cytological events result from the combined presence of infection and exogenous auxin, and which types of roots are induced by infection. Microcuttings of a recalcitrant walnut (Fuglans regia), infected or not with A. rhizogenes strain 1855, were cultured with either indolebutyric acid (IBA), IAA, or without exogenous hormones, to induce rhizogenesis. They were cytohistologically and ultrastructurally investigated at various times in culture. Southern blot and PCR analyses were performed to verify the frequency of transgenic, chimeric and bacterium-containing roots. The infection was sufficient per se to stimulate rhizogenesis. Rooting on the infected cuttings was enhanced by exogenous IBA, which accelerated and increased root meristemoid formation, in comparison with without hormone treatment. Meristemoids were organized both directly by the cambial cells and indirectly by the callus, and showed a pluricellular origin. Inter and intracellular bacteria were observed in the stem throughout the culture period (30 d). They were preferentially present in the vessels, and mainly in those showing polyphenol deposition. In the infected IAA-treated cultures, a high level of secondary xylem formation occurred instead of rhizogenesis. Nontransformed roots were preferentially produced by the infected cuttings treated with the auxins. Bacterium-containing and chimeric roots were produced by infected cuttings independently of the treatment. Thus, in a recalcitrant walnut, nontransformed root meristemoids are stimulated by combining infection and exogenous indolebutyric acid. Furthermore, the persistence of bacteria in the stem during the culture and the pluricellular origin of the meristemoids explain the presence of the bacterium-containing and chimeric roots

Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress, cAMP Signalling and Apoptosis: A Crossroads in Lymphocytes of Multiple Sclerosis, a Possible Role of Nutraceutics

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex inflammatory and neurodegenerative chronic disease that involves the immune and central nervous systems (CNS). The pathogenesis involves the loss of blood–brain barrier integrity, resulting in the invasion of lymphocytes into the CNS with consequent tissue damage. The MS etiology is probably a combination of immunological, genetic, and environmental factors. It has been proposed that T lymphocytes have a main role in the onset and propagation of MS, leading to the inflammation of white matter and myelin sheath destruction. Cyclic AMP (cAMP), mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress exert a role in the alteration of T lymphocytes homeostasis and are involved in the apoptosis resistance of immune cells with the consequent development of autoimmune diseases. The defective apoptosis of autoreactive lymphocytes in patients with MS, allows these cells to perpetuate, within the CNS, a continuous cycle of inflammation. In this review, we discuss the involvement in MS of cAMP pathway, mitochondria, reactive oxygen species (ROS), apoptosis, and their interaction in the alteration of T lymphocytes homeostasis. In addition, we discuss a series of nutraceutical compounds that could influence these aspect

Digital innovation in healthcare: a device with a method for monitoring, managing and preventing the risk of chronic polypathological patients

New digital technologies can have a huge impact on the traditional healthcare sector, both from a clinical and economic perspective. Doctors and health specialists will increasingly need technology to improve the services they provide to their patients. Here a novel patented device for automatic processing of clinical data of chronic poly-pathological patients is presented. The invention consists of a reconfigurable equipment that allows the assessment of clinical risk severity indexes that can be customized for polypathological patients and which acts both as a decision support system for specialist doctors in the diagnosis and treatment phases, and as a monitoring system in the clinical environment