Insensitivity to verb conjugation patterns in French children with SLI

Specific language impairment (SLI) is characterized by persistent difficulties that affect language abilities in otherwise normally developing children (Leonard, 2014). It remains challenging to identify young children affected by SLI in French. We tested oral production of the passé composé tense in 19 children in kindergarten and first grade with SLI aged from 5;6 to 7;4 years. All children were schooled in a French environment, but with different linguistic backgrounds. We used an Android application, Jeu de verbes (Marquis et al., 2012), with six verbs in each of four past participle categories (ending in -é, -i, -u, and Other irregulars). We compared their results and error types to those of control children (from Marquis, 2012–2014) matched for gender, age, languages spoken at home, and parental education. Results show that children with SLI do not master the passé composé in the same way as typical French children do, at later ages than previously shown in the literature. This task shows potential for oral language screening in French-speaking children in kindergarten and first grade, independently of language background

In-home Telerehabilitation for Older Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of in-home telerehabilitation for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Three community-living elders with COPD were recruited in a rehabilitation outpatient group and by direct referrals from pneumologists with outpatients who have COPD. A pre/post-test design without a control group was used for this pilot study. Telerehabilitation sessions (15 sessions) were conducted by two trained physio­therapists from a service center to the patient’s home. Locomotor function (walking performance) and quality of life were measured in person prior to and at the end of the treatment by an independent assessor. Clinical outcomes improved for all subjects except for locomotor function in the first participant. In-home telerehabilitation for people with COPD is a realistic alternative to dispense rehabilitation services for patients requiring physical therapy follow-up.

Rapports de pouvoir : race, genre et nation dans la couverture montréalaise des JO de Berlin

Le sport est depuis toujours un facteur de hiérarchisation des groupes sociaux. Dans une perspective de rapport de pouvoir, il sert tout autant à réaffirmer les diverses relations inégalitaires entre les groupes à l’intérieur d’une société qu’à poser ou illustrer les relations conflictuelles entre nations. Le présent texte explore la façon dont les journaux participent à l’interprétation et à la construction de ces rapports dans le cadre de la couverture des Jeux olympiques de 1936. L’analyse aborde d’abord la question de la race, particulièrement la « mise en valeur » des athlètes noirs. On découvre ainsi que, paradoxalement, le racisme ambiant permet la mise en place d’un débat de fond sur la question. La réflexion se poursuit ensuite avec les rapports de genre en montrant comment les journaux marginalisent les accomplissements des sportives afin d’éviter une remise en question des schémas traditionnels. Finalement, les Olympiades sont aussi l’occasion pour les journaux de construire un récit national fort à travers diverses stratégies discursives. À bien des égards, les JO permettent de construire une identité canadienne qui cherche à transcender les régionalismes. L’omniprésence de l’expression de ces rapports de pouvoir offre néanmoins aux journalistes l’occasion de réfléchir à ces questions

Les Jeux olympiques de Berlin dans l’arène médiatique montréalaise

Les Jeux olympiques de Berlin en 1936 sont l’un des moments forts de la lutte idéologique qui se déroule alors sur la scène internationale et Montréal n’y échappe pas. Le présent article explore l’hypothèse que cet événement aurait rendu plus lisibles les clivages identitaires et politiques de la société québécoise, à partir de l’analyse de la couverture qu’offre des JO un échantillon substantiel de journaux montréalais. La première partie de cette étude décrit les caractéristiques de la couverture des Jeux, replacée sur la facture usuelle des journaux, et révèle la dépendance des périodiques montréalais à l’endroit des agences de presse nord-américaines. Le recours massif aux agences crée l’illusion d’un récit unique ressassé partout, fait de tableaux et de petites anecdotes. Cependant, grâce aux textes dans lesquels s’affirme une subjectivité, dans les chroniques sportives, entre autres, le lecteur de l’époque est mis en contact avec l’expression de jugements individuels desquels se dégage une interprétation proprement montréalaise des Jeux olympiques, qui fait une place à des enjeux débordant le caractère strictement sportif de l’événement pour toucher aux questions de politique internationale. L’hypothèse initiale se révèle finalement insatisfaisante, les JO paraissant avoir joué le rôle d’un catalyseur modifiant provisoirement l’économie du système des journaux montréalais, réorganisé autour d’impératifs moraux irréductibles aux clivages sociaux et identitaires locaux

Parental transfer of the antimicrobial protein LBP/BPI protects Biomphalaria glabrata eggs against oomycete infections

Copyright: © 2013 Baron et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was funded by ANR (ANR-07-BLAN-0214 and ANR-12-EMMA-00O7-01), CNRS and INRA. PvW was financially supported by the BBSRC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effects of long-term strontium ranelate treatment on vertebral fracture risk in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

Vertebral fractures are a major adverse consequence of osteoporosis. In a large placebo-controlled trial in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, strontium ranelate reduced vertebral fracture risk by 33% over 4 years, confirming the role of strontium ranelate as an effective long-term treatment in osteoporosis. INTRODUCTION: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are associated with increased mortality, morbidity, and loss of quality-of-life (QoL). Strontium ranelate (2 g/day) was shown to prevent bone loss, increase bone strength, and reduce vertebral and peripheral fractures. The preplanned aim of this study was to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety of strontium ranelate. METHODS: A total of 1,649 postmenopausal osteoporotic women were randomized to strontium ranelate or placebo for 4 years, followed by a 1-year treatment-switch period for half of the patients. Primary efficacy criterion was incidence of patients with new vertebral fractures over 4 years. Lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) and QoL were also evaluated. RESULTS: Over 4 years, risk of vertebral fracture was reduced by 33% with strontium ranelate (risk reduction = 0.67, p < 0.001). Among patients with two or more prevalent vertebral fractures, risk reduction was 36% (p < 0.001). QoL, assessed by the QUALIOST(R), was significantly better (p = 0.025), and patients without back pain were greater (p = 0.005) with strontium ranelate than placebo over 4 years. Lumbar BMD increased over 5 years in patients who continued with strontium ranelate, while it decreased in patients who switched to placebo. Emergent adverse events were similar between groups. CONCLUSION: In this 4- and 5-year study, strontium ranelate is an effective and safe treatment for long-term treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women

Condensed Mitotic Chromosome Structure at Nanometer Resolution Using PALM and EGFP- Histones

Photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) and related fluorescent biological imaging methods are capable of providing very high spatial resolutions (up to 20 nm). Two major demands limit its widespread use on biological samples: requirements for photoactivatable/photoconvertible fluorescent molecules, which are sometimes difficult to incorporate, and high background signals from autofluorescence or fluorophores in adjacent focal planes in three-dimensional imaging which reduces PALM resolution significantly. We present here a high-resolution PALM method utilizing conventional EGFP as the photoconvertible fluorophore, improved algorithms to deal with high levels of biological background noise, and apply this to imaging higher order chromatin structure. We found that the emission wavelength of EGFP is efficiently converted from green to red when exposed to blue light in the presence of reduced riboflavin. The photon yield of red-converted EGFP using riboflavin is comparable to other bright photoconvertible fluorescent proteins that allow <20 nm resolution. We further found that image pre-processing using a combination of denoising and deconvolution of the raw PALM images substantially improved the spatial resolution of the reconstruction from noisy images. Performing PALM on Drosophila mitotic chromosomes labeled with H2AvD-EGFP, a histone H2A variant, revealed filamentous components of ∼70 nm. This is the first observation of fine chromatin filaments specific for one histone variant at a resolution approximating that of conventional electron microscope images (10–30 nm). As demonstrated by modeling and experiments on a challenging specimen, the techniques described here facilitate super-resolution fluorescent imaging with common biological samples

Regulation of BRCA1 expression and its relationship to sporadic breast cancer

Germ-line mutations in the BRCA1 tumour suppressor gene contribute to familial breast tumour formation, but there is no evidence for direct mutation of the BRCA1 gene in the sporadic form of the disease. In contrast, decreased expression of the BRCA1 gene has been shown to be common in sporadic tumours, and the magnitude of the decrease correlates with disease progression. BRCA1 expression is also tightly regulated during normal breast development. Determining how these developmental regulators of BRCA1 expression are co-opted during breast tumourigenesis could lead to a better understanding of sporadic breast cancer aetiology and the generation of novel therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing sporadic breast tumour progression