Conditional Discriminative Functions of Meaningful Stimuli and Enhanced Equivalence Class Formation

Two experiments explored how the formation of two 3-node, 5- member equivalence classes by college students was influenced by the prior acquisition of conditional discriminative functions by one of the abstract stimuli, designated as C, in the class. In Experiment 1, participants in the GR-0, GR-1, and GR-5 groups attempted to form classes after mastering 0, 1 or 5 conditional relations between C and abstract stimuli that were not included in the to-be-formed classes. Participants in the GR-many group attempted to form classes that contained four abstract stimuli and one meaningful, familiar picture that served as the C stimulus. In Experiment 1, the percentage of participants who formed classes in the GR-0, -1, and -5 groups was a direct function of the number of conditional relations that C formed with other stimuli in preliminary training, with the GR-5 group producing a yield similar to that produced when a meaningful picture was the C stimulus (i.e., in the GR-many condition). Two factors differentiated GR-1 and GR-5 pre-training: the number of conditional relations trained to C, and the number of training trials in the presence of the C stimuli. Experiment 2 found that the increase in yield produced by GR-5 was due to number of trained C-based relations and not to the amount of training. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed that enhancement of class formation after GR-1 pre-training is not improved by linking the C stimulus with a meaningful picture instead of a meaningless stimulus. These results along with recently published research support the view that the class enhancing effect of meaningful stimuli can be attributed to their acquired conditional discriminative and simple discriminative functions, in addition to their connotative and denotative functions

'Transnational Dynamics in the Romanian Orthodox Parish of Livorno'

La ricerca si propone di esaminare le dinamiche transnazionali di una communità romena riunita intorno alla parocchia di rito ortodosso nella citta di Livorno. Lo studio inizia con uno sguardo sul contesto storico, economico e sociale rumeno che ha generato la massicia migrazione per lavoro al estero. Gradualmente, il fenomeno della migrazione viene analizzato in tutte le sue sfaccettature. Questo studio può essere ritenuto innovativo perche è la prima volta che una communità di immigrati rumeni viene analizzata sia come uno spazio sociale transnazionale sia come uno spazio religioso transnazionale. In questo spazio, simbolicamente sospeso tra due paesi, la ricerca etnografica (che ha incluso l’ossevazione delle interazioni, festività, messe ecc) ha delianeato tre liveli di coinvolgimento transnazionale fra i membri. Questo orientamento viene analizzato tramite tre dimensioni del transnazionalismo: dualità, simultataneità e complementarità. Per di più, il nesso tra religiosità e transnazionalismo viene approfondito in una maniera che offre interessanti spunti per future ricerche

CEACAM1: Expression and Role in Melanocyte Transformation

Metastases represent the main cause of death in melanoma patients. Despite the current optimized targeted therapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors the treatment of metastatic melanoma is unsatisfactory. Because of the poor prognosis of advanced melanoma there is an urgent need to identify new biomarkers to differentiate melanoma cells from normal melanocytes, to stratify patients according to their risk, and to identify subgroups of patients that require close follow-up or more aggressive therapy. Furthermore, melanoma progression has been associated with the dysregulation of cell adhesion molecules. We have reviewed the literature and have discussed the important role of the expression of the carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) in the development of melanoma. Thus, novel insights into CEACAM1 may lead to promising strategies in melanoma treatment, in monitoring melanoma patients, in assessing the response to immunotherapy, and in completing the standard immunohistochemical panel used in melanoma examination

Imitation and its Reciprocity in the Treatment of Autism

This study examined, within a multiple baseline design, the development of generalized imitative repertoires and the occurrence of contingency testing in children with autism. Generalized imitation refers to an imitative response class maintained by a conditioned reinforcer: similarity. In the case of imitation, a response class is established by reinforcement of sufficient exemplars of different imitations; the results is a general repertoire of imitating novel responses on their first presentation. Generalized imitation was facilitated through reinforcement procedures involving shaping and fading. Multiple experimenters and multiple settings have been involved to promote the generalization of imitation. Contingency testing, which has been noticed to naturally occur in typically developing children when imitated, was targeted in the examined treatment, by employing a procedure where the experimenter imitated the child. It was hypothesized that the imitation training leads to generalized imitation and that the imitation of the child by the therapist leads to the occurrence of contingency testing. The results of the study show that the shaping and reinforcement procedures determined an increase in participants\u27 trained imitative responding but no corresponding increase in novel, probed imitative responses. The data indicate the emergence of an imitative repertoire in need of further training. Additionally, the results suggest that generalization of skills across therapists and settings has occurred. Imitation of the child by the therapist had been employed for a very small number of sessions. Notwithstanding, the results yielded an increase in the contingency testing behaviors for both participants

Studies Concerning Numerical Prediction of Metal Fibering Obtained by Cold Bulk Forming Using Sensitivity Analysis of Tribological and Rheological Properties on a Cylindrical Crushing Process

International audienc

Immunohistochemical Aspects of Cell Death in Diabetic Nephropathy

Introduction. Diabetes Mellitus causes ultrastructural changes triggered by partially clarified cellular mechanisms. Since cell death is an important mechanism in the appearance and progression of diabetic nephropathy, we studied alteration of several markers of apoptotic pathways signaling in renal tissue of diabetic or prediabetic patients

CEACAM1: Expression and Role in Melanocyte Transformation

Metastases represent the main cause of death in melanoma patients. Despite the current optimized targeted therapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors the treatment of metastatic melanoma is unsatisfactory. Because of the poor prognosis of advanced melanoma there is an urgent need to identify new biomarkers to differentiate melanoma cells from normal melanocytes, to stratify patients according to their risk, and to identify subgroups of patients that require close follow-up or more aggressive therapy. Furthermore, melanoma progression has been associated with the dysregulation of cell adhesion molecules. We have reviewed the literature and have discussed the important role of the expression of the carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) in the development of melanoma. Thus, novel insights into CEACAM1 may lead to promising strategies in melanoma treatment, in monitoring melanoma patients, in assessing the response to immunotherapy, and in completing the standard immunohistochemical panel used in melanoma examination

Vitiligo—Thyroid Disease Association: When, in Whom, and Why Should It Be Suspected? A Systematic Review

In most dermatological pathologies, the phenomena observed on the skin are a reflection of internal disorders. In patients with associated acral involvement on the dorsal sides of the hands, this “vitiligo phenotype” may lead to the investigation of certain associated pathologies that sometimes have no obvious clinical impact. To assess the link between skin depigmentation and autoimmune pathologies, we conducted a systematic review involving article selection from the PubMed database. Patients with coexisting thyroid pathologies were found to have a predisposition for developing acral vitiligo and depigmentation of the wrists, and autoimmune thyroid pathologies appeared to be the only coexisting autoimmune or inflammatory diseases in vitiligo patients to show a pattern of distribution. The association of concomitant thyroid dysfunction with depigmentation of the hands was found to be so strong that the absence of depigmented macules on the hands may exclude the coexistence of an autoimmune thyroid pathology. Although the frequency of acral involvement in patients with vitiligo and autoimmune pathologies is higher, the mechanism by which thyroid dysfunction influences this distribution pattern remains incompletely elucidated and requires future studies