Double-Peak Response in Orthodromic Sensory Nerve Conduction of the Median Nerve

Objective To understand the neural generator of double-peak potentials and the change of latency and amplitude of double peaks with aging. Method In 50 healthy subjects made up of groups of 10 people per decade from the age of 20 to 60, orthodromic sensory nerve conduction studies were performed on the median nerves using submaximal stimulation. Various stimulus durations and interstimulation distances were used to obtain each double peak in the different age groups. The latency and amplitude of the second peak were measured. Statistical analyses included one-way ANOVA and correlation tests. p-values<0.05 were considered significant. Results When the cathode moved in a proximal direction, the interpeak intervals increased. Second peak amplitudes decreased, and second peak latencies were delayed with aging (p<0.05). In some older people, second peaks were not obtained. Conclusion Our experiments indicate that the double-peak response represented the two stimulation sites under the cathode and anode. The delayed latency and decreased amplitude of the second peak that occurs with aging represented peripheral nerve degeneration in aging, which starts at the distal nerve

LaCulturaNonSiFerma -- Report su uso e la diffusione degli hashtag delle istituzioni culturali italiane durante il periodo di lockdown

This report presents an analysis of #hashtags used by Italian Cultural Heritage institutions to promote and communicate cultural content during the COVID-19 lock-down period in Italy. Several activities to support and engage users' have been proposed using social media. Most of these activities present one or more #hashtags which help to aggregate content and create a community on specific topics. Results show that on one side Italian institutions have been very proactive in adapting to the pandemic scenario and on the other side users' reacted very positively increasing their participation in the proposed activities.Comment: in Italia

ItaGLAM: A corpus of Cultural Communication on Twitter during the Pandemic

This paper describes the compilation and annotation of ItaGLAM, a corpus of tweets written by Italian Galleries, Libreries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs) during the lockdown period in Italy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ItaGLAM has been annotated with a set of labels which may be useful to identify different types of communication. Furthermore, the collected data have been used to train a set of classifiers.The results are analyzed to evaluate the information flow between GLAM and users and to analyze cultural communication on the Web

Il Multidimensional Quality Metrics nell’analisi qualitativa della traduzione automatica

l seguente articolo è un estratto di un lavoro più ampio sulla traduzione automatica del testo King, Warrior, Magician, Lover di Robert Moore e Douglas Gillette. Nel corso del suddetto lavoro questo testo, dopo essere stato analizzato linguisticamente, è stato tradotto attraverso i due traduttori automatici Google Translate e DeepL per poi essere completato in fase di post-editing da traduttore umano. Fase essenziale del processo è stata sicuramente la valutazione degli errori riscontrati nelle due traduzioni automatiche, effettuata con l’aiuto del Multidimensional Quality Metrics (di qui in avanti indicato con la sigla MQM), una metrica di valutazione per traduzioni e testi più in generale. Nell’articolo qui presente si definirà que- sta metrica e il modo in cui è stata utilizzata nel lavoro summenzionato

Autonomic dysfunction is associated with disease progression and survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a prospective longitudinal cohort study

Background: Among non-motor symptoms, autonomic disturbances have been described in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and reported as mild to moderate in up to 75% of patients. However, no study has systematically investigated autonomic symptoms as prognostic factors. Objectives: The main aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the association of autonomic dysfunction with disease progression and survival in ALS. Methods: We enrolled newly diagnosed ALS patients and a healthy control group (HC). Time from disease onset to disease milestone (King’s stage 4) and death were calculated to assess disease progression and survival. Autonomic symptoms were assessed by a dedicated questionnaire. Longitudinal evaluation of parasympathetic cardiovascular activity was performed by the heart rate variability (HRV). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models on the risk of the disease milestone and death were used. A mixed-effect linear regression model was used to compare autonomic dysfunction with a HC group as well as its impairment over time. Results: A total of 102 patients and 41 HC were studied. ALS patients, compared with HC, complained of more autonomic symptoms, especially in bulbar onset patients. Autonomic symptoms occurred in 69 (68%) patients at diagnosis and progressed over time (post-6: p = 0.015 and post-12: p < 0.001). A higher autonomic symptom burden was an independent marker of faster development of King’s stage 4 (HR 1.05; 95% CI 1.00–1.11; p = 0.022); whereas, urinary complaints were independent factors of a shorter survival (HR 3.12; 95% CI 1.22–7.97; p = 0.018). Moreover, HRV in ALS patients was lower than in HC (p = 0.018) and further decreased over time (p = 0.003), implying a parasympathetic hypofunction that progressed over time. Conclusion: Autonomic symptoms occur in most of the ALS patients at diagnosis and progress over time, implying that autonomic dysfunction represents an intrinsic non-motor feature of the disease. A higher autonomic burden is a poor prognostic factor, associated with a more rapid development of disease milestones and shorter survival

Il Multidimensional Quality Metrics nell’analisi qualitativa della traduzione automatica

l seguente articolo è un estratto di un lavoro più ampio sulla traduzione automatica del testo King, Warrior, Magician, Lover di Robert Moore e Douglas Gillette. Nel corso del suddetto lavoro questo testo, dopo essere stato analizzato linguisticamente, è stato tradotto attraverso i due traduttori automatici Google Translate e DeepL per poi essere completato in fase di post-editing da traduttore umano. Fase essenziale del processo è stata sicuramente la valutazione degli errori riscontrati nelle due traduzioni automatiche, effettuata con l’aiuto del Multidimensional Quality Metrics (di qui in avanti indicato con la sigla MQM), una metrica di valutazione per traduzioni e testi più in generale. Nell’articolo qui presente si definirà que- sta metrica e il modo in cui è stata utilizzata nel lavoro summenzionato

Il Multidimensional Quality Metrics nell’analisi qualitativa della traduzione automatica

l seguente articolo è un estratto di un lavoro più ampio sulla traduzione automatica del testo King, Warrior, Magician, Lover di Robert Moore e Douglas Gillette. Nel corso del suddetto lavoro questo testo, dopo essere stato analizzato linguisticamente, è stato tradotto attraverso i due traduttori automatici Google Translate e DeepL per poi essere completato in fase di post-editing da traduttore umano. Fase essenziale del processo è stata sicuramente la valutazione degli errori riscontrati nelle due traduzioni automatiche, effettuata con l’aiuto del Multidimensional Quality Metrics (di qui in avanti indicato con la sigla MQM), una metrica di valutazione per traduzioni e testi più in generale. Nell’articolo qui presente si definirà que- sta metrica e il modo in cui è stata utilizzata nel lavoro summenzionato

"Spotto la quarantena": per una analisi dell'italiano scritto degli studenti universitari via social network in tempo di COVID-19

Per un\u2019analisi dell\u2019italiano scritto degli studenti universitari, un contesto privilegiato si trova in quei canali social di condivisione tra pari noti con la titolatura di \u201cSpotted\u201d. Attivi particolarmente su Instagram, si tratta di canali di interazione pubblica informale che forniscono elementi significativi all\u2019indagine sulle scritture spontanee dei giovani in rete. Questa ricerca presenta un corpus di oltre trentamila testi da Spotted universitari italiani. Concentrandoci sulle fasi COVID (e sul periodo immediatamente precedente), intendiamo illustrare come il corpus Spotted-Ita appaia funzionale a un\u2019indagine riferita alla comunicazione linguistica nell\u2019occasione di un\u2019esperienza unica e straordinaria vissuta dagli studenti universitari.\u201cSpotted\u201d posts represent one of the most popular forms of Computer mediated Communication (CMC) among university students in Italy, and as such, they represent a privileged context to analyze the Italian language used by students on the Web. This kind of informal communication channels is active especially on Instagram, and provides relevant insights on the spontaneous writing of young people. Based on Spotted-ITA Corpus, a corpus of over 30,000 posts retrieved from Italian Spotted accounts on Instagram, this paper presents a focus on the period of lockdown in Italy due to COVID pandemics and its immediately preceding period, showing how this corpus can be useful in analyzing the way Italian university students communicated during this unique and extraordinary experience

A novel SCN9A splicing mutation in a compound heterozygous girl with congenital insensitivity to pain, hyposmia and hypogeusia

Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder presenting with a spectrum of clinical features caused by mutations in different genes. A 10\u2010year\u2010old girl with CIP, hyposmia and hypogeusia, and her unaffected twin and parents underwent next generation sequencing of SCN9A exons and flanking splice sites. Transcript analysis from whole blood successfully assayed the effect of the mutation on the mRNA splicing by polymerase chain reaction amplification on cDNA and Sanger sequencing. We identified the novel splicing variant c.1108\u20102A>G compound with the p.Arg896Gln (c.2687G>A) missense mutation previously described in a homozygous patient. The new intronic variant was predicted to induce exon 10 skipping. Conversely, SCN9A mRNA assay demonstrated its partial deletion with a loss of 46 nucleotides causing a premature stop codon in position p.Gln369 (NP_002968). Genetic analysis showed that the two variants were biallelic, being the mother and brother heterozygous carriers of the missense mutation, and the father heterozygous for the splicing mutation. Skin biopsy showed lack of Meissner's corpuscles, loss of epidermal nociceptors and normal autonomic organ innervation. We report a novel splicing mutation and provide clues on its pathogenic effect, broadening the spectrum of genotypes and phenotypes associated to CIP