Appealing to the Authority of a Learned Patriarch: New Evidence on Gennadios Scholarios’ Responses to the Questions of George Branković

No abstrac

Stress assignment in reading Italian: Friendship outweighs dominance

Stress assignment to polysyllabic words is the only aspect of the pronunciation of written Italian that cannot be predicted by rule. It could be a function of stress dominance in the language or of stress neighbourhood (i.e., the number of words sharing ending and stress pattern). Two experiments investigated stress assignment in Italian adult and most importantly young readers. Word frequency and number of stress friends influenced reading times and accuracy, outweighing any effect of stress dominance. In the presence of a majority of stress friends, the reading of low-frequency words was only affected by stress neighbourhood. The effects were the same in fourth graders and adult readers. It is argued that distributional information based on the number of stress friends - rather than stress dominance - is the most effective factor in assigning stress to words in reading

Lexical stress assignment in Italian developmental dyslexia.

Stress assignment to Italian polysyllabic words is unpredictable, because stress is neither marked nor predicted by rule. Stress assignment, especially to low frequency words, has been reported to be a function of stress dominance and stress neighbourhood. Two experiments investigate stress assignment in sixth-grade, skilled and dyslexic, readers. In Experiment 1, skilled readers were not affected by stress dominance. Dyslexic children, although affected by word frequency, made more stress regularisation errors on low frequency words. In Experiment 2, stress neighbourhood affected low frequency word reading irrespective of stress dominance for both skilled and dyslexic readers. Words with many stress friends were read more accurately than words with many stress enemies. It is concluded that, in assigning stress, typically developing and developmental dyslexic Italian readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language

Stress assignment in reading Italian polysyllabic pseudowords.

In four naming experiments we investigated how Italian readers assign stress to pseudowords. We assessed whether participants assign stress following distributional information such as stress neighborhood (the proportion and number of existent words sharing orthographic ending and stress pattern) and whether such distributional information affects naming speed. Experiments 1 and 2 tested how readers assign stress to pseudowords. The results showed that participants assign stress on the basis of the pseudowords\u27 stress neighborhood, but only when this orthographic/phonological information is widely represented in the lexicon. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the naming speed of pseudowords with different stress patterns. Participants were faster in reading pseudowords with antepenultimate than with penultimate stress. The effect was not driven by distributional information, but it was related to the stage of articulation planning. Overall, the experiments showed that, under certain conditions, readers assign stress using orthographic/phonological distributional information. However, the distributional information does not speed up pseudoword naming, which is affected by stress computation at the level of the articulation planning of the stimulus. It is claimed that models of reading aloud and speech production should be merged at the level of phonological encoding, when segmental and metrical information are assembled and articulation is planned

Appealing to the Authority of a Learned Patriarch: New Evidence on Gennadios Scholarios’ Responses to the Questions of George Branković

No abstrac

Surgical correction of unsuccessful derotational humeral osteotomy in obstetric brachial plexus palsy: Evidence of the significance of scapular deformity in the pathophysiology of the medial rotation contracture

BACKGROUND: The current method of treatment for persistent internal rotation due to the medial rotation contracture in patients with obstetric brachial plexus injury is humeral derotational osteotomy. While this procedure places the arm in a more functional position, it does not attend to the abnormal glenohumeral joint. Poor positioning of the humeral head secondary to elevation and rotation of the scapula and elongated acromion impingement causes functional limitations which are not addressed by derotation of the humerus. Progressive dislocation, caused by the abnormal positioning and shape of the scapula and clavicle, needs to be treated more directly. METHODS: Four patients with Scapular Hypoplasia, Elevation And Rotation (SHEAR) deformity who had undergone unsuccessful humeral osteotomies to treat internal rotation underwent acromion and clavicular osteotomy, ostectomy of the superomedial border of the scapula and posterior capsulorrhaphy in order to relieve the torsion developed in the acromio-clavicular triangle by persistent asymmetric muscle action and medial rotation contracture. RESULTS: Clinical examination shows significant improvement in the functional movement possible for these four children as assessed by the modified Mallet scoring, definitely improving on what was achieved by humeral osteotomy. CONCLUSION: These results reveal the importance of recognizing the presence of scapular hypoplasia, elevation and rotation deformity before deciding on a treatment plan. The Triangle Tilt procedure aims to relieve the forces acting on the shoulder joint and improve the situation of the humeral head in the glenoid. Improvement in glenohumeral positioning should allow for better functional movements of the shoulder, which was seen in all four patients. These dramatic improvements were only possible once the glenohumeral deformity was directly addressed surgically

List context manipulation reveals orthographic deficits in Italian readers with developmental dyslexia.

We tested the influence of list context on word frequency and length effects on the reading aloud of Italian developmental dyslexics and skilled peers. The stimuli were presented either in mixed blocks (alternating words and non-words) or in pure blocks. The analyses based on the rate-and-amount-model (Faust et al., 1999) indicated that group differences in reaction times between dyslexic and skilled readers: a) were well accounted for in terms of global components and b) were modulated by context in the case of words but not in the case of non-words. ANOVAs on z-transformed reaction time data further indicated the influence of stimulus length. Importantly, the frequency effect interacted with context: controls showed a list context effect for high and low frequency words, while dyslexics showed a list context effect only for high frequency words. The effect of length on reading times remained unaffected by context manipulation. It is proposed that this pattern of results may be accounted for by hypothesizing two separate deficits: An early graphemic impairment affecting performance independently of context and a later inefficiency in activating entries in the orthographic lexicon as a function of context demands

Development of Efficacy-Enhanced Heart Failure Rehabilitation Patient Education Materials for Health Behavior Change

Background: Patient education materials (PEMs) are often used in health education programs to empower patients to self-manage their disease for better health outcomes. Heart failure (HF) patients wanted more information about self-management and educational materials that were easy to understand. Programs with self-efficacy as the core component have proven to be effective in improving patients’ self-management. Purpose: To develop practical, efficacy-enhanced, tailored HF rehabilitation PEMs that satisfy our clients to drive long-lasting behavior change and evaluate the materials’ quality (readability, understandability, actionability, and acceptability). Methods: Exploratory mixed methods study involving: i) semi-structured interviews; ii) evaluation of the PEMs; iii) revision and reevaluation of the PEMs; iv) publication. An appointed panel of experts evaluates content accuracy, understandability, and actionability. The Patient Education Material Assessment Tool assesses content understandability and actionability. The content read ability was assessed using Flesch Kincaid Calculator. Clients’ acceptability was assessed using Educational Material Acceptability tool. Results: The newly developed PEMs have good understandability, actionability, readability, and acceptance. Discussion: Patient-centered PEMs have good acceptance and satisfaction among clients. However, the effectiveness of tailored efficacy-enhanced PEMs for behavior changes needs further evaluation. Translation to Health Education Practice: All stakeholders should be included in developing PEM

Bilingual vocabulary size and lexical reading in Italian

In the present study we investigated how the vocabulary size of English-Italian bilinguals affects reading aloud in Italian (L2) modulating the reader\u27s sensitivity to lexical aspects of the language. We divided adult bilinguals in two groups according to their vocabulary size (Larger - LV, and smaller - SV), and compared their naming performance to that of native Italian (NI) readers. In Experiment 1 we investigated the lexicality and word frequency effects in reading aloud. Similarly to NI, both groups of bilinguals showed these effects. In Experiment 2 we investigated stress assignment - which is not predictable by rule - to Italian words. The SV group made more stress errors in reading words with a non-dominant stress pattern compared to the LV group. The results suggest that the size of the reader\u27s L2 lexicon affects the probability of correct reading aloud. Overall, the results indicate that proficient adult bilinguals show a similar sensibility to the statistical and distributional properties of the language as compared to Italian monolinguals

Ηχοτοπίο και Σώμα κατά την Άνοιξη του 2020 στην Αθήνα: Η Σιωπή της Συνήθειας και ο Ήχος της Απουσίας

Θέμα της παρούσας πτυχιακής εργασίας αποτελεί: το ηχοτοπίο και το σώμα κατά την Άνοιξη του 2020 στην Αθήνα και οι αλλαγές που αυτά υπέστησαν λόγω του ξεσπάσματος της πανδημίας του covid-19 και του ολοκληρωτικού lockdown που επιβλήθηκε. Η εργασία είναι προϊόν της επιτόπιας εθνογραφικής έρευνας που διεξήγαγα της άνοιξη του 2020 στην Αθήνα, των δια ζώσης και online συνεντεύξεων που πήρα από ανθρώπους που βρίσκονταν στην Αθήνα εκείνο το διάστημα και του τρόπου που επεξεργάστηκα το υλικό μου από την πλευρά της σχετικής βιβλιογραφίας πάνω στις έννοιες του ηχοτοπίου και του σώματος. Τα βασικά σημεία διερεύνησης είναι η σχέση ήχου και αστικού χώρου, οι τρόποι μεταβολής του ηχοτοπίου της Αθήνας, η σχέση των ανθρώπων με τον ήχο και η ανάγκη για ενασχόληση με τη μουσική την περίοδο εκείνη και τέλος η σχέση ήχου-τόπου-σώματος. Το υλικό που προέκυψε από τις συνεντεύξεις και την επιτόπια παρατήρηση το επεξεργάστηκα με βάση θεωρητικά κείμενα των πεδίων του Ηχοτοπίου, των Σπουδών Ήχου, των Επιτελεστικών Σπουδών, της Εθνομουσικολογίας, της Ανθρωπολογίας και της Ιστορίας. Τα βασικά σημεία που αναδείχθηκαν στην εργασία ήταν τα εξής: Η διατάραξη της κανονικότητας του ηχοτοπίου της πόλης αφαίρεσε στοιχεία από την αστική ταυτότητα. Οι υποκειμενικές εμπειρίες των ανθρώπων σε σχέση με τον ήχο ανέδειξαν νέες ηχητικές ποιότητες που γεννήθηκαν λόγω της συνθήκης του lockdown. Οι δραστηριότητες που σχετίστηκαν με τη μουσική αναταράχτηκαν και η περίοδος του πρώτου lockdown αποτέλεσε δημιουργική παρένθεση. Τέλος ο ήχος αναδείχθηκε ως προέκταση του σώματος και το σώμα αποτέλεσε τον τόπο για τη δημιουργία νέων ήχων.The topic of my final thesis is: the soundscape of Athens during the spring of 2020, the relation of the soundscape to the body, and the changes that happened to both of them because of the burst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown. This thesis is a product of the ethnographic field research I did during the first lockdown in Athens, of the online and live interviews I conducted with residents of Athens, and of the theoretical research on the topics of soundscape and body. The basic points of the research are: the relation between sound and urban space, the ways the soundscape of Athens changed, the relation between people and sound and their musical practices during that period, and the relation between body-sound-space. The theoretical discussion was based on the scientific fields of Soundscape, Urban Soundscape, Performance Studies, Ethnomusicology and History. Some of the final conclusions are: the disturbance of the usual urban soundscape affected the urban identity. The people talked about new sound qualities and experiences because of the lockdown. The musical activities were affected and transformed that period. Finally sound, body and space appeared to be connected in a spectral relation to each other, while as one of them was changing, the others were also affected and transformed