The Agent is Right: When Motor Embodied Cognition is Space-Dependent

The role of embodied mechanisms in processing sentences endowed with a first person perspective is now widely accepted. However, whether embodied sentence processing within a third person perspective would also have motor behavioral significance remains unknown. Here, we developed a novel version of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) in which participants were asked to perform a movement compatible or not with the direction embedded in a sentence having a first person (Experiment 1: You gave a pizza to Louis) or third person perspective (Experiment 2: Lea gave a pizza to Louis). Results indicate that shifting perspective from first to third person was sufficient to prevent motor embodied mechanisms, abolishing the ACE. Critically, ACE was restored in Experiment 3 by adding a virtual “body” that allowed participants to know “where” to put themselves in space when taking the third person perspective, thus demonstrating that motor embodied processes are space-dependent. A fourth, control experiment, by dissociating motor response from the transfer verb's direction, supported the conclusion that perspective-taking may induce significant ACE only when coupled with the adequate sentence-response mapping

Francés: Aprender desde el placer

Durante el transcurso del segundo cuatrimestre del ciclo lectivo 2011 se inició, en el Colegio Nacional, un período de análisis del Bloque Académico, una instancia de reflexión en el interior de cada departamento para luego compartir las experiencias con los restantes y poder generar un espacio de análisis institucional. Compartir y difundir las prácticas áulicas haciendo hincapié en los logros y revisando las debilidades, permitió promover una etapa de revisión de nuestras prácticas docentes y, también, de nuestras formas de evaluación. Cuando las autoridades de la institución nos convocaron para trabajar en la articulación de segundo y tercer años, nos propusimos reflexionar a nivel departamental con el fin de establecer cuáles eran las metas irrenunciables de segundo, cuál era el perfil de alumno que debería egresar del Bloque sabiendo que no existen los alumnos “ideales” sino alumnos “reales” que tendrían que alcanzar las metas propuestas por el profesor y acordadas conjuntamente con ellos. También procuramos identificar los intereses y las problemáticas de nuestros alumnos para poder lograr un punto de encuentro que permitiese el ingreso, la permanencia y el egreso significativo de todos ellos. Cabe aclarar que, para la mayoría de los alumnos, segundo año es el primer contacto que tienen con el idioma francés.Colegio Nacional "Rafael Hernández

A cross-sectional study evaluating hospitalization rates for chronic limb-threatening ischemia during the COVID-19 outbreak in Campania, Italy

The expansion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prompted measures of disease containment by the Italian government with a national lockdown on March 9, 2020. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rate of hospitalization and mode of in-hospital treatment of patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) before and during lockdown in the Campania region of Italy. The study population includes all patients with CLTI hospitalized in Campania over a 10-week period: 5 weeks before and 5 weeks during lockdown (n = 453). Patients were treated medically and/or underwent urgent revascularization and/or major amputation of the lower extremities. Mean age was 69.2 +/- 10.6 years and 27.6% of the patients were women. During hospitalization, 21.9% of patients were treated medically, 78.1% underwent revascularization, and 17.4% required amputations. In the weeks during the lockdown, a reduced rate of hospitalization for CLTI was observed compared with the weeks before lockdown (25 vs 74/100,000 inhabitants/year; incidence rate ratio: 0.34, 95% CI 0.32-0.37). This effect persisted to the end of the study period. An increased amputation rate in the weeks during lockdown was observed (29.3% vs 13.4%; p < 0.001). This study reports a reduced rate of CLTI-related hospitalization and an increased in-hospital amputation rate during lockdown in Campania. Ensuring appropriate treatment for patients with CLTI should be prioritized, even during disease containment measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other similar conditions

Colitis during new direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) therapy with sofosbuvir, simeprevir and ribavirin for genotype 1b hepatitis C

Since 2014 several direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have been made available, allowing interferon-free antiviral treatments with high sustained virological response rates. Side effects are, however, a real challenge during treatment. Sarkar et al. recently published a case of colitis following initiation of sofosbuvir and simeprevir for genotype 1 hepatitis C. We report the case of a patient with no prior history of inflammatory bowel disease, who developed significant bloody diarrhea within 3 weeks of sofosbuvir/simeprevir/ribavirin initiation. Colonoscopy and biopsy suggested a drug-induced colitis

Cognitive dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: can we predict it?

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the degeneration of both upper and lower motoneurons in the brain and spinal cord leading to motor and extra-motor symptoms. Although traditionally considered a pure motor disease, recent evidences suggest that ALS is a multisystem disorder. Neuropsychological alterations, in fact, are observed in more than 50% of patients: while executive dysfunctions have been firstly identified, alterations in verbal fluency, behavior, and pragmatic and social cognition have also been described. Detecting and monitoring ALS cognitive and behavioral impairment even at early disease stages is likely to have staging and prognostic implications, and it may impact the enrollment in future clinical trials. During the last 10 years, humoral, radiological, neurophysiological, and genetic biomarkers have been reported in ALS, and some of them seem to potentially correlate to cognitive and behavioral impairment of patients. In this review, we sought to give an up-to-date state of the art of neuropsychological alterations in ALS: we will describe tests used to detect cognitive and behavioral impairment, and we will focus on promising non-invasive biomarkers to detect pre-clinical cognitive decline

Intestinal, Systemic, and Oral Gluten-related Alterations in Patients With Nonceliac Gluten Sensitivity

Background: Nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is an emergent condition, the framework of which is yet unclear, whereas the diagnosis is suggested only by gluten-dependent symptoms after excluding wheat allergy and celiac disease (CD). Our goal was to highlight intestinal, systemic, and oral alterations to clarify the NCGS pathogenesis and identify new diagnostic tools. Study: A total of 60 NCGS patients, 20 untreated CD, 20 treated CD, and 20 healthy volunteers were recruited. The differential diagnosis among gluten-related disorders was performed by serological, allergy, and histologic tools. NCGS patients were also subjected to antigliadin antibody (AGA) detection and HLA typing. All participants underwent an oral mucosa patch test for gluten (GOMPT), whereas an oral provocation test (OPT) for gluten was performed in 26 NCGS patients. Results: About 6/60 (10%) NCGS patients showed IgG AGA-positive results, whereas 45/60 (75%) patients carried HLA-DQ2 and/or HLA-DQ8 genes. GOMPT showed positive results in 45/60 (75%) NCGS patients, 3/20 (15%) untreated CD patients, 5/20 (25%) treated CD patients, and in no healthy volunteers. No significant difference was found between the severity of symptoms reported by NCGS patients subjected to OPT with gluten-containing croissants and those who underwent OPT with gluten-free croissants. Conclusions: GOMPT seems to be a specific tool for NCGS diagnosis, although further investigations are needed to overcome limits due to the small population studied and to contextualize GOMPT false-positive results

Lamivudine 24-month-long prophylaxis is a safe and efficient choice for the prevention of hepatitis B virus reactivation in HBsAg-negative/HBcAb-positive patients with advanced DLBCL undergoing upfront R-CHOP-21

Introduction: Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is a condition where replication-competent hepatitis B virus-DNA (HBV-DNA) is present in the liver, with or without HBV-DNA in the blood [<200 international units (IU)/ml or absent] in HB surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative/HB core antibody (HBcAb)-positive individuals. In patients with advanced stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) undergoing 6 cycles of R-CHOP-21+2 additional R, OBI reactivation is a frequent and severe complication. There is no consensus among recent guidelines on whether a pre-emptive approach or primary antiviral prophylaxis is the best solution in this setting of patients. In addition, questions still unresolved are the type of prophylactic drug against HBV and adequate prophylaxis duration. Methods: In this case-cohort study, we compared a prospective series of 31 HBsAg-/HBcAb+ patients with newly diagnosed high-risk DLBCL receiving lamivudine (LAM) prophylaxis 1 week before R-CHOP-21+2R until 18 months after (24-month LAM series) versus 96 HBsAg-/HBcAb+ patients (from January 2005 to December 2011) undergoing a pre-emptive approach (pre-emptive cohort) and versus 60 HBsAg-/HBcAb+ patients, from January 2012 to December 2017, receiving LAM prophylaxis [1 week before immunochemotherapy (ICHT) start until 6 months after] (12-month LAM cohort). Efficacy analysis focused primarily on ICHT disruption and secondarily on OBI reactivation and/or acute hepatitis. Results: In the 24-month LAM series and in the 12-month LAM cohort, there were no episodes of ICHT disruption versus 7% in the pre-emptive cohort (P = 0.05). OBI reactivation did not occur in any of the 31 patients in the 24-month LAM series versus 7 out of 60 patients (10%) in the 12-month LAM cohort or 12 out of 96 (12%) patients in the pre-emptive cohort (P = 0.04, by χ 2 test). No patients in the 24-month LAM series developed acute hepatitis compared with three in the 12-month LAM cohort and six in the pre-emptive cohort. Discussion: This is the first study collecting data regarding a consistent and homogeneous large sample of 187 HBsAg-/HBcAb+ patients undergoing standard R-CHOP-21 for aggressive lymphoma. In our study, 24-month-long prophylaxis with LAM appears to be the most effective approach with a null risk of OBI reactivation, hepatitis flare-up, and ICHT disruption

hERG1 behaves as biomarker of progression to adenocarcinoma in Barrett's esophagus and can be exploited for a novel endoscopic surveillance

Barrett's esophagus (BE) is the only well-known precursor lesion of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA). The exact estimates of the annual progression rate from BE to EA vary from 0.07% to 3.6%. The identification of BE patients at higher risk to progress to EA is hence mandatory, although difficult to accomplish. In search of novel BE biomarkers we analyzed the efficacy of hERG1 potassium channels in predicting BE progression to EA. Once tested by immunohistochemistry (IHC) on bioptic samples, hERG1 was expressed in BE, and its expression levels increased during progression from BE to esophageal dysplasia (ED) and EA. hERG1 was also over-expressed in the metaplastic cells arising in BE lesions obtained in different BE mouse models, induced either surgically or chemically. Furthermore, transgenic mice which over express hERG1 in the whole gastrointestinal tract, developed BE lesions after an esophago-jejunal anastomosis more frequently, compared to controls. A case-control study was performed on 104 bioptic samples from newly diagnosed BE patients further followed up for at least 10 years. It emerged a statistically significant association between hERG1 expression status and risk of progression to EA. Finally, a novel fluorophore- conjugated recombinant single chain variable fragment antibody (scFv-hERG1-Alexa488) was tested on freshly collected live BE biopsies: it could recognize hERG1 positive samples, perfectly matching IHC data.Overall, hERG1 can be considered a novel BE biomarker to be exploited for a novel endoscopic surveillance protocol, either in biopsies or through endoscopy, to identify those BE patients with higher risk to progress to EA