Is Black Always the Opposite of White? An Investigation on the Comprehension of Antonyms in People with Schizophrenia and in Healthy Participants

The present investigation sought to expand our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying the recognition of antonyms and to evaluate whether these processes differed in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy controls. Antonymy is the most robust of the lexico-semantic relations and is relevant to both the mental organization of the lexicon and the organization of coherent discourse, as attested by the resurgence of interest in antonymy in the linguistic and psychological domains. In contrast, the vast literature on semantic processing in schizophrenia almost ignored antonymy. In this study, we tested the online comprehension of antonyms in 39 Italian patients with paranoid schizophrenia and in an equal number of pairwise-matched healthy controls. Participants read a definitional sentence fragment (e.g., the opposite of black is), followed by the correct antonym (white) or by a semantically unrelated word (nice), and judged whether or not the target word was correct. Patients were rather accurate in identifying antonyms, but compared to controls, they showed longer response times and higher priming scores, suggesting an exaggerated contextual facilitation. Presumably, this reflects a deficient controlled semantic processing and an overreliance on stored semantic representation

Is the comprehension of idiomatic sentences indeed impaired in paranoid Schizophrenia? A window into semantic processing deficits

Schizophrenia patients have been reported to be more impaired in comprehending non-literal than literal language since early studies on proverbs. Preference for literal rather than figurative interpretations continues to be documented. The main aim of this study was to establish whether patients are indeed able to use combinatorial semantic processing to comprehend literal sentences and both combinatorial analysis, and retrieval of pre-stored meanings to comprehend idiomatic sentences. The study employed a sentence continuation task in which subjects were asked to decide whether a target word was a sensible continuation of a previous sentence fragment to investigate idiomatic and literal sentence comprehension in patients with paranoid schizophrenia. Patients and healthy controls were faster in accepting sensible continuations than in rejecting non-sensible ones in both literal and idiomatic sentences. Patients were as accurate as controls in comprehending literal and idiomatic sentences, but they were overall slower than controls in all conditions. Once the contribution of cognitive covariates was partialled out, the response times (RTs) to sensible idiomatic continuations of patients did not significantly differ from those of controls. This suggests that the state of residual schizophrenia did not contribute to slower processing of sensible idioms above and beyond the cognitive deficits that are typically associated with schizophrenia

GERIATRIC NEPHROLOGY: AN OVERVIEW

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a highly prevalent condition and its prevalence is increasing worldwide, particularly in adults aged ≥ 70 years. Epidemiological studies showed that as many as 20–54% of the older adults suffer from CKD in stages 3-5. Nevertheless the question whether this lower eGFR is a consequence of kidney disease or if it is the result of a physiological aging is still debated, even if it implies a reduced renal reserve and vulnerability to drugs overdose with increased risk of acute kidney injury (AKI). Materials and methods: PubMed search was conducted for available English literature, describing the actual knowledge about specific and frequent issues reported in the acute and chronic kidney disease in older adults. Prospective and retrospective studies, as well as meta-analyses and latest systematic reviews were included. Results:Most of the studies examined and reviewed were discarded for wrong population or intervention or deemed unfit. Only 103 met the inclusion criteria for the review. The studies included in the review were grouped into two areas: chronic and acute kidney disease in older adults and we have analysed the peculiar and frequently found issues in this population. Conclusions: The geriatric population is increasing worldwide.We should consider peculiar aspects of this population, such as sarcopenia, malnutrition, psychological and cognitive deficits and increased risk of AKI, in order to reach a good quality of life, with improved doctor / patient relationship, a greater adherence to therapy, a reduction in health care costs, and if possible, adequate "end of life", as far as it is approved by the patient and his family. The achievement of these objectives requires an organized work in multidisciplinary teams that evaluate overall the geriatric patient

Infertility in Fabry's disease: role of hypoxia and inflammation in determining testicular damage

Fabry’s disease (FD) is a genetic X-linked systemic and progressive rare disease, which is characterized by the accumulation of glycolipid bodies (GB) into the lysosomes of almost all cell types and consequently by a multiform clinical picture. Here we studied testicular biopsies of a 42 ys old FD patient, presenting infertility with a reduced number of spermatozoa and preserved sexual activity. Testicular biopsies have been analyzed by optical microscopy (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). OM, showed a severe involvement of testis interstitium blood vessels with reduced or closed lumen, an increased of connective tissue, and a substantial thicketing of peritubular region. TEM, showed that GB were abundant in vessel wall cells and in myofibroblast of the peritubular region. In contrast with literature reports, Leydig cells were constantly unaffected by GB accumulation showing well-preserved ultrastructural organization. On the contrary, tubular cells, although not affected by GB accumulation, appeared severely damaged. These data led us to hypothesize that the diffusion of oxygen and nutrients from the blood to tubules could be impaired. To test this hypothesis we explored, by immunofluorescence (IF) and molecular biology (MB) coupled to laser capture microdissection (LCMD), the activation of HIF/NFkB pathway. IF showed increased signal for HIF1a in all stromal components, while it appeared almost absent in seminiferous tubules. On the contrary, NFkB fluorescence was evident in tubules. mRNA of tubular and interstitial tissue fractions, separately extracted by LCMD, confirms that HIF1a and hypoxic-related genes such as alarmin recepters (RAGE, TLR4) were overexpressed in the interstitial cells. At the same time, NFkB and a number of proinflammatory genes such as HMOX1, PTGES, SAA1-SAA2 were up-regulated in the tubule microenvironment. Taken together, these results suggest that the GB accumulation in the interstitium, reducing vessel lumen and increasing the distance between vessel and tubular cells, leads to chronic progressive hypoxia. Hypoxia has two effects: 1) Necrosis of cells more distant from vessels, especially germinative epithelium, and Sertoli cells, releasing alarmins; 2) Adaptation to low levels of O2, with activation of HIF1a. In both cases, strong activation of NFkB occurs that trigger a inflammatory response (IR). We suggest a role for the IR activation in determining intratubular cells damage and consequently, infertility in FD

Morphologic and genic effects of waste pollution on the reproductive physiology of Paracentrotus lividus lmk: a mesocosm experiment

: A considerable amount of coastal contamination is caused by wastes deriving from household and the degradation and the metabolism of plants and animals, even if our attention is commonly focused on industrial pollutants and contaminants. Waste pollutants are mainly represented by highly diluted soluble compounds and particles deriving from dead organisms. This complex combination, consisting of suspended particles and dissolved nutrients, has a significant impact on coastal planktonic and benthic organisms, also playing an active role in the global cycles of carbon. In addition, production practices are nowadays shifting towards recirculated aquaculture systems (RAS) and the genic responses of target organisms to the pollution deriving from animal metabolism are still scarcely addressed by scientific investigations. The reservoir of organic matter dissolved in the seawater is by far the least understood if compared to that on land, cause only a few compounds have been identified and their impacts on animals and plants are poorly understood. The tendency of these compounds to concentrate at interfaces facilitates the absorption of dissolved organic compound (DOC) onto suspended particles. Some DOC components are chemically combined with dissolved metals and form complexes, affecting the chemical properties of the seawater and the life of the coastal biota. In this research, we compared the reproductive performances of the common sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus cultured in open-cycle tanks to those cultured in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), where pollution progressively increased during the experiment due to animal escretions. Sea urchins were cultured for 7 months under these two conditions and their gametes were collected. Embryos resulting by in vitro fertilization were analyzed by Real Time qPCR to identify possible effects of pollution-induced stress. The fertility of sea urchins was evaluated, as well as the gonadosomatic indices and the histological features of gonads. Our results indicate that pollution due to excess of nutrients, event at sub-lethal concentrations, may hardly impact the reproductive potential of this key species and that chronic effects of stress are revealed by the analyses of survival rates and gene expression

Effects of mental fatigue on reaction time in sportsmen

Mental fatigue (MF) has been defined as a psychobiological state commonly caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. However, the differences between women and men in their reaction times (RTs) to visual stimuli due to mental fatigue remain largely unknown. We compare the differences in RT and heart rate after an acute intervention of mental fatigue between male and female athletes

The role of temperature on the impact of remediated water towards marine organisms

Marine organisms are frequently exposed to pollutants, including trace metals, derived from natural and anthropogenic activities. In order to prevent environmental pollution, di erent approaches have been applied to remove pollutants from waste water and avoid their discharge into aquatic systems. However, organisms in their natural aquatic environments are also exposed to physico-chemical changes derived from climate change-related factors, including temperature increase. According to recent studies, warming has a negative impact on marine wildlife, with known e ects on organisms physiological and biochemical performance. Recently, a material based on graphene oxide (GO) functionalized with polyethyleneimine (PEI) proved to be e ective in the remediation of mercury (Hg) contaminated water. Nevertheless, no information is available on the toxic impacts of such remediated water towards aquatic systems, neither under actual nor predicted temperature conditions. For this, the present study assessed the toxicity of seawater, previously contaminated with Hg and remediated by GO-PEI, using the clam species Ruditapes philippinarum exposed to actual and a predicted temperature conditions. The results obtained demonstrated that seawater contaminated with Hg and/or Hg+GO-PEI induced higher toxicity in clams exposed to 17 and 22 C compared to organisms exposed to remediated seawater at the same temperatures. Moreover, similar histological and biochemical results were observed between organisms exposed to control and remediated seawater, independently of the temperatures (17 and 21 C), highlighting the potential use of GO-PEI to remediate Hg from seawater without significant toxicity issues to the selected marine species.publishe

Effects of temperature on caffeine and carbon nanotubes co-exposure in Ruditapes philippinarum

In the marine environment, organisms are exposed to a high and increasing number of different con- taminants that can interact among them. In addition, abiotic factors can change the dynamics between contaminants and organisms, thus increasing or even decreasing the toxic effect of a particular com- pound. In this study, the effects of caffeine (CAF) and functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f- MWCNTs) induced in the clam Ruditapes philippinarum were evaluated, acting alone and in combination (MIX), under two temperature levels (18 and 21 C). To assess the impact of such compounds, their interaction and the possible influence of temperature, biochemical and histopathological markers were investigated. The effects of f-MWCNTs and caffeine appear to be clearly negative at the control tem- perature, with lower protein content in contaminated clams and a significant decrease in their meta- bolism when both pollutants were acting in combination. Also, at control temperature, clams exposed to pollutants showed increased antioxidant capacity, especially when caffeine was acting alone, although cellular damages were still observed at CAF and f-MWCNTs treatments. Increased biotransformation capacity at 18 C and MIX treatment may explain lower caffeine concentration observed. At increased temperature differences among treatments were not so evident as at 18 C, with a similar biological pattern among contaminated and control clams. Higher caffeine accumulation at MIX treatment under warming conditions may result from clams’ inefficient biotransformation capacity when exposed to increased temperatures