Preliminary testing using Mokken scaling of an Italian translation of the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED-I) scale

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Purpose: To study the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED-I) Scale. Background: The EdFED Scale is the only validated instrument that measures difficulty with feeding in older people with dementia. The original English version of the EdFED had three factors measuring: behavioral aspects of feeding difficulty (obstinacy/passivity); indicators of feeding difficulty; and nursing interventions. Methods: Participants affected by dementia and living in nursing homes (n = 210) were selected. Data collectors were trained to observe the residents' eating problems and their food intake. The data were analyzed using Mokken scaling and Pearson's correlation. Results: The Italian version of the EdFED Scale formed a Mokken scale which correlated in the expected direction with measures of residents' weight, Body Mass Index, time taken to eat, Mini Mental State Examination score and Barthel Index according to the unmet needs model of Cohen-Mansfield. Conclusions: The EdFED-I shows reasonable psychometric properties and can be used for the assessment of feeding difficulty in Italian samples of older people with dementia. However, further work with larger samples is required to test the utility of the whole range of items and the necessity of their inclusion in the EdFED-I

Effects of animacy on the processing of morphological Number: a cognitive inheritance?

Language encodes into morphology part of the information present in the referential world. Some features are marked in the great majority of languages, such as the numerosity of the referents that is encoded in morphological Number. Other features do not surface as frequently in morphological markings, yet they are pervasive in natural languages. This is the case of animacy, that can ground Gender systems as well as constrain the surfacing of Number. The diffusion of numerosity and animacy could mirror their biological salience at the extra-linguistic cognitive level. Human extra-linguistic numerical abilities are phylogenetically ancient and are observed in non-human animal species, especially when counting salient animate entities such as social companions. Does the saliency of animacy influence the morphological encoding of Number in language processing? We designed an experiment to test the encoding of morphological Number in language processing in relation to animacy. In Italian, Gender and Number are mandatorily expressed in a fusional morpheme. In some nouns denoting animate referents, Gender encodes the sex of referents and is semantically interpretable. In some other animate nouns and in inanimate nouns, Gender is uninterpretable at the semantic level. We found that it is easier to inflect for Number nouns when the inflectional morpheme is interpretable with respect to a semantic feature related to animacy. We discuss the possibility that the primacy of animacy in counting is mirrored in morphological processing and that morphology is designed to easily express information that is salient from a cognitive point of view

One can be some but some cannot be one: ERP correlates of numerosity incongruence are different for singular and plural

Humans can communicate information on numerosity by means of number words (e.g., one hundred, a couple), but also through Number morphology (e.g., through the singular vs the plural forms of a noun). Agreement violations involving Number morphology (e.g., *one apples) are well known to elicit specific ERP components such as the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN); yet, the relationship between a morphological Number value (e.g., singular vs plural) and its referential numerosity has rarely been considered in the literature. Moreover, even if agreement violations have been proven to be very useful, they do not typically characterise everyday language usage, thus narrowing the scope of the results. In this study we investigated Number morphology from a different perspective, by focusing on the ERP correlates of congruence and incongruence between a depicted numerosity and noun phrases. To this aim we designed a picture\u2013phrase matching paradigm in Italian. In each trial, a picture depicting one or four objects was followed by a grammatically well-formed phrase made up of a quantifier and a content noun inflected either in the singular or in the plural. When analysing ERP time-locked to the content noun, plural phrases after pictures presenting one object elicited a larger negativity, similar to a LAN effect. No significant congruence effect was found in the case of the phrases whose morphological Number value conveyed a numerosity of one. Our results suggest that: 1) incongruence elicits a LAN-like negativity independently from the grammaticality of the utterances and irrespectively of the P600 component; 2) the reference to a numerosity can be partially encoded in an incremental way when processing Number morphology; and, most importantly, 3) the processing of the morphological Number value of plural is different from that of singular as the former shows a narrower interpretability than the latter

Peripersonal Space from a multisensory perspective: the distinct effect of the visual and tactile components of Visuo-Tactile stimuli

: Peripersonal Space (PPS) is defined as the space close to the body where all interactions between the individual and the environment take place. Behavioural experiments on PPS exploit multisensory integration, using Multisensory Visuo-Tactile stimuli (MVT), whose visual and tactile components target the same body part (i.e. the face, the hand, the foot). However, the effects of visual and tactile stimuli targeting different body parts on PPS representation are unknown, and the relationship with the RTs for Tactile-Only stimuli is unclear. In this study, we addressed two research questions: (1) if the MVT-RTs are independent of Tactile-Only-RTs and if the latter is influenced by time-dependency effects, and (2) if PPS estimations derived from MVT-RTs depend on the location of the Visual or Tactile component of MVTs. We studied 40 right-handed participants, manipulating the body location (right hand, cheek or foot) and the distance of administration. Visual and Tactile components targeted different or the same body parts and were delivered respectively at five distances. RTs to Tactile-Only trials showed a non-monotonic trend, depending on the delay of stimulus administration. Moreover, RTs to Multisensory Visuo-Tactile trials were found to be dependent on the Distance and location of the Visual component of the stimulus. In conclusion, our results show that Tactile-Only RTs should be removed from Visuo-Tactile RTs and that the Visual and Tactile components of Visuo-Tactile stimuli do not necessarily have to target the same body part. These results have a relevant impact on the study of PPS representations, providing new important methodological information

Lexical categories or frequency effects? A feedback from quantitative methods applied to psycholinguistic models in two studies on Italian

Abstract English. We examined two issues concerning Italian Number morphology: the phenomena related to mass and count nouns and to the plural dominance. By taking into account quantitative data from corpora and subjective frequency ratings in three mixed effect models, we found that differences in participants' performance in two lexical decision tasks could be better captured as differences in frequency rather than in terms of effects of lexical categories. Italiano. In questo studio sono stati posti a confronto due fenomeni pertinenti alla morfologia nominale di Numero in italiano: la contabilità dei nomi e la dominanza plurale. Integrando i dati quantitativi provenienti dai corpora e da due studi di rating in un'analisi statistica condotta tramite modelli a effetti misti, risulta che le differenze nella prestazione dei partecipanti in due studi di decisione lessicale sono riconducibili a effetti di frequenza piuttosto che alla presenza di tratti lessicali categoriali

The use of roflumilast in COPD: a review

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Chronic inflammation and exacerbations play a central role in the progression of the disease. Currently, treatment options for COPD have been shown to improve the progressive decline in lung-function and/or decrease mortality rates. Roflumilast, a phosphodiesterase- 4 inhibitor, is an anti-inflammatory drug which has been licensed as an add-on therapy for COPD patients with forced expiratory volume in the first second <50% and frequent exacerbations. Clinical trials have demonstrated that roflumilast improves lung function and reduces exacerbation frequency. Roflumilast has a mechanism of action which allows it to obtain a significant additive effect to current therapeutic options for COPD patients. It is generally well tolerated, although the most common adverse effects include diarrhea, nausea, weight loss, and headache. This review article provides an overview of the positive effects of roflumilast on lung function, exacerbation frequency and glucose metabolism, and its interaction with concomitant inhaled treatments

Size resolved aerosol respiratory doses in a Mediterranean urban area: From PM10 to ultrafine particles

In the framework of the 2017 "carbonaceous aerosol in Rome and Environs" (CARE) experiment, particle number size distributions have been continuously measured on February 2017 in downtown Rome. These data have been used to estimate, through MPPD model, size and time resolved particle mass, surface area and number doses deposited into the respiratory system. Dosimetry estimates are presented for PM10, PM2.5, PM1 and Ultrafine Particles (UFPs), in relation to the aerosol sources peculiar to the Mediterranean basin and to the atmospheric conditions. Particular emphasis is focused on UFPs and their fraction deposited on the olfactory bulb, in view of their possible translocation to the brain. The site of PM10 deposition within the respiratory system considerably changes, depending on the aerosol sources and then on its different size distributions. On making associations between health endpoints and aerosol mass concentrations, the relevant coarse and fine fractions would be more properly adopted, because they have different sources, different capability of penetrating deep into the respiratory system and different toxicological implications. The separation between them should be set at 1ʵm, rather than at 2.5ʵm, because the fine fraction is considerably less affected by the contribution of the natural sources. Mass dose is a suitable metric to describe coarse aerosol events but gives a poor representation of combustion aerosol. This fraction of particles, made of UFPs and of accumulation mode particles (mainly with size below 0.2ʵm), is of high health relevance. It elicited the highest oxidative activity in the CARE experiment and is properly described by the particle surface area and by the number metrics. Such metrics are even more relevant for the UFP doses deposited on the olfactory bulb, in consideration of the role recognized to oxidative stress in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Such metrics would be more appropriate, rather than PMx mass concentrations, to correlate neurodegenerative pathologies with aerosol pollution

A comparison between different methods to fill gaps in early precipitation series

The aim of this work is to analyse and compare different methodologies to fill gaps in early precipitation series, and to evaluate which time resolution is reachable, i.e. monthly or daily one. The following methods are applied and tested to fill the 1764–1767 gap in the precipitation series of Padua: (1) using a relationship between monthly amounts and frequencies; (2) transforming a daily log with visual observations into numerical values through analysis, classification, and calibration; (3) substituting the missing values with an instrumental record from a nearby, contemporary station in the same climatic area. To apply the second method, the descriptions reported in the Morgagni Logs are grouped in 37 classes and transformed into numerical values, using for calibration the observed amounts in the Poleni record over the 24-year common period. As a third method, the series of Temanza and Pollaroli in Venice is used to fill the gap, and the application of a factor scale based on the ratio Padua/Venice tempted. The results of these three methods are discussed and commented

Three centuries of daily precipitation in Padua, Italy, 1713–2018: history, relocations, gaps, homogeneity and raw data

Long instrumental records are fundamental to study climate changes, but their reliability and quality have to be checked before any statistical research. Moreover, when metadata are used to solve some problems, data interpretation may change and require further work to refine the series. A thorough revision of the three-century precipitation series in Padua (1713–2018) shows that the results of previous analyses were affected by serious biases. This paper clarifies key features concerning early instruments, exposure, relocation and observational protocols. The daily analysis pointed out a number of problems, bias, irregular sampling and underestimations that have passed unobserved so far. A comparison with the parallel series of Bologna and Venice made it possible to distinguish bias from the climate signal or to reconstruct missing data. The instrumental threshold was recognized to be fundamental to determine the frequency of precipitation, but less important with respect to its amount. This paper provides a methodological example to test the goodness of long instrumental series, in particular to identify problems related to metadata and observations, which is the preliminary step to perform a sound correction and obtain a reliable series. It also includes the set of original raw data, transformed into modern units

One can be some but some cannot be one: ERP correlates of numerosity incongruence are different for singular and plural

Humans can communicate information on numerosity by means of number words (e.g. one hundred, a couple), but also through Number morphology (e.g. through the singular vs. the plural forms of a noun). Agreement violations involving Number morphology (e.g. *one apples) are well known to elicit specific ERP components such as the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN); yet, the relationship between a morphological Number value (e.g. singular vs. plural) and its referential numerosity has been scantly considered in the literature. Moreover, even if agreement violations have been proved very useful, they do not typically characterise the everyday language usage, thus narrowing the scope of the results. In this study we investigated Number morphology from a different perspective, by focusing on the ERP correlates of congruence and incongruence between a depicted numerosity and noun phrases. To this aim we designed a picture–phrase matching paradigm in Italian. In each trial, a picture depicting one or four objects was followed by a grammatical phrase made up of a quantifier and a content noun inflected either in the singular or in the plural. When analysing ERP time-locked to the content noun, plural phrases after pictures presenting one object elicited a larger negativity, similar to a LAN effect. No significant congruence effect was found in the case of the phrases whose morphological Number value conveyed a numerosity of one. Considering the LAN as an index of morpho-syntactic incongruence, these results suggest that 1) LAN-like effects can be triggered independently from the grammaticality of the utterances and irrespective the P600 component; 2) the reference to a numerosity can be partially encoded in an incremental way when processing Number morphology; and, most importantly, 3) the processing of the morphological Number value of plural is different from that of singular as the former shows a narrower interpretability than the latter