Hospitalization for pneumonia and risk of cardiovascular disease

Hospitalization for Pneumoniaand Risk of Cardiovascular Diseas

Phonetic Detail in Intonation Contour Dynamics

National audienceThe Autosegmental-Metrical theory of intonation investigates the relationship between f0 contours and post-lexical meaning. Phonetic data are represented in the phonology as a sequence of discrete, local events. The properties of the transitions between one event and the next are considered to be phonologically irrelevant (§1). We present data on Neapolitan Italian which show a significant correlation between the shape of these transitions and the pragmatic context in which a sentence is uttered. This correlation is stronger than the one displayed by traditional autosegmental-metrical indices (§2 and §3). In the conclusions, we discuss the usefulness of our findings as a step towards the finetuning of the autosegmental-metrical theory (§4)

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

"No duration without intonation": The interplay of lexical and post-lexical durational differences

Current research in typology has shown that durational effects at the phonetic level can have a profound impact on vowel length. Quantity languages, for instance, often display constraints on final lengthening in order to maintain contrasts between short and long vowels. We contribute to this typology by considering two closely-related Italo-Romance varieties, Genoese and Ventimigliese, which differ in one crucial feature: vowel length. According to the literature, quantity contrasts should be well-attested in Genoese but not in Ventimigliese. An acoustic analysis based on the duration of stressed syllables suggests that the two varieties may be different not so much in vowel length as in their intonation. Unlike Genoese, Ventimigliese displays longer syllables in the utterance-internal than in the final position. This could be due to the pressure of the Ventimigliese utterance-internal position to adjust to a higher F0. It remains to be seen whether this is due to differences in tone structure. All in all, we claim that only a comprehensive study of prosody and intonation can enlighten durational patterns in language typology

On the prosodic marking of contrast in Romance sentence topic: evidence from Neapolitan Italian

International audienceIn this paper we present data in Neapolitan Italian that show a clear phonological difference in intonation between a clitic left dislocated object topic in an exhaustive answer and in a partial answer. In the latter, the topic expression is set aside in its own prosodic phrase, made of a rising accent (H*) followed by a !H- boundary tone. An exhaustive answer does not show such phrasing pattern. The finding of a 'partial' tune in Romance provides a solution to the pragmatic problem of defining sentence topic by supporting a bi-dimensional model of Information Structure

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar- based approaches to prosody. Trough four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody. About the Author: Francesco Cangemi Francesco Cangemi (1983) studied Literature and Philology in Naples, completing his undergraduate studies with a published MA dissertation on vowel systems in southern Italian dialects. After receiving his PhD in Linguistics from Aix-Marseille University with a thesis on underspecification in prosodic categories, he is currently working as a post-doc researcher in Cologne, focussing on the encoding and decoding of linguistic prominence, and in Zürich, focussing on morphosyntactic agreement in Italian dialects

Extra virgin olive oil use is associated with improved post-prandial blood glucose and LDL cholesterol in healthy subjects

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a key component of the Mediterranean diet and seems to account for the protective effect against cardiovascular disease. However, the underlying mechanism is still elusive

Similar reduction of cholesterol-adjusted Vitamin E serum levels in simple steatosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

OBJECTIVES: Reduced vitamin E levels have been reported in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but no conclusive data on patients with simple steatosis (SS) are available. Aim of this study was to investigate the association betweenserum vitamin E levels and SS. METHODS: A cohort of 312 patients with cardio-metabolic risk factors was screened for liver steatosis by ultrasonography (US). We reasonably classified as SS patients with US-fatty liver, normal liver function tests (LFTs) and with Cytokeratin 18 o246 mIU/ml. Liver biopsy was performed in 41 patients with US-fatty liver and persistent elevation of LFTs (46 months). Serum cholesterol-adjusted vitamin E (Vit E/chol) levels were measured. RESULTS: Mean age was 53.9±12.5 years and 38.4% were women. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was detected at US in 244 patients; of those 39 had biopsy-proven NASH and 2 borderline NASH. Vit E/chol was reduced in both SS (3.4±2.0, Po0.001), and NASH (3.5±2.1, P=0.006) compared with non-NAFLD patients (4.8±2.0 μmol/mmol chol). No difference was found between SS and NASH (P=0.785). After excluding patients with NASH, a multivariable logistic regression analysis found that Vit E/chol (odds ratio (OR): 0.716, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.602–0.851, Po0.001), alanine aminotransferase (ALT, OR: 1.093, 95% CI 1.029–1.161, P=0.004), body mass index (OR: 1.162, 95% CI 1.055–1.279, P=0.002) and metabolic syndrome (OR: 5.725, 95% CI 2.247–14.591, Po0.001) were factors independently associated with the presence of SS. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced vitamin E serum levels are associated with SS, with a similar reduction between patients with SS and NASH, compared with non-NAFLD patients. Our findings suggest that the potential benefit of vitamin E supplementation should be investigated also in patients with SS