An acoustic investigation of the developmental trajectory of lexical stress contrastivity in Italian

We examined whether typically developing Italian children exhibit adult-like stress contrastivity for word productions elicited via a picture naming task (n=25 children aged 3\u20135 years and 27 adults). Stimuli were 10 trisyllabic Italian words; half began with a weak\u2013strong (WS) pattern of lexical stress across the initial 2 syllables, as in patata, while the other half began with a strong\u2013weak (SW) pattern, as in gomito. Word productions that were identified as correct via perceptual judgement were analysed acoustically. The initial 2 syllables of each correct word production were analysed in terms of the duration, peak intensity, and peak fundamental frequency of the vowels using a relative measure of contrast\u2014the normalised pairwise variability index (PVI). Results across the majority of measures showed that children\u2019s stress contrastivity was adult-like. However, the data revealed that children\u2019s contrastivity for trisyllabic words beginning with a WS pattern was not adult-like regarding the PVI for vowel duration: children showed less contrastivity than adults. This effect appeared to be driven by differences in word-medial gemination between children and adults. Results are compared with data from a recent acoustic study of stress contrastivity in English speaking children and adults and discussed in relation to language-specific and physiological motor-speech constraints on production

When orthography is not enough: the effect of lexical stress in lexical decision.

Three lexical decision experiments were carried out in Italian, in order to verify if stress dominance (the most frequent stress type) and consistency (the proportion and number of existent words sharing orthographic ending and stress pattern) had an effect on polysyllabic word recognition. Two factors were manipulated: whether the target word carried stress on the penultimate (dominant; graNIta, seNIle 'slush, senile') or on the antepenultimate (non-dominant) syllable (MISsile, BIbita 'missile, drink'), and whether the stress neighborhood was consistent (graNIta, MISsile) or inconsistent (seNIle, BIbita) with the word\u2019s stress pattern. In Experiment 1 words were mixed with nonwords sharing the word endings, which made words and nonwords more similar to each other. In Experiment 2 words and nonwords were presented in lists blocked for stress pattern. In Experiment 3 we used a new set of nonwords, which included endings with (stress) ambiguous neighborhoods and/or with low number of neighbors, and which were overall less similar to words. In all three experiments there was an advantage for words with penultimate (dominant) stress, and no main effect of stress neighborhood. However, the dominant stress advantage decreased in Experiments 2 and 3. Finally, in Experiment 4 the same materials used in Experiment 1 were also used in a reading aloud task, showing a significant consistency effect, but no dominant stress advantage. The influence of stress information in Italian word recognition is discussed

The transcription factors BEL1 and SPL are required for cytokinin and auxin signaling during ovule development in Arabidopsis

Hormones, such as auxin and cytokinin, are involved in the complex molecular network that regulates the coordinated development of plant organs. Genes controlling ovule patterning have been identified and studied in detail; however, the roles of auxin and cytokinin in ovule development are largely unknown. Here we show that key cytokinin pathway genes, such as isopentenyltransferase and cytokinin receptors, are expressed during ovule development. Also, in a cre1-12 ahk2-2 ahk3-3 triple mutant with severely reduced cytokinin perception, expression of the auxin efflux facilitator PIN-FORMED 1 (PIN1) was severely reduced. In sporocyteless/nozzle (spl/nzz) mutants, which show a similar phenotype to the cre1-12 ahk2-2 ahk3-3 triple mutant, PIN1 expression is also reduced. Treatment with the exogenous cytokinin N-6-benzylaminopurine also altered both auxin distribution and patterning of the ovule; this process required the homeodomain transcription factor BELL1 (BEL1). Thus, this article shows that cytokinin regulates ovule development through the regulation of PIN1. Furthermore, the transcription factors BEL1 and SPL/NZZ, previously described as key regulators of ovule development, are needed for the auxin and cytokinin signaling pathways for the correct patterning of the ovule

Igeni: Reinforcing Hygiene Practices in Children Through Dynamic Products

Igeni is a set of dynamic products designed to lead children towards autonomy in their personal hygiene practices. The set is composed of three objects: the Billy Brush toothbrush, the Wally Wash faucet-ring and the Fanny Flush toilet reminder. These interactive products are designed to enhance skills of personal hygiene in preschool children, thanks to sensors and actuators for multisensory communication. In this paper, we present the design process that led to the creation of this set of products and we describe the design outcome, consisting of a setoff objects aimed at exploiting the child’s senses to convey messages, to create engaging experiences and to encourage healthy practices. We also present and discuss preliminary tests with users

The developmental trend of transposed letters effects in masked priming

In the current study, we investigated the development of trans- posed letter (TL) priming effects with masked priming. Recent studies have reported different and contrasting results concerning the age at which TL priming effects first appear and whether they tend to decline or increase with age. One of the aims of this study was to investigate the developmental trend of orthographic mech- anisms underlying the TL effects in Italian. We tested three groups of children (second, third, and fifth graders) and a group of adults with a sandwich masked priming procedure, presenting lists of tar- get words preceded by TL or replaced letter (RL) primes. TLs and RLs were either at the beginning (second\u2013third letters) or the end (fourth\u2013sixth letters) of primes in order to see whether the TL priming effect varied according to position in the letter string. We found that TL priming effects increased with age in both accu- racy and latency. No effect of position was found. The results are discussed in light of a possible difference in the development of orthographic mechanisms depending on the transparency of the language

Ovule development, a new model for lateral organ formation

In spermatophytes the ovules upon fertilization give rise to the seeds. It is essential to understand the mechanisms that control ovule number and development as they ultimately determine the final number of seeds and, thereby, the yield in crop plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, ovules arise laterally from a meristematic tissue within the carpel referred to as placentaMara Cucinotta was funded by a Ph.D fellowshipfrom the Università degli Studi di Milano, Irma Roig-Villanovawas funded by MIUR-Fondo per gli Investimenti della Ricerca diBase-Futuro in Ricerca. The work of Lucia Colombo is supportedby MIUR-PRIN 2012Postprint (published version

New Design Thinking Tools for the Next Generation of Designer-Entrepreneurs

AbstractThis paper analyses a new phenomenon to date poorly researched both in entrepreneurship and Design Thinking literature: Design-Intensive Start-ups (DIS), i.e. start-ups that focus on design as primary source for their development.Two main questions underpin the study: what are the specific features that describe design-intensive start-ups? Which are possible conceptual tools supporting designers in the creation of their own design-based enterprises?A multiple case studies protocol was adopted to investigate the first question. According to our results, DIS diverge from New-Technology Start-ups on several dimensions, and represent an alternative entrepreneurial model, which is not supported by extant literature. Currently, there are no tools helping designers to become entrepreneurs. Therefore, we developed a set of Design Thinking tools addressing the specific traits of DIS in the steps of their creation and evolution. Such tools are intended to support the decision-making process of designers-ent..

A new Italian purple corn variety (Moradyn) byproduct extract: antiglycative and hypoglicemyc in vitro activities and preliminary bioaccessibility studies

The reuse of byproducts from agricultural and food industries represents the key factor in a circular economy, whose interest has grown in the last two decades. Thus, the extraction of bioactives from agro-industrial byproducts is a potential source of valuable molecules. The aim of this work was to investigate the in vitro capacity of byproducts from a new Italian corn variety, named Moradyn, to inhibit the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) involved in several chronic age-related disorders. In addition, the hypoglycemic effect of Moradyn was tested by in vitro enzymatic systems. A Moradyn phytocomplex and its purified anthocyanin fraction were able to inhibit fructosamine formation and exhibited antiglycative properties when tested using BSA-sugars and BSA-methylglyoxal assays. These properties could be attributed to the polyphenols, mainly anthocyanins and flavonols, detected by RP-HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn. Finally, a Moradyn phytocomplex was submitted to a simulated in vitro digestion process to study its bioaccessibility. Moradyn could be considered as a promising food ingredient in the context of typical type 2 diabetes risk factors and the study will continue in the optimization of the ideal formulation to preserve its bioactivities from digestion

BASICS OF A DESIGN RESEARCH EPISTEMOLOGY

To assure the reliability of results, design research has often adopted the methods of other disciplines, reproducing the exterior shape of scientific research rather than its deeper grounds. Design academics often imitate what scientific disciplines do when they do research (i.e. applying codified methods), yet the discussion about why such disciplines behave that way is still limited. Basing on science studies, we argue that what determines research findings' validity may not just be the application of research methods but the consensus of a community, which lets new knowledge claims enter what we refer to as the Great Archive of Science (GAS). By analysing the dynamics of the GAS, we show that the rules, methods, and models typical of the research environment have as their main purpose to make the reliability of researchers’ knowledge claims as durable as possible. Regarding design research, we thus argue that what turns designers’ work into research is not just the application of scientific methods but primarily the participation in the grand game of the GAS, whose dynamics enable a relatively circumscribed corpus of knowledge to be held reliable and durable by a community. Relying on this argument, we seek to explore how design, while remaining a planning endeavour, may at the same time become an activity of knowledge production, which is the essential feature of research itself