Dyslexia and dysgraphia in Greek in relation to normal development: cross-linguistic and longitudinal studies.

Studies on developmental dyslexia in transparent orthographies have established that children learning to read in such languages hardly experience difficulties in word reading accuracy and phonological awareness tasks, but suffer from a reading speed deficit. On the other hand in the English orthography, where the mappings between graphemes and phonemes are largely inconsistent, children exhibit significant difficulties in both word reading accuracy and speed. Greek is characterized by a high degree of regularity for reading, but is inconsistent for spelling. The variability of phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences and the highly inflectional nature of the particular orthography constitute spelling in Greek a considerably demanding task. The present thesis comprises three studies that were concerned with understanding the reading and spelling difficulties that Greek children/participants with dyslexia have and their underlying cognitive deficits, in relation to typically developing children and English children/participants with dyslexia. The first study examined the reading and spelling difficulties in Greek- and English-speaking children/participants with dyslexia, each compared with two control groups. Greek children/participants with dyslexia outperformed their English counterparts on word/nonword phoneme deletion, word/nonword reading, and grammatical spelling. However the two language groups performed similarly on rapid digit naming, spoonerisms and on the choice tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the differences in orthographic consistency between the two languages. The second study examined the development of literacy skills in twenty-three Greek children/participants with dyslexia over a period of 18 months (10 years 5 months to 12 years 3 months). At Time 1 children/participants with dyslexia performed worse on literacy tests than chronological-age control children, but similarly to reading-age controls. At Time 2 children/participants with dyslexia performed worse on all the tasks than CA control children, and worse than RA controls on the tasks of phoneme deletion of nonwords, nonword reading and orthographic spelling. Moreover the concurrent and longitudinal predictors of children's/participants' with dyslexia and typically developing children's reading and spelling abilities were examined. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of normal and atypical reading and spelling development. The third study investigated the ability of twenty-three 10-13 year-old Greek children/participants with dyslexia, and their reading-level and age-level-matched children to spell derivational and inflectional suffixes. Children/participants with dyslexia performed significantly worse than CA controls and RA controls. When they spelled the inflectional ending of adjectives and nouns children/participants with dyslexia did not differ from RA controls. It is suggested that children/participants with dyslexia have weaknesses in grasping the morphological rules of the Greek orthographic system and applying this knowledge in the spelling of word suffixes. The thesis concludes with a discussion of findings in relation to previous literature, the limitations of the present studies and avenues for future research

Carbon Monoxide Diffusion Capacity as a Severity Marker in Pulmonary Hypertension.

Carbon monoxide diffusion capacity (DLCO) is negatively associated with patient survival in idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (PH), but is not included in the risk stratification score proposed by the 2015 European guidelines. Since 2015, several new stratification scores based on a 3- or 4-severity scale have been explored. This retrospective cohort single-center study sought to investigate the association between DLCO and PH severity and survival. We included 85 treatment-naive patients with precapillary PH and DLCO measurement at diagnosis. DLCO status, based on lower and upper quartiles ranges, was added to a 3- and a 4-strata modified-risk assessment. DLCO was strongly associated with transplant-free survival (HR 0.939, 95% CI: 0.908-0.971, p < 0.001). In the intermediate and high-risk categories, DLCO was associated with transplant-free survival, irrespective of the risk category (HR 0.934, 95% CI: 0.880-0.980, p = 0.005). The correlation between modified-risk category and transplant-free survival was significant (HR 4.60, 95% CI: 1.294-16.352, p = 0.018). Based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC) levels, the 3- and 4-strata modified-risk stratification fits our results better than the conventional stratification. Low DLCO is associated with patient transplant-free survival, independently of the risk category. Inclusion of DLCO into a PH risk stratification score seems promising and needs further investigation

Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Era of Biologics

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) represents a severe manifestation in connective tissue diseases (CTD), with an overall incidence of 15%, and it is still a challenge for clinicians evaluation and management. ILD is the most common manifestation of lung involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), observed in up to 80% of biopsies, 50% of chest Computed Tomography (CT) and only 5% of chest radiographs. Histopatological patterns of ILD in RA may present with different patterns, such as: usual interstitial pneumonia, non specific interstitial pneumonia, desquamative interstitial pneumonia, organizing pneumonia, and eosinophilic infiltration. The incidence of ILD in RA patients is not only related to the disease itself, many drugs may be in fact associated with the development of pulmonary damage. Some reports suggest a causative role for TNFα inhibitors in RA-ILD development/worsening, anyway, no definitive statement can be drawn thus data are incomplete and affected by several variables. A tight control (pulmonary function tests and/or HRCT) is mandatory in patients with preexisting ILD, but it should be also performed in those presenting risk factors for ILD and mild respiratory symptoms. Biologic therapy should be interrupted, and, after excluding triggering infections, corticosteroids should be administered

Demonstration of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering Using Hybrid Continuous- and Discrete-Variable Entanglement of Light

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is known to be a key resource for one-sided device-independent quantum information protocols. Here we demonstrate steering using hybrid entanglement between continuous- and discrete-variable optical qubits. To this end, we report on suitable steering inequalities and detail the implementation and requirements for this demonstration. Steering is experimentally certified by observing a violation by more than 5 standard deviations. Our results illustrate the potential of optical hybrid entanglement for applications in heterogeneous quantum networks that would interconnect disparate physical platforms and encodings

Analysis of gut microbiota in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Disease-related dysbiosis and modifications induced by etanercept

A certain number of studies were carried out to address the question of how dysbiosis could affect the onset and development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but little is known about the reciprocal influence between microbiota composition and immunosuppressive drugs, and how this interaction may have an impact on the clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to characterize the intestinal microbiota in a groups of RA patients treatment-naïve, under methotrexate, and/or etanercept (ETN). Correlations between the gut microbiota composition and validated immunological and clinical parameters of disease activity were also evaluated. In the current study, a 16S analysis was employed to explore the gut microbiota of 42 patients affected by RA and 10 healthy controls. Disease activity score on 28 joints (DAS-28), erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptides, and dietary and smoking habits were assessed. The composition of the gut microbiota in RA patients free of therapy is characterized by several abnormalities compared to healthy controls. Gut dysbiosis in RA patients is associated with different serological and clinical parameters; in particular, the phylum of Euryarchaeota was directly correlated to DAS and emerged as an independent risk factor. Patients under treatment with ETN present a partial restoration of a beneficial microbiota. The results of our study confirm that gut dysbiosis is a hallmark of the disease, and shows, for the first time, that the anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) ETN is able to modify microbial communities, at least partially restoring a beneficial microbiota

Performance of various quantum key distribution systems using 1.55 um up-conversion single-photon detectors

We compare the performance of various quantum key distribution (QKD) systems using a novel single-photon detector, which combines frequency up-conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide and a silicon avalanche photodiode (APD). The comparison is based on the secure communication rate as a function of distance for three QKD protocols: the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84), the Bennett, Brassard, and Mermin 1992 (BBM92), and the coherent differential phase shift keying (DPSK). We show that the up-conversion detector allows for higher communication rates and longer communication distances than the commonly used InGaAs/InP APD for all the three QKD protocols.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Suspended Multifunctional Nanocellulose as Additive for Mortars

Cellulose derivatives have found significant applications in composite materials, mainly because of the increased mechanical performance they ensure. When added to cement-based materials, either in the form of nanocrystals, nanofibrils or micro/nanofibers, cellulose acts on the mixture with fresh and hardened properties, affecting rheology, shrinkage, hydration, and the resulting mechanical properties, microstructure, and durability. Commercial cotton wool was selected as starting material to produce multifunctional nanocelluloses to test as additives for mortars. Cotton wool was oxidized to oxidized nanocellulose (ONC), a charged nanocellulose capable of electrostatic interaction, merging cellulose and nanoparticles properties. Oxidized nanocellulose (ONC) was further functionalized by a radical-based mechanism with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and with a mixture of GMA and the crosslinking agent ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) affording ONC-GMA and ONC-GMA-EGDMA, both multifunctional-charged nanocellulose merging cellulose and bound acrylates properties. In this work, only ONC was found to be properly suitable for suspension and addition to a commercial mortar to assess the variation in mechanical properties and water-mortar interactions as a consequence of the modified microstructure obtained. The addition of oxidized nanocellulose caused an alteration of mortar porosity, with a decreased percentage of porosity and pore size distribution shifted towards smaller pores, with a consequent increase in compressive resistance, decrease in water absorption coefficient, and increased percentage of micropores present in the material, indicating a potential improvement in mortar durability

Targeting pediatric leukemia propagating cells using anti-CD200 antibody therapy.

Treating refractory pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains a challenge despite impressive remission rates (>90%) achieved in the last decade. The use of innovative immunotherapeutic approaches such as anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells does not ensure durable remissions, because leukemia-propagating cells (LPCs) that lack expression of CD19 can cause relapse, which signifies the need to identify new markers of ALL. Here we investigated expression of CD58, CD97, and CD200, which were previously shown to be overexpressed in B-cell precursor ALL (BCP-ALL) in CD34(+)/CD19(+), CD34(+)/CD19(–), CD34(–)/CD19(+), and CD34(–)/CD19(–) LPCs, to assess their potential as therapeutic targets. Whole-genome microarray and flow cytometric analyses showed significant overexpression of these molecules compared with normal controls. CD58 and CD97 were mainly co-expressed with CD19 and were not a prerequisite for leukemia engraftment in immune deficient mice. In contrast, expression of CD200 was essential for engraftment and serial transplantation of cells in measurable residual disease (MRD) low-risk patients. Moreover, these CD200(+) LPCs could be targeted by using the monoclonal antibody TTI-CD200 in vitro and in vivo. Treating mice with established disease significantly reduced disease burden and extended survival. These findings demonstrate that CD200 could be an attractive target for treating low-risk ALL, with minimal off-tumor effects that beset current immunotherapeutic approaches