La personne verbale en français écrit et parlé au Congo : Étude morphosyntaxique systématique et modélisations en fin de cycle de grammaire

This reseach endeavours to characterize the models of construction of Congolese leaners’ grammatical knowledge on the category of verbal person. Persons categorization in a systematic prospect integrates a rectional and valential theorization in terms of primary actantial relation and secondary actantial relation. The subjacent explicative mechanisms include three interpretative dimensions : the interlinguistic dimension which brings about the part of the linguistic substrate, the intralinguistic dimension which examines the possibilities of overgeneralization, restructuration, hypercorrection and of instinctive recrudescence of the old language states, the extralinguistic dimension which develops the hypotheses of the exogenous normative pression weakening and of the didactic practices obliteration.Cette recherche s’emploie à caractériser les modèles de construction du savoir grammatical des apprenants congolais sur la catégorie de la personne verbale. La caractérisation des personnes dans une perspective systématique intègre une théorisation valencielle et rectionnelle en termes de relation actancielle primaire et de relation actancielle secondaire. Les mécanismes explicatifs sous-jacents englobent trois dimensions interprétatives : la dimension intersystémique qui met en lumière la part du substrat linguistique, la dimension intrasystémique qui explore les possibilités de surgénéralisation, de restructuration, d’hypercorrection et de résurgence instinctive des états de langue anciens, la dimension extrasystémique qui développe les hypothèses de l’affaiblissement de la pression normative exogène et de l’oblitération des pratiques didactiques

Subcortical shape alterations in major depressive disorder: findings from the ENIGMA major depressive disorder working group

First published:21 March 2020Alterations in regional subcortical brain volumes have been investigated as part of the efforts of an international consortium, ENIGMA, to identify reliable neural correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD). Given that subcortical structures are comprised of distinct subfields, we sought to build significantly from prior work by precisely mapping localized MDD-related differences in subcortical regions using shape analysis. In this meta-analysis of subcortical shape from the ENIGMA-MDD working group, we compared 1,781 patients with MDD and 2,953 healthy controls (CTL) on individual measures of shape metrics (thickness and surface area) on the surface of seven bilateral subcortical structures: nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, and thalamus. Harmonized data processing and statistical analyses were conducted locally at each site, and findings were aggregated by meta-analysis. Relative to CTL, patients with adolescent-onset MDD (≤ 21 years) had lower thickness and surface area of the subiculum, cornu ammonis (CA) 1 of the hippocampus and basolateral amygdala (Cohen's d = -0.164 to -0.180). Relative to first-episode MDD, recurrent MDD patients had lower thickness and surface area in the CA1 of the hippocampus and the basolateral amygdala (Cohen's d = -0.173 to -0.184). Our results suggest that previously reported MDD-associated volumetric differences may be localized to specific subfields of these structures that have been shown to be sensitive to the effects of stress, with important implications for mapping treatments to patients based on specific neural targets and key clinical features.Tiffany C. Ho ... Bernhard Baune ... et al

Differential T-cell responses to a chimeric Plasmodium falciparum antigen; UB05-09, correlates with acquired immunity to malaria

The development of a sterilizing and cost-effective vaccine against malaria remains a major problem despite recent advances. In this study, it is demonstrated that two antigens of P. falciparum UB05, UB09 and their chimera UB05-09 can serve as protective immunity markers by eliciting higher T-cell responses in malaria semi-immune subjects (SIS) than in frequently sick subjects (FSS) and could be used to distinguish these two groups. UB05, UB09 and UB05-09 were cloned, expressed in E. coli, purified and used to stimulate PBMCs isolated from 63 subjects in a malaria endemic area, for IFN-γ production, which was measured by the ELISpot assay. The polymorphism of UB09 gene in the malaria infected population was also studied by PCR/sequencing of the gene in P. falciparum field isolates. All three antigens were preferentially recognized by PBMCs from SIS. IFN-γ production induced by these antigens correlated with the absence of fever and parasitaemia. UB09 was shown to be relatively well-conserved in nature. It is concluded that UB05, UB09 and the chimera UB05-09 posses T-cell epitopes that are associated with protection against malaria and could thus be used to distinguish SIS from FSS eventhough acute infection with malaria has been shown to reduce cytokine production in some studies. Further investigations of these antigens as potential diagnostic and/or vaccine candidates for malaria are indicated

Predicting the naturalistic course of depression from a wide range of clinical, psychological, and biological data: a machine learning approach

Contains fulltext : 208597.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Many variables have been linked to different course trajectories of depression. These findings, however, are based on group comparisons with unknown translational value. This study evaluated the prognostic value of a wide range of clinical, psychological, and biological characteristics for predicting the course of depression and aimed to identify the best set of predictors. Eight hundred four unipolar depressed patients (major depressive disorder or dysthymia) patients were assessed on a set involving 81 demographic, clinical, psychological, and biological measures and were clinically followed-up for 2 years. Subjects were grouped according to (i) the presence of a depression diagnosis at 2-year follow-up (yes n = 397, no n = 407), and (ii) three disease course trajectory groups (rapid remission, n = 356, gradual improvement n = 273, and chronic n = 175) identified by a latent class growth analysis. A penalized logistic regression, followed by tight control over type I error, was used to predict depression course and to evaluate the prognostic value of individual variables. Based on the inventory of depressive symptomatology (IDS), we could predict a rapid remission course of depression with an AUROC of 0.69 and 62% accuracy, and the presence of an MDD diagnosis at follow-up with an AUROC of 0.66 and 66% accuracy. Other clinical, psychological, or biological variables did not significantly improve the prediction. Among the large set of variables considered, only the IDS provided predictive value for course prediction on an individual level, although this analysis represents only one possible methodological approach. However, accuracy of course prediction was moderate at best and further improvement is required for these findings to be clinically useful

Microstructure and anti- wear and corrosion performances of novel UHMWPE/graphene-nanosheet composite coatings deposited by flame spraying

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)/graphene-nanosheet (GN, multiple layers of graphene sheets with the thickness of ~5–10？nm) coatings have been deposited by flame spraying. The structure of UHMWPE remained almost intact after the spray processing and addition of GNs resulted in a slightly decreased crystallinity and improved thermal stability of UHMWPE. In addition, the coating containing 1.0？wt.% GNs exhibited a reduction of ~20% in wear rate and 25% in friction coefficient (0.18 versus 0.24). Significantly enhanced anti-corrosion performances of the UHMWPE–GN coatings were suggested by increased corrosion potential, corrosion current density, and impedance modulus value of the UHMWPE–GN coatings. The very well retained GNs are located mainly at the interfaces between UHMWPE splats and act as bridges connecting the splats, which mainly accounts for the enhanced properties of the composite coatings. The novel UHMWPE–graphene composite coatings show great potential for protecting engineering components for applications against corrosion