The role of early experience and continued language use in bilingual speech production: A study of Galician and Spanish mid vowels by Galician-Spanish bilinguals

Publication date: January 2019

Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 72

Author(s): Robert Mayr, Laura López-Bueno, Martín Vázquez Fernández, Gisela Tomé Lourido

Abstract

This paper examines the vowel productions of three groups of adult Galician-Spanish bilinguals: Spanish-dominant (SD) bilinguals, Galician-dominant (GD) bilinguals, and Dual Switch (DS) bilinguals who had early experience with Galician in the home, predominantly used Spanish upon school entry, but in adolescence/adulthood switched to Galician for ideological reasons.

To examine how linguistic experience with Galician and Spanish affected the participants' speech, a cued picture-naming task, conducted in unilingual and code switched conditions, was used to elicit the Galician mid vowel contrasts /e-ɛ/ and /o-ɔ/ and the Spanish mid vowels /e/ and /o/.

The results revealed no difference in either condition in normalised F1 and F2 across the front and back vowels in the two languages. These patterns not only held for the SD bilinguals, for whom vowel mergers were expected, but also the DS and GD bilinguals. As such, the study is the first to document widespread mergers of Galician mid-vowels in bilinguals with extensive early Galician language experience and regular use, and to demonstrate overlap with Spanish mid-vowel categories. The findings suggest that psycholinguistic factors, such as age of acquisition or language use, can only partially explain the data and that input-related and socio-indexical factors are equally critical in understanding the acquisition and maintenance of language-specific speech patterns.

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Una nueva etapa en el diagnostico de la enfermedad de Alzheimer

Publication date: November–December 2018

Source: Revista Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular, Volume 37, Issue 6

Author(s): David Garcia Solis

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PET amiloide en enfermedades neurodegenerativas que cursan con demencia

Publication date: November–December 2018

Source: Revista Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular, Volume 37, Issue 6

Author(s): V. Camacho, A. Gómez-Grande, P. Sopena, D. García-Solís, M. Gómez Río, C. Lorenzo, S. Rubí, J. Arbizu, por el Grupo de Neuroimagen SEMNIM

Resumen

La enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) es una enfermedad neurodegenerativa que se caracteriza por un deterioro cognitivo progresivo y pérdida de memoria, siendo la causa más común de demencia. Los hallazgos anatomopatológicos de la EA son los depósitos de Aβ amiloide y proteína Tau, que producen disfunción sináptica y muerte neuronal. La PET amiloide es una técnica útil, disponible y no invasiva que nos proporciona información in vivo del depósito amiloide. En las últimas revisiones de los criterios diagnósticos de la EA se definen e incorporan los biomarcadores, que se clasifican en biomarcadores fisiopatológicos o de diagnóstico (aumento de la retención fibrilar amiloide observada por PET o disminución del péptido Aβ_1-42 y elevación de las proteínas T-Tau y F-Tau en el LCR) y biomarcadores de neurodegeneración o topográficos (disminución del metabolismo temporoparietal en la PET-FDG y atrofia temporal medial en la RM). Recientemente se han creado unas recomendaciones específicas para la correcta utilización de los biomarcadores, donde se incluye la PET amiloide: deterioro cognitivo persistente/progresivo, deterioro cognitivo atípico, deterioro cognitivo de inicio precoz y diagnóstico diferencial entre EA y otras enfermedades neurodegenerativas que cursan con demencia. Nuevos estudios de investigación y ensayos clínicos están utilizando la PET amiloide en la evaluación y el desarrollo de nuevas terapias para la EA, así como para el estudio de otras enfermedades neurodegenerativas que cursan con demencia. En este trabajo revisamos algunos conceptos generales y profundizamos en el uso de esta nueva técnica y su relación con las enfermedades neurodegenerativas y el resto de las técnicas diagnósticas.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by progressive cognitive decline and memory loss, and is the most common form of dementia. Amyloid plaques with neurofibrillary tangles are a neuropathological hallmark of AD that produces synaptic dysfunction and culminates later in neuronal loss. Amyloid PET is a useful, available and non-invasive technique that provides in vivo information about the cortical amyloid burden. In the latest revised criteria for the diagnosis of AD biomarkers were defined and integrated: pathological and diagnostic biomarkers (increased retention on fibrillar amyloid PET or decreased Aβ_1-42 and increased T-Tau or P-Tau in CSF) and neurodegeneration or topographical biomarkers (temporoparietal hypometabolism on ¹⁸F-FDG PET and temporal atrophy on MRI). Recently specific recommendations have been created as a consensus statement on the appropriate use of the imaging biomarkers, including amyloid PET: early-onset cognitive impairment/dementia, atypical forms of AD, mild cognitive impairment with early age of onset, and to differentiate between AD and other neurodegenerative diseases that occur with dementia. Amyloid PET is also contributing to the development of new therapies for AD, as well as in research studies for the study of other neurodegenerative diseases that occur with dementia where the deposition of Aβ amyloid is involved in its pathogenesis. In this paper, we review some general concepts and study the use of amyloid PET in depth and its relationship with neurodegenerative diseases and other diagnostic techniques.

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Title: Where does worsening asthma end and an asthma exacerbation begin?

Publication date: Available online 22 November 2018

Source: Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Author(s): Elissa M. Abrams, Allan B. Becker, Stanley J. Szefler

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Cyclical Hypersensitivity, Anaphylaxis and Related Hormonal Reaction

Publication date: Available online 22 November 2018

Source: Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Author(s): William J. Lavery, Jonathan A. Bernstein

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Anti-TNF-α Therapy Suppresses Proinflammatory Activities of Mucosal Neutrophils in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Neutrophils have been found to play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and anti-TNF-α mAb (i.e., infliximab) therapy is demonstrated to be effective in the induction of clinical remission and mucosal healing in these patients. However, how anti-TNF-α mAb regulates the functions of neutrophils is still unknown. Herein, we found that anti-TNF-α therapy significantly downregulated infiltration of neutrophils in inflamed mucosa of IBD patients. Importantly, anti-TNF-α mAb could inhibit neutrophils to produce proinflammatory mediators, such as ROS, calprotectin, IL-8, IL-6, and TNF-α. These data indicate that TNF-α plays a critical role in the induction of mucosal inflammatory response, and that blockade of TNF-α modulates intestinal homeostasis through balancing immune responses of neutrophils.

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Immune Checkpoint Receptors Tim-3 and PD-1 Regulate Monocyte and T Lymphocyte Function in Septic Patients

We aim to investigate the effects of Tim-3 and programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) on the monocytes and T lymphocytes in septic patients. Expression of Tim-3 and PD-1 on the CD3, CD4, and CD8 lymphocytes and monocytes was determined using flow cytometry. CBA technique was utilized to determine the expression of cytokines in the lymphocyte supernatant in addition to the IL-10 and TNF-α positivity in monocytes in the presence of Tim-3 and/or PD-1 receptor blockade. Compared with the normal control, significant elevation was observed in the expression of PD-1 on CD3 (), CD4, and CD8 monocytes. Blockade of the Tim-3 signaling pathway contributed to the significant elevation of IL-10 and TNF-α in the supernatant of T lymphocytes in the septic patients, while the PD-1 signaling pathway blockade only triggered the obvious elevation of TNF-α in the T lymphocytes. Blockade of Tim-3 and PD-1 induced the positivity of IL-10- and TNF-α-expressing cells in the peripheral monocytes. Significant changes were noticed in the Tim-3 and PD-1 in the T lymphocytes and monocytes. Blockade of Tim-3 and PD-1 contributed to the function of lymphocytes and monocytes. In the septic process, Tim-3 and PD-1 played crucial roles in the immune response of T lymphocytes and monocytes.

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