Analysis of error types provides useful information about the stages and processes involved in normal and aphasic word production. In picture naming, semantic errors (horse for goat) generally result ...from something having gone awry in lexical access such that the right concept was mapped to the wrong word. This study used the new lesion analysis technique known as voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping to investigate the locus of lesions that give rise to semantic naming errors. Semantic errors were obtained from 64 individuals with post-stroke aphasia, who also underwent high-resolution structural brain scans. Whole brain voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping was carried out to determine where lesion status predicted semantic error rate. The strongest associations were found in the left anterior to mid middle temporal gyrus. This area also showed strong and significant effects in further analyses that statistically controlled for deficits in pre-lexical, conceptualization processes that might have contributed to semantic error production. This study is the first to demonstrate a specific and necessary role for the left anterior temporal lobe in mapping concepts to words in production. We hypothesize that this role consists in the conveyance of fine-grained semantic distinctions to the lexical system. Our results line up with evidence from semantic dementia, the convergence zone framework and meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies on word production. At the same time, they cast doubt on the classical linkage of semantic error production to lesions in and around Wernicke's area.
We describe two primary stages in the top-down process of lexical access in production, a stage of lemma access in which words are retrieved as syntactic-semantic entities, and a stage of ...phonological access in which the forms of the words are fleshed out. We suggest a reconciliation of modular and interactive accounts of these stages whereby modularity is traceable to the action of discrete linguistic rule systems, but interaction arises in the lexical network on which these rules operate. We also discuss the time-course of lexical access in multi-word utterances. We report some initial
production priming explorations that support the hypothesis that lemmas are buffered in longer utterances before they are phonologically specified. Because such techniques provide a relatively direct way of assessing activation at the primary stages of lexical access they are an important new resource for the study of language production.
Levelt et al. (1991)
argued that modular semantic and phonological stage theories of lexical access in language production are to be preferred over interactive spreading-activation theories (e.g.,
...Dell, 1986
). As evidence, they show no mediated semantic-phonological priming during picture naming: Retrieval of
sheep
primes
goat,
but the activation of
goat
is not transmitted to its phonological relative,
goal
. This research reconciles this result with spreading-activation theories and shows how the absence of mediated priming coexists with the convergent priming necessary to account for mixed semantic-phonological speech errors. The analysis leads to the proposal that the language-production system may best be characterized as globally modular but locally interactive.
Carbetocin is a synthetic oxytocin-analogue, which should be administered as bolus according to manufacturer's recommendations. A higher speed of oxytocin administration leads to increased ...cardiovascular side-effects. It is unclear whether carbetocin administration as short infusion has the same efficacy on uterine tone compared with bolus administration and whether haemodynamic parameters differ.
In this randomized, double-blind, non-inferiority trial, women undergoing planned or unplanned Caesarean section (CS) under regional anaesthesia received a bolus and a short infusion, only one of which contained carbetocin 100 mcg (double dummy). Obstetricians quantified uterine tone two, three, five and 10 min after cord-clamping by manual palpation using a linear analogue scale from 0 to 100. We evaluated whether the lower limit of the 95% CI of the difference in maximum uterine tone within the first five min after cord-clamping did not include the pre-specified non-inferiority limit of −10.
Between December 2014 and November 2015, 69 patients were randomized to receive carbetocin as bolus and 71 to receive it as short infusion. Maximal uterine tone was 89 in the bolus and 88 in the short infusion group (mean difference −1.3, 95% CI −5.7 to 3.1). Bp, calculated blood loss, use of additional uterotonics, and side-effects were comparable.
Administration of carbetocin as short infusion does not compromise uterine tone and has similar cardiovascular side-effects as a slow i.v. bolus. In accordance with current recommendations for oxytocin, carbetocin can safely be administered as short -infusion during planned or unplanned CS.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02221531 and www.kofam.ch SNCTP000001197.
We characterized lipid and lipoprotein changes associated with a lopinavir/ritonavir-containing regimen. We enrolled previously antiretroviral-naive patients participating in the Swiss HIV Cohort ...Study. Fasting blood samples (baseline) were retrieved retrospectively from stored frozen plasma and posttreatment (follow-up) samples were collected prospectively at two separate visits. Lipids and lipoproteins were analyzed at a single reference laboratory. Sixty-five patients had two posttreatment lipid profile measurements and nine had only one. Most of the measured lipids and lipoprotein plasma concentrations increased on lopinavir/ritonavir-based treatment. The percentage of patients with hypertriglyceridemia (TG >150 mg/dl) increased from 28/74 (38%) at baseline to 37/65 (57%) at the second follow-up. We did not find any correlation between lopinavir plasma levels and the concentration of triglycerides. There was weak evidence of an increase in small dense LDL-apoB during the first year of treatment but not beyond 1 year (odds ratio 4.5, 90% CI 0.7 to 29 and 0.9, 90% CI 0.5 to 1.5, respectively). However, 69% of our patients still had undetectable small dense LDL-apoB levels while on treatment. LDL-cholesterol increased by a mean of 17 mg/dl (90% CI -3 to 37) during the first year of treatment, but mean values remained below the cut-off for therapeutic intervention. Despite an increase in the majority of measured lipids and lipoproteins particularly in the first year after initiation, we could not detect an obvious increase of cardiovascular risk resulting from the observed lipid changes.
An environmentally friendly process for the esterification of carboxylic acids with dimethyl carbonate can be accelerated by employing a combined strategy: using 1,8-diazabicyclo5,4,0undec-7-ene ...(DBU) as the catalyst (chemical means) and microwave as the energy source (physical means). This approach provides synthetic advantages, niches, and upscalability.
Esterification of carboxylic acids with dimethyl carbonate (DMC) can be accelerated by using DBU as a catalyst (chemical acceleration) and microwave irradiation as energy (physical acceleration). By combining these two strategies, overall reaction time for esterifications can be reduced from a day to several minutes.
Cancer imposes higher burden on men. Sex differences in healthcare utilization may contribute to this problem. We compared healthcare utilization among adults with and without a history of cancer as ...measured by having at least one physician visit within the previous 12 months.
We analyzed data from 7,229 responders (weighted population size=211,722,892) enrolled in the 2007 Health Information and National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized adults in the United States. We used survey weights in all analyses and variance estimation procedures to account for the complex survey design and used logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Study participants consisted of 2808 (48.6%) males and 4421 (51.4%) females. Overall, men were less likely to have seen a physician within the previous 12 months (OR=0.39; 95% CI: 0.31-0.48) regardless of their cancer status. Cancer survivors were more likely to visit a physician within the previous 12 months (OR=2.01; 95% CI: 1.28-3.19) regardless of sex. When stratified by personal history of cancer, men without a history of cancer were less likely to visit a physician (OR=0.38; 95% CI: 0.30-0.47) whereas men with a history of cancer were as likely to have seen a physician in the previous 12 months as women with similar cancer status (OR=1.24; 95% CI: 0.44-3.45).
Men increase their healthcare utilization to that of women only after they receive diagnosis of cancer. Targeted interventions to promote utilization of preventive care services by men are needed to reduce the burden of chronic illnesses including cancer among men.
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