Relationships of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in the elderly with functional, psychological, and mental status, and short-term mortality: A French community-based study

In human beings of both sexes, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) circulating in blood is mostly an adrenally secreted steroid whose serum concentration (in the micromolar range and 30–50% higher in men than in women) decreases with age, toward ≈20–10% of its value in young adults during the 8th and 9th decades. The mechanism of action of DHEA and DHEAS is poorly known and may include partial transformation into sex steroids, increase of bioavailable insulin-like growth factor I, and effects on neurotransmitter receptors. Whether there is a cause-to-effect relationship between the decreasing levels of DHEAS with age and physiological and pathological manifestations of aging is still undecided, but this is of obvious theoretical and practical interest in view of the easy restoration by DHEA administration. Here we report on 622 subjects over 65 years of age, studied for the 4 years since DHEAS baseline values had been obtained, in the frame of the PAQUID program, analyzing the functional, psychological, and mental status of a community-based population in the south-west of France. We confirm the continuing decrease of DHEAS serum concentration with age, more in men than in women, even if men retain higher levels. Significantly lower values of baseline DHEAS were recorded in women in cases of functional limitation (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living), confinement, dyspnea, depressive symptomatology, poor subjective perception of health and life satisfaction, and usage of various medications. In men, there was a trend for the same correlations, even though not statistically significant in most categories. No differences in DHEAS levels were found in cases of incident dementia in the following 4 years. In men (but not in women), lower DHEAS was significantly associated with increased short-term mortality at 2 and 4 years after baseline measurement. These results, statistically established by taking into account corrections for age, sex, and health indicators, suggest the need for further careful trials of the administration of replacement doses of DHEA in aging humans. Indeed, the first noted results of such “treatment” are consistent with correlations observed here between functional and psychological status and endogenous steroid serum concentrations.

Comparative Biochemistry of the Oxidative Burst Produced by Rose and French Bean Cells Reveals Two Distinct Mechanisms1

Cultured cells of rose (Rosa damascena) treated with an elicitor derived from Phytophthora spp. and suspension-cultured cells of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) treated with an elicitor derived from the cell walls of Colletotrichum lindemuthianum both produced H2O2. It has been hypothesized that in rose cells H2O2 is produced by a plasma membrane NAD(P)H oxidase (superoxide synthase), whereas in bean cells H2O2 is derived directly from cell wall peroxidases following extracellular alkalinization and the appearance of a reductant. In the rose/Phytophthora spp. system treated with N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate, superoxide was detected by a N,N′-dimethyl-9,9′-biacridium dinitrate-dependent chemiluminescence; in contrast, in the bean/C. lindemuthianum system, no superoxide was detected, with or without N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate. When rose cells were washed free of medium (containing cell wall peroxidase) and then treated with Phytophthora spp. elicitor, they accumulated a higher maximum concentration of H2O2 than when treated without the washing procedure. In contrast, a washing treatment reduced the H2O2 accumulated by French bean cells treated with C. lindemuthianum elicitor. Rose cells produced reductant capable of stimulating horseradish (Armoracia lapathifolia) peroxidase to form H2O2 but did not have a peroxidase capable of forming H2O2 in the presence of reductant. Rose and French bean cells thus appear to be responding by different mechanisms to generate the oxidative burst.

Empirical study of the anaphoric accessibility space in Spanish dialogues

This paper shows an empirical study about the anaphoric accessibility space in Spanish dialogues. According to this study, antecedents of pronominal and adjectival anaphors can almost always (95.9%) be found in the noun phrases set taken from spaces defined using a structure based on adjacency pairs. Furthermore, a proposal of a reliable annotation scheme for Spanish dialogues is presented in order to define this anaphoric accessibility space. Using this annotation scheme, anaphora resolution algorithms can locate the adequate set of anaphor antecedent candidates.

Computational approach to anaphora resolution in Spanish dialogues

This paper presents an algorithm for identifying noun-phrase antecedents of pronouns and adjectival anaphors in Spanish dialogues. We believe that anaphora resolution requires numerous sources of information in order to find the correct antecedent of the anaphor. These sources can be of different kinds, e.g., linguistic information, discourse/dialogue structure information, or topic information. For this reason, our algorithm uses various different kinds of information (hybrid information). The algorithm is based on linguistic constraints and preferences and uses an anaphoric accessibility space within which the algorithm finds the noun phrase. We present some experiments related to this algorithm and this space using a corpus of 204 dialogues. The algorithm is implemented in Prolog. According to this study, 95.9% of antecedents were located in the proposed space, a precision of 81.3% was obtained for pronominal anaphora resolution, and 81.5% for adjectival anaphora.

Evaluation of pronoun resolution algorithm for Spanish dialogues

In this paper, we present an algorithm for anaphora resolution in Spanish dialogues and an evaluation of the algorithm for pronominal anaphora. The proposed algorithm uses both linguistic information and the structure of the dialogue to find the antecedent of the anaphors. The system has been evaluated on ten dialogues.

Terminology and French-Spanish business translation: evaluating terminology resources for the translation of accounting documents

This article is the English version of “Terminología y traducción económica francés-español: evaluación de recursos terminológicos en el ámbito contable” by Daniel Gallego Hernández. It was not published on the print version of MonTI for reasons of space. The online version of MonTI does not suffer from these limitations, and this is our way of promoting plurilingualism.

Reliability and Validity Evidence of Scores on the French Version of the Questionnaire about Interpersonal Difficulties for Adolescents

This study examined the reliability and validity evidence drawn from the scores of the French version of the Questionnaire about Interpersonal Difficulties for Adolescents (QIDA) in a sample of 957 adolescents (48.5% boys) ranging in age from 11 to 18 years (M = 14.48, SD = 1.85). A principal axis factoring (PAF) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to determine the fit of the factor structure of scores on the QIDA. PAF and CFA replicated the previously identified correlated five-factor structure of the QIDA: Assertiveness, Heterosexual Relationships, Public Speaking, Family Relationships, and Close Friendships. The QIDA yielded acceptable reliability scores for French adolescents. Validity evidence of QIDA was also established through correlations with scores on the School Anxiety Inventory and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. Most of the correlations were positive and exceeded the established criteria of statistical significance, but the magnitude of these varied according to the scales of the QIDA. Results supported the reliability and validity evidence drawn from the scores of the French version of the QIDA.

D. Certification to study French, 1796 September 5

This subseries contains one brief handwritten certification that Loammi Baldwin's son may study the French language as part of his college studies.

D. Certification to study French, 1796 September 5

This subseries contains one brief handwritten certification that Loammi Baldwin's son may study the French language as part of his college studies.

Un receuil: containing painting, penmanship, algebra and pieces selected from various authors in prose and verse, with a few pieces in French with their translation / by Phebe Folger of Nantucket : manuscript, 1797-1806

Written mostly in a copperplate hand in black ink, and illustrated with watercolor drawings.