Healthcare costs associated with language difficulties up to 9 years of age: Australian population-based study

PURPOSE: This study aimed to quantify the non-hospital healthcare costs associated with language difficulties within two nationally representative samples of children. METHOD: Data were from three biennial waves (2004-2008) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (B cohort: 0-5 years; K cohort: 4-9 years). Language difficulties were defined as scores ≤ 1.25 SD below the mean on measures of parent-reported communication (0-3 years) and directly assessed vocabulary (4-9 years). Participant data were linked to administrative data on non-hospital healthcare attendances and prescription medications from the universal Australian Medicare subsidized healthcare scheme. RESULT: It was found that healthcare costs over each 2-year age band were higher for children with than without language difficulties at 0-1, 2-3, and 4-5 years, notably 36% higher (mean difference = $AU206, 95% CI = $90, $321) at 4-5 years (B cohort). The slightly higher 2-year healthcare costs for children with language difficulties at 6-7 and 8-9 years were not statistically different from those without language difficulties. Modelled to the corresponding Australian child population, 2-year government costs ranged from $AU1.2-$AU12.1 million (depending on age examined). Six-year healthcare costs increased with the persistence of language difficulties in the K cohort, with total Medicare costs increasing by $192 (95% CI = $74, $311; p = .002) for each additional wave of language difficulties. CONCLUSION: Language difficulties (whether transient or persistent) were associated with substantial excess population healthcare costs in childhood, which are in addition to the known broader costs incurred through the education system. It is unclear whether healthcare costs were specifically due to the assessment and/or treatment of language difficulties, as opposed to conditions that may be co-morbid with or may cause language difficulties.

Povoações, freguesias e vilas na Paraíba Colonial: Pombal e Sousa, 1697-1800

The towns presently named Pombal and Sousa, located in the hinterland of the State of Paraíba, Brazil, still keep vestiges of the colonization process they went through along the 18th and 19th centuries, when they both emerged as settlement nuclei in the extreme West of the then captaincy of Paraíba and attained the status of freguesia and vila in a later period. This research aims to comprehend the process of urban formation and development of the colonial urban nuclei of Pombal and Sousa as they became povoados (hamlets), freguesias (parishes) and vilas (small urban communities with a local government), according to territorial expansion policies implemented by the Portuguese government from 1697 to 1800. The choice of the two urban settlements for this survey lies in the fact that they were part of the great conquest and colonization program undertaken by the Portuguese Crown. Another aspect that was considered was the fact that those towns are the oldest urban nuclei of Paraíba s hinterland. They came into being as early as in the times of the colony, thus producing a favorable environment to the study of the changes that occurred in the captaincy s hinterland scenery resulting from the process of formation and development of the colonial urban space. Three fundamental categories of analysis were defined since they have a direct bearing upon the urban configuration of the two colonization nuclei: povoado, freguesia and vila. The three of them are related to civil and ecclesiastic jurisdictions. Field, documentation and bibliography surveys were undertaken in order to develop the study. They allowed for the finding of vestiges of the old, colonial urban structures and for the development of theoretical analysis based on present-day studies of issues relating to the colonial urban history. The study purposes were, therefore, to try to understand how the old urban nuclei of Pombal and Sousa fit in the territorial expansion policies undertaken by the Portuguese government; to relate the process of urban formation and development of such nuclei with the categories of analysis povoação-freguesia-vila by discussing the relations and influences they exert over one another and their territory, as well as to unveil, as much as possible, the configuration the urban spaces that were shaped along the 18th century

Identificando interesses transversais em modelos de requisitos PL-AOVgraph

The occurrence of problems related to the scattering and tangling phenomenon, such as the difficulty to do system maintenance, increasingly frequent. One way to solve this problem is related to the crosscutting concerns identification. To maximize its benefits, the identification must be performed from early stages of development process, but some works have reported that this has not been done in most of cases, making the system development susceptible to the errors incidence and prone to the refactoring later. This situation affects directly to the quality and cost of the system. PL-AOVgraph is a goal-oriented requirements modeling language which offers support to the relationships representation among requirements and provides separation of crosscutting concerns by crosscutting relationships representation. Therefore, this work presents a semi-automatic method to crosscutting concern identification in requirements specifications written in PL-AOVgraph. An adjacency matrix is used to identify the contributions relationships among the elements. The crosscutting concern identification is based in fan-out analysis of contribution relationships from the informations of adjacency matrix. When identified, the crosscutting relationships are created. And also, this method is implemented as a new module of ReqSys-MDD tool

The Serido Group of NE Brazil, a late Neoproterozoic pre- to syn-collisional basin in West Gondwana: insights from SHRIMP U-Pb detrital zircon ages and Sm-Nd crustal residence (T-DM) ages

The Serido Group is a deformed and metamorphosed metasedimentary sequence that overlies early Paleoproterozoic to Archean basement of the Rio Grande do Norte domain in the Borborema Province of NE Brazil. The age of the Serido Group has been disputed over the past two decades, with preferred sedimentation ages being either Paleoproterozoic or Neoproterozoic. Most samples of the Serido Formation, the upper part of the Serido Group, have Sm-Nd T-DM ages between 1200 and 1600 Ma. Most samples of the Jucurutu Formation, the lower part of the Serido Group, have T-DM ages ranging from 1500 to 1600 Ma; some basal units have T-DM ages as old as 2600 Ma, reflecting proximal basement. Thus, based on Sm-Nd data, most, if not all, of the Serido Group was deposited after 1600 Ma and upper parts must be younger than 1200 Ma.Cathodoluminescence photos of detrital zircons show very small to no overgrowths produced during ca. 600 Ma Brasiliano deformation and metamorphism, so that SHRIMP and isotope dilution U-Pb ages must represent crystallization ages of the detrital zircons. Zircons from meta-arkose near the base of the Jucurutu Formation yield two groups of ages: ca. 2200 Ma and ca. 1800 Ma. In contrast, zircons from a metasedimentary gneiss higher in the Jucurutu Formation yield much younger ages, with clusters at ca. 1000 Ma and ca. 650 Ma. Zircons from metasedimentary and metatuffaceous units in the Serido Formation also yield ages primarily between 1000 and 650 Ma, with clusters at 950-1000, 800, 750, and 650 Ma. Thus, most, if not all, of the Serido Group must be younger than 650 Ma. Because these units were deformed and metamorphosed in the ca. 600 Ma Brasiliano fold belt during assembly of West Gondwana, deposition probably occurred ca. 610-650 Ma, soon after crystallization of the youngest population of zircons and before or during the onset of Brasiliano deformation.The Serido Group was deposited upon Paleoproterozoic basement in a basin receiving detritus from a variety of sources. The Jucurutu Formation includes some basal volcanic rocks and initially received detritus from proximal 2.2-2.0 Ga (Transamazonian) to late Paleoproterozoic (1.8-1.7 Ga) basement. Provenance for the upper Jucurutu Formation and all of the Serido Formation was dominated by more distal and younger sources ranging in age from 1000 to 650 Ma. We suggest that the Serido basin may have developed as the result of late Neoproterozoic extension of a pre-existing continental basement, with formation of small marine basins that were largely floored by cratonic basement (subjacent oceanic crust has not yet been found). Immature sediment was initially derived from surrounding land; as the basin evolved much of the detritus probably came from highlands to the south (present coordinates). Alternatively, if the Patos shear zone is a major terrane boundary, the basin may have formed as an early collisional foredeep associated with south-dipping subduction. In any case, within 30 million years the region was compressed, deformed, and metamorphosed during final assembly of West Gondwana and formation of the Brasiliano-Pan African fold belts. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Notas de testemunho e recalque: uma experiência musical dos traumas sociais brasileiros em Chico Buarque e Paulinho da Viola (de meados da década de 1960 a meados da década de 1970)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo fonológico da língua Waiwái (Caribe): uma contribuição

Este trabalho objetiva documentar, descrever e analisar alguns aspectos fonológicos da língua Waiwái, uma das línguas da família Caribe, para fins científicos e aplicados. Essa língua é falada pelos habitantes da Terra Indígena Nhamundá/Mapuera, localizada na fronteira do Estado do Pará com o Estado do Amazonas. O estudo justifica-se pela tentativa de atualização dos dados sobre a fonologia e outros aspectos gramaticais da língua Waiwái. Os únicos trabalhos dos quais se tem conhecimento sobre a fonologia desse povo indígena são os de Neil W. Hawkins (1952) e Robert E. Hawkins (1998). Por esse motivo procurar-se-á estabelecer, mais especificamente, o sistema fonético-fonológico da língua. A metodologia utilizada parte de uma abordagem descritiva, interpretando, sincronicamente, a estrutura fonológica da língua em estudo, na sua modalidade oral. O trabalho de investigação do corpus baseia-se na análise sistemática dos dados, identificando e analisando os segmentos vocálicos e consonantais, objetos de estudo da fonética e da fonologia, dando conta de como esta língua organiza seus sons; além de tecer algumas considerações sobre o acento de palavras e o padrão silábico da língua. Para o desenvolvimento dessa pesquisa levamos em consideração obras de autores estruturalistas e funcionalistas.

Egocentric speech in the works of Vygotsky and Piaget: educational implications and representations by teachers

This paper presents an applied qualitative and quantitative study and seeks to understand egocentric speech according to Vygotsky and Piaget and, through a literature review, the educational implications of Vygotsky and Piaget’s ideas. Additionally, the representations of these ideas by fifteen teachers of basic education are investigated. It is important to understand egocentric speech in Vygotsky and Piaget. Despite the differences in how they conceive its nature, functions and implications, for both, egocentric speech is intrinsically linked to and facilitates our understanding of child development. Regarding the representation of teachers who criticized children who used egocentric language, when teachers established any negative consequences of such language, they attributed it to the affective and moral aspects as well as to cognition. However, their approach was more practically oriented than those found in the psychological theories addressed. Therefore, this study aids in understanding the limits and scope of teacher-training courses.

Gramática: reflexões sobre um percurso de elaboração de manuais

As part of a round table entitled “Construction of descriptive grammars”, with authors of descriptive grammars of the Portuguese language, this text presents a personal refl ection that seeks to recover the key issues that have challenged me in this kind of work. In order to do this, I recover the historical route of the decisions I took in the construction of two manuals of Portuguese grammar and, at the same time, I gather, in other works I have written, information that can explain the guidelines adopted. Being consistent with my background and with my praxis, I offer some thoughts towards the fundamental proposition I have always considered such works to have, which is the school destination, something I can summarize in the question of what should constitute a work with the “grammar” at school.

Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) e literatura, uma aposta notável

The aim of this study was to develop a qualitative research of bibliographic nature, in order to verify how has been the use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and literary reading in early childhood education.. It is believed to be necessary for children, since their early childhood, to, be in contact with various literary works of aesthetic value, which will enable them to understand this particular literary language - and the imagery that comes with it - what can instigate appreciate literature and get the reading habit. The use of ICTs by children beyond the use of games and watching stories on computers, tablets and smartphones, for example, for the production of videos and slides or creating stories, enable new experiences of redesigning and construction of knowledge and culture. The idea for this research came from reading the numerous texts that deal with the need to understand the child as an active subject in the construction of culture and society, rather than as receiving reproductive and cultural orders (CRIANÇAS, 2012). In this sense, in addition to the newsletters Equity For Children: Latin America (CRIANÇAS, 2012), the understanding of childhood and child in the works of Walter O. Kohan (2005; 2006) supports this study. This research proposal was also based on authors and documents that point to the need to promote, since the first stages of Basic Education, the literary reading as a means of enjoyment and emancipation (LAJOLO 2001a; Barthes, 2007; FILIPOUSKY, 2009; BRAZIL, 2010; MACHADO, 2011; VASQUES, 2013), and an education connected to the technological advances of the twenty-first century (BRAZIL, 1997, CHAVES, 1998; DEMO, 2008)

Use of VEGFR-2 targeted microbubbles (BR55, Bracco imaging) for the early ultrasound evaluation of response to antiangiogenic treatment in a xenograft model of hepatocarcinoma

Aim: To evaluate the early response to treatment to an antiangiogenetic drug (sorafenib) in a heterotopic murine model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using ultrasonographic molecular imaging. Material and Methods: the xenographt model was established injecting a suspension of HuH7 cells subcutaneously in 19 nude mice. When tumors reached a mean diameter of 5-10 mm, they were divided in two groups (treatment and vehicle). The treatment group received sorafenib (62 mg/kg) by daily oral gavage for 14 days. Molecular imaging was performed using contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), by injecting into the mouse venous circulation a suspension of VEGFR-2 targeted microbubbles (BR55, kind gift of Bracco Swiss, Geneve, Switzerland). Video clips were acquired for 6 minutes, then microbubbles (MBs) were destroyed by a high mechanical index (MI) impulse, and another minute was recorded to evaluate residual circulating MBs. The US protocol was repeated at day 0,+2,+4,+7, and +14 from the beginning of treatment administration. Video clips were analyzed using a dedicated software (Sonotumor, Bracco Swiss) to quantify the signal of the contrast agent. Time/intensity curves were obtained and the difference of the mean MBs signal before and after high MI impulse (Differential Targeted Enhancement-dTE) was calculated. dTE represents a numeric value in arbitrary units proportional to the amount of bound MBs. At day +14 mice were euthanized and the tumors analyzed for VEGFR-2, pERK, and CD31 tissue levels using western blot analysis. Results: dTE values decreased from day 0 to day +14 both in treatment and vehicle groups, and they were statistically higher in vehicle group than in treatment group at day +2, at day +7, and at day +14. With respect to the degree of tumor volume increase, measured as growth percentage delta (GPD), treatment group was divided in two sub-groups, non-responders (GPD>350%), and responders (GPD<200%). In the same way vehicle group was divided in slow growth group (GPD<400%), and fast growth group (GPD>900%). dTE values at day 0 (immediately before treatment start) were higher in non-responders than in responders group, with statistical difference at day 2. While dTE values were higher in the fast growth group than in the slow growth group only at day 0. A significant positive correlation was found between VEGFR-2 tissue levels and dTE values, confirming that level of BR55 tissue enhancement reflects the amount of tissue VEGF receptor. Conclusions: the present findings show that, at least in murine experimental models, CEUS with BR55 is feasable and appears to be a useful tool in the prediction of tumor growth and response to sorafenib treatment in xenograft HCC.

I manoscritti miniati dell'Illustratore nella cultura figurativa del secondo quarto del XIV secolo

La tesi è dedicata alla personalità artistica dell’Illustratore, tra i protagonisti della miniatura bolognese degli anni trenta e quaranta del Trecento, così felicemente soprannominato da Roberto Longhi. Dopo un capitolo dedicato alla vicenda critica dell’artista, la tesi affronta il percorso artistico dell’Illustratore nell’ambito della decorazione libraria bolognese del secondo quarto del XIV secolo. Ho trattato le opere attribuite al’Illustratore insieme agli esempi contemporanei della miniatura bolognese, in modo da far emergere il ruolo di questo maestro nelle relazioni con il contesto cittadino. Nella successione cronologica dei manoscritti, emerge un nuovo sconvolgimento caotico che scardina l’ordine spaziale e compositivo delle opere iniziali debitrici del giottismo del Maestro del 1328. Il capitolo si conclude con alcune osservazioni sui rapporti tra il maestro e i suoi aiuti e sul rapporto con Buffalmacco. In questo capitolo sono inoltre presentate due nuove attribuzioni. Gli ultimi due capitoli sono un approfondimento sull’interazione tra il linguaggio figurativo dell’artista e la funzione dell’immagine quale forma di comunicazione visiva in stretta relazione con i testi scritti che accompagnano e sui caratteri della committenza, là dove è possibile definirli. La prima parte del terzo capitolo è dedicata all’illustrazione dei libri legales, mentre nella seconda parte si tratta di un caso particolare, le iniziali istoriate dell’Inferno e del Purgatorio di Dante Alighieri della Biblioteca Riccardiana di Firenze (ms. 1005), per molti aspetti riconducibili all’illustrazione giuridica. La mia intenzione in questo capitolo è di verificare come il caratteristico linguaggio narrativo espressivo e diretto dell’Illustratore abbia risposto alla funzione delle immagini dipinte nei codici giuridici di offrire una struttura materiale alla memorizzazione visiva per via di luoghi e figure dei contenuti di studio del diritto comune. In appendice alla tesi si trova un catalogo dei manoscritti decorati da miniature dell’Illustratore, comprensivo anche di una sezione per le opere di dubbia o erronea attribuzione.

The Assertion of Identity: Storytelling and Testimony in the Works of Edwidge Danticat

Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat evokes the Haitian tradition of storytelling in many of her novels and short story collections. A tradition formulated by vodou religion and the amalgamation of African cultures, storytelling acts to entertain, educate and enlighten the people of Haiti. Additionally, her novels are often written in the context of traumatic events in Haitian history. While Danticat's works have been studied with focus on their depiction of storytelling and of trauma, little has been done on the restorative power that storytelling provides. In this thesis, I seek to examine the potential for Danticat's characters and works to create narratives that build community, present testimony, and aid traumatized individuals in recovery.

Language Boxes: Bending the Host Language with Modular Language Changes

As domain-specific modeling begins to attract widespread acceptance, pressure is increasing for the development of new domain-specific languages. Unfortunately these DSLs typically conflict with the grammar of the host language, making it difficult to compose hybrid code except at the level of strings; few mechanisms (if any) exist to control the scope of usage of multiple DSLs; and, most seriously, existing host language tools are typically unaware of the DSL extensions, thus hampering the development process. Language boxes address these issues by offering a simple, modular mechanism to encapsulate (i) compositional changes to the host language, (ii) transformations to address various concerns such as compilation and highlighting, and (iii) scoping rules to control visibility of language extensions. We describe the design and implementation of language boxes, and show with the help of several examples how modular extensions can be introduced to a host language and environment.

Language attitudes and language shift among ethnic migrants in Khartoum

This paper investigates language attitudes among ethnic migrant groups in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. A questionnaire was used to collect data on language preference, language parents prefer their children to learn, and reasons for language preference. Results suggest that while positive attitude played a significant role in learning Arabic among some of the groups under investigation, it proved to be of no help in maintaining the groups’ ethnic languages. Arabic was reported as very important for education, religious activities, economic privileges and social interaction. Ethnic languages, on the other hand, were preferred for purely symbolic reasons (symbolizing groups’ ethnic identity).

Little-known Swiss contributions to the description, diagnosis, and surgery of lumbar disc disease before the Mixter and Barr era

The understanding of lumbar spine pathologies made substantial progress at the turn of the twentieth century. The authors review the original publication of Otto Veraguth in 1929 reporting on the successful resection of a herniated lumbar disc, published exclusively in the German language. His early report is put into the historical context, and its impact on the understanding of pathologies of the intervertebral disc (IVD) is estimated. The Swiss surgeon and Nobel Prize laureate Emil Theodor Kocher was among the first physicians to describe the traumatic rupture of the IVD in 1896. As early as 1909 Oppenheim and Krause published 2 case reports on surgery for a herniated lumbar disc. Goldthwait was the first physician to delineate the etiopathogenes is between annulus rupture, symptoms of sciatica, and neurological signs in his publication of 1911. Further publications by Middleton and Teacher in 1911 and Schmorl in 1929 added to the understanding of lumbar spinal pathologies. In 1929, the Swiss neurologist Veraguth (surgery performed by Hans Brun) and the American neurosurgeon Walter Edward Dandy both published their early experiences with the surgical therapy of a herniated lumbar disc. Veraguth's contribution, however, has not been appreciated internationally to date. The causal relationship between lumbar disc pathology and sciatica remained uncertain for some years to come. The causal relationship was not confirmed until Mixter and Barr's landmark paper in 1934 describing the association of sciatica and lumbar disc herniation, after which the surgical treatment became increasingly popular. Veraguth was among the first physicians to report on the clinical course of a patient with successful resection of a herniated lumbar disc. His observations should be acknowledged in view of the limited experience and literature on this ailment at that time.