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The current study investigated gender (control) and number (target) agreement processing in Northern and non-Northern Norwegians living in Northern Norway. Participants varied in exposure to Northern Norwegian (NN) dialect(s), where number marking differs from most other Norwegian dialects. In a comprehension task involving reading NN dialect writing, P600 effects for number agreement were significantly affected by NN exposure. The more exposure the NN nonnatives had, the larger the P600 was, driven by the "presence" of number agreement (ungrammatical in NN). In contrast, less exposure correlated to the inverse: P600 driven by the "absence" of number agreement (ungrammatical in most other dialects). The NN natives showed P600 driven by the "presence" of number agreement regardless of exposure. These findings suggests that bilectalism entails the representation of distinct mental grammars for each dialect. However, like all instances of bilingualism, bilectalism exists on a continuum whereby linguistic processing is modulated by linguistic experience.

Currently, Developmental scales for children aged 0-6 years are a particularly valuable resource for assessing developmental milestones in children. Most scales are developed based on a broad conceptual framework, and their metric validation is insufficient and of low quality. The aim of this systematic review is to analyse the psychometric quality of these tests and identify aspects in need of improvement. To this end, the PRISMA methodology and the WOS and ProQuest databases were used to search for articles addressing this topic. A total of 680 articles were identified, of which 72 were selected using the established inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results indicate a scarcity of independent studies on the statistical measurement of the scales. The selected articles are very heterogeneous and validate these tests using adaptations of common metrics. Most perform cross-cultural, concurrent, and prognostic validations of the tests. We conclude that the quality of the scale metrics and other common aspects of these tests need to be improved, particularly sample sparsity and heterogeneity, as well as cultural biases. We underline the importance of applying for advances in metrics for the construction of developmental scales and recommend the use of computerised versions to improve their ease of use and efficiency.

Amitraz is an insecticide compound used worldwide for controlling pests, especially in agricultural and livestock areas. However, amitraz poisoning in Colombia is rare. This article reports the case of an 18-year-old female patient who was admitted in the emergency service 3 hours after the intake of an unknown amount of Triatox® (amitraz). The patient presented with a depressed level of consciousness, respiratory distress, hypotension, bradycardia, myosis and metabolic acidosis compensated with respiratory alkalosis. Initial treatment was provided using life support measures in the emergency ward, and subsequent transfer and support in the intensive care unit. She was discharged 24 hours after admission. This case considers the clinical similarity between amitraz poisoning and poisoning caused by other more frequent toxic compounds such as carbamates, organophosphates and opioids, which require different management.

Recent studies have shown contradictory results on the influence of digital technology on the level of reading comprehension performance in college students. This paper examines the existence of differences in reading comprehension between the use of digital technology and traditional support in college students. A meta-analysis of international publications between 2012-2022 is carried out with a total sample of 481 students. The results indicate that technology has not an average positive effect on reading comprehension. The study evidences improvement in students' reading comprehension with printed medium with an effect size of 0.19. The practical implications should be aimed at stimulating research with new digital resources and increasing educational actions on teaching methodology in the classroom.

In today's digital context, it is essential for students' academic and personal development to improve their digital reading comprehension. A comparative analysis of digital reading comprehension between three modalities is presented: dual (multimodal), auditory, and visual (monomodal). We used an experimental design and a standardized test (PROLEC-SE-R) of reading comprehension administered to 132 secondary school students in their first language. The quantitative analysis, which considered age, gender, and academic achievement, shows that there are significant differences in favor of dual modality or multimodality in digital reading comprehension. This shows that multimodality improves the level of digital reading comprehension the most. In particular, there is a significant difference in favor of the literal level of digital reading comprehension compared to the inferential level in all modalities studied (dual, auditory, visual). This yields pedagogical implications for optimizing digital reading comprehension.

According to the Ecological Model, positive parenting depends on three factors: psychosocial context, the children's needs and parental competences. This cross-sectional study analyzes parental competences, perception of efficacy and parenting satisfaction, among Spanish fathers and mothers with young children aged 0-3 years, and examines their relationship with socio-familial variables (parents' age, gender, and education level) and children's characteristics (age, gender, disability, chronic illness, premature birth, and early care). Participants included 868 parents. Results show that all dimensions of parental competences were associated with socio-familial variables and/or the children's characteristics. Among others, mothers had significantly higher scores than fathers in most of the competences, with the exception monitoring of their parental activity, self-care and parental satisfaction. Regression analyses showed that the variables analyzed in this study explained 25% of the variance in the total parental competence score. Specifically, the associated variables were being a mother, younger age, having fewer children, male gender of the children, satisfaction, and sense of parenting efficacy. These results reinforce the need to offer preventive and supportive strategies for positive parenting in Spanish families, taking into consideration their socio-familial characteristics and those of their children.

Abstract Tritrichomonas foetus is a flagellated and anaerobic parasite able to infect cattle and felines. Despite its prevalence, there is no effective standardized or legal treatment for T. foetus-infected cattle; the vaccination still has limited success in mitigating infections and reducing abortion risk; and nowadays, the diagnosis of T. foetus presents important limitations in terms of sensitivity and specificity in bovines. Here, we characterize the plasma membrane proteome of T. foetus and identify proteins that are represented in different isolates of this protozoan. Additionally, we performed a bioinformatic analysis that revealed the antigenicity potential of some of those proteins. This analysis is the first study to identify common proteins at the plasma membrane of different T. foetus isolates that could be targets for alternative diagnostic or vaccine techniques in the future.

Abstract DNA N6-adenine methylation (6mA) has recently gained importance as an epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. Its function in lineages with high levels, such as early-diverging fungi (EDF), is of particular interest. Here, we investigated the biological significance and evolutionary implications of 6mA in EDF, which exhibit divergent evolutionary patterns in 6mA usage. The analysis of two Mucorales species displaying extreme 6mA usage reveals that species with high 6mA levels show symmetric methylation enriched in highly expressed genes. In contrast, species with low 6mA levels show mostly asymmetric 6mA. Interestingly, transcriptomic regulation throughout development and in response to environmental cues is associated with changes in the 6mA landscape. Furthermore, we identify an EDF-specific methyltransferase, likely originated from endosymbiotic bacteria, as responsible for asymmetric methylation, while an MTA-70 methylation complex performs symmetric methylation. The distinct phenotypes observed in the corresponding mutants reinforced the critical role of both types of 6mA in EDF.

Abstract The cluster expansion method (CEM) is a widely used lattice-based technique in the study of multicomponent alloys. Despite its prevalent use, a clear understanding of expansion terms is lacking. We present a modern mathematical formalism of the CEM and introduce the cluster decomposition—a unique and basis-independent decomposition for functions of the atomic configuration in a crystal. We identify the cluster decomposition as an invariant ANOVA decomposition; and demonstrate how functional analysis of variance and sensitivity analysis can be used to interpret interactions among species. Furthermore, we show how the mathematical structure of the cluster decomposition enables numerical evaluation that scales with the number of clusters and is independent of the number of species. Overall, our work enables rigorous interpretations of interactions among species, provides opportunities to explore parameter estimation beyond linear regression, introduces a numerical efficient implementation, and enables analysis of cluster expansions based on established mathematical and statistical principles.

Abstract Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L. Miller) is a natural source of antioxidant compounds that have gained significant attention due to their potential health benefits. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE), combined with water–ethanol mixtures from 0 to 60%, at moderate temperatures between 50 °C to 70 °C to improve the recovery of antioxidant compounds from red peel prickly pear. The recovery of these compounds was affected by solvent composition and temperature for both extraction techniques. Interestingly, the use of pure water at 70 °C during the PLE process allowed the recovery of high concentrations of antioxidant compounds (12.96 mg GAE/g dw, IC5O: 2.03 mg/mL, ORAC: 625 µmol TE/g dw). On the contrary, when the UAE process was combined with 30% ethanol at 50 °C, the extractability of these compounds (10.52 mg GAE/g dw, IC5O: 3.09 mg/mL, ORAC: 561.26 µmol TE/g dw) was improved. In addition, different solvent compositions were identified to improve the recovery of specific polyphenols. For PLE, pure water at 70 °C was effective in recovering phenolic acids, flavanols, and flavonols, while the highest concentrations of stilbenes were obtained with 60% ethanol at 70 °C. For UAE, the use of 30% ethanol at 50 °C was more effective in extracting phenolic acids and stilbenes, whereas pure water at 50 °C provided high concentrations of flavanols and flavonols. These results contribute to the development of sustainable and efficient extraction strategies for obtaining antioxidant-rich extracts from prickly pear peel with important applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceutical industries.

Hydrotalcite materials (HTs) were synthesized by a facile and swift combined mechanochemistry/coprecipitation approach, and their catalytic activity was evaluated and compared with conventionally synthesized hydrotalcites (co-precipitation method) in the Knoevenagel condensation between furfural and ethyl cyanoacetate/malononitrile. Characterization and catalytic activity results clearly demonstrate that the proposed combined mechanochemical/coprecipitation approach provides an improvement in crystallinity, morphology, tunable basicity, and textural properties (higher surface area and enhanced surface properties) as compared to HTs obtained via conventional coprecipitation methods. In addition, mechanochemically synthesized HTs largely improve catalytic activities, including conversion and product selectivity to Knoevenagel condensation products under solventless conditions, short reaction times, or reaction at room temperature as compared to conventional counterparts (e.g., 30–40 vs > 99% product yields).

El discurso de la joyería ha sido escasamente estudiado desde los postulados de la lingüística, la terminología y la traductología. En el presente artículo tenemos por objetivo analizar los principales procedimientos de formación de palabras en esta lengua de especialidad y, en particular, abordar el papel de la metáfora como recurso de conceptualización y denominación, todo ello en el par de lenguas francés-español. De esta manera, en primer lugar, realizaremos una aproximación histórica a la joyería y presentaremos la situación actual de este sector en España. A continuación, abordaremos la naturaleza de la metáfora conceptual, la relación existente entre la cultura y la metáfora, y su papel en la creación del léxico. Esta fundamentación teórica permitirá la consecución de los objetivos de este estudio. Para ello, se compilará un corpus textual ad hoc mediante el cual extraeremos términos de origen metafórico, lo que nos permitirá considerar los distintos dominios origen mediante los que se conceptualizan distintas partes de las joyas o las gemas. Esta investigación da cuenta de numerosos recursos de formación de palabras, como la composición y derivación, así como de una abundante sinonimia y polisemia. Asimismo, el análisis del corpus ha permitido encontrar diversos dominios origen, como el ser humano y los animales, así como los alimentos y los edificios. De la productividad de las metáforas antropomórficas dan cuenta aquellos términos que hacen referencia principalmente a diversas partes del cuerpo, a la personalidad y al aspecto. Del análisis bilingüe efectuado se puede extraer que las metáforas conceptuales subyacentes coinciden en francés y español, así como muchas de las expresiones metafóricas documentadas; no obstante, pueden existir diferencias entre ambos idiomas e, incluso, falsos amigos, por lo que de cara a su traducción será preciso una importante labor documental y la consulta de obras lexicográficas especializadas para evitar problemas de índole comunicativa. Este artículo concluye con una serie de consideraciones aplicadas a la traducción de este discurso.