Search

In the current draft of the European Regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products (COM 2022 305), it is established that all the member states have to set up an electronic register of application equipment in professional use. It will set out notification requirements for transfer of ownership and withdrawal of or return to use, and it will also record the inspection certificates. In this way, it will be possible to know the total number of application equipment units that have to be inspected. At the same time, the regulatory bodies will have information on the development of the inspection programme, because it will be possible to know how many units have already passed the inspection and when it has to be renewed. It is also important to know which are the units that have never been inspected and, therefore, they cannot be used for professional use. In Spain the registration of agricultural machines has been in place for more than 60 years. At the beginning, only the machines that have to drive on the roads, had to be in this official list, before they got the licence plate by the traffic authorities. That means all tractors, combines and other selfpropelled and towed agricultural machines (tillage equipment, seeders, mowers, balers, etc.). When the inspection of application equipment in use became mandatory, according to the Directive for the sustainable use of pesticides (2009/128/CE), the registration of all kind of application equipment, both new and in use was also compulsory. For the machines already in use, a special procedure was established to make their registration straightforward. At present, information on the current situation of the inspection programme is available on a digital database. Although there are some constraints, like some old, not used machines which have not been withdrawn, a great deal of useful, detailed information can be obtained from this database. Based on this, the inspection programme can be fine-tuned, in order to get all the sprayers inspected, which is the main objective of the current European Directive. In this paper, the set-up and present situation of the Spanish official registration of application equipment will be presented, because hopefully it can be useful for the establishment of similar tools in other member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by worsening of speech and/or language. Script training intervention promotes automatized speech production via repeated practice of scripted content. This study evaluated the acceptability, feasibility, and effects of a modified version of Video-Implemented Script Training for Aphasia (VISTA) in the three PPA variants and compared outcomes by intervention modality (teletherapy vs. in person)., Method: Thirteen bilingual (Spanish-Catalan) participants were included (semantic variant, n = 5; logopenic variant, n = 5; nonfluent/agrammatic variant, n = 3; teletherapy, n = 7). Using a nonrandomized design, intervention was administered in participants' dominant language. Participants were trained on an individualized script twice per week, over 8 weeks. Performance on measures related to script accuracy, content, and subjective ratings of production quality was evaluated at baseline, immediately post, and at 3 and 6 months post-intervention., Results: No significant differences were observed on the basis of intervention modality. Participants demonstrated significant improvements from pre- to post-intervention in script production, synonym production, keywords, and global quality on the trained script. Maintenance was observed when comparing performance at post-intervention relative to 3- and 6-month follow-up for script and synonym production. Significant improvement in production quality of the untrained topic was observed following intervention. Different patterns of benefit were observed by PPA variant., Conclusions: Modified VISTA was acceptable and effective across the three PPA variants, as evidenced by improvements on a broader array of outcome measures than those previously reported. Findings also provide further support for provision for teletherapy in individuals with PPA., Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26999326.

Introduction: Semantic dementia is characterised by a progressive loss of semantic content that initially affects the capacity to name things, and is associated with asymmetric atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) with predominant compromise of language, anomia is also the main symptom. The study examined the capacity to relearn vocabulary of two patients, each exhibiting one of these two forms of degenerative anomia., Case Reports: The two cases presented similar ages, gender, levels of schooling and degree of compromise. Their capacity to name a list of 40 pictures was evaluated at baseline, following 20 sessions of relearning, at one month and at six months. The patient with semantic dementia named 25/40 objects at baseline, 40/40 after relearning, 35/40 at one month and 27/40 at six months. The patient with AD named 29/40 at baseline, 30/40 after relearning, 29/40 at one month and 32/40 at six months. No intrusions were observed following relearning., Conclusions: The patient with semantic dementia was able to relearn all the vocabulary she was shown, even though she lost everything she had acquired after treatment was interrupted. The AD patient did not improve her naming capacity with therapy. These differences suggest that the learning and consolidation circuits are affected in different ways. Subjects with semantic dementia, but not those with AD, could benefit from word relearning strategies with this method.