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Questo articolo presenta un’analisi descrittiva dell’intensificazione dell’aggettivo in italiano L2. Il fenomeno è stato analizzato in apprendenti di scuole secondarie di secondo grado della provincia multilingue dell’Alto Adige, in cui l’italiano è insegnato come L2 a studenti di L1 tedesca e ladina. I dati su cui lo studio è basato sono tratti da un ampio corpus scritto che include in modo bilanciato testi narrativi e argomentativi, e da un corpus di controllo di studenti di L1 italiana. Lo studio analizza la distribuzione nello scritto degli apprendenti dei diversi tipi di intensificazione dell’aggettivo previsti dall’italiano; l’influenza che le variabili della L1, dell’ambiente linguistico di appartenenza, del livello QCER e del genere testuale hanno sulla produzione di aggettivi intensificati; le differenze tra apprendenti e studenti L1 nell’uso dell’intensificazione dell’aggettivo. I risultati indicano un uso dominante della forma prototipica avverbio di grado + aggettivo, in competizione con il suffisso superlativo -issimo, che è usato dagli apprendenti L2 più che dagli studenti L1. Adjective intensification in L2 Italian: an analysis of young learners from South Tyrolean schools This study investigates adjective intensification in L2 Italian. Its targets are young learners from South Tyrolean upper secondary schools, where Italian is taught as a second language to L1 German and Ladin students. Data are extracted from a vast written corpus including both narrative and argumentative texts, and from a control corpus of native Italian students. The study investigates the distribution of the different adjective intensification types in learners’ texts; the ways learners’ L1s, language environment, proficiency level and text genre affect the use of intensified adjectives; the differences between learners and L1 students in the use of adjective intensification. Results show a dominant use of the prototypical form booster + adjective, competing with the suffix -issimo, which is used more by learners than by L1 students.

One of the aims of diagnostic nerve blocks is to identify the overactive muscles that lead to a specific spasticity pattern. However, to date, there is no evidence on how nerve blocks may affect botulinum neurotoxin-A (BoNT-A) dose in patients with spasticity. This case-control study aims to assess the role of diagnostic nerve block in defining BoNT-A starting dose at first treatment. Patients with upper and lower limb spasticity treated for the first time with BoNT-A were retrospectively divided into two groups: Group 1 (n = 43) was evaluated with clinical assessment and diagnostic nerve block; Group 2 (n = 56) underwent clinical assessment only. Group 1 was injected with higher BoNT-A doses in some muscles (i.e., flexor digitorum profundus, soleus), and received a higher BoNT-A cumulative dose with a larger number of injected muscles for some spasticity patterns (i.e., “clenched fist”, “flexed fingers”, “adducted thigh”). Diagnostic nerve block may help the clinician to optimize and personalize the BoNT-A dose since the first BoNT-A treatment.

Botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) has emerged as a key therapeutic agent for the management of spasticity. This paper presents a comprehensive bibliometric and visual analysis of research concerning BoNT-A treatment of spasticity to elucidate current trends and future directions in this research area. A search was conducted in the Web of Science database for articles focused on the use of BoNT-A in spasticity published between 2000 and 2022. We extracted various metrics, including counts of publications and contributions from different countries, institutions, authors, and journals. Analytical methods in CiteSpace were employed for the examination of co-citations, collaborations, and the co-occurrence of keywords. Our search yielded 1489 publications. Analysis revealed a consistent annual increase in research output. The United States, United Kingdom, and Italy were the leading contributors. The top institution in this research was Assistance Publique Hopitaux, Paris. The journal containing the highest number of relevant publications was Toxins. Key frequently occurring keywords were ‘stroke’, ‘cerebral palsy’, ‘adult spasticity’, and ‘upper extremity’. This study identified 12 clusters of keywords and 15 clusters of co-cited references, indicating the main focus areas and emerging themes in this field. This study comprehensively analyzed and summarized trends in BoNT-A research in the field of spasticity over the past 22 years.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the use of e-cigarettes to aid in quitting contributed to the increase in the pulmonary health of chronic smokers. The efficacy of e-cigarettes to support a successful smoking cessation attempt was also investigated. A total of 210 smokers (78 women) were enrolled in a screening program for the early detection of lung cancer and distributed in three arms: nicotine e-cigarette plus support, nicotine-free e-cigarette plus support, and support. Results showed that participants in the nicotine e-cigarette arm had a significant and fast decrease in daily cigarettes, but that later they resume smoking more than the other two groups. Conversely, participants in the other two arms showed similar daily consumption at the two evaluation points. Among abstinent participants, only 12.5% reported cough, while 48% of current smokers had pulmonary symptoms. Our study suggests that, in the long run, the use of a nicotine-free liquid may favor reducing smoking and could be considered a good option in a clinical setting.

Glioma is a group of tumors that originate from glial cells within the central nervous system and comprise 27% of all tumors and 80% of malignant tumors. With remarkable progress in surgical practices, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, patients with glioma are experiencing greater survival times, which means they need more rehabilitative care. In fact, people with this condition may experience a variety of symptoms that can affect their functions and drastically reduce their quality of life. In fact, patients suffering from glioma has a distinctive symptom complex highlighting the requirement for customized care. Growing evidence shows that rehabilitation therapy can improve the functional prognosis and quality of life of glioma patients. However, there is limited evidence of the success of rehabilitation protocols designed specifically for individuals with glioma. It is essential to determine the most comprehensive rehabilitation programs as well as the sufficient resources, dosage, and duration. The goal of this mini-review was to classify and map rehabilitation interventions used to treat multiple disabling sequalae in individuals affected by glioma. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the rehabilitation protocols used for this population, so that clinicians have a guide to support treatment and an inspiration for further research. This document is intended to be a reference point for professionals involved in the management of adult patients with gliomas. Further exploration is needed to form improved care models for recognizing and addressing functional restrictions in this population.

Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) is the treatment of choice for focal spasticity, with a concomitant effect on pain reduction and improvement of quality of life (QoL). Current evidence of its efficacy is based mainly on post stroke spasticity. This study aims to clarify the role of BoNT-A in the context of non-stroke spasticity (NSS). We enrolled 86 patients affected by multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury with clinical indication to perform BoNT-A treatment. Subjects were evaluated before injection and after 1, 3, and 6 months. At every visit, spasticity severity using the modified Ashworth scale, pain using the numeric rating scale, QoL using the Euro Qol Group EQ-5D-5L, and the perceived treatment effect using the Global Assessment of Efficacy scale were recorded. In our population BoNT-A demonstrated to have a significant effect in improving all the outcome variables, with different effect persistence over time in relation to the diagnosis and the number of treated sites. Our results support BoNT-A as a modifier of the disability condition and suggest its implementation in the treatment of NSS, delivering a possible starting point to generate diagnosis-specific follow-up programs.Clinical trial identifierNCT04673240.

Collocations are one of the most studied types of word combinations. Their intricate nature, based on varying degrees of restriction, begs the question as to how modifications in their typical form influence the way they are processed by native speakers and learners. In this study, an eye-tracking experiment was carried out. We compared native speakers and learners of Italian when processing typical (i.e., common) and atypical (i.e., uncommon) collocations of Italian. Atypical collocations were developed by manipulating the grammatical and lexical components of a set of typical collocations. We also investigated how the online processing was affected by the different modifications (i.e., lexical and grammatical) performed and proficiency levels included. Both kinds of modifications disrupt collocation processing, with lexical modification being generally more salient than grammatical modification in terms of processing costs. Further, proficiency level influences phraseological processing, with varying effects related to the different kinds of modifications. The findings of our study are largely in line with previous research, while providing new insights into how lexis and grammar affect phraseological processing. They contribute to the evidence on languages other than English, a still under-researched domain in second language acquisition as a whole.

L’articolo descrive la progettazione, la realizzazione e le caratteristiche di un nuovo learner corpus di italiano L2: il corpus CELI. Il corpus raccoglie, sistematicamente, le produzioni scritte di apprendenti di italiano L2 che hanno superato le prove per la certificazione linguistica CELI dell’Università per Stranieri di Perugia in relazione ai livelli B1, B2, C1 e C2. Il corpus contiene 3041 testi prodotti da altrettanti apprendenti, con una distribuzione bilanciata dei token per livello di competenza. I metadati associati a ciascun testo includono: • il genere, la data di nascita, il numero di matricola e la nazionalità dell’apprendente; • il livello di competenza, secondo il QCER, relativo alla prova superata dall’apprendente; • il punteggio totale assegnato all’intera prova d’esame, il punteggio totale assegnato alla componente scritta dell’esame, il punteggio specifico assegnato alla singola produzione scritta, con i relativi punteggi assegnati alla competenza lessicale, alla competenza grammaticale, alla competenza sociolinguistica, e alla coerenza e coesione del testo prodotto; • il numero identificativo della traccia utilizzata per la produzione di ciascun testo, con l’indicazione del genere (lettera, e-mail, blog, racconto, articolo e relazione) e della tipologia (argomentativa, descrittiva e narrativa, o mista: descrittiva-narrativa; argomentativa-narrativa; argomentativa-descrittiva; argomentativa-narrativa-descrittiva) del testo prodotto. Il corpus CELI si presta a numerosi utilizzi sia sul versante della ricerca linguistico-acquisizionale, soprattutto in chiave pseudo-longitudinale, sia sul versante della pianificazione didattica, dello sviluppo di attività didattiche e del language testing. The CELI corpus: a new resource for studying Italian L2 acquisition The article illustrates the design, the development and the characteristics of a new learner corpus of Italian L2: the CELI corpus. The corpus systematically collects the written texts produced by learners of Italian L2 who have passed the CELI exams administered by University for Foreigners of Perugia in relation to proficiency levels B1, B2, C1 and C2. The corpus contains 3041 texts produced by the same number of learners, with a balanced distribution of the tokens in terms of proficiency level. The metadata associated with each text include: • gender, date of birth, student ID code and nationality of the learner; • CEFR proficiency level, related to the exam passed by the learner; • the score assigned to the entire exam, to the entire written component of the exam, and to the single written task together with scores pertaining to lexical, grammatical and sociolinguistic competence and to the cohesion and coherence of the produced text; • the ID number related to the task used to produce each text, with the indication of text genre (letter, e-mail, blog, story, article and report) and text type (argumentative, descriptive and narrative, or mixed: descriptive-narrative; argumentative-narrative; argumentative-descriptive; argumentative-narrative-descriptive). The CELI corpus lends itself to numerous uses both in the domain of second language acquisition research, particularly with regard to pseudo-longitudinal research designs, and in the domain of pedagogical planning, pedagogical materials design and language testing.

Background: As the field of sensor-based rehabilitation continues to expand, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of its current research landscape. This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify the most influential authors, institutions, journals, and research areas in this field. Methods: A search of the Web of Science Core Collection was performed using keywords related to sensor-based rehabilitation in neurological diseases. The search results were analyzed with CiteSpace software using bibliometric techniques, including co-authorship analysis, citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. Results: Between 2002 and 2022, 1103 papers were published on the topic, with slow growth from 2002 to 2017, followed by a rapid increase from 2018 to 2022. The United States was the most active country, while the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology had the highest number of publications among institutions. Sensors published the most papers. The top keywords included rehabilitation, stroke, and recovery. The clusters of keywords comprised machine learning, specific neurological conditions, and sensor-based rehabilitation technologies. Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of sensor-based rehabilitation research in neurological diseases, highlighting the most influential authors, journals, and research themes. The findings can help researchers and practitioners to identify emerging trends and opportunities for collaboration and can inform the development of future research directions in this field.

Upper limb intention tremor is a common cause of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging form of brain stimulation used to improve sensorimotor impairments in many neurological disorders. Here, we describe a combined therapeutic approach with botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT-A) and tDCS for the treatment of upper limb tremor in a patient with MS. We administered a cathodal tDCS 15 days after the injections of BoNT-A. Both post-injection and post-stimulation evaluation revealed a considerable improvement of the tremor. This approach positively affected the patient’s activities of daily living. Our case report shows a safe and beneficial effect of tDCS in the treatment of action tremor in MS especially as a possible adjunctive synergic treatment with BoNT-A injections.

Background: Balance impairment is a common disability in post-stroke survivors, leading to reduced mobility and increased fall risk. Robotic gait training (RAGT) is largely used, along with traditional training. There is, however, no strong evidence about RAGT superiority, especially on balance. This study aims to determine RAGT efficacy on balance of post-stroke survivors. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and PeDRO databases were investigated. Randomized clinical trials evaluating RAGT efficacy on post-stroke survivor balance with Berg Balance Scale (BBS) or Timed Up and Go test (TUG) were searched. Meta-regression analyses were performed, considering weekly sessions, single-session duration, and robotic device used. Results: A total of 18 trials have been included. BBS pre-post treatment mean difference is higher in RAGT-treated patients, with a pMD of 2.17 (95% CI 0.79; 3.55). TUG pre-post mean difference is in favor of RAGT, but not statistically, with a pMD of −0.62 (95%CI − 3.66; 2.43). Meta-regression analyses showed no relevant association, except for TUG and treatment duration (β = −1.019, 95% CI − 1.827; −0.210, p-value = 0.0135). Conclusions: RAGT efficacy is equal to traditional therapy, while the combination of the two seems to lead to better outcomes than each individually performed. Robot-assisted balance training should be the focus of experimentation in the following years, given the great results in the first available trials. Given the massive heterogeneity of included patients, trials with more strict inclusion criteria (especially time from stroke) must be performed to finally define if and when RAGT is superior to traditional therapy.

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the reasons and determinants of BoNT-A discontinuation in patients with stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury. Methods: It is a retrospective study of 56 discontinuer patients treated with botulinum toxin between January 2011 and December 2021. Discontinuation rates and their predictors were estimated using Kaplan–Meier, Log rank test, and Cox’s regression method of analyses. Results: The mean age was 56.54 years, 53.57% were affected by post-stroke spasticity, 17.86% by spinal cord injury, 12.5% and 16.07% by traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis, respectively. The median discontinuation time was 5 months. The main reason for discontinuation were logistic problems (37%) and orthopedic surgeries or intrathecal baclofen (27%). Discontinuers were more likely to have severe spasticity (R = 1.785), have no pain (HR = 1.320), no access to rehabilitation services (HR = 1.402), and have cognitive impairment (HR = 1.403). Conclusions: The main reasons for discontinuation are related to logistic issues (due to distance or the absence of an adequate caregiver) and surgical interventions for spasticity, including intrathecal baclofen. It is crucial to identify possible predictors of discontinuation to improve the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary management. The study confirms the crucial role of rehabilitation and caregivers in achieving better long-term outcomes.

Objective: To examine whether tailored robotic platform training could improve postural stability compared with conventional balance treatment in patients with mild Parkinson’s disease. Design: Randomized single-blind pilot study. Subjects: Twenty-two patients with mild Parkinson’s disease (Hoehn and Yahr scale; H and Y 1–2). Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group for robotic balance training and to a control group for conventional balance training. Each patient received 20 treatments (45 min/session, 5 times/week). Blinded evaluations were conducted before and after the treatment and 1 month post-treatment. Primary outcome measures were Mini BESTest, and Berg Balance Scale; secondary outcome measures were 10-Meter Walk Test, Five Times Sit to Stand Test, and Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire 39. Results: Primary outcome measures in patients in both the experimental and control groups improved significantly after the balance treatment. Similar results were found for all the secondary outcome measures. The experimental group performed significantly better than the control group at both post-intervention and follow-up evaluation in the primary outcomes (p

Nel corso degli ultimi trent’anni la crescente presenza di studentesse e studenti neoarrivati, immigrati e figli di genitori immigrati ha fortemente influenzato la società italiana e ha impegnato il sistema scolastico al fine di favorire la loro integrazione linguistica e sociale. Nonostante nel corso degli ultimi decenni il numero delle studentesse e degli studenti alloglotti sia aumentato sensibilmente, solo a partire dall’anno scolastico 2017/2018 è stata introdotta la figura del docente di Lingua italiana per discenti di lingua straniera. L’assenza di docenti esperti e competenti nell’ambito della didattica dell’italiano L2, infatti, ha a lungo caratterizzato gli interventi di integrazione linguistica rivolti agli studenti alloglotti. Per questo motivo l’istituzionalizzazione della classe di concorso A23-Lingua italiana per discenti di lingua straniera è un momento fondamentale per il riconoscimento istituzionale dell’insegnamento dell’italiano L2 nella scuola pubblica. Il presente contributo si propone di ripercorrere le diverse tappe che hanno portato al primo inserimento dei docenti della classe di concorso A23 e mette in luce i problemi e le criticità emerse durante i primi tre anni scolastici di servizio. A short history of the competition class A23 - Italian language for foreign language learners Over the last thirty years, the arrival of a large number of foreign people has had a considerable impact on Italian society. Consequently, the national school system has been greatly affected, seen in daily life at Italian schools. Since the 2017/2018 school year, for the first time, teachers who had successfully completed a structured course on teaching Italian as a second language were included in Italian public school staff. For a long time, Italian public schools did not have highly qualified staff able to face problems linked to learning Italian as a second language. For this reason, the recruitment of A23 teachers can be considered key. This paper focuses on the major steps that led to the inclusion of professionals qualified to teach Lingua italiana per discenti di lingua straniera. in Italian public schools.

Spastic equinovarus (SEV) foot deformity is commonly observed in patients with post-stroke spasticity. Tibialis posterior (TP) is a common target for botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) injection, as a first-line treatment in non-fixed SEV deformity. For this deep muscle, ultrasonographic guidance is crucial to achieving maximum accuracy for the BoNT-A injection. In current clinical practice, there are three approaches to target the TP: an anterior, a posteromedial, and a posterior. To date, previous studies have failed to identify the best approach for needle insertion into TP. To explore the ultrasonographic characteristics of these approaches, we investigated affected and unaffected legs of 25 stroke patients with SEV treated with BoNT-A. We evaluated the qualitative (echo intensity) and quantitative (muscle depth, muscle thickness, overlying muscle, subcutaneous tissue, cross-sectional area) ultrasound characteristics of the three approaches for TP injection. In our sample, we observed significant differences among almost all the parameters of the three approaches, except for the safety window. Moreover, our analysis showed significant differences in cross-sectional area between treated and untreated. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach were investigated. Our findings can thus provide a suitable reference for clinical settings, especially for novice operators.

This article introduces the CELI corpus, a new learner corpus of written Italian consisting of ca. 600,000 tokens, evenly distributed among CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) proficiency levels B1, B2, C1 and C2. The collected texts derive from the language certification exams administered by the University for Foreigners of Perugia all around the world. The corpus contains rich metadata pertaining to text-related and learner-related variables. It expands the domain of learner corpora by being, among other things, both freely available online to the research community, and by focusing on a target language other than English. The article also presents and evaluates the POS-tagging procedure, thus contributing to best practices in learner corpus annotation.

This work introduces an automatic classification system for measuring the complexity level of a given Italian text under a linguistic point-of-view. The task of measuring the complexity of a text is cast to a supervised classification problem by exploiting a dataset of texts purposely produced by linguistic experts for second language teaching and assessment purposes. The commonly adopted Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) levels were used as target classification classes, texts were elaborated by considering a large set of numeric linguistic features, and an experimental comparison among ten widely used machine learning models was conducted. The results show that the proposed approach is able to obtain a good prediction accuracy, while a further analysis was conducted in order to identify the categories of features that influenced the predictions.

This study is a preliminary investigation of the development of phraseology in Chinese learners of Italian. Based on an error-annotated longitudinal learner corpus, it aims at analysing three different categories of lexical combinations, in order to understand to what extent phraseological errors are affected by time and by the use of either the open-choice or the idiom principle (Sinclair 1991). The analysis shows that L2 phraseology learning can be slow and uneven. As formulaicity is pervasive in language, research on phraseological errors can provide invaluable support for language teaching and learning.

This paper intends to analyze the potential of smart cities from a linguistic perspective, with particular attention towards aspects such as second language acquisition (SLA), social inclusion and innovation, but also positive influences on sectors such as tourism and commerce. After an introduction of the theoretical foundations, the possible developing scenarios will be taken into consideration and analyzed more in detail.

Elledueò is the social network of the University for Foreigners in Perugia, created with the aim of uniting the international community of teachers of Italian as a Second Language (ISL) via the web. The network, based on a social learning approach, offers them an environment in which everyone shares resources in learning the Italian language and culture. Elledueò is halfway between a repository and a social network. The added merits of such a tool is the regular use of web technologies by teachers of ISL and the constant interaction in discussing the use of the teaching tools in the network. Elledueò has other users as well - students of Italian as a Foreign Language. In this environment they have the opportunity to come in contact with teaching resources shared by teachers of Italian through which they can undertake an informal type of learning.