Efficacy of Elaborated Semantic Features Analysis in Aphasia: a quasi-randomised controlled trial

Background: Word finding difficulty is one of the most common features of aphasia. Semantic Features Analysis (SFA) directly aims to improve word finding in people with aphasia. Evidence from systematic reviews suggests that SFA leads to positive outcomes, yet the evidence comprises single case studies and case series. There is a need to evaluate the efficacy of SFA in controlled group studies/trials. Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of Elaborated Semantic Feature Analysis (ESFA) for word finding in people with aphasia. We investigated: (a) the efficacy of ESFA versus a delayed therapy/control, (b) the efficacy of two therapy approaches– individual versus a combination of individual and group therapy. Methods and procedures: We ran a multi-centre, quasi-randomised controlled trial, nested in a larger study (Thales-Aphasia). Participants were recruited from community settings. They had to be people with aphasia due to stroke at least four months post-onset. Participants were randomized to individual vs combination vs delayed therapy/control groups. Both therapy groups had three hours of ESFA per week for 12 weeks. Delayed therapy/control group had no intervention for 12 weeks and were then randomized to either individual or combination therapy. The primary outcome was confrontation naming. Secondary outcomes were the Boston Naming Test, Discourse, the Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for adults (ASHA–FACS), the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life scale (SAQOL-39g), the General Health Questionnaire-12 item, and the EQ-5D. Outcomes and Results: Of the 72 participants of the Thales-Aphasia project, 58 met eligibility criteria for speech-language therapy and 39 were allocated to ESFA. The critical p-value was adjusted for multiple comparisons (.005). For the therapy versus control comparison, there was a significant main effect of time on the primary outcome (p<.001, η2p=.42) and a significant interaction effect (p=.003, η2p=.21). An interaction effect for the SAQOL-39g (p=.015, η2p=.11) and its psychosocial domain (p=.013, η2p=.12) did not remain significant after Bonferroni adjustment. For the individual versus combination ESFA comparison, there were significant main effects of time on the primary outcome (p<.001, η2p=.49), the BNT (p<.001, η2p=.29) and the ASHA-FACS (p=.001, η2p=.18). Interaction and group effects were not significant. Conclusion: Though underpowered, this study provides evidence on the efficacy of ESFA to improve word finding in aphasia, with gains similar in the two therapy approaches. Trial registration: ISRCTN71455409, https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN7145540

Chernick, Marc (2008), Acuerdo posible: solución negociada al conflicto armado colombiano, Bogotá: Ediciones Aurora. ISBN 978-958-9136-3-86, PP. 284

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Teatralità e manifestazioni del culto esterno: l’età napoleonica in Lombardia

A partire dalla metà del Settecento sino al primo quindicennio dell’Ottocento, in età giuseppina e soprattutto napoleonica, una serie di provvedimenti giuridici limitò, in area lombarda, ogni abuso ed eccesso indiscriminati del culto esterno, mirando ad un maggiore controllo dei momenti di aggregazione spontanea e concentrando la pubblica devozione in occasioni stabilite e orchestrate dal clero secolare e dalle istituzioni civili, dove gli elementi fortemente performativi di questi eventi fossero posti sotto lo stretto controllo delle autorità competenti.From the mid-eighteenth century until the first fifteen years of the nineteenth century, in the Josephan and especially Napoleonic era, a series of legal provisions limited, in the Lombardy area, any indiscriminate abuse and excess of external worship, aiming at greater control of moments of aggregation spontaneous and concentrating public devotion on occasions established and orchestrated by secular clergy and civil institutions, where the strongly performative elements of these events were placed under the strict control of the competent authorities

Se a innamorarsi è la regina: la "Didone abbandonata" di Pietro Metastasio

Didone abbandonata was Metastasio’s first drama for music. It was performed in Naples in 1724 and subsequently replicated and modified for the most famous Italian theaters. This drama was born from an artistic collaboration and the close personal relationship between the poet and singer Marianna Benti Bulgarelli but&nbsp;soon crosses the representative contest for which it was thought, becoming a canonical encounter for many musicians down to the first half of nineteenth century. This scientific essay reconstructs the complex and twofold editorial and theatrical adventure of the first Metastasio’s drama and analyzes the implications of the dramatic text that gives new light to the myth of Virgil Carthaginian queen of theatrical context of seventeenth century.&nbsp

L'Albero dell'Odin Teatret: genesi di un 'ultimo spettacolo'

L’Albero (2016) – come quasi tutti gli spettacoli dell’Odin Teatret a partire dagli anni Settanta – è il risultato di una Collective Mind che collaziona «numerose specializzazioni, vari gradi di espe- rienza e diverse responsabilità in uno sforzo di in- tegrazione simile a quello che avviene in un indi- viduo nell’atto di inventare: cambi di direzione, deviazioni, utilizzazione di coincidenze, salti da un livello di organizzazione all’altro (livello pre- espressivo, drammaturgia organica, drammatur- gia narrativa, modellazione dello spazio e dell’universo sonoro-musicale)» (E. Barba). Il pre- sente saggio si propone dunque di investigarne il processo creativoThe Tree (2016) – like almost all Odin shows from the 1970s onwards – is the result of a Collective Mind that integrates «numerous specializations, various degrees of experience and different re- sponsibilities in an effort of integration similar to what happens in the mind of an individual in the act of inventing: changes of direction, deviations, use of coincidences and serendipity effects, leaps from one level of organization to another (pre-ex- pressive level, organic dramaturgy, narrative dramaturgy, modeling of space, of the sound / mu- sical universe)» (E. Barba). The present study aims to investigate this creative process