Multisensory effects of mask wearing on speech intelligibility and the benefit of multilingualism / Efeitos multissensoriais do uso de máscara na inteligibilidade da fala e o benefício do multilinguismo

ABSTRACT Purpose Due to the pandemic of the Covid-19 disease, it became common to wear masks on some public spaces. By covering mouth and nose, visual-related speech cues are greatly reduced, while the auditory signal is both distorted and attenuated. The present study aimed to analyze the multisensory effects of mask wearing on speech intelligibility and the differences in these effects between participants who spoke 1, 2 and 3 languages. Methods The study consisted of the presentation of sentences from the SPIN test to 40 participants. Participants were asked to report the perceived sentences. There were four conditions: auditory with mask; audiovisual with mask; auditory without mask; audiovisual without mask. Two sessions were conducted, one week apart, each with the same stimuli but with a different signal-to-noise ratio. Results Results demonstrated that the use of the mask decreased speech intelligibility, both due to a decrease in the quality of auditory stimuli and due to the loss of visual information. Signal-to-noise ratio largely affects speech intelligibility and higher ratios are needed in mask-wearing conditions to obtain any degree of intelligibility. Those who speak more than one language are less affected by mask wearing, as are younger listeners. Conclusion Wearing a facial mask reduces speech intelligibility, both due to visual and auditory factors. Older people and people who only speak one language are affected the most.

RESUMO Objetivo Devido à pandemia da doença Covid-19, o uso de máscaras em espaços públicos tornou-se comum. Ao cobrir a boca e o nariz, reduzem-se amplamente as pistas visuais associadas à fala, assim como se distorce e atenua o sinal auditivo. Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar os efeitos multissensoriais do uso da máscara na percepção da fala e a diferença entre participantes falantes de uma, duas ou três línguas. Método Este estudo consistiu na apresentação de frases do SPIN teste a 40 participantes. Os participantes tinham como tarefa reportar as frases percebidas em quatro condições: Auditiva com máscara, audiovisual com máscara, auditiva sem máscara, audiovisual sem máscara. Conduziram-se duas sessões, com uma semana de intervalo, cada uma com os mesmos estímulos mas com diferente relação sinal-ruído. Resultados Os resultados demonstraram que o uso de máscara reduz a inteligibilidade da fala, tanto devido à diminuição da qualidade do estímulo auditivo, como devido à perda de informação visual. A relação sinal-ruído afeta a inteligibilidade e com o uso de máscara são necessárias relações mais altas para obter qualquer identificação correta. Aqueles que falam mais do que uma língua, assim como os mais novos, são menos afetados na percepção de fala com uso de máscara. Conclusão O uso de máscara facial reduz a inteligibilidade da fala, tanto devido a fatores visuais como auditivos. Indivíduos monolíngues, assim como os mais velhos, são os mais afetados nesta tarefa.

Progress in stimuli-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers for enrichment analysis of trace components in traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

Molecularly imprinted polymers demonstrate outstanding performance in the research on trace ingredients because of their high selectivity. Stimuli-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers(STR-MIPs) with the introduction of different responsive groups on the basis of traditionally imprinted materials can undergo reversible transformations when exposed to external stimuli such as temperature, magnetism, pH or light. Such responsiveness, combined with the specific recognition, endows STR-MIPs with excellent perfor-mance in trace component studies. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) contains complex components with trace content, and thus STR-MIPs have broad application prospects in the enrichment analysis of trace components in TCM. This paper elaborates on the application of STR-MIPs in the enrichment analysis of trace components in TCM from the perspectives of different stimuli, summarized relevant research achievements in the recent five years to broaden the application fields of molecular imprinting, and proposed a few opi-nions about their future development.

Caracterización del tipo de sensibilidad dental de pacientes con periodontitis y su respuesta a los dentífricos / Characterization of the type of dental sensitivity of patients with periodontitis and their response to dentifrices

La hipersensibilidad de la dentina surge ante la exposición de esta y en respuesta a estímulos de diverso tipo, fundamentalmente de origen térmico, evaporativo, táctil, osmótico o químico. Se realizó una investigación abocada a caracterizar la hipersensibilidad dental de pacientes atendidos en consulta de odontología y la respuesta a determinado dentífrico utilizado. En el análisis de estimulación dental se tomaron 308 mediciones de la sensibilidad dental para todos los participantes (n=22), con 7 factores de tiempo (T0 antes del uso del producto, T3 días, T5 días, T8 días, T22 días y T29 días después del uso del dentífrico). Se realizó la prueba paramétrica regresión lineal simple para identificar la tendencia y el ajuste de los datos, al considerar dichas variables como una serie temporal. Se utilizaron 22 tratamientos. Casi el 91,0% expreso que el dentífrico había cumplido sus expectativas, fundamentalmente por la reducción de la hipersensibilidad a corto plazo, mientras que aproximadamente 91,0% de los casos afirmó que compraría el dentífrico (20 casos, IC 95%: 72,2% y 97,5%), respectivamente(AU)

Dentin hypersensitivity arises when exposed to it and in response to various types of stimuli, mainly of thermal, tactile evaporative, osmotic or chemical origin. An investigation was carried out aimed at characterizing the dental hypersensitivity of patients seen in the dental office and the response to a certain toothpaste used. In the dental stimulation analysis, 308 measurements of tooth sensitivity were taken for all participants (n = 22), with 7 time factors (T0 before use of the product, T3 days, T5 days, T8 days, T22 days and T29 days after using the toothpaste). The simple linear regression parametric test was performed to identify the trend and the fit of the data, considering these variables as a time series. 22 treatments were used. Almost 91.0% believed that the toothpaste had met their expectations, mainly due to the reduction in hypersensitivity in the short term, while approximately 91.0% of the cases stated that they would buy the toothpaste (20 cases, 95% CI: 72 , 2% and 97.5%), respectively(AU)

Research progress of tumor microenvironment-responsive RNA drug delivery systems / 药学学报

Cancer is considered as one of the major diseases endangering human health in the world, it is urgent to find a safer and more efficient treatment for cancer therapy. Gene therapy with ribonucleic acid (RNA) drugs could regulate the expression of tumor related genes, and exhibit good anti-tumor therapeutic potential in preclinical and clinical trials. Based on the differences between tumor tissues and normal tissues in microenvironment signal characteristics such as pH, specific enzyme concentration or redox gradient, various microenvironment responsive nanocarriers had been studied and developed to deliver RNA drugs to tumor tissues and cells, improving the anti-tumor efficacy of RNA drugs and reducing toxic and side effects. This paper reviews the pathophysiological characteristics of tumor microenvironment and various strategies of tumor microenvironment responsive nanocarriers, in order to provide reference for the design of safe and efficient RNA drug delivery system for cancer therapy.

Engineering prodrug nanomicelles as pyroptosis inducer for codelivery of PI3K/mTOR and CDK inhibitors to enhance antitumor immunity

Aberrant activation of oncogenic signaling pathways in tumors can promote resistance to the antitumor immune response. However, single blockade of these pathways is usually ineffective because of the complex crosstalk and feedback among oncogenic signaling pathways. The enhanced toxicity of free small molecule inhibitor combinations is considered an insurmountable barrier to their clinical applications. To circumvent this issue, we rationally designed an effective tumor microenvironment-activatable prodrug nanomicelle (PNM) for cancer therapy. PNM was engineered by integrating the PI3K/mTOR inhibitor PF-04691502 (PF) and the broad spectrum CDK inhibitor flavopiridol (Flav) into a single nanoplatform, which showed tumor-specific accumulation, activation and deep penetration in response to the high glutathione (GSH) tumoral microenvironment. The codelivery of PF and Flav could trigger gasdermin E (GSDME)-based immunogenic pyroptosis of tumor cells to elicit a robust antitumor immune response. Furthermore, the combination of PNM-induced immunogenic pyroptosis with anti-programmed cell death-1 (αPD-1) immunotherapy further boosted the antitumor effect and prolonged the survival time of mice. Collectively, these results indicated that the pyroptosis-induced nanoplatform codelivery of PI3K/mTOR and CDK inhibitors can reprogram the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and efficiently improve checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy.

Stimuli-responsive nano vehicle enhances cancer immunotherapy by coordinating mitochondria-targeted immunogenic cell death and PD-L1 blockade

Induction of immunogenic cell death promotes antitumor immunity against cancer. However, majority of clinically-approved drugs are unable to elicit sufficient ICD. Here, our study revealed that mitochondria-targeted delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) massively amplified ICD via substantial generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after mitochondrial damage. The underlying mechanism behind increased ICD was further demonstrated to be ascribed to two pathways: (1) ROS elevated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, leading to surface exposure of calreticulin; (2) ROS promoted release of various mitochondria-associated damage molecules including mitochondrial transcription factor A. Nevertheless, adaptive upregulation of PD-L1 was found after such ICD-inducing treatment. To overcome such immunosuppressive feedback, we developed a tumor stimuli-responsive nano vehicle to simultaneously exert mitochondrial targeted ICD induction and PD-L1 blockade. The nano vehicle was self-assembled from ICD-inducing copolymer and PD-L1 blocking copolymer, and possessed long-circulating property which contributed to better tumor accumulation and mitochondrial targeting. As a result, the nano vehicle remarkably activated antitumor immune responses and exhibited robust antitumor efficacy in both immunogenic and non-immunogenic tumor mouse models.

GSH-sensitive polymeric prodrug: Synthesis and loading with photosensitizers as nanoscale chemo-photodynamic anti-cancer nanomedicine

Precisely delivering combinational therapeutic agents has become a crucial challenge for anti-tumor treatment. In this study, a novel redox-responsive polymeric prodrug (molecular weight, MW: 93.5 kDa) was produced by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The amphiphilic block polymer-doxorubicin (DOX) prodrug was employed to deliver a hydrophobic photosensitizer (PS), chlorin e6 (Ce6), and the as-prepared nanoscale system [NPs(Ce6)] was investigated as a chemo-photodynamic anti-cancer agent. The glutathione (GSH)-cleavable disulfide bond was inserted into the backbone of the polymer for biodegradation inside tumor cells, and DOX conjugated onto the polymer with a disulfide bond was successfully released intracellularly. NPs(Ce6) released DOX and Ce6 with their original molecular structures and degraded into segments with low MWs of 41.2 kDa in the presence of GSH. NPs(Ce6) showed a chemo-photodynamic therapeutic effect to kill 4T1 murine breast cancer cells, which was confirmed from a collapsed cell morphology, a lifted level in the intracellular reactive oxygen species, a reduced viability and induced apoptosis. Moreover, ex vivo fluorescence images indicated that NPs(Ce6) retained in the tumor, and exhibited a remarkable in vivo anticancer efficacy. The combinational therapy showed a significantly increased tumor growth inhibition (TGI, 58.53%). Therefore, the redox-responsive, amphiphilic block polymeric prodrug could have a great potential as a chemo-photodynamic anti-cancer agent.

Conceitos básicos de percepção de cena / Basic concepts of scene perception

A pesquisa sobre percepção de cenas é um esforço da comunidade científica em superar as dificuldades apresentadas ao estudo de estímulos complexos. As consistentes descobertas provaram a viabilidade do tema e encorajam uma abordagem mais holística e integrada nas investigações em percepção visual. Esse esforço e seus achados são, entretanto, pouco conhecidos pelos leitores em língua portuguesa e, até mesmo, entre alguns especialistas que se interessam pelo tema. O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer uma apresentação do campo, esboçar seu desenvolvimento, identificar suas principais questões e demonstrar sua pertinência e importância. Para isso, uma revisão seletiva de textos foi executada entre os autores que construíram os fundamentos da percepção de cenas. Ao concluir a leitura, espera-se que o leitor constate o papel relevante dos processos mnemônicos e do sujeito que observa no processo de captação visual do ambiente natural.

Scene perception research is a scientific community effort to overcome difficulties presented to the study of complex stimuli. Consistent findings support feasibility of the theme and encourage a more holistic and integrated approach to visual perception research. This effort and its findings are, however, poorly known by readers in Portuguese language, even among experts interested in the subject. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this field of research, outline its development, identify its main issues and demonstrate its relevance and importance. This task was accomplished by a selective review of papers from authors who built the foundations of scene perception. Upon completion of the reading, it is expected that the reader understands the relevant role of mnemonic processes and of the observer in the process of visual capture of natural environments.

Cathepsin B-responsive and gadolinium-labeled branched glycopolymer-PTX conjugate-derived nanotheranostics for cancer treatment

Multi-modal therapeutics are emerging for simultaneous diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Polymeric carriers are often employed for loading multiple drugs due to their versatility and controlled release of these drugs in response to a tumor specific microenvironment. A theranostic nanomedicine was designed and prepared by complexing a small gadolinium chelate, conjugating a chemotherapeutic drug PTX through a cathepsin B-responsive linker and covalently bonding a fluorescent probe pheophorbide a (Ppa) with a branched glycopolymer. The branched prodrug-based nanosystem was degradable in the tumor microenvironment with overexpressed cathepsin B, and PTX was simultaneously released to exert its therapeutic effect. The theranostic nanomedicine, branched glycopolymer-PTX-DOTA-Gd, had an extended circulation time, enhanced accumulation in tumors, and excellent biocompatibility with significantly reduced gadolinium ion (Gd

Progress in tumor microenvironment responsive nano-platforms for cancer theranostics / 药学学报

During growth and progression, the microenvironment of tumors suffers a series of abnormal characteristics, which include hypoxia, acid pH, increased oxidative stress, excess glutathione (GSH), as well as certain overexpressed enzymes. Although affect or limit the cancer therapeutic outcomes, these factors provide possible approaches to strategies for cancer detection and novel therapy at the same time. Recently, based on these properties of the tumor microenvironment (TME), various kinds of responsive nano-platforms have been continuously developed and applied in cancer theranostics preliminarily. Thus, this review would introduce the typical features of TME firstly, then detailly summarize the design principles and research progress of corresponding hypoxia-responsive, pH-responsive, redox-responsive, enzyme-responsive, dual-responsive and multi-responsive nano-platforms. Finally, the challenges and the perspectives of the TME-responsive nano-platforms are briefly discussed.

Effect of mechanical stimulation on the differentiation of stem cells in periodontal bone tissue engineering / 口腔疾病防治

@#Currently, cell transplantation in combination with scaffold materials are one of the main strategies in periodontal bone tissue engineering. In periodontal bone tissues, the stiffness and spatial structure of tissues such as alveolar bone and cementum differ, and the difference in mechanical properties of scaffolds also has disparate effects on the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Accumulating evidence shows that mechanical stimulating factors such as matrix stiffness and scaffold topography modulate biological behaviors of various seeding cells, including adipose-derived stem cells and periodontal ligament stem cells. A hard matrix can promote cytoskeletal stretching of stem cells, leading to nuclear translocation of Yes-associated protein (YAP) and promoting osteogenic differentiation by upregulating alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and osteocalcin (OCN) via the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. The topologic structure of scaffolds can affect cell adhesion and cytoskeletal remodeling, increase the hardness of cells and promote the osteogenic differentiation of stem cells. In this paper, the effects of mechanical stimulation on the differentiation of stem cells in periodontal bone tissue engineering are reviewed.

Acquisition of responses with different effort requirements after exposure to noncontingent stimuli / Aquisição de respostas de diferentes custos após exposição a estímulos não contingentes / Adquisición de respuestas de diferentes costos después de la exposición a estímulos no contingentes

This experiment investigated whether noncontingent appetitive stimuli exposure has effects in a subsequent response acquisition with different efforts. On the first phase, rats were exposed to contingent events to nose poke response, noncontingent events, or no exposition. On the second phase, the bar press response of the animals was continuously reinforced or submitted to a FR3 schedule. The time and number of reinforcers to response acquisition varied among subjects, and none relation was identified between first phase exposition with response acquisition of different efforts on phase 2. The longest time in response acquisition identified in some subjects occurred due to competitive responses on the first phase followed by appetitive stimuli. Possibilities for future studies and possible implications for the applied context are discussed.

Este experimento investigou se a exposição a estímulos apetitivos não contingentes tem efeitos sobre a aquisição de respostas de diferentes custos. Na fase 1, ratos foram expostos a eventos contingentes às respostas de focinhar, eventos não contingentes ou não foram expostos. Na fase 2, a resposta de pressão à barra dos animais foi reforçada continuamente ou em esquema FR 3. O tempo e o número de reforçadores para aquisição de respostas variaram entre os sujeitos, não sendo identificada relação entre a exposição na fase 1 e o custo da resposta a ser adquirida na fase 2. O maior tempo para aquisição da resposta ocorreu possivelmente por causa de respostas competitivas acidentalmente seguidas por estímulos apetitivos na fase 1. Discutem-se possibilidades para estudos futuros e possíveis implicações para o contexto aplicado.

Este experimento investigó si la exposición a estímulos apetitivos no contingentes tiene efectos en la adquisición de respuestas a diferentes costos. En la fase 1 se expusieron ratones a eventos contingentes a las respuestas del hocico, eventos no contingentes o no fueron expuestos. En la fase 2 la respuesta de presión a palanca de los sujetos se reforzó continuamente o en FR 3. El tiempo y el número de reforzadores para adquirir respuestas variaron entre los sujetos de las diferentes condiciones sin que se identificara ninguna relación entre la exposición de la fase 1 y el costo de la respuesta a ser adquirida. El tiempo más largo para obtener la respuesta de algunos sujetos posiblemente se debió a respuestas competitivas que, en la fase 1, fueron seguidas por estímulos apetitivos. Se discuten posibilidades para estudios futuros y posibles implicaciones para el contexto aplicado.

Aplicação da escala SAM na seleção de imagens de alimentos saudáveis e não saudáveis para utilização em tarefas experimentais / SAM scale application in selecting healthy and non-healthy food images for use in experimental tasks

O modelo dimensional das emoções tem sido utilizado em investigações no âmbito da psicologia experimental. Este estudo utilizou a pontuação nas dimensões da escala SAM (Self Assesment Manikin) para emparelhar estímulos considerando o valor afetivo. O objetivo foi realizar um levantamento das dimensões afetivas em um conjunto de 122 imagens relacionadas com alimentos para utilização em tarefas experimentais entre adultos, com o intuito de permitir o emparelhamento de estímulos nas dimensões afetivas, em conjuntos de imagens de alimentos saudáveis (SD), não saudáveis (NS) e objetos comuns do dia a dia (OB). Participaram como juízes 87 estudantes universitários, 43 (49,4%) do sexo feminino e 44 (50,6%) do sexo masculino. O controle emocional dos estímulos contribui para aumentar a validade ecológica dos estudos através do melhor controle dos estímulos que possuem relevância afetiva. Este trabalho propiciou a criação de um banco de imagens relacionadas a alimentos saudáveis e não saudáveis e um conjunto de imagens de objetos para comparação ou pareamento. O material desenvolvido possibilita a manipulação e controle de estímulos com relevância emocional em estudos relacionados ao comportamento alimentar em humanos.

The dimensional model of emotions has been previously used for research in experimental psychology. In the current study, the score in the dimensions of SAM scale (Self-Assessment Manikin) was used to pair the stimuli in level of arousal elicited. The objective was to survey the affective dimensions of a set of 122 images related to food for its use in experimental tasks among adults, in order to allow pairing of stimuli in the emotional dimensions, in sets of health food images (SD) unhealthy (NS) and common objects of everyday life (OB). Participants were 87 college students of both genders, 43 (49.4%) were female and 44 (50.6%) were male. The criterion used allowed the choice of 12 pairs of SD-OB images and 12 NS-B pairs, matched in the arousal scale. Emotional control of the stimuli is relevant to increase the ecological validity of the studies through better control of stimuli with emotional relevance. This work led to the creation of a bank of images related to healthy and unhealthy foods, as well as a set of pictures of objects pictures. The material developed enables the manipulation and control of stimuli with emotional significance in studies related to eating behavior.

Non-Intrusive, Visual-Less Wearable Haptic Stimuli Navigational Assistance For Elderly With Dementia

@#Age is typically affiliated with the decline of cognitive function and the probability to be diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease, namely dementia. Of all dementia-related deficits, the paper highlights on the decline of wayfinding ability, since it is interrelated with mobility, autonomy, caregiving burden and eventually institutionalization. The sense of directions in elderly is also affected by the sensory changes, while the most obvious sensory declines are both vision and hearing. Hence navigation systems that support mainly on visual and auditory may not be the best option for them. A concept of wearable navigational assistance that is non-intrusive and uses haptic stimuli instead of visual and/or audio signals is presented in this paper. A Usability Test (UT) was performed towards the elderly with dementia at a selected nursing home to investigate how they perceive haptic-feedback as a modality of navigation. The assessments involved three phases: (1) orientation or training, (2) navigation test and (3) further navigation test. Results indicate the potential efficacy of haptic modality as a navigation signal. Improvement on subjects’ navigational performance was shown especially during the further navigation test, signifying the familiarization of the intervention. Employing the haptic modality could be a beneficial substitute for navigational purpose when vision and audio are less appropriate. Nevertheless, as much as the encouraging outcomes from the results and analysis of the assessments are valuable, the constructive reviews attained are indeed important for the future development of the device system.

Research progress of layer-by-layer self-assembly technology in drug delivery / 药学学报

In recent years, layer-by-layer self-assembly (LbL) has developed rapidly. It has been widely used in various industries such as medicine and metallurgy because of its simplicity, flexibility and controllability. In the study of drug delivery system, hollow microcapsules constructed by LbL method as drug carrier have great advantages in drug release, circulation in vivo and bioavailability, providing a technical platform for targeted drug release. In this paper, we summarize the types of film-forming materials and the driving force used in LbL technology, the way of loading drug into hollow micro capsule, and the variety of loaded drugs. We focus on the release mechanism, its evaluation and safety evaluation of self-assembled film as drug carrier in vivo and in vitro. The review shows the great application prospect of LbL technology in the field of drug delivery.

Advances in tumor microenvironment responsive and regulatory drug delivery system / 药学学报

The complexity of tumor microenvironment brings both challenges and opportunities for targeted drug delivery. On the one hand, using the special characteristic as stimuli, we can construct a variety of responsive drug delivery systems for tumor targeting. On the other hand, the abnormal vasculature and dense extracellular matrix in solid tumor become formidable barriers to the nanoparticles delivery, which greatly reduces the drug delivery efficiency. Lots of researches focus on regulating the tumor microenvironment to make it more conducive to drug delivery. In this review, we will highlight the recent advances both in tumor microenvironment responsive nano-drug delivery systems design and tumor microenvironment regulation to improve tumor targeted delivery efficiency, and discuss the existing problems and future development.

Aquisição de intraverbais em crianças com autismo: efeitos do pareamento de estímulos e respostas ecoicas / Intraverbal acquisition in autistic children: effects of stimulus pairing and echoic responses / Acquisition du comportement intraverbal chez des enfants autistes: effets de l'appariement des stimuli et des réponses échoïques / Adquisición de intraverbales en niños con autismo: efectos del emparejamiento de estímulos y respuestas ecoicas

Resumo O ensino de intraverbais para indivíduos com autismo tem sido realizado, principalmente, através de procedimentos que envolvem reforçamento diferencial. Recentemente, o procedimento de observação de pareamento de estímulos (SPOP) surgiu enquanto alternativa para verificar a emergência de repertórios verbais. O SPOP implica o pareamento de estímulos sem exigir outra resposta que a observação do pareamento. O ecoico tem sido apontado como facilitador na emergência de operantes verbais. O presente estudo comparou, com um delineamento de sondas múltiplas concorrentes com tratamento alternado adaptado, a eficácia do SPOP com um procedimento de apresentação contígua de estímulos com requisição de resposta ecoica na emergência de intraverbais em três crianças com autismo. Observou-se a eficácia do SPOP na indução de intraverbais e verificou-se o papel facilitador do ecoico. Discutem-se possíveis efeitos de interferência dos tratamentos, da extinção de respostas no contexto experimental e da utilização de reforçadores condicionados como parte do SPOP.

Abstract Intraverbals have been taught to individuals with autism primarily through procedures involving differential reinforcement. Recently, Stimulus Pairing Observation Procedure (SPOP) emerged as an alternative to verify the emergence of verbal repertoires. The SPOP consists in the simultaneous presentation of two stimuli and requires only the observation response by the participant. The echoic behavior had been pointed out as a mediator in the emergence of verbal operants. This study compared the efficacy of the SPOP and of a contiguous stimulus presentation procedure with an echoic response requirement in emergence of intraverbals in three children with autism by using a concurrent multiple probe design with an adapted alternating treatment. The results showed the SPOP's efficacy for intraverbals induction and suggested a facilitating role of the echoic. A possible carry-over effect between treatments, extinction in the experimental context and the use of conditioned reinforcers in SPOP are discussed.

Résumé L'enseignement de l'intraverbal chez des individus autistes a été principalement réalisé avec des procédures impliquant le renforcement différentiel. Plus récemment, la Procédure d'Observation de Paires des Stimuli (SPOP en anglais) s'est imposée comme alternative pour vérifier l'émergence de répertoires verbaux. Le SPOP implique l'appariement des stimuli sans exiger d'autre réponse que l'observation des paires. Par ailleurs, l'échoïque a été signalé comme facilitateur de l'émergence d'opérants verbaux. Nôtre étude a comparé, avec un plan expérimental de sondes multiples concurrents et traitements alternés adapté, l'efficacité du SPOP en comparaison à une procédure de présentation du stimulus contigu avec réponse échoïque dans l'émergence du comportement intraverbal chez trois enfants autistes. Nous avons pu observer l'efficacité du SPOP dans l'induction de l'intraverbal ainsi qu'un rôle facilitateur de l'échoïque. Nous discutons les effets possibles de l'interférence entre traitements, de l'extinction de réponses dans le contexte expérimental, et de l'emploi de renforçateurs conditionnés dans le cadre du SPOP.

Resumen La enseñanza de intraverbales a autistas se ha realizado principalmente a través de procedimientos con refuerzo diferencial. Más recientemente, el procedimiento de observación de emparejamiento de estímulo (POEE) surgió como alternativa para verificar la emergencia de repertorios verbales. El POEE implica el emparejamiento de estímulos, sin exigir otra respuesta que la observación del emparejamiento. El ecoico se considera facilitador en la emergencia de operantes verbales. Este estudio comparó, desde un delineamiento de sondas múltiples con tratamiento alternado adaptado, la eficacia del POEE con un procedimiento de presentación de estímulo contiguo solicitante de respuesta ecoica en la emergencia de intraverbales en tres niños autistas. El POEE fue eficaz en la inducción de intraverbales, y el ecoico tuvo un papel facilitador. Se discuten los posibles efectos de interferencia de los tratamientos, de la extinción de respuestas en el contexto experimental y de la utilización de reforzadores condicionados como parte del POEE.

Emerging nanoparticulate systems: Preparation techniques and stimuli responsive release characteristics

Nanotechnology has become an outgrowing field in novel drug delivery system. It confers several merits overconventional formulations like increased solubility and bioavailability, targeted drug delivery and a decreaseddose of the drug. The selection of appropriate method for the preparation of nanoparticulate system depends on thephysicochemical characteristics of the drug to be loaded and polymer. This review has covered the most widelyacceptable preparation techniques for polymeric and lipidic nanoparticles including nanoprecipitation, milling,extrusion, supercritical fluid technology, salting out, gelation, sonication, high-pressure homogenization, and solventemulsification methods. Nanocarriers, the traditional nano-formulation drug delivery systems, encountered somemajor problems in process scale-up, reproducibility, and stability during storage. To circumvent these problems a newapproach has emerged which are “In situ or self-assembled nanoparticles drug delivery system.” Such approachescomprise experimentation with different types of polymers, surfactants or novel process in order to prepare a preconcentrate of drug formulation, which on entering into an aqueous medium (gastrointestinal fluid, blood) will formnanoparticles. The in situ nanoformulations can be the futuristic approach in nanocarriers to overcome the problemsassociated with the scale-up process and also minimize the cost of production. This review focuses on differentpreparation techniques for polymeric and lipidic nanocarriers preparation, in situ nanoformulation approaches andrelease characteristics of stimuli responsive nanoformulation

Research progress in stimuli-responsive mesoporous silica nano drug delivery systems for tumor therapy / 国际生物医学工程杂志

In recent years, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been widely used in the construction of various intelligent drug delivery systems due to their unique and excellent properties. The stimuli-responsive drug delivery system based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles can effectively load anticancer drugs and target them to tumor cells, and then responsively release anticancer drugs under the action of specific stimulation signals. The method of specifically delivering anticancer drugs to target sites not only can greatly improvethe drug efficacy, but also effectively reduce the side effects of anticancer drugs on normal tissues and organs. Thereby the advantages of anticancer drugs in tumor therapy are improved. In this paper, the applications and developments of stimuliresponsive mesoporous silica nano drug delivery systems in tumor therapy were summarized.