Brand new norms for a good old test: Northern Italy normative study of MiniMental State Examination

Aim Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is one of the most used tests for the screening of global cognition in patients with neurological and medical disorders. Norms for the Italian version of the test were published in the 90 s; more recent norms were published in 2020 for Southern Italy only. In the present study, we computed novel adjustment coefficients, equivalent scores and cut-off value for Northern Italy (Lombardia and Veneto) and Italian speaking Switzerland. Methods We recruited 361 healthy young and old (range: 20–95 years) individuals of both sexes (men: 156, women: 205) and from different educational levels (range: 4–22 years). Neuropsychiatric disorders and severe medical conditions were excluded with a questionnaire and cognitive deficits and were ruled out with standardized neuropsychological tests assessing the main cognitive domains. We used a slightly modified version of MMSE: the word ‘fiore’ was replaced with ‘pane’ in verbal recalls to reduce the common interference error ‘casa, cane, gatto’. The effect of socio-demographic features on performance at MMSE was assessed via multiple linear regression, with test raw score as dependent variable and sex, logarithm of 101—age and square root of schooling as predictors. Results Mean raw MMSE score was 28.8 ± 1.7 (range: 23–30). Multiple linear regression showed a significant effect of all socio-demographic variables and reported a value of R2 = 0.26. The new cut off was ≥ 26 /30. Conclusion We provide here updated norms for a putatively more accurate version of Italian MMSE, produced in a Northern population but potentially valid all over Italy.

Unbestimmte Subjekte: zur problematischen Äquivalenz von deutschem man und italienischem si

German sentences with man and Italian sentences with si impersonale or si passivante are often presented as equivalent in contrastive grammars. However, this functional equation proves to be problematic when Italian students refer with man to their own role as authors, such as in: “Darauf wird man aber im folgenden Kapitel eingehen”. Evidently, man cannot refer to the speaker role, while in the same context the Italian si is well suitable. Starting from this interference error, the paper examines the possible range of reference of the two pronouns. It turns out that the most common reading of man and si in both languages is the generic one, which can be paraphrased as “everyone”. Systematic divergences, on the other hand, occur in the particular reading, i. e. when referring to single unspecified subjects. While the German man characterizes the subject as anonymous and does never include listeners or speakers (e. g: Gestern hat man bei uns eingebrochen; man ≈ ‘jemand’, ‘somebody’), the Italian si, according to the verb class (transitive, unergative, unaccusative, etc.), can or must be read as speaker-exclusive (Mi si è raccontato che ...; si ≈ ‘qualcuno’, ‘someone’) or as speaker-inclusive (Ieri si è andati al ristorante; si ≈ ‘noi’, ‘we’). The speaker-inclusive reading also occurs when si is used in academic texts as a substitute for the established form of speaker (author) reference by means of the 1st person plural (noi, ‘we’). In addition to man and si, other forms of indeterminate subjects are examined, namely the non-anaphoric uses of German “sie (pl.)” (Sie haben schon wieder die Preise erhöht.) and of the Italian 3rd person plural null subject (Ti hanno cercato.) as well as the so-called impersonal passive form in German (Es wird gemurmelt.).

INTERFERENSI BAHASA INDONESIA PADA PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA JEPANG

This article aims at discussing Japanese language as second language acquired by Indonesian students. There are difficulties at learning Japanese grammatical rules, including: sentence structures, phrases formulation, and using appropriate particles. The source of the data was from the test results of Mahasaraswati students who learns Japanese language. The data was collected by questioner method, in the form of test. The collected data was analyzed by interference approach, and error analysis. Interference approach manages to find and analyze the problems of learning Japanese language. The results showed that Indonesia language grammatical rules could affect in Japanese language. Keywords: interference, error analysis Abstrak Artikel ini bertujuan mengkaji bahasa Jepang sebagai bahasa kedua dipelajari oleh pembelajar Indonesia. Ada kesulitan belajar bahasa Jepang dalam hal tatabahasa, khususnya susunan kalimat, frase dan penggunaan partikel. Data diambil dari hasil tes mahasiswa STIBA Saraswati yang sedang belajar bahasa Jepang. Data yang sudah terkumpul dianalisis dengan teori interferensi, didukung oleh analisis kesalahan. Pendekatan interferensi berhasil menemukan dan menganalisis kesulitan dalam pembelajaran bahasa Jepang. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa kaidah bahasa Indonesia berpengaruh dalam proses pembelajaran bahasa Jepang. Kata Kunci : interferensi, analisis kesalahan

Assessing Propylene Glycol Interference at Concentrations Relevant to Serum Levels With Electronic Cigarette Use in an Enzymatic Ethylene Glycol Assay

Introduction Clinical laboratory measurement of ethylene glycol (ETG) by enzymatic methods is known to be subject to interference with high (several hundred milligrams/deciliter) concentrations of propylene glycol (PG). An estimated 10.8 million people in the United States, or almost 1 in 20 Americans, are reported to use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes; ie, “vaping”), in which PG is frequently used as a liquid solvent. No published reports exist investigating whether serum concentrations of PG that may be seen with e-cigarette use (generally, concentrations of 10-15 mg/dL in moderate users and up to 30 mg/dL in heavy users) can lead to either interference flags in analytical ETG measurement or falsely positive ethylene glycol concentrations being reported. Methods Studies were conducted to assess PG interference on enzymatic ETG measurement. Commercially acquired human AB serum (catalog # 35-060-CI; Corning Life Sciences) was spiked with various amounts of PG (catalog #158720010; Acros Organics/Thermo Fisher Scientific) to achieve both concentrations of PG expected with e-cigarette use (0-30 mg/dL) and supra-physiological concentrations (>30 mg/dL) for comparative purposes. PG-spiked sera were tested using a quantitative enzymatic ETG assay (Quantitative Ethylene Glycol kit, catalog #C504-0A; Catachem) previously validated as a laboratory-developed test on an AU5810 automated chemistry analyzer (Beckman Coulter). Results None of the tested PG concentrations designed to mimic physiological levels expected with e-cigarette use (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 mg/dL) caused falsely positive quantitative ETG results, defined as values above the ETG limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 5 mg/dL. At these low concentrations, interference patterns neither were observed in reaction monitors, nor were instrument interference error flags triggered. As concentrations of PG approached 50 mg/dL, abnormal curve appearances were observed in the instrument reaction monitor, although this neither resulted in interference error flags nor false detection of ETG. However, as PG concentrations approached and exceeded ≥100 mg/dL, both interference flags and falsely positive ETG results were observed. Conclusion Results from the present experiments demonstrate that serum concentrations of PG expected with e-cigarette use did not cause interference with enzymatic ethylene glycol detection in this assay.

Students Pronounciation Error Made in Speaking for General Communication

This qualitative research described students pronunciation error mostly appeared in speaking for general communication class. The participants were the first semester students. This research was descriptive method. It involved describing, analyzing, and interpreting of condition that existed. In collecting the data, the researcher used documentation. Based on the result of data analysis, it could be concluded that students made of three types of pronunciation error. The pronunciation errors were pre systematic error, systematic error, and post systematic error. Furthermore, the students dominant error made was pre systematic error. The errors of students made were caused by three sources of students competence error in learning English as Foreign Language. They were interference error, intra lingual error, and developmental error. Key words: pronunciation, error, speaking for general communication.

A SYNTACTICAL INTERFERENCE FOUND IN EFL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH COMPOSITION

The purpose of this study is to analyze syntactical interference found in EFL Students’ English composition of IAIN Salatiga. The objectives are to find out type of interference, frequency of each type, the most dominant type, and the factors contribute to language interference in EFL students’ composition. This is a descriptive-qualitative research. The data were taken through elicitation technique, and then analyzed by using theory of language interference. The findings of this study showed that EFL students made five categories of interference error that belong to syntactical interference: the use of L1 structure in target language, the use of L1 structure in English noun phrase, literal translation in negation of verbal sentence, literal translation in negation of nominal sentence, and literal translation in nominal sentence of affirmative form.

AN ANALYSIS OF ACEHNESE EFL STUDENTS’ GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXTS

This study aims at finding empirical evidence of the most common types of grammatical errors and sources of errors in recount texts written by the first-year students of SMAS Babul Maghfirah, Aceh Besar. The subject of the study was a collection of students’ personal writing documents of recount texts about their lives experience. The students’ recount texts were analyzed by referring to Betty S. Azar classification and Richard’s theory on sources of errors. The findings showed that the total number of error is 436. Two frequent types of grammatical errors were Verb Tense and Word Choice. The major sources of error were Intralingual Error, Interference Error and Developmental Error respectively. Furthermore, the findings suggest that it is necessary for EFL teachers to apply appropriate techniques and strategies in teaching recount texts, which focus on past tense and language features of the text in order to reduce the possible errors to be made by the students.

Evaluation and attribution of OCO-2 XCO₂ uncertainties

Evaluating and attributing uncertainties in total column atmospheric CO2 measurements (XCO2) from the OCO-2 instrument is critical for testing hypotheses related to the underlying processes controlling XCO2 and for developing quality flags needed to choose those measurements that are usable for carbon cycle science.Here we test the reported uncertainties of version 7 OCO-2 XCO2 measurements by examining variations of the XCO2 measurements and their calculated uncertainties within small regions (∼ 100 km × 10.5 km) in which natural CO2 variability is expected to be small relative to variations imparted by noise or interferences. Over 39 000 of these small neighborhoods comprised of approximately 190 observations per neighborhood are used for this analysis. We find that a typical ocean measurement has a precision and accuracy of 0.35 and 0.24 ppm respectively for calculated precisions larger than ∼ 0.25 ppm. These values are approximately consistent with the calculated errors of 0.33 and 0.14 ppm for the noise and interference error, assuming that the accuracy is bounded by the calculated interference error. The actual precision for ocean data becomes worse as the signal-to-noise increases or the calculated precision decreases below 0.25 ppm for reasons that are not well understood. A typical land measurement, both nadir and glint, is found to have a precision and accuracy of approximately 0.75 and 0.65 ppm respectively as compared to the calculated precision and accuracy of approximately 0.36 and 0.2 ppm. The differences in accuracy between ocean and land suggests that the accuracy of XCO2 data is likely related to interferences such as aerosols or surface albedo as they vary less over ocean than land. The accuracy as derived here is also likely a lower bound as it does not account for possible systematic biases between the regions used in this analysis.