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Previous research has emphasized the importance of gesture in early communicative development. These studies have reported that gestures are used frequently during the first two years of life and may play a transitional role in the language acquisition process. The aim of this study is to compare early word and gesture use in children with DS and in typically-developing children to investigate potential differences in the relationship between gestural and verbal communication in early language development. Ten children from upper-middle class families participated in the study. The five children with DS (3 boys and 2 girls) had an average chronological age of 47.6 months, an average mental age of 22.4 months, and an average language age of 18 months. Each child with DS was matched to a typically developing child on the basis of gender, language age, and observed expressive vocabulary size. Children were videotaped for 30 minutes as they interacted spontaneously with their mothers. All communicative and intelligible gestures and words produced by the children were transcribed from the videotapes. Data analyses focused on: a) overall production of gestures and words (i.e., gesture and word tokens); b) the size of children’s gestural and verbal repertoires (i.e., gesture and word types); and c) production and informational content of gesture-word combinations. Although children with DS had significantly smaller gestural repertoires than their language age-matched peers, there was no reliable difference between the two groups in the overall use of gesture. In addition, children with DS produced two-element combinations (primarily gesture-word combinations) and did so at a rate comparable to that observed among their TD counterparts. However, no two-word combinations were observed among children with DS, and there were also group differences in the information contained in children’s gesture-word combinations. Taken together, these findings suggest that in addition to the well-documented global delays in early communicative development, children with DS may exhibit additional pockets of delay, specifically in making the transition from one- to two-word speech. Results are further discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the organization of the developing gesture-language system and for the assessment of gesture in young children with communicative delays and disorders.

By means of PCR the DNA region spanning from the 17th to the 18th exon of the goat CSN1S2 gene was amplified. PCR products were digested with PstI endonuclease. Digestion products showed a triallelic polymorphism (A, B and C). The frequencies of A, B and C alleles in 155 goats of undefined type reared in Southern Italy were 0.31, 0.40 and 0.29, respectively

PCR primers, VQ5 and VQ14, were designed from regions. of goat as2-Cn cDNA sequence (GenBank accession no X65160)' corresponding to exons 17 and 18 of bovine as2-Cn gene (GenBank accession no. M943227).' The amplified DNA fragments revealed a polymorphism. Two alleles were observed: the A allele (showing a fragment of about 3300 bp) and the B allele (showing a fragment of about 3700 bp). Frequencies of the two alleles determined in 150 unrelated goats of undefined genetic type reared in Southern Italy were 0.6 (A) and 0.4 (B).

This study investigated COVID-19 preventive behaviors in young adults, exploring the predictive roles of health locus of control and pandemic fear. A sample of 188 Italian young adults (Mage = 22.76, SDage = 1.95; 85% girls) completed an anonymous online survey assessing preventive behaviors, health locus of control styles (i.e. internal, chance, powerful others), and two dimensions of pandemic fear. Fear for COVID-19 consequences—but not general fear for contagion—significantly predicted prevention behaviors, and it also moderated the relationships between each health locus of control style and preventive behaviors. Our findings have relevant implications for research and social policies.

Background Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies are predictive of negative outcomes in adolescence which, in turn, may impact on later well-being. Objective The current study aimed at testing the moderating role of emotional self-efficacy on the relation between expressive suppression and the engagement in internalizing behavior, controlling for gender effect. Method A total of 526 adolescents (Mage = 14.7 years, age range = 14–17 years) filled out self-report questionnaires evaluating expressive suppression, emotional regulatory self-efficacy, and internalizing behavior, respectively. Results Suppressors with lower positive emotion self-efficacy were more likely to engage in internalizing behavior than suppressors with higher positive emotion self-efficacy. Conclusions Despite several limitations, the study provided preliminary insights on the role played by emotional self-efficacy in the relation between expressive suppression and internalizing behavior in middle adolescence.

Introduction This study investigated the relationships of pandemic-related stress and coping strategies with different kinds of sexting (i.e., experimental, risky, and emotional) during the COVID-19 lockdown in the Italian context. Methods A sample of 1929 emerging adults (Mage = 24.17, SDage = 2.75; 71.6% girls) completed an online survey about their sexting behaviors during the national lockdown in Italy. Data were gathered in April/May 2020, from 6th to 11th week of home confinement due to COVID-19 pandemic. Hierarchical regression and mediation analyses were performed. Results Pandemic-related stress directly predicted only risky and emotional sexting. Experimental and emotional sexting were positively predicted by social support, and negatively predicted by turning to religion. Risky and emotional sexting were positively predicted by avoidance, and negatively predicted by problem solving. Adaptive coping (i.e., social support) mediated the relationships from pandemic-related stress to both experimental and emotional sexting. Maladaptive coping (i.e., avoidance and problem solving) mediated the relationships from pandemic related-stress to risky and emotional sexting. Conclusions Sexting was a coping tool during COVID-19 lockdown, showing both adaptive and maladaptive facets. Policy Implications Findings suggest new directions for implementing programs of sexual education and safer Internet use targeted to young people.

Purpose Pragmatics is receiving much attention in both the fields of developmental and clinical psychology; however, there is a dearth of instruments to assess pragmatic abilities specifically among young toddler-age children. The aim of the current study was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Language Use Inventory (LUI), named the LUI-Italian, a parent report measure assessing pragmatic language development in children 18–47 months of age. Method Parents of Italian-speaking children who ranged in age between 18 and 47 months completed the LUI-Italian at T1 ( N = 389) and 1 week later ( N = 53). At T1, children were also administered the First Language Test (Test del Primo Linguaggio [TPL]), a direct measure of pragmatics, vocabulary, and syntax. Results Cronbach's alpha values were at or above acceptable levels. Factor analysis and test–retest confirmed the strong structure and reliability of the LUI-Italian. Some evidence for concurrent validity was found, as shown by associations between the LUI-Italian and the TPL. Conclusions The LUI-Italian demonstrated good psychometric properties relating to reliability, thus providing a sound basis for proceeding to a standardization study, and supporting cross-cultural comparison of pragmatic development and further exploration of profiles of pragmatic competence for children displaying language impairments or delay. Future studies need to further test concurrent, divergent, and predictive validity of the LUI-Italian.

The study was designed to compare syntactic properties and mental state language (MSL) used in narrative stories and persuasive essays written by 162 children attending the third and the fifth grades of the Italian elementary schools. Results showed as children used a higher number of total words and total propositions, independent and coordinate propositions in narrative writing compared to persuasive writing. Conversely, in persuasive essays, a major number of subordinate propositions and MSL was used. If emotional and volitional terms prevailed in narrative stories, moral terms best characterized persuasive essays. Results on age differences revealed that older children outperformed younger children on independent propositions and overall linguistic measures. Conversely, younger children used more coordinate propositions. Despite delimitations of the study, these preliminary results encourage to consider persuasive and narrative texts as valid and ecological tools to assess and promote the use of different forms of complex language during middle childhood.

The study was designed to investigate pragmatic development and the ability to make comments/questions on social and non-social topics in Italian-speaking children aged 18–47 months. Parents of 190 children completed an adaptation of the Language Use Inventory into Italian. Overall, the children’s performance on the subscales of the LUI-Italian investigating verbal communication increased, while the score on gestural subscales, with both an imperative and a declarative function, decreased with age. Specific analyses of comments and questions about things, self and other people showed specific age-related differences. No main gender effect was found, but an interaction of gender × age group is discussed. The article concludes with limitations and guidelines for future research.

The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent relations between 18- and 24-month-olds' performance on tasks measuring inhibitory control, word production, and internal state vocabulary. Two tasks were used to measure inhibitory control, the Reverse Categorization task (a conflict task), and the Gift task (a delay task). Expressive vocabulary was assessed with the Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Words and Sentences), and internal state vocabulary was assessed with a checklist of 78 mental state terms adapted from the English Internal State Language Questionnaire. Expressive vocabulary was associated to Internal State Language and to the Reverse Categorization task, but not to the Delay task. Our findings document internal state language abilities in a sample of 61 Italian-speaking children, and show that internal state vocabulary is significantly and specifically related only to performance on the conflict measure of inhibitory control, even when vocabulary size is controlled for. Results of our study extend to an Italian sample of children previous findings on an early association between self-control and theory of mind and suggest that a link between inhibitory control processes and internal state language may be present at a very young age. © 2014 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

OBJECTIVE We investigated the function of the Prep1 gene in insulin-dependent glucose homeostasis in liver. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Prep1 action on insulin glucoregulatory function has been analyzed in liver of Prep1-hypomorphic mice (Prep1i/i), which express 2–3% of Prep1 mRNA. RESULTS Based on euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp studies and measurement of glycogen content, livers from Prep1i/i mice feature increased sensitivity to insulin. Tyrosine phosphorylation of both insulin receptor (IR) and insulin receptor substrate (IRS)1/2 was significantly enhanced in Prep1i/i livers accompanied by a specific downregulation of the SYP and SHP1 tyrosine phosphatases. Prep1 overexpression in HepG2 liver cells upregulated SYP and SHP1 and inhibited insulin-induced IR and IRS1/2 phosphorylation and was accompanied by reduced glycogen content. Consistently, overexpression of the Prep1 partner Pbx1, but not of p160MBP, mimicked Prep1 effects on tyrosine phosphorylations, glycogen content, and on SYP and SHP1 expression. In Prep1 overexpressing cells, antisense silencing of SHP1, but not that of SYP, rescued insulin-dependent IR phosphorylation and glycogen accumulation. Both Prep1 and Pbx1 bind SHP1 promoter at a site located between nucleotides −2,113 and −1,778. This fragment features enhancer activity and induces luciferase function by 7-, 6-, and 30-fold, respectively, in response to Prep1, Pbx1, or both. CONCLUSIONS SHP1, a known silencer of insulin signal, is a transcriptional target of Prep1. In liver, transcriptional activation of SHP1 gene by Prep1 attenuates insulin signal transduction and reduces glucose storage.

The Prep1 homeodomain transcription factor is essential for embryonic development. 25% of hypomorphic Prep1(i/i) embryos, expressing the gene at 2% of the normal levels, survive pregnancy and live a normal-length life. Later in life, however, these mice develop spontaneous pre-tumoral lesions or solid tumors (lymphomas and carcinomas). In addition, transplantation of E14.5 fetal liver (FL) Prep1(i/i) cells into lethally irradiated mice induces lymphomas. In agreement with the above data, haploinsufficiency of a different Prep1-deficient (null) allele accelerates E mu Myc lymphoma growth. Therefore Prep1 has a tumor suppressor function in mice. Immunohistochemistry on tissue micrroarrays (TMA) generated from three distinct human cohorts comprising a total of some 1000 human tumors revealed that 70% of the tumors express no or extremely low levels of Prep1, unlike normal tissues. Our data in mice are thus potentially relevant to human cancer. (C) 2010 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The Prep1 homeodomain transcription factor is essential for embryonic development. 25% of hypomorphic Prep1(i/i) embryos, expressing the gene at 2% of the normal levels, survive pregnancy and live a normal-length life. Later in life, however, these mice develop spontaneous pre-tumoral lesions or solid tumors (lymphomas and carcinomas). In addition, transplantation of E14.5 fetal liver (FL) Prep1(i/i) cells into lethally irradiated mice induces lymphomas. In agreement with the above data, haploinsufficiency of a different Prep1-deficient (null) allele accelerates E mu Myc lymphoma growth. Therefore Prep1 has a tumor suppressor function in mice. Immunohistochemistry on tissue micrroarrays (TMA) generated from three distinct human cohorts comprising a total of some 1000 human tumors revealed that 70% of the tumors express no or extremely low levels of Prep1, unlike normal tissues. Our data in mice are thus potentially relevant to human cancer. (C) 2010 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The interaction of Prep1 and Pbx homeodomain transcription factors regulates their activity, nuclear localization, and likely, function in development. To understand the in vivo role of Prep1, we have analyzed an embryonic lethal hypomorphic mutant mouse (Prep1(i/i)). Prep1(i/i) embryos die at embryonic day 17.5 (E17.5) to birth with an overall organ hypoplasia, severe anemia, impaired angiogenesis, and eye anomalies, particularly in the lens and retina. The anemia correlates with delayed differentiation of erythroid progenitors and may be, at least in part, responsible for intrauterine death. At E14.5, Prep1 is present in fetal liver (FL) cMyb-positive cells, whose deficiency causes a marked hematopoietic phenotype. Prep1 is also localized to FL endothelial progenitors, consistent with the observed angiogenic phenotype. Likewise, at the same gestational day, Prep1 is present in the eye cells that bear Pax6, implicated in eye development. The levels of cMyb and Pax6 in FL and in the retina, respectively, are significantly decreased in Prep1(i/i) embryos, consistent with the hematopoietic and eye phenotypes. Concomitantly, Prep1 deficiency results in the overall decrease of protein levels of its related family member Meis1 and its partners Pbx1 and Pbx2. As both Prep1 and Meis interact with Pbx, the overall Prep1/Meis-Pbx DNA-binding activity is strongly reduced in whole Prep1(i/i) embryos and their organs. Our data indicate that Prep1 is an essential gene that acts upstream of and within a Pbx-Meis network that regulates multiple aspects of embryonic development.

Questo scritto intende ricostruire alcuni elementi del profilo scientifico e dell'impegno culturale dell'economista Attilio da Empoli, analizzando i contenuti dei suoi interventi parlamentari sulla finanza pubblica e sulla politica monetaria effettuati dal 1935 al 1939, nonchè di una sua nota critica sul tema della pianificazione

Most of the hypomorphic Prep1(i/i) embryos (expressing 3-10% of the Prep1 protein), die between E17.5 and P0, with profound anemia, eye malformations and angiogenic anomalies [Ferretti, E., Villaescusa, J.C., Di Rosa, P., Fernandez-Diaz, L.-C., Longobardi, E., Mazzieri, R., Miccio, A., Micali, N., Selleri, L., Ferrari G., Blasi, F. (2006). Hypomorphic mutation of the TALE gene Prep1 (pKnox1) causes a major reduction of Pbx and Meis proteins and a pleiotropic embryonic phenotype. Mol. Cell. Biol. 26, 5650-5662]. We now report on the hematopoietic phenotype of these embryos. Prep1(i/i) fetal livers (FL) are hypoplastic, produce less common myeloid progenitors colonies (CFU-GEMM) in cytokine-supplemented methylcellulose and have an increased number of B-cells precursors that differentiate poorly. Prep1(i/i) FL is able to protect lethally irradiated mice only at high cell doses but the few protected mice show major anomalies in all hematopoietic lineages in both bone marrow (BM) and peripheral organs. Prep1(i/i) FL cells compete inefficiently with wild type bone marrow in competitive repopulation experiments, suggesting that the major defect lies in long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells (LTR-HSC). Indeed, wt embryonic expression of Prep1 in the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region, fetal liver (FL), cKit(+)Sca1(+)Lin(-)AA4.1(+) (KSLA) cells and B-lymphocytes precursors agrees with the observed phenotype. We therefore conclude that Prep1 is required for a correct and complete hematopoiesis.