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The present paper is related to a case study of an 8-year-old girl with Williams syndrome and mild intellectual disability. Initial informal assessments and standardized tests indicated that her reading ability was underdeveloped, as well as her phonological awareness. Hence, an intervention for the development of reading skills was designed according to the principles of the ‘top-down’ educational model, combining features from several teaching methods, such as ‘holistic approach’, ‘holisticanalytical method’, and ‘whole-word teaching’. The student’s progress was recorded in the researcher’s journal and evaluated through informal continuous assessment and standardized test. She managed to read 45 out of 65 words, which were included in the intervention, simple syllables with the consonant-vowel sequence and some simple two-syllable words without any complex content, not included in the intervention. The intervention proved to be effective, as the student indicated development in her reading skills, although to a certain degree. Finally, the results verified the influence of the phonological factor in reading and highlighted the holist approach as an appropriate way to develop reading and comprehension skills.

Exposure of vascular endothelial cells (ECs) to steady laminar shear stress activates the NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) which binds to the antioxidant response element (ARE) and upregulates the expression of several genes. The onset of shear is known to increase the EC reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and oxidative stress can activate the ARE. ARE-regulated genes include phase 2 enzymes, such as glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and NAD(P)Hquinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), and antioxidants, such as glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase. We examined how shear stress affects the antioxidant/phase 2 enzyme activities and whether ROS mediate these effects. ROS production, measured by dichlorofluorescin fluorescence, depended on level and time of shear exposure and EC origin, and was inhibited by either an endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) inhibitor or a superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic and peroxynitrite (ONOO-) scavenger. Shear stress (10 dynes/cm2, 16 h) significantly increased the NQO1 activity, did not change significantly the glutathione (GSH) content, and significantly decreased the GR, GPx, GST and catalase activities in human umbilical vein ECs. Either eNOS inhibition or superoxide radical (O 2 •- )/ONOO- scavenging differentially modulated the shear effects on enzyme activities suggesting that the intracellular redox status coordinates the shear-induced expression of cytoprotective genes. © Biomedical Engineering Society 2007.