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Background: Data on the early course of stroke-related aphasia after thrombolysis are scant. Aims: The aim of this study was to describe recovery patterns of aphasia after thrombolysis in a large sample of stroke patients. Methods & Procedures: Clinical and radiological data of consecutive stroke patients treated with thrombolysis over a 5-year period were routinely entered into prospective registries at two stroke units. Recovery was evaluated using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at baseline, after 24 hr, and on day 7. Aphasia was defined as a score >0 on item 9 of the NIHSS (measurement of language skills), aphasia improvement as any decrease in the item-9 score, and aphasia resolution as an item-9 score of 0. To assess global motor and language impairments, we created a composite language score obtained by summing the scores for items 1b, 1c, and 9; and a composite motor score obtained by summing the scores for items 4, 5, and 6. Outcomes & Results: Out of the 338 patients treated with thrombolysis, 137 (40.5%) had aphasia. In patients with both aphasia and motor deficits (n = 109), these two impairments showed similar recovery patterns. Aphasia recovered significantly better in patients without limb motor deficits (n = 28) than those with limb motor deficits (n = 109), both after 24 hr (p < 0.05) and after 7 days (p < 0.0001). These results were supported by findings from a group-based trajectory modelling methods (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Language impairments and limb motor deficits show similar recovery after thrombolysis in a given patient. Aphasia recovery is significantly better in the absence of limb motor deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Composites made from RuO2·xH2O particles supported on carbon nanofibres (CNF) have been prepared for supercapacitor electrodes. CNF, produced by Grupo Antolin Ing. SA. using a floating catalyst procedure was treated either in HCl or in HNO3. Then the composites were obtained by impregnation of CNF with an aqueous RuCl3·0.5H2O solution followed by filtering and alkali solution treatment. Heat treatment at 150°C for 2h was done. Specific capacitance of the composites has been measured and discussed on the basis of their RuO2·xH2O content and RuO2·xH2O particle size. The composites having RuO2·xH2O contents below 11wt% show RuO2·xH2O particles, which grow from 2 to 4nm as the RuO2·xH2O content increases. The specific capacitance of supported RuO2·xH2O, which can be very high (up to 840Fg−1), decreases as the RuO2·xH2O content increases and RuO2·xH2O particles grow. The composites having RuO2·xH2O contents above 11wt% show RuO2·xH2O particles of nearly constant size (4nm); the effect of increasing the RuO2·xH2O content is to increase the amount of particles but not the size of the particles. In these composites the specific capacitance of supported RuO2·xH2O is nearly constant (440Fg−1) and close to bare RuO2·xH2O (460Fg−1). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cubic bismuth uranium lanthanum oxide with formula Bi1.76U0.12La0.12O3.18 has been synthesized by heating at 950 °C a mixture of α-Bi2O3 and La0.5U0.5O2.25. After heating, the mixture was slowly cooled down to room temperature, and a cubic fluorite-type Fm3m single phase with lattice parameter a c =5.605(1) Å has been obtained. The title compound does not undergo any structural transformation on heating up to 800 °C, as confirmed by high-temperature X-ray powder diffraction. The electrical conductivity vs. reciprocal temperature shows two regimes with a change in conductivity at ca. 550 °C. Both regimes are associated with conduction of O2− ions. The activation energy of the low-temperature regime and the high-temperature regime is 0.96 and 0.42 eV, respectively. Aging of the cubic phase by annealing at 600 °C for short (100 h) or long time (550 h) produces segregation of α-Bi2O3 and phases of lower symmetry (hexagonal or monoclinic, respectively) with a composition different from that of the starting cubic phase. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Ecological factors contributing to fecundity showed a high degree of between-year variability. Pre-dispersal fruit predation had a minor influence on total reproductive output, and most of the variability was found among individuals within populations and years. Spatio-temporal variability in growth and survival was rather low but significant, whereas recruitment showed important between-population variability. Among-year variability in fecundity and growth was related to climatic fluctuations on a regional scale, notably rainfall and temperature in a particular period, while the spatial variability in survival and recruitment was explained by within-population (patch) habitat quality. Although R. myconi is able to withstand repeated periods of drought, water availability seems to be the most important factor affecting plant performance in all the study populations. These findings suggest that the long-term persistence of species showing remnant population dynamics in habitats under the influence of Mediterranean climate might be threatened by increased aridity as a result of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]