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Reading is one of the most important milestones a child achieves throughout development. Above the letter level, the syllable has been shown to play a relevant role at early stages of visual word recognition in adult skilled readers. However, studies aiming to examine when, during reading acquisition, the syllable emerges as a functional sublexical unit are scarce, and the studies conducted so far have led to inconsistent results. In this work, beginning and intermediate European-Portuguese (EP) developing readers performed a sandwich masked lexical decision task in which CV (e.g., RU.MOR[rumour]) and CVC (e.g., CIS.NE[swan]) first-syllable EP words were preceded either by syllable congruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, cis.ra-CIS.NE), syllable incongruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, ci.ser-CIS.NE), unrelated (e.g., va.cra-RU.MOR, zar.vo-CIS.NE) pseudowords primes, or identity (e.g., ru.mour-RU.MOUR, cis.ne-CIS.NE) primes. Results showed reliable syllable effects only for intermediate readers and for CV and CVC words alike. Findings are discussed attending to current models of visual word recognition.

Soares, Lages, Oliveira, and Cabrera-Hernández (2019) recently showed that the mirror-letter interference effect observed for words containing reversal letters was reliable for words containing left-oriented mirror-letters as 'd', but not for words containing right-oriented mirror-letters as 'b', thus indicating that the directionality of the reversal letters cannot be disregarded when examining the cost of suppressing the mirror-generalization mechanism at the early stages of visual word recognition. Here we examined whether this bias can also be observed for left-oriented non-reversal letters such as 'g', 'j', and 'z', which just as 'd' are also prone to errors in writing in left-to-right orthographies as European Portuguese (EP). Thirty-six EP skilled readers performed a lexical decision task combined with a masked-priming paradigm in which target words containing either left-oriented (e.g., 'g', genial) or right-oriented (e.g., 'c', casual) non-reversal letters were preceded by 50 ms primes that could be the same as the target (genial-genial, casual-casual), nonword primes in which the critical letter was replaced by the mirror-image of the left- or right-oriented non-reversal letter ([reverse g]enial-genial, [reverse c]asual-casual), or nonword primes in which the critical letter was replaced by the mirror-image of another left-oriented or right-oriented non-reversal letter as control ([character omitted]enial-genial, [character omitted]asual-casual). Results showed that the amount of priming produced by identity primes and mirror-image primes was virtually the same for words with left-oriented (e.g., genial-genial = [reverse g]enial-genial), but not for words with right-oriented non-reversal letters (e.g., casual-casual > [reverse c]asual-casual), hence extending the right-oriented bias observed for words containing reversal letters to words containing non-reversal letters.

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Aims/Objectives: According to Multilink, words from the first (L1) and (L2) second languages share a common store and their access is non-selective. Thus, the presentation of a target word activates in parallel lexical candidates from both languages that share form and semantic overlap. The degree of words' activation also depends on their resting levels of activation (words that are more used have a higher resting levels of activation). Since non-cognate translations and synonyms share meaning, they may be seen as qualitatively similar lexical representations, and consequently subject to similar processing if their frequency levels are matched. However, whereas masked priming lexical decision studies with synonyms failed to find reliable masked priming effects, the majority of those with non-cognate translations (especially in the forward direction, i.e., from L1 to L2) showed significant effects. The present study extends those findings by directly comparing the processing of synonyms and translations in bilinguals. Design/methodology: A masked priming lexical decision task (targets were preceded by a related 50-ms word [an L1 translation or an L2 synonym] or by a 50-ms unrelated word) was conducted. Lexical frequency of usage was higher for primes than for targets. Data and analysis: Reaction times and accuracy from 24 sequential (highly proficient) European Portuguese-English bilinguals were analyzed with linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: Results showed priming effects for translations, but not for synonyms, indicating a differential processing of synonyms and non-cognate translations. Originality: This is the first empirical work that directly compares the processing of synonyms and translations in bilinguals by using the same targets words for both prime types. Significance/implications: The findings contradict the Multilink model, since they index a differential representational nature of lexico-semantic links for translations and synonyms. Modifications in the model are needed to account for the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of syllables as a sublexical unit in visual word recognition and reading is well established in deep and shallow syllable-timed languages such as French and Spanish, respectively. However, its role in intermediate stress-timed languages remains unclear. This paper aims to overcome this gap by studying for the first time the role of syllables at early stages of visual word recognition in Portuguese (European), a language where the spelling-sound correspondences are less transparent than Spanish but less opaque than French, and also with fuzzier syllabic boundaries than both languages. To that purpose, 36 native speakers of Portuguese performed a lexical decision task combined with a masked priming paradigm. Ninety-six dissyllabic Portuguese target words, and 96 nonwords, half of which with a CV ("ru.mor" [rumor]) and the other half with a CVC first-syllable structure ("forno" [oven]), were preceded by a briefly presented nonword prime (50 ms) that could be syllable congruent (e.g., ru.mis-RU.MOR, for.pa-FOR.NO), syllable incongruent (e.g., rum.pa-RU.MOR, fo.rou-FOR.NO), or unrelated (e.g., ca.fas-RU.MOR, pou.me-FOR.NO) with the targets. Results were clear-cut and showed a facilitative syllabic priming effect in Portuguese, as target words preceded by syllable congruent primes were recognized faster and more accurately than when preceded either by incongruent or unrelated primes, although the effect was restricted to CV words. For nonwords there were no signs of syllabic effects. The findings are discussed attending to the characteristics of the Portuguese language and to current models of visual word recognition.

Bone biomaterials have been increasingly used to reconstruct maxillary atrophic ridges. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate bone reconstruction in the maxilla using a homologous cortico-cancellous FFB (lyophilized) graft and verify its reliability. Eight individuals were included from 2014 to 2018. The first surgery was performed to install homologous bone blocks in the maxilla. The period of the second intervention varied between 5 months and 15 days to 11 months (-7.93 months). The biopsies were taken from the central region of the matured graft during the surgery for implant placement. All patients presented clinical and radiographic conditions for the installation of dental implants. There was a 100% of survival rate. The histological assessment showed that the homologous block bone graft was an osteoconductive biomaterial, with connective tissue present, and newly formed bone juxtaposed on its surface. There were bone trabeculae with osteocytes and active osteoblasts with connective tissue in the mineralization process; the remodeling process can be found through the reverse lines. A limited focus of necrosis with fibrosis was detected, with small resorption and areas of inflammatory infiltrate, but without clinical significance. The homologous block bone graft can be considered a feasible option to substitute the autogenous bone graft (gold standard), with predictable clinical and favorable histological results. The patients had a shorter surgical period, low morbidity, and an unlimited amount of biomaterial available at an accessible cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]