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Biomedical subjects

A Colas

Publications and source records attributed to A Colas.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Maintaining and reintroducing referents in French: cognitive constraints and development of narrative skills.

Seven- to eleven-year-old French-speaking children and adults told "silent" comic strip stories that differed by the frame display mode, by the explicitness of the links between depicted events, and whether the topic changed on the last frame. The results showed that (a) the character in the last frame was usually referred to as a given, with a definite pronoun when the topic was maintained and a definite noun phrase or a left dislocation when the topic changed; (b) joint display of frames triggered more pronouns and left dislocations, while single-frame display led to more definite noun phrases; and (c) explicit links gave rise to more pronouns. The production conditions manipulated turned out to be a good means of assessing speakers' acquisition of within-discourse referencing expressions and narrative skills: the children gradually refined and adjusted their use of definite expressions and pronouns, whereas the adults more readily used narration-specific devices.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Introducing infants to referential events: a development study of maternal ostensive marking in French.

It is well known that mothers give then infants lessons in conversational competence from an early age. This study considered how maternal gestures and prosody contribute to this developing competence. It examines how mothers use ostensive marking to point out common references at different stages of development. The corpus consisted of longitudinal observations of four mother-infant dyads during free play (infants aged 0;4 to 1;1), at three stages of sensorimotor development (III, IV and V). Four dimensions of ostensive marking were considered: (1) the span of the marked utterance (holistic vs. local); (2) the communication channel used (gestural vs. prosodic); (3) the type of gestural marker (oriented, iconic, conventional, beats); and (4) the type of prosodic marker (emphasis, prosodic cliché, reinforced nuclear stress, focal accent). Although there was no clear change in the patterns of specific types of gestural or prosodic markers, the results showed that mothers adapt their gestures to the infant's processing level. Between stages III and V, they move from holistic to local and from gestural to prosodic marking. Stage IV appears to be an excellent period for observing the transition.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1993

[Interactions of infants with adults in day care centers. Evolutive dependencies vs. counter-evolutive risks and characteristics of the mother-infant relationship].

As part of a broader research project on the construction of the self, six infants were observed longitudinally in day-care centers between the ages of five months and three years. Interviews were conducted with the six mothers in order to evaluate the intersubjective characteristics of the mother-infant relationship. For three of the six children, the mother was a caregiver in the center. This article deals with "propping" processes, defined as the affective-cognitive transformations by means of which infants develop networks of links with and between external and internal objects which are used for support during development and serve as a relay of the maternal object. The present analysis is limited to propping on the adults in the day-care center (caregivers, observer, and, for three of the children, mothers). Two factors were considered: the intersubjective quality of the mother-infant relation, and the presence or absence of the mother as a caregiver in the day-care center. The results showed that (1) even when very young, the infants under observation differentiated between the various functions of the adults, and adapted their behavior to them; (2) each child exhibited a unique and sometimes very creative way of using dependencies on an adult's psychic apparatus to construct his or her own modes of psychic functioning; and (3) the developmental dynamics and the richness of the observed transformations were found to depend on the quality of the contact and distancing in the mother-infant relationship and on the concrete conditions for its actualization, which can either promote or hinder, and sometimes even block, the construction of the mother's absence.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Feminizing adrenocortical carcinoma in a postmenopausal woman.

The successful surgical removal of a feminizing adrenal tumour in a postmenopausal woman is described. Most of these tumours are malignant and the pathological findings and the biological behaviour of the tumour frequently do not correlate, so that a careful follow-up is necessary. In the presence of vaginal bleeding in a postmenopausal woman endometrial carcinoma should be considered. If this has been ruled out and if oestrogens are elevated with low plasma gonadotrophins, a feminizing ovarian or adrenal tumour should be considered.

Adrenal Cortex Neoplasms↗
PubMed1977

Adrenal cysts: diagnostic value of "intravenous viscerogram".

Two cases of adrenal pseudocysts are presented, one secondary to the necrosis of an adenoma and the other a hemorrhagic pseudocyst. The diagnosis of these tumors is usually made radiologically owing to the vagueness of symptoms and nonexistent specific laboratory examinations, so that preoperative diagnosis is uncommon. We present a radiologic technique, intravenous viscerogram, which may be useful in the diagnosis of adrenal cysts. This procedure is easy to carry out and has almost no complications for the patient. The classification, clinical findings, and surgical treatment of adrenal cysts are discussed.

Adrenal Gland Diseases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Propafenone per os in ventricular arrhythmia].

Twenty-one patients presenting ventricular rhythm disorders and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit were treated with oral propafenone at the dosage of 450 to 900 mg/hours. The results of treatment were excellent in 13 cases, average in 2 cases, and nil in 4 cases. Worsening of arrhythmia was observed in 2 cases. Generally the drug was well tolerated, with treatment requiring to be discontinued in 1 case due to gastrointestinal upset and in another case due to broadening of the QRS complex. This study confirms that oral propafenone is well tolerated in ventricular arrhythmias regardless of their etiology.

Administration, Oral↗