Background and Purpose— Evidence suggests that therapy can be effective in recovering from aphasia, provided that it consists of socially embedded, intensive training of behaviorally relevant tasks. However, the resources of healthcare systems are often too limited to provide such treatment at sufficient dosage. Hence, there is a need for evidence-based, cost-effective rehabilitation methods. Here, we asked whether virtual reality-based treatment grounded in the principles of use-dependent learning, behavioral relevance, and intensity positively impacts recovery from nonfluent aphasia. Methods— Seventeen patients with chronic nonfluent aphasia underwent intensive therapy in a randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial. Participants were assigned to the control group (N=8) receiving standard treatment or to the experimental group (N=9) receiving augmented embodied therapy with the Rehabilitation Gaming System for aphasia. All Rehabilitation Gaming System for aphasia sessions were supervised by an assistant who monitored the patients but did not offer any elements of standard therapy. Both interventions were matched for intensity and materials. Results— Our results revealed that at the end of the treatment both groups significantly improved on the primary outcome measure (Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: control group, P =0.04; experimental group, P =0.01), and the secondary outcome measure (lexical access—vocabulary test: control group, P =0.01; experimental group, P =0.007). However, only the Rehabilitation Gaming System for aphasia group improved on the Communicative Aphasia Log ( P =0.01). The follow-up assessment (week 16) demonstrated that while both groups retained vocabulary-related changes (control group, P =0.01; experimental group, P =0.007), only the Rehabilitation Gaming System for aphasia group showed therapy-induced improvements in language ( P =0.01) and communication ( P =0.05). Conclusions— Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of Rehabilitation Gaming System for aphasia for improving language and communication in patients with chronic aphasia suggesting that current challenges faced by the healthcare system in the treatment of stroke might be effectively addressed by augmenting traditional therapy with computer-based methods. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT02928822.

About a quarter of stroke patients worldwide suffer serious language disorders such as aphasias. Most common symptoms of Broca's aphasia are word naming disorders which highly impact verbal communication and the quality of life of aphasic patients. In order to recover disturbances in word retrieval, several cueing methods (i.e. phonemic and semantic) have been established to improve lexical access establishing effective language rehabilitation techniques. Based on recent evidence from action-perception theories, which postulate that neural circuits for speech perception and articulation are tightly coupled, in the present work, we propose and investigate an alternative type of cueing using silent articulation-related visual stimuli. We hypothesize that providing patients with primes in the form of silent videos showing lip motions representative of correct pronunciation of target words, will result in faster word retrieval than when no such cue is provided. To test our prediction, we realize a longitudinal clinical virtual reality-based trial with four post-stroke Broca's patients and compare the interaction times between the two conditions over the eight weeks of the therapy. Our results suggest that silent visuomotor cues indeed facilitate word retrieval and verbal execution, and might be beneficial in lexical relearning in chronic Broca's patients.

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This paper deals with gender as a socially constructed category that narrows the conception of gender violence. While violence refers to a way to interact with others, stems from the historical and ancient segregation of women by the fact of being women. This type of violence has its origins in the sexual division of labor and private property. Slavery, which was originally only female, shaped conformed as the most barbaric form of domination. As a result, a symbolic whole world order has been established to legitimize that subordination that is present in every order and exerted through social, cultural, political, psychological, legal, economic constructions and in the audiovisual environment. Gender violence, as a social aggression that is culturally learned, is a strategy to subjugate women that is expressed in many ways: abusive relationships, harassment, etc. Termination and prevention are fundamental measures in gender violence. In this vein, equality and nonviolence are essential for the progress and development of human rights and dignity.

Preambles to the traditional concept of knowledgeAt the turn of the millennium, a shift took place which, coupled with a change in civilisation, led to the implantation and dissemination of new forms of information technology. We are entering into a digital information society and age, which implies a new global era of information, also referred to as the era of knowledge. This change will have an effect on the new fields and disciplines emerging within the speciality of library and information science, the concepts of which are reviewed below.The definition of the term``knowledge'', as it is understood at present, is recorded within our cultural references and has its primal origin in our forms and types of script. The very origin of our writing system comes from the need to control agriculture, such as changes made in the flooding of the rivers Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, which gave our writing system a controlling, domineering dimension with respect to the peoples and cultures that lack such a system. The transfer of this process has very much been decisive in creating the dichotomy of dominated peoples and dominant peoples. In the same way, the type of alphabet also determines social structures and thought frameworks. Hence, the phonetic alphabet gave rise to the de-tribalisation of the ancient world, or more specifically of classical Greece, causing the dissolution of the tribal state, which worked like a biological unit, unlike modern societies, which revolve around a concept as abstract as exchange of any type. According to McLuhan, the opening up of tribal societies was due to the phonetic alphabet, or in other words, the domination of that which is visual over that which is heard, or written language over oral language, leading to the advancement of the magic of myth to thought, or logos. The tribal, communal, African, magical, auditory world is a more aesthetic, warm world which is at odds with an open, individualist, Western, rational, visual world that is colder and more neutral (McLuhan, 1985, p. 38). Illiterate peoples live in a world of sounds, unlike Westerners and Europeans, who live in a visual world.

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Cómo citar este artículo/Citation: Martínez-Ávila, D.; San Segundo, R.; Zurian, F. A. (2014). Retos y oportunidades en organización del conocimiento en la intersección con las tecnologías de la información. Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 37(3):e053. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/redc.2014.3.1112Resumen: En este trabajo se estudia la intersección de la Organización del Conocimiento y las Tecnologías de la Información, haciendo especial incidencia en los retos y oportunidades que existen en este área para los expertos en Organización del Conocimiento, tanto a un nivel teórico como práctico. Primero se revisan algunos conceptos necesarios para la contextualización del trabajo. Después se analiza la historia de la Web, comenzando con Internet, y continuando con la World Wide Web, la Web Semántica, los problemas en Inteligencia Artificial, la Web 2.0, y Linked Data. Finalmente, se concluye el estudio con algunas aplicaciones de las tecnologías de la información para la Organización del Conocimiento en el campo bibliotecario, como FRBR, BIBFRAME e iniciativas de OCLC, así como algunos retos y oportunidades en los que la investigación y los expertos en Organización del Conocimiento podrían jugar un rol clave en relación con la Web Semántica. Palabras clave:Organización del conocimiento; tecnologías de la información; web semántica; inteligencia artificial; linked data. Challenges and opportunities for knowledge organization at the intersection with information technologiesAbstract: In this paper we study the intersection of Knowledge Organization with Information Technologies and the challenges and opportunities for Knowledge Organization experts that, in our view, are important to be studied and for them to be aware of. We start by giving some definitions necessary for providing the context for our work. Then we review the history of the Web, beginning with the Internet and continuing with the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web, problems of Artificial Intelligence, Web 2.0, and Linked Data. Finally, we conclude our paper with IT applications for Knowledge Organization in libraries, such as FRBR, BIBFRAME, and several OCLC initiatives, as well as with some of the challenges and opportunities in which Knowledge Organization experts and researchers might play a key role in relation to the Semantic Web.

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