Archival Research of the History of the Francisco Flores Ranch

The Francisco Flores Ranch, located northwest of Floresville, Texas, encompassed five sitios of land and one labor on the west bank of the San Antonio River at the paraje known as Chayopines. The Flores Ranch is one of the last surviving privately owned colonial ranches that have been identified in the San Antonio River valley containing standing structures possibly dating to the original date of occupation. I outline previous research on the property and offer new interpretations on the farm and ranch complex

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of competing motivations interacting in the placement of finite relative clauses in Hindi

Hindi has an unmarked SOV order (verb-final language), but constituents can be arranged in different orderings. While the focus of earlier studies has been on the rich set of word order variations; alternations at the clausal level have not received much attention (see Manetta 2012). Hindi finite RCs present an ideal case study for investigating clausal ordering because they can optionally occupy three positions: at the left edge of the main clause (left-peripheral or correlatives), at the right edge of the main clause (right-peripheral or extraposed), and immediately after the noun phrase it modifies (adnominal). This dissertation applies quantitative and qualitative methods to corpus data to investigate how grammatical weight, linear distance, and information structure interact with syntactic locality to determine the position of the relative clause at the left and right peripheries. These factors were drawn from previous studies on Hindi RCs (Dayal 1996; Srivastav 1991; Bhatt 2003; among others), as well as studies on different word/clause order phenomena in English and German, especially on relative clause extraposition (Francis 2010; Francis & Michaelis 2011; Strunk 2010). This dissertation argues that regardless of the syntactic analysis of these constructions, i.e. movement or base-generation adjunction, speakers have three main possible constructions to choose from when conveying a message. This selection is not random, but rather motivated by syntactic and non-syntactic factors. In particular, the present corpus study investigates the following questions: what factor(s) influence the choice of one ordering over the other in the production of finite relative clauses in Hindi; (b) what function(s) can clause ordering alternation serve, particularly in the two cases of discontinuous dependencies at the left and right peripheries; (c) can we predict a preference of any of these constructions based on particular factors? The corpus comprised 2,000 sentences containing at least one finite relative construction, extracted from a set of 353 monolingual written Hindi texts from the EMILLE/CIIL Corpus (Lancaster University and the Central Institute of Indian Languages). The data was analysed using a combination of statistical methods in order to determine which factors have an effect in ordering alternations, and whether there were interactions between them. A Multinomial Logistic Regression was selected as the prediction model (cf. Binary Regression Model in Francis & Michaelis 2016 and Strunk 2014). The predictability of the model was also tested by means of a Confusion matrix or Error matrix, using R (R Development Core Team 2017). The results of the corpus study confirmed that several competing factors have an effect in the placement of finite relative clauses in Hindi. The findings confirmed Hawkins’ (1994; 2004) claim that syntactic locality and grammatical weight are stronger predictors than discourse factors in determining ordering variations. Although discourse factors such as definiteness, givenness, and restrictiveness do not have a strong effect in predicting relative clause configurations; the data show interactions between them and syntactic locality and grammatical weight. Furthermore, the Principle of Minimize Domains (Hawkins 1994; 2004) and the Principle of End-weight (Quirk et al. 1972) successfully account for the asymmetries were reported in previous studies (Srivastav 1991; Dayal 1996); particularly, the repetition of the nominal head inside and outside the RC, the demonstrative requirement, availability of multi-heading, stacking/coordination phenomena, and restrictiveness. Another interesting finding was that Hindi, as English, prefers short-before-long sequences, in contrast with other verb-final languages such as Japanese and Korean which prefer long-before-short (cf. Hawkins 1994; 2004). Hindi also tends to place discourse given NPs before discourse new ones (Gupta 1986; Gundel 1989). In terms of predicting the structures that speakers will use, the confusion matrix showed higher success rate in predicting right-peripheral constructions from their discursive and structural characteristics: 370 constructions were correctly matched with the original, whereas 56 were incorrectly predicted as a left-peripheral construction, and zero instances were incorrectly predicted as adnominal. On the other hand, adnominal relatives were incorrectly predicted as a right-peripheral construction in 51 instances, only one correct match. Left-peripheral relatives were correctly matched 154 times, one instance was incorrectly matched with an adnominal construction, and 134 times incorrectly matched with a right-peripheral construction. I argue that there are several possible reasons why the model was more successful predicting right-peripheral relatives than the other two types. For instance, the number of tokens is larger for the right peripheral type, hence the model had more input on this construction. Also, right-peripheral relatives present more distinct differences with the other two types in terms of the quantitative factors considered. In other words, adnominal relatives and left-peripheral do not present significant differences regarding those quantitative factors. Finally, it is possible that the distinction between adnominal and left-peripheral constructions depends more heavily on qualitative factors than the quantitative ones. Because the former factors were not available, the model was not able to correctly predict the occurrence of these constructions. One advantage of a Multinomial Logistic Regression model is that is considers the totality of the independent variables for calculating the risk ratio, emulating a “real life” situation where the speaker has access to all sort of information (syntactic, semantic, processing, etc.). Nevertheless, if there is interaction between some of the independent variables, the model is claimed to overweight some of the probabilities. The sample size, however, did not permit to make stronger claims on the overweight effects, if any. Other approaches to incorporating quantitative data such as clustering or neural networks could be implemented in future research in order to test if the prediction improves for the other two types of constructions. Another interesting contribution of this dissertation is that the corpus data supported locality effects (cf. Kothari 2010). This provides evidence for Hawkins’ (2004) prediction that different methods can lead to different patterns of results in the investigation of grammatical weight and syntactic locality. Finally, the present study contributes to the debate on Hindi relative clauses in presenting evidence of non-syntactic factors intervening in the syntactic phenomena of relativization, and by accounting for the different properties associated to the three types of relatives from a non-syntactic perspective. It provides a systematic analysis of syntactic and non-syntactic factors using production corpus data. This kind of data expanded the range of possible constructions that were included in earlier studies

Creationist conceptions of primary and secondary school teachers in nineteen countries

Our work is the first international comparison of teachers' conceptions on Evolution / Creation, using several questions on precise and large samples to identify the importance of creationist ideas in the context of their national, religious, economic, cultural and political backgrounds. This research concerns 19 countries: 13 in Europe, 5 in Africa and one in Middle East: 7050 teachers filled out a questionnaire including several questions on Evolution vs. Creation. Half of them are in-service teachers, the other being at the last year of University before teaching. They are teaching in Primary Schools as well as in Secondary Schools (Biology, or Language). The percentages of teachers' radical creationist conceptions differ more from one country to another (from 2% to 90%) than among religions inside each country. There are some, but not so important, differences between Biology teachers and other teachers. The teachers' conceptions also differ with the level of teacher training: more they are instructed (in any matter), more they are evolutionist.European project FP6 “Biohead-Citizen” CIT2-CT-2004-506015. CIFPEC/CIEC - unidade de investigação 644/317 da FCT.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - CIFPEC/CIEC - unidade de investigação 644/317 da FCT

HPLC-PDA METHOD FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF PARACETAMOL IN PLASMA: APPLICATION TO PK/PD STUDIES WITH ARTHRITIC RATS

Objective: To develop and validate an easy, rapid, sensitive and selective high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode diode-array (HPLC-PDA) detection method for quantification of paracetamol and to demonstrate its application in a pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic study with arthritic rats.Methods: Paracetamol was separated from plasma samples (50-100 µl) by a single protein precipitation step, prior to HPLC-PDA detection. The separation was performed on a Knauer Eurospher II, C18 column 5 µm, 150 × 4.6 mm. The mobile phase comprised a mixture of water: methanol (75:25) and the flow rate was 1.1 ml/min. The detection wavelength was set at 245 nm. All analyses were carried out at room temperature (25 °C). Pharmacodynamics data were obtained with a gout-type pain model in rats.Results: The method was linear within a range of 0.2-200 µg/ml (R2≥0.99). The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy expressed as coefficient of variation and relative error, respectively were below 10%. The lower limit of quantification was 0.2 µg/ml. Plasma samples were stable at least for 5 w at ‒20° C.Conclusion: The validated method is sensitive, precise, accurate and specific as other more complex high-performance liquid chromatographic methods coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), using small plasma samples (50-100 µl) and with a short time analysis (<5 min). The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic study of paracetamol in arthritic rats.Â

Profile of Class I Histone Deacetylases (HDAC) by Human Dendritic Cells after Alcohol Consumption and In Vitro Alcohol Treatment and Their Implication in Oxidative Stress: Role of HDAC Inhibitors Trichostatin A and Mocetinostat

Epigenetic mechanisms have been shown to play a role in alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and may prove to be valuable therapeutic targets. However, the involvement of histone deacetylases (HDACs) on alcohol-induced oxidative stress of human primary monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDCs) has not been elucidated. In the current study, we took a novel approach combining ex vivo, in vitro and in silico analyses to elucidate the mechanisms of alcohol-induced oxidative stress and role of HDACs in the periphery. ex vivo and in vitro analyses of alcohol-modulation of class I HDACs and activity by MDDCs from self-reported alcohol users and non-alcohol users was performed. Additionally, MDDCs treated with alcohol were assessed using qRT-PCR, western blot, and fluorometric assay. The functional effects of alcohol-induce oxidative stress were measured in vitro using PCR array and in silico using gene expression network analysis. Our findings show, for the first time, that MDDCs from self-reported alcohol users have higher levels of class I HDACs compare to controls and alcohol treatment in vitro differentially modulates HDACs expression. Further, HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) blocked alcohol-induction of class I HDACs and modulated alcohol-induced oxidative stress related genes expressed by MDDCs. In silico analysis revealed new target genes and pathways on the mode of action of alcohol and HDACi. Findings elucidating the ability of alcohol to modulate class I HDACs may be useful for the treatment of alcohol-induced oxidative damage and may delineate new potential immune-modulatory mechanisms

The impact of glucocorticoids and anti-cd20 therapy on cervical human papillomavirus infection risk in women with systemic lupus erythematosus

OBJECTIVE: To identify the prevalence and factors associated with cervical human papillomavirus infection in women with systemic lupus erythematosus METHODS: This cross-sectional study collected traditional and systemic lupus erythematosus-related disease risk factors, including conventional and biologic therapies. A gynecological evaluation and cervical cytology screen were performed. Human papillomavirus detection and genotyping were undertaken by PCR and linear array assay. RESULTS: A total of 148 patients were included, with a mean age and disease duration of 42.5±11.8 years and 9.7±5.3 years, respectively. The prevalence of squamous intraepithelial lesions was 6.8%. The prevalence of human papillomavirus infection was 29%, with human papillomavirus subtype 59 being the most frequent. Patients with human papillomavirus were younger than those without the infection (38.2±11.2 vs. 44.2±11.5 years, respectively; p = 0.05), and patients with the virus had higher daily prednisone doses (12.8±6.8 vs. 9.7±6.7 mg, respectively; p = 0.01) and cumulative glucocorticoid doses (14.2±9.8 vs. 9.7±7.3 g, respectively; p = 0.005) compared with patients without. Patients with human papillomavirus infection more frequently received rituximab than those without (20.9% vs. 8.5%, respectively; p = 0.03). In the multivariate analysis, only the cumulative glucocorticoid dose was associated with human papillomavirus infection. CONCLUSIONS: The cumulative glucocorticoid dose may increase the risk of human papillomavirus infection. Although rituximab administration was more frequent in patients with human papillomavirus infection, no association was found. Screening for human papillomavirus infection is recommended in women with systemic lupus erythematosus

Genome sequencing of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli CFBP4834-R reveals that flagellar motility is not a general feature of xanthomonads.

Xanthomonads are plant-associated bacteria that establish neutral, commensal or pathogenic relationships with plants. The list of common characteristics shared by all members of the genus Xanthomonas is now well established based on the entire genome sequences that are currently available and that represent various species, numerous pathovars of X. axonopodis (sensu Vauterin et al., 2000), X. oryzae and X. campestris, and many strains within some pathovars. These ?-proteobacteria are motile by a single polar flagellum. Motility is an important feature involved in biofilm formation, plant colonization and hence considered as a pathogenicity factor. X. axonopodis pv. phaseoli var. fuscans (Xapf) is one of the causal agents of common bacterial blight of bean and 4834-R is a highly aggressive strain of this pathogen that was isolated from a seed-borne epidemic in France in 1998. We obtained a high quality assembled sequence of the genome of this strain with 454-Solexa and 2X Sanger sequencing. Housekeeping functions are conserved in this genome that shares core characteristics with genomes of other xanthomonads: the six secretion systems which have been described so far in Gram negative bacteria are all present, as well as their ubiquitous substrates or effectors and a rather usual number of mobile elements. Elements devoted to the adaptation to the environment constitute an important part of the genome with a chemotaxis island and dispersed MCPs, numerous two-component systems, and numerous TonB dependent transporters. Furthermore, numerous multidrug efflux systems and functions dedicated to biofilm formation that confer resistance to stresses are also present. An intriguing feature revealed by genome analysis is a long deletion of 35 genes (33 kbp) involved in flagellar biosynthesis. This deletion is replaced by an insertion sequence called ISXapf2. Genes such as flgB to flgL and fliC to fleQ which are involved in the flagellar structure (rod, P- and L-ring, hook, cap and filament) are absent in the genome of strain 4834-R that is not motile. Primers were designed to detect this deletion by PCR in a collection of more than 300 strains representing different species and pathovars of Xanthomonas, and less than 5% of the tested xanthomonads strains were found nonmotile because of a deletion in the flagellum gene cluster. We observed that half of the Xapf strains isolated from the same epidemic than strain 4834-R was non-motile and that this ratio was conserved in the strains colonizing the next bean seed generation. Isolation of such variants in a natural epidemic reveals that either flagellar motility is not a key function for fitness or that some complementation occurs within the bacterial population. (Résumé d'auteur