Modifying (the grammar of) adjuncts : an introduction

One aspect of the progress being made is that the focus of attention has widened. Adverbials, though still the heart of the matter, now form part of a much larger set of constituent types subsumed under the general syntactic label of adjunct; while modifier has become the semantic counterpart on the same level of generality. So one of the readings of Modifying Adjuncts stands for the focus on this intersection. Moreover, recent years have seen a number of studies which attest an increasing interest in adjunct issues. There is an impressive number of monographs, e.g. Alexiadou (1997), Laenzlinger (1998), Cinque (1999), Pittner (1999), Ernst (2002), which, by presenting in-depth analyses of the syntax of adjuncts, have sharpened the debate on syntactic theorizing. Serious attempts to gain a broader view on adjuncts are witnessed by several collections, see Alexiadou and Svenonius (2000), Austin, Engelberg and Rauh (in progress); of particular importance are the contributions to vol. 12.1 of the Italian Journal of Linguistics (2000), a special issue on adverbs, the Introductions to which by Corver and Delfitto (2000) and Delfitto (2000) may be seen as the best state-of-the-art article on adverbs and adverbial modification currently on the market. To try and test a fresh view on adjuncts was the leitmotif of the Oslo Conference “Approaching the Grammar of Adjuncts” (Sept 22–25, 1999), which provided the initial forum for the papers contained in this volume and initiated a period of discussion and continuing interaction among the contributors, from which the versions published here have greatly profited. The aim of the Oslo conference, and hence the focus of the present volume, was to encourage syntacticians and semanticists to open their minds to a more integrative approach to adjuncts, thereby paying attention to, and attempting to account for, the various interfaces that the grammar of adjuncts crucially embodies. From this perspective, the present volume is to be conceived of as an interim balance of current trends in modifying the views on adjuncts. In introducing the papers, we will refrain from rephrasing the abstracts, but will instead offer a guided tour through the major problem areas they are tackling. Assessed by thematic convergence and mutual reference, the contributions form four groups, which led us to arrange them into subparts of the book. Our commenting on these is intended (i) to provide a first glance at the contents, (ii) to reveal some of the reasons why adjuncts indeed are, and certainly will remain, a challenging issue, and thereby (iii) to show some facets of what we consider novel and promising approaches

Perceiving the Complex Path: Encouraging and Supporting Academic Exploration for College Students

This thesis offers an overview of how college students can be supported in the process of academic exploration. Rather than labeling students as simply declared or undeclared, degrees of decidedness are viewed as a spectrum. Within that continuum, certain sub-types of students are identified in order to uncover the causes behind specific issues commonly faced in the college student population. Select academic advising methodologies are reviewed, chosen for their pertinence to the activity of encouraging exploratory behavior in the academic realm. Theories discussed come from two varying perspectives: those based on philosophical foundations, and those based on social science foundations. To add to the range of ideas in the academic advising arena, three theories from the fields of psychology and sociology that do not currently appear in the academic advising literature and shed light on some obstacles to academic exploration faced by students, are discussed in the context of academic counseling. Fictional case studies demonstrate how the theories can be applied in the counseling session, and various interventions are discussed

Embodied Belonging: In/exclusion, Health Care, and Well-Being in a World in Motion

In this introduction, we propose the notion of ‘embodied belonging’ as a fruitful analytical heuristic for scholars in medical and psychological anthropology. We envision this notion to help us gain a more nuanced understanding of the entanglements of the political, social, and affective dimensions of belonging and their effects on health, illness, and healing. A focus on embodied belonging, we argue, reveals how displacement, exclusion, and marginalization cause existential and health-related ruptures in people’s lives and bodies, and how affected people, in the struggle for re/emplacement and re/integration, may regain health and sustain their well-being. Covering a variety of regional contexts (Germany/Vietnam, Norway, the UK, Japan), the contributions to this special issue examine how embodied non/belonging is experienced, re/imagined, negotiated, practiced, disrupted, contested, and achieved (or not) by their protagonists, who are excluded and marginalized in diverse ways. Each article highlights the intricate trajectories of how dynamics of non/belonging inscribe themselves in human bodies. They also reveal how belonging can be utilized and drawn on as a forceful means and resource of social resilience, if not (self-)therapy and healing

AHNAK and inflammatory markers predict poor survival in laryngeal carcinoma.

AHNAK/Desmoyokin is a giant protein which has been recently linked to reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, cellular migration and invasion. Here, we investigated the role of AHNAK in the pathophysiology of larynx carcinoma-one of the major subtypes of head and neck cancer. To this end, we analysed AHNAK expression in tumor tissues from 83 larynx carcinoma patients in relation to overall survival. We found that tumoral AHNAK overexpression significantly associated with poor survival of these patients both in univariate and multivariate analysis. In further studies, we combined the prognostic value of AHNAK with selected markers of inflammation, such as macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (CD66b-positive cells). Both MIF and neutrophils have been linked to enhanced tumoral migration and poor clinical outcome in patients with orohypopharynx carcinoma-another major subtype of head and neck cancer. Interestingly, we found that synchronous high levels of AHNAK and MIF or AHNAK and neutrophils, respectively, were stronger predictors of poor survival than AHNAK alone. Synchronous high levels of all three markers were the strongest predictors of poor survival in our patient cohort. Taken together, our findings propose novel strategies for an accurate prognosis in larynx carcinoma and suggest potential mechanisms of inflammation-mediated tumor progression

A High-Resolution Survey of HI Absorption toward the Central 200 pc of the Galactic Center

We present an HI absorption survey of the central 250 pc of the Galaxy. Very Large Array (VLA) observations were made at 21 cm in the DnC and CnB configurations and have a resolution of ~15"(0.6 pc at the Galactic Center (GC) distance) and a velocity resolution of ~2.5 km/s. This study provides HI data with high spatial resolution, comparable with the many high resolution observations which have been made of GC sources over the past ten years. Here we present an overview of the HI absorption toward ~40 well-known continuum sources and a detailed comparison of the ionized, atomic and molecular components of the interstellar medium for the Sgr B, Radio Arc and Sgr C regions. In these well-known regions, the atomic gas appears to be closely correlated in both velocity and distribution to the ionized and molecular gas, indicating that it resides in photo-dissociation regions related to the HII regions in the GC. Toward the majority of the radio continuum sources, HI absorption by the 3-kpc arm is detected, constraining these sources to lie beyond a 5 kpc distance in the Galaxy.Comment: 59 pages, including 41 figures; accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series in December 201

Antibiotic resistance surveillance of Klebsiella pneumoniae complex is affected by refined MALDI-TOF identification, Swiss data, 2017 to 2022.

BackgroundModern laboratory methods such as next generation sequencing and MALDI-TOF allow identification of novel bacterial species. This can affect surveillance of infections and antimicrobial resistance. From 2017, increasing numbers of medical microbiology laboratories in Switzerland differentiated Klebsiella variicola from Klebsiella pneumoniae complex using updated MALDI-TOF databases, whereas many laboratories still report them as K. pneumoniae or K. pneumoniae complex.AimOur study explored whether separate reporting of K. variicola and the Klebsiella pneumoniae complex affected the ANRESIS surveillance database.MethodsWe analysed antibiotic susceptibility rates and specimen types of K. variicola and non-K. variicola-K. pneumoniae complex isolates reported by Swiss medical laboratories to the ANRESIS database (Swiss Centre for Antibiotic Resistance) from January 2017 to June 2022.ResultsAnalysis of Swiss antimicrobial resistance data revealed increased susceptibility rates of K. variicola compared with species of the K. pneumoniae complex other than K. variicola in all six antibiotic classes tested. This can lead to underestimated resistance rates of K. pneumoniae complex in laboratories that do not specifically identify K. variicola. Furthermore, K. variicola strains were significantly more often reported from blood and primarily sterile specimens than isolates of the K. pneumoniae complex other than K. variicola, indicating increased invasiveness of K. variicola.ConclusionOur data suggest that refined differentiation of the K. pneumoniae complex can improve our understanding of its taxonomy, susceptibility, epidemiology and clinical significance, thus providing more precise information to clinicians and epidemiologists

Soziosemantische Analyse französischer Ernährungsempfehlungen

Ernährungsbedingte Krankheiten, wie z.B. Herzkreislauferkrankungen, Krebs, Diabetes etc. sind die Hauptursachen aller Todesfälle in Frankreich, wie auch auf internationaler Ebene (PNNS 2011, 60 – 62). Diese Krankheiten sind meist bedingt durch ein nicht adäquates Ernährungsverhalten, das von dem Wissen darüber, was gesunde Ernährung ausmacht, abweicht. Das PNNS (Programme National Nutrition Santé) hat sich deshalb zum Ziel gesetzt, die französische Bevölkerung über gesunde Ernährung bzw. ein gesundes Ernährungsverhalten aufzuklären. In meiner Arbeit möchte ich einen Teilbereich dieser Ernährungsaufklärungskampagne, nämlich die Ernährungsbroschüren (fiches conseils), analysieren. Um die fiches conseils zu bewerten, habe ich vorerst die Hauptfaktoren Aufmerksamkeit erregend, interessant, verständlich, glaubwürdig, unterhaltsam, fesselnd, langfristig motivierend und umsetzbar als notwendige Parameter für eine effektive Ernährungskommunikation festgesetzt. Außerdem wurden diese mit Einflussvariablen der Kommunikation (Sender, Empfänger, Kanal, Code, Kontext und Botschaft) bzw. mit semiotischen und textlinguistischen Mitteln der Botschaft korreliert. Die fiches conseils entsprechen vielen, der von mir festgesetzten, Hauptfaktoren. Meines Erachtens sind die Ernährungsbroschüren verständlich, Aufmerksamkeit erregend, glaubwürdig und es wurden auch einige Mittel angewendet, um die Botschaft einfacher sowie langfristig im Gedächtnis der Empfänger zu verankern. Ich denke jedoch, dass die Broschüren motivationssteigernder auf die Empfänger wirken könnten, damit diese die Ernährungsempfehlungen tatsächlich umsetzen. Bilder, die emotionale, euphorische oder anatomastische Werte vermitteln und somit eine motivierende Wirkung auf die Rezipienten haben könnten, sind meist klein dargestellt und somit kaum dominant. Weiters wird die Effektivität der Broschüre, so denke ich, durch die Kombination von Bild - zur schnelleren Kontaktaufnahme, Aktivierung der Aufmerksamkeit, emotionalen Vermittlung, Steigerung des Unterhaltungswertes, Beweisführung durch Visualisierung einzelner Textpassagen und Verankerung von Botschaften im Gedächtnis - und Text - zur rationalen und sachlichen Vermittlung, um abzusichern, dass der Konsument die Botschaft versteht - positiv beeinflusst

Modulation des cGMP-Signalweges zur Therapie der experimentellen pulmonalen Hypertonie

Die pulmonal-arterielle Hypertonie ist eine schwerwiegende Erkrankung, deren Krankheitsverlauf noch immer nicht aufzuhalten oder gar zu kurieren ist. Es handelt sich um eine Erkrankung der kleinen arteriellen Lungengefäße, die wiederum für die Erhöhung des Gefäßwiderstandes und in Folge dessen für den pulmonalen Hochdruck verantwortlich sind. Typisch sind intimale Fibrose, Mediaverdickung, Neointimaproliferation sowie plexiforme Läsionen. Der NO-sGC-cGMP-Signaltransduktionsweg spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei vielen kardiovaskulären Erkrankungen, so auch der PAH. Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit lag darin, die Effekte des PDE-5-Hemmers Sildenafil und die des sGC-Stimulators Riociguat (BAY 63-2521) verglichen zu einer Placebotherapie in einem tierexperimentellen Versuchsaufbau zu untersuchen. Dazu wurde das Modell der Hypoxie-induzierten PAH in Verbindung mit dem VEGFR-Antagonisten Su5416 in der Ratte gewählt. Dies ermöglichte neben der pulmonalen Druckerhöhung auch die bei humanen Patienten vorzufindenden Gefäßveränderungen nachzustellen. An Hand unterschiedlicher aussagekräftiger Parameter, gemessen durch invasive Hämodynamik, echokardiographische Untersuchungen sowie die anaylsierte Gefäßmorphometrie konnten die therapeutischen Effekte beider Substanzen nachgewiesen werden. Riociguat und Sildenafil nahmen positiven Einfluss auf die Hämodynamik, das vaskuläre Remodeling sowie die rechtsventrikuläre Hypertrophie und Herzfunktion verglichen mit einer Placebobehandlung. Dabei wurden bessere Resultate durch Riociguat erzielt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit tragen zum Verständnis der Erkrankung und deren Verlauf bei und ebnen den Weg für eine verbesserte Medikamentierung. Neben dem bereits für die Therapie der pulmonal-arteriellen Hypertonie zugelassenen Medikament Sildenafil (Revatio®) bietet so auch das noch in der klinischen Studie befindliche Riociguat eine denkbare Möglichkeit der Behandlung des Krankheitsbildes der pulmonalen Hypertonie.Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a severe life-threatening disease. Up to now there is no medical treatment to permanently stop or even reverse the course of disease. Mainly the small arterial vessels of the lung are affected, while they increase pulmonary resistance and thereby lead to pulmonary hypertension. Intimal fibrosis, thickening of the media, neointima proliferation as well as plexiform lesions are typical pathohistological findings. The nitric oxide (NO)- soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC)- cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signal transduction pathway is impaired in many cardiovascular diseases, including PAH. Riociguat (BAY 63-2521) is a stimulator of sGC that works both in synergy with and independently from NO to increase levels of cGMP. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of NO-sGC-cGMP signaling in a model of severe PAH and to evaluate the effects of sGC stimulation by riociguat and PDE5 inhibition by sildenafil in comparison to a placebo treatment on hemodynamics and vascular remodeling in severe experimental PAH. Severe angioproliferative PAH was induced in rats by combined exposure to the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor antagonist SU5416 and hypoxia at 10% O2. The employed model enabled not only to increase pulmonary pressure, but also to mimic the vascular alteration observed in human patients. Therapeutic effects have been demonstrated with help of different parameters: invasive hemodynamics, echocardiographic investigations and histological studies. Both compounds show positive influence on hemodynamics, vascular remodeling, right heart hypertrophy, and heart function in comparison with vehicle treatment. Riociguat had greater effects on these parameters than sildenafil. The outcome of this study contributes to the understanding of the process and the disease itself and paves the way for an optimized medicamentation. Besides sildenafil, which is already approved for PAH therapy (Revatio®), riociguat is a promising possibility for a treatment