Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: a meta-analysis

The masked translation priming paradigm has been widely used in the last 25 years to investigate word processing in bilinguals. Motivated by studies reporting mixed findings, in particular for second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation priming, we conducted, for the first time in the literature, a meta-analysis of 64 lexical decision experiments across 24 studies to assess the effect sizes of L1-L2 and L2-L1 non-cognate translation priming effects in bilinguals. Our meta-analysis also investigated the influence of potential moderators of translation priming effects. The results provided clear evidence of significant translation priming effects for both directions, with L1-L2 translation priming significantly larger than L2-L1 translation priming (i.e., effect size of 0.86 vs. 0.31). The analyses also revealed that L1-L2 translation effect sizes were moderated by the interval between prime and target (ISI), whereas L2-L1 translation effect sizes were modulated by the number of items per cell. Theoretical and methodological implications of this meta-analysis are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided

Weighing up Exercises on Phrasal Verbs: Retrieval Versus Trial-And-Error Practices

EFL textbooks and internet resources exhibit various formats and implementations of exercises on phrasal verbs. The experimental study reported here examines whether some of these might be more effective than others. EFL learners at a university in Japan were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. Two groups were presented first with phrasal verbs and their meaning before they were prompted to retrieve the particles from memory. The difference between these two retrieval groups was that one group studied and then retrieved items one at a time, while the other group studied and retrieved them in sets. The two other groups received the exercises as trial-and-error events, where participants were prompted to guess the particles and were subsequently provided with the correct response. One group was given immediate feedback on each item, while the other group tackled sets of 14 items before receiving feedback. The effectiveness of these exercise implementations was compared through an immediate and a 1-week delayed post-test. The best test scores were obtained when the exercises had served the purpose of retrieval, although this advantage shrank in the delayed test (where scores were poor regardless of treatment condition). On average 70% of the post-test errors produced by the learners who had tackled the exercises by trial-and-error were duplicates of incorrect responses they had supplied at the exercise stage, which indicates that corrective feedback was often ineffective

Phrase Frequency Effects in Language Production

A classic debate in the psychology of language concerns the question of the grain-size of the linguistic information that is stored in memory. One view is that only morphologically simple forms are stored (e.g., ‘car’, ‘red’), and that more complex forms of language such as multi-word phrases (e.g., ‘red car’) are generated on-line from the simple forms. In two experiments we tested this view. In Experiment 1, participants produced noun+adjective and noun+noun phrases that were elicited by experimental displays consisting of colored line drawings and two superimposed line drawings. In Experiment 2, participants produced noun+adjective and determiner+noun+adjective utterances elicited by colored line drawings. In both experiments, naming latencies decreased with increasing frequency of the multi-word phrase, and were unaffected by the frequency of the object name in the utterance. These results suggest that the language system is sensitive to the distribution of linguistic information at grain-sizes beyond individual words

Смешанные бактериально-вирусные инфекции легких у пациентов с муковисцидозом

The main cause of death in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is infectious process in the lungs, in particular, chronic lung infections caused by various pathogens, most often a combination of bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Data on mixed bacterial and viral-bacterial infections from domestic and foreign sources are fragmentary and sparse. The dominant associations of bacterial and viral pathogens in patients with cystic fibrosis have not been studied properly, and data on their epidemiological significance are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of bacterial and viral infections in patients with cystic fibrosis and to substantiate the need for the development of virological monitoring. Methods. Biomaterials from the respiratory tract of CF patients (409 children and 160 adults with CF) examined from 2006 to 2022 were used. The study was carried out using bacteriological methods, molecular genetic methods (RT-PCR) and MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry. Results. Microflora of the respiratory tract was shown to be mixed in 2/3 patients with CF. The microflora of the lungs of children with CF is a dynamic community of microorganisms with high diversity and variability. In adult patients, associations of microorganisms are more common than in children, but the composition of associations is less diverse. We isolated about 40 species of bacteria from adult patients and more than 85 species from children in our sample. NFMO prevailed, including Burkholderia cepacia complex, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Achromobacter ruhlandii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus spp. Real-time PCR showed the presence of rhinovirus RNA in 10% of samples obtained from children and 12.9% from adults with cystic fibrosis. Conclusion. Our results indicate the need for continuous monitoring of the lung microflora in patients with CF, including testing for viruses.Основной причиной смерти больных муковисцидозом (МВ) являются инфекционные процессы в легких, в частности, хронические инфекции легких (ХИЛ), вызываемые различными возбудителями, среди которых выявлены доминирующие, чаще всего в виде смешанного инфицирования, – бактериями, грибами, вирусами. Данные о смешанных бактериальных и бактериально-вирусных инфекциях (БВИ), полученных из отечественных и зарубежных источников, фрагментарны и немногочисленны. В настоящее время доминирующие ассоциации возбудителей бактериальной и вирусной природы у пациентов с МВ изучены недостаточно, отсутствуют данные об их эпидемиологической значимости. Целью работы являлась оценка распространенности БВИ и обоснование необходимости разработки системы вирусологического мониторинга у пациентов с МВ. Материалы и методы. Материалом для исследования послужили биоматериалы, полученные из дыхательных путей детей (n = 409) и взрослых (n = 160) больных МВ, обследованных в 2006–2022 гг. Исследование проводилось с помощью бактериологических, молекулярно-генетических методов (полимеразная цепная реакция (ПЦР) в режиме реального времени (РВ) с обратной транскрипцией; времяпролетная масс-спектрометрия с матрично-ассоциированной лазерной десорбцией / ионизацией (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption / Ionization (MALDI) Time-Of-Flight (TOF)). Результаты. Показано, что микрофлора дыхательных путей у пациентов с МВ в 2/3 случаев является смешанной. Микрофлора легких у детей с МВ представляет собой динамичное сообщество микроорганизмов, характеризуемых большим разнообразием и изменчивостью. У взрослых больных ассоциации микроорганизмов встречаются чаще, чем у детей, но менее разнообразен состав ассоциаций. От выборки взрослых больных выделены около 40 видов бактерий (от детей – > 85 видов), среди который преобладали неферментирующие грамотрицательные микроорганизмы: Burkholderia cepacia complex, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Achromobacter ruhlandii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, а также Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans и Aspergillus spp. По результатам ПЦР РВ показано наличие РНК риновируса в 10 % образцов, полученных от детей, и 12,9 % – от взрослых пациентов с МВ. Заключение. По результатам исследования обоснована необходимость постоянного мониторинга микрофлоры легких у больных МВ, включая исследование на вирусы

The Alternative Splice Variant of Protein Tyrosine Kinase 6 Negatively Regulates Growth and Enhances PTK6-Mediated Inhibition of β-Catenin

Protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6), also called breast tumor kinase (BRK), is expressed in epithelial cells of various tissues including the prostate. Previously it was shown that PTK6 is localized to epithelial cell nuclei in normal prostate, but becomes cytoplasmic in human prostate tumors. PTK6 is also primarily cytoplasmic in the PC3 prostate adenocarcinoma cell line. Sequencing revealed expression of wild type full-length PTK6 transcripts in addition to an alternative transcript lacking exon 2 in PC3 cells. The alternative transcript encodes a 134 amino acid protein, referred to here as ALT-PTK6, which shares the first 77 amino acid residues including the SH3 domain with full length PTK6. RT-PCR was used to show that ALT-PTK6 is coexpressed with full length PTK6 in established human prostate and colon cell lines, as well as in primary cell lines derived from human prostate tissue and tumors. Although interaction between full-length PTK6 and ALT-PTK6 was not detected, ALT-PTK6 associates with the known PTK6 substrates Sam68 and β-catenin in GST pull-down assays. Coexpression of PTK6 and ALT-PTK6 led to suppression of PTK6 activity and reduced association of PTK6 with tyrosine phosphorylated proteins. While ALT-PTK6 alone did not influence β-catenin/TCF transcriptional activity in a luciferase reporter assay, it enhanced PTK6-mediated inhibition of β-catenin/TCF transcription by promoting PTK6 nuclear functions. Ectopic expression of ALT-PTK6 led to reduced expression of the β-catenin/TCF targets Cyclin D1 and c-Myc in PC3 cells. Expression of tetracycline-inducible ALT-PTK6 blocked the proliferation and colony formation of PC3 cells. Our findings suggest that ALT-PTK6 is able to negatively regulate growth and modulate PTK6 activity, protein-protein associations and/or subcellular localization. Fully understanding functions of ALT-PTK6 and its impact on PTK6 signaling will be critical for development of therapeutic strategies that target PTK6 in cancer

Epidemiological Features of Chronic Lung Infection in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Relevance. Life expectancy of cystic fibrosis patients mostly depends on the degree of respiratory system damage caused by opportunistic microorganisms, which is due to the fact that 90-95% of deaths of cystic fibrosis patients are caused by lung infections. Goal. To define epidemiologic characteristics of chronic lung infection caused by the most common agents (S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, B. cepacia-like bacteria (Bcc) and Achromobacter spp.) using a novel chronic lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients microbiological diagnosis algorithm. Materials and methods. Over a period of 7 years (2008-2016) 300 children with cystic fibrosis living in Moscow, Moscow region and several other regions of Russian Federation have been checked-up. 260 sputum samples from 100 adult patients, who were under care at the Pulmonology Research Institute, were studied. Sputum samples from children were taken before and after antibiotic therapy with intervals of 15-45 days and over 6 months. 30 of the children were also subjected to a microbiologic monitoring of the state of chronic infection in the period between 4 and 15 months. Sputum sample from adult patients were also taken before and after antibiotic therapy with intervals of 0, 15-45 days and over 6 months. Results. P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, H. influenzae and Burkholderia cepacia-like bacteria were confirmed to be the most common agents of lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Children with cystic fibrosis over the years develop foci of chronic lung infection, mainly caused by P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. Conclusions. Chronic lung infection can be caused by community-acquired or nosocomial S. aureus и P. aeruginosa. Chronic lung infection is a complex, dynamically changing disease which requires constant monitoring and is mainly caused by S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, Bcc bacteria and Achromobacter spp. As populations of the agents can be diverse, it is necessary to study all colonies with differing phenotypes (mucoid and non-mucoid variants, small colony variants, variants with different pigments) and to take samples of several colonies when testing antibiotic resistance. Bcc and Achromobacter spp. cannot be eradicated with antibiotics, thus the only effective measure against these bacteria can only be vaccination which requires developing a vaccine

It’s all in the eyes: How language dominance, salience, and context affect eye movements during idiomatic language processing

This paper reports an eye movement study and the effects of salience, context, and language dominance on the processing of idiomatic expressions by Spanish–English bilinguals. Salient meanings of figurative expressions are those which are processed first and accessed automatically from the mental lexicon, regardless of contextual bias (Giora 2003). The research conducted so far with second language (L2) learners and bilingual participants has shown that the literal meaning of L2 idioms might be more salient than the figurative one in the course of their processing by non-native language users (e.g. Kecskes 2000; Liontas 2002; Cieślicka 2006; Cieślicka and Heredia 2011). In addition, research findings suggest that the degree of language dominance, or which language is more readily accessible due to usage (Heredia 1997; Heredia and Altarriba 2001; Altarriba and Basnight-Brown 2007), might be a factor in bilingual processing. To investigate whether the degree of literal and figurative activation in bilingual idiom processing may be modulated by language dominance (i.e. dominant vs. nondominant), we recorded eye movements of Spanish–English bilinguals, dominant either in Spanish or in English, while they were reading ambiguous (literally plausible, such as ‘kick the bucket’) English idioms. Each idiom was used either in its figurative or literal meaning and embedded in a sentence with neutral preceding context, in which case its figurative (‘Within seconds she realized she was in deep water, and that she would very soon come to regret her words’) or literal (‘Within seconds she realized she was in deep water, and that she would very soon have to swim back towards the shore’) meaning became clear due to the subsequent disambiguating information, or the preceding supportive context clearly biasing one of the meanings (e.g. figurative biased: ‘Since both of us were equally guilty of causing the overspend, we both knew we were in deep water, and very likely to lose our jobs’). As predicted, the results indicated that the effects of salience and context on eye movement patterns are modulated by language dominance