Slavic corpus and computational linguistics

In this paper, we focus on corpus-linguistic studies that address theoretical questions and on computational linguistic work on corpus annotation, that makes corpora useful for linguistic work. First, we discuss why the corpus linguistic approach was discredited by generative linguists in the second half of the 20th century, how it made a comeback through advances in computing and was adopted by usage-based linguistics at the beginning of the 21st century. Then, we move on to an overview of necessary and common annotation layers and the issues that are encountered when performing automatic annotation, with special emphasis on Slavic languages. Finally, we survey the types of research requiring corpora that Slavic linguists are involved in world-wide, and the resources they have at their disposal

Molecular mechanisms underlying resveratrol effect on renal osmoprotection: modulation of COX-2 expression

Resveratrol (RSV) is a polyphenol naturally present in several plants. Nowadays it is sold as an over-the-counter dietarysupplement due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumoral effects. Paradoxically, it has been documented that RSVmay also present pro-oxidizing and pro-proliferative effects. In fact, some studies suggest that RSV treatment can result inopposite effects depending on the cell type, its concentration, or the treatment time. Particularly in renal tissue, animal injurymodels described RSV beneficial effects, while studies with chronic intake of RSV observed nephrotoxicity. Hence, RSVeffects on renal tissue are still controversial. Due to the urinary concentrating mechanism, renal medullary interstitium presentsan elevated osmolality that can abruptly change depending on the hydric state of the body, reaching values up to 800-1200mOsm/kg H2O. To survive in this environment, renal cells activate protective pathways. We have demonstrated that renalepithelial cell line MDCK undergoes an adaptive process during the first 24h of hyperosmolarity, in which the transcription ofthe osmoprotective gene cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is activated, among others. After 48h these cells are already adapted andbegin to differentiate, acquiring a polarized epithelium morphology. In this work we evaluate RSV effect on adaption anddifferentiation mechanisms, focusing particularly on COX-2 role. To do this, MDCK cells were pretreated with differentconcentrations of RSV (1, 5, 10, 25 µM) and cultured in hyperosmolar medium (~512 mOsm/kg H2O) for 24 and 48h. Cellswere harvested to obtain cell number and viability. Cell cycle, immunofluorescence (IF), western blot and RT-PCR analysiswere performed. We found that RSV significantly decreased cell number in a concentration-dependent manner at 24 and 48h.Cell cycle analysis revealed that RSV increased S-phase and Sub-G0 cell population. In addition, treated cells did not reachtypical epithelium morphology. COX-2 mRNA and protein levels were surprisingly upregulated by RSV at 24 and 48h, andIF revealed an accumulation of the protein in cytoplasmic granules. To investigate the pathways leading to this upregulation,we indirectly evaluated TonEBP, NF-κB and ERK1/2 pathways, which are activated by hyperosmolarity; and SIRT1implication, a target of RSV. TonEBP target genes mRNA did not show any significant change under RSV treatment, whileNF-κB target gene mRNA presented an increase similar to that of COX-2 mRNA. Moreover, NF-κB IF revealed an increasein its nuclear localization. Regarding ERK1/2, treatment with ERK1/2 selective inhibitor (U0126) completely blocked COX2 protein expression. These results suggest that in renal cells RSV pretreatment decreased cell number and impeded typicalcell morphology acquisition; but it increased COX-2 expression, possibly through NF-κB and ERK1/2 activation.Fil: Erjavec, Luciana Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Parra, Leandro Gastón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Morel Gómez, Emanuel Dario. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Lampropulos, T.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Casali, Cecilia Irene. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Maria del Carmen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaLVII Annual Meeting of the Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research and XVI Annual Meeting of the Argentinean Society for General MicrobiologyVirtualArgentinaSociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología MolecularAsociación Civil de Microbiología Genera

Parallel alignment of structured documents

Classical methods for parallel text alignment consider one specific level (e.g. sentences) along which two or more versions of a text are to be synchronised. This may lead to some problems when these documents are particularly long since alignment errors at some point in the text may, in the absence of any other linguistic information, propagate for some time without any chance of recovery. In this chapter we consider how multilingual parallel alignment can be based on the fact that more and more texts are now highly structured by means of tagging languages such as SGML. In particular we will describe recent efforts in multi-level alignment for which we will present the main advances as well as some of the difficulties to be dealt with, in particular when the text and its translation are associated with different encoding schemes or different encoding practices for the same scheme

Measurement of the total neutron cross section on argon in the 20 to 70 keV energy range

The cross section for neutron interactions on argon is an important design and operational parameter for a number of neutrino, dark matter, and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments which use liquid argon as a detection or shielding medium. There is a discrepancy between the evaluated total cross section in the $20$ to $70~\rm$\,keV neutron kinetic energy region given in the ENDF database and a single measurement conducted by an experiment with a thin target (0.2 atoms/barn) optimized for higher cross sections. This gives rise to significant uncertainty in the interaction length of neutrons in liquid argon. This discrepancy is now resolved by new results presented here from the Argon Resonance Transport Interaction Experiment (ARTIE), a thick target experiment (3.3 atoms/barn) optimized for the small cross sections in this energy region.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PRC based on reviewer's recommendation

The effect of personality traits and knowledge on the quality of decisions in supply chains

Supply chain and operations management requires frequent decision making, and decisions are importantly influenced by the personality traits and knowledge of the decision maker. Thus, we analyse the effect of those factors on the confidence and quality of decisions taken in the context of supply chain management. The data were gathered via an online supply chain simulation game where subjects needed to make several decisions. Personality traits of the participants were tested using the Big Five model. The structural model was estimated using the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach. We found that decision-makers with lower levels of extraversion and agreeableness and higher levels of conscientiousness and openness make better decisions. On the other hand, neuroticism and agreeableness negatively affect confidence in decisions. Tested knowledge positively influences both decision-makers’ confidence in and the quality of their decisions while self-reported knowledge has no significant effect. Therefore, the companies should carefully consider how an individual’s personality matches the type of job at hand and rely on tested instead of self-reported knowledge

State-of-the-art of the Bone Morphogenetic Protein research field: 13th International BMP Conference, Dubrovnik 2022

The 13th International BMP Conference was held in October 2022 in Dubrovnik. The conference was attended by more than 240 participants from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia who got an insight into the latest achievements in basic, translational, and clinical research of BMP mol- ecules through 75 lectures categorized into several scientific sections. This review paper provides the most important novel findings on the structure, function, and signaling of BMPs, the role of BMPs in patterning and organoids as well as the role of BMP in metabolism. Moreover, we discussed the role of BMPs in various diseases including cancer pathogenesis, pulmonary arterial hyperten- sion, and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). Finally, we provided an overview of the new BMP-based therapies in regenerative medicine that are currently in different stages of preclinical and clinical trials

A Model for Damage Load and Its Implications for the Evolution of Bacterial Aging

Deleterious mutations appearing in a population increase in frequency until stopped by natural selection. The ensuing equilibrium creates a stable frequency of deleterious mutations or the mutational load. Here I develop the comparable concept of a damage load, which is caused by harmful non-heritable changes to the phenotype. A damage load also ensues when the increase of damage is opposed by selection. The presence of a damage load favors the evolution of asymmetrical transmission of damage by a mother to her daughters. The asymmetry is beneficial because it increases fitness variance, but it also leads to aging or senescence. A mathematical model based on microbes reveals that a cell lineage dividing symmetrically is immortal if lifetime damage rates do not exceed a threshold. The evolution of asymmetry allows the lineage to persist above the threshold, but the lineage becomes mortal. In microbes with low genomic mutation rates, it is likely that the damage load is much greater than the mutational load. In metazoans with higher genomic mutation rates, the damage and the mutational load could be of the same magnitude. A fit of the model to experimental data shows that Escherichia coli cells experience a damage rate that is below the threshold and are immortal under the conditions examined. The model estimates the asymmetry level of E. coli to be low but sufficient for persisting at higher damage rates. The model also predicts that increasing asymmetry results in diminishing fitness returns, which may explain why the bacterium has not evolved higher asymmetry

Peroral Amphotericin B Polymer Nanoparticles Lead to Comparable or Superior In Vivo Antifungal Activity to That of Intravenous Ambisome® or Fungizone™

Background: Despite advances in the treatment, the morbidity and mortality rate associated with invasive aspergillosis remains unacceptably high (70–90%) in immunocompromised patients. Amphotericin B (AMB), a polyene antibiotic with broad spectrum antifungal activity appears to be a choice of treatment but is available only as an intravenous formulation; development of an oral formulation would be beneficial as well as economical. Methodology: Poly(lactide-co-glycolode) (PLGA) nanoparticles encapsulating AMB (AMB-NPs) were developed for oral administration. The AMB-NPs were 113±20 nm in size with ~70% entrapment efficiency at 30% AMB w/w of polymer. The in vivo therapeutic efficacy of oral AMB-NPs was evaluated in neutropenic murine models of disseminated and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. AMB-NPs exhibited comparable or superior efficacy to that of Ambisome® or Fungizone™ administered parenterally indicating potential of NPs as carrier for oral delivery. Conclusions: The present investigation describes an efficient way of producing AMB-NPs with higher AMB pay-load and entrapment efficiency employing DMSO as solvent and ethanol as non-solvent. The developed oral formulation was highly efficacious in murine models of disseminated aspergillosis as well as an invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, which is refractory to treatment with IP Fungizone™and responds only modestly to AmBisome®

Autologous blood coagulum containing rhBMP6 induces new bone formation to promote anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) and posterolateral lumbar fusion (PLF) of spine in sheep

resent study, we evaluated an autologous bone graft substitute (ABGS) composed of recombinant human BMP6 (rhBMP6) dispersed within autologous blood coagulum (ABC) used as a physiological carrier for new bone formation in spine fusion sheep models. The application of ABGS included cervical cage for use in the anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF), while for the posterolateral lumbar fusion (PLF) sheep model allograft devitalized bone particles (ALLO) were applied with and without use of instrumentation. In the ALIF model, ABGS (rhBMP6/ABC/cage) implants fused significantly when placed in between the denuded L4- L5 vertebrae as compared to control (ABC/cage) which appears to have a fibrocartilaginous gap, as examined by histology and micro CT analysis at 16 weeks following surgery. In the PLF model, ABGS implants with or without ALLO showed a complete fusion when placed ectopically in the gutter bilaterally between two decorticated L4-L5 transverse processes at a success rate of 88% without instrumentation and at 80% with instrumentation ; however the bone volume was 50% lower in the instrumentation group than without, as examined by histology, radiographs, micro CT analyses and biomechanical testing at 27 weeks following surgery. The newly formed bone was uniform within ABGS implants resulting in a biomechanically competent and histologically qualified fusion with an optimum dose in the range of 100 g rhBMP6 per mL ABC, while in the implants that contained ALLO, the mineralized bone particles were substituted by the newly formed remodeling bone via creeping substitution. These findings demonstrate for the first time that ABGS (rhBMP6/ABC) without and with ALLO particles induced a robust bone formation with a successful fusion in sheep models of ALIF and PLF, and that autologous blood coagulum (ABC) serves as a preferred physiological native carrier to induce new bone at low doses of rhBMP6 and to achieve a successful spinal fusion