Helping a crocodile to learn German plurals: Children’s online judgment of actual, potential and illegal plural forms

A substantial tradition of linguistic inquiry has framed the knowledge of native speakers in terms of their ability to determine the grammatical acceptability of language forms that they encounter for the first time. In the domain of morphology, the productivity framework of Dressler (CLASNET Working papers 7, 1997) has emphasized the importance of this ability in terms of the graded potentiality of non-existing multimorphemic forms. The goal of this study was to investigate what role the notion of potentiality plays in online lexical well-formedness judgment among children who are native speakers of Austrian German. A total of 114 children between the ages of six and ten and a total of 40 adults between the ages of 18 and 30 (as a comparison group) participated in an online well-formedness judgment task which focused on pluralized German nouns. Concrete, picturable, high frequency German nouns were presented in three pluralized forms: (a) actual existing plural form, (b) morphologically illegal plural form, (c) potential (but not existing) plural form. Participants were shown pictures of the nouns (as a set of three identical items) and simultaneously heard one of three pluralized forms for each noun. Response latency and judgment type served as dependent variables. Results indicate that both children and adults are sensitive to the distinction between illegal and potential forms (neither of which they would have encountered). For all participants, plural frequency (rather than frequency of the singular form) affected responses for both existing and non-existing words. Other factors increasing acceptability were the presence of supplementary umlaut in addition to suffixation and homophony with existing words or word forms

DIGE Proteome Analysis Reveals Suitability of Ischemic Cardiac In Vitro Model for Studying Cellular Response to Acute Ischemia and Regeneration

Proteomic analysis of myocardial tissue from patient population is suited to yield insights into cellular and molecular mechanisms taking place in cardiovascular diseases. However, it has been limited by small sized biopsies and complicated by high variances between patients. Therefore, there is a high demand for suitable model systems with the capability to simulate ischemic and cardiotoxic effects in vitro, under defined conditions. In this context, we established an in vitro ischemia/reperfusion cardiac disease model based on the contractile HL-1 cell line. To identify pathways involved in the cellular alterations induced by ischemia and thereby defining disease-specific biomarkers and potential target structures for new drug candidates we used fluorescence 2D-difference gel electrophoresis. By comparing spot density changes in ischemic and reperfusion samples we detected several protein spots that were differentially abundant. Using MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS and ESI-MS the proteins were identified and subsequently grouped by functionality. Most prominent were changes in apoptosis signalling, cell structure and energy-metabolism. Alterations were confirmed by analysis of human biopsies from patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy

High Abundance Proteins Depletion vs Low Abundance Proteins Enrichment: Comparison of Methods to Reduce the Plasma Proteome Complexity

BACKGROUND: To date, the complexity of the plasma proteome exceeds the analytical capacity of conventional approaches to isolate lower abundance proteins that may prove to be informative biomarkers. Only complex multistep separation strategies have been able to detect a substantial number of low abundance proteins (<100 ng/ml). The first step of these protocols is generally the depletion of high abundance proteins by the use of immunoaffinity columns or, alternatively, the enrichment of by the use of solid phase hexapeptides ligand libraries. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we present a direct comparison of these two approaches. Following either approach, the plasma sample was further fractionated by SCX chromatography and analyzed by RP-LC-MS/MS with a Q-TOF mass spectrometer. The depletion of the 20 most abundant plasma proteins allowed the identification of about 25% more proteins than those detectable following low abundance proteins enrichment. The two datasets are partially overlapping and the identified proteins belong to the same order of magnitude in terms of plasma concentration. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that the two approaches give complementary results. However, the enrichment of low abundance proteins has the great advantage of obtaining much larger amount of material that can be used for further fractionations and analyses and emerges also as a cheaper and technically simpler approach. Collectively, these data indicate that the enrichment approach seems more suitable as the first stage of a complex multi-step fractionation protocol

Practice and results of retrograde intra-renal surgery using the Uscope PU3022a single-use flexible ureteroscope and Holmium laser in the management of upper urinary tract stones: observation of a reference centre in Guadeloupe, France

International audienceBackground:With the advancement of technology, single-use flexible ureteroscopes (suf-URS) are beginning to occupy an important place in the management of lithiasis disease. In addition to the satisfactory outcome they offer, they have the advantage of bypassing the traditional problems posed by reusable flexible ureteroscopes (rf-URS). Recently, a 9.2 FR single-use flexible ureteroscope (Uscope PU3022a) was introduced to the market by PUSENTM. The purpose of this study was to report our practice and outcome with the Uscope PU3022a using a Holmium laser in the management of upper urinary tract stones.Methods:From January 2021 to June 2022, 109 patients meeting the criteria were included in the study. Patient characteristics, stone characteristics, procedure, outcome, and complications were studied.Results:The mean age of the patients at the time of surgery was 62 years. The sex ratio was in favour of men (64.2%). More than half of the patients had a history of calculus (52.3%). The mean size of the stone was 13 mm (4–28 mm). The mean density was 1 112 HU (300– 1 900 HU). The average procedure time was 70 minutes (30–130 minutes). In the majority of cases, the stone was solitary (n = 72; 66.1%). The location of the stone was caliceal in 51.4% of cases. A double JJ catheter was placed in 96 (88.1%) patients before the suf-URS. A ureteral access sheath (UAS) was used in 95.4% of cases. Perioperative difficulties were encountered in 16.5% of the procedures.Conclusion:In our series, retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) using the Uscope PU3022a in the management of upper urinary tract stones gives a good stone-free rate at the first session. It can be used for stones larger than 20 mm. Further large randomised studies are needed to assess the use of this type of suf-URS. The stone-free rate was 73.4%. Postoperative complications were reported in 5.5% of patients