Some syntactic properties of psychological adverbs in Japanese

This paper presents a comprehensive theory for the licensing of Japanese Psychological Adverbs (PAs, e.g. oisiku ‘deliciously’, omosiroku ‘interestingly’) being grounded on their syntactic, interpretations, and lexical properties. PAs can appear in at least three different types of constructions. One of the constructions where Agent of the main verb and Experiencer of a PA is identical will be examined in particular. Investigating their syntactic and semantic characteristics, the paper claims that PAs are structurally licensed when they are c-command by the local Agent, following the same structural condition that Ernst (2002) argues for subject-oriented (SO) adverbs. There is a set of data that seems to contradict this condition, but I argue that the data indeed exhibits PAs’ another property: they are polarity-sensitive. In order to comprise this lexical property into the condition aforementioned, I classify PAs into three types being based on Ernst’s (2009) PPI trichotomy for speaker-oriented adverbs (SpOAs)

Japanese subject-oriented adverbs in a scope-based theory of adverbs

While English exhibits a clausal-manner alternation that is sensitive to where adverbs occur in clausal structure (e.g., Rudely, John left vs. John left rudely), it has not been clear to what extent Japanese behaves the same way. The present study argues, in the spirit of a scope-based theory of adverb licensing, that there is evidence that the Japanese adverbial system is scope-based similarly to its English counterpart. Focusing on mental attitude adverbs, the paper argues that Ernst’s (2002) generalization holds for Japanese: that subject-oriented adverbs lose their otherwise available clausal readings when pure manner adverbs c-command them in the same clause. The paper also claims that clausal mental attitude adverbs must be clause-mates of Tense, which is not reduced to the scope-based theory

Syntax of dative-accusative constructions in Japanese

Both ditransitive verbs and causative transitive verbs in Japanese are linked with the two verbal arguments: the dative phrase and the accusative phrase. Despite this similarity, the syntax of these verbs is in sharp contrast: the ditransitive verb construction involves the mono-clausal structure, whereas the transitive causative construction contains the bi-clausal structure (Kuroda 1965b, Saito 1982; 1985, Hoji 1985, Miyagawa 1989, among others). One crucial instance for such distinction is the behavior of the dative phrase of the two types of construction with respect to the ‘subjecthood’. The subject-oriented anaphor in Japanese (e.g., zibun ‘self’) can take the dative phrase of the transitive causative verb as its antecedent, whereas it cannot the dative phrase with the ditransitive verb as its antecedent (Kuroda 1965b). Notwithstanding the difference, this thesis attempts to proposes a unified account for these two types of dative-accusative constructions in terms of the Phase Theory within the framework of Generative Grammar (Chomsky 2000; 2001). Investigating four subcategories of dative-accusative verbs (i.e., spray/load verbs, give verbs, causative transitive verbs and causative motion verbs), I claim that there are two types of Dative Case Assignment in Japanese: the In-situ Assignment and the Assignment after Movement. The former type of assignment is manifested in VP of give verbs and in that of transitive causative verbs; on the other hand, the latter type of assignment is identified in VP of spray/load verbs and in that of causative motion verbs. In the Phase theory, the probe-goal relation between the functional head and its ccommanding goal(s) (i.e., (Multiple) Agree) governs Case-licensing mechanism. In standard assumptions, the Accusative Case domain is the c-command domain of the light verb v (Chomsky 2004). Following these assumptions, I claim that the two types of Dative Case Assignment can be ultimately attributed to the two distinctive Case features on the functional head v of the four types of dative-accusative constructions: vacc[+multiple] and vdat. If vacc[+multiple] is selected by Merge, the Dative Assignment after Movement is implemented, whereas if vdat is selected, the In-situ Dative Assignment is induced. Hence, the difference in Dative Case Assignment is predicted at which Select picks up vocabularies from the Lexicon in order to set up a reference set for a derivation of the dative-accusative construction. The in-situ dative assignment for the ditransitive construction has been proposed in the literature (e.g., Miyagawa 1996); however, no proposal of a movement-based dative assignment for the ditransitive construction has been made. This is one of the important outcomes of my thesis. However, the most important consequence of my two types of Dative Assignment is the link between two hitherto unrelated phenomena: Dative Case Assignment and the condition on argument alternation. Argument alternation has attracted much attention in the literature of lexical semantics, being independently analyzed from most of the syntactic properties of these ditransitive verbs that I examine in the thesis (Kageyama 1980; 1996, Levin 1993, Kishimoto 2001c, Iwata 2008). However, I show that the condition on argument alternation can be written solely by the syntactic terms without any stipulation of constructional meaning; namely, when vdat is selected in a numeration of a ditransitive verb, the derived verb is never licensed to participate in argument alternation, whereas when vacc [+multiple] is selected, the complex verb is licensed to participate in the alternation. A further contribution of my thesis is to accommodate a new pair within the causative-ditransitive paradigm in Japanese in addition to its already-existing membership between transitive causative verbs and give verbs (Kuno 1973, Miyagawa 1996): a pair of causative motion verbs and spray/load verbs. This new pairing further strengthens the existence of the causative-ditransitive paradigm as a natural class in Japanese. The pairing is solely motivated by the Dative Case Assignment that I propose

Potential Antitumor Activity of 2-O-α-D-Glucopyranosyl-6-O-(2-Pentylheptanoyl)-L-Ascorbic Acid

Intravenous administration of high-dose ascorbic acid (AA) has been reported as a treatment for cancer patients. However, cancer patients with renal failure cannot receive this therapy because high-dose AA infusion can have side effects. To solve this problem, we evaluated the antitumor activity of a lipophilic stable AA derivative, 2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-6-O-(2-pentylheptanoyl)-L-ascorbic acid (6-bOcta-AA-2G). Intravenous administration of 6-bOcta-AA-2G suppressed tumor growth in colon-26 tumor-bearing mice more strongly than did AA, even at 1/10 of the molar amount of AA. Experiments on the biodistribution and clearance of 6-bOcta-AA-2G and its metabolites in tumor-bearing mice showed that 6-bOcta-AA-2G was hydrolyzed to 6-O-(2-propylpentanoyl)-L-ascorbic acid (6-bOcta-AA) slowly to yield AA, and the results suggested that this characteristic metabolic pattern is responsible for making the antitumor activity of 6-bOcta-AA-2G stronger than that of AA and that the active form of 6-bOcta-AA-2G showing antitumor activity is 6-bOcta-AA. In in vitro experiments, the oxidized form of 6-bOcta-AA as well as 6-bOcta-AA showed significant cytotoxicity, while the oxidized forms of ascorbic acid showed no cytotoxicity at all, suggesting that the antitumor activity mechanism of 6-bOcta-AA-2G is different from that of AA and that the antitumor activity is due to the reduced and oxidized form of 6-bOcta-AA. The findings suggest that 6-bOcta-AA-2G is a potent candidate as an alternative drug to intravenous high-dose AA

Localization of chondromodulin-I at the feto-maternal interface and its inhibitory actions on trophoblast invasion in vitro

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chondromodulin-I (ChM-I) is an anti-angiogenic glycoprotein that is specifically localized at the extracellular matrix of the avascular mesenchyme including cartilage and cardiac valves. In this study, we characterized the expression pattern of ChM-I during early pregnancy in mice <it>in vivo </it>and its effect on invasion of trophoblastic cells into Matrigel <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Northern blot analysis clearly indicated that <it>ChM-I </it>transcripts were expressed in the pregnant mouse uterus at 6.5-9.5 days post coitum. <it>In situ </it>hybridization and immunohistochemistry revealed that ChM-I was localized to the mature decidua surrounding the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9)-expressing trophoblasts. Consistent with this observation, the expression of <it>ChM-I </it>mRNA was induced in decidualizing endometrial stromal cells <it>in vitro</it>, in response to estradiol and progesterone. Recombinant human ChM-I (rhChM-I) markedly inhibited the invasion through Matrigel as well as the chemotactic migration of rat Rcho-1 trophoblast cells in a manner independent of MMP activation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrates the inhibitory action of ChM-I on trophoblast migration and invasion, implying the potential role of the ChM-I expression in decidual cells for the regulated tissue remodeling and angiogenesis at feto-maternal interface.</p

An optical transition-edge sensor with high energy resolution

Optical transition-edge sensors have shown energy resolution for resolving the number of incident photons at the telecommunication wavelength. Higher energy resolution is required for biological imaging and microscope spectroscopy. In this paper, we report on a Au/Ti (10/20 nm) bilayer TES that showed high energy resolution. This was achieved by lowering the critical temperature Tc to 115 mK and the resultant energy resolution was 67 meV full width at half maximum (FWHM) at 0.8 eV. When Tc was lowered to 115 mK, the theoretical resolution would scaled up to 30 meV FWHM, considering that the typical energy resolution of optical TESs is 150 meV and Tc is 300 mK. To investigate the gap between the theoretical expectation (30 meV) and the measured value (67 meV), we measured its complex impedance and current noise. We found excess Johnson noise in the TES and an excess Johnson term M was 1.5 at a bias point where the resistance was 10% of normal resistance. For reference, the TES was compared with a TES showing typical energy resolution (156 meV FWHM). We will discuss what improved the energy resolution and what might have been the limiting factor on it

Antiallergic Activity of 6-Deoxy-2-O-methyl-6-(N-hexadecanoyl)amino-L-ascorbic Acid

Allergy is an excessive immune response to a specific antigen. Type I allergies, such as hay fever and food allergies, have increased significantly in recent years and have become a worldwide problem. We previously reported that an ascorbic acid derivative having palmitoyl and glucosyl groups, 2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-6-O-hexadecanoyl-L-ascorbic acid (6-sPalm-AA-2G), showed inhibitory effects on degranulation in vitro and on the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) reaction in mice. In this study, several palmitoyl derivatives of ascorbic acid were synthesized and a structure–activity relationship study was performed to discover more potent ascorbic acid derivatives with degranulation inhibitory activity. 6-Deoxy-2-O-methyl-6-(N-hexadecanoyl)amino-L-ascorbic acid (2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA), in which a methyl group was introduced into the hydroxyl group at the C-2 position of ascorbic acid and in which the hydroxyl group at the C-6 position was substituted with an N-palmitoyl group, exhibited much higher inhibitory activity for degranulation in vitro than did 6-sPalm-AA-2G. 2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA strongly inhibit the PCA reaction in mice at lower doses than those of 6-sPalm-AA-2G. These findings suggest that 2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA may be a promising therapeutic candidate for allergic diseases

Anti-Allergic Activity of Monoacylated Ascorbic Acid 2-Glucosides

2-O-α-D-Glucopyranosyl-L-ascorbic acid (AA-2G) is one of the stable ascorbic acid (AA) derivatives known as provitamin C agents. We have previously synthesized two types of monoacylated derivatives of AA-2G, 6-O-acyl-2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-L-ascorbic acids having a straight-acyl chain of varying length from C4 to C18 (6-sAcyl-AA-2G) and a branched-acyl chain of varying length from C6 to C16 (6-bAcyl-AA-2G) in order to improve the bioavailability of AA-2G. In this study, 6-sAcyl-AA-2G and 6-bAcyl-AA-2G per se showed the inhibitory effects on hyaluronidase activity and degranulation. 6-sAcyl-AA-2G exhibited strong inhibitory effects on hyaluronidase activity and degranulation in a concentration-dependent manner, and the inhibitory effects tended to become stronger with increasing length of the acyl chain. 2-O-α-D-Glucopyranosyl-6-O-hexadecanoyl-L-ascorbic acid (6-sPalm-AA-2G), which has a straight C16 acyl chain, was the most potent effective for inhibition of hyaluronidase activity and for inhibition of degranulation among the 6-sAcyl-AA-2G derivatives and the two isomers of 6-sPalm-AA-2G. Furthermore, percutaneous administration of 6-sPalm-AA-2G significantly inhibited IgE-mediated passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reaction in mice. These findings suggest that 6-sPalm-AA-2G will be useful for treatment of allergies

Game constitution in the recent student handball women competition － An analysis of the student woman higher rank team in 2007 and 2008－

This study was investigated that at examining the factor for winning with finding out the tendency of a student woman handball game in recent years ． 　Analysis was taken as the game of ８ teams of woman bests of the all Japan student handball championship in the 2008 fiscal year in the 2007 fiscal year． The result was as follows． 　①In the student woman handball game of top class in recent years， the number of the goals was 26.6 points， the number of shots was 48.7 times， and the number of times of an attack was 67.9 times．　In the number of times of an attack， it increased about 10 times per game from 15-year before， and speedy game deployment was developed． 　② When it compared between a victory team and a loser team， the significant difference was seen in the number of shots （P< 0.05）， the number of the goals （P< 0.01）， the number of mistakes （P< 0.01）， the attack strike rate （P< 0.01）， the shot strike rate（ P< 0.01）， and the mistake rate（ P< 0.01）． 　③ The strike rate of the set play was 28.1% in the loser team 42.1% in the victory team． Moreover， by the victory team， 23.2 %， in the loser team， it is 34.3 % and the significant difference（ P< 0.01） was seen about the rate of failure of the set play

Cord Blood from SGA Preterm Infants Exhibits Increased GLUT4 mRNA Expression

[Background] Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling plays an important role in prenatal and postnatal growth and glucose metabolism. Both small-for-gestational age (SGA) and preterm infants have abnormal growth and glucose metabolism. However, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Recently, we showed that term SGA infants have abnormal insulin/IGF signaling in cord blood. In this study, we examined whether preterm infants show similar aberrations in cord blood insulin/IGF signaling. [Methods] A total of 41 preterm cord blood samples were collected. Blood glucose, insulin, IGF-1, and C-peptide concentrations were measured, and mRNA expression of IGF1R, INSR, IRS1, IRS2, and SLC2A4 (i.e., GLUT4) was analyzed by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. [Results] This study included 34 appropriate-for-gestational age (AGA) and 7 SGA preterm neonates. No hyperinsulinemia or any differences in IGF1R or INSR mRNA expression were detected between the two groups. However, GLUT4 mRNA levels were increased in preterm SGA. Moreover, the expression level in hypoglycemic preterm SGA was significantly higher than that in hypoglycemic preterm AGA. IRS2 mRNA expression did not show a statistically significant difference between preterm SGA and AGA neonates. [Conclusion] SGA preterm birth does not induce hyperinsulinemia; however, it modifies insulin/IGF signaling components such as GLUT4 in umbilical cord blood. Our study suggests that prematurity or adaptation to malnutrition alters the insulin/IGF signaling pathway