Relative Clause Sentence Comprehension by Japanese-Speaking Children with Specific Language Impairment and Children with Typical Language Development

Comprehension of sentences with relative clauses was examined in Japanese-speaking children with SLI and children with TLD. The children with SLI showed comparable comprehension with the TLD peers, when the language and memory tests’ scores were controlled. The children with TLD consistently had difficulties in OR sentences than SR sentences, in spite of that Japanese relative clauses are different from English ones. The children with SLI showed the opposite pattern. Working memory rather than language knowledge predicted better the comprehension performance for all the children

Pixel-based time–intensity curve analysis and apparent diffusion coefficient mapping of sinonasal organized hematomas

We present dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features in three cases of sinonasal organized hematoma. The DCE MRI was evaluated by analyzing the time-intensity curve patterns on a pixel-by-pixel basis and diffusion-weighted MRI by analyzing the apparent diffusion coefficient maps. Preoperative information on the physiological tumor properties obtained with these MRI techniques may be useful in differentiating organized hematomas from other benign or malignant tumors or tumorlike lesions in the sinonasal area

Complete mitochondrial genome sequences for Crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci and Acanthaster brevispinus

BACKGROUND: The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci (L.), has been blamed for coral mortality in a large number of coral reef systems situated in the Indo-Pacific region. Because of its high fecundity and the long duration of the pelagic larval stage, the mechanism of outbreaks may be related to its meta-population dynamics, which should be examined by larval sampling and population genetic analysis. However, A. planci larvae have undistinguished morphological features compared with other asteroid larvae, hence it has been difficult to discriminate A. planci larvae in plankton samples without species-specific markers. Also, no tools are available to reveal the dispersal pathway of A. planci larvae. Therefore the development of highly polymorphic genetic markers has the potential to overcome these difficulties. To obtain genomic information for these purposes, the complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial genome of A. planci and its putative sibling species, A. brevispinus were determined and their characteristics discussed. RESULTS: The complete mtDNA of A. planci and A. brevispinus are 16,234 bp and 16,254 bp in size, respectively. These values fall within the length variation range reported for other metazoan mitochondrial genomes. They contain 13 proteins, 2 rRNA, and 22 tRNA genes and the putative control region in the same order as the asteroid, Asterina pectinifera. The A + T contents of A. planci and A. brevispinus on their L strands that encode the majority of protein-coding genes are 56.3% and 56.4% respectively and are lower than that of A. pectinifera (61.2%). The percent similarity of nucleotide sequences between A. planci and A. brevispinus is found to be highest in the CO2 and CO3 regions (both 90.6%) and lowest in ND2 gene (84.2%) among the 13 protein-coding genes. In the deduced putative amino acid sequences, CO1 is highly conserved (99.2%), and ATP8 apparently evolves faster any of the other protein-coding gene (85.2%). CONCLUSION: The gene arrangement, base composition, codon usage and tRNA structure of A. planci are similar to those of A. brevispinus. However, there are significant variations between A. planci and A. brevispinus. Complete mtDNA sequences are useful for the study of phylogeny, larval detection and population genetics

MEASUREMENT OF ANTIOXIDANT POWER OF MOUTHWASHES INDICATED IN STOMATITIS

ABSTRACTObjective: Hospital formulations containing allopurinol and rebamipide are used in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis,owing to their antioxidant powers. The objective of this study was to measure the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® tablets (allopurinol), Mucosta®tablets (rebamipide), different hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis (allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), andAzulene® 0.4% for Gargle (sodium azulene sulfonate).Methods: We measured the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® and Mucosta® tablets, all hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis(allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), and the widely used Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle by employing the biological antioxidant potential test. Wecompared the efficacy of each of these drugs in the management of stomatitis.Results: Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to have stronger antioxidant power than Zyloric® (100 mg) and Mucosta® (100 mg) tablets dissolved inwater. The antioxidant power of the solvent used in hospital formulations was similar to that of the prepared hospital formulation. Antioxidant powerof the drugs themselves was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes.Conclusion: The antioxidant power of the drugs was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes; therefore, hospitalformulations used as antioxidants were found to be less effective in the treatment of stomatitis. However, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to beuseful in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis, owing to its antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects.Keywords: Stomatitis, Bone alkaline phosphatase-test, Allopurinol mouthwash, Rebamipide mouthwash, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle, Antioxidant powe

Nondestructive characterization of Antarctic micrometeorites collected at the Dome Fuji Station by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence analysis

The bulk trace element composition (Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni Cu, Zn, Ge, Se, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Mo) of eighty-three Antarctic micrometeorites was nondestructively analyzed using synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence analysis (SR-XRF), and these elements were characterized in terms of their abundance ratio relative to Murchison matrix composition. The relationship between heating history and chemical composition is also examined. We found a complementary relationship among I-type, S-type and unmelted AMMs in the micrometeorites\u27 elemental abundance, which is consistent with the hypothesis that I-type and S-type spherules were separated from chondritic meteoroids

Towards the String representation of the dual Abelian Higgs model beyond the London limit

We perform a path-integral analysis of the string representation of the dual Abelian Higgs (DAH) model beyond the London limit, where the string describing the vortex of a flux tube has a finite thickness. We show that besides an additional vortex core contribution to the string tension, a modified Yukawa interaction appears as a boundary contribution in the type-II dual superconducting vacuum. In the London limit, the modified Yukawa interaction is reduced to the Yukawa one.Comment: 13 pages, JHEP3.cls is used, no figures. The version accepted for publication in JHE

Do bilinguals have different concepts? The case of shape and material in Japanese L2 users of English

An experiment investigated whether Japanese speakers’ categorisation of objects and substances as shape or material is influenced by acquiring English, based on Imai and Gentner (1997). Subjects were presented with an item such as a cork pyramid and asked to choose between two other items that matched it for shape (plastic pyramid) or for material (piece of cork). The hypotheses were that for simple objects the number of shape-based categorisations would increase according to experience of English and that the preference for shape and material-based categorisations of Japanese speakers of English would differ from mono¬lingual speakers of both languages. Subjects were 18 adult Japanese users of English who had lived in English-speaking countries between 6 months and 3 years (short-stay group), and 18 who had lived in English-speaking countries for 3 years or more (long-stay group). Both groups achieved above criterion on an English vocabulary test. Results were: both groups preferred material responses for simple objects and substances but not for complex objects, in line with Japanese mono¬linguals, but the long-stay group showed more shape preference than the short-stay group and also were less different from Americans. These effects of acquiring a second language on categorisation have implications for conceptual representation and methodology