Stable organization of the early lexical-semantic network in 18- and 24-month-old preterm and full-term infants: an eye-tracker study

Introduction: An organized mental lexicon determines new information acquisition by orienting attention during language processing. Adult-like lexicalsemantic knowledge organization has already been demonstrated in 24-montholds. However, the outcomes of earlier studies have been contradictory in terms of the organizational capacities of 18-month-olds, thus our aim was to examine lexical-semantic organization in this younger age group. In prematurely born infants, audiovisual integration deficits have been found alongside disruptions in language perception. By including late preterm infants with corrected ages in our study, we aimed to test whether maturational differences influence lexical-semantic organization when vocabulary is growing rapidly. Methods: We tested 47 late preterm and full-term 18- and 24-month-old infants by means of an infant-adapted target-absent task using a slightly modified version of the original visual world paradigm for eye tracker. Results: We found a longer fixation duration for the lexical and semantic distractors compared to the neutral pictures. Neither language proficiency nor age affected the looking time results. We found a dissociation by age between taxonomic and associative semantic relations. Maturational differences were detectable in the initial processing of taxonomic relations, as processing in the preterm group was slightly delayed and qualitatively different in the first half of the looking time. The size and composition of the expressive vocabulary differed only by age. Discussion: In general, our study demonstrated a stable lexical-semantic organization between 18 and 24 months of age, regardless of maturational differences

Plasmin Promotes Keratinocyte Migration and Phagocytic-killing Accompanied by Suppression of Cell Proliferation which may Facilitate Re-epithelialization of Wound Beds

Abstract Keratinocytes were shown to induce the activation of plasminogen activator resulting in the formation of plasmin and the initiation of proteolysis in vitro. Activation of surface bound plasminogen may localize protease activity in the pericellular microenvironment and play a role in inducing both a conformational change and cell locomotion. Plasmin, however, can induce non-proteolytic effects on certain cell functions in a variety of cell lineages. In the present study we examined the effects of plasmin on keratinocytes with a focus on its role in the process of re-epithelialization, which included studies of cell migration, phagocytic-killing and cell proliferation. Migration of freshly isolated human epidermal keratinocytes was analyzed utilizing the agarose gel assay in the presence of 10% human serum. Plasmin at the concentration of 25 U/l induced a 160% increase in the chemotactic migration of keratinocytes that was completely blocked by the plasmin inhibitor α2-antiplasmin (Serpin). In the absence of serum, plasmin also induced a reversible chemotactic migration of HaCaT keratinocytes as determined utilizing the microchemotaxis assay. Dose-response analysis showed a bi-phasic effect of plasmin with a maximum increase of 52% in keratinocyte chemotaxis at a concentration of 25 U/l. HaCaT cells on the other hand, showed no detectable in vitro chemokinesis by plasmin. Phagocytic-killing of Candida albicans by freshly isolated epidermal keratinocytes was enhanced in the presence of 25 U/l plasmin which was also reversible by the addition of Serpin. Spontaneous proliferation of HaCaT keratinocytes as determined by 3H-Thymidine uptake on the other hand, was reduced by 47 and 13% in cultures with 25 U/l plasmin for 24 and 48 h respectively, in a Serpin reversible manner. These data suggest that plasmin-induced chemotactic migration of epidermal keratinocytes is accompanied by enhanced phagocytic-killing coupled with suppression of proliferation of these cells which may facilitate re-epithelialization following skin injury

Stable organization of the early lexical-semantic network in 18- and 24-month-old preterm and full-term infants: an eye-tracker study

IntroductionAn organized mental lexicon determines new information acquisition by orienting attention during language processing. Adult-like lexical-semantic knowledge organization has already been demonstrated in 24-month-olds. However, the outcomes of earlier studies have been contradictory in terms of the organizational capacities of 18-month-olds, thus our aim was to examine lexical-semantic organization in this younger age group. In prematurely born infants, audiovisual integration deficits have been found alongside disruptions in language perception. By including late preterm infants with corrected ages in our study, we aimed to test whether maturational differences influence lexical-semantic organization when vocabulary is growing rapidly.MethodsWe tested 47 late preterm and full-term 18- and 24-month-old infants by means of an infant-adapted target-absent task using a slightly modified version of the original visual world paradigm for eye tracker.ResultsWe found a longer fixation duration for the lexical and semantic distractors compared to the neutral pictures. Neither language proficiency nor age affected the looking time results. We found a dissociation by age between taxonomic and associative semantic relations. Maturational differences were detectable in the initial processing of taxonomic relations, as processing in the preterm group was slightly delayed and qualitatively different in the first half of the looking time. The size and composition of the expressive vocabulary differed only by age.DiscussionIn general, our study demonstrated a stable lexical-semantic organization between 18 and 24 months of age, regardless of maturational differences

Overview of Registered Clinical Trials on Manual Therapy: Possible Implications of Genetic Testing for Personalized Treatment

Background/aim: Manual therapy (MT) is a frequently applied intervention offering individualized treatment in the clinic. In addition to the traditional approaches of MT, measuring molecular response to MT may offer better understanding of MT outcomes in order to provide specific personalized treatment. The aim of this study was to summarize MT-related registered clinical trials, as well as to search for any evidence on MT and genetics.Patients and methods: A comprehensive search was conducted within the Clinical Trials database with predefined keywords mining for all types of MT-related clinical trials.Results: From the 47 trials, 20 had results and 27 had no results. MT alleviated pain and improved function almost in all trials. One registered clinical trial had investigated molecular outcomes of MT.Conclusion: MT is an effective and individualized treatment offering option in the management of several conditions. Interestingly, a clinical trial was found investigating molecular genetics and MT pinpointing an already existing link between genetics and MT. Therefore, further clinical trials may focus on genetics and MT for providing specific personalized treatment in future.</p

Generation of diffraction-free beams for applications in optical microlithography

A new concept based on a Fabry–Perot interferometer for the generation of nondiffracting Bessel beams is described and proposed for potential applications in microlithography such as the fabrication of small isolated patterns. It was experimentally demonstrated that the depth of focus can be increased by a factor of about 2, and simultaneously the transverse resolution improved by a factor of 1.6, when using this technique to image contact holes. The properties of simultaneous imaging of two contact holes were also investigated. It was shown experimentally that, even in the most critical case ~when the first diffraction rings overlap!, undesirable interference effects between the adjacent contact holes can be eliminated by means of a phase shifting technique.Texas InstrumentsNational Science FoundationOTKA Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Science

A New Phase Shifting Technique for Deep UV Excimer Laser Based Lithography

This paper reports simulation and experimental details of a novel phase shifting technique based o laser interferometry. Phase shifting is one of the most promising techniques for the fabrication of high density DRAM's. In recent years many kinds of phase shifting methods have been proposed to extend the resolution limit and contrast of image patterns. These techniques however, have several problems that result from the phase shift elements on the mask, especially when applied to UV excimer laser illumination. A new technique will be described that is based on a one-layered reticle which is used as both a reflective and transmissive mask, irradiated from both the front and the back sides. A combination of both off-axis illumination, as well as phase shift are used in this method. Both the relative path length of the two beams as well as their amplitude can be manipulated in such a way that near 100% contrast can be achieved in the final image. Experimental as well as simulation data are used to demonstrate this new method.National Science Foundatio

Syndecan-4 affects myogenesis via Rac1-mediated actin remodeling and exhibits copy-number amplification and increased expression in human rhabdomyosarcoma tumors

Skeletal muscle demonstrates a high degree of regenerative capacity repeating the embryonic myogenic program under strict control. Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common sarcoma in childhood and is characterized by impaired muscle differentiation. In this study, we observed that silencing the expression of syndecan-4, the ubiquitously expressed transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, significantly enhanced myoblast differentiation, and fusion. During muscle differentiation, the gradually decreasing expression of syndecan-4 allows the activation of Rac1, thereby mediating myoblast fusion. Single-molecule localized superresolution direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) imaging revealed nanoscale changes in actin cytoskeletal architecture, and atomic force microscopy showed reduced elasticity of syndecan-4-knockdown cells during fusion. Syndecan-4 copy-number amplification was observed in 28% of human fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma tumors and was accompanied by increased syndecan-4 expression based on RNA sequencing data. Our study suggests that syndecan-4 can serve as a tumor driver gene in promoting rabdomyosarcoma tumor development. Our results contribute to the understanding of the role of syndecan-4 in skeletal muscle development, regeneration, and tumorigenesis

VEZF1 elements mediate protection from DNA methylation

There is growing consensus that genome organization and long-range gene regulation involves partitioning of the genome into domains of distinct epigenetic chromatin states. Chromatin insulator or barrier elements are key components of these processes as they can establish boundaries between chromatin states. The ability of elements such as the paradigm &#946;-globin HS4 insulator to block the range of enhancers or the spread of repressive histone modifications is well established. Here we have addressed the hypothesis that a barrier element in vertebrates should be capable of defending a gene from silencing by DNA methylation. Using an established stable reporter gene system, we find that HS4 acts specifically to protect a gene promoter from de novo DNA methylation. Notably, protection from methylation can occur in the absence of histone acetylation or transcription. There is a division of labor at HS4; the sequences that mediate protection from methylation are separable from those that mediate CTCF-dependent enhancer blocking and USF-dependent histone modification recruitment. The zinc finger protein VEZF1 was purified as the factor that specifically interacts with the methylation protection elements. VEZF1 is a candidate CpG island protection factor as the G-rich sequences bound by VEZF1 are frequently found at CpG island promoters. Indeed, we show that VEZF1 elements are sufficient to mediate demethylation and protection of the APRT CpG island promoter from DNA methylation. We propose that many barrier elements in vertebrates will prevent DNA methylation in addition to blocking the propagation of repressive histone modifications, as either process is sufficient to direct the establishment of an epigenetically stable silent chromatin stat