Verb Phrase Ellipsis: A Research Tool

We describe a ubiquitous linguistic construction, Verb-Phrase Ellipsis (VPE), in which the verb phrase in the second clause is phonetically unrealized (___): The pharmacist bought a house and the electrician did __ too, according to the real estate agent. VPE is a useful and promising tool to investigate and differentiate interpretive processes in normal and disordered language processing. We present linguistic analyses of VPE and its properties. We then review the processing literature on VPE, and finally introduce the first of a series of experiments we are currently running on VPE processing in aphasia

Anticipatory action: Lessons for the future

Climate shocks are causing increasingly severe damage and amplifying humanitarian needs. So far, humanitarian action has been mostly responsive, arriving after a crisis has materialized. With recent advances in forecasting, humanitarian and development organizations have been able to anticipate and respond ahead of crises. “Anticipatory action” (AA) seeks to ensure aid is provided before the peak impact of a shock occurs, reducing suffering and humanitarian needs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been developing AA frameworks since 2019, coordinating collective AA and mobilizing finance. To date, these pilots have reached approximately 2.2 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. In six countries (Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Nepal, Niger, and The Philippines), frameworks are in place to reach a further 2.3 million people should the triggers be reached. OCHA is facilitating the design of AA plans in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Mozambique and South Sudan. We share lessons from the pilots, focusing on three components: triggers, programming, and financing. We report that triggers must be sufficiently reliable to warrant action and funds disbursement. Forecasts are not available for all countries or hazards, and existing forecasts may not provide desired resolution or skill (accuracy) levels, especially at longer lead times. The timing of action therefore must balance forecast skill against operational needs. Funding is best when it is flexible and includes finance for framework design, evaluation and continued improvements. Finally we discuss the challenges and opportunities in scaling up AA

OR.21. MCAM/CD146 is Expressed by Brain Endothelial Cells and Defines a Unique Effector Memory Lymphocyte Subset Involved in Neuroinflammation

Immune cell infiltration to the central nervous system (CNS) is a hallmark of the disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In MS, BBB dysfunction is associated with increased expression of adhesion molecules and chemokines leading to increased leukocyte trafficking to the CNS. The reciprocal attachment of leukocytes to BBB endothelial cells (BBB-ECs) is a key step of this CNS infiltration. Cell adhesion molecules (CAM) of the of the immunoglobulin family (ICAM-1 and VCAM) are key players in the interactions between the immune cells and the BBB-ECs. To describe novel CAMs of the BBB we used a lipid raft-based proteomic approach to identify an immunoglobulin subfamily of proteins expressed by BBB-ECs. Melanoma cell adhesion molecule (MCAM/CD146) was identified in this screen and this project aims to characterize MCAM's function in immune cell migration across the BBB. Our data demonstrates that MCAM is expressed on the surface of BBB-ECs, in vitro and in situ and co-localizes with lymphocyte surface markers during adhesion and diapedesis. Since MCAM's only known ligand is MCAM itself, we analysed MCAM expression on peripheral blood leukocytes from human healthy donors and MS patients. MCAM was detected on a unique subset of effector memory CD4+and CD8+T lymphocytes. In vitro polyclonal activation induced MCAM up-regulation on T lymphocytes. Moreover, we found that MCAM+T lymphocytes produce significantly more inflammatory cytokines interferon-gamma and IL-17 compared to MCAMneg cells. Finally, the proportion of MCAM+T cells was found to be consistently higher in MS patients during relapses compared to non-relapsing patients and controls. Our data indicates that MCAM is expressed by both the BBB and peripheral blood immune cells and suggests that MCAM could play an important role in CNS inflammatory reactions, including MS.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye