¿Pueden Grammarly y ChatGPT acelerar el cambio lingüístico? Tecnologías basadas en IA y su impacto en la lengua inglesa: palabrería frente a concisión

The proliferation of NLP-powered language technologies, AI-based natural language generation models, and English as a mainstream means of communication among both native and non-native speakers make the output of AI-powered tools especially intriguing to linguists. This paper investigates how Grammarly and ChatGPT affect the English language regarding wordiness vs. conciseness. A case study focusing on the purpose subordinator in order to is presented to illustrate the way in which Grammarly and ChatGPT recommend shorter grammatical structures instead of longer and more elaborate ones. Although the analysed sentences were produced by native speakers, are perfectly correct, and were extracted from a language corpus of contemporary English, both Grammarly and ChatGPT suggest more conciseness and less verbosity, even for relatively short sentences. The present article argues that technologies such as Grammarly not only mirror language change but also have the potential to facilitate or accelerate it.La proliferación de tecnologías lingüísticas basadas en la PLN, los modelos de generación de lenguaje natural basados en la IA y el hecho de que el inglés sea un medio de comunicación mayoritario entre hablantes nativos y no nativos hacen que el resultado de estas herramientas resulte especialmente intrigante para los lingüistas. Este artículo investiga cómo Grammarly y ChatGPT están afectando a la lengua inglesa en lo que respecta a la concisión frente a la prolijidad. Se presenta un estudio de caso centrado en el subordinador de propósito in order to ilustrar cómo Grammarly y ChatGPT recomiendan estructuras gramaticales más cortas a cambio de otras más largas y elaboradas. Aunque las frases analizadas fueron producidas por hablantes nativos, son perfectamente correctas y se extrajeron de un corpus lingüístico de inglés contemporáneo, tanto Grammarly como ChatGPT sugieren más concisión y menos verbosidad, incluso para frases relativamente cortas. La presente comunicación sostiene que tecnologías como Grammarly no solo reflejan el cambio lingüístico, sino que también tienen el potencial de facilitarlo o acelerarlo.The financial support by the University of Gdańsk (grant “UGrants-first,” decision no. 1220.6010.192.2023) is acknowledged

Interaction of Helicobacter pylori with C-Type Lectin Dendritic Cell-Specific ICAM Grabbing Nonintegrin

In this study we asked whether Helicobacter pylori whole cells and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) utilize sugar moieties of Lewis (Le) antigenic determinants to interact with DC-SIGN (dendritic cell specific ICAM grabbing nonintegrin) receptor on dendritic cells (DCs). For this purpose the soluble DC-SIGN/Fc adhesion assay and the THP-1 leukemia cells with induced expression of DC-SIGN were used. We showed that the binding specificity of DC-SIGN with H. pylori LeX/Y positive whole cells and H. pylori LPS of LeX/Y type was fucose dependent, whereas in LeXY negative H. pylori strains and LPS preparations without Lewis determinants, this binding was galactose dependent. The binding of soluble synthetic LeX and LeY to the DC-SIGN-like receptor on THP-1 cells was also observed. In conclusion, the LeXY dependent as well as independent binding of H. pylori whole cells and H. pylori LPS to DC-SIGN was described. Moreover, we demonstrated that THP-1 cells may serve as an in vitro model for the assessment of H. pylori-DC-SIGN interactions mediated by LeX and LeY determinants

Monocyte response receptors in BCG driven delayed type hypersensitivity to tuberculin.

Tuberculosis (TB) still remains the leading cause of mortality due to bacterial pathogen. The only currently available vaccine against TB, Bacille Calmette-GuĂŠrin (BCG) is at best credited with a 50% overall protective efficacy. Skin testing with purified protein derivative (PPD) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the method of detecting BCG-induced cell mediated immunity, in vivo. In the previous study we found that approximately 60% young volunteers with no history of TB, who had been subjected to neonatal BCG vaccination and revaccination(s) at school age, developed delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) to tuberculin. The remaining volunteers were persistently tuberculin negative. Moreover, we found a significant association between BCG driven development of DTH to PPD and the polymorphism within the CD14 C/T(-159) gene for macrophage receptor recognising mycobacterial compounds. It has suggested that the CD14 gene variants may play a role in the appearance and persistence of DTH to PPD in BCG vaccinated subjects. In order to extend our study on a possible role of CD14 in BCG driven DTH response to PPD, we measured the expression of mCD14 on macrophages, stimulated or not stimulated with mycobacterial antigens, and the serum levels of sCD14. Considering the importance of CD14 - TLR2/TLR4 interactions in macrophage signalling, we determined the polymorphism of TLR2 and TLR4 genes as well as macrophage expression of TLR2 for the volunteers with and without skin reactivity to PPD. We observed a subtle but significant decrease in CD14 density on adherent monocytes from tuberculin positive versus tuberculin negative volunteers. However, we found no difference in CD14 density on monocytes enriched in CD14+ cells using anti-CD14 mAb coupled to magnetic beads. A significant increase in CD14 density was observed on macrophages stimulated with PPD and LPS but not with live BCG bacilli. However, this increase as well as serum levels of soluble sCD14 were similar in the volunteers with and without skin reactions to PPD. Thus, our suggestion on the role of CD14 in the generation of DTH to tuberculin in BCG vaccinated subjects should be further explored. The most important CD14 co-receptors are Toll-like receptors (TLRs) which activate nuclear factors for the production of inflammatory cytokines. However, we could see no association between the polymorphisms of TLR4 (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) and TLR2 genes (Arg753Gln and Arg677Trp) and skin responses to PPD. Also, the TLR2 density was similar on monocytes from tuberculin negative and tuberculin positive volunteers

On the potential role of naturally occurring carboxylic organic acids as anti-infective agents:opportunities and challenges

Carboxylic organic acids are intermediates of central carbon metabolic pathways (e.g. acetic, propionic, citric, and lactic acid) long known to have potent antimicrobial potential, mainly at acidic pHs. The food industry has been leveraging those properties for years, using many of these acids as preservatives to inhibit the growth of pathogenic and/or spoilage fungal and bacterial species. A few of these molecules (the most prominent being acetic acid) have been used as antiseptics since Hippocratic medicine, mainly to treat infected wounds in patients with burns. With the growth of antibiotic therapy, the use of carboxylic acids (and other chemical antiseptics) in clinical settings lost relevance; however, with the continuous emergence of multi-antibiotic/antifungal resistant strains, the search for alternatives has intensified. This prospective article raises awareness of the potential of carboxylic acids to control infections in clinical settings, considering not only their previous exploitation in this context (which we overview) but also the positive experience of their safe use in food preservation. At a time of great concern with antimicrobial resistance and the slow arrival of new antimicrobial therapeutics to the market, further exploration of organic acids as anti-infective molecules may pave the way to more sustainable prophylactic and therapeutic approaches

Composites Based on Hydroxyapatite and Whey Protein Isolate for Applications in Bone Regeneration

The “Multifunctional biologically active composites for applications in bone regenerative medicine” project is carried out within the TEAM-NET program of the Foundation for Polish Science financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support. T.E.L.D. thanks N8 Agrifood for its financial support in the framework of the pump priming grant “Food2Bone”.Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is a bioactive ceramic with great potential for the regeneration of the skeletal system. However, its mechanical properties, especially its brittleness, limit its application. Therefore, in order to increase its ability to transmit stresses, it can be combined with a polymer phase, which increases its strength without eliminating the important aspect of bioactivity. The presented work focuses on obtaining organic–inorganic hydrogel materials based on whey protein isolate (WPI) reinforced with nano-HAp powder. The proportion of the ceramic phase was in the range of 0–15%. Firstly, a physicochemical analysis of the materials was performed using XRD, FT-IR and SEM. The hydrogel composites were subjected to swelling capacity measurements, potentiometric and conductivity analysis, and in vitro tests in four liquids: distilled water, Ringer’s fluid, artificial saliva, and simulated body fluid (SBF). The incubation results demonstrated the successful formation of new layers of apatite as a result of the interaction with the fluids. Additionally, the influence of the materials on the metabolic activity according to ISO 10993-5:2009 was evaluated by identifying direct contact cytotoxicity towards L-929 mouse fibroblasts, which served as a reference. Moreover, the stimulation of monocytes by hydrogels via the induction of nuclear factor (NF)-κB was investigated. The WPI/HAp composite hydrogels presented in this study therefore show great potential for use as novel bone substitutes

Distributive plural/sigular cross-linguistic data - forced-choice questionnaires

Forced-choie: Our survey contains 15 pairs of sentences to be compared (languages: English, Czech, German, Polish). The sentences are indicated in the initial row (full case in A2, short notation in next columns). In each pair of sentences, we asked the participant to indicate the variant that seemed "better" or "more natural" to them. The following rows contain the choices made by each of the 30 participants. Rarely have both variants been chosen by a single participant. Likert scale: 50 participants were asked to rate the sentences given in column 2. The participants were explicitly asked to not evaluate the content or reliability of the sentences. Answers of the participants are given in the following rows. The answers mean: 1 (very unnatural/unacceptable); 2 (somewhat unnatural/weird); 3 (hard to say); 4 (quite natural/acceptable); 5 (fully natural/acceptable). The columns marked purple contain the test sentences, whereas the sentences in blue columns contain filler sentences.This project is supported by National Science Centre in Poland (contract No.: DEC-2021/05/X/HS2/00418

Lose one’s life [stracić życie] i lose one’s job [stracić pracę] z zaimkiem they odnoszącym się do liczby pojedynczej: dwie konstrukcje, dwa warianty regionalne języka angielskiego, wiele praktycznych aspektów pracy z dużymi korpusami tekstów

The paper compares the usage of singular they with two morphologically similar constructions in British and American English. The constructions in question are lose one’s life and lose one’s job. The results obtained suggest that singular they, at least used with the two constructions in focus of this work, seems to be more widely used in the American variety of English than in the British variety. An additional aim of this work is to present and discuss some practical aspects of working with mega-corpora. The work shows how and where quantitative language studies need to be accompanied by manual and qualitative investigations. The corpora used in this work are the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).Artykuł porównuje użycie zaimka they w odniesieniu do podmiotów w liczbie pojedynczej z dwiema, z punktu widzenia morfologicznego podobnymi do siebie, konstrukcjami w wariancie brytyjskim i amerykańskim języka angielskiego. Badane konstrukcje to lose one’s life [stracić życie] i lose one’s job [stracić pracę]. Uzyskane wyniki sugerują, że they odnoszące się do liczby pojedynczej jest bardziej rozpowszechnione w amerykańskim wariancie języka angielskiego niż w brytyjskim. Dodatkowym celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie i przedyskutowanie praktycznych aspektów pracy z dużymi korpusami językowymi. Praca wskazuje w których miejscach badania ilościowe muszą iść w parze z badaniami jakościowymi. Korpusy zastosowane do wykonania badania to Brytyjski Korpus Narodowy (BNC) i Amerykański Korpus Współczesnego Języka Angielskiego (COCA)