Non-veridicality in Habitual Context

This paper presents a semantic-pragmatic analysis of the habitual aspect as a licensing context for Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). Further, we analyse why complex predicates (V1 + V2) in the habitual aspect form a better licensing context for NPIs than simple predicates. Habitual aspect can license certain NPIs in languages, in spite of being a non-Downward Entailing environment. Giannakidou (2002) argued that Veridicality, instead of Downward-Entailment (DE), should be the primary condition to characterize licensing contexts for NPIs. This paper attempts to further Giannakidou's (2002, 2011)  argument by proposing a Stalnakerian approach (Stalnaker, 1978) to define habitual aspect as an Iterative Pluractional and prove how it is non-veridical. Further we explore how the semantic compositionality of complex predicates makes the habitual context a better licensor for NPIs

An investigation into the mechanism of toxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles.

The wide scale use of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in the world consumer market has resulted in likelihood of exposure to human beings. The present study was aimed to assess the in vitro and in vivo interactions of ZnO NPs in the mammalian system and to elucidate the possible mechanism of their toxicity. Our in vitro results using human epidermal cells (A431), primary human epidermal keratinocytes and human liver cells (HepG2) demonstrated that cells exposed to ZnO NPs exhibit a decrease in cell viability which was independent of NP dissolution. ZnO NPs also induced oxidative DNA damage as evidenced by an increase in the Fpg sensitive sites. The reactive oxygen species triggered a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and an increase in the ratio of Bax/Bcl2 leading to apoptosis through the intrinsic pathway. In addition, ZnO NPs induced phosphorylation of JNK, P38 and P53ser15. The results from our in vivo studies using a mouse model showed that ZnO NPs induce lipid peroxidation, oxidative DNA damage and apoptosis in liver which further confirmed our in vitro findings. The data from the present study provide valuable insights into the cellular interactions of ZnO NPs and the underlying molecular mechanism of their toxicity. The results also stress the need for a comprehensive environmental health and safety assessment of engineered nanomaterials to ensure safer nanotechnology based products

Fracture neck of femur treated with hemiarthroplasty and cannulated cancellous screw fixation: a comparative study

Background: Intracapsular fracture neck of femur has always presented great challenges to every Orthopaedic surgeons and it is remain a mystery whether to fix or to replace the fracture in the elderly. The aim of the study was to analyze the functional outcome of two widely used and accepted modalities of treatment in the age group 57-75 years, in Garden’s type I and II fractures, namely (a) cannulated cancellous screw fixation(internal fixation) and (b) modular bipolar prosthetic replacement of the femoral head (hemiarthroplasty).Methods: The total 110 patients were including in the study from age groups 57-75 (mean age 66). The Garden classification of fracture neck of femur was used to evaluate the displacement of femoral neck fractures. Only grade 1 and 2 was included in the study. 55 patients were included in each group A and B. Osteosynthesis (fracture fixation) was carried out by closed reduction and insertion of cannulated cancellous screw and in other group hemiarthroplasty was done.Results: In group A 55 patient with fracture neck of femur was treated by osteosynthesis i.e. fixation using 02 or 03 cannulated cancellous screw and in group B, 55 patients with fracture neck of femur was treated by modular bipolar replacement hemiarthroplasty. In Group A out of 55, 41 patients union was achieved between 08 to 14 months (mean 11.5 month), 09 patients developed non-union even after 16 months and 05 patients develop collapse of head with AVN with shortening at end of 02 year, however in Group B out of 55 patients 51 patients started walking after 2nd postoperative days, 02 patients developed infection, and 02 patients developed posterior dislocation.Conclusions: The fracture fixation may be tempting for fracture neck femur in age group 57-75 especially of Garden Type I but internal fixation put risk of non-union and AVN and second surgery may be required after few months or years  if patients survive. Based on results in our study we therefore can conclude that in Garden Type I and II femur neck fractures in the patients between 57-75 years of age, hemiarthroplasty is the better modality of treatment

Rehabilitation Exercise Repetition Segmentation and Counting using Skeletal Body Joints

Physical exercise is an essential component of rehabilitation programs that improve quality of life and reduce mortality and re-hospitalization rates. In AI-driven virtual rehabilitation programs, patients complete their exercises independently at home, while AI algorithms analyze the exercise data to provide feedback to patients and report their progress to clinicians. To analyze exercise data, the first step is to segment it into consecutive repetitions. There has been a significant amount of research performed on segmenting and counting the repetitive activities of healthy individuals using raw video data, which raises concerns regarding privacy and is computationally intensive. Previous research on patients' rehabilitation exercise segmentation relied on data collected by multiple wearable sensors, which are difficult to use at home by rehabilitation patients. Compared to healthy individuals, segmenting and counting exercise repetitions in patients is more challenging because of the irregular repetition duration and the variation between repetitions. This paper presents a novel approach for segmenting and counting the repetitions of rehabilitation exercises performed by patients, based on their skeletal body joints. Skeletal body joints can be acquired through depth cameras or computer vision techniques applied to RGB videos of patients. Various sequential neural networks are designed to analyze the sequences of skeletal body joints and perform repetition segmentation and counting. Extensive experiments on three publicly available rehabilitation exercise datasets, KIMORE, UI-PRMD, and IntelliRehabDS, demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared to previous methods. The proposed method enables accurate exercise analysis while preserving privacy, facilitating the effective delivery of virtual rehabilitation programs.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Oxidative stress at low levels can induce clustered DNA lesions leading to NHEJ mediated mutations

DNA damage and mutations induced by oxidative stress are associated with various different human pathologies including cancer. The facts that most human tumors are characterized by large genome rearrangements and glutathione depletion in mice results in deletions in DNA suggest that reactive oxygen species (ROS) may cause gene and chromosome mutations through DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). However, the generation of DSBs at low levels of ROS is still controversial. In the present study, we show that H2O2 at biologically-relevant levels causes a marked increase in oxidative clustered DNA lesions (OCDLs) with a significant elevation of replication-independent DSBs. Although it is frequently reported that OCDLs are fingerprint of high-energy IR, our results indicate for the first time that H2O2, even at low levels, can also cause OCDLs leading to DSBs specifically in G1 cells. Furthermore, a reverse genetic approach revealed a significant contribution of the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway in H2O2-induced DNA repair & mutagenesis. This genomic instability induced by low levels of ROS may be involved in spontaneous mutagenesis and the etiology of a wide variety of human diseases like chronic inflammation-related disorders, carcinogenesis, neuro-degeneration and aging

The endogenous exposome

The concept of the Exposome, is a compilation of diseases and one’s lifetime exposure to chemicals, whether the exposure comes from environmental, dietary, or occupational exposures; or endogenous chemicals that are formed from normal metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, infections, and other natural metabolic processes such as alteration of the gut microbiome. In this review, we have focused on the Endogenous Exposome, the DNA damage that arises from the production of endogenous electrophilic molecules in our cells. It provides quantitative data on endogenous DNA damage and its relationship to mutagenesis, with emphasis on when exogenous chemical exposures that produce identical DNA adducts to those arising from normal metabolism cause significant increases in total identical DNA adducts. We have utilized stable isotope labeled chemical exposures of animals and cells, so that accurate relationships between endogenous and exogenous exposures can be determined. Advances in mass spectrometry have vastly increased both the sensitivity and accuracy of such studies. Furthermore, we have clear evidence of which sources of exposure drive low dose biology that results in mutations and disease. These data provide much needed information to impact quantitative risk assessments, in the hope of moving towards the use of science, rather than default assumptions

Evidence that endogenous formaldehyde produces immunogenic and atherogenic adduct epitopes

Endogenous formaldehyde is abundantly present in our bodies, at around 100 µM under normal conditions. While such high steady state levels of formaldehyde may be derived by enzymatic reactions including oxidative demethylation/deamination and myeloperoxidation, it is unclear whether endogenous formaldehyde can initiate and/or promote diseases in humans. Here, we show that fluorescent malondialdehyde-formaldehyde (M2FA)-lysine adducts are immunogenic without adjuvants in mice. Natural antibody titers against M2FA are elevated in atherosclerosis-prone mice. Staining with an antibody against M2FA demonstrated that M2FA is present in plaque found on the aortic valve of ApoE mice. To mimic inflammation during atherogenesis, human myeloperoxidase was incubated with glycine, H O , malondialdehyde, and a lysine analog in PBS at a physiological temperature, which resulted in M2FA generation. These results strongly suggest that the 1,4-dihydropyridine-type of lysine adducts observed in atherosclerosis lesions are likely produced by endogenous formaldehyde and malondialdehyde with lysine. These highly fluorescent M2FA adducts may play important roles in human inflammatory and degenerative diseases

Novel methods for fabrication of non-close-packed structures through colloidal self-assembly

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-154).Colloidal dispersions are usually stabilized by interparticle electrostatic repulsion. However, strong electrostatic potentials prevent nucleation of new structures. When the electrostatic potential is strongly attractive, particles coagulate into a disordered structure; if it is strongly repulsive, known processes can order them into a closepacked structure. Driven by the need to make tailored structures, researchers have focused on circumventing electrostatics to nucleate and stabilize newer structures. Yet most colloidal systems of interest are strongly charged. Reducing the electrostatic potential of a system may create only unstable structures without long-range order. In this thesis, electrostatic interaction between strongly charged particles is exploited to make novel structures. It is shown that -with an added steric component in the interaction potential- oppositely charged particles, which undergo rapid coagulation otherwise, can be arranged into stable, long-range ordered structures. Compared to their like-charged counterparts, these structures have greater stability due to an attractive electrostatic potential. It is shown that an entire class of surfactants, amphiphilic non-ionic surfactants, can be used to stabilize an oppositely charged particle system. Stabilizing these systems, allows for the nucleation of newer structures. For instance, it is shown that a non-close-packed arrangement of positive particles can be obtained on a layer of negatively charged particles. Creating such non-close-packed 2D structures on a template is essential for creating 3D non-closepacked structures. Indeed, it is shown that at high Debye lengths, by varying the concentration of particles in a suspension of like-charged colloids, electrostatic repulsion among particles can stabilize "sparse" structures. In these structures, particles occupy only a few of the many sites that are available to them. Yet, they form an ordered structure. Nuclei of a sparser structure are assembled at higher Debye length and lower particle concentration. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that these structures are stabilized by electrostatic repulsion when particle concentration is low. It is shown that the remaining sites in a sparse structure can be filled by a different particle type. By replicating this process of 2D heterostructure formation, layer by layer, and removing one kind of particle in the last step of the process, a two-layer non-close-packed structure is obtained.by Vyom Sharma.Ph.D