ChiSCor: A Corpus of Freely Told Fantasy Stories by Dutch Children for Computational Linguistics and Cognitive Science

In this resource paper we release ChiSCor, a new corpus containing 619 fantasy stories, told freely by 442 Dutch children aged 4-12. ChiSCor was compiled for studying how children render character perspectives, and unravelling language and cognition in development, with computational tools. Unlike existing resources, ChiSCor's stories were produced in natural contexts, in line with recent calls for more ecologically valid datasets. ChiSCor hosts text, audio, and annotations for character complexity and linguistic complexity. Additional metadata (e.g. education of caregivers) is available for one third of the Dutch children. ChiSCor also includes a small set of 62 English stories. This paper details how ChiSCor was compiled and shows its potential for future work with three brief case studies: i) we show that the syntactic complexity of stories is strikingly stable across children's ages; ii) we extend work on Zipfian distributions in free speech and show that ChiSCor obeys Zipf's law closely, reflecting its social context; iii) we show that even though ChiSCor is relatively small, the corpus is rich enough to train informative lemma vectors that allow us to analyse children's language use. We end with a reflection on the value of narrative datasets in computational linguistics.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, forthcoming in Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL

Novel insights in antimicrobial and immunomodulatory mechanisms of action of PepBiotics CR-163 and CR-172

Objectives: Our group recently developed a new group of antimicrobial peptides termed PepBiotics, of which peptides CR-163 and CR-172 showed optimized antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus without inducing antimicrobial resistance. In this study, the antibacterial mechanism of action and the immunomodulatory activity of these two PepBiotics was explored. Methods: RAW264.7 cells were used to determine the ability of PepBiotics to neutralize Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-and Lipoteichoic acid (LTA)-induced activation of macrophages. Isothermal titration calorimetry and competition assays with dansyl-labeled polymyxin B determined binding characteristics to LPS and LTA. Combined bacterial killing with subsequent macrophage activation assays was performed to determine so-called ‘silent killing’. Finally, flow cytometry of peptide-treated genetically engineered Escherichia coli expressing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and mCherry in the cytoplasm and periplasm, respectively, further established the antimicrobial mechanism of PepBiotics. Results: Both CR-163 and CR-172 were shown to have broad-spectrum activity against ESKAPE pathogens and E. coli using a membranolytic mechanism of action. PepBiotics could exothermically bind LPS/LTA and were able to replace polymyxin B. Finally, it was demonstrated that bacteria killed by PepBiotics were less prone to stimulate immune cells, contrary to gentamicin and heat-killed bacteria that still elicited a strong immune response. Conclusions: These studies highlight the multifunctional nature of the two peptide antibiotics as both broad-spectrum antimicrobial and immunomodulator. Their ability to kill bacteria and reduce unwanted subsequent immune activation is a major advantage and highlights their potential for future therapeutic use

Human monoclonal antibodies against Staphylococcus aureus surface antigens recognize in vitro and in vivo biofilm

Implant-associated Staphylococcus aureus infections are difficult to treat because of biofilm formation. Bacteria in a biofilm are often insensitive to antibiotics and host immunity. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) could provide an alternative approach to improve the diagnosis and potential treatment of biofilm-related infections. Here, we show that mAbs targeting common surface components of S. aureus can recognize clinically relevant biofilm types. The mAbs were also shown to bind a collection of clinical isolates derived from different biofilm-associated infections (endocarditis, prosthetic joint, catheter). We identify two groups of antibodies: one group that uniquely binds S. aureus in biofilm state and one that recognizes S. aureus in both biofilm and planktonic state. Furthermore, we show that a mAb recognizing wall teichoic acid (clone 4497) specifically localizes to a subcutaneously implanted pre-colonized catheter in mice. In conclusion, we demonstrate the capacity of several human mAbs to detect S. aureus biofilms in vitro and in vivo

Evaluating the Targeting of a Staphylococcus-aureus-Infected Implant with a Radiolabeled Antibody In Vivo

Implant infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus are difficult to treat due to biofilm formation, which complicates surgical and antibiotic treatment. We introduce an alternative approach using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting S. aureus and provide evidence of the specificity and biodistribution of S.-aureus-targeting antibodies in a mouse implant infection model. The monoclonal antibody 4497-IgG1 targeting wall teichoic acid in S. aureus was labeled with indium-111 using CHX-A”-DTPA as a chelator. Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography/computed tomographyscans were performed at 24, 72 and 120 h after administration of the 111In-4497 mAb in Balb/cAnNCrl mice with a subcutaneous implant that was pre-colonized with S. aureus biofilm. The biodistribution of this labelled antibody over various organs was visualized and quantified using SPECT/CT imaging, and was compared to the uptake at the target tissue with the implanted infection. Uptake of the 111In-4497 mAbs at the infected implant gradually increased from 8.34 %ID/cm3 at 24 h to 9.22 %ID/cm3 at 120 h. Uptake at the heart/blood pool decreased over time from 11.60 to 7.58 %ID/cm3, whereas the uptake in the other organs decreased from 7.26 to less than 4.66 %ID/cm3 at 120 h. The effective half-life of 111In-4497 mAbs was determined to be 59 h. In conclusion, 111In-4497 mAbs were found to specifically detect S. aureus and its biofilm with excellent and prolonged accumulation at the site of the colonized implant. Therefore, it has the potential to serve as a drug delivery system for the diagnostic and bactericidal treatment of biofilm

George Sand en de Nederlandse negentiende-eeuwse pers. Het belang van computerondersteund tijdschriftonderzoek

 Twentieth-century book and literary historians have tended to seriously underestimate women‟s participation in the nineteenth-century literary field. Thanks to different digital and online tools it becomes now possible to get a better understanding of their presence as authors. This is demonstrated in the present article, where the case „George Sand as received in nineteenth-century Netherlands‟ is used as an example. In particular it is shown that there has been, up to recently, too much reliance on critical articles published in the nineteenth-century literary press. Dutch critics publishing negative comments on George Sand‟s works will most often have had the intention to combat her actual success with Dutch readers and her possible influence on them. And those literary reviews refraining from publishing articles on her work show, by the frequency of their mentioning Sand‟s name, that she was in fact very present in the cultural repertoire of the nineteenth-century Netherlands

Potentialités narratives de la nourriture : les choix d’Isabelle de Charrière

Dans les romans d’Isabelle de Charrière, reviennent des scènes de repas où les protagonistes parlent de manger. La romancière s’en sert pour caractériser ses personnages et pour créer des situations qui lui permettent d’illustrer des thèses. La confrontation entre la correspondance – actuellement en cours de numérisation – et l’œuvre romanesque fait clairement apparaître ce lien entre ses convictions démocratiques (exprimées dans certaines des lettres) et leur mise en scène, visant à atteindre un public plus large.In Isabelle de Charrière's novels, there are repeated scenes of meals where the protagonists talk about eating. The novelist uses them to characterize her characters and to create situations, which allow her to illustrate her theses. The confrontation between the correspondence - currently being digitized - and the novels clearly shows this link between her democratic convictions (expressed in some of the letters) and their staging, aiming to reach a wider audience

Isabelle de Charrière romancière et musicienne : musique et topicité

Cet article discute les deux « champs d’activité » d’Isabelle de Charrière : l’écriture et la musique – notamment la façon dont elle les relie l’une à l’autre. Non seulement elle compose de la musique pour ses propres vers, mais dans ses romans on trouve souvent des personnages (principaux ou secondaires) qui s’occupent de musique, ou l’enseignent à des enfants, notamment à des petites filles. Ce besoin d’enseigner la musique pour que, une fois adultes, les femmes soient capables de « plaire en société » correspond à une norme que la romancière voudrait remettre en question. Dans les romans discutés, ceci vient à l’appui du message qui est central à la publication.This article discusses the two fields in which Isabelle de Charrière was active: writing and music making – especially the way in which she establishes connections between the two. Not only did she compose music for a number of her own poems, but her novels often include characters (either principal or secondary) who are busy making music or teaching music to children, especially girls. This need for teaching music – and preparing women for being able to please in society – corresponds to a norm which the novelist brings up for discussion. In most cases this discussion is connected to wider doubts about the norms that determine social life