Relationship Between Knowledge on English Grammar and Vocabulary and the Ability to Translate Texts

The purpose of this research was to investigate 1) the relationship between the knowledge of grammatical structures and translation ability, 2) the relationship between the knowledge of vocabulary and translation ability, and 3) the relationship between the knowledge of grammatical structures and vocabulary, and the translation ability of Master of Arts students in the Program of Translation for Education and Business at King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok. The samples, selected using purposive sampling, were ten students in the aforementioned program in the Faculty of Applied Arts, in academic year 2015. The research instruments were multiple-choice grammar, multiple-choice vocabulary, and written translation tests. The statistical analyses employed were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and simple and multiple regression analyses. The results showed that 1) the students’ knowledge of grammar had a positive relationship with their translation ability and could be used for the prediction of translation ability at 30.80 percent; 2) their knowledge of vocabulary had a positive relationship with translation ability and could be used for predicting their ability to translate at 24.70 percent; and 3) together, the students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary had a positive relationship with their translation ability and could be used to predict their ability to translate English texts at 29.10 percent. It was found that the score for the students’ knowledge of grammar was a more effective predictive score for their translation ability than their vocabulary score. However, there was only a slight difference between the ability to predict translation ability when using the students’ knowledge of grammar score alone and when using the scores for both grammatical and vocabulary knowledge together

SHRINE: Enabling Nationally Scalable Multi-Site Disease Studies

Results of medical research studies are often contradictory or cannot be reproduced. One reason is that there may not be enough patient subjects available for observation for a long enough time period. Another reason is that patient populations may vary considerably with respect to geographic and demographic boundaries thus limiting how broadly the results apply. Even when similar patient populations are pooled together from multiple locations, differences in medical treatment and record systems can limit which outcome measures can be commonly analyzed. In total, these differences in medical research settings can lead to differing conclusions or can even prevent some studies from starting. We thus sought to create a patient research system that could aggregate as many patient observations as possible from a large number of hospitals in a uniform way. We call this system the ‘Shared Health Research Information Network’, with the following properties: (1) reuse electronic health data from everyday clinical care for research purposes, (2) respect patient privacy and hospital autonomy, (3) aggregate patient populations across many hospitals to achieve statistically significant sample sizes that can be validated independently of a single research setting, (4) harmonize the observation facts recorded at each institution such that queries can be made across many hospitals in parallel, (5) scale to regional and national collaborations. The purpose of this report is to provide open source software for multi-site clinical studies and to report on early uses of this application. At this time SHRINE implementations have been used for multi-site studies of autism co-morbidity, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, peripartum cardiomyopathy, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and others. The wide range of study objectives and growing adoption suggest that SHRINE may be applicable beyond the research uses and participating hospitals named in this report

Use of mesoporous molecular sieves in the production of fine chemicals: Preparation of dihydroquinolinones of pharmaceutical interest from 2¿-aminochalcones

Solid catalysts can be an alternative to homogeneous mineral Bronsted and Lewis acids for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals provided that diffusional and adsorption properties of reactants and products could be controlled. Structured micro and especially monolayered zeolites and mesoporous material can be active and selective for performing intramolecular cyclization reaction, and more specifically for intramolecular aza-Michael cyclizations of 2¿-aminochalcones to yield aryl-2,3-dihydro-4(1H)-quinolinones of pharmaceutical interest. However, the catalyst deactivates by strong adsorption of the basic quinolinone product. Product desorption has been controlled by optimizing catalyst pore structure and surface composition, together with a proper selection of solvent and reaction temperature. Process intensification for the synthesis of aryl-2,3-4(1H)-quinolinones of pharmaceutical interest has been achieved by preparing catalysts that allow the one pot synthesis of the dihydroquinolinones starting from 2 -nitrochalcones with excellent yields.Financial support from Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (project MULTI-CAT), Spanish MICINN Project (CTQ-2011-27550), Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo program), and Program Severo Ochoa are gratefully acknowledged.Climent Olmedo, MJ.; Corma Canós, A.; Iborra Chornet, S.; Martí Montaner, L. (2016). Use of mesoporous molecular sieves in the production of fine chemicals: Preparation of dihydroquinolinones of pharmaceutical interest from 2¿-aminochalcones. ChemCatChem. 8(7):1335-1345. doi:10.1002/cctc.201501403S133513458

Removal of pharmaceutical compounds commonly-found in wastewater through a hybrid biological and adsorption process

[EN] Nowadays, alternative options to conventional wastewater treatment should be studied due to rising concerns emerged by the presence of pharmaceuticals compounds (PhCs) in the aquatic environment. In this work, a combined system including biological treatment by activated sludge plus adsorption with activated carbon is proposed to remove three selected drugs (acetaminophen (ACT), caffeine (CAF) and ibuprofen (IBU)) in a concentration of 2 mg L-1 of each one. For it three sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were operated. SBR-B treated a synthetic wastewater (SWW) without target drugs and SBR-PhC and SBR-PhC + AC operated with SWW doped with the three drugs, adding into SBR-PhC + AC 1.5 g L-1 of a mesoporous granular activated carbon. Results showed that the hybrid system SBR-activated carbon produced an effluent free of PhCs, which in addition had higher quality than that achieved in a conventional activated sludge treatment in terms of lower COD, turbidity and SMP concentrations. On the other hand, five possible routes of removal for target drugs during the biological treatment were studied. Hydrolysis, oxidation and volatilization pathways were negligible after 6 h of reaction time. Adsorption mute only was significant for ACT, which was adsorbed completely after 5 h of reaction, while only 1.9% of CAF and 5.6% of IBU were adsorbed. IBU was the least biodegradable compound.This work was supported by Spanish grants AICO/2018/292 of the Generalitat Valenciana.Ferrer-Polonio, E.; Fernández-Navarro, J.; Iborra-Clar, MI.; Alcaina-Miranda, MI.; Mendoza Roca, JA. (2020). Removal of pharmaceutical compounds commonly-found in wastewater through a hybrid biological and adsorption process. Journal of Environmental Management. 263:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110368S18263Al-Khazrajy, O. S. A., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2016). Impacts of compound properties and sediment characteristics on the sorption behaviour of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 317, 198-209. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.05.065Alygizakis, N. A., Gago-Ferrero, P., Borova, V. L., Pavlidou, A., Hatzianestis, I., & Thomaidis, N. S. (2016). Occurrence and spatial distribution of 158 pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse and related metabolites in offshore seawater. Science of The Total Environment, 541, 1097-1105. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.09.145Azimi, S. C., Shirini, F., & Pendashteh, A. (2019). Evaluation of COD and turbidity removal from woodchips wastewater using biologically sequenced batch reactor. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 128, 211-227. doi:10.1016/j.psep.2019.05.043Boxall, A. B. A. (2004). The environmental side effects of medication. EMBO reports, 5(12), 1110-1116. doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7400307Carballa, M., Omil, F., & Lema, J. M. (2005). Removal of cosmetic ingredients and pharmaceuticals in sewage primary treatment. Water Research, 39(19), 4790-4796. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2005.09.018Couto, C. F., Lange, L. C., & Amaral, M. C. S. (2019). Occurrence, fate and removal of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in water and wastewater treatment plants—A review. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 32, 100927. doi:10.1016/j.jwpe.2019.100927Desbiolles, F., Malleret, L., Tiliacos, C., Wong-Wah-Chung, P., & Laffont-Schwob, I. (2018). Occurrence and ecotoxicological assessment of pharmaceuticals: Is there a risk for the Mediterranean aquatic environment? Science of The Total Environment, 639, 1334-1348. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.351Dong, X., Zhou, W., & He, S. (2013). Removal of anaerobic soluble microbial products in a biological activated carbon reactor. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 25(9), 1745-1753. doi:10.1016/s1001-0742(12)60224-1Fan, H., Li, J., Zhang, L., & Feng, L. (2014). Contribution of sludge adsorption and biodegradation to the removal of five pharmaceuticals in a submerged membrane bioreactor. Biochemical Engineering Journal, 88, 101-107. doi:10.1016/j.bej.2014.04.008Frølund, B., Palmgren, R., Keiding, K., & Nielsen, P. H. (1996). Extraction of extracellular polymers from activated sludge using a cation exchange resin. Water Research, 30(8), 1749-1758. doi:10.1016/0043-1354(95)00323-1GilPavas, E., Dobrosz-Gómez, I., & Gómez-García, M.-Á. (2019). Optimization and toxicity assessment of a combined electrocoagulation, H2O2/Fe2+/UV and activated carbon adsorption for textile wastewater treatment. Science of The Total Environment, 651, 551-560. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.125Goel, R., Mino, T., Satoh, H., & Matsuo, T. (1998). Enzyme activities under anaerobic and aerobic conditions in activated sludge sequencing batch reactor. Water Research, 32(7), 2081-2088. doi:10.1016/s0043-1354(97)00425-9Greenham, R. T., Miller, K. Y., & Tong, A. (2019). Removal efficiencies of top-used pharmaceuticals at sewage treatment plants with various technologies. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 7(5), 103294. doi:10.1016/j.jece.2019.103294Hampel, M., Alonso, E., Aparicio, I., Bron, J. E., Santos, J. L., Taggart, J. B., & Leaver, M. J. (2010). Potential physiological effects of pharmaceutical compounds in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) implied by transcriptomic analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 17(4), 917-933. doi:10.1007/s11356-009-0282-6Krishnan, V., Ahmad, D., & Jeru, J. B. (2008). Influence of COD:N:P ratio on dark greywater treatment using a sequencing batch reactor. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 83(5), 756-762. doi:10.1002/jctb.1842Li, B., & Zhang, T. (2010). Biodegradation and Adsorption of Antibiotics in the Activated Sludge Process. Environmental Science & Technology, 44(9), 3468-3473. doi:10.1021/es903490hLin, A. Y.-C., Yu, T.-H., & Lateef, S. K. (2009). Removal of pharmaceuticals in secondary wastewater treatment processes in Taiwan. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 167(1-3), 1163-1169. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2009.01.108Mezzelani, M., Gorbi, S., & Regoli, F. (2018). Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environments: Evidence of emerged threat and future challenges for marine organisms. Marine Environmental Research, 140, 41-60. doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.05.001Min, X., Li, W., Wei, Z., Spinney, R., Dionysiou, D. D., Seo, Y., … Xiao, R. (2018). Sorption and biodegradation of pharmaceuticals in aerobic activated sludge system: A combined experimental and theoretical mechanistic study. Chemical Engineering Journal, 342, 211-219. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.01.012Molina-Muñoz, M., Poyatos, J. M., Rodelas, B., Pozo, C., Manzanera, M., Hontoria, E., & Gonzalez-Lopez, J. (2010). Microbial enzymatic activities in a pilot-scale MBR experimental plant under different working conditions. Bioresource Technology, 101(2), 696-704. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.08.071Namkung, E., & Rittmann, B. E. (1986). Soluble microbial products (SMP) formation kinetics by biofilms. Water Research, 20(6), 795-806. doi:10.1016/0043-1354(86)90106-5Palli, L., Spina, F., Varese, G. C., Vincenzi, M., Aragno, M., Arcangeli, G., … Gori, R. (2019). Occurrence of selected pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plants of Tuscany: An effect-based approach to evaluate the potential environmental impact. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 222(4), 717-725. doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.05.006Pan, M., & Chu, L. M. (2017). Transfer of antibiotics from wastewater or animal manure to soil and edible crops. Environmental Pollution, 231, 829-836. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.08.051Patrolecco, L., Ademollo, N., Grenni, P., Tolomei, A., Barra Caracciolo, A., & Capri, S. (2013). Simultaneous determination of human pharmaceuticals in water samples by solid phase extraction and HPLC with UV-fluorescence detection. 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Structure of Complement Component C2a: Implications for Convertase Formation and Substrate Binding

SummaryC2a provides the catalytic center to the convertase complexes of the classical and lectin-binding pathways of complement activation. We determined two crystal structures of full-length C2a, with and without a pseudo ligand bound. Both structures reveal a near-active conformation of the catalytic center of the serine protease domains, while the von Willebrand factor A-type domains display an intermediate activation state of helix α7 with an open, activated metal-ion-dependent adhesion site. The open adhesion site likely serves to enhance the affinity for the ligand C4b, similar to “inside-out” signaling in integrins. Surprisingly, the N-terminal residues of C2a are buried in a crevice near helix α7, indicative of a structural switch between C2 and C2a. Extended loops on the protease domain possibly envelop the protruding anaphylatoxin domain of the substrate C3. Together with a putative substrate-induced completion of the oxyanion hole, this may contribute to the high substrate specificity of the convertases

The Co-Morbidity Burden of Children and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Objectives: Use electronic health records Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to assess the comorbidity burden of ASD in children and young adults. Study Design: A retrospective prevalence study was performed using a distributed query system across three general hospitals and one pediatric hospital. Over 14,000 individuals under age 35 with ASD were characterized by their co-morbidities and conversely, the prevalence of ASD within these comorbidities was measured. The comorbidity prevalence of the younger (Age<18 years) and older (Age 18–34 years) individuals with ASD was compared. Results: 19.44% of ASD patients had epilepsy as compared to 2.19% in the overall hospital population (95% confidence interval for difference in percentages 13.58–14.69%), 2.43% of ASD with schizophrenia vs. 0.24% in the hospital population (95% CI 1.89–2.39%), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) 0.83% vs. 0.54% (95% CI 0.13–0.43%), bowel disorders (without IBD) 11.74% vs. 4.5% (95% CI 5.72–6.68%), CNS/cranial anomalies 12.45% vs. 1.19% (95% CI 9.41–10.38%), diabetes mellitus type I (DM1) 0.79% vs. 0.34% (95% CI 0.3–0.6%), muscular dystrophy 0.47% vs 0.05% (95% CI 0.26–0.49%), sleep disorders 1.12% vs. 0.14% (95% CI 0.79–1.14%). Autoimmune disorders (excluding DM1 and IBD) were not significantly different at 0.67% vs. 0.68% (95% CI −0.14-0.13%). Three of the studied comorbidities increased significantly when comparing ages 0–17 vs 18–34 with p<0.001: Schizophrenia (1.43% vs. 8.76%), diabetes mellitus type I (0.67% vs. 2.08%), IBD (0.68% vs. 1.99%) whereas sleeping disorders, bowel disorders (without IBD) and epilepsy did not change significantly. Conclusions: The comorbidities of ASD encompass disease states that are significantly overrepresented in ASD with respect to even the patient populations of tertiary health centers. This burden of comorbidities goes well beyond those routinely managed in developmental medicine centers and requires broad multidisciplinary management that payors and providers will have to plan for

Integrins as therapeutic targets: lessons and opportunities.

The integrins are a large family of cell adhesion molecules that are essential for the regulation of cell growth and function. The identification of key roles for integrins in a diverse range of diseases, including cancer, infection, thrombosis and autoimmune disorders, has revealed their substantial potential as therapeutic targets. However, so far, pharmacological inhibitors for only three integrins have received marketing approval. This article discusses the structure and function of integrins, their roles in disease and the chequered history of the approved integrin antagonists. Recent advances in the understanding of integrin function, ligand interaction and signalling pathways suggest novel strategies for inhibiting integrin function that could help harness their full potential as therapeutic targets