The discursive positioning of the Falkland Islands (las Islas Malvinas): A corpus-based collocational analysis of British and Argentinian websites

Considering "discursive positioning" to be a form of "placement," this study examines how the Falkland Islands or las Islas Malvinas, a place which has long been politically controversial, are discursively positioned on British and Argentinian websites. The data came from two reference corpora: namely the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) and the Corpus del Español: Web/Dialects. The 388-million-word British section of the former and the 183-million-word Argentinian section of the latter were selected for analysis. Attention was paid to the 20 most frequent collocates of "Falkland Islands"/"Islas Malvinas." Semantic prosody, collocation networks and word clusters were also investigated. It was found that the Falkland Islands are positioned differently in the two corpora. While the collocates of "Falkland Islands" in the British corpus (e.g., "government" and "population") position the Islands as a territory with "self-determination," the collocates of "Islas Malvinas" in the Argentinian corpus (e.g., "nuestras" [our (feminine plural)], "territorio" [territory] and "recuperación" [recovery], together with the 5-gram "las Islas Malvinas son argentinas" [the Falkland Islands are Argentinian]) subsume the Islands under the ownership of Argentina. Not only are the Falkland Islands "discursively positioned," Britain and Argentina are also subject to positioning. For instance, in the British corpus, Argentina is construed as an invader (as suggested by the collocates "invasion" and "1982") whereas in the Argentinian corpus, Britain is given this demonized role (via the collocates "militar" [military] and "británica" [British (feminine singular)]). Such findings add strength to van Dijk's (2011) discussion of "positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation." As an example of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), the current research also offers solid evidence on the social phenomenon of "classification" proposed by Bourdieu (1990)—i.e., "a vision of the world is a division of the world.

Future Frontiers in Small Molecule Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are ubiquitous in essential biological processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation, host-pathogen interactions, and signal transduction pathways [1]. Pioneering advances in the field of interactomics have uncovered new net-works of protein interactions within cells, with esti-mates for the size of the interactome ranging up to 650,000 PPIs [2]. However, targeting PPIs has histori-cally been considered to be a particularly challenging task due to their typically large size (>1,500 Å) and amorphous nature that lack well-defined crevices for recognition by small molecules. Not surprisingly, the pharmaceutical landscape over the last century has been dominated by programs for small molecule in-hibitors of enzymes (particularly kinases), G-protein-coupled receptors, protein transporters and ion chan-nels that account for the majority of known drugs

Management of tracheobronchial obstruction in infants using metallic stents: long-term outcome

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Results: Twelve balloon-expandable metallic stents were placed in the trachea (n = 10) and/or bronchi (n = 2) of 5 patients with a median age of 13 months (range 5–30 months). Etiology of the airway obstruction included congenital tracheal stenosis (n = 4), giant cervical and superior mediastinal lymphatic malformation with tracheobronchomalacia (n = 1). Seven complications were reported (3 patients developed granulation tissue, 2 patients had re-stenosis, 1 stent migrated, 1 stent fractured). All patients survived and were in good condition with a median follow-up of 16 years (range 11–18 years). Three patients weaned off ventilator and oxygen. Conclusions: Endoscopic stenting with metallic stent has satisfactory long-term outcome in treating infants with tracheobronchial obstruction. Introduction: Tracheobronchial obstruction, although uncommon in the pediatric age group, remains a challenging problem. We review the long-term outcome of endoscopic metallic stenting in infants with tracheobronchial obstruction. Materials and methods: Medical records of all pediatric surgical patients who underwent tracheobronchial metallic stenting in our center were reviewed retrospectively from 1996 to 2014. Patients’ demographic data, including etiology, associated anomalies and nature of obstruction were reviewed. Outcome measures include complications such as re-stenosis, granulation tissue, stent migration, fractured stent, maximal tracheal diameter achieved, weaning of ventilator and growth at interval follow-up.postprin

Gold-catalyzed cycloisomerization and Diels-Alder reaction of 1,4,9-Dienyne Esters to 3 a,6-Methanoisoindole Esters with pro-inflammatory cytokine antagonist activity

A synthetic method to prepare 3a,6-methanoisoindole esters efficiently by gold(I)-catalyzed tandem 1,2-acyloxy migration/Nazarov cyclization followed by Diels–Alder reaction of 1,4,9-dienyne esters is described. We also report the ability of one example to inhibit binding of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) to the tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) site and TNF-α-induced nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation in cell at a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 6.6 μM. Along with this is a study showing the isoindolyl derivative to exhibit low toxicity toward human hepatocellular liver carcinoma (HepG2) cells and its possible mode of activity based on molecular modeling analysis

Hepatoprotective effects of berberine on carbon tetrachloride-induced acute hepatotoxicity in rats

Background: Berberine is an active compound in Coptidis Rhizoma (Huanglian) with multiple pharmacological activities including antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering and anticancer effects. The present study aims to determine the hepatoprotective effects of berberine on serum and tissue superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels, the histology in tetrachloride (CCl 4)-induced liver injury.Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats aged seven weeks were injected intraperitoneally with 50% CCl 4 in olive oil. Berberine was orally administered before or after CCl 4 treatment in various groups. Twenty-four hours after CCl 4 injection, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities, serum and liver superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were measured. Histological changes of liver were examined with microscopy.Results: Serum ALT and AST activities significantly decreased in a dose-dependent manner in both pre-treatment and post-treatment groups with berberine. Berberine increased the SOD activity in liver. Histological examination showed lowered liver damage in berberine-treated groups.Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that berberine possesses hepatoprotective effects against CCl 4-induced hepatotoxicity and that the effects are both preventive and curative. Berberine should have potential for developing a new drug to treat liver toxicity. © 2010 Feng et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Antitumor agents 294. Novel E-ring-modified camptothecin–4β-anilino-4′-O-demethyl-epipodophyllotoxin conjugates as DNA topoisomerase I inhibitors and cytotoxic agents

Two conjugates (1 and 2) of camptothecin (CPT) and 4β-anilino-4′-O-demethylepipodophyllotoxin were previously shown to exert antitumor activity through inhibition of topoisomerase I (topo I). In this current study, two novel conjugates (1E and 2E) with an open E-ring in the CPT moiety were first synthesized and evaluated for biological activity in comparison with their intact E-ring congeners. This novel class of CPT derivatives exhibits its antitumor effect against CPT-sensitive and -resistant cells, in part, by inhibiting topo I-linked DNA (TLD) religation. An intact E-ring was not essential for the inhibition of TLD religation, although conjugates with an open E-ring were less potent than the closed ring analogs. This lower religation potency resulted in decreased formation of protein-linked DNA breaks (PLDBs), and hence, less cell growth inhibition. In addition to their impact on topo I, conjugates 1E, 2, and 2E exhibited a minor inhibitory effect on topo II-induced DNA cleavage. The novel structures of 1E and 2E may present scaffolds for further development of dual function topo I and II inhibitors with improved pharmacological profiles and physicochemical properties

Speak-up culture in an intensive care unit in Hong Kong: a cross-sectional survey exploring the communication openness perceptions of Chinese doctors and nurses

Objectives Despite growing recognition of the importance of speaking up to protect patient safety in critical care, little research has been performed in this area in an intensive care unit (ICU) context. This study explored the communication openness perceptions of Chinese doctors and nurses and identified their perceptions of issues in ICU communication, their reasons for speaking up and the possible factors and strategies involved in promoting the practice of speaking up. Design A mixed-methods design with quantitative and sequential qualitative components was used. Setting and participants Eighty ICU staff members from a large public hospital in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of communication openness. Ten clinicians whose survey responses indicated support for open communication were then interviewed about their speak-up practices. Results The participating ICU staff members had similar perceptions of their openness to communication. However, the doctors responded more positively than the nurses to many aspects of communication openness. The two groups also had different perceptions of speaking up. The interviewed ICU staff members who indicated a high level of communication openness reported that their primary reasons for speaking up were to seek and clarify information, which was achieved by asking questions. Other factors perceived to influence the motivation to speak up included seniority, relationships and familiarity with patient cases. Conclusions Creating an atmosphere of safety and equality in which team members feel confident in expressing their personal views without fear of reprisal or embarrassment is necessary to encourage ICU staff members, regardless of their position, to speak up. Because harmony and saving face is valued in Chinese culture, training nurses and doctors to speak up by focusing on human factors and values rather than simply addressing conflict management is desirable in this context.This work was supported by funding from the Hospital Authority’s Kowloon Central Cluster Research Grant (grant number: KCC/RC/G/1516-B03)