Morphological priming in Spanish verb forms: an ERP repetition priming study

The ERP repetition priming paradigm has been shown to be sensitive to the processing differences between regular and irregular verb forms in English and German. The purpose of the present study is to extend this research to a language with a different inflectional system, Spanish. The design (delayed visual repetition priming) was adopted from our previous study on English, and the specific linguistic phenomena we examined are priming relations between different kinds of stem (or root) forms. There were two experimental conditions: In the first condition, the prime and the target shared the same stem form, e.g., "ando-andar" [I walk-to walk], whereas in the second condition, the prime contained a marked (alternated) stem, e.g., "duermo-dormir" [I sleep-to sleep]. A reduced N400 was found for unmarked (nonalternated) stems in the primed condition, whereas marked stems showed no such effect. Moreover, control conditions demonstrated that the surface form properties (i.e., the different degree of phonetic and orthographic overlap between primes and targets) do not explain the observed priming difference. The ERP priming effect for verb forms with unmarked stems in Spanish is parallel to that found for regularly inflected verb forms in English and German. We argue that effective priming is possible because prime target pairs such as "ando-andar" access the same lexical entry for their stems. By contrast, verb forms with alternated stems (e.g., "duermo") constitute separate lexical entries, and are therefore less powerful primes for their corresponding base forms

Разработка и исследование электропривода насоса перекачки золошлаковой пульпы

Перспективные системы управления электроприводов разрабатываются с ориентацией на комплексную автоматизацию технологических процессов и согласованную работу нескольких приводов в составе промышленной сети. Задача синхронизации скоростей и положений механизмов, участвующих в технологическом процессе, является актуальной для многих отраслей промышленности. Согласованное управление позволяет интегрировать отдельные электроприводы в общую систему управления технологическим процессом, обеспечить необходимое качество продукции и исключить простои оборудования.Advanced control systems of electric drives are developed with the focus on complex automation of technological processes and coordinated work of several drives in the industrial network. The task of synchronizing the speeds and positions of the mechanisms involved in the technological process is relevant for many industries. The coordinated control allows to integrate separate electric drives in the General system of management of technological process, to provide necessary quality of production and to exclude idle times of the equipment

Overexpression of P70 S6 kinase protein is associated with increased risk of locoregional recurrence in node-negative premenopausal early breast cancer patients

The RPS6KB1 gene is amplified and overexpressed in approximately 10% of breast carcinomas and has been found associated with poor prognosis. We studied the prognostic significance of P70 S6 kinase protein (PS6K) overexpression in a series of 452 node-negative premenopausal early-stage breast cancer patients (median follow-up: 10.8 years). Immunohistochemistry was used to assess PS6K expression in the primary tumour, which had previously been analysed for a panel of established prognostic factors in breast cancer. In a univariate analysis, PS6K overexpression was associated with worse distant disease-free survival as well as impaired locoregional control (HR 1.80, P 0.025 and HR 2.50, P 0.006, respectively). In a multivariate analysis including other prognostic factors, PS6K overexpression remained an independent predictor for poor locoregional control (RR 2.67, P 0.003). To our knowledge, P70 S6 kinase protein is the first oncogenic marker that has prognostic impact on locoregional control and therefore may have clinical implications in determining the local treatment strategy in early-stage breast cancer patients

Directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells using a bead-based combinatorial screening method

We have developed a rapid, bead-based combinatorial screening method to determine optimal combinations of variables that direct stem cell differentiation to produce known or novel cell types having pre-determined characteristics. Here we describe three experiments comprising stepwise exposure of mouse or human embryonic cells to 10,000 combinations of serum-free differentiation media, through which we discovered multiple novel, efficient and robust protocols to generate a number of specific hematopoietic and neural lineages. We further demonstrate that the technology can be used to optimize existing protocols in order to substitute costly growth factors with bioactive small molecules and/or increase cell yield, and to identify in vitro conditions for the production of rare developmental intermediates such as an embryonic lymphoid progenitor cell that has not previously been reported

Chemokinaktivität induziert durch Interleukin-6

Interleukin-6 belongs to the IL-6 type cytokine family. It signals through a receptor complex composed of the IL-6Ralpha and the signal-transducing subunit gp130. The activation of this receptor complex leads to the activation of the JAK/STAT pathway, the MAPK- and PI3K-caskade. IL-6 plays an important role in the induction of acut-phase proteins. Migration is most importantly induced by chemokines, which signal through G-protein coupled receptors. Only a few cytokines, signalling via receptor-tyrosin-kinases or via receptors associated with kinases, had been shown to induce cell migration. In a previous publication we could demonstrate for the first time, that IL-6 induces directly chemotactic migration of T-cells. In the study presented here the biological properties of IL-6 which are crucial for the migration of monocytes have been analyzed in detail. The first crucial step for leukocyte recruitment is the activation of integrins. Here it is shown that IL-6-induces activation of beta1-integrin on both, TUR-cells and RAW 264.7-cells as well as on primary human CD14+-monocytes. The second stimulation-dependent step is the adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells. Using cell adhesion assays it could be demonstrate that IL-6 treated TUR-cells adhere to endothelial cells as efficient as SDF-1-treated cells. For subsequent cell migration actin polymerization at the leading edge is important. Indeed, stimulation with IL-6 induces the actin polymerization in both, TUR-monocytic cells and RAW 264.7 macrophages as well as in primary human CD14+-monocytes. In addition, IL-6 induces fibronectin-dependent migration and transmigration through a layer of endothelial-cells. Furthermore, it was analyzed whether the transcription factor STAT3 is involved in IL-6-induced cell migration. Here, it could be demonstrated that the STAT3-inhibitor Galiellalacton reduces the IL-6-induced fibronectin-dependent migration of TUR-cells. However the previously described inhibition of STAT3 DNA-binding could not be confirmed in this study. FAK plays an important role in migration. For only a few receptor-tyrosine kinases direct binding of FAK to the receptor could be demonstrated. In the thesis presented here it has been shown for the first time that FAK binds to the gp130 receptor subunit of the IL-6 receptor complex. IL-6 fulfills all biological properties of a chemotactic cytokine even though, and in contrast to classical chemokines, IL-6 does not signal through G-protein coupled receptors