Nominalization is one of the metaphors introduced by Halliday, which is a part of ideational meta-function. The present research study is an attempt to investigate the role of nominalization in ...political Persian and English discourses from Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. In so doing, it attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) Does nominalizations have any role in cohesion and coherence as well as in marginalization and highlighting in the text? (2) What’s ideological role of nominalization in Persian and English political discourse? (3) In which discourse (Persian or English) more nominalizations are used? By studying 22/5 pages of English newspapers (Guardian, USA Today, Telegraph and New York Times) and 22/5 pages of Persian newspapers (Keyhan, Qods and Shargh) focused principally on Iran’s nuclear program negotiations, it was discovered that nominalization can cause marginalization and highlighting by changing information construction of the sentence (theme and rheme), referring to presuppositions, using entailment, omitting the agent and changing the mental models. Nominalization helps the author to make reference to the background knowledge of the reader without giving any repetitive information (coherence). It also helps the writer to use nouns (next to each other) which have the same conceptual meaning (cohesion). Furthermore, it can be concluded that this metaphor is used more frequently in Persian newspapers than in English ones.
Nominalization is one of the metaphors introduced by Halliday, which is a part of ideational meta-function. The present research study is an attempt to investigate the role of nominalization in ...political Persian and English discourses from Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. In so doing, it attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) Does nominalizations have any role in cohesion and coherence as well as in marginalization and highlighting in the text? (2) What’s ideological role of nominalization in Persian and English political discourse? (3) In which discourse (Persian or English) more nominalizations are used? By studying 22/5 pages of English newspapers (Guardian, USA Today, Telegraph and New York Times) and 22/5 pages of Persian newspapers (Keyhan, Qods and Shargh) focused principally on Iran’s nuclear program negotiations, it was discovered that nominalization can cause marginalization and highlighting by changing information construction of the sentence (theme and rheme), referring to presuppositions, using entailment, omitting the agent and changing the mental models. Nominalization helps the author to make reference to the background knowledge of the reader without giving any repetitive information (coherence). It also helps the writer to use nouns (next to each other) which have the same conceptual meaning (cohesion). Furthermore, it can be concluded that this metaphor is used more frequently in Persian newspapers than in English ones.
Myelination is crucial for the development and maintenance of axonal integrity, especially fast axonal action potential conduction. There is increasing evidence that glutamate signaling and release ...through neuronal activity modulates the myelination process. In this study, we examine the effect of manipulating glutamate signaling on myelination of oligodendrocyte (OL) lineage cells and their development in zebrafish (zf). We use the “intensity‐based glutamate‐sensing fluorescent reporter” (iGluSnFR) in the zf model (both sexes) to address the hypothesis that glutamate is implicated in regulation of myelinating OLs. Our results show that glial iGluSnFR expression significantly reduces OL lineage cell number and the expression of myelin markers in larvae (zfl) and adult brains. The specific glutamate receptor agonist, L‐AP4, rescues this iGluSnFR effect by significantly increasing the expression of the myelin‐related genes, plp1b and mbpa, and enhances myelination in L‐AP4‐injected zfl compared to controls. Furthermore, we demonstrate that degrading glutamate using Glutamat‐Pyruvate Transaminase (GPT) or the blockade of glutamate reuptake by L‐trans‐pyrrolidine‐2,4‐dicarboxylate (PDC) significantly decreases myelin‐related genes and drastically declines myelination in brain ventricle‐injected zfl. Moreover, we found that myelin‐specific ClaudinK (CldnK) and 36K protein expression is significantly decreased in iGluSnFR‐expressing zfl and adult brains compared to controls. Taken together, this study confirms that glutamate signaling is directly required for the preservation of myelinating OLs and for the myelination process itself. These findings further suggest that glutamate signaling may provide novel targets to therapeutically boost remyelination in several demyelinating diseases of the CNS.
Objective:This study aimed to determine the motivation to helmet use among motorcyclists in Ardabil city using the trans-theoretical model (TTM) motivational interview. Methods: Random cluster ...sampling was used for this study. Five gas stations were selected from the crowded areas of Ardabil city and motorcyclists who came to these places were randomly interviewed. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 350 motorcyclists in Ardabil were selected and interviewed by TTM Motivational questionnaire. We used one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression for analysis of data in SPSS software version 20. Results: Findings revealed that 12.6% of respondents consistently wore a helmet when they rode a motorcycle, while 45.2% of helmet non-wearers were uncertain about wearing a helmet in the future. Decisional balance (pros), self-efficacy (decreasing the negative affect situation score), and behavioral process of change can motivate participants to helmet use. Conclusion: Reducing negative social situations and increasing positive emotional states can motivate people to use helmet.
Ranitidine is an antagonist of histamine-2 (H2) receptor. It is employed to treat peptic ulcer and other conditions in which gastric acidity must be reduced. Sucrase is a hydrolytic enzyme that ...catalyzes the breakdown of sucrose to its monomer content. A liquid of yeast sucrase was developed for treatment of congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency (CSID) in human. In this study, the effect of ranitidine on yeast sucrase activity was investigated. Our results showed that ranitidine binds to sucrase and inhibits the enzyme in a noncompetitive manner. The Ki and IC50 values were measured to be about 2.3 and 2.2 mM, respectively. Fluorescence measurement showed conformational changes after binding of ranitidine to the enzyme. The fluorescence spectra showed that ranitidine could bind to both free enzyme and enzyme-substrate complex, which was accompanied with reduction of emission intensity and red shift production.
In the past years, significant progress has been made to develop and use experimental settings for extensive data collection on tobacco smoke exposure and tobacco smoke exposure-associated diseases. ...Due to the growing number of such data, there is a need for domain-specific standard ontologies to facilitate the integration of tobacco exposure data.
The CSEO (version 1.0) is composed of 20091 concepts. The ontology in its current form is able to capture a wide range of cigarette smoke exposure concepts within the knowledge domain of exposure science with a reasonable sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, it showed a promising performance when used to answer domain expert questions. The CSEO complies with standard upper-level ontologies and is freely accessible to the scientific community through a dedicated wiki at https://publicwiki-01.fraunhofer.de/CSEO-Wiki/index.php/Main_Page.
The CSEO has potential to become a widely used standard within the academic and industrial community. Mainly because of the emerging need of systems toxicology to controlled vocabularies and also the lack of suitable ontologies for this domain, the CSEO prepares the ground for integrative systems-based research in the exposure science.
Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) belongs to hydrolase group of enzymes. It is responsible for removing phosphate groups from many types of molecules, including nucleotides and proteins. Cimetidine (trade ...name Tagamet) is an antagonist of histamine H2-receptor that inhibits the production of gastric acid. Cimetidine is used for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. In this study the inhibitory effect of cimetidine on mouse renal ALP activity was investigated. Our results showed that cimetidine can inhibit ALP by uncompetitive inhibition. In the absence of inhibitor the V(max) and K(m) of the enzyme were found to be 13.7 mmol/mg prot.min and 0.25 mM, respectively. Both the Vmax and Km of the enzyme decreased with increasing cimetidine concentrations (0- 1.2 mM). The Ki and IC(50) of cimetidine were determined to be about 0.5 mM and 0.52 mM, respectively.
In this study, Amoxicillin (AMX) was loaded on laponite (LAP) nanoplates and then immobilized on the surface of electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) nanofibers to fabricate scaffolds with osteoinductive ...and antibacterial activities. The highest loading efficiency (49%) was obtained when the concentrations of AMX and LAP were 3 mg/mL and 1 mg/mL, respectively. FTIR and XRD spectroscopies and zeta potentiometry confirmed the successful encapsulating of AMX within LAP nanoplates. The immobilization of AMX-loaded LAPs on the surface of PLA nanofibers was verified by SEM and FTIR spectroscopy. In vitro release study showed a two-phase AMX release profile for the scaffolds; an initial burst release within the first 48 h and a later sustained release up to 21 days. In vitro antibacterial tests against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli presented the ability of scaffolds to inhibit the growth of both bacteria. The biocompatibility assays revealed the attachment and viability of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) cultured on the surface of scaffolds (p ≤ 0.05). The increased ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE (ALP) activity (p ≤ 0.001), calcium deposition, and expression of ALP and OSTEONECTIN genes indicated the osteoinductivity of functionalized scaffolds for hBMSCs. These LAP/AMX-functionalized scaffolds might be desirable candida for the treatment of bone defects.
In this paper, we study the feasibility of incorporating the cross-polarized scattered wave in active standoff millimeter-wave imaging in order to improve the edge detection and background ...suppression for metallic objects. By analyzing the scattering from a perfectly conducting (PEC) patch of a simple geometrical shape we show that the edge diffraction is the major source of cross-polarized scattering. A similar scattering behavior is also observed for a PEC patch placed on a dielectric medium. Hence, the cross-polarized scattered field conveys valuable information about the edges of the object. In addition, the cross-polarized scattering can be utilized to resolve the object from an unstructured reflective background. To put these ideas to the test, a standoff imaging system composed of a continuous-wave (CW) semiconductor source, a focal plane array detector (camera), and collimating and objective lenses at 95 GHz is utilized to image the co- and cross-polarized reflection from metallic patches both in the presence and in the absence of a background medium. In agreement with theory, the experiments reveal that the edges of the object can be enhanced and reflections from a smooth background medium can be suppressed by using the cross-polarized scattering. In this regard, the conducted experiments on the metallic patches placed on the human body also yield promising results.
The side effects and high cost of growth factors and drugs in bone tissue engineering have led to outstanding investigations of alternative osteoinductive supplements. Herein, the electrospun ...polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers were immobilized with carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) and laponite nanoplatelets (LAP, 0.5‐3.5 wt%) to fabricate osteoinductive scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. The Fourier‐transform infrared)FTIR(and energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX) spectroscopy confirmed the chemical immobilization of CMC and LAP on the surface of PCL nanofibers. Water contact angle measurements exhibited significant improvement of surface hydrophilicity for immobilized scaffolds (<10°) comparing to the virgin PCL nanofibers (125°). The immobilization of CMC and LAP enhanced the attachment, proliferation, and osteodifferentiation of the seeded human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM‐MSCs), as evidenced by increased calcium deposition, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and Osteonectin gene expression. Therefore, the fabricated scaffolds can serve as an appropriate substrate to support the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells to osteoplasts without any external osteoinductive stimulation.