This article discusses deletion in spoken and written English. It notes that subjects are frequently dropped both in informal spoken English (Napoli 1982; Zwicky & Pullum 1983b) and in certain ...registers of written English such as diaries (Haegeman 1990, 1997, 2007; Haegeman & Ihsane 1999, 2001). The article argues in favour of Napoli's phonological analysis of left-edge deletion in spoken English, and provides a formalisation of Napoli's account in the framework of Selkirk's (1995, 2001, 2011) optimality-theoretic analysis of syntax–phonology mapping. A comparison is drawn with the case of subject drop in the diary register. Due to the difference in surface distribution of the phenomenon between the spoken and written cases, the analysis cannot transfer directly. However, I suggest that, combined with arguments made by Haegeman (2002) for a sentence-medial position for modifiers in written English, the phonological analysis can account for a large subset of the diary drop cases.
ImportanceNeuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) can present with very similar clinical features to multiple sclerosis (MS), but the international diagnostic imaging criteria for MS are not ...necessarily helpful in distinguishing these two diseases.ObjectiveThis multicentre study tested previously reported criteria of ‘(1) at least 1 lesion adjacent to the body of the lateral ventricle and in the inferior temporal lobe; or (2) the presence of a subcortical U-fibre lesion or (3) a Dawson's finger-type lesion’ in an independent cohort of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and AQP4-ab NMOSD patients and also assessed their value in myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-ab positive and ab-negative NMOSD.DesignBrain MRI scans were anonymised and scored on the criteria by 2 of 3 independent raters. In case of disagreement, the final opinion was made by the third rater.Participants112 patients with NMOSD (31 AQP4-ab-positive, 21 MOG-ab-positive, 16 ab-negative) or MS (44) were selected from 3 centres (Oxford, Strasbourg and Liverpool) for the presence of brain lesions.ResultsMRI brain lesion distribution criteria were able to distinguish RRMS with a sensitivity of 90.9% and with a specificity of 87.1% against AQP4-ab NMOSD, 95.2% against MOG-ab NMOSD and 87.5% in the heterogenous ab-negative NMOSD cohort. Over the whole NMOSD group, the specificity was 89.7%.ConclusionsThis study suggests that the brain MRI criteria for differentiating RRMS from NMOSD are sensitive and specific for all phenotypes.
•NAAG likely contributes to the total NAA differences between multiple sclerosis lesion and normal appearing brain tissue.•myo-Inositol was not shown to be different between chronic AQP4Ab-NMOSD ...brain lesions and normal appearing brain tissue.•An optimised MRS methodology is described, using 7T field strength and correcting for tissue T2 water relaxion differences.•7-tesla MRS profiles of chronic brain lesions and normal appearing white matter are presented for MS and AQP4Ab-NMOSD.
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) allows for the non-invasive quantification of neurochemicals and has the potential to differentiate between the pathologically distinct diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS) and AQP4Ab-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4Ab-NMOSD). In this study we characterised the metabolite profiles of brain lesions in 11 MS and 4 AQP4Ab-NMOSD patients using an optimised MRS methodology at ultra-high field strength (7T) incorporating correction for T2 water relaxation differences between lesioned and normal tissue.
MS metabolite results were in keeping with the existing literature: total N-acetylaspartate (NAA) was lower in lesions compared to normal appearing brain white matter (NAWM) with reciprocal findings for myo-Inositol. An unexpected subtlety revealed by our technique was that total NAA differences were likely driven by NAA-glutamate (NAAG), a ubiquitous CNS molecule with functions quite distinct from NAA though commonly quantified together with NAA in MRS studies as total NAA. Surprisingly, AQP4Ab-NMOSD showed no significant differences for total NAA, NAA, NAAG or myo-Inositol between lesion and NAWM sites, nor were there any differences between MS and AQP4Ab-NMOSD for a priori hypotheses. Post-hoc testing revealed a significant correlation between NAWM Ins:NAA and disability (as measured by EDSS) for disease groups combined, driven by the AP4Ab-NMOSD group.
Utilising an optimised MRS methodology, our study highlights some under-explored subtleties in MRS profiles, such as the absence of myo-Inositol concentration differences in AQP4Ab-NMOSD brain lesions versus NAWM and the potential influence of NAAG differences between lesions and normal appearing white matter in MS.
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Medical Research Council, Functional Genetics Unit, Department of
Human Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United
Kingdom
Blake, Derek J.,
Andrew Weir,
Sarah E. Newey, and
Kay
E. ...Davies.
Function and Genetics of Dystrophin and
Dystrophin-Related Proteins in Muscle. Physiol. Rev. 82: 291-329, 2002. The X-linked
muscle-wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy is caused by
mutations in the gene encoding dystrophin. There is currently no
effective treatment for the disease; however, the complex molecular
pathology of this disorder is now being unravelled. Dystrophin is
located at the muscle sarcolemma in a membrane-spanning protein
complex that connects the cytoskeleton to the basal lamina. Mutations
in many components of the dystrophin protein complex cause other forms
of autosomally inherited muscular dystrophy, indicating the importance
of this complex in normal muscle function. Although the precise
function of dystrophin is unknown, the lack of protein causes membrane
destabilization and the activation of multiple pathophysiological
processes, many of which converge on alterations in intracellular
calcium handling. Dystrophin is also the prototype of a family of
dystrophin-related proteins, many of which are found in muscle.
This family includes utrophin and -dystrobrevin, which are involved
in the maintenance of the neuromuscular junction architecture and in
muscle homeostasis. New insights into the pathophysiology of dystrophic
muscle, the identification of compensating proteins, and the discovery
of new binding partners are paving the way for novel therapeutic strategies to treat this fatal muscle disease. This review discusses the role of the dystrophin complex and protein family in muscle and
describes the physiological processes that are affected in Duchenne
muscular dystrophy.
Opioid-free anaesthesia Weir, Andrew
British journal of hospital medicine (London, England : 2005),
01/2024, Letnik:
85, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Adverse effects of perioperative opioids have led to the pursuit of 'opioid-free anaesthesia'. While early studies have shown that effective analgesia can be achieved without using opioids, with some ...reduction in unwanted effects, further research is needed to elucidate which patients may benefit most and how.
This paper investigates postverbal imperative subjects (e.g., get you to school), ungrammatical in standard English but grammatical in certain contexts in dialects of Scottish and Belfast English. ...Henry (1995) reports that unaccusative verbs generally allow postverbal subjects in Belfast English, but in the Scottish English (ScotE) dialect considered here, only a very restricted subset of verbs allow it. Moreover, in ScotE, the preposition away can appear without an overt verb (I’ll away to my bed); this also allows a postverbal subject in imperatives (away you to school). The ScotE data cast doubt on Henry’s (1995) proposal that the licensor of postverbal subjects is weak agreement. The paper argues that the subjects in these constructions are actually external arguments of small clauses (of which goal PPs are taken to be a subset following, e.g., Beck & Snyder 2001). The differences between dialects are located in the structure of resultatives; Belfast English allows Case to be assigned to the subject of small clauses in resultative constructions via a functional head endowed with a causation feature, allowing them to remain in situ in imperatives. In standard English, the causation feature is directly merged onto the verb, not allowing for Case assignment and forcing raising of the subject of the small clause. The ScotE data is argued to arise from the availability of a very ‘light’ verb which is realized as get in some contexts and as silence in others.
The single fiber needle electrode (SFNE), which is designed to isolate single muscle fiber action potentials, has played an important role in the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis (MG). However, the ...concentric needle electrode (CNE) has been recently adopted by some workers to study neuromuscular instability in MG, and reference data have also been obtained in healthy subjects. In this study we wanted to establish whether data acquired using the SFNE is comparable to that obtained using the CNE when studying patients with MG. We established reference data for our laboratory using the CNE for orbicularis oculi (OO) and extensor digitorum communis (EDC). We compared data from 24 MG patients using both SFNE and CNE and found no significant differences in mean jitter values for either muscles. We correlated the neurophysiological data obtained by either electrode with various clinical assessments, the ice pack test, OO and EDC strength measurement, and MGFA classification of disease, and we found no significant relation. We compared discomfort scores for the two needle electrodes for each muscle and found that the discomfort scores for CNE are significantly lower (P = 0.0004). We conclude that the CNE is a useful alternative electrode for studying single fiber potentials, but more reference data from normal control subjects is desirable. Muscle Nerve, 2008
This article considers discourse-initial fragments such as A coffee, please. The article argues against "sententialist" analyses of such fragments which propose that they are elliptical for ...fully-fledged syntactic structures, but also argues that DP fragments are not strictly "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" either. Rather, a small amount of unpronounced syntactic structure is present in such fragments - a null head, crucially not verbal but rather something more akin to a preposition, which introduces an event argument and assigns a thematic role to the DP fragment. This is argued to account for a number of otherwise mysterious (on the sententialist view) properties of antecedentless fragments, in particular some surprising cases of ungrammatical antecedentless fragments.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal childhood disease caused by mutations that abolish the expression of dystrophin
in muscle. Utrophin is a paralogue of dystrophin and can functionally ...replace it in skeletal muscle. A method to induce utrophin
up-regulation in muscle should therefore be therapeutically useful in DMD. We have previously shown that there are two full-length
utrophin mRNA species: A and B. Here we describe the generation and characterization of antibodies specific to A- and B-utrophin.
We show that both mRNA isoforms are translated into full-length proteins, which have very different expression patterns. B-utrophin
is expressed in vascular endothelial cells; A-utrophin is expressed at the neuromuscular junction, choroid plexus, pia mater,
and renal glomerulus. We have analyzed the expression of A- and B-utrophin protein and RNA in dystrophin-deficient tissues.
We conclude that (i) the previously described expression patterns of utrophin represent a composite of A- and B-utrophin,
(ii) A- but not B-utrophin is up-regulated in dystrophin-deficient striated muscle, and (iii) this up-regulation occurs post-transcriptionally
with an additional transcriptional component in skeletal muscle. These results have important implications for understanding
the biology of utrophin and are crucial for future studies aiming to effect its therapeutic up-regulation in DMD patients.
Abstract
This paper discusses object drop in English ‘reduced written register’ (RWR), such as recipes (
Haegeman 1987a
,
b
,
Massam & Roberge 1989
,
Massam 1992
) and diaries. Object drop differs ...from subject drop in RWR (
Haegeman 1997
,
2007
, this issue); dropped subjects can be of any person and can be expletives, while dropped objects can be third person only and cannot be expletives. I propose that object drop in RWR is dependent on article drop. I analyze null articles in RWR as the presence of a phonologically null determiner with the semantics of a choice function. To analyze object drop, I adopt
Tomioka (2003)
’s analysis for Japanese null pronouns, in which a null determiner, combined with NP ellipsis, allows a constituent with pronominal-like semantics to go wholly unpronounced. I argue that a similar process is at work in English RWR, and argue that this analysis allows us to understand the person and expletive restrictions.
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