Examining the factors that affect structural repetition in question answering.

We present two experiments that examine structural priming in the single-trial phone-call paradigm introduced by Levelt and Kelter (Cognitive psychology, 14 (1), 78-106, 1982). Experimenters called businesses and asked either What time do you close? or At what time do you close? Participants were more likely to produce a prepositional response (At 7 o'clock vs. 7 o'clock) following a prepositional question than following a non-prepositional question. Experiments 1 and 2 attempted to strengthen the priming effect by having the experimenters engage in a brief interaction with the participant before asking the What time…? question. The interactions did not reliably affect the observed priming effect. An analysis across experiments demonstrated that the priming effect found in this paradigm is generally smaller than the average structural priming effect (as reported in Mahowald, James, Futrell, & Gibson, Journal of Memory and Language, 91, 5-27, 2016), but within the range of the effects that are observed in different structural priming paradigms.

Nodamura virus B2 amino terminal domain sensitivity to small interfering RNA.

Nodamura virus (NoV) B2, a suppressor of RNA interference, binds double stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) corresponding to Dicer substrates and products. Here, we report that the amino terminal domain of NoV B2 (NoV B2 79) specifically binds siRNAs but not dsRNAs. NoV B2 79 oligomerizes on binding to 27 nucleotide siRNA. Mutation of the residues phenylalanine49 and alanine60 to cysteine and methionine, respectively enhances the RNA binding affinity of NoV B2 79. Circular dichroism spectra demonstrated that the wild type and mutant NoV B2 79 have similar secondary structure conformations.

Development of a Trans-disciplinary Intervention Module for Adolescent Girls on Self-awareness.

INTRODUCTION: Mental health promotion among adolescents has been a key area of intervention for professionals working with children and adolescents. The opinions of experts in the field of mental health have taken to frame a trans-disciplinary intervention for adolescent girls on self awareness. AIM: To discuss the development and validation of a structured intervention by combining the knowledge from different disciplines in helping adolescents enhancing self awareness. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were followed for the development and validation of the module. First phase of the development of intervention module was the framing of intervention module after conducting in-depth interviews with experts in both mental health and yoga fields. Six experts each from mental health and yoga field were chosen for interview through convenient sampling. Validated interview guides were used for the process. The framed intervention module was given to six mental health experts and six yoga experts for content validation. The experts rated the usefulness of the intervention on a scale 0-4 (4=extremely helpful). RESULTS: The themes derived in the interviews were importance of self awareness, autonomy of self, physical level of self understanding, self regulation of emotions and self monitoring. The interviews were consolidated to frame the intervention module consisting of eight sessions having two parts in each session. Part one of each session is activities and interactions on mental health and part two is guided instructions for body focused meditation. Sessions were finalized with rating and suggestions from the experts. The final version of the module was pilot tested and had found to have enhanced self awareness among adolescent girls. CONCLUSION: Integration of multiple disciplines brought in novel perspectives in intervention.

Evaluation of ion exchange processes in drug-eluting embolization beads by use of an improved flow-through elution method.

An improved method for evaluating drug release behaviour of drug-eluting embolization beads (DEBs) was developed utilizing an open-loop flow-through system, in which the beads were packed into an occlusive mass within the system and extracted with a flowing elution medium over time. Glass beads were introduced into the beads mass in order to ensure laminar flow, reduce dead volume and improve reproducibility by compensating for swelling phenomena. The effects of glass bead ratio, elution medium flow rate and ion concentration, DEB size and drug concentration and drug type (doxorubicin and irinotecan) were evaluated using DEB composed of a sulfonate-modified polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (DC Bead™) as the test article. The rate and amount of drug elution from the packed beads was affected by flow rate, the bead size and initial loading dose. The raw data from the concentration profile analysis provided valuable information to reveal the drug elution behaviour akin to the pharmacokinetic data observed for embolized beads (yielding in vitro Cmax and tmax data) which was complementary to the normal cumulative data obtained. A good correlation with historical reported in vivo data validated the usefulness of the method for predicting in vivo drug elution behaviour.