Causative Action Research Articles

Lipoprotein metabolism with a focus on COVID 19 kidney patients

This article presents the role of lipids, apoproteins and lipoproteins and their metabolic pathways. Definition and function of fatty acids, triglycerides, phospholipids, cholesterol, chylomicron, VLDL, LDL, HDL, IDL and Lp (a) are described. Both exogenous and endogenous cycles of lipids and their metabolic pathways are presented and the roles of both lipoprotein lipase and hepatic lipase are included for means of better understanding. The major cardiovascular risk that LDL cholesterol represents is outlined as well as its atherogenic role. During the COVID 19 pandemic there are alterations in the lipid profile that worsen the risk. There is the decrease in HDL and LDL cholesterol fractions acutely during the infection, pointing out that the main deleterious effects are due to lipid changes mainly to HDL cholesterol diminution. As seen in the HDL’s role description, its protagonism in the reverse transport of cholesterol from the periphery to the liver, HDL particles have affinity for binding and neutralization of pathogen associated lipids that mediate the excessive immune reaction in sepsis. It is important to emphasize its already mentioned function in immunomodulation, antithrombosis and antioxidation, that are diminished with its lowering. Also lipoprotein lipase activity is lessened and thus VLDL particles and consequently triglycerides are increased. COVID 19 added to chronic kidney disease present repercussions and higher detrimental effects, not to mention its causative action in acute kidney disease. Lipoprotein metabolic changes can signalize to COVID 19 aetiology in kidney diseases.

Mechanistic action of the acute toxicity of Bajitian (Morinda officinalis) in zebrafish embryos

Abstract Objectives To investigate acute toxicity of Bajitian (Morinda officinalis) in zebrafish embryos. Methods Zebrafish embryos at 48-h post fertilization (hpf) were exposed to Bajitian ethanol extract for 72 h. The causative action of a delay in yolk sac absorption by Bajitian was investigated by RT-PCR analysis of lipid metabolism-related microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), apolipoprotein C-II (ApoC2) and lipogenesis-related liver x receptor (LXR) genes. The effect of Bajitian eliciting an inflammatory response was studied by exposing 72 hpf myeloperoxidase (MPO): GFP transgenic zebrafish embryos to Bajitian extract for 4 h. Assessment was done by TUNEL, caspase-3/7, and RT-PCR analysis of the apoptosis related pathway B-cell lymphoma 2 associated X protein (Bax), Nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) genes, neutrophil development-related stem cell leukaemia (SCL) and transcription factor PU.1 genes, to reveal the causative action of Bajitian reducing neutrophils. Results RT-PCR analysis found that Bajitian extract had no effect on the expression of MTP or ApoC2 genes, but upregulated LXR gene, which might explain the delay in yolk sac absorption. Analysis of the inflammatory response showed that compared with negative controls, Bajitian extract significantly (P Conclusions This study demonstrated that Bajitian caused a delay in yolk sac absorption and a decrease neutrophil in zebrafish embryos, which may be related to the inhibition of neutrophil development.

Changes in pregnancy-related serum biomarkers early in gestation are associated with later development of preeclampsia.

BackgroundPlacental protein expression plays a crucial role during pregnancy. We hypothesized that: (1) circulating levels of pregnancy-associated, placenta-related proteins throughout gestation reflect the temporal progression of the uncomplicated, full-term pregnancy, and can effectively estimate gestational ages (GAs); and (2) preeclampsia (PE) is associated with disruptions in these protein levels early in gestation; and can identify impending PE. We also compared gestational profiles of proteins in the human and mouse, using pregnant heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) heterozygote (Het) mice, a mouse model reflecting PE-like symptoms.MethodsSerum levels of placenta-related proteins–leptin (LEP), chorionic somatomammotropin hormone like 1 (CSHL1), elabela (ELA), activin A, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1), and placental growth factor (PlGF)–were quantified by ELISA in blood serially collected throughout human pregnancies (20 normal subjects with 66 samples, and 20 subjects who developed PE with 61 samples). Multivariate analysis was performed to estimate the GA in normal pregnancy. Mean-squared errors of GA estimations were used to identify impending PE. The human protein profiles were then compared with those in the pregnant HO-1 Het mice.ResultsAn elastic net-based gestational dating model was developed (R2 = 0.76) and validated (R2 = 0.61) using serum levels of the 6 proteins measured at various GAs from women with normal uncomplicated pregnancies. In women who developed PE, the model was not (R2 = -0.17) associated with GA. Deviations from the model estimations were observed in women who developed PE (P = 0.01). The model developed with 5 proteins (ELA excluded) performed similarly from sera from normal human (R2 = 0.68) and WT mouse (R2 = 0.85) pregnancies. Disruptions of this model were observed in both human PE-associated (R2 = 0.27) and mouse HO-1 Het (R2 = 0.30) pregnancies. LEP outperformed sFlt-1 and PlGF in differentiating impending PE at early human and late mouse GAs.ConclusionsSerum placenta-related protein profiles are temporally regulated throughout normal pregnancies and significantly disrupted in women who develop PE. LEP changes earlier than the well-established biomarkers (sFlt-1 and PlGF). There may be evidence of a causative action of HO-1 deficiency in LEP upregulation in a PE-like murine model.

ОПИСАТЕЛЬНЫЕ ГЛАГОЛЬНО-ИМЕННЫЕ ОБОРОТЫ С КАУЗАТИВНОЙ СЕМАНТИКОЙ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The article discusses descriptive verbal-nominal constructions with causative verbal components. The relevance of the study is due to the attention of modern linguistics to the problem of analyticism in the Russian language grammar, the lack of study of the structural and semantic features of analytical constructions with causatives. The novelty of the work consists in identifying the features of the semantic structure of sentences with causative verbal components. A feature of causative DVNC is recognized as dismembered semantics. Two varieties of causative constructions formed by descriptive verbal-nominal constructions are distinguished – sentences with arbitrary and automatic causation. The description of statements draws attention to the main semantic components – causative and causable subjects, methods of their formal expression. Differences in the semantic structure of sentences with spontaneous and automatic causation are shown. The purposefulness of causative action in sentences with spontaneous causation and indirectness of influence in sentences with automatic causation are due to the semantic features of the main components of causative statements with DVNC – the causative and causable subject. Constructions with spontaneous causation form polysubject monopropositive, DVNC with automatic causation form polysubject polypropositive structures. The peculiarity of the semantic structure of additional statements of DVNC unpretentious forms – participal – with causative semantics was noted. In sentences with DVNC unpretentious forms, the incentive is mitigated. Additional statements with DVNC form polypropositive constructions. The development of verbal-nominal constructions with causatives is associated with a tendency to analyticism, characteristic of the modern Russian language grammar. The materials of the article will be used in lexicographic practice – when compiling a dictionary of descriptive verbal-nominal constructions, in teaching special courses on the problem of nomination.

Accurately Assessing Lines on the Aging Face.

The ongoing positive aging trend has resulted in many research studies being conducted to determine the characteristics of aging and what steps we can take to prevent the extrinsic signs of aging. Much of this attention has been focused on the prevention and treatment of facial wrinkles. To treat or prevent facial wrinkles correctly, their causative action first needs to be determined. published very compelling evidence that the development of wrinkles is complex and is caused by more factors than just the combination of poor lifestyle choices.

Видовые различия русских глаголов повелительного наклонения в лингводидактическом аспекте

One of the most difficult topics to be learned by students of Russian as a foreign language is represented by the verb aspects at the imperative mood. In this paper, the authors underline the need to develop a new approach to explain the differences and the correct use of imperative aspects used at the imperative mood, starting from the analysis of the directive speech acts linguopragmatic characteristics and based on the algorithmic learning method. The authors here present their algorithm, the aim of which is to make it easier for students to choose either the imperfect or the perfect aspect of an imperative verb in different communicative situations. The structure of the algorithm is defined on the base of three main factors: (1) the presence of the word “ ne ” (do not) which makes the sentence negative; (2) situations when, due to the action nature (repetitive or long-term procedural action), only the imperfect aspect must be used; (3) situations when the choice of the aspect relies on the pragmatic characteristics of the causative action, the more relevant of which authors identified in the expectedness / unexpectedness of the causative action. The algorithm developed by the authors was successfully implemented during a pilot experiment held at the Insubria University (Como, Italy) with students of Russian as a foreign language. The results of the experiment showed that algorithmization is an optimal method to train students in the correct use of the imperative aspects, since it allows to take into account at once the totality of linguistic and extralinguistic communication factors and to structure and better control the mental steps students have to make towards the correct solution.

Enterotoxicity of a nonribosomal peptide causes antibiotic-associated colitis.

Antibiotic therapy disrupts the human intestinal microbiota. In some patients rapid overgrowth of the enteric bacterium Klebsiella oxytoca results in antibiotic-associated hemorrhagic colitis (AAHC). We isolated and identified a toxin produced by K. oxytoca as the pyrrolobenzodiazepine tilivalline and demonstrated its causative action in the pathogenesis of colitis in an animal model. Tilivalline induced apoptosis in cultured human cells in vitro and disrupted epithelial barrier function, consistent with the mucosal damage associated with colitis observed in human AAHC and the corresponding animal model. Our findings reveal the presence of pyrrolobenzodiazepines in the intestinal microbiota and provide a mechanism for colitis caused by a resident pathobiont. The data link pyrrolobenzodiazepines to human disease and identify tilivalline as a target for diagnosis and neutralizing strategies in prevention and treatment of colitis.

Meaning from syntax: Evidence from 2-year-olds

When toddlers view an event while hearing a novel verb, the verb’s syntactic context has been shown to help them identify its meaning. The current work takes this finding one step further to reveal that even in the absence of an accompanying event, syntactic information supports toddlers’ identification of verb meaning. Two-year-olds were first introduced to dialogues incorporating novel verbs either in transitive or intransitive sentences, but in the absence of any relevant referent scenes (see Yuan & Fisher, 2009). Next, toddlers viewed two candidate scenes: (a) two participants performing synchronous actions, (b) two participants performing a causative action. When asked to “find mooping”, toddlers who had heard transitive sentences chose the causative scene; those who had heard intransitive sentences did not. These results demonstrate that 2-year-olds infer important components of meaning from syntactic structure alone, using it to direct their subsequent search for a referent in a visual scene.

Effect before Cause: Supramodal Recalibration of Sensorimotor Timing

BackgroundOur motor actions normally generate sensory events, but how do we know which events were self generated and which have external causes? Here we use temporal adaptation to investigate the processing stage and generality of our sensorimotor timing estimates.Methodology/Principal FindingsAdaptation to artificially-induced delays between action and event can produce a startling percept—upon removal of the delay it feels as if the sensory event precedes its causative action. This temporal recalibration of action and event occurs in a quantitatively similar manner across the sensory modalities. Critically, it is robust to the replacement of one sense during the adaptation phase with another sense during the test judgment.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings suggest a high-level, supramodal recalibration mechanism. The effects are well described by a simple model which attempts to preserve the expected synchrony between action and event, but only when causality indicates it is reasonable to do so. We further demonstrate that this model successfully characterises related adaptation data from outside the sensorimotor domain.

Encoding of Action History in the Rat Ventral Striatum

In a dynamic environment, animals need to update information about the rewards expected from their alternative actions continually to make optimal choices for its survival. Because the reward resulting from a given action can be substantially delayed, the process of linking a reward to its causative action would be facilitated by memory signals related to the animal's previous actions. Although the ventral striatum has been proposed to play a key role in updating the information about the rewards expected from specific actions, it is not known whether the signals related to previous actions exist in the ventral striatum. In the present study, we recorded neuronal ensemble activity in the rat ventral striatum during a visual discrimination task and investigated whether neuronal activity in the ventral striatum encoded signals related to animal's previous actions. The results show that many neurons modulated their activity according to the animal's goal choice in the previous trial, indicating that memory signals for previous actions are available in the ventral striatum. In contrast, few neurons conveyed signals on impending goal choice of the animal, suggesting the absence of decision signals in the ventral striatum. Memory signals for previous actions might contribute to the process of updating the estimates of rewards expected from alternative actions in the ventral striatum.

Dynamic Signals Related to Choices and Outcomes in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Although economic theories based on utility maximization account for a range of choice behaviors, utilities must be estimated through experience. Dynamics of this learning process may account for certain discrepancies between the predictions of economic theories and real choice behaviors of humans and other animals. To understand the neural mechanisms responsible for such adaptive decision making, we trained rhesus monkeys to play a simulated matching pennies game. Small but systematic deviations of the animal's behavior from the optimal strategy were consistent with the predictions of reinforcement learning theory. In addition, individual neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) encoded 3 different types of signals that can potentially influence the animal's future choices. First, activity modulated by the animal's previous choices might provide the eligibility trace that can be used to attribute a particular outcome to its causative action. Second, activity related to the animal's rewards in the previous trials might be used to compute an average reward rate. Finally, activity of some neurons was modulated by the computer's choices in the previous trials and may reflect the process of updating the value functions. These results suggest that the DLPFC might be an important node in the cortical network of decision making.

From semantics to syntax and back again: Argument structure in the third year of life

An essential part of the human capacity for language is the ability to link conceptual or semantic representations with syntactic representations. On the basis of data from spontaneous production, Tomasello (2000) suggested that young children acquire such links on a verb-by-verb basis, with little in the way of a general understanding of linguistic argument structure. Here, we suggest that a receptive understanding of argument structure—including principles linking syntax and conceptual/semantic structure—appears earlier. In a forced-choice pointing task we have shown that toddlers in the third year of life can map a single scene (involving a novel causative action paired with a novel verb) onto two distinct syntactic frames (transitive and intransitive). This suggests that even before toddlers begin generalizing argument structure in their own speech, they have some representation of conceptual/semantic categories, syntactic categories, and a system that links the two.

Al-Ghazālī on Possibility and the Critique of Causality

One of the most striking features of speculative theology (kalāam) as it developed within the Ash'arite tradition of Islam is its denial of causal power to creatures. Much like Malebranche in the seventeenth century, the Ash'arites saw this denial as a natural extension of monotheism and were led as a result to embrace an occasionalist account of causality. According to their analysis, causal power is identical with creative power, and since God is the sole and sovereign creator, God is the only causal agent. To assert anything else is to compromise monotheism. This position, of course, was in direct opposition to the prevailing accounts of causality within the philosophical tradition of Islam at the time. The philosophers (falāasifa) had by and large taken over accounts of causality from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists and adapted them in accordance with their own set of concerns. In such accounts, while God stands as the first cause, secondary causation—the causative action of agents other than God—is unambiguously affirmed, even if variously understood. Thus, as they offered a sophisticated account of causal action in direct opposition to the occasionalist thesis, the falāasifa posed something of challenge to the theologians.

The use of multiple frames in verb learning via syntactic bootstrapping

Following the original Syntactic Bootstrapping proposal of Landau and Gleitman (1985), this study investigated whether young 2-year-old children (mean age = 28 months) can use multiple syntactic frames, in addition to the extralinguistic scene, to help focus on the meaning of a novel verb. The multiple frames tested were combinations of transitive and intransitive frames in two alternation patterns, Causative and Omitted Object. By hypothesis, the Causative alternation would be more predictive of actions involving physical causation and the Omitted Object alternation more predictive of actions involving repeated physical contact without causation. Subjects were presented with videos depicting both actions, together with a novel verb. The actions were subsequently separated, and the children were asked to select which action was the referent of the novel verb. The novel verb was presented either in transitive and intransitive frames in the Causative alternation (CS: The duck is sebbing the frog, the frog is sebbing) or the Omitted Object alternation (OO: The duck is sebbing the frog, the duck is sebbing), or in intransitive frames only (IO: The duck is sebbing), or without a frame (FF: Sebbing!). In the CS, IO, and FF conditions, children preferred the causative action as the referent of the verb. However, the girls in the OO condition showed a significantly different preference, and looked more toward the contact actions than their peers in the other conditions did. This study thus provides the first experimental evidence that young 2-year-old children can use multiple syntactic frames to help determine the meaning of a novel verb.