Proposed mechanisms for lumican in joint contracture include: (a) increased lumican with posttraumatic damage that has caused a transition from a normal joint capsule to joint contracture; and (b) stimulating synovial fibroblasts with recombinant lumican leads to increased transcription of alpha‐smooth muscle actin, matrix metallopeptidase 9, Collagen I, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 and transforming growth factor‐β in vitro, possibly through the transforming growth factor‐β pathway. Thus, lumican may affect capsule fibrosis in joint contracture.
Improving the parsing accuracy of a statistical`context sensitive' parser, we have developed a new learner model which is capable of identifying the structural de®ciencies of a learner for the template-automaton-based ICALL (intelligent language tutoring system) of Japanese-English writing skill (Tokuda & Chen, 2001). The parsing accuracy of corpus-based parsers is improved ®rst by pre-assigning POS (part-of-speech) tags to well-formed sentences in a template and then by making use of a compound dictionary of idiomatic phrases. By de®ning the minimum unit of a parsed tree as a Minimum Error Sub-Tree if the unit contains an heaviest common sequence (HCS)-based static error(s) identi®ed, we show how the new syntactic-based learner model can now be used to identify the structural de®ciencies of a learner largely due to structural differences between his ®rst and second languages, thus introducing an entirely new scheme of remediation in the ICALL system.
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the changes in serum levels of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) with cerebral infarction, relationship of RBP4 with oxidative stress and carotid atherosclerosis, and its possible role in cerebral infarction.
Materials and methods
According to the results of cervical vascular ultrasound, the experimental group was divided into three groups: intima thickening group (n = 31), stable plaque group (n = 51), and unstable plaque group (n = 54). Forty healthy subjects were selected as the control group. Their serum levels of RBP4, 8-iso-prostaglandin-F2alpha (8-iso-PGF2α), and catalase (CAT) were measured. Carotid vascular ultrasound was used to measure the plaque area and intima-media thickness (IMT).
Results
The serum RBP4 and 8-iso-PGF2α levels, IMT and plaque area in the control, intimal thickening, stable plaque, and unstable plaque groups increased, while the serum level of CAT decreased (P < 0.001). The serum levels of RBP4 positively correlated with 8-iso-PGF2α, IMT, and plaque area and negatively correlated with CAT level. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.778 in predicting unstable plaques.
Conclusions
The serum levels of RBP4 were significantly elevated in elderly patients with cerebral infarction and correlated with oxidative stress injury and the degree of atherosclerosis. Serum RBP4 has diagnostic value for unstable plaques in carotid arteries.
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