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The concept of authenticity has received much discussion in applied linguistics and educational studies. Valuable insights have been gained into how authenticity is problematised in language teaching and how to improve the situation by engaging learners with better-designed materials and activities. These achievements notwithstanding, empirical evidence remains insufficient to understand learners’ meaning-making endeavours in real-life learning scenarios. The current study attempts to examine authenticity in additional language learning from a semiotic perspective, which may shed new light on the complex cognitive process of beginner learners’ first encounter with a new language and how this process could be motivated and facilitated by teachers in a classroom setting. Evidence of semiotic articulation and production of authenticity from a low-pressure Spanish classroom is analysed focussing on cultural authenticity, interactive authenticity and authenticity of behaviour and engagement. The evidence is discussed to find how semiotic resources in combination with lived experiences may help learners’ comprehension and appreciation of the target language and its culture. These findings reveal the relevance and value of semiotic approaches to language teaching research and provide practical implications for exposing pre-tertiary young learners to languages other than English for more diverse and extensive learning experiences.

Poetry is often seen as the ultimate challenge for a literary translator. Why it is so and how in reality translators manage to accomplish this feat remain to be explored. This article contributes a new way of understanding poetry translation by re-theorizing the practice with reference to the concept of blank-sign. In the light of the blank-sign, we see poetry as a genre rich with meaning-charged blank-signs and poetry translation as a “blank-filling” endeavour to seek relevance for the poem in the target sociocultural context while craftily leaving its overall poetic “blankness” intact for meaningful reading and contemplation. We illustrate this idea with the Spanish translation of two contemporary Chinese poems, with a focus on discussing the challenges with regard to communicating the culture-laden images and the intertextual connections in the original poem. Based on our preliminary findings, we highlight the value of the study of blank-signs in poetry translation and the need for translators to draw insights from cross-linguistic analysis to inform their practice. This semiotic account offers insights into how poetry translation can be alternatively conceptualised and has implications for practitioners involved in poetry and translation.

Abstract Background Despite considerable progress in the development of anticancer therapies, there is still a high mortality rate caused by cancer relapse and metastasis. Dormant or slow-cycling residual tumor cells are thought to be a source of tumor relapse and metastasis, and are therefore an obstacle to therapy. In this study, we assessed the drug resistance of tumor cells in mice, and investigated whether vaccination could promote survival. Methods The mouse colon carcinoma cell line CT-26 was treated with 5-fluorouracil to assess its sensitivity to drug treatment. Mice with colon tumors were immunized with inactivated slow-cycling CT-26 cells to estimate the efficacy of this vaccine. Results We identified a small population of slow-cycling tumor cells in the mouse colon carcinoma CT-26 cell line, which was resistant to conventional chemotherapy. To inhibit tumor recurrence and metastasis more effectively, treatments that selectively target the slow-cycling tumor cells should be developed to complement conventional therapies. We found that drug-treated, slow-cycling tumor cells induced a more intense immune response in vitro. Moreover, vaccination with inactivated slow-cycling tumor cells caused a reduction in tumor volume and prolonged the overall survival of tumor-bearing mice. Conclusions These findings suggest that targeting of slow-cycling tumor cells application using immunotherapy is a possible treatment to complement traditional antitumor therapy.

In order to improve the quality of freshwater fish surimi products, the effect of adding 4% of native cassava starch or modified cassava starch (starch phosphate, hydroxypropyl starch, acetylated distarch phosphate, or a 3:2 (m/m) mixture of acetylated distarch phosphate and hydroxypropyl starch) on improving the quality of surimi gels prepared from frozen tilapia surimi was investigated by measuring texture, rheological properties, water-holding capacity, moisture distribution and microstructure. The results showed that compared with the control group, the whiteness of tilapia surimi gels with native and modified cassava starch significantly decreased (P < 0.05), the gel strength, hardness, chewiness and water-holding capacity significantly increased (P < 0.05), the percentage of cooking loss decreased (P < 0.05), the bound water content increased (P < 0.05), and the microstructure was more uniform and compact. The best gel texture and highest water-holding capacity were achieved with the addition of the modified starch mixture. Low-field magnetic resonance imaging and optical microscopy results showed that both native and modified cassava starch could effectively keep the water in the surimi gel. The native and modified starch could absorb water and expand during the heating process, concentrating and filling the surimi gel network structure, and the surimi gel structure with the modified starch mixture was most compact and uniform. Therefore, addition of acetylated distarch phosphate-hydroxypropyl starch mixture can effectively improve the quality of tilapia surimi products, which will provide theoretical support for the development of freshwater fish surimi products.

Objective To investigate the effect of modified Morita therapy combined with motor imagery training on pulmonary rehabilitation of elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). Methods Totally 130 elderly COPD patients were selected and divided into two groups according to the random number table method, with 65 cases in each group. During the rehabilitation treatment, the control group received modified Morita therapy intervention, and the observation group received modified Morita therapy combined with motor imagery training. The changes of lung function, negative emotion and quality of life before and after intervention were compared between the two groups. Results After intervention, the value of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced expiratory volume in one second/predicted value ratio(FEV1%pred), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC of the observation group were higher than those of the control group (P＜0. 05). Scores of Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale(SDS)in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P＜0. 05). The total score of St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and dimension scores of symptom, activity and impact in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P＜0. 05). Conclusion Modified Morita therapy combined with motor imagery training can promote pulmonary function recovery, relieve negative emotion, and improve quality of life in COPD patients. (目的 观察改良森田疗法结合运动想象应用于老年慢性阻塞性肺疾病(COPD)患者肺康复中的效果。方法 选择2019年1月—2020年3月呼吸内科收治的老年COPD患者130例, 按随机数字表法分为对照组和观察组, 各65例。在常规治疗和护理的基础上, 对照组给予改良森田疗法干预, 观察组给予改良森田疗法结合运动想象干预。对比2组干预前后肺功能、不良情绪及生活质量变化情况。结果 干预后观察组第1秒用力呼气容积(FEV1)、第1秒用力呼气容积占预计值百分比(FEV1% pred)、用力肺活量(FVC)、第一秒用力呼气容积与用力肺活量比值(FEV1/FVC)指标均高于对照组(P＜0. 01)。干预后观察组焦虑自评量表(SAS)、抑郁自评量表(SDS)评分均低于对照组(P＜0. 01)。干预后观察组圣乔治呼吸问卷(SGRQ)症状部分、活动部分、疾病影响部分及总分低于对照组(P＜0. 01)。结论 改良森田疗法结合运动想象应用于老年COPD患者肺康复中, 可促进患者肺功能康复, 缓解不良情绪, 提升生活质量。)

In order to further explore flavor peptides and their structure-activity relationship, umami peptides from Yangjiang Douchi were separated and purified by successive alcohol precipitation method, ultrafiltration and ion exchange resin adsorption. The amino nitrogen content, succinic acid content, nucleotide content, relative molecular mass distribution of peptides and free amino acid composition of the obtained fractions were compared. In addition, sensory evaluation and electronic tongue were used to verify the taste characteristics of each fraction. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was used to identify the amino acid sequences of the best flavor peptides. The results showed that among the fractions obtained alcohol precipitation and ultrafiltration (E1, E2, E3, E4, A1, A2 and A3), E3 and A3 were the best ones in terms of umami. Fraction A3-I, which was obtained after purification using XAD-7 ion exchange resin, had the strongest umami taste with an umami value of 7.65. Finally, through identification and molecular docking screening, the peptide sequence with the best umami taste was found to be TYDGDTEP. This study provides a theoretical basis and reference for the separation of flavor peptides from Douchi and further exploration of its flavor pattern.

Abstract The classical utilized double emulsion solvent diffusion technique for encapsulating water soluble Mitomycin C (MMC) in PLA nanoparticles suffers from low encapsulation efficiency because of the drug rapid partitioning to the external aqueous phase. In this paper, MMC loaded PLA nanoparticles were prepared by a new single emulsion solvent evaporation method, in which soybean phosphatidylcholine (SPC) was employed to improve the liposolubility of MMC by formation of MMC–SPC complex. Four main influential factors based on the results of a single-factor test, namely, PLA molecular weight, ratio of PLA to SPC (wt/wt) and MMC to SPC (wt/wt), volume ratio of oil phase to water phase, were evaluated using an orthogonal design with respect to drug entrapment efficiency. The drug release study was performed in pH 7.2 PBS at 37 °C with drug analysis using UV/vis spectrometer at 365 nm. MMC–PLA particles prepared by classical method were used as comparison. The formulated MMC–SPC–PLA nanoparticles under optimized condition are found to be relatively uniform in size (594 nm) with up to 94.8% of drug entrapment efficiency compared to 6.44 μm of PLA–MMC microparticles with 34.5% of drug entrapment efficiency. The release of MMC shows biphasic with an initial burst effect, followed by a cumulated drug release over 30 days is 50.17% for PLA–MMC–SPC nanoparticles, and 74.1% for PLA–MMC particles. The IR analysis of MMC–SPC complex shows that their high liposolubility may be attributed to some weak physical interaction between MMC and SPC during the formation of the complex. It is concluded that the new method is advantageous in terms of smaller size, lower size distribution, higher encapsulation yield, and longer sustained drug release in comparison to classical method.