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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.

Whipple pneumonia is a rare, chronic, multiorgan disease, with symptoms including arthritis, diarrhea, and weight loss. Diagnosis is traditionally confirmed by a histologic examination of a small bowel biopsy (1). [...]

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.

Background: Anemone shikokiana (Makino) Makino is a perennial herb of the genus Anemone in the family Ranunculaceae. Endemic to the Shandong Peninsula in China and Shikoku Island in Japan, it is a rare and endangered plant with a narrow, disjunct distribution. It is threatened with extinction and is in urgent need of conservation. Evaluating the genetic diversity of species, revealing the population genetic structure and gene flow, and inferring the population history are of great importance for species conservation, especially for rare and endangered plants. Results: In our study, 73 samples from eight wild populations in China were sequenced by Super-GBS, yielding a total of 40.59 G clean reads and 52,231 SNPs. Based on the obtained SNP data set, we evaluated the population genetic diversity, genetic structure, and gene flow of A. shikokiana. A low level of genetic diversity was found (He = 0.1925, Ho = 0.1422). The neighbor-joining (NJ) tree, principal component analysis and ADMIXTURE analysis suggested that these 73 A. shikokiana could be considered as two groups. Pairwise genetic differentiation coefficients (Fst) indicated that genetic differentiation was lower between adjacent populations and higher between geographically separated populations. The gene flow between Kunyu Mountain and Lao Mountain was very low. However, neither of the two regions showed evidence of Isolation by Distance. Conclusions: Here, we revealed the population genetic structure and gene flow of A. shikokiana from the Shandong Peninsula, China. This research provides valuable genetic resources for A. shikokiana and contributes to the scientific and effective conservation of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. Fubaiju (CMF) is regarded as one of the three most renowned varieties of white Chrysanthemum in China, and different extraction methods have significant effects on its composition and activities. Therefore, six extractions were used in this study to assess the effects on extracts. The basic chemical composition showed that hot water extract (Hw) had the highest total phenolic content, alkali water immersion-assisted hot water extract (Al) had the highest content of protein, and enzyme-assisted hot water extract (Enz) had the highest content of carbohydrate. The UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS results evinced the presence of 19 small-molecule compounds, including chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, tuberonic acid glucoside, luteolin-7-O-rutinoside, and other substances. In addition, the antioxidant test found that the Hw exhibited the best 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (82.05 ± 1.59 mM TE/mg) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) (61.91 ± 0.27 mM TE/mg) scavenging ability. The anti-glycation test demonstrated that Enz possessed the most pronounced inhibitory effect on glycation products, including fructosamine and advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Additionally, the Enz also exhibited the most significant inhibitory effect on the protein oxidation product N'-formylkynurenine. The correlation analysis revealed that there was a close relationship between antioxidant properties and glycation resistance of extracts, and tuberonic acid glucoside, 1,3-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 1,4-Dicaffeoylquinic acid, quercetin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and isochlorogenic acid B were key small molecule components that affected activities. In summary, the extracts of CMF can be regarded as an excellent antioxidant and anti-glycosylation agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]