Non-canonical Objects and Case

Yen-hui Audrey Li 한국중어중문학회 2011 中語中文學 Vol.49 No.-

Chinese allows nominal phrases (DPs) in the typical postverbal object position to bear a variety of thematic roles non-canonical to objects, such as instrument, time and location. The issues are whether such postverbal instrument/time/location DPs correspond to their preverbal adjunct counterparts with prepositions and whether such DPs are truly verbal objects. This work presents the many differences between the postverbal DPs and preverbal adjunct PPs in meaning, ordering and restrictions and demonstrates that such postverbal DPs behave like the canonical objects of verbs syntactically. It shows that the availability of these DPs follows straightforwardly from the Case properties of Chinese and Universal Grammar.

Examining the effect of spatial distribution of disintegrant particles on tablet disintegratability

Zheng Audrey Yi,Huang Wei Wei,Poon Li Ying Jolene,Wong Eunice Siying,Heng Paul Wan Sia,Chan Lai Wah 한국약제학회 2024 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.54 No.2

Purpose Superdisintegrants are typically used at low concentrations in tablets. As a result, the spatial distribution of disintegrant particles within the tablet may be inhomogeneous, resulting in varied disintegration times. This study aimed to investigate the effect of disintegrant spatial distribution on tablet disintegratability. Methods Tablets with various degrees of disintegrant spatial distribution were engineered using a novel experimental design. The effects of relative spatial distribution of disintegrant particles on tablet tensile strength, liquid penetration rate and disintegration time were investigated. Results It was observed that increased clustering of disintegrant particles generally promoted faster tablet disintegration due to more localized swelling and strain recovery of sodium starch glycolate and crospovidone, respectively. However, for tablets with insoluble fillers and sodium starch glycolate, a high degree of disintegrant clustering prolonged disintegration due to the formation of gel plugs which impeded liquid penetration into the tablet and caused the tablet to break up into floccules instead. Tablets made with insoluble fillers were also found to be more sensitive to changes in disintegrant spatial distribution compared to those containing soluble fillers. Conclusion Overall, the effects of disintegrant spatial distribution were dependent on the type of disintegrant and filler used.

In Defense of DP (or KP)

Michael Jonathan Mathew Barrie,Audrey Li,Martina Wiltschko,Jong Un Park 경희대학교 언어정보연구소 2021 언어연구 Vol.38 No.2

Bruening et al. (2018) present a reanalysis of the DP Hypothesis, arguing that nominal phrases are NPs and that functional elements such as number and determiners appear in the specifier of NP. We take issue with a number of their claims, arguing that the DP Hypothesis (re-named here as the DP/KP Hypothesis) is in fact not in jeopardy. We review their discussion and present our counter arguments. First, we address their discussion of the development of the DP Hypothesis, and include several critical references they did not include in their overview. Their claim that the DP Hypothesis largely rests on an architectural parallel with the extended verbal projection ignores a large body of literature in which morphological, syntactic, and semantic evidence is adduced for an articulated nominal structure. They discuss several lines of evidence based on selection in support of their claim that nominal phrases are headed by N. We show that their claims fail for empirical and theoretical reasons. Specifically, once the assumption of another layer of structure above DP (namely KP) is acknowledged, their arguments against the functional architecture in nominal phrases no longer hold. We conclude that the DP/KP Hypothesis is still the best explanation for the cross-linguistic facts on nominal phrases.

Impact of common genetic determinants of Hemoglobin A1c on type 2 diabetes risk and diagnosis in ancestrally diverse populations: A transethnic genome-wide meta-analysis

Wheeler, Eleanor,Leong, Aaron,Liu, Ching-Ti,Hivert, Marie-France,Strawbridge, Rona J.,Podmore, Clara,Li, Man,Yao, Jie,Sim, Xueling,Hong, Jaeyoung,Chu, Audrey Y.,Zhang, Weihua,Wang, Xu,Chen, Peng,Marut Public Library of Science 2017 PLoS medicine Vol.14 No.9

<▼1><P><B>Background</B></P><P>Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes (T2D) and assess glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 18 HbA1c-associated genetic variants. These variants proved to be classifiable by their likely biological action as erythrocytic (also associated with erythrocyte traits) or glycemic (associated with other glucose-related traits). In this study, we tested the hypotheses that, in a very large scale GWAS, we would identify more genetic variants associated with HbA1c and that HbA1c variants implicated in erythrocytic biology would affect the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. We therefore expanded the number of HbA1c-associated loci and tested the effect of genetic risk-scores comprised of erythrocytic or glycemic variants on incident diabetes prediction and on prevalent diabetes screening performance. Throughout this multiancestry study, we kept a focus on interancestry differences in HbA1c genetics performance that might influence race-ancestry differences in health outcomes.</P><P><B>Methods & findings</B></P><P>Using genome-wide association meta-analyses in up to 159,940 individuals from 82 cohorts of European, African, East Asian, and South Asian ancestry, we identified 60 common genetic variants associated with HbA1c. We classified variants as implicated in glycemic, erythrocytic, or unclassified biology and tested whether additive genetic scores of erythrocytic variants (GS-E) or glycemic variants (GS-G) were associated with higher T2D incidence in multiethnic longitudinal cohorts (<I>N</I> = 33,241). Nineteen glycemic and 22 erythrocytic variants were associated with HbA1c at genome-wide significance. GS-G was associated with higher T2D risk (incidence OR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.04–1.06, per HbA1c-raising allele, <I>p</I> = 3 × 10<SUP>−29</SUP>); whereas GS-E was not (OR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.99–1.01, <I>p</I> = 0.60). In Europeans and Asians, erythrocytic variants in aggregate had only modest effects on the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. Yet, in African Americans, the X-linked <I>G6PD</I> G202A variant (T-allele frequency 11%) was associated with an absolute decrease in HbA1c of 0.81%-units (95% CI 0.66–0.96) per allele in hemizygous men, and 0.68%-units (95% CI 0.38–0.97) in homozygous women. The <I>G6PD</I> variant may cause approximately 2% (<I>N</I> = 0.65 million, 95% CI 0.55–0.74) of African American adults with T2D to remain undiagnosed when screened with HbA1c. Limitations include the smaller sample sizes for non-European ancestries and the inability to classify approximately one-third of the variants. Further studies in large multiethnic cohorts with HbA1c, glycemic, and erythrocytic traits are required to better determine the biological action of the unclassified variants.</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>As G6PD deficiency can be clinically silent until illness strikes, we recommend investigation of the possible benefits of screening for the <I>G6PD</I> genotype along with using HbA1c to diagnose T2D in populations of African ancestry or groups where <I>G6PD</I> deficiency is common. Screening with direct glucose measurements, or genetically-informed HbA1c diagnostic thresholds in people with G6PD deficiency, may be required to avoid missed or delayed diagnoses.</P></▼1><▼2><P>Ines Barroso and colleagues identify a genetic variant that leads to reduced levels of HbA1c in African American adults; 2% of this population are at risk of missed diagnosis for diabetes.</P></▼2><▼3><P><B>Author summary</B></P><P><B>Why was this study done?</B></P><P>Blood glucose binds in an irreversible manner to circulating hemoglobin in red blood cells (RBCs), generating “glycated hemoglobin,” called HbA1c. HbA1c is used to diagnose and monitor diabetes.</P><P>Previous large-scale human genetic studies have demonstrated that HbA1c is influenced by genetic variants. Some vari