A decade after the publication of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001), practitioners’ relationship with this fundamental tool is still rather ambivalent and certainly not homogeneous. Very often teachers feel hesitant, asking themselves if what they are doing is consistent with the CEFR guidelines. This scenario, with some minor variations, ca...

The problem of reconstructing a shape from its sample appears in many scientific and engineering applications. Because of the variety in shapes and applications, many algorithms have been proposed over the last three decades, some of which exploit application-specific information and some of which are more general. We focus on techniques that apply to the general setting and have geometric and ...

A microarray immobilized with 105 aldehyde-containing small molecules was screened against mammalian cell lysates over-expressing cathepsin L to identify two potent inhibitors, which were subsequently converted into cell-permeable probes capable of live-cell imaging of endogenous cysteinyl cathepsin activities by two-photon fluorescence microscopy.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To examine the short form 36 (SF-36) health status measure when used to assess older people's views of the outcome of community based health care. DESIGN Completion of a structured questionnaire, before and after intervention alongside in-depth interviews with a subsample of the interviewees. SETTING Community based continence and mental health services in two health authori...

The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan (or Partners in Development) Program is a social amelioration program primarily designed to empower squatters and slum dwellers which comprise some 25 percent of the city population residing in 21 urban barangays of Naga City. So far, it has resettled 2,017 families to relocation sites with a combined area of 33 hectares; secured homelots for 789 squatter families; an...

Connexin-36 (Cx36) is the only gap junction protein that has been unambiguously identified in rodent pancreatic beta-cells. However, properties of gap junction channel unitary currents between beta-cells remain unrevealed. To address whether Cx36 forms functional channels in beta-cells, we characterized biophysical properties of macro- and microscopic junctional currents recorded from dual whol...

This article reports on the main developmental stages and on the preliminary psychometric assessment of the final French version of the SF-36. A standard forward/backward translation procedure was followed. When translating survey items, the emphasis was placed on conceptual equivalence. When translating response choices, we attempted to select a set of response choices that replicate the U.S. ...

Connexin36 (Cx36) plays an important role in insulin secretion by controlling the intercellular synchronization of Ca(2+) transients induced during stimulation. The lack of drugs acting on Cx36 channels is a major limitation in further unraveling the molecular mechanism underlying this effect. To screen for such drugs, we have developed an assay allowing for a semi-automatic, fluorimetric quant...

Despite much research, there remains controversy over the role of gap junctions in seizure processes. Many studies report anticonvulsant effects of gap junction blockade, but contradictory results have also been reported. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of connexin36 (Cx36) gap junctions in neocortical seizures. We used the mouse neocortical slice preparation to investigate the ef...