Erroneous Word-Stress Patterns Used by EFL Yemeni Learners

This experimental study aims at investigating the English word-stress patterns used by Yemenis, learning English as a foreign language, and the erroneous stress patterns used by them. Accent or stress is a feature of high significance in English speech. At the level of a word, one syllable gets accentuated with primary stress. To achieve the purpose of this study, and to find out to what extent word stress of Received Pronunciation English poses difficulty on Yemeni Arabic speakers using English as a foreign language, 120 subjects of various scientific disciplines, were chosen for data collection. They were recorded and their utterances went through deep analysis based on the auditory impression of the researcher and on the spectrographic evidence resulting from the speech analysis of the software program PRAAT. The most significant findings reached by the researcher were that word-stress in the four-syllable target words were the most problematic for the speakers in which 53.2% of them put the stress, randomly, on the wrong syllables in words. Three-syllable target words appeared to be less problematic as 44.4% of the participants placed the stress inaccurately in words. The least difficulties encountered by the speakers were with the two-syllable target words where 70.6% of the speakers managed to pronounce the words with correct stress placement. It is noteworthy to mention that there was a tendency among the speakers who produced wrong stress patterns, to accent either the first syllable or the one including a long vowel or a diphthong in the words.

Multiple drivers and extreme events collapse social-ecological systems sooner

The world’s ecosystems are undergoing unprecedented changes due to the impact of climate change and local human activities. A major concern is the possibility of tipping points where ecosystems and landscapes change abruptly to undesirable states. We consider what happens to the timing of tipping points when current stresses strengthen whilst systems experience additional stresses and/or extreme events. We run experiments on four mathematical models that simulate tipping points in lake water quality, the Easter Island community, the Chilika lagoon fishery, and forest dieback. We show that the strongest impacts occur under increasing levels of primary stress, but additional and more extreme stresses in all four models bring the tipping points significantly closer to today. Translating the results to the real world underlines the need for humanity to reduce damaging disturbances and global warming, and to be vigilant for signs that natural systems are degrading more rapidly than previously thought.

Nitrogen oxides as a factor in the variability of chlorophyll content in leaf tissues of Salix kochiana Trautv. at different stages of vegetation

In this work, the variability of the content of chlorophylls in the tissues of the plant leaves of the introducedspecies Salix kochiana in response to the action of low doses of nitrogen oxides was determined. To set up the experiment,a fumigation chamber was used to simulate environmental pollution with nitrogen oxides, concentration 0.5; 1.0; 1.5 and2.0 units of the maximum one-time MPC. It was found that the relationship between the dose of the operating gas and thechlorophyll content is non-linear. At the beginning of the growing season, under the influence of nitrogen oxides with aconcentration of 0.5 and 1.0 MPC, the chlorophyll content increases sharply (1.3 times), a further increase in the dose ofthe operating gas to 1.5 and 2.0 MPC leads to a decrease in the value of this indicator to background level. At the end ofthe growing season, the effect of nitrogen oxides with a concentration of 0.5 and 1.0 MPC, on the contrary, is accompanied by a sharp decrease in the content of chlorophylls (1.7 times), and an increase in the dose of the active gas leads toan increase in the value of this indicator, but its level remains significantly lower than the background. The interpretationof the obtained data from the point of view of the theory of stress makes it possible to characterize the response of Salixkochiana plants at the beginning of the growing season as a stage of the primary stress reaction, at the end of the growingseason as a stage of resistance, which makes it possible to recommend the studied species for landscaping areas with a similar nature of atmospheric pollution.

Teacher Stress: A Psychobiological Approach to Stressful Interactions in the Classroom

Teachers report elevated levels of stress and psychosomatic illnesses compared to other professions. Teacher stress has far-reaching consequences on their health outcomes, the student's motivation, and the economy. However, research on teacher stress relies mainly on self-reports, hence, assesses stress on purely subjective perception. Personal or subjective aspects can strongly influence these measures, and biological stress may even be unnoticed. It is, therefore, necessary to include both subjective and objective measures to investigate stress, preferably in real-life situations. This review aims to demonstrate the importance of a psychobiological ambulatory assessment (AA) approach to investigate teacher stress, in contrast to purely subjective measures. We discuss classroom disruptions as the primary stress factor within the classroom and how a multimethod AA approach using psychological measures while simultaneously recording classroom disruptions and biological stress reactions of teachers would enable a much deeper understanding of stressful transactional processes taking place in the classroom that has not been achieved before.

Therapeutic massage in women with stress urinary incontinence: a pilot study.

Background: Stress incontinence affects 25–60% of women of all ages and causes constant discomfort, significantly lowering quality of life. The most common causes of urinary incontinence are weakened sphincter muscles or bladder failure. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of therapeutic massage therapy for stress urinary incontinence and to determine whether therapeutic massage can restore the normal function of the bladder sphincters. Material and methods: The study involved eleven women with a diagnosis of primary stress urinary incontinence, aged 50–79 years. The women attended therapeutic massage sessions twice a week for four weeks. A sanitary pad test was performed before starting and immediately after ending the therapy to verify its effectiveness. Results: In eight women, the amount of urine that leaked decreased after therapy. This result was statistically significant (p = 0.02). In three cases, urine leakage was reduced to zero. Conclusions: Therapeutic massage, acting locally, improves the function of the bladder sphincters, their flexibility and the ability to contract and relax. Massage eliminates or significantly reduces the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence.

Stringent response in bacteria and plants under infection.

Stringent response (SR), a primary stress reaction in bacteria and plant chloroplasts, is a molecular switch that provides operational stress-induced reprogramming of transcription under conditions of abiotic and biotic stress. Given that the infection is a stressful situation for both partners, the host plant and the pathogen, we analyzed the expression of bacterial and plastid SR-related genes during plant-microbial interaction. In the phytopathogenic bacterium Pectobacterium atrosepticum, SpoT-dependent SR was induced after contact with potato or tobacco plants. In plants, two different scenarios of molecular events developed under bacterial infection. Plastid SR was not induced in the host plant potato Solanum tuberosum, which co-evolved with the pathogen for a long time. In this case, the salicylic acid defense pathway was activated and plants were more resistant to bacterial infection. SR was activated in the tobacco Nicotiana tabacum (experimental host) along with the activation of jasmonic acid-related genes resulting in plant death. These results are important to more fully understand the evolutionary interplay between plants and symbionts/pathogens.

Effect of Exogenous Abscisic acid (ABA) on the Morphology, Phytohormones, and Related Gene Expression of Developing Lateral Roots in ‘Qingzhen 1’

Lateral roots (LRs) are critical for plant stress tolerance and productivity. Understanding how hormones and genes interact in a fluctuating environment to coordinate LR development is a major challenge. Abscisic acid (ABA) is the primary stress-responsive hormone and mediates LR development in various plant species. However, the effect of exogenous ABA on LR development has not been elucidated in apple. In this study, ‘Qingzhen 1’ was treated with exogenous 5 µM ABA for 20 days to investigate the regulation mechanism of ABA on LR development. Morphological observations advocated that ABA inhibited both LR and shoot development in ‘Qingzhen 1’ apple plants, where the root number was 16.94%, the root length was 30.32%, the plant height was 10.88%, and the stem thickness was 8.08% lower than those in the control plants. Meanwhile, the endogenous ABA concentration was significantly increased, but the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), zeatin riboside (ZR), and jasmonic acid (JA) concentrations were significantly decreased with ABA treatment. Furthermore, the expression levels of ABA-related genes (MdCYP707A2, MdABI1, MdAREB2, and MdABF3) were significantly upregulated, while the expression levels of auxin-related genes (MdYUCCA3, MdYUCCA8, MdPIN1 MdPIN2, MdPIN3, and MdARF19), root development-related genes (MdWOX5 and MdWOX11), and cell cycle-related genes (MdCYCD1;1 and MdCYCD3;1) were significantly downregulated at the early stage of ABA treatment, which act together on the inhibition of LR development. Taken together, the changes in hormone levels and gene expression resulted in inhibited LR development of apple plants in response to ABA.

Evaluation of the effect of hydrocortisone in 2D and 3D HEp-2 cell culture

Cancer is one of the diseases with the highest incidence globally and that associated with the patient's emotional state, can act positively or negatively in the treatment. Cortisol is a principal primary stress hormone in the human body. The corticoids can increase cell proliferation and reactive oxygen species that contribute to DNA damage. Prolonged exposure to stress can contribute to tissues becoming insensitive to cortisol, the primary human stress hormone. This study explores cortisol's influence on tumor cell development, particularly in human cells of carcinoma of the human laryngeal (HEp-2). HEp-2 cells were exposed to increasing cortisol (hydrocortisone) concentrations for 24 or 48 hours, and cytotoxicity (MTT assay) proliferation assay (crystal violet assay), and immunolabeled 3D culture for fibronectin and FAK were analyzed. The group treated with hydrocortisone showed a significant increase in mitochondrial activity, as for the evaluation by the violet crystal, the treated group showed similar behavior to the control. The 3D culture showed dispersed cells within 24 hours with reduced FAK labeling; however, no changes were observed within 48 hours. Although some cases favored corticosteroid use in cancer patients, a more detailed analysis is necessary before prescribing them. Keywords: Stress, carcinoma, 3D culture, hydrocortisone.