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The problems of polysemy
No full textA polysemous word has multiple, related senses; for example ‘lamb’ meaning the animal and the meat, ‘door’ meaning the aperture and the physical entity blocking the aperture, and so on. Polysemy is widespread throughout natural language—indeed for any term, if it is not already polysemous, it seems we can imagine it becoming so. Yet, despite its apparent ubiquity, polysemy is hard to define and hard to theoretically model. These difficulties, however, have not stopped polysemy from playing a central role in arguments for so-called ‘semantic internalism’ (the idea that linguistic meaning should be specified in non-world-involving terms). This chapter investigates the phenomenon of polysemy and the extent to which it provides an argument for semantic internalism. I individuate four different kinds of approach to polysemy and conclude by suggesting that it is perhaps harder to get an argument for semantic internalism from polysemy than is sometimes supposed
Key drivers of large scale changes in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations and their predictability
Get PDFSignificant changes have occurred during the last few decades across the North Atlantic climate system, including in the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere. These large-scale changes play a vital role in shaping regional climate and extreme weather events across the UK and Western Europe. This review synthesizes the characteristics of observed large-scale changes in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations during past decades, identifies the drivers and physical processes responsible for these changes, outlines projected changes due to anthropogenic warming, and discusses the predictability of these circulations. On multi-decadal time scales, internal variability, anthropogenic forcings (especially greenhouse gases), and natural forcings (such as solar variability and volcanic eruptions) are identified as key contributors to large-scale variability in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations. However, there remain many uncertainties regarding the detailed characteristics of these various influences, and in some cases their relative importance. We therefore conclude that a better understanding of these drivers, and more accurate quantification of their relative roles, are crucial for more reliable decadal predictions and projections of regional climate for the North Atlantic and Europe
Phylogeny of Southeast Asian Mapania (Cyperaceae: Mapanioideae) using chloroplast sequence data
No full textMapania (Cyperaceae) is a pantropical genus associated with the forest understorey. Its evolutionary history and species delimitation are poorly
known in Southeast Asia. To address this lack of knowledge, DNA sequence data from four chloroplast regions (trnL-F, atpH-F, psbA-trnH, and
trnK-matK) were generated for a number of populations of 15 species of Mapania. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of the concaten-
ated regions showed a better-resolved phylogeny than previous analyses based on morphological data alone. Mapania bancana was resolved as
the sister to the other species of Mapania included in the study. Moreover, this study highlights the need for further investigation of the species
limits in this genus. For instance, Mapania cuspidata is retrieved as polyphyletic, and a tentative new species has been detected closely related to
Mapania debilis. This study also infers the cradle of the Southeast Asian Mapanias in Borneo, which also holds the largest diversity of the genus
in the region. Mapania is still a poorly understood genus that requires further local taxonomic work and more comprehensive fieldwork records
to better assess and protect these species
Developer or land owner contributions? land value capture, creation, conservation and compensation
No full textThis paper examines developer contributions as a planning policy instrument for capturing land value for communities. Drawing on existing literature, it synthesises theory and develops analytical frameworks to classify land value capture mechanisms, ranging from incidental to explicitly designed. Developer contributions are categorised by their effects on land values and provision of public or merit goods, as enabling, commercial, compensatory, supplementary, redistributive, or subsidised. The analysis highlights challenges in determining who ultimately bears the cost - site owners, nearby landowners, developers, end users, or through unrealised economic rent, subsidies, or combinations thereof - making assessment of value capture complex
Human neural synergy when combining stevia with a flavour modifier and the neural effects of sucrose vs stevia
No full textThere is a drive to increase the acceptability of sweeteners such as stevia in foods and reduce any off tastes or bitterness. One way to do this is to add flavour modifiers. We have shown previously that adding a flavour modifier to the artificial sweetener sucralose resulted in synergistic neural activity which could underpin improved taste sensation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to see if adding a flavour modifier to stevia would also reveal synergistic neural effects.
Healthy adults (N=34, Mean age 25 yrs.) participated in a within-subjects study examining the neural effects of stevia plus a flavour modifier vs stevia alone and vs sucrose. We examined whole brain data, and insula, postcentral gyrus, and hypothalamus ROIs identified from meta-analysis on brain responses to sweet tastes. We also examined the ROIs NAcc and amygdala given their role in reward and aversion processing. We examined the relationships between brain activity and the subjective ratings of pleasantness, bitterness and mouth fullness for the tastes.
Super-additive neural effects to stevia plus modifier were found in the postcentral gyrus, parietal cortex and the occipital gyrus at the whole brain level, p<0.05 Family Wise Error corrected threshold. In the ROI analysis we found reduced activation of the hypothalamus to the stevia plus modifier condition vs stevia p=0.008 and higher postcentral gyrus activation to sucrose vs stevia p=0.01. We found the insula tracked the pleasantness of the stevia conditions. The hypothalamus tracked the pleasantness and mouth fullness of the stevia plus modifier but not the stevia and the NAcc tracked the mouth fullness of the stevia plus modifier more than stevia. Further the amygdala tracked the bitterness of the stevia but not the stevia plus modifier.
This study offers the first evidence that combining stevia with a flavour modifier reveals synergistic neural activity in brain areas associated with taste sensation, intensity and multisensory integration. Further we show that adding a modifier to stevia could increase unconscious desirability for stevia outside of subjective awareness by masking its bitterness and increasing its mouth fullness
Determining structure and Zn-specific Lewis acid-base descriptors for diorganozincs in non-coordinating solvents using X-ray spectroscopy
Get PDFDiorganozinc reagents (ZnR2, e.g. R = Et, Ph, C6F5) are widely used as Lewis acid catalysts or Lewis base reagents in their own right. However, descriptors for predicting the influence of the R substituent on ZnR2 Lewis acidity/basicity are very sparse. This is because ZnR2 liquid-phase speciation and electronic structure are unknown to date due to zinc’s ‘spectroscopically quiet’ nature and inability to measure ‘at zinc’. Here, we identify the geometric structures of ZnR2 in weakly coordinating solvents, demonstrating that electronic structure factors will dominate reactivity. We quantify the electronic structure properties that dictate ZnR2 Lewis acidity/basicity using three newly developed zinc-specific descriptors by combining the results from three zinc-specific X-ray spectroscopy methods and calculations. We provide accessible methods to pre-screen ZnR2 reactivity. Furthermore, our X-ray spectroscopy toolkit offers opportunities to develop liquid-phase descriptors that dictate reactivity for other zinc species, e.g. zinc bis-amides, battery electrolytes and enzymes
Portfolio selection and risk sharing via risk budgeting
Get PDFRisk budgeting is an effective risk management tool that a decision-maker uses to create a risk portfolio with a predetermined risk profile. This paper provides a rich discussion about the theory and practice on how to construct risk budgeting portfolios in a variety of settings. We revisit the usual portfolio selection setting with and without clustered risk budgeting targets, and we then provide an approach on how to extend the usual setting to situations in which a non-hedgeable risk is present or fixed sub-portfolios are aimed by the decision-maker. Another study of this paper is how to include risk budgeting targets in risk sharing, which has not been discussed in the literature. Implementation issues are also discussed, and some bespoke algorithms are provided to identify such risk budgeting portfolios. Numerical experiments are performed for real-life financial data, and we explain the risk mitigation effect of our proposed portfolio. Specifically, financial risk budgeting portfolios with social responsibility targets are constructed
Anthrenus (Anthrenodes) arenosum (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae), a new species from Senegal
No full textA new species, Anthrenus (Anthrenodes) arenosum from Senegal is described, imaged and compared with the three other Anthrenodes species found in West Africa. Anthrenus arenosum differs from all three species either in habitus coloration, presence of a notch on inner eye margin, antennal structure, aedeagal structure, or a combination of these characters. The distributions of A. arenosum and the three other West African Anthrenodes species are shown
