2,085 research outputs found
Dissimilation, consonant harmony, and surface correspondence
No full textIn this dissertation, I argue for a theory of long-distance consonant dissimilation based on Surface Correspondence, correspondence that holds over the different consonants contained in the same output form. Surface Correspondence is posited in previous work on Agreement By Correspondence, which explains long-distance consonant assimilation as agreement driven by similarity (Rose & Walker 2004, Hansson 2001/2010). I demonstrate that dissimilation is a natural outcome of this theory of correspondence, and develop a novel and more formally explicit characterization of the Surface Correspondence relation and the constraints sensitive to it. The consequences of this theory are explored in analyses of dissimilation and agreement patterns in Kinyarwanda, Sundanese, Cuzco Quechua, Obolo, Chol, Ponapean, Zulu, Yidiny, Latin, and Georgian. The Surface Correspondence Theory of Dissimilation (SCTD) posits only constraints that demand surface correspondence, and constraints that limit it. Dissimilation falls out from the interaction of these constraints. Correspondence is only required between consonants that are similar in a specified respect; if they are not similar in the output, they need not correspond. Constraints that disfavor Surface Correspondence therefore favor dissimilation, because dissimilating is a way to avoid penalized surface correspondence structures. This interaction derives long-distance consonant dissimilation without any special mechanism like the OCP or anti-similarity constraints; it also explains certain dissimilation patterns that aren’t accounted for by previous OCP-based theories. The SCTD unites long-distance consonant dissimilation and consonant harmony under the same theory, but does not predict that they are formally identical. Agreement is based on correspondence; dissimilation, on the other hand, is based on non-correspondence – consonants dissimilate instead of corresponding. Surface Correspondence constraints therefore affect dissimilation in different ways than harmony: limiting correspondence limits agreement, but favors dissimilation. The resulting prediction is that harmony and dissimilation are related in a consistently mismatched way, and not in the matching way predicted by previous theories that link them together (MacEachern 1999, Nevins 2004, Mackenzie 2009, Gallagher 2010, a.o.). This outcome of the SCTD is empirically supported: a survey of over 130 languages shows that the typology of long-distance consonant dissimilation indeed does not match the typology of consonant harmony.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby William G. Bennet
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
The concept of degeneration, 1880-1910, with particular reference to the work of Thomas Hardy, George Gissing and H. G. Wells
No full textThis thesis deals with the relationship between post Darwinian
scientific thought and selected literary texts by
Hardy, Gissing and H.G. Wells to illuminate the concept of
degeneration and its implications for these writers in the
period 1880-1910. It involves the examination of primary
material in the field of biology, anthropology and medicine,
as well as philosophical and social writing of the period and
other related literary texts.
Chapter One examines the major areas in
emerges into biological, medical and cultural
reflecting movements within scientific debate
social, economic and philosophical concerns.
this discussion is extended after 1900 and is
light of Wells's own development.
which degeneration
discussion,
itself and broader
In chapter Four
interpreted in the
In the discussion of its biological and pathological
emergence, the growth of hereditary determinism is particularly
emphasised as crucial to the variety of applications of the concept.
Degeneration reflects the prestige of Darwinian evolution, with
its unresolved account of inheritance, a growing sense of
economic decline, and a tension between the authority of evolutionary
science and changing philosophical and ethical concerns.
The three literary chapters deal with the impact of
degeneration on the writers and illuminate aspects of their major
work. While all the texts reflect the impact of degeneration,
Gissing is revealed to be more dependent on scientific determinism,
as in Demos or The Whirlpool, than is Hardy, who in Tess of the
D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, exposes the myth of that
determinism while appearing to collude with it. Wells's
journalism reflects the extent of his scientific endorsement of
degeneration-producing in The Time Machine the one fiction about,
and constructed around, it.
The powerful conjunction of scientific ideas and imaginative
writing, 1880-1910, can be traced to a perception of social,
cultural and ethical crisis of the civilisation for which both
novelist and scientist aspire to speak
sj-pdf-1-wso-10.1177_17474930211057722 - Supplemental material for Optimal timing of anticoagulation after acute ischemic stroke with atrial fibrillation (OPTIMAS): Protocol for a randomized controlled trial
No full textSupplemental material, sj-pdf-1-wso-10.1177_17474930211057722 for Optimal timing of anticoagulation after acute ischemic stroke with atrial fibrillation (OPTIMAS): Protocol for a randomized controlled trial by Jonathan G Best, Liz Arram, Norin Ahmed, Maryam Balogun, Kate Bennett, Ekaterina Bordea, Marta G Campos, Emilia Caverly, Marisa Chau, Hannah Cohen, Hakim-Moulay Dehbi, Caroline J Doré, Stefan T Engelter, Robert Fenner, Nick Freemantle, Rachael Hunter, Martin James, Gregory YH Lip, Macey L Murray, Bo Norrving, Nikola Sprigg, Roland Veltkamp, Iwona Zaczyk, David J Werring and the OPTIMAS investigators in International Journal of Stroke</p
This woman's work: Kate Bush, female fans and practices of distinction
No full textThis thesis proposes a broader understanding of the nature of women’s investments in popular music. Through a case-study of a group of mostly mature, middle class, white and heterosexual female fans for the British performer Kate Bush (1958- ) this thesis asks questions about the way in which gender, age, class, race/ethnicity and sexuality circulate within the field of popular music fandom, a field which has traditionally privileged masculinity and youth.
Studies of popular music consumption have tended to emphasise the notion of resistance to dominant culture, often by young, working class men. This has obscured the investments more mature and middle class women might have in popular music. This thesis shows that these investments are, instead of wholly conservative as is usually implied, both resistant and reactionary. In a similar way, these investments do not necessarily lead to powerful positions for the women (for instance, in a domestic context), but they do empower them to deal with the demands of work and relationships.
The women’s claims to distinction as serious music lovers are often made at the expense of other fans, especially young girls, and as such reinforce existing notions of the undiscriminating and ‘eroticised’ female fan. At the same time, however, their claims to distinction on account of their ‘feminine cultural capital’, enabled by Kate Bush’s blend of a ‘masculine’ musical virtuosity and a ‘feminine’ address, partly challenges the male domination of the popular music field. Furthermore, the women’s articulation of popular music and a mature sensibility challenges the medium’s youth ethos and offers an understanding of the way in which popular music returns its value for listeners through the long term
Associations between passive immunity and morbidity and mortality in dairy heifers in Florida, USA
No full textA prospective cohort study was undertaken to determine calf-level factors that affected calf health status between birth and 6 months of age. A convenience sample of approximately 3300 female Holstein calves born in 1991 on two large Florida dairy farms was used for the study. Data collected on each calf at birth included farm of origin, weight, height at the pelvis, birth date, and serum total protein (a measure of colostral immunoglobulin absorption). Birth season was dichotomized into summer and winter using meteorological data collected by University of Florida Agricultural Research Stations. Health data including date of initial treatment and number of treatments were collected for the diseases diarrhea, omphalitis, septicemia and pneumonia. All calves were followed for 6 months. Cumulative incidences of mortality and occurrence of diarrhea, omphalitis, septicemia and pneumonia were 0.12, 0.35, 0.11, 0.24 and 0.21, respectively. Serum total protein (TP) was a significant risk factor for mortality. The association of TP and mortality was quadratic and showed a dramatic decrease in mortality as TP increased from 4.0 to 5.0 g/dl, a small improvement from 5.0 to 6.0 g/dl and virtually no improvement in mortality rates as TP increased over 6.0 g/dl. The hazard mortality ratio was constant from birth to six months, indicating that the increased risk of mortality associated with low levels of TP was evident through six months of age. No interactions between TP, farm, season, or birth weight were found in these analyses. Serum total protein concentration was a significant risk factor for the occurrences, age of onset and severity of septicemia and pneumonia. The association between TP and septicemia was linear and an interaction with birth season was found. The association between TP and pneumonia was quadratic, and in contrast to the TP-and-septicemia relationship, the morbidity hazard ratio for pneumonia was not constant over the time measured; that is, colostral immunity protected the calf from developing pneumonia early in life, but this effect disappeared as the calf got older. Total protein was not a significant risk factor for diarrhea or omphalitis.LR: 20031114; PUBM: Print; JID: 8217463; ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
The role of the COVID-19 impersonal threat strengthening the associations of right-wing attitudes, nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiments
No full textLiterature showed that the link between right-wing attitudes and ethnocentric attitudes gets stronger under existential threats, but the role exerted by an impersonal threat – as COVID-19 – on right-wing attitudes is still unclear. This study aimed to highlight the role of anxiety exerted by the impersonal COVID-19 threat on the relationship between right-wing attitudes and ethnocentric attitudes, as nationalism and anti-immigrants’ sentiments. As part of an international project to evaluate the impact of COVID-19, this study administered an online survey to a representative sample (n 1038). The anxiety generated by an impersonal threat as COVID-19 – thus not exerted by any outgroup – can moderate the relationship among personal Right-Wing Authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and ethnocentric attitudes. This is the first study demonstrating that existential threat is effective also when exerted by an impersonal agent (as COVID-19) rather than by an outgroup. Second, these findings disclose useful implications for preventive psychological interventions and for social policy makers
Visual guidance of landing behaviour when stepping down to a new level
No full textNoWhen stepping down from one level to another, the leading limb has to arrest downward momentum of the body and subsequently receive and safely support bodyweight before level walking can begin. Such step downs are performed over a wide range of heights and predicting when and where contact between the landing limb and the lower level will be made is likely a critical factor. To determine if visual feedback obtained after movement initiation is habitually used in guiding landing behaviour, the present study determined whether pre-landing kinematics and the mechanics of landing would be modulated according to the type of visual feedback available during the stepping down phase. Ten healthy participants (32.3 ± 7.9 years) stepped, from a standing position, down from three different heights onto a forceplatform, either coming immediately to rest or proceeding directly to walking across the laboratory. Repeated trials were undertaken under habitual vision conditions or with vision blurred or occluded 2¿3 s prior to movement initiation. Pre-landing kinematics were assessed by determining, for the instant of landing, lead-limb knee and ankle angle, stepping distance, forwards positioning of the body CM within the base of support and the forwards and downwards body CM velocity. Landing mechanics for the initial contact period were characterized using lead limb vertical loading and stiffness, and trail limb un-weighting. When vision was occluded movement time, ankle plantarflexion and knee flexion were significantly increased compared to that determined for habitual vision, whereas forwards body CM positioning and velocity, vertical loading and stiffness, and trail limb un-weighting, were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). Similar adaptations were observed under blurred conditions, although to a lesser extent. Most variables were significantly affected by stepping task and step height. Subjects likely reduced forwards CM position and velocity at instant of landing, in order to keep the CM well away from the anterior border of the base of support, presumably to ensure boundary margins of safety were high should landing occur sooner or later than expected. The accompanying increase in ankle plantarflexion at instant of landing, and increase in single limb support time, suggests that subjects tended to probe for the ground with their lead limb under modified vision conditions. They also had more bodyweight on the trail limb at the end of the initial contact period and as a consequence had a prolonged weight transfer time. These findings indicate that under blurred or occluded vision conditions subjects adopted a cautious strategy where by they ¿sat back¿ on their trail limb and used their lead limb to probe for the ground. Hence, they did not fully commit to weight transfer until somatosensory feedback from the lead limb confirmed they had safely made contact. The effect of blurring vision was not identical to occluding vision, and led to several important differences between these conditions consistent with the use of impoverished visual information on depth. These findings indicate that online vision is customarily used to regulate landing behaviour when stepping down
Habitat use by western black widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus) in coastal British Columbia: evidence of facultative group living
No full textAnimal social systems come in a wide range of forms characterized by different types of group-living relationships. Species that express facultative group-living behaviours, where individuals only associate under certain conditions or at certain times, are especially interesting for studying social evolution. We investigated the social structure of the western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus Chamberlin and Ivie, 1935) over 5 years in a coastal British Columbia habitat, and present the first comprehensive evidence of facultative group living in the genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805. Latrodectus hesperus have a flexible social structure that varies seasonally, wherein individuals (mostly females) either form groups or live solitarily. In the fall and early winter, females spontaneously form groups of 2-8 individuals, but live alone during the oviposition season in the spring and summer. When living in groups spiders share large webs and are tolerant of each other, although they appear to forage individually. We also report on the relationships between different ecological factors and the social structure of L. hesperus, including the interaction of these spiders with two co-occurring species of introduced spiders (Tegenaria agrestis (Walckenaer, 1802) and Tegenaria duellica Simon, 1875). Our findings suggest that L. hesperus is a good model system with which to explore the mechanisms involved in the evolution of sociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Peer reviewedfinal article publishe
Automatic detection of the region of interest in corneal endothelium images using dense convolutional neural networks
No full textIn images of the corneal endothelium (CE) acquired by specular microscopy, endothelial cells are commonly only visible in a part of the image due to varying contrast, mainly caused by challenging imaging conditions as a result of a strongly curved endothelium. In order to estimate the morphometric parameters of the corneal endothelium, the analyses need to be restricted to trustworthy regions - the region of interest (ROI) - where individual cells are discernible. We developed an automatic method to find the ROI by Dense U-nets, a densely connected network of convolutional layers. We tested the method on a heterogeneous dataset of 140 images, which contains a large number of blurred, noisy, and/or out of focus images, where the selection of the ROI for automatic biomarker extraction is vital. By using edge images as input, which can be estimated after retraining the same network, Dense U-net detected the trustworthy areas with an accuracy of 98.94% and an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.998, without being affected by the class imbalance (9:1 in our dataset). After applying the estimated ROI to the edge images, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) in the estimated endothelial parameters was 0.80% for ECD, 3.60% for CV, and 2.55% for HEX.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.ImPhys/Quantitative Imagin
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