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This article examines two so-far-understudied verb doubling constructions in Mandarin Chinese, viz., verb doubling clefts and verb doubling lian…dou. We show that these constructions have the same internal syntax as regular clefts and lian…dou sentences, the doubling effect being epiphenomenal; therefore, we classify them as subtypes of the general cleft and lian…dou constructions, respectively, rather than as independent constructions. Additionally, we also show that, as in many other languages with comparable constructions, the two instances of the verb are part of a single movement chain, which has the peculiarity of allowing Spell-Out of more than one link.
The size of plant organs, such as leaves and flowers, is determined by an interaction of genotype and environmental influences. Organ growth occurs through the two successive processes of cell proliferation followed by cell expansion. A number of genes influencing either or both of these processes and thus contributing to the control of final organ size have been identified in the last decade. Although the overall picture of the genetic regulation of organ size remains fragmentary, two transcription factor/microRNA-based genetic pathways are emerging in the control of cell proliferation. However, despite this progress, fundamental questions remain unanswered, such as the problem of how the size of a growing organ could be monitored to determine the appropriate time for terminating growth. While genetic analysis will undoubtedly continue to advance our knowledge about size control in plants, a deeper understanding of this and other basic questions will require including advanced live-imaging and mathematical modeling, as impressively demonstrated by some recent examples. This should ultimately allow the comparison of the mechanisms underlying size control in plants and in animals to extract common principles and lineage-specific solutions.
Background
To determine the general appearance of normal axillary lymph nodes (LNs) in real-time tissue sonoelastography and to explore the method′s potential value in the prediction of LN metastases.
Methods
Axillary LNs in healthy probands (n=165) and metastatic LNs in breast cancer patients (n=15) were examined with palpation, B-mode ultrasound, Doppler and sonoelastography (assessment of the elasticity of the cortex and the medulla). The elasticity distributions were compared and sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) were calculated. In an exploratory analysis, positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV) were calculated based upon the estimated prevalence of LN metastases in different risk groups.
Results
In the elastogram, the LN cortex was significantly harder than the medulla in both healthy (p=0.004) and metastatic LNs (p=0.005). Comparing healthy and metastatic LNs, there was no difference in the elasticity distribution of the medulla (p=0.281), but we found a significantly harder cortex in metastatic LNs (p=0.006). The SE of clinical examination, B-mode ultrasound, Doppler ultrasound and sonoelastography was revealed to be 13.3%, 40.0%, 14.3% and 60.0%, respectively, and SP was 88.4%, 96.8%, 95.6% and 79.6%, respectively. The highest SE was achieved by the disjunctive combination of B-mode and elastographic features (cortex >3mm in B-mode or blue cortex in the elastogram, SE=73.3%). The highest SP was achieved by the conjunctive combination of B-mode ultrasound and elastography (cortex >3mm in B-mode and blue cortex in the elastogram, SP=99.3%).
Conclusions
Sonoelastography is a feasible method to visualize the elasticity distribution of LNs. Moreover, sonoelastography is capable of detecting elasticity differences between the cortex and medulla, and between metastatic and healthy LNs. Therefore, sonoelastography yields additional information about axillary LN status and can improve the PPV, although this method is still experimental.
The distinctness of, and overlap between, pea genotypes held in several Pisum germplasm collections has been used to determine their relatedness and to test previous ideas about the genetic diversity of Pisum. Our characterisation of genetic diversity among 4,538 Pisum accessions held in 7 European Genebanks has identified sources of novel genetic variation, and both reinforces and refines previous interpretations of the overall structure of genetic diversity in Pisum. Molecular marker analysis was based upon the presence/absence of polymorphism of retrotransposon insertions scored by a high-throughput microarray and SSAP approaches. We conclude that the diversity of Pisum constitutes a broad continuum, with graded differentiation into sub-populations which display various degrees of distinctness. The most distinct genetic groups correspond to the named taxa while the cultivars and landraces of Pisum sativum can be divided into two broad types, one of which is strongly enriched for modern cultivars. The addition of germplasm sets from six European Genebanks, chosen to represent high diversity, to a single collection previously studied with these markers resulted in modest additions to the overall diversity observed, suggesting that the great majority of the total genetic diversity collected for the Pisum genus has now been described. Two interesting sources of novel genetic variation have been identified. Finally, we have proposed reference sets of core accessions with a range of sample sizes to represent Pisum diversity for the future study and exploitation by researchers and breeders.
The closer the better
(2012)
A growing literature has suggested that processing of visual information presented near the hands is facilitated. In this study, we investigated whether the near-hands superiority effect also occurs with the hands moving. In two experiments, participants performed a cyclical bimanual movement task requiring concurrent visual identification of briefly presented letters. For both the static and dynamic hand conditions, the results showed improved letter recognition performance with the hands closer to the stimuli. The finding that the encoding advantage for near-hand stimuli also occurred with the hands moving suggests that the effect is regulated in real time, in accordance with the concept of a bimodal neural system that dynamically updates hand position in external space.
During reading, saccadic eye movements are generated to shift words into the center of the visual field for lexical processing. Recently, Krugel and Engbert (Vision Research 50:1532-1539, 2010) demonstrated that within-word fixation positions are largely shifted to the left after skipped words. However, explanations of the origin of this effect cannot be drawn from normal reading data alone. Here we show that the large effect of skipped words on the distribution of within-word fixation positions is primarily based on rather subtle differences in the low-level visual information acquired before saccades. Using arrangements of "x" letter strings, we reproduced the effect of skipped character strings in a highly controlled single-saccade task. Our results demonstrate that the effect of skipped words in reading is the signature of a general visuomotor phenomenon. Moreover, our findings extend beyond the scope of the widely accepted range-error model, which posits that within-word fixation positions in reading depend solely on the distances of target words. We expect that our results will provide critical boundary conditions for the development of visuomotor models of saccade planning during reading.
Dynamic regulatory on/off minimization for biological systems under internal temporal perturbations
(2012)
Background: Flux balance analysis (FBA) together with its extension, dynamic FBA, have proven instrumental for analyzing the robustness and dynamics of metabolic networks by employing only the stoichiometry of the included reactions coupled with adequately chosen objective function. In addition, under the assumption of minimization of metabolic adjustment, dynamic FBA has recently been employed to analyze the transition between metabolic states.
Results: Here, we propose a suite of novel methods for analyzing the dynamics of (internally perturbed) metabolic networks and for quantifying their robustness with limited knowledge of kinetic parameters. Following the biochemically meaningful premise that metabolite concentrations exhibit smooth temporal changes, the proposed methods rely on minimizing the significant fluctuations of metabolic profiles to predict the time-resolved metabolic state, characterized by both fluxes and concentrations. By conducting a comparative analysis with a kinetic model of the Calvin-Benson cycle and a model of plant carbohydrate metabolism, we demonstrate that the principle of regulatory on/off minimization coupled with dynamic FBA can accurately predict the changes in metabolic states.
Conclusions: Our methods outperform the existing dynamic FBA-based modeling alternatives, and could help in revealing the mechanisms for maintaining robustness of dynamic processes in metabolic networks over time.
Background
High blood glucose and diabetes are amongst the conditions causing the greatest losses in years of healthy life worldwide. Therefore, numerous studies aim to identify reliable risk markers for development of impaired glucose metabolism and type 2 diabetes. However, the molecular basis of impaired glucose metabolism is so far insufficiently understood. The development of so called 'omics' approaches in the recent years promises to identify molecular markers and to further understand the molecular basis of impaired glucose metabolism and type 2 diabetes. Although univariate statistical approaches are often applied, we demonstrate here that the application of multivariate statistical approaches is highly recommended to fully capture the complexity of data gained using high-throughput methods.
Methods
We took blood plasma samples from 172 subjects who participated in the prospective Metabolic Syndrome Berlin Potsdam follow-up study (MESY-BEPO Follow-up). We analysed these samples using Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and measured 286 metabolites. Furthermore, fasting glucose levels were measured using standard methods at baseline, and after an average of six years. We did correlation analysis and built linear regression models as well as Random Forest regression models to identify metabolites that predict the development of fasting glucose in our cohort.
Results
We found a metabolic pattern consisting of nine metabolites that predicted fasting glucose development with an accuracy of 0.47 in tenfold cross-validation using Random Forest regression. We also showed that adding established risk markers did not improve the model accuracy. However, external validation is eventually desirable. Although not all metabolites belonging to the final pattern are identified yet, the pattern directs attention to amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and redox homeostasis.
Conclusions
We demonstrate that metabolites identified using a high-throughput method (GC-MS) perform well in predicting the development of fasting plasma glucose over several years. Notably, not single, but a complex pattern of metabolites propels the prediction and therefore reflects the complexity of the underlying molecular mechanisms. This result could only be captured by application of multivariate statistical approaches. Therefore, we highly recommend the usage of statistical methods that seize the complexity of the information given by high-throughput methods.
Background: Detection of immunogenic proteins remains an important task for life sciences as it nourishes the understanding of pathogenicity, illuminates new potential vaccine candidates and broadens the spectrum of biomarkers applicable in diagnostic tools. Traditionally, immunoscreenings of expression libraries via polyclonal sera on nitrocellulose membranes or screenings of whole proteome lysates in 2-D gel electrophoresis are performed. However, these methods feature some rather inconvenient disadvantages. Screening of expression libraries to expose novel antigens from bacteria often lead to an abundance of false positive signals owing to the high cross reactivity of polyclonal antibodies towards the proteins of the expression host. A method is presented that overcomes many disadvantages of the old procedures.
Results: Four proteins that have previously been described as immunogenic have successfully been assessed immunogenic abilities with our method. One protein with no known immunogenic behaviour before suggested potential immunogenicity. We incorporated a fusion tag prior to our genes of interest and attached the expressed fusion proteins covalently on microarrays. This enhances the specific binding of the proteins compared to nitrocellulose. Thus, it helps to reduce the number of false positives significantly. It enables us to screen for immunogenic proteins in a shorter time, with more samples and statistical reliability. We validated our method by employing several known genes from Campylobacter jejuni NCTC 11168.
Conclusions: The method presented offers a new approach for screening of bacterial expression libraries to illuminate novel proteins with immunogenic features. It could provide a powerful and attractive alternative to existing methods and help to detect and identify vaccine candidates, biomarkers and potential virulence-associated factors with immunogenic behaviour furthering the knowledge of virulence and pathogenicity of studied bacteria.
The development of infrared observational facilities has revealed a number of massive stars in obscured environments throughout the Milky Way and beyond. The determination of their stellar and wind properties from infrared diagnostics is thus required to take full advantage of the wealth of observations available in the near and mid infrared. However, the task is challenging. This session addressed some of the problems encountered and showed the limitations and successes of infrared studies of massive stars.
The safe upper limit for inclusion of vitamin A in complete diets for growing dogs is uncertain, with the result that current recommendations range from 5.24 to 104.80 mu mol retinol (5000 to 100 000 IU vitamin A)/4184 kJ (1000 kcal) metabolisable energy (ME). The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of feeding four concentrations of vitamin A to puppies from weaning until 1 year of age. A total of forty-nine puppies, of two breeds, Labrador Retriever and Miniature Schnauzer, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. Following weaning at 8 weeks of age, puppies were fed a complete food supplemented with retinyl acetate diluted in vegetable oil and fed at 1ml oil/100 g diet to achieve an intake of 5.24, 13.10, 78.60 and 104.80 mu mol retinol (5000, 12 500, 75 000 and 100 000 IU vitamin A)/4184 kJ (1000 kcal) ME. Fasted blood and urine samples were collected at 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 26, 36 and 52 weeks of age and analysed for markers of vitamin A metabolism and markers of safety including haematological and biochemical variables, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase, cross-linked carboxyterminal telopeptides of type I collagen and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Clinical examinations were conducted every 4 weeks. Data were analysed by means of a mixed model analysis with Bonferroni corrections for multiple endpoints. There was no effect of vitamin A concentration on any of the parameters, with the exception of total serum retinyl esters, and no effect of dose on the number, type and duration of adverse events. We therefore propose that 104.80 mu mol retinol (100 000 IU vitamin A)/4184 kJ (1000 kcal) is a suitable safe upper limit for use in the formulation of diets designed for puppy growth.
We present 3D zero-beta ideal MHD simulations of the solar flare/CME event that occurred in Active Region 11060 on 2010 April 8. The initial magnetic configurations of the two simulations are stable nonlinear force-free field and unstable magnetic field models constructed by Su et al. (2011) using the flux rope insertion method. The MHD simulations confirm that the stable model relaxes to a stable equilibrium, while the unstable model erupts as a CME. Comparisons between observations and MHD simulations of the CME are also presented.
Recent PIC simulations of relativistic electron-positron (electron-ion) jets injected into a stationary medium show that particle acceleration occurs in the shocked regions. Simulations show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields and for particle acceleration. These magnetic fields contribute to the electron’s transverse eflection behind the shock. The “jitter” radiation from deflected electrons in turbulent magnetic fields has properties different from synchrotron radiation calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important for understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure of gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets in general, and supernova remnants. In order to calculate radiation from first principles and go beyond the standard synchrotron model, we have used PIC simulations. We present synthetic spectra to compare with the spectra obtained from Fermi observations.
Recent studies have claimed the existence of very massive stars (VMS) up to 300 M⊙ in the local Universe. As this finding may represent a paradigm shift for the canonical stellar upper-mass limit of 150 M⊙, it is timely to discuss the status of the data, as well as the far-reaching implications of such objects. We held a Joint Discussion at the General Assembly in Beijing to discuss (i) the determination of the current masses of the most massive stars, (ii) the formation of VMS, (iii) their mass loss, and (iv) their evolution and final fate. The prime aim was to reach broad consensus between observers and theorists on how to identify and quantify the dominant physical processes.
In the late Palaeozoic fore-arc system of north-central Chile at latitudes 31-32 degrees S (from the west to the east) three lithotectonic units are telescoped within a short distance by a Mesozoic strikeslip event (derived peak P-T conditions in brackets): (1) the basally accreted Choapa Metamorphic Complex (CMC; 350-430 degrees C, 6-9 kbar), (2) the frontally accreted Arrayan Formation (AF; 280-320 degrees C, 4-6 kbar) and (3) the retrowedge basin of the Huentelauquen Formation (HF; 280-320 degrees C, 3-4 kbar). In the CMC, Ar-Ar spot ages locally date white-mica formation at peak P-T conditions and during early exhumation at 279-242 Ma. In a local garnet mica-schist intercalation (570-585 degrees C, 11-13 kbar) Ar-Ar spot ages refer to the ascent from the subduction channel at 307-274 Ma. Portions of the CMC were isobarically heated to 510-580 degrees C at 6.6-8.5 kbar. The age of peak P-T conditions in the AF can only vaguely be approximated at >= 310 Ma by relict fission-track ages consistent with the observation that frontal accretion occurred prior to basal accretion. Zircon fission-track dating indicates cooling below similar to 280 degrees C at similar to 248 Ma in the CMC and the AF, when a regional unconformity also formed. Ar-Ar white-mica spot ages in parts of the CMC and within the entire AF and HF point to heterogeneous resetting during Mesozoic extensional and shortening events at similar to 245-240 Ma, similar to 210-200 Ma, similar to 174-159 Ma and similar to 142-127 Ma. The zircon fission-track ages are locally reset at 109-96 Ma. All resetting of Ar-Ar white-mica ages is proposed to have occurred by in situ dissolution/precipitation at low temperature in the presence of locally penetrating hydrous fluids. Hence syn-and postaccretionary events in the fore-arc system can still be distinguished and dated in spite of its complex heterogeneous postaccretional overprint.
This article investigates the nature of preposition copying and preposition pruning structures in present-day English. We begin by illustrating the two phenomena and consider how they might be accounted for in syntactic terms, and go on to explore the possibility that preposition copying and pruning arise for processing reasons. We then report on two acceptability judgement experiments examining the extent to which native speakers of English are sensitive to these types of 'error' in language comprehension. Our results indicate that preposition copying creates redundancy rather than ungrammaticality, whereas preposition pruning creates processing problems for comprehenders that may render it unacceptable in timed (but not necessarily in untimed) judgement tasks. Our findings furthermore illustrate the usefulness of combining corpus studies and experimentally elicited data for gaining a clearer picture of usage and acceptability, and the potential benefits of examining syntactic phenomena from both a theoretical and a processing perspective.
Using the eye-movement monitoring technique in two reading comprehension experiments, this study investigated the timing of constraints on wh-dependencies (so-called island constraints) in first- and second-language (L1 and L2) sentence processing. The results show that both L1 and L2 speakers of English are sensitive to extraction islands during processing, suggesting that memory storage limitations affect L1 and L2 comprehenders in essentially the same way. Furthermore, these results show that the timing of island effects in L1 compared to L2 sentence comprehension is affected differently by the type of cue (semantic fit versus filled gaps) signaling whether dependency formation is possible at a potential gap site. Even though L1 English speakers showed immediate sensitivity to filled gaps but not to lack of semantic fit, proficient German-speaking learners of English as a L2 showed the opposite sensitivity pattern. This indicates that initial wh-dependency formation in L2 processing is based on semantic feature matching rather than being structurally mediated as in L1 comprehension.
SXP 1062 is an exceptional case of a young neutron star in a wind-fed high-mass X-ray binary associated with a supernova remnant. A unique combination of measured spin period, its derivative, luminosity and young age makes this source a key probe for the physics of accretion and neutron star evolution. Theoretical models proposed to explain the properties of SXP 1062 shall be tested with new data.
We present the new multi-threaded version of the state-of-the-art answer set solver clasp. We detail its component and communication architecture and illustrate how they support the principal functionalities of clasp. Also, we provide some insights into the data representation used for different constraint types handled by clasp. All this is accompanied by an extensive experimental analysis of the major features related to multi-threading in clasp.
ASP modulo CSP
(2012)
We present the hybrid ASP solver clingcon, combining the simple modeling language and the high performance Boolean solving capacities of Answer Set Programming (ASP) with techniques for using non-Boolean constraints from the area of Constraint Programming (CP). The new clingcon system features an extended syntax supporting global constraints and optimize statements for constraint variables. The major technical innovation improves the interaction between ASP and CP solver through elaborated learning techniques based on irreducible inconsistent sets. A broad empirical evaluation shows that these techniques yield a performance improvement of an order of magnitude.
Mineral chemistry and thermobarometry of the staurolite-chloritoid schists from Poshtuk, NW Iran
(2012)
The Poshtuk metapelitic rocks in northwestern Iran underwent two main phases of regional and contact metamorphism. Microstructures, textural features and field relations indicate that these rocks underwent a polymetamorphic history. The dominant metamorphic assemblage of the metapelites is garnet, staurolite, chloritoid, chlorite, muscovite and quartz, which grew mainly syntectonically during the later contact metamorphic event. Peak metamorphic conditions of this event took place at 580 ◦ C and ∼ 3–4 kbar, indicating that this event occurred under high-temperature and low-pressure conditions (HT/LP metamorphism), which reflects the high heat flow in this part of the crust. This event is mainly controlled by advective heat input through magmatic intrusions into all levels of the crust. These extensive Eocene metamorphic and magmatic activities can be associated with the early Alpine Orogeny, which resulted in this area from the convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian plates, and the Cenozoic closure of the Tethys oceanic tract(s).
Much of our knowledge about the solar dynamo is based on sunspot observations. It is thus desirable to extend the set of positional and morphological data of sunspots into the past. Gustav Spörer observed in Germany from Anklam (1861–1873) and Potsdam (1874–1894). He left detailed prints of sunspot groups, which we digitized and processed to mitigate artifacts left in the print by the passage of time. After careful geometrical correction, the sunspot data are now available as synoptic charts for almost 450 solar rotation periods. Individual sunspot positions can thus be precisely determined and spot areas can be accurately measured using morphological image processing techniques. These methods also allow us to determine tilt angles of active regions (Joy’s law) and to assess the complexity of an active region.
The clumping of massive star winds is an established paradigm, which is confirmed by multiple lines of evidence and is supported by stellar wind theory. We use the results from time-dependent hydrodynamical models of the instability in the line-driven wind of a massive supergiant star to derive the time-dependent accretion rate on to a compact object in the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton approximation. The strong density and velocity fluctuations in the wind result in strong variability of the synthetic X-ray light curves. Photoionization of inhomogeneous winds is different from the photoinization of smooth winds. The degree of ionization is affected by the wind clumping. The wind clumping must also be taken into account when comparing the observed and model spectra of the photoionized stellar wind.
Much previous experimental research on morphological processing has focused on surface and meaning-level properties of morphologically complex words, without paying much attention to the morphological differences between inflectional and derivational processes. Realization-based theories of morphology, for example, assume specific morpholexical representations for derived words that distinguish them from the products of inflectional or paradigmatic processes. The present study reports results from a series of masked priming experiments investigating the processing of inflectional and derivational phenomena in native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers in a non-Indo-European language, Turkish. We specifically compared regular (Aorist) verb inflection with deadjectival nominalization, both of which are highly frequent, productive and transparent in Turkish. The experiments demonstrated different priming patterns for inflection and derivation, specifically within the L2 group. Implications of these findings are discussed both for accounts of L2 morphological processing and for the controversial linguistic distinction between inflection and derivation.
This study investigates phenomena that have been claimed to be indicative of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in German, focusing on subject-verb agreement marking. Longitudinal data from fourteen German-speaking children with SLI, seven monolingual and seven Turkish-German successive bilingual children, were examined. We found similar patterns of impairment in the two participant groups. Both the monolingual and the bilingual children with SLI had correct (present vs. preterit) tense marking and produced syntactically complex sentences such as embedded clauses and wh-questions, but were limited in reliably producing correct agreement-marked verb forms. These contrasts indicate that agreement marking is impaired in German-speaking children with SLI, without any necessary concurrent deficits in either the CP-domain or in tense marking. Our results also show that it is possible to identify SLI from an early successive bilingual child's performance in one of her two languages.
Restrictions on addition
(2012)
Children up to school age have been reported to perform poorly when interpreting sentences containing restrictive and additive focus particles by treating sentences with a focus particle in the same way as sentences without it. Careful comparisons between results of previous studies indicate that this phenomenon is less pronounced for restrictive than for additive particles. We argue that this asymmetry is an effect of the presuppositional status of the proposition triggered by the additive particle. We tested this in two experiments with German-learning three-and four-year-olds using a method that made the exploitation of the information provided by the particles highly relevant for completing the task. Three-year-olds already performed remarkably well with sentences both with auch 'also' and with nur 'only'. Thus, children can consider the presuppositional contribution of the additive particle in their sentence interpretation and can exploit the restrictive particle as a marker of exhaustivity.
Like versus dislike
(2012)
As Facebook's Like-button has become ubiquitous, it is the purpose of this research to investigate (1) whether Likes serve as a signal of a product's or service's quality and (2) how the introduction of a Dislike-button would alter perceptions. Following a qualitative study, we conducted an experiment in which 653 participants were presented with website screenshots featuring varying levels of Likes and Dislikes. The results indicate that the theoretical framing of Likes as a Signal is valid and that people do perceive the quality of products and services as superior when they are associated with more Likes. Signaling also explains the counter-intuitive finding that Dislikes can have a positive effect on people's quality perceptions. Results are discussed with respect to theory and practical implications.
Defining the allocation of decision rights for enterprise applications is a crucial issue in IT governance and organization design. Today, emerging delivery models such as Software as a Service (SaaS) defy the notion of the internal IT department as the focal point of centralized governance. Recognizing the importance of this issue, we find that the phenomenon of 'SaaS governance' itself is not yet well understood. Based on two cases of SaaS adoption, we take a process-theoretic approach to investigate the complex interaction between factors that influence in the allocation of SaaS authority. The results suggest that some factors, such as the locus of initiative and the decision for SaaS, interact with absorptive capacities and determine the later mode of application governance at a very early stage. Thus, the initiative for introducing SaaS emerges as an important intermediate variable between the overall IT governance mode and the resulting SaaS governance outcome.
Corporate career presences on social network sites: an analysis of hedonic and utilitarian value
(2012)
Due to the shortage of skilled workforce and the increasing usage of social network sites, companies increasingly apply social network sites to attract potential applicants. This paper explores how corporate career presences on network sites should be realized in order to attract potential applicants. Therefore, we tested the impact of seven individual characteristics (namely Appointments, Daily Working Routine, Jobs, Corporate News, Entertainment, Media Format, and Features) of these corporate career presences that we extracted by a comprehensive pre-study on users' perceived hedonic and utilitarian value of these presences on social network sites. Based on an online survey with 470 participants, the results reveal a highly significant impact of five characteristics that corporate career presences provide both a hedonic as well as a utilitarian value to the user
Although all bilinguals encounter cross-language interference (CLI), some bilinguals are more susceptible to interference than others. Here, we report on language performance of late bilinguals (Russian/German) on two bilingual tasks (interview, verbal fluency), their language use and switching habits. The only between-group difference was CLI: one group consistently produced significantly more errors of CLI on both tasks than the other (thereby replicating our findings from a bilingual picture naming task). This striking group difference in language control ability can only be explained by differences in cognitive control, not in language proficiency or language mode.
Background
Outcome quality management requires the consecutive registration of defined variables. The aim was to identify relevant parameters in order to objectively assess the in-patient rehabilitation outcome.
Methods
From February 2009 to June 2010 1253 patients (70.9 ± 7.0 years, 78.1% men) at 12 rehabilitation clinics were enrolled. Items concerning sociodemographic data, the impairment group (surgery, conservative/interventional treatment), cardiovascular risk factors, structural and functional parameters and subjective health were tested in respect of their measurability, sensitivity to change and their propensity to be influenced by rehabilitation.
Results
The majority of patients (61.1%) were referred for rehabilitation after cardiac surgery, 38.9% after conservative or interventional treatment for an acute coronary syndrome. Functionally relevant comorbidities were seen in 49.2% (diabetes mellitus, stroke, peripheral artery disease, chronic obstructive lung disease). In three key areas 13 parameters were identified as being sensitive to change and subject to modification by rehabilitation: cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides), exercise capacity (resting heart rate, maximal exercise capacity, maximal walking distance, heart failure, angina pectoris) and subjective health (IRES-24 (indicators of rehabilitation status): pain, somatic health, psychological well-being and depression as well as anxiety on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).
Conclusion
The outcome of in-patient rehabilitation in elderly patients can be comprehensively assessed by the identification of appropriate key areas, that is, cardiovascular risk factors, exercise capacity and subjective health. This may well serve as a benchmark for internal and external quality management.
Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals.
The project of public-reason liberalism faces a basic problem: publicly justified principles are typically too abstract and vague to be directly applied to practical political disputes, whereas applicable specifications of these principles are not uniquely publicly justified. One solution could be a legislative procedure that selects one member from the eligible set of inconclusively justified proposals. Yet if liberal principles are too vague to select sufficiently specific legislative proposals, can they, nevertheless, select specific legislative procedures? Based on the work of Gerald Gaus, this article argues that the only candidate for a conclusively justified decision procedure is a majoritarian or otherwise ‘neutral’ democracy. If the justification of democracy requires an equality baseline in the design of political regimes and if justifications for departure from this baseline are subject to reasonable disagreement, a majoritarian design is justified by default. Gaus’s own preference for super-majoritarian procedures is based on disputable specifications of justified liberal principles. These procedures can only be defended as a sectarian preference if the equality baseline is rejected, but then it is not clear how the set of justifiable political regimes can be restricted to full democracies.
Barton esters have been introduced into the side chain of carbohydrates with high yields in only a few steps from easily available glycals. Their radical reactions afford 2-C-methyl and 2-C-bromomethyl hexoses, pentoses and disaccharides in good yields in analytically pure form. Since the Barton esters have been synthesized by an oxidative radical addition and their transformations by reductive radical processes, our results demonstrate the power of such reactions in carbohydrate chemistry.
Inorganic minerals form a major component of lacustrine sediments and have the potential to reveal detailed information on previous climatic and hydrological conditions. The ability to extract such information however, has been restricted by a limited understanding of the relationships between minerals and the environment. In an attempt to fill in this gap in our knowledge, 146 surface sediment samples have been investigated from 146 lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. The mineral compositions derived from these samples by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were used to examine the relationships between mineral compositions and the environmental variables determined for each site. Statistical techniques including Multivariate regression trees (MRT) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA), based on the mineral spectra and environmental variables, reveal that the electrical conductivity (EC) and Mg/Ca ratios of lake water are the most important controls on the composition of endogenic minerals. No endogenic minerals precipitate under hyper-fresh water conditions (EC lower than 0.13 mS/cm), with calcite commonly forming in water with EC values above 0.13 mS/cm. Between EC values of 0.13 and 26 mS/cm the mineral composition of lake sediments can be explained in terms of variations in the Mg/Ca ratio: calcite dominates at Mg/Ca ratios of less than 33, whereas aragonite commonly forms when the ratio is greater than 33. Where EC values are between 26 and 39 mS/cm, monohydrocalcite precipitates together with calcite and aragonite; above 39 mS/cm, gypsum and halite commonly form. Information on the local geological strata indicates that allogenic (detrital) mineral compositions are primarily influenced by the bedrock compositions within the catchment area. By applying these relationships to the late glacial and Holocene mineral record from Chaka Salt Lake, five lake stages have been identified and their associated EC conditions inferred. The lake evolved from a freshwater lake during the late glacial (before 11.4 cal. ka BP) represented by the lowest EC values (< 0.13 mS/cm), to a saline lake with EC values slightly higher than 39 mS/cm during the early and mid Holocene (ca. 11.4-5.3 cal. ka BP), and finally to a salt lake (after 5.3 cal. ka BP). These results illustrate the utility of our mineral-environmental model for the quantitative reconstruction of past environmental conditions from lake sediment records.
Applications based on Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) play an important role for the determination of concentrations and distances within nanometer-scale systems in vitro and in vivo in many fields of biotechnology. Semiconductor nanocrystals (Quantum dots - QDs) possess ideal properties for their application as FRET acceptors when the donors have long excited state lifetimes and when direct excitation of QDs can be efficiently suppressed. Therefore, luminescent terbium complexes (LTCs) with excited state lifetimes of more than 2 ms are ideal FRET donor candidates for QD-acceptors. This chapter will give a short overview of theoretical and practical background of FRET, QDs and LTCs, and present some recent applications of LTC-QD FRET pairs for multiplexed ultra-sensitive in vitro diagnostics and nanometer-resolution molecular distance measurements.
Previous studies have revealed that infants aged 6-10 months are able to use the acoustic correlates of major prosodic boundaries, that is, pitch change, preboundary lengthening, and pause, for the segmentation of the continuous speech signal. Moreover, investigations with American-English- and Dutch-learning infants suggest that processing prosodic boundary markings involves a weighting of these cues. This weighting seems to develop with increasing exposure to the native language and to underlie crosslinguistic variation. In the following, we report the results of four experiments using the headturn preference procedure to explore the perception of prosodic boundary cues in German infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with a sequence of names in two different prosodic groupings, with or without boundary markers. Infants discriminated both sequences when the boundary was marked by all three cues (Experiment 1) and when it was marked by a pitch change and preboundary lengthening in combination (Experiment 2). The presence of a pitch change (Experiment 3) or preboundary lengthening (Experiment 4) as single cues did not lead to a successful discrimination. Our results indicate that pause is not a necessary cue for German infants. Pitch change and preboundary lengthening in combination, but not as single cues, are sufficient. Hence, by 8 months infants only rely on a convergence of boundary markers. Comparisons with adults' performance on the same stimulus materials suggest that the pattern observed with the 8-month-olds is already consistent with that of adults. We discuss our findings with respect to crosslinguistic variation and the development of a language-specific prosodic cue weighting.
Around their first year of life, infants are able to anticipate the goal of others' ongoing actions. For instance, 12-month-olds anticipate the goal of everyday feeding actions and manual actions such as reaching and grasping. However, little is known whether the salience of the goal influences infants' online assessment of others' actions. The aim of the current eye-tracking study was to elucidate infants' ability to anticipate reaching actions depending on the visual salience of the goal object. In Experiment 1, 12-month-old infants' goal-directed gaze shifts were recorded as they observed a hand reaching for and grasping either a large (high-salience condition) or a small (low-salience condition) goal object. Infants exhibited predictive gaze shifts significantly earlier when the observed hand reached for the large goal object compared to when it reached for the small goal object. In addition, findings revealed rapid learning over the course of trials in the high-salience condition and no learning in the low-salience condition. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the results could not be simply attributed to the different grip aperture of the hand used when reaching for small and large objects. Together, our data indicate that by the end of their first year of life, infants rely on information about the goal salience to make inferences about the action goal.
Bilingual speakers are faced with the problem to keep their languages apart, but do so with interindividually varying success. Cognitive control abilities might be an important factor to explain such interindividual differences. Here we compare two late, balanced and highly proficient bilingual groups (mean age 24 years, L1 Russian, L2 German) which were established according to their language control abilities on a bilingual picture-naming task. One group had difficulties to remain in the instructed target language and switched unintentionally to the non-target language ("switchers"), whereas the other group rarely switched unintentionally ("non-switchers"). This group-specific behavior could not be explained by language background, socio-cultural, or demographic variables. Rather, the non-switchers also demonstrated a faster and better performance on four cognitive control tests (Tower of Hanoi, Ruff Figural Fluency Test, Divided Attention, Go/Nogo). Here, we focus on two additional executive function tasks, theWisconsin Card SortingTest (WCST) and the Flanker task requiring conflict monitoring and conflict resolution. Non-switchers outperformed switchers with regard to speed and accuracy, and were better at finding and applying the correct rules in the WCST. Similarly, in the Flanker task non-switchers performed faster and better on conflict trials and had a higher correction rate following an error. Event-related potential recordings furthermore revealed a smaller error-related negativity in the non-switchers, taken as evidence for a more efficient self-monitoring system. We conclude that bilingual language performance, in particular switching behavior, is related to performance on cognitive control tasks. Better cognitive control, including conflict monitoring, results in decreased unintentional switching.