A dictionary of globalization

Globalization has become one of the most important topics within politics and economics. This new title explains some of the related terminology, summarizes the surrounding theories and examines the international organizations involved. With the proliferation of communications and the rise of the multi-national corporation, the concept of globalization is vitally important to the modern political environment. The structure of the modern economy, based on information production and diffusion, has made national boundaries largely irrelevant. A Dictionary of Globalization explains theories, philosophies and ideologies, and includes short biographies of leading activists, theorists and thinkers such as Noam Chomsky, Karl Marx and José Bové. Concepts, issues and terms key to the understanding of globalization also have clear and concise definitions, including democracy, civil society, non-governmental organizations and ethnicity. Cross-referenced for ease of use, this title aims to be of great benefit to anyone studying politics or sociology. It will prove essential to public and academic libraries, as well as to businesses, government departments, embassies and journalists.

A new venture in corpus-based lexicography: towards a dictionary of academic English

This paper asserts the increasing importance of academic English in an increasingly Anglophone world, and looks at the differences between academic English and general English, especially in terms of vocabulary. The creation of wordlists has played an important role in trying to establish the academic English lexicon, but these wordlists are not based on appropriate data, or are implemented inappropriately. There is as yet no adequate dictionary of academic English, and this paper reports on new efforts at Aston University to create a suitable corpus on which such a dictionary could be based.

Environmental scanning electron microscopy offers real-time morphological analysis of liposomes and niosomes

Liposomes have been imaged using a plethora of techniques. However, few of these methods offer the ability to study these systems in their natural hydrated state without the requirement of drying, staining, and fixation of the vesicles. However, the ability to image a liposome in its hydrated state is the ideal scenario for visualization of these dynamic lipid structures and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), with its ability to image wet systems without prior sample preparation, offers potential advantages to the above methods. In our studies, we have used ESEM to not only investigate the morphology of liposomes and niosomes but also to dynamically follow the changes in structure of lipid films and liposome suspensions as water condenses on to or evaporates from the sample. In particular, changes in liposome morphology were studied using ESEM in real time to investigate the resistance of liposomes to coalescence during dehydration thereby providing an alternative assay of liposome formulation and stability. Based on this protocol, we have also studied niosome-based systems and cationic liposome/DNA complexes. Copyright © Informa Healthcare.

Relationships between morphological types of plaque in Alzheimer’s disease as revealed in silver and immunostained preparations

The objective of this study was to determine the possible relationships between the morphological types of plaque revealed in silver and immunostained sections of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tissue. The density of cored and uncored senile plaques in Glees and Marsland preparations, and of diffuse, primitive, classic and compact beta/A4 deposits in immunostained preparations were estimated. A principal components analysis (PCA) of the data suggested that three uncorrelated principal components accounted for 80% of the variation in lesion density in the tissues. This suggested that thee processes lead independently to the formation of: (1) the uncored Glees plaques; (2) the primitive beta/A4 deposits and most of the classic beta/A4 deposits and (3) the compact beta/A4 deposits and the remaining classic deposits. Hence, the uncored plaques revealed by the Glees stain and the primitive beta/A4 deposits represented distinct plaque populations. In addition, the classic beta/A4 deposits did not appear to represent a uniform plaque population but to originate from at least two pathological processes. The uncored Glees plaques appeared to the only plaque population closely related to the diffuse beta/A4 deposits.

A study of the morphological development of some filamentous fungi in tower fermenter culture, with particular reference to Aspergillus niger

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A study of the calcium-induced morphological transistions of human erythrocytes

An examination was made of the morphological transitions induced in human erythrocytes by the elevation of cytosolic calcium, and of the biochemical mechanisms responsible. The loss of the discocyte morphology and the sequential progression of cells through the echinocyte stages 1, 2, 3 and sphereo-echinocyte was found to occur in both a calcium concentration- and a time-dependent manner. SDS-PAGE analysis of cytoskeletal proteins prepared from intact cells loaded with 150uM or 1mM calcium revealed the partial proteolytic loss of proteins 2.1, 2.2 and 4.1. The rate of proteolysis was not paralleled by that of echinocytosis, making a causative relationship unlikely. Cytoskeletal integrity did appear to influence shape reversal from the echinocyte to the discocyte morphology after removal of the calcium and ionophore A23187. The loss of 80% protein 4.1, 40% 2.1 and 30% 2.2 was associated with, although not necessarily the sole cause, of irreversible sphereo-echinocytosis. Pre-treatment of cells with wheat germ agglutinin preserved the discocyte morphology despite continued cytoskeletal proteolysis during calcium-loading. All observations were made on cells incubated either in the presence or absence of glycolytic substrates, effectively altering cell metabolic status. This influenced the rate of progression of cells through the echinocyte stages, the rate of proteolysis of cytoskeletal proteins, and the extent and kinetics of shape reversal from cells transformed to the sphereo-echinocyte morphology. The stage 1 to discocyte transition was the rate limiting step of this shape recovery. In contrast the rate of loss of the discocyte morphology was independent of cell metabolic status during exposure to calcium, as was the extent of restoration of the discocyte morphology from cells transformed to stage 1 echinocytes. An hypothesis is presented that echinocytosis is a discontinuous process with discrete steps initiated by different biochemical mechanisms varying in their dependence on metabolic energy.

Designing a model for a corpus-driven dictionary of academic English

University students encounter difficulties with academic English because of its vocabulary, phraseology, and variability, and also because academic English differs in many respects from general English, the language which they have experienced before starting their university studies. Although students have been provided with many dictionaries that contain some helpful information on words used in academic English, these dictionaries remain focused on the uses of words in general English. There is therefore a gap in the dictionary market for a dictionary for university students, and this thesis provides a proposal for such a dictionary (called the Dictionary of Academic English; DOAE) in the form of a model which depicts how the dictionary should be designed, compiled, and offered to students. The model draws on state-of-the-art techniques in lexicography, dictionary-use research, and corpus linguistics. The model demanded the creation of a completely new corpus of academic language (Corpus of Academic Journal Articles; CAJA). The main advantages of the corpus are its large size (83.5 million words) and balance. Having access to a large corpus of academic language was essential for a corpus-driven approach to data analysis. A good corpus balance in terms of domains enabled a detailed domain-labelling of senses, patterns, collocates, etc. in the dictionary database, which was then used to tailor the output according to the needs of different types of student. The model proposes an online dictionary that is designed as an online dictionary from the outset. The proposed dictionary is revolutionary in the way it addresses the needs of different types of student. It presents students with a dynamic dictionary whose contents can be customised according to the user's native language, subject of study, variant spelling preferences, and/or visual preferences (e.g. black and white).

A dictionary of globalization

Globalization has become one of the most important topics within politics and economics. This new title explains some of the related terminology, summarizes the surrounding theories and examines the international organizations involved. With the proliferation of communications and the rise of the multi-national corporation, the concept of globalization is vitally important to the modern political environment. The structure of the modern economy, based on information production and diffusion, has made national boundaries largely irrelevant. A Dictionary of Globalization explains theories, philosophies and ideologies, and includes short biographies of leading activists, theorists and thinkers such as Noam Chomsky, Karl Marx and José Bové. Concepts, issues and terms key to the understanding of globalization also have clear and concise definitions, including democracy, civil society, non-governmental organizations and ethnicity. Cross-referenced for ease of use, this title aims to be of great benefit to anyone studying politics or sociology. It will prove essential to public and academic libraries, as well as to businesses, government departments, embassies and journalists.