Processes and variations in language economisation

This article analyses the processes of reducing language in textchats produced by non-native speakers of English. We propose that forms are reduced because of their high frequency and because of the discourse context. A wide variety of processes are attested in the literature, and we find different forms of clippings in our data, including mixtures of different clippings, homophone respellings, phonetic respellings including informal oral forms, initialisms (but no acronyms), and mixtures of clipping together with homophone and phonetic respellings. Clippings were the most frequent process (especially back-clippings and initialisms), followed by homophone respellings. There were different ways of metalinguistically marking reduction, but capitalisation was by far the most frequent. There is much individual variation in the frequencies of the different processes, although most were within normal distribution. The fact that nonnative speakers seem to generally follow reduction patterns of native speakers suggests that reduction is a universal process.

The Econometric Value of Silence and Noise as Seen by a Non-practicing Marxist

A Collection of Poetry and Fiction

Comparison of non-linear growth models to describe the growth curve in West African Dwarf sheep

The objectives of this study were to compare the goodness of fit of four non-linear growth models, i.e. Brody, Gompertz, Logistic and Von Bertalanffy, in West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep. A total of 5274 monthly weight records from birth up to 180 days of age from 889 lambs, collected during 2001 to 2004 in Betecoucou breeding farm in Benin were used. In the preliminary analysis, the General Linear Model Procedure of the Statistical Analysis Systems Institute was applied to the dataset to identify the significant effects of the sex of lamb (male and female), type of birth (single and twin), season of birth (rainy season and dry season), parity of dam (1, 2 and 3) and year of birth (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004) on the observed birth weight and monthly weight up to 6 months of age. The models parameters (A, B and k), coefficient of determination (112), mean square error (MSE) were calculated using language of technical computing package Matlab(R), 2006. The mean values of A, B and k were substituted into each model to calculate the corresponding Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). Among the four growth functions, the Brody model has been selected for its accuracy of fit according to the higher R(2), lower MSE and A/C Finally, the parameters A, B and k were adjusted in Matlab(R) 2006 for the sex of lamb, year of birth, season of birth, birth type and the parity of ewe, providing a specific slope of the Brody growth curve. The results of this study suggest that Brody model can be useful for WAD sheep breeding in Betecoucou farm conditions through growth monitoring.

Effect of cocaine on periadolescent rats with or without early maternal separation

Cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization and weight loss were investigated in periadolescent Wistar rats kept with their mothers or subjected to repeated maternal separation. Litters allocated to the separation procedure were placed in a temperature-controlled (33ºC) chamber for 3 h per day from postnatal day 6 (P6) to P20. Non-handled rats were left undisturbed until weaning. Treatments were started on P30-31 and the test was performed on P36-37. Animals received injections of saline or cocaine (10 mg/kg, sc) twice daily for 5 days. on day 6 all animals received saline. on day 7 animals were challenged with 10 mg/kg cocaine and their locomotion was evaluated in activity cages. A third group received saline throughout the 7-day period. Body weights were recorded on P30-31 and P36-37. Two-way ANOVA on body weights showed a main effect of treatment group (F(1,35) = 10.446, P = 0.003; N = 10-12). Non-handled rats treated with cocaine for 5 days gained significantly less weight, while no significant effect was observed in maternally separated rats. Two-way ANOVA revealed a main effect of drug treatment on locomotor activity (F(2,32) = 15.209, P<0.001; N = 6-8), but not on rearing condition (F(1,32)<0.001, P = 0.998). Animals pretreated with cocaine showed a clear behavioral sensitization relative to the saline group. No difference in the magnitude of sensitization was found between separated and non-handled animals. Only the effect of cocaine on weight gain was significantly affected by repeated episodes of early maternal separation during the pre-weaning period.

JCML - Java Card Modeling Language: Definição e Implementação

Formal methods should be used to specify and verify on-card software in Java Card applications. Furthermore, Java Card programming style requires runtime verification of all input conditions for all on-card methods, where the main goal is to preserve the data in the card. Design by contract, and in particular, the JML language, are an option for this kind of development and verification, as runtime verification is part of the Design by contract method implemented by JML. However, JML and its currently available tools for runtime verification were not designed with Java Card limitations in mind and are not Java Card compliant. In this thesis, we analyze how much of this situation is really intrinsic of Java Card limitations and how much is just a matter of a complete re-design of JML and its tools. We propose the requirements for a new language which is Java Card compliant and indicate the lines on which a compiler for this language should be built. JCML strips from JML non-Java Card aspects such as concurrency and unsupported types. This would not be enough, however, without a great effort in optimization of the verification code generated by its compiler, as this verification code must run on the card. The JCML compiler, although being much more restricted than the one for JML, is able to generate Java Card compliant verification code for some lightweight specifications. As conclusion, we present a Java Card compliant variant of JML, JCML (Java Card Modeling Language), with a preliminary version of its compiler

Effects of hypertension on maternal adaptations to pregnancy: experimental study on spontaneously hypertensive rats

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effect of Bauhinia forficata extract in diabetic pregnant rats: maternal repercussions

Bauhinia forficata, commonly known as paw-of-cow, is widely used in Brazil folk medicine for the treatment of Diabetes mellitus. The purposes of present study were to determine the repercussions of diabetes on the defense system against oxidative stress in pregnant female rats and to characterize the influence of the treatment with Bauhinia forficata extract on the antioxidant system, glycemic control, hepatic glycogen, cholesterol, triglycerides, total proteins and lipids. Virgin female Wistar rats were injected with 40 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) before mating. Oral administration of an aqueous extract of Bauhinia forficata leaves was given to non-diabetic and diabetic pregnant rats in 3 doses: 500 mg/kg from 0 to 4(th) day of pregnancy, 600 mg/kg from 5(th) to 14(th) day and 1000 mg/kg from 15(th) to 20(th) day. All the females were killed on the day 21 of pregnancy. A maternal blood sample was collected by venous puncture and the maternal liver was removed for biochemical measurement. The diabetic pregnant rats presented hyperglycemia, hyperlipemia, bypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, hyperuricemia, decreased determinations of reduced glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Treatment with B. forficata extract did not interfere in the albumin, total protein and lipid, triglyceride, cholesterol and SOD determinations. Increased hepatic glycogen, decreased uric acid concentration and increased GSH activity was observed. This last fact suggests that the plant may have some action on antioxidant defense system. However, the demonstration of the active component present in B. forficata responsible for its antioxidant effect and the increase in hepatic glycogen deserve further investigation.

Effect of Bauhinia forficata aqueous extract on the maternal-fetal outcome and oxidative stress biomarkers of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Bauhinia forficata Link, commonly known as paw-of-cow, is widely used in Brazilian folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes.Aim of this study: To evaluate the effect of Bauhinia forficata treatment on maternal-fetal outcome and antioxidant systems of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Materials and methods: Virgin female Wistar rats were injected with 40 mg/kg streptozotocin before mating. Oral administration of an aqueous extract of Bauhinia forficata leaves was given to non-diabetic and diabetic pregnant rats at increasing doses: 500 mg/kg from 0 to 4th day of pregnancy, 600 mg/kg from 5th to 14th day and 1000 mg/kg from 15th to 20th day. At day 21 of pregnancy the rats were anaesthetized with ether and a maternal blood sample was collected for the determination superoxide dismutase (SOD) and reduced glutathione (GSH). The gravid uterus was weighed with its contents and fetuses were analyzed.Results and conclusion: The data showed that the diabetic dams presented an increased glycemic level, resorption, placental weight, placental index, and fetal anomalies, and reduced GSH and SOD determinations, live fetuses, maternal weight gain, gravid uterine weight, and fetal weight. It was also verified that Bauhinia forficata treatment had no hypoglycemic effect, did not improve maternal outcomes in diabetic rats, but it contributed to maintain GSH concentration similarly to non-diabetic groups, suggesting relation with the decreased incidence of visceral anomalies. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Levels of DNA damage in blood leukocyte samples from non-diabetic and diabetic female rats and their fetuses exposed to air or cigarette smoke

dThe objective of the present study was to evaluate DNA damage level in blood leukocytes from diabetic and non-diabetic female Wistar rats exposed to air or to cigarette smoke, and to correlate the findings with levels of DNA damage detected in blood leukocyte samples from their fetuses. A total of 20 rats were distributed into four experimental groups: non-diabetic (control; G1) and diabetic exposed to filtered air (G2): non-diabetic (G3) and diabetic (G4) exposed to cigarette smoke. Rats placed into whole-body exposure chambers were exposed for 30 min to filtered air (control) or to tobacco smoke generated from 10 cigarettes, twice a day, for 2 months. Diabetes was induced by a pancreatic beta-cytotoxic agent, streptozotocin (40 mg/kg b.w.). At day 21 of pregnancy, each rat was anesthetized and humanely killed to obtain maternal and fetal blood samples for genotoxicity analysis using the alkaline comet assay. G2, G3 and G4 dams presented higher DNA damage values in tail moment and tail length as compared to G1 group. There was a significant positive correlation between DNA damage levels in blood leukocyte samples from G2 and G3 groups (tail moment); G3 and G4 groups (tail length) and G3 group (tail intensity) and their fetuses. Thus, this study showed the association of severe diabetes and tobacco cigarette smoke exposure did not exacerbate levels of maternal and fetal DNA damages related with only diabetes or cigarette smoke exposure. Based on the results obtained and taking into account other published data, maternal diabetes requires rigid clinical control and public health and education campaigns should be increased to encourage individuals, especially pregnant women, to stop smoking. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Treatment with Azadirachta indica in diabetic pregnant rats: Negative effects on maternal outcome

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Effect of Morus nigra aqueous extract treatment on the maternal-fetal outcome, oxidative stress status and lipid profile of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Genotoxicity of cigarette smoking in maternal and newborn lymphocytes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Fructose in fetal cord blood and its relationship with maternal and 48-hour-newborn blood concentrations

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Non-additive genetic effects on weights and performance of a Brazilian Bos taurus x Bos indicus beef composite

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Sibutramine Effects on the Reproductive Performance of Pregnant Overweight and Non-Overweight rats

It is well established that sibutramine produces weight loss and is used frequently in women of childbearing age. However, the potential adverse consequences attributed to sibutramine use by women who may become pregnant is not known. It was thus of interest to determine the effects of sibutramine on the reproductive performance of pregnant rats. Overweight as well as non-overweight female Wistar rats were treated with sibutramine (6 mg/kg) orally, daily for 15 d and then mated with normal male rats. Pregnancy was confirmed and treatment continued with sibutramine until d 14 of pregnancy. on d 20 of pregnancy all rats were anesthetized for determination of various maternal and fetal parameters. There was a significant maternal weight reduction at the end of pregnancy in the non-overweight drug-treated group compared to the control (non-overweight, no drug). Sibutramine alone and overweight condition alone produced a significant increase in postimplantation loss and placental index. In the overweight with or without sibutramine groups a significant decrease in fetal weight was noted. Data suggest that sibutramine alone or the condition of excess weight in the absence of drugs produced impaired reproductive performance. However, treatment of overweight rats with sibutramine did not further exacerbate fetal loss compared to sibutramine alone or the effects noted with excess weight alone.