Loanword Phonology, Lexical Exceptions, Morphologically Driven Underapplication, and the Nature of Positionally Biased Constraints

In this paper we provide a formal account for underapplication of vowel reduction to schwa in Majorcan Catalan loanwords and learned words. On the basis of the comparison of these data with those concerning productive derivation and verbal inflection, which show analogous patterns, in this paper we also explore the existing and not yet acknowledged correlation between those processes that exhibit a particular behaviour in the loanword phonology with respect to the native phonology of the language, those processes that show lexical exceptions and those processes that underapply due to morphological reasons. In light of the analysis of the very same data and taking into account the aforementioned correlation, we show how there might exist a natural diachronic relation between two kinds of Optimality Theory constraints which are commonly used but, in principle, mutually exclusive: positional faithfulness and contextual markedness constraints. Overall, phonological productivity is proven to be crucial in three respects: first, as a context of the grammar, given that «underapplication» is systematically found in what we call the productive phonology of the dialect (including loanwords, learned words, productive derivation and verbal inflection); second, as a trigger or blocker of processes, in that the productivity or the lack of productivity of a specific process or constraint in the language is what explains whether it is challenged or not in any of the depicted situations, and, third, as a guiding principle which can explain the transition from the historical to the synchronic phonology of a linguistic variety.

Bessat, Hubert (2010): Le patois et la vie traditionnelle aux Contamines-Montjoie. I. La nature, les activités agro-pastorales et forestières. Grenoble: ELLUG / Universitat de Grenoble, 321 p.

En aquesta monografia Hubert Bessat ens presenta la primera part del seu estudi sobre el parlar de les Contamines-Montjoie. El poble de les Contamines-Montjoie (departament de l"Alta Savoia) està situat al sud del Montblanc, en una vall oberta al nord, en el territori francoprovençal de França a tocar de la Vall d"Aosta, aquesta ja a Itàlia.

Nature experiences to the enterprises-Case Etela-Savo

This thesis examines the experience travelling and incentive travelling in the area of Etela-Savo. The incentive travels have become more popular in the recent years. The enterprises and companies have started to reward their staff for efficiency by giving them experience travels instead of money rewards. The staff needs refreshing because of the development of work technology and because of physical and mental demands of the work. Short experience travels with activities give motivation and refresh the staff. There were two target groups in this thesis: entrepreneurs which produce the experiences and the staffs which have proved them. With the help of these target groups experience products, activities and travelling possibilities were studied and also how the experiences had been felt and where they had been acquired from. There are theoretical and empirical parts in this thesis. The research methodology was mainly idiographical and also qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The empirical information was collected with the help of a questionnaire and a theme interview. The result of the study was that the area's travelling attractions, which are the nature, hundreds of lakes, large forests and the beautiful landscape give good possibilities to experience travelling and incentive travelling. The experience must contain a physical, social and mental element. A good experience activity must also contain some actions in the nature, light physical exercise and a possibility to the customer to take part in action. The experience feeling was felt as an unique happening and enjoyment, which will help the customers managing in their work, removing stress and developing team working skills. The experience was caused by the contrast between work/everyday life and the happening, and by succeeding in the activity in addition they felt a very strong community spirit in the experience feeling. Women received the experience feeling much more strongly than men. There were also differences in feelings between ages.

Nature of the Epidemic Threshold for the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible Dynamics in Networks

We develop an analytical approach to the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model that allows us to unravel the true origin of the absence of an epidemic threshold in heterogeneous networks. We find that a delicate balance between the number of high degree nodes in the network and the topological distance between them dictates the existence or absence of such a threshold. In particular, small-world random networks with a degree distribution decaying slower than an exponential have a vanishing epidemic threshold in the thermodynamic limit.

Le pouvoir de la biodiversité : néolibéralisation de la nature dans les pays émergents

Depuis vingt ans, la communauté internationale promeut le développement de contrats d'accès aux ressources génétiques afin d'assurer une exploitation durable et équitable de la biodiversité. On constate cependant que les impacts de telles politiques sont limités, en termes de conservation de la nature comme de justice environnementale ou de retombées financières pour les populations locales. Leur influence sur les agendas et les positionnements des gouvernements des pays émergents et de certains scientifiques est en revanche manifeste. Une grande partie de ces derniers a en effet été convertie aux instruments économiques de mise en valeur de la biodiversité : filières de produits naturels, projets d'écotourisme, paiements pour services environnementaux... Les formes de savoirs et de pouvoirs construits sur la biodiversité et les services écosystémiques témoignent de ce ralliement. Le pari de cet ouvrage est ainsi d'analyser le « pouvoir de la biodiversité » en termes d'économie politique, à partir de l'examen des régimes de propriété industrielle sur le vivant dans trois pays émergents - le Vietnam, le Brésil et le Mexique - et d'études de cas sur la mobilisation des savoirs de communautés autochtones et locales dans ces pays. Les notions de biodiversité et de services écosystémiques et leur diffusion ne seraient-elles pas avant tout les marqueurs d'une néolibéralisation des politiques de conservation de la nature ?

Conservation banking and the economization of nature : an institutional analysis

During the last decade, conservation banking mechanisms have emerged in the environmental discourse as new market instruments to promote biodiversity conservation. Compensation was already provided for in environmental law in many countries, as the last step of the mitigation hierarchy. The institutional arrangements developed in this context have been redefined and reshaped as market-based instruments (MBIs). As such, they are discursively disentangled from the complex legal-economic nexus they are part of. Monetary transactions are given prominence and tend to be presented as stand alone agreements, whereas they take place in the context of prescriptive regulations. The pro-market narrative featuring conservation banking systems as market-like arrangements as well as their denunciation as instances of nature commodification tend to obscure their actual characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the latter, adopting an explicitly analytical stance on these complex institutional arrangements and their performative dimensions. Beyond the discourse supporting them and notwithstanding the diversity of national policies and regulatory frameworks for compensation, the constitutive force of these mechanisms probably lies in their ability to redefine control, power and the distribution of costs and in their impacts in terms of land use rather than in their efficiency.

Facing Structural Disadvantage: The Role of Ingroup Connectedness

This thesis focuses on the social-psychological factors that help coping with structural disadvantage, and specifically on the role of cohesive ingroups and the sense of connectedness and efficacy they entail in this process. It aims to complement existing group-based models of coping that are grounded in a categorization perspective to groups and consequently focus exclusively on the large-scale categories made salient in intergroup contexts of comparisons. The dissertation accomplishes this aim through a reconsideration of between-persons relational interdependence as a sufficient and independent antecedent of a sense of groupness, and the benefits that a sense of group connectedness in one's direct environment, regardless of the categorical or relational basis of groupness, might have in the everyday struggles of disadvantaged group members. The three empirical papers aim to validate this approach, outlined in the first theoretical introduction, by testing derived hypotheses. They are based on data collected with youth populations (15-30) from three institutions in French-speaking Switzerland within the context of a larger project on youth transitions. Methods of data collection are paper-pencil questionnaires and in-depth interviews with a selected sub-sample of participants. The key argument of the first paper is that members of socially disadvantaged categories face higher barriers to their life project and that a general sense of connectedness, either based on categorical identities or other proximal groups and relations, mitigates the feeling of powerlessness associated with this experience. The second paper develops and tests a model that defines individual needs satisfaction as antecedent of self-group bonds and the efficacy beliefs derived from these intragroup bonds as the mechanism underlining the role of ingroups in coping. The third paper highlights the complexities that might be associated with the construction of a sense of groupness directly from intergroup comparisons and categorization-based disadvantage, and points out a more subtle understanding of the processes underling the emergence of groupness out of the situation of structural disadvantage. Overall, the findings confirm the central role of ingroups in coping with structural disadvantage and the importance of an understanding of groupness and its role that goes beyond the dominant focus on intergroup contexts and categorization processes.

Asymmetrical nature of the Trollius-Chiastocheta interaction: insights into the evolution of nursery pollination systems

The mutualistic versus antagonistic nature of an interaction is defined by costs and benefits of each partner, which may vary depending on the environment. Contrasting with this dynamic view, several pollination interactions are considered as strictly obligate and mutualistic. Here, we focus on the interaction between Trollius europaeus and Chiastocheta flies, considered as a specialized and obligate nursery pollination system - the flies are thought to be exclusive pollinators of the plant and their larvae develop only in T.europaeus fruits. In this system, features such as the globelike flower shape are claimed to have evolved in a coevolutionary context. We examine the specificity of this pollination system and measure traits related to offspring fitness in isolated T.europaeus populations, in some of which Chiastocheta flies have gone extinct. We hypothesize that if this interaction is specific and obligate, the plant should experience dramatic drop in its relative fitness in the absence of Chiastocheta. Contrasting with this hypothesis, T.europaeus populations without flies demonstrate a similar relative fitness to those with the flies present, contradicting the putative obligatory nature of this pollination system. It also agrees with our observation that many other insects also visit and carry pollen among T.europaeus flowers. We propose that the interaction could have evolved through maximization of by-product benefits of the Chiastocheta visits, through the male flower function, and selection on floral traits by the most effective pollinator. We argue this mechanism is also central in the evolution of other nursery pollination systems.

Timing and nature of alluvial fan and strath terrace formation in the Eastern Precordillera of Argentina

Sixty-eight 10Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) surface exposure ages are presented to define the timing of alluvial fan and strath terrace formation in the hyper-arid San Juan region of the Argentine Precordillera. This region is tectonically active, and numerous fault scarps traverse Quaternary landforms. The three study sites, Marquesado strath complex, Loma Negra alluvial fan and Carpintería strath complex reveal a history of alluvial fan and strath terrace development over the past w225 ka. The Marquesado complex Q3m surface dates to w17 3 ka, whereas the Loma Negra Q1ln, Q2ln, Q3ln, Q4ln, and Q5ln surfaces date to w24 3 ka, w48 2 ka, w65 13 ka, w105 21 ka, and w181 29 ka, respectively. The Carpintería complex comprises eight surfaces that have been dated and include the Q1c (w23 3 ka), Q2c (w5 5 ka), Q3ac (w25 12 ka), Q3bc (w29 15 ka), Q4c (w61 12 ka), Q5c (w98 18 ka), Q6c (w93 18 ka), and Q7c (w212 37 ka). 10Be TCN depth profile data for the Loma Negra alluvial fan complex and Carpintería strath terrace complex, as well as OSL ages on some Carpintería deposits, aid in refining surface ages for comparison with local and global climate proxies, and additionally offer insights into inheritance and erosion rate values for TCNs (w10 104 10Be atoms/g of SiO2 and w5 m Ma 1, respectively). Comparison with other alluvial fan studies in the region show that less dynamic and older preserved surfaces occur in the Carpintería and Loma Negra areas with only younger alluvial fan surfaces preserved both to the north and south. These data in combination with that of other studies illustrate broad regional agreement between alluvial fan and strath terrace ages, which suggests that climate is the dominant forcing agent in the timing of terrace formation in this region.

Avancées sur la source, la taille et la nature des particules microbiennes aéroportées présentes dans l'environnement intérieur

L'exposition à certaines particules fongiques et bactéries présentes dans les aérosols de l'environnement intérieur a été associée au développement ou à l'exacerbation d'affections respiratoires telles que l'asthme, la rhinite allergique ou encore l'aspergillose (1-4). Le réservoir principal identifié dans cet environnement pour les bactéries aéroportées est constitué par les habitants eux-mêmes, alors que celui des particules fongiques est l'environnement extérieur, ou, lorsque les conditions sont réunies, l'environnement intérieur (5-7). Néanmoins, la nature et la taille de ces particules fongiques, ainsi que l'impact de l'occupation humaine sur ces paramètres n'ont été que peu explorés. Les articles de cette note s'intéressent justement à ces aspects et illustrent l'importance de leur prise en compte dans l'évaluation du risque d'exposition aux microorganismes dans l'environnement intérieur. L'étude de Hospodsky et coll. (2014) apporte une information quantitative sur le niveau d'émission de bactéries et particules fongiques résultant d'une occupation humaine dans des environnements intérieurs sains. Alors que l'étude de Afanou et coll. (2014) montre la complexité des particules fongiques qui peuvent être générées dans l'environnement intérieur, différentes espèces de moisissures pouvant participer en proportions différentes au nombre de particules submicroniques1 grâce à leurs fragments de spores ou hyphes.