Morphology in phonology : introduction

This fourth volume of Catalan Journal of Linguistics is devoted to a topic discussed at length in the literature but which nevertheless remains a challenge for any view of phonology: the morphology-phonology interaction. The papers collected address two related issues, the role of morphological information in phonology and the role of phonological information in morphology. The first six articles (i.e. McCarthy, Wheeler, Downing, van Oostendorp, José and Auger, and Rice) deal with the former topic; the last three (i.e. Bertinetto and Jetchev, Pérez Saldanya and Vallès, and Viaplana), with the latter. Several papers (Wheeler, van Oostendorp, Rice, Bertinetto and Jetchev, Pérez Saldanya and Vallès, and Viaplana) further discuss the role and concept of paradigms, an old Neogrammarian notion to which renewed attention has been payed both from the phonological perspective (cf. work by Benua 1995, 1997; Burzio 1994 and subsequent work; Kenstowicz 1996, 2002; Steriade 2000, and the articles in the recent volume edited by Downing et al. 2005, among others) and from the morphological perspective (cf. work by Aronoff 1994; Bauer 1997, 2001; Carstairs-McCarthy 1994, 1998; Stump 1991, 1997; van Marle 1985, 1994; Wurzel 1989, and several articles in the recent volume edited by Boucher 2002, among others).

Effets du stress sur l'évolution des représentations parentales au cours des 12 premiers mois de vie d'un enfant né avec une fente faciale = Stress influence on parental representations' development during the first year of a child born with a facial cleft

La venue au monde d'un enfant avec une fente faciale constitue un événement stressant, voire traumatique, pour les parents. Que ce soit à travers le risque de symptômes associés, la logistique d'alimentation ou par simples raisons d'esthétisme, de nombreuses personnes vivent l'annonce de la présence d'une fente faciale comme une intrusion brutale dans le vécu de la grossesse et une interruption momentanée de l'investissement représentationnel du foetus. À travers notre recherche, nous montrons qu'un haut stress n'influe pas forcément négativement sur le développement de la relation entre le parent et l'enfant et que, au contraire, dans le cas des pères, il peut contribuer à l'implication émotionnelle envers le bébé. Le moment de l'annonce de la malformation a aussi une importance dans les représentations à propos de l'enfant puisque si elle est faite durant la période prénatale, elle permet aux parents un réarrangement des représentations afin de mieux accueillir le bébé le jour de sa naissance. The birth of a child with a facial cleft is often seen as a very stressing event for both parents. Risks of comorbidity, difficulty in nutrition or just aesthetical reasons are frequently invoked while describing this moment. The announcement of the deformation is felt like a brutal intrusion in representations associated to pregnancy. Then, we can observe a kind of disinvestment of the coming baby. Through our study, we find that high stress has not always a bad issue on relationship between parents and infants. In contrary, this kind of chronic stress can preserve the well-being of the relationship, especially for fatherhood. The time of facial deformation announcement also plays its part in representations about the baby. Before birth, it opens room for reordering and modifying representations, then the baby will be accepted as it should be on his birthday.

Unilateral facial swelling in an infant.

The melanotic neuroectodermal tumour of infancy (MNTI) is an uncommon, usually benign neoplasm which is most commonly found in the maxilla. We describe the case of a 6-month-old boy who was referred with a swiftly increasing swelling of the left cheek. After imaging and biopsy, MNTI was confirmed, and surgical resection was performed. Literature demonstrates that most MNTIs occur in the head and neck area and most of those occur in the maxilla. Although most cases are benign, 6.5% are malignant with metastatic disease. Treatment and outcome are discussed in detail. The case highlights the importance of making the diagnosis MNTI early on in order to achieve an optimal outcome.

Missouri River Studies: Alluvial Morphology and Engineering Soil Classification, HR-1, Progress Report, 1960

The primary purposes of this investigation are: 1) To delineate flood plain deposits with different geologic and engineering properties. 2) To provide basic data necessary for any attempt at stabilizing flood plain deposits. The alluvial valley of the Missouri River adjacent to Iowa was chosen as the logical place to begin this study. The river forms the western boundary of the state for an airline distance of approximately 139 miles; and the flood plain varies from a maximum width of approximately 18 miles (Plates 2 and 3, Sheets 75 and 75L) to approximately 4 miles near Crescent, Iowa (Plate 8, Sheet 66). The area studied includes parts of Woodbury, Monona, Harrison, Pottawattamie, Mills, and Fremont counties in Iowa and parts of Dakota, Thurston, Burt, Washington, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass and Otoe counties in Nebraska. Plate l is an index map of the area under consideration.

The knock-out of ARP3a gene affects F-actin cytoskeleton organization altering cellular tip growth, morphology and development in moss Physcomitrella patens.

The seven subunit Arp2/3 complex is a highly conserved nucleation factor of actin microfilaments. We have isolated the genomic sequence encoding a putative Arp3a protein of the moss Physcomitrella patens. The disruption of this ARP3A gene by allele replacement has generated loss-of-function mutants displaying a complex developmental phenotype. The loss-of function of ARP3A gene results in shortened, almost cubic chloronemal cells displaying affected tip growth and lacking differentiation to caulonemal cells. In moss arp3a mutants, buds differentiate directly from chloronemata to form stunted leafy shoots having differentiated leaves similar to wild type. Yet, rhizoids never differentiate from stem epidermal cells. To characterize the F-actin organization in the arp3a-mutated cells, we disrupted ARP3A gene in the previously described HGT1 strain expressing conditionally the GFP-talin marker. In vivo observation of the F-actin cytoskeleton during P. patens development demonstrated that loss-of-function of Arp3a is associated with the disappearance of specific F-actin cortical structures associated with the establishment of localized cellular growth domains. Finally, we show that constitutive expression of the P. patens Arp3a and its Arabidopsis thaliana orthologs efficiently complement the mutated phenotype indicating a high degree of evolutionary conservation of the Arp3 function in land plants.

Vegetative and reproductive morphology of Kallymenia patens (Kallymeniaceae, Rhodophyta) in the Mediterranean Sea

Reproductive morphology of the Mediterranean red alga Kallymenia patens is described for the first time, confirming its position in the genus. K. patens is characterized by a non-procarpic female reproductive apparatus, carpogonial branch systems consisting of supporting cells bearing both three-celled carpogonial branches and subsidiary cells that lack a hypogynous cell and carpogonium; fusion cells develop numerous connecting filaments, and tetrasporangia are scattered over the thallus and are probably cruciately divided. Old fertile spathulate specimens of K. patens are morphologically similar to K. spathulata, but they can be distinguished by the length of spathulated proliferations (up to 0.6 cm and 6 cm, respectively), the length of inner cortical cells (up to 70 and 30 μm, respectively), and the gonimoblast location (in proliferations from the perennial part of the blade and over all the thallus surface, respectively)

Classification of very high spatial resolution imagery using mathematical morphology and support vector machines

We investigate the relevance of morphological operators for the classification of land use in urban scenes using submetric panchromatic imagery. A support vector machine is used for the classification. Six types of filters have been employed: opening and closing, opening and closing by reconstruction, and opening and closing top hat. The type and scale of the filters are discussed, and a feature selection algorithm called recursive feature elimination is applied to decrease the dimensionality of the input data. The analysis performed on two QuickBird panchromatic images showed that simple opening and closing operators are the most relevant for classification at such a high spatial resolution. Moreover, mixed sets combining simple and reconstruction filters provided the best performance. Tests performed on both images, having areas characterized by different architectural styles, yielded similar results for both feature selection and classification accuracy, suggesting the generalization of the feature sets highlighted.

Further delineation of the facial 13q14 deletion syndrome in 13 retinoblastoma patients.

Thirteen years ago, Motegi and colleagues (J Med Genet 1987;24:696-697) summarized the specific facial phenotype of six Japanese retinoblastoma patients with interstitial 13q14 deletions. Among a series of 228 propositi with retinoblastoma referred to the Lausanne Retinoblastoma Clinic for treatment and genetic counseling between 1986 and 1997, 13 (5.7%) were diagnosed with a cytogenetic de-novo 13q14 deletion. We confirm the presence of the reported facial phenotype in our population of Caucasian patients and describe additional clinical traits, thus extending the facial phenotype associated with the 13q14 deletion. Del(13q14) comprises, among others, cranial anomalies, frontal bossing, deeply grooved and long philtrum, depressed and broad nasal bridge, bulbous tip of the nose, thick lower lip, thin upper lip, broad cheeks, and large ears and lobules. Recognition of this particular facial appearance was instrumental in the genetic diagnosis of 13q deletions and in the presymptomatic diagnosis of retinoblastoma in a significant number of our cases. Identification of this phenotype in a retinoblastoma patient allows for efficient diagnosis of recurrence in his progeny and/or sibship, while its ignorance will compromise genetic counseling due to the possible difficulties in detecting large deletions by standard molecular mutation analysis. Recognition of this syndrome in newborns without known familial risk for retinoblastoma is even more important as it is a clear warning sign that indicates immediate ophthalmic examination.

Hypoxia: unique myocardial morphology?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic and intermittent hypoxia on myocardial morphology. METHODS: Rats randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 14 per group) were exposed to room air (Fio(2) = 0.21), chronic hypoxia (Fio(2) = 0.10), and intermittent hypoxia (chronic hypoxia with 1 hour per day of room air) for 2 weeks. Weight, blood gas analysis, hematocrit, hemoglobin, red cells, and right and left ventricular pressures were measured. Hearts excised for morphologic examination were randomly divided into 2 groups (9 per group for gross morphologic measurements and 5 per group for histologic and morphometric analysis). The weight ratio of right to left ventricles plus interventricular septum, myocyte diameter, cross-sectional area, and free wall thickness in right and left ventricles were measured. RESULTS: Despite the same polycythemia, the right ventricle pressure (P <.05) and ratio of right to left ventricle pressures (P <.02) were higher after chronic hypoxia than intermittent hypoxia. The ratio of heart weight to total body weight and the ratio of right to left ventricles plus interventricular septum was higher (P <.01) in chronic and intermittent hypoxia than in normoxia. Myocyte diameter was not different between the right and left ventricles in normoxia, whereas right ventricle myocytes were larger than left ventricle myocytes in chronic hypoxia (P <.05) and intermittent hypoxia (P <.0005). There was marked dilatation of right ventricle size (P <.001) and marked reduction of left ventricle (P <.001) size in chronic and intermittent hypoxia compared with normoxia. The total ventricular area (right ventricle plus left ventricle area) remained the same in all groups. The wall thickness ratio in chronic hypoxia and intermittent hypoxia was increased (P <.001) compared with normoxia in the right ventricle but not in the left ventricle. CONCLUSIONS: Intermittent reoxygenation episodes do not induce a lesser ventricular hypertrophic response than observed with chronic hypoxia. The functional myocardial preconditioning consequence of intermittent reoxygenation is not supported by structural differences evident with the available techniques.

Milk flow, teat morphology and subclinical mastitis prevalence in Gir cows

The aim of this work was to evaluate the association between milk flow, teat morphological measurements and subclinical mastitis prevalence in Gir cows. Eighty cows in the 2nd and 3rd lactations, with 90 to 200 days of lactation, were divided according to milk flow during milking into fast or slow groups. Teat morphometry was assessed by ultrasound scanning of the right anterior teat and external measurements. Milk samples were collected for somatic cells count (SCC) and microbiological culture. The effect of milk flow during milking was evaluated by analysis of variance of milk yield, SCC, morphometry and external measurements. The association of morphometry and external measurements of the teats with the SCC and microorganisms found in milk were analysed. Milk flow was significantly correlated to milk production. Gir cows with slower milk flow had longer teat canal and greater milk yield, in comparison to cows with fast milk flow. Teat-end to floor distance influenced SCC of Gir cows. Prevalence of subclinical mastitis and the type of mastitis-causing pathogens were not affected by milk flow during milking

Neural substrates of social emotion regulation: a FMRI study on imitation and expressive suppression to dynamic facial signals.

Emotion regulation is crucial for successfully engaging in social interactions. Yet, little is known about the neural mechanisms controlling behavioral responses to emotional expressions perceived in the face of other people, which constitute a key element of interpersonal communication. Here, we investigated brain systems involved in social emotion perception and regulation, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 healthy participants. The latter saw dynamic facial expressions of either happiness or sadness, and were asked to either imitate the expression or to suppress any expression on their own face (in addition to a gender judgment control task). fMRI results revealed higher activity in regions associated with emotion (e.g., the insula), motor function (e.g., motor cortex), and theory of mind (e.g., [pre]cuneus) during imitation. Activity in dorsal cingulate cortex was also increased during imitation, possibly reflecting greater action monitoring or conflict with own feeling states. In addition, premotor regions were more strongly activated during both imitation and suppression, suggesting a recruitment of motor control for both the production and inhibition of emotion expressions. Expressive suppression (eSUP) produced increases in dorsolateral and lateral prefrontal cortex typically related to cognitive control. These results suggest that voluntary imitation and eSUP modulate brain responses to emotional signals perceived from faces, by up- and down-regulating activity in distributed subcortical and cortical networks that are particularly involved in emotion, action monitoring, and cognitive control.

Qualitative grading of severity of lumbar spinal stenosis based on the morphology of the dural sac on magnetic resonance images.

STUDY DESIGN.: Retrospective radiologic study on a prospective patient cohort. OBJECTIVE.: To devise a qualitative grading of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), study its reliability and clinical relevance. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA.: Radiologic stenosis is assessed commonly by measuring dural sac cross-sectional area (DSCA). Great variation is observed though in surfaces recorded between symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. METHODS.: We describe a 7-grade classification based on the morphology of the dural sac as observed on T2 axial magnetic resonance images based on the rootlet/cerebrospinal fluid ratio. Grades A and B show cerebrospinal fluid presence while grades C and D show none at all. The grading was applied to magnetic resonance images of 95 subjects divided in 3 groups as follows: 37 symptomatic LSS surgically treated patients; 31 symptomatic LSS conservatively treated patients (average follow-up, 2.5 and 3.1 years); and 27 low back pain (LBP) sufferers. DSCA was also digitally measured. We studied intra- and interobserver reliability, distribution of grades, relation between morphologic grading and DSCA, as well relation between grades, DSCA, and Oswestry Disability Index. RESULTS.: Average intra- and interobserver agreement was substantial and moderate, respectively (k = 0.65 and 0.44), whereas they were substantial for physicians working in the study originating unit. Surgical patients had the smallest DSCA. A larger proportion of C and D grades was observed in the surgical group. Surface measurementsresulted in overdiagnosis of stenosis in 35 patients and under diagnosis in 12. No relation could be found between stenosis grade or DSCA and baseline Oswestry Disability Index or surgical result. C and D grade patients were more likely to fail conservative treatment, whereas grades A and B were less likely to warrant surgery. CONCLUSION.: The grading defines stenosis in different subjects than surface measurements alone. Since it mainly considers impingement of neural tissue it might be a more appropriate clinical and research tool as well as carrying a prognostic value.