Petrology and geochemistry of some high pressure rocks from northern part of Rio San Juan complex, Dominican Republic

The Rio San Juan Complex is an important occurrence of high pressure/low temperature rocks in the circum-Caribbean region which contains both coherent blueschist units and two varieties of melange in the same area. The melanges contain a diverse assemblage of blocks of various sizes, different degrees of metamorphism, and mineral assemblages. Some high pressure blocks show two stages of metamorphism. The earliest stage is characterized by high pressure-low temperature conditions and the second stage is characterized by high pressure-lower temperature conditions. The geochemistry of thirteen samples from the Rio San Juan Complex has been studied and data have been compared with rocks of adjacent regions. Geochemical evidence indicates that rocks from the Rio San Juan Complex have predominant calc-alkaline affinities with subordinate tholeiitic affinities. This suggests that they have a multiple tectonic provenance.

Még egyszer a "rendszerparadigmáról". Tisztázás és kiegészítések a posztszocialista régió tapasztalatainak fényében = About the system paradigm once again: Clarification and additions in the light of experiences in the post-socialist region

A paradigma kifejezést Thomas Kuhn honosította meg a tudományfilozófiában: így nevezte el azt a sajátos szemléletmódot, ahogyan egy kutatási irányzat rátekint vizsgálata tárgyára. Azonos paradigmát használó kutatók hasonló kérdésekre keresik a választ, hasonló módszereket és fogalmakat alkalmaznak. A szerző 1999-ben publikált cikkében vezette be a "rendszerparadigma" kifejezést, amely a társadalomban működő rendszereket helyezi a vizsgálat középpontjába. A tanulmány a posztszocialista átalakulás során szerzett tapasztalatok alapján fejleszti tovább a korábbi cikkben kifejtett elméleti gondolatokat. Az első rész a szocialista és a kapitalista rendszert hasonlítja össze; leírja fő jellemzőiket, majd megállapítja, hogy Észak-Korea és Kuba kivételével az egykori szocialista országokban meghonosodott a kapitalista rendszer. A második rész a politikai-kormányzati formák szerint tipologizálja a kapitalizmus változatait. Három markáns típust különböztet meg: a demokráciát, az autokráciát és a diktatúrát. Huntington a demokratizálás harmadik hullámáról írt. A tanulmány arra a következtetésre jut, hogy ez a hullám elapadt, a 47 posztszocialista ország lakosságának mindössze egytizede él demokráciában, a többiben autokrácia vagy diktatúra uralkodik. A harmadik rész Magyarországra alkalmazza a kialakított fogalmi és elemzési apparátust: itt kapitalizmus van, a politikai-kormányzati forma autokrácia - lényeges közös jellemzők mutathatók ki más kapitalista országokkal, illetve más autokráciákkal. Ez összefér azzal a felismeréssel, hogy egyes - nem alapvető jelentőségű - vonások egyediek, "hungarikumok", különböznek minden más ország tulajdonságaitól. _____ The expression paradigm, introduced into the philosophy of science by Thomas Kuhn for the way a research trend views the subject examined, denotes a case where researchers pursue similar questions by similar methods with similar concepts. The author introduced the expression system paradigm" in a 1999 article centred on the systems operating in society. This paper takes those theoretical ideas further, based on experience in the post-socialist transformation. The first part compares the socialist and capitalist systems and their main features, establishing that all former socialist countries but North Korea and Cuba have embraced the capitalist system. The second adds a typology of the varieties of capitalism by politico-governmental form, marking three types: democracy, autocracy and dictatorship. Huntington writes of a third wave of democratization, which this study concludes has ceased. Democracy reigns in only 10 per cent of the 47 post-socialist countries, autocracy or dictatorship in the others. The third part applies this conceptual and analytical framework to Hungary, where capitalism prevails, with autocracy as its politico-governmental form. It shows strongly similar features to other capitalist countries and other autocracies. This is compatible with recognizing that some features of less than fundamental importance are specific to Hungary and differ from those elsewhere.

Aspects of Motives: Finite-dimensionality, Chow-Kunneth Decompositions and Intersections of Cycles

This thesis analyzes the Chow motives of 3 types of smooth projective varieties: the desingularized elliptic self fiber product, the Fano surface of lines on a cubic threefold and an ample hypersurface of an Abelian variety. For the desingularized elliptic self fiber product, we use an isotypic decomposition of the motive to deduce the Murre conjectures. We also prove a result about the intersection product. For the Fano surface of lines, we prove the finite-dimensionality of the Chow motive. Finally, we prove that an ample hypersurface on an Abelian variety possesses a Chow-Kunneth decomposition for which a motivic version of the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem holds.

Resonance Energy Transfer-Based Molecular Switch Designed Using a Systematic Design Process Based on Monte Carlo Methods and Markov Chains

A RET network consists of a network of photo-active molecules called chromophores that can participate in inter-molecular energy transfer called resonance energy transfer (RET). RET networks are used in a variety of applications including cryptographic devices, storage systems, light harvesting complexes, biological sensors, and molecular rulers. In this dissertation, we focus on creating a RET device called closed-diffusive exciton valve (C-DEV) in which the input to output transfer function is controlled by an external energy source, similar to a semiconductor transistor like the MOSFET. Due to their biocompatibility, molecular devices like the C-DEVs can be used to introduce computing power in biological, organic, and aqueous environments such as living cells. Furthermore, the underlying physics in RET devices are stochastic in nature, making them suitable for stochastic computing in which true random distribution generation is critical.

In order to determine a valid configuration of chromophores for the C-DEV, we developed a systematic process based on user-guided design space pruning techniques and built-in simulation tools. We show that our C-DEV is 15x better than C-DEVs designed using ad hoc methods that rely on limited data from prior experiments. We also show ways in which the C-DEV can be improved further and how different varieties of C-DEVs can be combined to form more complex logic circuits. Moreover, the systematic design process can be used to search for valid chromophore network configurations for a variety of RET applications.

We also describe a feasibility study for a technique used to control the orientation of chromophores attached to DNA. Being able to control the orientation can expand the design space for RET networks because it provides another parameter to tune their collective behavior. While results showed limited control over orientation, the analysis required the development of a mathematical model that can be used to determine the distribution of dipoles in a given sample of chromophore constructs. The model can be used to evaluate the feasibility of other potential orientation control techniques.

The many voices of Piedmont: language, identity and alterity in the works of modern and contemporary Piedmontese writers

The aim of this project is to carry out a linguistic analysis of a group of modern and contemporary narratives written by authors from the same Italian region: Piedmont. The novels and short stories examined stand out for the intriguing ways in which they move between a variety of idioms – Italian, Piedmontese dialects, English and pastiches, with some rare excursions into French. A sociolinguistic study and an overview of political changes that Piedmont underwent from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries are provided, with the purpose of outlining the region’s sociogeographical and historical background which can be seen to have fostered multilingualism in a group of writers. With the support of linguistic studies and philosophical theories on the relation between identity, alterity and language (such as Edwards’s Language and Identity and Bakhtin’s reflections on language), I then elucidate the presence of diverse linguistic varieties in selected narratives by Cesare Pavese, Beppe Fenoglio, Primo Levi, Nanni Balestrini, Fruttero & Lucentini, Benito Mazzi and Younis Tawfik. In other words, my purpose is to explain the reasons for multilingualism in each writer, as well as to underscore the ideological positions which lie behind the linguistic strategies of the authors. With this study I attempt to fill a gap and cast new light on Piedmontese literature. Although some critical studies on the use of dialect or English exist on individual authors and works (e.g. Meddemmem on Fenoglio’s use of English and Beccaria on Pavese’s inclusion of Piedmontese dialect), and some important contributions to the history of Piedmontese literature have appeared in print, to date no current, systematic study that compares different Piedmontese writers under the language/identity theme has been published. The study concludes with a summary of the evolution of plurilingualism in Piedmont and highlights the common trends in the use of multiple linguistic varieties as tools for both social demarcation and an opening up to alternative, marginalised andforeign cultures.

Fundamental studies of the application of wheat for malting and brewing

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has a long tradition as a raw material for the production of malt and beer. While breeding and cultivation efforts for barley have been highly successful in creating agronomically and brew- technical optimal specialty cultivars that have become well established as brewing barley varieties, the picture is completely different for brewing wheat. An increasing wheat beer demand results in a rising amount of raw material. Wheat has been - and still is – grown almost exclusively for the baking industry. It is this high demand that defines most of the wheat breeding objectives; and these objectives are generally not favourable in brewing industry. It is of major interest to screen wheat varieties for brewing processability and to give more focus to wheat as a brewing cereal. To obtain fast and reliable predications about the suitability of wheat cultivars a new mathematical method was developed in this work. The method allows a selection based on generally accepted quality characteristics. As selection criteria the parameters raw protein, soluble nitrogen, Kolbach index, extract and viscosity were chosen. During a triannual cultivation series, wheat varieties were evaluated on their suitability for brewing as well as stability to environmental conditions. To gain a fundamental understanding of the complex malting process, microstructural changes were evaluated and visualized by confocal laser scanning and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, changes observed in the micrographs were verified and endorsed by metabolic changes using established malt attributes. The degradation and formation of proteins during malting is essential for the final beer quality. To visualise fundamental protein changes taking place during malting, samples of each single process step were analysed and fractioned according their solubility. Protein fractions were analysed using a Lab-on-a-chip technique as well as OFFgel analysis. In general, a different protein distribution of wheat compared to barley or oat could be confirmed. During the malting process a degradation of proteins to small peptides and amino acids could be observed in all four Osborn fractions. Furthermore, in this study a protein profiling was performed to evaluate changes during the mashing process as well as the influence of grist composition. Differences in specific protein peaks and profile were detected for all samples during mashing. This study investigated the suitability of wheat for malting and brewing industry and closed the scientifical gap of amylolytic, cytolytic and proteolytic changes during malting and mashing.

Sample locations, stratigraphic information and listing of carbon and oxygen isotope data of the measured planktonic foraminifera of surface sediments in the western South Atlantic Ocean (Table 1)

We explored the potential to use the stable isotopic compositions of planktonic foraminifera as a proxy for the position of the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) in the Argentine Basin. For this purpose, we measured the oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of Globigerinoides ruber (pink and white varieties measured separately), Globigerinoides trilobus, Globigerina bulloides, Globorotalia inflata and Globorotalia truncatulinoides (left- and right-coiling forms measured separately) from a latitudinal transect of 56 surface sediment samples from the continental slope off Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina between 20 and 48°S. Lowest oxygen isotopes values were found in G. ruber (pink), followed by G. ruber (white) and G. trilobus reflecting the highly stratified near surface water conditions north of the BMC. Globigerina bulloides was present mainly south of the BMC and records subsurface conditions supporting earlier plankton tow studies. Globorotalia inflata and G. truncatulinoides (left and right) were both available over the whole transect and calcify in the depth level with the steepest temperature change across the BMC. Accordingly, the delta18O of these species depict a sharp gradient of 2? at the confluence with remarkably stable values north and south of the BMC. Our data show that the oxygen isotopic composition of G. inflata and G. truncatulinoides (left and right) are the most reliable indicators for the present position of the BMC and can therefore be used to define the past migration of the front if appropriate cores are available.

Transplanting diglossia: attitudes towards Standard and Cypriot Greek among London’s Greek Cypriot community

The linguistic situation in Greek-speaking Cyprus has been traditionally described as a textbook case of diglossia à la Ferguson (1959) with Standard Modern Greek (SModGr) being labelled as the High variety and Cypriot Greek (CypGr), the regional ModGr variety of Cyprus, being labelled the Low variety (Arvaniti, 2011; Moschonas, 1996). More recently, however, it has been proposed that the linguistic repertoire available to speakers features an array of forms of CypGr, which is best described as a continuum ranging from basilectal to acrolectal varieties (Katsoyannou et al., 2006; Tsiplakou et al., 2006). The basilectal end encompasses low prestige varieties predominantly spoken in rural areas. The acrolectal end is occupied by the version of SModGr used in the public domain in Cyprus (Arvaniti, 2006/2010). SModGr is known to carry high prestige in Cyprus. Speakers of CypGr describe speakers of the standard as more attractive, more intelligent, more interesting and more educated than speakers of the Cypriot dialect (Papapavlou, 1998). In this paper, I explore the relation between SModGr and CypGr in a diasporic setting, namely, the Greek Cypriot community of London. The United Kingdom is home to a sizeable Greek Cypriot community, whose population is presently estimated to fall between 200,000 and 300,000 individuals (Christodoulou-Pipis, 1991; National Federation of Cypriots in the UK). Similarly to the Cyprus homeland, the members of the Greek Cypriot parikia (‘community’) share a rich linguistic repertoire, which, in addition to varieties of Greek, crucially includes English. As is often the case with diasporas, the parikia does not form a homogeneous speech community in that not all of its members have an equally good command of Greek or even English. Rather, different types of monolingual and bilingual speakers are found including a large number of heritage speakers in the sense of Benmamoun et al. (2013), Montrul (2008, 2015) and Polinsky & Kagan (2007). Twenty British-born heritage speakers of CypGr were interviewed on their attitudes towards the different varieties of Greek. Results indicate that the prestige relation between SModGr and CypGr that holds in Cyprus has been transplanted to the parikia. SModGr is widely perceived as the prestigious variety and is described in positive terms (‘correct’, ‘proper’). The use of CypGr, on the other hand, enjoys covert prestige: it is perceived as an index of solidarity and in-group membership but at the same time is also viewed by heritage speakers as reminiscent of the hardship and lack of education of the generation that brought CypGr to the UK. In certain cases, the use of CypGr by heritage speakers is actively discouraged by the first generation not only in the public domain but also in private domains such as the home. Active discouragement targets both lexical and grammatical variants that are traditionally associated with basilectal varieties of CypGr, and heritage language features, especially the adoption of morphologically adapted loanwords from English. References Arvaniti, Amalia. 2006/2010. Linguistic practices in Cyprus and the emergence of Cypriot Standard Greek. Mediterranean Language Review 17, 15–45. Benmamoun, Elabbas, Silvina Montrul & Maria Polinsky. 2013. Heritage languages and their speakers: opportunities and challenges for linguists. Theoretical Linguistics 39(3/4), 129–181. Christodoulou-Pipis, Irina. 1991. Greek Outside Greece: Language Use by Greek-Cypriots in Britain. Nicosia: Diaspora Books. Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15(2), 325–340. Katsoyannou, Marianna, Andreas Papapavlou, Pavlos Pavlou & Stavroula Tsiplakou. 2006. Didialektikes koinotites kai glossiko syneches: i periptosi tis kypriakis [Bidialectal communities and linguistic continuum: the case of Cypriot Greek]. In Mark Janse, Brian D. Joseph & Angela Ralli (eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory, Mytilene, Greece, 30 September – 3 October 2004, 156–171. Patras: University of Patras. Montrul, Silvina A. 2008. Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the Age Factor. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Montrul, Silvina. 2015. The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moschonas, Spiros. 1996. I glossiki dimorfia stin Kypro [Diglossia in Cyprus]. In “Ischyres” – “Astheneis” Glosses stin Evropaiki Enosi: Opseis tou glossikou igemonismou [“Strong” – “Weak” Languages in the European Union: Aspects of Linguistic Imperialism], 121–128. Thessaloniki: Kentro Ellinikis Glossas. Polinsky, Maria & Olga Kagan. 2007. Heritage languages: in the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Languages and Linguistics Compass 1(5), 368–395. Tsiplakou, Stavroula, Andreas Papapavlou, Pavlos Pavlou & Marianna Katsoyannou. 2006. Levelling, koineization and their implications for bidialectism. In Frans L. Hinskens (Eds.), Language Variation – European Perspectives: Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 3), Amsterdam, June 2005, 265–279. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

The Worsening of the employment and work conditions and its relationship to the self-perceived health in European working population. Relevance and effects of the latest socioeconomic crisis

The recent crisis of the capitalistic economic system has altered the working conditions and occupations in the European Union. The recession situation has accelerated trends and has brought transformations that have been observed before. Changes have not looked the same way in all the countries of the Union. The social occupation norms, labour relations models and the type of global welfare provision can help underline some of these inequalities. Poor working conditions can expose workers to situations of great risk. This is one of the basic assumptions of the theoretical models and analytical studies of the approach to the psychosocial work environment. Changes in working conditions of the population seems to be important to explain in the worst health states. To observe these features in the current period of economic recession it has made a comparative study of trend through the possibilities of the European Working Conditions Survey in the 2005 and 2010 editions. It has also set different multivariate logistic regression models to explore potential partnerships with the worst conditions of employment and work. It seems that the economic crisis has intensified changes in working conditions and highlighted the effects of those conditions on the poor health of the working population. This conclusion can’t be extended for all EU countries; some differences were observed in terms of global welfare models.

On a first-name basis: Englishization and naming in Flanders

Following and contributing to the ongoing shift from more structuralist, system-oriented to more pragmatic, socio-cultural oriented anglicism research, this paper verifies to what extent the global spread of English affects naming patterns in Flanders. To this end, a diachronic database of first names is constructed, containing the top 75 most popular boy and girl names from 2005 until 2014. In a first step, the etymological background of these names is documented and the evolution in popularity of the English names in the database is tracked. Results reveal no notable surge in the preference for English names. This paper complements these database-driven results with an experimental study, aiming to show how associations through referents are in this case more telling than associations through phonological form (here based on etymology). Focusing on the socio-cultural background of first names in general and of Anglo-American pop culture in particular, the second part of the study specifically reports on results from a survey where participants are asked to name the first three celebrities that leap to mind when hearing a certain first name (e.g. Lana, triggering the response Del Rey). Very clear associations are found between certain first names and specific celebrities from Anglo-American pop culture. Linking back to marketing research and the social turn in onomastics, we will discuss how these celebrities might function as referees, and how social stereotypes surrounding these referees are metonymically attached to their first names. Similar to the country-of-origin-effect in marketing, these metonymical links could very well be the reason why parents select specific “celebrity names”. Although further attitudinal research is needed, this paper supports the importance of including socio-cultural parameters when conducting onomastic research.

Deictic Demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish : First and Third Language Perspectives

The goal of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the actual, native use of spatial-deictic demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish. Secondly, it investigates and elucidates the interlanguage of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking learners of Japanese regarding their use of Japanese spatial-deictic demonstratives in the light of respective native use and, in comparison to the descriptions of demonstratives in the teaching materials used. Thus, the present study deals with analyses of two sets of empirical data: data produced by native-speaking informants (L1 data) and data produced by language learners (L2 data). These were elicited by Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) designed, collected and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods by the author. The results showed that the actual use of demonstratives by the native informants was not always in accordance with the way described in grammars. The typological similarities between Japanese and Finnish were in this study not reflected in the native use of demonstratives, and some uses were not solely based on the spatial relations between the referent, the speaker and the addressee, but rather on social-interactional factors. The main findings regarding the learner data revealed some differences in the usage rate of the demonstratives between the two Finnish-speaking groups and the one Swedish-speaking learner group studied. There were, however, no particular differences found between them regarding the type of demonstrative used. It is suggested that these differences are first and foremost connected both with the teaching materials used and the more or less heterogeneous linguistic environment in which the learners reside, and only thereafter with the typological similarities or differences between their respective native languages, Finnish and Swedish, and the target language, Japanese. It is further argued that the learners’ use of the different Japanese demonstratives, that is the type of demonstrative used, could be explained in terms of familiarity with the grammar. That is, when the situations used in the DCTs were exemplified in teaching materials and were familiar to them, the learners seemed to use Japanese demonstratives as they are described in the teaching materials and as the native Japanese speakers use them. When the situations used in the DCTs were not exemplified in the teaching materials, the learners seem to rely more on their native language. The results, thus, suggest that the learners’ interlanguage is influenced by the grammar of the target language known to the learners, but also by the number of languages (or varieties) that the learners have contact with at the time of learning. The results of the present study have implications for the teaching of Japanese in at least two ways. Firstly, the importance of grammar instruction must be emphasized since its effect on the learners’ language is apparent. Secondly, the contents of teaching materials should be revised on the basis of the native speakers’ actual use of the grammar.

Foliar phosphorus application enhances nutrient balance and growth of phosphorus deficient sugarcane

Although it is well known that nutrient imbalance in shoot tissues may impair plant performance, the interactive effect between foliar phosphorus (P) application and varying P availability in the rooting medium on the nutritional status of sugarcane has not been well studied. To fill this research gap, four sugarcane varieties (IAC91-1099, IACSP94-2101, IACSP94-2094 and IACSP95-5000) were evaluated using a combination of two concentrations of P in nutrient solution (P-deficient, PD = 0.02 mmol L^(−1) and P-sufficient, PS = 0.5 mmol L^(−1)) and foliar P application (none and 0.16 mol L^(−1)). The spray was applied until drip point three times during the experiment with 15 days intervals, after which the plants were harvested to quantify growth and shoot concentration of nitrogen (N), P, magnesium (Mg), sulphur (S) and manganese (Mn). The responses of sugarcane plants to foliar P spray at different levels of P supply in the rooting medium was not genotype-dependent. It was demonstrated for the averaged values across varieties, that foliar P application enhanced sugarcane performance under low P, as revealed by improvements of leaf area and dry matter production of shoot and root of PD plants. Under P limitation we also observed diminished shoot concentration of N, P, Mg, S and increased concentration of Mn. However, foliar P spray increased the concentrations of N, P, S and reduced shoot Mn. Furthermore, shoot P:N, P:Mg, P:S, P:Mn and Mg:Mn concentration ratios exhibited a positive relationship with shoot dry matter production. In conclusion, low P supply in the rooting medium impairs nutrient balance in shoot tissues of sugarcane at early growth; however, this effect was ameliorated by foliar P application which merits further study under field conditions.

Olive oil intake and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in the PREDIMED Study

[EN]It is unknown whether individuals at high cardiovascular risk sustain a benefit in cardiovascular disease from increased olive oil consumption. The aim was to assess the association between total olive oil intake, its varieties (extra virgin and common olive oil) and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk