Indefinite determiner introducing definite referent: a special use of 'yi 'one' + classifier' in Chinese

The indefinite determiner yi 'one'+ classifier' is the most approximate to an indefinite article, like the English a, in Chinese. It serves all the functions characteristic of representative stages of grammaticalization from a numeral to a generalized indefinite determiner as elaborated in the literature. It is established in this paper that the Chinese indefinite determiner has developed a special use with definite expressions, serving as a backgrounding device marking entities as of low thematic importance and unlikely to receive subsequent mentions in ensuing discourse. 'yi+ classifier' in the special use with definite expressions displays striking similarities in terms of semantic bleaching and phonological reduction with the same determiner at the advanced stage of grammaticalization characterized by uses with generics, nonspecifics and nonreferentials. An explanation is offered in terms of an implicational relation between nonreferentiality and low thematic importance which characterize the two uses of the indefinite determiner. While providing another piece of evidence in support of the claim that semantically nonreferentials and entities of low thematic importance tend to be encoded in terms of same linguistic devices in language, findings in this paper have shown how an indefinite determiner can undergo a higher degree of grammaticalization than has been reported in the literature-it expands its scope to mark not only indefinite but also definite expressions as semantically nonreferential and/or thematically unimportant. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Capturing the complexity of women's experiences: A mixed-method approach to studying incontinence in older women

Capturing the voices of women when the issue is of a sensitive nature has been a major concern of feminist researchers. It has often been argued that interpretive methods are the most appropriate way to collect such information, but there are other appropriate ways to approach the design of research. This article explores the use of a mixed-method approach to collect data on incontinence in older women and argues for the use of a variety of creative approaches to collect and analyze data.

Two-Dimensional Failure Modeling with Minimal Repair

In this paper, we discuss two-dimensional failure modeling for a system where degradation is due to age and usage. We extend the concept of minimal repair for the one-dimensional case to the two-dimensional case and characterize the failures over a two-dimensional region under minimal repair. An application of this important result to a rnanufacturer's servicing costs for a two-dimensional warranty policy is given and we compare the minimal repair strategy with the strategy of replacement of failure. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Gene-expression profiling reveals distinct expression patterns for classic versus variant Merkel cell phenotypes and new classifier genes to distinguish Merkel cell from small-cell lung carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare aggressive skin tumor which shares histopathological and genetic features with small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), both are of neuroendocrine origin. Comparable to SCLC, MCC cell lines are classified into two different biochemical subgroups designated as 'Classic' and 'Variant'. With the aim to identify typical gene-expression signatures associated with these phenotypically different MCC cell lines subgroups and to search for differentially expressed genes between MCC and SCLC, we used cDNA arrays to pro. le 10 MCC cell lines and four SCLC cell lines. Using significance analysis of microarrays, we defined a set of 76 differentially expressed genes that allowed unequivocal identification of Classic and Variant MCC subgroups. We assume that the differential expression levels of some of these genes reflect, analogous to SCLC, the different biological and clinical properties of Classic and Variant MCC phenotypes. Therefore, they may serve as useful prognostic markers and potential targets for the development of new therapeutic interventions specific for each subgroup. Moreover, our analysis identified 17 powerful classifier genes capable of discriminating MCC from SCLC. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis of these genes on 26 additional MCC and SCLC samples confirmed their diagnostic classification potential, opening opportunities for new investigations into these aggressive cancers.

Unravelling the complexity of muscle impairment in chronic neck pain

Exercise interventions are deemed essential for the effective management of patients with neck pain. However, there has been a lack of consensus on optimal exercise prescription, which has resulted from a paucity of studies to quantify the precise nature of muscle impairment, in people with neck pain. This masterclass will present recent research from our laboratory, which has utilized surface electromyography to investigate cervical flexor muscle impairment in patients with chronic neck pain. This research has identified deficits in the motor control of the deep and superficial cervical flexor muscles in people with chronic neck pain, characterized by a delay in onset of neck muscle contraction associated with movement of the upper limb. In addition, people with neck pain demonstrate an altered pattern of muscle activation, which is characterized by reduced deep cervical flexor muscle activity during a low load cognitive task and increased activity of the superficial cervical flexor muscles during both cognitive tasks and functional activities. The results have demonstrated the complex, multifaceted nature of cervical muscle impairment, which exists in people with a history of neck pain. In turn, this has considerable implications for the rehabilitation of muscle function in people with neck pain disorders. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A low-complexity lattice-based low-PAR transmission scheme for DSL channels

This paper presents a new low-complexity multicarrier modulation (MCM) technique based on lattices which achieves a peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) as low as three. The scheme can be viewed as a drop in replacement for the discrete multitone (DMT) modulation of an asymmetric digital subscriber line modem. We show that the lattice-MCM retains many of the attractive features of sinusoidal-MCM, and does so with lower implementation complexity, O(N), compared with DMT, which requires O(N log N) operations. We also present techniques for narrowband interference rejection and power profiling. Simulation studies confirm that performance of the lattice-MCM is superior, even compared with recent techniques for PAR reduction in DMT.

Talking to children: The within-classroom nature of everyday adult language in the early childhood educational environment

Group-size effects, as changes in the adult language when speaking to individual or multiple children in two- and three-year-olds' Australian childcare centre classrooms were investigated. The language addressed to children by 21 staff members was coded for social (e.g., non-verbal, inferential and pragmatic), and linguistic (e.g., morphological, lexical, syntactic and referential) features. In the two-year-olds' classrooms, minimal differences were found between the language used in dyads (addressed to a single child) and polyads (addressed to more than one child). More extensive group-size effects, particularly in syntactic complexity, were found in the three-year-olds' classrooms. Explanations for the constancy of the adult language input in the younger classrooms, and the changes noted in the older rooms will be discussed in terms of plurality (i.e., more than one listener), methodology, and group-size effects that may be specific to the early childhood educational setting.

Complexity, conflict and uncertainty: Issues in collaboration between child protection and mental health services

This paper provides an analysis of data from a state-wide survey of statutory child protection workers, adult mental health workers, and child mental health workers. Respondents provided details of their experience of collaboration on cases where a parent had mental health problems and there were serious child protection concerns. The survey was conducted as part of a large mixed-method research project on developing best practice at the intersection of child protection and mental health services. Descriptions of 300 cases were provided by 122 respondents. Analyses revealed that a great deal of collaboration occur-red across a wide range of government and community-based agencies; that collaborative processes were often positive and rewarding for workers; and that collaboration was most difficult when the nature of the parental mental illness or the need for child protection intervention was contested. The difficulties experienced included communication, role clarity, competing primary focus, contested parental mental health needs, contested child protection needs, and resources. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increased adjuvant activity of minimal CD8 T cell peptides incorporated into lipid-core-peptides

A problem facing the use of subunit peptide and protein vaccines is their inability to stimulate protective immune responses. Many different approaches have been utilized to overcome this inefficient immune activation. The approach we have taken is to modify the vaccine antigen so that it now has adjuvant properties. To do this, multiple copies of minimal CD8 T cell epitopes were attached to a poly lysine lipid core. These constructs are known as lipid-core-peptides (LCP). The research presented here examines the adjuvant activity of LCP. Using mouse models, we were able to show that LCP were indeed able to activate antigen-presenting cells in vitro and to activate cytotoxic T-cell responses in vivo. More importantly, LCP were able to stimulate the development of a protective antitumour immune response.

Minimal instrumentation may compromise failure diagnosis with an ecological interface

Interfaces designed according to ecological interface design (EID) display higher-order relations and properties of a work domain so that adaptive operator problem solving can be better supported under unanticipated system conditions. Previous empirical studies of EID have assumed that the raw data required to derive and communicate higher-order information would be available and reliable. The present research examines the relative advantages of an EID interface over a conventional piping-and-instrumentation diagram (PID) when instrumentation is maximally or only minimally adequate. Results show an interaction between interface and the adequacy of the instrumentation. Failure diagnosis performance with the EID interface with maximally adequate instrumentation is best overall. Performance with the EID interface drops more drastically from maximally to minimally adequate instrumentation than does performance with the PID interface, to the point where the EID interface with minimally adequate instrumentation supports nonsignificantly worse performance than does the equivalent PID interface. Actual or potential applications of this research include design of instrumentation and displays for complex industrial processes.

Evaluation of clinically relevant changes in patient reported outcomes in knee and hip osteoarthritis: the minimal clinically important improvement

Background: In clinical trials, at the group level, results are usually reported as mean and standard deviation of the change in score, which is not meaningful for most readers. Objective: To determine the minimal clinically important improvement (MCII) of pain, patient's global assessment of disease activity, and functional impairment in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: A prospective multicentre 4 week cohort study involving 1362 outpatients with knee or hip OA was carried out. Data on assessment of pain and patient's global assessment, measured on visual analogue scales, and functional impairment, measured on the Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) function subscale, were collected at baseline and final visits. Patients assessed their response to treatment on a five point Likert scale at the final visit. An anchoring method based on the patient's opinion was used. The MCII was estimated in a subgroup of 814 patients ( 603 with knee OA, 211 with hip OA). Results: For knee and hip OA, MCII for absolute ( and relative) changes were, respectively, ( a) -19.9 mm (-40.8%) and -15.3 mm (-32.0%) for pain; ( b) -18.3 mm ( - 39.0%) and -15.2 mm ( -32.6%) for patient's global assessment; ( c) -9.1 ( -26.0%) and -7.9 ( -21.1%) for WOMAC function subscale score. The MCII is affected by the initial degree of severity of the symptoms but not by age, disease duration, or sex. Conclusion: Using criteria such as MCII in clinical trials would provide meaningful information which would help in interpreting the results by expressing them as a proportion of improved patients.

On minimal models of process systems

Minimal representations are known to have no redundant elements, and are therefore of great importance. Based on the notions of performance and size indices and measures for process systems, the paper proposes conditions for a process model being minimal in a set of functionally equivalent models with respect to a size norm. Generalized versions of known procedures to obtain minimal process models for a given modelling goal, model reduction based on sensitivity analysis and incremental model building are proposed and discussed. The notions and procedures are illustrated and compared on a simple example, that of a simple nonlinear fermentation process with different modelling goals and on a case study of a heat exchanger modelling. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.