A big idea transmitted pathetically

'A big idea transmitted pathetically' was an exhibition comprising a series of drawing works. These works employ a feminist engagement with the ‘big ideas’ of conceptual art, and enact a ‘redrawing’ of these texts to replay and reveal the complexities of gender politics, representation and language. These works were developed and presented for Bus Projects, Melbourne in 2012.

Language universals and linguistic complexity : Three case studies in core argument marking

In this dissertation I study language complexity from a typological perspective. Since the structuralist era, it has been assumed that local complexity differences in languages are balanced out in cross-linguistic comparisons and that complexity is not affected by the geopolitical or sociocultural aspects of the speech community. However, these assumptions have seldom been studied systematically from a typological point of view. My objective is to define complexity so that it is possible to compare it across languages and to approach its variation with the methods of quantitative typology. My main empirical research questions are: i) does language complexity vary in any systematic way in local domains, and ii) can language complexity be affected by the geographical or social environment? These questions are studied in three articles, whose findings are summarized in the introduction to the dissertation. In order to enable cross-language comparison, I measure complexity as the description length of the regularities in an entity; I separate it from difficulty, focus on local instead of global complexity, and break it up into different types. This approach helps avoid the problems that plagued earlier metrics of language complexity. My approach to grammar is functional-typological in nature, and the theoretical framework is basic linguistic theory. I delimit the empirical research functionally to the marking of core arguments (the basic participants in the sentence). I assess the distributions of complexity in this domain with multifactorial statistical methods and use different sampling strategies, implementing, for instance, the Greenbergian view of universals as diachronic laws of type preference. My data come from large and balanced samples (up to approximately 850 languages), drawn mainly from reference grammars. The results suggest that various significant trends occur in the marking of core arguments in regard to complexity and that complexity in this domain correlates with population size. These results provide evidence that linguistic patterns interact among themselves in terms of complexity, that language structure adapts to the social environment, and that there may be cognitive mechanisms that limit complexity locally. My approach to complexity and language universals can therefore be successfully applied to empirical data and may serve as a model for further research in these areas.

Suite of tools for statistical N-gram language modeling for pattern mining in whole genome sequences

Genome sequences contain a number of patterns that have biomedical significance. Repetitive sequences of various kinds are a primary component of most of the genomic sequence patterns. We extended the suffix-array based Biological Language Modeling Toolkit to compute n-gram frequencies as well as n-gram language-model based perplexity in windows over the whole genome sequence to find biologically relevant patterns. We present the suite of tools and their application for analysis on whole human genome sequence.

Language model cross adaptation for LVCSR system combination

State-of-the-art large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) systems often combine outputs from multiple subsystems developed at different sites. Cross system adaptation can be used as an alternative to direct hypothesis level combination schemes such as ROVER. In normal cross adaptation it is assumed that useful diversity among systems exists only at acoustic level. However, complimentary features among complex LVCSR systems also manifest themselves in other layers of modelling hierarchy, e.g., subword and word level. It is thus interesting to also cross adapt language models (LM) to capture them. In this paper cross adaptation of multi-level LMs modelling both syllable and word sequences was investigated to improve LVCSR system combination. Significant error rate gains up to 6.7% rel. were obtained over ROVER and acoustic model only cross adaptation when combining 13 Chinese LVCSR subsystems used in the 2010 DARPA GALE evaluation. © 2010 ISCA.

The Distribution of Juvenile Fishes in Maryland Coastal Bays in Relation to Environmental Factors: a Multivariate Analysis

Fish assemblage structure of Maryland's coastal lagoon complex was analyzed for spatial and seasonal patterns for the period 1991-2000. Data was made available by Maryland Department of Natural Resources from their MD Coastal Bays Finfish Survey. Dominant species from separate trawl and wiw surveys included blue crab Callinectes sapidus (erroneously included here as a "fish" due to its dominance and commercial importance), bay anchovy Anchoa mitchilli, spot Leiostomous xanthurus, silver perch Bairdiella ehrysoura, and Atlantic menhaden Brevwrtia tyrannus. Ninety-four fish species were identified in the two surveys, a diversity substantially higher than other survey records for Middle Atlantic Bight estuarine and lagoon systems (richness=26 to 78 species). Total species richness for the trawl survey was highest in Chincoteague and lowest in Assawoman and Sinepuxent. On the other hand, mean richness per tow (-area) and related Shannon Weiner Diversity Index were significantly higher in the northern two bays (Assawoman and Isle of Wight Bays) than in the two southern bays (Chincoteague or Sinepuxent Bays). For the seine survey, effort-adjusted diversity indices were significantly lower for Chincoteague Bay than for the other three bays. Higher relative abundances were observed in the northern bays than in the southern bays. The trawl survey exhibited the lowest catch-per-site in Sinepuxent Bay and the highest in Assawoman Bay. The seine survey had the lowest catch-per-site in Chincoteague Bay while the other three embayments were of similar magnitude. There was clear seasonality in assemblage structure with peak abundance and diversity in the summer compared to other seasons. Blue crabs in particular showed a c. 2-fold decline in relative abundance from early summer to fall, which is likely attributable to harvest removals (i.e., an exploitation rate of c. 50%). Seagrass coverage, although increasing over the course of the 10 year survey, did not have obvious effects on species diversity and abundance across or within the embayments, although it did have positive associations with two important species: bay anchovy and summer flounder Pavalich thys dentatus. Atlantic menhaden were most dominant in Assawoman Bay, which could be related to higher primary production typically observed in this Bay in comparison to the other three. (PDF contains 99 pages)

Bilingual Lexicography:Relevance of Corpora. The Example of German-Basque as Language Pair

Presentation for the 5th International Conference on Corpus Linguistics (CILC 2013), V Congreso Internacional de Lingüistica de Corpus.

Language distance and non-native syntactic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials

[EN] In this study, we explore native and non-native syntactic processing, paying special attention to the language distance factor. To this end, we compared how native speakers of Basque and highly proficient non-native speakers of Basque who are native speakers of Spanish process certain core aspects of Basque syntax. Our results suggest that differences in native versus non-native language processing strongly correlate with language distance: native/non-native processing differences obtain if a syntactic parameter of the non-native grammar diverges from the native grammar. Otherwise, non-native processing will approximate native processing as levels of proficiency increase. We focus on three syntactic parameters: (i) the head parameter, (ii) argument alignment (ergative/accusative), and (iii) verb agreement. The first two diverge in Basque and Spanish, but the third is the same in both languages. Our results reveal that native and non-native processing differs for the diverging syntactic parameters, but not for the convergent one. These findings indicate that language distance has a significant impact in non-native language processing.

ENEKuS – a key model for managing the transformation of the normalisation of the Basque language in the workplace

The aim of this study is to develop a reference model for intervention in the language processes applied to the transformation of language normalisation within organisations of a socio-economic nature. It is based on the case study of an experience carried out over10 years within a trades’ union confederation, and has pursued a strategy of a basically qualitative research carried out in three stages: 1) undertaking field work through application of action-research methodology, 2) reconstructing experiences following processes of systematisation and conceptualisation of the systematised data, applying methodologies for the Systematisation of Experiences and Grounded Theory, and 3) formulating a model for intervention, applying the Systems Approach methodology. Finally, we identified nine key ideas that make up the conceptual framework for the ENEKuS reference model, which is structured in nine ‘action points', each having an operating sub-model applicable in practice.

Evaluation of woman fisherfolks involvement in fisheries activities in Kainji Lake basin

The extent of rural women fisherfolks contribution to fisheries was grossly under estimated and certainly under valued. The basis of their involvement in fisheries activities is to make themselves equal partners to men productive and self reliant participants in the process of improving their own and their family living standard and to enable them realize their full potentials. This survey is informed a system of data collection with the aid of questionnaires and analysis. Ninety-six of the questionnaires were administered to women fisher folks in eight fishing communities selected at random. Thirty seven (97) percent of the women fisher folks are between the ages of 25-35 years, 59.4% of them can only read and write in Arabic language and 21.9% only are literature in western education, which is a general characteristic of the rural population in Nigeria. 24.0% of the respondents are in full time fishing activities while 65-5% are fishmongers. They belong to cooperative societies but only 26% indicated to have benefited from loan and credit facilities. 84.4% of the respondents are sustained by the business. The major problems facing women fisherfolks includes poor market price, fish spoilage, high transport cost and lack of access to loan and credit facilities and extension assistance. Solution to these problems will increase their status benefit and development

Gut microbiota promote hematopoiesis to control bacterial infection

The commensal microbiota impacts specific immune cell populations and their functions at peripheral sites, such as gut mucosal tissues. However, it remains unknown whether gut microbiota control immunity through regulation of hematopoiesis at primary immune sites. We reveal that germ-free mice display reduced proportions and differentiation potential of specific myeloid cell progenitors of both yolk sac and bone marrow origin. Homeostatic innate immune defects may lead to impaired early responses to pathogens. Indeed, following systemic infection with Listeria monocytogenes, germ-free and oral antibiotic-treated mice display increased pathogen burden and acute death. Recolonization of germ-free mice with a complex microbiota restores defects in myelopoiesis and resistance to Listeria. These findings reveal that gut bacteria direct innate immune cell development via promoting hematopoiesis, contributing to our appreciation of the deep evolutionary connection between mammals and their microbiota.

Investigations on phytoplankton with special reference to water usage

Experiments and observations on the phytoplankton of certain lakes in the English Lake District were made from early 1973 to the end of March, 1974. They included laboratory and lake bioassays and observations on the quantity and quality of the phytoplankton in six lakes. The introductory sections of the report are about algae, the ecology of phytoplankton and the scope of the contracted work. Laboratory bioassays on water from one lake, Blelham Tarn, showed that phosphorus, silicon (for diatoms) and organic substances forming complexes with iron were the major substances limiting the growth of the algae tested. The growth of the test algae was limited to different degrees by those substances and, to some extent, to a greater or lesser degree at different times of year. It is suggested that a relatively simple form of bioassay could give valuable information to water undertakings. Lake bioassays and other experiments were carried out by using large in situ tubular plastic enclosures. Two such investigations are described. The effects of a change in sewerage in two drainage basins on the phytoplankton of three lakes is described and some data given about changes since 1945 in three other lakes in the same overall drainage basin. These latter lakes have been affected too by changes in sewerage and by increasing inputs of domestic and agricultural wastes. Throughout, the relevance of the work done to practical problems of water usage is kept in mind and discussed. In the last section special reference is made to the largely unpredictable results of water transfers. The report ends with a note on river phytoplankton.

O cantar da Germânia: política e cultura na Alemanha na passagem dos séculos XII e XIII

Esta tese desenvolvida na linha de pesquisa Política e Cultura destaca o interesse pelos fenômenos da transmissão do conhecimento intelectual. A tese reconstrói a expressão da cultura política medieval germânica pela ótica de dois poetas, Walther von der Vogelweide e Wolfram von Eschenbach, integrantes da aristocracia guerreira. Os suportes teóricos dos Sprüche, sentenças de natureza política de Vogelweide e do Parzifal de Eschenbach, foram fundamentais para compreender o posicionamento político e cultural alemão frente às transformações que afetaram a Cristandade no período de fins do século XII ao início do século XIII. Esse período foi marcado pelo confronto de Papas e Imperadores em torno do direito de exercer a autoridade no âmbito do Sacro Império Romano-Germânico. O movimento cruzadista, o renascimento urbano e a ascensão de novos atores sociais burgueses integram o conjunto dos elementos a serem levados em conta na elaboração da tese. A ideia norteadora do trabalho tornou necessário recorrer a obras literárias com objetivo de elucidar questões de natureza histórica, tendo claro que a Literatura não é um contraponto da História e o texto resultante contribua para ressignificar a produção política da cultura medieval e um melhor entendimento dos mecanismos do poder na Alemanha medieval. No plano teórico-metodológico recorremos à chamada História Cultural fornecendo uma visão integradora dos planos político, social e econômico.

Ancient DNA from South-East Europe Reveals Different Events during Early and Middle Neolithic Influencing the European Genetic Heritage

The importance of the process of Neolithization for the genetic make-up of European populations has been hotly debated, with shifting hypotheses from a demic diffusion (DD) to a cultural diffusion (CD) model. In this regard, ancient DNA data from the Balkan Peninsula, which is an important source of information to assess the process of Neolithization in Europe, is however missing. In the present study we show genetic information on ancient populations of the South-East of Europe. We assessed mtDNA from ten sites from the current territory of Romania, spanning a time-period from the Early Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. mtDNA data from Early Neolithic farmers of the Starcevo Cris culture in Romania (Carcea, Gura Baciului and Negrilesti sites), confirm their genetic relationship with those of the LBK culture (Linienbandkeramik Kultur) in Central Europe, and they show little genetic continuity with modern European populations. On the other hand, populations of the Middle-Late Neolithic (Boian, Zau and Gumelnita cultures), supposedly a second wave of Neolithic migration from Anatolia, had a much stronger effect on the genetic heritage of the European populations. In contrast, we find a smaller contribution of Late Bronze Age migrations to the genetic composition of Europeans. Based on these findings, we propose that permeation of mtDNA lineages from a second wave of Middle-Late Neolithic migration from North-West Anatolia into the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe represent an important contribution to the genetic shift between Early and Late Neolithic populations in Europe, and consequently to the genetic make-up of modern European populations.