Structure informationnelle et constructions du kabyle : Etude de trois types de phrase dans le cadre de la grammaire constructionnelle

Information structure and Kabyle constructions Three sentence types in the Construction Grammar framework The study examines three Kabyle sentence types and their variants. These sentence types have been chosen because they code the same state of affairs but have different syntactic structures. The sentence types are Dislocated sentence, Cleft sentence, and Canonical sentence. I argue first that a proper description of these sentence types should include information structure and, second, that a description which takes into account information structure is possible in the Construction Grammar framework. The study thus constitutes a testing ground for Construction Grammar for its applicability to a less known language. It constitutes a testing ground notably because the differentiation between the three types of sentences cannot be done without information structure categories and, consequently, these categories must be integrated also in the grammatical description. The information structure analysis is based on the model outlined by Knud Lambrecht. In that model, information structure is considered as a component of sentence grammar that assures the pragmatically correct sentence forms. The work starts by an examination of the three sentence types and the analyses that have been done in André Martinet s functional grammar framework. This introduces the sentence types chosen as the object of study and discusses the difficulties related to their analysis. After a presentation of the state of the art, including earlier and more recent models, the principles and notions of Construction Grammar and of Lambrecht s model are introduced and explicated. The information structure analysis is presented in three chapters, each treating one of the three sentence types. The analyses are based on spoken language data and elicitation. Prosody is included in the study when a syntactic structure seems to code two different focus structures. In such cases, it is pertinent to investigate whether these are coded by prosody. The final chapter presents the constructions that have been established and the problems encountered in analysing them. It also discusses the impact of the study on the theories used and on the theory of syntax in general.

Nés sous de bons auspices? Etude qualitative de facteurs contribuant à l'acquisition du bilinguisme par les enfants d'un couple mixte

Pro gradu- tutkielmassani tarkastelen suomi-ranska kaksikielisyyden kehittymistä perheissä, joissa vanhemmilla on eri äidinkieli. Työni tavoitteena on ollut tutkia kuinka eri ympäristötekijät vaikuttavat kaksikielisyyden omaksumiseen ja miten perheiden erilainen panostus vähemmistökielen, ts. kielen joka ei esiinny ympäristössä, oppimiseen näkyy saavutetuissa tuloksissa. Tutkimukseeni osallistui 13 perhettä, joilla on 10-12 vuotiaita, ranskaa ja suomea päivittäin käyttäviä lapsia. Lapsia oli yhteensä 18. Voidakseni tarkastella myös kieliympäristön vaikutusta oppimiseen valittiin perheistä kuusi Suomesta ja seitsemän Ranskasta sekä Sveitsin ranskankieliseltä alueelta. Tutkimusmenetelmiini kuului vanhempien haastattelu perheen sosiolingvististen tekijöiden selville saamiseksi ja lasten kanssa keskustelu suullisen kielitaidon arvioimiseksi. Pääpaino kielitaidon arvioinnissa oli kuitenkin kirjallisella tekstillä, jonka lapset tuottivat molemmilla kielillä tekstittömän kirjan kuvien perusteella. Teksteistä suoritettiin virheanalyysit, joissa eri virheet jaettiin ortografisiin, semanttisiin ja kieliopillisiin virheisiin. Jokaiselle lapselle lasketiin myös keskiarvo, joka osoitti kuinka monta sanaa tekstissä oli jokaista virhettä kohti. Näiden keskiarvojen pohjalta tutkittiin yhteneväisyyksiä virhemäärien sekä perheiden sosiolingvististen tekijöiden kesken. Yhteenvedossa verrattiin myös tuloksia teoriaosassa esitettyihin kielitieteilijöiden tarjoamiin periaatteisiin. Tutkielman perusteella voidaan todeta, että ympäristön vaikutus näytetään usein aliarvioitaneen kaksikielisyyttä koskevissa teoksissa. Hyvään kielitaitoon vähemmistökielessä tarvitaan enemmän kuin yksi kieli - yksi henkilö menetelmä, jossa vanhemmat puhuvat lapselle omaa äidinkieltään. Hyviksi vahvistuskeinoiksi havaittiin varsinkin kaksikielinen koulu sekä useat vierailut toisen vanhemman kotimaahan. Varsinkin perheen nuorimpien lasten vähemmistökielen oppimiseen tulisi panostaa sillä näillä on syntymästään asti mahdollisuus käyttää enemmistökieltä myös vanhempien sisarusten kanssa. Kieliympäristön vaikutuksesta havaittiin, että Suomessa asuvat lapset hallitsivat yleisesti ottaen paremmin vähemmistökielensä kuin Ranskassa asuvat. Tähän pidettiin syynä ranskalais-suomalaisen koulun positiivista vaikutusta kielen oppimiselle sekä ranskankielen arvostettua asemaa Suomessa. Avainsanat: Kaksikielisyys, kieltenoppiminen, bilinguisme, acquisition des langues, couple mixte

Proposed vehicle impact speed: Severe injury probability relationships for selected crash types

Speed is recognised as a key contributor to crash likelihood and severity, and to road safety performance in general. Its fundamental role has been recognised by making Safe Speeds one of the four pillars of the Safe System. In this context, impact speeds above which humans are likely to sustain fatal injuries have been accepted as a reference in many Safe System infrastructure policy and planning discussions. To date, there have been no proposed relationships for impact speeds above which humans are likely to sustain fatal or serious (severe) injury, a more relevant Safe System measure. A research project on Safe System intersection design required a critical review of published literature on the relationship between impact speed and probability of injury. This has led to a number of questions being raised about the origins, accuracy and appropriateness of the currently accepted impact speed–fatality probability relationships (Wramborg 2005) in many policy documents. The literature review identified alternative, more recent and more precise relationships derived from the US crash reconstruction databases (NASS/CDS). The paper proposes for discussion a set of alternative relationships between vehicle impact speed and probability of MAIS3+ (fatal and serious) injury for selected common crash types. Proposed Safe System critical impact speed values are also proposed for use in road infrastructure assessment. The paper presents the methodology and assumptions used in developing these relationships. It identifies further research needed to confirm and refine these relationships. Such relationships would form valuable inputs into future road safety policies in Australia and New Zealand.

A simplified PCR test for early detection of dwarf off-types in micropropagated Cavendish bananas (Musa spp. AAA)

The dwarf somaclonal variant is a major problem affecting micropropagation of the banana cultivar Williams (Musa spp. AAA; subgroup Cavendish). This problem arises from genetic changes that occur during the tissue culture process. Early identification of this problem is difficult and propagators must wait until plants are ex vitro in order to visualise the dwarfism phenotype. In this study, we have improved a SCAR-based molecular diagnostic technique, developed by Damasco et al. [Acta Hortic. 461 (1997) 157], for the early identification of dwarf off-types. We have included a positive internal control in a multiplex PCR and adapted the technique for use with small amounts of fresh in vitro leaf material as PCR template. The control product is a 500 bp fragment from 18S rRNA and is amplified in all tissues irrespective of phenotype. The use of small in vitro leaf material removing the need for genomic DNA extraction.

O2- and O1- types of oxygen species on Ni and barium-dosed Ni and Cu surfaces

He II UPS and XPS study of oxygen adsorption on Ni and barium-dosed Ni and Cu surfaces at 300 K show two types of oxygen species which are assigned to O2- and O1- (ad).

A field investigation of solubility and food chain accumulation of biosolid-cadmium across diverse soil types

One of the pathways for transfer of cadmium (Cd) through the food chain is addition of urban wastewater solids (biosolids) to soil, and many countries have restrictions on biosolid use to minimize crop Cd contamination. The basis of these restrictions often lies in laboratory or glasshouse experimentation of soil-plant transfer of Cd, but these studies are confounded by artefacts from growing crops in controlled laboratory conditions. This study examined soil to plant (wheat grain) transfer of Cd under a wide range of field environments under typical agronomic conditions, and compared the solubility and bioavailability of Cd in biosolids to soluble Cd salts. Solubility of biosolid Cd (measured by examining Cd partitioning between soil and soil solution) was found to be equal to or greater than that of soluble Cd salts, possibly due to competing ions added with the biosolids. Conversely, bioavailability of Cd to wheat and transfer to grain was less than that of soluble Cd salts, possibly due to addition of Zn with the biosolids, causing reduced plant uptake or grain loading, or due to complexation of soluble Cd2+ by dissolved organic matter.

Holographic methods for the fabrication of various types of mirrors

A comprehensive set of new configurations for the holographic simulation of a wide variety of mirrors is described. These holographically simulated mirrors (HSMs) have been experimentally realized and their imaging performance has been studied.

Round scallops and square meshes: a comparison of four codend types on the catch rates of target species and by-catch in the Queensland (Australia) saucer scallop (Amusium balloti) trawl fishery

Concern over the amount of by-catch from benthic trawl fisheries and research into the problem have increased in recent years. The present paper demonstrated that by-catch rates in the Queensland (Australia) saucer scallop (Amusium balloti) trawl fishery can be reduced by 77% (by weight) using nets fitted with a turtle excluder device (TED) and a square-mesh codend, compared with a standard diamond-mesh codend with no TED. This large reduction was achieved with no significant effect on the legal size scallop catch rate and 39% fewer undersize scallops were caught. In total, 382 taxa were recorded in the by-catch, which was dominated by sponges, portunid crabs, small demersal and benthic fish (e.g. leatherjackets, stingerfish, bearded ghouls, nemipterids, longspine emperors, lizard fish, triggerfish, flounders and rabbitfish), elasmobranchs (e.g. mainly rays) and invertebrates (e.g. sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and bivalve molluscs). Extremely high reductions in catch rate (i.e. ≥85%) were demonstrated for several by-catch species owing to the square-mesh codend. Square-mesh codends show potential as a means of greatly reducing by-catch and lowering the incidental capture and mortality of undersize scallops and Moreton Bay bugs (Thenus australiensis) in this fishery

Diversity and abundance of fungivorous thrips (Thysanoptera) associated with leaf-litter and bark across forest types and two tree genera in subtropical Australia

Leaf-litter thrips were much more common and diverse in dry sclerophyll forest than in wetter forest types in subtropical southeast Queensland, Australia. In dry sclerophyll forest, the species composition of thrips in leaf-litter was strongly differentiated from the thrips fauna associated with bark of the trees Eucalyptus major and Acacia melanoxylon (4 of 34 species in common). The species composition of bark-dwelling thrips was similar across the two tree species and also across two eucalypts with different bark types, Eucalyptus major (flaky) and Eucalyptus siderophloia (rough). The diversity of thrips from the leaf-litter was not differentiated across all of these tree species. Virtually all thrips collected were Phlaeothripidae, subfamilies Idolothripinae and Phlaeothripinae. Idolothripinae were associated almost exclusively with leaf-litter, but Phlaeothripinae were in leaf-litter and bark. The association of fungal-feeding thrips with dry sclerophyll forest raises questions about their ecological requirements and the role they play in nutrient cycling. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Influence of oxygen content of the certain types of biodiesels on particulate oxidative potential

Oxidative potential (OP) is related to the organic phase, specifically to its oxygenated organic fraction (OOA). Furthermore, the oxygen content of fuel molecules has significant influence on particulate OP. Thus, this study aimed to explore the actual dependency of the OOA and ROS to the oxygen content of the fuel. In order to reach the goal, different biodiesels blends, with various ranges of oxygen content; have been employed. The compact time of flight aerosol mass spectrometer (c-ToF AMS) enabled better identification of OOA. ROS monitored by using two assays: DTT and BPEA-nit. Despite emitting lower mass, both assays agreed that oxygen content of a biodiesel is directly correlated with its OOA, and highly related to its OP. Hence, the more oxygen included in the considered biodiesels, the higher the OP of PM emissions. This highlights the importance of taking oxygen content into account while assessing emissions from new fuel types, which is relevant from a health effects standpoint.

Structures of some unusual types of organic compounds

Structures of a variety of compounds isolated in reactions and elucidated with the help of spectral (uv,ir,nmr and mass) data, have been discussed. In a few cases, the assigned structures were confirmed by x-ray crystal structure analysis.

Crinkles in connectivity: combining genetics and other types of biological data to estimate movement and interbreeding between populations

Marine species generally have large population sizes, continuous distributions and high dispersal capacity. Despite this, they are often subdivided into separate populations, which are the basic units of fisheries management. For example, populations of some fisheries species across the deep water of the Timor Trench are genetically different, inferring minimal movement and interbreeding. When connectivity is higher than the Timor Trench example, but not so high that the populations become one, connectivity between populations is crinkled. Crinkled connectivity occurs when migration is above the threshold required to link populations genetically, but below the threshold for demographic links. In future, genetic estimates of connectivity over crinkled links could be uniquely combined with other data, such as estimates of population size and tagging and tracking data, to quantify demographic connectedness between these types of populations. Elasmobranch species may be ideal targets for this research because connectivity between populations is more likely to be crinkled than for finfish species. Fisheries stock-assessment models could be strengthened with estimates of connectivity to improve the strategic and sustainable harvesting of biological resources.

On various types of decoupling for time-varying system

This paper deals with the problem of decoupling a class of linear time-varying multi-variable systems, based on the defining property that the impulse response matrix of a decoupled system is diagonal. Depending on the properties of the coefficient matrices of the vector differential equation of the open-loop system, the system may be uniformly or totally decoupled. The necessary and sufficient conditions that permit a system to be uniformly or totally decoupled by state variable feedback are given. The main contribution of this paper is the precise definition of these two classes of decoupling and a rigorous derivation of the necessary and sufficient conditions which show the necessity of requiring that the system be of constant ordered rank with respect to observability. A simple example illustrates the importance of having several definitions of decoupling. Finally, the results are specialized to the case of time invariant systems.

Effect of biochar amendment on yield and photosynthesis of peanut on two types of soils

Abstract Biochar has significant potential to improve crop performance. This study examined the effect of biochar application on the photosynthesis and yield of peanut crop grown on two soil types. The commercial peanut cultivar Middleton was grown on red ferrosol and redoxi-hydrosol (Queensland, Australia) amended with a peanut shell biochar gradient (0, 0.375, 0.750, 1.50, 3.00 and 6.00 %, w/w, equivalent up to 85 t ha−1) in a glasshouse pot experiment. Biomass and pod yield, photosynthesis-[CO2] response parameters, leaf characteristics and soil properties (carbon, nitrogen (N) and nutrients) were quantified. Biochar significantly improved peanut biomass and pod yield up to 2- and 3-folds respectively in red ferrosol and redoxi-hydrosol. A modest (but significant) biochar-induced improvement of the maximumelectron transport rate and saturating photosynthetic rate was observed for red ferrosol. This response was correlated to increased leaf N and accompanied with improved soil available N and biological N fixation. Biochar application also improved the availability of other soil nutrients, which appeared critical in improving peanut performance, especially on infertile redoxihydrosol. Our study suggests that application of peanut shell derived biochar has strong potential to improve peanut yield on red ferrosol and redoxi-hydrosol. Biochar soil amendment can affect leaf N status and photosynthesis, but the effect varied with soil type.