Half a century of research on diatoms in athalassic habitats in central Poland

The authors would like to dedicate this paper to Prof. Marcin Pliński who started the phycological research in these unique habitats of Central Poland.Part of the geology in the Łódź province was formed during the Upper Permian period when rich Zechstein salt was deposited. Groundwater drains the deposits and flows out in the village of Pełczyska, creating a unique hydrogeological site in Central Poland. An inland, athalassic ecosystem can be a reference site for halophile microflora. The outflow with surrounding marshes has been an algological research site since 1964. The research reveals changes recorded in diatom assemblages from athalassic habitats, characterized by a wide range of salinity levels, and verifies the tolerance of taxa to salinity. The comparative analysis was based on the diatom material sampled in 1964-1965, 1992-1994 and on recently collected samples. The analysis revealed the temporal change in assemblages caused by a change in the chloride concentration, and the spatial change from one to another habitat type, characterized by varying salinity levels. The halophilic species in the studied habitats included e.g. Halamphora dominici, H. tenerrima, Navicula digitoconvergens, N. meulemansii, Staurophora salina. The analysis of changes allowed the verification of the species’ requirements and tolerance range to the salinity factor. Therefore, in the case of Fragilaria famelica and Halamphora sydowii, we propose a change in the halobion system classification

Data-driven Extraction of Intonation Contour Classes

In this paper we introduce the first steps towards a new datadriven method for extraction of intonation events that does not require any prerequisite prosodic labelling. Provided with data segmented on the syllable constituent level it derives local and global contour classes by stylisation and subsequent clustering of the stylisation parameter vectors. Local contour classes correspond to pitch movements connected to one or several syllables and determine the local f0 shape. Global classes are connected to intonation phrases and determine the f0 register. Local classes initially are derived for syllabic segments, which are then concatenated incrementally by means of statistical language modelling of co-occurrence patterns. Due to its generality the method is in principal language independent and potentially capable to deal also with other aspects of prosody than intonation. 1

Synthesis and properties of a new AB-cross-linked copolymer membrane system

The alcohol permeability and permselectivity properties as well as the morphology of membranes made of a newly developed AB-cross-linked copolymer system composed of elastomeric and glassy components were investigated. The copolymer was synthesized by a hydrosilylation reaction between poly(styrene-stat-isoprenes) (Mn from 40,000 to 100,000 g/mol) with high content in unsaturated side groups (≈ 60% of entire isoprene content) and polyhydrogen polysiloxanes with varying SiH content (0.75 10.7 mol %) and molecular mass, Mn, from 2,500 to 36,000 g/mol. A two-track approach was taken to determine the morphology of the copolymer system. The first employed the usual polymer characterization methods such as electron microscopy, DSC, IR spectroscopy, the density gradient method, and mechanical measurements. For the second approach, different copolymer permeability models were tested so as to give an insight into the copolymer morphology. As a final step, the permeability and permselectivity properties were correlated with the morphological structure of the copolymer system. It was observed that the respective continuous microphase dominated the copolymer's physical properties, as, e.g., permeability, permselectivity, and mechanical properties. The microphase inversion in the copolymer system was proved by the permeability/permselectivity as well as by the mechanical measurements

Hydration modelling of Calcium Sulphates

The CEMHYD3D model has been extended at the University of Twente in last ten years1,2. At present the cement hydration model is extended for the use of gypsum. Although gypsum was present in the model already, the model was not suitable for high contents of gypsum and did not include the transitions between the different calcium sulphate phases (anhydrite, hemihydrate and gypsum). Besides that gypsum was seen as intermediate phase instead of a\ud final phase. The presented model addresses these problems and has the possibility to simulate the microstructure development of gypsum, including reaction kinetics (dissolution, diffusion and precipitation) and the formation of gypsum needles. The model enables multi-time modelling which means the possibility to zoom in and out on the hydration process with respect to time. Multi-time modelling enables the user to study the hydration in more detail in both the early phase (hours) and on the long term (years). This modelling is needed, since the hydration of calcium sulphates is very short compared to that of cement

Weiterentwicklung und Erprobung der Spatendiagnose als Feldmethode zur Bestimmung ökologisch wichtiger Gefügeeigenschaften landwirtschaftlich genutzter Böden [Further Development and Improvement of Spade Diagnosis as Field Method for the Evaluation of Ecological Significant Structure Parameters of Soils under Agricultural Management]

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Vorschlag gemacht, das Bodengefüge aufgrund seiner nach aktuellem Forschungsstand bekannten, vielfältigen Verknüpfung mit der Lebensraum-, Regelungs-, und Produktionsfunktion als geeigneten Indikator für die ökologische Funktionsfähigkeit des Bodens heranzuziehen. Mit der Erweiterten Spatendiagnose nach HAMPL/KUSSEL (ESD) wird eine aus der GÖRBING-Spatendiagnose entwickelte, einfache, wissenschaftlich besser auswertbare Version der Gefügezustandsbeurteilung mit dem Spaten vorgestellt, die den Empfehlungen der ISCO (Internationale Gesellschaft für Bodenschutz) in Bezug auf leichte Vermittelbarkeit und geringen technischen Aufwand sehr nahe kommt. Das Forschungsziel der Arbeit ist es, die Aussagekraft der in der ESD zur Anwendung kommenden Methoden hinsichtlich bewirtschaftungsbedingter Auswirkungen auf den Bodenzustand zu überprüfen. Die ESD umfaßt eine Gefügebonitur, einen einfachen Aggregatstabilitätstest, die Zählung der Wurzeldichte im Unterboden mittels Schablone, die Ermittlung von Bodenfeuchte, Porenvolumen bzw. Lagerungsdichte mit Hilfe von Stechzylindern sowie die Messung des Abscherwiderstands. Boniturmethoden, denen nach aktuellem Forschungsstand wünschenswerte Gefügezustände als Maßstab zugrunde liegen, werden auf diese Weise (qualitativ, aber quantifizierbar) mit der Messung bodenphysikalischer Kennwerte (quantitativ) kombiniert. Aktuell angewandte Methoden der Messung der Aggregatstabilität können nicht zwischen biologischer und verdichtungsbedingter Stabilität von Aggregaten unterscheiden. Dies kann zu fehlerhaften Schlußfolgerungen über die Funktionsfähigkeit der Böden führen. Mit der zusätzlichen Durchführung von Bonituren der Aggregatmorphologie der Mesostruktur soll in der vorliegenden Arbeit der Zusammenhang zwischen biologisch bedingter oder verdichtungsbedingter Aggregatstabilität, der Bildung ackerbaulich wertvoller Aggregatformen(schwammartig, porös - Krümel) und dem Gefügezustand differenziert herausgearbeitet werden

Epistemic NP Modifiers

The paper considers participles such as "unknown", "identified" and "unspecified", which in sentences such as "Solange is staying in an unknown hotel" have readings equivalent to an indirect question "Solange is staying in a hotel, and it is not known which hotel it is." We discuss phenomena including disambiguation of quantifier scope and a restriction on the set of determiners which allow the reading in question. Epistemic modifiers are analyzed in a DRT framework with file (information state) discourse referents. The proposed semantics uses a predication on files and discourse referents which is related to recent developments in dynamic modal predicate calculus. It is argued that a compositional DRT semantics must employ a semantic type of discourse referents, as opposed to just a type of individuals. A connection is developed between the scope effects of epistemic modifiers and the scope-disambiguating effect of "a certain".Comment: Final pre-publication version, 27 pages, Postscript. Final version appears in the proceedings of SALT VI

On the distribution of adjectives in Romanian : the cel construction

This paper deals with the variable position of adjectives in the Romanian DP. As all other Romance languages, Romanian allows for adjectives to appear in both prenominal and post-nominal position. In addition, however, Romanian has a third pattern: the so-called cel construction, in which the adjective in the post-nominal position is preceded by a determiner-like element, cel. This pattern is superficially similar to Determiner Spreading in Greek. In this paper we contrast the cel construction to Greek DS and discuss the similarities and differences between the two. We then present an analysis of cel as involving an appositive specification clause, building on de Vries (2002). We argue that the same structure is also involved in the context of nominal ellipsis, the second environment in which cel is found

Designing crop rotations in organic and low-input agriculture: Evaluation of pre-crop effects

In this overview, the preceding effects of crop pairs are classified by establishing schematic diagrams for use in crop rotation planning in low external input or organic agricultural systems. Results from previous crop rotation trials and earlier diagrams cited in the literature were evaluated in order to classify the succession effects for more than 25 main crop species. Additional information about several cultivation remarks were annotated in small letters for every crop sequence. In a tabular overview, the crop species were arranged into three main categories according to the different duration of their pre-crop effects: I. N fixing, soil fertility increasing legumes and legume-grass mixtures; II. N depleting, intense soil fertility reducing non-legumes; III. modest soil fertility reducing non-legumes

Perfects, resultatives and auxiliaries in early English

In this paper, we will argue for a novel analysis of the auxiliary alternation in Early English, its development and subsequent loss which has broader consequences for the way that auxiliary selection is looked at cross-linguistically. We will present evidence that the choice of auxiliaries accompanying past participles in Early English differed in several significant respects from that in the familiar modern European languages. Specifically, while the construction with have became a full-fledged perfect by some time in the ME period, that with be was actually a stative resultative, which it remained until it was lost. We will show that this accounts for some otherwise surprising restrictions on the distribution of BE in Early English and allows a better understanding of the spread of HAVE through late ME and EModE. Perhaps more importantly, the Early English facts also provide insight into the genesis of the kind of auxiliary selection found in German, Dutch and Italian. Our analysis of them furthermore suggests a promising strategy for explaining cross-linguistic variation in auxiliary selection in terms of variation in the syntactico-semantic structure of the perfect. In this introductory section, we will first provide some background on the historical situation we will be discussing, then we will lay out the main claims for which we will be arguing in the paper