Adverbs of time

Tidsadverbierne allerede, stadig, endnu, endelig og snart markerer en afstand mellem, hvad udsigeren forventer, og hvad der faktisk er tilfældet. Hvis forventningen er en tilstands ophør eller indtræffen, har vi den tidslige "betydning". I de simple tilfælde markerer de forskellige adverbier forskellige relationer mellem udsigelsestidspunktet, tilstandens forventede forandring og dens faktiske forandring. I de mere komplekse tilfælde markerer de en konflikt mellem en tilstand og en heraf afhængig begivenhed. Adverbiernes semantik er imidlertid ikke bundet til tid, men implicerer en generel skematik, hvor en tilstand afhænger af en skala – der prototypisk kan være tiden – og hvor adverbiet implicerer en konflikt mellem udsigerens mentale repræsentation af, hvor på skalaen tilstanden er placeret, og hvor den faktisk befinder sig. Tidsadverbierne er primært udsigelsesmarkører

Det encyklopædiske hos Proust

Intrikate forbindelser finder man ligeledes i Prousts På sporet af den tabte tid, og Svend Østergaard demonstrerer i sin artikel, hvordan værkets encyklopædisk umådeholdne beskrivelser af omgangsformer, arkitektur, påklædning, diskussionsemner og ikke mindst navne tjener en overordnet funktion, nemligblandt andet at afdække selskabsverdenens sociale dynamik

Determination of PCR efficiency in chelex-100 purified clinical samples and comparison of real-time quantitative PCR and conventional PCR for detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia pneumoniae infection has been detected by serological methods, but PCR is gaining more interest. A number of different PCR assays have been developed and some are used in combination with serology for diagnosis. Real-time PCR could be an attractive new PCR method; therefore it must be evaluated and compared to conventional PCR methods. RESULTS: We compared the performance of a newly developed real-time PCR with a conventional PCR method for detection of C. pneumoniae. The PCR methods were tested on reference samples containing C. pneumoniae DNA and on 136 nasopharyngeal samples from patients with a chronic cough. We found the same detection limit for the two methods and that clinical performance was equal for the real-time PCR and for the conventional PCR method, although only three samples tested positive. To investigate whether the low prevalence of C. pneumoniae among patients with a chronic cough was caused by suboptimal PCR efficiency in the samples, PCR efficiency was determined based on the real-time PCR. Seventeen of twenty randomly selected clinical samples had a similar PCR efficiency to samples containing pure genomic C. pneumoniae DNA. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the performance of real-time PCR is comparable to that of conventional PCR, but that needs to be confirmed further. Real-time PCR can be used to investigate the PCR efficiency which gives a rough estimate of how well the real-time PCR assay works in a specific sample type. Suboptimal PCR efficiency of PCR is not a likely explanation for the low positivity rate of C. pneumoniae in patients with a chronic cough

Method to investigate and plan the application of low temperature district heating to existing hydraulic radiator systems in existing buildings

This study presents a method to adapt existing hydronic systems in buildings to take advantage of low temperature district heating (LTDH). Plate radiators connected to double string heating circuits were considered in an optimization procedure, based on supply and return temperatures, to obtain the required logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD) for a low temperature heating system. The results of the analysis are presented as the average reduction of LMTD over the heating season compared to the base case design conditions. Two scenarios were investigated based on the assumption of a likely cost reduction in the end users' energy bills of 1% for each 1 °C reduction of return and average supply and return temperatures. The results showed possible discounts of 14% and 16% respectively, due to more efficient operation of the radiators. These were achieved without any intervention in the thermal envelope or to the heating systems, through simply adjusting the temperatures according to demand and properly controlling the plate radiators with thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs)