Solving unusual clinical presentations of the bovine abdomen: back to anatomy

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Elicited imitation as a window into developmental stages

In the second language acquisition literature, data of naturally occurring language use are considered the most ideal data to make statements about second-language (L2) development. This study examines to what extent experimentally elicited data can provide an equally valid basis for determining L2 development, by testing predictions derived from Processability Theory regarding the L2 acquisition of the German case system. Using naturally occurring language data, previous research on L2 German case acquisition has uncovered three developmental stages. The present cross-sectional study investigates whether the same stages occur in data obtained from an experimental task (i.e., a computer oral elicited imitation task (OEIT). Thirty-six university L2 learners of German participated in the study. The results show that the elicited data prove comparable to the naturally occurring data. As such, this study corroborates a previous validation study on developmental stages in L2 English, which demonstrated the comparability of naturally occurring and experimentally elicited data. In addition, concerning methodological advancement of the OEIT design, the present study proposes to include a direct measure of comprehension

Supplementarity in the European carbon emission market

In this paper we investigate emission trading within the EU and, more specifically, some proposals to impose ceilings on emission trading. We compare different proposals put forward by the EU negotiators at the international level in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol and apply them to intra-EU greenhouse gasses emission trading. It turns out that these proposals imply important differences in the distribution of emission trading gains among the EU member states. A public choice approach is used to investigate which EU countries would benefit from imposing import and/or export ceilings. We try to interpret the ceiling proposals as the outcome of a voting game among the EU member states on uniform ceiling rates. The simulations suggest that the most likely ceiling proposals match closely the interests of the big EU member states France, the UK and in particular Germany. The simulation model we are using consists of a set of marginal cost of carbon emission abatement functions calibrated to PRIMES simulation results reported by Capros and Mantzos (1999).emission trading; marginal abatement cost curves; supplementarity

A case of epigastric heteropagus twinning with other congenital abnormalities in a Chihuahua puppy

A two-year-old Chihuahua was presented on day 58 of pregnancy due to very marked abdominal distension. A cesarean section was performed and five normal and one clearly abnormal puppy were delivered. Examination of the abnormal puppy revealed a combination of congenital anomalies including epigastric heteropagus twinning. The autosite showed focal cranial aplasia cutis, anasarca, lissencephaly, palatoschisis, sternal agenesis and eventeratio (gastroschisis/schistocoelia). The partly formed parasitic twin was attached at the sternal region of the autosite and demonstrated four formed limbs, atresia rectum, atresia ani, a single kidney, tail agenesis and atresia vulvae. To the authors' knowledge, this is only the third reported case of heteropagus conjoined twinning in the dog and the first reported case of canine epigastric heteropagus twinning. In addition, there appear to be no reports in the veterinary literature noting an association with conjoined twinning in the dog with focal cranial aplasia cutis, eventeratio, lissencephaly, palatoschisis and anasarca. An in-depth literature review was hampered by the lack of a uniform nomenclature to identify this type of conjoined twinning