A Type-Theoretic Account of Neg-Raising Predicates in Tree Adjoining Grammars

International audienceNeg-Raising (NR) verbs form a class of verbs with a clausal complement that show the following behavior: when a negation syntactically attaches to the matrix predicate, it can semantically attach to the embedded predicate. This paper presents an account of NR predicates within Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG). We propose a lexical semantic interpretation that heavily relies on a Montague-like semantics for TAG and on higher-order types

500,000 Years of Environmental History in Eastern Anatolia: The PALEOVAN Drilling Project

International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) drilled a complete succession of the lacustrine sediment sequence deposited during the last ~500,000 years in Lake Van, Eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Based on a detailed seismic site survey, two sites at a water depth of up to 360 m were drilled in summer 2010, and cores were retrieved from sub-lake-floor depths of 140 m (Northern Basin) and 220 m (Ahlat Ridge). To obtain a complete sedimentary section, the two sites were multiple-cored in order to investigate the paleoclimate history of a sensitive semi-arid region between the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean seas. Further scientific goals of the PALEOVAN project are the reconstruction of earthquake activity, as well as the temporal, spatial, and compositional evolution of volcanism as reflected in the deposition of tephra layers. The sediments host organic matter from different sources and hence composition, which will be unravelled using biomarkers. Pathways for migration of continental and mantle-derived noble gases will be analyzed in pore waters. Preliminary 40Ar/39Ar single crystal dating of tephra layers and pollen analyses suggest that the Ahlat Ridge record encompasses more than half a million years of paleoclimate and volcanic/geodynamic history, providing the longest continental record in the entire Near East to date

Metabolically active microbial communities in marine sediment under high-CO2 and low-pH extremes

Sediment-hosting hydrothermal systems in the Okinawa Trough maintain a large amount of liquid, supercritical and hydrate phases of CO2 in the seabed. The emission of CO2 may critically impact the geochemical, geophysical and ecological characteristics of the deep-sea sedimentary environment. So far it remains unclear whether microbial communities that have been detected in such high-CO2 and low-pH habitats are metabolically active, and if so, what the biogeochemical and ecological consequences for the environment are. In this study, RNA-based molecular approaches and radioactive tracer-based respiration rate assays were combined to study the density, diversity and metabolic activity of microbial communities in CO2-seep sediment at the Yonaguni Knoll IV hydrothermal field of the southern Okinawa Trough. In general, the number of microbes decreased sharply with increasing sediment depth and CO2 concentration. Phylogenetic analyses of community structure using reverse-transcribed 16S ribosomal RNA showed that the active microbial community became less diverse with increasing sediment depth and CO2 concentration, indicating that microbial activity and community structure are sensitive to CO2 venting. Analyses of RNA-based pyrosequences and catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization data revealed that members of the SEEP-SRB2 group within the Deltaproteobacteria and anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME-2a and -2c) were confined to the top seafloor, and active archaea were not detected in deeper sediments (13–30 cm in depth) characterized by high CO2. Measurement of the potential sulfate reduction rate at pH conditions of 3–9 with and without methane in the headspace indicated that acidophilic sulfate reduction possibly occurs in the presence of methane, even at very low pH of 3. These results suggest that some members of the anaerobic methanotrophs and sulfate reducers can adapt to the CO2-seep sedimentary environment; however, CO2 and pH in the deep-sea sediment were found to severely impact the activity and structure of the microbial community

Global Distribution of Microbial Abundance and Biomass in Subseafloor Sediment

The global geographic distribution of subseafloor sedimentary microbes and the cause(s) of that distribution are largely unexplored. Here, we show that total microbial cell abundance in subseafloor sediment varies between sites by ca. five orders of magnitude. This variation is strongly correlated with mean sedimentation rate and distance from land. Based on these correlations, we estimate global subseafloor sedimentary microbial abundance to be 2.9⋅1029 cells [corresponding to 4.1 petagram (Pg) C and ∼0.6% of Earth’s total living biomass]. This estimate of subseafloor sedimentary microbial abundance is roughly equal to previous estimates of total microbial abundance in seawater and total microbial abundance in soil. It is much lower than previous estimates of subseafloor sedimentary microbial abundance. In consequence, we estimate Earth’s total number of microbes and total living biomass to be, respectively, 50–78% and 10–45% lower than previous estimates

Bacterial diversity and community composition from seasurface to subseafloor

© The International Society for Microbial Ecology, 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in ISME Journal 10 (2016): 979–989, doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.175.We investigated compositional relationships between bacterial communities in the water column and those in deep-sea sediment at three environmentally distinct Pacific sites (two in the Equatorial Pacific and one in the North Pacific Gyre). Through pyrosequencing of the v4–v6 hypervariable regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, we characterized 450 104 pyrotags representing 29 814 operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% similarity). Hierarchical clustering and non-metric multidimensional scaling partition the samples into four broad groups, regardless of geographic location: a photic-zone community, a subphotic community, a shallow sedimentary community and a subseafloor sedimentary community (greater than or equal to1.5 meters below seafloor). Abundance-weighted community compositions of water-column samples exhibit a similar trend with depth at all sites, with successive epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic and abyssopelagic communities. Taxonomic richness is generally highest in the water-column O2 minimum zone and lowest in the subseafloor sediment. OTUs represented by abundant tags in the subseafloor sediment are often present but represented by few tags in the water column, and represented by moderately abundant tags in the shallow sediment. In contrast, OTUs represented by abundant tags in the water are generally absent from the subseafloor sediment. These results are consistent with (i) dispersal of marine sedimentary bacteria via the ocean, and (ii) selection of the subseafloor sedimentary community from within the community present in shallow sediment.This study was funded by the Biological Oceanography Program of the US National Science Foundation (grant OCE-0752336) and by the NSF-funded Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (grant NSF-OCE-0939564)

The accident insurance as a promising direction for insurance in Russia

Статья посвящена анализу состояния рынка услуг страхования от несчастных случаев. Актуальность исследования определяется тем, что страхование является неотъемлемым атрибутом цивилизованного общества, позволяющим сохранить обеспеченность доходами при неблагоприятных ситуациях. По статистике в России уровень травматизма и непредвиденных обстоятельств весьма велик. Люди традиционно уделяют мало внимания формированию резервов на случай временной или постоянной нетрудоспособности. Цель работы: рассмотреть систему страхования от несчастных случаев. Методы исследования: метод сопоставления, необходимый для выявления главных тенденций на рынке страховых услуг; аналитический метод, позволяющий понять, какие проблемы характерны для этого вида страхования; статистический метод, выявляющий масштабы страхования от несчастных случаев. Результаты: раскрывается сущность и виды страхования от несчастных случаев.The article is devoted to analysis of service market of accident insurance. The relevant of the study is determined by the fact that insurance is an integral attribute of a civilized society that allows you to save security income in adverse situations. According to statistics, in Russia the level of injury and unforeseen circumstances is very great. People traditionally pay little attention to formation of reserves in case of temporary or permanent incapacity for work. The main aim of the study is to consider the system of the accident insurance. Methods: the matching method required to identify the main trends in the insurance market; the analytical technique which allows understanding the typical problems for this type of insurance; the statistical method allows us to identify the extent of accident insurance. Results. The paper reveals the essence and types of accident insurance and considers the model events when the insurance company indemnifies for the damage. The causes of the demand for this type of insurance in Russia are identified. Based on the statistical data the author has determined the proportion of the accident insured people

Hydrogen Utilization Potential in Subsurface Sediments

Subsurface microbial communities undertake many terminal electron-accepting processes, often simultaneously. Using a tritium-based assay, we measured the potential hydrogen oxidation catalyzed by hydrogenase enzymes in several subsurface sedimentary environments (Lake Van, Barents Sea, Equatorial Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico) with different predominant electron-acceptors. Hydrogenases constitute a diverse family of enzymes expressed by microorganisms that utilize molecular hydrogen as a metabolic substrate, product, or intermediate. The assay reveals the potential for utilizing molecular hydrogen and allows qualitative detection of microbial activity irrespective of the predominant electron-accepting process. Because the method only requires samples frozen immediately after recovery, the assay can be used for identifying microbial activity in subsurface ecosystems without the need to preserve live material. We measured potential hydrogen oxidation rates in all samples from multiple depths at several sites that collectively span a wide range of environmental conditions and biogeochemical zones. Potential activity normalized to total cell abundance ranges over five orders of magnitude and varies, dependent upon the predominant terminal electron acceptor. Lowest per-cell potential rates characterize the zone of nitrate reduction and highest per-cell potential rates occur in the methanogenic zone. Possible reasons for this relationship to predominant electron acceptor include (i) increasing importance of fermentation in successively deeper biogeochemical zones and (ii) adaptation of H2ases to successively higher concentrations of H2 in successively deeper zones

High Microbial Diversity Despite Extremely Low Biomass in a Deep Karst Aquifer

Despite the importance of karst aquifers as a source of drinking water, little is known about the role of microorganisms in maintaining the quality of this water. One of the limitations in exploring the microbiology of these environments is access, which is usually limited to wells and surface springs. In this study, we compared the microbiology of the Madison karst aquifer sampled via the potentiometric lakes of Wind Cave with surface sampling wells and a spring. Our data indicated that only the Streeter Well (STR), which is drilled into the same hydrogeologic domain as the Wind Cave Lakes (WCL), allowed access to water with the same low biomass (1.56–9.25 × 103 cells mL-1). Filtration of ∼300 L of water from both of these sites through a 0.2 μm filter allowed the collection of sufficient cells for DNA extraction, PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene sequences, and identification through pyrosequencing. The results indicated that bacteria (with limited archaea and no detectable eukaryotic organisms) dominated both water samples; however, there were significant taxonomic differences in the bacterial populations of the samples. The STR sample was dominated by a single phylotype within the Gammaproteobacteria (Order Acidithiobacillales), which dramatically reduced the overall diversity and species richness of the population. In WCL, despite less organic carbon, the bacterial population was significantly more diverse, including significant contributions from the Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, Fusobacter, and Omnitrophica phyla. Comparisons with similar oligotrophic environments suggest that karst aquifers have a greater species richness than comparable surface environs. These data also demonstrate that Wind Cave provides a unique opportunity to sample a deep, subterranean aquifer directly, and that the microbiology of such aquifers may be more complex than previously anticipated