Between anaphora and deixis...the resolution of the demonstrative noun-phrase ‘that N’

Three experiments examined the hypothesis that the demonstrative noun phrase (NP) that N, as an anadeictic expression, preferentially refers to the less salient referent in a discourse representation when used anaphorically, whereas the anaphoric pronoun he or she preferentially refers to the highly-focused referent. The findings, from a sentence completion task and two reading time experiments that used gender to create ambiguous and unambiguous coreference, reveal that the demonstrative NP specifically orients processing toward a less salient referent when there is no gender cue discriminating between different possible referents. These findings show the importance of taking into account the discourse function of the anaphor itself and its influence on the process of searching for the referent

An ERP study of anaphor resolution with focused and non-focused antecedents

The goal of this study is to better understand when (and why) the combination of semantic overlap between antecedent and anaphor and antecedent focus leads to difficulty in anaphor processing. To investigate these questions, three ERP experiments manipulating semantic overlap and focus compared the ERPs from the onset of the anaphor as well as from the onset of the last word in the sentence containing the anaphor. Our results suggest that although the focus status of an antecedent and the semantic overlap between the antecedent and anaphor are important, these factors are not the only significant contributors to online anaphor resolution. Factors such as readers‘ expectations about thematic shifts also influence the processing. We consider our results in relation to two accounts of anaphor resolution, the Informational Load Hypothesis (Almor, 1999; Almor & Eimas, 2008) and JANUS (Garnham & Cowles, 2008)

Vetufebrus ovatus n. gen., n. sp. (Haemospororida: Plasmodiidae) vectored by a streblid bat fly (Diptera: Streblidae) in Dominican amber

This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by BioMed Central Ltd. and can be found at: http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/.Background: Both sexes of bat flies in the families Nycteribiidae and Streblidae (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) reside in\ud the hair or on the wing membranes of bats and feed on blood. Members of the Nycteribiidae transmit bat malaria\ud globally however extant streblids have never been implemented as vectors of bat malaria. The present study\ud shows that during the Tertiary, streblids also were vectors of bat malaria.\ud Results: A new haemospororidan, Vetufebrus ovatus, n. gen., n. sp., (Haemospororida: Plasmodiidae) is described\ud from two oocysts attached to the midgut wall and sporozoites in salivary glands and ducts of a fossil bat fly\ud (Diptera: Streblidae) in Dominican amber. The new genus is characterized by ovoid oocysts, short, stubby\ud sporozoites with rounded ends and its occurrence in a fossil streblid. This is the first haemosporidian reported from\ud a streblid bat fly and shows that representatives of the Hippoboscoidea were vectoring bat malaria in the New\ud World by the mid-Tertiary.\ud Conclusions: This report is the first evidence of an extant or extinct streblid bat fly transmitting malaria.\ud Discovering a mid-tertiary malarial parasite in a fossil streblid that closely resembles members of a malarial genus\ud found in nycteribiid bat flies today shows how little we know about the vector associations of streblids. While no\ud malaria parasites have been found in extant streblids, they probably occur and it is possible that streblids were the\ud earliest lineage of flies that transmitted bat malaria to Chiroptera

Growing pains? The transition to digital television in Europe

This article argues that national policies for digital television (DTV) are largely determined by markets, political contexts and supra-national influences, notably European Union (EU) audiovisual policy, which puts pressure on member states to speed up digital switchover.This creates a tension between the push of the EU to harmonize the switchover process and set target dates and the struggle of some of the countries to comply with this policy. In terms of the strategies that could be employed to accelerate digital uptake, the article points to setting a prompt date for analogue switch-off, subsidizing the relevant equipment to receive DTV, offering triple play services, ensuring active management to complete conversion effectively and, above all, adopting free-to-view DTV. The wide reach free-to-air model, in which public broadcasters have a leading role, ensures that the universality principle is maintained in the digital age

The Structure of Phonological Networks Across Multiple Languages

The network characteristics based on the phonological similarities in the lexicons of several languages were examined. These languages differed widely in their history and linguistic structure, but commonalities in the network characteristics were observed. These networks were also found to be different from other networks studied in the literature. The properties of these networks suggest explanations for various aspects of linguistic processing and hint at deeper organization within human language.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Fitness costs of disrupting circadian rhythms in malaria parasites

Circadian biology assumes that biological rhythms maximize fitness by enabling organisms to coordinate with their environment. Despite circadian clocks being such a widespread phenomenon, demonstrating the fitness benefits of temporal coordination is challenging and such studies are rare. Here, we tested the consequences—for parasites—of being temporally mismatched to host circadian rhythms using the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi. The cyclical nature of malaria infections is well known, as the cell cycles across parasite species last a multiple of approximately 24 h, but the evolutionary explanations for periodicity are poorly understood. We demonstrate that perturbation of parasite rhythms results in a twofold cost to the production of replicating and transmission stages. Thus, synchronization with host rhythms influences in-host survival and between-host transmission potential, revealing a role for circadian rhythms in the evolution of host–parasite interactions. More generally, our results provide a demonstration of the adaptive value of circadian rhythms and the utility of using an evolutionary framework to understand parasite traits

Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press : a comparative analysis

This article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance