Metathesis is late and fake

In this paper, we argue that metathesis, an underattested phonological operation, is best understood as gestural overlap. Based on two case studies (Sevillian Spanish and Uab Meto), we observe that metathesis is (i) implemented in a phonetically gradient way and (ii) invisible to other phonology. We use these observations to propose that phonology is bifurcated into two major strata: early phonology and late phonology. Early phonology uses atomic representations, whereas late phonology uses gestural representations. While early phonology feeds into late phonology, the output of late phonology is not accessible to early phonology. Under this division, metathesis is therefore strictly late phonology because it uses gestures as its core representational unit. As late phonology, metathesis is therefore expected to be invisible to (early) phonological operations in these languages

My Bairnie

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-me/1159/thumbnail.jp

The South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL): What is it and where is it going?

Kate Boyd, Heather Gilbert, and Chris Vinson give updates and information on the South Carolina Digital Library project (SCDL)

COVID-19 Pandemic Analysis by the Volterra Integral Equation Models: A Preliminary Study of Brazil, Italy, and South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many people throughout the world. The objective of this research project was to find numerical solutions through the Gaussian Quadrature Method for the Volterra Integral Equation Model. The non-homogenous Volterra Integral Equation of the second kind is used to capture a broader range of disease distributions. Volterra Integral equation models are used in the context of applied mathematics, public health, and evolutionary biology. The mathematical models of this integral equation gave valid convergence results for the COVID-19 data for 3 countries Italy, South Africa and Brazil. The modeling of these countries was done using the Volterra Integral Equation, using the Gaussian Quadrature nodes. Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRCD model included the number of initially infected individuals, the rate of infection, contact rate, death rate, fraction of recovered individuals, and the mean time an individual remains infected. This research investigated the feasibility of obtaining accurate convergence results for two models of the Volterra Integral Equation for the geographic locations of Italy, South Africa and Brazil. The IRCD model accounted for the infected rate, number of recovered, contact rate, and the death rate. The first 365 days of the pandemic were analyzed for the IRCD model. The ISR model accounted for the number of initially infected individuals, susceptible individuals, removed individuals, number of contacts per person, the recovery rate, and the total population. The ISR model specifically looked at COVID-19 in Brazil and South Africa for the first 300 days of the pandemic. Both models are mathematically and epidemiologically well posed

Increasing phosphorus supply is not the mechanism by which arbuscular mycorrhiza increase attractiveness of bean (Vicia faba) to aphids

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An appreciation of the prescience of Don Gilbert (1930‐2011): master of the theory and experimental unraveling of biochemical and cellular oscillatory dynamics

We review Don Gilbert's pioneering seminal contributions that both detailed the mathematical principles and the experimental demonstration of several of the key dynamic characteristics of life. Long before it became evident to the wider biochemical community, Gilbert proposed that cellular growth and replication necessitate autodynamic occurrence of cycles of oscillations that initiate, coordinate, and terminate the processes of growth, during which all components are duplicated and become spatially re‐organized in the progeny. Initiation and suppression of replication exhibit switch‐like characteristics: i.e., bifurcations in the values of parameters that separate static and autodynamic behavior. His limit cycle solutions present models developed in a series of papers reported between 1974 and 1984, and these showed that most or even all of the major facets of the cell division cycle could be accommodated. That the cell division cycle may be timed by a multiple of shorter period (ultradian) rhythms, gave further credence to the central importance of oscillatory phenomena and homeodynamics as evident on multiple time scales (seconds to hours). Further application of the concepts inherent in limit cycle operation as hypothesized by Gilbert more than 50 years ago are now validated as being applicable to oscillatory transcript, metabolite and enzyme levels, cellular differentiation, senescence, cancerous states, and cell death. Now, we reiterate especially for students and young colleagues, that these early achievements were even more exceptional, as his own lifetime's work on modeling was continued with experimental work in parallel with his predictions of the major current enterprises of biological research

Implications of the prevalence and magnitude of sustained declines for determining a minimum threshold for favourable population size.

We propose a new approach to quantifying a minimum threshold value for the size of an animal population, below which that population might be categorised as having unfavourable status. Under European Union law, the concept of Favourable Conservation Status requires assessment of populations as having favourable or unfavourable status, but quantitative methods for such assessments have not yet been developed. One population threshold that is well established in conservation biology is the minimum viable population (MVP) defined as the size of a small but stable population with an acceptably low risk of extinction within a specified period. Our approach combines this small-population paradigm MVP concept with a multiplier, which is a factor by which the MVP is multiplied to allow for the risk of a sustained future decline. We demonstrate this approach using data on UK breeding bird population sizes. We used 43-year time-series data for 189 species and a qualitative assessment of population trends over almost 200 years for 229 species to examine the prevalence, duration and magnitude of sustained population declines. Our study addressed the problem of underestimation of the duration and magnitude of declines caused by short runs of monitoring data by allowing for the truncation of time series. The multiplier was derived from probability distributions of decline magnitudes within a given period, adjusted for truncation. Over a surveillance period of 100 years, we estimated that there was a 10% risk across species that a sustained population decline of at least sixteen-fold would begin. We therefore suggest that, in this case, a factor of 16 could be used as the multiplier of small-population MVPs to obtain minimum threshold population sizes for favourable status. We propose this 'MVP Multiplier' method as a new and robust approach to obtaining minimum threshold population sizes which integrates the concepts of small-population and declining-population paradigms. The minimum threshold value we propose is intended for use alongside a range of other measures to enable overall assessments of favourable conservation status

Early special educational needs provision and its impact on unplanned hospital utilisation and school absences in children with isolated cleft lip and/or palate: a demonstration target trial emulation study protocol using ECHILD

Background Special educational needs (SEN) provision is designed to help pupils with additional educational, behavioural or health needs; for example, pupils with cleft lip and/or palate may be offered SEN provision to improve their speech and language skills. Our aim is to contribute to the literature and assess the impact of SEN provision on health and educational outcomes for a well-defined population. Methods We will use the ECHILD database, which links educational and health records across England. Our target population consists of children identified within ECHILD to have a specific congenital anomaly: isolated cleft lip and/or palate. We will apply a trial emulation framework to reduce biases in design and analysis of observational data to investigate the causal impact of SEN provision (including none) by the start of compulsory education (Year One – age five year on entry) on the number of unplanned hospital utilisation and school absences by the end of primary education (Year Six – age ten/eleven). We will use propensity score-based estimators (inverse probability weighting (IPW) and IPW regression adjustment IPW) to compare categories of SEN provision in terms of these outcomes and to triangulate results obtained using complementary estimation methods (Naïve estimator, multivariable regression, parametric g-formula, and if possible, instrumental variables), targeting a variety of causal contrasts (average treatment effect/in the treated/in the not treated) of SEN provision. Conclusions This study will evaluate the impact of reasonable adjustments at the start of compulsory education on health and educational outcomes in the isolated cleft lip and palate population by triangulating complementary methods under a target-trial framework