Sobre e ~ o Indoeuropeas

The proposal of Schmitt-Brandt (1973) of tracing most of the /e/ and /o/ documented in Indo-European languages to an ancient short tonic */a/ and to an unstressed */a/ respectively is beset with numerous difficulties, while many indications, on the contrary, rather point to the fact that the historical /e/ had its main origin in an ancient short but unstressed */a/, and the historical /o/ likewise in an ancient brief but tonic */a/.La propuesta de Schmitt-Brandt (1973) de remontar la mayoría de las /e/ documentadas en las lenguas indoeuropeas a una antigua */a/ breve tónica choca con numerosas dificultades, mientras que muchos indicios apuntan más bien a que la histórica /e/ tuvo su principal origen en una antigua */a/ breve, sí, pero átona, y la histórica /o/ en una antigua */a/ breve, sí, pero tónica.Humanidade

On Indo–European /H/

The existence of a phoneme /h/ in Proto–Indo–European is still the subject of debate in academic circles. While the supporters of the laryngeal theory take its existence foregranted along with other phonemes of an abstractly laryngeal nature, the detractors of this theory are basically divided between those who deny its existence and those others, supporters of the so–called monolaryngealist theory, who do accept its existence

Analyzing and Modeling the Performance of the HemeLB Lattice-Boltzmann Simulation Environment

We investigate the performance of the HemeLB lattice-Boltzmann simulator for cerebrovascular blood flow, aimed at providing timely and clinically relevant assistance to neurosurgeons. HemeLB is optimised for sparse geometries, supports interactive use, and scales well to 32,768 cores for problems with ~81 million lattice sites. We obtain a maximum performance of 29.5 billion site updates per second, with only an 11% slowdown for highly sparse problems (5% fluid fraction). We present steering and visualisation performance measurements and provide a model which allows users to predict the performance, thereby determining how to run simulations with maximum accuracy within time constraints.Comment: Accepted by the Journal of Computational Science. 33 pages, 16 figures, 7 table

The eye as a non-invasive window to the microcirculation in liver cirrhosis: a prospective pilot study

Microcirculatory dysfunction is associated with organ failure, poor response to vasoactive drugs and increased mortality in cirrhosis, but monitoring techniques are not established. We hypothesized that the chorioretinal structures of the eye could be visualized as a non-invasive proxy of the systemic microvasculature in cirrhosis and would correlate with renal dysfunction. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was performed to image the retina in n = 55 cirrhosis patients being assessed for liver transplantation. OCT parameters were compared with established cohorts of age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers (HV) and patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Retinal thickness, macular volume and choroidal thickness were significantly reduced relative to HV and comparable to CKD patients (macular volume: HV vs. cirrhosis mean difference 0.44 mm3 (95% CI 0.26–0.61), p ≤ 0.0001). Reduced retinal thickness and macular volume correlated with renal dysfunction in cirrhosis (macular volume vs. MDRD-6 eGFR r = 0.40, p = 0.006). Retinal changes had resolved substantially 6 weeks following transplantation. There was an inverse association between choroidal thickness and circulating markers of endothelial dysfunction (endothelin-1 r = −0.49, p ≤ 0.001; von Willebrand factor r = −0.32, p ≤ 0.05). Retinal OCT may represent a non-invasive window to the microcirculation in cirrhosis and a dynamic measure of renal and endothelial dysfunction. Validation in different cirrhosis populations is now required

Long-term trends in the foraging ecology and habitat use of an endangered species: an isotopic perspective.

Evaluating long-term drivers of foraging ecology and population productivity is crucial for providing ecological baselines and forecasting species responses to future environmental conditions. Here, we examine the trophic ecology and habitat use of North Atlantic leatherback turtles (St. Croix nesting population) and investigate the effects of large-scale oceanographic conditions on leatherback foraging dynamics. We used bulk and compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) to estimate leatherback trophic position (TP) over an 18-year period, compare these estimates with TP estimates from a Pacific leatherback population, and elucidate the pre-nesting habitat use patterns of leatherbacks. Our secondary objective was to use oceanographic indices and nesting information from St. Croix leatherbacks to evaluate relationships between trophic ecology, nesting parameters, and regional environmental conditions measured by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. We found no change in leatherback TP over time and no difference in TP between Atlantic and Pacific leatherbacks, indicating that differences in trophic ecology between populations are an unlikely driver of the population dichotomy between Pacific and Atlantic leatherbacks. Isotope data suggested that St. Croix leatherbacks inhabit multiple oceanic regions prior to nesting, although, like their conspecifics in the Pacific, individuals exhibit fidelity to specific foraging regions. Leatherback nesting parameters were weakly related to the NAO, which may suggest that positive NAO phases benefit St. Croix leatherbacks, potentially through increases in resource availability in their foraging areas. Our data contribute to the understanding of leatherback turtle ecology and potential mechanistic drivers of the dichotomy between populations of this protected species

3D Line Radiative Transfer & Synthetic Observations with Magritte

Electromagnetic radiation is a key component in many astrophysical simulations. Not only does it dictate what we can or cannot observe, it can provide radiation pressure, efficient heating and cooling mechanisms, and opens up a range of new chemical pathways due to photo-reactions. Magritte is a software library that can be used as a general-purpose radiative transfer solver, but was particularly designed for line radiative transfer in complex 3D morphologies, such as, for instance, encountered in the stellar winds around evolved stars (see Decin, 2020). It is mainly written in C++ and can either be used as a Python package or as a C++ library. To compute the radiation field, a deterministic ray-tracer and a formal solver are employed, i.e., rays are traced through the model and the radiative transfer equation is solved along those rays (De Ceuster et al., 2019). This is in contrast to most radiative transfer solvers which employ (probabilistic) Monte Carlo techniques (Noebauer & Sim, 2019). By virtue of minimal assumptions about the underlying geometric structure of a model, Magritte can handle structured and unstructured input meshes, as well as smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) data. Furthermore, tools are provided to optimise different input meshes for radiative transfer (De Ceuster et al., 2020)

THE EXPANDED CITY - STAGE TWO

For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City is a three-stage programme of artistic research, interventions and events, designed to inform a series of planned infrastructure projects on the outskirts of Preston. Part of Preston’s ‘City Deal’ – a central government initiative which aims to encourage economic growth by addressing strategic infrastructure challenges – the scheme includes the creation of over 17,000 houses as well as new roads and amenities. In the first stage of The Expanded City project (2015-2016) commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth. The artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. This second phase running from 2017 until 2018 was a continuation of the artists' active research and saw the project expand with a series of Network events which brought external perspectives from experts and local communities directly into the development of the artists’ work. These included; Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's 'Precarious Landscape Bus Tour' with archaeologist Bob Johnston; Gavin Renshaw's 'Routes in, Routes Out' in conversation event with cycling journalist Jack Thurston; Olivia Keith two week residency at the Final Whistle Cafe in Cottam culminating in a workshop 'Traces of Place'; Emily Speed's in conversation event with architect Lee Ivett on the topic of playspace 'What do we need in a Space for Play?'; and Lauren Velvick's 'Open House' event, an informal evening of music and discussion about the politics and practicalities of housing, leading to the creation of an 'Open House' publication. The second phase featured the 'Lie of the Land' symposium, a day of artworks, presentations and conversations, which drew on research undertaken by the artists to explore how our everyday lives are shaped by the ownership, management and development of land. The symposium featured talks by Peter Hetherington – journalist and author of the book 'Whose Land is Our Land: The use and abuse of Britain’s forgotten acres', and Julia Heslop – a Newcastle-based artist whose self-build housing project, 'Protohome' (2016), examined participatory alternatives to mainstream housing provision. The event also included a bus tour to sites in and around Preston, during which The Expanded City artists presented their research into issues of housing, cycling infrastructure and the changing landscape. The symposium was accompanied by 'The Expanded City Map' created by artist Claire Tindale. The map geographically locates and gives details of the main research insights generated through the projects by the commissioned artists This phase saw the finalisation by The Decorators of two pieces emerging from their research the 'Learning from Preston' report and the 'Garstang Road Stories' audio artwork. (https://podtail.com/en/podcast/the-decorators-on-air/garstang-road-stories/) Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's research culminated in May 2018 with them curating 'Notes from a Precarious Landscape' – a community exhibition curated by in a vacant house in a new development in Cottam, North Preston, which included contributions from residents of Preston and its surrounding villages. The exhibition explored the ways in which the land around the city is changing or has changed in the past. Emily Speed’s research in phase two of The Expanded City culminated in the project ‘Model Village?’ in June 2018, during which she worked with members of the public, including local residents and school pupils of all ages to construct a temporary model village on the site of a housing development. Participants were asked ‘What would your dream place to live or play in look like?’ and had the opportunity to use coloured clay to build their ideal home, and make a mark on the village by creating, extending, squashing or customising its buildings, trees, parks and streets. Gavin Renshaw's research in this phase concluded with the production of a cycling map for Preston which collates routes, information relevant to cyclists, such as storage, topography and traffic black spots, and existing cycle infrastructure within a single, visual inventory. Olivia Keith's project 'Traces of Place' involved a two-week residency at the Final Whistle Café in Cottam during the summer of 2017, in which she collated memories and contributions from local people.. As a direct result of her work and the conversations hosted, Olivia was invited to contribute to the 'Streets of Change: Beattie’s Preston and Beyond' exhibition at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, where she created 'Setting in Place: The Making of a Jellied Map of Nether Bartle' a performance installation in two separate venues, Bartle Hall and Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston. Another outcome from her research was the creation of a linocut 'Nether Bartle map' as a prompt for discussions around naming and place. The Expanded City has been developed in response to an invitation from Preston City Council, to inform a programme of infrastructure projects on the outskirts of the city proposed by a £430m City Deal scheme. The City Deal scheme aims to deliver new jobs and housing, by addressing strategic transport, environmental, community and cultural infrastructure challenges

Conditional citizens? welfare rights and responsibilities in the late 1990s

In Britain the relationship between welfare rights and responsibilities has undergone change. A new welfare 'consensus' that emphasizes a citizen ship centred on notions of duty rather than rights has been built. This has allowed the state to reduce its role as a provider of welfare and also defend a position in which the welfare rights of some citizens are increas ingly conditional on those individuals meeting compulsory responsibili ties or duties. This concentration on individual responsibility/duty has undermined the welfare rights of some of the poorest members of society. Three levels of debate are considered within the article: academic, pol itical and 'grassroots'. The latter is included in an attempt to allow some 'bottom up' views into what is largely a debate dominated by social sci entists and politicians