Persistence in the Grammaticalization of the English Indefinite Article

This paper proposes that Hopper (1991)s Principle of Persistence can be well observed in the grammaticalization process of the English indefinite article. Persistence is an aspect of grammaticalization in which the traces of a grammaticalized items former lexical meaning are reflected in the constraints on its grammatical distribution. The persistence effect is evident in Present-day English when we look at the distributional constraints of the English indefinite article. The persistent singular meaning of a/an keeps it from appearing with uncountable nouns and plural nouns, or with other numerals. Such an adherence of meaning is not only limited to the English indefinite article, but are also apparent in the classifier system of Malay and in the plural indefinite interpretation of Spanish

An HPSG Account of Depictive Secondary Predicates and Free Adjunct : A Problem for the Adjunct-as-Complements Approach

English depictive secondary predicates and free adjuncts share many essential properties in that they are both participant-oriented modifiers. However, they exhibit several differences when scope of negation, sentential position, and choice of the subject are concerned. The main argument of this paper is that treating both depictives and free adjuncts as complements, as in the Adjuncts-as-Complements approach, does not adequately account for the differences between depictives and free adjuncts. I propose that depictives are like typical postverbal adverbials that project in a head-complement structure, but that free adjuncts attach to a higher projection(VP). This difference accounts for the scope differences. The analysis of the choice of the subject follows Müllers(2004, 2008) proposal, although I assume a different structure in that depictives are complements

The Adaptation Pattern of Coda Rhotic Consonants in Korean Loanword Phonology

This paper investigates the adaptation of rhotic consonant codas in Korean loanword phonology. The hypothesis is that different rhotic consonant codas (/ɾ/, /r/ and /ɹ/) will be adapted differently in Korean loanword phonology. The prediction is based on existing loanwords. This is then tested through an experiment with Korean native speakers. The analysis that follows is based on OT constraints and the role of perception. I propose that the difference between the adaptation patterns of /ɾ/, /r/ and /ɹ/ should be explained on a perceptual level

Occurrence and distribution of organic compounds in landfill leachate and their influence on metal mobility and recovery.

Resource security has attracted increasing attention globally due to the growing demand for use in a wide range of products. Municipal solid waste landfills and leachate are significant untapped resources that can contribute to a sustainable and secure supply of raw materials. Recent studies reported heavy metals (HM) and rare earth elements within the waste mass buried in landfills that can theoretically be recovered and reintroduced within the material loop of the circular economy framework. However, metal recovery only cannot be visible economically due to its low concentration. Therefore, research is required to understand how metals can be effectively mobilised. This research is carried out to develop a methodology to demonstrate the metals in landfill leachate as a potential secondary source. The batch and column percolation tests are performed to establish the relationship between metals recovery rate and other parameters. This PhD project investigates the influence of factors to increase metal mobility. Firstly, pH value and depth effect on metal release were analysed. The pH value plays a critical role to increase metal recovery rate; however, no significant correlation between depth and metal release was observed. As the analysis shows that metal release is highly increased in acidic conditions, column percolation was conducted at the optimise pH values with leachate recirculation. Leachate recirculation accelerates the degradation of organic waste, consequently enhancing the hydrolysis rate that may reduce the pH value. Lastly, different humic concentration on the metal(loid)s release from landfill leachate was investigated. This thesis presents a high potential to help evaluate the environmental impact to control the pollution and recover metal(loid)s.PhD in Energy and Powe

The influence of humic acid on metal(loid)s leaching in landfill leachate for enhancing landfill mining

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different concentrations of humic acid on the recovery rate of metal(loid)s in landfill leachate. The study focused on the release of 12 selected metal(loid)s, including critical raw materials (CRM) in landfills that were less than five years old and those that were more than ten years old. The experimental setup involved using different concentrations of humic acid (w/v) (0 %, 0.1 %, and 0.5 %) at pH 4 and 6. The results of the study showed that humic acid was effective in releasing Al, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb. On the other hand, an increase in humic acid concentration led to a decrease in the release of Li, Mn, and Hg. The immobilization of Li, Mn, and Hg was due to the coordination and adsorption of humic acid. The presence of humic acid accelerated the release of metal(loid)s by carboxylic acidity compared to the recovery rate of metal(loid)s in landfill leachate without humic acid. However, a higher concentration of humic acid did not always result in a stronger recovery rate. The recovery rate of metal(loid)s was related to the solubility and concentration of humic acid. These findings can inform the development of more efficient and environmentally-friendly methods of recovering metal(loid)s using humic acid as a leaching agent

Strong call to safeguard traditional agriculture as habitat for threatened crane species

This Scientific Impact Paper summarizes the changes in policy and practice of crane conservation that have occurred since our 2019 research in the Cheorwon Basin located in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) of the Republic of Korea (ROK). Changes in National Policy as well as increased engagement of conservation NGOs have led to more engagement of farmers in safeguarding crane habitat in their fields. Yet the current system of low‐intensity rice farming is dependent on military land‐use restrictions.Marianne und Dr. Fritz Walter Fischer‐StiftungZempelin StiftungPeer Reviewe

Cerebral perfusion simulation using realistically generated synthetic trees for healthy and stroke patients

Background and objective Cerebral vascular diseases are among the most burdensome diseases faced by society. However, investigating the pathophysiology of diseases as well as developing future treatments still relies heavily on expensive in-vivo and in-vitro studies. The generation of realistic, patient-specific models of the cerebrovascular system capable of simulating hemodynamics and perfusion promises the ability to simulate diseased states, therefore accelerating development cycles using in silico studies and opening opportunities for the individual assessment of diseased states, treatment planning, and the prediction of outcomes. By providing a patient-specific, anatomically detailed and validated model of the human cerebral vascular system, we aim to provide the basis for future in silico investigations of the cerebral physiology and pathology. Methods In this retrospective study, a processing pipeline for patient-specific quantification of cerebral perfusion was developed and applied to healthy individuals and a stroke patient. Major arteries are segmented from 3T MR angiography data. A synthetic tree generation algorithm titled tissue-growth based optimization (GBO) is used to extend vascular trees beyond the imaging resolution. To investigate the anatomical accuracy of the generated trees, morphological parameters are compared against those of 7 T MRI, 9.4 T MRI, and dissection data. Using the generated vessel model, hemodynamics and perfusion are simulated by solving one-dimensional blood flow equations combined with Darcy flow equations. Results Morphological data of three healthy individuals (mean age 47 years ± 15.9 [SD], 2 female) was analyzed. Bifurcation and physiological characteristics of the synthetically generated vessels are comparable to those of dissection data. The inability of MRI based segmentation to resolve small branches and the small volume investigated cause a mismatch in the comparison to MRI data. Cerebral perfusion was estimated for healthy individuals and a stroke patient. The simulated perfusion is compared against Arterial-Spin-Labeling MRI perfusion data. Good qualitative agreement is found between simulated and measured cerebral blood flow (CBF). Ischemic regions are predicted well, however ischemia severity is overestimated. Conclusions GBO successfully generates detailed cerebral vascular models with realistic morphological parameters. Simulations based on the resulting networks predict perfusion territories and ischemic regions successfully

Automated Brittle Fracture Rate Estimator for Steel Property Evaluation Using Deep Learning After Drop-Weight Tear Test

This study proposes an automated brittle fracture rate (BFR) estimator using deep learning. As the demand for line-pipes increases in various industries, the need for BFR estimation through dropweight tear test (DWTT) increases to evaluate steel's property. Conventional BFR or ductile fracture rate (DFR) estimation methods require an expensive 3D scanner. Alternatively, a rule-based approach is used with a single charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. However, it is sensitive to the hyper-parameter. To solve these problems, we propose an approach based on deep learning that has recently been successful in the fields of computer vision and image processing. The method proposed in this study is the first to use deep learning approach for BFR estimation. The proposed method consists of a VGG-based U-Net (VU-Net) which is inspired by U-Net and fully convolutional network (FCN). VU-Net includes a deep encoder and a decoder. The encoder is adopted from VGG19 and transferred with a pre-trained model with ImageNet. In addition, the structure of the decoder is the same as that of the encoder, and the decoder uses the feature maps of the encoder through concatenation operation to compensate for the reduced spatial information. To analyze the proposed VU-Net, we experimented with different depths of networks and various transfer learning approaches. In terms of accuracy used in real industrial application, we compared the proposed VU-Net with U-Net and FCN to evaluate the performance. The experiments showed that VU-Net was the accuracy of approximately 94.9 %, and was better than the other two, which had the accuracies of about 91.8 % and 93.7 %, respectively.11Ysciescopu

Mothers’ experience of caring for home-quarantined children after close contact with COVID-19 in Korea: an exploratory qualitative study

Purpose The world saw a shift into a new society consequent to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which made home quarantine mandatory for a person in close contact with those who tested positive. For children, however, home quarantine was not limited only to themselves but parents, especially mothers were involved and required to quarantine. This qualitative study aimed to explore and understand mothers’ experience and their related psychosocial issues while caring for their school-aged children in Korea, who had to home quarantine after coming in close contact with COVID-19 positive individuals. Methods Data were collected from October 2020 to January 2021 via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine mothers of children who had to home quarantine. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in an independent space near the participant’s home or workplace (n=5) or via online platforms or telephone (n=4). The data were analyzed using thematic analysis through several iterative team meetings. Results Thematic analysis revealed the following four themes: “Unable to be relieved due to uncertain situations surrounding me,” “Blame and hurt toward me, others, and one another,” “Pulling myself together for my children in my broken daily life,” and “Changes in the meaning of life amid COVID-19.” Conclusion The narratives show that mothers experienced psychosocial difficulties while caring for their children during home quarantine. It is necessary to reduce the social stigma toward individuals in home quarantine and establish policies to ensure work-family compatibility for such mothers

Renormalization group theory for percolation in time-varying networks

Motivated by multi-hop communication in unreliable wireless networks, we present a percolation theory for time-varying networks. We develop a renormalization group theory for a prototypical network on a regular grid, where individual links switch stochastically between active and inactive states. The question whether a given source node can communicate with a destination node along paths of active links is equivalent to a percolation problem. Our theory maps the temporal existence of multi-hop paths on an effective two-state Markov process. We show analytically how this Markov process converges towards a memory-less Bernoulli process as the hop distance between source and destination node increases. Our work extends classical percolation theory to the dynamic case and elucidates temporal correlations of message losses. Quantification of temporal correlations has implications for the design of wireless communication and control protocols, e.g. in cyber-physical systems such as self-organized swarms of drones or smart traffic networks.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure