Panta rei: Tracking Semantic Change with Distributional Semantics in Ancient Greek

We present a method to explore semantic change as a function of variation in distributional semantic spaces. In this paper, we apply this approach to automatically identify the areas of semantic change in the lexicon of Ancient Greek between the pre-Christian and Christian era. Distributional Semantic Models are used to identify meaningful clusters and patterns of semantic shift within a set of target words, defined through a purely data-driven approach. The results emphasize the role played by the diffusion of Christianity and by technical languages in determining semantic change in Ancient Greek and show the potentialities of distributional models in diachronic semantics

Panta Rei: Tracking Semantic Change with Distributional Semantics in Ancient Greek

We present a method to explore semantic change as a function of variation in distributional semantic spaces. In this paper we apply this approach to automatically identify the areas of semantic change in the lexicon of Ancient Greek between the pre-Christian and Christian era. Distributional Semantic Models are used to identify meaningful clusters and patterns of semantic shift within a set of target words, defined through a purely data-driven approach. The results emphasize the role played by the diffusion of Christianity and by technical languages in determining semantic change in Ancient Greek and show the potentialities of distributional models in diachronic semantics

Shedding Light on Vitamin D Status and Its Complexities during Pregnancy, Infancy and Childhood: An Australian Perspective

Ensuring that the entire Australian population is Vitamin D sufficient is challenging, given the wide range of latitudes spanned by the country, its multicultural population and highly urbanised lifestyle of the majority of its population. Specific issues related to the unique aspects of vitamin D metabolism during pregnancy and infancy further complicate how best to develop a universally safe and effective public health policy to ensure vitamin D adequacy for all. Furthermore, as Australia is considered a "sunny country", it does not yet have a national vitamin D food supplementation policy. Rickets remains very uncommon in Australian infants and children, however it has been recognised for decades that infants of newly arrived immigrants remain particularly at risk. Yet vitamin D deficiency rickets is entirely preventable, with the caveat that when rickets occurs in the absence of preexisting risk factors and/or is poorly responsive to adequate treatment, consideration needs to be given to genetic forms of rickets

Reply to Comment on Di Marco, N., Kaufman, J., Rodda, C.P. Shedding Light on Vitamin D Status and Its Complexities during Pregnancy, Infancy and Childhood: An Australian Perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16 (4), 538, doi:10.3390/ijerph16040538

We thank the author(s) for their most informative letter in response to our article [...]</jats:p

Reply to Comment on Di Marco, N., Kaufman, J., Rodda, C.P. Shedding Light on Vitamin D Status and Its Complexities during Pregnancy, Infancy and Childhood: An Australian Perspective. <i>Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health</i> 2019, <i>16</i> (4), 538, doi:10.3390/ijerph16040538

We thank the author(s) for their most informative letter in response to our article [...

Panta rei: Tracking Semantic Change with Distributional Semantics in Ancient Greek

We present a method to explore semantic change as a function of variation in distributional semantic spaces. In this paper, we apply this approach to automatically identify the areas of semantic change in the lexicon of Ancient Greek between the pre-Christian and Christian era. Distributional Semantic Models are used to identify meaningful clusters and patterns of semantic shift within a set of target words, defined through a purely data-driven approach. The results emphasize the role played by the diffusion of Christianity and by technical languages in determining semantic change in Ancient Greek and show the potentialities of distributional models in diachronic semantics

Gene expression in mycorrhizal orchid protocorms suggests a friendly plant-fungus relationship

Orchid mycorrhiza has been often interpreted as an antagonistic relationship. Our data on mycorrhizal protocorms do not support this view as plant defence genes were not induced, whereas some nodulin-like genes were significantly up-regulated. Orchids fully depend on symbiotic interactions with specific soil fungi for seed germination and early development. Germinated seeds give rise to a protocorm, a heterotrophic organ that acquires nutrients, including organic carbon, from the mycorrhizal partner. It has long been debated if this interaction is mutualistic or antagonistic. To investigate the molecular bases of the orchid response to mycorrhizal invasion, we developed a symbiotic in vitro system between Serapias vomeracea, a Mediterranean green meadow orchid, and the rhizoctonia-like fungus Tulasnella calospora. 454 pyrosequencing was used to generate an inventory of plant and fungal genes expressed in mycorrhizal protocorms, and plant genes could be reliably identified with a customized bioinformatic pipeline. A small panel of plant genes was selected and expression was assessed by real-time quantitative PCR in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal protocorm tissues. Among these genes were some markers of mutualistic (e.g. nodulins) as well as antagonistic (e.g. pathogenesis-related and wound/stress-induced) genes. None of the pathogenesis or wound/stress-related genes were significantly up-regulated in mycorrhizal tissues, suggesting that fungal colonization does not trigger strong plant defence responses. In addition, the highest expression fold change in mycorrhizal tissues was found for a nodulin-like gene similar to the plastocyanin domain-containing ENOD55. Another nodulin-like gene significantly more expressed in the symbiotic tissues of mycorrhizal protocorms was similar to a sugar transporter of the SWEET family. Two genes coding for mannose-binding lectins were significantly up-regulated in the presence of the mycorrhizal fungus, but their role in the symbiosis is unclear