Redundancy and Embedded Exhaustification

I show how a formalization of Grice's Brevity intuition, which I call Efficiency (Meyer 2013, 2014), correctly distinguishes between acceptable and unacceptable disjunctions that all seem to be redundant at first (e.g. Gajewski & Sharvit 2012; Mayr & Romoli 2013). The upshot is that the presence of embedded implicatures is one way of making a structure efficient in the formal sense developed here. I show that a particular prediction of Efficiency – the existence of embedded implicatures resulting in overall weakening of meaning – is not incorrect, and sheds new light on the role of rise-fall-rise intonation in these cases (Fox & Spector 2013; Büring 1997).

Deriving Hurford's Constraint

I show that the infelicity of disjunctions in which one disjunct entails the other ("Hurford disjunctions"), as well as the felicity of a subclass of Hurford disjunctions (e.g., some or all), can be derived from a general principle of Brevity under the independently motivated assumption that uncertainty implicatures are generated in the grammar

Qualitätsmanagement Lehrveranstaltungen : Empfehlungen für Konzipierung, Etablierung, Durchführung und Verwendung von Evaluationen

Um institutionell akkreditiert zu werden, müssen Hochschulen in der Schweiz die Qualitätsstandards für die institutionelle Akkreditierung der Richtlinien des Hochschulrates für die Akkreditierung im Hochschulbereich (Akkreditierungsrichtlinien HFKG, 2015) erfüllen. Mit der institutionellen Akkreditierung sind insbesondere das Bezeichnungsrecht „Universität“, „Fachhochschule“ oder „Pädagogische Hochschule“ und die Gewährung von Bundesbeiträgen verbunden. Die Qualitätsstandards für die institutionelle Akkreditierung sind auf einem relativ hohen Abstraktionsniveau formuliert, um einen Rahmen für das Qualitätsmanagement verschiedener Hochschulen und Hochschuleinheiten sowie Hochschultätigkeiten mit ihren charakteristischen Merkmalen und Bedingungen bieten zu können. Zweck dieses Dokuments ist es, die Qualitätsstandards für die institutionelle Akkreditierung auf das Qualitätsmanagement von Lehrveranstaltungen auszuführen. Zudem werden die Qualitätsstandards um die Evaluationsstandards der Schweizerischen Evaluationsgesellschaft (SEVAL, 2016) ergänzt. Die Evaluationsstandards bieten eine Grundlage und Hilfestellung für die Planung und Durchführung von professionellen Evaluationen

Targeting of proConA to the Plant Vacuole depends on its Nine Amino-acid C-terminal Propeptide

Concanavalin A (ConA) is a well characterized and extensively used lectin accumulated in the protein bodies of jack bean cotyledons. ConA is synthesized as an inactive precursor proConA. The maturation of inactive proConA into biologically active ConA is a complex process including the removal of an internal glycopeptide and a C-terminal propeptide (CTPP), followed by a head-to-tail ligation of the two largest polypeptides. The cDNA encoding proConA was cloned and expressed in tobacco BY-2 cells. ProConA was slowly transported to the vacuole where its maturation into ConA was similar to that in jack bean cotyledons, apart from an incomplete final ligation. To investigate the role of the nine amino acid CTPP, a truncated form lacking the propeptide (proConAΔ9) was expressed in BY-2 cells. In contrast to proConA, proConAΔ9 was rapidly chased out of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and secreted into the culture medium. The CTPP was then fused to the C-terminal end of a secreted form of green fluorescent protein (secGFP). When expressed in tobacco BY-2 cells and leaf protoplasts, the chimaeric protein was located in the vacuole whereas secGFP was located in the culture medium and in the vacuole. Altogether, our results show we have isolated a new C-terminal vacuolar sorting determinan

Ignorance and grammar

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 176-186).In this thesis, I propose a new theory of implicature. I argue that the two main theories available so far - the (Neo-)Gricean pragmatic theory on the one hand (e.g., Sauerland (2004)), and the hybrid grammatical theory of scalar implicatures on the other hand (e.g., Fox (2007)) - cannot provide a satisfactory account of disjunctions like Al drank some or all of the beers. As I will show, the meaning of these sentences is characterized by the presence of grammatical ignorance implicatures. In this they differ from their simpler alternatives. I will show how the proposed Matrix K theory of implicature derives this result. The new theory is a radically grammatical theory in that all kinds of implicatures - weak, scalar, and ignorance implicatures - are derived in the grammar. I will also show how Hurford's constraint can be derived from a general principle of manner in the new theory. I will then turn to logically under-informative statements like Some elephants are mammals and show how their oddness falls out from the Matrix K theory without further stipulations. Next, I argue that the theory extends to infelicitous Hurford disjunctions like Jean is from France or from Paris. Both phenomena can receive a uniform explanation in terms of grammatically derived, contextually inconsistent implicatures, without stipulating obligatory scalar implicatures. Lastly, I turn to the case of implicature suspension and show how the new theory can account for missing implicatures.by Marie-Christine Meyer.Ph.D

Involvement of Pectin methylesterases in Arabidopsis pollen imbibitions and germination

International audienc

A new model depicting the role of PME during dehydration and germination of pollen grain

International audienc

New and old complex recombinant HIV-1 strains among patients with primary infection in 1996–2006 in France: The French ANRS CO06 primo cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prevalence of HIV-1 non-B subtypes has increased overtime in patients diagnosed at the time of primary infection (PHI) in France. Our objective was to characterize in detail non-B strains which could not be genetically classified into the known subtypes/Circulating Recombinant Forms (CRFs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Among 744 patients enrolled in the ANRS PRIMO Cohort since 1996, 176 (23.7%) were infected with HIV-1 non-B strains. The subtype/CRF could not be identified in RT for 15 (2%). The V3-V5 <it>env </it>region was sequenced and 3 strains (04FR-KZS, 06FR-CRN, 04FR-AUK) were full-length sequenced. Phylogenetic and bootscan analyses were used to characterize the mosaic structures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among V3-V5 sequences, 6 were divergent A, 2 distantly related to E or D, 2 C, 1 B and 2 remained unclassified. 04FR-KZS, isolated in a Congolese woman infected in France, clustered with 2 previously described viruses from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They represent CRF27_cpx involving A/E/G/H/J/K/U subtypes. 06FR-CRN, isolated in a homosexual Caucasian patient, was a B/C/U recombinant involving a Brazilian C strain. 04FR-AUK, isolated in a Congolese patient infected in France, was a A/K/CRF09/U recombinant clustering from <it>gag </it>to <it>vif </it>with HIV-1 MAL. Others PHI were further observed in 2006–2007 with 1 KZS and 5 CRN-like viruses, suggesting their spread in France.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study illustrates the increasing HIV-1 diversity in France associating new (06FR-CRN) and old (CRF27_cpx and "MAL-like" 04FR-AUK) strains, which are rare in their region of origin but may have a possible founder effect in France. Our results strengthen the French guidelines recommending viro-epidemiological surveillance of HIV-1 diversity.</p