From sentence negation to connective : old Lithuanian nei(gi) ‘and not; nor; than; before’

This paper aims to show the sources of the Lithuanian conjunction nei(gi) ‘than’ and its later development. The most archaic function of nei that can be found in Old Lithuanian texts is nei ‘and not’ as a type of sentence negation in a clause following another clause that does not contain a negation, with both clauses combined asyndetically. Examples can be divided into two subtypes, defined as ᴜɴoʀᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴀᴅᴅɪᴛɪoɴ and ᴛᴇᴍᴘoʀᴀʟ sᴜᴄᴄᴇssɪoɴ ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇs in Dixon’s terms (Dixon 2009). The counterparts of nei are Latin ne-que and German und nicht. The next stage in the development of coordinate sentences with nei was correlative sentences of the type ne- ... nei(gi) ‘not ... nor’, which were very common in the 16th century. The correlative construction ne- ... nei(gi) ‘not ... nor’ traces back to juxtaposed clauses with narrow-scope negation, viz. ¬p & ¬q (‘We didn’t meet Marvin, and we didn’t meet Joan either’)—Haspelmath (2007, 16). Negative coordination of the type ne- ... nei(gi) underlies reduplicated connectives nei ... nei ‘neither ... nor’, which are widespread in modern Lithuanian. ne- ... nei(gi) also gave rise to the conjunction of comparative clauses nei(gi) ‘than’. (Pirm) nei(g) ‘before’, as a conjunction of temporal clauses, belongs to the latest chronological layer

Old Lithuanian "ischtirra" "found out" and some notes on the development of Baltic preterite

The starting point for our considerations on the development of the Baltic preterite is the Old Lithuanian preterite /ištira:/ ‘found out’, etymologically connected to týrė ‘examined’. In form, /ištira:/ and týrė match the Old Church Slavonic otьre (thematic aorist) and trь (sigmatic aorist). This, in turn, is an argument for the hypothesis proposed by Daniel Petit (2004) on the origin of the lengthening in the Baltic preterite. The second part of this paper discusses the traces of a coexistence of inflected aspect (based on the contrast of the past tenses of aorist : imperfect) and derivational aspect (based on the opposition of perfective : imperfective) in Lithuanian

Lietuvių dabar̃ ir baltų *-ā́-iliatyvas

Lithuanian dabar̃ ‘now’ comes from the illative of the continuative adverb dãbar ‘still, yet’; schematically: dãbar ‘still, yet’ → illative *dabar-ā́ > *dabarà > dabar̃ ‘now’. Change in accentuation visible in dãbar ‘still, yet’ vs. dabar̃  ‘now’ brings to mind a similar process in illative forms, e.g. acc.sg. *mìškan → ill.sg. *miškan-ā́ > dial. miškanà > ill.sg. miškañ. The primary illative *dabar- ā́ is preserved in the dialectal dabarõs ‘now’, which is traced back to a contraction of *dabar-à-es. The postposition *-es is a mark of the enclitic verb esti ‘is’. The shift of accent like between dãbar ‘still, yet’ and dial. dabarõs ‘now’ can also be observed in a few other adverbs, e.g. *pa gãli (cf. OLith. ik’ gâli ‘to the end’) → pagaliõs ‘in the end’.Lietuvių dabar̃ kilęs iš prieveiksmio dãbar ‘dar’ iliatyvo, t. y.: dãbar ‘dar’ → ill. *dabar-ā́ > *dabarà > dabar̃. Kirčio vietos kaita dãbar : dabar̃ primena panašų procesą iliatyvo formose, pvz., acc. sg. *mìškan → ill. sg. *miškan-ā́ > dial. miškanà > ill. sg. miškañ. Pirminis iliatyvas dabar-ā́ išlikęs tarminėje formoje dabarõs ‘dabar’, kildinamoje iš kontrakcijos *dabar-à-es. Postpozicija *-es yra enklitinio veiksmažodžio esti ‘yra’ požymis. Kirčio vietos kaita, panaši į dãbar ‘dar’ : dial. dabarõs ‘dabar’, matoma ir kai kuriuose kituose prieveiksmiuose, pvz., *pa gãli (plg. s. lie. ik’ gâli ‘iki galo’) → pagaliõs ‘pagaliau’

Non-verbal predication in Baltic : lithuanian "yrà"

This paper aims to describe the origin of Baltic *īrā ‘there is/are; is/are’ that appears to be due to the conflation of the demonstrative pronoun *ī (< instr. sg. *h1i-h1) and two postpositions: -r- (cf. OIcel. þa-r ‘there’) and -ā. The latter comes from the abl. sg. of the IE demonstrative pronoun *h1e/o-. The presented analysis sheds some light on the etymology of the Lithuanian conjunction ir ‘and’ and Slavonic i ‘and’ (< *ī instr. sg. *h1i-h1)

Perkūno ir aitivaro etimologijos

[full article and abstract in Lithuanian; abstract in English] The present paper consists of two parts. The first one is dedicated to the etymology of the Lithuanian noun perkūnas (“thunder, thunderbolt”). According to the author, perkūnas is a derivative with a possessive suffix -Hon- / -Hn from the IDE *perkwu-s (“oak”). The second part concerns the origin of the Lithuanian aitvaras (“supernatural being,” OLith. aitvaras). The analyzed noun is an instance of the so-called Caland system in the Baltic languages, and it traces back to the older compound word with the meaning *“being bestowed with flaming power.”[straipsnis ir santrauka lietuvių kalba; santrauka anglų kalba] Straipsnyje aptariamos perkūno ir aitvaro (slie. aitivaro) etimologijos. Abu daiktavardžiai vertinami kaip naujadarai, bet abiejų žodžių daryba pagrįsta iš ide. prokalbės paveldėtais darybiniais procesais

HIV patients treated with low-dose prednisolone exhibit lower immune activation than untreated patients

HIV-associated general immune activation is a strong predictor for HIV disease progression, suggesting that chronic immune activation may drive HIV pathogenesis. Consequently, immunomodulating agents may decelerate HIV disease progression. In an observational study, we determined immune activation in HIV patients receiving low-dose (5 mg/day) prednisolone with or without highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) compared to patients without prednisolone treatment. Lymphocyte activation was determined by flow cytometry detecting expression of CD38 on CD8(+) T cells. The monocyte activation markers sCD14 and LPS binding protein (LBP) as well as inflammation markers soluble urokinase plasminogen activated receptor (suPAR) and sCD40L were determined from plasma by ELISA. CD38-expression on CD8+ T lymphocytes was significantly lower in prednisolone-treated patients compared to untreated patients (median 55.40% [percentile range 48.76-67.70] versus 73.34% [65.21-78.92], p = 0.0011, Mann-Whitney test). Similarly, we detected lower levels of sCD14 (3.6 μg/ml [2.78-5.12] vs. 6.11 μg/ml [4.58-7.70]; p = 0.0048), LBP (2.18 ng/ml [1.59-2.87] vs. 3.45 ng/ml [1.84-5.03]; p = 0.0386), suPAR antigen (2.17 μg/ml [1.65-2.81] vs. 2.56 μg/ml [2.24-4.26]; p = 0.0351) and a trend towards lower levels of sCD40L (2.70 pg/ml [1.90-4.00] vs. 3.60 pg/ml [2.95-5.30]; p = 0.0782). Viral load in both groups was similar (0.8 × 105 ng/ml [0.2-42.4 × 105] vs. 1.1 × 105 [0.5-12.2 × 105]; p = 0.3806). No effects attributable to prednisolone were observed when patients receiving HAART in combination with prednisolone were compared to patients who received HAART alone.\ud Patients treated with low-dose prednisolone display significantly lower general immune activation than untreated patients. Further longitudinal studies are required to assess whether treatment with low-dose prednisolone translates into differences in HIV disease progression

Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2017 Event Horizon Telescope Campaign

Abstract: In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration succeeded in capturing the first direct image of the center of the M87 galaxy. The asymmetric ring morphology and size are consistent with theoretical expectations for a weakly accreting supermassive black hole of mass ∼6.5 × 109 M ⊙. The EHTC also partnered with several international facilities in space and on the ground, to arrange an extensive, quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign. This Letter presents the results and analysis of this campaign, as well as the multi-wavelength data as a legacy data repository. We captured M87 in a historically low state, and the core flux dominates over HST-1 at high energies, making it possible to combine core flux constraints with the more spatially precise very long baseline interferometry data. We present the most complete simultaneous multi-wavelength spectrum of the active nucleus to date, and discuss the complexity and caveats of combining data from different spatial scales into one broadband spectrum. We apply two heuristic, isotropic leptonic single-zone models to provide insight into the basic source properties, but conclude that a structured jet is necessary to explain M87’s spectrum. We can exclude that the simultaneous γ-ray emission is produced via inverse Compton emission in the same region producing the EHT mm-band emission, and further conclude that the γ-rays can only be produced in the inner jets (inward of HST-1) if there are strongly particle-dominated regions. Direct synchrotron emission from accelerated protons and secondaries cannot yet be excluded