Relativism in the linguistic representation and cognitive conceptualisation of motion events across verb-framed and satellite-framed languages

The present doctoral thesis addresses the issue of the relation in human cognition between language and thinking, and, more specifically, it aims to investigate by scientific means the potential for a language-particular influence on cognitive activity and putative reflexes, i.e. the linguistic relativity question (cf. Whorf 1956, Lucy 1992a).To this end, the present thesis offers a detailed exploration of linguistic relativity and of its potential scope of validity - at least in theoretical terms. It further situates its study within modern cognitive science, whose epistemological approach to the study of the mind is multi- disciplinary, bringing the fields of psychology, linguistics and philosophy together for the enhanced pursuit of an understanding of human cognition. Having established a conducive framework for the study of linguistic relativity within cognitive science and linguistics, the thesis offers to focus on a specific experiential domain of human life, and on its variable encoding in different languages to seek specific language influences over the conceptualisation of that domain. The chosen domain consists of MOTION - a pervasive domain in humans' daily lives and daily needs of expression. This domain is particularly interesting to relativistic studies as its conceptual components are lexicalised via differing means across the world's languages. Existing typologies for motion encoding (e.g. Talmy 1985) have established at least two main possible patterns, also known as verb- and satellite-framing, and as exemplified by the French and English languages respectively. The essential difference between the two language types consists of their grammatical encoding of the core element of motion, namely PATH - either in a verb or in a verbal satellite ― and of their selective encoding of peripheral elements, such as MANNER of displacement - with this element being optional in French grammar, and obligatory in English. The thesis offers empirical linguistic data to confirm - and also challenge - the fixedness of the patterns identified by e.g. Talmy. A thorough discussion of the linguistic framing of motion is presented, together with experiments bearing on the cognitive reality of motion conceptualisation - independently of language. This thesis thus contributes to an understanding of motion both in language and in cognition. Finally, it offers experimental work bearing on the relativity question, i.e. exploring whether linguistic patterns for motion encoding exert a decisive influence on the non-linguistic conceptualisation of motion, resulting in the two language communities differing in their cognitive appreciation of otherwise similar motion events. The final results offer evidence in favour of differing conceptualisations, that is, in support of linguistic relativity

The CRISPRdb database and tools to display CRISPRs and to generate dictionaries of spacers and repeats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Archeae and Bacteria, the repeated elements called CRISPRs for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats" are believed to participate in the defence against viruses. Short sequences called spacers are stored in-between repeated elements. In the current model, motifs comprising spacers and repeats may target an invading DNA and lead to its degradation through a proposed mechanism similar to RNA interference. Analysis of intra-species polymorphism shows that new motifs (one spacer and one repeated element) are added in a polarised fashion. Although their principal characteristics have been described, a lot remains to be discovered on the way CRISPRs are created and evolve. As new genome sequences become available it appears necessary to develop automated scanning tools to make available CRISPRs related information and to facilitate additional investigations.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>We have produced a program, CRISPRFinder, which identifies CRISPRs and extracts the repeated and unique sequences. Using this software, a database is constructed which is automatically updated monthly from newly released genome sequences. Additional tools were created to allow the alignment of flanking sequences in search for similarities between different loci and to build dictionaries of unique sequences. To date, almost six hundred CRISPRs have been identified in 475 published genomes. Two Archeae out of thirty-seven and about half of Bacteria do not possess a CRISPR. Fine analysis of repeated sequences strongly supports the current view that new motifs are added at one end of the CRISPR adjacent to the putative promoter.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is hoped that availability of a public database, regularly updated and which can be queried on the web will help in further dissecting and understanding CRISPR structure and flanking sequences evolution. Subsequent analyses of the intra-species CRISPR polymorphism will be facilitated by CRISPRFinder and the dictionary creator. CRISPRdb is accessible at <url>http://crispr.u-psud.fr/crispr</url></p

CRISPRFinder: a web tool to identify clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) constitute a particular family of tandem repeats found in a wide range of prokaryotic genomes (half of eubacteria and almost all archaea). They consist of a succession of highly conserved regions (DR) varying in size from 23 to 47 bp, separated by similarly sized unique sequences (spacer) of usually viral origin. A CRISPR cluster is flanked on one side by an AT-rich sequence called the leader and assumed to be a transcriptional promoter. Recent studies suggest that this structure represents a putative RNA-interference-based immune system. Here we describe CRISPRFinder, a web service offering tools to (i) detect CRISPRs including the shortest ones (one or two motifs); (ii) define DRs and extract spacers; (iii) get the flanking sequences to determine the leader; (iv) blast spacers against Genbank database and (v) check if the DR is found elsewhere in prokaryotic sequenced genomes. CRISPRFinder is freely accessible at http://crispr.u-psud.fr/Server/CRISPRfinder.php

Management et performances d'un processus de formation

Cet article a pour objectif de présenter une approche à  la conception de la stratégie des systêmes de production de compétences. Cette méthode est inspirée des approches actuelles dans de nombreux secteurs des systêmes de production de biens et de services. L'approche proposée conduit à  disposer d'un modêle du systême étudié, d'une expression structurée de sa stratégie avant de définir et de la déployer selon une phase structurée de conception du pilotage. L'article montre qu'il est intéressant de définir, dans un premier temps, les processus significatifs afin de limiter la démarche de déploiement de la stratégie

Rethinking 'Thinking for Speaking'

Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003

ACES: Generating Diverse Programming Puzzles with Autotelic Language Models and Semantic Descriptors

Finding and selecting new and interesting problems to solve is at the heart of curiosity, science and innovation. We here study automated problem generation in the context of the open-ended space of python programming puzzles. Existing generative models often aim at modeling a reference distribution without any explicit diversity optimization. Other methods explicitly optimizing for diversity do so either in limited hand-coded representation spaces or in uninterpretable learned embedding spaces that may not align with human perceptions of interesting variations. With ACES (Autotelic Code Exploration via Semantic descriptors), we introduce a new autotelic generation method that leverages semantic descriptors produced by a large language model (LLM) to directly optimize for interesting diversity, as well as few-shot-based generation. Each puzzle is labeled along 10 dimensions, each capturing a programming skill required to solve it. ACES generates and pursues novel and feasible goals to explore that abstract semantic space, slowly discovering a diversity of solvable programming puzzles in any given run. Across a set of experiments, we show that ACES discovers a richer diversity of puzzles than existing diversity-maximizing algorithms as measured across a range of diversity metrics. We further study whether and in which conditions this diversity can translate into the successful training of puzzle solving models

Pseudolysogeny and sequential mutations build multiresistance to virulent bacteriophages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

International audienceCoevolution between bacteriophages and their prey is the result of mutualistic interactions. Here we show that pseudolysogeny is a frequent outcome of infection by virulent phages of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and that selection of resistant bacterial mutants is favored by continuous production of phages. We investigated the frequency and characteristics of P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 variants resisting infection by different combinations of virulent phages belonging to four genera. The frequency of resistant bacteria was 10-5 for single phage infection and 10-6 for infections with combinations of two or four phages. The genome of 27 variants was sequenced and the comparison with the genome of the parental PAO1 strain allowed the identification of point mutations or small indels. Four additional variants were characterized by a candidate gene approach. In total, 27 independent mutations were observed affecting 14 genes and a regulatory region. The mutations affected genes involved in biosynthesis of type IV pilus, alginate, LPS and O-antigen. Half of the variants possessed changes in homopolymer tracts responsible for frameshift mutations, and these phase variation mutants were shown to be unstable. Eleven double mutants were detected. The presence of free phage DNA was observed in association with exclusion of superinfection in half of the variants, and in three of them no chromosomal mutation could be found. Upon further growth of these pseudolysogens, some variants with new chromosomal mutations were recovered presumably due to continuous evolutionary pressure

Caracterización y relacion clonal de cepas de enterococos aisladas de alimentos de origen animal de un área rural del centro de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Enterococci are microorganisms that are widely found distributed in the environment. They make up the usual microbiota of the tract gastrointestinal system of man and animals, plants and environment. The objective of this thesis work was to carry out a level identification genotypic strain of Enterococcus spp. isolated from foods of animal origin from a rural area in the center of the Province of Buenos Aires and establish its clonal relationship with strains isolated from invasive infections human resources corresponding to the same period of time and geographic space. The phenotypic and genotypic characterization of 125 isolates was performed belonging to the genus Enterococcus recovered from foods of origin meat and dairy products in the period between January and December 2013. The species most frequently identified by molecular method was E. faecalis (75.2%), E. faecium (19.2%), E. raffinosus (2.4%), E. durans (1.6%), E. gallinarum (0.8%) and E. avium (0.8%). The following genes were investigated by molecular amplification vancomycin resistance (VAN): vanA, vanB, vanC, vanD, vanE and vanG. The gen vanA was detected in three isolates corresponding to E. faecium: dry craft sousage, cow's cheese and sheep's cheese detected the vanA gene in the other Enterococcus species. In E. gallinarum, isolated from dry craft sousage the presence of vanC was observed. In the isolations recovered from food the genes, vanB, vanD, vanE and vanG were not detected. Resistance to glycopeptides (VAN, TEI) using resistance tests phenotypic antimicrobial agents (determination of MIC, by dilution method in agar) and molecular amplification was concordant in all isolates analyzed. 2.4% of the isolates showed a high level of resistance to gentamicin (HLRG). All of the isolates were E. faecalis obtained from meat foods. Experiments were carried out bacterial conjugation in vitro between E. faecalis with HLRG (donors) and strain E. faecalis JH2-SS of human origin with chromosomal resistance to streptomycin (receptor) and without HLRG. After conjugation experiment, the recipient strain E. faecalis JH2-SS migrated with a relative mobility value similar to that of the donor cell, indicating that the incorporation of the plasmid occurred in a similar position and the acquired plasmid. The presence of transferable resistance was demonstrated in strains of E. faecalis with HLRG and E. faecium with high level of resistance to VAN. Another possible path of resistance dissemination was also tested antimicrobial through the mobilization and adaptation of certain clones of Enterococci present in food to patients and the hospital environment. Through studies of PFGE, clonal relationship between strains of E. faecalis with HLRG of human origin and food. In Argentina, this is the first evidence of clonal dissemination of strains in foods of animal origin and human.Los enterococos son microorganismos que se encuentran ampliamente distribuidos en el medio ambiente. Conforman la microbiota habitual del tracto gastrointestinal del hombre y de los animales, plantas y ambiente. Actualmente, se considera que el género Enterococcus presenta un comportamiento ambiguo como saprófitos/patógenos. Diversos trabajos científicos demuestran las propiedades biotecnológicas de las bacterias que integran este género como biopreservantes y/o probióticos. Sin embargo, a lo largo de las últimas décadas estas bacterias han sido reconocidas con creciente frecuencia como patógenos oportunistas vinculados con la producción de cuadros infecciosos severos en el hombre. Se ha comprobado que los enterococos presentan resistencia a un amplio número de antimicrobianos. Una característica remarcable es la resistencia adquirida que posibilita su diseminación y generación de reservorios de enterococos resistentes a los antimicrobianos. Otra característica observada en enterococos es la presencia de factores de virulencia que contribuyen con la patogenicidad de este género bacteriano en las infecciones invasivas. Dentro de este género las especies más frecuentes son Enterococcus faecalis y E. faecium tanto en muestras de origen humano como de origen animal. Otras especies han sido aisladas con menor frecuencia tales como E. avium, E. durans, E. gallinarum, E. hirae y E. raffinosus. El objetivo del presente trabajo de tesis fue realizar una identificación a nivel genotípico de cepas de Enterococcus spp. aisladas de alimentos de origen animal provenientes de un área rural del centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires y establecer su relación clonal con cepas aisladas a partir de infecciones invasivas humanas correspondientes al mismo periodo de tiempo y espacio geográfico. Se realizó la caracterización fenotípica y genotípica de 125 aislamientos pertenecientes al género Enterococcus recuperados de alimentos de origen cárnico y lácteo en el periodo comprendido entre enero y diciembre de 2013. La especie más frecuentemente identificada por método molecular fue E. faecalis (75,2%), seguida por E. faecium (19,2%), E. raffinosus (2,4%), E. durans (1,6%), E. gallinarum (0,8%) y E. avium (0,8%). De acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos para la identificación de especies por ambos métodos (fenotípico y genotípico) se observa una concordancia del 56,38% para E. faecalis, y del 54,17% para E. faecium. Sin embargo, para el resto de las especies identificadas, E. raffinosus, E. gallinarum, E. durans y E. avium la discrepancia en la identificación entre ambos métodos fue del 100%.Facultad de Ciencias Médica