Speech rhythm: a metaphor?

Is speech rhythmic? In the absence of evidence for a traditional view that languages strive to coordinate either syllables or stress-feet with regular time intervals, we consider the alternative that languages exhibit contrastive rhythm subsisting merely in the alternation of stronger and weaker elements. This is initially plausible, particularly for languages with a steep ‘prominence gradient’, i.e. a large disparity between stronger and weaker elements; but we point out that alternation is poorly achieved even by a ‘stress-timed’ language such as English, and, historically, languages have conspicuously failed to adopt simple phonological remedies that would ensure alternation. Languages seem more concerned to allow ‘syntagmatic contrast’ between successive units and to use durational effects to support linguistic functions than to facilitate rhythm. Furthermore, some languages (e.g. Tamil, Korean) lack the lexical prominence which would most straightforwardly underpin prominence alternation. We conclude that speech is not incontestibly rhythmic, and may even be antirhythmic. However, its linguistic structure and patterning allow the metaphorical extension of rhythm in varying degrees and in different ways depending on the language, and that it is this analogical process which allows speech to be matched to external rhythms

Rare Germline Genetic Variants and the Risks of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

A family history of ovarian or breast cancer is the strongest risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Germline deleterious variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes confer EOC risks by age 80, of 44% and 17% respectively. The mismatch repair genes, particularly MSH2 and MSH6, are also EOC susceptibility genes. Several other DNA repair genes, BRIP1, RAD51C, RAD51D, and PALB2, have been identified as moderate risk EOC genes. EOC has five main histotypes; high-grade serous (HGS), low-grade serous (LGS), clear cell (CCC), endometrioid (END), and mucinous (MUC). This review examines the current understanding of the contribution of rare genetic variants to EOC, focussing on providing frequency data for each histotype. We provide an overview of frequency and risk for pathogenic variants in the known susceptibility genes as well as other proposed genes. We also describe the progress to-date to understand the role of missense variants and the different breast and ovarian cancer risks for each gene. Identification of susceptibility genes have clinical impact by reducing disease-associated mortality through improving risk prediction, with the possibility of prevention strategies, and developing new targeted treatments and these clinical implications are also discussed

Nuclear structure and reaction studies at SPIRAL

The SPIRAL facility at GANIL, operational since 2001, is described briefly. The diverse physics program using the re-accelerated (1.2 to 25 MeV/u) beams ranging from He to Kr and the instrumentation specially developed for their exploitation are presented. Results of these studies, using both direct and compound processes, addressing various questions related to the existence of exotic states of nuclear matter, evolution of new "magic numbers", tunnelling of exotic nuclei, neutron correlations, exotic pathways in astrophysical sites and characterization of the continuum are discussed. The future prospects for the facility and the path towards SPIRAL2, a next generation ISOL facility, are also briefly presented.Comment: 48 pages, 27 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics

Rhythm in the speech of a person with right hemisphere damage: Applying the pairwise variability index

Although several aspects of prosody have been studied in speakers with right hemisphere damage (RHD), rhythm remains largely uninvestigated. This study compares the rhythm of an Australian English speaker with right hemisphere damage (due to a stroke, but with no concomitant dysarthria) to that of a neurologically unimpaired individual. The speakers' rhythm is compared using the pairwise variability index (PVI) which allows for an acoustic characterization of rhythm by comparing the duration of successive vocalic and intervocalic intervals. A sample of speech from a structured interview between a speech and language therapist and each participant was analysed. Previous research has shown that speakers with RHD may have difficulties with intonation production, and therefore it was hypothesized that there may also be rhythmic disturbance. Results show that the neurologically normal control uses a similar rhythm to that reported for British English (there are no previous studies available for Australian English), whilst the speaker with RHD produces speech with a less strongly stress-timed rhythm. This finding was statistically significant for the intervocalic intervals measured (t(8) = 4.7, p < .01), and suggests that some aspects of prosody may be right lateralized for this speaker. The findings are discussed in relation to previous findings of dysprosody in RHD populations, and in relation to syllable-timed speech of people with other neurological conditions

Presymptomatic breast cancer in Egypt: role of BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes mutations detection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Breast cancer is one of the most common diseases affecting women. Inherited susceptibility genes, <it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2</it>, are considered in breast, ovarian and other common cancers etiology. <it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2 </it>genes have been identified that confer a high degree of breast cancer risk.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Our study was performed to identify germline mutations in some exons of <it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2 </it>genes for the early detection of presymptomatic breast cancer in females.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was applied on Egyptian healthy females who first degree relatives to those, with or without a family history, infected with breast cancer. Sixty breast cancer patients, derived from 60 families, were selected for molecular genetic testing of <it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2 </it>genes. The study also included 120 healthy first degree female relatives of the patients, either sisters and/or daughters, for early detection of presymptomatic breast cancer mutation carriers. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes of all the studied subjects. Universal primers were used to amplify four regions of the <it>BRCA1 </it>gene (exons 2,8,13 and 22) and one region (exon 9) of <it>BRCA2 </it>gene using specific PCR. The polymerase chain reaction was carried out. Single strand conformation polymorphism assay and heteroduplex analysis were used to screen for mutations in the studied exons. In addition, DNA sequencing of the normal and mutated exons were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mutations in both <it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2 </it>genes were detected in 86.7% of the families. Current study indicates that 60% of these families were attributable to <it>BRCA1 </it>mutations, while 26.7% of them were attributable to <it>BRCA2 </it>mutations. Results showed that four mutations were detected in the <it>BRCA1 </it>gene, while one mutation was detected in the <it>BRCA2 </it>gene. Asymptomatic relatives, 80(67%) out of total 120, were mutation carriers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>BRCA1 </it>and <it>BRCA2 </it>genes mutations are responsible for a significant proportion of breast cancer. <it>BRCA </it>mutations were found in individuals with and without family history.</p

ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ ТВЕРДОФАЗНОЙ ЭКСТРАКЦИИ ДЛЯ ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ ПРИСАДОК В АВТОМОБИЛЬНЫХ СМАЗОЧНЫХ МАСЛАХ МЕТОДОМ ГХ/МС

Currently, the determination of additives in lubricating oils is carried out using such analysis methods as IR spectroscopy, TLC, HPLC-UV, GC, GC-MS. To eliminate the interfering influence of the base oil components, various sample preparation methods are used, which are often not suitable for isolating a wide range of additives, are poorly reproduced, or are completely absent. In this regard, the urgent problem is the development of sample preparation techniques that can effectively isolate various additives for subsequent analysis. This paper presents a methodology for determining additives for the subsequent identification of automotive lubricating oils (MO). The method includes sample preparation by the method of solid phase extraction (SPE) with subsequent analysis by GC / MS. The optimal conditions for obtaining a characteristic and reproducible additives profile were determined: silica gel drying temperature, analyte elution rate, composition of the elution mixture, volumes of washing liquid and eluent. This method of SPE allows to isolate a wide range of additives: sterically hindered phenols, alkyl diphenylamines, dialkyldithiophosphates of zinc, alkyl salicylates, alkyl phenolates and components of extreme pressure additives. Also reduced the number of stages of the procedure SPE was compared with known methods.Keywords: lubricating oils, additives, solid-phase extraction, gas-liquid chromatography / mass spectrometry, GC/MS(Russian) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/analitika.2019.23.4.001R.L. Akhmedov1, S.S. Kravtsova1, K.A. Dychko1, I.V. Ramus’2 1Tomsk State University, Lenin Ave, 36, Tomsk, 634050, Russian Federation2EFC DMIA of Russia in Tomsk region, Vershinina st, 17/1, Tomsk, 634041, Russian FederationВ настоящее время определение присадок в смазочных маслах осуществляется при помощи таких методов анализа, как ИК спектроскопия, ТСХ, ВЭЖХ-УФ, ГХ. Для устранения мешающего влияния компонентов базового масла используются различные способы пробоподготовки, которые часто не подходят для выделения широкого спектра присадок, плохо воспроизводятся или вовсе отсутствуют. В связи с этим, актуальной проблемой является разработка методик пробоподготовки, позволяющих эффективно выделять различные присадки для последующего анализа. В данной статье представлена методика определения присадок для последующей идентификации автомобильных смазочных масел (СМ). Методика включает твердофазную экстракцию (ТФЭ) фенольных, аминных, фосфатных и др. присадок на силикагеле с последующим анализом методом газовой хроматографии / масс-спектрометрии. Определены оптимальные условия, позволяющие получить характеристичный и воспроизводимый профиль присадок на хроматограммах: температура высушивания силикагеля, скорость элюирования аналитов, состав элюирующей смеси, объемы промывной жидкости и элюента. Использование ТФЭ в совокупности с ГХ/МС позволяет выделять и идентифицировать широкий спектр присадок: пространственно затрудненные фенолы, алкилдифениламины, диалкилдитиофосфаты цинка, алкилсалицилаты, алкилфеноляты и некоторые компоненты противозадирных композиций, содержащихся даже в небольших количествах исследуемых образцов). Кроме того, в описанной работе сокращено количество стадий процедуры ТФЭ по сравнению с известными методиками. Время анализа ГХ/МС составляет 40 мин. Для повышения чувствительности анализа предложено использование режима инжектора без делителя потока, что обусловлено высокой степенью очистки пробы от компонентов углеводородной матрицы. Адекватность предложенной схемы продемонстрирована на 8 реальных образцах, оценка надежности результатов и их воспроизводимость контролировались с использованием критериев ГОСТ.Ключевые слова: масла смазочные, присадки, твердофазная экстракция, газо-жидкостная хроматография/масс-спектрометрия, ГХ/МСDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/analitika.2019.23.4.00

Modeling work practices under socio-technical systems for sustainable manufacturing performance

In light of the overwhelming consumption of resources by the manufacturing sector, this paper examined three key subsystems that are critical in greening the sector. Whereas the extant literature has focused on technological development to reduce environmental damage, it has not analyzed profoundly how manufacturing processes can be greened effectively. Hence, using carefully gathered data of 299 respondents and structural equation modeling, this paper sought to investigate the mediating effect of social, environmental, and technical subsystems on the relationship between management support and sustainable manufacturing performance. The results show that management support has a positive relationship with sustainable manufacturing performance (p < 0.005), while social, environmental, and technical subsystems partially mediate this relationship. Hence, efforts must be taken to encourage management of manufacturing firms to support sustainable management performance, while at the same time supporting them to introduce innovative social, environmental, and technical practices