The Transmutation of Lanugage

In the fifth century B.C., Empedocles of Acragas, the Greek philosopher, proclaimed that the universe is composed of four primal elements: fire, air, water, and earth. While not, perhaps, the most scientific descriptive cosmology, this doctrine nevertheless dominated Western philosophical thought for twenty-one hundred years and is today still favorably regarded by born-again astrologists. But it did not fully satisfy Aristotle, who, writing a century later, explained that while these four material elements could define all earthly substances, a fifth immaterial element must define all heavenly phenomena. He called this element pemte ousia, or FIFTH BEING

Etymological and Usage Survey of the Common English No.Un and Its� Consimilar and Collateral Adjectives

This work serves as a preliminary investigation into an area that has hitherto been only peripherally explored--the etymological and usage relationships between common nouns, consimilar adjectives, and collateral adjectives. Through this study, attempt to answer--or at least bring attention to--such questions as, Why do some nouns have consimi Jar adjectives, others collateral adjectives, and still others both consimilar and collateral adjectives? What etymological, morphological, and phonological similarities and differences do common nouns, consimilar adjectives, and collateral adjectives manifest? How knowledgeable are native speakers of English about consimilar and collateral adjectives? And, given a choice, which types of adjectives would such speakers prefer to use? While my answers to these questions are not always complete or satisfactory, by recording my methods, speculations, expectations, and mistakes, I hope that future researchers can succeed where I have failed. This project grows out of my lifelong interest in words and etymology, and eleven years experience working in industry as a service engineer, service manager, and technical writer. Linguistically, the more I learned about common nouns, consimilar adjectives, and collateral adjectives, the more I discerned certain etymological and usage patterns in these categories of words; and, professionally, the more attentively I listened to co-workers� choices of nouns and adjectives, the more I perceived that those persons who had attained high professional or scholastic positions tended to use a relatively high percentage of collateral adjectives in comparison to consimilar adjectives while those persons who had not attained such high positions tended, proportionally, to use a higher percentage of consimilar adjectives. wondered if these perceptions were correct and what, if any, were the etymological and usage correlations between common nouns, consimilar adjectives, and collateral adjectives. In searching the literature for studies on this topic, I was unable to find one article or one chapter in any text bearing on these relationships. Specifically, I examined numerous composition and linguistic texts (see A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY), every issue of The Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, Verbatim, and The Sesquipedalian; and I conducted two ERIC searches using such descriptors as 11collateral adjectives, 11 11adjectives, 11 11nouns, 11 11etymology, 11 and 11 usage. 11 While I observed that an increasing number of English grammars (see, for example, Stageberg, 1981) and a plethora of journal articles (see Smith, 1981; Drysdale, 1979) analyze the morphology, phonology, and etymology of nouns and adjectives, no article, grammar, etymologicon, word-frequency study, or dictionary that I consulted save Funk~ Wagnalls 1 Standard College Dictionary (Funk~ Hagnalls, 1963, pp. xx, 265, passim) and David Gold 1 s 11The Ordering of Lexemes in a Dictionary11 (Gold, 1979) even mentions collateral adjectives. And I have yet to speak with any linguist or grammarian save Laurence Urdang (Urdang, 1981) who has been acquainted with collateral adjectives. In short, I am embarking on an expedition into what is essentially uncharted territory, and the ultimate value of my study, if indeed it has any, may very well lie not in the answers it furnishes but in the questions it raises

The dangers of using diagnoses outside of established psychiatric nosology in the courtroom: Analysis and discussion of current Swiss legal precedent from a medical perspective.

Akin to many jurisdictions, Switzerland has a dual system of sanctions comprising sentences and measures. To order a therapeutic measure per Article 59 or 63 of the Swiss Criminal Code, the presence of a "severe mental disorder" must be determined. Before the new legal precedent, this required a medical diagnosis according to recognised classification systems like the ICD or DSM. The court then decided if a disorder was "severe" in the legal sense, thereby requiring such a therapeutic measure. However, in two 2019 rulings, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court concluded that a severe mental disorder could legally exist without a diagnosis according to the ICD or DSM, if it is based on offence- and risk-relevant personality-related factors amenable to risk-reducing therapy. We examine the details and context of the rulings, alongside their wider dangers. Specifically, we outline how undue influence could be exerted by non-ICD/DSM diagnostic systems, which were developed within individual theoretical schools of thought and lack empirical validation, like in these two court cases. Such non-manual diagnoses could make the presence of a severe mental disorder dependent upon whether an expert witness employs a particular diagnostic system, which would undermine principles of legality. Moreover, the Court's requirement that the disorder is based on personality-related risk factors amenable to risk-reducing therapy is problematic because research has highlighted the low effectiveness of treatment provided independently of a psychiatric disorder. Finally, broadening entry criteria may increase the number of offenders who require psychiatric treatment, thus endangering the quality of care for those with ICD/DSM-based diagnoses that are known to respond well to treatment (e.g. schizophrenia). In short, fulfilling the Court's request that any non-manual diagnoses are based on personality-related risk factors that are amenable to risk-reducing therapy is not possible for such non-manual diagnoses. Using unvalidated diagnoses could also render the system susceptible to ethical issues and hypothetical misuse, which may adversely affect society's most vulnerable people. To counter these dangers, we suggest that in order to be admissible in court, any diagnostic system must mandatorily fulfil sufficient scientific standards

KnowTox: pipeline and case study for confident prediction of potential toxic effects of compounds in early phases of development

Risk assessment of newly synthesised chemicals is a prerequisite for regulatory approval. In this context, in silico methods have great potential to reduce time, cost, and ultimately animal testing as they make use of the ever-growing amount of available toxicity data. Here, KnowTox is presented, a novel pipeline that combines three different in silico toxicology approaches to allow for confident prediction of potentially toxic effects of query compounds, i.e. machine learning models for 88 endpoints, alerts for 919 toxic substructures, and computational support for read-across. It is mainly based on the ToxCast dataset, containing after preprocessing a sparse matrix of 7912 compounds tested against 985 endpoints. When applying machine learning models, applicability and reliability of predictions for new chemicals are of utmost importance. Therefore, first, the conformal prediction technique was deployed, comprising an additional calibration step and per definition creating internally valid predictors at a given significance level. Second, to further improve validity and information efficiency, two adaptations are suggested, exemplified at the androgen receptor antagonism endpoint. An absolute increase in validity of 23% on the in-house dataset of 534 compounds could be achieved by introducing KNNRegressor normalisation. This increase in validity comes at the cost of efficiency, which could again be improved by 20% for the initial ToxCast model by balancing the dataset during model training. Finally, the value of the developed pipeline for risk assessment is discussed using two in-house triazole molecules. Compared to a single toxicity prediction method, complementing the outputs of different approaches can have a higher impact on guiding toxicity testing and de-selecting most likely harmful development-candidate compounds early in the development process

Three (Potential) Pillars of Transnational Economic Justice: The Bretton Woods Institutions as Guarantors of Global Equal Treatment and Market Completion

This essay aims to bring two important lines of inquiry and criticism together. It first lays out an institutionally enriched account of what a just world economic order will look like. That account prescribes, via the requisites to that mechanism which most directly instantiate the account, three realms of equal treatment and market completion - the global products, services, and labor markets; the global investment/financial markets; and the global preparticipation opportunity allocation. The essay then suggests how, with minimal if any departure from familiar canons of traditional international legal mandate interpretation, each of the Bretton Woods institutions - particularly the GATT/WTO and the IMF - can be viewed at least in part as charged with the task of fostering equal treatment and ultimate market completion within one of those three realms. The piece then argues that one of the institutions in particular - the World Bank - has, for reasons of at best negligent and at worst willful injustice on the part of influential state actors in the world community, fallen farthest short in pursuit of what should be viewed as its proper mandate. The article accordingly concludes that a fuller empowerment of the Bank to effect its ideal mission will press the Bretton Woods system more nearly into ethical balance, and with it the world into justice; and that full empowerment of the GATT/WTO and IMF should be partly conditioned upon the fuller empowerment of the Bank

Single-cell genomics based on Raman sorting reveals novel carotenoid-containing bacteria in the Red Sea.

Cell sorting coupled with single-cell genomics is a powerful tool to circumvent cultivation of microorganisms and reveal microbial 'dark matter'. Single-cell Raman spectra (SCRSs) are label-free biochemical 'fingerprints' of individual cells, which can link the sorted cells to their phenotypic information and ecological functions. We employed a novel Raman-activated cell ejection (RACE) approach to sort single bacterial cells from a water sample in the Red Sea based on SCRS. Carotenoids are highly diverse pigments and play an important role in phototrophic bacteria, giving strong and distinctive Raman spectra. Here, we showed that individual carotenoid-containing cells from a Red Sea sample were isolated based on the characteristic SCRS. RACE-based single-cell genomics revealed putative novel functional genes related to carotenoid and isoprenoid biosynthesis, as well as previously unknown phototrophic microorganisms including an unculturable Cyanobacteria spp. The potential of Raman sorting coupled to single-cell genomics has been demonstrated

Study protocol to investigate the effect of a lifestyle intervention on body weight, psychological health status and risk factors associated with disease recurrence in women recovering from breast cancer treatment

Background Breast cancer survivors often encounter physiological and psychological problems related to their diagnosis and treatment that can influence long-term prognosis. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of a lifestyle intervention on body weight and psychological well-being in women recovering from breast cancer treatment, and to determine the relationship between changes in these variables and biomarkers associated with disease recurrence and survival. Methods/design Following ethical approval, a total of 100 patients will be randomly assigned to a lifestyle intervention (incorporating dietary energy restriction in conjunction with aerobic exercise training) or normal care control group. Patients randomised to the dietary and exercise intervention will be given individualised healthy eating dietary advice and written information and attend moderate intensity aerobic exercise sessions on three to five days per week for a period of 24 weeks. The aim of this strategy is to induce a steady weight loss of up to 0.5 Kg each week. In addition, the overall quality of the diet will be examined with a view to (i) reducing the dietary intake of fat to ~25% of the total calories, (ii) eating at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, (iii) increasing the intake of fibre and reducing refined carbohydrates, and (iv) taking moderate amounts of alcohol. Outcome measures will include body weight and body composition, psychological health status (stress and depression), cardiorespiratory fitness and quality of life. In addition, biomarkers associated with disease recurrence, including stress hormones, estrogen status, inflammatory markers and indices of innate and adaptive immune function will be monitored. Discussion This research will provide valuable information on the effectiveness of a practical, easily implemented lifestyle intervention for evoking positive effects on body weight and psychological well-being, two important factors that can influence long-term prognosis in breast cancer survivors. However, the added value of the study is that it will also evaluate the effects of the lifestyle intervention on a range of biomarkers associated with disease recurrence and survival. Considered together, the results should improve our understanding of the potential role that lifestyle-modifiable factors could play in saving or prolonging lives

Antimicrobial Activity and Genetic Profile of Enteroccoci Isolated from Hoopoes Uropygial Gland

Symbiotic microorganisms may be directly transferred from parents to offspring or acquired from a particular environment that animals may be able to select. If benefits for hosts vary among microbial strains, natural selection may favour hosts holding the most beneficial one. Enterococci symbionts living in the hoopoe (Upupa epops) uropygial gland are able to synthesise bacteriocins (antimicrobial peptides that inhibit the growth of competitor bacteria). We explored variability in genetic profile (through RAPD-PCR analyses) and antimicrobial properties (by performing antagonistic tests against ten bacterial indicator strains) of the different isolates obtained from the uropygial glands of hoopoe females and nestlings. We found that the genetic profile of bacterial isolates was related to antimicrobial activity, as well as to individual host identity and the nest from which samples were obtained. This association suggest that variation in the inhibitory capacity of Enterococci symbionts should be under selection.This work was financed by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish National Government) and FEDER founds (projects CGL2010-19233-C03-01, and CGL2010-19233-C03-03), and Junta de Andalucía (P09-RNM-4557)