Literal and metaphorical usages of Babanki EAT and DRINK verbs

In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of North-West Cameroon, two of the numerous consumption verbs, namely the generic verbs ʒɨ́ ‘eat’ and ɲʉ́ ‘drink’, constitute a major source of metaphorical extensions outside the domain of ingestion. Setting out from a characterisation of the basic meanings of these two lexical items as they emerge from their paradigmatic relations within the semantic field of alimentation processes, this paper explores the figurative usages of the two verbs and their underlying semantic motivations. Semantic extensions that radiate from eat can be subsumed under two closely related structural metaphors, i.e. APPROPRIATION OF RESOURCES IS EATING and WINNING IS EATING. The first metaphor construes the acquisition and exploitation of non-food items such as material possession as eating, while the second metaphor casts the acquisition of immaterial advantage in the mould of eating. Both metaphors have further entailments, i.e. the derivation of pleasure from consumption of resources, the depletion of resources via consumption and the deprivation of a third party from access to these resources. Semantic extensions that radiate from drink can be accounted for in two structural metaphors, i.e. INHALATION IS DRINKING and ABSORPTION IS DRINKING. Remarkably, some metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs attested in other African languages, such as extensions of EAT for sexual intercourse and for killing, and the extensions of DRINK for undergoing trouble and enduring painful experiences are absent in Babanki

The expression of diminutivity in Central Ring Grassfields Bantu

oai:hup1.journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de:article/203Studies on the expression of diminutivity in Bantoid languages of the Cameroonian Grassfields have tended to focus on the role that noun class derivation plays within the familiar Bantu paradigm. A closer look at individual branches of Bantoid, however, reveals a more complex picture, which rather suggests a division of labour between derivational strategies and compounding and/or periphrasis. This contribution zooms in on the languages of the Central Ring (CR) branch of Grassfields Bantu, presenting an overview of diminutivisation strategies found here: the notorious transfer to gender 19/6a, which is at times, accompanied by the addition of a semantically bleached suffix –CV, and periphrasis in associative constructions headed by nouns with inherent diminutive meanings such as ‘child’.

Государственно-частное партнерство - важнейший механизм реализации социальной политики в РФ (на примере Томской области)

В статье рассмотрено понятие государственно-частное партнерство (Г П) и обоснована актуальность применения данных механизмов на различных уровнях государственной власти. Особое внимание уделено целесообразности применения механизмов Г П в рамках реализации социальной политики в РФ, выявлены и проанализированы основополагающие преимущества и недостатки, как для частного инвестора, так и для публичного партнера. Доказана эффективность применения Г П в рамках проекта "Детские сады Томской области"

Thermorheology of living cells: impact of temperature variations on cell mechanics

Upon temperature changes, we observe a systematic shift of creep compliance curves J (t) for single living breast epithelial cells. We use a dual-beam laser trap (optical stretcher) to induce temperature jumps within milliseconds, while simultaneously measuring the mechanical response of whole cells to optical force. The cellular mechanical response was found to differ between sudden temperature changes compared to slow, long-term changes implying adaptation of cytoskeletal structure. Interpreting optically induced cell deformation as a thermorheological experiment allows us to consistently explain data on the basis of time–temperature superposition, well known from classical polymer physics. Measured time shift factors give access to the activation energy of the viscous flow of MCF-10A breast cells, which was determined to be 80 kJ mol−1. The presented measurements highlight the fundamental role that temperature plays for the deformability of cellular matter. We propose thermorheology as a powerful concept to assess the inherent material properties of living cells and to investigate cell regulatory responses upon environmental changes

Complex thermorheology of living cells

Temperature has a reliable and nearly instantaneous influence onmechanical responses of cells.As recently published, MCF-10Anormal epithelial breast cells follow the time–temperature superposition (TTS) principle. Here,wemeasured thermorheological behaviour of eightcommoncell types within physiologically relevant temperatures and appliedTTS to creep compliance curves.Our results showed that superposition is not universal and was seen in four of the eight investigated cell types. For the other cell types, transitions of thermorheological responses were observed at 36 °C.Activation energies (EA)were calculated for all cell types and ranged between 50 and 150 kJmol−1.The scaling factors of the superposition of creep curves were used to group the cell lines into three categories. They were dependent on relaxation processes aswell as structural composition of the cells in response tomechanical load and temperature increase.This study supports the view that temperature is a vital parameter for comparing cell rheological data and should be precisely controlledwhen designing experiments

Thermal instability of cell nuclei

DNA is known to be a mechanically and thermally stable structure. In its double stranded form it is densely packed within the cell nucleus and is thermo-resistant up to 70 °C. In contrast, we found a sudden loss of cell nuclei integrity at relatively moderate temperatures ranging from 45 to 55 °C. In our study, suspended cells held in an optical double beam trap were heated under controlled conditions while monitoring the nuclear shape. At specific critical temperatures, an irreversible sudden shape transition of the nuclei was observed. These temperature induced transitions differ in abundance and intensity for various normal and cancerous epithelial breast cells, which clearly characterizes different cell types. Our results show that temperatures slightly higher than physiological conditions are able to induce instabilities of nuclear structures, eventually leading to cell death. This is a surprising finding since recent thermorheological cell studies have shown that cells have a lower viscosity and are thus more deformable upon temperature increase. Since the nucleus is tightly coupled to the outer cell shape via the cytoskeleton, the force propagation of nuclear reshaping to the cell membrane was investigated in combination with the application of cytoskeletal drugs