ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN DONALD TRUMP'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

This article aims at carrying out a pragmatic analysis of a selected extract from Donald Trump’s acceptance speech delivered at the Republican National Convention on July 21st, 2016. The study mainly focuses on the identification and the analysis of linguistic features of speech acts (Austin 1962 and Searl 1969) used in the political language of the acceptance speech to uncover the way Donald Trump has encoded his own intentions and his party’s expectations therein. The identification of illocutionary acts indicates the presence of representative acts, directive acts, expressive acts, commissive acts, and declarative acts. The interpretation of the findings reveals the dominance of representative illocutionary acts which shows that Trump has mainly expressed his personal beliefs, on the one hand, and displayed his truth engagement to lead his party to the White House, on the other. Directive illocutionary acts are used to suggest some solutions, while commissive acts are used to point out challenges of security and peace to be taken up once elected. As for expressive acts, they reflect Trump’s psychological state, while addressing the audience at the convention. The article concludes that the study of speech acts has made it easy to comprehend the message in President Donald Trump’s speech

Multiscale approach of mechanical behaviour of SiC/SiC composites: Elastic behaviour at the scale of the tow

SiC/SiC composites are candidates for structural applications at elevated temperatures in the context of the development of the 4th generation of nuclear reactors. A multiscale approach is under development to construct a predictive modelling of their complex mechanical behaviour due to their heterogeneous microstructure. This approach is based on two scale transitions: from the fibres/matrix microstructure to the tow and from the tow to the woven composite, each scale presenting a significant residual porosity. This paper focuses on the first scale transition and on the modelling of the elastic behaviour of the tow at room temperature. A microstructural investigation of several tows in a 2D SiC/SiC specimen has been conducted using scanning electron microscopy to get statistical data on microstructural characteristics by image analysis in order to generate a virtual microstructure. The elastic problem of homogenisation is numerically solved by means of finite element techniques. The simulations performed on various volumes show noticeable fluctuations of the apparent behaviour: so separation of length scales is not satisfied in this material. Nevertheless, this problem is neglected in a first approximation and the homogeneous equivalent behaviour is evaluated by averaging the apparent behaviours of several volume elements – smaller than the Representative Volume Element (RVE) – called Statistical Volume Elements (SVEs). Finally, influence of porosity and pores’ morphology is quantified

Decrease of breast cancer cell invasiveness by sodium phenylacetate (NaPa) is associated with an increased expression of adhesive molecules

Sodium phenylacetate (NaPa), a non-toxic phenylalanine metabolite, has been shown to induce in vivo and in vitro cytostatic and antiproliferative effects on various cell types. In this work, we analysed the effect of NaPa on the invasiveness of breast cancer cell (MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 and MCF-7 ras). Using the highly invasive breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231, we demonstrated that an 18-hour incubation with NaPa strongly inhibits the cell invasiveness through Matrigel (86% inhibition at 20 mM of NaPa). As cell invasiveness is greatly influenced by the expression of urokinase (u-PA) and its cell surface receptor (u-PAR) as well as the secretion of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), we tested the effect of NaPa on these parameters. An 18-hour incubation with NaPa did not modify u-PA expression, either on MDA-MB-231 or on MCF-7 and MCF-7 ras cell lines, and induced a small u-PA decrease after 3 days of treatment of MDA-MB-321 with NaPa. In contrast, an 18 h incubation of MDA-MB-231 increased the expression of u-PAR and the secretion of MMP-9. As u-PAR is a ligand for vitronectin, a composant of the extracellular matrix, these data could explain the increased adhesion of MDA-MB-231 to vitronectin, while cell adhesivity of MCF-7 and MCF-7 ras was unmodified by NaPa treatment. NaPa induced also an increased expression of both Lymphocyte Function-Associated-1 (LFA-1) and Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1), which was obvious from 18 hour incubation with NaPa for the MDA-MB-231 cells, but was delayed (3 days) for MCF-7 and MCF-7 ras. Only neutralizing antibodies against LFA-1 reversed the decreased invasiveness of NaPa-treated cells. Therefore we can conclude that the strong inhibition of MDA-MB-231 invasiveness is not due to a decrease in proteases involved in cell migration (u-PA and MMP) but could be related both to the modification of cell structure and an increased expression of adhesion molecules such as u-PAR and LFA-1. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

High resolution numerical study of the Algiers 2001 flash flood: sensitivity to the upper-level potential vorticity anomaly

From 9 to 11 November 2001, intense cyclogenesis affected the northern coasts of Africa and more particularly the densely populated city of Algiers. During the morning of 10 November, more than 130 mm of precipitation was recorded at Bouzareah and resulted in mudslides which devastated the Bab-el-Oued district. This disaster caused more than 700 casualties and catastrophic damage. Like many other heavy rainstorms in the western Mediterranean, this event was associated with the presence of an upper-level trough materialized by a deep stratospheric intrusion and characterized by high potential vorticity values. In this study, the impact of this synoptic structure on the localization and intensity of the precipitation which affected Algiers is investigated using a potential vorticity (PV) inversion method coupled for the first time with the French non-hydrostatic MESO-NH model. A set of perturbed synoptic environments was designed by slightly modifying the extent and the intensity of the coherent potential vorticity structures in the operational ARPEGE analysis. It is shown that such modifications may have a strong impact on the fine-scale precipitation forecast in the Algiers region, thereby demonstrating the fundamental role played by the potential vorticity anomaly during this exceptional meteorological event

The lytic transglycosylase MltB connects membrane homeostasis and in vivo fitness of Acinetobacter baumannii

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146339/1/mmi14000-sup-0001-Supinfo.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146339/2/mmi14000.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146339/3/mmi14000_am.pd

Integrating the Water Planetary Boundary With Water Management From Local to Global Scales

The planetary boundaries framework defines the "safe operating space for humanity" represented by nine global processes that can destabilize the Earth System if perturbed. The water planetary boundary attempts to provide a global limit to anthropogenic water cycle modifications, but it has been challenging to translate and apply it to the regional and local scales at which water problems and management typically occur. We develop a cross-scale approach by which the water planetary boundary could guide sustainable water management and governance at subglobal contexts defined by physical features (e.g., watershed or aquifer), political borders (e.g., city, nation, or group of nations), or commercial entities (e.g., corporation, trade group, or financial institution). The application of the water planetary boundary at these subglobal contexts occurs via two approaches: (i) calculating fair shares, in which local water cycle modifications are compared to that context's allocation of the global safe operating space, taking into account biophysical, socioeconomic, and ethical considerations; and (ii) defining a local safe operating space, in which interactions between water stores and Earth System components are used to define local boundaries required for sustaining the local water system in stable conditions, which we demonstrate with a case study of the Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta wetlands in Colombia. By harmonizing these two approaches, the water planetary boundary can ensure that water cycle modifications remain within both local and global boundaries and complement existing water management and governance approaches

Microwave studies of the fractional Josephson effect in HgTe-based Josephson junctions

The rise of topological phases of matter is strongly connected to their potential to host Majorana bound states, a powerful ingredient in the search for a robust, topologically protected, quantum information processing. In order to produce such states, a method of choice is to induce superconductivity in topological insulators. The engineering of the interplay between superconductivity and the electronic properties of a topological insulator is a challenging task and it is consequently very important to understand the physics of simple superconducting devices such as Josephson junctions, in which new topological properties are expected to emerge. In this article, we review recent experiments investigating topological superconductivity in topological insulators, using microwave excitation and detection techniques. More precisely, we have fabricated and studied topological Josephson junctions made of HgTe weak links in contact with two Al or Nb contacts. In such devices, we have observed two signatures of the fractional Josephson effect, which is expected to emerge from topologically-protected gapless Andreev bound states. We first recall the theoretical background on topological Josephson junctions, then move to the experimental observations. Then, we assess the topological origin of the observed features and conclude with an outlook towards more advanced microwave spectroscopy experiments, currently under development.Comment: Lectures given at the San Sebastian Topological Matter School 2017, published in "Topological Matter. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences, vol 190. Springer