2,070 research outputs found
Emphasis, glottalization and pharyngealization in Semitic and Afroasiatic
This paper investigates the phenomenon of emphasis in Semitic from a phonological perspective. It is well known that Semitic emphatics can be realized either as ejectives (Ethiosemitic) or as pharyngealized consonants (Arabic). Recent interest in the Modern South Arabian languages revealed that the emphatics in this group can be realized through an interaction of glottalization and pharyngealization. Starting from a general assessment of glottalization from a cross–linguistic perspective, a focus on Semitic emphatics will be given by using data from the endangered Modern South Arabian language, Baá¹á¸¥ari. Our goal is to provide a feature analysis of emphasis in Baá¹á¸¥ari and to correlate it with the rest of Semitic, with special attention to the peculiar phonological patterning of the emphatic /á¹/. This consonant appears to pattern in Baá¹á¸¥ari together with the class of breathed consonants (Heselwood and Maghrabi 2015), probably due to its peculiar features. It will be shown that, by adopting Duanmu’s (2016) framework of phonological features, it is possible to provide a coherent model for the patterning of Baá¹á¸¥ari and Modern South Arabian emphatics within Semitic. Furthermore, this paper will provide some tentative parallels between Semitic emphatics and glottalized segments found in the rest of Afroasiatic
A Musandam Arabic text from Lima (Oman)
This paper presents a short unpublished text recorded in the town of Lima, a small settlement located on the eastern shore of the Musandam peninsula (formally an Omani exclave). The text is fully transcribed and glossed, and a discussion follows in which the main phonological and grammatical peculiarities of the informant’s speech are investigated. The analysis confirms the findings of the few existing studies on Musandam Arabic, and adds some previously undocumented features, discussing their possible relations with other dialects of the Gulf Area. In particular, the hypothesis is put forward that some of the traits typically encountered in Musandam Arabic may find their ultimate origin in the southernmost regions of the Arabian Peninsula
Modern South Arabian Languages
In the course of this chapter we will discuss what is known about the effects that contact with Arabic has had on the Modern South Arabian languages of Oman and Yemen. Documentation concerning these languages is not abundant, and even more limited is our knowledge of the history of their interaction with Arabic. By integrating the existing bibliography with as yet unpublished fieldwork materials, we will try to provide as complete a picture of the situation as possible, also discussing the current linguistic and sociolinguistic landscape of Dhofar and eastern Yemen
Bone computed tomography mineral content evaluation in chickens: Effects of substances in homeopathic concentration
Ninety-six cobb race chickens were equally divided in 4 groups and randomly
assigned to receive a standard treatment feed + homeopathic concentrations of Symphytum
(S.) officinalis (9CH), or standard treatment feed + homeopathic concentrations
of Tricalcarea (4CH), or standard treatment feed + homeopathic concentrations of Calcarea
(C.) carbonica (30CH) or a placebo (the same feed but without any homeopathic
compound) in order to assess the ability of the homeopathic compounds to increase
the concentration of calcium hydroxyapatite in the sternal spongy bone tissue. We
measured the concentration of calciumhydroxyapatite in the sternal spongy bone tissue
of all chickens by means of a computed tomography (CT).
Results: 30%, 36% and 63% increase of sternum spongy-bone mineralization was
observed after a 2 years period in the treatment groups with S. officinalis (9CH), Tricalcarea
(4CH) (*P < 0.05) and C. carbonica (30CH) (***P < 0.001) respectively.
Conclusion: Bone mineralization is usually low in battery chickens reared in commercial
poultry-sheds, creating a weakness of the whole animal supporting apparatus. Homeopathic
preparations with bone-tissue tropism may improve their health
quality
Suppression of cell-spreading and phagocytic activity on nano-pillared surface: in vitro experiment using hemocytes of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri.
Nano-scale nipple array on the body surface has been described from various invertebrates including endoparasitic and mesoparasitic copepods, but the functions of the nipple array is not well understood. Using the hydrophilized nanopillar sheets made of polystyrene as a mimetic material of the nipple arrays on the parasites\u2019 body surface, we assayed the cell spreading and phagocytosis of the hemocytes of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri. On the pillared surface, the number of spreading amebocytes and the number of phagocytizing hemocytes per unit area were always smaller than those on the flat surface (Mann-Whitney test, p < 0.05 - 0.001), probably because the effective area for the cell attachment on the pillared surface is much smaller than the area on the flat sheet. The present results supports the idea that the nipple array on the parasites' body surface reduces the innate immune reaction from the host hemocytes
Identifying copepod functional groups from species functional traits
International audienceWe gathered information on the functional traits of the most representative copepod species in the Mediterranean Sea. Our database includes 191 species described by 7 traits encompassing diverse ecological functions: minimal and maximal body length, trophic group, feeding type, spawning strategy, diel vertical migration and vertical habitat. Cluster analysis in the functional trait space revealed that Mediterranean copepods can be separated into groups with distinct ecological roles
Transcriptome dynamics in the asexual cycle of the chordate Botryllus schlosseri
Background: We performed an analysis of the transcriptome during the blastogenesis of the chordate Botryllus
schlosseri, focusing in particular on genes involved in cell death by apoptosis. The tunicate B. schlosseri is an ascidian
forming colonies characterized by the coexistence of three blastogenetic generations: filter-feeding adults, buds on
adults, and budlets on buds. Cyclically, adult tissues undergo apoptosis and are progressively resorbed and replaced
by their buds originated by asexual reproduction. This is a feature of colonial tunicates, the only known chordates
that can reproduce asexually.
Results: Thanks to a newly developed web-based platform (http://botryllus.cribi.unipd.it), we compared the
transcriptomes of the mid-cycle, the pre-take-over, and the take-over phases of the colonial blastogenetic
cycle. The platform is equipped with programs for comparative analysis and allows to select the statistical
stringency. We enriched the genome annotation with 11,337 new genes; 581 transcripts were resolved as
complete open reading frames, translated in silico into amino acid sequences and then aligned onto the
non-redundant sequence database. Significant differentially expressed genes were classified within the gene
ontology categories. Among them, we recognized genes involved in apoptosis activation, de-activation, and
regulation.
Conclusions: With the current work, we contributed to the improvement of the first released B. schlosseri
genome assembly and offer an overview of the transcriptome changes during the blastogenetic cycle,
showing up- and down-regulated genes. These results are important for the comprehension of the events
underlying colony growth and regression, cell proliferation, colony homeostasis, and competition among
different generations
Life history and ecological genetics of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri
The colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri is a cosmopolitan, marine filter feeder, introduced as a laboratory research
organism in the 1950s. Currently, it is widely used in many laboratories to investigate a variety of biological questions.
Recently, it has become a species of concern, as it is an invasive species in many coastal environments. Here, we review
studies on the geographical distribution of the species, sexual and asexual reproduction in the field, tolerance to
temperature, salinity and anthropogenic activity, polychromatism, enzymatic polymorphism, and the genetic basis of
pigmentation. Studying the relationship between genetic polymorphism and the adaptation of B. schlosseri to
environmental stress is a challenge of future research and will improve our understanding of its evolutionary success
and invasive potential
A multi-artifact EEG denoising by frequency-based deep learning
Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals are fundamental to neuroscience
research and clinical applications such as brain-computer interfaces and
neurological disorder diagnosis. These signals are typically a combination of
neurological activity and noise, originating from various sources, including
physiological artifacts like ocular and muscular movements. Under this setting,
we tackle the challenge of distinguishing neurological activity from
noise-related sources. We develop a novel EEG denoising model that operates in
the frequency domain, leveraging prior knowledge about noise spectral features
to adaptively compute optimal convolutional filters for noise separation. The
model is trained to learn an empirical relationship connecting the spectral
characteristics of noise and noisy signal to a non-linear transformation which
allows signal denoising. Performance evaluation on the EEGdenoiseNet dataset
shows that the proposed model achieves optimal results according to both
temporal and spectral metrics. The model is found to remove physiological
artifacts from input EEG data, thus achieving effective EEG denoising. Indeed,
the model performance either matches or outperforms that achieved by benchmark
models, proving to effectively remove both muscle and ocular artifacts without
the need to perform any training on the particular type of artifact.Comment: Accepted at the Italian Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for
Human-Machine Interaction (AIxHMI 2023), November 06, 2023, Rome, Ital
- …