Language Contact in Australia

This MA dissertation is concerned with a specific case of language contact in Australia. It investigates the effects of standardisation and the development of a writing system on the formerly solely oral language Diyari of South Australia, using documentation sources collected over a period of 110 years. One of the main findings is that a significant change occurred in both language attitude and language structure resulting from missionary influence and the introduction of literacy. Furthermore, a lack of morphological features in Diyari recorded for related languages puzzled the author of the last descriptive grammar of the language (Austin, 1981). As detailed in the dissertation, the results suggest that grammatical reduction due to language contact and standardization was the cause of these phenomena

Mapping Worlds: Frames of Reference in MalakMalak

BLS 39: General Session and Special Session on Space and Directionalit

Predictive and prognostic value of circulating nucleosomes and serum biomarkers in patients with metastasized colorectal cancer undergoing Selective Internal Radiation Therapy

Background Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) is a new and effective locoregional anticancer therapy for colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases. Markers for prediction of therapy response and prognosis are needed for the individual management of those patients undergoing SIRT. Methods Blood samples were prospectively and consecutively taken from 49 colorectal cancer patients with extensive hepatic metastases before, three, six, 24 and 48 h after SIRT to analyze the concentrations of nucleosomes and further laboratory parameters, and to compare them with the response to therapy regularly determined 3 months after therapy and with overall survival. Results Circulating nucleosomes, cytokeratin-19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), C-reactive protein (CRP) and various liver markers increased already 24 h after SIRT. Pretherapeutical levels of CYFRA 21-1, CEA, cancer antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), asparate-aminotransferase (AST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as well as 24 h values of nucleosomes were significantly higher in patients suffering from disease progression (N = 35) than in non-progressive patients (N = 14). Concerning overall survival, CEA, CA 19-9, CYFRA 21-1, CRP, LDH, AST, choline esterase (CHE), gamma-glutamyl-transferase, alkaline phosphatase, and amylase (all 0 h, 24 h) and nucleosomes (24 h) were found to be prognostic relevant markers in univariate analyses. In multivariate Cox-Regression analysis, the best prognostic model was obtained for the combination of CRP and AST. When 24 h values were additionally included, nucleosomes (24 h) further improved the existing model. Conclusion Panels of biochemical markers are helpful to stratify pretherapeutically colorectal cancer patients for SIR-therapy and to early estimate the response to SIR-therapy

Mevalonate kinase deficiencies: from mevalonic aciduria to hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome

Mevalonic aciduria (MVA) and hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS) represent the two ends of a clinical spectrum of disease caused by deficiency of mevalonate kinase (MVK), the first committed enzyme of cholesterol biosynthesis. At least 30 patients with MVA and 180 patients with HIDS have been reported worldwide. MVA is characterized by psychomotor retardation, failure to thrive, progressive cerebellar ataxia, dysmorphic features, progressive visual impairment and recurrent febrile crises. The febrile episodes are commonly accompanied by hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, abdominal symptoms, arthralgia and skin rashes. Life expectancy is often compromised. In HIDS, only febrile attacks are present, but a subgroup of patients may also develop neurological abnormalities of varying degree such as mental retardation, ataxia, ocular symptoms and epilepsy. A reduced activity of MVK and pathogenic mutations in the MVK gene have been demonstrated as the common genetic basis in both disorders. In MVA, the diagnosis is established by detection of highly elevated levels of mevalonic acid excreted in urine. Increased levels of immunoglobulin D (IgD) and, in most patients of immunoglobulin A (IgA), in combination with enhanced excretion of mevalonic acid provide strong evidence for HIDS. The diagnosis is confirmed by low activity of mevalonate kinase or by demonstration of disease-causing mutations. Genetic counseling should be offered to families at risk. There is no established successful treatment for MVA. Simvastatin, an inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, and anakinra have been shown to have beneficial effect in HIDS

The Complexity of Computing Minimal Unidirectional Covering Sets

Given a binary dominance relation on a set of alternatives, a common thread in the social sciences is to identify subsets of alternatives that satisfy certain notions of stability. Examples can be found in areas as diverse as voting theory, game theory, and argumentation theory. Brandt and Fischer [BF08] proved that it is NP-hard to decide whether an alternative is contained in some inclusion-minimal upward or downward covering set. For both problems, we raise this lower bound to the Theta_{2}^{p} level of the polynomial hierarchy and provide a Sigma_{2}^{p} upper bound. Relatedly, we show that a variety of other natural problems regarding minimal or minimum-size covering sets are hard or complete for either of NP, coNP, and Theta_{2}^{p}. An important consequence of our results is that neither minimal upward nor minimal downward covering sets (even when guaranteed to exist) can be computed in polynomial time unless P=NP. This sharply contrasts with Brandt and Fischer's result that minimal bidirectional covering sets (i.e., sets that are both minimal upward and minimal downward covering sets) are polynomial-time computable.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure