scholarly journals The South Estonian language islands in the context of the Central Baltic area

Author(s):  
Miina Norvik ◽  
Uldis Balodis ◽  
Valts Ernštreits ◽  
Gunta Kļava ◽  
Helle Metslang ◽  
...  

This article offers a comparative analysis of several morphosyntactic and phonological features in the South Estonian language islands: Leivu, Lutsi, and Kraasna. The objective is to give an overview of the distribution of selected features, their (in)stability over time, and discuss their form and use in a broader areal context. To achieve this goal, comparative information was also included from the closest cognate varieties (Estonian and the South Estonian varieties, Courland Livonian and Salaca Livonian) and the main contact varieties (Latgalian, Latvian, and Russian). The data analysed in this study originated from various sources: text collections, dictionaries, and language corpora. The results reveal a multitude of linguistic patterns and distribution patterns, which means that the studied varieties are similar to / different from one another in various ways and points to multifaceted contact situations and outcomes in this area. Kokkuvõte. Miina Norvik, Uldis Balodis, Valts Ernštreits, Gunta Kļava, Helle Metslang, Karl Pajusalu, Eva Saar: Lõunaeesti keelesaared Kesk-Balti mõjuväljas. Artikkel esitab lõunaeesti keelesaarte – Leivu, Lutsi ja Kraasna – mitme morfosüntaktilise ja fonoloogilise joone võrdleva analüüsi. Uurimuse eesmärgiks on anda ülevaade valitud joonte levikust ja püsivusest ajas ning arutleda nende vormide ja kasutuse üle laiemas areaalses kontekstis. Selleks võetakse arvesse lähimate sugulaskeelte (eesti ja lõunaeesti, Kuramaa ja Salatsi liivi) ja -murrete ning tähtsamate kontaktkeelte (latgali, läti, vene) esinemusi. Analüüsitakse erinevatest allikatest, mh tekstikogudest, sõna- raamatutest ja keelekorpustest pärit ainest. Uurimistulemused toovad esile mitmesuguseid vormiseoseid ja muutuste levikuviise, osutades uuritud keelte ja murrete omavaheliste kontaktide mitmelaadsusele ning sellest tingitud erinevatele keelesüsteemi arengutele.

Author(s):  
Jürgen Schaflechner

Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110227
Author(s):  
Yingzi Wang ◽  
Thoralf Klein

This paper examines the changes and continuities in TV representations of Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary history and interprets them within the broader context of China’s political, economic and cultural transformations since the 1990s. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three state-sponsored TV dramas produced between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, it traces how the state-sanctioned revolutionary narratives have changed over time in response to the Party’s propaganda imperatives on the one hand, and to the market-oriented production environment on the other. The paper argues that while recent TV productions in the new century have made increasing concessions to audience taste by adopting visually stimulating depictions and introducing fictional characters as points of identification for the audience, the revolutionary narratives were still aligned with the Party’s propaganda agenda at different times. This shows the ongoing competition between ideological and commercial interests in Chinese TV production during the era of market reforms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 186 (4) ◽  
pp. 934-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Harms ◽  
J Dale Roberts ◽  
Mark S Harvey

Abstract The south-western division of Australia is the only biodiversity hotspot in Australia and is well-known for extreme levels of local endemism. Climate change has been identified as a key threat for flora and fauna, but very few data are presently available to evaluate its impact on invertebrate fauna. Here, we derive a molecular phylogeography for pseudoscorpions of the genus Pseudotyrannochthonius that in the south-west are restricted to regions with the highest rainfall. A dated molecular phylogeny derived from six gene fragments is used for biogeographic reconstruction analyses, spatial mapping, environmental niche-modelling, and to infer putative species. Phylogenetic analyses uncover nine clades with mostly allopatric distributions and often small linear ranges between 0.5 and 130 km. Molecular dating suggests that the origins of contemporary diversity fall into a period of warm/humid Palaeogene climates, but splits in the phylogeny coincide with major environmental shifts, such as significant global cooling during the Middle Miocene. By testing several models of historical biogeography available for the south-west, we determine that Pseudotyrannochthonius is an ancient relict lineage that principally follows a model of allopatric speciation in mesic zone refugia, although there are derivations from this model in that some species are older and distribution patterns more complex than expected. Ecological niche models indicate that drier and warmer future climates will lead to range contraction towards refugia of highest rainfall, probably mimicking past variations that have generated high diversity in these areas. Their conservation management will be crucial for preserving the unique biodiversity heritage of the south-west.


Author(s):  
Katie Kehoe ◽  
Sherry Shultz ◽  
Fran Fiocchi ◽  
Qiong Li ◽  
Thomas Shields ◽  
...  

Title: Quality Improvement in the Outpatient Setting: Observations from the PINNACLE Registry® 2009 Q4-2013 Q1 Authors: Katie Kehoe BSN, MS 1 ; Sherry Shultz RN, BSN, CIO 2 ; Fran Fiocchi MPH 1 ; Qiong Li PhD 1 ; Thomas Shields 1 ; Charlie Devlin MD FACC, FACP, FASNC 2 ; Nathan T Glusenkamp, MA 1 ; J. Brendan Mullen 1 ; Angelo Ponirakis, PhD 1 ; 1 American College of Cardiology, Washington, DC 2 South Carolina Heart Center, Columbia SC Background: The PINNACLE Registry® at the American College of Cardiology is the first outpatient practice-based quality improvement program in the United States. Begun as a pilot program in 2007, the registry systematically collects and reports on adherence to clinical guidelines in the care of patients with coronary artery disease, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and heart failure. Over time, these reports offer a unique opportunity for Quality Improvement (QI) in the outpatient setting. The current study aimed to assess the effect of QI in the outpatient setting using PINNACLE Registry data. Methods: The South Carolina Heart Center is a cardiovascular practice in Columbia, South Carolina. There are 19 providers, 5 office locations and NextGen EMR. The practice’s Quality Committee and Board meet monthly to review PINNACLE reports and identify areas for QI. This Clinical Quality Improvement Initiative began 10 years ago and consists of physicians, nurses, administrators, medical assistants, a medical record analyst and information systems staff. During this review, providers’ data was not blinded to others. QI Interventions implemented included physician and staff education, improving documentation during the office visit, addition of necessary fields to capture missing data and routine planned internal audits. Between October 1, 2009 and March 31, 2013 a total of 161,873 patient encounters were submitted to the registry. A two-tailed z test was performed to assess the significance in percentage changes between 2009 to 2013. Results: The following table showed significant percentage changes in six performance measures indicating interventions implemented by the practice demonstrate significant quality improvement over time from 2009-2013. Conclusions: Utilizing their PINNACLE Registry reports, the South Carolina Heart Center identified several areas for QI. Implementing multiple interventions, this practice was able to significantly improve their PINNACLE Reports and the quality of care provided.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Baye Yimam

This paper examines the phonological features that characterize the Amharic variety spoken in South Wəllo, an area which has been influenced by the diffusion of linguistic and cultural features arising from longstanding contact situations between Semitic and non-Semitic linguistic groups. Data from eight districts of the zone have shown that the South Wəllo variety has 26 consonant and seven vowel phonemes. The consonants are four fewer than that reported of the standard variety. The co-occurrence restrictions of the consonants and the syllable structures are the same as those of the standard variety. However, the phonological rules that operate at morpheme internal, morpheme and word boundary levels are different in the degree of complexity and directionality. These include inter-vocalic lenition of velar stops, word-final weakening of alveo-palatals, coalescence of lowering diphthongs, centering, lowering and fronting of vowels, metathesis of coronals and anteriors, and lexeme specific alternations of homorganic consonants. The description of the facts provides more substantive arguments in favor of the long-held claim that Wəllo constitutes a distinct dialect area.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Erika Jasionytė-Mikučionienė ◽  
Jolanta Šinkūnienė

The focus of the paper is on the frequency, distribution patterns and semantic profile of the necessitive impersonal reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in old and contemporary Lithuanian texts. The study employs corpus based quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the patterns of use of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the Database of Old Writings (16th-17th centuries) as well as the fiction sub-corpus of the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language and the humanities and biomedical sciences sub-corpora of the Corpus of Academic Lithuanian (CorALit). The study follows van der Auwera and Plungian’s (1998) modality framework. The quantitative analysis shows that the present tense form reikia ‘need.PRS.3’ is the dominating one across all the sub-corpora analysed. The results of the qualitative study indicate that the deontic sub-type of participant external modality is prevailing in the old Lithuanian texts as well as in the fiction sub-corpus and in the biomedical sciences texts of the contemporary Lithuanian. The discourse of the humanities displays a fairly frequent employment of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ for discourse organising functions alongside the deontic uses. Although the usage patterns of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the biomedical sciences and the humanities share certain common features, they also point to discipline specific trends of argumentation. It is also important to observe that the objective deontic reik(ė)ti ‘need’ seems to gradually acquire the features of subjective deontic modality over time, which corresponds to the typical subjectification cline (cf. Traugott 1989).


Author(s):  
Evangelia Georgia Kostaki ◽  
Ioulia Tseti ◽  
Sotirios Tsiodras ◽  
George N. Pavlakis ◽  
Petros P. Sfikakis ◽  
...  

Some emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants raise concerns due to their altered biological properties. For both B.1.1.7 and B.1351 variants, named as variants of concern (VOC), increased transmissibility was reported, whereas B.1.351 was more resistant to multiple monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), as well as convalescent and vaccination sera. To test this hypothesis, we examined the proportion of VOC over time across different geographic areas where the two VOC, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, co-circulate. Our comparative analysis was based on the number of SARS-CoV-2 sequences on GISAID database. We report that B.1.1.7 dominates over B.1.351 in geographic areas where both variants co-circulate and the B.1.1.7 was the first variant introduced in the population. The only areas where B.1.351 was detected at higher proportion were South Africa and Mayotte in Africa, where this strain was associated with increased community transmission before the detection of B.1.1.7. The dominance of B.1.1.7 over B.1.351 could be important since B.1.351 was more resistant to certain mAbs, as well as heterologous convalescent and vaccination sera, thus suggesting that it may be transmitted more effectively in people with pre-existing immunity to other VOC. This scenario would lessen the effectiveness of vaccine and urge the need to update them with new strains.


Janus Head ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-225
Author(s):  
Heather Fox ◽  

Katherine Anne Porter submitted a group of stories called “Legend and Memory” to The Atlantic Monthly in 1934, but instead of the reception she hoped for, The Atlantic Monthly responded with a request for significant revisions. These recommendations, as Porter adamantly explained, would change the collective meaning of the stories. And yet, Porter ultimately chose to concede, publishing the stories separately in other magazines before finally collecting them together again in The Leaning Tower and Other Stories (1944). Over the next twenty years, Porter would publish the stories (later called The Old Order stories) in two more collections— The Leaning Tower and Other Stories, The Old Order: Stories of the South from The Leaning Tower, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, and Flowering Judas and The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. Each time she chose not to edit individual stories but rearranged the order of the stories. Individually, each story is like a sketch, or one component of the protagonist Miranda’s construct of identity from the perspective of an adult looking backward and remembering as a child. And yet collectively, these stories reveal memory’s process of reconstruction and how the perspective of time transforms event through addition, elimination, and arrangement. Using text, correspondence, manuscripts, and cognitive research to examine the progression of Porter’s work on The Old Order stories in three collections over more than thirty years, “Representations of Truth: The Significance of Order in Katherine Anne Porter’s The Old Order Stories” traces the progressive ordering of these stories from their original submission to their final collection in The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (1965). This essay argues that Porter’s rearrangements reflect a reconstructive process of memory. Over time, the reorganization of The Old Order stories demonstrate a shift in Miranda’s memories from a chronological positioning to a representational ordering, allowing Miranda to reexamine her perspective on past experiences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-143
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Clarke ◽  
Travis Rayne Pickering ◽  
Jason L. Heaton ◽  
Kathleen Kuman

The earliest South African hominids (humans and their ancestral kin) belong to the genera Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo, with the oldest being a ca. 3.67 million-year-old nearly complete skeleton of Australopithecus (StW 573) from Sterkfontein Caves. This skeleton has provided, for the first time in almost a century of research, the full anatomy of an Australopithecus individual with indisputably associated skull and postcranial bones that give complete limb lengths. The three genera are also found in East Africa, but scholars have disagreed on the taxonomic assignment for some fossils owing to historical preconceptions. Here we focus on the South African representatives to help clarify these debates. The uncovering of the StW 573 skeleton in situ revealed significant clues concerning events that had affected it over time and demonstrated that the associated stalagmite flowstones cannot provide direct dating of the fossil, as they are infillings of voids caused by postdepositional collapse.


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