scholarly journals Gradient dissimilation in Mongolian: implications for diachrony

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 28-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adèle Jatteau ◽  
Michaela Hejná

This paper explores the implications of 'gradient dissimilation' (Jatteau & Hejná 2016) for the diachronic implementation of long-distance dissimilation (e.g. ChVCh > CVCh). Since dissimilation is usually considered as lexically sporadic, cases where it applies regularly throughout the lexicon should result from lexical diffusion. Against this assumption, we explore the hypothesis that gradient dissimilation may represent the phonetic precursor of completed, regular dissimilatory processes. Such cases might then be reanalysed as Neogrammarian types of change. To assess this question, we gather and analyse new data from Halh Mongolian, a language reported to show gradient dissimilation of the aspiration feature, and compare it to two completed patterns of aspiration dissimilation reconstructed within the Mongolic family: Chahar Mongolian and Monguor. The results suggest that the gradient dissimilation in Halh may represent the phonetic precursor of Chahar, but also that gradient dissimilation may be bidirectional for some speakers. An interesting difference between our Halh Mongolian results and the other patterns of the Mongolic family resides in the behaviour of /s/, which in our data does not pattern as expected with the aspirated stops.

2018 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 02023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasir Ashraf Abd Rahman ◽  
Mohammad Taghi Hajibeigy ◽  
Abdulkareem Shafiq Mahdi Al-Obaidi ◽  
Kean How Cheah

Modern UAVs available in the market have well-developed to cater to the countless field of application. UAVs have their own limitations in terms of flight range and manoeuvrability. The traditional fixed-wing UAVs can fly for long distance but require runways or wide-open spaces for take-off and landing. On the other hand, the more trending multirotor UAVs are extremely manoeuvrable but cannot be used for long-distance flights because of their slower speeds and relatively higher consumption of energy. This study proposed the implementation of hybrid VTOL UAV which has the manoeuvring advantage of a multirotor UAV while having the ability to travel fast to reach a further distance. The design methodology and fabrication method are discussed extensively which would be followed by a number of flight tests to prove the concept. The proposed UAV would be equipped with quadcopter motors and a horizontal thrust motor for vertical and horizontal flight modes respectively.


2021 ◽  
pp. 62-72
Author(s):  
Penny Harvey

This chapter explores how the analyses of audible infrastructures presented in this volume connect to the established and growing body of literature on civic infrastructures from scholars in the humanities and social sciences. There are clearly convergent interests between those who work on roads, water, and energy systems, on the one hand, and those who study the production, circulation, and reproduction of sound, on the other. To analyze the materialities of music making, as with civic infrastructures, is to investigate the relational capacities of the materials from which things are made, the diverse types of labor through which these materials become integral to their emergent forms, and the uneven distribution of access to the wider structures that underpin the circulation and reproduction of such forms. In particular, the chapter focuses on how the relationship between the hardware of engineered systems and the software of sociality creates new possibilities for thinking about the politics of infrastructure. The chapter explores these resonances between audible and civic infrastructures by considering the M1 Symphony, a work commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first long-distance motorway. The example provokes reflection on the relationship between media and infrastructure, between composition and improvisation, and between ontological experiment and artful design.


1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1123-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Lenti Boero ◽  
C. Bianchi ◽  
C. Volpe ◽  
A. Marcello ◽  
C. Lenti

The aim of this study was to investigate whether human infants' cries show individually and contextually discriminable acoustic parameters. 20 full-term normal human newborns (aged 1 to 4 days) had their cries recorded during routine blood withdrawal (pain context) 30 min. before a scheduled feeding (hunger context) and when subjected to kinetic stimuli during neurological examination (manipulation context). Type of cries, melodic contours, F0 parameters, but not the “macro” trend of the start of the fundamental frequency, indicated a difference in pain cries in the other two contexts. All the acoustic features considered showed an individual specificity. The peak frequencies of voiceless or partially voiced wails had the interesting property of being optimised as long distance signals. We hypothesised that this feature of infants' cries may have evolved in a time window when the infants were left in collective nurseries and not carried on the mothers' backs as maintained by the traditional view.


1967 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Czerkawski

1. The compositions of the fatty acids in ryegrass were determined in fresh samples, and in samples dried at room temperature for 26 h, at 50° and for 18 h or at 100° for 12 h. The drying of grass resulted in a small increase in palmitic acid and a decrease in linolenic acid in the total fatty acids.2. Samples of grass dried at 50° and 100° were stored at three relative humidities (rh < 3%, 47% and 80%) for 13 months.3. There were marked changes in the samples stored at 80% rh, with an onset of mould growth and a loss of dry matter. The samples stored at lower humidities had no mould.4. There were two types of change in the fatty acids during storage. The deterioration brought about and mould was accompanied by a decrease in the concentration of linolenic acid and an increase in the concentrations of oleic and linoleic acids. The other type of change observed at the lower humidities resulted in a decrease in the content of linolenic and an increase in the content of palmitic, and did not affect the amounts of oleic and linoleic cells.5. There was little difference between the changes that occurred in the composition of the total fatty acids of the grass dried at 50° and of that dried at 100°. The changes that were at all significant appeared to occur less rapidly, particularly in the early months of storage, in the grass dried at the higher temperature for the shorter time.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-179
Author(s):  
NURIT MELNIK

This paper focuses on the interaction between raising, subject–verb inversion and agreement in Modern Hebrew. It identifies, alongside ‘standard’ (i.e., English-like) subject-to-subject raising, two additional patterns where the embedded subject appears post-verbally. In one, the raising predicate exhibits long-distance agreement with the embedded subject, while in the other, a colloquial variant, it is marked with impersonal (3sm) agreement. The choice between the three raising constructions in the language is shown to be solely dependent on properties of the embedded clause. The data are discussed and analyzed against a background of typological and theoretical work on raising. The analysis, cast in the framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), builds on research on raising, selectional locality, agreement, subjecthood and information structure, as well as verb-initial constructions in Modern Hebrew.


2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Keppel ◽  
Peter Prentis ◽  
Ed Biffin ◽  
Paul Hodgskiss ◽  
Susana Tuisese ◽  
...  

We examined evolutionary relationships, hybridisation and genetic diversity in species of Dacrydium (Podocarpaceae) in Remote Oceania, where it is restricted to New Caledonia and Fiji. We used cpDNA sequence (trnL–trnF) data to construct a phylogeny and estimate taxon divergence by using a relaxed molecular clock approach. The phylogeny was verified using allozymes, which were also used to investigate genetic diversity of all species and the hybridisation dynamics of two endangered species, D. guillauminii and D. nidulum. Our results suggested that Dacrydium species in Remote Oceania form a monophyletic group that arose and diversified within the last 20 million years through long-distance dispersal and a range of speciation mechanisms. Whereas we detected no hybridisation between the Fijian species D. nausoriense and D. nidulum, we confirmed hybridisation between D. guillauminii and D. araucarioides in New Caledonia and determined introgression to be assymetric from the widespread D. araucarioides into the rare, restricted-range species D. guillauminii. In addition, D. guillauminii had lower genetic diversity than did the other species of Dacrydium studied, which had genetic diversity similar to that of other gymnosperms. Our results provided evidence for the recent and complex diversification of Dacrydium in Remote Oceania. In addition, low genetic diversity of and introgression from D. araucarioides, are of grave concern for the conservation of D. guillauminii.


Perception ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
J R Lishman ◽  
D N Lee

Kinaesthesis, the sensing of body movement, which is essential for controlling activity, depends on registering the changes which accompany body movement. While there are two basic types of change—mechanical (articular, cutaneous, and vestibular) and visual—and so two potential sources of kinaesthetic information, the mechanical changes have traditionally been considered the basis of kinaesthesis, vision being considered a purely exteroceptive sense. J.J. Gibson, on the other hand, has argued that vision is a powerful kinaesthetic sense. To test this idea visual–mechanical kinaesthetic conflicts were created by moving the visible surroundings linearly forward and backward around a passively or actively moving subject. In most cases vision dominated. Therefore vision is not a purely exteroceptive sense, nor is visual kinaesthesis simply an adjunct to mechanical kinaesthesis. Vision is an autonomous kinaesthetic sense.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Eleni ARAVOPOULOU

The organisational change is a phenomenon which has gained attention from theoretists and practioners alike. The paper analyzes the notion of change, oragnizational change and types of change. The paper is of theoretical nature. Several authors have perceived organisational change as a “response” to an organisation’s internal and/or external environment. The paper investigates different perspectives of emergent change basing on Kanter et al., (1992) Kotter (1996) and Luecke (2003). The author highlights that these three models have some common features: a development of vision and leadership. On the other hand Strobel (2015) refutes the argument that there is “one best way” that can be applied in all situations and organisations, when managing change, and promotes the idea of “one best way” for each situation and organisation individually. Moreover the drivers and types of organizational change are presented. Several forces driving organisational change have been identified and they basically involve factors with regards to both the internal and external environment of an organisation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B Levy ◽  
Victoria G. Calvert

Darwinian evolution tends to produce energy-efficient outcomes. On the other hand, energy limits computation, be it neural and probabilistic or digital and logical. Taking a particular energy-efficient viewpoint, we define neural computation and make use of an energy-constrained, computational function. This function can be optimized over a variable that is proportional to the number of synapses per neuron. This function also implies a specific distinction between ATP-consuming processes, especially computation per se vs the communication processes including action potentials and transmitter release. Thus to apply this mathematical function requires an energy audit with a partitioning of energy consumption that differs from earlier work. The audit points out that, rather than the oft-quoted 20 watts of glucose available to the brain (1, 2), the fraction partitioned to cortical computation is only 0.1 watts of ATP. On the other hand at 3.5 watts, long-distance communication costs are 35-fold greater. Other novel quantifications include (i) a finding that the biological vs ideal values of neural computational efficiency differ by a factor of 108 and (ii) two predictions of N, the number of synaptic transmissions needed to fire a neuron (2500 vs 2000).Significance StatementEngineers hold up the human brain as a low energy form of computation. However from the simplest physical viewpoint, a neuron’s computation cost is remarkably larger than the best possible bits/J – off by a factor of 108. Here we explicate, in the context of energy consumption, a definition of neural computation that is optimal given explicit constraints. The plausibility of this definition as Nature’s perspective is supported by an energy-audit of the human brain. The audit itself requires certain novel perspectives and calculations revealing that communication costs are 35-fold computational costs.


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