The rise of the affixal reflexive in Baltic and its consequences

The article deals with the consequences of the affixalisation of the formerly enclitic reflexive pronoun in the Baltic languages. This affixalisation caused a reorganisation in the system of reflexive marking, as the new affixal forms became restricted to middle-voice meanings. The Old Lithuanian and Old Latvian texts reflect a transitional stage in this process. Oscillations in the choice of a verbal form to which an affixalising reflexive pronoun could accrete led to the rise of interesting morphosyntactic patterns with double or varying placement of the affixal marker. The disappearance of the reflexive marker from the syntax furthermore caused syntactic changes leading to the rise of new grammatical constructions. This is discussed in the article for permissive constructions as well as for raising constructions with verbs of saying and propositional attitude. The emphasis on the affixalisation process and on the semantic, morphosyntactic and syntactic processes it set in motion provides a common thread linking a number of seemingly unconnected changes. Though occurring in the prehistory of the Baltic languages, the affixalisation led to a chain of diachronic processes extending to the early 21th century.

Marchuk's Model of Immune System Dynamics with Application to Tumour Growth

Marchuk's model of a general immune reaction is presented in the paper. The results of investigation of the model are summarized. The qualitative behaviour of solutions to the model and its simplification is described. Many illustrations of recovery process, oscillations or lethal outcomes of a disease are shown. The model with time-dependent immune reactivity is also considered. Periodic dynamics caused by different reasons are compared.In the last section adaptation of the model to tumour–immune interactions is proposed. The role of interleukins in immune processes is taken into account to adapt Marchuk's model to tumour growth dynamics. Possible immunotherapy is also considered in the proposed model. Some preliminary analysis of the model is presented.