The Chandigarh Sector

The neighborhood unit (Sector) in Chandigarh was conceived as a self-sufficient, repeated element to create the matrix of the city along with the hierarchical circulation system defined by the 7Vs to disburse traffic in an orderly manner. This arrangement was interfaced with a designed landscape at the behest of Le Corbusier and Dr. M. S. Randhawa whose passion for bio-aesthetics realized a city where landscape and built forms created a patina of the most charming capital of the modern world. Seven decades later, the city’s flowering landscape and modernist architecture continues to make it one of the best neighborhoods in which to reside

The underwater vocal complexity of seals (Phocidae) is not related to their phylogeny

Closely related mammalian species often make similar vocalizations, but this is not so with the underwater calls of the true seals. Some seal species have diverse underwater vocal repertoires, whereas others only make pulsed calls. Vocal complexity scores of underwater calls of 13 seal species were compared with their phylogeny and life-history traits. Waveform types, repertoire sizes, repetition and rhythm patterns, and frequency and duration measures (15 attributes, scaled 0 to 1) were summed to give a vocal complexity score. The lowest complexity group use low frequency, burst pulse or irregular waveforms and have small repertoires. The intermediate group have both sinusoidal and noisy waveforms, songs, and a single rhythm pattern in repeated element calls. The most complex group have large repertoires, sinusoidal and noisy waveforms, songs, and two or more rhythm patterns in repeated element calls. There is no evidence of a relationship between phylogeny and vocal complexity. The low vocal complexity species are serially monogamous, do not form breeding groups, breed on beaches or pack ice, and are subject to higher predation risk. Species with higher vocal complexity are promiscuous or polygamous, form breeding groups on pack or landfast ice, and have a lower predation risk.

On nontrivial means of grammatical economy in the history of the Slavic languages

Apart from universal ellipsis of a repeated element in analytical forms, the Slavic languages make use of nonstandard means of grammatical economy in verbal constructions. The author applies the data of the Old Church Slavic, Old Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian languages.

Toisto ja korjauksen rajat

Tässä keskustelunanalyyttisessa artikkelissa analysoidaan korjausaloitteena toimivia edeltävän vuoron osittaisia toistoja. Tavoitteena on selvittää, millaisia puheen vastaanottamisen ongelmia edeltävän vuoron (osittaisella) toistolla pyritään ratkaisemaan, sekä pohtia korjausaloitteina toimivien toistojen suhdetta niiden lähi-ilmiöihin, kuten uuden tiedon vastaanottamiseen. Aineisto koostuu 37,5 tunnista suomenkielisiä ääni- ja videotallennetettuja arkikeskusteluja. Osa aineiston vuorovaikutustilanteista on peräisin Helsingin yliopiston keskusteluntutkimuksen arkistosta ja osa on itse keräämäämme. Kaikki keskustelutilanteet ovat vapaamuotoisia ja epämuodollisia; puhujat ovat ystäviä, sukulaisia tai tuttavia keskenään, kaikki ovat aikuisia ja puhuvat ensikielenään suomea. Analyysi perustuu tästä aineistosta löydettyjen 46 toistokorjausaloitteen kokoelmaan. Analyysi osoittaa, että toistot ovat hyvin monikäyttöinen korjauksen aloittamistapa. Niillä voidaan osoittaa ongelmia edeltävän puheen kuulemisessa tai ymmärtämisessä. Lisäksi niillä voidaan kuitenkin reagoida muuntyyppisiin ongelmiin. Erityisesti analyysissa nousee esiin havainto siitä, että toistot korjausaloitteina liittyvät tyypillisesti tilanteisiin, joissa on – kuulemis- tai ymmärrysongelmien lisäksi tai niihin yhteenkietoutuneena – myös jonkinlaista hyväksyttävyyden ongelmallisuutta: toistettu elementti ei vaikuta olevan kontekstissaan odotuksenmukainen. Tällaiset toistokorjausaloitteet haastavat ongelmavuoron tarkkuutta tai totuudellisuutta ja kuuluvat näin laajempaan interpersoonaisten ongelmien kenttään. Analyysin pohjalta artikkelissa pohditaan sitä, missä korjausilmiöiden rajat kulkevat. Repetition and the boundaries of repair Based in the field of conversation analysis, this study examines certain (partial) repetitions of the prior turn that function as repair initiations. The study aims to determine the types of problems addressed by (partial) repetitions, and to discuss the continuum from repair-initiating repetitions to the closely related phenomenon of acknowledging new information. The data comprises 37.5 hours of videoed and/or audiotaped everyday conversations in Finnish. Some of the data we have collected ourselves, while some of it is taken from the CA archive at the University of Helsinki. All the conversations examined are informal; the speakers involved are either friends or family members, they are all adults, and they are all native Finnish speakers. The analysis is based on a collection of 46 instances of repair-initiating repetitions extracted from this data. The analysis shows that (partial) repetition is a multifaceted repair-initiating practice: a repetition can be used not only to indicate the recipient’s trouble in hearing or understanding the prior turn, but can also indicate other types of problems. In particular, analysis reveals that repair-initiating repetitions are typical in situations that involve some kind of problem of acceptability, i.e. in which the repeated element is deemed unexpected in the context. Such partial repetitions challenge the accuracy or plausibility of the problematic turn, and hence belong to the larger framework of inter-personal problems. The article discusses the often blurred boundaries between different repair phenomena.

New Trypanosoma cruzi Repeated Element That Shows Site Specificity for Insertion

ABSTRACT A new family of site-specific repeated elements identified in Trypanosoma cruzi, which we named TcTREZO, is described here. TcTREZO appears to be a composite repeated element, since three subregions may be defined within it on the basis of sequence similarities with other T. cruzi sequences. Analysis of the distribution of TcTREZO in the genome clearly indicates that it displays site specificity for insertion. Most TcTREZO elements are flanked by conserved sequences. There is a highly conserved 68-bp sequence at the 5′ end of the element and a sequence domain of ∼500 bp without a well-defined borderline at the 3′ end. Northern blot hybridization and reverse transcriptase PCR analyses showed that TcTREZO transcripts are expressed as oligo(A)-terminated transcripts whose length corresponds to the unit size of the element (1.6 kb). Transcripts of ∼0.2 kb derived from a small part of TcTREZO are also detected in steady-state RNA. TcTREZO transcripts are unspliced and not translated. The copy number of TcTREZO sequences was estimated to be ∼173 copies per haploid genome. TcTREZO appears to have been assembled by insertions of sequences into a progenitor element. Once associated with each other, these subunits were amplified as a new transposable element. TcTREZO shows site specificity for insertion, suggesting that a sequence-specific endonuclease could be responsible for its insertion at a unique site.