Interdental /s/ in Salvadoran Spanish:

This study provides a systematic account of the occurrence of interdental /s/ in Salvadoran Spanish and explores speakers’ attitudes toward its use. Specifically, it examines the linguistic, social, and stylistic contexts in which this understudied variant occurs, and it describes how the speakers construct meaning through it despite being a stigmatized variant. It was found that this variant is more likely to be observed in syllable-onset position both word-medially and initially. Additionally, it is more likely to be observed in casual style in the youngest and oldest age groups and it is less likely observed in the speech of professionals. There are indications that this variant is associated with an age-grading phenomena, which is also indicative of stable variation. The present work fills an almost a 30+ year old gap left by previous studies that only briefly touched upon this variant.

Hierarchical Inference in Sound Change: Words, Sounds, and Frequency of Use

This paper aims examines the role of hierarchical inference in sound change. Through hierarchical inference, a language learner can distribute credit for a pronunciation between the intended phone and the larger units in which it is embedded, such as triphones, morphemes, words and larger syntactic constructions and collocations. In this way, hierarchical inference resolves the longstanding debate about the unit of sound change: it is not necessary for change to affect only sounds, or only words. Instead, both can be assigned their proper amount of credit for a particular pronunciation of a phone. Hierarchical inference is shown to generate novel predictions for the emergence of stable variation. Under standard assumptions about linguistic generalization, it also generates a counterintuitive prediction of a U-shaped frequency effect in an advanced articulatorily-motivated sound change. Once the change has progressed far enough for the phone to become associated with the reduced pronunciation, novel words will be more reduced than existing words that, for any reason, have become associated with the unreduced variant. Avoiding this prediction requires learners to not consider novel words to be representative of the experienced lexicon. Instead, learners should generalize to novel words from other words that are likely to exhibit similar behavior: rare words, and the words that occur in similar contexts. Directions for future work are outlined.

Stable QTL for malate levels in ripe fruit and their transferability across Vitis species

Malate is a major contributor to the sourness of grape berries (Vitis spp.) and their products, such as wine. Excessive malate at maturity, commonly observed in wild Vitis grapes, is detrimental to grape and wine quality and complicates the introgression of valuable disease resistance and cold hardy genes through breeding. This study investigated an interspecific Vitis family that exhibited strong and stable variation in malate at ripeness for five years and tested the separate contribution of accumulation, degradation, and dilution to malate concentration in ripe fruit in the last year of study. Genotyping was performed using transferable rhAmpSeq haplotype markers, based on the Vitis collinear core genome. Three significant QTL for ripe fruit malate on chromosomes 1, 7, and 17, accounted for over two-fold and 6.9 g/L differences in ripe fruit malate, and explained 40.6% of the phenotypic variation. QTL on chromosomes 7 and 17 were stable in all and in three out of five years, respectively. Variation in pre-veraison malate was the major contributor to variation in ripe fruit malate (39%) and their associated QTL overlapped on chromosome 7, indicating a common genetic basis. However, use of transferable markers on a closely related Vitis family did not yield a common QTL across families. This suggests that diverse physiological mechanisms regulate the levels of this key metabolite in the Vitis genus, a conclusion supported by a review of over a dozen publications from the past decade, showing malate-associated genetic loci on all 19 chromosomes.

Circumscription of the Sibbaldia procumbens complex (Potentilleae: Rosaceae) in China based on evidence from simple sequence repeat markers and morphology

In this study we aimed to delimit the boundaries of the Sibbaldia procumbens species complex, integrating morphological, geographical and molecular data at the population level. In total, 246 individuals were tested with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, and individuals were classified into three clusters. Stable variation in the morphology of leaflets, episepal and achenes was found between individuals from eastern and western Tibet, and this corresponds to the observed genetic structure when K = 2. The combined analysis of morphology and SSRs suggests three species should be recognized in the complex in China (S. procumbens, S. cuneata and S. aphanopetala). The ranges of these three species are mostly geographically separate from each other. Sibbaldia aphanopetala has often been treated as a variety of S. procumbens, but here we restore it to species rank.

Polyreactive IgM initiates complement activation by PF4/heparin complexes through the classical pathway

The mechanisms by which exposure to heparin initiates antibody responses in many, if not most, recipients are poorly understood. We recently demonstrated that antigenic platelet factor 4 (PF4)/heparin complexes activate complement in plasma and bind to B cells. Here, we describe how this process is initiated. We observed wide stable variation in complement activation when PF4/heparin was added to plasma of healthy donors, indicating a responder “phenotype” (high, intermediate, or low). Proteomic analysis of plasma from these healthy donors showed a strong correlation between complement activation and plasma immunoglobulin M (IgM) levels (r = 0.898; P < .005), but not other Ig isotypes. Complement activation response to PF4/heparin in plasma displaying the low donor phenotype was enhanced by adding pooled IgM from healthy donors, but not monoclonal IgM. Depletion of IgM from plasma abrogated C3c generation by PF4/heparin. The complement-activating features of IgM are likely mediated by nonimmune, or natural, IgM, as cord blood and a monoclonal polyreactive IgM generate C3c in the presence of PF4/heparin. IgM facilitates complement and antigen deposition on B cells in vitro and in patients receiving heparin. Anti-C1q antibody prevents IgM-mediated complement activation by PF4/heparin complexes, indicating classical pathway involvement. These studies demonstrate that variability in plasma IgM levels correlates with functional complement responses to PF4/heparin. Polyreactive IgM binds PF4/heparin, triggers activation of the classical complement pathway, and promotes antigen and complement deposition on B cells. These studies provide new insights into the evolution of the heparin-induced thrombocytopenia immune response and may provide a biomarker of risk.

Characterization of Mineral Macronutrients Kinetics During Faeces-Based Composting Process in Composting Toilets

Given the environmental concerns and public health risks that could arise, the use of composting toilets by-products requires compliance with quality standards beforehand. However, such quality assessment is often lacking for those by-products in rapidly urbanizing sub-Saharan cities. This study examines the kinetics of major mineral nutrients [i.e., nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), which are among the key indicators of a compost’s stability] during a composting process of fecal matters from composting toilets. The monitoring was carried out at Abobo-Sagbé, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire over a 4.5-month period. Feces-based compost data collected on 6 different dates (i.e., on the 28th , 48th , 62nd , 76th , 90th , and 133nd day from the start of the composting process) were analyzed, and screened for their contents in total N, total P and K. Results showed a rapid decrease of the content of all three elements during the first 29 days, followed by a sharp increase, especially for P and K, and then a quite stable variation during the last 2 months of the monitoring. Variations of C/N ratio during the study were similar to those reported previously. Although the proportions of P and K were satisfactory at the end of the monitoring period, the final C/N ratio was relatively high compared to suitable ratios characterizing mature composts, suggesting therefore additional time may be required before any use of the compost as fertilizer in agriculture.

What's mine is yours: Stable variation and language change in Ancient Egyptian possessive constructions

Variation is described as two or more variants competing for finite resources. In this model, two outcomes are possible: language change or specialization. Specialization can be broken down further: specialization for different functions, and partial specialization – stable variation. In this paper, I analyze the differences between stable variation and language change using the two variables present in Ancient Egyptian possessive constructions. Observing four Egyptian possessive variants, split into two groups with two variants each – clitic possessor variants and full nominal possessor variants – for a total of 2251 tokens, I compare factors affecting variant choice in each possessive group. Results of distributional and multivariate analyses indicate that a) change over time occurs in clitic possession, while stable variation occurs with noun variants; and b) different kinds of factors govern the two sets: the continuous variable phrase complexity affects variant choice in nominal possession, but does not affect the clitic variants.

Clans and clanlectal contact

This is the first variationist study of clan intermarriage and intergenerational change in Nagaland (India). The study investigates clan as a sociolinguistic variable by drawing data from the Angami (belonging to the Kuki-Chin-Naga sub-group of Tibeto-Burman languages) community of Kohima village in Nagaland. The linguistic variables examined include two alveolar fricatives and three affricates showing variable palatalization. Like many other clan-based communities (cf. Stanford, 2007, 2008, 2009), Angamis practice exogamy. Women settle down in their husband’s clans in the same village after marriage, but continue to maintain their original clanlects despite being in contact with their husband’s clanlects for many years. Exogamy practices are however weakening in Kohima, resulting in intra-clan marriages. The study examines the linguistic implications of the inter-clan and intra-clan marriages, illustrating the patterns that young learners acquire under such circumstances and the way they respond to the new changes. Labov finds evidence for an “outward orientation of the language learning faculty” (2012, 2014). The Nagaland results build on this notion but provide a new perspective: In Nagaland, children’s language learning is inwardly oriented with respect to stable variation and outwardly oriented in the case of change in progress.