Stylistic and Semantic Features of Epitaphs (Based on Texts of Provincial Cemeteries in Perm Krai). Part II

The second part of the article describes semantic features of folklore epitaphs - the most numerous collection in the corpus of poetic inscriptions, which is based on field surveys of Perm cemeteries. The denotative space of folklore epitaphs has undoubted significance for characterizing the mental categorization of the world among representatives of urban culture since it reveals the worldview of city dwellers in the field of eschatological issues. The analysis of the denotative content of folklore epitaphs comes down to the identification of textual universals - “space”, “time”, “person”. The procedure for their characterization involves the definition and semiotic interpretation of the circle of vocabulary with the corresponding denotation - spatial, temporal, subjective. The analysis of the material showed that the spatial coordinates of the folklore epitaphs are set by the oppositions earth - sky and this world - that world. The movement of time is predominantly inscribed in a linear extent and is occasionally delivered vitally. The main subjects of communication are the “living” and the “dead” despite the fact that the content bias is towards the “dead”. The “dead” have social, emotional and external characteristics, and are also attributed to the type of death, the posthumous hypostasis and its signs. The “living” are only awarded cognitive-psychological portraiture. The denotative space of the text is interfaced with other levels of content - emotive and conceptual. In the emotive space of epitaph texts, the sensitivity of the “living” is characterized by love, sorrow, sadness, pride, longing, guilt, grief, pain, wound, flour, tears, and the “dead” only by love. At the conceptual level, the symbolism captured in the cemetery texts attracts attention. It includes the following linguistic and cultural signs: angel, birch, wind, eternity, city, door, house, soul, living, life, star, earth, dead, grave, heaven, peace, light, tears, death, dream, that world, grass, care, flower, this world. Their cohesion is determined by the entry into the semantic oppositions earth - sky, this - that, living - dead, life - death, light - dark. However, the text “charge” of these symbols is not the same. The nuclear vocabulary of the statistical measurement of texts, the development of emotive content, as well as the thematic elaboration of the subject category suggest that the core of the epitaphs is the category of the living and the dead. The remaining symbolism is built on this basis and contributes to its conceptualization in texts. The described semantic categories of folklore epitaphs reproduce mainly the Christian model of the universe with its three-part spatial structure, linearity of time, the posthumous life of the soul and its ability to shine. The inclusions of pagan nature in the revealed picture are almost invisible - these are the once-indicated repeatability of time and the possibility of returning to the world in other forms.

Central serous chorioretinopathy imaging biomarkers

PurposeTo identify the factors predicting the visual and anatomical outcomes in eyes with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) through 12 months.MethodsPatients with diagnosis of CSCR, either acute or chronic, were included in this multicentric, retrospective study. Demographic factors; systemic risk factors; central macular thickness (CMT), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), linear extent of ellipsoid zone (EZ) and interdigitation zone damage on optical coherence tomography; details of leak on fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography were included as predictors of anatomical and visual outcomes. Regression analysis was performed to correlate the changes in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and resolution of disease activity.ResultsA total of 231 eyes of 201 patients with a mean age (49.7±11.8 years) were analysed. A total of 97 and 134 eyes were classified as acute and chronic CSCR. BCVA (0.35±0.31 to 0.24±0.34; p<0.001), baseline optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters including CMT (p<0.001), subretinal fluid (SRF) height (p<0.001) and SFCT (p=0.05) showed a significant change through 12 months. Multivariate regression analysis showed change in CMT (p≤0.01) and SRF height at baseline (p=0.05) as factors predictive of good visual outcome. Logistic regression analysis revealed changes in both CMT (p=0.009) and SFCT (p=0.01) through 12 months to correlate with the resolution of disease.ConclusionOCT parameters such as changes in both CMT and SFCT along with subfoveal EZ damage can be predictive of disease resolution whereas changes in CMT and baseline SRF height correlate well with changes in BCVA through 12 months.

Text-forming potential of dialogue and dialogism figures in lyrical works A.A. Voznesensky and R.I. Rozhdestvensky

The content and correlation of the concepts of dialogism, dialogue and figures of dialogism have been clarified. The text-forming potential of dialogism, in particular, dialogue itself and figures of dialogism (rhetorical appeal, rhetorical exclamation, rhetorical question and question - answer structures) in the lyrics of A.A. Voznesensky and R.I. Rozhdestvensky is revealed. It is shown that the category of dialogism in lyric works is realized through the microfields of the addressor and addressee and their interaction. It is established that the text-forming function of the figures of dialogism and other indicators of dialogism can receive replicative and non-replicative manifestations in the lyrics. In the first case, the poetic text can either include a series of remarks of considerable linear extent, or be divided into dialogical nity or remarks without a remainder. With the non-replicative embodiment of dialogism and figures of dialogism, voluminous fragments of direct speech (monologues) expressing the dialogical interaction of the points of view of communicants can be included in the lyric work; the text may entirely constitute an appeal to one or another addressee (-s); finally, a poem can contain a detailed answer of a lyrical hero to a particular problematic question. Dialogism, and in particular the figures of dialogism, express in the lyrics of A.A. Voznesensky and R.I.Rozhdestvensky a general attitude towards the wave of the addressee, the authors' desire to become closer to their reader, to communicate with him as an equal, to take into account his opinions, interests, and requests.

Range sizes of groundwater amphipods (Crustacea) are not smaller than range sizes of surface amphipods: a case study from Iran

The connectivity of groundwater aquifers is lower compared to surface waters. Consequently, groundwater species are expected to have smaller distributional ranges than their surface relatives. Molecular taxonomy, however, unveiled that many species comprise complexes of morphologically cryptic species, with geographically restricted distributional ranges in subterranean as well as in surface waters. Hence, the range sizes of surface and groundwater species might be more similar in size than hitherto thought. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the range size of surface amphipods of the genus Gammarus and subterranean amphipods of the genus Niphargus in Iran. We re-analyzed the taxonomic structure of both genera using two unilocus species delimitation methods applied to a fragment of the COI mitochondrial marker, to identify molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs), and assessed the maximum linear extent (MLE) of the ranges of MOTUs from both genera. Genus Gammarus comprised 44–58 MOTUs while genus Niphargus comprised 20–22 MOTUs. The MLEs of the two genera were not significantly different, regardless the delimitation method applied. The results remained unchanged also after exclusion of single site MOTUs. We tentatively conclude that in this case there is no evidence to consider that groundwater species are geographically more restricted than surface species.

Probing accretion of ambient cloud material into the Taurus B211/B213 filament

Context. Herschel observations have emphasized the role of molecular filaments in star formation. However, the origin and evolution of these filaments are not yet well understood, partly because of the lack of kinematic information. Aims. We confirm from a kinematic viewpoint that the Taurus B211/B213 filament is accreting background cloud material, and we investigate the potential influence of large-scale external effects on the formation of the filament. Methods. To examine whether the B211/B213 filament is accreting background gas because of its gravitational potential, we produced a toy accretion model and compared its predictions to the velocity patterns observed in 12CO (1–0) and 13CO (1–0). We also examined the spatial distributions of Hα, Planck 857 GHz dust continuum, and HI emission to search for evidence of large-scale external effects. Results. We estimate that the depth of the Taurus cloud around the B211/B213 filament is ~0.3–0.7 pc under the assumption that the density of the gas is the same as the critical density of 13CO (1–0). Compared to a linear extent of >10 pc in the plane of the sky, this suggests that the 3D morphology of the cloud surrounding the B211/B213 filament is sheet-like. Position–velocity (PV) diagrams observed in 12CO (1–0) and 13CO (1–0) perpendicular to the filament axis show that the emission from the gas surrounding B211/B213 is redshifted to the northeast of the filament and blueshifted to the southwest, and that the velocities of both components approach the velocity of the B211/B213 filament as the line of sight approaches the crest of the filament. The PV diagrams predicted by our accretion model are in good agreement with the observed 12CO (1–0) and 13CO (1–0) PV diagrams, supporting the previously proposed scenario of mass accretion into the filament. Moreover, inspection of the spatial distribution of the Hα and Planck 857 GHz emission in the Taurus–California–Perseus region on scales up to >200 pc suggests that the B211/B213 filament may have formed as a result of an expanding supershell generated by the Per OB2 association. Conclusions. Based on these results, we propose a scenario in which the B211/B213 filament was initially formed by large-scale compression of HI gas and is now growing in mass by gravitationally accreting molecular gas of the ambient cloud.

Contribution of range restricted and widespread species to biodiversity patterns in the Western Balkans in Southern Europe

Species richness patterns (SRP) emerge due to overlap in species distributions. They critically depend on two parameters of species ranges: geographic position and size. An important question is which species contribute more to the observed SRP, range restricted or widespread species. Most studies concluded that the widespread species tend to influence SRP more. However, the relative importance of either may strongly depend on the study system. Here we investigated how subterranean species of different range sizes contribute to SRP in the Western Balkans. We studied spatially defined datasets of terrestrial and aquatic troglobionts, represented by beetles (Cholevidae, Carabidae, 425 species) and amphipod crustaceans (Niphargidae, 150 species), respectively. The two groups differ in dispersal capacities, and indeed distribution of their range sizes differed. The proportion of single site species reached 30% in beetles, and 21% in niphargids. Maximum linear extent (MLE) of the range exceeded 200 km in only 1% of beetles, but in nearly 20% of niphargids. SRP of both taxonomic groups only partly overlapped. To assess the contribution of species with different ranges on SRP, we created different subsets and compared their SRPs with full dataset SRP. Subsets were first formed by adding species one-by-one, in ascending and descending order according to range size. We used correlation analysis, with significance assessed using null models generated from randomly generated subsets. In the second analysis, we assigned species info four classes according to range size, and modelled which size class best explains SRP. The results showed certain differences among the two taxonomic groups, which make generalizations difficult. We find it important to evaluate the contribution of species with different ranges to overall SRP, but also to identification of local hotspots.

Lattice QCD results for the HVP contribution to the anomalous magnetic moments of leptons

We present lattice QCD results by the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal (BMW) Collaboration for the leading-order contribution of the hadron vacuum polarization (LOHVP) to the anomalous magnetic moments of all charged leptons. Calculations are performed with u, d, s and c quarks at their physical masses, in volumes of linear extent larger than 6 fm, and at six values of the lattice spacing, allowing for controlled continuum extrapolations. All connected and disconnected contributions are calculated for not only the muon but also the electron and tau anomalous magnetic moments. Systematic uncertainties are thoroughly discussed and comparisons with other calculations and phenomenological estimates are made.

Weighted Positional Averaging in the Illusions of the Müller-Lyer Type

The limited ability to estimate properly the linear extent or spatial separation of objects is one of the well-tested and documented features of visual perception. However, despite a large amount of experimental data collected in various studies of the Müller-Lyer illusion and related visual illusions of extent, the generally accepted view concerning the origin of this phenomenon is still absent. This chapter addresses a possible role of the perceptual positional shifts of the stimulus parts in occurrence of the illusions. It also discusses the most important features of the computational model based on the hypothesis of positional coding via centroids.

Broadening of Cloud Droplet Spectra through Eddy Hopping: Turbulent Adiabatic Parcel Simulations

This paper investigates spectral broadening of droplet size distributions through a mechanism referred to as the eddy hopping. The key idea, suggested a quarter century ago, is that droplets arriving at a given location within a turbulent cloud follow different trajectories and thus experience different growth histories and that this leads to a significant spectral broadening. In this study, the adiabatic parcel model with superdroplets is used to contrast droplet growth with and without turbulence. Turbulence inside the parcel is described by two parameters: (i) the dissipation rate of the turbulent kinetic energy ε and (ii) the linear extent of the parcel L. As expected, an adiabatic parcel without turbulence produces extremely narrow droplet spectra. In the turbulent parcel, a stochastic scheme is used to account for vertical velocity fluctuations that lead to local supersaturation fluctuations for each superdroplet. These fluctuations mimic the impact of droplets hopping turbulent eddies in a natural cloud. For L smaller than a few meters, noticeable spectral broadening is possible only for strong turbulence—say, ε &gt; 100 cm2 s−3. For L typical for grid lengths of large-eddy simulation (LES) models (say, L between 10 and 100 m), the impact is significant even with relatively modest turbulence intensities. The impact increases with both L and ε. The representation of eddy hopping developed in this paper can be included in a straightforward way in the subgrid-scale scheme of a Lagrangian LES cloud model and may lead to a significant acceleration of simulated rain development through collision–coalescence.