Indian English Evolution and Focusing Visible Through Power Laws

New dialect emergence and focusing in language contact settings is difficult to capture and date in terms of global structural dialect stabilization. This paper explores whether diachronic power law frequency distributions can provide evidence of dialect evolution and new dialect focusing, by considering the quantitative frequency characteristics of three diachronic Indian English (IE) corpora (1970s–2008). The results demonstrate that IE consistently follows power law frequency distributions and the corpora are each best fit by Mandelbrot’s Law. Diachronic changes in the constants are interpreted as evidence of lexical and syntactic collocational focusing within the process of new dialect formation. Evidence of new dialect focusing is also visible through apparent time comparison of spoken and written data. Age and gender-separated sub-corpora of the most recent corpus show minimal deviation, providing apparent time evidence for emerging IE dialect stability. From these findings, we extend the interpretation of diachronic changes in the β coefficient—as indicative of changes in the degree of synthetic/analytic structure—so that β is also sensitive to grammaticalization and changes in collocational patterns

Interleukin-22 predicts severity and death in advanced liver cirrhosis: a prospective cohort study

Background: Interleukin-22 (IL-22), recently identified as a crucial parameter of pathology in experimental liver damage, may determine survival in clinical end-stage liver disease. Systematic analysis of serum IL-22 in relation to morbidity and mortality of patients with advanced liver cirrhosis has not been performed so far. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study including 120 liver cirrhosis patients and 40 healthy donors to analyze systemic levels of IL-22 in relation to survival and hepatic complications. Results: A total of 71% of patients displayed liver cirrhosis-related complications at study inclusion. A total of 23% of the patients died during a mean follow-up of 196 +/- 165 days. Systemic IL-22 was detectable in 74% of patients but only in 10% of healthy donors (P 18 pg/ml, n = 57) showed significantly reduced survival compared to patients with regular ([less than or equal to]18 pg/ml) levels of IL-22 (321 days versus 526 days, P = 0.003). Other factors associated with overall survival were high CRP ([greater than or equal to]2.9 mg/dl, P = 0.005, hazard ratio (HR) 0.314, confidence interval (CI) (0.141 to 0.702)), elevated serum creatinine (P = 0.05, HR 0.453, CI (0.203 to 1.012)), presence of liver-related complications (P = 0.028, HR 0.258 CI (0.077 to 0.862)), model of end stage liver disease (MELD) score [greater than or equal to]20 (P = 0.017, HR 0.364, CI (0.159 to 0.835)) and age (P = 0.011, HR 1.047, CI (1.011 to 1.085)). Adjusted multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis identified elevated systemic IL-22 levels as independent predictors of reduced survival (P = 0.007, HR 0.218, CI (0.072 to 0.662)). Conclusions: In patients with liver cirrhosis, elevated systemic IL-22 levels are predictive for reduced survival independently from age, liver-related complications, CRP, creatinine and the MELD score. Thus, processes that lead to a rise in systemic interleukin-22 may be relevant for prognosis of advanced liver cirrhosis

Directional changes of the geomagnetic field in West Africa: Insights from the metallurgical site of Korsimoro

This work shows the first archeomagnetic directions from Western Africa measured on 32 iron smelting kilns dated between 650 and 1800 AD. The archeological excavation of the vast metallurgical site of Korsimoro established the existence of four distinct iron-smelting techniques. The time-frame of each technique could be clearly determined with radiocarbon dating. Many of the kilns investigated in this study could also be dated individually with residual charcoals found in their inside. The results indicate that the inclination of the field changed gradually from shallow normal to shallow reversed during 800 to 1300 AD, and then went back to shallow normal around 1600–1700 AD. The declination was instead stable around 10°E between 800 and 1400 AD, thereafter it started changing towards North. This trend correlates well with available secular variation curves from the Balkan and from Spain, and indicates that the field variation in West Africa was similar to the one in Europe

Reconstructing the geomagnetic field in west africa: first absolute intensity results from Burkina Faso

We present absolute geomagnetic intensities from iron smelting furnaces discovered at the metallurgical site of Korsimoro, Burkina Faso. Up to now, archaeologists recognized four different types of furnaces based on different construction methods, which were related to four subsequent time periods. Additionally, radiocarbon ages obtained from charcoal confine the studied furnaces to ages ranging from 700–1700 AD, in good agreement with the archaeologically determined time periods for each type of furnace. Archaeointensity results reveal three main groups of Arai diagrams. The first two groups contain specimens with either linear Arai diagrams, or slightly curved diagrams or two phases of magnetization. The third group encompasses specimens with strong zigzag or curvature in their Arai diagrams. Specimens of the first two groups were accepted after applying selection criteria to guarantee the high quality of the results. Our data compared to palaeosecular variation curves show a similar decreasing trend between 900–1500 AD. However, they reveal larger amplitudes at around 800 AD and 1650 AD than the reference curves and geomagnetic field models. Furthermore, they agree well with archaeomagnetic data from Mali and Senegal around 800 AD and with volcanic data around 1700 AD

New directional archeomagnetic data of burned cave sediments from Switzerland and geomagnetic field variations in Central Europe

This paper presents new directional archeomagnetic data from nine Meso-/Neolithic fireplaces, sampled in a cave shelter, at Arconciel, in western Switzerland. Rock magnetic measurements indicate a homogenous magnetic mineralogy in all fireplaces, with magnetite as the main magnetic carrier. The remanent magnetization is stable and generally shows one characteristic directional component. Nine new directions, which were obtained from Arconciel, are combined with 356 other archeomagnetic data from a circular area with a radius of 700km around this site, to obtain a penalized least square spline fit for the past 9000yr. We found in general good agreement with other local compilations, such as the Balkan curve, the regional SCHA.DIF.8k model and with lake sediments from UK, Fennoscandia and Switzerland. Nevertheless, a time lag of several centuries is observed for a declination maximum between the archeomagnetic spline fit and the other European data records around 5900BC. This time lag is also observed in the Swiss lake sediment record; therefore we interpret this shift as a local feature of the Earth's magnetic fiel

Rekreatiivne mahutavus Eestis

Master’s thesis Chair of Landscape ArchitectureThis master's thesis is analysing various recreational areas and researching recreational capacity of the landscape in Estonian outdoor conditions. The aim of the work is to study and analyze how different recreation areas are used, what impact such recreation areas have on nature and how they affect people's choices and preferences. The research method was a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative method, for which three different surveys were conducted – site-based surveys and observations, interviews and an online questionnaire. Results showed that the use of recreational areas is most influenced by location and distance, access to them and various recreational elements. Another important factor influencing the use of recreation areas, which was used to compare different recreational areas, is the availability of different facilities. Such facilities included parking, information boards, toilets, picnic areas, various location-based activities and attractions. Of the different impacts, four major problems have been identified in this work. These included overcrowding, disturbance of natural areas and plants, waste management and wheelchair access to hiking trails, and various paving materials. Such problems can be solved by proper planning and estimating the right size of the crowd, as well as creating opportunities for all visitors to the recreation area.Antud magistritöös analüüsitakse erinevaid rekreatsioonialasid Eestis ja uuritakse maastiku rekreatiivset mahutavust Eesti välitingimustes. Töö eesmärgiks on uurida ja analüüsida kuidas erinevaid rekreatsioonialasid kasutatakse, millist mõju avaldavad sellised puhkealad loodusele ja kuidas need mõjutavad inimeste valikuid ja eelistusi. Uurimismeetod oli kombinatsioon kvalitatiivsest ja kvantitatiivsest meetodist, mille jaoks teostati kolm erinevat uurimust - vaatlused, intervjuud ja veebiküsimustik. Tulemustest selgus, et kõige rohkem mõjutab rekratsioonialade kasutamist asukoht ja kaugus, nendele juurdepääs ja erinevad rekreatsioonielemendid. Teine oluline tegur, mis mõjutab puhkealade kasutamist ja mida kasutati erinevate rekreatsioonialade võrdlemisel, on erinevate rajatiste olemasolu. Selliste rajatiste hulka kuulusid parkimine, infotahvlid, tualettruumid, pikinikualad, erinevad asukohast sõltuvad atraktsioonid ja vaatamisväärsused. Erinevatest mõjudest on antud töös välja toodud neli suuremat probleemi. Milleks olid ülerahvastatus, looduslike alade ja taimede häirimine, prügikorraldus ja matkaradade ligipääs ratastooliga ja erinevad teekattematerjalid. Selliseid probleeme saab lahendada korraliku planeerimise ja rahvahulga õige suuruse hindamise, samuti kõigi puhkeala külastajate jaoks võimaluste loomisega

English borrowing in Thai as reflected in Thai journalistic texts

From the introduction: This study looks at patterns of occurrence of English loan words in various domains of journalistic discourse in Thai print media. By examining domains of Thai discourse where borrowing from English occurs, as well as patterns of nativization for borrowed items, we can gain insight into the economic, political, and social situations which hold between the two languages. This, in turn, will have implications not only for the study of the mechanisms at work in a language contact situation, but also for the study of English in its situation as a global prestige language. [...] These issues are important whether English is viewed as simply a language for wider communication and international commerce, or an instrument of cultural invasion and a new imperialism