The Ilkhanid Mongols, the Christian Armenians, and the Islamic Mamluks : a study of their relations, 1220-1335.

This work seeks to fill a gap in the academic literature concerning the study of the Ilkhanid Mongols of the Middle East during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE using Armenian, Persian, Arabic, and Syriac primary sources in English translation. This study will analyze the triangular relationship among the Ilkhanid Mongols, the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia and Greater Armenia, and the Egyptian Mamluks to discern the Ilkhanate\u27s impact in the Middle East. Although the Armenians became subjects of the Mongols, they did not gain many benefits from this partnership. In fact, their relationship proved to be overwhelmingly negative. Although the Mamluks were adversaries of the Mongols, they ultimately benefited greatly from their adversarial stance by establishing and legitimizing the rule of the martial mamluk caste. This thesis seeks to show the importance of studying this triangular relationship and its impact on the medieval Middle East

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories

Background: There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994). Method: Parental reports on children’s receptive and expressive signing were collected longitudinally on 29 deaf native British Sign Language (BSL) users, aged 8–36 months, yielding 146 datasets. Results: A smooth upward growth curve was obtained for early vocabulary development and percentile scores were derived. In the main, receptive scores were in advance of expressive scores. No gender bias was observed. Correlational analysis identified factors associated with vocabulary development, including parental education and mothers’ training in BSL. Individual children’s profiles showed a range of development and some evidence of a growth spurt. Clinical and research issues relating to the measure are discussed. Conclusions: The study has developed a valid, reliable measure of vocabulary development in BSL. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary acquisition in native and non-native signers

Depth of reading vocabulary in hearing and hearing-impaired children

The main point of our study was to examine the vocabulary knowledge of pupils in grades 3–6, and in particular the relative reading vocabulary disadvantage of hearing-impaired pupils. The achievements of 394 pupils with normal hearing and 106 pupils with a hearing impairment were examined on two vocabulary assessment tasks: a lexical decision task and a use decision task. The target words in both tasks represent the vocabulary children should have at the end of primary school. The results showed that most hearing pupils reached this norm, whereas most hearing-impaired pupils did not. In addition, results showed that hearing-impaired pupils not only knew fewer words, but that they also knew them less well. This lack of deeper knowledge remained even when matching hearing and hearing-impaired children on minimal word knowledge. Additionally, comparison of the two tasks demonstrated the efficacy of the lexical decision task as a measure of lexical semantic knowledge

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF CROSS-SECTION UNCERTAINTIES ON THE MULTITABLE S(N) SOLUTION OF NEUTRON TRANSPORT THROUGH AIR

Abstract not availabl

Carbonate rock-water diagenesis lower cretaceous, Stuart City Trend, South Texas

The Stuart City Trend in south Texas is a Lower Cretaceous shelf-edge buildup of bioclastic and reefal carbonates. This carbonate system is currently buried to depths of between 3,300 and 5,000 meters. Combined with the equivalent updip shallow water, shelf carbonates of the Edwards and Glen Rose Formations, these carbonates form an extensive Gulfward dipping carbonate wedge. The whole-rock chemical and isotopic characteristics of the limestones of the Stuart City are the product of their initial composition and early surface and near-surface diagenetic history. Burial diagenesis has not significantly altered the chemical and isotopic character of these limestones. Marine diagenesis was volumetrically important and consisted of micritization and the precipitation of fine to very coarsely crystalline, fibrous to bladed, isopachous, Mg-calcite cements. These cements have been neomorphically altered to calcite, while still retaining a Mg⁺⁺ memory and a marine-like isotopic character. Diagenesis by meteoric water was volumetrically important in altering the depositional character of the carbonate sediments associated with the topographic highs along the Stuart City Trend. Secondary porosity formation, Mg-calcite and aragonite stabilization and equant spar calcite cementation are important products of this diagenesis. The equant spar calcite cements are poor in iron and manganese. They make up approximately 16 percent by volume of the limestones studied. The majority of these cements have δ¹³C compositions which fall in the range of modern marine carbonates [...]. Oxygen isotopic variability of the equant spar calcites is controlled by the δ¹⁸O composition of the diagenetic fluids and the degree of openness of the carbonate sediments to these fluids. Thermally induced ¹⁸O depletion in the equant spar calcites was of secondary importance. Pyrobitumen pore fillings and inclusions in the outer one millimeter rims of the very coarsely crystalline, equant spar calcite cements indicate that only minor amounts of calcite cementation have occurred since hydrocarbon migration. These hydrocarbons are believed to have originated from Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks. Deep burial diagenesis, i.e., post hydrocarbon migration, consisted of the precipitation of minor amounts of galena, fluorite and Sr⁺⁺-rich equant spar calcites. These diagenetic events can be directly related to the chemistry of present-day formation waters. The densities of sodium-calcium-chloride brines of the Edwards Formation and of the Stuart City Trend range from 1.018 grams per cm³ in the shallow, updip hydrocarbon fields to more than 1.21 grams per cm³ in the deepest hydrocarbon fields. The oxygen isotopic composition of the formation waters becomes increasingly enriched in ¹⁸O with increasing depth. Interaction of the formation waters with the carbonate country rock at elevated temperatures is responsible for this enrichment trend. The Mg⁺⁺/Ca⁺⁺ ratio of the formation waters increases with decreasing depth. Dedolomitization and dolomite dissolution are the major diagenetic processes responsible for Mg⁺⁺ enrichment. Movement of deeper basinal waters, potentially of Jurassic origin, into the Stuart City Trend and Edwards Formation is occurring via major faultsGeological Science