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The neutron sensitivity of the C6D6 detector setup used at n_TOF facility for capture measurements has been studied by means of detailed GEANT4 simulations. A realistic software replica of the entire n_TOF experimental hall, including the neutron beam line, sample, detector supports and the walls of the experimental area has been implemented in the simulations. The simulations have been analyzed in the same manner as experimental data, in particular by applying the Pulse Height Weighting Technique. The simulations have been validated against a measurement of the neutron background performed with a natC sample, showing an excellent agreement above 1 keV. At lower energies, an additional component in the measured natC yield has been discovered, which prevents the use of natC data for neutron background estimates at neutron energies below a few hundred eV. The origin and time structure of the neutron background have been derived from the simulations. Examples of the neutron background for two different samples are demonstrating the important role of accurate simulations of the neutron background in capture cross-section measurements.
The neutron capture cross section of 58Ni was measured at the neutron time of flight facility n_TOF at CERN, from 27 meV to 400 keV neutron energy. Special care has been taken to identify all the possible sources of background, with the so-called neutron background obtained for the first time using high-precision GEANT4 simulations. The energy range up to 122 keV was treated as the resolved resonance region, where 51 resonances were identified and analyzed by a multilevel R-matrix code SAMMY. Above 122 keV the code SESH was used in analyzing the unresolved resonance region of the capture yield. Maxwellian averaged cross sections were calculated in the temperature range of kT = 5 – 100 keV, and their astrophysical implications were investigated.
Principles of cognitive maps
(2021)
This thesis analyses the concept of a cognitive map in the research fields of geography. Cognitive mapping research is essential as it investigates the relations between cognitive maps and external representations of space that people regularly use by acquiring spatial knowledge, such as maps in geographic information systems. Moreover, cognitive maps, when expanded on semantic maps, explain the relations between people and things in a non-physically environment, where the considered space is not spanned by distance but with other non-spatially variables. Nevertheless, cognitive maps are often distorted. Although a good formation of a cognitive map is vital in navigation processes, cognitive distortions are barely investigated in the field of geography. By analyzing the relevant work, especially Tobler’s first law of geography, a new lexical variant of Tobler’s first law could be stated that could presumably describe a specific distortion in the processing of landmarks in cognitive maps.
In this paper I tried to demonstrate that the British films depicting football hooliganism could be viewed as glorifying violence. A considerably great number of scenes and a great amount of time devoted to the presentation of violence, together with the unpunished, painless and heroic aspects of such presentations are just one side of the glorifying coin. The other side is occupied with the deeper meaning of particular scenes or the general overtones of the films which seem to develop a tendency to present a hooligan firm as a family-like community that offers happiness and produces a strong feeling of belonging and solidarity that adds spice to the boring working or middle class life. Violent confrontations are depicted as a source of pleasurable emotional arousal that surpass other forms of enjoyment. Moreover, confronting other hooligans helps hooligans to construct hard masculine identity based on physical prowess. Finally, being a good fighter is a fast track to earning a reputation that provides hooligans with a sense of power and importance. Real hooligans starring in the films, thus potentially encouraging viewers to become “wannabe warriors”, is also of great importance. However, the way the audiences react to the on-screen presentation of violence with all its aspects is a topic for much broader research.
Acrostilicus Hubbard, 1896 and Pachystilicus Casey, 1905 are North American genera known from only one and two species, respectively, and have never been a subject of a modern revision. In fact, Acrostilicus was not even properly described as its author provided only a sketchy diagnosis of the genus and species. Here, we provide a redescription of the genus Acrostilicus and its species and illustrate the habitus and male genital features. For the first time, we also redescribe Pachystilicus and its two species, and provide their differential diagnoses. Additionally, we tested the phylogenetic position of both genera. They were scored into a morphological matrix supplemented with molecular data and the analyses were run using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods. A total of 119 morphological characters and 4859 bp of nuclear (28S, TP, Wg, CADA, CADC, ArgK) and mitochondrial (COI) sequences were analysed for 46 taxa. The results confirmed that both Acrostilicus and Pachystilicus are members of the subtribe Stilicina, but at the same time challenged the monophyly of the subtribe in its current composition. Additionally, we provided further evidence for non-monophyly of the subtribe Medonina and discussed the biology of Acrostilicus and Pachystilicus.
The myrmecophilous Paederinae rove beetle genus Megastilicus Casey, 1889 from North America is reviewed based on museum specimens. Prior to this study, the genus was monotypic with one species Megastilicus formicarius Casey, 1889 described. Here, we provide a redescription of the genus and the type species, designate a lectotype, and provide pictures of habitus and illustrations of the aedeagus and genital segments. Additionally, we describe a new species for the genus, Megastilicus iowaensis sp. nov., include an identification key to the two species and present the distribution map of both of them, including new state records. We discuss the assignment of the genus to the subtribe Stilicina based on morphological features.
Two hypotheses have been proposed in order to account for velar softening, i.e., a process through which /k/ changes to an affricate. Whereas one hypothesis states that for the process to apply the velar stop has to be realized as an (alveolo) palatal stop (articulation-based hypothesis), the other claims that velar softening is triggered by acoustic similarity between the input and output segments (acoustic equivalence hypothesis). The present paper investigates the acoustic equivalence hypothesis by comparing several acoustic properties of /k/ in various vowel contexts with those of /ts , ts , tc / for three languages differing in stop burst aspiration, i.e., German, Polish and Catalan. Results suggest that the acoustic equivalence hypothesis could account for velar softening in aspirated velar stops but not in unaspirated velar stops. The results also provide an explanation as to why aspirated velar stops are prone to undergo softening more easily when followed by front vocalic segments than in other contexts and positions
On the basis of perceptual experiments we show that alveolo-palatal fricatives and palatalized post-alveolars are two separate sounds which are distinguished not only by Polish native speakers but also by German ones. This claim is partly attested by centre of gravity measurements of the two sibilants. In this paper we revise the claim made by Halle & Stevens [1] and Maddieson & Ladefoged [2] that the Polish alveolo-palatal fricatives [˛, ¸] are palatalized postalveolars [SJ, ZJ]. On the basis of perceptual experiments we show that alveolo-palatal fricatives and palatalized post-alveolars are two separate sounds which are distinguished not only by Polish native speakers but also by German ones. This claim is partly attested by centre of gravity measurements of the two sibilants.
In this article I reanalyze sibilant inventories of Slavic languages by taking into consideration acoustic, perceptive and phonological evidence. The main goal of this study is to show that perception is an important factor which determines the shape of sibilant inventories. The improvement of perceptual contrast essentially contributes to creating new sibilant inventories by (i) changing the place of articulation of the existing phonemes (ii) merging sibilants that are perceptually very close or (iii) deleting them. It has also been shown that the symbol š traditionally used in Slavic linguistics corresponds to two sounds in the IPA systemsystem: it stands for a postalveolar sibilant (ʃ) in some Slavic languages, as e.g. Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, some Serbian and Croatian dialects, whereas in others like Polish, Russian, Lower Sorbian it functions as a retroflex (s). This discrepancy is motivated by the fact that ʃ is not optimal in terms of maintaining sufficient perceptual contrast to other sibilants such as s and ç. If ʃ occurs together with s and sj there is a considerable perceptual distance between them but if it occurs with ç in an inventory, the distance is much smaller. Therefore, the strategy most languages follow is the change from a postalveolar to a retroflex sibilant.
This paper evaluates trills [r] and their palatalized counterparts [rj] from the point of view of markedness. It is argued that [r]s are unmarked sounds in comparison to [rj]s which follows from the examination of the following parameters: (a) frequency of occurrence, (b) articulatory and aerodynamic characteristics, (c) perceptual features, (d) emergence in the process of language acquisition, (e) stability from a diachronic point of view, (f) phonotactic distribution, and (g) implications. Several markedness aspects of [r]s and [rj] are analyzed on the basis of Slavic languages which offer excellent material for the evaluation of trills. Their phonetic characteristics incorporated into phonetically grounded constraints are employed for a phonological OT-analysis of r-palatalization in two selected languages: Polish and Czech.
In this paper it is argued that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency to avoid voiced sibilant affricates. This tendency is explained by appealing to the phonetic properties of the sounds, and in particular to their aerodynamic characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence it is shown that conflicting air pressure requirements for maintaining voicing and frication are responsible for the avoidance of voiced affricates. In particular, the air pressure released from the stop phase of the affricate is too high to maintain voicing which in consequence leads to a devoicing of the frication part.
This paper evaluates trills [r] and their palatalized counterparts [rj] from the point of view of markedness. It is argued that [r]s are unmarked sounds in comparison to [r ]s which follows from the examination of the following parameters: (a) frequency of occurrence, (b) articulatory and aerodynamic characteristics, (c) perceptual features, (d) emergence in the process of language acquisition, (e) stability from a diachronic point of view, (f) phonotactic distribution, and (g) implications.
Several markedness aspects of [r]s and [rj] are analyzed on the basis of Slavic languages which offer excellent material for the evaluation of trills. Their phonetic characteristics incorporated into phonetically grounded constraints are employed for a phonological OT-analysis of r-palatalization in two selected languages: Polish and Czech.
(Non)retroflexivity of slavic affricates and its motivation : Evidence from polish and czech <č>
(2005)
The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, it revises the common assumption that the affricate <č> denotes /t͡ʃ/ for all Slavic languages. On the basis of experimental results it is shown that Slavic <č> stands for two sounds: /t͡ʃ/ as e.g. in Czech and /ʈʂ/ as in Polish.
The second goal of the paper is to show that this difference is not accidental but it is motivated by perceptual relations among sibilants. In Polish, /t͡ʃ/ changed to /ʈʂ/ thus lowering its sibilant tonality and creating a better perceptual distance to /tɕ/, whereas in Czech /t͡ʃ/ did not turn to /ʈʂ/, as the former displayed sufficient perceptual distance to the only affricate present in the inventory, namely, the alveolar /t͡s/. Finally, an analysis of Czech and Polish affricate inventories is offered.
In this artiele I reanalyze sibilant inventories of Slavic languages by taking into consideration acoustic. perceptive and phonological evidence. The main goal of this study is to show that perception is an important factor which determines the shape of sibilant inventories. The improvement of perceptual contrast essentially contributes to creating new sibilant inventories by (i) changing the place of articulation of the existing phonemes (ii) merging sibilants that are perceptually very close or (iii) deleting them.
It has also been shown that the symbol s traditionally used in Slavic linguistics corresponds to two sounds in the IP A system: it stands for a postalveolar sibilant (ʃ) in some Slavic languages, as e.g. Bulagarian, Czech, Slovak, some Serbian and Croatian dialects, whereas in others like Polish, Russian, Lower Sorbian it functions as a retroflex (ʂ). This discrepancy is motivated by the fact that ʃ is not optimal in terms of maintaining sufficient perceptual contrast to other sibilants such as s and ɕ. If ʃ occurs together with s (and sʲ) there is a considerable perceptual distance between them but if it occurs with ɕ in an inventory, the distance is much smaller. Therefore, the strategy most languages follow is the change from a postalveolar to a retroflex sibilant.
The present study, based on a typological survey of ca. 70 languages, offers a systematization of consonantal insertions by classifying them into three main types: grammatical, phonetic, and prosodic insertions. The three epenthesis types essentially differ from each other in terms of preferred sounds, domains of application, the role of segmental context, their occurrence cross-linguistically, the extent of variation and phonetic explication.
The present investigation is significantly different from other analyses of consonantal epentheses in the sense that it neither invokes markedness nor diachronic state of the processes under discussion. Instead, it considers the different nature of the epenthetic segments by referring to the representational levels and/or domains which are relevant for their appearance.
In this paper it is argued that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency to avoid voiced sibilant affricates. This tendency is explained by appealing to the phonetic properties of the sounds, and in particular to their aerodynamic characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence it is shown that conflicting air pressure requirements for maintaining voicing and frication are responsible for the avoidance of voiced affricates. In particular, the air pressure released from the stop phase of the affricate is too high to maintain voicing which in consequence leads to a devoicing of the frication part.
This summary provides an overview of how new therapies or new aspects of established therapies relate to the latest findings. Neoadjuvant therapy, local therapy, new aspects of systemic therapy, and prognostic and predictive factors are presented. In the neoadjuvant setting, the association between pathological complete response (pCR) and prognosis is still of interest as is the identification of new molecular predictors for new therapies such as CDK4/6 inhibitors. As regards surgical treatment, the target is still to reduce the aggressiveness of surgery. To achieve this, a better understanding particularly of ductal carcinoma in situ is required. With regard to systemic therapy, more data on the best combinations and therapy sequences for existing therapies is available. Finally, the use of prognostic and predictive factors may help to avoid overtreatment and ensure that patients only receive therapies which have been shown to be effective for their specific condition and have fewer side effects.
Chemical pollution is one of the main contributors to the degradation of lotic ecosystems and their biodiversity. Among chemicals driving lotic biodiversity decline are anthropogenic organic micropollutants (AOM), which affect the survival and functioning of freshwater organisms. Continuous exposure of freshwater organisms to AOM leads to adverse effects that sometimes cannot be traced with standard toxicity methods such as standard toxicity testing or biodiversity indices. Among these effects of AOM are selective or mutagenic effects that cause impaired species genetic diversity. Thus, the correlation between different levels of AOM and genetic diversity of species is still poorly understood. However, it can be explored by applying population genetics screening.
In Chapter 1 of this thesis, background information on environmental pollution, genetic screening, and the detection of evolutionary-relevant AOM effects in freshwater organisms are described and the thesis goals are identified. The main goal of the thesis is to study whether AOM exposure occurring in European rivers causes a significant evolutionary footprint in freshwater species and leads to a selection of more tolerant geno-and phenotypes. Therefore, population genetics indices together with high-resolution chemical exposure screening of a widespread indicator invertebrate species, Gammarus pulex (Linnaeus, 1758), living in polluted and pristine European rivers were investigated.
In Chapter 2, the development of a genetic screening method for G. pulex (microsatellites) is described. Due to genetic differentiation and the presence of morphologically cryptic lineages, the available sets of target loci do not enable a reliable population genetic characterization of G. pulex from central Germany. Thus, a novel set of microsatellite loci for a high-precision assessment of population genetic diversity was here applied. Eleven loci were first identified and thereafter amplified in G. pulex from three rivers. The new loci reliably amplified and indicated polymorphisms in the studied amphipods. The amplification resulted in the successful identification of genetically distinct populations of G. pulex from the analyzed rivers. Moreover, the microsatellite loci were amplified in other genetic lineages of G. pulex and another Gammarus species, G. fossarum, promising a broader applicability of the loci in related amphipod species.
In Chapter 3, the effects of AOM on species genetic differentiation and sensitivity to toxic chemicals in a typical central European river with pristine and AOM-polluted sections was investigated. The river’s site-specific concentrations of AOM were assessed by chemical analysis of G. pulex tissue and water samples. To test, whether different levels of AOM in the river select for pollution-dependent genotypes, the genetic structure of G. pulex from the river was analyzed. Finally, the toxicokinetics of and sensitivity to the commonly used insecticide imidacloprid were determined for amphipods sampled at pristine and polluted sections to assess whether various levels of AOM in the river influence sensitivity of G. pulex to imidacloprid. The results indicated that different levels of AOM did not drive genetic divergence of G. pulex within the river but led to an increased sensitivity of exposed amphipods to imidacloprid. The amphipods living in polluted river sections were more sensitive to the insecticide due to chronic exposure to toxic levels of AOM.
In Chapter 4, the relationship between site-specific pollution levels of AOM and genetic diversity parameters of G. pulex was analyzed at the regional scale within six rivers in central Germany. The genetic structure of G. pulex in the studied area was tested for relatedness to the waterway distance between sites. Gammarus pulex genetic diversity parameters, including allelic richness and inbreeding rate, were tested against environmental pollution parameters using linear mixed-effect- and structural-equation models. According to the results, G. pulex genetic diversity parameters were significantly associated with the detected AOM levels. At sites with high concentrations of AOM and toxicity potential G. pulex showed reduced genetic diversity and increased rates of inbreeding. These results suggest that AOM play a major role in shaping the genetic diversity of G. pulex in rivers.
According to the findings presented here, the applied microsatellites can be used to successfully detect changes in genetic patterns in freshwater amphipods facing increased levels of AOM. The findings indicate that levels of AOM representative for European rivers do not lead to the separation of genotypes among G. pulex as the connectivity between sites majorly contributes to species’ genetic structure. However, the chronic exposure to increased levels of toxic AOM leads to a reduction of species genetic diversity and increases the sensitivity of G. pulex to the toxic chemical effects.