An entirely new follow-up volume providing a detailed account of numerous additional issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics. This brand-new, second ...volume of The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is a complement to the well-established first volume first published in 2003. It includes extended content allowing uniquely comprehensive coverage of the study of language(s) over time. Though it adds fresh perspectives on several topics previously treated in the first volume, this Handbook focuses on extensions of diachronic linguistics beyond those key issues. This Handbook provides readers with studies of language change whose perspectives range from comparisons of large open vs. small closed corpora, via creolistics and linguistic contact in general, to obsolescence and endangerment of languages. Written by leading scholars in their respective fields, new chapters are offered on matters such as the origin of language, evidence from language for reconstructing human prehistory, invocations of language present in studies of language past, benefits of linguistic fieldwork for historical investigation, ways in which not only biological evolution but also field biology can serve as heuristics for research into the rise and spread of linguistic innovations, and more. Moreover, it: offers novel and broadened content complementing the earlier volume so as to provide the fullest available overview of a wholly engrossing field includes 23 all-new contributed chapters, treating some familiar themes from fresh perspectives but mostly covering entirely new topics features expanded discussion of material from language families other than Indo-European provides a multiplicity of views from numerous specialists in linguistic diachrony. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, researchers and professional linguists, as well as all those interested in the history of particular languages and the history of language more generally.
An entirely new follow-up volume providing a detailed account of numerous additional issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics. This brand-new, second ...volume of The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is a complement to the well-established first volume first published in 2003. It includes extended content allowing uniquely comprehensive coverage of the study of language(s) over time. Though it adds fresh perspectives on several topics previously treated in the first volume, this Handbook focuses on extensions of diachronic linguistics beyond those key issues. This Handbook provides readers with studies of language change whose perspectives range from comparisons of large open vs. small closed corpora, via creolistics and linguistic contact in general, to obsolescence and endangerment of languages. Written by leading scholars in their respective fields, new chapters are offered on matters such as the origin of language, evidence from language for reconstructing human prehistory, invocations of language present in studies of language past, benefits of linguistic fieldwork for historical investigation, ways in which not only biological evolution but also field biology can serve as heuristics for research into the rise and spread of linguistic innovations, and more. Moreover, it: * offers novel and broadened content complementing the earlier volume so as to provide the fullest available overview of a wholly engrossing field * includes 23 all-new contributed chapters, treating some familiar themes from fresh perspectives but mostly covering entirely new topics * features expanded discussion of material from language families other than Indo-European * provides a multiplicity of views from numerous specialists in linguistic diachrony. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, researchers and professional linguists, as well as all those interested in the history of particular languages and the history of language more generally.
Provides a detailed account of the numerous issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics concerned with language change as well as ...past language states.
Antibody Catalysis of the Oxidation of Water Wentworth, Paul; Jones, Lyn H.; Wentworth, Anita D. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
09/2001, Volume:
293, Issue:
5536
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Recently we reported that antibodies can generate hydrogen peroxide (H2O
2) from singlet molecular oxygen (1O
2
*). We now show that this process is catalytic, and we identify the electron source for ...a quasi-unlimited generation of H2O
2. Antibodies produce up to 500 mole equivalents of H2O
2from1O
2
*, without a reduction in rate, and we have excluded metals or Cl-as the electron source. On the basis of isotope incorporation experiments and kinetic data, we propose that antibodies use H2Oas an electron source, facilitating its addition to1O
2
*to form H2O
3as the first intermediate in a reaction cascade that eventually leads to H2O
2. X-ray crystallographic studies with xenon point to putative conserved oxygen binding sites within the antibody fold where this chemistry could be initiated. Our findings suggest a protective function of immunoglobulins against1O
2
*and raise the question of whether the need to detoxify1O
2
*has played a decisive role in the evolution of the immunoglobulin fold.
To develop a cancer-specific multi-attribute utility instrument derived from the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G) health-related quality of life (HRQL) questionnaire.
We ...derived a descriptive system based on a subset of the 27-item FACT-G. Item selection was informed by psychometric analyses of existing FACT-G data (n = 6912) and by patient input (n = 82). We then conducted an online valuation survey, with participants recruited via an Australian general population online panel. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used, with attributes being the HRQL dimensions of the descriptive system and survival duration, and 16 choice-pairs per participant. Utility decrements were estimated with conditional logit and mixed logit modeling.
Eight HRQL dimensions were included in the descriptive system: pain, fatigue, nausea, sleep, work, social support, sadness, and future health worry; each with 5 levels. Of 1737 panel members who accessed the valuation survey, 1644 (95%) completed 1 or more DCE choice-pairs and were included in analyses. Utility decrements were generally monotonic; within each dimension, poorer HRQL levels generally had larger utility decrements. The largest utility decrements were for the highest levels of pain (-0.40) and nausea (-0.28). The worst health state had a utility of -0.54, considerably worse than dead.
A descriptive system and preference-based scoring approach were developed for the FACT-8D, a new cancer-specific multi-attribute utility instrument derived from the FACT-G. The Australian value set is the first of a series of country-specific value sets planned that can facilitate cost-utility analyses based on items from the FACT-G and related FACIT questionnaires containing FACT-G items.
Here, we report evidence for the production of ozone in human disease. Signature products unique to cholesterol ozonolysis are present within atherosclerotic tissue at the time of carotid ...endarterectomy, suggesting that ozone production occurred during lesion development. Furthermore, advanced atherosclerotic plaques generate ozone when the leukocytes within the diseased arteries are activated in vitro. The steroids produced by cholesterol ozonolysis cause effects that are thought to be critical to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, including cytotoxicity, lipid-loading in macrophages, and deformation of the apolipoprotein B-100 secondary structure. We propose the trivial designation "atheronals" for this previously unrecognized class of steroids.
Recently, we showed that antibodies catalyze the generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from singlet molecular oxygen ($^{1}O_{2}^*$) and water. Here, we show that this process can lead to efficient ...killing of bacteria, regardless of the antigen specificity of the antibody. H2O2production by antibodies alone was found to be not sufficient for bacterial killing. Our studies suggested that the antibody-catalyzed water-oxidation pathway produced an additional molecular species with a chemical signature similar to that of ozone. This species is also generated during the oxidative burst of activated human neutrophils and during inflammation. These observations suggest that alternative pathways may exist for biological killing of bacteria that are mediated by potent oxidants previously unknown to biology.
Recent advances in understanding insect communities in tropical forests have contributed little to our knowledge of large-scale patterns of insect diversity, because incomplete taxonomic knowledge of ...many tropical species hinders the mapping of their distribution records. This impedes an understanding of global biodiversity patterns and explains why tropical insects are under-represented in conservation biology. Our study of approximately 500 species from three herbivorous guilds feeding on foliage (caterpillars, Lepidoptera), wood (ambrosia beetles, Coleoptera) and fruit (fruitflies, Diptera) found a low rate of change in species composition (beta diversity) across 75,000 square kilometres of contiguous lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea, as most species were widely distributed. For caterpillars feeding on large plant genera, most species fed on multiple host species, so that even locally restricted plant species did not support endemic herbivores. Large plant genera represented a continuously distributed resource easily colonized by moths and butterflies over hundreds of kilometres. Low beta diversity was also documented in groups with differing host specificity (fruitflies and ambrosia beetles), suggesting that dispersal limitation does not have a substantial role in shaping the distribution of insect species in New Guinea lowland rainforests. Similar patterns of low beta diversity can be expected in other tropical lowland rainforests, as they are typically situated in the extensive low basins of major tropical rivers similar to the Sepik-Ramu region of New Guinea studied here.
Research throughout the last century has led to a consensus as to the strategy of the humoral component of the immune system. The essence is that, for killing, the antibody molecule activates ...additional systems that respond to antibody-antigen union. We now report that the immune system seems to have a previously unrecognized chemical potential intrinsic to the antibody molecule itself. All antibodies studied, regardless of source or antigenic specificity, can convert molecular oxygen into hydrogen peroxide, thereby potentially aligning recognition and killing within the same molecule. Aside from pointing to a new chemical arm for the immune system, these results may be important to the understanding of how antibodies evolved and what role they may play in human diseases.
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