bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Political Shocks and Investment: Some Evidence from the 1930s
Authors: Mayer Thomas , Chatterji Monojit
Published: September 2009

There has been some dispute about the impact of New Deal policies on the business climate. Some historians have argued that the New Deal frightened business, and others that it encouraged business. This paper analyzes the impact of the New Deal on business investment by looking at the response of investment to the outcome of the 1934, 1936, and 1938 elections, as well as the passage of certain New Deal legislation. The data reject the hypothesis that the New Deal frightened off business investment.
A New Look at the Dealings of the Bardi and Peruzzi with Edward III
Authors: Hunt Edwin S.
Published: September 2009

The Bardi and Peruzzi of Florence became in the early fourteenth century the largest merchant-bankers ever seen in medieval Europe. Their collapse in the 1340s has been attributed by most historians to huge losses on loans to Edward III of England. This article explores some flaws in the conventional explanation and shows that the firms lacked the resources to have made loans on the generally accepted scale. It also suggests means by which the companies could have recovered at least part of their advances to the king without the results appearing in government ledgers.
Socialism and Wages in the Recovery from the Great Depression in the United States and Germany
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: September 2009

The sustained unemployment in the United States during the recovery from the Great Depression has proved difficult to explain, as has the rapid elimination of unemployment in Germany. I argue that employment in the United States was restricted by high wages, which government policy raised above the level of efficiency wages. Socialist control and military expansion by the Nazis reduced unemployment, but also held down consumption.
President Eisenhower, Economic Policy, and the 1960 Presidential Election
Authors: May Ann Mari
Published: September 2009

This article examines economic policy in the Eisenhower years and the president's role in the 1960 election. I measure the impact of changes in fiscal policy on real GNP and show that policy in 1959 was unusually contractionary and cannot be dismissed as merely evidence of Eisenhower's fiscal conservatism.
Welfare Trends among the Yoruba in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Anthropometric Evidence
Authors: Eltis David
Published: September 2009

Analysis indicates that the Yoruba were taller than other West African peoples in the early nineteenth century. Disease, workloads, and environmental or genetic factors explain little of this differential. Rather, it appears due to a superior nutritional status made possible by Yoruba social structures, in particular, Yoruba towns. Yoruba stature declined both absolutely and relatively over the forty years corresponding to the collapse of the Oyo Empire. Regression analysis suggests a systematic relationship between these two events.
Beyond Malthus and Ricardo: Economic Growth, Land Concentration, and Income Distribution in Early Twentieth-Century Rural China
Authors: Brandt Loren , Sands Barbara
Published: September 2009

The article reexamines the connection between rural landownership and income distribution in light of recent evidence suggesting economic growth in China in the early twentieth century. The study utilizes a government-organized national survey of landholding and income-earning in 1930s’ China and three household-level village surveys conducted by Japanese researchers in the 1930s. Our investigations produce evidence contrary to the currently held view of substantial (and increasing) income inequality. We suggest an alternative scenario of economic opportunities.
The Earnings Gap Between Agricultural and Manufacturing Laborers, 1925–1941
Authors: Alston Lee J. , Hatton T. J.
Published: September 2009

We estimate the monthly and hourly earnings ratio between agricultural and manufacturing laborers, adjusting for compensation received in-kind and differences in the cost of living. Our results indicate that prior to the Great Depression, agricultural compensation was similar to that in manufacturing within geographic regions, and a substantial earnings gap in favor of manufacturing emerged in the early thirties.
New Deal Regulation and the Revolution in American Farm Productivity. A Case Study of the Diffusion of the Tractor in the Corn Ielt, 1920–1940
Authors: Clarke Sally
Published: September 2009

Based on the cost savings of tractors relative to horses, nearly twice as many farmers in the Corn Belt should have invested in tractors as actually did so in the 1920s. During the Great Depression, however, the proportion of farmers owning tractors jumped from 25 to 40 percent. I argue that financial barriers explain farmers' reluctance to buy this expensive invention during the 1920s, while two New Deal regulatory agencies altered farmers' investment climate and spurred the adoption of capital equipment.
Integrated and Segmented Labor Markets: Thinking in Two Sectors
Authors: Hatton Timothy J. , Williamson Jeffrey G.
Published: September 2009

The broblem with recent historical debates over the segmentation and intergration of labor markets iis that they typically fail to sort out disequlibrium demand shocks from equlibrating migrant-supply responses. This article does so, by exploring the determinants of wage gaps between farm and city for eight countries over the century following 1860.
Industrial Concentration and the Capital Markets: A Comparative Study of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, 1830–1930
Authors: Haber Stephen H.
Published: September 2009

This article examines the relationship between capital market development and industrial structure during the early stages of industrialization, contrasting the experiences of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. It argues that constraints placed on the formation of credit intermediaries in Latin America by poorly defined property rights and government regulatory policies produced greater concentration in the Mexican and Brazilian cotton textile industries than that which developed in the United States.
Caloric Consumption in Industrializing Belgium
Authors: Bekaert Geert
Published: September 2009

This article provides estimates of Belgian food consumption in 1812 and 1846 using a national food balance sheet approach. These estimates are then converted into caloric intakes for adult male equivalents. Despite many accounts of an absolute pauperization of the Belgian population during this period, caloric consumption per equivalent adult male is shown to have merely stagnated between 1812 and 1846. There is indirect evidence that inequality in caloric consumption increased at the same time. Energy cost-accounting exercises reveal that the residual caloric quantity available for physical exertion was minimal for large sections of the population.
Peopling the Land by Lottery? The Market in Public Lands and the Regional Differentiation of Territory on the Georgia Frontier
Authors: Weiman David F.
Published: September 2009

Organized markets in public lands enabled large slaveholders to establish a foothold on the frontier, often in advance of their actual settlement. Their “pre-emptive” purchases of prime cotton lands fostered the regional differentiation of territory by displacing yeoman households to more marginal soils. An analysis of the land market in western Georgia in the 1820s demonstrates the regional patterning of the new territory at the very onset of settlement. The state's land policy, a lottery system, ordained this outcome, as it instituted markets in public lands to which wealthy slaveholders had greater access.
Enforcement In Apprenticeship Contracts: Were Runaways a Serious Problem? Evidence from Montreal
Authors: Hamilton Gillian
Published: September 2009

Historians argue that in late eighteenth-century North Aerica, apprentices often ran away form their masters. Masters’ inability to write enforceable contracts, the argument goes, sparked the decline of traditional apprenticeships. This article addresses the issue of enforcement. I analyze an apprentice’s incentive to run away and the role of enforcement with detailed archival evidence form Montreal. These data cast doubt on the claim that masters were unable to construct enforceable contracts and call into question the severity of a runaway problem.
Lives of The Great Economists
Authors: McGraw Thomas K.
Published: September 2009

Is it worthwhile to read biographies of economists? Does the person’s life affect the formulation of his or her theory? How much influence can a person have on the sweep of history? These, of course, are some of the oldest questions scholars grapple with, whether in the guise of the New Criticism in literature, the role of individual contributions to the progress of science, or the balance between volition and determinism in history itself.
Labor Supply, the Acquisition of Skills, and the Location of Southern Textile Mills, 1880–1900
Authors: Carlson Leonard A.
Published: September 2009

This paper offers the hypothesis that the development of the textile industry in the South was shaped by the fact that by 1870 most experienced workers lived in the Piedmont. Thus, a firm which wished to hire experienced workers would have been led to choose the Piedmont; similarly, mills producing more difficult finer count cloth would have chosen the Piedmont in order to hire experienced workers. Finally, the persistence of a virtually all white workforce may be explained by the fact that most experienced workers were white and would have resisted working in integrated mills.
Public Relief and Private Employment in the Great Depression
Authors: Wallis John Joseph , Benjamin Daniel K.
Published: September 2009

The unemployment relief programs introduced by the federal government in the 1930s were the largest single factor in the growth of the federal budget over the decade. We develop a model that enables us to estimate the effects of the relief programs on private employment. Cross-sectional data bearing on the operation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration rejects the hypothesis that the federal relief programs reduced private employment. Individuals did respond to the incentives of relief benefits, but only by moving between relief and non-relief unemployment.
Revolutionary Wars and Public Finances: The Madrid Treasury, 1784–1807
Authors: Barbier Jacques A. , Klein Herbert S.
Published: September 2009

This study is based on the manuscript accounts of the Madrid Treasury for 1784– 1807. It confirms the customary view of an inexorable descent into bankruptcy, but also shows why this situation arose. A detailed analysis of receipts demonstrates the importance of colonial revenues and the stability of traditional income sources. In wartime, such as repeatedly plagued the country, the former was jeopardized and the latter proved too inelastic to respond to rising demand. On balance, the inescapable conclusion is that Spain was a limited fiscal entity which could not meet the challenge of a revolutionary era without breaking decisively with the restrictive structures of the Old Regime.
The Motorization and Decline of Urban Public Transit, 1935–1950
Authors: St. Clair David J.
Published: September 2009

Were intracity motor buses economically inferior to electric streetcars and electric buses in the late 1930s and l940s? The contention that they were has recently served as the basis for allegations that the decline of urban public transit was attributable, in large part, to an organized campaign intent on eliminating viable public transit. Aggregate data from trade sources allows a comparative cost and profit analysis of motor buses, electric buses, and electric streetcars for the years 1935–1950. The analysis supports the contention that motor buses were inferior. Questions regarding the applicability of criticisms of market foreclosure theory are also considered.
New Evidence on the Causes of Slave and Crew Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade
Authors: Steckel Richard H. , Jensen Richard A.
Published: September 2009

The journals of slave ship surgeons of the 1790s are used to address questions on the relative importance of African conditions versus those on ships, crowding, the effectiveness of Dolben's Act, and the interaction between slave and crew health. In contrast with previous work we find that most slaves who died did so near the middle of the voyage. Crowding was important to health and mortality, but the restrictions of Dolben's Act did little to reduce losses. The crew was largely isolated from patterns of disease among slaves.
The Old Poor Law and the Agricultural Labor Market in Southern England: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Boyer George R.
Published: September 2009

The paper examines the economic role played by poor relief in early nineteenth-century England. A three-equation model is estimated to explain cross-parish variations in per capita relief expenditures, agricultural laborers' annual wage income, and unemployment rates. Relief expenditures are found to be related to crop mix, the political power of labor-hiring farmers, distance from London, and employment opportunities in cottage industry. The results strongly support the revisionist analysis of the Old Poor Law, and reject the analysis contained in the Report of the Royal Poor Law Commission.
Banks, Kinship, and Economic Development: The New England Case
Authors: Lamoreaux Naomi R.
Published: September 2009

Early banks in New England functioned not as commercial banks in the modern sense but as the financial arms of extended kinship networks. These groups used banks to raise capital for their diversified enterprises and give their operations a stable institutional base. Because entry into banking was essentially free, favoritism in credit markets—the usual affliction of such a system—seems to have been unimportant. Instead, the economy as a whole benefited from the ease with which capital could be mobilized for industrial development.
Craft Labor and Mechanization in Nineteenth-Century American Canning
Authors: Brown Martin , Philips Peter
Published: September 2009

The development of new machinery in nineteenth-century American canning followed two paths. Automative, labor-saving devices were developed to replace labor in unskilled tasks while deskilling, human-capital-saving machinery was designed to make craft labor more replaceable. Cannery operators appear to have focused on deskilling machinery as the key to greater managerial control over production. Craft workers through organizational power and pressing for higher wages seem to have stimulated the early and sustained search for deskilling machinery. Because human-capital-saving machinery allowed wage cuts, they could be adopted prior to their being used as labor-saving devices.
Compliance with Price Controls in the United States and the United Kingdom During World War II
Authors: Mills Geofrey , Rockoff Hugh
Published: September 2009

We are concerned here with the evasion of price controls in the United States and the United Kingdom in World War II. The evidence suggests that controls produced less evasive activity in the United Kingdom. After considering several explanations we conclude that the key was the degree of regimentation. The British controlled all stages of production, limited the range of products available at each stage, and allocated relatively more resources to managing and enforcing controls.
Carl Bosch and Carl Krauch: Chemistry and the Political Economy of Germany, 1925–1945
Authors: Hayes Peter
Published: September 2009

Carl Bosch and Carl Krauch, accomplished scientists and prominent executives in the BASF and IG Farben chemical corporations, were drawn together by mutual admiration and common technical interests. In the Nazi era, however, they came to embody competing liberal and nationalist conceptions of German political economy. This article examines their relationship, the reasons for their divergent stances, and their individual contributions to the economic and productive power of the Third Reich. Ironically, Bosch's understanding of his industry, his nation, and scientific progress led him to oppose the Nazis, but also to lay the basis for their recruitment of Krauch and the German chemical industry for their expansionist purposes.
Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790–1860
Authors: Sylla Richard , Legler John B. , Wallis John J.
Published: September 2009

The U.S. Constitution, by taking away the power of the states to issue paper money, removed a major source of flexibility in state public finance. In their search for new sources of revenue and fiscal flexibility, the states discovered that the banks they chartered could fill the gap. Investment earnings and tax revenues derived from banks soon became major elements of state public finance. We discuss the nature of these early business-government relationships and provide the first systematic assessment of their relative importance in state finance.
Learning by Selling and Invention: The Case of the Sewing Machine
Authors: Thomson Ross
Published: September 2009

For techniques diffusing as commodities, sales form a critical medium of technological communication which facilitates secondary invention. While sales may also influence the incentives to invent, I argue that the technical learning associated with selling provides a fuller account of invention for the case of the sewing machine in the United States. A study of some 3,500 patents and forty-eight city directories shows that as sales expanded in extent and location, so did patenting by first-time inventors. Moreover, patent use generated a flow of information back to inventors which increased the likelihood and extent of repeat patenting. In these ways, sales sustained technological change as a cumulative process.
Mortgage Rates and American Capital Market Development in the Late Nineteenth Century
Authors: Snowden Kenneth A.
Published: September 2009

Substantial regional differentials in mortgage rates persisted throughout the postbellum period. I find that these differentials reflected not only variations in lending risk, but also the costs incurred in transferring funds between markets and unexplained regional premia. The results are consistent with the traditional interpretation that capital markets were at least partially segmented throughout the late nineteenth century. The effects on home and farm mortgage rates in the South and West were substantial and suggest that market segmentation could have had a substantial impact on the regional pattern of urbanization as well as agricultural development.
Farm Household Behavior, Factor Markets, and the Distributive Consequences of Commercialization in Early Twentieth-Century China
Authors: Brandt Loren
Published: September 2009

Unlike the case of many low-income countries, farm-level survey data show no major differences across farm sizes with regard to decision-making and economic efficiency. This similarity is attributed to the operation of efficient and competitive markets which households used effectively to offset imbalances in resource endowment. If this holds true from the 1880s to the 1930s, perhaps the benefits of commercialization were more evenly distributed than previously believed.
Government Policy and Banking Market Structure in the 1920s
Authors: Wheelock David C.
Published: September 2009

This article investigates interstate differences in banking market structure during the 1920s. It finds that the number of banks per capita and the ratio of state-chartered to federally chartered banks were highest in states with deposit insurance systems, low minimum capital requirements, and branching restrictions. In the 1920s banking consolidation was greatest where falling incomes caused high failure rates, in states with deposit insurance, and where branching increased. After 1920, the high failure rate of insured state banks caused the ratio of state–chartered to federally chartered banks to decline relatively more in states with insurance systems.
NEW COMBINATIONS IN THE FERNS OF THAILAND
Authors: Lindsay S. , Middleton D. J.
Published: September 2009

New combinations are made in the fern genera Colysis, Cyclosorus, Haplopteris and Selliguea from Thailand. A new combination for Pteridaceae subfamily Cryptogrammoideae is made.
‘The last acre and sixpence’: views on bank liability regimes in nineteenth-century Britain
Authors: Turner John D.
Published: September 2009

In the nineteenth century, British banking had a complete spectrum of shareholder liability regimes, ranging from pure limited to unlimited liability. Although the debate surrounding the US experience with double liability in banking is well documented, we know relatively little about the British experience of and debate about shareholder liability regimes in banking. Consequently, this article traces the development of views on shareholder liability regimes in nineteenth-century British banking. One of the main findings is that the chief argument for limited liability in British banking was based upon the perceived weaknesses of unlimited liability. In addition, it appears that much of the debate concentrated on the depositor-assuring viability of alternatives to unlimited liability.
Learning to look: The acquisition of eye gaze agreement during the production of ASL verbs
Authors: THOMPSON ROBIN L. , EMMOREY KAREN , KLUENDER ROBERT
Published: September 2009

In American Sign Language (ASL), native signers use eye gaze to mark agreement (Thompson, Emmorey and Kluender, 2006). Such agreement is unique (it is articulated with the eyes) and complex (it occurs with only two out of three verb types, and marks verbal arguments according to a noun phrase accessibility hierarchy). In a language production experiment using head-mounted eye-tracking, we investigated the extent to which eye gaze agreement can be mastered by late second-language (L2) learners. The data showed that proficient late learners (with an average of 18.8 years signing experience) mastered a cross-linguistically prevalent pattern (NP-accessibility) within the eye gaze agreement system but ignored an idiosyncratic feature (marking agreement on only a subset of verbs). Proficient signers produced a grammar for eye gaze agreement that diverged from that of native signers but was nonetheless consistent with language universals. A second experiment examined the eye gaze patterns of novice signers with less than two years of ASL exposure and of English-speaking non-signers. The results provided further evidence that the pattern of acquisition found for proficient L2 learners is directly related to language learning, and does not stem from more general cognitive processes for eye gaze outside the realm of language.
An Innovative Triple Immunogold Labeling Method to Investigate the Hemopoietic Stem Cell NicheIn Situ
Authors: Ellis Sarah L. , Williams Brenda , Asquith Stephen , Bertoncello Ivan , Nilsson Susan K.
Published: September 2009

The ultrastructural study of rare cells within their nichein situis very difficult. We have developed a method for locating individual transplanted cells and simultaneously identifying and analyzing the molecules and cellular phenotypes surrounding themin situusing transmission electron microscopy. This innovative method involves triple immunogold labeling combined with serial ultrathin sectioning. We demonstrate the validity of this approach by examining the niche of individual transplanted cells from a population highly enriched for hemopoietic stem cells and the ultrastructural expression of two key stem cell regulatory molecules, hyaluronic acid and osteopontin. In addition, we describe the phenotypes of the surrounding cells.
Distribution of the subsurface reflectors of the western nearside maria observed from Kaguya with Lunar Radar Sounder
Authors: Oshigami Shoko , Yamaguchi Yasushi , Yamaji Atsushi , Ono Takayuki , Kumamoto Atsushi , Kobayashi Takao , Nakagawa Hiromu
Published: September 2009

The Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) performed global soundings and detected possible subsurface echoes at the nearside maria. This paper examines the relationship between the distribution of the detected subsurface echoes and the surface ages in the western nearside maria. Continuous subsurface reflectors are clearly detected only in a few areas consisting of about 10% of the western nearside maria at apparent depths from hundreds to more than a thousand meters. These reflectors are not generally the basements of the mare but are the interface between different basaltic rock facies. Comparison between the distribution of the detected subsurface boundaries and the surface ages suggests that most of the detected subsurface reflectors were formed more than 3.4 billion years ago. Based on the strong connection between the accumulation rate of regolith and the absolute age, the detected subsurface boundaries appear to be relatively thick regolith layers accumulated during the depositional hiatuses of basaltic lavas.
Radiative effects of African dust and smoke observed from Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) data
Authors: Yorks John E. , McGill Matt , Rodier Sharon , Vaughan Mark , Hu Yongxiang , Hlavka Dennis
Published: September 2009

Cloud and aerosol effects have a significant impact on the atmospheric radiation budget in the tropical Atlantic because of the spatial and temporal extent of desert dust and smoke from biomass burning in the atmosphere. The influences of African dust and smoke aerosols on cloud radiative properties over the tropical Atlantic Ocean were analyzed for the month of July for 3 years (2006–2008) using colocated data collected by the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments on the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and Aqua satellites. Aerosol layer height and type can be accurately determined using CALIOP data through directly measured parameters such as optical depth, volume depolarization ratio, attenuated backscatter, and color ratio. On average, clouds below 5 km had a daytime instantaneous shortwave (SW) radiative flux of 270.2 ± 16.9 W/m2 and thin cirrus clouds had a SW radiative flux of 208.0 ± 12.7 W/m2. When dust aerosols interacted with clouds below 5 km, as determined from CALIPSO, the SW radiative flux decreased to 205.4 ± 13.0 W/m2. Similarly, smoke aerosols decreased the SW radiative flux of low clouds to a value of 240.0 ± 16.6 W/m2. These decreases in SW radiative flux were likely attributed to the aerosol layer height and changes in cloud microphysics. CALIOP lidar observations, which more accurately identify aerosol layer height than passive instruments, appear essential for better understanding of cloud‐aerosol interactions, a major uncertainty in predicting the climate system.
Expression and localization of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator in human gingiva
Authors: Ajonuma Louis C. , Lu Qian , Cheung Becky PK , Leung W. Keung , Samaranayake Lakshman P. , Jin Lijian
Published: September 2009

CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) is a cAMP‐activated chloride channel that regulates electrolyte and water transport. The present study investigated the expression and localization of CFTR in human gingiva and explored the possible association of CFTR with periodontal conditions. CFTR expression in gingival biopsies from five periodontally healthy subjects and ten subjects with chronic periodontitis and in the RHGE (reconstituted human gingival epithelia) was detected by immunohistochemistry, whereas its expression in gingival biopsies was analysed by immunofluorescence staining. CFTR mRNA was analysed by reverse transcription‐PCR. CFTR mRNA was detected in human gingival epithelia and RHGE. CFTR protein was detected in gingival biopsies from both healthy subjects and individuals with periodontitis and in RHGE. In healthy subjects, CFTR expression was mainly confined to the granular and spinous layers of epithelia and localized on the cell membrane. In patients with periodontitis, CFTR was detected in all layers of epithelia and the underlying connective tissues. The mean CFTR expression levels in periodontitis patients were significantly higher than those in healthy subjects. The present study for the first time showed the expression and localization of CFTR in human gingival epithelia. Elevated CFTR expression in periodontitis subjects implies the possible involvement of CFTR in periodontal disease pathogenesis. Further study is warranted to confirm the present findings.
Evolution of mixed farming systems for the delivery of triple bottom line outcomes: a synthesis of the Grain & Graze program
Authors: Hacker R. B. , Robertson M. J. , Price R. J. , Bowman A. M.
Published: September 2009

The continued evolution of mixed farming systems will depend on the development of technology which addresses the basic biophysical constraints of the agro ecological zone within which these systems have developed. However, the application of these technologies will increasingly depend on the extent to which they address all dimensions of the social–economic–environmental system within which mixed farmers operate. The Grain & Graze program has accelerated the adoption of several technologies that can provide a basis for continuing evolution of mixed farming systems (e.g. grazing of cereals, drought containment of livestock, perennial pastures) while initiating the development and exploration of others whose potential will be realised in the longer term (e.g. pasture cropping, integrated pest management in mixed farming systems, cover cropping and alley farming with old man saltbush). Some technologies capable of supporting continued evolution were not addressed comprehensively by the program but remain opportunities for future development, particularly technologies for feed demand management and inter-seasonal feed transfer. The program made considerable progress in fostering the explicit consideration of the ‘triple bottom line’ consequences of new technology. It has confirmed that no universal solution to the question of profitability and sustainability is to be expected but has also demonstrated that methodology is available to make the formal consideration of this question much more robust. Clearer definition of the institutional requirements for support of change in complex systems, and for effective management of large national projects, will provide key underpinnings to ensure that subsequent programs achieve the benefits of scale in RD&E that Grain & Graze has convincingly demonstrated. In addition, we argue that ongoing evolution of mixed farming systems that will deliver triple bottom line outcomes will require policies that achieve appropriate cost sharing for delivery of environmental benefits and increased capacity for structural adjustment within the industry itself, to account for changes in demography, infrastructure and farm management arrangements.
GTP-induced conformational changes in septins and implications for function
Authors: Sirajuddin Minhajuddin , Farkasovsky Marian , Zent Eldar , Wittinghofer Alfred
Published: September 2009

Septins constitute a group of GTP-binding proteins involved in cytokinesis and other essential cellular functions. They form heterooligomeric complexes that polymerize into nonpolar filaments and are dynamic during different stages of the cell cycle. Posttranslational modifications and interacting partners are widely accepted regulators of septin filament function, but the contribution of nucleotide is undefined due to a lack of detailed structural information. Previous low-resolution structures showed that the G domain assembles into a linear polymer with 2 different interfaces involving the N and C termini and the G binding sites. Here we report the crystal structure of SEPT2 bound to GppNHp at 2.9 Å resolution. GTP binding induces conformational changes in the switch regions at the G interfaces, which are transmitted to the N-terminal helix and also affect the NC interface. Biochemical studies and sequence alignment suggest that a threonine, which is conserved in certain subgroups of septins, is responsible for GTP hydrolysis. Although this threonine is not present in yeast
CDC3
and
CDC11
, its mutation in
CDC10
and
CDC12
induces temperature sensitivity. Highly conserved contact residues identified in the G interface are shown to be necessary for Cdc3–10, but not Cdc11–12, heterodimer formation and cell growth in yeast. Based on our findings, we propose that GTP binding/hydrolysis and the nature of the nucleotide influence the stability of interfaces in heterooligomeric and polymeric septins and are required for proper septin filament assembly/disassembly. These data also offer a first rationale for subdividing human septins into different functional subgroups.
Fossil and molecular evidence constrain scenarios for the early evolutionary and biogeographic history of hystricognathous rodents
Authors: Sallam Hesham M. , Seiffert Erik R. , Steiper Michael E. , Simons Elwyn L.
Published: September 2009

The early evolutionary and paleobiogeographic history of the diverse rodent clade Hystricognathi, which contains Hystricidae (Old World porcupines), Caviomorpha (the endemic South American rodents), and African Phiomorpha (cane rats, dassie rats, and blesmols) is of great interest to students of mammalian evolution, but remains poorly understood because of a poor early fossil record. Here we describe the oldest well-dated hystricognathous rodents from an earliest late Eocene (≈37 Ma) fossil locality in the Fayum Depression of northern Egypt. These taxa exhibit a combination of primitive and derived features, the former shared with Asian “baluchimyine” rodents, and the latter shared with Oligocene phiomorphs and caviomorphs. Phylogenetic analysis incorporating morphological, temporal, geographic, and molecular information places the new taxa as successive sister groups of crown Hystricognathi, and supports an Asian origin for stem Hystricognathi and an Afro-Arabian origin for crown Hystricognathi, stem Hystricidae, and stem Caviomorpha. Molecular dating of early divergences within Hystricognathi, using a Bayesian “relaxed clock” approach and multiple fossil calibrations, suggests that the split between Hystricidae and the phiomorph-caviomorph clade occurred ≈39 Ma, and that phiomorphs and caviomorphs diverged ≈36 Ma. These results are remarkably congruent with our phylogenetic results and the fossil record of hystricognathous rodent evolution in Afro-Arabia and South America.
Chemoenzymatic elaboration of monosaccharides using engineered cytochrome P450
BM3
demethylases
Authors: Lewis Jared C. , Bastian Sabine , Bennett Clay S. , Fu Yu , Mitsuda Yuuichi , Chen Mike M. , Greenberg William A. , Wong Chi-Huey , Arnold Frances H.
Published: September 2009

Polysaccharides comprise an extremely important class of biopolymers that play critical roles in a wide range of biological processes, but the synthesis of these compounds is challenging because of their complex structures. We have developed a chemoenzymatic method for regioselective deprotection of monosaccharide substrates using engineered
Bacillus megaterium
cytochrome P450 (P450
BM3
) demethylases that provides a highly efficient means to access valuable intermediates, which can be converted to a wide range of substituted monosaccharides and polysaccharides. Demethylases displaying high levels of regioselectivity toward a number of protected monosaccharides were identified using a combination of protein and substrate engineering, suggesting that this approach ultimately could be used in the synthesis of a wide range of substituted mono- and polysaccharides for studies in chemistry, biology, and medicine.
Perceptions of translating/interpreting in first-century China
Authors: Lung Rachel
Published: September 2009

This article analyzes evidence of translating and interpreting activities (indiscriminately referred to as yi (譯), which also denotes translators or interpreters in classical Chinese) in first-century China between the Latter Han (25–220 AD) Chinese administration and non-Han Chinese minority tribes along the then Southwestern frontier (modern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces). The importance of this archival record to the historical study of translation and interpreting is two-fold. First, it contains crucial details pertinent to translating and interpreting activities in China in antiquity. Second, it documents concepts of yi synchronically, as perceived by three main participants in the interpreting events: the emperor, the frontier inspector, and the frontier clerk cum interpreter. The presentation of what they actually wrote, said, and did in the first-century interpreting setting in China, with close reference to standard histories, objectively depicts the meanings of yi as perceived by these figures at the time.
Les conjonctions doubles
Authors: Piot Mireille
Published: September 2009

We present a syntactic analysis of the French “double conjunctions” class, which contains ninety one items: some of them are subordinating items, and in majority coordinating items. We analyse their specific syntactic properties by means of the “parallelism constraints” (see Z. S. Harris (1968)), related to the specific nature and order of these items and their sentences. Study of restrictions in their positions and combinations reveals complete independancy between “double conjunctions” and some homonymous “simple” ones, excluding any analyse of the last ones from the first ones.
Études de linguistique française en Italie
Authors: Schena Leo
Published: September 2009

Around forty Italian studies of French grammar running from the early 60s to 1997 are described in this Guide bibliographique. They are all undoubtedly noteworthy for their scientific interest, but in Italy the subject they deal with is in need of further exploration. Not only do such studies represent individual initiatives (no large common project has ever been carried out), they also take different approaches, which is inevitable in so far as grammar encompasses phonetics, lexicon, comparative analysis and teaching. In fact, the degree of diversity is not as high as one might expect. Only six trends are observable: pedagogic grammars, psychomechanical, pragmatic and énonciation-oriented studies, lexicon-grammars and manuals. In spite of this, the works in Schena’s Guide clearly show the evolution which the concept of grammar has undergone during the last three decades; research into meaning and the introduction of the human being into language have undermined the widely accepted priority that generativism and formalism give to syntax, since all levels — syntactic, semantic and pragmatic — are now treated as a sort of continuum which excludes any global model.

The author’s aim is to present the key ideas of the studies mentioned above and to point out their innovative function in the Italian panorama of French linguistics.
Les dictionnaires électroniques de l’espagnol (DELASs et DELACs)
Authors: Blanco Xavier
Published: September 2009

Summary

The aim of this article is to give an account of the work in progress concerning the Spanish electronic dictionaries of the DELA system. We describe the process of construction and maintenance of the dictionary of simple words (DELASs) and these of compound words (DELACs), which the latter comprising different modules for nouns (monolingual and French-Spanish bilingual), adverbs, verbs and adjectives. We also present a nominal determiners dictionary and we make some remarks about French-Spanish comparative lexicology.
Problèmes de traduction automatique des constructions à verbes supports
Authors: Ranchhod Elisabete
Published: September 2009

Summary

The constructions with support verbs raise specific problems in Machine Translation. Within the scope of this note, we first characterise, from a linguistic point of view, the sentences with support verbs. That characterisation will be illustrated by examples from French and Portuguese. The difficulties in the automatic translation of support verbs constructions will be illustrated with examples from Portuguese, taken as source language, and French, taken as target language.
Tagging and parsing with rules
Authors: Voutilainen Atro
Published: September 2009

Summary

This paper outlines a new system for tagging and parsing Swedish texts. The system is modelled on our earlier work on English tagging and parsing (Constraint Grammar, Functional Dependency Grammar). The paper consists of the following sections: earlier work on Swedish analysis; tagging and parsing in the Helsinki approach; outline of the system itself; a small performance experiment and discussion.
Reduction of lexical ambiguity
Authors: Laporte Éric
Published: September 2009

Summary

We examine various issues faced during the elaboration of lexical disambiguators, e.g. issues related with linguistic analyses underlying disambiguators, and we exemplify these issues with grammatical constraints. We also examine computational problems and show how they are connected with linguistic problems: the influence of the granularity of tagsets, the definition of realistic and useful objectives, and the construction of the data required for the reduction of ambiguity. We show why a formalism is required for automatic ambiguity reduction, we analyse its function and we present a typology of such formalisms.
Ces insupportables verbes supports
Authors: Gaatone David
Published: September 2009

Among non predicative verbs such as copulas, auxiliaries and various modal verbs, the so-called “verbes supports” (light verbs) are by far the most numerous class, and, moreover, an ever expanding one. They are supposed to carry very little meaning, or no meaning at all and, as a consequence, have no argument structure. Their role is merely to enable another word, mainly a noun, to function as a predicate, which selects its arguments and also its “verbe support” (prendre une décision = décider, avoir recours à = recourir à). One may suspect that the reason for the proliferation of that class lies mainly in the vagueness of the criteria chosen for deciding which verb may be considered as a “verbe support”. We try here to discuss that problem through the description of a small subset of French verbs designating events (arriver, avoir lieu, se passer, se produire, se tenir, etc.), which have also been labelled “verbes supports” by many linguists. The semantic and syntactic behavior of those verbs suggests that they should be analyzed as semantically close to one another rather than “supports”, since the properties generally taken as characterizing the latter do not easily apply to the former.
Alternances casuelles, verbes supports et quantification
Authors: Vivès Robert
Published: September 2009

In three types of sentences with predicative nouns in French, the arguments of the support verb can occupy different syntactic slots :

 (1) Luc donne des conseils à Max

 (2) Luc abreuve Max de conseils

 (3) Max croule sous les conseils de Luc

This paper evaluates the amount of this type of nouns and verbs in the lexicon of French and studies their syntactic and semantic properties. The verbs in question have a metaphoric sense of quantity. The predicative nouns possible in this type of constructions constitute semantic classes according to the metaphoric meaning of the verbs they accept.
Groupes nominaux négatifs issus de la réduction de verbes supports
Authors: Ranchhod Elisabete
Published: September 2009

On the basis of general syntactic operations, within Z. S. Harris framework, we establish, for Portuguese, a syntactic relation between negative NPs, headed by a predicative noun (e.g. A não ratificação desse tratado por parte de alguns países; The non-ratification of that treaty by some countries), and negative support verb sentences (Não houve ratificação desse tratado por parte de alguns países; There was no ratification of that treaty by some countries). Support verb sentences, in turn, correspond to the nominalization of negative verbal (and adjectival) sentences (Alguns países não ratificaram esse tratado; Some countries did not ratify that treaty). Such an approach also clarifies the linguistic status of the element não (non) occurring in negative noun phrases, with predicative nouns, a linguistic fact mentioned sporadically by grammarians, and treated by lexicographers in a totally inconsistent way.

Theoretical data were verified experimentally for Portuguese, English and French, on real text corpora, and the results confirm the consistency of the analysis.
Verbes supports et significations grammaticales
Authors: Blanco Xavier , Buvet Pierre-André
Published: September 2009

We present an inventory of grammatical meanings that can be expressed by support verbs. These meanings concern basically the quantification, the aspects and several types of relationships between enunciation and utterance. We argue for the usefulness of such a description in automatic translation Spanish-French.
Diversity in logarithmic opinion pools
Authors: Smith Andrew D.M. , Osborne Miles
Published: September 2009

Conditional random fields are state-of-the-art models for sequencing tasks such as named entity recognition. However, being globally conditioned, they have a tendency to overfit to a greater extent than other sequencing models. We introduce an approach to combat this overfitting called a logarithmic opinion pool (LOP). A LOP consists of a weighted combination of constituent models. We present the theory behind LOPs, and show that effective LOPs require constituent models that are diverse from one another. We examine different ways to introduce such diversity, including an approach that involves training the constituent models together, interactively. Our results show that, as expected from the underlying theory, explicitly optimising for constituent model diversity can improve performance over standard approaches to regularisation.
Cross-lingual Named Entity Recognition
Authors: Steinberger Ralf , Pouliquen Bruno
Published: September 2009

Named Entity Recognition and Classification (NERC) is a known and well-explored text analysis application that has been applied to various languages. We are presenting an automatic, highly multilingual news analysis system that fully integrates NERC for locations, persons and organisations with document clustering, multi-label categorisation, name attribute extraction, name variant merging and the calculation of social networks. The proposed application goes beyond the state-of-the-art by automatically merging the information found in news written in ten different languages, and by using the aggregated name information to automatically link related news documents across languages for all 45 language pair combinations. While state-of-the-art approaches for cross-lingual name variant merging and document similarity calculation require bilingual resources, the methods proposed here are mostly language-independent and require a minimal amount of monolingual language-specific effort. The development of resources for additional languages is therefore kept to a minimum and new languages can be plugged into the system effortlessly. The presented online news analysis application is fully functional and has, at the end of the year 2006, reached average usage statistics of 600,000 hits per day.
L’adverbe tout en construction comparative
Authors: Guimier Claude
Published: September 2009

Tout has many different adverbial uses. This paper deals with one of them, which is hardly ever taken into account, or even mentioned, in grammar books: tout can be used as a premodifier of the subordinator comme in comparative constructions. Comme is the only qu-word that can be premodified by tout. However, there are heavy constraints on the premodification of comme by tout and the presence of tout, very often, prevents the actualization of meanings (time or cause for instance) which would be possible otherwise. The paper aims to show that, in comparative constructions, it is sometimes compulsory, sometimes optional or sometimes impossible to insert tout. These variations are a consequence of the basic meaning of tout, which is defined, after Franckel 1989, as a sign marking the absence of any form of otherness. The article ends with a few remarks on tout comme (with no constituent after comme).