title: Historical anthropogenic heavy metal input to the south-eastern North Sea

authors: Boxberg, Florian

abstract: The Helgoland Mud Area (HMA) in the German Bight, covering an area of approximately 500 km2, is one of a few depocentres for finer sediments in the North Sea. Radiocarbon and 210Pb analyses revealed continuous sedimentation over the last several centuries. Zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) contents in the sediments show a distinct increase towards the youngest most sediments with the thickness of the heavy metal enriched sediments ranging from 15 to 103 cm. Stratigraphic data indicate that the onset of heavy metal enrichment is diachronous progressing north-westward over the depocentre, paralleled by a decrease in the thickness of the enriched layer. Beginning already during medieval times, the enhanced input of Zn and Pb seemingly is related to silver and zinc mining in the Harz Mountains and the Erzgebirge, well-known mining areas since the Bronze Age. Both regions are directly connected to the HMA by the Elbe and Weser rivers. Zn and Pb enrichment began in the south-eastern HMA and progressed subsequently with an average of 10 m per year north-westward, most likely triggered by variations in river discharge and by the hydrodynamic setting. Quantitative assessments of the Zn and Pb content in the sediments suggest that since the onset of enhanced Zn and Pb deposition, the anthropic Zn and Pb input in the HMA amounts to ~ 12,000 t and ~ 4000 t, respectively.

text: Historical anthropogenic heavy metal input to the south-eastern North Sea The Helgoland Mud Area (HMA) in the German Bight, covering an area of approximately 500 km2, is one of a few depocentres for finer sediments in the North Sea. Radiocarbon and 210Pb analyses revealed continuous sedimentation over the last several centuries. Zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) contents in the sediments show a distinct increase towards the youngest most sediments with the thickness of the heavy metal enriched sediments ranging from 15 to 103 cm. Stratigraphic data indicate that the onset of heavy metal enrichment is diachronous progressing north-westward over the depocentre, paralleled by a decrease in the thickness of the enriched layer. Beginning already during medieval times, the enhanced input of Zn and Pb seemingly is related to silver and zinc mining in the Harz Mountains and the Erzgebirge, well-known mining areas since the Bronze Age. Both regions are directly connected to the HMA by the Elbe and Weser rivers. Zn and Pb enrichment began in the south-eastern HMA and progressed subsequently with an average of 10 m per year north-westward, most likely triggered by variations in river discharge and by the hydrodynamic setting. Quantitative assessments of the Zn and Pb content in the sediments suggest that since the onset of enhanced Zn and Pb deposition, the anthropic Zn and Pb input in the HMA amounts to ~ 12,000 t and ~ 4000 t, respectively.

year: 2019

title: Propagating action potentials and the regeneration of acetabularia mediterranea: a pilot study

authors: Lertsithichai, Somak

abstract: A study of the relationship between the cell membrane electrical activity and the observed polar regeneration in anucleate isolated stalk segments of Acetabularia may help answer the question of how a single cell can ‘break symmetry’ and establish a definite polarity. Such studies have been carried out extensively by Novak and Bentrup and their colleagues since 1972, but their results contain unresolved inconsistencies and although their experimental technique overcomes the problems arising from conventional microelectrode techniques, it gives a restricted and electrically perturbative environment for the cell.
In an attempt to overcome these limitations the work in this thesis describes the development of a new technique for measuring the electrical activity of the cell membrane with minimum perturbation from the measuring system. In addition it gives more precise and detailed information about the region of action potential initiation and subsequent propagation. 
The results of measurements using this technique on a variety of intact cells and various cell segments, including anucleate stalk segments are presented and discussed. The results provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that the region of action potential initiation is strongly correlated with the region of current growth. They do not however appear to provide any support for the suggestion of Novak and Bentrup that propagating action potentials are an essential component of the mechanism for ‘symmetry breaking’ in initially unpolarised anucleate stalk segments.

text: Propagating action potentials and the regeneration of acetabularia mediterranea: a pilot study A study of the relationship between the cell membrane electrical activity and the observed polar regeneration in anucleate isolated stalk segments of Acetabularia may help answer the question of how a single cell can ‘break symmetry’ and establish a definite polarity. Such studies have been carried out extensively by Novak and Bentrup and their colleagues since 1972, but their results contain unresolved inconsistencies and although their experimental technique overcomes the problems arising from conventional microelectrode techniques, it gives a restricted and electrically perturbative environment for the cell.
In an attempt to overcome these limitations the work in this thesis describes the development of a new technique for measuring the electrical activity of the cell membrane with minimum perturbation from the measuring system. In addition it gives more precise and detailed information about the region of action potential initiation and subsequent propagation. 
The results of measurements using this technique on a variety of intact cells and various cell segments, including anucleate stalk segments are presented and discussed. The results provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that the region of action potential initiation is strongly correlated with the region of current growth. They do not however appear to provide any support for the suggestion of Novak and Bentrup that propagating action potentials are an essential component of the mechanism for ‘symmetry breaking’ in initially unpolarised anucleate stalk segments.

year: 1980

title: When your maunga is a mountain but your moana is not a sea; Insights from the perception of synonymy of te reo Māori loanwords and New Zealand English lexical equivalents

authors: Pohl, Alexander

abstract: Languages and their speakers are in ongoing contact with one another, which inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). One perspective that has comparatively seen less attention in language contact research concerns how loanword relate to existing lexical alternatives. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this shift, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their near synonyms equivalents employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & WinterFroemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). 

This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study involving Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). Regarding onomasiology, Māori loanwords have been glossed and explained in different ways, and to date, there has been to our knowledge almost no research focused specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their near synonyms. 

Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords (spanning established semantic categories: flora and fauna, material culture, and social culture) and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgments were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family), using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous; see Figure 1). Because synonymy judgements are subjective, we also included ten fillers, to help us calibrate and interpret participant judgements. The 60 words were divided into two-word lists in order avoid fatigue, resulting in a within participant design. The target demographic for our population of interest consisted of young adults (18-24 years). 

Following cleaning and exclusions (e.g. participants who ignored filler items), the final dataset contained 260 participants. Inspecting the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on this core sample, while keeping an eye on the full dataset containing all participants. Preliminary findings suggest that young adults think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. These findings will be further scrutinised with regression techniques and qualitative analyses of the comments provided in an open answer section of the questionnaire.

text: When your maunga is a mountain but your moana is not a sea; Insights from the perception of synonymy of te reo Māori loanwords and New Zealand English lexical equivalents Languages and their speakers are in ongoing contact with one another, which inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). One perspective that has comparatively seen less attention in language contact research concerns how loanword relate to existing lexical alternatives. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this shift, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their near synonyms equivalents employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & WinterFroemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). 

This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study involving Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). Regarding onomasiology, Māori loanwords have been glossed and explained in different ways, and to date, there has been to our knowledge almost no research focused specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their near synonyms. 

Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords (spanning established semantic categories: flora and fauna, material culture, and social culture) and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgments were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family), using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous; see Figure 1). Because synonymy judgements are subjective, we also included ten fillers, to help us calibrate and interpret participant judgements. The 60 words were divided into two-word lists in order avoid fatigue, resulting in a within participant design. The target demographic for our population of interest consisted of young adults (18-24 years). 

Following cleaning and exclusions (e.g. participants who ignored filler items), the final dataset contained 260 participants. Inspecting the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on this core sample, while keeping an eye on the full dataset containing all participants. Preliminary findings suggest that young adults think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. These findings will be further scrutinised with regression techniques and qualitative analyses of the comments provided in an open answer section of the questionnaire.

year: 2024