Spoken sentence comprehension in aphasia: Event-related potential evidence for a lexical integration deficit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Swaab, T.Y.; Brown, C.; Hagoort, P.

1997-01-01

In this study the N400 component of the event-related potential was used to investigate spoken sentence understanding in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics. The aim of the study was to determine whether spoken sentence comprehension problems in these patients might result from a deficit in the on-line

THE CHILD JUSTICE ACT: PROCEDURAL SENTENCING ISSUES

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Stephan S Terblanche

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In this contribution a number of procedural issues related to the sentencing of child offenders and emanating from the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 are considered in some detail. As a general rule, the Act requires pre-sentence reports to be obtained from probation officers before sentencing any child offender, with only a limited number of exceptions. The article argues that the peremptory nature of the Act means that a probation report is always required, even if reports by other experts are also available. The exceptions are limited to instances other than those where the child offender is sentenced to any form of imprisonment or to residence in a care centre. The article addresses the question of whether or not the reference to imprisonment includes alternative imprisonment which is imposed only as an alternative to a fine. It suggests that alternative imprisonment should, generally, not be imposed on child offenders. When an exception is not prevented because of the sentence, a pre-sentence report may be dispensed with only when the offence is a schedule-1 offence (the least serious class of offences or when obtaining a report would prejudice the child. It is argued that these exceptions are likely to occur rather rarely. A final aspect of the Act’s provisions on pre-sentence reports is the requirement that reasons be given for a departure from the recommendations in a pre-sentence report. This requirement merely confirms the status quo.The Act permits the prosecutor to provide the court with a victim impact statement. Such a statement is defined in the Act. It is a sworn statement by a victim or someone authorised by the victim explaining the consequences to the victim of the commission of the crime. The article also addresses the issue of whether or not the child justice court might mero motu obtain a victim impact statement when the prosecution does not do so.Finally, the article addresses appeals against and reviews of the trial

Prisons and Sentencing Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Galvin, Jim

1983-01-01

Reviews current themes in sentencing and prison policy. The eight articles of this special issue discuss selective incapacitation, prison bed allocation models, computer-scored classification systems, race and gender relations, commutation, parole, and a historical review of sentencing reform. (JAC)

Extrinsic Cognitive Load Impairs Spoken Word Recognition in High- and Low-Predictability Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Cynthia R; Pisoni, David B

Listening effort (LE) induced by speech degradation reduces performance on concurrent cognitive tasks. However, a converse effect of extrinsic cognitive load on recognition of spoken words in sentences has not been shown. The aims of the present study were to (a) examine the impact of extrinsic cognitive load on spoken word recognition in a sentence recognition task and (b) determine whether cognitive load and/or LE needed to understand spectrally degraded speech would differentially affect word recognition in high- and low-predictability sentences. Downstream effects of speech degradation and sentence predictability on the cognitive load task were also examined. One hundred twenty young adults identified sentence-final spoken words in high- and low-predictability Speech Perception in Noise sentences. Cognitive load consisted of a preload of short (low-load) or long (high-load) sequences of digits, presented visually before each spoken sentence and reported either before or after identification of the sentence-final word. LE was varied by spectrally degrading sentences with four-, six-, or eight-channel noise vocoding. Level of spectral degradation and order of report (digits first or words first) were between-participants variables. Effects of cognitive load, sentence predictability, and speech degradation on accuracy of sentence-final word identification as well as recall of preload digit sequences were examined. In addition to anticipated main effects of sentence predictability and spectral degradation on word recognition, we found an effect of cognitive load, such that words were identified more accurately under low load than high load. However, load differentially affected word identification in high- and low-predictability sentences depending on the level of sentence degradation. Under severe spectral degradation (four-channel vocoding), the effect of cognitive load on word identification was present for high-predictability sentences but not for low

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

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Baoguo Chen

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have found quantity of exposure, i.e., frequency of exposure (Horst et al., 1998; Webb, 2008; Pellicer-Sánchez and Schmitt, 2010, is important for second language (L2 contextual word learning. Besides this factor, context constraint and L2 proficiency level have also been found to affect contextual word learning (Pulido, 2003; Tekmen and Daloglu, 2006; Elgort et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2015. In the present study, we adopted the event-related potential (ERP technique and chose high constraint sentences as reading materials to further explore the effects of quantity of exposure and proficiency on L2 contextual word learning. Participants were Chinese learners of English with different English proficiency levels. For each novel word, there were four high constraint sentences with the critical word at the end of the sentence. Learners read sentences and made semantic relatedness judgment afterwards, with ERPs recorded. Results showed that in the high constraint condition where each pseudoword was embedded in four sentences with consistent meaning, N400 amplitude upon this pseudoword decreased significantly as learners read the first two sentences. High proficiency learners responded faster in the semantic relatedness judgment task. These results suggest that in high quality sentence contexts, L2 learners could rapidly acquire word meaning without multiple exposures, and L2 proficiency facilitated this learning process.

Higher Language Ability is Related to Angular Gyrus Activation Increase During Semantic Processing, Independent of Sentence Incongruency

Science.gov (United States)

Van Ettinger-Veenstra, Helene; McAllister, Anita; Lundberg, Peter; Karlsson, Thomas; Engström, Maria

2016-01-01

This study investigates the relation between individual language ability and neural semantic processing abilities. Our aim was to explore whether high-level language ability would correlate to decreased activation in language-specific regions or rather increased activation in supporting language regions during processing of sentences. Moreover, we were interested if observed neural activation patterns are modulated by semantic incongruency similarly to previously observed changes upon syntactic congruency modulation. We investigated 27 healthy adults with a sentence reading task—which tapped language comprehension and inference, and modulated sentence congruency—employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We assessed the relation between neural activation, congruency modulation, and test performance on a high-level language ability assessment with multiple regression analysis. Our results showed increased activation in the left-hemispheric angular gyrus extending to the temporal lobe related to high language ability. This effect was independent of semantic congruency, and no significant relation between language ability and incongruency modulation was observed. Furthermore, there was a significant increase of activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) bilaterally when the sentences were incongruent, indicating that processing incongruent sentences was more demanding than processing congruent sentences and required increased activation in language regions. The correlation of high-level language ability with increased rather than decreased activation in the left angular gyrus, a region specific for language processing, is opposed to what the neural efficiency hypothesis would predict. We can conclude that no evidence is found for an interaction between semantic congruency related brain activation and high-level language performance, even though the semantic incongruent condition shows to be more demanding and evoking more neural activation. PMID

Higher language ability is related to angular gyrus activation increase during semantic processing, independent of sentence incongruency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helene eVan Ettinger-Veenstra

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the relation between individual language ability and neural semantic processing abilities. Our aim was to explore whether high-level language ability would correlate to decreased activation in language-specific regions or rather increased activation in supporting language regions during processing of sentences. Moreover, we were interested if observed neural activation patterns are modulated by semantic incongruency similarly to previously observed changes upon syntactic congruency modulation. We investigated 27 healthy adults with a sentence reading task - which tapped language comprehension and inference, and modulated sentence congruency - employing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed the relation between neural activation, congruency modulation, and test performance on a high-level language ability assessment with multiple regression analysis. Our results showed increased activation in the left-hemispheric angular gyrus extending to the temporal lobe related to high language ability. This effect was independent of semantic congruency, and no significant relation between language ability and incongruency modulation was observed. Furthermore, a significant increase of activation in the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally when the sentences were incongruent, indicating that processing incongruent sentences was more demanding than processing congruent sentences and required increased activation in language regions. The correlation of high-level language ability with increased rather than decreased activation in the left angular gyrus, a region specific for language processing is opposed to what the neural efficiency hypothesis would predict. We can conclude that there is no evidence found for an interaction between semantic congruency related brain activation and high-level language performance, even though the semantic incongruent condition shows to be more demanding and evoking more neural activation.

Proactive interference effects on sentence production

OpenAIRE

FERREIRA, VICTOR S.; FIRATO, CARLA E.

2002-01-01

Proactive interference refers to recall difficulties caused by prior similar memory-related processing. Information-processing approaches to sentence production predict that retrievability affects sentence form: Speakers may word sentences so that material that is difficult to retrieve is spoken later. In this experiment, speakers produced sentence structures that could include an optional that, thereby delaying the mention of a subsequent noun phrase. This subsequent noun phrase was either (...

Processing Interrogative Sentence Mood at the Semantic-Syntactic Interface: An Electrophysiological Research in Chinese, German, and Polish

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Chung-Shan; Dietrich, Rainer; Sommer, Werner

2010-01-01

Background Languages differ in the marking of the sentence mood of a polar interrogative (yes/no question). For instance, the interrogative mood is marked at the beginning of the surface structure in Polish, whereas the marker appears at the end in Chinese. In order to generate the corresponding sentence frame, the syntactic specification of the interrogative mood is early in Polish and late in Chinese. In this respect, German belongs to an interesting intermediate class. The yes/no question is expressed by a shift of the finite verb from its final position in the underlying structure into the utterance initial position, a move affecting, hence, both the sentence's final and the sentence's initial constituents. The present study aimed to investigate whether during generation of the semantic structure of a polar interrogative, i.e., the processing preceding the grammatical formulation, the interrogative mood is encoded according to its position in the syntactic structure at distinctive time points in Chinese, German, and Polish. Methodology/Principal Findings In a two-choice go/nogo experimental design, native speakers of the three languages responded to pictures by pressing buttons and producing utterances in their native language while their brain potentials were recorded. The emergence and latency of lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) in nogo conditions, in which speakers asked a yes/no question, should indicate the time point of processing the interrogative mood. The results revealed that Chinese, German, and Polish native speakers did not differ from each other in the electrophysiological indicator. Conclusions/Significance The findings suggest that the semantic encoding of the interrogative mood is temporally consistent across languages despite its disparate syntactic specification. The consistent encoding may be ascribed to economic processing of interrogative moods at various sentential positions of the syntactic structures in languages or, more

Contrastive Analysis of Place of Adjuncts in English and Persian Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Mirzahoseini, Zeynab; Gowhary, Habib; Azizifar, Akbar; Mirzahoseini, Ehsan

2015-01-01

This study investigates the position of adjuncts in sentences in English and Persian languages. The numbers of 136 sentences are collected from English story books and their Persian translations. The frequencies of each position (initial, middle, final) of adjuncts are determined by SPSS software and frequencies in English sentences are matched…

Sentence comprehension in Swahili-English bilingual agrammatic speakers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Abuom, Tom O.; Shah, Emmah; Bastiaanse, Roelien

For this study, sentence comprehension was tested in Swahili-English bilingual agrammatic speakers. The sentences were controlled for four factors: (1) order of the arguments (base vs. derived); (2) embedding (declarative vs. relative sentences); (3) overt use of the relative pronoun "who"; (4)

Respecting Relations: Memory Access and Antecedent Retrieval in Incremental Sentence Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Kush, Dave W.

2013-01-01

This dissertation uses the processing of anaphoric relations to probe how linguistic information is encoded in and retrieved from memory during real-time sentence comprehension. More specifically, the dissertation attempts to resolve a tension between the demands of a linguistic processor implemented in a general-purpose cognitive architecture and…

61 THE FINAL NIE IN AFRIKAANS NEGATIVE SENTENCES* lohan ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In terms of this property such a negative sentence contains, as a general rule, ... Program, the most recent development within the Principles and Parameters model. 2 As far ... a brief overview of some of the relevant assumptions and mechanisms of the ... case the relevant phrase moves to the Specifier (Spec) position of the ...

A case for the sentence in reading comprehension.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Cheryl M

2009-04-01

This article addresses sentence comprehension as a requirement of reading comprehension within the framework of the narrow view of reading that was advocated in the prologue to this forum. The focus is on the comprehension requirements of complex sentences, which are characteristic of school texts. Topics included in this discussion are (a) evidence linking sentence comprehension and syntax with reading, (b) syntactic properties of sentences that make them difficult to understand, (c) clinical applications for the assessment of sentence comprehension as it relates to reading, and (d) evidence and methods for addressing sentence complexity in treatment. Sentence complexity can create comprehension problems for struggling readers. The contribution of sentence comprehension to successful reading has been overlooked in models that emphasize domain-general comprehension strategies at the text level. The author calls for the evaluation of sentence comprehension within the context of content domains where complex sentences are found.

Sentencing Multiple Crimes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Most people assume that criminal offenders have only been convicted of a single crime. However, in reality almost half of offenders stand to be sentenced for more than one crime.The high proportion of multiple crime offenders poses a number of practical and theoretical challenges for the criminal......, and psychology offer their perspectives to the volume. A comprehensive examination of the dynamics involved with sentencing multiple offenders has the potential to be a powerful tool for legal scholars and professionals, particularly given the practical importance of the topic and the relative dearth of research...

Sentencing in the Netherlands : taking risk-related offender characteristics into account

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wingerden, Sigrid Geralda Clara van

2014-01-01

The sentencing decision of the judge might be the most important decision in the criminal proceedings, not only because of the impact the punishment has on the offender, but also because the sentencing decision is a cornerstone of the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system. Nonetheless,

Thai Language Sentence Similarity Computation Based on Syntactic Structure and Semantic Vector

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hongbin; Feng, Yinhan; Cheng, Liang

2018-03-01

Sentence similarity computation plays an increasingly important role in text mining, Web page retrieval, machine translation, speech recognition and question answering systems. Thai language as a kind of resources scarce language, it is not like Chinese language with HowNet and CiLin resources. So the Thai sentence similarity research faces some challenges. In order to solve this problem of the Thai language sentence similarity computation. This paper proposes a novel method to compute the similarity of Thai language sentence based on syntactic structure and semantic vector. This method firstly uses the Part-of-Speech (POS) dependency to calculate two sentences syntactic structure similarity, and then through the word vector to calculate two sentences semantic similarity. Finally, we combine the two methods to calculate two Thai language sentences similarity. The proposed method not only considers semantic, but also considers the sentence syntactic structure. The experiment result shows that this method in Thai language sentence similarity computation is feasible.

Sentence Writing and Perception of Written Sentences in Hearing-Impaired and Normal-Hearing Primary School Students in Hamadan, Western Iran

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Afsaneh Yaghobi

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Learning language is acquired in early childhood and gradually developed by new words and new structures. Hearing sense is the most important acquisition for learning this skill. Hearing disorders are barriers for natural language learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among thirty hearing-impaired students with hearing loss of 70-90 dB and thirty normal hearing students. They were selected from 3rd grade primary school students in Hamadan, a large city in Western Iran. The language skills and non language information was assessed by questionnaire, Action Picture Test, and Sentence Perception Test.Results: Results showed that there was a significant relation between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing impaired students (p<0.001, (r=0.8. This significant relation was seen in normal-hearing students as well (p<0.001, (r=0.7.Conclusion: Disability of hearing-impaired students in verbal communication is not only related to articulation and voice disorders but also is related to their disability to explore and use of language rules. They suffer lack of perception of written sentences, and they are not skilled to convey their feelings and thoughts in order to presenting themselves by using language structures.

From mind to mouth: event related potentials of sentence production in classic galactosemia.

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Inge Timmers

Full Text Available Patients with classic galactosemia, an inborn error of metabolism, have speech and language production impairments. Past research primarily focused on speech (motor problems, but these cannot solely explain the language impairments. Which specific deficits contribute to the impairments in language production is not yet known. Deficits in semantic and syntactic planning are plausible and require further investigation. In the present study, we examined syntactic encoding while patients and matched controls overtly described scenes of moving objects using either separate words (minimal syntactic planning or sentences (sentence-level syntactic planning. The design of the paradigm also allowed tapping into local noun phrase- and more global sentence-level syntactic planning. Simultaneously, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs. The patients needed more time to prepare and finish the utterances and made more errors. The patient ERPs had a very similar morphology to that of healthy controls, indicating overall comparable neural processing. Most importantly, the ERPs diverged from those of controls in several functionally informative time windows, ranging from very early (90-150 ms post scene onset to relatively late (1820-2020 ms post scene onset. These time windows can be associated with different linguistic encoding stages. The ERP results form the first neuroscientific evidence for language production impairments in patients with galactosemia in lexical and syntactic planning stages, i.e., prior to the linguistic output phase. These findings hence shed new light on the language impairments in this disease.

Priming sentence planning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Konopka, A.E.; Meyer, A.S.

2014-01-01

Sentence production requires mapping preverbal messages onto linguistic structures. Because sentences are normally built incrementally, the information encoded in a sentence-initial increment is critical for explaining how the mapping process starts and for predicting its timecourse. Two experiments

Relative Weighting of Semantic and Syntactic Cues in Native and Non-Native Listeners' Recognition of English Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Lu-Feng; Koenig, Laura L

2016-01-01

Non-native listeners do not recognize English sentences as effectively as native listeners, especially in noise. It is not entirely clear to what extent such group differences arise from differences in relative weight of semantic versus syntactic cues. This study quantified the use and weighting of these contextual cues via Boothroyd and Nittrouer's j and k factors. The j represents the probability of recognizing sentences with or without context, whereas the k represents the degree to which context improves recognition performance. Four groups of 13 normal-hearing young adult listeners participated. One group consisted of native English monolingual (EMN) listeners, whereas the other three consisted of non-native listeners contrasting in their language dominance and first language: English-dominant Russian-English, Russian-dominant Russian-English, and Spanish-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals. All listeners were presented three sets of four-word sentences: high-predictability sentences included both semantic and syntactic cues, low-predictability sentences included syntactic cues only, and zero-predictability sentences included neither semantic nor syntactic cues. Sentences were presented at 65 dB SPL binaurally in the presence of speech-spectrum noise at +3 dB SNR. Listeners orally repeated each sentence and recognition was calculated for individual words as well as the sentence as a whole. Comparable j values across groups for high-predictability, low-predictability, and zero-predictability sentences suggested that all listeners, native and non-native, utilized contextual cues to recognize English sentences. Analysis of the k factor indicated that non-native listeners took advantage of syntax as effectively as EMN listeners. However, only English-dominant bilinguals utilized semantics to the same extent as EMN listeners; semantics did not provide a significant benefit for the two non-English-dominant groups. When combined, semantics and syntax benefitted EMN

Savry risk assessment in violent Dutch adolescents - Relation to sentencing and recidivism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lodewijks, H.P.B.; Doreleijers, T.A.H.; de Ruiter, C.

2008-01-01

This study examines the predictive validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) by examining relationships between SAVRY scores and violent reoffending during a 3-year period after sentencing. Two types of sentences were studied: a mandatory treatment order (N = 77) and a

Combining language and space: sentence bisection in unilateral spatial neglect.

Science.gov (United States)

Veronelli, Laura; Guasti, Maria T; Arduino, Lisa S; Vallar, Giuseppe

2014-10-01

In line bisection right-brain-damaged patients with left spatial neglect show a rightward deviation, with respect to the line's physical center. In word bisection ortho-phonological features of the stimulus' final (right-sided) part modulate performance of both patients and healthy participants (Veronelli, Vallar, Marinelli, Primativo, & Arduino, 2014). We investigated the role of linguistic factors in sentence bisection, in patients with and without neglect, and control participants. The effects of information in the right-sided part of the sentence (Experiment #1), and of lexical and syntactic violations (Experiment #2) were assessed. Neglect patients showed an overall rightward bias, larger than those of patients without neglect and controls. The neglect patients' bias was modulated by stimulus type, decreasing from lines, to letter strings and to all types of sentences. In sum, in visuo-manual sentence bisection a basic linguistic mechanism, such as sentence readability, brings about a more leftward appreciation of the stimulus, reducing the neglect patients' rightward bias. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Project study for the final disposal of intermediate toxicity radioactive wastes (low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes) in geological formations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-08-01

The present report aimed to show variations in the construction- and operation-technical feasibility of a final repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes. This report represents the summary of a project study given under contract by Nagra with a view to informing a broader public of the technical conception of a final repository. Particular stress was laid on the treatment of the individual system elements of a repository concept during the construction, operation and sealing phases. The essential basis for the project study is the origin, composition and quantity of the wastes to be disposed. The final repository described in this report is foreseen for the reception of the following low- and intermediate-level solid radioactive wastes: wastes from the nuclear power plant operation; secondary wastes from the reprocessing of nuclear fuels; wastes from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants; wastes from research, medicine and industry

Training Of Manual Actions Improves Language Understanding of Semantically-Related Action Sentences

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Matteo eLocatelli

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Conceptual knowledge accessed by language may involve the re-activation of the associated primary sensory-motor processes. Whether these embodied representations are indeed constitutive to conceptual knowledge is hotly debated, particularly since direct evidence that sensory-motor expertise can improve conceptual processing is scarce.In this study, we sought for this crucial piece of evidence, by training naive healthy subjects to perform complex manual actions and by measuring, before and after training, their performance in a semantic language task. 19 participants engaged in 3 weeks of motor training. Each participant was trained in 3 complex manual actions (e.g. origami. Before and after the training period, each subject underwent a series of manual dexterity tests and a semantic language task. The latter consisted of a sentence-picture semantic congruency judgment task, with 6 target congruent sentence-picture pairs (semantically related to the trained manual actions, 6 non-target congruent pairs (semantically unrelated, and 12 filler incongruent pairs.Manual action training induced a significant improvement in all manual dexterity tests, demonstrating the successful acquisition of sensory-motor expertise. In the semantic language task, the reaction times to both target and non-target congruent sentence-image pairs decreased after action training, indicating a more efficient conceptual-semantic processing. Noteworthy, the reaction times for target pairs decreased more than those for non-target pairs, as indicated by the 2x2 interaction. These results were confirmed when controlling for the potential bias of increased frequency of use of target lexical items during manual training.The results of the present study suggest that sensory-motor expertise gained by training of specific manual actions can lead to an improvement of cognitive-linguistic skills related to the specific conceptual-semantic domain associated to the trained actions.

Electrophysiological signatures of phonological and semantic maintenance in sentence repetition.

Science.gov (United States)

Meltzer, Jed A; Kielar, Aneta; Panamsky, Lilia; Links, Kira A; Deschamps, Tiffany; Leigh, Rosie C

2017-08-01

Verbal short-term memory comprises resources for phonological rehearsal, which have been characterized anatomically, and for maintenance of semantic information, which are less understood. Sentence repetition tasks tap both processes interactively. To distinguish brain activity involved in phonological vs. semantic maintenance, we recorded magnetoencephalography during a sentence repetition task, incorporating three manipulations emphasizing one mechanism over the other. Participants heard sentences or word lists and attempted to repeat them verbatim after a 5-second delay. After MEG, participants completed a cued recall task testing how much they remembered of each sentence. Greater semantic engagement relative to phonological rehearsal was hypothesized for 1) sentences vs. word lists, 2) concrete vs. abstract sentences, and 3) well recalled vs. poorly recalled sentences. During auditory perception and the memory delay period, we found highly left-lateralized activation in the form of 8-30 Hz event-related desynchronization. Compared to abstract sentences, concrete sentences recruited posterior temporal cortex bilaterally, demonstrating a neural signature for the engagement of visual imagery in sentence maintenance. Maintenance of arbitrary word lists recruited right hemisphere dorsal regions, reflecting increased demands on phonological rehearsal. Sentences that were ultimately poorly recalled in the post-test also elicited extra right hemisphere activation when they were held in short-term memory, suggesting increased demands on phonological resources. Frontal midline theta oscillations also reflected phonological rather than semantic demand, being increased for word lists and poorly recalled sentences. These findings highlight distinct neural resources for phonological and semantic maintenance, with phonological maintenance associated with stronger oscillatory modulations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Influence of Second Language Proficiency and Syntactic Structure Similarities on the Sensitivity and Processing of English Passive Sentence in Late Chinese-English Bilinguists: An ERP Study

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Xin; Wang, Pei

2016-01-01

To investigate the influence of L2 proficiency and syntactic similarity on English passive sentence processing, the present ERP study asked 40 late Chinese-English bilinguals (27 females and 13 males, mean age = 23.88) with high or intermediate L2 proficiency to read the sentences carefully and to indicate for each sentence whether or not it was…

Rape sentencing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ó Cathaoir, Katharina Eva

This handbook conducts an analysis of the sentences imposed for rape by Irish courts. Part I examines The People (DPP) v. WD [2007] IEHC 310 by outlining the salient points of the decision, in particular the separation of rape sentences into categories of punishments. The mitigating and aggravating...... factors are also laid out. Part II analyses recent sentences for rape since 2007. All reported Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) cases post The People (DPP) v. WD are included as well as a survey of two years of Irish Times reports (covering the period November 2010 to November 2012)....

Tracking sentence planning and production.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemper, Susan; Bontempo, Daniel; McKedy, Whitney; Schmalzried, RaLynn; Tagliaferri, Bruno; Kieweg, Doug

2011-03-01

To assess age differences in the costs of language planning and production. A controlled sentence production task was combined with digital pursuit rotor tracking. Participants were asked to track a moving target while formulating a sentence using specified nouns and verbs and to continue to track the moving target while producing their response. The length of the critical noun phrase (NP) as well as the type of verb provided were manipulated. The analysis indicated that sentence planning was more costly than sentence production, and sentence planning costs increased when participants had to incorporate a long NP into their sentence. The long NPs also tended to be shifted to the end of the sentence, whereas short NPs tended to be positioned after the verb. Planning or producing responses with long NPs was especially difficult for older adults, although verb type and NP shift had similar costs for young and older adults. Pursuit rotor tracking during controlled sentence production reveals the effects of aging on sentence planning and production.

The Relation of Exposure to Parental Criminal Activity, Arrest, and Sentencing to Children's Maladjustment

Science.gov (United States)

Dallaire, Danielle H.; Wilson, Laura C.

2010-01-01

We examined the psychosocial maladjustment of 32 children with an incarcerated parent from the child's perspective as well as from the perspective of their caregiver. We focused on the relation between the incarcerated parent's report of children's exposure to parental criminal activity, arrest, and sentencing and caregivers' and children's…

Electrophysiology of prosodic and lexical-semantic processing during sentence comprehension in aphasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheppard, Shannon M; Love, Tracy; Midgley, Katherine J; Holcomb, Phillip J; Shapiro, Lewis P

2017-12-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to examine how individuals with aphasia and a group of age-matched controls use prosody and themattic fit information in sentences containing temporary syntactic ambiguities. Two groups of individuals with aphasia were investigated; those demonstrating relatively good sentence comprehension whose primary language difficulty is anomia (Individuals with Anomic Aphasia (IWAA)), and those who demonstrate impaired sentence comprehension whose primary diagnosis is Broca's aphasia (Individuals with Broca's Aphasia (IWBA)). The stimuli had early closure syntactic structure and contained a temporary early closure (correct)/late closure (incorrect) syntactic ambiguity. The prosody was manipulated to either be congruent or incongruent, and the temporarily ambiguous NP was also manipulated to either be a plausible or an implausible continuation for the subordinate verb (e.g., "While the band played the song/the beer pleased all the customers."). It was hypothesized that an implausible NP in sentences with incongruent prosody may provide the parser with a plausibility cue that could be used to predict syntactic structure. The results revealed that incongruent prosody paired with a plausibility cue resulted in an N400-P600 complex at the implausible NP (the beer) in both the controls and the IWAAs, yet incongruent prosody without a plausibility cue resulted in an N400-P600 at the critical verb (pleased) only in healthy controls. IWBAs did not show evidence of N400 or P600 effects at the ambiguous NP or critical verb, although they did show evidence of a delayed N400 effect at the sentence-final word in sentences with incongruent prosody. These results suggest that IWAAs have difficulty integrating prosodic cues with underlying syntactic structure when lexical-semantic information is not available to aid their parse. IWBAs have difficulty integrating both prosodic and lexical-semantic cues with syntactic structure, likely due to a

Priming sentence planning

OpenAIRE

Konopka, A.; Meyer, A.

2014-01-01

Sentence production requires mapping preverbal messages onto linguistic structures. Because sentences are normally built incrementally, the information encoded in a sentence-initial increment is critical for explaining how the mapping process starts and for predicting its timecourse. Two experiments tested whether and when speakers prioritize encoding of different types of information at the outset of formulation by comparing production of descriptions of transitive events (e.g., A dog is cha...

Estimation of intermediate grade uranium resources. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lambie, F.W.; Kendall, G.R.; Klahn, L.J.; Davis, J.C.; Harbaugh, J.W.

1980-12-01

The purpose of this project is to analyze the technique currently used by DOE to estimate intermediate grade uranium (0.01 to 0.05% U 3 O 8 ) and, if possible, suggest alternatives to improve the accuracy and precision of the estimate. There are three principal conclusions resulting from this study. They relate to the quantity, distribution and sampling of intermediate grade uranium. While the results of this study must be validated further, they indicate that DOE may be underestimating intermediate level reserves by 20 to 30%. Plots of grade of U 3 O 8 versus tonnage of ore and tonnage U 3 O 8 indicate grade-tonnage relationships that are essentially log-linear, at least down to 0.01% U 3 O 8 . Though this is not an unexpected finding, it may provide a technique for reducing the uncertainty of intermediate grade endowment. The results of this study indicate that a much lower drill hole density is necessary for DOE to estimate uranium resources than for a mining company to calculate ore resources. Though errors in local estimates will occur, they will tend to cancel over the entire deposit

A Deficit in Movement-Derived Sentences in German-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esther Ruigendijk

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Children with hearing impairment (HI show disorders in syntax and morphology. The question is whether and how these disorders are connected to problems in the auditory domain. The aim of this paper is to examine whether moderate to severe hearing loss at a young age affects the ability of German-speaking orally trained children to understand and produce sentences. We focused on sentence structures that are derived by syntactic movement, which have been identified as a sensitive marker for syntactic impairment in other languages and in other populations with syntactic impairment. Therefore, our study tested subject and object relatives, subject and object Wh-questions, passive sentences, and topicalized sentences, as well as sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. We tested 19 HI children aged 9;5–13;6 and compared their performance with hearing children using comprehension tasks of sentence-picture matching and sentence repetition tasks. For the comprehension tasks, we included HI children who passed an auditory discrimination task; for the sentence repetition tasks, we selected children who passed a screening task of simple sentence repetition without lip-reading; this made sure that they could perceive the words in the tests, so that we could test their grammatical abilities. The results clearly showed that most of the participants with HI had considerable difficulties in the comprehension and repetition of sentences with syntactic movement: they had significant difficulties understanding object relatives, Wh-questions, and topicalized sentences, and in the repetition of object who and which questions and subject relatives, as well as in sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. Repetition of passives was only problematic for some children. Object relatives were still difficult at this age for both HI and hearing children. An additional important outcome of the study is that not all sentence structures

Prediction in a visual language: real-time sentence processing in American Sign Language across development.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieberman, Amy M; Borovsky, Arielle; Mayberry, Rachel I

2018-01-01

Prediction during sign language comprehension may enable signers to integrate linguistic and non-linguistic information within the visual modality. In two eyetracking experiments, we investigated American Sign language (ASL) semantic prediction in deaf adults and children (aged 4-8 years). Participants viewed ASL sentences in a visual world paradigm in which the sentence-initial verb was either neutral or constrained relative to the sentence-final target noun. Adults and children made anticipatory looks to the target picture before the onset of the target noun in the constrained condition only, showing evidence for semantic prediction. Crucially, signers alternated gaze between the stimulus sign and the target picture only when the sentential object could be predicted from the verb. Signers therefore engage in prediction by optimizing visual attention between divided linguistic and referential signals. These patterns suggest that prediction is a modality-independent process, and theoretical implications are discussed.

Broca's area, sentence comprehension, and working memory: an fMRI study

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Corianne Rogalsky

2008-10-01

Full Text Available The role of Broca's area in sentence processing remains controversial. According to one view, Broca's area is involved in processing a subcomponent of syntactic processing. Another view holds that it contributes to sentence processing via verbal working memory. Sub-regions of Broca's area have been identified that are more active during the processing of complex (object-relative clause sentences compared to simple (subject-relative clause sentences. The present study aimed to determine if this complexity effect can be accounted for in terms of the articulatory rehearsal component of verbal working memory.  In a behavioral experiment, subjects were asked to comprehend sentences during concurrent speech articulation which minimizes articulatory rehearsal as a resource for sentence comprehension. A finger-tapping task was used as a control concurrent task. Only the object-relative clause sentences were more difficult to comprehend during speech articulation than during the manual task, showing that articulatory rehearsal does contribute to sentence processing.  A second experiment used fMRI to document the brain regions underlying this effect.  Subjects judged the plausibility of sentences during speech articulation, a finger-tapping task, or without a concurrent task. In the absence of a secondary task, Broca's area (pars triangularis and pars opercularis demonstrated an increase in activity as a function of syntactic complexity. However, during concurrent speech articulation (but not finger-tapping this complexity effect was eliminated in the pars opercularis suggesting that this region supports sentence comprehension via its role in articulatory rehearsal.  Activity in the pars triangularis was modulated by the finger-tapping task, but not the speech articulation task.

Planning at the Phonological Level during Sentence Production

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Schnur, Tatiana T.; Costa, Albert; Caramazza, Alfonso

2006-01-01

In two picture-word interference experiments we examined whether phrase boundaries affected how far in advance speakers plan the sounds of words during sentence production. Participants produced sentences of varying lengths (short determiner + noun + verb or long determiner + adjective + noun + verb) while ignoring phonologically related and…

Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Uixera, Beatriz; Vergara-Martínez, Marta

2016-10-17

The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants' eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with difficult handwritten words than for sentences with easy handwritten words, which in turn showed a reading cost relative to the sentences with printed words. Critically, the effect of word frequency was greater for difficult handwritten words than for easy handwritten words or printed words in the total times on a target word, but not on first-fixation durations or gaze durations. We examine the implications of these findings for models of eye movement control in reading.

Impact of Background Noise and Sentence Complexity on Processing Demands during Sentence Comprehension

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Dau, Torsten; Hjortkjær, Jens

2016-01-01

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions can be effortful even when speech is fully intelligible. Acoustical distortions typically make speech comprehension more effortful, but effort also depends on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as its syntactic complexity....... In the present study, pupil dilations, and subjective effort ratings were recorded in 20 normal-hearing participants while performing a sentence comprehension task. The sentences were either syntactically simple (subject-first sentence structure) or complex (object-first sentence structure) and were presented...... and less by syntactic complexity. Conversely, pupil dilations increased with syntactic complexity but only showed a small effect of the noise level. Participants with higher WMC showed increased pupil responses in the higher-level noise condition but rated sentence comprehension as being less effortful...

Discourse, Paragraph, and Sentence Structure in Selected Philippine Languages. Final Report. Volume I, Discourse and Paragraph Structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Longacre, Robert E.

Twenty-five Philippine languages and dialects were studied to determine the manner in which words, clauses, sounds, and sentences group together to make up units larger than the sentence. Data obtained were analyzed according to tagmemic theory. The introduction to this volume (see also AL 002 032 and AL 002 033) gives a brief orientation to the…

Ferret: a sentence-based literature scanning system.

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivasan, Padmini; Zhang, Xiao-Ning; Bouten, Roxane; Chang, Caren

2015-06-20

The rapid pace of bioscience research makes it very challenging to track relevant articles in one's area of interest. MEDLINE, a primary source for biomedical literature, offers access to more than 20 million citations with three-quarters of a million new ones added each year. Thus it is not surprising to see active research in building new document retrieval and sentence retrieval systems. We present Ferret, a prototype retrieval system, designed to retrieve and rank sentences (and their documents) conveying gene-centric relationships of interest to a scientist. The prototype has several features. For example, it is designed to handle gene name ambiguity and perform query expansion. Inputs can be a list of genes with an optional list of keywords. Sentences are retrieved across species but the species discussed in the records are identified. Results are presented in the form of a heat map and sentences corresponding to specific cells of the heat map may be selected for display. Ferret is designed to assist bio scientists at different stages of research from early idea exploration to advanced analysis of results from bench experiments. Three live case studies in the field of plant biology are presented related to Arabidopsis thaliana. The first is to discover genes that may relate to the phenotype of open immature flower in Arabidopsis. The second case is about finding associations reported between ethylene signaling and a set of 300+ Arabidopsis genes. The third case is on searching for potential gene targets of an Arabidopsis transcription factor hypothesized to be involved in plant stress responses. Ferret was successful in finding valuable information in all three cases. In the first case the bZIP family of genes was identified. In the second case sentences indicating relevant associations were found in other species such as potato and jasmine. In the third sentences led to new research questions about the plant hormone salicylic acid. Ferret successfully

Sentence Comprehension as Mental Simulation: An Information-Theoretic Perspective

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Gabriella Vigliocco

2011-11-01

Full Text Available It has been argued that the mental representation resulting from sentence comprehension is not (just an abstract symbolic structure but a “mental simulation” of the state-of-affairs described by the sentence. We present a particular formalization of this theory and show how it gives rise to quantifications of the amount of syntactic and semantic information conveyed by each word in a sentence. These information measures predict simulated word-processing times in a dynamic connectionist model of sentence comprehension as mental simulation. A quantitatively similar relation between information content and reading time is known to be present in human reading-time data.

From Utterance to Example Sentence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristoffersen, Jette Hedegaard

This poster will address some of the problems on excerption of example sentences for the online dictionary of Danish Sign Language (DTS) from a raw corpus of dialogues and monologues. In the Danish Sign Language Dictionary every meaning is illustrated by one or more sentences showing the sign...... lexicographers. The sentences were excerpted by hand from a raw corpus of dialogues and monologues – given to us by our group of consultants. The poster describes the process from utterance in a corpus in a larger context to an example sentence in a dictionary, where the purpose of having examples sentences...... for use in the dictionary consists of 11 stages in the DTS dictionary project. Special focus will be on the stage in the process where the sentence is judged suitable for dictionary use. A set of guidelines for what makes up a good example sentence has been developed for the DTS dictionary project...

Categorising Example Sentences in Dictionaries for Research ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ers the grammatical support that they provide is more important. While there is ... The goal of this research is to present characteristics of examples in a way that makes them easier to .... the headword is simple or inflected in the example. The final .... I have also included whether the sentence is a command as some teachers.

[Psychiatric treatment sentences.

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stevens, Hanne; Nordentoft, Merete; Agerbo, Esben

2010-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Previous Danish studies of the increasing number of sentences to psychiatric treatment (SPT) have compared prevalent populations of persons undergoing treatment with incident measures of reported crimes. Examining the period 1990-2006, we studied incident sentences, taking the type...

ESL intermediate/advanced writing

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Munoz Page, Mary Ellen; Jaskiewicz, Mary

2011-01-01

Master ESL (English as a Second Language) Writing with the study guide designed for non-native speakers of English. Skill-building lessons relevant to today's topics help ESL students write complete sentences, paragraphs, and even multi-paragraph essays. It's perfect for classroom use or self-guided writing preparation.DETAILS- Intermediate drills for improving skills with parallel structure, mood, correct shifting errors & dangling participles- Advanced essay drills focusing on narrative, descriptive, process, reaction, comparison and contrast- Superb preparation for students taking the TOEFL

A Frequency-List of Sentence Structures: Distribution of Kernel Sentences

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Geens, Dirk

1974-01-01

A corpus of 10,000 sentences extracted from British theatrical texts was used to construct a frequency list of kernel sentence structures. Thirty-one charts illustrate the analyzed results. The procedures used and an interpretation of the frequencies are given. Such lists might aid foreign language teachers in course organization. Available from…

The Role of Working Memory in Planning and Generating Written Sentences

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Ronald T. Kellogg

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Planning a sentence with concrete concepts whose referents can be mentally imaged has been shown in past work to require the limited resources of visual working memory. By contrast, grammatically encoding such concepts as lexical items in a syntactic structure requires verbal working memory. We report an experiment designed to demonstrate a double dissociation of these two stores of working memory by manipulating the difficulty of (1 planning by comparing related concepts to unrelated concepts and (2 grammatical encoding of an English sentence in active voice versus the more complex structure of the passive voice. College students (N = 46 composed sentences that were to include two noun prompts (related versus unrelated while concurrently performing either a visual or a verbal distracting task. Instructions to produce either active or passive sentences were manipulated between groups. The results surprisingly indicated that the supposedly easier planning with related concepts made a large demand on verbal working memory, rather than unrelated concepts demanding more visual working memory. The temporal dynamics of the sentence production process appear to best account for the unexpected findings.

Exploring Methods to Investigate Sentencing Decisions

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Merrall, Elizabeth L. C.; Dhami, Mandeep K.; Bird, Sheila M.

2010-01-01

The determinants of sentencing are of much interest in criminal justice and legal research. Understanding the determinants of sentencing decisions is important for ensuring transparent, consistent, and justifiable sentencing practice that adheres to the goals of sentencing, such as the punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence, and incapacitation of…

The N400 and Late Positive Complex (LPC Effects Reflect Controlled Rather than Automatic Mechanisms of Sentence Processing

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Boris Kotchoubey

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This study compared automatic and controlled cognitive processes that underlie event-related potentials (ERPs effects during speech perception. Sentences were presented to French native speakers, and the final word could be congruent or incongruent, and presented at one of four levels of degradation (using a modulation with pink noise: no degradation, mild degradation (2 levels, or strong degradation. We assumed that degradation impairs controlled more than automatic processes. The N400 and Late Positive Complex (LPC effects were defined as the differences between the corresponding wave amplitudes to incongruent words minus congruent words. Under mild degradation, where controlled sentence-level processing could still occur (as indicated by behavioral data, both N400 and LPC effects were delayed and the latter effect was reduced. Under strong degradation, where sentence processing was rather automatic (as indicated by behavioral data, no ERP effect remained. These results suggest that ERP effects elicited in complex contexts, such as sentences, reflect controlled rather than automatic mechanisms of speech processing. These results differ from the results of experiments that used word-pair or word-list paradigms.

THE FUNCTION OF ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH SENTENCE

OpenAIRE

Shkelqim Millaku

2017-01-01

A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause. A multiple sentence contains one or more clauses as its immediate constituents. Multiple sentences are either compound or complex. In a compound sentence the immediate constituents are two or more coordinate clause. In a complex sentence one or more of its elements, such as direct object or adverbial, are realized by a subordinate.[1] Simple sentence may be divided into four major syntactic classes, whose use correlates with different...

The role of working memory in inferential sentence comprehension.

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Pérez, Ana Isabel; Paolieri, Daniela; Macizo, Pedro; Bajo, Teresa

2014-08-01

Existing literature on inference making is large and varied. Trabasso and Magliano (Discourse Process 21(3):255-287, 1996) proposed the existence of three types of inferences: explicative, associative and predictive. In addition, the authors suggested that these inferences were related to working memory (WM). In the present experiment, we investigated whether WM capacity plays a role in our ability to answer comprehension sentences that require text information based on these types of inferences. Participants with high and low WM span read two narratives with four paragraphs each. After each paragraph was read, they were presented with four true/false comprehension sentences. One required verbatim information and the other three implied explicative, associative and predictive inferential information. Results demonstrated that only the explicative and predictive comprehension sentences required WM: participants with high verbal WM were more accurate in giving explanations and also faster at making predictions relative to participants with low verbal WM span; in contrast, no WM differences were found in the associative comprehension sentences. These results are interpreted in terms of the causal nature underlying these types of inferences.

Online Sentence Reading in People With Aphasia: Evidence From Eye Tracking.

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Knilans, Jessica; DeDe, Gayle

2015-11-01

There is a lot of evidence that people with aphasia have more difficulty understanding structurally complex sentences (e.g., object clefts) than simpler sentences (subject clefts). However, subject clefts also occur more frequently in English than object clefts. Thus, it is possible that both structural complexity and frequency affect how people with aphasia understand these structures. Nine people with aphasia and 8 age-matched controls participated in the study. The stimuli consisted of 24 object cleft and 24 subject cleft sentences. The task was eye tracking during reading, which permits a more fine-grained analysis of reading performance than measures such as self-paced reading. As expected, controls had longer reading times for critical regions in object cleft sentences compared with subject cleft sentences. People with aphasia showed the predicted effects of structural frequency. Effects of structural complexity in people with aphasia did not emerge on their first pass through the sentence but were observed when they were rereading critical regions of complex sentences. People with aphasia are sensitive to both structural complexity and structural frequency when reading. However, people with aphasia may use different reading strategies than controls when confronted with relatively infrequent and complex sentence structures.

Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading.

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Columbus, Georgie; Sheikh, Naveed A; Côté-Lecaldare, Marilena; Häuser, Katja; Baum, Shari R; Titone, Debra

2014-01-01

Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented.

Individual Differences in Executive Control Relate to Metaphor Processing: An Eye Movement Study of Sentence Reading

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Georgie eColumbus

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension.We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1.When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors. Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal, and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented.

Using sentence combining in technical writing classes

Science.gov (United States)

Rosner, M.; Paul, T.

1981-01-01

Sentence combining exercises are advanced as a way to teach technical writing style without reliance upon abstractions, from which students do not learn. Such exercises: (1) give students regular writing practice; (2) teach the logic of sentence structure, sentence editing, and punctuation; (3) paragraph development and organization; and (4) rhetorical stance. Typical sentence, paragraph, and discourse level sentence combining exercises are described.

Design of short Italian sentences to assess near vision performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Calossi, Antonio; Boccardo, Laura; Fossetti, Alessandro; Radner, Wolfgang

2014-01-01

To develop and validate 28 short Italian sentences for the construction of the Italian version of the Radner Reading Chart to simultaneously measure near visual acuity and reading speed. 41 sentences were constructed in Italian language, following the procedure defined by Radner, to obtain "sentence optotypes" with comparable structure and with the same lexical and grammatical difficulty. Sentences were statistically selected and used in 211 normal, non-presbyopic, native Italian-speaking persons. The most equally matched sentences in terms of reading speed and number of reading errors were selected. To assess the validity of the reading speed results obtained with the 28 selected short sentences, we compared the reading speed and reading errors with the average obtained by reading two long 4th-grade paragraphs (97 and 90 words) under the same conditions. The overall mean reading speed of the tested persons was 189±26wpm. The 28 sentences more similar in terms of reading times were selected, achieving a coefficient of variation (the relative SD) of 2.2%. The reliability analyses yielded an overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.98. The correlation between the short sentences and the long paragraph was high (r=0.85, P<0.0001). The 28 short single Italian sentences optotypes were highly comparable in syntactical structure, number, position, and length of words, lexical difficulty, and reading length. The resulting Italian Radner Reading Chart is precise (high consistency) and practical (short sentences) and therefore useful for research and clinical practice to simultaneously measure near reading acuity and reading speed. Copyright © 2013 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Sentence comprehension following moderate closed head injury in adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Leikin, Mark; Ibrahim, Raphiq; Aharon-Peretz, Judith

2012-09-01

The current study explores sentence comprehension impairments among adults following moderate closed head injury. It was hypothesized that if the factor of syntactic complexity significantly affects sentence comprehension in these patients, it would testify to the existence of syntactic processing deficit along with working-memory problems. Thirty-six adults (18 closed head injury patients and 18 healthy controls matched in age, gender, and IQ) participated in the study. A picture-sentence matching task together with various tests for memory, language, and reading abilities were used to explore whether sentence comprehension impairments exist as a result of a deficit in syntactic processing or of working-memory dysfunction. Results indicate significant impairment in sentence comprehension among adults with closed head injury compared with their non-head-injured peers. Results also reveal that closed head injury patients demonstrate considerable decline in working memory, short-term memory, and semantic knowledge. Analysis of the results shows that memory impairment and syntactic complexity contribute significantly to sentence comprehension difficulties in closed head injury patients. At the same time, the presentation mode (spoken or written language) was found to have no effect on comprehension among adults with closed head injury, and their reading abilities appear to be relatively intact.

[Cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects on the memory for procedural sentences].

Science.gov (United States)

Yamamoto, Hiroki; Shimada, Hideaki

2006-08-01

The aim of this study was to clarify the cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects on the memory for procedural sentences. Participants were 60 younger adults (college students) and 60 older adults. Both age groups were assigned into two groups; half of each group was presented with procedural sentences with signals that highlighted their top-level structure and the other half with procedural sentences without them. Both groups were requested to perform the sentence arrangement task and the reconstruction task. Each task was composed of procedural sentences with or without signals. Results indicated that signaling supported changes in strategy utilization during the successive organizational processes and that changes in strategy utilization resulting from signaling improved the memory for procedural sentences. Moreover, age-related factors interfered with these signaling effects. This study clarified the cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects in which signaling supports changes in the strategy utilization during organizational processes at encoding and this mediation promotes memory for procedural sentences, though disuse of the strategy utilization due to aging restrains their memory for procedural sentences.

The relativity of evaluative sentences: disagreeing over disagreement

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Justina Díaz Legaspe

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Evaluative sentences (moral judgments, expressions of taste, epistemic modals are relative to the speaker's standards. Lately, a phenomenon has challenged the traditional explanation of this relativity: whenever two speakers disagree over them they contradict each other without being at fault. Hence, it is thought that the correction of the assertions involved must be relative to an unprivileged standard not necessarily the speaker's. I will claim instead that so far, neither this nor any other proposal has provided an explanation of the phenomenon. I will point out several problems presented by them and I will hint to how this phenomenon could be explained by making minor adjustments to our semantic theory.Sentenças avaliativas (julgamentos morais, expressões de gosto, modos epistêmicos são relativas aos padrões do falante. Recentemente, um fenômeno desafiou a explicação tradicional dessa relatividade: sempre que dois falantes discordam entre si, eles contradizem um ao outro sem estarem errados. Por isso, pensa-se que a correção das asserções envolvidas deve ser relacionada a um padrão desprovido de privilégio e não necessariamente ao padrão do falante. Eu sustentarei, ao contrário, que até agora nem esta nem alguma outra proposta forneceu uma explicação do fenômeno. Eu assinalarei diversos problemas apresentados por essas propostas e sugerirei o modo como este fenômeno poderia ser explicado ao fazer pequenos ajustes em nossa teoria semântica.

Constructive processes in skilled and less skilled comprehenders' memory for sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Oakhill, J

1982-02-01

An experiment was carried out to investigate seven-eight-year-old children's memory for aurally presented sentences. A recognition-memory task was used to probe constructive memory processes in two groups differentiated by their ability at comprehending printed text. The recognition errors of both groups indicated that they constructed meanings implied by the original input sentences, whilst demonstrating poor memory for the syntactic form of the sentences. The tendency to construct meanings implied by the original input sentences was greater in children who scored higher on tests of reading comprehension of test. These results indicate that constructive memory processes are related to comprehension ability in young readers.

Impact of Background Noise and Sentence Complexity on Processing Demands during Sentence Comprehension.

Science.gov (United States)

Wendt, Dorothea; Dau, Torsten; Hjortkjær, Jens

2016-01-01

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions can be effortful even when speech is fully intelligible. Acoustical distortions typically make speech comprehension more effortful, but effort also depends on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as its syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations, and subjective effort ratings were recorded in 20 normal-hearing participants while performing a sentence comprehension task. The sentences were either syntactically simple (subject-first sentence structure) or complex (object-first sentence structure) and were presented in two levels of background noise both corresponding to high intelligibility. A digit span and a reading span test were used to assess individual differences in the participants' working memory capacity (WMC). The results showed that the subjectively rated effort was mostly affected by the noise level and less by syntactic complexity. Conversely, pupil dilations increased with syntactic complexity but only showed a small effect of the noise level. Participants with higher WMC showed increased pupil responses in the higher-level noise condition but rated sentence comprehension as being less effortful compared to participants with lower WMC. Overall, the results demonstrate that pupil dilations and subjectively rated effort represent different aspects of effort. Furthermore, the results indicate that effort can vary in situations with high speech intelligibility.

Impact of background noise and sentence complexity on processing demands during sentence comprehension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorothea eWendt

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions can be effortful even when speech is fully intelligible. Acoustical distortions typically make speech comprehension more effortful, but effort also depends on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as its syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations and subjective effort ratings were recorded in 20 normal-hearing participants while performing a sentence comprehension task. The sentences were either syntactically simple (subject-first sentence structure or complex (object-first sentence structure and were presented in two levels of background noise both corresponding to high intelligibility. A digit span and a reading span test were used to assess individual differences in the participants' working memory capacity. The results showed that the subjectively rated effort was mostly affected by the noise level and less by syntactic complexity. Conversely, pupil dilations increased with syntactic complexity but only showed a small effect of the noise level. Participants with higher working memory capacity showed increased pupil responses in the higher-level noise condition but rated sentence comprehension as being less effortful compared to participants with lower working memory capacity. Overall, the results demonstrate that pupil dilations and subjectively rated effort represent different aspects of effort. Furthermore, the results indicate that effort can vary in situations with high speech intelligibility.

A grammar-based semantic similarity algorithm for natural language sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ming Che; Chang, Jia Wei; Hsieh, Tung Cheng

2014-01-01

This paper presents a grammar and semantic corpus based similarity algorithm for natural language sentences. Natural language, in opposition to "artificial language", such as computer programming languages, is the language used by the general public for daily communication. Traditional information retrieval approaches, such as vector models, LSA, HAL, or even the ontology-based approaches that extend to include concept similarity comparison instead of cooccurrence terms/words, may not always determine the perfect matching while there is no obvious relation or concept overlap between two natural language sentences. This paper proposes a sentence similarity algorithm that takes advantage of corpus-based ontology and grammatical rules to overcome the addressed problems. Experiments on two famous benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a significant performance improvement in sentences/short-texts with arbitrary syntax and structure.

Empirical Descriptions of Criminal Sentencing Decision-Making

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Rasmus H. Wandall

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The article addresses the widespread use of statistical causal modelling to describe criminal sentencing decision-making empirically in Scandinavia. The article describes the characteristics of this model, and on this basis discusses three aspects of sentencing decision-making that the model does not capture: 1 the role of law and legal structures in sentencing, 2 the processes of constructing law and facts as they occur in the processes of handling criminal cases, and 3 reflecting newer organisational changes to sentencing decision-making. The article argues for a stronger empirically based design of sentencing models and for a more balanced use of different social scientific methodologies and models of sentencing decision-making.

Copular alternation in Spanish and Catalan attributive sentences

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José María Brucart

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with copular selection in Spanish and Catalan attributive clauses. We develop an analysis of the copular alternation that is based on the relation of coincidence. Locative attributives, the class of copular sentences that has received less attention in the literature, are analyzed in detail. It is concluded that locative attributives express an abstract path; that is, a terminal coincidence relation between a figure (the entity that is located and a ground (the location. The use of estar in these sentences is justified by the fact that this copula has an interpretable terminal coincidence feature that can license its uninterpretable counterpart in the attributive clause. Nevertheless, ser –the default copula– can also co-occur in locative attributives when the notion of bounded path is already incorporated in the entity that is being located. This is the case in Catalan, which uses a –a preposition that expresses a limit– instead of en –a central coincidence preposition. The copula ser also appears in the location of eventive entities and in path noun constructions. The terminal coincidence feature of estar can also superimpose a delimiting aspectual boundary to the attributive relation when there is no uninterpretable terminal coincidence feature to value in it. In these cases, evidential and sensorial readings are conveyed. Finally, a possible analysis is sketched for the differences in the selection of the copula between Spanish and Catalan with participles and perfective adjectives. It is suggested that the selection of estar in these cases may be due to the fact that both classes have a weaker functional structure in Spanish than in Catalan.

Sentence Level Information Patterns for Novelty Detection

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Li, Xiaoyan

2006-01-01

.... Given a user's information need, some information patterns in sentences such as combinations of query words, sentence lengths, named entities and phrases, and other sentence patterns, may contain...

Ideology, Social Threat, and the Death Sentence: Capital Sentences across Time and Space

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Jacobs, David; Carmichael, Jason T.

2004-01-01

Capital punishment is the most severe criminal penalty, yet we know little about the factors that produce jurisdictional differences in the use of the death sentence. Political explanations emphasize conservative values and the strength of more conservative political parties. Threat accounts suggest that this sentence will be more likely in…

Effects of syntactic structure in the memory of concrete and abstract Chinese sentences.

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Ho, C S; Chen, H C

1993-09-01

Smith (1981) found that concrete English sentences were better recognized than abstract sentences and that this concreteness effect was potent only when the concrete sentence was also affirmative but the effect switched to an opposite end when the concrete sentence was negative. These results were partially replicated in Experiment 1 by using materials from a very different language (i.e., Chinese): concrete-affirmative sentences were better remembered than concrete-negative and abstract sentences, but no reliable difference was found between the latter two types. In Experiment 2, the task was modified by using a visual presentation instead of an oral one as in Experiment 1. Both concrete-affirmative and concrete-negative sentences were better memorized then abstract ones in Experiment 2. The findings in the two experiments are explained by a combination of the dual-coding model and Marschark's (1985) item-specific and relational processing. The differential effects of experience with different language systems on processing verbal materials in memory are also discussed.

A Grammar-Based Semantic Similarity Algorithm for Natural Language Sentences

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Chang, Jia Wei; Hsieh, Tung Cheng

2014-01-01

This paper presents a grammar and semantic corpus based similarity algorithm for natural language sentences. Natural language, in opposition to “artificial language”, such as computer programming languages, is the language used by the general public for daily communication. Traditional information retrieval approaches, such as vector models, LSA, HAL, or even the ontology-based approaches that extend to include concept similarity comparison instead of cooccurrence terms/words, may not always determine the perfect matching while there is no obvious relation or concept overlap between two natural language sentences. This paper proposes a sentence similarity algorithm that takes advantage of corpus-based ontology and grammatical rules to overcome the addressed problems. Experiments on two famous benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a significant performance improvement in sentences/short-texts with arbitrary syntax and structure. PMID:24982952

A Grammar-Based Semantic Similarity Algorithm for Natural Language Sentences

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Ming Che Lee

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a grammar and semantic corpus based similarity algorithm for natural language sentences. Natural language, in opposition to “artificial language”, such as computer programming languages, is the language used by the general public for daily communication. Traditional information retrieval approaches, such as vector models, LSA, HAL, or even the ontology-based approaches that extend to include concept similarity comparison instead of cooccurrence terms/words, may not always determine the perfect matching while there is no obvious relation or concept overlap between two natural language sentences. This paper proposes a sentence similarity algorithm that takes advantage of corpus-based ontology and grammatical rules to overcome the addressed problems. Experiments on two famous benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a significant performance improvement in sentences/short-texts with arbitrary syntax and structure.

Review of intermediate and final product characterization on coated particles preparation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sukarsono; Kristanti Nurwidyaningrum

2015-01-01

Review of the intermediate and final product characterization on preparation of coated particles was done. Product characterization included a tool to measure the character of raw materials, intermediate product and the final product of the process, which affects the success of getting the high temperature reactor fuel are eligible. Equipment's for the characterization of such materials were pH meter, viscometer, microbalance, turbidity meter, tab density measurement, true density measurement and auto pycnometer. Being for the measurement of particles there are two types destructive testing and non destructive. Destructive testing was done by polished the particles then cross sectional imaging of particle observed using an optical microscope. In this way contains errors due to polishing treatment that could not be right on the equator section so it needs correction. Destructive testing also create waste that must be processed from the remnants of the polishing process. By using non-destructive testing, waste was not formed but the imaging results are often unclear due to lack of contrast. Development of non-destructive test equipment has been made using radiographic method and automated microscopy. The overall activity is still much needed additional tools for measurement and for processing, so that the results obtained will not rejected as the specification of nuclear fuel. Similarly, in the case of a sampling test method and limits to a product accepted or rejected, it should be determined based on statistical methods. (author)

Letter position coding across modalities: braille and sighted reading of sentences with jumbled words.

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Perea, Manuel; Jiménez, María; Martín-Suesta, Miguel; Gómez, Pablo

2015-04-01

This article explores how letter position coding is attained during braille reading and its implications for models of word recognition. When text is presented visually, the reading process easily adjusts to the jumbling of some letters (jugde-judge), with a small cost in reading speed. Two explanations have been proposed: One relies on a general mechanism of perceptual uncertainty at the visual level, and the other focuses on the activation of an abstract level of representation (i.e., bigrams) that is shared by all orthographic codes. Thus, these explanations make differential predictions about reading in a tactile modality. In the present study, congenitally blind readers read sentences presented on a braille display that tracked the finger position. The sentences either were intact or involved letter transpositions. A parallel experiment was conducted in the visual modality. Results revealed a substantially greater reading cost for the sentences with transposed-letter words in braille readers. In contrast with the findings with sighted readers, in which there is a cost of transpositions in the external (initial and final) letters, the reading cost in braille readers occurs serially, with a large cost for initial letter transpositions. Thus, these data suggest that the letter-position-related effects in visual word recognition are due to the characteristics of the visual stream.

[Eye movement parameters in reading the sentences with syntactic ambiguity in Russian language].

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Anisimov, V A; Fedorova, O V; Latanov, A V

2014-01-01

We studied the eye movement parameters during reading of syntactically ambiguous sentences with feminine relative clause in Russian language. A priori difficulties of sentence structural analysis results in increase of time spent on reading as opposed to reading control sentences (unambiguous). Such a delay is caused by an increase of frequency of regressions (backward saccades) which are executed for rereading an ambiguous fragment ofsentence. This fact in turn leads to an increase in number of fixations and their duration. The total reading time for particular words composing the ambiguous fragment of sentence depended on disambiguation result (relative clause attachment, early/late closure). In case of early closure (when the subject attached relative clause to first noun) the total reading time for this noun exceeded one for second noun. In case of late closure (when the subject attached relative clause to second noun) the total reading time for both nouns didn't differ. Our results indicate that early closure domination in Russian language determines the greater total reading time for first noun of nominal group associated with relative clause.

Intermediate treatments

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John R. Jones; Wayne D. Shepperd

1985-01-01

Intermediate treatments are those applied after a new stand is successfully established and before the final harvest. These include not only intermediate cuttings - primarily thinning - but also fertilization, irrigation, and protection of the stand from damaging agents.

Nicotinamide-NAD sequence: redox process and related behavior, behavior and properties of intermediate and final products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elving, P.J.; Schmakel, C.O.; Santhanam, K.S.V.

1976-01-01

Illustrations of the application of analytical chemical techniques to the study of chemical phenomena are given. In particular, electrochemical techniques and methodology and, to a lesser extent, spectrophotometry were used to investigate the solution behavior, adsorption, redox processes including coupled chemical reactions, and allied aspects of biologically significant compounds and of their intermediate and final redox products, e.g., the behavior of the free radicals produced by initial one-electron processes. This approach is illustrated by the consideration of the behavior in aqueous and nonaqueous media of a sequence of compounds ranging from nicotinamide (3-carbamoylpyridine) to NAD + and NADP + ; the latter compounds function as coenzymes for the pyridinoproteins which are principal components in the Krebs citric acid cycle and in the electron transport chain in biological redox reactions. The discussion is presented under the following section headings: interpretation of electrochemical behavior; mechanistic patterns; kinetic aspects of charge-transfer and chemical reactions; correlation with theoretically calculated parameters; and, mechanisms of biological oxidation-reduction reactions. The use of pulse radiolysis, chronopotentiometric, and cyclic voltammetric methods in studies on free radical dimerization rates is reviewed in the discussion of the kinetic aspects of charge-transfer and chemical reactions. (188 references)

The Dangling model in the construction of compound sentences with regard to verb tenses

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Mahmoud Mehravaran

2016-02-01

the mistakes of some of the grammars. This research project has for the first time introduced constructive models of compound sentences in a comprehensive research taking in to account the tense of the verbs. The primary question in this research project is which kind of sentences can be considered as compound and what is the constructive of such a sentence? When defining a compound sentences, grammarians either shave the same beliefs or differ in their ideas. But all grammarians agree to the fact that a compound sentences has more than one verb. Different definitions are due to different criteria adapted in constructing a compound sentences. To construct a noun, and adjective, a verb and a sentence we should take similar and precise criteria to our consideration. In the grammatical units of noun, adjectives, and verbs construction means connecting two or more parts that can convey one similar meaning and its parts are dependent upon one another.  In the construction of compound sentences there must be the same criteria so that its applications can be truly recognized and identified just like the previously mentioned grammatical units. The first step to arrive at a criterion in defining and identifying compound sentences, is to separate this discussion from connective sentences that are relate to each other with connectives are called connective sentences. But sentences which are constructed with dependent making connectives and their parts are dependent upon one another are called compound sentences. Therefore the signs of compound sentences with regard to constructions and the meaning of criterion are as follows: 1 They have more than one verb. 2 The consistence of two or more dependent phrases. 3 Phrases construct a complete sentences all together and convey one similar message. 4 One of the phrases is the main clause and the other one is the subordinate one. 5 The phrases or subordinate clauses can be related to one of the major parts and they can take a

Elaboration over a discourse facilitates retrieval in sentence processing

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Melissa eTroyer

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Language comprehension requires access to stored knowledge and the ability to combine knowledge in new, meaningful ways. Previous work has shown that processing linguistically more complex expressions (‘Texas cattle rancher’ vs. ‘rancher’ leads to slow-downs in reading during initial processing, possibly reflecting effort in combining information. Conversely, when this information must subsequently be retrieved (as in filler-gap constructions, processing is facilitated for more complex expressions, possibly because more semantic cues are available during retrieval. To follow up on this hypothesis, we tested whether information distributed across a short discourse can similarly provide effective cues for retrieval. Participants read texts introducing two referents (e.g., two senators, one of whom was described in greater detail than the other (e.g., ‘The Democrat had voted for one of the senators, and the Republican had voted for the other, a man from Ohio who was running for president’. The final sentence (e.g., ‘The senator who the {Republican / Democrat} had voted for…’ contained a relative clause picking out either the Many-Cue referent (with ‘Republican’ or the One-Cue referent (with ‘Democrat’. We predicted facilitated retrieval (faster reading times for the Many-Cue condition at the verb region (‘had voted for’, where readers could understand that ‘The senator’ is the object of the verb. As predicted, this pattern was observed at the retrieval region and continued throughout the rest of the sentence. Participants also completed the Author/Magazine Recognition Tests (ART/MRT; Stanovich & West, 1989, providing a proxy for world knowledge. Since higher ART/MRT scores may index (a greater experience accessing relevant knowledge and/or (b richer/more highly-structured representations in semantic memory, we predicted it would be positively associated with effects of elaboration on retrieval. We did not observe

Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

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Stefan Blohm

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs and behavioral measures to examine effects of genre awareness on sentence processing and evaluation. We hypothesized that genre awareness modulates effects of genre-typical manipulations. We manipulated instructions between participants, either specifying a genre (poetry or not (neutral. Sentences contained genre-typical variations of semantic congruency (congruent/incongruent and morpho-phonological features (archaic/contemporary inflections. Offline ratings of meaningfulness (n = 64/group showed higher average ratings for semantically incongruent sentences in the poetry vs. neutral condition. ERPs during sentence reading (n = 24/group; RSVP presentation at a fixed per-constituent rate; probe task showed a left-lateralized N400-like effect for contemporary vs. archaic inflections. Semantic congruency elicited a bilateral posterior N400 effect for incongruent vs. congruent continuations followed by a centro-parietal positivity (P600. While N400 amplitudes were insensitive to the genre, the latency of the P600 was delayed by the poetry instruction. From these results, we conclude that during real-time sentence comprehension, readers are sensitive to subtle morphological manipulations and the implicit prosodic differences that accompany them. By contrast, genre awareness affects later stages of comprehension.

A shared neural substrate for mentalizing and the affective component of sentence comprehension.

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Pierre-Yves Hervé

Full Text Available Using event-related fMRI in a sample of 42 healthy participants, we compared the cerebral activity maps obtained when classifying spoken sentences based on the mental content of the main character (belief, deception or empathy or on the emotional tonality of the sentence (happiness, anger or sadness. To control for the effects of different syntactic constructions (such as embedded clauses in belief sentences, we subtracted from each map the BOLD activations obtained during plausibility judgments on structurally matching sentences, devoid of emotions or ToM. The obtained theory of mind (ToM and emotional speech comprehension networks overlapped in the bilateral temporo-parietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex, right anterior temporal lobe, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and in the left inferior frontal sulcus. These regions form a ToM network, which contributes to the emotional component of spoken sentence comprehension. Compared with the ToM task, in which the sentences were enounced on a neutral tone, the emotional sentence classification task, in which the sentences were play-acted, was associated with a greater activity in the bilateral superior temporal sulcus, in line with the presence of emotional prosody. Besides, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was more active during emotional than ToM sentence processing. This region may link mental state representations with verbal and prosodic emotional cues. Compared with emotional sentence classification, ToM was associated with greater activity in the caudate nucleus, paracingulate cortex, and superior frontal and parietal regions, in line with behavioral data showing that ToM sentence comprehension was a more demanding task.

Individual Differences in Auditory Sentence Comprehension in Children: An Exploratory Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation

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Yeatman, Jason D.; Ben-Shachar, Michal; Glover, Gary H.; Feldman, Heidi M.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore changes in activation of the cortical network that serves auditory sentence comprehension in children in response to increasing demands of complex sentences. A further goal is to study how individual differences in children's receptive language abilities are associated with such changes in cortical…

On the Complexity of Chinese Sentences in Singapore Primary Textbooks

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Goh Saye Wee

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper uses the sentences from the Singapore primary school Chinese textbooks as the research material, using sentence as a unit; analyses sentence composition and sentence patterns, from quantity, distribution, characteristic and semantic type aspects to examine the progression of sentence complexity in Chinese language. The paper describes how the sentence develops in a systemic and complexity aspect in textbooks of various levels. The paper suggests 7 types of sentence pattern grading in term of complexity progression, and proposes a formula to examine and calculate the complexity index of a sentence. The findings derive a set of valuable data to expound the complexity of a sentence and discuss the variable factors influencing the complexity of sentences used in primary school Chinese textbooks.

The Dangling model in the construction of compound sentences with regard to verb tenses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmoud Mehravaran

2016-01-01

the mistakes of some of the grammars. This research project has for the first time introduced constructive models of compound sentences in a comprehensive research taking in to account the tense of the verbs. The primary question in this research project is which kind of sentences can be considered as compound and what is the constructive of such a sentence? When defining a compound sentences, grammarians either shave the same beliefs or differ in their ideas. But all grammarians agree to the fact that a compound sentences has more than one verb. Different definitions are due to different criteria adapted in constructing a compound sentences. To construct a noun, and adjective, a verb and a sentence we should take similar and precise criteria to our consideration. In the grammatical units of noun, adjectives, and verbs construction means connecting two or more parts that can convey one similar meaning and its parts are dependent upon one another.  In the construction of compound sentences there must be the same criteria so that its applications can be truly recognized and identified just like the previously mentioned grammatical units. The first step to arrive at a criterion in defining and identifying compound sentences, is to separate this discussion from connective sentences that are relate to each other with connectives are called connective sentences. But sentences which are constructed with dependent making connectives and their parts are dependent upon one another are called compound sentences. Therefore the signs of compound sentences with regard to constructions and the meaning of criterion are as follows: 1 They have more than one verb. 2 The consistence of two or more dependent phrases. 3 Phrases construct a complete sentences all together and convey one similar message. 4 One of the phrases is the main clause and the other one is the subordinate one. 5 The phrases or subordinate clauses can be related to one of the major parts and they can take a

INFLUENCE OF LENGTH OF SENTENCES ON THE FREQUENCY OF SPEECH DISFLUENCIES IN CHILDREN WHO STUTTER

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Leila Begić

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether the length of sentences has influence on the frequency of speech disfluencies for children who stutter. The participants included 30 children who stutter 19 male participants and 13 female participants, whose age ranged between 4 years and 8 months to 6 years and 11 months (56 to 83 months of age. Research was conducted in kindergartens and primary schools in Tuzla Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina2 . The test consisted of 36 sentences. In relation to the length, sentences were divided into three groups: in the first group there were 9 sentences which included 3 to 5 words, in the second group, there were 14 sentences which included 6 to 8 words and in the third group there were 13 sentences which included 9 to 11 words. Testing was conducted so that the examiner was pronouncing one sentence after which the participant repeated the same sentence. Each participant was requested to repeat exactly what he/she had heard. Speech and language pathologist has recorded all speech disfluencies in all sentences. The results showed that the sentences containing 9 to 11 words had most effects on the overall dynamics of speech disfluencies in children who stutter. The results suggest that during the process of assessment and diagnosis of children who stutter, it should be required to assess the child's ability to use complex linguistic statements and to assess the frequency of disfluencies in relation to the complexity of the sentences. Precision diagnostics would provide guidelines for the treatment of stuttering in terms of implementation of approaches and strategies which include language treatment and gradually increasing the length and complexity of statements of children who stutter during speech.

Note related to the elaboration of a coding by key sentences for the programming of a document automatic selection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leroy, A.; Braffort, P.

1959-01-01

This note deals with the providing of CEA documentalists with a tool for coding studies. The authors first discuss issues related to code selection criteria (author classification, topic classification, and so on), and propose an overview and a discussion of linguistic models. They also comment how diagrams illustrating relationships between words are built up, and propose a diagram representation example which includes different concepts such as conditions, properties, object, tools or processes (for example hardness for a steel, batch processing for a condition, or sintering for a process), and also the introduction of negation. Then, the authors address how basic concepts can be highlighted, describe how key sentences can be built up, and propose an example analysis in the case of a published article dealing with nuclear reactors (in this case, the study of a liquid-metal neutron absorber for the control of a gas-cooled power reactor). Perspectives of evolution are finally discussed

Influence of consonant voicing characteristics on sentence production in abductor versus adductor spasmodic dysphonia.

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Cannito, Michael P; Chorna, Lesya B; Kahane, Joel C; Dworkin, James P

2014-05-01

This study evaluated the hypotheses that sentence production by speakers with adductor (AD) and abductor (AB) spasmodic dysphonia (SD) may be differentially influenced by consonant voicing and manner features, in comparison with healthy, matched, nondysphonic controls. This was a prospective, single blind study, using a between-groups, repeated measures design for the independent variables of perceived voice quality and sentence duration. Sixteen subjects with ADSD and 10 subjects with ABSD, as well as 26 matched healthy controls produced four short, simple sentences that were systematically loaded with voiced or voiceless consonants of either obstruant or continuant manner categories. Experienced voice clinicians, who were "blind" as to speakers' group affixations, used visual analog scaling to judge the overall voice quality of each sentence. Acoustic sentence durations were also measured. Speakers with ABSD or ADSD demonstrated significantly poorer than normal voice quality on all sentences. Speakers with ABSD exhibited longer than normal duration for voiceless consonant sentences. Speakers with ADSD had poorer voice quality for voiced than for voiceless consonant sentences. Speakers with ABSD had longer durations for voiceless than for voiced consonant sentences. The two subtypes of SD exhibit differential performance on the basis of consonant voicing in short, simple sentences; however, each subgroup manifested voicing-related differences on a different variable (voice quality vs sentence duration). Findings suggest different underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for ABSD and ADSD. Findings also support inclusion of short, simple sentences containing voiced or voiceless consonants as part of the diagnostic protocol for SD, with measurement of sentence duration in addition to judments of voice quality severity. Copyright © 2014 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Distinctiveness and encoding effects in online sentence comprehension

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Philip eHofmeister

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In explicit memory recall and recognition tasks, elaboration and contextual isolation both facilitate memory performance. Here, we investigate these effects in the context of sentence processing: targets for retrieval during online sentence processing of English object relative clause constructions differ in the amount of elaboration associated with the target noun phrase, or the homogeneity of superficial features (text color. Experiment 1 shows that greater elaboration for targets during the encoding phase reduces reading times at retrieval sites, but elaboration of non-targets has considerably weaker effects. Experiment 2 illustrates that processing isolated superficial features of target noun phrases --- here, a green word in a sentence with words colored white --- does not lead to enhanced memory performance, despite triggering longer encoding times. These results are interpreted in the light of the memory models of Nairne 1990, 2001, 2006, which state that encoding remnants contribute to the set of retrieval cues that provide the basis for similarity-based interference effects.

Sentence processing in an artificial language: Learning and using combinatorial constraints.

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Amato, Michael S; MacDonald, Maryellen C

2010-07-01

A study combining artificial grammar and sentence comprehension methods investigated the learning and online use of probabilistic, nonadjacent combinatorial constraints. Participants learned a small artificial language describing cartoon monsters acting on objects. Self-paced reading of sentences in the artificial language revealed comprehenders' sensitivity to nonadjacent combinatorial constraints, without explicit awareness of the probabilities embedded in the language. These results show that even newly-learned constraints have an identifiable effect on online sentence processing. The rapidity of learning in this paradigm relative to others has implications for theories of implicit learning and its role in language acquisition. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Causal-implicative relationships in the Serbian hypotaxis (Complex of generative complex sentences

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Vojvodić Dojčil P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyzes the causal-implicative relationships in the segmented complex sentences with a “closed” (asymmetric, mandatory bi-situational generative (conditional semantic structure on the corpus of the Serbian language. The generative (conditional semantic structure consists of meaningfully interconnected antecedents and consequents that are based on the principle of subordination. These sentences are characterized with a general causal link due to the specific implicative relationship between the segments that can be realized within dependent clauses with diverse categorically-differential semantics (i.e. causal, consecutive, final, conditional and concessive. The author reaches a conclusion that the given implicative relationships (P ⇒ Q, P ⇐ Q/Q ⇒ P, P ⇔Q, P ⇒ Q´ Δ P´ ⇒ Q represent, in fact, semantic invariants of generative complex sentences. It is pointed out that the structure, formation and functioning of these relationships (sentences are always determined by the interconnectedness of syntax and lexicon. They are based on a general causal adverbial meaning of the conjunctions in a subordinate clause, which are also used to determine the adverbial semantics of a sentence as a whole. The article discusses in particular the aspectual-temporal correlations that are realized in complex sentences with a generative structure. It has been noted very often in the literature that there is no differentiation made among all of the types of the hypothetical conditionality - real, eventual, potential and unreal. The paper analyzes taxis of simultaneity and succession (anteriority/posteriority of the main and subordinate clause predicates in conditional sentences as a special type of the relative-temporal relationships within the same temporal plan. In order to interpret these correlations, the Serbian data was compared to the data in Russian and Polish. It is noted that the Northern Slavic languages (in this case Russian and

28 CFR 2.10 - Date service of sentence commences.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... imposed. (b) The imposition of a sentence of imprisonment for civil contempt shall interrupt the running of any sentence of imprisonment being served at the time the sentence of civil contempt is imposed... civil contempt is lifted. (c) Service of the sentence of a committed youth offender or person committed...

75 FR 13680 - Commutation of Sentence: Technical Change

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-23

... Sentence: Technical Change AGENCY: Bureau of Prisons, Justice. ACTION: Interim rule. SUMMARY: This document makes a minor technical change to the Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) regulations on sentence commutation to.... Commutation of Sentence: Technical Change This document makes a minor technical change to the Bureau...

Creating Hope for Life-Sentenced Offenders

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Ruddell, Rick; Broom, Ian; Young, Matthew

2010-01-01

Offenders sentenced to terms of life imprisonment pose special challenges for correctional systems. The Correctional Service of Canada collaborated with nongovernmental agencies to develop programmatic interventions to better prepare this population to survive their prison sentences and transition to the community. This study describes the…

Kinetic intermediates en route to the final serpin-protease complex: studies of complexes of α1-protease inhibitor with trypsin.

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Maddur, Ashoka A; Swanson, Richard; Izaguirre, Gonzalo; Gettins, Peter G W; Olson, Steven T

2013-11-01

Serpin protein protease inhibitors inactivate their target proteases through a unique mechanism in which a major serpin conformational change, resulting in a 70-Å translocation of the protease from its initial reactive center loop docking site to the opposite pole of the serpin, kinetically traps the acyl-intermediate complex. Although the initial Michaelis and final trapped acyl-intermediate complexes have been well characterized structurally, the intermediate stages involved in this remarkable transformation are not well understood. To better characterize such intermediate steps, we undertook rapid kinetic studies of the FRET and fluorescence perturbation changes of site-specific fluorophore-labeled derivatives of the serpin, α1-protease inhibitor (α1PI), which report the serpin and protease conformational changes involved in transforming the Michaelis complex to the trapped acyl-intermediate complex in reactions with trypsin. Two kinetically resolvable conformational changes were observed in the reactions, ascribable to (i) serpin reactive center loop insertion into sheet A with full protease translocation but incomplete protease distortion followed by, (ii) full conformational distortion and movement of the protease and coupled serpin conformational changes involving the F helix-sheet A interface. Kinetic studies of calcium effects on the labeled α1PI-trypsin reactions demonstrated both inactive and low activity states of the distorted protease in the final complex that were distinct from the intermediate distorted state. These studies provide new insights into the nature of the serpin and protease conformational changes involved in trapping the acyl-intermediate complex in serpin-protease reactions and support a previously proposed role for helix F in the trapping mechanism.

Sentence processing and grammaticality in functional linguistics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Mads

finding from research on sentence processing that sentences are processed incrementally. Empirical methods for establishing grammaticality status are discussed and applied in relation to non-WH extraction phenomena in Danish. In Chapter 2, I discuss the use of the notions of grammaticality......The dissertation presents a functional linguistic model of grammaticality and investigates methods for applying this notion in empirical work. The use of the notion of grammaticality in generative grammar has been criticized by functionalists (Harder, 1996; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999), but attempts...... grammaticality. It is concluded that the intuitions of linguists should in principle be considered hypotheses of grammaticality, and that such hypotheses need to be tested with independent data. Such data can for example take the form of corpus data or acceptability judgment experiments. It is furthermore argued...

Sentence Complexity and Working Memory Effects in Ambiguity Resolution

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Kim, Ji Hyon; Christianson, Kiel

2013-01-01

Two self-paced reading experiments using a paraphrase decision task paradigm were performed to investigate how sentence complexity contributed to the relative clause (RC) attachment preferences of speakers of different working memory capacities (WMCs). Experiment 1 (English) showed working memory effects on relative clause processing in both…

Chinese Sentence Classification Based on Convolutional Neural Network

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Gu, Chengwei; Wu, Ming; Zhang, Chuang

2017-10-01

Sentence classification is one of the significant issues in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Feature extraction is often regarded as the key point for natural language processing. Traditional ways based on machine learning can not take high level features into consideration, such as Naive Bayesian Model. The neural network for sentence classification can make use of contextual information to achieve greater results in sentence classification tasks. In this paper, we focus on classifying Chinese sentences. And the most important is that we post a novel architecture of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to apply on Chinese sentence classification. In particular, most of the previous methods often use softmax classifier for prediction, we embed a linear support vector machine to substitute softmax in the deep neural network model, minimizing a margin-based loss to get a better result. And we use tanh as an activation function, instead of ReLU. The CNN model improve the result of Chinese sentence classification tasks. Experimental results on the Chinese news title database validate the effectiveness of our model.

Machine Learning from Garden Path Sentences: The Application of Computational Linguistics

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Jiali Du

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the application of computational linguistics in the machine learning (ML system for the processing of garden path sentences. ML is closely related to artificial intelligence and linguistic cognition. The rapid and efficient processing of the complex structures is an effective method to test the system. By means of parsing the garden path sentence, we draw a conclusion that the integration of theoretical and statistical methods is helpful for the development of ML system.

Phonological Advance Planning in Sentence Production

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Oppermann, Frank; Jescheniak, Jorg D.; Schriefers, Herbert

2010-01-01

Our study addresses the scope of phonological advance planning during sentence production using a novel experimental procedure. The production of German sentences in various syntactic formats (SVO, SOV, and VSO) was cued by presenting pictures of the agents of previously memorized agent-action-patient scenes. To tap the phonological activation of…

The suspended sentence in French Criminal Law

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Jovašević Dragan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available From the ancient times until today, criminal law has provided different criminal sanctions as measures of social control. These coercive measures are imposed on the criminal offender by the competent court and aimed at limitting the offender's rights and freedoms or depriving the offender of certain rights and freedoms. These sanctions are applied to the natural or legal persons who violate the norms of the legal order and injure or endanger other legal goods that enjoy legal protection. In order to effectively protect social values, criminal legislations in all countries predict a number of criminal sanctions. These are: 1 imprisonment, 2 precautions, 3 safety measures, 4 penalties for juveniles, and 5 sanctions for legal persons. Apart and instead of punishment, warning measures have a significant role in the jurisprudence. Since they emerged in the early 20th century in the system of criminal sanctions, there has been an increase in their application to criminal offenders, especially when it comes to first-time offenders who committed a negligent or accidental criminal act. Warnings are applied in case of crimes that do not have serious consequences, and whose perpetrators are not hardened and incorrigible criminals. All contemporary criminal legislations (including the French legilation provide a warning measure of suspended sentence. Suspended sentence is a conditional stay of execution of sentence of imprisonment for a specified time, provided that the convicted person does not commit another criminal offense and fulfills other obligations. This sanction applies if the following two conditions are fulfilled: a forma! -which is attached to the sentence of imprisonment; and b material -which is the court assessment that the application of this sanction is justified and necessary in a particular case. In many modern criminal legislations, there are two different types of suspended (conditional sentence: 1 ordinary (classical suspended

Memory for the Pragmatic Implications of Sentences. Technical Report No. 65.

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Brewer, William F.

A sentence "pragmatically implies" another sentence when information in the first sentence leads the hearer to expect something that is neither explicitly stated nor necessarily implied by the original sentence. Thus, the sentence "The safe-cracker put the match to the fuse" pragmatically implies that "the safe-cracker lit…

Motor activation in literal and non literal sentences: does time matter?

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Cristina eCacciari

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Despite the impressive amount of evidence showing involvement of the sensorimotor systems in language processing, important questions remain unsolved among which the relationship between non literal uses of language and sensorimotor activation. The literature did not yet provide a univocal answer on whether the comprehension of non literal, abstract motion sentences engages the same neural networks recruited for literal sentences. A previous TMS study using the same experimental materials of the present study showed activation for literal, fictive and metaphoric motion sentences but not for idiomatic ones. To evaluate whether this may depend on insufficient time for elaborating the idiomatic meaning, we conducted a behavioural experiment that used a sensibility judgment task performed by pressing a button either with a hand finger or with a foot. Motor activation is known to be sensitive to the action-congruency of the effector used for responding. Therefore, all other things being equal, significant differences between response emitted with an action-congruent or incongruent effector (foot vs. hand may be attributed to motor activation. Foot-related action verbs were embedded in sentences conveying literal motion, fictive motion, metaphoric motion or idiomatic motion. Mental sentences were employed as a control condition. Foot responses were significantly faster than finger responses but only in literal motion sentences. We hypothesize that motor activation may arise in early phases of comprehension processes (i.e. upon reading the verb for then decaying as a function of the strength of the semantic motion component of the verb.

Children's Comprehension of Object Relative Sentences: It's Extant Language Knowledge That Matters, Not Domain-General Working Memory

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Rusli, Yazmin Ahmad; Montgomery, James W.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether extant language (lexical) knowledge or domain-general working memory is the better predictor of comprehension of object relative sentences for children with typical development. We hypothesized that extant language knowledge, not domain-general working memory, is the better predictor. Method:…

Sentence retrieval for abstracts of randomized controlled trials

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Chung Grace Y

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM requires clinicians to integrate their expertise with the latest scientific research. But this is becoming increasingly difficult with the growing numbers of published articles. There is a clear need for better tools to improve clinician's ability to search the primary literature. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs are the most reliable source of evidence documenting the efficacy of treatment options. This paper describes the retrieval of key sentences from abstracts of RCTs as a step towards helping users find relevant facts about the experimental design of clinical studies. Method Using Conditional Random Fields (CRFs, a popular and successful method for natural language processing problems, sentences referring to Intervention, Participants and Outcome Measures are automatically categorized. This is done by extending a previous approach for labeling sentences in an abstract for general categories associated with scientific argumentation or rhetorical roles: Aim, Method, Results and Conclusion. Methods are tested on several corpora of RCT abstracts. First structured abstracts with headings specifically indicating Intervention, Participant and Outcome Measures are used. Also a manually annotated corpus of structured and unstructured abstracts is prepared for testing a classifier that identifies sentences belonging to each category. Results Using CRFs, sentences can be labeled for the four rhetorical roles with F-scores from 0.93–0.98. This outperforms the use of Support Vector Machines. Furthermore, sentences can be automatically labeled for Intervention, Participant and Outcome Measures, in unstructured and structured abstracts where the section headings do not specifically indicate these three topics. F-scores of up to 0.83 and 0.84 are obtained for Intervention and Outcome Measure sentences. Conclusion Results indicate that some of the methodological elements of RCTs are

The Effects of Linguistic Context on Word Recognition in Noise by Elderly Listeners Using Spanish Sentence Lists (SSL)

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Cervera, Teresa; Rosell, Vicente

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the effects of the linguistic context on the recognition of words in noise in older listeners using the Spanish Sentence Lists. These sentences were developed based on the approach of the SPIN test for the English language, which contains high and low predictability (HP and LP) sentences. In addition, the relative contribution…

"If a Lion Could Speak ...": Online Sensitivity to Propositional Truth-Value of Unrealistic Counterfactual Sentences

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Nieuwland, Mante S.

2013-01-01

People can establish whether a sentence is hypothetically true even if what it describes can never be literally true given the laws of the natural world. Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments examined electrophysiological responses to sentences about unrealistic counterfactual worlds that require people to construct novel conceptual…

BioN∅T: A searchable database of biomedical negated sentences

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Agarwal Shashank

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Negated biomedical events are often ignored by text-mining applications; however, such events carry scientific significance. We report on the development of BioN∅T, a database of negated sentences that can be used to extract such negated events. Description Currently BioN∅T incorporates ≈32 million negated sentences, extracted from over 336 million biomedical sentences from three resources: ≈2 million full-text biomedical articles in Elsevier and the PubMed Central, as well as ≈20 million abstracts in PubMed. We evaluated BioN∅T on three important genetic disorders: autism, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and found that BioN∅T is able to capture negated events that may be ignored by experts. Conclusions The BioN∅T database can be a useful resource for biomedical researchers. BioN∅T is freely available at http://bionot.askhermes.org/. In future work, we will develop semantic web related technologies to enrich BioN∅T.

The effects of context on processing words during sentence reading among adults varying in age and literacy skill.

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Steen-Baker, Allison A; Ng, Shukhan; Payne, Brennan R; Anderson, Carolyn J; Federmeier, Kara D; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L

2017-08-01

The facilitation of word processing by sentence context reflects the interaction between the build-up of message-level semantics and lexical processing. Yet, little is known about how this effect varies through adulthood as a function of reading skill. In this study, Participants 18-64 years old with a range of literacy competence read simple sentences as their eye movements were monitored. We manipulated the predictability of a sentence-final target word, operationalized as cloze probability. First fixation durations showed an interaction between age and literacy skill, decreasing with age among more skilled readers but increasing among less skilled readers. This pattern suggests that age-related slowing may impact reading when not buffered by skill, but with continued practice, automatization of reading can continue to develop in adulthood. In absolute terms, readers were sensitive to predictability, regardless of age or literacy, in both early and later measures. Older readers showed differential contextual sensitivity in regression patterns, effects not moderated by literacy skill. Finally, comprehension performance increased with age and literacy skill, but performance among less skilled readers was especially reduced when predictability was low, suggesting that low-literacy adults (regardless of age) struggle when creating mental representations under weaker semantic constraints. Collectively, these findings suggest that aging readers (regardless of reading skill) are more sensitive to context for meaning-integration processes; that less skilled adult readers (regardless of age) depend more on a constrained semantic representation for comprehension; and that the capacity for literacy engagement enables continued development of efficient lexical processing in adult reading development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A new sentence generator providing material for maximum reading speed measurement.

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Perrin, Jean-Luc; Paillé, Damien; Baccino, Thierry

2015-12-01

A new method is proposed to generate text material for assessing maximum reading speed of adult readers. The described procedure allows one to generate a vast number of equivalent short sentences. These sentences can be displayed for different durations in order to determine the reader's maximum speed using a psychophysical threshold algorithm. Each sentence is built so that it is either true or false according to common knowledge. The actual reading is verified by asking the reader to determine the truth value of each sentence. We based our design on the generator described by Crossland et al. and upgraded it. The new generator handles concepts distributed in an ontology, which allows an easy determination of the sentences' truth value and control of lexical and psycholinguistic parameters. In this way many equivalent sentence can be generated and displayed to perform the measurement. Maximum reading speed scores obtained with pseudo-randomly chosen sentences from the generator were strongly correlated with maximum reading speed scores obtained with traditional MNREAD sentences (r = .836). Furthermore, the large number of sentences that can be generated makes it possible to perform repeated measurements, since the possibility of a reader learning individual sentences is eliminated. Researchers interested in within-reader performance variability could use the proposed method for this purpose.

Working memory and planning during sentence production.

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Martin, Randi C; Yan, Hao; Schnur, Tatiana T

2014-10-01

Speakers retrieve conceptual, syntactic and lexical information in advance of articulation during sentence production. What type of working memory (WM) store is used to hold the planned information before speaking? To address this question, we measured onset latencies when subjects produced sentences that began with either a complex or a simple initial noun phrase, while holding semantic, phonological or spatial information in WM. Although we found that subjects had longer onset latencies for sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase, showing a phrasal scope of planning, the magnitude of this complexity effect was not affected by any type of WM load. However, subjects made more syntactic errors (but not lexical errors) for sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase, suggesting that advance planning for these phrases occurs at a syntactic rather than lexical-semantic level, which may account for the lack of effect with various types of WM load in the current study. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The two sides of sensory-cognitive interactions: effects of age, hearing acuity, and working memory span on sentence comprehension

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Renee eDeCaro

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Reduced hearing acuity is among the most prevalent of chronic medical conditions among older adults. An experiment is reported in which comprehension of spoken sentences was tested for older adults with good hearing acuity or with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and young adults with age-normal hearing. Comprehension was measured by participants’ ability to determine of the agent of an action in sentences that expressed this relation with a syntactically less complex subject-relative construction or a syntactically more complex object-relative construction. Agency determination was further challenged by inserting a prepositional phrase into sentences between the person performing an action and the action being performed. As a control, prepositional phrases of equivalent length were also inserted into sentences in a non-disruptive position. Effects on sentence comprehension of age, hearing acuity, prepositional phrase placement and sound level of stimulus presentations appeared only for comprehension of sentences with the more syntactically complex object-relative structures. Working memory as tested by reading span scores accounted for a significant amount of the variance in comprehension accuracy. Once working memory capacity and hearing acuity were taken into account, chronological age among the older adults contributed no further variance to comprehension accuracy. Results are discussed in terms of the positive and negative effects of sensory-cognitive interactions in comprehension of spoken sentences and lend support to a framework in which domain-general executive resources, notably verbal working memory, play a role in both linguistic and perceptual processing.

The suspended sentence in German criminal law

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Jovašević Dragan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available From the ancient times until today, criminal law in all countries has provided different criminal sanctions as social control measures. These are court-imposed coercive measures that take away or limit certain rights and freedoms of criminal offenders. Sanctions are applied to natural or legal persons who violate the norms of the legal order and cause damage or endanger other legal goods that enjoy legal protection. In order to effectively protect social values jeopardized by the commission of crime, state legislations prescribe several kinds of criminal sanctions: 1 penalties, 2 precautions, 3 safety measures, 4 penalties for juvenile offenders, and 5 sanctions for legal persons. Penalties are the basic, the oldest and the most important type of criminal sanctions. They are prescribed for the largest number of criminal offences. Imposed instead of or alongside with penalties, warning measures have particularly important role in jurisprudence. Since they were introduced in the system of criminal sanctions in the early 20th century, there has been a notable increase in the application of these measures, particularly in cases involving negligent and accidental offences, and minor offences that do not cause serious consequences, whose perpetrators are not persons with criminal characteristics. Warning measures (suspended sentence are envisaged in all contemporary criminal legislations, including the German legislation. Suspended sentence is a conditional stay of execution of the sentence of imprisonment for a specified time, provided that the convicted person fulfills the imposed obligations and does not commit another criminal offense. Two conditions must be fulfilled for the application of these sanctions: a the formal requirement, which is attached to the sentence of imprisonment; and b the substantive requirement, which implies the court assessment that the application of these sanctions is justified and necessary in a particular case. Many

A Comparison of Alzheimer\\'s Patients and Healthy Elders in Relationship between Components of Working Memory and Sentence Comprehension

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Raziyeh A'lemi

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between working memory and sentence comprehension. Patients with Dementia of the Alzheimer´s type (DAT and matched older volunteers were tested on a battery of working memory tests, as well as on test of sentence comprehension. Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Statistical population included all patients with Alzheimer disease who were registered in the center of Alzheimer (Imam Ali in Tehran.10 patients randomly were selected among them, according to inclusive and exclusive criteria. For data collection, epidemiological information questionnaire, Mental Mini State Examination (MMSE, working memory tests and sentence comprehension were applied. Data were analyzed by Independent T-test and correlation analyses. Results: Patients had impaired central executive processes in working memory (P=0.006, but showed normal effects of phonological and articulatory variables on span (P=0.480. On the sentence comprehension tasks (simple and complicated sentences, DAT patients showed significant differences with their peers (simple s. P=0.001, complicated s. P=0.004. Impairment in the central executive processes of working memory in DAT patients was correlated with the complicated sentences on the sentence comprehension tasks. Conclusion: The results suggest that patients with DAT have working memory impairments that are related to their ability to map the meaning on sentences on to depictions of events in the world.

Evaluation of context effects in sentence recognition

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Bronkhorst, A.W.; Brand, T.; Wagener, K.

2002-01-01

It was investigated whether the model for context effects, developed earlier by Bronkhorst et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 499-509 (1993)], can be applied to results of sentence tests, used for the evaluation of speech recognition. Data for two German sentence tests, that differed with respect to

Distinct frontal regions for processing sentence syntax and story grammar.

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Sirigu, A; Cohen, L; Zalla, T; Pradat-Diehl, P; Van Eeckhout, P; Grafman, J; Agid, Y

1998-12-01

Time is a fundamental dimension of cognition. It is expressed in the sequential ordering of individual elements in a wide variety of activities such as language, motor control or in the broader domain of long range goal-directed actions. Several studies have shown the importance of the frontal lobes in sequencing information. The question addressed in this study is whether this brain region hosts a single supramodal sequence processor, or whether separate mechanisms are required for different kinds of temporally organised knowledge structures such as syntax and action knowledge. Here we show that so-called agrammatic patients, with lesions in Broca's area, ordered word groups correctly to form a logical sequence of actions but they were severely impaired when similar word groups had to be ordered as a syntactically well-formed sentence. The opposite performance was observed in patients with dorsolateral prefrontal lesions, that is, while their syntactic processing was intact at the sentence level, they demonstrated a pronounced deficit in producing temporally coherent sequences of actions. Anatomical reconstruction of lesions from brain scans revealed that the sentence and action grammar deficits involved distinct, non-overlapping sites within the frontal lobes. Finally, in a third group of patients whose lesions encompassed both Broca's area and the prefrontal cortex, the two types of deficits were found. We conclude that sequence processing is specific to knowledge domains and involves different networks within the frontal lobes.

The "Unfinished Sentences" Technique in Studying Loneliness Phenomenon

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Zh V Puzanova

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the unfinished sentences technique as a soft, qualitative way to collect and analyze sociological data. The article represents an attempt to describe the main features of qualitative approach to designing, conducting and analyzing the semi-structured data of sociological research based on the unfinished sentences technique and aimed at studying the problem of loneliness. The article also proposes a scheme to apply typological analysis principles to the data obtained through the unfinished sentences technique.

Working Memory and Binding in Sentence Recall

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Baddeley, A. D.; Hitch, G. J.; Allen, R. J.

2009-01-01

A series of experiments explored whether chunking in short-term memory for verbal materials depends on attentionally limited executive processes. Secondary tasks were used to disrupt components of working memory and chunking was indexed by the sentence superiority effect, whereby immediate recall is better for sentences than word lists. To…

Roles of frontal and temporal regions in reinterpreting semantically ambiguous sentences

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Sylvia eVitello

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Semantic ambiguity resolution is an essential and frequent part of speech comprehension because many words map onto multiple meanings (e.g., bark, bank. Neuroimaging research highlights the importance of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG and the left posterior temporal cortex in this process but the roles they serve in ambiguity resolution are uncertain. One possibility is that both regions are engaged in the processes of semantic reinterpretation that follows incorrect interpretation of an ambiguous word. Here we used fMRI to investigate this hypothesis. 20 native British English monolinguals were scanned whilst listening to sentences that contained an ambiguous word. To induce semantic reinterpretation, the disambiguating information was presented after the ambiguous word and delayed until the end of the sentence (e.g., the teacher explained that the BARK was going to be very damp. These sentences were compared to well-matched unambiguous sentences. Supporting the reinterpretation hypothesis, these ambiguous sentences produced more activation in both the LIFG and the left posterior inferior temporal cortex. Importantly, all but one subject showed ambiguity-related peaks within both regions, demonstrating that the group-level results were driven by high inter-subject consistency. Further support came from the finding that activation in both regions was modulated by meaning dominance. Specifically, sentences containing biased ambiguous words, which have one more dominant meaning, produced greater activation than those with balanced ambiguous words, which have two equally frequent meanings. Because the context always supported the less frequent meaning, the biased words require reinterpretation more often than balanced words. This is the first evidence of dominance effects in the spoken modality and provides strong support that frontal and temporal regions support the updating of semantic representations during speech comprehension.

Proficiency and sentence constraint effects on second language word learning.

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Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Baoguo; Lu, Chunming; Dunlap, Susan

2015-07-01

This paper presents an experiment that investigated the effects of L2 proficiency and sentence constraint on semantic processing of unknown L2 words (pseudowords). All participants were Chinese native speakers who learned English as a second language. In the experiment, we used a whole sentence presentation paradigm with a delayed semantic relatedness judgment task. Both higher and lower-proficiency L2 learners could make use of the high-constraint sentence context to judge the meaning of novel pseudowords, and higher-proficiency L2 learners outperformed lower-proficiency L2 learners in all conditions. These results demonstrate that both L2 proficiency and sentence constraint affect subsequent word learning among second language learners. We extended L2 word learning into a sentence context, replicated the sentence constraint effects previously found among native speakers, and found proficiency effects in L2 word learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dynamic evocation of hand action representations during sentence comprehension.

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Masson, Michael E J; Bub, Daniel N; Lavelle, Hillary

2013-08-01

When listening to a sentence describing an interaction with a manipulable object, understanding the actor's intentions is shown to have a striking influence on action representations evoked during comprehension. Subjects performed a cued reach and grasp response while listening to a context sentence. Responses were primed when they were consistent with the proximal intention of an actor ("John lifted the cell phone..."), but this effect was evanescent and appeared only when sentences mentioned the proximal intention first. When the sentence structure was changed to mention the distal intention first ("To clear the shelf..."), priming effects were no longer context specific and actions pertaining to the function of an object were clearly favored. These results are not compatible with a straightforward mental-simulation account of sentence comprehension but instead reflect a hierarchy of intentions distinguishing how and why actions are performed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Foregrounding awareness of sentence construction-types in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... a grasp of the principles of phrase and sentence formation and the kinds of structure ... In this article, I have demonstrated through the content analysis of the ... within sentences whose construction typifies the desirative and instrumental ...

UK: Welsh court reduces sentence, cites HIV status.

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Marceau, Emmanuelle

2003-08-01

A Welsh appeal court has reduced the sentence handed down to an offender because of his HIV status, despite his lengthy criminal record. The court reduced the sentence from five to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment.

Bilinguals Show Weaker Lexical Access during Spoken Sentence Comprehension

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Shook, Anthony; Goldrick, Matthew; Engstler, Caroline; Marian, Viorica

2015-01-01

When bilinguals process written language, they show delays in accessing lexical items relative to monolinguals. The present study investigated whether this effect extended to spoken language comprehension, examining the processing of sentences with either low or high semantic constraint in both first and second languages. English-German…

THE CHILD JUSTICE ACT: PROCEDURAL SENTENCING ISSUES

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Stephan

2012-08-08

Aug 8, 2012 ... research visits, and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law,. Freiburg, Germany ... Whether or not a pre-sentence report should be obtained before a child offender is sentenced has ...... the Criminal Procedure Act. It is important to read the quoted part of section 85(1) as a single ...

Dog Theft: A Case for Tougher Sentencing Legislation.

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Harris, Lauren K

2018-05-22

Dogs, and other companion animals, are currently classed as "property" in theft sentencing legislation for England and Wales. This means that offenders who steal dogs are given similar sentences to those that steal inanimate objects. This review presents the argument that the penalty for dog theft should be more severe than for the theft of non-living property. Evidence of the unique bond between dogs and humans, and discussion of the implications of labelling a living being as mere "property" are used to support this argument. The review concludes that the Sentencing Council's guidelines should be amended so that offences involving the theft of a companion animal are deemed to be a Category 2 offence or above. The review further proposes that "theft of a companion animal" should be listed in the Sentencing Council's guidelines as an aggravating factor.

Parafoveal-on-Foveal Effects of Emotional Word Semantics in Reading Chinese Sentences: Evidence from Eye Movements

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Yan, Ming; Sommer, Werner

2015-01-01

Despite the well-known influence of emotional meaning on cognition, relatively less is known about its effects on reading behavior. We investigated whether fixation behavior during the reading of Chinese sentences is influenced by emotional word meaning in the parafovea. Two-character target words embedded into the same sentence frames provided…

Context updating during sentence comprehension: the effect of aboutness topic.

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Burmester, Juliane; Spalek, Katharina; Wartenburger, Isabell

2014-10-01

To communicate efficiently, speakers typically link their utterances to the discourse environment and adapt their utterances to the listener's discourse representation. Information structure describes how linguistic information is packaged within a discourse to optimize information transfer. The present study investigates the nature and time course of context integration (i.e., aboutness topic vs. neutral context) on the comprehension of German declarative sentences with either subject-before-object (SO) or object-before-subject (OS) word order using offline comprehensibility judgments and online event-related potentials (ERPs). Comprehensibility judgments revealed that the topic context selectively facilitated comprehension of stories containing OS (i.e., non-canonical) sentences. In the ERPs, the topic context effect was reflected in a less pronounced late positivity at the sentence-initial object. In line with the Syntax-Discourse Model, we argue that these context-induced effects are attributable to reduced processing costs for updating the current discourse model. The results support recent approaches of neurocognitive models of discourse processing. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sentences with core knowledge violations increase the size of N400 among paranormal believers.

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Lindeman, Marjaana; Cederström, Sebastian; Simola, Petteri; Simula, Anni; Ollikainen, Sara; Riekki, Tapani

2008-01-01

A major problem in research on paranormal beliefs is that the concept of "paranormality" remains to be adequately defined. The aim of this study was to empirically justify the following definition: paranormal beliefs are beliefs in physical, biological, or psychological phenomena that contain core ontological attributes of one of the other two categories [e.g., a stone (physical) having thoughts (psychological)]. We hypothesized that individuals who believe in paranormal phenomena are slower in understanding whether sentences with core knowledge violations are literally true than skeptics, and that this difference would be reflected by a more negative N400. Ten believers and 10 skeptics (six men, age range 23-49) participated in the study. Event-related potentials (N400) were recorded as the participants read 210 three-word Finnish sentences, of which 70 were normal ("The house has a history"), 70 were anomalies ("The house writes its history") and 70 included violations of core knowledge ("The house knows its history"). The participants were presented with a question that contextualized the sentences: "Is this sentence literally true?" While the N400 effects were similar for normal and anomalous sentences among the believers and the skeptics, a more negative N400 effect was found among the believers than among the skeptics for sentences with core knowledge violations. The results support the new definition of "paranormality", because participants who believed in paranormal phenomena appeared to find it more difficult to construct a reasonable interpretation of the sentences with core knowledge violations than the skeptics did as indicated by the N400.

Semantic and pragmatic factors influencing deaf and hearing students' comprehension of english sentences containing numeral quantifiers.

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Kelly, Ronald R; Berent, Gerald P

2011-01-01

This research contrasted deaf and hearing students' interpretive knowledge of English sentences containing numeral quantifier phrases and indefinite noun phrases. A multiple-interpretation picture task methodology was used to assess 305 participants' judgments of the compatibility of sentence meanings with depicted discourse contexts. Participants' performance was assessed on the basis of hearing level (deaf, hearing) and grade level (middle school, high school, college). The deaf students were predicted to have differential access to specific sentence interpretations in accordance with the relative derivational complexity of the targeted sentence types. Hypotheses based on the pressures of derivational economy on acquisition were largely supported. The results also revealed that the deaf participants tended to overactivate pragmatic processes that yielded principled, though non-target, sentence interpretations. Collectively, the results not only contribute to the understanding of English acquisition under conditions of restricted access to spoken language input, they also suggest that pragmatic factors may play a broad role in influencing, and compromising, deaf students' reading comprehension and written expression.

Sentence processing: linking language to motor chains

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Fabian Chersi

2010-05-01

Full Text Available A growing body of evidence in cognitive science and neuroscience is pointing towards the existence of a deep interconnection between cognition, perception and action. According to this embodied perspective language understanding is based on a mental simulation process involving a sensory-motor matching system known as the mirror neuron system. However, the precise dynamics underling the relation between language and action are not yet well understood. In fact, experimental studies are not always coherent as some report that language processing interferes with action execution while others find facilitation. In this work we present a detailed neural network model capable of reproducing experimentally observed influences of the processing of action-related sentences on the execution of motor sequences. The proposed model is based on three main points. The first is that the processing of action-related sentences causes the resonance of motor and mirror neurons encoding the corresponding actions. The second is that there exists a varying degree of crosstalk between neuronal populations depending on whether they encode the same motor act, the same effector or the same action-goal. The third is the fact that neuronal populations’ internal dynamics, which results from the combination of multiple processes taking place at different time scales, can facilitate or interfere with successive activations of the same or of partially overlapping pools.

Encoding and Retrieval Interference in Sentence Comprehension: Evidence from Agreement

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Sandra Villata

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Long-distance verb-argument dependencies generally require the integration of a fronted argument when the verb is encountered for sentence interpretation. Under a parsing model that handles long-distance dependencies through a cue-based retrieval mechanism, retrieval is hampered when retrieval cues also resonate with non-target elements (retrieval interference. However, similarity-based interference may also stem from interference arising during the encoding of elements in memory (encoding interference, an effect that is not directly accountable for by a cue-based retrieval mechanism. Although encoding and retrieval interference are clearly distinct at the theoretical level, it is difficult to disentangle the two on empirical grounds, since encoding interference may also manifest at the retrieval region. We report two self-paced reading experiments aimed at teasing apart the role of each component in gender and number subject-verb agreement in Italian and English object relative clauses. In Italian, the verb does not agree in gender with the subject, thus providing no cue for retrieval. In English, although present tense verbs agree in number with the subject, past tense verbs do not, allowing us to test the role of number as a retrieval cue within the same language. Results from both experiments converge, showing similarity-based interference at encoding, and some evidence for an effect at retrieval. After having pointed out the non-negligible role of encoding in sentence comprehension, and noting that Lewis and Vasishth’s (2005 ACT-R model of sentence processing, the most fully developed cue-based retrieval approach to sentence processing does not predict encoding effects, we propose an augmentation of this model that predicts these effects. We then also propose a self-organizing sentence processing model (SOSP, which has the advantage of accounting for retrieval and encoding interference with a single mechanism.

Encoding and Retrieval Interference in Sentence Comprehension: Evidence from Agreement

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Villata, Sandra; Tabor, Whitney; Franck, Julie

2018-01-01

Long-distance verb-argument dependencies generally require the integration of a fronted argument when the verb is encountered for sentence interpretation. Under a parsing model that handles long-distance dependencies through a cue-based retrieval mechanism, retrieval is hampered when retrieval cues also resonate with non-target elements (retrieval interference). However, similarity-based interference may also stem from interference arising during the encoding of elements in memory (encoding interference), an effect that is not directly accountable for by a cue-based retrieval mechanism. Although encoding and retrieval interference are clearly distinct at the theoretical level, it is difficult to disentangle the two on empirical grounds, since encoding interference may also manifest at the retrieval region. We report two self-paced reading experiments aimed at teasing apart the role of each component in gender and number subject-verb agreement in Italian and English object relative clauses. In Italian, the verb does not agree in gender with the subject, thus providing no cue for retrieval. In English, although present tense verbs agree in number with the subject, past tense verbs do not, allowing us to test the role of number as a retrieval cue within the same language. Results from both experiments converge, showing similarity-based interference at encoding, and some evidence for an effect at retrieval. After having pointed out the non-negligible role of encoding in sentence comprehension, and noting that Lewis and Vasishth’s (2005) ACT-R model of sentence processing, the most fully developed cue-based retrieval approach to sentence processing does not predict encoding effects, we propose an augmentation of this model that predicts these effects. We then also propose a self-organizing sentence processing model (SOSP), which has the advantage of accounting for retrieval and encoding interference with a single mechanism. PMID:29403414

Memory for Negation in Coordinate and Complex Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Richard J.

1976-01-01

Two experiments were run to test memory for the negation morpheme "not" in coordinate sentences (e.g., The ballerina had twins and the policewoman did not have triplets) and complex sentences (e.g., The ghost scared Hamlet into not murdering Shakespeare). (Editor)

Processing rhythmic pattern during Chinese sentence reading: An eye movement study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yingyi eLuo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010. Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2+1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1+1] or [2+2]. This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader’s eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed, less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis

Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Yingyi; Duan, Yunyan; Zhou, Xiaolin

2015-01-01

Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the

CFD modelling of axial mixing in the intermediate and final rinses of cleaning-in-place procedures of straight pipes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Jifeng; Jensen, Bo Boye Busk; Nordkvist, Mikkel

2018-01-01

The intermediate and final rinses of straight pipes, in which water replaces a cleaning agent of similar density and viscosity, are modelled using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methods. It is anticipated that the displacement process is achieved by convective and diffusive transport. The simu...

Enhancing Possible Sentence through Cooperative Learning (Open to Suggestion).

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Sharon J.; Duffelmeyer, Frederick A.

1996-01-01

Describes using Think-Pair-Share (a three-step cooperative learning activity) to complement the sentence-generation phase of the Possible Sentences Activity, a highly recommended prereading vocabulary strategy. (SR)

Sentence-Level Attachment Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Albakour, M.-Dyaa; Kruschwitz, Udo; Lucas, Simon

Attachment prediction is the task of automatically identifying email messages that should contain an attachment. This can be useful to tackle the problem of sending out emails but forgetting to include the relevant attachment (something that happens all too often). A common Information Retrieval (IR) approach in analyzing documents such as emails is to treat the entire document as a bag of words. Here we propose a finer-grained analysis to address the problem. We aim at identifying individual sentences within an email that refer to an attachment. If we detect any such sentence, we predict that the email should have an attachment. Using part of the Enron corpus for evaluation we find that our finer-grained approach outperforms previously reported document-level attachment prediction in similar evaluation settings.

THE FUNCTION OF SIMPLE SENTENCE BETWEEN ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH

OpenAIRE

Shkelqim Millaku

2017-01-01

In Albanian and English we have same kind of sentences (simple, compound or complex sentence). The major of elements or constituents that can be found in clauses are subject, predicate, object, complement etc. For Albanian and English most linguists agree on the needs to recognize at least the following word classes: noun, verb, adjective, preposition, adverb, determinative and conjunction. Each of these words classes is illustrated in the sentence below. The noun or noun phrase can be subjec...

Spoken sentence production in college students with dyslexia: working memory and vocabulary effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiseheart, Rebecca; Altmann, Lori J P

2018-03-01

Individuals with dyslexia demonstrate syntactic difficulties on tasks of language comprehension, yet little is known about spoken language production in this population. To investigate whether spoken sentence production in college students with dyslexia is less proficient than in typical readers, and to determine whether group differences can be attributable to cognitive differences between groups. Fifty-one college students with and without dyslexia were asked to produce sentences from stimuli comprising a verb and two nouns. Verb types varied in argument structure and morphological form and nouns varied in animacy. Outcome measures were precision (measured by fluency, grammaticality and completeness) and efficiency (measured by response times). Vocabulary and working memory tests were also administered and used as predictors of sentence production performance. Relative to non-dyslexic peers, students with dyslexia responded significantly slower and produced sentences that were significantly less precise in terms of fluency, grammaticality and completeness. The primary predictors of precision and efficiency were working memory, which differed between groups, and vocabulary, which did not. College students with dyslexia were significantly less facile and flexible on this spoken sentence-production task than typical readers, which is consistent with previous studies of school-age children with dyslexia. Group differences in performance were traced primarily to limited working memory, and were somewhat mitigated by strong vocabulary. © 2017 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

The development of an automated sentence generator for the assessment of reading speed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Legge Gordon E

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Reading speed is an important outcome measure for many studies in neuroscience and psychology. Conventional reading speed tests have a limited corpus of sentences and usually require observers to read sentences aloud. Here we describe an automated sentence generator which can create over 100,000 unique sentences, scored using a true/false response. We propose that an estimate of the minimum exposure time required for observers to categorise the truth of such sentences is a good alternative to reading speed measures that guarantees comprehension of the printed material. Removing one word from the sentence reduces performance to chance, indicating minimal redundancy. Reading speed assessed using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP of these sentences is not statistically different from using MNREAD sentences. The automated sentence generator would be useful for measuring reading speed with button-press response (such as within MRI scanners and for studies requiring many repeated measures of reading speed.

Localizing components of a complex task : sentence processing and working memory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stowe, L.A.; Broere, C.A.J.; Paans, A.MJ; Wijers, A.A.; Mulder, G.; Vaalburg, W.; Zwarts, Frans

1998-01-01

THREE areas of the left hemisphere play different roles in sentence comprehension. An area of posterior middle and superior temporal gyrus shows activation correlated with the structural complexity of a sentence, suggesting that this area supports processing of sentence structure. The lateral

Factors Affecting Sentence Severity for Young Adult Offenders.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenwood, Peter W.; And Others

This document analyzes the sentencing of young adult defendants in comparison with older adult and younger juvenile offenders, and disputes prior research which held that young adults received more lenient sentencing, perhaps because of the restrictions on disclosing juvenile delinquency histories. The document presents data from samples of young…

Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Background, Legal Analysis, and Policy Options

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Seghetti, Lisa M; Smith, Alison M

2007-01-01

In United States v. Booker, an unusual two-part opinion transformed federal criminal sentencing by restoring to judges much of the discretion that Congress took away when it put mandatory sentencing guidelines in place...

Listening to factually incorrect sentences activates classical language areas and thalamus.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Tao; Lang, Simone; Birbaumer, Niels; Kotchoubey, Boris

2011-12-07

Neurophysiological underpinnings of the integration of information during sentence comprehension have been studied since 1980. However, little is known about integrative processes in sentences containing a word that is semantically congruent, but factually incompatible with the context. In this study, we aimed at investigating the differences between the brain regions involved in responses to factually correct and incorrect sentences. Eighteen healthy volunteers underwent functional MRI while listening passively to 40 correct and 40 incorrect sentences. The contrast between factually correct and incorrect sentence endings revealed large activation areas in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left middle/superior temporal gyrus, and smaller activations of these areas' homologs in the right hemisphere, in the thalamus, and Brodmann area 6.

Sentence comprehension: effectors and goals, self and others. An overview of experiments and implications for robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna M Borghi

2010-06-01

Full Text Available According to theories referring to embodied and grounded cognition (Barsalou, 2008, language comprehension encompasses an embodied simulation of actions. The neural underpinnings of this simulation could be found in wide neural circuits that involve canonical and mirror neurons (Rizzolatti et al., 1996. In keeping with this view, we review behavioural and kinematic studies conducted in our lab which help characterize the relationship existing between language and the motor system. Overall, our results reveal that the simulation evoked during sentence comprehension is fine-grained, primarily in its sensitivity to the different effectors we employ to perform actions. In addition, they suggest that linguistic comprehension also relies on the representation of actions in terms of goals and of the chains of motor acts necessary to accomplish them. Finally, they indicate that these goals are modulated by both the object features the sentence refers to as well as by social aspects such as the characteristics of the agents implied by sentences. We will discuss the implications of these studies for embodied robotics.

Children's and adults' on-line processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences during reading.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Holly S S L Joseph

Full Text Available While there has been a fair amount of research investigating children's syntactic processing during spoken language comprehension, and a wealth of research examining adults' syntactic processing during reading, as yet very little research has focused on syntactic processing during text reading in children. In two experiments, children and adults read sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity while their eye movements were monitored. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences such as, 'The boy poked the elephant with the long stick/trunk from outside the cage' in which the attachment of a prepositional phrase was manipulated. In Experiment 2, participants read sentences such as, 'I think I'll wear the new skirt I bought tomorrow/yesterday. It's really nice' in which the attachment of an adverbial phrase was manipulated. Results showed that adults and children exhibited similar processing preferences, but that children were delayed relative to adults in their detection of initial syntactic misanalysis. It is concluded that children and adults have the same sentence-parsing mechanism in place, but that it operates with a slightly different time course. In addition, the data support the hypothesis that the visual processing system develops at a different rate than the linguistic processing system in children.

Does verbatim sentence recall underestimate the language competence of near-native speakers?

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Judith eSchweppe

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Verbatim sentence recall is widely used to test the language competence of native and non-native speakers since it involves comprehension and production of connected speech. However, we assume that, to maintain surface information, sentence recall relies particularly on attentional resources, which differentially affects native and non-native speakers. Since even in near-natives language processing is less automatized than in native speakers, processing a sentence in a foreign language plus retaining its surface may result in a cognitive overload. We contrasted sentence recall performance of German native speakers with that of highly proficient non-natives. Non-natives recalled the sentences significantly poorer than the natives, but performed equally well on a cloze test. This implies that sentence recall underestimates the language competence of good non-native speakers in mixed groups with native speakers. The findings also suggest that theories of sentence recall need to consider both its linguistic and its attentional aspects.

Negative Sentences in Children with Specific Language Impairment

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, Rosalind; Rombough, Kelly; Martin, Jasmine; Orton, Linda

2016-01-01

This study used elicited production methodology to investigate the negative sentences that are produced by English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Negative sentences were elicited in contexts in which adults use the negative auxiliary verb doesn't (e.g., "It doesn't fit"). This form was targeted to see how…

Grammar for College Writing: A Sentence-Composing Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Killgallon, Don; Killgallon, Jenny

2010-01-01

Across America, in thousands of classrooms, from elementary school to high school, the time-tested sentence-composing approach has given students tools to become better writers. Now the authors present a much anticipated sentence-composing grammar worktext for college writing. This book presents a new and easier way to understand grammar: (1) Noun…

Probabilistic modeling of discourse-aware sentence processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubey, Amit; Keller, Frank; Sturt, Patrick

2013-07-01

Probabilistic models of sentence comprehension are increasingly relevant to questions concerning human language processing. However, such models are often limited to syntactic factors. This restriction is unrealistic in light of experimental results suggesting interactions between syntax and other forms of linguistic information in human sentence processing. To address this limitation, this article introduces two sentence processing models that augment a syntactic component with information about discourse co-reference. The novel combination of probabilistic syntactic components with co-reference classifiers permits them to more closely mimic human behavior than existing models. The first model uses a deep model of linguistics, based in part on probabilistic logic, allowing it to make qualitative predictions on experimental data; the second model uses shallow processing to make quantitative predictions on a broad-coverage reading-time corpus. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Receptive Language Skills in Slovak-Speaking Children With Intellectual Disability: Understanding Words, Sentences, and Stories.

Science.gov (United States)

Polišenská, Kamila; Kapalková, Svetlana; Novotková, Monika

2018-06-05

The study aims to describe receptive language skills in children with intellectual disability (ID) and to contribute to the debate on deviant versus delayed language development. This is the 1st study of receptive skills in children with ID who speak a Slavic language, providing insight into how language development is affected by disability and also language typology. Twenty-eight Slovak-speaking children participated in the study (14 children with ID and 14 typically developing [TD] children matched on nonverbal reasoning abilities). The children were assessed by receptive language tasks targeting words, sentences, and stories, and the groups were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. The groups showed similar language profiles, with a better understanding of words, followed by sentences, with the poorest comprehension for stories. Nouns were comprehended better than verbs; sentence constructions also showed a qualitatively similar picture, although some dissimilarities emerged. Verb comprehension was strongly related to sentence comprehension in both groups and related to story comprehension in the TD group only. The findings appear to support the view that receptive language skills follow the same developmental route in children with ID as seen in younger TD children, suggesting that language development is a robust process and does not seem to be differentially affected by ID even when delayed.

Effects of surprisal and locality on Danish sentence processing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balling, Laura Winther; Kizach, Johannes

2017-01-01

An eye-tracking experiment in Danish investigates two dominant accounts of sentence processing: locality-based theories that predict a processing advantage for sentences where the distance between the major syntactic heads is minimized, and the surprisal theory which predicts that processing time...

Unscrambling jumbled sentences: An authentic task for English language assessment?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Betty Lanteigne

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Jumbled sentence items in language assessment have been criticized by some authors as inauthentic. However, unscrambling jumbled sentences is a common occurrence in real-world communication in English as a lingua franca. Naturalistic inquiry identified 54 instances of jumbled sentence use in daily life in Dubai/Sharjah, where English is widely used as a lingua franca. Thus it is seen that jumbled sentence test items can reflect real-world language use. To evaluate scrambled sentence test items, eight test item types developed from one jumbled sentence instance (“Want taxi Dubai you?” were analyzed in terms of interactivity and authenticity. Items ranged from being completely decontextualized, non-interactive, and inauthentic to being fully contextualized, interactive, and authentic. To determine appropriate assessment standards for English tests in schools in this region, the English language standards for schools and English language requirements for university admission in the UAE were analyzed. Schools in Dubai/Sharjah use Inner Circle English varieties of English (e.g., British or American English as the standard for evaluation, as well as non-native-English-speaker varieties (e.g., Indian English(es. Also, students applying to English-medium universities in the UAE must meet the required scores on standardized English tests including the IELTS and TOEFL. Standards for evaluation of communication in English involving tasks of jumbled sentences in classroom tests must reflect the language learning goals of the school and community. Thus standards for classroom assessment of English in Dubai/Sharjah are determined by local schools’ and universities’ policies.

Aerodynamic Characteristics of Syllable and Sentence Productions in Normal Speakers.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiel, Cedric; Yang, Jin; Crawley, Brianna; Krishna, Priya; Murry, Thomas

2018-01-08

Aerodynamic measures of subglottic air pressure (Ps) and airflow rate (AFR) are used to select behavioral voice therapy versus surgical treatment for voice disorders. However, these measures are usually taken during a series of syllables, which differs from conversational speech. Repeated syllables do not share the variation found in even simple sentences, and patients may use their best rather than typical voice unless specifically instructed otherwise. This study examined the potential differences in estimated Ps and AFR in syllable and sentence production and their effects on a measure of vocal efficiency in normal speakers. Prospective study. Measures of estimated Ps, AFR, and aerodynamic vocal efficiency (AVE) were obtained from 19 female and four male speakers ages 22-44 years with no history of voice disorders. Subjects repeated a series of /pa/ syllables and a sentence at comfortable effort level into a face mask with a pressure-sensing tube between the lips. AVE varies as a function of the speech material in normal subjects. Ps measures were significantly higher for the sentence-production samples than for the syllable-production samples. AFR was higher during sentence production than syllable production, but the difference was not statistically significant. AVE values were significantly higher for syllable versus sentence productions. The results suggest that subjects increase Ps and AFR in sentence compared with syllable production. Speaking task is a critical factor when considering measures of AVE, and this preliminary study provides a basis for further aerodynamic studies of patient populations. Copyright © 2017 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Semantic Priming During Sentence Processing by Young and Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Deborah M.; Yee, Penny L.

1984-01-01

Compares the semantic processing skills of younger adults (mean age 25) and older adults (mean age 68). After reading a sentence, subjects performed a task in which responses did not depend on retention. Results provided no evidence for age-related changes, including those associated with access to implied information. (Author/RH)

The MHD intermediate shock interaction with an intermediate wave: Are intermediate shocks physical?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, C.C.

1988-01-01

Contrary to the usual belief that MHD intermediate shocks are extraneous, the authors have recently shown by numerical solutions of dissipative MHD equations that intermediate shocks are admissible and can be formed through nonlinear steepening from a continuous wave. In this paper, he clarifies the differences between the conventional view and the results by studying the interaction of an MHD intermediate shock with an intermediate wave. The study reaffirms his results. In addition, the study shows that there exists a larger class of shocklike solutions in the time-dependent dissiaptive MHD equations than are given by the MHD Rankine-Hugoniot relations. it also suggests a mechanism for forming rotational discontinuities through the interaction of an intermediate shock with an intermediate wave. The results are of importance not only to the MHD shock theory but also to studies such as magnetic field reconnection models

Aging and individual differences in binding during sentence understanding: evidence from temporary and global syntactic attachment ambiguities.

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Brennan R; Grison, Sarah; Gao, Xuefei; Christianson, Kiel; Morrow, Daniel G; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L

2014-02-01

We report an investigation of aging and individual differences in binding information during sentence understanding. An age-continuous sample of adults (N=91), ranging from 18 to 81 years of age, read sentences in which a relative clause could be attached high to a head noun NP1, attached low to its modifying prepositional phrase NP2 (e.g., The son of the princess who scratched himself/herself in public was humiliated), or in which the attachment site of the relative clause was ultimately indeterminate (e.g., The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public was humiliated). Word-by-word reading times and comprehension (e.g., who scratched?) were measured. A series of mixed-effects models were fit to the data, revealing: (1) that, on average, NP1-attached sentences were harder to process and comprehend than NP2-attached sentences; (2) that these average effects were independently moderated by verbal working memory capacity and reading experience, with effects that were most pronounced in the oldest participants and; (3) that readers on average did not allocate extra time to resolve global ambiguities, though older adults with higher working memory span did. Findings are discussed in relation to current models of lifespan cognitive development, working memory, language experience, and the role of prosodic segmentation strategies in reading. Collectively, these data suggest that aging brings differences in sentence understanding, and these differences may depend on independent influences of verbal working memory capacity and reading experience. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transformations. I. The Effect of DAF on Sentence Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Salter, David

1976-01-01

A hypothesis based on the psycholinguistic derivation of sentences was tested. The task required that sentences temporarily stored in memory be transformed and spoken with delayed auditory feedback. Available from Plenum Publishing Corp., 227 W. 17th St., New York, NY 10011. (Author/RM)

Processing Mechanisms in Hearing-Impaired Listeners: Evidence from Reaction Times and Sentence Interpretation.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Rebecca; Uslar, Verena; Brand, Thomas; Ruigendijk, Esther

The authors aimed to determine whether hearing impairment affects sentence comprehension beyond phoneme or word recognition (i.e., on the sentence level), and to distinguish grammatically induced processing difficulties in structurally complex sentences from perceptual difficulties associated with listening to degraded speech. Effects of hearing impairment or speech in noise were expected to reflect hearer-specific speech recognition difficulties. Any additional processing time caused by the sustained perceptual challenges across the sentence may either be independent of or interact with top-down processing mechanisms associated with grammatical sentence structure. Forty-nine participants listened to canonical subject-initial or noncanonical object-initial sentences that were presented either in quiet or in noise. Twenty-four participants had mild-to-moderate hearing impairment and received hearing-loss-specific amplification. Twenty-five participants were age-matched peers with normal hearing status. Reaction times were measured on-line at syntactically critical processing points as well as two control points to capture differences in processing mechanisms. An off-line comprehension task served as an additional indicator of sentence (mis)interpretation, and enforced syntactic processing. The authors found general effects of hearing impairment and speech in noise that negatively affected perceptual processing, and an effect of word order, where complex grammar locally caused processing difficulties for the noncanonical sentence structure. Listeners with hearing impairment were hardly affected by noise at the beginning of the sentence, but were affected markedly toward the end of the sentence, indicating a sustained perceptual effect of speech recognition. Comprehension of sentences with noncanonical word order was negatively affected by degraded signals even after sentence presentation. Hearing impairment adds perceptual processing load during sentence processing

Targeting Complex Sentences in Older School Children with Specific Language Impairment: Results from an Early-Phase Treatment Study

Science.gov (United States)

Balthazar, Catherine H.; Scott, Cheryl M.

2018-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of a complex sentence treatment at 2 dosage levels on language performance of 30 school-age children ages 10-14 years with specific language impairment. Method: Three types of complex sentences (adverbial, object complement, relative) were taught in sequence in once or twice weekly dosage conditions.…

The Influence of Topic Status on Written and Spoken Sentence Production

Science.gov (United States)

Cowles, H. Wind; Ferreira, Victor S.

2012-01-01

Four experiments investigate the influence of topic status and givenness on how speakers and writers structure sentences. The results of these experiments show that when a referent is previously given, it is more likely to be produced early in both sentences and word lists, confirming prior work showing that givenness increases the accessibility of given referents. When a referent is previously given and assigned topic status, it is even more likely to be produced early in a sentence, but not in a word list. Thus, there appears to be an early mention advantage for topics that is present in both written and spoken modalities, but is specific to sentence production. These results suggest that information-structure constructs like topic exert an influence that is not based only on increased accessibility, but also reflects mapping to syntactic structure during sentence production. PMID:22408281

Initial evaluation of an interactive test of sentence gist recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Tye-Murray, N; Witt, S; Castelloe, J

1996-12-01

The laser videodisc-based Sentence Gist Recognition (SGR) test consists of sets of topically related sentences that are cued by short film clips. Clients respond to test items by selecting picture illustrations and may interact with the talker by using repair strategies when they do not recognize a test item. The two experiments, involving 40 and 35 adult subjects, respectively, indicated that the SGR may better predict subjective measures of speechreading and listening performance than more traditional audiologic sentence and nonsense syllable tests. Data from cochlear implant users indicated that the SGR accounted for a greater percentage of the variance for selected items of the Communication Profile for the Hearing-Impaired and the Speechreading Questionnaire for Cochlear-Implant Users than two other audiologic tests. As in previous work, subjects were most apt to ask the talker to repeat an utterance that they did not recognize than to ask the talker to restructure it. It is suggested that the SGR may reflect the interactive nature of conversation and provide a simulated real-world listening and/or speechreading task. The principles underlaying this test are consistent with the development of other computer technologies and concepts, such as compact discinteractive and virtual reality.

Role of Glycolytic Intermediates in Global Regulation and Signal Transduction. Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liao, J.C.

2000-05-08

The goal of this project is to determine the role of glycolytic intermediates in regulation of cell physiology. It is known that many glycolytic intermediates are involved in regulation of enzyme activities at the kinetic level. However, little is known regarding the role of these metabolites in global regulation and signal transduction. This project aims to investigate the role of glycolytic intermediates in the regulation of gene expression.

Retrieval of Sentence Sequences for an Image Stream via Coherence Recurrent Convolutional Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Cesc Chunseong; Kim, Youngjin; Kim, Gunhee

2018-04-01

We propose an approach for retrieving a sequence of natural sentences for an image stream. Since general users often take a series of pictures on their experiences, much online visual information exists in the form of image streams, for which it would better take into consideration of the whole image stream to produce natural language descriptions. While almost all previous studies have dealt with the relation between a single image and a single natural sentence, our work extends both input and output dimension to a sequence of images and a sequence of sentences. For retrieving a coherent flow of multiple sentences for a photo stream, we propose a multimodal neural architecture called coherence recurrent convolutional network (CRCN), which consists of convolutional neural networks, bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, and an entity-based local coherence model. Our approach directly learns from vast user-generated resource of blog posts as text-image parallel training data. We collect more than 22 K unique blog posts with 170 K associated images for the travel topics of NYC, Disneyland , Australia, and Hawaii. We demonstrate that our approach outperforms other state-of-the-art image captioning methods for text sequence generation, using both quantitative measures and user studies via Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Dog Theft: A Case for Tougher Sentencing Legislation

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Lauren K.

2018-01-01

Simple Summary The Sentencing Council (England and Wales) currently considers dogs to be “property”. This means that if someone steals a dog, they may be punished in the same way as someone who steals a non-living object, like a mobile phone or a piece of furniture. This review argues that losing a dog is very different to losing a non-living object, and that many people consider their dog to be a friend or a family member, not just a “possession”. The review concludes that that people who steal dogs should be punished in a way that reflects the emotional harm that can be caused to victims of dog theft. Abstract Dogs, and other companion animals, are currently classed as “property” in theft sentencing legislation for England and Wales. This means that offenders who steal dogs are given similar sentences to those that steal inanimate objects. This review presents the argument that the penalty for dog theft should be more severe than for the theft of non-living property. Evidence of the unique bond between dogs and humans, and discussion of the implications of labelling a living being as mere “property” are used to support this argument. The review concludes that the Sentencing Council’s guidelines should be amended so that offences involving the theft of a companion animal are deemed to be a Category 2 offence or above. The review further proposes that “theft of a companion animal” should be listed in the Sentencing Council’s guidelines as an aggravating factor. PMID:29786637

A rational inference approach to group and individual-level sentence comprehension performance in aphasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Warren, Tessa; Dickey, Michael Walsh; Liburd, Teljer L

2017-07-01

The rational inference, or noisy channel, account of language comprehension predicts that comprehenders are sensitive to the probabilities of different interpretations for a given sentence and adapt as these probabilities change (Gibson, Bergen & Piantadosi, 2013). This account provides an important new perspective on aphasic sentence comprehension: aphasia may increase the likelihood of sentence distortion, leading people with aphasia (PWA) to rely more on the prior probability of an interpretation and less on the form or structure of the sentence (Gibson, Sandberg, Fedorenko, Bergen & Kiran, 2015). We report the results of a sentence-picture matching experiment that tested the predictions of the rational inference account and other current models of aphasic sentence comprehension across a variety of sentence structures. Consistent with the rational inference account, PWA showed similar sensitivity to the probability of particular kinds of form distortions as age-matched controls, yet overall their interpretations relied more on prior probability and less on sentence form. As predicted by rational inference, but not by other models of sentence comprehension in aphasia, PWA's interpretations were more faithful to the form for active and passive sentences than for direct object and prepositional object sentences. However contra rational inference, there was no evidence that individual PWA's severity of syntactic or semantic impairment predicted their sensitivity to form versus the prior probability of a sentence, as cued by semantics. These findings confirm and extend previous findings that suggest the rational inference account holds promise for explaining aphasic and neurotypical comprehension, but they also raise new challenges for the account. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Imperative Sentence Pattern “Vp+tsau” in the Mengjin Dialect

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Peng Lanyu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In the Mengjin dialect, the imperative sentence “Vp+ʦau (‘go’” is a common sentence pattern, which has six major structural forms. The basic structure is “tɕhy412(‘go’+(Np+Vp+ʦau (‘go’”, and “ʦau” in this form is a marginalized directional verb. Containing the stronger power factor, the imperative sentence “Vp+ʦau” is often used in the relationship between the superior and the subordinate, which has a high degree of colloquialism. Nevertheless, the power factor can be ignored on condition that the relationship between the two parties of the communication is very close. Due to the division of the ancient Chinese political jurisdictions and the influence of population migration, the imperative “Vp+ʦau” is widely distributed. Two different imperative sentences being merged and weakened, this sentence pattern comes into being.

Evaluating stance-annotated sentences from the Brexit Blog Corpus: A quantitative linguistic analysis

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Simaki Vasiliki

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper offers a formally driven quantitative analysis of stance-annotated sentences in the Brexit Blog Corpus (BBC. Our goal is to identify features that determine the formal profiles of six stance categories (contrariety, hypotheticality, necessity, prediction, source of knowledge and uncertainty in a subset of the BBC. The study has two parts: firstly, it examines a large number of formal linguistic features, such as punctuation, words and grammatical categories that occur in the sentences in order to describe the specific characteristics of each category, and secondly, it compares characteristics in the entire data set in order to determine stance similarities in the data set. We show that among the six stance categories in the corpus, contrariety and necessity are the most discriminative ones, with the former using longer sentences, more conjunctions, more repetitions and shorter forms than the sentences expressing other stances. necessity has longer lexical forms but shorter sentences, which are syntactically more complex. We show that stance in our data set is expressed in sentences with around 21 words per sentence. The sentences consist mainly of alphabetical characters forming a varied vocabulary without special forms, such as digits or special characters.

Emotion Recognition of Weblog Sentences Based on an Ensemble Algorithm of Multi-label Classification and Word Emotions

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ji; Ren, Fuji

Weblogs have greatly changed the communication ways of mankind. Affective analysis of blog posts is found valuable for many applications such as text-to-speech synthesis or computer-assisted recommendation. Traditional emotion recognition in text based on single-label classification can not satisfy higher requirements of affective computing. In this paper, the automatic identification of sentence emotion in weblogs is modeled as a multi-label text categorization task. Experiments are carried out on 12273 blog sentences from the Chinese emotion corpus Ren_CECps with 8-dimension emotion annotation. An ensemble algorithm RAKEL is used to recognize dominant emotions from the writer's perspective. Our emotion feature using detailed intensity representation for word emotions outperforms the other main features such as the word frequency feature and the traditional lexicon-based feature. In order to deal with relatively complex sentences, we integrate grammatical characteristics of punctuations, disjunctive connectives, modification relations and negation into features. It achieves 13.51% and 12.49% increases for Micro-averaged F1 and Macro-averaged F1 respectively compared to the traditional lexicon-based feature. Result shows that multiple-dimension emotion representation with grammatical features can efficiently classify sentence emotion in a multi-label problem.

Semantic and phonological contributions to short-term repetition and long-term cued sentence recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Meltzer, Jed A; Rose, Nathan S; Deschamps, Tiffany; Leigh, Rosie C; Panamsky, Lilia; Silberberg, Alexandra; Madani, Noushin; Links, Kira A

2016-02-01

The function of verbal short-term memory is supported not only by the phonological loop, but also by semantic resources that may operate on both short and long time scales. Elucidation of the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms requires effective behavioral manipulations that can selectively engage them. We developed a novel cued sentence recall paradigm to assess the effects of two factors on sentence recall accuracy at short-term and long-term stages. Participants initially repeated auditory sentences immediately following a 14-s retention period. After this task was complete, long-term memory for each sentence was probed by a two-word recall cue. The sentences were either concrete (high imageability) or abstract (low imageability), and the initial 14-s retention period was filled with either an undemanding finger-tapping task or a more engaging articulatory suppression task (Exp. 1, counting backward by threes; Exp. 2, repeating a four-syllable nonword). Recall was always better for the concrete sentences. Articulatory suppression reduced accuracy in short-term recall, especially for abstract sentences, but the sentences initially recalled following articulatory suppression were retained better at the subsequent cued-recall test, suggesting that the engagement of semantic mechanisms for short-term retention promoted encoding of the sentence meaning into long-term memory. These results provide a basis for using sentence imageability and subsequent memory performance as probes of semantic engagement in short-term memory for sentences.

Reduced Syntactic Processing Efficiency in Older Adults During Sentence Comprehension

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Zude Zhu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Researchers have frequently reported an age-related decline in semantic processing during sentence comprehension. However, it remains unclear whether syntactic processing also declines or whether it remains constant as people age. In the present study, 26 younger adults and 20 older adults were recruited and matched in terms of working memory, general intelligence, verbal intelligence and fluency. They were then asked to make semantic acceptability judgments while completing a Chinese sentence reading task. The behavioral results revealed that the older adults had significantly lower accuracy on measures of semantic and syntactic processing compared to younger adults. Event-related potential (ERP results showed that during semantic processing, older adults had a significantly reduced amplitude and delayed peak latency of the N400 compared to the younger adults. During syntactic processing, older adults also showed delayed peak latency of the P600 relative to younger adults. Moreover, while P600 amplitude was comparable between the two age groups, larger P600 amplitude was associated with worse performance only in the older adults. Together, the behavioral and ERP data suggest that there is an age-related decline in both semantic and syntactic processing, with a trend toward lower efficiency in syntactic ability.

Multiple Regions of a Cortical Network Commonly Encode the Meaning of Words in Multiple Grammatical Positions of Read Sentences.

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Anderson, Andrew James; Lalor, Edmund C; Lin, Feng; Binder, Jeffrey R; Fernandino, Leonardo; Humphries, Colin J; Conant, Lisa L; Raizada, Rajeev D S; Grimm, Scott; Wang, Xixi

2018-05-16

Deciphering how sentence meaning is represented in the brain remains a major challenge to science. Semantically related neural activity has recently been shown to arise concurrently in distributed brain regions as successive words in a sentence are read. However, what semantic content is represented by different regions, what is common across them, and how this relates to words in different grammatical positions of sentences is weakly understood. To address these questions, we apply a semantic model of word meaning to interpret brain activation patterns elicited in sentence reading. The model is based on human ratings of 65 sensory/motor/emotional and cognitive features of experience with words (and their referents). Through a process of mapping functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging activation back into model space we test: which brain regions semantically encode content words in different grammatical positions (e.g., subject/verb/object); and what semantic features are encoded by different regions. In left temporal, inferior parietal, and inferior/superior frontal regions we detect the semantic encoding of words in all grammatical positions tested and reveal multiple common components of semantic representation. This suggests that sentence comprehension involves a common core representation of multiple words' meaning being encoded in a network of regions distributed across the brain.

A hybrid model based on neural networks for biomedical relation extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yijia; Lin, Hongfei; Yang, Zhihao; Wang, Jian; Zhang, Shaowu; Sun, Yuanyuan; Yang, Liang

2018-05-01

Biomedical relation extraction can automatically extract high-quality biomedical relations from biomedical texts, which is a vital step for the mining of biomedical knowledge hidden in the literature. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are two major neural network models for biomedical relation extraction. Neural network-based methods for biomedical relation extraction typically focus on the sentence sequence and employ RNNs or CNNs to learn the latent features from sentence sequences separately. However, RNNs and CNNs have their own advantages for biomedical relation extraction. Combining RNNs and CNNs may improve biomedical relation extraction. In this paper, we present a hybrid model for the extraction of biomedical relations that combines RNNs and CNNs. First, the shortest dependency path (SDP) is generated based on the dependency graph of the candidate sentence. To make full use of the SDP, we divide the SDP into a dependency word sequence and a relation sequence. Then, RNNs and CNNs are employed to automatically learn the features from the sentence sequence and the dependency sequences, respectively. Finally, the output features of the RNNs and CNNs are combined to detect and extract biomedical relations. We evaluate our hybrid model using five public (protein-protein interaction) PPI corpora and a (drug-drug interaction) DDI corpus. The experimental results suggest that the advantages of RNNs and CNNs in biomedical relation extraction are complementary. Combining RNNs and CNNs can effectively boost biomedical relation extraction performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sentence Learning in Children and Adults: The Production of Forms and Transforms.

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Ehri, Linnea C.

This investigation was intended to study the effects of some linguistic variables on child and adult memories for sentences when recall was prompted by nouns embedded in the sentences. Its purpose was to examine for developmental differences in sentence processing systems expected by psycholinguistic theory and research. A group of 64 subjects,…

Prototypicality in Sentence Production

Science.gov (United States)

Onishi, Kristine H.; Murphy, Gregory L.; Bock, Kathryn

2008-01-01

Three cued-recall experiments examined the effect of category typicality on the ordering of words in sentence production. Past research has found that typical items tend to be mentioned before atypical items in a phrase--a pattern usually associated with lexical variables (like word frequency), and yet typicality is a conceptual variable.…

AN OBSERVATION ON NOMINAL SENTENCES WITH N-DEMONSTRATIVES IN CLASSICAL EGYPTIAN

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

EdmundS.Meltzer

1995-01-01

The employment of both "bipartite" and "tripartite" nominal sentence patterns containing demonstratives of the n-series in Middle Egyptian~1 shows a characteristic sufficiently consistent to warrant the suggestion that a semantic constraint is operative: VIZ., that those sentences are employed with NPs that are [-PERSON], not [+PERSON]. Therefore, sentences such as ~*R’/it.i/ink (pw) nn/nf(3)/n3/nw are excluded. In a sentence suc(?) as bit.i pw n3 "This is my character/conduct"~2, bit.i "my character/conduct" is [-PERSON], whereas one could not say, e.g., ~*s3. i pw n3 "This is my son." According to this hypothesis, all Middle Egyptian

Concept and Idea-Project for Yugoslav Low and Intermediate level Radioactive Waste Materials Final Disposal Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peric, A.

1997-01-01

Encapsulation of rad waste in a mortar matrix and displacement of such solidified waste forms into the shallow land burial system, engineered trench system type is suggested concept for the final disposal of low and intermediate level rad waste. The mortar-rad waste mixtures are cured in containers of either concrete or metal for an appropriate period of time, after which solidified rad waste-mortar monoliths are then placed in the engineered trench system, parallelepiped honeycomb structure. Trench consists of vertical barrier-walls, bottom barrier-floors, surface barrier-caps and permeable-reactive walls. Surroundings of the trench consists of buffer barrier materials, mainly clay. Each segment of the trench is equipped with the independent drainage system, as a part of the main drainage. Encapsulation of each filled trench honeycomb segment is performed with concrete cap. Completed trench is covered with impermeable plastic foil and soil leaner, preferably clay. Paper presents an overview of the final disposal facility engineered trench system type. Advantages in comparison with other types of final disposal system are given. (author)

The Russian Landing Rate, Central Bank’s Policy Related Rate and Intermediation Premium

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Chu V. Nguyen

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper illustrates asymmetries in the Russian intermediation premium as measured by the spread between the commercial lending rate and the Central Bank’s policy related rate. Empirical results have shown that the Russian intermediation premium adjusts to the threshold faster when the Central Bank’s policy related rates increase relative to lending rates as opposed to when the Central Bank’s policy related rates move in the opposite direction. The findings of this paper suggest that during the period when the Russian Federation faced formidable challenges from a sharp decline in oil prices and reduced access to international capital markets due to Western sanctions, the Central Bank of Russia was not effective in utilizing countercyclical monetary policy to achieve macroeconomic objectives and commercial banks exhibited predatory pricing behavior.

A grammar of newspaper editorial language: The complex sentence ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study sets out to examine what linguistic choices are made at the level of the sentence in selected English Language editorials in a particular newspaper in Ghana – the Daily Graphic. Data for the study consists of 338 selected sentences from 22 editorials of the Daily Graphic published in January 2008. We have ...

Speech production and working memory: The influence of cognitive load on sentence planning

OpenAIRE

Klaus, Jana

2015-01-01

For the last four decades, psycholinguistic research has dealt with the question to what extent elements of simple sentences like “The monk read the book” are planned ahead both on the abstract-lexical and phonological processing level. While a number of studies have shown that all up to the final element can be activated on these two levels, empirical evidence on the flexibility of the respective planning scopes is inconsistent, and a systematic delineation of the influence of different fo...

Paradoxical effects of compulsive perseveration : Sentence repetition causes semantic uncertainty

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giele, Catharina L.; van den Hout, Marcel A.; Engelhard, Iris M.; Dek, Eliane C P

2014-01-01

Many patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) perform perseverative checking behavior to reduce uncertainty, but studies have shown that this ironically increases uncertainty. Some patients also tend to perseveratively repeat sentences. The aim of this study was to examine whether sentence

Phonological Planning during Sentence Production: Beyond the Verb.

Science.gov (United States)

Schnur, Tatiana T

2011-01-01

The current study addresses the extent of phonological planning during spontaneous sentence production. Previous work shows that at articulation, phonological encoding occurs for entire phrases, but encoding beyond the initial phrase may be due to the syntactic relevance of the verb in planning the utterance. I conducted three experiments to investigate whether phonological planning crosses multiple grammatical phrase boundaries (as defined by the number of lexical heads of phrase) within a single phonological phrase. Using the picture-word interference paradigm, I found in two separate experiments a significant phonological facilitation effect to both the verb and noun of sentences like "He opens the gate." I also altered the frequency of the direct object and found longer utterance initiation times for sentences ending with a low-frequency vs. high-frequency object offering further support that the direct object was phonologically encoded at the time of utterance initiation. That phonological information for post-verbal elements was activated suggests that the grammatical importance of the verb does not restrict the extent of phonological planning. These results suggest that the phonological phrase is unit of planning, where all elements within a phonological phrase are encoded before articulation. Thus, consistent with other action sequencing behavior, there is significant phonological planning ahead in sentence production.

A comparison of two pedagogical systems of sentence analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

2011-01-01

This paper describes, compares, and analyzes the slashes-and-vertical-lines model of sentence analysis and the SPOAC model, both of which were designed with pedagogical purposes in mind.......This paper describes, compares, and analyzes the slashes-and-vertical-lines model of sentence analysis and the SPOAC model, both of which were designed with pedagogical purposes in mind....

Sentence connexion and global text structures: a case study of a political text, English leader article

OpenAIRE

Stein, Dieter; Mattei, Adriana

1993-01-01

The paper first gives a brief overview of the history and theoretical status of discourse analysis, or "text linguistics." The main body of the paper consists of a detailed analysis of sentence connexion, i.e. the logical relationship between sentences and larger chunks of text, performed on a newspaper leader article. The results of this local analysis are then related to the global organisation of text structure with components such as macro- and super-structure by way of int...

Neural networks mediating sentence reading in the deaf

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Elizabeth Ann Hirshorn

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The present work addresses the neural bases of sentence reading in deaf populations. To better understand the relative role of deafness and English knowledge in shaping the neural networks that mediate sentence reading, three populations with different degrees of English knowledge and depth of hearing loss were included – deaf signers, oral deaf and hearing individuals. The three groups were matched for reading comprehension and scanned while reading sentences. A similar neural network of left perisylvian areas was observed, supporting the view of a shared network of areas for reading despite differences in hearing and English knowledge. However, differences were observed, in particular in the auditory cortex, with deaf signers and oral deaf showing greatest bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG recruitment as compared to hearing individuals. Importantly, within deaf individuals, the same STG area in the left hemisphere showed greater recruitment as hearing loss increased. To further understand the functional role of such auditory cortex re-organization after deafness, connectivity analyses were performed from the STG regions identified above. Connectivity from the left STG toward areas typically associated with semantic processing (BA45 and thalami was greater in deaf signers and in oral deaf as compared to hearing. In contrast, connectivity from left STG toward areas identified with speech-based processing was greater in hearing and in oral deaf as compared to deaf signers. These results support the growing literature indicating recruitment of auditory areas after congenital deafness for visually-mediated language functions, and establish that both auditory deprivation and language experience shape its functional reorganization. Implications for differential reliance on semantic vs. phonological pathways during reading in the three groups is discussed.

Expectation and task for constructing the volume reduction system of removed soils. In search of the technical integrity from the intermediate storage to final disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mori, Hisaki

2016-01-01

The intermediate storage volume of the removed soils and incineration ash in Fukushima is supposed about 22 million cubic meters. Within 30 years after starting the intermediate storage, the final disposal outside Fukushima prefecture to these removed soils and incineration ash is determined by the law. Because these removed soils are the very-very low radio activity, the volume reduction method is most effective to reduce the burden of the final disposal. As the volume reduction technology is the stage of research and development, the possibility of the introduction of the volume reduction technology that has the consistency of the final disposal technology is evaluated from the point of view of cost. Since this business is accompanied by economic and technical risk to implement private companies, this project is considered appropriate to be implemented as a national project. (author)

The Interlanguage Interference on the Difficulties of Building Question Sentences by the Second Year Students of MA As Soorkaty Salatiga

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Sari Famularsih

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This study is aimed to elaborate the interlanguage interference of the difficulties which are faced by 40 second year students of MA As Soorkaty Salatiga in academic year of 2004-2005 in building question sentences and the sources of difficulties. The research is conducted by such kind of test. The total number of test are 20 items, consist of 5 yes-no questions, 5 W-H questions, and 10 tag questions which is done in a written essay form. Based on the analysis, the result shows some conclusions. Firstly, the researcher finds the types of difficulties problems are faced by the students in building question mastery, such as: (1 building yes-no question sentences in translation the word “apakah”, that is related with the use of to be. (2 Building interrogative word question sentences in translation the words “apa”, “kapan”, “milik siapa”, etc. That are related with the use of “what”, “when”, “whose”, etc. (3 Completing the tag question sentences with the proper auxiliary based on tense of the sentences. The most difficulties in building question sentences are especially in yes-no question form by using the word “apakah”. In the term of interlanguage, the students’ errors are mostly included in expressing meaning by the words and grammar of the first language. The source of difficulties which have been analyzed are mostly caused by inter lingual and intra lingual transfer.

Task-dependent modulation of regions in the left temporal cortex during auditory sentence comprehension.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Linjun; Yue, Qiuhai; Zhang, Yang; Shu, Hua; Li, Ping

2015-01-01

Numerous studies have revealed the essential role of the left lateral temporal cortex in auditory sentence comprehension along with evidence of the functional specialization of the anterior and posterior temporal sub-areas. However, it is unclear whether task demands (e.g., active vs. passive listening) modulate the functional specificity of these sub-areas. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we addressed this issue by applying both independent component analysis (ICA) and general linear model (GLM) methods. Consistent with previous studies, intelligible sentences elicited greater activity in the left lateral temporal cortex relative to unintelligible sentences. Moreover, responses to intelligibility in the sub-regions were differentially modulated by task demands. While the overall activation patterns of the anterior and posterior superior temporal sulcus and middle temporal gyrus (STS/MTG) were equivalent during both passive and active tasks, a middle portion of the STS/MTG was found to be selectively activated only during the active task under a refined analysis of sub-regional contributions. Our results not only confirm the critical role of the left lateral temporal cortex in auditory sentence comprehension but further demonstrate that task demands modulate functional specialization of the anterior-middle-posterior temporal sub-areas. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Cognitive Basis for Sentence Planning Difficulties in Discourse after Traumatic Brain Injury

Science.gov (United States)

Peach, Richard K.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Analyses of language production of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) place increasing emphasis on microlinguistic (i.e., within-sentence) patterns. It is unknown whether the observed problems involve implementation of well-formed sentence frames or represent a fundamental linguistic disturbance in computing sentence structure.…

Brain Activity while Reading Sentences with Kanji Characters Expressing Emotions

Science.gov (United States)

Yuasa, Masahide; Saito, Keiichi; Mukawa, Naoki

In this paper, we describe the brain activity associated with kanji characters expressing emotion, which are places at the end of a sentence. Japanese people use a special kanji character in brackets at the end of sentences in text messages such as those sent through e-mail and messenger tools. Such kanji characters plays a role to expresses the sender's emotion (such as fun, laughter, sadness, tears), like emoticons. It is a very simple and effective way to convey the senders' emotions and his/her thoughts to the receiver. In this research, we investigate the effects of emotional kanji characters by using an fMRI study. The experimental results show that both the right and left inferior frontal gyrus, which have been implicated on verbal and nonverbal information, were activated. We found that we detect a sentence with an emotional kanji character as the verbal and nonverval information, and a sentence with emotional kanji characters enrich communication between the sender and the reciever.

Determination Bounds for Intermediate Products in a Two-Stage Network DEA

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Hadi Bagherzadeh Valami

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The internal structure of decision making unit (DMU is the key element at extension of network DEA. In general considering internal performance evaluation of system is a better criterion than the conventional DEA-models, essentially based on the initial inputs and final outputs of the system. The internal performance of a system is dependent on the relation between sub-DMUs and intermediate products. Since the intermediate measures are consumed by some sub-DMUs produced by the others, it is possible to produce systems; the role of intermediate production is twice output and input. That's why they can be analyzed based on conventional mathematical modeling. In this paper we introduce a new method for determining bounds for intermediate product in a two stage network DEA structure.

Court sentences in the aspect of theorems of validity, justice and certainty of bisectrixity

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Sergey G. Ol’kov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective to prove the theorems of validity justice and certainty of bisectrixity to elaborate the mathematical bases of the theory of court sentences. Methods observation deduction and induction applying the law of formal logic comparative analysis formaljuridical method mathematical methods. Results 1 theorems of validity justice and certainty of bisectrixity are proved and detailed 2 equally probable equilibrium and diagonal court sentences are viewed in the 2dimensional 3dimensional 4dimensional and 5dimensional space of criminal liability when the scope of punishment is determined by four variables y f x1 x2 x3 x4 where y ndash scope of punishment x1 ndash character and degree of the public danger of the deed x2 ndash category of a criminal public danger of the personality x3 ndash circumstances aggravating punishment x4 ndash circumstances extenuating punishment f ndash parameters of the equation connecting the left and right parts of the equation 3 aggravating and extenuating circumstances can be integrated into a single variable in the form of a fraction where the numerator is the scope of circumstances aggravating punishment x3 and thenbspdenominator is the extenuating circumstances x4 thus we obtain an integrated variable x3 x4 4 it is proved that the certainty of diagonal sentence is s c or v c times larger than the certainty of the equally probable sentence where с is the length of the diagonal s is the area of sentences vnbspis the space of sentences 5 it is proved that the bisectral sentence is the most optimal among the equilibrium ones as it equally takes into account the functions of the defense and the prosecution. Scientific novelty the newly obtained scientific results. Practical significance possibility to use the obtained scientific results for the development of criminallegal and criminalprocedural theories tonbspincrease the level of justice of the court sentences. Keywords Criminal procedure Theorem of validity Theorem

Storage costs and heuristics interact to produce patterns of aphasic sentence comprehension performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, David Glenn

2012-01-01

Despite general agreement that aphasic individuals exhibit difficulty understanding complex sentences, the nature of sentence complexity itself is unresolved. In addition, aphasic individuals appear to make use of heuristic strategies for understanding sentences. This research is a comparison of predictions derived from two approaches to the quantification of sentence complexity, one based on the hierarchical structure of sentences, and the other based on dependency locality theory (DLT). Complexity metrics derived from these theories are evaluated under various assumptions of heuristic use. A set of complexity metrics was derived from each general theory of sentence complexity and paired with assumptions of heuristic use. Probability spaces were generated that summarized the possible patterns of performance across 16 different sentence structures. The maximum likelihood of comprehension scores of 42 aphasic individuals was then computed for each probability space and the expected scores from the best-fitting points in the space were recorded for comparison to the actual scores. Predictions were then compared using measures of fit quality derived from linear mixed effects models. All three of the metrics that provide the most consistently accurate predictions of patient scores rely on storage costs based on the DLT. Patients appear to employ an Agent-Theme heuristic, but vary in their tendency to accept heuristically generated interpretations. Furthermore, the ability to apply the heuristic may be degraded in proportion to aphasia severity. DLT-derived storage costs provide the best prediction of sentence comprehension patterns in aphasia. Because these costs are estimated by counting incomplete syntactic dependencies at each point in a sentence, this finding suggests that aphasia is associated with reduced availability of cognitive resources for maintaining these dependencies.

The development and validation of the Closed-set Mandarin Sentence (CMS) test.

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Duo-Duo; Fu, Qian-Jie; Galvin, John J; Yu, Ya-Feng

2017-09-01

Matrix-styled sentence tests offer a closed-set paradigm that may be useful when evaluating speech intelligibility. Ideally, sentence test materials should reflect the distribution of phonemes within the target language. We developed and validated the Closed-set Mandarin Sentence (CMS) test to assess Mandarin speech intelligibility in noise. CMS test materials were selected to be familiar words and to represent the natural distribution of vowels, consonants, and lexical tones found in Mandarin Chinese. Ten key words in each of five categories (Name, Verb, Number, Color, and Fruit) were produced by a native Mandarin talker, resulting in a total of 50 words that could be combined to produce 100,000 unique sentences. Normative data were collected in 10 normal-hearing, adult Mandarin-speaking Chinese listeners using a closed-set test paradigm. Two test runs were conducted for each subject, and 20 sentences per run were randomly generated while ensuring that each word was presented only twice in each run. First, the level of the words in each category were adjusted to produce equal intelligibility in noise. Test-retest reliability for word-in-sentence recognition was excellent according to Cronbach's alpha (0.952). After the category level adjustments, speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for sentences in noise, defined as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that produced 50% correct whole sentence recognition, were adaptively measured by adjusting the SNR according to the correctness of response. The mean SRT was -7.9 (SE=0.41) and -8.1 (SE=0.34) dB for runs 1 and 2, respectively. The mean standard deviation across runs was 0.93 dB, and paired t-tests showed no significant difference between runs 1 and 2 (p=0.74) despite random sentences being generated for each run and each subject. The results suggest that the CMS provides large stimulus set with which to repeatedly and reliably measure Mandarin-speaking listeners' speech understanding in noise using a closed-set paradigm.

Sentence processing and verbal working memory in a white-matter-disconnection patient.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Lars; Cunitz, Katrin; Obleser, Jonas; Friederici, Angela D

2014-08-01

The Arcuate Fasciculus/Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (AF/SLF) is the white-matter bundle that connects posterior superior temporal and inferior frontal cortex. Its causal functional role in sentence processing and verbal working memory is currently under debate. While impairments of sentence processing and verbal working memory often co-occur in patients suffering from AF/SLF damage, it is unclear whether these impairments result from shared white-matter damage to the verbal-working-memory network. The present study sought to specify the behavioral consequences of focal AF/SLF damage for sentence processing and verbal working memory, which were assessed in a single patient suffering from a cleft-like lesion spanning the deep left superior temporal gyrus, sparing most surrounding gray matter. While tractography suggests that the ventral fronto-temporal white-matter bundle is intact in this patient, the AF/SLF was not visible to tractography. In line with the hypothesis that the AF/SLF is causally involved in sentence processing, the patient׳s performance was selectively impaired on sentences that jointly involve both complex word orders and long word-storage intervals. However, the patient was unimpaired on sentences that only involved long word-storage intervals without involving complex word orders. On the contrary, the patient performed generally worse than a control group across standard verbal-working-memory tests. We conclude that the AF/SLF not only plays a causal role in sentence processing, linking regions of the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus to the temporo-parietal region, but moreover plays a crucial role in verbal working memory, linking regions of the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus to the left temporo-parietal region. Together, the specific sentence-processing impairment and the more general verbal-working-memory impairment may imply that the AF/SLF subserves both sentence processing and verbal working memory, possibly pointing to the AF

Generative re-ranking model for dependency parsing of Italian sentences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sangati, F.

2009-01-01

We present a general framework for dependency parsing of Italian sentences based on a combination of discriminative and generative models. We use a state-of-the-art discriminative model to obtain a k-best list of candidate structures for the test sentences, and use the generative model to compute

The Inextricable Link between Age and Criminal History in Sentencing

Science.gov (United States)

Bushway, Shawn D.; Piehl, Anne Morrison

2007-01-01

In sentencing research, significant negative coefficients on age research have been interpreted as evidence that actors in the criminal justice system discriminate against younger people. This interpretation is incomplete. Criminal sentencing laws generally specify punishment in terms of the number of past events in a defendant's criminal history.…

A Computerized Version of the Scrambled Sentences Test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Viviani

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The scrambled sentences test (SST, an experimental procedure that involves participants writing down their cognitions, has been used to elicit individual differences in depressiveness and vulnerability to depression. We describe here a modification of the SST to adapt it to computerized administration, with a particular view of its use in large samples and functional neuroimaging applications. In a first study with the computerized version, we reproduce the preponderance of positive cognitions in the healthy and the inverse association of these cognitions with individual measures of depressiveness. We also report a tendency of self-referential cognitions to elicit higher positive cognition rates. In a second study, we describe the patterns of neural activations elicited by emotional and neutral sentences in a functional neuroimaging study, showing that it replicates and extends previous findings obtained with the original version of the SST. During the formation of emotional cognitions, ventral areas such as the ventral anterior cingulus and the supramarginal gyrus were relatively activated. This activation pattern speaks for the recruitment of mechanisms coordinating motivational and associative processes in the formation of value-based decisions.

The Syntactic Analysis of Pronoun Homofunction Considering Verb Structure and the Function of Connected Pronouns in Passive-Emotional Sentences

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Mohammad Irani

2017-04-01

   All these sentences express a kind of passive and emotional reaction; hence, it must certainly be considered to get the meaning of such sentences. Khābash gereft, for example, means he fell asleep.In the other hand, paying attention to the meaning will notably be effective in determining the verb type in structure and the grammatical role of the words in such sentences. According to the authors of this research, unlike some ideas, the verb structure is not compounded in these sentences, but is a nominal/adjectival component before the homo-function, recognized to be a part of the compound verb by some grammarians and linguists, has a subject role; and the homo-function is also a simple verb completely agreeing in suffix with the subject. The role of the pronoun suffixes, also, must be determined paying special attention to their role in traditional grammar because we think sometimes proposing ideas on some grammatical points might not bring about acceptable results regardless of their background and historic relations. Since pronoun suffixes occur only as objects, complements and genitives, the joint pronouns in these sentences are not an exception and have the same roles. The accompanying noun or adjective is the subject. The disjoint initial noun or pronoun, the “pronoun homo-role”, can be replaced by the pronoun suffix in some sentences, but makes the sentence ungrammatical in most cases.

The Effects of Syntactic Complexity on Processing Sentences in Noise

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Carroll, Rebecca; Ruigendijk, Esther

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the influence of stationary (non-fluctuating) noise on processing and understanding of sentences, which vary in their syntactic complexity (with the factors canonicity, embedding, ambiguity). It presents data from two RT-studies with 44 participants testing processing of German sentences in silence and in noise. Results show a…

Focal F0 peak shape and sentence mode in Swedish

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ambrazaitis, Gilbert; Buanzur, Tuarik C.; Niebuhr, Oliver

2015-01-01

Shape characteristics of rising-falling accentual F0 peaks of Stockholm Swedish Accent I words in narrow focus are studied in a corpus of 287 read sentences. The corpus includes statements and three types of polar questions. Results reveal a clear effect of sentence mode on the shape of the accen...

Spatial distance effects on incremental semantic interpretation of abstract sentences: evidence from eye tracking.

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Guerra, Ernesto; Knoeferle, Pia

2014-12-01

A large body of evidence has shown that visual context information can rapidly modulate language comprehension for concrete sentences and when it is mediated by a referential or a lexical-semantic link. What has not yet been examined is whether visual context can also modulate comprehension of abstract sentences incrementally when it is neither referenced by, nor lexically associated with, the sentence. Three eye-tracking reading experiments examined the effects of spatial distance between words (Experiment 1) and objects (Experiment 2 and 3) on participants' reading times for sentences that convey similarity or difference between two abstract nouns (e.g., 'Peace and war are certainly different...'). Before reading the sentence, participants inspected a visual context with two playing cards that moved either far apart or close together. In Experiment 1, the cards turned and showed the first two nouns of the sentence (e.g., 'peace', 'war'). In Experiments 2 and 3, they turned but remained blank. Participants' reading times at the adjective (Experiment 1: first-pass reading time; Experiment 2: total times) and at the second noun phrase (Experiment 3: first-pass times) were faster for sentences that expressed similarity when the preceding words/objects were close together (vs. far apart) and for sentences that expressed dissimilarity when the preceding words/objects were far apart (vs. close together). Thus, spatial distance between words or entirely unrelated objects can rapidly and incrementally modulate the semantic interpretation of abstract sentences. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

German Children’s Use of Word Order and Case Marking to Interpret Simple and Complex Sentences: Testing Differences Between Constructions and Lexical Items

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Brandt, Silke; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Children and adults follow cues such as case marking and word order in their assignment of semantic roles in simple transitives (e.g., the dog chased the cat). It has been suggested that the same cues are used for the interpretation of complex sentences, such as transitive relative clauses (RCs) (e.g., that’s the dog that chased the cat) (Bates, Devescovi, & D’Amico, 1999). We used a pointing paradigm to test German-speaking 3-, 4-, and 6-year-old children’s sensitivity to case marking and word order in their interpretation of simple transitives and transitive RCs. In Experiment 1, case marking was ambiguous. The only cue available was word order. In Experiment 2, case was marked on lexical NPs or demonstrative pronouns. In Experiment 3, case was marked on lexical NPs or personal pronouns. Whereas the younger children mainly followed word order, the older children were more likely to base their interpretations on the more reliable case-marking cue. In most cases, children from both age groups were more likely to use these cues in their interpretation of simple transitives than in their interpretation of transitive RCs. Finally, children paid more attention to nominative case when it was marked on first-person personal pronouns than when it was marked on third-person lexical NPs or demonstrative pronouns, such as der Löwe ‘the-NOM lion’ or der ‘he-NOM.’ They were able to successfully integrate this case-marking cue in their sentence processing even when it appeared late in the sentence. We discuss four potential reasons for these differences across development, constructions, and lexical items. (1) Older children are relatively more sensitive to cue reliability. (2) Word order is more reliable in simple transitives than in transitive RCs. (3) The processing of case marking might initially be item-specific. (4) The processing of case marking might depend on its saliency and position in the sentence. PMID:27019652

Authoritarian personality and rape sentence length in conservative and liberal states.

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McCann, Stewart J H

2009-06-01

The author tested the claim that authoritarians desire exceptionally strong punishment for rapists. Given data on 55,966 felons sentenced in 32 U.S. states in 1986 for homicide, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, and drug offenses (D. A. Bowers & J. L. Waltman, 1993) and given state conservatism scores of 141,798 respondents to 122 1976-1988 CBS and The New York Times national telephone polls (R. Erikson, G. Wright, & J. McIver, 1993) as proxies for authoritarianism, regression analyses showed state conservatism accounted for 18.9%, F(1, 18) = 7.11, p < .01, of the rape sentence length variance when sentence lengths for the 7 other offenses were controlled for and 12.5%, F(1, 27) = 8.16, p < .01, with means substituted for missing data. In both analyses, state conservatism and rape sentence length were positively correlated.

Production of graphic symbol sentences by individuals with aphasia: efficacy of a computer-based augmentative and alternative communication intervention.

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Koul, Rajinder; Corwin, Melinda; Hayes, Summer

2005-01-01

The study employed a single-subject multiple baseline design to examine the ability of 9 individuals with severe Broca's aphasia or global aphasia to produce graphic symbol sentences of varying syntactical complexity using a software program that turns a computer into a speech output communication device. The sentences ranged in complexity from simple two-word phrases to those with morphological inflections, transformations, and relative clauses. Overall, results indicated that individuals with aphasia are able to access, manipulate, and combine graphic symbols to produce phrases and sentences of varying degrees of syntactical complexity. The findings are discussed in terms of the clinical and public policy implications.

Online Sentence Comprehension in PPA: Verb-Based Integration and Prediction

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Jennifer E Mack

2015-05-01

first 500 ms after the offset of the verb. Logistic regression was used to compare the rate of target fixations between PPA and controls and to test for differences between PPA subtypes. Results. In the verb-based integration experiment (Fig. 1a, PPA listeners as well as controls showed rapid access to verb meaning, making more target fixations in the restrictive than unrestrictive conditions in the first 500 ms after verb offset. No significant differences were found between participant groups. In the verb-based prediction experiment (Fig. 1b, control listeners exhibited a greater difference between the restrictive and unrestrictive conditions compared to PPA listeners. In both experiments, no significant differences were found between PPA subtypes. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest that access to verb meaning is relatively preserved in PPA and can facilitate integration of verb-arguments. However, prediction of verb-arguments is impaired. These findings are in line with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia, in which prediction is markedly impaired (Mack et al., 2013. The similar pattern of results across PPA subtypes should be interpreted cautiously due to small sample sizes. However, these findings suggest that – despite well-established differences in word and sentence comprehension impairments – there may also be shared deficits across PPA subtypes that affect the ability to use lexical information predictively during sentence comprehension.

Older and Wiser: Older Adults’ Episodic Word Memory Benefits from Sentence Study Contexts

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Matzen, Laura E.; Benjamin, Aaron S.

2013-01-01

A hallmark of adaptive cognition is the ability to modulate learning in response to the demands posed by different types of tests and different types of materials. Here we evaluate how older adults process words and sentences differently by examining patterns of memory errors. In two experiments, we explored younger and older adults’ sensitivity to lures on a recognition test following study of words in these two types of contexts. Among the studied words were compound words such as “blackmail” and “jailbird” that were related to conjunction lures (e.g. “blackbird”) and semantic lures (e.g. “criminal”). Participants engaged in a recognition test that included old items, conjunction lures, semantic lures, and unrelated new items. In both experiments, younger and older adults had the same general pattern of memory errors: more incorrect endorsements of semantic than conjunction lures following sentence study and more incorrect endorsements of conjunction than semantic lures following list study. The similar pattern reveals that older and younger adults responded to the constraints of the two different study contexts in similar ways. However, while younger and older adults showed similar levels of memory performance for the list study context, the sentence study context elicited superior memory performance in the older participants. It appears as though memory tasks that take advantage of greater expertise in older adults--in this case, greater experience with sentence processing--can reveal superior memory performance in the elderly. PMID:23834493

Reproducing American Sign Language Sentences: Cognitive Scaffolding in Working Memory

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Ted eSupalla

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The American Sign Language Sentence Reproduction Test (ASL-SRT requires the precise reproduction of a series of ASL sentences increasing in complexity and length. Error analyses of such tasks provides insight into working memory and scaffolding processes. Data was collected from three groups expected to differ in fluency: deaf children, deaf adults and hearing adults, all users of ASL. Quantitative (correct/incorrect recall and qualitative error analyses were performed. Percent correct on the reproduction task supports its sensitivity to fluency as test performance clearly differed across the three groups studied. A linguistic analysis of errors further documented differing strategies and bias across groups. Subjects’ recall projected the affordance and constraints of deep linguistic representations to differing degrees, with subjects resorting to alternate processing strategies in the absence of linguistic knowledge. A qualitative error analysis allows us to capture generalizations about the relationship between error pattern and the cognitive scaffolding, which governs the sentence reproduction process. Highly fluent signers and less-fluent signers share common chokepoints on particular words in sentences. However, they diverge in heuristic strategy. Fluent signers, when they make an error, tend to preserve semantic details while altering morpho-syntactic domains. They produce syntactically correct sentences with equivalent meaning to the to-be-reproduced one, but these are not verbatim reproductions of the original sentence. In contrast, less-fluent signers tend to use a more linear strategy, preserving lexical status and word ordering while omitting local inflections, and occasionally resorting to visuo-motoric imitation. Thus, whereas fluent signers readily use top-down scaffolding in their working memory, less fluent signers fail to do so. Implications for current models of working memory across spoken and signed modalities are

Prediction during sentence comprehension in aphasia

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Michael Walsh Dickey

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Much recent psycholinguistic work has focused on prediction in language comprehension (Altmann & Kamide, 1999; Federmeier, 2007; Levy, 2008. Unimpaired adults predict upcoming words and phrases based on material in the preceding context, like verbs (Altmann & Kamide, 1999 or constraining sentence contexts (Federmeier, 2007. Several models have tied rapid prediction to the language production system (Federmeier, 2007; Pickering & Garrod, 2013; Dell & Chang, 2014. Evidence for this link comes from that fact that older adults with lower verbal fluency show less predictive behavior (Federmeier, et al., 2010; DeLong, et al., 2012. Prediction in aphasic language comprehension has not been widely investigated, even though constraining sentence contexts are strongly facilitative for naming in aphasia (e.g., Love & Webb, 1977. Mack, et al. (2013 found in a visual-world task that people with aphasia (PWA do not predict upcoming objects based on verbs (cf. Altmann & Kamide, 1999. This finding suggests that prediction may be reduced in aphasia. However, it is unclear whether reduced prediction was caused by language-production impairments: all the PWA in their study had non-fluent aphasia. The current study examined whether PWA show evidence of prediction based on constraining sentence contexts (e.g., Federmeier, 2007. Specifically, it tested whether they exhibited facilitation for highly predictable words in reading, using materials that have previously demonstrated strong predictability effects for unimpaired adults (Rayner, et al., 2004. In addition, it tested whether differences in language-production ability among PWA accounted for differences in predictive behavior (viz. Pickering & Garrod, 2013; Dell & Chang, 2014. Eight PWA read sentences adapted from Rayner, et al. (2004 in a self-paced reading task. The materials crossed word frequency with predictability: high- vs. low-frequency words (bottle/diaper were preceded by contexts which made them

VHTR engineering design study: intermediate heat exchanger program. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1976-11-01

The work reported is the result of a follow-on program to earlier Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) studies. The primary use of the VHTR is to provide heat for various industrial processes, such as hydrocarbon reforming and coal gasification. For many processes the use of an intermediate heat transfer barrier between the reactor coolant and the process is desirable; for some processes it is mandatory. Various intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) concepts for the VHTR were investigated with respect to safety, cost, and engineering design considerations. The reference processes chosen were steam-hydrocarbon reforming, with emphasis on the chemical heat pipe, and steam gasification of coal. The study investigates the critically important area of heat transfer between the reactor coolant, helium, and the various chemical processes

Theoretical research in intermediate energy nuclear physics: Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seki, R.

1987-01-01

This paper discusses the progress that has been made on the following problems: a numerical calculation of Skyrmiron scattering; (e,e'p) at high momentum transfer; spin-orbit nucleon-nucleon potential from Skyrme model; pionic atom anomaly; and field theory problems. The problems deal with various topics in intermediate-energy nuclear physics

The Influence of Emotional Words on Sentence Processing: Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence

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Martin-Loeches, Manuel; Fernandez, Anabel; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner; Casado, Pilar; Jimenez-Ortega, Laura; Fondevila, Sabela

2012-01-01

Whereas most previous studies on emotion in language have focussed on single words, we investigated the influence of the emotional valence of a word on the syntactic and semantic processes unfolding during sentence comprehension, by means of event-related brain potentials (ERP). Experiment 1 assessed how positive, negative, and neutral adjectives…

Comparison of reading performance tests concerning difficulty of sentences and paragraphs and their reliability

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Brussee, T.; van Nispen, R.M.A.; Klerkx, E.M.F.J.; Knol, D.L.; van Rens, G.H.M.B.

2015-01-01

In research and practice, sentences or paragraphs of reading tests may be randomly chosen to assess reading performance. This means that in addition to test reliability, all sentences or paragraphs should be reliable and equally difficult to read. The sentences and paragraphs of five (un-)

Jurors' locus of control and defendants' attractiveness in death penalty sentencing.

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Beckham, Crystal M; Spray, Beverly J; Pietz, Christina A

2007-06-01

The authors examined the relationship between jurors' locus of control and defendants' attractiveness in death penalty sentencing. Ninety-eight participants voluntarily served as mock jurors. The authors administered J. B. Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Locus of Control Scale to participants and then randomly assigned them to a group with either an attractive or an unattractive defendant (represented by photographs). Participants read a murder vignette and selected a punishment--either a lifetime jail sentence or the death penalty-for the defendant. Results indicated that neither jurors' locus of control nor defendants' attractiveness influenced sentencing. However, jurors' age and gender significantly influenced sentencing. Men, with the exception of the youngest men, were more likely than women to choose the death penalty. Additionally, young women were more likely than older women to select the death penalty. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the study of jury behavior and bias.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Judicial sentencing in adolescent and adult sexual assault cases.

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Du Mont, Janice; Forte, Tania; Badgley, Robin F

2008-06-01

This is the first Canadian study to focus directly on whether factors commonly identified as reflecting the seriousness of a sexual assault are noted by judges, and in turn, related to the severity of the sentences they impose. We examined adolescent and adult female sexual assault cases heard in Ontario between 1993 and 2001. Two hundred twenty-one cases were identified using Quicklaw, Canada's most comprehensive on-line legal information system, with data extracted onto a coding instrument. In 201 (91%) of these cases, a perpetrator had been sentenced to prison or jail. Judges reported that in a substantial proportion of these women they had been penetrated (67%), forced (49%), coerced (50%), physically injured (33%), and psychologically harmed (65%). However, only two of the six offence seriousness factors examined were associated with a prison versus jail sentence: the occurrence of vaginal and/or anal penetration and the threat or use of a weapon(s).

[Personality traits of drivers serving a custodial sentence for drink driving].

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Pawłowska, Beata; Rzeszutko, Ewa

2015-01-01

The aim of the work was the analysis of personality traits of men serving a custodial sentence for driving under the influence of alcohol. The study included 44 males serving a custodial sentence for drink driving, 45 males serving a custodial sentence for assault and robbery as well as 32 men with no criminal record, who had never driven a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. The following research methods were used during the study: the Socio-demographic Questionnaire designed by the authors, the KRS, the Cattell's IPAT, the NI, the ACL and the Life style Questionnaire. The obtained results indicate significant statistical differences between the men serving the custodial sentence for drink driving as regards stress coping, anxiety level, intensified need to look for new experiences as well as anti-social personality traits. The men serving a custodial sentence for drink driving show intensified traits of antisocial personality, higher level of anxiety, intensified impulsiveness irritability, distrust, aggression, egocentrism, eccentricity, intensified need for recognition, breaking social standards, experiencing various stimuli, new impressions, greater adaptation difficulties, less self-discipline, lower self-esteem as well as more frequently used destructive, escapist and emotional stress coping strategies as compared to the people with no criminal record, who never drove while under the influence of alcohol. As regards the intensity of personality disorders, stress coping strategies and self-image no significant differences were found between the men serving a custodial sentence for drink driving and those imprisoned for assault and robbery.

Effects of Word Frequency and Modality on Sentence Comprehension Impairments in People with Aphasia

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DeDe, Gayle

2012-01-01

Purpose: It is well known that people with aphasia have sentence comprehension impairments. The present study investigated whether lexical factors contribute to sentence comprehension impairments in both the auditory and written modalities using online measures of sentence processing. Method: People with aphasia and non brain-damaged controls…

Medicare and Medicaid programs; physicians' referrals to health care entities with which they have financial relationships: partial delay of effective date. Interim final rule with comment period; partial delay in effective date.

Science.gov (United States)

2001-12-03

This interim final rule with comment period delays for 1 year the effective date of the last sentence of 42 CFR 411.354(d)(1). Section 411.354(d)(1) was promulgated in the final rule entitled "Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Physicians' Referrals to Health Care Entities With Which They Have Financial Relationships," published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2001 (66 FR 856). A 1-year delay in the effective date of the last sentence in Section 411.354(d)(1) will give Department officials the opportunity to reconsider the definition of compensation that is "set in advance" as it relates to percentage compensation methodologies in order to avoid unnecessarily disrupting existing contractual arrangements for physician services. Accordingly, the last sentence of Section 411.354(d)(1), which would have become effective January 4, 2002, will not become effective until January 6,2003.

Sentence Processing in an Artificial Language: Learning and Using Combinatorial Constraints

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Amato, Michael S.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2010-01-01

A study combining artificial grammar and sentence comprehension methods investigated the learning and online use of probabilistic, nonadjacent combinatorial constraints. Participants learned a small artificial language describing cartoon monsters acting on objects. Self-paced reading of sentences in the artificial language revealed comprehenders'…

28 CFR 523.30 - What is educational good time sentence credit?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is educational good time sentence credit? 523.30 Section 523.30 Judicial Administration BUREAU OF PRISONS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INMATE ADMISSION, CLASSIFICATION, AND TRANSFER COMPUTATION OF SENTENCE District of Columbia Educational Good Time...

Development of equally intelligible Telugu sentence-lists to test speech recognition in noise.

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Tanniru, Kishore; Narne, Vijaya Kumar; Jain, Chandni; Konadath, Sreeraj; Singh, Niraj Kumar; Sreenivas, K J Ramadevi; K, Anusha

2017-09-01

To develop sentence lists in the Telugu language for the assessment of speech recognition threshold (SRT) in the presence of background noise through identification of the mean signal-to-noise ratio required to attain a 50% sentence recognition score (SRTn). This study was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved the selection and recording of Telugu sentences. In the second phase, 20 lists, each consisting of 10 sentences with equal intelligibility, were formulated using a numerical optimisation procedure. In the third phase, the SRTn of the developed lists was estimated using adaptive procedures on individuals with normal hearing. A total of 68 native Telugu speakers with normal hearing participated in the study. Of these, 18 (including the speakers) performed on various subjective measures in first phase, 20 performed on sentence/word recognition in noise for second phase and 30 participated in the list equivalency procedures in third phase. In all, 15 lists of comparable difficulty were formulated as test material. The mean SRTn across these lists corresponded to -2.74 (SD = 0.21). The developed sentence lists provided a valid and reliable tool to measure SRTn in Telugu native speakers.

Time Course of Lexicalization during Sentence Production in Parkinson's Disease: Eye-Tracking While Speaking

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Lee, Jiyeon

2017-01-01

Purpose: Growing evidence suggests that sentence formulation is affected in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, how speakers with PD coordinate sentence planning and speaking remains unclear. Within 2 competing models of sentence production, this study examined whether speakers with PD show advanced buffering of words to minimize disfluencies and…

Relatedness of content and sentence formation in Japanese

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Andrej Bekeš

1993-12-01

Full Text Available Leech (1983: 63-70 distinguishes two kinds of pragmatics, interpersonal prag­ matics and textual pragmatics.  Our article is concerned with textual pragmatics,  spe­ cifically with the textual motivations behind a format such as a sentence in Japanese. Studying spontaneous spoken discourse, Chafe (1980 proposed two units of spoken discourse on the basis of phonetical and intonational criteria, i.e. the "idea unit" and the "intonation sentence". He finds justification for both units in cognitive processes as follows. Idea units, most often verbalized as clauses, are the linguistic expression of cognitive units that Chafe calls "foci of consciousness". A focus of consciousness is a chunk of information small enough to be processed and verbalized in one step. Next, an intonation sentence, consisting usually of several idea units (or sometimes just one is the verbal expression of a larger cognitive unit, the "center of interest", a chunk of information too large to be verbalized in one step. Concerning the center of interest, Chafe puts forward the following hypothesis.

Partial Picture Effects on Children's Memory for Sentences Containing Implicit Information.

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Miller, Gloria E.; Pressley, Michael

1987-01-01

Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of partial picture adjuncts on young children's coding of information implied in sentences. Developmental differences were found in whether (l) partial pictures facilitated inferencing and (2) pictures containing information not explicitly stated in sentences promoted cue recall of the…

Saying What's on Your Mind: Working Memory Effects on Sentence Production

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Slevc, L. Robert

2011-01-01

The role of working memory (WM) in sentence comprehension has received considerable interest, but little work has investigated how sentence production relies on memory mechanisms. Three experiments investigated speakers' tendency to produce syntactic structures that allow for early production of material that is accessible in memory. In Experiment…

Comprehending Sentences with the Body: Action Compatibility in British Sign Language?

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Vinson, David; Perniss, Pamela; Fox, Neil; Vigliocco, Gabriella

2017-01-01

Previous studies show that reading sentences about actions leads to specific motor activity associated with actually performing those actions. We investigate how sign language input may modulate motor activation, using British Sign Language (BSL) sentences, some of which explicitly encode direction of motion, versus written English, where motion…

Development of a Theoretically Based Treatment for Sentence Comprehension Deficits in Individuals with Aphasia

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Kiran, Swathi; Caplan, David; Sandberg, Chaleece; Levy, Joshua; Berardino, Alex; Ascenso, Elsa; Villard, Sarah; Tripodis, Yorghos

2012-01-01

Purpose: Two new treatments, 1 based on sentence to picture matching (SPM) and the other on object manipulation (OM), that train participants on the thematic roles of sentences using pictures or by manipulating objects were piloted. Method: Using a single-subject multiple-baseline design, sentence comprehension was trained on the affected sentence…

The Influence of Biomedical Information and Childhood History on Sentencing.

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Kim, JongHan; Boytos, Abby; Seong, Yoori; Park, Kwangbai

2015-01-01

A recent trend in court is for defense attorneys to introduce brain scans and other forms of biomedical information (BI) into criminal trials as mitigating evidence. The present study investigates how BI, when considered in combination with a defendant's childhood information (CI), can influence the length of a defendant's sentence. We hypothesized that certain combinations of BI and CI result in shorter sentences because they suggest that the defendant poses less of a threat to society. Participants were asked to read accounts of the trial of a murder suspect and, based on the information therein, recommend a sentence as if they were the judge. The defendant was diagnosed with psychopathy, but biomedical information regarding that diagnosis was included or excluded depending on the BI condition. The defendant was further described as growing up in either a loving or abusive family. The results showed that, if BI was present in the trial account, the defendant from an abusive family was perceived as less of a threat to society and received a shorter recommended sentence than if the defendant had been from a loving family. If BI was absent from the account, the pattern was reversed: the defendant from a loving family was perceived as less of a threat to society and received a shorter recommended sentence than if he had been from an abusive family. Implications for the use of BI and CI in court trials are discussed, as well as their relationship to free will and the function of punishment as retribution and utility. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When Language Switching has No Apparent Cost: Lexical Access in Sentence Context

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Gullifer, Jason W.; Kroll, Judith F.; Dussias, Paola E.

2013-01-01

We report two experiments that investigate the effects of sentence context on bilingual lexical access in Spanish and English. Highly proficient Spanish-English bilinguals read sentences in Spanish and English that included a marked word to be named. The word was either a cognate with similar orthography and/or phonology in the two languages, or a matched non-cognate control. Sentences appeared in one language alone (i.e., Spanish or English) and target words were not predictable on the basis of the preceding semantic context. In Experiment 1, we mixed the language of the sentence within a block such that sentences appeared in an alternating run in Spanish or in English. These conditions partly resemble normally occurring inter-sentential code-switching. In these mixed-language sequences, cognates were named faster than non-cognates in both languages. There were no effects of switching the language of the sentence. In Experiment 2, with Spanish-English bilinguals matched closely to those who participated in the first experiment, we blocked the language of the sentences to encourage language-specific processes. The results were virtually identical to those of the mixed-language experiment. In both cases, target cognates were named faster than non-cognates, and the magnitude of the effect did not change according to the broader context. Taken together, the results support the predictions of the Bilingual Interactive Activation + Model (Dijkstra and van Heuven, 2002) in demonstrating that bilingual lexical access is language non-selective even under conditions in which language-specific cues should enable selective processing. They also demonstrate that, in contrast to lexical switching from one language to the other, inter-sentential code-switching of the sort in which bilinguals frequently engage, imposes no significant costs to lexical processing. PMID:23750141

When language switching has no apparent cost: Lexical access in sentence context

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Jason W. Gullifer

2013-05-01

Full Text Available We report two experiments that investigate the effects of sentence context on bilingual lexical access in Spanish and English. Highly proficient Spanish-English bilinguals read sentences in Spanish and English that included a marked word to be named. The word was either a cognate with similar orthography and/or phonology in the two languages, or a matched non-cognate control. Sentences appeared in one language alone (i.e., Spanish or English and target words were not predictable on the basis of the preceding semantic context. In Experiment 1, we mixed the language of the sentence within a block such that sentences appeared in an alternating run in Spanish or in English. These conditions partly resemble normally occurring inter-sentential code-switching. In these mixed language sequences, cognates were named faster than non-cognates in both languages. There were no effects of switching the language of the sentence. In Experiment 2, with Spanish-English bilinguals matched closely to those who participated in the first experiment, we blocked the language of the sentences to encourage language-specific processes. The results were virtually identical to those of the mixed language experiment. In both cases, target cognates were named faster than non-cognates, and the magnitude of the effect did not change according to the broader context. Taken together, the results support the predictions of the Bilingual Interactive Activation + Model (Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002 in demonstrating that bilingual lexical access is language nonselective even under conditions in which language-specific cues should enable selective processing. They also demonstrate that, in contrast to lexical switching from one language to the other, inter-sentential code-switching of the sort in which bilinguals frequently engage, imposes no significant costs to lexical processing.

NOTE TAKING PAIRS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS‟ SENTENCE BASED WRITING ACHIEVEMENT

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Testiana Deni Wijayatiningsih

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Students had skill to actualize their imagination and interpret their knowledge through writing which could be combined with good writing structure. Moreover, their writing skill still had low motivation and had not reached the standard writing structure. Based on the background above, this research has purpose to know the influence Note Taking Pairs in improving students‘sentence based writing achievement. The subject of this research was the second semester of English Department in Muhammadiyah University of Semarang. It also used statistic non parametric method to analyze the students‘ writing achievement. The result of this research showed that Note Taking Pairs strategy could improve students‘sentence based writing achievement. Hopefully this research is recommended into learning process to improve students‘writing skill especially in sentence-based writing subject.

Predicting Sentencing for Low-Level Crimes: Comparing Models of Human Judgment

Science.gov (United States)

von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jorg

2009-01-01

Laws and guidelines regulating legal decision making are often imposed without taking the cognitive processes of the legal decision maker into account. In the case of sentencing, this raises the question of whether the sentencing decisions of prosecutors and judges are consistent with legal policy. Especially in handling low-level crimes, legal…

Some Syntactic Features of Relative Constructions in the Greek New Testament

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Herman C du Toit

2016-07-01

Full Text Available In the Greek New Testament, relative sentences that are introduced by relative pronouns alone, apart from the adverbial uses, are the most frequent subordinate sentence type. The research reported on in this paper aimed to investigate and describe a number of syntactic features of relative constructions in the Greek New Testament, taking account, among others, of some typological parameters that have been developed in the general linguistics literature for these constructions.The results indicate that relative constructions in the Greek New Testament have a variety of features, all of which have counterparts in some modern (or other ancient languages, despite the differences. The relative sentence in the Greek New Testament is mostly postnominal, and the relative pronoun-type is used in those cases for encoding the role of the coreferential element in the relative sentence. Phrases expressing a variety of syntactic functions in a sentence (e.g. subject, direct object, etc. are accessible to relativisation, that is, they can be represented by relative pronouns. Nominal elements serve mostly as antecedents of relative sentences, although sentences appear in that function as well.A variety of syntactic types of relative sentences can be distinguished, including the prenominal participial, postnominal finite/participial, circumnominal, free relative, adverbial, prejoined, postjoined, sentential and conjoined types. These can be linked in a systematic way to the four functions of relative sentences in the New Testament, i.e. identifying, appositive, adverbial and continuative.Relative sentences also play a role in communicative strategies. Prejoined relative sentences, for example, are most suitable for exposition and theme-building, especially in the correlative diptych construction.

How the conceptions of Chinese rhetorical expressions are derived from the corresponding generic sentences

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Zhao, Wenhui

2018-04-01

Generic sentences are simple and intuitive recognition and objective description to the external world in terms of "class". In the long evolutionary process of human being's language, the concepts represented by generic sentences has been internalized to be the defaulted knowledge in people's minds. In Chinese, some rhetorical expressions supported by corresponding generic sentences can be accepted by people. The derivation of these rhetorical expressions from the corresponding generic sentences is an important way for language to evolution, which reflects human's creative cognitive competence. From the perspective of conceptual blend theory and the theory of categorization of the cognitive linguistics, the goal of this paper is to analysis the process of the derivation of the rhetorical expressions from the corresponding generic sentences, which can facilitate the Chinese metaphorical information processing and the corpus construction of Chinese emotion metaphors.

Fatal child abuse in Japan: does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?

Science.gov (United States)

Nambu, Saori; Nasu, Ayako; Nishimura, Shigeru; Nishimura, Akiyoshi; Fujiwara, Satoshi

2011-07-01

It has been pointed out in Japan that criminal punishment in domestic homicide cases, especially in fatal child abuse cases, tends to be more lenient than in public homicide cases that occur outside the home. In recent news accounts of fatal child abuse cases, however, the media has reported that court-imposed sentences have tended to be stricter every year. Using the online databases of three major Japanese newspapers, we collected articles about fatal child abuse cases that had been published from January 2008 to December 2009. We analyzed these articles to determine, whether a tendency towards tougher penalties, as was put forward by the media, actually exists at present time in the criminal system in Japan. We found 24 cases, out of which 20 involved only one offender and 4 involved two offenders. These 28 offenders comprised nine biological fathers, 11 biological mothers, and eight other male relatives of the child victims. We found that the sentences handed down by the court clearly tended to be more lenient for female offenders. A new system of criminal jurisprudence, the so-called saiban-in system wherein citizens serve as "lay judges" in criminal trials involving serious crimes, was implemented in Japan at the start of 2009. Each, district court has gradually adopted this new system after a preparation period of approximately five years starting in 2004. Many figures in the Japanese media predicted that the gap between social expectations and court sentences for sanction against domestic homicide cases would be filled with the present transitional period of the Japanese criminal system. However, the present study found no significant difference in the laws regarding sentencing in fatal child abuse cases before and after the preparation period of the saiban-in system.

Fatal Child Abuse in Japan: Does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?

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Satoshi Fujiwara

2011-07-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: It has been pointed out in Japan that criminal punishment in domestic homicide cases, especially in fatal child abuse cases, tends to be more lenient than in public homicide cases that occur outside the home. In recent news accounts of fatal child abuse cases, however, the media has reported that court-imposed sentences have tended to be stricter every year.METHODS: Using the online databases of three major Japanese newspapers, we collected articles about fatal child abuse cases that had been published from January 2008 to December 2009. We analyzed these articles to determine, whether a tendency towards tougher penalties, as was put forward by the media, actually exists at present time in the criminal system in Japan. RESULTS: We found 24 cases, out of which 20 involved only one offender and 4 involved two offenders. These 28 offenders comprised nine biological fathers, 11 biological mothers, and eight other male relatives of the child victims. We found that the sentences handed down by the court clearly tended to be more lenient for female offenders. A new system of criminal jurisprudence, the so-called saiban-in system wherein citizens serve as “lay judges” in criminal trials involving serious crimes, was implemented in Japan at the start of 2009. Each, district court has gradually adopted this new system after a preparation period of approximately five years starting in 2004. CONCLUSIONS: Many figures in the Japanese media predicted that the gap between social expectations and court sentences for sanction against domestic homicide cases would be filled with the present transitional period of the Japanese criminal system. However, the present study found no significant difference in the laws regarding sentencing in fatal child abuse cases before and after the preparation period of the saiban-in system.

Recurrence Quantification Analysis of Sentence-Level Speech Kinematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Eric S; Tiede, Mark; Riley, Michael A; Whalen, D H

2016-12-01

Current approaches to assessing sentence-level speech variability rely on measures that quantify variability across utterances and use normalization procedures that alter raw trajectory data. The current work tests the feasibility of a less restrictive nonlinear approach-recurrence quantification analysis (RQA)-via a procedural example and subsequent analysis of kinematic data. To test the feasibility of RQA, lip aperture (i.e., the Euclidean distance between lip-tracking sensors) was recorded for 21 typically developing adult speakers during production of a simple utterance. The utterance was produced in isolation and in carrier structures differing just in length or in length and complexity. Four RQA indices were calculated: percent recurrence (%REC), percent determinism (%DET), stability (MAXLINE), and stationarity (TREND). Percent determinism (%DET) decreased only for the most linguistically complex sentence; MAXLINE decreased as a function of linguistic complexity but increased for the longer-only sentence; TREND decreased as a function of both length and linguistic complexity. This research note demonstrates the feasibility of using RQA as a tool to compare speech variability across speakers and groups. RQA offers promise as a technique to assess effects of potential stressors (e.g., linguistic or cognitive factors) on the speech production system.

Some modifications of temporal relation in the sentence with the temporal clause

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Antonić Ivana N.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The subject matter of this paper is the modification of temporal relation in the complex sentence with the temporal clause. At the functional different Serbian language corpus the author notices the next types of modified temporality: excepted locational simultaneity complete or partial, and excepted locationalorientational posteriority formalized by the structure V SAMO/JEDINO/OSIM/SEM/IZUZEV(ONDA KAD VSub, and excepted locational simultaneity/excepted terminativity formalized by the structure V SAMO DOK (Neg VSub; sutuational locational simultaneity complete or partial formalized by the structure V U SITUACIJI / U SLUČAJU KAD VSub, with the posibility to be exceptivly modified in the structure V IZUZEV U SITUACIJI / U SLUČAJU KAD VSub; situational-concessive locational simultaneity complete or partial formalized by the structure V (ČAK I (ONDA KAD VSub; situational-conditional locational-orientational posteriority formalized by the structure V TEK (ONDA KAD VSub, and situational-conditional orientational posteriority formalized by the structure V TEK POŠTO VSub or V TEK NAKON ŠTO VSub and situational-conditional orientational quantified posteriority formalized by the structure V Quant TEK POŠTO VSub, and finaly situational-conditional terminativity formalized by the structure (Neg V SVE DOK Neg VSub. It can ocure sporadically supstitutiv temporality formalized by the structure V DetTemp (UMESTO KAD VSub, and consecutive-adversative temporality formalized by the structure KAD VSub A (ONDA V. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 178004: Sintaksička, semantička i pragmatička istraživanja standardnog srpskog jezika

An improved intermediate resonance method for heterogeneous media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiovato, O.; Corno, S.; Pasquantonio, F.Di.

1977-01-01

A new formulation is described of the Intermediate Resonance method which incorporates the previous developments suitably modified and improved, together with some new contributions. The 'intermediate' character is directly introduced in the integral operator K, allowing a more rigorous deduction of the equations for evaluating the intermediate parameters related to the nuclides involved in the system. There is no limit to the number of internal (admixed in the fuel) and external moderators. The capability to take into account the interference scattering has been extended to heterogeneous systems. The Doppler broadening is described by means of new accurate rational approximations to the broadened line shape psi. Finally the use of energy mean values suitably defined refines the values of the resonance integrals and resonance absorption cross sections. The Intermediate Resonance method so extended and improved, has been coded in a group of FORTRAN routines, which have been inserted as a calculation option in the fast section of the GGC code for the evaluation of multigroup cross sections. A series of calculations has been carried out, using these routines, and comparisons have been made with Monte Carlo and Nordheim's methods. The results obtained show that the Intermediate Resonance method developed in the present work offers considerable advantages over Nordheim's method: better accuracy in evaluating resonance absorption cross sections, and much smaller computing times. (author)

Communicative dynamism and prosodic prominence in presentation sentences with initial rhematic subjects

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Martin Adam

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Within the framework of the theory of functional sentence perspective (Firbas 1992, the distinction between presentation and quality scale sentences plays a vital role. The present paper proposes to shed light on one of the most common configurations of presentation sentences, viz. structures with initial rhematic subject (e.g. an uninvited dwarf came, examining the way native speakers place the intonation centre in such structures, i.e. to map the correspondence between the degrees of communicative dynamism and prosodic prominence. For the purpose of the investigation selected chapters from Tolkien’s The Hobbit are used.

Properties of raw materials and intermediate products in the production of uranium dioxide sintered tablets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landspersky, H.; Vanecek, I.; Podest, M.

1977-01-01

The properties are described of ammonium polyuranate and of powder uranium dioxide. Ammonium polyuranate, an intermediate product, is prepared by filtering the precipitate from uranyl nitrate solution precipitation, this either by an ammonia aqueous solution from a uranyl nitrate aqueous solution or by direct U 6+ precipitation from a TBP kerosene solution by aqueous concentrated ammonia. With relation to further processing, the major properties of the intermediate product include grain size, shape and appearance of crystallites, structure and thermal decomposition. These properties affect the properties of UO 2 , the following intermediate product obtained by reduction of ammonium polyuranate. Powder UO 2 is the final intermediate product; high-compacted UO 2 pellets are manufactured from it by compacting and sintering. The final product properties are affected by the following parameters: specific surface, grain size and shape, U/O ratio and compactibility. The effect of and the techniques of determining these parameters are shown. The necessity is emphasised of studying the properties of powder ammonium polyuranate because changes in its production technology affect the properties of further products. (J.P.)

32 CFR 16.3 - Available sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

.... Any lawful punishment or condition of punishment is authorized, including death, so long as the... sentence given to those who violate the law. Such reasons include: punishment of the wrongdoer; protection of society from the wrongdoer; deterrence of the wrongdoer and those who know of his crimes and...

Note related to the elaboration of a coding by key sentences for the programming of a document automatic selection system; Notice relative a l'elaboration d'un codage par phrases cles pour la programmation d'un systeme De selection automatique des documents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leroy, A. [Commissariat a l' energie atomique et aux energies alternatives - CEA, Service de Documentation (France); Braffort, P. [Commissariat a l' energie atomique et aux energies alternatives - CEA, Departement d' Electronique (France)

1959-07-01

This note deals with the providing of CEA documentalists with a tool for coding studies. The authors first discuss issues related to code selection criteria (author classification, topic classification, and so on), and propose an overview and a discussion of linguistic models. They also comment how diagrams illustrating relationships between words are built up, and propose a diagram representation example which includes different concepts such as conditions, properties, object, tools or processes (for example hardness for a steel, batch processing for a condition, or sintering for a process), and also the introduction of negation. Then, the authors address how basic concepts can be highlighted, describe how key sentences can be built up, and propose an example analysis in the case of a published article dealing with nuclear reactors (in this case, the study of a liquid-metal neutron absorber for the control of a gas-cooled power reactor). Perspectives of evolution are finally discussed.

Automatically classifying sentences in full-text biomedical articles into Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

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Agarwal, Shashank; Yu, Hong

2009-12-01

Biomedical texts can be typically represented by four rhetorical categories: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (IMRAD). Classifying sentences into these categories can benefit many other text-mining tasks. Although many studies have applied different approaches for automatically classifying sentences in MEDLINE abstracts into the IMRAD categories, few have explored the classification of sentences that appear in full-text biomedical articles. We first evaluated whether sentences in full-text biomedical articles could be reliably annotated into the IMRAD format and then explored different approaches for automatically classifying these sentences into the IMRAD categories. Our results show an overall annotation agreement of 82.14% with a Kappa score of 0.756. The best classification system is a multinomial naïve Bayes classifier trained on manually annotated data that achieved 91.95% accuracy and an average F-score of 91.55%, which is significantly higher than baseline systems. A web version of this system is available online at-http://wood.ims.uwm.edu/full_text_classifier/.

Musical metaphors: evidence for a spatial grounding of non-literal sentences describing auditory events.

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Wolter, Sibylla; Dudschig, Carolin; de la Vega, Irmgard; Kaup, Barbara

2015-03-01

This study investigated whether the spatial terms high and low, when used in sentence contexts implying a non-literal interpretation, trigger similar spatial associations as would have been expected from the literal meaning of the words. In three experiments, participants read sentences describing either a high or a low auditory event (e.g., The soprano sings a high aria vs. The pianist plays a low note). In all Experiments, participants were asked to judge (yes/no) whether the sentences were meaningful by means of up/down (Experiments 1 and 2) or left/right (Experiment 3) key press responses. Contrary to previous studies reporting that metaphorical language understanding differs from literal language understanding with regard to simulation effects, the results show compatibility effects between sentence implied pitch height and response location. The results are in line with grounded models of language comprehension proposing that sensory motor experiences are being elicited when processing literal as well as non-literal sentences. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Semantic Constraints on Bilingual Word Recognition during Sentence Reading

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Van Assche, Eva; Drieghe, Denis; Duyck, Wouter; Welvaert, Marijke; Hartsuiker, Robert J.

2011-01-01

The present study investigates how semantic constraint of a sentence context modulates language-non-selective activation in bilingual visual word recognition. We recorded Dutch-English bilinguals' eye movements while they read cognates and controls in low and high semantically constraining sentences in their second language. Early and late…

Aristotle on Sentence Types and Forms of Speech

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Gábor Bolonyai

2005-12-01

Full Text Available According to the Hermeneutics, Ch. 4, the analysis of non-assertoric sentences such as wishes, commands, etc. belongs to rhetoric or poetics. They are, however, examined neither in the Rhetoric nor in the Poetics, where (Ch. 20 their treatment. is explicitly excluded from the art of poetry and referred to that of delivery or performance. The paper gives an explanation for this discrepancy, based on an interpretation of Aristotle's rejection of Protagoras' criticism of Homer. The sophist found fault with the first line of the Iliad where Homer invokes the Muse by the imperative Menin aeide, thea thus uttering a command while believing that he is expressing a prayer. Aristotle's grounds for rejecting this criticism remain implicit, but it appears very likely that he thought that, if uttered or performed in the right manner, the sentence could he taken as a prayer. From this observation, which is certainly valid in this particular case, he drew the conclusion that performative or vocal features in themselves, i.e. rhythm, intonation and volume of sound, are always sufficient to identify particular „figures of speech“, as he calls non-assertoric sentence types in the Poetics. This conclusion is, however, not entirely justified. Performative features are not always enough to differentiate between two `figures of speech'; the possible range of verbal moods and sentence types is likewise determined by morphological marks (e.g. mood signs, syntactical features (word-order, and lexical items (certain adverbs or particles. Aristotle’s decision to dismiss figures of speech altogether from the field of lexis may also have contributed to the later development of keeping linguistics and theory of style apart as two separate branches of inquiry.

Predicting complex syntactic structure in real time: Processing of negative sentences in Russian.

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Kazanina, Nina

2017-11-01

In Russian negative sentences the verb's direct object may appear either in the accusative case, which is licensed by the verb (as is common cross-linguistically), or in the genitive case, which is licensed by the negation (Russian-specific "genitive-of-negation" phenomenon). Such sentences were used to investigate whether case marking is employed for anticipating syntactic structure, and whether lexical heads other than the verb can be predicted on the basis of a case-marked noun phrase. Experiment 1, a completion task, confirmed that genitive-of-negation is part of Russian speakers' active grammatical repertoire. In Experiments 2 and 3, the genitive/accusative case manipulation on the preverbal object led to shorter reading times at the negation and verb in the genitive versus accusative condition. Furthermore, Experiment 3 manipulated linear order of the direct object and the negated verb in order to distinguish whether the abovementioned facilitatory effect was predictive or integrative in nature, and concluded that the parser actively predicts a verb and (otherwise optional) negation on the basis of a preceding genitive-marked object. Similarly to a head-final language, case-marking information on preverbal noun phrases (NPs) is used by the parser to enable incremental structure building in a free-word-order language such as Russian.

Exploring modality switching effects in negated sentences: Further evidence for grounded representations

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Lea eHald

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Theories of embodied cognition (e.g., Perceptual Symbol Systems Theory; Barsalou, 1999, 2009 suggest that modality-specific simulations underlie the representation of concepts. Supporting evidence comes from modality switch costs: Participants are slower to verify a property in one modality (e.g., auditory, BLENDER-loud after verifying a property in a different modality (e.g., gustatory, CRANBERRIES-tart compared to the same modality (e.g., LEAVES-rustling, Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Barsalou, 2003. Similarly, modality switching costs lead to a modulation of the N400 effect in event related potentials (ERPs (Collins, Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Coulson, 2011; Hald, Marshall, Janssen, & Garnham, 2011. This effect of modality switching has also been shown to interact with the veracity of the sentence (Hald, et al., 2011. The current event-related potentials study (ERPs further explores the role of modality match/mismatch on the processing of veracity as well as negation (sentences containing not. Our results indicate a modulation in the ERP based on modality and veracity, plus an interaction. The evidence supports the idea that modality-specific simulations occur during language processing, and furthermore suggest that these simulations alter the processing of negation.

The Integration of Vocabulary and Effective Sentence Mastery towards Students’ Argumentative Writing Skills

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Tien Rafida

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The aims of this result to reveal the integrated of vocabulary and effective sentence mastery against the argumentation writing skill students’ PBI-SU FITK UIN the hypothesis proposed in this results are : (1 vocabulary mastery contribute to the argument to the arguments writing skill of students; (2 effective sentence mastery contribute to the argument writing skill of student; (3 vocabulary mastery and effective sentence mastery together contribute to the argument writing skill of students. This result uses a quantitative approach. The population in this study is PBI UIN-SU as many as 6 classes. As for the samples in this result are students of class II. By using cluster random sampling, obtained a sample of 140 students. The instrument used is a test. These results indicate that: (1 vocabulary mastery contributed positively and significantly to the argument essay writing skills of students. The amount of contribution is 18.4%; (2 Effective sentence mastery contribute positively and significantly to the argument essay writing skills of students. The amount of contribution is 11.7%; (3 mastery of vocabulary and mastery of effective sentences together contributed positively and significantly to the argument essay writing skills of students. The major contribution is 26.5%; (4 mastering vocabulary to effectively contribute by 16.39% against the argument essay writing skills of students; (5 Mastery effective sentence effectively contribute 13.11% against the argument essay writing skills of students. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that the vocabulary and mastery of effective sentences are the two factors that influence the argument essay writing skills of students in addition to other factors. Therefore, the researchers suggest to all parties concerned to pay more attention to these two factors so that students' skills in essay writing can be further improved.

EEG theta and gamma responses to semantic violations in online sentence processing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hald, L.A.; Bastiaansen, M.C.M.; Hagoort, P.

2006-01-01

We explore the nature of the oscillatory dynamics in the EEG of subjects reading sentences that contain a semantic violation. More specifically, we examine whether increases in theta (≈3–7 Hz) and gamma (around 40 Hz) band power occur in response to sentences that were either semantically correct or

Types of Sentences in EFL Students' Paragraph Assignments: A Quantitative Study on Teaching and Learning Writing at Higher Education Level

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Syayid Sandi Sukandi

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This research investigates Indonesian EFL students writing four types of English sentences in their paragraph writing assignments that were posted online in Writing 1 course of English Education at STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat. The analysed types of sentences are Simple Sentence (code: S.S., Compound Sentence (code: C.S.1, Complex Sentence (code: C.S.2, and Compound-Complex Sentence (code: C.C.S. The percentage of each type of sentences that appears in the students’ writings within each five genres represents the students’ syntactical composition. Moreover, this research focuses on quantitatively analysing the above five types of sentences that appeared in students’ assignments in each type of following genres: argumentative, descriptive, process, cause-effect, and comparison-contrast. Data are taken from 10% samples of all population. The finding shows that writing Simple Sentence in paragraphs is a common type of sentence that is used by the students. It indicates that the guiding process to teaching students about writing paragraphs with varied sentence types is important for further development of teaching process of writing.

iSentenizer-μ: multilingual sentence boundary detection model.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Derek F; Chao, Lidia S; Zeng, Xiaodong

2014-01-01

Sentence boundary detection (SBD) system is normally quite sensitive to genres of data that the system is trained on. The genres of data are often referred to the shifts of text topics and new languages domains. Although new detection models can be retrained for different languages or new text genres, previous model has to be thrown away and the creation process has to be restarted from scratch. In this paper, we present a multilingual sentence boundary detection system (iSentenizer-μ) for Danish, German, English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Finnish, and Swedish languages. The proposed system is able to detect the sentence boundaries of a mixture of different text genres and languages with high accuracy. We employ i (+)Learning algorithm, an incremental tree learning architecture, for constructing the system. iSentenizer-μ, under the incremental learning framework, is adaptable to text of different topics and Roman-alphabet languages, by merging new data into existing model to learn the new knowledge incrementally by revision instead of retraining. The system has been extensively evaluated on different languages and text genres and has been compared against two state-of-the-art SBD systems, Punkt and MaxEnt. The experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms the other systems on all datasets.

iSentenizer-μ: Multilingual Sentence Boundary Detection Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Derek F. Wong

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Sentence boundary detection (SBD system is normally quite sensitive to genres of data that the system is trained on. The genres of data are often referred to the shifts of text topics and new languages domains. Although new detection models can be retrained for different languages or new text genres, previous model has to be thrown away and the creation process has to be restarted from scratch. In this paper, we present a multilingual sentence boundary detection system (iSentenizer-μ for Danish, German, English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Finnish, and Swedish languages. The proposed system is able to detect the sentence boundaries of a mixture of different text genres and languages with high accuracy. We employ i+Learning algorithm, an incremental tree learning architecture, for constructing the system. iSentenizer-μ, under the incremental learning framework, is adaptable to text of different topics and Roman-alphabet languages, by merging new data into existing model to learn the new knowledge incrementally by revision instead of retraining. The system has been extensively evaluated on different languages and text genres and has been compared against two state-of-the-art SBD systems, Punkt and MaxEnt. The experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms the other systems on all datasets.

Rational integration of noisy evidence and prior semantic expectations in sentence interpretation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Edward; Bergen, Leon; Piantadosi, Steven T

2013-05-14

Sentence processing theories typically assume that the input to our language processing mechanisms is an error-free sequence of words. However, this assumption is an oversimplification because noise is present in typical language use (for instance, due to a noisy environment, producer errors, or perceiver errors). A complete theory of human sentence comprehension therefore needs to explain how humans understand language given imperfect input. Indeed, like many cognitive systems, language processing mechanisms may even be "well designed"--in this case for the task of recovering intended meaning from noisy utterances. In particular, comprehension mechanisms may be sensitive to the types of information that an idealized statistical comprehender would be sensitive to. Here, we evaluate four predictions about such a rational (Bayesian) noisy-channel language comprehender in a sentence comprehension task: (i) semantic cues should pull sentence interpretation towards plausible meanings, especially if the wording of the more plausible meaning is close to the observed utterance in terms of the number of edits; (ii) this process should asymmetrically treat insertions and deletions due to the Bayesian "size principle"; such nonliteral interpretation of sentences should (iii) increase with the perceived noise rate of the communicative situation and (iv) decrease if semantically anomalous meanings are more likely to be communicated. These predictions are borne out, strongly suggesting that human language relies on rational statistical inference over a noisy channel.

Predicting Neural Activity Patterns Associated with Sentences Using a Neurobiologically Motivated Model of Semantic Representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Andrew James; Binder, Jeffrey R; Fernandino, Leonardo; Humphries, Colin J; Conant, Lisa L; Aguilar, Mario; Wang, Xixi; Doko, Donias; Raizada, Rajeev D S

2017-09-01

We introduce an approach that predicts neural representations of word meanings contained in sentences then superposes these to predict neural representations of new sentences. A neurobiological semantic model based on sensory, motor, social, emotional, and cognitive attributes was used as a foundation to define semantic content. Previous studies have predominantly predicted neural patterns for isolated words, using models that lack neurobiological interpretation. Fourteen participants read 240 sentences describing everyday situations while undergoing fMRI. To connect sentence-level fMRI activation patterns to the word-level semantic model, we devised methods to decompose the fMRI data into individual words. Activation patterns associated with each attribute in the model were then estimated using multiple-regression. This enabled synthesis of activation patterns for trained and new words, which were subsequently averaged to predict new sentences. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that prediction accuracy was highest using voxels in the left temporal and inferior parietal cortex, although a broad range of regions returned statistically significant results, showing that semantic information is widely distributed across the brain. The results show how a neurobiologically motivated semantic model can decompose sentence-level fMRI data into activation features for component words, which can be recombined to predict activation patterns for new sentences. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

VITRECTOMY FOR INTERMEDIATE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION ASSOCIATED WITH TANGENTIAL VITREOMACULAR TRACTION: A CLINICOPATHOLOGIC CORRELATION.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziada, Jean; Hagenau, Felix; Compera, Denise; Wolf, Armin; Scheler, Renate; Schaumberger, Markus M; Priglinger, Siegfried G; Schumann, Ricarda G

2018-03-01

To describe the morphologic characteristics of the vitreomacular interface in intermediate age-related macular degeneration associated with tangential traction due to premacular membrane formation and to correlate with optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings and clinical data. Premacular membrane specimens were removed sequentially with the internal limiting membrane from 27 eyes of 26 patients with intermediate age-related macular degeneration during standard vitrectomy. Specimens were processed for immunocytochemical staining of epiretinal cells and extracellular matrix components. Ultrastructural analysis was performed using transmission electron microscopy. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography images and patient charts were evaluated in retrospect. Immunocytochemistry revealed hyalocytes and myofibroblasts as predominant cell types. Ultrastructural analysis demonstrated evidence of vitreoschisis in all eyes. Myofibroblasts with contractile properties were observed to span between folds of the internal limiting membrane and vitreous cortex collagen. Retinal pigment epithelial cells or inflammatory cells were not detected. Mean visual acuity (Snellen) showed significant improvement from 20/72 ± 20/36 to 20/41 ± 20/32 (P age-related macular degeneration predominantly consists of vitreous collagen, hyalocytes, and myofibroblasts with contractile properties. Vitreoschisis and vitreous-derived cells appear to play an important role in traction formation of this subgroup of eyes. In patients with intermediate age-related macular degeneration and contractile premacular membrane, release of traction by vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling results in significantly functional and anatomical improvement.

The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Ran; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

2016-01-01

This paper presents the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of number and presentation order of high-constraint sentences on semantic processing of unknown second language (L2) words (pseudowords) through reading. All participants were Chinese native speakers who learned English as a foreign language. In the experiment, sentence constraint and order of different constraint sentences were manipulated in English sentences, as well as L2 proficiency level of participants. We found that the number of high-constraint sentences was supportive for L2 word learning except in the condition in which high-constraint exposure was presented first. Moreover, when the number of high-constraint sentences was the same, learning was significantly better when the first exposure was a high-constraint exposure. And no proficiency level effects were found. Our results provided direct evidence that L2 word learning benefited from high quality language input and first presentations of high quality language input.

Syntactic Priming and the Lexical Boost Effect during Sentence Production and Sentence Comprehension: An fMRI Study

Science.gov (United States)

Segaert, Katrien; Kempen, Gerard; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Hagoort, Peter

2013-01-01

Behavioral syntactic priming effects during sentence comprehension are typically observed only if both the syntactic structure and lexical head are repeated. In contrast, during production syntactic priming occurs with structure repetition alone, but the effect is boosted by repetition of the lexical head. We used fMRI to investigate the neuronal…

Project Guarantee 1985. Final repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes: The system of safety barriers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1985-01-01

The safety barrier system for the type B repository for low- and intermediate-level waste is described. The barrier parameters which are relevant for safety analysis are quantified and associated error limits and data scatter are given. The aim of the report is to give a summary documentation of the safety analysis input data and their scientific background. For secure containment of radioactive waste safety barriers are used which effectively limit the release of radioactive material from the repository (release barriers) and effectively retard the entry of the original radioactive material into the biosphere (time barriers). In the case of low- and intermediate-level waste the technical safety barrier system comprises: waste solidification matrix (cement, bitumen and resin), immobilisation of the waste packages in containers using liquid cement, concrete repository containers, backfilling of remaining vacant storage space with special concrete, concrete lining of the repository caverns, sealing of access tunnels on final closure of the repository. Natural geological safety barriers - host rock and overlying formations - have the following important functions. Because of its stability, the host rock in the repository zone protects the technical safety barrier system from destruction caused by climatic effects and erosion for a sufficient length of time. It also provides for low water flow and favourable chemistry (reducing conditions)

Action verbs are processed differently in metaphorical and literal sentences depending on the semantic match of visual primes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melissa eTroyer

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Language comprehension requires rapid and flexible access to information stored in long-term memory, likely influenced by activation of rich world knowledge and by brain systems that support the processing of sensorimotor content. We hypothesized that while literal language about biological motion might rely on neurocognitive representations of biological motion specific to the details of the actions described, metaphors rely on more generic representations of motion. In a priming and self-paced reading paradigm, participants saw video clips or images of (a an intact point-light walker or (b a scrambled control and read sentences containing literal or metaphoric uses of biological motion verbs either closely or distantly related to the depicted action (walking. We predicted that reading times for literal and metaphorical sentences would show differential sensitivity to the match between the verb and the visual prime. In Experiment 1, we observed interactions between the prime type (walker or scrambled video and the verb type (close or distant match for both literal and metaphorical sentences, but with strikingly different patterns. We found no difference in the verb region of literal sentences for Close-Match verbs after walker or scrambled motion primes, but Distant-Match verbs were read more quickly following walker primes. For metaphorical sentences, the results were roughly reversed, with Distant-Match verbs being read more slowly following a walker compared to scrambled motion. In Experiment 2, we observed a similar pattern following still image primes, though critical interactions emerged later in the sentence. We interpret these findings as evidence for shared recruitment of cognitive and neural mechanisms for processing visual and verbal biological motion information. Metaphoric language using biological motion verbs may recruit neurocognitive mechanisms similar to those used in processing literal language but be represented in a less

Reading comprehension of ambiguous sentences by school-age children with autism spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Meghan M; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-12-01

Weak central coherence (processing details over gist), poor oral language abilities, poor suppression, semantic interference, and poor comprehension monitoring have all been implicated to affect reading comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study viewed the contributions of different supporting skills as a collective set of skills necessary for context integration-a multi-component view-to examine individual differences in reading comprehension in school-age children (8-14 years) with ASD (n = 23) and typically developing control peers (n = 23). Participants completed a written ambiguous sentence comprehension task in which participants had to integrate context to determine the correct homonym meaning via picture selection. Both comprehension products (i.e., offline representations after reading) and processes (i.e., online processing during reading) were evaluated. Results indicated that children with ASD, similar to their TD peers, integrated the context to access the correct homonym meanings while reading. However, after reading the sentences, when participants were asked to select the meanings, both groups experienced semantic interference between the two meanings. This semantic interference hindered the children with ASD's sentence representation to a greater degree than their peers. Individual differences in age/development, word recognition, vocabulary breadth (i.e., number of words in the lexicon), and vocabulary depth (i.e., knowledge of the homonym meanings) contributed to sentence comprehension in both children with ASD and their peers. Together, this evidence supports a multi-component view, and that helping children with ASD develop vocabulary depth may have cascading effects on their reading comprehension. Autism Res 2017, 10: 2002-2022. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Like their peers, children with ASD were able to integrate context, or link words while reading

Factors Affecting Sentence-in-Noise Recognition for Normal Hearing Listeners and Listeners with Hearing Loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Jung Sun; Kim, Kyung Hyun; Lee, Jae Hee

2017-07-01

Despite amplified speech, listeners with hearing loss often report more difficulties understanding speech in background noise compared to normalhearing listeners. Various factors such as deteriorated hearing sensitivity, age, suprathreshold temporal resolution, and reduced capacity of working memory and attention can attribute to their sentence-in-noise problems. The present study aims to determine a primary explanatory factor for sentence-in-noise recognition difficulties in adults with or without hearing loss. Forty normal-hearing (NH) listeners (23-73 years) and thirty-four hearing-impaired (HI) listeners (24-80 years) participated for experimental testing. For both NH and HI group, the younger, middle-aged, older listeners were included. The sentence recognition score in noise was measured at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The ability of temporal resolution was evaluated by gap detection performance using the Gaps-In-Noise test. Listeners' short-term auditory working memory span was measured by forward and backward digit spans. Overall, the HI listeners' sentence-in-noise recognition, temporal resolution abilities, and digit forward and backward spans were poorer compared to the NH listeners. Both NH and HI listeners had a substantial variability in performance. For NH listeners, only the digit backward span explained a small proportion of the variance in their sentence-in-noise performance. For the HI listeners, all the performance was influenced by age, and their sentence-in-noise difficulties were associated with various factors such as high-frequency hearing sensitivity, suprathreshold temporal resolution abilities, and working memory span. For the HI listeners, the critical predictors of the sentence-in-noise performance were composite measures of peripheral hearing sensitivity and suprathreshold temporal resolution abilities. The primary explanatory factors for the sentence-in-noise recognition performance differ between NH and HI listeners. Factors

THE CHILD JUSTICE ACT: PROCEDURAL SENTENCING ISSUES

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Stephan

principles in terms of which the appropriate sentence should be established,1 ... Republic of South Africa, 1996, the theory of the best interests of the child as a ..... different forms of imprisonment under South African law.29 The Act expressly.

Fission in intermediate energy heavy ion reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilhelmy, J.B.; Begemann-Blaich, M.; Blaich, T.; Boissevain, J.; Fowler, M.M.; Gavron, A.; Jacak, B.V.; Lysaght, P.S.; Britt, H.C.; Fields, D.J.; Hansen, L.F.; Lanier, R.G.; Massoletti, D.J.; Namboodiri, M.M.; Remington, B.A.; Sangster, T.C.; Struble, G.L.; Webb, M.L.; Chan, Y.D.; Dacai, A.; Harmon, A.; Leyba, J.; Pouliot, J.; Stokstad, R.G.; Hansen, O.; Levine, M.J.; Thorn, C.E.; Trautmann, W.; Dichter, B.; Kaufman, S.; Videbaek, F.; Fraenkel, Z.; Mamane, G.; Cebra, D.; Westfall, G.D.

1989-01-01

A systematic study of reaction mechanisms at intermediate energies (50-100 MeV/A) has been performed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's BeValac using medium weight projectiles on medium and heavy element targets. A gas and plastic phoswich detector system was employed which gave large geometric coverage and a wide dynamic response. The particles identified with the gas detectors could be characterized into three components - intermediate mass fragments (IMF), fission fragments (FF) and heavy residues (HR). Major observed features are: The reaction yields are similar in the 50 to 100 MeV/A range, central collisions have high multiplicty of IMF's with broad angular correlations consistent with a large participant region, effects of final state Coulomb interactions are observed and give information on the size and temporal behavior of the source, true fission yields are dependent on target fissility and correlated with relatively peripheral collisions. Analysis of fission and evaporation yields implies limiting conditions for which fission decay remains a viable deexcitation channel. (orig.)

Fission in intermediate energy heavy ion reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilhelmy, J.B.; Begemann-Blaich, M.; Blaich, T.

1989-01-01

A systematic study of reaction mechanisms at intermediate energies (50--100 MeV/A) has been performed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's BeValac using medium weight projectiles on medium and heavy element targets. A gas and plastic phoswich detector system was employed which gave large geometric coverage and a wide dynamic response. The particles identified with the gas detectors could be characterized into three components - intermediate mass fragments (IMF), fission fragments (FF) and heavy residues (HR). Major observed features are: the reaction yields are similar in the 50 to 100 MeV/A range, central collisions have high multiplicity of IMF's with broad angular correlations consistent with a large participant region, effects of final state Coulomb interactions are observed and give information on the size and temporal behavior of the source, true fission yields are dependent on target fissility and correlated with relatively peripheral collisions. Analysis of fission and evaporation yields implies limiting conditions for which fission decay remains a viable deexcitation channel. 7 figs

Verbal semantics drives early anticipatory eye movements during the comprehension of verb-initial sentences

OpenAIRE

Sebastian eSauppe; Sebastian eSauppe; Sebastian eSauppe

2016-01-01

Studies on anticipatory processes during sentence comprehension often focus on the prediction of postverbal direct objects. In subject-initial languages (the target of most studies so far), however, the position in the sentence, the syntactic function, and the semantic role of arguments are often conflated. For example, in the sentence The frog will eat the fly the syntactic object (fly) is at the same time also the last word and the patient argument of the verb. It is therefore not apparent ...

Verbal Semantics Drives Early Anticipatory Eye Movements during the Comprehension of Verb-Initial Sentences

OpenAIRE

Sauppe, Sebastian

2016-01-01

Studies on anticipatory processes during sentence comprehension often focus on the prediction of postverbal direct objects. In subject-initial languages (the target of most studies so far), however, the position in the sentence, the syntactic function, and the semantic role of arguments are often conflated. For example, in the sentence “The frog will eat the fly” the syntactic object (“fly”) is at the same time also the last word and the patient argument of the verb. It is therefore not appar...

Predictors of post-sentence mental health service use in a population cohort of first-time adult offenders in Western Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Sodhi-Berry, Nita; Knuiman, Matthew; Preen, David B; Alan, Janine; Morgan, Vera A

2015-12-01

Little is known about whether or how offenders use mental health services after sentence completion. This study aimed to determine the likelihood of such service use by adult (18-44 years) first-time offenders up to 5 years after sentence completion and possible predictor variables. Pre-sentence and post-sentence mental health service use was obtained from whole-population linked administrative data on 23,661 adult offenders. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine which socio-demographic, offending and pre-sentence health service variables were associated with such post-sentence service use. The estimated 5-year probability of any post-sentence mental health service use was 12% for offenders who had not previously used such services, but still only 42% for those who had. For the latter, best predictors of post-sentence use were past psychiatric diagnosis and history of self-harm; history of self-harm also predicted post-sentence use among new mental health services users and so also did past physical illness. Indigenous offenders had a greater likelihood of service use for any mental disorder or for substance use disorders than non-Indigenous offenders, irrespective of pre-sentence use. Among those with pre-sentence service contact, imprisoned offenders were less likely to use mental health services after sentence than those under community penalties; in its absence, socio-economic disadvantage and geographic accessibility were associated with greater likelihood of post-sentence use. Our findings highlight the discontinuity of mental healthcare for most sentenced offenders, but especially prisoners, and suggest a need for better management strategies for these vulnerable groups with mental disorders. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How Hearing Impairment Affects Sentence Comprehension: Using Eye Fixations to Investigate the Duration of Speech Processing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Kollmeier, Birger; Brand, Thomas

2015-01-01

; this measure uses eye fixations recorded while the participant listens to a sentence. Eye fixations toward a target picture (which matches the aurally presented sentence) were measured in the presence of a competitor picture. Based on the recorded eye fixations, the single target detection amplitude, which...... reflects the tendency of the participant to fixate the target picture, was used as a metric to estimate the duration of sentence processing. The single target detection amplitude was calculated for sentence structures with different levels of linguistic complexity and for different listening conditions......: in quiet and in two different noise conditions. Participants with hearing impairment spent more time processing sentences, even at high levels of speech intelligibility. In addition, the relationship between the proposed online measure and listener-specific factors, such as hearing aid use and cognitive...

Hierarchical Rhetorical Sentence Categorization for Scientific Papers

Science.gov (United States)

Rachman, G. H.; Khodra, M. L.; Widyantoro, D. H.

2018-03-01

Important information in scientific papers can be composed of rhetorical sentences that is structured from certain categories. To get this information, text categorization should be conducted. Actually, some works in this task have been completed by employing word frequency, semantic similarity words, hierarchical classification, and the others. Therefore, this paper aims to present the rhetorical sentence categorization from scientific paper by employing TF-IDF and Word2Vec to capture word frequency and semantic similarity words and employing hierarchical classification. Every experiment is tested in two classifiers, namely Naïve Bayes and SVM Linear. This paper shows that hierarchical classifier is better than flat classifier employing either TF-IDF or Word2Vec, although it increases only almost 2% from 27.82% when using flat classifier until 29.61% when using hierarchical classifier. It shows also different learning model for child-category can be built by hierarchical classifier.

On the flexibility of grammatical advance planning during sentence production: Effects of cognitive load on multiple lexical access.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Valentin; Jescheniak, Jörg D; Schriefers, Herbert

2010-03-01

Three picture-word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers described 2-object displays with simple sentences of the form "the frog is next to the mug," the 2 nouns were found to be lexically-semantically activated to similar degrees at speech onset, as indexed by similarly sized interference effects from semantic distractors related to either the first or the second noun. When speakers used more complex sentences (including prenominal color adjectives; e.g., "the blue frog is next to the blue mug") much larger interference effects were observed for the first than the second noun, suggesting that the second noun was lexically-semantically activated before speech onset on only a subset of trials. With increased cognitive load, introduced by an additional conceptual decision task and variable utterance formats, the interference effect for the first noun was increased and the interference effect for second noun disappeared, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had been narrowed. By contrast, if cognitive load was induced by a secondary working memory task to be performed during speech planning, the interference effect for both nouns was increased, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had not been affected. In all, the data suggest that the scope of advance planning during grammatical encoding in sentence production is flexible, rather than structurally fixed.

Pregnancy and the 40-Year Prison Sentence

Science.gov (United States)

Bautista, Jose Santos Guardado

2017-01-01

Abstract Using the case of El Salvador, this article demonstrates how the anti-abortion catchphrase “abortion is murder” can become embedded in the legal practice of state judicial systems. In the 1990s, a powerful anti-abortion movement in El Salvador resulted in a new legal context that outlawed abortion in all circumstances, discouraged mobilization for abortion rights, and encouraged the prosecution of reproduction-related “crimes.” Within this context, Salvadoran women initially charged with the crime of abortion were convicted of “aggravated homicide” and sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. Court documents suggest that many of these women had not undergone abortions, but had suffered naturally occurring stillbirths late in their pregnancies. Through analysis of newspaper articles and court cases, this article documents how El Salvador came to prosecute obstetrical emergencies as “murder,” and concludes that activism on behalf of abortion rights is central to protecting poor pregnant women from prosecution for reproduction-related “crimes.” PMID:28630543

Tools students need to be skillful writers building better sentences

CERN Document Server

Hostmeyer, Phyllis

2012-01-01

Build stronger writers one sentence at a time.Imagine a classroom full of enthusiastic student writers, capable of reviewing their own work with a critical eye, then crafting a polished, convincing piece. This is possible, if you take writing instruction down to its basic building block-a solid sentence-and advance from there. Phyllis Hostmeyer can show you how with Tools Students Need to Be Skillful Writers, your blueprint for effective writing instruction and unit development. Packed with lessons across grades 3-12, this indispensable

Children's Verbal Working Memory: Role of Processing Complexity in Predicting Spoken Sentence Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Magimairaj, Beula M.; Montgomery, James W.

2012-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the role of processing complexity of verbal working memory tasks in predicting spoken sentence comprehension in typically developing children. Of interest was whether simple and more complex working memory tasks have similar or different power in predicting sentence comprehension. Method: Sixty-five children (6- to…

Intermediate storage of radioactive wastes - bridge between production and final disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kueffer, K.

1997-01-01

On the 7th of January 1997, the foundation stone laying ceremony of the intermediate storage (ZWILAG) for radioactive wastes took place. In this document there is reproduced the text of the speech held by the President of the Council on this occasion

Age-related changes in ERP components of semantic and syntactic processing in a verb final language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jee Eun Sung

2014-04-01

Both syntactic and semantic violations elicited negativity effects at 300-500ms time window, and the negativity effects were slightly attenuated in the elderly group. The results suggested that Korean speakers may process a syntactic component of a case marker under the semantic frame integration, eliciting the negativity effects associated with semantic violations. Elderly adults showed attenuated effects compared to the young group, indicating age-related changes emerged during real-time sentence processing.

The Reed & Kellogg System of Sentence Diagramming and Its Implementation in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Coats, Judith Ruth

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to research whether or not the intervention of the Reed & Kellogg System of sentence diagramming would make a significant difference in the acquisition, retention, and comprehension of the basic grammatical skills, including parts of speech, complements, phrases, clauses, and sentence structures, on the higher…

Planning in Sentence Production: Evidence for the Phrase as a Default Planning Scope

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Randi C.; Crowther, Jason E.; Knight, Meredith; Tamborello, Franklin P., II; Yang, Chin-Lung

2010-01-01

Controversy remains as to the scope of advanced planning in language production. Smith and Wheeldon (1999) found significantly longer onset latencies when subjects described moving-picture displays by producing sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase than for matched sentences beginning with a simple noun phrase. While these findings are…

Long-Range Correlations in Sentence Series from A Story of the Stone.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Tianguang; Gu, Changgui; Yang, Huijie

2016-01-01

A sentence is the natural unit of language. Patterns embedded in series of sentences can be used to model the formation and evolution of languages, and to solve practical problems such as evaluating linguistic ability. In this paper, we apply de-trended fluctuation analysis to detect long-range correlations embedded in sentence series from A Story of the Stone, one of the greatest masterpieces of Chinese literature. We identified a weak long-range correlation, with a Hurst exponent of 0.575±0.002 up to a scale of 104. We used the structural stability to confirm the behavior of the long-range correlation, and found that different parts of the series had almost identical Hurst exponents. We found that noisy records can lead to false results and conclusions, even if the noise covers a limited proportion of the total records (e.g., less than 1%). Thus, the structural stability test is an essential procedure for confirming the existence of long-range correlations, which has been widely neglected in previous studies. Furthermore, a combination of de-trended fluctuation analysis and diffusion entropy analysis demonstrated that the sentence series was generated by a fractional Brownian motion.

Long-Range Correlations in Sentence Series from A Story of the Stone.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tianguang Yang

Full Text Available A sentence is the natural unit of language. Patterns embedded in series of sentences can be used to model the formation and evolution of languages, and to solve practical problems such as evaluating linguistic ability. In this paper, we apply de-trended fluctuation analysis to detect long-range correlations embedded in sentence series from A Story of the Stone, one of the greatest masterpieces of Chinese literature. We identified a weak long-range correlation, with a Hurst exponent of 0.575±0.002 up to a scale of 104. We used the structural stability to confirm the behavior of the long-range correlation, and found that different parts of the series had almost identical Hurst exponents. We found that noisy records can lead to false results and conclusions, even if the noise covers a limited proportion of the total records (e.g., less than 1%. Thus, the structural stability test is an essential procedure for confirming the existence of long-range correlations, which has been widely neglected in previous studies. Furthermore, a combination of de-trended fluctuation analysis and diffusion entropy analysis demonstrated that the sentence series was generated by a fractional Brownian motion.

The Impact of Age, Background Noise, Semantic Ambiguity, and Hearing Loss on Recognition Memory for Spoken Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Koeritzer, Margaret A.; Rogers, Chad S.; Van Engen, Kristin J.; Peelle, Jonathan E.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine how background noise, linguistic properties of spoken sentences, and listener abilities (hearing sensitivity and verbal working memory) affect cognitive demand during auditory sentence comprehension. Method: We tested 30 young adults and 30 older adults. Participants heard lists of sentences in…

Minho Affective Sentences (MAS): Probing the roles of sex, mood, and empathy in affective ratings of verbal stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinheiro, Ana P; Dias, Marcelo; Pedrosa, João; Soares, Ana P

2017-04-01

During social communication, words and sentences play a critical role in the expression of emotional meaning. The Minho Affective Sentences (MAS) were developed to respond to the lack of a standardized sentence battery with normative affective ratings: 192 neutral, positive, and negative declarative sentences were strictly controlled for psycholinguistic variables such as numbers of words and letters and per-million word frequency. The sentences were designed to represent examples of each of the five basic emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and happiness) and of neutral situations. These sentences were presented to 536 participants who rated the stimuli using both dimensional and categorical measures of emotions. Sex differences were also explored. Additionally, we probed how personality, empathy, and mood from a subset of 40 participants modulated the affective ratings. Our results confirmed that the MAS affective norms are valid measures to guide the selection of stimuli for experimental studies of emotion. The combination of dimensional and categorical ratings provided a more fine-grained characterization of the affective properties of the sentences. Moreover, the affective ratings of positive and negative sentences were not only modulated by participants' sex, but also by individual differences in empathy and mood state. Together, our results indicate that, in their quest to reveal the neurofunctional underpinnings of verbal emotional processing, researchers should consider not only the role of sex, but also of interindividual differences in empathy and mood states, in responses to the emotional meaning of sentences.

Impact of SNR, masker type and noise reduction processing on sentence recognition performance and listening effort as indicated by the pupil dilation response

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohlenforst, Barbara; Wendt, Dorothea; Kramer, Sophia E

2018-01-01

Recent studies have shown that activating the noise reduction scheme in hearing aids results in a smaller peak pupil dilation (PPD), indicating reduced listening effort, at 50% and 95% correct sentence recognition with a 4-talker masker. The objective of this study was to measure the effect...... of the noise reduction scheme (on or off) on PPD and sentence recognition across a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) from +16 dB to -12 dB and two masker types (4-talker and stationary noise). Relatively low PPDs were observed at very low (-12 dB) and very high (+16 dB to +8 dB) SNRs presumably due...... to 'giving up' and 'easy listening', respectively. The maximum PPD was observed with SNRs at approximately 50% correct sentence recognition. Sentence recognition with both masker types was significantly improved by the noise reduction scheme, which corresponds to the shift in performance from SNR function...

Sentence Repetition in Deaf Children with Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Chloë; Mason, Kathryn; Rowley, Katherine; Herman, Rosalind; Atkinson, Joanna; Woll, Bencie; Morgan, Gary

2015-01-01

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) perform poorly on sentence repetition tasks across different spoken languages, but until now, this methodology has not been investigated in children who have SLI in a signed language. Users of a natural sign language encode different sentence meanings through their choice of signs and by altering…

Delta, theta, beta, and gamma brain oscillations index levels of auditory sentence processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, Guangting; Minett, James W; Wang, William S-Y

2016-06-01

A growing number of studies indicate that multiple ranges of brain oscillations, especially the delta (δ, processing. It is not clear, however, how these oscillations relate to functional processing at different linguistic hierarchical levels. Using scalp electroencephalography (EEG), the current study tested the hypothesis that phonological and the higher-level linguistic (semantic/syntactic) organizations during auditory sentence processing are indexed by distinct EEG signatures derived from the δ, θ, β, and γ oscillations. We analyzed specific EEG signatures while subjects listened to Mandarin speech stimuli in three different conditions in order to dissociate phonological and semantic/syntactic processing: (1) sentences comprising valid disyllabic words assembled in a valid syntactic structure (real-word condition); (2) utterances with morphologically valid syllables, but not constituting valid disyllabic words (pseudo-word condition); and (3) backward versions of the real-word and pseudo-word conditions. We tested four signatures: band power, EEG-acoustic entrainment (EAE), cross-frequency coupling (CFC), and inter-electrode renormalized partial directed coherence (rPDC). The results show significant effects of band power and EAE of δ and θ oscillations for phonological, rather than semantic/syntactic processing, indicating the importance of tracking δ- and θ-rate phonetic patterns during phonological analysis. We also found significant β-related effects, suggesting tracking of EEG to the acoustic stimulus (high-β EAE), memory processing (θ-low-β CFC), and auditory-motor interactions (20-Hz rPDC) during phonological analysis. For semantic/syntactic processing, we obtained a significant effect of γ power, suggesting lexical memory retrieval or processing grammatical word categories. Based on these findings, we confirm that scalp EEG signatures relevant to δ, θ, β, and γ oscillations can index phonological and semantic/syntactic organizations

The role of LIFG-based executive control in recovery from garden-paths during sentence comprehension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loan C. Vuong

2014-04-01

Control: While the man/ coached,/ the woman/ attended/ the party by herself. The three patients, and a group of eight healthy controls, were tested on two self-paced sentence processing tasks, using sentence regions as above, involving meaning interpretation (Experiment 1 and grammaticality judgments (Experiment 2. Results In contrast to healthy controls and the non-LIFG patient, one of the LIFG patients showed a deficit in meaning interpretation that was worse with biased verbs, across garden-path as well as syntactically unambiguous sentences (mean verb bias effect = 32.5%, which was 7 standard deviations above the control mean of -3%, SD = 4.6. She showed spared performance on grammaticality judgments. The other LIFG patient presented with a more severe executive control deficit, and showed spared performance only for grammaticality judgments in the easiest condition, namely the condition involving syntactically unambiguous sentences with neutral verbs (but not in the remaining conditions, including the corresponding condition with biased verbs. Conclusion The results add to prior studies in arguing for a role of executive control across diverse sentence processing situations, including overcoming verb bias preferences.

Who gets a second chance? An investigation of Ohio's blended juvenile sentence.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheesman, Fred L; Waters, Nicole L; Hurst, Hunter

2010-01-01

Factors differentiating blended sentencing cases (Serious Youthful Offenders or SYOs) from conventional juvenile cases and cases transferred to the adult criminal court in Ohio were investigated using a two-stage probit. Conventional juvenile cases differed from cases selected for non-conventional processing (i.e., SYO or transfer) according to offense seriousness, number of prior Ohio Department of Youth Services placements, age and gender. Controlling for probability of selection for nonconventional processing, transfers differed from SYOs according to age, gender, and race. Minorities were significantly more likely than Whites to be transfers rather than SYOs, suggesting possible bias in the decision-making process. Objective risk and needs assessments should be used to identify the most suitable candidates for blended sentences and adult transfer and enhanced services should be provided to juvenile offenders given blended sentences.

Is the comprehension of idiomatic sentences indeed impaired in paranoid Schizophrenia? A window into semantic processing deficits

Science.gov (United States)

Pesciarelli, Francesca; Gamberoni, Tania; Ferlazzo, Fabio; Lo Russo, Leo; Pedrazzi, Francesca; Melati, Ermanno; Cacciari, Cristina

2014-01-01

Schizophrenia patients have been reported to be more impaired in comprehending non-literal than literal language since early studies on proverbs. Preference for literal rather than figurative interpretations continues to be documented. The main aim of this study was to establish whether patients are indeed able to use combinatorial semantic processing to comprehend literal sentences and both combinatorial analysis, and retrieval of pre-stored meanings to comprehend idiomatic sentences. The study employed a sentence continuation task in which subjects were asked to decide whether a target word was a sensible continuation of a previous sentence fragment to investigate idiomatic and literal sentence comprehension in patients with paranoid schizophrenia. Patients and healthy controls were faster in accepting sensible continuations than in rejecting non-sensible ones in both literal and idiomatic sentences. Patients were as accurate as controls in comprehending literal and idiomatic sentences, but they were overall slower than controls in all conditions. Once the contribution of cognitive covariates was partialled out, the response times (RTs) to sensible idiomatic continuations of patients did not significantly differ from those of controls. This suggests that the state of residual schizophrenia did not contribute to slower processing of sensible idioms above and beyond the cognitive deficits that are typically associated with schizophrenia. PMID:25346676

On the Optimization of Sentence Imitation in Primary School English Teaching from the Perspective of Strong Memes

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Wang

2017-01-01

A sentence is an important unit in English language, and plays a crucial role in language teaching and learning as well. For many years, sentence teaching is always worth discussion in English teaching, because sentence imitation is very important for students' construction of logical discourse. This paper, based on memetics, proposes some certain…

Incremental phonological encoding during unscripted sentence production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian T Jaeger

2012-11-01

Full Text Available We investigate phonological encoding during unscripted sentence production, focusing on the effect of phonological overlap on phonological encoding. Previous work on this question has almost exclusively employed isolated word production or highly scripted multiword production. These studies have led to conflicting results: some studies found that phonological overlap between two words facilitates phonological encoding, while others found inhibitory effects. One worry with many of these paradigms is that they involve processes that are not typical to everyday language use, which calls into question to what extent their findings speak to the architectures and mechanisms underlying language production. We present a paradigm to investigate the consequences of phonological overlap between words in a sentence while leaving speakers much of the lexical and structural choices typical in everyday language use. Adult native speakers of English described events in short video clips. We annotated the presence of disfluencies and the speech rate at various points throughout the sentence, as well as the constituent order. We find that phonological overlap has an inhibitory effect on phonological encoding. Specifically, if adjacent content words share their phonological onset (e.g., hand the hammer, they are preceded by production difficulty, as reflected in fluency and speech rate. We also find that this production difficulty affects speakers’ constituent order preferences during grammatical encoding. We discuss our results and previous works to isolate the properties of other paradigms that resulted in facilitatory or inhibitory results. The data from our paradigm also speak to questions about the scope of phonological planning in unscripted speech and as to whether phonological and grammatical encoding interact.

Impact of background noise and sentence complexity on cognitive processing demands

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Dau, Torsten; Hjortkjær, Jens

2015-01-01

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions requires cognitive processingdemands. Processing demands can increase with acoustically degraded speech but also depend on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations were recorded...... in 19 normal-hearing participants while processing sentences that were either syntactically simple or complex and presented in either high- or low-level background noise. Furthermore, the participants were asked to rate the subjectively perceived difficulty of sentence comprehension. The results showed...

Impact of background noise and sentence complexity on cognitive processing effort

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Dau, Torsten; Hjortkjær, Jens

2015-01-01

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions requires cognitive pro- cessing demands. Processing demands can increase with acoustically degraded speech but also depend on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations were...... recorded in 19 normal-hearing participants while processing sentences that were either syntactically simple or complex and presented in either high- or low-level background noise. Furthermore, the participants were asked to rate the sub- jectively perceived difficulty of sentence comprehension. The results...

Verb Agreements during On-Line Sentence Processing in Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia

Science.gov (United States)

Price, C.C.; Grossman, M.

2005-01-01

An on-line ''word detection'' paradigm was used to assess the comprehension of thematic and transitive verb agreements during sentence processing in individuals diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's Disease (AD, n=15) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD, n=14). AD, FTD, and control participants (n=17) were asked to listen for a word in a sentence.…

The influence of particle size on intermediate and final stages of molybdenum sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uskokovic, D.; Novakovic, B.; Petrovic, V.; Ristic, M.M.

1982-01-01

The influence of initial particle size on kinetics of molybdenum sintering was investigated. Three fractions of monodispersed molybdenum powder (2, 5 and 10 μm) were used as well as a polydispersed powder with mean particle size of 12 μm. Decrease in particle size accelerates to a great extent densification and grain growth processes. During sintering of 10 μm powder and to a smaller extent in the case of polydispersed powder, Zeners's relation was confirmed. Quantitative equations for the intermediate sintering stages could not be fitted to the investigated particulate systems, even though the grain growth process could be described by cubic law and though the volume diffusion coefficient and the surface energy were known with great reliability. (Auth.)

Sentence stress in children with dysarthria and cerebral palsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuschmann, Anja; Lowit, Anja

2018-03-08

This study aimed to advance our understanding of how children with dysarthria and cerebral palsy (CP) realise sentence stress acoustically, and how well listeners could identify the position of the stressed word within these utterances. Seven children with CP and eight typically developing children participated in the experiment. Stress on target words in two sentence positions was elicited through a picture-based question-answer paradigm. Acoustic parameters of stress [duration, intensity and fundamental frequency (F0)] were measured and compared between stressed and unstressed target words. For the perception experiment, ten listeners were asked to determine the position of the stressed word in the children's productions. Acoustic measures showed that at group level the typically developing children used all three acoustic parameters to mark sentence stress, whereas the children with CP showed changes in duration only. Individual performance variations were evident in both groups. Perceptually, listeners were significantly better at identifying the stressed words in the utterances produced by the typically developing children than those of the children with CP. The results suggest that children with CP can manipulate temporal speech properties to mark stress. This ability to modulate acoustic-prosodic features could be harnessed in intervention to enhance children's functional communication.

Sequential Coherence in Sentence Pairs Enhances Imagery during Comprehension: An Individual Differences Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carol Madden-Lombardi

Full Text Available The present study investigates how sequential coherence in sentence pairs (events in sequence vs. unrelated events affects the perceived ability to form a mental image of the sentences for both auditory and visual presentations. In addition, we investigated how the ease of event imagery affected online comprehension (word reading times in the case of sequentially coherent and incoherent sentence pairs. Two groups of comprehenders were identified based on their self-reported ability to form vivid mental images of described events. Imageability ratings were higher and faster for pairs of sentences that described events in coherent sequences rather than non-sequential events, especially for high imagers. Furthermore, reading times on individual words suggested different comprehension patterns with respect to sequence coherence for the two groups of imagers, with high imagers activating richer mental images earlier than low imagers. The present results offer a novel link between research on imagery and discourse coherence, with specific contributions to our understanding of comprehension patterns for high and low imagers.

Comparison of the intermediate storage periods and areas required for final storage of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel in various types of host rock

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller-Hoeppe, N.; Lerch, C.; Jobmann, M.; Filbert, W.

2005-01-01

The present new version of the German concept for radioactive waste and spent fuel management is based on the assumption that a repository for high-level waste and spent fuel will not be required until 2030. One reason frequently given for this date is the intermediate storage period of at least forty years to allow the very high initial heat generation to decay. However, calculations performed by the authors have shown that the minimum intermediate storage period for a repository in rock salt is only between four and nineteen years, depending on the final storage concept and the load of the waste package. In clay as a host rock, the minimum intermediate storage times were calculated to be between 31 and 142 years; the same time spans are expected to apply to final storage in magmatic rock, such as granite. The maximum permissible loads of a container holding spent fuel in salt are many times those in clay and granite, respectively. It was also seen that the area requirement for final storage of the same waste structures is roughly a factor of ten higher in clay than in salt. The differences between granite and salt are similar. The reasons for these grave differences, on the one hand, are the better thermal conductivity of salt and, on the other hand, the better heat tolerance of the crushed salt used as backfill material compared to that of bentonite used in the clay and granite concepts. While salt will allow temperatures of up to 200 C, the maximum temperature in bentonite is limited to 100 C. (orig.)

Intermediate energy data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koning, A.J.; Fukahori, T.; Hasegawa, A.

1998-01-01

Subgroup 13 (SG13) on Intermediate Energy Nuclear data was formed by NEA Nuclear Science Committee to solve common problems of these types of data for nuclear applications. An overview is presented in this final report of the present activities of SG13, including data needs, high-priority nuclear data request list (nuclides), compilation of experimental data, specialists meetings and benchmarks, data formats and data libraries. Some important accomplishments are summarized, and recommendations are presented. (R.P.)

Categorising Example Sentences in Dictionaries for Research ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

able contextual or grammatical support. I have constructed a table to classify example sentences according to different criteria. I filled in this table with randomly selected words and their examples which have been taken from five different South African school dictionaries. The goal of this research is to present characteristics ...

Exploring links between language and cognition in autism spectrum disorders: Complement sentences, false belief, and executive functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephanie, Durrleman; Julie, Franck

2015-01-01

A growing body of work indicates a close relation between complement clause sentences and Theory of Mind (ToM) in children with autism (e.g., Tager-Flusberg, & Joseph (2005). In Astington, & Baird (Eds.), Why language matters for theory of mind (pp. 298-318). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, Lind, & Bowler (2009). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(6), 929). However, this link is based primarily on success at a specific complement clause task and a verbal false-belief (FB) task. One cannot exclude that the link found between these tasks may be a by-product of their both presupposing similar levels of language skills. It is also an open question if the role of complementation in ToM success is a privileged one as compared to that of other abilities which have been claimed to be an important factor for ToM understanding in autism, namely executive functioning (EF) (Pellicano (2007). Developmental Psychology 43, 974). Indeed the role played by complementation may be conceived of as an indirect one, mediated by some more general cognitive function related to EF. This study is the first to examine the relation between theory of mind assessed both verbally and non-verbally and various types of complement clause sentences as well as executive functions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our participants included 17 children and adolescents with ASD (aged 6 to 16) and a younger TD control group matched on non-verbal IQ (aged 4 to 9 years). Three tasks assessing complements of verbs of cognition, verbs of communication and verbs of perception were conducted. ToM tasks involved a verbal ToM task (Sally-Anne, Baron-Cohen et al. (1985). Cognition, 21(1), 37) as well as a non-verbal one (Colle et al. (2007). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(4), 716). Indexes of executive functions were collected via a computerized version of the Dimensional Change Card-Sorting task (Frye et al., 1995). Standardized measures of vocabulary

Role of short-time acoustic temporal fine structure cues in sentence recognition for normal-hearing listeners.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Limin; Xu, Li

2018-02-01

Short-time processing was employed to manipulate the amplitude, bandwidth, and temporal fine structure (TFS) in sentences. Fifty-two native-English-speaking, normal-hearing listeners participated in four sentence-recognition experiments. Results showed that recovered envelope (E) played an important role in speech recognition when the bandwidth was > 1 equivalent rectangular bandwidth. Removing TFS drastically reduced sentence recognition. Preserving TFS greatly improved sentence recognition when amplitude information was available at a rate ≥ 10 Hz (i.e., time segment ≤ 100 ms). Therefore, the short-time TFS facilitates speech perception together with the recovered E and works with the coarse amplitude cues to provide useful information for speech recognition.

Comparing the production of complex sentences in Persian patients with post-stroke aphasia and non-damaged people with normal speaking.

Science.gov (United States)

Mehri, Azar; Ghorbani, Askar; Darzi, Ali; Jalaie, Shohreh; Ashayeri, Hassan

2016-01-05

Cerebrovascular disease leading to stroke is the most common cause of aphasia. Speakers with agrammatic non-fluent aphasia have difficulties in production of movement-derived sentences such as passive sentences, topicalized constituents, and Wh-questions. To assess the production of complex sentences, some passive, topicalized and focused sentences were designed for patients with non-fluent Persian aphasic. Afterwards, patients' performance in sentence production was tested and compared with healthy non-damaged subjects. In this cross sectional study, a task was designed to assess the different types of sentences (active, passive, topicalized and focused) adapted to Persian structures. Seven Persian patients with post-stroke non-fluent agrammatic aphasia (5 men and 2 women) and seven healthy non-damaged subjects participated in this study. The computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that all the patients had a single left hemisphere lesion involved middle cerebral artery (MCA), Broca`s area and in its white matter. In addition, based on Bedside version of Persian Western Aphasia Battery (P-WAB-1), all of them were diagnosed with moderate Broca aphasia. Then, the production task of Persian complex sentences was administered. There was a significant difference between four types of sentences in patients with aphasia [Degree of freedom (df) = 3, P Persian are very difficult to produce for patients with agrammatic non-fluent aphasia. It seems that sentences with A-movement are simpler for the patients than sentences involving A`-movement; since they include shorter movements in compare to topicalized and focused sentences.

Deeper than Shallow: Evidence for Structure-Based Parsing Biases in Second-Language Sentence Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Witzel, Jeffrey; Witzel, Naoko; Nicol, Janet

2012-01-01

This study examines the reading patterns of native speakers (NSs) and high-level (Chinese) nonnative speakers (NNSs) on three English sentence types involving temporarily ambiguous structural configurations. The reading patterns on each sentence type indicate that both NSs and NNSs were biased toward specific structural interpretations. These…

The modality-switch effect: Visually and aurally presented prime sentences activate our senses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisa eScerrati

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Verifying different sensory modality properties for concepts results in a processing cost known as the Modality-Switch Effect. It has been argued that this cognitive cost is the result of a perceptual simulation. This paper extends this argument and reports an experiment investigating whether the effect is the result of an activation of sensory information which can also be triggered by perceptual linguistically described stimuli. Participants were first exposed to a prime sentence describing a light or a sound’s perceptual property (e.g. The light is flickering, The sound is echoing, then required to perform a property-verification task on a target sentence (e.g. Butter is yellowish, Leaves rustle. The content modalities of the prime and target sentences could be compatible (i.e. in the same modality: e.g. visual-visual or not (i.e. in different modalities. Crucially, we manipulated the stimuli’s presentation modality such that half of the participants was faced with written sentences while the other half was faced with aurally presented sentences. Results show a cost when two different modalities alternate, compared to when the same modality is repeated with both visual and aural stimuli presentations. This result supports the embodied and grounded cognition view which claims that conceptual knowledge is grounded into the perceptual system. Specifically, this evidence suggests that sensory modalities can be pre-activated through the simulation of either read or listened linguistic stimuli describing visual or acoustic perceptual properties.

Intermediality: Bridge to Critical Media Literacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pailliotet, Ann Watts; Semali, Ladislaus; Rodenberg, Rita K.; Giles, Jackie K.; Macaul, Sherry L.

2000-01-01

Defines "intermediality" as the ability to critically read and write with and across varied symbol systems. Relates it to critical media literacy. Offers rationales for teaching critical media literacy in general, and intermedial instruction in particular. Identifies seven guiding intermedial elements: theory, texts, processes, contexts,…

Buddy-Tutor Project. Hilo Intermediate School. Final Report, March-July, 1974.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawaii Univ., Honolulu. Social Welfare Development and Research Center.

An operational description of the 1973-74 Buddy-Tutor Project at Hilo Intermediate School in Hilo, Hawaii and an evaluative assessment of its outcome with statistical treatment of the data is provided in this report. This project is an exploratory behavioral intervention program for educationally deprived students and focuses its efforts on the…

Information acquisition and financial intermediation

OpenAIRE

Boyarchenko, Nina

2012-01-01

This paper considers the problem of information acquisition in an intermediated market, where the specialists have access to superior technology for acquiring information. These informational advantages of specialists relative to households lead to disagreement between the two groups, changing the shape of the intermediation-constrained region of the economy and increasing the frequency of periods when the intermediation constraint binds. Acquiring the additional information is, however, cost...

BioSimplify: an open source sentence simplification engine to improve recall in automatic biomedical information extraction

OpenAIRE

Jonnalagadda, Siddhartha; Gonzalez, Graciela

2011-01-01

BioSimplify is an open source tool written in Java that introduces and facilitates the use of a novel model for sentence simplification tuned for automatic discourse analysis and information extraction (as opposed to sentence simplification for improving human readability). The model is based on a "shot-gun" approach that produces many different (simpler) versions of the original sentence by combining variants of its constituent elements. This tool is optimized for processing biomedical scien...

Training understanding of reversible sentences: a study comparing language-impaired children with age-matched and grammar-matched controls.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Hsinjen Julie; Bishop, Dorothy V M

2014-01-01

Introduction. Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) have problems with language comprehension, and little is known about how to remediate these. We focused here on errors in interpreting sentences such as "the ball is above the cup", where the spatial configuration depends on word order. We asked whether comprehension of such short reversible sentences could be improved by computerized training, and whether learning by children with SLI resembled that of younger, typically-developing children. Methods. We trained 28 children with SLI aged 6-11 years, 28 typically-developing children aged from 4 to 7 years who were matched to the SLI group for raw scores on a test of receptive grammar, and 20 typically-developing children who were matched to the SLI group on chronological age. A further 20 children with SLI were given pre- and post-test assessments, but did not undergo training. Those in the trained groups were given training on four days using a computer game adopting an errorless learning procedure, during which they had to select pictures to correspond to spoken sentences such as "the cup is above the drum" or "the bird is below the hat". Half the trained children heard sentences using above/below and the other half heard sentences using before/after (with a spatial interpretation). A total of 96 sentences was presented over four sessions. Half the sentences were unique, whereas the remainder consisted of 12 repetitions of each of four sentences that became increasingly familiar as training proceeded. Results. Age-matched control children performed near ceiling (≥ 90% correct) in the first session and were excluded from the analysis. Around half the trained SLI children also performed this well. Training effects were examined in 15 SLI and 16 grammar-matched children who scored less than 90% correct on the initial training session. Overall, children's scores improved with training. Memory span was a significant predictor of improvement, even

Training understanding of reversible sentences: a study comparing language-impaired children with age-matched and grammar-matched controls

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hsinjen Julie Hsu

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Many children with specific language impairment (SLI have problems with language comprehension, and little is known about how to remediate these. We focused here on errors in interpreting sentences such as “the ball is above the cup”, where the spatial configuration depends on word order. We asked whether comprehension of such short reversible sentences could be improved by computerized training, and whether learning by children with SLI resembled that of younger, typically-developing children.Methods. We trained 28 children with SLI aged 6–11 years, 28 typically-developing children aged from 4 to 7 years who were matched to the SLI group for raw scores on a test of receptive grammar, and 20 typically-developing children who were matched to the SLI group on chronological age. A further 20 children with SLI were given pre- and post-test assessments, but did not undergo training. Those in the trained groups were given training on four days using a computer game adopting an errorless learning procedure, during which they had to select pictures to correspond to spoken sentences such as “the cup is above the drum” or “the bird is below the hat”. Half the trained children heard sentences using above/below and the other half heard sentences using before/after (with a spatial interpretation. A total of 96 sentences was presented over four sessions. Half the sentences were unique, whereas the remainder consisted of 12 repetitions of each of four sentences that became increasingly familiar as training proceeded.Results. Age-matched control children performed near ceiling (≥ 90% correct in the first session and were excluded from the analysis. Around half the trained SLI children also performed this well. Training effects were examined in 15 SLI and 16 grammar-matched children who scored less than 90% correct on the initial training session. Overall, children’s scores improved with training. Memory span was a significant

[Short-term sentence memory in children with auditory processing disorders].

Science.gov (United States)

Kiese-Himmel, C

2010-05-01

To compare sentence repetition performance of different groups of children with Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) and to examine the relationship between age or respectively nonverbal intelligence and sentence recall. Nonverbal intelligence was measured with the COLOURED MATRICES, in addition the children completed a standardized test of SENTENCE REPETITION (SR) which requires to repeat spoken sentences (subtest of the HEIDELBERGER SPRACHENTWICKLUNGSTEST). Three clinical groups (n=49 with monosymptomatic APD; n=29 with APD+developmental language impairment; n=14 with APD+developmental dyslexia); two control groups (n=13 typically developing peers without any clinical developmental disorder; n=10 children with slight reduced nonverbal intelligence). The analysis showed a significant group effect (p=0.0007). The best performance was achieved by the normal controls (T-score 52.9; SD 6.4; Min 42; Max 59) followed by children with monosymptomatic APD (43.2; SD 9.2), children with the co-morbid-conditions APD+developmental dyslexia (43.1; SD 10.3), and APD+developmental language impairment (39.4; SD 9.4). The clinical control group presented the lowest performance, on average (38.6; SD 9.6). Accordingly, language-impaired children and children with slight reductions in intelligence could poorly use their grammatical knowledge for SR. A statistically significant improvement in SR was verified with the increase of age with the exception of children belonging to the small group with lowered intelligence. This group comprised the oldest children. Nonverbal intelligence correlated positively with SR only in children with below average-range intelligence (0.62; p=0.054). The absence of APD, SLI as well as the presence of normal intelligence facilitated the use of phonological information for SR.

Effects of aging, aphasia, and Parkinson’s disease on the time course of lemma selection during sentence production: evidence from eyetracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiyeon Lee

2015-05-01

. No difference was noticed between young and older speakers (cf. Griffin & Spieler, 2006. For gaze duration measures before speech onset, all groups showed significantly longer gazes for low codable A than for high codable A. No codability effects were found for B and C across the groups, suggesting only the first lemma was prepared before speech onset. For gaze durations after speech onset, all four groups showed codability effects for B and C only. Additionally, aphasic speakers’ name-related gazes to each picture were longest in general. PD speakers showed longer name-related gazes than young, but not older speakers. The findings suggest that although speakers’ different cognitive-linguistic capacity affects the time that speakers take to prepare each objects’ names, there is a very strong consistency for the scope of word-preparation for all four groups. None of the older, PD, and aphasic groups adapted advanced word-preparation in order to reduce demands during speech, compared to young speakers. This word-by-word production might have compromised off-line sentence production accuracy to a greater extent in PD and aphasic speakers than healthy speakers.

Conceptual Combination During Sentence Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Swinney, David; Love, Tracy; Walenski, Matthew; Smith, Edward E.

2008-01-01

This experiment examined the time course of integration of modifier-noun (conceptual) combinations during auditory sentence comprehension using cross-modal lexical priming. The study revealed that during ongoing comprehension, there is initial activation of features of the noun prior to activation of (emergent) features of the entire conceptual combination. These results support compositionality in conceptual combination; that is, they indicate that features of the individual words constituting a conceptual combination are activated prior to combination of the words into a new concept. PMID:17576278

Project study for the final disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in deep-lying geological formations and for intermediate storage. Projektstudie fuer die Endlagerung von hochaktiven Abfaellen in tiefliegenden geologischen Formationen sowie fuer die Zwischenlagerung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1980-12-01

The present report has been written to show the feasibility of construction and the operational suitability of different intermediate and final storage concepts for high-level radioactive wastes. It summarizes the information from a project study given under contract by Nagra. The report should orient a broader public about the possible construction of such intermediate and final repositories. The work presented here refers to radioactive wastes which need an extremely long isolation time. Important information from a separate study concerning different aspects of the drilling of deep boreholes, has been integrated into the present report.

Word Embedding Perturbation for Sentence Classification

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Dongxu; Yang, Zhichao

2018-01-01

In this technique report, we aim to mitigate the overfitting problem of natural language by applying data augmentation methods. Specifically, we attempt several types of noise to perturb the input word embedding, such as Gaussian noise, Bernoulli noise, and adversarial noise, etc. We also apply several constraints on different types of noise. By implementing these proposed data augmentation methods, the baseline models can gain improvements on several sentence classification tasks.

The ICSI+ Multilingual Sentence Segmentation System

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

these steps the ASR output needs to be enriched with information additional to words, such as speaker diarization , sentence segmentation, or story...and the out- of a speaker diarization is considered as well. We first detail extraction of the prosodic features, and then describe the clas- ation...also takes into account the speaker turns that estimated by the diarization system. In addition to the Max- 1) model speaker turn unigrams, trigram

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF COMMERCIAL INTERMEDIATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DAN-ALEXANDRU SITARU

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The commercial intermediation is a complex juridical operation which includes a different number of juridical relationships that takes place between contractual partners either on a national or international level. These partners bare different naming due to their different set of rights and obligations set forth by the law or by the parties, and it is from this that the classification of the intermediation can be set forth. The commercial intermediation represents the activity that one person executes either in the name and on behalf of another person, or using its own name but on behalf of another person, or, finally, using its own name but on behalf of acting towards a common goal with the person who mandated her (the principal, in relation with who it is either a proxy or an independent intermediary, only negotiating or both negotiating and binding the principal. The purpose of the paper is to strictly define and set in order the various variations of the juridical operation that is the commercial intermediation, presented both in the light of the actual legal framework and also by reference to the New Civil Code. Also, the purpose is to highlight and systematize the contractual relationships from which the parties involved in a commercial intermediary operation may choose and the rights and obligations specific to each contract.

The exclamative sentences in Nafsat al-Masdur

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad ali Khazanehdarloo

2016-09-01

Of course, Nasavi, in some parts of the book, used exclamative sentences, especially reproach and scolding without demand, to criticize some rulers of Kharazm Shahian dynasty. These libelous parts which mainly reflect the conflicts, hostility and debate of writer against royal members and his rivals, can show the dark and unknown side of Nasavi's personality.

The Magnetic Sentences Industry Game: A Competitive In-Class Experience of Business-Level Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Casile, Maureen; Wheeler, Jane V.

2005-01-01

The Magnetic Sentences Industry Game is a high-energy in-class exercise designed to help students gain hands-on experience with setting, implementing, evaluating, and revising business-level strategy. Students compete in teams to create and market sentences using Magnetic Poetry (a product of Magnetic Poetry, Inc.). Revenues earned are highly…

Quantitative Analysis of Language Production in Parkinson's Disease Using a Cued Sentence Generation Task

Science.gov (United States)

Vanhoutte, Sarah; De Letter, Miet; Corthals, Paul; Van Borsel, John; Santens, Patrick

2012-01-01

The present study examined language production skills in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. A unique cued sentence generation task was created in order to reduce demands on memory and attention. Differences in sentence production abilities according to disease severity and cognitive impairments were assessed. Language samples were obtained from 20…

Investigating the childhood development of working memory using sentences: new evidence for the growth of chunk capacity.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilchrist, Amanda L; Cowan, Nelson; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2009-10-01

Child development is accompanied by a robust increase in immediate memory. This may be due to either an increase in the number of items (chunks) that can be maintained in working memory or an increase in the size of those chunks. We tested these hypotheses by presenting younger and older children (7 and 12 years of age) and adults with different types of lists of auditory sentences: four short sentences, eight short sentences, four long sentences, and four random word lists, each read with a sentence-like intonation. Young children accessed (recalled words from) fewer clauses than did older children or adults, but no age differences were found in the proportion of words recalled from accessed clauses. We argue that the developmental increase in memory span was due to a growing number of chunks present in working memory with little role of chunk size.

[Japanese learners' processing time for reading English relative clauses analyzed in relation to their English listening proficiency].

Science.gov (United States)

Oyama, Yoshinori

2011-06-01

The present study examined Japanese university students' processing time for English subject and object relative clauses in relation to their English listening proficiency. In Analysis 1, the relation between English listening proficiency and reading span test scores was analyzed. The results showed that the high and low listening comprehension groups' reading span test scores do not differ. Analysis 2 investigated English listening proficiency and processing time for sentences with subject and object relative clauses. The results showed that reading the relative clause ending and the main verb section of a sentence with an object relative clause (such as "attacked" and "admitted" in the sentence "The reporter that the senator attacked admitted the error") takes less time for learners with high English listening scores than for learners with low English listening scores. In Analysis 3, English listening proficiency and comprehension accuracy for sentences with subject and object relative clauses were examined. The results showed no significant difference in comprehension accuracy between the high and low listening-comprehension groups. These results indicate that processing time for English relative clauses is related to the cognitive processes involved in listening comprehension, which requires immediate processing of syntactically complex audio information.

On the stability of rotational discontinuities and intermediate shocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, L.C.; Huang, L.; Chao, J.K.

1989-01-01

The stability of rotational discontinuities and intermediate shocks is studied based on a hybrid simulation code. The simulation results show that rotational discontinuities are stable and intermediate shocks are not stationary. Intermediate shocks tend to evolve to rotational discontinuities and waves. The authors employ several different initial profiles for the magnetic field in the transition region and find that the final structure of the discontinuities or shocks is not sensitive to the initial magnetic field profile. The present results are different from those obtained from the resistive MHD simulations. Furthermore, their study indicates that the kinetic effect of particles plays an important role in the structure and stability of rotational discontinuities and intermediate shocks

Differentiation of death-row murderers and life-sentence murderers by antisociality and intelligence measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Heilbrun, A B

1990-01-01

Prior studies of dangerousness have confirmed that the combination of high antisociality and low IQ is associated with male criminal violence and that the same combination can discriminate within a group of violent male criminals by level of severity. My study continued the validation of this two-component measure by showing that men convicted of murder and given the death sentence for their more heinous crimes were more dangerous than murderers who received life sentences. Men who had been extended the death penalty, who selected female victims, and whose murders were judged to have been especially cruel received extraordinarily high dangerousness scores relative to all other murderers. The assumption that high antisociality and low IQ would lead to serious violence because of the criminal's inability to deal with complications that arise in confronting the victim received some support. The murders of more dangerous men followed stronger victim resistance than the murders committed by less dangerous men.

Thomas Mofolo's sentence design in Chaka approached in translation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Thomas Mofolo's sentence design in Chaka approached in translation. ... by responding to several compelling questions, ranging from how five translators of the work approached it in their respective languages ... AJOL African Journals Online.

Processing Advantages of Lexical Bundles: Evidence from Self-Paced Reading and Sentence Recall Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Tremblay, Antoine; Derwing, Bruce; Libben, Gary; Westbury, Chris

2011-01-01

This article examines the extent to which lexical bundles (LBs; i.e., frequently recurring strings of words that often span traditional syntactic boundaries) are stored and processed holistically. Three self-paced reading experiments compared sentences containing LBs (e.g., "in the middle of the") and matched control sentence fragments (e.g., "in…

ERPs While Judging Meaningfulness of Sentences with and without Homonym or Morpheme Spelling Foils: Comparing 4th to 9th Graders with and without Spelling Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Todd; Pettet, Mark; Askren, Katie; Grabowski, Tom; Yagle, Kevin; Wallis, Peter; Northey, Mary; Abbott, Robert; Berninger, Virginia

2016-01-01

Thirteen students with and twelve students without spelling disabilities judged whether sentences (1/3 all correct spellings, 1/3 with homonym foil, 1/3 with morpheme foil) were meaningful while event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured with EGI Geodesic EEG System 300 (128-channel hydro-cell nets). For N400, Rapid Automatic Switching (RAS) correlated with comprehending sentences with homonym foils in control group but with morpheme foils in SLD group. For P600, dictated spelling correlated with comprehending sentences with morpheme foils in the control group but solving anagrams with homonym foils in the SLD group. Educational significance and neuropsychological significance of these contrasting results are discussed. PMID:28657362

Discourses and Models of Intermediality

OpenAIRE

Schröter, Jens

2011-01-01

In his article "Discourses and Models of Intermediality" Jens Schröter discusses the question as to what relations do different discourses pose between different "media." Schröter identifies four models of discourse: 1) synthetic intermediality: a "fusion" of different media to super-media, a model with roots in the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk with political connotations, 2) formal (or transmedial) intermediality: a concept based on formal structures not "specific" to one medium but ...

Syntactic flexibility and planning scope: The effect of verb bias on advance planning during sentence recall

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maartje evan de Velde

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In sentence production, grammatical advance planning scope depends on contextual factors (e.g., time pressure, linguistic factors (e.g., ease of structural processing, and cognitive factors (e.g., production speed. The present study tests the influence of the availability of multiple syntactic alternatives (i.e., syntactic flexibility on the scope of advance planning during the recall of Dutch dative phrases. We manipulated syntactic flexibility by using verbs with a strong bias or a weak bias towards one structural alternative in sentence frames accepting both verbs (e.g., strong/weak bias: De ober schotelt/serveert de klant de maaltijd [voor] 'The waiter dishes out/serves the customer the meal'. To assess lexical planning scope, we varied the frequency of the first post-verbal noun (N1, Experiment 1 or the second post-verbal noun (N2, Experiment 2. In each experiment, 36 speakers produced the verb phrases in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP paradigm. On each trial, they read a sentence presented one word at a time, performed a short distractor task, and then saw a sentence preamble (e.g., De ober… which they had to complete to form the presented sentence. Onset latencies were compared using linear mixed effects models. N1 frequency did not produce any effects. N2 frequency only affected sentence onsets in the weak verb bias condition and especially in slow speakers. These findings highlight the dependency of planning scope during sentence recall on the grammatical properties of the verb and the frequency of post-verbal nouns. Implications for utterance planning in everyday speech are discussed.

76 FR 58564 - Sentencing Guidelines for United States Courts

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-21

... pornography offenses and report to Congress as a result of such review. It is anticipated that any such report... guideline sentence; (B) a compilation of studies on, and analysis of, recidivism by child pornography...

Influence of auditory attention on sentence recognition captured by the neural phase.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Jana Annina; Kollmeier, Birger; Debener, Stefan; Brand, Thomas

2018-03-07

The aim of this study was to investigate whether attentional influences on speech recognition are reflected in the neural phase entrained by an external modulator. Sentences were presented in 7 Hz sinusoidally modulated noise while the neural response to that modulation frequency was monitored by electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings in 21 participants. We implemented a selective attention paradigm including three different attention conditions while keeping physical stimulus parameters constant. The participants' task was either to repeat the sentence as accurately as possible (speech recognition task), to count the number of decrements implemented in modulated noise (decrement detection task), or to do both (dual task), while the EEG was recorded. Behavioural analysis revealed reduced performance in the dual task condition for decrement detection, possibly reflecting limited cognitive resources. EEG analysis revealed no significant differences in power for the 7 Hz modulation frequency, but an attention-dependent phase difference between tasks. Further phase analysis revealed a significant difference 500 ms after sentence onset between trials with correct and incorrect responses for speech recognition, indicating that speech recognition performance and the neural phase are linked via selective attention mechanisms, at least shortly after sentence onset. However, the neural phase effects identified were small and await further investigation. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The effect of retributive and restorative sentencing on psychological effects of criminal proceedings.

Science.gov (United States)

Laxminarayan, Malini

2013-03-01

Retribution and restoration have been cited as two goals of sentencing for victims. Furthermore, there is a perspective that acknowledges the overlap of these two aims, seeking to obtain restoration through retribution. Achieving these goals may have implications for the victim's psychological well-being. The current study examines 101 victims of serious crime and how different outcomes may impact their perceptions of psychological well-being. Incarceration, community service, compensation from the offender, and compensation from the state, in addition to acquittals, are included as predictors of the dependent variable. After reviewing the literature on retributive and restorative sentencing, also making a distinction between compensation from the offender and compensation from the state, hierarchical regression analysis finds that compensation from the offender is the only sentencing option significantly associated with psychological effects.

Cooperative Fault Tolerant Tracking Control for Multiagent Systems: An Intermediate Estimator-Based Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Jun-Wei; Yang, Guang-Hong; Zhang, Wen-An; Yu, Li

2017-10-17

This paper studies the observer based fault tolerant tracking control problem for linear multiagent systems with multiple faults and mismatched disturbances. A novel distributed intermediate estimator based fault tolerant tracking protocol is presented. The leader's input is nonzero and unavailable to the followers. By applying a projection technique, the mismatched disturbances are separated into matched and unmatched components. For each node, a tracking error system is established, for which an intermediate estimator driven by the relative output measurements is constructed to estimate the sensor faults and a combined signal of the leader's input, process faults, and matched disturbance component. Based on the estimation, a fault tolerant tracking protocol is designed to eliminate the effects of the combined signal. Besides, the effect of unmatched disturbance component can be attenuated by directly adjusting some specified parameters. Finally, a simulation example of aircraft demonstrates the effectiveness of the designed tracking protocol.This paper studies the observer based fault tolerant tracking control problem for linear multiagent systems with multiple faults and mismatched disturbances. A novel distributed intermediate estimator based fault tolerant tracking protocol is presented. The leader's input is nonzero and unavailable to the followers. By applying a projection technique, the mismatched disturbances are separated into matched and unmatched components. For each node, a tracking error system is established, for which an intermediate estimator driven by the relative output measurements is constructed to estimate the sensor faults and a combined signal of the leader's input, process faults, and matched disturbance component. Based on the estimation, a fault tolerant tracking protocol is designed to eliminate the effects of the combined signal. Besides, the effect of unmatched disturbance component can be attenuated by directly adjusting some

Adapting the notion of natural (geological) barrier for final disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes in Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Durdun, I.; Marunteanu, C.; Andrei, V.

2001-01-01

According to the Minimum Disturbances Design (MDD) notion by Carl-Olof Morfeldt of Mineconsult, Sweden, any site selection, design and construction of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste repository should be based on a thorough knowledge of the geological environmental so that the implantation of the disposal facility induce no significant harmful consequences. This work presents the way in which the Romanian program of radioactive waste management was implemented for disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes from Cernavoda NPP. Based on geological criteria of selection of lithologic, petrographic, tectonic, seismologic, hydrologic and geo-technic nature, 37 sites were analyzed from which 2 were retained and finally one, Saligny site, was chosen, as the most close to Cernavoda NPP. Also, public acceptance and transport connections were taken into consideration. SUTRA, SWMS-2D and CHAIN-2D codes were applied to analyze the safety and the geological barrier effects. The barrier consists in red clay, a smectitic mineralogic compound. The computation showed that in Saligny vault the maximal tritium extension is kept inside due to the red clay barrier. Geo-technical engineering works were conducted to improve the properties of the loess upper layer which resulted in lowering its sensitivity to moistening and erosion

Russian Sentence Adverbials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lorentzen, Elena; Durst-Andersen, Per

2015-01-01

way or the other to take their starting point in the previous discourse. It is, however, stressed that the specificity of the Russian language is found in modal adverbials where a division between external and internal reality exists. We end the examination by discussing the function of word order......Sentence adverbials (SA) in Russian are analyzed in their totality, i.e. from a lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic point of view. They are classified according to Hare’s three utterance components which yields (1) neustic, (2) tropic and (3) phrastic SAs. These components are used...... to represent semantic paraphrases of Russian SAs in utterances from various types of discourse in order to show their exact contribution to the meaning conveyed by the entire utterance. They are further subdivided according to their function: (1) into connectives and non-connectives; (2) into attitudinal...

Performance Theories for Sentence Coding: Some Quantitative Models

Science.gov (United States)

Aaronson, Doris; And Others

1977-01-01

This study deals with the patterns of word-by-word reading times over a sentence when the subject must code the linguistic information sufficiently for immediate verbatim recall. A class of quantitative models is considered that would account for reading times at phrase breaks. (Author/RM)

Elephant: Sequence Labeling for Word and Sentence Segmentation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evang, Kilian; Basile, Valerio; Chrupala, Grzegorz; Bos, Johan

2013-01-01

Tokenization is widely regarded as a solved problem due to the high accuracy that rule-based tokenizers achieve. But rule-based tokenizers are hard to maintain and their rules language specific. We show that high-accuracy word and sentence segmentation can be achieved by using supervised sequence

Recurrence Quantifcation Analysis of Sentence-Level Speech Kinematics

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Eric S.; Tiede, Mark; Riley, Michael A.; Whalen, D. H.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Current approaches to assessing sentence-level speech variability rely on measures that quantify variability across utterances and use normalization procedures that alter raw trajectory data. The current work tests the feasibility of a less restrictive nonlinear approach--recurrence quantification analysis (RQA)--via a procedural example…

Verbal Semantics Drives Early Anticipatory Eye Movements during the Comprehension of Verb-Initial Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Sauppe, Sebastian

2016-01-01

Studies on anticipatory processes during sentence comprehension often focus on the prediction of postverbal direct objects. In subject-initial languages (the target of most studies so far), however, the position in the sentence, the syntactic function, and the semantic role of arguments are often conflated. For example, in the sentence "The frog will eat the fly" the syntactic object ("fly") is at the same time also the last word and the patient argument of the verb. It is therefore not apparent which kind of information listeners orient to for predictive processing during sentence comprehension. A visual world eye tracking study on the verb-initial language Tagalog (Austronesian) tested what kind of information listeners use to anticipate upcoming postverbal linguistic input. The grammatical structure of Tagalog allows to test whether listeners' anticipatory gaze behavior is guided by predictions of the linear order of words, by syntactic functions (e.g., subject/object), or by semantic roles (agent/patient). Participants heard sentences of the type "Eat frog fly" or "Eat fly frog" (both meaning "The frog will eat the fly") while looking at displays containing an agent referent ("frog"), a patient referent ("fly") and a distractor. The verb carried morphological marking that allowed the order and syntactic function of agent and patient to be inferred. After having heard the verb, listeners fixated on the agent irrespective of its syntactic function or position in the sentence. While hearing the first-mentioned argument, listeners fixated on the corresponding referent in the display accordingly and then initiated saccades to the last-mentioned referent before it was encountered. The results indicate that listeners used verbal semantics to identify referents and their semantic roles early; information about word order or syntactic functions did not influence anticipatory gaze behavior directly after the verb was heard. In this verb-initial language, event semantics

Verbal semantics drives early anticipatory eye movements during the comprehension of verb-initial sentences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian eSauppe

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Studies on anticipatory processes during sentence comprehension often focus on the prediction of postverbal direct objects. In subject-initial languages (the target of most studies so far, however, the position in the sentence, the syntactic function, and the semantic role of arguments are often conflated. For example, in the sentence The frog will eat the fly the syntactic object (fly is at the same time also the last word and the patient argument of the verb. It is therefore not apparent which kind of information listeners orient to for predictive processing during sentence comprehension. A visual world eye tracking study on the verb-initial language Tagalog (Austronesian tested what kind of information listeners use to anticipate upcoming postverbal linguistic input. The grammatical structure of Tagalog allows to test whether listeners' anticipatory gaze behavior is guided by predictions of the linear order of words, by syntactic functions (e.g., subject/object, or by semantic roles (agent/patient. Participants heard sentences of the type Eat frog fly or Eat fly frog (both meaning The frog will eat the fly while looking at displays containing an agent referent (frog, a patient referent (fly and a distractor. The verb carried morphological marking that allowed the order and syntactic function of agent and patient to be inferred. After having heard the verb, listeners fixated on the agent irrespective of its syntactic function or position in the sentence. While hearing the first-mentioned argument, listeners fixated on the corresponding referent in the display accordingly and then initiated saccades to the last-mentioned referent before it was encountered. The results indicate that listeners used verbal semantics to identify referents and their semantic roles early; information about word order or syntactic functions did not influence anticipatory gaze behavior directly after the verb was heard. In this verb-initial language, event semantics

Governance-Default Risk Relationship and the Demand for Intermediated and Non-Intermediated Debt

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Husam Aldamen

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the impact of corporate governance on the demand for intermediated debt (asset finance, bank debt, non-bank private debt and non-intermediated debt (public debt in the Australian debt market. Relative to other countries the Australian debt market is characterised by higher proportions of intermediated or private debt with a lower inherent level of information asymmetry in that private lenders have greater access to financial information (Gray, Koh & Tong 2009. Our firm level, cross-sectional evidence suggests that higher corporate governance impacts demand for debt via the mitigation of default risk. However, this relationship is not uniform across all debt types. Intermediated debt such as bank and asset finance debt are more responsive to changes in governance-default risk relationship than non-bank and non-intermediated debt. The implication is that a firm’s demand for different debt types will reflect its governance-default risk profile.

Neural circuits in the brain that are activated when mitigating criminal sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamada, Makiko; Camerer, Colin F; Fujie, Saori; Kato, Motoichiro; Matsuda, Tetsuya; Takano, Harumasa; Ito, Hiroshi; Suhara, Tetsuya; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2012-03-27

In sentencing guilty defendants, jurors and judges weigh 'mitigating circumstances', which create sympathy for a defendant. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural activity in ordinary citizens who are potential jurors, as they decide on mitigation of punishment for murder. We found that sympathy activated regions associated with mentalising and moral conflict (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and temporo-parietal junction). Sentencing also activated precuneus and anterior cingulate cortex, suggesting that mitigation is based on negative affective responses to murder, sympathy for mitigating circumstances and cognitive control to choose numerical punishments. Individual differences on the inclination to mitigate, the sentence reduction per unit of judged sympathy, correlated with activity in the right middle insula, an area known to represent interoception of visceral states. These results could help the legal system understand how potential jurors actually decide, and contribute to growing knowledge about whether emotion and cognition are integrated sensibly in difficult judgments.

The role of the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in online sentence processing

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Nazbanou Nozari

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Patients with damage to the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC are often not impaired in understanding simple sentences. It is, however, possible that the damage may cause subclinical effects. If VLPFC has a role in biasing competition towards what is relevant to the task, we would expect patients with VLPFC damage to be slower in using the relevant information and discarding the irrelevant information when they process sentences online. Methods: Nine patients, five with lesions limited to VLPFC, and four with lesions sparing VLPFC participated. The groups were matched in age, education, WAB-AQ and total lesion volume. Two experiments explored processing of online cues during sentence comprehension by tracking eye fixations in a Visual World paradigm with four pictures. Participants only listened to the sentences and looked at the pictures. Experiment 1 investigated how quickly cues can be used for target identification using a simple “She will [verb] the [target].” sentence structure. The verbs in the restrictive condition were compatible with only one of the four pictures (e.g., “eat”; target “apple” + three inedible competitors. The verbs in the control conditions were matched to the restrictive verbs in length and frequency, but did not point to a unique target (e.g., “see”. If VLPFC is critical for quickly biasing competition towards the relevant target, the VLPFC patients should to be slower than the non-VLPFC patients in fixating the noun when the verb is restrictive. Experiment 2 probed how effectively irrelevant cues are suppressed. A similar Visual World paradigm was used, but all verbs were restrictive, and one of the distractors was also compatible with the verb (e.g., “banana”. The sentences contained an adjective that ruled out one of verb-compatible pictures (e.g., “red”. The critical manipulation involved a third picture (the adjective competitor which was compatible with the

Automated system for recording reports in nuclear medicine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Machida, Kikuo; Hayashi, Sanshin; Watari, Tsutomu; Akaike, Akira; Oyama, Kazuyuki

1976-01-01

In order to overcome the rapid expansion of nuclear medicine as a diagnostic tool, we developed the system called ''Radiological Bunin Report System'' to record the clinical report in nuclear medicine automatically using the Tosbac 40 time sharing system electronic computer and the keymat-editor (DTZ 0008A). The system is composed of three modules, that is, reader, editor and writer. The module of the reader is used to register sentences and terms by which one can easily add to or change the registered dictionary. The module of the editor is used to make an intermediate file of radiological reports. With the aid of a keymateditor a radiologist puts in the necessary sentences and terms usually in the following order: procedure, interpretation, diagnosis, recommendation and doctor's code, thus making the intermediate file. In this procedure error message, if any, may be printed out on terminal typewriter. Finally the module of the writer is used to edit the intermediate file and to make sentences. Having stored several clinical reports, the computer automatically produces as many of the English written reports as one wants by printing order. By this system we are able to save man power in the hospital, and the radiological report is standardized. Furthermore, in view of the rapid progress and change of nuclear medicine, it is very important that a radiologist is able to change and add sentences and terms on a keymat very easily so that the system may be kept up-to-date and valuable. We believe this is one of the most characteristic advantages of the system. (auth.)

Automated system for recording reports in nuclear medicine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Machida, K; Hayashi, S; Watari, T; Akaike, A; Oyama, K [Tokyo Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Medicine

1976-07-01

In order to overcome the rapid expansion of nuclear medicine as a diagnostic tool, we developed the system called ''Radiological Bunin Report System'' to record the clinical report in nuclear medicine automatically using the Tosbac 40 time sharing system electronic computer and the keymat-editor (DTZ 0008A). The system is composed of three modules, that is, reader, editor and writer. The module of the reader is used to register sentences and terms by which one can easily add to or change the registered dictionary. The module of the editor is used to make an intermediate file of radiological reports. With the aid of a keymateditor a radiologist puts in the necessary sentences and terms usually in the following order: procedure, interpretation, diagnosis, recommendation and doctor's code, thus making the intermediate file. In this procedure error message, if any, may be printed out on terminal typewriter. Finally the module of the writer is used to edit the intermediate file and to make sentences. Having stored several clinical reports, the computer automatically produces as many of the English written reports as one wants by printing order. By this system we are able to save man power in the hospital, and the radiological report is standardized. Furthermore, in view of the rapid progress and change of nuclear medicine, it is very important that a radiologist is able to change and add sentences and terms on a keymat very easily so that the system may be kept up-to-date and valuable. We believe this is one of the most characteristic advantages of the system.

Colloids related to low level and intermediate level waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramsay, J.D.F.; Russell, P.J.; Avery, R.G.

1991-01-01

A comprehensive research investigation has been undertaken to improve the understanding of the potential role of colloids in the context of disposal and storage of low level and intermediate level waste immobilized in cement. Several topics have been investigated which include: (a) the study of the formation and characteristics of colloids in cement leachates; (b) the effects of the near-field aqueous chemistry on the characteristics of colloids in repository environments; (c) colloid sorption behaviour; (d) interactions of near-field materials with leachates; (e) characteristics of near-field materials in EC repository simulation tests; and (f) colloid migration behaviour. These experimental investigations should provide data and a basis for the development of transport models and leaching mechanisms, and thus relate directly to the part of the Task 3 programme concerned with migration and retention of radionuclides in the near field. 114 Figs.; 39 Tabs.; 12 Refs

Comprehension in grammatical sentences at the level of specificity and schematicity in Alzheimer’s disease: an analysis psycholinguistics and cognitive

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berla Moreira de Moraes

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The present research aimed at identifying if there is any compromisse regarding the comprehension in grammatical sentences at the level of specificity, through the self-paced reading technique, produced by people suffering from Alzheimer. With the objective of reaching our goals and finding answers to our hypotheses, one experiment was carried out to analyse: the time of reaction while reading the sentence, the time of reaction for reading the comprehension questions and choosing the best answer, and the score of right answers given by Young adults (YA and healthy old (HO taken as groups of control and the old with likely Alzheimer (OLA as case group, considering sentences: at the level of schematicity and specificity. 10 YA, 10 HO and 10 OLA took part in the experiments, totalling thirty participants. Results show that, when compared to the old without cognitive decline, people suffering from Alzheimer presente inferior performance in comprehending conventional imagery when it comes to the rate of right answers and the time of response. As the result of the experiment, in relation to the level of specificity, people with Alzheimer need more time to read and give answers before schematic sentences, in which is also noticed the highest rate of wrong anwers. The hypothesis that the comprehension of conventional imagery in gramatical sentences at the level of specificity, is affected since the early stages of the Alzheimer disease was confirmed. We believe that this is influenced by the progressive cognitive decline of the working memory, by the speed of processing, by the decision making and also by the spacial and temporal orientation.

A hybrid intermediate language between SSA and CPS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Torrens, Paulo; Vasconcellos, Cristiano; Gonçalves, Ju

2017-01-01

passing style (CPS) lambda calculus has been used as intermediate language for functional language compilers, they are (almost) equivalent and it is possible to draw syntactic translations between them. This short paper aims to present an untyped intermediate language which may be interpreted as both SSA...... and CPS, in order to provide a common language for both imperative and functional compilers, as well to take advantage of optimizations designed for either one of the approaches. Finally, potential variants and research opportunities are discussed....

Life sentence penalty and extradition under article 3 of the ECHR: A leading case of the European Court of Human Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr.Sc. Mario Antinucci

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Life sentence penalty covers a diverse range of practices, from the most severe form of life imprisonment without parole, in which a person is sentenced to die in prison so long as their sentence stands, to more indeterminate sentences in which at the time of sentencing it is not clear how long the sentenced person will spend in prison. Dealing with the question whether the extradition of a person to a foreign state where is accused of a crime for which a sentence of life imprisonment can be imposed can potentially violate article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. What all these sentences have in common, however, is that at the time the sentence is passed, a person is liable to be detained for the rest of his or her natural life. We all know “The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules” and relevant international instruments on the rehabilitation of imprisonment, but at the moment more than 73 States in the world retain life imprisonment as a penalty for offences committed while under the age of 18. General perspective of criminal justice reform in Latin America should take into a right account the meaning of life - imprisonment penalty under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Who is who? Interpretation of multiple occurrences of the Chinese reflexive: evidence from real-time sentence processing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lan Shuai

Full Text Available Theoretical linguists claim that the notorious reflexive ziji 'self' in Mandarin Chinese, if occurring more than once in a single sentence, can take distinct antecedents. This study tackles possibly the most interesting puzzle in the linguistic literature, investigating how two occurrences of ziji in a single sentence are interpreted and whether or not there are mixed readings, i.e., these zijis are interpretively bound by distinct antecedents. Using 15 Chinese sentences each having two zijis, we conducted two sentence reading experiments based on a modified self-paced reading paradigm. The general interpretation patterns observed showed that the majority of participants associated both zijis with the same local antecedent, which was consistent with Principle A of the Standard Binding Theory and previous experimental findings involving a single ziji. In addition, mixed readings also occurred, but did not pattern as claimed in the theoretical linguistic literature (i.e., one ziji is bound by a long-distance antecedent and the other by a local antecedent. Based on these results, we argue that: (i mixed readings were due to manifold, interlocking and conflicting perspectives taken by the participants; and (ii cases of multiple occurrences of ziji taking distinct antecedents are illicit in Chinese syntax, since the speaker, when expressing a sentence, can select only one P(erspective-Center that referentially denotes the psychological perspective in which the sentence is situated.

PENCITRAAN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE MELALUI PENGGUNAAN ARCHETYPEDAN LOOSE SENTENCE STRUCTUREDALAM “THE GREAT GATSBY” KARYA F. SCOTT. FIZGERALD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tintin Susilowati

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Penelitian ini adalah penelitian stilistika yang mengkaji tentang penggunaan archetype dan loose sentence structure dalam membangun kesan mental pembaca tentang American Nightmare. Melalui penelitian ini, peneliti peneliti menggali pola-pola penggunaan archetype, loose sentence structure, serta konsep mental pembaca dalam memahami bacaan.Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui efektifitas gaya penulisan Fizgerald dengan menggunakan ornamen berupa archetype, loose sentence structure guna membangun kesan mental pembaca tentang America Nightmare. Pendekatan penelitian ini adalah deskriptive kualitatif sedangkan desainnya adalah library research. Data yang digunakan adalah data primer berupa kutipankutipan yang dicari dari novel, selain itu juga data sekunder berupa referensireferensi pendukung. Peneliti juga menggunakan coding dalam proses koleksi data. Teknik ini digunakan untuk membantu peneliti dalam mengklasifikasikan data. Lebih lanjut, penelitian ini merupakan penelitian dokumentasi maka dalam analisis peneliti menggunakan pendekatan content analysis selain itu interactive analysis juga digunakan peneliti dalam tahap analisis data. Dalam penelitian ini diperoleh data sebagai berikut, 1.ditemukan data tentang penggunaan archetype sejumlah 851 data/ 70.79%; 2. ditemukan data tentang penggunaan loose sentence structure sejumlah 351 data/ 29.20 %; 3. ditemukan data tentang penggunaan archetype dan loose sentence structure secara bersamaan sejumlah 1202 data/ 100%. Sedangkan kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah:penggunaan kedua ornamen khususnya berupa archetype didukung juga oleh penggunaan loose sentence structure membuat kontek dari sebuah teks mudah dipahami, Kedua ornamen tersebut meminimalis kesulitan pembaca dalam berinteraksi dengan teks.

Corrections on Grammar, Sentence Variety and Developing Detail to Qualify Academic Essay of Indonesian Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Solikhah, Imroatus

2017-01-01

This experimental research examines: (1) significant differences of corrections on grammar, sentence variety and developing details on the quality of the essay by Indonesian learners; and (2) different effect of corrections on grammar, sentence variety, and developing details on the quality of the essay. Treatments for each were served as follows:…

Vocabulary and Sentence Structure in Emergent Spanish Literacy

Science.gov (United States)

Briceño, Allison

2016-01-01

Dual language and bilingual education programs are increasing in number and popularity across the country. However, little information is available on how to teach children to read and write in Spanish. This article explores some of the similarities and differences in vocabulary and sentence structure in Spanish and English and considers the…

Sentence Imitation as a Marker of SLI in Czech: Disproportionate Impairment of Verbs and Clitics

Science.gov (United States)

Smolík, Filip; Vávru, Petra

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors examined sentence imitation as a potential clinical marker of specific language impairment (SLI) in Czech and its use to identify grammatical markers of SLI. Method: Children with SLI and the age-and language-matched control groups (total N = 57) were presented with a sentence imitation task, a receptive vocabulary task, and…

Nature, nurture, and capital punishment: How evidence of a genetic-environment interaction, future dangerousness, and deliberation affect sentencing decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Natalie; Greene, Edie

2018-01-01

Research has shown that the low-activity MAOA genotype in conjunction with a history of childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of violent behaviors. This genetic-environment (G × E) interaction has been introduced as mitigation during the sentencing phase of capital trials, yet there is scant data on its effectiveness. This study addressed that issue. In a factorial design that varied mitigating evidence offered by the defense [environmental (i.e., childhood maltreatment), genetic, G × E, or none] and the likelihood of the defendant's future dangerousness (low or high), 600 mock jurors read sentencing phase evidence in a capital murder trial, rendered individual verdicts, and half deliberated as members of a jury to decide a sentence of death or life imprisonment. The G × E evidence had little mitigating effect on sentencing preferences: participants who received the G × E evidence were no less likely to sentence the defendant to death than those who received evidence of childhood maltreatment or a control group that received neither genetic nor maltreatment evidence. Participants with evidence of a G × E interaction were more likely to sentence the defendant to death when there was a high risk of future dangerousness than when there was a low risk. Sentencing preferences were more lenient after deliberation than before. We discuss limitations and future directions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

76 FR 45007 - Sentencing Guidelines for United States Courts

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-27

... report to Congress making recommendations on any statutory changes that may be appropriate to relevant...., Suite 2-500, South Lobby, Washington, DC 20002- 8002, Attention: Public Affairs--Priorities Comment. FOR... Supreme Court decisions have affected Federal sentencing practices, the appellate review of those...

Cultural considerations in the criminal law: the sentencing process.

Science.gov (United States)

Boehnlein, James K; Schaefer, Michele N; Bloom, Joseph D

2005-01-01

In forensic psychiatry, there is increasing recognition of the importance of culture and ethnicity in the criminal justice process as the population becomes more culturally diverse. However, there has been little consideration of the role of cultural factors in the trial process for criminal defendants, particularly in the sentencing phase of trial. Using a capital murder case study, this article explores the role of cultural forensic psychiatric consultation, focusing on the sentencing phase of trial as the place where the full scope and power of a cultural evaluation can be brought most effectively to the attention of the court. Cultural psychiatric perspectives can enrich a core forensic evaluation and be maximally helpful to the court, by exploring family dynamics and psychological health influenced by cultural history, immigrant and refugee experiences, and sociocultural environment. Specific recommendations and cautions for effective cultural consultation in forensic psychiatry are discussed.

The Probability Approach to English If-Conditional Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Mei

2012-01-01

Users of the Probability Approach choose the right one from four basic types of conditional sentences--factual, predictive, hypothetical and counterfactual conditionals, by judging how likely (i.e. the probability) the event in the result-clause will take place when the condition in the if-clause is met. Thirty-three students from the experimental…

Medicaid program; health care-related taxes. Final rule.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-06-30

This rule finalizes our proposal to delay enforcement of certain clarifications regarding standards for determining hold harmless arrangements in the final rule entitled, "Medicaid Program; Health Care-Related Taxes" from the expiration of a Congressional moratorium on enforcement from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

The Students' Error in Using Conjunction (Because, Since, As, in Case) in the Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Pangaribuan, Tagor; Haddina, Elisa; Manik, Sondang

2018-01-01

This research deals with the students' error in using conjunction (because, since, as, in case) in the sentences. Conjunction is very important for the learners to develop a skill in grammar. And grammar is the most important part of language for anyone. Should be first understood before being able to construct sentences, rules based on the…

Semantic Models of Sentences with Verbs of Motion in Standard Language and in Scientific Language Used in Biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vita Banionytė

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The semantic models of sentences with verbs of motion in German standard language and in scientific language used in biology are analyzed in the article. In its theoretic part it is affirmed that the article is based on the semantic theory of the sentence. This theory, in its turn, is grounded on the correlation of semantic predicative classes and semantic roles. The combination of semantic predicative classes and semantic roles is expressed by the main semantic formula – proposition. In its practical part the differences between the semantic models of standard and scientific language used in biology are explained. While modelling sentences with verbs of motion, two groups of semantic models of sentences are singled out: that of action (Handlung and process (Vorgang. The analysis shows that the semantic models of sentences with semantic action predicatives dominate in the text of standard language while the semantic models of sentences with semantic process predicatives dominate in the texts of scientific language used in biology. The differences how the doer and direction are expressed in standard and in scientific language are clearly seen and the semantic cases (Agens, Patiens, Direktiv1 help to determine that. It is observed that in scientific texts of high level of specialization (biology science in contrast to popular scientific literature models of sentences with moving verbs are usually seldom found. They are substituted by denominative constructions. In conclusions it is shown that this analysis can be important in methodics, especially planning material for teaching professional-scientific language.

fMRI brain response during sentence reading comprehension in children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes.

Science.gov (United States)

Malfait, D; Tucholka, A; Mendizabal, S; Tremblay, J; Poulin, C; Oskoui, M; Srour, M; Carmant, L; Major, P; Lippé, S

2015-11-01

Children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS) often have language problems. Abnormal epileptic activity is found in central and temporal brain regions, which are involved in reading and semantic and syntactic comprehension. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined reading networks in BECTS children with a new sentence reading comprehension task involving semantic and syntactic processing. Fifteen children with BECTS (age=11y 1m ± 16 m; 12 boys) and 18 healthy controls (age=11 y 8m ± 20 m; 11 boys) performed an fMRI reading comprehension task in which they read a pair of syntactically complex sentences and decided whether the target sentence (the second sentence in the pair) was true or false with respect to the first sentence. All children also underwent an exhaustive neuropsychological assessment. We demonstrated weaknesses in several cognitive domains in BECTS children. During the sentence reading fMRI task, left inferior frontal regions and bilateral temporal areas were activated in BECTS children and healthy controls. However, additional brain regions such as the left hippocampus and precuneus were activated in BECTS children. Moreover, specific activation was found in the left caudate and putamen in BECTS children but not in healthy controls. Cognitive results and accuracy during the fMRI task were associated with specific brain activation patterns. BECTS children recruited a wider network to perform the fMRI sentence reading comprehension task, with specific activation in the left dorsal striatum. BECTS cognitive performance differently predicted functional activation in frontal and temporal regions compared to controls, suggesting differences in brain network organisation that contribute to reading comprehension. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sentence processing in anterior superior temporal cortex shows a social-emotional bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellem, Monika S; Jasmin, Kyle M; Peng, Cynthia; Martin, Alex

2016-08-01

The anterior region of the left superior temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus (aSTG/STS) has been implicated in two very different cognitive functions: sentence processing and social-emotional processing. However, the vast majority of the sentence stimuli in previous reports have been of a social or social-emotional nature suggesting that sentence processing may be confounded with semantic content. To evaluate this possibility we had subjects read word lists that differed in phrase/constituent size (single words, 3-word phrases, 6-word sentences) and semantic content (social-emotional, social, and inanimate objects) while scanned in a 7T environment. This allowed us to investigate if the aSTG/STS responded to increasing constituent structure (with increased activity as a function of constituent size) with or without regard to a specific domain of concepts, i.e., social and/or social-emotional content. Activity in the left aSTG/STS was found to increase with constituent size. This region was also modulated by content, however, such that social-emotional concepts were preferred over social and object stimuli. Reading also induced content type effects in domain-specific semantic regions. Those preferring social-emotional content included aSTG/STS, inferior frontal gyrus, posterior STS, lateral fusiform, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, regions included in the "social brain", while those preferring object content included parahippocampal gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, and caudate, regions involved in object processing. These results suggest that semantic content affects higher-level linguistic processing and should be taken into account in future studies. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Proficiency in English sentence stress production by Cantonese speakers who speak English as a second language (ESL).

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Manwa L; Chen, Yang

2011-12-01

The present study examined English sentence stress produced by native Cantonese speakers who were speaking English as a second language (ESL). Cantonese ESL speakers' proficiency in English stress production as perceived by English-speaking listeners was also studied. Acoustical parameters associated with sentence stress including fundamental frequency (F0), vowel duration, and intensity were measured from the English sentences produced by 40 Cantonese ESL speakers. Data were compared with those obtained from 40 native speakers of American English. The speech samples were also judged by eight native listeners who were native speakers of American English for placement, degree, and naturalness of stress. Results showed that Cantonese ESL speakers were able to use F0, vowel duration, and intensity to differentiate sentence stress patterns. Yet, both female and male Cantonese ESL speakers exhibited consistently higher F0 in stressed words than English speakers. Overall, Cantonese ESL speakers were found to be proficient in using duration and intensity to signal sentence stress, in a way comparable with English speakers. In addition, F0 and intensity were found to correlate closely with perceptual judgement and the degree of stress with the naturalness of stress.

A Computational Evaluation of Sentence Processing Deficits in Aphasia

Science.gov (United States)

Patil, Umesh; Hanne, Sandra; Burchert, Frank; De Bleser, Ria; Vasishth, Shravan

2016-01-01

Individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia experience difficulty when processing reversible non-canonical sentences. Different accounts have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. The Trace Deletion account (Grodzinsky, 1995, 2000, 2006) attributes this deficit to an impairment in syntactic representations, whereas others (e.g., Caplan,…

Training verb and sentence production in agrammatic Broca's aphasia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Links, Petra; Hurkmans, Joost; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2010-01-01

Background: Many aphasic speakers have problems producing verbs at both the word and the sentence level. A treatment programme called ACTION (Bastiaanse, Bunge, Perk, 2004; Bastiaanse, Jonkers, Quak, Varela Put, 1997) has been developed to train verb production of both fluent and non-fluent aphasic

Individual differences in processing emotional images after reading disgusting and neutral sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartigan, Alex; Richards, Anne

2017-11-21

The present study examined the extent to which Event Related Potentials (ERPs) evoked by disgusting, threatening and neutral photographic images were influenced by disgust propensity, disgust sensitivity and attentional control following exposure to disgusting information. Emotional cognition was manipulated by instructing participants to remember either disgusting or neutral sentences; participants in both groups then viewed emotional images while ERPs were recorded. Disgust propensity was associated with a reduced Late Positive Potential (LPP) gap between threatening and neutral stimuli (an effect driven by a rise in the LPP for neutral images) but only amongst individuals who were exposed to disgusting sentences. The typical LPP increase for disgust over neutral was reduced by attentional shifting capacity but only for individuals who were not previously exposed to disgust. There was also a persistent occipital shifted late positivity that was enhanced for disgust for the entire LPP window and was independent of exposure. Results suggest that emotion specific ERP effects can emerge within the broad unpleasant emotional category in conjunction with individual differences and prior emotional exposure. These results have important implications for the ways in which the perception of emotion is impacted by short term cognitive influences and longer term individual differences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analyzing processing effort during sentence comprehension in quiet and in noise: Evidence from eye-fixations and pupil size

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Brand, Thomas; Kollmeier, Birger

2014-01-01

structures . Here, we compare both methods, i.e. p rocessing speed and pupil size , as indicator s for the required effort when processing sentences that differ in their level of syntactic complexity . Furthermore, an interaction of background noise and syntactic complexity is exanimated by analyzing...... processing effort for sentence s presented in quiet and in noise. Moreover, it is investigated whether both measure s provide similar or complementary information about sentence processing and the required effort....

Possibility of death sentence has divergent effect on verdicts for Black and White defendants.

Science.gov (United States)

Glaser, Jack; Martin, Karin D; Kahn, Kimberly B

2015-12-01

When anticipating the imposition of the death penalty, jurors may be less inclined to convict defendants. On the other hand, minority defendants have been shown to be treated more punitively, particularly in capital cases. Given that the influence of anticipated sentence severity on verdicts may vary as a function of defendant race, the goal of this study was to test the independent and interactive effects of these factors. We conducted a survey-embedded experiment with a nationally representative sample to examine the effect on verdicts of sentence severity as a function of defendant race, presenting respondents with a triple murder trial summary that manipulated the maximum penalty (death vs. life without parole) and the race of the defendant. Respondents who were told life-without-parole was the maximum sentence were not significantly more likely to convict Black (67.7%) than White (66.7%) defendants. However, when death was the maximum sentence, respondents presented with Black defendants were significantly more likely to convict (80.0%) than were those with White defendants (55.1%). The results indicate that the death penalty may be a cause of racial disparities in criminal justice, and implicate threats to civil rights and to effective criminal justice. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering with spectator nucleon tagging and final-state interactions at intermediate x

Science.gov (United States)

Strikman, M.; Weiss, C.

2018-03-01

We consider electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) with detection of a proton in the nuclear fragmentation region ("spectator tagging") as a method for extracting the free neutron structure functions and studying their nuclear modifications. Such measurements could be performed at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with suitable forward detectors. The measured proton recoil momentum (≲100 MeV in the deuteron rest frame) specifies the deuteron configuration during the high-energy process and permits a controlled theoretical treatment of nuclear effects. Nuclear and nucleonic structure are separated using methods of light-front quantum mechanics. The impulse approximation to the tagged DIS cross section contains the free neutron pole, which can be reached by on-shell extrapolation in the recoil momentum. Final-state interactions (FSIs) distort the recoil momentum distribution away from the pole. In the intermediate-x region 0.1 rest frame momenta ≲1 GeV , target fragmentation region). We construct a schematic model describing this effect, using final-state hadron distributions measured in nucleon DIS experiments and low-energy hadron scattering amplitudes. We investigate the magnitude of FSIs, their dependence on the recoil momentum (angular dependence, forward/backward regions), their analytic properties, and their effect on the on-shell extrapolation. We comment on the prospects for neutron structure extraction in tagged DIS with an EIC. We discuss possible extensions of the FSI model to other kinematic regions (large/small x ). In tagged DIS at x ≪0.1 FSIs resulting from diffractive scattering on the nucleons become important and require separate treatment.

A net presentation of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav-

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danuta Roszko

2014-09-01

Full Text Available A net presentation of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav- In the article the authors make an attempt to present the meaning of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav- (the so-called iterative past tense forms by means of Petri nets. The authors gradually develop the net to such complexity that it makes it possible to avoid interpretative similarities to other Lithuanian verbal forms.

Light in intermediate acclimatization of in vitro germinated seedlings of Dendrobium phalaenopsis Deang Suree

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Carlos Sorgato

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The success in micropropagation of Dendrobium phalaenopsis Deang Suree is high, but when transplanted into the greenhouse, their survival is minimal. To increase survival in production in the present study it was evaluated the effect of intermediate acclimatization for 30 days in a grow room utilizing the following luminosity conditions: 1- white fluorescent light (B (18.9µmol m-2 s-1; 2- white fluorescent light + red fluorescent light (GRO-LUX(r (BV (14.85µmol m-2 s-1; 3- red fluorescent light (GRO-LUX(r (V (9.45µmol m-2 s-1 and the control plants were accommodated directly in a greenhouse (162.0µmol m-2 s-1. After this the leaves were characterized anatomically and the plants transferred to the control greenhouse. It was evaluated survival percentage and final number of roots, and calculated the relations between the final and initial values of fresh weight, number of leaves, length and diameter of the largest pseudo bulb, number of pseudo bulbs and longest root length. Only plants submitted to red light, were statistically better than the control in relation to the survival percentage and in relation to fresh weight, while the control showed a higher number of roots that plants acclimatized in this luminosity conditions. Intermediate acclimatization, using red light or red + white light, is recommended for D. phalaenopsis Deang Suree.

Validation of intermediate end points in cancer research.

Science.gov (United States)

Schatzkin, A; Freedman, L S; Schiffman, M H; Dawsey, S M

1990-11-21

Investigations using intermediate end points as cancer surrogates are quicker, smaller, and less expensive than studies that use malignancy as the end point. We present a strategy for determining whether a given biomarker is a valid intermediate end point between an exposure and incidence of cancer. Candidate intermediate end points may be selected from case series, ecologic studies, and animal experiments. Prospective cohort and sometimes case-control studies may be used to quantify the intermediate end point-cancer association. The most appropriate measure of this association is the attributable proportion. The intermediate end point is a valid cancer surrogate if the attributable proportion is close to 1.0, but not if it is close to 0. Usually, the attributable proportion is close to neither 1.0 nor 0; in this case, valid surrogacy requires that the intermediate end point mediate an established exposure-cancer relation. This would in turn imply that the exposure effect would vanish if adjusted for the intermediate end point. We discuss the relative advantages of intervention and observational studies for the validation of intermediate end points. This validation strategy also may be applied to intermediate end points for adverse reproductive outcomes and chronic diseases other than cancer.

The sacred and the absurd--an electrophysiological study of counterintuitive ideas (at sentence level).

Science.gov (United States)

Fondevila, Sabela; Martín-Loeches, Manuel; Jiménez-Ortega, Laura; Casado, Pilar; Sel, Alejandra; Fernández-Hernández, Anabel; Sommer, Werner

2012-01-01

Religious beliefs are both catchy and durable: they exhibit a high degree of adherence to our cognitive system, given their success of transmission and spreading throughout history. A prominent explanation for religion's cultural success comes from the "MCI hypothesis," according to which religious beliefs are both easy to recall and desirable to transmit because they are minimally counterintuitive (MCI). This hypothesis has been empirically tested at concept and narrative levels by recall measures. However, the neural correlates of MCI concepts remain poorly understood. We used the N400 component of the event-related brain potential as a measure of counterintuitiveness of violations comparing religious and non-religious sentences, both counterintuitive, when presented in isolation. Around 80% in either condition were core-knowledge violations. We found smaller N400 amplitudes for religious as compared to non-religious counterintuitive ideas, suggesting that religious ideas are less semantically anomalous. Moreover, behavioral measures revealed that religious ideas are not readily detected as unacceptable. Finally, systematic analyses of our materials, according to conceptual features proposed in cognitive models of religion, did not reveal any outstanding variable significantly contributing to these differences. Refinements of cognitive models of religion should elucidate which combination of factors renders an anomaly less counterintuitive and thus more suitable for recall and transmission.

The specifics of suspending prison sentences and the execution of incarceration measures with regard to pregnancy and the personality of a woman

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milić Ivan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Women as criminals who have received prison sentences have, if certain conditions are met, special rights tied to their reproductive function. This paper highlights the issues which women who have received prison sentences face, considering that there is only one institution in the Republic of Serbia in which women serve prison sentences. Special regard will be given to pregnant women expecting the execution of a prison sentence, their right to have the sentence suspended, as well as their right to be on temporary licence. The subject of this paper will also be what is perhaps the most complex issue: the incarceration of pregnant women.

28 CFR 522.13 - Relationship between existing civil contempt commitment orders and new criminal sentences imposed...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... contempt commitment orders and new criminal sentences imposed under the U.S. or D.C. Code. 522.13 Section..., CLASSIFICATION, AND TRANSFER ADMISSION TO INSTITUTION Civil Contempt of Court Commitments § 522.13 Relationship between existing civil contempt commitment orders and new criminal sentences imposed under the U.S. or D.C...

The Searchbench - Combining Sentence-semantic, Full-text and Bibliographic Search in Digital Libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulrich Schäfer

2013-02-01

Full Text Available We describe a novel approach to precise searching in the full content of digital libraries. The Searchbench (for search workbench is based on sentence-wise syntactic and semantic natural language processing (NLP of both born-digital and scanned publications in PDF format. The term born-digital means natively digital, i.e. prepared electronically using typesetting systems such as LaTeX, OpenOffice, and the like. In the Searchbench, queries can be formulated as (possibly underspecified statements, consisting of simple subject-predicate-object constructs such as ‘algorithm improves word alignment’. This reduces the number of false hits in large document collections when the search words happen to appear close to each other, but are not semantically related. The method also abstracts from passive voice and predicate synonyms. Moreover, negated statements can be excluded from the search results, and negated antonym predicates again count as synonyms (e.g. not include = exclude.In the Searchbench, a sentence-semantic search can be combined with search filters for classical full-text, bibliographic metadata and automatically computed domain terms. Auto-suggest fields facilitate text input. Queries can be bookmarked or emailed. Furthermore, a novel citation browser in the Searchbench allows graphical navigation in citation networks. These have been extracted automatically from metadata and paper texts. The citation browser displays short phrases from citation sentences at the edges in the citation graph and thus allows students and researchers to quickly browse publications and immerse into a new research field. By clicking on a citation edge, the original citation sentence is shown in context, and optionally also in the original PDF layout.To showcase the usefulness of our research, we have a applied it to a collection of currently approx. 25,000 open access research papers in the field of computational linguistics and language technology, the ACL

Cognitive precursors of the developmental relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in the intermediate elementary grades

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Swart, N.M.; Muijselaar, M.M.L.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.; Droop, W.; Jong, P.F. de; Verhoeven, L.T.W.

2017-01-01

In a longitudinal study, we investigated how cognitive precursors (short-term memory, working memory, and nonverbal reasoning) influence the developmental relation between lexical quality (decoding and vocabulary) and reading comprehension skill in 282 Dutch students in the intermediate elementary

Cognitive precursors of the developmental relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in the intermediate elementary grades.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Swart, N.M.; Muijselaar, M.M.L.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.; Droop, M.; de Jong, P.F.; Verhoeven, L.

2017-01-01

In a longitudinal study, we investigated how cognitive precursors (short-term memory, working memory, and nonverbal reasoning) influence the developmental relation between lexical quality (decoding and vocabulary) and reading comprehension skill in 282 Dutch students in the intermediate elementary

Task Difficulty Differentially Affects Two Measures of Processing Load: The Pupil Response during Sentence Processing and Delayed Cued Recall of the Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Zekveld, Adriana A.; Festen, Joost M.; Kramer, Kramera

2013-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors assessed the influence of masking level (29% or 71% sentence perception) and test modality on the processing load during language perception as reflected by the pupil response. In addition, the authors administered a delayed cued stimulus recall test to examine whether processing load affected the encoding of…

Number Attraction Effects in Near-Native Spanish Sentence Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Jegerski, Jill

2016-01-01

Grammatical agreement phenomena such as verbal number have long been of fundamental interest in the study of second language (L2) acquisition. Previous research from the perspective of sentence processing has documented nativelike behavior among nonnative participants but has also relied almost exclusively on grammar violation paradigms. The…

Sentencing dangerous offenders: policy and practice in the Crown Court

OpenAIRE

Henham, R

2001-01-01

Analysis of Crown Courts' use of protective sentencing powers under s.80(2)(b), s.85, and s.109 of 2000 Act and whether preference for s.85 reflects fundamental flaw in leaving determination of "dangerousness" to judiciary.

Readability of written medicine information materials in Arabic language: expert and consumer evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Aqeel, Sinaa; Abanmy, Norah; Aldayel, Abeer; Al-Khalifa, Hend; Al-Yahya, Maha; Diab, Mona

2018-02-27

Written Medicine Information (WMI) is one of the sources that patients use to obtain information concerning medicine. This paper aims to assess the readability of two types of WMIs in Arabic language based on vocabulary use and sentence structure using a panel of experts and consumers. This is a descriptive study. Two different types of materials, including the online text from King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Arabic Health Encyclopaedia (KAAHE) and medication leaflets submitted by the manufacturers to the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) were evaluated. We selected a group of sentences from each WMI. The readability was assessed by experts (n = 5) and consumers (n = 5). The sentence readability of each measured using a specific criteria and rated as 1 = easy, 2 = intermediate, or 3 = difficult. A total of 4476 sentences (SFDA 2231; KAHEE 2245) extracted from websites or patient information leaflets on 50 medications and evaluated. The majority of the vocabulary and sentence structure was considered easy by both expert (SFDA: 68%; KAAHE: 76%) and consumer (SFDA: 76%; KAAHE: 84%) groups. The sentences with difficult or intermediate vocabulary and sentence structure are derived primarily from the precautions and side effects sections. The SFDA and KAAHE WMIs are easy to read and understand as judged by our study sample. However; there is room for improvement, especially in sections related to the side effects and precautions.

Formation, structure, and stability of MHD intermediate shocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, C.C.

1990-01-01

Contrary to the usual belief that MHD intermediate shocks are extraneous, the author has recently shown by numerical solutions of dissipative MHD equations that intermediate shocks are admissible and can be formed through nonlinear wave steepening from continuous waves. In this paper, the formation, structure and stability of intermediate shocks in dissipative MHD are considered in detail. The differences between the conventional theory and his are pointed out and clarified. He shows that all four types of intermediate shocks can be formed from smooth waves. He also shows that there are free parameters in the structure of the intermediate shocks, and that these parameters are related to the shock stability. In addition, he shows that a rotational discontinuity can not exist with finite width, indicate how this is related to the existence of time-dependent intermediate shocks, and show why the conventional theory is not a good approximation to dissipative MHD solutions whenever there is rotation in magnetic field

Conceptual similarity effects on working memory in sentence contexts: testing a theory of anaphora.

Science.gov (United States)

Cowles, H Wind; Garnham, Alan; Simner, Julia

2010-06-01

The degree of semantic similarity between an anaphoric noun phrase (e.g., the bird) and its antecedent (e.g., a robin) is known to affect the anaphor resolution process, but the mechanisms that underlie this effect are not known. One proposal (Almor, 1999) is that semantic similarity triggers interference effects in working memory and makes two crucial assumptions: First, semantic similarity impairs working memory just as phonological similarity does (e.g., Baddeley, 1992), and, second, this impairment interferes with processes of sentence comprehension. We tested these assumptions in two experiments that compared recall accuracy between phonologically similar, semantically similar, and control words in sentence contexts. Our results do not provide support for Almor's claims: Phonological overlap decreased recall accuracy in sentence contexts, but semantic similarity did not. These results shed doubt on the idea that semantic interference in working memory is an underlying mechanism in anaphor resolution.

Evolution of scaling behaviors embedded in sentence series from A Story of the Stone.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Yang

Full Text Available The novel entitled A Story of the Stone provides us precise details of life and social structure of the 18th century China. Its writing lasted a long duration of about 10 years, in which the author's habit may change significantly. It had been published anonymously up to the beginning of the 20th century, which left a mystery of the author's attribution. In the present work we focus our attention on scaling behavior embedded in the sentence series from this novel, hope to find how the ideas are organized from single sentences to the whole text. Especially we are interested in the evolution of scale invariance to monitor the changes of the author's language habit and to find some clues on the author's attribution. The sentence series are separated into a total of 69 non-overlapping segments with a length of 500 sentences each. The correlation dependent balanced estimation of diffusion entropy (cBEDE is employed to evaluate the scaling behaviors embedded in the short segments. It is found that the total, the part attributed currently to Xueqin Cao (X-part, and the other part attributed to E Gao (E-part, display scale invariance in a large scale up to 103 sentences, while their scaling exponents are almost identical. All the segments behave scale invariant in considerable wide scales, most of which reach one third of the length. In the curve of scaling exponent versus segment number, the X-part has rich patterns with averagely larger values, while the E-part has a U-shape with a significant low bottom. This finding is a new clue to support the attribution of the E-part to E Gao.

Do Resources, Justice Administration Practices And Federalism Have An Impact On Registered And Sentenced Crime Prevalence?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Koller

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This contribution, based on a statistical approach, undertakes to link data on resources (personnel and financial means and the working of the administration of penal justice (prosecution, sentencing taking into account the nationality of those prosecuted. In order to be able to distinguish prosecution and sentencing practices of judicial authorities and possible processes of discrimination, diverse sources have been used such as data from court administrations, public finances and police forces, collected by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the Swiss Federal administration of finances. The authors discuss discrimination in prosecution and sentencing between Swiss residents and foreigners taking into account localization and resources regarding personnel and public finances.

Intermediate coupling collision strengths from LS coupled R-matrix elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, R.E.H.

1978-01-01

Fine structure collision strength for transitions between two groups of states in intermediate coupling and with inclusion of configuration mixing are obtained from LS coupled reactance matrix elements (R-matrix elements) and a set of mixing coefficients. The LS coupled R-matrix elements are transformed to pair coupling using Wigner 6-j coefficients. From these pair coupled R-matrix elements together with a set of mixing coefficients, R-matrix elements are obtained which include the intermediate coupling and configuration mixing effects. Finally, from the latter R-matrix elements, collision strengths for fine structure transitions are computed (with inclusion of both intermediate coupling and configuration mixing). (Auth.)

Effects of reading speed on second-language sentence processing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaan, Edith; Ballantyne, Jocelyn C.; Wijnen, Frank

2014-01-01

To test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native

Experiments on Auditory-Visual Perception of Sentences by Users of Unilateral, Bimodal, and Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Science.gov (United States)

Dorman, Michael F.; Liss, Julie; Wang, Shuai; Berisha, Visar; Ludwig, Cimarron; Natale, Sarah Cook

2016-01-01

Purpose: Five experiments probed auditory-visual (AV) understanding of sentences by users of cochlear implants (CIs). Method: Sentence material was presented in auditory (A), visual (V), and AV test conditions to listeners with normal hearing and CI users. Results: (a) Most CI users report that most of the time, they have access to both A and V…

Learning vector representations for sentences: The recursive deep learning approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lê, Phong

2016-01-01

According to the principle of compositionality, the meaning of a sentence is computed from the meaning of its parts and the way they are syntactically combined. Unfortunately, unlike formal semantics, distributional semantics has no elegant compositional mechanisms like function application of

Final Technical Report: Vibrational Spectroscopy of Transient Combustion Intermediates Trapped in Helium Nanodroplets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Douberly, Gary Elliott [Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)

2017-11-16

The objective of our experimental research program is to isolate and stabilize transient intermediates and products of prototype combustion reactions. This will be accomplished by Helium Nanodroplet Isolation, a novel technique where liquid helium droplets freeze out high energy metastable configurations of a reacting system, permitting infrared spectroscopic characterizations of products and intermediates that result from hydrocarbon radical reactions with molecular oxygen and other small molecules relevant to combustion environments. The low temperature (0.4 K) and rapid cooling associated with He droplets provides a perfectly suited medium to isolate and probe a broad range of molecular radical and carbene systems important to combustion chemistry. The sequential addition of molecular species to He droplets often leads to the stabilization of high-energy, metastable cluster configurations that represent regions of the potential energy surface far from the global minimum. Single and double resonance IR laser spectroscopy techniques, along with Stark and Zeeman capabilities, are being used to probe the structural and dynamical properties of these systems.

The Interaction of Eye-Voice Span with Syntactic Chunking and Predictability in Right- and Left-Embedded Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Balajthy, Ernest P., Jr.

Sixty tenth graders participated in this study of relationships between eye/voice span, phrase and clause boundaries, reading ability, and sentence structure. Results indicated that sentences apparently are "chunked" into surface constituents during processing. Better tenth grade readers had longer eye/voice spans than did poorer readers and…

Role of Auditory Non-Verbal Working Memory in Sentence Repetition for Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment

Science.gov (United States)

Ebert, Kerry Danahy

2014-01-01

Background: Sentence repetition performance is attracting increasing interest as a valuable clinical marker for primary (or specific) language impairment (LI) in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Multiple aspects of memory appear to contribute to sentence repetition performance, but non-verbal memory has not yet been considered. Aims: To…

 The effect of context in children's interpretations of universally-quantified sentences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drozd, Kenneth

2006-01-01

This chapter investigates the effects of perceptual and discourse context on children's Exhaustive Pairing interpretation of universally quantified sentences. Two experiments compared the predictions of two recent accounts of Exhaustive Pairing. In one account, Crain et al. (1996) arge that child......This chapter investigates the effects of perceptual and discourse context on children's Exhaustive Pairing interpretation of universally quantified sentences. Two experiments compared the predictions of two recent accounts of Exhaustive Pairing. In one account, Crain et al. (1996) arge...

How Fuzzy-Trace Theory Predicts True and False Memories for Words, Sentences, and Narratives

Science.gov (United States)

Reyna, Valerie F.; Corbin, Jonathan C.; Weldon, Rebecca B.; Brainerd, Charles J.

2016-01-01

Fuzzy-trace theory posits independent verbatim and gist memory processes, a distinction that has implications for such applied topics as eyewitness testimony. This distinction between precise, literal verbatim memory and meaning-based, intuitive gist accounts for memory paradoxes including dissociations between true and false memory, false memories outlasting true memories, and developmental increases in false memory. We provide an overview of fuzzy-trace theory, and, using mathematical modeling, also present results demonstrating verbatim and gist memory in true and false recognition of narrative sentences and inferences. Results supported fuzzy-trace theory's dual-process view of memory: verbatim memory was relied on to reject meaning-consistent, but unpresented, sentences (via recollection rejection). However, verbatim memory was often not retrieved, and gist memory supported acceptance of these sentences (via similarity judgment and phantom recollection). Thus, mathematical models of words can be extended to explain memory for complex stimuli, such as narratives, the kind of memory interrogated in law. PMID:27042402

Listening to Sentences in Noise: Revealing Binaural Hearing Challenges in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdul Wahab, Noor Alaudin; Zakaria, Mohd Normani; Abdul Rahman, Abdul Hamid; Sidek, Dinsuhaimi; Wahab, Suzaily

2017-11-01

The present, case-control, study investigates binaural hearing performance in schizophrenia patients towards sentences presented in quiet and noise. Participants were twenty-one healthy controls and sixteen schizophrenia patients with normal peripheral auditory functions. The binaural hearing was examined in four listening conditions by using the Malay version of hearing in noise test. The syntactically and semantically correct sentences were presented via headphones to the randomly selected subjects. In each condition, the adaptively obtained reception thresholds for speech (RTS) were used to determine RTS noise composite and spatial release from masking. Schizophrenia patients demonstrated significantly higher mean RTS value relative to healthy controls (p=0.018). The large effect size found in three listening conditions, i.e., in quiet (d=1.07), noise right (d=0.88) and noise composite (d=0.90) indicates statistically significant difference between the groups. However, noise front and noise left conditions show medium (d=0.61) and small (d=0.50) effect size respectively. No statistical difference between groups was noted in regards to spatial release from masking on right (p=0.305) and left (p=0.970) ear. The present findings suggest an abnormal unilateral auditory processing in central auditory pathway in schizophrenia patients. Future studies to explore the role of binaural and spatial auditory processing were recommended.

LANGUAGE, MEMORY, AND AGING - AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE N400 DURING READING OF MEMORY-DEMANDING SENTENCES

NARCIS (Netherlands)

GUNTER, TC; JACKSON, JL; MULDER, G

Twenty-four young and 24 middle-aged academics carried out a language recognition task in which sentences were presented that made either a high or a low demand on working memory (WM). The sentences ended either normally (i.e., congruent) or with an incongruous word. Middle-aged subjects had smaller

On a functional equation related to the intermediate long wave equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hone, A N W; Novikov, V S

2004-01-01

We resolve an open problem stated by Ablowitz et al (1982 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 15 781) concerning the integral operator appearing in the intermediate long wave equation. We explain how this is resolved using the perturbative symmetry approach introduced by one of us with Mikhailov. By solving a certain functional equation, we prove that the intermediate long wave equation and the Benjamin-Ono equation are the unique integrable cases within a particular class of integro-differential equations. Furthermore, we explain how the perturbative symmetry approach is naturally extended to treat equations on a periodic domain. (letter to the editor)

On the Flexibility of Grammatical Advance Planning During Sentence Production: Effects of Cognitive Load on Multiple Lexical Access

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wagner, V.; Jescheniak, J.D.; Schriefers, H.J.

2010-01-01

Three picture-word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers

Sentence Comprehension in Adolescents with down Syndrome and Typically Developing Children: Role of Sentence Voice, Visual Context, and Auditory-Verbal Short-Term Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Miolo, Giuliana; Chapman, Robins S.; Sindberg, Heidi A.

2005-01-01

The authors evaluated the roles of auditory-verbal short-term memory, visual short-term memory, and group membership in predicting language comprehension, as measured by an experimental sentence comprehension task (SCT) and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language--Third Edition (TACL-3; E. Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) in 38 participants: 19 with…

GENERATIVE WORDS OF ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH SENTENCE

OpenAIRE

Shkelqim Millaku

2017-01-01

This studies or the aim of the research is to deals the generative “morphems, words or “simple or compound[1]” sentence. The full congrast of Albanian and English language in this phenomena of generative is in morphology and in syntactic structure. This accepts of studies will comparted, contrasted and generated between two languages. This studies deals with noun (noun phrase), verb (verb phrase) of syntactic structure between Albanian and English language. In both of languages, most linguis...

Neural indices of phonemic discrimination and sentence-level speech intelligibility in quiet and noise: A P3 study.

Science.gov (United States)

Koerner, Tess K; Zhang, Yang; Nelson, Peggy B; Wang, Boxiang; Zou, Hui

2017-07-01

This study examined how speech babble noise differentially affected the auditory P3 responses and the associated neural oscillatory activities for consonant and vowel discrimination in relation to segmental- and sentence-level speech perception in noise. The data were collected from 16 normal-hearing participants in a double-oddball paradigm that contained a consonant (/ba/ to /da/) and vowel (/ba/ to /bu/) change in quiet and noise (speech-babble background at a -3 dB signal-to-noise ratio) conditions. Time-frequency analysis was applied to obtain inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) measures in delta, theta, and alpha frequency bands for the P3 response. Behavioral measures included percent correct phoneme detection and reaction time as well as percent correct IEEE sentence recognition in quiet and in noise. Linear mixed-effects models were applied to determine possible brain-behavior correlates. A significant noise-induced reduction in P3 amplitude was found, accompanied by significantly longer P3 latency and decreases in ITPC across all frequency bands of interest. There was a differential effect of noise on consonant discrimination and vowel discrimination in both ERP and behavioral measures, such that noise impacted the detection of the consonant change more than the vowel change. The P3 amplitude and some of the ITPC and ERSP measures were significant predictors of speech perception at segmental- and sentence-levels across listening conditions and stimuli. These data demonstrate that the P3 response with its associated cortical oscillations represents a potential neurophysiological marker for speech perception in noise. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Lag in Speech Motor Coordination during Sentence Production Is Associated with Stuttering Persistence in Young Children

Science.gov (United States)

Usler, Evan; Smith, Anne; Weber, Christine

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if indices of speech motor coordination during the production of sentences varying in sentence length and syntactic complexity were associated with stuttering persistence versus recovery in 5- to 7-year-old children. Methods: We compared children with persistent stuttering (CWS-Per) with children…

Delineating neurotrophin-3 dependent signaling pathways underlying sympathetic axon growth along intermediate targets.

Science.gov (United States)

Keeler, Austin B; Suo, Dong; Park, Juyeon; Deppmann, Christopher D

2017-07-01

Postganglionic sympathetic neurons detect vascular derived neurotrophin 3 (NT3) via the axonally expressed receptor tyrosine kinase, TrkA, to promote chemo-attraction along intermediate targets. Once axons arrive to their final target, a structurally related neurotrophic factor, nerve growth factor (NGF), also acts through TrkA to promote final target innervation. Does TrkA signal differently at these different locales? We previously found that Coronin-1 is upregulated in sympathetic neurons upon exposure to NGF, thereby endowing the NGF-TrkA complex with new signaling capabilities (i.e. calcium signaling), which dampens axon growth and branching. Based on the notion that axons do not express functional levels of Coronin-1 prior to final target innervation, we developed an in vitro model for axon growth and branching along intermediate targets using Coro1a -/- neurons grown in NT3. We found that, similar to NGF-TrkA, NT3-TrkA is capable of inducing MAPK and PI3K in the presence or absence of Coronin-1. However, unlike NGF, NT3 does not induce calcium release from intracellular stores. Using a combination of pharmacology, knockout neurons and in vitro functional assays, we suggest that the NT3-TrkA complex uses Ras/MAPK and/or PI3K-AKT signaling to induce axon growth and inhibit axon branching along intermediate targets. However, in the presence of Coronin-1, these signaling pathways lose their ability to impact NT3 dependent axon growth or branching. This is consistent with a role for Coronin-1 as a molecular switch for axon behavior and suggests that Coronin-1 suppresses NT3 dependent axon behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Drusen regression is associated with local changes in fundus autofluorescence in intermediate age-related macular degeneration.

Science.gov (United States)

Toy, Brian C; Krishnadev, Nupura; Indaram, Maanasa; Cunningham, Denise; Cukras, Catherine A; Chew, Emily Y; Wong, Wai T

2013-09-01

To investigate the association of spontaneous drusen regression in intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with changes on fundus photography and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging. Prospective observational case series. Fundus images from 58 eyes (in 58 patients) with intermediate AMD and large drusen were assessed over 2 years for areas of drusen regression that exceeded the area of circle C1 (diameter 125 μm; Age-Related Eye Disease Study grading protocol). Manual segmentation and computer-based image analysis were used to detect and delineate areas of drusen regression. Delineated regions were graded as to their appearance on fundus photographs and FAF images, and changes in FAF signal were graded manually and quantitated using automated image analysis. Drusen regression was detected in approximately half of study eyes using manual (48%) and computer-assisted (50%) techniques. At year-2, the clinical appearance of areas of drusen regression on fundus photography was mostly unremarkable, with a majority of eyes (71%) demonstrating no detectable clinical abnormalities, and the remainder (29%) showing minor pigmentary changes. However, drusen regression areas were associated with local changes in FAF that were significantly more prominent than changes on fundus photography. A majority of eyes (64%-66%) demonstrated a predominant decrease in overall FAF signal, while 14%-21% of eyes demonstrated a predominant increase in overall FAF signal. FAF imaging demonstrated that drusen regression in intermediate AMD was often accompanied by changes in local autofluorescence signal. Drusen regression may be associated with concurrent structural and physiologic changes in the outer retina. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Some problems in use of the “Questionnaire for the assessment of risk for those sentenced to imprisonment for up to three years”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petković Nikola

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The questionnaire for the assessment of risk for those sentenced to imprisonment for up to three years is the main instrument of assessment used in penitentiary institutions in Serbia. The results obtained with this instrument create the basis of categorization, re-categorization of persons within penal institutions, as well as an argument in deciding in various criminal matters such as the procedure on the petition for conditional release. Because objective assessment is a necessity of forensic and educational work, the validity and reliability of the results obtained by these instruments is of great importance. In this sense, this paper carries basic information about the structure and content of the relevant Questionnaire, clarification on the method of scoring, as well as critical analysis in relation to its elements. Finally, with regard to perceived opportunities to improve national practices, this paper offers some suggestions of correction assessment procedures of convicts.

Yapı Açısından Cümle Sorunu In Terms of Sentence Structure Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. İbrahim DELİCE

2012-09-01

Full Text Available In grammar works term of sentence is defined arround “judgement” concept as considering that it is an order of word or a word group using with a verb declined and it implies a sense, view, adjudication etc. The definition of sentence based on judgement is a correct perspective for sentence. Because a word or a word group can also infer a judgement in sentence according to circumstances. The corner stone which makes weaccede an order as a sentences is the predicate. Correspondingly whenthe sentence is defined in the form “Sentences is the name of syntaxformat which consists of a predicate and at least one collateral beingincidental upon predicate and implies occurrence, making or status”, itwill be possible that we see the matter of sentence accourding to structurein a new light which makes we get at the truth. To be accept that a systemconsisting of two predicate is one sentence is not correct, if the centencecomposed arround predicate adding collateral parts of sentence isn’tstructured part of another predicate. Because analysing parts for eithersentence is maked separately. After an occurrence, making or status is toconnoted arround a predicate, they could be ordered concatenating withconjunction or punctuation marks or associating a sentences withanother sentence thanks to preposition ranking. It is not correct to acceptas a compound sentence these systems which consists of apart sentenceswhen it is looked as to structural, altough they complement each other asto mean. As a result it would be counteracted classification of sentenceconflicting with sentence defination word of structure namely “tostructure” the system formed arround a predicate; adopting word of usagenamely “to use” the system formed as apart sentences arround twopredicates for an aim or a mean and it would be maked away paradox insentence classification existing. Cümle terimi dil bilgisi çalışmalarında 'yargı' kavramı etrafında 'çekimli eylemle

Search for intermediate vector bosons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klajn, D.B.; Rubbia, K.; Meer, S.

1983-01-01

Problem of registration and search for intermediate vector bosons is discussed. According to weak-current theory there are three intermediate vector bosons with +1(W + )-1(W - ) and zero (Z 0 ) electric charges. It was suggested to conduct the investigation into particles in 1976 by cline, Rubbia and Makintair using proton-antiproton beams. Major difficulties of the experiment are related to the necessity of formation of sufficient amount of antiparticles and the method of antiproton beam ''cooling'' for the purpose of reduction of its random movements. The stochastic method was suggested by van der Meer in 1968 as one of possible cooling methods. Several large detectors were designed for searching intermediate vector bosons

Real-time classification of auditory sentences using evoked cortical activity in humans

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, David A.; Leonard, Matthew K.; Chang, Edward F.

2018-06-01

Objective. Recent research has characterized the anatomical and functional basis of speech perception in the human auditory cortex. These advances have made it possible to decode speech information from activity in brain regions like the superior temporal gyrus, but no published work has demonstrated this ability in real-time, which is necessary for neuroprosthetic brain-computer interfaces. Approach. Here, we introduce a real-time neural speech recognition (rtNSR) software package, which was used to classify spoken input from high-resolution electrocorticography signals in real-time. We tested the system with two human subjects implanted with electrode arrays over the lateral brain surface. Subjects listened to multiple repetitions of ten sentences, and rtNSR classified what was heard in real-time from neural activity patterns using direct sentence-level and HMM-based phoneme-level classification schemes. Main results. We observed single-trial sentence classification accuracies of 90% or higher for each subject with less than 7 minutes of training data, demonstrating the ability of rtNSR to use cortical recordings to perform accurate real-time speech decoding in a limited vocabulary setting. Significance. Further development and testing of the package with different speech paradigms could influence the design of future speech neuroprosthetic applications.

The Relationship between Listening Comprehension of Text and Sentences in Preschoolers: Specific or Mediated by Lower and Higher Level Components?

Science.gov (United States)

Florit, Elena; Roch, Maja; Levorato, M. Chiara

2013-01-01

Two studies explored the relation between listening comprehension of text and listening comprehension of sentences in preschoolers aged 4 to 5 years, 11 months. The first study analyzed this relationship taking into account the role of lower level components, namely, word knowledge and verbal working memory, as possible mediators. These components…

Visual information constrains early and late stages of spoken-word recognition in sentence context.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunellière, Angèle; Sánchez-García, Carolina; Ikumi, Nara; Soto-Faraco, Salvador

2013-07-01

Audiovisual speech perception has been frequently studied considering phoneme, syllable and word processing levels. Here, we examined the constraints that visual speech information might exert during the recognition of words embedded in a natural sentence context. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to words that could be either strongly or weakly predictable on the basis of the prior semantic sentential context and, whose initial phoneme varied in the degree of visual saliency from lip movements. When the sentences were presented audio-visually (Experiment 1), words weakly predicted from semantic context elicited a larger long-lasting N400, compared to strongly predictable words. This semantic effect interacted with the degree of visual saliency over a late part of the N400. When comparing audio-visual versus auditory alone presentation (Experiment 2), the typical amplitude-reduction effect over the auditory-evoked N100 response was observed in the audiovisual modality. Interestingly, a specific benefit of high- versus low-visual saliency constraints occurred over the early N100 response and at the late N400 time window, confirming the result of Experiment 1. Taken together, our results indicate that the saliency of visual speech can exert an influence over both auditory processing and word recognition at relatively late stages, and thus suggest strong interactivity between audio-visual integration and other (arguably higher) stages of information processing during natural speech comprehension. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A simple DOP model for constituency parsing of Italian sentences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sangati, F.

2009-01-01

We present a simplified Data-Oriented Parsing (DOP) formalism for learning the constituency structure of Italian sentences. In our approach we try to simplify the original DOP methodology by constraining the number and type of fragments we extract from the training corpus. We provide some examples

Sensing the Sentence: An Embodied Simulation Approach to Rhetorical Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Rule, Hannah J.

2017-01-01

This article applies the neuroscientific concept of embodied simulation--the process of understanding language through visual, motor, and spatial modalities of the body--to rhetorical grammar and sentence-style pedagogies. Embodied simulation invigorates rhetorical grammar instruction by attuning writers to the felt effects of written language,…

Sentence Syntax and Content in the Human Temporal Lobe: An fMRI Adaptation Study in Auditory and Visual Modalities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Devauchelle, A.D.; Dehaene, S.; Pallier, C. [INSERM, Gif sur Yvette (France); Devauchelle, A.D.; Dehaene, S.; Pallier, C. [CEA, DSV, I2BM, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette (France); Devauchelle, A.D.; Pallier, C. [Univ. Paris 11, Orsay (France); Oppenheim, C. [Univ Paris 05, Ctr Hosp St Anne, Paris (France); Rizzi, L. [Univ Siena, CISCL, I-53100 Siena (Italy); Dehaene, S. [Coll France, F-75231 Paris (France)

2009-07-01

Priming effects have been well documented in behavioral psycho-linguistics experiments: The processing of a word or a sentence is typically facilitated when it shares lexico-semantic or syntactic features with a previously encountered stimulus. Here, we used fMRI priming to investigate which brain areas show adaptation to the repetition of a sentence's content or syntax. Participants read or listened to sentences organized in series which could or not share similar syntactic constructions and/or lexico-semantic content. The repetition of lexico-semantic content yielded adaptation in most of the temporal and frontal sentence processing network, both in the visual and the auditory modalities, even when the same lexico-semantic content was expressed using variable syntactic constructions. No fMRI adaptation effect was observed when the same syntactic construction was repeated. Yet behavioral priming was observed at both syntactic and semantic levels in a separate experiment where participants detected sentence endings. We discuss a number of possible explanations for the absence of syntactic priming in the fMRI experiments, including the possibility that the conglomerate of syntactic properties defining 'a construction' is not an actual object assembled during parsing. (authors)

Sentence Syntax and Content in the Human Temporal Lobe: An fMRI Adaptation Study in Auditory and Visual Modalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devauchelle, A.D.; Dehaene, S.; Pallier, C.; Devauchelle, A.D.; Dehaene, S.; Pallier, C.; Devauchelle, A.D.; Pallier, C.; Oppenheim, C.; Rizzi, L.; Dehaene, S.

2009-01-01

Priming effects have been well documented in behavioral psycho-linguistics experiments: The processing of a word or a sentence is typically facilitated when it shares lexico-semantic or syntactic features with a previously encountered stimulus. Here, we used fMRI priming to investigate which brain areas show adaptation to the repetition of a sentence's content or syntax. Participants read or listened to sentences organized in series which could or not share similar syntactic constructions and/or lexico-semantic content. The repetition of lexico-semantic content yielded adaptation in most of the temporal and frontal sentence processing network, both in the visual and the auditory modalities, even when the same lexico-semantic content was expressed using variable syntactic constructions. No fMRI adaptation effect was observed when the same syntactic construction was repeated. Yet behavioral priming was observed at both syntactic and semantic levels in a separate experiment where participants detected sentence endings. We discuss a number of possible explanations for the absence of syntactic priming in the fMRI experiments, including the possibility that the conglomerate of syntactic properties defining 'a construction' is not an actual object assembled during parsing. (authors)

BioSimplify: an open source sentence simplification engine to improve recall in automatic biomedical information extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Jonnalagadda, Siddhartha; Gonzalez, Graciela

2010-11-13

BioSimplify is an open source tool written in Java that introduces and facilitates the use of a novel model for sentence simplification tuned for automatic discourse analysis and information extraction (as opposed to sentence simplification for improving human readability). The model is based on a "shot-gun" approach that produces many different (simpler) versions of the original sentence by combining variants of its constituent elements. This tool is optimized for processing biomedical scientific literature such as the abstracts indexed in PubMed. We tested our tool on its impact to the task of PPI extraction and it improved the f-score of the PPI tool by around 7%, with an improvement in recall of around 20%. The BioSimplify tool and test corpus can be downloaded from https://biosimplify.sourceforge.net.

Radiolysis studies on reactive intermediates. Final report, February 1, 1970-August 31, 1980

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kevan, L.

1980-08-01

Research highlights are briefly reviewed concerning studies of excess and solvated electrons, development of new electron spin resonance methods for maximizing the geometrical information about the surroundings of paramagnetic species in disordered systems, atom and ion solvation, and studies on other reactive intermediates. Titles of 155 research publications and 182 scientific talks presented on these areas are given

Audiovisual sentence repetition as a clinical criterion for auditory development in Persian-language children with hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Oryadi-Zanjani, Mohammad Majid; Vahab, Maryam; Rahimi, Zahra; Mayahi, Anis

2017-02-01

It is important for clinician such as speech-language pathologists and audiologists to develop more efficient procedures to assess the development of auditory, speech and language skills in children using hearing aid and/or cochlear implant compared to their peers with normal hearing. So, the aim of study was the comparison of the performance of 5-to-7-year-old Persian-language children with and without hearing loss in visual-only, auditory-only, and audiovisual presentation of sentence repetition task. The research was administered as a cross-sectional study. The sample size was 92 Persian 5-7 year old children including: 60 with normal hearing and 32 with hearing loss. The children with hearing loss were recruited from Soroush rehabilitation center for Persian-language children with hearing loss in Shiraz, Iran, through consecutive sampling method. All the children had unilateral cochlear implant or bilateral hearing aid. The assessment tool was the Sentence Repetition Test. The study included three computer-based experiments including visual-only, auditory-only, and audiovisual. The scores were compared within and among the three groups through statistical tests in α = 0.05. The score of sentence repetition task between V-only, A-only, and AV presentation was significantly different in the three groups; in other words, the highest to lowest scores belonged respectively to audiovisual, auditory-only, and visual-only format in the children with normal hearing (P audiovisual sentence repetition scores in all the 5-to-7-year-old children (r = 0.179, n = 92, P = 0.088), but audiovisual sentence repetition scores were found to be strongly correlated with auditory-only scores in all the 5-to-7-year-old children (r = 0.943, n = 92, P = 0.000). According to the study's findings, audiovisual integration occurs in the 5-to-7-year-old Persian children using hearing aid or cochlear implant during sentence repetition similar to their peers with normal hearing

Punishing Genocide: A Comparative Empirical Analysis of Sentencing Laws and Practices at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR, Rwandan Domestic Courts, and Gacaca Courts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbora Hola

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article compares sentencing of those convicted of participation in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. With over one million people facing trial, Rwanda constitutes the world’s most comprehensive case of criminal accountability after genocide and presents an important case study of punishing genocide. Criminal courts at three different levels— international, domestic, and local—sought justice in the aftermath of the violence. In order to compare punishment at each level, we analyze an unprecedented database of sentences given by the ICTR, the Rwandan domestic courts, and Rwanda’s Gacaca courts. The analysis demonstrates that sentencing varied across the three levels—ranging from limited time in prison to death sentences. We likewise find that sentencing at the domestic courts appears to have been comparatively more serious than sentencing at the ICTR and at the Gacaca courts, which calls into question consistency of sentences across levels of justice and should be explored in future research.

On the Flexibility of Grammatical Advance Planning during Sentence Production: Effects of Cognitive Load on Multiple Lexical Access

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Valentin; Jescheniak, Jorg D.; Schriefers, Herbert

2010-01-01

Three picture-word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers described 2-object displays with simple…

Problems related to final disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Russia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velichkin, Vasily I.

1999-01-01

According to this presentation, the radioactivity of the total amount of radioactive waste accumulated in Russia to date is 1.5*10 9 Ci and of spent fuel 4.5*10 9 Ci. A table is given that shows the source, type, volume activity and storage type under the responsibility of the different departments and enterprises. 99.9% of the wastes are accumulated at the enterprises of Minatom of the Russian Federation. Some companies inject their liquid wastes from ionisation sources and intermediate liquid waste from the nuclear power industry into deep-seated reliably isolated aquifers. The Mayak plant has released liquid low-level and intermediate wastes into artificial reservoirs and Lake Karachay. Liquid high-level wastes are always stored in special tanks at interim storage facilities. A large number of nuclear submarines are laid up in North-Western Russia and East Russia, with spent fuel still in place as the interim storages in these regions are filled up and there are no conditioning plants. Underground disposal is considered the best way of isolating radioactive waste for as long as it is hazardous to the environment. Two new technologies are discussed. One involves including long-lived isotopes in high-stable mineral matrices, the other uses selective separation from the bulk of wastes. The matrices should be disposed of deep in the Earth's crust, at least 2-3 km down. Liquid waste of caesium-strontium fraction must be transformed into glass-like form and stored underground at a depth of a few hundred metres. Short-lived low level and intermediate level wastes should be conditioned and then deposited in subsurface ferroconcrete repositories constructed in clays. Finally, the presentation discusses the selection of sites and conditions for radioactive waste disposal. Two sites are discussed, the Mayak plant and a possible site at Mining Chemical Combine in Krasnoyarsk-26

Dielectronic recombination of P5+ and Cl7+ in configuration-average, LS-coupling, and intermediate-coupling approximations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badnell, N.R.; Pindzola, M.S.

1989-01-01

We have calculated dielectronic recombination cross sections and rate coefficients for the Ne-like ions P 5+ and Cl 7+ in configuration-average, LS-coupling, and intermediate-coupling approximations. Autoionization into excited states reduces the cross sections and rate coefficients by substantial amounts in all three methods. There is only rough agreement between the configuration-average cross-section results and the corresponding intermediate-coupling results. There is good agreement, however, between the LS-coupling cross-section results and the corresponding intermediate-coupling results. The LS-coupling and intermediate-coupling rate coefficients agree to better than 5%, while the configuration-average rate coefficients are about 30% higher than the other two coupling methods. External electric field effects, as calculated in the configuration-average approximation, are found to be relatively small for the cross sections and completely negligible for the rate coefficients. Finally, the general formula of Burgess was found to overestimate the rate coefficients by roughly a factor of 5, mainly due to the neglect of autoionization into excited states

A Monte Carlo program for generating hadronic final states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelini, L.; Pellicoro, M.; Nitti, L.; Preparata, G.; Valenti, G.

1991-01-01

FIRST is a computer program to generate final states from high energy hadronic interactions using the Monte Carlo technique. It is based on a theoretical model in which the high degree of universality in such interactions is related with the existence of highly excited quark-antiquark bound states, called fire-strings. The program handles the decay of both fire-strings and unstable particles produced in the intermediate states. (orig.)

Multifragmentation in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacak, B.V.; Britt, H.C.; Claesson, G.

1986-01-01

There has been considerable recent interest in the production of intermediate mass fragments (A > 4) in intermediate and high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mechanism for production of these fragments is not well understood and has been described by models employing a variety of assumptions. Some examples are: disassembly of a system in thermal equilibrium into nucleons and nuclear fragments, liquid-vapor phase transitions in nuclear matter, final state coalescence of nucleons and dynamical correlations between nucleons at breakup. Previous studies of fragment production, with one exception, have been single particle inclusive measurements; the observed fragment mass (or charge) distributions can be described by all of the models above. To gain insight into the fragment production mechanism, the authors used the GSI/LBL Plastic Ball detector system to get full azimuthal coverage for intermediate mass fragments in the forward hemisphere in the center of mass system while measuring all the light particles in each event. The authors studied the systems 200 MeV/nucleon Au + Au and Au + Fe

Processing and validation of intermediate energy evaluated data files

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

Current accelerator-driven and other intermediate energy technologies require accurate nuclear data to model the performance of the target/blanket assembly, neutron production, activation, heating and damage. In a previous WPEC subgroup, SG13 on intermediate energy nuclear data, various aspects of intermediate energy data, such as nuclear data needs, experiments, model calculations and file formatting issues were investigated and categorized to come to a joint evaluation effort. The successor of SG13, SG14 on the processing and validation of intermediate energy evaluated data files, goes one step further. The nuclear data files that have been created with the aforementioned information need to be processed and validated in order to be applicable in realistic intermediate energy simulations. We emphasize that the work of SG14 excludes the 0-20 MeV data part of the neutron evaluations, which is supposed to be covered elsewhere. This final report contains the following sections: section 2: a survey of the data files above 20 MeV that have been considered for validation in SG14; section 3: a summary of the review of the 150 MeV intermediate energy data files for ENDF/B-VI and, more briefly, the other libraries; section 4: validation of the data library against an integral experiment with MCNPX; section 5: conclusions. (author)

Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Moisala, Mona; Salmela, Viljami; Salo, Emma; Carlson, Synnöve; Vuontela, Virve; Salonen, Oili; Alho, Kimmo

2015-01-01

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed when attention was divided between the two modalities compared with when one modality was selectively attended. Compared with selective attention (i.e., single tasking), divided attention (i.e., dual-tasking) did not recruit additional cortical regions, but resulted in increased activity in medial and lateral frontal regions which were also activated by the component tasks when performed separately. Areas involved in semantic language processing were revealed predominantly in the left lateral prefrontal cortex by contrasting incongruent with congruent sentences. These areas also showed significant activity increases during divided attention in relation to selective attention. In the sensory cortices, no crossmodal inhibition was observed during divided attention when compared with selective attention to one modality. Our results suggest that the observed performance decrements during dual-tasking are due to interference of the two tasks because they utilize the same part of the cortex. Moreover, semantic dual-tasking did not appear to recruit additional brain areas in comparison with single tasking, and no crossmodal inhibition was observed during intermodal divided attention.

Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Moisala, Mona; Salmela, Viljami; Salo, Emma; Carlson, Synnöve; Vuontela, Virve; Salonen, Oili; Alho, Kimmo

2015-01-01

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed when attention was divided between the two modalities compared with when one modality was selectively attended. Compared with selective attention (i.e., single tasking), divided attention (i.e., dual-tasking) did not recruit additional cortical regions, but resulted in increased activity in medial and lateral frontal regions which were also activated by the component tasks when performed separately. Areas involved in semantic language processing were revealed predominantly in the left lateral prefrontal cortex by contrasting incongruent with congruent sentences. These areas also showed significant activity increases during divided attention in relation to selective attention. In the sensory cortices, no crossmodal inhibition was observed during divided attention when compared with selective attention to one modality. Our results suggest that the observed performance decrements during dual-tasking are due to interference of the two tasks because they utilize the same part of the cortex. Moreover, semantic dual-tasking did not appear to recruit additional brain areas in comparison with single tasking, and no crossmodal inhibition was observed during intermodal divided attention. PMID:25745395

Abortion foe convicted and sentenced for murders of women's health clinic workers.

Science.gov (United States)

1996-03-22

On March 18, after deliberating for approximately nine hours over two days, a Dedham, Massachusetts, jury found John Salvi guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the December 1994 shooting deaths of Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, receptionists at two Brookline, Massachusetts, women's health care clinics. Salvi was also convicted of five counts of assault with intent to murder (see RFN IV/1). Almost immediately, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara ordered Salvi to serve the maximum sentence--two consecutive life terms in prison without parole--for the murders and an additional 90-100 years for the five assaults. Under Massachusetts law, the first-degree murder convictions will be automatically appealed. In reaching their verdict, the jury of six men and six women rejected Salvi's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The five-week trial included testimony from more than 100 witnesses. In the past two years, two other men have been convicted for the first-degree murders of abortion providers: Michael Griffin, who was convicted of murdering Dr. David Gunn in March 1994, is now serving a life sentence; and Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in November 1995, is on Florida's death row while his sentence is pending mandatory appeal (see RFN III/19, 22). full text

Speech perception in older listeners with normal hearing:conditions of time alteration, selective word stress, and length of sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Soojin; Yu, Jyaehyoung; Chun, Hyungi; Seo, Hyekyung; Han, Woojae

2014-04-01

Deficits of the aging auditory system negatively affect older listeners in terms of speech communication, resulting in limitations to their social lives. To improve their perceptual skills, the goal of this study was to investigate the effects of time alteration, selective word stress, and varying sentence lengths on the speech perception of older listeners. Seventeen older people with normal hearing were tested for seven conditions of different time-altered sentences (i.e., ±60%, ±40%, ±20%, 0%), two conditions of selective word stress (i.e., no-stress and stress), and three different lengths of sentences (i.e., short, medium, and long) at the most comfortable level for individuals in quiet circumstances. As time compression increased, sentence perception scores decreased statistically. Compared to a natural (or no stress) condition, the selectively stressed words significantly improved the perceptual scores of these older listeners. Long sentences yielded the worst scores under all time-altered conditions. Interestingly, there was a noticeable positive effect for the selective word stress at the 20% time compression. This pattern of results suggests that a combination of time compression and selective word stress is more effective for understanding speech in older listeners than using the time-expanded condition only.

Charity work of men sentenced to imprisonment in Lower Silesia – a research report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilia Sokołowska

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the subject of charity work of men serving prison sentences in the District Inspectorate of Prison Service in Wrocław. The aim is to present the importance of charity work and to show how it can be used in penitentiary influences on the basis of collaboration between prisons and local communities, highlighting its comprehensive impact on convicted persons. The main research problem is the impact of charity work on the attitudes of men serving prison sentences and its influence on satisfying their needs, changing moral values, increasing self-esteem, motivation and commitment.

Geological factors of disposal site selection for low-and intermediate-level solid radwastes in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Zhangru

1993-01-01

For disposal of low- and intermediate-level solid radioactive wastes, shallow-ground disposal can provide adequate isolation of waste from human for a fairly long period of time. The objective of disposal site selection is to ensure that the natural properties of the site together with the engineered barrier site shall provide adequate isolation of radionuclides from the human beings and environment, so the whole disposal system can keep the radiological impact within an acceptable level. Since the early 1980's, complying with the national standards and the expert's conception as well as the related IAEA Criteria, geological selection of disposal sites for low-and intermediate-level solid radwastes has been carried out in East China, South China, Northwest China and Southwest China separately. Finally, 5 candidate sites were recommended to the CNNC

An Analysis of "Rank-Shift" of Compound Complex Sentence Translation

Science.gov (United States)

Widarwati, Nunun Tri

2015-01-01

The focus of the research is to describe the "rank-shift" of compound complex sentence translation in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix novel translation by Listiana Srisanti and also to describe the accuracy of those translation. This research belongs to qualitative descriptive research which document and informants are being…

Neutrino-nucleus collision at intermediate energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosmas, T.S.; Oset, E.

1999-01-01

Neutrino-nucleus reactions at low and intermediate energy up to E ν = 500 MeV are studied for the most interesting nuclei from an experimental point of view. We focus on neutrino-nucleus cross-sections of semi-inclusive processes, for which recent measurements from radiochemical experiments at LAMPF and KARMEN laboratories are available. The method employed uses the modified Lindhard function for the description of the particle-hole excitations of the final nucleus via a local density approximation. (authors)

The Effects of Phonological Short-Term Memory and Speech Perception on Spoken Sentence Comprehension in Children: Simulating Deficits in an Experimental Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Meaghan C; Penney, Sarah B; Robertson, Erin K

2017-10-01

The roles of phonological short-term memory (pSTM) and speech perception in spoken sentence comprehension were examined in an experimental design. Deficits in pSTM and speech perception were simulated through task demands while typically-developing children (N [Formula: see text] 71) completed a sentence-picture matching task. Children performed the control, simulated pSTM deficit, simulated speech perception deficit, or simulated double deficit condition. On long sentences, the double deficit group had lower scores than the control and speech perception deficit groups, and the pSTM deficit group had lower scores than the control group and marginally lower scores than the speech perception deficit group. The pSTM and speech perception groups performed similarly to groups with real deficits in these areas, who completed the control condition. Overall, scores were lowest on noncanonical long sentences. Results show pSTM has a greater effect than speech perception on sentence comprehension, at least in the tasks employed here.

Assessment of Student Achievement: Evaluation of Student Achievement at the Intermediate Level. Final Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Wahlstrom, M.; And Others

Evaluation and assessment procedures of Ontario, Canada principals and teachers at the Intermediate level (grades 7 and 8) were examined. Extensive questionnaires were returned by 134 principals and 225 teachers divided across the subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Languages, History, Home Economics or Shop, Arts, and Physical…

Intermediate Levels of Visual Processing

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Nakayama, Ken

1998-01-01

...) surface representation, here we have shown that there is an intermediate level of visual processing, between the analysis of the image and higher order representations related to specific objects; (2...

Management for low and intermediate level wastes in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franzen, H.R.

1986-01-01

A research and demonstration project was developed, to offer management options for low and intermediate level radioactive wastes. The project considered: the experience of other countries; the laws and regulations according to internationally accepted standards; criteria and recommendations; the technical, socio-political realities, and the expectation of our countrie related to the nuclear power plants. Preliminary guidelines for waste acceptance critetia were established. The solution for shallow land burial was a multibarrier system. Since, there is no final decision about the repository localization it was decided that the waste produced by nuclear power plants will be kept on-site and those from medicine, agriculture, industry and research are sent to the IPEN/CNEN-SP for treatment and temporary storage. (Author/M.C.K.) [pt

Role of Working Memory in Typically Developing Children's Complex Sentence Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Montgomery, James W.; Magimairaj, Beula M.; O'Malley, Michelle H.

2008-01-01

The influence of three mechanisms of working memory (phonological short-term memory (PSTM capacity), attentional resource control/allocation, and processing speed) on children's complex (and simple) sentence comprehension was investigated. Fifty two children (6-12 years) completed a nonword repetition task (indexing PSTM), concurrent verbal…

Taxation of Financial Intermediation Activities in Hong Kong

OpenAIRE

Jack M. Mintz; Stephen R. Richardson

2001-01-01

This paper discusses issues related to the taxation of financial intermediation in Hong Kong in the context of Hong Kong's position as a major regional financial centre. It first provides some background analysis as to the definition of financial intermediation and identification of the providers of financial services. This is then followed by a discussion of the principles of taxation applicable to financial intermediation, including a comparison of income taxes to consumption taxes. Some sp...

Measuring vulnerability to depression: The Serbian scrambled sentences test - SSST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Novović Zdenka

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The goal of this study was to establish whether the SSST, a Serbian language scrambled sentences instrument, is a reliable measure of depressive cognitive bias, and whether it captures the suppression tendency as participants exert the additional cognitive effort of memorizing a six-digit number while completing the task. The sample consisted of 1071 students, randomly assigned into two groups. They completed the SSST divided into two blocks of 28 sentences, together with additional cognitive task during either the first or second block, and after that a number of instruments to establish validity of the SSST. The test was shown to be a reliable instrument of depressive cognitive bias. As a measure of suppression the SSST performed partly as expected, only when load was applied in the second half of the test, and fatigue and cognitive effort enhanced suppression. The advantages of the test versus self-description measures were discussed. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179006: Hereditary, environmental, and psychological factors of mental health

THE CHILD JUSTICE ACT: A DETAILED CONSIDERATION OF SECTION 68 AS POINT OF DEPARTURE WITH RESPECT TO THE SENTENCING OF YOUNG OFFENDERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan Terblanche

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 establishes a criminal justice system for child accused, separate from the criminal justice system which continues to apply for adult accused in South Africa. The Act aims to keep children out of detention and away from the formal criminal justice system, mainly through diversion. When these interventions would be inadequate or unsuccessful, the Act provides for child offenders to the tried and sentenced in child justice courts. Until now there has been little discussion of the details of the provisions dealing with sentencing.Sentencing in a child justice court is regulated by chapter 10 of the Act and section 68 is the first section in this chapter. This section effectively amounts to the “jurisdictional” provision of the new child sentencing system: it not only mandates child justice courts to impose their sentences in terms of the Act, but also provides the first set of boundaries (or the first part of the framework within which sentencing should take place. Despite its brevity, section 68 is not without interpretative challenges. Of course, it has to be interpreted within the context of the entire Act. Explaining this context is the first function of this article. The various aspects of section 68 are further critically explored and discussed.

Effect of an Intermediate Heat-treatment on a Change of the Corrosion Resistance and Hardness of a HANA-4 Outer Strip

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Myung Ho; Jung, Yang Il; Park, Sang Yoon; Choi, Byoung Kwon; Park, Jeong Yong; Jeong, Yong Hwan; Eom, Kyong Bo; Park, Nam Gyu; Lim, Yoon Soo

2008-01-01

KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) in collaboration with KNF (Korea Nuclear Fuel) undertook some researches on the applicability of HANA-4 and HANA-6 alloys for the spacer grid for a PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) nuclear fuel. As a part of the research, KAERI studied the effect of the final heat-treatment on the mechanical and corrosion properties of a HANA-4 inner strip. The strip was manufactured with a sheet which had been intermediately heat-treated at about 580 .deg. C for 2.5-4 hours after each cold rolling before being processed into the final strip product. It was mentioned that the process with the intermediate heat treatment needed reviewing to establish an improved manufacturing process for the cold rolling. So, this work tried to check the effect of an intermediate heat-treatment on the properties of a HANA-4 strip using a specimen that was taken from a second hot rolled material before a cold-rolling. The manufacturing processes, with three different kinds of annealings, were introduced to investigate the applicable intermediate heat-treatment process. After all the cold-rolling processes, the Vickers hardness was measured for the final annealed specimens and 60 days of corrosion tests were carried out to check on the effect of the intermediate heat-treatment. Finally, an appropriate intermediate heat-treatment was proposed to improve the manufacturability of the HANA-4 strip

Text-fading based training leads to transfer effects on children’s sentence reading fluency

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Telse eNagler

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Previous studies used a text-fading procedure as a training tool with the goal to increase silent reading fluency (i.e., proficient reading rate and comprehension. In recently published studies, this procedure resulted in lasting reading enhancements for adult and adolescent research samples. However, studies working with children reported mixed results. While reading rate improvements were observable for Dutch reading children in a text-fading training study, reading fluency improvements in standardized reading tests post-training attributable to the fading manipulation were not detectable. These results raise the question of whether text-fading training is not effective for children or whether research design issues have concealed possible transfer effects. Hence, the present study sought to investigate possible transfer effects resulting from a text-fading based reading training program, using a modified research design. Over a period of three weeks, two groups of German third-graders read sentences either with an adaptive text-fading procedure or at their self-paced reading rate. A standardized test measuring reading fluency at the word, sentence, and text level was conducted pre- and post-training. Text level reading fluency improved for both groups equally. Post-training gains at the word level were found for the text-fading group, however, no significant interaction between groups was revealed for word reading fluency. Sentence level reading fluency gains were found for the text-fading group, which significantly differed from the group of children reading at their self-paced reading routine. These findings provide evidence for the efficacy of text-fading as a training method for sentence reading fluency improvement also for children.

Collective cognition in humans: groups outperform their best members in a sentence reconstruction task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romain J G Clément

Full Text Available Group-living is widespread among animals and one of the major advantages of group-living is the ability of groups to solve cognitive problems that exceed individual ability. Humans also make use of collective cognition and have simultaneously developed a highly complex language to exchange information. Here we investigated collective cognition of human groups regarding language use in a realistic situation. Individuals listened to a public announcement and had to reconstruct the sentence alone or in groups. This situation is often encountered by humans, for instance at train stations or airports. Using recent developments in machine speech recognition, we analysed how well individuals and groups reconstructed the sentences from a syntactic (i.e., the number of errors and semantic (i.e., the quality of the retrieved information perspective. We show that groups perform better both on a syntactic and semantic level than even their best members. Groups made fewer errors and were able to retrieve more information when reconstructing the sentences, outcompeting even their best group members. Our study takes collective cognition studies to the more complex level of language use in humans.

Influence of intermediate annealing on abnormal Goss grain growth in the rolled columnar-grained Fe-Ga-Al alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Yangyang; Li, Jiheng; Gao, Xuexu

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Texture of primary IA sample was dominated by γ-fiber with a peak at {1 1 1}<1 1 0>. • Texture of primary CR sample was dominated by {1 1 3}<1 1 4> texture. • Inhomogeneous microstructure was significantly improved in primary IA sample. • Strong Goss texture was obtained in final IA sample without surface energy control. - Abstract: Magnetostrictive Fe 82 Ga 4.5 Al 13.5 sheets with 0.1 at% NbC were prepared from directional solidified alloys with <0 0 1> preferred orientation. The slabs were hot rolled at 650 °C and warm rolled at 500 °C. Then some warm-rolled sheets were annealed intermediately at 850 °C for 5 min but the others not. After that, all the sheets were cold rolled to a final thickness of ∼0.3 mm. The microstructures, the textures and the distributions of second phase particles in the primary recrystallized samples were investigated. With intermediate annealing, the inhomogeneous microstructure was improved remarkably and strong Goss ({1 1 0}<0 0 1>) and γ-fiber (<1 1 1>//normal direction [ND]) textures were produced in the primary recrystallized samples. But, an evident disadvantage in size and quantity was observed for Goss grains in the primary recrystallized sample without intermediate annealing. After a final annealing, the final textures and magnetostrictions of samples with and without intermediate annealing were characterized. For samples without intermediate annealing, abnormal growth of {1 1 3} grains occurred and deteriorated the magnetostriction. In contrast, abnormal Goss grain growth occurred completely in samples with intermediate annealing and led to saturation magnetostriction as high as 156 ppm.

Influence of intermediate annealing on abnormal Goss grain growth in the rolled columnar-grained Fe-Ga-Al alloys

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Yangyang; Li, Jiheng; Gao, Xuexu, E-mail: gaox@skl.ustb.edu.cn

2017-08-01

Highlights: • Texture of primary IA sample was dominated by γ-fiber with a peak at {1 1 1}<1 1 0>. • Texture of primary CR sample was dominated by {1 1 3}<1 1 4> texture. • Inhomogeneous microstructure was significantly improved in primary IA sample. • Strong Goss texture was obtained in final IA sample without surface energy control. - Abstract: Magnetostrictive Fe{sub 82}Ga{sub 4.5}Al{sub 13.5} sheets with 0.1 at% NbC were prepared from directional solidified alloys with <0 0 1> preferred orientation. The slabs were hot rolled at 650 °C and warm rolled at 500 °C. Then some warm-rolled sheets were annealed intermediately at 850 °C for 5 min but the others not. After that, all the sheets were cold rolled to a final thickness of ∼0.3 mm. The microstructures, the textures and the distributions of second phase particles in the primary recrystallized samples were investigated. With intermediate annealing, the inhomogeneous microstructure was improved remarkably and strong Goss ({1 1 0}<0 0 1>) and γ-fiber (<1 1 1>//normal direction [ND]) textures were produced in the primary recrystallized samples. But, an evident disadvantage in size and quantity was observed for Goss grains in the primary recrystallized sample without intermediate annealing. After a final annealing, the final textures and magnetostrictions of samples with and without intermediate annealing were characterized. For samples without intermediate annealing, abnormal growth of {1 1 3} grains occurred and deteriorated the magnetostriction. In contrast, abnormal Goss grain growth occurred completely in samples with intermediate annealing and led to saturation magnetostriction as high as 156 ppm.

A sentence completion procedure as an alternative to the Autobiographical Memory Test for assessing overgeneral memory in non-clinical populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Raes, Filip; Hermans, Dirk; Williams, J Mark G; Eelen, Paul

2007-07-01

Overgeneral memory (OGM) has been proposed as a vulnerability factor for depression (Williams et al., 2007) or depressive reactivity to stressful life-events (e.g., Gibbs & Rude, 2004). Traditionally, a cue word procedure known as the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986) is used to assess OGM. Although frequently and validly used in clinical populations, there is evidence suggesting that the AMT is insufficiently sensitive to measure OGM in non-clinical groups. Study 1 evaluated the usefulness of a sentence completion method to assess OGM in non-clinical groups, as an alternative to the AMT. Participants were 197 students who completed the AMT, the Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT), a depression measure, and visual analogue scales assessing ruminative thinking. Results showed that the mean proportion of overgeneral responses was markedly higher for the SCEPT than for the standard AMT. Also, overgeneral responding on the SCEPT was positively associated to depression scores and depressive rumination scores, whereas overgeneral responding on the AMT was not. Results suggest that the SCEPT, relative to the AMT, is a more sensitive instrument to measure OGM, at least in non-clinical populations. Study 2 further showed that this enhanced sensitivity is most likely due to the omission of the instruction to be specific rather than to the SCEPT's sentence completion format (as opposed to free recall to cue words).

Sentence production with verbs of alternating transitivity in agrammatic Broca's aphasia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bastiaanse, Y.R.M.; van Zonneveld, R.M.

Bastiaanse, Koekkoek And Van Zonneveld (2003) hypothesized that individuals with Broca's aphasia have problems with sentences in which the verb and its arguments are not in their base position. The present study is meant to test this hypothesis with the help of verbs with alternating transitivity:

Design of a sentence identification test with pictures (TIS-F based on the pediatric speech intelligibility test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernanda Freitas Vellozo

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purposes: to design a sentence identification test with pictures for adults (Teste de Identificação de Sentenças com Figuras (TIS-F as an alternative for evaluation of auditory figure-background ability for verbal sounds, based on the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility Test and also for assessment of unskillful individuals who cannot accomplish other tests with higher levels of difficulty and greater demands. Methods: the Adobe Illustrator software was used and the image vectorization technique applied for figures creation. The sentences and the competitive message were audio-recorded in a sound treated room by a female announcer, using the software - REAPER - FM Digital Audio Workstation. Results: the TIS-F consisted of a 32 x 45 cm card, containing 10 figures, each one measuring 12 x 12 cm; one compact disc containing a track with the test calibration tone and seven test tracks, each one containing ten sentences and a competitive message and a specific protocol. Conclusion: the TIS-F is composed of a compact disc with dual-channel recording, with seven tracks containing ten sentences and the competitive story, one card containing ten pictures and a labeling protocol for all presentations and S/N in use, as well as the established normality values.

Unimodal tree size distributions possibly result from relatively strong conservatism in intermediate size classes.

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Yue Bin

Full Text Available Tree size distributions have long been of interest to ecologists and foresters because they reflect fundamental demographic processes. Previous studies have assumed that size distributions are often associated with population trends or with the degree of shade tolerance. We tested these associations for 31 tree species in a 20 ha plot in a Dinghushan south subtropical forest in China. These species varied widely in growth form and shade-tolerance. We used 2005 and 2010 census data from that plot. We found that 23 species had reversed J shaped size distributions, and eight species had unimodal size distributions in 2005. On average, modal species had lower recruitment rates than reversed J species, while showing no significant difference in mortality rates, per capita population growth rates or shade-tolerance. We compared the observed size distributions with the equilibrium distributions projected from observed size-dependent growth and mortality. We found that observed distributions generally had the same shape as predicted equilibrium distributions in both unimodal and reversed J species, but there were statistically significant, important quantitative differences between observed and projected equilibrium size distributions in most species, suggesting that these populations are not at equilibrium and that this forest is changing over time. Almost all modal species had U-shaped size-dependent mortality and/or growth functions, with turning points of both mortality and growth at intermediate size classes close to the peak in the size distribution. These results show that modal size distributions do not necessarily indicate either population decline or shade-intolerance. Instead, the modal species in our study were characterized by a life history strategy of relatively strong conservatism in an intermediate size class, leading to very low growth and mortality in that size class, and thus to a peak in the size distribution at intermediate sizes.