Perception of linguistic rhythm by newborn infants

Previous studies have shown that newborn infants are able to discriminate between certain languages, and it has been suggested that they do so by categorizing varieties of speech rhythm. However, in order to confirm this hypothesis, it is necessary to show that language discrimination is still performed by newborns when all speech cues other than rhythm are removed. Here, we conducted a series of experiments assessing discrimination between Dutch and Japanese by newborn infants, using a speech resynthesis technique to progressively degrade non-rhythmical properties of the sentences. When the stimuli are resynthesized using identical phonemes and artificial intonation contours for the two languages, thereby preserving only their rhythmic structure, newborns are still able to discriminate the languages. We conclude that new-borns are able to classify languages according to their type of rhythm, and that this ability may help them bootstrap other phonological properties of their native language

Ensembles of wrappers for automated feature selection in fish age classification

In feature selection, the most important features must be chosen so as to decrease the number thereof while retaining their discriminatory information. Within this context, a novel feature selection method based on an ensemble of wrappers is proposed and applied for automatically select features in fish age classification. The effectiveness of this procedure using an Atlantic cod database has been tested for different powerful statistical learning classifiers. The subsets based on few features selected, e.g. otolith weight and fish weight, are particularly noticeable given current biological findings and practices in fishery research and the classification results obtained with them outperforms those of previous studies in which a manual feature selection was performed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Accelerated face detector training using the PSL framework

We train a face detection system using the PSL framework [1] which combines the AdaBoost learning algorithm and Haar-like features. We demonstrate the ability of this framework to overcome some of the challenges inherent in training classifiers that are structured in cascades of boosted ensembles (CoBE). The PSL classifiers are compared to the Viola-Jones type cas- caded classifiers. We establish the ability of the PSL framework to produce classifiers in a complex domain in significantly reduced time frame. They also comprise of fewer boosted en- sembles albeit at a price of increased false detection rates on our test dataset. We also report on results from a more diverse number of experiments carried out on the PSL framework in order to shed more insight into the effects of variations in its adjustable training parameters

High-rate, high-fidelity entanglement of qubits across an elementary quantum network

We demonstrate remote entanglement of trapped-ion qubits via a quantum-optical fiber link with fidelity and rate approaching those of local operations. Two ${}^{88}$Sr${}^{+}$ qubits are entangled via the polarization degree of freedom of two photons which are coupled by high-numerical-aperture lenses into single-mode optical fibers and interfere on a beamsplitter. A novel geometry allows high-efficiency photon collection while maintaining unit fidelity for ion-photon entanglement. We generate remote Bell pairs with fidelity $F=0.940(5)$ at an average rate $182\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ (success probability $2.18\times10^{-4}$).Comment: v2 updated to include responses to reviewers, as published in PR

Emerging Linguistic Functions in Early Infancy

This paper presents results from experimental studies on early language acquisition in infants and attempts to interpret the experimental results within the framework of the Ecological Theory of Language Acquisition (ETLA) recently proposed by (Lacerda et al., 2004a). From this perspective, the infant’s first steps in the acquisition of the ambient language are seen as a consequence of the infant’s general capacity to represent sensory input and the infant’s interaction with other actors in its immediate ecological environment. On the basis of available experimental evidence, it will be argued that ETLA offers a productive alternative to traditional descriptive views of the language acquisition process by presenting an operative model of how early linguistic function may emerge through interaction

Suboptimal eye movements for seeing fine details.

Human eyes are never stable, even during attempts of maintaining gaze on a visual target. Considering transient response characteristics of retinal ganglion cells, a certain amount of motion of the eyes is required to efficiently encode information and to prevent neural adaptation. However, excessive motion of the eyes leads to insufficient exposure to the stimuli, which creates blur and reduces visual acuity. Normal miniature eye movements fall in between these extremes, but it is unclear if they are optimally tuned for seeing fine spatial details. We used a state-of-the-art retinal imaging technique with eye tracking to address this question. We sought to determine the optimal gain (stimulus/eye motion ratio) that corresponds to maximum performance in an orientation-discrimination task performed at the fovea. We found that miniature eye movements are tuned but may not be optimal for seeing fine spatial details