English-learning infants’ perception of word stress patterns

Adult speakers of different free stress languages (e.g., English, Spanish) differ both in their sensitivity to lexical stress and in their processing of suprasegmental and vowel quality cues to stress. In a head-turn preference experiment with a familiarization phase, both 8-month-old and 12-month-old English-learning infants discriminated between initial stress and final stress among lists of Spanish-spoken disyllabic nonwords that were segmentally varied (e.g. [ˈnila, ˈtuli] vs [luˈta, puˈki]). This is evidence that English-learning infants are sensitive to lexical stress patterns, instantiated primarily by suprasegmental cues, during the second half of the first year of life

Perfil dos pescadores esportivos do Sul do Pantanal.

Relatam-se e discutem-se os resultados de um levantamento feito atraves de questionario oral a 493 pescadores esportivos durante a alta temporada de pesca de 1994 no sul do Pantanal. O questionario levantou informacoes socio-economicas, custos e historico das viagens, gastos durante as visitas, razoes da visita e outros aspectos da experiencia de lazer no Pantanal. As principais caracteristicas dos gastos dos pescadores esportivos foram analisadas atraves de tres modelos de regressao linear. Os resultados indicam que a pesca esportiva no sul do Pantanal e realizada por grupos de homens de meia-idade, casados e com educacao formal e situacao economica superior em relacao ao que e tipico no Brasil. Em media, os pescadores ja visitaram a regiao quatro vezes. Realizam viagens de 2.700km, permanecendo seis dias, gastando US$970.00 e capturando 25kg de peixes cada um, por viagem, em media. Em geral, quando maior o nivel de escolaridade, de sucesso na pescaria, de renda, meio de transporte aereo e maior a distancia do local de origem ao Pantanal, maiores os gastos preditos por viagem e por dia. O sucesso da pescaria esta mais altamente correlacionado com a idade e o nivel de escolaridade do pescador e, ao contrario do pensamento convencional, nao correlacionado com os gastos, experiencia anterior no local, ou uma paixao por pesca. Independente do sucesso na captura, cerca de 22% dos pescadores compraram peixes antes de retornar a sua regiao de origem. Os gastos diretos totais relacionados as visitas de principal razao para o pescador esportivo visitar o Pantanal sul e o ambiente natural unico e nao a pesca. Esta informacao tem relevancia para o desenvolvimento do turismo regional, para os esforcos de "marketing" e para os objetivos de administracao dos recursos naturais do Pantanal. Alem disso, aqueles motivados para visitar o Pantanal principalmente por turismo contemplativo (observar o ambiente natural e a vida selvagem), gastam significativamente mais nas viagens do que aqueles motivados primariamente pelo sucesso potencial da pescaria ou pelo lazer.bitstream/item/37574/1/CT24.pd

Supporting Data mining of large databases by visual feedback queries

In this paper, we describe a query system that provides visual relevance feedback in querying large databases. Our goal is to support the process of data mining by representing as many data items as possible on the display. By arranging and coloring the data items as pixels according to their relevance for the query, the user gets a visual impression of the resulting data set. Using an interactive query interface, the user may change the query dynamically and receives immediate feedback by the visual representation of the resulting data set. Furthermore, by using multiple windows for different parts of a complex query, the user gets visual feedback for each part of the query and, therefore, may easier understand the overall result. Our system allows to represent the largest amount of data that can be visualized on current display technology, provides valuable feedback in querying the database, and allows the user to find results which, otherwise, would remain hidden in the database

Spin dependent fragmentation function at Belle

The measurement of the so far unknown chiral-odd quark transverse spin distribution in either semi-inclusive DIS (SIDIS) or inclusive measurements in pp collisions at RHIC has an additional chiral-odd fragmentation function appearing in the cross section. These chiral-odd fragmentation functions (FF) can for example be the so-called Collins FF or the Interference FF. HERMES has given a first hint that these FFs are nonzero, however in order to measure the transversity one needs these FFs to be precisely known. We have used 29.0 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Belle experiment at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider to measure azimuthal asymmetries for different charge combinations of pion pairs and thus access the Collins FF.Comment: Results presented at the DIS 2006 conference in Tsukuba, Japa

Quanto vale o Pantanal? A valoração ambiental aplicada ao bioma Pantanal.

As informações contidas nesta publicação buscam assegurar a efetividade de políticas que garantam a sustentabilidade do bioma e ao mesmo tempo assegurem que a tomada de decisões em projetos para seu desenvolvimento, sejam coerentes e racionais. Neste sentido, é necessário que os múltiplos usos e valores dessas áreas úmidas sejam reconhecidos e considerados, mais particularmente o seu valor econômico, já que as decisões de planejamento de uso da terra tradicionalmente se baseiam em considerações econômicas. Os autores mostram que as estimativas desses valores devem estar baseadas em técnicas adequadas, pois os métodos tradicionais não conseguem determinar os benefícios de muitas funções ambientais ou os custos de sua perda. Também reportam que por meio de tais técnicas, conhecidas como métodos de valoração ambiental, é possível determinar o valor monetário dos bens e serviços ambientais em relação a outros bens e serviços da economia, e dessa forma, refletir seus valores sociais e não meramente seus valores de mercado. Este trabalho explica de forma simples os fundamentos da valoração econômica ambiental e seu papel na tomada de decisões sobre os usos do Pantanal e leva o leitor a pensar na valoração econômica de ecossistemas como mais um elemento a ser considerado quando se tomam decisões de uso de áreas úmidas.bitstream/CPAP-2010/57310/1/DOC105.pd

The Fermionic Density-functional at Feshbach Resonance

We consider a dilute gas of neutral unpolarized fermionic atoms at zero temperature.The atoms interact via a short range (tunable) attractive interaction. We demonstrate analytically a curious property of the gas at unitarity. Namely, the correlation energy of the gas, evaluated by second order perturbation theory, has the same density dependence as the first order exchange energy, and the two almost exactly cancel each other at Feshbach resonance irrespective of the shape of the potential, provided $(\mu r_s) >> 1$. Here $(\mu)^{-1}$ is the range of the two-body potential, and $r_s$ is defined through the number density $n=3/(4\pi r_s^3)$. The implications of this result for universality is discussed.Comment: Five pages, one table. accepted for publication in PR

Characterization and Commissioning of a Ka-Band Ground Station for Cognitive Algorithm Development

In 2018, the Cognitive Communications and Propagation projects completed installation and checkout testing of a new Ka-Band ground station at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cognitive Algorithms Demonstration Testbed (CADeT) was developed to provide a fully characterized and controllable dynamic link environment to researchers looking to demonstrate hardware and software aligned with atmospheric sensing and cognitive algorithms. CADeT integrates a host of precision control and measurement systems in addition to repurposing a 5.5 meter beam-waveguide dish platform previously used with the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS). This paper will discuss the laboratory testing of ground station components with a emphasis on elements vital to achieving link budget requirements including characterization of the new Gallium Nitride (GaN) Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) and far-field measurements of the new antenna feed. Finally, the paper discusses in-situ tests conducted with CADeT and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to validate laboratory results and make necessary link budget adjustments before reviewing the lessons learned

Decidability of the Monadic Shallow Linear First-Order Fragment with Straight Dismatching Constraints

The monadic shallow linear Horn fragment is well-known to be decidable and has many application, e.g., in security protocol analysis, tree automata, or abstraction refinement. It was a long standing open problem how to extend the fragment to the non-Horn case, preserving decidability, that would, e.g., enable to express non-determinism in protocols. We prove decidability of the non-Horn monadic shallow linear fragment via ordered resolution further extended with dismatching constraints and discuss some applications of the new decidable fragment.Comment: 29 pages, long version of CADE-26 pape

C-terminal fusion of eGFP to the bradykinin B-2 receptor strongly affects down-regulation but not receptor internalization or signaling

A functional comparison was made between the wildtype bradykinin B, receptor (B(2)wt) and the chimera B(2)eGFP (enhanced green-fluorescent protein fused to the C-terminus of B(2)Wt), both stably expressed in HEK 293 cells. There was almost no difference in terms of ligand-inducible receptor phosphorylation and internalization, signal transduction (accumulation of inositol phosphates) or expression and affinity. However, stimulation for up to 8 h with 10 mu M bradykinin (BK) resulted in a strong decrease in surface receptors (by 60% within 5 h) in B(2)Wt, but not in B(2)eGFP. When the expression levels of both constructs where comparably reduced using a weaker promoter, long-term stimulation resulted in a reduction in surface receptors for B(2)wt(low) to less than 20% within 1 h, whereas the chimera B(2)eGFP(low) still displayed 50% binding activity after 2 h. A 1-h incubation in the absence of BK resulted in a recovery of 60% of the binding in B(2)wt(low) after 1-h stimulation with BK, but of only 20% after 7-h stimulation. In contrast, B(2)eGFP(low) levels were restored to more than 70%, even after 7-h stimulation. These data indicate that although the fusion of eGFP to B(2)wt does not affect its ligand-induced internalization, it strongly reduces the down-regulation, most likely by promoting receptor recycling over degradation

Voltage-controlled electron-hole interaction in a single quantum dot

The ground state of neutral and negatively charged excitons confined to a single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dot is probed in a direct absorption experiment by high resolution laser spectroscopy. We show how the anisotropic electron-hole exchange interaction depends on the exciton charge and demonstrate how the interaction can be switched on and off with a small dc voltage. Furthermore, we report polarization sensitive analysis of the excitonic interband transition in a single quantum dot as a function of charge with and without magnetic field.Comment: Conference Proceedings, Physics and Applications of Spin-Related Phenomena in Semiconductors, Santa Barbara (CA), 2004. 4 pages, 4 figures; content as publishe