Active Drumming Experience Increases Infants' Sensitivity to Audiovisual Synchrony during Observed Drumming Actions

In the current study, we examined the role of active experience on sensitivity to multisensory synchrony in six-month-old infants in a musical context. In the first of two experiments, we trained infants to produce a novel multimodal effect (i.e., a drum beat) and assessed the effects of this training, relative to no training, on their later perception of the synchrony between audio and visual presentation of the drumming action. In a second experiment, we then contrasted this active experience with the observation of drumming in order to test whether observation of the audiovisual effect was as effective for sensitivity to multimodal synchrony as active experience. Our results indicated that active experience provided a unique benefit above and beyond observational experience, providing insights on the embodied roots of (early) music perception and cognition

Novel analytical dimensions in exploratory field studies of air particulate matter

Exploratory (“scoping”, “pilot”) studies of limited size and duration, but capable of pinpointing the best sampling strategy, as well as helping to select the most informative analytical methods and parameters for subsequent large scale studies, can save time and money. The authors have field-tested several rapid, exploratory PM10/2.5 characterization techniques under the auspices of the EPA-sponsored SCERP (Southwest Center for Environmental research and Policy) Paso del Norte air quality research program at the USA/Mexico border. (1) The following combination of methods has proven to be a valuable exploratory tool: organic characterization of circadian samples (obtained with a mobile 16.7pm sampler at 2-hr intervals) by thermal desorption GC/MS; (2) inorganic characterization of circadian samples (obtained with a mobile 16.7 1pm streaker-type sampler at 2-hr intervals) by computer-controlled SEM with energy-dispersive Xray detection (CCSEM-EDAX); (3) Organic (GC/MS) and inorganic (xrf, pixe) characterization of 24-hr samples collected from stationary, spatially-distributed hi-vol and dichot sampling stations, respectively; (4) on-site, size-distributed particle counting at 1-5 minute intervals by means of a multichannel particle counter; and (5) data fusion, reduction and correlation by means of principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis and related chemometric methods. Identification of inorganic, inorganic and mixed source contribution is performed by PCA of periodic or episodic trends and events in circadian receptor sample profiles, as well as by spatially distributed concentration variations among 24-hr samples. Additional inorganic sources are identifiable by cluster analysis of elemental association patterns among individual particles, as measured by CCSEM-EDAX, as well as by morphological analysis of individual particle images. Comparison of temporally –and spatially-resolved spectroscopic data, e.g. by multi-way canonical source locations dorm receptor data. This is especially valuable for locating sources under windless or near-windless inversion conditions which prevent source backtracking by mean of diagnostic meteorological models. In the absence of quantitative source profiles for the multitude of poorly accessible individual PM sources in the Paso del Norte airshed, preliminary source apportionment is being attempted by using pooled source category and/or source cluster profiles calibrated by means of size-distributed particle counting methods, instead of conventional mass balance techniques

Longitudinal analysis of early semantic networks : preferential attachment or preferential acquisition?

ABSTRACT-Analyses of adult semantic networks suggest a learning mechanism involving preferential attachment: A word is more likely to enter the lexicon the more connected the known words to which it is related. We introduce and test two alternative growth principles: preferential acquisition-words enter the lexicon not because they are related to well-connected words, but because they connect well to other words in the learning environment-and the lure of the associates-new words are favored in proportion to their connections with known words. We tested these alternative principles using longitudinal analyses of developing networks of 130 nouns children learn prior to the age of 30 months. We tested both networks with links between words represented by features and networks with links represented by associations. The feature networks did not predict age of acquisition using any growth model. The associative networks grew by preferential acquisition, with the best model incorporating word frequency, number of phonological neighbors, and connectedness of the new word to words in the learning environment, as operationalized by connectedness to words typically acquired by the age of 30 months

Effect of metal impurities on the adsorption of gold by activated carbon in cyanide solutions /

Bibliography: p. 7.Mode of access: Internet