4,936 research outputs found
Effects of frequency and idiomaticity on second language reading comprehension in children with English as an additional language
Vocabulary plays an important role in reading comprehension in both the L1 and the L2 (Murphy, 2018). In measuring vocabulary knowledge, however, researchers typically focus on mono-lexical units where vocabulary assessments tend not to take into account multi-word expressions which include phrasal verbs, collocations, and idioms. Omitting these multi-word lexical items can lead to an over-estimation of comprehension skills, particularly in reading. Indeed, adult learners of English comprehend texts containing a larger number of multi-word expressions less well compared to texts containing fewer of these expressions, even when the same words are used in each text (Martinez & Murphy, 2011). To investigate whether children learning English as an additional language (EAL) face a similar challenge, two reading comprehension tests were administered to EAL and monolingual (non-EAL) English-speaking children in primary school. Both tests contained the same common words, but whereas in one test some of the words occurred in multi-word expressions, in the other test they did not. Reading comprehension was significantly reduced for both groups of children when multi-word expressions were included. Monolingual participants generally performed better than children with EAL on both tests further suggesting that children with EAL may face a particular disadvantage in English reading comprehension. These results are discussed within the context of the importance of developing rich vocabulary knowledge in all children, and especially emergent bilingual children, within primary school and beyond
Target recognitions in multiple camera CCTV using colour constancy
People tracking using colour feature in crowded scene through CCTV network have been a popular and at the same time a very difficult topic in computer vision. It is mainly because of the difficulty for the acquisition of intrinsic signatures of targets from a single view of the scene. Many factors, such as variable illumination conditions and viewing angles, will induce illusive modification of intrinsic signatures of targets. The objective of this paper is to verify if colour constancy (CC) approach really helps people tracking in CCTV network system. We have testified a number of CC algorithms together with various colour descriptors, to assess the efficiencies of people recognitions from real multi-camera i-LIDS data set via Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC). It is found that when CC is applied together with some form of colour restoration mechanisms such as colour transfer, the recognition performance can be improved by at least a factor of two. An elementary luminance based CC coupled with a pixel based colour transfer algorithm, together with experimental results are reported in the present paper
The thermal equation of state of FeTiO_3 ilmenite based on in situ X-ray diffraction at high pressures and temperatures
We present in situ measurements of the unit-cell volume of a natural terrestrial ilmenite (Jagersfontein mine, South Africa) and a synthetic reduced ilmenite (FeTiO_3) at simultaneous high pressure and high temperature up to 16 GPa and 1273 K. Unit-cell volumes were determined using energy-dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction in a multi-anvil press. Mössbauer analyses show that the synthetic sample contained insignificant amounts of Fe^(3+) both before and after the experiment. Results were fit to Birch-Murnaghan thermal equations of state, which reproduce the experimental data to within 0.5 and 0.7 GPa for the synthetic and natural samples, respectively. At ambient conditions, the unit-cell volume of the natural sample [V_0 = 314.75 ± 0.23 (1 ) Ă
^3] is significantly smaller than that of the synthetic sample [V_0 = 319.12 ± 0.26 Ă
^3]. The difference can be attributed to the presence of impurities and Fe^(3+) in the natural sample. The 1 bar isothermal bulk moduli K_(T0) for the reduced ilmenite is slightly larger than for the natural ilmenite (181 ± 7 and 165 ± 6 GPa, respectively), with pressure derivatives K_0' = 3 ± 1. Our results, combined with literature data, suggest that the unit-cell volume of reduced ilmenite is significantly larger than that of oxidized ilmenite, whereas their thermoelastic parameters are similar. Our data provide more appropriate input parameters for thermo-chemical models of lunar interior evolution, in which reduced ilmenite plays a critical role
Van der Waals epitaxy of Bi2Se3 on Si(111) vicinal surface: An approach to prepare high-quality thin films of topological insulator
Epitaxial growth of topological insulator Bi2Se3 thin films on nominally flat
and vicinal Si(111) substrates is studied. In order to achieve planner growth
front and better quality epifilms, a two-step growth method is adopted for the
van der Waal epitaxy of Bi2Se3 to proceed. By employing vicinal Si(111)
substrate surfaces, the in-pane growth rate anisotropy of Bi2Se3 is explored to
achieve single crystalline Bi2Se3 epifilms, in which threading defects and
twins are effectively suppressed. Optimization of the growth parameters has
resulted in vicinal Bi2Se3 films showing a carrier mobility of ~ 2000 cm2V-1s-1
and the background doping of ~ 3 x 1018 cm-3 of the as-grown layers. Such
samples not only show relatively high magnetoresistance but also a linear
dependence on magnetic field.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Search in weighted complex networks
We study trade-offs presented by local search algorithms in complex networks
which are heterogeneous in edge weights and node degree. We show that search
based on a network measure, local betweenness centrality (LBC), utilizes the
heterogeneity of both node degrees and edge weights to perform the best in
scale-free weighted networks. The search based on LBC is universal and performs
well in a large class of complex networks.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, minor changes, added a referenc
Pump-tailored Alternative Bell State Generation in the First-Order Hermite-Gaussian basis
We demonstrate entangled-state swapping, within the Hermite-Gaussian basis of
first-order modes, directly from the process of spontaneous parametric
down-conversion within a nonlinear crystal. The method works by explicitly
tailoring the spatial structure of the pump photon such that it resembles the
product of the desired entangled spatial modes exiting the crystal.
Importantly, the result is an entangled state of balanced HG modes, which may
be beneficial in applications that depend on symmetric accumulations of
geometric phase through optics or in applications of quantum sensing and
imaging with azimuthal sensitivity. Furthermore, the methods are readily
adaptable to other spatial mode bases
Discrete Gravitational Dimensions
We study the physics of a single discrete gravitational extra dimension using
the effective field theory for massive gravitons. We first consider a minimal
discretization with 4D gravitons on the sites and nearest neighbor hopping
terms. At the linear level, 5D continuum physics is recovered correctly, but at
the non-linear level the theory becomes highly non-local in the discrete
dimension. There is a peculiar UV/IR connection, where the scale of strong
interactions at high energies is related to the radius of the dimension. These
new effects formally vanish in the limit of zero lattice spacing, but do not do
so quickly enough to reproduce the continuum physics consistently in an
effective field theory up to the 5D Planck scale. Nevertheless, this model does
make sense as an effective theory up to energies parametrically higher than the
compactification scale. In order to have a discrete theory that appears local
in the continuum limit, the lattice action must have interactions between
distant sites. We speculate on the relevance of these observations to the
construction of finite discrete theories of gravity in four dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 diagrams. Important typos in some equations corrected;
conclusion s unchange
The effects of matter density uncertainties on neutrino oscillations in the Earth
We compare three different methods to evaluate uncertainties in the Earth's
matter density profile, which are relevant to long baseline experiments, such
as neutrino factories.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the NuFact'02 Workshop, London, 1-6
July, 200
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