More individual differences in language attainment: How much do adult native speakers of English know about passives and quantifiers?

This paper provides experimental evidence suggesting that there are considerable differences in native language attainment, and that these are at least partially attributable to individual speakers’ experience. Experiment 1 tested high academic attainment (hereafter, HAA) and low academic attainment (LAA) participants’ comprehension using a picture selection task. Test sentences comprised passives and two variants of the universal quantification construction. Active constructions were used as a control condition. HAA participants performed at ceiling in all conditions; LAA participants performed at ceiling only on actives. As predicted by usage-based accounts, the order of difficulty of the four sentence types mirrored their frequency. Experiment 2 tested whether the less-educated participants’ difficulties with these constructions are attributable to insufficient experience. After a screening test, low scoring participants were randomly assigned to two training groups. The passive training group were given a short training session on the passive construction; and the quantifier training group were trained on sentences with quantifiers. A series of post-training tests show that performance on the trained construction improved dramatically, and that the effect was long-lasting

On whether azimuthal isotropy and alongshelf translational invariance are present in low-frequency acoustic propagation along the New Jersey shelfbreak

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131 (2012): 1762-1781, doi:10.1121/1.3672644.To understand the issues associated with the presence (or lack) of azimuthal isotropy and horizontal (along isobath) invariance of low-frequency (center frequencies of 600 Hz and 900 Hz) acoustic propagation in a shelfbreak environment, a series of experiments were conducted under the Autonomous Wide-Aperture Cluster for Surveillance component of the Shallow Water 2006 experiment. Transmission loss data reported here were from two mobile acoustic sources executing (nearly) circular tracks transmitting to sonobuoy receivers in the circle centers, and from one 12.5 km alongshelf acoustic track. The circle radii were 7.5 km. Data are from September 8, 2006. Details of the acoustic and environmental measurements are presented. Simple analytic and computer models are used to assess the variability expected due to the ocean and seabed conditions encountered. A comparison of model results and data is made, which shows preliminary consistency between the data and the models, but also points towards further work that should be undertaken specifically in enlarging the range and frequency parameter space, and in looking at integrated transmission loss.Office of Naval Research Code 32

Acoustics and oceanographic observations collected during the QPE Experiment by Research Vessels OR1, OR2 and OR3 in the East China Sea in the Summer of 2009

This document describes data, sensors, and other useful information pertaining to the ONR sponsored QPE field program to quantify, predict and exploit uncertainty in observations and prediction of sound propagation. This experiment was a joint operation between Taiwanese and U.S. researchers to measure and assess uncertainty of predictions of acoustic transmission loss and ambient noise, and to observe the physical oceanography and geology that are necessary to improve their predictability. This work was performed over the continental shelf and slope northeast of Taiwan at two sites: one that was a relatively flat, homogeneous shelf region and a more complex geological site just shoreward of the shelfbreak that was influenced by the proximity of the Kuroshio Current. Environmental moorings and ADCP moorings were deployed and a shipboard SeaSoar vehicle was used to measure environmental spatial structure. In addition, multiple bottom moored receivers and a horizontal hydrophone array were deployed to sample transmission loss from a mobile source and ambient noise. The acoustic sensors, environmental sensors, shipboard resources, and experiment design, and their data, are presented and described in this technical report.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-08-1-076

Shallow Water ’06 : a joint acoustic propagation/nonlinear internal wave physics experiment

Author Posting. © Oceanography Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 20, 4 (2007): 156-167.Since the end of the Cold War, the US Navy has had an increasing interest in continental shelves and slopes as operational areas. To work in such areas requires a good understanding of ocean acoustics, coastal physical oceanography, and, in the modern era, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) operations

Consensus Recommendation for Mouse Models of Ocular Hypertension to Study Aqueous Humor Outflow and Its Mechanisms.

Due to their similarities in anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology to humans, mice are a valuable model system to study the generation and mechanisms modulating conventional outflow resistance and thus intraocular pressure. In addition, mouse models are critical for understanding the complex nature of conventional outflow homeostasis and dysfunction that results in ocular hypertension. In this review, we describe a set of minimum acceptable standards for developing, characterizing, and utilizing mouse models of open-angle ocular hypertension. We expect that this set of standard practices will increase scientific rigor when using mouse models and will better enable researchers to replicate and build upon previous findings