On the change to verb-medial word order in proto-Chinese : evidence from Tibeto-Burman

In attempting to reconstruct the morphosyntax of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, one of the most basic questions to be answered is what was the unmarked word order of the proto-language? Chinese, Bai, and Karen are verb-medial languages, while all of the Tibeto-Burman languages except for Bai and Karen have verb-final word order. lf these languages are all related, as we can assume from lexical correspondences, then either Chinese, Bai and Karen changed from verb-final to verb-medial word order, or the other Tibeto-Burman languages changed trom verb-medial to verb-final order. How we answer the question of which languages changed their word would then give us the answer to the question of word order in Proto-Sino-Tibetan

An interesting feature of BESIII data for J/Psi -> gamma-(etaprime-pi-pi)

The eta(1835) is confirmed clearly in new BESIII data for J/Psi -> gamma (eta'-pi-pi); the angular distribution of the photon is consistent with a pseudoscalar. This makes it a candidate for an s-sbar radial excitation of eta' and eta(1440) (or one or both of eta(1405) and eta(1475)). However, a conspicuous feature of the BES III data is the absence of evidence for eta(1440) -> eta'-pi-pi while it is well known that eta(1440) appears in eta-pi-pi. Can these facts be reconciled? There is in fact a simple explanation. The channel eta(1440) -> eta-pi-pi may be explained by the two-step process eta(1440) -> [K*K]_{L=1} and [kappa K ]_{L=0}, followed by KK -> a0(980) -> eta-pi. This process does not produce any significant eta'-pi signal because of the Adler zero close to the eta'-pi threshold.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Customized Versus Noncustomized Sound Therapy for Treatment of Tinnitus: A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial.

ObjectivesTo determine the effectiveness of a customized sound therapy and compare its effectiveness to that of masking with broadband noise.MethodsSubjects were randomized to receive either customized sound therapy or broadband noise for 2 hours per day for 3 months and then switched to the other treatment after a washout period. The outcome variables were tinnitus loudness (scored 0-10), Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), minimum masking levels (MML), and residual inhibition (RI).ResultsEighteen subjects completed the study. Mean age was 53 ± 11 years, and mean tinnitus duration was 118 ± 99 months. With customized sound therapy, mean loudness decreased from 6.4 ± 2.0 to 4.9 ± 1.9 ( P = .001), mean THI decreased from 42.8 ± 21.6 to 31.5 ± 20.3 ( P < .001), mean BAI decreased from 10.6 ± 10.9 to 8.3 ± 9.9 ( P = .01), and MML decreased from 22.3 ± 11.6 dB SL to 17.2 ± 10.6 dB SL ( P = .005). After 3 months of broadband noise therapy, only BAI and, to a lesser degree, MML decreased ( P = .003 and .04, respectively).ConclusionsCustomized sound therapy can decrease the loudness and THI scores of tinnitus patients, and the results may be superior to broadband noise

An examination of the stability of short-run Canadian stock predictability

Using monthly data from 1975-2001, we consider the stability of bivariate and multivariate models for short run in-sample predictability of Canadian stock returns. We test for model stability using a range of tests including the Andrews SupF statistic, Bai subsample procedure, and Bai and Perron sequential SupF procedure. We find evidence of instability in two of our nine bivariate cases considered as well as our preferred multivariate model. When estimated to account for these breaks, we find the degree and direction of predictability can change markedly.predictive regression models, structural breaks, real stock returns