Voice processing abilities in children with autism, children with specific language impairments and young typically developing children

It is well established that people with autism have impaired face processing, but much less is known about voice processing in autism. Four experiments were therefore carried out to assess (1) familiar voice-face and sound-object matching; (2) familiar voice recognition; (3) unfamiliar voice discrimination; and (4) vocal affect naming and vocal-facial affect matching. In Experiments 1 and 2 language-matched children with specific language impairment (SLI) were the controls. In Experiments 3 and 4 language-matched children with SLI and young mainstream children were the controls. The results were unexpected: the children with autism were not impaired relative to controls on Experiments 1, 2 and 3, and were superior to the children with SLI on both parts of Experiment 4, although impaired on affect matching relative to the mainstream children. These results are interpreted in terms of an unexpected impairment of voice processing in the children with SLI associated partly, but not wholly, with an impairment of cross-modal processing. Performance on the experimental tasks was not associated with verbal or nonverbal ability in either of the clinical groups. The implications of these findings for understanding autism and SLI are discussed

Comment on 'Quantum Backreaction on "Classical" Variables'

It is argued that the bracket of Anderson's canonical theory should have been antisymmetric otherwise serious controversies arise like violation of both hermiticity and the Leibniz rule of differentiation.Comment: 3 pages, LaTe

Canadian national sport organisations’ use of the web for relationship marketing in promoting sport participation

Sport participation development requires a systematic process which involves knowledge creation, dissemination and interactions between National Sport Organisations, participants, clubs and associations as well as other agencies. Using a relationship marketing approach (Grönroos, 1997, Gummesson, 2002, Olkkonen, 1999), this paper addressed the question ‘How do Canadian NSOs use the Web, in terms of functionality and services offered, to create and maintain relationships with sport participants and their sport delivery partners?’ Ten Canadian NSOs’ websites were examined: functionality was analysed using Burgess and Cooper’s (2000) eMICA model, while NSOs’ utilisation of the Internet to establish and maintain relationships with sport participants was analysed using Wang, Head and Archer’s (2000) relationship-building process model for the Web. It was found that Canadian NSOs were receptive to the use of the Web, but their information-gathering and dissemination activities, which make-up the relationship-building process, appear sparse, and in some cases are lagging behind the voluntary sector in the country

Multiscale theory of nonlinear wavepacket propagation in a planar optical waveguide

In this paper, the multiscale expansion formalism is applied for the first time, to our knowledge, in nonlinear planar optical waveguides. This formalism permits us to describe the linear and nonlinear propagation for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes. The modal field distributions and the nonlinear coefficient in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation are highlighted

Polarization switching in a planar optical waveguide

The multiscale expansion formalism is applied to the study of nonlinear planar optical waveguides. It allows us to describe the linear and nonlinear propagation for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes, and the interaction between them. An accurate computation of the nonlinear self- and cross-phase modulation coefficients allows one to give account of the polarization switching which has been observed experimentally

On the Decoherence of Primordial Fluctuations During Inflation

We study the process whereby quantum cosmological perturbations become classical within inflationary cosmology. By setting up a master-equation formulation we show how quantum coherence for super-Hubble modes can be destroyed by their coupling to the environment provided by sub-Hubble modes. We identify what features the sub-Hubble environment must have in order to decohere the longer wavelengths, and identify how the onset of decoherence (and how long it takes) depends on the properties of the sub-Hubble physics which forms the environment. Our results show that the decoherence process is largely insensitive to the details of the coupling between the sub- and super-Hubble scales. They also show how locality implies, quite generally, that the decohered density matrix at late times is diagonal in the field representation (as is implicitly assumed by extant calculations of inflationary density perturbations). Our calculations also imply that decoherence can arise even for couplings which are as weak as gravitational in strength.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur

The nutritional requirements of the chick

Publication authorized June 1, 1933.Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (page 24)

Quantum internal modes of solitons in 1d easy-plane antiferromagnet in strong magnetic field

In presence of a strong external magnetic field the dynamics of solitons in a one-dimensional easy-plane Heisenberg antiferromagnet exhibits a number of peculiarities. Dynamics of internal soliton degrees of freedom is essentially quantum, and they are strongly coupled to the "translational" mode of soliton movement. These peculiarities lead to considerable changes in the response functions of the system which can be detected experimentally.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX, 6 figures, uses psfig.sty, submitted to PR

Vegetation response to prescribed fire in the Kenai Mountains, Alaska

The Chugach National Forest has been using prescribed fire as a wildlife habitat management tool since l977. Between 1977 and 1997 about 4,000 hectares have been burned on the Kenai Peninsula to promote regeneration of woody plant species used by moose (Alces alces). Browse species include paper birch (Betula papyrifera), cottonwood (Populus balsamifera subsp. balsamifera and Populus balsamifera subsp. trichocarpa), aspen (Populus tremuloides), Scouler willow (Salix scouleriana), Barclay willow (Salix barclayi) and other tall shrub willows (Salix spp.). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the results of 20 years of prescribed fire in order to assess vegetation response to burning and provide managers with information on future prescribed burn planning. This analysis evaluated relationships among initial vegetation composition, physical site characteristics, browse species abundance, competitive herbaceous vegetation, and fire severity. With few exceptions, browse species increased in abundance after burning where they were present in the initial composition (measurements were made 15 to 20 years post-burn). Early successional grasses and forbs such as Epilobium angustfolium and Calamagrostis canadensis also tended to increase. Late successional species and forest associated species tended to decrease; these species include conifer seedlings, saplings, and trees (Tsuga mertensiana and Picea x lutzii), Rubus pedatus, Linnaea borealis, Drypoteris dilatata, and Menziesia ferruginea. Dwarf shrubs such as Vaccinium uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea, and Empetrum nigrum tended to decrease. Browse species abundance was inversely related to C. canadensis abundance. C. canadensis abundance increases with increasing depth of loamy mineral soil and increasing moisture (but C. canadensis does not occur abundantly on boggy sites with organic soils). Soils with deep loamy surface horizons tend to occur on depositional slopes such as fluvial valley bottoms and toe slopes. Sites with these features generally show large increases in C. canadensis cover after prescribed burning, even when C. canadensis cover is low (3%) prior to burning. The most important pre-burn variables for predicting post-burn browse species abundance are pre-burn C. canadensis cover and type of surficial deposit. Site conditions that are favorable to C. canadensis may be problematic for successful regeneration of browse species, especially if browse species are not present in the initial composition