Equation of state of cubic boron nitride at high pressures and temperatures

We report accurate measurements of the equation of state (EOS) of cubic boron nitride by x-ray diffraction up to 160 GPa at 295 K and 80 GPa in the range 500-900 K. Experiments were performed on single-crystals embedded in a quasi-hydrostatic pressure medium (helium or neon). Comparison between the present EOS data at 295 K and literature allows us to critically review the recent calibrations of the ruby standard. The full P-V-T data set can be represented by a Mie-Gr\"{u}neisen model, which enables us to extract all relevant thermodynamic parameters: bulk modulus and its first pressure-derivative, thermal expansion coefficient, thermal Gr\"{u}neisen parameter and its volume dependence. This equation of state is used to determine the isothermal Gr\"{u}neisen mode parameter of the Raman TO band. A new formulation of the pressure scale based on this Raman mode, using physically-constrained parameters, is deduced.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed

Attitudes towards code-switching among adult mono- and multilingual language users

The present study investigates inter-individual variation (linked to personality traits, multilingualism and sociobiographical variables) in attitudes towards code-switching (CS) among 2070 multilinguals. Data were collected through an on-line questionnaire. We found that high levels of Tolerance of Ambiguity and Cognitive Empathy, and low levels of Neuroticism are linked with significantly more positive attitudes towards CS. Knowing many languages had a marginally positive effect. A more fine-grained analysis revealed that participants with mid-range global proficiency values were less positive towards CS than those at the lower and higher end of the scale. Participants who grew up in a bilingual family and in an ethnically diverse environment, and currently worked in an ethnically diverse environment had significantly more positive attitudes towards CS. Female participants and those with the lowest and highest levels of education appreciated CS most, and participants in their teens and twenties appreciated CS less than older participants. The findings thus show that the attitudes towards CS are linked to personality, language learning history and current linguistic practices, as well as some sociobiographical variables

Une technique expérimentale et son utilisation en évaluation : l'autoradiographie

A propos de l'étude de la synthèse des protéines, un graphique, classique pour les biologistes, qui rassemble des données obtenues par les techniques de marquage radioactif et par la microscopie électronique a été donné à analyser à des élèves de classe Terminale. Les réponses des élèves sont classées et commentées. Beaucoup ne semblent pas pertinentes par rapport à ce qu'on attend de la récitation d'un savoir. Ces erreurs sont-elles condamnables? Une présentation des techniques utilisées et une analyse historique couvrant une période de 15 ans des travaux originaux, montrent que les erreurs des élèves peuvent être considérées comme légitimes mais évitables si un bagage technique leur est donné en même temps qu'un savoir théorique historiqu

A bilingual emotional advantage? An investigation into the effects of psychological factors in emotion perception in Arabic and in English of Arabic-English bilinguals and Arabic /English monolinguals

Aims and objectives: While the debate on the cognitive bilingual advantage is ongoing, much less attention has been paid to a potential emotional advantage of bilinguals. The present study compared the performance of bilinguals and monolinguals in emotion perception (EP) in Arabic and in English and the differences in trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI). It also considered the relationship between Trait EI and EP scores. Methodology: 205 Arabic-English bilinguals, 71 Arabic monolinguals and 333 English monolinguals had to recognise anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise and happiness in twelve short audio-visual video clips (six in English and six in Arabic) embedded in an online questionnaire. The clips contained short conversations about day-to-day situations. Data and analysis: Nonparametric statistical analyses were used to explore the differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in EP in English and Arabic and to explore the relationship between Trait EI and EP. Findings: Bilinguals outperformed English monolinguals in the EP task in English but did not perform better than Arabic monolinguals in Arabic. Bilinguals scored higher on Trait EI than monolinguals, and Trait EI scores were significantly and positively correlated with EP scores. Originality: This study suggests that there is a small bilingual advantage for emotional and psychological domains. Significance: Bilingualism seems to have an effect on some personality dimensions and emotional skills

Self-reported frequency of swearing in English: do situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables have similar effects on first and foreign language users?

An analysis of data collected from 2347 users of English on their self-reported swearing behaviour in English revealed significant higher values for the 1159 native English (L1) users than for the 1165 English foreign language (LX) users. Parallel analyses on the data of the L1 and LX users revealed that the interlocutor effect was slightly stronger among L1 users. Swearing was reported to be most frequent in interactions with friends, when alone, followed by interactions with family members, colleagues and strangers. Participants scoring high on Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism reported significantly more swearing in English. Extraversion and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on LX users’ self-reported swearing with friends and alone while Psychoticism and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on L1 users’ self-reported swearing with strangers and with friends. The effects of sociobiographical variables (education level, age group, gender) were broadly similar among L1 and LX users but were significant in more categories of interlocutors for the L1 users. It is argued that the weaker effect of situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables on self-reported frequency of swearing among LX users of English could be linked to larger heterogeneity in their history of learning, socialisation, proficiency and use of English

Bilingual episodic memory: an introduction

Our current models of bilingual memory are essentially accounts of semantic memory whose goal is to explain bilingual lexical access to underlying imagistic and conceptual referents. While this research has included episodic memory, it has focused largely on recall for words, phrases, and sentences in the service of understanding the structure of semantic memory. Building on the four papers in this special issue, this article focuses on larger units of episodic memory(from quotidian events with simple narrative form to complex autobiographical memories) in service of developing a model of bilingual episodic memory. This requires integrating theory and research on how culture-specific narrative traditions inform encoding and retrieval with theory and research on the relation between(monolingual) semantic and episodic memory(Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1995; Tulving, 2002). Then, taking a cue from memory-based text processing studies in psycholinguistics(McKoon & Ratcliff, 1998), we suggest that as language forms surface in the progressive retrieval of features of an event, they trigger further forms within the same language serving to guide a within-language/ within-culture retrieval

Shape-selective zeolite catalysis for bioplastics production

Biodegradable and renewable polymers, such as polylactic acid, are benign alternatives for petrochemical-based plastics. Current production of polylactic acid via its key building block lactide, the cyclic dimer of lactic acid, is inefficient in terms of energy, time, and feedstock use. We present a direct zeolite-based catalytic process, which converts lactic acid into lactide. The shape-selective properties of zeolites are essential to attain record lactide yields, outperforming those of the current multistep process by avoiding both racemization and side-product formation. The highly productive process is strengthened by facile recovery and practical reactivation of the catalyst, which remains structurally fit during at least six consecutive reactions, and by the ease of solvent and side-product recycling

Self-bias and the emotionality of foreign languages

Article first published online: June 13, 2018Foreign language contexts impose a relative psychological and emotional distance in bilinguals. In our previous studies, we demonstrated that the use of a foreign language changes the strength of the seemingly automatic emotional responses in the self-paradigm, showing a robust asymmetry in the self-bias effect in a native and a foreign language context. Namely, larger effects were found in the native language, suggesting an emotional blunting in the foreign language context. In the present study, we investigated the source of these effects by directly comparing whether they stem from a language’s foreignness versus its non-nativeness. We employed the same self-paradigm (a simple perceptual matching task of associating simple geometric shapes with the labels “you,” “friend,” and “other”), testing unbalanced Spanish–Basque–English trilinguals. We applied the paradigm to three language contexts: native, non-native but contextually present (i.e., non-native local), and non-native foreign. Results showed a smaller self-bias only in the foreign language pointing to the foreign-language-induced psychological/emotional distance as the necessary prerequisite for foreign language effects. Furthermore, we explored whether perceived emotional distance towards foreign languages in Spanish–English bilinguals modulates foreign language effects. Results suggest that none of the different indices of emotional distance towards the foreign language obtained via questionnaires modulated the self-biases in the foreign language contexts. Our results further elucidate the deeply rooted and automatic nature of foreign-language-driven differential emotional processing.This research has been partially funded by grants PSI2015-65689-P and SEV-2015-0490 from the Spanish Government, AThEME-613465 from the European Union, and a 2016 BBVA Foundation Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators awarded to the last author (J.A.D.)