3,247 research outputs found
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
Practical long-distance quantum key distribution system using decoy levels
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has the potential for widespread real-world
applications. To date no secure long-distance experiment has demonstrated the
truly practical operation needed to move QKD from the laboratory to the real
world due largely to limitations in synchronization and poor detector
performance. Here we report results obtained using a fully automated, robust
QKD system based on the Bennett Brassard 1984 protocol (BB84) with low-noise
superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) and decoy levels.
Secret key is produced with unconditional security over a record 144.3 km of
optical fibre, an increase of more than a factor of five compared to the
previous record for unconditionally secure key generation in a practical QKD
system.Comment: 9 page
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Correction: The Relationship between Therapeutic Alliance and Service User Satisfaction in Mental Health Inpatient Wards and Crisis House Alternatives: A Cross-Sectional Study
Can Modus Vivendi Save Liberalism from Moralism? A Critical Assessment of John Gray’s Political Realism
This chapter assesses John Gray’s modus vivendi-based justification for liberalism. I argue that his approach is preferable to the more orthodox deontological or teleological justificatory strategies, at least because of the way it can deal with the problem of diversity. But then I show how that is not good news for liberalism, for grounding liberal political authority in a modus vivendi undermines liberalism’s aspiration to occupy a privileged normative position vis-à-vis other kinds of regimes. So modus vivendi can save liberalism from moralism, but at cost many liberals will not be prepared to pay
Modus Vivendi Beyond the Social Contract: Peace, Justice, and Survival in Realist Political Theory
This essay examines the promise of the notion of modus vivendi for realist political theory. I interpret recent theories of modus vivendi as affirming the priority of peace over justice, and explore several ways of making sense of this idea. I proceed to identify two key problems for modus vivendi theory, so conceived. Normatively speaking, it remains unclear how this approach can sustain a realist critique of Rawlsian theorizing about justice while avoiding a Hobbesian endorsement of absolutism. And conceptually, the theory remains wedded to a key feature of social contract theory: political order is conceived as based on agreement. This construes the horizontal tensions among individual or group agents in society as prior to the vertical, authoritative relations between authorities and their subjects. Political authority thereby appears from the start as a solution to societal conflict, rather than a problem in itself. I argue that this way of framing the issue abstracts from political experience. Instead I attempt to rethink the notion of modus vivendi from within the lived experience of political conflict, as oriented not primarily toward peace, but political survival. With this shift of perspective, the idea of modus vivendi shows us, pace Bernard Williams, that the “first political question” is not how to achieve order and stability, but rather: what can I live with
Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of culture on the creative and stylistic features children employ when producing narratives based on wordless picture books.
Method: Participants included 60 first- and second-grade African American, Latino American, and Caucasian children. A subset of narratives based on wordless picture books collected as part of a larger study was coded and analyzed for the following creative and stylistic conventions: organizational style (topic centered, linear, cyclical), dialogue (direct, indirect), reference to character relationships (nature, naming, conduct), embellishment (fantasy, suspense, conflict), and paralinguistic devices (expressive sounds, exclamatory utterances).
Results: Many similarities and differences between ethnic groups were found. No significant differences were found between ethnic groups in organizational style or use of paralinguistic devices. African American children included more fantasy in their stories, Latino children named their characters more often, and Caucasian children made more references to the nature of character relationships.
Conclusion: Even within the context of a highly structured narrative task based on wordless picture books, culture influences children’s production of narratives. Enhanced understanding of narrative structure, creativity, and style is necessary to provide ecologically valid narrative assessment and intervention for children from diverse cultural backgrounds
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Mental health in UK Biobank - development, implementation and results from an online questionnaire completed by 157 366 participants: a reanalysis
Background
UK Biobank is a well-characterised cohort of over 500 000 participants including genetics, environmental data and imaging. An online mental health questionnaire was designed for UK Biobank participants to expand its potential.
Aims
Describe the development, implementation and results of this questionnaire.
Method
An expert working group designed the questionnaire, using established measures where possible, and consulting a patient group. Operational criteria were agreed for defining likely disorder and risk states, including lifetime depression, mania/hypomania, generalised anxiety disorder, unusual experiences and self-harm, and current post-traumatic stress and hazardous/harmful alcohol use.
Results
A total of 157 366 completed online questionnaires were available by August 2017. Participants were aged 45–82 (53% were ≥65 years) and 57% women. Comparison of self-reported diagnosed mental disorder with a contemporary study shows a similar prevalence, despite respondents being of higher average socioeconomic status. Lifetime depression was a common finding, with 24% (37 434) of participants meeting criteria and current hazardous/harmful alcohol use criteria were met by 21% (32 602), whereas other criteria were met by less than 8% of the participants. There was extensive comorbidity among the syndromes. Mental disorders were associated with a high neuroticism score, adverse life events and long-term illness; addiction and bipolar affective disorder in particular were associated with measures of deprivation.
Conclusions
The UK Biobank questionnaire represents a very large mental health survey in itself, and the results presented here show high face validity, although caution is needed because of selection bias. Built into UK Biobank, these data intersect with other health data to offer unparalleled potential for crosscutting biomedical research involving mental health
A contemporaneous infrared flash from a long gamma-ray burst: an echo from the central engine
The explosion that results in a cosmic gamma-ray burst (GRB) is thought to
produce emission from two physical processes -- the activity of the central
engine gives rise to the high-energy emission of the burst through internal
shocking and the subsequent interaction of the flow with the external
environment produces long-wavelength afterglow. While afterglow observations
continue to refine our understanding of GRB progenitors and relativistic
shocks, gamma-ray observations alone have not yielded a clear picture of the
origin of the prompt emission nor details of the central engine. Only one
concurrent visible-light transient has been found and was associated with
emission from an external shock. Here we report the discovery of infrared (IR)
emission contemporaneous with a GRB, beginning 7.2 minutes after the onset of
GRB 041219a. Our robotic telescope acquired 21 images during the active phase
of the burst, yielding the earliest multi-colour observations of any
long-wavelength emission associated with a GRB. Analysis of an initial IR pulse
suggests an origin consistent with internal shocks. This opens a new
possibility to study the central engine of GRBs with ground-based observations
at long wavelengths.Comment: Accepted to Nature on March 1, 2005. 9 pages, 4 figures, nature12.cls
and nature1.cls files included. This paper is under press embargo until print
publicatio
Stellar Companions to Stars with Planets
A combination of high-resolution and wide-field imaging reveals two binary
stars and one triple star system among the sample of the first 11 stars with
planets detected by radial velocity variations. High resolution speckle or
adaptive optics (AO) data probe subarcsecond scales down to the diffraction
limit of the Keck 10-m or Lick 3-m, and direct images or AO images are
sensitive to a wider field, extending to 10" or 38", depending upon the camera.
One of the binary systems -- HD 114762 -- was not previously known to be a
spatially resolved multiple system; additional data taken with the combination
of Keck adaptive optics and NIRSPEC are used to characterize the new companion.
The second binary system -- Tau Boo -- was a known multiple with two
conflicting orbital solutions; the current data will help constrain the
discrepant estimates of periastron time and separation. Another target -- 16
Cyg B -- was a known common proper motion binary, but the current data resolve
a new third component, close to the wide companion 16 Cyg A. Both the HD 114762
and 16 Cyg B systems harbor planets in eccentric orbits, while the Tau Boo
binary contains an extremely close planet in a tidally-circularized orbit.
Although the sample is currently small, the proportion of binary systems is
comparable to that measured in the field over a similar separation range.
Incorporating the null result from another companion search project lowers the
overall fraction of planets in binary systems, but the detections in our survey
reveal that planets can form in binaries separated by less than 50 AU.Comment: 5 Tables, 16 Figures. ApJ, accepte
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