A destressing "deafness" in French?

French is a language in which accent is mandatory on the last syllable of every content word. In contrast, Spanish uses accent to distinguish different lexical items (e.g., b'ebe vs beb'e). Two population of subjects were tested on the same materials to study whether such linguistic differences have an impact on the perceptual capacities of listeners. In Experiment 1, using an ABX paradigm, we find that French Subjects have a surprising deficit compared to Spanish Subjects in making accent distinctions. In Experiment 2, we find that Spanish subjects cannot ignore irrelevant differences in accent in a phoneme-based ABX task, whereas French Subjects have no difficulty at all. In Experiment 3, we replicate the basic French finding, and find that Spanish subjects benefit from redundant accent information even when phonemic information alone is sufficient to perform the task. In our final Experiment 4, we show that French subjects can hear the acoustic correlates of accent; their problem seem to arise at the level of short term memory. Implications for language-specific processing and acquisition are discussed

Where is the length effect? A cross-linguistic study.

Many models of speech production assume that one cannot begin to articulate a word before all its segmental units are inserted into the articulatory plan. Moreover, some of these models assume that segments are serially inserted from left to right. As a consequence, latencies to name words should increase with word length. In a series of five experiments, however, we showed that the time to name a picture or retrieve a word associated with a symbol is not affected by the length of the word. Experiments 1 and 2 used French materials and participants, while Experiments 3, 4 and 5 were conducted with English materials and participants. These results are discussed in relation to current models of speech production, and previous reports of length effects are reevaluated in light of these findings. We conclude that if words are encoded serially, then articulation can start before an entire phonological word has been encoded

Generalized product expansions for pair‐correlated wavefunctions

A correlated wavefunction in the form of a linear combination of generalized products is proposed for describing electron correlation in N‐electron systems. The generalized product configurations are group functional products describing the correlated behavior of a pair of electrons in an N‐2‐electron independent particle sea. The linear expansion includes terms for all possible pairs and thus includes correlation effects for every pair of electrons. The structure of the wavefunction is given, the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian are determined, and some of the variational equations determining the optimal total wavefunction are discussed. The relation between second‐order Nesbet‐Bethe‐Goldstone calculations and the pair at a time CI method of Sinanoğlu and the pair‐correlated wavefunction developed here is discussed, and a method is given for obtaining a complete generalized product wavefunction from these type independent pair approximations.<br/

The linear Fokker-Planck equation for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process as an (almost) nonlinear kinetic equation for an isolated N-particle system

It is long known that the Fokker-Planck equation with prescribed constant coefficients of diffusion and linear friction describes the ensemble average of the stochastic evolutions in velocity space of a Brownian test particle immersed in a heat bath of fixed temperature. Apparently, it is not so well known that the same partial differential equation, but now with constant coefficients which are functionals of the solution itself rather than being prescribed, describes the kinetic evolution (in the infinite particle limit) of an isolated N-particle system with certain stochastic interactions. Here we discuss in detail this recently discovered interpretation.Comment: Minor revisions and corrections (including the title

Do we need to fix the anterior fracture component in insufficiency fractures of the pelvis? A biomechanical comparison on an FFP type IIIc fracture in an osteoporotic pelvic bone model.

There is a growing understanding of the specific characteristics of insufficiency fractures of the pelvis and of general requirements for the treatment of affected patients with focus on early mobilization and effective pain reduction as the main goals of therapy. While there is consensus on the significance of achieving stability of the dorsal pelvic ring structures there is still an open discussion about the potential benefits of additional stabilization of an anterior fracture component. Within a biomechanical test setup, two established methods of dorsal fracture fixation were tested under axial loading (25-1200 N; 1000 test cycles) on an explicit osteoporotic bone model (n = 32) with a standardized FFP type IIIc fracture with and without additional fixation of the anterior fracture component. Dorsal fixation was performed with and long and a short 7.3 mm cannulated screw in S1 in one group (n = 16), and a trans sacral bar with an additional short 7.3 mm cannulated screw in S1 in the other group (n = 16). Half of the samples received a 7.3 mm cannulated retrograde transpubic screw for anterior fixation. The fixation with the trans sacral bar and the additional anterior screw fixation showed the highest rate of stability (p = 0.0014), followed by the double SI-screw fixation with stabilization of the anterior fracture (p = 0.0002). During testing, we observed the occurrence of new sacral fractures contralateral to the initial fracture in 22/32 samples. The results let us assume that stabilization of an additional anterior fracture component relevantly improves the stability of the entire ring construct and might prevent failure of the dorsal stabilization or further fracture progression

Liberia: Ellen in wonderland?

"Am 10. Mai veröffentlichte die Regierung Liberias ihren ersten Finanzbericht, der eine erhebliche Zunahme der Staatseinnahmen ausweist. Mehr als 100 Tage Amtszeit von Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, der ersten Präsidentin Afrikas, sind vorüber. Einige Erfolge sind sichtbar. Das zurückliegende Jahr war ein vergleichsweise friedliches für das geschundene westafrikanische Land. Schneller als erhofft kommen nun aber einige bittere Realitäten ans Tageslicht: Reformbremsen in der Elite, Überschuldung, Arbeitslosigkeit und fortbestehende Sicherheitsprobleme. Ein Rückfall in den Gewaltkonflikt ist noch immer nicht ausgeschlossen. Die Auslieferung von Expräsident Charles Taylor an den Special Court in Sierra Leone setzt die Themen Justizreform, Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Verquickung der neuen Elite mit dem Warlord-Regime auf die Agenda - schneller als es vielen lieb ist. Das einem Protektorat recht ähnliche System der UN-Verwaltung befriedigt einige Grundbedürfnisse, schafft aber weder Arbeitslosigkeit noch Sicherheitsrisiken aus der Welt. Die massive Intervention von außen hat die Voraussetzungen zur Beendigung des Bürgerkrieges geschaffen, gerät aber bei der 'Rekonstruktion' des Staates in innere Widersprüche. Die Übernahme von Verantwortung durch liberianische Institutionen ist leichter gefordert als umzusetzen. Die Außensteuerung wird zu einem innenpolitischen Problem." (Autorenreferat

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Younger and Older Adults\u27 Simulated Highway Driving Performance Under Single and Dual Task Conditions

Driving is a complex psychomotor task that is often interrupted by secondary activities that divert attention away from the roadway. The risk of inattentive driving is known vary with age. The degree to which culture impacts these changes is less established. To study the impact of age and culture on drivers’ capacity to manage dual task demands, we developed a parallel driving simulation in the US and Korea. We assessed the performance of 135 drivers divided into two age groups, younger (20–29) and older (60-69). Both age and cultural group differences in basic highway driving performance measures were observed. However, the relative impact of the dual task demands on driving performance was largely consistent across cultures

The Quantum Modular Group in (2+1)-Dimensional Gravity

The role of the modular group in the holonomy representation of (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity is studied. This representation can be viewed as a "Heisenberg picture", and for simple topologies, the transformation to the ADM "Schr{\"o}dinger picture" may be found. For spacetimes with the spatial topology of a torus, this transformation and an explicit operator representation of the mapping class group are constructed. It is shown that the quantum modular group splits the holonomy representation Hilbert space into physically equivalent orthogonal ``fundamental regions'' that are interchanged by modular transformations.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, no figures; minor changes and clarifications in response to referee (basic argument and conclusions unaffected