Double Inverted Mesiodentes: Report of an Unusual Case

This report presents an extremely rare occurrence of two inverted mesiodentes in a child patient. Extraction of both mesiodentes was indicated, owing to the axial rotation of the permanent central incisors caused by these impacted supernumerary teeth. Radiographic evidence of complete healing was observed 24 months following surgical removal of the inverted mesiodentes

Finite bisimulations for switched linear systems

In this paper, we consider the problem of constructing a finite bisimulation quotient for a discrete-time switched linear system in a bounded subset of its state space. Given a set of observations over polytopic subsets of the state space and a switched linear system with stable subsystems, the proposed algorithm generates the bisimulation quotient in a finite number of steps with the aid of sublevel sets of a polyhedral Lyapunov function. Starting from a sublevel set that includes the origin in its interior, the proposed algorithm iteratively constructs the bisimulation quotient for the region bounded by any larger sublevel set. We show how this bisimulation quotient can be used for synthesis of switching laws and verification with respect to specifications given as syntactically co-safe Linear Temporal Logic formulae over the observed polytopic subsets

Correlates of infant pointing frequency in the first year.

This study examines the emergence of concurrent correlates of infant pointing frequency with the aim of contributing to its ontogenetic theories. We measured monthly from 8 to 12 months infants' (N = 56) index-finger pointing frequency along with several candidate correlates: (1) family socioeconomic status (SES), (2) mothers' pointing production, and (3) infants' point following to targets in front of and behind them. Results revealed that (1) infants increased their pointing frequency across age, but high-SES infants had a steeper increase, and a higher pointing frequency than low-SES infants from 10 months onward, (2) maternal pointing frequency was not associated with infant pointing frequency at any age, (3) infants' point following abilities to targets behind their visual fields was positively associated with their pointing frequency at 12 months, after pointing had already emerged around 10 months. Findings suggest that family SES impacts infants' pointing development more generally, not just through maternal pointing. The association between pointing and following points to targets behind, but not in front, suggests that a higher level of referential understanding emerges after, and perhaps through the production of pointing

Do typological differences in the expression of causality influence preschool children’s causal event construal?

This study investigated whether cross-linguistic differences in causal expressions influence the mapping of causal language on causal events in three- to four-year-old Swiss-German learners and Turkish learners. In Swiss-German, causality is mainly expressed syntactically with lexical causatives (e.g., ässe ‘to eat’ vs. füettere ‘to feed’). In Turkish, causality is expressed both syntactically and morphologically – with a verbal suffix (e.g., yemek ‘to eat’ vs. yeDIRmek ‘to feed’). Moreover, unlike Swiss-German, Turkish allows argument ellipsis (e.g., ‘The mother feeds [∅]’). Here, we used pseudo-verbs to test whether and how well Swiss-German-learning children inferred a causal meaning from lexical causatives compared to Turkish-learning children tested in three conditions: lexical causatives, morphological causatives, and morphological causatives with object ellipsis. Swiss-German-learning children and Turkish-learning children in all three conditions reliably inferred causal meanings, and did so to a similar extent. The findings suggest that, as young as age 3, children learning two different languages similarly make use of language-specific causality cues (syntactic and morphological alike) to infer causal meanings

Relation of infants' and mothers' pointing to infants' vocabulary measured directly and with parental reports.

Infants' and parents' pointing gestures predict infants' concurrent and prospective language development. Most studies have measured vocabulary size using parental reports. However, parents tend to underestimate or overestimate infants' vocabulary necessitating the use of direct measures alongside parent reports. The present study examined whether mothers' index-finger pointing, and infants' whole-hand and index-finger pointing at 14 months associate with infants' receptive and expressive vocabulary based on parental reports and directly measured lexical processing efficiency (LPE) concurrently at 14 months and prospectively at 18 months. We used the decorated room paradigm to measure pointing frequency, the Turkish communicative development inventory I to measure infants' receptive vocabulary, Turkish communicative development inventory II to measure their expressive vocabulary, and the Looking-While-Listening (LWL) task to measure LPE. At 14 months, 34 mother-infant dyads, and at 18 months, 30 dyads were included in the analyses. We found that only infants' index-finger pointing frequency at 14 months predicted their LPE (both reaction time and accuracy) prospectively at 18 months but not concurrently at 14 months. Neither maternal pointing nor infants' pointing predicted their receptive and expressive vocabulary based on indirect measurement. The results extend the evidence on the relation between index-finger pointing and language development to a more direct measure of vocabulary

Unusual Ectopic Eruption of a Permanent Central Incisor Following an Intrusion Injury to the Primary Tooth

Intrusive luxation of primary teeth carries a high risk of damage to underlying permanent tooth germs. Ectopic eruption of permanent incisors is an unusual outcome of traumatic injury to their predecessors. In this case report, we describe the multidisciplinary management of the consequences of a primary tooth intrusion that led to severe ectopic eruption of the permanent left central incisor in a horizontal position at the level of the labial sulcus

Reading Comprehension, Figurative Language Instruction, and the Turkish English Language Learner

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the Turkish-speaking population in the United States increased significantly in the 1990s and has risen steadily over time. Today, the highest concentration is located in the states of New York, California, New Jersey, and Florida. Kaya (2003) reported a geographical dispersion across the U.S., from New York to Alaska, with the wealthiest living in Florida. Turkish students make up the ninth largest student population in the U.S. and the largest percentage of students compared to their homeland population. This article identifies and explores many of these challenges by observing the transition of Hakan, a Turkish-speaking fifth grade student, as he encounters a new culture and learns a new language. In particular, we focus on the acquisition of figurative language in a Turkish-speaking English Language Learner (ELL). Some issues and questions addressed in the article include effective methodologies for the assessment of figurative language acquisition in the Turkish and English languages, effective instructional strategies to scaffold Turkish-speaking English Language Learners’ (ELLs) acquisition of figurative language, and linguistic factors that might affect Turkish-speaking students’ transition to English. The article sets forth theoretical underpinnings for the chosen assessment and instructional strategies, as well as a summary of supporting research in the area of Turkish-speaking ELLs

Influence of causal language on causal understanding: A comparison between Swiss German and Turkish

Young children have difficulties in understanding untypical causal relations. Although we know that hearing a causal description facilitates this understanding, less is known about what particular features of causal language are responsible for this facilitation. Here, we asked two questions. First, do syntactic and morphological cues in the grammatical structure of sentences facilitate the extraction of causal meaning? Second, do these different cues influence this facilitation to different degrees? We studied children learning either Swiss German or Turkish, two languages that differ in their expression of causality. Swiss German predominantly uses lexical causatives (e.g., schniidä [cut]), which lack a formal marker to denote causality. Turkish, alongside lexical causatives, uses morphological causatives, which formally mark causation (e.g., ye [eat] vs. yeDIr [feed]). We tested 2.5- to 3.5-year-old children’s understanding of untypical cause–effect relations described with either noncausal language (e.g., Here is a cube and a car) or causal language using a pseudo-verb (e.g., lexical: The cube gorps the car). We tested 135 Turkish-learning children (noncausal, lexical, and morphological conditions) and 90 Swiss-German-learning children (noncausal and lexical conditions). Children in both language groups performed better in the causal language condition(s) than in the noncausal language condition. Furthermore, Turkish-learning children’s performance in both the lexical and morphological conditions was similar to that of Swiss-German-learning children in the lexical condition and did not differ from each other. These findings suggest that the structural cues of causal language support children’s understanding of untypical causal relations regardless of the type of construction

Two Electrons in a Quantum Dot: A Unified Approach

Low-lying energy levels of two interacting electrons confined in a two-dimensional parabolic quantum dot in the presence of an external magnetic field have been revised within the frame of a novel model. The present formalism, which gives closed algebraic solutions for the specific values of magnetic field and spatial confinement length, enables us to see explicitly individual effects of the electron correlation.Comment: 14 page

Effects of Repeated Sublethal External Exposure to Deep Water Horizon Oil on the Avian Metabolome

We assessed adverse effects of external sublethal exposure of Deepwater Horizon, Mississippi Canyon 252 oil on plasma and liver metabolome profiles of the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), a large (1.5 to 3.0 kg) diving waterbird common in the Gulf of Mexico. Metabolomics analysis of avian plasma showed significant negative effects on avian metabolic profiles, in some cases after only two external exposures (26 g cumulative) to oil. We observed significant (p \u3c 0.05) changes in intermediate metabolites of energy metabolism and fatty acid and amino acid metabolic pathways in cormorants after repeated exposure to oil. Exposure to oil increased several metabolites (glycine, betaine, serine and methionine) that are essential to the one-carbon metabolism pathway. Lipid metabolism was affected, causing an increase in production of ketone bodies, suggesting lipids were used as an alternative energy source for energy production in oil exposed birds. In addition, metabolites associated with hepatic bile acid metabolism were affected by oil exposure which was correlated with changes observed in bile acids in exposed birds. These changes at the most basic level of phenotypic expression caused by sublethal exposure to oil can have effects that would be detrimental to reproduction, migration, and survival in avian species