74 research outputs found
Phonological Translation in Bilingual and Monolingual Children
Bilingual children face a variety of challenges that their monolingual peers do not. For instance, switching between languages requires the phonological translation of proper names, a skill that requires mapping the phonemic units of one language onto the phonemic units of the other. Proficiency of phonological awareness has been linked to reading success, but little information is available about phonological awareness across multiple phonologies. Furthermore, the relationship between this kind of phonological awareness and reading has never been addressed. The current study investigated phonological translation using a task designed to measure children\u27s ability to map one phonological system onto another. A total of 425 kindergarten and second grade monolingual and bilingual students were evaluated. The results suggest that monolinguals generally performed poorly. Bilinguals translated real names more accurately than fictitious names, in both directions. Correlations between phonological translation and measures of reading ability were moderate, but reliable. Phonological translation is proposed as a tool with which to evaluate phonological awareness through the perspective of children who live with two languages and two attendant phonemic systems
Computerized Adaptive Assessment of Infant-Toddler Language Development: Demonstration and Validation of an App for Screening
We have developed a computerized adaptive test (an app), based on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), that can rapidly gauge infant and toddler language development based on parent report. The app can be very useful in screening for developmental disabilities in IDEA Part C or Section 619. We will demonstrate the app and present validation data for toddlers.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ccids_posters/1005/thumbnail.jp
The XQR-30 Metal Absorber Catalog: 778 Absorption Systems Spanning 2 < z < 6.5
Intervening metal absorption lines in the spectra of z > 6 quasars are
fundamental probes of the ionization state and chemical composition of
circumgalactic and intergalactic gas near the end of the reionization epoch.
Large absorber samples are required to robustly measure typical absorber
properties and to refine models of the synthesis, transport, and ionization of
metals in the early Universe. The "Ultimate XSHOOTER legacy survey of quasars
at z~5.8-6.6" (XQR-30) has obtained high signal-to-noise spectra of 30 luminous
quasars, nearly quadrupling the existing sample of 12 high quality z~6 quasar
spectra. We use this unprecedented sample to construct a catalog of 778 systems
showing absorption in one or more of MgII (360 systems), FeII (184), CII (46),
CIV (479), SiIV (127), and NV (13) which span 2 < z < 6.5. This catalog
significantly expands on existing samples of z > 5 absorbers, especially for
CIV and SiIV which are important probes of the ionizing photon background at
high redshift. The sample is 50% (90%) complete for rest-frame equivalent
widths W > 0.03AA (0.09AA). We publicly release the absorber catalog along with
completeness statistics and a Python script to compute the absorption search
path for different ions and redshift ranges. This dataset is a key legacy
resource for studies of enriched gas from the era of galaxy assembly to cosmic
noon, and paves the way for even higher redshift studies with the James Webb
Space Telescope and 30m-class telescopes.Comment: 29 pages and 14 figures including 2 appendices. Accepted for
publication in MNRAS. The metal absorber catalogue can be downloaded from
https://github.com/XQR-30/Metal-catalogue. Contents unchanged from v1 apart
from change to author lis
New quasar proximity zone size measurements at using the enlarged XQR-30 sample
Proximity zones of high-redshift quasars are unique probes of their central
supermassive black holes as well as the intergalactic medium in the last stages
of reionization. We present 22 new measurements of proximity zones of quasars
with redshifts between 5.8 and 6.6, using the enlarged XQR-30 sample of
high-resolution, high-SNR quasar spectra. The quasars in our sample have UV
magnitudes of and black hole masses of
\unicode{x2013} M. Our inferred proximity zone sizes
are 2\unicode{x2013}7 physical Mpc, with a typical uncertainty of less than
0.5 physical Mpc, which, for the first time, also includes uncertainty in the
quasar continuum. We find that the correlation between proximity zone sizes and
the quasar redshift, luminosity, or black hole mass, indicates a large
diversity of quasar lifetimes. Two of our proximity zone sizes are
exceptionally small. The spectrum of one of these quasars, with ,
displays, unusually for this redshift, damping wing absorption without any
detectable metal lines, which could potentially originate from the IGM. The
other quasar has a high-ionization absorber 0.5 pMpc from the edge of the
proximity zone. This work increases the number of proximity zone measurements
available in the last stages of cosmic reionization to 87. This data will lead
to better constraints on quasar lifetimes and obscuration fractions at high
redshift, which in turn will help probe the seed mass and formation redshift of
supermassive black holes.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, Accepted in MNRA
The fraction and kinematics of broad absorption line quasars across cosmic time
Luminous quasars are powerful targets to investigate the role of feedback
from supermassive black-holes (BHs) in regulating the growth phases of BHs
themselves and of their host galaxies, up to the highest redshifts. Here we
investigate the cosmic evolution of the occurrence and kinematics of BH-driven
outflows, as traced by broad absorption line (BAL) features, due to the C IV
ionic transition. We exploit a sample of 1935 quasars quasars at
with bolometric luminosity log(erg s, drawn
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and from the X-shooter legacy survey of
Quasars at Reionisation (XQR-30). We consider rest-frame optical bright quasars
to minimise observational biases due to quasar selection criteria. We apply a
homogeneous BAL identification analysis, based on employing composite template
spectra to estimate the quasar intrinsic emission. We find a BAL quasar
fraction close to 20\% at , while it increases to almost 50\% at
. The velocity and width of the BAL features also increase at
. We exclude that the redshift evolution of the BAL properties is
due to differences in terms of quasar luminosity and accretion rate. These
results suggest significant BH feedback occurring in the 1 Gyr old Universe,
likely affecting the growth of BHs and, possibly, of their host galaxies, as
supported by models of early BH and galaxy evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Measuring the photo-ionization rate, neutral fraction and mean free path of HI ionizing photons at from a large sample of XShooter and ESI spectra
We measure the mean free path (), photo-ionization rate
() and neutral fraction () of hydrogen in 12 redshift bins at from a large sample
of moderate resolution XShooter and ESI QSO absorption spectra. The
fluctuations in ionizing radiation field are modeled by post-processing
simulations from the Sherwood suite using our new code ''EXtended reionization
based on the Code for Ionization and Temperature Evolution'' (EX-CITE). EX-CITE
uses efficient Octree summation for computing intergalactic medium attenuation
and can generate large number of high resolution fluctuation
models. Our simulation with EX-CITE shows remarkable agreement with simulations
performed with the radiative transfer code Aton and can recover the simulated
parameters within uncertainty. We measure the three parameters by
forward-modeling the Ly forest and comparing the effective optical
depth () distribution in simulations and observations. The
final uncertainties in our measured parameters account for the uncertainties
due to thermal parameters, modeling parameters, observational systematics and
cosmic variance. Our best fit parameters show significant evolution with
redshift such that and
decreases and increases by a factor and , respectively
from to . By comparing our ,
and evolution
with that in state-of-the-art Aton radiative transfer simulations and the
Thesan and CoDa-III simulations, we find that our best fit parameter evolution
is consistent with a model in which reionization completes by .Comment: 30 pages (+14 pages appendices), 14 figures (+18 figures appendices);
submitted to MNRAS; Main results are summarized in Fig. 10, Fig. 11 and Table
Phylogenetic organization of bacterial activity.
Phylogeny is an ecologically meaningful way to classify plants and animals, as closely related taxa frequently have similar ecological characteristics, functional traits and effects on ecosystem processes. For bacteria, however, phylogeny has been argued to be an unreliable indicator of an organism\u27s ecology owing to evolutionary processes more common to microbes such as gene loss and lateral gene transfer, as well as convergent evolution. Here we use advanced stable isotope probing with (13)C and (18)O to show that evolutionary history has ecological significance for in situ bacterial activity. Phylogenetic organization in the activity of bacteria sets the stage for characterizing the functional attributes of bacterial taxonomic groups. Connecting identity with function in this way will allow scientists to begin building a mechanistic understanding of how bacterial community composition regulates critical ecosystem functions.The ISME Journal advance online publication, 4 March 2016; doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.28
Measuring the photo-ionization rate, neutral fraction and mean free path of HI ionizing photons at 4.9≤z≤6.0 from a large sample of XShooter and ESI spectra
We measure the mean free path (λmfp,HI), photo-ionization rate (⟨ΓHI⟩) and neutral fraction (⟨fHI⟩) of hydrogen in 12 redshift bins at 4.85 < z < 6.05 from a large sample of moderate resolution XShooter and ESI QSO absorption spectra. The fluctuations in ionizing radiation field are modeled by post-processing simulations from the Sherwood suite using our new code ‘EXtended reionization based on the Code for Ionization and Temperature Evolution’ (EX-CITE). EX-CITE uses efficient Octree summation for computing intergalactic medium attenuation and can generate large number of high resolution ΓHI fluctuation models. Our simulation with EX-CITE shows remarkable agreement with simulations performed with the radiative transfer code Aton and can recover the simulated parameters within 1σ uncertainty. We measure the three parameters by forward-modeling the Lyα forest and comparing the effective optical depth (τeff,HI) distribution in simulations and observations. The final uncertainties in our measured parameters account for the uncertainties due to thermal parameters, modeling parameters, observational systematics and cosmic variance. Our best fit parameters show significant evolution with redshift such that λmfp,HI and ⟨fHI⟩ decreases and increases by a factor ∼6 and ∼104, respectively from z ∼ 5 to z ∼ 6. By comparing our λmfp,HI, ⟨ΓHI⟩ and ⟨fHI⟩ evolution with that in state-of-the-art Aton radiative transfer simulations and the Thesan and CoDa-III simulations, we find that our best fit parameter evolution is consistent with a model in which reionization completes by z ∼ 5.2. Our best fit model that matches the τeff,HI distribution also reproduces the dark gap length distribution and transmission spike height distribution suggesting robustness and accuracy of our measured parameters
Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data
The role of speech discrimination in developmental sound substitutions
Fourteen two-year-olds (M = 2; o) were presented with minimal word pairs in a new and highly efficient experimental perception paradigm. The data provide a preliminary view of the relative difficulty of various minimal phonological contrasts for children. The study specifically focuses on perception of some phonological contrasts which usually are actualized and some which usually are not actualized in two-year-old child productions. The data suggest that perceptual difficulties probably play a substantial role in some childhood speech errors, but little, if any, role in others. © 1976, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved
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