Flight evaluation of splitter-plate effectiveness in reducing base drag at Mach numbers from 0.65 to 0.90

Flight test evaluation of splitter plate in base drag reduction at subsonic speed

Supporting Coastal Resiliency by Investigating Tidal Reach and Inter-Connected Factors in Coastal Georgia

The South Carolina Water Resources Conference (SCWRC) provides an integrated forum for discussion of water policies, research projects and water management in order to prepare for and meet the growing challenge of providing water resources to sustain and grow South Carolina’s economy, while preserving our natural resources

Prediction in challenging situations: Most bilinguals can predict upcoming semantically-related words in their L1 source language when interpreting

Prediction is an important part of language processing. An open question is to what extent people predict language in challenging circumstances. Here we tested the limits of prediction by asking bilingual Dutch native speakers to interpret Dutch sentences into their English counterparts. In two visual world experiments, we recorded participants’ eye movements to co-present visual objects while they engaged in interpreting tasks (consecutive and simultaneous interpreting). Most participants showed anticipatory eye movements to semantically-related upcoming target words in their L1 source language during both consecutive and simultaneous interpretation. A quarter of participants during simultaneous interpretation however did not move their eyes, an extremely unusual participant behaviour in visual world studies. Overall, the findings suggest that most people predict in the source language under challenging interpreting situations. Further work is required to understand the causes of the absence of (anticipatory) eye movements during simultaneous interpretation in a substantial subset of individuals

The effects of onset and offset masking on the time course of non-native spoken-word recognition in noise

Using the visual-word paradigm, the present study investigated the effects of word onset and offset masking on the time course of non-native spoken-word recognition in the presence of background noise. In two experiments, Dutch non-native listeners heard English target words, preceded by carrier sentences that were noise-free (Experiment 1) or contained intermittent noise (Experiment 2). Target words were either onset- or offset-masked or not masked at all. Results showed that onset masking delayed target word recognition more than offset masking did, suggesting that – similar to natives – non-native listeners strongly rely on word onset information during word recognition in noise

Quantifying the relationships between linguistic experience, general cognitive skills and linguistic processing skills

Humans differ greatly in their ability to use language. Contemporary psycholinguistic theories assume that individual differences in language skills arise from variability in linguistic experience and in general cognitive skills. While much previous research has tested the involvement of select verbal and non-verbal variables in select domains of linguistic processing, comprehensive characterizations of the relationships among the skills underlying language use are rare. We contribute to such a research program by re-analyzing a publicly available set of data from 112 young adults tested on 35 behavioral tests. The tests assessed nine key constructs reflecting linguistic processing skills, linguistic experience and general cognitive skills. Correlation and hierarchical clustering analyses of the test scores showed that most of the tests assumed to measure the same construct correlated moderately to strongly and largely clustered together. Furthermore, the results suggest important roles of processing speed in comprehension, and of linguistic experience in production

Legume Re-Establishment in Pastures after the Application of Residual Herbicides

Integrated management of pastures and hayfields sometimes require the application of broadleaf herbicides to manage weeds. Weed infestations are usually caused by a variety of factors including but not limited to drought, poor grazing management, and feeding weed infested hay in pastures. Weeds can adversely affect livestock access to forage as well as reduce forage quantity and quality. Producers are often hesitant to apply herbicides to manage weeds because of the effect the herbicides will have on forage legumes present in the pasture

Local Binary Patterns on Hexagonal Image Structure

Local binary pattern (LBP) was designed and widely used for efficient texture classification. It has been used for face recognition and has potential applications in many other research areas such as human detection. LBP provides a simple and effective way to represent patterns. Uniform LBPs play an important role for LBP-based pattern /object recognition as they include majority of LBPs. In this paper, we present LBP codes on hexagonal image structure. We show that LBPs defined on hexagonal structure have higher percentages of uniform LBPs that will lead to a more efficient and accurate recognition scheme for image classification

The differential roles of lexical and sublexical processing during spoken-word recognition in clear and in noise

Successful spoken-word recognition relies on an interplay between lexical and sublexical processing. Previous research demonstrated that listeners readily shift between more lexically-biased and more sublexically-biased modes of processing in response to the situational context in which language comprehension takes place. Recognizing words in the presence of background noise reduces the perceptual evidence for the speech signal and – compared to the clear – results in greater uncertainty. It has been proposed that, when dealing with greater uncertainty, listeners rely more strongly on sublexical processing. The present study tested this proposal using behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. We reasoned that such an adjustment would be reflected in changes in the effects of variables predicting recognition performance with loci at lexical and sublexical levels, respectively. We presented native speakers of Dutch with words featuring substantial variability in (1) word frequency (locus at lexical level), (2) phonological neighborhood density (loci at lexical and sublexical levels) and (3) phonotactic probability (locus at sublexical level). Each participant heard each word in noise (presented at one of three signal-to-noise ratios) and in the clear and performed a two-stage lexical decision and transcription task while EEG was recorded. Using linear mixed-effects analyses, we observed behavioral evidence that listeners relied more strongly on sublexical processing when speech quality decreased. Mixed-effects modelling of the EEG signal in the clear condition showed that sublexical effects were reflected in early modulations of ERP components (e.g., within the first 300 ms post word onset). In noise, EEG effects occurred later and involved multiple regions activated in parallel. Taken together, we found evidence – especially in the behavioral data – supporting previous accounts that the presence of background noise induces a stronger reliance on sublexical processing