Bilingual parsing strategies in Basque and Spanish

Over the last several years, one area of sentence processing research that has received considerable attention is how native speakers resolve structural ambiguities while reading, as in Someone shot the servant of the actress who was on the balcony (e.g., Cuetos and Mitchell 1988). Cross-linguistic research on this kind of ambiguous relative clause (RC) attachment has revealed that speakers of some languages prefer to attach the RC who was on the balcony to the first noun phrase (the servant), whereas speakers of other languages prefer attachment to the second noun phrase (the actress). From the perspective of bilingual sentence processing, research on RC attachment can provide insight into a number of important issues related to language transfer, language attrition, and processing efficiency. The present study, therefore, seeks to build upon some of these lines of research by examining the on-line parsing strategies among native speakers of Basque (N = 17) on two self-paced reading tasks in Basque and Spanish. Our purpose was to investigate which parsing routines these bilinguals utilized for each language in order to determine whether they maintained separate strategies or adopted one strategy for both languages. Analyses of reading times at critical regions in experimental sentences suggest that this group of bilinguals employed a single parsing strategy in Basque and Spanish. The findings are discussed within recent proposals of monolingual and bilingual sentence processing

Pushed Output and Noticing in a Dictogloss: Task Implementation in the CLIL Classroom

This study investigates the role of output tasks in noticing a certain target form upon receiving subsequent input. Sixteen adolescent learners from an intact CLIL classroom carried out a multi-stage dictogloss task collaboratively and individually. They followed the usual steps in this type of task (listen and jot down key words, text reconstruction). Then they listened to the text once again and compared it with their production. The study revealed that (a) pushed output affects noticing in subsequent input and provides learners the opportunity to notice formal aspects of language and (b) pairs working in collaboration did not obtain better results.El presente estudio investiga cómo una tarea productiva puede promover la atención a la forma al recibir input tras dicha producción. Dieciséis aprendices adolescentes llevaron a cabo una dictoglosia en varios pasos de forma colaborativa e individual de la siguiente forma: escucharon un texto y anotaron palabras clave, reconstruyeron el texto; volvieron a escuchar el texto y lo compararon con su producción escrita. Los resultados revelaron que (a) la producción y consiguiente input son beneficiosos, dado que los aprendices dirigieron su atención a aspectos formales de la lengua; (b) los alumnos que trabajaron en grupo no obtuvieron mejores resultados.The research was supported by the following research grants: UFI11/06 from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and IT-311-10 from the Basque Government

EFFECT OF DATA TRUNCATION IN AN IMPLEMENTATION OF PIXEL CLUSTERING ON A CUSTOM COMPUTING MACHINE

We investigate the effect of truncating the precision of hyperspectral image data for the purpose of more efficiently segmenting the image using a variant of k-means clustering. We describe the implementation of the algorithm on field-programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware. Truncating the data to only a few bits per pixel in each spectral channel permits a more compact hardware design, enabling greater parallelism, and ultimately a more rapid execution. It also enables the storage of larger images in the onboard memory. In exchange for faster clustering, however, one trades off the quality of the produced segmentation. We find, however, that the clustering algorithm can tolerate considerable data truncation with little degradation in cluster quality. This robustness to truncated data can be extended by computing the cluster centers to a few more bits of precision than the data. Since there are so many more pixels than centers, the more aggressive data truncation leads to significant gains in the number of pixels that can be stored in memory and processed in hardware concurrently

Pancreas Transplantation: Does Age Increase Morbidity?

Introduction. Pancreas transplantation (PTx) is the only definitive intervention for type 1 diabetes. Medical advancements in diabetes care have led to an aging PTx candidate pool. We report our experience with patients ≥50 years of age undergoing PTx. Methods. We reviewed 136 consecutive PTx patients at our institution from 1996–2010; 17 were ≥50 years of age. We evaluated demographics, surgical complications, acute rejection (AR) rates, nonsurgical infections, and survival outcomes. Results. Demographic data was similar (P > .05) between groups, excluding age. The two groups had comparable major and minor surgical complication rates (P = .10 and P = .25, resp.). The older group had a lower 1-year and overall AR rate (P = .04 and P = .03, resp.). The incidence of non-surgical infections and overall patient and graft survival was similar between groups (P > .05). Conclusion. Older patients with type 1 diabetes are feasible candidates for PTx, as surgical morbidity, incidence of infections, and AR rates are low

Global cities and cultural diversity: challenges and opportunities for young people’s nutrition.

Childhood obesity is a common concern across global cities and threatens sustainable urban development. Initiatives to improve nutrition and encourage physical exercise are promising but are yet to exert significant influence on prevention. Childhood obesity in London is associated with distinct ethnic and socio-economic patterns. Ethnic inequalities in health-related behaviour endure, underpinned by inequalities in employment, housing, access to welfare services, and discrimination. Addressing these growing concerns requires a clearer understanding of the socio-cultural, environmental and economic contexts of urban living that promote obesity. We explore opportunities for prevention using asset based-approaches to nutritional health and well-being, with a particular focus on adolescents from diverse ethnic backgrounds living in London. We focus on the important role that community engagement and multi-sectoral partnership play in improving the nutritional outcomes of London's children. London's children and adolescents grow up in the rich cultural mix of a global city where local streets are characterised by diversity in ethnicities, languages, religions, foods, and customs, creating complex and fluid identities. Growing up with such everyday diversity we argue can enhance the quality of life for London's children and strengthen their social capital. The Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health longitudinal study of about 6500 of London's young people demonstrated the positive impact of cultural diversity. Born to parents from over a hundred countries and exposed to multi-lingual households and religious practices, they demonstrated strong psychological resilience and sense of pride from cultural straddling, despite material disadvantage and discrimination. Supporting the potential contribution of such socio-cultural assets is in keeping with the values of social justice and equitable and sustainable development. Our work signals the importance of community engagement and multisectoral partnerships, involving, for example, schools and faith-based organisations, to improve the nutrition of London's children

SUMMARY OF THE APDA FUEL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

A summary is presented of the development status, through 1960, of work done on: Core A, the U--10 wt.% Mo fuel and U--3 wt.% Mo blanket, and Core B, the U0/sub 2/--SS cermet and the UO/sub 2/ axial blanket for the Fermi Fast Breeder Reactor; advanced fast reactor fuels; and paste fuels. (B.O.G.

Development and Assessment of a Systematic Approach for Detecting Disparities in Surgical Access

IMPORTANCE: Although optimal access is accepted as the key to quality care, an accepted methodology to ascertain potential disparities in surgical access has not been defined. OBJECTIVE: To develop a systematic approach to detect surgical access disparities. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used publicly available data from the Health Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Database from 2016. Using the surgical rate observed in the 5 highest-ranked counties (HRCs), the expected surgical rate in the 5 lowest-ranked counties (LRCs) in North Carolina were calculated. Patients 18 years and older who underwent an inpatient general surgery procedure and patients who underwent emergency inpatient cholecystectomy, herniorrhaphy, or bariatric surgery in 2016 were included. Data were collected from January to December 2016, and data were analyzed from March to July 2020. EXPOSURES: Health outcome county rank as defined by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportional surgical ratio (PSR), which was the disparity in surgical access defined as the observed number of surgical procedures in the 5 LRCs relative to the expected number of procedures using the 5 HRCs as the standardized reference population. RESULTS: In 2016, approximately 1.9 million adults lived in the 5 HRCs, while approximately 246 854 lived in the 5 LRCs. A total of 28 924 inpatient general surgical procedures were performed, with 4521 being performed in those living in the 5 LRCs and 24 403 in those living in the 5 HRCs. The rate of general surgery in the 5 HRCs was 13.09 procedures per 1000 population. Using the 5 HRCs as the reference, the PSR for the 5 LRCs was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.35-1.44). For emergent/urgent cholecystectomy, the PSR for the 5 LRCs was 2.26 (95% CI, 2.02-2.51), and the PSR for emergent/urgent herniorrhaphy was 1.83 (95% CI, 1.33-2.45). Age-adjusted rate of obesity (body mass index [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared] greater than 30), on average, was 36.6% (SD, 3.4) in the 5 LRCs vs 25.4% (SD, 4.6) in the 5 HRCs (P = .002). The rate of bariatric surgery in the 5 HRCs was 33.07 per 10 000 population with obesity. For the 5 LRCs, the PSR was 0.60 (95% CI, 0.51-0.69). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The PSR is a systematic approach to define potential disparities in surgical access and should be useful for identifying, investigating, and monitoring interventions intended to mitigate disparities in surgical access that effects the health of vulnerable populations