Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick

The Centre for Applied Linguistics was established in 1983 and has grown from a relatively small teaching unit to a large centre engaged in a wide variety of activities under the broad heading of Applied Linguistics. Our work includes English language teaching, teacher education, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in applied linguistics, development of teaching and research resources, and small- and large-scale research

Strong versus weak embodiment: Spatial iconicity in physical, abstract, and social semantic categories

Background Perceptual and action systems seem to be related to complex cognitive processes, but the scope of grounded or embodied cognition has been questioned. Zwaan and Yaxley (2003) proposed that cognitive processes of making semantic relatedness judgments can be facilitated when word pairs are presented in ways that their referents maintain their iconic configuration rather than their reverse-iconic configuration (the spatial iconicity effect). This effect has been observed in different semantic categories using specific experiments, but it is known that embodiment is highly dependent on task demands. Method The present study analyzed the spatial iconicity effect in three semantic categories (physical, abstract, and social) using the same experimental criteria to determine the scope of embodied cognition. In this reaction-time experiment, 75 participants judged the semantic relatedness of 384 word pairs whose experimental items were presented in their iconic or reverse-iconic configurations. Results Two mixed-effects models with crossed random effects revealed that the interaction between word meaning and spatial position was present only for physical concepts but neither for abstract nor social concepts. Conclusions Within the framework of strong and weak embodiment theories, the data support weak embodiment theory as the most explicative oneThe work reported in this article was supported by Grant PSI2013-47219-P from the Ministry of Economic and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spai

1D Convolutional Neural Network for Detecting Ventricular Heartbeats

This paper shows a novel approach for detecting ventricular heartbeats using a 1D Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN). The algorithm input is the raw ECG signal, i.e., no signal pre-processing nor feature extraction are involved. The output of the 1D-CNN is filtered using a combination of linear and nonlinear filters to produce the final output. The MIT-BIH arrhythmia database was used for both algorithm training/tuning and evaluation. The assessment methodology followed the interpatient paradigm, where the algorithm was trained and evaluated using independent subsets. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated for two tasks; QRS detection, and heartbeat classification. QRS detection resulted in a sensitivity of 99.0% and a positive predictivity of 96.5%. The performance assessment of the ventricular ectopic beat detection resulted in a sensitivity of 85.8% and a positive predictivity of 64.5%. Although there is still room for improvement, the results suggest that convolutional neural networks are a promising approach for building heartbeat classifiers

Soil indexes related to irrigated corn yields : in a typic torrifluvent of Mendoza (Argentina)

In this work we took advantage of the great variability among replicates of the same fertilizer treatments in order to find relationships between soil characteris-tics and grain and stubble yield of eaeh plol. In this loamy alluvial soil of ca. 60 cm deep over the stony subsoil (pebbles, gravel.etc). The grain yield in the 12 non fertilized plots ranged between ca. 5 t/ha and 15 Uha, and the stubble between 7.75 Uha and 26,65 t/ ha. The general CV was 45%. The irrigation regime was optimized keeping the minimum available water at 30% of the total. Among the many soil characteris-tics studied total soil nitrogen (Nt) was the one that correlated most with the yield; P extracted with C02 satura-ted water at a 1: 1O relation (P-C02 1: 1O) and exchangea-ble potassium with amonium acetate (Ke-NH4) also showed some degree of correlation but the two of them showed significant correlations to Nt. Regression equations were calculated. Two group of plots were separated among the total 96 in the assay, and the minimum and maximum values of the related soil indexes were given. The group 1 was characterized by a minimum grain yield of ca. 14 Uha and group 11 by a maximum yield of 5 Uha. The minimum values fer group I and the maximum for group 11, as mg/kg in the 0-60 cm soillayer were, respectively : Nt 725 and 319 ; P-C02 1:103.68 and 2.43; Ke-NH4 180 and 147. In the 12 non fertilized plots the regression equation found between grain yield in kg/ha (Y) and total Nt mg/kg in the 0-60 cm soillayer was: Y =-3 393 + 24.04 X, r2 0.945 and the Standard error of estimation ± 916.Fil: Nijensohn, León. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ingeniería AgrícolaFil: Maffei, José A. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ingeniería AgrícolaFil: Rearte, Emilio . Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ingeniería Agrícol

Las instrucciones de relevancia en combinación con la interrogación elaborativa facilitan la lectura estratégica: evidencias desde los movimientos oculares

The aim of the present study was to examine effects of relevance instructions and elaborative interrogation on the processing of and memory for expository texts. Eye movements of 132 undergraduate students were tracked while they read expository texts. After reading each text, they produced an oral summary. Participants were divided into four experimental conditions that differed by the presence or absence of the why question and the specific or general relevance instruction they received. Results showed that readers who received the why question embedded in the texts and also received the specific instruction of answering the question demonstrated more strategic reading, as reflected in their first-pass and look-back reading times and also in their better recall of question-relevant information. These results can be readily applied to real-life learning contexts, as they suggest that employing specific relevance instructions in combination with elaborative interrogation may elicit more efficient and strategic reading.El objetivo del presente estudio fue examinar el efecto de las Instrucciones de relevancia y de Interrogación elaborativa en el procesamiento y el posterior recuerdo de textos expositivos. A tal fin se registraron los movimientos oculares de 132 estudiantes universitarios mientras leían textos expositivos. Después de leer cada texto, realizaron un resumen oral del mismo. Se asignó a los participantes a cuatro condiciones experimentales que se diferenciaban por la presencia o ausencia de una pregunta de tipo “por qué” y la instrucción específica o general de relevancia que recibieron. Los resultados mostraron que los lectores que recibieron la pregunta de tipo “por qué” insertada en los textos y que también recibieron la instrucción específica de contestar a la pregunta mostraron unos patrones de lectura más estratégicos, como quedó reflejado en sus tiempos de lectura inicial y de refijaciones y también en su mejor recuerdo de la información relacionada con la pregunta. Estos resultados pueden aplicarse fácilmente a contextos reales de aprendizaje, ya que sugieren que emplear instrucciones específicas de relevancia en combinación con interrogación elaborativa puede facilitar y potenciar estilos de lectura más eficientes y estratégicosThe work reported in this manuscript was supported by Grant PSI2013-47219-P from the Ministry of Economic and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spai

Valorization of Tomato Processing by-Products: Fatty Acid Extraction and Production of Bio-Based Materials

A method consisting of the alkaline hydrolysis of tomato pomace by-products has been optimized to obtain a mixture of unsaturated and polyhydroxylated fatty acids as well as a non-hydrolysable secondary residue. Reaction rates and the activation energy of the hydrolysis were calculated to reduce costs associated with chemicals and energy consumption. Lipid and non-hydrolysable fractions were chemically (infrared (IR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS)) and thermally (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)) characterized. In addition, the fatty acid mixture was used to produce cutin-based polyesters. Freestanding films were prepared by non-catalyzed melt-polycondensation and characterized by Attenuated Total Reflected-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), DSC, TGA, Water Contact Angles (WCA), and tensile tests. These bio-based polymers were hydrophobic, insoluble, infusible, and thermally stable, their physical properties being tunable by controlling the presence of unsaturated fatty acids and oxygen in the reaction. The participation of an oxidative crosslinking side reaction is proposed to be responsible for such modifications.Andalusian Regional Government P11-TEP-7418Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad AGL2015-65246-R and AGL2017-83036-RFondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) AGL2015-65246-R and AGL2017-83036-

Feed-forward Space Vector Modulation for Single-Phase Multilevel Cascade Converters with any DC voltage ratio

Modulation techniques for multilevel converters can create distorted output voltages and currents if the DC link voltages are unbalanced. This situation can be avoided if the instantaneous DC voltage error is not taken into account in the modulation process. This paper proposes a feed-forward space vector modulation method for a single-phase multilevel cascade converter. Using this modulation technique, the modulated output voltage of the power converter always generates the reference determined by the controller even in worst case voltage unbalance conditions. In addition the possibility of optimizing the DC voltage ratio between the H-bridges of the power converter is introduced. Experimental results from a 5kVA prototype are presented in order to validate the proposed modulation technique