Infants’ Responses to Affect in Music and Speech

Existing literature demonstrates that infants can discriminate between categories of infant-directed (ID) speech based on the speaker’s intended message – that is, infants recognize the difference between comforting and approving ID speech, and treat different utterances from within these two categories similarly. Furthermore, the literature also demonstrates that infants understand many aspects of music and can discriminate between happy and sad music. Building on these findings, the present study investigated whether exposure to happy or sad piano music would systematically affect infants’ preferences for comforting or approving ID speech. Five- to nine-month-old infants’ preferences for comforting or approving ID speech were examined as a function of whether infants were exposed to sad or happy piano music. Seventeen (10 male, 7 female) full-term, healthy infants were included in the study. It was hypothesized that relative to infants exposed to happy music, infants exposed to sad music would demonstrate a stronger desire to hear comforting ID speech. The study employed an infant controlled, preferential looking procedure to test this hypothesis. The results of the study did not statistically support the researchers’ hypotheses. Limitations of the present work and suggestions for future research are discussed

An assessment of inductive coupling roadway powered vehicles

The technical concept underlying the roadway powered vehicle system is the combination of an electrical power source embedded in the roadway and a vehicle-mounted power pickup that is inductively coupled to the roadway power source. The feasibility of such a system, implemented on a large scale was investigated. Factors considered included current and potential transportation modes and requirements, economics, energy, technology, social and institutional issues. These factors interrelate in highly complex ways, and a firm understanding of each of them does not yet exist. The study therefore was structured to manipulate known data in equally complex ways to produce a schema of options and useful questions that can form a basis for further, harder research. A dialectical inquiry technique was used in which two adversary teams, mediated by a third-party team, debated each factor and its interrelationship with the whole of the known information on the topic

A novel mechanism for binding of galactose-terminated glycans by the C-type carbohydrate recognition domain in blood dendritic cell antigen 2

Blood dendritic cell antigen 2 (BDCA-2; also designated CLEC4C or CD303) is uniquely expressed on plasmacytoid dendritic cells. Stimulation of BDCA-2 with antibodies leads to an anti-inflammatory response in these cells, but the natural ligands for the receptor are not known. The C-type carbohydrate recognition domain in the extracellular portion of BDCA-2 contains a signature motif typical of C-type animal lectins that bind mannose, glucose, or GlcNAc, yet it has been reported that BDCA-2 binds selectively to galactose-terminated, biantennary N-linked glycans. A combination of glycan array analysis and binding competition studies with monosaccharides and natural and synthetic oligosaccharides have been used to define the binding epitope for BDCA-2 as the trisaccharide Galβ1–3/4GlcNAcβ1–2Man. X-ray crystallography and mutagenesis studies show that mannose is ligated to the conserved Ca2+ in the primary binding site that is characteristic of C-type carbohydrate recognition domains, and the GlcNAc and galactose residues make additional interactions in a wide, shallow groove adjacent to the primary binding site. As predicted from these studies, BDCA-2 binds to IgG, which bears galactose-terminated glycans that are not commonly found attached to other serum glycoproteins. Thus, BDCA-2 has the potential to serve as a previously unrecognized immunoglobulin Fc receptor

Pre-equilibrium dileptons look thermal

The dilepton mass distribution from pre-equilibrium matter in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions is indistinguishable from a thermally produced distribution.Comment: CERN-TH.6813/93, 3 pages (latex) plus 1 figure (uuencoded postscript file

Anomalous Josephson Current in Junctions with Spin-Polarizing Quantum Point Contacts

We consider a ballistic Josephson junction with a quantum point contact in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The point contact acts as a spin filter when embedded in a circuit with normal electrodes. We show that with an in-plane external magnetic field an anomalous supercurrent appears even for zero phase difference between the superconducting electrodes. In addition, the external field induces large critical current asymmetries between the two flow directions, leading to supercurrent rectifying effects.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in PR

Addendum to Finite-size effects on multibody neutrino exchange

The interaction energy of the neutrons due to massless neutrino exchange in a neutron star has recently been proved, using an effective theory, to be extremely small and infrared-safe. Our comment here is of conceptual order: two approaches to compute the total interaction energy density have recently been proposed. Here, we study the connection between these two approaches. From CP invariance, we argue that the resulting interaction energy has to be even in the parameter $b=-G_F n_n /\sqrt{2}$, which expresses the static neutrino potential created by a neutron medium of density $n_n$.Comment: Latex file (Revtex), 9 pages, 1 figure, one reference change

"Free" Constituent Quarks and Dilepton Production in Heavy Ion Collisions

An approach is suggested, invoking vitally the notion of constituent massive quarks (valons) which can survive and propagate rather than hadrons (except of pions) within the hot and dense matter formed below the chiral transition temperature in course of the heavy ion collisions at high energies. This approach is shown to be quite good for description of the experimentally observed excess in dilepton yield at masses 250 MeV < M < 700 MeV over the prompt resonance decay mechanism (CERES cocktail) predictions. In certain aspects, it looks to be even more successful, than the conventional approaches: it seems to match the data somewhat better at dilepton masses before the two-pion threshold and before the rho-meson peak as well as at higher dilepton masses (beyond the phi-meson one). The approach implies no specific assumptions on the equation of state (EOS) or peculiarities of phase transitions in the expanding nuclear matter.Comment: 13 pages, 3 PNG figures. submitted to Sov. Nucl. Phy

Light from Cascading Partons in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

We calculate the production of high energy photons from Compton and annihilation processes as well as fragmentation off quarks in the parton cascade model. The multiple scattering of partons is seen to lead to a substantial production of high energy photons, which rises further when parton multiplication due to final state radiation is included. The photon yield is found to be proportional to the number of collisions among the cascading partons.Comment: revised version: 4 pages, 4 figures, uses REVTEX

Long range neutrino forces in the cosmic relic neutrino background

Neutrinos mediate long range forces among macroscopic bodies in vacuum. When the bodies are placed in the neutrino cosmic background, these forces are modified. Indeed, at distances long compared to the scale $T^{-1}$, the relic neutrinos completely screen off the 2-neutrino exchange force, whereas for small distances the interaction remains unaffected.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure