Left Anterior Negativity reflects distinct neural substrate for linguistic rule application

A critical issue for understanding language processing in the brain is whether linguistic rule application is subserved by a distinct neural substrate. Previous evidence based on electroencephalographic measurements is indirect because studies focus on neural changes after rule violation, which may reflect processes caused by the violation such as error handling. Here we show that correct rule-governed formations are associated with left frontal negative-going activity, providing direct evidence for rule application in the brain

Evaluation of Polyoxide Capacitor Edge Effects Using Ramped I-V Measurements

Thermally grown oxide on poly silicon has poorer insulator properties than an oxide grown on single crystal silicon. Due to surface roughness of the polysilicon surface the localized oxide electric field is enhanced at the surface bumps and asperities. In order to minimize surface roughness attention has to be given to the poly silicon surface for the steps following deposition. This includes doping and annealing the polysilicon in order to increase the grain size and using care in cleaning the poly and growing the oxide. By minimizing the surface roughness the poly oxide has better insulating properties due to a decrease in the localized electric field and this oxide demonstrates a higher barrier height (≠~) and breakdown voltages. Evaluation of the oxides were done using ramped I-V measurements. The measurements were taken at an area where Fowler-Nordhein~ tunneling ‘was taking place. That region of the curve was analyzed to find the breakdown voltages and barrier height, ØB. Breakdown voltages were found to be from a low of 37.85v to a high of 43.5v. Barrier heights ranged from 2.1eV to 2.6eV compared to 3.2eV which is the ØB for oxide grown on single crystal silicon. Edge length of the test structures was also evaluated and it was found that the barrier height decreased with increasing edge length indicating an increase in the local electric field along the edge regions

On the chemical biology of the nitrite/sulfide interaction

The authors are grateful to the Susanne-Bunnenberg-Stiftung of the Düsseldorf Heart Center (to MK), the COST action BM1005 (European Network on Gasotransmitters), and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton (to MF) for financial support.Sulfide (H2S/HS−) has been demonstrated to exert an astounding breadth of biological effects, some of which resemble those of nitric oxide (NO). While the chemistry, biochemistry and potential pathophysiology of the cross-talk between sulfide and NO have received considerable attention lately, a comparable assessment of the potential biological implications of an interaction between nitrite and sulfide is lacking. This is surprising inasmuch as nitrite is not only a known bioactive oxidation product of NO, but also efficiently converted to S-nitrosothiols in vivo; the latter have been shown to rapidly react with sulfide in vitro, leading to formation of S/N-hybrid species including thionitrite (SNO−) and nitrosopersulfide (SSNO−). Moreover, nitrite is used as a potent remedy against sulfide poisoning in the clinic. The chemistry of interaction between nitrite and sulfide or related bioactive metabolites including polysulfides and elemental sulfur has been extensively studied in the past, yet much of this information appears to have been forgotten. In this review, we focus on the potential chemical biology of the interaction between nitrite and sulfide or sulfane sulfur molecules, calling attention to the fundamental chemical properties and reactivities of either species and discuss their possible contribution to the biology, pharmacology and toxicology of both nitrite and sulfide.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Large constituent families help children parse compounds

The family size of the constituents of compound words, or the number of compounds sharing the constituents, has been shown to affect adults’ access to compound words in the mental lexicon. The present study was designed to see if family size would affect children’s segmentation of compounds. Twenty-five English-speaking children between 3;7 and 5;9 were asked to explain the meaning of existing compounds with constituents of varying family size to an alien puppet. The results showed that children were more likely to mention the modifier of compounds if they came from large constituent families than if they came from small constituent families. Other variables were also shown to have some, but smaller effects on children’s parsing, including the frequency of the constituent words and the compounds, whether the compounds were already known, and age. These results suggest that children’s segmentation of compounds might be facilitated by analogy with other compounds already in their vocabularies