Parallel Activation in Bilingual Phonological Processing

In bilingual language processing, the parallel activation hypothesis suggests that bilinguals activate their two languages simultaneously during language processing. Support for the parallel activation mainly comes from studies of lexical (word-form) processing, with relatively less attention to phonological (sound) processing. According to studies of monolingual phonological processing, phonotactic probability, the likelihood of occurrence of a sound sequence, influences both word recognition and production. Specifically, common sound sequences are recognized and/or produced more quickly and more accurately than rare sound sequences (Edwards, Beckman & Munson, 2004; Vitevitch, Luce, Charles-Luce, & Kemmerer, 1997; Vitevitch & Luce, 1998; 1999). The goal of this research was to examine the influence of phonotactic probability on phonological processing when phonotactic probability was matched (Experiment 1) versus mismatched (Experiment 2) across the bilingual speakers' two languages. In Experiment 1, three groups of children participated: English monolinguals, Korean monolinguals, and Korean-English bilinguals. A same-different task with nonword stimuli was used. The nonwords were matched in phonotactic probability across the two languages (i.e., English-low/Korean-low versus English-high/Korean-high). Results showed that all three groups responded more accurately and quickly to English-high/Korean-high than English-low/Korean-low nonwords. This replicates past findings of the facilitative effects of phonotactic probability for English monolinguals and extends it to Korean monolinguals and Korean-English bilinguals. In Experiment 2, only bilingual children participated in a same-different task with nonword stimuli mismatched in phonotactic probability. Specifically, phonological processing of English-low/Korean-high versus English-high/Korean-low nonwords was examined across two phonetic contexts (i.e., English-phonetic and Korean-phonetic). Phonetic context was based on the speaker who recorded the stimuli (i.e., native English versus native Korean speaker). Results showed a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and phonetic context. In the English-phonetic context, English-low/Korean-high nonwords were responded to more accurately and quickly than English-high/Korean-low nonwords. In contrast, in the Korean-phonetic context, English-high/Korean-low nonwords tended to be responded to more accurately and quickly than English-low/Korean-high nonwords. The results are interpreted as bilinguals encounter competition effects of phonotactic probability on phonological processing when the probability was mismatched across the two languages. This competition effect from mismatched probability suggests the presence of parallel activation of both languages in phonological processing. Combined with the results of Experiment 1, the magnitude of parallel activation was found to vary across the native and non-native languages. Specifically, both facilitation and competition effects were significant in non-native (English) language processing, while the effects were not significant in native (Korean) language processing. Such an asymmetry in the magnitude of parallel activation between the native and non-native languages is consistent with previous findings of parallel activation in bilingual lexical processing. Taken together, the findings of the current study suggest that phonological representations of the two languages are activated simultaneously and language status may be a factor that mediates the magnitude of parallel activation

The Independent Effects of Phonotactic Probability and Neighborhood Density on Lexical Acquisition by Preschool Children

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01690961003787609The goal of this research was to disentangle effects of phonotactic probability, the likelihood of occurrence of a sound sequence, and neighbourhood density, the number of phonologically similar words, in lexical acquisition. Two-word learning experiments were conducted with 4-year-old children. Experiment 1 manipulated phonotactic probability while holding neighbourhood density and referent characteristics constant. Experiment 2 manipulated neighbourhood density while holding phonotactic probability and referent characteristics constant. Learning was tested at two time points (immediate vs. retention) in both a naming and referent identification task, although only data from the referent identification task were analysed due to poor performance in the naming task. Results showed that children were more accurate in learning rare sound sequences than common sound sequences and this was consistent across time points. In contrast, the effect of neighbourhood density varied by time. Children were more accurate in learning sparse sound sequences than dense sound sequences at the immediate test point but accuracy for dense sound sequences significantly improved by the retention test without further training. It was hypothesised that phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density influenced different cognitive processes that underlie lexical acquisition

Mental Disorders and Mental Health Service Use Across Asian American Subethnic Groups in the United States

This study analyzed the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions data, 2001–2002, to compare the prevalence and odds of DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders and mental health service use across Asian American subethnic groups (648 East Asians, 485 Southeast Asians, 298 South Asians). Asian American subethnic groups varied in lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders (p = 0.004), mainly due to differences in the presence of any substance use disorder (p = 0.06), and specifically, drug use disorders (p = 0.02). While Southeast Asians had the highest prevalence of substance use disorders (16.7 %), fewer Southeast Asians with substance use disorders used mental health services (11.1 %) compared to South Asians with substance use disorders (24.2 %). East Asians compared to South Asians had significantly lower odds of mental health service use for substance use disorders (confidence interval = 0.08–0.84). Asian American subethnic groups vary in the prevalence of mental disorders and in mental health service use, especially for substance use disorders

The Use of Multi-Scale Fiducial Markers To Aid Takeoff and Landing Navigation by Rotorcraft

This paper quantifies the impact of adverse environmental conditions on the detection of fiducial markers (i.e., artificial landmarks) by color cameras mounted on rotorcraft. We restrict our attention to square markers with a black-and-white pattern of grid cells that can be nested to allow detection at multiple scales. These markers have the potential to enhance the reliability of precision takeoff and landing at vertiports by flying vehicles in urban settings. Prior work has shown, in particular, that these markers can be detected with high precision (i.e., few false positives) and high recall (i.e., few false negatives). However, most of this prior work has been based on image sequences collected indoors with hand-held cameras. Our work is based on image sequences collected outdoors with cameras mounted on a quadrotor during semi-autonomous takeoff and landing operations under adverse environmental conditions that include variations in temperature, illumination, wind speed, humidity, visibility, and precipitation. In addition to precision and recall, performance measures include continuity, availability, robustness, resiliency, and coverage volume. We release both our dataset and the code we used for analysis to the public as open source.Comment: Extended abstract accepted at the 2024 AIAA SciTec

Comparative Study of Visual SLAM-Based Mobile Robot Localization Using Fiducial Markers

This paper presents a comparative study of three modes for mobile robot localization based on visual SLAM using fiducial markers (i.e., square-shaped artificial landmarks with a black-and-white grid pattern): SLAM, SLAM with a prior map, and localization with a prior map. The reason for comparing the SLAM-based approaches leveraging fiducial markers is because previous work has shown their superior performance over feature-only methods, with less computational burden compared to methods that use both feature and marker detection without compromising the localization performance. The evaluation is conducted using indoor image sequences captured with a hand-held camera containing multiple fiducial markers in the environment. The performance metrics include absolute trajectory error and runtime for the optimization process per frame. In particular, for the last two modes (SLAM and localization with a prior map), we evaluate their performances by perturbing the quality of prior map to study the extent to which each mode is tolerant to such perturbations. Hardware experiments show consistent trajectory error levels across the three modes, with the localization mode exhibiting the shortest runtime among them. Yet, with map perturbations, SLAM with a prior map maintains performance, while localization mode degrades in both aspects.Comment: IEEE 2023 IROS Workshop "Closing the Loop on Localization". For more information, see https://oravus.github.io/vpr-workshop/inde

Effects of Dietary Protein and Fat Contents on Renal Function and Inflammatory Cytokines in Rats with Adriamycin-Induced Nephrotic Syndrome

The effects of dietary protein and fat on renal function-related blood and urine parameters, such as albumin, urinary protein,and inflammatory cytokines were investigated in adriamycin- (ADR) induced nephrotic syndrome rats. ADR (2 mg/kg BW) was injected i.p. weekly for six weeks to develop nephrotic syndrome; thereafter rats were fed low-protein/high-fat (LPHF) or high-protein/low-fat (HPLF) diets for five weeks. Renal function-related blood and urine parameters were measured before and after dietary intervention. Serum levels of albumin, TG, and creatinine were significantly higher in the LPHF group than in the HPLF group. Serum levels of albumin were low and urinary protein excretion protein was high in HPLF group. BUN and UUN levels were higher in the HPLF group than in the LPHF. Urinary excretion of creatinine was significantly higher in the HPLF group than in the LPHF group. Serum inflammatory cytokine levels did not differ between the two groups, however the levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-13 in splenocyte supernatants were significantly higher in the LPHF group than in the HPLF group. We confirmed that protein and fat contents in diet affect renal function-related blood and urine parameters and splenocyte inflammatory cytokine levels in ADR-induced nephrotic syndrome rats

Measurement of the Background Activities of a 100Mo-enriched powder sample for AMoRE crystal material using a single high purity germanium detector

The Advanced Molybdenum-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) searches for neutrino-less double-beta (0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta}) decay of 100Mo in enriched molybdate crystals. The AMoRE crystals must have low levels of radioactive contamination to achieve low background signals with energies near the Q-value of the 100Mo 0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta} decay. To produce low-activity crystals, radioactive contaminants in the raw materials used to form the crystals must be controlled and quantified. 100EnrMoO3 powder, which is enriched in the 100Mo isotope, is of particular interest as it is the source of 100Mo in the crystals. A high-purity germanium detector having 100% relative efficiency, named CC1, is being operated in the Yangyang underground laboratory. Using CC1, we collected a gamma spectrum from a 1.6-kg 100EnrMoO3 powder sample enriched to 96.4% in 100Mo. Activities were analyzed for the isotopes 228Ac, 228Th, 226Ra, and 40K. They are long-lived naturally occurring isotopes that can produce background signals in the region of interest for AMoRE. Activities of both 228Ac and 228Th were < 1.0 mBq/kg at 90% confidence level (C.L.). The activity of 226Ra was measured to be 5.1 \pm 0.4 (stat) \pm 2.2 (syst) mBq/kg. The 40K activity was found as < 16.4 mBq/kg at 90% C.L.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 5 table

Fatal pulmonary embolism and coincidental cerebral infarction after spinal anesthesia -A case report-

A pulmonary embolism and cerebral infarction are the second and third most common acute cardiovascular diseases after a myocardial infarction. Early diagnosis and appropriate management are important clinical challenges. In this case, a fatal pulmonary embolism and extensive cerebral infarction caused cardiac arrest during spinal anesthesia for total hip replacement surgery. Transesophageal echocardiography indicated a pulmonary embolism and brain CT showed large area of acute infarction at right middle cerebral artery territory. Pulmonary CT angiogram revealed massive pulmonary embolism findings. This paper reviews this case and suggests other preventive modalities