Music-reading expertise modulates the visual span for English letters but not Chinese characters.

Recent research has suggested that the visual span in stimulus identification can be enlarged through perceptual learning. Since both English and music reading involve left-to-right sequential symbol processing, music-reading experience may enhance symbol identification through perceptual learning particularly in the right visual field (RVF). In contrast, as Chinese can be read in all directions, and components of Chinese characters do not consistently form a left-right structure, this hypothesized RVF enhancement effect may be limited in Chinese character identification. To test these hypotheses, here we recruited musicians and nonmusicians who read Chinese as their first language (L1) and English as their second language (L2) to identify music notes, English letters, Chinese characters, and novel symbols (Tibetan letters) presented at different eccentricities and visual field locations on the screen while maintaining central fixation. We found that in English letter identification, significantly more musicians achieved above-chance performance in the center-RVF locations than nonmusicians. This effect was not observed in Chinese character or novel symbol identification. We also found that in music note identification, musicians outperformed nonmusicians in accuracy in the center-RVF condition, consistent with the RVF enhancement effect in the visual span observed in English-letter identification. These results suggest that the modulation of music-reading experience on the visual span for stimulus identification depends on the similarities in the perceptual processes involved

Authorial Voice in Academic Writing: A Contrastive Perspective

本研究通過包含3個學科(文學、教育學、化學)和兩種語言(中文、英文)的學術文章語料庫,對學術文章中'寫作者聲音'的出現形式及頻率進行了語言間和學科間的對比,發現語言層面上的差異比學科間的差異顯著。這一結論與西方現有的研究結論相悖,即學科規范比語言規范更能約束寫作者在撰寫學術文章時的遣詞酌句,說明由于中西方語言的巨大差異,使得學科的規范力不及語言的規范力。 This paper contrasts the manifestation of authorial identity in English and Chinese research articles across three fields. The study seeks to find patterns governing the use of self-mention devices among native English writers and Chinese writers, and to explain such patterns in terms of self-perception. The paper suggests that English authors have a stronger tendency to use pronominal forms than depersonalized forms. It is also found that in using first-person pronouns, English authors of single-authored papers have a salient preference for the singular rather than the plural, thus forming a sharp contrast with Chinese authors. In term of pattern choice for self-mention, the findings suggest that language regulation is more influential than discipline regulation, which is not in concordance with findings by western scholars

Electronic states of epitaxial thin films of La0.9Sn0.1MnO3 and La0.9Ca0.1MnO3

Structure, transport properties, and electronic structure of epitaxial thin films La0.9Sn0.1MnO3 and La0.9Ca0.1MnO3 have been experimentally studied. According to the Hall-effect measurement, La0.9Sn0.1MnO3 is an n-type conductor in the metallic state due to the substitution of Sn for La. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra revealed a shift of the Fermi level and the Mn ionic core level of La0.9Sn0.1MnO3 in comparison with La0.9Ca0.1MnO3. The difference between the Mn-2p spectra of La0.9Sn0.1MnO3 and La0.9Ca0.1MnO3 implies that Mn ions in the former are at a Mn2+/Mn3+ mixed-valence state, which is significantly different from the divalent-element-doped manganese oxides, where the Mn ions are in the mixed-valence state of Mn3+/Mn4+.published_or_final_versio

Pricing exotic options under a high-order markovian regime switching model

We consider the pricing of exotic options when the price dynamics of the underlying risky asset are governed by a discrete-time Markovian regime-switching process driven by an observable, high-order Markov model (HOMM). We assume that the market interest rate, the drift, and the volatility of the underlying risky asset's return switch over time according to the states of the HOMM, which are interpreted as the states of an economy. We will then employ the well-known tool in actuarial science, namely, the Esscher transform to determine an equivalent martingale measure for option valuation. Moreover, we will also investigate the impact of the high-order effect of the states of the economy on the prices of some path-dependent exotic options, such as Asian options, lookback options, and barrier options.published_or_final_versio

Music reading expertise modulates visual spans in both music note and English letter reading

Poster Session 3: no. 73Conference Theme: Integrating Psychological, Philosophical, Linguistic, Computational and Neural PerspectivesHere we investigated how music reading experience modulates visual spans in language reading. Participants were asked to identify music notes, English letters, Chinese characters, and novel symbols (Tibetan letters) presented at random locations on the screen while maintaining central fixation. We found that for music note reading, musicians outperformed non-musicians at some peripheral positions in both visual fields, and for English letter reading, musicians outperformed non-musicians at some peripheral positions in the RVF but not in the LVF. In contrast, in both Chinese character and novel symbol reading, musicians and non-musicians did not differ in their performance at peripheral positions. Since both music and English reading involve a left-to-right reading direction and a RVF/LH advantage, these results suggest that the modulation of music reading experience on visual spans in language reading depends on the similarities in the cognitive processes involved.postprin

A measurement-based congestion alarm for self-similar traffic

Self-similar traffic is distinguished by positive correlation, which can be exploited for better traffic management. Inspired by measurement-based admission control schemes, a measurement-based congestion alarm is proposed. The aggregate traffic at an output port of a switch or router in a high-speed network is modeled by a fractional Gaussian noise process. Traffic measurements are performed in regular time intervals to determine the current traffic loading. This information is then used to predict the loading situation in the near future. If congestion is likely to occur, a congestion alarm is set off and appropriate network management functions taken to alleviate the possible congestion. The above constitutes a closed loop feedback control mechanism that maintains high resource utilization. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme, when used with dynamic bandwidth allocation, reduces bandwidth requirements by more than 20%.published_or_final_versio

Genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of mouse testis-specific genes

BACKGROUND: Genes are not randomly distributed on a chromosome as they were thought even after removal of tandem repeats. The positional clustering of co-expressed genes is known in prokaryotes and recently reported in several eukaryotic organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Homo sapiens. In order to further investigate the mode of tissue-specific gene clustering in higher eukaryotes, we have performed a genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of the mouse testis-specific genes. RESULTS: Our computational analysis shows that a large proportion of testis-specific genes are clustered in groups of 2 to 5 genes in the mouse genome. The number of clusters is much higher than expected by chance even after removal of tandem repeats. CONCLUSION: Our result suggests that testis-specific genes tend to cluster on the mouse chromosomes. This provides another piece of evidence for the hypothesis that clusters of tissue-specific genes do exist

Current-induced effect on the resistivity of epitaxial thin films of La 0.7Ca 0.3MnO 3 and La 0.85Ba 0.15MnO 3

A study was performed on the current-induced effect on the resistivity of epitaxial thin films of La 0.7Ca 0.3MnO 3 and La 0.85Ba 0.15MnO 3. The peak resistance showed a significant change at different current or current resistance. It was found that for both the compounds the dependence of the measured resistance on current revealed a good linear relationship.published_or_final_versio

Impact of stroke on autonomic nervous system

INTRODUCTION: Disturbances of the autonomic nervous systems (ANS) are not uncommon in stroke patients, attributed to damage of the central autonomic networks. The resultant alternation in autonomic dynamics caused an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic tone. The most common clinical problems include abnormalities in heart rate and blood pressure control. Vasomotor and sudomotor disturbances post stroke are less well defined …published_or_final_versio

High-Tc ramp-type Josephson junctions with a continually graded Y1–xPrxBa2Cu3Oy barrier

High-Tc Josephson junctions with a graded barrier have been prepared by using a composite target. Such a barrier is synthesized by utilizing Y1–xPrxBa2Cu3Oy with a continually graded concentration of Pr, in which no lattice mismatch and other incompatible problems take place. The structural interfaces are absent in the weak link region and Josephson coupling occurs at the naturally formed superconducting/normal interfaces within the Y1–xPrxBa2Cu3Oy layer. Thus, it can significantly enhance the reproducibilty and performance of these junctions. The temperature dependences of the barrier thickness and Josephson were also studied. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio