Gas-injection valve operates at high speed

Fast acting gas valve is used for injecting a short pulse of gas into a vacuum chamber during plasma acceleration experiments. It contains a lightweight closure disk that is forced away from the valve seat when an electromagnetic coil is momentarily energized and immediately rebounds from a stop back onto the seat

Eye-Tracking and Corpus-Based Analyses of Syntax-Semantics Interactions in Complement Coercion

Previous work has shown that the difficulty associated with processing complex semantic expressions is reduced when the critical constituents appear in separate clauses as opposed to when they appear together in the same clause. We investigated this effect further, focusing in particular on complement coercion, in which an event-selecting verb (e.g., began) combines with a complement that represents an entity (e.g., began the memo). Experiment 1 compared reading times for coercion versus control expressions when the critical verb and complement appeared together in a subject-extracted relative clause (SRC) (e.g., The secretary that began/wrote the memo) compared to when they appeared together in a simple sentence. Readers spent more time processing coercion expressions than control expressions, replicating the typical coercion cost. In addition, readers spent less time processing the verb and complement in SRCs than in simple sentences; however, the magnitude of the coercion cost did not depend on sentence structure. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that the coercion cost was reduced when the complement appeared as the head of an object-extracted relative clause (ORC) (e.g., The memo that the secretary began/wrote) compared to when the constituents appeared together in an SRC. Consistent with the eye-tracking results of Experiment 2, a corpus analysis showed that expressions requiring complement coercion are more frequent when the constituents are separated by the clause boundary of an ORC compared to when they are embedded together within an SRC. The results provide important information about the types of structural configurations that contribute to reduced difficulty with complex semantic expressions, as well as how these processing patterns are reflected in naturally occurring language

Print exposure modulates the effects of repetition priming during sentence reading

Individual readers vary greatly in the quality of their lexical representations, and consequently in how quickly and efficiently they can access orthographic and lexical knowledge. This variability may be explained, at least in part, by individual differences in exposure to printed language, because practice at reading promotes the development of stronger reading skills. In the present eyetracking experiment, we tested the hypothesis that the efficiency of word recognition during reading improves with increases in print exposure, by determining whether the magnitude of the repetition-priming effect is modulated by individual differences in scores on the author recognition test (ART). Lexical repetition of target words was manipulated across pairs of unrelated sentences that were presented on consecutive trials. The magnitude of the repetition effect was modulated by print exposure in early measures of processing, such that the magnitude of the effect was inversely related to scores on the ART. The results showed that low levels of print exposure, and thus lower-quality lexical representations, are associated with high levels of difficulty recognizing words, and thus with the greatest room to benefit from repetition. Furthermore, the interaction between scores on the ART and repetition suggests that print exposure is not simply an index of general reading speed, but rather that higher levels of print exposure are associated with an enhanced ability to access lexical knowledge and recognize words during reading

Investigation of DC-8 nacelle modifications to reduce fan-compressor noise in airport communities. Part 3 - Static tests of noise suppressor configurations, May 1967 - October 1969

Static tests of noise suppressor configurations of DC-8 aircraft nacelle modifications to reduce fan-compressor noise levels - Part

Inclusion of Blended Lipid Solutions as Functional Ingredients to Alter the Fatty Acid Profile of Beef Patties

We hypothesized that beef patties formulated with the addition of a beef fat, plant oil and rosemary extract (antioxidant) blend would increase unsaturated fatty acid content and maintain desirable sensory attributes as compared to 10 and 20% fat control beef patties. Treatment patties were formulated by combining beef trimmings (6% fat) with a lipid blend mixture (4% or 14% addition, respectively) containing 57% beef tallow, 0.3% rosemary extract and 43% of either high oleic safflower oil (SO), olive oil (OO), or corn oil (CO) to achieve a total fat content of 10 or 20%. Treatment patties were similar to control patties for lipid oxidation at 0 and 3 d of refrigerated (2oC) storage and up to 56 d of frozen (-10oC) storage. Cooked lipid blend patties at 10 or 20% fat content were similar to or higher, respectively, than control patties for juiciness and were no different for other sensory attributes evaluated. At 10 and 20% fat levels, oleic acid (18:1) in cooked SO patties (46.1 and 50.3%, respectively) and OO patties (43.8 and 48.1%, respectively) was higher than the control (37.3 and 37.6%, respectively). Unsaturated to saturated fatty acid ratios at the 10 and 20% fat levels were higher in SO (1.37 and 1.60, respectively) and CO (1.40 and 1.48, respectively) patties than the control (0.97 and 0.94, respectively). The incorporation of nutritionally enhanced lipid blends increased unsaturated fatty acid content and maintained desirable sensory attributes of beef patties while suppressing lipid oxidation

Focus takes time: structural effects on reading

Previous eye-tracking work has yielded inconsistent evidence regarding whether readers spend more or less time encoding focused information compared to information that is not focused. We report the results of an eye-tracking experiment that used syntactic structure to manipulate whether a target word was linguistically defocused, neutral, or focused, while controlling for possible oculomotor differences across conditions. As the structure of the sentence made the target word increasingly more focused, reading times systematically increased. We propose that the longer reading times for linguistically focused words reflect deeper encoding, which explains previous findings showing that readers have better subsequent memory for focused versus defocused information

Voluntary Wheel Running during Weight Loss Leads to Differential Changes in Monocytes, Compared to Forced Treadmill Running

High-fat feeding and subsequent weight gain may contribute to innate immune dysfunction. Weight loss via calorie restriction and exercise represent one means to restore normal immune function. The purpose of the study was to examine how 8- weeks of aerobic exercise and low-fat diet affects weight gain, monocyte concentration, and monocyte cell-surface expression of TLR2, TLR4, CD80, and CD86. For 12- months, 24 male CD-1 mice underwent a pre-treatment phase, consuming either a low fat (10% fat) or high-fat (60% fat) diet ad libitum. Mice were randomly assigned to one of four groups (N=6/group): CN (low-fat sedentary), V-EX (voluntary wheel running), F10 EX (forced treadmill running), or SD (sedentary). V-EX, F-EX, and SD groups were switched from the high-fat to low-fat diet for an 8-week treatment period, while the CN group continued consuming the low-fat diet. Saphenous vein blood samples were analyzed using flow cytometry at baseline, week 4, and week 8. V-EX (36.4%) and F14 EX (27.1%) lost significant body weight over 8-weeks (P\u3c0.001). V-EX ran 4.4x more than F-EX (P\u3c0.001). As a group, V-EX had higher monocyte concentration than CN (48.9%) and F-EX (58.9%, P=0.004). Cell-surface expression of TLR2 (22.9%, P=0.002), TLR4 (33.3%, P\u3c0.001), and CD86 (18.6%, P\u3c0.001) increased from baseline to week 8. A time effect was seen in week 4 when CD80 expression was 42% greater for V-EX than SD (P=0.013). The present study confirms short-term exercise and low-fat diet consumption cause significant weight loss and altered immune profile as measured by increased TLR2, TLR4, CD80, and CD86 expression

Investigation of DC-8 nacelle modifications to reduce fan-compressor noise in airport communities. Part 4 - Flight acoustical and performance evaluations, for period May 1967 - October 1969

Flight acoustical and performance evaluations of DC 8 nacelle modifications to reduce fan-compressor noise in airport communitie

The manuscript that we finished: Structural separation reduces the cost of complement coercion.

Two eye-tracking experiments examined the effects of sentence structure on the processing of complement coercion, in which an event-selecting verb combines with a complement that represents an entity (e.g., began the memo). Previous work has demonstrated that these expressions impose a processing cost, which has been attributed to the need to type-shift the entity into an event in order for the sentence to be interpretable (e.g., began writing the memo). Both experiments showed that the magnitude of the coercion cost was reduced when the verb and complement appeared in separate clauses (e.g., The memo that was begun by the secretary; What the secretary began was the memo) compared to when the constituents appeared together in the same clause. The moderating effect of sentence structure on coercion is similar to effects that have been reported for the processing of two other types of semantically complex expressions (inanimate subject-verb integration and metonymy). We propose that sentence structure influences the depth at which complex semantic relationships are computed. When the constituents that create the need for a complex semantic interpretation appear in a single clause, readers experience processing difficulty stemming from the need to detect and/or resolve the semantic mismatch. In contrast, the need to engage in additional processing is reduced when the expression is established across a clause boundary or other structure that deemphasizes the complex relationship

Natural forces as agents: Reconceptualizing the animate–inanimate distinction

Research spanning multiple domains of psychology has demonstrated preferential processing of animate as compared to inanimate entities—a pattern that is commonly explained as due to evolutionarily adaptive behavior. Forces of nature represent a class of entities that are semantically inanimate but which behave as if they are animate in that they possess the ability to initiate movement and cause actions. We report an eye-tracking experiment demonstrating that natural forces are processed like animate entities during online sentence processing: they are easier to integrate with action verbs than instruments, and this effect is mediated by sentence structure. The results suggest that many cognitive and linguistic phenomena that have previously been attributed to animacy may be more appropriately attributed to perceived agency. To the extent that this is so, the cognitive potency of animate entities may not be due to vigilant monitoring of the environment for unpredictable events as argued by evolutionary psychologists but instead may be more adequately explained as reflecting a cognitive and linguistic focus on causal explanations that is adaptive because it increases the predictability of events