3,925 research outputs found
Get your facts right : preschoolers systematically extend both object names and category-relevant facts
There is an ongoing debate over the extent to which language development shares common processing mechanisms with other domains of learning. It is well-established that toddlers will systematically extend object labels to similarly-shaped category exemplars (e.g., Landau, Smith, & Jones, 1988; Markman & Hutchinson, 1984). However, previous research is inconclusive as to whether young children will similarly extend factual information about an object to other category members. We explicitly contrast facts varying in category relevance, and test for extension using two different tasks. Three- to four-year-olds (N = 61) were provided with one of three types of information about a single novel object: a category-relevant fact (‘it’s from a place called Modi’), a category-irrelevant fact (‘my uncle gave it to me’), or an object label (‘it’s called a Modi’). At test, children provided with the object name or category-relevant fact were significantly more likely to display systematic category extension than children who learnt the category-irrelevant fact. Our findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that the mechanisms responsible for word learning may be domain-general in nature
Reconstructing emission from pre-reionization sources with cosmic infrared background fluctuation measurements by the JWST
We present new methodology to use cosmic infrared background (CIB)
fluctuations to probe sources at 10<z<30 from a JWST/NIRCam configuration that
will isolate known galaxies to 28 AB mag at 0.5--5 micron. At present
significant mutually consistent source-subtracted CIB fluctuations have been
identified in the Spitzer and Akari data at 2--5 micron, but we demonstrate
internal inconsistencies at shorter wavelengths in the recent CIBER data. We
evaluate CIB contributions from remaining galaxies and show that the bulk of
the high-z sources will be in the confusion noise of the NIRCam beam, requiring
CIB studies. The accurate measurement of the angular spectrum of the
fluctuations and probing the dependence of its clustering component on the
remaining shot noise power would discriminate between the various currently
proposed models for their origin and probe the flux distribution of its
sources. We show that the contribution to CIB fluctuations from remaining
galaxies is large at visible wavelengths for the current instruments precluding
probing the putative Lyman-break of the CIB fluctuations. We demonstrate that
with the proposed JWST configuration such measurements will enable probing the
Lyman break. We develop a Lyman-break tomography method to use the NIRCam
wavelength coverage to identify or constrain, via the adjacent two-band
subtraction, the history of emissions over 10<z<30 as the Universe comes out of
the 'Dark Ages'. We apply the proposed tomography to the current Spitzer/IRAC
measurements at 3.6 and 4.5 micron, to find that it already leads to
interestingly low upper limit on emissions at z>30.Comment: ApJ, in press. Minor revisions/additions to match the version in
proof
Locally continuously perfect groups of homeomorphisms
The notion of a locally continuously perfect group is introduced and studied.
This notion generalizes locally smoothly perfect groups introduced by Haller
and Teichmann. Next, we prove that the path connected identity component of the
group of all homeomorphisms of a manifold is locally continuously perfect. The
case of equivariant homeomorphism group and other examples are also considered.Comment: 14 page
Comparison of the COBE FIRAS and DIRBE Calibrations
We compare the independent FIRAS and DIRBE observations from the COBE in the
wavelength range 100-300 microns. This cross calibration provides checks of
both data sets. The results show that the data sets are consistent within the
estimated gain and offset uncertainties of the two instruments. They show the
possibility of improving the gain and offset determination of DIRBE at 140 and
240 microns.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal 11 pages, plus
3 figures in separate postscript files. Figure 3 has three part
How Big of an Effect Do Small Dams Have? Using Geomorphological Footprints to Quantify Spatial Impact of Low-Head Dams and Identify Patterns of Across-Dam Variation
Citation: Fencl, J. S., Mather, M. E., Costigan, K. H., & Daniels, M. D. (2015). How Big of an Effect Do Small Dams Have? Using Geomorphological Footprints to Quantify Spatial Impact of Low-Head Dams and Identify Patterns of Across-Dam Variation. Plos One, 10(11), 22. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141210Longitudinal connectivity is a fundamental characteristic of rivers that can be disrupted by natural and anthropogenic processes. Dams are significant disruptions to streams. Over 2,000,000 low-head dams (<7.6 m high) fragment United States rivers. Despite potential adverse impacts of these ubiquitous disturbances, the spatial impacts of low-head dams on geomorphology and ecology are largely untested. Progress for research and conservation is impaired by not knowing the magnitude of low-head dam impacts. Based on the geomorphic literature, we refined a methodology that allowed us to quantify the spatial extent of low-head dam impacts (herein dam footprint), assessed variation in dam footprints across low-head dams within a river network, and identified select aspects of the context of this variation. Wetted width, depth, and substrate size distributions upstream and downstream of six low-head dams within the Upper Neosho River, Kansas, United States of America were measured. Total dam footprints averaged 7.9 km (3.0-15.3 km) or 287 wetted widths (136437 wetted widths). Estimates included both upstream (mean: 6.7 km or 243 wetted widths) and downstream footprints (mean: 1.2 km or 44 wetted widths). Altogether the six low-head dams impacted 47.3 km (about 17%) of the mainstem in the river network. Despite differences in age, size, location, and primary function, the sizes of geomorphic footprints of individual low-head dams in the Upper Neosho river network were relatively similar. The number of upstream dams and distance to upstream dams, but not dam height, affected the spatial extent of dam footprints. In summary, ubiquitous low-head dams individually and cumulatively altered lotic ecosystems. Both characteristics of individual dams and the context of neighboring dams affected low-head dam impacts within the river network. For these reasons, low-head dams require a different, more integrative, approach for research and management than the individualistic approach that has been applied to larger dams
Invariants of Artinian Gorenstein Algebras and Isolated Hypersurface Singularities
We survey our recently proposed method for constructing biholomorphic
invariants of quasihomogeneous isolated hypersurface singularities and, more
generally, invariants of graded Artinian Gorenstein algebras. The method
utilizes certain polynomials associated to such algebras, called
nil-polynomials, and we compare them with two other classes of polynomials that
have also been used to produce invariants.Comment: 13 page
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST)
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree
field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a
gravitational lensing technique. This gravitational lensing technique is the
only method employing currently available technology that can detect Earth-mass
planets at high signal-to-noise, and can measure the frequency of terrestrial
planets as a function of Galactic position. GEST's sensitivity extends down to
the mass of Mars, and it can detect hundreds of terrestrial planets with
semi-major axes ranging from 0.7 AU to infinity. GEST will be the first truly
comprehensive survey of the Galaxy for planets like those in our own Solar
System.Comment: 17 pages with 13 figures, to be published in Proc. SPIE vol 4854,
"Future EUV-UV and Visible Space Astrophysics Missions and Instrumentation
Targeted delivery of anti-inflammatory therapy to rheumatoid tissue by fusion proteins containing an IL-4-linked synovial targeting peptide
We provide first-time evidence that the synovial endothelium-targeting peptide (SyETP) CKSTHDRLC successfully delivers conjugated IL-4 to human rheumatoid synovium transplanted into SCID mice. SyETP, previously isolated by in vivo phage display and shown to preferentially localize to synovial xenografts, was linked by recombinant technology to hIL-4 via an MMP-cleavable sequence. Both IL-4 and the MMP-cleavable sequence were shown to be functional. IL-4-SyETP augmented production of IL-1ra by synoviocytes stimulated with IL-1[beta] in a dose-dependent manner. In vivo imaging confirmed increased retention of SyETP-linked-IL-4 in synovial grafts which was enhanced by increasing number of copies (one to three) in the constructs. Strikingly, SyETP delivered bioactive IL-4 in vivo as demonstrated by increased pSTAT6 in synovial grafts. Thus, this study provides proof of concept for peptide-tissue-specific targeted immunotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis. This technology is potentially applicable to other biological therapies providing enhanced potency to inflammatory sites and reducing systemic toxicity
Spectra of random Hermitian matrices with a small-rank external source: supercritical and subcritical regimes
Random Hermitian matrices with a source term arise, for instance, in the
study of non-intersecting Brownian walkers \cite{Adler:2009a, Daems:2007} and
sample covariance matrices \cite{Baik:2005}.
We consider the case when the external source matrix has two
distinct real eigenvalues: with multiplicity and zero with multiplicity
. The source is small in the sense that is finite or , for . For a Gaussian potential, P\'ech\'e
\cite{Peche:2006} showed that for sufficiently small (the subcritical
regime) the external source has no leading-order effect on the eigenvalues,
while for sufficiently large (the supercritical regime) eigenvalues
exit the bulk of the spectrum and behave as the eigenvalues of
Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). We establish the universality of these results
for a general class of analytic potentials in the supercritical and subcritical
regimes.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figure
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