Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse

An influential claim in the child language literature posits that children use structural cues in the input language to acquire verb meaning (Gleitman, 1990). One such cue is the number of arguments co-occurring with the verb, which provides an indication as to the event type associated with the verb (Fisher, 1995). In some languages however (e.g. Hindi), verb arguments are ellipted relatively freely, subject to certain discourse-pragmatic constraints. In this paper, we address three questions: Is the pervasive argument ellipsis characteristic of adult Hindi also found in Hindi-speaking caregivers’ input ? If so, do children consequently make errors in verb transitivity? How early do children learning a split-ergative language, such as Hindi, exhibit sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic influences on argument realization? We show that there is massive argument ellipsis in caregivers’ input to 3–4 year-olds. However, children acquiring Hindi do not make transitivity errors in their own speech. Nor do they elide arguments randomly. Rather, even at this early age, children appear to be sensitive to discourse-pragmatics in their own spontaneous speech production. These findings in a split-ergative language parallel patterns of argument realization found in children acquiring both nominative-accusative languages (e.g. Korean) and ergative-absolutive languages (e.g. Tzeltal, Inuktitut)

Bringing cross-layer MIMO to today's wireless LANs

Recent years have seen major innovations in cross-layer wireless designs. Despite demonstrating significant throughput gains, hardly any of these technologies have made it into real networks. Deploying cross-layer innovations requires adoption from Wi-Fi chip manufacturers. Yet, manufacturers hesitate to undertake major investments without a better understanding of how these designs interact with real networks and applications. This paper presents the first step towards breaking this stalemate, by enabling the adoption of cross-layer designs in today's networks with commodity Wi-Fi cards and actual applications. We present OpenRF, a cross-layer architecture for managing MIMO signal processing. OpenRF enables access points on the same channel to cancel their interference at each other's clients, while beamforming their signal to their own clients. OpenRF is self-configuring, so that network administrators need not understand MIMO or physical layer techniques. We patch the iwlwifi driver to support OpenRF on off-the-shelf Intel cards. We deploy OpenRF on a 20-node network, showing how it manages the complex interaction of cross-layer design with a real network stack, TCP, bursty traffic, and real applications. Our results demonstrate an average gain of 1.6x for TCP traffic and a significant reduction in response time for real-time applications, like remote desktop.National Science Foundation (U.S.

How to build a brick

AbstractA graph is matching covered if it connected, has at least two vertices and each of its edges is contained in a perfect matching. A 3-connected graph G is a brick if, for any two vertices u and v of G, the graph G-{u,v} has a perfect matching. As shown by Lovász [Matching structure and the matching lattice, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 43 (1987) 187–222] every matching covered graph G may be decomposed, in an essentially unique manner, into bricks and bipartite graphs known as braces. The number of bricks resulting from this decomposition is denoted by b(G).The object of this paper is to present a recursive procedure for generating bricks. We define four simple operations that can be used to construct new bricks from given bricks. We show that all bricks may be generated from three basic bricks K4, C¯6 and the Petersen graph by means of these four operations. In order to establish this, it turns out to be necessary to show that every brick G distinct from the three basic bricks has a thin edge, that is, an edge e such that (i) G-e is a matching covered graph with b(G-e)=1 and (ii) for each barrier B of G-e, the graph G-e-B has precisely |B|-1 isolated vertices, each of which has degree two in G-e. Improving upon a theorem proved in [M.H. de Carvalho, C.L. Lucchesi, U.S.R. Murty, On a conjecture of Lovász concerning bricks, I, The characteristic of a matching covered graph, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 85 (2002) 94–136; M.H. de Carvalho, C.L. Lucchesi, U.S.R. Murty, On a conjecture of Lovász concerning bricks, II, Bricks of finite characteristic, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 85 (2002) 137–180] we show here that every brick different from the three basic bricks has an edge that is thin.A cut of a matching covered graph G is separating if each of the two graphs obtained from G by shrinking the shores of the cut to single vertices is also matching covered. A brick is solid if it does not have any nontrivial separating cuts. Solid bricks have many interesting properties, but the complexity status of deciding whether a given brick is solid is not known. Here, by using our theorem on the existence of thin edges, we show that every simple planar solid brick is an odd wheel

An Intrathermocline Eddy and a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal, subjected to monsoonal forcing and tropical cyclones, displays a complex field of ocean eddies. On 5 December 2013 a sub-surface vortex or Intrathermocline Eddy (ITE) composed of water characteristic of the Andaman Sea was observed within the thermocline of the western Bay of Bengal. We propose that the ITE was the product of Tropical Cyclone Lehar interaction on 27 November 2013 with a westward propagating surface eddy from the eastern Bay of Bengal. While Lehar’s interaction with the ocean initially removes heat from the upper layers of the eddy, air-sea flux is limited as the deeper portions of the eddy was subducted into the stratified thermocline, inhibiting further interaction with the atmosphere. The ITE core from 30 to 150m is thus isolated from local air-sea fluxes by strong stratification at the mixed layer base, and its periphery is stable to shear instability, suggestive of longevity and the ability to carry water far distances with minimal modification

A screening test for grain hardness in sorghum employing density grading in sodium nitrate solution

n indirect, non-destructive, inexpensive and simple method for testing hardness of sorghum grain was developed using density grading in sodium nitrate solution with a density of 1·315 g/ml at 25°C. The percentage of floating kernels was highly correlated with percentage vitreousness, the grain hardness determined as work required for grinding, flour particle size, and with rheological properties of a sorghum flour dough

Biallelic expression of HRAS and MUCDHL in human and mouse

At least eight genes clustered in 1 Mb of DNA on human chromosome (Chr) 11p15.5 are subject to parental imprinting, with monoallelic expression in one or more tissues. Orthologues of these genes show conserved linkage and imprinting on distal Chr 7 of mice. The ex- tended imprinted region has a bipartite structure, with at least two differentially methylated DNA elements (DMRs) controlling the imprinting of two sub-domains. We pre- viously described three biallelically expressed genes (MRPL23, 2G7 and TNNT3) in 100 kb of DNA immedi- ately downstream of the imprinted H19 gene, suggesting that H19 marks one border of the imprinted region. Here we extend this analysis to two additional downstream genes, HRAS and MUCDHL (mu-protocadherin). We find that these genes are biallelically expressed in multiple fe- tal and adult tissues, both in humans and in mice. The mouse orthologue of a third gene, DUSP8, located be- tween H19 and MUCDHL, is also expressed biallelically. The DMR immediately upstream of H19 frequently shows a net gain of methylation in Wilms tumors, either via Chr 11p15.5 loss of heterozygosity (LOH) or loss of imprinting (LOI), but changes in methylation in CpG-rich sequences upstream and within the MUCDHL gene are rare in these tumors and do not correlate with LOH or LOI. These findings are further evidence for a border of the imprinted region immediately downstream of H19, and the data allow the construction of an imprinting map that includes more than 20 genes, distributed over 3 Mb of DNA on Chr 11p15.5