Predicting the birth of a spoken word

Children learn words through an accumulation of interactions grounded in context. Although many factors in the learning environment have been shown to contribute to word learning in individual studies, no empirical synthesis connects across factors. We introduce a new ultradense corpus of audio and video recordings of a single child’s life that allows us to measure the child’s experience of each word in his vocabulary. This corpus provides the first direct comparison, to our knowledge, between different predictors of the child’s production of individual words. We develop a series of new measures of the distinctiveness of the spatial, temporal, and linguistic contexts in which a word appears, and show that these measures are stronger predictors of learning than frequency of use and that, unlike frequency, they play a consistent role across different syntactic categories. Our findings provide a concrete instantiation of classic ideas about the role of coherent activities in word learning and demonstrate the value of multimodal data in understanding children’s language acquisition

An immersive system for browsing and visualizing surveillance video

HouseFly is an interactive data browsing and visualization system that synthesizes audio-visual recordings from multiple sensors, as well as the meta-data derived from those recordings, into a unified viewing experience. The system is being applied to study human behavior in both domestic and retail situations grounded in longitudinal video recordings. HouseFly uses an immersive video technique to display multiple streams of high resolution video using a realtime warping procedure that projects the video onto a 3D model of the recorded space. The system interface provides the user with simultaneous control over both playback rate and vantage point, enabling the user to navigate the data spatially and temporally. Beyond applications in video browsing, this system serves as an intuitive platform for visualizing patterns over time in a variety of multi-modal data, including person tracks and speech transcripts.United States. Office of Naval Research (Award no. N000140910187

Climate Change Sensitivity Assessment on Upper Mississippi River Basin Streamflows using SWAT

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to assess the effects of potential future climate change on the hydrology of the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Calibration and validation of SWAT were performed using monthly stream flows for 1968–1987 and 1988–1997, respectively. The R2 and Nash-Sutcliffe simulation efficiency values computed for the monthly comparisons were 0.74 and 0.69 for the calibration period and 0.82 and 0.81 for the validation period. The effects of nine 30-year (1968 to 1997) sensitivity runs and six climate change scenarios were then analyzed, relative to a scenario baseline. A doubling of atmospheric CO2 to 660 ppmv (while holding other climate variables constant) resulted in a 36 percent increase in average annual streamflow while average annual flow changes of −49, −26, 28, and 58 percent were predicted for precipitation change scenarios of −20, −10, 10, and 20 percent, respectively. Mean annual streamflow changes of 51,10, 2, −6, 38, and 27 percent were predicted by SWAT in response to climate change projections generated from the CISRO-RegCM2, CCC, CCSR, CISRO-Mk2, GFDL, and HadCMS general circulation model scenarios. High seasonal variability was also predicted within individual climate change scenarios and large variability was indicated between scenarios within specific months. Overall, the climate change scenarios reveal a large degree of uncertainty in current climate change forecasts for the region. The results also indicate that the simulated UMRB hydrology is very sensitive to current forecasted future climate changes

Bed Utilisation in an Irish Regional Paediatric Unit – A Cross-Sectional Study Using the Paediatric Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (PAEP)

Background: Increasing demand for limited healthcare resources raises questions about appropriate use of inpatient beds. In the first paediatric bed utilisation study at a regional university centre in Ireland, we conducted a cross-sectional study to audit the utilisation of inpatient beds at the Regional Paediatric Unit (RPU) in University Hospital Limerick (UHL), Limerick, Ireland and also examined hospital activity data, to make recommendations for optimal use of inpatient resources. Methods: We used a questionnaire based on the paediatric appropriateness evaluation protocol (PAEP), modified and validated for use in the United Kingdom, to prospectively gather data regarding reasons for admission and for ongoing care after 2 days, from case records for all inpatients during 11 days in February (winter) and 7 days in May–June (summer). We conducted bivariate and multivariate analysis to explore associations between failure to meet PAEP criteria and patient attributes including age, gender, admission outside of office hours, arrival by ambulance, and private health insurance. Inpatient bed occupancy and day ward activity were also scrutinised. Results: Mean bed occupancy was 84.1%. In all, 12/355 (3.4%, 95% CI: 1.5%–5.3%) of children failed to meet PAEP admission criteria, and 27/189 (14.3%, 95% CI: 9.3%–19.3%) who were still inpatients after 2 days failed to meet criteria for ongoing care. 35/355 (9.9%, 95% CI: 6.8%–13.0%) of admissions fulfilled only the PAEP criterion for intravenous medications or fluid replacement. A logistic regression model constructed by forward selection identified a significant association between failure to meet PAEP criteria for ongoing care 2 days after admission and admission during office hours (08.00–17.59) (P=.020), and a marginally significant association between this outcome and arrival by ambulance (P = .054). Conclusion: At a mean bed occupancy of 84.1%, an Irish RPU can achieve 96.6% appropriate admissions. Although almost all inpatients met PAEP criteria, improvements could be made regarding emergency access to social services, management of parental anxiety, and optimisation of access to community-based services. Potential ways to provide nasogastric or intravenous fluid therapy on an ambulatory basis, and outpatient antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) should be explored. Elective surgical admissions should adhere to day-of-surgery admissions (DOSA) policy

Self-trapped Exciton and Franck-Condon Spectra Predicted in LaMnO3_3

Because the ground state has cooperative Jahn-Teller order, electronic excitations in LaMnO$_3$ are predicted to self-trap by local rearrangement of the lattice. The optical spectrum should show a Franck-Condon series, that is, a Gaussian envelope of vibrational sidebands. Existing data are reinterpreted in this way. The Raman spectrum is predicted to have strong multiphonon features.Comment: 5 pages with two embedded postscript figure

Leveraging sponsorship to achieve consumer relationship objectives through the creation of ‘marketing spaces’: An exploratory study

This paper explores the emergence of sponsorship-linked events as a strategy to leverage relational outcomes through sponsorship investment. The growing use of sponsorship-linked events reinforces the need to understand the potential of such leverage strategies, thus the findings contribute to the body of literature on effective sponsorship practices. Findings from semi-structured interviews with Sponsorship and Marketing Managers suggest a shifting orientation among sponsors towards the pursuit of relational objectives. The privileged access to consumers afforded through sponsorship allows sponsors to manufacture opportunities to create intimacy with customers through sponsorship-linked events in relaxed, comfortable environments; thus sponsorship-linked events are positioned as a rich environment to add value to consumer–brand interactions and achieve relational objectives. Hosting specifically designed events affords sponsors an increased modicum of control over consumer–brand experiences in sponsorship environments characterised by a lack of control over sponsored property actions. However, this control may be eroded by social media technologies, which facilitate consumer–consumer communication around sponsorship-linked events. Social media, however, is proposed as a useful tool to elicit consumer feedback, addressing the misalignment between current sponsorship evaluation practices and emergent relational objectives revealed in the empirical findings. Therefore, successfully activating the sponsorship-linked marketing space demands an integrated and strategic approach

Risk Factors for Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections during the First 3 Years of Life in the Tropics; Findings from a Birth Cohort.

Background: Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) infect more than 2 billion humans worldwide, causing significant morbidity in children. There are few data on the epidemiology and risk factors for infection in pre-school children. To investigate risk factors for infection in early childhood, we analysed data prospectively collected in the ECUAVIDA birth cohort in Ecuador. Methods and Findings: Children were recruited at birth and followed up to 3 years of age with periodic collection of stool samples that were examined microscopically for STH parasites. Data on social, demographic, and environmental risk factors were collected from the mother at time of enrolment. Associations between exposures and detection of STH infections were analysed by multivariable logistic regression. Data were analysed from 1,697 children for whom a stool sample was obtained at 3 years. 42.3% had at least one STH infection in the first 3 years of life and the most common infections were caused by A. lumbricoides (33.2% of children) and T. trichiura (21.2%). Hookworm infection was detected in 0.9% of children. Risk of STH infection was associated with factors indicative of poverty in our study population such as Afro-Ecuadorian ethnicity and low maternal educational level. Maternal STH infections during pregnancy were strong risk factors for any childhood STH infection, infections with either A. lumbricoides or T. trichiura, and early age of first STH infection. Children of mothers with moderate to high infections intensities with A. lumbricoides were most at risk. Conclusions: Our data show high rates of infection with STH parasites during the first 3 years of life in an Ecuadorian birth cohort, an observation that was strongly associated with maternal STH infections during pregnancy. The targeted treatment of women of childbearing age, in particular before pregnancy, with anthelmintic drugs could offer a novel approach to the prevention of STH infections in pre-school children

Coherent control of pulsed X-ray beams

Synchrotrons produce continuous trains of closely spaced X-ray pulses. Application of such sources to the study of atomic-scale motion requires efficient modulation of these beams on timescales ranging from nanoseconds to femtoseconds. However, ultrafast X-ray modulators are not generally available. Here we report efficient subnanosecond coherent switching of synchrotron beams by using acoustic pulses in a crystal to modulate the anomalous low-loss transmission of X-ray pulses. The acoustic excitation transfers energy between two X-ray beams in a time shorter than the synchrotron pulse width of about 100 ps. Gigahertz modulation of the diffracted X-rays is also observed. We report different geometric arrangements, such as a switch based on the collision of two counter-propagating acoustic pulses: this doubles the X-ray modulation frequency, and also provides a means of observing a localized transient strain inside an opaque material. We expect that these techniques could be scaled to produce subpicosecond pulses, through laser-generated coherent optical phonon modulation of X-ray diffraction in crystals. Such ultrafast capabilities have been demonstrated thus far only in laser-generated X-ray sources, or through the use of X-ray streak cameras(1-6).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62852/1/413825a0.pd

Combined exome and whole-genome sequencing identifies mutations in ARMC4 as a cause of primary ciliary dyskinesia with defects in the outer dynein arm

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, genetically heterogeneous ciliopathy disorder affecting cilia and sperm motility. A range of ultrastructural defects of the axoneme underlie the disease, which is characterised by chronic respiratory symptoms and obstructive lung disease, infertility and body axis laterality defects. We applied a next-generation sequencing approach to identify the gene responsible for this phenotype in two consanguineous families