A Superpower Apologizes? President Clinton’s Address in Rwanda

The failure to intervene in Rwanda was one of the greatest foreign policy mishaps of Bill Clinton’s presidency. In March 1998, Clinton made an extended tour of the African subcontinent with a stop in Rwanda. During his brief visit, the president attempted to repair the image of the United States among Rwandans and the broader international community. Clinton used three primary image repair strategies: democratization of blame, corrective action, and transcend-ence. Despite his emphasis on the important lessons that the world could learn from the Rwan-dan genocide, we argue that his rhetorical choices ultimately undermined his larger mission and led to the mixed response he received from pundits, politicians, and policymakers

Neural inhibition during speech planning contributes to contrastive hyperarticulation

Previous work has demonstrated that words are hyperarticulated on dimensions of speech that differentiate them from a minimal pair competitor. This phenomenon has been termed contrastive hyperarticulation (CH). We present a dynamic neural field (DNF) model of voice onset time (VOT) planning that derives CH from an inhibitory influence of the minimal pair competitor during planning. We test some predictions of the model with a novel experiment investigating CH of voiceless stop consonant VOT in pseudowords. The results demonstrate a CH effect in pseudowords, consistent with a basis for the effect in the real-time planning and production of speech. The scope and magnitude of CH in pseudowords was reduced compared to CH in real words, consistent with a role for interactive activation between lexical and phonological levels of planning. We discuss the potential of our model to unify an apparently disparate set of phenomena, from CH to phonological neighborhood effects to phonetic trace effects in speech errors

Basin Wildrye (\u3cem\u3eLeymus cinereus\u3c/em\u3e) Pooled Tetraploid Accessions for U.S. Intermountain West Rangeland Reclamation

Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus [Scribn. & Merr.] Á. Löve) is an important perennial, hardy, long-lived, cool season C3 native grass of rangeland plant communities throughout much of western United States and Canada. All classes of livestock and wildlife, including large and small birds and mammals, utilise the grass year round for food and protection due to its 2-3 m tall, stiff stature which provides standing winter cover. Though occurring in precipitation areas of 150-500 mm and elevations of 600 to 3,000 m, it is usually found in deep, well-drained soils of high water holding capacity along drainage areas. Seedling vigour is only fair, and stands may take 2 to 5 years to fully establish. While tolerant of low to moderate levels (\u3c 10 mmhos/cm3) of saline and sodic soils and short-term winter or spring flooding, it does not tolerate extended periods of inundation (Ogle et al. 2012). It also does not tolerate heavy grazing or haying in the spring and summer due to its high growing point and minimal regrowth capability, and misuse has caused diminished population density through much of its original range (Anonymous, Utah Farmer-Stockman 1983). In response to losses of basin wildrye, due to wildfires and invasive species as well as historical overgrazing, it is desired to bolster the populations of basin wildrye in the Great Basin and other parts of the U.S. Intermountain area. However, the only seed supplies with reasonable commercial availability have been sourced from sites distant to this geographic area and establishment and survival has been inconsistent. These include the varieties Magnar, an octoploid (2n=56) originally collected in south-eastern British Columbia (released 1979) and Trailhead, a tetraploid (2n=28) originally collected in south-central Montana (re-leased 1991). Washoe germplasm (2002; tetraploid) was released for use on harsh mining sites in Montana, and the variety Continental (2009) an octoploid developed from the hybridisation of Magnar and Trailhead (Ogle et al. 2012)

Russian assimilatory palatalization is incomplete neutralization

Incomplete neutralization refers to phonetic traces of underlying contrasts in phonologically neutralizing contexts. The present study examines one such context: Russian assimilatory palatalization in C+j sequences. Russian contrasts plain and palatalized consonants, with the plain consonants having a secondary articulation involving retraction of the tongue dorsum (velarization/uvularization). However, Russian also has stop-glide sequences that form near-minimal pairs with palatalized stops. In the environment preceding palatal glides, the contrast between palatalized and plain consonants is neutralized, due to the palatalization of the plain stop (assimilatory palatalization). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the neutralization is complete. To do so, we conducted an electromagnetic articulography (EMA) experiment examining temporal coordination and the spatial position of the tongue body in underlyingly palatalized consonants and those derived from assimilatory palatalization. Articulatory results from four native speakers of Russian revealed that gestures in both conditions are coordinated as complex segments, i.e., they are palatalized consonants. However, there are differences across conditions consistent with the residual presence of a tongue dorsum retraction gesture in the plain obstruents. We conclude that neutralization of the plain-palatal contrast in Russian is incomplete; consonants in the assimilatory palatalization condition exhibit inter-gestural coordination characteristic of palatalized consonants along with residual evidence of an underlying tongue dorsum retraction (velarization/uvularization) gesture

Flapping Tail Membrane in Bats Produces Potentially Important Thrust during Horizontal Takeoffs and Very Slow Flight

Historically, studies concerning bat flight have focused primarily on the wings. By analyzing high-speed video taken on 48 individuals of five species of vespertilionid bats, we show that the capacity to flap the tail-membrane (uropatagium) in order to generate thrust and lift during takeoffs and minimal-speed flight (<1 m s−1) was largely underestimated. Indeed, bats flapped the tail-membrane by extensive dorso-ventral fanning motions covering as much as 135 degrees of arc consistent with thrust generation by air displacement. The degree of dorsal extension of the tail-membrane, and thus the potential amount of thrust generated during platform launches, was significantly correlated with body mass (P = 0.02). Adduction of the hind limbs during upstrokes collapsed the tail-membrane thereby reducing its surface area and minimizing negative lift forces. Abduction of the hind limbs during the downstroke fully expanded the tail-membrane as it was swept ventrally. The flapping kinematics of the tail-membrane is thus consistent with expectations for an airfoil. Timing offsets between the wings and tail-membrane during downstrokes was as much as 50%, suggesting that the tail-membrane was providing thrust and perhaps lift when the wings were retracting through the upstoke phase of the wing-beat cycle. The extent to which the tail-membrane was used during takeoffs differed significantly among four vespertilionid species (P = 0.01) and aligned with predictions derived from bat ecomorphology. The extensive fanning motion of the tail membrane by vespertilionid bats has not been reported for other flying vertebrates

Intergroup Dynamics in Speech Perception: Interaction Among Experience, Attitudes and Expectations

Experience, attitudes, and expectations have been identified as separate influences on speech perception and comprehension across groups. In this study, we investigate the interaction among these three variables. 58 Australia-born participants completed an online survey and a vowel categorization task. The survey examined participants’ experience with Vietnamese-accented English and their attitudes towards Asians. The vowel categorization task examined participants’ recovery of a Vietnamese-accented speaker’s intended vowels. Half of the participants were told to expect a Vietnamese accent whereas the other half were not. Results indicated that the relationship between listener expectations and group attitudes varied according to whether or not participants had experience with the Vietnamese accent. This interaction was most clearly reflected on the ‘book’ vowel. Compared to participants who did not expect a Vietnamese accent, had no experience with the Vietnamese accent, but positive attitudes towards the Vietnamese group, those who expected a Vietnamese accent showed a decrease in accuracy on ‘book’ categorization. A decrease in ‘book’ categorization accuracy was also found for those having experience with the accent but negative attitudes. In contrast, an increase in accuracy was found for those having no experience with the Vietnamese accent and negative attitudes towards the Vietnamese group, and those having experience with the accent and positive attitudes. We concluded that expectations, experience and attitudes interact in their relationship with speech perception

Phase Ib/II Study of the Safety and Efficacy of Combination Therapy with Multikinase VEGF Inhibitor Pazopanib and MEK Inhibitor Trametinib In Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

Purpose: Pazopanib, a multireceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting primarily VEGFRs1–3, is approved for advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and renal cell cancer. Downstream of VEGFR, trametinib is an FDA-approved MEK inhibitor used for melanoma. We hypothesized that vertical pathway inhibition using trametinib would synergize with pazopanib in advanced STS. Experimental Design: In an open-label, multicenter, investigator-initiated National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)-sponsored trial, patients with metastatic or advanced STS received pazopanib 800 mg and 2 mg of trametinib continuously for 28-day cycles. The primary endpoint was 4-month progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints were overall survival, response rate, and disease control rate. Results: Twenty-five patients were enrolled. The median age was 49 years (range, 22–77 years) and 52% were male. Median PFS was 2.27 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.9–3.9], and the 4-month PFS rate was 21.1% (95% CI, 9.7–45.9), which was not an improvement over the hypothesized null 4-month PFS rate of 28.3% (P ¼ 0.79). Median overall survival was 9.0 months (95% CI, 5.7–17.7). A partial response occurred in 2 (8%) of the evaluable patients (95% CI, 1.0–26.0), one with PIK3CA E542K-mutant embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and another with spindle cell sarcoma. The disease control rate was 14/25 (56%; 95% CI, 34.9–75.6). The most common adverse events were diarrhea (84%), nausea (64%), and fatigue (56%). Conclusions: The combination of pazopanib and trametinib was tolerable without indication of added activity of the combination in STS. Further study may be warranted in RAS/RAF aberrant sarcomas. ©2017 AACR

The role of acoustic similarity and non-native categorisation in predicting non-native discrimination : Brazilian Portuguese vowels by English vs. Spanish listeners

This study tests whether Australian English (AusE) and European Spanish (ES) listeners differ in their categorisation and discrimination of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) vowels. In particular, we investigate two theoretically relevant measures of vowel category overlap (acoustic vs. perceptual categorisation) as predictors of non-native discrimination difficulty. We also investigate whether the individual listener’s own native vowel productions predict non-native vowel perception better than group averages. The results showed comparable performance for AusE and ES participants in their perception of the BP vowels. In particular, discrimination patterns were largely dependent on contrast-specific learning scenarios, which were similar across AusE and ES. We also found that acoustic similarity between individuals’ own native productions and the BP stimuli were largely consistent with the participants’ patterns of non-native categorisation. Furthermore, the results indicated that both acoustic and perceptual overlap successfully predict discrimination performance. However, accuracy in discrimination was better explained by perceptual similarity for ES listeners and by acoustic similarity for AusE listeners. Interestingly, we also found that for ES listeners, the group averages explained discrimination accuracy better than predictions based on individual production data, but that the AusE group showed no difference