Intonation and second language acquisition : a study of the acquisition of English intonation by speakers of other languages

In the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research, the study of intonation, and prosodic systems generally, suffers from a considerable under-representation.This has far-reaching consequences. From the large body of empirical work on various aspects of SLA over the last three decades, a great deal has been turned to pedagogical use. Indeed, the field of SLA is closely linked to that of language pedagogy, as the dual acquisition theoretical and pedagogical character of many current journals and conferences shows.However, the mutually nourishing relationship between SLA research and language teaching suffers if either component is inadequate.In the case of intonation, this is exactly the case. At a time when the processes of SLA are under analysis from a wide range of linguistic, psychological and sociolinguistic perspectives, relatively little is known, even on a simple descriptive level, about the acquisition of intonation. There is no body of studies of L2 intonational form comparable, for example, to the 'morpheme studies' or to studies of 'developmental sequences' which informed much thinking in the field in the 1970s and 1980s (see Ellis 1994, Ch.3); no substantial body of work, that is, which might form the basis of further research.The present study aims to contribute to current knowledge on the acquisition of intonational form in second languages. It seeks to provide a detailed account of how certain aspects of L2 English intonation develop, both in terms of their phonetics, and also in terms of the linguistic and discoursal ends to which they are put. The study is divided into two parts:Part One: in which the theoretical and descriptive bases of the study are established. It deals first with aspects of intonational form in English, describing in detail the prosodic systems which are employed to mark various aspects of informational structure within the spoken language, and also considers briefly the current state of language teaching in these areas (Chapter One). Then a review of research into the acquisition of sound systems in second languages is presented, looking particularly at intonational form and other aspects of prosodic production and perception (Chapter Two).Part Two: in which the experiments which have been undertaken as part of this study are presented. Firstly, the procedural and analytical aspects of these experiments will be described (Chapter Three). The findings will then be presented and discussed (Chapters Four to Seven). Finally, findings will be summarised and some general conclusions drawn (Chapter Eight)

Design and development of a pole climbing surveillance robot

The cost of installing, monitoring and servicing a fixed camera system can be high and not all areas are in need of constant surveying. The increase in crime in urban areas emphasizes the need for a more effective and efficient surveillance system, as a result could lead to fewer crimes. A temporary surveillance unit which is able to climb to gain an elevated view has great potential for both military and civilian application. This paper highlights how the patent pending climbing robotic system (PC-101) was developed to be used by London’s Metropolitan Police Forensic Department for analysing outdoor crime scenes especially that related to car accidents. When cars are involved in accidents in the Metropolitan area, depending on the scale of the incident, the road generally has to be shut off to traffic if there are serious casualties. Elevated images are required for cases which may be taken to court, which then the images are then used as evidence, therefore regulations on the quality and perspectives of the image have to be met. By climbing a range of existing street furniture such as street lamp post, a temporary platform eliminates the use of larger special vehicle which struggles to get to the crime scene as well as cuts down the duration of the road closure. 98% of London street lamps in the Metropolitan area are constructed out of steel structures which make the use of magnetic wheels for locomotion an ideal solution to the climbing problem. Once remote controlled to the top of the lamp post, the PC-101 makes use of its actuated camera arm/gimbal to take the required shot, which can be seen on the ground control unit. A surveillance tool of this sort can be used for many applications which include crowd/riot control, crime scene investigations, monitoring hostile environments and even the monitoring of nature within urban environment

Developing a low-cost beer dispensing robotic system for the service industry

As the prices of commercially available electronic and mechanical components decrease, manufacturers such as Devantech and Revolution Education have made encoded motor controller systems and microcontrollers very accessible to engineers and designers. This has made it possible to design sophisticated robotic and mechatronic systems very rapidly and at relatively low cost. A recent project in the Autonomous Systems Lab at Middlesex University, UK was to design and build a small, automated, robotic bartender based around the 5 litre Heineken 'Draughtkeg' system, which is capable of patrolling a bar and dispensing beer when signalled to by a customer. Because the system was designed as a commercial product, design constraints focused on keeping the build cost down, and so electronic components were sourced from outside companies and interfaced with a bespoke chassis and custom mechanical parts designed and manufactured on site at the University. All the programming was conducted using the proprietary BASIC language, which is freely available from the PicAXE supplier at no cost. This paper will discuss the restrictions involved in building a robot chassis around 'off-theshelf' components, and the issues arising from making the human-machine interaction intuitive whilst only using low-cost ultrasonic sensors. Programming issues will also be discussed, such as the control of accuracy when interfacing a PicAXE microcontroller with a Devantech MD25 Motor Controller board. Public live testing of the system was conducted at the Kinetica Art Fair 2010 event in London and has since been picked up by websites such as Engadget.com and many others. Feedback on the system will be described, as well as the refinements made as a result of these test

SOUNDS RECORDED FROM BAIRD\u27S BEAKED WHALE, \u3ci\u3eBERARDIUS BAIRDII\u3c/i\u3e

The vocal behavior of ziphiid whales is very poorly known. Free-swimming northern bottlenose whales, Hyperoodon ampullatus, have been recorded producing 3-16 kHz whistles and chirps (Winn et al. 1970; linear equipment frequency response 500 Hz-14 kHz) and 20-30 kHz ultrasonic clicks (Fauchner and Whitehead, unpublished data; equipment response to 35 kHz). A free-swimming mesoplodont beaked whale (probably Mesoplodon hertori) produced ultrasonic clicks (Ljungblad, unpublished data; equipment frequency response to 32 kHz). Sounds have been recorded from a stranded Blainville\u27s beaked whale, Mesoplodon densirostris (Caldwell and Caldwell 1971; equipment frequency response 40 Hz-20 kHz) and a post-stranding, captive Hubb\u27s beaked whale, Mesoplodon carlhubbsi (Lynn and Reiss 1992; equipment frequency response 70 Hz-40 kHz). The latter two species produced low-frequency pulses (mostly \u3c 2 kHz). The Hubb\u27s beaked whale also produced broadband clicks extending beyond the limit of the recording gear (\u3e 40 kHz) and a few weak whistles (\u3c 10.7 kHz). During cetacean survey cruises conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service off the coasts of Oregon, U.S.A., and Baja California, Mexico, we recently made what we believe to be the first recordings of Baird\u27s beaked whales (Berardius bairdii). On 27 July 1994 the NOAA Ship Snrveyor encountered a group of 30-35 Baird\u27s beaked whales about 225 nmi west of Hecata Head, Oregon (at 44°10\u27N, 129°10\u27W). Two sonobuoys (ex U.S. Navy, type 57B) were deployed. The first was deployed 1.6 nmi away from the animals, before a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) was launched. The second was deployed 55 min later from the RHIB, within tens of meters from the animals. To relocate the animals after each dive, a continuous search was maintained by two observers searching the forward quadrants with 25X binoculars and two or more additional observers searching all quadrants with 7X binoculars and unaided eyes. The only other cetacean seen during this time was one large sperm whale 6-10 nmi away. Sounds were recorded using a Nagra IV-SJ analog tape recorder, for a total system response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. We filtered these recordings at 20 kHz (low pass) and digitized them at 44.1 kHz (16 bit). Spectrograms (4096 pt FFT, 1024 pt frame length, 87.5% overlap, 174.85 Hz analyzing filter bandwidth) were generated using Canary™ signal processing software (v. 1.2.1; Cornell University), running on a Power Macintosh™ 760011 20

Exploratory study for detecting low clouds (base < 10,000 feet) over the southwestern United States using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave (TRMM) Imager 85.5 GHz data and coincident 10.8 micron infrared data

Includes bibliographical references.Recent research in retrieving cloud liquid water over land using the 85.5 GHz microwave channel has shown limited success. This work usually requires extensive manipulation of the data to correct for atmospheric effects, and to eliminate rain events Even with these corrections, the over-land methods must still address the complex spatial variability of soil and vegetation characteristics, which have a profound affect on surface emissivity, e.g., a non-uniform background. This work uses the Normalized Polarization Difference (NPD) method in an attempt to identify low cloud signature over the Southwestern United States from 1 June to 31 August 1998. This will provide nighttime capability in identifying low-cloud areas over data-sparse, data-denied regions with relatively uniform terrain characteristics. The development of a simplified method for use in data-sparse, data-denied regions was of prime importance In order to identify low clouds, effective surface emittance calculations were made using co-located Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave 85.5 GHz data and coincident 10.8 μm infrared data for clear-sky conditions. Based on previous work, the Southwestern United States, in general, should have the large polarization differences (> 0.015) as well as uniform skin temperatures, which could provide a suitable background to detect low cloud signal above the background noise. Eleven sites were chosen based on varying degrees of polarization difference, as well as having available surface and upper air data. In situ surface observations were used to identify the low cloud base, while the infrared brightness temperature at 10. 8 μm was used to estimated the cloud top height using the nearest upper air sounding. The estimated cloud thickness was calculated from this data. Extensive efforts were made to eliminate multiple cloud layers, which would have a negative impact on brightness temperatures. A scattering index, the Grody algorithm, and surface observations were used to filter precipitating clouds. The results using a linear regression best fit indicated poor correlation (R2) between the NPD and the 2 estimated low-cloud thickness with values of R2 ranging from 0.002 to 0.345. Four primary error mechanisms were identified, and quantified. The uncorrected atmosphere accounted for about a 0.7-1.7 K error; horizontal variations in infrared temperature on the scale of 2.0-7.3 K; instrument noise of about 1.5K; and effective surface emissivity relative uncertainties ranging from 0.22- 1.16%. Future improvements in sensor noise characteristics and resolution, as well as the ability to perform instantaneous atmospheric corrections using coincident sounder and microwave imager data should lead to a viable NPD method over land.Research supported by the Department of Defense Center for Geosciences/Atmospheric Research, under the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Cooperative Agreement no. DAAL01-98-2-0078, and by the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT)

The one-electron oxidation product of a metallocenyl-terminated cyanine

The 1-(2,3,4,5,1',2',3',4'-octa­methyl­ferrocen-1-yl)-3-(ruth­eno­cen­yl)­allylium cation readily undergoes one-electron oxidation to a dication in which an octa­methyl­ferrocenium moiety is bridged by a vinyl­ene group to a [(η^6-fulvene)(η^5-cyclo­penta­dienyl)­ruthenium]+ moiety. In the title compound, 1-(2,3,4,5,1',2',3',4'-octa­methyl­ferrocen-1-yl)-3-(ruth­eno­cen­ylidene)prop-1-enium(2+) bis­(tetra­fluoro­borate), [Fe­Ru­(C_5H_5)(C_9H_(13))(C_(17)H_(19))]­(BF_4)_2, the C-C bond lengths in the bridge (average for two independent mol­ecules) are, starting from the ipso octa­methyl­ferrocenium carbon and ending at the exo carbon of the coordinated fulvene, 1.455 (6), 1.344 (3) and 1.449 (8) Å, indicating a localized electronic structure

Investigating the use of unmanned plant machinery on construction sites

The UK Construction Sector has been estimated to contribute 8% of the UK’s GDP [1]. The worldwide recession has forced construction companies to introduce and adopt cost saving measures to increase productivity. Several robotic building systems are in development for the Construction Sector such as the PERI’s Automatic Climbing System [2] and Brokk’s remote-controlled demolition machines [3], but there has been little implementation on live sites. Construction sites by their very nature are dynamically changing environments, so if human input was removed entirely, a robot would need a high level of awareness of the current state of the building project in order to navigate and carry out its task

Fertility control as a means of controlling bovine tuberculosis in badger (Meles meles) populations in south-west England: predictions from a spatial stochastic simulation model

A spatial stochastic simulation model was used to assess the potential of fertility control, based on a yet-to-be-developed oral bait-delivered contraceptive directed at females, for the control of bovine tuberculosis in badger populations in south-west England. The contraceptive had a lifelong effect so that females rendered sterile in any particular year remained so for the rest of their lives. The efficacy of fertility control alone repeated annually for varying periods of time was compared with a single culling operation and integrated control involving an initial single cull followed by annually repeated fertility control. With fertility control alone, in no instance was the disease eradicated completely while a viable badger population (mean group size of at least one individual) was still maintained. Near eradication of the disease (less than 1% prevalence) combined with the survival of a minimum viable badger population was only achieved under a very limited set of conditions, either with high efficiency of control (95%) over a short time period (1-3 years) or a low efficiency of control (20%) over an intermediate time period (10-20 years). Under these conditions, it took more than 20 years for the disease to decline to such low levels. A single cull of 80% efficiency succeeded in near eradication of the disease (below 1% prevalence) after a period of 6-8 years, while still maintaining a viable badger population. Integrated strategies reduced disease prevalence more rapidly and to lower levels than culling alone, although the mean badger group size following the onset of control was smaller. Under certain integrated strategies, principally where a high initial cull (80%) was followed by fertility control over a short (1-3 year) time period, the disease could be completely eradicated while a viable badger population was maintained. However, even under the most favourable conditions of integrated control, it took on average more than 12 years following the onset of control for the disease to disappear completely from the badger population. These results show that whilst fertility control would not be a successful strategy for the control of bovine tuberculosis in badgers if used alone, it could be effective if used with culling as part of an integrated strategy. This type of integrated strategy is likely to be more effective in terms of disease eradication than a strategy employing culling alone. However, the high cost of developing a suitable fertility control agent, combined with the welfare and conservation implications, are significant factors which should be taken into account when considering its possible use as a means of controlling bovine tuberculosis in badger populations in the UK