Lexical stress constrains English-learning infants' segmentation in a non-native language.

Infants' ability to segment words in fluent speech is affected by their language experience. In this study we investigated the conditions under which infants can segment words in a non-native language. Using the Head-turn Preference Procedure, we found that monolingual English-learning 8-month-olds can segment bisyllabic words in Spanish (trochees and iambs) but not French (iambs). Our results are incompatible with accounts that rely on distributional learning, language rhythm similarity, or target word prosodic shape alone. Instead, we show that monolingual English-learning infants are able to segment words in a non-native language as long as words have stress, as is the case in English. More specifically, we show that even in a rhythmically different non-native language, English-learning infants can find words by detecting stressed syllables and treating them as word onsets or offsets

The science behind the flat wafer baking process

Wafers offer a unique sensorial experience to consumers. Driven by consumer trends towards products which are lighter but still indulgent, the wafer category is expected to grow further. Wafers are seldom eaten alone and are often combined with components with a contrasting texture, such as chocolate or ice cream. Wafers are intermediate components used in the manufacture of several top-selling confectionery products. The crispness and lightness contrasts well with soft cream or chocolate. The level of crispness and its retention over shelf life are critical parameters for the quality of wafer based confectionery products

Jet Breakup Dynamics of Inkjet Printing Fluids

Continuous InkJet (CIJ) printing is a common 2-Dimensional printing technique that creates jets of ink that breakup into drops as they are propelled towards a substrate to create a print. Inkjet printing has been used not only to print on paper, but to manufacture a variety of devices including OLEDs, solar cells and microfluidic devices. In many cases, the ‘ink’ consists of a polymer dissolved in a volatile solvent. As this ink is sprayed on to the substrate, the solvent evaporates, leaving the polymer behind as the print. The addition of the polymer alters the physics of the problem significantly enough that it varies greatly from jetting only a fluid with nothing dissolved in it. Polymers impart viscoelasticity to the solution, creating ink jets that are long-lived and difficult to break into droplets. In order to maintain the formation of drops in a repeatable, uniform fashion, a disturbance of known magnitude is imposed upon the jet. While jetting a liquid with no additives in it, this disturbance governed jet breakup leads to the formation of satellite drops, smaller drops of fluid in-between the main jet drops. Satellite drops are an undesirable occurrence in inkjet printing because of their unpredictable behavior and potential to affect the quality of the print. However, the addition of polymers to the liquid can control and potentially suppress the formation of these satellite drops, greatly improving the print quality. The elasticity of iv the polymer and its ability to influence the jet behavior and formation of satellite drops is highly dependent on multiple factors including the backbone rigidity, molecular weight and the concentration in which it is present in the fluid. Strongly viscoelastic effects have a marked effect on the jet and their presence can be quantified quite easily. However, some polymers show weak viscoelastic behavior while present in the ink fluids and may or may not affect the jetting process. The objective of this study is to examine such a class of polymeric fluids that are weakly viscoelastic in the context of inkjet printing and satellite drop formation. Firstly, the fluids are tested in an extensional rheology setup called Capillary Breakup Extensional Rheometry – Drop-on-Substrate (CaBER-DoS) to quantify their extensional properties. Then, they are tested in an emulated inkjet printing setup. The goal is to quantify the impact of the aforementioned factors on jetting and using satellite drop behavior as a guiding metric to understanding viscoelastic behavior in inkjet printing fluids