Subject-Verb Agreement Comprehension in Child Catalan

The present study aims to provide evidence for early subject-verb agreement in Catalanspeaking children through a picture selection task. It follows a series of studies previously developed in the field where asymmetries between production and comprehension on agreement were found (Johnson et al., 2004; Pérez-Leroux, 2005). Results in English seemed to hint that children were not understanding subject-verb agreement by the age of four or five because English has a weak morphological system. However, results on Caribbean Spanish, which possesses a robust morphology set for agreement, branched out into a deeper issue: an asymmetry on production and comprehension of number agreement in favour of an early production. That conclusion challenges the general idea of comprehension preceding production in language acquisition. Catalan and Spanish share a robust morphology system. However, Catalan results presented in this study challenge those previously obtained. Participants on the study did not present any type of comprehension delay. Percentages on mean accuracy in pointing towards the matching pictures were very high in general. While the younger group obtained a 79% of total accuracy between singular and plural sets, the older group was accurate on an 87% of answers. These results go together with recent studies on agreement comprehension other researchers have developed through eye-tracking techniques (Brandt-Kobele and Höhle, 2010; González-Gómez et al., 2017). Recent data seems to indicate that, in fact, asymmetries are found due to comprehension tasks being too demanding for children to perform. This study offers an explanation to these contrasts as the result of methodological problems, rather than grammatical asymmetry. Obstacles for children to focus on a certain element may hinder the emergence of linguistic knowledge on the task, especially for younger groups. Results show not only that Catalan-speaking children understand and produce agreement at early ages but also that, under simpler comprehension tasks, children offer a higher level of linguistic knowledge

Metáforas bélicas en el discurso parlamentario en el Congreso de los Diputados sobre el "procés"

A través de una aproximación cognitiva, este estudio pretende analizar semánticamente las metáforas bélicas que se emplean dentro del discurso en el Congreso de los Diputados sobre el procés entre las sesiones parlamentarias de octubre del 2017 y diciembre del 2018. Se debaten qué bloques están enfrentados, cuál es su nivel de beligerancia y qué papel tienen los eventos histórico-políticos en el grado bélico de las metáforas para poder argumentar si es el bloque constitucional (PP, Ciudadanos y PSOE) quienes recurren a estas metáforas, frente al bloque soberanista (Podemos y coalición, ERC y PDeCat), quienes no las utilizan en su discurso.A través d'una aproximació cognitiva, aquest estudi pretén analitzar semànticament les metàfores bèl·liques que s'utilitzen dins del discurs al Congrés dels Diputats sobre el procés entre les sessions parlamentaries de l'octubre del 2017 i el desembre del 2018. Es debaten quins blocs estan enfrontats, quin és el seu nivell de bel·ligerància i quin paper tenen els esdeveniments històrico-polítics al grau bèl·lic de les metàfores per poder argumentar si és el bloc constitucional (PP, Ciudadanos y PSOE) qui recorre a aquestes metàfores, davant del bloc sobiranista (Podemos i la seva coalició, ERC i PDeCat), qui no les utilitzen al seu discurs

High-quality conforming hexahedral meshes of patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysms including their intraluminal thrombi

In order to perform finite element (FE) analyses of patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysms, geometries derived from medical images must be meshed with suitable elements. We propose a semi-automatic method for generating conforming hexahedral meshes directly from contours segmented from medical images. Magnetic resonance images are generated using a protocol developed to give the abdominal aorta high contrast against the surrounding soft tissue. These data allow us to distinguish between the different structures of interest. We build novel quadrilateral meshes for each surface of the sectioned geometry and generate conforming hexahedral meshes by combining the quadrilateral meshes. The three-layered morphology of both the arterial wall and thrombus is incorporated using parameters determined from experiments. We demonstrate the quality of our patient-specific meshes using the element Scaled Jacobian. The method efficiently generates high-quality elements suitable for FE analysis, even in the bifurcation region of the aorta into the iliac arteries. For example, hexahedral meshes of up to 125,000 elements are generated in less than 130 s, with 94.8 % of elements well suited for FE analysis. We provide novel input for simulations by independently meshing both the arterial wall and intraluminal thrombus of the aneurysm, and their respective layered morphologies

Cyanobacterial Diversity and a New Acaryochloris-Like Symbiont from Bahamian Sea-Squirts

Symbiotic interactions between ascidians (sea-squirts) and microbes are poorly understood. Here we characterized the cyanobacteria in the tissues of 8 distinct didemnid taxa from shallow-water marine habitats in the Bahamas Islands by sequencing a fragment of the cyanobacterial 16S rRNA gene and the entire 16S–23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and by examining symbiont morphology with transmission electron (TEM) and confocal microscopy (CM). As described previously for other species, Trididemnum spp. mostly contained symbionts associated with the Prochloron-Synechocystis group. However, sequence analysis of the symbionts in Lissoclinum revealed two unique clades. The first contained a novel cyanobacterial clade, while the second clade was closely associated with Acaryochloris marina. CM revealed the presence of chlorophyll d (chl d) and phycobiliproteins (PBPs) within these symbiont cells, as is characteristic of Acaryochloris species. The presence of symbionts was also observed by TEM inside the tunic of both the adult and larvae of L. fragile, indicating vertical transmission to progeny. Based on molecular phylogenetic and microscopic analyses, Candidatus Acaryochloris bahamiensis nov. sp. is proposed for this symbiotic cyanobacterium. Our results support the hypothesis that photosymbiont communities in ascidians are structured by host phylogeny, but in some cases, also by sampling location

Increased Inter-Colony Fusion Rates Are Associated with Reduced COI Haplotype Diversity in an Invasive Colonial Ascidian Didemnum vexillum

Considerable progress in our understanding of the population genetic changes associated with biological invasions has been made over the past decade. Using selectively neutral loci, it has been established that reductions in genetic diversity, reflecting founder effects, have occurred during the establishment of some invasive populations. However, some colonial organisms may actually gain an ecological advantage from reduced genetic diversity because of the associated reduction in inter-colony conflict. Here we report population genetic analyses, along with colony fusion experiments, for a highly invasive colonial ascidian, Didemnum vexillum. Analyses based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) partial coding sequences revealed two distinct D. vexillum clades. One COI clade appears to be restricted to the probable native region (i.e., north-west Pacific Ocean), while the other clade is present in widely dispersed temperate coastal waters around the world. This clade structure was supported by 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence data, which revealed a one base-pair difference between the two clades. Recently established populations of D. vexillum in New Zealand displayed greatly reduced COI genetic diversity when compared with D. vexillum in Japan. In association with this reduction in genetic diversity was a significantly higher inter-colony fusion rate between randomly paired New Zealand D. vexillum colonies (80%, standard deviation ±18%) when compared with colonies found in Japan (27%, standard deviation ±15%). The results of this study add to growing evidence that for colonial organisms reductions in population level genetic diversity may alter colony interaction dynamics and enhance the invasive potential of newly colonizing species