Investigating the Dimensions of Spatial Language

Spatial prepositions in the English language can be used to denote a vast array of configurations which greatly diverge from any typical meaning and there is much discussion regarding how their semantics are shaped and understood. Though there is general agreement that non-geometric aspects play a significant role in spatial preposition usage, there is a lack of available data providing insight into how these extra semantic aspects should be modelled. This paper is aimed at facilitating the acquisition of data that supports theoretical analysis and helps understand the extent to which different kinds of features play a role in the semantics of spatial prepositions. We first consider key features of spatial prepositions given in the literature. We then introduce a framework intended to facilitate the collection of rich data; including geometric, functional and conventional features. Finally, we describe a preliminary study, concluding with some insights into the difficulties of modelling spatial prepositions and gathering meaningful data about them

Supporting autonomy in physical education: Perception versus reality.

Esta investigación se centró, por una parte en la percepción de apoyo a la autonomía en las clases de Educación física, que tienen tanto el alumnado como el profesorado, y por otra, en la coherencia entre percepción y la realidad observada en las clases. Se aplicaron dos escalas al profesorado y al alumnado con el objeto de conocer con qué frecuencia se producen comportamientos instructivos favorables al desarrollo de la autonomía, y se observaron y grabaron en video clases impartidas por el profesorado. Los resultados muestran que la frecuencia de los comportamientos instructivos de apoyo a la autonomía durante la intervención de enseñanza es significativamente menor que la percibida por el alumnado y el profesorado. La realidad observada muestra un perfil de profesorado con gran margen de mejora en comportamientos como: calidad de la comunicación, funcionalidad de las tareas, fomento del pensamiento del alumnado, situaciones en las que el alumnado pueda expresar su opinión sobre las tareas y motivación intrínsecaThis investigation, on the one hand it focuses on students´ and teachers´ perception about autonomy support during Physical Education instruction, and on the other hand, in the coherence between perception and reality observed in the classes. Two scales were administered to determine the frequency of instructional behaviors favoring the development of autonomy, and teacher´s classes were observed and videotaped. The results show that the observed frequency of instructional behavior favoring autonomy support during classes is significantly lower than that perceived by students and teachers. The observed reality reveals a teacher profile with room for improvement in behaviors such as: communication quality, task functionality, promotion of students’ thinking, creation of situations in which students can express their opinions of the tasks, and increasing intrinsic motivationEl presente artículo forma parte del estudio realizado con la financiación del proyecto SEJ2007-672687/EDU del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovació

EU Polluting Emissions: an empirical analysis

We provide an empirical study of the evolution of emissions of some specific air pollutants on a panel of EU member states from 1990 to 2000, and we relate observed patterns to macroeconomic performance. The ratio pollution emission to GDP, so-called emission intensity, has decreased over the period considered in most EU member states. However, a non-parametric analysis reveals that the relative positions of different countries in terms of GDP growth and reduction of emissions have remained basically unchanged. More specifically, remarkable differences can be detected between the richest and the poorest EU members notwithstanding. Also, more dispersion in emissions levels can be found in those countries with lower per capita GDP.Polluting emissions, European Union

A Minimal Inflation Scenario

We elaborate on a minimal inflation scenario based entirely on the general properties of supersymmetry breaking in supergravity models. We identify the inflaton as the scalar component of the Goldstino superfield. We write plausible candidates for the effective action describing this chiral superfield. In particular the theory depends (apart from parameters of O(1)) on a single free parameter: the scale of supersymmetry breaking. This can be fixed using the amplitude of CMB cosmological perturbations and we therefore obtain the scale of supersymmetry breaking to be 10^{12-14} GeV. The model also incorporates explicit R-symmetry breaking in order to satisfy the slow roll conditions. In our model the eta-problem is solved without extra fine-tuning. We try to obtain as much information as possible in a model independent way using general symmetry properties of the theory's effective action, this leads to a new proposal on how to exit the inflationary phase and reheat the Universe.Comment: matches published version (typo corrected

Right handed currents and FSI phases in B^0 --> \phi K^{*0}

We consider possible effects of New Physics (NP) on the angular distributions of the decay B^0 --> \phi K^{*0}, showing how these effects depend on the nature of nonstandard interactions. In a general framework based on factorization, we show that triple products can be used to probe the chirality of NP currents. In this analysis we take into account the presence of non-vanishing strong phases, which is motivated by recent experimental evidence. It is seen that the observability of right-handed NP is strongly dependent on the relation between the relative magnitude of these phases and the ratio of Standard Model and NP scales. As an application we estimate the expected values of relevant observables in a particular Left Right Symmetric Model.Comment: 16 pages, no figures. Comments and references added, conclusions unchanged. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Interactive effects of solar radiation and inorganic nitrogen on biofiltration, biomass production, photosynthetic activity and the accumulation of bioactive compounds i

Interactive effects of solar radiation and inorganic nitrogen and phosphate on biofiltration capacity, biomass production, photosynthetic activity and the accumulation of bio-active compounds were studied in the red alga Gracilaria cornea grown in tanks with a seawater open-flow system during 35 days. Two light conditions were utilized: outdoor (O), full solar natural radiation, and indoor, inside of a greenhouse (G) where UV-B radiation was cut-off and part of the UV-A radiation was filtered. Two inorganic nitrogen and phosphate concentrations were used: High nutrients (HN; 100–200μM of NH4+ and 20μM of KHPO4) and Low nutrients (LN; 10–20μM of NH4+ and 1μM of KHPO4). Growth and biomass productivity were related to the daily integrated electron transport rate determined in situ, as an estimator of daily photosynthetic activity. Nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUE) was close to 100 % under LN, whereas under HN it ranged from 50 to 70 % in the first week of culture, decreasing to 10–15 % in the rest of the experimental period. Nitrogen uptake rate (NUR) ranged from 20 to 45 mmol N m−2 h−1 under HN, and 5 to 18 mmol N m−2 h−1 in LN treatments. Morphological and pigmentation changes were evident through the culture period. The thalli under HN were more reddish under the indoor treatments, than that in LN. The internal compounds increased throughout the experimental period. Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) were accumulated under HN. N plays a photoprotective role due to both the increased photosynthesis and the MAA content. Maximal MAA productivity reached 113–253 mg MAAs m−2 d−1 under the O-HN treatment, the highest level reported until now in the bibliography. G. cornea could be used for bioremediation of high N content waters. In addition, under full solar radiation and high N availability produce high levels of bioactive compounds as MAAs, polyphenols and biliproteins for cosmeceutical applications.This study was financed by resources of the Photobiology and Biotechnology of aquatic organisms (FYBOA-RNM 295) research group and the Project “Photoprotectors of marine algae: compatible cosmeceutics to the ocean” (UMA18-FEDER JA-162) and Nazca Project (P20-00458) of the Andalusian Goverment. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Influence of relative humidity on the carbonation of calcium hydroxide nanoparticles and the formation of calcium carbonate polymorphs

A consolidating product based on nanoparticles of slaked lime (Ca(OH)2) dispersed in isopropyl alcohol was exposed under different relative humidities (RH), 33%, 54%, 75% and 90% during 7, 14, 21 and 28days. The characterization of the calcium hydroxide nanoparticles and the formed calcium carbonate polymorphs have been performed by Micro Raman spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). Precipitation and transformation of calcium carbonate polymorphs strongly depend on the relative humidity (RH). Higher RH (75%-90% RH) gives rise to amorphous calcium carbonate and monohydrocalcite, calcite, aragonite and vaterite, faster carbonation and larger particles sizes with higher crystallinity compared to lower RH (33%-54% RH) that gives rise mainly to portlandite and vaterite, slower carbonation and smaller particle sizes with lower crystallinity. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.This study was funded by the Government of the Community of Madrid by GEOMATERIALES (S2009/MAT-1629) and CONSOLIDERTCP (CSD2007-0058) and to the JAE-Doc CSIC contracts for supporting P. López-Arce and L.S. Gómez-Villalba to develop this work.Peer Reviewe

Temperature dependence of the anomalous effective action of fermions in two and four dimensions

The temperature dependence of the anomalous sector of the effective action of fermions coupled to external gauge and pseudo-scalar fields is computed at leading order in an expansion in the number of Lorentz indices in two and four dimensions. The calculation preserves chiral symmetry and confirms that a temperature dependence is compatible with axial anomaly saturation. The result checks soft-pions theorems at zero temperature as well as recent results in the literature for the pionic decay amplitude into static photons in the chirally symmetric phase. The case of chiral fermions is also considered.Comment: RevTex, 19 pages, no figures. References adde

Gas-phase hydrodechlorination of mixtures of chloromethanes with activated carbon-supported platinum catalysts

Platinum catalysts supported on activated carbon (Pt/C) at different metal loadings (0.5-2% Pt) have been tested in the gas-phase hydrodechlorination (HDC) of mixtures of dichloromethane (DCM) and chloroform (TCM), with a total feed concentration of 1000ppmv. Almost complete dechlorination was achieved at 250°C, 1kghmol-1 space time and a H2/CM molar ratio of 25 with the 2% Pt catalyst. At a reaction temperature of 250°C, scarce inhibition in the conversion of both compounds was observed compared to the HDC of the individual chloromethanes. The TOF values for DCM increase with the Pt content, which can be attributed to the higher proportion of the zero-valent species. The selectivity to reaction products suggests a parallel reactions scheme. The catalysts showed a high stability, demonstrated by the unchanged conversion of both chloromethanes upon time on stream in long-term experiments carried out at up to 26h.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through the project CTM2011-2835

Identifying and modelling polysemous senses of spatial prepositions in referring expressions

In this paper we analyse the issue of reference using spatial language and examine how the polysemy exhibited by spatial prepositions can be incorporated into semantic models for situated dialogue. After providing a brief overview of polysemy in spatial language and a review of related work, we describe an experimental study we used to collect data on a set of relevant spatial prepositions. We then establish a semantic model in which to integrate polysemy (the Baseline Prototype Model), which we test against a Simple Relation Model and a Perceptron Model. To incorporate polysemy into the baseline model we introduce two methods of identifying polysemes in grounded settings. The first is based on ‘ideal meanings’ and a modification of the ‘principled polysemy’ framework and the second is based on ‘object-specific features’. In order to compare polysemes and aid typicality judgements we then introduce a notion of ‘polyseme hierarchy’. Finally, we test the performance of the polysemy models against the Baseline Prototype Model and Perceptron Model and discuss the improvements shown by the polysemy models