Exploring the prosodic and syntactic aspects of Mandarin-English Code switching

L’alternance codique (Code-switching, CS) est l’un des comportements naturels les plus courants chez les bilingues. Les linguistes ont exploré les contraintes derrière l’alternance codique (CS) pour expliquer ce comportement. Au cours des dernières décennies, la recherche a plutôt été axée sur les contraintes syntaxiques et ce n’est que récemment que les contraintes prosodiques ont commencé à attirer l’attention des linguistes. Puisque la paire de langues choisie est moins étudiée dans le domaine de recherche sur la CS, les études sur la CS mandarin-anglais sont limitées en ce qui concerne les deux contraintes. Ainsi, cette étude explore à la fois les contraintes prosodiques et les schémas syntaxiques de cette paire de langues grâce à une base de données naturelle sur l’alternance codique. Prosodiquement, l’étude applique une approche fondée sur l’information (information-based approach) et utilise une unité fondamentale, l’unité d’intonation (Intonation Unit, IU), pour mener l’analyse. Le résultat de 10,6 % d’IU bilingue (BIU) se révèle fiable et offre des preuves solides que l’alternance codique a tendance à avoir lieu aux frontières de l’IU chez les bilingues. Les résultats soutiennent le travail précurseur de Shenk (2006) à partir d’une paire de langues inexplorée (mandarin-anglais). De plus, cette étude développe des solutions au problème de subjectivité et au problème d’adéquation de la base de données afin de renforcer la fiabilité des résultats. D’un point de vue syntaxique, l’étude examine les schémas syntaxiques aux points de CS de la paire de langues mandarin-anglais en utilisant des données recueillies auprès d’une communauté bilingue rarement étudiée. Un schéma syntaxique spécifique à cette paire de langues a été observé en fonction des résultats, mais l’étude suggère que ce schéma ait perturbé les résultats finaux. L’étude comporte une analyse avec les résultats de l’aspect prosodique et de l’aspect syntaxique. Lorsque les résultats divergents sont éliminés, on peut observer un résultat plus solide qui soutient davantage l’argument de la contrainte prosodique.Code-switching (CS) is one of the most common natural behaviors among bilinguals. Linguists have been exploring the constraints behind CS to explain this behaviour, and while syntactic constraints have been the focus for decades, prosodic constraints were only studied more in depth recently. As a less common language pair in CS research, studies on Mandarin-English CS are limited for both constraints. Thus, this study explores the prosodic constraints and syntactic patterns of this language pair with a natural CS database. Prosodically, this study applies the information-based approach and its fundamental unit, Intonation Unit (IU), to conduct the analysis. The result of 10.6% bilingual IU (BIU) proves to be reliable and offers solid evidence that bilinguals tend to code-switch at IU boundaries. This supports the pioneer work of Shenk (2006) from the unexplored Mandarin-English language pair. In addition to this, the study develops solutions to deal with the subjectivity problem and the database appropriateness problem in this approach to strengthen the validity of the results. Syntactically, this study investigates the syntactic patterns at switching points on the Mandarin-English language pair using data collected from a rarely investigated bilingual community. Based on the results, a syntactic pattern specific to this language pair was observed and this study suggests it disrupted the final results. This study conducts an analysis with the results of both the prosodic aspect and the syntactic aspect. When the interfering results are eliminated, a more solid outcome can be observed which provides greater support to the prosodic constraint argument

3D Semantic Subspace Traverser: Empowering 3D Generative Model with Shape Editing Capability

Shape generation is the practice of producing 3D shapes as various representations for 3D content creation. Previous studies on 3D shape generation have focused on shape quality and structure, without or less considering the importance of semantic information. Consequently, such generative models often fail to preserve the semantic consistency of shape structure or enable manipulation of the semantic attributes of shapes during generation. In this paper, we proposed a novel semantic generative model named 3D Semantic Subspace Traverser that utilizes semantic attributes for category-specific 3D shape generation and editing. Our method utilizes implicit functions as the 3D shape representation and combines a novel latent-space GAN with a linear subspace model to discover semantic dimensions in the local latent space of 3D shapes. Each dimension of the subspace corresponds to a particular semantic attribute, and we can edit the attributes of generated shapes by traversing the coefficients of those dimensions. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can produce plausible shapes with complex structures and enable the editing of semantic attributes. The code and trained models are available at https://github.com/TrepangCat/3D_Semantic_Subspace_TraverserComment: Published in ICCV 2023. Code: https://github.com/TrepangCat/3D_Semantic_Subspace_Traverse

A Ti3C2Tx-Based Composite as Separator Coating for Stable Li-S Batteries

The nitrogen-doped MXene carbon nanosheet-nickel (N-M@CNi) powder was successfully prepared by a combined process of electrostatic attraction and annealing strategy, and then applied as the separator coating in lithium-sulfur batteries. The morphology and structure of the N-M@CNi were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectrum, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption method. The strong LiPS adsorption ability and high conductivity are associated with the N-doped carbon nanosheet-Ni modified surface. The modified separator offers the cathode of Li-S cell with greater sulfur utilization, better high-rate adaptability, and more stable cycling performance compared with the pristine separator. At 0.2 C the cell with N-M@CNi separator delivers an initial capacity of 1309 mAh g-1. More importantly, the N-M@CNi separator is able to handle a cathode with 3.18 mg cm-2 sulfur loading, delivering a capacity decay rate of 0.043% with a high capacity retention of 95.8%. Therefore, this work may provide a feasible approach to separator modification materials towards improved Li-S cells with improved stability

Fast and straightforward analysis approach of charge transport data in single molecule junctions

International audienceIn this study, we introduce an efficient data sorting algorithm, including filters for noisy signals, conductance mapping for analyzing the most dominant conductance group and sub-population groups. The capacity of our data analysis process has also been corroborated on real experimental data sets of Au-1,6-hexanedithiol-Au and Au-1,8-octanedithiol-Au molecular junctions. The fully automated and unsupervised program requires less than one minute on a standard PC to sort the data and generate histograms. The resulting one-dimensional and two-dimensional log histograms give conductance values in good agreement with previous studies. Our algorithm is a straightforward, fast and user-friendly tool for single molecule charge transport data analysis. We also analyze the data in a form of a conductance map which can offer evidence for diversity in molecular conductance. The code for automatic data analysis is openly available, well-documented and ready to use, thereby offering a useful new tool for single molecule electronics

Management Decision and Dual Innovation

China’s economic development is strongly constrained by existing resources, and the implementation of low-carbon economy and sustainable development requires enterprises to improve their Innovation and R&D capability. As an important participant in the decision-making and execution of the company, the managerial discretion of top managers is related to the overall direction of the organization Taking Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020 as the research objects, this paper empirically studies the choice of managerial discretion on enterprise innovation mode, and constructs the mediation model of corporate governance level. The results show that the promotion of executive decision-making power can increase the investment in exploratory innovation but weaken exploitative innovation, and the level of corporate governance plays a partial mediating role in the influence of managerial discretion on exploratory innovation. This paper elaborates the research on the influence of managerial discretion on enterprise innovation mode, which is helpful for enterprises to adjust the size of managerial discretion according to their actual needs, pay attention to the level of corporate governance, and make enterprises better control the choice of dual innovation