Representing the bilingual's two lexicons

A review of empirical work suggests that the lexical representations of a bilingual’s two languages are independent (Smith, 1991), but may also be sensitive to between language similarity patterns (e.g. Cristoffanini, Kirsner, and Milech, 1986). Some researchers hold that infant bilinguals do not initially differentiate between their two languages (e.g. Redlinger & Park, 1980). Yet by the age of two they appear to have acquired separate linguistic systems for each language (Lanza, 1992). This paper explores the hypothesis that the separation of lexical representations in bilinguals is a functional rather than an architectural one. It suggests that the separation may be driven by differences in the structure of the input to a common architectural system. Connectionist simulations are presented modelling the representation of two sets of lexical information. These simulations explore the conditions required to create functionally independent lexical representations in a single neural network. It is shown that a single network may acquire a second language after learning a first (avoiding the traditional problem of catastrophic interference in these networks). Further it is shown that in a single network, the functional independence of representations is dependent on inter-language similarity patterns. The latter finding is difficult to account for in a model that postulates architecturally separate lexical representations

Neutrino Oscillations with the MINOS, MINOS+, T2K, and NOvA Experiments

This paper discusses recent results and near-term prospects of the long-baseline neutrino experiments MINOS, MINOS+, T2K and NOvA. The non-zero value of the third neutrino mixing angle {\theta}13 allows experimental analysis in a manner which explicitly exhibits appearance and disappearance dependencies on additional parameters associated with mass-hierarchy, CP violation, and any non-maximal {\theta}23. These current and near-future experiments begin the era of precision accelerator long-baseline measurements and lay the framework within which future experimental results will be interpreted.Comment: 41 pages, 36 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physic

Checks And Balances: 2015 Update

Checking accounts are a vital financial tool, utilized by 9 in 10 American households. This report provides the third annual evaluation of disclosure, overdraft, and dispute resolution policies and practices of 45 of the nation's 50 largest retail banks, totaling 66 percent of all domestic deposit volume. Pew's Model Summary Disclosure Box for Checking Accounts served as the template for rating each bank's disclosure documents to determine best or good practices for overdraft and dispute resolution. Additionally, this report identified trends among the 32 institutions examined in all three Checks and Balances reports to date. To ensure that all checking accounts are safe and transparent, Pew has also developed a set of policy recommendations and urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to incorporate these policies in new rules on overdraft practices and arbitration clauses

Temporal profile of endogenous anatomical repair and functional recovery following spinal cord injury in adult zebrafish

Regenerated cerebrospinal axons are considered to be involved in the spontaneous recovery of swimming ability following a spinal cord injury in adult zebrafish. We employed behavioral analysis, neuronal tracing, and immunocytochemistry to determine the exact temporal relationship between swimming ability and regenerated cerebrospinal axon number in adult zebrafish with a complete spinal cord transection. Between two and eight weeks post-lesion, swimming gradually improved to 44% of sham-injured zebrafish. Neurons within the reticular formation, magnocellular octaval nucleus, and nucleus of the medial longitudinal fascicle grew their axon across and at least four millimeters beyond the lesion. The largest increases in swimming ability and number of regenerated cerebrospinal axons were observed between two and four weeks post-lesion. Regression analyses revealed a significant correlation between swimming ability and the number of regenerated axons. Our results indicate the involvement of cerebrospinal axons in swimming recovery after spinal cord injury in adult zebrafish. © 2014 Vajn et al

Tracking the associative boost in infancy.

Do words that are both associatively and taxonomically related prime each other in the infant mental lexicon? We explore the impact of these semantic relations in the emerging lexicon. Using the head-turn preference procedure, we show that 18-month-old infants have begun to construct a semantic network of associatively and taxonomically related words, such as dog-cat or apple-cheese. We demonstrate that priming between words is longer-lasting when the relationship is both taxonomic and associative, as opposed to purely taxonomic, reflecting the associative boost reported in the adult priming literature. Our results demonstrate that 18-month-old infants are able to construct a lexical-semantic network based on associative and taxonomic relations between words in the network, and that lexical-semantic links are more robust when they are both associative and taxonomic in character. Furthermore, the manner in which activation is propagated through the emerging lexical-semantic network appears to depend upon the type of semantic relation between words. We argue that 18-month-old infants have a mental lexicon that shares important structural and processing properties with that of the adult system

A Search for Ultra-High Energy Counterparts to Gamma-Ray Bursts

A small air shower array operating over many years has been used to search for ultra-high energy (UHE) gamma radiation ($\geq 50$ TeV) associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the BATSE instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO). Upper limits for a one minute interval after each burst are presented for seven GRBs located with zenith angles $\theta < 20^{\circ}$. A $4.3\sigma$ excess over background was observed between 10 and 20 minutes following the onset of a GRB on 11 May 1991. The confidence level that this is due to a real effect and not a background fluctuation is 99.8\%. If this effect is real then cosmological models are excluded for this burst because of absorption of UHE gamma rays by the intergalactic radiation fields.Comment: 4 pages LaTeX with one postscript figure. This version does not use kluwer.sty and will allow automatic postscript generatio