Modelling the developmental patterning of finiteness marking in English, Dutch, German and Spanish using MOSAIC

In this paper we apply MOSAIC (Model of Syntax Acquisition in Children) to the simulation of the developmental patterning of children’s Optional Infinitive (OI) errors in four languages: English, Dutch, German and Spanish. MOSAIC, which has already simulated this phenomenon in Dutch and English, now implements a learning mechanism that better reflects the theoretical assumptions underlying it, as well as a chunking mechanism which results in frequent phrases being treated as one unit. Using one, identical model that learns from child-directed speech, we obtain a close quantitative fit to the data from all four languages, despite there being considerable cross-linguistic and developmental variation in the OI phenomenon. MOSAIC successfully simulates the difference between Spanish (a pro-drop language where OI errors are virtually absent), and Obligatory Subject languages that do display the OI phenomenon. It also highlights differences in the OI phenomenon across German and Dutch, two closely related languages whose grammar is virtually identical with respect to the relation between finiteness and verb placement. Taken together, these results suggest that (a) cross-linguistic differences in the rates at which children produce Optional Infinitives are graded, quantitative differences that closely reflect the statistical properties of the input they are exposed to and (b) theories of syntax acquisition need to consider more closely the role of input characteristics as determinants of quantitative differences in the cross-linguistic patterning of phenomena in language acquisition

Non-equilibrium correlations and entanglement in a semiconductor hybrid circuit-QED system

We present a theoretical study of a hybrid circuit-QED system composed of two semiconducting charge-qubits confined in a microwave resonator. The qubits are defined in terms of the charge states of two spatially separated double quantum dots (DQDs) which are coupled to the same photon mode in the microwave resonator. We analyze a transport setup where each DQD is attached to electronic reservoirs and biased out-of-equilibrium by a large voltage, and study how electron transport across each DQD is modified by the coupling to the common resonator. In particular, we show that the inelastic current through each DQD reflects an indirect qubit-qubit interaction mediated by off-resonant photons in the microwave resonator. As a result of this interaction, both charge qubits stay entangled in the steady (dissipative) state. Finite shot noise cross-correlations between currents across distant DQDs are another manifestation of this nontrivial steady-state entanglement.Comment: Final versio

Geometric magic numbers of sodium clusters: Interpretation of the melting behaviour

Putative global minima of sodium clusters with up to 380 atoms have been located for two model interatomic potentials. Structures based upon the Mackay icosahedra predominate for both potentials, and the magic numbers for the Murrell-Mottram model show excellent agreement with the sizes at which maxima in the latent heat and entropy change at melting have been found in experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor-Dependent inductions of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism act inversely on tumor progression.

The Western diet contains a high ratio of omega-6 (ω6) to omega-3 (ω3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The prototypical aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) ligand, 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), induces CYP1 family enzymes, which can metabolize PUFA to epoxides. Mice fed ω3-rich or ω6-rich diets were treated with TCDD and injected subcutaneously with AHR-competent Hepa1-GFP hepatoma cells or AHR-deficient LLC lung cancer cells. TCDD reduced the growth rates of the resulting tumors in ω3-fed mice and inhibited their metastasis to the liver and/or lung, but had the opposite effects in mice fed ω6 PUFA. These responses were likely attributable to the corresponding PUFA epoxides generated in tumor cells and/or host, since many depended upon co-administration of a soluble epoxide hydrolase (EPHX2) inhibitor in males, and/or were associated with increases in epoxide levels in tumors and sites of metastasis. Equivalent effects occurred in females in the absence of EPHX2 inhibition, probably because this sex expressed reduced levels of EPHX2. The responses elicited by TCDD were associated with effects on tumor vascularity, tumor cell proliferation and/or apoptosis. Thus environmental AHR agonists, and potentially also endogenous, nutritional, and microbiome-derived agonists, may reduce or enhance cancer progression depending on the composition of dietary PUFA, particularly in females

Non-equilibrium Entanglement and Noise in Coupled Qubits

We study charge entanglement in two Coulomb-coupled double quantum dots in thermal equilibrium and under stationary non-equilibrium transport conditions. In the transport regime, the entanglement exhibits a clear switching threshold and various limits due to suppression of tunneling by Quantum Zeno localisation or by an interaction induced energy gap. We also calculate quantum noise spectra and discuss the inter-dot current correlation as an indicator of the entanglement in transport experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure