U(2)^5 flavor symmetry and lepton universality violation in W -> tau nu_tau

The seeming violation of universality in the tau lepton coupling to the W boson suggested by LEP II data is studied using an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach. Within this framework we explore how this feature fits into the current constraints from electroweak precision observables using different assumptions about the flavor structure of New Physics, namely [U(2) x U(1)]^5 and U(2)^5. We show the importance of leptonic and semileptonic tau decay measurements, giving 3-4 TeV bounds on the New Physics effective scale at 90% C.L. We conclude under very general assumptions that it is not possible to accommodate this deviation from universality in the EFT framework, and thus such a signal could only be explained by the introduction of light degrees of freedom or New Physics strongly coupled at the electroweak scale.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Masked constituent priming of English compounds in native and nonnative speakers

The present research explores the degree of morphological structure of compound words in the native and nonnative lexicons, and provides additional data on the access to these representations. Native and nonnative speakers (L1 Spanish) of English were tested using a lexical decision task with masked priming of the compound’s constituents in isolation, including two orthographic conditions to control for a potential orthographic locus of effects. Both groups displayed reliable priming effects, unmediated by semantics, for the morphological but not the orthographic conditions as compared to an unrelated baseline. Results contribute further evidence of morphological structure in the lexicon of native speakers, and suggest that lexical representation and access in a second language are qualitatively comparable at relatively advanced levels of proficiency

Ultra-Broadband Directional Couplers Using Microstrip with Dielectric Overlay in Millimeter-Wave Band

Nowadays, millimeter-wave systems are being a key factor to develop wide band applications. In this paper, a directional coupler in millimeter-wave band using dielectric overlay is presented. This leads us to technology aspects, in directional coupler design, are key points to achieve the proper response of the circuit. The coupler proposed in this paper covers the 15-45 GHz band and its response has 15-dB coupling-level, 1-dB coupling-ripple and a reflection coefficient better than 10 dB

Formal linguistics approaches to adult second language acquisition and processing

This chapter provides an overview of the major contemporary trends driving adult, non-native language acquisition and processing research from a formal linguistic theory perspective. In doing so, we contextualize for the reader what formal linguistics is, inclusive of the main tenets of generative grammar. We provide an overview of the formative questions of generative second language acquisition (GenSLA), focusing on how they have been recast/refocused over time in accord with: (a) the evolution of formal linguistic theory, (b) insights from GenSLA’s own research over three decades and other paradigms of SLA, as well as (c) the expansion of empirical testing methods to include psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic processing measures. All of the aforementioned is done with the backdrop of adult language learning in mind; that is, what do formal linguistic studies on adult non-native language acquisition and processing contribute to our understanding of how L2ers typically learn/process language

Individual differences in bilingual word recognition: the role of experiential factors and word frequency in cross-language lexical priming

In studies of bilingual word recognition with masked priming, first language (L1) primes activate their second language (L2) translation equivalents in lexical decision tasks, but effects in the opposite direction are weaker (Wen & van Heuven, 2017). This study seeks to clarify the relative weight of stimulus-level (frequency) and individual-level (L2 proficiency, L2 exposure/use) factors in the emergence of asymmetrical priming effects. We offer the first data set where L2 proficiency and L1/L2 exposure/use are simultaneously investigated as continuous variables, along with word frequency. While we replicate the asymmetry in priming effects, our data provide useful insights into the factors driving L2–L1 priming. These fall almost exclusively under the category of stimulus-level factors, with L2 exposure/use being the only experiential variable to show considerable influence, although complex interactions involving L2 proficiency and word frequency are also present. We discuss the implications of these results for models of bilingual lexical processing and for the appropriate measurement of experiential factors in this type of research

Gender attraction in sentence comprehension

Agreement attraction, where ungrammatical sentences are perceived as grammatical (e.g., *The key to the cabinets were rusty), has been influential in motivating models of memory access during language comprehension. It is contested, however, whether such effects arise due to a faulty representation of relevant morphosyntactic features, or as a result of memory retrieval. Existing studies of agreement attraction in comprehension have largely been limited to subject-verb number agreement, primarily in English, and while attraction in other agreement phenomena such as gender has been investigated in production, very few studies have focused on gender attraction in comprehension. We conducted five experiments investigating noun-adjective gender agreement during comprehension in Spanish. Our results indicate attraction effects during online sentence processing that are consistent with approaches ascribing attraction to interference during memory retrieval, rather than to a faulty representation of agreement features. We interpret our findings as consistent with the predictions of cue-based parsing

The Mediterranean diet and incidence of hypertension: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Study

The Mediterranean diet is receiving increasing attention in cardiovascular epidemiology. The association of adherence to the Mediterranean diet with the incidence of hypertension was evaluated among 9,408 men and women enrolled in a dynamic Spanish prospective cohort study during 1999–2005. Dietary intake was assessed at baseline with a validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, and a 9-point Mediterranean diet score was constructed. During a median follow-up period of 4.2 years (range, 1.9–7.9), 501 incident cases of hypertension were identified. After adjustment for major hypertension risk factors and nutritional covariates, adherence to the Mediterranean diet was not associated with hypertension (the hazard ratio was 1.10 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.81, 1.41) for moderate adherence and 1.12 (95% CI: 0.79, 1.60) for high adherence). However, it was associated with reduced changes in mean levels of systolic blood pressure (moderate adherence, 2.4 mm Hg (95% CI: 4.0, 0.8); high adherence, 3.1 mm Hg (95% CI: 5.4, 0.8)) and diastolic blood pressure (moderate adherence, 1.3 mm Hg (95% CI: 2.5, 0.1); high adherence, 1.9 mm Hg (95% CI: 3.6, 0.1)) after 6 years of follow-up. These results suggest that adhering to a Mediterranean-type diet could contribute to the prevention of age-related changes in blood pressure

A tool to overcome technical barriers for bias assessment in human language technologies

Automatic processing of language is becoming pervasive in our lives, oftentaking central roles in our decision making, like choosing the wording for ourmessages and mails, translating our readings, or even having full conversationswith us. Word embeddings are a key component of modern natural languageprocessing systems. They provide a representation of words that has boosted theperformance of many applications, working as a semblance of meaning. Wordembeddings seem to capture a semblance of the meaning of words from raw text,but, at the same time, they also distill stereotypes and societal biases whichare subsequently relayed to the final applications. Such biases can bediscriminatory. It is very important to detect and mitigate those biases, toprevent discriminatory behaviors of automated processes, which can be much moreharmful than in the case of humans because their of their scale. There arecurrently many tools and techniques to detect and mitigate biases in wordembeddings, but they present many barriers for the engagement of people withouttechnical skills. As it happens, most of the experts in bias, either socialscientists or people with deep knowledge of the context where bias is harmful,do not have such skills, and they cannot engage in the processes of biasdetection because of the technical barriers. We have studied the barriers inexisting tools and have explored their possibilities and limitations withdifferent kinds of users. With this exploration, we propose to develop a toolthat is specially aimed to lower the technical barriers and provide theexploration power to address the requirements of experts, scientists and peoplein general who are willing to audit these technologies.Fil: Alemany, Laura Alonso. Fundación Via Libre; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; ArgentinaFil: Benotti, Luciana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Fundación Via Libre; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, Lucía. Fundación Via Libre; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; ArgentinaFil: Maina, Hernán Javier. Fundación Via Libre; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; ArgentinaFil: Busaniche, Beatriz. Fundación Via Libre; ArgentinaFil: Halvorsen, Alexia. Fundación Via Libre; ArgentinaFil: Bordone, Matías. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Fundación Via Libre; ArgentinaFil: Sanchez, Jorge Adrian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Consumo de alcohol e incidencia de hipertensión en una cohorte mediterránea: el estudio SUN

Introduction and objectives. To assess prospectively the association between alcohol consumption, including alcoholic beverage preference and days of consumption per week, and the risk of hypertension in a Mediterranean cohort. Methods. We prospectively followed 9,963 Spanish men and women initially without hypertension. Self-reported and validated data on diet and hypertension diagnoses were collected. Results. During follow-up (median [interquartile range], 4.2 [2.5-6.1] years), 554 incident cases of hypertension were identified over a total of 43,562 person-years. The hazard ratio for hypertension among those who consumed alcohol on ≥5 days per week was 1.28 (95% confidence interval, 0.97-1.7) compared to abstainers. Among those who drank alcohol ≥5 days per week, the hazard ratio for hypertension associated with consuming ≥1 drink per day was 1.45 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-2) compared with abstainers. The consumption of beer or spirits, but not wine, was associated with an increased risk of hypertension. The hazard ratio associated with consuming >0.5 drinks of beer or spirits per day was 1.53 (95% confidence interval, 1.18-1.99) compared with abstainers. In contrast, there was a nonsignificant inverse association between red wine intake and the risk of hypertension. Conclusions. In this Mediterranean population, the consumption of beer or spirits, but not wine, was associated with a higher risk of developing hypertension. However, the weekly pattern of alcohol consumption did not have a significant impact on the risk of hypertension