Talker identification is not improved by lexical access in the absence of familiar phonology

Listeners identify talkers more accurately when they are familiar with both the sounds and words of the language being spoken. It is unknown whether lexical information alone can facilitate talker identification in the absence of familiar phonology. To dissociate the roles of familiar words and phonology, we developed English-Mandarin “hybrid” sentences, spoken in Mandarin, which can be convincingly coerced to sound like English when presented with corresponding subtitles (e.g., “wei4 gou3 chi1 kao3 li2 zhi1” becomes “we go to college”). Across two experiments, listeners learned to identify talkers in three conditions: listeners' native language (English), an unfamiliar, foreign language (Mandarin), and a foreign language paired with subtitles that primed native language lexical access (subtitled Mandarin). In Experiment 1 listeners underwent a single session of talker identity training; in Experiment 2 listeners completed three days of training. Talkers in a foreign language were identified no better when native language lexical representations were primed (subtitled Mandarin) than from foreign-language speech alone, regardless of whether they had received one or three days of talker identity training. These results suggest that the facilitatory effect of lexical access on talker identification depends on the availability of familiar phonological forms

STRAWMEN IN TRADE PROTECTIONISM: THE CASE OF CITRUS IMPORT QUOTAS

The hypothesis that shipments of oranges into Japan have displaced, and will continue to displace, domestic Mandarin orange shipments in Japan was tested using annual and monthly data and by estimating an econometric model. It was found that the marketing seasons of Mandarin and imported oranges are substantially different. This result, along with econometric estimates, indicated that Mandarin and imported oranges do not directly compete with each other, and supported rejection of the hypothesis that imported oranges have displaced Mandarin orange shipments. It was projected that, under full trade liberalization, orange imports would increase by 115 percent. However, most of this increase would occur during the April to September period when few Mandarin oranges are shipped.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

LEXTALE_CH: A quick, character-based proficiency test for Mandarin Chinese

Research in second language acquisition suggests that objective performance-based assessments may provide more reliable and valid measures of second language proficiency than subjective self-ratings. To measure proficiency in English as a second language, a quick, vocabulary-based test called LexTALE (Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English) was developed and shown to be able to differentiate between various levels of English proficiency. Following in the line of adaptations of this test for other languages, we created a character-based adaptation for Mandarin Chinese: LEXTALE_CH. In this paper, we discuss the development and validation of LEXTALE_CH in detail. In short, LEXTALE_CH can discriminate between high and low levels of Mandarin proficiency and is sensitive to the significant differences in vocabulary size between native speakers and second language learners of Mandarin; further, it takes only a few minutes to administer and is simple to score, making it a practical tool for low-stakes estimation of Mandarin proficiency.http://www.lingref.com/bucld/42/BUCLD42-09.pdfPublished versio

Distinction Between Inflection and Derivation of Learning Reduplication in Mandarin

Reduplication as a word-formation process in Mandarin, which is one of the most difficult knowledge to comprehend for scholar and student. Theoretically this research offers an approach that is different from what has been made by previous researchers. Using the M.D.S Simatupang free context approach this research contrasts the reduplicative forms of all word classes and shows the relationships between them (AA, AABB, ABAB, ABB) and their basic forms (A, AB), then based on test of categorical word and test of lexical decomposition as proposed by J.W.M Verhaar, this study analyzes and explains reduplication and inflectional reduplication in Mandarin in order to students understand as their meaning vocabularies. As a result, this research examines the derivational and inflectional reduplication in Mandarin all at once can disseminate the use of morphological theory. In addition, this study discusses Mandarin reduplication based on various word classes that are contained as a basis for the relevant form of reduplication. Beginner research results will be presented in this study in order to stimulate more complete writing, it will be better if this research can be disseminated in order to add learning and reading material for future research

Genetic diversity analysis and population structure of the mandarin germplasm revealed by nuclear SNP markers

Citrus reticulata is considered one of the four main ancestral taxa of cultivated citrus and is widely associated with the mandarin horticultural group. However, several studies suggest introgressions of other taxa and the precise structure of the mandarin group is not known. To analyse the structuration of mandarin germplasm and the potential interspecific introgressions, 208 accessions were genotyped by the KASPar method, with sixty-seven single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers mined in 27 nuclear genes and in clementine BAC-ends. These SNP markers were employed for the study of 208 genotypes comprised of 169 'mandarin-like' genotypes and 39 genotypes belonging to ancestral taxa. Structure software was used to identify groups within the mandarin germplasm. Six mandarin groups were identified, some of them in agreement with the species defined by Tanaka. Many mandarins were located between these mandarin groups, indicating a high level of admixture between the identified parental groups. New insights in the organization of mandarin germplasm and its structure are presented in this work, which will be useful for better management of citrus germplasm collections. (Résumé d'auteur

AISHELL-1: An Open-Source Mandarin Speech Corpus and A Speech Recognition Baseline

An open-source Mandarin speech corpus called AISHELL-1 is released. It is by far the largest corpus which is suitable for conducting the speech recognition research and building speech recognition systems for Mandarin. The recording procedure, including audio capturing devices and environments are presented in details. The preparation of the related resources, including transcriptions and lexicon are described. The corpus is released with a Kaldi recipe. Experimental results implies that the quality of audio recordings and transcriptions are promising.Comment: Oriental COCOSDA 201

Impact of a new nucleo-cytoplasmic composition on the citrus fuit quality : [23]

Organic acids, sugars and carotenoids are implied in the fruit quality. A cybrid has been obtained by symmetric protoplast fusion between Willow leaf mandarin (Citrus deliciosa Ten.) and Eureka lemon (Citrus limon (L.) Buno.). The cybrid possessed nuclear genome and chloroplasts of Eureka lemon plus mitochondria from Willow leaf mandarin. Impact of new mitochondria on the internal fruit quality has been studied. Organic acids, sugars and carotenoids were quantified by HPLC on fruit pulp of Willow leaf mandarin, Eureka lemon and the cybrid. Compounds identified in cybrid fruit pulp were compared to those from fruits of his two diploid parents. The cybrid was found to be very close to lemon parent in biosynthesis of components involved in citrus fruit quality (Organic acids, sugars and carotenoids) although the presence of Willow leaf mandarin mitochondria in the cybrid cells. The results obtained confirm that the main genetic information for sugars, organic acids and carotenoids biosynthesis are contained in the nucleus. No significant difference is observed in sugars and carotenoid pulp fruit between the cybrid and the lemon but the organic acids level are slightly modified in quantity in the cybrid probably because of a nucleo-mitochondria interaction. Cybridisation should be used in citrus as a strategy to breed specific traits associated with mitochondrial genomes such as male sterility without affecting the main organoleptic and nutritional qualities. (Texte intégral

Interspecific and intergeneric somatic hybrids with C. deliciosa Ten. enlights non additive inheritance in allotetraploid citrus

Neoregulation of parental genome expression in allopolyploid plants contributes to the expression of new phenotypes. Somatic hybrids allow combining genomes without sexual recombination and are interesting models to study the immediate effect of allopolyploidisation on the regulation of gene expression and subsequent phenotype elaboration. While most of the citrus germplasm is diploid, somatic hybridization has become an integral part of citrus variety improvement programs aiming to create new allotetraploid rootstocks or to synthesize triploid hybrids by further sexual hybridization. By protoplast fusion CIRAD obtained allotetraploid hybrids between C. deliciosa and 6 others citrus species: 4 belong to Citrus genus (C. limon, lemon; C. aurantifolia, lime; C. sinensis, sweet orange; C. paradisi, grapefruit), 2 belong to Poncirus trifoliata (trifoliate orange) and Fortunella margarita (kumquat). Molecular analysis using 100 SSR markers did not reveal any inconsistency with total addition of parental genomes. Morphological description was done for leaves and fruits as well as the sugar and acid fruit contents. According to the traits and parental combination, codominance or dominance of one parent was observed and lead to conclude for an important contribution of interaction variance in phenotypic diversity elaboration. Analyze by GC-MS of the leaf volatile compounds of the same allotetraploid hybrids revealed a systematic global dominance of the mandarin profile. It was particularly marked regarding the absence of monoterpene aldehydes and monoterpene alcohols and the very low level of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, sesquiterpene alcohols, and sesquiterpene aldehydes in all hybrids while these compounds were found at high concentrations for the non mandarin parents. 2-D electrophoresis analysis of the leaf proteome of two allotetraploid somatic hybrids combining C. deliciosa with C. aurantifolia and Fortunella margarita displayed a closer relation between the two allotetraploid hybrids and their mandarin parent than with the other parent. Similar results have been observed at transcriptome level in a genome-wide gene expression analysis on fruit pulp of allotetraploid between C. deliciosa and C. limon, using a Citrus 20 K cDNA microarray. The gene expression of the allotetraploid suggested a global dominance of the mandarin fruit pulp transcriptome. Particularly, genes down regulated in mandarin compared to lemon were also repressed in the allotetraploid hybrid. The study is now extended to an interspecific diallelic somatic hybridization scheme to have a wider understanding of genome interaction in allotetraploid citrus. (Texte intégral