Great expectations: Specific lexical anticipation influences the processing of spoken language

Background  

Recently several studies have shown that people use contextual information to make predictions about the rest of the sentence or story as the text unfolds. Using event related potentials (ERPs) we tested whether these on-line predictions are based on a message-level representation of the discourse or on simple automatic activation by individual words. Subjects heard short stories that were highly constraining for one specific noun, or stories that were not specifically predictive but contained the same prime words as the predictive stories. To test whether listeners make specific predictions critical nouns were preceded by an adjective that was inflected according to, or in contrast with, the gender of the expected noun.     

Microwave heating of ceramic composites

The microwave heating of a ceramic composite is modelled andanalysed. The composite consists of many small ceramic particlesembedded in a ceramic cement. The composite is assumed to bewell insulated, and each particle is assumed to be in imperfectthermal contact with the surrounding cement. Based on thesetwo assumptions an asymptotic theory exploiting the small Biotnumber and small non-dimensional contact conductance is developed.Our asymptotic theory yields a set of nonlinear partial differentialequations which govern the temperature in the composite. Theseare reduced to a set of coupled nonlinear ordinary differentialequations in which the surface area of each particle entersas a parameter. Recent experiments with such composites haveshown that the steady-state temperature of the composite isstrongly dependent upon the radii of the embedded particles.Our model captures this effect. In fact, our analysis showsthat the assumption of imperfect thermal contact between theparticles and the ceramic cement is essential for this trendto be established.     

Pentafluorophenylchlorine(III) difluoride

The title compound has been synthesized by oxidation of pentafluorophenyl chloride with elemental fluorine.

Pentafluorophenylchlorine(III) difluoride was a colorless liquid (Boiling Point 96–98°C) which fumed when exposed to air. It oxidized 2.0 equivalents of iodide ion and did not decolorize a 0.1 M potassium permanganate solution. Anal. calcd. for C₆F₅ClF₂: C, 29.96; F, 55.29; Cl, 14.74. Found: C, 29.79; F, 55.07; Cl, 14.90. The ¹⁹F nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum at 25°C consists of a doublet at 141.63, a triplet at 157.05, and a triplet at 162.25 ppm (CFCl₃). The liquid phase infrared spectrum contains absorption bands as 703 (s), 640 (vs), 621 (vs), 553 (vs), 530 (s), 502 (w), 459 (s), 425 (s), 395 (m), 370 (m), 334 (m), 315 (vs), 301 (m), 278 (m), 242 (vw), and 220 (vw) cm^?1.Molecular ions at m/e 240 and 242 accompanied by supporting fragmentation patterns, were present in the mass spectrum along with the isotopic ratio of approximately 3:1 as expected for the ³⁵Cl and ³⁷Cl. The mass spectrum of C₆F₅ClF₂ consists of peaks assigned to C₆F₅ClF₂⁺ (13), C₆F₅ClF⁺ (0.71), C₆F₅Cl⁺ (26), C₆F₄Cl⁺ (0.92), C₆F₆⁺ (6.7), C₆F₅⁺ (29), C₆F₄⁺ (0.72), C₅F₃⁺ (100), ClF₂⁺ (1.1), ClF⁺ (0.7), and Cl⁺ (0.2). Metastable ions were observed in the following region: 184.5, 170.0, 165.6 and 56.0. The peak at m/e 240 showed a very weak metastable peak at m☆ = 144.0 from the process: 240→186 + ClF°.     

Anomalous atomic hydrogen shock pattern in a supersonic plasma Jet

A two-photon laser-induced fluorescence study on the transport of ground-state atomic hydrogen in a supersonic plasma jet, generated from an Ar-H (2) mixture, reveals an unexpected shock pattern. Whereas both the axial-velocity profile and the temperature profile of hydrogen atoms along the jet centerline can be interpreted in terms of a supersonic expansion of an Ar-H gas mixture, the H-atom density profiles do not satisfy the well established Rankine-Hugoniot relation leading to a nonconservation of the forward flux. The experimental results show that H atoms escape from the supersonic expansion by a diffusion process due to strong density gradients between the core of the jet and its vicinity.     

Synthesis and biological activities on metal complexes of 2,5-diamino-1,3,4-thiadiazole derived from semicarbazide hydrochloride

A bioactive ligand, 2,5-diamino-1,3,4-thiadiazole (L), derived from semicarbazide hydrochloride, and its metal complexes were prepared and characterized. The complexes were characterized using elemental, infra-red, ultraviolet/visible, magnetic moment, atomic absorption, thin layer chromatography and molar conductance measurements. The IR data revealed that the ligand (L) behaved as a tridentate neutral ligand. It coordinated to the metal ion via sulphur and nitrogen of the amines. The molar conductance data reveal that the chelates are non-electrolytes. From the Ultraviolet/Visible spectra and magnetic moment data, the complexes were found to have octahedral geometrical structure. In vivo evaluation of the antimicrobial activities of the metal complexes and the ligands showed greater activity against some micro-organisms when compared to the parent compounds. The chelates do not show toxicity against the activities of enzymes from homogenates of liver, kidney and serum in experimental rats.