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.     

Characterisation of a Platinum‐based Electrochemical Biosensor for Real‐time Neurochemical Analysis of Choline

A choline biosensor was characterised in detail to determine the effects of physiologically relevant parameters on the ability of the sensor to reliably detect neurochemical changes in choline. This first generation Pt‐based polymer enzyme composite sensor displayed excellent shelf‐life and biocompatibility with no significant decrease in choline sensitivity observed following 14 days of storage dry, or in ex‐vivo rodent brain tissue. However, subjecting the sensor to repeated calibrations and storage over the same period resulted in significant decreases (20–70 %) due to enzyme denaturation associated with the repeated calibration and storage cycles. Potential interference signals generated by the principal electroactive interferents present in the brain were minimal; typically <1 % of the choline current response at in vivo levels. Additionally, changing temperature over the physiologically relevant range of 34–40 °C had no effect on sensitivity, while increasing pH between 7.2 and 7.6 produced only a 5 % increase in signal. The limit of detection of the sensor was in the low μM range (0.11±0.02 μM), while the in vitro response time was determined to be less than the solution mixing time and within ca. 5 s, suggesting potential sub‐second in vivo response characteristics. Finally, the sensor was implanted in the striatum of freely moving rats and demonstrated reliable detection of physiological changes in choline in response to movement, and pharmacological manipulation by injection of choline chloride.     

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.     

K X-ray satellite transitions in cobalt

Bombardment of cobalt with 42 MeV oxygen ions is seen to produce multiple inner shell electron excitation.Kα andKβ X-rays are measured and compared to Hartree-Fock-Slater calculated energies. This study of cobalt is the highestZ element where the satellite X-ray spectrum has been studied with good resolution.     

CalciumK X-ray spectra produced by oxygen,alpha-particle,and proton bombardment

Kα andKβ X-rays of calcium were produced by bombarding a thick calcium wafer with oxygen, helium and hydrogen ions. These reactions produce a substantial amount of inner shell ionization. TheK X-ray spectra contain X-ray lines from calcium which emanate from initial states with a varying degree ofK orL shell vacancies. The initial configurations were assigned on the basis of Hartree-Fock-Slater calculated energies. Related intensity ratio of1s→2p (Kα) transitions and of1s→3p (Kβ) transitions of H plus Ca, He plus Ca and O plus Ca were obtained. In addition to observing many new transitions due to multipleK and/or multipleL shell vacancies, energy shifts relative to the H plus Ca spectrum were observed in the O plus Ca spectrum due toM shell vacancies.     

A value for games withn players andr alternatives

We study value theory for a class of games called games withn players andr alternatives. In these games, each of then players must choose one and only one of ther alternatives. A linear, efficient value is obtained using three characterizations, two of which are axiomatic. This value yields an a priori evaluation for each player relative to each alternative.     

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.