bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Health sciences students’ perception of the educational environment of KLE University, India as measured with the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM)
Authors: Sunkad Mohan A. , Javali Shivalingappa , Shivapur Yesudas , Wantamutte Appasaheb
Published: June 2015

This study aimed to evaluate the educational environment of the health sciences programs of KLE University, Belgaum, Karnataka, India, to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and to suggest strategies to improve the educational environment to be on par with global standards. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire, filled out by 914 of the 1,004 students (91.0%) who were majoring in medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, and public health. The data were analysed according to the DREEM guidelines. Responses were received from 914 students, of whom 34.03% were men and 65.9% were women. The majority (67.1%) of students were 20-24 years of age. The mean overall DREEM score was 120.21±22.4 (maximum, 200) and approached the normal distribution (Lilliefors test, P<0.01). The DREEM scores of each group of students were as follows: dental, 125.0; medical, 122.4; public health, 121.0; physiotherapy, 117.0; and nursing, 116.3. Male students had more positive perceptions than female students (P<0.05), and postgraduate students had more positive perceptions than undergraduate students (P<0.05). The overall DREEM score (120.21) indicates that the educational environment was found to be more positive than negative.
Algorithms for Computerized Fetal Heart Rate Diagnosis with Direct Reporting
Authors: Maeda Kazuo , Noguchi Yasuaki , Utsu Masaji , Nagassawa Takashi
Published: June 2015

Aims: Since pattern classification of fetal heart rate (FHR) was subjective and enlarged interobserver difference, objective FHR analysis was achieved with computerized FHR diagnosis. Methods: The computer algorithm was composed of an experts’ knowledge system, including FHR analysis and FHR score calculation, and also of an objective artificial neural network system with software. In addition, a FHR frequency spectrum was studied to detect ominous sinusoidal FHR and the loss of baseline variability related to fetal brain damage. The algorithms were installed in a central-computerized automatic FHR monitoring system, which gave the diagnosis rapidly and directly to the attending doctor. Results: Clinically perinatal mortality decreased significantly and no cerebral palsy developed after introduction of the centralized system. Conclusion: The automatic multichannel FHR monitoring system improved the monitoring, increased the objectivity of FHR diagnosis and promoted clinical results.
A New Approach to Model Verification, Falsification and Selection
Authors: Buck Andrew , Lady George
Published: June 2015

This paper shows that a qualitative analysis, i.e., an assessment of the consistency of a hypothesized sign pattern for structural arrays with the sign pattern of the estimated reduced form, can always provide decisive insight into a model’s validity both in general and compared to other models. Qualitative analysis can show that it is impossible for some models to have generated the data used to estimate the reduced form, even though standard specification tests might show the model to be adequate. A partially specified structural hypothesis can be falsified by estimating as few as one reduced form equation. Zero restrictions in the structure can themselves be falsified. It is further shown how the information content of the hypothesized structural sign patterns can be measured using a commonly applied concept of statistical entropy. The lower the hypothesized structural sign pattern’s entropy, the more a priori information it proposes about the sign pattern of the estimated reduced form. As an hypothesized structural sign pattern has a lower entropy, it is more subject to type 1 error and less subject to type 2 error. Three cases illustrate the approach taken here.
Scrub Typhus Incidence Modeling with Meteorological Factors in South Korea
Authors: Kwak Jaewon , Kim Soojun , Kim Gilho , Singh Vijay , Hong Seungjin , Kim Hung
Published: June 2015

Since its recurrence in 1986, scrub typhus has been occurring annually and it is considered as one of the most prevalent diseases in Korea. Scrub typhus is a 3rd grade nationally notifiable disease that has greatly increased in Korea since 2000. The objective of this study is to construct a disease incidence model for prediction and quantification of the incidences of scrub typhus. Using data from 2001 to 2010, the incidence Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, which considers the time-lag between scrub typhus and minimum temperature, precipitation and average wind speed based on the Granger causality and spectral analysis, is constructed and tested for 2011 to 2012. Results show reliable simulation of scrub typhus incidences with selected predictors, and indicate that the seasonality in meteorological data should be considered.
Metacognition in Early Phase Psychosis: Toward Understanding Neural Substrates
Authors: Vohs Jenifer , Hummer Tom , Yung Matthew , Francis Michael , Lysaker Paul , Breier Alan
Published: June 2015

Individuals in the early phases of psychotic illness have disturbed metacognitive capacity, which has been linked to a number of poor outcomes. Little is known, however, about the neural systems associated with metacognition in this population. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the neuroanatomical correlates of metacognition. We anticipated that higher levels of metacognition may be dependent upon gray matter density (GMD) of regions within the prefrontal cortex. Examining whole-brain structure in 25 individuals with early phase psychosis, we found positive correlations between increased medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum GMD and higher metacognition. These findings represent an important step in understanding the path through which the biological correlates of psychotic illness may culminate into poor metacognition and, ultimately, disrupted functioning. Such a path will serve to validate and promote metacognition as a viable treatment target in early phase psychosis.
Temperature Dependence of Respiration in Larvae and Adult Colonies of the Corals Acropora tenuis and Pocillopora damicornis
Authors: Haryanti Dwi , Hidaka Michio
Published: June 2015

Although algal symbionts can become a source of reactive oxygen species under stressful conditions, symbiotic planulae of the coral Pocillopora damicornis are highly tolerant to thermal stress compared with non-symbiotic planulae of Acropora tenuis. As a first step to understand how P. damicornis planulae attain high stress tolerance, we compared the respiration rate and temperature dependence between symbiotic planulae of P. damicornis and non-symbiotic planulae of A. tenuis, as well as between larvae and adult branches within each species. Larvae and adult branches of both species had similar temperature dependency of respiration rate, with the temperature coefficient (Q10) values of about 2. Planula larvae of P. damicornis had a significantly lower respiration rate than that of A. tenuis larvae at 25–30 °C, but not at 32 °C, whereas adult branches of P. damicornis had a significantly higher respiration rate than that of A. tenuis branches at all temperatures. Thus, P. damicornis larvae appear to be capable of reducing their respiration rate to a greater extent than A. tenuis larvae, which could partly explain why P. damicornis larvae had high survivorship under thermal stress, although other antioxidant or photoprotective mechanisms should be investigated in the future.
Plasmon-Polariton Properties in Metallic Nanosphere Chains
Authors: Jacak Witold , Krasnyj Jurij , Chepok Andrej
Published: June 2015

The propagation of collective wave type plasmonic excitations along infinite chains of metallic nanospheres has been analyzed, including near-, medium- and far-field contributions to the plasmon dipole interaction with all retardation effects taken into account. It is proven that there exist weakly-damped self-modes of plasmon-polaritons in the chain for which the propagation range is limited by relatively small Ohmic losses only. In this regime, the Lorentz friction irradiation losses on each nanosphere in the chain are ideally compensated by the energy income from the rest of the chain. The completely undamped collective waves were identified in the case of the presence of persistent external excitation of some fragment of the chain. The obtained characteristics of these excitations fit the experimental observations well.
Investigations on Synperiplanar and Antiperiplanar Isomers of Losartan: Theoretical and Experimental NMR Studies
Authors: Kujawski Jacek , Czaja Kornelia , Ratajczak Tomasz , Jodłowska Elżbieta , Chmielewski Marcin
Published: June 2015

Losartan inhibits the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system by blocking the angiotensin II receptor. It is commonly used in cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension. Several publications applied the ab initio and density functional theory methods to investigate the molecule of losartan. Only in one of them were the nuclear magnetic resonance spectra calculations carried out, and their results were correlated with the experimental values. The authors focused their attention on calculations of the anion form of losartan, taking into consideration both its synperiplanar and antiperiplanar configurations. Coefficients of determination and mean absolute deviation parameters were calculated for the experimental and calculated chemical shifts for every used basis set. They showed a noticeably stronger correlation for the anti-isomers than for the syn-isomers. Moreover, the solvation model increased the value of this parameter. The results of calculations confirmed that an anti-conformation of the analyte seems to be the preferred one, and such an orientation might be most potent within the receptor cavity, which is in agreement with the results of previous studies.
A Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Bioactive Compounds in Cardiovascular Disease: Phenolic Compounds
Authors: Rangel-Huerta Oscar , Pastor-Villaescusa Belen , Aguilera Concepcion , Gil Angel
Published: June 2015

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is rising and is the prime cause of death in all developed countries. Bioactive compounds (BAC) can have a role in CVD prevention and treatment. The aim of this work was to examine the scientific evidence supporting phenolic BAC efficacy in CVD prevention and treatment by a systematic review. Databases utilized were Medline, LILACS and EMBASE, and all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with prospective, parallel or crossover designs in humans in which the effects of BAC were compared with that of placebo/control were included. Vascular homeostasis, blood pressure, endothelial function, oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers were considered as primary outcomes. Cohort, ecological or case-control studies were not included. We selected 72 articles and verified their quality based on the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, establishing diverse quality levels of scientific evidence according to two features: the design and bias risk of a study. Moreover, a grade of recommendation was included, depending on evidence strength of antecedents. Evidence shows that certain polyphenols, such as flavonols can be helpful in decreasing CVD risk factors. However, further rigorous evidence is necessary to support the BAC effect on CVD prevention and treatment.
Eccentrically-Layered Active Coated Nano-Particles for Directive Near- and Far-Field Radiation
Authors: Thorsen Rasmus , Arslanagić Samel
Published: June 2015

The present work shows how the eccentricity in active nano-particles may lead to very interesting and rather directive near- and far-field radiation patterns. The nano-particle is of a three-layer type and consists of a silica core, a free-space middle layer and an outer silver shell and is excited by a magnetic line source. The constant frequency gain model is included in the silica core, and the eccentricity is introduced through appropriate displacements of the core. It is shown that the eccentricity in a nano-particle, which was initially designed to excite a strong dipole mode, causes a progressively larger excitation of several other (including higher order) modes, this being more so the larger the core displacement. Specifically, eccentric nano-particles are identified with comparable simultaneous excitations of dipole and quadrupole modes, with associated large values of the radiated power and, even more notably, enhanced and directive near- and far-field radiation patterns. The main beam of these patterns is shown to be effectively tailored (enhanced, reshaped and steered) by the direction and amount of the core displacement. The eccentric nano-particles can be additionally gain optimized to boost their near-field response and the radiated power, while retaining the directivity of the gain unoptimized eccentric cases. Owing to their very directive nearand far-field patterns, the proposed eccentric, active three-layer nano-particles may provide alternative strategies towards the design of directive nano-antennas relative to several of the existing solutions.
The Energy-Water Nexus: Spatially-Resolved Analysis of the Potential for Desalinating Brackish Groundwater by Use of Solar Energy
Authors: Kjellsson Jill , Webber Michael
Published: June 2015

This research looks at coupling desalination with renewable energy sources to create a high-value product (treated water) from two low value resources (brackish groundwater and intermittent solar energy). Desalination of brackish groundwater is already being considered as a potential new water supply in Texas. This research uses Texas as a testbed for spatially-resolved analysis techniques while considering depth to brackish groundwater, water quality, and solar radiation across Texas to determine the locations with the best potential for integrating solar energy with brackish groundwater desalination. The framework presented herein can be useful for policymakers, regional planners, and project developers as they consider where to site desalination facilities coupled with solar photovoltaics. Results suggest that the northwestern region of Texas—with abundant sunshine and groundwater at relatively shallow depths and low salinity in areas with freshwater scarcity—has the highest potential for solar powered desalination. The range in capacity for solar photovoltaic powered reverse osmosis desalination was found to be 1.56 × 10—6 to 2.93 × 10—5 cubic meters of water per second per square meter of solar panel (m3/s/m2).
A Robust Fuzzy Neural Network Model for Soil Lead Estimation from Spectral Features
Authors: Goodarzi Rohollah , Mokhtarzade Mehdi , Zoej M.
Published: June 2015

Soil lead content is an important parameter in environmental and industrial applications. Chemical analysis, the most commonly method for studying soil samples, are costly, however application of soil spectroscopy presents a more viable alternative. The first step in the method is usually to extract some appropriate spectral features and then regression models are applied to these extracted features. The aim of this paper was to design an accurate and robust regression technique to estimate soil lead contents from laboratory observed spectra. Three appropriate spectral features were selected according to information from other research as well as the spectrum interpretation of field collected soil samples containing lead. These features were then applied to common Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) and Neural Network (NN) regression models. Results showed that although NN had adequate accuracy, it produced unstable results (i.e., variation of response in different runs). This problem was addressed with application of a Fuzzy Neural Network (FNN) with a least square training strategy. In addition to the stabilized and unique response, the capability of the proposed FNN was proved in terms of regression accuracy where a Ratio of Performance to Deviation (RPD) of 8.76 was achieved for test samples.
Coded Cooperation for Multiway Relaying in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Si Zhongwei , Ma Junyang , Thobaben Ragnar
Published: June 2015

Wireless sensor networks have been considered as an enabling technology for constructing smart cities. One important feature of wireless sensor networks is that the sensor nodes collaborate in some manner for communications. In this manuscript, we focus on the model of multiway relaying with full data exchange where each user wants to transmit and receive data to and from all other users in the network. We derive the capacity region for this specific model and propose a coding strategy through coset encoding. To obtain good performance with practical codes, we choose spatially-coupled LDPC (SC-LDPC) codes for the coded cooperation. In particular, for the message broadcasting from the relay, we construct multi-edge-type (MET) SC-LDPC codes by repeatedly applying coset encoding. Due to the capacity-achieving property of the SC-LDPC codes, we prove that the capacity region can theoretically be achieved by the proposed MET SC-LDPC codes. Numerical results with finite node degrees are provided, which show that the achievable rates approach the boundary of the capacity region in both binary erasure channels and additive white Gaussian channels.
Location Privacy for Mobile Crowd Sensing through Population Mapping
Authors: Shin Minho , Cornelius Cory , Kapadia Apu , Triandopoulos Nikos , Kotz David
Published: June 2015

Opportunistic sensing allows applications to “task” mobile devices to measure context in a target region. For example, one could leverage sensor-equipped vehicles to measure traffic or pollution levels on a particular street or users’ mobile phones to locate (Bluetooth-enabled) objects in their vicinity. In most proposed applications, context reports include the time and location of the event, putting the privacy of users at increased risk: even if identifying information has been removed from a report, the accompanying time and location can reveal sufficient information to de-anonymize the user whose device sent the report. We propose and evaluate a novel spatiotemporal blurring mechanism based on tessellation and clustering to protect users’ privacy against the system while reporting context. Our technique employs a notion of probabilistic k-anonymity; it allows users to perform local blurring of reports efficiently without an online anonymization server before the data are sent to the system. The proposed scheme can control the degree of certainty in location privacy and the quality of reports through a system parameter. We outline the architecture and security properties of our approach and evaluate our tessellation and clustering algorithm against real mobility traces.
Assessment of Environmental Sustainability in Health Care Organizations
Authors: Carnero María
Published: June 2015

Healthcare organizations should set a standard in corporate social responsibility and encourage environmental sustainability, since protection of the environment implies the development of preventive measures in healthcare. Environmental concern has traditionally focused on manufacturing plants. However, a Health Care Organization (HCO) is the only type of company which generates all existing classes of waste, and 20% is dangerous, being infectious, toxic or radioactive in nature. Despite the extensive literature analysing environmental matters, there is no objective model for assessing the environmental sustainability of HCOs in such a way that the results may be compared over time for an organization, and between different organizations, to give a comparison or benchmarking tool for HCOs. This paper presents a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis model integrating a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and utility theory, to evaluate environmental sustainability in HCOs. The model uses criteria assessed as a function of the number of annual treatments undertaken. The model has been tested in two HCOs of very different sizes.
Assessing Landscape Ecological Risk in a Mining City: A Case Study in Liaoyuan City, China
Authors: Peng Jian , Zong Minli , Hu Yi'na , Liu Yanxu , Wu Jiansheng
Published: June 2015

Landscape ecological risk assessment can effectively identify key elements for landscape sustainability, which directly improves human wellbeing. However, previous research has tended to apply risk probability, measured by overlaying landscape metrics to evaluate risk, generally lacking a quantitative assessment of loss and uncertainty of risk. This study, taking Liaoyuan City as a case area, explores landscape ecological risk assessment associated with mining cities, based on probability of risk and potential ecological loss. The assessment results show landscape ecological risk is lower in highly urbanized areas than those rural areas, suggesting that not only cities but also natural and semi-natural areas contribute to overall landscape-scale ecological risk. Our comparison of potential ecological risk in 58 watersheds in the region shows that ecological loss are moderate or high in the 10 high-risk watersheds. The 35 moderate-risk watersheds contain a large proportion of farmland, and the 13 low-risk watersheds are mainly distributed in flat terrain areas. Our uncertainty analyses result in a close range between simulated and calculated values, suggesting that our model is generally applicable. Our analysis has good potential in the fields of resource development, landscape planning and ecological restoration, and provides a quantitative method for achieving landscape sustainability in a mining city.
Therapeutic Effects of Bee Venom on Immunological and Neurological Diseases
Authors: Hwang Deok-Sang , Kim Sun , Bae Hyunsu
Published: June 2015

Bee Venom (BV) has long been used in Korea to relieve pain symptoms and to treat inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. The underlying mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions of BV have been proved to some extent. Additionally, recent clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that BV and BV-derived active components are applicable to a wide range of immunological and neurodegenerative diseases, including autoimmune diseases and Parkinson’s disease. These effects of BV are known to be mediated by modulating immune cells in the periphery, and glial cells and neurons in the central nervous system. This review will introduce the scientific evidence of the therapeutic effects of BV and its components on several immunological and neurological diseases, and describe their detailed mechanisms involved in regulating various immune responses and pathological changes in glia and neurons.
Structures and Functions of Pestivirus Glycoproteins: Not Simply Surface Matters
Authors: Wang Fun-In , Deng Ming-Chung , Huang Yu-Liang , Chang Chia-Yi
Published: June 2015

Pestiviruses, which include economically important animal pathogens such as bovine viral diarrhea virus and classical swine fever virus, possess three envelope glycoproteins, namely Erns, E1, and E2. This article discusses the structures and functions of these glycoproteins and their effects on viral pathogenicity in cells in culture and in animal hosts. E2 is the most important structural protein as it interacts with cell surface receptors that determine cell tropism and induces neutralizing antibody and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses. All three glycoproteins are involved in virus attachment and entry into target cells. E1-E2 heterodimers are essential for viral entry and infectivity. Erns is unique because it possesses intrinsic ribonuclease (RNase) activity that can inhibit the production of type I interferons and assist in the development of persistent infections. These glycoproteins are localized to the virion surface; however, variations in amino acids and antigenic structures, disulfide bond formation, glycosylation, and RNase activity can ultimately affect the virulence of pestiviruses in animals. Along with mutations that are driven by selection pressure, antigenic differences in glycoproteins influence the efficacy of vaccines and determine the appropriateness of the vaccines that are currently being used in the field.
Enhanced fullerene–Au(111) coupling in (2√3 × 2√3)R30° superstructures with intermolecular interactions
Authors: Paßens Michael , Waser Rainer , Karthäuser Silvia
Published: June 2015

Disordered and uniform (2√3 × 2√3)R30° superstructures of fullerenes on the Au(111) surface have been studied using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. It is shown that the deposition and growth process of a fullerene monolayer on the Au(111) surface determine the resulting superstructure. The supply of thermal energy is of importance for the activation of a Au vacancy forming process and thus, one criterion for the selection of the respective superstructure. However, here it is depicted that a vacancy–adatom pair can be formed even at room temperature. This latter process results in C60 molecules that appear slightly more bright in scanning tunnelling microscopy images and are identified in disordered (2√3 x 2√3)R30° superstructures based on a detailed structure analysis. In addition, these slightly more bright C60 molecules form uniform (2√3 x 2√3)R30° superstructures, which exhibit intermolecular interactions, likely mediated by Au adatoms. Thus, vacancy–adatom pairs forming at room temperature directly affect the resulting C60 superstructure. Differential conductivity spectra reveal a lifting of the degeneracy of the LUMO and LUMO+1 orbitals in the uniform (2√3 x 2√3)R30° superstructure and in addition, hybrid fullerene–Au(111) surface states suggest partly covalent interactions.
Learning Phonological Mappings by Learning Strictly Local Functions
Authors: Chandlee Jane , Jardine Adam
Published: June 2015

In this paper we identify strict locality as a defining computational property of the input-output mapping that underlies local phonological processes. We provide an automata-theoretic characterization for the class of Strictly Local functions, which are based on the well-studied Strictly Local formal languages (McNaughton & Papert 1971; Rogers & Pullum 2011; Rogers et al. 2013), and show how they can model a range of phonological processes. We then present a learning algorithm, the SLFLA, which uses the defining property of strict locality as an inductive principle to learn these mappings from finite data. The algorithm is a modification of an algorithm developed by Oncina et al. (1993) (called OSTIA) for learning the class of subsequential functions, of which the SL functions are a proper subset. We provide a proof that the SLFLA learns the class of SL functions and discuss these results alongside previous studies on using OSTIA to learn phonological mappings (Gildea and Jurafsky 1996).
The Timecourse of Generalization in Phonotactic Learning
Authors: Linzen Tal , Gallagher Gillian
Published: June 2015

There is considerable evidence that speakers show sensitivity to the phonotactic patterns of their language. These patterns can involve specific sound sequences (e.g. the consonant combination b-b) or more general classes of sequences (e.g. two identical consonants). In some models of phonotactic learning, generalizations can only be formed once some of their specific instantiations have been acquired (the specific-before-general assumption). To test this assumption, we designed an artificial language with both general and specific phonotactic patterns, and gave participants different amounts of exposure to the language. Contrary to the predictions of specific-before-general models, the general pattern required less exposure to be learned than did its specific instantiations. These results are most straightforwardly predicted by learning models that learn general and specific patterns simultaneously. We discuss the importance of modeling learners’ sensitivity to the amount of evidence supporting each phonotactic generalization, and show how specific-before-general models can be adapted to accommodate the results.
Unifying Phonotactics and Derived Environment Blocking through Prosodic Constraint Indexation
Authors: Hsu Brian
Published: June 2015

This paper presents a theory of prosodic constraint indexation that derives the blocking of markedness-reducing processes at prosodic and morphological junctures. The principle claim is that markedness constraints are indexed to prosodic categories, and are violated only when a marked structure is fully contained within the span of the indexed constituent. The interaction of prosodically-indexed constraints with faithfulness constraints accounts for both static phonotactic restrictions and derived environment blocking effects. Furthermore, they account for domain restrictions that can not be derived by CrispEdge constraints, which reference only prosodic edges. Where Strict Layering is violated, prosodic constraint indexation correctly predicts that more marked segment sequences can be admitted in extraprosodic affixes than in root morphemes.
A Subsegmental Correspondence Approach to Contour Tone (Dis)Harmony Patterns
Authors: Shih Stephanie , Inkelas Sharon
Published: June 2015

Contour tones, like contour segments, exhibit dualist syntagmatic behavior: as whole units, they can participate in harmony (spreading) and disharmony (OCP-type restriction) processes or their internal, subsegmental components may act independently. Formally, such schizoid behavior from both contour tones and segments in (dis)harmony patterns has challenged previous phonological theory. As a solution, this paper presents a novel, quantized phonological representation for subsegmental units couched in existing surface correspondence theory (Agreement by Correspondence (ABC); Hansson 2001; Rose & Walker 2004; et seq.). The resulting approach, termed ABC+Q, treats tonally contoured segments as strings of tonally simplex subsegments and is thus capable of modeling both whole contour (segment-level) and partial contour (subsegment-level) effects as consequences of (dis)agreement triggered by phonological similarity and proximity. Such an approach makes it possible for the first time to offer a united treatment for the behavior of both contour tones and contour segments across observed patterns of (dis)harmony.
Identity Avoidance and Rendaku
Authors: Kawahara Shigeto , Sano Shin-Ichiro
Published: June 2015

One important observation that is made in the past phonological research is that constraints on output structures can both block and trigger phonological processes (i.e., conspiracy: Kisseberth 1970). This paper reports an experiment which shows that an Identity Avoidance constraint (a.k.a. the OCP) both blocks and triggers one phonological process in the same language, namely rendaku in Japanese. Our wug- experiment shows that rendaku is more likely to apply when the two CV moras across a morpheme boundary are identical; i.e. an Identity Avoidance constraint triggers rendaku. The experiment also shows that rendaku is less likely to apply when it would result in two adjacent identical CV moras across a morpheme boundary; i.e. the Identity Avoidance constraint blocks rendaku. These blocking and triggering effects of the general Identity Avoidance constraint on rendaku are a new discovery in Japanese phonology, despite the fact that rendaku has been studied extensively in the previous literature, suggesting the importance of experimentation in phonological research. Moreover, our case study offers experimental confirmation of the OCP conspiracy in natural languages.
Ternary Constituents Are a Consequence of Mora Sluicing
Authors: Hermans Ben , Torres-Tamarit Francesc
Published: June 2015

While ternary rhythm exists, ternary feet do not, not even indirectly by means of recursion. We propose that ternary rhythm arises from mora sluicing, the phenomenon whereby moras can be excluded from the stress plane to satisfy an instance of NO-CLASH in a model that conceives metrical prominences as headed constituents. We demonstrate that the notion of mora sluicing has high explanatory power: it is necessary on independent grounds to explain otherwise unrelated phenomena such as uneven trochee-creating processes in Mohawk and Central Slovak, and opaque stress-epenthesis interactions in Mohawk. One fundamental move derived from the metrical model sketched in this paper is the relation between what we call line1 constituents (phonological syllables) and phonetic syllables (namely CV or CVC sequences), which is not one-to-one anymore, as it is in standard syllable theory.
Kashaya Extrametricality and Formal Symmetry
Authors: Buckley Eugene
Published: June 2015

Kager (2012), Martínez-Paricio & Kager (2013), and Martínez-Paricio (2013) propose layered feet to account for a variety of phenomena, including stress windows, mixed binary and ternary alternations, and extrametricality. Although many metrical theories do not accommodate left-edge extrametricality, they use constraints that are almost entirely symmetrical and can therefore capture initial extrametricality in a language like Kashaya (Pomoan: California). Building on their work, however, I argue that the full facts of Kashaya require even more extensive use of the layered, or recursive, foot than in the other languages that they discuss, including recursion over a degenerate foot. To account for these facts formally, I claim that Non-Finality has the counterpart Non-Initiality and that the constraint system is therefore fully symmetrical; and in contrast to many previous formalizations, both are defined in terms of foot structure rather than as avoidance of stress at the edge.
The nature of regressions in the acquisition of phonological grammars
Authors: Tessier Anne-Michelle
Published: June 2015

Children’s acquisition of their L1 phonological grammar is typically understood as a gradual progression from an initial universal state towards a language-specific one, in which learners incrementally change their grammars to better approximate the target. One challenging problem for this view, however, are the many reports of ‘U-shaped development’ in which production temporarily regresses, diverging further from the target rather than drawing closer. Based on existing and novel analyses of longitudinal data, this paper argues that phonological regressions should not be captured directly within the normal workings of children’s error-driven mechanisms for grammar learning. It also identifies a kind of regression that seems plausible but is nonetheless apparently unattested: one in which markedness constraints flip-flop over time, so that improvement on one marked structure entails regression on another. With this initial empirical base, the paper then demonstrates that an error-driven OT-like learner which stores its errors and imposes certain persistent biases can in fact easily regress in the unattested way. Section 5 discusses how OT’s grammatical parallelism is in part responsible for creating the unattested regression pattern, and how a serial constraint-based grammar like Harmonic Serialism (McCarthy 2007 et seq) avoids this regression. 
Valencian Hypocoristics: When Morphology Meets Phonology
Authors: Artés Eduard
Published: June 2015

Valencian hypocoristics constitute a domain in which morphology seems to be at rescue when phonological problems arise. The prosodic requirements of the truncated form (a disyllabic left-headed foot) determine the insertion of an inflectional exponent, i.e., 'morphological epenthesis'. The grammar avoids the insertion of regular epenthetic material and favors the choice of an exponent already listed in the lexicon. Assuming inflectional allomorphs to be underdetermined in the input, a constraint Priority ('respect lexical priority -ordering- of allomorphs', Mascaró 2007) is responsible for the assignment of exponents. In cases of phonological conflict, the interaction with markedness constraints forces the insertion of a marked allomorph in the hierarchy. In short, the proposal implies that phonology can control allomorph selection.  
Prosodic Word and Morphological Derivation in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Schwindt Luiz Carlos
Published: June 2015

In this paper, I discuss the prosodic status of words formed by morphological derivation in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Considering three types of prosodization - composition, adjunction and incorporation (Booij, 1996; Ito & Mester, 2008; Vigário, 2011) -, I propose that prefixes in BP are subject to all of them, whereas suffixes are subject only to incorporation and composition, not to adjunction. The main argument to support this analysis comes from the diagnostic of stress assignment. In addition, I examine other phonological processes that occur within words in contrast to processes that occur at word boundaries, as well as the morphosyntactic behavior of the affixes involved. In addition, based on this description, I seek to problematize some consequences of this typology for the organization of the prosodic hierarchy and its effects on morphological transparency.
Tone-TBU Disparity in Three Phonologies of Cantonese
Authors: Iacoponi Luca
Published: June 2015

I propose a restricted theory of tone-TBU association called Basic Tonal Theory (BTT). BTT includes six well-attested constraints, and a restricted GEN. The typology contains attested cases of tone over-crowding resolution such as tone deletion, mora epenthesis, and mora deletion, but also predicts unattested cases of languages that resolve tonal crowding by using a combination of the aforementioned mechanisms based on the number of the morae in the input.

Cantonese has both monomaraic and bimoraic syllables, lexically specified tones, and a process of tonal suffixation that creates the context for tonal overcrowding. In an acoustic experiment, the duration and pitch of pairs of suffixed and underived forms were measured, and the analysis of the results shows that two of the three groups use a split-strategy to resolve tonal crowding.

The experiment thus provides empirical evidence for the typology of BTT. Furthermore, the proposed analysis can account for a case of near mergers previously argued to be unexplainable in an optimality framework. 
Prototypical Predicates Have Unmarked Phonology
Authors: Smith Jennifer L.
Published: June 2015

Recent work recognizes that phonological processes and phonotactics can be sensitive to lexical category. Moreover, there are strong cross-linguistic tendencies concerning the nature of phonological differences between categories. One such tendency is a hierarchy of phonological privilege, N > A > V: nouns tend to license more phonological contrasts and tolerate more marked structures than adjectives, with verbs showing the least privilege and therefore the greatest phonological unmarkedness.
This paper proposes that the N > A > V hierarchy of phonological privilege derives from a more general scale, according to which protypical designators (or arguments) have more phonological privilege, and prototypical predicates show greater unmarkedness. This approach predicts that even within a given lexical category, such as V, category members that are more prototypical as predicates should show greater unmarkedness.

A case study is presented in support of this proposal. In Tokyo Japanese, unergative verbs (more-prototypical predicates) show greater phonological unmarkedness with respect to pitch accent than unaccusative verbs (less-prototypical predicates). Some preliminary implications of this finding for our understanding of lexical-category effects in phonology, and of the role of markedness scales in the grammar, are also considered.
Emergent faithfulness to morphological and semantic heads in lexical blends
Authors: Shaw Katherine E. , White Andrew M. , Moreton Elliott , Monrose Fabian
Published: June 2015

In many languages, sounds in certain "privileged" positions preserve marked structure which is eliminated elsewhere (Positional Faithfulness, Beckman 1998).  This paper presents new corpus and experimental evidence that faithfulness to main-stress location and segmental content of morpho-semantic heads emerges in English blends. The study compared right-headed (subordinating) blends, like motor + hotel -> motel (a kind of hotel) with coordinating blends like spoon + fork -> spork (equally spoon and fork).

Stress: Analysis of 1095 blends from Thurner (1993) found that right-headed blends were more faithful to stress location of the second source word than were coordinating blends.  Given source words with conflicting stress (e.g., FLOUNder + sarDINE), participants preferentially matched the blend that preserved second-word stress (flounDINE) to a right-headed definition.

Segmental content: When source-word length was controlled, segments from right-headed blends were more likely to survive than those from coordinating blends.  Given source words that could be spliced at two points (e.g., flaMiNGo + MoNGoose), participants preferentially matched the one that preserved more of the second word (flamongoose) to a right-headed definition.

These results support the hypotheses that Positional Faithfulness constraints are universally available, that heads are a privileged position, and that blend phonology is sensitive to headedness.
Error-driven versus batch models of the acquisition of phonotactics: David defeats Goliath
Authors: Magri Giorgio
Published: June 2015

Pure phonotactic learning is the problem of learning a restrictive OT grammar consistent with a set of licit surface forms. Hayes' (2004) LFCD and Prince and Tesar's (2004) BCD implement the batch approach to pure phonotactic learning. These algorithms are allowed to glimpse at the entire batch of data and can thus be endowed with aggressive biases towards restrictiveness. These authors dismiss the competing error-driven approach as computationally too weak to succeed at pure phonotactic learning. Indeed, an error-driven learner does not have access to the entire batch of data. Instead, it performs a sequence of re-rankings based on a single piece of data at the time. And its only provision towards restrictiveness consists of a restrictive initial ranking. In this paper, I compare the batch and the error-driven approach on two OT typologies yielding a total of roughly seventy languages. I show that the batch LFCD and BCD fail on a number of these languages. An error-driven learner which performs some constraint promotion besides demotion instead succeeds on each single language. Thus, David defeats Goliat.
A Pragmatic Approach to the Parasitic Gap Construction in Chinese
Authors: JIN DAWEI
Published: June 2015

This paper argues that there is no need to posit a syntactic-based licensing mechanism for Chinese parasitic gaps, because putative adjunct island condition doesn’t hold in Chinese. This is evidenced by an array of circumvention data, where context-salient contrastive reading or coherent rhetorical relation (e.g. cause-effect, result, violated expectations) can make adjunct extraction acceptable even without a second gap. I propose that biclausal relatives must be construed as identificational, and adjunct relatives in generic contexts may not fulfill this requirement. Consequently, multiple gap extraction is freely allowed in Chinese, and separate, pragmatic reasons rule out certain adjunct extraction.
Geminates and Weight in Amharic
Authors: Sande Hannah , Hedding Andrew
Published: June 2015

Moraic Theory (Hayes 1989) predicts the existence of a language that classifies CVC syllables as light and syllables with a geminate coda (CVG) as heavy. Until now, no such language has been attested (Tranel 1991; Davis 2011). We propose that Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia, fits this pattern. Using data collected through eight months of fieldwork with two Amharic speakers, we demonstrate that two independent processes of the language, stress and reduplication, serve as evidence that geminate codas but not other codas are moraic in Amharic.
How to turn a (not-yet-)possessed DP into a predicate nominal in Cochabamba Quechua
Authors: Myler Neil Joseph
Published: June 2015

This paper provides an analysis of a possession construction in Cochabamba Quechua (Quechuan, SOV):

(1)     Noqa  pana-yoq    ka-ni.

        I       sister-yoq   be-1s

       ‘I have a sister.’

I show that the –yoq suffix in (1) is a derivational morpheme which attaches to a DP and starts a new nominal extended projection.  Thus we have an existence proof that "predicativization" as identified by Stassen (2009) is a genuinely distinct phenomenon which cannot be reduced to more familiar subtypes of possession construction. Semantically, -yoq takes a possessed DP ‘missing’ its possessor and returns a predicate nominal, which can then be predicated of the possessor.  This supports the idea that a theta-role (a possessor role in this case) need not be satisfied in the position where it is introduced (Marantz 2013; Wood 2012).  I conclude by pointing out the predictions made by the analysis for parametric variation.
Linguistics meets "legalese": syntax, semantics, and jury instruction reform
Authors: Randall Janet H. , Graf Lucas R.
Published: June 2015

Our research, reported here last year (Randall 2013), demonstrated that low comprehension of six current Massachusetts jury instructions could be improved with Plain English versions.  We found a significant difference in the proportion of t/f questions correctly answered by ≥ 90% of subjects hearing either Current or Plain English instructions: 30% vs. 52%  (p <.05).  We now show that two linguistic factors in the instructions mattered most:  the proportions of passives and unfamiliar, undefined terms inversely correlated with instruction comprehension rates.  We also report on a new study investigating whether reading enhances comprehension, for both current and Plain English versions.
A Syntactic Analysis of Two Types of Predicate Reduplication in Japanese
Authors: Ishihara Yuki
Published: June 2015

The properties of the two types of predicate reduplication in Japanese are investigated, and their syntactic derivation is proposed based on the copy theory of movement.
Autologistic Regression in Linguistic Typology
Authors: Asao Yoshihiko
Published: June 2015

It is often difficult to tell whether a given typological frequency asymmetry is due to a linguistic preference, or a mere result of historical accidents. This paper applies autologistic regression analysis to linguistic typology, a common method to model geographically correlated data in geography and ecology. In an autologistic regression, neighbors' responses are used to predict the response at issue. This idea is tested on several phonological and word order universals using the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), including implicational universals.
Methodological Issues in a Real-Time Study of Glaswegian Vowels: Automation and Comparability
Authors: Jose Brian
Published: June 2015

(attached as pdf)
On the Nature of Root and Adjunct Clauses
Authors: Obata Miki
Published: June 2015

This work specifically focuses on scope interaction between ‘all’ and ‘not’ in Japanese discussed in Miyagawa (2010) and gives further scrutiny to those phenomena. The goals of this presentation is to illustrate certain scopal interactions in Japanese observed only in root and adjunct CP, but not in complement CP, and also to demonstrate that the asymmetries between selected CP and unselected CP play important roles in human linguistic computation, especially in applying the Transfer operation.
The strong and the weak: evaluation in modal desideratives
Authors: Zaroukian Erin , Beller Charley
Published: June 2015

Modal auxiliaries can generate two desiderative readings: strong (1) and weak (2) desiderativity. These differ notably in whether they express strict preference and whether they are felicitous out of the blue.

(1) (A: Cookie anyone?) B: I would like/enjoy a cookie.

(2) #(A: Cookie anyone?) B: I would/might have/take/eat a cookie.

We provide an analysis that accounts for the contrast by introducing 1) a comparison operator ≥ as part of the subjective morphology that can be pragmatically strengthened to > and 2) a criterion determining how alternative situations are introduced for comparison which allows introduction by evaluatives (like, enjoy).