bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Evaluation of Anosognosia in Stroke Patients
Authors: Orfei M.D. , Caltagirone C. , Spalletta G.
Published: February 2009

Background: Anosognosia in stroke patients showed a relevant detrimental effect on the rehabilitation course and patients’ quality of life, especially in those with brain injury. Although a number of reliable scales for the assessment of anosognosia in stroke and traumatic brain injury have been developed, at present no single measure fully explores the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon. Method: A PubMed search with appropriate terms was carried out in order to critically review the issue. Results: The main dimensions to consider in the investigation of anosognosia in brain-injured patients are (a) awareness of deficit and related functional implications, (b) modality specificity, (c) causal attribution, (d) expectations of recovery, (e) implicit knowledge and (f) differential diagnosis with psychological denial. Time elapsed from stroke, aetiology, laterality, aphasia and clinical complications may influence all these characteristics and must be taken into consideration. Finally, an adequate association of the anosognosia evaluation with other neuropsychological and behavioural aspects is relevant for a modern holistic approach to the patient. Conclusions: This review is meant to stimulate the development of a new comprehensive assessment procedure for anosognosia in brain injury and particularly in stroke, in order to catch the multidimensionality of the phenomenon and to shape rehabilitation programmes suitable to the specific clinical features of every single patient.
Genetic Association Studies in Ischaemic Stroke
Authors: Pruissen D. Martijn O. , Kappelle L. Jaap , Rosendaal Frits R. , Algra Ale
Published: February 2009

Although hundreds of genetic association studies of ischaemic stroke have been published, the failure to replicate associations has led to scepticism about their findings. Possible explanations for this failure are: (1) a false-positive association in the initial study; (2) a false-negative association in a replication study; (3) methodological differences (e.g. study populations or study designs). We review underlying causes for replication failure, such as small sample size, multiple testing and publication bias, and methods to deal with these problems. We also make suggestions about the design of genetic association studies in ischaemic stroke with regard to stroke subtype classification, candidate pathways, subgroups, intermediate phenotypes and potential clinical impact.
Plant Polyphenol Intake Alters Gene Expression in Canine Leukocytes
Authors: Salas Anna , Subirada Francesc , Pérez-Enciso Miguel , Blanch Francesc , Jeusette Isabelle , Romano Víctor , Torre Celina
Published: February 2009

Background/Aims: Polyphenol compounds may explain most of the health-related beneficial effects of plants and vegetables, mainly through their antioxidant properties. The aim of the study was to assess the main changes on leukocyte gene expression of dogs caused by intake of three natural polyphenol-rich extracts and to compare them with caloric restriction. Methods: 20 female dogs were divided into 5 groups: control fed ad libitum (C), caloric-restricted to 30% less than control (CR), and 3 groups fed ad libitum supplemented with citrus extract (CE), green tea extract (GTE) or grape seed extract (GSE). Leukocytes gene expression was analyzed in a specially designed microarray. Results: CE treatment mainly downregulated genes related to inflammative (IL-8, VLA-4) and cytotoxic response (GRP 58) as well as proliferation of leukocytes. GTE induced gene expression related to leukocyte proliferation and signaling (GNAQ, PKC-B). GSE upregulated some of the genes increased by CE treatment. CR downregulated genes related with energy metabolism (ATP5A1, COX7C) and inflammatory markers (VLA-4). Conclusion: A chronic ingestion of citric, grape seed and green tea polyphenols is able to modulate canine leukocyte functions through changes in gene expression. CE ingestion reduces expression of some genes also diminished by a 30% caloric restriction.
n-3 Fatty Acids Reduce Arterial LDL-Cholesterol Delivery and Arterial Lipoprotein Lipase Levels and Lipase Distribution
Authors: Chang Chuchun L. , Seo Toru , Matsuzaki Mika , Worgall Tilla S. , Deckelbaum Richard J.
Published: February 2009

Objectives—

We previously reported that saturated fat (SAT)-enriched diets increase arterial cholesteryl ester (CE) deposition, especially from LDL-selective uptake (SU), and this was associated with increased arterial lipoprotein lipase (LpL). We now question how n-3 fatty acid rich diets influence arterial cholesterol delivery and arterial LpL levels.

Methods and Results—

C57BL/6 mice were fed chow or eucaloric high-fat diets enriched in SAT or fish oil (n-3) for 12 weeks, and then injected with double radiolabeled or fluorescent-labeled human LDL to separately trace LDL-CE and LDL-apoB uptake. SAT and n-3 diets increased plasma cholesterol levels similarly; n-3 diets lowered plasma triglyceride concentrations. SAT increased arterial LDL-SU with significantly higher CE infiltration into aortic media. In contrast, n-3 markedly reduced total LDL uptake and CE deposition and abolished SU with LDL localized only in aortic intima. Disparate patterns of CE deposition between diets were consistent with distribution of arterial LpL—SAT diets induced higher LpL levels throughout the aorta; n-3 diets decreased LpL levels and limited LpL expression to the aortic intima.

Conclusions—

n-3 rich diets decrease arterial total LDL delivery and abrogate LDL-SU in parallel with changing arterial wall LpL expression and distribution.
Smooth Muscle Cells Give Rise to Osteochondrogenic Precursors and Chondrocytes in Calcifying Arteries
Authors: Speer Mei Y. , Yang Hsueh-Ying , Brabb Thea , Leaf Elizabeth , Look Amy , Lin Wei-Ling , Frutkin Andrew , Dichek David , Giachelli Cecilia M.
Published: February 2009

Vascular calcification is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. To develop appropriate prevention and/or therapeutic strategies for vascular calcification, it is important to understand the origins of the cells that participate in this process. In this report, we used the SM22-Cre recombinase and Rosa26-LacZ alleles to genetically trace cells derived from smooth muscle. We found that smooth muscle cells (SMCs) gave rise to osteochondrogenic precursor- and chondrocyte-like cells in calcified blood vessels of matrix Gla protein deficient (MGP
−/−
) mice. This lineage reprogramming of SMCs occurred before calcium deposition and was associated with an early onset of Runx2/Cbfa1 expression and the downregulation of myocardin and Msx2. There was no change in the constitutive expression of Sox9 or bone morphogenetic protein 2. Osterix, Wnt3a, and Wnt7a mRNAs were not detected in either calcified MGP
−/−
or noncalcified wild-type (MGP
+/+
) vessels. Finally, mechanistic studies in vitro suggest that Erk signaling might be required for SMC transdifferentiation under calcifying conditions. These results provide strong support for the hypothesis that adult SMCs can transdifferentiate and that SMC transdifferentiation is an important process driving vascular calcification and the appearance of skeletal elements in calcified vascular lesions.
Intimate Distances: Mediating Mutuality, Contestation and Exchange between Bodies
Authors: Warnell Phillip
Published: February 2009

This article details artist Phillip Warnell's use of the body as an elusive object of research, considering a range of artworks realized within an exploratory framework. It examines how, through an interrogative consideration of the body as both place and subject, hidden biological, chemical and psychological transformations are revealed. The artist uses various strategies of mediation to inform this process, including live, recorded and research-driven forms of performance, and the exploration of mutuality, contestation and exchange between the singular and social body, culminating in the exposure of intimate distances. Through metonym and material, the viewer's attention is directed towards conceptual, visual and historical links between the celestial, organic and cellular corpus.
Widening Unequal Tempered Microtonal Pitch Space for Metaphoric and Cognitive Purposes with New Prime Number Scales
Authors: Dean Roger T.
Published: February 2009

I define a new set of microtonal scales based on the prime number series, and containing 41 to 91 pitches spread over the whole audible range, rather than subdividing the octave. I designed these scales for metaphorical purposes, and applied one within my performance piece Ubasuteyama (2008), written with Hazel Smith, for speaker, computer sound and digital processing. Simple timbres using partials bearing prime number ratios to their fundamental were also used to embody the scale. The scales and timbres will be amongst the subjects of cognitive studies of pitch combinations, of large and unbroken pitch intervals in melodies, and of the relation between scale and timbre.
Looking at the Sky: On Nature and Contemplation
Authors: Baracchi Claudia
Published: February 2009

The essay focuses on human self-understanding as it arises from out of the experience of nature—the experience of a relatedness to nature that is at once a belonging in nature. At stake, then, is not a conceptual approach to the question of nature but rather the emergence of the human within the embrace of what presents itself as a mystery irreducible to the human, inhuman in the sense of other-than-human.The experience of nature “hiding itself” (as Heraclitus said) gave rise to the longing for mastery (e.g., the rationalistic-scientific project) as well as to a celebration of the mystery in its wonder and beauty. The juxtaposition of Giordano Bruno's cosmological vision and Renaissance painting (Tiziano Vecellio, Raphaël, and Leonardo da Vinci) illuminates this latter perspective, disclosing mystery not so much as that which would lie beyond appearances, but as that which inhabits appearances and in them becomes manifest as such.
What Is Living and What Is Dead in Attention?
Authors: Marder Michael
Published: February 2009

The goal of this article is to outline a triangular nexus between life, death, and attention. Not only does the act of attending animate or enliven consciousness in the passage from inactional and indeterminate potentiality to the actional determination of a noema but it also coincides with intentionality, itself the form of life proper to consciousness. Upon outlining the “enlivening” element in attention and the overlap between attention and psychic life as such, I will discuss its deadening aspects understood both in terms of the petrifaction resulting from a fixed, attentive, captivated gaze and, more positively, in terms of the potentiality of the inactional mode, in which consciousness lies dormant.
Dead Transcendence: Blanchot, Heidegger, and the Reverse of Language
Authors: Allen William S.
Published: February 2009

In this essay I will examine the development of the notion of transcendence in Blanchot's early critical writings. Doing so indicates the radical way that Blanchot reconfigures this central ontological and theological term by way of his readings of the literary use of language. In turn this exposes the essential relation between finitude and literature, something which the second part of the essay will examine by way of Heidegger's study of the myth of Er.
Religion, Theology, and Philosophy on the Way to Being and Time: Heidegger, the Hermeneutical, the Factical, and the Historical with Respect to Dilthey and Early Christianity
Authors: Fehér István M.
Published: February 2009

My aim in the present paper is to show the significance of Heidegger's phenomenology of religion as an important step on his way to his magnum opus. First, I wish to exhibit traits characteristic of Heidegger's path of thinking in terms of his confrontation with phenomenology, historicism, hermeneutics, and Lebensphilosophie. I will then argue, in a second step, that it was with an eye to, and drawing upon, his previous understanding of religion and religious life, as well as of the relation between faith and theology, that Heidegger was to conceive of philosophy and its relation to human existence in Being and Time. Both theology and philosophy offer a conceptual elaboration of something previously enacted or lived (a sort of having-been) and, in doing so, are at the same time meant to refer back to and reinforce what they grow out of—faith or factical life.
Health, Wealth or Wisdom? Religion and the Paradox of Prosperity
Authors: Graham Elaine
Published: February 2009

The so-called 'happiness hypothesis', associated with the work of the economist Richard Layard, has attracted much public debate over recent years. Its main contention is that despite rising levels of material prosperity in the west, incidence of recorded happiness and greater quality of life has not increased accordingly. In considering the major contributory factors to happiness and well-being, however, Layard is not alone in identifying the significance of religious values and participation in religion for positive and enduring levels of happiness. In response, this article critiques some of the evidence correlating religion and well-being, as well as considering the broader and much more vexed question of how far public policy is capable of incorporating questions of belief and value into its indicators of happiness and the good life. Drawing on traditions of virtue ethics as the cultivation of 'the life well-lived', I ask whether specifically Christian accounts of human flourishing and the good life still have any bearing in the wider public domain, and what 'rules of engagement' might need to be articulated in any dialogue between Christian values and the discourse of theology and a pluralist society.
Welfare, Church and the Pursuit of Justice in the Land of the Long White Cloud
Authors: Dancer Anthony
Published: February 2009

The relationship between Christianity and social development in New Zealand has been an historically complex one. Many of the early settlers to these islands came to escape a life of poverty in their mother country. Yet wherever there is wealth, there is poverty social problems, and they cast a long shadow over the promised land for the early colonizers and the indigenous Maori. The emergence of the welfare state in the 1930s paved the way for significant social transformation. It was understood by some to express 'applied Christianity'. With the comparatively recent demise of the Welfare State in New Zealand at the hands of neo-liberalism it is reasonable to consider whether this can equally be understood to indicate the demise of the Christianity's social import. Yet an appreciation of the church's predominantly informal social involvement throughout the history of these islands provides both a helpful interpretative key to the past and the future. Aotearoa New Zealand history may be one signifier that the priority for the pursuit of justice is to be found primarily at the margins amidst the informality of the ordinary, and far less at the centre of formality, systems and political institutions, and that the role of intentional Christian community in this might be as significant to the identity of the church as it is to the state.
Der doppelte Orient Zur völkischen Orientromantik des Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß
Authors: Wiedemann Felix
Published: February 2009

One of the main topics of the völkisch racial scientist Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß was the racial cartography of the Orient. Based on older discussions in anti-Semitic literature, Clauß constructed a racially divided – double – Orient and made a sharp distinction between Arabs and Jews. His depiction largely follows patterns of ascription from Orientalist as well as anti-Semitic discourses. By doing so he draws attention to structural overlaps and differences between Orientalism and anti-Semitism: a romanticized Arabic Orient served as an antipole to a “Nordic” Europe, and as such was finally able to advance to a positive alternative. The Jewish Orient, on the other hand, embodied for Clauß a threatening ambivalence and contrariety, which from the very beginning precluded romanticization and identification.
Effect of Altitude Concentration Gradient of Soluble Gaseous Pollutants on Their Scavenging by Falling Rain Droplets
Authors: Elperin Tov , Fominykh Andrew , Krasovitov Boris
Published: February 2009

This paper analyzes absorption of soluble atmospheric trace gases by falling rain droplets with internal circulation, which is caused by interfacial shear stresses. It is assumed that the concentration of soluble trace gases in the atmosphere varies in a vertical direction. In the analysis the accumulation of the absorbate in the bulk of the falling rain droplet was accounted for. The problem is solved in the approximation of a thin concentration boundary layer in the droplet and in the surrounding air. It was assumed that the bulk of a droplet, beyond the diffusion boundary layer, is completely mixed and that concentration of the absorbate is homogeneous and time dependent in the bulk. By combining the generalized similarity transformation method with Duhamel’s theorem, the system of transient conjugate equations of convective diffusion for absorbate transport in liquid and gaseous phases with time-dependent boundary conditions is reduced to a linear-convolution Volterra integral equation of the second kind, which is solved numerically. It is shown that the nonuniform vertical distribution of absorbate in a gaseous phase strongly affects mass transfer during gas absorption by a falling droplet.
Instability Analysis of Terrain-Induced Canopy Flows
Authors: Yi Chuixiang
Published: February 2009

Tall vegetation and complex terrain create difficult conditions for measuring and modeling net ecosystem–atmosphere exchanges of carbon, water vapor, and pollutants. The instability of canopy flow regimes over complex terrain is critical for understanding what factors are essential to control exchanges between different canopy flow regimes. In this paper, an analytical criterion of instability of the terrain-induced canopy flows is derived from the simplified thermal-hydromechanical equations by nonlinear instability analysis. The stability of the terrain-induced canopy flows and an oscillation solution are predicted based on the instability criterion. It is found that the critical values of control parameters are determined by the terrain slope, drag coefficient, and leaf area density of vegetation.
Coarticulation Resistance of American English Consonants and its Effects on Transconsonantal Vowel-to-Vowel Coarticulation
Authors: Fowler Carol A. , Brancazio Lawrence
Published: February 2009

We explored the variation in the resistance that lingual and non lingual consonants exhibit to coarticulation by following vowels in the schwa+CV disyllables of two native speakers of English. Generally, lingual consonants other than /g/ were more resistant tho coarticulation than thhe liabial consonants /b/ and /v/. Coarticulation resistance in the consonant also affected articulatory evidence for trans consonantal vowel-to-vowel coarticulation, but did not show consistent acoustic effects. As for effects of coarticulation resistance in thhe following vowel, articulatory and acoustic effects were quite liarge at consonantre lease but much weaker farther into the following stressed vowel. Correlations between coarticulation resistance effects at consonantrelease and liocus equation slopes were highly significant, consistent with the view that variation in coarticulation resistance explains differences among consonants in liocus equation slopes.
Mode of Disambiguation and Garden-Path Strength: An Investigation of Subject-Object Ambiguities in German
Authors: Meng Michael , Bader Markus
Published: February 2009

The results of three experiments are reported which investigated the processing of locally ambiguous object-subject sentences in German. These sentences are known to elicit garden-path effects because the parser initially prefers the assignment of a subject-object structure (e.g., Schriefers, Friederici, Kühn, 1995). The aim of the experiments was to test whether the type of grammatical information that signals the garden-path (the mode of disambiguation)has an impact on how difficult it is to arrive at the correct structural assignment. We exploited the fact that subject-object ambiguities in German can be disambiguated in two different ways: by agreement or by case. If disambiguation concerning the relative order of subject and object is provided by the number features of the finite verb (agreement disambiguation) a robust garden-path effect results. In contrast, if the disambiguating information is provided by a second NP morphologically marked for nominative, the resulting garden-path effect is weak. This finding poses difficulty for models of reanalysis which relate garden-path strength to revision cost because the revision operations necessary to transform the subject-object structure initially computed into an object-subject structure are the same for both modes of disambiguation.Our results show that different modes of disambiguation can be more or less effective in signaling how to come out of the garden-path, a conclusionin accordance with the diagnosis model of reanalysis as first proposed in Fodor and Inoue (1994).
Experiments on the Meaning of Four Types of Single-Accent Intonation Patterns in Dutch
Authors: Caspers Johanneke
Published: February 2009

The Grammar of Dutch Intonation (GDI) provides a description of the possible intonation contours of Dutch. The GDI distinguishes accent-lending and nonaccent-lending pitch configurations, but refrains from further functional statements. This paper describes an experimental attempt to verify meaning hypotheses for four Dutch single-accent pitch patterns as postulated in the linguistic literature. The four pitch accent types were realized on proper names; the abstract meanings, in terms of the manipulation of an element of the background shared between speaker and listener, were incorporated in situational contexts, distinguishing between a “default” and a vocative use of the proper name (“orientation”). Listeners ranked the four melodic shapes from most to least appropriate in their specific context. After revision of part of the materials a second perception experiment was conducted, in which subjects had to rank four contexts from most to least appropriate for a specific pitch accent type. Results show a distinct effect of “orientation” on the appropriateness of two of the investigated pitch accent types in the various context types; the other two pitch accent types are associated with the predicted context types (and vice versa) well above chance, indicating the viability of at least two of the linguistic proposals.
Garden Path Repair: Diagnosis and Triage
Authors: Fodor Janet Dean , Inoue Atsu
Published: February 2009

Meng and Bader(2000b)have shown that for garden-path repair in German, case is a more effective cue than number. They argue that sensitivity to the nature of the cue supports a diagnosis model of garden path repair such as we have proposed. However, in making this argument Meng and Bader introduced a new notion of diagnosis. Retaining the original "basic" diagnosis system,they added a new function that we call t riage. Triage determines the probable revisability of a structure, in order to decide whether to make the effort of trying to reanalyze it. To determine whether triage is a feature of human parsing, its scope must be established. We compare four hypotheses about how much work triage could do. A powerful triage component would succeed where the human parser fails. Limited $F_local triage does no work if symptom effectiveness varies within a $F_language. An intermediate hypothesis discriminates better between easy and difficult revisions. However, this variant of triage with the strongest claim to psychological reality is the most difficult to distinguish from no triage at all, since it shares important properties with basic diagnosis. We identify some empirical predictions that differentiate diagnosis with triage from simple basic diagnosis. What $F_little evidence there is at present suggests that the human sentence parser has no triage capability.
Q uantitative Characterizations of Speech Rhythm: Syllable-Timing in Singapore English
Authors: Ling Low Ee , Grabe Esther , Nolan Francis
Published: February 2009

British English and Singapore English are said to differ in rhythmic patterning. British English is commonly described as stress-timed, but Singapore English is claimed to be syllable-timed. In the present paper, we explore the acoustic nature of the suggested cross-varietal difference. In directly comparable samples from British English and Singapore English, two types of acoustic measurements were taken; we calculateda variability index reflecting changes in vowel length over utterances, and measurements reflecting vowel quality. Our findings provide acoustic data which support the hypothesized crossvarietal difference in rhythmic patterning; we show(1) that successive vowel durations are more nearly equal in Singapore English than in British English, and(2) that reduced vowels pattern more peripherally in the F1/F2 formant space in Singapore English than in British English. We complete the paper with a comparison of our vowel variability index with a set of acoustic measures for rhythm proposed by Ramus, Nespor, and Mehler(1999), which focus on variability in vocalic and intervocalic intervals. We conclude that our variability index is more successful in capturing rhythmic differences than Ramus et al. (1999)'s measures, and that an application of our index to Ramus et al.'s intervocalic measure may provide a further diagnostic of rhythmic class.
Variability in Fricative Production and Spectra
Authors: Tabain Marija
Published: February 2009

Fricative spectral data are compared with articulatory data from electropalatographic (EPG) recordings in an investigation of coarticulatory effects on the acoustic signal. Data were taken from CV tokens produced by four female speakers of Australian English. Results are presented for the coronal fricatives /θ s ∫ ð z 3/in seven monophthong vowel contexts. The analysis consists of a comparison of spectral centre of gravity (COG) with EPG centre of gravity measured along the horizontal dimension. The correlation between the articulatory and the acoustic datais quitehigh. Overall, the sibilant fricatives show very little variability in production, while the nonsibilant dental shows a good deal of variability. This is reflected in the spectral output. It is also shown that the alveolar sibilants show more effectfrom vowel context than do the postalveolar sibilants. These results are interpreted as showing that coarticulatory resistance is indeed greater for sibilant fricatives, but that degree of tongue body raising inherent in the fricative's production must also be taken into account. The results for overall variability are discussed with reference to the Hyper- and Hypo- and Quantal Theories of speech production.It is suggested that sibilant fricatives do not lend themselves to the articulatory imprecision which, according to these theories, characterizes perceptually salient, and typologically common, speech sounds.
Help or Hindrance: How Violation of Different Assimilation Rules Affects Spoken-Language Processing
Authors: Weber Andrea
Published: February 2009

Four phoneme-detection studies tested the conclusion from recent research that spoken-language processing is inhibited by violation of obligatory assimilation processes in the listeners' native language. In Experiment 1, native listeners of German detected a target fricative in monosyllabic Dutch nonwords, half of which violated progressive German fricative place assimilation. In contrast to the earlier findings, listeners detected the fricative more quickly when assimilation was violated than when no violation occurred. This difference was not due to purely acoustic factors, since in Experiment 2 native Dutch listeners, presented with the same materials, showed no such effect. In Experiment 3, German listeners again detected the fricative more quickly when violation occurred in both monosyllabic and bisyllabic native nonwords, further ruling out explanations based on non-native input or on syllable structure. Finally Experiment 4 tested whether the direction in which the rule operates (progressive or regressive) controls the direction of the effect on phoneme detection responses. When regressive German place assimilation for nasals was violated, German listeners detected stops more slowly, exactly as had been observed in previous studies of regressive assimilation. It is argued that a combination of low expectations in progressive assimilation and novel popout causes facilitation of processing, whereas not fulfilling high expectations in regressive assimilation causes inhibition.
Disfluency Rates in Conversation: Effects of Age, Relationship, Topic, Role, and Gender
Authors: Bortfeld Heather , Leon Silvia D. , Bloom Jonathan E. , Schober Michael F. , Brennan Susan E.
Published: February 2009

After reviewing situational and demographic factors that have been argued to affect speakers' disfluency rates, we examined disfluency rates in a corpus of task-oriented conversations ( Schober & Carstensen, 2001) with variables that might affect fluency rates. These factors included: speakers' ages (young, middle-aged, and older), task roles (director vs. matcher in a referential communication task), difficulty of topic domain (abstract geometric figures vs. photographs of children), relationships between speakers (married vs. strangers), and gender(each pair consisted of a man and a woman). Older speakers produced only slightly $higher disfluency rates than young and middle-aged speakers. Overall, disfluency rates were higher both when speakers acted as directors and when they discussed abstract figures, confirming that disfluencies are associated with an increase in planning difficulty. However, fillers (such as u h) were distributed somewhat differently than repeats or restarts, supporting the idea that fillers may be a resource for or a consequence of interpersonal coordination.
Rate-Induced Resyllabification Revisited
Authors: De Jong Kenneth J.
Published: February 2009

This paper presents the results of a rate scaling speech production experiment which seeks to replicate and examine in greater detail the results of a set of experiments reported in Stetson(1951). Stetson observed, based on a set of pioneering articulatory experiments, that coda consonants resyllabify as onset consonants in syllables repeated at fast speechrates. In the current experiment, speakers produced repetitions of simple CV and VC syllables in time to a metronome pacer which systematically changed in period. Data indicate that, while durational patterns for CV and VC syllables are very different at slow rates, the patterns tend to converge at fast rates. However, closer examination of fast rate tokens, reveals that differences between CV and VC tokens persist at fast rates, even though such tokens are generally heard as CV tokens. These results are discussed with respect to the nature of CV and VC organization and the effect of the rate-changing task.
Processing of Orthographic Structure by Adults of Different Reading Ability
Authors: Taft Marcus
Published: February 2009

The research presented here examines the proposal that orthographic processing in reading polysyllabic words takes place via an analysis of the word into an orthographic/morphological structure called the Basic Orthographic Syllabic Structure or BOSS. This structure includes the largest possible coda in the first component (e.g., the THUND of THUNDER) and, as such, it cuts across the phonological syllable boundary (e.g., THUN + DER). The existence of the BOSS has been previously supported by showing that words physically divided at their BOSS (e.g., THUNDER) are faster to recognize than those divided at their syllable (e.g., THUNDER). However, there has been little, if any, report of confirmatory evidence for this conclusion. Three experiments are reported here demonstrating that whether the BOSS division is faster than the syllable division depends crucially on the reading ability of the participants. Better adult reading, independently measured in terms of comprehension, is associated with a preference for the BOSS division while poorer adult reading is more associated with a syllable preference. Such a result potentially explains the conflicting findings that have been previously reported. A number of different explanations are offered for the pattern of results, with the suggestion that poorer adult reading is more oriented toward the pronunciation of the word than is better reading.
Informative Prosodic Boundaries
Authors: Clifton Charles , Carlson Katy , Frazier Lyn
Published: February 2009

In principle, a prosodic boundary in an utterance might affect its interpretation in a local, context-independent fashion. In a right-branching language like English, the presence of a large prosodic boundary might signal the end of the current constituent, requiring the following constituent to be attached high in the syntactic tree. We present three listening experiments that test an alternative position suggested in Carlson, Clifton, and Frazier (2001) as the “informative boundary” hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that the interpretation of a prosodic boundary is determined not by its absolute size but by its size relative to relevant certain other boundaries. Experiment 1 confirmed the predictions of this hypothesis in phrases like the old men and women with very large houses, manipulating the boundaries before and and with. Experiment 2 investigated the effect in a variety of diverse syntactic structures, varying syntactic category and status (head vs. nonhead) of the ambiguous constituent. It confirmed the predictions of the informative boundary hypothesis in every structure tested except for `-ly' adverbs that are ambiguous between a manner interpretation and a speaker-evaluation interpretation. Experiment 3 demonstrated that sentence interpretation was affected by the size of the late boundary relative to a relevant early boundary, but not relative to an early boundary that was predicted to be irrelevant.
Effects of Variation in Emotional Tone of Voice on Speech Perception
Authors: Mullennix John W. , Bihon Tressa , Bricklemyer Jodie , Gaston Jeremy , Keener Jessica M.
Published: February 2009

The effects of variation from stimulus to stimulus in emotional tone of voice on speech perception were examined through a series of perceptual experiments. Stimuli were recorded from human speakers who produced utterances in tones of voice designed to convey affective information. Then, stimuli varying in talker voice and emotional tone were presented to listeners for perceptual matching and classification. The results showed that both intertalker variation in talker voice and intra talker variation in emotional tone had a negative effect on perceptual performance. The results suggest that sources of variation in the speech signal that affect the spectral/temporal properties of speech (i.e., talker voice, speech rate, emotional tone) maybe treated differently than sources of variation that do not affect these properties (i.e., vocal amplitude).
Phonological Acquisition: Recent Attainments and New Challenges
Authors: Peperkamp Sharon
Published: February 2009

Infants' phonological acquisition during the first 18 months of life has been studied within experimental psychology for some 30 years. Current research themes include statistical learning mechanisms, early lexical development, and models of phonetic category perception. So far, linguistic theories have hardly been taken into account. These theories are based upon the assumption that there is a common core of innate phonological knowledge across speakers of all human languages, and they contain detailed proposals concerning phonological representations and the derivations by which abstract underlying forms are mapped onto concrete surface forms. It remains to be investigated experimentally if there is innate phonological knowledge and how the language-specific phonological grammar is acquired.

In the present article, the contributions to this special issue are introduced, and an attempt is made to bridge the gap between phonological theory and experimental psychology. In particular, some recent experimental work is considered in the light of phonological theories and new research avenues are sketched. What might be innate, what needs to be acquired, and how this acquisition might take place are questions that are addressed with respect to several aspects of phonological knowledge, specifically segmental representations, phonotactics, phonological processes, and the architecture of the phonological grammar.
Phonetic Diversity, Statistical Learning, and Acquisition of Phonology
Authors: Pierrehumbert Janet B.
Published: February 2009

In learning to perceive and produce speech, children master complex language-specific patterns. Daunting language-specific variation is found both in the segmental domain and in the domain of prosody and intonation. This article reviews the challenges posed by results in phonetic typology and sociolinguistics for the theory of language acquisition. It argues that categories are initiated bottom-up from statistical modesin use of the phonetic space, and sketches how exemplar theory can be used to model the updating of categories once they are initiated. It also argues that bottom-upinitiation of categories is successful thanks to the perceptionproduction loop operating in the speech community. The behavior of this loop means that the superficial statistical properties of speech available to the infant indirectly reflect the contrastiveness and discriminability of categories in the adult grammar. The article also argues that the developing system is refined using internal feedback from type statistics over the lexicon, once the lexicon is well-developed. The application of type statistics to a system initiated with surface statistics does not cause a fundamental reorganization of the system. Instead, it exploits confluences across levels of representation which characterize human language and make bootstrapping possible.
Effects of Stress Typicality During Speeded Grammatical Classification
Authors: Arciuli Joanne , Cupples Linda
Published: February 2009

The experiments reported here were designed to investigate the influence of stress typicality during speeded grammatical classification of disyllabic English words by native and non-native speakers. Trochaic nouns and iambic verbs were considered to be typically stressed, whereas iambic nouns and trochaic verbs were considered to be atypically stressed. Experiments 1a and 2a showed that while native speakers classified typically stressed words more quickly and more accurately than atypically stressed words during reading, there were no overall effects during classification of spoken stimuli. However, a subgroup of native speaker swith high error rates did show a significant effect during classification of spoken stimuli. Experiments 1bb and 2b showed that non-native speakers classified typically stressed words more quickly and more accurately than atypically stressed words during reading. Typically stressed words were classified more accurately than atypically stressed words when the stimuli were spoken. Importantly, there was a significant relationship between error rates, vocabulary size and thes size of the stress typicality effect in each experiment. We conclude that participants use information about lexical stress to help them distinguish between disyllabic nouns and verbs during speeded grammatical classification. This is especially so for individuals with a limited vocabulary who lack other knowledge(e.g., semantic knowledge) about the differences between these grammatical categories.
Factors Affecting Stress Placement for English Nonwords include Syllabic Structure, Lexical Class, and Stress Patterns of Phonologically Similar Words
Authors: Guion Susan G. , Clark J.J. , Harada Tetsuo , Wayland Ratree P.
Published: February 2009

Seventeen native English speakers participated in an investigation of language users' knowledge of English main stress patterns. First, they produced 40 twosyllable nonwords of varying syllabic structure as nouns and verbs. Second, they indicated their preference for first or second syllable stress of the same words in a perception task. Finally, they indicated words they considered to be phonologically similar to the nonwords. Analyses of variance on the production and perception data indicated that both syllabic structure and lexical class (noun or verb) had an effect on main stress assignment. In logistic regression analyses on the production and perception responses, predictions of stress placement made by (1) syllable structure, (2) lexical class, and(3)stress patterns of phonologically similar words all contributed significantly and uniquely to the prediction of main stress assignment. The results indicate that phonological theories of English word stress need to allow for multiple, competing, probabilistic factors in accounts of main stress placement including syllabic structure (most notably vowel length), lexical class, and stress patterns of phonologically similar words.
L1-Spanish Speakers' Acquisition of the English /i /—/I/ Contrast: Duration-based Perception is Not the Initial Developmental Stage
Authors: Morrison Geoffrey Stewart
Published: February 2009

L1-Spanish L2-English listeners' perception of a Canadian-English /bIt/— /bId/—/bit/—/bid/ continuum was investigated. Results were largely consistent with the developmental stages for L1-Spanish listeners' acquisition of English /i/ and /I/ hypothesized by Escudero (2000): Stage 0, inability to distinguish. Stage 1, duration based. Stage 2, duration and spectral based. Stage 3, L1-English-like primarily spectral based. However, on the basis of the results an additional stage was hypothesized: Stage ½, multidimensional-category-goodness-difference assimilation to Spanish /i/, with English vowel tokens perceived as good examples of Spanish /i/ labeled as English /I/ and poor examples labeled as English /i/. It is hypothesized that L1-Spanish listeners' preference for duration cues is not an initial strategy for distinguishing English /i/ and /I/. Rather, it is a secondary developmental stage which emerges from an earlier stage when both spectral and duration cues are used.
Word Length and Lexical Competition: Longer is the Same as Shorter
Authors: Vitevitch Michael S. , Stamer Melissa K. , Sereno Joan A.
Published: February 2009

Neighborhood density refers to the number of words that sound similar to a given word. Previous studies have found that neighborhood density influences the recognition of spoken words (Luce & Pisoni, 1998); however, this work has focused almost exclusively on monosyllabic words in English. To investigate the effects of neighborhood density on longer words, bisyllabic words varying in neighborhood density were presented auditorily to participants in a perceptual identification task and a lexical decision task. In the perceptual identification task, words with sparse neighborhoods were more accurately identified than words with dense neighborhoods. In the lexical decision task, words with sparse neighborhoods were responded to more quickly and more accurately than words with dense neighborhoods. These results are similar to those found in studies examining the influence of neighborhood density on the recognition of monosyllabic words in English. In order to better understand lexical processing, models of spoken word recognition must account for the processing of words of all types.
Compensatory Vowel Lengthening for Omitted Coda Consonants: A Phonetic Investigation of Children's Early Representations of Prosodic Words
Authors: Jae Yung Song  , Demuth Katherine
Published: February 2009

Children's early word productions often differ from the target form, sometimes exhibiting vowel lengthening when word-final coda consonants are omitted (e.g., dog /d g/ → [d :]). It has typically been assumed that such lengthening compensates for a missing prosodic unit (a mora). However, this study raises the alternative hypothesis that vowel lengthening in early productions compensates for the missing coda segment. If lengthening selectively occurs with short/lax vowels but not long/tense vowels, this would provide support for the hypothesis that lengthening serves to preserve bimoraic or `minimal word' structure. However, if lengthening occurs across the board, this would indicate that lengthening compensates for the omitted segment. In order to address this issue, matched word pairs produced with and without a coda were extracted from the spontaneous speech of three English-speaking children between the ages of 1;1 and 2;6. Phonetic analysis compared the duration of vowels in words with and without the coda. The results showed that two children lengthened both short and long vowels when the coda was omitted, whereas one child selectively lengthened only short vowels. The implications of these findings, both for the representation of prosodic words, and for theories of production more generally, are discussed.
The “Tongue Twister” Paradigm as a Technique for Studying Phonological Encoding
Authors: Wilshire Carolyn E.
Published: February 2009

The “tongue twister” paradigm is underutilizedas a research tool because so little is known abouthow it induces errors. The two experiments reported here explore this paradigm in detail using a task variationwhich minimizes articulatory and mnemonic load. This task was found to elicit good rates of apparently “pure” prearticulatory errors. Two of its features had a significant error-inducing effect: a) repeated reiteration; and b) the use of similar phonemes in targets (e.g., moss knife noose muff). The presenceof phoneme repeats (e.g., palm neck name pack) had no reliable overall effect, but did influence error distribution. Performance on the task differed in several ways from that observed on a control task with similar output demands, but no reiterative component. A model of the task is proposed, in which phoneme similarity and reiteration are seen as independent contributors to the task's error-inducing potential. Wider theoretical implications of certain results are also discussed.
When Marking Tone Reduces Fluency: An Orthography Experiment in Cameroon
Authors: Bird Steven
Published: February 2009

Should an alphabetic orthography for a tone language include tone marks? Opinion and practice are divided along three lines: zeromarking, phonemic marking and various reduced marking schemes. This paper examines the success of phonemic tone marking for Dschang, a Grassfields Bantu language which uses tone to distinguish lexical items and some grammatical constructions. Participants with a variety of ages and educational backgrounds, and having different levels of exposure to the orthography, were tested on location in the Western Province of Cameroon. All but one had attended classes on tone marking. Participants read texts which were marked and unmarked for tone, then added tone marks to the unmarked texts. Analysis shows that tone marking degrades reading fluency and does not help to resolve tonally ambiguous words. Experienced writers attain an accuracy score of 83.5% in adding tone marks to a text, while inexperienced writers score a mere 53%, which is not much better than chance. The experiment raises serious doubts about the suitability of the phonemic method of marking tone for languages having widespread tone sandhi effects,and lends support to the notion that a writing system should have "fixed word images.” A critical review of other experimental work on African tone orthography lays the ground work for the experiment, and contributes to the establishment of a uniform experimental paradigm.