Word length and lexical activation: Longer is better.

Many models of spoken word recognition posit the existence of lexical and sublexical representations, with excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms used to affect the activation levels of such representations. Bottom-up evidence provides excitatory input, and inhibition from phonetically similar representations leads to lexical competition. In such a system, long words should produce stronger lexical activation than short words, for 2 reasons: Long words provide more bottom-up evidence than short words, and short words are subject to greater inhibition due to the existence of more similar words. Four experiments provide evidence for this view. In addition, reaction-time-based partitioning of the data shows that long words generate greater activation that is available both earlier and for a longer time than is the case for short words. As a result, lexical influences on phoneme identification are extremely robust for long words but are quite fragile and condition-dependent for short words. Models of word recognition must consider words of all lengths to capture the true dynamics of lexical activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of total and faecal coliforms as faecal indicator in eutrophicated surface water.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of total coliforms (TC) and faecal coliforms (FC) using a membrane filtration method for precise monitoring of faecal pollution in Korean surface water. The samples were collected in Korea from both main rivers and their tributaries. Presumptive TC * FC were enumerated. The ratios of presumptive FC to TC were not constant, but varied widely, and TC were difficult to enumerate because of overgrowth by background colonies. For FC this was not the case. Seven hundred and three purified strains of presumptive TC * FC and their background colonies were biotyped using API 20E. Among 272 presumptive TC, non-faecal related species, Aeromonas hydrophila dominated (34.6%) and E. coli accounted for only 5.1%. In contrast, E. coli made up 89% of the 209 presumptive FC. Furthermore, of 164 background colonies on Endo Agar LES, 54.9% was A. hydrophila, while background colonies on m-FC Agar were few (58 strains), and despite their atypical colony appearance, most of them were biotyped as enteric bacteria. These results reveal that the detection of FC rather than TC using m-FC Agar is more appropriate for faecal pollution monitoring in eutrophicated surface water located in a temperate region.     

Abnormal junction profile of silicided p+/n shallowjunctions: a leakage mechanism

The leakage mechanism in p⁺/n shallow junctions fabricated using Co silicidation and shallow trench isolation processes has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with selective chemical etching. TEM and TSUPREM-4 simulation results show that dopant profiles bend upward near the edge of the active region. The formation of the abnormal profile is attributed to transient enhanced diffusion induced by source/drain implantation. Based on the TEM and simulation results, it is suggested that the shallower junctions formed near the active edge can serve as a source for leakage current in the silicided p+ /n shallow junctions     

C-t analysis of MOS capacitors under constant current stress

The effect of high oxide field stress is studied using capacitance-time (C-t) measurements of MOS capacitors. The stress results in parallel shifts of the C-t curve along the time axis. The flatband voltage shift ΔV_FB obtained from the initial deep depletion capacitance C(t=0⁺) follows the same trend as that from the high-frequency C-V characteristics. However, the discrepancy between the two flatband voltages becomes larger as the stress increases due to the effect of interface charges on C-t characteristics. The flatband voltage difference is converted to interface trap density, showing a steady increase of interface trap density with stress, similar to that from low-frequency C-V measurements     

Cell-mediated immunological responses in cervical and vaginal cancer patients immunized with a lipidated epitope of human papillomavirus type 16 E7

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has been causally associated with cervical cancer. We tested the effectiveness of an HLA-A*0201-restricted, HPV-16 E7 lipopeptide vaccine in eliciting cellular immune responses in vivo in women with refractory cervical cancer. In a nonrandomized Phase I clinical trial, 12 women expressing the HLA-A2 allele with refractory cervical or vaginal cancer were vaccinated with four E786-93 lipopeptide inoculations at 3-week intervals. HLA-A2 subtyping was also performed, and HPV typing was assessed on tumor specimens. Induction of epitope-specific CD8+ T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses was analyzed using peripheral blood leukapheresis specimens obtained before and after vaccination. CTL specificity was measured by IFN-gamma release assay using HLA-A*0201 matched target cells. Clinical responses were assessed by physical examination and radiographic images. All HLA-A*0201 patients were able to mount a cellular immune response to a control peptide. E786-93-specific CTLs were elicited in 4 of 10 evaluable HLA-A*0201 subjects before vaccination, 5 of 7 evaluable HLA-A*0201 patients after two vaccinations, and 2 of 3 evaluable HLA-A*0201 cultures after all four inoculations. Two of three evaluable patients' CTLs converted from unreactive to reactive after administration of all four inoculations. There were no clinical responses or treatment toxicities. The ability to generate specific cellular immune responses is retained in patients with advanced cervical cancer. Vaccination with a lipidated HPV peptide epitope appears capable of safely augmenting CTL reactivity. Although enhancements of cellular immune responses are needed to achieve therapeutic utility in advanced cervical cancer, this approach might prove useful in treating preinvasive disease.     

Overview of ship-design expert systems

Expert systems constitute a branch of artificial intelligence, and their unique characteristics enable computer systems to perform at the level of a human expert by the use of algorithms that can capture domain-specific knowledge. Through an extensive survey of research about ship-design expert systems, we conclude that although development and implementation of expert systems for ship design offer substantial barriers, the shipbuilding industry needs them nonetheless. We examine the major reasons that use of expert systems in this industry has lagged behind. These include the problems of integration with existing computer-aided design systems, problems of knowledge representation and sizable development costs. We discuss in detail some key factors that can lead to the solution of these problems.     

NO emission characteristics in counterflow diffusion flame of blended fuel of H2/CO2/Ar

Flame structure and NO emission characteristics in counterflow diffusion flame of blended fuel of H₂/CO₂/Ar have been numerically simulated with detailed chemistry. The combination of H₂, CO₂ and Ar as fuel is selected to clearly display the contribution of hydrocarbon products to flame structure and NO emission characteristics due to the breakdown of CO₂. A radiative heat loss term is involved to correctly describe the flame dynamics especially at low strain rates. The detailed chemistry adopts the reaction mechanism of GRI 2.11, which consists of 49 species and 279 elementary reactions. All mechanisms including thermal, NO₂, N₂O and Fenimore are taken into account to separately evaluate the effects of CO₂ addition on NO emission characteristics. The increase of added CO₂ quantity causes flame temperature to fall since at high strain rates a diluent effect is prevailing and at low strain rates the breakdown of CO₂ produces relatively populous hydrocarbon products and thus the existence of hydrocarbon products inhibits chain branching. It is also found that the contribution of NO production by N₂O and NO₂ mechanisms are negligible and that thermal mechanism is concentrated on only the reaction zone. As strain rate and CO₂ quantity increase, NO production is remarkably augmented. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The onset of vortex instability in laminar forced convection flow through a horizontal porous channel

The onset of convective instability in a fluid-saturated porous layer between the two horizontal plates heated isothermally from below has been analyzed theoretically by using propagation theory. In the analysis the thermal dispersion coefficient is assumed to be proportional to the streamwise velocity. The results show that both inertia and thermal dispersion stabilize the system.     

Accumulation of thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances in cured pork sausages treated with propolis extracts

Propolis collected by bees has many components that possess antifungal, anticancer and antioxidant properties. Cured ground pork meat was treated separately with 0.4% w/w ethanol‐extracted propolis (EEP 0.4%), 0.6% w/w water‐extracted propolis (WEP 0.6%), 0.8% w/w dried residue of ethanol‐extracted propolis (DREEP 0.8%) and 0.1% w/w potassium sorbate (PS 0.1%) and made into sausages. Thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances (TBARS) were measured in the sausages to assess the effects of storage at 5, 10 and 20 °C after 0, 2 and 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of storage at 5 °C the sausages treated with EEP 0.4%, DREEP 0.8%, WEP 0.6% and PS 0.1% yielded TBARS values which were 50, 59, 35 and 91% respectively of the control value. There was an increase of 0.33 mg MDA kg^?1, the lowest of all treatments, in TBARS for the 0.4% w/w EEP‐treated sausages. The curing process will control microbiological spoilage, as will potassium sorbate. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Wireless Internet access for mobile subscribers based on theGPRS/UMTS network

With the advent of IP technologies and the tremendous growth in data traffic, the wireless industry is evolving its core networks toward IP technology. Enabling wireless Internet access is one of the upcoming challenges for mobile radio network operators. The General Packet Radio Service is the packet-switched extension of GSM and was developed to facilitate access to IP-based services better than existing circuit-switched services provided by GSM. We illustrate how a visited mobile subscriber on a GPRS/UMTS network can access his/her home network via the gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). We also propose some implementation ideas on wireless Internet access for a remote mobile subscriber based on a GPRS/UMTS network