Effects of Magnitude of Leading Stimulus on Prepulse Inhibition of Auditory Evoked Cerebral Responses: An Exploratory Study

An abrupt change in a sound feature (test stimulus) elicits a specific cerebral response, which is attenuated by a weaker sound feature change (prepulse) preceding the test stimulus. As an exploratory study, we investigated whether and how the magnitude of the change of the prepulse affects the degree of prepulse inhibition (PPI). Sound stimuli were 650 ms trains of clicks at 100 Hz. The test stimulus was an abrupt sound pressure increase (by 10 dB) in the click train. Three consecutive clicks, weaker (−5 dB, −10 dB, −30 dB, or gap) than the baseline, at 30, 40, and 50 ms before the test stimulus, were used as prepulses. Magnetic responses to the ten types of stimuli (test stimulus alone, control, four types of tests with prepulses, and four types of prepulses alone) were recorded in 10 healthy subjects. The change-related N1m component, peaking at approximately 130 ms, and its PPI were investigated. The degree of PPI caused by the −5 dB prepulse was significantly weaker than that caused by other prepulses. The degree of PPI caused by further decreases in prepulse magnitude showed a plateau level between the −10 dB and gap prepulses. The results suggest that there is a physiologically significant range of sensory changes for PPI, which plays a role in the change detection for survival.

A Comparison of Alternative Forms of the Epic Manimegalai

According to the motto, “Change is the only thing that changes” occur over time in civilization and culture. Similarly in in the Literature, the creators create their ideas (themes) according to the change of time –epic, drama, poetry to the readers. Thus the Manimgalai epic written by sethalichattanar teaches Buddist concepts. Alternative forms are born with the aim of further simplifying the concept of the maimegalai and presenting alternative ideas with the intention of introducing the reader to his or her own ideas. Thus the various myth of genetics are their forms, literary style, content, opinions etc will feature change. This article seeks to illustrate how Manimegalai and their other forms of ‘Manimegalai play’ ‘manimegalai venba’ which originated has taken shape and significance distortions.

Transsaccadic integration operates independently in different feature dimensions

Our knowledge about objects in our environment reflects an integration of current visual input with information from preceding gaze fixations. Such a mechanism may reduce uncertainty, but requires the visual system to determine which information obtained in different fixations should be combined or kept separate. To investigate the basis of this decision, we conducted three experiments. Participants viewed a stimulus in their peripheral vision, then made a saccade that shifted the object into the opposite hemifield. During the saccade, the object underwent changes of varying magnitude in two feature dimensions (Experiment 1: color and location, Experiments 2 and 3: color and orientation). Participants reported whether they detected any change and estimated one of the post-saccadic features. Integration of pre-saccadic with post-saccadic input was observed as a bias in estimates towards the pre-saccadic feature value. In all experiments, pre-saccadic bias weakened as the magnitude of the transsaccadic change in the estimated feature increased. Changes in the other feature, despite having a similar probability of detection, had no effect on integration. Results were quantitatively captured by an observer model where the decision whether to integrate information from sequential fixations is made independently for each feature and coupled to awareness of a feature change.

Cyclic changes in Hungarian relative clauses

Relative operators stem from demonstratives or from wh-operators and may subsequently be reanalyzed as complementizers. In Hungarian, unlike English, the reanalysis of wh-operators into relative operators preceded the reanalysis of the matrix demonstrative pronoun, and the demonstrative was reanalyzed into [Spec,CP] via cliticization onto the wh-based relative pronoun, rendering morphologically complex relative pronouns. This change was enabled by environments in which a morphologically unmarked (singular, nominative) matrix demonstrative was immediately followed by a relative operator. The demonstrative was subsequently renewed in the main clause. We argue that this had two important prerequisites. First, the original wh-based relative operator did not lose its lexical features and was not grammaticalized into a functional head. Second, the matrix demonstrative lost its original definiteness feature, [+def], and became unspecified for this feature. Ultimately, it is this feature change that brought about the emergence of a new morphosyntactic paradigm, in line with the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture.

Degree semantics, polarity, and the grammaticalization of comparative operators into complementizers

Focusing on German, the paper presents a cross-linguistic study of the diachronic development of comparatives, providing a formal account for why comparative operators generally grammaticalise into complementisers in degree equatives more readily than in comparatives proper. It is argued that this is so because comparatives mark degree inequality overtly in a head position. This feature must be acquired by the original operator during grammaticalisation, while in equatives the operator has all the features necessary for grammaticalisation and must only lose any additional features incompatible with a complementiser. The extension of an equative complementiser into a general comparative complementiser is possible only if the relevant functional head undergoes feature change, in line with the Borer–Chomsky Conjecture. The changes under scrutiny can be well observed in the history of German and Hungarian, and similar asymmetries surface in synchronic patterns in many other languages, too.

Segmentation Based Feature Evaluation and Fusion for Prognostics

Quantification of feature goodness, called feature evaluation, is crucial in the identification of best features and achieving high accuracy in diagnostics and prognostics. Even though feature evaluation for diagnostics is a mature area, it is a developing research area for prognostics. The feature goodness for prognostics is measured by change in degradation. Most, if not all, of existing methods, analyze the feature change in the whole failure degradation. In other words, features collected throughout the failure degradation are analyzed to create a goodness value for the feature. In reality, the goodness of the features may change during the failure progression. A feature may be a good representative of failure progression in the initial phase but not in the final phases, or vice versa. This paper presents a methodology that divides the features into segments, each of which may have different goodness for prognostics. Thus, some part of the feature may be good, whereas the others not. The presented approach leads to extract more value from the features’ changing properties during the failure degradation. The method has been applied to simulated and real datasets obtained from Li-ion batteries aging tests. State of health (SoH) estimation accuracy is enhanced with the presented approach.

Effects of Transient and Nontransient Changes of Surface Feature on Object Correspondence

Object correspondence is a fundamental problem in perception. Classic theories hold that the computation of correspondence is solely based on spatiotemporal information. Recent research showed that surface features also play an important role. However, the surface features of objects in many studies did not change throughout a trial. This study investigated the effect of feature change on object correspondence using the object-reviewing paradigm. Two moving objects underwent transient feature changes on color dimension (Experiment 1A) or a combination of three dimensions (Experiment 2A). Moreover, the objects moved behind four occluders to make the feature change nontransient (Experiments 1B and 2B). Object-specific preview benefits were reduced or eliminated when feature changes were transient, but the benefits were not affected when feature changes were nontransient. The effects of transient versus nontransient changes of surface feature in object correspondence are discussed.

Physiological and Anatomical Mechanisms in Wheat to Cope with Salt Stress Induced by Seawater

Two pot experiments were conducted in a greenhouse to examine 14C fixation and its distribution in biochemical leaf components, as well as the physiological and anatomical adaptability responses of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown with seawater diluted to 0.2, 3.0, 6.0, and 12.0 dS m−1. The results showed significant reductions in chlorophyll content, 14C fixation (photosynthesis), plant height, main stem diameter, total leaf area per plant, and total dry weight at 3.0, 6.0, and 12.0 dS m−1 seawater salt stress. The 14C loss was very high at 12.0 ds m−1 after 120 h. 14C in lipids (ether extract) showed significant changes at 12.0 dS m−1 at 96 and 120 h. The findings indicated the leaf and stem anatomical feature change of wheat plants resulting from adaptation to salinity stress. A reduction in the anatomical traits of stem and leaf diameter, wall thickness, diameter of the hollow pith cavity, total number of vascular bundles, number of large and small vascular bundles, bundle length and width, thickness of phloem tissue, and diameter of the metaxylem vessel of wheat plants was found. In conclusion, salt stress induces both anatomical and physiological changes in the stem and leaf cells of wheat, as well as the tissues and organs, and these changes in turn make it possible for the plants to adapt successfully to a saline environment.

What does the system of phonemes do?

System is one of the most important concepts of modern linguistics, including phonology, but it remains unclear in what sense the phonemes of a language form a system. It is apparent that the reference is not due to the fact that vowels and consonants function in series nor to the interplay between the prosodic and the segmental levels. Nowadays, phonemes are usually presented in the form of generative models, and the possibility to do so is understood as system’s justification. Yet the results of such modeling testify to the researcher’s ingenuity rather than to the organization of language. The role of the actual system, rather than such as is imposed on it by a linguist, comes to the foreground in diachrony. This role does not consist in producing symmetry (for instance, filling a case vide) or facilitating push- and drag-chains. System exists to prevent the changes of sounds and prosodemes from disrupting the process of communication; it even makes them unnoticed by the speakers. Only diachronic phonology, though it borrows its framework from general phonology, gives life to two basic concepts of linguistics: system and the distinctive feature. Change reveals their uses, which otherwise remain hidden. The conclusions in the present article are drawn from the material of Germanic languages, mainly English: The Great Vowel Shift and some compensatory processes, including such consequences of apocope as the circumflex and vowel lengthening. Throughout the article, special emphasis is put on the protective role of the system.

The Impact of Interruptions on Feature Change Detection within Dynamic Scenes

The goal of the present study was to examine how interruptions occurring in dynamic scenes affect the ability to detect perceptual changes during level 1 situation awareness (SA). Undergraduates were asked to watch 24 brief videos (half with interruptions) including 8 with perceptual feature changes. All videos were unique and contained multiple dynamic objects. Three different sets of instructions regarding the changes were given to successive groups: no information, limited information, and feature specific information. Of the eight changes, half occurred during a visual interruption and half with no interruption. Results showed that participants detected few changes, but detections increased when given more information about the nature of the changes in the absence of interruptions. The findings suggest that interruptions may facilitate the decay of an objects’ activation level in working memory and that level 1 SA may be particularly fragile when the visual scene is interrupted.