Research on Low Frequency Sound Insulation Properties of Membrane-Type Acoustic Metamaterials

To solve the problem of low-frequency noise control in ship cabins, a new membrane-type acoustic metamaterial (MAM) with bulges on the surface of thin films is designed based on the characteristics of lightweight and low-frequency sound insulation of membrane-type acoustic metamaterials. The sound structure coupling module of COMSOL multiphysical field coupling software is used to analyse the sound insulation performance of MAMs. The sound insulation properties of the additional mass film and self-similar fractal convex structure are further discussed. The metamaterial structure studied in this paper has a better sound insulation effect than ordinary film, which provides strong technical support for ship cabin noise control.

Anxiety, Knowledge, Misconceptions, and Health-Seeking Behavioral Intentions in Brazil COVID-19 Pandemic: A network psychometric approach

SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has spread rapidly worldwide, causing life-changing and affecting anxiety, misconceptions, knowledge, and people's health behavioral intentions, which need adhering to COVID-19 prevention practices. Thus, it is relevant to develop psychometric measures for those variables on different populations. The goal of the present research is to seek evidence of validity and reliability of the Fear and Health-Seeking Behavioral Intentions Scales in a Brazilian sample. To do so, this research used recent developments in the field of network psychometrics. Using a sample of 476 Brazilians collected at the beginning of the pandemic, we found a four-dimensional structure in the reflective variables, forming a sound structure with good psychometric properties. In addition, using the novel approach to see the relationship between those variables, novel findings are discussed. We highlighted the importance of COVID-19 anxiety in the network structure, as it can be a possible alternative to increase adherence to prevent COVID-19 infection.

FISHING SPECIALIZATION OF PROTO-SLAVIC ANIMALIST LEXIS IN DIALECT OF UKRAINIAN

This article is devoted to the study of dialectal names of fishing realities relating to the names of other realities of industrial and economic activity, which attract attention not only by the similarity of sound form and their predicted proto basis, but also by the external similarity of these objects, motivated, according to our conclusions, archetypal images of animals: bull, horse (mare), goat, etc. (mare), goat (goat), etc. It is also concluded that in Ukrainian dialect exist changes in the sound structure of the names of fishing gear with a prismatic or pyramidal structure of the frame (similar to the body of an ungulate), related to the partial convergence of different etymologies of the All-Slavic era. For the name regel (regel, rugel, rukel, rogel, drigola, etc.), there was a convergence of the following etymons: Proto-Slavic *rog ˃ horn: a) the motivating factor «the frame of a fishing gear with crossed rods, resembling an animal with horns»; b) the motivating factor «formed by connecting two sticks angles in the design of fishing gear» – a horn in the output meaning; c) motivating factor «a wooden stick (horn) split at the end as an important element of the construction of a pyramidal fishing gear with a handle»; Proto-Slavic *drygati – jerk, pull out: a) the motivational factor is «immediate pulling out» the tackle with fish out of the water; b) the motivational factor «shaking, convulsions of the caught fish and hence the shaking of the tackle». The metaphorical transfer based on the image of a horned animal is most clearly traced in the name of the fishing tool regga, which exists in the area of Ukrainian-Belarusian Polissia and in the aspect of Balto-Slavic linguistic contacts is associated with such a reality as horns, and in the Ukrainian dialect continuum is associated with the name of an ox or a bull. A significant number of phonetic and word-forming variants of this word testify to its antiquity. According to our research, the most resistant to changes in the sound structure were the name of the fishing gear prismatic (sometimes pyramidal) shape of the mare ˂ proto-Slavic *kobyla. The durability and stability of this name should be determined in the development of the symbolism of the horse (mare's head) as a compositional element of the decoration of the roof of a house – a well-known structure that occupies an important place in a number of industrial and economic tools of prismatic shape.

Insinuate Orbital Cellulitis Associated With Diesel Explosion-Induced Injury

Background: Diesel-related orbital cellulitis is uncommon, it has an insinuate appearance whereas develops aggressively, leading to severe vision loss or poor reconstruction. Here we present a case of diesel explosion-associated eyelid trauma with toxic orbital cellulitis, who at last obtained relatively sound vision and appearance after several rounds of surgeries, which is rarely seen for the trauma itself. Case presentation: A 33-year-old male was injured in the right eye by diesel engine explosion. He was initially treated for right eye eyelid laceration however the trauma developed into toxic orbital cellulitis on the next day. Orbital debridement and removing of the orbital residual diesel fluid was performed on him immediately. However, on the second day necrosis developed in the eyelid and sub-dermal tissue. Therefore he received another orbital debridement to remove the necrotized tissue and awaited the subsequent right eyelid skin grafting surgery. The patient finally got his right eye vision saved as well as maintaining a relatively sound structure of the eyelid.Conclusion: Timely debridement and removing the residual diesel in the orbit is necessary for the recovery of patient with diesel-related toxic orbital cellulitis.

Functional Variation of the Imperative in Discourse: Prosodic Evidence of “Hybridization”

The cognitive-discursive approach used in experimental research helps to reveal specific behavior of language units which is conditioned by particular characteristics of the immediate communicative situation. The cognitive aspect of this approach describes how the human mind works to adapt speech production processes to ever-changing conditions of communicative activity, which results in changes of the functions of language units used in these processes. Since, either in oral or written forms, texts are the material result of this activity, acoustic analysis helps to evaluate the character of modifications of sound sequences as well as to define their intonation structure that facilitates the performance of utterances in discourse. Corpus analysis helps to evaluate pragmatic factors that maintain speech production processes and to describe their influence in the usage of language units. The relevance of the research lies in the need to have a better understanding and a more thorough description of the behavior of intonation language units in discourse as well as its correlation to the cognitive processes in speech production. With this goal in mind, the author applies the cognitive-discursive approach to experimental phonetic research of intonation in discourse. The paper presents the results of examining the process of “hybridization” of direct imperative utterances, identifying types of such “hybridization,” and looking at conditions of speakers’ activity which accompany this “hybridization.” Using the methodology of experimental discourse analysis, the author shows how functional variability of this particular language unit in specific discourse environments can lead to significant changes in the intentional meaning of the unit, i. e., to imperative utterances acting as interjections. In specific discourse environments, accompanied by marked emphasis in the semantic structure of the utterances and constrained by psycho-physiological thresholds and limitations of information processing mechanisms, speech production processes form a “hybrid” which combines characteristics of both a direct imperative and an interjection. This “hybridization” can be complete or partial. The “hybrid” maintains the illocutionary force of an imperative utterance due to its formulaic syntactic structure and intonation, characterized by less variation than that of an interjection, and the intonation of such units complies with the codified intonation standard of the English language. At the same time, its acoustic features correspond to the acoustic features of 1st and 2nd type interjections: “hybrids” that correspond to 1st type interjections consist of rare sounds and sound sequences, while “hybrids” that correspond to 2nd type interjections retain their sound structure completely or partially.

Cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading is item specific

The grain size of orthographic representations prompted by a consistent orthography (like Spanish or Basque) increases if reading is simultaneously learned in another language with an inconsistent orthography (like French). Here, we aimed to identify item properties that trigger this grain-size accommodation in bilingual reading. Twenty-five French–Basque and 25 Spanish–Basque bilingual children attending Grade 3 read Basque words and pseudowords containing “complex” letter clusters mapping to one sound in French but several sounds in Basque or Spanish, and “simple” letter clusters mapping to the same sound structure in all three languages. Only French speaking children read “complex” Basque words faster than “simple” ones, suggesting that they accessed multi-letter “French” units to boost lexical processing. A negative complexity effect was found for pseudowords across groups. We discuss the existence of flexible cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading, proposing that the grain size of orthographic representations adjusts to item-specific characteristics during reading.

On the problem of typological research of the Russian phonetic system in a linguodidactic context

В основе разработки курсов практической фонетики, адресованных иноязычной аудитории, лежит анализ типологического своеобразия фонетической системы изучаемого языка в контексте лингводидактики. К числу важных направлений типологического исследования звукового строя русского языка следует отнести, во-первых, изучение соотношения консонантизма и вокализма в его фонетической системе на иноязычном фоне, во-вторых, – анализ позиционных закономерностей русской фонетической системы в сопоставлении с функционированием звуковых единиц в типологически разных языках. В позиционных закономерностях звукового строя языка наиболее ярко проявляется его идиоматичность: в каждом языке позиционные закономерности носят специфический характер и определяются соотношением парадигматики и синтагматики звуковых единиц. Большое число фонологически значимых отклонений в иностранном акценте обусловлено интерферирующим воздействием позиционных закономерностей родного языка на русскую речь учащихся. The development of practical phonetics courses addressed to a foreign audience is based on the analysis of the typological features of the phonetic system of the target language in the context of linguodidactics. It is necessary to designate two important areas of typological research of the sound structure of the Russian language: the study of the relationship of consonantism and vocalism in its phonetic system against a foreign language background and the analysis of positional rules of the Russian phonetic system in comparison with the functioning of sound units in typologically different languages. Idiomatic character of the language is most clearly manifested in the positional patterns of its sound structure. In each language, positional patterns are specific and are determined by the dominance of paradigmatic or syntagmatic relations of sound units. A large number of phonologically significant deviations in a foreign accent are due to the interfering influence of the positional laws of the native language on the Russian speech of students.

Altitude and the distributional typology of language structure: Ejectives and beyond

The first decades of the 21st century have witnessed a renewed interest in the relationship between language structure and the various social and ecological niches in which the languages of the world are used and against the background of which they evolved. In this context, Everett (2013) argued for direct geographical influences on the sound structure of languages. It was observed that ejective consonants, produced with a sudden burst of non-pulmonic air to a salient acoustic effect, tend to occur in high-altitude environments in which these sounds may be adaptive due to a reduced articulatory effort and/or to prevent desiccation. Here, we evaluate this claim and at the same time place it into a broader context. We observe that the distribution of another class of typologically unusual sounds, uvulars, is highly similar to that of ejectives, but that the proposed explanations are not available to account for the similar geographical patterning of uvulars. Hence, we test an alternative explanatory account that would posit indirect rather than direct environmental influences on language structure that are mediated by anthropological factors, in particular the relative sociolinguistic isolation of speech communities at the highest altitudes. Applying Bayesian Logistic Mixed Effects Regression to a large database of phonological inventories of the world’s languages, however, we do not find strong support for either a correlation of ejectives or uvulars with high-altitude environments, though the association is somewhat stronger for ejectives than uvulars. A phylogenetic exploration of the development of both classes of sounds in two large language families spoken in widely different environments, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan, together with a qualitative assessment of the dedicated literature, in contrast, suggests a strong role of language contact rather than environmental factors.

LINGUISTICALLY JUSTIFIED USE OF GENDERED FEMININE NOUNS OF THE CATEGORY NOMINA AGENTIS ET PROFESSIONIS CREATED BY SUFFIX -KINJA

This paper is considering scientific well-foundedness of arguments in favour of the use of generic forms and against the use of gendered feminine nouns from the word-formation semantic category of professions and ranks, using examples of the nouns derived by suffix -kinja (psiholog/psihološkinja, vodič/vodičkinja i dr.). Following the introductory part displaying her motives for choosing this topic, the author reminds us that the investigations so far have shown that the main reasons against the feminine gender nouns quote their more restricted range in comparison to their generic forms, thier complex sound structure and problematic word-formation model as well. Linguists supporting these attitudes find certain feminine forms impermissible because of their forms being derived according to unaccredited wordformation pattern. The possibility of having homonymy and double meaning happen, considering semantic heritage of certain feminine gender nouns (nouns like ministarka, trenerka), sometimes makes them unsuitable and inefficient. The arguments listed here are particularly related to the abstract communication, i.e. competitions, printed forms and so on, whereas it is more suitable to use generic forms due to their more extensive semantic range and eligibility to refer to persons of both gender, being considered gender-neutral. The author is also reminiding us of completely opposite views according to which, in the mass media, by the predominanted use of generic names for professions and ranks for feminine persons, it is clear the tendency to make women invisible in the social and political field. Supporters of such approach find it necessary, when it comes to the question of gender sensitive language, to implement codification aiming to provide humane and tolerant communication, and visibility of women in the society as well, i.e. her gender equality The author gives advantage to the pragmatic and balanced approach in resolving this problem, according to which in concrete situations the feminine forms are found necessary, i.e. situations when with a feminine personal name ought to be used a feminine gender noun indicating her profession. On the other side, in situations when neutral or common use is necesseray, generic forms can be a tool for language efficiency (for example in competitions, printed forms and so on). The author in a latent manner debates with the opinion that the generic, i.e. common forms are gender-neutral, reminding us of the morphological features of the masculine gender nouns of the first category being their charateristic, supporting it with the example: Vodič nam je davala uputstva. The author emphasises that the necessity of the existence of the feminine gender forms for professions and ranks is unquestionable for both – from the point of view of ensuring equality of genders in the society, and respecting principle of congruency point of view as well, focusing on the central part of her research afterwards. On the basis of all aforementioned in the paper it can be finally concluded that the profession nouns of the feminine gender appeared when the need for them came up and also that the tendency of their expansion is evident and proportional with the enhancement of the position of the woman in the society. The use of the feminine gender nouns denoting professions and ranks, as well as those with the suffix mentioned earlier, is necessary and practical in concrete situations. If we bear in mind that there are no liguistically justified arguments against the use of gendered feminine nouns with the suffix -kinja the categories nomina agentis et professions, it is to be expected the continuation of their expansion.