Competing repair strategies for word-final obstruent-liquid clusters in northern metropolitan French

ABSTRACT French licenses word-final obstruent-liquid clusters (table /tabl/; souffre /sufʁ/). These clusters may be realised faithfully resulting in an apparent violation of the sonority sequencing principle (Clements, 1990). Yet, the clusters can also be repaired in one of two ways: (1) through the reduction of the cluster (i.e. [tab]) or (2) through the epenthesis of a schwa vowel, resyllabifying the cluster into the onset position (i.e. [ta.blə].) In this article, I investigate which factors condition the realisation of word-final obstruent-liquid clusters. The results are formalised in Maximum Entropy Grammar (Goldwater and Johnson, 2003), but evidence for effects of style and speaker age require the scaling of several constraints (Coetzee and Kawahara, 2013). This study sheds light on these curious clusters, while raising new questions about the interaction of grammatical and non-grammatical factors.

Bidirectionality between modal and conditional constructions in Mandarin Chinese

This paper proposes that modal constructions can develop into conditional constructions in Mandarin Chinese and vice versa. Therefore, bidirectionality exists between these kinds of constructions diachronically. While bidirectionality is an apparent violation of unidirectionality, both directions of change are shown to be regular cases of procedural constructionalization, enabled by the fact that modal and conditional constructions can perform identical indirect speech acts (i.e., they are performatively equivalent) and instances of one may be morphosyntactically categorized as the other in Chinese (i.e., they are morphosyntactically vague). A crosslinguistically generalizable prediction is then proposed: bidirectionality is possible if instances of two constructions are performatively equivalent and morphosyntactically vague with respect to each other in certain contexts.

Decoding the wave particle duality

The action reaction principle (ARP), a fundamental ingredient of Physics, is taken for granted, because it is automatically fulfilled along the ordinary Hamiltonian, classical or quantum, time evolution law. But in quantum mechanics, there is an extraordinary evolution law, the projection of state rule along quantum measurements, which is not Hamiltonian. Consequently, the ARP is not automatically fulfilled along quantum measurements, and it must be checked case by case. Surprisingly, very simple quantum measurements, both theoretical processes and experiments, show an apparent violation of the ARP, so that the hidden reaction must be found. In the analyzed experiment, the ARP is restored if some new system, the quantum or de Broglie wave, exists and locally interacts with the detector. There cannot be interaction at a spatial distance between the particle (photon or electron) and the obstacle‐detector.

Legal or unenforceable? Violations of trade regulations and the case of the Philippine Sailfin Lizard Hydrosaurus pustulatus (Reptilia: Squamata: Agamidae)

The Philippine Sailfin Lizard (Agamidae: Hydrosaurus pustulatus) is a nationally protected Philippine endemic species. It is threatened by habitat destruction, pollution and overexploitation for the domestic pet trade, yet less is known about the international component of the trade. Here we investigate the international trade in Hydrosaurus spp. (H. weberi, H. amboinensis, and H. pustulatus) with an emphasis on H. pustulatus. We analysed international seizures combined with international online sales and trade data for the United States of America (USA). The export of H. pustulatus from the Philippines has been prohibited since 1991, except under special circumstances, yet they continue to be traded internationally, and we found evidence for trade in Asia, Europe, and North America. Most of these animals, however, were declared to be captive-bred. While imports to and exports from the US consisted mostly of other species of Hydrosaurus, H. pustulatus was by far the most coveted species online, with prices significantly higher for H. pustulatus than any of the other species. While not many seizures have occurred outside the Philippines, even wild-caught individuals were found to be ‘legally’ imported to the USA – in apparent violation of the Lacey Act. We recommend H. pustulatus to be listed in CITES Appendix III, in order for countries other than the USA to have a legal basis to seize wild-caught animals trafficked from the Philippines and to monitor trade in captive-bred specimens. Further, we suggest the use of automated cross-referencing between imported species and the national protection status of the species’ native range states to ensure that legislation violations are detected at the point of import.

Management strategies to regulate the introduction of exotic ornamental fish, the silent invaders of freshwater ecosystems in India

Ornamental fish culture and aquarium keeping have become a booming sector worldwide. It has been observed that a number of stakeholders are involved in introducing exotic ornamentals in India as well, as the takers are interested on variants and new species. Most of the exotic ornamental fishes are also being domesticated in India, since the demand is readily fulfilled through adequate supply to the hobbyists. This sector provides livelihood option to many people and helps to earn millions of dollars to our country every year, however, the invasion of exotic ornamentals in our natural water bodies needs to be assessed, monitored and controlled with due attention as it is a staid menace to our biodiversity. Around 400 species / variants of exotic freshwater ornamentals and around 100 exotic marine ornamental species including invertebrates are found to have introduced in the trade. It is significant to note that an apparent violation in the trade is taking place by concealing the Government of India approval, which is given only for 92 species / variants of fishes for import. Further, as some of the freshwater ornamental fishes currently available in the aquarium trade have invaded through natural water bodies, their impacts need to be studied in detail. To deal with the situation, the proper precautionary approach should be implemented by adopting measures after having proper quarantine, meticulous risk analysis and strategic prevention methods as well. Combined efforts of industry stakeholders with different government agencies, academic and research institutions is required and a suitable protocol has to be formulated for permissible import, sustainable production, supply and management.

Quantum magnetoconductivity characterization of interface disorder in indium-tin-oxide films on fused silica

Disorder arising from random locations of charged donors and acceptors introduces localization and diffusive motion that can lead to constructive electron interference and positive magnetoconductivity. At very low temperatures, 3D theory predicts that the magnetoconductivity is independent of temperature or material properties, as verified for many combinations of thin-films and substrates. Here, we find that this prediction is apparently violated if the film thickness d is less than about 300 nm. To investigate the origin of this apparent violation, the magnetoconductivity was measured at temperatures T = 15 – 150 K in ten, Sn-doped In2O3 films with d = 13 – 292 nm, grown by pulsed laser deposition on fused silica. We observe a very strong thickness dependence which we explain by introducing a theory that postulates a second source of disorder, namely, non-uniform interface-induced defects whose number decreases exponentially with the interface distance. This theory obeys the 3D limit for the thickest samples and yields a natural figure of merit for interface disorder. It can be applied to any degenerate semiconductor film on any semi-insulating substrate.

Irreversible work and Maxwell demon in terms of quantum thermodynamic force

The second law of classical equilibrium thermodynamics, based on the positivity of entropy production, asserts that any process occurs only in a direction that some information may be lost (flow out of the system) due to the irreversibility inside the system. However, any thermodynamic system can exhibit fluctuations in which negative entropy production may be observed. In particular, in stochastic quantum processes due to quantum correlations and also memory effects we may see the reversal energy flow (heat flow from the cold system to the hot system) and the backflow of information into the system that leads to the negativity of the entropy production which is an apparent violation of the Second Law. In order to resolve this apparent violation, we will try to properly extend the Second Law to quantum processes by incorporating information explicitly into the Second Law. We will also provide a thermodynamic operational meaning for the flow and backflow of information. Finally, it is shown that negative and positive entropy production can be described by a quantum thermodynamic force.

Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments

The conventional explanation of delayed-choice experiments seems to violate our causal intuition. This apparent violation is caused by a misinterpretation of the conventional formulation of quantum mechanics. I reanalyze these experiments using advanced and time-symmetric formulations of quantum mechanics. All three formulations give the same experimental predictions, but the advanced and time-symmetric formulations violate our causal intuition that effects only happen after causes. I explore reasons why our causal intuition may be wrong at the quantum level. I also suggest how conventional causation might be recovered in the classical limit, and speculate on cosmological boundary conditions.