Revealing Hydrogen States in Carbon Structures by Analyzing the Thermal Desorption Spectra

An effective methodology for the detailed analysis of thermal desorption spectra (TDS) of hydrogen in carbon structures at micro- and nanoscale was further developed and applied for a number of TDS data of one heating rate, in particular, for graphite materials irradiated with atomic hydrogen. The technique is based on a preliminary description of hydrogen desorption spectra by symmetric Gaussians with their special processing in the approximation of the first- and the second-order reactions. As a result, the activation energies and the pre-exponential factors of the rate constants of the hydrogen desorption processes are determined, analyzed and interpreted. Some final verification of the results was completed using methods of numerical simulation of thermal desorption peaks (non-Gaussians) corresponding to the first- and the second-order reactions. The main research finding of this work is a further refinement and/or disclosure of poorly studied characteristics and physics of various states of hydrogen in microscale graphite structures after irradiation with atomic hydrogen, and comparison with the related results for nanoscale carbon structures. This is important for understanding the behavior and relationship of hydrogen in a number of cases of high energy carbon-based materials and nanomaterials.

Intercultural Communicative Competence: L2 Learners’ Participation on Debating Class

Taboos in conversations will take place between speaker and hearer as the cultural awareness of the target language culture is not taken into account in the teaching and learning processes of English triggered this research to be conducted. This research deals with an analysis of intercultural communicative competence of L2 learners by means of applying Constructivists Model in which the preliminary description of how competent they are on L2 culture can be described. This research is qualitative research where eight students were arranged in debating class involved as the subject. Two debaters from Executive English Debate Community were engaged in this research as the team to construct the activities for the students. By providing anobservation checklist and questionnaire, the finding shows that the students actively exchange their ideas, they feel part of learning, they are able to develop problem-solving through peer collaboration, and they are able to develop new skills and knowledge from the other members of groups. It can be noted that the motions provided during the research, in which the L2 culture is considered, have helped the L2 learners to enhance their intercultural communicative competence seen from their active participation.

Semantics of classifiers in some Indian Languages

In the present paper, we present a detailed description of the classifier systems of five Indian languages-- Mizo, Galo, Tagin (all belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family), Assamese (Indo-Aryan) and Malto (Dravidian). It is observed that the classifiers are a predominant feature in the Tibeto-Burman and we observe an extensive classifier system in these languages. There is no equivalent classifier system in other language families. However in the languages belonging to Eastern India, irrespective of the family, there is some sort of classifier system. Thus classifiers seem to be an areal feature in most of the Eastern and whole of the North-Eastern India. The purpose of the paper is to study if there is some semantic similarity among the classifier systems across language families in this area and thus to see if it is indeed an areal feature. It is just a preliminary description of an ongoing research in which we intend to study many more languages and include languages from the Austro-Asiatic family (such as Khasi and Munda languages spoken in Jharkhand) as well.

The cisterns of the Bisti promontory at Hermione. With a preliminary description of the Roman aqueduct

This article reports the findings of the fieldwork exploring the cisterns at the Bisti promontory of Hermione, executed as part of a collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Argolid and the Swedish Institute at Athens. In order to better understand the function of the cisterns within the water supply system, the article begins by presenting an overview of existing water resources in the area, primarily the naturally occurring sources and the city’s 2nd-century AD Roman aqueduct. Following this the study describes the remains of the 14 potential cisterns on the Bisti. Based on the empirical material the similarities and contrasts between these are explored, as well as what they can tell us about the history and life in ancient Hermione. In particular, the article suggests that the presence of the cisterns contributes to our understanding of the urban fabric of the city, and reveals important information about when the city was moved from the Bisti to the nearby Pron Hill.

A preliminary description of mood in Welsh

In this paper we propose a functional account of the Welsh mood system, focussing on responsives in particular. The discourse functions of responsives are interpreted through the concept of negotiation within the systemic functional linguistic framework, which offers a rich model for accounting for both initiations and responses, including possible tracking and challenging moves. By examining the interaction of mood together with specific features of Welsh, e.g. a dominant VSO clause ordering, mood particles, Subject ellipsis and a complex system of negation, we are able to show that Welsh tends to highlight interpersonal meanings in clause initial position. As the first functional description of Welsh, we also set out important directions for future research, based on the findings presented in this paper.

Functional Analysis of the Trunk Flexion-Extension Through Gaussian Functions Fitting of the Movement Profile

A healthy mobility of the trunk plays a fundamental role in the activities of daily living. The flexion-extension movement is one of the main tasks evaluated in clinical practice to assess the functionality of the spine. Nevertheless, no fully shared methods are currently available for the clinician to perform quantitative evaluations on the movement quality. In this paper, the trunk flexion-extension task performed by 36 healthy adult subjects, for a total of 104 acquisitions, was acquired with an optoelectronic system of 8 cameras and 32 skin passive optical markers. The absolute displacement of the subject’s seventh thoracic vertebra (T7) was fitted with an asymmetric Gaussian function, comparing the performance of four alternative cost functions in the optimization process. A set of descriptive parameters for the quantitative evaluation of the profile, suitable for the everyday use in the clinical practice, was designed and applied on the current dataset. Statistical analysis was performed on residuals of the fitting process, coefficients of the optimal fitting functions and proposed descriptive parameters, outlining a preliminary description of the trunk flexion-extension movement in the healthy adult.

The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia

A preliminary description is presented of the well-preserved frozen mummies of two cubs of the extinct cave lion Panthera spelaea (finds of 2017–2018, Semyuelyakh River, Yakutia, eastern Siberia, Russia). The fossil lion cubs were found in close proximity, but they do not belong to the same litter, since their radiocarbon ages differ: the female (named ‘Sparta’) was dated to 27,962 ± 109 uncal years BP, and the male (named ‘Boris’) was dated to 43,448 ± 389 uncal years BP. The lion cubs have similar individual ages, 1–2 months. The general tone of the colour of the fur coat of Sparta is greyish to light brown, whereas, in Boris, the fur is generally lighter, greyish yellowish. It is, therefore, possible that light colouration prevailed with age in cave lions and was adaptive for northern snow-covered landscapes. The article discusses the results of computed tomography of cubs of the cave lion, the possible reasons for their death, and the peculiarities of their existence in the Siberian Arctic.

A sketch of Ngen phonology

The paper provides a preliminary description of the phonology of Ngen, a South Mande language spoken in Ivory Coast. Ngen has a system of oral and nasal vowels. The consonant inventory is characterised by a complementary distribution between [b] and [m], [l] and [n], [y] and [ɲ]. There are 3 level tones. Tone melodies on disyllabic feet exhibit all possible combinations except LH. The majority of nonderived words have CV, CVCV, and CVŋ structures.

#3112 Acquired aphantasia in 88 cases: a preliminary report

AimsFor most of us, visual imagery is a fundamental feature of day-to-day subjective experience. It is thought to play multiple cognitive roles.1 However, there is widespread variation in the subjective intensity of visual imagery, ranging from extreme vividness to complete absence. The term aphantasia was coined recently to describe the latter, which is usually lifelong. While rarer, cases of acquired aphantasia can provide mechanistic insight. Isolated cases have long been reported,2 with some attempts at theoretical synthesis.3 4 We give a preliminary description of 88 such cases identified from among ~14,000 people contacting us in the wake of publicity surrounding Aphantasia.MethodsCases were selected from individuals contacting us spontaneously reporting reduced or absent intensity of visual imagery. Contacts were asked to complete two measures of visual imagery, the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) and Imagery Questionnaire (IQ).5ResultsCases were divided into those in with a strong probability of a neurological cause (n=39), a psychological cause (n=20) and those about which we cannot yet be confident (n=29). Functional aphantasia appears likely to account for some of the cases in the third category. The commonest precipitating events were head injury (n=19), affective disorder (n=17) and stroke (n=13). Other causes included surgery (postoperative) (n=7), drugs (n=6), infectious or inflammatory disease (n=3), neurodegenerative disease (n=3), and seizure disorders (n=2). For subjects completing the VVIQ (n=29), the mean score was 20.1/80 (range 16-32,) indicating marked reduction of imagery vividness. Localizable lesions were predominantly right sided (n=6) and occurred in posterior cortical areas, particularly occipital and parietal, as well as two cases associated with damage to temporal cortex. Some cases reported other impairments, including impaired memory (n=12), prosopagnosia (n=5) and navigational difficulties (n=2). Of cases who reported on their dreams (n=28), around half had lost visual dreaming, a third had preserved visual dreaming and the remainder had visual dreaming of reduced intensity.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the largest reported case series of acquired loss of visual imagery. Both neurological and psychological disorders can be responsible for acquired aphantasia. Our series includes cases of probable functional aphantasia. Further detailed analysis of these cases is required.References Pearson. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2019;20:624634. Zago, et al. Cognit. Neuropsychiatry 2011;16:481504. Farah. Cognition 1984;18:245272. Bartolomeo. Cortex 2002;38:357378. Zeman, et al. Cortex 2020;130:426440.