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The Spanish voiced palatal obstruent /ʝ/ is orthographically represented as ⟨y⟩ or ⟨ll⟩. The most closely related sound in English is /j/, which is often written with ⟨y⟩, but produced with weaker constriction compared to the Spanish /ʝ/. Our goal is to examine influence from English (i.e., the majority language) in heritage speakers’ production of the Spanish /ʝ/ by testing the effect of orthography (i.e., whether stronger influence is found in ⟨y⟩ than in ⟨ll⟩). Heritage speech data were collected using a read-aloud task in which the stimuli varied in orthography, preceding vowel height, and stress condition. Results showed that heritage speakers predominantly produced the Spanish /ʝ/ as an English-like approximant [j], which was preferred even more when /ʝ/ was written with ⟨y⟩. However, the orthography effect surfaced only when the phonetic contexts did not favor strong constriction, suggesting that orthography-induced majority language influence is conditioned by universal phonetic principles.

Research question: Previous research suggests that the grain size of primary phonological units (PUs) in spoken word production is language-specific (e.g., phonemic segments in Germanic languages, and atonal syllables in Chinese). When the two languages of bilingual speakers have different primary PUs in their native speakers, will first language (L1) phonological processing be influenced by second language (L2) experience? Methodology: In a picture–word interference task, native Chinese speakers who spoke English as L2 were required to say aloud the predesignated L1 name of a picture while ignoring a written L1 character superimposed on the picture. The picture name shared a certain phonological component (i.e., rhyme or atonal syllable) with the distractor in the related condition but not in the unrelated condition. Data and analysis: Data of 186 participants from eight originally independent experiments were pooled. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on subject means to investigate whether the effects of rhyme relatedness and syllable relatedness on L1 naming latency were influenced by L2 self-rated proficiency, age of acquisition (AoA), and/or years of use. Trial-by-trial data were then analyzed with linear mixed-effects modeling. Findings: Both the rhyme effect and the syllable effect increased with years of L2 use, indicating that the salience of PUs in L1 spoken word production can be influenced by L2 experience. Originality: The current study adopted a chronometric approach to investigate the influence of L2 experience on phonological processing during L1 spoken word production. Importantly, multiple aspects of L2 experience (i.e., self-rated proficiency, AoA, and years of use) were examined at the same time in a relatively large sample. Implications: The current findings provide evidence for backward transfer of primary PUs in spoken word production, which demonstrates the plasticity of the phonological encoding process in bilingual speakers. These findings are discussed and compared with cross-language transfer of phonological awareness in the discussion.

A phase is an instance of derivation or “spell out’’ of a chunk or whole of a sentence construction. It is standardly assumed thatonly complementizer phrases and little v(erb) phrases are phases, and tense and verb phrases are not phases. Other categories such as determiner phrases and applicative phrases have been tested positive for phases. However, no claim is made about the status of prepositional phrases as phases. This paper investigated whether prepositional phrases in English can have the status of a phase as defined in phase theory. It was hypothesised that prepositional phrases are phases of the ‘weak’ kind. To determine the phase status of prepositional phrases, the method of standard phase diagnostics tests such as computational complexity, phonological independence, semantic independence, and case checking, and theta completeness were used. It was found out that computational complexity is not a valid test to test prepositional phrases for phasehood. While prepositional phrases bear very strong evidence to be labelled phases with respect to phonological independence, PPs fail to be phases in the case of semantic independence, and case checking and theta completeness. Given these findings, it was concluded that prepositional phrases in English are phases of the ‘weak’ kind. A sample of sentence constructions in English selected by the author and borrowed from the existing literature were used for the tests to draw conclusions. The study is expected to help better understand and analyze the cognitive processes involved in the acquisition and production of the English language specifically and any language in general. DOI : http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v06i02.07

This exploratory study reports on characteristics of proof production and proof writing observed in the work of first-year university students who took part in workshops on the theorem prover LEAN (https://leanprover.github.io). These workshops were voluntary and offered alongside a transition to proof module in a UK university. Through qualitative analysis of 36 student produced proofs of an unfamiliar statement we highlight characteristics of proofs produced by students who did engaged and who did not engage with LEAN. The analysis shows two characteristics of proofs written by students who engaged with the programming language. The first concerns proof writing and includes the accurate and correct use of mathematics language and symbols, together with the use of complete sentences and punctuations in proofs. The second concerns proof structure and includes the overt break down of proofs in goals and sub-goals. We conclude by hypothesising a link between the characteristics observed and the experience of engaging with the theorem prover and we reflect on the potential that engagement with this theorem prover may have in mathematics instruction at university level.

The fragmentation of the vector QQ diquark into the triply heavy baryons of ${\Omega }_{QQQ}^{\frac {1}{2}}$ and ${\Omega }_{QQQ}^{\frac {3}{2}}$ is one of the possible senario in the baryon production. This motivates us to study the possibility of producing such baryons in vector QQ diquark fragmentation. For this purpose, we calculate the fragmentation functions of these baryons in $cc\rightarrow {\Omega }_{ccc}^{\frac {1}{2}}$ , $cc\rightarrow {\Omega }_{ccc}^{\frac {3}{2}}$ , $bb\rightarrow {\Omega }_{bbb}^{\frac {1}{2}}$ and $bb\rightarrow {\Omega }_{bbb}^{\frac {3}{2}}$ , fragmentation processes at leading order of pQCD. Our results show that the fragmentation probabilities between one-two order of magnitude is larger than the case which obtained from direct c and b quark fragmentation.

In this paper we show that two-stage adjustable robust linear programs with affinely adjustable data in the face of box data uncertainties under separable quadratic decision rules admit exact semi-definite program (SDP) reformulations in the sense that they share the same optimal values and admit a one-to-one correspondence between the optimal solutions. This result allows adjustable robust solutions of these robust linear programs to be found by simply numerically solving their SDP reformulations. We achieve this result by first proving a special sum-of-squares representation of non-negativity of a separable non-convex quadratic function over box constraints. Our reformulation scheme is illustrated via numerical experiments by applying it to an inventory-production management problem with the demand uncertainty. They demonstrate that our separable quadratic decision rule method to two-stage decision-making performs better than the single-stage approach and is capable of solving the inventory production problem with a greater degree of uncertainty in the demand.

In this paper, a new problem of job sequences in a workshop is presented, taking into account non-unit demands for the jobs and whose objective is to minimize the total completion time for all the jobs ($${C}_{max}$$ C max ) satisfying a set of restrictions imposed on the problem to preserve the production mix. Two procedures are proposed to solve the new problem: Mixed Integer Linear Programming and a Metaheuristic based on Multistart and Local Search. The two proposed procedures are tested using instance set Nissan-9Eng.I, in both cases giving rise to highly satisfactory performance both in quality of solutions obtained and in the CPU times required. Through a case study of the Nissan engine manufacturing plant in Barcelona, our economic-productive analysis reveals that it is possible to save an average of € 1162.83 per day, manufacturing 270 engines, when we transform the current assembly line into a Heijunka-Flow Shop.

Longitudinal polarisation of the weak bosons is a direct consequence of Electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism providing an insight into its nature, and is instrumental in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We perform a polarisation study of the diboson production in the $p p \to e^+\nu_e\mu^-\bar\nu_\mu$ process at NNLO QCD in the fiducial setup inspired by experimental measurements at ATLAS. This is the first polarisation study at NNLO. We employ the double-pole approximation framework for the polarised calculation, and investigate NNLO effects arising in differential distributions., Comment: corrected typos, added a reference, amended and clarified discussion with comments on top-quark loop effects, etc; matches JHEP published version

We report in this work the production of $${{W}^{ + }}{{W}^{ - }}$$ pairs gauge bosons associated with 0, 1 and 2 jets in proton–proton collisions at LHC with an energy of 14 TeV in the center of mass. These processes are produced at leading-order (LO) and next-to-leading-order (NLO) with QCD corrections in the standard model, using MadGraph $$\_$$ aMC@NLO. For a realistic description of the processes, we match the hard scattering processes with Pythia8 parton showering and hadronization. The obtained events are run through the fast detector simulation, Delphes, which serves to accurately model the ATLAS and CMS detectors and the final state reconstructions that are performed. We analyze the total cross sections according on two cuts in jet transverse momentum $${{p}_{{T,j}}} > 20$$ GeV and $${{p}_{{T,j}}} > 100$$ GeV. We describe the important numerical aspects of our calculations by presenting transverse momentum and rapidity distributions at partonic fixed order and at parton shower for both W and the $${{W}^{ + }}{{W}^{ - }}$$ pair.

As one of the most common language phenomena in bilingual settings, code-switching has been studied widely to explore its nature and features. In the current study, the author set out to explore the effect of syntactic alignment on Chinese-English bilinguals' code-switched sentence production using a picture-describing task with a structural priming paradigm. The structural priming paradigm has been frequently used to explore the mechanisms of sentence production. The effect of syntactic alignment was observed, indicating Chinese-English bilinguals were inclined to produce code-switched sentences with the same syntactic structure between Chinese and English. The findings provide empirical evidence not only supporting structural priming during bilingual code-switched sentence production, but also extending the interactive alignment model (Pickering and Garrod, 2004) to interpret code-switching during bilingual sentence production. Implications for code-switching and bilingual sentence processing are discussed.

The behaviour of pseudoscalar mesons within the SU(3) PNJL-like models is considered for finite T and $${{\mu }_{B}}$$ . We compare the pole approximation (Breit–Wigner) with the Beth–Uhlenbeck approach. We evaluate the $$K{\text{/}}\pi $$ ratios along the phase transition line in the T– $${{\mu }_{B}}$$ plane with constant and $$T{\text{/}}{{\mu }_{B}}$$ -dependent pion and strange quark chemical potentials. Using the model, we can show that the splitting of kaon and anti-kaon masses appears as a result of introduction of density and this explains the difference in the $${{K}^{ + }}{\text{/}}{{\pi }^{ + }}$$ ratio and $${{K}^{ - }}{\text{/}}{{\pi }^{ - }}$$ ratio at low $$\sqrt {{{s}_{{NN}}}} $$ and their tendency to the same value at high $$\sqrt {{{s}_{{NN}}}} $$ . A sharp “horn” effect in the $${{K}^{ + }}{\text{/}}{{\pi }^{ + }}$$ ratio is explained by the enhanced pion production which can be described by occurrence of a nonequilibrium pion chemical potential of the order of the pion mass. We elucidate that the horn effect is not related to the existence of a critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram.

The production cross section of vector bosons recoiling against jets is studied, with CMS data, differentially as a function of the transverse momentum and angular correlations of the final state particles. The measurements are confronted with different state-of-the-art theory predictions that include next-to-leading-order calculations and matrix-element plus parton shower event simulations.

Generalized relationships are presented for calculating the sets of the inlet characteristics of a fermentation process for producing lactic acid, which provide real conditions for the existence of a technological process under continuous conditions. The basis is the computational relationships obtained from the equations of a mathematical model containing balance relationships for the biomass, substrate, product, and by-product, taking into account the use of the main substrate and the component that produces the main substrate in the synthesis process. Two variants were formed for assessing the region of existence of the technological process. The region of the first variant is represented by the dependence of S0 on D at M0 = 0; the second, M0 on D at S0 = 0. The coordinates of singular points for both variants are given, which limit the values of the sets for each singular point. Sets of characteristics for each singular point are obtained. Numerical examples of calculating characteristics using generalized relationships for QP = 6 g/(L h) are given. Generalized formulas have been developed from previous studies. Also given are generalized formulas for calculating the composition of the inlet stream for fermentation. Generalized formulas are written for two variants and presented for three sections, each of which is determined by the value of S0(D) for the first variant and the value of M0(D) for the second variant. For each of the variants, the compositions of the sets consisting of six units are obtained. As well as for singular points, generalized relationships and formulas for calculating the composition of sets for the stream are derived for both variants.

The vectorlike top partners are potential signature of some new physics beyond the Standard Model at the TeV scale. In this paper, we propose to search for the vectorlike T quark with charge 2/3 in the framework of a simplified model where the top partners only couples with the third generation of Standard Model quarks. We investigate the observability for electroweak production of a vectorlike T quark in association with a standard model bottom quark through the process $$pp \rightarrow T\bar{b}j$$ p p → T b ¯ j with the subsequent decay mode of $$T\rightarrow t(\rightarrow b W^+\rightarrow b \ell ^{+} \nu _{\ell })h( \rightarrow \gamma \gamma )$$ T → t ( → b W + → b ℓ + ν ℓ ) h ( → γ γ ) , at the proposed High Energy Large Hadron Collider (HE-LHC) and Future Circular Collider in hadron-hadron mode (FCC-hh) including the realistic detector effects. The 95% confidence level excluded regions and the $$5\sigma $$ 5 σ discovery reach in the parameter plane of $$\kappa _{T}-m_T$$ κ T - m T , are respectively obtained at the HE-LHC with the integrated luminosity of 15 ab$$^{-1}$$ - 1 and the FCC-hh with the integrated luminosity of 30 ab$$^{-1}$$ - 1 . We also analyze the projected sensitivity in terms of the production cross section times branching fraction at the HE-LHC and FCC-hh.

The mean time between failures (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) of manufacturing equipment (e.g., machines) are used in every quantitative method for production systems performance analysis, continuous improvement, and design. Unfortunately, the literature offers no methods for evaluating the smallest number of up- and downtime measurements necessary and sufficient to calculate reliable estimates of these equipment characteristics. This article is intended to provide such a method. The approach is based on introducing the notion of $(\alpha, \beta)$ -precise estimates, where $\alpha $ characterizes the estimate’s accuracy and $\beta $ its probability. Using this notion, this article evaluates the critical number, $n^{*} (\alpha,\beta)$ , of up- and downtime measurements necessary and sufficient to calculate $(\alpha, \beta)$ -precise estimates of MTBF and MTTR. In addition, this article derives a probabilistic upper bound of the observation time required to collect $n^{*} (\alpha,\beta)$ measurements. Note to Practitioners —To evaluate and predict production systems behavior, managers of manufacturing operations need to know equipment reliability characteristics. Quantifying the equipment status by MTBF and MTTR, this article provides answers to the following questions: Q1: How many measurements of machines up- and downtime are required to obtain reliable estimates of MTBF and MTTR? Q2: How long the observation period must be to collect the desired number of measurements? The answer to Q1 is provided by a rule (formula), which is based on the desired estimate accuracy (characterized by $\alpha $ ) and its likelihood (quantified by $\beta $ ). The answer to Q2 consists of selecting a small number of initial measurements, which can be used to calculate an upper bound of the total observation time.

The search for the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top quark–antiquark pair with the CMS detector will be presented. Candidate $$t\bar{t}H$$ events are selected with criteria enhancing respectively the dileptonic, semileptonic and fully hadronic decay channels of the $$t\bar{t}$$ system and the decay of the Higgs boson into a bottom quark–antiquark pair ( $$H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$$ ). In order to increase the sensitivity of the search, selected events are split into several categories with different expected signal and background rates. A combined fit of multivariate discriminant templates across all categories and decay channels is performed to extract the result. Results for Run II data will be shown. Prospects for improvements towards Run III will also be discussed.

One way to study the Kronecker coefficients is to focus on the Kronecker cone, which is generated by the triples of partitions corresponding to non-zero Kronecker coefficients. In this article we are interested in producing particular faces of this cone, formed of stable triples (a notion defined by J. Stembridge in 2014), using some geometric notions—principally those of dominant and well-covering pairs—and results of N. Ressayre. This extends a result obtained independently by L. Manivel and E. Vallejo in 2014 or 2015, expressed in terms of additive matrices. To illustrate the fact that it allows to produce quite a few new faces of the Kronecker cone, we give at the end of the article details about what our results yield for “small dimensions”.

This work evaluates the energetic performance of a maritime Natural Cave located in Cidade-Velha (Cabo-Verde) for the electricity production purpose. The selection of this Natural Cave results from deep studies conducted around Santiago Island and already published on a scientific journal. To carry on the measurements (done in June), we equipped the orifice of the Natural Cave with a $$1.5\text{ m}$$ height vertical rectangular tube connected to a fixed base on the rocky shoreline. For the tube cross-section area ( $$15\text{ cm}\times 30 \text{cm}$$ ), the highest and the average air velocity values were around $$84.20 \text{m}/\text{s}$$ and $$32.61 \text{m}/\text{s}$$ , respectively. The airflow throughout the tube is incompressible with maximum Mach Number close to $$0.30$$ . Since the peak power available for conversion (between $$6.9\text{ and }10\text{ kW}$$ ) was around eight times higher than average power (between $$0.9\text{ and }1.5\text{ kW}$$ ), it is necessary to design a smart control system to maximize energy conversion. All performances parameters are directly influenced by the four sea tides around Santiago Island. Through the Design Charts for Wells turbines, for a NACA0021 profile with $$N=4$$ blades, producing $$1.1\text{ kW}$$ a Wells turbine was found with the following features: power coefficient $$C=1550.55$$ , solidity $$S=0.72$$ , pressure drop coefficient $$\text{dp}=0.1$$ , flow coefficient $$\varphi =0.1275$$ , Tip radius $${R}_{\text{tip}}=207 \text{mm}$$ and chord $$c=173 \text{mm}$$ , working, in a $$435 \text{mm}\times 435 \text{mm}$$ cross-section tube. The designed power plant besides supplying electricity to at least 13 houses with the consumption profile similar to that in Cidade-Velha, it represents an annual saving of 2412.9 L of diesel and $$6314.56 \text{kg}$$ of $${\text{CO}}_{2}$$ not emitted to the environment.

Acyl-ACP reductase (AAR) is one of the two key cyanobacterial enzymes along with aldehyde deformylating oxygenase (ADO) involved in the synthesis of long-chain alkanes, a drop-in biofuel. The enzyme is prone to aggregation when expressed in Escherichia coli, leading to varying alkane levels. The present work attempts to investigate the crucial structural aspects of AAR protein associated with its stability and folding. Characterization by dynamic light scattering experiment and intact mass spectrometry revealed that recombinantly expressed AAR in E. coli existed in multiple-sized protein particles due to diverse lipidation. Interestingly, while thermal- and urea-based denaturation of AAR showed 2-state unfolding transition in circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescent spectroscopy, the unfolding process of AAR was a 3-state pathway in GdnHCl solution suggesting that the protein milieu plays a significant role in dictating its folding. Apparent standard free energy $$\left( {\Delta {\text{G}}_{{{\text{NU}}}}^{{{\text{H}}_{2} {\text{O}}}} } \right)$$ Δ G NU H 2 O of ~ 4.5 kcal/mol for the steady-state unfolding of AAR indicated borderline stability of the protein. Based on these evidences, we propose that the marginal stability of AAR are plausible contributing reasons for aggregation propensity and hence the low catalytic activity of the enzyme when expressed in E. coli for biofuel production. Our results show a path for building superior biocatalyst for higher biofuel production.

Actinium-225 is used in nuclear medicine for the treatment of malignant tumours. It can be applied to produce Bi-213 in a reusable generator or can be used alone as an agent for radiation therapy, in particular for targeted alpha therapy. However, the availability of Ac-225 for worldwide use, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, is limited. We present a feasibility study employing GATE, an open-source Monte Carlo simulation toolkit, on the production of Ac-225 from a neutron generator. This work suggests that a design consisting of three concentric cylinders, the innermost a Cf-252 neutron source, the middle nickel cylinder acting as a proton-producing target and the outer cylinder a RaCl2 target may provide a feasible design outline for an Ac-225 generator.

This work aims to calculate the scalar unparticle ( ) U0 production in pair with photon and Z boson at + −  collision in unparticle physics perspective. The work shows that + −  collision process involving scalar unparticles with dimension 2 dU  via the photon or Z boson exchange has been only done for schannel while via muon ( ) − exchange it has been done for t and u-channel. The cross-sections of the production of U0 in the   + − collider when the   + − , beams are unpolarized in unparticle physics were calculated in detail. The obvious dependence of differential cross-section (DCS) on the scattering angle ( )  and the cross-section (CS) on the center of mass-energy ( ) s which is the available range of energy at the future high energy frontier muon collider in the Muon Accelerator Program (MAP) were evaluated respectively.

An $H^\pm W^\mp Z$ interaction at the tree level is common feature of new physics models that feature scalar triplets. In this study, we aim to probe the strength of the aforementioned interaction in a model-agnostic fashion at the futuristic 27 TeV proton-proton collider. We assume that the $H^\pm$ couples dominantly to ($W^\pm,Z$) and ($t,b$). We specifically study the processes that involve the $H^\pm W^\mp Z$ vertex at the production level, that is, $p p \to H^\pm j j$ and $p p \to Z H^\pm$. Moreover, we look into both $H^\pm \to W^\pm Z,~t b$ decays for either production process. Our investigations reveal that the $H^\pm j j$ production process has a greater reach compared to $Z H^\pm$. Moreover, the discovery potential of a charged Higgs improves markedly with respect to the earlier studies corresponding to lower centre-of-mass energies. Finally, we recast our results in the context of the popular Georgi-Machacek model., Comment: Version 2; Accepted for publication in EPJC

There is much evidence that individuals with aphasia (IWA) are impaired in tense or aspectual inflections and the production of non-canonical sentences like passives. On the Cartographic Approach (CA), passives are represented at the lower node in the syntactic tree, with tense or aspectual elements at the higher node. This hierarchical structure can be used to account for the selective impairments in aphasic production. The present study reports the empirical findings from Chinese agrammatism using the theory of cartography. It is found that the performance of IWA with different degrees of severity is associated with different nodes (CP, TP, and vP) in the syntactic tree. Notably, the Chinese-speaking IWA are severely impaired in vP-related elements. Finally, the present study highlights the significance of adopting a cartographic approach to aphasia studies.

There is little evidence that, for people with aphasia, successful outcomes following lexical retrieval treatment generalise beyond single word retrieval to sentence production or daily communication. This study aimed to develop greater understanding of the mechanisms of generalisation. We employed a cueing task to simulate the effects of lexical retrieval treatment. A single noun or verb was provided and the effect on production of a corresponding verb phrase examined. Sixteen individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) were asked to produce verb phrases to describe action pictures accompanied by i) a verb cue where a spoken and written verb was also presented with the picture; ii) a noun cue where a spoken and written noun was presented with the picture; iii) a no cue condition where only the picture was presented. Across the case series, both verb and noun cueing improved verb phrase production relative to no cue, with verb cueing being most effective. At the level of the single case, thirteen individuals showed significantly increased production of verb phrases with verb cueing, and seven individuals with noun cueing. In addition, seven individuals showed significantly greater benefit from verb cueing compared to noun cueing, and none showed the reverse. This suggests that improvements in verb phrase production may also be achievable following treatment-induced improvements in lexical retrieval. Greater benefit from verb cues than noun cues raises important theoretical issues regarding sentence construction and clinical issues around the most effective treatment techniques for people with aphasia.

In this study, 17 adult participants were trained to solve alphabet–arithmetic problems using a production task (e.g., C + 3 = ?). The evolution of their performance across 12 practice sessions was compared with the results obtained in past studies using verification tasks (e.g., is C + 3 = F correct?). We show that, irrespective of the experimental paradigm used, there is no evidence for a shift from counting to retrieval during training. However, and again regardless of the paradigm, problems with the largest addend constitute an exception to the general pattern of results obtained. Contrary to other problems, their answers seem to be deliberately memorised by participants relatively early during training. All in all, we conclude that verification and production tasks lead to similar patterns of results, which can therefore both confidently be used to discuss current theories of learning. Still, deliberate memorization of problems with the largest addend appears earlier and more often in a production than a verification task. This last result is discussed in light of retrieval models.

We consider QCD radiative corrections to the associated production of a heavy-quark pair ($Q{\bar Q}$) with a generic colourless system $F$ at hadron colliders. We discuss the resummation formalism for the production of the $Q{\bar Q}F$ system at small values of its total transverse momentum $q_T$. The perturbative expansion of the resummation formula leads to the explicit ingredients that can be used to apply the $q_T$ subtraction formalism to fixed-order calculations for this class of processes. We use the $q_T$ subtraction formalism to perform a fully differential perturbative computation for the production of a top-antitop quark pair and a Higgs boson. At next-to-leading order we compare our results with those obtained with established subtraction methods and we find complete agreement. We present, for the first time, the results for the flavour off-diagonal partonic channels at the next-to-next-to-leading order., 22 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. References added. Version published on EPJC

The character of changing the M( $$\bar {d}$$ )γ criterion, which is used in the New PHACOMP method and determines the ability of nickel superalloys to form embrittling TCP phases, is determined, and new methods for optimizing their compositions are proposed. They reliably ensure the absence of the phases in the structure of these materials depending on the alloy composition and the dendritic segregation retained after heat treatment. A technique is proposed to adjust the composition of nickel superalloy intended for operation at very high temperatures (1050–1150°C) under conditions of significantly dissolved strengthening γ' phase.

In the picture-word interference (PWI) task, semantically related distractors slow production, while translation-equivalent distractors speed it, possibly implying a language-specific bilingual production system [Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual's two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 41(3), 365–397. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2651]. However, in most previous PWI studies bilinguals responded in just one language, an artificial task restriction. We investigated translation facilitation effects in PWI with language switching. Spanish-English bilinguals named pictures in single- or mixed-language-response blocks, with superimposed distractors in the target language (Experiment 1), or in the non-target language (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated previously reported translation facilitation effects in both single-language and mixed-language-response blocks. However, language dominance was reversed in mixed-language response blocks, implying inhibition of the dominant language and competition between languages. These results may be explained by a language non-specific selection model in which bilinguals do not restrict selection to one language, with translation facilitation being caused by facilitation at the semantic level offsetting competition at the lexical level.

Research about brain activities involving spoken word production is considerably underdeveloped because of the undiscovered characteristics of speech artifacts, which contaminate electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and prevent the inspection of the underlying cognitive processes. To fuel further EEG research with speech production, a method using three-mode tensor decomposition (time x space x frequency) is proposed to perform speech artifact removal. Tensor decomposition enables simultaneous inspection of multiple modes, which suits the multi-way nature of EEG data. In a picture-naming task, we collected raw data with speech artifacts by placing two electrodes near the mouth to record lip EMG. Based on our evaluation, which calculated the correlation values between grand-averaged speech artifacts and the lip EMG, tensor decomposition outperformed the former methods that were based on independent component analysis (ICA) and blind source separation (BSS), both in detecting speech artifact (0.985) and producing clean data (0.101). Our proposed method correctly preserved the components unrelated to speech, which was validated by computing the correlation value between the grand-averaged raw data without EOG and cleaned data before the speech onset (0.92-0.94).

The present study investigated the long-term benefit of Random-Practice (RP) over Blocked-Practice (BP) within the contextual interference (CI) effect for motor learning. We addressed the extent to which motor sequence length and practice amount factors moderate the CI effect given that previous reports, often in applied research, have reported no long-term advantage from RP. Based on predictions arising from the Cognitive framework of Sequential Motor Behavior (C-SMB) and using the Discrete Sequence Production (DSP) task, two experiments were conducted to compare limited and extended practice amounts of 4- and 7-key sequences under RP and BP schedules. Twenty-four-hour delayed retention performance confirmed the C-SMB prediction that the CI-effect occurs only with short sequences that receive little practice. The benefit of RP with limited practice was associated with overnight motor memory consolidation. Further testing with single-stimulus as well as novel and unstructured (i.e., random) sequences indicated that limited practice under RP schedules enhances both reaction and chunking modes of sequence execution with the latter mode benefitting from the development of implicit and explicit forms of sequence representation. In the case of 7-key sequences, extended practice with RP and BP schedules provided for equivalent development of sequence representations. Higher explicit awareness of sequence structures was associated with faster completion of practiced but also of novel and unstructured sequences.

Although several studies have explored the effects of task sequencing on second language (L2) production, there is no established set of criteria to sequence tasks for learners in L2 writing classrooms. This study examined the effect of simple ̶ complex task sequencing manipulated along both resource-directing (± number of elements) and resource-dispersing (± planning time) factors on L2 writing compared to individual task performance using Robinson’s (2010) SSARC model of task sequencing. Upper-intermediate L2 learners (N = 90) were randomly divided into two groups: (1) Participants who performed three writing tasks in a simple–complex sequence, and (2) participants who performed either the simple, less complex, or complex task. Findings revealed that simple-complex task sequencing led to increases in syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency, as compared to individual task performance. Results are discussed in light of the SSARC model, and theoretical and pedagogical implications are provided., Plusieurs études ont exploré les effets du séquençage des tâches sur la production en langue seconde (L2). Néanmoins, il n'y a pas eu d'ensemble de critères bien établis pour séquencer les tâches pour les apprenants dans les classes d'écriture de L2. Cette étude a examiné l'effet d'un séquençage simple ̶ complexe manipulé de tâches ainsi que les facteurs de direction des ressources (± nombre d'éléments) et de dispersion des ressources (± temps de planification) sur l'écriture en L2 par rapport à la performance des tâches individuelles, et ce à l'aide du modèle de séquençage de tâches SSARC de Robinson (2010). Les apprenants de L2 de niveau intermédiaire-supérieur (N = 90) ont été répartis au hasard en deux groupes : (1) les participants qui ont effectué trois tâches d'écriture dans une séquence simple-complexe, et (2) les participants qui ont exécuté une des trois tâches : soit la simple, soit la moins complexe, soit la complexe. Les résultats ont révélé que le séquençage simple-complexe de tâches entraine une augmentation de la complexité syntaxique, de la précision, de la complexité lexicale et de la fluidité, par rapport à la performance des tâches individuelles. Les résultats sont discutés à la lumière du modèle SSARC et les implications théoriques et pédagogiques sont fournies.

Research on predicting the growth trend of natural gas reserves and production will help provide a scientific basis for natural gas exploration and development. The metabolically improved modified weight coefficient GM(1,n) method is applied to the multi-cycle Hubbert model to predict the trend of new proven natural gas reserves in the Sichuan Basin. The ultimate recoverable reserves (URR) is introduced as a boundary condition in the production-time series to predict the natural gas production growth. The research results show that: (1) The annual newly added proven natural gas reserves of the Sichuan Basin maintain a multi-cycle growth trend, which will reach the peak reserves in 2034, at which time the proven rate of natural gas will reach 36%. (2) Based on the predicted results of proven reserves, the final recoverable reserves of natural gas are estimated to be $$5.25-5.75\times {10}^{12}{m}^{3}$$ 5.25 - 5.75 × 10 12 m 3 . The production in 2035 will reach $$750-810\times {10}^{8}{\mathrm{m}}^{3}/\mathrm{a}$$ 750 - 810 × 10 8 m 3 / a , and production will grow rapidly. The exploration and development of natural gas in the basin will be prospective for a long time.

This paper shows the results of an initial study on the emergence of 'new' subjects in the children’s grammar of Brazilian Portuguese, the locative and possessive subjects. The grammar of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has been showing an increasing number of sentences with atypical subjects. The goal of this study is to investigate whether such constructions are already present in the children's grammar of PB, therefore, the results of two linguistic tasks, judgment of grammaticality and elicited production, will be presented. The hypotheses of this study take into account the fact that PB speakers choose to fill in the subject position instead of leaving it empty. Even though the position is filled by a constituent that was not directly selected by the verb. This fact leads us to test whether: (i) the child recognizes structures with locative and possessive subjects from the initial stages and (ii) the production of such sentences only occurs in more advanced stages of the acquisition process.

This paper addresses the synthesis of combined evaporation–crystallisation systems for the recovery of valuable materials from waste in line with sustainable development and circular economy concepts. The primary focus of this work is the utilisation of distiller waste from the Solvay process, which comprises sodium chloride (NaCl), calcium chloride ( $${\text {CaCl}}_2$$ ) and water ( $$\hbox{H}_2$$ O). The superstructure optimisation of a heat and power integrated evaporation–crystallisation system is performed by solving the proposed Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) model. The superstructure extends our recent research to include the partial crystallisation of NaCl and the production of concentrated $${\text {CaCl}}_2$$ solution. To address the considered case study, a thermodynamic model for multi-component electrolytic systems is developed. A three-step solution strategy is proposed to circumvent a problem with nonlinearities and to solve the overall MINLP model. The optimal design of a heat-integrated evaporation–crystallisation system with mechanical vapour compression is presented and the main conclusions are highlighted.

The electrocaloric heat production in $$\hbox {BaTiO}_3$$ -based multilayer ceramic capacitors with Y5V specification was measured in a direct way by means of an adiabatic calorimeter setup. Applying an electric field of 30 $$\hbox {MV}\,\hbox {m}^{-1}$$ is found to result in a heat release of 0.94 $$\hbox {J}\,\hbox {g}^{-1}$$ and an electrocaloric temperature change of 0.46 K, in good agreement with direct results in previous studies.

Observed reddening in the circum-galactic medium (CGM) indicates a significant abundance of small grains, of which the origin is still to be clarified. We examine a possible path of small-grain production through shattering of pre-existing large grains in the CGM. Possible sites where shattering occurs on a reasonable time-scale are cool clumps with hydrogen number density $n_\mathrm{H}\sim 0.1$ cm$^{-3}$ and gas temperature $T_\mathrm{gas}\sim 10^4$ K, which are shown to exist through observations of Mg II absorbers. We calculate the evolution of grain size distribution in physical conditions appropriate for cool clumps in the CGM, starting from a large-grain-dominated distribution suggested from theoretical studies. With an appropriate gas turbulence model expected from the physical condition of cold clumps (maximum eddy size and velocity of $\sim$100 pc and 10 km s$^{-1}$, respectively), together with the above gas density and temperature and the dust-to-gas mass ratio inferred from observations (0.006), we find that small-grain production occurs on a time-scale (a few $\times 10^8$ yr) comparable to the lifetime of cool clumps derived in the literature. Thus, the physical conditions of the cool clouds are favrourable for small-grain production. We also confirm that the reddening becomes significant on the above time-scale. Therefore, we conclude that small-grain production by shattering is a probable cause for the observed reddening in the CGM. We also mention the effect of grain materials (or their mixtures) on the reddening at different redshifts (1 and 2)., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

This paper investigates the reduction of scattered context grammars with respect to the number of non-context-free productions. It proves that every recursively enumerable language is generated by a scattered context grammar that has no more than one non-context-free production. An open problem is formulated.

We consider the production of hadrons containing two charmed quarks in pp and ee collisions. We perform a numerical comparison of the fragmentation approach with the full calculation at $${{{\mathcal {O}}}}(\alpha _s^4)$$ O ( α s 4 ) . We conclude that the non-fragmentation contributions remain important up to transverse momenta as large as about 40 GeV, thus making questionable the applicability of the fragmentation approximation at smaller transverse momenta.

We study the observability of new interactions which modify Higgs-pair production via vector-boson fusion processes at the LHC and at future proton-proton colliders. In an effective-Lagrangian approach, we explore in particular the effect of the operator $h^2 W_{\mu\nu}^a W^{a,\mu\nu}$, which describes the interaction of the Higgs boson with transverse vector-boson polarization modes. By tagging highly boosted Higgs bosons in the final state, we determine projected bounds for the coefficient of this operator at the LHC and at a future 27 TeV or 100 TeV collider. Taking into account unitarity constraints, we estimate the new-physics discovery potential of Higgs pair production in this channel., Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, 14 tables, added references

We study the sensitivity of polarization observables in $$\gamma d\to\pi^{0}d$$ reaction near threshold to the choice of elementary $$\gamma N\to\pi N$$ amplitude and $$NN$$ potential model adapted for the deuteron wave function (DWF). Numerical results for various beam, target, and beam–target polarization observables are presented and systematic uncertainties caused by the use of different elementary operators and DWFs are evaluated. The calculations are based on a $$\gamma d\to\pi^{0}d$$ approach in which realistic models for the elementary pion production amplitude and the DWF are used. We find considerable dependencies of the estimated results for all possible polarization observables on the elementary amplitude. The spin asymmetries $$\Sigma$$ , $$T_{21}^{c}$$ , $$T_{10}^{l}$$ , and $$T_{20}^{l}$$ show large sensitivities to the DWF. In contrast, the asymmetries $$T_{11}$$ , $$T_{2M}$$ ( $$M=0,1,2$$ ), $$T_{10}^{c}$$ , and $$E$$ as well as the helicity difference $$d(\sigma^{P}-\sigma^{A})/d\Omega$$ have slight dependence on the DWF only at photon energies very close to $$\pi$$ -threshold. The unpolarized differential cross section is also predicted and compared with the available experimental data, and a satisfactory agreement is obtained only at forward pion angles. We expect that the results presented here may be useful to interpret the recent measurements from Jefferson Lab, TAPS@ELSA, A2 and GDH@MAMI Collaborations.

The current study examines the production of the Spanish trill by advanced second language (L2) learners using a variationist approach. Findings indicate that learners produced less multiple occlusion trills than native speakers and their variation was not constrained by the same factors as native speakers. Phonetic context conditioned the use of the multiple occlusion variant for native speakers, whereas frequency and speaker sex conditioned this variation for learners, and in the opposite direction of effect as expected from previous native speaker research. Nevertheless, the majority of tokens produced by learners were other variants also produced by native speakers, and when the variation between native and non-native variants was examined, learners’ variation was conditioned not only by frequency, but also phonetic context. Some of the phonetic contexts in which learners produced non-native variants were comparable to those in which native speakers were least likely to produce the multiple occlusion trill, indicating that articulatory constraints governed variation in trill production similarly for both groups. Thus, although L2 learners do not exhibit native-like trill variation, they appear to be developing toward a more native-like norm. These insights provide support for adopting a multifaceted variationist approach to the study of L2 phonological variable structures.

A study is performed of extracting the energy of the virtual pp-state produced in the d + 1H → (p + p) + n reaction. Basic and auxiliary experimental parameters that refer to neutron detection (time resolution, flight base, and time-of-flight window in which neutrons are selected) are optimized to maximize the sensitivity to the production of a quasibound pp-state. Modeling results are compared to experimental data obtained in a test experiment.

This study examines Korean EFL learners’ systematic production of errors and accurate responses. A total of one hundred and one participants (aged between 11 and 13) completed a picture elicitation task designed for the English progressive. The method of Error Analysis was employed to analyze the written production. The findings indicated that Korean learners produced intralingual errors most frequently. The most common errors involved the use of bare verbs without tense and aspectual marking (e.g., Dance, She dance). The next most frequent errors involved the use of be followed by a bare verb (e.g., She is dance). Omission of be alone was rare in the current study (e.g., She dancing). The middle school student group performed better than the elementary group (50% accuracy versus 8.82%). The difference can be attributed to the input frequency and classroom practices. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of English teaching and the necessity of explicit and implicit error corrections and grammatical instructions.

We consider entangled state production utilizing a full optomechanical arrangement, based on which we create entanglement between two far three-level V-type atoms using a quantum repeater protocol. At first, we consider eight identical atoms (1; 2;...; 8), while adjacent pairs (i; i + 1) with i = 1; 3; 5; 7 have been prepared in entangled states and the atoms 1, 8 are the two target atoms. The three-level atoms (1,2,3,4) and (5,6,7,8) distinctly become entangled with the system including optical and mechanical modes by performing the interaction in optomechanical cavities between atoms (2,3) and (6,7), respectively. Then, by operating appropriate measurements, instead of Bell state measurement which is a hard task in practical works, the entangled states of atoms (1,4) and (5,8) are achieved. Next, via interacting atoms (4,5) of the pairs (1,4) and (5,8) and operating proper measurement, the entangled state of target atoms (1,8) is obtained. In the continuation, entropy and success probability of the produced entangled state are then evaluated. It is observed that the time period of entropy is increased by increasing the mechanical frequency and by decreasing optomechanical coupling strength to the field modes. Also, in most cases, the maximum of success probability is increased by decreasing G and via decreasing.

In the present paper, we analyze the role of extracellular tissue (ECT) in signal transfer and information processing in biological neural networks. Our speculative approach, which is based mainly on the facts taken from the literature, is completed by simple original models and quantitative estimates. It is shown that the presence of ECT controls some fundamental parameters of immersed biological neural network, which are traditionally treated as intrinsic to neuron membranes. We then propose that the diffusive transfer of action potential via the nervous fiber together with processes induced in the surrounding ECT, is ultimately controlled, in contrast to the standard paradigm, by the quantum diffusion of $$\hbox {Na}^{{+}}$$ and $$\hbox {K}^{{+}}$$ ions, which minimizes the heat production in nervous tissue. Furthermore the diffusion of polarization wave along the axon membrane excites in surrounding ECT temporal potential distribution, which can bias the synapses and dendrites of all vicinal neurons. We claim that just this, so-called, ephaptic coupling between neighboring neurons, completes the local neural network and in fact is responsible for information processing there. Such an idea is obviously incompatible with current models of neural networks of McCulloch–Pitts’ and Rosenblatt’s type, which assume that the information processing takes place exclusively within the neuron soma, being thus convenient merely for the description of artificial neural networks.

We investigate the transverse polarization of the $\Lambda$ hyperon in the processes $e^+e^-\to\Lambda^\uparrow \pi^\pm X$ and $e^+e^-\to\Lambda^\uparrow K^\pm X$ within the framework of the transverse momentum dependent~(TMD) factorization. The transverse polarization is contributed by the convolution of the transversely polarizing fragmentation function~(PFF) $D_{1T}^\perp$ of the lambda hyperon and the unpolarized fragmentation function $D_1$ of pion/kaon. We adopt the spectator diquark model result for $D_{1T}^{\perp}$ to numerically estimate the transverse polarization in $e^+e^-\to\Lambda^\uparrow h X$ process at the kinematical region of Belle Collaboration. To implement the TMD evolution formalism of the fragmentation functions, we apply two different parametrizations on the nonperturbative Sudakov form factors associated with the fragmentation functions of the $\Lambda$, pion and kaon. It is found that our prediction on the polarization in the $\Lambda \pi^+$ production and $\bar{\Lambda} \pi^-$ is consistent with the recent Belle measurement in size and sign, while the model predictions on the polarizations in $\Lambda\pi^-$ and $\Lambda K^\pm$ productions show strong disagreement with the Belle data. The reason for the discrepancies is discussed and possible approaches to improve the calculation in the future are also discussed., Comment: Title changed

This study investigated the effect of two types of flipped classroom on the Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learnerschr('39') appropriate use of refusals, apologies and requests. The participants of the study included 60 upper-intermediate EFL learners from a language institute in Tehran, Iran. The participants were selected based on convenience sampling in the form of three intact classes. Then, the three classes were randomly assigned to three groups namely, traditional flipping group, debate-oriented flipping group and non-flipping group. The three groups were exposed to 14 treatment sessions. Speech act instruction was offered to the flipping groups through explicit flipped instruction and to the non-flipping group through explicit non-flipped instruction. Moreover, a Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) was administered to the participants to measure their speech act production ability at the pre-treatment and post-treatment, phases of the study. The results revealed that both types of flipped instruction had a significantly positive effect on the EFL learnerschr('39') use of the speech acts (F=10.622, p

Spoken language production involves lexical-semantic access and phonological encoding. A theoretically important question concerns the relative time course of these two cognitive processes. The predominant view has been that semantic and phonological codes are accessed in successive stages. However, recent evidence seems difficult to reconcile with a sequential view but rather suggests that both types of codes are accessed in parallel. Here, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) combined with the ‘blocked cyclic naming paradigm’ in which items overlapped either semantically or phonologically. Behaviourally, both semantic and phonological overlap caused interference relative to unrelated baseline conditions. Crucially, ERP data demonstrated that the semantic and phonological effects emerged at a similar latency (~180 ms after picture onset) and within a similar time window (180-380 ms). These findings suggest that access to phonological information takes place at a relatively early stage during spoken planning, largely in parallel with semantic processing.