2,088 research outputs found
Code choice and code-switching in Swiss-German internet relay chat rooms
No full textIn the German-speaking regions of Switzerland, dialect is spoken by all social groups in most communicative situations, Standard German being used only when prescribed. Swiss dialects rarely appeared in written form before the 1980s, apart from the genre of dialect literature. Due to the growing acceptance of informal writing styles in many European languages, dialect is increasingly employed for written personal communication, in particular in computer-mediated communication (CMC). In Swiss Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms, varieties of German are used side by side as all chatters have a command of both standard and dialectal varieties. Depending on the channel, the proportion of dialectal contributions can be as high as 90 percent. The choice of a particular variety depends on both individual preference and on the predominant variety used within a specific thread. In this paper I take a quantitative approach to language variation in IRC and demonstrate how such an approach can help embed qualitative research on code-switching in CMC
Low-energy contamination of Mo microsource X-ray radiation: analysis and solution of the problem
No full textIn recent years, microsource sealed tubes in combination with multilayer optics have been adopted in many crystallography laboratories for very low power X-ray generation, monochromatization and high-brilliance microfocusing. All these factors allow high-performance experiments on a laboratory scale. However, a fundamental defect of this technology has been discovered, namely a significant contamination of the characteristic radiation by low-energy photons. Some simple experiments are reported, showing that the contamination can significantly reduce the accuracy of the measured intensities, especially when Mo K radiation is used. A simple and economic solution to the problem is proposed: an aluminium filter approximately 100 m thick, which efficiently removes the low-energy contaminant photons. © 2011 International Union of Crystallography Printed in Singapore-all rights reserved
Applications of a portable capillary electrophoresis instrument in environmental science
No full textCapillary electrophoresis (CE) is a widely-used separation technique for the analysis of
ionic species. It has crucial advantages due to high efficiencies given that small
differences in ion mobility are often sufficient for the resolution. The key features of the
CE instrument such as portability, rapidity of analysis and the need for only a small
sample volume offer the potential to facilitate future work of environmental scientists.
This thesis presents new applications of a portable CE instrument in the environment,
including the associated sampling techniques and measurement protocols.
(i) A new method for the extraction and analysis of lake sediment pore water was
developed. The extraction of the pore water from the sediment core was performed with
filter tube samplers. Samples were immediately injected and measured by CE. All major
cations and anions could be separated at once including the redox sensitive Fe(II)
without any sample pretreatment. Along with fast injection, this prevents samples from
alterations and contaminations. Sample volumes of only 20 μL allowed a high spatial
resolution of the pore water profile, even with low water content.
(ii) In a next step, the new method was applied in the field at Lake Baikal. The CE
instrument was thus carried by cabin luggage in the plane and assembled in improvised
laboratory containers at the shore of the lake. The pore water analysis was performed
immediately after coring. High-quality data enabled the explanation of the formation
and transformation of very special iron (III) and manganese (IV) oxide layers, which are
buried in the reducing part of the sediment. The analysis of Fe (II) and Mn (II) allowed
the determination of sharp redox boundaries. Overall, the high-quality data from on-site
measurement eliminated doubts concerning artefacts from previous measurements when
core squeezing and sample pretreatment had to be practiced.
(iii) Besides the analysis of pore water, another challenging field in environmental
science involves the surface analysis of rocks and biofilm. Thereby, surface processes
are studied in terms of weathering, initial soil formation, as well as growth and vitality
of microorganism. We developed a new method for the quantification of mobile ions
and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) on surfaces. For the collection of available ions and
ATP, a single drop of pure water was spread on the surface of the mineral or lichen and
recollected for the analysis by CE and a luminometer, respectively. The heterogeneity of
granites and the effect of wetting and freezing and thawing was shown on bare rock
surfaces. On lichen, the effect of humidity and age on their vitality was demonstrated
The role of beat gesture and pitch accent in semantic processing: An ERP study
No full textThe present study investigated whether and how beat gesture (small baton-like hand movements used to emphasize information in speech) influences semantic processing as well as its interaction with pitch accent during speech comprehension. Event-related potentials were recorded as participants watched videos of a person gesturing and speaking simultaneously. The critical words in the spoken sentences were accompanied by a beat gesture, a control hand movement, or no hand movement, and were expressed either with or without pitch accent. We found that both beat gesture and control hand movement induced smaller negativities in the N400 time window than when no hand movement was presented. The reduced N400s indicate that both beat gesture and control movement facilitated the semantic integration of the critical word into the sentence context. In addition, the words accompanied by beat gesture elicited smaller negativities in the N400 time window than those accompanied by control hand movement over right posterior electrodes, suggesting that beat gesture has a unique role for enhancing semantic processing during speech comprehension. Finally, no interaction was observed between beat gesture and pitch accent, indicating that they affect semantic processing independently. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Smoothness perception : investigation of beat rate effect on frame rate perception
No full textDespite the complexity of the Human Visual System (HVS), research over the last few decades has highlighted a number of its limitations. These limitations can be exploited in computer graphics to significantly reduce computational cost and thus required rendering time, without a viewer perceiving any difference in resultant image quality. Furthermore, cross-modal interaction between different modalities, such as the influence of audio on visual perception, has also been shown as significant both in psychology and computer graphics. In this paper we investigate the effect of beat rate on temporal visual perception, i.e. frame rate perception. For the visual quality and perception evaluation, a series of psychophysical experiments was conducted and the data analysed. The results indicate that beat rates in some cases do affect temporal visual perception and that certain beat rates can be used in order to reduce the amount of rendering required to achieve a perceptual high quality. This is another step towards a comprehensive understanding of auditory-visual cross-modal interaction and could be potentially used in high-fidelity interactive multi-sensory virtual environments
the beat report piece detailing author Sam Pfeifle\u27s wishes for local music fo
No full textthe beat report piece detailing author Sam Pfeifle\u27s wishes for local music for 2004, mentioning radio stations WCYY and WCLZ, local band 6gig, and the Musicians Resource League
The Devil's altar? : crime and the early modern public house
No full textWas the early modern public house really such a dangerous place, as Puritan preachers (and many historians) suggested? This article discusses offences by publicans and patrons. It argues that the evidence for crime needs to be carefully contextualised and that taverns could stabilise as well as threaten the social order
Designing a sustainability strategy for BEAT Cycling Clubs Professional Team
No full textThough cycling as a transportation method is widely seen as a sustainable method, professional cycling and racing are not. Though the first calls for sustainable action are made and the first efforts start to appear, not much has changed yet in the complex world of professional cycling.This report describes the design of a sustainability strategy and plan for BEAT Cycling Club, a continental cycling team. As an innovative organisation that was founded to break through the status quo in professional cycling the sustainability journey fits BEAT. As one of the first teams taking sustainability seriously, the strategy helps BEAT to increase the quality of their sustainability actions beyond the ‘low-hanging fruits’ they have been tackling already.The difficulty of starting a sustainability project is tackled by using the systemic design framework of the Design Council (2021) to guide innovation with a complex system like sustainability. The internal feeling of responsibility for sustainability of BEAT Cycling Club can be tackled by designing a strategy through a continuously diverging and converging process.To help understand the sustainability context for BEAT Cycling Club and to guide the direction of the strategy, a (fast-track) life-cycle analysis is conducted. The results of this analysis are a set of emission hotspots: the actions and areas where most of BEAT’s emissions and environmental impact occur. These hotspots are used to further shape a strategy to tackle them.This strategy is built through the design roadmapping methodology, resulting in a strategic and tactical roadmap. These are based on three horizons in which the role for BEAT in sustainability changes. These roadmaps are substantiated with a playbook that guides BEAT through the strategy and provides more detailed information about the steps that need to be taken. The playbook and roadmaps are not only strategic assets but are also important for BEAT to communicate their strategy with partners and other stakeholders.Strategic Product Desig
Cop beat piece on the police beat as a career field. With references to inc
No full textCop beat piece on the police beat as a career field. With references to incidents covered by the author during her career. Also with a summary of the Portland police blotter for the period May 5-11
Global timing: A conceptual framework to investigate the neural basis of rhythm perception in humans and non-human species
No full textTiming cues are inarguably an essential feature of music. To understand how the brain gives rise to our experience of music we must appreciate how acoustical temporal patterns are integrated over the range of several seconds in order to extract global timing. In music perception, global timing comprises three distinct but often interacting percepts: temporal grouping, beat, and tempo. What directions may we take to further elucidate where and how the global timing of music is processed in the brain? The present review addresses this question and describes our current understanding of the neural basis of global timing perception. <br/
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