Merging Position Research Articles

Applied arguments in Spanish inchoative middle constructions

Despite displaying identical exponents (a reflexive clitic, imperfective tenses and agreement between the verb and the preverbal definite DP theme), change-of-state predicates in generic/middle contexts (inchoative middles, henceforth), can in fact have two different underlying representations: (i) a generic inchoative and (ii) a generic se-passive, this being the only one projecting a Voice head passivized by the reflexive clitic, which denotes an implicit generic external argument. Spanish allows the insertion of an affected applicative head in inchoative configurations (Cuervo 2003), which introduces an unselected dative argument interpreted either as an unintentional causer of the event if merged above the verbalizing head, or as affectee if merged below it. Crucially, this paper shows that the generic passive configuration disallows the applicative’s unintentional causer interpretation, since the position above vP is already filled by Voice; therefore, the only available merging position for the applicative is below vP. However, the unintentional causer interpretation is possible in generic inchoative constructions, which lack a VoiceP. The data and analysis presented here support Wood and Marantz’s (2017) proposal of a single argument-introducing head whose category and interpretation vary in terms of the syntactic context it is merged in. Finally, this study stresses the need to establish a more detailed classification of Spanish se-constructions as a whole and middles in particular with respect to their interaction with applied arguments.

Effect of operational attributes on lateral merging position characteristics at mid-block median opening

ABSTRACT The paper proposes a parameter named as lateral merging position (LMP) to understand the placement characterises of U-turning vehicle at mid-block median opening (MBMO) in divided urban roads (DiUR). In this regard, videography data were collected from 14 MBMOs. The LMP was estimated for different categories of U-turning vehicles and the statistical distributions to describe the LMP in 6-lane and 4-lane DiUR has been proposed, separately. Furthermore, the effect of various operational attributes, namely; traffic condition, driver characteristics and vehicle characteristics on LMP are explored. Subsequently, mathematical models have been developed using regression analysis to estimate the LMP for different categories of vehicle with varying operational attributes. The developed models will not only be beneficial for better estimation of conflicting traffic volume but will also be helpful to propose geometrical augmentation at MBMO to reduce traffic congestion and to enhance quality of traffic operation and safety at MBMO.

Assistance Method for Merging by Increasing Clarity of Decision Making

Merging into the flow of high-speed traffic on roadways, such as expressways, is a demanding driving task for non-expert drivers. The difficulty of merging is thought to arise from the difficulty of judging the location where the drivers should merge. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model of driver decision-making that can predict the location where the driver will merge. In addition, we demonstrate that the entropy of the judgment introduced based on the proposed model has the ability to describe the differences in skills of judgment in merging position as well as the difficulty of decision-making in a given situation. Furthermore, we propose a driver assistance method to decrease the difficulty of decision-making with respect to the merging position during the preparation phase based on the proposed decision-making model when the difficulty is judged as being higher than a given threshold. The proposed method recommends acceleration or deceleration to increase the clarity of judgment. Driving simulator experiments demonstrate that the proposed method reduces the difficulty of decision-making for merging and increases the ease of judgment at the early stages of merging preparation. In addition, the proposed method decreases mental demand without leading to an increase in the overall workload, that is, the weighted workload of NASA-TLX.

Agreement and Interference in Direct Object Clitic Production in Italian Monolingual Children

Italian speaking children optionally omit third singular direct object clitics (3DO) until at least age four years. In a set of two studies, we investigated whether omissions and errors depend on intervention phenomena. We discussed a model of syntactic intervention in which the subject of a sentence intervenes when the clitic moves from its initial merging position to a higher position above the subject. We argued that omissions and errors arise when retrieving from memory the clitic to achieve an agreement operation in a context of syntactic intervention. We argued that working memory limitations impact on the clitic retrieving operation cued by lexical and representational features. In Study 1, we elicited the production of 3DO clitics in sentences with a full lexical subject. The 3rd singular subject and the 3DO clitic were matched or not in gender. Results of Study 1 showed that when there is a gender mismatch between the subject and the clitic children with limited memory resources optionally make clitic gender errors or even replace the 3DO clitic with a postverbal full DP. We explained these results in an intervention model in which the external verb lexical argument (the lexical subject) is erroneously retrieved for achieving the agreement operation involving the movement of the clitic to its surface position. In Study 2 we investigated whether the problems found in Study 1 depend on phonological priming or structural intervention. We elicited the production of 3DO clitics in sentences with a null subject. in conditions of gender matching and mismatching. Results showed that in sentences with a gender mismatch children with limited memory resourches tend to produce a clitic with the incorrect gender or to optionally replace it with a full lexical postverbal DP. This suggests that a null subject intervenes in the same way a lexical subject does. Overall results indicate that the interference errors are not dependent on phonological attraction but have a structural nature and are modulated by short-term memory resources.

Exploring the Effects of Traffic Density on Merging Behavior

In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of merging behavior on the freeway under different traffic densities has been conducted. First, the influence of traffic density on merging parameters (namely merging position, merging speed, merging duration, and accepted gap) was analyzed by mathematical statistics, Mann-Whitney-U Test, and distribution fitting. It was found that the merging position, merging speed, merging duration, and accepted gap are all significantly influenced by traffic density and the best-fitted distributions of merging parameters could be different under different traffic densities. Then, to incorporate the dynamic effects of traffic density on merging behavior, a cell-based traffic density was introduced in this paper and logistic regression was used to model the gap selection behavior. The results showed that traffic density has a significant influence on gap selection behavior during the merging process. The effects of traffic density in logistic regression showed that merging drivers tend to choose a location with lower traffic density during the gap selection process. Moreover, introducing the cell-based traffic density can also improve the predictive accuracy of the logistic regression model.

Modeling Vehicle Merging Position Selection Behaviors Based on a Finite Mixture of Linear Regression Models

Vehicle merging is a complex and tactical decision process. Merging position selection behavior has been largely ignored in microscopic traffic simulators. Driver heterogeneity has received substantial attention in recent years; however, few studies have focused on the heterogeneity in merging behaviors. To account for the heterogeneity among merging drivers during the merging process and to improve the accuracy of the merging model, a finite mixture of linear regression models was developed for describing the merging position selection model. BIC was used to determine the optimal number of classes, and Latent Gold 5.0 was used to estimate parameters. Based on the US101 data in the NGSIM project, which were provided by FHWA, a 3-class linear regression model was developed. The results demonstrate that the variables differ across the classes, and the sign of each variable may also differ among the classes; hence, the strategies that are used by drivers for merging position selection differ across the classes. Cooperative lane changing of the putative leading vehicle was found to have significant influence on the merging position selection behavior; thus, merging behavior is a two-dimensional behavior that may be influenced by both lateral and longitudinal factors. Compared with previous studies, the proposed model can naturally identify the heterogeneity among drivers and is much more accurate; therefore, the proposed model is a promising tool for microscopic traffic simulation and automatic driving systems or driver assistance systems.

Duplicity in possessive merger: evidence from Spanish alienable possessive constructions

AbstractIn this paper, I argue that Spanish prenominal and postnominal possessives target different external merge positions focusing on alienable possessive constructions. The analysis is developed alongside a proposal on the organization of DPs, according to which articles are merged as a DP-internal category between the domains assigned to direct and indirect modifiers. Prenominal possessives are determiners reanalyzed from direct modification adjectives whereas postnominal possessives are indirect modification adjectives that arise as predicates of reduced relative clauses. This analysis provides a principled explanation on the behavior of Spanish possessives that is lacking in the generalized idea that they are pronouns with a unique merge position. Arguments are also presented showing that syntax-driven phonological restrictions condition the derivation of DPs. The account successfully derives the core properties of word order variation and related issues within possessive constructions.

Movement and structure effects on Universal 20 word order frequencies: A quantitative study

In this paper, we illustrate a novel method to translate a derivational explanation of Universal 20 into vectorial representations. We exploit this vectorial representation to answer a number of theoretical questions. First, we use linear regression to automatically rank the costs of different syntactic movements within this proposal and investigate some proposals on partial and complete movement. This investigation of movement suggests that the nature of the movement is important, while the importance of harmonic specification of functional categories, i.e. whether the movement is partial or complete, is more context-dependent. We then evaluate whether the base order dem num adj n is the best predictor of the typological facts. We compare different syntactic proposals on the position of numerals in the noun phrase. We find that a merge position of numerals higher than adjectives has better results in both methods. We also show, using this method, that the independently motivated low merge position for numerals can only be semantically motivated, which results in intra-linguistic variation, and is not a parametric choice.

Development of secondary flow field under rotating condition in a straight channel with square cross-section

The developing secondary flow fields in the entrance section of a rotating straight channel were experimentally investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The effects of streamwise position, Reynolds number and rotation number on the development of the secondary flow fields were revealed. The results show that the absolute values of vorticity flux of the trailing side roll cells increase with increasing radius of the measured plane and rotation number. When the absolute value of vorticity flux exceeds a critical value, the merging of the trailing side roll cells appears. Moreover, when the number of the trailing side vortex pairs is even, the absolute values of vorticity flux of the leading side vortices increase along streamwise direction. Otherwise, the absolute values decrease along the streamwise direction. By the circulation analysis, this phenomenon was found to have relationship with the merging of the trailing side roll cells, and further concluded that the secondary flow field in a rotating channel has to be treated as a whole. At last, the increase of the Reynolds number was found to be able to induce the merging position moves upstream.

Characterizing Heterogeneity in Drivers’ Merging Maneuvers Using Two-Step Cluster Analysis

In order to investigate the heterogeneity in merging behaviors on freeways, a novel data mining tool, called two-step cluster analysis, is applied to the merging maneuvers (namely, initial speed, merging speed, and merging position). Merging maneuvers of 370 drivers collected from the NGSIM dataset are automatically and optimally segmented into four clusters (Early Merging Drivers at High Speed, Early Merging Drivers at Low Speed, Late Merging Drivers at Low Speed, and Late Merging Drivers at High Speed) by the two-step cluster analysis. Hypothesis test confirms the significant differences in merging maneuvers between different clusters. The clustered data are used to find the best corresponding fitting distributions. Seven distributions (Normal, Log-normal, Student’s t, Logistic, Log-Logistic, Gamma, and Weibull) are considered for each cluster and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statics are used to select the best fitted distributions. It is found that merging drivers may merge either early or late, under congestion or uncongested traffic condition. Further analysis of merging durations shows that Late Merging Drivers use significantly shorter time than Early Merging Drivers to finish the merging maneuver, no matter if they are at high or at low speed. Hypothesis test of accepted lead gaps and lag gaps indicate that merging drivers are more sensitive to the lag gaps under congestion. The proposed method can automatically identify the heterogeneity in merging drivers and the results obtained in this paper can be used to enhance the accuracy of the merge behavior models in microscopic simulation software.

Merging Preparation Behavior of Drivers: How They Choose and Approach Their Merge Positions at a Congested Weaving Area

Vehicle merging is a tactical process. In the existing merging models, drivers need to select a target gap and adjust their speed to reach a comfortable merge position to execute lane changing. However, such sequential premerging preparation process has not yet been well-captured on the basis of the field trajectory data. In this study, the authors will focus on analyzing the lane-changing behavior as drivers choose and approach their merge positions at congested merging areas. This study is based on noise-filtered computer-based trajectory data. The authors classify the observed merging vehicles in a congested weaving section into original-gap-targeting (OGT) and forward-gap-targeting (FGT) vehicles. The analysis of the merge-position selection indicates different selection behavior between OGT and FGT merging vehicles. The length of target gap, the speed, and the route plan of vehicles surrounding the merging vehicles have an influence on their merge-position selection. To investigate merge tactics of merging vehicles, their speed synchronization and acceleration behaviors when approaching their merge positions were analyzed. The results illustrate that the acceleration and deceleration behaviors of the FGT merging vehicles in the approaching process should be split into two distinct stages: acceleration to overtake the rejected gap and deceleration to execute speed synchronization. The findings from this study shed light on the complex lane-changing process at merging areas.

Prevalence of Root Fusions and Main Root Canal Merging in Human Upper and Lower Molars: A Cone-beam Computed Tomography In Vivo Study

IntroductionComplex root canal systems appear regularly on fused roots. The aim of this observational study was to evaluate the prevalence of fused roots and root canal merging in the first and second upper and lower permanent molars by using cone-beam computed tomography technology. MethodsA large sample of cone-beam computed tomography examinations was accessed. Maxillary and mandibular molars were classified according to number of roots, root fusions, types of root canal system configurations, merging positions, and merging levels. The Z test for proportions was used to analyze the differences in independent groups. A value of P < .05 was considered significant. ResultsThis study included 4120 molars. The prevalence of root fusions was 7.1% and 25.2% for the first and second upper molars, respectively; for the first and second lower molars, the prevalence was 0.7% and 12.6%, respectively. In addition, 8.6% and 10.1% of the second upper and lower molars, respectively, had fused roots with canal merging; moreover, 7.1% and 2.1% of the second upper and lower molars had single or 2 non-merging root canals, respectively. The most usual merging position for the first upper molars is between the distobuccal root and palatal root canals; for the second upper molars, the most usual merging position is between the mesiobuccal root and distobuccal root canals. Merging appears more commonly at the apical level. Significant differences were found between the teeth and gender groups. ConclusionsWhen approaching the second upper and lower molars, the clinician should be aware of uncommon morphologies. In our sample, 15.7% and 12.2% of the second upper and lower molars, respectively, had fused roots, which did not present the usual configurations with independent root canals.

A new approach for image stitching technique using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm towards scoliosis X-ray diagnosis

Consider a set of images of a single object, or scenery, taken from different viewpoints and time. Panorama image creation is the process of stitching such images into a single coordinate system to generate a wider viewing panoramic image. Image stitching consists of two processes which are image registration and image blending. In image registration, parts of two overlapping or consecutive images are considered to find an appropriate merging position and transformation to combine the images. In image blending, the intensities of pixels along the stitching line are modified so that they flow naturally without any noticeable break. In this paper, we propose a novel method that utilizes the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm to match pairs of images for image stitching. We also perform a dimension reduction scheme that significantly reduces the computational complexity of the standard DTW without affecting its performance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated in stitching 50 pairs of medical X-ray images and its performance is compared to those of normalized cross correlation (NCC), Minimum Average Correlation Energy (MACE) filters, sum-of-square-differences (SSD) and sum-of-absolute-differences (SAD). For the database used, the dimensionally reduced DTW outperforms the NCC, MACE, SSD and SAD methods in accuracy and average execution time. The method also outperforms two widely used stitching programs available on the internet called Hugin and Autostitch.

A Study of Collision Risk Estimation and Users Evaluation at Merging Section of Urban Expressway in Japan

For usability of urban expressway in Japan, there are some problems due to the limitation of spatial con-straint. As the result of the limitation, there are merging sections that do not have enough length and set a right-side entrance ramp which is connected to the passing lane, directly. Therefore, unfamiliar drivers such as female and/or elderly drivers are subjected to stress and aware of danger when they merge onto the expressway and it is necessary to measure these situations quantitatively from the viewpoints of both traffic conflict risk and users evaluation. The purpose of this study is to estimate collision risk by using Surrogate Safety Measure and evaluate Quality of Service for drivers at merging sections of urban expressway in Japan. We focused on each ve-hicle merging movements and traffic conflicts at three on-ramps, which has different geometries, by im-age processing technology. First, in order to elucidate the occurrences of collision risk in merging section, we analyzed the collision risk between a merging vehicle and a main lane vehicle by using the Possibility Index for Collision with Urgent Deceleration (PICUD) index. It is shown that the position of conflicts is affected by the amount of traffic volume. Second, we conducted discriminant analyses for the results of the PICUD estimation in order to reveal the influence factors of collision risk at each merging section. As the result of discriminant analyses, it is found that the percentage of merging position and traffic volume of main lane have a huge effect on collision risk for merging movement. In addition, both the percentage of heavy vehicles and the existence of other merging vehicle at a time trigger rear-end collision risk. Fur-thermore, we examined some countermeasures to reduce collision risk in objective merging sections by sensitivity analysis and proposed a Level of Service index which is based on the rank of rear-end collision risk considering users’ subjective evaluation.

APIE KAI KURIAS LIETUVIŲ KALBOS VEIKSMAŽODŽIŲ PRIEŠDĖLIŲ YPATYBES

Šiame straipsnyje lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžio priešdėliai tirti remiantis Peterio Svenonio meto­dologija. Lietuvių kalbos priešdėliai pasižymi tuo, kad juose sangrąžos dalelytė -si- juda iš veiksma­žodžio galo į poziciją tarp priešdėlio ir veiksmažodžio, tačiau tokia sangrąžos vieta bei priežastys, kodėl sangrąža nekyla virš tam tikros ribos sintaksiniame medyje, lieka neaiškios.Straipsnyje pirmiausia atskleidžiamas frazinis visų lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžio priešdėlių statusas. Toliau, taikant Svenonio kriterijus, priešdėliai suskirstomi į dvi grupes: leksinius ir super­leksinius priešdėlius. Leksiniai priešdėliai kilo iš prielinksnių: jie gali suteikti tiek tiesioginę, tiek perkeltinę reikšmę. Superleksiniai priešdėliai kilo iš dalelyčių: jie gali eiti prieš leksinius priešdėlius sintaksiniame medyje, o jų perteikiama reikšmė nebūna perkeltinė. Remiantis Aleco Marantzo (1988) idiomos konstravimo principu, parodoma, kad sintaksiniame medyje leksiniai priešdėliai atsiran­da (angl. merge) po veiksmažodžio, tačiau juda į poziciją prieš veiksmažodį, kad įgautų rezultato reikšmę, o superleksiniai priešdėliai atsiranda prieš veiksmažodį. Skirtinga priešdėlių atsiradimo vieta paaiškina sangrąžos vietą veiksmažodžio struktūroje: sangrąža visuomet lieka veiksmažodžio komplekso viduje kaip fizinis veiksnio pėdsakas (angl. trace).

Order in the DP! On word order and the structure of the DP

Novel observations show Cinque’s (2005) phrasal movement proposal makes correct predictions on the grammaticality of word orders in Lebanese Arabic noun phrases. Adding an adjective yields grammatical orders Cinque (2005) cannot derive. We show that assuming an additional merge position—either for demonstratives or for numerals—derives the orders without losing Cinque’s typological predictions, and we present evidence favoring an additional &lt;em&gt;numeral&lt;/em&gt; position.

Stativity and present tense epistemics

&lt;div class="page" title="Page 1"&gt;&lt;div class="layoutArea"&gt;&lt;div class="column"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Some modals are ambiguous between epistemic and circumstantial interpretations, but allow epistemic readings only when they combine with stative verb phrases. For other modals, the epistemic reading is not so constrained. I propose a theory of modal semantics that is sensitive to height of merge position and by extension the properties of the situational description that the modal combines with. To capture the pattern, modals are argued to have two important dimensions of meaning: (i) they will describe a topic situation asserted to be either an exhaustive or non-exhaustive choice over live situational alternatives; (ii) they will either anchor that topic situation indexically, or anaphorically. Modal meaning can then systematically interact with situational descriptions to build different interpretations while keeping the underlying semantics of the modal the same. Epistemic readings emerge when a modal attaches above the height at which temporal parameters of the situation are bound, circumstantials attach below the temporal specification. State-constrained epistemic modals are those that have indexical anchoring properties. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Aerodynamic Interference Caused by the Inboard Leading-Edge Flap on the Outboard Area of the Cranked Arrow Wing

Wind tunnel tests were conducted on a cranked arrow wing model to reveal the relationship between the inboard leading edge flaps and vortex behavior formed on the outboard wing area. Aerodynamic force measurements and flow visualizations on the upper surface of the wing were made. The pitching moment characteristics indicate that there are two non-linear changes and the flow patterns which caused those changes are observed. The flow patterns indicate that the non-linear changes are caused both by the flow separation on the outside of the inboard vortex and by the one on the outside of the merging position of the inboard and outboard vortices. It was found that the inboard leading edge flap decreases the angle of attack when recovery from the first change occurs. The inboard leading edge flap also causes an increase in the magnitude of the second change.

An Analysis of Merging Maneuvers at Urban Expressway Merging Sections

This study analyzed merging maneuvers namely merging speed and merging position by using video data collected at two merging sections on Nagoya Urban Expressway, Japan. The analysis demonstrated that the longer acceleration lane length is associated with further merging positions. Furthermore, the traffic conditions do not significantly affect the means of merging positions but their variations. The variations of merging positions become significant when the density of mainline is higher. A similar tendency can be observed if acceleration lane length becomes longer. Regarding merging speed, it is found that mainline traffic conditions significantly affect merging speeds. They decrease as traffic conditions become denser. To generalize the results of analysis, a normal distribution was adopted to fit the models of merging position and speed. The results of model estimation and sensitivity analysis indicate that the models give consistent results with the analysis.

Theoretical implications of children's early production of Romanian Accusative clitics

This study examines the acquisition route of object clitics with a view to identifying to what extent language acquisition data can shed light on the old debate with respect to the first Merge position of clitics: in the V-domain or in a higher position in the functional layer of the clause. The analysis of three longitudinal corpora of monolingual Romanian and the results of two elicited production tasks reveal an early stage when Accusative clitics occur exclusively in post-verbal position followed by a stage when the production rate is higher in post-verbal than in pre-verbal position. Building on the assumption that acquisition stages are ‘intermediate’ grammars which represent sub-grammars of the adult system, we argue in favour of a first Merge position of object clitics in the V-domain. In support of this claim the results obtained in a task eliciting the production of 3rd person Accusative clitics as well as the response pattern in a 2nd vs. 3rd person accusative clitic production task reveal an effect on early clitics of feature mismatch between the antecedent of the clitic and the subject of the clause.