Spillover Region Research Articles

SIR epidemics in interconnected networks: threshold curve and phase transition

For simplicity of mathematical modeling of epidemic spreading, the assumption is that hosts have identical rates of disease-causing contacts. However, in the real world, the scenario is different. The network-based framework allows us to capture the complex interdependencies and structural heterogeneity present in real-world systems. We examine two distinct scenarios involving the dynamics of susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) in interconnected networks. In the first part, we show how the epidemic threshold of a contact network changes as a result of being coupled with another network for a fixed infection strength. The model employed in this work considers both the contact networks and interconnections as generic. We have depicted the epidemic threshold curve for interconnected networks, considering the assumption that the infection could be initially present in either one or both of the networks. If the normalized infection strengths are above the threshold curve, the infection spreads, whereas if the normalized infection strengths are below the threshold curve, the disease does not spread. This is true for any level of interconnection. In the second part, we investigate the spillover phenomenon, where the disease in a novel host population network comes from a reservoir network. We have observed a clear phase transition when the number of links or the inter-network infection rate exceeds a certain threshold, keeping all other parameters constant. We observe two regimes for spillover: a major spillover region and a minor spillover region based on interpopulation links (fraction of links between two networks) and inter-network infection strength (infection rate between reservoir and host network). If the interpopulation links and inter-network infection strength are in the major spillover region, the spillover probability is high, while if the former parameters are in the minor spillover region, the spillover probability is low. When the number of infected individuals within a reservoir network is nearly equal, and the inter-network infection strength remains constant, the threshold number of links required to achieve the spillover threshold condition varies based on the network topology. Overall, this work contributes to the understanding of SIR dynamics in interconnected networks and sheds light on the behavior of epidemics in complex systems.

Higher reading spans mitigate context effects on lexical processing by low-proficiency L2 learners: a self-paced reading study

AbstractThis study examines context effects on lexical processing by low-proficiency Japanese learners of English during sentence comprehension, and the role of individual differences in verbal working memory (WM). Thirty Japanese learners of English as a second language (L2) and 27 speakers of English as a first language (L1) were recruited for a self-paced reading task with high and low context sentences to assess lexical processing abilities, and a reading span task to measure WM capacities. Bayesian modeling indicated that, at the group level, L2 learners had slower lexical processing times for low context sentences compared to high context ones, especially in the spillover region, while L1 speakers showed no difference. At the individual level, higher WM capacities among L2 learners appeared to mitigate these context effects, supporting the interactive-compensatory model (Stanovich in Read Res Q, 10.2307/747348, 1980; Remedial Spec Educ 5(3):11–19, 10.1177/074193258400500306, 1984). The findings highlight context effects on L2 lexical processing and the crucial role of WM in managing these effects among L2 learners.

Automatic phonological access among bilinguals with cross-script languages.

This study investigated the hypothesis of nonselective access to phonological representations in an integrated lexicon across logographic and alphabetic writing systems among Chinese L1 (first language)-English L2 (second language) bilinguals. We employed three experiments to test this hypothesis, including a lexical decision task (LDT) and a word naming task in Experiments 1 and 2 using the masked priming paradigm, and a self-paced sentence reading task in Experiment 3. Results from the LDT and the word naming task showed a significant homophone priming effect from L1 to L2, but not from L2 to L1. In the sentence reading task, we compared processing time between homophone error words and control words in the critical and spill-over regions. A slower processing effect in the homophone condition was observed in the spill-over region. Overall, these findings suggest that phonological priming occurs across a logographic and an alphabetic script in different tasks, whether reading isolated words or sentences. Bilingual reading involves an integrated bilingual lexicon that is independent of script similarity.

Effects of world knowledge on the prediction of upcoming verbs: an eye-tracking study

Some theories of sentence processing make a distinction between two kinds of meaning: a linguistic meaning encoded at the lexicon (i.e., selectional restrictions), and an extralinguistic knowledge derived from our everyday experiences (i.e., world knowledge). According to such theories, the former meaning is privileged over the latter in terms of the time-course of its access and influence during on-line language comprehension. The present study aims to examine whether world knowledge anomalies (that do not violate selectional restrictions) are rapidly detected during online sentence processing. In an eye-tracking experiment, we used materials in which the likelihood of a specific verb (entrevistar or secuestrar, the Spanish translations for to interview and to kidnap) depended on the agent of the event (periodista or terrorista, the Spanish translations for journalist and terrorist). The results showed an effect of typicality in regression path duration and total reading times at both the verb region and the spillover region, thus providing evidence that world knowledge is rapidly accessed and used during on-line sentence comprehension.

Contextual Support for Less Salient Homophones and Pun Humor Appreciation: Evidence From Eye Movements in Reading Chinese Homophone Puns.

Punning is an important means of creating humorous effects by intentionally exploiting semantic ambiguity. Previous psycholinguistic research on puns has mainly focused on the process of meaning retrieval in homograph puns, while it is still not entirely clear how readers dynamically utilize contextual information to understand homophone puns. In the current investigation, 68 native Chinese participants were recruited to read three types of experimental sentences while their eye movements were recorded: (1) the homophone-pun sentences where the less salient homophone was visually presented, (2) the homophone-salient sentences where the salient homophone was used, and (3) the homophone-error sentences where the critical context noun in the homophone puns was replaced with an unrelated word. Humor rating results of the homophone puns and the homophone-salient sentences demonstrated that the less salient homophones rather than the salient ones elicited much larger humor responses when presented visually in the same potential pun context. In addition, the reverse fixation pattern in the homophone area and the spill-over region also suggested that meanings of the salient homophones were more recoverable even when not presented visually. Statistical analyses of the homophone puns and the homophone-error sentences showed that the semantic relatedness between the critical context noun and the less salient homophone could significantly predict the humor rating scores of Chinese readers. Taken together, less salient homophones need to receive more contextual support to balance out the advantages of salient homophones before generating a humorous pun interpretation.

Usage-Based Individual Differences in the Probabilistic Processing of Multi-Word Sequences

While it is widely acknowledged that both predictive expectations and retrodictive integration influence language processing, the individual differences that affect these two processes and the best metrics for observing them have yet to be fully described. The present study aims to contribute to the debate by investigating the extent to which experienced-based variables modulate the processing of word pairs (bigrams). Specifically, we investigate how age and reading experience correlate with lexical anticipation and integration, and how this effect can be captured by the metrics of forward and backward transition probability (TP). Participants read more and less strongly associated bigrams, paired to control for known lexical covariates such as bigram frequency and meaning (i.e., absolute control, total control, absolute silence, total silence) in a self-paced reading (SPR) task. They additionally completed assessments of exposure to print text (Author Recognition Test, Shipley vocabulary assessment, Words that Go Together task) and provided their age. Results show that both older age and lesser reading experience individually correlate with stronger TP effects. Moreover, TP effects differ across the spillover region (the two words following the noun in the bigram).

Retrieval (N400) and integration (P600) in expectation-based comprehension.

Expectation-based theories of language processing, such as Surprisal theory, are supported by evidence of anticipation effects in both behavioural and neurophysiological measures. Online measures of language processing, however, are known to be influenced by factors such as lexical association that are distinct from—but often confounded with—expectancy. An open question therefore is whether a specific locus of expectancy related effects can be established in neural and behavioral processing correlates. We address this question in an event-related potential experiment and a self-paced reading experiment that independently cross expectancy and lexical association in a context manipulation design. We find that event-related potentials reveal that the N400 is sensitive to both expectancy and lexical association, while the P600 is modulated only by expectancy. Reading times, in turn, reveal effects of both association and expectancy in the first spillover region, followed by effects of expectancy alone in the second spillover region. These findings are consistent with the Retrieval-Integration account of language comprehension, according to which lexical retrieval (N400) is facilitated for words that are both expected and associated, whereas integration difficulty (P600) will be greater for unexpected words alone. Further, an exploratory analysis suggests that the P600 is not merely sensitive to expectancy violations, but rather, that there is a continuous relation. Taken together, these results suggest that the P600, like reading times, may reflect a meaning-centric notion of Surprisal in language comprehension.

Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context.

Written language comprehension requires readers to integrate incoming information with stored mental knowledge to construct meaning. Literally plausible idiomatic expressions can activate both figurative and literal interpretations, which convey different meanings. Previous research has shown that contexts biasing the figurative or literal interpretation of an idiom can facilitate its processing. Moreover, there is evidence that processing of idiomatic expressions is subject to individual differences in linguistic knowledge and cognitive-linguistic skills. It is therefore conceivable that individuals vary in the extent to which they experience context-induced facilitation in processing idiomatic expressions. To explore the interplay between reader-related variables and contextual facilitation, we conducted a self-paced reading experiment. We recruited participants who had recently completed a battery of 33 behavioural tests measuring individual differences in linguistic knowledge, general cognitive skills and linguistic processing skills. In the present experiment, a subset of these participants read idiomatic expressions that were either presented in isolation or preceded by a figuratively or literally biasing context. We conducted analyses on the reading times of idiom-final nouns and the word thereafter (spill-over region) across the three conditions, including participants’ scores from the individual differences battery. Our results showed no main effect of the preceding context, but substantial variation between readers and variation in contextual facilitation. We encourage interested researchers to exploit the present dataset for follow-up studies on individual differences in idiom processing.

Contextual constraint and lexical competition: Revisiting biased misperception during reading.

In identifying and accessing lexical items while comprehending text, readers must rapidly select a word from visually similar words before integrating it into a sentence. It has been proposed that readers are likely to misperceive a low frequency word as a highly frequent orthographically similar alternative, particularly when the alternative is supported by previous context (Gregg & Inhoff, 2016; Perea & Pollatsek, 1998; Pollatsek, Perea, & Binder, 1999; Slattery, 2009). In such cases, the misperception may not be corrected until the reader encounters incongruent information. However, many of these studies place incongruent text directly after the critical word, confounding whether readers regress backward in text to resolve their misperception or to halt forward text progression in order resolve a lexical level conflict between the word form and its competitor. In 3 eye tracking while reading experiments, we adapted materials from previous studies to include a postcritical spillover region to address this possibility. Two of these experiments were designed to permit an ex-Gaussian analysis of the distribution of first pass reading prior to disambiguating information. The evidence suggests that postlexical competition-inhibition between orthographically similar forms can delay forward movement of the eyes as a competitor is inhibited. The possibility that misperception and postlexical competition-inhibition arise from the same set of mechanisms is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Are New Gender-Neutral Pronouns Difficult to Process in Reading? The Case of Hen in SWEDISH.

Hen is a Swedish gender-neutral pronoun used for non-binary individuals and as a generic singular pronoun form. Hen was added to the Swedish Academy Glossary (SAOL) in 2015, and opponents of hen have argued that gender-neutral pronouns are difficult to process, and therefore should not be used. As of yet, this has not been empirically tested. This pre-registered study used eye-tracking to experimentally test if hen has a processing cost by measuring the process of understanding whom a pronoun refers to (i.e., pronoun resolution). Participants (N = 120) read 48 sentence pairs where the first sentence included a noun referring to a person (e.g., sister, hairdresser, person) and the second included a pronoun referring to the noun. The pronouns were either gendered (she and he) or gender-neutral (hen). The nouns were either neutral (e.g., person, colleague) or gendered, either by lexically referring to gender (e.g., sister, king), or by being associated with stereotypes based on occupational gender segregation (e.g., occupational titles like hairdresser, carpenter). We tested if hen had a greater processing cost than gendered pronouns, and whether the type of noun moderated this effect. The hypotheses were that hen referring to neutral nouns would lead to a smaller processing cost than hen referring to gendered nouns. Furthermore, we hypothesized that hen referring to lexically gendered nouns would lead to larger processing costs than stereotypically gendered role nouns. The processing cost of hen was measured by reading time spent on three regions of the sentence pairs; the pronoun, the spillover region (i.e., the words following the pronoun), and the noun. The only processing cost for hen occurred in the spillover region. The processing cost in this region was greater when hen referred to neutral nouns than when hen referred to a noun associated with gender. In contrast to the hypothesis, the type of gender information associated with the noun did not interact with these effects (i.e., the same reading time for hen following e.g., the queen or carpenter). Altogether, the results do not support that gender-neutral pronouns should be avoided because they are difficult to process.

INTEGRATION OF VERBAL AND CONSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE PROCESSING OF ENGLISH DATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of construction types on Korean-L1 English-L2 learners’ verb–construction integration in online processing by presenting the ditransitive and prepositional dative constructions and manipulating the verb’s association strength within these constructions. Results of a self-paced reading experiment showed that the L2 group spent longer times in the verb–construction integration in the postverbal complement region when processing the ditransitive construction, which is less canonical and highly avoided in the learners’ L1, than when processing the prepositional dative construction, which is more canonical and shares similar structural features with the L1 counterpart. In the following spillover region, L2 learners showed faster reading times as proficiency increased when the verb was strongly associated with the prepositional dative construction. Our findings expand the scope of current models on L2 sentence processing by suggesting that construction types and L2 proficiency may affect the L2 integration of verbal and constructional information.

Efficient Modeling of Barrier Resistance for an Improved Lumped Element Model of GaN-Based MIS-HEMT Gate Stack

A methodology has been proposed to accurately model the gate stack of Gallium Nitride (GaN) based metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs). Small-signal analysis has been performed for the device biased in the spill-over region, where electrons accumulate at the insulator/III-Nitride ’critical’ interface. Accounting for the barrier layer resistance with an accurate model yields a near but inexact match between simulation and measurement. It is found that the border trap admittance and the energy distribution of the interface trap capture cross section ( $\sigma $ ) need to be included in order to achieve a very close one. It is concluded that the interface trap density, extracted using conventional small-signal admittance methods, can be significantly off if these non-ideal effects are not incorporated within the equivalent circuit models of GaN-based MIS-HEMTs.

Sulfur Incorporation at Interface Between Atomic-Layer-Deposited Al2O3 Thin Film and AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure

Surface incorporation at the interface between atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 thin film and AlGaN/GaN heterostructure was studied based on the understanding of charge configuration and electronic band structure through fabrication and numerical simulation. The annealing in H2S ambient at various temperatures prior to deposition of Al2O3 gate insulator incorporated the sulfur. The Al2O3 was formed on the sulfur treated GaN cap/AlGaN barrier/GaN by trimethylaluminum and water-based atomic layer deposition. Thereafter, TiN electrode was sputtered on the Al2O3, which was followed by forming gas annealing. The time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy disclosed that the sulfur located at the interface of Al2O3/GaN cap, of which concentration increased with annealing temperature. Positive charges at the interface of Al2O3/GaN cap induced by sulfur increased the two-dimensional electron gas density and shifted the pinch-off voltage in the negative direction. The diffusion of sulfur in the GaN cap and AlGaN barrier can hamper the electron accumulation under positive gate voltage and shifts the accumulation voltage of the spillover region in the positive direction. Furthermore, the incorporated sulfur suppressed the gate leakage current.

Investigating spillover of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis from a prison: a spatial and molecular epidemiological analysis

BackgroundCongregate settings may serve as institutional amplifiers of tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). We analyze spatial, epidemiological, and pathogen genetic data prospectively collected from neighborhoods surrounding a prison in Lima, Peru, where inmates experience a high risk of MDR-TB, to investigate the risk of spillover into the surrounding community.MethodsUsing hierarchical Bayesian statistical modeling, we address three questions regarding the MDR-TB risk: (i) Does the excess risk observed among prisoners also extend outside the prison? (ii) If so, what is the magnitude, shape, and spatial range of this spillover effect? (iii) Is there evidence of additional transmission across the region?ResultsThe region of spillover risk extends for 5.47 km outside of the prison (95% credible interval: 1.38, 9.63 km). Within this spillover region, we find that nine of the 467 non-inmate patients (35 with MDR-TB) have MDR-TB strains that are genetic matches to strains collected from current inmates with MDR-TB, compared to seven out of 1080 patients (89 with MDR-TB) outside the spillover region (p values: 0.022 and 0.008). We also identify eight spatially aggregated genetic clusters of MDR-TB, four within the spillover region, consistent with local transmission among individuals living close to the prison.ConclusionsWe demonstrate a clear prison spillover effect in this population, which suggests that interventions in the prison may have benefits that extend to the surrounding community.

Encouraging prediction during production facilitates subsequent comprehension: Evidence from interleaved object naming in sentence context and sentence reading.

Many studies have shown that a supportive context facilitates language comprehension. A currently influential view is that language production may support prediction in language comprehension. Experimental evidence for this, however, is relatively sparse. Here we explored whether encouraging prediction in a language production task encourages the use of predictive contexts in an interleaved comprehension task. In Experiment 1a, participants listened to the first part of a sentence and provided the final word by naming aloud a picture. The picture name was predictable or not predictable from the sentence context. Pictures were named faster when they could be predicted than when this was not the case. In Experiment 1b the same sentences, augmented by a final spill-over region, were presented in a self-paced reading task. No difference in reading times for predictive versus non-predictive sentences was found. In Experiment 2, reading and naming trials were intermixed. In the naming task, the advantage for predictable picture names was replicated. More importantly, now reading times for the spill-over region were considerable faster for predictive than for non-predictive sentences. We conjecture that these findings fit best with the notion that prediction in the service of language production encourages the use of predictive contexts in comprehension. Further research is required to identify the exact mechanisms by which production exerts its influence on comprehension.

Modeling small-signal response of GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron mobility transistor gate stack in spill-over regime: Effect of barrier resistance and interface states

We provide theoretical and simulation analysis of the small signal response of SiO2/AlGaN/GaN metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) capacitors from depletion to spill over region, where the AlGaN/SiO2 interface is accumulated with free electrons. A lumped element model of the gate stack, including the response of traps at the III-N/dielectric interface, is proposed and represented in terms of equivalent parallel capacitance, Cp, and conductance, Gp. Cp -voltage and Gp -voltage dependences are modelled taking into account bias dependent AlGaN barrier dynamic resistance Rbr and the effective channel resistance. In particular, in the spill-over region, the drop of Cp with the frequency increase can be explained even without taking into account the response of interface traps, solely by considering the intrinsic response of the gate stack (i.e., no trap effects) and the decrease of Rbr with the applied forward bias. Furthermore, we show the limitations of the conductance method for the evaluation of the density of interface traps, Dit, from the Gp/ω vs. angular frequency ω curves. A peak in Gp/ω vs. ω occurs even without traps, merely due to the intrinsic frequency response of gate stack. Moreover, the amplitude of the Gp/ω vs. ω peak saturates at high Dit, which can lead to underestimation of Dit. Understanding the complex interplay between the intrinsic gate stack response and the effect of interface traps is relevant for the development of normally on and normally off MIS high electron mobility transistors with stable threshold voltage.

Competition between orthographically and phonologically similar words during sentence reading: Evidence from eye movements

Abstract Two eye movement experiments tested the effect of orthographic and/or phonological overlap between prime and target words embedded in a sentence. In Experiment 1, four types of overlap were tested: phonological and orthographic overlap (O+P+) occurring word initially (strain–strait) or word finally (wings–kings), orthographic overlap alone (O+P−, bear–gear) and phonological overlap alone (O−P+, smile–aisle). Only O+P+ overlap resulted in inhibition, with the rhyming condition showing an immediate inhibition effect on the target word and the non-rhyming condition on the spillover region. No priming effects were found on any eye movement measure for the O+P− or the O−P+ conditions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the size of this inhibition effect is affected by both the distance between the prime and target words and by syntactic structure. Inhibition was again observed when primes and targets appeared close together (approximately 3 words). In contrast, no inhibition was observed when the separation was nine words on average, with the prime and target either appearing in the same sentence or separated by a sentence break. However, when the target was delayed but still in the same sentence, the size of the inhibitory effect was affected by the participants’ level of reading comprehension. Skilled comprehenders were more negatively impacted by related primes than less skilled comprehenders. This suggests that good readers keep lexical representations active across larger chunks of text, and that they discard this activation at the end of the sentence. This pattern of results is difficult to accommodate in existing competition or episodic memory models of priming.

Cataphora processing in agrammatic aphasia: Eye movement evidence for integration deficits

Cataphora processing in agrammatic aphasia: Eye movement evidence for integration deficits

Syntactic Prediction in Sentence Reading: Evidence from Eye Movements

The current study was conducted to examine syntactic prediction and structural representation of Chinese coordinate structure during the process of Chinese sentence comprehension. We recorded the eye movements of each participant by using SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) iView Hi-Speed system while they were seated in front of a monitor (resolution of 1024 × 768 pixel). Sixty native speakers of Chinese were recruited, and were paid for their participation. All of them were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese who had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. The experiment materials were composed by 24 critical sentences and other 60 filler sentences. A 2 × 2 factorial design was adopted, with syntactic prediction and temporal ambiguity as within-participant variables. The results from four reading time measures, including the first fixation duration, first pass reading time, go-past time as well as the percent regressions, showed that syntactic prediction could facilitate the processing of Chinese coordinate sentence with local ambiguity. For both types of ambiguous sentences, the occurrence of the word "either" could greatly reduced the time of first fixation duration, first pass reading, go-past, and percent regressions on the critical region and the spillover region, although there was no significant influence of syntactic prediction on the NP region. As revealed by the statistic analysis, there was a significant interaction between these two experimental variables. Moreover, the manipulation of temporal ambiguity was also significant when syntactic prediction was unavailable but not when syntactic processing could be successfully predicted. In contrast with the results of previous English studies, the present study demonstrates that syntactic prediction can facilitate Chinese sentence comprehension and help people deal with ambiguous syntactic constituents. Therefore, in our study, when readers met the sentences with syntactic prediction, they would adopt the sentence-coordination analysis. However, if the sentences were not predicated, they would prefer the NP-coordination analysis and treated the second NP as part of the direct object rather than as the subject of a clause.

Hybridization of impurity states with the Shockley surface band versus bulk states

The characteristics of the Shockley surface states on $\mathrm{Cu}(111)$ in the presence of $\mathrm{Co}$ impurity adsorbates are studied by means of one electron calculation performed using a well parametrized Hamiltonian in a local basis. Local densities of states in the spillover region as well as the relative hybridization strengths of $\mathrm{Co}$ ``$d$'' orbitals with bulk and surface states are obtained. We show that $\mathrm{Co}$ $3d$ orbitals hybridize mostly with $\mathrm{Cu}$ bulk conduction states, thus giving ground to recent experimental results [N. Knorr, M. A. Schneider, L. Diekhoner, P. Wahl, and K. Kern, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 096804 (2002)] in the sense that the observed Kondo resonances are being dominated by $\mathrm{Cu}$ bulk electrons.