Knowing the sentence structures (i.e., information that guides the assembly of words into sentences) is crucial in language knowledge. This knowledge must be stable for successful communication, but when learning another language that uses different structures, speakers must adjust their structural knowledge. Here, we examine how newly acquired second language (L2) knowledge influences first language (L1) structure knowledge. We compared two groups of Korean speakers: Korean-immersed speakers living in Korea (with little English exposure) versus English-immersed speakers who acquired English late and were living in the US (with more English exposure). We used acceptability judgment and sentence production tasks on Korean sentences in English and Korean word orders. Results suggest that acceptability and structural usage in L1 change after exposure to L2, but not in a way that matches L2 structures. Instead, L2 exposure might lead to increased difficulties in the selection and retrieval of word orders while using L1.

Information about glacier volume and ice thickness distribution is essential for many glaciological applications, but direct measurements of ice thickness can be difficult and costly. We present a new method that calculates ice thickness via an estimate of ice flux. We solve the familiar continuity equation between adjacent flowlines, which decreases the computational time required compared to a solution on the whole grid. We test the method on Columbia Glacier, a large tidewater glacier in Alaska, USA, and compare calculated and measured ice thicknesses, with favorable results. This shows the potential of this method for estimating ice thickness distribution of glaciers for which only surface data are available. We find that both the mean thickness and volume of Columbia Glacier were approximately halved over the period 1957–2007, from 281 m to 143 m, and from 294 km3 to 134 km3, respectively. Using bedrock slope and considering how waves of thickness change propagate through the glacier, we conduct a brief analysis of the instability of Columbia Glacier, which leads us to conclude that the rapid portion of the retreat may be nearing an end.

Complex oxides and semiconductors exhibit distinct yet complementary propertiesowing to their respective ionic and covalent natures. By electrically couplingoxides to semiconductors within epitaxial heterostructures, enhanced or novelfunctionalities beyond those of the constituent materials can potentially berealized. Key to electrically coupling oxides to semiconductors is controllingthe physical and electronic structure of semiconductor – crystallineoxide heterostructures. Here we discuss how composition of the oxide can bemanipulated to control physical and electronic structure inBa1-xSrxTiO3/ Ge andSrZrxTi1-xO3/Ge heterostructures. In thecase of the former we discuss how strain can be engineered through compositionto enable the re-orientable ferroelectric polarization to be coupled to carriersin the semiconductor. In the case of the latter we discuss how composition canbe exploited to control the band offset at the semiconductor - oxide interface.The ability to control the band offset, i.e. band-gap engineering, provides apathway to electrically couple crystalline oxides to semiconductors to realize ahost of functionalities.

Trematode tyrosinases (TYRs) play a major role in the tanning process during eggshell formation. We investigated the molecular and biochemical features of Paragonimus westermani TYR (PwTYR). The PwTYR cDNA was composed of 1568-bp encompassing a 1422-bp-long open reading frame (474-amino acid polypeptide). A strong phylogenetic relationship with Platyhelminthes and Deuterostomian orthologues was evident. The recombinant PwTYR expressed in prokaryotic cells promptly oxidized diphenol substrates, with a preferential affinity toward ortho-positioned hydroxyl groups. It demonstrated fairly weak activity for monophenol compounds. Diphenol oxidase activity was augmented with an increase of pH from 5·0 to 8·0, while monophenol oxidase activity was highest at an acidic pH and gradually decreased as pH increased. Transcription profile of PwTYR was temporally upregulated along with worm development. PwTYR was specifically localized in vitellocytes and eggs. The results suggested that conversion of tyrosine to L-dihydroxyphenylalanine by PwTYR monophenol oxidase activity might be rate-limiting step during the sclerotization process of P. westermani eggs. The pH-dependent pattern of monophenol and diphenol oxidase activity further proposes that the initial hydroxylation might slowly but steadily progress in acidic secreted vesicles of vitellocytes and the second oxidation process might be rapidly accelerated by neural or weak alkaline pH environments within the ootype.

This study compared the molecular characteristics of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF) isolates recovered from 20 non-tertiary-care hospitals (36 isolates) and three tertiary-care hospitals (26 isolates) in diverse geographical areas of Korea from October 2010 to April 2011. All isolates carried the vanA gene only, but 42% and 73% of non-tertiary and tertiary-care isolates expressed the VanB phenotype (teicoplanin minimum inhibitory concentration ⩽16 μg/ml). All isolates harboured insertion sequences, IS1542 and IS1216V, within Tn1546. The isolates from tertiary-care hospitals tended to have reduced Tn1546 lengths by deletion of sequences adjacent to IS elements. Multilocus sequence typing revealed eight sequence types within clonal complex 17 (CC17), but DNA fingerprinting by rep-PCR did not show clonal relatedness between the intra- and inter-hospital isolates. These results suggest that vanA, which has prevailed in tertiary-care hospitals of Korea since the 1990s, had been transferred horizontally to non-tertiary-care hospitals while the genetic rearrangement driven by evolutionary adaptation to adverse environments may have occurred in tertiary-care hospitals.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

The Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) is the UV/optical telescope of UFFO-pathfinder. TheSMT optical system is a Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) telescope of 100 mm diameter pointed bymeans of a gimbal-mounted flat mirror in front of the telescope. The RC telescope has a17 × 17arcmin2 in Field of View and 4.3 arcsec resolution (full width halfmaximum of the point spread function) The beam-steering mirror enables the SMT to access a35 × 35degree region and point and settle within 1 sec. All mirrors were fabricated toabout 0.02 wavelengths RMS in wave front error (WFE) and 84.7% average reflectivity over200 nm ~ 650 nm. The RC telescope was aligned to 0.05 wavelengths RMS in WFE (testwavelength 632.8 nm). In this paper, the technical details of the RC telescope and slewingmirror system assembly, integration, and testing are given shortly, and performance testsof the full SMT optical system are reported.

The Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) is a space observatory for optical follow-ups ofgamma ray bursts (GRBs), aiming to explore the first 60 seconds of GRBs optical emission.UFFO is utilized to catch early optical emissions from GRBs within few sec after triggerusing a Gimbal mirror which redirects the optical path rather than slewing entirespacecraft. We have developed a 15 cm two-axis Gimbal mirror stage for the UFFO-Pathfinderwhich is going to be on board the Lomonosov satellite which is to be launched in 2013. Thestage is designed for fast and accurate motion with given budgets of 3 kg of mass and 3Watt of power. By employing stepping motors, the slewing mirror can rotate faster than 15deg/sec so that objects in the UFFO coverage (60 deg × 60 deg) can be targeted in~1 sec. The obtained targeting resolution is better 2 arcmin using a close-loopcontrol with high precision rotary encoder. In this presentation, we will discuss detailsof design, manufacturing, space qualification tests, as well as performance tests.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, July 29 – August 2, 2012.

Hypermucoviscous (HV) isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae have been linked to virulence potential in experimental infections. We examined 33 isolates of K. pneumoniae from patients with bacteraemia for the HV phenotype on agar culture, and determined their virulence potential by screening for capsular (K) serotype by polymerase chain reaction and the presence of seven virulence factor genes. Fourteen (42·4%) isolates expressed the HV phenotype and 11 of these were serotype K1 or K2; these serotypes were not identified in HV-negative isolates. The genes rmpA, rmpA2, aerobactin, wabG and allS were significantly more frequent in HV than non-HV isolates. Multilocus sequence typing identified 21 sequence types (ST), eight of which were found in HV-positive isolates and the clonal relatedness of isolates of the most frequent types (ST23 and ST11) from different hospitals was confirmed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The HV phenotype was more associated with community-acquired infection with a lower frequency of fatal underlying illness, but with significantly more focal infections, notably liver abscesses. Clinicians should be aware of such clinical impacts of the HV phenotype.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

This paper presents a practical method for generating task strategies applicable to chamferless and high-precision assembly. The difficulties in devising reliable assembly strategies result from various forms of uncertainty such as imperfect knowledge on the parts being assembled and functional limitations of the assembly devices.

In order to cope with these problems, the robot is provided with the capability of learning the corrective motion in response to the force signal through iterative task execution. The strategy is realized by adopting a learning algorithm and is represented in a binary tree-type database. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a series of experiments are carried out under simulated real production conditions. The experimental results show that sensory signal-to-robot action mapping can be acquired effectively and, consequently, the assembly task can be performed successfully.