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AbstractThis study tested the procedural deficit hypothesis of specific language impairment (SLI) by comparing children's performance in two motor procedural learning tasks and an implicit verbal sequence learning task. Participants were 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children with SLI (n = 48), typically developing age‐matched children (n = 20) and younger typically developing children matched for receptive grammar (n = 28). In a serial reaction time task, the children with SLI performed at the same level as the grammar‐matched children, but poorer than age‐matched controls in learning motor sequences. When tested with a motor procedural learning task that did not involve learning sequential relationships between discrete elements (i.e. pursuit rotor), the children with SLI performed comparably with age‐matched children and better than younger grammar‐matched controls. In addition, poor implicit learning of word sequences in a verbal memory task (the Hebb effect) was found in the children with SLI. Together, these findings suggest that SLI might be characterized by deficits in learning sequence‐specific information, rather than generally weak procedural learning.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Informática ; Since the dawn of times, curiosity and necessity to improve the quality of their life, led humans to find means to understand everything surrounding them, aiming at improving it. Whereas the creating abilities of some was growing, the capacity to comprehend of others follow their steps. Disassembling physical objects to comprehend the connections between the pieces in order to understand how they work together is a common human behavior. With the computers arrival, humans felt the necessity of applying the same techniques (disassemble to comprehend) to their programs. Traditionally, these programs are written resorting to general-purpose programming languages. Hence, techniques and artifacts, used to aid on program comprehension, were built to facilitate the work of software programmers on maintaining and improving programs that were developed by others. Generally, these generic languages deal with concepts at a level that the human brain can hardly understand. So understanding programs written in this languages is an hard task, because the distance between the concepts at the program level and the concepts at the problem level is too big. Thus, as in politics, justice, medicine, etc. groups of words are regularly used facilitating the comprehension between people, also in programming, languages that address a specific domain were created. These programming languages raise the abstraction of the program domain, shortening the gap to the concepts of the problem domain. Tools and techniques for program comprehension commonly address the program domain and they took little advantage of the problem domain. In this master's thesis, the hypothesis that it is easier to comprehend a program when the underlying problem and program domains are known and a bridge between them is established, is assumed. Then, a program comprehension technique for domain specific languages, is conceived, proposed and discussed. The main objective is to take advantage from the large knowledge about ...

Developing pedagogical material – interesting lessons, interesting lesson plans, grammar, grammar points, exercises etc. – is never an easy task, especially for a language like Hindi where preformulated resources are few. I developed these topic specific powerpoints presented here for instructional use in my class. As such, they have proved to be of immense use, acting as an ever developing "text," and for easy linkage on Blackboard as PDF files. Students have made good use of them inside as well as outside of the class. These powerpoints are presented here for fellow colleagues and Hindi learners for their instructional use, and for further development as they fine tune them for their particular needs. While the topics in question do have a grammar orientation to them, they are not the only "text" the instructor should use in class. They should be used in conjunction with the instructor's own creative lesson plan, supplementing material with these powerpoints where grammar and cultural points need to be highlighted. ; Asian Studies

Theoretical accounts of grammatical limitations in specific language impairment (SLI) have been polarized between those that postulate problems with domain-specific grammatical knowledge, and those that regard grammatical deficits as downstream consequences of perceptual or memory limitations. Here we consider an alternative view that grammatical deficits arise when the learning system is biased towards memorization of exemplars, and is poor at extracting statistical dependencies from the input. We examine evidence that SLI involves deficits in extracting nonadjacent dependencies from input, leading to reliance on rote learning, and consider how far this may be part of a limitation of procedural learning, or a secondary consequence of memory limitations.

Communication skills are considered important for the development, preservation and transmission of culture to future generations, and incorporate the complex relationship between language and culture. This book focuses on an analysis of narratives by Japanese children. It also analyzes mother-child narratives and joint book-reading activities

Abstract
Effective natural communication requires listeners to incorporate not only very general linguistic principles which evolved during a lifetime but also other information like the specific individual language use of a particular interlocutor. Traditionally, research has focused on the general linguistic rules, and brain science has shown a left hemispheric fronto-temporal brain network related to this processing. The present fMRI research explores speaker-specific individual language use because it is unknown whether this processing is supported by similar or distinct neural structures. Twenty-eight participants listened to sentences of persons who used more easy or difficult language. This was done by manipulating the proportion of easy SOV vs. complex OSV sentences for each speaker. Furthermore, ambiguous probe sentences were included to test top-down influences of speaker information in the absence of syntactic structure information. We observed distinct neural processing for syntactic complexity and speaker-specific language use. Syntactic complexity correlated with left frontal and posterior temporal regions. Speaker-specific processing correlated with bilateral (right-dominant) fronto-parietal brain regions. Finally, the top-down influence of speaker information was found in frontal and striatal brain regions, suggesting a mechanism for controlled syntactic processing. These findings show distinct neural networks related to general language principles as well as speaker-specific individual language use.

AbstractDeficits in identification and discrimination of sounds with short inter‐stimulus intervals or short formant transitions in children with specific language impairment (SLI) have been taken to reflect an underlying temporal auditory processing deficit. Using the sustained frequency following response (FFR) and the onset auditory brainstem responses (ABR) we evaluated if children with SLI show abnormalities at the brainstem level consistent with a temporal processing deficit. To this end, the neural encoding of tonal sweeps, as reflected in the FFR, for different rates of frequency change, and the effects of reducing inter‐stimulus interval on the ABR components were evaluated in 10 4–11‐year‐old SLI children and their age‐matched controls. Results for the SLI group showed degraded FFR phase‐locked neural activity that failed to faithfully track the frequency change presented in the tonal sweeps, particularly at the faster sweep rates. SLI children also showed longer latencies for waves III and V of the ABR and a greater prolongation of wave III at high stimulus rates (>30/sec), suggesting greater susceptibility to neural adaptation. These results taken together appear to suggest a disruption in the temporal pattern of phase‐locked neural activity necessary to encode rapid frequency change and an increased susceptibility to desynchronizing factors related to faster rates of stimulus presentation in children with SLI.

In a global geopolitical scenario Spanish soldiers are faced with the strategic challenge of developing linguistic and intercultural communication competence. This paper provides an account of the design process of military-specific materials which seek to equip these learners to become interculturally competent speakers of English. Drawing on a previous needs analysis of the profession, the design of materials discussed here seeks to integrate an intercultural dimension to an ESP- oriented program for military students. A genre- and task-based approach was adopted with a view to engage military learners in a dual rhetorical and intercultural consciousness raising process which equips them with linguistic and intercultural skills. The goal was to select written and oral texts and to design tasks which foster critical thinking skills acquisition and to promote awareness of intercultural communication challenges. The approach taken lends credence to the view that authentic resources and tasks are loaded with the values of the discipline along with those of the culture it represents. Further, it illustrates how an ESP program can contribute to help learners raise awareness of the linguistic and cultural diversity involved in the use of English as an international language of professional communication in multilingual and multicultural contexts.

Abstract This study tested if children with specific language impairment (SLI) or children with specific reading disability (SRD) have abnormal brain responses to sounds. We tested 6‐ to 12‐year‐old children with SLI (N =19), children with SRD (N =55), and age‐matched controls (N =36) for their passive auditory event‐related potentials (ERPs) to tones, rapid tones, vowels and consonant‐vowels. Thirty‐eight percent of the children with SLI or SRD had less typical passive auditory ERPs in the N1–P2 window to sounds in general, rather than to tones, rapid tones, vowels or consonant‐vowels specifically. The ERPs of these children were significantly 'flatter' in the N1–P2 region than normal. All the children with flatter ERPs in the N1–P2 region had poor non‐word reading. A subgroup of these poor non‐word readers also had poor non‐word repetition. These findings support the hypothesis that impaired auditory processing is a causal risk factor for both SLI and SRD.

With the emergence of cloud computing, the hosting capacity of the data centers has been continuously growing to support the non stop increasing clients demand. Managing a data center implies to regularly manipulate both virtual machines (VM) and servers. Each hosted VM has specific expectations regarding its quality of service, its resource requirements and its placement that may be compatible with fault tolerance mechanisms and the networking configuration. Infrastructure As A Service solutions such as Open Nebula and VMWare vSphere extremely simplify creations and deployments of VM but virtualized infrastructure management is still relying on manual changes on the environment. This approach is no longer compatible with an infrastructure composed of thousand of VM. Indeed, a system administrator can not manipulate a large set of VMinsuring that its reconfigurations are compatible with the expected VM requirements. This situation has led to new approaches for the infrastructure management employing automation to replace the traditional manual approach. The tool described in this document deals with VM management from Domain Specific Languages. On the one hand, this tool proposes to administrators introspection operations to monitor the infrastructure resources and common reconfigurations including starting, halting, rebooting, of serversand VM. On the other hand, administrators define the VM placement from placement rules. Then, the system checks, according to active rules, the validity of all reconfigurations and rules performed by administrators. If a reconfiguration or a rule is invalid, the administrative tool detects conflicts and warns administrators. To resolve a conflict, the system, by interacting with scheduling algorithms, computes a reconfiguration plan that satisfies all rules.The reconfiguration plan can also apply scheduling policies as consolidation or load balancing with respect to placement rules. ; Avec l'émergence de l'informatique dans les nuages, la capacité d'hébergement des centres de données ne cesse d'augmenter afin de répondre à une demande de plus en plus forte. La gestion, appelée l'administration, d'un centre de données entraîne des opérations fréquentes sur des machines virtuelles (VM) ainsi que sur des serveurs. De plus, chaque VM hébergée possède des besoins spécifiques au regard de sa qualité de service, de ses ressources et de son placement qui doit être compatible avec les mécanismes de tolérance aux pannes et la configuration réseau. Les outils de « l'Infrastructure As A Service » tels que Open Nebula et Vmware vSphere simplifient la création et le déploiement de VM. Cependant, l'administration d'une infrastructure virtualisée repose encore sur des changements manuels décidés par les administrateurs. Cette approche n'est plus pertinente pour la gestion d'infrastructures virtualisées de milliers de VM. En effet, les administrateurs ne peuvent pas manipuler des ensembles importants de VM tout en assurant la compatibilité des reconfigurations exécutées avec les besoins des VM. De nouvelles approches d'administration d'infrastructures proposent l'automatisation de certaines tâches d'administration. L'outil décrit dans ce document utilise des langages dédiés pour répondre aux besoins d'administration infrastructures virtualisées de taille conséquente. Dans un premier temps, l'outil propose aux administrateurs des opérations d'introspection pour observer l'organisation des ressources déployées sur l'infrastructure et les reconfigurations habituelles comme le démarrage, l'arrêt et le redémarrage de VM et de serveurs. Dans un second temps les administrateurs définissent le placement des VM à partir de règles de placement. À partir de ces règles, l'outil d'administration vérifie chaque reconfiguration et chaque ajout de règles exécutés par l'administrateur. Si une reconfiguration ou une règle est invalide, l'outil détecte un conflit et avertit l'administrateur de l'échec de l'opération. L'outil d'administration, à l'aide d'algorithmes d'ordonnancement peut calculer un plan de reconfigurations résolvant les conflits. Ces algorithmes peuvent aussi être utilisés pour mettre en place des politiques d'ordonnancement comme la consolidation ou l'équilibrage de charge.

With the emergence of cloud computing, the hosting capacity of the data centers has been continuously growing to support the non stop increasing clients demand. Managing a data center implies to regularly manipulate both virtual machines (VM) and servers. Each hosted VM has specific expectations regarding its quality of service, its resource requirements and its placement that may be compatible with fault tolerance mechanisms and the networking configuration. Infrastructure As A Service solutions such as Open Nebula and VMWare vSphere extremely simplify creations and deployments of VM but virtualized infrastructure management is still relying on manual changes on the environment. This approach is no longer compatible with an infrastructure composed of thousand of VM. Indeed, a system administrator can not manipulate a large set of VMinsuring that its reconfigurations are compatible with the expected VM requirements. This situation has led to new approaches for the infrastructure management employing automation to replace the traditional manual approach. The tool described in this document deals with VM management from Domain Specific Languages. On the one hand, this tool proposes to administrators introspection operations to monitor the infrastructure resources and common reconfigurations including starting, halting, rebooting, of serversand VM. On the other hand, administrators define the VM placement from placement rules. Then, the system checks, according to active rules, the validity of all reconfigurations and rules performed by administrators. If a reconfiguration or a rule is invalid, the administrative tool detects conflicts and warns administrators. To resolve a conflict, the system, by interacting with scheduling algorithms, computes a reconfiguration plan that satisfies all rules.The reconfiguration plan can also apply scheduling policies as consolidation or load balancing with respect to placement rules. ; Avec l'émergence de l'informatique dans les nuages, la capacité d'hébergement des centres de données ne cesse d'augmenter afin de répondre à une demande de plus en plus forte. La gestion, appelée l'administration, d'un centre de données entraîne des opérations fréquentes sur des machines virtuelles (VM) ainsi que sur des serveurs. De plus, chaque VM hébergée possède des besoins spécifiques au regard de sa qualité de service, de ses ressources et de son placement qui doit être compatible avec les mécanismes de tolérance aux pannes et la configuration réseau. Les outils de « l'Infrastructure As A Service » tels que Open Nebula et Vmware vSphere simplifient la création et le déploiement de VM. Cependant, l'administration d'une infrastructure virtualisée repose encore sur des changements manuels décidés par les administrateurs. Cette approche n'est plus pertinente pour la gestion d'infrastructures virtualisées de milliers de VM. En effet, les administrateurs ne peuvent pas manipuler des ensembles importants de VM tout en assurant la compatibilité des reconfigurations exécutées avec les besoins des VM. De nouvelles approches d'administration d'infrastructures proposent l'automatisation de certaines tâches d'administration. L'outil décrit dans ce document utilise des langages dédiés pour répondre aux besoins d'administration infrastructures virtualisées de taille conséquente. Dans un premier temps, l'outil propose aux administrateurs des opérations d'introspection pour observer l'organisation des ressources déployées sur l'infrastructure et les reconfigurations habituelles comme le démarrage, l'arrêt et le redémarrage de VM et de serveurs. Dans un second temps les administrateurs définissent le placement des VM à partir de règles de placement. À partir de ces règles, l'outil d'administration vérifie chaque reconfiguration et chaque ajout de règles exécutés par l'administrateur. Si une reconfiguration ou une règle est invalide, l'outil détecte un conflit et avertit l'administrateur de l'échec de l'opération. L'outil d'administration, à l'aide d'algorithmes d'ordonnancement peut calculer un plan de reconfigurations résolvant les conflits. Ces algorithmes peuvent aussi être utilisés pour mettre en place des politiques d'ordonnancement comme la consolidation ou l'équilibrage de charge.

The emergence and quick adoption of social media, exemplified with Web 2.0 applications like Facebook and Instagram, has led to a new form of business processes (BP) called social business processes (SBP). An SBP encompasses aspects from both the business world and the social world. Contrarily to the business aspects, which can be captured using existing modeling languages like the standard business process modeling notation (BPMN), the social aspects cannot be modeled by these languages. This paper addresses this limitation by defining BPMN4Social, a domain specific language for SBP modeling. BPMN4Social minimally extends BPMN with social concepts that are independent of any particular Web 2.0 application. Besides its support by the BPMN2 modeler editor, BPMN4Social is accompanied by a catalog of socialization patterns that describe common social scenarios and that can assist business process designers in their modeling activities. This paper also reports on the evaluation of BPMN4Social usability in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.