Second language processing: an analysis of theory, problems and possible solutions

Second Language Processing examines the problems facing learners in the second language classroom from the theoretical perspectives of Processing Instruction (structured input) and Enhanced Input. These two theories are brought to bear on a variety of processing problems, such as the difficulty of connecting second language grammatical forms encoding tense and mood as well as noun-adjective agreement with their meaning. Empirical studies examine a range of languages including Japanese, Italian and Spanish, through which the authors suggest practical solutions to these processing problems.

Relations, residuals, regular interiors, and relative regular equivalence

Given a relation α (a binary sociogram) and an a priori equivalence relation π, both on the same set of individuals, it is interesting to look for the largest equivalence πo that is contained in and is regular with respect to α. The equivalence relation πo is called the regular interior of π with respect to α. The computation of πo involves the left and right residuals, a concept that generalized group inverses to the algebra of relations. A polynomial-time procedure is presented (Theorem 11) and illustrated with examples. In particular, the regular interior gives meet in the lattice of regular equivalences: the regular meet of regular equivalences is the regular interior of their intersection. Finally, the concept of relative regular equivalence is defined and compared with regular equivalence.

Computing regular equivalence: practical and theoretical issues

Social network analysts have tried to capture the idea of social role explicitly by proposing a framework that precisely gives conditions under which group actors are playing equivalent roles. They term these methods positional analysis techniques. The most general definition is regular equivalence which captures the idea that equivalent actors are related in a similar way to equivalent alters. Regular equivalence gives rise to a whole class of partitions on a network. Given a network we have two different computational problems. The first is how to find a particular regular equivalence. An algorithm exists to find the largest regular partition but there are not efficient algorithms to test whether there is a regular k-partition. That is a partition in k groups that is regular. In addition, when dealing with real data, it is unlikely that any regular partitions exist. To overcome this problem relaxations of regular equivalence have been proposed along with optimisation techniques to find nearly regular partitions. In this paper we review the algorithms that have developed to find particular regular equivalences and look at some of the recent theoretical results which give an insight into the complexity of finding regular partitions.

The AGILE policy expression language for autonomic systems

This paper presents the AGILE policy expression language. The language enables powerful expression of self-managing behaviours and facilitates policy-based autonomic computing in which the policies themselves can be adapted dynamically and automatically. The language is generic so as to be deployable across a wide spectrum of application domains, and is very flexible through the use of simple yet expressive syntax and semantics. The development of AGILE is motivated by the need for adaptive policy mechanisms that are easy to deploy into legacy code and can be used by non autonomics-expert practitioners to embed self-managing behaviours with low cost and risk. A library implementation of the policy language is described. The implementation extends the state of the art in policy-based autonomics through innovations which include support for multiple policy versions of a given policy type, multiple configuration templates, and higher-level ‘meta-policies’ to dynamically select between differently configured business-logic policy instances and templates. Two dissimilar example deployment scenarios are examined.

Study of the thermal stress in a Pb-free half-bump solder joint under current stressing

The thermal stress in a Sn3.5Ag1Cu half-bump solder joint under a 3.82×108 A/m2 current stressing was analyzed using a coupled-field simulation. Substantial thermal stress accumulated around the Al-to-solder interface, especially in the Ni+(Ni,Cu)3Sn4 layer, where a maximal stress of 138 MPa was identified. The stress gradient in the Ni layer was about 1.67×1013 Pa/m, resulting in a stress migration force of 1.82×10-16 N, which is comparable to the electromigration force, 2.82×10-16 N. Dissolution of the Ni+(Ni,Cu)3Sn4 layer, void formation with cracks at the anode side, and extrusions at the cathode side were observed

Why do we struggle when we try to learn a language as adults?

Whereas the acquisition of a first language is successful for normally developing individuals, native-like attainment in a language learnt as adults is not guaranteed. As far as grammar is concerned, the area that typically shows up as more problematic is that of Morphology, and more specifically, that part of Morphology related to the specific ways languages have to indicate notions like temporal location (e.g. English –-ed for past tense She walked) or person agreement (e.g. English –s for the third person singular She sings). Language students and teachers are familiar with exclamations like “Oh, after so many years I still have problems with the past tenses in Spanish!” or “I cannot cope with the masculine/feminine thing in French!” In this talk I will present two different accounts that are currently debated in the field of Second Language Acquisition about why it is not enough to memorize those “blessed endings” for us to master their use in our speech production. I will also introduce the latest study I have conducted in collaboration with colleagues, with the aim of evaluating the explanatory power of the hypotheses debated in current literature. [From the Author]