Research on language-specific tuning in speech perception has focused mainly on consonants, while that on non-native vowel perception has failed to address whether the same principles apply. Therefore, non-native vowel perception was investigated here in light of relevant theoretical models: the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and the Natural Referent Vowel (NRV) framework. American-English...

Complex word identification (CWI) is an important task in text accessibility. However, due to the scarcity of CWI datasets, previous studies have only addressed this problem on Wikipedia sentences and have solely taken into account the needs of non-native English speakers. We collect a new CWI dataset (CWIG3G2) covering three text genres (NEWS, WIKINEWS, and WIKIPEDIA) annotated by both native ...

This article examines the proliferation of gambling in United States counties during the 1990s and examines the factors that influence a region’s decision to allow or prohibit casino gambling. Native American casino openings are driven by somewhat different factors than non-Native American casino openings. Both types of casinos are more likely to open in counties with large populations. More im...

Background “Canada’s Immigration Program” [1] reports that Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world. Given the finding that pregnant immigrant women display higher prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders [2], the investigation of health outcomes in this population is warranted. The present study will examine whether prenatal perceived stress and/or physiologic mate...

Abstract The biodiversity of natural or semi-natural native, old oak woodlands have high conservation importance, especially in landscapes monocultural forest plantations and arable fields. With a wider variety microhabitats foraging sources, such forests can provide essential habitat for native bird communities. We conducted study using point counts to compare the communities pedunculate ( Que...

The introduction of non-native species represents unprecedented large-scale experiments that allow us to examine ecological systems in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Invasion by novel ecological types into a community can press a system beyond the bounds normally seen and can reveal community interactions, local drivers and limits within systems that are otherwise hidden by coevolut...

Landscape change has great, yet infrequently measured, potential to influence the susceptibility of natural systems to invasive species impacts. We quantified attack by an invasive biological control weevil (Rhinocyllus conicus) on native thistles in relation to two types of landscape change: agricultural intensification and invasion by an exotic thistle, Carduus nutans, the original target of ...

Animals often express behavioral preferences for different types of food or other resources, and these preferences can evolve or shift following association with novel food types. Shifts in preference can involve at least two phenomena: a change in rank preference or a change in specificity. The former corresponds to a change in the order in which hosts are preferred, while a shift in specifici...

Although many plant communities are invaded by multiple nonnative species, we have limited information on how a species' origin affects ecosystem function. We tested how differences in species richness and origin affect productivity and seedling establishment. We created phylogenetically paired native and nonnative plant communities in a glasshouse experiment to test diversity-productivity rela...