We introduce a class of stochastic models for the dynamics of two linguistic variants that are competing to become the single, shared convention within an unstructured community of speakers. Different instances of the model are distinguished by the way agents handle variability in the language (i.e., multiple forms for the same meaning). The class of models includes as special cases two previou...

comparative literature is defined as an empiric disciplinewithin literary studies that focuses on the comparison between a literature andother literature(s) or other forms of human expression. nowadays, due to theclash between the two trends existing in the discipline -the historical and thetheoretical, comparative literature is immersed in a process of theoretical andpractical renewal that foc...

Objectives: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have problems in communicating and social interaction skills. Moreover, deficits in pragmatic language and executive functions are among the most important causes of communication and social interaction problems in this group. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between executive functioning and two of its indices (behav...

In the present paper, we discuss a design method for a multirate system, in which the update interval of the control input is shorter than the sampling interval of the plant output. In this multirate system, the intersample output may oscillate between sampled outputs even if the sampled output converges to the reference input because the control input can be changed between sampled outputs. In...

The increasing importance of non-coding RNA in biology and medicine has led to a growing interest in the problem of RNA 3-D structure prediction. As is the case for proteins, RNA 3-D structure prediction methods require two key ingredients: an accurate energy function and a conformational sampling procedure. Both are only partly solved problems. Here, we focus on the problem of conformational s...

Syllogistic reasoning lies at the intriguing intersection of natural and formal reasoning, of language and logic. Syllogisms comprise a formal system of reasoning yet use natural language quantifiers, and invite natural language conclusions. How can we make sense of the interplay between logic and language? We develop a computational-level theory that considers reasoning over concrete situation...

This article examines the intersection of psychometrics and sociolinguists in the testing of English language learners (ELLs); it discusses language, dialect, and register as sources of measurement error. Research findings show that the dialect of the language in which students are tested (e.g., local or standard English) is as important as language as a facet that influences score dependabilit...