Context effects in syntactic ambiguity resolution: Discourse and semantic influences in parsing reduced relative clauses.

Examined how certain types of semantic and discourse context affect the processing of relative clauses that are temporarily ambiguous between a relative clause and a main clause. Three experiments with 104 undergraduates explored whether referential contexts can influence parsing decisions under conditions in which (1) norms are used to establish that the contexts provide constraint at the point of ambiguity and (2) the 2-word format facilitates the availability of the less frequent relative clause structure. Results demonstrate that all types of context can have early effects on syntactic ambiguity resolution during on-line reading comprehension. Results are discussed within a constraint-based framework for ambiguity resolution. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Three-point correlation functions in uniformly and randomly driven diffusive systems

We have previously shown that human antibody (Ab) directed against the capsular polysaccharide of the important bacterial pathogen, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is encoded by a small group of VH3 gene family members. The majority of anti-Hib PS Ab use members of the smaller VH3b subfamily. To examine directly the available human VH3 repertoire, we have used PCR to amplify and clone candidate germ-line VH3b H chain V region genes from two unrelated subjects from whom anti-Hib polysaccharide mAb had been previously obtained. A single functional VH3b germ-line gene was obtained from one subject. This gene is identical throughout the coding region to the previously identified gene 9.1. Twelve distinct VH3b germ-line sequences, 87.6-99.8% homologous to one another, were obtained from the second subject. One of these genes, LSG1.1, is also identical to the 9.1 germ-line gene, and a second, LSG6.1, is identical to a previously reported cDNA, M85. These germ-line VH3b genes are 82.7-94.1% homologous to rearranged anti-Hib PS VH3b segments obtained from these subjects. Our findings further demonstrate that considerable polymorphism of VH segments exists in the human population. Despite the presence of very highly homologous VH elements in the germ line, particular genes are highly conserved within the outbred human population.