Lexical competition and phonological encoding in young and older speakers.

The influence of age on word retrieval was investigated with a speeded picture naming study. Five hundred forty-one pictures were presented to young and older adults, and the influence of name agreement and name frequency was analyzed by multiple regression. The results showed that both name agreement and name frequency are significant predictors of picture naming performance in young and older adults. The results also suggest that older adults are more strongly influenced by name agreement than are young adults. These results indicate that competition during lexical selection may be a particularly age-sensitive stage in language production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minor lobe suppression in a rectangular horn antenna through the utilization of a high impedance choke flange

A significant reduction in the minor lobe radiation pattern of a rectangular pyramidal horn antenna is obtained by placing a choke around the aperture of the antenna and adjusting the choke to approximately a quarter wave in depth. The reduced minor lobe radiation means less scattering and a higher efficiency. The choke also results in an improvement in the antenna gain with a measurably narrower beam. A minor variation of approximately 10 percent, peak to peak, is obtained in the antenna input impedance for choke depths varying from zero to a quarter of a wave.