Four experiments investigated the role of the syllable in Chinese spoken word production. Chen, Chen and Ferrand (2003) reported a syllable priming effect when primes and targets shared the first syllable using a masked priming paradigm in Chinese. Our Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Chen et al.’s (2003) Experiment 3 employing CV (e.g., 拔营,/ba2.ying2/, strike camp) and CVG (e.g., 白首,/bai2.shou3/, white haired) syllable types. Experiment 2 tested the syllable priming effect using different syllable types: e.g., CV (气球,/qi4.qiu2/, balloon) and CVN (蜻蜓,/qing1.ting2/, dragonfly). Experiment 3 investigated this issue further using line drawings of common objects as targets that were preceded either by a CV (e.g., 企,/qi3/, attempt), or a CVN (e.g., 情,/qing2/, affection) prime. Experiment 4 further examined the priming effect by a comparison between CV or CVN priming and an unrelated priming condition using CV-NX (e.g., 迷你,/mi2.ni3/, mini) and CVN-CX (e.g., 民居,/min2.ju1/, dwellings) as target words. These four experiments consistently found that CV targets were named faster when preceded by CV primes than when they were preceded by CVG, CVN or unrelated primes, whereas CVG or CVN targets showed the reverse pattern. These results indicate that the priming effect critically depends on the match between the structure of the prime and that of the first syllable of the target. The effect obtained in this study was consistent across different stimuli and different tasks (word and picture naming), and provides more conclusive and consistent data regarding the role of the syllable in Chinese speech production.

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Queueing applications are often complicated by dependence among interarrival times and service times. Such dependence is common in networks of queues, where arrivals are departures from other queues or superpositions of such complicated processes, especially when there are multiple customer classes with class-dependent servicetime distributions. We show that the robust queueing approach for single-server queues proposed in the literature can be extended to yield improved steady-state performance approximations in the standard stochastic setting that includes dependence among interarrival times and service times. We propose a new functional robust queueing formulation for the steady-state workload that is exact for the steady-state mean in the M/GI/1 model and is asymptotically correct in both heavy traffic and light traffic. Simulation experiments show that it is effective more generally.

Objectives:The aim of the current study was to differentiate between neural activity that represents neural anomalies that are responsible for persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) from the activity that is a result of compensating for stuttering. This was done by investigating alterations to the intrinsic functional architecture of speech-language processes of patients with PDS before and after a short-term intervention. Methods:The resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and cortical thickness were examined before and after the intervention. The structural data were used to validate the functional results. Fifteen stuttering patients who received intervention (PDSϩ), 13 stuttering patients who did not receive intervention (PDSϪ), and 13 fluent controls participated.Results: Before the intervention, both groups of PDS patients showed significant RSFC and cortical thickness reductions in the left pars-opercularis (PO) and RSFC increases in the cerebellum, as compared to fluent controls. The intervention was effective in reducing stuttering in PDSϩ patients and lowering their RSFC in the cerebellum to the level of fluent controls. The intervention effect was specific to the PDSϩ group (it was not evident in the PDSϪ group). The intervention did not change RSFC and cortical thickness in the left PO, which remained at its preintervention level. Conclusions:The results suggest that the left PO is a locus where the intrinsic functional architecture of speech-language processes is altered in PDS patients, suggesting an etiologic role of this region in PDS. The cerebellum showed intervention-induced neural reorganization, suggesting a compensatory response when stuttering occurs. Neurology ® 2012;79:625-632 GLOSSARY AFNI ϭ Analysis of Functional NeuroImages; BA ϭ Brodmann area; EPI ϭ echoplanar image; IC ϭ independent component; ICA ϭ independent component analysis; IFC ϭ inferior frontal cortex; MFG ϭ middle frontal gyrus; OASES ϭ Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering; PDS ϭ persistent developmental stuttering; PDS؊ ϭ stuttering patients who did not receive intervention; PDS؉ ϭ stuttering patients who received intervention; PO ϭ pars-opercularis; ROI ϭ region of interest; RSFC ϭ resting-state functional connectivity; SMA ϭ supplementary motor area; SSI-3 ϭ Stuttering Severity Instrument version III; TE ϭ echo time; TR ϭ repetition time.