Executive functions (EFs) serve as an umbrella term to describe a set of higher-order cognitive abilities that include working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Various studies suggest that foreign language learning likely promotes executive functions, but others suggest that executive functions could improve foreign language learning. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between executive functions and foreign language learning and how these processes could interact.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) represent a heterogeneous group of disorders, with onset in developmental age, which present a clinical expressiveness that varies from subject to subject and in the same subject over time. The DSM 5 defines Autism Spectrum Disorders according to two main criteria: persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts and limited and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. This disorder can manifest itself across a broad spectrum of severity levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn narrow open channels, the three-dimensional nature of the flow and the transport momentum from the sidewalls to the central region cause the maximum longitudinal velocity to occur below the water surface. The entropy model is unable to accurately describe the velocities near the free surface when the dip phenomenon exists. The present paper proposes a new dip-modified entropy law for steady open channel flows, which consists of three additional terms: the first one similar to Coles' function; the second one linearly proportional to the logarithmic distance from the free surface; and the third one depending on the cubic correction near the maximum velocity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe evaluation of bed shear stress distribution is fundamental to predicting the transport of sediments and pollutants in rivers and to designing successful stable open channels. Such distribution cannot be determined easily as it depends on the velocity field, the shape of the cross section, and the bed roughness conditions. In recent years, information theory has been proven to be reliable for estimating shear stress along the wetted perimeter of open channels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe knowledge of the fluid discharge in free surface flows requires a great number of velocity measurements along the whole cross-section, taking up a large amount of time, using expensive equipment, and employing specialized labor. To overcome these obstacles, various models have been developed thus far that show how to estimate the mean velocity through the maximum velocity. In three-dimensional open channels, the maximum velocity can be located below the free surface because of the presence of secondary flows mainly originating by the sidewalls, an occurrence known as dip-phenomenon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF