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This study explores the way discourse structure information is used during encoding of linguistic representations, using the distinction between main and subordinate information as a case study. We use the two contrasting constructions: (a) “The singers\textsubscript{MAIN} who admired the violinists\textsubscript{MAIN} invited their mentors to the party”; (b) “The singers\textsubscript{MAIN}, who admired the violinists\textsubscript{SUBORDINATE}, invited their mentors to the party.” While both contain discourse-main information, (b) includes discourse-subordinate information in the clause ``who admired \textit{the violinists}.” Importantly, \textit{the singers} and \textit{the violinists} are both plausible antecedents for \textit{their}, but the overlap in discourse-information between the two NPs differs: (a) overlap ({MAIN, MAIN}); (b) no overlap ({MAIN, SUBORDINATE}). Through two web-based eye-tracking experiments using a visual world paradigm, we find that this overlap leads to competition between the two NPs, evidenced by eye-gaze differences, (a) < (b). We also find that this effect manifests early, even before retrieval, i.e., before pronoun resolution.

BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the major morbidities in public health, and the use of mHealth technology for rehabilitation of patients with COPD can help increase physical activity and ameliorate respiratory symptoms. ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation management platform to improve physical activity and quality of life in patients with COPD. MethodsThe study comprised the following 2 stages: (1) a pilot stage in which a prototype app was developed; and (2) a fully-fledged platform development stage in which 2 apps and 1 COPD patient monitoring website were developed. We conducted a randomized clinical trial to investigate the efficacy of the apps developed in the second stage of the study. In addition, two 12-week exercise regimens (fixed and fixed-interactive) were tested for the trial. The clinical parameters of the respiratory function and patient global assessment (PGA) of the app were obtained and analyzed. Notably, Android was the chosen operating system for apps. ResultsWe developed 2 COPD rehabilitation apps and 1 patient monitoring website. For the clinical trial, 85 patients were randomized into the following 3 groups: 57 were allocated to the 2 intervention groups and 28 to the control group. After 6 weeks, the COPD assessment test scores were significantly reduced in the fixed group (P=.01), and signs of improvement were witnessed in the fixed-interactive group. In addition, the PGA score was moderate or high in all aspects of the user experience of the apps in both intervention groups. ConclusionsA well-designed mobile rehabilitation app for monitoring and managing patients with COPD can supplement or replace traditional center-based rehabilitation programs and achieve improved patient health outcomes. Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03432117; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03432117 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/71Yp0P64a)

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used measure of customer loyalty. It was touted as "the one number you need to grow" due to a purported relationship between the NPS and firm growth. A number of academic papers have examined this macro relationship with decidedly mixed results. In this study, we focus on the micro relationship between a customer's loyalty segment (Promoter, Passive, or Detractor) and purchasing behavior. While other studies focus on the relationship between a customer's NPS segment and word of mouth (the other driver of firm growth), only a few have examined the impact of the NPS segment on consumer retention and future spending. Unlike prior studies using consumers, we have objective measures of retention, past spending, and future spending. We explore three important research questions: (1) Does past purchase behavior vary differ across the NPS segments? (2) Does future consumer behavior vary across the NPS segments? And (3) How do the NPS segments compare to other metrics in predicting future consumer behavior? Our data comes from post-visit surveys and transaction histories from the casino gaming industry. We find Promoters have significantly higher levels of past spending, retention, and future spending (controlling for past spending) than Detractors. However, using other metrics such as satisfaction or likelihood-to-revisit provides comparable fit to the data. Furthermore, the average difference in future spending between the Promoters and Defectors is small, despite its statistical significance. While this study provides empirical validation of the use of the NPS segments to capture differences in consumer behavior, managers have options with comparable explanatory power to measure the state of their relationships with customers. This study adds to the very limited empirical research that validates the assumptions about consumer behavior that underlie the use of the NPS for predicting firm growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of age of first exposure in the acquisition and processing of English articles in an EFL setting. Fifty advanced Korean learners of English participated in a grammatical acceptability judgment task and a self-paced reading task. The participants were divided into two groups depending on the initial age at which they were constantly exposed to English at least 3 hours per week ('early group' < 12; 'late group' [greater than or equal to] 12). No significant performance differences were observed between the two groups in the judgment task. However, meaningful differences were found between the reading behaviors of the two groups in the self-paced reading task. These findings show that the learners' age of first exposure has a significant impact on learners' performance when the ability to process English articles in real-time is evaluated. In contrast, it has much less impact on learners' performance on a task which tests explicit knowledge under no time-limit condition.