Every injective function has an inverse, although constructing the inverse for a particular injective function can be quite tricky. One common instance of inverse-function pairs is the binary encoders and decoders used to convert in-memory data into and out of a structured binary format for network communication. Ensuring that a given decoder is a proper inverse of the original encoder is parti...

Spoken-word recognition in a nonnative language is particularly difficult where it depends on discrimination between confusable phonemes. Four experiments here examine whether this difficulty is in part due to phantom competition from "near-words" in speech. Dutch listeners confuse English /æ/ and /ε/, which could lead to the sequence daf being interpreted as deaf, or lemp being interpreted as ...

A major problem in flower bulb cultivation is weed control. Synthetic herbicides are mainly used, although they cause a range of problems, and integrated weed control through application of naturally occurring allelochemicals would be highly desirable. Flower bulb production creates large amounts of leftover biomass. Utilizing this source for weed control may provide new applications of the bul...