bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unilateral digital clubbing in a hemodialysis patient
Authors: ROOZBEH Jamshid , SAGHEB Mohammad Mehdi , YAVARI Vahideh , BASTANI Bahar , RAEESJALALI Ghanbar A.
Published: February 2010

We present an unusual case of a chronic hemodialysis patient with moderate diffuse acrocyanosis and prominent unilateral clubbing of his right hand fingers, with classic physical features of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy. The patient's left hand, which had a functioning arteriovenous fistula, did not show any evidence of clubbing. We briefly discuss the different theories in regards to the pathogenesis of clubbing, and the potential role of arteriovenous fistula in preventing its occurrence.
The path to a paradigm shift in hemodialysis
Authors: HODGE Melville H.
Published: February 2010

About 1 out of 4 American conventional dialysis patients die in the first year and 3 out of 5 die within 5 years with no favorable trend in sight. Largely ignored in practice is the evidence accumulated over decades that longer, more frequent dialysis can immediately slash this grim result in half or more. Pierratos has called for a paradigm shift—a disruptive change—in dialysis practice from conventional treatment to daily nocturnal dialysis, performed at home, to realize this dramatic improvement. We examine here how such a paradigm shift might be brought about and suggest that changes in 3 perspectives must occur. First, new dialysis guidelines must be recast from the old goal of minimally adequate to a new goal of best possible. Second, the body of dialysis research must be interpreted through the lens of best possible patient survival and well being, and the near‐impossibility of demonstrating dialysis survival advantage through randomized clinical trials must be acknowledged. Finally, dialysis modality must be seen as, most importantly, a survival and well‐being choice, not merely a “Lifestyle” choice; hence, it must be the nondelegatable responsibility of the physician, not dialysis center personnel, to advise and prescribe. Many old perspectives, which might stand in the way of this sorely needed paradigm shift are also examined. These old perspectives make up a fabric of excuses that has delayed—and, if not discarded, will continue to delay—progress toward a survival and well‐being outlook for dialysis patients just as favorable as might be achieved through kidney transplant.
A Causal Model Theory of the Meaning of Cause, Enable, and Prevent
Authors: Sloman Steven , Barbey Aron K. , Hotaling Jared M.
Published: February 2010

The verbs cause, enable, and prevent express beliefs about the way the world works. We offer a theory of their meaning in terms of the structure of those beliefs expressed using qualitative properties of causal models, a graphical framework for representing causal structure. We propose that these verbs refer to a causal model relevant to a discourse and that “A causes B” expresses the belief that the causal model includes a link from A to B. “A enables/allows B” entails that the model includes a link from A to B, that A represents a category of events necessary for B, and that an alternative cause of B exists. “A prevents B” entails that the model includes a link from A to B and that A reduces the likelihood of B. This theory is able to account for the results of four experiments as well as a variety of existing data on human reasoning.
Sunk‐Cost Effects on Purely Behavioral Investments
Authors: Cunha, Jr Marcus , Caldieraro Fabio
Published: February 2010

Although the sunk‐cost effect is a well‐documented psychological phenomenon in monetary investments, existing literature investigating behavioral investments (e.g., time, effort) has not replicated this effect except when such investments relate to monetary values. The current explanation for this discrepancy proposes that purely behavioral sunk‐cost effects are unlikely to be observed because they are difficult to book, track, and balance in a mental account. Conversely, we argue that, through an effort‐justification mechanism, people account for the amount of behavioral resources invested when selecting an alternative, in which case they may fall prey to purely behavioral sunk‐cost effects. The results of two experiments support this prediction. Because many decisions involve behavioral investments, behavioral sunk‐cost effects should be pervasive psychological phenomena.
Lexical and Sublexical Units in Speech Perception
Authors: Giroux Ibrahima , Rey Arnaud
Published: February 2010

Saffran, Newport, and Aslin (1996a) found that human infants are sensitive to statistical regularities corresponding to lexical units when hearing an artificial spoken language. Two sorts of segmentation strategies have been proposed to account for this early word‐segmentation ability: bracketing strategies, in which infants are assumed to insert boundaries into continuous speech, and clustering strategies, in which infants are assumed to group certain speech sequences together into units (Swingley, 2005). In the present study, we test the predictions of two computational models instantiating each of these strategies i.e., Serial Recurrent Networks: Elman, 1990; and Parser: Perruchet & Vinter, 1998 in an experiment where we compare the lexical and sublexical recognition performance of adults after hearing 2 or 10 min of an artificial spoken language. The results are consistent with Parser’s predictions and the clustering approach, showing that performance on words is better than performance on part‐words only after 10 min. This result suggests that word segmentation abilities are not merely due to stronger associations between sublexical units but to the emergence of stronger lexical representations during the development of speech perception processes.
Indirect Evidence and the Poverty of the Stimulus: The Case of AnaphoricOne
Authors: Foraker Stephani , Regier Terry , Khetarpal Naveen , Perfors Amy , Tenenbaum Joshua
Published: February 2010

It is widely held that children’s linguistic input underdetermines the correct grammar, and that language learning must therefore be guided by innate linguistic constraints. Here, we show that a Bayesian model can learn a standard poverty‐of‐stimulus example, anaphoricone, from realistic input by relying on indirect evidence, without a linguistic constraint assumed to be necessary. Our demonstration does, however, assume other linguistic knowledge; thus, we reduce the problem of learning anaphoriconeto that of learning this other knowledge. We discuss whether this other knowledge may itself be acquired without linguistic constraints.
Causal‐Based Property Generalization
Authors: Rehder Bob
Published: February 2010

A central question in cognitive research concerns how new properties are generalized to categories. This article introduces a model of how generalizations involve a process of causal inference in which people estimate the likely presence of the new property in individual category exemplars and then the prevalence of the property among all category members. Evidence in favor of this causal‐based generalization (CBG) view included effects of an existing feature’s base rate (Experiment 1), the direction of the causal relations (Experiments 2 and 4), the number of those relations (Experiment 3), and the distribution of features among category members (Experiments 4 and 5). The results provided no support for an alternative view that generalizations are promoted by the centrality of the to‐be‐generalized feature. However, there was evidence that a minority of participants based their judgments on simpler associative reasoning processes.
An Empirical and Computational Investigation of Perceiving and Remembering Event Temporal Relations
Authors: Lu Shulan , Harter Derek , Graesser Arthur C.
Published: February 2010

Events have beginnings, ends, and often overlap in time. A major question is how perceivers come to parse a stream of multimodal information into meaningful units and how different event boundaries may vary event processing. This work investigates the roles of these three types of event boundaries in constructing event temporal relations. Predictions were made based on how people would err according to the beginning state, end state, and overlap heuristic hypotheses. Participants viewed animated events that include all the logical possibilities of event temporal relations, and then made temporal relation judgments. The results showed that people make use of the overlap between events and take into account the ends and beginnings, but they weight ends more than beginnings. Neural network simulations showed a self‐organized distinction when learning temporal relations between events with overlap versus those without.
Argumentation and Explanation in Conceptual Change: Indications From Protocol Analyses of Peer‐to‐Peer Dialog
Authors: Asterhan Christa S. C. , Schwarz Baruch B.
Published: February 2010

In this paper we attempt to identify which peer collaboration characteristics may be accountable for conceptual change through interaction. We focus on different socio‐cognitive aspects of the peer dialog and relate these with learning gains on the dyadic as well as the individual level. The scientific topic that was used for this study concerns natural selection, a topic for which students’ intuitive conceptions have been shown to be particularly robust. Learning tasks were designed according to the socio‐cognitive conflict instructional paradigm. After receiving a short instructional intervention on natural selection, paired students were asked to collaboratively construct explanations for certain evolutionary phenomena while engaging in dialectical argumentation. Two quantitative coding schemes were developed, each with a different granularity. The first assessed discrete dialog moves that pertained to dialectical argumentation and to consensual explanation development. The second scheme characterized the dialog as a whole on a number of socio‐cognitive dimensions. Results from analyses on the dyadic as well as the individual level revealed that the engagement in dialectical argumentation predicted conceptual learning gains, whereas consensual explanation development did not. These findings open up new venues for research on the mechanisms of learning in and from peer collaboration.
Learning to Attend: A Connectionist Model of Situated Language Comprehension
Authors: Mayberry Marshall R. , Crocker Matthew W. , Knoeferle Pia
Published: February 2010

Evidence from numerous studies using the visual world paradigm has revealed both that spoken language can rapidly guide attention in a related visual scene and that scene information can immediately influence comprehension processes. These findings motivated the coordinated interplay account (Knoeferle & Crocker, 2006) of situated comprehension, which claims that utterance‐mediated attention crucially underlies this closely coordinated interaction of language and scene processing. We present a recurrent sigma‐pi neural network that models the rapid use of scene information, exploiting an utterance‐mediated attentional mechanism that directly instantiates the CIA. The model is shown to achieve high levels of performance (both with and without scene contexts), while also exhibiting hallmark behaviors of situated comprehension, such as incremental processing, anticipation of appropriate role fillers, as well as the immediate use, and priority, of depicted event information through the coordinated use of utterance‐mediated attention to the scene.
Conceptual Hierarchies in a Flat Attractor Network: Dynamics of Learning and Computations
Authors: O’Connor Christopher M. , Cree George S. , McRae Ken
Published: February 2010

The structure of people’s conceptual knowledge of concrete nouns has traditionally been viewed as hierarchical (Collins & Quillian, 1969). For example, superordinate concepts (vegetable) are assumed to reside at a higher level than basic‐level concepts (carrot). A feature‐based attractor network with a single layer of semantic features developed representations of both basic‐level and superordinate concepts. No hierarchical structure was built into the network. In Experiment and Simulation 1, the graded structure of categories (typicality ratings) is accounted for by the flat attractor network. Experiment and Simulation 2 show that, as with basic‐level concepts, such a network predicts feature verification latencies for superordinate concepts (vegetable). In Experiment and Simulation 3, counterintuitive results regarding the temporal dynamics of similarity in semantic priming are explained by the model. By treating both types of concepts the same in terms of representation, learning, and computations, the model provides new insights into semantic memory.
Labels as Features (Not Names) for Infant Categorization: A Neurocomputational Approach
Authors: Gliozzi Valentina , Mayor Julien , Hu Jon‐Fan , Plunkett Kim
Published: February 2010

A substantial body of experimental evidence has demonstrated that labels have an impact on infant categorization processes. Yet little is known regarding the nature of the mechanisms by which this effect is achieved. We distinguish between two competing accounts: supervised name‐based categorization and unsupervised feature‐based categorization. We describe a neurocomputational model of infant visual categorization, based on self‐organizing maps, that implements the unsupervised feature‐based approach. The model successfully reproduces experiments demonstrating the impact of labeling on infant visual categorization reported inPlunkett, Hu, and Cohen (2008). It mimics infant behavior in both the familiarization and testing phases of the procedure, using a training regime that involves only single presentations of each stimulus and using just 24 participant networks per experiment. The model predicts that the observed behavior in infants is due to a transient form of learning that might lead to the emergence of hierarchically organized categorical structure and that the impact of labels on categorization is influenced by the perceived similarity and the sequence in which the objects are presented. The results suggest that early in development, say before 12 months old, labels need not act as invitations to form categories nor highlight the commonalities between objects, but they may play a more mundane but nevertheless powerful role as additional features that are processed in the same fashion as other features that characterize objects and object categories.
The Wind Chilled the Spectators, but the Wine Just Chilled: Sense, Structure, and Sentence Comprehension
Authors: Hare Mary , Elman Jeffrey L. , Tabaczynski Tracy , McRae Ken
Published: February 2010

Anticipation plays a role in language comprehension. In this article, we explore the extent to which verb sense influences expectations about upcoming structure. We focus on change of state verbs likeshatter, which have different senses that are expressed in either transitive or intransitive structures, depending on the sense that is used. In two experiments we influence the interpretation of verb sense by manipulating the thematic fit of the grammatical subject as cause or affected entity for the verb, and test whether readers’ expectations for a transitive or intransitive structure change as a result. This sense‐biasing context influenced reading times in the postverbal regions. Reading times for transitive sentences were faster following good‐cause than good‐theme subjects, but the opposite pattern was found for intransitive sentences. We conclude that readers use sense‐contingent subcategorization preferences during on‐line comprehension.
Specialization Effect and Its Influence on Memory and Problem Solving in Expert Chess Players
Authors: Bilalić Merim , McLeod Peter , Gobet Fernand
Published: February 2010

Expert chess players, specialized in different openings, recalled positions and solved problems within and outside their area of specialization. While their general expertise was at a similar level, players performed better with stimuli from their area of specialization. The effect of specialization on both recall and problem solving was strong enough to override general expertise—players remembering positions and solving problems from their area of specialization performed at around the level of players 1 standard deviation (SD) above them in general skill. Their problem‐solving strategy also changed depending on whether the problem was within their area of specialization. When it was, they searched more in depth and less in breadth; with problems outside their area of specialization, the reverse. The knowledge that comes from familiarity with a problem area is more important than general purpose strategies in determining how an expert will tackle it. These results demonstrate the link in experts between problem solving and memory of specific experiences and indicate that the search for context‐independent general purpose problem‐solving strategies to teach to future experts is unlikely to be successful.
The Role of Color in Human Face Detection
Authors: Bindemann Markus , Burton A. Mike
Published: February 2010

Significant advances have been made in understanding human face recognition. However, a fundamental aspect of this process, how faces are located in our visual environment, is poorly understood and little studied. Here we examine the role of color in human face detection. We demonstrate that detection performance declines when color information is removed from faces, regardless of whether the surrounding scene context is rendered in color. Furthermore, faces rendered in unnatural colors are hard to detect, suggesting a role beyond simple segmentation. When faces are presented such that half the surface is colored appropriately, and half unnaturally, performance declines. This suggests that observers are not simply using the presence of skin color “patches” to detect faces. Rather, our data suggest that detection operates via a face template combining diagnostic color and face‐shape information. These findings are consistent with color‐template approaches used in some computer‐based face detection systems.
Learning Harmony: The Role of Serial Statistics
Authors: Jonaitis Erin McMullen , Saffran Jenny R.
Published: February 2010

How do listeners learn about the statistical regularities underlying musical harmony? In traditional Western music, certain chords predict the occurrence of other chords: Given a particular chord, not all chords are equally likely to follow. In Experiments 1 and 2, we investigated whether adults make use of statistical information when learning new musical structures. Listeners were exposed to a novel musical system containing phrases generated using an artificial grammar. This new system contained statistical structure quite different from Western tonal music. Our results suggest that learners take advantage of the statistical patterning of chords to acquire new musical structures, similar to learning processes previously observed for language learning.
Perception With Compensatory Devices: From Sensory Substitution to Sensorimotor Extension
Authors: Auvray Malika , Myin Erik
Published: February 2010

Sensory substitution devices provide through an unusual sensory modality (thesubstitutingmodality, e.g., audition) access to features of the world that are normally accessed through another sensory modality (thesubstitutedmodality, e.g., vision). In this article, we address the question of which sensory modality the acquired perception belongs to. We have recourse to the four traditional criteria that have been used to define sensory modalities: sensory organ, stimuli, properties, and qualitative experience (Grice, 1962), to which we have added the criteria of behavioral equivalence (Morgan, 1977), dedication (Keeley, 2002), and sensorimotor equivalence (O’Regan & Noë, 2001). We discuss which of them are fulfilled by perception through sensory substitution devices and whether this favors the view that perception belongs to the substituting or to the substituted modality. Though the application of a number of criteria might be taken to point to the conclusion that perception with a sensory substitution device belongs to the substituted modality, we argue that the evidence leads to an alternative view on sensory substitution. According to this view, the experience after sensory substitution is a transformation, extension, or augmentation of our perceptual capacities, rather than being something equivalent or reducible to an already existing sensory modality. We develop this view by comparing sensory substitution devices to other “mind‐enhancing tools” such as pen and paper, sketchpads, or calculators. An analysis of sensory substitution in terms of mind‐enhancing tools unveils it as a thoroughly transforming perceptual experience and as giving rise to a novel form of perceptual interaction with the environment.
Explanatory Pluralism in Cognitive Science
Authors: Dale Rick , Dietrich Eric , Chemero Anthony
Published: February 2010

This brief commentary has three goals. The first is to argue that “framework debate” in cognitive science is unresolvable. The idea that one theory or framework can singly account for the vast complexity and variety of cognitive processes seems unlikely if not impossible. The second goal is a consequence of this: We should consider how the various theories on offer work together in diverse contexts of investigation. A final goal is to supply a brief review for readers who are compelled by these points to explore existing literature on the topic. Despite this literature, pluralism has garnered very little attention from broader cognitive science. We end by briefly considering what it might mean for theoretical cognitive science.
Insights Into Knowledge Representation: The Influence of Amodal and Perceptual Variables on Event Knowledge Retrieval From Memory
Authors: Raisig Susanne , Welke Tinka , Hagendorf Herbert , Van Der Meer Elke
Published: February 2010

Event sequences or scripts are the conceptual representations of activities in memory. Traditional views hold that events are represented in amodal networks and are retrieved by associative strategies. The embodied cognition approach holds that knowledge is grounded in perception and retrieved by mental simulation. We used a script generation task where event sequences of activities had to be produced. Activities varied in their degree of familiarity. In a regressional design we investigated whether amodal or perceptual variables best predicted knowledge retrieval to gain insight into the underlying representation. Retrieval depended on the familiarity of the activity. While novel activities mainly relied on perception‐based simulation and to a lesser extent on associative strategies, moderately familiar activities showed the opposite pattern, and events of familiar activities were retrieved by association alone. We conclude that amodal structures exist in all representations that become stronger with increasing frequency and finally prevail over perceptual structures.
The Wisdom of Individuals: Exploring People's Knowledge About Everyday Events Using Iterated Learning
Authors: Lewandowsky Stephan , Griffiths Thomas L. , Kalish Michael L.
Published: February 2010

Determining the knowledge that guides human judgments is fundamental to understanding how people reason, make decisions, and form predictions. We use an experimental procedure called ‘‘iterated learning,’’ in which the responses that people give on one trial are used to generate the data they see on the next, to pinpoint the knowledge that informs people's predictions about everyday events (e.g., predicting the total box office gross of a movie from its current take). In particular, we use this method to discriminate between two models of human judgments: a simple Bayesian model (Griffiths & Tenenbaum, 2006) and a recently proposed alternative model that assumes people store only a few instances of each type of event in memory (MinK; Mozer, Pashler, & Homaei, 2008). Although testing these models using standard experimental procedures is difficult due to differences in the number of free parameters and the need to make assumptions about the knowledge of individual learners, we show that the two models make very different predictions about the outcome of iterated learning. The results of an experiment using this methodology provide a rich picture of how much people know about the distributions of everyday quantities, and they are inconsistent with the predictions of the MinK model. The results suggest that accurate predictions about everyday events reflect relatively sophisticated knowledge on the part of individuals.
Holistic Processing Is Tuned for In‐Group Faces
Authors: Hugenberg Kurt , Corneille Olivier
Published: February 2010

Past research has found that mere in‐group/out‐group categorizations are sufficient to elicit biases in face memory. The current research yields novel evidence that mere social categorization is also sufficient to modulate processes underlying face perception, even for faces for which we have strong perceptual expertise: same‐race (SR) faces. Using the composite face paradigm, we find that SR faces categorized as in‐group members (i.e., fellow university students) are processed more holistically than are SR faces categorized as out‐group members (i.e., students at another university). Hence, holding perceptual expertise with faces constant, categorizing an SR target as an out‐group member debilitates the strong holistic processing typically observed for SR faces.
Solving Geometric Analogy Problems Through Two‐Stage Analogical Mapping
Authors: Lovett Andrew , Tomai Emmett , Forbus Kenneth , Usher Jeffrey
Published: February 2010

Evans’ 1968 ANALOGY system was the first computer model of analogy. This paper demonstrates that the structure mapping model of analogy, when combined with high‐level visual processing and qualitative representations, can solve the same kinds of geometric analogy problems as were solved by ANALOGY. Importantly, the bulk of the computations are not particular to the model of this task but are general purpose: We use our existing sketch understanding system, CogSketch, to compute visual structure that is used by our existing analogical matcher, Structure Mapping Engine (SME). We show how SME can be used to facilitate high‐level visual matching, proposing a role for structural alignment in mental rotation. We show how second‐order analogies over differences computed via analogies between pictures provide a more elegant model of the geometric analogy task. We compare our model against human data on a set of problems, showing that the model aligns well with both the answers chosen by people and the reaction times required to choose the answers.
Fear Conditioning and Social Groups: Statistics, Not Genetics
Authors: Maia Tiago V.
Published: February 2010

Humans display more conditioned fear when the conditioned stimulus in a fear conditioning paradigm is a picture of an individual from another race than when it is a picture of an individual from their own race (Olsson, Ebert, Banaji, & Phelps, 2005). These results have been interpreted in terms of a genetic “preparedness” to learn to fear individuals from different social groups (Ohman, 2005; Olsson et al., 2005). However, the associability of conditioned stimuli is strongly influenced by prior exposure to those or similar stimuli. Using the Kalman filter, a normative statistical model, this article shows that superior fear conditioning to individuals from other groups is precisely what one would expect if participants perform optimal, Bayesian inference that takes their prior exposures to the different groups into account. There is therefore no need to postulate a genetic preparedness to learn to fear individuals from other races or social groups.
A Semantics‐Based Approach to the “No Negative Evidence” Problem
Authors: Ambridge Ben , Pine Julian M. , Rowland Caroline F. , Jones Rebecca L. , Clark Victoria
Published: February 2010

Previous studies have shown that children retreat from argument‐structure overgeneralization errors (e.g., *Don’t giggle me) by inferring that frequently encountered verbs are unlikely to be grammatical in unattested constructions, and by making use of syntax‐semantics correspondences (e.g., verbs denoting internally caused actions such as giggling cannot normally be used causatively). The present study tested a new account based on a unitary learning mechanism that combines both of these processes. Seventy‐two participants (ages 5–6, 9–10, and adults) rated overgeneralization errors with higher (*The funny man’s joke giggled Bart) and lower (*The funny man giggled Bart) degrees of direct external causation. The errors with more‐direct causation were rated as less unacceptable than those with less‐direct causation. This finding is consistent with the new account, under which children acquire—in an incremental and probabilistic fashion—the meaning of particular constructions (e.g., transitive causative = direct external causation) and particular verbs, rejecting generalizations where the incompatibility between the two is too great.
Conversation, Gaze Coordination, and Beliefs About Visual Context
Authors: Richardson Daniel C. , Dale Rick , Tomlinson John M.
Published: February 2010

Conversation is supported by the beliefs that people have in common and the perceptual experience that they share. The visual context of a conversation has two aspects: the information that is available to each conversant, and their beliefs about what is present for each other. In our experiment, we separated these factors for the first time and examined their impact on a spontaneous conversation. We manipulated the fact that a visual scene was shared or not and the belief that a visual scene was shared or not. Participants watched videos of actors talking about a controversial topic, then discussed their own views while looking at either a blank screen or the actors. Each believed (correctly or not) that their partner was either looking at a blank screen or the same images. We recorded conversants’ eye movements, quantified how they were coordinated, and analyzed their speech patterns. Gaze coordination has been shown to be causally related to the knowledge people share before a conversation, and the information they later recall. Here, we found that both the presence of the visual scene, and beliefs about its presence for another, influenced language use and gaze coordination.
The Effect of Psychological Distance on Perceptual Level of Construal
Authors: Liberman Nira , Förster Jens
Published: February 2010

Three studies examined the effect of primed psychological distance on level of perceptual construal, using Navon’s paradigm of composite letters (global letters that are made of local letters). Relative to a control group, thinking of the more distant future (Study 1), about more distant spatial locations (Study 2), and about more distant social relations (Study 3) facilitated perception of global letters relative to local letters. Proximal times, spatial locations, and social relations had the opposite effect. The results are discussed within the framework of Construal Level Theory of psychological distance (Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope & Liberman, 2003).
Learning Representations of Wordforms With Recurrent Networks: Comment on Sibley, Kello, Plaut, & Elman (2008)
Authors: Bowers Jeffrey S. , Davis Colin J.
Published: February 2010

Sibley et al. (2008) report a recurrent neural network model designed to learn wordform representations suitable for written and spoken word identification. The authors claim that their sequence encoder network overcomes a key limitation associated with models that code letters by position (e.g., CAT might be coded as C‐in‐position‐1, A‐in‐position‐2, T‐in‐position‐3). The problem with coding letters by position (slot‐coding) is that it is difficult to generalize knowledge across positions; for example, the overlap between CAT and TOMCAT is lost. Although we agree this is a critical problem with many slot‐coding schemes, we question whether the sequence encoder model addresses this limitation, and we highlight another deficiency of the model. We conclude that alternative theories are more promising.
Sequence Encoders Enable Large‐Scale Lexical Modeling: Reply to Bowers and Davis (2009)
Authors: Sibley Daragh E. , Kello Christopher T. , Plaut David C. , Elman Jeffrey L.
Published: February 2010

Sibley, Kello, Plaut, and Elman (2008) proposed the sequence encoder as a model that learns fixed‐width distributed representations of variable‐length sequences. In doing so, the sequence encoder overcomes problems that have restricted models of word reading and recognition to processing only monosyllabic words. Bowers and Davis (2009) recently claimed that the sequence encoder does not actually overcome the relevant problems, and hence it is not a useful component of large‐scale word‐reading models. In this reply, it is noted that the sequence encoder has facilitated the creation of large‐scale word‐reading models. The reasons for this success are explained and stand as counterarguments to claims made by Bowers and Davis.
Do Grammars Minimize Dependency Length?
Authors: Gildea Daniel , Temperley David
Published: February 2010

A well‐established principle of language is that there is a preference for closely related words to be close together in the sentence. This can be expressed as a preference for dependency length minimization (DLM). In this study, we explore quantitatively the degree to which natural languages reflect DLM. We extract the dependencies from natural language text and reorder the words in such a way as to minimize dependency length. Comparing the original text with these optimal linearizations (and also with random linearizations) reveals the degree to which natural language minimizes dependency length. Tests on English data show that English shows a strong effect of DLM, with dependency length much closer to optimal than to random; the optimal English grammar also has many specific features in common with English. In German, too, dependency length is significantly less than random, but the effect is much weaker than in English. We conclude by speculating about some possible reasons for this difference between English and German.
Two Causal Theories of Counterfactual Conditionals
Authors: Rips Lance J.
Published: February 2010

Bayes nets are formal representations of causal systems that many psychologists have claimed as plausible mental representations. One purported advantage of Bayes nets is that they may provide a theory of counterfactual conditionals, such as If Calvin had been at the party, Miriam would have left early. This article compares two proposed Bayes net theories as models of people’s understanding of counterfactuals. Experiments 1–3 show that neither theory makes correct predictions about backtracking counterfactuals (in which the event of the if‐clause occurs after the event of the then‐clause), and Experiment 4 shows the same is true of forward counterfactuals. An amended version of one of the approaches, however, can provide a more accurate account of these data.
Moral Principles or Consumer Preferences? Alternative Framings of the Trolley Problem
Authors: Rai Tage S. , Holyoak Keith J.
Published: February 2010

We created paired moral dilemmas with minimal contrasts in wording, a research strategy that has been advocated as a way to empirically establish principles operative in a domain‐specific moral psychology. However, the candidate “principles” we tested were not derived from work in moral philosophy, but rather from work in the areas of consumer choice and risk perception. Participants were paradoxically less likely to choose an action that sacrifices one life to save others when they were asked to provide more reasons for doing so (Experiment 1), and their willingness to sacrifice lives depended not only on how many lives would be saved, but on the number of lives at risk (Experiment 2). The latter effect was also found in a within‐subjects design (Experiment 3). These findings suggest caution in the use of artificial dilemmas as a key testbed for revealing principled bases for moral judgment.
Promoting Positive Attitudes Toward People With Down Syndrome: The Benefit of School Inclusion Programs1
Authors: Sirlopú David , González Roberto , Bohner Gerd , Siebler Frank , Ordóñez Gabriela , Millar Andres , Torres David , De Tezanos‐Pinto Pablo
Published: February 2010

The effects of school inclusion programs on male and female nondisabled students' stereotypes and attitudes toward people with Down syndrome were studied. Nondisabled students (11–15 years of age) from schools with and without inclusion programs reported positive and negative attitudes toward people with Down syndrome. As hypothesized, girls and students attending schools with inclusion programs showed more favorable attitudes toward people with Down syndrome than did boys and students attending schools without inclusion programs, respectively. Interaction effects of school system and sex of participant suggest that boys' attitudes, in particular, benefit from inclusive schooling. The study provides evidence for the effectiveness of inclusion programs in ameliorating prejudice and intergroup anxiety; and in promoting positive attitudes, affect, and trust.
Information Regarding Social‐Sexual Behavior as an Antecedent to Perceptions of Ineffectiveness in the Workplace1
Authors: Liberman Benjamín E. , Okimoto Tyler G.
Published: February 2010

Three experimental studies investigated whether information implying social‐sexual behavior (any non‐work‐related behavior containing a sexual component) by employees would influence judgments of their effectiveness. In managerial and entry‐level positions, both male and female employees depicted as engaging in social‐sexual behaviors at work were perceived as less effective and less desirable as bosses, compared to identically described managers for whom no social‐sexual behavior information was provided. However, these negative evaluations were mitigated when information was provided indicating that these managers were always on‐task and effectively using their time at work (Study 3), suggesting that the effectiveness of employees who engage in social‐sexual behavior at work is devalued because others believe that these behaviors detract from productive time in the office.
Food‐Safety Practices in the Domestic Kitchen: Demographic, Personality, and Experiential Determinants1
Authors: Fischer Arnout R. H. , Frewer Lynn J.
Published: February 2010

The impact of consumer behavior in determining the safety of foods prepared at home has focused so far on the role of isolated consumer practices. In addition, demographic factors have been applied primarily to explain differences between individuals. In this paper, the use of psychological factors to predict scores on the integrated food‐safety score is advocated. In order to assess the relevance of psychological constructs to food‐safety behaviors, several relations are tested at the same time in a structural equation model in which it is demonstrated that the inclusion of psychological determinants leads to a better model for the prediction of food‐related behaviors in comparison to demographic factors alone.
The impacts of metals and metalloids on insect behavior
Authors: Mogren Christina L. , Trumble John T.
Published: February 2010

In toxicology studies, the use of death as an endpoint often fails to capture the effects a pollutant has on disruptions of ecosystem services by changing an animal’s behavior. Many toxicants can cause population extinctions of insect species at concentrations well below the EC25, EC50, or EC90concentrations traditionally reported from short‐term bioassays. A surprising number of species cannot detect metal and metalloid contamination, and do not always avoid food with significant metal concentrations. This frequently leads to modified ingestion, locomotor, and reproductive behaviors. For example, some species show a tendency to increase locomotor behaviors to escape from locations with elevated metal pollution, whereas other insects greatly decrease all movements unrelated to feeding. Still others exhibit behaviors resulting in increased susceptibility to predation, including a positive phototaxis causing immatures to move to exposed positions. For purposes of reproduction, the inability to avoid even moderately polluted sites when ovipositing can lead to egg loss and reduced fitness of offspring. Ultimately, impaired behaviors result in a general reduction in population sizes and species diversity at contaminated sites, the exceptions being those species tolerating contamination that become dominant. Regardless, ecosystem services, such as herbivory, detritus reduction, or food production for higher trophic levels, are disrupted. This review evaluates the effects of metal and metalloid pollution on insect behaviors in both terrestrial and aquatic systems reported in a diverse literature scattered across many scientific disciplines. Behaviors are grouped by ingestion, taxis, and oviposition. We conclude that understanding how insect behavior is modified is necessary to assess the full scope and importance of metal and metalloid contamination.
Homing of transplanted bone marrow cells in livers of Schistosoma mansoni‐infected mice
Authors: ELKHAFIF NAGWA , VOSS BRUNO , HAMMAM OLFAT , YEHIA HODA , MANSY SOHEIR , AKL MAHA , BOEHM SABINE , MAHMOUD SOHEIR , EL BENDARY OMNIA , EL FANDY GIHAN
Published: February 2010

Elkhafif N, Voss B, Hammam O, Yehia H, Mansy S, Akl M, Boehm S, Mahmoud S, El Bendary O, El Fandy G. Homing of transplanted bone marrow cells in livers of Schistosoma mansoni‐infected mice. APMIS 2010; 118: 277–87.

The efficiency of differentiation of bone marrow cells (BMCs) into hepatocytes in vivo and its importance in physiopathological processes is still debated. Murine schistosomiasis was used as a liver injury model and unfractionated male mice BMCs were transplanted through intrahepatic injection into non‐irradiated Schistosoma mansoni‐infected female mice on their 16th week post‐infection. Two weeks after bone marrow transplantation, mice were sacrificed on a weekly basis until 10 weeks. Tracing of male donor‐derived cells in female recipient mice livers was carried out by the detection of Y chromosome expression by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and also of chromodomain Y‐linked (CDYL) protein by indirect immunofluorescence (IF). Their transformation into hepatocytes was studied by double labelling indirect IF using antibodies directed against CDYL and mouse albumin. Histopathological and electron microscopic examinations revealed the presence of small hepatocyte‐like cells in the periportal tracts and in between the hepatocytes facing the sinusoids. Donor‐derived cells showing Y chromosome by FISH and expressing CDYL protein by IF were recovered in the infected transplanted livers. The initial number of these cells increased with increased post‐transplantation time. Cells were mainly localized in the periphery of schistosoma granuloma. Few donor‐derived cells appeared within the hepatic parenchymal tissue and showed positivity for albumin secretion by double labelling with IF. We suggest that transplanted bone marrow stem cells can repopulate the Schistosoma‐infected liver of immunocompetent mice. Their differentiation is a complex event controlled by many factors and needs to be further characterized extensively. The extent and type of liver injury and the number of transplanted cells are important variables in the process of stem cell engraftment and differentiation into functioning hepatic cells that still need to be defined.
A Case Report of Acute Renal Failure Associated With Bee Pollen Contained in Nutritional Supplements
Authors: Akiyasu Tsuchida , Paudyal Bishnuhari , Paudyal Pramila , Kumiko Matsumoto , Kazue Ueki , Takuji Naruse , Takashi Kuroiwa , Yoshihisa Nojima , Minoru Komai
Published: February 2010

We report a case of renal failure associated with the ingestion of bee pollen containing nutritional supplement. A 49‐year‐old male patient who had been ingesting a nutritional supplement for more than five months had breathing difficulties, anuria, exceptional weight gain (20 kg) due to systemic edema, and loss of appetite. A renal biopsy confirmed interstitial nephritis with the presence of eosinophils, which is suggestive of drug‐induced acute renal failure. The nutritional supplement was ceased and hemodialysis begun. The patient's condition improved after several hemodialysis sessions, which were then stopped. Current information regarding the adverse effects of bee pollen is not very robust, therefore potential damage should be kept in mind before ingesting nutritional supplements in which it is contained. This report serves as an important reminder to the public as well as healthcare providers of the potential of renal failure related to nutritional supplements.
A Case Report of a Successful Monochorionic Diamniotic Twin Pregnancy in a Patient Affected by Sickle Cell Disease Treated With Erythrocytapheresis
Authors: Motta Serena , Perseghin Paolo , Consonni Sara , Regalia Anna L , Masera Nicoletta
Published: February 2010

We describe a monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy in a 28‐year‐old woman with a severe form of sickle cell disease periodically treated with erythrocytapheresis (EA). During this high risk pregnancy, two sessions of EA were performed without complications, and pain control and fetal growth were optimal. Delivery was carried out by emergency cesarean section at 29+3 weeks' gestation due to initial fetal distress following twin‐to‐twin transfusion. There were no significant complications for the newborn twins and the post‐partum course was regular. The patient underwent a further EA 7 weeks after surgery. Close collaboration between obstetricians and hematologists with careful maternal‐fetal monitoring and prophylactic EA during pregnancy led to a favorable outcome despite a low maternal body weight, a twin pregnancy, and a severe form of sickle cell disease.
DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A LOOP‐MEDIATED ISOTHERMAL AMPLIFICATION (LAMP) METHOD FOR DETECTING LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES IN RAW MILK
Authors: WANG DEGUO , HUO GUICHENG , REN DAXI , LI YONGGANG
Published: February 2010

The performance of a Loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detecting food‐borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes was presented in this paper. Three pairs of primers were specially designed for recognizing eight distinct sequences of iap gene (P60 extracellular protein, invasion associated protein IAP). Time and temperature conditions for amplification of L. monocytogenes were optimized to be 40 min at 63C. Detection limit level for artificially contaminated raw milk samples by the LAMP assay was 186 cfu/mL corresponding to 8–10 cells per reaction tube, while the detection level by conventional PCR was 1.86 × 105 cfu/mL. Data on natural raw milk samples indicated that the LAMP method was highly specific and sensitive, giving 91.67% concordance with the ISO 10560 reference method for the samples without enrichment and 100% concordance after enrichment.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

The LAMP method in this paper provided a powerful tool with the specificity, sensitivity and rapidity for detection of Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk.