Search results for "Topic"

Photoreceptors, lightness constancy and color vision.

1986

Absence of lightness constancy as a deficit of monochromatic vision

1995

Dark-adapted human subjects arranged a collection of colored papers in a sequence according to their lightness. The sequence of the papers (which appeared gray to the subjects) varied under different illuminant spectra. These variations could be predicted quantitatively from the radiometric data and human scotopic spectral sensitivity. By substitution of natural daylight spectra in the computation it was shown that monochromats cannot perceive lightness reliably under the changing illuminant spectra of our planet. Animals need some degree of lightness constancy to detect figures against a background reliably. This can be achieved only with the help of additional light receptors of different…

The unspeakable through the works of some contemporary Spanish composers

2016

The concept of unspeakable, as complex as it may be, can base itself on an experience of the sensitive, and find a common context in the events exceeding the limit and pointing a certain chaos. Those of the Spanish Civil War have constituted, by numerous aspects, examples of these unthinkable excesses. The impact of the environment on the creators has been heard in the thematic traces which are imperative in the works composed on the themes of death, violence or war: from the sound phenomena, some figures making sensitive the exceeding of the limit and chaotic connotation have been highlighted and echo what is beyond belief, as the destruction of man or the inaudibility of death. These figu…

Five Ways in Which Computational Modeling Can Help Advance Cognitive Science

2019

Abstract There is a rich tradition of building computational models in cognitive science, but modeling, theoretical, and experimental research are not as tightly integrated as they could be. In this paper, we show that computational techniques—even simple ones that are straightforward to use—can greatly facilitate designing, implementing, and analyzing experiments, and generally help lift research to a new level. We focus on the domain of artificial grammar learning, and we give five concrete examples in this domain for (a) formalizing and clarifying theories, (b) generating stimuli, (c) visualization, (d) model selection, and (e) exploring the hypothesis space.

Context and topic marking affect distinct processes during discourse comprehension in Japanese

2011

Abstract In languages like English or German, definite and indefinite markers serve to distinguish given/old from new information in the discourse model. Japanese, in contrast, lacks definiteness markers, but has a topic marker. The present paper examines how the information status of a noun phrase (NP) in Japanese is represented and integrated into the discourse model. An ERP experiment investigated the processing of topic-marked and non-topic-marked NPs following three different context sentences (making available a given, inferred, or new reading). The results revealed an increase in the N400 as a function of contextual cueing, i.e. the less accessible a referential expression is in the …

Encapsulació i estructura informativa en el debat parlamentari. Una anàlisi contrastiva (català – espanyol – anglès)

2016

Parliamentary debate (PD) as a specific genre of parliamentary discourse exhibits a hybrid nature: part oral and part written discourse. It is performed orally, but planned ahead and formal. From the point of view of lexical cohesion, encapsulation by means of abstract and unspecific nouns (e.g. factor reason) is an indicator of the informative density and the underlying written natureof PD.With the tools provided by Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Linguistics, this paper aims at describing and characterizing cross-linguistically lexical encapsulation’s potential to define the information struc-ture of PD. In this regard, encapsulation is analyzed in relation to the notions of topic and fo…

Accounting for haplotype phase uncertainty in linkage disequilibrium estimation

2007

The characterization of linkage disequilibrium (LD) is applied in a variety of studies including the identification of molecular determinants of the local recombination rate, the migration and population history of populations, and the role of positive selection in adaptation. LD suffers from the phase uncertainty of the haplotypes used in its calculation, which reflects limitations of the algorithms used for haplotype estimation. We introduce a LD calculation method, which deals with phase uncertainty by weighting all possible haplotype pairs according to their estimated probabilities as evaluated by PHASE. In contrast to the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm as implemented in the HA…

Reproductive Biology and Its Impact on Body Size: Comparative Analysis of Mammalian, Avian and Dinosaurian Reproduction

2011

Janis and Carrano (1992) suggested that large dinosaurs might have faced a lower risk of extinction under ecological changes than similar-sized mammals because large dinosaurs had a higher potential reproductive output than similar-sized mammals (JC hypothesis). First, we tested the assumption underlying the JC hypothesis. We therefore analysed the potential reproductive output (reflected in clutch/litter size and annual offspring number) of extant terrestrial mammals and birds (as "dinosaur analogs") and of extinct dinosaurs. With the exception of rodents, the differences in the reproductive output of similar-sized birds and mammals proposed by Janis and Carrano (1992) existed even at the …

A new definition for metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease: An international expert consensus statement

2020

The exclusion of other chronic liver diseases including “excess” alcohol intake has until now been necessary to establish a diagnosis of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). However, given our current understanding of the pathogenesis of MAFLD and its rising prevalence, “positive criteria” to diagnose the disease are required. In this work, a panel of international experts from 22 countries propose a new definition for the diagnosis of MAFLD that is both comprehensive and simple, and is independent of other liver diseases. The criteria are based on evidence of hepatic steatosis, in addition to one of the following three criteria, namely overweight/obesity, presence …

From current status to optimization of HCV treatment: Recommendations from an expert panel

2016

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem at a global level, causing an enormous burden of hepatic and extra-hepatic morbidity and mortality. Treatment of chronic HCV (CHC) has been revolutionized in the last few years by the introduction of highly effective and well tolerated direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) able to achieve >90% rates of sustained virological response (SVR) in many groups of patients, including those previously excluded from interferon-based regimens. For such reason interferon-free regimens are now the treatments of choice for all patients. Successful anti-HCV treatment can stop liver disease progression and can solve the HCV-relat…