Visual variability affects early verb learning

Research demonstrates that within-category visual variability facilitates noun learning; however, the effect of visual variability on verb learning is unknown. We habituated 24-month-old children to a novel verb paired with an animated star-shaped actor. Across multiple trials, children saw either a single action from an action category (identical actions condition, for example, travelling while repeatedly changing into a circle shape) or multiple actions from that action category (variable actions condition, for example, travelling while changing into a circle shape, then a square shape, then a triangle shape). Four test trials followed habituation. One paired the habituated verb with a new action from the habituated category (e.g., ‘dacking’ + pentagon shape) and one with a completely novel action (e.g., ‘dacking’ + leg movement). The others paired a new verb with a new same-category action (e.g., ‘keefing’ + pentagon shape), or a completely novel category action (e.g., ‘keefing’ + leg movement). Although all children discriminated novel verb/action pairs, children in the identical actions condition discriminated trials that included the completely novel verb, while children in the variable actions condition discriminated the out-of-category action. These data suggest that – as in noun learning – visual variability affects verb learning and children's ability to form action categories

Spin-orbit coupling and the conservation of angular momentum

In nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the total (i.e. orbital plus spin) angular momentum of a charged particle with spin that moves in a Coulomb plus spin-orbit-coupling potential is conserved. In a classical nonrelativistic treatment of this problem, in which the Lagrange equations determine the orbital motion and the Thomas equation yields the rate of change of the spin, the particle's total angular momentum in which the orbital angular momentum is defined in terms of the kinetic momentum is generally not conserved. However, a generalized total angular momentum, in which the orbital part is defined in terms of the canonical momentum, is conserved. This illustrates the fact that the quantum-mechanical operator of momentum corresponds to the canonical momentum of classical mechanics.Comment: 10 pages, as published by Eur. J. Phy

The power of suggestion: post-hypnotically induced changes in the temporal binding of intentional action outcomes

The sense of agency is the experience of initiating and controlling one’s voluntary actions and their outcomes. Intentional binding (i.e., when voluntary actions and their outcomes are perceived to occur closer together in time than involuntary actions and their outcomes) is increased in intentional action but requires no explicit reflection on agency. The reported experience of involuntariness is central to hypnotic responding, during which strategic action is experienced as involuntary. We report reduced intentional binding in a hypnotically induced experience of involuntariness, providing an objective correlate of reports of involuntariness. We argue that this reduced binding results from the diminished influence of motor intentions in the generation of the sense of agency when beliefs about whether an action is intended are altered. Thus, intentional binding depends on awareness of intentions. This finding shows that changes in metacognition of intentions affect perception

genenames.org: the HGNC resources in 2011

The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) aims to assign a unique gene symbol and name to every human gene. The HGNC database currently contains almost 30 000 approved gene symbols, over 19 000 of which represent protein-coding genes. The public website, www.genenames.org, displays all approved nomenclature within Symbol Reports that contain data curated by HGNC editors and links to related genomic, phenotypic and proteomic information. Here we describe improvements to our resources, including a new Quick Gene Search, a new List Search, an integrated HGNC BioMart and a new Statistics and Downloads facility

Karakul Sheep.

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The Iowa Homemaker vol.23, no.15

Keeping Up With Today, D. Jean Merrill, page 2 Institution Recipes Are Acclaimed, Victoria McKibben, page 3 Democracy Begins in the Home, Jean Larson, page 4 Schools Sponsor Nutrition Program, Jean Bunge, page 5 Vicky Rehearses for Spring, Josephine Ahern, page 6 What’s New in Home Economics, Marilyn Mitchell, page 8 Benefit from College Placement, Mary Elva Sather, page 10 Well-known Cooks Open Their Kitchens, Mary E. Lush, page 11 Alums in the News, Patricia Maddex, page 12 Distinguished Alumnus Credits Home, Marjorie Shuler, page 14 Across Alumnae Desks, Harriet Keen, page 15 Women’s Follies in Fashion, Lila Mae Hummel, page 1

The ‘algebra of evolution’: the Robertson–Price identity and viability selection for body mass in a wild bird population

By the Robertson–Price identity, the change in a quantitative trait owing to selection, is equal to the trait’s covariance with relative fitness. In this study, we applied the identity to long-term data on superb fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus, to estimate phenotypic and genetic change owing to juvenile viability selection. Mortality in the four-week period between fledging and independence was 40%, and heavier nestlings were more likely to survive, but why? There was additive genetic variance for both nestling mass and survival, and a positive phenotypic covariance between the traits, but no evidence of additive genetic covariance. Comparing standardized gradients, the phenotypic selection gradient was positive, βP = 0.108 (0.036, 0.187 95% CI), whereas the genetic gradient was not different from zero, βA = −0.025 (−0.19, 0.107 95% CI). This suggests that factors other than nestling mass were the cause of variation in survival. In particular, there were temporal correlations between mass and survival both within and between years. We suggest that use of the Price equation to describe cross-generational change in the wild may be challenging, but a more modest aim of estimating its first term, the Robertson–Price identity, to assess within-generation change can provide valuable insights into the processes shaping phenotypic diversity in natural populations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of the Price equation’G.K.H. was supported by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (grant no. NE/L002558/1) through the University of Edinburgh’s E3 Doctoral Training Partnership, and L.E.B.K. was funded by an ARC Future Fellowship FT110100453. The long-term superb fairy-wren study research has been facilitated by a series of Discovery Project grants from the Australian Research Council to A.C. and L.E.B.K., most recently DP150100298

CanRisk-Prostate: A Comprehensive, Externally Validated Risk Model for the Prediction of Future Prostate Cancer.

PURPOSE: Prostate cancer (PCa) is highly heritable. No validated PCa risk model currently exists. We therefore sought to develop a genetic risk model that can provide personalized predicted PCa risks on the basis of known moderate- to high-risk pathogenic variants, low-risk common genetic variants, and explicit cancer family history, and to externally validate the model in an independent prospective cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We developed a risk model using a kin-cohort comprising individuals from 16,633 PCa families ascertained in the United Kingdom from 1993 to 2017 from the UK Genetic Prostate Cancer Study, and complex segregation analysis adjusting for ascertainment. The model was externally validated in 170,850 unaffected men (7,624 incident PCas) recruited from 2006 to 2010 to the independent UK Biobank prospective cohort study. RESULTS: The most parsimonious model included the effects of pathogenic variants in BRCA2, HOXB13, and BRCA1, and a polygenic score on the basis of 268 common low-risk variants. Residual familial risk was modeled by a hypothetical recessively inherited variant and a polygenic component whose standard deviation decreased log-linearly with age. The model predicted familial risks that were consistent with those reported in previous observational studies. In the validation cohort, the model discriminated well between unaffected men and men with incident PCas within 5 years (C-index, 0.790; 95% CI, 0.783 to 0.797) and 10 years (C-index, 0.772; 95% CI, 0.768 to 0.777). The 50% of men with highest predicted risks captured 86.3% of PCa cases within 10 years. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first validated risk model offering personalized PCa risks. The model will assist in counseling men concerned about their risk and can facilitate future risk-stratified population screening approaches

Incorporating Alternative Polygenic Risk Scores into the BOADICEA Breast Cancer Risk Prediction Model

Background: The multifactorial risk prediction model BOADI-CEA enables identification of women at higher or lower risk of developing breast cancer. BOADICEA models genetic susceptibility in terms of the effects of rare variants in breast cancer susceptibility genes and a polygenic component, decomposed into an unmeasured and a measured component -the polygenic risk score (PRS). The current version was developed using a 313 SNP PRS. Here, we evaluated approaches to incorporating this PRS and alternative PRS in BOADICEA.Methods: The mean, SD, and proportion of the overall polygenic component explained by the PRS (a2) need to be estimated. a was estimated using logistic regression, where the age-specific log-OR is constrained to be a function of the age-dependent polygenic relative risk in BOADICEA; and using a retrospective likelihood (RL) approach that models, in addition, the unmeasured polygenic component.Results: Parameters were computed for 11 PRS, including 6 variations of the 313 SNP PRS used in clinical trials and imple-mentation studies. The logistic regression approach underestimates a, as compared with the RL estimates. The RL a estimates were very close to those obtained by assuming proportionality to the OR per 1 SD, with the constant of proportionality estimated using the 313 SNP PRS. Small variations in the SNPs included in the PRS can lead to large differences in the mean.Conclusions: BOADICEA can be readily adapted to different PRS in a manner that maintains consistency of the model.Impact : The methods described facilitate comprehensive breast cancer risk assessment

Time perception and the experience of agency in meditation and hypnosis

Mindfulness meditation and hypnosis are related in opposing ways to awareness of intentions. The cold control theory of hypnosis proposes that hypnotic responding involves the experience of involuntariness while performing an actually intentional action. Hypnosis therefore relies upon inaccurate metacognition about intentional actions and experiences. Mindfulness meditation centrally involves awareness of intentions and is associated with improved metacognitive access to intentions. Therefore, mindfulness meditators and highly hypnotizable people may lie at opposite ends of a spectrum with regard to metacognitive access to intention‐related information. Here we review the theoretical background and evidence for differences in the metacognition of intentions in these groups, as revealed by chronometric measures of the awareness of voluntary action: the timing of an intention to move (Libet's “W” judgments) and the compressed perception of time between an intentional action and its outcome (“intentional binding”). We review these measures and critically evaluate their proposed connection to the experience of volition and sense of agency