What is universal and what differs in language development?

Goldin-Meadow (2015) presents an exceptional synthesis of work from studies of children acquiring language under variable circumstances of input or processing abilities. Deaf children who acquire homesign without any well- formed model from which to learn language represent a powerful example. Goldin-Meadow argues that the resilient properties of language that nevertheless emerge include simple syntactic structures, hierarchical organisation, markers modulating the meaning of sentences, and social- communicative functions. Among the fragile or input-dependent properties are the orders that the language follows, the parts into which words are decomposed, and the features that distinguish nominals from predicates. Separation of these two types of properties poses questions concerning the innate constraints on language acquisition (perhaps these equate to the resilient properties) and concerning the specificity of processes to language (e.g., whether properties such as hierarchical organisation are specific to language or originate in the structure of thought). The study of the resilient properties of human language in the face of adversity, and the relation of these properties to the information that is encoded in the human genome, represent a research strategy that draws inferences about species universals (properties that all humans share) from data about individual differences (factors that make humans different from one another). In the following, we suggest three reasons to be cautious about this approach

The role of extracellular ATP in the control of local blood flow

No abstract available

The identification and assay of acetylcholine and adenosine triphosphate released from active skeletal muscle

No abstract availabl

Modelling individual variability in cognitive development

Investigating variability in reasoning tasks can provide insights into key issues in the study of cognitive development. These include the mechanisms that underlie developmental transitions, and the distinction between individual differences and developmental disorders. We explored the mechanistic basis of variability in two connectionist models of cognitive development, a model of the Piagetian balance scale task (McClelland, 1989) and a model of the Piagetian conservation task (Shultz, 1998). For the balance scale task, we began with a simple feed-forward connectionist model and training patterns based on McClelland (1989). We investigated computational parameters, problem encodings, and training environments that contributed to variability in development, both across groups and within individuals. We report on the parameters that affect the complexity of reasoning and the nature of ‘rule’ transitions exhibited by networks learning to reason about balance scale problems. For the conservation task, we took the task structure and problem encoding of Shultz (1998) as our base model. We examined the computational parameters, problem encodings, and training environments that contributed to variability in development, in particular examining the parameters that affected the emergence of abstraction. We relate the findings to existing cognitive theories on the causes of individual differences in development

Evaluating how variants of floristic quality assessment indicate wetland condition

Biological indicators are useful tools for the assessment of ecosystem condition. Multi-metric and multi-taxa indicators may respond to a broader range of disturbances than simpler indicators, but their complexity can make them difficult to interpret, which is critical to indicator utility for ecosystem management. Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is an example of a biological assessment approach that has been widely tested for indicating freshwater wetland condition, but less attention has been given to clarifying the factors controlling its response. FQA quantifies the aggregate of vascular plant species tolerance to habitat degradation (conservatism), and model variants have incorporated species richness, abundance, and indigenity (native or non-native). To assess bias, we tested FQA variants in open-canopy freshwater wetlands against three independent reference measures, using practical vegetation sampling methods. FQA variants incorporating species richness did not correlate with our reference measures and were influenced by wetland size and hydrogeomorphic class. In contrast, FQA variants lacking measures of species richness responded linearly to reference measures quantifying individual and aggregate stresses, suggesting a broad response to cumulative degradation. FQA variants incorporating non-native species, and a variant additionally incorporating relative species abundance, improved performance over using only native species. We relate our empirical findings to ecological theory to clarify the functional properties and implications of the FQA variants. Our analysis indicates that (1) aggregate conservatism reliably declines with increased disturbance; (2) species richness has varying relationships with disturbance and increases with site area, confounding FQA response; and (3) non-native species signal human disturbance. We propose that incorporating species abundance can improve FQA site-level relevance with little extra sampling effort. Using our practical sampling methods, an FQA variant ignoring species richness and incorporating non-native species and relative species abundance can be logistically efficient, easily understood, and effective for wetland assessment

Exploring the Growth in Police Engagement with Those Who Are Mentally Ill and the Developing Use of the Mental Capacity Act as an Alternative to Section 136 of the Mental Health Act

Despite efforts of Parliament, the Home Office, police forces and health practitioners, the number of people detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 continues to rise. By analyzing quantitative data from Hampshire Constabulary, this study describes in detail police engagement with the mentally ill. Findings showed how people in mental crisis were increasingly detained by the ambulance service using the Mental Capacity Act and taken to A&E Departments. Nationally, police officers were also found to be increasingly taking Section 136 detainees to A&E. The majority of people contacting Hampshire displayed delusions which were unlikely to result in a police response and may disproportionately account for the overall growth in contact with the police. The data suggest that ‘Triage’ schemes alone will not be effective in reducing detentions. Hampshire’s partnership and discretionary approach is successful in reducing detentions. Recommendations for policy, practice, and further research are provided

Maximizing viral titer yield at harvest through metabolic process analytical technology (PAT)

This work pertains to the optimization of enterovirus production using MRC5 cultured on microcarriers within a bioreactor. This enterovirus, like other lytic viruses, has a rapid decay rate within a production batch, such that a 30% loss of potency is observed per day. Therefore, to maximize the yield of infectious product from the bioreactor, harvest needs to be timed to maximize the amount of viral production while minimizing the decay. Viral potency assays have slow turnaround times relative to a production batch, making an online process analytical technology (PAT) critical to maximize titers. In pursuit of an online method for tracking viral titer, three different PAT-enabled streams were investigated: dissolved oxygen (DO), viable cell volume (VCV), and oxygen uptake rate (OUR). DO monitoring was the simplest and leverages the ubiquitous DO trends of production, however it remains scale and gassing strategy dependent. Dual-frequency capacitance measurements were utilized to calculate VCV and thereby quantify the magnitude and timing of massive cell lysis that was correlated in time with peak viral potency. OUR, which quantifies the amount of oxygen being consumed per cellular volume, leverages both capacitance and DO measurements (in addition to oxygen mass balances pertaining to the gassing strategy) to provide a holistic scale-independent metabolic PAT readout. The sharp increase we observe in OUR prior to its decline due to cell lysis appears to be related to increased oxygen demand during viral production—this sharp increase precedes peak viral potency and peak specific productivity in our process. Data generated by our PAT tools—DO, VCV, OUR— were compared to potency and specific productivity trends across 22 batches. In this talk, we will discuss the utility and application of the tools, repeatability of our models across datasets, and the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

A randomized controlled trial of training in Motivational Interviewing for child protection.

There has been interest in developing more evidence-based approaches to child and family social work in the UK in recent years. This study examines the impact of a skills development package of training and supervision in Motivational Interviewing (MI) on the skills of social workers and the engagement of parents through a randomized controlled trial. All workers in one local authority were randomly assigned to receive the package (n = 28) or control (n = 33). Families were then randomized to trained (n = 67) or untrained (n = 98) workers. Family meetings with the worker shortly after allocation were evaluated for MI skill. Research interviews gathered data including the WAI. Follow-up interviews 20 weeks later repeated the WAI, and other outcome measures including Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) and rating of family life. Between group analysis found statistically significant difference in MI skills, though these were not substantial (2.49 in control, 2.91 MI trained, p = .049). There was no statistically significant difference between groups in any other outcome measures. The package of training and supervision did not create sufficient increase in MI skills to influence engagement or outcomes. Implications for understanding the relationship between skills, engagement and organizational change are discussed

Local Deep Implicit Functions for 3D Shape

The goal of this project is to learn a 3D shape representation that enables accurate surface reconstruction, compact storage, efficient computation, consistency for similar shapes, generalization across diverse shape categories, and inference from depth camera observations. Towards this end, we introduce Local Deep Implicit Functions (LDIF), a 3D shape representation that decomposes space into a structured set of learned implicit functions. We provide networks that infer the space decomposition and local deep implicit functions from a 3D mesh or posed depth image. During experiments, we find that it provides 10.3 points higher surface reconstruction accuracy (F-Score) than the state-of-the-art (OccNet), while requiring fewer than 1 percent of the network parameters. Experiments on posed depth image completion and generalization to unseen classes show 15.8 and 17.8 point improvements over the state-of-the-art, while producing a structured 3D representation for each input with consistency across diverse shape collections.Comment: Camera ready version for CVPR 2020 Oral. Prior to review, this paper was referred to as DSIF, "Deep Structured Implicit Functions." 11 pages, 9 figures. Project video at https://youtu.be/3RAITzNWVJ

Home education for children with additional learning needs – a better choice or the only option?

This paper presents findings from a study undertaken in Wales on the safeguarding of children educated at home. Findings revealed that just under a third of home educators had children with additional learning needs who were removed from school due to what parents reported as negative experiences. These experiences included the suitability of a school system based upon assessment and attainment for children with additional learning needs and a failure to provide adequate support. The decision to home educate was not taken lightly, with parents persevering in attempts to make school work for their children. Similar issues are identified in recent media coverage in England and Wales which has suggested that rises in home education may be due to parents “off-rolling” their children because they feel forced out of schools that are unable or unwilling to promote inclusive practices. Findings showed that it was not school-based education that was rejected intrinsically, but rather the extent to which schools could meet their child’s needs. In the advent of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, these findings suggest that a more nuanced understanding of education is required where home education, either full-time or combined with school attendance, may be in the best interests of the child