Affine descents and the Steinberg torus

Let $W\ltimes L$ be an irreducible affine Weyl group with Coxeter complex $\Sigma$, where $W$ denotes the associated finite Weyl group and $L$ the translation subgroup. The Steinberg torus is the Boolean cell complex obtained by taking the quotient of $\Sigma$ by the lattice $L$. We show that the ordinary and flag $h$-polynomials of the Steinberg torus (with the empty face deleted) are generating functions over $W$ for a descent-like statistic first studied by Cellini. We also show that the ordinary $h$-polynomial has a nonnegative $\gamma$-vector, and hence, symmetric and unimodal coefficients. In the classical cases, we also provide expansions, identities, and generating functions for the $h$-polynomials of Steinberg tori.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

When dough is a female deer: The role of homophony in lexical priming

Several models of printed word recognition claim that phonology mediates lexical access. Four experiments employing lexical decision tasks and naming tasks were conducted to assess this claim. Homonyms such as mint were used in Experiment 1 to verify that both meanings of an ambiguous word are activated automatically upon presentation. In a priming paradigm with a 250 millisecond SOA, the homonym mint was found to facilitate the recognition of words related to both interpretations such as candy and coin. In the remaining three experiments, homophones such as dough and doe were used to assess the role of phonology in lexical priming. Experiment 2 examined the priming effects of visually presented homophone primes (e.g., dough ) upon responses to a target word that was either semantically related to the prime (e.g., bread ) or mediated by the phonological code for the prima (e.g., deer ). Priming effects were found for targets that were semantically related to the prime, but not for targets that were mediated by a phonological code. In Experiment 3, the homophone (e.g., dough ) served as the target and the prime was either semantically related (e.g., bread ) or mediated by a phonological code (e.g., deer ). In the lexical decision task, priming effects were observed when the prime was semantically related, but not when the prime was mediated by a phonological code. However, in the naming task, priming effects were observed when the prime was mediated by a phonological code. In the last experiment, the homophone (e.g., dough ) again served as a prime, but it was made ambiguous by auditory presentation. Priming effects were evident for both interpretations of the ambiguous word in both lexical decision and naming. These results indicate that phonology plays a role in lexical access when the homophone is presented auditorily, and when the homophone must be pronounced; but phonology does not appear to play a role in lexical access when the homophone is presented visually, or when the response does not involve pronunciation. These results suggest a limitation on the role of phonology in models of printed word recognition

The Impact of Video-Taped Social Modeling on Alcohol Outcome Expectancies of Young Adults and the Role of Social Anxiety

Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) represent people’s ideas about the effects of alcohol (Fromme, 1993). Positive AOEs particularly have been identified as a potential risk factor for hazardous drinking (e.g., Brown et al., 1985). The exact mechanisms that modify AOEs are not fully understood. Further, people higher in social anxiety may be especially receptive to social modeling due to attentional bias shift towards others in social contexts (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). The current study examined how social anxiety and social modeling associate with AOEs. It was hypothesized that 1) those in the social modeling treatment condition would have higher social anxiety-adjacent AOEs (i.e., those in the sociability, tension reduction, and liquid courage subscales of the CEOA; Fromme, 1993) as compared to those in the control condition, and that 2) social anxiety would moderate this relationship. The final sample (N = 287) was between the ages of 18 – 28 (Mage = 23.82 years; 48.4% men; 56.4% White [Non-Hispanic]). Participants were exposed to a social modeling video-taped manipulation, in which an on-screen actor or actress appeared to either experience a social anxiety reduction from drinking (treatment) or maintain apparent social anxiety after drinking (control). AOEs were assessed post-manipulation. Social anxiety was assessed as a continuous variable prior to the manipulation. Results partially support hypothesis 1, as the those in the treatment condition reported higher positive AOEs overall (i.e., sociability, tension reduction, liquid courage, and sexuality) than those in the control condition. Additionally, while social anxiety was not found to be a significant moderator, it was associated with higher negative AOEs, and social anxiety did not appear to mitigate the effect of social modeling on positive AOEs. Findings from this study suggest that researchers should include social modeling when investigating pathways related to hazardous drinking, whether using a socially anxious sample or not

The Impact of Video-Taped Social Modeling on Alcohol Outcome Expectancies of Young Adults and the Role of Social Anxiety

Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) represent people’s ideas about the effects of alcohol (Fromme, 1993). Positive AOEs particularly have been identified as a potential risk factor for hazardous drinking (e.g., Brown et al., 1985). The exact mechanisms that modify AOEs are not fully understood. Further, people higher in social anxiety may be especially receptive to social modeling due to attentional bias shift towards others in social contexts (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). The current study examined how social anxiety and social modeling associate with AOEs. It was hypothesized that 1) those in the social modeling treatment condition would have higher social anxiety-adjacent AOEs (i.e., those in the sociability, tension reduction, and liquid courage subscales of the CEOA; Fromme, 1993) as compared to those in the control condition, and that 2) social anxiety would moderate this relationship. The final sample (N = 287) was between the ages of 18 – 28 (Mage = 23.82 years; 48.4% men; 56.4% White [Non-Hispanic]). Participants were exposed to a social modeling video-taped manipulation, in which an on-screen actor or actress appeared to either experience a social anxiety reduction from drinking (treatment) or maintain apparent social anxiety after drinking (control). AOEs were assessed post-manipulation. Social anxiety was assessed as a continuous variable prior to the manipulation. Results partially support hypothesis 1, as the those in the treatment condition reported higher positive AOEs overall (i.e., sociability, tension reduction, liquid courage, and sexuality) than those in the control condition. Additionally, while social anxiety was not found to be a significant moderator, it was associated with higher negative AOEs, and social anxiety did not appear to mitigate the effect of social modeling on positive AOEs. Findings from this study suggest that researchers should include social modeling when investigating pathways related to hazardous drinking, whether using a socially anxious sample or not

Uncertainty Quantification Using Neural Networks for Molecular Property Prediction

Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is an important component of molecular property prediction, particularly for drug discovery applications where model predictions direct experimental design and where unanticipated imprecision wastes valuable time and resources. The need for UQ is especially acute for neural models, which are becoming increasingly standard yet are challenging to interpret. While several approaches to UQ have been proposed in the literature, there is no clear consensus on the comparative performance of these models. In this paper, we study this question in the context of regression tasks. We systematically evaluate several methods on five benchmark datasets using multiple complementary performance metrics. Our experiments show that none of the methods we tested is unequivocally superior to all others, and none produces a particularly reliable ranking of errors across multiple datasets. While we believe these results show that existing UQ methods are not sufficient for all common use-cases and demonstrate the benefits of further research, we conclude with a practical recommendation as to which existing techniques seem to perform well relative to others

Integrating Movement and Science to Promote Physical Activity and Academic Performance in Middle School Children

Background: Recommendations from leading U.S. health agencies concerned with reducing childhood obesity call for increased physical activity during school and afterschool environments. Methods: We developed the Active Science curriculum, which is a variety of activity-based lessons (e.g., nature hike, dance class, walk at local park, treadmill at local YMCA) and incorporated them into traditional science classes and after school programs for middle school children in a low-income, ethnically diverse community. Following the activity experiments, students and teachers uploaded data from devices to an interactive website that provided inquiry-based exploratory learning of science content. Results: Physical activity results showed that the activity portion of the program were consistent with national recommendations for accumulating physical activity. Significant increases in science inquiry test scores from pre- to post were observed. Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest incorporating movement into traditional science curriculum helps to promote physical activity and academic performance in underprivileged middle school-age students