Processing presupposition: Verifying sentences with ‘only’

With respect to how comprehenders process presupposition and handle presupposition failure when verifying sentences, at least two hypotheses are possible: (1) presuppositions are treated like preconditions for evaluating the truth or falsity of a sentence, and are systematically verified before the assertion, and (2) presuppositions are \u27backgrounded\u27 and therefore taken for granted—meaning that assertions are systematically evaluated first. Three sentence-picture verification experiments are presented which suggest some version of the latter view; the results are compatible with there being no explicit step of presupposition verification. Instead, presupposition failure arises only accidentally, or in cases where the content of the presupposition is made especially salient in the discourse context by some external means

Identification and nucleotide sequences of mxaA, mxaC, mxaK, mxaL, and mxaD genes from Methylobacterium extorquens AM1

The DNA sequence for a 4.4-kb HindIII-XhoI Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 DNA fragment that is known to contain three genes (mxaAKL) involved in incorporation of calcium into methanol dehydrogenase (I. W. Richardson and C. Anthony, Biochem. J. 287:709-7115, 1992) was determined. Five complete open reading frames and two partial open reading frames were found, suggesting that this region contains previously unidentified genes. A combination of sequence analysis, mutant complementation data, and gene expression studies showed that these genes correspond to mxaSACKLDorf1. Of the three previously unidentified genes (mxaC, mxaD, and orf1), mutant complementation studies showed that mxaC is required for methanol oxidation, while the function of the other two genes is still unknown

Comparing the Impact of Cultural Factors on Mental Health Help-Seeking Among Chinese and Other Asian Background College Students with Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety

A cross-sectional survey of 204 Asian and Asian-American students at Binghamton University, including 103 students of Chinese descent and 101 students from other Asian backgrounds, was conducted through SONA. This study aimed to investigate the perceived support and cultural barriers faced by Asian and Asian-American college students experiencing depression and anxiety symptoms. The study found that depression and anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with cultural stigma and barriers to seeking mental health treatment. Interestingly, perceived family support demonstrated a significant negative association with depression and anxiety symptoms, whereas perceived friend support was not correlated. The study suggests there is a need to reduce barriers and stigma to mental health services including making culturally sensitive adaptations. Future studies would benefit from a larger and more generalizable sample as well as the use of qualitative data to better understand the perceived cultural barriers to mental health encountered by Asian American college students.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2023/1043/thumbnail.jp

Functional Technology for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Meta-Analysis of Mobile Device-Based Interventions

This study employs a meta-analysis of single-subject design research to investigate the efficacy of mobile device-based interventions for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) and to further examine possible variables that may moderate the intervention outcomes. A total of 23 studies, 78 participants, and 140 observed cases that met the inclusion criteria were included in the meta-analysis. The efficacy of interventions was measured by computing the percentage of nonoverlapping data points (PNDs) and compared across participants’ characteristics, mobile device types, functions of mobile device use, target skills, and intervention strategies. The results showed that interventions with mobile devices for individuals with ID were very effective to acquire, maintain, and generalize the target skills. The magnitude of PNDs was not significantly affected by participants’ characteristics, target skills, intervention strategies or types of mobile device use. Employment of the maintenance and generalization phases and the mastery criterion were significantly associated with PND scores. Mobile devices were mainly utilized as an instructional device for this population. The discussion includes suggestions for expanding the use of mobile devices to the daily activities of individuals with ID as functional technology (FT)

Applications of Statistical Experimental Designs to Improve Statistical Inference in Weed Management

In a balanced design, researchers allocate the same number of units across all treatment groups. It has been believed as a rule of thumb among some researchers in agriculture. Sometimes, an unbalanced design outperforms a balanced design. Given a specific parameter of interest, researchers can design an experiment by unevenly distributing experimental units to increase statistical information about the parameter of interest. An additional way of improving an experiment is an adaptive design (e.g., spending the total sample size in multiple steps). It is helpful to have some knowledge about the parameter of interest to design an experiment. In the initial phase of an experiment, a researcher may spend a portion of the total sample size to learn about the parameter of interest. In the later phase, the remaining portion of the sample size can be distributed in order to gain more information about the parameter of interest. Though such ideas have existed in statistical literature, they have not been applied broadly in agricultural studies. In this article, we used simulations to demonstrate the superiority of the experimental designs over the balanced designs under three practical situations: comparing two groups, studying a dose-response relationship with right-censored data, and studying a synergetic effect of two treatments. The simulations showed that an objective-specific design provides smaller error in parameter estimation and higher statistical power in hypothesis testing when compared to a balanced design. We also conducted an adaptive experimental design applied to a dose-response study with right-censored data to quantify the effect of ethanol on weed control. Retrospective simulations supported the benefit of this adaptive design as well. All researchers face different practical situations, and appropriate experimental designs will help utilize available resources efficiently