I’m Doing Better on My Own: Social Inhibition in Vocabulary Learning in Adults

Published: 05 June 2019Vocabulary learning is better achieved by children facing a teacher than when presented to the same teacher through video (so-called “video deficit” effect), which has significant implications for toddlers’ education. Since millions of adults also learn new vocabulary when acquiring a second language (L2), it is important to explore whether adults suffer from “video deficit” effects, as children do. In the present study, we report two experiments in which Spanish native late learners of English were involved in a vocabulary learning task. In Experiment 1, participants had to learn English (L2) labels associated to real objects. In Experiment 2, participants had to learn English (L2) and Spanish (L1) labels associated to novel objects. In both experiments, vocabulary learning was divided into three conditions: In the NoFace condition, participants were presented with the objects and their auditory labels, through video. In the Video condition, a teacher was showing the objects and uttering their names, through video. The Live condition was equivalent, except that the teacher was facing the participants in the room. Each condition was followed by a recall test. Better learning in Video compared to NoFace condition revealed that adults benefit from the teacher’s display with direct gaze, confirming the fundamental role of face display with direct gaze in social communication in adults. Interestingly, adults learned better through Video than in the Live condition. Those results were obtained in L2 vocabulary learning in both Experiments 1 and 2, and also generalized to native language in Experiment 2. We argue that adults suffer from social inhibition, meaning that they perform worse when in the presence of another person during task performance. In sum, we show that video-mediated teaching might not be detrimental for adults learning new vocabulary lists, as it is the case for young children. These results might have important implications for pedagogical programs targeting adults’ second language vocabulary learning, since proper acquisition of vocabulary list can be achieved through video including a teacher’s display.This research was funded by a grant from the FP7/2007–2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME, an ERC grant from the European Research Council (ERC-2011-ADG-295362), grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2014-54500, PSI2015-65694, and PSI2017-82941-P), and from the Basque Government (PI_2015_1_25 and PIBA18_29)

Full, hybrid and platform complementarity: Exploring the industry 4.0 technology-performance link

Literature has increasingly recognized that manufacturing companies should implement a synergic bundle of solutions to fully exploit the potential of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), rather than opting for a scattered technological adoption. Enabling I4.0 technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing, can be implemented through various combinations to achieve different impacts on a company's performance. But what are the possible ways of combining I4.0 technologies into bundles, and do these ways actually help to achieve a performance that outperforms the adoption of single technologies? This study aims to identify the potential patterns of the technological complementary of I4.0 by considering enabled applications and performance outcomes. We interviewed 13 Italian experts in the I4.0 field, and then combined the obtained information with secondary data collected from more than 150 I4.0 use cases, as well as from websites, reports and press releases. By adopting a systems theory lens, the results of the analysis have allowed us to identify the specific performance effects of both scattered and joint technological adoptions in different application areas. Interestingly, specific examples of I4.0 complementarities emerged, namely full, hybrid and platform complementarity. This study contributes to the growing research on I4.0 outcomes by extending the concept of technological complementary within the I4.0 context. Results show that bundles of technologies have a broader effect on performance than when the same technologies are adopted in isolation, but also that single technologies can impact specific applications and the overall performance of a firm via a systematic I4.0 transformation path

Workaholism, intensive smartphone use, and the sleep-wake cycle: A multiple mediation analysis

Recent contributions have reported sleep disorders as one of the health impairment outcomes of workaholism. A possible factor affecting the sleep-wake cycle might be the intensive use of smartphones. The current study aimed to explore the role of intensive smartphone use in the relationship between workaholism and the sleep-wake cycle. Two serial multiple mediation models were tested on a sample of 418 employees, who filled self-report questionnaires measuring workaholism, use of smartphones, sleep quality and daytime sleepiness, using conditional process analysis for testing direct and indirect effects. Results supported our hypotheses regarding two serial multiple mediation models-that intensive smartphone use and poor sleep quality mediated the relationship between workaholism and daytime sleepiness, and that smartphone use and daytime sleepiness mediated the relationship between workaholism and poor quality of sleep. Although the use of a cross-sectional design and the snowball technique for collecting data can be considered as possible limitations, the current study is one of the first to document the potential detrimental role of the intensive smartphone use on the workaholism-sleep disorders relationship

A chronic strain of the cystic fibrosis pathogen Pandoraeapulmonicola expresses a heterogenous hypo-acylated lipid A

Pandoraeasp. is an emerging Gram-negative pathogen in cystic fibrosis causing severe and persistent inflammation and damageof the lungs. The molecular mechanisms underlying the high pathogenicity ofPandoraeaspecies are still largely unknown. AsGram-negatives,Pandoraeasp. express lipopolysaccharides (LPS) whose recognition by the host immune system triggers aninflammatory response aimed at the bacterial eradication from the infected tissues. The degree of the inflammatory responsestrongly relies on the fine structure of the LPS and, in particular, of its glycolipid moiety, i.e. the lipid A. Here we report thestructure of the lipid A isolated from the LPS of a chronic strain ofP. pulmonicola(RL 8228), one of the most virulent identifiedso far among thePandoraeaspecies. Our data demonstrated that the examined chronic strain produces a smooth-type LPS with acomplex mixture of hypoacylated lipid A species displaying, among other uncommon characteristics, the 2-hydroxylation ofsome of the acyl chains and the substitution by an additional glucosamine on one or both the phosphate groups

The Cepheids of NGC1866: A Precise Benchmark for the Extragalactic Distance Scale and Stellar Evolution from Modern UBVI Photometry

We present the analysis of multiband time-series data for a sample of 24 Cepheids in the field of the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC1866. Very accurate BVI VLT photometry is combined with archival UBVI data, covering a large temporal window, to obtain precise mean magnitudes and periods with typical errors of 1-2% and of 1 ppm, respectively. These results represent the first accurate and homogeneous dataset for a substantial sample of Cepheid variables belonging to a cluster and hence sharing common distance, age and original chemical composition. Comparisons of the resulting multiband Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations to both empirical and theoretical results for the Large Magellanic Cloud are presented and discussed to derive the distance of the cluster and to constrain the mass-luminosity relation of the Cepheids. The adopted theoretical scenario is also tested by comparison with independent calibrations of the Cepheid Wesenheit zero point based on trigonometric parallaxes and Baade-Wesselink techniques. Our analysis suggests that a mild overshooting and/or a moderate mass loss can affect intermediate-mass stellar evolution in this cluster and gives a distance modulus of 18.50 +- 0.01 mag. The obtained V,I color-magnitude diagram is also analysed and compared with both synthetic models and theoretical isochrones for a range of ages and metallicities and for different efficiencies of core overshooting. As a result, we find that the age of NGC1866 is about 140 Myr, assuming Z = 0.008 and the mild efficiency of overshooting suggested by the comparison with the pulsation models.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted in MNRAS (2016 January 14

Ribosome profiling in mouse hippocampus: plasticity-induced regulation and bidirectional control by TSC2 and FMRP

BACKGROUND: Mutations in TSC2 are the most common cause of tuberous sclerosis (TSC), a disorder with a high incidence of autism and intellectual disability. TSC2 regulates mRNA translation required for group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent synaptic long-term depression (mGluR-LTD) and behavior, but the identity of mRNAs responsive to mGluR-LTD signaling is largely unknown. METHODS: We utilized Tsc2(+/-) mice as a mouse model of TSC and prepared hippocampal slices from these animals. We induced mGluR-LTD synaptic plasticity in slices and processed the samples for RNA-seq and ribosome profiling to identify differentially expressed genes in Tsc2(+/-) and following mGluR-LTD synaptic plasticity. RESULTS: Ribosome profiling reveals that in Tsc2(+/-) mouse hippocampal slices, the expression of several mRNAs was dysregulated: terminal oligopyrimidine (TOP)-containing mRNAs decreased, while FMRP-binding targets increased. Remarkably, we observed the opposite changes of FMRP binding targets in Fmr1(-/y) hippocampi. In wild-type hippocampus, induction of mGluR-LTD caused rapid changes in the steady-state levels of hundreds of mRNAs, many of which are FMRP targets. Moreover, mGluR-LTD failed to promote phosphorylation of eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2) in TSC mice, and chemically mimicking phospho-eEF2 with low cycloheximide enhances mGluR-LTD in TSC mice. CONCLUSION: These results suggest a molecular basis for bidirectional regulation of synaptic plasticity and behavior by TSC2 and FMRP. Our study also suggests that altered mGluR-regulated translation elongation contributes to impaired synaptic plasticity in Tsc2(+/-) mice

West Asian sources of the Eurasian component in Ethiopians: a reassessment

The presence of genomic signatures of Eurasian origin in contemporary Ethiopians has been reported by several authors and estimated to have arrived in the area from 3000 years ago. Several studies reported plausible source populations for such a signature, using haplotype based methods on modern data or single-site methods on modern or ancient data. These studies did not reach a consensus and suggested an Anatolian or Sardinia-like proxy, broadly Levantine or Neolithic Levantine as possible sources. We demonstrate, however, that the deeply divergent, autochthonous African component which accounts for ~50% of most contemporary Ethiopian genomes, affects the overall allele frequency spectrum to an extent that makes it hard to control for it and, at once, to discern between subtly different, yet important, Eurasian sources (such as Anatolian or Levant Neolithic ones). Here we re-assess pattern of allele sharing between the Eurasian component of Ethiopians (here called “NAF” for Non African) and ancient and modern proxies. Our results unveil a genomic legacy that may connect the Eurasian genetic component of contemporary Ethiopians with Sea People and with population movements that affected the Mediterranean area and the Levant after the fall of the Minoan civilization