An investigation of theories of focusing

This thesis investigates the proposals of a number of psychological and computational accounts of focusing and pronoun interpretation in view of obtaining experimental evidence for the questions raised by the accounts. Four distinct but related studies were conducted with the aim of bringing together various frameworks as a step towards developing an integrated model of the processes of comprehension. Experiments 1-3 in Chapter 2 show that thematic role and surface position focusing take precedence over the salience from naming, but that naming effects are seen in the absence of thematic role focusing. Experiments 4-5 in Chapter 3 show the effect of clause subordination in certain complex sentences, with main clauses being more prominent than subordinate ones. Experiments 6-8 in Chapter 3 show that this effect may not be generalised to different types of complex sentences, however. Experiments 9-18 in Chapter 4 show that animacy has a strong effect on prominence, overriding thematic role and surface position effects. The presence of these latter two effects is crucially dependent on the pattern of animacy. Experiments 19-21 in Chapter 5 show the effects of grammatical parallelism, in which the features of both the anaphor and the antecedent have an influence, which overlays structural focusing. These results show that a variety of constraints can complete in determining the accessibility of discourse referents. The structural, semantic, and pragmatic discourse context in which referents are introduced and the attributes of the cue used to re-access them have a role. The findings are discussed in terms of an activation-based framework, whereby pronoun resolution is determined by the relative activation of the potential antecedents in the mental representation of the discourse. They suggest a dynamic model of focusing in which an antecedent’s features establish and update the focus, and in which certain linguistic elements may trigger the current focus to be modified

Postoperative Ileus

This author’s goal with this poster is to provide research on postoperative ileus to help others learn more about the pathophysiology of the condition, causes of ileus, symptoms, treatments, and prevention. By learning more on postoperative ileus, healthcare providers will be better prepared to care for postoperative patients to help prevent ileus after surgery and to better care for the patient if they were to develop an ileus. This poster can also serve as an education tool for patients by teaching the patient preventative measures to help protect themselves postoperatively

Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support (FACES) for African American families of children with autism: a pilot study

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families often face challenges with accessing early intervention and related services. African American children face additional challenges due to disparities in diagnoses and access to services. These disparities present a great need for parent advocacy strategies to combat barriers such as culturally insensitive service delivery, and strained parent-professional partnerships. In this sequential mixed methods study, I examined the effectiveness of a six-week parent training intervention (FACES) on strengthening perceptions of advocacy and empowerment among African American parents of children with ASD. Multiple sources of data were collected and mixed to refine the intervention and to assess the effectiveness of FACES. Results indicated that parents’ perceptions of their advocacy skills, sense of empowerment, and community support were strengthened, following the FACES program. Implications for research and practice are discussed

The effects of an integrated exercise and recreation therapy intervention on breast cancer survivors

Researchers investigated effects of a 20-week integrative intervention (IIG) assessing the physical and psychosocial health of breast cancer survivors. This retrospective study included 70 survivors randomized into 4 groups: IIG, exercise only (EX), recreation therapy only (RT), or control group (CO) and assessed at baseline, week 8, and post intervention. Three days a week the IIG exercised at low to moderate-intensity 60 minutes, and recreation therapy 30 minutes, EX did exercise only, RT did recreation therapy only and the control group, no intervention for the first 8 weeks. Following week 8 assessments, all groups received IIG intervention. Results revealed that the IIG promoted positive changes in cardiorespiratory function (p= .001), muscular fitness (p≤.0005), fatigue (p≤.0005), and quality of life (p= .001) within the first 8 weeks of a 20-week rehabilitation program. In conclusion, a combined exercise and psychosocial intervention promotes improvements in physiological and psychological needs of breast cancer survivors

Non-invertible Symmetries and Higher Representation Theory II

In this paper we continue our investigation of the global categorical symmetries that arise when gauging finite higher groups and their higher subgroups with discrete torsion. The motivation is to provide a common perspective on the construction of non-invertible global symmetries in higher dimensions and a precise description of the associated symmetry categories. We propose that the symmetry categories obtained by gauging higher subgroups may be defined as higher group-theoretical fusion categories, which are built from the projective higher representations of higher groups. As concrete applications we provide a unified description of the symmetry categories of gauge theories in three and four dimensions based on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{so}(N)$, and a fully categorical description of non-invertible symmetries obtained by gauging a 1-form symmetry with a mixed 't Hooft anomaly. We also discuss the effect of discrete torsion on symmetry categories, based a series of obstructions determined by spectral sequence arguments.Comment: 56 pages + appendix, v2: clarifications and citations adde

Calibration of key temperature-dependent ocean microbial processes in the cGENIE.muffin Earth system model

Temperature is a master parameter in the marine carbon cycle, exerting a critical control on the rate of biological transformation of a variety of solid and dissolved reactants and substrates. Although in the construction of numerical models of marine carbon cycling, temperature has been long-recognised as a key parameter in the production and export of organic matter at the ocean surface, it is much less commonly taken into account in the ocean interior. There, bacteria (primarily) transform sinking particulate organic matter into its dissolved constituents and thereby consume dissolved oxygen (and/or other electron acceptors such as sulphate) and release nutrients, which are then available for transport back to the surface. Here we present and calibrate a more complete temperature-dependent representation of marine carbon cycling in the cGENIE.muffin Earth system model, intended for both past and future climate applications. In this, we combine a temperature-dependent remineralisation scheme for sinking organic matter with a biological export production scheme that also includes a temperature-dependent limitation on nutrient uptake in surface waters (and hence phytoplankton growth). Via a parameter ensemble, we jointly calibrate the two parameterisations by statistically contrasting model projected fields of nutrients, oxygen, and the stable carbon isotopic signature (δ13C) of dissolved inorganic carbon in the ocean, with modern observations. We find that for the present-day, the temperature-dependent version shows as-good-as or better fit to data than the existing tuned non-temperature dependent version of the cGENIE.muffin. The main impact of adding temperature-dependent remineralisation is in driving higher rates of remineralisation in warmer waters and hence a more rapid return of nutrients to the surface there – stimulating organic matter production. As a result, more organic matter is exported below 80 m in mid and low latitude warmer waters as compared to the standard model. Conversely, at higher latitudes, colder water temperature reduces the rate of nutrient supply to the surface as a result of slower in-situ rates of remineralisation. We also assess the implications of including a more complete set of temperature-dependent parameterisations by analysing a series of historical transient experiments. We find that between the pre-industrial and the present day, in response to a simulated air temperature increase of 0.9 °C and ocean warming of 0.12 °C (0.6 °C in surface waters and 0.02 °C in deep waters), a reduction in POC export at 80 m of just 0.3 % occurs. In contrast, with no assumed temperature-dependent biological processes, global POC export at 80 m falls by 2.9 % between the pre-industrial and present day as a consequence of ocean stratification and reduced nutrient supply to the surface. This suggests that increased nutrient recycling in warmer conditions offsets some of the stratification-induced surface nutrient limitation in a warmer world, and that less carbon (and nutrients) then reaches the inner and deep ocean. This extension to the cGENIE.muffin Earth system model provides it with additional capabilities in addressing marine carbon cycling in warmer past and future worlds

A Physiologically-Inspired Model of Numerical Classification Based on Graded Stimulus Coding

In most natural decision contexts, the process of selecting among competing actions takes place in the presence of informative, but potentially ambiguous, stimuli. Decisions about magnitudes – quantities like time, length, and brightness that are linearly ordered – constitute an important subclass of such decisions. It has long been known that perceptual judgments about such quantities obey Weber's Law, wherein the just-noticeable difference in a magnitude is proportional to the magnitude itself. Current physiologically inspired models of numerical classification assume discriminations are made via a labeled line code of neurons selectively tuned for numerosity, a pattern observed in the firing rates of neurons in the ventral intraparietal area (VIP) of the macaque. By contrast, neurons in the contiguous lateral intraparietal area (LIP) signal numerosity in a graded fashion, suggesting the possibility that numerical classification could be achieved in the absence of neurons tuned for number. Here, we consider the performance of a decision model based on this analog coding scheme in a paradigmatic discrimination task – numerosity bisection. We demonstrate that a basic two-neuron classifier model, derived from experimentally measured monotonic responses of LIP neurons, is sufficient to reproduce the numerosity bisection behavior of monkeys, and that the threshold of the classifier can be set by reward maximization via a simple learning rule. In addition, our model predicts deviations from Weber Law scaling of choice behavior at high numerosity. Together, these results suggest both a generic neuronal framework for magnitude-based decisions and a role for reward contingency in the classification of such stimuli

Linguistic alignment between people and computers

There is strong evidence that when two people talk to each other, they tend to converge, or align, on common ways of speaking (e.g., Pickering and Garrod, 2004). In this paper, we discuss possible mechanisms that might lead to linguistic alignment, contrasting mechanisms that are encapsulated within the language processing system, and so unmediated by beliefs about the interlocutor, with mechanisms that are mediated by beliefs about the interlocutor and that are concerned with considerations of either communicative success or social affect. We consider how these mechanisms might be implicated in human–computer interaction (HCI), and then review recent empirical studies that investigated linguistic alignment in HCI. We argue that there is strong evidence that alignment occurs in HCI, but that it differs in important ways from that found in interactions between humans: It is generally stronger and has a larger mediated component that is concerned with enhancing communicative success

Impacts of tidewater glacier advance on iceberg habitat

Icebergs in proglacial fjords serve as pupping, resting and molting habitat for some of the largest seasonal aggregations of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) in Alaska. One of the largest aggregations in Southeast Alaska occurs in Johns Hopkins Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park, where up to 2000 seals use icebergs produced by Johns Hopkins Glacier. Like other advancing tidewater glaciers, the advance of Johns Hopkins Glacier over the past century has been facilitated by the growth and continual redistribution of a submarine end moraine, which has limited mass losses from iceberg calving and submarine melting and enabled glacier thickening by providing flow resistance. A 15-year record of aerial surveys reveals (i) a decline in iceberg concentrations concurrent with moraine growth and (ii) that the iceberg size distributions can be approximated as power law distributions, with relatively little variability and no clear trends in the power law exponent despite large changes in ice fluxes over seasonal and interannual timescales. Together, these observations suggest that sustained tidewater glacier advance should typically be associated with reductions in the number of large, habitable icebergs, which may have implications for harbor seals relying on iceberg habitat for critical life-history events