Good Timing for Computational Models of Narrative Discourse

The temporal order in which story events are presented in discourse can greatly impact how readers experience narrative; however, it remains unclear how narrative systems can leverage temporal order to affect comprehension and experience. We define structural properties of discourse which provide a basis for computational narratologists to reason about good timing, such as when readers learn about event relationships

Substantial Doubt Remains about the Efficacy of Anti-Amyloid Antibodies

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent, progressive, and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is defined pathologically by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. There remains an unmet need for therapies that can halt or slow the course of AD. To address this need, the FDA has provided a mechanism, under its Accelerated Approval pathway, for potential therapeutics to be approved based in part on their ability to reduce brain amyloid. Through this pathway, two monoclonal anti-amyloid antibodies, aducanumab and lecanemab, have been approved for clinical use. More recently, another amyloid-lowering antibody, donanemab, generated a statistically significant outcome in a phase 3 clinical trial and will shortly come under FDA review. While these monoclonal antibodies are not yet routinely used in clinical practice, the series of recent positive clinical trials has fostered enthusiasm amongst some AD experts. Here, we discuss three key limitations regarding recent anti-amyloid clinical trials: (1) there is little to no evidence that amyloid reduction correlates with clinical outcome, (2) the reported efficacy of anti-amyloid therapies may be partly, or wholly, explained by functional unblinding, and (3) donanemab in its phase 3 trial had no effect on tau burden, the pathological hallmark more closely related to cognition. Taken together, these observations call into question the efficacy of anti-amyloid therapies.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; Update 11/18/2023: Added subheadings to manuscript to improve readability, added a new data point to Figure 1A and Figure 2 for the recently published A4 clinical tria

Reference Distorted Prices

I show that when consumers (mis)perceive prices relative to reference prices, budgets turn out to be soft, prices tend to be lower and the average quality of goods sold decreases. These observations provide explanations for decentralized purchase decisions, for people being happy with a purchase even when they have paid their evaluation, and for why trade might affect high quality local firms 'unfairly'

Development of intuitive rules: Evaluating the application of the dual-system framework to understanding children's intuitive reasoning

This is an author-created version of this article. The original source of publication is Psychon Bull Rev. 2006 Dec;13(6):935-53 The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF0321390

Some Performance Characteristics of Subsurface Gravel Wetlands for Stormwater Management

Subsurface gravel wetlands were originally purposed for wastewater treatment and more recently have been used for stormwater treatment as a green infrastructure technology. Systems are sized to hold the water quality volume above, and drain within 24–48 hours. Design guidance follows static sizing principles with very little hydraulic calculations, which has left a gap in hydraulic performance data. Data from 12 years of field monitoring of various systems constructed in the northeast United States is presented. These systems include fully-sized as well as undersized (hold less that the water quality volume). Hydraulics are controlled by a restrictive outlet. At the same time, this outlet also creates the wetland characteristics of the system. Pollutant removal efficiencies for common stormwater pollutants are some of the highest for green infrastructure systems, with a significant component being microbially-mediated in the low dissolved oxygen gravel layers. This is a book chapter published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2020: Emerging and Innovative Technologies and International Perspectives in 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1061/978078448294

High-resolution observations of tungsten liner collapse and early jet formation

High-resolution photography of collapsing tungsten-lined shaped charges has revealed surface texturing both similar to and strikingly different from that previously observed during copper liner collapse. The behavior of three types of tungsten-lined shaped charges, with different liner designs and high explosives but with similar tungsten processing, were characterized by image-converter camera and fast- framing camera photography, and flash x-ray radiography. 120-mm- diameter, trumpet-shaped Octol charges produced surface blistering near the base of the tungsten liner, probably due to inhomogeneities near the liner-explosive interface resulting from cast loading. 148- mm-diameter, quasi-conical LX-14 charges produced smooth shocked- surface texture similar to that observed in conical, copper-lined LX- 14 (Viper) charges. 81-mm-diameter, conical LX-20 charges produced severe radial texturing throughout the collapsing tungsten liner, which transitioned to azimuthal banding on the jet surface. For each type of charge, obscuring debris from the tungsten jet tip prevented clear imaging of the jet surface at late time. 8 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs

Aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant therapy for postmenopausal women: a therapeutic advance but many unresolved questions

Adjuvant hormonal therapy for postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer has become far more complex over the past several years. This commentary reviews the current status of the five major trials evaluating the use of the aromatase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting. The data currently available suggest that the aromatase inhibitors are efficacious either as upfront therapy or after a course of tamoxifen. Ongoing trials will compare these approaches and guide the use of these agents in the years to come

Frequency decoding of periodically timed action potentials through distinct activity patterns in a random neural network

Frequency discrimination is a fundamental task of the auditory system. The mammalian inner ear, or cochlea, provides a place code in which different frequencies are detected at different spatial locations. However, a temporal code based on spike timing is also available: action potentials evoked in an auditory-nerve fiber by a low-frequency tone occur at a preferred phase of the stimulus-they exhibit phase locking-and thus provide temporal information about the tone's frequency. In an accompanying psychoacoustic study, and in agreement with previous experiments, we show that humans employ this temporal information for discrimination of low frequencies. How might such temporal information be read out in the brain? Here we demonstrate that recurrent random neural networks in which connections between neurons introduce characteristic time delays, and in which neurons require temporally coinciding inputs for spike initiation, can perform sharp frequency discrimination when stimulated with phase-locked inputs. Although the frequency resolution achieved by such networks is limited by the noise in phase locking, the resolution for realistic values reaches the tiny frequency difference of 0.2% that has been measured in humans.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, and supplementary informatio

Fabry-Perot measurements and analysis of TOW-2A liner collapse and jet formation

A TOW-2A 146 mm shaped charge was fired and observed with five beam Fabry-Perot laser velocimetry. The liner collapse velocities were measured at five lines of sight covering the outer half of the liner. A record of 8-10 {mu}s in length was obtained for each sight line The velocity records at late time differ for each location, reflecting the varying charge-to-mass ratio as the end of the liner is approached. The results were analyzed with the CALE-2D hydrodynamic simulation code. The calculations reproduce the jump-off times, the shapes of the velocity jumps and the late time velocity asymptotes, but they underestimate the jump-off velocities by 6-7%. The calculations show that there exist no features in the velocity records that require spallation to account for them. Rather, the standard Steinberg-Guinan material model adequately accounts for the response of this copper liner to LX-14