The Role of Situations in Concept Learning

This study examines how situation information is incorporated in concept learning and representation. Unlike most concept learning studies, this study includes situation information during concept learning. Unlike most studies about the influence of situations on episodic memory, this study investigates how situations affects conceptual processing. Experiment 1 demonstrates that people rely on situation information when processing concepts. Subjects verified a concept's property more quickly if the property was learned and tested in the same situation. Experiment 2 shows that in order for a situation to produce priming, the situation must be related to the property in a meaningful manner. Mere cooccurrence between a property and a situation is not sufficient

A simple risk stratification model that predicts 1-year postoperative mortality rate in patients with solid-organ cancer

This study aimed to construct a scoring system developed exclusively from the preoperative data that predicts 1-year postoperative mortality in patients with solid cancers. A total of 20,632 patients who had a curative resection for solid-organ cancers between 2007 and 2012 at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou Medical Center were included in the derivation cohort. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to develop a risk model that predicts 1-year postoperative mortality. Patients were then stratified into four risk groups (low-, intermediate-, high-, and very high-risk) according to the total score (0–43) form mortality risk analysis. An independent cohort of 16,656 patients who underwent curative cancer surgeries at three other hospitals during the same study period (validation cohort) was enrolled to verify the risk model. Age, gender, cancer site, history of previous cancer, tumor stage, Charlson comorbidity index, American Society of Anesthesiologist score, admission type, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status were independently predictive of 1-year postoperative mortality. The 1-year postoperative mortality rates were 0.5%, 3.8%, 14.6%, and 33.8%, respectively, among the four risk groups in the derivation cohort (c-statistic, 0.80), compared with 0.9%, 4.2%, 14.6%, and 32.6%, respectively, in the validation cohort (c-statistic, 0.78). The risk stratification model also demonstrated good discrimination of long-term survival outcome of the four-tier risk groups (P < 0.01 for both cohorts). The risk stratification model not only predicts 1-year postoperative mortality but also differentiates long-term survival outcome between the risk groups

Effects of classification context on categorization in natural categories

The patterns of classification of borderline instances of eight common taxonomic categories were examined under three different instructional conditions to test two predictions: first, that lack of a specified context contributes to vagueness in categorization, and second, that altering the purpose of classification can lead to greater or lesser dependence on similarity in classification. The instructional conditions contrasted purely pragmatic with more technical/quasi-legal contexts as purposes for classification, and these were compared with a no-context control. The measures of category vagueness were between-subjects disagreement and within-subjects consistency, and the measures of similarity based categorization were category breadth and the correlation of instance categorization probability with mean rated typicality, independently measured in a neutral context. Contrary to predictions, none of the measures of vagueness, reliability, category breadth, or correlation with typicality were generally affected by the instructional setting as a function of pragmatic versus technical purposes. Only one subcondition, in which a situational context was implied in addition to a purposive context, produced a significant change in categorization. Further experiments demonstrated that the effect of context was not increased when participants talked their way through the task, and that a technical context did not elicit more all-or-none categorization than did a pragmatic context. These findings place an important boundary condition on the effects of instructional context on conceptual categorization

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

The situated nature of concepts

For decades the importance of background situations has been documented across all areas of cognition. Nevertheless, theories of concepts generally ignore background situations, focusing largely on bottom-up, stimulus-based processing. Furthermore, empirical research on concepts typically ignores background situations, not incorporating them into experimental designs. A selective review of relevant literatures demonstrates that concepts are not abstracted out of situations but instead are situated. Background situations constrain conceptual processing in many tasks (e.g., recall, recognition, categorization, lexical decision, color naming, property verification, property generation) across many areas of cognition (e.g., episodic memory, conceptual processing, visual object recognition, language comprehension). A taxonomy of situations is proposed in which grain size, meaningfulness, and tangibility distinguish the cumulative situations that structure cognition hierarchically

An optimality theory analysis of Mandarin onomatopoeia

本計畫擬於優選理論 (Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004) 框架下，探討現代華語擬聲詞在音韻上的特點與表現，並分析優選理如何論操作單音節及雙音節輸入項所衍生出的雙音節擬聲詞，進而完全或部分重疊成三音節及四音節華語擬聲詞。擬聲詞為模仿自然界中的聲音形成的詞彙，但並非隨意衍生形成，仍然需要遵循語言的構詞及音韻規律，才能衍生成為合法詞彙並順暢地使用。在華語音韻研究方面，歷來學者對於擬聲詞的討論並不豐富詳盡，因此本碩士論文便嘗試探討華語雙音節、三音節及四音節擬聲詞在音韻分析中的樣貌。 重疊在漢語擬聲詞中為極為常見的現象。如現代華語中單音節的「咕」與雙音節的「咕咕」；雙音節的「滴答」與四音節的「滴滴答答」。故擬聲詞衍生中的重疊機制為本計畫中主要討論議題，此外由於華語擬聲詞結構在音段選擇中展現一致性，故另聚焦於固定音段， 如邊音/l/及前元音/i/在現代華語擬聲詞中高度頻繁地出現，我將對其起源提出假設並分析，如現代華語「劈哩啪啦」的/l/及/i/。而華語雙音節擬聲詞的來源二分為單音節輸入項及雙音節輸入項亦為討論對象。 最後預期華語擬聲詞大致符合現代華語成詞的語法，但進行重疊時與實詞相異，語意因素不會成為衍生動機；經由優選理論分析，從音韻結構角度切入，不僅可了解華語擬聲詞衍生的制約排序，亦更加了解其音韻構詞規範，且與實詞如形容詞進行重疊時的制約排序進行比較，說明華語擬聲詞在衍生過程中傾向遵循邊緣音韻規則，與其他實詞多依據核心音韻 規則的狀況大異其趣。以此為基石去了解其他漢語方言對於擬聲成詞的標準，甚或研究日語、韓語中豐富的擬聲詞，便能構擬出擬聲成詞更具體且具有說服力的語法規則。In this thesis, the generation of Modern Mandarin disyllabic, trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic onomatopoeia under phonological viewpoint via Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004) approach will be discussed. In my M.A. Thesis ‘An OT analysis of Mandarin Onomatopoeia’, four factors motivated this study. First, the different sources of Mandarin disyllabic onomatopoeia which I thought there are monosyllabic and disyllabic inputs aroused my interests. Second, there are some similarities of Mandarin onomatopoeia between Mandarin core lexicons. Third, the reduplication mechanism in Mandarin onomatopoeia will be taken as a main point in this study. For example, in Modern Mandarin ‘gu’ (Sound of bird sing once) will extend into ‘gugu’ (Sound of birdsong) under total reduplication. Finally, the issue concerning what will be the best choice when Mandarin onomatopoeia is reduplicated with fixed segmentism also plays an important role in this study. For instance, the /l/ and /i/ in Modern Mandarin’s ‘pilipala’ (Sound of many things falling). Onomatopoeias have their special function as sound-imitating icons. They are not the words which are formed by arbitrary but by the rules. They sometimes violate phonological structures of the language in which they occur; hence they belong to the peripheral phonology rather than core one. The Mandarin onomatopoeia is different from Mandarin content words; they are not motivated by semantic factors. So the Chinese onomatopoeia generation analysis via OT approach supplies not only the morpho-phonological constraints but also the comparison of peripheral words between content words. I would like to assume that the Mandarin onomatopoeia generation follows the peripheral phonological rules. This study will provide as a basement to study on other Chinese language’s onomatopoeia or even onomatopoeia in Tibetan, Japanese and Korean

Concepts and Meaning

It certainly appears that there should be a relationship between concepts and meaning, but it is not entirely clear what this relation is. We shall assume that concepts are people&apos;s psychological representations of categories (e.g., apple, chair); whereas meanings are people&apos;s understandings of words and other linguistic expressions (e.g., &quot;apple&quot;, &quot;large chair&quot;). 1 Currently, many cognitive scientists, especially psychologists, believe that concepts and meanings are at least roughly equivalent, with the meaning of an expression being its conceptual representation in human knowledge. From identifying the content of a concept, the meaning of the associated expression follows. Malt (1991) and Murphy (1991) review this position and various alternatives. In our paper, we shall argue that concepts and meanings differ substantially. Although they are related in important ways, the relationship is one of complementarity, not equivalence. To reach our conclusion, we shall review standard assumptions about concepts and meaning, challenge these assumptions, and present alternatives. The assumption

Phenyl Benzenesulfonylhydrazides Exhibit Selective Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Inhibition with Potent <i>in Vivo</i> Pharmacodynamic Activity and Antitumor Efficacy

Tryptophan metabolism has been recognized as an important mechanism in immune tolerance. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase plays a key role in local tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway and has emerged as a therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. Our prior study identified phenyl benzenesulfonyl hydrazide 2 as a potent <i>in vitro</i> (though not <i>in vivo</i>) inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Further lead optimization to improve <i>in vitro</i> potencies and pharmacokinetic profiles resulted in <i>N</i>′-(4-bromophenyl)-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1<i>H</i>-indole-5-sulfonyl hydrazide <b>40</b>, which demonstrated 59% oral bioavailability and 73% of tumor growth delay without apparent body weight loss in the murine CT26 syngeneic model, after oral administration of 400 mg/kg. Accordingly, <b>40</b>, is proposed as a potential drug lead worthy of advanced preclinical evaluation

Phenyl Benzenesulfonylhydrazides Exhibit Selective Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Inhibition with Potent <i>in Vivo</i> Pharmacodynamic Activity and Antitumor Efficacy

Tryptophan metabolism has been recognized as an important mechanism in immune tolerance. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase plays a key role in local tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway and has emerged as a therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. Our prior study identified phenyl benzenesulfonyl hydrazide 2 as a potent <i>in vitro</i> (though not <i>in vivo</i>) inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Further lead optimization to improve <i>in vitro</i> potencies and pharmacokinetic profiles resulted in <i>N</i>′-(4-bromophenyl)-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1<i>H</i>-indole-5-sulfonyl hydrazide <b>40</b>, which demonstrated 59% oral bioavailability and 73% of tumor growth delay without apparent body weight loss in the murine CT26 syngeneic model, after oral administration of 400 mg/kg. Accordingly, <b>40</b>, is proposed as a potential drug lead worthy of advanced preclinical evaluation