Contingencies between verbs, body parts, and argument structures in maternal and child speech: a corpus study

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSITA C. MAOUENE ◽  
NITYA SETHURAMAN ◽  
MOUNIR M. MAOUENE ◽  
SANGO OTIENO

abstractPrior work on argument structure development has shown connections between abstract verb meaning and argument structure; neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown connections between verb meaning and body effectors. Here we examine the contingencies between verbs, their most likely body region pairing, and argument structure. We ask whether the verbs used in six common syntactic frames are specifically linked to one of three main regions of the body:head, arm, leg.The speech of 20-month-olds (N= 67), 28-month-olds (N= 27), and their mothers (N= 54) (CHILDES: MacWhinney, 2000) was examined for the use of early-learned verbs (MCDI: Fenson, Dale, Reznick, Bates, Thal, & Pethick, 1994). In total, 89 verb types in 3321 utterances were coded for their associations with thehead, arm, andlegbody regions (associations taken from Maouene, Hidaka, & Smith, 2008). Significant non-random relations are found both overall and for each age group in analyses using multiple chi-square tests of independence and goodness-of-fit. These results are discussed in terms of their relevance for both argument structure development and embodied cognition, as evidence supporting a developmental path that has not been previously examined, in which the infant can use early and concrete perception-action information to learn later abstract syntactic achievements.

Author(s):  
Josita Maouene ◽  
Nitya Sethuraman ◽  
Mounir Maoene ◽  
Linda B. Smith

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:All information enters the cognitive system through the body. Thus, it is possible that the body—and its morphology—may play a role in structurng knowledge and acquisition. This idea is particularly cogent in the case of verbs, since early learned verbs are about bodily actions and since recent advanc-es in cognitive neuroscience (Pulvermueller, 2005; James and Maouene, 2009) indicate that the neural processing of common verbs activates the brain regions responsible for the specific body parts that perform those actions. Here we provide initial evidence these body-part verb relations may also be related to the argument structures associated with specific verbs. We will conclude that in the same way that verb meaning and argument structure develop out of correlations in linguistic experiences, they may also develop out of correlations in body experiences. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. eaau6252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Guo ◽  
Weixuan Zhang ◽  
Hanchun Wu ◽  
Junfeng Han ◽  
Yongliang Zhang ◽  
...  

The edges of layered materials have unique properties that substantially differ from the body regions. In this work, we perform a systematic Raman study of the edges of various layered materials (MoS2, WS2, WSe2, PtS2, and black phosphorus). The Raman spectra of the edges feature newly observed forbidden Raman modes, which are originally undetectable from the body region. By selecting the edge type and the polarization directions of the incident and scattered light, all forbidden Raman modes are distinctly detected. Optical simulations show that the edges of layered materials drastically distort the electromagnetic fields of both the incident and scattered light, so that the light interacts with the edges in a distinct way, which differs from its interactions with the body regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre C. Bruinjé ◽  
Mauricio O. Moura ◽  
Bruno S. Maggi ◽  
Vinicius A. São-Pedro ◽  
Daniel M.A. Pessoa ◽  
...  

Abstract Animal colouration plays a key role in inter and intraspecific interactions, pre-eminently in mate signalling. When multiple types of colouration occur within sexes it is possible that they show alternative reproductive strategies. In lizards, most colouration studies do not incorporate how colour is perceived by conspecifics. Here, we used unbiased colour analysis methods (spectrophotometry and visual modelling) to test for sexual dimorphism and within male dichromatism in the Striped Lava Lizard. We found that males express two distinct colourations that are different from females in several dorsal and ventral body regions. Our results showed UV reflection at the throat, an important body region for signalling. Ventral patches, the coloured badge seen in adult males of Tropidurus spp., have two distinct colour classes within males (Y and B males). Morphs are best discriminated by blue and yellow chroma, and brightness. Body size had little influence on colouration, suggesting that colour may be linked to inheritance rather than growth. Our study clearly shows sexual dichromatism and the existence of colour morphs in this species. Moreover, morph differences in colouration are perceptible by conspecifics. These differences are not only between ventral patches, but also in other body parts such as the dorsum, previously considered as cryptic by human observers. We suggest that colouration at the ventral patches and throat might play a role in intraspecific interactions. Patches increase colour intensity during breeding season and are likely to be costly by pigment-based expression, whereas throat’s UV reflection might have a cost infringed by conspicuousness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.24) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Norlizaa Mohamad ◽  
Jafri Mohd Rohani ◽  
Ismail Abdul Rahman ◽  
Anis Amira Mat Zuki

Prolonged standing is one of the common activities in electronic industry as the task requirement. Prolonged standing can cause discomfort on the body of the workers and can lead to injury and occupational disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate standing workers perception on the fatigue and the discomfort on their respective body region for 12 hours working time. The subjects are the 80 workers with a good health condition and at least 6 months tenure. The subject data are collected via questionnaires and Likert scale to define the discomfort, pain, and fatigue. The workers were interviewed regarding their job and perceived fatigue discomfort. The results show the domination of the lower body region with the higher mean at the lower back, legs, and foot ankle. No statistically significant differences were found between the job tenure and body part discomfort pain and fatigue. There is a significant relation between gender and discomfort pain on legs and foot ankle. The result also shows a strong relation between age and the discomfort body parts of thigh and foot ankle. The perceptions of the workers towards discomfort pain and fatigue cause by prolonged standing during performing the task. The results from this study will provide a view for industrial consultants or ergonomist with evidence to support for ergonomic interventions for prolonged standing activity such as job rotation and work-rest schedule. 


1970 ◽  
Vol 176 (1044) ◽  
pp. 291-293

It is generally assumed that in multicellular organisms the diversity of the different cell types is the result of different gene activity which becomes manifest in the course of development. This theoretical concept of cell differentiation was developed on the basis of results obtained from a relatively small number of suitable experimental systems. One of them comprises the imaginal disks of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster . Imaginal disks are larval primordia in holometabolic insects such as flies and mosquitoes, and consist of densely packed populations of morphologically uniform cells. They give rise to defined structures of the adult body (mainly integument), thus replacing parts of the larva which are almost completely histolysed during metamorphosis. The prospective fate of the various imaginal disks can be tested, for example, by transplantation experiments. Individual disks are removed from larvae of a genetically marked strain and transplanted into the body cavity of another larva with which the transplants undergo metamorphosis. The metamorphosed derivatives of the disks are then found in the abdomen of the fly and can be microscopically identified on the basis of the morphology of bristles, hairs and other structural features of the integument. The same method is applied for examination of the developmental performance of disk fragments. From the results of such experiments the following conclusions are drawn: (1) Individual disks of fully grown larvae, that is larvae which are ready to pupate, are determined (programmed) for exactly defined body parts of the adult organism. (2) The individual subregions of such a body part can be localized precisely within a disk. Based on these facts fate maps (anlage plans) can be worked out. (3) From experiments in which different genetically marked disks are intermingled and then transplanted into larvae it is concluded that even single cells are determined for structures of a specific body region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youn-Sik Hong

Most accidents occurring at medical institutions treating elderly patients with mobility impairment are bedsores and fall accidents. One of the reasons for this high rate of accidents is the lack of nursing personnel. In order to aid caregivers in nursing elderly patients who are not able to move about freely, in this paper, we propose a design and implementation of a smart bed. In this bed, several pressure sensors are deployed underneath the mattress cover to consider both peoples’ standard physical characteristics and the specific body parts where bedsores commonly occur. To manage the pressure ulcer area and to prevent falls, the body area is divided into three vertical areas and three horizontal areas. Each microcontroller unit manages pressure-sensing information in one of the body regions divided horizontally. In this study, a real-time pressure-sensing algorithm is presented that is capable of deciding on the possibilities of bedsores and falling accidents by considering both the intensity and the duration of pressure of specific body parts. Our experimental results demonstrate that a prototype smart bed works well for several human models of various heights and weights.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan H. Massey ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
David L. Stern ◽  
Patricia J. Wittkopp

AbstractUnderstanding the genetic basis of species differences is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Pigmentation divergence between Drosophila species often involves genetic changes in pigmentation candidate genes that pattern the body and wings, but it remains unclear how these changes affect pigmentation evolution in multiple body parts between the same diverging species. Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola show pigmentation differences in the thorax, legs, and wings, with D. elegans exhibiting male-specific wing spots and D. gunungcola lacking wing spots with intensely dark thoraces and legs. Here, we performed QTL mapping to identify the genetic architecture of these differences. We find a large effect QTL on the X chromosome for all three body parts. QTL on Muller Element E were found for thorax pigmentation in both backcrosses but were only marginally significant in one backcross for the legs and wings. Consistent with this observation, we isolated the effects of the Muller Element E QTL by introgressing D. gunungcola alleles into a D. elegans genetic background and found that D. gunungcola alleles linked near the pigmentation candidate gene ebony caused intense darkening of the thorax, minimal darkening of legs, and minimal shrinking of wing spots. D. elegans ebony mutants showed changes in pigmentation consistent with Ebony having different effects on pigmentation in different tissues. Our results suggest that multiple genes have evolved differential effects on pigmentation levels in different body regions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
O. J. Ogunshola ◽  
S. A. Daramola ◽  
O. B. Omotoso ◽  
O. I. Baki ◽  
C. A. Chineke

The native chickens constitute about 80 percent of the 120 million poultry birds found in Nigeriabut have not been adequately characterized. Thus, the study was undertaken to establish the relationship among body weight and morphometric traits of thirty six Fulani Ecotype chickens raised for 25 weeks. Body weights were collected per bird and the morphometric traits (body length, drumstick length, drumstick circumference, breast girth, nose to shoulder, shoulder to tail and height at withers) were measured with tape rule on weekly basis. The measured parameters were subjected to correlation and regression analyses. Analysis showed that positive and high significant correlation existed between body weight and morphometric traits (p< 0.01). The result showed that accuracy of prediction was attained with linear and quadratic models but quadratic model had theoretical advantage over the linearmodelwith respect to its goodness of fit to the data. This means that an increase in growth rate of the body parts would correspondingly cause an increase in live weight gain of the bird. In conclusion, body weight and morphometric traits could be used to separate males and females Fulani Ecotype chicken at 17 weeks old. At this age, males appeared bigger than the females and their combs were well pronounced, this would help both sexes to grow uniformly, prevent indiscriminate mating before attaining the age of sexual maturity and help in selection of Fulani Ecotype chicken for improvement in meat and egg production.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Elli ◽  
Marina Bedny ◽  
Barbara Landau

Classic theories emphasize the primacy of first-person sensory experience for learning meanings of words: to know what “see” means, one must be able to use the eyes to perceive. Contrary to this idea, blind adults and children acquire normative meanings of “visual” verbs, e.g., interpreting “see” and “look” to mean with the eyes for sighted agents. Here we ask the flip side of this question: how easily do sighted children acquire the meanings of “visual” verbs as they apply to blind agents? We asked sighted 4, 6- and 9 year-olds to tell us what part of the body a blind or a sighted agent would use to “see”, “look” (and other visual verbs, n=15), vs. “listen”, “smell” (and other non-visual verbs, n=15). Even the youngest children consistently reported the correct body parts for sighted agents (eyes for “look”, ears for “listen”). By contrast, there was striking developmental change in applying “visual” verbs to blind agents. Adults, 9- and 6-year-olds, either extended visual verbs to other modalities for blind agents (e.g., “seeing” with hands or a cane) or stated that the blind agent “cannot” “look” or “see”. By contrast, 4-year-olds said that a blind agent would use her eyes to “see”, “look”, etc., even while explicitly acknowledging that the agent’s “eyes don’t work”. Young children also endorsed “she is looking at the dax” descriptions of photographs where the blind agent had the object in her “line of sight,” irrespective of whether she had physical contact with the object. This pattern held for leg-motion verbs (“walk”, “run”) applied to wheelchair users. The ability to modify verb modality for agents with disabilities undergoes developmental change between 4 and 6. Despite this, we find that 4-year-olds are sensitive to the semantic distinction between active (“look”) and stative (“see”), even when applied to blind agents. These results challenge the primacy of first-person sensory experience and highlight the importance of linguistic input and social interaction in the acquisition of verb meaning.


2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen D Terreblanche ◽  
Savvas Andronikou ◽  
Linda T Hlabangana ◽  
Taryn Brown ◽  
Pieter E Boshoff

Background There is a heavy reliance on registrars for after-hours CT reporting with a resultant unavoidable error rate. Purpose To determine the after-hours CT reporting error rate by radiology registrars and influencing factors on this error rate. Material and Methods A 2-month prospective study was undertaken at two tertiary, level 1 trauma centers in Johannesburg, South Africa. Provisional CT reports issued by the registrar on call were reviewed by a qualified radiologist the following morning and information relating to the number, time and type of reporting errors made as well as the body region scanned, indication for the scan, year of training of the registrar, and workload during the call were recorded and analyzed. Results A total of 1477 CT scans were performed with an overall error rate of 17.1% and a major error rate of 7.7%. The error rate for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year registrars was 19.4%, 15.1%, and 14.5%, respectively. A significant difference was found between the error rate in reporting trauma scans (15.8%) compared to non-trauma scans (19.2%) although the difference between emergency scans (16.9%) and elective scans (22.6%) was found to be not significant, a finding likely due to the low number of elective scans performed. Abdominopelvic scans elicited the highest number of errors (33.9%) compared to the other body regions such as head (16.5%) and cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spine (11.7%). Increasing workload resulted in a significant increase in error rate when analyzed with a generalized linear model. There was also a significant difference noted in the time of scan groups which we attributed to a workload effect. Missed findings were the most frequent errors seen (57.3%). Conclusion We found an increasing error rate associated with increasing workload and marked increase in errors with the reporting of abdominopelvic scans. There was a decrease in the error rate when looking an increasing year of training although this there was only found to be significant difference between the 2nd and 3rd year registrars.


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