Cetacean culture: Humans of the sea?

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter L. Tyack
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Data Gaps ◽  
Standards Of Evidence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rule Out

Rendell and Whitehead adopt a weak definition of culture to allow low standards of evidence for marine mammals, but they do not adequately rule out genetic factors or individual versus social learning. They then use these low standards to argue that some whales have unique cultures only matched by humans. It would have been more helpful to specify data gaps and suggest critical tests.

scholarly journals Definition of Genetic Factors in Hypertension

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. S7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger R. Williams ◽  
Steven C. Hunt ◽  
Sandra J. Hasstedt ◽  
Thomas D. Berry ◽  
Lily ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Definition Of

scholarly journals Rewiry metafory. Między ozdobą dyskursu a zwierciadłem duszy

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Popek
Keyword(s):  
Donald Davidson ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gottlob Frege ◽  
Ernst Cassirer ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon ◽  
Rule Out

The purpose of the text is to make some reconnaissance in the area of title "districts of metaphor" (or hunting grounds of metaphor) as well as reference to the unsolvable problems which are implied by a metaphorical mystery of metaphysical expressions. Thy are the order of the day in the main currents of philosophy. Starting from the rhetorical tradition of metaphor (the Aristotelian attempts of definition of metaphor as such) and of terms additional related with it (Max Black), I gradually illustrate what involves its post-rhetorical tradition. I show that philosophical symbolism derives from Aristotle’s hermeneutics, which becomes a gateway for understanding the mystery of metaphor. Like browsing in themselves mirrors, it grows also from simple phrases in complex sentences. In semantic sense, while the symbol has many meanings, the metaphor has a double meaning. It is not however limited by this matter, because in some sense, it has broader content than a symbol, as it introduces into language meanings that in the symbol are only internal (Paul Ricoeur). We also encounter reflective metaphors in our everyday speech and in the attempts of associative penetration into other people's expression. Conceptual decoding of metaphors is common for users of language (George Lakoff, Mark Johnson). On the other hand, there are specific districts of metaphorical expressions, which are reserved for poetic metaphors (Donald Davidson). Noteworthy are also the very unobvious contexts of metaphor in which the authors do not talk about this linguistic phenomenon directly (eg. Gottlob Frege, Ernst Cassirer). Declarative answer to the question whether the metaphor is a simply ornament of discourse or rather a mirror of the soul, is not possible too. Perhaps the metaphor as such includes the both variants. One must consider that being an ornament of speech or writing does not rule out it is also something more than just decoration. It wonders, bothers, disquiet, returning us into our souls. It is also like the unifying soul of all people – in cognitive sense.

scholarly journals Prevalence and Heritability of Handedness in a Hong Kong Chinese Twin and Singleton Sample

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mo Zheng ◽  
Catherine McBride ◽  
Connie Suk-Han Ho ◽  
Jonathan Ka-Chun Chan ◽  
Kwong Wai Choy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Reference Data ◽  
Hand Preference ◽  
Hong Kong Chinese ◽  
Left Handedness ◽  
Left Handed ◽  
Chinese School ◽  
Heritability Analysis ◽  
Definition Of

Left-Handedness prevalence has been consistently reported at around 10% with heritability estimates at around 25%. Higher left-handedness prevalence has been reported in males and in twins. Lower prevalence has been reported in Asia, but it remains unclear whether this is due to biological or cultural factors. Most studies are based on samples with European ethnicities and using the preferred hand for writing as the key assessment. Here, we investigated handedness in a sample of Chinese school children in Hong Kong, including 426 singletons and 205 pairs of twins, using both the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and Pegboard Task. Based on a binary definition of writing hand, we found a higher prevalence of left-handedness (8%) than what was previously reported in Asian datasets. We found no evidence of increased left-handedness in twins, but our results were in line with previous findings showing that males have a higher tendency to be left-handed than females. Heritability was similar for both hand preference (21%) and laterality indexes (22%). However, these two handedness measures present only a moderate correlation (.42) and appear to be underpinned by different genetic factors. In summary, we report new reference data for an ethnic group usually underrepresented in the literature. Our heritability analysis supports the idea that different measures will capture different components of handedness and, as a consequence, datasets assessed with heterogeneous criteria are not easily combined or compared.

scholarly journals Cultural flies: Conformist social learning in fruitflies predicts long-lasting mate-choice traditions

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6418) ◽  
pp. 1025-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Danchin ◽  
Sabine Nöbel ◽  
Arnaud Pocheville ◽  
Anne-Cecile Dagaeff ◽  
Léa Demay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Theoretical Justification ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
Animal Culture

Despite theoretical justification for the evolution of animal culture, empirical evidence for it beyond mammals and birds remains scant, and we still know little about the process of cultural inheritance. In this study, we propose a mechanism-driven definition of animal culture and test it in the fruitfly. We found that fruitflies have five cognitive capacities that enable them to transmit mating preferences culturally across generations, potentially fostering persistent traditions (the main marker of culture) in mating preference. A transmission chain experiment validates a model of the emergence of local traditions, indicating that such social transmission may lead initially neutral traits to become adaptive, hence strongly selecting for copying and conformity. Although this situation was suggested decades ago, it previously had little empirical support.

The Upjohn Award Lecture 1981/La Conférence Upjohn 1981: The metabolism of xenobiotics in different populations

1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Kalow
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Toxic Chemicals ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
Mixed Function Oxidases ◽  
Interethnic Differences ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Metabolism Of Xenobiotics

This paper provides a broad review of the topic, but particularly emphasizes the definition of genetic factors that may cause interethnic differences in the capacity to metabolize drugs and toxic chemicals and recent case studies of dehydrogenases and mixed function oxidases.

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of environment and health: America's children and the environment

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy D. Kyle ◽  
Tracey J. Woodruff ◽  
Daniel A. Axelrad
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Surrogate Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Environment And Health ◽  
Data Gaps ◽  
Children’S Environmental Health ◽  
Definition Of

There is a need for systematic approaches to assessment of environmental factors most relevant to health, health outcomes most influenced by the environment, and relationships between them, as well as for approaches to representing results of such assessments in policy deliberations. As a step in the development of such methods, we used findings and data from environmental protection and public health sectors to develop a set of measures representing topics relevant to children's environmental health. We used a definition of the environment that emphasized contaminants and a process that involved both analytic and deliberative elements. The steps in this process were to: a) develop a conceptual framework to depict relationships between environment and health with relevant types of data and information, b) select topic areas of significance for children, c) identify best available data sources and devise measures, d) assess possible surrogate data sources and measures when needed, e) design and implement metrics for computation of measures; f) select graphical representations of measures, g) identify related measures, and h) identify data gaps. Representatives of policy and stakeholder audiences participated in this process.

scholarly journals Spot protein–creatinine ratio and spot albumin–creatinine ratio in the assessment of pre-eclampsia: a diagnostic accuracy study with decision-analytic model-based economic evaluation and acceptability analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (61) ◽  
pp. 1-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Waugh ◽  
Richard Hooper ◽  
Edmund Lamb ◽  
Stephen Robson ◽  
Andrew Shennan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Accuracy ◽  
Urine Sample ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Creatinine Ratio ◽  
Central Laboratory ◽  
Albumin Creatinine Ratio ◽  
Nice Guidelines ◽  
Spot Urine ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rule Out

Background The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines highlighted the need for ‘large, high-quality prospective studies comparing the various methods of measuring proteinuria in women with new-onset hypertensive disorders during pregnancy’. Objectives The primary objective was to evaluate quantitative assessments of spot protein–creatinine ratio (SPCR) and spot albumin–creatinine ratio (SACR) in predicting severe pre-eclampsia (PE) compared with 24-hour urine protein measurement. The secondary objectives were to investigate interlaboratory assay variation, to evaluate SPCR and SACR thresholds in predicting adverse maternal and fetal outcomes and to assess the cost-effectiveness of these models. Design This was a prospective diagnostic accuracy cohort study, with decision-analytic modelling and a cost-effectiveness analysis. Setting The setting was 36 obstetric units in England, UK. Participants Pregnant women (aged ≥ 16 years), who were at > 20 weeks’ gestation with confirmed gestational hypertension and trace or more proteinuria on an automated dipstick urinalysis. Interventions Women provided a spot urine sample for protein analysis (the recruitment sample) and were asked to collect a 24-hour urine sample, which was stored for secondary analysis. A further spot sample of urine was taken immediately before delivery. Main outcome measures Outcome data were collected from hospital records. There were four index tests on a spot sample of urine: (1) SPCR test (conducted at the local laboratory); (2) SPCR test [conducted at the central laboratory using the benzethonium chloride (BZC) assay]; (3) SPCR test [conducted at the central laboratory using the pyrogallol red (PGR) assay]; and (4) SACR test (conducted at the central laboratory using an automated chemistry analyser). The comparator tests on 24-hour urine collection were a central test using the BZC assay and a central test using the PGR assay. The primary reference standard was the NICE definition of severe PE. Secondary reference standards were a clinician diagnosis of severe PE, which is defined as treatment with magnesium sulphate or with severe PE protocol; adverse perinatal outcome; one or more of perinatal or infant mortality, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotising enterocolitis or grade III/IV intraventricular haemorrhage; and economic cost and outcomes. Health service data on service use and costs followed published economic models. Results In total, 959 women were available for primary analysis and 417 of them had severe PE. The diagnostic accuracy of the four assays on spot urine samples against the reference standards was similar. The three SPCR tests had sensitivities in excess of 90% at prespecified thresholds, with poor specificities and negative likelihood ratios of ≥ 0.1. The SACR test had a significantly higher sensitivity of 99% (confidence interval 98% to 100%) and lower specificity. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were similar (area under ROC curve between 0.87 and 0.89); the area under the central laboratory’s SACR curve was significantly higher (p = 0.004). The central laboratory’s SACR test was the most cost-effective option, generating an additional 0.03 quality-adjusted life-years at an additional cost of £45.07 compared with the local laboratory’s SPCR test. The probabilistic analysis showed it to have a 100% probability of being cost-effective at the standard willingness-to-pay threshold recommended by NICE. Limitations Implementation of NICE guidelines has led to an increased intervention rate in the study population that affected recruitment rates and led to revised sample size calculations. Conclusions Evidence from this clinical study does not support the recommendation of 24-hour urine sample collection in hypertensive pregnant women. The SACR test had better diagnostic performance when predicting severe pre-eclampsia. All four tests could potentially be used as rule-out tests for the NICE definition of severe PE. Future work Testing SACR at a threshold of 8 mg/mmol should be studied as a ‘rule-out’ test of proteinuria. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN82607486. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 21, No. 61. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

scholarly journals Analysis of possible reasons of impulses repetition frequency choice made by marine mammals during different forms of activity

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
S.E. Karpichenko
Keyword(s):  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Repetition Frequency ◽  
Definition Of

In this article are analyzed scientific reports in a field of marine mammals echolocations, including data of their sounding impulses with repetition frequency significantly more, that need for definition of distance to objects of hunting. The interrelation between the increased repetition frequencies of impulses and types of subjects of hunting is established. Following frequencies of such impulses types and of related objects of hunting are presented in a table view.

scholarly journals Opportunities and challenges for deep constraint languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Atkinson ◽  
R Gerbig ◽  
Thomas Kuehne
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Modeling Language ◽  
Modeling Languages ◽  
Full Support ◽  
Constraint Language ◽  
Multiple Classification ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rule Out ◽  
Constraint Languages

Structural models are often augmented with additional well-formedness constraints to rule out unwanted configurations of instances. These constraints are usually written in dedicated constraint languages specifically tailored to the conceptual framework of the host modeling language, the most well-known example being the OCL constraint language for the UML. Many multi-level modeling languages, however, have no such associated constraint language. Simply adopting the OCL for such multi-level languages is not a complete strategy, though, as the OCL was designed to support the UML's two-level class/instance dichotomy, i.e., it can only define constraints which restrict the properties of the immediate instances of classes, but not beyond. The OCL would consequently not be able to support the definition of deep constraints that target remote or even multiple classification levels. In fact, no existing constraint language can address the full range of concerns that may occur in deep modeling using the Orthogonal Classification Architecture (OCA) as an infrastructure. In this paper we consider what these concerns might be and discuss the syntactical and pragmatic issues involved in providing full support for them in deep modeling environments.

scholarly journals Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD): Clinical Characterization and Genetic Correlates in an Italian Alzheimer’s Disease Cohort

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catia Scassellati ◽  
Miriam Ciani ◽  
Carlo Maj ◽  
Cristina Geroldi ◽  
Orazio Zanetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Inventory ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Genetically Determined ◽  
Behavioral And Psychological Symptoms

Background: The occurrence of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients hampers the clinical management and exacerbates the burden for caregivers. The definition of the clinical distribution of BPSD symptoms, and the extent to which symptoms are genetically determined, are still open to debate. Moreover, genetic factors that underline BPSD symptoms still need to be identified. Purpose. To characterize our Italian AD cohort according to specific BPSD symptoms as well as to endophenotypes. To evaluate the associations between the considered BPSD traits and COMT, MTHFR, and APOE genetic variants. Methods. AD patients (n = 362) underwent neuropsychological examination and genotyping. BPSD were assessed with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory scale. Results. APOE and MTHFR variants were significantly associated with specific single BPSD symptoms. Furthermore, “Psychosis” and “Hyperactivity” resulted in the most severe endophenotypes, with APOE and MTHFR implicated as both single risk factors and “genexgene” interactions. Conclusions. We strongly suggest the combined use of both BPSD single symptoms/endophenotypes and the “genexgene” interactions as valid strategies for expanding the knowledge about the BPSD aetiopathogenetic mechanisms.

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