The Price of Linguistic Productivity

Author(s):  
Charles. Yang

All languages have exceptions alongside overarching rules and regularities. How does a young child tease them apart within just a few years of language acquisition? Drawing an economic analogy, Yang argues that just as the price of goods is determined by the balance between supply and demand, the price of linguistic productivity arises from the quantitative considerations of rules and exceptions. The learner postulates a productive rule only if it results in a more efficient organization of language, with the number of exception falling below a critical threshold. Supported by a wide range of cases with corpus evidence, the Tolerance Principle gives a unified account of many long-standing puzzles in linguistics and psychology, including why children effortlessly acquire linguistic rules that perplex otherwise capable adults. The focus on computational efficiency provides novel insight on how language interacts with the other components of cognition, and how the ability for language might have emerged during the course of human evolution.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (168) ◽  
pp. 20200070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathvik Divi ◽  
Xiaotian Ma ◽  
Mark Ilton ◽  
Ryan St. Pierre ◽  
Babak Eslami ◽  
...  

The inherent force–velocity trade-off of muscles and motors can be overcome by instead loading and releasing energy in springs to power extreme movements. A key component of this paradigm is the latch that mediates the release of spring energy to power the motion. Latches have traditionally been considered as switches; they maintain spring compression in one state and allow the spring to release energy without constraint in the other. Using a mathematical model of a simplified contact latch, we reproduce this instantaneous release behaviour and also demonstrate that changing latch parameters (latch release velocity and radius) can reduce and delay the energy released by the spring. We identify a critical threshold between instantaneous and delayed release that depends on the latch, spring, and mass of the system. Systems with stiff springs and small mass can attain a wide range of output performance, including instantaneous behaviour, by changing latch release velocity. We validate this model in both a physical experiment as well as with data from the Dracula ant, Mystrium camillae , and propose that latch release velocity can be used in both engineering and biological systems to control energy output.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1192-1198
Author(s):  
M.S. Mohammad ◽  
Tibebe Tesfaye ◽  
Kim Ki-Seong

Ultrasonic thickness gauges are easy to operate and reliable, and can be used to measure a wide range of thicknesses and inspect all engineering materials. Supplementing the simple ultrasonic thickness gauges that present results in either a digital readout or as an A-scan with systems that enable correlating the measured values to their positions on the inspected surface to produce a two-dimensional (2D) thickness representation can extend their benefits and provide a cost-effective alternative to expensive advanced C-scan machines. In previous work, the authors introduced a system for the positioning and mapping of the values measured by the ultrasonic thickness gauges and flaw detectors (Tesfaye et al. 2019). The system is an alternative to the systems that use mechanical scanners, encoders, and sophisticated UT machines. It used a camera to record the probe’s movement and a projected laser grid obtained by a laser pattern generator to locate the probe on the inspected surface. In this paper, a novel system is proposed to be applied to flat surfaces, in addition to overcoming the other limitations posed due to the use of the laser projection. The proposed system uses two video cameras, one to monitor the probe’s movement on the inspected surface and the other to capture the corresponding digital readout of the thickness gauge. The acquired images of the probe’s position and thickness gauge readout are processed to plot the measured data in a 2D color-coded map. The system is meant to be simpler and more effective than the previous development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bubun Banerjee ◽  
Gurpreet Kaur ◽  
Navdeep Kaur

: Metal-free organocatalysts are becoming an important tool for the sustainable developments of various bioactive heterocycles. On the other hand, during last two decades, calix[n]arenes have been gaining considerable attention due to their wide range of applicability in the field of supramolecular chemistry. Recently, sulfonic acid functionalized calix[n] arenes are being employed as an efficient alternative catalyst for the synthesis of various bioactive scaffolds. In this review we have summarized the catalytic efficiency of p-sulfonic acid calix[n]arenes for the synthesis of diverse biologically promising scaffolds under various reaction conditions. There is no such review available in the literature showing the catalytic applicability of p-sulfonic acid calix[n]arenes. Therefore, we strongly believe that this review will surely attract those researchers who are interested about this fascinating organocatalyst.


Author(s):  
Angela M. Kurth ◽  
Darcia Narvaez

Like every animal, human offspring evolved to fit into their communities, but social fittedness for mammals requires a supportive early nest that fosters socio-emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and sympathy. Within a supportive environment, children naturally develop orientations that facilitate prosocial behaviours within the community. We use the evolved developmental niche (EDN), apparent in 95% of human history as small-band hunter-gatherers, for a baseline representative of human evolution. In these societies, children grow into cooperative, agile moral actors. We compare the EDN with five modern approaches to young child group care and make suggestions to early caregivers on how to provide, in the modern world, what children evolved to need.


Author(s):  
Amos Golan

In this chapter I provide additional rationalization for using the info-metrics framework. This time the justifications are in terms of the statistical, mathematical, and information-theoretic properties of the formalism. Specifically, in this chapter I discuss optimality, statistical and computational efficiency, sufficiency, the concentration theorem, the conditional limit theorem, and the concept of information compression. These properties, together with the other properties and measures developed in earlier chapters, provide logical, mathematical, and statistical justifications for employing the info-metrics framework.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Quang-huy Duong ◽  
Heri Ramampiaro ◽  
Kjetil Nørvåg ◽  
Thu-lan Dam

Dense subregion (subgraph & subtensor) detection is a well-studied area, with a wide range of applications, and numerous efficient approaches and algorithms have been proposed. Approximation approaches are commonly used for detecting dense subregions due to the complexity of the exact methods. Existing algorithms are generally efficient for dense subtensor and subgraph detection, and can perform well in many applications. However, most of the existing works utilize the state-or-the-art greedy 2-approximation algorithm to capably provide solutions with a loose theoretical density guarantee. The main drawback of most of these algorithms is that they can estimate only one subtensor, or subgraph, at a time, with a low guarantee on its density. While some methods can, on the other hand, estimate multiple subtensors, they can give a guarantee on the density with respect to the input tensor for the first estimated subsensor only. We address these drawbacks by providing both theoretical and practical solution for estimating multiple dense subtensors in tensor data and giving a higher lower bound of the density. In particular, we guarantee and prove a higher bound of the lower-bound density of the estimated subgraph and subtensors. We also propose a novel approach to show that there are multiple dense subtensors with a guarantee on its density that is greater than the lower bound used in the state-of-the-art algorithms. We evaluate our approach with extensive experiments on several real-world datasets, which demonstrates its efficiency and feasibility.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1461
Author(s):  
Shun-Hsin Yu ◽  
Jen-Shuo Chang ◽  
Chia-Hung Dylan Tsai

This paper proposes an object classification method using a flexion glove and machine learning. The classification is performed based on the information obtained from a single grasp on a target object. The flexion glove is developed with five flex sensors mounted on five finger sleeves, and is used for measuring the flexion of individual fingers while grasping an object. Flexion signals are divided into three phases, and they are the phases of picking, holding and releasing, respectively. Grasping features are extracted from the phase of holding for training the support vector machine. Two sets of objects are prepared for the classification test. One is printed-object set and the other is daily-life object set. The printed-object set is for investigating the patterns of grasping with specified shape and size, while the daily-life object set includes nine objects randomly chosen from daily life for demonstrating that the proposed method can be used to identify a wide range of objects. According to the results, the accuracy of the classifications are achieved 95.56% and 88.89% for the sets of printed objects and daily-life objects, respectively. A flexion glove which can perform object classification is successfully developed in this work and is aimed at potential grasp-to-see applications, such as visual impairment aid and recognition in dark space.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
James Robert Brown

Religious notions have long played a role in epistemology. Theological thought experiments, in particular, have been effective in a wide range of situations in the sciences. Some of these are merely picturesque, others have been heuristically important, and still others, as I will argue, have played a role that could be called essential. I will illustrate the difference between heuristic and essential with two examples. One of these stems from the Newton–Leibniz debate over the nature of space and time; the other is a thought experiment of my own constructed with the aim of making a case for a more liberal view of evidence in mathematics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1111-1131 ◽  
Author(s):  
AbdulLateef Olanrewaju

Purpose – The opportunities that the emerging markets present to the players in the construction industry means that the players need to expand on the scope and size of their responsibilities and duties to the stakeholders. Each of the professionals now demands more specialised and sophisticated services from one another. The other players in the construction industry now require more emerging responsibilities and duties from the quantity surveyors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles that “modern” quantity surveyors play by measuring the gaps that exist in the services that the quantity surveyors provide. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data are collected through survey questionnaires. In total, 23 roles played by modern quantity surveyors are identified and addressed to the respondents to rank the rate at which quantity surveyors provide these “emerging” services. The collected data were analysed statistically. Findings – The results of the findings led to the conclusion that the quantity surveyors were not meeting the expectations of other players. Therefore, for competitiveness, quantity surveyors need to better meet demand expectations. Research limitations/implications – This findings of this research are constrained to the services or functions that the quantity provide in the construction industry. Practical implications – This knowledge is valuable to academic institutions that offer quantity surveying programmes, to practicing quantity surveyors, governments, and other players in the construction industry. It will allow quantity surveyors to reconcile supply and demand expectations. Originality/value – There is no known conclusive empirical study on services offered by quantity surveyors in any emerging markets. Therefore, the findings offer a fresh understanding on the services of quantity surveyors not only in Nigeria but elsewhere. While some of the services are common, others are peculiar to emerging markets.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney J. Vergotine

A case of two fibrotic lesions of the oral mucosa in a 17-month-old African-American female is reported. Both lesions occurred on the anterior maxilla, one lesion pedunculated on the buccal attached gingiva and the other lesion sessile on the palate. Histological examination characterized the buccal lesion as focal fibrous hyperplasia (FFH) and the palatal lesion as a giant cell fibroma (GCF). A case is made for continuing the consideration of GCF as a histologically distinct entity from FFH but that no difference in clinical impact between the two lesions exists.


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