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In this study, our objective was to explore the impact of hearing loss on the conceptual system underlying word meaning. We collected perceptual strength norms for 200 Italian words from early deaf individuals with limited or no access to auditory information and compared them to existing norms from hearing individuals. For each word, participants provided perceptual strength ratings for each perceptual modality. Our results revealed a significant reduction of the auditory modality in the norms provided by deaf individuals compared to the hearing population. However, we did not observe an overall decrease in reported perceptual strength. Interestingly, we found a heightened involvement of other sensory modalities accompanied by reduced modality exclusivity in the conceptualization of words, indicating that deaf individuals heavily rely on information coming from the other perceptual modalities to form concepts. These findings suggest that hearing loss leads to a reorganisation of word conceptualization, characterised by increased multisensoriality. Importantly, although diminished, the auditory modality remains present, suggesting that deaf individuals can still infer auditory-associated knowledge about words to some extent.

We explore the fairness of a redistricting game introduced by Mixon and Villar, which provides a two-party protocol for dividing a state into electoral districts, without the participation of an independent authority. We analyze the game in an abstract setting that ignores the geographic distribution of voters and assumes that voter preferences are fixed and known. We show that the minority player can always win at least $p-1$ districts, where $p$ is proportional to the percentage of minority voters. We give an upper bound on the number of districts won by the minority based on a "cracking" strategy for the majority.

Here we explore whether ChatGPT can provide definitions for novel derived words, and to what extent it is able to capture their degree of perceived meaningfulness, as estimated by human speakers. Whereas the produced definitions are largely sensible, ChatGPT predictions about meaningfulness do not align well with the human ones: not only ChatGPT is outperformed by an older, much simpler, cognitively-oriented model; its predictions are also shown to mostly rely on affixes, not considering the actual combinations of morpheme meanings, making it at odds with human speakers. Novel words represent an interesting challenge for large-language-models.

In the present study, we leveraged computational methods to explore the extent to which, relative to direct access to semantics from orthographic cues, the additional appreciation of morphological cues is advantageous while inducing the meaning of affixed pseudo-words. We re-analyzed data from a study on a lexical decision task for affixed pseudo-words. We considered a parsimonious model only including semantic variables (namely, semantic neighborhood density, entropy, magnitude, stem proximity) derived through a word-form-to-meaning approach (ngram-based). We then explored the extent to which the addition of equivalent semantic variables derived by combining semantic information from morphemes (combination-based) improved the fit of the statistical model explaining human data. Results suggest that semantic information can be extracted from arbitrary clusters of letters, yet a computational model of semantic access also including a combination-based strategy based on explicit morphological information better captures the cognitive mechanisms underlying human performance. This is particularly evident when participants recognize affixed pseudo-words as meaningful stimuli.

Loss-of-function variants in CHAMP1 were recently described as cause of a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by intellectual disability (ID), autism, and distinctive facial characteristics. By exome sequencing (ES), we identified a truncating variant in CHAMP1, c.1858A > T (p.Lys620*), in a patient who exhibited a similar phenotype of severe ID and dysmorphisms. Whether haploinsufficiency or a dominant negative effect is the underlying pathomechanism in these cases is a question that still needs to be addressed. By array-CGH, we detected a 194 kb deletion in 13q34 encompassing CHAMP1, CDC16 and UPF3, in another patient who presented with borderline neurodevelopmental impairment and with no dysmorphisms. In a further patient suffering from early onset refractory seizures, we detected by ES a missense variant in CHAMP1, c.67 G > A (p.Gly23Ser). Genomic abnormalities were all de novo in our patients. We reviewed the clinical and the genetic data of patients reported in the literature with: loss-of-function variants in CHAMP1 (total 40); chromosome 13q34 deletions ranging from 1.1 to 4 Mb (total 7) and of the unique patient with a missense variant. We could infer that loss-of-function variants in CHAMP1 cause a homogeneous phenotype with severe ID, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and highly distinctive facial characteristics through a dominant negative effect. CHAMP1 haploinsufficiency results in borderline ID with negligible consequences on the quality of life. Missense variants give rise to a severe epileptic encephalopathy through gain-of-function mechanism, most likely. We tentatively define for the first time distinct categories among the CHAMP1-related disorder on the basis of pathomechanisms.

A key issue in language processing is how we recognize and understand words in sentences. Research on sentence reading indicates that the time we need to read a word depends on how (un)expected it is. Research on single word recognition shows that each word also has its own recognition dynamics based on the relation between its orthographic form and its meaning. It is not clear, however, how these sentence-level and word-level dynamics interact. In the present study, we examine the joint impact of these sources of information during sentence reading. We analyze existing eye-tracking and self-paced reading data (Frank et al., 2013, Behavior Research Methods, 45[4], 1182–1190) to investigate the interplay of sentence-level prediction (operationalized as Surprisal) and word Orthography-Semantics Consistency in activating word meaning in sentence processing. Results indicate that both Surprisal and Orthography-Semantics Consistency exert an influence on several reading measures. The shape of the observed interaction differs, but the results give compelling indication for a general trade-off between expectations based on sentence context and cues to meaning from word orthography.

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants' reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.

The aim of this preregistered study was to empirically identify a comprehensive set of goals related to honesty-humility and to dishonesty, and specifically to their facets: (im)modesty, greed (avoidance), (un)fairness, (in)sincerity. We asked 250 participants to write down the goals that they ascribed to 48 adjectives identified in a previous study, which describe behaviors associated with different aspects of honesty, plus control adjectives. The resulting textual corpus was analyzed relying on a combination of natural language processing, independent-rater judgment, network analysis, and clustering techniques developed in previous studies. As a result, we obtained classes grouping the goals related to both positive and negative poles of honesty. We then quantified the motivational overlap between different aspects of honesty. Knowledge of the motivational bases of honesty and dishonesty is crucial for understanding the processes underlying these traits, as well as for the further developing scales measuring them.

One of the main factors influencing the clinical utility of genetic tests for cancer predisposition is the ability to provide actionable classifications (ie pathogenic or benign). However, a large fraction of the variants identified in cancer predisposing genes (CPGs) are of uncertain significance (VUS), and cannot be used for clinical purposes either to identify individuals at risk or to drive treatment. Here we analyze the current status of VUS identification in a subset of 24 CPGs included by the American College of Medical Genetics/Association for Molecular Pathology in the list of genes that should be considered for the return of incidental findings. To this purpose we retrieved published literature using different search strings according to the frequency of the condition and we extracted corresponding data from ClinVar. The total number of VUS has not decreased with time, due to widespread multigene panel testing, and the relative yield of VUS compared to pathogenic variants is higher in more recent studies, which tend to involve series not selected for the presence of specific high risk criteria. In addition, only few studies adopt gene specific interpretation criteria when these are available. Despite the large yield of VUS associated with multigene testing, the data obtained from such studies can be very useful for variant classification, especially for those variants that are more likely to be benign, since these are expected to be detected more frequently in a population that does not show gene specific manifestations. In addition, wider use of gene specific interpretation criteria should be promoted in order to optimize the interpretation process.

A comprehensive de$nition of Honesty, as a human characteristic, should re&ect not only a set of specific behaviors, but also a set of goals. Previous studies connecting personality and goals focused primarily on Big Five traits, which do not encompass honesty, thus the motivational underpinnings of honesty are currently unexplored. "e aim of this study was thus to identify a set of goals related to di#erent aspects of this trait. First, adopting a psycho-lexical approach and expert judgement, we identi$ed a set of 30 adjectives (out of an initial pool of 122) describing behaviors relevant for honesty and its facets. Second, we asked 250 participants to write goals that they ascribed to behaviors described by each adjective. "e resulting corpus included 9000 responses and was analyzed relying on a combination of natural language processing, independent-rater judgment, network analysis, and clustering techniques. As a result, we identifed the major goals related to (dis)honesty and its facets, as well as a set of main features of each goal. Having available a taxonomy of goals related to honesty is crucial to develop assessment of the motivational bases of honesty, as well as to implement paradigms aimed at elucidating the motivational processes of this trait.

We used a large-scale data-driven approach to investigate the role of word form in accessing semantics. By using distributional semantic methods and taking advantage of an ERP lexical decision mega-study, we investigated the exact time dynamic of semantic ac-cess from printed words as driven by orthography-semantics consistency (OSC) and phonology-semantics consistency (PSC). Generalized Additive Models revealed very early and late OSC-by-PSC interactions, visible at 100 and 400 msec, respectively. This pattern suggests that, during visual word recognition: a) meaning is accessed by means of two distinct and interactive paths -the orthography-to-meaning and the orthography-to -phonology-to-meaning path-, which mutually contribute to recognition since early stages; b) the system may exploit a dual mechanism for semantic access, with early and late effects associated to a fast-coarse and a slow-fine grained semantic analysis, respec-tively. The results also highlight the high sensitivity of the visual word recognition system to arbitrary form-meaning relations.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading behavior that are shared and those that vary systematically across languages through an investigation of eye-tracking data from 13 languages recorded during text reading. We begin with reporting a bibliometric analysis of eye-tracking studies showing that the current empirical base is insufficient for cross-linguistic comparisons. We respond to this empirical lacuna by presenting the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO), the product of an international multi-lab collaboration. We examine which behavioral indices differentiate between reading in written languages, and which measures are stable across languages. One of the findings is that readers of different languages vary considerably in their skipping rate (i.e., the likelihood of not fixating on a word even once) and that this variability is explained by cross-linguistic differences in word length distributions. In contrast, if readers do not skip a word, they tend to spend a similar average time viewing it. We outline the implications of these findings for theories of reading. We also describe prospective uses of the publicly available MECO data, and its further development plans.

Craniosynostosis are a heterogeneous group of genetic conditions characterized by the premature fusion of the skull bones. The most common forms of craniosynostosis are Crouzon, Apert and Pfeiffer syndromes. They differ from each other in various additional clinical manifestations, e.g., syndactyly is typical of Apert and rare in Pfeiffer syndrome. Their inheritance is autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance and one of the main genes responsible for these syndromes is FGFR2, mapped on chromosome 10, encoding fibroblast growth factor receptor 2. We report an FGFR2 gene variant in a mother and daughter who present with different clinical features of Crouzon syndrome. The daughter is more severely affected than her mother, as also verified by a careful study of the face and oral cavity. The c.1032G>A transition in exon 8, already reported as a synonymous p.Ala344 = variant in Crouzon patients, also activates a new donor splice site leading to the loss of 51 nucleotides and the in-frame removal of 17 amino acids. We observed lower FGFR2 transcriptional and translational levels in the daughter compared to the mother and healthy controls. A preliminary functional assay and a molecular modeling added further details to explain the discordant phenotype of the two patients.

The aim of this preregistered study was to empirically identify a comprehensive set of goals related to honesty-humility and to dishonesty, and specifically to their facets: (im)modesty, greed (avoidance), (un)fairness, (in)sincerity. We asked 250 participants to write down the goals that they ascribed to 48 adjectives identified in a previous study, which describe behaviors associated with different aspects of honesty, plus control adjectives. The resulting textual corpus was analyzed relying on a combination of natural language processing, independent-rater judgment, network analysis, and clustering techniques developed in previous studies. As a result, we obtained classes grouping the goals related to both positive and negative poles of honesty. We then quantified the motivational overlap between different aspects of honesty. Knowledge of the motivational bases of honesty and dishonesty is crucial for understanding the processes underlying these traits, as well as for the further developing scales measuring them.

We release a database of cloze probability values, predictability ratings, and computational estimates for a sample of 205 English sentences (1726 words), aligned with previously released word-by-word reading time data (both self-paced reading and eye-movement records; Frank et al., Behavior Research Methods, 45(4), 1182–1190. 2013) and EEG responses (Frank et al., Brain and Language, 140, 1–11. 2015). Our analyses show that predictability ratings are the best predictors of the EEG signal (N400, P600, LAN) self-paced reading times, and eye movement patterns, when spillover effects are taken into account. The computational estimates are particularly effective at explaining variance in the eye-tracking data without spillover. Cloze probability estimates have decent overall psychometric accuracy and are the best predictors of early fixation patterns (first fixation duration). Our results indicate that the choice of the best measurement of word predictability in context critically depends on the processing index being considered.

The variation in (dis-)honesty can be attributed to both enduring traits and temporary states. While goals have been recognized as crucial in understanding other personality traits, their interplay with honesty, as both a trait and a state, remains underexplored. To address this gap, we conducted two preregistered studies. In Study 1 (N = 400), we developed a comprehensive questionnaire consisting of 78 items to assess goals related to honesty and dishonesty, examining its psychometric properties and factor structure. The results demonstrated that goals have significant predictive power in relation to (dis)honest behavior, above and beyond trait honesty. In Study 2 (N = 200), we adapted the questionnaire into an Ecological Momentary Assessment format consisting of 21 items. Through a specialized mobile application, participants reported their goals and honesty levels five times a day over a two-week period. The findings revealed that a goal structure comprising two correlated factors (honest and dishonest goals) provided a better fit to the data compared to orthogonal two-factor and unidimensional models. Moreover, the temporal relationships observed between goals and honest states, both concurrently and over time, further substantiated the questionnaire's validity. In summary, our results indicate that goals associated with honesty and dishonesty are partially dissociable motivational tendencies, with dishonesty goals demonstrating a stronger link to predicting deceptive behavior and corroborating the importance of goals for the processes of honesty and dishonesty.

The paper proposes a review of studies on modality and modal encoding in Sicilian that takes into account both traditional dialectological works and those that have been concerned with investigating, in an in-depth and theoretically oriented manner, some specific areas of the modal domain. A collection of essays dedicated to the 'surroundings' of modality is also introduced here, within which the peripheries of the category are explored. In the surroundings of modality, its contiguity with other notional domains and its interactions with a variety of pragmatic domains are investigated, by considering the studies of recent decades that have devoted increasing attention to these topics., Il contributo propone una rassegna di studi sulla modalità e sulla codifica modale in siciliano che tiene conto sia dei lavori di ambito dialettologico, sia di quelli che si sono occupati di indagare, in maniera approfondita e teoricamente orientata, alcuni settori specifici del dominio modale. Si introduce, inoltre, qui, una raccolta di saggi dedicati ai ‘dintorni’ della modalità, all’interno della quale si esplorano le periferie della categoria, la contiguità con altri domini nozionali e se ne indagano le interazioni con una varietà di ambiti pragmatici, prendendo in considerazione gli studi degli ultimi decenni che a questi argomenti hanno dedicato una attenzione crescente. &nbsp

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses. We then provide a bird's-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies.

The aim of the paper is to point out the role of resilient public spaces in ensuring public health and safety in the time of pandemic and in multi-risk scenarios. The investigation of urban strategies – that guarantee accessibility and flexibility of public spaces – is framed in opposition to the policies of closure and forbiddance of use which have largely been applied during the COVID-19 pandemic in the years 2020-2022, especially in Italy. Through a review of current policies on the topic of multi-risk exposure and emergency management at the global, European, national, and local level (with the case of the Campania Region, in South Italy), the paper underlines the weaknesses of urban planning and design instances in emergency decision-making processes. A selection of initiatives that experimented new spatial uses and configurations of public spaces is used to reflect on how recent practices reacted to the pandemic, as an alternative to restrictive, non-resilient approaches. The results are discussed and interpreted as relevant components to build back better, reinterpreting the role of public spaces towards an innovative research agenda for more sustainable and resilient planning and design.

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Following four successful years in the SAE AutoDrive Challenge Series I, the University of Toronto is participating in the Series II competition to develop a Level 4 autonomous passenger vehicle capable of handling various urban driving scenarios by 2025. Accurate detection of traffic lights and correct identification of their states is essential for safe autonomous operation in cities. Herein, we describe our recently-redesigned traffic light perception system for autonomous vehicles like the University of Toronto's self-driving car, Artemis. Similar to most traffic light perception systems, we rely primarily on camera-based object detectors. We deploy the YOLOv5 detector for bounding box regression and traffic light classification across multiple cameras and fuse the observations. To improve robustness, we incorporate priors from high-definition semantic maps and perform state filtering using hidden Markov models. We demonstrate a multi-camera, real time-capable traffic light perception pipeline that handles complex situations including multiple visible intersections, traffic light variations, temporary occlusion, and flashing light states. To validate our system, we collected and annotated a varied dataset incorporating flashing states and a range of occlusion types. Our results show superior performance in challenging real-world scenarios compared to single-frame, single-camera object detection., Comment: In Proceedings of the Conference on Robots and Vision (CRV'23), Montreal, Canada, Jun. 6-8, 2023

Deaf individuals who learned a spoken language with the aid of a cochlear implant (CI) often experience difficulties with reading. In the present study, we investigate this issue by assessing the impact of lexical and orthographic predictors on visual word recognition in early and late deaf CI-users. Early deaf CI-users were comparable to age-matched hearing controls, for both response accuracy and latencies, whereas late deaf CI-users were slower albeit similarly accurate with respect to age-matched controls. Analyses of the impact of lexical and orthographic predictors, however, revealed that early deaf-CI users were slower than controls in recognising low frequency words and words with high proportion of consonants. In conclusion, early deaf individuals who developed their language using a CI show qualitative differences in visual word processing, above and beyond the overall performance. This suggests that typical overall performance may emerge also in the context of atypical lexical and word form representations.

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. Researchers surveyed over 450 UC Davis faculty, researchers, and staff, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled “Greenest Flight”. The researchers found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2E saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs. They also found that displaying carbon information encouraged Davis employees to choose nonstop (lower-emissions) flights, when available, from a more distant airport over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. In a second step of analysis, they estimated the carbon and cost impacts for UC Davis business travel if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. Based on the choice models from the survey data, a year’s worth of actual employee air travel data, and data collected on flight alternatives with respect to the flights chosen by employees, they estimated potential annual savings of more than 79 tons of CO2E, and a more impressive $56,000 reduction in airfare costs, due to an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper (often nonstop) flight options out of SFO. Broader university policies encouraging lower-emissions flights and enhanced public transportation within the multi-airport mega-region would likely support much greater carbon savings. Institutionalizing this “nudge” within organizations with large travel budgets, l

This policy brief summarizes findings and policy implications from a study in which researchers at the University of California, Davis, surveyed over 450 UC Davis faculty, researchers, and staff, and asked them to choose among hypothetical flight options for domestic and international university-related business trips. The hypothetical flight options were developed using actual data on UC Davis employee air travel and available flights. The survey prominently presented emissions estimates for different flight alternatives alongside price, with the lowest-emissions option labeled “greenest flight”. Researchers then estimated the effect that changing the current UC Davis flight-search interface to prominently display emissions, label the greenest flight choice, and present an alternative departure airport could have on the emissions and costs of business-related air travel.View the NCST Project Webpage

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. Researchers surveyed over 450 UC Davis faculty, researchers, and staff, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled "Greenest Flight". The researchers found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2E saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs. They also found that displaying carbon information encouraged Davis employees to choose nonstop (lower-emissions) flights, when available, from a more distant airport over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. In a second step of analysis, they estimated the carbon and cost impacts for UC Davis business travel if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. Based on the choice models from the survey data, a year's worth of actual employee air travel data, and data collected on flight alternatives with respect to the flights chosen by employees, they estimated potential annual savings of more than 79 tons of CO2E, and a more impressive $56,000 reduction in airfare costs, due to an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper (often nonstop) flight options out of SFO. Broader university policies encouraging lower-emissions flights and enhanced public transportation within the multi-airport mega-region would likely support much greater carbon savings. Institutionalizing this "nudge" within organizations with large travel budgets, l

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. Researchers surveyed over 450 UC Davis faculty, researchers, and staff, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled “Greenest Flight”. The researchers found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2E saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs. They also found that displaying carbon information encouraged Davis employees to choose nonstop (lower-emissions) flights, when available, from a more distant airport over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. In a second step of analysis, they estimated the carbon and cost impacts for UC Davis business travel if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. Based on the choice models from the survey data, a year’s worth of actual employee air travel data, and data collected on flight alternatives with respect to the flights chosen by employees, they estimated potential annual savings of more than 79 tons of CO2E, and a more impressive $56,000 reduction in airfare costs, due to an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper (often nonstop) flight options out of SFO. Broader university policies encouraging lower-emissions flights and enhanced public transportation within the multi-airport mega-region would likely support much greater carbon savings. Institutionalizing this “nudge” within organizations with large travel budgets, l

This policy brief summarizes findings and policy implications from a study in which researchers at the University of California, Davis, surveyed over 450 UC Davis faculty, researchers, and staff, and asked them to choose among hypothetical flight options for domestic and international university-related business trips. The hypothetical flight options were developed using actual data on UC Davis employee air travel and available flights. The survey prominently presented emissions estimates for different flight alternatives alongside price, with the lowest-emissions option labeled “greenest flight”. Researchers then estimated the effect that changing the current UC Davis flight-search interface to prominently display emissions, label the greenest flight choice, and present an alternative departure airport could have on the emissions and costs of business-related air travel.View the NCST Project Webpage

While morphemes are theoretically defined as linguistic units linking form and meaning, semantic effects in morphological processing are not reported consistently in the literature on derived and compound words. The lack of consistency in this line of research has often been attributed to methodological differences between studies or contextual effects. In this paper, we advance a different proposal where semantic effects emerge quite consistently if semantics is defined in a dynamic and flexible way, relying on distributional semantics approaches. In this light, we revisit morphological processing, taking a markedly cognitive perspective, as allowed by models that focus on morphology as systematic meaning transformation or that focus on the mapping between the orthographic form of words and their meanings.

Questa indagine esplora aspettative, percezione dello sviluppo delle conoscenze, situazione lavorativa, sviluppo professionale e upgrading in un gruppo di studenti e di laureati magistrali in Scienze Riabilitative (LMSR) dell’Università di Milano (UNIMI). Sono stati reclutati tutti gli studenti iscritti dall’A.A. 08/09 al 16/17 (n=213) e intervistati con tre questionari creati ad hoc e somministrati all’immatricolazione (T0), alla laurea (T1) e dopo un anno (T2). Gli intervistati sono stati arbitrariamente suddivisi in junior (età < 40) e senior (≥40). A T0-T1 ha risposto il 58.68% della popolazione; a T2, il 68.8%. Abbiamo rilevato: abbassamento dell’età media e maggiore differenziazione dei profili professionali degli iscritti alla LMSR, diminuzione dell’aspettativa dell’upgrading, percezione di incremento delle conoscenze a T1, soprattutto pedagogiche. Nella popolazione generale, l’occupazione passa dal 58 (T0) al 93% (T1) e secondo gli intervistati la LMSR ha avuto un ruolo rilevante. Il 96% è soddisfatto del percorso di studio. A un anno dalla laurea (T2), il 43% migliora/stabilizza la condizione lavorativa. L’autonomia decisionale passa dal 33% (T0) a 55% (T2). Il 19% prosegue gli studi (50% Master; 25% Dottorato). Ulteriore ricerca, anche in altre LM, è necessaria per comprendere come trasformare/migliorare la formazione post-base alla luce di bisogni e carriere degli studenti.

In human language the mapping between form and meaning is arbitrary, as there is no direct connection between words and the objects that they represent. However, within a given language, it is possible to recognise systematic associations that support productivity and comprehension. In this work, we focus on the consistency between orthographic forms and meaning, and we investigate how the cognitive system may exploit it to process words. We take morphology as our case study, since it arguably represents one of the most notable examples of systematicity in form–meaning mapping. In a series of three experiments, we investigate the impact of form–meaning mapping in word processing by testing new consistency metrics as predictors of priming magnitude in primed lexical decision. In Experiment 1, we re-analyse data from five masked morphological priming studies and show that orthography–semantics–consistency explains independent variance in priming magnitude, suggesting that word semantics is accessed already at early stages of word processing and that crucially semantic access is constrained by word orthography. In Experiments 2 and 3, we investigate whether this pattern is replicated when looking at semantic priming. In Experiment 2, we show that orthography–semantics–consistency is not a viable predictor of priming magnitude with longer stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). However, in Experiment 3, we develop a new semantic consistency measure based on the semantic density of target neighbourhoods. This measure is shown to significantly predict independent variance in semantic priming effect. Overall, our results indicate that consistency measures provide crucial information for the understanding of word processing. Specifically, the dissociation between measures and priming paradigms shows that different priming conditions are associated with the activation of different semantic cohorts.

Background: Koolen-de Vries syndrome (KdVS) is a multisystem neurodevelopmental disorder caused by 17q21.31 deletions or mutations in KANSL1. It was mainly described in children. Methods: A retrospective study on 9 subjects aged 19-45 years and revision of 18 literature patients, with the purpose to get insights into the phenotypic evolution with time, and into the clinical manifestations in adulthood. Results: Seven patients had a 17q21.31 deletion and two a point mutation in KANSL1. All had intellectual disability, which was mild in five (56%) and moderate in four (44%). Epilepsy was diagnosed in four subjects (44%), with onset from 1 to 7 years and full remission before 9 years in 3/4 patients. Scoliosis affected seven individuals (77.7%) and it was substantially stable with age in 5/7 patients, allowing for simple daily activities. Two subjects had severely progressive scoliosis, which was surgically corrected. Overweight or true obesity did occur after puberty in six patients (67%). Behaviour abnormalities were recorded in six patients (67%). The facial phenotype slightly evolved with time to include thick eyebrows, elongated nose and pronounced pointed chin. Despite behaviour abnormalities, happy disposition and sociable attitudes were common. Half of patients had fluent language and were good at writing and reading. Rich language, although limited to single words or short sentences, and very limited or absent skills in writing and reading were observed in the remaining patients. Autonomy in daily activities and personal care was usually limited. Conclusions: Distinctive features in adult KdVS subjects include intellectual disability, overweight/obesity, behaviour abnormalities with preserved social interest, ability in language, slight worsening of the facial phenotype and no seizures.

In this chapter, the understanding of circularity goes beyond material resource management, deepening the spatial implications of a more circular management and use of wastescapes, investigated at the urban and metropolitan scale. Besides the health (care) related challenges presented by the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional ones related to our living environment have been—and will continue to be—an urgent call for academic researchers, designers and policymakers to find (eco)innovative solutions and strategies for enhancing the quality of life of all and the availability of more and more safe public (open) spaces and facilities to sustain this. In this situation, the spaces most at risk of urban and peri-urban areas could be found in the unresolved places which are defined as wastescapes, since they are in general still poorly used and valued. Building on the European H2020 research project REPAiR, the definition of wastescapes, provided in this study, builds upon work for two main cases: the metropolitan areas of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Naples (Italy). Wastescapes are discarded territories, however, they can also be understood as opportunities to realize regenerative concepts and support strategies related to environmental, spatial and social challenges of the territories and their surroundings. Core is then to improve the socio-ecological values of such territories. Wastescapes are different case by case, being affected by site-specific challenges and characterized by high complexity. The research presented in this chapter shows that the route towards a Circular Economy requires the consideration of wastescapes as ‘spatial resources’ important to be included in strategies of transition. It represents a fundamental step to overcome problems related to both resource (and land) scarcity, land use in general and spatial fragmentation, while providing opportunities to include through eco-innovative services other values than just the mon, Environmental Technology and Design

Aims Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) and short QT syndrome (SQTS) are inherited arrhythmogenic disorders that can cause sudden death. Numerous genes have been reported to cause these conditions, but evidence supporting these gene-disease relationships varies considerably. To ensure appropriate utilization of genetic information for CPVT and SQTS patients, we applied an evidence-based reappraisal of previously reported genes. Methods and results Three teams independently curated all published evidence for 11 CPVT and 9 SQTS implicated genes using the ClinGen gene curation framework. The results were reviewed by a Channelopathy Expert Panel who provided the final classifications. Seven genes had definitive to moderate evidence for disease causation in CPVT, with either autosomal dominant (RYR2, CALM1, CALM2, CALM3) or autosomal recessive (CASQ2, TRDN, TECRL) inheritance. Three of the four disputed genes for CPVT (KCNJ2, PKP2, SCN5A) were deemed by the Expert Panel to be reported for phenotypes that were not representative of CPVT, while reported variants in a fourth gene (ANK2) were too common in the population to be disease-causing. For SQTS, only one gene (KCNH2) was classified as definitive, with three others (KCNQ1, KCNJ2, SLC4A3) having strong to moderate evidence. The majority of genetic evidence for SQTS genes was derived from very few variants (five in KCNJ2, two in KCNH2, one in KCNQ1/SLC4A3). Conclusions Seven CPVT and four SQTS genes have valid evidence for disease causation and should be included in genetic testing panels. Additional genes associated with conditions that may mimic clinical features of CPVT/SQTS have potential utility for differential diagnosis.

In this chapter, the understanding of circularity goes beyond material resource management, deepening the spatial implications of a more circular management and use of wastescapes, investigated at the urban and metropolitan scale. Besides the health (care) related challenges presented by the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional ones related to our living environment have been—and will continue to be—an urgent call for academic researchers, designers and policymakers to find (eco)innovative solutions and strategies for enhancing the quality of life of all and the availability of more and more safe public (open) spaces and facilities to sustain this. In this situation, the spaces most at risk of urban and peri-urban areas could be found in the unresolved places which are defined as wastescapes, since they are in general still poorly used and valued. Building on the European H2020 research project REPAiR, the definition of wastescapes, provided in this study, builds upon work for two main cases: the metropolitan areas of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Naples (Italy). Wastescapes are discarded territories, however, they can also be understood as opportunities to realize regenerative concepts and support strategies related to environmental, spatial and social challenges of the territories and their surroundings. Core is then to improve the socio-ecological values of such territories. Wastescapes are different case by case, being affected by site-specific challenges and characterized by high complexity. The research presented in this chapter shows that the route towards a Circular Economy requires the consideration of wastescapes as ‘spatial resources’ important to be included in strategies of transition. It represents a fundamental step to overcome problems related to both resource (and land) scarcity, land use in general and spatial fragmentation, while providing opportunities to include through eco-innovative services other values than just the mon, Environmental Technology and Design

Neural tissue has high metabolic requirements. Following spinal cord injury (SCI), the damaged tissue suffers from a severe metabolic impairment, which aggravates axonal degeneration and neuronal loss. Impaired cellular energetic, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation metabolism in neuronal cells has been demonstrated to be a major cause of neural tissue death and regeneration failure following SCI. Therefore, rewiring the spinal cord cell metabolism may be an innovative therapeutic strategy for the treatment of SCI. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of the recovery of oxidative metabolism in a mouse model of severe contusive SCI. Oral administration of TCA cycle intermediates, co-factors, essential amino acids, and branched-chain amino acids was started 3 days post-injury and continued until the end of the experimental procedures. Metabolomic, immunohistological, and biochemical analyses were performed on the injured spinal cord sections. Administration of metabolic precursors enhanced spinal cord oxidative metabolism. In line with this metabolic shift, we observed the activation of the mTORC1 anabolic pathway, the increase in mitochondrial mass, and ROS defense which effectively prevented the injury-induced neural cell apoptosis in treated animals. Consistently, we found more choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-expressing motor neurons and increased neurofilament-positive corticospinal axons in the spinal cord parenchyma of the treated mice. Interestingly, oral administration of the metabolic precursors increased the number of activated microglia expressing the CD206 marker suggestive of a pro-resolutive, M2-like phenotype. These molecular and histological modifications observed in treated animals ultimately led to a significant, although partial, improvement of the motor functions. Our data demonstrate that rewiring the cellular metabolism can represent an effective strategy to treat SCI.

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. We surveyed over 450 employees of the University of California, Davis, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled “Greenest Flight”. We found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2E saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs. In a second step of analysis, we estimated the carbon and cost impacts if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. We estimated potential annual savings of 79 tons of CO2E, while reducing airfare costs by $56,000, mainly due to an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper nonstop (lower-emissions) flights from a more distant airport in the region over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. Institutionalizing this “nudge” within organizations with large travel budgets could have an industry-wide impact in aviation.

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. We surveyed over 450 employees of the University of California, Davis, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled “Greenest Flight”. We found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2E saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs. In a second step of analysis, we estimated the carbon and cost impacts if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. We estimated potential annual savings of 79 tons of CO2E, while reducing airfare costs by $56,000, mainly due to an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper nonstop (lower-emissions) flights from a more distant airport in the region over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. Institutionalizing this “nudge” within organizations with large travel budgets could have an industry-wide impact in aviation.

In language and second language acquisition research, it is important to have a measure for tracking the proficiency level of participants. Lexical competence is fundamental for communicative purposes in a given language, and vocabulary tests are a reliable measure to assess lexical proficiency. That is why vocabulary tests have a central role in language proficiency assessment. Although many people study Italian as second language (L2), an easy-to-use vocabulary test to measure lexical proficiency is still missing. In this work, we aim to fill this gap by presenting LexITA, which is an objective, reliable, and quick assessment of Italian receptive vocabulary. LextITA was validated on students of Italian L2 and showed to be a valid measure to assess vocabulary knowledge of L2 speakers spanning different levels of proficiency.