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We contribute to a better understanding of the class of functions that can be represented by a neural network with ReLU activations and a given architecture. Using techniques from mixed-integer optimization, polyhedral theory, and tropical geometry, we provide a mathematical counterbalance to the universal approximation theorems which suggest that a single hidden layer is sufficient for learning any function. In particular, we investigate whether the class of e xactly representable functions s trictly increases by adding more layers (with no restrictions on size). As a by-product of our investigations, we settle an old conjecture about piecewise linear functions by Wang and Sun [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 51 (2005), pp. 4425--4431] in the affirmative. We also present upper bounds on the sizes of neural networks required to represent functions with logarithmic depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE ON MUSICAL humor, the emphasis on laughter-inducing music has naturally led researchers to focus on quite uncommon devices, such as stylistic deviations or formal incongruities that strongly violate listeners' expectations, as the privileged basis for musical humor. But musical humor extends well beyond laughter-inducing music. It is also a kind of semantic content frequently ascribed to music, as attested by the long list of musical genres that are more or less explicitly associated with humor, wit, or comedy. As such, the communication of musical humor should be able to also rely on non-deviant compositional techniques; that is, compositional techniques that conform to the standard syntax in which the musical output is generated. In this paper, we show that selectively augmenting or inhibiting contrasts of register found in passages of Ce'cile Chaminade's humorous piano music impacted the extent to which both expert and non-expert listeners rated such passages as expressing something humorous. We then analyze the effects of contrasts of register in light of incongruity and play theories of humor, and further discuss the relevance of our results for the semantics and pragmatics of music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditionally dichotomous classification of monogenic or polygenic/genetically complex disease lags far behind the scientific discovery of tens of thousands of gene mutations associated with existing and emergent human genetic diseases. The pervasive influence of genetic background on both penetrance and expressivity of mutations in diseases also calls for revision of the disease nosology. We propose a new terminology, genetically transitional disease (GTD), to denote a disease status between monogenic and polygenic disease where a mutation is necessary, but not sufficient, to cause and define the disease. The new concept and nosology are envisioned with respect to four scenarios that are exemplified by various diseases. These are discussed with regard to therapeutic implications for the implementation of personalized medicine. Traditional classification of genetic diseases as monogenic and polygenic has lagged far behind scientific progress. In this opinion article, we propose and define a new terminology, genetically transitional disease (GTD), referring to cases where a large-effect mutation is necessary, but not sufficient, to cause disease. This leads to a working disease nosology based on gradients of four types of genetic architecture: monogenic, polygenic, GTD, and mixed. We present four scenarios under which GTD may occur; namely, subsets of traditionally Mendelian disease, modifiable Tier 1 monogenic conditions, variable penetrance, and situations where a genetic mutational spectrum produces qualitatively divergent pathologies. The implications of the new nosology in precision medicine are discussed, in which therapeutic options may target the molecular cause or the disease phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Относительная простота английского языка обеспечивает возможность кросс-культурных коммуникаций не только с носителями языка, но и со всем мировым сообществом, что представляется актуальным даже с учетом переориентации личных и деловых связей российских резидентов на Восток. Эмоциональная окраска способствует формированию яркого, выпуклого сообщения, что является значимой частью даже делового общения. При устной коммуникации кроме вербальных элементов чувственные оттенки можно передать невербальными сигналами, при взаимодействии с получателем письменного сообщения важны формальные знаки, помогающие передать экспрессию. Целью исследования является выявление специфических особенностей английского языка в части структурных и стилистических элементов, позволяющих выразить эмоциональную сторону сообщения и передать чувства адресанта адресату. Научная работа представляет собой рассмотрение образцов английских лексических единиц разного иерархического уровня от морфем до словосочетаний с использованием эмпирического анализа, сравнительного и описательного методов, методов исторической реконструкции, индукции, обобщения. Результатом исследования стало раскрытие инструментария разных уровней лексической иерархии: трансформаций, графических элементов (цветовых, шрифтовых и модельных), уменьшительно-ласкательных и пренебрежительных аффиксов, метафор разного вида и др. Основные теоретические положения статьи могут быть использованы как в дальнейших научных исследованиях, так и в коммуникативной практике на английском языке.

We combine concepts from multilevel solvers for partial differential equations (PDEs) with neural network based deep learning and propose a new methodology for the efficient numerical solution of high-dimensional parametric PDEs. An in-depth theoretical analysis shows that the proposed architecture is able to approximate multigrid V-cycles to arbitrary precision with the number of weights only depending logarithmically on the resolution of the finest mesh. As a consequence, approximation bounds for the solution of parametric PDEs by neural networks that are independent on the (stochastic) parameter dimension can be derived. The performance of the proposed method is illustrated on high-dimensional parametric linear elliptic PDEs that are common benchmark problems in uncertainty quantification. We find substantial improvements over state-of-the-art deep learning-based solvers. As particularly challenging examples, random conductivity with high-dimensional non-affine Gaussian fields in 100 parameter dimensions and a random cookie problem are examined. Due to the multilevel structure of our method, the amount of training samples can be reduced on finer levels, hence significantly lowering the generation time for training data and the training time of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, algorithms and neural architectures based on the Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm, a well-known heuristic for the graph isomorphism problem, have emerged as a powerful tool for machine learning with graphs and relational data. Here, we give a comprehensive overview of the algorithm's use in a machine-learning setting, focusing on the supervised regime. We discuss the theoretical background, show how to use it for supervised graph and node representation learning, discuss recent extensions, and outline the algorithm's connection to (permutation-)equivariant neural architectures. Moreover, we give an overview of current applications and future directions to stimulate further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the role of philosophy in the school environment, paying special attention to the promise of intergenerational dialogue carried forward by philosophy programmes associated with Lipman's Philosophy for Children (P4C) curriculum and its current transformation into Philosophy with Children (PwC). There are two basic ideas that constitute the guiding thread of my reflections. Firstly, that philosophical interventions of that kind challenge adult-centric views of education and philosophy. Secondly, that such initiatives carry with them the promise of acknowledging children as equal participants in the process of philosophical questioning and meaning creation. In the first part of the paper, I argue for the importance of understanding the act of philosophizing with children as a disruption of adult-centrism. First, I reflect on a narrow future-directedness that seems to characterize the temporality of school. I suggest that Philosophy for/with Children (P4wC) interventions interrupt such a future-directedness inviting the students to immerse themselves into a dilated 'now' of multiple possibilities. Then, I reflect on the ways in which P4wC interventions challenge the assumption that philosophy is an adult preoccupation. Special attention is paid to the work of scholars who challenge our restrictive assumptions about what qualifies as philosophical thinking. In the second part of my paper, I turn to the work of Merleau-Ponty with the aim of sketching out some requirements for the possibility of a dialogue between childhood and adulthood. I suggest that Merleau-Ponty's reflections on childhood and expressive speech are invaluable in the context of P4wC because they invite us 1) to appreciate the alterity of children without reducing them to inferior 'others' and 2) to remain alert to the expressivity of children's speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understood as a relatively free order of designators and pronouns, cataphora is clearly one of the most expressive linguistic devices available to speakers (whose use of language is the primary aim of linguistic stylistics). This is because cataphora selects and prioritises but, most of all, because it makes the speakers' intonation real and their sensibility heard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reads The Idiot in the context of Hegel's philosophy of history and subjectivity and finds that Dostoevsky's avowed interest in Hegel led to a substantial absorption of Hegel's thought in his own aesthetics. Dostoevsky's educated readers of the 1860s saw the novel as a moral history of the age, represented through an eccentric « new subject » (or the « new people »), embodied in marionette-like characters. The present paper explores this view further and finds that these marionette-like characters function as agents of the unconscious (and pre-empt the aesthetics of the theatre of the Absurd), which is the source of all subjectivity. Expressivity is the defining feature of subjectivity and is represented by means of pathological states – lying and self-destructive tendencies of the characters who display a pathological demeanour. Caprice (will power) is the prime mover of this subjectivity, which, in the context of Hegel's philosophy of history, is the driver of the historical process and a direct expression of « Geist » or spirit of the people. This spirit comes to expression in different types of Russian national discourses, embodied in the myriad of embedded stories narrated by the characters on stage and off stage, and in stories within stories of episodic characters. These embedded episodic narratives, consisting of verbal pictures (or ekphrases), tell the story of Russia's historical development from Peter Great's time to Dostoevsky's present of the 1860s. This is the story of the demise of the old « estate culture » of traditional Russia, with a « new Russia » emerging into history, which is grounded in an indeterminate subject of history, whose « pochva » (« soil ») is the groundless ground of language and an ethics of individual freedom. Both of these elements of subjectivity, which define the « new people », are negativities shaping a new dialectics, which is both form and content of the new self-conscious "world-historical individual" – Hegelian Man - through which spirit (Geist) manifests itself in the "present moment" of Dostoevsky's Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the effectiveness of narrative therapy on adult attachment styles and expressivity in women experiencing low marital satisfaction. This study was quasi‐experimental. Participants consist of 30 women experiencing low marital satisfaction. They were selected based on availability and randomly designated to an intervention or waiting list group. Narrative therapy was accomplished individually in six 45‐min sessions for the intervention group. Results based on repeated‐measures analysis of variance showed no significant improvement in the intervention group for expressivity and adult attachment. Still, it revealed a considerable improvement during follow‐up in expressivity. Consequently, results indicate that narrative therapy cannot influence adult attachment and expressivity, but a 2‐month follow‐up questionnaire administered indicates improvement in expressivity with a large effect size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some pioneering lexicographic research, notably that published in Volume IV of the Dictionnaire Explicatif et combinatoire (Mel'čuk et al. 1999), proposed a formalized treatment of some prefabricated polylexical units frequently mobilized in informal exchanges. In the same way, our paper focuses on expressive formulae commonly used in conversation and aims in particular to examine their illocutionary functions and their interactional roles, by specifying the type of clues (lexical co-occurrents, syntactic structures) allowing disambiguation. The formulae have been selected based on a frequency criterion, in the ORFEO oral database, with the addition of examples found on social media. We first look at the problems posed by pragmatic disambiguation, and then present – through the examples of bon courage and tu m'étonnes – a methodological approach, based on the notion of pragmatic framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research into how musicians coordinate their expressive timing, phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and other stylistic characteristics during performances has highlighted the role of predictive processes, as musicians must anticipate how their partners will play in order to be together. Several studies have used information flow techniques such as Granger causality to show that upcoming movements of a musician can be predicted from immediate past movements of fellow musicians. Although musicians must move to play their instruments, a major goal of music making is to create a joint interpretation through the sounds they produce. Yet, information flow techniques have not been applied previously to examine the role that fellow musicians' sound output plays in these predictive processes and whether this changes as they learn to play together. In the present experiment, we asked professional violinists to play along with recordings of two folk pieces, each eight times in succession, and compared the amplitude envelopes of their performances with those of the recordings using Granger causality to measure information flow and cross-correlation to measure similarity and synchronization. In line with our hypotheses, our measure of information flow was higher from the recordings to the performances than vice versa, and decreased as the violinists becamemore familiar with the recordings over trials. This decline in information flow is consistent with a gradual shift from relying on auditory cues to predict the recording to relying on an internally-based (learned)model built through repetition. There was also evidence that violinists became more synchronized with the recordings over trials. These results shed light on the planning and learning processes involved in the aligning of expressive intentions in group music performance and lay the groundwork for the application of Granger causality to investigate information flow through sound in more complex musical interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-robot systems are moving into human spaces, such as working with people in factories (Bacula et al., in: Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE international conference on human–robot interaction, pp 119–121, 2020) or in emergency support (Wagner in Front Robot AI 8, 2021; Baxter et al., in: Autonomous robots and agents, Springer, pp 9–16, 2007) and it is crucial to consider how robots can communicate with the humans in the space. Our work evaluates a parameter framework to allow multi-robot groups of x, y, θ robots to effectively communicate using expressive motion. While expressive motion has been extensively studied in single robots (Knight et al., in: 2016 IEEE international conference on intelligent robots and systems (IROS), IEEE, 2016; Bacula and LaViers in Int J Soc Robot, 1–16, 2020; Dragan et al., in: 2013 8th ACM/IEEE international conference on human–robot interaction (HRI), IEEE, pp 301–308, 2013; Kirby et al., in: The 18th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, 2009, RO-MAN 2009, IEEE, pp 607–612, 2009), moving to multi-robots creates new challenges as the state space expands and becomes more complex. We evaluate a hierarchical framework of six parameters to generate multi-robot expressive motion consisting of: (1) relative direction, (2) coherence, (3) relative speed, (4) relative start time, (5) proximity, and (6) geometry. We conducted six independent online studies to explore each parameter, finding that four out of six of the parameters had significant impact on people's perception of the multi-robot group. Additional takeaways of our studies clarify what humans interpret as a robot group, when the group is perceived positively versus negatively, and the critical role of architectural floor plan in interpreting robot intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic writing is based on a pragmatic and neutral approach to all subjects of communicative situations as it needs to be objective. Language assumes adjustment of the subject of the author, topic and expressive means as well as a necessary distance from the addressee. Standards and norms of this style refer to different tools of suppressing subjectivity, eliminate expressivity, especially emotionality, and any negative components. It appears to be a stressful task to a certain extent for an author dealing with humanities. This contribution is aimed at examining mechanisms by which particular types of linguistic works and particular authors deal with the imperative of pragmatic/neutral, respectively. It shows the ways in which they explore accepted or border limits of expressivity in the realm of style of elements of the text.

Recent research into how musicians coordinate their expressive timing, phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and other stylistic characteristics during performances has highlighted the role of predictive processes, as musicians must anticipate how their partners will play in order to be together. Several studies have used information flow techniques such as Granger causality to show that upcoming movements of a musician can be predicted from immediate past movements of fellow musicians. Although musicians must move to play their instruments, a major goal of music making is to create a joint interpretation through the sounds they produce. Yet, information flow techniques have not been applied previously to examine the role that fellow musicians' sound output plays in these predictive processes and whether this changes as they learn to play together. In the present experiment, we asked professional violinists to play along with recordings of two folk pieces, each eight times in succession, and compared the amplitude envelopes of their performances with those of the recordings using Granger causality to measure information flow and cross-correlation to measure similarity and synchronization. In line with our hypotheses, our measure of information flow was higher from the recordings to the performances than vice versa, and decreased as the violinists became more familiar with the recordings over trials. This decline in information flow is consistent with a gradual shift from relying on auditory cues to predict the recording to relying on an internally-based (learned) model built through repetition. There was also evidence that violinists became more synchronized with the recordings over trials. These results shed light on the planning and learning processes involved in the aligning of expressive intentions in group music performance and lay the groundwork for the application of Granger causality to investigate information flow through sound in more complex musical interactions.

Studies in musical improvisation show that musicians and even children are able to communicate intended emotions to listeners at will. To understand emotional expressivity in music as an art form, communicative success needs to be related to improvisers' thought processes and listeners' aesthetic judgments. In the present study, we used retrospective verbal protocols to address college music students' strategies in improvisations based on emotion terms. We also subjected their improvisations to expert ratings in terms of heard emotional content and aesthetic value. A qualitative analysis showed that improvisers used both generative strategies (expressible in intramusical terms) and imaginative, extramusical strategies when approaching the improvisation tasks. The clarity of emotional communication was found to be high overall, and linear mixed-effects models showed that it was supported by generative approaches. However, perceived aesthetic value was unrelated to such emotional clarity. Instead, aesthetic value was associated with emotional complexity, here defined as the heard presence of "nonintended" emotions. The results point toward a view according to which the expressive content of improvisation gets specified and personalized during the very act of improvisation itself. Arguably, musical expressivity in improvisation should not be equated with the error-free communication of previously intended emotional categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engagement with songs through performance and analysis is a key component of music curricula worldwide. Music learning has a significant impact on a number of student competencies, including enhancing students' communicative abilities as they learn to manipulate, express, and share sound in both voice qualities and lyrics. However, common analyses of singing performance rarely focus exclusively on voice quality, and there is no systematic framework which considers how emotional meaning in lyrics interacts with emotional meaning in voice quality. Drawing on systemic functional semiotics, this article proposes a unified theoretical framework for examining how emotional meaning is co-constructed in the voice and lyrics in singing performance. This framework provides a novel approach for discussing and teaching song analysis and performance. The framework will be illustrated through the analysis of the interaction between voice quality and lyrics in the song "Someone Like You" performed by Adele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose three knowability logics LK, LK-, and LK=. In the single-agent case, LK is equally expressive as arbitrary public announcement logic APAL and public announcement logic PAL, whereas in the multi-agent case, LK is more expressive than PAL. In contrast, both LK- and LK= are equally expressive as classical propositional logic PL. We present the axiomatizations of the three knowability logics and show their soundness and completeness. We show that all three knowability logics possess the properties of Church-Rosser and McKinsey. Although LK is undecidable when at least three agents are involved, LK- and LK= are both decidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As shown in Fan (Journal of Philosophical Logic, 48, 425–445, 2019), there are some similarities/resemblances between contingency and accident. Given this, one may naturally ask if we can unify the two operators to manifest all of their similarities/resemblances. In this article, instead of looking at the interactions between the two operators like in Fan (Journal of Philosophical Logic, 48, 425–445, 2019), we turn our attention to the resemblances between the two operators. We extend the unification method in Fan (Logic Journal of the IGPL, 2020) to the current setting. The main results include some model-theoretical ones, such as expressivity, frame definability, bisimulation, and some axiomatization ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point of departure for this essay, which reflects on the religious, anthropological and ethical meaning of the act of blessing, is the multifaceted tradition of all kinds of blessings in the Catholic faith community, both in a sacramental and non-sacramental context. To properly understand the act of blessing, it is necessary to outline the existential and religious background of the blessing as an experience and condition. Starting from the general biblical background of blessing as an earthly reality, attention is paid to the transition from the implicit to the explicit religious meaning of blessing as a gift. Subsequently, the act of blessing in its bi-dimensional modality, namely as word and gesture, receives the necessary attention. This is accomplished by a shift from a theological to a philosophical understanding; this is anthropological and existential understanding of blessing. First, the specificity of the blessing as a language event is examined. Then, the bodily and possibly material form of the act of blessing is explored phenomenologically. Thus, it will appear that what is specifically Christian also has universal significance, is literally “catholic”, that is, “kat’ holon”, meaningful “for everyone”. Last but not least, consideration is given to the “power” of the act of blessing, both its “founding” power and the risk of magical derailment.

The same genetic variant found in different individuals can cause a range of diverse phenotypes, from no discernible clinical phenotype to severe disease, even among related individuals. Such variants can be said to display incomplete penetrance, a binary phenomenon where the genotype either causes the expected clinical phenotype or it does not, or they can be said to display variable expressivity, in which the same genotype can cause a wide range of clinical symptoms across a spectrum. Both incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity are thought to be caused by a range of factors, including common variants, variants in regulatory regions, epigenetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle. Many thousands of genetic variants have been identified as the cause of monogenic disorders, mostly determined through small clinical studies, and thus, the penetrance and expressivity of these variants may be overestimated when compared to their effect on the general population. With the wealth of population cohort data currently available, the penetrance and expressivity of such genetic variants can be investigated across a much wider contingent, potentially helping to reclassify variants that were previously thought to be completely penetrant. Research into the penetrance and expressivity of such genetic variants is important for clinical classification, both for determining causative mechanisms of disease in the affected population and for providing accurate risk information through genetic counseling. A genotype-based definition of the causes of rare diseases incorporating information from population cohorts and clinical studies is critical for our understanding of incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. This review examines our current knowledge of the penetrance and expressivity of genetic variants in rare disease and across populations, as well as looking into the potential causes of the variation seen, including genetic modifiers, mosaicism, and polygenic factors, among others. We also considered the challenges that come with investigating penetrance and expressivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced penetrance is an important but underreported aspect in monogenic diseases. It refers to the phenomenon that carriers of pathogenic variants do not manifest with an overt disease. Clinical expressivity, on the other hand, describes the degree to which certain disease characteristics are present. In this article, we discuss the implications of reduced penetrance on genetic testing and counseling, outline how penetrance can be estimated in rare diseases using large cohorts and review the ethical, legal and social implications of studying non-manifesting carriers of pathogenic mutations. We highlight the interplay between reduced penetrance and the prodromal phase of a neurodegenerative disorder through the example of monogenic Parkinson's disease and discuss the therapeutic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We review studies on computational implications of dendritic nonlinearities in neurons. • We discuss how synaptic plasticity can interact with dendritic nonlinearities for improved learning. • We link these studies to applications in machine learning and deep learning. • Thus, we propose a path to more powerful and more efficient machine learning methods and hardware. In this paper, we discuss the nonlinear computational power provided by dendrites in biological and artificial neurons. We start by briefly presenting biological evidence about the type of dendritic nonlinearities, respective plasticity rules and their effect on biological learning as assessed by computational models. Four major computational implications are identified as improved expressivity, more efficient use of resources, utilizing internal learning signals, and enabling continual learning. We then discuss examples of how dendritic computations have been used to solve real-world classification problems with performance reported on well known data sets used in machine learning. The works are categorized according to the three primary methods of plasticity used—structural plasticity, weight plasticity, or plasticity of synaptic delays. Finally, we show the recent trend of confluence between concepts of deep learning and dendritic computations and highlight some future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors have been proposed as contributors to interfamilial and intrafamilial phenotypic variability in autosomal dominant disorders, including allelic variation, modifier genes, environmental factors and complex genetic and environmental interactions. However, regardless of the similarity of genetic background and environmental factors, asymmetric limb or trunk anomalies in a single individual and variable manifestation between monozygotic twins have been observed, indicating other mechanisms possibly involved in expressivity of autosomal dominant diseases. One such example is Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS), which is characterized by congenital cardiac defects and forelimb anomalies, mainly attributed to mutations in the TBX5 gene. We hypothesize that monoallelic expression of the TBX5 gene occurs during embryo development, and, in the context of a mutation, random monoallelic expression (RME) can create discrepant functions in a proportion of cells and thus contribute to variable phenotypes. A hybrid mouse model was used to investigate the occurrence of RME with the Tbx5 gene, and single-cell reverse transcription PCR and restriction digestion were performed for limb bud cells from developing embryos (E11.5) of the hybrid mice. RME of Tbx5 was observed in approximately two-thirds of limb bud cells. These results indicate that RME of the Tbx5 gene occurs frequently during embryo development, resulting in a mosaic expression signature (monoallelic, biallelic, or null) that may provide a potential explanation for the widespread phenotypic variability in HOS. This model will further provide novel insights into the variability of autosomal dominant traits and a better understanding of the complex expressivity of disease conditions.

The same genetic variant found in different individuals can cause a range of diverse phenotypes, from no discernible clinical phenotype to severe disease, even among related individuals. Such variants can be said to display incomplete penetrance, a binary phenomenon where the genotype either causes the expected clinical phenotype or it does not, or they can be said to display variable expressivity, in which the same genotype can cause a wide range of clinical symptoms across a spectrum. Both incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity are thought to be caused by a range of factors, including common variants, variants in regulatory regions, epigenetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle. Many thousands of genetic variants have been identified as the cause of monogenic disorders, mostly determined through small clinical studies, and thus, the penetrance and expressivity of these variants may be overestimated when compared to their effect on the general population. With the wealth of population cohort data currently available, the penetrance and expressivity of such genetic variants can be investigated across a much wider contingent, potentially helping to reclassify variants that were previously thought to be completely penetrant. Research into the penetrance and expressivity of such genetic variants is important for clinical classification, both for determining causative mechanisms of disease in the affected population and for providing accurate risk information through genetic counseling. A genotype-based definition of the causes of rare diseases incorporating information from population cohorts and clinical studies is critical for our understanding of incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. This review examines our current knowledge of the penetrance and expressivity of genetic variants in rare disease and across populations, as well as looking into the potential causes of the variation seen, including genetic modifiers, mosaicism, and polygenic factors, among others. We also considered the challenges that come with investigating penetrance and expressivity.

Many feedforward neural networks (NNs) generate continuous and piecewise-linear (CPWL) mappings. Specifically, they partition the input domain into regions on which the mapping is affine. The number of these so-called linear regions offers a natural metric to characterize the expressiveness of CPWL NNs. The precise determination of this quantity is often out of reach in practice, and bounds have been proposed for specific architectures, including for ReLU and Maxout NNs. In this work, we generalize these bounds to NNs with arbitrary and possibly multivariate CPWL activation functions. We first provide upper and lower bounds on the maximal number of linear regions of a CPWL NN given its depth, width, and the number of linear regions of its activation functions. Our results rely on the combinatorial structure of convex partitions and confirm the distinctive role of depth which, on its own, is able to exponentially increase the number of regions. We then introduce a complementary stochastic framework to estimate the average number of linear regions produced by a CPWL NN. Under reasonable assumptions, the expected density of linear regions along any 1D path is bounded by the product of depth, width, and a measure of activation complexity (up to a scaling factor). This yields an identical role to the three sources of expressiveness: no exponential growth with depth is observed anymore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic background often influences the phenotypic consequences of mutations, resulting in variable expressivity. How standing genetic variants collectively cause this phenomenon is not fully understood. Here, we comprehensively identify loci in a budding yeast cross that impact the growth of individuals carrying a spontaneous missense mutation in the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial ribosomal gene MRP20. Initial results suggested that a single large effect locus influences the mutation's expressivity, with 1 allele causing inviability in mutants. However, further experiments revealed this simplicity was an illusion. In fact, many additional loci shape the mutation's expressivity, collectively leading to a wide spectrum of mutational responses. These results exemplify how complex combinations of alleles can produce a diversity of qualitative and quantitative responses to the same mutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-accuracy (correspondence between how we think others perceive us and how they really perceive us) of first impressions on the Internet has the potential to shape subsequent interactions. Aiming to enhance understanding of the underlying perceptual dimensions, the contribution of social competence, and the existence of positive/negative bias in first impressions' meta-accuracy online, we conducted a study in a simulated asynchronous social-media-type setting. Target participants uploaded a selfie, wrote a short description of themselves, provided estimates of how warm and competent they believed others would find them based on their selfies and texts (metaperception), and completed two social competence questionnaires (general and Internet-specific). Perceiver participants assessed the warmth and competence of the selfies and texts as well (others' perception). Meta-accuracy was measured as the absolute difference between metaperception and others' perception. Through correlational analyses, we confirmed that meta-accuracy of first impressions on the Internet aligned with the universal dimensions of social cognition (warmth and competence), found sporadic evidence for the positive association between meta-accuracy and social competence, and showed that meta-accuracy for specific Internet expressive means varied with varying proficiency in these means. Through t -tests, we demonstrated positive meta-accuracy bias for selfies along the warmth dimension and negative bias for text along the competence dimension. Overall, our results suggest the primacy of warmth and uniqueness of the male targets-female perceivers combination for meta-accuracy on the Internet. Our findings expand knowledge about first impressions' meta-accuracy on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been hypothesized that even 'perfect' polygenic scores (PGSs) composed of only causal variants may not be fully portable between different social groups owing to gene-by-environment interactions modifying the expression of relevant variants. The impacts of such interactions involving two forms of social adversity (low socioeconomic status [SES] and discrimination) are examined in relation to the expressivity of a PGS for educational attainment composed of putatively causal variants in a large, representatively sampled and genotyped cohort of US children. A relatively small-magnitude Scarr-Rowe effect is present (SES × PGSEDU predicting General Cognitive Ability [GCA]; sR = .02, 95% CI [.00, .04]), as is a distinct discrimination × PGSEDU interaction predicting GCA (sR = -.02, 95% CI [-.05, 00]). Both are independent of the confounding main effects of 10 ancestral principal components, PGSEDU, SES, discrimination and interactions among these factors. No sex differences were found. These interactions were examined in relation to phenotypic and genotypic data on height, a prospectively more socially neutral trait. They were absent in both cases. The discrimination × PGSEDU interaction is a co-moderator of the differences posited in modern versions of Spearman's hypothesis (along with shared environmentality), lending support to certain environmental explanations of those differences. Behavior-genetic analysis of self-reported discrimination indicates that it is nonsignificantly heritable (h2 = .027, 95% CI [-.05, .10]), meaning that it is not merely proxying some underlying source of heritable phenotypic variability. This suggests that experiences of discrimination might stem instead from the action of purely social forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study logics of unknown truths and false beliefs under neighborhood semantics. We compare the relative expressivity of the two logics. It turns out that they are incomparable over various classes of neighborhood models, and the combination of the two logics are equally expressive as standard modal logic over any class of neighborhood models. We propose morphisms for each logic, which can help us explore the frame definability problem, show a general soundness and completeness result, and generalize some results in the literature. We axiomatize the two logics over various classes of neighborhood frames. Most importantly, by adopting the intersection semantics and the subset semantics in the literature, we extend the results to the case of public announcements, which gives us the desired reduction axioms and has good applications related to Moore sentences, successful formulas and self-refuting formulas. Also, we can say something about the comparative merits of the intersection semantics and the subset semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is the pejorative connotation of lexemes denoting and qualifying people in the contemporary Serbian language. These nominal units with negative expressive tonality have a specific semantic structure where, apart from denotative components, connotative semantic components - evaluative, expressive and emotional semes - play a significant function in the forming of their lexical meaning. Pejorative terms for people have been analysed from different points of view, such as lexical-semantic, derivative and linguo-cultural at some points. The main goal was to establish parameters having a negative impact on certain individuals or social groups within the Serbian cultural and linguistic background - to reveal the collective negative assessment based on different associations, stereotypes, beliefs and prejudice incorporated in the Serbian linguistic and social community. The choice of speaker’s nomination units used to point to one’s ethnical or religious beliefs, age, sexual orientation, social or financial status, physical or intellectual shortcomings, mental handicap, personal characteristics, etc. is the index of the person’s negative and contemptuous emotional attitude to the members of the linguistic community within the aforementioned marks. Therefore, the classification of lexemes in this research is primarily based on the semantic criterion, where we have defined seven thematic categories of pejorative terms. On the other hand, we were also interested in some structural (derivative) characteristics of derogatory nouns referring to people in the Serbian language. It has been established that the pejorative meaning might be a product of semantic and affixal derivation. The traditional approach to studying lexical meaning in this research is related to the cognitive approach, combining componential and conceptual methods of analysis with the descriptive method.

The discourse space of sports journalism is determined by the intentionality and characteristics of the communicative situation, which allow it to be studied from the standpoint of pragmastylistics, cultural linguistics, discursive linguistics, the theory of speech influence, and sociolinguistics. However, the focus of research attention is fixated on clarification of those factors that provide the communicative effectiveness of media texts. The decisive role among these factors belongs to the elocutional organization of the media discourse.

PGRB Buzau has a valuable germplasm collection of Raphanus sativus. The bank's specialists have been involved in the conservation and improvement of this species' resources, obtaining two varieties registered in the Official Catalogue of Romanian Cultivated Plants. A large number of genotypes of this species was obtained due to the high degree of entomophily. Within the Bank, a considerable number of genotypes have been obtained, among which one valuable genotype has been biologically isolated from the others, showing genetic stability of the main characters, successfully passing the DUS test. The research undertaken in the present study reflects the expressiveness of the main quantitative characters of the newly obtained genotype. The genotype was evaluated in two growing environments, protected and field, and it was found that both quantitative traits in terms of plant height, height, number of shoots, pod production, pod size and yield per plant were clearly superior (1174 g pods/plant) in protected environments. In the field, production was significantly lower (8.7 g pods/plant) but with much lower cost prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The French wh-word comment 'how' may be used with a reason interpretation, that is in a question that inquires about how the situation described by the proposition that follows comment (the pseudo-prejacent) might occur or have occurred, which goes against the expectations of the speaker. In this paper, we report on a rating study whose goal was to understand the extent to which reason-comment questions – compared to manner-comment questions – are interpreted as having some questioning force or, conversely, as being rhetorical. We also test whether reason-comment questions express a certain degree of surprise and confirm our hypothesis that with reason-comment questions the speaker tries to recover from an expectation failure, while results concerning the questioning force show that reason-comment questions can be true questions (though questioning is not their sole function), and invalidate analyses that systematically treat them as rhetorical questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we wish to clarify the way of being and appearing of ambiences. This is achieved, first of all, by distinguishing them from lived experiences on the one hand, and external things, on the other; then, by making the hypothesis of a third mode of being which comes from what stands between the subjects and the objects and which belongs to neither one nor the other. Finally, our proposal aims at showing that if atmospheres are properties of situations even before subjects feel them, then they feel them anyway only as these intrinsic and presubjective properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]