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Ambridge reviews and augments an impressive body of research demonstrating both the advantages and the necessity of an exemplar-based model of knowledge of one’s language. He cites three computational models that have been applied successfully to issues of phonology and morphology. Focusing on Ambridge’s discussion of sentence-level constructions, this commentary cites additional research in support of his exemplar hypothesis. It then provides an informal demonstration of how Skousen’s (1989) Analogical Model might be extended to the processing of sentence-level constructions.

The pink, red and magenta colors in carnation flowers are due to the accumulation of pelargonidin and cyanidin-based anthocyanins. Carnations lack violet/blue flowers due to an absence of delphinidin-based anthocyanins, which are the dominant anthocyanins in most species having violet or blue flowers. The deficiency of delphinidin is attributed to the lack of the flavonoid 3′,5′-hydroxylase (F3′5′H) gene in carnation, the key gene for biosynthesis of delphinidin. Transgenic violet flower carnation varieties were generated by successful introduction and expression of a heterologous F3′5′H. Coexpression of a specific flavonoid biosynthesis gene or suppression of an endogenous gene involved in flavonoid biosynthesis was shown to enhance delphinidin accumulation. Some of the resultant transgenic carnation varieties have been commercialized in the USA, EU, Japan and other countries after obtaining the required permissions to release genetically modified organisms. Extensive molecular analysis of transgenic carnation is required by EU regulatory authorities and to a lesser extent in Japan. The analysis shows that the transgenic events often contain multiple transgenes and sometimes rearranged and/or partial T-DNA regions.

In recent years proponents of usage-based linguistics have singled out ‘categorization’ as possibly the fundamental cognitive operation underlying the acquisition and use of language. Despite this increasing appeal to the importance of categorization, few researchers have yet offered explicit interpretations of how linguistic categories might be represented in the brain other than vague allusions to prototype theory, especially as implemented in connectionist-like frameworks. In this paper, I discuss in some detail the implications of superimposing the theoretical representations of linguistic structures onto domain-general models of categorization. I first review the evidence that instance-based, or exemplar-based, models of categorization provide empirically and theoretically better models of both domain-general categorization and of linguistic categorization than do the most commonly cited alternative models. I then argue that of the three exemplar-based models currently being applied to linguistic data, Skousen’s Analogical Model (AM) appears to provide the simplest, most straightforward account of the data and that it appears to be fully compatible with our current understanding of the psychological capabilities and operations that underlie categorization behavior.

Over the past 50 years a comprehensive regulatory framework for radioactive substances in the UK has been progressively introduced, important initial milestones being the white paper Cmnd 884 and the Radioactive Substances Act 1960. During the 1970s and 1980s there were a succession of enquiries and white papers which developed from the growing awareness of the problems of the nuclear waste legacy. This was followed by a comprehensive policy white paper in 1995: Cm 2919. In 1990, 1993, 1995 and 2005 some aspects of the 1960 Act were updated. The most recent, and most radical, modernisation took place in 2010, when the Act was incorporated into the Environmental Permitting Regulations, in England and Wales. Currently a major review of the exemption orders and exclusion criteria under the radioactive substances legislation is close to completion, which will complete the current phase of modernisation of the regulatory framework.

The release of genetically modified plants into the environment can only occur after permission is obtained from the relevant regulatory authorities. This permission will only be obtained after extensive risk assessment shows comparable risk of impact to the environment and biodiversity as compared to non-transgenic host plants. Two transgenic rose (Rosa×hybrida) lines, whose flowers were modified to a bluer colour as a result of accumulation of delphinidin-based anthocyanins, have been trialed in greenhouses and the field in both Japan and Australia. Flower colour modification was due to expression of genes of a viola flavonoid 3′,5′-hydroxylase and a torenia anthocyanin 5-acyltransferase. In all trials it was shown that the performance of the two transgenic lines, as measured by their growth characters, was comparable to the host untransformed variety. Biological assay showed that the transgenic lines did not produce allelopathic compounds. In Japan, seeds from wild rose species that had grown in close proximity to the transgenic roses did not carry either a Rosa×hybrida specific marker gene or the transgenes. In hybridization experiments using transgenic rose pollen and wild rose female parents, the transgenes were not detected in the seed obtained, though there was a low frequency of seed set. The transgene was also not transmitted when Rosa×hybrida cultivars were used as females. In in situ hybridization analysis transgene transcripts were only detected in the epidermal cells in the petals of the transgenic roses. In combination, the breeding and in situ analysis results show that the transgenic roses contain the transgene only in the L1 layer cells and not in the L2 layer cells that generate reproductive cells. General release permissions have been granted for both transgenic lines in Japan and one is now commercially produced.

An important part of the assessment of the potential environmental impact from the introduction of a genetically modified (GM) plant is an evaluation of the potential for gene flow from the GM plant to related wild species. This information is needed as part of the risk-assessment process, in the context of whether gene flow to wild species is possible. One method for evaluating gene flow is to use molecular techniques to identify genes in wild species populations that may have originated from a cultivated species. An advantage of this method is that a phenotypic marker or trait is not required to measure gene flow. In the present study we analyzed the seedlings of seeds from three wild native Rosa species (R. multiflora Thunb., R. luciae Rochebr. et Franch. ex Crep. and R. rugosa Thunb.) selected from several locations across Japan where the wild rose was growing in close proximity to cultivated rose plants (Rosa×hybrida). To determine whether gene flow from cultivated rose had occurred, young leaves of 1,296 seedlings from the wild Rosa plants were analyzed by PCR for the presence of the KSN locus. This locus originated from a sport of R. chinensis Jacq. var. spontanea (Rehd. et Wils.) Yu et Ku and is involved in the recurrent flowering phenotype observed for cultivated rose hybrids, but is absent in Japanese species roses. The KSN locus was absent in all seedlings sampled, indicating no gene flow to wild Rosa species from the cultivated rose had occurred, and providing evidence that the probability of gene flow from cultivated to wild Rosa species in Japan is low or non-existent.

The status quo of flavonoid biosynthesis as it relates to flower color is reviewed together with a success in modifying flower color by genetic engineering. Flavonoids and their colored class compounds, anthocyanins, are major contributors to flower color. Many plant species synthesize limited kinds of flavonoids, and thus exhibit a limited range of flower color. Since genes regulating flavonoid biosynthesis are available, it is possible to alter flower color by overexpressing heterologous genes and/or down regulating endogenous genes. Transgenic carnations and a transgenic rose that accumulate delphinidin as a result of expressing a flavonoid 3',5'-hydroxylase gene and have novel blue hued flowers have been commercialized. Transgenic Nierembergia accumulating pelargonidin, with novel pink flowers, has also been developed. Although it is possible to generate white, yellow, and pink-flowered torenia plants from blue cultivars by genetic engineering, field trial observations indicate difficulty in obtaining stable phenotypes.

Genetically-modified, colour-altered varieties of the important cut-flower crop carnation have now been commercially available for nearly ten years. In this review we describe the manipulation of the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway that has lead to the development of these varieties and how similar manipulations have been successfully applied to both pot plants and another cut-flower species, the rose. From this experience it is clear that down- and up-regulation of the flavonoid and anthocyanin pathway is both possible and predictable. The major commercial benefit of the application of this technology has so far been the development of novel flower colours through the development of transgenic varieties that produce, uniquely for the target species, anthocyanins derived from delphinidin. These anthocyanins are ubiquitous in nature, and occur in both ornamental plants and common food plants. Through the extensive regulatory approval processes that must occur for the commercialization of genetically modified organisms, we have accumulated considerable experimental and trial data to show the accumulation of delphinidin based anthocyanins in the transgenic plants poses no environmental or health risk.

College students are at high risk for human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, yet their knowledge and self-protective behaviors appear inadequate. Researchers who have measured HPV-related knowledge and behaviors in evaluating college intervention efforts pay secondary attention to black college students because this group generally represents only a small subset of samples of the broader college population.The authors' purpose in this study was to examine HPV-related knowledge and behaviors in 351 black undergraduates attending a historically black southeastern university in the spring of 2003.Voluntary and anonymous student participation was solicited in randomly selected undergraduate classes.Results indicated that most students lacked HPV awareness (64%), became aware of HPV largely after infection, and gained their HPV knowledge from a health-care provider or college class. The authors performed an analysis by gender and found that women were more knowledgeable about HPV than were men. Observed HPV-related knowledge and behaviors were similar to samples of the broader US college population.Findings suggest a greater need for HPV intervention efforts for all college students, including those at black colleges.

No abstract reveived.

A new radioactive substances regulatory regime came into effect across the UK on 1 October 2011, accompanied by Government and regulator's guidance. The legislation sets new activity thresholds for what is within its scope and for what is exempt from the permitting requirements. These thresholds are, for the first time, clearly based on the levels in the Basic Safety Standards Directive; distinguish between NORM industrial activities and practices; and are derived from different dose constraints. There are new exemption provisions for NORM, aqueous liquids and gaseous wastes.

Over the past few years Steven Pinker has argued that although some aspects of language may be more associational, and therefore properly modeled in connectionist networks, for the most part human language is still best characterized as a modularized set of rulesymbol systems. In support of his claim, Pinker garners a broad array of clinical, experimental, and observational data from neurology, psychology, and linguistics. Those data, unfortunately, are not compelling because they do not support his position uniquely. In this paper, I show how each of his arguments is compatible with alternative interpretations. I argue, moreover, that in focusing on certain details of connectionist models Pinker and his colleagues actually overlooked both the most serious deficiencies of the connectionist approach and its most significant theoretical contribution. I conclude by sketching briefly some emerging alternatives to connectionism which avoid those deficiencies while retaining its strengths over the rule-symbol systems of linguistic theory.

Skousen's (1989, Analogical modeling of language, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht) Analogical Model (AM) predicts behavior such as spelling pronunciation by comparing the characteristics of a test item (a given input word) to those of individual exemplars in a data set of previously encountered items. While AM and other exemplar-based models enjoy continuing success in their ability to predict what a participant's response to a given task will be, it does not yet include a widely tested mechanism for extending its predictions to other measures of interest in psycholinguistics such as response time (RT). This article reports the results of applying a formula derived in Estes (1959, in: Koch, Psychology: A study of a science, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.) for approximating "mean predicted latency" in decision tasks to the alternative responses and their associated probabilities predicted by AM. The model is tested against six sets of data from previously published naming studies.