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People derive contrastive inferences when interpreting adjectives (e.g., inferring that 'the short pencil' is being contrasted with a longer one). However, classic eye-tracking studies revealed contrastive inferences with scalar and material adjectives, but not with color adjectives. This was explained as a difference in listeners' informativity expectations, since color adjectives are often used descriptively (hence not warranting a contrastive interpretation). Here we hypothesized that, beyond these pragmatic factors, perceptual factors (i.e., the relative perceptibility of color, material and scalar contrast) and semantic factors (i.e., the difference between gradable and non-gradable properties) also affect the real-time derivation of contrastive inferences. We tested these predictions in three languages with prenominal modification (English, Hindi, and Hungarian) and found that people derive contrastive inferences for color and scalar adjectives, but not for material adjectives. In addition, the processing of scalar adjectives was more context dependent than that of color and material adjectives, confirming that pragmatic, perceptual and semantic factors affect the derivation of contrastive inferences.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00165 | DOI Listing |
mBio
September 2025
School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
The rotation of the bacterial flagellum is powered by the MotAB stator complex, which converts ion flux into torque. Despite its central role in flagellar function, the evolutionary origin and structural diversity of this system remain poorly understood. Here, we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic and structural characterization of MotAB and its closest non-flagellar homologs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiol Adv
September 2024
Department of Radiology, Northwestern University and Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, United States.
Background: In clinical practice, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) often suffers from misregistration artifact resulting from voluntary, respiratory, and cardiac motion during acquisition. Most prior efforts to register the background DSA mask to subsequent postcontrast images rely on key point registration using iterative optimization, which has limited real-time application.
Purpose: Leveraging state-of-the-art, unsupervised deep learning, we aim to develop a fast, deformable registration model to substantially reduce DSA misregistration in craniocervical angiography without compromising spatial resolution or introducing new artifacts.
Driven by eutrophication and global warming, the occurrence and frequency of harmful cyanobacteria blooms (CyanoHABs) are increasing worldwide, posing a serious threat to human health and biodiversity. Early warning enables precautional control measures of CyanoHABs within water bodies and in water works, and it becomes operational with high frequency in situ data (HFISD) of water quality and forecasting models by machine learning (ML). However, the acceptance of early warning systems by end-users relies significantly on the interpretability and generalizability of underlying models, and their operability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
September 2025
School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.
Many animal species live in multi-level societies regulated by complex patterns of dominance. Avoiding competition with dominant group-mates for resources such as food and mates is an important skill for subordinate individuals in these societies, if they wish to evade harassment and aggression. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are an example of such a species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Legal Med
September 2025
West China School of Basic Medical Sciences & Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Ren Min Nan Road 3-17, P.O.Box: 610041, Chengdu, P. R. China.
The likelihood ratio (LR) is a recommended metric for assessing the strength of genetic information in relationship testing, one of the most important tasks in forensic science. LR calculation incorporate population frequencies, which is affected by population substructure. This study utilized population frequency data from 18 short tandem repeat (STR) loci across 13 Chinese populations, encompassing both majority and minority ethnic groups.
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