Brown University

About: Brown University is a education organization based out in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 35778 authors who have published 90896 publications receiving 4471489 citations. The organization is also known as: brown.edu & Brown.

Speech perception in infants.

Abstract: Discriminiationi of synthetic speech sounds was studied in 1- and 4-month-old infants. The speech sounds varied along an acoustic dimension previously shown to cue phonemic distinctions among the voiced and voiceless stop consonants in adults. Discriminability was measured by an increase in conditioned response rate to a second speech sound after habituation to the first speech sound. Recovery from habituation was greater for a given acoustic difference when the two stimuli were from different adult phonemic categories than when they were from the same category. The discontinuity in discrimination at the region of the adult phonemic boundary was taken as evidence for categorical perception.

The econometric analysis of transition data

Abstract: Preface Part I. Model Building: 1. Some basic results 2. Covariates and the hazard function 3. Parametric families of duration distribution 4. Mixture models 5. Some important processes 6. Some structural transition models Part II. Inference: 7. Identifiability issues 8. Fully parametric inference 9. Limited information inference 10. Misspecification analysis 11. Residual analysis Appendix 1: The gamma function and distribution Appendix 2: Some properties of the Laplace transform Bibliography Index.

Broad phylogenomic sampling improves resolution of the animal tree of life

Abstract: Long-held ideas regarding the evolutionary relationships among animals have recently been upended by sometimes controversial hypotheses based largely on insights from molecular data. These new hypotheses include a clade of moulting animals (Ecdysozoa) and the close relationship of the lophophorates to molluscs and annelids (Lophotrochozoa). Many relationships remain disputed, including those that are required to polarize key features of character evolution, and support for deep nodes is often low. Phylogenomic approaches, which use data from many genes, have shown promise for resolving deep animal relationships, but are hindered by a lack of data from many important groups. Here we report a total of 39.9 Mb of expressed sequence tags from 29 animals belonging to 21 phyla, including 11 phyla previously lacking genomic or expressed-sequence-tag data. Analysed in combination with existing sequences, our data reinforce several previously identified clades that split deeply in the animal tree (including Protostomia, Ecdysozoa and Lophotrochozoa), unambiguously resolve multiple long-standing issues for which there was strong conflicting support in earlier studies with less data (such as velvet worms rather than tardigrades as the sister group of arthropods), and provide molecular support for the monophyly of molluscs, a group long recognized by morphologists. In addition, we find strong support for several new hypotheses. These include a clade that unites annelids (including sipunculans and echiurans) with nemerteans, phoronids and brachiopods, molluscs as sister to that assemblage, and the placement of ctenophores as the earliest diverging extant multicellular animals. A single origin of spiral cleavage (with subsequent losses) is inferred from well-supported nodes. Many relationships between a stable subset of taxa find strong support, and a diminishing number of lineages remain recalcitrant to placement on the tree.

Revising the definition of Alzheimer's disease: a new lexicon.

Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is classically defined as a dual clinicopathological entity. The recent advances in use of reliable biomarkers of AD that provide in-vivo evidence of the disease has stimulated the development of new research criteria that reconceptualise the diagnosis around both a specific pattern of cognitive changes and structural/biological evidence of Alzheimer's pathology. This new diagnostic framework has stimulated debate about the definition of AD and related conditions. The potential for drugs to intercede in the pathogenic cascade of the disease adds some urgency to this debate. This paper by the International Working Group for New Research Criteria for the Diagnosis of AD aims to advance the scientific discussion by providing broader diagnostic coverage of the AD clinical spectrum and by proposing a common lexicon as a point of reference for the clinical and research communities. The cornerstone of this lexicon is to consider AD solely as a clinical and symptomatic entity that encompasses both predementia and dementia phases.

Emotion Regulation as a Scientific Construct: Methodological Challenges and Directions for Child Development Research

Abstract: Emotion regulation has emerged as a popular topic, but there is doubt about its viability as a scientific construct This article identifies conceptual and methodological challenges in this area of study and describes exemplar studies that provide a substantive basis for inferring emotion regulation On the basis of those studies, 4 methods are described that provide compelling evidence for emotion regulation: independent measurement of activated emotion and purported regulatory processes; analysis of temporal relations; measurement across contrasting conditions; and multiple, convergent measures By offering this perspective, this article aims to engage thoughtful debate and critical analysis, with the goal of increasing methodological rigor and advancing an understanding of emotion regulation as a scientific construct