University of Warwick

About: University of Warwick is a education organization based out in Coventry, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 26212 authors who have published 77127 publications receiving 2666552 citations. The organization is also known as: Warwick University & The University of Warwick.

Contextual Diversity, Not Word Frequency, Determines Word-Naming and Lexical Decision Times

Abstract: Word frequency is an important predictor of word-naming and lexical decision times. It is, however, confounded with contextual diversity, the number of contexts in which a word has been seen. In a study using a normative, corpus-based measure of contextual diversity, word-frequency effects were eliminated when effects of contextual diversity were taken into account (but not vice versa) across three naming and three lexical decision data sets; the same pattern of results was obtained regardless of which of three corpora was used to derive the frequency and contextual-diversity values. The results are incompatible with existing models of visual word recognition, which attribute frequency effects directly to frequency, and are particularly problematic for accounts in which frequency effects reflect learning. We argue that the results reflect the importance of likely need in memory processes, and that the continuity between reading and memory suggests using principles from memory research to inform theories of reading.

Ectopic expression of a tomato 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase gene causes over-production of abscisic acid.

Abstract: Summary The tomato mutant notabilis has a wilty phenotype as a result of abscisic acid (ABA) deficiency. The wild-type allele of notabilis, LeNCED1, encodes a putative 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) with a potential regulatory role in ABA biosynthesis. We have created transgenic tobacco plants in which expression of the LeNCED1 coding region is under tetracycline-inducible control. When leaf explants from these plants were treated with tetracycline, NCED mRNA was induced and bulk leaf ABA content increased by up to 10-fold. Transgenic tomato plants were also produced containing the LeNCED1 coding region under the control of one of two strong constitutive promoters, either the doubly enhanced CaMV 35S promoter or the chimaeric ‘Super-Promoter’. Many of these plants were wilty, suggesting co-suppression of endogenous gene activity; however three transformants displayed a common, heritable phenotype that could be due to enhanced ABA biosynthesis, showing increased guttation and seed dormancy. Progeny from two of these transformants were further characterized, and it was shown that they also exhibited reduced stomatal conductance, increased NCED mRNA and elevated seed ABA content. Progeny of one transformant had significantly higher bulk leaf ABA content compared to the wild type. The increased seed dormancy was reversed by addition of the carotenoid biosynthesis inhibitor norflurazon. These data provide strong evidence that NCED is indeed a key regulatory enzyme in ABA biosynthesis in leaves, and demonstrate for the first time that plant ABA content can be increased through manipulating NCED.

Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study

Abstract: The links between income, sexual behavior and reported happiness are studied using recent data on a sample of 16,000 adult Americans. The paper finds that sexual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations. Higher income does not buy more sex or more sexual partners. Married people have more sex than those who are single, divorced, widowed or separated. The happiness-maximizing number of sexual partners in the previous year is calculated to be 1. Highly educated females tend to have fewer sexual partners. Homosexuality has no statistically significant effect on happiness.

A Formal Specification of dMARS

Abstract: The Procedural Reasoning System (PRS) is the best established agent architecture currently available. It has been deployed in many major industrial applications, ranging from fault diagnosis on the space shuttle to air traffic management and business process control. The theory of PRS-like systems has also been widely studied: within the intelligent agents research community, the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model of practical reasoning that underpins PRS is arguably the dominant force in the theoretical foundations of rational agency. Despite the interest in PRS and BDI agents, no complete attempt has yet been made to precisely specify the behaviour of real PRS systems. This has led to the development of a range of systems that claim to conform to the PRS model, but which differ from it in many important respects. Our aim in this paper is to rectify this omission. We provide an abstract formal model of an idealised dMARS system (the most recent implementation of the PRS architecture), which precisely defines the key data structures present within the architecture and the operations that manipulate these structures. We focus in particular on dMARS plans, since these are the key tool for programming dMARS agents. The specification we present will enable other implementations of PRS to be easily developed, and will serve as a benchmark against which future architectural enhancements can be evaluated.