Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. In this article we first address the adequacy ...of the 2 dominant accounts (dual coding theory and the context availability model) put forward in order to explain representation and processing differences between concrete and abstract words. We find that neither proposal can account for experimental findings and that this is, at least partly, because abstract words are considered to be unrelated to experiential information in both of these accounts. We then address a particular type of experiential information, emotional content, and demonstrate that it plays a crucial role in the processing and representation of abstract concepts: Statistically, abstract words are more emotionally valenced than are concrete words, and this accounts for a residual latency advantage for abstract words, when variables such as imageability (a construct derived from dual coding theory) and rated context availability are held constant. We conclude with a discussion of our novel hypothesis for embodied abstract semantics. (Contains 7 footnotes, 3 tables, and 9 figures.)
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This symposium demonstrates the potential for throughput legitimacy as a concept for shedding empirical light on the strengths and weaknesses of multi‐level governance, as well as challenging the ...concept theoretically. This article introduces the symposium by conceptualizing throughput legitimacy as an ‘umbrella concept’, encompassing a constellation of normative criteria not necessarily empirically interrelated. It argues that in order to interrogate multi‐level governance processes in all their complexity, it makes sense for us to develop normative standards that are not naïve about the empirical realities of how power is exercised within multi‐level governance, or how it may interact with legitimacy. We argue that while throughput legitimacy has its normative limits, it can be substantively useful for these purposes. While being no replacement for input and output legitimacy, throughput legitimacy offers distinctive normative criteria—accountability, transparency, inclusiveness and openness—and points towards substantive institutional reforms.
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Deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) are the emerging technology in drug discovery and biomarker development. In our recent work, we demonstrated a proof-of-concept of implementing deep ...generative adversarial autoencoder (AAE) to identify new molecular fingerprints with predefined anticancer properties. Another popular generative model is the variational autoencoder (VAE), which is based on deep neural architectures. In this work, we developed an advanced AAE model for molecular feature extraction problems, and demonstrated its advantages compared to VAE in terms of (a) adjustability in generating molecular fingerprints; (b) capacity of processing very large molecular data sets; and (c) efficiency in unsupervised pretraining for regression model. Our results suggest that the proposed AAE model significantly enhances the capacity and efficiency of development of the new molecules with specific anticancer properties using the deep generative models.
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24.
The Challenge of Abstract Concepts Borghi, Anna M; Binkofski, Ferdinand; Castelfranchi, Cristiano ...
Psychological bulletin,
03/2017, Volume:
143, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract concepts ("freedom") differ from concrete ones ("cat"), as they do not have a bounded, identifiable, and clearly perceivable referent. The way in which abstract concepts are represented has ...recently become a topic of intense debate, especially because of the spread of the embodied approach to cognition. Within this framework concepts derive their meaning from the same perception, motor, and emotional systems that are involved in online interaction with the world. Most of the evidence in favor of this view, however, has been gathered with regard to concrete concepts. Given the relevance of abstract concepts for higher-order cognition, we argue that being able to explain how they are represented is a crucial challenge that any theory of cognition needs to address. The aim of this article is to offer a critical review of the latest theories on abstract concepts, focusing on embodied ones. Starting with theories that question the distinction between abstract and concrete concepts, we review theories claiming that abstract concepts are grounded in metaphors, in situations and introspection, and in emotion. We then introduce multiple representation theories, according to which abstract concepts evoke both sensorimotor and linguistic information. We argue that the most promising approach is given by multiple representation views that combine an embodied perspective with the recognition of the importance of linguistic and social experience. We conclude by discussing whether or not a single theoretical framework might be able to explain all different varieties of abstract concepts.
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This review outlines a conceptual approach to inform research and practice aimed at supporting children whose lives are complicated by impairment and/or chronic medical conditions, and their ...families. ‘Participation’ in meaningful life activities should be an essential intervention goal, to meet the challenges of healthy growth and development, and to provide opportunities to help ensure that young people with impairments reach their full potential across their lifespan. Intervention activities and research can focus on participation as either an independent or dependent variable. The proposed framework and associated hypotheses are applicable to children and young people with a wide variety of conditions, and to their families. In taking a fresh ‘non‐categorical’ perspective to health for children and young people, asking new questions, and exploring issues in innovative ways, we expect to learn lessons and to develop creative solutions that will ultimately benefit children with a wide variety of impairments and challenges, and their families, everywhere.
What this paper adds
An innovative conceptual framework to support participation‐based research and practice.
Recommendations for future participation‐based research.
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Abstract
The article proposes a theoretical model of the development of parasocial relationships (PSRs) building on Knapp’s model of relationship development. Through synthesis of research across ...disciplines, the model conceptualizes the relational goals and parasocial interactions (PSIs) specific to the PSR. The model identifies variables that predict engagement at that level, describes the stage’s outcomes/effects, and considers the utility of existing measures to assess these stages. The conceptualization of PSRs as a dynamic process rather than intensity of a monolithic experience offers new directions worthy of empirical examination.
People learning new concepts can often generalize successfully from just a single example, yet machine learning algorithms typically require tens or hundreds of examples to perform with similar ...accuracy. People can also use learned concepts in richer ways than conventional algorithms—for action, imagination, and explanation. We present a computational model that captures these human learning abilities for a large class of simple visual concepts: handwritten characters from the world's alphabets. The model represents concepts as simple programs that best explain observed examples under a Bayesian criterion. On a challenging one-shot classification task, the model achieves human-level performance while outperforming recent deep learning approaches. We also present several "visual Turing tests" probing the model's creative generalization abilities, which in many cases are indistinguishable from human behavior.
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Despite significant investment in anticorruption instruments in the past decades, confusion about their effectiveness remains. While a growing body of scholarship claims that anticorruption reforms ...have generally failed, other scholars have shown that particular anticorruption tools may actually work. A likely explanation for these puzzling outcomes is that public administration research holds a mistaken view of corruption, and improperly selected anticorruption strategies often target the wrong type of corruption. To overcome this problem, this article proposes a four‐cell typology of corruption, reflecting two critical dimensions along which most corrupt behaviors occur: the resource transfer and the primary beneficiary. Synthesizing recent research developments, this article introduces a new conceptualization of corruption that integrates perspectives from several disciplines. It also offers a series of propositions concerning how each corruption type could be fought. The article concludes with implications for research and practice.
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As a result of the steady rise of populist parties and politicians all over the world – and particularly since the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump – populism research has become ...increasingly popular and widespread. The field, however, also faces some tricky challenges. First, it is easy to confuse populism with related concepts like, for instance, ‘nativism’ and ‘Euroscepticism’. This brings the risk of sloppy conceptualisation, and, as a result, invalid inferences. Second, populism research remains relatively detached from adjacent fields, and fruitful fertilisation across literatures is still rather uncommon. In order to deal with these challenges, populism research should become both more and less focused. How can these two seemingly conflicting recommendations be reconciled? When it comes to conceptualisation/categorisation strategies and drawing conclusions from studies by other researchers, populism scholars should employ a narrow framework and be precise, distinctive and consistent. Yet when it comes to exploring the literature in search of new hypotheses, scholars should employ a more open mind‐set. After all, theories developed in adjacent fields can inspire populism scholars to formulate innovative new questions and expectations.
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As has been argued elsewhere, the model of public service management (the New Public Management, or NPM) that dominated public service reform since the late 1970s to the recent past both has been a ...flawed model and has failed in practice. Its pre-occupation with linear and Fordist models of public service delivery, culled from the manufacturing and production literature, has lacked congruence with the reality of public service management in an increasingly complex, fragmented and interdependent world (Osborne, Radnor, and Nasi 2013). This failure was un-necessary and avoidable. Again, as has been argued elsewhere, an alternative body of public management research and theory is available that addresses directly the nature of ‘service’ and ‘service management’ and which leads to very different approaches to public service management. This approach has become known as public service-dominant logic (PSDL) and the SERVICE framework (Osborne et al. 2015). The intention here is to argue both for a revised conceptualization of this approach and for a shift of emphasis within this emergent paradigm – both between co-production and value (co-)creation and between the respective roles of public service organizations (PSOs), citizens and service users in these processes. Consequently, this brief essay therefore avers that ‘PSDL’ is no longer either a necessary or a sufficient term for this body of public management theory. To acknowledge its growth into a distinctive body of theoretical body, this paper therefore argues for the replacement of ‘PSDL’ by the crisper term, ‘public service logic’ (PSL). This term maintains the link to service, rather than product-based, theory but distances it from being simply an offshoot of SDL. To make this point, this paper advances the need to consider co-production and value co-creation in a distinctive way that adds to public management theory. Whilst the concept of co-creation has been considered in public management theory in recent years, the discourse has suffered from conceptual limitations. In some circumstances it has been offered as inter-changeable with co-production (Gebauer, Johnson, and Enquist 2010), whilst in others it has been limited solely to ‘the involvement of citizens in the initiation or design of public services’ (Voorberg et al. 2017, 366, my emphasis). However, this is not the case. Co-production assumes a process where the PSO is dominant and where the logic is linear and based upon product-dominant conceptions of production. Co-creationassumes an interactive and dynamic relationship where value is created at the nexus of interaction. Value for the service user and the PSO thus are created not by linear production but rather by this interaction occurring within the context of the service user’s wider life experience (Grönroos 2011). This has significant implications for how we understand the relationship between PSOs and service users in public services delivery – and for what this relationships means for the value that public services create in society.
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