Safe(r) landing by older people: A matter of complexity.

Maintaining balance is a complex motor problem that requires coordinated contributions from multiple biological systems. Aging inevitably lessens the fidelity of biological systems, which can result in an increased risk of falling, and associated injuries. It is advantageous to land safely, but falls manifest in diverse ways, so different motor solutions are required to land safely. However, without considerable practice, it is difficult to recall the appropriate motor solution for a fall and then apply it effectively in the brief duration before hitting the ground. A complex systems perspective provides a lens through which to view the problem of safe-landing. It may be possible to use motor analogies to promote degeneracy within the perceptual-motor system so that, regardless of the direction in which an older person falls, their body self-organizes to land with less likelihood of injury.

Analogies for modeling belief dynamics.

Belief dynamics has an important role in shaping our responses to natural and societal phenomena, ranging from climate change and pandemics to immigration and conflicts. Researchers often base their models of belief dynamics on analogies to other systems and processes, such as epidemics or ferromagnetism. Similar to other analogies, analogies for belief dynamics can help scientists notice and study properties of belief systems that they would not have noticed otherwise (conceptual mileage). However, forgetting the origins of an analogy may lead to some less appropriate inferences about belief dynamics (conceptual baggage). Here, we review various analogies for modeling belief dynamics, discuss their mileage and baggage, and offer recommendations for using analogies in model development.

Identifying Past Beer Production: Contributions from an Ethnoarchaeological Study in Bedik Villages, Senegal.

The identification of beer production in past societies remains a challenge as very few studies have discussed its material evidence. Our investigation in Senegal aimed at filling this gap. We documented 14 beer houses and several beer cooking areas in five Bedik villages and excavated a beer house and associated cooking area in a recently abandoned village. We recorded the architectural attributes of the beer-making structures (location, shape, size, materials, techniques, internal layouts). We also analyzed associated pottery combining typometry and use-wear. Such an integrated study revealed that the pottery types (large vessels, small bottles) and use-alteration (inner non-abrasive attrition), are the most distinctive features for identifying beer production, besides the beer houses' internal layouts (wedge holes of large pottery, altar) and the beer cooking areas' location outside the compound. Exploration of the same criteria in other cultural contexts in Africa lends support to the broader significance of these findings.

Identifying Meat from Grazing or Feedlot Yaks Using Visible and Near-infrared Spectroscopy with Chemometrics.

The quality of meat can differ between grazing and feedlot yaks. The present study examined whether spectral fingerprints by visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy and chemo-metrics could be employed to identify the meat of grazing and feedlot yaks. Thirty-six 3.5-year-old castrated male yaks (164 ± 8.38 kg) were divided into grazing and feedlot yaks. After 5 months on treatment, liveweight, carcass weight, and dressing percentage were greater in the feedlot than in grazing yaks. The grazing yaks had greater protein content but lesser fat content than feedlot yaks. Principal component analysis (PCA) was able to identify the meat of the two groups to a great extent. Using either partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) or the soft independent modeling of class analogies (SIMCA) classification, the meat could be differentiated between the groups. Both the original and processed spectral data had a high discrimination percentage, especially the PLS-DA classification algorithm, with 100% discrimination in the 400-2500 nm band. The spectral preprocessing methods can improve the discrimination percentage, especially for the SIMCA classification. It was concluded that the method can be employed to identify meat from grazing or feedlot yaks. The unerring consistency across different wavelengths and data treatments highlights the model's robustness and the potential use of NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques for meat classification. PLS-DA's accurate classification model is crucial for the unique evaluation of yak meat in the meat industry, ensuring product traceability and meeting consumer expectations for the authenticity and quality of yak meat raised in different ways.

Illuminating their reality: the use of metaphor by parents of children with disabilities to express their experiences of health care.

PURPOSE: To explore the nature and meaning of metaphors used by parents of children with disabilities when describing their healthcare experiences. METHOD: A systematic procedure was used to identify and analyze metaphors spontaneously mentioned by parents in 13 focus groups held with 65 Canadian parents of children with disabilities. Attention was paid to identifying deep (i.e., meaningful) metaphors rather than common expressions. RESULTS: A total of 214 deep metaphors were identified and categorized into four target-source groupings. Parents used journey metaphors to describe experiences of uncertainty, conflict and harm metaphors to describe confrontational, harmful, and demeaning experiences of care, games and puzzles to describe the unknowns of care and attempts to resolve these unknowns, and metaphors concerning environmental barriers (i.e., walls and doors) to express feelings of exclusion and difficulties accessing care. CONCLUSIONS: Parents' metaphors expressed experiences of uncertainty, powerlessness, and attempts to exert agency in healthcare interactions. The metaphorical groupings provide new insights into how and why lack of family-centeredness in service delivery is bewildering, distressing, and disempowering to parents. Implications for service providers include paying attention to what metaphor use reveals about parents' experiences, and discussing parents' metaphors with them to create joint understanding, providing a fertile ground for collaboration.

Study findings indicated a clear lack of family-centeredness in gaining access to services, communicating with service providers and being listened to, and in decision-making power.Given that many service providers believe they are family-centered, the strong negative connotations of the metaphors used by parents are surprising and worrisome.Parents' use of metaphors not only reflects a lack of family-centered care, but indicates that parents experience unintentional harm in their interactions with service providers.Service providers can benefit from knowing the fundamental issues of uncertainty and power that underlie parents' use of metaphors to communicate vividly the tensions and issues they face.

Minimal logical teleology in artifacts and biology connects the two domains and frames mechanisms via epistemic circularity.

The understanding of artifacts and biological phenomena has often influenced each other. This work argues that at the core of these epistemic bridges there are shared teleological notions and explanations manifested in analogies between artifacts and biological phenomena. To this end, I first propose a focus on the logical structure of minimal teleological explanations, which renders said epistemic bridges more evident than an ontological or metaphysical approach to teleology, and which can be used to describe scientific practices in different areas by virtue of formal generality and minimalism (section 2). Second, I show how this approach highlights some epistemic features shared by the understanding of artifacts and biological phenomena, like a specific kind of epistemic circularity, and how functional analogies between artifacts and biological phenomena translate such epistemic circularity from one domain to the other (section 3). Third, I conduct a case study on the scientific practice around the brain's "compass", showing how the understanding of artifacts influences purpose ascription and measurement, and frames mechanisms in biology, especially in areas where purpose ascription is most difficult, like cognitive neuroscience (sections 4 and 5).

A work in progress: William Bateson's vibratory theory of repetition of parts.

In 1891 Cambridge biologist William Bateson (1861-1926) announced his idea that the symmetrical segmentation in living organisms resulted from energy peaks of some vibratory force acting on tissues during morphogenesis. He also demonstrated topographically how folding a radially symmetric organism could produce another with bilateral symmetry. Bateson attended many lectures at the Cambridge Philosophical Society and viewed mechanical models prepared by eminent physicists that illustrated how vibrations affected materials. In his subsequent research, Bateson utilized analogies and metaphors based upon his observations of nature to build a thought model on the effects of vibrations on living tissue, because he realized that the chemistry and biology of his day lacked technologies to perform actual experiments on the subject. He concluded the production of organic segmentation was both a chemical and mechanical phenomenon. By the time of his death Bateson had incorporated new ideas about embryonic organizer regions to suggest a center from which a rhythmic force emanated and then produced the observed repetitive segmentation as a common feature in living organisms.

New Shear Horizontal (SH) Surface-Plasmon-Polariton-like Elastic Surface Waves for Sensing Applications.

The advent of elastic metamaterials at the beginning of the 21st century opened new venues and possibilities for the existence of new types of elastic (ultrasonic) surface waves, which were deemed previously impossible. In fact, it is not difficult to prove that shear horizontal (SH) elastic surface waves cannot exist on the elastic half-space or at the interface between two conventional elastic half-spaces. However, in this paper we will show that SH elastic surface waves can propagate at the interface between two elastic half-spaces, providing that one of them is a metamaterial with a negative elastic compliance s44(ω). If in addition, s44(ω) changes with frequency ω as the dielectric function ε(ω) in Drude's model of metals, then the proposed SH elastic surface waves can be considered as an elastic analogue of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) electromagnetic waves, propagating at a metal-dielectric interface. Due to inherent similarities between the proposed SH elastic surface waves and SPP electromagnetic waves, the new results developed in this paper can be readily transferred into the SPP domain and vice versa. The proposed new SH elastic surface waves are characterized by a strong subwavelength confinement of energy in the vicinity of the guiding interface; therefore, they can potentially be used in subwavelength ultrasonic imaging, superlensing, and/or acoustic (ultrasonic) sensors with extremely high mass sensitivity.

Seeing the light versus being in the dark: parent, child, and service providers' use of metaphors to express system complexity, therapy engagement, and personal experiences of adaptation.

Purpose: To describe parent, child, and service providers' use of metaphors to communicate the meaning of participation in life and therapy engagement in the field of childhood disability.Methods: Metaphors concerning participation and engagement were extracted from 59 qualitative articles recommended by a group of experts in pediatric rehabilitation. A systematic process of metaphor analysis was used, involving identification of source and target domains, categorization into target-source groupings, and interpretation.Results: 209 metaphors were identified and categorized into seven target-source groupings. These seven groupings reflected environmental, interpersonal, and personal domains of experience: (a) the service system and life context, (b) the interpersonal therapy context, and (c) personal aspects. Together, the groupings expressed experiences concerning service system complexity, therapy engagement, and personal experiences of adaptation. Speakers used several metaphor dichotomies to express different experiences (e.g., open vs closed doors to opportunities).Conclusions: When service providers pay attention to clients' use of metaphors, this can lead to a deeper, more evocative understanding of the meaning of their participation and engagement experiences. Service providers can use metaphors generated by clients to communicate their understanding to clients, thereby creating a common ground for collaboration and assisting clients to interpret their experiences in different ways.Implications for RehabilitationMetaphors are useful clinically as they provide a bridge to joint understanding between a speaker and listener(s), due to their cognitive and communicative functionsService providers can note and attend to clients' use of metaphors to understand clients' experiences in deeper waysService providers can themselves use metaphors to express new ideas to clients, thereby encouraging clients to adopt new perspectives on their experiencesBy paralleling clients' use of metaphors, service providers can communicate that they understand clients' experience and provide them with a sense of support.

The machine-organism relation revisited.

This article addresses some crucial assumptions that are rarely acknowledged when organisms and machines are compared. We begin by presenting a short historical reconstruction of the concept of "machine." We show that there has never been a unique and widely accepted definition of "machine" and that the extant definitions are based on specific technologies. Then we argue that, despite the concept's ambiguity, we can still defend a more robust, specific, and useful notion of machine analogy that accounts for successful strategies in connecting specific devices (or mechanisms) with particular living phenomena. For that purpose, we distinguish between what we call "generic identity" and proper "machine analogy." We suggest that "generic identity"-which, roughly stated, presumes that some sort of vague similarity might exist between organisms and machines-is a source of the confusion haunting many persistent disagreements and that, accordingly, it should be dismissed. Instead, we endorse a particular form of "machine analogy" where the relation between organic phenomena and mechanical devices is not generic but specific and grounded on the identification of shared "invariants." We propose that the machine analogy is a kind of analogy as proportion and we elucidate how this is used or might be used in scientific practices. We finally argue that while organisms are not machines in a generic sense, they might share many robust "invariants," which justify the scientists' use of machine analogies for grasping living phenomena.

An experimental and simulation study of the impact of emotional information on analogical reasoning.

We investigated whether and how emotional information would affect analogical reasoning. We hypothesized that task-irrelevant emotional information would impair performance whereas task-relevant emotional information would enhance it. In Study 1, 233 undergraduates completed a novel version of the People Pieces Task (Emotional Faces People Task), an analogical reasoning task in which the task characters displayed emotional or neutral facial expressions (within-participants). The emotional faces were relevant or irrelevant to the task (between-participants). We simulated the behavioral results using the Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies (LISA) model of relational reasoning. LISA is a neurally plausible, symbolic-connectionist computational model of analogical reasoning. In comparison to neutral trials, participants were slower but more accurate on emotion-relevant trials, and were faster but less accurate on emotion-irrelevant trials. Simulations using the LISA model demonstrated that it is possible to account for the effects of emotional information on reasoning in terms of how emotional stimuli attract attention during a reasoning task. In Study 2, 255 undergraduates completed the Emotional Faces People Task at either a high- or low-working memory load. The high working memory load condition of Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1, showing that participants were more accurate on emotion-relevant trials than on emotion-irrelevant trials; in Study 2, this increased accuracy could not be accounted for by a speed-accuracy tradeoff. The working memory manipulation influenced the manner in which the congruence (with the correct answer) of emotion-irrelevant emotion influenced performance. Simulations using the LISA model showed that manipulating the salience of emotion, the error penalty, as well as vigilance (which determines the likelihood that LISA will notice it has attended to an irrelevant relation), could reasonably reproduce the behavioral results of both low and high working memory load conditions of Study 2.

Artificial lives, analogies and symbolic thought: an anthropological insight on robots and AI.

The aim of this article is to explore the conception of artificial life forms and the interactions we have with them by paying a particular attention to the analogies that characterize them and the mental processes they give rise to. The article adopts a crossed perspective, focusing on the representations conveyed by artificial life but also on the way we deal with the presence of so-called intelligent or social machines. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of design practices and human-machine interaction experiments, this article hypothesizes that robots and AI constitute a symbolic means of addressing problems regarding our understanding of what life could be whether it is biological or social. Starting from the history of automata, this article will first address the modalities by which an "artificial life" is conceived by analogy with vital processes. It will then focus on the way these processes come into play in an experimental interaction situation.

Abstraction and analogy in AI.

The abilities to form concepts and abstractions, and to make analogies, are key to human intelligence, but AI systems have a long way to go before they can match the abilities of humans in these areas. To develop machines that can abstract and analogize, researchers typically focus on idealized problem domains that are meant to capture the essence of human abstraction abilities without having to deal with the complexity of real-world situations. This commentary describes why solving problems in these domains remains difficult for AI systems, and discusses how AI researches can make progress on imbuing machines with these essential abilities.

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics for the Rapid Screening of Economically Motivated Adulteration of Honey Spiked With Corn or Rice Syrup.

Due to its high price, increased consumption, and limited production, honey has been a main target for economically motivated adulteration (EMA). An approach combining Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and chemometrics was evaluated to develop a rapid screening tool to detect potential EMA of honey with either rice or corn syrup. A single-class soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) model was developed using a diverse set of commercial honey products and an authentic set of honey samples collected at four different U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) honey sample collection locations. The SIMCA model was externally validated with a set of calibration-independent authentic honey, typical commercial honey control samples, and those spiked with rice and corn syrups in the 1-16% concentration range. The authentic honey and typical commercial honey test samples were correctly predicted with an 88.3% classification rate. High accuracy was found in predicting the rice and corn syrup spiked samples above the 7% concentration range, yielding 97.6% and 94.8% correct classification rates, respectively. This study demonstrated the potential for a rapid and accurate infrared and chemometrics method that can be used to rapidly screen for either rice or corn adulterants in honey in less than 5 min.

What is a related work? A typology of relationships in research literature.

An important part of research is situating one's work in a body of existing literature, thereby connecting to existing ideas. Despite this, the various kinds of relationships that might exist among academic literature do not appear to have been formally studied. Here I present a graphical representation of academic work in terms of entities and relations, drawing on structure-mapping theory (used in the study of analogies). I then use this representation to present a typology of operations that could relate two pieces of academic work. I illustrate the various types of relationships with examples from medicine, physics, psychology, history and philosophy of science, machine learning, education, and neuroscience. The resulting typology not only gives insights into the relationships that might exist between static publications, but also the rich process whereby an ongoing research project evolves through interactions with the research literature.

When History Seems to Repeat Itself: Exposure to Perceived Lessons of the Past Influences Predictions About Current Political Events.

The idea that the past holds lessons for the present, under the guise of historical analogies, is prevalent in political and public discourse. Those analogies are often accompanied by dire warnings befalling those who "forget" or otherwise neglect the powerful lessons of History-and would then be "doomed to repeat it", as the saying goes. So, Would remembering history make it seem more OR LESS likely to repeat itself in the future? In other words, does exposure to specific lessons about past events, especially ones involving causal claims, affect how people expect real-life events to turn out? Four studies (three preregistered) tested this experimentally. In Studies 1 and 2, participants expected the same behavior (the US adopting a harsh stance against Iran in the Nuclear Treaty) to result in a more negative outcome when this current stance seemed to match a "lesson" they had read about the break-out of World War II (European leaders adopting a harsh approach against Germany in the 1919 Versailles Treaty vs. a conciliatory approach in the 1938 Munich Agreement). Studies 3 and 4 attempted to eliminate some confounds present in the first two studies and to generalize the effect to different events. While results varied across studies, an internal meta-analysis indicated that the analogical effect on predictions (d = -.08) tended to become stronger as participants' knowledge about the target situation decreased (d-1SD = -.24). These findings support the possibility of analogical-based predictive effects for real-life political events, and are discussed in light of their research and political implications.

The earth vibrates with analogies: The Dirac sea and the geology of the vacuum.

The debate around analogy in modern physics that focuses on its role as a logical inference often correspondingly overlooks its historical dimension and the other equally important functions and aspects that are intertwined with this dimension. Inspired by a close investigation of the primary sources and archival material of a few historical actors, this paper lays out a framework on analogy-making which preserves as much as possible its historical complexity. While not losing sight of the logical role, our framework puts a special emphasis on the heuristic process, and aims at offering to the historian and philosopher of science as well as the physicist some tools to capture the subtle functions of analogical reasoning involved in such a process. After having traced it out theoretically, we make use of this framework to interpret the growth of the ideas of two remarkable physicists dealing with the multifaceted notion of vacuum in 20th century physics. We first consider the trajectory followed by John A. Wheeler, between the 1960s and 1970s, towards (in his own words) a "geology of the vacuum"; and then examine, starting from the hitherto neglected Japanese reception of the idea of Dirac sea in the early 1930s, the pathway that led Yoichiro Nambu to the discovery of spontaneous symmetry breaking.

'Analogy-Based Comprehensive Diabetes Education' (ABCDE) Improves Glycemic Control of Diabetic Patients in an Underserved Population: Results of a Retrospective Chart Analysis.

Diabetes is the leading global cause for blindness, kidney failure and amputations. Preventing these complications requires optimal glycemic control, and it is imperative that diabetic patients understand the fundamental concepts of diabetes care. Although patients attend formal diabetes education classes, many do not comprehend basic concepts of diabetes, and are often noncompliant with diet, exercise and medications. A novel approach termed 'analogy-based comprehensive diabetes education' (ABCDE) was developed to educate HIV-patients with diabetes about basic concepts of diabetes care. The object of this manuscript is to report the results of a retrospective chart review on the impact of ABCDE on glycemic outcomes in 24 patients who had failed usual care (including formal diabetes education, physician visits, and diabetic medications), and were non-adherent with diet and medications. They received only the ABCDE without any changes in pharmacotherapy. The impact on glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) was assessed at subsequent visits. HbA1c was found to decline by 22% and 33% after 3 and 6 months, respectively, with corresponding declines in FBG by 53% and 59%, respectively. These results suggest that ABCDE in outpatient diabetes clinics could be effective in behavior modification toward improving glycemic control, and warrants additional investigation.

Replacing a Veterinary Physiology Endocrinology Lecture with a Blended Learning Approach Using an Everyday Analogy.

Understanding scientific concepts and processes is critical for veterinary education. This article outlines the impact of blended learning and the use of an analogy on student understanding of the hypothalamic-pituitary-target gland axis over a three-year period. The first-year veterinary physiology course at our institution was modified to incorporate a blended learning approach. An analogy centered around a fast-food restaurant was introduced via an animated video to explain key concepts using an online module. Students completed the module on their own time and class time was optional for asking questions or obtaining clarification as needed. Learning was assessed using the same set of multiple-choice exam questions (MCQs). As hypothesized, students using the online module performed equally well (significantly better for those in the lower quartile) on three summative MCQs to those who received the same information delivered by traditional lecture. Student feedback identified positive aspects regarding blended learning using the analogy, including dynamic visuals, ability to work at their own time and pace, and ease of repeating information. Students cited lack of discipline and poor time management as obstacles to completing the module. Changing the anatomy and physiology of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland from static images and text to an animated video significantly improved student's preference for the blended learning approach. Blended learning and the analogy was preferred by 47% of students over the traditional lecture format (21% preferred traditional lecture and 32% were indifferent) and it was more effective in helping students master this important physiological concept.

A Dissociative Framework for Understanding Same-Different Conceptualization.

Cognitive, comparative, and developmental psychologists have long been interested in humans' and animals' ability to respond to abstract relations. Cross-species research has used relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) tasks in which participants try to find stimulus pairs that "match" because they express the same abstract relation (same or different). Researchers seek to understand the cognitive processes that underlie successful matching, and the cognitive constraints that create species differences in these tasks. Here we describe a dissociative framework drawn from cognitive neuroscience. It has strong potential to illuminate the area of same-different conceptualization. It has already influenced comparative research on categorization and metacognition. This dissociative framework also shows that species differences in same-different conceptualization have resonance with species differences in other comparative domains.