Predictability and Variation in Language Are Differentially Affected by Learning and Production.

General principles of human cognition can help to explain why languages are more likely to have certain characteristics than others: structures that are difficult to process or produce will tend to be lost over time. One aspect of cognition that is implicated in language use is working memory-the component of short-term memory used for temporary storage and manipulation of information. In this study, we consider the relationship between working memory and regularization of linguistic variation. Regularization is a well-documented process whereby languages become less variable (on some dimension) over time. This process has been argued to be driven by the behavior of individual language users, but the specific mechanism is not agreed upon. Here, we use an artificial language learning experiment to investigate whether limitations in working memory during either language learning or language production drive regularization behavior. We find that taxing working memory during production results in the loss of all types of variation, but the process by which random variation becomes more predictable is better explained by learning biases. A computational model offers a potential explanation for the production effect using a simple self-priming mechanism.

Cultural evolution creates the statistical structure of language.

Human language is unique in its structure: language is made up of parts that can be recombined in a productive way. The parts are not given but have to be discovered by learners exposed to unsegmented wholes. Across languages, the frequency distribution of those parts follows a power law. Both statistical properties-having parts and having them follow a particular distribution-facilitate learning, yet their origin is still poorly understood. Where do the parts come from and why do they follow a particular frequency distribution? Here, we show how these two core properties emerge from the process of cultural evolution with whole-to-part learning. We use an experimental analog of cultural transmission in which participants copy sets of non-linguistic sequences produced by a previous participant: This design allows us to ask if parts will emerge purely under pressure for the system to be learnable, even without meanings to convey. We show that parts emerge from initially unsegmented sequences, that their distribution becomes closer to a power law over generations, and, importantly, that these properties make the sets of sequences more learnable. We argue that these two core statistical properties of language emerge culturally both as a cause and effect of greater learnability.

Evaluating the Relative Importance of Wordhood Cues Using Statistical Learning.

Identifying wordlike units in language is typically done by applying a battery of criteria, though how to weight these criteria with respect to one another is currently unknown. We address this question by investigating whether certain criteria are also used as cues for learning an artificial language-if they are, then perhaps they can be relied on more as trustworthy top-down diagnostics. The two criteria for grammatical wordhood that we consider are a unit's free mobility and its internal immutability. These criteria also map to two cognitive mechanisms that could underlie successful statistical learning: learners might orient themselves around the low transitional probabilities at unit boundaries, or they might seek chunks with high internal transitional probabilities. We find that each criterion has its own facilitatory effect, and learning is best where they both align. This supports the battery-of-criteria approach to diagnosing wordhood, and also suggests that the mechanism behind statistical learning may not be a question of either/or; perhaps the two mechanisms do not compete, but mutually reinforce one another.

Kruppel-family zinc finger proteins as emerging epigenetic biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Krüppel-type zinc finger protein genes located on chromosome 19q13 are aberrantly hypermethylated with high frequency in all anatomic sub-sites of head and neck cancers as well as other epithelial tumours resulting in decreased expression. METHODS: We examined prognostic significance of ZNF154 and ZNF132 expression and DNA methylation in independent patient cohort of about 500 head and neck cancer patients in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We also overexpressed these genes in HEK-293 cells, as well as the oral cancer cell line UM-SCC-1. RESULTS: In 20 patients from the TCGA cohort of HNSCC patients where ZNF154 and ZNF132 DNA methylation and RNA expression could be compared in tumor and adjacent normal tissue, there was increased DNA methylation and decreased expression of both ZNF154 and ZNF132 in primary tumours. Low ZNF154 and low ZNF132 expression were associated with shorter overall survival in both head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAC patients). While expression of these proteins in HEK-293 cells produced full-length protein, only truncated copies could be expressed in head and neck cancer cells (UM-SCC-1). The truncated version of ZNF154 protein increased doubling time and reduced cell migration in UM-SCC-1 cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: Both ZNF132 and ZNF154 represent novel clinically significant biomarkers in head and neck cancer with potential tumour suppressive properties. Future studies will address the underlying molecular mechanisms by which ZNF154 expression in HNSCC contributes to the control of cell growth and migration.

Documenting a Reduction in Signing Space in Nicaraguan Sign Language Using Depth and Motion Capture.

In this paper, we use motion tracking technology to document the birth of a brand new language: Nicaraguan Sign Language. Languages are dynamic entities that undergo change and growth through use, transmission, and learning, but the earliest stages of this process are generally difficult to observe as most languages have been used and passed down for many generations. Here, we observe a rare case of language emergence: the earliest stages of the new sign language in Nicaragua. By comparing the signing of the oldest and youngest signers of Nicaraguan Sign Language, we can track how the language itself is changing. Using motion tracking technology, we document a decrease in the size of articulatory space of Nicaraguan Sign Language signers over time. The reduction in articulatory space in Nicaraguan Sign appears to be the joint product of several decades of use and repeated transmission of this new language.

The role of artificial intelligence in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

BACKGROUND: The first-line and most common treatment for obstructive sleep apnea is nasal continuous positive airway pressure, which serves as a pneumatic splint to stabilize the upper airway and is effective when used with appropriate adherence. Continuous positive airway pressure compliance rates remain significantly low despite machine improvements and compliance intervention. Other treatment options include oral appliances, myofunctional therapy, and surgery. The aim of this project is to elucidate the role of artificial intelligence within improving the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. METHODS: Related publications between 1999 and 2022 were reviewed from PubMed and Embase databases utilizing search terms "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," "obstructive sleep apnea," and "treatment." Both authors independently screened the results by title/abstract then by full text review. 126 non-duplicate articles were screened, 38 articles were included after title and abstract screen and 30 articles were included after full text review. The inclusion criteria are outline in the PICO framework and involved studies focused on artificial intelligence application in guiding and evaluating obstructive sleep apnea treatment. Non-English articles were excluded. RESULTS: The role of artificial intelligence in the treatment of OSA was categorized into the following sections: Predicting treatment outcomes of various treatment options, Improving/Evaluating treatment, and Personalizing treatment with improving understanding of underlying mechanisms of OSA. CONCLUSIONS: Artificial intelligence has the capacity to improve the treatment of OSA through predicting outcomes of treatment options, evaluating the treatment the patient is currently utilizing and increasing understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to OSA disease process and physiology. Implementing AI in guiding treatment decisions allows patients to connect with treatment methods that would be most effective on an individual basis.

Intraoperative video recording in otolaryngology for surgical education: evolution and considerations.

BACKGROUND: Otolaryngology is a surgical speciality well suited for the application of intraoperative video recording as an educational tool considering the number procedures within the speciality that utilize digital technology. Intraoperative recording has been utilized in endoscopic surgeries and in evaluating technique in mastoidectomy, myringotomy and grommet insertion. The impact of intra-operative video recording in otolaryngology education is vast in creating access to surgical videos for preparation outside the operating room to individualized coaching and assessment. The purpose of this project is to highlight the role of intraoperative video recording in otolaryngology training and elucidate the challenges and considerations associated with implementation. METHODS: Related publications between 1999 to 2022 were reviewed from PubMed and Embase databases utilizing search terms "intraoperative videography," "video recording surgery," "otolaryngology," and "surgical education." 109 articles were screened independently by HB and SK, by title and abstract then full text review. 28 articles from the original search and 6 from the secondary reference review were included. RESULTS: The application of intraoperative video recording is evident in otolaryngology surgeries including endoscopic sinus surgery, laryngeal surgery, and other endoscopic procedures. There have been significant advancements in recording tools, including devices that can capture the surgeon's perspective. The considerations and challenges identified with utilizing this educational tool were categorized into different themes including ethics/consent, regulation, liability, data, technology, and human resources. CONCLUSION: Intra-operative video recording has been demonstrated to have significant impact within otolaryngology education. It is critical to elucidate the challenges and considerations involved to utilize this educational tool effectively. Future directives will see video-based performance analytics providing comparative metrics to encourage precise coaching of surgical residents.

The Effects of Iconicity and Conventionalization on Word Order Preferences.

Of the six possible orderings of the three main constituents of language (subject, verb, and object), two-SOV and SVO-are predominant cross-linguistically. Previous research using the silent gesture paradigm in which hearing participants produce or respond to gestures without speech has shown that different factors such as reversibility, salience, and animacy can affect the preferences for different orders. Here, we test whether participants' preferences for orders that are conditioned on the semantics of the event change depending on (i) the iconicity of individual gestural elements and (ii) the prior knowledge of a conventional lexicon. Our findings demonstrate the same preference for semantically conditioned word order found in previous studies, specifically that SOV and SVO are preferred differentially for different types of events. We do not find that iconicity of individual gestures affects participants' ordering preferences; however, we do find that learning a lexicon leads to a stronger preference for SVO-like orders overall. Finally, we compare our findings from English speakers, using an SVO-dominant language, with data from speakers of an SOV-dominant language, Turkish. We find that, while learning a lexicon leads to an increase in SVO preference for both sets of participants, this effect is mediated by language background and event type, suggesting that an interplay of factors together determines preferences for different ordering patterns. Taken together, our results support a view of word order as a gradient phenomenon responding to multiple biases.

Engaging communities in addressing air quality: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution has a detrimental effect on health and disproportionately affects people living in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Engaging with communities to identify concerns and solutions could support organisations responsible for air quality control, improve environmental decision-making, and widen understanding of air quality issues associated with health. This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of approaches used to engage communities in addressing air quality and identify the outcomes that have been achieved. METHODS: Searches for studies that described community engagement in air quality activities were conducted across five databases (Academic Search Complete, CABI, GreenFILE, MEDLINE, Web of Science). Data on study characteristics, community engagement approach, and relevant outcomes were extracted. The review process was informed by a multi-stakeholder group with an interest in and experience of community engagement in air quality. Thirty-nine papers from thirty studies were included in the final synthesis. CONCLUSION: A range of approaches have been used to engage communities in addressing air quality, most notably air quality monitoring. Positive outcomes included increased awareness, capacity building, and changes to organisational policy and practice. Longer-term projects and further exploration of the impact of community engagement on improving air quality and health are needed as reporting on these outcomes was limited.

The Acute Stroke Therapy by Inhibition of Neutrophils study - Key features and impact.

The Acute Stroke Therapy by Inhibition of Neutrophils (ASTIN) study, initiated in November of the year 2000, is now widely recognized as having been a landmark study in the history of clinical trials. We look at why this is the case by considering its key features and impact. These key features are: the use of Bayesian design and analysis; the use of the normal dynamic linear model; the response adaptive nature of the study; the use of real-time dosing decisions; and the use of an integrated model to predict 90-day response on the Scandinavian Stroke Scale. Our overall conclusion is that the ASTIN study's main impact came from showing the clinical trial community the feasibility of the novel design and analysis used when most of these key features were rarely used in industry trials, let alone used together in one trial in a disease area with a tremendous unmet medical need.

From improvisation to learning: How naturalness and systematicity shape language evolution.

Silent gesture studies, in which hearing participants from different linguistic backgrounds produce gestures to communicate events, have been used to test hypotheses about the cognitive biases that govern cross-linguistic word order preferences. In particular, the differential use of SOV and SVO order to communicate, respectively, extensional events (where the direct object exists independently of the event; e.g., girl throws ball) and intensional events (where the meaning of the direct object is potentially dependent on the verb; e.g., girl thinks of ball), has been suggested to represent a natural preference, demonstrated in improvisation contexts. However, natural languages tend to prefer systematic word orders, where a single order is used regardless of the event being communicated. We present a series of studies that investigate ordering preferences for SOV and SVO orders using an online forced-choice experiment, where English-speaking participants select orders for different events i) in the absence of conventions and ii) after learning event-order mappings in different frequencies in a regularisation experiment. Our results show that natural ordering preferences arise in the absence of conventions, replicating previous findings from production experiments. In addition, we show that participants regularise the input they learn in the manual modality in two ways, such that, while the preference for systematic order patterns increases through learning, it exists in competition with the natural ordering preference, that conditions order on the semantics of the event. Using our experimental data in a computational model of cultural transmission, we show that this pattern is expected to persist over generations, suggesting that we should expect to see evidence of semantically-conditioned word order variability in at least some languages.

Investigating Word Order Emergence: Constraints From Cognition and Communication.

How do cognitive biases and mechanisms from learning and use interact when a system of language conventions emerges? We investigate this question by focusing on how transitive events are conveyed in silent gesture production and interaction. Silent gesture experiments (in which participants improvise to use gesture but no speech) have been used to investigate cognitive biases that shape utterances produced in the absence of a conventional language system. In this mode of communication, participants do not follow the dominant order of their native language (e.g., Subject-Verb-Object), and instead condition the structure on the semantic properties of the events they are conveying. An important source of variability in structure in silent gesture is the property of reversibility. Reversible events typically have two animate participants whose roles can be reversed (girl kicks boy). Without a syntactic/conventional means of conveying who does what to whom, there is inherent unclarity about the agent and patient roles in the event (by contrast, this is less pressing for non-reversible events like girl kicks ball). In experiment 1 we test a novel, fine-grained analysis of reversibility. Presenting a silent gesture production experiment, we show that the variability in word order depends on two factors (properties of the verb and properties of the direct object) that together determine how reversible an event is. We relate our experimental results to principles from information theory, showing that our data support the "noisy channel" account of constituent order. In experiment 2, we focus on the influence of interaction on word order variability for reversible and non-reversible events. We show that when participants use silent gesture for communicative interaction, they become more consistent in their usage of word order over time, however, this pattern less pronounced for events that are classified as strongly non-reversible. We conclude that full consistency in word order is theoretically a good strategy, but word order use in practice is a more complex phenomenon.

Barriers of artificial intelligence implementation in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea is a common clinical condition and has a significant impact on the health of patients if untreated. The current diagnostic gold standard for obstructive sleep apnea is polysomnography, which is labor intensive, requires specialists to utilize, expensive, and has accessibility challenges. There are also challenges with awareness and identification of obstructive sleep apnea in the primary care setting. Artificial intelligence systems offer the opportunity for a new diagnostic approach that addresses the limitations of polysomnography and ultimately benefits patients by streamlining the diagnostic expedition. MAIN BODY: The purpose of this project is to elucidate the barriers that exist in the implementation of artificial intelligence systems into the diagnostic context of obstructive sleep apnea. It is essential to understand these challenges in order to proactively create solutions and establish an efficient adoption of this new technology. The literature regarding the evolution of the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, the role of artificial intelligence in the diagnosis, and the barriers in artificial intelligence implementation was reviewed and analyzed. CONCLUSION: The barriers identified were categorized into different themes including technology, data, regulation, human resources, education, and culture. Many of these challenges are ubiquitous across artificial intelligence implementation in any medical diagnostic setting. Future research directions include developing solutions to the barriers presented in this project.

Cumulative cultural evolution, population structure and the origin of combinatoriality in human language.

Language is the primary repository and mediator of human collective knowledge. A central question for evolutionary linguistics is the origin of the combinatorial structure of language (sometimes referred to as duality of patterning), one of language's basic design features. Emerging sign languages provide a promising arena to study the emergence of language properties. Many, but not all such sign languages exhibit combinatoriality, which generates testable hypotheses about its source. We hypothesize that combinatoriality is the inevitable result of learning biases in cultural transmission, and that population structure explains differences across languages. We construct an agent-based model with population turnover. Bayesian learning agents with a prior preference for compressible languages (modelling a pressure for language learnability) communicate in pairs under pressure to reduce ambiguity. We include two transmission conditions: agents learn the language either from the oldest agent or from an agent in the middle of their lifespan. Results suggest that (1) combinatoriality emerges during iterated cultural transmission under concurrent pressures for simplicity and expressivity and (2) population dynamics affect the rate of evolution, which is faster when agents learn from other learners than when they learn from old individuals. This may explain its absence in some emerging sign languages. We discuss the consequences of this finding for cultural evolution, highlighting the interplay of population-level, functional and cognitive factors. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.

Adjective position and referential efficiency in American Sign Language: Effects of adjective semantics, sign type and age of sign exposure.

Previous research has pointed at communicative efficiency as a possible constraint on language structure. Here we investigated adjective position in American Sign Language (ASL), a language with relatively flexible word order, to test the incremental efficiency hypothesis, according to which both speakers and signers try to produce efficient referential expressions that are sensitive to the word order of their languages. The results of three experiments using a standard referential communication task confirmed that deaf ASL signers tend to produce absolute adjectives, such as color or material, in prenominal position, while scalar adjectives tend to be produced in prenominal position when expressed as lexical signs, but in postnominal position when expressed as classifiers. Age of ASL exposure also had an effect on referential choice, with early-exposed signers producing more classifiers than late-exposed signers, in some cases. Overall, our results suggest that linguistic, pragmatic and developmental factors affect referential choice in ASL, supporting the hypothesis that communicative efficiency is an important factor in shaping language structure and use.

Conceptual Similarity and Communicative Need Shape Colexification: An Experimental Study.

Colexification refers to the phenomenon of multiple meanings sharing one word in a language. Cross-linguistic lexification patterns have been shown to be largely predictable, as similar concepts are often colexified. We test a recent claim that, beyond this general tendency, communicative needs play an important role in shaping colexification patterns. We approach this question by means of a series of human experiments, using an artificial language communication game paradigm. Our results across four experiments match the previous cross-linguistic findings: all other things being equal, speakers do prefer to colexify similar concepts. However, we also find evidence supporting the communicative need hypothesis: when faced with a frequent need to distinguish similar pairs of meanings, speakadjust their colexification preferences to maintain communicative efficiency and avoid colexifying those similar meanings which need to be distinguished in communication. This research provides further evidence to support the argument that languages are shaped by the needs and preferences of their speakers.

Chondroma of the Nasal Septum.

Chondromas are benign cartilaginous tumours that rarely occur in the head and neck region. Only a limited number of cases have been reported involving the nasal septum. Here we report a case of a 55-year-old male that presented with a suspicious lesion involving his nasal septum and columella. The lesion was removed under general anesthestic using a combination of both columellar and hemitransfixion incisions. The lesion consisted of firm tan-white tissue measuring 2.5 cm. Histopathologic examination revealed a low-grade chondroid neoplasm with lobulated hyaline cartilage. No signs of ischemic change, significant pleomorphism, mitoses, or necrosis were present. This was consistent with the features of a chondroma rather than a low-grade chondrosarcoma. A chondroma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of nasal septum lesions. Surgical excision of the tumour is the preferred treatment option.

Simplicity and informativeness in semantic category systems.

Recent research has shown that semantic category systems, such as color and kinship terms, find an optimal balance between simplicity and informativeness. We argue that this situation arises through pressure for simplicity from learning and pressure for informativeness from communicative interaction, two distinct pressures that often (but not always) pull in opposite directions. Another account argues that learning might also act as a pressure for informativeness, that learners might be biased toward inferring informative systems. This results in two competing hypotheses about the human inductive bias. We formalize these competing hypotheses in a Bayesian iterated learning model in order to simulate what kinds of languages are expected to emerge under each. We then test this model experimentally to investigate whether learners' biases, isolated from any communicative task, are better characterized as favoring simplicity or informativeness. We find strong evidence to support the simplicity account. Furthermore, we show how the application of a simplicity principle in learning can give the impression of a bias for informativeness, even when no such bias is present. Our findings suggest that semantic categories are learned through domain-general principles, negating the need to posit a domain-specific mechanism.