Cognitive models in biomimetic pattern cognition

We describe a new model which is based on the concept of cognizing theory. The method identifies subsets of the data which are embedded in arbitrary oriented lower dimensional space. We definite k-mean covering, and study its property. Covering subsets of points are repeatedly sampled to construct trial geometry space of various dimensions. The sampling corresponding to the feature space having the best cognition ability between a mode near zero and the rest is selected and the data points are partitioned on the basis of the best cognition ability. The repeated sampling then continues recursively on each block of the data. We propose this algorithm based on cognition models. The experimental results for face recognition demonstrate that the correct rejection rate of the test samples excluded in the classes of training samples is very high and effective.

Effects of Naotan Pill on repair of neural cells and cognitive disorders in juvenile rats following hypoxia and ischemia

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia and ischemia induce neuronal damage, decreased neuronal numbers and synaptophysin levels, and deficits in learning and memory functions. Previous studies have shown that lycium barbarum polysaccharide, the most effective component of barbary wolfberry fruit, has protective effects on neural cells in hypoxia-ischemia. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Naotan Pill on glutamate-treated neural cells and on cognitive function in juvenile rats following hypoxia-ischemia. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: The randomized, controlled, in vivo study was performed at the Cell Laboratory of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou Institute of Modern Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Gansu Provincial Rehabilitation Center Hospital, China from December 2005 to August 2006. The cellular neurobiology, in vitro experiment was conducted at the Institute of Human Anatomy, Histology, Embryology and Neuroscience, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, and Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Gansu Provincial Rehabilitation Center Hospital, China from March 2007 to January 2008. MATERIALS: Naotan Pill, composed of barbary wolfberry fruit, danshen root, grassleaf sweetflag rhizome, and glossy privet fruit, was prepared by Gansu Provincial Rehabilitation Center, China. Rabbit anti-synaptophysin, choline acetyl transferase polyclonal antibody, streptavidin-biotin complex kit and diaminobenzidine kit (Boster, Wuhan, China), as well as glutamate (Hualian, Shanghai, China) were used in this study. METHODS: Cortical neural cells were isolated from neonatal Wistar rats. Neural cell damage models were induced using glutamate, and administered Naotan Pill prior to and following damage. A total of 54 juvenile Wistar rats were equally and randomly assigned into model, Naotan Pill, and sham operation groups. The left common carotid artery was ligated, and then rat models of hypoxic-ischemic injury were assigned to the model and Naotan Pill groups. At 2 days following model induction, rats in the Naotan Pill group were administered Naotan Pill suspension for 21 days. In the model and sham operation groups, rats received an equal volume of saline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Neural cell morphology was observed using an inverted phase contrast microscope. Survival rate of neural cells was measured by MTT assay. Synaptophysin and choline acetyl transferase expression was observed in the hippocampal CA1 region of juvenile rats using immunohistochemistry. Cognitive function was tested by the Morris water maze. RESULTS: Pathological changes were detected in glutamate-treated neural cells. Neural cell morphology remained normal after Naotan Pill intervention. Absorbance and survival rate of neural cells were significantly greater following Naotan Pill intervention, compared to glutamate-treated neural cells (P < 0.05). Synaptophysin and choline acetyl transferase expression was lowest in the hippocampal CA1 region in the model group and highest in the sham operation group. Significant differences among groups were observed (P < 0.05). Escape latency and swimming distance were significantly longer in the model group compared to the Naotan Pill group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Naotan Pill exhibited protective and repair effects on glutamate-treated neural cells. Naotan Pill upregulated synaptophysin and choline acetyl transferase expression in the hippocampus and improved cognitive function in rats following hypoxia-ischemia.

我国部分地区中学生的学校回避倾向研究

The aim of this research is to explore the relationships between school avoidance tendency and school stressors, stress response, social support, coping style of secondary school students. Three studies were carried out. School avoidance tendency scale, mental health scale, coping style scale of secondary school students from Japan were revised in the first research. In the second research, the difference in gender, cities, grades of five variables were discussed. In the third research, the relationships of five variables were discussed. A total of 883 students from grade one of middle school to grade 3 of high school in Beijing, Taiyuan and Wulanchabu, completed three scales. Analysis showed that: 1. The main effects of city, gender, and grade were present significantly on School avoidance tendency, and the inter-effects were not significant. The differences were significant between three grades of middle schools, and not significant between three grades of high schools. The high school students were significant than middle school students on school avoidance tendency. 2. The main effect of city was not significant, but gender, and grade were present significantly on stressor, and the inter-effects were not significant. The most stressor was study one, than the relationship stressor from teachers. The relationship stressor from friends was at least. 3. The main effects of city and grade were present significantly on stress responses, but the main effect of gender was not significant, and the inter-effect was not significant. The most stress response was the physical response. 4. The main effects of city and gender, the inter-effect were not present significantly on social supports. The main effect of grade was present significantly. The most social support was from mother, than from friends, father, and the teachers. 5. The differences between cites on coping styles were not significant. Positive coping style was used mostly, than the style of help requirement, cognitive coping style. 6. Stressor and stress responses had significant positive predictive role on school avoidance tendency. Social supports had negative predictive role. Social supports had not moderator role between stressor, stress responses and schools avoidance tendency. Stress responses had a part of mediator between stressor and school avoidance tendency. 7. In the coping styles, positive coping style and help requirement style had negative predictive role, but cognitive coping style had positive predictive role on school avoidance tendency. Coping styles had negative predictive role. Coping styles had not moderator role between stressor, stress responses and school avoidance tendency.

负性情绪对分泌型免疫球蛋白A的影响以及事件相关电位的关联变化

Although the influence of emotional states on immune function has been generally recognized, researches on the effects of negative emotion on individual SIgA levels have reported mixed findings. Our study aimed to elucidate the relationship between changes in EEG activity and cognitive and psychological mechanisms to the immune changes induced by negative emotion. In experiment one, we investigated how the negative emotional arousal that was induced by watching a number of unpleasant pictures altered the concentration of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA). Although our results found discrepancies in the changing tendency of SIgA concentration among participants (some participants’ SIgA decreased after watching unpleasant pictures, whereas others increased), further analysis revealed a coherency among the changing of SIgA concentration, participants’ general coping styles and their actual emotion regulation strategies in perceiving unpleasant pictures, and the event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the watching of unpleasant pictures. The participants whose SIgA increased after watching unpleasant pictures (the increasers) had higher positive coping scores in the Trait Coping Styles Questionnaire (TCSQ) than those whose SIgA decreased (the decreasers). Also, relative to the decreasers, the increasers tended to use more emotion regulation strategies especially when the presented pictures were extremely negative and exhibited a reverse dissociation pattern between the extremely negative pictures and the moderately negative ones in the amplitude of late positive potential (LPP) that was related to the cognitive evaluation of stimuli’s meaning. On this basis, Event-related potentials were recorded first while participants passively viewed unpleasant pictures, and then during an emotion regulation block in which participants were instructed to reappraise unpleasant pictures in the experiment two. We also collected the immune index before and after the passive viewing block and the emotion regulation block. Our study proved that participants felt a less intense emotional response to unpleasant pictures that followed a reappraisal instruction. The decreasing emotional responding to unpleasant pictures decreased the amplitude of the LPP. But larger N2 was induced in the emotion regulation block, because the participants needed to obtained more attentional resources to detect and integrate more stimulus features to use the cognitive reappraisal strategy effectively. The present study has important theoretic and practical significance. For the theoretic significance, our study elucidated the relationship between changes in EEG activity and cognitive and psychological mechanisms to the immune changes induced by negative emotion by using the technologies of ERP, experimental interview and psychological measurement. Meanwhile, our study also provided an explanation for the different changing tendencies of SIgA induced by negative emotions, and it plays an important role in further studying the cognitive neural mechanisms of immune level in response to emotion. As to the practical significance, our study suggests that individuals who use active emotion regulation in the face of negative emotion stimuli may experience significantly increases in immune system function, subsequently lowering the possibility of infection.

中小学生欺负行为及其主要影响因素研究

The present paper studied the school bullying and the primary impact factors, for understanding the nature of bullying, and providing measures and references to the elimination and controlling of school bullying. Primarily with methods of questionnaires and psychometrics, combined with case study and interviews, the following findings were found: in Chinese culture, bullying is a behavior intentionally causing harm to the weaker or weakers. There were 5 types of bullying-physical, social exclusion, threat, breakage and verbal. In Chinese schools the occurrence of bullying had regular patterns. The factor that impact children's bullying behavior was personality traits, interpersonal techniques, family atmosphere, education and upbringing styles. In personality traits, bullies tended to be more extroversive, impulsive, obstinate, obdurate and lack of sympathy. Victims tended to be more introversive, self-restrained, lack of confidence, lonely, anxious and depressive. Both of them expressed more mental problem tendencies than normal children did. When confronted with interpersonal conflicts, they used little problem solving strategies. Bullies had more extroverted emotional responses, and victims had more social support strategies. In the light of family influence, bullies were relatively superior in family's social economic conditions. But their parents had little time and energy spent on them. They tended to be punitive, and had indulgent, reject or despotic upbringing styles. The role of victim might be related to the disadvantage of family's social economic status. Their parents had the tendency of spoiling and overindulgence. The research concluded that in different cultures the connotation of bullying was not homogenous. The occurrence of school bullying had regular patterns. Bullying behavior was primarily influenced by the personality traits of both bullies and victims, the coping strategies of interpersonal conflicts, family's social economic status, parents' basic emotional attitudes, ways of educating, punitive tendencies and school atmosphere. The occurrence of bullying behavior was the result of the combined process of past experience, behavior habits, personality traits, cognitive evaluation, certain evocative clues and the environment conditions. It reminded that quality education and mental health education in schools was essential. Strengthening basic social skill training in school, creating positive family atmosphere, having more communications between schools and families and implementing strict regulations against bullying was essential to interfere and eliminate the school bullying.

Tense, Aspect and the Cognitive Representation of Time

This paper explores the relationships between a computation theory of temporal representation (as developed by James Allen) and a formal linguistic theory of tense (as developed by Norbert Hornstein) and aspect. It aims to provide explicit answers to four fundamental questions: (1) what is the computational justification for the primitive of a linguistic theory; (2) what is the computational explanation of the formal grammatical constraints; (3) what are the processing constraints imposed on the learnability and markedness of these theoretical constructs; and (4) what are the constraints that a linguistic theory imposes on representations. We show that one can effectively exploit the interface between the language faculty and the cognitive faculties by using linguistic constraints to determine restrictions on the cognitive representation and vice versa. Three main results are obtained: (1) We derive an explanation of an observed grammatical constraint on tense?? Linear Order Constraint??m the information monotonicity property of the constraint propagation algorithm of Allen's temporal system: (2) We formulate a principle of markedness for the basic tense structures based on the computational efficiency of the temporal representations; and (3) We show Allen's interval-based temporal system is not arbitrary, but it can be used to explain independently motivated linguistic constraints on tense and aspect interpretations. We also claim that the methodology of research developed in this study??oss-level" investigation of independently motivated formal grammatical theory and computational models??a powerful paradigm with which to attack representational problems in basic cognitive domains, e.g., space, time, causality, etc.

Changes in innovation styles - comprehensive study of the changes in innovation styles to identify the causes and effects of different influencing factors and capabilities to create a general innovation pattern.

An investigation in innovation management and entrepreneurial management is conducted in this thesis. The aim of the research is to explore changes of innovation styles in the transformation process from a start-up company to a more mature phase of business, to predict in a second step future sustainability and the probability of success. As businesses grow in revenue, corporate size and functional complexity, various triggers, supporters and drivers affect innovation and company's success. In a comprehensive study more than 200 innovative and technology driven companies have been examined and compared to identify patterns in different performance levels. All of them have been founded under the same formal requirements of the Munich Business Plan Competition -a research approach which allowed a unique snapshot that only long-term studies would be able to provide. The general objective was to identify the correlation between different factors, as well as different dimensions, to incremental and radical innovations realised. The 12 hypothesis were formed to prove have been derived from a comprehensive literature review. The relevant academic and practitioner literature on entrepreneurial, innovation, and knowledge management as well as social network theory revealed that the concept of innovation has evolved significantly over the last decade. A review of over 15 innovation models/frameworks contributed to understand what innovation in context means and what the dimensions are. It appears that the complex theories of innovation can be described by the increasing extent of social ingredients in the explanation of innovativeness. Originally based on tangible forms of capital, and on the necessity of pull and technology push, innovation management is today integrated in a larger system. Therefore, two research instruments have been developed to explore the changes in innovations styles. The Innovation Management Audits (IMA Start-up and IMA Mature) provided statements related to product/service development, innovativeness in various typologies, resources for innovations, innovation capabilities in conjunction to knowledge and management, social networks as well as the measurement of outcomes to generate high-quality data for further exploration. In obtaining results the mature companies have been clustered in the performance level low, average and high, while the start-up companies have been kept as one cluster. Firstly, the analysis exposed that knowledge, the process of acquiring knowledge, interorganisational networks and resources for innovations are the most important driving factors for innovation and success. Secondly, the actual change of the innovation style provides new insights about the importance of focusing on sustaining success and innovation ii 16 key areas. Thirdly, a detailed overview of triggers, supporters and drivers for innovation and success for each dimension support decision makers in putting their company in the right direction. Fourthly, a critical review of contemporary strategic management in conjunction to the findings provides recommendation of how to apply well-known management tools. Last but not least, the Munich cluster is analysed providing an estimation of the success probability of the different performance cluster and start-up companies. For the analysis of the probability of success of the newly developed as well as statistically and qualitative validated ICP Model (Innovativeness, Capabilities & Potential) has been developed and applied. While the model was primarily developed to evaluate the probability of success of companies; it has equal application in the situation to measure innovativeness to identify the impact of various strategic initiatives within small or large enterprises. The main findings of the model are that competitor, and customer orientation and acquiring knowledge important for incremental and radical innovation. Formal and interorganisation networks are important to foster innovation but informal networks appear to be detrimental to innovation. The testing of the ICP model h the long term is recommended as one subject of further research. Another is to investigate some of the more intangible aspects of innovation management such as attitude and motivation of mangers. IV

A cognitive approach to identifying measurable milestones for programming skill acquisition

Mead, J., Gray, S., Hamer, J., James, R., Sorva, J., Clair, C. S., and Thomas, L. 2006. A cognitive approach to identifying measurable milestones for programming skill acquisition. SIGCSE Bull. 38, 4 (Dec. 2006), 182-194.

Learning styles and performance in the introductory programming sequence

Thomas, L., Ratcliffe, M., Woodbury, J., and Jarman, E. 2002. Learning styles and performance in the introductory programming sequence. SIGCSE Bull. 34, 1 (Mar. 2002), 33-37.

Teaching English tense and aspect with the help of cognitive grammar: An empirical study

Form-focused instruction is usually based on traditional practical/pedagogical grammar descriptions of grammatical features. The comparison of such traditional accounts with cognitive grammar (CG) descriptions seems to favor CG as a basis of pedagogical rules. This is due to the insistence of CG on the meaningfulness of grammar and its detailed analyses of the meanings of particular grammatical features. The differences between traditional and CG rules/descriptions are exemplified by juxtaposing the two kinds of principles concerning the use of the present simple and present progressive to refer to situations happening or existing at speech time. The descriptions provided the bases for the instructional treatment in a quasi-experimental study exploring the effectiveness of using CG descriptions of the two tenses, and of their interplay with stative (imperfective) and dynamic (perfective) verbs, and comparing this effectiveness with the value of grammar teaching relying on traditional accounts found in standard pedagogical grammars. The study involved 50 participants divided into three groups, with one of them constituting the control group and the other two being experimental ones. One of the latter received treatment based on CG descriptions and the other on traditional accounts. CG-based instruction was found to be at least moderately effective in terms of fostering mostly explicit grammatical knowledge and its effectiveness turned out be comparable to that of teaching based on traditional descriptions.

Neural Dynamics of Autistic Behaviors: Cognitive, Emotional, and Timing Substrates

What brain mechanisms underlie autism and how do they give rise to autistic behavioral symptoms? This article describes a neural model, called the iSTART model, which proposes how cognitive, emotional, timing, and motor processes may interact together to create and perpetuate autistic symptoms. These model processes were originally developed to explain data concerning how the brain controls normal behaviors. The iSTART model shows how autistic behavioral symptoms may arise from prescribed breakdowns in these brain processes.

Laminar Cortical Dynamics of Cognitive and Motor Working Memory, Sequence Learning and Performance: Toward a Unified Theory of How the Cerebral Cortex Works

How do the layered circuits of prefrontal and motor cortex carry out working memory storage, sequence learning, and voluntary sequential item selection and performance? A neural model called LIST PARSE is presented to explain and quantitatively simulate cognitive data about both immediate serial recall and free recall, including bowing of the serial position performance curves, error-type distributions, temporal limitations upon recall, and list length effects. The model also qualitatively explains cognitive effects related to attentional modulation, temporal grouping, variable presentation rates, phonemic similarity, presentation of non-words, word frequency/item familiarity and list strength, distracters and modality effects. In addition, the model quantitatively simulates neurophysiological data from the macaque prefrontal cortex obtained during sequential sensory-motor imitation and planned performance. The article further develops a theory concerning how the cerebral cortex works by showing how variations of the laminar circuits that have previously clarified how the visual cortex sees can also support cognitive processing of sequentially organized behaviors.

Assessing the impulse control of violent offenders using computer-based cognitive performance tasks

The topic of this thesis is impulsivity. The meaning and measurement of impulse control is explored, with a particular focus on forensic settings. Impulsivity is central to many areas of psychology; it is one of the most common diagnostic criteria of mental disorders and is fundamental to the understanding of forensic personalities. Despite this widespread importance there is little agreement as to the definition or structure of impulsivity, and its measurement is fraught with difficulty owing to a reliance on self-report methods. This research aims to address this problem by investigating the viability of using simple computerised cognitive performance tasks as complementary components of a multi-method assessment strategy for impulse control. Ultimately, the usefulness of this measurement strategy for a forensic sample is assessed. Impulsivity is found to be a multifaceted construct comprised of a constellation of distinct sub-dimensions. Computerised cognitive performance tasks are valid and reliable measures that can assess impulsivity at a neuronal level. Self-report and performance task methods assess distinct components of impulse control and, for the optimal assessment of impulse control, a multi-method battery of self-report and performance task measures is advocated. Such a battery is shown to have demonstrated utility in a forensic sample, and recommendations for forensic assessment in the Irish context are discussed.

An investigation on the use of SNR distributions for the optimisation of coarse-fine spectrum sensing for cognitive radio

This thesis investigates the optimisation of Coarse-Fine (CF) spectrum sensing architectures under a distribution of SNRs for Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). Three different detector architectures are investigated: the Coarse-Sorting Fine Detector (CSFD), the Coarse-Deciding Fine Detector (CDFD) and the Hybrid Coarse-Fine Detector (HCFD). To date, the majority of the work on coarse-fine spectrum sensing for cognitive radio has focused on a single value for the SNR. This approach overlooks the key advantage that CF sensing has to offer, namely that high powered signals can be easily detected without extra signal processing. By considering a range of SNR values, the detector can be optimised more effectively and greater performance gains realised. This work considers the optimisation of CF spectrum sensing schemes where the security and performance are treated separately. Instead of optimising system performance at a single, constant, low SNR value, the system instead is optimised for the average operating conditions. The security is still provided such that at the low SNR values the safety specifications are met. By decoupling the security and performance, the system’s average performance increases whilst maintaining the protection of licensed users from harmful interference. The different architectures considered in this thesis are investigated in theory, simulation and physical implementation to provide a complete overview of the performance of each system. This thesis provides a method for estimating SNR distributions which is quick, accurate and relatively low cost. The CSFD is modelled and the characteristic equations are found for the CDFD scheme. The HCFD is introduced and optimisation schemes for all three architectures are proposed. Finally, using the Implementing Radio In Software (IRIS) test-bed to confirm simulation results, CF spectrum sensing is shown to be significantly quicker than naive methods, whilst still meeting the required interference probability rates and not requiring substantial receiver complexity increases.