Lightweight relevance filtering for machine-generated resolution problems

Irrelevant clauses in resolution problems increase the search space, making proofs hard to find in a reasonable amount of processor time. Simple relevance filtering methods, based on counting symbols in clauses, improve the success rate for a variety of automatic theorem provers and with various initial settings. We have designed these techniques as part of a project to link automatic theorem provers to the interactive theorem prover Isabelle. We have tested them for problems involving thousands of clauses, which yield poor results without filtering. Our methods should be applicable to other tasks where the resolution problems are produced mechanically and where completeness is less important than achieving a high success rate with limited processor time.     

寿星老人考

寿星老人与道教神系中的"南极老人""南极长生大帝"等无关,唐玄宗将寿星之祀设于君王诞辰节日举行之后,寿星才在晚唐时期成为道教神仙,并与生日习俗密切相关。北宋初期君王诞辰节日出现了献寿星图为贺礼的生日习俗,寿星图上的神仙还不是寿星老人。生日习俗中的寿星图发展成为生日之人的画像,寿星老人的形象由此在北宋中期出现。苏轼的《佛寿图》揭示了寿星老人的形象来源于作佛的画像为寿星图,该形象可能基于当时十八罗汉的佛教造像。     

短时记忆中的范畴组织和通道组织的比较

本文通过设置不同的线索条件对短时记忆中范畴组织和通道组织进行了比较研究。实验采用了通道线索组、范围线索组和混合线索组三种条件,并设置了五种词表比例。在通道线索组中,每个词表是同范畴字词,但一半用视觉呈现,一半用听觉呈现;在范畴线索组中,两类词分属两个不同的词义范畴,但以相同通道呈现;在混合线索组中,两类不同范畴的词,各有一半分别用视觉和听觉呈现。结果表明在三种线索条件下,ＡＲＣ分值差异显著,表现为     

《致外省人信札》与中国礼仪之争——从决疑论角度试析帕斯卡尔对耶稣会士在华传教策略的解读

詹森派是对耶稣会在华传教活动进行攻击的主要力量之一,其影响主要局限于西方基督教世界,帕斯卡尔的<致外省人信札>则是双方激烈论战的重要文献.本文以帕斯卡尔信札中涉及中国礼仪的一段文字为切入点,结合詹森派和耶稣会双方各自的神学观点和道德神学立场,尝试剖析帕斯卡尔代表的詹森派攻击耶稣会在华传教活动背后的思想因素,希有助于加深对中国礼仪之争历史的了解.     

卢梭《论科学与艺术》中的"伦理的理性主义"

虽然卢梭是18世纪法国启蒙运动的重要代表,但是,当其他启蒙思想家对理性、文明、科学、进步充满赞美时,卢梭却在《论科学与艺术》中敏锐地觉察到了被神化的科学理性所隐含的危险,揭示了科学的进步与道德风尚之间的深刻矛盾.尽管他对科学伤风败俗的指责并不严谨,但却以"伦理的理性主义"的视角触及了启蒙时代的重要问题.这不但成为他后来学说的出发点,也开启了启蒙运动对唯科学主义的自我反思.     

Different brain mechanisms between stereotype activation and application: evidence from an ERP study

Stereotyping involves two processes in which first, social stereotypes are activated (stereotype activation), and then, stereotypes are applied to given targets (stereotype application). Previous behavioral studies have suggested that these two processes are independent of each other and may have different mechanisms. As few psychophysiological studies have given an integrated account of these stages in stereotyping so far, this study utilized a trait categorization task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to explore the brain mechanisms associated with the processes of stereotype activation and its application. The behavioral (reaction time) and electrophysiological data showed that stereotype activation and application were elicited respectively in an affective valence identification subtask and in a semantic content judgment subtask. The electrophysiological results indicated that the categorization processes involved in stereotype activation to quickly identify stereotypic and nonstereotypic information were quite different from those involved in the application. During the process of stereotype activation, a P2 and N2 effect was observed, indicating that stereotype activation might be facilitated by an early attentional bias. Also, a late positive potential (LPP) was elicited, suggesting that social expectancy violation might be involved. During the process of the stereotype application, electrophysiological data showed a P2 and P3 effect, indicating that stereotype application might be related to the rapid social knowledge identification in semantic representation and thus may be associated with an updating of existing stereotypic contents or a motivation to resolve the inconsistent information. This research strongly suggested that different mechanisms are involved in the stereotype activation and application processes.     

Individual differences in holistic processing predict face recognition ability

Why do some people recognize faces easily and others frequently make mistakes in recognizing faces? Classic behavioral work has shown that faces are processed in a distinctive holistic manner that is unlike the processing of objects. In the study reported here, we investigated whether individual differences in holistic face processing have a significant influence on face recognition. We found that the magnitude of face-specific recognition accuracy correlated with the extent to which participants processed faces holistically, as indexed by the composite-face effect and the whole-part effect. This association is due to face-specific processing in particular, not to a more general aspect of cognitive processing, such as general intelligence or global attention. This finding provides constraints on computational models of face recognition and may elucidate mechanisms underlying cognitive disorders, such as prosopagnosia and autism, that are associated with deficits in face recognition.     

Attitude of Medical School Students in China Towards Genetic Testing and Counseling Issues in FXS

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. However, genetic testing protocols and genetic counseling guidelines for FXS are not yet established in mainland China. In the present study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis using a self-administered questionnaire among students at the Xiangya medical school to investigate their attitude towards genetic testing and counseling issues of FXS. We have gained a general understanding of the attitudes of medical students towards these FXS issues in China. This information is of immense importance to develop appropriate genetic tests and to train counselors for FXS. As the medical school students surveyed are prospective physicians who will be a part of the Chinese health system, our survey was focused on the basic knowledge of FXS, population-based FXS screening, confidentiality and reproductive options for mutation carriers. The study demonstrated that only less than one third of the participants had heard about FXS. 94.6 % of participants were in favor of FXS screening for women in their reproductive age who had a genetic history of FXS. Furthermore, only half of the participants would inform their families about their genetic status in case of positive test results, and more than half of the participants supported natural conception and prenatal diagnosis for FXS mutation carriers. Additional findings and research implications are also discussed. This survey targeting potential doctors provides important information for the development of FXS genetic test and counselor training for the Chinese health system.     

A New Procedure to Test Mediation With Missing Data Through Nonparametric Bootstrapping and Multiple Imputation

This article proposes a new procedure to test mediation with the presence of missing data by combining nonparametric bootstrapping with multiple imputation (MI). This procedure performs MI first and then bootstrapping for each imputed data set. The proposed procedure is more computationally efficient than the procedure that performs bootstrapping first and then MI for each bootstrap sample. The validity of the procedure is evaluated using a simulation study under different sample size, missing data mechanism, missing data proportion, and shape of distribution conditions. The result suggests that the proposed procedure performs comparably to the procedure that combines bootstrapping with full information maximum likelihood under most conditions. However, caution needs to be taken when using this procedure to handle missing not-at-random or nonnormal data.     

Charity Begins at Home: Cultural Differences in Social Discounting and Generosity

People often consider how their actions influence others when making decisions. However, we are not equally generous to everyone alike. Our willingness to share resources declines as a function of social distance between the decision maker and the recipient. This function is likely to be influenced by culture, but research on behavioral decision making is still lacking empirical evidence. In Western societies, individuals generally perceive themselves as autonomous and independent from others, whereas the distinction between self and close others is less sharply defined by Eastern individuals where relationships and group membership are more centralized. Therefore, the social discount function should reflect this difference in the distinction of self and others by a reduced decline in generosity over close social distances. A social decision‐making task was adapted to the intercultural context, and data were collected in Germany and China. For seven different social distances, we estimated how much money German and Chinese subjects were willing to forego to give a certain reward to another person. A hyperbolic model was fitted to the data. We found that other‐regarding generosity declines as a function of social distance independent of cultural identity. However, German subjects showed a marked drop in generosity across close social distances, which was significantly less pronounced in Chinese participants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.