系统生物学的发展与思维方法的变革

通过论述系统生物学发展的动因及其对未来生命科学发展的影响,揭示生命科学研究正发生一场从分子生物学时代过渡到系统生物学时代的趋势,必将推动科研思维方法的变革。     

Teaching Bioethics to a Large Number of Biology and Pharma Students: Lessons Learned

To be made aware of bioethical issues related to their disciplines, undergraduate students in biology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Basel are required to enroll in the bioethics course called “Introduction to Bioethics”. This article describes the chances and challenges faced when teaching a large number of undergraduate biology and pharmaceutical sciences students. Attention is drawn to the relevance and specific ethical issues that biology and pharmaceutical sciences students may be confronted with and to how these could be integrated into ethics curricula. Results from a survey addressing the knowledge and opinion of students taking the course in spring semester 2012, 2013, and 2014 are presented and discussed. Finally, we describe the lessons learned and how we have improved the course based on students’ feedback throughout the following years.     

Much ado about nothing? Why going non-semantic is not merely semantics

This paper argues that deciding on whether the cognitive sciences need a Representational Theory of Mind matters. Far from being merely semantic or inconsequential, the answer we give to the RTM-question makes a difference to how we conceive of minds. How we answer determines which theoretical framework the sciences of mind ought to embrace. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 1 outlines Rowlands’s (2017) argument that the RTM-question is a bad question and that attempts to answer it, one way or another, have neither practical nor theoretical import. Rowlands concludes this because, on his analysis, there is no non-arbitrary fact of the matter about which properties something must possess in order to qualify as a mental representation. By way of reply, we admit that Rowlands’s analysis succeeds in revealing why attempts to answer the RTM-question simpliciter are pointless. Nevertheless, we show that if specific formulations of the RTM-question are stipulated, then it is possible, conduct substantive RTM debates that do not collapse into merely verbal disagreements. Combined, Sections 2 and 3 demonstrate how, by employing specifying stipulations, we can get around Rowlands’s arbitrariness challenge. Section 2 reveals why RTM, as canonically construed in terms of mental states exhibiting intensional (with-an-s) properties, has been deemed a valuable explanatory hypothesis in the cognitive sciences. Targeting the canonical notion of mental representations, Section 3 articulates a rival nonrepresentational hypothesis that, we propose, can do all the relevant explanatory work at much lower theoretical cost. Taken together, Sections 2 and 3 show what can be at stake in the RTM debate when it is framed by appeal to the canonical notion of mental representation and why engaging in it matters. Section 4 extends the argument for thinking that RTM debates matter. It provides reasons for thinking that, far from making no practical or theoretical difference to the sciences of the mind, deciding to abandon RTM would constitute a revolutionary conceptual shift in those sciences.     

力求麻醉手术前四个充分有效防范围术期不良事件

世界麻醉医师协会联合会提出"帮助全世界人民获得最高质量的麻醉、镇痛和复苏"宗旨,我国医院管理年提出"以病人为中心,以质量为核心".如何提高麻醉质量,我们提出了力求麻醉手术前"充分了解、充分认识、充分准备、充分沟通"的措施,以期有效防范围术期不良事件的发生,确保医疗安全.     

类比推理的认知过程与计算模型

该文主要论述了类比推理的认知过程及其计算模型。文章对类比推理的概念进行了分析,论述了类比推理的主要成分和认知过程,并进一步围绕类比推理的重要成分介绍了当前类比推理的主要实证研究及研究成果,在此基础上文章进一步概括了类比推理的主要计算模型。     

Tableau algorithms for factor analysis by instrumental variable methods

Simple tableau algorithms are given for the noniterative instrumental variable (FABIN 2) and two stage regression (FABIN 3) factor loading estimates of Hägglund. Corresponding generalized least squares estimates of factor covariances and unique variances are introduced. An example is given for the purpose of illustration and comparison.This research was supported by NSF Grant MCS-8301587.     

Modeling parallelization and flexibility improvements in skill acquisition: from dual tasks to complex dynamic skills

Emerging parallel processing and increased flexibility during the acquisition of cognitive skills form a combination that is hard to reconcile with rule-based models that often produce brittle behavior. Rule-based models can exhibit these properties by adhering to 2 principles: that the model gradually learns task-specific rules from instructions and experience, and that bottom-up processing is used whenever possible. In a model of learning perfect time-sharing in dual tasks (Schumacher et al., 2001), speedup learning and bottom-up activation of instructions can explain parallel behavior. In a model of a complex dynamic task (Carnegie Mellon University Aegis Simulation Program [CMU-ASP], Anderson et al., 2004), parallel behavior is explained by the transition from serially organized instructions to rules that are activated by both top-down (goal-driven) and bottom-up (perceptually driven) factors. Parallelism lets the model opportunistically reorder instructions, leading to the gradual emergence of new task strategies.     

Using artificial life to teach evolutionary biology

This paper presents a pilot study on the use of artificial life software in an educational setting. Two groups of high school students received a standard lesson in evolutionary biology followed by a software session. The experimental group used the suite of artificial life software presented in this paper; the control group used a commercial multimedia hypertext. At the end of the software session both groups were asked to fill in a simple multiple-choice questionnaire testing the students knowledge of various aspects of evolutionary biology. The results show that the group using the artificial life software performed significantly better than the control group. We argue that the experimental group may learn more effectively because the artificial life makes it possible for students to perform experiments, a possibility not available to the control group.

The information conveyed by words in sentences

A method is presented for calculating the amount of information conveyed to a hearer by a speaker emitting a sentence generated by a probabilistic grammar known to both parties. The method applies the work of Grenander (1967) to the intermediate states of a top-down parser. This allows the uncertainty about structural ambiguity to be calculated at each point in a sentence. Subtracting these values at successive points gives the information conveyed by a word in a sentence. Word-by-word information conveyed is calculated for several small probabilistic grammars, and it is suggested that the number of bits conveyed per word is a determinant of reading times and other measures of cognitive load.     

Where do "constraints" come from? A comparison between inferences in biology and in word learning

In this paper, as a commentary on the papers in this special issue, the nature of constraints is discussed in terms of the comparison between inferences in biology and in word learning. Young children's inferences in biology could be constrained by three sources of information: factual knowledge, expectations based on a theory, and ontological knowledge. For example, young children's inference about the length of noses could be constrained by the facts the children know about the animals, the similarity between the animals and humans, and the ontological distinction between living things and nonliving things. In the same way, young children might figure out word meanings by linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, expectations of word meanings (e.g., the whole-object assumption), and ontological knowledge. Interactions among these sources of knowledge are documented by the papers in this special issue and related studies. It is argued that learning biases such as the whole-object assumption could not be induced only by linguistic and pragmatic cues in a social context, but should be regarded as a product of the interaction between a social context and children's theories.