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In South Africa and in many other parts of the world, decolonising the curriculum has become a valued goal, while frameworks that would systematically support the decolonising project through instructional design are not broadly available. In this conceptual paper we bring readers to consider one framework for instructional design, the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education, and discuss how it can aid in decolonising education in primary years. We exemplify our conceptual position through an instructional design for teaching length measurement—a key grounding practice in both early years mathematics and science throughout the world. We propose that the resulting decolonised narratives are not only useful in marginalised contexts of countries with a history of colonisation. Due to their positioning of mathematics as a human endeavour, these narratives are capable of generating meaningful, equitable engagement with mathematics for diverse student groups in a variety of educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the production of subject-verb agreement inflection in person, number, and gender in Urban Jordanian Arabic-speaking individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Third person singular masculine, third person singular feminine, and third person plural suffixes (3MS/3FS/3P) were investigated to achieve this objective. The research involved 60 participants, 30 males and 30 females, enrolled in Nazik Al Hariri Welfare Center for Special Education in Amman. The participants were divided into three groups by age, kindergarten 2 (7.1 to 12.5), school-age (13.10 to 17.6), and vocational training (18.3 to 27.3). Data were collected via a picture-naming task. The results showed that verb agreement constitutes a severe problem in individuals with DS. All three age groups showed some degree of language decline. The 3MS form was the most used and the most accurate form by the three DS groups (48.5%), followed by the 3FS (35.3%) and the 3P (22.8%). A significant finding of this study is that the acquisition of agreement for person, number, and gender by the DS groups is associated with inconsistency and atypical asynchrony. In addition, the results show that age significantly affects the DS groups' production of subject-verb agreement. Thus, the study recommends early intervention for the verb system and subject-verb agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speakers have been shown to find sentences with erroneous agreement acceptable under certain conditions. This so-called agreement attraction effect has also been found in genitive-possessive structures such as "the teacher's brother" in Turkish [Lago et al. (2019). Straight from the horsefs mouth: Agreement attraction effects with Turkish possessors. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 9(3), 398–426. ], which is in contrast to its absence in similar constructions in English [Nicol et al. (2016). Minimal interference from possessor phrases in the production of subject-verb agreement. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 548. ]. It has been hypothesised that this discrepancy is a result of the association between genitive case marking and being a controller in Turkish. We test an alternative explanation according to which Lago et al.'s findings are due to a potential confound in their experiment, as the morphology on all agreement controllers were locally ambiguous between possessive and accusative case. The results of our speeded acceptability judgment experiment suggest that the presence of case syncretism does not affect agreement attraction contrary to previous findings in the literature. Abbreviations: ACC, accusative; DAT, dative; GEN, genitive; NMLZ, nominaliser; PASS , passive; PL, plural; POSS, possessive; PST, past; SG, singular; WHEN, when. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to highlight the importance of spatial cognition in Bergson's Données immédiates by engaging with Robert Watt's reconstruction of Bergson's argument that every idea of number involves the idea of space. We focus on the second stage of Watt's reconstruction, where Bergson argues that only space can provide the distinction required for our counting of otherwise identical items. Watt bases his reconstruction on a premise regarding the possibility that identical objects, in the absence of spatial distinction, might remain identical across different "temporal locations". Our paper raises the prospect that Bergson is committed to a stronger thesis, namely one implying that identical objects would necessarily remain indistinguishable without the intervention of space. The paper thus concludes by emphasizing the indispensability of space for knowledge according to Bergson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of lateral neck lymph node dissection (LND) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains controversial. Our research aimed to explore the value of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in frozen sections for predicting neck lateral lymph node metastasis (NLLNM) and to guide clinical surgeons in performing surgical lymph node dissection. A total of 275 patients with PTC with suspected 'Cervical lymph node metastasis (LNM, including CLNM and NLLNM)' underwent unilateral or bilateral thyroidectomy and an intraoperative frozen diagnosis of central lymph nodes (LNs), as well as central and neck lateral LND. Validity indices and consistency of central LNs in frozen sections were calculated. In total, 216 patients then met the inclusion criteria and were enrolled in the follow-up study. The clinical and pathological data of the patients were retrospectively analyzed. The relationship between the number, metastatic diameter, and the ratio of CLNM to NLLNM was investigated. CLNM in frozen and paraffin-embedded sections was associated with NLLNM. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed the following risk factors for NLLNM metastasis: maximum diameter, total number, and ratio of metastatic LNs. A significant result was obtained when a cut-off value of 2.050 mm for the maximum metastatic diameter, 5.5 in the total number, and 0.5342 for the CLNM ratio level was used. Interaction term analyses showed that the association between the number of CLNM and NLLNM differed according to maximum diameter. Central LNs in frozen sections accurately predicted NLLNM. In patients with PTC with >5 CLNMs, ≥2 and ≤5 CLNMs and maximum metastatic diameter > 2 mm, neck lateral LND should be considered. Our findings will facilitate the identification of patients who are likely to benefit from extended lateral neck LND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore how kindergarten students (aged 5–6 years) engaged with mathematics as they learned programming with robot coding toys. We video-recorded 16 teaching sessions of kindergarten students' (N = 36) mathematical and programming activities. Students worked in small groups (4–5 students) with robot coding toys on the floor in their classrooms, solving tasks that involved programming these toys to move to various locations on a grid. Drawing on a semiotic mediation perspective, we analyzed video data to identify the mathematics concepts and skills students demonstrated and the overlapping mathematics-programming knowledge exhibited by the students during these programming tasks. We found that kindergarten children used spatial, measurement, and number knowledge, and the design of the tasks, affordances of the robots, and types of programming knowledge influenced how the students engaged with mathematics. The paper concludes with a discussion about the intersections of mathematics and programming knowledge in early childhood, and how programming robot toys elicited opportunities for students to engage with mathematics in dynamic and interconnected ways, thus creating an entry point to reassert mathematics beyond the traditional school content and curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I defend the thesis that Composition Entails Identity (CEI): that is, a whole is identical to all of its parts, taken together. CEI seems to be inconsistent, since it seems to require that the parts of a whole possess incompatible number properties (for instance, being one thing and being many things). I show that these number properties are, in fact, compatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amount of information that can be concurrently maintained in the focus of attention is strongly restricted. The goal of this study was to test whether this restriction was functionally significant for language comprehension. We examined the time-course dynamics of processing determiner-head agreement in English demonstrative phrases. We found evidence that agreement processing was slowed when determiner and head were no longer adjacent, but separated by modifiers. We argue that some information is shunted nearly immediately from the focus of attention, necessitating its later retrieval. Plural, the marked feature value for number, exhibits better preservation in the focus of attention, however, than the unmarked value, singular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1939, the influential psychophysicist S. S. Stevens proposed definitional distinctions between the terms 'number,' 'numerosity,' and 'numerousness.' Although the definitions he proposed were adopted by syeveral psychophysicists and experimental psychologists in the 1940s and 1950s, they were almost forgotten in the subsequent decades, making room for what has been described as a "terminological chaos" in the field of numerical cognition. In this paper, I review Stevens's distinctions to help bring order to this alleged chaos and to shed light on two closely related questions: whether it is adequate to speak of a number sense and how philosophers can make sense of the claim by cognitive scientists that numbers are perceptual entities. Moreover, I offer further support to Stevens's distinction between numerosity and numerousness by showing that they are relational properties that emerge through different relationships between agents and their environments. The final conclusion is that, by adopting Stevens's distinctions, numbers do not need to be seen as perceptual entities, since the so-called number sense is better described as a sense of numerousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The holistic view (or systematic thinking) of the Yijing (here Yijing refers to the original text in the ancient Chinese Daoist work The Book of Changes) is representative of the philosophical worldview in ancient China, which can reveal the interactive relationship between space, time and number. This study attempts to analyze and summarize human spatial, temporal and numeral processing from the aspects of the linguistic and cultural quantitative system for the three domains, contributing an original cognitive linguistic perspective on the holistic thinking typifying the worldview in ancient China and laying a foundation for further research. It argues that SPACE, TIME and NUMBER are not separated, but a holistic unity (or wholeness), they can be considered as one single domain. In ancient Chinese culture, the three domains cannot be separate, they should be integrated into the "growth of life experience", which is based on the MOTION metaphor and LIFE metaphor of the Yijing. The results of the corpus study of the Yijing text indicate that in this particular context of the Yijing, concepts in the domains of SPACE, TIME and NUMBER are schematized on the basis of further metaphorical extensions of concepts from the source of LIFE and MOTION. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the complexity of children's number learning is recognized, trade books about number have been treated as a simple, undifferentiated set. This analysis of 186 children's books, however, categorized a distinct subset of books about number as counting books. These counting books were complex with regard to portrayal of counting sequences, explicitness of counting, and degree of rationality. The analysis yielded the multi-dimensional Counting Book Typology, which revealed nuanced ways counting books accurately portray numerical ideas as well as ways books could mislead young readers. The typology could aid researchers investigating how children learn with books to focus study design decisions on particular mathematics content features, which would clarify and strengthen resulting implications. Furthermore, this study revealed the need for more such conceptual tools to advance theorizing about learning math with children's books, which has been missing in research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers' perspectives on the role of parents in year one children's learning of number. Drawing on the results of semi-structured interviews, data from each cohort were analysed independently to ensure the cultural integrity of any response categories and the results of this process compared. Two broad themes were identified concerning implicit and explicit forms of parental involvement. The former, manifested similarly across the two cohorts, concerned the importance of parents presenting children with positive attitudes towards mathematics. The latter, incorporating three comparable subthemes, focused on the creation of number-rich home environments, home–school communication and parents' role in the completion of homework. All three subthemes differentiated the cohorts in ways that highlighted teachers' culturally situated perspective on teaching and learning. Some implications are discussed, particularly with respect to the challenge this study poses for developers of cross-cultural survey instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs Henri Bergson's argument at the beginning of the second chapter of his Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience for his view that every idea of number involves space. It begins by criticizing previous interpretations of this view. Most controversially, it argues that Bergson's view specifically relates to our ideas of what Bertrand Russell calls 'pluralities', i.e. particular trios, quadruples, etc., and not to our ideas of 'abstract numbers' such as 3 and 4. The article goes on to elucidate the premises of Bergson's argument. It concludes that the first step in the argument is either invalid, or it turns on a premise that is plainly false, depending on how a particular scope ambiguity is resolved. It suggests that the second step in Bergson's argument turns on the assumption that space and time differ in the following respect: while it is impossible for the same thing to be wholly present at different spatial locations, it is perfectly possible for the same thing to be wholly present at different temporal locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we share our broad and deep search for what is known from blind-peer-reviewed research publications about the efficacy of the instructional practice of Number Talks. We describe our process for literature review and the subsequent analysis that revealed a shallow depth of articles for which one can discern the factors of quality of Number Talks, as an instructional practice, taking place in K-12 classrooms. Further analysis revealed a new construct for researchers to consider which we call a Black Hole of research on instructional practice. We explain the meaning of a Black Hole using Number Talks as a case example of the phenomenon, which occurs at the intersection of research and practice. Implications for the future of research and teaching practice are discussed. Many areas of possible research are illuminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well-established finding that individuals with aphasia have difficulties in using morpho-syntactic cues to determine the meaning of non-canonical sentences, such as object relative clauses (ORCs). While non-brain-damaged speakers can process ORCs disambiguated through unambiguous case marking more easily than number marking (i.e. subject-verb agreement), there is still much debate concerning the varying impact of case and number cues on sentence processing in aphasia. The objective of the present study is to investigate the use of case and number marking as cues to sentence interpretation and to test the predictions of the Relativized Minimality approach. Within this account, dissimilarity in the number specification of the subject and object is assumed to facilitate ORC processing in aphasia, while case is not. Combining the visual-world eye-tracking methodology with an auditory referent-identification task, we measured offline and online sentence processing in German-speaking individuals with aphasia and in a group of control participants. ORCs were disambiguated through case or number marking, whereby case occurred at different points of disambiguation: case marking at (1) the relative pronoun, (2) the following noun phrase, or (3) number marking on the sentence-final verb. Thereby, we were able to control for number dissimilarity of the subject and object in ORCs, with number specification being similar in case-marked ORCs and dissimilar in number-marked ORCs. We found that both participant groups exhibit a general processing advantage for case- over number-disambiguated ORCs. Moreover, case-marked ORCs disambiguated at different positions within the sentence were processed similarly in term of accuracy, reaction times or online processing speed. These results support the assumption that case marking can be used more successfully to derive sentence meaning as compared to number marking – regardless of the timing of disambiguation. Future research is needed to further disentangle the status of case and number in the computation of Minimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcomes of a longitudinal randomized number sense intervention including pre-, post- and follow-up tests are reported. The intervention was conducted in Grade 0 when children were six years old. Using Concrete-Representational-Abstract principles, a structured explicit 10-week program focusing on numbers and collective reasoning about representations was conducted by the classroom teachers. In addition to their regular mathematics teaching, a trained control group received an equally structured and explicit intervention program but without the critical mathematics component. The children in the experimental group outperformed the children in the control group on number sense growth between the pre- and the post-test. There was also a sustained effect of the intervention nine months later when children were assessed in Grade 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of telegraphy and diction in Henry James' "In the Cage," a novella about language. Topics discussed include the appearance of the language of measurement in the introduction to the telegraphist and her work, the language describing the telegraphist's fiancée, Mr. Mudge, and symbolism of the telegram.

It is widely acknowledged that teaching and learning the language of mathematics is essential for the development of mathematical proficiency. Recent research highlights the need for explicit vocabulary instruction in mathematics. The Promoting Early Number Talk (PENT) project explored the effect of 'Number Talk' – a resource book to promote early number vocabulary – on teaching and learning in five Year 1 primary school classes in Northern Ireland. This article investigates the impact of the PENT project on classroom mathematics talk. Findings from group interviews with the five teachers demonstrate an increased awareness of the importance of mathematics vocabulary and indicate that changes in classroom practice had supported children's language and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's intuitive understanding of numbers begins early in life, and their numbers-related knowledge influences instructors' teaching practices. The number zero is more difficult to teach and learn than other numbers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how preschool teachers perceive the number zero and design their teaching practices for it. The participants in this case study were selected through convenience sampling. The findings indicated that the majority of the participating preschool teachers perceived the number zero as a symbol and considered children's age while developing teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I take sixteenth-century mathematics as a test case for considering at its most general level what doing theory entails. Ideally, doing theory aims to change rather than merely describe reality, and in order to do so, it represents that reality differently. Such transformations, I argue, need special techniques of representation. In early modern mathematics, two techniques in particular enable new theoretical content: symbolic notation, and the real continuum. Together they create a language that can redescribe mathematical objects, for example, so that a single general formula can solve for all specific instances, and simple counting numbers can be reidentified in the real continuum as limits. I argue for the formative contribution of the imagination in such developments, that is, for an ability to reassemble givens of a problem in such a way as to solve it; and to concoct new objects or possibilities that do not exist in reality. In the sixteenth century, imaginary numbers (roots of negative values) most explicitly demonstrate the importance of speculating beyond what is real. As we consider what doing theory in the twenty-first century entails, it is worth remembering, in light of the article's analysis, how form or technique itself has agency, and the ability to transform theoretical content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly overviews my research in supporting children to learn number concepts by relating number words, research-based visual supports, and math symbols. I first outline my approach to helping children build relationships between the use of concrete materials and the building of abstract concepts. I then focus on two crucial early aspects of building meanings for numbers: (1) understanding break-apart partners such as 5=3+2 that support addition and subtraction with small numbers and children's moving on to Level 2 counting on and algebraic problem representations, and (2) the use of visual five-groups in understanding numbers 1-1000 and in drawings to support multi-digit computations. The research-based learning path of visual-spatio supports is shown and discussed for each topic, including examples of children's math drawings for representing word problems algebraically and for multi-digit computations. I have found math drawings to be a key visual support that helps children transition to working meaningfully with symbols and words alone. I close with a brief discussion of the difficulties children have with the number line. This overview can provide a framework within which future research on number learning by individuals with trisomy 21/Down syndrome can proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Number, energy and dose albedos are measured at a scattering angle of 180° for a broad beam of 662 keV gamma rays obtained from a radioactive source of 137Cs (having strength in µCi; 1 Ci = 3.7 × 1010 disintegrations per second). The gamma beam is incident on semi-infinite thick targets of variable atomic numbers. The scattering media is divided into three sets, which are pure elements, alloys and composite materials. Experiments are carried out using a 3″ × 3″ NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. To obtain precision in data, the response unfolding of a scintillation detector is used, which converts the observed pulse-height distribution to a true photon spectrum over the energy range of 2.5 to 640 keV. The detector response unfolding results in the true intensity of back-scattered gamma flux by shifting the events resulting from partial absorption of photons to the full energy peak of the spectrum. In the present study, albedo factors are studied as a function of target thickness and their atomic number. The experimentally calculated numbers of back-scattered gamma photon are in good agreement with theoretically generated numbers of multiple back-scattered counts by using a Monte Carlo simulation code. The experimental data on energy and intensity of 662 keV gamma photons are used to evaluate the number, energy and dose albedos for different materials under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent issue of this journal I attempted to explain the purpose of macroautophagy/autophagy to a non-specialist audience through the use of cartoons. In the present article, I am continuing this approach by considering the topic of autophagy regulation—why does the cell need to modulate the autophagic response, and what are the basic morphological mechanisms that can be used to attain different levels of autophagy activity? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing psycholinguistic models typically describe agreement relations as monolithic phenomena amounting to mechanisms that check mere feature consistency. This eye-tracking study aimed at widening this perspective by investigating the time spent reading subject-verb (number, person) and adverb-verb (tense) violations on an inflected verb during sentence comprehension in Spanish. Results suggest that (i) distinct processing mechanisms underlie the analysis of subject-verb and adverb-verb relations, (ii) the parser is sensitive to the different interpretive properties that characterise the person, number and tense features encoded in the verb (i.e. anchoring to discourse for person and tense interpretation, as opposed to anchoring to cardinality information for number), and (iii) the (local, distal) position of the agreement controller with respect to the verb affects the interpretation of these dependencies. An account is proposed that capitalises on the importance of enriching current sentence processing formalizations using a feature and relation-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platforms are important actors in contemporary cultural economic processes. They include social network sites, online content management systems, streaming media platforms, mobile communication infrastructures, supply chain logistics solutions, and cryptocurrencies. Analysis of platforms and their capitalization should take into account the ways they structure social practice as assets and the constitutive opacity of platforms as configured realities. It explores capitalization by focusing on the problems of counting people and things on platforms. Via a case study of the software repository platform [Github.com] (https://github.com), it analyzes how 'platform numbers’ participate in capitalization. It describes attempts to enumerate the elements of the platform by counting, mapping or listing them. The paper shows how attempts to enumerate people and things encounter forms of association, duplication, combination, imitation and configuration that are crucial to the ensemble but remain refractory to capitalization. It proposes configurative enumeration of the platform numbers as a way of conceptualizing these un-enacted excesses. In a configurative enumeration, the composition, the rhythms of imitation, variation and commutation, and constant relating, repairing and adjusting of configurations crucial to the ongoing formation of platforms come into view. Configurative enumerations engage the inventive realities of platformization, realities that precede and sometimes overflow their capitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Neutrophils (first line of cellular defense) are capable of detecting presence of foreign genome in the mother’s womb. Role of neutrophils during full gestation cycle of ruminants and the difference in their number, type, and activity in successful and unsuccessful pregnancies is not known. To evaluate this, blood samples were collected at artificial insemination (0 day) and on days 10, 14, 16, 18, and 21 in non-pregnant (NP) cows. However in pregnant (P) cows, samples were collected as indicated above and every 30 days for the complete gestation. In aborted cows, samples were collected as above till abortion. Higher total leukocyte counts were observed in NP and aborted cows at abortion. Neutrophil: lymphocyte ratio increased significantly (p < 0.05) in NP and aborted cows. Phagocytic activity (PA) and myeloperoxidase concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) on day 18 post insemination in NP cows. PA and myeloperoxidase also increased significantly (p < 0.05) at abortion in aborted cows. Neutrophils exhibited limited decrease in their number and activity in successful pregnancies during implantation. After that their number and activity were constantly maintained throughout the gestation cycle. Any increase in the number and inflammatory activity of neutrophils may lead to non-pregnancy or loss in pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of the repertoire of cognitive resources children can display in the process of learning numbers. Forty-two children attending Age 4 Kindergarten Class or Year-One in Argentina were individually interviewed, based on a semi-structured script requiring them to represent definite and indefinite quantities orally and notationally. Children’s responses throughout the interview were categorized according to Scope of conventional knowledge, Non-conventional responses, Playfulness and Progress. Results of a series of Classification Analyses showed three main classes, which capture the tension between using what is known and exploring novelties in order to represent numerical meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska has been embroiled in a controversy over prospective mineral development in the headwaters of one of the world’s most vibrant salmon fisheries. Following the release of a state land-use plan whose maps appeared to promote large-scale mining in the region, a coalition of actors pursued a counter-mapping project, which drew on existing state data to restore priority to subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering activities. In the contest over mining, maps and the data used to comprise them were created and contested by an array of actors, including indigenous groups, environmental organizations, and state and federal governments. Ethnographic research demonstrates how competing narratives took shape through vying efforts to empty out and fill up maps with representations of resources in the form of numbers based on scientific measurement. As quantification becomes the means through which environmental claims are staked, it reinforces the authority of scientific expertise at the same time it foregrounds other ways of knowing and establishing authority. The pursuit of numbers motivated various projects of adding together in Bristol Bay, including coalition building, which made space for alternative visions of and for the territory. The power of counter-mapping may lie less in the relationships it represents, then, and more in terms of those it helps create, insofar as it contributes to assembling new publics in opposition to resource-extractive designs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children and animals of all kinds are said to develop some degree of number sense. The search for 'number neurons' and neural correlates of computational thinking aims to identify biological primitives to explain the emergence of number sense. This work typically looks for the sources of number sense in organisms, but one might extend this search and study the possibility of a calculating matter more generally. Such a speculative project explores the implications of the non-human turn within the posthumanities. In this paper, I draw primarily on the work of Vicky Kirby and Gilles Deleuze in order to focus on becomingmonster through calculation. I show how calculation, as a machinic and empirical act that both serves and troubles images of mathematical truth, has always played a unique role in the production of mathematical monsters. I then discuss calculating children who participate in abacus clubs and annual abacus competitions, calculating at inhuman rates with imaginary abacuses. I argue that a new materialist philosophy of immanence demands a radically new approach to number sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short piece by Frege, heretofore overlooked, containing a précis of his views on the concept of number, is presented, after some very brief questions about Frege's possible involvement in the wider intellectual milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children’s number conservation is often biased by misleading intuitions but the precise nature of these conservation errors is not clear. A key question is whether children detect that their erroneous conservation judgment is unwarranted. The present study reanalyzed available fMRI data to test the implication of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in this detection process. We extracted mean BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) signal values in an independently defined ACC region of interest (ROI) during presentation of classic and control number conservation problems. In classic trials, an intuitively cued visuospatial response conflicted with the correct conservation response, whereas this conflict was not present in the control trials. Results showed that ACC activation increased when solving the classic conservation problems. Critically, this increase did not differ between participants who solved the classic problems correctly (i.e., so-called conservers) and incorrectly (i.e., so-called non-conservers). Additional control analyses of inferior and lateral prefrontal ROIs showed that the group of conservers did show stronger activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and right lateral middle frontal gyrus. In line with recent behavioral findings, these data lend credence to the hypothesis that even non-conserving children detect the biased nature of their judgment. The key difference between conservers and non-conservers seems to lie in a differential recruitment of inferior and lateral prefrontal regions associated with inhibitory control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study presents a re-analysis of data from Foote and Bock, aimed at determining how cue-based retrieval works in agreement production by focusing on the role of grammatical gender in number agreement. By examining previously collected production data on number agreement in Mexican and Dominican Spanish with both overt subjects (Experiment 1) and null subjects (Experiment 2), we show that errors in number agreement are more likely in both varieties of Spanish when the subject head noun and local noun match in grammatical gender, but only when the subject is pronounced (Experiment 1). We interpret this effect of grammatical gender using models of cue-based retrieval and show how this effect exists in addition to, and not in place of, other mechanisms that affect agreement, such as agreement attraction (via feature percolation) and notional number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Number is an important aspect of lexical syntax. While there has been substantial research devoted to number agreement at the level of the sentence, relatively less attention has been paid to the representation of number at the level of individual lexical items. In this paper, we propose a representational framework for the lexical syntax of number in spoken word production that we believe can account for much of the data regarding number in noun and noun phrase production. This framework considers the representation of regular and irregular nouns, and more unusual cases such as pluralia tantum (e.g. scissors), zero plurals (e.g. sheep) and mass nouns (e.g. garlic). We not only address bare noun production but also the production of determiner + noun phrases. While focusing on examples from English, we extend the framework to include languages with grammatical gender such as German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synaesthesia for time, numbers, and space (TNS synaesthesia) is thought to have costs and benefits for recalling and manipulating time and number. There are two competing theories about how TNS synaesthesia affects cognition. The “magnitude” account predicts that TNS synaesthesia may affect cardinal magnitude judgements, whereas the “sequence” account suggests that it may affect ordinal sequence judgements and could rely on visuospatial working memory. We aimed to comprehensively assess the cognitive consequences of TNS synaesthesia and distinguish between these two accounts. TNS synaesthetes, grapheme–colour synaesthetes, and nonsynaesthetes completed a behavioural task battery. Three tasks involved cardinal and ordinal comparisons of temporal, numerical, and spatial stimuli; we also examined visuospatial working memory. TNS synaesthetes were significantly more accurate than nonsynaesthetes in making ordinal judgements about space. This difference was explained by significantly higher visuospatial working memory accuracy. Our findings demonstrate an advantage of TNS synaesthesia that is more in line with the sequence account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary data flows in science, business, government, and media draw numbers from two kinds of places. In some places, numbers are assembled and assigned through observing, counting, and measuring. In other places, numbers are assembled in a different way. Such places are usually defined mathematically as functions and implemented algorithmically in software. The numbers that come from them are not necessarily assigned to anything in the world as facts, keys, or codes. They are functional numbers. The time-space signature of calculation that results from the convolution of these two different supply chains of numbers has textures and traits that directly affect the unfolding of events. This paper reconstructs a symptomatic crisis event, the 2009 A/H1N1 ‘swine flu’ influenza pandemic, from the standpoint of number flow in and around epidemiological models. In their sometimes drastic reshaping of lived space-times, epidemics generate and attract a plethora of numbers relating to human/non-human populations, human/non-human biology, vectors of infection, patterns of urban mobility, media use, clinical practice, and laboratory tests. Examining some key mathematical functions, data sets, plots, and computer model code, the paper reconstructs how these different kinds of numbers mix or ‘convolve’. It suggests that the convolution of numbers to predict and control epidemics, or to disentangle different aspects of events more generally, might provoke us to think of how numbers multiply in multiple ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By means of close readings of artworks by Robert Mangold, Florian Slotawa, and Walid Raad, the paper considers some main ways in which number is figured in contemporary art. Mangold'sFrame Paintingseries of the 1980s, Slotawa'sHotelarbeitenof the 1990s and Raad/The Atlas Group's seriesLet's be honest, the weather helpedof the late 1990s/2000s are examined. Mangold's frame-based works are described first as articulations of number as geometrical relation; and second, following from their preoccupation with frame and centre, in terms of their equivocal containment of a central void. Slotawa'sHotelarbeitenare understood as inventories that become performatively and sculpturally recomposed. Raad's work is found to rhetoricize the tropes of the documentary inventory. Number here is figured as geometrical relation or as manifestations of the inventory. Art can thus offer ways of thinking and experiencing number other than as counting or measuring. It is argued that if, in postconceptual art (as in the work of Slotawa and Raad), the artwork is typically a distributed rather than a spatially singular, gathered entity, then inventories (and their transformations) are likely to be how number appears in contemporary art. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Little is known about the neurophysiological correlates of lexical prosody in the comprehension of compound words, i.e., morphologically complex words. Here, it is investigated whether lexical prosody influences the decomposition of spoken compound words. In order to explore the neurophysiological correlates (event-related potentials, ERP) of a compound prosody, German native speakers had to judge the number agreement between numerals and nouns which did or did not agree in 50% of the cases. Importantly, the nouns carried either a compound or non-compound (single noun) prosody. The compound prosody led to increased reaction times (RTs) and reduced judgement accuracy. Critically, number violations for words with a compound prosody elicited an increased ERP negativity that was delayed by about 600 ms relative to a left-anterior negativity elicited by number violations for a single noun prosody. The ERP effect for the compound prosody preceded the according behavioural response by about 200 ms and the ERP peak latency effect correlated with the RT effect. These findings suggest that the ERP effect for the compound prosody could be functionally related to the accurate judgement performance for the compound prosody. The results suggest, more generally, that prosody plays a critical role in auditory compound comprehension and morphological processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies on the ontogenetic origins of human knowledge provide evidence for a small set of separable systems of core knowledge dealing with the representation of inanimate and animate objects, number, and geometry. Because core knowledge systems are evolutionarily ancient, they can be investigated from a comparative perspective, making use of various animal models. In this review, I discuss evidence showing precocious abilities in nonhuman species to represent (a) objects that move partly or fully out of view and their basic mechanical properties such as solidity, (b) the cardinal and ordinal/sequential aspects of numerical cognition and rudimentary arithmetic with small numerosities, and (c) the geometrical relationships among extended surfaces in the surrounding layout. Controlled rearing studies suggest that the abilities associated with core knowledge systems of objects, number, and geometry are observed in animals in the absence (or with very reduced) experience, supporting a nativistic foundation of such cognitive mechanisms. Animal models also promise a fresh approach to the issue of the neurobiological and genetic mechanisms underlying the expression of core knowledge systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The backscattered peak and albedos are important for the estimation of exposure distribution and for better understanding the phenomenon of the backscattering of gamma photons. To characterize the backscattering probability of gamma photons interacting with different atomic numbers (Z), number (AN), energy (AE) and dose (AD) albedos are experimentally evaluated. The response function converts the observed pulse-height distribution of a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector to a true photon spectrum. For each of the incident gamma photon energies, the number and energy albedos show an increase with the increasing target thickness, and finally saturate. The energy albedos are found to be decreasing with the increase in the atomic number of the target material and incident gamma photon energy. The dose albedos do not differ significantly from the energy albedos for the chosen incident gamma photon energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence suggests that the rapid apprehension of small numbers of objects-often called subitizing-engages a system which allows representation of up to 4 objects but is distinct from other aspects of numerical processing. We examined subitizing by studying people with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic deficit characterized by severe visuospatial impairments, and normally developing children (4-6.5 years old). In Experiment 1, participants first explicitly counted displays of 1 to 8 squares that appeared for 5 s and reported 'how many'. They then reported 'how many' for the same displays shown for 250 ms, a duration too brief to allow explicit counting, but sufficient for subitizing. All groups were highly accurate up to 8 objects when they explicitly counted. With the brief duration, people with WS showed almost perfect accuracy up to a limit of 3 objects, comparable to 4-year-olds but fewer than either 5- or 6.5-year-old children. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to report 'how many' for displays that were presented for an unlimited duration, as rapidly as possible while remaining accurate. Individuals with WS responded as rapidly as 6.5-year-olds, and more rapidly than 4-year-olds. However, their accuracy was as in Experiment 1, comparable to 4-year-olds and lower than older children. These results are consistent with previous findings, indicating that people with WS can simultaneously represent multiple objects, but that they have a smaller capacity than older children, on par with 4-year-olds. This pattern is discussed in the context of normal and abnormal development of visuospatial skills, in particular those linked to the representation of numerosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of whether there are determiners in the Polynesian language Niuean. In the literature, determiners are viewed as having three main functions: allowing a nominal phrase to serve as an argument, encoding definiteness and specificity, and providing referentiality. The left peripheral elements in the Niuean noun phrase are detailed, and it is argued that case in conjunction with a feature for proper/common serves the first function, that definiteness and specificity are not encoded in Niuean except in a secondary manner, and that referentiality is provided by number, which is distributed across several items in the noun phrase. It is demonstrated that while definiteness and specificity are not contrastive features in Niuean, a feature encoding focused and new information is central to the Niuean nominal system. Niuean thus supports a view of determiners that allows them to vary in their semantic and featural content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, a discussion of George Oppen's poetics of number is presented. From his first book, Discrete Series, to his Pulitzer Prize winning volume, Of Being Numerous and throughout his Daybooks, the language of number figured conspicuously in Oppen's poetic thought. Taking their shared beginning in Heidegger as a point of departure, the essay reads Oppen alongside the philosophy of Alain Badiou, discussing how both writers work towards an idea of poetry checked and informed by an idea of number. Thus, just as Oppen aimed to arrive at an understanding 'Of Being Numerous', so for Badiou 'Being is essentially multiple', with the language of number, in both writers, providing the basis for an image of collective politics. In Oppen, such an image of collectivity, though formed in his political work of the 1930s, was deepened and consolidated by his experience of World War Two. Arising from that experience, in his poetry of the 1960s there is a language of universalism that transcends national discourse, a language which, fully to be appreciated, calls for comparative intellectual dialogue. It is suggested that readings of the American poetic tradition framed by Heidegger tend to lead to reaffirmations of the special relationship between American writing and American grounds. A reading of Oppen through Badiou frees the poetry's discoveries from its national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the acquisition of articles and related nominal functional properties (the status of classifier, the singular-plural distinction) in English and French by native speakers of Hong Kong Cantonese. Two experimental studies are reported. In the generative SLA literature, there is disagreement as to which properties of the grammar will transfer from the first language (L1) at early stages of L2 acquisition and what the path of subsequent development might look like. We present L1 Cantonese-L2 English as well as L1 Cantonese-L2 English-L3 French data collected from learners of different proficiency levels on a variety of experimental tasks to shed light on these debates. Our findings largely support Full Transfer Full Access, a position that posits strong transfer and no impairment in SLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although increasingly seen as critically important for pedagogy, young children's perceptions of number and of learning about number have not received much attention from researchers. This study uses a phenomenographic approach in that it seeks to map the range of possible conceptions about number and numerically-related learning amongst a group of nine children starting primary school in Ireland (aged 4 years 4 months – 5 years 3 months). Dialogical interviews with individual children focused on three themes: Number as an aspect of symbolic functioning; The role of number; and How people learn about number. Children's perceptions related to each of these themes were categorised and these categories constitute the findings. The results of this pilot study indicate that as they begin school, some children in this study have already developed an orientation to learning about number, with differences emerging in relation to their perceptions of the extent of their own role in the process. Results also suggest that the children interviewed were constructing very individual understandings of the role and purpose of number, resulting in very individual metacognitive frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose : This study analyses the possibility of risk-assessment the risk of developing glaucoma over the period of 1 year based on the "Number" (provided by the Nerve Fiber Analyzer) by using a multitude of parameters that are gathered by several different eye examination techniques at the initial investigation. Methods : Within the above-mentioned study, a total of 336 patients with an increased risk of having glaucoma were analyzed. The complete ophthalmological examination included biomicroscopy of the optic nerve head, achromatic automated perimetry (Humphrey Field Analyzer), quantitative disc (Topographic Scanning Systems, TopSS ® ) and nerve fiber layer measurements (Nerve Fiber Layer Analyzer, GDx ® ) at the beginning of the study and 1 year thereafter. Three visual field parameters (mean deviation, corrected pattern standard deviation, glaucoma hemifield test), 7 topographic and 19 polarimetric parameters were used for these statistical analyses. The problem was considered as a regression problem (RP) as well as a classification problem (CP): the simplest predictor, that is the "Number" at the initial investigation (CP), linear discriminant analyses without and with a forward stepwise variable selection algorithm (CP), four different classification tree analyses (CP) and different types of neural networks: regression networks (RP), linear networks (CP) and three layer perceptron networks (CP) with various variable selection algorithms and network architectures were applied in order to build models with sufficient prediction power. All models, except the simple predictor were tested with independent test set data, to ensure first a generalization for new patients and secondly that the results are not artifacts of the training process. The performance of the models was measured by sensitivity and specificity rates for CPs, multiple correlation coefficients between predicted and actual outcome for regression networks in each of the samples. Due to the large amount of computations, the models were computed for right eyes only. Results : The simple predictor showed a specificity rate of 73% (95% CI: 65-80%) based on all observations. The following specificity rates could be found in the test samples: the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) without variable selection algorithm could not be applied, LDA plus variable selection algorithm: 85% (95% CI: 75-93%), four different models based on classification tree analyses: 87% (95% CI: 70-96%), 90% (95% CI: 74-98%), %), 87% (95% CI: 70-96%) and 71% (95% CI: 52-86%); linear neural networks (not all eyes were classified due to the doubt option) 95% (95% CI: 75-100%) and three layer perceptron network (also with doubt option): 100% (95% CI: 81-100%). The simple predictor showed a sensitivity rate of 76% (95% CI: 69-83%) based on all observations. The following sensitivity rates were observed in the test samples: the LDA without variable selection algorithm could not be applied, LDA plus variable selection algorithm: 61% (95% CI: 49-72%), four different models based on classification tree analyses: 63% (95% CI: 47-77%), 58% (95% CI: 42-72%), 63% (95% CI: 47-77%) and 61% (95% CI: 44-75%); linear neural networks (not all eyes were classified due to the doubt option): 78% (95% CI: 56-100%) and three layer perceptron network (also with doubt option): 88% (95% CI: 47-100%). The regression network showed a correlation of 0.63 (95% CI: 0.49-0.76). Conclusion : This study yielded a negative result as to the initial exam, since in spite of different approaches none of the eight considered, quite elaborate models showed a considerably better performance than the simple predictor. Since the mean of the "Number" did not change considerably and the correlation of the "Number" (initial exam vs findings at 1 year) was moderate at best, we suggest to extend the prediction periods to 2 or even 5 years. During a longer prediction period, more changes of the "Number" may occur and further attempts can be made to find prediction models that can serve as an early warning system for the clinician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the stand structure in pine, spruce and deciduous forests in the border district of Finland and Russia. A total of 46 mature forest stands was selected as pairs, the members of each pair being as similar as possible with respect to their forest site type, age, moisture and topography. The stands were then compared between the two countries by means of basal areas and number of stems. The proportions of dominating tree species were 2-12% lower, and correspondingly the proportions of secondary tree species higher, in Russian forests. The density of the forest stock was also higher in each forest type in Russia. The forests in the two countries differed most radically in terms of the abundance of dead trees. The amount was two to four times higher in Russian deciduous and spruce forests, and in pine forests the difference was 10-fold. The stand structures indicated that Russian coniferous stands, in particular, were more heterogeneous than intensively managed pine and spruce stands in Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general male population has shown a long-term decline in sperm count. Induced hormonal imbalance can produce adverse reproductive effects in men, especially decreases in sperm count. One suggested cause for a decreased sperm count is a reduction in the number of Sertoli cells. The authors assessed numbers of Sertoli cells in testicular biopsy specimens obtained from azoospermic men between 1989 and 1999. The number of Sertoli cells per tubular area or circumference did not vary by year of biopsy among the tissue samples during this 10-year period. Patient age, taken as a measure of exposure duration to hypothesized abnormal hormonal environment, did not affect the number of Sertoli cells. Since no reduction in the number of Sertoli cells was observed, other pathogenic factors may be the cause of long-term decreases in sperm count. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]