Infants Rely More on Gaze Cues From Own‐Race Than Other‐Race Adults for Learning Under Uncertainty

Differential experience leads infants to have perceptual processing advantages for own‐ over other‐race faces, but whether this experience has downstream consequences is unknown. Three experiments examined whether 7‐month‐olds (range = 5.9–8.5 months; N = 96) use gaze from own‐ versus other‐race adults to anticipate events. When gaze predicted an event's occurrence with 100% reliability, 7‐month‐olds followed both adults equally; with 25% (chance) reliability, neither was followed. However, with 50% (uncertain) reliability, infants followed own‐ over other‐race gaze. Differential face race experience may thus affect how infants use social cues from own‐ versus other‐race adults for learning. Such findings suggest that infants integrate online statistical reliability information with prior knowledge of own versus other race to guide social interaction and learning.     

Inference and evaluation of the multinomial mixture model for text clustering

In this article, we investigate the use of a probabilistic model for unsupervised clustering in text collections. Unsupervised clustering has become a basic module for many intelligent text processing applications, such as information retrieval, text classification or information extraction.     

Critical thinking as the ability to sort and qualify the information available,to form one's own judgement

In an era marked by an excessive exposure to information and disinformation, this article explores how the public in France engages with critical thinking on the topics of scientific information and knowledge, as well as associated debates. First, a panel survey was carried out in 2022 by the science education centre Universcience in Paris in collaboration with the survey institute GECE. A total of 3,218 respondents participated in the survey in France. The survey questions focused on three themes: (1) the substantial relationship between respondents' scientific reasoning and critical thinking; (2) sources that respondents used for information, particularly on scientific subjects, to form an understanding of current events; (3) respondent relationships to discourses in the sciences and otherness in reasoning. In this study, critical thinking was defined as the ability to sort and make sense of available information and to question one's opinions. Also, the ability to discern trustworthy sources and information. In this approach, critical thinking is a condition for correctly assessing information on science topics. This is understood to include knowledge about science, its processes of knowledge production, and quality sources of information in the natural sciences. In this study, a Barometer of Critical Thinking was developed, and a survey was carried out. Survey results and the development of the barometer are described. Finally, we discuss how developing scientific literacy (knowledge about scientific facts, methods, practices and sources) is crucial in order to foster critical thinking on scientific information, knowledge, debates, and beyond.     

Expert Opinion and Gastronomy: The Recipe for Success

Experts' opinions play an important role in the gastronomic market for the following reasons: information is imperfect and very costly to acquire and quality is, in large part, subjective and consumers need experts to define it. The number of guidebooks currently issued, their success (Michelin: 650,000 sold; GaultMillau: 200,000 sold) and the strong level of correlation generally obtained between prices and ratings or rankings (0.63 on average) for this class of activity illustrate this influence. Without experts, supply and demand would find it difficult to meet.Therefore, identifying the determinants of these evaluations of quality and then estimating their respective impact become relevant. According to the experts, the art of cooking is the only determinant that they take into account when selecting and then evaluating the chefs. For the chefs, the setting also appears to be a determinant and not the least important one.What is the best strategy to become a ``first rate'' chef? Would Alain Ducasse, one of the most famous French chefs, get the same rating in a roadside café as in a luxury restaurant? To answer these questions, a quality equation is estimated using an original database concerning 185 leading French chefs who have been selected in one of the most famous French guidebooks: GaultMillau (2000 edition). The results show that there are two strategies to become a ``first rate'' chef but that the art of cooking prevails over setting. This is in line with the observation that some gourmet restaurants tend to over-invest in luxurious surroundings.     

Radiography of paintings: Limitations of transmission radiography and exploration of emission radiography using phosphor imaging plates

Radiography in transmission mode is a well-established technique to visualize the internal structure of paintings. However, for many paintings the pictorial layer cannot be clearly visualized with conventional radiography because of interference from paint on the reverse, the material composition or the regular structure of supports or subsurface layers. Traditional lead white grounds in particular cause specific imaging problems not encountered with more modern white pigments such as zinc and titanium whites. A solution to this problem is radiography in emission mode. This study demonstrates and articulates those factors that can interfere with visualization of a painting's pictorial layer using transmission radiography as well as those that contribute to the effectiveness of emission radiography in visualizing such information. While emission radiography has been applied to the examination of paintings for over half a century, it is a cumbersome technique that is further complicated by the need to work under dim safelight illumination when X-radiographic film is used. Therefore, the use of computed radiography using storage phosphor imaging plates for emission radiography was also investigated.     

Back in the bazaar: taking Pierre Bourdieu to a trading room

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of aesthetic judgment, this text offers an inductive account of financial reasoning inside a trading room. Driven to maximise bank profits, trading room operators do not find ‘one best way’. Rather they choose among several possible winning strategies: mathematical arbitrage, economic analysis, chartist analysis. These strategies differ sharply from one another in their conception of the market, method, proximity to scholarly knowledge, and legitimacy. We show that the choice of one method depends on a system of tastes and distastes that are both historical – depending on individuals’ social and educational background – and relational – depending on the individual's relative position within the trading room viewed as a field.     

Chinese communication characteristics: A Yin Yang perspective

Research on Chinese communication has so far focused on the understanding of the impact of traditional Confucian cultural values on Chinese communication characteristics. While this Confucian-oriented Chinese communication style remains meaningful and in many situations powerful in Chinese society and in communication between Chinese and western professionals, the paradox inherent in Chinese culture and communication has rarely been researched. Moreover, China's three decades of rapid economic progress and unprecedented interactions with the rest of the world have contributed to an emergent Chinese communication style, which differs from the traditional one. Based on the philosophical principle of Yin Yang, this paper provides a framework to capture the paradox and change of Chinese communication characteristics in today's changing Chinese society. Implications for how to communicate effectively with the Chinese from practitioners’ point of view are also discussed.     

Protective effect of endolithic fungal hyphae on oolitic limestone buildings

This study presents characterizations of weathering forms of the same oolitic limestone from four quarries and eight monuments exposed on various environmental conditions focusing on the waterproofing effect of endolithic organic matter. Patinas were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX), capillarity coefficient through weathered and unweathered sides, gypsum content and porous network morphology by epoxy resin molding. Study of weathering forms on old quarries indicates that lichens colonization (Verrucaria nigrescens and Caloplaca aurantia) can fill the superficial porous network with a dense network of lichenised fungal hyphae. Capillary coefficient measurement on natural and calcinated samples showed that endolithic organic matter can waterproof the stone and could act as a sulfate contamination barrier. Similar endolithic organic layer due to ancient lichens growth are found on some antique monuments of the Nîmes downtown and could explain their well-preserved state, unlike decayed 19th century churches that were never colonized by lichens.