Confidence is an important concept in cognitive science, as it integrates seamlessly with our beliefs, goals, and decisions. Humans naturally represent and express degrees of confidence in beliefs and predictions that reflect their accuracy. However, the dynamics of how our underlying beliefs about the world relate to explicitly represented confidence over those beliefs is yet not well understood. In this work, we make progress on this question in the domain of \textit{concept learning}. Specifically, we analyze how confidence and beliefs jointly evolve in the absence of explicit feedback. We evaluate some leading computational accounts of confidence in the present literature, and we find that these accounts do not accurately predict confidence in the context of our task. We advocate for caution in making claims about the generalizability of such accounts across tasks or domains and propose some new model-based measurements for predicting humans' confidence judgments. Of these measurements, we find that ones taking individual-level response patterns into account perform the best. We close by suggesting promising future directions for the study of confidence in concept learning.

Many models of intuitive physical reasoning posit some kind of mental simulation mechanism, yet everyday environments frequently contain far more objects than people could plau- sibly represent with their limited cognitive capacity. What determines which objects are actually included in our repre- sentations? We asked participants to predict how a ball will bounce through a complex field of obstacles, and probed work- ing memory for objects in the scene that were more and less likely to be relevant to the ball’s trajectory. We evaluate differ- ent accounts of relevance and find that successful object mem- ory is best predicted by how frequently a ball’s trajectory is expected to contact that object under a probabilistic simulation model. This suggests that people construct representations for mental simulation efficiently and dynamically, on the fly, by adding objects “just in time”: only when they are expected to become relevant for the next stage of simulation.

Background

We performed a pilot study using a single virtual-simulation suturing module as an objective measurement to determine functional use of the robotic system. This study will assist in designing a study for an objective, adjunctive test for use by a surgical proctor.

Methods

After IRB approval, subjects were recruited at a robotic renal surgery course to perform two attempts of the "Tubes" module without warm-up using the Da Vinci® Surgical Skills Simulator™. The overall MScore (%) from the simulator was compared among various skill levels to provide construct validity. Correlation with MScore and number of robotic cases was performed and pre-determined skill groups were tested. Nine metrics that make up the overall score were also tested via paired t test and subsequent logistic regression to determine which skills differed among experienced and novice robotic surgeons.

Results

We enrolled 38 subjects with experience ranging from 0- < 200 robotic cases. Median time to complete both tasks was less than 10 min. The MScore on the first attempt was correlated to the number of previous robotic cases (R(2) = 0.465; p = 0.003). MScore was different between novice and more experienced robotic surgeons on the first (44.7 vs. 63.9; p = 0.005) and second attempt (56.0 vs. 69.9; p = 0.037).

Conclusion

A single virtual simulator exercise can provide objective information in determining proficient use of the robotic surgical system.

Purpose: To evaluate whether computer program-estimated urolith stone volume (SV) was a better predictor of spontaneous passage (SP) compared with program-estimated stone diameter (PD) or manually measured stone diameter (MD), and whether utilizing SV and MD together provided additional value in SP prediction compared with MD alone. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients with acute renal colic and single renal/ureteral stone on CT from July 2017 to April 2020. Diameter obtained from radiology reports or manually measured when report not available. Semiautomated stone analysis software (qSAS) was used to estimate SV and PD. ROC analysis was performed to compare accuracy of SV vs MD vs PD in predicting SP by 2, 4, and 6 weeks. Subgroup analysis was performed by stone size (

We offer a computational framework for modeling explanation as cooperative rational communication. Under our framework, when an explainer is faced with a ``why?'' question, they reason about the question-asker's current mental model, and intervene on that mental model in order to maximize the listener's future utility. We instantiate our framework in a planning domain, and show that our framework can model human explanations about plans across a wide variety of scenarios.

Much of social cognition involves reasoning about others' minds: predicting their reactions, inferring their feelings, and explaining their behavior. By representing mental contents like beliefs, desires, and emotions, Bayesian theory of mind mod- els have made progress in capturing how humans manage these cognitive feats. But social life is not merely observation: hu- mans must also plan to intervene on these same mental con- tents. The present work models how people choose interven- tions to influence others' emotions. Building on a prior model of people's intuitive theory of emotions, we model how people use their intuitive theory to evaluate and simulate the effects of different interventions. We apply our model to data from behavioral experiments requiring counterfactual and joint in- terventions, and show a close alignment with human choices. Our results provide a step towards a potentially unifying expla- nation for emotion prediction and intervention, suggesting that they could arise from the same underlying generative model.

Older patients and those who require interpreters are least likely to use telehealth for gynecologic oncology care, showing disparities which continued after statewide vaccinations.

Monitoring the environment with serine/threonine protein kinases is critical for growth and survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a devastating human pathogen. Protein kinase B (PknB) is a transmembrane serine/threonine protein kinase that acts as an essential regulator of mycobacterial growth and division. The PknB extracellular domain (ECD) consists of four repeats homologous to penicillin-binding protein and serine/threonine kinase associated (PASTA) domains, and binds fragments of peptidoglycan. These properties suggest that PknB activity is modulated by ECD binding to peptidoglycan substructures, however, the molecular mechanisms underpinning PknB regulation remain unclear. In this study, we report structural and genetic characterization of the PknB ECD. We determined the crystal structures of overlapping ECD fragments at near atomic resolution, built a model of the full ECD, and discovered a region on the C-terminal PASTA domain that has the properties of a ligand-binding site. Hydrophobic interaction between this surface and a bound molecule of citrate was observed in a crystal structure. Our genetic analyses in M. tuberculosis showed that nonfunctional alleles were produced either by deletion of any of single PASTA domain or by mutation of individual conserved residues lining the putative ligand-binding surface of the C-terminal PASTA repeat. These results define two distinct structural features necessary for PknB signal transduction, a fully extended ECD and a conserved, membrane-distal putative ligand-binding site.

Vernalization, the requirement of a period of low temperature to induce transition from the vegetative to reproductive state, is an evolutionarily and economically important trait in the Triticeae. The genetic basis of vernalization in cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare) can be defined using the two-locus VRN-H1/VRN-H2 model. We analyzed the allelic characteristics of HvBM5A, the candidate gene for VRN-H1, from ten cultivated barley accessions and one wild progenitor accession (subsp. spontaneum), representing the three barley growth habits - winter, facultative, and spring. We present multiple lines of evidence, including sequence, linkage map location, and expression, that support HvBM5A being VRN-H1. While the predicted polypeptides from different growth habits are identical, spring accessions contain a deletion in the first intron of HvBM5A that may be important for regulation. While spring HvBM5A alleles are typified by the intron-localized deletion, in some cases, the promoter may also determine the allele type. The presence/absence of the tightly linked ZCCT-H gene family members on chromosome 4H perfectly correlates with growth habit and we conclude that one of the three ZCCT-H genes is VRN-H2. The VRN-H2 locus is present in winter genotypes and deleted from the facultative and spring genotypes analyzed in this study, suggesting the facultative growth habit (cold tolerant, vernalization unresponsive) is a result of deletion of the VRN-H2 locus and presence of a winter HvBM5A allele. All reported barley vernalization QTLs can be explained by the two-locus VRN-H1/VRN-H2 model based on the presence/absence of VRN-H2 and a winter vs. spring HvBM5A allele.

129 Background: We developed IRB-approved secure research registries for our Breast Imaging and Breast Care Clinics at Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center, as part of the UC statewide Athena Breast Health Network. Our clinical care registries securely store patient-reported intake data, which are summarized and uploaded into the medical record for patient care. Following consent, data are securely maintained in a separate research registry. In addition to facilitating quality assurance data collection, these registries aim to 1) maintain a data-rich research registry, 2) offer patients research opportunities, and 3) facilitate participant screening and recruitment into research studies.Breast Imaging or Breast Care clinic patients complete an online clinical intake form prior to their appointment, either at home or using an iPad in clinic, and are given the opportunity to be involved in research. Patients are asked for site-specific consent to keep personally identifiable intake data in a research registry, for consent to be approached about providing a biospecimen sample, and for consent to be contacted for future research opportunities. Data from consented participants are pulled into secure databases available to study personnel.Participants to date include 4,480 patients, of whom 3,246 consented to use of data for research (72%), and 2,627 have agreed to be contacted for future research opportunities (59%). In a pilot biospecimen collection protocol, 46% of patients agreed to be approached and we have collected over 360 blood or saliva and 51 tissue samples. Additionally, with the use of future contact consent, we have facilitated recruitment of more than 370 participants to multiple lifestyle and survey-based clinical studies.Patients are willing to participate in research, especially in a research registry that requires little additional time on their part. The use of research registries allows collection of a variety of data elements useful for prescreening participants for research studies, including body mass index, age, menopausal status and breast cancer diagnosis. Data- and participant-rich research registries facilitate efficient screening and recruitment for other research studies.