We discuss three user interfaces for situations that involve vague retrieval requests: (1) BAROQUE, a browser for relational databases; (2) VAGUE, a query interpreter for relational databases that can handle neighborhood queries (formal queries with similar-to comparators); and (3) FLEX, an adaptive interface to relational databases that can service satisfactorily users with different levels of...

This article critically examines the contemporary resurgence of empiricism (or “neo-empiricism”) in philosophy, psychology, neuropsychology, and artificial intelligence. This resurgence is an important and positive development. It is the first time that this centuries-old empiricist approach to cognition is precisely formulated in the context of cognitive science and neuroscience. Moreover, neo...

Researchers studying Y chromosome evolution have drawn attention to neo-Y chromosomes in Drosophila species due to their resembling the initial stage of Y chromosome evolution. In the studies of neo-Y chromosome of Drosophila miranda, the extremely low genetic diversity observed suggested various modes of natural selection acting on the nonrecombining genome. However, alternative possibility ma...