Udayana University

Human language allows for virtually limitless productivity. Why, then, are certain perfectly-comprehensible sentences (e.g., *The boy dragged the girl the box) deemed ungrammatical by native speakers? Here, we test the prediction of Construction Grammar accounts (c.f., Categorical Grammar accounts) that grammatical acceptability is probabilistically affected by the compatibility between the meaning (semantics) of the construction (e.g., [AGENT] [ACTION] [RECPIENT] [PATIENT]) and (a) the nouns (e.g., The boy sent the girl the package is more grammatical than *The boy sent Chicago the package; Studies 1,3,5) and (b) the speaker's intended meaning in context (e.g., the team in the Chicago office > the geographic location; Studies 2,4,6). Across a series of six large (N = 100) pre-registered studies, we find that (in all but one case), both of these factors significantly affect English speakers' rated acceptability of sentences, across the transitive and periphrastic causative (e.g., The clown made the man laugh vs *The clown laughed the man); the to- and double-object dative (e.g., The girl said something to the boy vs *The girl said the boy something) and the active/passive (e.g., The book cost $10 vs *$10 was cost by the book). These findings constitute support for Construction Gramar approaches, under which this type of grammatical acceptability results from a probabilistic semantic clash, and against Categorical Grammar accounts, which can explain graded (as opposed to categorical) ungrammaticality only via some kind of add-on.

Reliable indicators of early soil biological change remain limited in tropical agroecosystems, where soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks may respond more slowly than microbial processes. We evaluated whether seasonal vegetation dynamics derived from Sentinel-2 fractional vegetation cover (FVC) are associated with spatial variation in SOC stock and microbial indicators in Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia. We mapped seasonal FVC from 2019 to 2024 and derived site-level metrics of mean cover and temporal variability (standard deviation, anomaly, coefficient of variation, and a temporal stability index). In July 2023, we sampled topsoil (0-30 cm) at 12 sites representing contrasting land uses and topographic settings. We calculated SOC stock from organic carbon concentration, bulk density, and sampling depth, and measured basal respiration and culturable microbial density (colony-forming units, CFU). Vegetation cover peaked consistently during the wet season (December to February), and mean site FVC ranged from 0.31 to 0.99. Mean FVC showed positive but non-significant associations with culturable microbial density (Spearman's p = 0.48, P = 0.114) and basal respiration (p = 0.29, P = 0.361), whereas higher vegetation variability metrics tended to coincide with lower culturable microbial density (p =-0.43 to-0.51, P = 0.090 to 0.163). SOC stock showed near-zero coefficients and no statistical evidence of association with vegetation metrics (p = 0.09, P = 0.781) or microbial indicators (p = 0.01, P = 0.975). Principal component analysis of FVC traits explained 99.65% of the variance and separated sites along a gradient from stable, high cover to more variable, lower cover. Overall, FVC stability metrics captured spatial differences that were directionally consistent with microbial indicators, but associations were not statistically significant in this dataset (n = 12). Larger, replicated studies with repeated soil sampling are required to evaluate whether seasonal FVC metrics have robust predictive utility for SOC stock and soil biological indicators.

This research explores how loneliness influences individuals’ intention to donate, focusing on the emotional mechanism of anticipated warm glow and the moderating role of donation type (time vs. money). Across two experimental studies, the findings consistently reveal that lonely individuals express a higher willingness to donate time rather than money. Study 1 shows that donation type moderates the effect of loneliness on donation intention, with time donations eliciting stronger intentions among lonely participants. Study 2 extends this by demonstrating that anticipated warm glow mediates the effect of loneliness on donation intention but only when the donation involves time. In monetary donation contexts, loneliness does not significantly influence emotional rewards or giving intentions. These results suggest that the emotional benefits of prosocial behavior are contingent on both the donor’s psychological state and the nature of the donation request. The study contributes to the literature on prosocial motivation by integrating emotional and contextual factors into the understanding of charitable behavior. Practical implications highlight the value of tailoring donation appeals, particularly time-based opportunities for emotionally vulnerable groups such as the lonely.

Identity fusion is a powerful form of social cohesion capable of motivating extreme pro-group action that can result from the sharing of personally transformative memories of a dysphoric event with other group members. However, it is not known whether such experiences need to be shared directly or if indirect sharing via eye-witness accounts would be equally effective. In this study, we examine the impact of the 2002 Bali bombings, a powerful dysphoric event, on group cohesion and morality among Balinese Hindus. We hypothesized that being copresent would predict stronger fusion with ingroup members compared with vicariously shared experiences, and that fusion scores would be more strongly associated with select moral domains compared with social identification. Using a questionnaire, data were collected in person from 340 Hindus in Bali. Our findings confirmed that directly experiencing this dysphoric event was associated with higher levels of fusion-especially with others who were copresent-which were mediated by the experience's transformative impact and its recall for those present. Nevertheless, indirect experiences also proved to be powerful drivers of group bonding through similar processes. The study provides new insight into the long-term psychological impacts of terrorist atrocities and their wider consequences for societal cohesion.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented global challenge, significantly impacting public health, economies, and daily life worldwide. In response to this crisis, scientists and researchers around the world have worked tirelessly to understand the virus, its transmission dynamics, and most importantly, to develop effective vaccines. However, questions remain about the comparative effectiveness of these vaccines, particularly in real-world scenarios. This paper aimed to address this critical issue by employing advanced statistical techniques, including time-varying copulas. In this study, we employed four types of copula, namely Gaussian, Student-t, Clayton, and Gumbel, to model the temporal association between vaccination and the emergence of COVID-19 cases. The results of this study suggested that the number of subsequent vaccinations, especially the first to fourth vaccines, has a significant impact on the occurrence and spread of COVID-19 under particular conditions. Furthermore, we proposed several modeling scenarios for COVID-19 cases based on their temporal interactions with the number of subsequent vaccinations. The findings of this research provided a comprehensive understanding of the temporal relationship between vaccination and its impact on reducing COVID-19 cases.