The scene superiority effect: object recognition in the context of natural scenes

Four experiments investigate the effect of background scene semantics on object recognition. Although past research has found that semantically consistent scene backgrounds can facilitate recognition of a target object, these claims have been challenged as the result of post-perceptual response bias rather than the perceptual processes of object recognition itself. The current study takes advantage of a paradigm from linguistic processing known as the Word Superiority Effect. Humans can better discriminate letters (e.g., D vs. K) in the context of a word (WORD vs. WORK) than in a non-word context (e.g., WROD vs. WROK) even when the context is non-predictive of the target identity. We apply this paradigm to objects in natural scenes, having subjects discriminate between objects in the context of scenes. Because the target objects were equally semantically consistent with any given scene and could appear in either semantically consistent or inconsistent contexts with equal probability, response bias could not lead to an apparent improvement in object recognition. The current study found a benefit to object recognition from semantically consistent backgrounds, and the effect appeared to be modulated by awareness of background scene semantics

The quest for information retrieval on the semantic web

Semantic search has been one of the motivations of the Semantic Web since it was envisioned. We propose a model for the exploitation of ontology-based KBs to improve search over large document repositories. The retrieval model is based on an adaptation of the classic vector-space model, including an annotation weighting algorithm, and a ranking algorithm. Semantic search is combined with keyword-based search to achieve tolerance to KB incompleteness. Our proposal has been tested on corpora of significant size, showing promising results with respect to keyword-based search, and providing ground for further analysis and research

Variables, Generality and Existence: considerations on the notion of a concept-script

A defense of the Frege / Russell idea of logic as a 'concept=script' or 'ideal language', and a discussion of the relationship of this project to the formalisation of mass nouns or non-count noun

Cognitive Semantics: An Extension of the Cartesian Legacy

The basic intention of this article is to show how the cognitive semantics inherits its ancestry from the Cartesian foundation. The emergence of the cognitive semantics is envisaged here as an integral part of the knowledge evolution, in terms of shifts, which ultimately determines the future direction of our epistemological quest. Basically two questions have been emphasized here: (a) how (and what amount of) common sense metaphysics can be incorporated within the existing system of knowledge; and (b) is there any substratum where the mind-body dualism can be boiled down

A Semantic Approach for Description and Ranked Matching of Services in Pervasive Environments

With the recent developments in technology, new and diverse devices are being introduced into the pervasive world. This has raised new challenges for the discovery of devices and their services in dynamic environments. The existing approaches such as Jini [AOSJ99], UPnP [UPnP06], etc., describe services at a syntactic level and the matching mechanisms in these approaches are limited to syntactic comparisons based on attributes or interfaces. In order to overcome the limitations of these approaches, there has been an increasing interest in the use of Semantic Web technologies to support the description and matching of services. This paper proposes a semantic matching framework to facilitate effective discovery of device based services in pervasive environments. This offers a ranking mechanism that will order the available services in the order of their suitability; the evaluation of the experimental results have indicated that the results correlate well with human perception

Artificial and Natural Genetic Information Processing

Conventional methods of genetic engineering and more recent genome editing techniques focus on identifying genetic target sequences for manipulation. This is a result of historical concept of the gene which was also the main assumption of the ENCODE project designed to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. However, the theoretical core concept changed dramatically. The old concept of genetic sequences which can be assembled and manipulated like molecular bricks has problems in explaining the natural genome-editing competences of viruses and RNA consortia that are able to insert or delete, combine and recombine genetic sequences more precisely than random-like into cellular host organisms according to adaptational needs or even generate sequences de novo. Increasing knowledge about natural genome editing questions the traditional narrative of mutations (error replications) as essential for generating genetic diversity and genetic content arrangements in biological systems. This may have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of artificial genome editing

The Foot Washing (John 13:1-20): An Experiment in Hermeneutics

The following paragraphs are intended not only as a valid exegesis of the dialogue between Jesus and Simon Peter during the foot washing (John 13:6-10) but also as an experiment in interpretation. This experiment, which will consist essentially in bringing a plurality of methods, both historical and non-historical, to bear upon the text, will begin with a brief statement of hermeneutical presuppositions which are drawn, primarily, from the work of H.-G. Gadamer and P. Ricoeur. In a second section these presuppositions will operate in the use of a variety of methods to interpret the J ohannine text. In the final section the interpretive process will be analyzed in retrospect in order to throw some light on certain questions of hermeneutical theory