Neural Dynamics of Motion Perception: Direction Fields, Apertures, and Resonant Grouping

A neural network model of global motion segmentation by visual cortex is described. Called the Motion Boundary Contour System (BCS), the model clarifies how ambiguous local movements on a complex moving shape are actively reorganized into a coherent global motion signal. Unlike many previous researchers, we analyse how a coherent motion signal is imparted to all regions of a moving figure, not only to regions at which unambiguous motion signals exist. The model hereby suggests a solution to the global aperture problem. The Motion BCS describes how preprocessing of motion signals by a Motion Oriented Contrast Filter (MOC Filter) is joined to long-range cooperative grouping mechanisms in a Motion Cooperative-Competitive Loop (MOCC Loop) to control phenomena such as motion capture. The Motion BCS is computed in parallel with the Static BCS of Grossberg and Mingolla (1985a, 1985b, 1987). Homologous properties of the Motion BCS and the Static BCS, specialized to process movement directions and static orientations, respectively, support a unified explanation of many data about static form perception and motion form perception that have heretofore been unexplained or treated separately. Predictions about microscopic computational differences of the parallel cortical streams V1 --> MT and V1 --> V2 --> MT are made, notably the magnocellular thick stripe and parvocellular interstripe streams. It is shown how the Motion BCS can compute motion directions that may be synthesized from multiple orientations with opposite directions-of-contrast. Interactions of model simple cells, complex cells, hypercomplex cells, and bipole cells are described, with special emphasis given to new functional roles in direction disambiguation for endstopping at multiple processing stages and to the dynamic interplay of spatially short-range and long-range interactions.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (90-0083); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100

The Early Childhood Mealtime as a Learning Environment: Practices, Children's Behaviors, and Teachers' Perspectives

This dissertation examines the early care and education mealtime as a learning environment. Manuscript one proposes a new improved conceptual framework that addresses the need for better alignment of teachers’ practices during the mealtime from both the education and nutrition field. Manuscript two examines the associations between teaching practices as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System and feeding practices as measured by the Mealtime Observation in Childcare Checklist. Manuscript two also explores children’s behaviors during the mealtime and associations with teachers’ practices. Manuscript three provides a qualitative analysis of teachers’ perspectives of the mealtime gathered by interviews

Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers

Context: The proper management of people can help software organisations to achieve higher levels of success. However, the limited attention paid to the appropriate use of theories to underpin the research in this area leaves it unclear how to deal with human aspects of software engineers, such as motivation and satisfaction. Objectives: This article aims to expose what drives the motivation and satisfaction of software engineers at work. Methods: A multiple case study was conducted at four software organisations in Brazil. For 11 months, data was collected using semi-structured interviews, diary studies, and document analyses. Results: The Theory of Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers (TMS-SE), presented in this article, combines elements from well established theories with new findings, and translates them into the software engineering context. Conclusion: The TMS-SE advances the understanding of people management in the software engineering field and presents a strong conceptual framework for future investigations in this area

Investigating Public Sector Online Communication Channel Adoption and Usage Amongst Older Adults: a UK Local Government Perspective

Since governments around the world are moving away from conventional ways of face to face communication to a more digital approach when delivering services to their citizens. Advancements in using novel information and internet technology e.g. Online Social Networks (OSN) for communications has become a fast-developing strategy in the public sector of the economy. However, research has found that not all the citizens use these online tools; thereby, causing a digital divide. A societal demographic group causing immense concern for governments, organizations and society is the ageing population. It is also this group that is not extensively investigated in e-government research. Recognising the role of older adults in the society and for e-government research, the aim of this research is to identify, explore and understand the factors that encourage older adults of 50 years old and above to continue using a particular online communication channel (Facebook versus Email) when interacting with the government. For this purpose, a conceptual framework was developed which was the Model of Online Communication Channel (MOCC) based on the Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Channel Expansion Theory (CET) along with service quality and trust factors. To achieve this aim, a quantitative research approach was employed for the data collection process to test the MOCC model. The data collection process was carried out in three phases namely; the content validity, pilot phase and final phase. The data was collated using an online survey tool (SurveyMonkey) which resulted in 222 completed response for the pilot and 1014 completed response for the final data collection. Findings revealed that older adults will continue using a particular online communication channel to interact with the government if they have good knowledge and previous experience of using an online communication medium for interaction. Equally, having a strong satisfactory experience with a medium will encourage them to trust and use that particular online communication medium when interacting with the government. Most significantly, the consequences of ailments being suffered by older adults impacted on their continuance intention to use an online communication channel for interaction. Additionally, to validate and verify the results obtained from the quantitative data collated, an evaluation study was carried out using a qualitative research approach in form of telephone interview. In summary, this research study contributed to the growing research body of Information Systems (IS) knowledge on adoption and continuance usage of technology. Moreover, this research would benefit industry by informing providers of online communication channels to the government to be aware of the factors that influence older adults’ choices when interacting with the government. In so doing, the public sector providers of ICT can learn whether the provided services and products are indeed being accepted by citizens, more than it is recognised as one that is disadvantaged. The major implication of this study is that it provides information with regards to the generational difference within this age segment i.e. 50 years and above. This would help the government determine the best strategy to employ while tackling this issue. Finally, due to the limitations of time, finance and manpower research findings could not be nationally representative of the UK. They are only representative of a single group of society residing in an affluent area of the UK which is Hertfordshire

Influence of family and work experience on occupational aspirations of adolescents : a path model

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model from which to test the influence of family background and work experience on the level of rural high school students' (N=381) occupational aspirations. In the basic model mother's occupation directly influenced occupational aspirations, however, father's education influenced occupational aspirations directly but indirectly through academic achievement. The number of hours worked per week had a direct and negative influence on academic achievement. In a different path, hours worked had an indirect positive influence on academic achievement through parents' different treatment which especially focused on the fact that parents gave students more freedom compared to the relationship they shared before the students began to work. Also, job characteristics indirectly influenced occupational aspirations through work attitudes. Academic achievement had a greater total effect on level of occupational aspirations than did any other variable

Eduke.me : reaching out for new sources of growth.

The Thesis presented in the form of a Case Study focuses on the challenges and opportunities a Portuguese educational technology startup, Eduke.me, faces upon choosing a path for further growth in the future. By addressing several topics such as market potential, vertical integration, partnerships, capabilities, diversification, innovation and growth constraints, students can apply strategic frameworks and other theories to the analysis of this case. The Thesis is divided into three parts: Case Study, Literature Review and Teaching Note. The thesis intends to be a practical means for students to develop their critical thinking, as well as information processing, with imperfect and scattered data. It allows students to grasp the possible constraints a company may face, and what alternatives exist to overcome them.A tese apresentada sob a forma de um Estudo de Caso centra-se sobre os desafios e oportunidades que uma startup de tecnologia educacional portuguesa, Eduke.me; enfrenta as escolhes um caminho de crescimento futuro. Ao abordar vários temas, tais como potencial de mercado, integração vertical, as parcerias, os recursos, a diversificação, inovação e as restrições ao crescimento; os alunos poderão aplicar modelos estratégicos e outras teorias para a analisar deste caso. O trabalho está dividido em três partes: Estudo de Caso, Revisão Literária e Nota de Aula. A tese pretende ser um meio prático para que os alunos possam desenvolver o seu espírito crítico, bem como o processamento de informações, com dados imperfeitos e dispersos. Isto permite que os alunos compreendam as possíveis restrições que uma empresa pode enfrentar, e que alternativas existem para superá-las

TeCH: Text-guided Reconstruction of Lifelike Clothed Humans

Despite recent research advancements in reconstructing clothed humans from a single image, accurately restoring the "unseen regions" with high-level details remains an unsolved challenge that lacks attention. Existing methods often generate overly smooth back-side surfaces with a blurry texture. But how to effectively capture all visual attributes of an individual from a single image, which are sufficient to reconstruct unseen areas (e.g., the back view)? Motivated by the power of foundation models, TeCH reconstructs the 3D human by leveraging 1) descriptive text prompts (e.g., garments, colors, hairstyles) which are automatically generated via a garment parsing model and Visual Question Answering (VQA), 2) a personalized fine-tuned Text-to-Image diffusion model (T2I) which learns the "indescribable" appearance. To represent high-resolution 3D clothed humans at an affordable cost, we propose a hybrid 3D representation based on DMTet, which consists of an explicit body shape grid and an implicit distance field. Guided by the descriptive prompts + personalized T2I diffusion model, the geometry and texture of the 3D humans are optimized through multi-view Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) and reconstruction losses based on the original observation. TeCH produces high-fidelity 3D clothed humans with consistent & delicate texture, and detailed full-body geometry. Quantitative and qualitative experiments demonstrate that TeCH outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of reconstruction accuracy and rendering quality. The code will be publicly available for research purposes at https://huangyangyi.github.io/TeCHComment: Project: https://huangyangyi.github.io/TeCH, Code: https://github.com/huangyangyi/TeC