Temporal summation of global form signals in dynamic Glass patterns

AbstractThe ability to perceive complex objects in the environment requires that the visual system integrate local form information into global shapes. Glass patterns (GPs) are stimuli that are commonly used to study this integration process. GPs consist of randomly positioned dot-pairs oriented in a coherent way to create a global form. When multiple GPs are presented sequentially, observers report a percept of illusory coherent motion and have lower detection thresholds relative to a single presentation GPs. The percept of illusory motion has been attributed to the visual system interpreting the dot-pairs in GPs as motion streaks. However, it remains unclear why dynamic GPs are detected at lower thresholds than static GPs. Two main differences exist between static and dynamic GPs: (a) dynamic GPs contain multiple presentations of global form signals compared to a single presentation in static GPs and (b) dynamic GPs have a greater temporal frequency than static GPs. Here we investigated which of these two factors contributed to the heightened sensitivities for dynamic GPs. We systematically varied the number of unique GPs and the rate at which each unique frame is presented (i.e., temporal frequency). The results show that, within the range of temporal frequency used, the primary influence on detection thresholds was the number of unique frames. These results suggest that the improved detection sensitivities can be driven by a mechanism of temporal summation of global form

Breaking Barriers: Self-Advocacy Essentials for Underserved Gifted Learners

Learners who advocate for themselves are more apt to discover the intellectual challenges they want and need. Systemic barriers, however, can keep students from finding/using their own voices. Panelists share ways to empower the self-advocacy of underserved gifted students - specifically those who are Black, Hispanic, Native American, low SES, and Black and Latinx females in STEM

Perception of dynamic Glass patterns

AbstractIn the mammalian brain, form and motion are processed through two distinct pathways at early stages of visual processing. However, recent evidence suggests that these two pathways may interact. Here we used dynamic Glass patterns, which have been previously shown to create the perception of coherent motion in humans, despite containing no motion coherence. Glass patterns are static stimuli that consist of randomly positioned dot pairs that are integrated spatially to create the perception of a global form, whereas dynamic Glass patterns consist of several independently generated static Glass patterns presented sequentially. In the current study, we measured the detection threshold of five types of dynamic Glass patterns and compared the rank order of the detection thresholds with those found for static Glass patterns and real motion patterns (using random dot stimuli). With both the static Glass patterns and dynamic Glass patterns, detection thresholds were lowest for concentric and radial patterns and highest for horizontal patterns. We also found that vertical patterns were better detected than horizontal patterns, consistent with prior evidence of a “horizontal effect” in the perception of natural scene images. With real motion, detection thresholds were equivalent across all patterns, with the exception of higher thresholds for spiral patterns. Our results suggest that dynamic Glass patterns are processed primarily as form prior to input into the motion system

Recent applications of Knowledge Organization Systems: introduction to a special issue

This special issue of the International Journal of Digital Libraries evolved from the 13th Networked Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOSs) workshop held at the joint Digital Libraries conference 2014 in London. The focus of the workshop was 'Mapping between Linked Data vocabularies of KOS' and ‘Meaningful Concept Display and Meaningful Visualization of KOS’. The issue presents six papers on the general theme on both conceptual aspects and technical implementation of NKOS. We dedicate this special issue to our long-term colleague and friend Johan De Smedt who died in June 2015 while we were editing the special issue. (author's abstract

Simultaneous visible and near-infrared spectrophotometry of Comet Austin 1989c

Simultaneous visible and near-infrared spectra of Comet Austin were obtained wit the 1.5 m and 2.3 m telescopes of the University of Arizona Observatories on 1990 May 16. The visible spectrum obtained with the IHW spectrograph covers the 3126-9490 A wavelength interval, while the near-infrared spectrum obtained with the germanium spectrometer covers the 9036-12794 A wavelength interval. Simultaneous measurements of integrated band fluxes are presented for the CN B 2Sigma(+) - X 2Sigma(+) (violet) and A 2Pi - X 2Sigma(+) (red) systems. A CN spectrum and CN band flux ratios calculated from a fluoresence equilibrium model are also presented. From a comparison between the observed and calculated CN spectra and band flux ratios, it is found that red system oscillator strengths determined from recent ab initio calculations appropriately describe the radiative properties of CN molecules

DEMYSTIFYING WOMEN’S AND MEN’S TALK IN MARITAL INTERACTIONS

Former studies on gender and language have sustained male-female binary dichotomy (FISHMAN, 1978; FISHMAN, 1983; TANNEN 1990 AND DE FRANCISCO 1991). These authors have stated the idea that, in comparison to men, women tend to engage more in conversations, talk more and produce continuers such as ‘mhm’ to offer support to narratives, whereas men tend not to engage in conversations as women do, they talk less than women and produce continuers in order to silence their interactional partners. Nonetheless, more recent studies have opposed the idea of having male-female dichotomy as a starting point to analyze language data. (SCHEGLOFF 1997; WEATHERALL 2000; SWANN 2002 AND FREED 2008). The objective of this paper is to investigate marital’ interactions, as well as fill in a gap in the linguistic-interactional studies by analyzing marital’ interactions with the perspective of talk-in-interaction studies in the Brazilian Portuguese language since there are no news of studies on male-female interaction in this language. The analyzed data derive from recorded conversation among two heterosexual couples aged between 24 and 32 years old who were living together for 3 years by the time of the data collection. The data was transcribed and analyzed from the perspective of talk-in-interaction/conversation analysis studies. Four analytical categories were set: Production of second pair parts, Topic initiation, Use of Continuers and Talking time. The results indicate that the interactional strategies used by the analyzed couples are not regarded to pre-established gender categories as more traditional studies on language and gender claim. Key words: Language and Gender. Couples’ interactions. Interactional strategies. Talk-in-interaction

Regional Diversity in the Postsynaptic Proteome of the Mouse Brain

The proteome of the postsynaptic terminal of excitatory synapses comprises over one thousand proteins in vertebrate species and plays a central role in behavior and brain disease. The brain is organized into anatomically distinct regions and whether the synapse proteome differs across these regions is poorly understood. Postsynaptic proteomes were isolated from seven forebrain and hindbrain regions in mice and their composition determined using proteomic mass spectrometry. Seventy-four percent of proteins showed differential expression and each region displayed a unique compositional signature. These signatures correlated with the anatomical divisions of the brain and their embryological origins. Biochemical pathways controlling plasticity and disease, protein interaction networks and individual proteins involved with cognition all showed differential regional expression. Combining proteomic and connectomic data shows that interconnected regions have specific proteome signatures. Diversity in synapse proteome composition is key feature of mouse and human brain structure

NIRCam: Development and Testing of the JWST Near-Infrared Camera

The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is one of the four science instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Its high sensitivity, high spatial resolution images over the 0.6 - 5 microns wavelength region will be essential for making significant findings in many science areas as well as for aligning the JWST primary mirror segments and telescope. The NIRCam engineering test unit was recently assembled and has undergone successful cryogenic testing. The NIRCam collimator and camera optics and their mountings are also progressing, with a brass-board system demonstrating relatively low wavefront error across a wide field of view. The flight model?s long-wavelength Si grisms have been fabricated, and its coronagraph masks are now being made. Both the short (0.6 - 2.3 microns) and long (2.4 - 5.0 microns) wavelength flight detectors show good performance and are undergoing final assembly and testing. The flight model subsystems should all be completed later this year through early 2011, and NIRCam will be cryogenically tested in the first half of 2011 before delivery to the JWST integrated science instrument module (ISIM)

Observing exoplanets with the JWST NIRCam grisms

The near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will incorporate 2 identical grisms in each of its 2 long wavelength channels. These transmission gratings have been added to assist with the coarse phasing of the JWST telescope, but they will also be used for slitless wide-field scientific observations over selectable regions of the λ = 2.4 − 5.0 μm wavelength range at spectroscopic resolution R ≡ λ/δλ ≃ 2000. We describe the grism design details and their expected performance in NIRCam. The grisms will provide point-source continuum sensitivity of approximately AB = 23 mag in 10,000 s exposures with S/N = 5 when binned to R = 1000. This is approximately a factor of 3 worse than expected for the JWST NIRSpec instrument, but the NIRCam grisms provide better spatial resolution, better spectrophotometric precision, and complete field coverage. The grisms will be especially useful for high precision spectrophotometric observations of transiting exoplanets. We expect that R = 500 spectra of the primary transits and secondary eclipses of Jupiter-sized exoplanets can be acquired at moderate or high signal-to-noise for stars as faint as M = 10 − 12 mag in 1000 s of integration time, and even bright stars (V = 5 mag) should be observable without saturation. We also discuss briefly how these observations will open up new areas of exoplanet science and suggest other unique scientific applications of the grisms