Is There a Student Loan Debt Crisis at Private Colleges?

We’ve all seen media stories about an underemployed, recent college graduate who has $100,000 of student loan debt. Almost without fail the young person’s plight is offered as proof that there is a student loan “debt crisis.

Fixed vs. floating exchange rates: a dynamic general equilibrium analysis

In this study we contrast fixed and floating exchange rate regimes in a dynamic general equilibrium model. We find that the fundamental difference in the regimes is in the courses they imply for monetary policies. Because of policy coordination requirements, a tighter monetary policy needed to maintain a fixed exchange rate may necessitate a tightening in budget policy as well. We show that under some initial conditions voters or a social planner will favor one regime, but under other conditions they will favor the other. However, the choices of voters and a social planner are almost diametrically opposed.Foreign exchange rates

Early sensitivity for eyes within faces: A new neuronal account of holistic and featural processing

The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.04.042. © 2014. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Eyes are central to face processing however their role in early face encoding as reflected by the N170 ERP component is unclear. Using eye tracking to enforce fixation on specific facial features, we found that the N170 was larger for fixation on the eyes compared to fixation on the forehead, nasion, nose or mouth, which all yielded similar amplitudes. This eye sensitivity was seen in both upright and inverted faces and was lost in eyeless faces, demonstrating it was due to the presence of eyes at fovea. Upright eyeless faces elicited largest N170 at nose fixation. Importantly, the N170 face inversion effect (FIE) was strongly attenuated in eyeless faces when fixation was on the eyes but was less attenuated for nose fixation and was normal when fixation was on the mouth. These results suggest the impact of eye removal on the N170 FIE is a function of the angular distance between the fixated feature and the eye location. We propose the Lateral Inhibition, Face Template and Eye Detector based (LIFTED) model which accounts for all the present N170 results including the FIE and its interaction with eye removal. Although eyes elicit the largest N170 response, reflecting the activity of an eye detector, the processing of upright faces is holistic and entails an inhibitory mechanism from neurons coding parafoveal information onto neurons coding foveal information. The LIFTED model provides a neuronal account of holistic and featural processing involved in upright and inverted faces and offers precise predictions for further testing.This study was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grant #418431)the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)the Ontario Research Fund (ORF)and the Canada Research Chair program to RJI

The European Digital Kitchen Project

This article reports on the European Digital Kitchen, an EU-funded language learning project which promotes learning of languages, cultures and cuisines in digital interactive kitchens. The project involves taking a normal kitchen and specifically adapting it for language learning using the next generation of digital technology, namely activity recognition and sensor technology. We intend that learners will be able to learn aspects of the language whilst performing a meaningful real-world task and will simultaneously experience the cultural aspect of learning to cook a foreign dish. The article starts by outlining the project background, including rationale, motivation and aims. We then explain in detail how the technology works (using photographs) and outline our design methodology, which blends Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). We then present 3 extracts of Digital Kitchen interaction to illustrate the type of learning which takes place.Cet article rend compte de la 'European Digital Kitchen', un projet d'apprentissage de la langue financé par l'UE qui favorise l'apprentissage des langues, des cultures et des cuisines dans les cuisines interactifs digitales. Le projet consiste à prendre une cuisine normale et l'adapter spécifiquement pour l'apprentissage des langues à l'aide de la prochaine génération de la technologie digitale, à savoir la reconnaissance de l'activité et de la technologie de capteur. Nous avons l'intention que les apprenants seront en mesure d'apprendre les aspects de la langue tout en effectuant une tâche utile dans le monde réel et auront simultanément l'expérience de l'aspect culturel d'apprendre à cuisiner un plat étrangère.Dieser Artikel berichtet über die 'European Digital Kitchen', ein EU-geförderten Sprachlernprojekt , das Lernen von Sprachen, Kulturen und Küchen in digitalen interaktiven Küchen fördert . Das Projekt modifiziert eine normale Küche speziell für Sprachlern mit der nächsten Generation der digitalen Technologie, nämlich Aktivitätserkennung und Sensortechnik. Wir wollen , dass die Lernenden in der Lage sind , Aspekte der Sprache lernen, während der Durchführung eine sinnvolle reale Aufgabe und gleichzeitig erleben sie den kulturellen Aspekt des Lernens, indem sie eine ausländische Gericht kochen

Generic Airspace Research Phase 5 Report

Human-in-the-loop testing was completed to assess the subjective preferences, usage, and operational benefits of Integrated and Separated Controller Information Tools (CITs) in support of Generic Airspace Research. Participants controlled traffic in in a busy, high altitude sector with the aid of the CITs. When the participants were asked which CIT that they preferred to use, they overwhelmingly chose the integrated version of the CIT. The primary reason for this seemed to be that it allowed participants to remain focused on the traffic situation, whereas the Standalone CIT required them to focus their attention for short periods away from the radar presentation. In contrast to their preference, there were little or no differences in the CIT usage and the operational differences. There were similar numbers of losses of separation and participants accessed each CIT equally. Although the information accessed was the similar for the two conditions, participants actively turned off the data on the Integrated CIT, presumably to reduce the clutter on the radar scope. Further work is needed to isolate which information can and should be available to controllers in the Integrated vs. Standalone format

Exploiting real-time FPGA based adaptive systems technology for real-time sensor fusion in next generation automotive safety systems

Abstract We present a system for the boresightin