James Jurin (1684-1750):a pioneer of crowding research?

James Jurin wrote an extended essay on distinct and indistinct vision in 1738. In it, he distinguished between "perfect,'' "distinct,'' and "indistinct vision'' as perceptual categories, and his meticulous descriptions and analyses of perceptual phenomena contained observations that are akin to crowding. Remaining with the concepts of his day, however, he failed to recognize crowding as separate from spatial resolution. We present quotations from Jurin's essay and place them in the context of the contemporary concerns with visual resolution and crowding

Ewald Hering's (1879) "On Muscle Sounds of the Eye":A translation and commentary

Investigations of eye movements were transformed by Ewald Hering in 1879. He developed a novel method for recording them using the muscular sounds attendant on their rapid movements. Brief "clapping" sounds could be heard with the aid of a device like a stethoscope placed on the eyelid and they occurred when afterimages or "floaters" were seen to move. Hering applied the technique to record eye movements during reading and he called the rapid eye movements Rucke (jerks in English). Hering published a long review of eye movements and spatial vision later in 1879, but without a description of the muscle sounds. Hering's insightful article has been overlooked and a translation of it into English is presented.</p

Ewald Hering's (1879) "On Muscle Sounds of the Eye":A translation and commentary

Investigations of eye movements were transformed by Ewald Hering in 1879. He developed a novel method for recording them using the muscular sounds attendant on their rapid movements. Brief "clapping" sounds could be heard with the aid of a device like a stethoscope placed on the eyelid and they occurred when afterimages or "floaters" were seen to move. Hering applied the technique to record eye movements during reading and he called the rapid eye movements Rucke (jerks in English). Hering published a long review of eye movements and spatial vision later in 1879, but without a description of the muscle sounds. Hering's insightful article has been overlooked and a translation of it into English is presented.</p

Searching for meaning in the Library of Babel: field semantics and problems of digital archiving

Languages are made up of linguistic signs, each of which is a conventional pairing of a form and a meaning. In spoken languages, the form is sound; in signed languages, it is a visual sign. A central task in documenting any spoken language is to lay bare the processes and structures - grammatical, lexical and prosodic - by which its speakers infer meaning from sound, and produce sound to express meaning. Technological advances in recent decades have seen our ability to both record and archive these sounds advance steadily, as witnessed by the many new tools and projects discussed at this workshop. Yet the other side of language - what these recordings mean - remains problematic, and presents difficult problems for archiving that receive all too little discussion. The worst case - found all too often - is an immaculate sound recording of a passage in language, without translation - for a language about which little is known this is about as helpful as tablets in the Indus or other undeciphered scripts: we recognize that language is there, without knowing what it means. Such cases can result either from language materials that are recorded without being analysed, or through a prevalent asymmetry by which the original text is recorded, but not the process of arriving at a translation through subsequent discussion and probing. The next worst case might follow the language passage with a short explanation or partial translation in some more widely-known language such as English, e.g. by the storyteller: because such translations are rarely complete, this is far from satisfactory. Even the canonical situation, in which a full and careful translation (e.g. by the linguist) is given, conceals a host of unanswered questions: how was the translation arrived at? what other translations would have been possible? what is the semantic range of each word or other linguistic sign, used in isolation? what cultural knowledge underlies the interpretation of particular figures of speech? how did the immediate context, including gesture, setting, other participants present, and so forth, contribute to the particular translation? Did local traditions of commentary and exegesis play a role in the translation - these could include, for example, explanatory asides or further texts that arose at particular points in working over the original texts. The fact that meaning is, at least in part, inside the minds of speaker and hearer, makes it inherently more difficult to capture than sound, which is physically present. However, a range of techniques that linguists use are, in principle, documentable. Some involve links to visual presentations of one sort or another, labelled realia: the meaning of a word or expression may be illustrated by photographs (e.g. of plants) or videos (e.g. of movement types, or processes); elicitation protocols (picture books, space game or video prompts); sand diagrams drawn to illustrate schematic concepts; keyed botanical specimens; GPS references for site names. These links need not be confined to illustrating reference: they may also illustrate motivations for metaphorical or metonymic extensions of terms, e.g. by zooming in on salient shapes of body parts used in metaphors, or on habitat links (e.g. particular fish that feed on the fallen fruit of particular trees) that underlie 'sign metonymies' by which the same name may be used both for a plant and an animal found in its vicinity. Other techniques, yet to be widely used in documenting little-known languages, can be adapted from the hermeneutic methods of linked commentaries on sacred texts in, e.g. in the Talmudic, Islamic and Buddhist traditions, using hypertext to link recorded interpretive comments to primary recorded materials in as many places as necessary (Bernard Muir's Ductus project begins to do this with medieval texts). This may also include speakers volunteering example sentences or other material illustrating how to use words that crop up in texts. Further methods, such as videoing responses by one speaker to language material presented by another (e.g. in the Nijmegen space games) can furnish visual evidence of how speakers interpret directives, hence documenting the decoding aspect of meaning as well. Techniques such as the above will never capture all aspects of how a semantic analysis is arrived at - the hyperrealistic illusion that every moment of a field investigator's investigation should be captured is untenable and interferes both with the daily human interactions that form part of learning a language, and with the serendipitous moments at which investigators suddenly click what something means. However, more explicit recognition of their role, during both recording and subsequent archiving, goes some way towards correcting the current asymmetry faced in the process of documentation of form and documentation of meaning.Volkswagen-Stiftung DOBES project; Australian Academy of the Humanities; Australian E-Humanities Network; Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sydney; School of Society, Culture and Performance, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydne

Theory into practice

"Theory into Practice. Composition, Performance and the Listening Experience' is the second publication in the series 'Collected Writings of the Orpheus Institute'. The series comprises articles concerning the activities of the Orpheus Institute. The centrale theme of this book is the relationship between the reflections about and the relization of a musical composition. In his paper Words about Music, or Analysis versus Performance, Nicholas Cook states that words and music can never be aligned exactly with one another. He embarks on a quest for models of the relationship between analytical conception and performance that are more challenging than those in general currency. Peter Johnson's article Performance and the Listening Experience: Bach's 'Erbarme dich' shows that a performance is an element within the intentionality of the work itself. He looks for scientific methods capable of proving the artisticity of a performance. The composer Hans Zender, in his A Road Map for Orpheus?, states that a composer must be capable of questioning obvious basic principles (such as equal temperament) and finding creative solutions.

QoE-aware inter-stream synchronization in open N-screens cloud

The growing popularity and increasing performance of mobile devices is transforming the way in which media can be consumed, from single device playback to orchestrated multi-stream experiences across multiple devices. One of the biggest challenges in realizing such immersive media experience is the dynamic management of synchronicity between associated media streams. This is further complicated by the faceted aspects of user perception and heterogeneity of user devices and networks. This paper introduces a QoE-aware open inter-stream media synchronization framework (IMSync). IMSync employs efficient monitoring and control mechanisms, as well as a bespoke QoE impact model derived from subjective user experiments. Given a current lag, IMSync's aim is to use the impact model to determine a good catch-up strategy that minimizes detrimental impact on QoE. The impact model balances the accumulative impact of re-synchronization processes and the degree of non-synchronicity to ensure the QoE. Experimental results verify the run-time performance of the framework as a foundation for immersive media experience in open N-Screens cloud

Pengaruh Free Cash Flow, Non Dept Tax Shield, dan Kepemilikan Institusional Terhadap Kebijakan Hutang Perusahaan Sektor Property dan Real Estater Yang Terdaftar Di Bursa Efek Indonesia

This study aims to determine the effect of the variables Free Cash Flow, Non Debt Tax Shield and institutional ownership on debt policy. The data used in this study is secondary data taken from the annual financial reports of property and real estate sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the 2019-2021 period. The number of observation samples used was 147 data taken using purposive sampling technique. The analysis technique used is multiple linear regression analysis. The research results obtained show that the variables of free cash flow and institutional ownership have no effect on debt policy. Meanwhile, the non-debt tax shield variable has a negative effect on debt policy. Keywords: Debt Policy, Free Cash Flow, Non Debt Tax Shield, and Institutional Ownershi

Addiction is a brain disease, and it doesn’t matter: prior choice in drug use blocks leniency in criminal punishment

Our aim was to explore how (neuro)scientific understanding of addiction as a brain-disease impacts criminal sentencing decisions in courts in England and Wales, where legal rules concerning intoxication, prior-fault and mental disease conflict, and sentencing guidelines lack clarity. We hypothesized that despite significant neuropsychiatric overlap of addiction and other brain-disorders, variables in relation to etiology would moderate magistrates’ sentencing decisions in cases involving addicted offenders. Using a questionnaire-based, quantitative design, and combining frequentist and Bayesian analysis approaches, we probed court magistrates’ sentencing decisions, and underlying rationale, for defendants presenting with brain damage resulting from a (fictional) disease, addiction to heroin, or more complex, mixed etiologies. When identical neuropsychiatric profiles resulted from disease, but not heroin addiction, prison sentences were significantly reduced. Study 1 (N=109) found the pivotal factor preventing addiction from mitigating sentences was perceived choice in its acquisition; removing choice from addiction increased the odds of sentence reduction (~20- fold) and attaching choice to disease aggravated or reversed earlier leniency. Study 2 (N=276) replicated these results and found that when heroin use led to disease or vice versa, magistrates found middle ground. These differences were independent of the age of first drug use. Finally, evidence of addiction was more likely to evoke punishment considerations by magistrates, rather than rehabilitation. Consistent with legal rules relating to intoxication but running counter to norms around mental-illness and choice, our results demonstrate the need for greater clarity in sentencing guidance on addiction specifically, and mental disorders more generally