Traditional and new principles of perceptual grouping

Perceptual grouping refers to the process of determining which regions and parts of the visual scene belong together as parts of higher order perceptual units such as objects or patterns. In the early 20th century, Gestalt psychologists identified a set of classic grouping principles which specified how some image features lead to grouping between elements given that all other factors were held constant. Modern vision scientists have expanded this list to cover a wide range of image features but have also expanded the importance of learning and other non-image factors. Unlike early Gestalt accounts which were based largely on visual demonstrations, modern theories are often explicitly quantitative and involve detailed models of how various image features modulate grouping. Work has also been done to understand the rules by which different grouping principles integrate to form a final percept. This chapter gives an overview of the classic principles, modern developments in understanding them, and new principles and the evidence for them. There is also discussion of some of the larger theoretical issues about grouping such as at what stage of visual processing it occurs and what types of neural mechanisms may implement grouping principles

Counterbalancing for serial order carryover effects in experimental condition orders

Reactions of neural, psychological, and social systems are rarely, if ever, independent of previous inputs and states. The potential for serial order carryover effects from one condition to the next in a sequence of experimental trials makes counterbalancing of condition order an essential part of experimental design. Here, a method is proposed for generating counterbalanced sequences for repeated-measures designs including those with multiple observations of each condition on one participant and self-adjacencies of conditions. Condition ordering is reframed as a graph theory problem. Experimental conditions are represented as vertices in a graph and directed edges between them represent temporal relationships between conditions. A counterbalanced trial order results from traversing an Euler circuit through such a graph in which each edge is traversed exactly once. This method can be generalized to counterbalance for higher order serial order carryover effects as well as to create intentional serial order biases. Modern graph theory provides tools for finding other types of paths through such graph representations, providing a tool for generating experimental condition sequences with useful properties

BLACK FARMERS AND RURAL HEIR PROPERTY OWNERS: PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSE

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Edge-region grouping in figure-ground organization and depth perception.

Edge-region grouping (ERG) is proposed as a unifying and previously unrecognized class of relational information that influences figure-ground organization and perceived depth across an edge. ERG occurs when the edge between two regions is differentially grouped with one region based on classic principles of similarity grouping. The ERG hypothesis predicts that the grouped side will tend to be perceived as the closer, figural region. Six experiments are reported that test the predictions of the ERG hypothesis for 6 similarity-based factors: common fate, blur similarity, color similarity, orientation similarity, proximity, and flicker synchrony. All 6 factors produce the predicted effects, although to different degrees. In a 7th experiment, the strengths of these figural/depth effects were found to correlate highly with the strength of explicit grouping ratings of the same visual displays. The relations of ERG to prior results in the literature are discussed, and possible reasons for ERG-based figural/depth effects are considered. We argue that grouping processes mediate at least some of the effects we report here, although ecological explanations are also likely to be relevant in the majority of cases

A Security Assessment of Mobikey for Remote Access

Today, it is very common for employees to need to work when outside of the office. For various reasons, it\u27s important that they be able to work anytime and anywhere. However, this raises security concerns about how this is accomplished. There are many options, such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and remote desktop solutions, but each comes with its own risks. A newer option is the MobiKEY from Route1, which allows users to connect to their work resources from anywhere. Route1 touts the MobiKEY, powered by MobiNET, as a much more secure method of remote access. How does it stack up against other solutions? This paper examines the advantages of MobiKEY from a security perspective as contrasted with other options. The author performed a risk assessment of the device based upon guidelines from the National Institute of Technology (NIST) and obtained a MobiKEY from Route1 for the purposes of testing. This paper documents those findings

On Training in Language Documentation and Capacity Building in Papua New Guinea: A Response to Bird et al.

In a recent article, Bird et al. (2013) discuss a workshop held at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2012. The workshop was intended to offer a new methodological framework for language documentation and capacity building that streamlines the documentation process and accelerates the global effort to document endangered languages through machine translation and automated glossing technology developed by computer scientists. As a volunteer staff member at the workshop, in this response to Bird et al. I suggest that it did not in the end provide us with a model that should be replicated in the future. I explain how its failure to uphold fundamental commitments from a documentary linguistic and humanistic perspective can help inform future workshops and large-scale documentary efforts in PNG. Instead of experimenting with technological shortcuts that aim to reduce the role of linguists in language documentation and that construct participants as sources of data, we should implement training workshops geared toward the interests and skills of local participants who are interested in documenting their languages, and focus on building meaningful partnerships with academic institutions in PNG.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

A Foucauldian Analysis of Parents and Players Experiences at Elite Youth Football Academies

One consequence of living in a ‘surveillance society’ is that it has legitimised viewing and treating the body as a machine within the high-performance sports environment (Mills & Denison, 2013). A dominant discourse that encourages normalised observation and surveillance is now rife in elite sporting academies, including those of Association football clubs in the UK (Cushion & Jones, 2006; Jones, 2019). One under explored area of sports research is how the parents of elite youth athletes feel about their children being exposed to the aforementioned constant surveillance and observation. This study has provided a critical insight and discussion into how parents perceive current coaching practices (and their effects) in elite academy settings. Specifically, this study utilised a post-structuralist framework, inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault (1977), to understand the players and parents’ experiences of an elite Association football academy setting. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with four parent-academy player dyads. These interviews were then transcribed and analysed from a Foucauldian lens. Overall, two key themes were identified. The first theme revealed that a key symptom of the distribution of ‘disciplinary power’ in academies that leads to players becoming docile bodies (Jones, 2019) is that, consequently, parents also become ‘docile’– and in so doing, also uncritically accept the machinations of the academy. Theme two highlights how although parents have become docile, they are still heavily invested in their child’s sporting experiences and therefore do sometimes desire to intervene in areas within their current plane of understanding. In conclusion, this study suggests enhanced dialogue between academies and parents so that alternative practices, less reliant upon a disciplinary logic (Denison, Mills & Konoval, 2017) might mutually arise

Application of Grating-Based Interferometry to Additive Manufacturing, Lithium-ion Batteries, and Crystals

X-ray and neutron imaging are convenient ways to non-destructively observe novel materials. X-rays provide advantages of low cost and high brilliance while neutrons show bulk and isotopic sensitivity. Imaging provides a way for observing chemical and physical properties of materials without the need for destruction. The way of the imaging future is utilizing imaging with grating-based interferometry. In comparison to traditional radiography and tomography, by using absorption and phase gratings in the beam path, the absorption, phase, and scattering of a sample can be detected. In essence, three image datasets can be obtained in one experiment, saving substantially on costs (especially at expensive neutron facilities), time and materials. With several methods of interferometry available, the focus in this work is Talbot-Lau interferometry and newer designs referred to as near-field and far-field interferometry. X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometry experiments were performed at the LSU synchrotron, Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), using a microfocus X-ray tube and synchrotron X-rays (38 keV). Neutron Talbot-Lau experiments were performed at the CONRAD2 beamline (HZB, Berlin, Germany) and far-field experiments at the NG6 beamline (NIST, Gaithersburg, USA). Neutron imaging of the additive manufactured samples revealed pore structures and evi- dence of fracture as a function of fatigue. Battery imaging shows the migration of lithium across battery layers on a visual and quantitative level. X-ray and neutron imaging of potentially twinned crystals revealed the importance of preserving data in the 2D projection images that was lost in volume reconstruction. A comparison of Talbot-Lau, near-field, and far-field interferometry with application to additively manufactured samples, lithium-ion batteries, and geometrically twinned crystals is presented