Separate cortical stages in amodal completion revealed by functional magnetic resonance adaptation : research article

Background Objects in our environment are often partly occluded, yet we effortlessly perceive them as whole and complete. This phenomenon is called visual amodal completion. Psychophysical investigations suggest that the process of completion starts from a representation of the (visible) physical features of the stimulus and ends with a completed representation of the stimulus. The goal of our study was to investigate both stages of the completion process by localizing both brain regions involved in processing the physical features of the stimulus as well as brain regions representing the completed stimulus. Results Using fMRI adaptation we reveal clearly distinct regions in the visual cortex of humans involved in processing of amodal completion: early visual cortex - presumably V1 - processes the local contour information of the stimulus whereas regions in the inferior temporal cortex represent the completed shape. Furthermore, our data suggest that at the level of inferior temporal cortex information regarding the original local contour information is not preserved but replaced by the representation of the amodally completed percept. Conclusion These findings provide neuroimaging evidence for a multiple step theory of amodal completion and further insights into the neuronal correlates of visual perception

Report Dagstuhl Seminar 10402 - Working Group on Fundamental Limits and Opportunities

This working group investigated first steps towards finding a theoretical foundation for inter-vehicle communication. The main outcome is a sketch of a roadmap for future work in this direction

Changing patterns of electricity use in European manufacturing: A decomposition analysis

This paper sets out to investigate the changing patterns of electricity intensity in European manufacturing for the time span 2000-2011. While GVA in Manufacturing has grown and electricity use has declined, it is not clear that this decrease in intensity is directly associated with improvements in technology. Decomposition of the effect suggests that a switch towards less energy intensive sectors accounted for roughly 10% of the total change in electricity intensity. A further level of disaggregation was added in order to account for the factor mix in the form of potential substitution between labor and electricity. The factor mix effect was largely positive, implying that substitution from labor to electricity has been the norm. The average decrease in labor intensity has been more pronounced than the corresponding decrease in electricity intensity. Accordingly, aggregate changes cannot purely be attributed to less electricity-dependent modes of production, but are rather due to general improvements in productivity. Interestingly, this does not appear to be driven by factor prices, as electricity prices grew significantly more than wage compensations within the period at hand.Diese Arbeit untersucht zeitliche Veränderungen der Stromintensität in der europäischen Industrie in der Zeitspanne 2000 bis 2011. Parallel zur steigenden industriellen Produktion ist der Stromverbrauch der Industrie im Mittel gesunken, dies ist jedoch nicht zwangsläufig das Ergebnis von technologischem Fortschritt. Eine Zerlegung in Struktur- und Intensitätskomponente ergibt, dass etwa 10 % der gesunkenen Stromintensität auf sektorale Effekte zurückzuführen sind. Um zusätzlich Änderungen im Substitutionsverhältnis von Arbeit und Energie zu berücksichtigen, wurde in einem weiteren Zerlegungsschritt ein Faktormixeffekt bestimmt. Dabei wurde im allgemeinen ein systematischer Anstieg des Arbeitseinsatzes in Relation zum Stromverbrauch festgestellt. Änderungen in der Intensität können damit nicht allgemein auf einen Wechsel zu weniger stromabhängigen Produktionsmethoden zurückgeführt werden. Interessanterweise schien dies nicht durch Änderungen in den Faktorpreisen verursacht worden zu sein, da die Strompreise deutlich stärker gewachsen sind als die Löhne

Towards a new measure of a country's competitiveness: applying canonical correlation

This paper proposes a new approach for creating country indices and applies it to the construction of an index ranking countries according to their current level of competitiveness in international goods exchange. Existing indices largely assign equal or in some other way arbitrary weights to their single indicators regardless of the information contained. By applying the so far neglected method of canonical correlation analysis, we obtain index weights which are themselves transparent outcomes of the data structure. In doing this, we consider competitiveness as a multidimensional concept which can be proxied by export volumes as well as inflows of capital and labour. Weights for these index components are derived based on their correlation with a set of development indicators. In this way, components are assigned larger weights which reflect to a larger degree the state of institutional quality and to a smaller degree exogenous first-nature advantage. As a consequence, the weight of capital inflows turns out to be driven to zero

Protection against major catastrophes: An economic perspective

This paper intends to further understanding of catastrophic events by reviewing the economic literature on their effects as well as potential means of dealing with the corresponding risks and uncertainties. Since 2000, the world has seen a number of catastrophes including terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe, tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Japan as well as volcanic eruptions in Iceland. All of these have had significant impacts on human well-being and economic activity beyond the regional level. In an increasingly populous and globalized world, these types of events and their repercussions are likely to increase. Hence, it is important to ensure that government and private entities cooperate in an attempt to reduce risks of catastrophes

Short-term forecasting with business surveys: Evidence for German IHK data at federal state level

We investigate the performance of the IHK business climate indices as forecasting tools within a growth framework at the level of four federal states in Northern Germany. In doing this, we match quarterly index scores with estimates of quarterly production data, generated through a Chow-Lin procedure. Estimating the model reveals strong linkages of the index scores to short-term output growth at the regional level, even after controlling for prior information on the position in the business cycle as well as for nation-wide fluctuations. Examining the forecasting accuracy of our model by means of out-of-sample predictions confirms these results: the model clearly outperforms an autoregressive benchmark. This can to a large part be traced back to information conveyed by the IHK index