On the Functional Significance of the P1 and N1 Effects to Illusory Figures in the Notch Mode of Presentation

The processing of Kanizsa figures have classically been studied by flashing the full “pacmen” inducers at stimulus onset. A recent study, however, has shown that it is advantageous to present illusory figures in the “notch” mode of presentation, that is by leaving the round inducers on screen at all times and by removing the inward-oriented notches delineating the illusory figure at stimulus onset. Indeed, using the notch mode of presentation, novel P1and N1 effects have been found when comparing visual potentials (VEPs) evoked by an illusory figure and the VEPs to a control figure whose onset corresponds to the removal of outward-oriented notches, which prevents their integration into one delineated form. In Experiment 1, we replicated these findings, the illusory figure was found to evoke a larger P1 and a smaller N1 than its control. In Experiment 2, real grey squares were placed over the notches so that one condition, that with inward-oriented notches, shows a large central grey square and the other condition, that with outward-oriented notches, shows four unconnected smaller grey squares. In response to these “real” figures, no P1 effect was found but a N1 effect comparable to the one obtained with illusory figures was observed. Taken together, these results suggest that the P1 effect observed with illusory figures is likely specific to the processing of the illusory features of the figures. Conversely, the fact that the N1 effect was also obtained with real figures indicates that this effect may be due to more global processes related to depth segmentation or surface/object perception

Capacity Planning for Ambient Assisted Living

Housing services and utilities represent the highest share of the EU Silver Economy. EU Member States are ageing. The demand for specialised housing for older adults and ambient assisted living technologies is expected to triple in the next 40 years. The ageing population is driving the expenditures of health care (HC) and long-term care (LTC) provision without visible improvement in the quality of life of older adults. Ambient assisted living technologies and ambient intelligence can enable residents to live longer in their own homes and in specialised housing in the community while mitigating the increasing public expenditures for health care and long-term care. We present the results of the survey, how older adults in Slovenia perceive the ambient assisted living housing, where large share of older adults, who are already included in municipality home care programs, want to live after a severe decline in their functional capacities. These results enable us to forecast the dynamics of the expected demand for specialised housing for older adults and the expected directions of the development of specialised housing and the supply networks. We present the multiple decrement model to forecast the dynamics of this demand when developing the silver economy. This structure of demand, we show, depends on the demographic and the income of the older adults. Therefore, it influences the probabilities of transitions in a multiple decrement model for forecasting the dynamics of development of specialised housing with embedded AAL technologies for older adults

Distribution rules with numeric attributes of interest

In this paper we introduce distribution rules, a kind of association rules with a distribution on the consequent. Distribution rules are related to quantitative association rules but can be seen as a more fundamental concept, useful for learning distributions. We formalize the main concepts and indicate applications to tasks such as frequent pattern discovery, sub group discovery and forecasting. An efficient algorithm for the generation of distribution rules is described. We also provide interest measures, visualization techniques and evaluation