The eye gaze direction of an observed person can bias perception, memory, and attention in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

The reported experiments aimed to investigate whether a person and his or her gaze direction presented in the context of a naturalistic scene cause perception, memory, and attention to be biased in typically developing adolescents and high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A novel computerized image manipulation program presented a series of photographic scenes, each containing a person. The program enabled participants to laterally maneuver the scenes behind a static window, the borders of which partially occluded the scenes. The gaze direction of the person in the scenes spontaneously cued attention of both groups in the direction of gaze, affecting judgments of preference (Experiment 1a) and causing memory biases (Experiment 1b). Experiment 2 showed that the gaze direction of a person cues visual search accurately to the exact location of gaze in both groups. These findings suggest that biases in preference, memory, and attention are caused by another person's gaze direction when viewed in a complex scene in adolescents with and without ASD (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The eye gaze direction of an observed person can bias perception, memory, and attention in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

The reported experiments aimed to investigate whether a person and his or her gaze direction presented in the context of a naturalistic scene cause perception, memory, and attention to be biased in typically developing adolescents and high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A novel computerized image manipulation program presented a series of photographic scenes, each containing a person. The program enabled participants to laterally maneuver the scenes behind a static window, the borders of which partially occluded the scenes. The gaze direction of the person in the scenes spontaneously cued attention of both groups in the direction of gaze, affecting judgments of preference (Experiment 1a) and causing memory biases (Experiment 1b). Experiment 2 showed that the gaze direction of a person cues visual search accurately to the exact location of gaze in both groups. These findings suggest that biases in preference, memory, and attention are caused by another person's gaze direction when viewed in a complex scene in adolescents with and without ASD (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Do gaze cues in complex scenes capture and direct the attention of high functioning adolescents with ASD? evidence from eye-tracking

Visual fixation patterns whilst viewing complex photographic scenes containing one person were studied in 24 high-functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and 24 matched typically developing adolescents. Over two different scene presentation durations both groups spent a large, strikingly similar proportion of their viewing time fixating the person’s face. However, time-course analyses revealed differences between groups in priorities of attention to the region of the face containing the eyes. It was also noted that although individuals with ASD were rapidly cued by the gaze direction of the person in the scene, this was not followed by an immediate increase in total fixation duration at the location of gaze, which was the case for typically developing individuals

Time Dependent Effects and Transport Evidence for Phase Separation in La_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3}

The ground state of La_{1-x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3} changes from a ferromagnetic metallic to an antiferromagnetic charge-ordered state as a function of Ca concentration at x ~ 0.50. We present evidence from transport measurements on a sample with x = 0.50 that the two phases can coexist, in agreement with other observations of phase separation in these materials. We also observe that, by applying and then removing a magnetic field to the mainly charge-ordered state at some temperatures, we can "magnetically anneal" the charge order, resulting in a higher zero-field resistivity. We also observe logarithmic time dependence in both resistivity and magnetization after a field sweep at low temperatures.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX, 3 postscript figure

iCapture: Facilitating Spontaneous User-Interaction with Pervasive Displays using Smart Devices

Abstract. The eCampus project at Lancaster University is an inter-disciplinary project aiming to deploy a wide range of situated displays across the University campus in order to create a large per-vasive communications infrastructure. At present, we are conducting a series of parallel research activities in order to investigate how the pervasive communications infrastructure can support the daily needs of staff, students and visitors to the University. This paper introduces one of our current research investigations into how one is able to mediate spontaneous interaction with the pervasive display infrastructure through camera equipped mobile phones (i.e. smart devices).

The conduciveness of CA-rule graphs

Given two subsets A and B of nodes in a directed graph, the conduciveness of the graph from A to B is the ratio representing how many of the edges outgoing from nodes in A are incoming to nodes in B. When the graph's nodes stand for the possible solutions to certain problems of combinatorial optimization, choosing its edges appropriately has been shown to lead to conduciveness properties that provide useful insight into the performance of algorithms to solve those problems. Here we study the conduciveness of CA-rule graphs, that is, graphs whose node set is the set of all CA rules given a cell's number of possible states and neighborhood size. We consider several different edge sets interconnecting these nodes, both deterministic and random ones, and derive analytical expressions for the resulting graph's conduciveness toward rules having a fixed number of non-quiescent entries. We demonstrate that one of the random edge sets, characterized by allowing nodes to be sparsely interconnected across any Hamming distance between the corresponding rules, has the potential of providing reasonable conduciveness toward the desired rules. We conjecture that this may lie at the bottom of the best strategies known to date for discovering complex rules to solve specific problems, all of an evolutionary nature

An assessment of the dose and image quality difference between AP and PA positioned adult radiographic knee examinations

Introduction Knee X-rays are a standard examination to diagnose multiple conditions ranging from traumatic injuries, degeneration, and cancer. This study explores the differences between adult Anterior-Posterior (AP) and Posterior-Anterior (PA) weight-bearing knee examinations using absorbed radiation dose data and image quality. Methods The study modelled and compared AP and PA knee X-ray radiation dose data using Monte-Carlo software, an Ion Chamber, and thermoluminescence dosemeters (TLDs) on a Rando phantom. Imaging parameters used were 66kVp, 4mAs, 100cm distance and 13 × 24cm collimation. The interval data analysis used a two-tailed t-test. The image quality of a sample of the AP and PA knee X-rays was assessed using Likert 5-point ordinal Image Quality Scoring (IQS) and the Wilcoxon matched pairs test. Results Monte-Carlo modelling provided limited results; the Ion Chamber data for absorbed dose provided no variation between AP and PA positions but was similar to the AP TLD dose. The absorbed doses recorded with batches of TLDs demonstrated a 27.4% reduction (46.1μGy; p=0.01) in Skin Entrance Dose (ESD) and 9 - 58% dose reduction (1.6 – 16.4μGy; p=0.00-0.2) to the tissues and organs while maintaining diagnostic image quality (p=0.67). Conclusion The study has highlighted the various challenges of using different dosimetry approaches to measure absorbed radiation dose in extremity (knee) X-ray imaging. The Monte-Carlo simulated absorbed knee dose was overestimated, but the simulated body organ/tissue doses were lower than the actual TLD absorbed doses. The Ion Chamber absorbed doses did not differentiate between the positions. The TLD organ/tissue absorbed doses demonstrated a reduction in dose in the PA position compared to the AP position, without a detrimental effect on image quality. The study findings in laboratory conditions raise awareness of opportunities and potential to lower radiation dose, with further study replicated in a clinical site recommended