Connecting Perceptual Organization To Time Perception

Previous research suggests that the organizational cue, connectedness, can influence time judgments of geometric shapes. The stimuli of those experiments consisted of geometric shapes with lines. In the organized set of stimuli, the lines joined the shapes together, and in the unorganized set of stimuli, the lines floated in whitespace amongst the shapes. However, connectedness affected time judgments in two seemingly opposing directions in previous experiments. The current experiment sought to clarify the differences between the results of the earlier experiments by modifying the instructions of the second task to have participants count the number of disjoint shapes. In this experiment, there were no differences between the time judgments for the organized and unorganized images. The results may suggest that the way the participants interpret the stimuli influence their time judgments

For many rural participants, Drug Court can be a positive experience, but more treatment options and support are needed.

Drug Courts are an increasingly popular policy intervention which can divert those convicted of drug-related offenses to treatment services rather than prison. In new research, Susan Witkin and Scott P. Hays spoke to a number of rural-based Drug Court participants about their experiences. While many participants were generally positive about the impact of Drug Court on their lives, they also ..

Planning for Regional Bike Sharing: Human-scaled Mobility and Transit Integration in Urban Growth Centres

This paper argues that an integrated approach to bike sharing program implementation can yield considerably higher benefits than bike sharing operations in isolation, and can improve transit systems and urban design alike. This paper draws from literature on the Sustainable Transportation paradigm, New Urbanism and Smart Growth to argue that a transit-integrated regional approach to bike sharing can greatly contribute to a seamless regional transit system, while yielding significant benefits to local urban design and mobility as well. Such an approach can significantly enhance transit’s competitiveness against the automobile, enabling transit-oriented designs of Urban Growth Centres that mitigate autocentric suburban sprawl. Employing this approach to GO Transit’s upcoming Regional Express Rail (RER) and the Urban Growth Centres of the GGH can facilitate the complete communities desired in the Provincial Growth Plan to advance the GGH’s polycentric urban network. The incorporation of bike sharing systems (BSSs) into regional transportation planning approaches provides the link that connects the regional with the local just as it connects the user from their door to the transit station. To realize its full potential in multimodal chains, bike sharing requires a high level of integration with the anchoring transit system in order to make it convenient and competitive against the personal automobile. Simultaneously, a regional transit system that targets Urban Growth Centres to integrate bike sharing at the local level helps to facilitate Smart Growth goals, complete communities, New Urbanist design; and enhances the scope of transit-oriented development (TOD). Effective BSStransit integration requires both transit fare and station integration, and is strongly compatible with newly emerging mobility as a service (MaaS) systems for seamlessness. A coordinated package of cycling infrastructure and BSSs can significantly increase cycling rates, contribute to station integration, and improve the cycling-transit interface generally. This package is also a crucial element to local design contributions, where it is argued BSSs should be considered as a fundamental design element to Urban Growth Centres in order to facilitate New Urbanist design and improved TOD

The Effect of Urbanization on Water Quality

The past several decades have seen the proliferation of urban areas around the world (Uitto, 1999). Land-cover change, correlated with different forms of land use, is documented to have significant impact on earth\u27s hydrologic systems (Aichele, 2005). Significant studies point to urbanization as being a key source of pollutants in earth\u27s watersheds and natural hydrologic landscapes(Li et al. 2016; Aichele 2005). This study aims to measure the effect of urbanization on the water quality of Gross Creek. Concentrations of E.coli, phosphorus, nitrogen, and suspended sediments were measured from four sampling sites along Gross Creek in Farmville, Virginia. This process was repeated before and after three major rain events. It is predicted that due to stormwater runoff from rain events, there will be higher concentrations of E.coli, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment present in Gross Creek after rain events and in areas of more urban surroundings

Quantum nonlinear lattices and coherent state vectors

Quantized nonlinear lattice models are considered for two different classes, boson and fermionic ones. The quantum discrete nonlinear Schroedinger model (DNLS) is our main objective, but its so called modified discrete nonlinear (MDNLS) version is also included, together with the fermionic polaron (FP) model. Based on the respective dynamical symmetries of the models, a method is put forward which by use of the associated boson and spin coherent state vectors (CSV) and a factorization ansatz for the solution of the Schroedinger equation, leads to quasiclassical Hamiltonian equations of motion for the CSV parameters. Analysing the geometrical content of the factorization ansatz made for the state vectors invokes the study of the Riemannian and symplectic geometry of the CSV manifolds as generalized phase spaces. Next, we investigate analytically and numerically the behavior of mean values and uncertainties of some physically interesting observables as well as the modifications in the quantum regime of processes such as the discrete self trapping (DST), in terms of the Q-function and the distribution of excitation quanta of the lattice sites. Quantum DST in the symmetric ordering of lattice operators is found to be relatively enhanced with respect to the classical DST. Finally, the meaning of the factorization ansatz for the lattice wave function is explained in terms of disregarded quantum correlations, and as a quantitative figure of merit for that ansatz a correlation index is introduced.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 9 figures in ps forma

Applying Artificial Intelligence to the Identification of Variegated Coloring in Skin Tumors

The importance of color information for the automatic diagnosis of skin tumors by computer vision is demonstrated. The utility of the relative color concept is proved by the results in identifying variegated coloring. A feature file paradigm is shown to provide an effective methodology for the independent development of software modules for expert system/computer vision research. An automatic induction tool is used effectively to generate rules for identifying variegated coloring. Variegated coloring can be identified at rates as high as 92% when using the automatic induction technique in conjunction with the color segmentation metho

Automatic Color Segmentation of Images with Application to Detection of Variegated Coloring in Skin Tumors

A description is given of a computer vision system, developed to serve as the front-end of a medical expert system, that automates visual feature identification for skin tumor evaluation. The general approach is to create different software modules that detect the presence or absence of critical features. Image analysis with artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, such as the use of heuristics incorporated into image processing algorithms, is the primary approach. On a broad scale, this research addressed the problem of segmentation of a digital image based on color information. The algorithm that was developed to segment the image strictly on the basis of color information was shown to be a useful aid in the identification of tumor border, ulcer, and other features of interest. As a specific application example, the method was applied to 200 digitized skin tumor images to identify the feature called variegated coloring. Extensive background information is provided, and the development of the algorithm is described

'Colour and communion': Exploring the influences of visual art-making as a leisure activity on older women's subjective well-being

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Aging Studies. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Research into the subjective experience of art-making for older people is limited, and has focused mostly on professional artists rather than amateurs. This study examined older women's motives for visual art-making. Thirty-two participants aged 60-86 years old were interviewed. Twelve lived with chronic illness; twenty reported good health. Nearly all had taken up art after retirement; two had since become professional artists. Participants described their art-making as enriching their mental life, promoting enjoyment of the sensuality of colour and texture, presenting new challenges, playful experimentation, and fresh ambitions. Art also afforded participants valued connections with the world outside the home and immediate family. It encouraged attention to the aesthetics of the physical environment, preserved equal status relationships, and created opportunities for validation. Art-making protected the women's identities, helping them to resist the stereotypes and exclusions which are commonly encountered in later life.AHR

Unsupervised Color Image Segmentation: with Application to Skin Tumor Borders

The images used in this research were digitized from 35mm color photographic slides obtained from a private dermatology practice and from New York University. The authors compared 6 color segmentation methods and their effectiveness as part of an overall border-finding algorithm. The PCT/median cut and adaptive thresholding algorithms provided the lowest average error and show the most promise for further individual algorithm development. Combining the different methods resulted in further improvement in the number of correctly identified tumor borders, and by incorporating additional heuristics in merging the segmented object information, one could potentially further increase the success rate. The algorithm is broad-based and suggests several areas for further research. One possible area of exploration is to incorporate an intelligent decision making process as to the number of colors that should be used for segmentation in the PCT/median cut and adaptive thresholding algorithms. For comparison purposes, the number of colors was kept constant at three in the authors\u27\u27 application. Other areas that can be explored are noise removal and object classification to determine the correct tumor objec