A Display Calibration Technique based on Invariant Human Colour Mechanisms

When human observers are asked to adjust a coloured light such that it appears neither red nor green, or such that it appears neither yellow nor blue, most colour-normal observers have no difficulty in making these adjustments. These hue judgements are not significantly influenced by language or age [Saunders and van Brakel 1997] and individual differences in colour sensitivity are not reflected in the unique-hue settings [Webster et al. 2000]. The human colour system seems to be able to calibrate itself so that there is a remarkable agreement across observers in relation to these unique-hue judgements. Here we show how we can use the invariance of these unique-hue judgements to develop a colour calibration technique for display devices, which eliminates the need for an external calibration standard or a measurement device

The Fontan circulation:looking deep and beyond

Children born with a functionally univentricular heart are currently palliated with a series of operations culminating in the Fontan circulation. This unphysiological circulation deteriorates over time, and long-term outcomes regarding morbidity and mortality are dire. This thesis focused on two important topics; one, we investigated predictors for the deterioration of the Fontan circulation. We found that GDF-15, a blood marker, as well as ventricular strain measured by MRI are valuable indicators of the status of a patient’s Fontan circulation. For the first time, serial measurements were done and showed additional predictive value. Furthermore, we found sex differences in ventricular dimensions of Fontan patients that exceed those found in the general population. The above mentioned findings are important in order to recognize patients at risk for deterioration of the Fontan circulation and are vital for initiation of treatment.The second part of the thesis focused on a small group of functionally univentricular heart patients who survived without the Fontan operations. We collected all known survivors of double inlet left ventricle hearts in the Netherlands. We compared their cardiac anatomy and blood flows to that of the axolotl salamander, which naturally lives with a functionally univentricular heart. Both in human as well as in the axolotl we found anatomical characteristics of their hearts that facilitated streaming of blood and allowed them to survive. The results of this investigation indicate that some carefully selected functionally univentricular heart patients may benefit from a conservative treatment approach

Threshold concepts and metalearning capacity

This study operationalises the empowering concept of metalearning in the specific context of engagement with a threshold concept. An experience of metalearning was constituted in two parts. First students' awareness of themselves as learners is prompted by, and focuses on, a learning profile that is generated online through the completion of the Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI). Second, students are given an opportunity to interpret their respective profiles and write a short and undirected reflective account of their interpretation. The second part of the experience focuses not only on students' awareness but also on their capacity to control their future learning on the basis of their heightened awareness.

Does a personalized feedback on investment success mitigate investment mistakes of private investors? Answers from large natural field experiment

In this natural field experiment with almost 2.000 customers of an online-broker we test what happens when investors receive feedback on their investment success in a monthly securities account report. We test four designs using different graphical displays and text. All report designs show investors last year s returns, costs, their current level of risk and their portfolio diversification. Depending on the design, we also include peer-group and/or benchmark information. Over a period of six months, we find that the reports induce an increase in trading activity, a deterioration in diversification measures, and reduces stock market exposure. Results are robust to controlling for potential play money accounts and changes in report designs. The results imply that feedback may be a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for helping retail investors making better investment decisions

Interactions between Auditory and Visual Semantic Stimulus Classes: Evidence for Common Processing Networks for Speech and Body Actions

Incongruencies between auditory and visual signals negatively affect human performance and cause selective activation in neuroimaging studies; therefore, they are increasingly used to probe audiovisual integration mechanisms. An open question is whether the increased BOLD response reflects computational demands in integrating mismatching low-level signals or reflects simultaneous unimodal conceptual representations of the competing signals. To address this question, we explore the effect of semantic congruency within and across three signal categories (speech, body actions, and unfamiliar patterns) for signals with matched low-level statistics. In a localizer experiment, unimodal (auditory and visual) and bimodal stimuli were used to identify ROIs. All three semantic categories cause overlapping activation patterns. We find no evidence for areas that show greater BOLD response to bimodal stimuli than predicted by the sum of the two unimodal responses. Conjunction analysis of the unimodal responses in each category identifies a network including posterior temporal, inferior frontal, and premotor areas. Semantic congruency effects are measured in the main experiment. We find that incongruent combinations of two meaningful stimuli (speech and body actions) but not combinations of meaningful with meaningless stimuli lead to increased BOLD response in the posterior STS (pSTS) bilaterally, the left SMA, the inferior frontal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobule, and the anterior insula. These interactions are not seen in premotor areas. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that pSTS and frontal areas form a recognition network that combines sensory categorical representations (in pSTS) with action hypothesis generation in inferior frontal gyrus/premotor areas. We argue that the same neural networks process speech and body actions

Démarche qualité au sein d'un laboratoire de recherche du CNRS: FEMTO-ST

National audienceDans ce papier est présenté la démarche qualité menée par le CNRS et l'Université de Franche Comté au sein de l'institut FEMTO-ST, avec la mise en oeuvre du label Carnot, et les activités d'étalonnages du LNE-LTFB, laboratoire commun avec l'Observatoire de Besançon et associé au LNE

Seamless Integration of Multirequirements in Complex Systems

Requirements are the keystone of complex systems development. In order to reduce inconsistencies, requirements analysis is an important issue of systems engineering. In this context, there is a need for conciliating views of several stakeholders from different domains and for tracing these requirements from specification to realization. The computerization of analysis, with the help of a clearly defined semantics linked to a non-specialist readable language, should lead to overcome this major issue. Several works already go into this direction. The most popular ones are dealing with natural language, easily understandable but with few semantics. Other approaches propose more formal notations, with stronger semantics but then being less affordable by stakeholders. In this paper, we propose a preliminary work that should drive us to define a language dedicated to requirements which combine the best of both worlds in order to ease requirements analysis throughout the system lifecycle

S-cone signals invisible to the motion system can improve motion extraction via grouping by color

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Les litiges du travail au temps du jugement prud'homal

Le recours aux décisions des juridictions du fond comme source d'informations complémentaires sur l'activité des tribunaux est aujourd'hui de pratique courante avec des finalités souvent diverses. L'enquête ici menée se situe dans une perspective contentieuse et vise à produire des connaissances sur les caractéristiques et les régularités des actions intentées devant les conseils de prud'hommes, en privilégiant la dimension économique de leur action. L'objectif était double : opérer un contrôle des variables figurant dans le répertoire civil et apporter des informations inédites notamment sur les caractéristiques des parties à l'instance et sur les demandes. Notre corpus d'observation a été constitué par les décisions dessaisissant la juridiction prud'homale et rendues par 248 conseils de prud'homme sur le mois de novembre 19961 soit un corpus de 7962 jugements au fond et 2110 ordonnances de référé. L'ensemble de ces décisions a fait l'objet d'une analyse et d'une saisie sur tableur selon une grille de dépouillement comportant 23 variables. Le rapport s'est tout d'abord intéressé à l'anatomie des décisions prud'homales par une exploitation à plat du fichier. Cette dernière a permis de confirmer des données connues par une exploitation des statistiques nationales et portant sur la section, la départition, la comparution du défendeur, le ressort, la nature de l'affaire et le résultat de l'action en terme de rejet ou d'acceptation de la demande. Cette même exploitation à plat a permis d'apporter des informations plus pointues sur le demandeur, le défendeur et le résultat de l'action. C'est ainsi que pour le demandeur, il a été apporté des informations nouvelles sur sa qualité, la nature du contrat de travail et l'ancienneté dans l'entreprise mais également sur ses prétentions tant au niveau de la valeur de la demande principale que de la valeur de l'ensemble de ses prétentions. Le rapport s 'est ensuite intéressé à une recherche des données de nature à faire varier le résultat de l'action. Le secteur professionnel, la nature de l'affaire, le type du contrat ou l'ancienneté du salarié ont-ils une influence sur la distribution des rejets et les montants obtenus ? En conclusion, il a été possible mettre en exergue 6 caractéristiques des décisions prud'homales - Des décisions prud'homales qui se tertiarisent avec un net recul de la section industrie - Une différence de structure entre les affaires traitées au fond et en référé - Des contentieux très disputés dans les décisions au fond avec un taux de comparution des défendeurs de 87% et une solide assistance par des professionnels du droit tant en défense qu'en demande. Des litiges à forte valeur économique avec une faible proportion d'aides juridictionnelles, 70% de décisions rendues à charge d'appel et une moyenne de la demande principale de 78000f Des résultats mitigés en terme de gains avec notamment 33% des demandes totalement rejetées. Une influence de la section, de la nature des affaires et de l'ancienneté dans le résultat de l'action. C'est ainsi que les demandes de salaires formées dans le cadre des procédures collectives connaissent un taux de réussite exceptionnel (83%)