Bayesian source separation of fMRI signals

In analyzing the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging, the identification of significant activation in voxels is a crucial task. In computing the activation level, a standard method is to select an assumed to be known reference function and perform a multiple regression of the time courses on it and a linear trend. Once the linear trend is found, the correlation between the assumed to be known reference function and the detrended observed time-course in each voxel is computed and voxels colored according to their correlation. But the most important question is: How do we choose the reference function? This paper develops a Bayesian statistical approach to determining the underlying source reference function based on Bayesian source separation, and uses it on both simulated and real fMRI data. This underlying reference function is the unobserved response due the presentation of the experimental stimulus

Stereoscopic camera and viewing systems with undistorted depth presentation and reduced or eliminated erroneous acceleration and deceleration perceptions, or with perceptions produced or enhanced for special effects

Methods for providing stereoscopic image presentation and stereoscopic configurations using stereoscopic viewing systems having converged or parallel cameras may be set up to reduce or eliminate erroneously perceived accelerations and decelerations by proper selection of parameters, such as an image magnification factor, q, and intercamera distance, 2w. For converged cameras, q is selected to be equal to Ve - qwl = 0, where V is the camera distance, e is half the interocular distance of an observer, w is half the intercamera distance, and l is the actual distance from the first nodal point of each camera to the convergence point, and for parallel cameras, q is selected to be equal to e/w. While converged cameras cannot be set up to provide fully undistorted three-dimensional views, they can be set up to provide a linear relationship between real and apparent depth and thus minimize erroneously perceived accelerations and decelerations for three sagittal planes, x = -w, x = 0, and x = +w which are indicated to the observer. Parallel cameras can be set up to provide fully undistorted three-dimensional views by controlling the location of the observer and by magnification and shifting of left and right images. In addition, the teachings of this disclosure can be used to provide methods of stereoscopic image presentation and stereoscopic camera configurations to produce a nonlinear relation between perceived and real depth, and erroneously produce or enhance perceived accelerations and decelerations in order to provide special effects for entertainment, training, or educational purposes

Signal Processing Spreads a Voxel’s Temporal Frequency Task-Activated Peak and Induces Spatial Correlations in Dual-Task Complex-Valued fMRI

Roll 213. Barth's Counsel Schedule / Bannon's History Copies. Image 7 of 21. (13 October, 1955) [PHO 1.213.7]The Boleslaus Lukaszewski (Father Luke) Photographs contain more than 28,000 images of Saint Louis University people, activities, and events between 1951 and 1970. The photographs were taken by Boleslaus Lukaszewski (Father Luke), a Jesuit priest and member of the University's Philosophy Department faculty

Management, Control, and the Dilemmas of Presidential Leadership in the Modern Administrative State

To assess the virtues of strong presidential leadership in the regulatory process, we need to have a richer sense of the dimensions of presidential leadership in regulatory decisionmaking. The set of proposals put forward by the National Performance Review (NPR), a task force established by the Clinton administration last year, provides a useful focal point for the examination of this issue. In Part I, the author considers how the trend toward President-led initiatives fits with our growing skepticism about the capacities of legislators and bureaucrats to improve regulation and administration. In Part II, the author traces some of the conceptual underpinnings of the President\u27s expanding regulatory role. The author adds to this mostly theoretical discussion the particulars of the NPR Report in Part III. Ultimately, the Clinton administration\u27s opening salvo into the thicket of regulatory reform is of a piece with contemporary trends in presidential politics and regulatory administration

You\u27re on Your Own, Kid…But You Shouldn\u27t Be

This article addresses the question: Should courts recognize a duty on the part of schools to implement proven strategies to reduce and prevent bullying? Nothing influences the answer to that question as understanding the nature of bullying in schools. Once understood, bullying seems less a rite of passage or builder of character and more like child abuse perpetuated by peers. The realization that many school children suffer such abuse that inflicts long-lasting and severe damage shifts the analysis from whether the problem is serious enough for courts to engage to how they might most effectively engage it. This article addresses what educational researchers mean by “bullying in schools,” its effects as well as what has long been known about proven strategies to reduce bullying. It then articulates two bases upon which courts might act to impose a duty on school officials to reduce the problem and protect students. The first theory is based on the second prong of the Tinker standard governing private student speech. The “Right of other students to be secure and to be let alone” is perfectly suited to recognition of a constitutional right of reasonable protection from peer-on-peer abuse in public schools. The second theory is based on a seldom cited comment to §320 of the Restatement of Torts where the duty of school officials to prevent bullying has been recognized for seventy years. The article concludes that both federal constitutional law and state common law require what common sense and professional competence plainly require – that school officials become serious and proactive against bullying in their schools and use proven methods for doing so