Collective Behaviour in Video Viewing: A Thermodynamic Analysis of Gaze Position

Videos and commercials produced for large audiences can elicit mixed opinions. We wondered whether this diversity is also reflected in the way individuals watch the videos. To answer this question, we presented 65 commercials with high production value to 25 individuals while recording their eye movements, and asked them to provide preference ratings for each video. We find that gaze positions for the most popular videos are highly correlated. To explain the correlations of eye movements, we model them as ªinteractionsº between individuals. A thermodynamic analysis of these interactions shows that they approach a ªcritical º point such that any stronger interaction would put all viewers into lock-step and any weaker interaction would fully randomise patterns. At this critical point, groups with similar collective behaviour in viewing patterns emerge while maintaining diversity between groups. Our results suggest that popularity of videos is already evident in the way we look at them, and that we maintain diversity in viewing behaviour even as distinct patterns of groups emerge. Our results can be used to predict popularity of videos and commercials at the population level from the collective behaviour of the eye movements of a few viewers

Olfaction Modulates Inter-Subject Correlation of Neural Responses

Odors can be powerful stimulants. It is well-established that odors provide strong cues for recall of locations, people and events. The effects of specific scents on other cognitive functions are less well-established. We hypothesized that scents with different odor qualities will have a different effect on attention. To assess attention, we used Inter-Subject Correlation of the EEG because this metric is strongly modulated by attentional engagement with natural audiovisual stimuli.We predicted that scents known to be “energizing” would increase Inter-Subject Correlation during watching of videos as compared to “calming” scents. In a first experiment, we confirmed this for eucalyptol and linalool while participants watched animated autobiographical narratives. The result was replicated in a second experiment, but did not generalize to limonene, also considered an “energizing” odorant. In a third, double-blind experiment, we tested a battery of scents including single molecules, as well as mixtures, as participants watched various short video clips. We found a varying effect of odor on Inter-Subject Correlation across the various scents. This study provides a basis for reliably and reproducibly assessing effects of odors on brain activity. Future research is needed to further explore the effect of scent-based up-modulation in engagement on learning and memory performance. Educators, product developers and fragrance brands might also benefit from such objective neurophysiological measures

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Finding Buddha in the Barrio: Reflections on the Unanticipated Consequences of Archival Research

No Abstrac

"And Make the San Fernando Valley My Home:" Contested Spaces, Identities, and Activism on the Edge of Los Angeles

Southern California's San Fernando Valley is a huge expanse of land that comprises the northernmost section of the City of Los Angeles. Although it is currently the home to over 1.8 million residents with roots from across the globe and for several decades has been a city within a city, powerful and competing images of "the Valley" continue to shape public consciousness about this well-known American space. For better or worse, the San Fernando Valley has become a metonym for the rise and fall of post-World War II suburbia. This linear narrative - that privileges the transformation of agricultural fields into industrial plants and residential suburbs that later fell victim to urban sprawl - elides the histories of people of color in favor of broad generalizations about segregation or demographic change.This dissertation challenges those assumptions and uses the San Fernando Valley as a site to understand the overlapping relationships between race, space, and activism in the twentieth century. I propose that the San Fernando Valley is an instructive site to examine those relationships because of its historically multiethnic neighborhoods that have been shaped by the forces of such as war, metropolitan growth, and economic restructuring. Through an examination of major structural events and their social repercussions, such as the construction of railroads, the rise of the military industrial complex, various exclusionary laws or ballot initiatives, and a complex relationship with the City of Los Angeles, I show how African Americans, Latinas/os, and Asian Americans have claimed the San Fernando Valley for themselves, crafted their own communities, and fought against different forms of inequality. To be sure, their community building, political goals, and tactical strategies goals were informed by their respective racialization and distinctions based on class or migration status. Nevertheless, these individuals fashioned alternative forms of activism, community building, and knowledge that challenge dominant narratives of the San Fernando Valley

New Nurses in a New South: Filipina Americans, Resistance, and Crises of Professionalization*

This paper considers the means through which Filipina nurses grappled with the social and political terrains of their new lives in America—as workers, women of color, and as Filipina Americans. Using the microscopic texture of one woman’s oral history—that of my mother Felilia Lanete Rosas—will hopefully elucidate the macroscopic issues of immigration, social and political resistance, and race relations within and beyond the workplace. Her narrative reveals how Filipina American nurses in states such as Alabama and Texas, negotiated multiple identities, spaces, and fields of power. On the one hand her and her fellow nurses were trained professionals armed with university degrees and medical expertise. On the other hand, they were women of color whose presence was a result of America’s colonial legacy in the Philippines.

Finding Buddha in the Barrio: Reflections on the Unanticipated Consequences of Archival Research

No Abstrac

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) for the Detection of Mine-Like Objects in Sidescan Sonar Imagery

Detection of mine-like objects (MLOs) in sidescan sonar imagery is a problem that affects our military in terms of safety and cost. The current process involves large amounts of time for subject matter experts to analyze sonar images searching for MLOs. The automation of the detection process has been heavily researched over the years and some of these computer vision approaches have improved dramatically, providing substantial processing speed benefits. However, the human visual system has an unmatched ability to recognize objects of interest. This paper posits a brain-computer interface (BCI) approach, that combines the complementary benefits of computer vision and human vision. The first stage of the BCI, a Haar-like feature classifier, is cascaded in to the second stage, rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of images chips. The RSVP paradigm maximizes throughput while allowing an electroencephalography (EEG) interest classifier to determine the human subjects' recognition of objects. In an additional proposed BCI system we add a third stage that uses a trained support vector machine (SVM) based on the Haar-like features of stage one and the EEG interest scores of stage two. We characterize and show performance improvements for subsets of these BCI systems over the computer vision and human vision capabilities alone