Visual Processing of Contour Patterns under Conditions of Inattentional Blindness

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Pitts ◽  
Antígona Martínez ◽  
Steven A. Hillyard

An inattentional blindness paradigm was adapted to measure ERPs elicited by visual contour patterns that were or were not consciously perceived. In the first phase of the experiment, subjects performed an attentionally demanding task while task-irrelevant line segments formed square-shaped patterns or random configurations. After the square patterns had been presented 240 times, subjects' awareness of these patterns was assessed. More than half of all subjects, when queried, failed to notice the square patterns and were thus considered inattentionally blind during this first phase. In the second phase of the experiment, the task and stimuli were the same, but following this phase, all of the subjects reported having seen the patterns. ERPs recorded over the occipital pole differed in amplitude from 220 to 260 msec for the pattern stimuli compared with the random arrays regardless of whether subjects were aware of the patterns. At subsequent latencies (300–340 msec) however, ERPs over bilateral occipital-parietal areas differed between patterns and random arrays only when subjects were aware of the patterns. Finally, in a third phase of the experiment, subjects viewed the same stimuli, but the task was altered so that the patterns became task relevant. Here, the same two difference components were evident but were followed by a series of additional components that were absent in the first two phases of the experiment. We hypothesize that the ERP difference at 220–260 msec reflects neural activity associated with automatic contour integration whereas the difference at 300–340 msec reflects visual awareness, both of which are dissociable from task-related postperceptual processing.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nhat Thanh Hoang Le ◽  
Nhan Thi Ho ◽  
Bryan Grenfell ◽  
Stephen Baker ◽  
Ronald B. Geskus

Abstract Background Infection with measles virus (MeV) causes immunosuppression and increased susceptibility to other infectious diseases. Only few studies reported a duration of immunosuppression, with varying results. We investigated the effect of immunosuppression on the incidence of hospital admissions for infectious diseases in Vietnamese children. Methods We used retrospective data (2005 to 2015; N = 4419) from the two pediatric hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We compared the age-specific incidence of hospital admission for infectious diseases before and after hospitalization for measles. We fitted a Poisson regression model that included gender, current age, and time since measles to obtain a multiplicative effect measure. Estimates were transformed to the additive scale. Results We observed two phases in the incidence of hospital admission after measles. The first phase started with a fourfold increased rate of admissions during the first month after measles, dropping to a level quite comparable to children of the same age before measles. In the second phase, lasting until at least 6 years after measles, the admission rate decreased further, with values up to 20 times lower than in children of the same age before measles. However, on the additive scale the effect size in the second phase was much smaller than in the first phase. Conclusion The first phase highlights the public health benefits of measles vaccination by preventing measles and immune amnesia. The beneficial second phase is interesting, but its strength strongly depends on the scale. It suggests a complicated interaction between MeV infection and the host immunity.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katinka van der Kooij ◽  
Nina M van Mastrigt ◽  
Jeroen BJ Smeets

AbstractBinary reward feedback on movement success is sufficient for learning in some simple reaching tasks, but not in some more complex ones. It is unclear what the critical conditions for learning are. Here, we ask how reward-based sensorimotor learning depends on the number of factors that are task-relevant. In a task that involves two factors, we test whether learning improves by giving feedback on each factor in a separate phase of the learning. Participants learned to perform a 3D trajectory matching task on the basis of binary reward-feedback in three phases. In the first and second phase, the reward could be based on the produced slant, the produced length or the combination of the two. In the third phase, the feedback was always based on the combination of the two factors. The results showed that reward-based learning did not depend on the number of factors that were task-relevant. Consistently, providing feedback on a single factor in the first two phases did not improve motor learning in the third phase.


Author(s):  
SIMONA BERTOLINI ◽  

Interest in the ontological constitution of living beings (with particular reference to the human being) characterizes the whole development of Hedwig Conrad-Martius’ philosophy. Several works written by the philosopher over the years deal with both the phenomenological description and the ontological foundation of the difference between plants, animals, and humans. Specifically, the ontological structure of the human being is investigated as a layered structure which presupposes those of plants and animals while overcoming them in a more complex and spiritual unity, on which human freedom and human knowledge depend. Although this topic maintains a crucial role in Conrad-Martius’ thought, the way the philosopher addresses it and the theoretical results of her phenomenological-ontological inquiry about it do not remain unchanged. Indeed, the ontological structure at the basis of phenomenal differences as well as the metaphysical foundations of this structure change over the decades. This paper aims at distinguishing between two phases, characterized by different ontological categories, through which Conrad-Martius’ anthropology and biological ontology develop. In the first phase, at the beginning of the twenties (precisely in her work Metaphysical Dialogues), the essential differences between plants, animals, and humans are explained with reference to a vital origin preceding the constitution of reality; to describe it Conrad-Martius employs terms such as “abyss” and “under-earthly realm.” In the second phase, exemplified by some writings published in the forties and the fifties, the reference to such a dimension disappears and the eidetic variety within the living world, including human specificity, is exclusively traced back to the finalistic substantiation of essences in the natural beings.


Author(s):  
Gwen Sys ◽  
Hannelore Eykens ◽  
Gerlinde Lenaerts ◽  
Felix Shumelinsky ◽  
Cedric Robbrecht ◽  
...  

This study analyses the accuracy of three-dimensional pre-operative planning and patient-specific guides for orthopaedic osteotomies. To this end, patient-specific guides were compared to the classical freehand method in an experimental setup with saw bones in two phases. In the first phase, the effect of guide design and oscillating versus reciprocating saws was analysed. The difference between target and performed cuts was quantified by the average distance deviation and average angular deviations in the sagittal and coronal planes for the different osteotomies. The results indicated that for one model osteotomy, the use of guides resulted in a more accurate cut when compared to the freehand technique. Reciprocating saws and slot guides improved accuracy in all planes, while oscillating saws and open guides lead to larger deviations from the planned cut. In the second phase, the accuracy of transfer of the planning to the surgical field with slot guides and a reciprocating saw was assessed and compared to the classical planning and freehand cutting method. The pre-operative plan was transferred with high accuracy. Three-dimensional-printed patient-specific guides improve the accuracy of osteotomies and bony resections in an experimental setup compared to conventional freehand methods. The improved accuracy is related to (1) a detailed and qualitative pre-operative plan and (2) an accurate transfer of the planning to the operation room with patient-specific guides by an accurate guidance of the surgical tools to perform the desired cuts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Maurin Astriviany

The vulnerability of the Pacific Region which generally consists of small country and island nations makes countries in the region need to be aware of the threat of sea level rising. Kiribati is one of the countries that will be most affected. Therefore, the Kiribati Adaptation Program is one of the Government’s strategies that collaborated with the World Bank as the main donor party to reduce the adverse effect from sea level Rising. Divided into three phases of the program, we will see how it progresses from one phase to another. In the first phase is preparation for the program to adapt, in the second phase is the time to implement what needs to be done after reviewing the result of the first phase preparation, then in the final phase is the expansion of the program. After two phases, this third phase learned lessons from previous phases which faced few obstacles and need to be fixed before goes up to the expansion stage. Kiribati Adaptation Program will give an idea of how the strategy has been carried out by the Government of Kiribati and might become a lesson for other vulnerable countries in face the  sea level rising.


2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hayward

This extended abstract discusses the top 10 risks and opportunities for oil and gas companies in 2013, which have been identified in our biannual global survey. It has been said that the difference between a business risk and an opportunity is the organisational speed of recognition and response. In this biannual update to the Ernst & Young oil and gas risk and opportunities report, we provide the latest views about the key risks and opportunities facing the oil and gas sector. Our three-phase approach provides a unique insight into the sectors, leading risks, and opportunities. We interview a panel of industry executives and experts, and ask them to identify the top risks and opportunities, as well as those below the radar that could rise into the top 10 in the years ahead. They are then grouped and aggregated to form a strategic challenge list for the oil and gas sector. The second phase of our research is to conduct a large-sample survey of companies and governments to rank the strategic challenges, obtain forecasts on whether these challenges would be more or less important in the future and discover how leading organisations are responding to them. The third phase of our research is to conduct interviews with leading industry executives to gain insights on how the risks and opportunities impact their organisations and how these executives are managing or preparing for them. The latest edition of the Ernst & Young Oil and Gas Risk and Opportunities Report was released in March 2013.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Mauro Dell’Amico ◽  
Matteo Magnani

We consider the distributor’s pallet loading problem where a set of different boxes are packed on the smallest number of pallets by satisfying a given set of constraints. In particular, we refer to a real-life environment where each pallet is loaded with a set of layers made of boxes, and both a stability constraint and a compression constraint must be respected. The stability requirement imposes the following: (a) to load at level k+1 a layer with total area (i.e., the sum of the bottom faces’ area of the boxes present in the layer) not exceeding α times the area of the layer of level k (where α≥1), and (b) to limit with a given threshold the difference between the highest and the lowest box of a layer. The compression constraint defines the maximum weight that each layer k can sustain; hence, the total weight of the layers loaded over k must not exceed that value. Some stability and compression constraints are considered in other works, but to our knowledge, none are defined as faced in a real-life problem. We present a matheuristic approach which works in two phases. In the first, a number of layers are defined using classical 2D bin packing algorithms, applied to a smart selection of boxes. In the second phase, the layers are packed on the minimum number of pallets by means of a specialized MILP model solved with Gurobi. Computational experiments on real-life instances are used to assess the effectiveness of the algorithm.


1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 787-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen F. Davis ◽  
Robert E. Prytula ◽  
Wyatt E. Harper ◽  
Howard K. Tucker ◽  
Clarence Lewis ◽  
...  

Two groups of 12 rats served as Ss in a three-phase investigation into the production and utilization of odor cues in the runway. Both groups were trained under double-alternation patterns of reward-nonreward with one group serving as start-box donor-odorants, while the second group actually traversed the runway. During the first two phases the run- Ss were water-reinforced, and the donor-odorants were food-reinforced. The reinforcement schedules for the run and donor-odorant Ss were positively correlated during the first phase and negatively correlated during the second phase. In the third phase both groups were food reinforced and the reinforcement schedules once again positively correlated. The results indicated that significant double-alternation patterning was shown by the run- Ss only in the goal measure during Phases I and II. However, significant patterning was shown in start, run, and goal measures during Phase III, suggesting the specificity of odor cues to deprivational states.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 98-102
Author(s):  
Abeer Aloush

Gilles Kepel is a French political scientist and Arabist with a global reputationfor understanding Islam as an ideological, political, and social force.Among his books are Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet andPharaoh (1985), Allah in the West: Islamic Movements in America and Europe(1996), Jihad: The Trial of Political Islam (2003), The Roots of RadicalIslam (2005), Al Qaeda in Its Own Words (2006; co-edited with Jean-PereerMilelli), The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (2006), and BeyondTerror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East (2010).  In Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West, his latest and bestsellingbook for 2016, he makes the case that this phenomenon has passedthrough two phases and recently entered a third one. The first phase began inthe 1990s with Mohamed Kelkal and was related to the Algerian civil war.Terrorism was used as a tool to force France to end its support for the coupthat had negated the Islamists’ electoral victory. The second phase began in2012 with the Toulouse and Montauban shootings that were linked to al-Qaeda. Globalization now enabled a network of jihadists linked to Afghanistanto serve the Muslim cause. The (posited) third phase, which would developafter the Arab Spring was launched, would see French jihadists sent to fight ...


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar D. Pérez ◽  
Michael R.F. Aitken ◽  
Amy L. Milton ◽  
Anthony Dickinson

AbstractThe higher response rates observed on ratio than on matched interval reward schedules has been attributed to the differential reinforcement of longer inter-response times (IRTs) on the interval contingency. Some data, however, seem to contradict this hypothesis, showing that the difference is still observed when the role of IRT reinforcement is neutralized by using a regulated-probability interval schedule (RPI). Given the mixed evidence for these predictions, we re-examined this hypothesis by training three groups of rats to lever press under ratio, interval and RPI schedules across two phases while matching reward rates within triads. At the end of the first phase, the master ratio and RPI groups responded at similar rates. In the second phase, an interval group yoked to the same master ratio group of the first phase responded at a lower rate than the RPI group. Post-hoc analysis showed comparable reward rates for master and yoked schedules. The experienced response-outcome rate correlations were likewise similar, and approached zero as training progressed. We discuss these results in terms of dual-system theories of instrumental conditioning.


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