Structure in motion: visual motion perception as online hierarchical inference

Identifying the structure of motion relations in the environment is critical for navigation, tracking, prediction, and pursuit. Yet, little is known about the mental and neural computations that allow the visual system to infer this structure online from a volatile stream of visual information. We propose online hierarchical Bayesian inference as a principled solution for how the brain might solve this complex perceptual task. We derive an online Expectation-Maximization algorithm that explains human percepts qualitatively and quantitatively for a diverse set of stimuli, covering classical psychophysics experiments, ambiguous motion scenes, and illusory motion displays. We thereby identify normative explanations for the origin of human motion structure perception and make testable predictions for new psychophysics experiments. The algorithm furthermore affords a neural network implementation which shares properties with motion-sensitive cortical areas and motivates a novel class of experiments to reveal the neural representations of latent structure.

Low back pain prevalence and associated factors in nurses from Brazilian primary health units

BACKGROUND: Primary health unit (PHU) nursing work is different when compared to hospital environment. Although low back pain (LBP) literature presents studies conducted in hospital nursing personnel, there is a lack of studies in PHU nurses. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to measure the prevalence of LBP in PHU nursing personnel in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. METHODS: Sociodemographic (age, gender, number of children, skin color, income and marital status), occupational (PHU type, formal education, professional experience, weekly workload, extra work activity, workload perception), nutritional (BMI), health (self-perceived health, smoking, sleep quality and minor psychiatric disorders, PHU physical structure perception) and behavioral (leisure-time physical activity) characteristics were assessed. LBP was defined as pain or discomfort between the last rib and gluteal fold. Poisson regression was used to evaluate the relationship among LBP and covariates. RESULTS: LBP prevalence was 65.2%. Chronic (12 weeks) and acute (7 days) LBP prevalence were 22.4%and 53.4%, respectively. LBP was associated with obesity (PR 1.39 95%CI 1.01–1.92) and poor self-perceived health (PR 2.77 95%CI 1.32–5.80). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of LBP in PHU nursing personnel is high and similar to hospital nurses. Individual characteristics such as body mass and health perception were associated with LBP.

Development of Small Scale Industry in Rangpur Division of Bangladesh: Employee Perception

The financial result of a business largely depends on the employees’ satisfaction. When employees feel happy, then they contribute more attention to the work, show more sincerity. As a result, the production of the organization is increased, and finally, the profit is increased. The study has attempted to find out the perception of employees towards the growth and development of small scale industry in the Rangpur Division of Bangladesh during 2013-14 to 2017-18. The study is empirical. An interview was taken for 400 small-scale industry workers from 16 upazilas through a questionnaire. They were asked about their perception of the growth and development of this industry. The perception of the employee is measured by the Likert scale. The result shows that the participation in decision-making/ implementation perception contains the highest value of 51.0% satisfactory level and the excellent level of satisfaction holds the lowest value of 3.25%. Perquisites structure perception holds the highest value of 48% at a satisfactory level, health, and safety facility perception holds that 36.0% of employees are satisfied. On the other hand, 48% of employees are satisfied in job security perception and the bonus and incentive contain 56.0% of employees are satisfied. For day-care center facilities, 83.0% of employees are dissatisfied. The result concludes that employees show very poor satisfaction in perquisites structure, health, and safety facility, bonus and incentive, day-care center, termination policy, leave policy, and entertainment opportunities. It is mathematically proved that, if the employees are satisfied, then the growth of the organization will be increased. As a result, it is important to satisfy employees properly for the growth and development of the SSI. If that can be done properly, the sustainable development of small-scale industries is possible.

The social component of the projection behavior of clausal complement contents

Some accounts of presupposition projection predict that content's consistency with the Common Ground influences whether it projects (e.g., Heim 1983, Gazdar 1979a,b). I conducted an experiment to test whether Common Ground information about the speaker's social identity influences projection of clausal complement contents (CCs). Participants rated the projection of CCs conveying liberal or conservative political positions when the speaker was either Democrat- or Republican-affiliated. As expected, CCs were more projective when they conveyed political positions consistent with the speaker's political affiliation: liberal CCs were more projective with Democrat compared to Republican speakers, and conservative CCs were more projective with Republican compared to Democrat speakers. In addition, CCs associated with factive predicates (e.g., know) were more projective than those associated with non-factive predicates (e.g., believe). These findings suggest that social meaning influences projective meaning and that social meaning is constrained by semantic meaning, in line with previous research on the relation between other levels of linguistic structure/perception and social information.

CUSTOMERS’ DEPOSIT BEHAVIOUR IN DUAL BANKING INDUSTRY: A MARKET STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Background and Purpose: The aim of this paper is to evaluate public acceptance toward Islamic banking system in Malaysia by using the market structure analysis as proposed in industrial organizational studies. The structural approach framework was used to evaluate the nature and changes of market concentration in the Malaysian Islamic and conventional deposit markets. Methodology: The well-known market concentration measure, namely concentration ratio (CR) is calculated to study the changes in saving behaviour among depositors in both banking markets. The concentration ratios of deposits for both banking markets are evaluated by using the banking firms’ level data for the period 1997–2016. Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis was also used to investigate the relationship between the total deposits and bank-specific variables. Findings: It is found that interest or profit rate paid to the depositors are the factor that greatly affect the depositors’ choice of banks to save their money. Besides, experience doing businesses is more important to Islamic banks compared to conventional banks in order to attract depositors. Contributions: The findings demonstrate that societies, especially the Islamic community, are still loyal to conventional banks, which have more experience in the banking operation. The findings of this study are expected to open the eyes of the Muslim community to use Islamic banking services, which are certainly sharia-compliance. Keywords: Concentration ratio, deposit, dual banking, market structure, perception. Cite as: Mohammed, N., Jauhari, A., & Mohammed, N. (2020). Customers’ deposit behaviour in dual banking industry: A market structure analysis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 356-377. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp356-377

Review of the harmony textbooks for secondary music school by Mirjana Živković

Perennial active engagement of Mirjana Živković in teaching process of subject Harmony, for secondary music school and higher education (University), participating in reforming processes, and teaching plan and program shaping, were being built into the making and shaping of the Harmony textbooks. By publishing the united Harmony textbook Harmony for II, III and IV class of secondary music school (1990), and updated, two-parted textbook Harmony for II class of musical high school and Harmony for III and IV class of musical high school (2001), teaching of subject Harmony got quality with teaching plan and program in tuned basic medium during the process of mastering the theoretical knowledges and so in the practical skills. The path from conceptualizing to shaping of the textbook in Harmony by Mirjana Živković has included the perception of realistic needs in practical work, so as inovating in teaching of theoretical subjects, respecting the professional and practical advices of colleagues, consulting with French and Russian literature. Guided with an enthusiasm, author Mirjana Živković has collected in the process of shaping her textbook and its updated edition all the knowledge, acquired experience, needs of the new time and vision of the teaching subject that could wake up the desire for creativity and creative impulse among the users and readers. Structure perception to details and also the perception of the content of united and updated textbook Harmony for secondary music schools by Mirjana Živković included the analysis of basic text, updated text, and specific shapes of didactic aparature, customised to the character of the subject. By analytical access to the Harmony textbooks by Mirjana Živković, was confirmed already expressed advice of an experienced educator in subject Harmony: clear exposure of theoretical construction followed by didactic note examples and assignments, insisting on the sound performances and permanent sounding (singing and playing) of own written harmonization. Special attention of author Mirjana Živković was directed to carefully designed and chosen note examples and assignments customised to the transfer of theoretical knowledge to the process of acquisition and developing some practical skills - written harmonization of assigned melodies, practical harmonization on instrument, analysis of fragments or the whole compositions, and finally, developing the harmonical hearing. Author Mirjana Živković doesn't give up emphasising the importance of understanding of Harmony, as a live component of music, not as a dry theoretical discipline.

Biological effects of oomycetes elicitins

Successful plant defence responses to pathogen challenges are based on fast and specific pathogen recognition and plant reaction mechanisms. Elicitins, proteinaceous elicitors secreted by the Phytophthora and Pythium species, were first described in Phytophthora culture filtrates as proteins able to induce a hypersensitive response (HR) and resistance in tobacco at low concentrations. Later, they were classified as microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) able to induce defences in a variety of plant species. In this review, we present a comprehensive summary of the actual knowledge on the representative elicitins and their structure, perception and activation of plant signalling pathways. The current research of elicitins has been focused on a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the elicitin recognition by plant cells. Moreover, the possibility of elicitin involvement in the establishment and enhancement of plant host resistance to a broad spectrum of pathogens has been intensively studied.