Dislocation contrast on X-ray topographs under weak diffraction conditions

The contrast of dislocations in 4H-SiC crystals shows distinctive features on grazing-incidence X-ray topographs for diffraction at different positions on the operative rocking curve. Ray-tracing simulations have previously been successfully applied to describe the dislocation contrast at the peak of a rocking curve.The present work shows that the dislocation images observed under weak diffraction conditions can also be simulated using the ray-tracing method. These simulations indicate that the contrast of the dislocations is dominated by orientation contrast. Analysis of the effective misorientation reveals that the dislocation contrast in weak-beam topography is more sensitive to the local lattice distortion, consequently enabling information to be obtained on the dislocation sense which cannot be obtained from the peak.

Additive and multiplicative probabilistic models of infant looking times

Additive and multiplicative regression models of habituation were compared regarding the fit to looking times from a habituation experiment with infants aged between 3 and 11 months. In contrast to earlier studies, the current study considered multiple probability distributions, namely Weibull, gamma, lognormal and normal distribution. In the habituation experiment the type of contrast between the habituation and the test trial was varied (luminance, color or orientation contrast), crossed with the number of habituation trials (1, 3, 5, or 7 habituation trials) and crossed with three age cohorts (4, 7, 10 months). The initial mean LT to dark stimuli (around 3.7 s) was considerably shorter than the mean LT to green and gray stimuli (around 5 s). Infants showed the strongest dishabituation to changes from dark to bright (luminance contrast) and weak-to-no dishabituation to a 90-degrees rotation of the gray stimuli (orientation contrast). The dishabituation was stronger after five and seven habituation trials, but the result was not statistically robust. The gamma distribution showed the best fit in terms of log-likelihood and mean absolute error and the best predictive performance. Furthermore, the gamma distribution showed small correlations between parameters relative to other models. The normal additive model showed an inferior fit and medium correlations between the parameters. In particular, the positive correlation between the initial looking time (LT) and the habituation rate was likely responsible for a different interpretation relative to the multiplicative models of the main effect of age on the habituation rate. Otherwise, the additive and multiplicative models provided similar statistical conclusions. The performance of the model versions without pooling and with partial pooling across participants (also called random-effects, multi-level or hierarchical models) were compared. The latter type of models showed worse data fit but more precise predictions and reduced correlations between the parameters. The performance of model variants with auto-regressive time structures were explored but showed considerably worse fit. The performance of quadratic models that allowed non-monotonic changes in LTs were investigated as well. However, when fitted with LT data, these models did not produce non-monotonic change in LTs. The study underscores the utility of partial-pooling models in terms of providing more accurate predictions. Further, it agrees with previous research in that a multiplicative LT model is preferable. Nevertheless, the current results suggest that the impact of the choice of an additive model on the statistical inference is less dramatic then previously assumed.

Influence of surface relaxation on the contrast of threading edge dislocations in synchrotron X-ray topographs under the condition of g · b = 0 and g · b × l = 0

Residual contrast of threading edge dislocations is observed in synchrotron back-reflection X-ray topographs of 4H-SiC epitaxial wafers recorded using basal plane reflections where both g · b = 0 and g · b × l = 0. The ray-tracing simulation method based on the orientation contrast formation mechanism is applied to simulate images of such dislocations by applying surface relaxation effects. The simulated contrast features match the observed features on X-ray topographs, clearly demonstrating that the contrast is dominated by surface relaxation. Depth profiling indicates that the surface relaxation primarily takes place within a depth of 5 µm below the surface.

Possibilities and Limitations of Extrafoveal Perception: an Analytical Review

The article presents an analytical review of studies in the field of extrafoveal perception. The region of extrafoveal vision combines the parafovea and periphery of the retina, so extrafoveal perception is the perception of objects which projections are outside of the fovea. For a long time, it has been believed that extrafoveal vision, in contrast to foveal, has a lower acuity and resolution and is used mainly for preliminary analysis of the visual field and selection of relevant objects for their more thorough analysis in fovea. However, the literature shows that extrafoveal perception is much more interesting and autonomous process as it has been previously considered. The paper analyzes a number of works showing that it is possible to identify both specific features of simple stimuli and rather complex objects, such as faces or whole scenes, up to the possibility of their semantic analysis, even in extrafoveal vision. The review considers the history of studies on extrafoveal perception, from the earliest works (Hueck, 1840; Aubert, Foerster, 1857) to the most recent ones of the last 5 years. These works have analyzed the main factors influencing the effectiveness of extrafoveal vision, for example, cortical magnification factor, which reflects differences in the number of neurons in the visual cortex responsible for processing stimuli depending on the region of the retina: the closer the object is to the fovea, the more neurons are involved in its processing, and vice versa. Other factors determining the efficacy of extrafoveal perception include the following: crowding effect when the target object on the periphery surrounded by distractors is identified worse than a separately located stimulus; specific characteristics of a target and distractors (for example, contexts evoking pop-out effect). Crowding effect is also related to the question of correlating two forms of processing extrafoveal information: preattentive processing (parallel “bottom up” processing) and covert attention (moving the point of deeper analysis along the visual field without eye movements) which can be controlled up to some degree. The other factors influencing the effectiveness of extrafoveal perception concern the context of a task (categorical search in laboratory conditions, analysis of the real world scenes, reactions to extrafoveal stimuli during definite activity) and individual differences. Additionally, we have analyzed the works on the possibilities of training extrafoveal perception, which can affect both higher-level processes, for example, identification of the context of complex scenes, perception of emotions and categorical visual search, and lower-level visual functions, such as identification of spatial orientation, contrast perception and reduction of crowding effect.

Textural Identification of Polycrystalline Magmatic, Tectonically-Deformed, and Shock-Related Zircon Aggregates

Zircon with polycrystalline or polygranular appearance is either produced in the magmatic environment through crystallization, or due to deformation in metamorphic settings (including regional metamorphism and ductile shear zones), or as a result of shock-induced recrystallization. All three types can be easily confused and potentially lead to incorrect interpretations, especially if the crystallographic orientation analyses of zircon are not conducted. It is particularly important to establish the difference between tectonically-deformed polygranular zircon and shock-induced polygranular zircon because the latter serves as an indicator of shock event and is often used for dating asteroid impacts. In this paper, a series of polycrystalline zircon grains from ductile shear zones and metamorphic rocks are analyzed using a combination of techniques (BSE, CL, orientation contrast, EBSD, and microprobe mapping), and their properties are compared to reported polycrystalline zircons from magmatic and impact settings. This work shows how appearance, crystallographic orientation, and CL signature of “granules” differ between the different types of deformed zircon.

Feature-specific patterns of attention and functional connectivity in human visual cortex

Attending to different features of a scene can alter the responses of neurons in early- and mid- level visual areas but the nature of this change depends on both the (top down) attentional task and the (bottom up) visual stimulus. One outstanding question is the spatial scale at which cortex is modulated by attention to low-level stimulus features such as shape, contrast and orientation. It is unclear whether the recruitment of neurons to particular tasks occurs at an area level or at the level of intra-areal sub-populations, or whether the critical factor is a change in the way that areas communicate with each other. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and psychophysics, to ask how areas known to be involved in processing different visual features (orientation, contrast and shape) are modulated as participants switch between tasks based on those features while the visual stimulus itself is effectively constant. At a univariate level, we find almost no feature-specific bottom-up or top-down responses in the areas we examine. However, multivariate analyses reveal a complex pattern of voxel-level modulation driven by attentional task. Connectivity analyses also demonstrate flexible and selective patterns of connectivity between early visual areas as a function of attentional focus. Overall, we find that attention alters the sensitivity and connectivity of neuronal subpopulations within individual early visual areas but, surprisingly, not the univariate response amplitudes of the areas themselves.

Comparison of tuning properties of gamma and high-gamma power in local field potential (LFP) versus electrocorticogram (ECoG) in visual cortex

Electrocorticogram (ECoG), obtained from macroelectrodes placed on the cortex, is typically used in drug-resistant epilepsy patients, and is increasingly being used to study cognition in humans. These studies often use power in gamma (30-70 Hz) or high-gamma (>80 Hz) ranges to make inferences about neural processing. However, while the stimulus tuning properties of gamma/high-gamma power have been well characterized in local field potential (LFP; obtained from microelectrodes), analogous characterization has not been done for ECoG. Using a hybrid array containing both micro and ECoG electrodes implanted in the primary visual cortex of two female macaques, we compared the stimulus tuning preferences of gamma/high-gamma power in LFP versus ECoG and found them to be surprisingly similar. High-gamma power, thought to index the average firing rate around the electrode, was highest for the smallest stimulus (0.3° radius), and decreased with increasing size in both LFP and ECoG, suggesting local origins of both signals. Further, gamma oscillations were similarly tuned in LFP and ECoG to stimulus orientation, contrast and spatial frequency. This tuning was significantly weaker in electroencephalogram (EEG), suggesting that ECoG is more like LFP than EEG. Overall, our results validate the use of ECoG in clinical and basic cognitive research.