Vision

Introductory essay for a new book about the artist Jerrold Ballaine (b. 1934). The newest book is number 8 in a series I have written and published and which concern the artist and his work. The title refers to changes in Ballaine's life: gradual loss of vision due to macular degeneration. The latest book reflects how this artist responds to changes in his interaction with reality.

Conducting decision calisthenics can help an organization win competitive advantage through harnessing its tremendous knowledge, imagination, and staff experience. The paper explores how knowledge and experience mined and refined through innovative approaches like scenarios and war gaming can turn visionary ideas into successful, working realities. To fully appreciate the value of novel frameworks requires contextualizing their utility in what can be called the decision gym. The decision gym offers a way to build powerful consensus and commitment to decisions, methods to optimize processes, and a way to create, evaluate, and execute critical strategies in the face of heuristics and biases that can distort decision making.

Although obviously very different in many ways, both the classical rod-and-frame test (RFT; Witkin & Asch, 1948), in which an observer sets the orientation of a rod to appear vertical within the frontoparallel plane of a rolltilted visual field, and the Embedded Figures Test (EFT;, in which a subject attempts to find a simple outline figure within a complex visual field, require subjects to report information regarding an aspect of a visual field whose organization disrupts acquisition of veridical information. Consequently, the RFT and EFT have often been referred to as perceptual disembedding tasks. The widely-referred-to report of a significant correlation between performance on the two tasks by Witkin and his colleagues led them to propose a theoretical treatment in which they suggested that the correlation resulted from individual differences in cognitive style that involved differences in disembedding ability; this approach has been taken by others as well (regarding the EFT,

En el presente trabajo se evaluó si los sistemas de información de recursos financieros, recursos humanos, recursos materiales y control escolar que son utilizados en la Escuela Normal de Especialización del Estado de Sinaloa (ENEES), proporcionan un flujo de información oportuno, confiable, de calidad y accesible, de tal manera que sea capaz de garantizar procesos de toma de decisiones efectivas por parte de sus directivos principales. El desarrollo de esta investigación se realizó a través del enfoque cuantitativo, donde se diseñó una encuesta de escala Likert conformada de 24 reactivos para evaluar el uso de los sistemas de información y la viabilidad del diseño y desarrollo de un nuevo Sistema de Información Directiva (SID). Se aplicó a un total de 3 directivos, 15 administrativos, y 63 docentes. Finalmente se determinó valorar si el SID proporcionaría un flujo de información oportuno, confiable, de calidad y accesible que apoye en la toma de decisiones efectivas a los dirigentes de la institución. Una vez efectuado lo anterior, se diseñó una propuesta del SID con base al modelo teórico establecido para esta investigación.

O artigo analisa a série América (direção de João Moreira Salles) feita para a extinta Rede Manchete em 1989. Muitas são as questões que poderiam ser exploradas diante desse documentário, como: de que modo suas imagens constróem os imaginários nacionais? Tais imagens se apresentam como “retratos do real” ou eventualmente explicitam visões subjetivas? O artigo porém investiga a dinâmica da noção de paisagem em América a partir das próprias questões que as imagens convocam naquele momento. Trata-se de um recém descoberto repertório de práticas (o vídeo) e olhares em devir no qual o território americano ressurge como objeto de aspiração e experiência de privação, ou seja, paisagem.

144 scenes, 3sec/scene presentation time •Equal number of shape occurrences •Eye movements recorded in all trials •Investigate effect of the type of stimuli on statistical learning through categorical and non-categorical stimuli. •Investigate effect of the amount of information presented on learning through the Less-Is-More principle •Investigate the changing pattern of eye movements through the learning process.

144 scenes, 3sec/scene presentation time •Equal number of shape occurrences •Eye movements recorded in all trials •Investigate effect of the type of stimuli on statistical learning through categorical and non-categorical stimuli. •Investigate effect of the amount of information presented on learning through the Less-Is-More principle •Investigate the changing pattern of eye movements through the learning process.

Tensor voting is a well-known robust technique for extracting perceptual information from clouds of points. This chapter proposes a general methodology to adapt tensor voting to different types of images in the specific context of image structure estimation. This methodology is based on the structural relationships between tensor voting and the so-called structure tensor, which is the most popu-

The lighting and furnishing of an interior space (i.e., the reflectance of its materials, the geometries of the furnishings, and their arrangement) determine the appearance of this space. Conversely, human observers infer lighting properties from the space's appearance. We conducted two psychophysical experiments to investigate how the perception of the light direction is influenced by a scene's objects and their layout using real scenes. In the first experiment, we confirmed that the shape of the objects in the scene and the scene layout influence the perceived light direction. In the second experiment, we systematically investigated how specific shape properties influenced the estimation of the light direction. The results showed that increasing the number of visible faces of an object, ultimately using globally spherical shapes in the scene, supported the veridicality of the estimated light direction. Furthermore, symmetric arrangements in the scene improved the estimatio...

Bruce Chilton is an American student of intertestamentalliterature who rather delights in way-out ideas. The main thesis of this short book is that the three pilgrim feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles are particularly associated with three leading figures of the New Testament-Jesus with Tabernacles, Peter with Pentecost and James the Lord's brother with the Passover. He could, perhaps, have gone on and associated Paul or the writer to the Hebrews with the Day of Atonement, but he does not. There is a natural link between Peter and Pentecost in Acts 2, but the choice of James the Lord's brother, rather than Jesus himself, to be linked with the Passover seems rather perverse. Chilton does not accept the belief that the Last Supper was the Passover meal but, even so, it is undeniable that Jesus's death and resurrection took place at the Passover season. The reviewer enjoyed the comparison between the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Mishnaic tractate Yoma on pp. 89-93. DANIEL Leicester: Apollos 2002 359pp ROGER BECKWITH Oxford Ernest C. Lucas £19.99hb ISBN 0-85111-780-5 This is a learned and moderately written (even if somewhat perverse) evangelical commentary on Daniel, the work of the vice-principal of Bristol Baptist College. With the volume on Deuteronomy by Gordon McConville, it launches the Apollos Old Testament Commentary series. In 1977, Robert Gurney proposed in an article (and afterwards in a book) that evangelicals should accept the interpretation of Daniel's four world-empires, prophesied in chs. 2 and 7, as Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. He dated the end of Greek and the beginning of Roman dominion somewhat later than

Two recent articles by Geisler and Diehl use Bayesian statistical decision theory to model the co-evolution of predator and prey in a simple, game-like environment. The prey is characterized by its coloration. The predator is characterized by the chromatic sensitivity of its visual system and its willingness to attack. The authors demonstrate how the coloration of prey and the perceptual system of the predator co-evolve, converging to a Nash equilibrium for both species.

Background: Many patients voice concerns regarding poor night vision, even when they see 20/20 or better in the exam room. During mesopic and scotopic conditions the pupil size increases, increasing the effects on visual performance of uncorrected (residual) refractive errors. The i.Scription refraction method claims to optimize traditional refractions for mesopic and scotopic conditions, by using the information that the Zeiss i.Profiler plus gathers of ocular aberrations (low and high order). The aim of this study was to investigate any differences between habitual and i.Scription refractions and their relationship to night vision complaints. Methods: Habitual, subjective, and i.Scription refractions were obtained from both eyes of eighteen subjects. Low and high order aberrations of the subjects were recorded with the Zeiss i.Profiler plus . The root mean square (RMS) metric was calculated for small (3 mm) and maximum pupil sizes. Subjects rated their difficulty with driving at night on a scale of 1-10. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the habitual and i.Scription refractions on both the sphere and cylinder values [(t = 3.12, p < 0.01), (t = 5.39, p < 0.01)]. The same was found when comparing the subjective and i.Scription refractions [(t = 2.31, p = 0.03), (t = 2.54, p = 0.02)]. There were no significant differences found when comparing the sphere and cylinder values between the habitual and subjective refractions or on any combination of spherical equivalent refraction. The maximum pupil size of the subject population on this study, measured with the i.Profiler plus , was 4.8 ± 1.04 mm. Ten out of the eighteen subjects had discomfort at night with an average magnitude of 4 ± 2.7. Ratings of difficulty with night vision correlated with the change in spherical equivalent correction between the habitual and i.Scription refractions (p = 0.01). A sub-analysis of myopic subjects (n = 15) showed an increase in the significance of this relationship (p = 0.002). Conclusions: The i.Scription method improves night vision by correcting the sphere and cylinder more precisely. There was a correlation between the amount of change in the cylinder value between habitual and i.Scription prescriptions and the magnitude of the reported visual discomfort at night.

Background: Many patients voice concerns regarding poor night vision, even when they see 20/20 or better in the exam room. During mesopic and scotopic conditions the pupil size increases, increasing the effects on visual performance of uncorrected (residual) refractive errors. The i.Scription refraction method claims to optimize traditional refractions for mesopic and scotopic conditions, by using the information that the Zeiss i.Profiler plus gathers of ocular aberrations (low and high order). The aim of this study was to investigate any differences between habitual and i.Scription refractions and their relationship to night vision complaints. Methods: Habitual, subjective, and i.Scription refractions were obtained from both eyes of eighteen subjects. Low and high order aberrations of the subjects were recorded with the Zeiss i.Profiler plus . The root mean square (RMS) metric was calculated for small (3 mm) and maximum pupil sizes. Subjects rated their difficulty with driving at night on a scale of 1-10. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the habitual and i.Scription refractions on both the sphere and cylinder values [(t = 3.12, p < 0.01), (t = 5.39, p < 0.01)]. The same was found when comparing the subjective and i.Scription refractions [(t = 2.31, p = 0.03), (t = 2.54, p = 0.02)]. There were no significant differences found when comparing the sphere and cylinder values between the habitual and subjective refractions or on any combination of spherical equivalent refraction. The maximum pupil size of the subject population on this study, measured with the i.Profiler plus , was 4.8 ± 1.04 mm. Ten out of the eighteen subjects had discomfort at night with an average magnitude of 4 ± 2.7. Ratings of difficulty with night vision correlated with the change in spherical equivalent correction between the habitual and i.Scription refractions (p = 0.01). A sub-analysis of myopic subjects (n = 15) showed an increase in the significance of this relationship (p = 0.002). Conclusions: The i.Scription method improves night vision by correcting the sphere and cylinder more precisely. There was a correlation between the amount of change in the cylinder value between habitual and i.Scription prescriptions and the magnitude of the reported visual discomfort at night.

En primer término, el autor expone el proceso mediante el cual los conceptos &quot;imagen&quot; y &quot;representación&quot; han perdido su sentido originario en la historia de Occidente; a partir de allí se ha creado una situación de crisis, denominada por el autor &quot;crisis de la representación&quot;. Ésta se caracteriza por los siguientes aspectos: 1) el cambio del estatuto óptico de la imagen; 2) la pérdida de todo paradigma visual, con lo cual la imagen ha dejado de servir como intermediaria de sentido; 3) consecuencia de la anterior afirmación, las funciones metafórica y simbólica de la imagen han quedado inoperantes; 4) finalmente, se ha dado lugar a una saturación de imágenes. A partir de este diagnóstico, el autor sostiene que vivimos actualmente en una &quot;culturafractal&quot; u &quot;orden de representación despótica&quot;, cuyos fenómenos afines son la estetización de los mundos de vida, la caída de la razón y de la historia. En segundo término,...

The image formed by the eye's optics is inherently blurred by aberrations specific to the individual's eyes. We examined to what extent judgments of perceived focus depend on the total magnitude as opposed to the specific pattern of blur introduced by the eye's high order aberrations (HOA). An Adaptive Optics system was used to simultaneously correct each subject's wave aberrations and display natural images blurred by simulated aberrations. To isolate the effects of blur magnitude, images were blurred by pure symmetric defocus, and subjects judged the level of the defocus that subjectively appeared best focused (i.e., neither too blurred nor too sharp). These settings were strongly correlated with the native blur magnitude. To isolate the effect of the HOA pattern, retinal image blur was instead maintained at a constant blur (Strehl Ratio) equal to each subject's natural blur, and subjects judged the best-focused image from pairs of images blurred by different patterns of HOA, one selected from 100 patterns, the other blurred by a reference pattern which included the subject's natural HOA, rotated HOA, or nine other HOA patterns. The percentage of images judged as best focused was not systematically higher when filtered with the subject's own HOA pattern. However, all subjects preferred their own HOA to the rotated version significantly more often (57% versus 45% on average across subjects). The representation of subjective image focus thus appears to be driven primarily by the overall amount of blur and only weakly by HOA blur orientation.

Previous studies suggest that certain combinations of coma and astigmatism improve optical quality over astigmatism alone. We tested these theoretical predictions on 20 patients. Visual acuity (VA) was measured under best spherical correction for different conditions: low-and higher order aberrations corrected, in the presence of 0.5 D of induced astigmatism, and adding different amounts of coma to 0.5 D of astigmatism. Measurements were performed for different relative angles between coma and astigmatism and for selected conditions, also through-focus. Adding coma (0.23 2m for 6-mm pupil) to astigmatism resulted in a clear increase of VA in 6 subjects, consistently with theoretical optical predictions, while VA decreased when coma was added to astigmatism in 7 subjects. In addition, in the presence of astigmatism only, VA decreased more than 10% with respect to all aberrations corrected in 13 subjects, while VA was practically insensitive to the addition of astigmatism in 4 subjects. The effects were related to the presence of natural astigmatism and whether this was habitually corrected or uncorrected. The fact that the expected performance occurs mainly in eyes with no natural astigmatism suggests relevant neural adaptation effects in eyes normally exposed to astigmatic blur.

We demonstrate that certain combinations of non-rotationally symmetric aberrations (coma and astigmatism) can improve retinal image quality over the condition with the same amount of astigmatism alone. Simulations of the retinal image quality in terms of Strehl Ratio, and measurements of Visual Acuity under controlled aberrations with adaptive optics were performed, varying defocus, astigmatism and coma. Astigmatism ranged between 0 and 1.5 D. Defocus ranged typically between À1 and 1 D. The amount of coma producing best retinal image quality (for a given relative angle between astigmatism and coma) was computed and the amount was found to be different from zero in all cases (except for 0 D of astigmatism). For example, for a 6 mm pupil, in the presence of 0.5 D of astigmatism, a value of coma of 0.23 lm produced (for best focus) a peak improvement in Strehl Ratio by a factor of 1.7, over having 0.5 D of astigmatism alone. The improvement holds over a range of >1.5 D of defocus and peak improvements were found for amounts of coma ranging from 0.15 lm to 0.35 lm. We measured VA under corrected high order aberrations, astigmatism alone (0.5 D) and astigmatism in combination with coma (0.23 lm), with and without adaptive optics correction of all the other aberrations, in two subjects. We found that the combination of coma with astigmatism improved decimal VA by a factor of 1.28 (28%) and 1.47 (47%) in both subjects, over VA with astigmatism alone when all the rest of aberrations were corrected. Nevertheless, in the presence of typical normal levels of HOA the effect of the coma/astigmatism interaction is considerably diminished.

La presente investigación se realizó bajo una metodología cualitativa, abordada desde la teoría fundamentada, y tuvo como objetivo identificar el imaginario social de la Mega minería y las formas de participación ciudadana de las comunidades frente al fenómeno en el departamento del Quindío, desde una comprensión cultural de las visiones, percepciones, concepciones de la naturaleza y la vida y su participación en escenarios de posconflicto. Palabras clave.Imaginario social; mega-minería; conflicto socio ambiental; participación ciudadana; posconflicto; defensa del territorio The current research was carried out, by using a qualitative methodology, whose approach was the Grounded Theory. Its objective was to determine the social imaginary of mega-mining and the modes of citizen participation of communities regarding this phenomenon in the State of Quindío. It comprised a cultural understanding of visions, perceptions, conceptions of nature, life, and their participation in post-conflict scenarios.

Department and US intelligence agencies in order to prepare his Master's thesis in history at the University of Groningen. He arrived in Washington in early 1996. In the course of many months of shared daily research at NARA in College Park, Maryland, he became a valued intellectual partner. At a time when I was only beginning to immerse myself in the writing process,Thijs completed his MA thesis.When I read the incremental installments of his scriptie, it became clear that Thijs had influenced my thinking in ways that transcended the role of research assistant,as I had originally envisioned our scholarly relationship.As a result, American Visions of the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia: US Foreign Policy and Indonesian Nationalism, 1920-1949 has become a collaborative book, because I was able to incorporate many of his insights and findings. In completing this project, I encountered a variety of people who are extremely knowledgeable about Indonesian culture and politics, Dutch political history in the twentieth century, or America's foreign policy during the Cold War. They all provided new historical materials, useful references to archival sources, or valuable ideas. I would like to acknowledge the help, both direct and indirect,of

Este artículo trata de ponderar en sus justos términos la influencia de los escritos de Maquiavelo en Inglaterra y España, ejemplificada en la comparación de la diversa recepción del autor del Príncipe por parte de dos autores que representan sendas visiones modernas pero contradictorias del concepto de Razón de Estado y de su influencia en dos países que se encuentra en dos fases distintas del ciclo histórico: mientras que en Inglaterra se están fraguando las condiciones que elevarán al Reino Unido a imperio transcontinental, España se encuentra en el punto de inflexión a partir del cual se inició su inexorable decadencia.

The program focuses on conceptual understanding, higher order thinking, and problem solving in elementary school teaching of mathematics, science, social studies, literature, and the arts. Center researchers are identifying exemplary curriculum, instruction, and evaluation practices in the teaching of these school subjects; studying these practices to build new hypotheses about how the effectiveness of elementary schools can be improved; testing these hypotheses through school-based research; and making specific recommendations for the improvement of school policies, instructional materials, assessment procedures, and teaching practices. Research questions include, What content should be taught when teaching these subjects for understanding and use of knowledge? How do teachers concentrate their teachirg to il3C their limited resources best? and In what ways is good teaching subject matter-specific? The work is designed to unfold in three phases, beginning with literature review and interview studies designed to elicit and synthesize the points of view of various stakeholders (representatives of the underlying academic disciplines, intellectual leaders and organizations concerned with curriculum and instruction in school subjects, classroom teachers, state-and district-level policymakers) concerning ideal curriculum, instruction, and evaluation practices in these five content areas at the elementary level. Phase II involves interview and observation methods designed to describe current practice, and in particular, best practice as observed in the classrooms of teachers believed to be outstanding. Phase II also involves analysis of curricula (both widely used curriculum series and distinctive curricula developed with special emphasis on conceptual understanding and higher order applications), as another approach to gathering information about current p7actices. In Phase III, models of ideal practice will be developed, based on what has been learned and synthesized from the first two phases, and will be tested through classroom intervention studies.

The article Undoing Culture: Witkacy's Tragedy of the End of the West looks at Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's historiosophical conception of the condition of Western culture in the first half of the 20th century. The reading of the Polish artist's literary works -dramas, novels as well as his philosophical and aesthetic treatises and journalistic writings -runs parallel to the reading of works by contemporary thinkers, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This juxtaposition makes Witkacy's observations, diagnoses and visions more relevant. They thus become an important tool for understanding the phenomena occurring in the world around us. They are also extremely helpful in studying modernity as such. One of them is the concept of the undoing of culture that is repeatedly considered by the characters in Witkiewicz's works. As a caricatured embodiment of totalitarian ideas, it is an important point of reference for reflecting on the events of the past century, the effects of which are still being felt today. Witkacy took a keen interest in the condition of the West as a civilizational formation. He was convinced of its decline. The undoing of culture is supposed to delay it, while being one of the signs Suggested citation: Winch A. (2023). The Undoing of Culture. Witkacy's Tragedy of the End of the West. Trimarium. The History and Literature of Central and Eastern Europe an Countries, 2(2), 143-162.

Recent behavioral and event-related brain potential (ERP) studies have revealed cross-modal interactions in endogenous spatial attention between vision and audition, plus vision and touch. The present ERP study investigated whether these interactions reflect supramodal attentional control mechanisms, and whether similar cross-modal interactions also exist between audition and touch. Participants directed attention to the side indicated by a cue to detect infrequent auditory or tactile targets at the cued side. The relevant modality (audition or touch) was blocked. Attentional control processes were reflected in systematic ERP modulations elicited during cued shifts of attention. An anterior negativity contralateral to the cued side was followed by a contralateral positivity at posterior sites. These effects were similar whether the cue signaled which side was relevant for audition or for touch. They also resembled previously observed ERP modulations for shifts of visual attention, t...

A task-irrelevant stimulus can distort recall from visual short-term memory (VSTM). Specifically, reproduction of a task-relevant memory item is biased in the direction of the irrelevant memory item (Huang and Sekuler, 2010a). The present study addresses the hypothesis that such e↵ects reflect the influence of neural averaging under conditions of uncertainty about the contents of VSTM . We manipulated subjects' attention to relevant and irrelevant study items whose similarity relationships were held constant, while varying how similar the study items were to a subsequent recognition probe. On each trial, subjects were shown one or two Gabor patches, followed by the probe; their task was to indicate whether the probe matched one of the study items. A brief cue told subjects which Gabor, first or second, would serve as that trial's target item. Critically, this cue appeared either before, between, or after the study items. A distributional analysis of the resulting mnemometric functions showed an inflation in probability mass in the region spanning the spatial frequency of the average of the two memory items. This e↵ect, due to an elevation in false alarms to probes matching the perceptual average, was diminished when cues were presented before both study items. These results suggest that a) perceptual averages are computed obligatorily and b) perceptual averages are relied upon to a greater extent when item representations are weakened. Implications of these results for theories of VSTM are discussed.

Previous studies of spatial contrast sensitivity in adulthood have produced contlicting results. To clarify the situation, we measured contrast sensitivity functions on a large sample of adults (n = 91). ranging in age from 19 to 87. All observers were free from significant ocular pathology and were individually refracted for the test distance. Sensitivity for stationary gratings of low spatial frequency remtlined the same throughout ad&hood. At higher spatial frequencies. sensitivity decreased with age finning around 40 to 50 years. When a low spatial frequency srating was drifted. young adults' sensitivity improved by a factor of 4-5 over sensitivity to a static gratmg: this motion enhancement was markedly diminished in adults over 60 years. implying an impairment of temporal processing in the elderly. Reduced retinal illuminance characteristic of the aged eye could account for a large part of older adults deficit in spatial vision. but appeared to play little role in their deficit in temporal vision.

-dot cinematograms comprising many different, spatially intermingled local motion vectors can produce a percept of global coherent motion in a single direction. Thresholds for discriminating the direction of global motion were measured under various conditions. Discrimination thresholds increased with the width of the distribution of directions in the cinematogram. Thresholds decreased as the duration of area of the cinematogram increased. Temporal integration for global direction discrimination extends over about 465 msec (9.3 frames) while the spatial integration limit is at least as large as 63 deg' (circular aperture diameter = 9 deg). The large spatial integration area is consistent with the physiology of higher visual areas such as MT and MST.

Global flow occurs when random dots, each selecting their direction of motion randomly each frame from a distribution of directions spanning up to 180°, appear to move as a whole in the mean direction of the components. This percept arises because the visual system integrates the many independent local motion signals over space and time. Through a series of direction discrimination experiments with random-dot cinematograms (RDCs), we show that varying the luminance of dots over a suprathreshold range profoundly affects perceived direction; the brightest dots appear to be weighted more and dimmer dots weighted less when determining perceived global direction. This effect is not observable if all dots in the display have the same luminance but only when the display contains dots with different luminance values. The results are consistent with energy models of motion detectors whose responses are contrast dependent. A Monte Carlo simulation of global direction discrimination employing a 12-mechanism lineelement model that weighted the local motion vectors by the normalized squared contrast of the component dots (a proxy for contrast energy) captured well the features of the experimental data.

Selective attention protects cognition against intrusions of task-irrelevant stimulus attributes. This protective function was tested in coordinated psychophysical and memory experiments. Stimuli were superimposed, horizontally and vertically oriented gratings of varying spatial frequency; only one orientation was task relevant. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a task-irrelevant spatial frequency interfered with visual discrimination of the task-relevant spatial frequency. Experiment 2 adopted a two-item Sternberg task, using stimuli that had been scaled to neutralize interference at the level of vision. Despite being visually neutralized, the task-irrelevant attribute strongly influenced recognition accuracy and associated reaction times (RTs). This effect was sharply tuned, with the task-irrelevant spatial frequency having an impact only when the task-relevant spatial frequencies of the probe and study items were highly similar to one another. Model-based analyses of judgment accuracy and RT distributional properties converged on the point that the irrelevant orientation operates at an early stage in memory processing, not at a later one that supports decision making.

In a trio of experiments, a matching procedure generated direct, analogue measures of short-term memory for the spatial frequency of Gabor stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that when just a single Gabor was presented for study, a retention interval of just a few seconds was enough to increase the variability of matches, suggesting that noise in memory substantially exceeds that in vision. Experiment 2 revealed that when a pair of Gabors was presented on each trial, the remembered appearance of one of the Gabors was influenced by: (1) the relationship between its spatial frequency and the spatial frequency of the accompanying, task-irrelevant non-target stimulus; and (2) the average spatial frequency of Gabors seen on previous trials. These two influences, which work on very different time scales, were approximately additive in their effects, each operating as an attractor for remembered appearance. Experiment 3 showed that a timely pre-stimulus cue allowed selective attention to curtail the influence of a task-irrelevant non-target, without diminishing the impact of the stimuli seen on previous trials. It appears that these two separable attractors influence distinct processes, with perception being influenced by the non-target stimulus and memory being influenced by stimuli seen on previous trials.

Learning by imitation is fundamental to human behavior, but not all observed actions are equally easy to imitate. To understand why some actions are more difficult to imitate than others, we examined how higher-order relationships among the components of a stimulus model influenced the fidelity with which an action could be observed and then reproduced. With static contours, perception and short term memory are strongly influenced by contour geometry, particularly by the presence and distribution of curvature extrema. To determine whether analogous relationships among subcomponents of a seen action would be important in encoding the action for subsequent reproduction, we manipulated actions' spatio-temporal geometry. In three experiments we measured imitation fidelity for sequences of randomly-directed, linked motions of a disc. The geometry of the disc's motion path strongly affected the accuracy of subsequent imitation: When the disc moved along a trajectory whose components were fairly consistent in their directions, imitation was strikingly better than when with irregular, jagged trajectories. A second experiment showed that this effect depended not upon co-variation in stimulus models' spatial extent, but rather on the relationship between successive movement directions. In a final, learning experiment, subjects had multiple opportunities to view and reproduce each model. The effect of the model's geometry persisted throughout the learning process, suggesting that it does not depend upon variables such as familiarity or expectancy, but is somehow inherent to the pattern generated by the disc's motion. Our findings suggest that when analyzing seen actions, the brain privileges regular, consistent curvatures, grouping components that form a coherent shape into a unified "chunk". Inconsistencies among the directional components of a motion sequence cause the sequence to be chunked into additional components, which increases the load on working memory, undermining the fidelity with which the sequence can be imitated.

By having subjects drive a virtual taxicab through a computer-rendered town, we examined how landmark and layout information interact during spatial navigation. Subject-drivers searched for passengers, and then attempted to take the most eYcient route to the requested destinations (one of several target stores). Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects rapidly learn to Wnd direct paths from random pickup locations to target stores. Experiment 2 varied the degree to which landmark and layout cues were preserved across two successively learned towns. When spatial layout was preserved, transfer was low if only target stores were altered, and high if both target stores and surrounding buildings were altered, even though in the latter case all local views were changed. This suggests that subjects can rapidly acquire a survey representation based on the spatial layout of the town and independent of local views, but that subjects will rely on local views when present, and are harmed when associations between previously learned landmarks are disrupted. We propose that spatial navigation reXects a ଝ This manuscript was accepted under the editorship of Jacques Mehler. ଝଝ This research was funded by National Institutes of Health Grants MH55687, MH61975 and MH68404. We thank Ben Burack for creating our virtual reality engine and Greg Schwartz for technical assistance with the OpenGL Utility Toolkit libraries.

The necessity of the efficient increase of prophylaxis of infections transmitted sexually (ITS), the control
strengthening of registration of the prevalence of this group of infections as well as in the state medical institutions
and the health care organizations of private property, the diagnostics and the treatment are described in the article.

In this paper a quanta coincidence model of absolute threshold vision is presented. the properties of which include not only Ricco's law and Piper's law. but also the deviations from Ricco's law which were recently found (Martinez. Sturr and Schmalback. 1977: Scholtes and Bouman. 19771. Furthermore. it is shown that an apparent paradox for double spot measurements (Sakitt. 1971) can be solved if. in the retina. discrete summation areas are assumed instead of summation as a function of the distance between quantum absorptions.

The emergence of a new technology like BIM is often connected with extensive discussions of industrial and organizational development and change. However, predicting the use trajectory of a technology has always been a difficult task. In understanding the adoption and use of information and communication technology (ICT), the way that people make sense of a technology is an important component. Even if sensemaking varies over time, studies of sensemaking processes over longer periods are rare. This paper has two aims. First, to develop a conceptual framework of how the development of sensemaking processes shapes the adoption and use of ICT. Second, to discuss the implications of this for research and practice, with a specific focus on the adoption and use of BIM. The research involves a case study of 12 years of telemedicine use in a Swedish county. These results are compared with contemporary BIM studies. The overall conclusion is that the use of technology is heavily shaped by the sensemaking of significant actor groups. This is grounded both an institutional logic and daily practice in relation to the benefits or disadvantages the group perceives from the use of the technology.

I'uvlwse: IO invcstiynlc tllc Ihcl0r dctcl-mining a poor litlid viswl 0utcon1c following pbotorcfmctive keratoplasty (PICK). Methods: The charts of 800 eyes included in the prospective evaluation of Swumit Ikciwcd rind Onmimcd cxcimcr lnscrs wcrc rctmspcctivcly reviewed. All cases with final uncorrected visual acuity less than 20/40 and/or loss of best corrected visual acuity equal or greater than 2 lines were WlyZcd. Results: Final uncorrected and corrected visual acuity were correlated to inclusion number, age, preoperative degree of myopia. preoperative degree and nature of astigmatism. preoperative surtke irregularity. ablation zone dkmlctcr. dcccntratirw dcgrcc of ovcrcorrcction at I montll. dcgrcc of hazc at 3 months, central island at 3 n~onths, residual astigmatism, and use of corticosteroid. Conclusion: Tbcse results suggssts that ptcoperative asligmatism greater tbnn I .5 diopter. age greater than 40 and dccentration greater than 1.5 mm

Purpose: Is our method of conservative therapy of advanced unilateral retinoblastoma effective and safe? Methods: From lYYO-lYY3,38 cases of unilateral retinoblastoma were treated in National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo. Except for 9 eyes with absolute glaucoma, suspicious extraocular extension or refusal of conservative therapy, all of them were treated conservatively. Ocular hyperthennia using Legendijk's applicator were combined with radiotherapy, selective ophthalmic arterial injection by balloon catheter or vitreous injection of a small amount of melphslsn. Results: All except one of them could be preserved successfully and some of them retain useful visual acuity. One case of systemic metastasis was found in spite of successful ocular cure up to April 1995. In this case, it is considered that metastasis could have occurred if the eyeball was enucleated, because of sut&ticsl hematogenous metsstasis before treatment. Conclusion: Most of unilateral letinoblsstoma are possible to be cured without enucleation by our method using ocular hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

The paradigm of the emerging Personalized Health Informatics (PHI) area looks to be driven by several factors. Some of them are Country independent. Some others highly depend from the way the specific Country organizes its healthcare system. Nevertheless, several architectural visions and practical applications may take positive inputs from the view cared on each other side of the ocean. This paper presents outlines from EU-US experiences in PHI. HE paradigm of the emerging Personalized Healthcare Informatics (PHI) area looks to be driven by several factors [1]- . While some of them are Country independent [5]-[8], others highly depend from the way the specific Country organizes its healthcare system [9]- . Is a fact that such systems are significantly different between EU and US, so we have to foresee differences in the PHI applications and overall impact between the two environments [12], . Nevertheless, several architectural visions and practical applications may take positive inputs from the view cared on each other side of the ocean [14]- . In personalized Health (pHealth) research area, we can identify two complimentary action lines. The first regards how to make more personalized to the patient what the healthcare system does; the second regards how to make the patient more actively, but sustainably involved for the higher effectiveness of their healthcare. In section II, we present the results and recommendations from the 2008 EU-US pHealth held in Norfolk, VA. According to the achieved recommendations, in the following sections we present some selected projects. As services that promote PHI applications in a home setting Manuscript received March 10, 2010.