The Warped Geometry of Visual Space Near a Line Assessed Using a Hyperacuity Displacement Task

Badcock & Westheimer (Spatial Vision, 1(1), 3-11, 1985) showed that a thin vertical line induces nearby zones of attraction and repulsion; this study extends those results by more closely examining the horizontal and vertical extents of the repulsion zone and by using an illusory contour to induce repulsion. The experimental paradigm measures perceived hyperacute displacements of a thin vertical line 10' tall. Halfway through the stimulus, the bright target line was shifted and a lower contrast flanking line added. Conditions equivalent to Badcock & Westheimer replicate their results. Repulsion is observed horizontally from separations of 5' to at least 30' and becomes minimal at 50'. Repulsion also decreases with increasing vertical separation. Another experiment shows that symmetry is not required for repulsion when the flanking line is split into two vertically separated fragments; one fragment alone causes the same amount of repulsion as both fragments together. Finally, it is shown that a flanking contour formed by the grating illusion causes repulsion of the target line in the same manner as a target line defined by luminance.British Petroleum (89A-1204); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (90-0083); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175

Мовна ситуація в українських засобах масової комунікації в оцінках громадян (за результатами масового опитування)

У статті проаналізовано результати масового опитування щодо мовної ситуації в українських ЗМК. З’ясовано, що диференціація преференцій українців у сфері ЗМІ й культури обумовлена мовою повсякденного спілкування, рідною мовою та регіоном проживання, найменшою мірою віком, освітою та типом населеного пункту

Automated construction of a hierarchy of self-organized neural network classifiers

This paper documents an effort to design and implement a neural network-based, automatic classification system which dynamically constructs and trains a decision tree. The system is a combination of neural network and decision tree technology. The decision tree is constructed to partition a large classification problem into smaller problems. The neural network modules then solve these smaller problems. We used a variant of the Fuzzy ARTMAP neural network which can be trained much more quickly than traditional neural networks. The research extends the concept of self-organization from within the neural network to the overall structure of the dynamically constructed decision hierarchy. The primary advantage is avoidance of manual tedium and subjective bias in constructing decision hierarchies. Additionally, removing the need for manual construction of the hierarchy opens up a large class of potential classification applications. When tested on data from real-world images, the automatically generated hierarchies performed slightly better than an intuitive (handbuilt) hierarchy. Because the neural networks at the nodes of the decision hierarchy are solving smaller problems, generalization performance can really be improved if the number of features used to solve these problems is reduced. Algorithms for automatically selecting which features to use for each individual classification module were also implemented. We were able to achieve the same level of performance as in previous manual efforts, but in an efficient, automatic manner. The technology developed has great potential in a number of commercial areas, including data mining, pattern recognition, and intelligent interfaces for personal computer applications. Sample applications include: fraud detection, bankruptcy prediction, data mining agent, scalable object recognition system, email agent, resource librarian agent, and a decision aid agent

Practical Experiences With Torque Meta-Scheduling In The Czech National Grid

The Czech National Grid Infrastructure went through a complex transition inthe last year. The production environment has been switched from a commercialbatch system PBSPro, which was replaced by an open source alternative Torquebatch system.This paper concentrates on two aspects of this transition. First, we will presentour practical experience with Torque being used as a production ready batchsystem. Our modified version of Torque, with all the necessary PBSPro ex-clusive features re-implemented and further extended with new features likecloud-like behaviour, was deployed across the entire production environment,covering the entire Czech Republic for almost a full year.In the second part, we will present our work on meta-scheduling. This in-volves our work on distributed architecture and cloud-grid convergence. Thedistributed architecture was designed to overcome the limitations of a centralserver setup, which was originally used and presented stability and performanceissues. While this paper does not discuss the inclusion of cloud interfaces intogrids, it does present the dynamic infrastructure, which is a requirement forsharing the grid infrastructure between a batch system and a cloud gateway.We are also inviting everyone to try out our fork of the Torque batch system,which is now publicly available

Reliability evaluation of the Swedish version of Transsexual Voice Questionnaire Male-to-Female (TVQMtF)

There is no validated self-evaluation form in Swedish for male-to- female transsexuals regarding their voice function. The purpose with the present study was to evaluate the reliability of the Swedish version of Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female (Swe-TVQMtF). Swe- TVQ MtF contains 30 items about voice function. The responses were converted into scores, with a maximum of 120 (highest grade of impairment). Thirty MtF transsexuals filled out the Swe-TVQ MtF two times, with four to seven weeks in between. The results showed that Swe-TVQ MtF had high reliability, as the internal consistency was very high both times (Cronbach’s α= 0,97 and α= 0,98) and the test-retest was excellent (ICC= 0,95; 95% confidence interval 0,90-0,98). A high homogeneity on the ITC analysis of the items was found. Due to the sample size, a factor division could not be confirmed. It was concluded that the Swe-TVQ MtF is a robust instrument in terms of reliability and could be used in speech-language pathology clinics.Det saknas ett validitets- och reliabilitetsprövat självskattningsformulär på svenska gällande röstfunktion för transsexuella män-till-kvinnor. Syftet med denna studie var att reliabilitetspröva den svenska versionen av Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female Transsexuals (Swe-TVQMtF). Formuläret innehåller 30 påståenden om röstfunktion. Svaren räknas om till poäng där maximal totalpoäng är 120 (hög grad av besvär). Deltagarna var 30 transsexuella män-till-kvinnor som vid två tillfällen, med fyra till sju veckors mellanrum, besvarade Swe- TVQ MtF. Resultaten visade att Swe-TVQ MtF hade hög reliabilitet då den interna konsistensen var mycket hög vid båda tillfällena (Cronbach’s α = 0,97 och α = 0,98) och tillförlitligheten över tid var mycket god (ICC= 0,95; 95% konfidensintervall 0,90-0,98). ITC-analysen visade också att påståendena hade hög homogenitet. Någon tydlig faktorindelning kunde inte bekräftas utifrån studiens urvalsstorlek. Slutsatsen var att Swe-TVQ MtF är ett robust instrument vad gäller reliabilitet och bör kunna användas i logopedisk verksamhet