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Some observations on the pedestal effect or dipper function
Henning, B., Wichmann, F.
Journal of Vision, 6(13):50, 2006 Fall Vision Meeting of the Optical Society of America, December 2006 (poster)
The pedestal effect is the large improvement in the detectabilty of a sinusoidal "signal" grating observed when the signal is added to a masking or "pedestal" grating of the same spatial frequency, orientation, and phase. We measured the pedestal effect in both broadband and notched noise - noise from which a 1.5-octave band centred on the signal frequency had been removed. Although the pedestal effect persists in broadband noise, it almost disappears in the notched noise. Furthermore, the pedestal effect is substantial when either high- or low-pass masking noise is used. We conclude that the pedestal effect in the absence of notched noise results principally from the use of information derived from channels with peak sensitivities at spatial frequencies different from that of the signal and pedestal. The spatial-frequency components of the notched noise above and below the spatial frequency of the signal and pedestal prevent the use of information about changes in contrast carried in channels tuned to spatial frequencies that are very much different from that of the signal and pedestal. Thus the pedestal or dipper effect measured without notched noise is not a characteristic of individual spatial-frequency tuned channels.
ei Henning, B., Wichmann, F. Some observations on the pedestal effect or dipper function Journal of Vision, 6(13):50, 2006 Fall Vision Meeting of the Optical Society of America, December 2006 (poster)
Optimizing Spatial Filters for BCI: Margin- and Evidence-Maximization Approaches
Farquhar, J., Hill, N., Schölkopf, B.
Challenging Brain-Computer Interfaces: MAIA Workshop 2006, pages: 1, November 2006 (poster)
We present easy-to-use alternatives to the often-used two-stage Common Spatial Pattern + classifier approach for spatial filtering and classification of Event-Related Desychnronization signals in BCI. We report two algorithms that aim to optimize the spatial filters according to a criterion more directly related to the ability of the algorithms to generalize to unseen data. Both are based upon the idea of treating the spatial filter coefficients as hyperparameters of a kernel or covariance function. We then optimize these hyper-parameters directly along side the normal classifier parameters with respect to our chosen learning objective function. The two objectives considered are margin maximization as used in Support-Vector Machines and the evidence maximization framework used in Gaussian Processes. Our experiments assessed generalization error as a function of the number of training points used, on 9 BCI competition data sets and 5 offline motor imagery data sets measured in Tubingen. Both our approaches sho w consistent improvements relative to the commonly used CSP+linear classifier combination. Strikingly, the improvement is most significant in the higher noise cases, when either few trails are used for training, or with the most poorly performing subjects. This a reversal of the usual "rich get richer" effect in the development of CSP extensions, which tend to perform best when the signal is strong enough to accurately find their additional parameters. This makes our approach particularly suitable for clinical application where high levels of noise are to be expected.
ei Farquhar, J., Hill, N., Schölkopf, B. Optimizing Spatial Filters for BCI: Margin- and Evidence-Maximization Approaches Challenging Brain-Computer Interfaces: MAIA Workshop 2006, pages: 1, November 2006 (poster)
Learning Eye Movements
Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M.
Sensory Coding And The Natural Environment, 2006, pages: 1, September 2006 (poster)
The human visual system samples images through saccadic eye movements which rapidly change the point of fixation. Although the selection of eye movement targets depends on numerous top-down mechanisms, a number of recent studies have shown that low-level image features such as local contrast or edges play an important role. These studies typically used predefined image features which were afterwards experimentally verified. Here, we follow a complementary approach: instead of testing a set of candidate image features, we infer these hypotheses from the data, using methods from statistical learning. To this end, we train a non-linear classifier on fixated vs. randomly selected image patches without making any physiological assumptions. The resulting classifier can be essentially characterized by a nonlinear combination of two center-surround receptive fields. We find that the prediction performance of this simple model on our eye movement data is indistinguishable from the physiologically motivated model of Itti & Koch (2000) which is far more complex. In particular, we obtain a comparable performance without using any multi-scale representations, long-range interactions or oriented image features.
ei Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M. Learning Eye Movements Sensory Coding And The Natural Environment, 2006, pages: 1, September 2006 (poster)
Classification of natural scenes: Critical features revisited
Drewes, J., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K.
Journal of Vision, 6(6):561, 6th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), June 2006 (poster)
Human observers are capable of detecting animals within novel natural scenes with remarkable speed and accuracy. Despite the seeming complexity of such decisions it has been hypothesized that a simple global image feature, the relative abundance of high spatial frequencies at certain orientations, could underly such fast image classification (A. Torralba & A. Oliva, Network: Comput. Neural Syst., 2003). We successfully used linear discriminant analysis to classify a set of 11.000 images into "animal" and "non-animal" images based on their individual amplitude spectra only (Drewes, Wichmann, Gegenfurtner VSS 2005). We proceeded to sort the images based on the performance of our classifier, retaining only the best and worst classified 400 images ("best animals", "best distractors" and "worst animals", "worst distractors"). We used a Go/No-go paradigm to evaluate human performance on this subset of our images. Both reaction time and proportion of correctly classified images showed a significant effect of classification difficulty. Images more easily classified by our algorithm were also classified faster and better by humans, as predicted by the Torralba & Oliva hypothesis. We then equated the amplitude spectra of the 400 images, which, by design, reduced algorithmic performance to chance whereas human performance was only slightly reduced (cf. Wichmann, Rosas, Gegenfurtner, VSS 2005). Most importantly, the same images as before were still classified better and faster, suggesting that even in the original condition features other than specifics of the amplitude spectrum made particular images easy to classify, clearly at odds with the Torralba & Oliva hypothesis.
ei Drewes, J., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K. Classification of natural scenes: Critical features revisited Journal of Vision, 6(6):561, 6th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), June 2006 (poster)
The pedestal effect is caused by off-frequency looking, not nonlinear transduction or contrast gain-control
Wichmann, F., Henning, B.
The pedestal or dipper effect is the large improvement in the detectabilty of a sinusoidal grating observed when the signal is added to a pedestal or masking grating having the signal's spatial frequency, orientation, and phase. The effect is largest with pedestal contrasts just above the 'threshold' in the absence of a pedestal. We measured the pedestal effect in both broadband and notched masking noise---noise from which a 1.5- octave band centered on the signal and pedestal frequency had been removed. The pedestal effect persists in broadband noise, but almost disappears with notched noise. The spatial-frequency components of the notched noise that lie above and below the spatial frequency of the signal and pedestal prevent the use of information about changes in contrast carried in channels tuned to spatial frequencies that are very much different from that of the signal and pedestal. We conclude that the pedestal effect in the absence of notched noise results principally from the use of information derived from channels with peak sensitivities at spatial frequencies that are different from that of the signal and pedestal. Thus the pedestal or dipper effect is not a characteristic of individual spatial-frequency tuned channels.
ei Wichmann, F., Henning, B. The pedestal effect is caused by off-frequency looking, not nonlinear transduction or contrast gain-control Journal of Vision, 6(6):194, 6th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), June 2006 (poster)
Wichmann, F., Henning, G.
9, pages: 174, 9th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), March 2006 (poster)
The pedestal or dipper effect is the large improvement in the detectability of a sinusoidal grating observed when the signal is added to a pedestal or masking grating having the signal's spatial frequency, orientation, and phase. The effect is largest with pedestal contrasts just above the 'threshold' in the absence of a pedestal. We measured the pedestal effect in both broadband and notched masking noise---noise from which a 1.5-octave band centered on the signal and pedestal frequency had been removed. The pedestal effect persists in broadband noise, but almost disappears with notched noise. The spatial-frequency components of the notched noise that lie above and below the spatial frequency of the signal and pedestal prevent the use of information about changes in contrast carried in channels tuned to spatial frequencies that are very much different from that of the signal and pedestal. We conclude that the pedestal effect in the absence of notched noise results principally from the use of information derived from channels with peak sensitivities at spatial frequencies that are different from that of the signal and pedestal. Thus the pedestal or dipper effect is not a characteristic of individual spatial-frequency tuned channels.
ei Wichmann, F., Henning, G. The Pedestal Effect is Caused by Off-Frequency Looking, not Nonlinear Transduction or Contrast Gain-Control 9, pages: 174, 9th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), March 2006 (poster)
9, pages: 92, 9th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), March 2006 (poster)
Human observers are capable of detecting animals within novel natural scenes with remarkable speed and accuracy. Despite the seeming complexity of such decisions it has been hypothesized that a simple global image feature, the relative abundance of high spatial frequencies at certain orientations, could underly such fast image classification [1]. We successfully used linear discriminant analysis to classify a set of 11.000 images into "animal" and "non-animal" images based on their individual amplitude spectra only [2]. We proceeded to sort the images based on the performance of our classifier, retaining only the best and worst classified 400 images ("best animals", "best distractors" and "worst animals", "worst distractors"). We used a Go/No-go paradigm to evaluate human performance on this subset of our images. Both reaction time and proportion of correctly classified images showed a significant effect of classification difficulty. Images more easily classified by our algorithm were also classified faster and better by humans, as predicted by the Torralba & Oliva hypothesis. We then equated the amplitude spectra of the 400 images, which, by design, reduced algorithmic performance to chance whereas human performance was only slightly reduced [3]. Most importantly, the same images as before were still classified better and faster, suggesting that even in the original condition features other than specifics of the amplitude spectrum made particular images easy to classify, clearly at odds with the Torralba & Oliva hypothesis.
ei Drewes, J., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K. Classification of Natural Scenes: Critical Features Revisited 9, pages: 92, 9th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), March 2006 (poster)
The performance of unsupervised learning models for natural images is evaluated quantitatively by means of information theory. We estimate the gain in statistical independence (the multi-information reduction) achieved with independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis (PCA), zero-phase whitening, and predictive coding. Predictive coding is translated into the transform coding framework, where it can be characterized by the constraint of a triangular filter matrix. A randomly sampled whitening basis and the Haar wavelet are included into the comparison as well. The comparison of all these methods is carried out for different patch sizes, ranging from 2x2 to 16x16 pixels. In spite of large differences in the shape of the basis functions, we find only small differences in the multi-information between all decorrelation transforms (5% or less) for all patch sizes. Among the second-order methods, PCA is optimal for small patch sizes and predictive coding performs best for large patch sizes. The extra gain achieved with ICA is always less than 2%. In conclusion, the `edge filters' found with ICA lead only to a surprisingly small improvement in terms of its actual objective.
ei Bethge, M. Factorial Coding of Natural Images: How Effective are Linear Models in Removing Higher-Order Dependencies? 9, pages: 90, 9th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), March 2006 (poster)
Nonstationary Gaussian Process Regression using a Latent Extension of the Input Space
Pfingsten, T., Kuss, M., Rasmussen, C.
pages: 3, January 2006 (poster)
ei Pfingsten, T., Kuss, M., Rasmussen, C. Nonstationary Gaussian Process Regression using a Latent Extension of the Input Space pages: 3, January 2006 (poster)
Experimentelle Psychologie: Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 48, pages: 251, 2006 (poster)
ei Drewes, J., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K. Classification of natural scenes: critical features revisited Experimentelle Psychologie: Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 48, pages: 251, 2006 (poster)
Texture and haptic cues in slant discrimination: combination is sensitive to reliability but not statistically optimal
Rosas, P., Wagemans, J., Ernst, M., Wichmann, F.
Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP 2006), 48, pages: 80, 2006 (poster)
ei Rosas, P., Wagemans, J., Ernst, M., Wichmann, F. Texture and haptic cues in slant discrimination: combination is sensitive to reliability but not statistically optimal Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP 2006), 48, pages: 80, 2006 (poster)
Ähnlichkeitsmasse in Modellen zur Kategorienbildung
Jäkel, F., Wichmann, F.
ei Jäkel, F., Wichmann, F. Ähnlichkeitsmasse in Modellen zur Kategorienbildung Experimentelle Psychologie: Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 48, pages: 223, 2006 (poster)
ei Wichmann, F., Henning, B. The pedestal effect is caused by off-frequency looking, not nonlinear transduction or contrast gain-control Experimentelle Psychologie: Beitr{\"a}ge zur 48. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 48, pages: 205, 2006 (poster)
NONLINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CHIRAL LIQUIDS Electric-dipolar pseudoscalars in nonlinear optics
Fischer, P., Champagne, B.
In NON-LINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF MATTER: FROM MOLECULES TO CONDENSED PHASES, 1, pages: 359-381, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics, 2006 (incollection)
We give all overview of linear and nonlinear optical processes that can be specific to chiral molecules in isotropic media. Specifically, we discuss the pseudoscalars that underlie nonlinear optical activity and chiral frequency conversion processes in fluids. We show that nonlinear optical techniques open entirely new ways of exploring chirality: Sum-frequency-generation (SFG) at second-order and BioCARS at fourth-order arise in the electric-dipole approximation and do not require circularly polarized light to detect chiral molecules in solution. Here the frequency conversion in itself is a measure of chirality. This is in contrast to natural optical activity phenomena which are based on the interference of radiation from induced oscillating electric and magnetic dipoles, and which are observed as a differential response to right and left circularly polarized light. We give examples from our SFG experiments in optically active solutions and show how the application of an additional static electric field to sum-frequency generation allows the absolute configuration of the chiral solute to be determined via all electric-dipolar process. Results from ab initio calculations of the SFG pseudoscalar are presented for a number of chiral molecules
pf Fischer, P., Champagne, B. NONLINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CHIRAL LIQUIDS Electric-dipolar pseudoscalars in nonlinear optics In NON-LINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF MATTER: FROM MOLECULES TO CONDENSED PHASES, 1, pages: 359-381, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics, 2006 (incollection)
am Vijayakumar, S., DSouza, A., Schaal, S. Approximate nearest neighbor regression in very high dimensions In Nearest-Neighbor Methods in Learning and Vision, pages: 103-142, (Editors: Shakhnarovich, G.;Darrell, T.;Indyk, P.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006, clmc (inbook)
S-cones contribute to flicker brightness in human vision
Wehrhahn, C., Hill, NJ., Dillenburger, B.
34(174.12), 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), October 2004 (poster)
In the retina of primates three cone types sensitive to short, middle and long wavelengths of light convert photons into electrical signals. Many investigators have presented evidence that, in color normal observers, the signals of cones sensitive to short wavelengths of light (S-cones) do not contribute to the perception of brightness of a colored surface when this is alternated with an achromatic reference (flicker brightness). Other studies indicate that humans do use S-cone signals when performing this task. Common to all these studies is the small number of observers, whose performance data are reported. Considerable variability in the occurrence of cone types across observers has been found, but, to our knowledge, no cone counts exist from larger populations of humans. We reinvestigated how much the S-cones contribute to flicker brightness. 76 color normal observers were tested in a simple psychophysical procedure neutral to the cone type occurence (Teufel & Wehrhahn (2000), JOSA A 17: 994 - 1006). The data show that, in the majority of our observers, S-cones provide input with a negative sign - relative to L- and M-cone contribution - in the task in question. There is indeed considerable between-subject variability such that for 20 out of 76 observers the magnitude of this input does not differ significantly from 0. Finally, we argue that the sign of S-cone contribution to flicker brightness perception by an observer cannot be used to infer the relative sign their contributions to the neuronal signals carrying the information leading to the perception of flicker brightness. We conclude that studies which use only a small number of observers may easily fail to find significant evidence for the small but significant population tendency for the S-cones to contribute to flicker brightness. Our results confirm all earlier results and reconcile their contradictory interpretations.
ei Wehrhahn, C., Hill, NJ., Dillenburger, B. S-cones contribute to flicker brightness in human vision 34(174.12), 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), October 2004 (poster)
Distributed Command Execution
Stark, S., Berlin, M.
In BSD Hacks: 100 industrial-strength tips & tools, pages: 152-152, (Editors: Lavigne, Dru), O'Reilly, Beijing, May 2004 (inbook)
Often you want to execute a command not only on one computer, but on several at once. For example, you might want to report the current statistics on a group of managed servers or update all of your web servers at once.
ei Stark, S., Berlin, M. Distributed Command Execution In BSD Hacks: 100 industrial-strength tips & tools, pages: 152-152, (Editors: Lavigne, Dru), O'Reilly, Beijing, May 2004 (inbook)
Human Classification Behaviour Revisited by Machine Learning
7, pages: 134, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), Febuary 2004 (poster)
We attempt to understand visual classication in humans using both psychophysical and machine learning techniques. Frontal views of human faces were used for a gender classication task. Human subjects classied the faces and their gender judgment, reaction time (RT) and condence rating (CR) were recorded for each face. RTs are longer for incorrect answers than for correct ones, high CRs are correlated with low classication errors and RTs decrease as the CRs increase. This results suggest that patterns difcult to classify need more computation by the brain than patterns easy to classify. Hyperplane learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machines (SVM), Relevance Vector Machines (RVM), Prototype learners (Prot) and K-means learners (Kmean) were used on the same classication task using the Principal Components of the texture and oweld representation of the faces. The classication performance of the learning algorithms was estimated using the face database with the true gender of the faces as labels, and also with the gender estimated by the subjects. Kmean yield a classication performance close to humans while SVM and RVM are much better. This surprising behaviour may be due to the fact that humans are trained on real faces during their lifetime while they were here tested on articial ones, while the algorithms were trained and tested on the same set of stimuli. We then correlated the human responses to the distance of the stimuli to the separating hyperplane (SH) of the learning algorithms. On the whole stimuli far from the SH are classied more accurately, faster and with higher condence than those near to the SH if we pool data across all our subjects and stimuli. We also nd three noteworthy results. First, SVMs and RVMs can learn to classify faces using the subjects' labels but perform much better when using the true labels. Second, correlating the average response of humans (classication error, RT or CR) with the distance to the SH on a face-by-face basis using Spearman's rank correlation coefcients shows that RVMs recreate human performance most closely in every respect. Third, the mean-of-class prototype, its popularity in neuroscience notwithstanding, is the least human-like classier in all cases examined.
ei Graf, A., Wichmann, F., Bülthoff, H., Schölkopf, B. Human Classification Behaviour Revisited by Machine Learning 7, pages: 134, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), Febuary 2004 (poster)
m-Alternative-Forced-Choice: Improving the Efficiency of the Method of Constant Stimuli
Jäkel, F., Hill, J., Wichmann, F.
7, pages: 118, 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
We explored several ways to improve the efficiency of measuring psychometric functions without resorting to adaptive procedures. a) The number m of alternatives in an m-alternative-forced-choice (m-AFC) task improves the efficiency of the method of constant stimuli. b) When alternatives are presented simultaneously on different positions on a screen rather than sequentially time can be saved and memory load for the subject can be reduced. c) A touch-screen can further help to make the experimental procedure more intuitive. We tested these ideas in the measurement of contrast sensitivity and compared them to results obtained by sequential presentation in two-interval-forced-choice (2-IFC). Qualitatively all methods (m-AFC and 2-IFC) recovered the characterictic shape of the contrast sensitivity function in three subjects. The m-AFC paradigm only took about 60% of the time of the 2-IFC task. We tried m=2,4,8 and found 4-AFC to give the best model fits and 2-AFC to have the least bias.
ei Jäkel, F., Hill, J., Wichmann, F. m-Alternative-Forced-Choice: Improving the Efficiency of the Method of Constant Stimuli 7, pages: 118, 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Efficient Approximations for Support Vector Classifiers
Kienzle, W., Franz, M.
7, pages: 68, 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
In face detection, support vector machines (SVM) and neural networks (NN) have been shown to outperform most other classication methods. While both approaches are learning-based, there are distinct advantages and drawbacks to each method: NNs are difcult to design and train but can lead to very small and efcient classiers. In comparison, SVM model selection and training is rather straightforward, and, more importantly, guaranteed to converge to a globally optimal (in the sense of training errors) solution. Unfortunately, SVM classiers tend to have large representations which are inappropriate for time-critical image processing applications. In this work, we examine various existing and new methods for simplifying support vector decision rules. Our goal is to obtain efcient classiers (as with NNs) while keeping the numerical and statistical advantages of SVMs. For a given SVM solution, we compute a cascade of approximations with increasing complexities. Each classier is tuned so that the detection rate is near 100%. At run-time, the rst (simplest) detector is evaluated on the whole image. Then, any subsequent classier is applied only to those positions that have been classied as positive throughout all previous stages. The false positive rate at the end equals that of the last (i.e. most complex) detector. In contrast, since many image positions are discarded by lower-complexity classiers, the average computation time per patch decreases signicantly compared to the time needed for evaluating the highest-complexity classier alone.
ei Kienzle, W., Franz, M. Efficient Approximations for Support Vector Classifiers 7, pages: 68, 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Selective Attention to Auditory Stimuli: A Brain-Computer Interface Paradigm
Hill, N., Lal, T., Schröder, M., Hinterberger, T., Birbaumer, N., Schölkopf, B.
7, pages: 102, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
During the last 20 years several paradigms for Brain Computer Interfaces have been proposed— see [1] for a recent review. They can be divided into (a) stimulus-driven paradigms, using e.g. event-related potentials or visual evoked potentials from an EEG signal, and (b) patient-driven paradigms such as those that use premotor potentials correlated with imagined action, or slow cortical potentials (e.g. [2]). Our aim is to develop a stimulus-driven paradigm that is applicable in practice to patients. Due to the unreliability of visual perception in "locked-in" patients in the later stages of disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, we concentrate on the auditory modality. Speci- cally, we look for the effects, in the EEG signal, of selective attention to one of two concurrent auditory stimulus streams, exploiting the increased activation to attended stimuli that is seen under some circumstances [3]. We present the results of our preliminary experiments on normal subjects. On each of 400 trials, two repetitive stimuli (sequences of drum-beats or other pulsed stimuli) could be heard simultaneously. The two stimuli were distinguishable from one another by their acoustic properties, by their source location (one from a speaker to the left of the subject, the other from the right), and by their differing periodicities. A visual cue preceded the stimulus by 500 msec, indicating which of the two stimuli to attend to, and the subject was instructed to count the beats in the attended stimulus stream. There were up to 6 beats of each stimulus: with equal probability on each trial, all 6 were played, or the fourth was omitted, or the fth was omitted. The 40-channel EEG signals were analyzed ofine to reconstruct which of the streams was attended on each trial. A linear Support Vector Machine [4] was trained on a random subset of the data and tested on the remainder. Results are compared from two types of pre-processing of the signal: for each stimulus stream, (a) EEG signals at the stream's beat periodicity are emphasized, or (b) EEG signals following beats are contrasted with those following missing beats. Both forms of pre-processing show promising results, i.e. that selective attention to one or the other auditory stream yields signals that are classiable signicantly above chance performance. In particular, the second pre-processing was found to be robust to reduction in the number of features used for classication (cf. [5]), helping us to eliminate noise.
ei Hill, N., Lal, T., Schröder, M., Hinterberger, T., Birbaumer, N., Schölkopf, B. Selective Attention to Auditory Stimuli: A Brain-Computer Interface Paradigm 7, pages: 102, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Texture and Haptic Cues in Slant Discrimination: Measuring the Effect of Texture Type
Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Ernst, M., Wagemans, J.
7, pages: 165, (Editors: Bülthoff, H. H., H. A. Mallot, R. Ulrich, F. A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
In a number of models of depth cue combination the depth percept is constructed via a weighted average combination of independent depth estimations. The inuence of each cue in such average depends on the reliability of the source of information [1,5]. In particular, Ernst and Banks (2002) formulate such combination as that of the minimum variance unbiased estimator that can be constructed from the available cues. We have observed systematic differences in slant discrimination performance of human observers when different types of textures were used as cue to slant [4]. If the depth percept behaves as described above, our measurements of the slopes of the psychometric functions provide the predicted weights for the texture cue for the ranked texture types. However, the results for slant discrimination obtained when combining these texture types with object motion results are difcult to reconcile with the minimum variance unbiased estimator model [3]. This apparent failure of such model might be explained by the existence of a coupling of texture and motion, violating the assumption of independence of cues. Hillis, Ernst, Banks, and Landy (2002) [2] have shown that while for between-modality combination the human visual system has access to the single-cue information, for withinmodality combination (visual cues) the single-cue information is lost. This suggests a coupling between visual cues and independence between visual and haptic cues. Then, in the present study we combined the different texture types with haptic information in a slant discrimination task, to test whether in the between-modality condition these cues are combined as predicted by an unbiased, minimum variance estimator model. The measured weights for the cues were consistent with a combination rule sensitive to the reliability of the sources of information, but did not match the predictions of a statistically optimal combination.
ei Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Ernst, M., Wagemans, J. Texture and Haptic Cues in Slant Discrimination: Measuring the Effect of Texture Type 7, pages: 165, (Editors: Bülthoff, H. H., H. A. Mallot, R. Ulrich, F. A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Efficient Approximations for Support Vector Classiers
ei Kienzle, W., Franz, M. Efficient Approximations for Support Vector Classiers 7, pages: 68, 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
EEG Channel Selection for Brain Computer Interface Systems Based on Support Vector Methods
Schröder, M., Lal, T., Bogdan, M., Schölkopf, B.
7, pages: 50, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system allows the direct interpretation of brain activity patterns (e.g. EEG signals) by a computer. Typical BCI applications comprise spelling aids or environmental control systems supporting paralyzed patients that have lost motor control completely. The design of an EEG based BCI system requires good answers for the problem of selecting useful features during the performance of a mental task as well as for the problem of classifying these features. For the special case of choosing appropriate EEG channels from several available channels, we propose the application of variants of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) for both problems. Although these algorithms do not rely on prior knowledge they can provide more accurate solutions than standard lter methods [1] for feature selection which usually incorporate prior knowledge about neural activity patterns during the performed mental tasks. For judging the importance of features we introduce a new relevance measure and apply it to EEG channels. Although we base the relevance measure for this purpose on the previously introduced algorithms, it does in general not depend on specic algorithms but can be derived using arbitrary combinations of feature selectors and classifiers.
ei Schröder, M., Lal, T., Bogdan, M., Schölkopf, B. EEG Channel Selection for Brain Computer Interface Systems Based on Support Vector Methods 7, pages: 50, (Editors: Bülthoff, H.H., H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich and F.A. Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Learning Depth
Sinz, F., Franz, MO.
pages: 69, (Editors: H.H.Bülthoff, H.A.Mallot, R.Ulrich,F.A.Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
The depth of a point in space can be estimated by observing its image position from two different viewpoints. The classical approach to stereo vision calculates depth from the two projection equations which together form a stereocamera model. An unavoidable preparatory work for this solution is a calibration procedure, i.e., estimating the external (position and orientation) and internal (focal length, lens distortions etc.) parameters of each camera from a set of points with known spatial position and their corresponding image positions. This is normally done by iteratively linearizing the single camera models and reestimating their parameters according to the error on the known datapoints. The advantage of the classical method is the maximal usage of prior knowledge about the underlying physical processes and the explicit estimation of meaningful model parameters such as focal length or camera position in space. However, the approach neglects the nonlinear nature of the problem such that the results critically depend on the choice of the initial values for the parameters. In this study, we approach the depth estimation problem from a different point of view by applying generic machine learning algorithms to learn the mapping from image coordinates to spatial position. These algorithms do not require any domain knowledge and are able to learn nonlinear functions by mapping the inputs into a higher-dimensional space. Compared to classical calibration, machine learning methods give a direct solution to the depth estimation problem which means that the values of the stereocamera parameters cannot be extracted from the learned mapping. On the poster, we compare the performance of classical camera calibration to that of different machine learning algorithms such as kernel ridge regression, gaussian processes and support vector regression. Our results indicate that generic learning approaches can lead to higher depth accuracies than classical calibration although no domain knowledge is used.
ei Sinz, F., Franz, MO. Learning Depth pages: 69, (Editors: H.H.Bülthoff, H.A.Mallot, R.Ulrich,F.A.Wichmann), 7th T{\"u}bingen Perception Conference (TWK), February 2004 (poster)
Gaussian Processes in Machine Learning
Rasmussen, CE.
In 3176, pages: 63-71, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Editors: Bousquet, O., U. von Luxburg and G. Rätsch), Springer, Heidelberg, 2004, Copyright by Springer (inbook)
We give a basic introduction to Gaussian Process regression models. We focus on understanding the role of the stochastic process and how it is used to define a distribution over functions. We present the simple equations for incorporating training data and examine how to learn the hyperparameters using the marginal likelihood. We explain the practical advantages of Gaussian Process and end with conclusions and a look at the current trends in GP work.
PDF PostScript [BibTex]
ei Rasmussen, CE. Gaussian Processes in Machine Learning In 3176, pages: 63-71, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Editors: Bousquet, O., U. von Luxburg and G. Rätsch), Springer, Heidelberg, 2004, Copyright by Springer (inbook)
Neural mechanisms underlying control of a Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI): Simultaneous recording of bold-response and EEG
Hinterberger, T., Wilhelm, B., Veit, R., Weiskopf, N., Lal, TN., Birbaumer, N.
2004 (poster)
Brain computer interfaces (BCI) enable humans or animals to communicate or activate external devices without muscle activity using electric brain signals. The BCI Thought Translation Device (TTD) uses learned regulation of slow cortical potentials (SCPs), a skill most people and paralyzed patients can acquire with training periods of several hours up to months. The neurophysiological mechanisms and anatomical sources of SCPs and other event-related brain macro-potentials are well understood, but the neural mechanisms underlying learning of the self-regulation skill for BCI-use are unknown. To uncover the relevant areas of brain activation during regulation of SCPs, the TTD was combined with functional MRI and EEG was recorded inside the MRI scanner in twelve healthy participants who have learned to regulate their SCP with feedback and reinforcement. The results demonstrate activation of specific brain areas during execution of the brain regulation skill: successf! ul control of cortical positivity allowing a person to activate an external device was closely related to an increase of BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) response in the basal ganglia and frontal premotor deactivation indicating learned regulation of a cortical-striatal loop responsible for local excitation thresholds of cortical assemblies. The data suggest that human users of a BCI learn the regulation of cortical excitation thresholds of large neuronal assemblies as a prerequisite of direct brain communication: the learning of this skill depends critically on an intact and flexible interaction between these cortico-basal ganglia-circuits. Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the National Institute of Health (NIH).
ei Hinterberger, T., Wilhelm, B., Veit, R., Weiskopf, N., Lal, TN., Birbaumer, N. Neural mechanisms underlying control of a Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI): Simultaneous recording of bold-response and EEG 2004 (poster)
Masking by plaid patterns revisited
Wichmann, F.
Experimentelle Psychologie. Beitr{\"a}ge zur 46. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 46, pages: 285, 2004 (poster)
ei Wichmann, F. Masking by plaid patterns revisited Experimentelle Psychologie. Beitr{\"a}ge zur 46. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 46, pages: 285, 2004 (poster)
Protein Classification via Kernel Matrix Completion
Kin, T., Kato, T., Tsuda, K.
In pages: 261-274, (Editors: Schoelkopf, B., K. Tsuda and J.P. Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA; USA, 2004 (inbook)
ei Kin, T., Kato, T., Tsuda, K. Protein Classification via Kernel Matrix Completion In pages: 261-274, (Editors: Schoelkopf, B., K. Tsuda and J.P. Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA; USA, 2004 (inbook)
Early visual processing—data, theory, models
Experimentelle Psychologie. Beitr{\"a}ge zur 46. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 46, pages: 24, 2004 (poster)
ei Wichmann, F. Early visual processing—data, theory, models Experimentelle Psychologie. Beitr{\"a}ge zur 46. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, 46, pages: 24, 2004 (poster)
Introduction to Statistical Learning Theory
Bousquet, O., Boucheron, S., Lugosi, G.
In Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 3176, pages: 169-207, (Editors: Bousquet, O., U. von Luxburg and G. Rätsch), Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 2004 (inbook)
ei Bousquet, O., Boucheron, S., Lugosi, G. Introduction to Statistical Learning Theory In Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 3176, pages: 169-207, (Editors: Bousquet, O., U. von Luxburg and G. Rätsch), Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 2004 (inbook)
A Primer on Kernel Methods
Vert, J., Tsuda, K., Schölkopf, B.
In Kernel Methods in Computational Biology, pages: 35-70, (Editors: B Schölkopf and K Tsuda and JP Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2004 (inbook)
ei Vert, J., Tsuda, K., Schölkopf, B. A Primer on Kernel Methods In Kernel Methods in Computational Biology, pages: 35-70, (Editors: B Schölkopf and K Tsuda and JP Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2004 (inbook)
Concentration Inequalities
Boucheron, S., Lugosi, G., Bousquet, O.
ei Boucheron, S., Lugosi, G., Bousquet, O. Concentration Inequalities In Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 3176, pages: 208-240, (Editors: Bousquet, O., U. von Luxburg and G. Rätsch), Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 2004 (inbook)
Kernels for graphs
Kashima, H., Tsuda, K., Inokuchi, A.
ei Kashima, H., Tsuda, K., Inokuchi, A. Kernels for graphs In pages: 155-170, (Editors: Schoelkopf, B., K. Tsuda and J.P. Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA; USA, 2004 (inbook)
A primer on molecular biology
Zien, A.
In pages: 3-34, (Editors: Schoelkopf, B., K. Tsuda and J. P. Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2004 (inbook)
Modern molecular biology provides a rich source of challenging machine learning problems. This tutorial chapter aims to provide the necessary biological background knowledge required to communicate with biologists and to understand and properly formalize a number of most interesting problems in this application domain. The largest part of the chapter (its first section) is devoted to the cell as the basic unit of life. Four aspects of cells are reviewed in sequence: (1) the molecules that cells make use of (above all, proteins, RNA, and DNA); (2) the spatial organization of cells (``compartmentalization''); (3) the way cells produce proteins (``protein expression''); and (4) cellular communication and evolution (of cells and organisms). In the second section, an overview is provided of the most frequent measurement technologies, data types, and data sources. Finally, important open problems in the analysis of these data (bioinformatics challenges) are briefly outlined.
PDF PostScript Web [BibTex]
ei Zien, A. A primer on molecular biology In pages: 3-34, (Editors: Schoelkopf, B., K. Tsuda and J. P. Vert), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2004 (inbook)
Implicit Wiener series for capturing higher-order interactions in images
Franz, M., Schölkopf, B.
Sensory coding and the natural environment, (Editors: Olshausen, B.A. and M. Lewicki), 2004 (poster)
The information about the objects in an image is almost exclusively described by the higher-order interactions of its pixels. The Wiener series is one of the standard methods to systematically characterize these interactions. However, the classical estimation method of the Wiener expansion coefficients via cross-correlation suffers from severe problems that prevent its application to high-dimensional and strongly nonlinear signals such as images. We propose an estimation method based on regression in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space that overcomes these problems using polynomial kernels as known from Support Vector Machines and other kernel-based methods. Numerical experiments show performance advantages in terms of convergence, interpretability and system sizes that can be handled. By the time of the conference, we will be able to present first results on the higher-order structure of natural images.
ei Franz, M., Schölkopf, B. Implicit Wiener series for capturing higher-order interactions in images Sensory coding and the natural environment, (Editors: Olshausen, B.A. and M. Lewicki), 2004 (poster)
Classification and Memory Behaviour of Man Revisited by Machine
CSHL Meeting on Computational & Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), 2004 (poster)
ei Graf, A., Wichmann, F., Bülthoff, H., Schölkopf, B. Classification and Memory Behaviour of Man Revisited by Machine CSHL Meeting on Computational & Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), 2004 (poster)
Computational approaches to motor learning by imitation
Schaal, S., Ijspeert, A., Billard, A.
In The Neuroscience of Social Interaction, (1431):199-218, (Editors: Frith, C. D.;Wolpert, D.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, clmc (inbook)
Movement imitation requires a complex set of mechanisms that map an observed movement of a teacher onto one's own movement apparatus. Relevant problems include movement recognition, pose estimation, pose tracking, body correspondence, coordinate transformation from external to egocentric space, matching of observed against previously learned movement, resolution of redundant degrees-of-freedom that are unconstrained by the observation, suitable movement representations for imitation, modularization of motor control, etc. All of these topics by themselves are active research problems in computational and neurobiological sciences, such that their combination into a complete imitation system remains a daunting undertaking - indeed, one could argue that we need to understand the complete perception-action loop. As a strategy to untangle the complexity of imitation, this paper will examine imitation purely from a computational point of view, i.e. we will review statistical and mathematical approaches that have been suggested for tackling parts of the imitation problem, and discuss their merits, disadvantages and underlying principles. Given the focus on action recognition of other contributions in this special issue, this paper will primarily emphasize the motor side of imitation, assuming that a perceptual system has already identified important features of a demonstrated movement and created their corresponding spatial information. Based on the formalization of motor control in terms of control policies and their associated performance criteria, useful taxonomies of imitation learning can be generated that clarify different approaches and future research directions.
am Schaal, S., Ijspeert, A., Billard, A. Computational approaches to motor learning by imitation In The Neuroscience of Social Interaction, (1431):199-218, (Editors: Frith, C. D.;Wolpert, D.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, clmc (inbook)
Effect of Grain Boundary Phase Transitions on the Superplasticity in the Al-Zn System
Lopez, G.A., Straumal, B.B., Gust, W., Mittemeijer, E.J.
In Nanomaterials by Severe Plastic Deformation, pages: 642-647, Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 2004 (incollection)
mms Lopez, G.A., Straumal, B.B., Gust, W., Mittemeijer, E.J. Effect of Grain Boundary Phase Transitions on the Superplasticity in the Al-Zn System In Nanomaterials by Severe Plastic Deformation, pages: 642-647, Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 2004 (incollection)
Surface-slant-from-texture discrimination: Effects of slant level and texture type
Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Wagemans, J.
Journal of Vision, 2(7):300, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)
The problem of surface-slant-from-texture was studied psychophysically by measuring the performances of five human subjects in a slant-discrimination task with a number of different types of textures: uniform lattices, randomly displaced lattices, polka dots, Voronoi tessellations, orthogonal sinusoidal plaid patterns, fractal or 1/f noise, "coherent" noise and a "diffusion-based" texture (leopard skin-like). The results show: (1) Improving performance with larger slants for all textures. (2) A "non-symmetrical" performance around a particular slant characterized by a psychometric function that is steeper in the direction of the more slanted orientation. (3) For sufficiently large slants (66 deg) there are no major differences in performance between any of the different textures. (4) For slants at 26, 37 and 53 degrees, however, there are marked differences between the different textures. (5) The observed differences in performance across textures for slants up to 53 degrees are systematic within subjects, and nearly so across them. This allows a rank-order of textures to be formed according to their "helpfulness" — that is, how easy the discrimination task is when a particular texture is mapped on the surface. Polka dots tended to allow the best slant discrimination performance, noise patterns the worst up to the large slant of 66 degrees at which performance was almost independent of the particular texture chosen. Finally, our large number of 2AFC trials (approximately 2800 trials per texture across subjects) and associated tight confidence intervals may enable us to find out about which statistical properties of the textures could be responsible for surface-slant-from-texture estimation, with the ultimate goal of being able to predict observer performance for any arbitrary texture.
ei Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Wagemans, J. Surface-slant-from-texture discrimination: Effects of slant level and texture type Journal of Vision, 2(7):300, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)
Modelling Contrast Transfer in Spatial Vision
Journal of Vision, 2(10):7, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)
Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast, the results of which allow different models of contrast processing (e.g. energy versus gain-control models) to be critically assessed (Wichmann & Henning, 1999). Studies of detection and discrimination using pulse train stimuli in noise, on the other hand, make predictions about the number, position and properties of noise sources within the processing stream (Henning, Bird & Wichmann, 2002). Here I report modelling results combining data from both sinusoidal and pulse train experiments in and without noise to arrive at a more tightly constrained model of early spatial vision.
ei Wichmann, F. Modelling Contrast Transfer in Spatial Vision Journal of Vision, 2(10):7, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)
Pulse train detection and discrimination in pink noise
Henning, G., Wichmann, F., Bird, C.
Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on the display was measured and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband "pink" noise, designed to equalize the detectability of the components of the pulse train, made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. In contrast, a 2.09-c/deg "super train," constructed to have 8 equally detectable harmonics, was a factor of five more detectable than any of its components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.
ei Henning, G., Wichmann, F., Bird, C. Pulse train detection and discrimination in pink noise Journal of Vision, 2(7):229, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)
Phase information in the recognition of natural images
Braun, D., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K.
Perception, 31(ECVP Abstract Supplement):133, 25th European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2002 (poster)
Fourier phase plays an important role in determining global image structure. For example, when the phase spectrum of an image of a flower is swapped with that of a tank, we usually perceive a tank, even though the amplitude spectrum is still that of the flower. Similarly, when the phase spectrum of an image is randomly swapped across frequencies, that is its Fourier energy is randomly distributed over the image, the resulting image becomes impossible to recognise. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of phase manipulations in a quantitative manner. Subjects viewed two images of natural scenes, one of which contained an animal (the target) embedded in the background. The spectra of the images were manipulated by adding random phase noise at each frequency. The phase noise was the independent variable, uniformly distributed between 0° and ±180°. Subjects were remarkably resistant to phase noise. Even with ±120° noise, subjects were still 75% correct. The proportion of correct answers closely followed the correlation between original and noise-distorted images. Thus it appears as if it was not the global phase information per se that determines our percept of natural images, but rather the effect of phase on local image features.
ei Braun, D., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K. Phase information in the recognition of natural images Perception, 31(ECVP Abstract Supplement):133, 25th European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2002 (poster)
Detection and discrimination in pink noise
5, pages: 100, 5. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2002 (poster)
Much of our information about early spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli, which are not, perhaps, particularly "natural" stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast whilst keeping the number of unknown parameters comparatively small. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on our display was measured using a high-performance digital camera (Photometrics) and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband 1-D "pink" noise made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.
ei Wichmann, F., Henning, G. Detection and discrimination in pink noise 5, pages: 100, 5. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2002 (poster)
Application of Monte Carlo Methods to Psychometric Function Fitting
Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference on Mathematical Psychology, pages: 44, 2002 (poster)
The psychometric function relates an observer's performance to an independent variable, usually some physical quantity of a stimulus in a psychophysical task. Here I describe methods to (1) fitting psychometric functions, (2) assessing goodness-of-fit, and (3) providing confidence intervals for the function's parameters and other estimates derived from them. First I describe a constrained maximum-likelihood method for parameter estimation. Using Monte-Carlo simulations I demonstrate that it is important to have a fitting method that takes stimulus-independent errors (or "lapses") into account. Second, a number of goodness-of-fit tests are introduced. Because psychophysical data sets are usually rather small I advocate the use of Monte Carlo resampling techniques that do not rely on asymptotic theory for goodness-of-fit assessment. Third, a parametric bootstrap is employed to estimate the variability of fitted parameters and derived quantities such as thresholds and slopes. I describe how the bootstrap bridging assumption, on which the validity of the procedure depends, can be tested without incurring too high a cost in computation time. Finally I describe how the methods can be extended to test hypotheses concerning the form and shape of several psychometric functions. Software describing the methods is available (http://www.bootstrap-software.com/psignifit/), as well as articles describing the methods in detail (Wichmann&Hill, Perception&Psychophysics, 2001a,b).
ei Wichmann, F. Application of Monte Carlo Methods to Psychometric Function Fitting Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference on Mathematical Psychology, pages: 44, 2002 (poster)
Optimal linear estimation of self-motion - a real-world test of a model of fly tangential neurons
Franz, MO.
SAB 02 Workshop, Robotics as theoretical biology, 7th meeting of the International Society for Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB), (Editors: Prescott, T.; Webb, B.), 2002 (poster)
The tangential neurons in the fly brain are sensitive to the typical optic flow patterns generated during self-motion (see example in Fig.1). We examine whether a simplified linear model of these neurons can be used to estimate self-motion from the optic flow. We present a theory for the construction of an optimal linear estimator incorporating prior knowledge both about the distance distribution of the environment, and about the noise and self-motion statistics of the sensor. The optimal estimator is tested on a gantry carrying an omnidirectional vision sensor that can be moved along three translational and one rotational degree of freedom. The experiments indicate that the proposed approach yields accurate results for rotation estimates, independently of the current translation and scene layout. Translation estimates, however, turned out to be sensitive to simultaneous rotation and to the particular distance distribution of the scene. The gantry experiments confirm that the receptive field organization of the tangential neurons allows them, as an ensemble, to extract self-motion from the optic flow.
ei Franz, MO. Optimal linear estimation of self-motion - a real-world test of a model of fly tangential neurons SAB 02 Workshop, Robotics as theoretical biology, 7th meeting of the International Society for Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB), (Editors: Prescott, T.; Webb, B.), 2002 (poster)


Let's start with the good news. ICTs have changed the power dynamics between social movements and the mainstream news. If you've read William Gamson and Gadi Wolfsfeld's (1993) piece, then you know that traditionally media-movement dynamics are asymmetrical and do not favor activists. The reason for this is simple. While activists are almost always looking to educate and connect with a broader public, their ideas are rarely newsworthy enough to warrant media attention. Twenty years ago, activists looking to attract the media spotlight and get decent coverage of their causes had limited options. They could work their journalistic connections, come up with a novel, nonviolent, and culturally appropriate tactics to pique media interest, or stage an event whose size or importance is interesting enough to warrant media attention. Mainstream media, in short, was a tough nut to crack.
This is less true in the digital age. Journalists are awash in information and under a lot of pressure to make themselves and their outlets stand out. Increasingly, they turn to social media platforms such as Twitter to share their stories with the public and assess whether what's trending online is also newsworthy. The public and their 140 character or less conversations, in other words, play a more active role in the news production process than ever before, and this advantages activists.
It's recognized that mainstream media has acknowledged the creators of #BlackLivesMatter and other Twitter hashtags that have sparked movements; those creators have had to remain steadfastly committed to combating their own erasure at the hands of all-too-generic news segments that simply credit "Twitter" with drawing attention to an issue. But once #BlackLivesMatter became a movement, how many media companies sought out black people on the front lines to put to work telling the story?
There is a point about movement-media dynamics in the digital age here as well. Activists still rarely get credit for their ideas. And, this is the bad news, getting credit and decent coverage for social movement ideas does not appear to be any easier in the contemporary era – at least in mainstream media outlets.
Why? Because, while how mainstream journalists find information has changed, the way they report it has not. In fact, journalists at the most influential print and broadcast news outlets are also the most likely to use social platforms like Twitter to reinforce their occupational role as a "gatekeeper" of information (see for example, Lasorsa, Lewis, and Holton 2012).
These online practices have real consequences for social movements. Hashtags are easily stripped from a meaningful context and pitted against another opposing hashtag, which sometimes represents the disjointed perspectives of a handful of individuals rather than an opposing movement. Sure, opponents have been able to activate the balance norm for decades in order to get themselves into the news. The difference here is that opponents are a meme, not an organized group working against change.
#AllLivesMatter is a great example of an opponent that seems to be little more than a meme with a Facebook page designed to criticize #BlackLivesMatter for making matters of race and justice central to the public conversation. If you read the posted pinned to the top of the All Lives Matter page (which is copied below), you'll find that the goal of the groups is anything but clear. And, if you skim some of the posts, you won't be any clearer on the purpose of the page.
Of course, you wouldn't know that #AllLivesMatter was a knee jerk reaction by largely white Americans asked to confront racism from watching the nightly news. Instead, mainstream news made it an issue of difference within the African-American community. Whether it was Senator Tim Scott defending the use of #AllLivesMatter on CNN or Seattle Seahawk's cornerback Richard Sherman's above-the-fray tweets responding to his critics for denouncing the #BlackLivesMatter movement, mainstream media effectively made the movement a problem of perspective within the black community rather than a serious issue affecting every aspect of American life.
And, that's the rub. Movement-media dynamics have shifted more in the favor of movements, but they also have shifted in favor of virtually everyone else with a phone and a Twitter account.
One thing is clear. There are no easy answers for activists in the digital age. Sure, they have more tools than ever before at their disposable and, arguably, opportunities to affect institutional change abound. The obstacles they face, however, are just as onerous as before. Only now, the opponent they face may be little more than a short-lived meme that is amplified by journalists in mainstream media who are unwilling to challenge the professional norms by which they operate.
In the digital era, news may get to us at break-neck speed on our smart phones, but the conventions that shape the narratives we get remain the same. Until mainstream journalists are willing to step outside of their professional comfort zone, social movements face an uphill battle.


My favorite bible verse is James 1: 2-3 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
I feel that finding JOY in all situations is the key to happiness. God never said that it would be easy, He said He would be with us through it all.


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Canada is contributing over $36 million in support of six projects aligned with the Government of Ukraine's reform plan. Five projects are focussed on creating a climate for sustainable economic growth, while a sixth project will help improve juvenile justice services and programs.
• The State Customs Service Capacity-Building Project will help increase capacity of the State Customs Service of Ukraine to carry out its work. In particular, it will help the Service to more accurately identify goods so that the correct duties can be applied. This will result in more predictable application of customs duties and tariffs and will reduce the time it takes for goods to move through customs, helping to make it easier to do business with Ukrainian trading partners. The Canadian partner in this project is the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
• The next phase of the Decentralized Management of Skills Training Project will help regional administrations and vocational schools across Ukraine design and deliver job training that is responsive to the changing needs of local industries and businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises. The extension will support the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour in implementing programs across the country. The Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges are implementing this project.
• The Support for Economic Growth and Development in Local Municipalities Project will focus on achieving practical improvements in municipal economic development planning and the delivery of services that support economic development in up to 10 Ukrainian cities in the Lviv and Dnipropetrovs'k regions. The project is being implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
• The Improving Regional Economic Development Planning Project will introduce evidence-based analytical planning tools to better inform the economic development planning process in selected regions and cities of Ukraine. The Conference Board of Canada is the Canadian partner.
• The extension of the Regional Governance and Development Project will help Ukraine implement a successfully-piloted regional strategic planning model at the national level. In expanding the model to the national level, the Ukrainian government will implement a training program and policies related to regional economic development. The Canadian Urban Institute is the Canadian partner for this project.
• The Juvenile Justice Reform Project will develop the capacity of key public institutions to deliver an effective juvenile justice system. The project will support the development of a national legislative and policy framework, the training of judges and others involved in the delivery of the juvenile justice system, and strengthen the delivery of juvenile justice programs and services in pilot locations. The Canadian partner for this project is Agriteam Canada.


The emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) and leadership are two concepts so ubiquitous in workplace lexicon that they are thrown around with the assumption that: 1) we all know what they mean, and 2) we all agree on their definition.
But do we? More importantly, are we really practicing them?
Decades of behavioural research has shown that leadership and EQ cannot exist without each other—and that when done correctly, they really are the same thing.
In 1995, Daniel Coleman released his book, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ, and the world has never been the same. Over the past 20 years, corporate (North) America has gradually come to understand that it is not our intellect, experience, nor education that adequately predicts how strong a team will be or why one person will succeed and another person does not. The answer, instead, has everything to do with how well we can manage our own emotions and influence the relationships around us. This is emotional intelligence.
EQ is a part of the human psyche that is fundamentally different than both intelligence and personality. Intelligence measures a person's ability to learn, and from about 20 years onwards is a gradual downhill slope for most of us (except for our vocabularies and "wisdom" which have been shown to increase over time). Personality is also relatively unchanging as well, with much of who we are being formed in part by nature and the other during our formative years as children. EQ, however, is a mutable set of skills that can be acquired and improved upon with practice.
Self-Management—the ability to use that awareness to stay flexible and positively direct your behaviour.
Relationship Management—the ability to use your emotion's and those of others to successfully manage interactions.
Ever since my time at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where I graduated with a Master in Public Administration in 2006, I have been fascinated with the topic of leadership. As a student, I enrolled in Ronald Heifetz's famous "Leadership on the Line" course—named after his very compelling book of the same title.
On the first day of class, Professor Heifetz casually walked into the stadium-seating style classroom filled with 200 high ranking military officials, seasoned public servants, foreign diplomats and the very lucky grad students like me all listened with baited breath. Professor Heifetz was, after all, the authority on leadership at Harvard and everyone who was fortunate enough to get into his class knew it.
What would Professor Heifetz tell us about leadership? What were the golden truths that, once learned, would make some people leaders and others not? As he approached the centre of the room, Professor Heifetz somehow managed to look every one of us in the eye.
Once settled behind the main lectern, he said in a voice just louder than a whisper, "So you want to learn about leadership? Then figure it out yourselves." Then he turned, walked out the door and did not return that day.
Leaders have a vision about the future that they would like to see become reality.
Leaders are not lone wolves. To make their future state possible, leaders recruit people.
Leaders are aware of both their own strengths and weaknesses—and they seek talent in areas that fortify both.
Leaders realize that having their vision must be bigger than themselves. For others to join that vision must be or become the vision of those working to achieve it. As such, leaders are, in their most fundamental sense, simply a voice to a cause.
Leaders execute their visions through relationships, not power. Leaders can possess authority, but exist at all levels.
When leadership is defined as such, a leader can be anyone in the organization, not solely "someone in charge". Moreover, since leadership requires the participation, support and buy-in from everyone recruited to make that future vision possible, it is a necessity for leaders to possess highly-developed EQ skills to motivate, persuade,and encourage those recruits.
Finally, a recent study conducted by a Dallas corporation measured that the productivity amongst its highest scoring EQ employees was 20 times greater than its lowest.
Of course, EQ can't make up for IQ—an emotionally-evolved grade school student is not qualified to be a surgeon. However, a high EQ can equip people with the flexibility, sensitivity, empathy, self-motivation, positivity, balance, and grace that is fundamental to any leader's success—whether in the operating room, the boardroom or on the frontline.
Stepping Beyond a Culture of Fear?


For many of us, warm weather signals a stream of celebratory events, from graduations to weddings to backyard barbecues. Whatever the spring holds for you, taking great care of your skin will help you look and feel confident. Here are our top tips and tricks for achieving your most beautiful skin before a big event.
There's no doubt about it: stress is hard on your skin. Stress hormones can cause a variety of skin problems, and during busy times you may feel less inclined to follow your daily skincare regimen or take the time to prepare healthy meals. As stressful as big events can be, make an active effort to relax. Exercise, take walks, eat healthily, and find some time to unwind every day. You may be surprised how much your newfound zen will do for your skin.
If there's a particular skincare concern you hope to address before you pose for all of those photographs, make a plan. There aren't any long-lasting overnight fixes for fine lines or dark spots, so decide what you'd like to address at least six weeks out and then find the products that work best for you.
No two women have the same skincare needs. Visit the "shop by concern" section of our website to find products recommended for your skin. Our Silk Intensive C Serum is a great multitasker, as it addresses a myriad of issues from dullness to wrinkles. We also have a number of product bundles designed to target different conditions.
Masks and peels are great ways to reveal your most radiant skin with minimal effort. Use our Silk Renewing Peel to brighten and tighten, or find an exfoliation treatment that works best for you. A gentle scrub can do wonders for dull skin. Ease into new regimes and pay close attention to how your skin responds.
You've heard it before. Drink your water. Often. And in large quantities!


New York-based artist Hank Willis Thomas has been accused by South African photographer Graeme Williams of using an iconic image he took in Thokoza township, Johannesburg, in 1991, without permission. Thomas questions whether Williams has rights to the image, as opposed to the subjects of the documentary photo. The work in question, which Thomas altered by removing the color and changing the tones to emphasize one aspect of the photo over another, was displayed at the Goodman Gallery booth at the JoBurg Art Fair (Sept. 7-9).
A Chicago alderman, the city's arts commissioner, and local artists are all in agreement about a public arts registry being proposed to the city council. The ordinance would not only sanction street murals, but it would celebrate and promote them. Chicago could become the "American capital of street art," Alderman Brian Hopkins said.
Some of the clothes Aretha Franklin wore performing onstage and to special events are being sold. More than 30 dress and accessories, including hats owned by the Queen of Soul, will be auctioned Nov. 9-10 at the Icons & Idols: Rock 'n' Roll sale held by Juliens Auctions.
Hamza Walker, executive Director of LAXART in Los Angeles, has been named inaugural curator of Frieze Los Angeles Talks and Music. Frieze is presenting its first fair in Los Angeles Feb. 14-17, 2019, at Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood. The host committee for Frieze Los Angeles has also been announced and it includes influential figures such as collector Pamela J. Joyner; Eileen Harris Norton, co-founder of Art + Practice; tennis champion Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit; and collector V. Joy Simmons.
Juana Williams is the new exhibitions curator at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA) at Ferris State University's Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. An independent curator, she most recently served as assistant to the chair of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Martine Syms has been awarded the Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy.
Artist Mickalene Thomas is being honored at ICP Spotlights, the International Center of Photography's annual benefit luncheon and auction which pays tribute to female visual artists working in photography and film. Thomas will be in conversation with Spelman College Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall at the Oct. 23 event in New York City.
A review of "Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963–2017" at the Baltimore Museum of Art earned Dereck Stafford Mangus the 2018 Frieze Writer's Prize.
The Baltimore Museum of Art has installed a new site-specific commission on its facade, "In broad daylight," a neon work by Tavares Strachan. Read more about the artist and his work.
The Souls Grown Deep Foundation of Atlanta has initiated a paid internship program for undergraduate students of color with the New Orleans Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The foundation collects and preserves art by African American artists from the South and has partnered previously with these museums to place works from Souls Grown Deep in their collections through gift/purchase agreements. Additional internships with more museums are expected to be announced.
Forthcoming in October, "Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal" surveys the interdisciplinary artist's career. Published a decade ago, "Hank Willis Thomas: Pitch Blackness" is the artist's first monograph. Released last year, "A City Refracted" by photographer Graeme Williams reflects his observations of the transformation of Johannesburg over the past two decades. Black South Africans from rural areas used to flock to the city. Now, as white South Africans are vacating the urban center, it is increasingly attracting immigrants from throughout Africa. Generally known for her large-scale, embellished paintings celebrating black womanhood, "Muse: Mickalene Thomas: Photographs" is the first volume "to gather together her various approaches to photography, including portraits, collages, Polaroids and other processes." A new publication, "Mickalene Thomas: I Can't See You Without Me," will be published next month.


WLC College India is a paramount management college who has imparted quality to the management studies. The college started functioning in the year of 1996 with the aim of preparing dynamic and resourceful management professionals. The college has its roots in the city of Anna Salai of Chennai. The college provides scholarships to the diligent students. The college faculty comprises of highly educated and qualified members and has an excellent placement cell ensuring good placements to the students.
WLC College was established in 1996.
It has over 11 branches amongst which it has elegant campus at chennai. It was one of pioneers in starting the "Earn while you Learn" concept.


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'The Rivals' Delights with Witty Humor and Sharp Performances
By Christopher Payne, Assistant Arts Editor
Ten minutes into the University of Utah's production of "The Rivals," I was entirely lost. I only understood every two in five words. I couldn't have said which characters were which or who knew whom. I'm not one for traditional theater, and this show reinforced my initial misgivings with...
'The Rivals' to Bring Mischief and Fun to the U
The University of Utah's Department of Theatre is set to debut their production of "The Rivals" this Friday, April 5. The play, written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1775, is a commentary on the romantic challenges between the aristocratic class and the bourgeois. While the summary of...
The Clothesline Project March 4 - April 27 | Eccles Health Sciences Library The Clothesline Project is an interactive art exhibit currently sweeping universities. A series of T-shirts decorated or designed by survivors or in honor of survivors are on display. The exhibit is free to view. ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Apple has created a Syndictation-dev mailing list specifically for developers and content creators to discuss use of syndication technologies in conjunction with Apple's technologies.
Ernie Prabhakar sent the following invitation to the community. Click the link after this excerpt to read the full invitation.
Syndication formats (e.g., RSS, RSS 2.0, Atom) provide a powerful, XML-based way to publish blogs, podcasts, and website summaries that can be read by Safari, iTunes, and many other products. This forum enables developers and content creators interested in using those technologies in conjunction with Apple's platform or products to interact with each other and Apple engineers.
In addition, we ask your cooperation in keeping this list focused on currently-shipping Apple products or formats. For questions about future directions and/or standards that may be in this space, please contact me directly using .
Since this is an emerging technology area, we realize there are numerous open questions and opportunities for improved documentation. We appreciate your assistance in identifying those, as well as your patience and cooperation as we work to move forward together.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 at 12:34 pm	and is filed under Apple, Mac OS X, Technology, Weblogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


This pick-up-and-teach manual provides everything you need to take students ages 5-7 to the next level reading and writing, building on the concepts they have learned in Foundations A and B!
New! Second edition includes eight bonus lessons with comprehension questions and activities for Miles and Jax, plus spelling games and composition activities.
Read fiction and nonfiction texts with short paragraphs and multi-syllable words.
The Foundations C Workbook is printed in only ONE version. Student samples are in bookface.
This Teacher's Manual is compatible with any edition of the Foundations C Student Workbook.
The Teacher's Manual, Student Workbook, and Foundations C Readers are all needed to teach Foundations C.
Foundations C builds systematically on material students have learned in levels A and B. It is not a starting point for the Foundations program. For older students beginning Logic of English, we recommend starting with Essentials (for guidance, click Help me choose or read more on the LOE blog: Do we want Essentials or Foundations?).
Order as a complete set with everything for Levels C and D and save 10%!


> Leaving out the crap about "change your wording" and whatever.
> to this. It's software, not human rights.
I indeed get annoyed if words such as "crap" are used in discussions.
their on tool. But that is not what I've suggested.
still handled by various distro specific tools (MCC, etc) as well.


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Tickets from Osorno to Viña Del Mar
Buy tickets from Osorno to Viña Del Mar for Wednesday 07/17/2019
From Osorno
To Viña Del Mar
Salón Cama
Semi Cama
Pullman Bus
Osorno to Viña Del Mar
2 services in total
Price Salón Cama
Price Semi Cama
Bus tickets from Osorno to Viña Del Mar are being sold from Pullman Bus, Bus Norte, Buses J Ahumada, ETM.
The bus travel from Osorno and Viña Del Mar takes approximately about 12 hours.
The distance between Osorno to Viña Del Mar is 879 kms and you can choose between the services Semi Cama, Salón Cama, Premium 180°; dependent on the bus company you travel with (Pullman Bus, Bus Norte, Buses J Ahumada, ETM).
Information about the city Osorno
Tickets to Osorno on recorrido.cl
Departure times
Santiago to Osorno
Cruz del Sur
Queilen Bus
Santiago to Osorno Bus Norte $11.7000 18:30 19:15 20:30
Information about the city Viña Del Mar
Tickets to Viña del Mar with recorrido.cl
Santiago to Viña del Mar
Condor Bus
Lunes a Domingo
06:00 - 22:05, cada 15 minutos
Turbus
Buses Romani
Viña del Mar (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiɲa ðel maɾ] meaning "Vineyard of the Sea"), is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred as "La Ciudad Jardín" ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it's Chile's fourth largest city with a population of 324,836 (according to the 2012 census). Viña del Mar is also part of the Greater Valparaíso area, the country's third largest metropolitan area (pop. 803,683, 2002 census), after the Metropolitan areas of Santiago and Concepción. The Greater Valparaíso Area is home to 5 municipalities: Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Concon, Quilpue, and Villa Alemana.[5]
Viña del Mar is known for its placid resorts, malls, extensive coastal high buildings, hotels and various entertainment venues. The city attracts an important influx of national as well as international visitors throughout the year.
Images of Osorno
Vídeo de Osorno
Images of Viña Del Mar
Vídeo de Viña Del Mar
Osorno - 3 - http://catchthejiffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Adam-Allegro-Ensenada-Volcano-Osorno-Horse-and-Dog.jpg
Osorno - 2 - http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6674140721_823a219ca4_b.jpg
Osorno - 1 - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Plaza_de_Armas_Osorno_(Chile).jpg
Viña del Mar - 1 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACasinoVi%C3%B1adelMar.jpg
Viña del Mar - 2 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABlumenuhr_Vi%C3%B1a.JPG


Recent release "Suzie's Messy Room" from Page Publishing authors Diane N. Quintana and Jonda S. Beattie is an excellent story aimed at children to teach them basic principles of organization that will serve them for a lifetime.
Diane N. Quintana and Jonda S. Beattie, both active members of NAPO (the National Association of Professional Organizers), have completed their new book, "Suzie's Messy Room": a fun and easily approachable look at teaching children to not be overwhelmed by clean-up time.
Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Diane N. Quintana and Jonda S. Beattie's easy and informative story begins with typical, active, five-year-old Suzie. Suzie loves playing with all of her toys in her room and sometimes creates a real mess! When her mother asks her to clean up her room, Suzie is overwhelmed and doesn't know how to begin. Suzie's mother helps her complete the job by breaking the project into small tasks that Suzie is able to finish easily.
Some of the basic principles of organizing included in this story are: breaking projects down into smaller steps, sorting like with like, all belongings need a home, and a reward for completed tasks.
Readers who wish to experience this adorably educational work can purchase "Suzie's Messy Room" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble.


Hawkman is all about the relationships. He can't help himself. Now if he had pictured Clark as Shiera and tried to kiss him -- that would have been awesome.
I likes BQM's episodes for the most part but that guy walks talks the party line like nobody's business. I swear I think had Kelly thrown his entire script in the trash and started over from scratch BQM would have said the episode was all the better for it.
He's an odd duck. As soon as the hate-tweets started coming in after Luthor ("You HATE Clois, OMG!!!"), he started retweeting them. Wish he stuck to his guns about the 2-parter but still loved the ep.


Scents, aromas or fragrances can be used to trigger specific responses.
Read the full article HERE - where we discuss each attribute in detail and offer some suggested fragrances for some of these.
In addition to this list, from an overarching prespective, there's a whole raft of religious, aesthetic and practical reasons. Explore our site for further information, including our General Incense Information Guide HERE.


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About Gaslight Theatre
The Gaslight Theatre of Enid, Oklahoma, was founded in 1966 under its original name of Enid Community Theatre. Gaslight is one of Oklahoma's oldest and most active community theatres. Enid Community Theatre's organizational mission is twofold: to provide a wide spectrum of high quality theatrical entertainment to a broad audience in Enid and the surrounding communities, and to provide a setting for nonprofessional actors, directors, designers, and technicians to learn and practice their art.
The theatre has been housed in an old TV studio in the 200 Block of East Randolph, later made its home in a converted warehouse in the 200 block of East Maple and in 1989 came to its present location at 221 N. Independence. The current theatre was purchased and fully renovated with tremendous community support. Built as the Billings Theatre in the early twentieth century, 221 N. Independence was home to vaudeville and other live performances. Over the next 50 years, it went through several incarnations becoming the Criterion Movie House, then evolved into the Chief Movie Theatre and in the mid-70s became the Cinema Twin, never going dark for any extended length of time.


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America's First Wooden Skyscraper Is Approved For Construction
Jessica Miley
| Jun 14, 2017 12:02 PM EST
Created: Jun 14, 2017 12:02 PM EST
The design for a 12-storey wooden skyscraper has been approved and is awaiting permits in Portland, Oregon. The building called, Framework, will be constructed from cross-laminated timber and will be the tallest wooden structure in the United States.
[Image Source: Lever Architecture]
Design awaiting building permits
The design for the 43-meter wooden skyscraper has been approved for construction but contractors must wait for building permits before the construction process can start. The building will provide affordable housing to residents that earn below 60 percent of area's median family income. It is hoped the construction will also inject energy into the local timber industry.
Lever Architects leading the way in timber building design
The 12-storey mixed-use building, meaning it will house both accommodation, offices and retail, is a collaboration between a local firm called Lever Architecture and real-estate developer Project. Thomas Robinson, Lever Architecture's founder, explains that his company is interested in "exploring the relationship between materials, experience, and the environment—how the way we build impacts the way we live and the environment as a whole."
The primary building material will be cross-laminated timber (CLT). CLT is an engineered wooden building system. It is made from lumber-oriented layers at right angles to one another and then clamped and glued to form structural panels. The panels have better strength, dimensional stability, and rigidity than traditional timber construction methods. Because of its high strength and stability, CLT can be used as alternative to concrete and steel in many building applications. The proposed skyscraper will also be made from Aluminum Composite Material (ACM). Framework is the third large scale wooden structure planned for development in Portland.
CLT has the capacity to be as strong as steel. Reducing highly processed steel in large building projects have positive impact on the environment as some timber products can have a small carbon footprint than its metal counterparts.
Portland based Lever Architects are early adopters to products like CLT, their website states "Framework is part of a mutually beneficial cycle between natural resources, the rural timber industries that rely on these resources, and the cities served by the completion of these buildings."
Once Framework is complete, it will most certainly act as a shining example for future buildings to experiment with these new materials.
New addition to the affordable housing project
The wooden skyscraper will become part of the Affordable Housing Project in Portland. The City of Portland has a long term goal of significantly increasing the access to affordable housing. According to the Affordable Housing's website, there are 356 low income housing apartment complexes which contain 21,188 subsidized apartments for rent in Portland, Oregon. It is unclear how many apartments within Framework will become part of the program.
The building is expected to be completed by December this year.
Sources: ArchitecturalDigest, LeverArchitecture, AffordableHousing
SEE ALSO: Fazlur Rahman Khan: The Man Behind Every Modern Skyscraper
How did the universe begin? Study reveals why the 'bouncing' theory is wrong
A new study proves there still must be a beginning to "bouncing" universes that go through cycles of expansion and contraction.
innovation Tiny but mighty: YouTuber turns wizard with PCB motors
innovation 300 million cigarette butts and counting: Indian company converts them into beautiful products
Ameya Paleja| 10/20/2022


Technical Supervisor needed right outside of San Francisco, CA!
Seeking a part time and/or full time supervisor to join our team.
*Must have California CLS generalist license, ideally 4 years generalist experience, and some sort of technical supervisory experience, or experience with CAP/COLA/JCAHO surveys.
Offering competitive compensation. For more information please submit your resume for review!