Neural competition as a developmental process: Early hemispheric specialization for word processing delays specialization for face processing

PubMed Central

Li, Su; Lee, Kang; Zhao, Jing; Yang, Zhi; He, Sheng; Weng, Xuchu

2013-01-01

Little is known about the impact of learning to read on early neural development for word processing and its collateral effects on neural development in non-word domains. Here, we examined the effect of early exposure to reading on neural responses to both word and face processing in preschool children with the use of the Event Related Potential (ERP) methodology. We specifically linked children’s reading experience (indexed by their sight vocabulary) to two major neural markers: the amplitude differences between the left and right N170 on the bilateral posterior scalp sites and the hemispheric spectrum power differences in the γ band on the same scalp sites. The results showed that the left-lateralization of both the word N170 and the spectrum power in the γ band were significantly positively related to vocabulary. In contrast, vocabulary and the word left-lateralization both had a strong negative direct effect on the face right-lateralization. Also, vocabulary negatively correlated with the right-lateralized face spectrum power in the γ band even after the effects of age and the word spectrum power were partialled out. The present study provides direct evidence regarding the role of reading experience in the neural specialization of word and face processing above and beyond the effect of maturation. The present findings taken together suggest that the neural development of visual word processing competes with that of face processing before the process of neural specialization has been consolidated. PMID:23462239

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion Within the Macaque Face-Processing System

PubMed Central

Fisher, Clark; Freiwald, Winrich A.

2014-01-01

SUMMARY Facial motion transmits rich and ethologically vital information [1, 2], but how the brain interprets this complex signal is poorly understood. Facial form is analyzed by anatomically distinct face patches in the macaque brain [3, 4], and facial motion activates these patches and surrounding areas [5, 6]. Yet it is not known whether facial motion is processed by its own distinct and specialized neural machinery, and if so, what that machinery’s organization might be. To address these questions, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the brain activity of macaque monkeys while they viewed low- and high-level motion and form stimuli. We found that, beyond classical motion areas and the known face patch system, moving faces recruited a heretofore-unrecognized face patch. Although all face patches displayed distinctive selectivity for face motion over object motion, only two face patches preferred naturally moving faces, while three others preferred randomized, rapidly varying sequences of facial form. This functional divide was anatomically specific, segregating dorsal from ventral face patches, thereby revealing a new organizational principle of the macaque face-processing system. PMID:25578903

Special Medical Problems of Athletes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Couch, Joan M.

1987-01-01

This article addresses the situations in which athletes with special needs and considerations participate in sports. The health problems discussed are diabetes mellitus, exercise-induced asthma, exercise-induced anaphylaxis, and epilepsy. (MT)

Neural competition as a developmental process: early hemispheric specialization for word processing delays specialization for face processing.

PubMed

Li, Su; Lee, Kang; Zhao, Jing; Yang, Zhi; He, Sheng; Weng, Xuchu

2013-04-01

Little is known about the impact of learning to read on early neural development for word processing and its collateral effects on neural development in non-word domains. Here, we examined the effect of early exposure to reading on neural responses to both word and face processing in preschool children with the use of the Event Related Potential (ERP) methodology. We specifically linked children's reading experience (indexed by their sight vocabulary) to two major neural markers: the amplitude differences between the left and right N170 on the bilateral posterior scalp sites and the hemispheric spectrum power differences in the γ band on the same scalp sites. The results showed that the left-lateralization of both the word N170 and the spectrum power in the γ band were significantly positively related to vocabulary. In contrast, vocabulary and the word left-lateralization both had a strong negative direct effect on the face right-lateralization. Also, vocabulary negatively correlated with the right-lateralized face spectrum power in the γ band even after the effects of age and the word spectrum power were partialled out. The present study provides direct evidence regarding the role of reading experience in the neural specialization of word and face processing above and beyond the effect of maturation. The present findings taken together suggest that the neural development of visual word processing competes with that of face processing before the process of neural specialization has been consolidated. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

MTR, SOUTH FACE OF REACTOR. SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL SHIELDING WAS REQUIRED ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

MTR, SOUTH FACE OF REACTOR. SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL SHIELDING WAS REQUIRED OUTSIDE OF MTR FOR EXPERIMENTS. THE AIRCRAFT NUCLEAR PROPULSION PROJECT DOMINATED THE USE OF THIS PART OF THE MTR. INL NEGATIVE NO. 7225. Unknown Photographer, 11/28/1952 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Reactor Area, Materials & Engineering Test Reactors, Scoville, Butte County, ID

A Meta-Analytic and Qualitative Review of Online versus Face-to-Face Problem-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jurewitsch, Brian

2012-01-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that is poised for widespread application in the current, growing, on-line digital learning environment. While enjoying a track record as a defensible strategy in face-to-face learning settings, the research evidence is not clear regarding PBL in on-line environments. A review of the…

Alcohol and Kids: Facing Our Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Nicholas; And Others

1993-01-01

Introduces special journal issue on alcohol use among children and adolescents. Describes scope of the problem, claiming that alcohol is the most consumed drug among children and youth. Discusses possible progression in alcohol use, parents' reactions to their children using alcohol or other drugs, and effects of the media and advertising on…

Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects.

PubMed

Sigurdardottir, Heida Maria; Fridriksdottir, Liv Elisabet; Gudjonsdottir, Sigridur; Kristjánsson, Árni

2018-06-01

Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Progressive and regressive developmental changes in neural substrates for face processing: Testing specific predictions of the Interactive Specialization account

PubMed Central

Joseph, Jane E.; Gathers, Ann D.; Bhatt, Ramesh S.

2010-01-01

Face processing undergoes a fairly protracted developmental time course but the neural underpinnings are not well understood. Prior fMRI studies have only examined progressive changes (i.e., increases in specialization in certain regions with age), which would be predicted by both the Interactive Specialization (IS) and maturational theories of neural development. To differentiate between these accounts, the present study also examined regressive changes (i.e., decreases in specialization in certain regions with age), which is predicted by the IS but not maturational account. The fMRI results show that both progressive and regressive changes occur, consistent with IS. Progressive changes mostly occurred in occipital-fusiform and inferior frontal cortex whereas regressive changes largely emerged in parietal and lateral temporal cortices. Moreover, inconsistent with the maturational account, all of the regions involved in face viewing in adults were active in children, with some regions already specialized for face processing by 5 years of age and other regions activated in children but not specifically for faces. Thus, neurodevelopment of face processing involves dynamic interactions among brain regions including age-related increases and decreases in specialization and the involvement of different regions at different ages. These results are more consistent with IS than maturational models of neural development. PMID:21399706

Atypical hemispheric specialization for faces in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Keehn, Brandon; Vogel-Farley, Vanessa; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A

2015-04-01

Among the many experimental findings that tend to distinguish those with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are face processing deficits, reduced hemispheric specialization, and atypical neurostructural and functional connectivity. To investigate the earliest manifestations of these features, we examined lateralization of event-related gamma-band coherence to faces during the first year of life in infants at high risk for autism (HRA; defined as having an older sibling with ASD) who were compared with low-risk comparison (LRC) infants, defined as having no family history of ASD. Participants included 49 HRA and 46 LRC infants who contributed a total of 127 data sets at 6 and 12 months. Electroencephalography was recorded while infants viewed images of familiar/unfamiliar faces. Event-related gamma-band (30-50 Hz) phase coherence between anterior-posterior electrode pairs for left and right hemispheres was computed. Developmental trajectories for lateralization of intra-hemispheric coherence were significantly different in HRA and LRC infants: by 12 months, HRA infants showed significantly greater leftward lateralization compared with LRC infants who showed rightward lateralization. Preliminary results indicate that infants who later met criteria for ASD were those that showed the greatest leftward lateralization. HRA infants demonstrate an aberrant pattern of leftward lateralization of intra-hemispheric coherence by the end of the first year of life, suggesting that the network specialized for face processing may develop atypically. Further, infants with the greatest leftward asymmetry at 12 months where those that later met criteria for ASD, providing support to the growing body of evidence that atypical hemispheric specialization may be an early neurobiological marker for ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Special Education in East Germany under Communist Domination.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengstock, Wayne L.; Ruttgardt, Sieglind Ellger

1995-01-01

This article describes the development of special education in East Germany from the close of World War II through the cold war period, and examines the problems and challenges currently facing special education in a reunified Germany. These include a lack of infrastructure, economic needs, staffing problems, and needed curriculum changes. (DB)

Problems of Face Recognition in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

PubMed

Chandra, Sadanandavalli Retnaswami; Patwardhan, Ketaki; Pai, Anupama Ramakanth

2017-01-01

Faces are very special as they are most essential for social cognition in humans. It is partly understood that face processing in its abstractness involves several extra striate areas. One of the most important causes for caregiver suffering in patients with anterior dementia is lack of empathy. This apart from being a behavioral disorder could be also due to failure to categorize the emotions of the people around them. Inlusion criteria: DSM IV for Bv FTD Tested for prosopagnosia - familiar faces, famous face, smiling face, crying face and reflected face using a simple picture card (figure 1). Advanced illness and mixed causes. 46 patients (15 females, 31 males) 24 had defective face recognition. (mean age 51.5),10/15 females (70%) and 14/31males(47. Familiar face recognition defect was found in 6/10 females and 6/14 males. Total- 40%(6/15) females and 19.35%(6/31)males with FTD had familiar face recognition. Famous Face: 9/10 females and 7/14 males. Total- 60% (9/15) females with FTD had famous face recognition defect as against 22.6%(7/31) males with FTD Smiling face defects in 8/10 female and no males. Total- 53.33% (8/15) females. Crying face recognition defect in 3/10 female and 2 /14 males. Total- 20%(3/15) females and 6.5%(2/31) males. Reflected face recognition defect in 4 females. Famous face recognition and positive emotion recognition defect in 80%, only 20% comprehend positive emotions, Face recognition defects are found in only 45% of males and more common in females. Face recognition is more affected in females with FTD There is differential involvement of different aspects of the face recognition could be one of the important factor underlying decline in the emotional and social behavior of these patients. Understanding these pathological processes will give more insight regarding patient behavior.

Amygdala hypoactivity to fearful faces in boys with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits.

PubMed

Jones, Alice P; Laurens, Kristin R; Herba, Catherine M; Barker, Gareth J; Viding, Essi

2009-01-01

Although early-onset conduct problems predict both psychiatric and health problems in adult life, little research has been done to index neural correlates of conduct problems. Emerging research suggests that a subgroup of children with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to manifesting disturbances in neural reactivity to emotional stimuli indexing distress. Using functional MRI, the authors evaluated differences in neural response to emotional stimuli between boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits and comparison boys. Seventeen boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits and 13 comparison boys of equivalent age (mean=11 years) and IQ (mean=100) viewed blocked presentations of fearful and neutral faces. For each face, participants distinguished the sex of the face via manual response. Relative to the comparison group, boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits manifested lesser right amygdala activity to fearful faces. This finding is in line with data from studies of adults with antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits (i.e., psychopaths), as well as from a recent study of adolescents with callous-unemotional traits, and suggests that the neural substrates of emotional impairment associated with callous-unemotional antisocial behavior are already present in childhood.

Special Problems of People with Diabetes and Visual Impairment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenthal, J. L.

1993-01-01

This article addresses the types of visual impairment caused by diabetes and the unique problems that people with diabetes and visual impairment face. Diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma, and diabetic optic neuropathy are discussed as causes of visual impairment, and specific problems in basic living are identified, including diet,…

Transition Program: The Challenges Faced by Special Needs Students in Gaining Work Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alias, Aliza

2014-01-01

Transition program for special needs students is known to open opportunities for students with learning disabilities to gain work experience in actual work environment. The program provides training activities and also an opportunity to go for internship to gain work experience. Therefore, this study is to identify the challenges faced by special…

Instructional Constraints Faced by Learners with Muscular Dystrophy: A Case of Joytown Special Primary School, Thika, Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang'ang'a, Annrose Wanjiku; Wamocho, Franciscah Irangi; Kioy, Paul

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the instructional constraints facing learners with muscular dystrophy in Joy Town special primary school, Thika, Kenya. Descriptive design was used for this study. The target population were all the 20 learners suffering from muscular dystrophy from S.A Joy Town Special Primary School. The total target…

Control problems in armored face conveyors for longwall mines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Broadfoot, A.R.; Betz, R.E.

1998-03-01

This paper is a tutorial discussion of the current difficulties being experienced with the performance of armored face conveyor (AFC) drive systems, as used in longwall mining. It presents the traditional approaches to the design of the drive system and highlights the inadequacies. The final part of the paper presents a possible solution approach using variable-speed drive systems, emphasizing the advantages of this approach. The paper is significant, in that it discusses, in one document, a number of problems related to the operation of longwall AFC`s. Furthermore, it presents a solution path for these problems. The details of the controlmore » strategies to solve the problems highlighted are left to a companion paper.« less

A steady state solution for ditch drainage problem with special reference to seepage face and unsaturated zone flow contribution: Derivation of a new drainage spacing eqaution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yousfi, Ammar; Mechergui, Mohammed

2016-04-01

The seepage face is an important feature of the drainage process when recharge occurs to a permeable region with lateral outlets. Examples of the formation of a seepage face above the downstream water level include agricultural land drained by ditches. Flow problem to these drains has been investigated extensively by many researchers (e.g. Rubin, 1968; Hornberger et al. 1969; Verma and Brutsaert, 1970; Gureghian and Youngs, 1975; Vauclin et al., 1975; Skaggs and Tang, 1976; Youngs, 1990; Gureghian, 1981; Dere, 2000; Rushton and Youngs, 2010; Youngs, 2012; Castro-Orgaz et al., 2012) and may be tackled either using variably saturated flow models, or the complete 2-D solution of Laplace equation, or using the Dupuit-Forchheimer approximation; the most widely accepted methods to obtain analytical solutions for unconfined drainage problems. However, the investigation reported by Clement et al. (1996) suggest that accounting for the seepage face alone, as in the fully saturated flow model, does not improve the discharge estimate because of disregarding flow the unsaturated zone flow contribution. This assumption can induce errors in the location of the water table surface and results in an underestimation of the seepage face and the net discharge (e.g. Skaggs and Tang, 1976; Vauclin et al., 1979; Clement et al., 1996). The importance of the flow in the unsaturated zone has been highlighted by many authors on the basis of laboratory experiments and/or numerical experimentations (e.g. Rubin, 1968; Verma and Brutsaert, 1970; Todsen, 1973; Vauclin et al., 1979; Ahmad et al., 1993; Anguela, 2004; Luthin and Day, 1955; Shamsai and Narasimhan, 1991; Wise et al., 1994; Clement et al., 1996; Boufadel et al., 1999; Romano et al., 1999; Kao et al., 2001; Kao, 2002). These studies demonstrate the failure of fully saturated flow models and suggested that the error made when using these models not only depends on soil properties but also on the infiltration rate as reported by Kao et

Mechanisms of face perception

PubMed Central

Tsao, Doris Y.

2009-01-01

Faces are among the most informative stimuli we ever perceive: Even a split-second glimpse of a person's face tells us their identity, sex, mood, age, race, and direction of attention. The specialness of face processing is acknowledged in the artificial vision community, where contests for face recognition algorithms abound. Neurological evidence strongly implicates a dedicated machinery for face processing in the human brain, to explain the double dissociability of face and object recognition deficits. Furthermore, it has recently become clear that macaques too have specialized neural machinery for processing faces. Here we propose a unifying hypothesis, deduced from computational, neurological, fMRI, and single-unit experiments: that what makes face processing special is that it is gated by an obligatory detection process. We will clarify this idea in concrete algorithmic terms, and show how it can explain a variety of phenomena associated with face processing. PMID:18558862

Authentic Assessment of Special Learners: Problem or Promise?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choate, Joyce S.; Evans, Susan S.

1992-01-01

This article outlines differences between traditional assessment and authentic assessment procedures, discusses problems with each type of assessment in relation to special learners, and offers certain cautions that must be observed when implementing authentic assessment. (JDD)

Faces are special but not too special: Spared face recognition in amnesia is based on familiarity

PubMed Central

Aly, Mariam; Knight, Robert T.; Yonelinas, Andrew P.

2014-01-01

Most current theories of human memory are material-general in the sense that they assume that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is important for retrieving the details of prior events, regardless of the specific type of materials. Recent studies of amnesia have challenged the material-general assumption by suggesting that the MTL may be necessary for remembering words, but is not involved in remembering faces. We examined recognition memory for faces and words in a group of amnesic patients, which included hypoxic patients and patients with extensive left or right MTL lesions. Recognition confidence judgments were used to plot receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) in order to more fully quantify recognition performance and to estimate the contributions of recollection and familiarity. Consistent with the extant literature, an analysis of overall recognition accuracy showed that the patients were impaired at word memory but had spared face memory. However, the ROC analysis indicated that the patients were generally impaired at high confidence recognition responses for faces and words, and they exhibited significant recollection impairments for both types of materials. Familiarity for faces was preserved in all patients, but extensive left MTL damage impaired familiarity for words. These results suggest that face recognition may appear to be spared because performance tends to rely heavily on familiarity, a process that is relatively well preserved in amnesia. The findings challenge material-general theories of memory, and suggest that both material and process are important determinants of memory performance in amnesia, and different types of materials may depend more or less on recollection and familiarity. PMID:20833190

Seven Special Kids: Employment Problems of Handicapped Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, R. C.

A study of the employment problems facing physically and mentally handicapped youth is reported. To illustrate the main points, results of extensive interviews with seven handicapped youth are juxtaposed with statistics and findings. The study looks at tne continuum of services offered to handicapped individuals, including understanding the…

A Review of Youth Employment Problems, Programs & Policies: Volume 2. Special Needs and Concentrated Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vice President's Task Force on Youth Employment, Washington, DC.

This series of nine reports reviews available information on the special needs and concentrated problems of youth employment. (It constitutes the second of a three-volume compendium; other volumes examine causes and dimensions of youth employment problems and analyze program experience--see note.) The effects of discrimination on minority youth…

Sensitive periods for the functional specialization of the neural system for human face processing.

PubMed

Röder, Brigitte; Ley, Pia; Shenoy, Bhamy H; Kekunnaya, Ramesh; Bottari, Davide

2013-10-15

The aim of the study was to identify possible sensitive phases in the development of the processing system for human faces. We tested the neural processing of faces in 11 humans who had been blind from birth and had undergone cataract surgery between 2 mo and 14 y of age. Pictures of faces and houses, scrambled versions of these pictures, and pictures of butterflies were presented while event-related potentials were recorded. Participants had to respond to the pictures of butterflies (targets) only. All participants, even those who had been blind from birth for several years, were able to categorize the pictures and to detect the targets. In healthy controls and in a group of visually impaired individuals with a history of developmental or incomplete congenital cataracts, the well-known enhancement of the N170 (negative peak around 170 ms) event-related potential to faces emerged, but a face-sensitive response was not observed in humans with a history of congenital dense cataracts. By contrast, this group showed a similar N170 response to all visual stimuli, which was indistinguishable from the N170 response to faces in the controls. The face-sensitive N170 response has been associated with the structural encoding of faces. Therefore, these data provide evidence for the hypothesis that the functional differentiation of category-specific neural representations in humans, presumably involving the elaboration of inhibitory circuits, is dependent on experience and linked to a sensitive period. Such functional specialization of neural systems seems necessary to archive high processing proficiency.

Emotional/Behavioral difficulties and mental health service contacts of students in special education for non-mental health problems.

PubMed

Pastor, Patricia N; Reuben, Cynthia A

2009-02-01

Emotional/behavioral difficulties and mental health (MH) service contacts of 3 groups of youth were compared: students in special education for non-MH problems, students in special education for MH problems, and youth not in special education. Parents reported the characteristics, special education placement, emotional/behavioral difficulties, and MH service contacts of 25,122 youth aged 6-17 years in the National Health Interview Survey. Two thirds of students in special education received special education services for non-MH problems. Among students in special education for non-MH problems, 17% had serious emotional/behavioral difficulties compared with 51% of students in special education for MH problems and 4% of youth not in special education. MH service contacts were examined only for youth whose difficulties significantly interfered with their ability to function in or out of school. Among youth with serious difficulties, the percentage of youth without a recent MH service contact was greater for students in special education for non-MH problems (40%) and youth not in special education (47%) compared with students in special education for MH problems (13%). Compared with youth not in special education, students in special education for non-MH problems were 4 times more likely to have serious emotional/behavioral difficulties but were just as likely as youth not in special education to lack a recent MH service contact. Study findings provide a national context for considering the MH screening/evaluation needs of students receiving special education for non-MH problems.

Progressive and Regressive Developmental Changes in Neural Substrates for Face Processing: Testing Specific Predictions of the Interactive Specialization Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Jane E.; Gathers, Ann D.; Bhatt, Ramesh S.

2011-01-01

Face processing undergoes a fairly protracted developmental time course but the neural underpinnings are not well understood. Prior fMRI studies have only examined progressive changes (i.e. increases in specialization in certain regions with age), which would be predicted by both the Interactive Specialization (IS) and maturational theories of…

Mapping Teacher-Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Greg; Cook, Ian

2013-01-01

This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's concept of faciality to analyse the teacher's face. According to Deleuze and Guattari, the teacher-face is a special type of face because it is an "overcoded" face produced in specific landscapes. This paper suggests four limit-faces for teacher faciality that actualise different mixes of significance and…

African American Learners in Special Education: A Closer Look at Milwaukee

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Obiakor, Festus E.; Harris, Mateba K.; Offor, MaxMary T.; Beachum, Floyd D.

2010-01-01

Problems facing African American students with special needs are numerous and complex. Although processes and procedures are in place to properly serve these students, far too many become ensnared in webs of bureaucracy and benign neglect. This article examines African American students? experiences with special education in Milwaukee Public…

Problems faced and coping strategies used by adolescents with mentally ill parents in Delhi.

PubMed

George, Shoba; Shaiju, Bindu; Sharma, Veena

2012-01-01

The present study was conducted to assess the problems faced by adolescents whose parents suffer from major mental illness at selected mental health institutes of Delhi. The objectives also included assessment of the coping strategies of the adolescents in dealing with these problems. The Stuart Stress Adaptation Model of Psychiatric Nursing Care was used as the conceptual framework. A descriptive survey approach with cross-sectional design was used in the study. A structured interview schedule was prepared. Purposive non-probability sampling technique was employed to interview 50 adolescents whose parents suffer from major mental illness. Data gathered was analysed and interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study showed that majority of the adolescents had moderate problems as a result of their parent's mental illness. Area-wise analysis of the problems revealed that the highest problems faced were in family relationship and support and majority of the adolescents used maladaptive coping strategies. A set of guidelines on effective coping strategies was disseminated to these adolescents.

D Mapping of Cultural Heritage: Special Problems and best Practices in Extreme Case-Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patias, P.; Kaimaris, D.; Georgiadis, Ch.; Stamnas, A.; Antoniadis, D.; Papadimitrakis, D.

2013-07-01

Photogrammetrey has a long successful history in the area of 3D modelling and documentation of cultural heritage monuments. In some cases an extensive study, preparation and the application of novel solutions is required for the successful documentation and 3D modelling of monuments. In most of the cases the problem that we have to face is difficulties regarding accessing, photographing, and measuring the monument from the optimal distance, in combination with the need for a high spatial resolution mapping. This paper is highlighting the special problems and the novel solutions, performed during mapping of two significant cultural heritage monuments in Greece. The Roussanou monastery (1527-1529 A.C., Meteora, Center Greece) and its underlying rock, had to be photographed and measured from a far distance and measured with various spatial resolutions. In the lakeside Neolithic settlement of Dispilio (6.000 B.C., western Greece) the enclosure which is covered with vegetation above a height of 3 m, had to be measured with high spatial resolution. The combined use of a laser scanner, a digital camera equipped with a telephoto lens and UAV allowed the successful mapping and the production of orthophotomaps in each case.

Special Education Teacher Perception of Administrative Supports That Encourage, Decrease Burnout, and Reduce Attrition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beebe, Jay

2017-01-01

The field of special education is facing a shortage of teachers. A shortage of special education teachers is an example of a pressing issue within education. The problem is that teacher attrition rates are among the highest within special education. Many special education teachers are leaving the profession after a few years of teaching for varied…

Finessing filter scarcity problem in face recognition via multi-fold filter convolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Low, Cheng-Yaw; Teoh, Andrew Beng-Jin

2017-06-01

The deep convolutional neural networks for face recognition, from DeepFace to the recent FaceNet, demand a sufficiently large volume of filters for feature extraction, in addition to being deep. The shallow filter-bank approaches, e.g., principal component analysis network (PCANet), binarized statistical image features (BSIF), and other analogous variants, endure the filter scarcity problem that not all PCA and ICA filters available are discriminative to abstract noise-free features. This paper extends our previous work on multi-fold filter convolution (ℳ-FFC), where the pre-learned PCA and ICA filter sets are exponentially diversified by ℳ folds to instantiate PCA, ICA, and PCA-ICA offspring. The experimental results unveil that the 2-FFC operation solves the filter scarcity state. The 2-FFC descriptors are also evidenced to be superior to that of PCANet, BSIF, and other face descriptors, in terms of rank-1 identification rate (%).

CALL FOR PAPERS: Special issue on the random search problem: trends and perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Luz, Marcos G. E.; Grosberg, Alexander Y.; Raposo, Ernesto P.; Viswanathan, Gandhi M.

2008-11-01

This is a call for contributions to a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical dedicated to the subject of the random search problem. The motivation behind this special issue is to summarize in a single comprehensive publication, the main aspects (past and present), latest developments, different viewpoints and the directions being followed in this multidisciplinary field. We hope that such a special issue could become a particularly valuable reference for the broad scientific community working with the general random search problem. The Editorial Board has invited Marcos G E da Luz, Alexander Y Grosberg, Ernesto P Raposo and Gandhi M Viswanathan to serve as Guest Editors for the special issue. The general question of how to optimize the search for specific target objects in either continuous or discrete environments when the information available is limited is of significant importance in a broad range of fields. Representative examples include ecology (animal foraging, dispersion of populations), geology (oil recovery from mature reservoirs), information theory (automated researchers of registers in high-capacity database), molecular biology (proteins searching for their sites, e.g., on DNA ), etc. One reason underlying the richness of the random search problem relates to the `ignorance' of the locations of the randomly located `targets'. A statistical approach to the search problem can deal adequately with incomplete information and so stochastic strategies become advantageous. The general problem of how to search efficiently for randomly located target sites can thus be quantitatively described using the concepts and methods of statistical physics and stochastic processes. Scope Thus far, to the best of our knowledge, no recent textbook or review article in a physics journal has appeared on this topic. This makes a special issue with review and research articles attractive to those interested in acquiring a general introduction to the

Attributions for Problem Behavior as Described by Turkish Teachers of Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erbas, Dilek; Turan, Yasemin; Aslan, Yesim Gulec; Dunlap, Glen

2010-01-01

The purpose of this survey study was to determine Turkish teachers' attributions of problem behaviors. The participants' (special education teachers) attributions of problem behaviors varied with some teachers showing agreement with a behavioral perspective while others attributed the occurrence of problem behaviors to other factors (e.g., poor…

Neural synchronization during face-to-face communication.

PubMed

Jiang, Jing; Dai, Bohan; Peng, Danling; Zhu, Chaozhe; Liu, Li; Lu, Chunming

2012-11-07

Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results showed a significant increase in the neural synchronization in the left inferior frontal cortex during a face-to-face dialog between partners but none during a back-to-back dialog, a face-to-face monologue, or a back-to-back monologue. Moreover, the neural synchronization between partners during the face-to-face dialog resulted primarily from the direct interactions between the partners, including multimodal sensory information integration and turn-taking behavior. The communicating behavior during the face-to-face dialog could be predicted accurately based on the neural synchronization level. These results suggest that face-to-face communication, particularly dialog, has special neural features that other types of communication do not have and that the neural synchronization between partners may underlie successful face-to-face communication.

78 FR 26280 - Special Conditions: Embraer, S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplane; Side-Facing Seats; Installation of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-06

... be active during all dynamic tests conducted to show compliance with Sec. 25.562. (2) The design and... novel or unusual design feature(s) associated with multiple place and single place side- facing seats... not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These proposed special...

Using Virtual Technology to Enhance Field Experiences for Pre-Service Special Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billingsley, Glenna M.; Scheuermann, Brenda K.

2014-01-01

Teacher educators of pre-service teachers of students with special needs face challenges in providing the unique knowledge and skills required of highly qualified special education teachers. The emerging use of various forms of virtual technology, however, offers realistic solutions to these problems. This systematic review of literature examines…

Horizontal tuning for faces originates in high-level Fusiform Face Area.

PubMed

Goffaux, Valerie; Duecker, Felix; Hausfeld, Lars; Schiltz, Christine; Goebel, Rainer

2016-01-29

Recent work indicates that the specialization of face visual perception relies on the privileged processing of horizontal angles of facial information. This suggests that stimulus properties assumed to be fully resolved in primary visual cortex (V1; e.g., orientation) in fact determine human vision until high-level stages of processing. To address this hypothesis, the present fMRI study explored the orientation sensitivity of V1 and high-level face-specialized ventral regions such as the Occipital Face Area (OFA) and Fusiform Face Area (FFA) to different angles of face information. Participants viewed face images filtered to retain information at horizontal, vertical or oblique angles. Filtered images were viewed upright, inverted and (phase-)scrambled. FFA responded most strongly to the horizontal range of upright face information; its activation pattern reliably separated horizontal from oblique ranges, but only when faces were upright. Moreover, activation patterns induced in the right FFA and the OFA by upright and inverted faces could only be separated based on horizontal information. This indicates that the specialized processing of upright face information in the OFA and FFA essentially relies on the encoding of horizontal facial cues. This pattern was not passively inherited from V1, which was found to respond less strongly to horizontal than other orientations likely due to adaptive whitening. Moreover, we found that orientation decoding accuracy in V1 was impaired for stimuli containing no meaningful shape. By showing that primary coding in V1 is influenced by high-order stimulus structure and that high-level processing is tuned to selective ranges of primary information, the present work suggests that primary and high-level levels of the visual system interact in order to modulate the processing of certain ranges of primary information depending on their relevance with respect to the stimulus and task at hand. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

Trends in parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems among children using special education services.

PubMed

Pastor, Patricia N; Reuben, Cynthia A

2015-06-01

This report describes trends in health conditions reported by parents as the limitations leading to special education services for their children. Data are reported for children ages 6-17 (N=182,998) surveyed in households in the 2001-2012 National Health Interview Survey. Between 2001 and 2012, the overall percentage of U.S. children ages 6-17 who were receiving special education services increased from 7.2% to 8.7%. Between 2001 and 2012, the leading causes of activity limitations among children receiving special education services included emotional or behavioral problems, which increased from 36% to 43%; speech problems, which increased from 16% to 22%; and learning disability, which decreased from 41% to 27%. There were no significant trends in any of the other conditions considered as possible sources of activity limitations. Emotional and behavioral problems have become the most frequently reported source of activity limitations among children receiving special education services.

Minority Produced Television: Problems of Policy and Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clyde, Robert W.; McDermott, Joseph T.

1970-01-01

The authors treat some of the special problems faced in evaluating a black-produced television series. Black-Voices was a weekly offering of KTCA-TV in Minneapolis, owned and operated by the Twin Cities Area Educational Television Corporation." (Editor)

Second-order relational face processing is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

PubMed

Matheson, H E; Bilsbury, T G; McMullen, P A

2012-03-01

A large body of research suggests that faces are processed by a specialized mechanism within the human visual system. This specialized mechanism is made up of subprocesses (Maurer, LeGrand, & Mondloch, 2002). One subprocess, called second- order relational processing, analyzes the metric distances between face parts. Importantly, it is well established that other-race faces and contrast-reversed faces are associated with impaired performance on numerous face processing tasks. Here, we investigated the specificity of second-order relational processing by testing how this process is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast. Participants completed a feature displacement discrimination task, directly measuring the sensitivity to second-order relations between face parts. Across three experiments we show that, despite absolute differences in sensitivity in some conditions, inversion impaired performance in all conditions. The presence of robust inversion effects for all faces suggests that second-order relational processing can be applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

The special status of sad infant faces: age and valence differences in adults' cortical face processing.

PubMed

Colasante, Tyler; Mossad, Sarah I; Dudek, Joanna; Haley, David W

2017-04-01

Understanding the relative and joint prioritization of age- and valence-related face characteristics in adults' cortical face processing remains elusive because these two characteristics have not been manipulated in a single study of neural face processing. We used electroencephalography to investigate adults' P1, N170, P2 and LPP responses to infant and adult faces with happy and sad facial expressions. Viewing infant vs adult faces was associated with significantly larger P1, N170, P2 and LPP responses, with hemisphere and/or participant gender moderating this effect in select cases. Sad faces were associated with significantly larger N170 responses than happy faces. Sad infant faces were associated with significantly larger N170 responses in the right hemisphere than all other combinations of face age and face valence characteristics. We discuss the relative and joint neural prioritization of infant face characteristics and negative facial affect, and their biological value as distinct caregiving and social cues. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Problems Teachers Face When Doing Action Research and Finding Possible Solutions: Three Cases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Jun

2012-01-01

Through case studies, this paper explores problems teachers face when doing action research: for instance, teachers may misunderstand the research, mistrust university researchers, lack the time or adequate library resources to conduct research, lack theoretical guidance or knowledge of research methodology, and feel pressure or frustration during…

The New Workforce Generation: Understanding the Problems Facing Parental Involvement in Jordanian Kindergartens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ihmeideh, Fathi; Khasawneh, Samer; Mahfouz, Safi; Khawaldeh, Moustafa

2008-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the problems facing parental involvement in Jordanian kindergartens from the parents' perspectives. A 36-item questionnaire that addressed five domains was designed by the researchers and distributed among the study participants. The study sample consisted of 297 parents of kindergarten children from various…

The many faces of research on face perception.

PubMed

Little, Anthony C; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M

2011-06-12

Face perception is fundamental to human social interaction. Many different types of important information are visible in faces and the processes and mechanisms involved in extracting this information are complex and can be highly specialized. The importance of faces has long been recognized by a wide range of scientists. Importantly, the range of perspectives and techniques that this breadth has brought to face perception research has, in recent years, led to many important advances in our understanding of face processing. The articles in this issue on face perception each review a particular arena of interest in face perception, variously focusing on (i) the social aspects of face perception (attraction, recognition and emotion), (ii) the neural mechanisms underlying face perception (using brain scanning, patient data, direct stimulation of the brain, visual adaptation and single-cell recording), and (iii) comparative aspects of face perception (comparing adult human abilities with those of chimpanzees and children). Here, we introduce the central themes of the issue and present an overview of the articles.

Current Welfare Problems Facing Horses in Great Britain as Identified by Equine Stakeholders.

PubMed

Horseman, Susan V; Buller, Henry; Mullan, Siobhan; Whay, Helen R

2016-01-01

Despite growing concerns about the welfare of horses in Great Britain (GB) there has been little surveillance of the welfare status of the horse population. Consequently we have limited knowledge of the range of welfare problems experienced by horses in GB and the situations in which poor welfare occurs. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with a cross -section of equine stakeholders, in order to explore their perceptions of the welfare problems faced by horses in GB. Welfare problems relating to health, management and riding and training were identified, including horses being under or over weight, stabling 24 hours a day and the inappropriate use of training aids. The interviewees also discussed broader contexts in which they perceived that welfare was compromised. The most commonly discussed context was where horses are kept in unsuitable environments, for example environments with poor grazing. The racing industry and travellers horses were identified as areas of the industry where horse welfare was particularly vulnerable to compromise. Lack of knowledge and financial constraints were perceived to be the root cause of poor welfare by many interviewees. The findings give insight into the range of welfare problems that may be faced by horses in GB, the contexts in which these may occur and their possible causes. Many of the problems identified by the interviewees have undergone limited scientific investigation pointing to areas where further research is likely to be necessary for welfare improvement. The large number of issues identified suggests that some form of prioritisation may be necessary to target research and resources effectively.

Current Welfare Problems Facing Horses in Great Britain as Identified by Equine Stakeholders

PubMed Central

Horseman, Susan V.; Buller, Henry

2016-01-01

Despite growing concerns about the welfare of horses in Great Britain (GB) there has been little surveillance of the welfare status of the horse population. Consequently we have limited knowledge of the range of welfare problems experienced by horses in GB and the situations in which poor welfare occurs. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with a cross -section of equine stakeholders, in order to explore their perceptions of the welfare problems faced by horses in GB. Welfare problems relating to health, management and riding and training were identified, including horses being under or over weight, stabling 24 hours a day and the inappropriate use of training aids. The interviewees also discussed broader contexts in which they perceived that welfare was compromised. The most commonly discussed context was where horses are kept in unsuitable environments, for example environments with poor grazing. The racing industry and travellers horses were identified as areas of the industry where horse welfare was particularly vulnerable to compromise. Lack of knowledge and financial constraints were perceived to be the root cause of poor welfare by many interviewees. The findings give insight into the range of welfare problems that may be faced by horses in GB, the contexts in which these may occur and their possible causes. Many of the problems identified by the interviewees have undergone limited scientific investigation pointing to areas where further research is likely to be necessary for welfare improvement. The large number of issues identified suggests that some form of prioritisation may be necessary to target research and resources effectively. PMID:27501387

A study of fuzzy logic ensemble system performance on face recognition problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polyakova, A.; Lipinskiy, L.

2017-02-01

Some problems are difficult to solve by using a single intelligent information technology (IIT). The ensemble of the various data mining (DM) techniques is a set of models which are able to solve the problem by itself, but the combination of which allows increasing the efficiency of the system as a whole. Using the IIT ensembles can improve the reliability and efficiency of the final decision, since it emphasizes on the diversity of its components. The new method of the intellectual informational technology ensemble design is considered in this paper. It is based on the fuzzy logic and is designed to solve the classification and regression problems. The ensemble consists of several data mining algorithms: artificial neural network, support vector machine and decision trees. These algorithms and their ensemble have been tested by solving the face recognition problems. Principal components analysis (PCA) is used for feature selection.

A Comparative View of Face Perception

PubMed Central

Leopold, David A.; Rhodes, Gillian

2010-01-01

Face perception serves as the basis for much of human social exchange. Diverse information can be extracted about an individual from a single glance at their face, including their identity, emotional state, and direction of attention. Neuropsychological and fMRI experiments reveal a complex network of specialized areas in the human brain supporting these face-reading skills. Here we consider the evolutionary roots of human face perception by exploring the manner in which different animal species view and respond to faces. We focus on behavioral experiments collected from both primates and non-primates, assessing the types of information that animals are able to extract from the faces of their conspecifics, human experimenters, and natural predators. These experiments reveal that faces are an important category of visual stimuli for animals in all major vertebrate taxa, possibly reflecting the early emergence of neural specialization for faces in vertebrate evolution. At the same time, some aspects of facial perception are only evident in primates and a few other social mammals, and may therefore have evolved to suit the needs of complex social communication. Since the human brain likely utilizes both primitive and recently evolved neural specializations for the processing of faces, comparative studies may hold the key to understanding how these parallel circuits emerged during human evolution. PMID:20695655

A comparative view of face perception.

PubMed

Leopold, David A; Rhodes, Gillian

2010-08-01

Face perception serves as the basis for much of human social exchange. Diverse information can be extracted about an individual from a single glance at their face, including their identity, emotional state, and direction of attention. Neuropsychological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments reveal a complex network of specialized areas in the human brain supporting these face-reading skills. Here we consider the evolutionary roots of human face perception by exploring the manner in which different animal species view and respond to faces. We focus on behavioral experiments collected from both primates and nonprimates, assessing the types of information that animals are able to extract from the faces of their conspecifics, human experimenters, and natural predators. These experiments reveal that faces are an important category of visual stimuli for animals in all major vertebrate taxa, possibly reflecting the early emergence of neural specialization for faces in vertebrate evolution. At the same time, some aspects of facial perception are only evident in primates and a few other social mammals, and may therefore have evolved to suit the needs of complex social communication. Because the human brain likely utilizes both primitive and recently evolved neural specializations for the processing of faces, comparative studies may hold the key to understanding how these parallel circuits emerged during human evolution. 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Special Education Students Improve Academic Performance through Problem-Based Learning and Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freeman, S.; Kintsch, A.

2003-12-01

Boulder High School Special Education students work in teams on donated wireless computers to solve problems created by global climate change. Their text is Richard Somerville's The Forgiving Air. They utilize Wheeling Jesuit University's remote sensing web site and private computer bulletin board. Their central source for problem-based learning (PBL) is www.cotf.edu, NASA's Classroom of the Future Global Change web site. As a result, students not only improve their abilities to write, read, do math and research, speak, and work as team members, they also improve self-esteem, resilience, and willingness to take more challenging classes. Two special education students passed AP exams, Calculus and U.S. Government, last spring and Jay Matthews of Newsweek rates Boulder High as 201st of the nation's top 1000 high schools.

Science educators' perceptions of problems facing science education: A report of five surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallagher, James Joseph; Yager, Robert E.

Five groups of science educators representing faculty at graduate institutions, graduate students, teachers, supervisors, and leadership conferees were surveyed concerning their perceptions of current problems facing science education. A total of 144 participants provided an average of 4.7 responses. The responses were tabulated using an emergent set of categories that resulted in six major groupings, i.e. conceptual, organizational, teacher; related, student-related, university, and societal. The category with the most problems identified was in the area of conceptual problems. University related problems and organizational problems were the next two most frequently mentioned categories for problems. Specific problems in all categories most often cited include the following:1confusion and uncertainty in goals and objectives;2lack of vision and leadership in schools and universities;3absence of a theoretical base for science education;4poor quality teacher education programs;5inappropriate avenues for continuing education of teachers; limited dialogue between researchers and practitioners; declining enrollments; poor quality teaching and counseling; insufficient programs in science for the wide spectrum of students; and public and parental apathy towards science.

Potential interoperability problems facing multi-site radiation oncology centers in The Netherlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheurleer, J.; Koken, Ph; Wessel, R.

2014-03-01

Aim: To identify potential interoperability problems facing multi-site Radiation Oncology (RO) departments in the Netherlands and solutions for unambiguous multi-system workflows. Specific challenges confronting the RO department of VUmc (RO-VUmc), which is soon to open a satellite department, were characterized. Methods: A nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted to identify possible interoperability problems and solutions. Further detailed information was obtained by in-depth interviews at 3 Dutch RO institutes that already operate in more than one site. Results: The survey had a 100% response rate (n=21). Altogether 95 interoperability problems were described. Most reported problems were on a strategic and semantic level. The majority were DICOM(-RT) and HL7 related (n=65), primarily between treatment planning and verification systems or between departmental and hospital systems. Seven were identified as being relevant for RO-VUmc. Departments have overcome interoperability problems with their own, or with tailor-made vendor solutions. There was little knowledge about or utilization of solutions developed by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO). Conclusions: Although interoperability problems are still common, solutions have been identified. Awareness of IHE-RO needs to be raised. No major new interoperability problems are predicted as RO-VUmc develops into a multi-site department.

Future Primary and Preschool Pedagogy Specialization Students' Mathematical Problem Solving Competency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchis, Iuliana

2013-01-01

Developing the problem solving competency is one of the main goals of school education, as it is a very important competency in someone's everyday life and career as well. Mathematics is highly appropriate for developing this competence. This research studies future Primary and Preschool Pedagogy specialization students' mathematical problem…

Frequent jaw-face pain in chronic Whiplash-Associated Disorders.

PubMed

Häggman-Henrikson, Birgitta; Grönqvist, Johan; Eriksson, Per-Olof

2011-01-01

Chronic Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD) present with frequent pain in the neck, head and shoulder regions but the presence of frequent jaw-face pain is unclear. The aim of the study was to investigate the frequency of jaw-face pain, pain in other regions, and general symptoms in chronic WAD patients. Fifty whiplash-patients and 50 healthy age- and sex-matched controls were examined by questionnaire for pain in the jaw-face, pain in other regions and other symptoms. In contrast to healthy, a majority of the WAD patients (88%) reported frequent pain in the jaw-face, in addition to frequent pain in the neck (100%), shoulders (94%), head (90%) and back (72%). The WAD patients also reported stiffness and numbness in the jaw-face region, and frequent general symptoms such as balance problems, stress and sleep disturbances. The result suggests that frequent pain in the jaw-face can be part of the spectrum of symptoms in chronic WAD.The finding of self-reported numbness in the jaw-face indicates disturbed trigeminal nerve function and merits further investigation. We conclude that assessment of WAD should include pain in the jaw-face region. A multidisciplinary rehabilitation program including dentists, preferably specialized in the area of orofacial pain, should be advocated after whiplash injury.

Face Engagement during Infancy Predicts Later Face Recognition Ability in Younger Siblings of Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Klerk, Carina C. J. M.; Gliga, Teodora; Charman, Tony; Johnson, Mark H.

2014-01-01

Face recognition difficulties are frequently documented in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has been hypothesized that these difficulties result from a reduced interest in faces early in life, leading to decreased cortical specialization and atypical development of the neural circuitry for face processing. However, a recent study…

On the Special Problems in Creating Group Cohesion Within the Prison Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juda, Daniel P.

1983-01-01

Describes attempts to form a communication group among male and female inmates. The failure of this effort is discussed with emphasis on the special problems and needs of groups in prisons and the lack of insight among the institution's administration and staff. (JAC)

Successful Decoding of Famous Faces in the Fusiform Face Area

PubMed Central

Axelrod, Vadim; Yovel, Galit

2015-01-01

What are the neural mechanisms of face recognition? It is believed that the network of face-selective areas, which spans the occipital, temporal, and frontal cortices, is important in face recognition. A number of previous studies indeed reported that face identity could be discriminated based on patterns of multivoxel activity in the fusiform face area and the anterior temporal lobe. However, given the difficulty in localizing the face-selective area in the anterior temporal lobe, its role in face recognition is still unknown. Furthermore, previous studies limited their analysis to occipito-temporal regions without testing identity decoding in more anterior face-selective regions, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. In the current high-resolution functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, we systematically examined the decoding of the identity of famous faces in the temporo-frontal network of face-selective and adjacent non-face-selective regions. A special focus has been put on the face-area in the anterior temporal lobe, which was reliably localized using an optimized scanning protocol. We found that face-identity could be discriminated above chance level only in the fusiform face area. Our results corroborate the role of the fusiform face area in face recognition. Future studies are needed to further explore the role of the more recently discovered anterior face-selective areas in face recognition. PMID:25714434

Successful decoding of famous faces in the fusiform face area.

PubMed

Axelrod, Vadim; Yovel, Galit

2015-01-01

What are the neural mechanisms of face recognition? It is believed that the network of face-selective areas, which spans the occipital, temporal, and frontal cortices, is important in face recognition. A number of previous studies indeed reported that face identity could be discriminated based on patterns of multivoxel activity in the fusiform face area and the anterior temporal lobe. However, given the difficulty in localizing the face-selective area in the anterior temporal lobe, its role in face recognition is still unknown. Furthermore, previous studies limited their analysis to occipito-temporal regions without testing identity decoding in more anterior face-selective regions, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. In the current high-resolution functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, we systematically examined the decoding of the identity of famous faces in the temporo-frontal network of face-selective and adjacent non-face-selective regions. A special focus has been put on the face-area in the anterior temporal lobe, which was reliably localized using an optimized scanning protocol. We found that face-identity could be discriminated above chance level only in the fusiform face area. Our results corroborate the role of the fusiform face area in face recognition. Future studies are needed to further explore the role of the more recently discovered anterior face-selective areas in face recognition.

Are the Editors faced with e-problems performing their duties and responsibilities satisfactorily?

PubMed

Ali Jawaid, Shaukat; Jawaid, Masood

2013-09-01

Astonishing revolution in information technology, developments in electronic publishing and availability of manuscript management software's has provided lot of facilities to authors, reviewers as well as editors but it has also given birth to lot of e-problems. This communication highlights some of these e-problems besides discussing the manuscript management system practiced by Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences through modified Open Journal System. It also cautions the editors of small journals faced with financial and human resource constraints to keep themselves abreast of all these developments, go for automation in e publishing gradually as all the stake holders i.e. authors, reviewers and office management staff learns these and become used to it.

Challenges Facing Children with Special Healthcare Needs and Their Families: Telemedicine as a Bridge to Care.

PubMed

Hooshmand, Mary; Yao, Kristiana

2017-01-01

Telemedicine is an increasingly utilized mode of healthcare delivery, which improves access to care for vulnerable populations. Children with Special Healthcare Needs (CSHCN) and their families face significant challenges, such as geographic, financial, and sociocultural barriers, in accessing needed healthcare services. The literature supports telemedicine as an effective accepted bridge between CSHCN and their providers. A growing body of telemedicine projects also suggests cost-effectiveness when considering the direct and indirect costs the families of CSCHN incur in seeking healthcare services. These new systems of care should prioritize caring and family centeredness while reducing the burdens of CSHCN and their families.

Developmental origins of the face inversion effect.

PubMed

Cashon, Cara H; Holt, Nicholas A

2015-01-01

A hallmark of adults' expertise for faces is that they are better at recognizing, discriminating, and processing upright faces compared to inverted faces. We investigate the developmental origins of "the face inversion effect" by reviewing research on infants' perception of upright and inverted faces during the first year of life. We review the effects of inversion on infants' face preference, recognition, processing (holistic and second-order configural), and scanning as well as face-related neural responses. Particular attention is paid to the developmental patterns that emerge within and across these areas of face perception. We conclude that the developmental origins of the inversion effect begin in the first few months of life and grow stronger over the first year, culminating in effects that are commonly thought to indicate adult-like expertise. We posit that by the end of the first year, infants' face-processing system has become specialized to upright faces and a foundation for adults' upright-face expertise has been established. Developmental mechanisms that may facilitate the emergence of this upright-face specialization are discussed, including the roles that physical and social development may play in upright faces' becoming more meaningful to infants during the first year. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Survey of projected growth and problems facing air transportation, 1975 - 1985

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, L. J.; Wilson, A.

1975-01-01

Results are presented of a survey conducted to determine the current opinion of people working in air transportation demand forecasting on the future of air transportation over the next ten years. In particular, the survey included questions on future demand growth, load factor, fuel prices, introduction date for the next new aircraft, the priorities of problems facing air transportation, and the probability of a substantial change in air transportation regulation. The survey participants included: airlines, manufacturers, universities, government agencies, and other organizations (financial institutions, private research companies, etc.). The results are shown for the average responses within the organization represented as well as the overall averages.

Functional specialization and convergence in the occipito-temporal cortex supporting haptic and visual identification of human faces and body parts: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Kitada, Ryo; Johnsrude, Ingrid S; Kochiyama, Takanori; Lederman, Susan J

2009-10-01

Humans can recognize common objects by touch extremely well whenever vision is unavailable. Despite its importance to a thorough understanding of human object recognition, the neuroscientific study of this topic has been relatively neglected. To date, the few published studies have addressed the haptic recognition of nonbiological objects. We now focus on haptic recognition of the human body, a particularly salient object category for touch. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate that regions of the occipito-temporal cortex are specialized for visual perception of faces (fusiform face area, FFA) and other body parts (extrastriate body area, EBA). Are the same category-sensitive regions activated when these components of the body are recognized haptically? Here, we use fMRI to compare brain organization for haptic and visual recognition of human body parts. Sixteen subjects identified exemplars of faces, hands, feet, and nonbiological control objects using vision and haptics separately. We identified two discrete regions within the fusiform gyrus (FFA and the haptic face region) that were each sensitive to both haptically and visually presented faces; however, these two regions differed significantly in their response patterns. Similarly, two regions within the lateral occipito-temporal area (EBA and the haptic body region) were each sensitive to body parts in both modalities, although the response patterns differed. Thus, although the fusiform gyrus and the lateral occipito-temporal cortex appear to exhibit modality-independent, category-sensitive activity, our results also indicate a degree of functional specialization related to sensory modality within these structures.

The most common problem facing by the maintenance department: A case Study between Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Norazam Yasin, Mohd; Mohamad Zin, Rosli; Halid Abdullah, Abd; Shafiq Mahmad, Muhammad; Fikri Hasmori, Muhammad

2017-11-01

From time to time, the maintenance works become more challenging due to construction of new building and also aging of the existing buildings. University buildings without any exception require proper maintenance services to support their function requirements and this can be considered as major responsibilities to be fulfilled by the maintenance department in the universities. Maintenance department specifically will face various kinds of problems in their operation works and thus this might influence the maintenance work operations itself. This study purposely to identify the common problem facing by the maintenance department and also to examine the current status of the maintenance department. In addition, this study would also propose any suitable approach that could be implemented to overcome the problem facing by the maintenance department. To achieve the objectives of this study, a combination of deep literature study and carrying out a survey is necessary. Literature study aimed to obtain deeper information about this study, meanwhile a survey aimed at identifying the common problem facing by the maintenance department and also to provide the information of the maintenance department’s organization. Several methods will be used in analyzing the data obtained through the survey, including Microsoft Office Excel and also using mean index formula. This study has identified three categories of problem in the maintenance department, which are management problems, human resource problem, and technical problems. Following the findings, several solutions being proposed which can be implemented as the solution to the problem facing. These suggestions have the potential to improve the maintenance department work efficiency, thus could help to increase the department productivity.

Experimental instruction in photonics for high school students: approaches to managing problems faced

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choong, Zhengyang

2017-08-01

Student research projects are increasingly common at the K-12 level. However, students often face difficulties in the course of their school research projects such as setting realistic timelines and expectations, handling problems stemming from a lack of self-confidence, as well as being sufficiently disciplined for sustained communication and experimentation. In this work, we explore manifestations of these problems in the context of a photonics project, characterising the spectrum of the breakdown flash from Silicon Avalanche Photodiodes. We report on the process of planning and building the setup, data collection, analysis and troubleshooting, as well as the technical and human problems at each step. Approaches that were found to be helpful in managing the aforementioned problems are discussed, including an attention to detail during experimental work, as well as communicating in a forthcoming manner. Œe former allowed for clearer planning and the setting of quantifiable proximal goals; the latter helped in motivating discipline, and also helped in the understanding of research as an iterative learning process without a clear definition of success or failure.

Technologies as Rural Special Education Problem Solvers--A Status Report and Successful Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helge, Doris

Rural schools can help solve their special education problems by using advanced technology to provide instructional support (computer managed instruction, satellite television, library searches, resource networks, on-line testing), instructional applications (computer assisted instruction, reading machines, mobile vans, instructional television),…

In search of evidence-based plastic surgery: the problems faced by the specialty.

PubMed

Offer, G J; Perks, A G

2000-07-01

Recently, there has been significant interest both from government and medical practitioners in the discipline of evidence-based medicine. In this article we discuss the problems faced by the plastic surgeon when trying to ensure that practice is evidence-based and highlight some of the reasons behind these difficulties. With the rapid growth of the Internet we also outline its use to access high quality information for the plastic surgeon. Copyright 2000 The British Association of Plastic Surgeons.

Faciotopy—A face-feature map with face-like topology in the human occipital face area

PubMed Central

Henriksson, Linda; Mur, Marieke; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2015-01-01

The occipital face area (OFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) are brain regions thought to be specialized for face perception. However, their intrinsic functional organization and status as cortical areas with well-defined boundaries remains unclear. Here we test these regions for “faciotopy”, a particular hypothesis about their intrinsic functional organisation. A faciotopic area would contain a face-feature map on the cortical surface, where cortical patches represent face features and neighbouring patches represent features that are physically neighbouring in a face. The faciotopy hypothesis is motivated by the idea that face regions might develop from a retinotopic protomap and acquire their selectivity for face features through natural visual experience. Faces have a prototypical configuration of features, are usually perceived in a canonical upright orientation, and are frequently fixated in particular locations. To test the faciotopy hypothesis, we presented images of isolated face features at fixation to subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The responses in V1 were best explained by low-level image properties of the stimuli. OFA, and to a lesser degree FFA, showed evidence for faciotopic organization. When a single patch of cortex was estimated for each face feature, the cortical distances between the feature patches reflected the physical distance between the features in a face. Faciotopy would be the first example, to our knowledge, of a cortical map reflecting the topology, not of a part of the organism itself (its retina in retinotopy, its body in somatotopy), but of an external object of particular perceptual significance. PMID:26235800

Faciotopy-A face-feature map with face-like topology in the human occipital face area.

PubMed

Henriksson, Linda; Mur, Marieke; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2015-11-01

The occipital face area (OFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) are brain regions thought to be specialized for face perception. However, their intrinsic functional organization and status as cortical areas with well-defined boundaries remains unclear. Here we test these regions for "faciotopy", a particular hypothesis about their intrinsic functional organisation. A faciotopic area would contain a face-feature map on the cortical surface, where cortical patches represent face features and neighbouring patches represent features that are physically neighbouring in a face. The faciotopy hypothesis is motivated by the idea that face regions might develop from a retinotopic protomap and acquire their selectivity for face features through natural visual experience. Faces have a prototypical configuration of features, are usually perceived in a canonical upright orientation, and are frequently fixated in particular locations. To test the faciotopy hypothesis, we presented images of isolated face features at fixation to subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The responses in V1 were best explained by low-level image properties of the stimuli. OFA, and to a lesser degree FFA, showed evidence for faciotopic organization. When a single patch of cortex was estimated for each face feature, the cortical distances between the feature patches reflected the physical distance between the features in a face. Faciotopy would be the first example, to our knowledge, of a cortical map reflecting the topology, not of a part of the organism itself (its retina in retinotopy, its body in somatotopy), but of an external object of particular perceptual significance. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Collaborative Accounting Problem Solving via Group Support Systems in a Face-to-Face versus Distant Learning Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Jacqueline A.

2001-01-01

Accounting students (n=128) used either face-to-face or distant Group support systems to complete collaborative tasks. Participation and social presence perceptions were significantly higher face to face. Task difficulty did not affect participation in either environment. (Contains 54 references.) (JOW)

Oculomotor guidance and capture by irrelevant faces.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

2012-01-01

Even though it is generally agreed that face stimuli constitute a special class of stimuli, which are treated preferentially by our visual system, it remains unclear whether faces can capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner. Moreover, there is a long-standing debate regarding the mechanism underlying the preferential bias of selecting faces. Some claim that faces constitute a set of special low-level features to which our visual system is tuned; others claim that the visual system is capable of extracting the meaning of faces very rapidly, driving attentional selection. Those debates continue because many studies contain methodological peculiarities and manipulations that prevent a definitive conclusion. Here, we present a new visual search task in which observers had to make a saccade to a uniquely colored circle while completely irrelevant objects were also present in the visual field. The results indicate that faces capture and guide the eyes more than other animated objects and that our visual system is not only tuned to the low-level features that make up a face but also to its meaning.

Future Critical Issues and Problems Facing Technology and Engineering Education in the Commonwealth of Virginia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katsioloudis, Petros; Moye, Johnny J.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research was to determine the future critical issues and problems facing the K-12 technology and engineering education profession in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This study was based on the Wicklein nationwide studies (1993a, 2005). Even though this study did not exactly replicate the Wicklein studies--since it was limited to…

Face Pareidolia in the Rhesus Monkey.

PubMed

Taubert, Jessica; Wardle, Susan G; Flessert, Molly; Leopold, David A; Ungerleider, Leslie G

2017-08-21

Face perception in humans and nonhuman primates is rapid and accurate [1-4]. In the human brain, a network of visual-processing regions is specialized for faces [5-7]. Although face processing is a priority of the primate visual system, face detection is not infallible. Face pareidolia is the compelling illusion of perceiving facial features on inanimate objects, such as the illusory face on the surface of the moon. Although face pareidolia is commonly experienced by humans, its presence in other species is unknown. Here we provide evidence for face pareidolia in a species known to possess a complex face-processing system [8-10]: the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). In a visual preference task [11, 12], monkeys looked longer at photographs of objects that elicited face pareidolia in human observers than at photographs of similar objects that did not elicit illusory faces. Examination of eye movements revealed that monkeys fixated the illusory internal facial features in a pattern consistent with how they view photographs of faces [13]. Although the specialized response to faces observed in humans [1, 3, 5-7, 14] is often argued to be continuous across primates [4, 15], it was previously unclear whether face pareidolia arose from a uniquely human capacity. For example, pareidolia could be a product of the human aptitude for perceptual abstraction or result from frequent exposure to cartoons and illustrations that anthropomorphize inanimate objects. Instead, our results indicate that the perception of illusory facial features on inanimate objects is driven by a broadly tuned face-detection mechanism that we share with other species. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Medical and psychological problems faced by young Australian gap year travellers.

PubMed

Furuya-Kanamori, Luis; Mills, Deborah; Sheridan, Sarah; Lau, Colleen

2017-09-01

Gap year travellers can potentially be exposed to many infectious diseases and other travel-related health problems including injuries and psychological problems. Currently, there is little information on health and wellbeing of this particular group of travellers. Participants were recruited from an organization that specialized in organising international gap year placements. Gap year travellers were asked to complete a pre-departure survey on demographics, placement destination and duration, previous travel experience, hobbies, risk taking behaviour, anticipated problems during the placement, and pre-travel preparations. After the placement, participants were asked to complete a post-trip survey on their experiences, problems, health issues, and medical treatment required. The 88 and 34 gap year travellers aged 17-23 years completed pre- and post-placement surveys respectively. The duration of placements ranged from 3 to 12 months. Psychological stressors were frequently reported [ n = 26 (76.5%) felt home sick; n = 18 (52.9%) experienced culture shock; n = 17 (50.0%) had difficulty communicating with the locals]. The majority of participants (91.2%) tried to work out a solution for the stressor on their own. Twenty-eight (82.4%) participants reported medical problems during their placement; the most common problems were sunburn ( n = 19; 55.9%), respiratory infections ( n = 15; 44.1%), weight change ( n = 14; 41.2%), and diarrhoea/food poisoning ( n = 13; 38.2%). Three participants (3.4%) were admitted to hospital; for a muscle injury, head injury and skin infection after getting a tribal tattoo. Psychological stressors were common, but most did not seek help. Some medical problems encountered during their placement may have been preventable with improved pre-departure preparation. Gap year, pre-departure, preparation. © International Society of Travel Medicine, 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e

Face Allotransplantation and Burns: a Review

PubMed Central

A, Arno; JP, Barret; RA, Harrison; MG, Jeschke

2012-01-01

Burns may represent one of the main indications for face allotransplantation. Severely disfigured faces featuring a devastating appearance and great functional impairments are not only seen as burn sequelae, but also occur as a result of other traumatic injuries, oncological surgical resections, benign tumors (e.g., neurofibromatosis), and major congenital malformations. To date, sixteen human face composite tissue allotransplantations have been performed with success. Despite the initial scepticism about its applicability, due mainly to ethical and technical reasons, the previous worldwide cases and their associated positive outcomes –including acceptable immunosuppressive regimens, excellent aesthetic and functional results, and good psychological acceptance by the recipient- , enable the conclusion that face composite tissue allotransplantation has become another therapeutic strategy in the reconstructive surgical armamentarium, which bears special consideration when dealing with severely disfigured burned patients. The aim of this review is to describe the basics of face composite tissue allotransplantation and give an overview of some of the cases performed until now, with special attention paid to debating the pros and cons of its applicability in burn patients. PMID:22274632

Problems in Learning of Electronic Filing at Vocational School in Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutirman; Muhyadi; Surjono, Herman Dwi

2017-01-01

This study aims to investigate the learning implementation of electronic filing and problems faced by teachers in learning implementing of electronic filing. This study is a descriptive research with qualitative approach. Collecting data used interview and documentation techniques. The research subjects consisted of 29 teachers who teach Filing…

The Problem Is Education Not "Special Education"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fellner, Gene

2015-01-01

In his article, "Urban special education policy and the lived experience of stigma in a high school science classroom," Chris Hale persuasively argues that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and subsequent special education policies have largely failed to serve special education students who are stigmatized by their deficit…

Exact solution for a two-phase Stefan problem with variable latent heat and a convective boundary condition at the fixed face

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bollati, Julieta; Tarzia, Domingo A.

2018-04-01

Recently, in Tarzia (Thermal Sci 21A:1-11, 2017) for the classical two-phase Lamé-Clapeyron-Stefan problem an equivalence between the temperature and convective boundary conditions at the fixed face under a certain restriction was obtained. Motivated by this article we study the two-phase Stefan problem for a semi-infinite material with a latent heat defined as a power function of the position and a convective boundary condition at the fixed face. An exact solution is constructed using Kummer functions in case that an inequality for the convective transfer coefficient is satisfied generalizing recent works for the corresponding one-phase free boundary problem. We also consider the limit to our problem when that coefficient goes to infinity obtaining a new free boundary problem, which has been recently studied in Zhou et al. (J Eng Math 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-017-9921-y).

The left perceptual bias for adult and infant faces in adults and 5-year-old children: face age matters.

PubMed

Proietti, Valentina; Pavone, Sarah; Ricciardelli, Paola; Macchi Cassia, Viola

2015-01-01

A large number of studies have shown that adults rely more heavily on information conveyed by the left side of the face in judging emotional state, gender and identity. This phenomenon, called left perceptual bias (LPB), suggests a right hemisphere lateralization of face processing mechanisms. Although specialization of neural mechanisms for processing over-experienced face categories begins during the first year of life, little is known about the developmental trajectory of the LPB and whether or when the bias becomes selective for specific face categories as a result of experience. To address these questions we tested adults (Experiment 1) and 5-year-old children (Experiment 2) with null or limited experience with infants in an identity matching-to-sample task with chimeric adult and infant faces, for which both adults and children have been shown to manifest differential processing abilities. Results showed that 5-year-olds manifest a leftward bias selective for adult faces, and the magnitude of the bias is larger for adult compared to infant faces in adults. This evidence is in line with earlier demonstrations of a perceptual processing advantage for adult faces in adults and children and points to the role of experience in shaping neurocognitive specialization for face processing.

First-Year Special Educators: The Influence of School and Classroom Context Factors on Their Accomplishments and Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Cynthia C.; Kilgore, Karen L.; Winn, Judith A.; Otis-Wilborn, Amy; Hou, Wei; Garvan, Cynthia W.

2009-01-01

Despite a history of research in general education on novice teachers, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the experiences of beginning special educators. Many of these studies describe problems encountered, noting the high attrition rate among beginning special education teachers and emphasizing the importance of keeping qualified…

[Utility of atazanavir in special populations].

PubMed

Antela López, Antonio

2008-12-01

ART (antiretroviral therapy) currently continues to indefinitely prolong the survival of patients who live with HIV. Due to this, we are increasingly faced with specific problems that previously did not have time to develop or did not have the importance that they have now, and which are related to the existence of special patient populations. Examples of situations that characterise these special populations are: co-infection with hepatitis virus B and/or C, pregnancy, lipodystrophy, cardiovascular risk, renal failure, treatment of children and adolescents, immigrant health care, and the management of patients receiving methadone replacement therapy, among others. In this article we review the role that Atazanavir (ATV) can play in the ART of patients in the situations mentioned, except those that are already dealt with specifically in other articles, such as co-infection by hepatitis virus B and/or C.

Infant discrimination of faces in naturalistic events: actions are more salient than faces.

PubMed

Bahrick, Lorraine E; Newell, Lisa C

2008-07-01

Despite the fact that faces are typically seen in the context of dynamic events, there is little research on infants' perception of moving faces. L. E. Bahrick, L. J. Gogate, and I. Ruiz (2002) demonstrated that 5-month-old infants discriminate and remember repetitive actions but not the faces of the women performing the actions. The present research tested an attentional salience explanation for these findings: that dynamic faces are discriminable to infants, but more salient actions compete for attention. Results demonstrated that 5-month-old infants discriminated faces in the context of actions when they had longer familiarization time (Experiment 1) and following habituation to a single person performing 3 different activities (Experiment 2). Further, 7-month-old infants who have had more experience with social events also discriminated faces in the context of actions. Overall, however, discrimination of actions was more robust and occurred earlier in processing time than discrimination of dynamic faces. These findings support an attentional salience hypothesis and indicate that faces are not special in the context of actions in early infancy.

A survey of the dummy face and human face stimuli used in BCI paradigm.

PubMed

Chen, Long; Jin, Jing; Zhang, Yu; Wang, Xingyu; Cichocki, Andrzej

2015-01-15

It was proved that the human face stimulus were superior to the flash only stimulus in BCI system. However, human face stimulus may lead to copyright infringement problems and was hard to be edited according to the requirement of the BCI study. Recently, it was reported that facial expression changes could be done by changing a curve in a dummy face which could obtain good performance when it was applied to visual-based P300 BCI systems. In this paper, four different paradigms were presented, which were called dummy face pattern, human face pattern, inverted dummy face pattern and inverted human face pattern, to evaluate the performance of the dummy faces stimuli compared with the human faces stimuli. The key point that determined the value of dummy faces in BCI systems were whether dummy faces stimuli could obtain as good performance as human faces stimuli. Online and offline results of four different paradigms would have been obtained and comparatively analyzed. Online and offline results showed that there was no significant difference among dummy faces and human faces in ERPs, classification accuracy and information transfer rate when they were applied in BCI systems. Dummy faces stimuli could evoke large ERPs and obtain as high classification accuracy and information transfer rate as the human faces stimuli. Since dummy faces were easy to be edited and had no copyright infringement problems, it would be a good choice for optimizing the stimuli of BCI systems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Retention of Mexican American Students in Higher Education with Special Reference to Bicultural and Bilingual Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guerra, Manuel H.; And Others

The problem of retaining Mexican American students in institutions of higher education is reviewed in these 5 papers: "The Retention of Mexican American Students in Higher Education with Special Reference to Bicultural and Bilingual Problems" by Manuel H. Guerra; "Mexicanismo vs. Retention: Implications of Retaining Mexican American…

Virtual Reality and Special Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeffs, Tara L.

2009-01-01

The use of virtual environments for special needs is as diverse as the field of Special Education itself and the individuals it serves. Individuals with special needs often face challenges with attention, language, spatial abilities, memory, higher reasoning and knowledge acquisition. Research in the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)…

Problems facing promotion of astronomy in Arab countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osman, Anas M. I.

Promotion of astronomy in Arab countries is facing many scientific and technical problems. Teaching astronomy starts very late in schools, with very simple and limited courses. Many teachers lack a suitable astronomical background, which can lead to incorrect understanding by students of many astronomical ideas and phenomena. Teaching astronomy at higher levels is also very limited, for example: among the 16 universities in Egypt, astronomy is taught in only two faculties of science, just for two years. Graduate students find many difficulties in obtaining jobs related to astronomical activities and this is a serious limitation on the attraction of the study of astronomy. On the other hand, astronomical institutions are suffering from a serious lack of the new sophisticated equipment, while the budget allotted for maintenance is very small, and there is a serious shortage of technical staff. The training of astronomers and technicians is badly needed, since good research work depends on modern technological equipment and the complicated software used in controlling such equipment and in data analysis. Good libraries are needed for promotion of astronomy especially, the Internet facilities available for the staff is very limited. The effects of culture are very clear; many authorities in developing countries believe that astronomy is a luxury. Finally, most of astronomers are engaged with a lot of administration for all matters, so the free time left for science is very limited.

The crack problem in a specially orthotropic shell with double curvature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delale, F.; Erdogan, F.

1982-01-01

The crack problem of a shallow shell with two nonzero curvatures is considered. It is assumed that the crack lies in one of the principal planes of curvature and the shell is under Mode I loading condition. The material is assumed to be specially orthotropic. After giving the general formulation of the problem the asymptotic behavior of the stress state around the crack tip is examined. The analysis is based on Reissner's transverse shear theory. Thus, as in the bending of cracked plates, the asymptotic results are shown to be consistent with that obtained from the plane elasticity solution of crack problems. Rather extensive numerical results are obtained which show the effect of material orthotropy on the stress intensity factors in cylindrical and spherical shells and in shells with double curvature. Other results include the stress intensity factors in isotropic toroidal shells with positive or negative curvature ratio, the distribution of the membrane stress resultant outside the crack, and the influence of the material orthotropy on the angular distribution of the stresses around the crack tip.

Challenges that nurses face in caring for morbidly obese patients in the acute care setting.

PubMed

Drake, Daniel; Dutton, Kathy; Engelke, Martha; McAuliffe, Maura; Rose, Mary Ann

2005-01-01

Despite increasing numbers of morbidly obese patients admitted to acute care facilities for surgery or treatment of nonsurgical conditions, there is little evidence of the problems nurses face in providing care to these patients. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the care of these patients is more demanding than the care of nonobese patients. The objective of this study was to describe nurses' perceptions of the challenges that they face when caring for morbidly obese patients. Focus groups of nurses from a tertiary care facility were convened. A trained facilitator posed questions to the group concerning various aspects of care for morbidly obese patients. Comments of respondents were categorized using NVIVO software. Nurses reported concerns about the increased staffing needs required for care of these patients and the particular challenges of the physical care. Concerns also included the availability, placement, and use of specialized equipment. Room size and the absence of some equipment were also problematic. Finally, nurses perceived safety issues, both for themselves and their patients. Morbidly obese patients in the acute care setting require specialized nursing care in terms of techniques, levels of staffing required, and the use of specialized equipment.

Can Holistic Processing Be Learned for Inverted Faces?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Rachel; McKone, Elinor

2003-01-01

The origin of "special" processing for upright faces has been a matter of ongoing debate. If it is due to generic expertise, as opposed to having some innate component, holistic processing should be learnable for stimuli other than upright faces. Here we assess inverted faces. We trained subjects to discriminate identical twins using up to 1100…

The problem is education not ``special education''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fellner, Gene

2015-12-01

In his article, Urban special education policy and the lived experience of stigma in a high school science classroom, Chris Hale persuasively argues that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and subsequent special education policies have largely failed to serve special education students who are stigmatized by their deficit classification. Though classified students may be doubly stigmatized, research suggests that students of color who live in economically stressed communities are also subject to systemic educational policies that produce stigma; special education should be understood within the larger context of educational policy in the inner city. Though we cannot immediately dismantle the macro level structures that nurture stigma, I suggest pedagogies based on facilitating phenomenological awareness enacted through individual-collectively based methodologies to challenge the stigma that classified as well as non-classified students in the inner city often carry with them.

[Comparative studies of face recognition].

PubMed

Kawai, Nobuyuki

2012-07-01

Every human being is proficient in face recognition. However, the reason for and the manner in which humans have attained such an ability remain unknown. These questions can be best answered-through comparative studies of face recognition in non-human animals. Studies in both primates and non-primates show that not only primates, but also non-primates possess the ability to extract information from their conspecifics and from human experimenters. Neural specialization for face recognition is shared with mammals in distant taxa, suggesting that face recognition evolved earlier than the emergence of mammals. A recent study indicated that a social insect, the golden paper wasp, can distinguish their conspecific faces, whereas a closely related species, which has a less complex social lifestyle with just one queen ruling a nest of underlings, did not show strong face recognition for their conspecifics. Social complexity and the need to differentiate between one another likely led humans to evolve their face recognition abilities.

Problems and Prospects of ESP in Multilingual Learning-Contexts: An Alternative Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oladejo, James

This paper examines some of the problems that are faced by teachers and students in the teaching and learning of English for special purposes (ESP) in multilingual nations such as Papua New Guinea. A survey of 125 students recently admitted to the University of Technology in Papua New Guinea found that although 98 percent knew that English was the…

Individual differences in cortical face selectivity predict behavioral performance in face recognition

PubMed Central

Huang, Lijie; Song, Yiying; Li, Jingguang; Zhen, Zonglei; Yang, Zetian; Liu, Jia

2014-01-01

In functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, object selectivity is defined as a higher neural response to an object category than other object categories. Importantly, object selectivity is widely considered as a neural signature of a functionally-specialized area in processing its preferred object category in the human brain. However, the behavioral significance of the object selectivity remains unclear. In the present study, we used the individual differences approach to correlate participants' face selectivity in the face-selective regions with their behavioral performance in face recognition measured outside the scanner in a large sample of healthy adults. Face selectivity was defined as the z score of activation with the contrast of faces vs. non-face objects, and the face recognition ability was indexed as the normalized residual of the accuracy in recognizing previously-learned faces after regressing out that for non-face objects in an old/new memory task. We found that the participants with higher face selectivity in the fusiform face area (FFA) and the occipital face area (OFA), but not in the posterior part of the superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), possessed higher face recognition ability. Importantly, the association of face selectivity in the FFA and face recognition ability cannot be accounted for by FFA response to objects or behavioral performance in object recognition, suggesting that the association is domain-specific. Finally, the association is reliable, confirmed by the replication from another independent participant group. In sum, our finding provides empirical evidence on the validity of using object selectivity as a neural signature in defining object-selective regions in the human brain. PMID:25071513

Negative Peer Influence in Special Needs Classes--A Risk for Students with Problem Behaviour?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muller, Christoph Michael

2010-01-01

Children and adolescents with aggressive and delinquent behaviours are often educated in special needs classes with others who exhibit the same kind of challenging behaviour. Beside the opportunities provided by this approach there are also risks, as several studies point to the problem of negative peer influence among this student population.…

Efficient human face detection in infancy.

PubMed

Jakobsen, Krisztina V; Umstead, Lindsey; Simpson, Elizabeth A

2016-01-01

Adults detect conspecific faces more efficiently than heterospecific faces; however, the development of this own-species bias (OSB) remains unexplored. We tested whether 6- and 11-month-olds exhibit OSB in their attention to human and animal faces in complex visual displays with high perceptual load (25 images competing for attention). Infants (n = 48) and adults (n = 43) passively viewed arrays containing a face among 24 non-face distractors while we measured their gaze with remote eye tracking. While OSB is typically not observed until about 9 months, we found that, already by 6 months, human faces were more likely to be detected, were detected more quickly (attention capture), and received longer looks (attention holding) than animal faces. These data suggest that 6-month-olds already exhibit OSB in face detection efficiency, consistent with perceptual attunement. This specialization may reflect the biological importance of detecting conspecific faces, a foundational ability for early social interactions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Implementing a Problem-Based Learning Curriculum in an Argentinean Medical School: Implications for Developing Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrera, Larisa Ivon; Tellez, Tomas Eduardo; D'Ottavio, Alberto Enrique

2003-01-01

Describes the difficulties Argentina's medical schools are likely to face in implementing a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. Outlines the basic requirements for successful implementation of PBL curricula and describes the contradiction in Argentina between a health care system that forces specialization and the efforts of medical schools…

Gender and Environmental Sustainability: Issues and Problems Involved for Persons with Special Needs in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egaga, Patrick I.; Aderibigbe, S. Akinwumi

2015-01-01

Sustainability of the environment is one of the major problems facing African people, most especially Nigerians. It is unfortunate that women, by the nature of their daily activities of managing the homes and families are in touch with nature and environment and are at greater risk of health hazards and foetal damage. This paper focuses on the…

Tolerance: Our Voice--An Elementary School Package in Support of Siblings of Children with Special Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gopman, Beth Alswanger

2009-01-01

Although study and research focus on the needs of children with mental and physical disabilities, this pilot study focuses on the siblings of children with a special need (SCSN), those brothers and sisters who face unique stresses in their own lives. The study explores the world of the nondisabled siblings, identifies some of the problems they…

The crack problem in a specially orthotropic shell with double curvature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delale, F.; Erdogan, F.

1983-01-01

The crack problem of a shallow shell with two nonzero curvatures is considered. It is assumed that the crack lies in one of the principal planes of curvature and the shell is under Mode I loading condition. The material is assumed to be specially orthotropic. After giving the general formulation of the problem the asymptotic behavior of the stress state around the crack tip is examined. The analysis is based on Reissner's transverse shear theory. Thus, as in the bending of cracked plates, the asymptotic results are shown to be consistent with that obtained from the plane elasticity solution of crack problems. Rather extensive numerical results are obtained which show the effect of material orthotropy on the stress intensity factors in cylindrical and spherical shells and in shells with double curvature. Other results include the stress intensity factors in isotropic toroidal shells with positive or negative curvature ratio, the distribution of the membrane stress resultant outside the crack, and the influence of the material orthotropy on the angular distribution of the stresses around the crack tip. Previously announced in STAR as N83-16782

Combustion theory for liquids with a free surface. 3: Special problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Milkov, S. N.; Sukhov, G. S.; Yarin, L. P.

1986-01-01

Two special problems concerning the combustion of liquids with a free surface, i.e., flame quenching during the mixing of a burning liquid inside a container and liquid burnout from a porous layer, are analyzed using a quasi-one-dimensional model. The critical parameters corresponding to the quenching of a burning fluid with a free surface are determined. Determinations are also made of the limiting pressure gradients corresponding to the transition from the combustion mode where the liquid evaporates from the surface of a porous layer to the mode where the phase transition surface lies inside the porous layer.

Interdependent Mechanisms for Processing Gender and Emotion: The Special Status of Angry Male Faces

PubMed Central

Harris, Daniel A.; Ciaramitaro, Vivian M.

2016-01-01

While some models of how various attributes of a face are processed have posited that face features, invariant physical cues such as gender or ethnicity as well as variant social cues such as emotion, may be processed independently (e.g., Bruce and Young, 1986), other models suggest a more distributed representation and interdependent processing (e.g., Haxby et al., 2000). Here, we use a contingent adaptation paradigm to investigate if mechanisms for processing the gender and emotion of a face are interdependent and symmetric across the happy–angry emotional continuum and regardless of the gender of the face. We simultaneously adapted participants to angry female faces and happy male faces (Experiment 1) or to happy female faces and angry male faces (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we found evidence for contingent adaptation, with simultaneous aftereffects in opposite directions: male faces were biased toward angry while female faces were biased toward happy. Interestingly, in the complementary Experiment 2, we did not find evidence for contingent adaptation, with both male and female faces biased toward angry. Our results highlight that evidence for contingent adaptation and the underlying interdependent face processing mechanisms that would allow for contingent adaptation may only be evident for certain combinations of face features. Such limits may be especially important in the case of social cues given how maladaptive it may be to stop responding to threatening information, with male angry faces considered to be the most threatening. The underlying neuronal mechanisms that could account for such asymmetric effects in contingent adaptation remain to be elucidated. PMID:27471482

EDITORIAL: Introduction to the special issue on electromagnetic inverse problems: emerging methods and novel applications Introduction to the special issue on electromagnetic inverse problems: emerging methods and novel applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorn, O.; Lesselier, D.

2010-07-01

Inverse problems in electromagnetics have a long history and have stimulated exciting research over many decades. New applications and solution methods are still emerging, providing a rich source of challenging topics for further investigation. The purpose of this special issue is to combine descriptions of several such developments that are expected to have the potential to fundamentally fuel new research, and to provide an overview of novel methods and applications for electromagnetic inverse problems. There have been several special sections published in Inverse Problems over the last decade addressing fully, or partly, electromagnetic inverse problems. Examples are: Electromagnetic imaging and inversion of the Earth's subsurface (Guest Editors: D Lesselier and T Habashy) October 2000 Testing inversion algorithms against experimental data (Guest Editors: K Belkebir and M Saillard) December 2001 Electromagnetic and ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (Guest Editors: D Lesselier and J Bowler) December 2002 Electromagnetic characterization of buried obstacles (Guest Editors: D Lesselier and W C Chew) December 2004 Testing inversion algorithms against experimental data: inhomogeneous targets (Guest Editors: K Belkebir and M Saillard) December 2005 Testing inversion algorithms against experimental data: 3D targets (Guest Editors: A Litman and L Crocco) February 2009 In a certain sense, the current issue can be understood as a continuation of this series of special sections on electromagnetic inverse problems. On the other hand, its focus is intended to be more general than previous ones. Instead of trying to cover a well-defined, somewhat specialized research topic as completely as possible, this issue aims to show the broad range of techniques and applications that are relevant to electromagnetic imaging nowadays, which may serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement for all those entering this active and rapidly developing research area. Also, the

Effect of Face-to-face Education, Problem-based Learning, and Goldstein Systematic Training Model on Quality of Life and Fatigue among Caregivers of Patients with Diabetes.

PubMed

Masoudi, Reza; Soleimani, Mohammad Ali; Yaghoobzadeh, Ameneh; Baraz, Shahram; Hakim, Ashrafalsadat; Chan, Yiong H

2017-01-01

Education is a fundamental component for patients with diabetes to achieve good glycemic control. In addition, selecting the appropriate method of education is one of the most effective factors in the quality of life. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of face-to-face education, problem-based learning, and Goldstein systematic training model on the quality of life (QOL) and fatigue among caregivers of patients with diabetes. This randomized clinical trial was conducted in Hajar Hospital (Shahrekord, Iran) in 2012. The study subjects consisted of 105 family caregivers of patients with diabetes. The participants were randomly assigned to three intervention groups (35 caregivers in each group). For each group, 5-h training sessions were held separately. QOL and fatigue were evaluated immediately before and after the intervention, and after 1, 2, 3, and 4 months of intervention. There was a significant increase in QOL for all the three groups. Both the problem-based learning and the Goldstein method showed desirable QOL improvement over time. The desired educational intervention for fatigue reduction during the 4-month post-intervention period was the Goldstein method. A significant reduction was observed in fatigue in all three groups after the intervention ( P < 0.001). The results of the present study illustrated that the problem-based learning and Goldstein systematic training model improve the QOL of caregivers of patients with diabetes. In addition, the Goldstein systematic training model had the greatest effect on the reduction of fatigue within 4 months of the intervention.

Learning Opportunities in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication and Face-to-Face Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hye Yeong

2014-01-01

This study investigated how synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (F2F) oral interaction influence the way in which learners collaborate in language learning and how they solve their communicative problems. The findings suggest that output modality may affect how learners produce language, attend to linguistic forms,…

Bullying and Victimisation among Taiwanese Students in Special Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Hsi-Sheng; Chang, Heng-Hao; Chen, Ji-Kang

2016-01-01

This study examined the prevalence of bullying and victimisation among students in special schools in Taiwan. The sample included 140 students with various disabilities, aged 12-18, from 10 special schools throughout Taiwan. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face surveys using structured questionnaires. Results show that 31.8% of students in…

Tensor manifold-based extreme learning machine for 2.5-D face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chong, Lee Ying; Ong, Thian Song; Teoh, Andrew Beng Jin

2018-01-01

We explore the use of the Gabor regional covariance matrix (GRCM), a flexible matrix-based descriptor that embeds the Gabor features in the covariance matrix, as a 2.5-D facial descriptor and an effective means of feature fusion for 2.5-D face recognition problems. Despite its promise, matching is not a trivial problem for GRCM since it is a special instance of a symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrix that resides in non-Euclidean space as a tensor manifold. This implies that GRCM is incompatible with the existing vector-based classifiers and distance matchers. Therefore, we bridge the gap of the GRCM and extreme learning machine (ELM), a vector-based classifier for the 2.5-D face recognition problem. We put forward a tensor manifold-compliant ELM and its two variants by embedding the SPD matrix randomly into reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) via tensor kernel functions. To preserve the pair-wise distance of the embedded data, we orthogonalize the random-embedded SPD matrix. Hence, classification can be done using a simple ridge regressor, an integrated component of ELM, on the random orthogonal RKHS. Experimental results show that our proposed method is able to improve the recognition performance and further enhance the computational efficiency.

FaceIt: face recognition from static and live video for law enforcement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atick, Joseph J.; Griffin, Paul M.; Redlich, A. N.

1997-01-01

Recent advances in image and pattern recognition technology- -especially face recognition--are leading to the development of a new generation of information systems of great value to the law enforcement community. With these systems it is now possible to pool and manage vast amounts of biometric intelligence such as face and finger print records and conduct computerized searches on them. We review one of the enabling technologies underlying these systems: the FaceIt face recognition engine; and discuss three applications that illustrate its benefits as a problem-solving technology and an efficient and cost effective investigative tool.

A Survey on Sentiment Classification in Face Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, Jingyu

2018-01-01

Face recognition has been an important topic for both industry and academia for a long time. K-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network, each representing a design idea for face recognition method, are three popular algorithms to deal with face recognition problems. It is worthwhile to summarize and compare these three different algorithms. This paper will focus on one specific face recognition problem-sentiment classification from images. Three different algorithms for sentiment classification problems will be summarized, including k-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network. An experiment with the application of these algorithms on a specific dataset of human faces will be conducted to illustrate how these algorithms are applied and their accuracy. Finally, the three algorithms are compared based on the accuracy result.

The Proposed MACRA/MIPS Threshold for Patient-Facing Encounters: What It Means for Radiologists.

PubMed

Rosenkrantz, Andrew B; Hirsch, Joshua A; Allen, Bibb; Wang, Wenyi; Hughes, Danny R; Nicola, Gregory N

2017-03-01

In implementing the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), CMS will provide special considerations to physicians with infrequent face-to-face patient encounters by reweighting MIPS performance categories to account for the unique circumstances facing these providers. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of varying criteria on the fraction of radiologists who are likely to receive special considerations for performance assessment under MIPS. Data from the 2014 Medicare Physician and Other Supplier file for 28,710 diagnostic radiologists were used to determine the fraction of radiologists meeting various proposed criteria for receiving special considerations. For each definition, the fraction of patient-facing encounters among all billed codes was determined for those radiologists not receiving special considerations. When using the criterion proposed by CMS that physicians will receive special considerations if billing ≤25 evaluation and management services or surgical codes, 72.0% of diagnostic radiologists would receive special considerations, though such encounters would represent only 2.1% of billed codes among remaining diagnostic radiologists without special considerations. If CMS were to apply an alternative criterion of billing ≤100 evaluation and management codes exclusively, 98.8% of diagnostic radiologists would receive special considerations. At this threshold, patient-facing encounters would represent approximately 10% of billed codes among remaining radiologists without special considerations. The current CMS proposed criterion for special considerations would result in a considerable fraction of radiologists being evaluated on the basis of measures that are not reflective of their practice and beyond their direct control. Alternative criteria could help ensure that radiologists are provided a fair opportunity for success in performance review under the MIPS. Copyright © 2016 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier

Recognition of face and non-face stimuli in autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Arkush, Leo; Smith-Collins, Adam P R; Fiorentini, Chiara; Skuse, David H

2013-12-01

The ability to remember faces is critical for the development of social competence. From childhood to adulthood, we acquire a high level of expertise in the recognition of facial images, and neural processes become dedicated to sustaining competence. Many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor face recognition memory; changes in hairstyle or other non-facial features in an otherwise familiar person affect their recollection skills. The observation implies that they may not use the configuration of the inner face to achieve memory competence, but bolster performance in other ways. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of a group of high-functioning unmedicated adolescents with ASD and a matched control group on a "surprise" face recognition memory task. We compared their memory for unfamiliar faces with their memory for images of houses. To evaluate the role that is played by peripheral cues in assisting recognition memory, we cropped both sets of pictures, retaining only the most salient central features. ASD adolescents had poorer recognition memory for faces than typical controls, but their recognition memory for houses was unimpaired. Cropping images of faces did not disproportionately influence their recall accuracy, relative to controls. House recognition skills (cropped and uncropped) were similar in both groups. In the ASD group only, performance on both sets of task was closely correlated, implying that memory for faces and other complex pictorial stimuli is achieved by domain-general (non-dedicated) cognitive mechanisms. Adolescents with ASD apparently do not use domain-specialized processing of inner facial cues to support face recognition memory. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hemispheric metacontrol and cerebral dominance in healthy individuals investigated by means of chimeric faces.

PubMed

Urgesi, Cosimo; Bricolo, Emanuela; Aglioti, Salvatore M

2005-08-01

Cerebral dominance and hemispheric metacontrol were investigated by testing the ability of healthy participants to match chimeric, entire, or half faces presented tachistoscopically. The two hemi-faces compounding chimeric or entire stimuli were presented simultaneously or asynchronously at different exposure times. Participants did not consciously detect chimeric faces for simultaneous presentations lasting up to 40 ms. Interestingly, a 20 ms separation between each half-chimera was sufficient to induce detection of conflicts at a conscious level. Although the presence of chimeric faces was not consciously perceived, performance on chimeric faces was poorer than on entire- and half-faces stimuli, thus indicating an implicit processing of perceptual conflicts. Moreover, the precedence of hemispheric stimulation over-ruled the right hemisphere dominance for face processing, insofar as the hemisphere stimulated last appeared to influence the response. This dynamic reversal of cerebral dominance, however, was not caused by a shift in hemispheric specialization, since the level of performance always reflected the right hemisphere specialization for face recognition. Thus, the dissociation between hemispheric dominance and specialization found in the present study hints at the existence of hemispheric metacontrol in healthy individuals.

Methods and Challenges of Analyzing Spatial Data for Social Work Problems: The Case of Examining Child Maltreatment Geographically

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freisthler, Bridget; Lery, Bridgette; Gruenewald, Paul J.; Chow, Julian

2006-01-01

Increasingly, social work researchers are interested in examining how "place" and "location" contribute to social problems. Yet, often these researchers do not use the specialized spatial statistical techniques developed to handle the analytic issues faced when conducting ecological analyses. This article explains the importance of these…

The evolution of face processing in primates

PubMed Central

Parr, Lisa A.

2011-01-01

The ability to recognize faces is an important socio-cognitive skill that is associated with a number of cognitive specializations in humans. While numerous studies have examined the presence of these specializations in non-human primates, species where face recognition would confer distinct advantages in social situations, results have been mixed. The majority of studies in chimpanzees support homologous face-processing mechanisms with humans, but results from monkey studies appear largely dependent on the type of testing methods used. Studies that employ passive viewing paradigms, like the visual paired comparison task, report evidence of similarities between monkeys and humans, but tasks that use more stringent, operant response tasks, like the matching-to-sample task, often report species differences. Moreover, the data suggest that monkeys may be less sensitive than chimpanzees and humans to the precise spacing of facial features, in addition to the surface-based cues reflected in those features, information that is critical for the representation of individual identity. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the available data from face-processing tasks in non-human primates with the goal of understanding the evolution of this complex cognitive skill. PMID:21536559

Face-selective neurons maintain consistent visual responses across months

PubMed Central

McMahon, David B. T.; Jones, Adam P.; Bondar, Igor V.; Leopold, David A.

2014-01-01

Face perception in both humans and monkeys is thought to depend on neurons clustered in discrete, specialized brain regions. Because primates are frequently called upon to recognize and remember new individuals, the neuronal representation of faces in the brain might be expected to change over time. The functional properties of neurons in behaving animals are typically assessed over time periods ranging from minutes to hours, which amounts to a snapshot compared to a lifespan of a neuron. It therefore remains unclear how neuronal properties observed on a given day predict that same neuron's activity months or years later. Here we show that the macaque inferotemporal cortex contains face-selective cells that show virtually no change in their patterns of visual responses over time periods as long as one year. Using chronically implanted microwire electrodes guided by functional MRI targeting, we obtained distinct profiles of selectivity for face and nonface stimuli that served as fingerprints for individual neurons in the anterior fundus (AF) face patch within the superior temporal sulcus. Longitudinal tracking over a series of daily recording sessions revealed that face-selective neurons maintain consistent visual response profiles across months-long time spans despite the influence of ongoing daily experience. We propose that neurons in the AF face patch are specialized for aspects of face perception that demand stability as opposed to plasticity. PMID:24799679

Face-selective neurons maintain consistent visual responses across months.

PubMed

McMahon, David B T; Jones, Adam P; Bondar, Igor V; Leopold, David A

2014-06-03

Face perception in both humans and monkeys is thought to depend on neurons clustered in discrete, specialized brain regions. Because primates are frequently called upon to recognize and remember new individuals, the neuronal representation of faces in the brain might be expected to change over time. The functional properties of neurons in behaving animals are typically assessed over time periods ranging from minutes to hours, which amounts to a snapshot compared to a lifespan of a neuron. It therefore remains unclear how neuronal properties observed on a given day predict that same neuron's activity months or years later. Here we show that the macaque inferotemporal cortex contains face-selective cells that show virtually no change in their patterns of visual responses over time periods as long as one year. Using chronically implanted microwire electrodes guided by functional MRI targeting, we obtained distinct profiles of selectivity for face and nonface stimuli that served as fingerprints for individual neurons in the anterior fundus (AF) face patch within the superior temporal sulcus. Longitudinal tracking over a series of daily recording sessions revealed that face-selective neurons maintain consistent visual response profiles across months-long time spans despite the influence of ongoing daily experience. We propose that neurons in the AF face patch are specialized for aspects of face perception that demand stability as opposed to plasticity.

Face Processing in Children with ASD: Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campatelli, G.; Federico, R. R.; Apicella, F.; Sicca, F.; Muratori, F.

2013-01-01

Face processing has been studied and discussed in depth during previous decades in several branches of science, and evidence from research supports the view that this process is a highly specialized brain function. Several authors argue that difficulties in the use and comprehension of the information conveyed by human faces could represent a core…

Supervised orthogonal discriminant subspace projects learning for face recognition.

PubMed

Chen, Yu; Xu, Xiao-Hong

2014-02-01

In this paper, a new linear dimension reduction method called supervised orthogonal discriminant subspace projection (SODSP) is proposed, which addresses high-dimensionality of data and the small sample size problem. More specifically, given a set of data points in the ambient space, a novel weight matrix that describes the relationship between the data points is first built. And in order to model the manifold structure, the class information is incorporated into the weight matrix. Based on the novel weight matrix, the local scatter matrix as well as non-local scatter matrix is defined such that the neighborhood structure can be preserved. In order to enhance the recognition ability, we impose an orthogonal constraint into a graph-based maximum margin analysis, seeking to find a projection that maximizes the difference, rather than the ratio between the non-local scatter and the local scatter. In this way, SODSP naturally avoids the singularity problem. Further, we develop an efficient and stable algorithm for implementing SODSP, especially, on high-dimensional data set. Moreover, the theoretical analysis shows that LPP is a special instance of SODSP by imposing some constraints. Experiments on the ORL, Yale, Extended Yale face database B and FERET face database are performed to test and evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of SODSP. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-stigma and the intention to seek psychological help online compared to face-to-face.

PubMed

Wallin, Emma; Maathz, Pernilla; Parling, Thomas; Hursti, Timo

2018-07-01

The present study aims to investigate the impact of help-seeking self-stigma on the preference and intention to seek psychological treatment delivered online compared to face-to-face. This study uses survey data from two Swedish samples. Sample 1 consists of 267 students (78.7% women) with a mean age of 24.5 (SD = 6.1). Sample 2 consists of 195 primary care patients (56.9% women) with a mean age of 45.3 (SD = 17.7). The number of participants who preferred online treatment was higher if seeking psychological help for a perceived stigmatized problem compared to mental health problems in general. The odds ratios for choosing treatment online over face-to-face were 6.41, 95% CI [4.05, 10.14] in Sample 1 and 11.19, 95% CI [5.29, 23.67] in Sample 2. In addition, findings suggest that higher levels of help-seeking self-stigma predicted higher intention to seek treatment online compared to face-to-face. Our results suggest that online interventions may facilitate help-seeking among individuals deterred by stigma. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Original and Mirror Face Images and Minimum Squared Error Classification for Visible Light Face Recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Rong

2015-01-01

In real-world applications, the image of faces varies with illumination, facial expression, and poses. It seems that more training samples are able to reveal possible images of the faces. Though minimum squared error classification (MSEC) is a widely used method, its applications on face recognition usually suffer from the problem of a limited number of training samples. In this paper, we improve MSEC by using the mirror faces as virtual training samples. We obtained the mirror faces generated from original training samples and put these two kinds of samples into a new set. The face recognition experiments show that our method does obtain high accuracy performance in classification.

A multi-view face recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Hongjun; Chen, Pei; Shen, Wei

2018-03-01

In this research, we present a framework for multi-view face detect and recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib. This method is aimed to solve the problems of low efficiency and low accuracy in multi-view face recognition, to build a multi-view face recognition system, and to discover a suitable monitoring scheme. For face detection, the cascade face detector is used to extracted the Haar-like feature from the training samples, and Haar-like feature is used to train a cascade classifier by combining Adaboost algorithm. Next, for face recognition, we proposed an improved distance model based on Dlib to improve the accuracy of multiview face recognition. Furthermore, we applied this proposed method into recognizing face images taken from different viewing directions, including horizontal view, overlooks view, and looking-up view, and researched a suitable monitoring scheme. This method works well for multi-view face recognition, and it is also simulated and tested, showing satisfactory experimental results.

Association of work-related stress with mental health problems in a special police force unit.

PubMed

Garbarino, Sergio; Cuomo, Giovanni; Chiorri, Carlo; Magnavita, Nicola

2013-01-01

Law and order enforcement tasks may expose special force police officers to significant psychosocial risk factors. The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between job stress and the presence of mental health symptoms while controlling sociodemographical, occupational and personality variables in special force police officers. At different time points, 292 of 294 members of the 'VI Reparto Mobile', a special police force engaged exclusively in the enforcement of law and order, responded to our invitation to complete questionnaires for the assessment of personality traits, work-related stress (using the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) and the Effort-Reward-Imbalance (ERI) models) and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and burnout. Regression analyses showed that lower levels of support and reward and higher levels of effort and overcommitment were associated with higher levels of mental health symptoms. Psychological screening revealed 21 (7.3%) likely cases of mild depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI≥10). Officers who had experienced a discrepancy between work effort and rewards showed a marked increase in the risk of depression (OR 7.89, 95% CI 2.32 to 26.82) when compared with their counterparts who did not perceive themselves to be in a condition of distress. The findings of this study suggest that work-related stress may play a role in the development of mental health problems in police officers. The prevalence of mental health symptoms in the cohort investigated here was low, but not negligible in the case of depression. Since special forces police officers have to perform sensitive tasks for which a healthy psychological functioning is needed, the results of this study suggest that steps should be taken to prevent distress and improve the mental well-being of these workers.

Semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis for face recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Ziqiang; Sun, Xia; Sun, Lijun; Huang, Yuchun

2013-01-01

Dimensionality reduction is a key problem in face recognition due to the high-dimensionality of face image. To effectively cope with this problem, a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm called semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis (SKMFA) for face recognition is proposed in this paper. SKMFA can make use of both labelled and unlabeled samples to learn the projection matrix for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Meanwhile, it can successfully avoid the singularity problem by not calculating the matrix inverse. In addition, in order to make the nonlinear structure captured by the data-dependent kernel consistent with the intrinsic manifold structure, a manifold adaptive nonparameter kernel is incorporated into the learning process of SKMFA. Experimental results on three face image databases demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

Face engagement during infancy predicts later face recognition ability in younger siblings of children with autism.

PubMed

de Klerk, Carina C J M; Gliga, Teodora; Charman, Tony; Johnson, Mark H

2014-07-01

Face recognition difficulties are frequently documented in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has been hypothesized that these difficulties result from a reduced interest in faces early in life, leading to decreased cortical specialization and atypical development of the neural circuitry for face processing. However, a recent study by our lab demonstrated that infants at increased familial risk for ASD, irrespective of their diagnostic status at 3 years, exhibit a clear orienting response to faces. The present study was conducted as a follow-up on the same cohort to investigate how measures of early engagement with faces relate to face-processing abilities later in life. We also investigated whether face recognition difficulties are specifically related to an ASD diagnosis, or whether they are present at a higher rate in all those at familial risk. At 3 years we found a reduced ability to recognize unfamiliar faces in the high-risk group that was not specific to those children who received an ASD diagnosis, consistent with face recognition difficulties being an endophenotype of the disorder. Furthermore, we found that longer looking at faces at 7 months was associated with poorer performance on the face recognition task at 3 years in the high-risk group. These findings suggest that longer looking at faces in infants at risk for ASD might reflect early face-processing difficulties and predicts difficulties with recognizing faces later in life. © 2013 The Authors. Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Automatic face naming by learning discriminative affinity matrices from weakly labeled images.

PubMed

Xiao, Shijie; Xu, Dong; Wu, Jianxin

2015-10-01

Given a collection of images, where each image contains several faces and is associated with a few names in the corresponding caption, the goal of face naming is to infer the correct name for each face. In this paper, we propose two new methods to effectively solve this problem by learning two discriminative affinity matrices from these weakly labeled images. We first propose a new method called regularized low-rank representation by effectively utilizing weakly supervised information to learn a low-rank reconstruction coefficient matrix while exploring multiple subspace structures of the data. Specifically, by introducing a specially designed regularizer to the low-rank representation method, we penalize the corresponding reconstruction coefficients related to the situations where a face is reconstructed by using face images from other subjects or by using itself. With the inferred reconstruction coefficient matrix, a discriminative affinity matrix can be obtained. Moreover, we also develop a new distance metric learning method called ambiguously supervised structural metric learning by using weakly supervised information to seek a discriminative distance metric. Hence, another discriminative affinity matrix can be obtained using the similarity matrix (i.e., the kernel matrix) based on the Mahalanobis distances of the data. Observing that these two affinity matrices contain complementary information, we further combine them to obtain a fused affinity matrix, based on which we develop a new iterative scheme to infer the name of each face. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Functional selectivity for face processing in the temporal voice area of early deaf individuals

PubMed Central

van Ackeren, Markus J.; Rabini, Giuseppe; Zonca, Joshua; Foa, Valentina; Baruffaldi, Francesca; Rezk, Mohamed; Pavani, Francesco; Rossion, Bruno; Collignon, Olivier

2017-01-01

Brain systems supporting face and voice processing both contribute to the extraction of important information for social interaction (e.g., person identity). How does the brain reorganize when one of these channels is absent? Here, we explore this question by combining behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures (magneto-encephalography and functional imaging) in a group of early deaf humans. We show enhanced selective neural response for faces and for individual face coding in a specific region of the auditory cortex that is typically specialized for voice perception in hearing individuals. In this region, selectivity to face signals emerges early in the visual processing hierarchy, shortly after typical face-selective responses in the ventral visual pathway. Functional and effective connectivity analyses suggest reorganization in long-range connections from early visual areas to the face-selective temporal area in individuals with early and profound deafness. Altogether, these observations demonstrate that regions that typically specialize for voice processing in the hearing brain preferentially reorganize for face processing in born-deaf people. Our results support the idea that cross-modal plasticity in the case of early sensory deprivation relates to the original functional specialization of the reorganized brain regions. PMID:28652333

Clustering Millions of Faces by Identity.

PubMed

Otto, Charles; Wang, Dayong; Jain, Anil K

2018-02-01

Given a large collection of unlabeled face images, we address the problem of clustering faces into an unknown number of identities. This problem is of interest in social media, law enforcement, and other applications, where the number of faces can be of the order of hundreds of million, while the number of identities (clusters) can range from a few thousand to millions. To address the challenges of run-time complexity and cluster quality, we present an approximate Rank-Order clustering algorithm that performs better than popular clustering algorithms (k-Means and Spectral). Our experiments include clustering up to 123 million face images into over 10 million clusters. Clustering results are analyzed in terms of external (known face labels) and internal (unknown face labels) quality measures, and run-time. Our algorithm achieves an F-measure of 0.87 on the LFW benchmark (13 K faces of 5,749 individuals), which drops to 0.27 on the largest dataset considered (13 K faces in LFW + 123M distractor images). Additionally, we show that frames in the YouTube benchmark can be clustered with an F-measure of 0.71. An internal per-cluster quality measure is developed to rank individual clusters for manual exploration of high quality clusters that are compact and isolated.

Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection.

PubMed

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2015-10-01

The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness.

Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection

PubMed Central

Watanabe, Katsumi

2015-01-01

The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness. PMID:27648219

Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving to Middle School Students in Math, Technology Education, and Special Education Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bottge, Brian A.; Heinrichs, Mary; Mehta, Zara Dee; Rueda, Enrique; Hung, Ya-Hui; Danneker, Jeanne

2004-01-01

This study compared two approaches for teaching sixth-grade middle school students to solve math problems in math, technology education, and special education classrooms. A total of 17 students with disabilities and 76 students without disabilities were taught using either enhanced anchored instruction (EAI) or text-based instruction coupled with…

Visual cryptography for face privacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, Arun; Othman, Asem A.

2010-04-01

We discuss the problem of preserving the privacy of a digital face image stored in a central database. In the proposed scheme, a private face image is dithered into two host face images such that it can be revealed only when both host images are simultaneously available; at the same time, the individual host images do not reveal the identity of the original image. In order to accomplish this, we appeal to the field of Visual Cryptography. Experimental results confirm the following: (a) the possibility of hiding a private face image in two unrelated host face images; (b) the successful matching of face images that are reconstructed by superimposing the host images; and (c) the inability of the host images, known as sheets, to reveal the identity of the secret face image.

Hemispheric and facial asymmetry: faces of academe.

PubMed

Smith, W M

1998-11-01

Facial asymmetry (facedness) of selected academic faculty members was studied in relation to brain asymmetry and cognitive specialization. Comparisons of facedness were made among humanities faculty (H), faculty members of mathematics and physics (M-P), psychologists (P), and a group of randomly selected individuals (R). Facedness was defined in terms of the relative sizes (in square centimeters) of the two hemifaces. It was predicted that the four groups would show differences in facedness, namely, H, right face bias; M-P, left face bias; P, no bias; and R, no bias. The predictions were confirmed, and the results interpreted in terms of known differences in hemispheric specialization of cognitive functions as they relate to the dominant cognitive activity of each of the different groups. In view of the contralateral control of the two hemifaces (below the eyes) by the two hemispheres of the brain, the two sides of the face undergo differential muscular development, thus creating facial asymmetry. Other factors, such as gender, also may affect facial asymmetry. Suggestions for further research on facedness are discussed.

Pose-Invariant Face Recognition via RGB-D Images.

PubMed

Sang, Gaoli; Li, Jing; Zhao, Qijun

2016-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) face models can intrinsically handle large pose face recognition problem. In this paper, we propose a novel pose-invariant face recognition method via RGB-D images. By employing depth, our method is able to handle self-occlusion and deformation, both of which are challenging problems in two-dimensional (2D) face recognition. Texture images in the gallery can be rendered to the same view as the probe via depth. Meanwhile, depth is also used for similarity measure via frontalization and symmetric filling. Finally, both texture and depth contribute to the final identity estimation. Experiments on Bosphorus, CurtinFaces, Eurecom, and Kiwi databases demonstrate that the additional depth information has improved the performance of face recognition with large pose variations and under even more challenging conditions.

Ethnicity identification from face images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Xiaoguang; Jain, Anil K.

2004-08-01

Human facial images provide the demographic information, such as ethnicity and gender. Conversely, ethnicity and gender also play an important role in face-related applications. Image-based ethnicity identification problem is addressed in a machine learning framework. The Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) based scheme is presented for the two-class (Asian vs. non-Asian) ethnicity classification task. Multiscale analysis is applied to the input facial images. An ensemble framework, which integrates the LDA analysis for the input face images at different scales, is proposed to further improve the classification performance. The product rule is used as the combination strategy in the ensemble. Experimental results based on a face database containing 263 subjects (2,630 face images, with equal balance between the two classes) are promising, indicating that LDA and the proposed ensemble framework have sufficient discriminative power for the ethnicity classification problem. The normalized ethnicity classification scores can be helpful in the facial identity recognition. Useful as a "soft" biometric, face matching scores can be updated based on the output of ethnicity classification module. In other words, ethnicity classifier does not have to be perfect to be useful in practice.

Financial and employment problems in families of children with special health care needs: implications for research and practice.

PubMed

Looman, Wendy S; O'Conner-Von, Susan K; Ferski, Gabriela J; Hildenbrand, Debra A

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to financial burden among families of children with special needs and to identify specific provider-level activities associated with decreased risk for such burden. Data for secondary analysis are from the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN). Logistic regression analysis of state-level data was conducted to identify significant predictors of financial and employment problems among families of children with SHCN in Minnesota. Children with more severe conditions and whose family members provided health care at home were more likely to have parents report financial and employment problems due to the child's condition. On the other hand, families whose health care providers communicated well with other service providers and who helped them feel like partners in their child's care were significantly less likely to report financial and employment problems. Pediatric nurses and nurse practitioners can use these findings as they work with families for optimal family outcomes. Advocacy and policy implications at state and federal levels also are discussed.

Faces Are Special for Newly Hatched Chicks: Evidence for Inborn Domain-Specific Mechanisms Underlying Spontaneous Preferences for Face-Like Stimuli

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosa-Salva, Orsola; Regolin, Lucia; Vallortigara, Giorgio

2010-01-01

It is currently being debated whether human newborns' preference for faces is due to an unlearned, domain-specific and configural representation of the appearance of a face, or to general mechanisms, such as an up-down bias (favouring top-heavy stimuli, which have more elements in their upper part). Here we show that 2-day-old domestic chicks,…

Boundary value problem for the solution of magnetic cutoff rigidities and some special applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edmonds, Larry

1987-01-01

Since a planet's magnetic field can sometimes provide a spacecraft with some protection against cosmic ray and solar flare particles, it is important to be able to quantify this protection. This is done by calculating cutoff rigidities. An alternate to the conventional method (particle trajectory tracing) is introduced, which is to treat the problem as a boundary value problem. In this approach trajectory tracing is only needed to supply boundary conditions. In some special cases, trajectory tracing is not needed at all because the problem can be solved analytically. A differential equation governing cutoff rigidities is derived for static magnetic fields. The presense of solid objects, which can block a trajectory and other force fields are not included. A few qualititative comments, on existence and uniqueness of solutions, are made which may be useful when deciding how the boundary conditions should be set up. Also included are topics on axially symmetric fields.

Measurement and visualization of face-to-face interaction among community-dwelling older adults using wearable sensors.

PubMed

Masumoto, Kouhei; Yaguchi, Takaharu; Matsuda, Hiroshi; Tani, Hideaki; Tozuka, Keisuke; Kondo, Narihiko; Okada, Shuichi

2017-10-01

A number of interventions have been undertaken to develop and promote social networks among community-dwelling older adults. However, it has been difficult to examine the effects of these interventions, because of problems in assessing interactions. The present study was designed to quantitatively measure and visualize face-to-face interactions among elderly participants in an exercise program. We also examined relationships among interactional variables, personality and interest in community involvement, including interactions with the local community. Older adults living in the same community were recruited to participate in an exercise program that consisted of four sessions. We collected data on face-to-face interactions of the participants by using a wearable sensor technology device. Network analysis identified the communication networks of participants in the exercise program, as well as changes in these networks. Additionally, there were significant correlations between the number of people involved in face-to-face interactions and changes in both interest in community involvement and interactions with local community residents, as well as personality traits, including agreeableness. Social networks in the community are essential for solving problems caused by the aging society. We showed the possible applications of face-to-face interactional data for identifying core participants having many interactions, and isolated participants having only a few interactions within the community. Such data would be useful for carrying out efficient interventions for increasing participants' involvement with their community. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1752-1758. © 2017 Japan Geriatrics Society.

The Use of Wireless Technology to Augment Problem-Based Learning in Special Education Preservice Teacher Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackbourn, J. M.; Fillingim, Jennifer G.; McCelland, Susan; Elrod, G. Franklin; Medley, Meagan B.; Kritsonis, Mary Alice; Ray, Jan

2008-01-01

This study examines the use of wireless laptop technology to support the application of problem-based learning (PBL) in a special education methods course. This field based course used a progressive disclosure process in weekly seminars to address issues posed in a case study. Eight scenarios, all related to the case, were presented to upper level…

Differential Outcomes of Sleep Problems in Children with and Without Special Health Care Needs: Australian Population Study.

PubMed

Quach, Jon; Mensah, Fiona K; Hiscock, Harriet

2016-06-01

In a nationally representative sample of Australian children at ages 4 to 5, 6 to 7, 8 to 9, 10 to 11, and 12 to 13 years, we aim to examine the (1) prevalence of sleep problems in children with and without special health care needs (SHCN); (2) association of sleep problems with child behavior, health-related quality of life, learning and parent mental health outcomes; and (3) whether associations between sleep problems and outcomes among children with SHCN are larger in magnitude than among children without SHCN. Biennial data from 5 waves of the Growing Up in Australia Study. Child SHCN as defined by the Children Special Health Care Needs Screener and parent report of child sleep problem. Child: parent-reported health-related quality of life; parent-reported and teacher-reported behavior; nonverbal and verbal cognition and teacher-reported learning. Parent: self-report mental health. Logistic and linear regression, adjusted for family socioeconomic position. Children with SHCN were more likely to have sleep problems, odds ranging from 2.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-2.5) at 4 to 5 years to 3.9 (95% CI, 3.0-5.2) at 8 to 9 years. Compared with children who had neither condition, those with either sleep problems or SHCN had similarly poor child and maternal outcomes. Children with both SHCN and sleep problems had the poorest outcomes at every age (all p < .001). Tests of interaction found sleep problems are more strongly associated with poorer behavior and health-related quality of life among children with SHCN than those without during the preschool and early school years. Sleep problems in children with SHCN are common and are associated with poorer child and maternal outcomes. These associations are stronger for poorer behavior and health-related quality of life among children with SHCN than those without during the preschool and early school years.

Effect of Tutorial Giving on The Topic of Special Theory of Relativity in Modern Physics Course Towards Students’ Problem-Solving Ability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartatiek; Yudyanto; Haryoto, Dwi

2017-05-01

A Special Theory of Relativity handbook has been successfully arranged to guide students tutorial activity in the Modern Physics course. The low of students’ problem-solving ability was overcome by giving the tutorial in addition to the lecture class. It was done due to the limited time in the class during the course to have students do some exercises for their problem-solving ability. The explicit problem-solving based tutorial handbook was written by emphasizing to this 5 problem-solving strategies: (1) focus on the problem, (2) picture the physical facts, (3) plan the solution, (4) solve the problem, and (5) check the result. This research and development (R&D) consisted of 3 main steps: (1) preliminary study, (2) draft I. product development, and (3) product validation. The developed draft product was validated by experts to measure the feasibility of the material and predict the effect of the tutorial giving by means of questionnaires with scale 1 to 4. The students problem-solving ability in Special Theory of Relativity showed very good qualification. It implied that the tutorial giving with the help of tutorial handbook increased students problem-solving ability. The empirical test revealed that the developed handbook was significantly affected in improving students’ mastery concept and problem-solving ability. Both students’ mastery concept and problem-solving ability were in middle category with gain of 0.31 and 0.41, respectively.

Specialization or Diversification in Youth Sport?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hensch, Lynn Pantuosco

2006-01-01

In 1990, Grant Hill published an article in Strategies that raised the issue of the "one sport high school athlete" and the tough decisions that young athletes face in terms of specializing in sport. The contents of that article were based on his study of high school athletic directors' and coaches' perspectives on sport specialization. This…

Universities Face Wide-Ranging Changes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieger, James H.

1976-01-01

Discusses problems facing the research university, including declining enrollments and funds, fewer opportunities for graduates, and the complexity of research problems. Recommends making more efficient use of resources, improving communications with the broader public, and reducing economic and social barriers to obtaining a higher education.…

Can we match ultraviolet face images against their visible counterparts?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narang, Neeru; Bourlai, Thirimachos; Hornak, Lawrence A.

2015-05-01

In law enforcement and security applications, the acquisition of face images is critical in producing key trace evidence for the successful identification of potential threats. However, face recognition (FR) for face images captured using different camera sensors, and under variable illumination conditions, and expressions is very challenging. In this paper, we investigate the advantages and limitations of the heterogeneous problem of matching ultra violet (from 100 nm to 400 nm in wavelength) or UV, face images against their visible (VIS) counterparts, when all face images are captured under controlled conditions. The contributions of our work are three-fold; (i) We used a camera sensor designed with the capability to acquire UV images at short-ranges, and generated a dual-band (VIS and UV) database that is composed of multiple, full frontal, face images of 50 subjects. Two sessions were collected that span over the period of 2 months. (ii) For each dataset, we determined which set of face image pre-processing algorithms are more suitable for face matching, and, finally, (iii) we determined which FR algorithm better matches cross-band face images, resulting in high rank-1 identification rates. Experimental results show that our cross spectral matching (the heterogeneous problem, where gallery and probe sets consist of face images acquired in different spectral bands) algorithms achieve sufficient identification performance. However, we also conclude that the problem under study, is very challenging, and it requires further investigation to address real-world law enforcement or military applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is first time in the open literature the problem of cross-spectral matching of UV against VIS band face images is being investigated.

Teaching Science to Learners with Special Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGinnis, J. Randy

2013-01-01

A fundamental social justice issue worldwide is how to meet the needs of all learners, especially those with special needs who historically have faced discrimination, exclusion, and oppression due to special needs (physical, cognitive, or behavioral dimensions). This article focuses on the key questions that researchers interested in improving…

Improving patient access to specialized health care: the Telehealth Network of Minas Gerais, Brazil

PubMed Central

Alkmim, Maria Beatriz; Figueira, Renato Minelli; Marcolino, Milena Soriano; Cardoso, Clareci Silva; Pena de Abreu, Monica; Cunha, Lemuel Rodrigues; da Cunha, Daniel Ferreira; Antunes, Andre Pires; de A Resende, Adélson Geraldo; Resende, Elmiro Santos

2012-01-01

Abstract Problem The Brazilian population lacks equitable access to specialized health care and diagnostic tests, especially in remote municipalities, where health professionals often feel isolated and staff turnover is high. Telehealth has the potential to improve patients’ access to specialized health care, but little is known about it in terms of cost-effectiveness, access to services or user satisfaction. Approach In 2005, the State Government of Minas Gerais, Brazil, funded the establishment of the Telehealth Network, intended to connect university hospitals with the state’s remote municipal health departments; support professionals in providing tele-assistance; and perform tele-electrocardiography and teleconsultations. The network uses low-cost equipment and has employed various strategies to overcome the barriers to telehealth use. Local setting The Telehealth Network connects specialists in state university hospitals with primary health-care professionals in 608 municipalities of the large state of Minas Gerais, many of them in remote areas. Relevant changes From June 2006 to October 2011, 782 773 electrocardiograms and 30 883 teleconsultations were performed through the network, and 6000 health professionals were trained in its use. Most of these professionals (97%) were satisfied with the system, which was cost-effective, economically viable and averted 81% of potential case referrals to distant centres. Lessons learnt To succeed, a telehealth service must be part of a collaborative network, meet the real needs of local health professionals, use simple technology and have at least some face-to-face components. If applied to health problems for which care is in high demand, this type of service can be economically viable and can help to improve patient access to specialized health care. PMID:22589571

Memory for angry faces, impulsivity, and problematic behavior in adolescence.

PubMed

d'Acremont, Mathieu; Van der Linden, Martial

2007-04-01

Research has shown that cognitive processes like the attribution of hostile intention or angry emotion to others contribute to the development and maintenance of conduct problems. However, the role of memory has been understudied in comparison with attribution biases. The aim of this study was thus to test if a memory bias for angry faces was related to conduct problems in youth. Adolescents from a junior secondary school were presented with angry and happy faces and were later asked to recognize the same faces with a neutral expression. They also completed an impulsivity questionnaire. A teacher assessed their behavior. The results showed that a better recognition of angry faces than happy faces predicted conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention as reported by the teacher. The memory bias effect was more pronounced for impulsive adolescents. It is suggested that a memory bias for angry faces favors disruptive behavior but that a good ability to control impulses may moderate the negative impact of this bias.

Aging reduces neural specialization in ventral visual cortex

PubMed Central

Park, Denise C.; Polk, Thad A.; Park, Rob; Minear, Meredith; Savage, Anna; Smith, Mason R.

2004-01-01

The present study investigated whether neural structures become less functionally differentiated and specialized with age. We studied ventral visual cortex, an area of the brain that responds selectively to visual categories (faces, places, and words) in young adults, and that shows little atrophy with age. Functional MRI was used to estimate neural activity in this cortical area, while young and old adults viewed faces, houses, pseudowords, and chairs. The results demonstrated significantly less neural specialization for these stimulus categories in older adults across a range of analyses. PMID:15322270

Hole Feature on Conical Face Recognition for Turning Part Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zubair, A. F.; Abu Mansor, M. S.

2018-03-01

Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) is the bridge between CAD and CAM and pre-processing of the CAD data in the CAPP system is essential. For CNC turning part, conical faces of part model is inevitable to be recognised beside cylindrical and planar faces. As the sinus cosines of the cone radius structure differ according to different models, face identification in automatic feature recognition of the part model need special intention. This paper intends to focus hole on feature on conical faces that can be detected by CAD solid modeller ACIS via. SAT file. Detection algorithm of face topology were generated and compared. The study shows different faces setup for similar conical part models with different hole type features. Three types of holes were compared and different between merge faces and unmerge faces were studied.

Face and body recognition show similar improvement during childhood.

PubMed

Bank, Samantha; Rhodes, Gillian; Read, Ainsley; Jeffery, Linda

2015-09-01

Adults are proficient in extracting identity cues from faces. This proficiency develops slowly during childhood, with performance not reaching adult levels until adolescence. Bodies are similar to faces in that they convey identity cues and rely on specialized perceptual mechanisms. However, it is currently unclear whether body recognition mirrors the slow development of face recognition during childhood. Recent evidence suggests that body recognition develops faster than face recognition. Here we measured body and face recognition in 6- and 10-year-old children and adults to determine whether these two skills show different amounts of improvement during childhood. We found no evidence that they do. Face and body recognition showed similar improvement with age, and children, like adults, were better at recognizing faces than bodies. These results suggest that the mechanisms of face and body memory mature at a similar rate or that improvement of more general cognitive and perceptual skills underlies improvement of both face and body recognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mind the Gap: Integrating Special Collections Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuelson, Todd; Coker, Cait

2014-01-01

Instruction is a vital part of the academic librarian's public services mission, but the teaching efforts of special collections librarians can be overlooked due to the culture and particularities of teaching in an archival setting. This article documents the challenges special collections librarians face in integrating their teaching program into…

Troubleshooting for the observed problems in processing latex concentrate from natural resource

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afreen, S.; Haque, K. R.; Huda, M. K.

2013-06-01

Natural latex has special importance in the rubber industry for manufacturing different types of goods like gloves, balloons, male contraceptive and similar thin walled articles. This natural latex is much more sensitive a liquid to handle since it can easily become contaminated and thereby coagulated which makes it unfavourable for centrifuge and getting concentrate from it. Some other related measures also are included in consideration during the processing of concentrate latex from the natural raw latex. The problems that are being faced in a concentrate latex processing plant can be categorized in different groups like, problems related to the latex property, mechanical problems, electrical problems, handling and storage problems, transformation problems, problems related to environmental issues, etc. Among them, the most common and vital problems frequently observed in a concentrate latex processing plant are discussed here with a view to finding the measures for solution which will help to maintain the latex property in any latex processing plant.

Listen-Identify-Brainstorm-Reality-Test-Encourage (LIBRE) Problem-Solving Model: Addressing Special Education Teacher Attrition through a Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Teacher Induction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guerra, Norma S.; Hernandez, Art; Hector, Alison M.; Crosby, Shane

2015-01-01

Special education teacher attrition rates continue to challenge the profession. A cognitive-behavioral problem-solving approach was used to examine three alternative certification program special education teachers' professional development through a series of 41 interviews conducted over a 2-year period. Beginning when they were novice special…

Managing Problems Before Problems Manage You.

PubMed

Grigsby, Jim

2015-01-01

Every day we face problems, both personal and professional, and our initial reaction determines how well we solve those problems. Whether a problem is minor or major, short-term or lingering, there are techniques we can employ to help manage the problem and the problem-solving process. This article, based on my book Don't Tick Off The Gators! Managing Problems Before Problems Manage You, presents 12 different concepts for managing problems, not "cookie cutter" solutions, but different ideas that you can apply as they fit your circumstances.

The Academic, Administrative, Economic, Social, and Psychological Problems Faced by Students of Textile and Clothing Major at King Abdul-Aziz University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsubyani, Noor Abdulhadi

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the academic, administrative, economic, social, and psychological problems faced by students of Textile and fabric major at King Abdul-Aziz University. To achieve this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a sample of students in the Textile and fabric major, after the use of…

Facing the phase problem in Coherent Diffractive Imaging via Memetic Algorithms.

PubMed

Colombo, Alessandro; Galli, Davide Emilio; De Caro, Liberato; Scattarella, Francesco; Carlino, Elvio

2017-02-09

Coherent Diffractive Imaging is a lensless technique that allows imaging of matter at a spatial resolution not limited by lens aberrations. This technique exploits the measured diffraction pattern of a coherent beam scattered by periodic and non-periodic objects to retrieve spatial information. The diffracted intensity, for weak-scattering objects, is proportional to the modulus of the Fourier Transform of the object scattering function. Any phase information, needed to retrieve its scattering function, has to be retrieved by means of suitable algorithms. Here we present a new approach, based on a memetic algorithm, i.e. a hybrid genetic algorithm, to face the phase problem, which exploits the synergy of deterministic and stochastic optimization methods. The new approach has been tested on simulated data and applied to the phasing of transmission electron microscopy coherent electron diffraction data of a SrTiO 3 sample. We have been able to quantitatively retrieve the projected atomic potential, and also image the oxygen columns, which are not directly visible in the relevant high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. Our approach proves to be a new powerful tool for the study of matter at atomic resolution and opens new perspectives in those applications in which effective phase retrieval is necessary.

Face liveness detection using shearlet-based feature descriptors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Litong; Po, Lai-Man; Li, Yuming; Yuan, Fang

2016-07-01

Face recognition is a widely used biometric technology due to its convenience but it is vulnerable to spoofing attacks made by nonreal faces such as photographs or videos of valid users. The antispoof problem must be well resolved before widely applying face recognition in our daily life. Face liveness detection is a core technology to make sure that the input face is a live person. However, this is still very challenging using conventional liveness detection approaches of texture analysis and motion detection. The aim of this paper is to propose a feature descriptor and an efficient framework that can be used to effectively deal with the face liveness detection problem. In this framework, new feature descriptors are defined using a multiscale directional transform (shearlet transform). Then, stacked autoencoders and a softmax classifier are concatenated to detect face liveness. We evaluated this approach using the CASIA Face antispoofing database and replay-attack database. The experimental results show that our approach performs better than the state-of-the-art techniques following the provided protocols of these databases, and it is possible to significantly enhance the security of the face recognition biometric system. In addition, the experimental results also demonstrate that this framework can be easily extended to classify different spoofing attacks.

Facing Life, English: 5113.30.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singleton, Clifford G.; Rice, M. Paul

The outline of a course in the investigation of literature (both fiction and nonfiction) which concerns youth facing and overcoming problems of life, with stress upon the novel and biography, is presented. The student is expected, through reading selected literary works, to (1) examine the problems confronted by youth, (2) examine youth's needs…

Passive and Motivated Perception of Emotional Faces: Qualitative and Quantitative Changes in the Face Processing Network

PubMed Central

Skelly, Laurie R.; Decety, Jean

2012-01-01

Emotionally expressive faces are processed by a distributed network of interacting sub-cortical and cortical brain regions. The components of this network have been identified and described in large part by the stimulus properties to which they are sensitive, but as face processing research matures interest has broadened to also probe dynamic interactions between these regions and top-down influences such as task demand and context. While some research has tested the robustness of affective face processing by restricting available attentional resources, it is not known whether face network processing can be augmented by increased motivation to attend to affective face stimuli. Short videos of people expressing emotions were presented to healthy participants during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Motivation to attend to the videos was manipulated by providing an incentive for improved recall performance. During the motivated condition, there was greater coherence among nodes of the face processing network, more widespread correlation between signal intensity and performance, and selective signal increases in a task-relevant subset of face processing regions, including the posterior superior temporal sulcus and right amygdala. In addition, an unexpected task-related laterality effect was seen in the amygdala. These findings provide strong evidence that motivation augmentsco-activity among nodes of the face processing network and the impact of neural activity on performance. These within-subject effects highlight the necessity to consider motivation when interpreting neural function in special populations, and to further explore the effect of task demands on face processing in healthy brains. PMID:22768287

Tensor discriminant color space for face recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Su-Jing; Yang, Jian; Zhang, Na; Zhou, Chun-Guang

2011-09-01

Recent research efforts reveal that color may provide useful information for face recognition. For different visual tasks, the choice of a color space is generally different. How can a color space be sought for the specific face recognition problem? To address this problem, this paper represents a color image as a third-order tensor and presents the tensor discriminant color space (TDCS) model. The model can keep the underlying spatial structure of color images. With the definition of n-mode between-class scatter matrices and within-class scatter matrices, TDCS constructs an iterative procedure to obtain one color space transformation matrix and two discriminant projection matrices by maximizing the ratio of these two scatter matrices. The experiments are conducted on two color face databases, AR and Georgia Tech face databases, and the results show that both the performance and the efficiency of the proposed method are better than those of the state-of-the-art color image discriminant model, which involve one color space transformation matrix and one discriminant projection matrix, specifically in a complicated face database with various pose variations.

Teacher Opinions on the Problems Faced in Reading and Writing by Syrian Migrant Children in Their First Class at Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ugurlu, Necla Isikdogan; Kayhan, Nilay

2018-01-01

The objective of this study is to evaluate, according to the opinions of teachers, the problems faced by the children of Syrian families who have taken refuge in Turkey since 2011 with regard to their linguistic and communication skills, as well as their reading and writing process in Turkish as a foreign language. The research group is composed…

Learning to recognize face shapes through serial exploration.

PubMed

Wallraven, Christian; Whittingstall, Lisa; Bülthoff, Heinrich H

2013-05-01

Human observers are experts at visual face recognition due to specialized visual mechanisms for face processing that evolve with perceptual expertize. Such expertize has long been attributed to the use of configural processing, enabled by fast, parallel information encoding of the visual information in the face. Here we tested whether participants can learn to efficiently recognize faces that are serially encoded-that is, when only partial visual information about the face is available at any given time. For this, ten participants were trained in gaze-restricted face recognition in which face masks were viewed through a small aperture controlled by the participant. Tests comparing trained with untrained performance revealed (1) a marked improvement in terms of speed and accuracy, (2) a gradual development of configural processing strategies, and (3) participants' ability to rapidly learn and accurately recognize novel exemplars. This performance pattern demonstrates that participants were able to learn new strategies to compensate for the serial nature of information encoding. The results are discussed in terms of expertize acquisition and relevance for other sensory modalities relying on serial encoding.

Neural correlates of the eye dominance effect in human face perception: the left-visual-field superiority for faces revisited.

PubMed

Jung, Wookyoung; Kang, Joong-Gu; Jeon, Hyeonjin; Shim, Miseon; Sun Kim, Ji; Leem, Hyun-Sung; Lee, Seung-Hwan

2017-08-01

Faces are processed best when they are presented in the left visual field (LVF), a phenomenon known as LVF superiority. Although one eye contributes more when perceiving faces, it is unclear how the dominant eye (DE), the eye we unconsciously use when performing a monocular task, affects face processing. Here, we examined the influence of the DE on the LVF superiority for faces using event-related potentials. Twenty left-eye-dominant (LDE group) and 23 right-eye-dominant (RDE group) participants performed the experiments. Face stimuli were randomly presented in the LVF or right visual field (RVF). The RDE group exhibited significantly larger N170 amplitudes compared with the LDE group. Faces presented in the LVF elicited N170 amplitudes that were significantly more negative in the RDE group than they were in the LDE group, whereas the amplitudes elicited by stimuli presented in the RVF were equivalent between the groups. The LVF superiority was maintained in the RDE group but not in the LDE group. Our results provide the first neural evidence of the DE's effects on the LVF superiority for faces. We propose that the RDE may be more biologically specialized for face processing. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Neural correlates of the eye dominance effect in human face perception: the left-visual-field superiority for faces revisited

PubMed Central

Jung, Wookyoung; Kang, Joong-Gu; Jeon, Hyeonjin; Shim, Miseon; Sun Kim, Ji; Leem, Hyun-Sung

2017-01-01

Abstract Faces are processed best when they are presented in the left visual field (LVF), a phenomenon known as LVF superiority. Although one eye contributes more when perceiving faces, it is unclear how the dominant eye (DE), the eye we unconsciously use when performing a monocular task, affects face processing. Here, we examined the influence of the DE on the LVF superiority for faces using event-related potentials. Twenty left-eye-dominant (LDE group) and 23 right-eye-dominant (RDE group) participants performed the experiments. Face stimuli were randomly presented in the LVF or right visual field (RVF). The RDE group exhibited significantly larger N170 amplitudes compared with the LDE group. Faces presented in the LVF elicited N170 amplitudes that were significantly more negative in the RDE group than they were in the LDE group, whereas the amplitudes elicited by stimuli presented in the RVF were equivalent between the groups. The LVF superiority was maintained in the RDE group but not in the LDE group. Our results provide the first neural evidence of the DE’s effects on the LVF superiority for faces. We propose that the RDE may be more biologically specialized for face processing. PMID:28379584

A Novel Face-on-Face Contact Method for Nonlinear Solid Mechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wopschall, Steven Robert

The implicit solution to contact problems in nonlinear solid mechanics poses many difficulties. Traditional node-to-segment methods may suffer from locking and experience contact force chatter in the presence of sliding. More recent developments include mortar based methods, which resolve local contact interactions over face-pairs and feature a kinematic constraint in integral form that smoothes contact behavior, especially in the presence of sliding. These methods have been shown to perform well in the presence of geometric nonlinearities and are demonstratively more robust than node-to-segment methods. These methods are typically biased, however, interpolating contact tractions and gap equations on a designated non-mortar face, which leads to an asymmetry in the formulation. Another challenge is constraint enforcement. The general selection of the active set of constraints is brought with difficulty, often leading to non-physical solutions and easily resulting in missed face-pair interactions. Details on reliable constraint enforcement methods are lacking in the greater contact literature. This work presents an unbiased contact formulation utilizing a median-plane methodology. Up to linear polynomials are used for the discrete pressure representation and integral gap constraints are enforced using a novel subcycling procedure. This procedure reliably determines the active set of contact constraints leading to physical and kinematically admissible solutions void of heuristics and user action. The contact method presented herein successfully solves difficult quasi-static contact problems in the implicit computational setting. These problems feature finite deformations, material nonlinearity, and complex interface geometries, all of which are challenging characteristics for contact implementations and constraint enforcement algorithms. The subcycling procedure is a key feature of this method, handling active constraint selection for complex interfaces and mesh

Face-blind for other-race faces: Individual differences in other-race recognition impairments.

PubMed

Wan, Lulu; Crookes, Kate; Dawel, Amy; Pidcock, Madeleine; Hall, Ashleigh; McKone, Elinor

2017-01-01

We report the existence of a previously undescribed group of people, namely individuals who are so poor at recognition of other-race faces that they meet criteria for clinical-level impairment (i.e., they are "face-blind" for other-race faces). Testing 550 participants, and using the well-validated Cambridge Face Memory Test for diagnosing face blindness, results show the rate of other-race face blindness to be nontrivial, specifically 8.1% of Caucasians and Asians raised in majority own-race countries. Results also show risk factors for other-race face blindness to include: a lack of interracial contact; and being at the lower end of the normal range of general face recognition ability (i.e., even for own-race faces); but not applying less individuating effort to other-race than own-race faces. Findings provide a potential resolution of contradictory evidence concerning the importance of the other-race effect (ORE), by explaining how it is possible for the mean ORE to be modest in size (suggesting a genuine but minor problem), and simultaneously for individuals to suffer major functional consequences in the real world (e.g., eyewitness misidentification of other-race offenders leading to wrongful imprisonment). Findings imply that, in legal settings, evaluating an eyewitness's chance of having made an other-race misidentification requires information about the underlying face recognition abilities of the individual witness. Additionally, analogy with prosopagnosia (inability to recognize even own-race faces) suggests everyday social interactions with other-race people, such as those between colleagues in the workplace, will be seriously impacted by the ORE in some people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Efficient search for a face by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

Tomonaga, Masaki; Imura, Tomoko

2015-07-16

The face is quite an important stimulus category for human and nonhuman primates in their social lives. Recent advances in comparative-cognitive research clearly indicate that chimpanzees and humans process faces in a special manner; that is, using holistic or configural processing. Both species exhibit the face-inversion effect in which the inverted presentation of a face deteriorates their perception and recognition. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that humans detect human faces among non-facial objects rapidly. We report that chimpanzees detected chimpanzee faces among non-facial objects quite efficiently. This efficient search was not limited to own-species faces. They also found human adult and baby faces--but not monkey faces--efficiently. Additional testing showed that a front-view face was more readily detected than a profile, suggesting the important role of eye-to-eye contact. Chimpanzees also detected a photograph of a banana as efficiently as a face, but a further examination clearly indicated that the banana was detected mainly due to a low-level feature (i.e., color). Efficient face detection was hampered by an inverted presentation, suggesting that configural processing of faces is a critical element of efficient face detection in both species. This conclusion was supported by a simple simulation experiment using the saliency model.

Efficient search for a face by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

PubMed Central

Tomonaga, Masaki; Imura, Tomoko

2015-01-01

The face is quite an important stimulus category for human and nonhuman primates in their social lives. Recent advances in comparative-cognitive research clearly indicate that chimpanzees and humans process faces in a special manner; that is, using holistic or configural processing. Both species exhibit the face-inversion effect in which the inverted presentation of a face deteriorates their perception and recognition. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that humans detect human faces among non-facial objects rapidly. We report that chimpanzees detected chimpanzee faces among non-facial objects quite efficiently. This efficient search was not limited to own-species faces. They also found human adult and baby faces-but not monkey faces-efficiently. Additional testing showed that a front-view face was more readily detected than a profile, suggesting the important role of eye-to-eye contact. Chimpanzees also detected a photograph of a banana as efficiently as a face, but a further examination clearly indicated that the banana was detected mainly due to a low-level feature (i.e., color). Efficient face detection was hampered by an inverted presentation, suggesting that configural processing of faces is a critical element of efficient face detection in both species. This conclusion was supported by a simple simulation experiment using the saliency model. PMID:26180944

Get in the Conversation: Special-Education Efficiencies and Paraprofessional Staffing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Nicholas; Bittel, Peter

2011-01-01

Most districts are facing severe budgetary constraints, and special education is one area that is feeling the effects. Special education consumes an average of 20%-30% of school district budgets. Pacing fiscal and systemic controls on special-education spending, and examining para professional placements in particular, will lead to better delivery…

The organization of conspecific face space in nonhuman primates

PubMed Central

Parr, Lisa A.; Taubert, Jessica; Little, Anthony C.; Hancock, Peter J. B.

2013-01-01

Humans and chimpanzees demonstrate numerous cognitive specializations for processing faces, but comparative studies with monkeys suggest that these may be the result of recent evolutionary adaptations. The present study utilized the novel approach of face space, a powerful theoretical framework used to understand the representation of face identity in humans, to further explore species differences in face processing. According to the theory, faces are represented by vectors in a multidimensional space, the centre of which is defined by an average face. Each dimension codes features important for describing a face’s identity, and vector length codes the feature’s distinctiveness. Chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys discriminated male and female conspecifics’ faces, rated by humans for their distinctiveness, using a computerized task. Multidimensional scaling analyses showed that the organization of face space was similar between humans and chimpanzees. Distinctive faces had the longest vectors and were the easiest for chimpanzees to discriminate. In contrast, distinctiveness did not correlate with the performance of rhesus monkeys. The feature dimensions for each species’ face space were visualized and described using morphing techniques. These results confirm species differences in the perceptual representation of conspecific faces, which are discussed within an evolutionary framework. PMID:22670823

Problems faced by food-caching corvids and the evolution of cognitive solutions

PubMed Central

Grodzinski, Uri; Clayton, Nicola S.

2010-01-01

The scatter hoarding of food, or caching, is a widespread and well-studied behaviour. Recent experiments with caching corvids have provided evidence for episodic-like memory, future planning and possibly mental attribution, all cognitive abilities that were thought to be unique to humans. In addition to the complexity of making flexible, informed decisions about caching and recovering, this behaviour is underpinned by a motivationally controlled compulsion to cache. In this review, we shall first discuss the compulsive side of caching both during ontogeny and in the caching behaviour of adult corvids. We then consider some of the problems that these birds face and review the evidence for the cognitive abilities they use to solve them. Thus, the emergence of episodic-like memory is viewed as a solution for coping with food perishability, while the various cache-protection and pilfering strategies may be sophisticated tools to deprive competitors of information, either by reducing the quality of information they can gather, or invalidating the information they already have. Finally, we shall examine whether such future-oriented behaviour involves future planning and ask why this and other cognitive abilities might have evolved in corvids. PMID:20156820

Problems faced by food-caching corvids and the evolution of cognitive solutions.

PubMed

Grodzinski, Uri; Clayton, Nicola S

2010-03-27

The scatter hoarding of food, or caching, is a widespread and well-studied behaviour. Recent experiments with caching corvids have provided evidence for episodic-like memory, future planning and possibly mental attribution, all cognitive abilities that were thought to be unique to humans. In addition to the complexity of making flexible, informed decisions about caching and recovering, this behaviour is underpinned by a motivationally controlled compulsion to cache. In this review, we shall first discuss the compulsive side of caching both during ontogeny and in the caching behaviour of adult corvids. We then consider some of the problems that these birds face and review the evidence for the cognitive abilities they use to solve them. Thus, the emergence of episodic-like memory is viewed as a solution for coping with food perishability, while the various cache-protection and pilfering strategies may be sophisticated tools to deprive competitors of information, either by reducing the quality of information they can gather, or invalidating the information they already have. Finally, we shall examine whether such future-oriented behaviour involves future planning and ask why this and other cognitive abilities might have evolved in corvids.

Ethical Issues in Pediatric Face Transplantation: Should We Perform Face Transplantation in Children?

PubMed

Marchac, Alexandre; Kuschner, Tomasine; Paris, John; Picard, Arnaud; Vazquez, Marie Paule; Lantieri, Laurent

2016-08-01

In 2005, face transplantation ceased to be fiction and became a scientific reality. Today, 10 teams from six different countries have performed 32 face transplantations. Immunosuppressive treatments are similar to other solid organ transplants, and patients have experienced a significant functional improvement. The authors are logically considering expanding face transplantation to children; however, children are not simply small adults. The authors searched for pediatric patients in need of restoration of fundamental functions of the face, such as orbicularis oris or oculi muscle closure by, first, selecting cases from a pediatric plastic surgery reference center and, second, analyzing the feasibility of face transplantation in those patients. The authors then identified the specific problems that they would encounter during a pediatric face transplant. The authors identified three potential candidates for pediatric face transplantation. Children's youth imposes additional ethical and psychological considerations, such as the balance of risk to benefit when it is quality of life, not life itself, that is at stake; the process of informed consent; the selection process; and the protection of privacy against media exposure. The question becomes not whether children should be included as candidates for face transplantation but whether any ethical barriers should preclude children as candidates for a full face transplant. After careful consideration of the physical, psychological, and ethical aspects of such a procedure, the authors found no such barrier that would either disqualify such vulnerable subjects as profoundly disfigured children or conflict with their best interests.

Critical Issues in the Understanding of Young Elementary School Students at Risk for Problems in Written Expression: Introduction to the Special Series.

PubMed

Coker, David L; Kim, Young-Suk Grace

In this introduction to the special series "Critical Issues in the Understanding of Young Elementary School Students at Risk for Problems in Written Expression," we consider some of the contextual factors that have changed since a similar special issue was published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities in 2002. We also explore how the five articles included in this special series address the following important themes: early writing development, identification of students with writing difficulties, and effective interventions for struggling writers. In conclusion, we envision future directions to advance the field.

INTRODUCTION OF MANY-PARTICLE VARIABLES FOR THE TREATMENT OF SPECIAL TRANSLATIONALLY INVARIANT MANY-BODY PROBLEMS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mobius, P.

1960-05-01

An attempt is raade to treat special translationally invariant many-body problems by coordinate transformations introducing many-particle variables. These are adapted coordinates of such kind that the condition of translational invariance and the Pauli principle can be satisfied automatically. They are homogeneous functions of the particle coordinates obeying certain differential equations. The Schrodinger equation is transformed into these variables. There exist examples of systems of interacting particles which can be separated exactly in the many-particle variables but not in the particle coordinates. (auth)

Impact of Family Functioning on Classroom Problem Behavior of Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoutjesdijk, Regina; Scholte, Evert M.; Swaab, Hanna

2016-01-01

This study examined the relation between family functioning and classroom problem behavior of children with emotional and behavioral disorders receiving special educational support. To this end, the Teachers' Report Form and the Family Questionnaire were completed for 84 children (M age of 9.8 years) 2 times with a time lag of 11 months.…

Behavioural and neurophysiological evidence for face identity and face emotion processing in animals

PubMed Central

Tate, Andrew J; Fischer, Hanno; Leigh, Andrea E; Kendrick, Keith M

2006-01-01

Visual cues from faces provide important social information relating to individual identity, sexual attraction and emotional state. Behavioural and neurophysiological studies on both monkeys and sheep have shown that specialized skills and neural systems for processing these complex cues to guide behaviour have evolved in a number of mammals and are not present exclusively in humans. Indeed, there are remarkable similarities in the ways that faces are processed by the brain in humans and other mammalian species. While human studies with brain imaging and gross neurophysiological recording approaches have revealed global aspects of the face-processing network, they cannot investigate how information is encoded by specific neural networks. Single neuron electrophysiological recording approaches in both monkeys and sheep have, however, provided some insights into the neural encoding principles involved and, particularly, the presence of a remarkable degree of high-level encoding even at the level of a specific face. Recent developments that allow simultaneous recordings to be made from many hundreds of individual neurons are also beginning to reveal evidence for global aspects of a population-based code. This review will summarize what we have learned so far from these animal-based studies about the way the mammalian brain processes the faces and the emotions they can communicate, as well as associated capacities such as how identity and emotion cues are dissociated and how face imagery might be generated. It will also try to highlight what questions and advances in knowledge still challenge us in order to provide a complete understanding of just how brain networks perform this complex and important social recognition task. PMID:17118930

Behavioural and neurophysiological evidence for face identity and face emotion processing in animals.

PubMed

Tate, Andrew J; Fischer, Hanno; Leigh, Andrea E; Kendrick, Keith M

2006-12-29

Visual cues from faces provide important social information relating to individual identity, sexual attraction and emotional state. Behavioural and neurophysiological studies on both monkeys and sheep have shown that specialized skills and neural systems for processing these complex cues to guide behaviour have evolved in a number of mammals and are not present exclusively in humans. Indeed, there are remarkable similarities in the ways that faces are processed by the brain in humans and other mammalian species. While human studies with brain imaging and gross neurophysiological recording approaches have revealed global aspects of the face-processing network, they cannot investigate how information is encoded by specific neural networks. Single neuron electrophysiological recording approaches in both monkeys and sheep have, however, provided some insights into the neural encoding principles involved and, particularly, the presence of a remarkable degree of high-level encoding even at the level of a specific face. Recent developments that allow simultaneous recordings to be made from many hundreds of individual neurons are also beginning to reveal evidence for global aspects of a population-based code. This review will summarize what we have learned so far from these animal-based studies about the way the mammalian brain processes the faces and the emotions they can communicate, as well as associated capacities such as how identity and emotion cues are dissociated and how face imagery might be generated. It will also try to highlight what questions and advances in knowledge still challenge us in order to provide a complete understanding of just how brain networks perform this complex and important social recognition task.

Reentry challenges facing women with mental health problems.

PubMed

Visher, Christy A; Bakken, Nicholas W

2014-01-01

Women entering the correctional system represent a population at high risk for mental health and the body of research on the mental health needs of women offenders is growing. These mental health problems pose challenges for women at every stage of the criminal justice process, from arrest to incarceration to community reentry and reintegration. In this article, we examined mental health status among a sample of 142 women leaving confinement and the role that mental health problems played in shaping their reentry outcomes using data collected between 2002 and 2005 in Houston, Texas. In the year after leaving prison, women with mental health problems reported poorer health, more hospitalizations, more suicidal thoughts, greater difficulties securing housing and employment, more involvement in criminal behavior, and less financial support from family than women with no indication of mental health problems. However, mental health status did not increase the likelihood of substance use relapse or reincarceration. The article concludes with a discussion of recommendations for improved policy and practice.

The Development of Face Processing in Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sasson, Noah J.

2006-01-01

Both behavioral and neuroimaging evidence indicate that individuals with autism demonstrate marked abnormalities in the processing of faces. These abnormalities are often explained as either the result of an innate impairment to specialized neural systems or as a secondary consequence of reduced levels of social interest. A review of the…

Refueling the STEM and Special Education Teacher Pipelines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldhaber, Dan; Krieg, John; Theobald, Roddy; Brown, Nate

2016-01-01

Improving the quality of the teacher workforce is high on the nation's education policy agenda, but school systems continue to face difficulties in staffing STEM and special education classrooms with qualified teachers. This article documents the mismatch between the supply and demand of STEM and special education teachers in Washington State,…

Developmental Reorganization of the Core and Extended Face Networks Revealed by Global Functional Connectivity.

PubMed

Wang, Xu; Zhu, Qi; Song, Yiying; Liu, Jia

2017-08-28

Prior studies on development of functional specialization in human brain mainly focus on age-related increases in regional activation and connectivity among regions. However, a few recent studies on the face network demonstrate age-related decrease in face-specialized activation in the extended face network (EFN), in addition to increase in activation in the core face network (CFN). Here we used a voxel-based global brain connectivity approach to investigate whether development of the face network exhibited both increase and decrease in network connectivity. We found the voxel-wise resting-state functional connectivity (FC) within the CFN increased with age in bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus, suggesting the integration of the CFN during development. Interestingly, the FC of the voxels in the EFN to the right fusiform face area and occipital face area decreased with age, suggesting that the CFN segregated from the EFN during development. Moreover, the age-related connectivity in the CFN was related to behavioral performance in face processing. Overall, our study demonstrated developmental reorganization of the face network achieved by both integration within the CFN and segregation of the CFN from the EFN, which may account for the simultaneous increases and decreases in neural activation during the development of the face network. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Faces do not capture special attention in children with autism spectrum disorder: a change blindness study.

PubMed

Kikuchi, Yukiko; Senju, Atsushi; Tojo, Yoshikuni; Osanai, Hiroo; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas children with ASD (n = 16) were equally fast in detecting changes in faces and objects. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 (n = 16 in children with ASD and 22 in typically developing children), which does not require face recognition skill. Results suggest that children with ASD lack an attentional bias toward others' faces, which could contribute to their atypical social orienting.

Cost-effectiveness of blended vs. face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy for severe anxiety disorders: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Romijn, Geke; Riper, Heleen; Kok, Robin; Donker, Tara; Goorden, Maartje; van Roijen, Leona Hakkaart; Kooistra, Lisa; van Balkom, Anton; Koning, Jeroen

2015-12-12

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric conditions, and are associated with poor quality of life and substantial economic burden. Cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment to reduce anxiety symptoms, but is also costly and labour intensive. Cost-effectiveness could possibly be improved by delivering cognitive behavioural therapy in a blended format, where face-to-face sessions are partially replaced by online sessions. The aim of this trial is to determine the cost-effectiveness of blended cognitive behavioural therapy for adults with anxiety disorders, i.e. panic disorder, social phobia or generalized anxiety disorder, in specialized mental health care settings compared to face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy. In this paper, we present the study protocol. It is hypothesized that blended cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders is clinically as effective as face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy, but that intervention costs may be reduced. We thus hypothesize that blended cognitive behavioural therapy is more cost-effective than face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy. In a randomised controlled equivalence trial 156 patients will be included (n = 78 in blended cognitive behavioural therapy, n = 78 in face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy) based on a power of 0.80, calculated by using a formula to estimate the power of a cost-effectiveness analysis: [Formula: see text]. Measurements will take place at baseline, midway treatment (7 weeks), immediately after treatment (15 weeks) and 12-month follow-up. At baseline a diagnostic interview will be administered. Primary clinical outcomes are changes in anxiety symptom severity as measured with the Beck Anxiety Inventory. An incremental cost-effectiveness ratio will be calculated to obtain the costs per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) measured by the EQ-5D (5-level version). Health-economic outcomes will be explored from a societal and health care

3D Face Modeling Using the Multi-Deformable Method

PubMed Central

Hwang, Jinkyu; Yu, Sunjin; Kim, Joongrock; Lee, Sangyoun

2012-01-01

In this paper, we focus on the problem of the accuracy performance of 3D face modeling techniques using corresponding features in multiple views, which is quite sensitive to feature extraction errors. To solve the problem, we adopt a statistical model-based 3D face modeling approach in a mirror system consisting of two mirrors and a camera. The overall procedure of our 3D facial modeling method has two primary steps: 3D facial shape estimation using a multiple 3D face deformable model and texture mapping using seamless cloning that is a type of gradient-domain blending. To evaluate our method's performance, we generate 3D faces of 30 individuals and then carry out two tests: accuracy test and robustness test. Our method shows not only highly accurate 3D face shape results when compared with the ground truth, but also robustness to feature extraction errors. Moreover, 3D face rendering results intuitively show that our method is more robust to feature extraction errors than other 3D face modeling methods. An additional contribution of our method is that a wide range of face textures can be acquired by the mirror system. By using this texture map, we generate realistic 3D face for individuals at the end of the paper. PMID:23201976

Computer-mediated and face-to-face communication in metastatic cancer support groups.

PubMed

Vilhauer, Ruvanee P

2014-08-01

To compare the experiences of women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in computer-mediated and face-to-face support groups. Interviews from 18 women with MBC, who were currently in computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs), were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The CMSGs were in an asynchronous mailing list format; women communicated exclusively via email. All the women were also, or had previously been, in a face-to-face support group (FTFG). CMSGs had both advantages and drawbacks, relative to face-to-face groups (FTFGs), for this population. Themes examined included convenience, level of support, intimacy, ease of expression, range of information, and dealing with debilitation and dying. CMSGs may provide a sense of control and a greater level of support. Intimacy may take longer to develop in a CMSG, but women may have more opportunities to get to know each other. CMSGs may be helpful while adjusting to a diagnosis of MBC, because women can receive support without being overwhelmed by physical evidence of disability in others or exposure to discussions about dying before they are ready. However, the absence of nonverbal cues in CMSGs also led to avoidance of topics related to death and dying when women were ready to face them. Agendas for discussion, the presence of a facilitator or more time in CMSGs may attenuate this problem. The findings were discussed in light of prevailing research and theories about computer-mediated communication. They have implications for designing CMSGs for this population.

A Mixed Methods Survey Research Study of Novice Special Education Teachers: Investigation of Reading Preparedness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stratton, Mary P.

2017-01-01

Novice special education teachers have become an integral part of the public and private school systems throughout Pennsylvania. This mixed-methods research study explored the expertise and preparedness of current novice special education teachers. A combination of an electronic survey questionnaire and phone and face-to-face interviews were…

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing

PubMed Central

Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T.; Alpers, Georg W.

2017-01-01

Abstract The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer—conveyed by facial expression and face direction—amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. PMID:28158672

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing.

PubMed

Bublatzky, Florian; Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T; Alpers, Georg W

2017-05-01

The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer-conveyed by facial expression and face direction-amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Area Studies and Special Collections: Shared Challenges, Shared Strength

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Lisa R.; Whittaker, Beth M.

2015-01-01

Special collections and area studies librarians face similar challenges in the changing academic library environment, including the need to articulate the value of these specialized collections and to mainstream processes and practices into larger discovery, teaching, learning, and research efforts. For some institutions, these similarities have…

Special Education in Nigeria.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abang, Theresa B.

1992-01-01

This article discusses the special education system in Nigeria, focusing on integration; training of special educators; medical, health, and welfare services for children with disabilities; recreational facilities; employment opportunities; national planning; and problems and successes. (JDD)

Development of an Autonomous Face Recognition Machine.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-12-08

This approach, like Baron’s, would be a very time consuming task. The problem of locating a face in Bromley’s work was the least complex of the three...top level design and the development and design decisions that were made in developing the Autonomous Face Recognition Machine (AFRM). The chapter is...images within a digital image. The second sectio examines the algorithm used in performing face recognition. The decision to divide the development

Sources of Work-Related Support for Rural Special Education Teachers and Their Relationship to Teacher Satisfaction and Commitment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bassett Berry, Ann

2010-01-01

The shortage of special education teachers is a critical issue facing rural school districts. Administrators face moderate to extreme difficulties recruiting special educators and some are unable to fill positions at all. The retention of teachers to special education positions in rural schools is part of any comprehensive plan to deal with…

Multilevel water governance and problems of scale: setting the stage for a broader debate.

PubMed

Moss, Timothy; Newig, Jens

2010-07-01

Environmental governance and management are facing a multiplicity of challenges related to spatial scales and multiple levels of governance. Water management is a field particularly sensitive to issues of scale because the hydrological system with its different scalar levels from small catchments to large river basins plays such a prominent role. It thus exemplifies fundamental issues and dilemmas of scale in modern environmental management and governance. In this introductory article to an Environmental Management special feature on "Multilevel Water Governance: Coping with Problems of Scale," we delineate our understanding of problems of scale and the dimensions of scalar politics that are central to water resource management. We provide an overview of the contributions to this special feature, concluding with a discussion of how scalar research can usefully challenge conventional wisdom on water resource management. We hope that this discussion of water governance stimulates a broader debate and inquiry relating to the scalar dimensions of environmental governance and management in general.

A Blended Learning Approach to Teaching Basic Pharmacokinetics and the Significance of Face-to-Face Interaction

PubMed Central

Holbrook, Jane

2010-01-01

Objective To assess pharmacy students' attitudes towards a blended-learning pharmacokinetics course. Design Narrated visual presentations and animations that illustrated kinetic processes and guided students through the use of software programs used for calculations were created. Other learning techniques used included online self-assessment quizzes, practice problem sets, and weekly face-to-face problem-solving tutorials. Assessment A precourse questionnaire to assess students' level of enthusiasm towards the blended-learning course and to solicit any concerns they had was administered at the beginning of the course. A postcourse questionnaire that included the same 4 Likert-scale items from the precourse questionnaire and follow-up open-ended questions was administered. Individual changes in level of enthusiasm were compared for individuals who completed both the precourse and postcourse questionnaire. Students' concerns about the blended method of learning had decreased postcourse while their enthusiasm for the benefits of blended learning had increased. Conclusion Students' initial concerns about the blended learning experience were focused on their ability to communicate with the instructor about the online components, but shifted to their own time management skills at the end of the course. Face-to-face interactions with each other and with the instructor were more highly rated than online interactions in this course. PMID:20798797

A blended learning approach to teaching basic pharmacokinetics and the significance of face-to-face interaction.

PubMed

Edginton, Andrea; Holbrook, Jane

2010-06-15

To assess pharmacy students' attitudes towards a blended-learning pharmacokinetics course. Narrated visual presentations and animations that illustrated kinetic processes and guided students through the use of software programs used for calculations were created. Other learning techniques used included online self-assessment quizzes, practice problem sets, and weekly face-to-face problem-solving tutorials. A precourse questionnaire to assess students' level of enthusiasm towards the blended-learning course and to solicit any concerns they had was administered at the beginning of the course. A postcourse questionnaire that included the same 4 Likert-scale items from the precourse questionnaire and follow-up open-ended questions was administered. Individual changes in level of enthusiasm were compared for individuals who completed both the precourse and postcourse questionnaire. Students' concerns about the blended method of learning had decreased postcourse while their enthusiasm for the benefits of blended learning had increased. Students' initial concerns about the blended learning experience were focused on their ability to communicate with the instructor about the online components, but shifted to their own time management skills at the end of the course. Face-to-face interactions with each other and with the instructor were more highly rated than online interactions in this course.

Oxytocin eliminates the own-race bias in face recognition memory.

PubMed

Blandón-Gitlin, Iris; Pezdek, Kathy; Saldivar, Sesar; Steelman, Erin

2014-09-11

The neuropeptide Oxytocin influences a number of social behaviors, including processing of faces. We examined whether Oxytocin facilitates the processing of out-group faces and reduce the own-race bias (ORB). The ORB is a robust phenomenon characterized by poor recognition memory of other-race faces compared to the same-race faces. In Experiment 1, participants received intranasal solutions of Oxytocin or placebo prior to viewing White and Black faces. On a subsequent recognition test, whereas in the placebo condition the same-race faces were better recognized than other-race faces, in the Oxytocin condition Black and White faces were equally well recognized, effectively eliminating the ORB. In Experiment 2, Oxytocin was administered after the study phase. The ORB resulted, but Oxytocin did not significantly reduce the effect. This study is the first to show that Oxytocin can enhance face memory of out-group members and underscore the importance of social encoding mechanisms underlying the own-race bias. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Oxytocin and Social Behav. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wechsler Memory Scale-III Faces test performance in patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Seelye, Adriana M; Howieson, Diane B; Wild, Katherine V; Moore, Mindy Milar; Kaye, Jeffrey A

2009-08-01

Little is known about the sensitivity of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition (WMS-III) Faces subtest to memory impairment associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In this study, Faces performance was examined in 24 MCI patients, 46 mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, and 98 elderly controls. We hypothesized that participants with diagnoses of MCI or AD would be impaired relative to controls on Faces. Analyses showed that AD participants performed significantly worse than MCI and intact participants, although there were no significant differences between MCI and intact participants. Data suggest that brain areas specialized for face recognition memory may be less affected by MCI and mild AD than regions specialized for verbal memory.

[Treatment goals in FACE philosophy].

PubMed

Martin, Domingo; Maté, Amaia; Zabalegui, Paula; Valenzuela, Jaime

2017-03-01

The FACE philosophy is characterized by clearly defined treatment goals: facial esthetics, dental esthetics, periodontal health, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The purpose is to establish ideal occlusion with good facial esthetics and an orthopedic stable joint position. The authors present all the concepts of FACE philosophy and illustrate them through one case report. Taking into account all the FACE philosophy concepts increases diagnostic ability and improves the quality and stability of treatment outcomes. The goal of this philosophy is to harmonize the facial profile, tooth alignment, periodontium, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The evaluation and treatment approach to vertical problems are unique to the philosophy. © EDP Sciences, SFODF, 2017.

The Voices of Special Educators: How Do Special Educators Teach English Language Learners Who Are Receiving Special Education Services?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuBois, Elizabeth Ann

2017-01-01

Disproportionality in special education has been examined from various perspectives over a 50-year period. English Language Learner (ELL) students have been included in the discussion among researchers in the past two decades as a disproportionate number of ELL students are referred to special education. Though the problem of disproportionality…

[How do universities confront and manage environmental problems?].

PubMed

Inadera, H

2001-06-01

Occupational medicine is concerned with the recognition and prevention of diseases related to the work environment. The special tools, namely, epidemiology, toxicology, and public health and clinical expertise, are joined by another specialty, environmental medicine. The Environmental Science Center (ESC) of the University of Tokyo was established in April 1975 for the purpose of treating chemically-hazardous wastes deriving from the university. The ESC houses various sections including research, education, operations, management, and also a waste-collection and-treatment division. In this review, the author intends to summarize the activity of the ESC, and then review the approaches we have applied in order to deal with the environmental problems we have faced.

Desperately Seeking Special Ed Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Kevin

2008-01-01

It's no secret that the dearth of special education teachers has created huge headaches for district human resources departments, especially in suburban and rural areas. In addition to insufficient numbers of candidates applying for special education jobs, retention of special education teachers is an ever-greater problem, as research indicates…

Special Education in Rural Schools: Why Less Takes More

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bouck, Emily C.; Albaugh, Diane; Bouck, Mary K.

2005-01-01

Everyone can understand the challenges teachers face in organizing and supervising field trips, challenges that are even greater when the students have special needs and live in poverty. But how daunting, the authors ask, are the challenges these students face every day? Very few people who have never tried it are truly aware of all the…

Event-related potentials to structural familiar face incongruity processing.

PubMed

Jemel, B; George, N; Olivares, E; Fiori, N; Renault, B

1999-07-01

Thirty scalp sites were used to investigate the specific topography of the event-related potentials (ERPs) related to face associative priming when masked eyes of familiar faces were completed with either the proper features or incongruent ones. The enhanced negativity of N210 and N350, due to structural incongruity of faces, have a "category specific" inferotemporal localization on the scalp. Additional analyses support the existence of multiple ERP features within the temporal interval typically associated with N400 (N350 and N380), involving occipitotemporal and centroparietal areas. Seven reliable dipole locations have been evidenced using the brain electrical source analysis algorithm. Some of these localizations (fusiform, parahippocampal) are already known to be involved in face recognition, the other ones being related to general cognitive processes related to the task's demand. Because of their specific topography, the observed effects suggest that the face structural congruency process might involve early specialized neocortical areas in parallel with cortical memory circuits in the integration of perceptual and cognitive face processing.

Face pose tracking using the four-point algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fung, Ho Yin; Wong, Kin Hong; Yu, Ying Kin; Tsui, Kwan Pang; Kam, Ho Chuen

2017-06-01

In this paper, we have developed an algorithm to track the pose of a human face robustly and efficiently. Face pose estimation is very useful in many applications such as building virtual reality systems and creating an alternative input method for the disabled. Firstly, we have modified a face detection toolbox called DLib for the detection of a face in front of a camera. The detected face features are passed to a pose estimation method, known as the four-point algorithm, for pose computation. The theory applied and the technical problems encountered during system development are discussed in the paper. It is demonstrated that the system is able to track the pose of a face in real time using a consumer grade laptop computer.

Face Search at Scale.

PubMed

Wang, Dayong; Otto, Charles; Jain, Anil K

2017-06-01

Given the prevalence of social media websites, one challenge facing computer vision researchers is to devise methods to search for persons of interest among the billions of shared photos on these websites. Despite significant progress in face recognition, searching a large collection of unconstrained face images remains a difficult problem. To address this challenge, we propose a face search system which combines a fast search procedure, coupled with a state-of-the-art commercial off the shelf (COTS) matcher, in a cascaded framework. Given a probe face, we first filter the large gallery of photos to find the top- k most similar faces using features learned by a convolutional neural network. The k retrieved candidates are re-ranked by combining similarities based on deep features and those output by the COTS matcher. We evaluate the proposed face search system on a gallery containing 80 million web-downloaded face images. Experimental results demonstrate that while the deep features perform worse than the COTS matcher on a mugshot dataset (93.7 percent versus 98.6 percent TAR@FAR of 0.01 percent), fusing the deep features with the COTS matcher improves the overall performance ( 99.5 percent TAR@FAR of 0.01 percent). This shows that the learned deep features provide complementary information over representations used in state-of-the-art face matchers. On the unconstrained face image benchmarks, the performance of the learned deep features is competitive with reported accuracies. LFW database: 98.20 percent accuracy under the standard protocol and 88.03 percent TAR@FAR of 0.1 percent under the BLUFR protocol; IJB-A benchmark: 51.0 percent TAR@FAR of 0.1 percent (verification), rank 1 retrieval of 82.2 percent (closed-set search), 61.5 percent FNIR@FAR of 1 percent (open-set search). The proposed face search system offers an excellent trade-off between accuracy and scalability on galleries with millions of images. Additionally, in a face search experiment involving

Maximal likelihood correspondence estimation for face recognition across pose.

PubMed

Li, Shaoxin; Liu, Xin; Chai, Xiujuan; Zhang, Haihong; Lao, Shihong; Shan, Shiguang

2014-10-01

Due to the misalignment of image features, the performance of many conventional face recognition methods degrades considerably in across pose scenario. To address this problem, many image matching-based methods are proposed to estimate semantic correspondence between faces in different poses. In this paper, we aim to solve two critical problems in previous image matching-based correspondence learning methods: 1) fail to fully exploit face specific structure information in correspondence estimation and 2) fail to learn personalized correspondence for each probe image. To this end, we first build a model, termed as morphable displacement field (MDF), to encode face specific structure information of semantic correspondence from a set of real samples of correspondences calculated from 3D face models. Then, we propose a maximal likelihood correspondence estimation (MLCE) method to learn personalized correspondence based on maximal likelihood frontal face assumption. After obtaining the semantic correspondence encoded in the learned displacement, we can synthesize virtual frontal images of the profile faces for subsequent recognition. Using linear discriminant analysis method with pixel-intensity features, state-of-the-art performance is achieved on three multipose benchmarks, i.e., CMU-PIE, FERET, and MultiPIE databases. Owe to the rational MDF regularization and the usage of novel maximal likelihood objective, the proposed MLCE method can reliably learn correspondence between faces in different poses even in complex wild environment, i.e., labeled face in the wild database.

Hybrid generative-discriminative approach to age-invariant face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sajid, Muhammad; Shafique, Tamoor

2018-03-01

Age-invariant face recognition is still a challenging research problem due to the complex aging process involving types of facial tissues, skin, fat, muscles, and bones. Most of the related studies that have addressed the aging problem are focused on generative representation (aging simulation) or discriminative representation (feature-based approaches). Designing an appropriate hybrid approach taking into account both the generative and discriminative representations for age-invariant face recognition remains an open problem. We perform a hybrid matching to achieve robustness to aging variations. This approach automatically segments the eyes, nose-bridge, and mouth regions, which are relatively less sensitive to aging variations compared with the rest of the facial regions that are age-sensitive. The aging variations of age-sensitive facial parts are compensated using a demographic-aware generative model based on a bridged denoising autoencoder. The age-insensitive facial parts are represented by pixel average vector-based local binary patterns. Deep convolutional neural networks are used to extract relative features of age-sensitive and age-insensitive facial parts. Finally, the feature vectors of age-sensitive and age-insensitive facial parts are fused to achieve the recognition results. Extensive experimental results on morphological face database II (MORPH II), face and gesture recognition network (FG-NET), and Verification Subset of cross-age celebrity dataset (CACD-VS) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for age-invariant face recognition well.

Face Liveness Detection Using Defocus

PubMed Central

Kim, Sooyeon; Ban, Yuseok; Lee, Sangyoun

2015-01-01

In order to develop security systems for identity authentication, face recognition (FR) technology has been applied. One of the main problems of applying FR technology is that the systems are especially vulnerable to attacks with spoofing faces (e.g., 2D pictures). To defend from these attacks and to enhance the reliability of FR systems, many anti-spoofing approaches have been recently developed. In this paper, we propose a method for face liveness detection using the effect of defocus. From two images sequentially taken at different focuses, three features, focus, power histogram and gradient location and orientation histogram (GLOH), are extracted. Afterwards, we detect forged faces through the feature-level fusion approach. For reliable performance verification, we develop two databases with a handheld digital camera and a webcam. The proposed method achieves a 3.29% half total error rate (HTER) at a given depth of field (DoF) and can be extended to camera-equipped devices, like smartphones. PMID:25594594

Comparison of face masks in the bag-mask ventilation of a manikin.

PubMed

Redfern, D; Rassam, S; Stacey, M R; Mecklenburgh, J S

2006-02-01

We conducted a study investigating the effectiveness of four face mask designs in the bag-mask ventilation of a special manikin adapted to simulate a difficult airway. Forty-eight anaesthetists volunteered to bag-mask ventilate the manikin for 3 min with four different face masks. The primary outcome of the study was to calculate mean percentage leak from the face masks over 3 min. Anaesthetists were also asked to rate the face masks using a visual analogue score. The single-use scented intersurgical face mask had the lowest mean leak (20%). This was significantly lower than the mean leak from the single-use, cushioned 7,000 series Air Safety Ltd. face mask (24%) and the reusable silicone Laerdal face mask (27%) but not significantly lower than the mean leak from the reusable anatomical intersurgical face mask (23%). There was a large variation in both performance and satisfaction between anaesthetists with each design. This highlights the importance of having a variety of face masks available for emergency use.

Health Risks Faced by Public School Band Directors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolery, Danielle N.; Woolery, Jesse A.

2013-01-01

Public school band directors face many work-related hazards in their grueling, yet rewarding job. As a school year progresses, directors are expected to work long hours, while trying to balance professional and personal responsibilities. A band director whose career spans multiple decades can potentially face a number of serious medical problems.…

Robust Face Recognition via Multi-Scale Patch-Based Matrix Regression.

PubMed

Gao, Guangwei; Yang, Jian; Jing, Xiaoyuan; Huang, Pu; Hua, Juliang; Yue, Dong

2016-01-01

In many real-world applications such as smart card solutions, law enforcement, surveillance and access control, the limited training sample size is the most fundamental problem. By making use of the low-rank structural information of the reconstructed error image, the so-called nuclear norm-based matrix regression has been demonstrated to be effective for robust face recognition with continuous occlusions. However, the recognition performance of nuclear norm-based matrix regression degrades greatly in the face of the small sample size problem. An alternative solution to tackle this problem is performing matrix regression on each patch and then integrating the outputs from all patches. However, it is difficult to set an optimal patch size across different databases. To fully utilize the complementary information from different patch scales for the final decision, we propose a multi-scale patch-based matrix regression scheme based on which the ensemble of multi-scale outputs can be achieved optimally. Extensive experiments on benchmark face databases validate the effectiveness and robustness of our method, which outperforms several state-of-the-art patch-based face recognition algorithms.

Face sketch recognition based on edge enhancement via deep learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Zhenzhu; Yang, Fumeng; Zhang, Yuming; Wu, Congzhong

2017-11-01

In this paper,we address the face sketch recognition problem. Firstly, we utilize the eigenface algorithm to convert a sketch image into a synthesized sketch face image. Subsequently, considering the low-level vision problem in synthesized face sketch image .Super resolution reconstruction algorithm based on CNN(convolutional neural network) is employed to improve the visual effect. To be specific, we uses a lightweight super-resolution structure to learn a residual mapping instead of directly mapping the feature maps from the low-level space to high-level patch representations, which making the networks are easier to optimize and have lower computational complexity. Finally, we adopt LDA(Linear Discriminant Analysis) algorithm to realize face sketch recognition on synthesized face image before super resolution and after respectively. Extensive experiments on the face sketch database(CUFS) from CUHK demonstrate that the recognition rate of SVM(Support Vector Machine) algorithm improves from 65% to 69% and the recognition rate of LDA(Linear Discriminant Analysis) algorithm improves from 69% to 75%.What'more,the synthesized face image after super resolution can not only better describer image details such as hair ,nose and mouth etc, but also improve the recognition accuracy effectively.

U.S., Soviets Face Common Science Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lepkowski, Wil

1981-01-01

Summarizes recent findings reported in a two-volume publication, "Science Policy: USA/USSR," issued by the National Science Foundation. Volumes I and II review U.S. and Soviet science policy in research and development, respectively. Comparisons are made concerning common problems around energy, environment, and the meaning of security.…

Effect of familiarity and viewpoint on face recognition in chimpanzees

PubMed Central

Parr, Lisa A; Siebert, Erin; Taubert, Jessica

2012-01-01

Numerous studies have shown that familiarity strongly influences how well humans recognize faces. This is particularly true when faces are encountered across a change in viewpoint. In this situation, recognition may be accomplished by matching partial or incomplete information about a face to a stored representation of the known individual, whereas such representations are not available for unknown faces. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, share many of the same behavioral specializations for face processing as humans, but the influence of familiarity and viewpoint have never been compared in the same study. Here, we examined the ability of chimpanzees to match the faces of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics in their frontal and 3/4 views using a computerized task. Results showed that, while chimpanzees were able to accurately match both familiar and unfamiliar faces in their frontal orientations, performance was significantly impaired only when unfamiliar faces were presented across a change in viewpoint. Therefore, like in humans, face processing in chimpanzees appears to be sensitive to individual familiarity. We propose that familiarization is a robust mechanism for strengthening the representation of faces and has been conserved in primates to achieve efficient individual recognition over a range of natural viewing conditions. PMID:22128558

Ohio study shows that insurance coverage is critical for children with special health care needs as they transition to adulthood.

PubMed

Goudie, Anthony; Carle, Adam C

2011-12-01

Nearly 30 percent of young adults with special health care needs in Ohio lack health insurance, compared to 5 percent of the state's children with special health care needs. As children with such needs become too old for Medicaid or insurance through their parents' employer, they face great challenges in obtaining insurance. Lack of insurance is highly predictive of unmet needs, which in turn are predictive of costly hospital-based encounters. Young adults with special health care needs who are uninsured are more than twice as likely as their peers with insurance to forgo filling prescriptions and getting care and to have problems getting care. Even after insurance status is accounted for, young adults with special health care needs are more likely than children with such needs to not fill prescriptions because of cost and to delay or forgo needed care. This study demonstrates that continuous and adequate health insurance is vital to the continued well-being of children with special health care needs as they transition to young adulthood.

LDCs face another kind of health problem.

PubMed

Kaufman, H

1977-10-06

Early childbearing is increasing worldwide, in both the developed and the developing countries. In 1975, 13 million young women became mothers before their 18th birthday. Such early childbearing causes major health, economic, social, and demographic problems. The disadvantages are felt by the young women, their sexual partners, the babies born to these women, and society in general. Reasons why adolescents are engaging in earlier sexual activity and experiencing more early pregnancies are enumerated. The 1st Interhemispheric Conference on Adolescent Fertility, sponsored by the Agency for International Development and other involved organizations, was held in 1976. The Conference participants made recommendations concerned with the legal, educational, and social aspects of early childbearing. Many youth education programs have been established since the Conference. Research projects have been launched to study the social consequences of adolescent pregnancy. Many more family life education and family planning services must be offered. A significant hindrance to such developments is the reluctance of adults around the world to recognize and deal with the problem.

Still-to-video face recognition in unconstrained environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Haoyu; Liu, Changsong; Ding, Xiaoqing

2015-02-01

Face images from video sequences captured in unconstrained environments usually contain several kinds of variations, e.g. pose, facial expression, illumination, image resolution and occlusion. Motion blur and compression artifacts also deteriorate recognition performance. Besides, in various practical systems such as law enforcement, video surveillance and e-passport identification, only a single still image per person is enrolled as the gallery set. Many existing methods may fail to work due to variations in face appearances and the limit of available gallery samples. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for still-to-video face recognition in unconstrained environments. By assuming that faces from still images and video frames share the same identity space, a regularized least squares regression method is utilized to tackle the multi-modality problem. Regularization terms based on heuristic assumptions are enrolled to avoid overfitting. In order to deal with the single image per person problem, we exploit face variations learned from training sets to synthesize virtual samples for gallery samples. We adopt a learning algorithm combining both affine/convex hull-based approach and regularizations to match image sets. Experimental results on a real-world dataset consisting of unconstrained video sequences demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods impressively.

Problems facing Korean hospitals and possible countermeasures.

PubMed

Kim, Kwang-Tae

2004-07-01

Korea has a unique health care system, of which the private sector comprises most of the country's health resources: 88% of the beds and 91% of specialists in Korea, but are funded by public financing, such as national health insurance and the national aid program. However, the public financing pays only 50% of actual costs and the patient's co-payment is still high. Healthcare organizations in Korea are categorized into four types; tertiary care hospitals, general hospitals, hospitals and clinics by scale of operator: number of beds. General hospitals must have 100 beds and over, and compulsorily specialties in internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, dental service, other ancillary service units and an emergency care unit. General hospitals with 300 beds and more must operate an intensive care unit. There are many challenges facing the Korean healthcare system, such as reformation of primary healthcare system, enhancing hospitals' competitiveness, and permission of for-profit hospital, introduction of private health insurance, enhancement of geriatric care. These challenges can be resolved with long-term vision, willingness and strategies of the Korean government to ensure equitable financing and access to healthcare, combined with the active participation and utilization of the private sector.

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-30

SIGAR SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION 2530 Crystal Drive Arlington, VA 22202 SIG A R | Q U A R TE R LY R E P O R T TO...TH E U N ITE D STA TE S C O N G R E SS | A P R 30, 2012 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan ReconstructionSIGAR APR 302012 QUARTERLY REPORT...population. (© AFP 2012, Johannes Eisele) An Afghan schoolboy washes his face at a water-pump in Mazar- e Sharif in Balkh prov- ince on April 9. Last

A Method of Face Detection with Bayesian Probability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarker, Goutam

2010-10-01

The objective of face detection is to identify all images which contain a face, irrespective of its orientation, illumination conditions etc. This is a hard problem, because the faces are highly variable in size, shape lighting conditions etc. Many methods have been designed and developed to detect faces in a single image. The present paper is based on one `Appearance Based Method' which relies on learning the facial and non facial features from image examples. This in its turn is based on statistical analysis of examples and counter examples of facial images and employs Bayesian Conditional Classification Rule to detect the probability of belongingness of a face (or non-face) within an image frame. The detection rate of the present system is very high and thereby the number of false positive and false negative detection is substantially low.

The Special Education Teacher between the Priorities of Inclusion and Specialisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickl, Gonda; Holzinger, Andrea; Kopp-Sixt, Silvia

2016-01-01

In Austria, the profession of the special education teacher is facing major changes. Presently, special education teachers need to have general pedagogical competences to teach children of all grades, and are expected to have competences in managing highly heterogeneous groups in inclusive settings. Additionally, they need to apply special…

Multi-Dimensional, Non-Pyrolyzing Ablation Test Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Risch, Tim; Kostyk, Chris

2016-01-01

Non-pyrolyzingcarbonaceous materials represent a class of candidate material for hypersonic vehicle components providing both structural and thermal protection system capabilities. Two problems relevant to this technology are presented. The first considers the one-dimensional ablation of a carbon material subject to convective heating. The second considers two-dimensional conduction in a rectangular block subject to radiative heating. Surface thermochemistry for both problems includes finite-rate surface kinetics at low temperatures, diffusion limited ablation at intermediate temperatures, and vaporization at high temperatures. The first problem requires the solution of both the steady-state thermal profile with respect to the ablating surface and the transient thermal history for a one-dimensional ablating planar slab with temperature-dependent material properties. The slab front face is convectively heated and also reradiates to a room temperature environment. The back face is adiabatic. The steady-state temperature profile and steady-state mass loss rate should be predicted. Time-dependent front and back face temperature, surface recession and recession rate along with the final temperature profile should be predicted for the time-dependent solution. The second problem requires the solution for the transient temperature history for an ablating, two-dimensional rectangular solid with anisotropic, temperature-dependent thermal properties. The front face is radiatively heated, convectively cooled, and also reradiates to a room temperature environment. The back face and sidewalls are adiabatic. The solution should include the following 9 items: final surface recession profile, time-dependent temperature history of both the front face and back face at both the centerline and sidewall, as well as the time-dependent surface recession and recession rate on the front face at both the centerline and sidewall. The results of the problems from all submitters will be

Justifying surgery's last taboo: the ethics of face transplants

PubMed Central

Freeman, Michael; Jaoudé, Pauline Abou

2007-01-01

Should face transplants be undertaken? This article examines the ethical problems involved from the perspective of the recipient, looking particularly at the question of identity, the donor and the donor's family, and the disfigured community and society more generally. Concern is expressed that full face transplants are going ahead. PMID:17264192

Soft tissue injuries of the face: early aesthetic reconstruction in polytrauma patients.

PubMed

Aveta, Achille; Casati, Paolo

2008-01-01

Facial injuries are often accompanied by soft tissue injuries. The complexity of these injuries is represented by the potential for loss of relationships between the functional and the aesthetic subunits of the head. Most reviews of craniofacial trauma have concentrated on fractures. With this article, we want to emphasize the importance of early aesthetic reconstruction of the face in polytrauma patients. We present 13 patients with soft tissue injuries of the face, treated in our emergency department in the 'day one surgery", without "second look"procedures. The final result always restored a sense of normalcy to the face. The face is the first most visible part of the human anatomy, so, in emergency, surgeons must pay special attention also to the reconstruction of the face, in polytrauma patients.

What the Medical Records Revolution Means to Your Special Child

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dorsett, Tom

2008-01-01

As every exceptional parent knows, the needs of a special child are, simply put, special. For every area of life, an extra amount of thought and care must be taken--whether it is education, traveling considerations, and, especially, healthcare. However, it is in the area of healthcare that parents say they face the most challenge. For years,…

Special Education Teacher Burnout and ACT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emery, Debra W.; Vandenberg, Brian

2010-01-01

Special educators are a high risk group, prone to low job satisfaction, low self-efficacy, and increased stress and burnout. The attrition rate of special educators is particularly high, contributing to an overall shortage of qualified teachers throughout the United States. While the problems of special educators are widely discussed in the…

Population problems in Austronesia.

PubMed

Hull, T H

1986-11-01

The author examines population issues facing countries in Oceania and Southeastern Asia. "Analysis is based on recently released population projections from the United Nations Population Division. There are great differences among the countries.... There are nonetheless important areas of commonality: all nations are facing the problem of raising levels of schooling in line with parents' aspirations and economic needs, all face problems of caring for a rising proportion of aged, and all have difficulties with the monitoring and control of international migration. Also, since minority groups in many countries are majority polities in neighbouring states, there is potential for establishing international dialogues aimed at relieving internal tensions." Consideration is given to the role of Australia in promoting international cooperation to deal with these issues. excerpt

Impairments in Monkey and Human Face Recognition in 2-Year-Old Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chawarska, Katarzyna; Volkmar, Fred

2007-01-01

Face recognition impairments are well documented in older children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); however, the developmental course of the deficit is not clear. This study investigates the progressive specialization of face recognition skills in children with and without ASD. Experiment 1 examines human and monkey face recognition in…

Centre-based restricted nearest feature plane with angle classifier for face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Linlin; Lu, Huifen; Zhao, Liang; Li, Zuohua

2017-10-01

An improved classifier based on the nearest feature plane (NFP), called the centre-based restricted nearest feature plane with the angle (RNFPA) classifier, is proposed for the face recognition problems here. The famous NFP uses the geometrical information of samples to increase the number of training samples, but it increases the computation complexity and it also has an inaccuracy problem coursed by the extended feature plane. To solve the above problems, RNFPA exploits a centre-based feature plane and utilizes a threshold of angle to restrict extended feature space. By choosing the appropriate angle threshold, RNFPA can improve the performance and decrease computation complexity. Experiments in the AT&T face database, AR face database and FERET face database are used to evaluate the proposed classifier. Compared with the original NFP classifier, the nearest feature line (NFL) classifier, the nearest neighbour (NN) classifier and some other improved NFP classifiers, the proposed one achieves competitive performance.

Convolutional neural networks and face recognition task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sochenkova, A.; Sochenkov, I.; Makovetskii, A.; Vokhmintsev, A.; Melnikov, A.

2017-09-01

Computer vision tasks are remaining very important for the last couple of years. One of the most complicated problems in computer vision is face recognition that could be used in security systems to provide safety and to identify person among the others. There is a variety of different approaches to solve this task, but there is still no universal solution that would give adequate results in some cases. Current paper presents following approach. Firstly, we extract an area containing face, then we use Canny edge detector. On the next stage we use convolutional neural networks (CNN) to finally solve face recognition and person identification task.

Ethical and social issues facing obstetricians in low-income countries.

PubMed

Ogwuegbu, Chigbu Chibuike; Eze, Onah Hyacinth

2009-06-01

A review of publications on ethical and social issues from low-income countries was done with the aim of highlighting the major ethical and social issues facing obstetricians in these countries. Low-income countries were identified using the World Health Organization income group classification of member nations. Obstetricians in low-income countries face a wide range of special social and ethical issues that reflect the peculiarities of their practice environment characterized by poverty, low education, deep attachment to tradition and culture, low social status of women, and high levels of physician's paternalism.

Seeing Jesus in toast: neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia.

PubMed

Liu, Jiangang; Li, Jun; Feng, Lu; Li, Ling; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2014-04-01

Face pareidolia is the illusory perception of non-existent faces. The present study, for the first time, contrasted behavioral and neural responses of face pareidolia with those of letter pareidolia to explore face-specific behavioral and neural responses during illusory face processing. Participants were shown pure-noise images but were led to believe that 50% of them contained either faces or letters; they reported seeing faces or letters illusorily 34% and 38% of the time, respectively. The right fusiform face area (rFFA) showed a specific response when participants "saw" faces as opposed to letters in the pure-noise images. Behavioral responses during face pareidolia produced a classification image (CI) that resembled a face, whereas those during letter pareidolia produced a CI that was letter-like. Further, the extent to which such behavioral CIs resembled faces was directly related to the level of face-specific activations in the rFFA. This finding suggests that the rFFA plays a specific role not only in processing of real faces but also in illusory face perception, perhaps serving to facilitate the interaction between bottom-up information from the primary visual cortex and top-down signals from the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Whole brain analyses revealed a network specialized in face pareidolia, including both the frontal and occipitotemporal regions. Our findings suggest that human face processing has a strong top-down component whereby sensory input with even the slightest suggestion of a face can result in the interpretation of a face. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia

PubMed Central

Liu, Jiangang; Li, Jun; Feng, Lu; Li, Ling; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2014-01-01

Face pareidolia is the illusory perception of non-existent faces. The present study, for the first time, contrasted behavioral and neural responses of face pareidolia with those of letter pareidolia to explore face-specific behavioral and neural responses during illusory face processing. Participants were shown pure-noise images but were led to believe that 50% of them contained either faces or letters; they reported seeing faces or letters illusorily 34% and 38% of the time, respectively. The right fusiform face area (rFFA) showed a specific response when participants “saw” faces as opposed to letters in the pure-noise images. Behavioral responses during face pareidolia produced a classification image that resembled a face, whereas those during letter pareidolia produced a classification image that was letter-like. Further, the extent to which such behavioral classification images resembled faces was directly related to the level of face-specific activations in the right FFA. This finding suggests that the right FFA plays a specific role not only in processing of real faces but also in illusory face perception, perhaps serving to facilitate the interaction between bottom-up information from the primary visual cortex and top-down signals from the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Whole brain analyses revealed a network specialized in face pareidolia, including both the frontal and occipito-temporal regions. Our findings suggest that human face processing has a strong top-down component whereby sensory input with even the slightest suggestion of a face can result in the interpretation of a face. PMID:24583223

From Special Tasks to Extensive Roles: The Changing Face of Special Needs Teachers in Finnish Vocational Further Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pirttimaa, Raija; Hirvonen, Maija

2016-01-01

Following the development of inclusive education in vocational education and training (VET), the discussion about the prevention of marginalisation and dropouts has increased. At the same time, the formal education system has strengthened the position of support services, such as special educational needs (SEN) teachers, social workers and…

Examining Information Problem-Solving, Knowledge, and Application Gains within Two Instructional Methods: Problem-Based and Computer-Mediated Participatory Simulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newell, Terrance S.

2008-01-01

This study compared the effectiveness of two instructional methods--problem-based instruction within a face-to-face context and computer-mediated participatory simulation--in increasing students' content knowledge and application gains in the area of information problem-solving. The instructional methods were implemented over a four-week period. A…

Faces Do Not Capture Special Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Change Blindness Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kikuchi, Yukiko; Senju, Atsushi; Tojo, Yoshikuni; Osanai, Hiroo; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas…

76 FR 65101 - Special Conditions: Embraer S.A.; Model EMB 500; Single-Place Side Facing Seat Dynamic Test...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-20

... anthropomorphic test dummy (ATD) or its equivalent, undeformed floor, no yaw, and with all lateral structural... Side Facing Seat Dynamic Test Requirements AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION... installation of a single-place side facing seat on Embraer S.A. EMB 500 aircraft. Side- facing seats are...

17 CFR 210.6-08 - Special provisions applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-08 Section 210.6-08... applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. Statements of operations filed by issuers of face-amount certificates shall comply with the following provisions: Statements of...

17 CFR 210.6-08 - Special provisions applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-08 Section 210.6-08... applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. Statements of operations filed by issuers of face-amount certificates shall comply with the following provisions: Statements of...

17 CFR 210.6-06 - Special provisions applicable to the balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... to the balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-06 Section 210.6-06 Commodity and... balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates. Balance sheets filed by issuers of face-amount... balances. 3. Receivables. (a) State separately amounts receivable from (1) sales of investments; (2...

17 CFR 210.6-06 - Special provisions applicable to the balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... to the balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-06 Section 210.6-06 Commodity and... balance sheets of issuers of face-amount certificates. Balance sheets filed by issuers of face-amount... balances. 3. Receivables. (a) State separately amounts receivable from (1) sales of investments; (2...

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: From Face to Face Interaction to a Broader Contextual Understanding of Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jahoda, A.; Dagnan, D.; Kroese, B. Stenfert; Pert, C.; Trower, P.

2009-01-01

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is increasingly used to address the emotional and interpersonal problems of people with ID. There is a limited but promising evidence base supporting this activity. However, these individuals face real and continuing challenges in their lives that have implications for their self and interpersonal perceptions.…

Expression-invariant representations of faces.

PubMed

Bronstein, Alexander M; Bronstein, Michael M; Kimmel, Ron

2007-01-01

Addressed here is the problem of constructing and analyzing expression-invariant representations of human faces. We demonstrate and justify experimentally a simple geometric model that allows to describe facial expressions as isometric deformations of the facial surface. The main step in the construction of expression-invariant representation of a face involves embedding of the facial intrinsic geometric structure into some low-dimensional space. We study the influence of the embedding space geometry and dimensionality choice on the representation accuracy and argue that compared to its Euclidean counterpart, spherical embedding leads to notably smaller metric distortions. We experimentally support our claim showing that a smaller embedding error leads to better recognition.

Special data base of Informational - Computational System 'INM RAS - Black Sea' for solving inverse and data assimilation problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zakharova, Natalia; Piskovatsky, Nicolay; Gusev, Anatoly

2014-05-01

Development of Informational-Computational Systems (ICS) for data assimilation procedures is one of multidisciplinary problems. To study and solve these problems one needs to apply modern results from different disciplines and recent developments in: mathematical modeling; theory of adjoint equations and optimal control; inverse problems; numerical methods theory; numerical algebra and scientific computing. The above problems are studied in the Institute of Numerical Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Science (INM RAS) in ICS for personal computers. In this work the results on the Special data base development for ICS "INM RAS - Black Sea" are presented. In the presentation the input information for ICS is discussed, some special data processing procedures are described. In this work the results of forecast using ICS "INM RAS - Black Sea" with operational observation data assimilation are presented. This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project No 13-01-00753) and by Presidium Program of Russian Academy of Sciences (project P-23 "Black sea as an imitational ocean model"). References 1. V.I. Agoshkov, M.V. Assovskii, S.A. Lebedev, Numerical simulation of Black Sea hydrothermodynamics taking into account tide-forming forces. Russ. J. Numer. Anal. Math. Modelling (2012) 27, No.1, pp. 5-31. 2. E.I. Parmuzin, V.I. Agoshkov, Numerical solution of the variational assimilation problem for sea surface temperature in the model of the Black Sea dynamics. Russ. J. Numer. Anal. Math. Modelling (2012) 27, No.1, pp. 69-94. 3. V.B. Zalesny, N.A. Diansky, V.V. Fomin, S.N. Moshonkin, S.G. Demyshev, Numerical model of the circulation of Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Russ. J. Numer. Anal. Math. Modelling (2012) 27, No.1, pp. 95-111. 4. Agoshkov V.I.,Assovsky M.B., Giniatulin S. V., Zakharova N.B., Kuimov G.V., Parmuzin E.I., Fomin V.V. Informational Computational system of variational assimilation of observation data "INM RAS - Black sea"// Ecological

17 CFR 210.6-08 - Special provisions applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-08 Section 210.6-08... issuers of face-amount certificates. Statements of operations filed by issuers of face-amount certificates... included in income, the bases of recognition and measurement used in respect to such amounts shall be...

17 CFR 210.6-08 - Special provisions applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-08 Section 210.6-08... issuers of face-amount certificates. Statements of operations filed by issuers of face-amount certificates... included in income, the bases of recognition and measurement used in respect to such amounts shall be...

17 CFR 210.6-08 - Special provisions applicable to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... to the statements of operations of issuers of face-amount certificates. 210.6-08 Section 210.6-08... issuers of face-amount certificates. Statements of operations filed by issuers of face-amount certificates... included in income, the bases of recognition and measurement used in respect to such amounts shall be...

7 CFR 3430.42 - Special award conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

...) General. CSREES may, with respect to any award, impose additional conditions prior to or at the time of... needed; the time allowed for completing the corrective actions; and the method for requesting reconsideration of the additional requirements imposed. (c) Form CSREES-2009, Award Face Sheet. These special...

Famous face recognition, face matching, and extraversion.

PubMed

Lander, Karen; Poyarekar, Siddhi

2015-01-01

It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.

3D Face Recognition Based on Multiple Keypoint Descriptors and Sparse Representation

PubMed Central

Zhang, Lin; Ding, Zhixuan; Li, Hongyu; Shen, Ying; Lu, Jianwei

2014-01-01

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in developing methods for 3D face recognition. However, 3D scans often suffer from the problems of missing parts, large facial expressions, and occlusions. To be useful in real-world applications, a 3D face recognition approach should be able to handle these challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel general approach to deal with the 3D face recognition problem by making use of multiple keypoint descriptors (MKD) and the sparse representation-based classification (SRC). We call the proposed method 3DMKDSRC for short. Specifically, with 3DMKDSRC, each 3D face scan is represented as a set of descriptor vectors extracted from keypoints by meshSIFT. Descriptor vectors of gallery samples form the gallery dictionary. Given a probe 3D face scan, its descriptors are extracted at first and then its identity can be determined by using a multitask SRC. The proposed 3DMKDSRC approach does not require the pre-alignment between two face scans and is quite robust to the problems of missing data, occlusions and expressions. Its superiority over the other leading 3D face recognition schemes has been corroborated by extensive experiments conducted on three benchmark databases, Bosphorus, GavabDB, and FRGC2.0. The Matlab source code for 3DMKDSRC and the related evaluation results are publicly available at http://sse.tongji.edu.cn/linzhang/3dmkdsrcface/3dmkdsrc.htm. PMID:24940876

3D face recognition based on multiple keypoint descriptors and sparse representation.

PubMed

Zhang, Lin; Ding, Zhixuan; Li, Hongyu; Shen, Ying; Lu, Jianwei

2014-01-01

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in developing methods for 3D face recognition. However, 3D scans often suffer from the problems of missing parts, large facial expressions, and occlusions. To be useful in real-world applications, a 3D face recognition approach should be able to handle these challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel general approach to deal with the 3D face recognition problem by making use of multiple keypoint descriptors (MKD) and the sparse representation-based classification (SRC). We call the proposed method 3DMKDSRC for short. Specifically, with 3DMKDSRC, each 3D face scan is represented as a set of descriptor vectors extracted from keypoints by meshSIFT. Descriptor vectors of gallery samples form the gallery dictionary. Given a probe 3D face scan, its descriptors are extracted at first and then its identity can be determined by using a multitask SRC. The proposed 3DMKDSRC approach does not require the pre-alignment between two face scans and is quite robust to the problems of missing data, occlusions and expressions. Its superiority over the other leading 3D face recognition schemes has been corroborated by extensive experiments conducted on three benchmark databases, Bosphorus, GavabDB, and FRGC2.0. The Matlab source code for 3DMKDSRC and the related evaluation results are publicly available at http://sse.tongji.edu.cn/linzhang/3dmkdsrcface/3dmkdsrc.htm.

A Half Century of Special Education: What We Have Achieved and the Challenges We Face

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weintraub, Frederick J.

2012-01-01

Almost 50 years ago, while President of CEC, Frances Connor delivered a presidential address entitled "The Sword and the Spirit." She called for five revolutions. The first revolution called for increasing the quantity and quality of special education teachers. The second stated that "special education depends upon an intensive…

Household income determines access to specialized pediatric chronic pain treatment in Germany.

PubMed

Ruhe, Ann-Kristin; Wager, Julia; Hirschfeld, Gerrit; Zernikow, Boris

2016-04-21

Families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) often face problems with gaining access to health care services. Information is scarce on the relationship between SES and health care delivery for children suffering from chronic pain. Families presenting to a specialized pain center (N = 1,001) provided information on 'household income, 'parental education' and 'occupation' to aid the evaluation of their SES. To assess whether the SES of the clinical sample is representative of the general population, it was compared to data from a community sample (N = 14,558). For the clinical sample, travel distance to the clinic was described in relation to the 75% catchment area. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the association between SES and the journey from outside the catchment area. The SES was significantly higher in the clinical sample than in the community sample. Within the clinical sample, the distance traveled to the pain center increased with increasing SES. The 75% catchment area was 143 miles for families with the highest SES and 78 miles for the lowest SES. 'Household income' predicted travel distance (OR 1.32 (1.12-1.56)). Education and occupational status were not significant predictors of travel from outside the catchment area. In Germany, specialized care for children with chronic pain is subject to disparities in access. Future activities should focus on identifying barriers to access and seeking to prevent inequalities in specialized pediatric health care delivery. Increasing the number of specialized treatment facilities could improve access to specialized pediatric pain treatment, regardless of socioeconomic determinants.

Blending online therapy into regular face-to-face therapy for depression: content, ratio and preconditions according to patients and therapists using a Delphi study.

PubMed

van der Vaart, Rosalie; Witting, Marjon; Riper, Heleen; Kooistra, Lisa; Bohlmeijer, Ernst T; van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette J E W C

2014-12-14

Blending online modules into face-to-face therapy offers perspectives to enhance patient self-management and to increase the (cost-)effectiveness of therapy, while still providing the support patients need. The aim of this study was to outline optimal usage of blended care for depression, according to patients and therapists. A Delphi method was used to find consensus on suitable blended protocols (content, sequence and ratio). Phase 1 was an explorative phase, conducted in two rounds of online questionnaires, in which patients' and therapists' preferences and opinions about online psychotherapy were surveyed. In phase 2, data from phase 1 was used in face-to-face interviews with therapists to investigate how blended therapy protocols could be set up and what essential preconditions would be. Twelve therapists and nine patients completed the surveys. Blended therapy was positively perceived among all respondents, especially to enhance the self-management of patients. According to most respondents, practical therapy components (assignments, diaries and psycho-education) may be provided via online modules, while process-related components (introduction, evaluation and discussing thoughts and feelings), should be supported face-to-face. The preferred blend of online and face-to-face sessions differs between therapists and patients; most therapists prefer 75% face-to-face sessions, most patients 50 to 60%. The interviews showed that tailoring treatment to individual patients is essential in secondary mental health care, due to the complexity of their problems. The amount and ratio of online modules needs to be adjusted according to the patient's problems, skills and characteristics. Therapists themselves should also develop skills to integrate online and face-to-face sessions. Blending online and face-to-face sessions in an integrated depression therapy is viewed as a positive innovation by patients and therapists. Following a standard blended protocol, however, would

The role of the fusiform face area in social cognition: implications for the pathobiology of autism.

PubMed Central

Schultz, Robert T; Grelotti, David J; Klin, Ami; Kleinman, Jamie; Van der Gaag, Christiaan; Marois, René; Skudlarski, Pawel

2003-01-01

A region in the lateral aspect of the fusiform gyrus (FG) is more engaged by human faces than any other category of image. It has come to be known as the 'fusiform face area' (FFA). The origin and extent of this specialization is currently a topic of great interest and debate. This is of special relevance to autism, because recent studies have shown that the FFA is hypoactive to faces in this disorder. In two linked functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of healthy young adults, we show here that the FFA is engaged by a social attribution task (SAT) involving perception of human-like interactions among three simple geometric shapes. The amygdala, temporal pole, medial prefrontal cortex, inferolateral frontal cortex and superior temporal sulci were also significantly engaged. Activation of the FFA to a task without faces challenges the received view that the FFA is restricted in its activities to the perception of faces. We speculate that abstract semantic information associated with faces is encoded in the FG region and retrieved for social computations. From this perspective, the literature on hypoactivation of the FFA in autism may be interpreted as a reflection of a core social cognitive mechanism underlying the disorder. PMID:12639338

The Cambridge Face Memory Test: results for neurologically intact individuals and an investigation of its validity using inverted face stimuli and prosopagnosic participants.

PubMed

Duchaine, Brad; Nakayama, Ken

2006-01-01

The two standardized tests of face recognition that are widely used suffer from serious shortcomings [Duchaine, B. & Weidenfeld, A. (2003). An evaluation of two commonly used tests of unfamiliar face recognition. Neuropsychologia, 41, 713-720; Duchaine, B. & Nakayama, K. (2004). Developmental prosopagnosia and the Benton Facial Recognition Test. Neurology, 62, 1219-1220]. Images in the Warrington Recognition Memory for Faces test include substantial non-facial information, and the simultaneous presentation of faces in the Benton Facial Recognition Test allows feature matching. Here, we present results from a new test, the Cambridge Face Memory Test, which builds on the strengths of the previous tests. In the test, participants are introduced to six target faces, and then they are tested with forced choice items consisting of three faces, one of which is a target. For each target face, three test items contain views identical to those studied in the introduction, five present novel views, and four present novel views with noise. There are a total of 72 items, and 50 controls averaged 58. To determine whether the test requires the special mechanisms used to recognize upright faces, we conducted two experiments. We predicted that controls would perform much more poorly when the face images are inverted, and as predicted, inverted performance was much worse with a mean of 42. Next we assessed whether eight prosopagnosics would perform poorly on the upright version. The prosopagnosic mean was 37, and six prosopagnosics scored outside the normal range. In contrast, the Warrington test and the Benton test failed to classify a majority of the prosopagnosics as impaired. These results indicate that the new test effectively assesses face recognition across a wide range of abilities.

Process and domain specificity in regions engaged for face processing: an fMRI study of perceptual differentiation.

PubMed

Collins, Heather R; Zhu, Xun; Bhatt, Ramesh S; Clark, Jonathan D; Joseph, Jane E

2012-12-01

The degree to which face-specific brain regions are specialized for different kinds of perceptual processing is debated. This study parametrically varied demands on featural, first-order configural, or second-order configural processing of faces and houses in a perceptual matching task to determine the extent to which the process of perceptual differentiation was selective for faces regardless of processing type (domain-specific account), specialized for specific types of perceptual processing regardless of category (process-specific account), engaged in category-optimized processing (i.e., configural face processing or featural house processing), or reflected generalized perceptual differentiation (i.e., differentiation that crosses category and processing type boundaries). ROIs were identified in a separate localizer run or with a similarity regressor in the face-matching runs. The predominant principle accounting for fMRI signal modulation in most regions was generalized perceptual differentiation. Nearly all regions showed perceptual differentiation for both faces and houses for more than one processing type, even if the region was identified as face-preferential in the localizer run. Consistent with process specificity, some regions showed perceptual differentiation for first-order processing of faces and houses (right fusiform face area and occipito-temporal cortex and right lateral occipital complex), but not for featural or second-order processing. Somewhat consistent with domain specificity, the right inferior frontal gyrus showed perceptual differentiation only for faces in the featural matching task. The present findings demonstrate that the majority of regions involved in perceptual differentiation of faces are also involved in differentiation of other visually homogenous categories.

Process- and Domain-Specificity in Regions Engaged for Face Processing: An fMRI Study of Perceptual Differentiation

PubMed Central

Collins, Heather R.; Zhu, Xun; Bhatt, Ramesh S.; Clark, Jonathan D.; Joseph, Jane E.

2015-01-01

The degree to which face-specific brain regions are specialized for different kinds of perceptual processing is debated. The present study parametrically varied demands on featural, first-order configural or second-order configural processing of faces and houses in a perceptual matching task to determine the extent to which the process of perceptual differentiation was selective for faces regardless of processing type (domain-specific account), specialized for specific types of perceptual processing regardless of category (process-specific account), engaged in category-optimized processing (i.e., configural face processing or featural house processing) or reflected generalized perceptual differentiation (i.e. differentiation that crosses category and processing type boundaries). Regions of interest were identified in a separate localizer run or with a similarity regressor in the face-matching runs. The predominant principle accounting for fMRI signal modulation in most regions was generalized perceptual differentiation. Nearly all regions showed perceptual differentiation for both faces and houses for more than one processing type, even if the region was identified as face-preferential in the localizer run. Consistent with process-specificity, some regions showed perceptual differentiation for first-order processing of faces and houses (right fusiform face area and occipito-temporal cortex, and right lateral occipital complex), but not for featural or second-order processing. Somewhat consistent with domain-specificity, the right inferior frontal gyrus showed perceptual differentiation only for faces in the featural matching task. The present findings demonstrate that the majority of regions involved in perceptual differentiation of faces are also involved in differentiation of other visually homogenous categories. PMID:22849402

Can small institutes address some problems facing biomedical researchers?

PubMed

Sheetz, Michael P

2014-11-01

At a time of historically low National Institutes of Health funding rates and many problems with the conduct of research (unfunded mandates, disgruntled reviewers, and rampant paranoia), there is a concern that biomedical research as a profession is waning in the United States (see "Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws" by Alberts and colleagues in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). However, it is wonderful to discover something new and to tackle tough puzzles. If we could focus more of our effort on discussing scientific problems and doing research, then we could be more productive and perhaps happier. One potential solution is to focus efforts on small thematic institutes in the university structure that can provide a stimulating and supportive environment for innovation and exploration. With an open-lab concept, there are economies of scale that can diminish paperwork and costs, while providing greater access to state-of-the-art equipment. Merging multiple disciplines around a common theme can catalyze innovation, and this enables individuals to develop new concepts without giving up the credit they deserve, because it is usually clear who did the work. Small institutes do not solve larger systemic problems but rather enable collective efforts to address the noisome aspects of the system and foster an innovative community effort to address scientific problems. © 2014 Sheetz.

Gravitational Many-Body Problem

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makino, J.

2008-04-29

In this paper, we briefly review some aspects of the gravitational many-body problem, which is one of the oldest problems in the modern mathematical science. Then we review our GRAPE project to design computers specialized to this problem.

Chemical Dependency Treatment: Specialized Approaches for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Clients.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guthmann, Debra; Lybarger, Ron; Sandberg, Katherine A.

This article addresses issues of chemical dependency treatment of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and reports on specialized treatment approaches developed by the Minnesota Chemical Dependency Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals. This population faces special barriers to treatment and recovery including lack of recognition…

Rethinking Special Education for a New Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finn, Chester E., Jr., Ed.; Rotherham, Andrew J., Ed.; Hokanson, Charles R., Jr., Ed.

This book scrutinizes the education now being received by 6 million U.S. children with disabilities. It identifies the problems that currently beset special education, analyzes their causes, and suggests solutions. Chapters include: (1) "The Evolution of the Federal Role" (Tyce Palmaffy); (2) "Time To Make Special Education 'Special' Again" (Wade…

Design, Generation and Tooth Contact Analysis (TCA) of Asymmetric Face Gear Drive With Modified Geometry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Litvin, Faydor L.; Fuentes, Alfonso; Hawkins, J. M.; Handschuh, Robert F.

2001-01-01

A new type of face gear drive for application in transmissions, particularly in helicopters, has been developed. The new geometry differs from the existing geometry by application of asymmetric profiles and double-crowned pinion of the face gear mesh. The paper describes the computerized design, simulation of meshing and contact, and stress analysis by finite element method. Special purpose computer codes have been developed to conduct the analysis. The analysis of this new type of face gear is illustrated with a numerical example.

Face recognition system and method using face pattern words and face pattern bytes

DOEpatents

Zheng, Yufeng

2014-12-23

The present invention provides a novel system and method for identifying individuals and for face recognition utilizing facial features for face identification. The system and method of the invention comprise creating facial features or face patterns called face pattern words and face pattern bytes for face identification. The invention also provides for pattern recognitions for identification other than face recognition. The invention further provides a means for identifying individuals based on visible and/or thermal images of those individuals by utilizing computer software implemented by instructions on a computer or computer system and a computer readable medium containing instructions on a computer system for face recognition and identification.

Making a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. First Impression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dovico, Adam

2016-01-01

Teachers at all levels have reported a stark decline in students' ability to interact with others face-to-face in a technology-driven world. In the world of work, communicative soft skills have surfaced as both a concern and focal point for potential employers. Schools can teach these skills using an approach called S.P.E.C.I.A.L, which focuses on…

Neural processing of high and low spatial frequency information in faces changes across development: qualitative changes in face processing during adolescence.

PubMed

Peters, Judith C; Vlamings, Petra; Kemner, Chantal

2013-05-01

Face perception in adults depends on skilled processing of interattribute distances ('configural' processing), which is disrupted for faces presented in inverted orientation (face inversion effect or FIE). Children are not proficient in configural processing, and this might relate to an underlying immaturity to use facial information in low spatial frequency (SF) ranges, which capture the coarse information needed for configural processing. We hypothesized that during adolescence a shift from use of high to low SF information takes place. Therefore, we studied the influence of SF content on neural face processing in groups of children (9-10 years), adolescents (14-15 years) and young adults (21-29 years) by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) to upright and inverted faces which varied in SF content. Results revealed that children show a neural FIE in early processing stages (i.e. P1; generated in early visual areas), suggesting a superficial, global facial analysis. In contrast, ERPs of adults revealed an FIE at later processing stages (i.e. N170; generated in face-selective, higher visual areas). Interestingly, adolescents showed FIEs in both processing stages, suggesting a hybrid developmental stage. Furthermore, adolescents and adults showed FIEs for stimuli containing low SF information, whereas such effects were driven by both low and high SF information in children. These results indicate that face processing has a protracted maturational course into adolescence, and is dependent on changes in SF processing. During adolescence, sensitivity to configural cues is developed, which aids the fast and holistic processing that is so special for faces. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Colour detection thresholds in faces and colour patches.

PubMed

Tan, Kok Wei; Stephen, Ian D

2013-01-01

Human facial skin colour reflects individuals' underlying health (Stephen et al 2011 Evolution & Human Behavior 32 216-227); and enhanced facial skin CIELab b* (yellowness), a* (redness), and L* (lightness) are perceived as healthy (also Stephen et al 2009a International Journal of Primatology 30 845-857). Here, we examine Malaysian Chinese participants' detection thresholds for CIELab L* (lightness), a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) colour changes in Asian, African, and Caucasian faces and skin coloured patches. Twelve face photos and three skin coloured patches were transformed to produce four pairs of images of each individual face and colour patch with different amounts of red, yellow, or lightness, from very subtle (deltaE = 1.2) to quite large differences (deltaE = 9.6). Participants were asked to decide which of sequentially displayed, paired same-face images or colour patches were lighter, redder, or yellower. Changes in facial redness, followed by changes in yellowness, were more easily discriminated than changes in luminance. However, visual sensitivity was not greater for redness and yellowness in nonface stimuli, suggesting red facial skin colour special salience. Participants were also significantly better at recognizing colour differences in own-race (Asian) and Caucasian faces than in African faces, suggesting the existence of cross-race effect in discriminating facial colours. Humans' colour vision may have been selected for skin colour signalling (Changizi et al 2006 Biology Letters 2 217-221), enabling individuals to perceive subtle changes in skin colour, reflecting health and emotional status.

Electron microscopic and optical studies of prism faces of synthetic quartz

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buzek, B. C.; Vagh, A. S.

1977-01-01

Application of electron and optical microscopic techniques to the study of growth spirals on quartz crystal faces is described. Attention is centered on the centers of the spirals and on screw ledges; overhanging kinks are revealed on one side of the spiral centers. The possibility that these special features may have developed after growth of the crystals went to completion is explored. The conjecture is raised that such structures might result from adsorption of growth-inhibiting impurities at the center of the growth spiral on the quartz habit faces.

[Alberic Pont, the great war and the "broken faces"].

PubMed

Sigaux, N; Amiel, M; Piotrovitch d'Orlik, S; Breton, P

2017-12-01

The First World War and the number of facial injuries made specialized trauma centers necessary. Alberic Pont was trained both in medicine and dentistry. He founded in Lyon one of the first French specialized wards, which received more than 7000 soldiers overall. Through his charisma, his skills, his creativity and his generosity, he must be considered as a symbol among the pioneers of maxillo-facial surgery, which was then at its early stage. The centenary of World War I is the occasion to shed light on this man who dedicated his career to those who were renamed "broken faces". Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

You're Not Alone in Facing These Board-Related Bugaboos.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Loozen, Luann F.

1982-01-01

School board service can have detrimental effects on members' personal lives. The most frequent and pervasive problems faced by board members are lack of time, loneliness, stress, alienation from community life, abuse, and fatigue. Problem-solving tips are offered. (Author/MLF)

Early Childhood Special Education for Children with Visual Impairments: Problems and Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kesiktas, A. Dolunay

2009-01-01

Studies showing developmental delays in infants and children with visual impairments have triggered early childhood special education studies for this population. Early childhood special education guidelines for visually impaired infants and children range from individualized services to personnel preparation issues while all display certain…

Prevalence of face recognition deficits in middle childhood.

PubMed

Bennetts, Rachel J; Murray, Ebony; Boyce, Tian; Bate, Sarah

2017-02-01

Approximately 2-2.5% of the adult population is believed to show severe difficulties with face recognition, in the absence of any neurological injury-a condition known as developmental prosopagnosia (DP). However, to date no research has attempted to estimate the prevalence of face recognition deficits in children, possibly because there are very few child-friendly, well-validated tests of face recognition. In the current study, we examined face and object recognition in a group of primary school children (aged 5-11 years), to establish whether our tests were suitable for children and to provide an estimate of face recognition difficulties in children. In Experiment 1 (n = 184), children completed a pre-existing test of child face memory, the Cambridge Face Memory Test-Kids (CFMT-K), and a bicycle test with the same format. In Experiment 2 (n = 413), children completed three-alternative forced-choice matching tasks with faces and bicycles. All tests showed good psychometric properties. The face and bicycle tests were well matched for difficulty and showed a similar developmental trajectory. Neither the memory nor the matching tests were suitable to detect impairments in the youngest groups of children, but both tests appear suitable to screen for face recognition problems in middle childhood. In the current sample, 1.2-5.2% of children showed difficulties with face recognition; 1.2-4% showed face-specific difficulties-that is, poor face recognition with typical object recognition abilities. This is somewhat higher than previous adult estimates: It is possible that face matching tests overestimate the prevalence of face recognition difficulties in children; alternatively, some children may "outgrow" face recognition difficulties.

Face recognition via edge-based Gabor feature representation for plastic surgery-altered images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chude-Olisah, Chollette C.; Sulong, Ghazali; Chude-Okonkwo, Uche A. K.; Hashim, Siti Z. M.

2014-12-01

Plastic surgery procedures on the face introduce skin texture variations between images of the same person (intra-subject), thereby making the task of face recognition more difficult than in normal scenario. Usually, in contemporary face recognition systems, the original gray-level face image is used as input to the Gabor descriptor, which translates to encoding some texture properties of the face image. The texture-encoding process significantly degrades the performance of such systems in the case of plastic surgery due to the presence of surgically induced intra-subject variations. Based on the proposition that the shape of significant facial components such as eyes, nose, eyebrow, and mouth remains unchanged after plastic surgery, this paper employs an edge-based Gabor feature representation approach for the recognition of surgically altered face images. We use the edge information, which is dependent on the shapes of the significant facial components, to address the plastic surgery-induced texture variation problems. To ensure that the significant facial components represent useful edge information with little or no false edges, a simple illumination normalization technique is proposed for preprocessing. Gabor wavelet is applied to the edge image to accentuate on the uniqueness of the significant facial components for discriminating among different subjects. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on the Georgia Tech (GT) and the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) databases with illumination and expression problems, and the plastic surgery database with texture changes. Results show that the proposed edge-based Gabor feature representation approach is robust against plastic surgery-induced face variations amidst expression and illumination problems and outperforms the existing plastic surgery face recognition methods reported in the literature.

Cortical Representations of Symbols, Objects, and Faces Are Pruned Back during Early Childhood

PubMed Central

Pinel, Philippe; Dehaene, Stanislas; Pelphrey, Kevin A.

2011-01-01

Regions of human ventral extrastriate visual cortex develop specializations for natural categories (e.g., faces) and cultural artifacts (e.g., words). In adults, category-based specializations manifest as greater neural responses in visual regions of the brain (e.g., fusiform gyrus) to some categories over others. However, few studies have examined how these specializations originate in the brains of children. Moreover, it is as yet unknown whether the development of visual specializations hinges on “increases” in the response to the preferred categories, “decreases” in the responses to nonpreferred categories, or “both.” This question is relevant to a long-standing debate concerning whether neural development is driven by building up or pruning back representations. To explore these questions, we measured patterns of visual activity in 4-year-old children for 4 categories (faces, letters, numbers, and shoes) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We report 2 key findings regarding the development of visual categories in the brain: 1) the categories “faces” and “symbols” doubly dissociate in the fusiform gyrus before children can read and 2) the development of category-specific responses in young children depends on cortical responses to nonpreferred categories that decrease as preferred category knowledge is acquired. PMID:20457691

Virtual & Real Face to Face Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teneqexhi, Romeo; Kuneshka, Loreta

2016-01-01

In traditional "face to face" lessons, during the time the teacher writes on a black or white board, the students are always behind the teacher. Sometimes, this happens even in the recorded lesson in videos. Most of the time during the lesson, the teacher shows to the students his back not his face. We do not think the term "face to…

Turkish Special Education Teachers' Reported Use of Positive and Reductive Interventions for Problem Behaviors: An Examination of the Variables Associated with Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turan, Yasemin; Erbas, Dilek; Ozkan, Serife Yucesoy; Kurkuoglu, Burcu Ulke

2010-01-01

The purpose of this survey study was to determine the following: (a) What strategies do Turkish special education teachers use to address problem behaviors in their classroom? (b) What are teachers' views with regard to the effectiveness and acceptability of these strategies? (c) Is there a relationship between the use of strategies and teachers'…

Pose Invariant Face Recognition Based on Hybrid Dominant Frequency Features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wijaya, I. Gede Pasek Suta; Uchimura, Keiichi; Hu, Zhencheng

Face recognition is one of the most active research areas in pattern recognition, not only because the face is a human biometric characteristics of human being but also because there are many potential applications of the face recognition which range from human-computer interactions to authentication, security, and surveillance. This paper presents an approach to pose invariant human face image recognition. The proposed scheme is based on the analysis of discrete cosine transforms (DCT) and discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) of face images. From both the DCT and DWT domain coefficients, which describe the facial information, we build compact and meaningful features vector, using simple statistical measures and quantization. This feature vector is called as the hybrid dominant frequency features. Then, we apply a combination of the L2 and Lq metric to classify the hybrid dominant frequency features to a person's class. The aim of the proposed system is to overcome the high memory space requirement, the high computational load, and the retraining problems of previous methods. The proposed system is tested using several face databases and the experimental results are compared to a well-known Eigenface method. The proposed method shows good performance, robustness, stability, and accuracy without requiring geometrical normalization. Furthermore, the purposed method has low computational cost, requires little memory space, and can overcome retraining problem.

IntraFace.

PubMed

De la Torre, Fernando; Chu, Wen-Sheng; Xiong, Xuehan; Vicente, Francisco; Ding, Xiaoyu; Cohn, Jeffrey

2015-05-01

Within the last 20 years, there has been an increasing interest in the computer vision community in automated facial image analysis algorithms. This has been driven by applications in animation, market research, autonomous-driving, surveillance, and facial editing among others. To date, there exist several commercial packages for specific facial image analysis tasks such as facial expression recognition, facial attribute analysis or face tracking. However, free and easy-to-use software that incorporates all these functionalities is unavailable. This paper presents IntraFace (IF), a publicly-available software package for automated facial feature tracking, head pose estimation, facial attribute recognition, and facial expression analysis from video. In addition, IFincludes a newly develop technique for unsupervised synchrony detection to discover correlated facial behavior between two or more persons, a relatively unexplored problem in facial image analysis. In tests, IF achieved state-of-the-art results for emotion expression and action unit detection in three databases, FERA, CK+ and RU-FACS; measured audience reaction to a talk given by one of the authors; and discovered synchrony for smiling in videos of parent-infant interaction. IF is free of charge for academic use at http://www.humansensing.cs.cmu.edu/intraface/.

Framing faces: Frame alignment impacts holistic face perception.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Entenman, Robert

2016-11-01

Traditional accounts of face perception emphasise the importance of the prototypical configuration of features within faces. However, here we probe influences of more general perceptual grouping mechanisms on holistic face perception. Participants made part-matching judgments about composite faces presented in intact external oval frames or frames made from misaligned oval parts. This manipulation served to disrupt basic perceptual grouping cues that facilitate the grouping of the two face halves together. This manipulation also produced an external face contour like that in the standard misaligned condition used within the classic composite face task. Notably, by introducing a discontinuity in the external contour, grouping of the face halves into a cohesive unit was discouraged, but face configuration was preserved. Conditions where both the face parts and the frames were misaligned together, as in the typical composite task paradigm, or where just the internal face parts where misaligned, were also included. Disrupting only the face frame similarly disrupted holistic face perception as disrupting both the frame and face configuration. However, misaligned face parts presented in aligned frames also incurred a cost to holistic perception. These findings provide support for the contribution of general-purpose perceptual grouping mechanisms to holistic face perception and are presented and discussed in the context of an enhanced object-based selection account of holistic perception.

Do pictures of faces, and which ones, capture attention in the inattentional-blindness paradigm?

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Laloyaux, Cédric; Feyers, Dorothée; Theeuwes, Jan; Brédart, Serge

2009-01-01

Faces and self-referential material (eg one's own name) are more likely to capture attention in the inattentional-blindness (IB) paradigm than other stimuli. This effect is presumably due to the meaning of these stimuli rather than to their familiarity [Mack and Rock, 1998 Inattentional Blindness (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)]. In previous work, IB has been investigated mostly with schematic stimuli. In the present study, the generalisability of this finding was tested with photographic stimuli. In support of the view that faces constitute a special category of stimuli, pictures of faces were found to resist more to IB than pictures of common objects (experiment 1) or than pictures of inverted faces (experiment 2). In a third experiment, the influence of face familiarity and identity (the participant's own face, a friend's face, and an unknown face) on IB rates was evaluated. Unexpectedly, no differential resistence to blindness across these three kinds of faces was found. In conclusion, pictures of faces attracted attention more than pictures of objects or inverted faces in the IB paradigm. However, this effect was not dependent on face familiarity or identity.

Attentional Status of Faces for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Remington, Anna; Campbell, Ruth; Swettenham, John

2012-01-01

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of attention in the processing of social stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Research has demonstrated that, for typical adults, faces have a special status in attention and are processed in an automatic and mandatory fashion even when participants attempt to…

Optimization of parameters of special asynchronous electric drives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karandey, V. Yu; Popov, B. K.; Popova, O. B.; Afanasyev, V. L.

2018-03-01

The article considers the solution of the problem of parameters optimization of special asynchronous electric drives. The solution of the problem will allow one to project and create special asynchronous electric drives for various industries. The created types of electric drives will have optimum mass-dimensional and power parameters. It will allow one to realize and fulfill the set characteristics of management of technological processes with optimum level of expenses of electric energy, time of completing the process or other set parameters. The received decision allows one not only to solve a certain optimizing problem, but also to construct dependences between the optimized parameters of special asynchronous electric drives, for example, with the change of power, current in a winding of the stator or rotor, induction in a gap or steel of magnetic conductors and other parameters. On the constructed dependences, it is possible to choose necessary optimum values of parameters of special asynchronous electric drives and their components without carrying out repeated calculations.

Age synthesis and estimation via faces: a survey.

PubMed

Fu, Yun; Guo, Guodong; Huang, Thomas S

2010-11-01

Human age, as an important personal trait, can be directly inferred by distinct patterns emerging from the facial appearance. Derived from rapid advances in computer graphics and machine vision, computer-based age synthesis and estimation via faces have become particularly prevalent topics recently because of their explosively emerging real-world applications, such as forensic art, electronic customer relationship management, security control and surveillance monitoring, biometrics, entertainment, and cosmetology. Age synthesis is defined to rerender a face image aesthetically with natural aging and rejuvenating effects on the individual face. Age estimation is defined to label a face image automatically with the exact age (year) or the age group (year range) of the individual face. Because of their particularity and complexity, both problems are attractive yet challenging to computer-based application system designers. Large efforts from both academia and industry have been devoted in the last a few decades. In this paper, we survey the complete state-of-the-art techniques in the face image-based age synthesis and estimation topics. Existing models, popular algorithms, system performances, technical difficulties, popular face aging databases, evaluation protocols, and promising future directions are also provided with systematic discussions.

Cyber Victimization in High School: Measurement, Overlap with Face-to-Face Victimization, and Associations with Social-Emotional Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Christina Flynn; Demaray, Michelle Kilpatrick; Tennant, Jaclyn E.; Jenkins, Lyndsay N.

2017-01-01

Cyber victimization is a contemporary problem facing youth and adolescents (Diamanduros, Downs, & Jenkins, 2008; Kowalski & Limber, 2007). It is imperative for researchers and school personnel to understand the associations between cyber victimization and student social-emotional outcomes. This article explores (a) gender differences in…

76 FR 291 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Single-Occupant Side-Facing Seats

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-04

...-occupant side-facing seat installations. Dynamic testing of all seats approved for occupancy during takeoff.... 25.562, ``Emergency landing dynamic conditions,'' requires dynamic testing of all seats occupied... seats, or seats equipped with conventional restraint systems. [[Page 292

How Well Do Computer-Generated Faces Tap Face Expertise?

PubMed

Crookes, Kate; Ewing, Louise; Gildenhuys, Ju-Dith; Kloth, Nadine; Hayward, William G; Oxner, Matt; Pond, Stephen; Rhodes, Gillian

2015-01-01

The use of computer-generated (CG) stimuli in face processing research is proliferating due to the ease with which faces can be generated, standardised and manipulated. However there has been surprisingly little research into whether CG faces are processed in the same way as photographs of real faces. The present study assessed how well CG faces tap face identity expertise by investigating whether two indicators of face expertise are reduced for CG faces when compared to face photographs. These indicators were accuracy for identification of own-race faces and the other-race effect (ORE)-the well-established finding that own-race faces are recognised more accurately than other-race faces. In Experiment 1 Caucasian and Asian participants completed a recognition memory task for own- and other-race real and CG faces. Overall accuracy for own-race faces was dramatically reduced for CG compared to real faces and the ORE was significantly and substantially attenuated for CG faces. Experiment 2 investigated perceptual discrimination for own- and other-race real and CG faces with Caucasian and Asian participants. Here again, accuracy for own-race faces was significantly reduced for CG compared to real faces. However the ORE was not affected by format. Together these results signal that CG faces of the type tested here do not fully tap face expertise. Technological advancement may, in the future, produce CG faces that are equivalent to real photographs. Until then caution is advised when interpreting results obtained using CG faces.

[Medical specialization in Chile. A centralized vision].

PubMed

Clouet-Huerta, Diego E; González, Bárbara; Correa, Katherine

2017-11-01

Medical graduates face different postgraduate training options, but their priority is to obtain a primary medical specialty, defined as a specialty that does not derive from other. There are different specialty training programs in Chile, which can be dependent or independent of the Ministry of Health. The information about these programs is available in different Internet sites. However a centralized information service that groups and synthetize these programs is lacking, hampering graduate choice decisions. This article aims to review all specialization program modalities, providing a general vision of the institutional structure and implications that govern the specialization process in Chile.

Examining the Effectiveness of the Corrective Reading Program for Special Education and Non-Special Education Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCutcheon, Catherine A.

2013-01-01

The traditional classroom educational approach has been unsuccessful in helping special education and non-special education students who are not proficient readers. The problem addressed in this study was that a large number of American children are experiencing difficulty learning to read. One possible way to help students learn to read is…

The processing of social stimuli in early infancy: from faces to biological motion perception.

PubMed

Simion, Francesca; Di Giorgio, Elisa; Leo, Irene; Bardi, Lara

2011-01-01

There are several lines of evidence which suggests that, since birth, the human system detects social agents on the basis of at least two properties: the presence of a face and the way they move. This chapter reviews the infant research on the origin of brain specialization for social stimuli and on the role of innate mechanisms and perceptual experience in shaping the development of the social brain. Two lines of convergent evidence on face detection and biological motion detection will be presented to demonstrate the innate predispositions of the human system to detect social stimuli at birth. As for face detection, experiments will be presented to demonstrate that, by virtue of nonspecific attentional biases, a very coarse template of faces become active at birth. As for biological motion detection, studies will be presented to demonstrate that, since birth, the human system is able to detect social stimuli on the basis of their properties such as the presence of a semi-rigid motion named biological motion. Overall, the empirical evidence converges in supporting the notion that the human system begins life broadly tuned to detect social stimuli and that the progressive specialization will narrow the system for social stimuli as a function of experience. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Review of multiple-choice-questions and group performance - A comparison of face-to-face and virtual groups with and without facilitation

PubMed Central

Kazubke, Edda; Schüttpelz-Brauns, Katrin

2010-01-01

Background: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are often used in exams of medical education and need careful quality management for example by the application of review committees. This study investigates whether groups communicating virtually by email are similar to face-to-face groups concerning their review process performance and whether a facilitator has positive effects. Methods: 16 small groups of students were examined, which had to evaluate and correct MCQs under four different conditions. In the second part of the investigation the changed questions were given to a new random sample for the judgement of the item quality. Results: There was no significant influence of the variables “form of review committee” and “facilitation”. However, face-to-face and virtual groups clearly differed in the required treatment times. The test condition “face to face without facilitation” was generally valued most positively concerning taking over responsibility, approach to work, sense of well-being, motivation and concentration on the task. Discussion: Face-to-face and virtual groups are equally effective in the review of MCQs but differ concerning their efficiency. The application of electronic review seems to be possible but is hardly recommendable because of the long process time and technical problems. PMID:21818213

Anatomy Education Faces Challenges in Pakistan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Memon, Ismail K.

2009-01-01

Anatomy education in Pakistan is facing many of the same challenges as in other parts of the world. Roughly, a decade ago, all medical and dental colleges in Pakistan emphasized anatomy as a core basic discipline within a traditional medical science curriculum. Now institutions are adopting problem based learning (PBL) teaching philosophies, and…

Investigating ICT Using Problem-Based Learning in Face-to-Face and Online Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearson, John

2006-01-01

This article reports on the design, implementation and evaluation of a module in the MEd (Business) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong in which an explicit problem-based learning (PBL) approach was used to investigate the challenges associated with the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in…

Gambling Related Cognitive Distortions in Adolescence: Relationships with Gambling Problems in Typically Developing and Special Needs Students.

PubMed

Taylor, Robyn N; Parker, James D A; Keefer, Kateryna V; Kloosterman, Patricia H; Summerfeldt, Laura J

2015-12-01

The present study examined the link between problematic gambling and gambling related cognitions (GRCs) in a large sample of adolescents with (N = 266) and without (N = 1,738) special education needs (SEN) between the ages of 14 and 18 years attending several high schools in eastern central Ontario. The adolescents with SENs were identified as having various learning disorders and/or internalizing and externalizing problems [e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)]. All adolescents completed a self-report questionnaire package that included the GRC Scale (GRCS; Raylu and Oei in Addiction 99:757-769, 2004), as well as measures of problem gambling, negative affect, and ADHD symptomatology. Results showed that adolescents with SEN hold more erroneous beliefs about gambling and had a higher risk of developing problematic patterns of gambling behaviour than their typically developing peers. Moreover, the GRCS subscales were found to be strong predictors of problem gambling among adolescents both with and without SEN, accounting for a substantial amount of the variance even when controlling for the effects of age, gender, ADHD, and negative affect. It is suggested that intervention and prevention programs aimed at adolescent gambling need to give particular attention to those with SEN.

Preparing Early Childhood Special Educators in Appalachian Kentucky

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaren, Elizabeth; Rutland, Julie Harp

2013-01-01

National shortages of qualified personnel in the field of early childhood special education are well documented, with shortages magnified in regions characterized by poverty and rural geography. This article provides an overview of the challenges faced and innovations implemented by an alternate-track, personnel preparation program in Appalachian…

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity and Special Education: A Case Study of One Mother's Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steeley, Sherry L.; Lukacs, Karrin

2015-01-01

Special education services have seen great improvement since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, but culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families still face exceptional challenges when advocating for special education services for their children (Artiles & Harry, 2006; Palawat & May,…

Sports Medicine Concerns in Special Olympics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Low, Leslie J.; Sherrill, Claudine

1988-01-01

The article provides information on medical problems (including seizures, nutrition, atlantoaxia instability, and congenital heart disorders), and guidelines for training (including weight management, acclimation, heat related problems, and warm-up) for volunteers working with mentally retarded participants in Special Olympics. (DB)

Understanding Vocabulary Use by Native American Students and the Relationship with Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costa-Guerra, Leslie; Costa-Guerra, Boris

2016-01-01

The Pueblo People of the Southwest face numerous challenges with reference to language issues. A substantial number of Native American students are placed into special education possibly due to different linguistic abilities. The over-identification of Native American students for special education programs may be due to the lack of knowledge as a…

Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

PubMed Central

Geniole, Shawn N.; Keyes, Amanda E.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Carré, Justin M.; McCormick, Cheryl M.

2012-01-01

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F1,36 = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as “honest signals”. PMID:22276184

Facing aggression: cues differ for female versus male faces.

PubMed

Geniole, Shawn N; Keyes, Amanda E; Mondloch, Catherine J; Carré, Justin M; McCormick, Cheryl M

2012-01-01

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36) = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".

Multimodal Modeling Activities with Special Needs Students in an Informal Learning Context: Vygotsky Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Mi Song

2017-01-01

In light of the challenges facing science educators and special education teachers in Singapore, this study entails design-based research to develop participatory learning environments. Drawing upon Vygotskian perspectives, this case study was situated in an informal workshop around the theme of "day and night" working for Special Needs…

Loss of Face among Chinese Businesspeople in Intracultural and Intercultural Business Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardon, Peter W.; Scott, James Calvert

2007-01-01

Problem: No systematic research has been conducted about loss of face in Chinese business culture. General research questions: What causes Chinese businesspeople to lose face when conducting business intraculturally and interculturally? Setting: People's Republic of China. Participants: 34 Chinese businesspeople from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,…

Challenges Faced by Undergraduate Military Students at American Public University System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Machuca, Ana; Torres, Karin; Morris, Pamela; Whitley, William

2014-01-01

This paper will summarize some of challenges faced by military students enrolled in an associate and bachelors online program at American Public University System (APUS). The survey results on which the study is based exposed the following problems faced by military personnel: 48.7% had difficulties working around military obligations, 33.3%…

Establishing a Conceptual Foundation for Addressing Challenges Facing Food-Energy-Water Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldsby, M.; Padowski, J.; Katz, S.; Brady, M.; Hampton, S. E.

2017-12-01

Ensuring the security of food, energy and water in the face of a changing environment is a top societal priority. In order to make sound policy decisions aimed at meeting those needs, policy-makers need decision-relevant information. As such, considerable effort and resources have recently been devoted to investigating the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus in order to better provide that information. However, despite the increased research activity into FEW systems and FEW problems, little attention has been devoted to the fundamental conceptual issues underlying contemporary FEW systems. Consequently, this inattention has led to conceptual confusion about what is and what is not a FEW system. This project aims to fill that lacuna in order to better facilitate the FEW research agenda. Toward that end, we identify three features that distinguish FEW problems from other resource management problems: (1) the production and management of the resources in each sector of a FEW system is specialized to its own sector; (2) interdependencies exist between sectors such that overproduction in one sector, for example, may have impacts on other sectors; and (3) there are real limits to FEW resource availability as well as limits on the ability to transact across sector boundaries. We contend that once armed with this distinction, one can model the stocks and flows of FEW capital in a conceptually rigorous way that may lead to operational innovations of FEW management.

Using a Lesson Template To Integrate General and Special Education: Teaching Lesson Template Use to Educators of Students with Special Needs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murry, Francie R.; Murry, G. Brandon

Teacher preparation programs have recognized their obligation to provide solutions for the dilemmas their teachers face once in the inclusive educational environment. The changing demands required by both general and special education teachers at the K-12 level are being addressed. One of these solutions is to provide access to technological…

Assessment of vehicle safety problems for special driving populations

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1979-02-16

The report describes vehicle safety problems reported in interviews with 460 physically limited drivers and 41 physically limited non-drivers. The problems reported involved operation of primary and secondary controls, operating other vehicle mechani...

Configural face processing impacts race disparities in humanization and trust

PubMed Central

Cassidy, Brittany S.; Krendl, Anne C.; Stanko, Kathleen A.; Rydell, Robert J.; Young, Steven G.; Hugenberg, Kurt

2018-01-01

The dehumanization of Black Americans is an ongoing societal problem. Reducing configural face processing, a well-studied aspect of typical face encoding, decreases the activation of human-related concepts to White faces, suggesting that the extent that faces are configurally processed contributes to dehumanization. Because Black individuals are more dehumanized relative to White individuals, the current work examined how configural processing might contribute to their greater dehumanization. Study 1 showed that inverting faces (which reduces configural processing) reduced the activation of human-related concepts toward Black more than White faces. Studies 2a and 2b showed that reducing configural processing affects dehumanization by decreasing trust and increasing homogeneity among Black versus White faces. Studies 3a–d showed that configural processing effects emerge in racial outgroups for whom untrustworthiness may be a more salient group stereotype (i.e., Black, but not Asian, faces). Study 4 provided evidence that these effects are specific to reduced configural processing versus more general perceptual disfluency. Reduced configural processing may thus contribute to the greater dehumanization of Black relative to White individuals. PMID:29910510

On the specificity of face cognition compared with general cognitive functioning across adult age.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, Andrea; Wilhelm, Oliver; Schmiedek, Florian; Herzmann, Grit; Sommer, Werner

2011-09-01

Face cognition is considered a specific human ability, clearly differentiable from general cognitive functioning. Its specificity is primarily supported by cognitive-experimental and neuroimaging research, but recently also from an individual differences perspective. However, no comprehensive behavioral data are available, which would allow estimating lifespan changes of the covariance structure of face-cognition abilities and general cognitive functioning as well as age-differences in face cognition after accounting for interindividual variability in general cognition. The present study aimed to fill this gap. In an age-heterogeneous (18-82 years) sample of 448 adults, we found no factorial dedifferentiation between face cognition and general cognition. Age-related differences in face memory were still salient after taking into account changes in general cognitive functioning. Face cognition thus remains a specific human ability compared with general cognition, even until old age. We discuss implications for models of cognitive aging and suggest that it is necessary to include more explicitly special social abilities in those models.

The Importance of the Eye Area in Face Identification Abilities and Visual Search Strategies in Persons with Asperger Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falkmer, Marita; Larsson, Matilda; Bjallmark, Anna; Falkmer, Torbjorn

2010-01-01

Partly claimed to explain social difficulties observed in people with Asperger syndrome, face identification and visual search strategies become important. Previous research findings are, however, disparate. In order to explore face identification abilities and visual search strategies, with special focus on the importance of the eye area, 24…

Face-space: A unifying concept in face recognition research.

PubMed

Valentine, Tim; Lewis, Michael B; Hills, Peter J

2016-10-01

The concept of a multidimensional psychological space, in which faces can be represented according to their perceived properties, is fundamental to the modern theorist in face processing. Yet the idea was not clearly expressed until 1991. The background that led to the development of face-space is explained, and its continuing influence on theories of face processing is discussed. Research that has explored the properties of the face-space and sought to understand caricature, including facial adaptation paradigms, is reviewed. Face-space as a theoretical framework for understanding the effect of ethnicity and the development of face recognition is evaluated. Finally, two applications of face-space in the forensic setting are discussed. From initially being presented as a model to explain distinctiveness, inversion, and the effect of ethnicity, face-space has become a central pillar in many aspects of face processing. It is currently being developed to help us understand adaptation effects with faces. While being in principle a simple concept, face-space has shaped, and continues to shape, our understanding of face perception.

IntraFace

PubMed Central

De la Torre, Fernando; Chu, Wen-Sheng; Xiong, Xuehan; Vicente, Francisco; Ding, Xiaoyu; Cohn, Jeffrey

2016-01-01

Within the last 20 years, there has been an increasing interest in the computer vision community in automated facial image analysis algorithms. This has been driven by applications in animation, market research, autonomous-driving, surveillance, and facial editing among others. To date, there exist several commercial packages for specific facial image analysis tasks such as facial expression recognition, facial attribute analysis or face tracking. However, free and easy-to-use software that incorporates all these functionalities is unavailable. This paper presents IntraFace (IF), a publicly-available software package for automated facial feature tracking, head pose estimation, facial attribute recognition, and facial expression analysis from video. In addition, IFincludes a newly develop technique for unsupervised synchrony detection to discover correlated facial behavior between two or more persons, a relatively unexplored problem in facial image analysis. In tests, IF achieved state-of-the-art results for emotion expression and action unit detection in three databases, FERA, CK+ and RU-FACS; measured audience reaction to a talk given by one of the authors; and discovered synchrony for smiling in videos of parent-infant interaction. IF is free of charge for academic use at http://www.humansensing.cs.cmu.edu/intraface/. PMID:27346987

Anatomical connections of the functionally-defined “face patches” in the macaque monkey

PubMed Central

Saleem, Kadharbatcha S.

2017-01-01

The neural circuits underlying face recognition provide a model for understanding visual object representation, social cognition, and hierarchical information processing. A fundamental piece of information lacking to date is the detailed anatomical connections of the face patches. Here, we injected retrograde tracers into four different face patches (PL, ML, AL, AM) to characterize their anatomical connectivity. We found that the patches are strongly and specifically connected to each other, and individual patches receive inputs from extrastriate cortex, the medial temporal lobe, and three subcortical structures (the pulvinar, claustrum, and amygdala). Inputs from prefrontal cortex were surprisingly weak. Patches were densely interconnected to one another in both feedforward and feedback directions, inconsistent with a serial hierarchy. These results provide the first direct anatomical evidence that the face patches constitute a highly specialized system, and suggest that subcortical regions may play a vital role in routing face-related information to subsequent processing stages. PMID:27263973

Feasibility of an online and a face-to-face version of a self-management program for young adults with a rheumatic disease: experiences of young adults and peer leaders

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Based on the self-efficacy theory, an online and a face-to-face self-management programs ‘Challenge your Arthritis’ for young adults with a rheumatic disease have recently been developed. These two courses are led by young peer leaders. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of the online and face-to-face self-management program. Methods Feasibility was evaluated on items of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, user-acceptance, and adherence to both programs in young adults and peer leaders. Additional analyses of interactions on the e-Health applications, discussion board and chat board, were conducted. Results Twenty-two young adults with a diagnosed rheumatic disease participated in the study: 12 young adults followed the online program and 10 followed the face-to-face program. Both programs appeared to be feasible, especially in dealing with problems in daily life, and the participants indicated the time investment as ‘worthwhile’. In using the online program, no technical problems occurred. Participants found the program easy to use, user friendly, and liked the ‘look and feel’ of the program. Conclusions Both the online and the face-to-face versions of a self-management program. ‘Challenge your arthritis’ were found to be feasible and well appreciated by young adults with a rheumatic disease. Because these programs are likely to be a practical aid to health practices, a randomized controlled study to investigate the effects on patient outcomes is planned. PMID:24666817

Feasibility of an online and a face-to-face version of a self-management program for young adults with a rheumatic disease: experiences of young adults and peer leaders.

PubMed

Ammerlaan, Judy; van Os-Medendorp, Harmieke; Scholtus, Lieske; de Vos, André; Zwier, Matthijs; Bijlsma, Hans; Kruize, Aike A

2014-03-25

Based on the self-efficacy theory, an online and a face-to-face self-management programs 'Challenge your Arthritis' for young adults with a rheumatic disease have recently been developed. These two courses are led by young peer leaders. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of the online and face-to-face self-management program. Feasibility was evaluated on items of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, user-acceptance, and adherence to both programs in young adults and peer leaders. Additional analyses of interactions on the e-Health applications, discussion board and chat board, were conducted. Twenty-two young adults with a diagnosed rheumatic disease participated in the study: 12 young adults followed the online program and 10 followed the face-to-face program. Both programs appeared to be feasible, especially in dealing with problems in daily life, and the participants indicated the time investment as 'worthwhile'. In using the online program, no technical problems occurred. Participants found the program easy to use, user friendly, and liked the 'look and feel' of the program. Both the online and the face-to-face versions of a self-management program. 'Challenge your arthritis' were found to be feasible and well appreciated by young adults with a rheumatic disease. Because these programs are likely to be a practical aid to health practices, a randomized controlled study to investigate the effects on patient outcomes is planned.

Special Ed Boondoggle.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes, Richard; Bernard, John; Johannesdottir, Gudrun

1999-01-01

The United States identifies a far larger percentage of students for special-education services than do other developed countries, including Israel, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, and Korea. Looming behind the U.S. figures are the possibility of lawsuits, mounting paperwork, student discipline problems, lower expectations for student…

How affective information from faces and scenes interacts in the brain

PubMed Central

Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Sinke, Charlotte B. A.; Goebel, Rainer; de Gelder, Beatrice

2014-01-01

Facial expression perception can be influenced by the natural visual context in which the face is perceived. We performed an fMRI experiment presenting participants with fearful or neutral faces against threatening or neutral background scenes. Triangles and scrambled scenes served as control stimuli. The results showed that the valence of the background influences face selective activity in the right anterior parahippocampal place area (PPA) and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) with higher activation for neutral backgrounds compared to threatening backgrounds (controlled for isolated background effects) and that this effect correlated with trait empathy in the sgACC. In addition, the left fusiform gyrus (FG) responds to the affective congruence between face and background scene. The results show that valence of the background modulates face processing and support the hypothesis that empathic processing in sgACC is inhibited when affective information is present in the background. In addition, the findings reveal a pattern of complex scene perception showing a gradient of functional specialization along the posterior–anterior axis: from sensitivity to the affective content of scenes (extrastriate body area: EBA and posterior PPA), over scene emotion–face emotion interaction (left FG) via category–scene interaction (anterior PPA) to scene–category–personality interaction (sgACC). PMID:23956081

Distinguishing Disability: Parents, Privilege, and Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ong-Dean, Colin

2009-01-01

Students in special education programs can have widely divergent experiences. For some, special education amounts to a dumping ground where schools unload their problem students, while for others, it provides access to services and accommodations that drastically improve chances of succeeding in school and beyond. "Distinguishing…

Special Education Finance in California. Technical Appendices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Laura; Warren, Paul; Murphy, Patrick; Ugo, Iwunze; Pathak, Aditi

2016-01-01

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Special Education Finance in California." The appendices include: (1) Problems with AB 602 and Other State Funding Programs for Special Education; (2) Additional Figures for Analysis of Distribution of Students with Disabilities; (3) Using Supplemental and…

Seeing faces is necessary for face-domain formation.

PubMed

Arcaro, Michael J; Schade, Peter F; Vincent, Justin L; Ponce, Carlos R; Livingstone, Margaret S

2017-10-01

Here we report that monkeys raised without exposure to faces did not develop face domains, but did develop domains for other categories and did show normal retinotopic organization, indicating that early face deprivation leads to a highly selective cortical processing deficit. Therefore, experience must be necessary for the formation (or maintenance) of face domains. Gaze tracking revealed that control monkeys looked preferentially at faces, even at ages prior to the emergence of face domains, but face-deprived monkeys did not, indicating that face looking is not innate. A retinotopic organization is present throughout the visual system at birth, so selective early viewing behavior could bias category-specific visual responses toward particular retinotopic representations, thereby leading to domain formation in stereotyped locations in inferotemporal cortex, without requiring category-specific templates or biases. Thus, we propose that environmental importance influences viewing behavior, viewing behavior drives neuronal activity, and neuronal activity sculpts domain formation.

New control strategies for longwall armored face conveyors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Broadfoot, A.R.; Betz, R.E.

1998-03-01

This paper investigates a new control approach for longwall armored face conveyors (AFC`s) using variable-speed drives (VSD`s). Traditionally, AFC`s have used fixed-speed or two-speed motors, with various mechanical solutions employed to try to solve the problems that this causes. The VSD approach to the control problem promises to solve all the significant problems associated with the control of AFC`s. This paper will present the control algorithms developed for a VSD-based AFC drive system and demonstrate potential performance via computer simulation. A full discussion of the problems involved with the control of AFC`s can be found in the companion paper.

Finding Hope in the Face-to-Face.

PubMed

Edgoose, Jennifer Y C; Edgoose, Julian M

2017-05-01

What does it mean to look into the face of a patient who looks back? Face-to-face encounters are at the heart of the patient-clinician relationship but their singular significance is often lost amid the demands of today's high-tech, metric-driven health care systems. Using the framework provided by the philosopher and Holocaust survivor Emmanuel Levinas, the authors explore the unique responsibility and potential for hope found only in face-to-face encounters. Revisiting this most fundamental attribute of medicine is likely our greatest chance to reclaim who we are as clinicians and why we do what we do. © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

No Face-Like Processing for Objects-of-Expertise in Three Behavioural Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Rachel; McKone, Elinor

2007-01-01

In the debate between expertise and domain-specific explanations of "special" processing for faces, a common belief is that behavioural studies support the expertise hypothesis. The present article refutes this view, via a combination of new data and review. We tested dog experts with confirmed good individuation of exemplars of their…

Seeing faces is necessary for face-patch formation

PubMed Central

Arcaro, Michael J.; Schade, Peter F.; Vincent, Justin L.; Ponce, Carlos R.; Livingstone, Margaret S.

2017-01-01

Here we report that monkeys raised without exposure to faces did not develop face patches, but did develop domains for other categories, and did show normal retinotopic organization, indicating that early face deprivation leads to a highly selective cortical processing deficit. Therefore experience must be necessary for the formation, or maintenance, of face domains. Gaze tracking revealed that control monkeys looked preferentially at faces, even at ages prior to the emergence of face patches, but face-deprived monkeys did not, indicating that face looking is not innate. A retinotopic organization is present throughout the visual system at birth, so selective early viewing behavior could bias category-specific visual responses towards particular retinotopic representations, thereby leading to domain formation in stereotyped locations in IT, without requiring category-specific templates or biases. Thus we propose that environmental importance influences viewing behavior, viewing behavior drives neuronal activity, and neuronal activity sculpts domain formation. PMID:28869581

Bayesian Face Recognition and Perceptual Narrowing in Face-Space

PubMed Central

Balas, Benjamin

2012-01-01

During the first year of life, infants’ face recognition abilities are subject to “perceptual narrowing,” the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in developing humans and primates. Though the phenomenon is highly robust and replicable, there have been few efforts to model the emergence of perceptual narrowing as a function of the accumulation of experience with faces during infancy. The goal of the current study is to examine how perceptual narrowing might manifest as statistical estimation in “face space,” a geometric framework for describing face recognition that has been successfully applied to adult face perception. Here, I use a computer vision algorithm for Bayesian face recognition to study how the acquisition of experience in face space and the presence of race categories affect performance for own and other-race faces. Perceptual narrowing follows from the establishment of distinct race categories, suggesting that the acquisition of category boundaries for race is a key computational mechanism in developing face expertise. PMID:22709406

The Social Problem-Solving Questionnaire: Evaluation of Psychometric Properties among Turkish Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dereli Iman, Esra

2013-01-01

Problem Statement: Children, like adults, face numerous problems and conflicts in their everyday lives, including issues with peers, siblings, older children, parents, teachers, and other adults. The methods children use to solve such problems are more important than actually facing the problems. The lack of effective social problem-solving skills…

Sensitization to epoxy resin systems in special flooring workers.

PubMed

Condé-Salazar, L; Gonzalez de Domingo, M A; Guimaraens, D

1994-09-01

The use of new products in building and public works is increasing, among them being special floor coverings containing epoxy resins and derivatives. These are used principally in heavily frequented areas, such as shopping precincts, hospitals, civic centres, etc., due to their high resistance to wear and tear, environmental factors, etc. In the last 2 years, we have studied 15 cases of men sensitized to epoxy resin, or derivatives, who worked with special floorings. Speed of sensitization, severity of lesions, and localization to the hands, face and legs were characteristic.

Contributions of individual face features to face discrimination.

PubMed

Logan, Andrew J; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2017-08-01

Faces are highly complex stimuli that contain a host of information. Such complexity poses the following questions: (a) do observers exhibit preferences for specific information? (b) how does sensitivity to individual face parts compare? These questions were addressed by quantifying sensitivity to different face features. Discrimination thresholds were determined for synthetic faces under the following conditions: (i) 'full face': all face features visible; (ii) 'isolated feature': single feature presented in isolation; (iii) 'embedded feature': all features visible, but only one feature modified. Mean threshold elevations for isolated features, relative to full-faces, were 0.84x, 1.08, 2.12, 3.34, 4.07 and 4.47 for head-shape, hairline, nose, mouth, eyes and eyebrows respectively. Hence, when two full faces can be discriminated at threshold, the difference between the eyes is about four times less than what is required when discriminating between isolated eyes. In all cases, sensitivity was higher when features were presented in isolation than when they were embedded within a face context (threshold elevations of 0.94x, 1.74, 2.67, 2.90, 5.94 and 9.94). This reveals a specific pattern of sensitivity to face information. Observers are between two and four times more sensitive to external than internal features. The pattern for internal features (higher sensitivity for the nose, compared to mouth, eyes and eyebrows) is consistent with lower sensitivity for those parts affected by facial dynamics (e.g. facial expressions). That isolated features are easier to discriminate than embedded features supports a holistic face processing mechanism which impedes extraction of information about individual features from full faces. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Special Education in Hawaii--Some Current Problems. Report No. 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayashi, Junie

The report examines the Hawaii Department of Education's procedures and criteria in the identification and evaluation of handicapped children, as well as difficulties encountered in recruiting and maintaining qualified special services evaluation personnel. An introductory chapter notes the legislative authority for the study; provisions of Public…

Assessment of Issues Facing Immigrant and Refugee Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segal, Uma A.; Mayadas, Nazneen S.

2005-01-01

This article identifies the different problems immigrants and refugees face in the United States, especially socioeconomic and psychosocial concerns that often relate to the experience of migration. Traditional familial roles and responsibilities are frequently challenged, exacerbated by sociocultural differences and inadequate understandings…

Robust kernel representation with statistical local features for face recognition.

PubMed

Yang, Meng; Zhang, Lei; Shiu, Simon Chi-Keung; Zhang, David

2013-06-01

Factors such as misalignment, pose variation, and occlusion make robust face recognition a difficult problem. It is known that statistical features such as local binary pattern are effective for local feature extraction, whereas the recently proposed sparse or collaborative representation-based classification has shown interesting results in robust face recognition. In this paper, we propose a novel robust kernel representation model with statistical local features (SLF) for robust face recognition. Initially, multipartition max pooling is used to enhance the invariance of SLF to image registration error. Then, a kernel-based representation model is proposed to fully exploit the discrimination information embedded in the SLF, and robust regression is adopted to effectively handle the occlusion in face images. Extensive experiments are conducted on benchmark face databases, including extended Yale B, AR (A. Martinez and R. Benavente), multiple pose, illumination, and expression (multi-PIE), facial recognition technology (FERET), face recognition grand challenge (FRGC), and labeled faces in the wild (LFW), which have different variations of lighting, expression, pose, and occlusions, demonstrating the promising performance of the proposed method.

The other-race and other-species effects in face perception – a subordinate-level analysis

PubMed Central

Dahl, Christoph D.; Rasch, Malte J.; Chen, Chien-Chung

2014-01-01

The ability of face discrimination is modulated by the frequency of exposure to a category of faces. In other words, lower discrimination performance was measured for infrequently encountered faces as opposed to frequently encountered ones. This phenomenon has been described in the literature: the own-race advantage, a benefit in processing own-race as opposed to the other-race faces, and the own-species advantage, a benefit in processing the conspecific type of faces as opposed to the heterospecific type. So far, the exact parameters that drive either of these two effects are not fully understood. In the following we present a full assessment of data in human participants describing the discrimination performances across two races (Asian and Caucasian) as well as a range of non-human primate faces (chimpanzee, Rhesus macaque and marmoset). We measured reaction times of Asian participants performing a delayed matching-to-sample task, and correlated the results with similarity estimates of facial configuration and face parts. We found faster discrimination of own-race above other-race/species faces. Further, we found a strong reliance on configural information in upright own-species/-race faces and on individual face parts in all inverted face classes, supporting the assumption of specialized processing for the face class of most frequent exposure. PMID:25285092

Expenditure and Revenue Problems in Central-City School Districts: Problems for the 1980s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Joseph F.; Hack, Walter G.

1983-01-01

Investigates the combination of expenditure and revenue problems facing central-city school districts. Examines educational overburden, related overburden, and cost differentials between central city and other types of districts. Also looks at tax capacity and efforts, and analyzes the effects of Federal and State activity on the problems of city…

Understanding eye movements in face recognition using hidden Markov models.

PubMed

Chuk, Tim; Chan, Antoni B; Hsiao, Janet H

2014-09-16

We use a hidden Markov model (HMM) based approach to analyze eye movement data in face recognition. HMMs are statistical models that are specialized in handling time-series data. We conducted a face recognition task with Asian participants, and model each participant's eye movement pattern with an HMM, which summarized the participant's scan paths in face recognition with both regions of interest and the transition probabilities among them. By clustering these HMMs, we showed that participants' eye movements could be categorized into holistic or analytic patterns, demonstrating significant individual differences even within the same culture. Participants with the analytic pattern had longer response times, but did not differ significantly in recognition accuracy from those with the holistic pattern. We also found that correct and wrong recognitions were associated with distinctive eye movement patterns; the difference between the two patterns lies in the transitions rather than locations of the fixations alone. © 2014 ARVO.

Face-iris multimodal biometric scheme based on feature level fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huo, Guang; Liu, Yuanning; Zhu, Xiaodong; Dong, Hongxing; He, Fei

2015-11-01

Unlike score level fusion, feature level fusion demands all the features extracted from unimodal traits with high distinguishability, as well as homogeneity and compatibility, which is difficult to achieve. Therefore, most multimodal biometric research focuses on score level fusion, whereas few investigate feature level fusion. We propose a face-iris recognition method based on feature level fusion. We build a special two-dimensional-Gabor filter bank to extract local texture features from face and iris images, and then transform them by histogram statistics into an energy-orientation variance histogram feature with lower dimensions and higher distinguishability. Finally, through a fusion-recognition strategy based on principal components analysis and support vector machine (FRSPS), feature level fusion and one-to-n identification are accomplished. The experimental results demonstrate that this method can not only effectively extract face and iris features but also provide higher recognition accuracy. Compared with some state-of-the-art fusion methods, the proposed method has a significant performance advantage.

Locally linear regression for pose-invariant face recognition.

PubMed

Chai, Xiujuan; Shan, Shiguang; Chen, Xilin; Gao, Wen

2007-07-01

The variation of facial appearance due to the viewpoint (/pose) degrades face recognition systems considerably, which is one of the bottlenecks in face recognition. One of the possible solutions is generating virtual frontal view from any given nonfrontal view to obtain a virtual gallery/probe face. Following this idea, this paper proposes a simple, but efficient, novel locally linear regression (LLR) method, which generates the virtual frontal view from a given nonfrontal face image. We first justify the basic assumption of the paper that there exists an approximate linear mapping between a nonfrontal face image and its frontal counterpart. Then, by formulating the estimation of the linear mapping as a prediction problem, we present the regression-based solution, i.e., globally linear regression. To improve the prediction accuracy in the case of coarse alignment, LLR is further proposed. In LLR, we first perform dense sampling in the nonfrontal face image to obtain many overlapped local patches. Then, the linear regression technique is applied to each small patch for the prediction of its virtual frontal patch. Through the combination of all these patches, the virtual frontal view is generated. The experimental results on the CMU PIE database show distinct advantage of the proposed method over Eigen light-field method.

Special discontinuities in nonlinearly elastic media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chugainova, A. P.

2017-06-01

Solutions of a nonlinear hyperbolic system of equations describing weakly nonlinear quasitransverse waves in a weakly anisotropic elastic medium are studied. The influence of small-scale processes of dissipation and dispersion is investigated. The small-scale processes determine the structure of discontinuities (shocks) and a set of discontinuities with a stationary structure. Among the discontinuities with a stationary structure, there are special ones that, in addition to relations following from conservation laws, satisfy additional relations required for the existence of their structure. In the phase plane, the structure of such discontinuities is represented by an integral curve joining two saddles. Special discontinuities lead to nonunique self-similar solutions of the Riemann problem. Asymptotics of non-self-similar problems for equations with dissipation and dispersion are found numerically. These asymptotics correspond to self-similar solutions of the problems.

Hyperspectral face recognition with spatiospectral information fusion and PLS regression.

PubMed

Uzair, Muhammad; Mahmood, Arif; Mian, Ajmal

2015-03-01

Hyperspectral imaging offers new opportunities for face recognition via improved discrimination along the spectral dimension. However, it poses new challenges, including low signal-to-noise ratio, interband misalignment, and high data dimensionality. Due to these challenges, the literature on hyperspectral face recognition is not only sparse but is limited to ad hoc dimensionality reduction techniques and lacks comprehensive evaluation. We propose a hyperspectral face recognition algorithm using a spatiospectral covariance for band fusion and partial least square regression for classification. Moreover, we extend 13 existing face recognition techniques, for the first time, to perform hyperspectral face recognition.We formulate hyperspectral face recognition as an image-set classification problem and evaluate the performance of seven state-of-the-art image-set classification techniques. We also test six state-of-the-art grayscale and RGB (color) face recognition algorithms after applying fusion techniques on hyperspectral images. Comparison with the 13 extended and five existing hyperspectral face recognition techniques on three standard data sets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms all by a significant margin. Finally, we perform band selection experiments to find the most discriminative bands in the visible and near infrared response spectrum.

Testing the Feasibility of a Briefer School-based Preventive Intervention with Aggressive Children: A Hybrid Intervention with Face-to-Face and Internet Components

PubMed Central

Lochman, John E.; Boxmeyer, Caroline L.; Jones, Shannon; Qu, Lixin; Ewoldsen, David; Nelson, W. Michael

2017-01-01

This study describes the results from a feasibility study of an innovative indicated prevention intervention with hybrid face-to-face and web-based components for preadolescent youth. This intervention includes a considerably briefer set of face-to-face sessions from the evidence-based Coping Power program and a carefully integrated internet component with practice and teaching activities and cartoon videos for children and for parents. The Coping Power — Internet Enhanced (CP-IE) program introduces a set of cognitive-behavioral skills in 12 small group sessions for children delivered during the school day and 7 group sessions for parents. Eight elementary schools were randomly assigned to CP-IE or to Control, and six children at each school were identified each year based on 4th grade teacher ratings of aggressive behavior. Path analyses of teacher-rated disruptive behavior outcomes for 91 fifth grade children, across two annual cohorts, indicated Control children had significantly greater increases in conduct problem behaviors across the 5th grade year than did CP-IE children. This much briefer version of Coping Power provided beneficial preventive effects on children’s behavior in the school setting similar to the effects of the longer version of Coping Power. The website materials appeared to successfully engage children, and parents’ use of the website predicted children’s changes in conduct problems across the year. PMID:28646974

Cross-modal face recognition using multi-matcher face scores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yufeng; Blasch, Erik

2015-05-01

The performance of face recognition can be improved using information fusion of multimodal images and/or multiple algorithms. When multimodal face images are available, cross-modal recognition is meaningful for security and surveillance applications. For example, a probe face is a thermal image (especially at nighttime), while only visible face images are available in the gallery database. Matching a thermal probe face onto the visible gallery faces requires crossmodal matching approaches. A few such studies were implemented in facial feature space with medium recognition performance. In this paper, we propose a cross-modal recognition approach, where multimodal faces are cross-matched in feature space and the recognition performance is enhanced with stereo fusion at image, feature and/or score level. In the proposed scenario, there are two cameras for stereo imaging, two face imagers (visible and thermal images) in each camera, and three recognition algorithms (circular Gaussian filter, face pattern byte, linear discriminant analysis). A score vector is formed with three cross-matched face scores from the aforementioned three algorithms. A classifier (e.g., k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, binomial logical regression [BLR]) is trained then tested with the score vectors by using 10-fold cross validations. The proposed approach was validated with a multispectral stereo face dataset from 105 subjects. Our experiments show very promising results: ACR (accuracy rate) = 97.84%, FAR (false accept rate) = 0.84% when cross-matching the fused thermal faces onto the fused visible faces by using three face scores and the BLR classifier.

Meta-analytic review of the development of face discrimination in infancy: Face race, face gender, infant age, and methodology moderate face discrimination.

PubMed

Sugden, Nicole A; Marquis, Alexandra R

2017-11-01

Infants show facility for discriminating between individual faces within hours of birth. Over the first year of life, infants' face discrimination shows continued improvement with familiar face types, such as own-race faces, but not with unfamiliar face types, like other-race faces. The goal of this meta-analytic review is to provide an effect size for infants' face discrimination ability overall, with own-race faces, and with other-race faces within the first year of life, how this differs with age, and how it is influenced by task methodology. Inclusion criteria were (a) infant participants aged 0 to 12 months, (b) completing a human own- or other-race face discrimination task, (c) with discrimination being determined by infant looking. Our analysis included 30 works (165 samples, 1,926 participants participated in 2,623 tasks). The effect size for infants' face discrimination was small, 6.53% greater than chance (i.e., equal looking to the novel and familiar). There was a significant difference in discrimination by race, overall (own-race, 8.18%; other-race, 3.18%) and between ages (own-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 7.32%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 9.17%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 7.68%; other-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 6.12%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 3.70%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 2.79%). Multilevel linear (mixed-effects) models were used to predict face discrimination; infants' capacity to discriminate faces is sensitive to face characteristics including race, gender, and emotion as well as the methods used, including task timing, coding method, and visual angle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

SPA face lift: SMAS plication-anchoring.

PubMed

Mottura, A Aldo

2011-08-01

A variation of the superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS) plication called SPA face lift is here described. An axial line and then two medial and lateral parallel lines are penciled on the skin from the lateral canthus to the earlobe to show the future plication area. The undermining zone is delimited 1 cm beyond the medial line. In face- and neck-lifting, such marks extend vertically to the neck. Once the skin is undermined up to the delimiting marks, the three lines are penciled again on the fat layer, and a running lock suture is used for plication, with big superficial bites between the two distal lines. In fatty faces, a strip of fat is removed along the axial line to avoid bulging that can be seen through the skin. Because the undermining is limited, minor swelling occurs, and the postoperative recovery is shorter and faster. The same three lines can be marked in the contralateral side or can differ in cases of asymmetry. This report describes 244 face-lifts without any facial nerve problems. The author managed five hematoma cases in which surgery to the neck was performed. Three patients had to be touched up for insufficient skin tension. The SPA technique is consistent and easy to learn.

Emotional Expression and Heart Rate in High-Risk Infants during the Face-To-Face/Still-Face

PubMed Central

Mattson, Whitney I.; Ekas, Naomi V.; Lambert, Brittany; Tronick, Ed; Lester, Barry M.; Messinger, Daniel S.

2013-01-01

In infants, eye constriction—the Duchenne marker—and mouth opening appear to index the intensity of both positive and negative facial expressions. We combined eye constriction and mouth opening that co-occurred with smiles and cry-faces (respectively, the prototypic expressions of infant joy and distress) to measure emotional expression intensity. Expression intensity and heart rate were measured throughout the Face-to-Face/Still Face (FFSF) in a sample of infants with prenatal cocaine exposure who were at risk for developmental difficulties. Smiles declined and cry-faces increased in the still-face episode, but the distribution of eye constriction and mouth opening in smiles and cry-faces did not differ across episodes of the FFSF. As time elapsed in the still face episode potential indices of intensity increased, cry-faces were more likely to be accompanied by eye constriction and mouth opening. During cry-faces there were also moderately stable individual differences in the quantity of eye constriction and mouth opening. Infant heart rate was higher during cry-faces and lower during smiles, but did not vary with intensity of expression or by episode. In sum, infants express more intense negative affect as the still-face progresses, but do not show clear differences in expressive intensity between episodes of the FFSF. PMID:24095807

Special Relativity as a Simple Geometry Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Abreu, Rodrigo; Guerra, Vasco

2009-01-01

The null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the constancy of the one-way speed of light in the "rest system" are used to formulate a simple problem, to be solved by elementary geometry techniques using a pair of compasses and non-graduated rulers. The solution consists of a drawing allowing a direct visualization of all the fundamental…

Early development of letter specialization in left fusiform is associated with better word reading and smaller fusiform face area.

PubMed

Centanni, Tracy M; Norton, Elizabeth S; Park, Anne; Beach, Sara D; Halverson, Kelly; Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Gaab, Nadine; Gabrieli, John DE

2018-03-05

A functional region of left fusiform gyrus termed "the visual word form area" (VWFA) develops during reading acquisition to respond more strongly to printed words than to other visual stimuli. Here, we examined responses to letters among 5- and 6-year-old early kindergarten children (N = 48) with little or no school-based reading instruction who varied in their reading ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to individual letters, false fonts, and faces in left and right fusiform gyri. We then evaluated whether signal change and size (spatial extent) of letter-sensitive cortex (greater activation for letters versus faces) and letter-specific cortex (greater activation for letters versus false fonts) in these regions related to (a) standardized measures of word-reading ability and (b) signal change and size of face-sensitive cortex (fusiform face area or FFA; greater activation for faces versus letters). Greater letter specificity, but not letter sensitivity, in left fusiform gyrus correlated positively with word reading scores. Across children, in the left fusiform gyrus, greater size of letter-sensitive cortex correlated with lesser size of FFA. These findings are the first to suggest that in beginning readers, development of letter responsivity in left fusiform cortex is associated with both better reading ability and also a reduction of the size of left FFA that may result in right-hemisphere dominance for face perception. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Difficulties facing physician mothers in Japan.

PubMed

Yamazaki, Yuka; Kozono, Yuki; Mori, Ryo; Marui, Eiji

2011-11-01

Despite recent increases in the number of female physicians graduating in Japan, their premature resignations after childbirth are contributing to the acute shortage of physicians. Previous Japanese studies have explored supportive measures in the workplace, but have rarely focused on the specific problems or concerns of physician-mothers. Therefore, this study explored the challenges facing Japanese physician-mothers in efforts to identify solutions for their retention. Open-ended questionnaires were mailed to 646 alumnae of Juntendo University School of Medicine. We asked subjects to describe their opinions about 'The challenges related to female physicians' resignations'. Comments gathered from alumnae who graduated between 6 and 30 years ago and have children were analyzed qualitatively. Overall, 249 physicians returned the questionnaire (response rate 38.5%), and 73 alumnae with children who graduated in the stated time period provided comments. The challenges facing physician-mothers mainly consisted of factors associated with Japanese society, family responsibilities, and work environment. Japanese society epitomized by traditional gender roles heightened stress related to family responsibilities and promoted gender discrimination at work environment. Additionally, changing Japanese society positively influenced working atmosphere and husband's support. Moreover, the introduction of educational curriculums that alleviated traditional gender role was proposed for pre- and post- medical students. Traditional gender roles encourage discrimination by male physicians or work-family conflicts. The problems facing female physicians involve more than just family responsibilities: diminishing the notion of gender role is key to helping retain them in the workforce. © 2011 Tohoku University Medical Press

A framework for the recognition of 3D faces and expressions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chao; Barreto, Armando

2006-04-01

Face recognition technology has been a focus both in academia and industry for the last couple of years because of its wide potential applications and its importance to meet the security needs of today's world. Most of the systems developed are based on 2D face recognition technology, which uses pictures for data processing. With the development of 3D imaging technology, 3D face recognition emerges as an alternative to overcome the difficulties inherent with 2D face recognition, i.e. sensitivity to illumination conditions and orientation positioning of the subject. But 3D face recognition still needs to tackle the problem of deformation of facial geometry that results from the expression changes of a subject. To deal with this issue, a 3D face recognition framework is proposed in this paper. It is composed of three subsystems: an expression recognition system, a system for the identification of faces with expression, and neutral face recognition system. A system for the recognition of faces with one type of expression (happiness) and neutral faces was implemented and tested on a database of 30 subjects. The results proved the feasibility of this framework.

Voicing on Virtual and Face to Face Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamat, Hamidah

2013-01-01

This paper presents and discusses findings of a study conducted on pre-service teachers' experiences in virtual and face to face discussions. Technology has brought learning nowadays beyond the classroom context or time zone. The learning context and process no longer rely solely on face to face communications in the presence of a teacher.…

Face to face with emotion: holistic face processing is modulated by emotional state.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Johnson, Kareem J; Tyson, Alyssa

2012-01-01

Negative emotions are linked with a local, rather than global, visual processing style, which may preferentially facilitate feature-based, relative to holistic, processing mechanisms. Because faces are typically processed holistically, and because social contexts are prime elicitors of emotions, we examined whether negative emotions decrease holistic processing of faces. We induced positive, negative, or neutral emotions via film clips and measured holistic processing before and after the induction: participants made judgements about cued parts of chimeric faces, and holistic processing was indexed by the interference caused by task-irrelevant face parts. Emotional state significantly modulated face-processing style, with the negative emotion induction leading to decreased holistic processing. Furthermore, self-reported change in emotional state correlated with changes in holistic processing. These results contrast with general assumptions that holistic processing of faces is automatic and immune to outside influences, and they illustrate emotion's power to modulate socially relevant aspects of visual perception.

Introduction: Unsolved Problems on Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oriols, X.; Ciliberto, S.

2016-05-01

This paper is an introduction to the special issue of the 7th Int. Conf. on Unsolved Problems on Noise (UPoN) that took place at Casa Convalescència in Barcelona (Spain) in July 2015. The aim of the UPoN conferences is to provide a forum for researchers working on different fields of noise, fluctuations and variability, where they present their scientific problems which resist solutions. The papers of this Special Issue reflect the interdisciplinary topics (physics, biology, circuits, financial markets, psychology, technology, etc) presented at the UPoN conference. Noise is not only a hindrance to signal detection, but it is indeed a valuable source of information (not present in the signal) that help us to get a deeper understanding on how Nature works. This special issue of the 7th International Conference on Unsolved Problems on Noise (UPoN) is dedicated to Laszlo Kish in the occasion of his 60th birthday. He organized the first edition of these UPoN conferences in Szeged (Hungary) in 1996. Many of us have greatly benefited from his ‘volcanic imagination in tackling new problems from unconventional points of views’.

Artificial intelligence and design: Opportunities, research problems and directions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Amarel, Saul

1990-01-01

The issues of industrial productivity and economic competitiveness are of major significance in the U.S. at present. By advancing the science of design, and by creating a broad computer-based methodology for automating the design of artifacts and of industrial processes, we can attain dramatic improvements in productivity. It is our thesis that developments in computer science, especially in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and in related areas of advanced computing, provide us with a unique opportunity to push beyond the present level of computer aided automation technology and to attain substantial advances in the understanding and mechanization of design processes. To attain these goals, we need to build on top of the present state of AI, and to accelerate research and development in areas that are especially relevant to design problems of realistic complexity. We propose an approach to the special challenges in this area, which combines 'core work' in AI with the development of systems for handling significant design tasks. We discuss the general nature of design problems, the scientific issues involved in studying them with the help of AI approaches, and the methodological/technical issues that one must face in developing AI systems for handling advanced design tasks. Looking at basic work in AI from the perspective of design automation, we identify a number of research problems that need special attention. These include finding solution methods for handling multiple interacting goals, formation problems, problem decompositions, and redesign problems; choosing representations for design problems with emphasis on the concept of a design record; and developing approaches for the acquisition and structuring of domain knowledge with emphasis on finding useful approximations to domain theories. Progress in handling these research problems will have major impact both on our understanding of design processes and their automation, and also on several fundamental questions

Sex differences in interhemispheric communication during face identity encoding: evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Godard, Ornella; Leleu, Arnaud; Rebaï, Mohamed; Fiori, Nicole

2013-01-01

Sex-related hemispheric lateralization and interhemispheric transmission times (IHTTs) were examined in twenty-four participants at the level of the first visual ERP components (P1 and N170) during face identity encoding in a divided visual-field paradigm. While no lateralization-related and sex-related differences were reflected in the P1 characteristics, these two factors modulated the N170. Indeed, N170 amplitudes indicated a right hemisphere (RH) dominance in men (and a more bilateral functioning in women). N170 latencies and the derived IHTTs confirmed the RH advantage in men but showed the reverse asymmetry in women. Altogether, the results of this study suggest a clear asymmetry in men and a more divided work between the hemispheres in women, with a tendency toward a left hemisphere (LH) advantage. Thus, by extending the pattern to the right-sided face processing, our results generalize previous findings from studies using other materials and indicating longer transfers from the specialized to the non-specialized hemisphere, especially in the male brain. Because asymmetries started from the N170 component, the first electrophysiological index of high-level perceptual processing on face representations, they also suggest a functional account for hemispheric lateralization and sex-related differences rather than a structural one. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Learning Compact Binary Face Descriptor for Face Recognition.

PubMed

Lu, Jiwen; Liong, Venice Erin; Zhou, Xiuzhuang; Zhou, Jie

2015-10-01

Binary feature descriptors such as local binary patterns (LBP) and its variations have been widely used in many face recognition systems due to their excellent robustness and strong discriminative power. However, most existing binary face descriptors are hand-crafted, which require strong prior knowledge to engineer them by hand. In this paper, we propose a compact binary face descriptor (CBFD) feature learning method for face representation and recognition. Given each face image, we first extract pixel difference vectors (PDVs) in local patches by computing the difference between each pixel and its neighboring pixels. Then, we learn a feature mapping to project these pixel difference vectors into low-dimensional binary vectors in an unsupervised manner, where 1) the variance of all binary codes in the training set is maximized, 2) the loss between the original real-valued codes and the learned binary codes is minimized, and 3) binary codes evenly distribute at each learned bin, so that the redundancy information in PDVs is removed and compact binary codes are obtained. Lastly, we cluster and pool these binary codes into a histogram feature as the final representation for each face image. Moreover, we propose a coupled CBFD (C-CBFD) method by reducing the modality gap of heterogeneous faces at the feature level to make our method applicable to heterogeneous face recognition. Extensive experimental results on five widely used face datasets show that our methods outperform state-of-the-art face descriptors.

MTR BUILDING INTERIOR, TRA603. BASEMENT. CAMERA IN WEST CORRIDOR FACING ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

MTR BUILDING INTERIOR, TRA-603. BASEMENT. CAMERA IN WEST CORRIDOR FACING SOUTH. FREIGHT ELEVATOR IS AT RIGHT OF VIEW. AT CENTER VIEW IS MTR VAULT NO. 1, USED TO STORE SPECIAL OR FISSIONABLE MATERIALS. INL NEGATIVE NO. HD46-6-3. Mike Crane, Photographer, 2/2005 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Reactor Area, Materials & Engineering Test Reactors, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Neural Correlates of Human and Monkey Face Processing in 9-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Lisa S.; Shannon, Robert W.; Nelson, Charles A.

2006-01-01

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests a gradual, experience-dependent specialization of cortical face processing systems that takes place largely in the 1st year of life. To further investigate these findings, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from typically developing 9-month-old infants presented with pictures of…

Emotional expression and heart rate in high-risk infants during the face-to-face/still-face.

PubMed

Mattson, Whitney I; Ekas, Naomi V; Lambert, Brittany; Tronick, Ed; Lester, Barry M; Messinger, Daniel S

2013-12-01

In infants, eye constriction-the Duchenne marker-and mouth opening appear to index the intensity of both positive and negative facial expressions. We combined eye constriction and mouth opening that co-occurred with smiles and cry-faces (respectively, the prototypic expressions of infant joy and distress) to measure emotional expression intensity. Expression intensity and heart rate were measured throughout the face-to-face/still-face (FFSF) in a sample of infants with prenatal cocaine exposure who were at risk for developmental difficulties. Smiles declined and cry-faces increased in the still-face episode, but the distribution of eye constriction and mouth opening in smiles and cry-faces did not differ across episodes of the FFSF. As time elapsed in the still face episode potential indices of intensity increased, cry-faces were more likely to be accompanied by eye constriction and mouth opening. During cry-faces there were also moderately stable individual differences in the quantity of eye constriction and mouth opening. Infant heart rate was higher during cry-faces and lower during smiles, but did not vary with intensity of expression or by episode. In sum, infants express more intense negative affect as the still-face progresses, but do not show clear differences in expressive intensity between episodes of the FFSF. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Face-n-Food: Gender Differences in Tuning to Faces.

PubMed

Pavlova, Marina A; Scheffler, Klaus; Sokolov, Alexander N

2015-01-01

Faces represent valuable signals for social cognition and non-verbal communication. A wealth of research indicates that women tend to excel in recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether females are better tuned to faces. We presented healthy adult females and males with a set of newly created food-plate images resembling faces (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Females not only more readily recognized the images as a face (they reported resembling a face on images, on which males still did not), but gave on overall more face responses. The findings are discussed in the light of gender differences in deficient face perception. As most neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental and psychosomatic disorders characterized by social brain abnormalities are sex specific, the task may serve as a valuable tool for uncovering impairments in visual face processing.

Face-n-Food: Gender Differences in Tuning to Faces

PubMed Central

Pavlova, Marina A.; Scheffler, Klaus; Sokolov, Alexander N.

2015-01-01

Faces represent valuable signals for social cognition and non-verbal communication. A wealth of research indicates that women tend to excel in recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether females are better tuned to faces. We presented healthy adult females and males with a set of newly created food-plate images resembling faces (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Females not only more readily recognized the images as a face (they reported resembling a face on images, on which males still did not), but gave on overall more face responses. The findings are discussed in the light of gender differences in deficient face perception. As most neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental and psychosomatic disorders characterized by social brain abnormalities are sex specific, the task may serve as a valuable tool for uncovering impairments in visual face processing. PMID:26154177

Simulations of dusty plasmas using a special-purpose computer system designed for gravitational N-body problems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yamamoto, K.; Mizuno, Y.; Hibino, S.

2006-01-15

Simulations of dusty plasmas were performed using GRAPE-6, a special-purpose computer designed for gravitational N-body problems. The collective behavior of dust particles, which are injected into the plasma, was studied by means of three-dimensional computer simulations. As an example of a dusty plasma simulation, experiments on Coulomb crystals in plasmas are simulated. Formation of a quasi-two-dimensional Coulomb crystal has been observed under typical laboratory conditions. Another example was to simulate movement of dust particles in plasmas under microgravity conditions. Fully three-dimensional spherical structures of dust clouds have been observed. For the simulation of a dusty plasma in microgravity with 3x10{supmore » 4} particles, GRAPE-6 can perform the whole operation 1000 times faster than by using a Pentium 4 1.6 GHz processor.« less

[Research of clinic and laboratory of face acupuncture effect and the exploration of their afferent pathways].

PubMed

Zhang, S; Tang, Z; Wu, Z; Li, L; Zhang, R

1996-01-01

This paper shows that face acupuncture point (Liver point through gallbladder point) has significant effect of promoting bile secretion on the patients of cholecystectomy and choledochotomy and drainage. Special different point is that face acupuncture stimulation has very obvious posteffect comparing with other three body acupuncture groups and this posteffect lasts more than fifty minuts. The results also show that the successful rate of face acupuncture anesthesia is better than body acupuncture anesthesia during the ligation of oviduct and subtotal gastrectomy. The above results are all analysed statistically and there is a very significant difference among them. During the research on domestic dog anesthesiaed by face acupuncture, the successful rate is 86.5%, moreover the analgesic effect of face acupuncture can be blocked by blocking bilateral postganglionic fibre of trigeminal ganglion with 2% procaine. The results imply that trigeminal ganglion is the main afferent way of stimulation information of face acupuncture.

Vantage point - A 'wicked' problem.

PubMed

Naish, Jane

2015-10-01

SENIOR NURSES everywhere are facing a 'wicked' problem, wicked in the sense that it seems to defy resolution. The problem is this: the national shortage of nurses, particularly of those at band 5, is forcing us to use agency nurses so that we have enough staff to provide patient care safely.

Some Pitfalls in Special Relativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chai, An-Ti

1973-01-01

The problem of observing a collision between two spaceships is utilized to illustrate the misuse of time dilation and length contraction, and the incorrect description of space-time coordinates in special relativity. (Author/DF)

The Caledonian face test: A new test of face discrimination.

PubMed

Logan, Andrew J; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2016-02-01

This study aimed to develop a clinical test of face perception which is applicable to a wide range of patients and can capture normal variability. The Caledonian face test utilises synthetic faces which combine simplicity with sufficient realism to permit individual identification. Face discrimination thresholds (i.e. minimum difference between faces required for accurate discrimination) were determined in an "odd-one-out" task. The difference between faces was controlled by an adaptive QUEST procedure. A broad range of face discrimination sensitivity was determined from a group (N=52) of young adults (mean 5.75%; SD 1.18; range 3.33-8.84%). The test is fast (3-4 min), repeatable (test-re-test r(2)=0.795) and demonstrates a significant inversion effect. The potential to identify impairments of face discrimination was evaluated by testing LM who reported a lifelong difficulty with face perception. While LM's impairment for two established face tests was close to the criterion for significance (Z-scores of -2.20 and -2.27) for the Caledonian face test, her Z-score was -7.26, implying a more than threefold higher sensitivity. The new face test provides a quantifiable and repeatable assessment of face discrimination ability. The enhanced sensitivity suggests that the Caledonian face test may be capable of detecting more subtle impairments of face perception than available tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Special event discrimination analysis: The TEXAR blind test and identification of the August 16, 1997 Kara Sea event. Final report, 13 September 1995--31 January 1998

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baumgardt, D.

1998-03-31

The International Monitoring System (IMS) for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) faces the serious challenge of being able to accurately and reliably identify seismic events in any region of the world. Extensive research has been performed in recent years on developing discrimination techniques which appear to classify seismic events into broad categories of source types, such as nuclear explosion, earthquake, and mine blast. This report examines in detail the problem of effectiveness of regional discrimination procedures in the application of waveform discriminants to Special Event identification and the issue of discriminant transportability.

Face-Lift Satisfaction Using the FACE-Q.

PubMed

Sinno, Sammy; Schwitzer, Jonathan; Anzai, Lavinia; Thorne, Charles H

2015-08-01

Face lifting is one of the most common operative procedures for facial aging and perhaps the procedure most synonymous with plastic surgery in the minds of the lay public, but no verifiable documentation of patient satisfaction exists in the literature. This study is the first to examine face-lift outcomes and patient satisfaction using a validated questionnaire. One hundred five patients undergoing a face lift performed by the senior author (C.H.T.) using a high, extended-superficial musculoaponeurotic system with submental platysma approximation technique were asked to complete anonymously the FACE-Q by e-mail. FACE-Q scores were assessed for each domain (range, 0 to 100), with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Fifty-three patients completed the FACE-Q (50.5 percent response rate). Patients demonstrated high satisfaction with facial appearance (mean ± SD, 80.7 ± 22.3), and quality of life, including social confidence (90.4 ± 16.6), psychological well-being (92.8 ± 14.3), and early life impact (92.2 ± 16.4). Patients also reported extremely high satisfaction with their decision to undergo face lifting (90.5 ± 15.9). On average, patients felt they appeared 6.9 years younger than their actual age. Patients were most satisfied with the appearance of their nasolabial folds (86.2 ± 18.5), cheeks (86.1 ± 25.4), and lower face/jawline (86.0 ± 20.6), compared with their necks (78.1 ± 25.6) and area under the chin (67.9 ± 32.3). Patients who responded in this study were extremely satisfied with their decision to undergo face lifting and the outcomes and quality of life following the procedure.

A Face Inversion Effect without a Face

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandman, Talia; Yovel, Galit

2012-01-01

Numerous studies have attributed the face inversion effect (FIE) to configural processing of internal facial features in upright but not inverted faces. Recent findings suggest that face mechanisms can be activated by faceless stimuli presented in the context of a body. Here we asked whether faceless stimuli with or without body context may induce…

Face Gear Technology for Aerospace Power Transmission Progresses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

The use of face gears in an advanced rotorcraft transmission design was first proposed by the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company during their contracted effort with the U.S. Army under the Advanced Rotorcraft Transmission (ART) program. Face gears would be used to turn the corner between the horizontal gas turbine engine and the vertical output rotor shaft--a function currently done by spiral bevel gears. This novel gearing arrangement would substantially lower the drive system weight partly because a face gear mesh would be used to split the input power between two output gears. However, the use of face gears and their ability to operate successfully at the speeds and loads required for an aerospace environment was unknown. Therefore a proof-of-concept phase with an existing test stand at the NASA Lewis Research Center was pursued. Hardware was designed that could be tested in Lewis' Spiral Bevel Gear Test Rig. The initial testing indicated that the face gear mesh was a feasible design that could be used at high speeds and load. Surface pitting fatigue was the typical failure mode, and that could lead to tooth fracture. An interim project was conducted to see if slight modifications to the gear tooth geometry or an alternative heat treating process could overcome the surface fatigue problems. From the initial and interim tests, it was apparent that for the surface fatigue problems to be overcome the manufacturing process used for this component would have to be developed to the level used for spiral bevel gears. The current state of the art for face gear manufacturing required using less than optimal gear materials and manufacturing techniques because the surface of the tooth form does not receive final finishing after heat treatment as it does for spiral bevel gears. This resulted in less than desirable surface hardness and manufacturing tolerances. An Advanced Research and Projects Agency (ARPA) Technology Reinvestment Project has been funded to investigate

Consumer Education: A Teaching-Learning Unit on the Rights and Responsibilities of all Consumers and Special Problems of Elderly Consumers, Poor Consumers, Handicapped Consumers, Non-English Speaking Consumers and Nonreaders, Minors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tennessee Univ., Knoxville.

To help high school students understand the role of consumers in the everyday world, the teaching guide presents objectives and activities related to seven consumer topics. Topics are rights and responsibilities of all consumers, common transportation concerns of consumers with special problems, and problems which particularly affect consumers who…

Youth Violence as Adaptation? Introduction to the Special Issue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swisher, Raymond R.; Latzman, Robert D.

2008-01-01

This article introduces the special issue of the journal on the topic of youth violence as adaptation to community violence. Contrary to the predominant perspective that youth violence is a sign of dysfunction or maladaptation, the articles collected here consider whether some youth violence may have positively adaptive consequences in the face of…

Face to Face Communications in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Malcolm M.; Davon, Bonnie P. (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

It has been reported that human face-to-face communications in space are compromised by facial edema, variations in the orientations of speakers and listeners, and background noises that are encountered in the shuttle and in space stations. To date, nearly all reports have been anecdotal or subjective, in the form of post-flight interviews or questionnaires; objective and quantitative data are generally lacking. Although it is acknowledged that efficient face-to-face communications are essential for astronauts to work safely and effectively, specific ways in which the space environment interferes with non-linguistic communication cues are poorly documented. Because we have only a partial understanding of how non-linguistic communication cues may change with mission duration, it is critically important to obtain objective data, and to evaluate these cues under well-controlled experimental conditions.

Face recognition system for set-top box-based intelligent TV.

PubMed

Lee, Won Oh; Kim, Yeong Gon; Hong, Hyung Gil; Park, Kang Ryoung

2014-11-18

Despite the prevalence of smart TVs, many consumers continue to use conventional TVs with supplementary set-top boxes (STBs) because of the high cost of smart TVs. However, because the processing power of a STB is quite low, the smart TV functionalities that can be implemented in a STB are very limited. Because of this, negligible research has been conducted regarding face recognition for conventional TVs with supplementary STBs, even though many such studies have been conducted with smart TVs. In terms of camera sensors, previous face recognition systems have used high-resolution cameras, cameras with high magnification zoom lenses, or camera systems with panning and tilting devices that can be used for face recognition from various positions. However, these cameras and devices cannot be used in intelligent TV environments because of limitations related to size and cost, and only small, low cost web-cameras can be used. The resulting face recognition performance is degraded because of the limited resolution and quality levels of the images. Therefore, we propose a new face recognition system for intelligent TVs in order to overcome the limitations associated with low resource set-top box and low cost web-cameras. We implement the face recognition system using a software algorithm that does not require special devices or cameras. Our research has the following four novelties: first, the candidate regions in a viewer's face are detected in an image captured by a camera connected to the STB via low processing background subtraction and face color filtering; second, the detected candidate regions of face are transmitted to a server that has high processing power in order to detect face regions accurately; third, in-plane rotations of the face regions are compensated based on similarities between the left and right half sub-regions of the face regions; fourth, various poses of the viewer's face region are identified using five templates obtained during the initial user

Beyond the FFA: The Role of the Ventral Anterior Temporal Lobes in Face Processing

PubMed Central

Collins, Jessica A.; Olson, Ingrid R.

2014-01-01

Extensive research has supported the existence of a specialized face-processing network that is distinct from the visual processing areas used for general object recognition. The majority of this work has been aimed at characterizing the response properties of the fusiform face area (FFA) and the occipital face area (OFA), which together are thought to constitute the core network of brain areas responsible for facial identification. Although accruing evidence has shown that face-selective patches in the ventral anterior temporal lobes (vATLs) are interconnected with the FFA and OFA, and that they play a role in facial identification, the relative contribution of these brain areas to the core face-processing network has remained unarticulated. Here we review recent research critically implicating the vATLs in face perception and memory. We propose that current models of face processing should be revised such that the ventral anterior temporal lobes serve a centralized role in the visual face-processing network. We speculate that a hierarchically organized system of face processing areas extends bilaterally from the inferior occipital gyri to the vATLs, with facial representations becoming increasingly complex and abstracted from low-level perceptual features as they move forward along this network. The anterior temporal face areas may serve as the apex of this hierarchy, instantiating the final stages of face recognition. We further argue that the anterior temporal face areas are ideally suited to serve as an interface between face perception and face memory, linking perceptual representations of individual identity with person-specific semantic knowledge. PMID:24937188

New and Emerging Problems in School Adminstration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

TenHaken, Richard E.

This paper examines a number of problems facing school board members and educational administrators today and suggests some possible approaches to addressing those problems effectively. In considering each problem area, the author emphasizes its impact on the activities and responsibilities of school officials and discusses concrete steps they can…

Mapping face categorization in the human ventral occipitotemporal cortex with direct neural intracranial recordings.

PubMed

Rossion, Bruno; Jacques, Corentin; Jonas, Jacques

2018-02-26

The neural basis of face categorization has been widely investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), identifying a set of face-selective local regions in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC). However, indirect recording of neural activity with fMRI is associated with large fluctuations of signal across regions, often underestimating face-selective responses in the anterior VOTC. While direct recording of neural activity with subdural grids of electrodes (electrocorticography, ECoG) or depth electrodes (stereotactic electroencephalography, SEEG) offers a unique opportunity to fill this gap in knowledge, these studies rather reveal widely distributed face-selective responses. Moreover, intracranial recordings are complicated by interindividual variability in neuroanatomy, ambiguity in definition, and quantification of responses of interest, as well as limited access to sulci with ECoG. Here, we propose to combine SEEG in large samples of individuals with fast periodic visual stimulation to objectively define, quantify, and characterize face categorization across the whole VOTC. This approach reconciles the wide distribution of neural face categorization responses with their (right) hemispheric and regional specialization, and reveals several face-selective regions in anterior VOTC sulci. We outline the challenges of this research program to understand the neural basis of face categorization and high-level visual recognition in general. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

A novel thermal face recognition approach using face pattern words

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yufeng

2010-04-01

A reliable thermal face recognition system can enhance the national security applications such as prevention against terrorism, surveillance, monitoring and tracking, especially at nighttime. The system can be applied at airports, customs or high-alert facilities (e.g., nuclear power plant) for 24 hours a day. In this paper, we propose a novel face recognition approach utilizing thermal (long wave infrared) face images that can automatically identify a subject at both daytime and nighttime. With a properly acquired thermal image (as a query image) in monitoring zone, the following processes will be employed: normalization and denoising, face detection, face alignment, face masking, Gabor wavelet transform, face pattern words (FPWs) creation, face identification by similarity measure (Hamming distance). If eyeglasses are present on a subject's face, an eyeglasses mask will be automatically extracted from the querying face image, and then masked with all comparing FPWs (no more transforms). A high identification rate (97.44% with Top-1 match) has been achieved upon our preliminary face dataset (of 39 subjects) from the proposed approach regardless operating time and glasses-wearing condition.e

Russian Military Reform: Problems and Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-25

RUSSIAN MILITARY REFORM : PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL ZURAB AGLADZE Georgian Army...USAWC STRATEGIC REASERCH PROJECT RUSSIAN MILITARY REFORM : PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES by Lieutenant Colonel...noncommissioned officers still continue to be unsolved. Despite some successes, Russian military reform still faces many challenges that will

Face time: educating face transplant candidates.

PubMed

Lamparello, Brooke M; Bueno, Ericka M; Diaz-Siso, Jesus Rodrigo; Sisk, Geoffroy C; Pomahac, Bohdan

2013-01-01

Face transplantation is the innovative application of microsurgery and immunology to restore appearance and function to those with severe facial disfigurements. Our group aims to establish a multidisciplinary education program that can facilitate informed consent and build a strong knowledge base in patients to enhance adherence to medication regimes, recovery, and quality of life. We analyzed handbooks from our institution's solid organ transplant programs to identify topics applicable to face transplant patients. The team identified unique features of face transplantation that warrant comprehensive patient education. We created a 181-page handbook to provide subjects interested in pursuing transplantation with a written source of information on the process and team members and to address concerns they may have. While the handbook covers a wide range of topics, it is easy to understand and visually appealing. Face transplantation has many unique aspects that must be relayed to the patients pursuing this novel therapy. Since candidates lack third-party support groups and programs, the transplant team must provide an extensive educational component to enhance this complex process. As face transplantation continues to develop, programs must create sound education programs that address patients' needs and concerns to facilitate optimal care.

Special Libraries, Problems and Cooperative Potentials; Prepared for the National Advisory Commission on Libraries. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havlik, Robert J.; And Others

A three part approach was taken in this situation report on the role of the special libraries in the United States. First, several background papers were prepared about the definition and state-of-the-art of the field of special librarianship. These papers are: (1) Shera, Jesse H., "Special Libraries--Why 'Special'?, (2) Ash, Lee,…

Feature level fusion of hand and face biometrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, Arun A.; Govindarajan, Rohin

2005-03-01

Multibiometric systems utilize the evidence presented by multiple biometric sources (e.g., face and fingerprint, multiple fingers of a user, multiple matchers, etc.) in order to determine or verify the identity of an individual. Information from multiple sources can be consolidated in several distinct levels, including the feature extraction level, match score level and decision level. While fusion at the match score and decision levels have been extensively studied in the literature, fusion at the feature level is a relatively understudied problem. In this paper we discuss fusion at the feature level in 3 different scenarios: (i) fusion of PCA and LDA coefficients of face; (ii) fusion of LDA coefficients corresponding to the R,G,B channels of a face image; (iii) fusion of face and hand modalities. Preliminary results are encouraging and help in highlighting the pros and cons of performing fusion at this level. The primary motivation of this work is to demonstrate the viability of such a fusion and to underscore the importance of pursuing further research in this direction.

Siblings are special: initial test of a new approach for preventing youth behavior problems.

PubMed

Feinberg, Mark E; Solmeyer, Anna R; Hostetler, Michelle L; Sakuma, Kari-Lyn; Jones, Damon; McHale, Susan M

2013-08-01

A growing body of research documents the significance of siblings and sibling relationships for development, mental health, and behavioral risk across childhood and adolescence. Nonetheless, few well-designed efforts have been undertaken to promote positive and reduce negative youth outcomes by enhancing sibling relationships. Based on a theoretical model of sibling influences, we conducted a randomized trial of Siblings Are Special (SIBS), a group-format afterschool program for fifth graders with a younger sibling in second through fourth grades, which entailed 12 weekly afterschool sessions and three Family Nights. We tested program efficacy with a pre- and post-test design with 174 families randomly assigned to condition. In home visits at both time points, we collected data via parent questionnaires, child interviews, and observer-rated videotaped interactions and teachers rated children's behavior at school. The program enhanced positive sibling relationships, appropriate strategies for parenting siblings, and child self-control, social competence, and academic performance; program exposure was also associated with reduced maternal depression and child internalizing problems. Results were robust across the sample, not qualified by sibling gender, age, family demographics, or baseline risk. No effects were found for sibling conflict, collusion, or child externalizing problems; we will examine follow-up data to determine if short-term impacts lead to reduced negative behaviors over time. The breadth of the SIBS program's impact is consistent with research suggesting that siblings are an important influence on development and adjustment and supports our argument that a sibling focus should be incorporated into youth and family-oriented prevention programs. Copyright © 2013 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Future Problem Solving Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crabbe, Anne B.

1989-01-01

Describes the Future Problem Solving Program, in which students from the U.S. and around the world are tackling some complex challenges facing society, ranging from acid rain to terrorism. The program uses a creative problem solving process developed for business and industry. A sixth-grade toxic waste cleanup project illustrates the process.…

Empathy and face processing in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Rigby, Sarah N; Stoesz, Brenda M; Jakobson, Lorna S

2018-06-01

Many factors contribute to social difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of the present work was to determine whether atypicalities in how individuals with ASD process static, socially engaging faces persist when nonrigid facial motion cues are present. We also sought to explore the relationships between various face processing abilities and individual differences in autism symptom severity and traits such as empathy. Participants included 16 adults with ASD without intellectual impairment and 16 sex- and age-matched controls. Mean Verbal IQ was comparable across groups [t(30) = 0.70, P = 0.49]. The two groups responded similarly to many of the experimental manipulations; however, relative to controls, participants with ASD responded more slowly to dynamic expressive faces, even when no judgment was required; were less accurate at identity matching with static and dynamic faces; and needed more time to make identity and expression judgments [F(1, 30) ≥ 6.37, P ≤ 0.017, η p 2  ≥ 0.175 in all cases], particularly when the faces were moving [F(1, 30) = 3.40, P = 0.072, η p 2  = 0.104]. In the full sample, as social autistic traits increased and empathic skills declined, participants needed more time to judge static identity, and static or dynamic expressions [0.43 < |r s | < 0.56]. The results suggest that adults with ASD show general impairments in face and motion processing and support the view that an examination of individual variation in particular personality traits and abilities is important for advancing our understanding of face perception. Autism Res 2018, 11: 942-955. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Our findings suggest that people with ASD have problems processing expressive faces, especially when seen in motion. It is important to learn who is most at risk for face processing problems, given that in the general population such

An Examination of Special Focus Facility Nursing Homes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castle, Nicholas G.; Engberg, John

2010-01-01

Purpose: Nursing facilities that are determined to have a greater number of quality problems, more serious problems than average, and a demonstrated pattern of quality problems are included in the Special Focus Facility (SFF) initiative. The purpose of this research was to provide descriptive information on these SFFs and to examine the quality…

From face processing to face recognition: Comparing three different processing levels.

PubMed

Besson, G; Barragan-Jason, G; Thorpe, S J; Fabre-Thorpe, M; Puma, S; Ceccaldi, M; Barbeau, E J

2017-01-01

Verifying that a face is from a target person (e.g. finding someone in the crowd) is a critical ability of the human face processing system. Yet how fast this can be performed is unknown. The 'entry-level shift due to expertise' hypothesis suggests that - since humans are face experts - processing faces should be as fast - or even faster - at the individual than at superordinate levels. In contrast, the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis suggests that faces are processed from coarse to fine, so that the opposite pattern should be observed. To clarify this debate, three different face processing levels were compared: (1) a superordinate face categorization level (i.e. detecting human faces among animal faces), (2) a face familiarity level (i.e. recognizing famous faces among unfamiliar ones) and (3) verifying that a face is from a target person, our condition of interest. The minimal speed at which faces can be categorized (∼260ms) or recognized as familiar (∼360ms) has largely been documented in previous studies, and thus provides boundaries to compare our condition of interest to. Twenty-seven participants were included. The recent Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure paradigm (SAB) was used since it constrains participants to use their fastest strategy. Stimuli were presented either upright or inverted. Results revealed that verifying that a face is from a target person (minimal RT at ∼260ms) was remarkably fast but longer than the face categorization level (∼240ms) and was more sensitive to face inversion. In contrast, it was much faster than recognizing a face as familiar (∼380ms), a level severely affected by face inversion. Face recognition corresponding to finding a specific person in a crowd thus appears achievable in only a quarter of a second. In favor of the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis or coarse-to-fine account of the face visual hierarchy, these results suggest a graded engagement of the face processing system across processing

Fitness costs of worker specialization for ant societies

PubMed Central

Jongepier, Evelien; Foitzik, Susanne

2016-01-01

Division of labour is of fundamental importance for the success of societies, yet little is known about how individual specialization affects the fitness of the group as a whole. While specialized workers may be more efficient in the tasks they perform than generalists, they may also lack the flexibility to respond to rapid shifts in task needs. Such rigidity could impose fitness costs when societies face dynamic and unpredictable events, such as an attack by socially parasitic slavemakers. Here, we experimentally assess the colony-level fitness consequences of behavioural specialization in Temnothorax longispinosus ants that are attacked by the slavemaker ant T. americanus. We manipulated the social organization of 102 T. longispinosus colonies, based on the behavioural responses of all 3842 workers. We find that strict specialization is disadvantageous for a colony's annual reproduction and growth during slave raids. These fitness costs may favour generalist strategies in dynamic environments, as we also demonstrate that societies exposed to slavemakers in the field show a lower degree of specialization than those originating from slavemaker-free populations. Our findings provide an explanation for the ubiquity of generalists and highlight their importance for the flexibility and functional robustness of entire societies. PMID:26763706

Conjunction Faces Alter Confidence-Accuracy Relations for Old Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinitz, Mark Tippens; Loftus, Geoffrey R.

2017-01-01

The authors used a state-trace methodology to investigate the informational dimensions used to recognize old and conjunction faces (made by combining parts of separately studied faces). Participants in 3 experiments saw faces presented for 1 s each. They then received a recognition test; faces were presented for varying brief durations and…

Bayesian Face Recognition and Perceptual Narrowing in Face-Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balas, Benjamin

2012-01-01

During the first year of life, infants' face recognition abilities are subject to "perceptual narrowing", the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in…

Holistic face training enhances face processing in developmental prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Cohan, Sarah; Nakayama, Ken

2014-01-01

Prosopagnosia has largely been regarded as an untreatable disorder. However, recent case studies using cognitive training have shown that it is possible to enhance face recognition abilities in individuals with developmental prosopagnosia. Our goal was to determine if this approach could be effective in a larger population of developmental prosopagnosics. We trained 24 developmental prosopagnosics using a 3-week online face-training program targeting holistic face processing. Twelve subjects with developmental prosopagnosia were assessed before and after training, and the other 12 were assessed before and after a waiting period, they then performed the training, and were then assessed again. The assessments included measures of front-view face discrimination, face discrimination with view-point changes, measures of holistic face processing, and a 5-day diary to quantify potential real-world improvements. Compared with the waiting period, developmental prosopagnosics showed moderate but significant overall training-related improvements on measures of front-view face discrimination. Those who reached the more difficult levels of training (‘better’ trainees) showed the strongest improvements in front-view face discrimination and showed significantly increased holistic face processing to the point of being similar to that of unimpaired control subjects. Despite challenges in characterizing developmental prosopagnosics’ everyday face recognition and potential biases in self-report, results also showed modest but consistent self-reported diary improvements. In summary, we demonstrate that by using cognitive training that targets holistic processing, it is possible to enhance face perception across a group of developmental prosopagnosics and further suggest that those who improved the most on the training task received the greatest benefits. PMID:24691394

Face Recognition Using Local Quantized Patterns and Gabor Filters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khryashchev, V.; Priorov, A.; Stepanova, O.; Nikitin, A.

2015-05-01

The problem of face recognition in a natural or artificial environment has received a great deal of researchers' attention over the last few years. A lot of methods for accurate face recognition have been proposed. Nevertheless, these methods often fail to accurately recognize the person in difficult scenarios, e.g. low resolution, low contrast, pose variations, etc. We therefore propose an approach for accurate and robust face recognition by using local quantized patterns and Gabor filters. The estimation of the eye centers is used as a preprocessing stage. The evaluation of our algorithm on different samples from a standardized FERET database shows that our method is invariant to the general variations of lighting, expression, occlusion and aging. The proposed approach allows about 20% correct recognition accuracy increase compared with the known face recognition algorithms from the OpenCV library. The additional use of Gabor filters can significantly improve the robustness to changes in lighting conditions.

Unraveling the Mystery of the Origin of Mathematical Problems: Using a Problem-Posing Framework with Prospective Mathematics Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Contreras, Jose

2007-01-01

In this article, I model how a problem-posing framework can be used to enhance our abilities to systematically generate mathematical problems by modifying the attributes of a given problem. The problem-posing model calls for the application of the following fundamental mathematical processes: proving, reversing, specializing, generalizing, and…

The Janus Face of Stress on Reproduction: From Health to Disease

PubMed Central

Zelena, Dóra

2015-01-01

Parenthood is a fundamental feature of all known life. However, infertility has been recognized as a public health issue worldwide. But even when the offspring are conceived, in utero problems can lead to immediate (abortion), early (birth), and late (adulthood) consequences. One of the most studied factors is stress. However, stress response is, per se, of adaptive nature allowing the organism to cope with challenges. Stressors lead to deterioration if one is faced with too long lasting, too many, and seemingly unsolvable situations. In stress adaptation the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and the resulting glucocorticoid elevation are one of the most important mechanisms. At cellular level stress can be defined as an unbalance between production of free radicals and antioxidant defenses. Oxidative stress is widely accepted as an important pathogenic mechanism in different diseases including infertility. On the other hand, the goal of free radical production is to protect the cells from infectious entities. This review aims to summarize the negative and positive influence of stress on reproduction as a process leading to healthy progeny. Special emphasis was given to the balance at the level of the organism and cells. PMID:25945091

Hierarchical Spatio-Temporal Probabilistic Graphical Model with Multiple Feature Fusion for Binary Facial Attribute Classification in Real-World Face Videos.

PubMed

Demirkus, Meltem; Precup, Doina; Clark, James J; Arbel, Tal

2016-06-01

Recent literature shows that facial attributes, i.e., contextual facial information, can be beneficial for improving the performance of real-world applications, such as face verification, face recognition, and image search. Examples of face attributes include gender, skin color, facial hair, etc. How to robustly obtain these facial attributes (traits) is still an open problem, especially in the presence of the challenges of real-world environments: non-uniform illumination conditions, arbitrary occlusions, motion blur and background clutter. What makes this problem even more difficult is the enormous variability presented by the same subject, due to arbitrary face scales, head poses, and facial expressions. In this paper, we focus on the problem of facial trait classification in real-world face videos. We have developed a fully automatic hierarchical and probabilistic framework that models the collective set of frame class distributions and feature spatial information over a video sequence. The experiments are conducted on a large real-world face video database that we have collected, labelled and made publicly available. The proposed method is flexible enough to be applied to any facial classification problem. Experiments on a large, real-world video database McGillFaces [1] of 18,000 video frames reveal that the proposed framework outperforms alternative approaches, by up to 16.96 and 10.13%, for the facial attributes of gender and facial hair, respectively.

The complex duration perception of emotional faces: effects of face direction.

PubMed

Kliegl, Katrin M; Limbrecht-Ecklundt, Kerstin; Dürr, Lea; Traue, Harald C; Huckauf, Anke

2015-01-01

The perceived duration of emotional face stimuli strongly depends on the expressed emotion. But, emotional faces also differ regarding a number of other features like gaze, face direction, or sex. Usually, these features have been controlled by only using pictures of female models with straight gaze and face direction. Doi and Shinohara (2009) reported that an overestimation of angry faces could only be found when the model's gaze was oriented toward the observer. We aimed at replicating this effect for face direction. Moreover, we explored the effect of face direction on the duration perception sad faces. Controlling for the sex of the face model and the participant, female and male participants rated the duration of neutral, angry, and sad face stimuli of both sexes photographed from different perspectives in a bisection task. In line with current findings, we report a significant overestimation of angry compared to neutral face stimuli that was modulated by face direction. Moreover, the perceived duration of sad face stimuli did not differ from that of neutral faces and was not influenced by face direction. Furthermore, we found that faces of the opposite sex appeared to last longer than those of the same sex. This outcome is discussed with regards to stimulus parameters like the induced arousal, social relevance, and an evolutionary context.

Sparse Feature Extraction for Pose-Tolerant Face Recognition.

PubMed

Abiantun, Ramzi; Prabhu, Utsav; Savvides, Marios

2014-10-01

Automatic face recognition performance has been steadily improving over years of research, however it remains significantly affected by a number of factors such as illumination, pose, expression, resolution and other factors that can impact matching scores. The focus of this paper is the pose problem which remains largely overlooked in most real-world applications. Specifically, we focus on one-to-one matching scenarios where a query face image of a random pose is matched against a set of gallery images. We propose a method that relies on two fundamental components: (a) A 3D modeling step to geometrically correct the viewpoint of the face. For this purpose, we extend a recent technique for efficient synthesis of 3D face models called 3D Generic Elastic Model. (b) A sparse feature extraction step using subspace modeling and ℓ1-minimization to induce pose-tolerance in coefficient space. This in return enables the synthesis of an equivalent frontal-looking face, which can be used towards recognition. We show significant performance improvements in verification rates compared to commercial matchers, and also demonstrate the resilience of the proposed method with respect to degrading input quality. We find that the proposed technique is able to match non-frontal images to other non-frontal images of varying angles.

Specialized computer architectures for computational aerodynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stevenson, D. K.

1978-01-01

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics has made significant progress in modelling aerodynamic phenomena. Currently, one of the major barriers to future development lies in the compute-intensive nature of the numerical formulations and the relative high cost of performing these computations on commercially available general purpose computers, a cost high with respect to dollar expenditure and/or elapsed time. Today's computing technology will support a program designed to create specialized computing facilities to be dedicated to the important problems of computational aerodynamics. One of the still unresolved questions is the organization of the computing components in such a facility. The characteristics of fluid dynamic problems which will have significant impact on the choice of computer architecture for a specialized facility are reviewed.

Facial approximation-from facial reconstruction synonym to face prediction paradigm.

PubMed

Stephan, Carl N

2015-05-01

Facial approximation was first proposed as a synonym for facial reconstruction in 1987 due to dissatisfaction with the connotations the latter label held. Since its debut, facial approximation's identity has morphed as anomalies in face prediction have accumulated. Now underpinned by differences in what problems are thought to count as legitimate, facial approximation can no longer be considered a synonym for, or subclass of, facial reconstruction. Instead, two competing paradigms of face prediction have emerged, namely: facial approximation and facial reconstruction. This paper shines a Kuhnian lens across the discipline of face prediction to comprehensively review these developments and outlines the distinguishing features between the two paradigms. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Face recognition using total margin-based adaptive fuzzy support vector machines.

PubMed

Liu, Yi-Hung; Chen, Yen-Ting

2007-01-01

This paper presents a new classifier called total margin-based adaptive fuzzy support vector machines (TAF-SVM) that deals with several problems that may occur in support vector machines (SVMs) when applied to the face recognition. The proposed TAF-SVM not only solves the overfitting problem resulted from the outlier with the approach of fuzzification of the penalty, but also corrects the skew of the optimal separating hyperplane due to the very imbalanced data sets by using different cost algorithm. In addition, by introducing the total margin algorithm to replace the conventional soft margin algorithm, a lower generalization error bound can be obtained. Those three functions are embodied into the traditional SVM so that the TAF-SVM is proposed and reformulated in both linear and nonlinear cases. By using two databases, the Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) multiview and the facial recognition technology (FERET) face databases, and using the kernel Fisher's discriminant analysis (KFDA) algorithm to extract discriminating face features, experimental results show that the proposed TAF-SVM is superior to SVM in terms of the face-recognition accuracy. The results also indicate that the proposed TAF-SVM can achieve smaller error variances than SVM over a number of tests such that better recognition stability can be obtained.

Face detection and eyeglasses detection for thermal face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yufeng

2012-01-01

Thermal face recognition becomes an active research direction in human identification because it does not rely on illumination condition. Face detection and eyeglasses detection are necessary steps prior to face recognition using thermal images. Infrared light cannot go through glasses and thus glasses will appear as dark areas in a thermal image. One possible solution is to detect eyeglasses and to exclude the eyeglasses areas before face matching. In thermal face detection, a projection profile analysis algorithm is proposed, where region growing and morphology operations are used to segment the body of a subject; then the derivatives of two projections (horizontal and vertical) are calculated and analyzed to locate a minimal rectangle of containing the face area. Of course, the searching region of a pair of eyeglasses is within the detected face area. The eyeglasses detection algorithm should produce either a binary mask if eyeglasses present, or an empty set if no eyeglasses at all. In the proposed eyeglasses detection algorithm, block processing, region growing, and priori knowledge (i.e., low mean and variance within glasses areas, the shapes and locations of eyeglasses) are employed. The results of face detection and eyeglasses detection are quantitatively measured and analyzed using the manually defined ground truths (for both face and eyeglasses). Our experimental results shown that the proposed face detection and eyeglasses detection algorithms performed very well in contrast with the predefined ground truths.

A causal relationship between face-patch activity and face-detection behavior.

PubMed

Sadagopan, Srivatsun; Zarco, Wilbert; Freiwald, Winrich A

2017-04-04

The primate brain contains distinct areas densely populated by face-selective neurons. One of these, face-patch ML, contains neurons selective for contrast relationships between face parts. Such contrast-relationships can serve as powerful heuristics for face detection. However, it is unknown whether neurons with such selectivity actually support face-detection behavior. Here, we devised a naturalistic face-detection task and combined it with fMRI-guided pharmacological inactivation of ML to test whether ML is of critical importance for real-world face detection. We found that inactivation of ML impairs face detection. The effect was anatomically specific, as inactivation of areas outside ML did not affect face detection, and it was categorically specific, as inactivation of ML impaired face detection while sparing body and object detection. These results establish that ML function is crucial for detection of faces in natural scenes, performing a critical first step on which other face processing operations can build.

Examining problem solving in physics-intensive Ph.D. research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leak, Anne E.; Rothwell, Susan L.; Olivera, Javier; Zwickl, Benjamin; Vosburg, Jarrett; Martin, Kelly Norris

2017-12-01

Problem-solving strategies learned by physics undergraduates should prepare them for real-world contexts as they transition from students to professionals. Yet, graduate students in physics-intensive research face problems that go beyond problem sets they experienced as undergraduates and are solved by different strategies than are typically learned in undergraduate coursework. This paper expands the notion of problem solving by characterizing the breadth of problems and problem-solving processes carried out by graduate students in physics-intensive research. We conducted semi-structured interviews with ten graduate students to determine the routine, difficult, and important problems they engage in and problem-solving strategies they found useful in their research. A qualitative typological analysis resulted in the creation of a three-dimensional framework: context, activity, and feature (that made the problem challenging). Problem contexts extended beyond theory and mathematics to include interactions with lab equipment, data, software, and people. Important and difficult contexts blended social and technical skills. Routine problem activities were typically well defined (e.g., troubleshooting), while difficult and important ones were more open ended and had multiple solution paths (e.g., evaluating options). In addition to broadening our understanding of problems faced by graduate students, our findings explore problem-solving strategies (e.g., breaking down problems, evaluating options, using test cases or approximations) and characteristics of successful problem solvers (e.g., initiative, persistence, and motivation). Our research provides evidence of the influence that problems students are exposed to have on the strategies they use and learn. Using this evidence, we have developed a preliminary framework for exploring problems from the solver's perspective. This framework will be examined and refined in future work. Understanding problems graduate students