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.

The neuroscience of face processing and identification in eyewitnesses and offenders.

PubMed

Werner, Nicole-Simone; Kühnel, Sina; Markowitsch, Hans J

2013-12-06

Humans are experts in face perception. We are better able to distinguish between the differences of faces and their components than between any other kind of objects. Several studies investigating the underlying neural networks provided evidence for deviated face processing in criminal individuals, although results are often confounded by accompanying mental or addiction disorders. On the other hand, face processing in non-criminal healthy persons can be of high juridical interest in cases of witnessing a felony and afterward identifying a culprit. Memory and therefore recognition of a person can be affected by many parameters and thus become distorted. But also face processing itself is modulated by different factors like facial characteristics, degree of familiarity, and emotional relation. These factors make the comparison of different cases, as well as the transfer of laboratory results to real live settings very challenging. Several neuroimaging studies have been published in recent years and some progress was made connecting certain brain activation patterns with the correct recognition of an individual. However, there is still a long way to go before brain imaging can make a reliable contribution to court procedures.

The Neuroscience of Face Processing and Identification in Eyewitnesses and Offenders

PubMed Central

Werner, Nicole-Simone; Kühnel, Sina; Markowitsch, Hans J.

2013-01-01

Humans are experts in face perception. We are better able to distinguish between the differences of faces and their components than between any other kind of objects. Several studies investigating the underlying neural networks provided evidence for deviated face processing in criminal individuals, although results are often confounded by accompanying mental or addiction disorders. On the other hand, face processing in non-criminal healthy persons can be of high juridical interest in cases of witnessing a felony and afterward identifying a culprit. Memory and therefore recognition of a person can be affected by many parameters and thus become distorted. But also face processing itself is modulated by different factors like facial characteristics, degree of familiarity, and emotional relation. These factors make the comparison of different cases, as well as the transfer of laboratory results to real live settings very challenging. Several neuroimaging studies have been published in recent years and some progress was made connecting certain brain activation patterns with the correct recognition of an individual. However, there is still a long way to go before brain imaging can make a reliable contribution to court procedures. PMID:24367306

The effects of familiarity and emotional expression on face processing examined by ERPs in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Caharel, Stéphanie; Bernard, Christian; Thibaut, Florence; Haouzir, Sadec; Di Maggio-Clozel, Carole; Allio, Gabrielle; Fouldrin, Gaël; Petit, Michel; Lalonde, Robert; Rebaï, Mohamed

2007-09-01

The main objective of the study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia are deficient relative to controls in the processing of faces at different levels of familiarity and types of emotion and the stage where such differences may occur. ERPs based on 18 patients with schizophrenia and 18 controls were compared in a face identification task at three levels of familiarity (unknown, familiar, subject's own) and for three types of emotion (disgust, smiling, neutral). The schizophrenic group was less accurate than controls in the face processing, especially for unknown faces and those expressing negative emotions such as disgust. P1 and N170 amplitudes were lower and P1, N170, P250 amplitudes were of slower onset in patients with schizophrenia. N170 and P250 amplitudes were modulated by familiarity and face expression in a different manner in patients than controls. Schizophrenia is associated with a genelarized defect of face processing, both in terms of familiarity and emotional expression, attributable to deficient processing at sensory (P1) and perceptual (N170) stages. These patients appear to have difficulty in encoding the structure of a face and thereby do not evaluate correctly familiarity and emotion.

Perceptual and decisional factors influencing the discrimination of inversion in the Thatcher illusion.

PubMed

Cornes, Katherine; Donnelly, Nick; Godwin, Hayward; Wenger, Michael J

2011-06-01

The Thatcher illusion (Thompson, 1980) is considered to be a prototypical illustration of the notion that face perception is dependent on configural processes and representations. We explored this idea by examining the relative contributions of perceptual and decisional processes to the ability of observers to identify the orientation of two classes of forms-faces and churches-and a set of their component features. Observers were presented with upright and inverted images of faces and churches in which the components (eyes, mouth, windows, doors) were presented either upright or inverted. Observers first rated the subjective grotesqueness of all of the images and then performed a complete identification task in which they had to identify the orientation of the overall form and the orientation of each of the interior features. Grotesqueness ratings for both classes of image showed the standard modulation of rated grotesqueness as a function of orientation. The complete identification results revealed violations of both perceptual and decisional separability but failed to reveal any violations of within-stimulus (perceptual) independence. In addition, exploration of a simple bivariate Gaussian signal detection model of the relationship between identification performance and judged grotesqueness suggests that within-stimulus violations of perceptual independence on their own are insufficient for producing the illusion. This lack of evidence for within-stimulus configurality suggests the need for a critical reevaluation of the role of configural processing in the Thatcher illusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

Power module assemblies with staggered coolant channels

DOEpatents

Herron, Nicholas Hayden; Mann, Brooks S; Korich, Mark D

2013-07-16

A manifold is provided for supporting a power module assembly with a plurality of power modules. The manifold includes a first manifold section. The first face of the first manifold section is configured to receive the first power module, and the second face of the first manifold section defines a first cavity with a first baseplate thermally coupled to the first power module. The first face of the second manifold section is configured to receive the second power module, and the second face of the second manifold section defines a second cavity with a second baseplate thermally coupled to the second power module. The second face of the first manifold section and the second face of the second manifold section are coupled together such that the first cavity and the second cavity form a coolant channel. The first cavity is at least partially staggered with respect to second cavity.

Dissociation of face-selective cortical responses by attention.

PubMed

Furey, Maura L; Tanskanen, Topi; Beauchamp, Michael S; Avikainen, Sari; Uutela, Kimmo; Hari, Riitta; Haxby, James V

2006-01-24

We studied attentional modulation of cortical processing of faces and houses with functional MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG detected an early, transient face-selective response. Directing attention to houses in "double-exposure" pictures of superimposed faces and houses strongly suppressed the characteristic, face-selective functional MRI response in the fusiform gyrus. By contrast, attention had no effect on the M170, the early, face-selective response detected with MEG. Late (>190 ms) category-related MEG responses elicited by faces and houses, however, were strongly modulated by attention. These results indicate that hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures of face-selective cortical processing complement each other. The hemodynamic signals reflect primarily late responses that can be modulated by feedback connections. By contrast, the early, face-specific M170 that was not modulated by attention likely reflects a rapid, feed-forward phase of face-selective processing.

Learning optimal eye movements to unusual faces

PubMed Central

Peterson, Matthew F.; Eckstein, Miguel P.

2014-01-01

Eye movements, which guide the fovea’s high resolution and computational power to relevant areas of the visual scene, are integral to efficient, successful completion of many visual tasks. How humans modify their eye movements through experience with their perceptual environments, and its functional role in learning new tasks, has not been fully investigated. Here, we used a face identification task where only the mouth discriminated exemplars to assess if, how, and when eye movement modulation may mediate learning. By interleaving trials of unconstrained eye movements with trials of forced fixation, we attempted to separate the contributions of eye movements and covert mechanisms to performance improvements. Without instruction, a majority of observers substantially increased accuracy and learned to direct their initial eye movements towards the optimal fixation point. The proximity of an observer’s default face identification eye movement behavior to the new optimal fixation point and the observer’s peripheral processing ability were predictive of performance gains and eye movement learning. After practice in a subsequent condition in which observers were directed to fixate different locations along the face, including the relevant mouth region, all observers learned to make eye movements to the optimal fixation point. In this fully learned state, augmented fixation strategy accounted for 43% of total efficiency improvements while covert mechanisms accounted for the remaining 57%. The findings suggest a critical role for eye movement planning to perceptual learning, and elucidate factors that can predict when and how well an observer can learn a new task with unusual exemplars. PMID:24291712

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

Polese, Luigi Gentile; Brackney, Larry

An image-based occupancy sensor includes a motion detection module that receives and processes an image signal to generate a motion detection signal, a people detection module that receives the image signal and processes the image signal to generate a people detection signal, a face detection module that receives the image signal and processes the image signal to generate a face detection signal, and a sensor integration module that receives the motion detection signal from the motion detection module, receives the people detection signal from the people detection module, receives the face detection signal from the face detection module, and generatesmore » an occupancy signal using the motion detection signal, the people detection signal, and the face detection signal, with the occupancy signal indicating vacancy or occupancy, with an occupancy indication specifying that one or more people are detected within the monitored volume.« less

Identification and Classification of Facial Familiarity in Directed Lying: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Sun, Delin; Chan, Chetwyn C. H.; Lee, Tatia M. C.

2012-01-01

Recognizing familiar faces is essential to social functioning, but little is known about how people identify human faces and classify them in terms of familiarity. Face identification involves discriminating familiar faces from unfamiliar faces, whereas face classification involves making an intentional decision to classify faces as “familiar” or “unfamiliar.” This study used a directed-lying task to explore the differentiation between identification and classification processes involved in the recognition of familiar faces. To explore this issue, the participants in this study were shown familiar and unfamiliar faces. They responded to these faces (i.e., as familiar or unfamiliar) in accordance with the instructions they were given (i.e., to lie or to tell the truth) while their EEG activity was recorded. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited significantly less negative-going N400f in the middle and right parietal and temporal regions than unfamiliar faces. Regardless of their actual familiarity, the faces that the participants classified as “familiar” elicited more negative-going N400f in the central and right temporal regions than those classified as “unfamiliar.” The P600 was related primarily with the facial identification process. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited more positive-going P600f in the middle parietal and middle occipital regions. The results suggest that N400f and P600f play different roles in the processes involved in facial recognition. The N400f appears to be associated with both the identification (judgment of familiarity) and classification of faces, while it is likely that the P600f is only associated with the identification process (recollection of facial information). Future studies should use different experimental paradigms to validate the generalizability of the results of this study. PMID:22363597

Face identification with frequency domain matched filtering in mobile environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Dong-Su; Woo, Yong-Hyun; Yeom, Seokwon; Kim, Shin-Hwan

2012-06-01

Face identification at a distance is very challenging since captured images are often degraded by blur and noise. Furthermore, the computational resources and memory are often limited in the mobile environments. Thus, it is very challenging to develop a real-time face identification system on the mobile device. This paper discusses face identification based on frequency domain matched filtering in the mobile environments. Face identification is performed by the linear or phase-only matched filter and sequential verification stages. The candidate window regions are decided by the major peaks of the linear or phase-only matched filtering outputs. The sequential stages comprise a skin-color test and an edge mask filtering test, which verify color and shape information of the candidate regions in order to remove false alarms. All algorithms are built on the mobile device using Android platform. The preliminary results show that face identification of East Asian people can be performed successfully in the mobile environments.

Identifying Oneself with the Face of Someone Else Impairs the Egocentered Visuo-spatial Mechanisms: A New Double Mirror Paradigm to Study Self–other Distinction and Interaction

PubMed Central

Thirioux, Bérangère; Wehrmann, Moritz; Langbour, Nicolas; Jaafari, Nematollah; Berthoz, Alain

2016-01-01

Looking at our face in a mirror is one of the strongest phenomenological experiences of the Self in which we need to identify the face as reflected in the mirror as belonging to us. Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies reported that self-face identification not only relies upon visual-mnemonic representation of one’s own face but also upon continuous updating and integration of visuo-tactile signals. Therefore, bodily self-consciousness plays a major role in self-face identification, with respect to interplay between unisensory and multisensory processing. However, if previous studies demonstrated that the integration of multisensory body-related signals contributes to the visual processing of one’s own face, there is so far no data regarding how self-face identification, inversely, contributes to bodily self-consciousness. In the present study, we tested whether self–other face identification impacts either the egocentered or heterocentered visuo-spatial mechanisms that are core processes of bodily self-consciousness and sustain self–other distinction. For that, we developed a new paradigm, named “Double Mirror.” This paradigm, consisting of a semi-transparent double mirror and computer-controlled Light Emitting Diodes, elicits self–other face merging illusory effect in ecologically more valid conditions, i.e., when participants are physically facing each other and interacting. Self-face identification was manipulated by exposing pairs of participants to an Interpersonal Visual Stimulation in which the reflection of their faces merged in the mirror. Participants simultaneously performed visuo-spatial and mental own-body transformation tasks centered on their own face (egocentered) or the face of their partner (heterocentered) in the pre- and post-stimulation phase. We show that self–other face identification altered the egocentered visuo-spatial mechanisms. Heterocentered coding was preserved. Our data suggest that changes in self-face identification induced a bottom-up conflict between the current visual representation and the stored mnemonic representation of one’s own face which, in turn, top-down impacted bodily self-consciousness. PMID:27610095

Recognition and identification of famous faces in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Seidenberg, Michael; Griffith, Randall; Sabsevitz, David; Moran, Maria; Haltiner, Alan; Bell, Brian; Swanson, Sara; Hammeke, Thomas; Hermann, Bruce

2002-01-01

We examined the performance of 21 patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hippocampal damage (10 lefts, and 11 rights) and 10 age-matched controls on the recognition and identification (name and occupation) of well-known faces. Famous face stimuli were selected from four time periods; 1970s, 1980s, 1990-1994, and 1995-1996. Differential patterns of performance were observed for the left and right TLE group across distinct face processing components. The left TLE group showed a selective impairment in naming famous faces while they performed similar to the controls in face recognition and semantic identification (i.e. occupation). In contrast, the right TLE group was impaired across all components of face memory; face recognition, semantic identification, and face naming. Face naming impairment in the left TLE group was characterized by a temporal gradient with better naming performance for famous faces from more distant time periods. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of the temporal lobe system for the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of face semantic networks, and the differential effects of lateralized temporal lobe lesions in this process.

Facial expressions of emotion (KDEF): identification under different display-duration conditions.

PubMed

Calvo, Manuel G; Lundqvist, Daniel

2008-02-01

Participants judged which of seven facial expressions (neutrality, happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, fear, and disgust) were displayed by a set of 280 faces corresponding to 20 female and 20 male models of the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database (Lundqvist, Flykt, & Ohman, 1998). Each face was presented under free-viewing conditions (to 63 participants) and also for 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 msec (to 160 participants), to examine identification thresholds. Measures of identification accuracy, types of errors, and reaction times were obtained for each expression. In general, happy faces were identified more accurately, earlier, and faster than other faces, whereas judgments of fearful faces were the least accurate, the latest, and the slowest. Norms for each face and expression regarding level of identification accuracy, errors, and reaction times may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

The biometric-based module of smart grid system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engel, E.; Kovalev, I. V.; Ermoshkina, A.

2015-10-01

Within Smart Grid concept the flexible biometric-based module base on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and selective Neural Network is developed. The formation of the selective Neural Network the biometric-based module uses the method which includes three main stages: preliminary processing of the image, face localization and face recognition. Experiments on the Yale face database show that (i) selective Neural Network exhibits promising classification capability for face detection, recognition problems; and (ii) the proposed biometric-based module achieves near real-time face detection, recognition speed and the competitive performance, as compared to some existing subspaces-based methods.

Is facial skin tone sufficient to produce a cross-racial identification effect?

PubMed

Alley, T R; Schultheis, J A

2001-06-01

Research clearly supports the existence of an other race effect for human faces whereby own-race faces are more accurately perceived and recognized. Why this occurs remains unclear. A computerized program (Mac-a-Mug Pro) for face composition was used to create pairs of target and distractor faces that differed only in skin tone. The six target faces were rated on honesty and aggressiveness by 72 university students, with just one 'Black' and one 'White' face viewed by each student. One week later, they attempted to identify these faces in four lineups: two with target-present and two with target-absent. The order of presentation of targets, lineups, and faces within lineups was varied. Own-race identification was slightly better than cross-racial identification. There was no significant difference in the confidence of responses to own- versus other-race faces. These results indicate that neither morphological variation nor differential confidence is necessary for a cross-racial identification effect.

Face recognition accuracy of forensic examiners, superrecognizers, and face recognition algorithms.

PubMed

Phillips, P Jonathon; Yates, Amy N; Hu, Ying; Hahn, Carina A; Noyes, Eilidh; Jackson, Kelsey; Cavazos, Jacqueline G; Jeckeln, Géraldine; Ranjan, Rajeev; Sankaranarayanan, Swami; Chen, Jun-Cheng; Castillo, Carlos D; Chellappa, Rama; White, David; O'Toole, Alice J

2018-06-12

Achieving the upper limits of face identification accuracy in forensic applications can minimize errors that have profound social and personal consequences. Although forensic examiners identify faces in these applications, systematic tests of their accuracy are rare. How can we achieve the most accurate face identification: using people and/or machines working alone or in collaboration? In a comprehensive comparison of face identification by humans and computers, we found that forensic facial examiners, facial reviewers, and superrecognizers were more accurate than fingerprint examiners and students on a challenging face identification test. Individual performance on the test varied widely. On the same test, four deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), developed between 2015 and 2017, identified faces within the range of human accuracy. Accuracy of the algorithms increased steadily over time, with the most recent DCNN scoring above the median of the forensic facial examiners. Using crowd-sourcing methods, we fused the judgments of multiple forensic facial examiners by averaging their rating-based identity judgments. Accuracy was substantially better for fused judgments than for individuals working alone. Fusion also served to stabilize performance, boosting the scores of lower-performing individuals and decreasing variability. Single forensic facial examiners fused with the best algorithm were more accurate than the combination of two examiners. Therefore, collaboration among humans and between humans and machines offers tangible benefits to face identification accuracy in important applications. These results offer an evidence-based roadmap for achieving the most accurate face identification possible. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Implementation of a Flexible Online Delivery Model to Replace a Traditional Face-to-Face Delivery of a PGCE ICT Module

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watts, Martin

2007-01-01

This paper describes aspects of the planning and delivery of a 10 credit module to learners participating in a full-time, Secondary Informational Communication Technology (ICT) PGCE course and the decision to replace an existing face-to-face delivery with a flexible, online delivery. The paper focuses upon four associated aspects of the module,…

Online versus Live Delivery of Education to Pharmacists in a Large Multicentre Health Region: A Non-inferiority Assessment of Learning Outcomes.

PubMed

Taylor, Robert; Jung, Joanne; Loewen, Peter; Spencer, Carrie; Dossa, Anar; de Lemos, Jane

2013-07-01

The prevalence of online modules for continuing education in the health professions has been increasing in recent years. However, the effectiveness of online modules for pharmacist learning has not been thoroughly studied. The primary aim of this study was to determine if providing education to pharmacists through a self-paced enhanced online module was non-inferior to a face-to-face learning module with respect to knowledge application on the topic of postoperative insulin dosing. Secondary aims were to determine pharmacists' knowledge gain and retention, as well as their satisfaction with the modules. The participants in this prospective, randomized, parallel-group non-inferiority trial were pharmacists in a large multicentre health region. Outcomes were measured by comparing scores obtained on pre- and post-module knowledge-assessment questionnaires. A between-group difference in change on knowledge application scores of less than 25 percentage points was the predetermined non-inferiority margin. A total of 74 pharmacists consented to participate, 38 randomly assigned to use the enhanced online module and 36 to attend the face-to-face learning session. For questions examining knowledge application, the mean improvement achieved by the online learning group was 26 percentage points greater than that achieved by the face-to-face learning group (95% confidence interval [CI] 25 to 27; p < 0.001). For questions testing knowledge gain, the improvement achieved by the online learning group was 7 percentage points less than that achieved by the face-to-face learning group (95% CI 2 to 12; p = 0.008). Therefore, the enhanced online module was deemed to be non-inferior to the face-to-face learning session in terms of knowledge application and knowledge gain. Insufficient data were available to analyze the secondary outcome of knowledge retention over time. Participant satisfaction was similar for the 2 groups (p = 0.62). The self-paced enhanced online module was non-inferior to facilitated face-to-face learning in terms of improving application and knowledge of insulin dosing. Pharmacists had similar levels of satisfaction with the 2 modes of learning.

Spatiotemporal brain dynamics of emotional face processing modulations induced by the serotonin 1A/2A receptor agonist psilocybin.

PubMed

Bernasconi, Fosco; Schmidt, André; Pokorny, Thomas; Kometer, Michael; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2014-12-01

Emotional face processing is critically modulated by the serotonergic system. For instance, emotional face processing is impaired by acute psilocybin administration, a serotonin (5-HT) 1A and 2A receptor agonist. However, the spatiotemporal brain mechanisms underlying these modulations are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal brain dynamics underlying psilocybin-induced modulations during emotional face processing. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials in response to emotional faces, following psilocybin and placebo administration. Our results indicate a first time period of strength (i.e., Global Field Power) modulation over the 168-189 ms poststimulus interval, induced by psilocybin. A second time period of strength modulation was identified over the 211-242 ms poststimulus interval. Source estimations over these 2 time periods further revealed decreased activity in response to both neutral and fearful faces within limbic areas, including amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus, and the right temporal cortex over the 168-189 ms interval, and reduced activity in response to happy faces within limbic and right temporo-occipital brain areas over the 211-242 ms interval. Our results indicate a selective and temporally dissociable effect of psilocybin on the neuronal correlates of emotional face processing, consistent with a modulation of the top-down control. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Spectral optimized asymmetric segmented phase-only correlation filter.

PubMed

Leonard, I; Alfalou, A; Brosseau, C

2012-05-10

We suggest a new type of optimized composite filter, i.e., the asymmetric segmented phase-only filter (ASPOF), for improving the effectiveness of a VanderLugt correlator (VLC) when used for face identification. Basically, it consists in merging several reference images after application of a specific spectral optimization method. After segmentation of the spectral filter plane to several areas, each area is assigned to a single winner reference according to a new optimized criterion. The point of the paper is to show that this method offers a significant performance improvement on standard composite filters for face identification. We first briefly revisit composite filters [adapted, phase-only, inverse, compromise optimal, segmented, minimum average correlation energy, optimal trade-off maximum average correlation, and amplitude-modulated phase-only (AMPOF)], which are tools of choice for face recognition based on correlation techniques, and compare their performances with those of the ASPOF. We illustrate some of the drawbacks of current filters for several binary and grayscale image identifications. Next, we describe the optimization steps and introduce the ASPOF that can overcome these technical issues to improve the quality and the reliability of the correlation-based decision. We derive performance measures, i.e., PCE values and receiver operating characteristic curves, to confirm consistency of the results. We numerically find that this filter increases the recognition rate and decreases the false alarm rate. The results show that the discrimination of the ASPOF is comparable to that of the AMPOF, but the ASPOF is more robust than the trade-off maximum average correlation height against rotation and various types of noise sources. Our method has several features that make it amenable to experimental implementation using a VLC.

Recognizing Facial Slivers.

PubMed

Gilad-Gutnick, Sharon; Harmatz, Elia Samuel; Tsourides, Kleovoulos; Yovel, Galit; Sinha, Pawan

2018-07-01

We report here an unexpectedly robust ability of healthy human individuals ( n = 40) to recognize extremely distorted needle-like facial images, challenging the well-entrenched notion that veridical spatial configuration is necessary for extracting facial identity. In face identification tasks of parametrically compressed internal and external features, we found that the sum of performances on each cue falls significantly short of performance on full faces, despite the equal visual information available from both measures (with full faces essentially being a superposition of internal and external features). We hypothesize that this large deficit stems from the use of positional information about how the internal features are positioned relative to the external features. To test this, we systematically changed the relations between internal and external features and found preferential encoding of vertical but not horizontal spatial relationships in facial representations ( n = 20). Finally, we employ magnetoencephalography imaging ( n = 20) to demonstrate a close mapping between the behavioral psychometric curve and the amplitude of the M250 face familiarity, but not M170 face-sensitive evoked response field component, providing evidence that the M250 can be modulated by faces that are perceptually identifiable, irrespective of extreme distortions to the face's veridical configuration. We theorize that the tolerance to compressive distortions has evolved from the need to recognize faces across varying viewpoints. Our findings help clarify the important, but poorly defined, concept of facial configuration and also enable an association between behavioral performance and previously reported neural correlates of face perception.

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…

A randomised controlled non-inferiority trial of primary care-based facilitated access to an alcohol reduction website (EFAR Spain): the study protocol

PubMed Central

López-Pelayo, Hugo; Wallace, Paul; Segura, Lidia; Miquel, Laia; Díaz, Estela; Teixidó, Lidia; Baena, Begoña; Struzzo, Pierliugio; Palacio-Vieira, Jorge; Casajuana, Cristina; Colom, Joan; Gual, Antoni

2014-01-01

Introduction Early identification (EI) and brief interventions (BIs) for risky drinkers are effective tools in primary care. Lack of time in daily practice has been identified as one of the main barriers to implementation of BI. There is growing evidence that facilitated access by primary healthcare professionals (PHCPs) to a web-based BI can be a time-saving alternative to standard face-to-face BIs, but there is as yet no evidence about the effectiveness of this approach relative to conventional BI. The main aim of this study is to test non-inferiority of facilitation to a web-based BI for risky drinkers delivered by PHCP against face-to-face BI. Method and analysis A randomised controlled non-inferiority trial comparing both interventions will be performed in primary care health centres in Catalonia, Spain. Unselected adult patients attending participating centres will be given a leaflet inviting them to log on to a website to complete the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) alcohol screening questionnaire. Participants with positive results will be requested online to complete a trial module including consent, baseline assessment and randomisation to either face-to-face BI by the practitioner or BI via the alcohol reduction website. Follow-up assessment of risky drinking will be undertaken online at 3 months and 1 year using the full AUDIT and D5-EQD5 scale. Proportions of risky drinkers in each group will be calculated and non-inferiority assessed against a specified margin of 10%. Assuming reduction of 30% of risky drinkers receiving standard intervention, 1000 patients will be required to give 90% power to reject the null hypothesis. Ethics and dissemination The protocol was approved by the Ethics Commmittee of IDIAP Jordi Gol i Gurina P14/028. The findings of the trial will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, national and international conference presentations. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02082990. PMID:25552616

The two faces of Hippo: targeting the Hippo pathway for regenerative medicine and cancer treatment

PubMed Central

Johnson, Randy; Halder, Georg

2014-01-01

The Hippo signaling pathway is an emerging growth control and tumor suppressor pathway that regulates cell proliferation and stem cell functions. Defects in Hippo signaling and hyperactivation of its downstream effectors YAP and TAZ contribute to the development of cancer, suggesting that pharmacological inhibition of YAP and TAZ activity may be an effective anticancer strategy. Conversely, YAP and TAZ can also play beneficial roles in stimulating tissue repair and regeneration following injury, therefore activation of YAP and TAZ may be useful in these contexts. Recently, a complex network of intracellular and extracellular signaling pathways that modulate YAP and TAZ activities have been identified. Here we review the regulation of the Hippo signaling pathway, its functions in normal homeostasis and disease, and recent progress in the identification of small molecule pathway modulators. PMID:24336504

Fusiform gyrus face selectivity relates to individual differences in facial recognition ability.

PubMed

Furl, Nicholas; Garrido, Lúcia; Dolan, Raymond J; Driver, Jon; Duchaine, Bradley

2011-07-01

Regions of the occipital and temporal lobes, including a region in the fusiform gyrus (FG), have been proposed to constitute a "core" visual representation system for faces, in part because they show face selectivity and face repetition suppression. But recent fMRI studies of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) raise questions about whether these measures relate to face processing skills. Although DPs manifest deficient face processing, most studies to date have not shown unequivocal reductions of functional responses in the proposed core regions. We scanned 15 DPs and 15 non-DP control participants with fMRI while employing factor analysis to derive behavioral components related to face identification or other processes. Repetition suppression specific to facial identities in FG or to expression in FG and STS did not show compelling relationships with face identification ability. However, we identified robust relationships between face selectivity and face identification ability in FG across our sample for several convergent measures, including voxel-wise statistical parametric mapping, peak face selectivity in individually defined "fusiform face areas" (FFAs), and anatomical extents (cluster sizes) of those FFAs. None of these measures showed associations with behavioral expression or object recognition ability. As a group, DPs had reduced face-selective responses in bilateral FFA when compared with non-DPs. Individual DPs were also more likely than non-DPs to lack expected face-selective activity in core regions. These findings associate individual differences in face processing ability with selectivity in core face processing regions. This confirms that face selectivity can provide a valid marker for neural mechanisms that contribute to face identification ability.

Smart intimation and location of faults in distribution system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hari Krishna, K.; Srinivasa Rao, B.

2018-04-01

Location of faults in the distribution system is one of the most complicated problems that we are facing today. Identification of fault location and severity of fault within a short time is required to provide continuous power supply but fault identification and information transfer to the operator is the biggest challenge in the distribution network. This paper proposes a fault location method in the distribution system based on Arduino nano and GSM module with flame sensor. The main idea is to locate the fault in the distribution transformer by sensing the arc coming out from the fuse element. The biggest challenge in the distribution network is to identify the location and the severity of faults under different conditions. Well operated transmission and distribution systems will play a key role for uninterrupted power supply. Whenever fault occurs in the distribution system the time taken to locate and eliminate the fault has to be reduced. The proposed design was achieved with flame sensor and GSM module. Under faulty condition, the system will automatically send an alert message to the operator in the distribution system, about the abnormal conditions near the transformer, site code and its exact location for possible power restoration.

Prioritized Identification of Attractive and Romantic Partner Faces in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation.

PubMed

Nakamura, Koyo; Arai, Shihoko; Kawabata, Hideaki

2017-11-01

People are sensitive to facial attractiveness because it is an important biological and social signal. As such, our perceptual and attentional system seems biased toward attractive faces. We tested whether attractive faces capture attention and enhance memory access in an involuntary manner using a dual-task rapid serial visual presentation (dtRSVP) paradigm, wherein multiple faces were successively presented for 120 ms. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 26) were required to identify two female faces embedded in a stream of animal faces as distractors. The results revealed that identification of the second female target (T2) was better when it was attractive compared to neutral or unattractive. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether perceived attractiveness affects T2 identification (N = 27). To this end, we performed another dtRSVP task involving participants in a romantic partnership with the opposite sex, wherein T2 was their romantic partner's face. The results demonstrated that a romantic partner's face was correctly identified more often than was the face of a friend or unknown person. Furthermore, the greater the intensity of passionate love participants felt for their partner (as measured by the Passionate Love Scale), the more often they correctly identified their partner's face. Our experiments indicate that attractive and romantic partners' faces facilitate the identification of the faces in an involuntary manner.

A system for tracking and recognizing pedestrian faces using a network of loosely coupled cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gagnon, L.; Laliberté, F.; Foucher, S.; Branzan Albu, A.; Laurendeau, D.

2006-05-01

A face recognition module has been developed for an intelligent multi-camera video surveillance system. The module can recognize a pedestrian face in terms of six basic emotions and the neutral state. Face and facial features detection (eyes, nasal root, nose and mouth) are first performed using cascades of boosted classifiers. These features are used to normalize the pose and dimension of the face image. Gabor filters are then sampled on a regular grid covering the face image to build a facial feature vector that feeds a nearest neighbor classifier with a cosine distance similarity measure for facial expression interpretation and face model construction. A graphical user interface allows the user to adjust the module parameters.

Decoding task-based attentional modulation during face categorization.

PubMed

Chiu, Yu-Chin; Esterman, Michael; Han, Yuefeng; Rosen, Heather; Yantis, Steven

2011-05-01

Attention is a neurocognitive mechanism that selects task-relevant sensory or mnemonic information to achieve current behavioral goals. Attentional modulation of cortical activity has been observed when attention is directed to specific locations, features, or objects. However, little is known about how high-level categorization task set modulates perceptual representations. In the current study, observers categorized faces by gender (male vs. female) or race (Asian vs. White). Each face was perceptually ambiguous in both dimensions, such that categorization of one dimension demanded selective attention to task-relevant information within the face. We used multivoxel pattern classification to show that task-specific modulations evoke reliably distinct spatial patterns of activity within three face-selective cortical regions (right fusiform face area and bilateral occipital face areas). This result suggests that patterns of activity in these regions reflect not only stimulus-specific (i.e., faces vs. houses) responses but also task-specific (i.e., race vs. gender) attentional modulation. Furthermore, exploratory whole-brain multivoxel pattern classification (using a searchlight procedure) revealed a network of dorsal fronto-parietal regions (left middle frontal gyrus and left inferior and superior parietal lobule) that also exhibit distinct patterns for the two task sets, suggesting that these regions may represent abstract goals during high-level categorization tasks.

Holistic face processing can inhibit recognition of forensic facial composites.

PubMed

McIntyre, Alex H; Hancock, Peter J B; Frowd, Charlie D; Langton, Stephen R H

2016-04-01

Facial composite systems help eyewitnesses to show the appearance of criminals. However, likenesses created by unfamiliar witnesses will not be completely accurate, and people familiar with the target can find them difficult to identify. Faces are processed holistically; we explore whether this impairs identification of inaccurate composite images and whether recognition can be improved. In Experiment 1 (n = 64) an imaging technique was used to make composites of celebrity faces more accurate and identification was contrasted with the original composite images. Corrected composites were better recognized, confirming that errors in production of the likenesses impair identification. The influence of holistic face processing was explored by misaligning the top and bottom parts of the composites (cf. Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987). Misalignment impaired recognition of corrected composites but identification of the original, inaccurate composites significantly improved. This effect was replicated with facial composites of noncelebrities in Experiment 2 (n = 57). We conclude that, like real faces, facial composites are processed holistically: recognition is impaired because unlike real faces, composites contain inaccuracies and holistic face processing makes it difficult to perceive identifiable features. This effect was consistent across composites of celebrities and composites of people who are personally familiar. Our findings suggest that identification of forensic facial composites can be enhanced by presenting composites in a misaligned format. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females.

PubMed

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female's (but not male's) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby.

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females

PubMed Central

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female’s (but not male’s) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby. PMID:29184490

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.

A cross-race effect in metamemory: Predictions of face recognition are more accurate for members of our own race

PubMed Central

Hourihan, Kathleen L.; Benjamin, Aaron S.; Liu, Xiping

2012-01-01

The Cross-Race Effect (CRE) in face recognition is the well-replicated finding that people are better at recognizing faces from their own race, relative to other races. The CRE reveals systematic limitations on eyewitness identification accuracy and suggests that some caution is warranted in evaluating cross-race identification. The CRE is a problem because jurors value eyewitness identification highly in verdict decisions. In the present paper, we explore how accurate people are in predicting their ability to recognize own-race and other-race faces. Caucasian and Asian participants viewed photographs of Caucasian and Asian faces, and made immediate judgments of learning during study. An old/new recognition test replicated the CRE: both groups displayed superior discriminability of own-race faces, relative to other-race faces. Importantly, relative metamnemonic accuracy was also greater for own-race faces, indicating that the accuracy of predictions about face recognition is influenced by race. This result indicates another source of concern when eliciting or evaluating eyewitness identification: people are less accurate in judging whether they will or will not recognize a face when that face is of a different race than they are. This new result suggests that a witness’s claim of being likely to recognize a suspect from a lineup should be interpreted with caution when the suspect is of a different race than the witness. PMID:23162788

Women's hormone levels modulate the motivational salience of facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism.

PubMed

Wang, Hongyi; Hahn, Amanda C; Fisher, Claire I; DeBruine, Lisa M; Jones, Benedict C

2014-12-01

The physical attractiveness of faces is positively correlated with both behavioral and neural measures of their motivational salience. Although previous work suggests that hormone levels modulate women's perceptions of others' facial attractiveness, studies have not yet investigated whether hormone levels also modulate the motivational salience of facial characteristics. To address this issue, we investigated the relationships between within-subject changes in women's salivary hormone levels (estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and estradiol-to-progesterone ratio) and within-subject changes in the motivational salience of attractiveness and sexual dimorphism in male and female faces. The motivational salience of physically attractive faces in general and feminine female faces, but not masculine male faces, was greater in test sessions where women had high testosterone levels. Additionally, the reward value of sexually dimorphic faces in general and attractive female faces, but not attractive male faces, was greater in test sessions where women had high estradiol-to-progesterone ratios. These results provide the first evidence that the motivational salience of facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism is modulated by within-woman changes in hormone levels. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

State-dependent alterations in inhibitory control and emotional face identification in seasonal affective disorder.

PubMed

Hjordt, Liv V; Stenbæk, Dea S; Madsen, Kathrine Skak; Mc Mahon, Brenda; Jensen, Christian G; Vestergaard, Martin; Hageman, Ida; Meder, David; Hasselbalch, Steen G; Knudsen, Gitte M

2017-04-01

Depressed individuals often exhibit impaired inhibition to negative input and identification of positive stimuli, but it is unclear whether this is a state or trait feature. We here exploited a naturalistic model, namely individuals with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), to study this feature longitudinally. The goal of this study was to examine seasonal changes in inhibitory control and identification of emotional faces in individuals with SAD. Twenty-nine individuals diagnosed with winter-SAD and 30 demographically matched controls with no seasonality symptoms completed an emotional Go/NoGo task, requiring inhibition of prepotent responses to emotional facial expressions and an emotional face identification task twice, in winter and summer. In winter, individuals with SAD showed impaired ability to inhibit responses to angry (p = .0006) and sad faces (p = .011), and decreased identification of happy faces (p = .032) compared with controls. In summer, individuals with SAD and controls performed similarly on these tasks (ps > .24). We provide novel evidence that inhibition of angry and sad faces and identification of happy faces are impaired in SAD in the symptomatic phase, but not in the remitted phase. The affective biases in cognitive processing constitute state-dependent features of SAD. Our data show that reinstatement of a normal affective cognition should be possible and would constitute a major goal in psychiatric treatment to improve the quality of life for these patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Age differences in accuracy and choosing in eyewitness identification and face recognition.

PubMed

Searcy, J H; Bartlett, J C; Memon, A

1999-05-01

Studies of aging and face recognition show age-related increases in false recognitions of new faces. To explore implications of this false alarm effect, we had young and senior adults perform (1) three eye-witness identification tasks, using both target present and target absent lineups, and (2) and old/new recognition task in which a study list of faces was followed by a test including old and new faces, along with conjunctions of old faces. Compared with the young, seniors had lower accuracy and higher choosing rates on the lineups, and they also falsely recognized more new faces on the recognition test. However, after screening for perceptual processing deficits, there was no age difference in false recognition of conjunctions, or in discriminating old faces from conjunctions. We conclude that the false alarm effect generalizes to lineup identification, but does not extend to conjunction faces. The findings are consistent with age-related deficits in recollection of context and relative age invariance in perceptual integrative processes underlying the experience of familiarity.

Electrical Stimulation over Bilateral Occipito-Temporal Regions Reduces N170 in the Right Hemisphere and the Composite Face Effect

PubMed Central

Yang, Li-Zhuang; Zhang, Wei; Shi, Bin; Yang, Zhiyu; Wei, Zhengde; Gu, Feng; Zhang, Jing; Cui, Guanbao; Liu, Ying; Zhou, Yifeng; Zhang, Xiaochu; Rao, Hengyi

2014-01-01

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can modulate cortical excitability. Although the clinical value of tDCS has been advocated, the potential of tDCS in cognitive rehabilitation of face processing deficits is less understood. Face processing has been associated with the occipito-temporal cortex (OT). The present study investigated whether face processing in healthy adults can be modulated by applying tDCS over the OT. Experiment 1 investigated whether tDCS can affect N170, a face-sensitive ERP component, with a face orientation judgment task. The N170 in the right hemisphere was reduced in active stimulation conditions compared with the sham stimulation condition for both upright faces and inverted faces. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that tDCS can modulate the composite face effect, a type of holistic processing that reflects the obligatory attention to all parts of a face. The composite face effect was reduced in active stimulation conditions compared with the sham stimulation condition. Additionally, the current polarity did not modulate the effect of tDCS in the two experiments. The present study demonstrates that N170 can be causally manipulated by stimulating the OT with weak currents. Furthermore, our study provides evidence that obligatory attention to all parts of a face can be affected by the commonly used tDCS parameter setting. PMID:25531112

How 'blended' is blended learning?: students' perceptions of issues around the integration of online and face-to-face learning in a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) health care context.

PubMed

Glogowska, Margaret; Young, Pat; Lockyer, Lesley; Moule, Pam

2011-11-01

This paper explores students' perceptions of blended learning modules delivered in a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) health care context in the UK. 'Blended learning' is the term used to describe a hybrid model of learning where traditional face-to-face teaching approaches and newer electronic learning activities and resources are utilised together. A new model of CPD for health care practitioners based on a blended learning approach was developed at a university in the south west of England. As part of the evaluation of the new modules, a qualitative study was conducted, in which 17 students who had experienced the modules were interviewed by telephone. Three main themes emerged from the interviews relating to the 'blended' nature of the blended learning modules. These were i) issues around the opportunities for discussion of online materials face-to-face; ii) issues of what material should be online versus face-to-face and iii) balancing online and face-to-face components. Teaching staff engaged in the development of blended learning courses need to pay particular attention to the ways in which they develop and integrate online and face-to-face materials. More attention needs to be paid to allowing opportunity for students to come together to create a 'community of inquiry'. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Direct Gaze Modulates Face Recognition in Young Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farroni, Teresa; Massaccesi, Stefano; Menon, Enrica; Johnson, Mark H.

2007-01-01

From birth, infants prefer to look at faces that engage them in direct eye contact. In adults, direct gaze is known to modulate the processing of faces, including the recognition of individuals. In the present study, we investigate whether direction of gaze has any effect on face recognition in four-month-old infants. Four-month infants were shown…

Neural circuitry of emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Monk, Christopher S; Weng, Shih-Jen; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Kurapati, Nikhil; Louro, Hugo M C; Carrasco, Melisa; Maslowsky, Julie; Risi, Susan; Lord, Catherine

2010-03-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with severe impairments in social functioning. Because faces provide nonverbal cues that support social interactions, many studies of ASD have examined neural structures that process faces, including the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and superior and middle temporal gyri. However, increases or decreases in activation are often contingent on the cognitive task. Specifically, the cognitive domain of attention influences group differences in brain activation. We investigated brain function abnormalities in participants with ASD using a task that monitored attention bias to emotional faces. Twenty-four participants (12 with ASD, 12 controls) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study while performing an attention cuing task with emotional (happy, sad, angry) and neutral faces. In response to emotional faces, those in the ASD group showed greater right amygdala activation than those in the control group. A preliminary psychophysiological connectivity analysis showed that ASD participants had stronger positive right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex coupling and weaker positive right amygdala and temporal lobe coupling than controls. There were no group differences in the behavioural measure of attention bias to the emotional faces. The small sample size may have affected our ability to detect additional group differences. When attention bias to emotional faces was equivalent between ASD and control groups, ASD was associated with greater amygdala activation. Preliminary analyses showed that ASD participants had stronger connectivity between the amygdala ventromedial prefrontal cortex (a network implicated in emotional modulation) and weaker connectivity between the amygdala and temporal lobe (a pathway involved in the identification of facial expressions, although areas of group differences were generally in a more anterior region of the temporal lobe than what is typically reported for emotional face processing). These alterations in connectivity are consistent with emotion and face processing disturbances in ASD.

Initial eye movements during face identification are optimal and similar across cultures

PubMed Central

Or, Charles C.-F.; Peterson, Matthew F.; Eckstein, Miguel P.

2015-01-01

Culture influences not only human high-level cognitive processes but also low-level perceptual operations. Some perceptual operations, such as initial eye movements to faces, are critical for extraction of information supporting evolutionarily important tasks such as face identification. The extent of cultural effects on these crucial perceptual processes is unknown. Here, we report that the first gaze location for face identification was similar across East Asian and Western Caucasian cultural groups: Both fixated a featureless point between the eyes and the nose, with smaller between-group than within-group differences and with a small horizontal difference across cultures (8% of the interocular distance). We also show that individuals of both cultural groups initially fixated at a slightly higher point on Asian faces than on Caucasian faces. The initial fixations were found to be both fundamental in acquiring the majority of information for face identification and optimal, as accuracy deteriorated when observers held their gaze away from their preferred fixations. An ideal observer that integrated facial information with the human visual system's varying spatial resolution across the visual field showed a similar information distribution across faces of both races and predicted initial human fixations. The model consistently replicated the small vertical difference between human fixations to Asian and Caucasian faces but did not predict the small horizontal leftward bias of Caucasian observers. Together, the results suggest that initial eye movements during face identification may be driven by brain mechanisms aimed at maximizing accuracy, and less influenced by culture. The findings increase our understanding of the interplay between the brain's aims to optimally accomplish basic perceptual functions and to respond to sociocultural influences. PMID:26382003

Parametric modulation of neural activity during face emotion processing in unaffected youth at familial risk for bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Brotman, Melissa A; Deveney, Christen M; Thomas, Laura A; Hinton, Kendra E; Yi, Jennifer Y; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen

2014-11-01

Both patients with pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and unaffected youth at familial risk (AR) for the illness show impairments in face emotion labeling. Few studies, however, have examined brain regions engaged in AR youth when processing emotional faces. Moreover, studies have yet to explore neural responsiveness to subtle changes in face emotion in AR youth. Sixty-four unrelated youth, including 20 patients with BD, 15 unaffected AR youth, and 29 healthy comparisons (HC), completed functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neutral faces were morphed with angry or happy faces in 25% intervals. In specific phases of the task, youth alternatively made explicit (hostility) or implicit (nose width) ratings of the faces. The slope of blood oxygenated level-dependent activity was calculated across neutral to angry and neutral to happy face stimuli. Behaviorally, both subjects with BD (p ≤ 0.001) and AR youth (p ≤ 0.05) rated faces as less hostile relative to HC. Consistent with this, in response to increasing anger on the face, patients with BD and AR youth showed decreased modulation in the amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; BA 46) compared to HC (all p ≤ 0.05). Amygdala dysfunction was present across both implicit and explicit rating conditions, but IFG modulation deficits were specific to the explicit condition. With increasing happiness, AR youth showed aberrant modulation in the IFG, which was also sensitive to task demands (all p ≤ 0.05). Decreased amygdala and IFG modulation in patients with BD and AR youth may be pathophysiological risk markers for BD, and may underlie the social cognition and face emotion labeling deficits observed in BD and AR youth. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

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

Lave, Matthew Samuel; Stein, Joshua S.; Burnham, Laurie

A 9.6 kW test array of Prism bifacial modules and reference monofacial modules installed in February 2016 at the New Mexico Regional Test Center has produced six months of performance data. The data reveal that the Prism modules are out-performing the monofacial modules, with bifacial gains in energy over the six-month period ranging from 18% to 136%, depending on the orientation and ground albedo. These measured bifacial gains were found to be in good agreement with modeled bifacial gains using equations previously published by Prism. The most dramatic increase in performance was seen among the vertically tilted, west-facing modules, wheremore » the bifacial modules produced more than double the energy of monofacial modules and more energy than monofacial modules at any orientation. Because peak energy generation (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) for these bifacial modules may best match load on the electric grid, the west-facing orientation may be more economically desirable than traditional south-facing module orientations (which peak at solar noon).« less

Four year-olds use norm-based coding for face identity.

PubMed

Jeffery, Linda; Read, Ainsley; Rhodes, Gillian

2013-05-01

Norm-based coding, in which faces are coded as deviations from an average face, is an efficient way of coding visual patterns that share a common structure and must be distinguished by subtle variations that define individuals. Adults and school-aged children use norm-based coding for face identity but it is not yet known if pre-school aged children also use norm-based coding. We reasoned that the transition to school could be critical in developing a norm-based system because school places new demands on children's face identification skills and substantially increases experience with faces. Consistent with this view, face identification performance improves steeply between ages 4 and 7. We used face identity aftereffects to test whether norm-based coding emerges between these ages. We found that 4 year-old children, like adults, showed larger face identity aftereffects for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average, consistent with use of norm-based coding. We conclude that experience prior to age 4 is sufficient to develop a norm-based face-space and that failure to use norm-based coding cannot explain 4 year-old children's poor face identification skills. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

System and technique for retrieving depth information about a surface by projecting a composite image of modulated light patterns

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hassebrook, Laurence G. (Inventor); Lau, Daniel L. (Inventor); Guan, Chun (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A technique, associated system and program code, for retrieving depth information about at least one surface of an object, such as an anatomical feature. Core features include: projecting a composite image comprising a plurality of modulated structured light patterns, at the anatomical feature; capturing an image reflected from the surface; and recovering pattern information from the reflected image, for each of the modulated structured light patterns. Pattern information is preferably recovered for each modulated structured light pattern used to create the composite, by performing a demodulation of the reflected image. Reconstruction of the surface can be accomplished by using depth information from the recovered patterns to produce a depth map/mapping thereof. Each signal waveform used for the modulation of a respective structured light pattern, is distinct from each of the other signal waveforms used for the modulation of other structured light patterns of a composite image; these signal waveforms may be selected from suitable types in any combination of distinct signal waveforms, provided the waveforms used are uncorrelated with respect to each other. The depth map/mapping to be utilized in a host of applications, for example: displaying a 3-D view of the object; virtual reality user-interaction interface with a computerized device; face--or other animal feature or inanimate object--recognition and comparison techniques for security or identification purposes; and 3-D video teleconferencing/telecollaboration.

System and technique for retrieving depth information about a surface by projecting a composite image of modulated light patterns

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guan, Chun (Inventor); Hassebrook, Laurence G. (Inventor); Lau, Daniel L. (Inventor)

2008-01-01

A technique, associated system and program code, for retrieving depth information about at least one surface of an object. Core features include: projecting a composite image comprising a plurality of modulated structured light patterns, at the object; capturing an image reflected from the surface; and recovering pattern information from the reflected image, for each of the modulated structured light patterns. Pattern information is preferably recovered for each modulated structured light pattern used to create the composite, by performing a demodulation of the reflected image. Reconstruction of the surface can be accomplished by using depth information from the recovered patterns to produce a depth map/mapping thereof. Each signal waveform used for the modulation of a respective structured light pattern, is distinct from each of the other signal waveforms used for the modulation of other structured light patterns of a composite image; these signal waveforms may be selected from suitable types in any combination of distinct signal waveforms, provided the waveforms used are uncorrelated with respect to each other. The depth map/mapping to be utilized in a host of applications, for example: displaying a 3-D view of the object; virtual reality user-interaction interface with a computerized device; face--or other animal feature or inanimate object--recognition and comparison techniques for security or identification purposes; and 3-D video teleconferencing/telecollaboration.

Face recognition for criminal identification: An implementation of principal component analysis for face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, Nurul Azma; Saidi, Md. Jamri; Rahman, Nurul Hidayah Ab; Wen, Chuah Chai; Hamid, Isredza Rahmi A.

2017-10-01

In practice, identification of criminal in Malaysia is done through thumbprint identification. However, this type of identification is constrained as most of criminal nowadays getting cleverer not to leave their thumbprint on the scene. With the advent of security technology, cameras especially CCTV have been installed in many public and private areas to provide surveillance activities. The footage of the CCTV can be used to identify suspects on scene. However, because of limited software developed to automatically detect the similarity between photo in the footage and recorded photo of criminals, the law enforce thumbprint identification. In this paper, an automated facial recognition system for criminal database was proposed using known Principal Component Analysis approach. This system will be able to detect face and recognize face automatically. This will help the law enforcements to detect or recognize suspect of the case if no thumbprint present on the scene. The results show that about 80% of input photo can be matched with the template data.

Testosterone-mediated sex differences in the face shape during adolescence: subjective impressions and objective features.

PubMed

Marečková, Klára; Weinbrand, Zohar; Chakravarty, M Mallar; Lawrence, Claire; Aleong, Rosanne; Leonard, Gabriel; Perron, Michel; Pike, G Bruce; Richer, Louis; Veillette, Suzanne; Pausova, Zdenka; Paus, Tomáš

2011-11-01

Sex identification of a face is essential for social cognition. Still, perceptual cues indicating the sex of a face, and mechanisms underlying their development, remain poorly understood. Previously, our group described objective age- and sex-related differences in faces of healthy male and female adolescents (12-18 years of age), as derived from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the adolescents' heads. In this study, we presented these adolescent faces to 60 female raters to determine which facial features most reliably predicted subjective sex identification. Identification accuracy correlated highly with specific MRI-derived facial features (e.g. broader forehead, chin, jaw, and nose). Facial features that most reliably cued male identity were associated with plasma levels of testosterone (above and beyond age). Perceptible sex differences in face shape are thus associated with specific facial features whose emergence may be, in part, driven by testosterone. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating a hybrid web-based basic genetics course for health professionals.

PubMed

Wallen, Gwenyth R; Cusack, Georgie; Parada, Suzan; Miller-Davis, Claiborne; Cartledge, Tannia; Yates, Jan

2011-08-01

Health professionals, particularly nurses, continue to struggle with the expanding role of genetics information in the care of their patients. This paper describes an evaluation study of the effectiveness of a hybrid basic genetics course for healthcare professionals combining web-based learning with traditional face-to-face instructional techniques. A multidisciplinary group from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) created "Basic Genetics Education for Healthcare Providers" (BGEHCP). This program combined 7 web-based self-education modules with monthly traditional face-to-face lectures by genetics experts. The course was pilot tested by 186 healthcare providers from various disciplines with 69% (n=129) of the class registrants enrolling in a pre-post evaluation trial. Outcome measures included critical thinking knowledge items and a Web-based Learning Environment Inventory (WEBLEI). Results indicated a significant (p<0.001) change in knowledge scores. WEBLEI scores indicated program effectiveness particularly in the area of convenience, access and the course structure and design. Although significant increases in overall knowledge scores were achieved, scores in content areas surrounding genetic risk identification and ethical issues regarding genetic testing reflected continued gaps in knowledge. Web-based genetics education may help overcome genetics knowledge deficits by providing access for health professionals with diverse schedules in a variety of national and international settings. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Amygdala habituation and prefrontal functional connectivity in youth with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Swartz, Johnna R; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Carrasco, Melisa; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S

2013-01-01

Amygdala habituation, the rapid decrease in amygdala responsiveness to the repeated presentation of stimuli, is fundamental to the nervous system. Habituation is important for maintaining adaptive levels of arousal to predictable social stimuli and decreased habituation is associated with heightened anxiety. Input from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) regulates amygdala activity. Although previous research has shown abnormal amygdala function in youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), no study has examined amygdala habituation in a young sample or whether habituation is related to amygdala connectivity with the vmPFC. Data were analyzed from 32 children and adolescents with ASD and 56 typically developing controls who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a gender identification task for faces that were fearful, happy, sad, or neutral. Habituation was tested by comparing amygdala activation to faces during the first half versus the second half of the session. VmPFC-amygdala connectivity was examined through psychophysiologic interaction analysis. Youth with ASD had decreased amygdala habituation to sad and neutral faces compared with controls. Moreover, decreased amygdala habituation correlated with autism severity as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale. There was a group difference in vmPFC-amygdala connectivity while viewing sad faces, and connectivity predicted amygdala habituation to sad faces in controls. Sustained amygdala activation to faces suggests that repeated face presentations are processed differently in individuals with ASD, which could contribute to social impairments. Abnormal modulation of the amygdala by the vmPFC may play a role in decreased habituation. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moving an In-Class Module Online: A Case Study for Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seery, Michael K.

2012-01-01

This article summarises the author's experiences in running a module "Computers for Chemistry" entirely online for the past four years. The module, previously taught in a face-to-face environment, was reconfigured for teaching in an online environment. The rationale for moving online along with the design, implementation and evaluation of the…

Category-selective attention modulates unconscious processes in the middle occipital gyrus.

PubMed

Tu, Shen; Qiu, Jiang; Martens, Ulla; Zhang, Qinglin

2013-06-01

Many studies have revealed the top-down modulation (spatial attention, attentional load, etc.) on unconscious processing. However, there is little research about how category-selective attention could modulate the unconscious processing. In the present study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the results showed that category-selective attention modulated unconscious face/tool processing in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG). Interestingly, MOG effects were of opposed direction for face and tool processes. During unconscious face processing, activation in MOG decreased under the face-selective attention compared with tool-selective attention. This result was in line with the predictive coding theory. During unconscious tool processing, however, activation in MOG increased under the tool-selective attention compared with face-selective attention. The different effects might be ascribed to an interaction between top-down category-selective processes and bottom-up processes in the partial awareness level as proposed by Kouider, De Gardelle, Sackur, and Dupoux (2010). Specifically, we suppose an "excessive activation" hypothesis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prism adaptation does not change the rightward spatial preference bias found with ambiguous stimuli in unilateral neglect

PubMed Central

Sarri, Margarita; Greenwood, Richard; Kalra, Lalit; Driver, Jon

2011-01-01

Previous research has shown that prism adaptation (prism adaptation) can ameliorate several symptoms of spatial neglect after right-hemisphere damage. But the mechanisms behind this remain unclear. Recently we reported that prisms may increase leftward awareness for neglect in a task using chimeric visual objects, despite apparently not affecting awareness in a task using chimeric emotional faces (Sarri et al., 2006). Here we explored potential reasons for this apparent discrepancy in outcome, by testing further whether the lack of a prism effect on the chimeric face task task could be explained by: i) the specific category of stimuli used (faces as opposed to objects); ii) the affective nature of the stimuli; and/or iii) the particular task implemented, with the chimeric face task requiring forced-choice judgements of lateral ‘preference’ between pairs of identical, but left/right mirror-reversed chimeric face tasks (as opposed to identification for the chimeric object task). We replicated our previous pattern of no impact of prisms on the emotional chimeric face task here in a new series of patients, while also similarly finding no beneficial impact on another lateral ‘preference’ measure that used non-face non-emotional stimuli, namely greyscale gradients. By contrast, we found the usual beneficial impact of prism adaptation (prism adaptation) on some conventional measures of neglect, and improvements for at least some patients in a different face task, requiring explicit discrimination of the chimeric or non-chimeric nature of face stimuli. The new findings indicate that prism therapy does not alter spatial biases in neglect as revealed by ‘lateral preference tasks’ that have no right or wrong answer (requiring forced-choice judgements on left/right mirror-reversed stimuli), regardless of whether these employ face or non-face stimuli. But our data also show that prism therapy can beneficially modulate some aspects of visual awareness in spatial neglect not only for objects, but also for face stimuli, in some cases. PMID:20171612

Translating an academic module into an online resource.

PubMed

Howatson-Jones, I L

Blended learning, which combines face-to-face sessions with online work, is used to provide flexible learning and courses for students who are geographically dispersed. Canterbury Christ Church University recognised the importance of developing an academic module for dispensing opticians across the UK and the requirement to address the needs of an increasingly diverse population of students. Following interest in the module from the Association of British Dispensing Opticians, a decision was made to reformat the module into an online resource. This article describes some of the pedagogical processes involved in developing the online resource. Quantitative and qualitative data are analysed to identify challenges and successes. The importance of developing an educational biography to achieve depth of understanding and thought is acknowledged. The article concludes that some face-to-face interaction is still necessary, not least for helping to reduce students' anxiety.

Activity in Face-Responsive Brain Regions is Modulated by Invisible, Attended Faces: Evidence from Masked Priming

PubMed Central

Eger, Evelyn; Dolan, Raymond; Henson, Richard N.

2009-01-01

It is often assumed that neural activity in face-responsive regions of primate cortex correlates with conscious perception of faces. However, whether such activity occurs without awareness is still debated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with a novel masked face priming paradigm, we observed neural modulations that could not be attributed to perceptual awareness. More specifically, we found reduced activity in several classic face-processing regions, including the “fusiform face area,” “occipital face area,” and superior temporal sulcus, when a face was preceded by a briefly flashed image of the same face, relative to a different face, even when 2 images of the same face differed. Importantly, unlike most previous studies, which have minimized awareness by using conditions of inattention, the present results occurred when the stimuli (the primes) were attended. By contrast, when primes were perceived consciously, in a long-lag priming paradigm, we found repetition-related activity increases in additional frontal and parietal regions. These data not only demonstrate that fMRI activity in face-responsive regions can be modulated independently of perceptual awareness, but also document where such subliminal face-processing occurs (i.e., restricted to face-responsive regions of occipital and temporal cortex) and to what extent (i.e., independent of the specific image). PMID:18400791

Research of Face Recognition with Fisher Linear Discriminant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahim, R.; Afriliansyah, T.; Winata, H.; Nofriansyah, D.; Ratnadewi; Aryza, S.

2018-01-01

Face identification systems are developing rapidly, and these developments drive the advancement of biometric-based identification systems that have high accuracy. However, to develop a good face recognition system and to have high accuracy is something that’s hard to find. Human faces have diverse expressions and attribute changes such as eyeglasses, mustache, beard and others. Fisher Linear Discriminant (FLD) is a class-specific method that distinguishes facial image images into classes and also creates distance between classes and intra classes so as to produce better classification.

Infant Smiling during Social Interaction: Arousal Modulation or Activation Indicator?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ewy, Richard

In a study of infant smiling, 20 mother-infant dyads were videotaped in normal face-to-face interaction when the infants were 9 and 14 weeks of age. Videotapes were used to determine which of two classes of smiling behavior models, either arousal modulation or activation indicator, was most supported by empirical data. Arousal modulation models…

One Year Performance Results for the Prism Solar Installation at the New Mexico Regional Test Center: Field Data from February 15 2016 - February 14 2017.

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

Stein, Joshua; Burnham, Laurie; Lave, Matthew Samuel

A 9.6 kW test array of Prism bifacial modules and reference monofacial modules installed in February 2016 at the New Mexico Regional Test Center has produced one year of performance data. The data reveal that the Prism modules are out-performing the monofacial modules, with bifacial gains in energy over the twelve-month period ranging from 17% to 132%, depending on the orientation and ground albedo. These measured bifacial gains were found to be in good agreement with modeled bifacial gains using equations previously published by Prism Solar. The most dramatic increase in performance was seen among the vertically mounted, west-facing modules,more » where the bifacial modules produced more than double the energy of monofacial modules in the same orientation. Because peak energy generation (mid- morning and mid-afternoon) for these bifacial modules may best match load on the electric grid, the west-facing orientation may be more economically desirable than traditional south-facing module orientations (which peak at solar noon).« less

Early Neural Markers of Implicit Attitudes: N170 Modulated by Intergroup and Evaluative Contexts in IAT.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Agustín; Gleichgerrcht, Ezequiel; Hurtado, Esteban; González, Ramiro; Haye, Andrés; Manes, Facundo F

2010-01-01

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most popular measure to evaluate implicit attitudes. Nevertheless, its neural correlates are not yet fully understood. We examined event related potentials (ERPs) in response to face- and word processing while indigenous and non-indigenous participants performed an IAT displaying faces (ingroup and outgroup members) and words (positive and negative valence) as targets of category judgments. The N170 component was modulated by valence of words and by ingroup/outgroup face categorization. Contextual effects (face-words implicitly associated in the task) had an influence on the N170 amplitude modulation. On the one hand, in face categorization, right N170 showed differences according to the association between social categories of faces and affective valence of words. On the other, in word categorization, left N170 presented a similar modulation when the task implied a negative-valence associated with ingroup faces. Only indigenous participants showed a significant IAT effect and N170 differences. Our results demonstrate an early ERP blending of stimuli processing with both intergroup and evaluative contexts, suggesting an integration of contextual information related to intergroup attitudes during the early stages of word and face processing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of early ERPs during an ethnicity IAT, opening a new branch of exchange between social neuroscience and social psychology of attitudes.

Aggression differentially modulates brain responses to fearful and angry faces: an exploratory study.

PubMed

Lu, Hui; Wang, Yu; Xu, Shuang; Wang, Yifeng; Zhang, Ruiping; Li, Tsingan

2015-08-19

Aggression is reported to modulate neural responses to the threatening information. However, whether aggression can modulate neural response to different kinds of threatening facial expressions (angry and fearful expressions) remains unknown. Thus, event-related potentials were measured in individuals (13 high aggressive, 12 low aggressive) exposed to neutral, angry, and fearful facial expressions while performing a frame-distinguishing task, irrespective of the emotional valence of the expressions. Highly aggressive participants showed no distinct neural responses between the three facial expressions. In addition, compared with individuals with low aggression, highly aggressive individuals showed a decreased frontocentral response to fearful faces within 250-300 ms and to angry faces within 400-500 ms of exposure. These results indicate that fearful faces represent a more threatening signal requiring a quick cognitive response during the early stage of facial processing, whereas angry faces elicit a stronger response during the later processing stage because of its eminent emotional significance. The present results represent the first known evidence that aggression is associated with different neural responses to fearful and angry faces. By exploring the distinct temporal responses to fearful and angry faces modulated by aggression, this study more precisely characterizes the cognitive characteristics of aggressive individuals. Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

Methodology of the determination of the uncertainties by using the biometric device the broadway 3D

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jasek, Roman; Talandova, Hana; Adamek, Milan

2016-06-01

The biometric identification by face is among one of the most widely used methods of biometric identification. Due to it provides a faster and more accurate identification; it was implemented into area of security 3D face reader by Broadway manufacturer was used to measure. It is equipped with the 3D camera system, which uses the method of structured light scanning and saves the template into the 3D model of face. The obtained data were evaluated by software Turnstile Enrolment Application (TEA). The measurements were used 3D face reader the Broadway 3D. First, the person was scanned and stored in the database. Thereafter person has already been compared with the stored template in the database for each method. Finally, a measure of reliability was evaluated for the Broadway 3D face reader.

Station Module Move in 4K Video Resolution

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-06-09

Robotics flight controllers in Mission Control Houston and Canada detached the large Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), used as a supply depot on the orbital laboratory, from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and robotically relocated it to the forward port of the Tranquility module. This move cleared the Unity port for its conversion into the spare berthing location for U.S. cargo spacecraft; the Earth-facing port on Harmony is the primary docking location. Harmony’s space-facing port currently is the spare berthing location for cargo vehicles, so this move frees that location to be used in conjunction with Harmony’s forward port as the arrival locations for commercial crew spacecraft.

Emotional modulation of visual remapping of touch.

PubMed

Cardini, Flavia; Bertini, Caterina; Serino, Andrea; Ladavas, Elisabetta

2012-10-01

The perception of tactile stimuli on the face is modulated if subjects concurrently observe a face being touched; this effect is termed "visual remapping of touch" or the VRT effect. Given the high social value of this mechanism, we investigated whether it might be modulated by specific key information processed in face-to-face interactions: facial emotional expression. In two separate experiments, participants received tactile stimuli, near the perceptual threshold, either on their right, left, or both cheeks. Concurrently, they watched several blocks of movies depicting a face with a neutral, happy, or fearful expression that was touched or just approached by human fingers (Experiment 1). Participants were asked to distinguish between unilateral and bilateral felt tactile stimulation. Tactile perception was enhanced when viewing touch toward a fearful face compared with viewing touch toward the other two expressions. In order to test whether this result can be generalized to other negative emotions or whether it is a fear-specific effect, we ran a second experiment, where participants watched movies of faces-touched or approached by fingers-with either a fearful or an angry expression (Experiment 2). In line with the first experiment, tactile perception was enhanced when subjects viewed touch toward a fearful face and not toward an angry face. Results of the present experiments are interpreted in light of different mechanisms underlying different emotions recognition, with a specific involvement of the somatosensory system when viewing a fearful expression and a resulting fear-specific modulation of the VRT effect.

Distance Metric Learning Using Privileged Information for Face Verification and Person Re-Identification.

PubMed

Xu, Xinxing; Li, Wen; Xu, Dong

2015-12-01

In this paper, we propose a new approach to improve face verification and person re-identification in the RGB images by leveraging a set of RGB-D data, in which we have additional depth images in the training data captured using depth cameras such as Kinect. In particular, we extract visual features and depth features from the RGB images and depth images, respectively. As the depth features are available only in the training data, we treat the depth features as privileged information, and we formulate this task as a distance metric learning with privileged information problem. Unlike the traditional face verification and person re-identification tasks that only use visual features, we further employ the extra depth features in the training data to improve the learning of distance metric in the training process. Based on the information-theoretic metric learning (ITML) method, we propose a new formulation called ITML with privileged information (ITML+) for this task. We also present an efficient algorithm based on the cyclic projection method for solving the proposed ITML+ formulation. Extensive experiments on the challenging faces data sets EUROCOM and CurtinFaces for face verification as well as the BIWI RGBD-ID data set for person re-identification demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

Immune subversion by chromatin manipulation: a 'new face' of host-bacterial pathogen interaction.

PubMed

Arbibe, Laurence

2008-08-01

Bacterial pathogens have evolved various strategies to avoid immune surveillance, depending of their in vivo'lifestyle'. The identification of few bacterial effectors capable to enter the nucleus and modifying chromatin structure in host raises the fascinating questions of how pathogens modulate chromatin structure and why. Chromatin is a dynamic structure that maintains the stability and accessibility of the host DNA genome to the transcription machinery. This review describes the various strategies used by pathogens to interface with host chromatin. In some cases, chromatin injury can be a strategy to take control of major cellular functions, such as the cell cycle. In other cases, manipulation of chromatin structure at specific genomic locations by modulating epigenetic information provides a way for the pathogen to impose its own transcriptional signature onto host cells. This emerging field should strongly influence our understanding of chromatin regulation at interphase nucleus and may provide invaluable openings to the control of immune gene expression in inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Testing a potential alternative to traditional identification procedures: Reaction time-based concealed information test does not work for lineups with cooperative witnesses.

PubMed

Sauerland, Melanie; Wolfs, Andrea C F; Crans, Samantha; Verschuere, Bruno

2017-11-27

Direct eyewitness identification is widely used, but prone to error. We tested the validity of indirect eyewitness identification decisions using the reaction time-based concealed information test (CIT) for assessing cooperative eyewitnesses' face memory as an alternative to traditional lineup procedures. In a series of five experiments, a total of 401 mock eyewitnesses watched one of 11 different stimulus events that depicted a breach of law. Eyewitness identifications in the CIT were derived from longer reaction times as compared to well-matched foil faces not encountered before. Across the five experiments, the weighted mean effect size d was 0.14 (95% CI 0.08-0.19). The reaction time-based CIT seems unsuited for testing cooperative eyewitnesses' memory for faces. The careful matching of the faces required for a fair lineup or the lack of intent to deceive may have hampered the diagnosticity of the reaction time-based CIT.

Photovoltaic module with removable wind deflector

DOEpatents

Botkin, Jonathan [El Cerrito, CA; Graves, Simon [Berkeley, CA; Danning, Matt [Oakland, CA; Culligan, Matthew [Berkeley, CA

2012-08-07

A photovoltaic (PV) module assembly including a PV module, a deflector, and a clip. The PV module includes a PV device and a frame. A PV laminate is assembled to the frame, and the frame includes a support arm forming a seat. The deflector defines a front face and a rear face, with the clip extending from either the trailing frame member or the rear face of the deflector. In a mounted state, the deflector is nested within the seat and is releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip. In some embodiments, the support arm forms a second seat, with the PV module assembly providing a second mounted state in which the deflector is in a differing orientation/slope, nested within the second seat and releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip.

Photovoltaic module with removable wind deflector

DOEpatents

Botkin, Jonathan; Graves, Simon; Danning, Matt; Culligan, Matthew

2014-02-18

A photovoltaic (PV) module assembly including a PV module, a deflector, and a clip. The PV module includes a PV device and a frame. A PV laminate is assembled to the frame, and the frame includes a support arm forming a seat. The deflector defines a front face and a rear face, with the clip extending from either the trailing frame member or the rear face of the deflector. In a mounted state, the deflector is nested within the seat and is releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip. In some embodiments, the support arm forms a second seat, with the PV module assembly providing a second mounted state in which the deflector is in a differing orientation/slope, nested within the second seat and releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip.

Photovoltaic module with removable wind deflector

DOEpatents

Botkin, Jonathan; Graves, Simon; Danning, Matt; Culligan, Matthew

2013-05-28

A photovoltaic (PV) module assembly including a PV module, a deflector, and a clip. The PV module includes a PV device and a frame. A PV laminate is assembled to the frame, and the frame includes a support arm forming a seat. The deflector defines a front face and a rear face, with the clip extending from either the trailing frame member or the rear face of the deflector. In a mounted state, the deflector is nested within the seat and is releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip. In some embodiments, the support arm forms a second seat, with the PV module assembly providing a second mounted state in which the deflector is in a differing orientation/slope, nested within the second seat and releasably mounted to the trailing frame member via the clip.

The changing landscape of functional brain networks for face processing in typical development.

PubMed

Joseph, Jane E; Swearingen, Joshua E; Clark, Jonathan D; Benca, Chelsie E; Collins, Heather R; Corbly, Christine R; Gathers, Ann D; Bhatt, Ramesh S

2012-11-15

Greater expertise for faces in adults than in children may be achieved by a dynamic interplay of functional segregation and integration of brain regions throughout development. The present study examined developmental changes in face network functional connectivity in children (5-12 years) and adults (18-43 years) during face-viewing using a graph-theory approach. A face-specific developmental change involved connectivity of the right occipital face area. During childhood, this node increased in strength and within-module clustering based on positive connectivity. These changes reflect an important role of the ROFA in segregation of function during childhood. In addition, strength and diversity of connections within a module that included primary visual areas (left and right calcarine) and limbic regions (left hippocampus and right inferior orbitofrontal cortex) increased from childhood to adulthood, reflecting increased visuo-limbic integration. This integration was pronounced for faces but also emerged for natural objects. Taken together, the primary face-specific developmental changes involved segregation of a posterior visual module during childhood, possibly implicated in early stage perceptual face processing, and greater integration of visuo-limbic connections from childhood to adulthood, which may reflect processing related to development of perceptual expertise for individuation of faces and other visually homogenous categories. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building face composites can harm lineup identification performance.

PubMed

Wells, Gary L; Charman, Steve D; Olson, Elizabeth A

2005-09-01

Face composite programs permit eyewitnesses to build likenesses of target faces by selecting facial features and combining them into an intact face. Research has shown that these composites are generally poor likenesses of the target face. Two experiments tested the proposition that this composite-building process could harm the builder's memory for the face. In Experiment 1 (n = 150), the authors used 50 different faces and found that the building of a composite reduced the chances that the person could later identify the original face from a lineup when compared with no composite control conditions or with yoked composite-exposure control conditions. In Experiment 2 (n = 200), the authors found that this effect generalized to a simulated-crime video, but mistaken identifications from target-absent lineups were not inflated by composite building. Copyright 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

Active module identification in intracellular networks using a memetic algorithm with a new binary decoding scheme.

PubMed

Li, Dong; Pan, Zhisong; Hu, Guyu; Zhu, Zexuan; He, Shan

2017-03-14

Active modules are connected regions in biological network which show significant changes in expression over particular conditions. The identification of such modules is important since it may reveal the regulatory and signaling mechanisms that associate with a given cellular response. In this paper, we propose a novel active module identification algorithm based on a memetic algorithm. We propose a novel encoding/decoding scheme to ensure the connectedness of the identified active modules. Based on the scheme, we also design and incorporate a local search operator into the memetic algorithm to improve its performance. The effectiveness of proposed algorithm is validated on both small and large protein interaction networks.

Unaware person recognition from the body when face identification fails.

PubMed

Rice, Allyson; Phillips, P Jonathon; Natu, Vaidehi; An, Xiaobo; O'Toole, Alice J

2013-11-01

How does one recognize a person when face identification fails? Here, we show that people rely on the body but are unaware of doing so. State-of-the-art face-recognition algorithms were used to select images of people with almost no useful identity information in the face. Recognition of the face alone in these cases was near chance level, but recognition of the person was accurate. Accuracy in identifying the person without the face was identical to that in identifying the whole person. Paradoxically, people reported relying heavily on facial features over noninternal face and body features in making their identity decisions. Eye movements indicated otherwise, with gaze duration and fixations shifting adaptively toward the body and away from the face when the body was a better indicator of identity than the face. This shift occurred with no cost to accuracy or response time. Human identity processing may be partially inaccessible to conscious awareness.

Multi-level RF identification system

DOEpatents

Steele, Kerry D.; Anderson, Gordon A.; Gilbert, Ronald W.

2004-07-20

A radio frequency identification system having a radio frequency transceiver for generating a continuous wave RF interrogation signal that impinges upon an RF identification tag. An oscillation circuit in the RF identification tag modulates the interrogation signal with a subcarrier of a predetermined frequency and modulates the frequency-modulated signal back to the transmitting interrogator. The interrogator recovers and analyzes the subcarrier signal and determines its frequency. The interrogator generates an output indicative of the frequency of the subcarrier frequency, thereby identifying the responding RFID tag as one of a "class" of RFID tags configured to respond with a subcarrier signal of a predetermined frequency.

Bidirectional communication between amygdala and fusiform gyrus during facial recognition.

PubMed

Herrington, John D; Taylor, James M; Grupe, Daniel W; Curby, Kim M; Schultz, Robert T

2011-06-15

Decades of research have documented the specialization of fusiform gyrus (FG) for facial information processes. Recent theories indicate that FG activity is shaped by input from amygdala, but effective connectivity from amygdala to FG remains undocumented. In this fMRI study, 39 participants completed a face recognition task. 11 participants underwent the same experiment approximately four months later. Robust face-selective activation of FG, amygdala, and lateral occipital cortex were observed. Dynamic causal modeling and Bayesian Model Selection (BMS) were used to test the intrinsic connections between these structures, and their modulation by face perception. BMS results strongly favored a dynamic causal model with bidirectional, face-modulated amygdala-FG connections. However, the right hemisphere connections diminished at time 2, with the face modulation parameter no longer surviving Bonferroni correction. These findings suggest that amygdala strongly influences FG function during face perception, and that this influence is shaped by experience and stimulus salience. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The electrophysiological effects of the serotonin 1A receptor agonist buspirone in emotional face processing.

PubMed

Bernasconi, Fosco; Kometer, Michael; Pokorny, Thomas; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2015-04-01

Emotional face processing is critically modulated by the serotonergic system, and serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonists impair emotional face processing. However, the specific contribution of the 5-HT1A receptor remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the spatiotemporal brain mechanisms underpinning the modulation of emotional face processing induced by buspirone, a partial 5-HT1A receptor agonist. In a psychophysical discrimination of emotional faces task, we observed that the discrimination fearful versus neutral faces were reduced, but not happy versus neutral faces. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials elicited by emotional face images, after placebo and buspirone administration. Buspirone modulated response strength (i.e., global field power) in the interval 230-248ms after stimulus onset. Distributed source estimation over this time interval revealed that buspirone decreased the neural activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that was evoked by fearful faces. These results indicate temporal and valence-specific effects of buspirone on the neuronal correlates of emotional face processing. Furthermore, the reduced neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in response to fearful faces suggests a reduced attention to fearful faces. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the role of 5-HT1A receptors in emotional face processing and have implications for affective disorders that are characterized by an increased attention to negative stimuli. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Applying face identification to detecting hijacking of airplane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Xuanwen; Cheng, Qiang

2004-09-01

That terrorists hijacked the airplanes and crashed the World Trade Center is disaster to civilization. To avoid the happening of hijack is critical to homeland security. To report the hijacking in time, limit the terrorist to operate the plane if happened and land the plane to the nearest airport could be an efficient way to avoid the misery. Image processing technique in human face recognition or identification could be used for this task. Before the plane take off, the face images of pilots are input into a face identification system installed in the airplane. The camera in front of pilot seat keeps taking the pilot face image during the flight and comparing it with pre-input pilot face images. If a different face is detected, a warning signal is sent to ground automatically. At the same time, the automatic cruise system is started or the plane is controlled by the ground. The terrorists will have no control over the plane. The plane will be landed to a nearest or appropriate airport under the control of the ground or cruise system. This technique could also be used in automobile industry as an image key to avoid car stealth.

Emotional Face Identification in Youths with Primary Bipolar Disorder or Primary Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seymour, Karen E.; Pescosolido, Matthew F.; Reidy, Brooke L.; Galvan, Thania; Kim, Kerri L.; Young, Matthew; Dickstein, Daniel P.

2013-01-01

Objective: Bipolar disorder (BD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often comorbid or confounded; therefore, we evaluated emotional face identification to better understand brain/behavior interactions in children and adolescents with either primary BD, primary ADHD, or typically developing controls (TDC). Method: Participants…

Emotional modulation of body-selective visual areas.

PubMed

Peelen, Marius V; Atkinson, Anthony P; Andersson, Frederic; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2007-12-01

Emotionally expressive faces have been shown to modulate activation in visual cortex, including face-selective regions in ventral temporal lobe. Here, we tested whether emotionally expressive bodies similarly modulate activation in body-selective regions. We show that dynamic displays of bodies with various emotional expressions vs neutral bodies, produce significant activation in two distinct body-selective visual areas, the extrastriate body area and the fusiform body area. Multi-voxel pattern analysis showed that the strength of this emotional modulation was related, on a voxel-by-voxel basis, to the degree of body selectivity, while there was no relation with the degree of selectivity for faces. Across subjects, amygdala responses to emotional bodies positively correlated with the modulation of body-selective areas. Together, these results suggest that emotional cues from body movements produce topographically selective influences on category-specific populations of neurons in visual cortex, and these increases may implicate discrete modulatory projections from the amygdala.

Judging trustworthiness from faces: Emotion cues modulate trustworthiness judgments in young children.

PubMed

Caulfield, Frances; Ewing, Louise; Bank, Samantha; Rhodes, Gillian

2016-08-01

By adulthood, people judge trustworthiness from appearances rapidly and reliably. However, we know little about these judgments in children. This novel study investigates the developmental trajectory of explicit trust judgments from faces, and the contribution made by emotion cues across age groups. Five-, 7-, 10-year-olds, and adults rated the trustworthiness of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces with neutral expressions. The same participants also rated faces displaying overt happy and angry expressions, allowing us to investigate whether emotion cues modulate trustworthiness judgments similarly in children and adults. Results revealed that the ability to evaluate the trustworthiness of faces emerges in childhood, but may not be adult like until 10 years of age. Moreover, we show that emotion cues modulate trust judgments in young children, as well as adults. Anger cues diminished the appearance of trustworthiness for participants from 5 years of age and happy cues increased it, although this effect did not consistently emerge until later in childhood, that is, 10 years of age. These associations also extended to more subtle emotion cues present in neutral faces. Our results indicate that young children are sensitive to facial trustworthiness, and suggest that similar expression cues modulate these judgments in children and adults. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Dissociation between the neural correlates of conscious face perception and visual attention.

PubMed

Navajas, Joaquin; Nitka, Aleksander W; Quian Quiroga, Rodrigo

2017-08-01

Given the higher chance to recognize attended compared to unattended stimuli, the specific neural correlates of these two processes, attention and awareness, tend to be intermingled in experimental designs. In this study, we dissociated the neural correlates of conscious face perception from the effects of visual attention. To do this, we presented faces at the threshold of awareness and manipulated attention through the use of exogenous prestimulus cues. We show that the N170 component, a scalp EEG marker of face perception, was modulated independently by attention and by awareness. An earlier P1 component was not modulated by either of the two effects and a later P3 component was indicative of awareness but not of attention. These claims are supported by converging evidence from (a) modulations observed in the average evoked potentials, (b) correlations between neural and behavioral data at the single-subject level, and (c) single-trial analyses. Overall, our results show a clear dissociation between the neural substrates of attention and awareness. Based on these results, we argue that conscious face perception is triggered by a boost in face-selective cortical ensembles that can be modulated by, but are still independent from, visual attention. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Perceptual impairment in face identification with poor sleep

PubMed Central

Beattie, Louise; Walsh, Darragh; McLaren, Jessica; Biello, Stephany M.

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown impaired memory for faces following restricted sleep. However, it is not known whether lack of sleep impairs performance on face identification tasks that do not rely on recognition memory, despite these tasks being more prevalent in security and forensic professions—for example, in photo-ID checks at national borders. Here we tested whether poor sleep affects accuracy on a standard test of face-matching ability that does not place demands on memory: the Glasgow Face-Matching Task (GFMT). In Experiment 1, participants who reported sleep disturbance consistent with insomnia disorder show impaired accuracy on the GFMT when compared with participants reporting normal sleep behaviour. In Experiment 2, we then used a sleep diary method to compare GFMT accuracy in a control group to participants reporting poor sleep on three consecutive nights—and again found lower accuracy scores in the short sleep group. In both experiments, reduced face-matching accuracy in those with poorer sleep was not associated with lower confidence in their decisions, carrying implications for occupational settings where identification errors made with high confidence can have serious outcomes. These results suggest that sleep-related impairments in face memory reflect difficulties in perceptual encoding of identity, and point towards metacognitive impairment in face matching following poor sleep. PMID:27853547

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

Face-off: A new identification procedure for child eyewitnesses.

PubMed

Price, Heather L; Fitzgerald, Ryan J

2016-09-01

In 2 experiments, we introduce a new "face-off" procedure for child eyewitness identifications. The new procedure, which is premised on reducing the stimulus set size, was compared with the showup and simultaneous procedures in Experiment 1 and with modified versions of the simultaneous and elimination procedures in Experiment 2. Several benefits of the face-off procedure were observed: it was significantly more diagnostic than the showup procedure; it led to significantly more correct rejections of target-absent lineups than the simultaneous procedures in both experiments, and it led to greater information gain than the modified elimination and simultaneous procedures. The face-off procedure led to consistently more conservative responding than the simultaneous procedures in both experiments. Given the commonly cited concern that children are too lenient in their decision criteria for identification tasks, the face-off procedure may offer a concrete technique to reduce children's high choosing rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

ERPs reveal subliminal processing of fearful faces.

PubMed

Kiss, Monika; Eimer, Martin

2008-03-01

To investigate whether facial expression is processed in the absence of conscious awareness, ERPs were recorded in a task in which participants had to identify the expression of masked fearful and neutral target faces. On supraliminal trials (200 ms target duration), in which identification performance was high, a sustained positivity to fearful versus neutral target faces started 140 ms after target face onset. On subliminal trials (8 ms target duration), identification performance was at chance level, but ERPs still showed systematic fear-specific effects. An early positivity to fearful target faces was present but smaller than on supraliminal trials. A subsequent enhanced N2 to fearful faces was only present for subliminal trials. In contrast, a P3 enhancement to fearful faces was observed on supraliminal but not subliminal trials. Results demonstrate rapid emotional expression processing in the absence of awareness.

ERPs reveal subliminal processing of fearful faces

PubMed Central

Kiss, Monika; Eimer, Martin

2008-01-01

To investigate whether facial expression is processed in the absence of conscious awareness, ERPs were recorded in a task where participants had to identify the expression of masked fearful and neutral target faces. On supraliminal trials (200 ms target duration), where identification performance was high, a sustained positivity to fearful versus neutral target faces started 140 ms after target face onset. On subliminal trials (8 ms target duration), identification performance was at chance level, but ERPs still showed systematic fear-specific effects. An early positivity to fearful target faces was present but smaller than on supraliminal trials. A subsequent enhanced N2 to fearful faces was only present for subliminal trials. In contrast, a P3 enhancement to fearful faces was observed on supraliminal but not subliminal trials. Results demonstrate rapid emotional expression processing in the absence of awareness. PMID:17995905

The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning throughout adulthood.

PubMed

Turano, Maria Teresa; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2017-11-01

The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning has been widely explored. However, how aging modulates this association regarding both objective performance and subjective-perception is still neglected. Participants, aged between 18 and 81 years, performed a face memory test and completed subjective face recognition and socioemotional questionnaires. General and social anxiety, and neuroticism traits account for the individual variation in face recognition abilities during adulthood. Aging modulates these relationships because as they age, individuals that present a higher level of these traits also show low-level face recognition ability. Intriguingly, the association between depression and face recognition abilities is evident with increasing age. Overall, the present results emphasize the importance of embedding face metacognition measurement into the context of these studies and suggest that aging is an important factor to be considered, which seems to contribute to the relationship between socioemotional and face-cognitive functioning.

Self-face recognition in social context.

PubMed

Sugiura, Motoaki; Sassa, Yuko; Jeong, Hyeonjeong; Wakusawa, Keisuke; Horie, Kaoru; Sato, Shigeru; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-06-01

The concept of "social self" is often described as a representation of the self-reflected in the eyes or minds of others. Although the appearance of one's own face has substantial social significance for humans, neuroimaging studies have failed to link self-face recognition and the likely neural substrate of the social self, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). We assumed that the social self is recruited during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for comparison of social values. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the modulation of neural responses to the faces of the self and of a close friend in a social context. We identified an enhanced response in the ventral MPFC and right occipitoparietal sulcus in the social context specifically for the self-face. Neural response in the right lateral parietal and inferior temporal cortices, previously claimed as self-face-specific, was unaffected for the self-face but unexpectedly enhanced for the friend's face in the social context. Self-face-specific activation in the pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, and self-face-specific reduction of activation in the left middle temporal gyrus and the right supramarginal gyrus, replicating a previous finding, were not subject to such modulation. Our results thus demonstrated the recruitment of a social self during self-face recognition in the social context. At least three brain networks for self-face-specific activation may be dissociated by different patterns of response-modulation in the social context, suggesting multiple dynamic self-other representations in the human brain. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Demonstration of holographic smart card system using the optical memory technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, JungHoi; Choi, JaeKwang; An, JunWon; Kim, Nam; Lee, KwonYeon; Jeon, SeckHee

2003-05-01

In this paper, we demonstrate the holographic smart card system using digital holographic memory technique that uses reference beam encrypted by the random phase mask to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the stored digital page. The input data that include document data, a picture of face, and a fingerprint for identification is encoded digitally and then coupled with the reference beam modulated by a random phase mask. Therefore, this proposed system can execute recording in the order of MB~GB and readout all personal information from just one card without any additional database system. Also, recorded digital holograms can't be reconstructed without a phase key and can't be copied by using computers, scanners, or photography.

Who is who: Italian norms for visual recognition and identification of celebrities.

PubMed

Bizzozero, I; Ferrari, F; Pozzoli, S; Saetti, M C; Spinnler, H

2005-06-01

Age-, education- and sex-adjusted norms are provided for two new neuropsychological tests, namely (i) Face Recognition (guess of familiarity) and (ii) Person Identification (biographical contextualisation). Sixty-three pictures of celebrities and 63 of unknown people were selected following two interwoven criteria(1): the realm of their celebrity (i.e., entertainment, culture and politics) and the period of celebrity acquisition (i.e., pre-war, post-war and contemporary). Both media- and education-dependent knowledge of celebrity were considered. Ninety-eight unpaid healthy participants aged between 50 and 93 years and with at least 8 years of formal education took part in this study. Reference is made to serial models of familiar face/persons processing. Recognition is held to tackle the activity of Personal Identity Nodes (PINs) and identification of the Exemplar Semantics Archives. Given the seriality of the reference model, the Identification Test is embedded in the Recognition test. This entailed that only previously recognised faces were employed to achieve norms for identification.

Emotional contexts modulate intentional memory suppression of neutral faces: Insights from ERPs.

PubMed

Pierguidi, Lapo; Righi, Stefania; Gronchi, Giorgio; Marzi, Tessa; Caharel, Stephanie; Giovannelli, Fabio; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2016-08-01

The main goal of present work is to gain new insight into the temporal dynamics underlying the voluntary memory control for neutral faces associated with neutral, positive and negative contexts. A directed forgetting (DF) procedure was used during the recording of EEG to answer the question whether is it possible to forget a face that has been encoded within a particular emotional context. A face-scene phase in which a neutral face was showed in a neutral or emotional scene (positive, negative) was followed by the voluntary memory cue (cue phase) indicating whether the face had to-be remember or to-be-forgotten (TBR and TBF). Memory for faces was then assessed with an old/new recognition task. Behaviorally, we found that it is harder to suppress faces-in-positive-scenes compared to faces-in-negative and neutral-scenes. The temporal information obtained by the ERPs showed: 1) during the face-scene phase, the Late Positive Potential (LPP), which indexes motivated emotional attention, was larger for faces-in-negative-scenes compared to faces-in-neutral-scenes. 2) Remarkably, during the cue phase, ERPs were significantly modulated by the emotional contexts. Faces-in-neutral scenes showed an ERP pattern that has been typically associated to DF effect whereas faces-in-positive-scenes elicited the reverse ERP pattern. Faces-in-negative scenes did not show differences in the DF-related neural activities but larger N1 amplitude for TBF vs. TBR faces may index early attentional deployment. These results support the hypothesis that the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the contexts (through attentional broadening and narrowing mechanisms, respectively) may modulate the effectiveness of intentional memory suppression for neutral information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

Scott, Jeffrey Wayne; Pratt, Richard M

A modulated backscatter radio frequency identification device includes a diode detector configured to selectively modulate a reply signal onto an incoming continuous wave; communications circuitry configured to provide a modulation control signal to the diode detector, the diode detector being configured to modulate the reply signal in response to be modulation control signal; and circuitry configured to increase impedance change at the diode detector which would otherwise not occur because the diode detector rectifies the incoming continuous wave while modulating the reply signal, whereby reducing the rectified signal increases modulation depth by removing the reverse bias effects on impedance changes.more » Methods of improving depth of modulation in a modulated backscatter radio frequency identification device are also provided.« less

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 be difficult in secondary mental health care. A database of online modules could provide flexibility to tailor treatment to individual patients, which asks motivation and skills of both patients and therapists. Further research is necessary to determine the (cost-)effectiveness of blended care, but this study provides starting points and preconditions to blend online and face-to-face sessions and create a treatment combining the best of both worlds.

Exploring the functional architecture of person recognition system with event-related potentials in a within- and cross-domain self-priming of faces.

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Pisani, Michèle; Rousselle, Laurence; Crommelinck, Marc; Bruyer, Raymond

2005-01-01

In this paper, we explored the functional properties of person recognition system by investigating the onset, magnitude, and scalp distribution of within- and cross-domain self-priming effects on event-related potentials (ERPs). Recognition of degraded pictures of famous people was enhanced by a prior exposure to the same person's face (within-domain self-priming) or name (cross-domain self-priming) as compared to those preceded by neutral or unrelated primes. The ERP results showed first that the amplitude of the N170 component to famous face targets was modulated by within- and cross-domain self-priming, suggesting not only that the N170 component can be affected by top-down influences but also that this top-down effect crosses domains. Second, similar to our behavioral data, later ERPs to famous faces showed larger ERP self-priming effects in the within-domain than in the cross-domain condition. In addition, the present data dissociated between two topographically and temporally overlapping priming-sensitive ERP components: the first one, with a strongly posterior distribution arising at an early onset, was modulated more by within-domain priming irrespective whether the repeated face was familiar or not. The second component, with a relatively uniform scalp distribution, was modulated by within- and cross-domain priming of familiar faces. Moreover, there was no evidence for ERP-induced modulations for unfamiliar face targets in the cross-domain condition. Together, our findings suggest that multiple neurocognitive events that are possibly mediated by distinct brain loci contribute to face priming effects.

Modelling of Biometric Identification System with Given Parameters Using Colored Petri Nets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrosyan, G.; Ter-Vardanyan, L.; Gaboutchian, A.

2017-05-01

Biometric identification systems use given parameters and function on the basis of Colored Petri Nets as a modelling language developed for systems in which communication, synchronization and distributed resources play an important role. Colored Petri Nets combine the strengths of Classical Petri Nets with the power of a high-level programming language. Coloured Petri Nets have both, formal intuitive and graphical presentations. Graphical CPN model consists of a set of interacting modules which include a network of places, transitions and arcs. Mathematical representation has a well-defined syntax and semantics, as well as defines system behavioural properties. One of the best known features used in biometric is the human finger print pattern. During the last decade other human features have become of interest, such as iris-based or face recognition. The objective of this paper is to introduce the fundamental concepts of Petri Nets in relation to tooth shape analysis. Biometric identification systems functioning has two phases: data enrollment phase and identification phase. During the data enrollment phase images of teeth are added to database. This record contains enrollment data as a noisy version of the biometrical data corresponding to the individual. During the identification phase an unknown individual is observed again and is compared to the enrollment data in the database and then system estimates the individual. The purpose of modeling biometric identification system by means of Petri Nets is to reveal the following aspects of the functioning model: the efficiency of the model, behavior of the model, mistakes and accidents in the model, feasibility of the model simplification or substitution of its separate components for more effective components without interfering system functioning. The results of biometric identification system modeling and evaluating are presented and discussed.

49 CFR 1544.231 - Airport-approved and exclusive area personnel identification systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... carry out a personnel identification system for identification media that are airport-approved, or identification media that are issued for use in an exclusive area. The system must include the following: (1) Personnel identification media that— (i) Convey a full face image, full name, employer, and identification...

Implementation of a high-speed face recognition system that uses an optical parallel correlator.

PubMed

Watanabe, Eriko; Kodate, Kashiko

2005-02-10

We implement a fully automatic fast face recognition system by using a 1000 frame/s optical parallel correlator designed and assembled by us. The operational speed for the 1:N (i.e., matching one image against N, where N refers to the number of images in the database) identification experiment (4000 face images) amounts to less than 1.5 s, including the preprocessing and postprocessing times. The binary real-only matched filter is devised for the sake of face recognition, and the system is optimized by the false-rejection rate (FRR) and the false-acceptance rate (FAR), according to 300 samples selected by the biometrics guideline. From trial 1:N identification experiments with the optical parallel correlator, we acquired low error rates of 2.6% FRR and 1.3% FAR. Facial images of people wearing thin glasses or heavy makeup that rendered identification difficult were identified with this system.

An odd manifestation of the Capgras syndrome: loss of familiarity even with the sexual partner.

PubMed

Thomas Antérion, C; Convers, P; Desmales, S; Borg, C; Laurent, B

2008-06-01

We report the case of a patient who presented visual hallucinations and identification disorders associated with a Capgras syndrome. During the Capgras periods, there was not only a misidentification of his wife's face, but also a more global perceptive and emotional sexual identification disorder. Thus, he had sexual intercourse with his wife's "double" without having the slightest recollection feeling of familiarity towards his "wife" and even changed his sexual habits. To the best of our knowledge, he is the only neurological patient who made his wife a mistress. Starting from this global familiarity loss, we discuss the mechanism of Capgras delusion with reference to the role of the implicit system of face recognition. Such behavior of familiarity loss not only with face but also with all intimacy aspects argues for a specific disconnection between the ventral visual pathway of face identification and the limbic system involved in emotional and episodic memory contents.

Value conditioning modulates visual working memory processes.

PubMed

Thomas, Paul M J; FitzGibbon, Lily; Raymond, Jane E

2016-01-01

Learning allows the value of motivationally salient events to become associated with stimuli that predict those events. Here, we asked whether value associations could facilitate visual working memory (WM), and whether such effects would be valence dependent. Our experiment was specifically designed to isolate value-based effects on WM from value-based effects on selective attention that might be expected to bias encoding. In a simple associative learning task, participants learned to associate the color of tinted faces with gaining or losing money or neither. Tinted faces then served as memoranda in a face identity WM task for which previously learned color associations were irrelevant and no monetary outcomes were forthcoming. Memory was best for faces with gain-associated tints, poorest for faces with loss-associated tints, and average for faces with no-outcome-associated tints. Value associated with 1 item in the WM array did not modulate memory for other items in the array. Eye movements when studying faces did not depend on the valence of previously learned color associations, arguing against value-based biases being due to differential encoding. This valence-sensitive value-conditioning effect on WM appears to result from modulation of WM maintenance processes. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Painful faces-induced attentional blink modulated by top–down and bottom–up mechanisms

PubMed Central

Zheng, Chun; Wang, Jin-Yan; Luo, Fei

2015-01-01

Pain-related stimuli can capture attention in an automatic (bottom–up) or intentional (top–down) fashion. Previous studies have examined attentional capture by pain-related information using spatial attention paradigms that involve mainly a bottom–up mechanism. In the current study, we investigated the pain information-induced attentional blink (AB) using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, and compared the effects of task-irrelevant and task-relevant pain distractors. Relationships between accuracy of target identification and individual traits (i.e., empathy and catastrophizing thinking about pain) were also examined. The results demonstrated that task-relevant painful faces had a significant pain information-induced AB effect, whereas task-irrelevant faces showed a near-significant trend of this effect, supporting the notion that pain-related stimuli can influence the temporal dynamics of attention. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between response accuracy and pain catastrophizing score in task-relevant trials. These findings suggest that active scanning of environmental information related to pain produces greater deficits in cognition than does unintentional attention toward pain, which may represent the different ways in which healthy individuals and patients with chronic pain process pain-relevant information. These results may provide insight into the understanding of maladaptive attentional processing in patients with chronic pain. PMID:26082731

Building Face Composites Can Harm Lineup Identification Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wells, Gary L.; Charman, Steve D.; Olson, Elizabeth A.

2005-01-01

Face composite programs permit eyewitnesses to build likenesses of target faces by selecting facial features and combining them into an intact face. Research has shown that these composites are generally poor likenesses of the target face. Two experiments tested the proposition that this composite-building process could harm the builder's memory…

Attention to individual identities modulates face processing.

PubMed

Ruz, María; Aranda, Clara; Sarmiento, Beatriz R; Sanabria, Daniel

2015-05-01

The ability of attention to apply in a flexible manner to several types of information at various stages of processing has been studied extensively. However, the susceptibility of these effects to the nature of the idiosyncratic items being attended is less understood. In the current study, we used symbolic cues to orient the attention of participants to the subsequent appearance of the face of a famous person (the former king of Spain) or an unfamiliar face. These were matched in perceptual characteristics. Behavioral effects showed that face-specific attention optimized response speed in an orthogonal task when the target matched the cue (valid trials) compared to when it did not (invalid trials). According to topographical analyses of the electrophysiological data, the famous and unfamiliar faces engaged dissociable brain circuits in two different temporal windows, from 144 to 300 ms after target processing, and at a later 456-492 ms epoch. In addition, orienting attention to specific faces modulated the perceptual stages reflected in the P1 and N170 potentials but with a different laterality pattern that depended on the familiarity of the faces. Whereas only attention to the famous face enhanced the P1 potential at left posterior electrodes, with no corresponding effect for the unfamiliar face at this stage, the N170 was modulated at left posterior sites for the famous item and at right homologous electrodes for the unfamiliar face. Intermediate processing stages, previously linked to facial identity processing indexed by the P2 and N2 potentials, reflected item familiarity but were not affected by the cueing manipulation. At the P3 level, attention influenced again item processing but did so in an equivalent manner for the famous and unfamiliar face. Our results, showing that identity-specific attention modulates perceptual stages of facial processing at different locations depending on idiosyncratic stimulus familiarity, may inform comparison of studies employing items with different degrees of novelty.

Selective attention modulates high-frequency activity in the face-processing network.

PubMed

Müsch, Kathrin; Hamamé, Carlos M; Perrone-Bertolotti, Marcela; Minotti, Lorella; Kahane, Philippe; Engel, Andreas K; Lachaux, Jean-Philippe; Schneider, Till R

2014-11-01

Face processing depends on the orchestrated activity of a large-scale neuronal network. Its activity can be modulated by attention as a function of task demands. However, it remains largely unknown whether voluntary, endogenous attention and reflexive, exogenous attention to facial expressions equally affect all regions of the face-processing network, and whether such effects primarily modify the strength of the neuronal response, the latency, the duration, or the spectral characteristics. We exploited the good temporal and spatial resolution of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) and recorded from depth electrodes to uncover the fast dynamics of emotional face processing. We investigated frequency-specific responses and event-related potentials (ERP) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC), ventral temporal cortex (VTC), anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and amygdala when facial expressions were task-relevant or task-irrelevant. All investigated regions of interest (ROI) were clearly modulated by task demands and exhibited stronger changes in stimulus-induced gamma band activity (50-150 Hz) when facial expressions were task-relevant. Observed latencies demonstrate that the activation is temporally coordinated across the network, rather than serially proceeding along a processing hierarchy. Early and sustained responses to task-relevant faces in VOTC and VTC corroborate their role for the core system of face processing, but they also occurred in the anterior insula. Strong attentional modulation in the OFC and amygdala (300 msec) suggests that the extended system of the face-processing network is only recruited if the task demands active face processing. Contrary to our expectation, we rarely observed differences between fearful and neutral faces. Our results demonstrate that activity in the face-processing network is susceptible to the deployment of selective attention. Moreover, we show that endogenous attention operates along the whole face-processing network, and that these effects are reflected in frequency-specific changes in the gamma band. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In vivo imaging of palisades of Vogt in dry eye versus normal subjects using en-face spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

PubMed

Ghouali, Wajdene; Tahiri Joutei Hassani, Rachid; Djerada, Zoubir; Liang, Hong; El Sanharawi, Mohamed; Labbé, Antoine; Baudouin, Christophe

2017-01-01

To evaluate a possible clinical application of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) using en-face module for the imaging of the corneoscleral limbus in normal subjects and dry eye patients. Seventy-six subjects were included in this study. Seventy eyes of 35 consecutive patients with dry eye disease and 82 eyes of 41 healthy control subjects were investigated. All subjects were examined with the Avanti RTVue® anterior segment OCT. En-face OCT images of the corneoscleral limbus were acquired in four quadrants (inferior, superior, nasal and temporal) and then were analyzed semi-quantitatively according to whether or not palisades of Vogt (POV) were visible. En-face OCT images were then compared to in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) in eleven eyes of 7 healthy and dry eye patients. En-face SD-OCT showed POV as a radially oriented network, located in superficial corneoscleral limbus, with a good correlation with IVCM features. It provided an easy and reproducible identification of POV without any special preparation or any direct contact, with a grading scale from 0 (no visualization) to 3 (high visualization). The POV were found predominantly in superior (P<0.001) and inferior (P<0.001) quadrants when compared to the nasal and temporal quadrants for all subjects examined. The visibility score decreased with age (P<0.001) and was lower in dry eye patients (P<0.01). In addition, the score decreased in accordance with the severity of dry eye disease (P<0.001). En-face SD-OCT is a non-contact imaging technique that can be used to evaluate the POV, thus providing valuable information about differences in the limbal anatomy of dry eye patients as compared to healthy patients.

Development Strategies for Online Volunteer Training Modules: A Team Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robideau, Kari; Vogel, Eric

2014-01-01

Volunteers are central to the delivery of 4-H programs, and providing quality, relevant training is key to volunteer success. Online, asynchronous modules are an enhancement to a training delivery menu for adult volunteers, providing consistent, accessible options traditionally delivered primarily face to face. This article describes how Minnesota…

Identification of emotions in mixed disgusted-happy faces as a function of depressive symptom severity.

PubMed

Sanchez, Alvaro; Romero, Nuria; Maurage, Pierre; De Raedt, Rudi

2017-12-01

Interpersonal difficulties are common in depression, but their underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. The role of depression in the identification of mixed emotional signals with a direct interpersonal value remains unclear. The present study aimed to clarify this question. A sample of 39 individuals reporting a broad range of depression levels completed an emotion identification task where they viewed faces expressing three emotional categories (100% disgusted and 100% happy faces, as well as their morphed 50% disgusted - 50% happy exemplars). Participants were asked to identify the corresponding depicted emotion as "clearly disgusted", "mixed", or "clearly happy". Higher depression levels were associated with lower identification of positive emotions in 50% disgusted - 50% happy faces. The study was conducted with an analogue sample reporting individual differences in subclinical depression levels. Further research must replicate these findings in a clinical sample and clarify whether differential emotional identification patterns emerge in depression for different mixed negative-positive emotions (sad-happy vs. disgusted-happy). Depression may account for a lower bias to perceive positive states when ambiguous states from others include subtle signals of social threat (i.e., disgust), leading to an under-perception of positive social signals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Note: Design of FPGA based system identification module with application to atomic force microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosal, Sayan; Pradhan, Sourav; Salapaka, Murti

2018-05-01

The science of system identification is widely utilized in modeling input-output relationships of diverse systems. In this article, we report field programmable gate array (FPGA) based implementation of a real-time system identification algorithm which employs forgetting factors and bias compensation techniques. The FPGA module is employed to estimate the mechanical properties of surfaces of materials at the nano-scale with an atomic force microscope (AFM). The FPGA module is user friendly which can be interfaced with commercially available AFMs. Extensive simulation and experimental results validate the design.

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

Face-elicited ERPs and affective attitude: brain electric microstate and tomography analyses.

PubMed

Pizzagalli, D; Lehmann, D; Koenig, T; Regard, M; Pascual-Marqui, R D

2000-03-01

Although behavioral studies have demonstrated that normative affective traits modulate the processing of facial and emotionally charged stimuli, direct electrophysiological evidence for this modulation is still lacking. Event-related potential (ERP) data associated with personal, traitlike approach- or withdrawal-related attitude (assessed post-recording and 14 months later) were investigated in 18 subjects during task-free (i.e. unrequested, spontaneous) emotional evaluation of faces. Temporal and spatial aspects of 27 channel ERP were analyzed with microstate analysis and low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA), a new method to compute 3 dimensional cortical current density implemented in the Talairach brain atlas. Microstate analysis showed group differences 132-196 and 196-272 ms poststimulus, with right-shifted electric gravity centers for subjects with negative affective attitude. During these (over subjects reliably identifiable) personality-modulated, face-elicited microstates, LORETA revealed activation of bilateral occipito-temporal regions, reportedly associated with facial configuration extraction processes. Negative compared to positive affective attitude showed higher activity right temporal; positive compared to negative attitude showed higher activity left temporo-parieto-occipital. These temporal and spatial aspects suggest that the subject groups differed in brain activity at early, automatic, stimulus-related face processing steps when structural face encoding (configuration extraction) occurs. In sum, the brain functional microstates associated with affect-related personality features modulate brain mechanisms during face processing already at early information processing stages.

How disgust facilitates avoidance: an ERP study on attention modulation by threats.

PubMed

Liu, Yunzhe; Zhang, Dandan; Luo, Yuejia

2015-04-01

This study investigated the attention modulation of disgust in comparison with anger in a dot-probe task. Results indicated a two-stage processing of attention modulation by threats. When participants viewed the cues that were represented by Chinese faces (i.e. the in-group condition), it was found at the early processing stage that an angry face elicited a larger occipital P1 component whereas a disgusted face elicited a smaller P1 for validly than for invalidly cued targets. However, the result pattern was reversed at the later processing stage: the P3 amplitudes were larger for valid disgust cues but were smaller for valid angry cues, when both were compared with invalid cue conditions. In addition, when participants viewed the cues that were represented by foreign faces (i.e. the out-group condition), the attention modulation of disgust/anger diminished at the early stage, whereas enhanced P3 amplitudes were observed in response to validly cued targets in both disgusting and angry conditions at the later stage. The current result implied that although people can perceptually differentiate the emotional categories of out-group faces as accurately as in-group faces, they may still be not able to psychologically understand the subtle differences behind different categories of out-group facial expressions. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Temporal dynamics underlying the modulation of social status on social attention.

PubMed

Dalmaso, Mario; Galfano, Giovanni; Coricelli, Carol; Castelli, Luigi

2014-01-01

Fixating someone suddenly moving the eyes is known to trigger a corresponding shift of attention in the observer. This phenomenon, known as gaze-cueing effect, can be modulated as a function of the social status of the individual depicted in the cueing face. Here, in two experiments, we investigated the temporal dynamics underlying this modulation. To this end, a gaze-cueing paradigm was implemented in which centrally-placed faces depicting high- and low-status individuals suddenly shifted the eyes towards a location either spatially congruent or incongruent with that occupied by a subsequent target stimulus. Social status was manipulated by presenting fictive Curriculum Vitae before the experimental phase. In Experiment 1, in which two temporal intervals (50 ms vs. 900 ms) occurred between the direct-gaze face and the averted-gaze face onsets, a stronger gaze-cueing effect in response to high-status faces than low-status faces was observed, irrespective of the time participants were allowed for extracting social information. In Experiment 2, in which two temporal intervals (200 ms vs. 1000 ms) occurred between the averted-gaze face and target onset, a stronger gaze cueing for high-status faces was observed at the shorter interval only. Taken together, these results suggest that information regarding social status is extracted from faces rapidly (Experiment 1), and that the tendency to selectively attend to the locations gazed by high-status individuals may decay with time (Experiment 2).

The cognitive neuroscience of person identification.

PubMed

Biederman, Irving; Shilowich, Bryan E; Herald, Sarah B; Margalit, Eshed; Maarek, Rafael; Meschke, Emily X; Hacker, Catrina M

2018-02-14

We compare and contrast five differences between person identification by voice and face. 1. There is little or no cost when a familiar face is to be recognized from an unrestricted set of possible faces, even at Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) rates, but the accuracy of familiar voice recognition declines precipitously when the set of possible speakers is increased from one to a mere handful. 2. Whereas deficits in face recognition are typically perceptual in origin, those with normal perception of voices can manifest severe deficits in their identification. 3. Congenital prosopagnosics (CPros) and congenital phonagnosics (CPhon) are generally unable to imagine familiar faces and voices, respectively. Only in CPros, however, is this deficit a manifestation of a general inability to form visual images of any kind. CPhons report no deficit in imaging non-voice sounds. 4. The prevalence of CPhons of 3.2% is somewhat higher than the reported prevalence of approximately 2.0% for CPros in the population. There is evidence that CPhon represents a distinct condition statistically and not just normal variation. 5. Face and voice recognition proficiency are uncorrelated rather than reflecting limitations of a general capacity for person individuation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unified framework for automated iris segmentation using distantly acquired face images.

PubMed

Tan, Chun-Wei; Kumar, Ajay

2012-09-01

Remote human identification using iris biometrics has high civilian and surveillance applications and its success requires the development of robust segmentation algorithm to automatically extract the iris region. This paper presents a new iris segmentation framework which can robustly segment the iris images acquired using near infrared or visible illumination. The proposed approach exploits multiple higher order local pixel dependencies to robustly classify the eye region pixels into iris or noniris regions. Face and eye detection modules have been incorporated in the unified framework to automatically provide the localized eye region from facial image for iris segmentation. We develop robust postprocessing operations algorithm to effectively mitigate the noisy pixels caused by the misclassification. Experimental results presented in this paper suggest significant improvement in the average segmentation errors over the previously proposed approaches, i.e., 47.5%, 34.1%, and 32.6% on UBIRIS.v2, FRGC, and CASIA.v4 at-a-distance databases, respectively. The usefulness of the proposed approach is also ascertained from recognition experiments on three different publicly available databases.

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.

Method of joint bit rate/modulation format identification and optical performance monitoring using asynchronous delay-tap sampling for radio-over-fiber systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guesmi, Latifa; Menif, Mourad

2016-08-01

In the context of carrying a wide variety of modulation formats and data rates for home networks, the study covers the radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology, where the need for an alternative way of management, automated fault diagnosis, and formats identification is expressed. Also, RoF signals in an optical link are impaired by various linear and nonlinear effects including chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, amplified spontaneous emission noise, and so on. Hence, for this purpose, we investigated the sampling method based on asynchronous delay-tap sampling in conjunction with a cross-correlation function for the joint bit rate/modulation format identification and optical performance monitoring. Three modulation formats with different data rates are used to demonstrate the validity of this technique, where the identification accuracy and the monitoring ranges reached high values.

Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness.

PubMed

Germine, L T; Hooker, C I

2011-05-01

Deficits in face emotion recognition (FER) in schizophrenia are well documented, and have been proposed as a potential intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia liability. However, research on the relationship between psychosis vulnerability and FER has mixed findings and methodological limitations. Moreover, no study has yet characterized the relationship between FER ability and level of psychosis-proneness. If FER ability varies continuously with psychosis-proneness, this suggests a relationship between FER and polygenic risk factors. We tested two large internet samples to see whether psychometric psychosis-proneness, as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), is related to differences in face emotion identification and discrimination or other face processing abilities. Experiment 1 (n=2332) showed that psychosis-proneness predicts face emotion identification ability but not face gender identification ability. Experiment 2 (n=1514) demonstrated that psychosis-proneness also predicts performance on face emotion but not face identity discrimination. The tasks in Experiment 2 used identical stimuli and task parameters, differing only in emotion/identity judgment. Notably, the relationships demonstrated in Experiments 1 and 2 persisted even when individuals with the highest psychosis-proneness levels (the putative high-risk group) were excluded from analysis. Our data suggest that FER ability is related to individual differences in psychosis-like characteristics in the normal population, and that these differences cannot be accounted for by differences in face processing and/or visual perception. Our results suggest that FER may provide a useful candidate intermediate phenotype.

The N170 is not modulated by attention in autism spectrum conditions.

PubMed

Churches, Owen; Wheelwright, Sally; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Ring, Howard

2010-04-21

Face processing deficits are characteristic of autism spectrum conditions. However, event-related potential studies of autism spectrum conditions have found inconsistent results for the face selective N170 component. In this study, 15 adult males with autism spectrum conditions and 15 matched, typically developing controls completed a task in which pictures of faces were either attended to or ignored. In the control group, the N170 was larger when faces were attended to. However, there was no such modulation in the autism spectrum conditions group. This finding helps clarify the results from the earlier event-related potential studies of face processing in autism spectrum conditions and suggests that visual attention does not enhance face processing in autism spectrum conditions as it does in typical development.

Face age modulates gaze following in young adults.

PubMed

Ciardo, Francesca; Marino, Barbara F M; Actis-Grosso, Rossana; Rossetti, Angela; Ricciardelli, Paola

2014-04-22

Gaze-following behaviour is considered crucial for social interactions which are influenced by social similarity. We investigated whether the degree of similarity, as indicated by the perceived age of another person, can modulate gaze following. Participants of three different age-groups (18-25; 35-45; over 65) performed an eye movement (a saccade) towards an instructed target while ignoring the gaze-shift of distracters of different age-ranges (6-10; 18-25; 35-45; over 70). The results show that gaze following was modulated by the distracter face age only for young adults. Particularly, the over 70 year-old distracters exerted the least interference effect. The distracters of a similar age-range as the young adults (18-25; 35-45) had the most effect, indicating a blurred own-age bias (OAB) only for the young age group. These findings suggest that face age can modulate gaze following, but this modulation could be due to factors other than just OAB (e.g., familiarity).

Standoff imaging of a masked human face using a 670 GHz high resolution radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kjellgren, Jan; Svedin, Jan; Cooper, Ken B.

2011-11-01

This paper presents an exploratory attempt to use high-resolution radar measurements for face identification in forensic applications. An imaging radar system developed by JPL was used to measure a human face at 670 GHz. Frontal views of the face were measured both with and without a ski mask at a range of 25 m. The realized spatial resolution was roughly 1 cm in all three dimensions. The surfaces of the ski mask and the face were detected by using the two dominating reflections from amplitude data. Various methods for visualization of these surfaces are presented. The possibility to use radar data to determine certain face distance measures between well-defined face landmarks, typically used for anthropometric statistics, was explored. The measures used here were face length, frontal breadth and interpupillary distance. In many cases the radar system seems to provide sufficient information to exclude an innocent subject from suspicion. For an accurate identification it is believed that a system must provide significantly more information.

Learning from Online Modules in Diverse Instructional Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nugent, Gwen; Kohmetscher, Amy; Namuth-Covert, Deana; Guretzky, John; Murphy, Patrick; Lee, DoKyoung

2016-01-01

Learning objects originally developed for use in online learning environments can also be used to enhance face-to-face instruction. This study examined the learning impacts of online learning objects packaged into modules and used in different contexts for undergraduate education offered on campus at three institutions. A multi-case study approach…

Teleoperated control system for underground room and pillar mining

DOEpatents

Mayercheck, William D.; Kwitowski, August J.; Brautigam, Albert L.; Mueller, Brian K.

1992-01-01

A teleoperated mining system is provided for remotely controlling the various machines involved with thin seam mining. A thin seam continuous miner located at a mining face includes a camera mounted thereon and a slave computer for controlling the miner and the camera. A plurality of sensors for relaying information about the miner and the face to the slave computer. A slave computer controlled ventilation sub-system which removes combustible material from the mining face. A haulage sub-system removes material mined by the continuous miner from the mining face to a collection site and is also controlled by the slave computer. A base station, which controls the supply of power and water to the continuous miner, haulage system, and ventilation systems, includes cable/hose handling module for winding or unwinding cables/hoses connected to the miner, an operator control module, and a hydraulic power and air compressor module for supplying air to the miner. An operator controlled host computer housed in the operator control module is connected to the slave computer via a two wire communications line.

Distinct Facial Processing Related Negative Cognitive Bias in First-Episode and Recurrent Major Depression: Evidence from the N170 ERP Component

PubMed Central

Chen, Jiu; Ma, Wentao; Zhang, Yan; Wu, Xingqu; Wei, Dunhong; Liu, Guangxiong; Deng, Zihe; Yang, Laiqi; Zhang, Zhijun

2014-01-01

Background States of depression are associated with increased sensitivity to negative events. For this novel study, we have assessed the relationship between the number of depressive episodes and the dysfunctional processing of emotional facial expressions. Methodology/Principal Findings We used a visual emotional oddball paradigm to manipulate the processing of emotional information while event-related brain potentials were recorded in 45 patients with first episode major depression (F-MD), 40 patients with recurrent major depression (R-MD), and 46 healthy controls (HC). Compared with the HC group, F-MD patients had lower N170 amplitudes when identifying happy, neutral, and sad faces; R-MD patients had lower N170 amplitudes when identifying happy and neutral faces, but higher N170 amplitudes when identifying sad faces. F-MD patients had longer N170 latencies when identifying happy, neutral, and sad faces relative to the HC group, and R-MD patients had longer N170 latencies when identifying happy and neutral faces, but shorter N170 latencies when identifying sad faces compared with F-MD patients. Interestingly, a negative relationship was observed between N170 amplitude and the depressive severity score for identification of happy faces in R-MD patients while N170 amplitude was positively correlated with the depressive severity score for identification of sad faces in F-MD and R-MD patients. Additionally, the deficits of N170 amplitude for sad faces positively correlated with the number of depressive episodes in R-MD patients. Conclusion/Significance These results provide new evidence that having more recurrent depressive episodes and serious depressive states are likely to aggravate the already abnormal processing of emotional facial expressions in patients with depression. Moreover, it further suggests that the impaired processing as indexed by N170 amplitude for positive face identification may be a potentially useful biomarker for predicting propagation of depression while N170 amplitude for negative face identification could be a potential biomarker for depression recurrence. PMID:25314024

Portable Brain-Computer Interface for the Intensive Care Unit Patient Communication Using Subject-Dependent SSVEP Identification.

PubMed

Dehzangi, Omid; Farooq, Muhamed

2018-01-01

A major predicament for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients is inconsistent and ineffective communication means. Patients rated most communication sessions as difficult and unsuccessful. This, in turn, can cause distress, unrecognized pain, anxiety, and fear. As such, we designed a portable BCI system for ICU communications (BCI4ICU) optimized to operate effectively in an ICU environment. The system utilizes a wearable EEG cap coupled with an Android app designed on a mobile device that serves as visual stimuli and data processing module. Furthermore, to overcome the challenges that BCI systems face today in real-world scenarios, we propose a novel subject-specific Gaussian Mixture Model- (GMM-) based training and adaptation algorithm. First, we incorporate subject-specific information in the training phase of the SSVEP identification model using GMM-based training and adaptation. We evaluate subject-specific models against other subjects. Subsequently, from the GMM discriminative scores, we generate the transformed vectors, which are passed to our predictive model. Finally, the adapted mixture mean scores of the subject-specific GMMs are utilized to generate the high-dimensional supervectors. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system achieved 98.7% average identification accuracy, which is promising in order to provide effective and consistent communication for patients in the intensive care.

Who's afraid of the boss: cultural differences in social hierarchies modulate self-face recognition in Chinese and Americans.

PubMed

Liew, Sook-Lei; Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui; Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa

2011-02-16

Human adults typically respond faster to their own face than to the faces of others. However, in Chinese participants, this self-face advantage is lost in the presence of one's supervisor, and they respond faster to their supervisor's face than to their own. While this "boss effect" suggests a strong modulation of self-processing in the presence of influential social superiors, the current study examined whether this effect was true across cultures. Given the wealth of literature on cultural differences between collectivist, interdependent versus individualistic, independent self-construals, we hypothesized that the boss effect might be weaker in independent than interdependent cultures. Twenty European American college students were asked to identify orientations of their own face or their supervisors' face. We found that European Americans, unlike Chinese participants, did not show a "boss effect" and maintained the self-face advantage even in the presence of their supervisor's face. Interestingly, however, their self-face advantage decreased as their ratings of their boss's perceived social status increased, suggesting that self-processing in Americans is influenced more by one's social status than by one's hierarchical position as a social superior. In addition, when their boss's face was presented with a labmate's face, American participants responded faster to the boss's face, indicating that the boss may represent general social dominance rather than a direct negative threat to oneself, in more independent cultures. Altogether, these results demonstrate a strong cultural modulation of self-processing in social contexts and suggest that the very concept of social positions, such as a boss, may hold markedly different meanings to the self across Western and East Asian cultures.

Who's Afraid of the Boss: Cultural Differences in Social Hierarchies Modulate Self-Face Recognition in Chinese and Americans

PubMed Central

Liew, Sook-Lei; Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui; Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa

2011-01-01

Human adults typically respond faster to their own face than to the faces of others. However, in Chinese participants, this self-face advantage is lost in the presence of one's supervisor, and they respond faster to their supervisor's face than to their own. While this “boss effect” suggests a strong modulation of self-processing in the presence of influential social superiors, the current study examined whether this effect was true across cultures. Given the wealth of literature on cultural differences between collectivist, interdependent versus individualistic, independent self-construals, we hypothesized that the boss effect might be weaker in independent than interdependent cultures. Twenty European American college students were asked to identify orientations of their own face or their supervisors' face. We found that European Americans, unlike Chinese participants, did not show a “boss effect” and maintained the self-face advantage even in the presence of their supervisor's face. Interestingly, however, their self-face advantage decreased as their ratings of their boss's perceived social status increased, suggesting that self-processing in Americans is influenced more by one's social status than by one's hierarchical position as a social superior. In addition, when their boss's face was presented with a labmate's face, American participants responded faster to the boss's face, indicating that the boss may represent general social dominance rather than a direct negative threat to oneself, in more independent cultures. Altogether, these results demonstrate a strong cultural modulation of self-processing in social contexts and suggest that the very concept of social positions, such as a boss, may hold markedly different meanings to the self across Western and East Asian cultures. PMID:21359209

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in medical environment: Gaussian Derivative Frequency Modulation (GDFM) as a novel modulation technique with minimal interference properties.

PubMed

Rieche, Marie; Komenský, Tomás; Husar, Peter

2011-01-01

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems in healthcare facilitate the possibility of contact-free identification and tracking of patients, medical equipment and medication. Thereby, patient safety will be improved and costs as well as medication errors will be reduced considerably. However, the application of RFID and other wireless communication systems has the potential to cause harmful electromagnetic disturbances on sensitive medical devices. This risk mainly depends on the transmission power and the method of data communication. In this contribution we point out the reasons for such incidents and give proposals to overcome these problems. Therefore a novel modulation and transmission technique called Gaussian Derivative Frequency Modulation (GDFM) is developed. Moreover, we carry out measurements to show the inteference properties of different modulation schemes in comparison to our GDFM.

Apparatus configured for identification of a material and method of identifying a material

DOEpatents

Slater, John M.; Crawford, Thomas M.; Frickey, Dean A.

2001-01-01

The present invention relates to an apparatus configured for identification of a material and method of identifying a material. One embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus configured for identification of a material including a first region configured to receive a first sample and output a first spectrum responsive to exposure of the first sample to radiation; a signal generator configured to provide a reference signal having a reference frequency and a modulation signal having a modulation frequency; a modulator configured to selectively modulate the first spectrum using the modulation signal according to the reference frequency; a second region configured to receive a second sample and output a second spectrum responsive to exposure of the second sample to the first spectrum; and a detector configured to detect the second spectrum.

Exposure to the self-face facilitates identification of dynamic facial expressions: influences on individual differences.

PubMed

Li, Yuan Hang; Tottenham, Nim

2013-04-01

A growing literature suggests that the self-face is involved in processing the facial expressions of others. The authors experimentally activated self-face representations to assess its effects on the recognition of dynamically emerging facial expressions of others. They exposed participants to videos of either their own faces (self-face prime) or faces of others (nonself-face prime) prior to a facial expression judgment task. Their results show that experimentally activating self-face representations results in earlier recognition of dynamically emerging facial expression. As a group, participants in the self-face prime condition recognized expressions earlier (when less affective perceptual information was available) compared to participants in the nonself-face prime condition. There were individual differences in performance, such that poorer expression identification was associated with higher autism traits (in this neurocognitively healthy sample). However, when randomized into the self-face prime condition, participants with high autism traits performed as well as those with low autism traits. Taken together, these data suggest that the ability to recognize facial expressions in others is linked with the internal representations of our own faces. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Autistic traits modulate frontostriatal connectivity during processing of rewarding faces

PubMed Central

Neufeld, Janina; Johnstone, Tom; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev

2014-01-01

Deficits in facial mimicry have been widely reported in autism. Some studies have suggested that these deficits are restricted to spontaneous mimicry and do not extend to volitional mimicry. We bridge these apparently inconsistent observations by testing the impact of reward value on neural indices of mimicry and how autistic traits modulate this impact. Neutral faces were conditioned with high and low reward. Subsequently, functional connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was measured while neurotypical adults (n = 30) watched happy expressions made by these conditioned faces. We found greater VS–IFG connectivity in response to high reward vs low reward happy faces. This difference was negatively proportional to autistic traits, suggesting that reduced spontaneous mimicry of social stimuli seen in autism, may be related to a failure in the modulation of the mirror system by the reward system rather than a circumscribed deficit in the mirror system. PMID:24493838

The neural speed of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Barragan-Jason, G; Cauchoix, M; Barbeau, E J

2015-08-01

Rapidly recognizing familiar people from their faces appears critical for social interactions (e.g., to differentiate friend from foe). However, the actual speed at which the human brain can distinguish familiar from unknown faces still remains debated. In particular, it is not clear whether familiarity can be extracted from rapid face individualization or if it requires additional time consuming processing. We recorded scalp EEG activity in 28 subjects performing a go/no-go, famous/non-famous, unrepeated, face recognition task. Speed constraints were used to encourage subjects to use the earliest familiarity information available. Event related potential (ERP) analyses show that both the N170 and the N250 components were modulated by familiarity. The N170 modulation was related to behaviour: subjects presenting the strongest N170 modulation were also faster but less accurate than those who only showed weak N170 modulation. A complementary Multi-Variate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) confirmed ERP results and provided some more insights into the dynamics of face recognition as the N170 differential effect appeared to be related to a first transitory phase (transitory bump of decoding power) starting at around 140 ms, which returned to baseline afterwards. This bump of activity was henceforth followed by an increase of decoding power starting around 200 ms after stimulus onset. Overall, our results suggest that rather than a simple single-process, familiarity for faces may rely on a cascade of neural processes, including a coarse and fast stage starting at 140 ms and a more refined but slower stage occurring after 200 ms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Marine asset security and tracking (MAST) system

DOEpatents

Hanson, Gregory Richard [Clinton, TN; Smith, Stephen Fulton [Loudon, TN; Moore, Michael Roy [Corryton, TN; Dobson, Eric Lesley [Charleston, SC; Blair, Jeffrey Scott [Charleston, SC; Duncan, Christopher Allen [Marietta, GA; Lenarduzzi, Roberto [Knoxville, TN

2008-07-01

Methods and apparatus are described for marine asset security and tracking (MAST). A method includes transmitting identification data, location data and environmental state sensor data from a radio frequency tag. An apparatus includes a radio frequency tag that transmits identification data, location data and environmental state sensor data. Another method includes transmitting identification data and location data from a radio frequency tag using hybrid spread-spectrum modulation. Another apparatus includes a radio frequency tag that transmits both identification data and location data using hybrid spread-spectrum modulation.

Masking release for words in amplitude-modulated noise as a function of modulation rate and task

PubMed Central

Buss, Emily; Whittle, Lisa N.; Grose, John H.; Hall, Joseph W.

2009-01-01

For normal-hearing listeners, masked speech recognition can improve with the introduction of masker amplitude modulation. The present experiments tested the hypothesis that this masking release is due in part to an interaction between the temporal distribution of cues necessary to perform the task and the probability of those cues temporally coinciding with masker modulation minima. Stimuli were monosyllabic words masked by speech-shaped noise, and masker modulation was introduced via multiplication with a raised sinusoid of 2.5–40 Hz. Tasks included detection, three-alternative forced-choice identification, and open-set identification. Overall, there was more masking release associated with the closed than the open-set tasks. The best rate of modulation also differed as a function of task; whereas low modulation rates were associated with best performance for the detection and three-alternative identification tasks, performance improved with modulation rate in the open-set task. This task-by-rate interaction was also observed when amplitude-modulated speech was presented in a steady masker, and for low- and high-pass filtered speech presented in modulated noise. These results were interpreted as showing that the optimal rate of amplitude modulation depends on the temporal distribution of speech cues and the information required to perform a particular task. PMID:19603883

Individual differences in face-looking behavior generalize from the lab to the world.

PubMed

Peterson, Matthew F; Lin, Jing; Zaun, Ian; Kanwisher, Nancy

2016-05-01

Recent laboratory studies have found large, stable individual differences in the location people first fixate when identifying faces, ranging from the brows to the mouth. Importantly, this variation is strongly associated with differences in fixation-specific identification performance such that individuals' recognition ability is maximized when looking at their preferred location (Mehoudar, Arizpe, Baker, & Yovel, 2014; Peterson & Eckstein, 2013). This finding suggests that face representations are retinotopic and individuals enact gaze strategies that optimize identification, yet the extent to which this behavior reflects real-world gaze behavior is unknown. Here, we used mobile eye trackers to test whether individual differences in face gaze generalize from lab to real-world vision. In-lab fixations were measured with a speeded face identification task, while real-world behavior was measured as subjects freely walked around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. We found a strong correlation between the patterns of individual differences in face gaze in the lab and real-world settings. Our findings support the hypothesis that individuals optimize real-world face identification by consistently fixating the same location and thus strongly constraining the space of retinotopic input. The methods developed for this study entailed collecting a large set of high-definition, wide field-of-view natural videos from head-mounted cameras and the viewer's fixation position, allowing us to characterize subjects' actually experienced real-world retinotopic images. These images enable us to ask how vision is optimized not just for the statistics of the "natural images" found in web databases, but of the truly natural, retinotopic images that have landed on actual human retinae during real-world experience.

Hybrid neuro-fuzzy approach for automatic vehicle license plate recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Hsi-Chieh; Jong, Chung-Shi

1998-03-01

Most currently available vehicle identification systems use techniques such as R.F., microwave, or infrared to help identifying the vehicle. Transponders are usually installed in the vehicle in order to transmit the corresponding information to the sensory system. It is considered expensive to install a transponder in each vehicle and the malfunction of the transponder will result in the failure of the vehicle identification system. In this study, novel hybrid approach is proposed for automatic vehicle license plate recognition. A system prototype is built which can be used independently or cooperating with current vehicle identification system in identifying a vehicle. The prototype consists of four major modules including the module for license plate region identification, the module for character extraction from the license plate, the module for character recognition, and the module for the SimNet neuro-fuzzy system. To test the performance of the proposed system, three hundred and eighty vehicle image samples are taken by a digital camera. The license plate recognition success rate of the prototype is approximately 91% while the character recognition success rate of the prototype is approximately 97%.

Finding Needles in Haystacks: Identity Mismatch Frequency and Facial Identity Verification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bindemann, Markus; Avetisyan, Meri; Blackwell, Kristy-Ann

2010-01-01

Accurate person identification is central to all security, police, and judicial systems. A commonplace method to achieve this is to compare a photo-ID and the face of its purported owner. The critical aspect of this task is to spot cases in which these two instances of a face do not match. Studies of person identification show that these instances…

Stress-Related Alterations of Visceral Sensation: Animal Models for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Study

PubMed Central

Mulak, Agata; Taché, Yvette

2011-01-01

Stressors of different psychological, physical or immune origin play a critical role in the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome participating in symptoms onset, clinical presentation as well as treatment outcome. Experimental stress models applying a variety of acute and chronic exteroceptive or interoceptive stressors have been developed to target different periods throughout the lifespan of animals to assess the vulnerability, the trigger and perpetuating factors determining stress influence on visceral sensitivity and interactions within the brain-gut axis. Recent evidence points towards adequate construct and face validity of experimental models developed with respect to animals' age, sex, strain differences and specific methodological aspects such as non-invasive monitoring of visceromotor response to colorectal distension as being essential in successful identification and evaluation of novel therapeutic targets aimed at reducing stress-related alterations in visceral sensitivity. Underlying mechanisms of stress-induced modulation of visceral pain involve a combination of peripheral, spinal and supraspinal sensitization based on the nature of the stressors and dysregulation of descending pathways that modulate nociceptive transmission or stress-related analgesic response. PMID:21860814

Self-esteem Modulates the P3 Component in Response to the Self-face Processing after Priming with Emotional Faces

PubMed Central

Guan, Lili; Zhao, Yufang; Wang, Yige; Chen, Yujie; Yang, Juan

2017-01-01

The self-face processing advantage (SPA) refers to the research finding that individuals generally recognize their own face faster than another’s face; self-face also elicits an enhanced P3 amplitude compared to another’s face. It has been suggested that social evaluation threats could weaken the SPA and that self-esteem could be regarded as a threat buffer. However, little research has directly investigated the neural evidence of how self-esteem modulates the social evaluation threat to the SPA. In the current event-related potential study, 27 healthy Chinese undergraduate students were primed with emotional faces (angry, happy, or neutral) and were asked to judge whether the target face (self, friend, and stranger) was familiar or unfamiliar. Electrophysiological results showed that after priming with emotional faces (angry and happy), self-face elicited similar P3 amplitudes to friend-face in individuals with low self-esteem, but not in individuals with high self-esteem. The results suggest that as low self-esteem raises fears of social rejection and exclusion, priming with emotional faces (angry and happy) can weaken the SPA in low self-esteem individuals but not in high self-esteem individuals. PMID:28868041

Self-esteem Modulates the P3 Component in Response to the Self-face Processing after Priming with Emotional Faces.

PubMed

Guan, Lili; Zhao, Yufang; Wang, Yige; Chen, Yujie; Yang, Juan

2017-01-01

The self-face processing advantage (SPA) refers to the research finding that individuals generally recognize their own face faster than another's face; self-face also elicits an enhanced P3 amplitude compared to another's face. It has been suggested that social evaluation threats could weaken the SPA and that self-esteem could be regarded as a threat buffer. However, little research has directly investigated the neural evidence of how self-esteem modulates the social evaluation threat to the SPA. In the current event-related potential study, 27 healthy Chinese undergraduate students were primed with emotional faces (angry, happy, or neutral) and were asked to judge whether the target face (self, friend, and stranger) was familiar or unfamiliar. Electrophysiological results showed that after priming with emotional faces (angry and happy), self-face elicited similar P3 amplitudes to friend-face in individuals with low self-esteem, but not in individuals with high self-esteem. The results suggest that as low self-esteem raises fears of social rejection and exclusion, priming with emotional faces (angry and happy) can weaken the SPA in low self-esteem individuals but not in high self-esteem individuals.

Cholinergic enhancement modulates neural correlates of selective attention and emotional processing.

PubMed

Bentley, Paul; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Thiel, Christiane M; Driver, Jon; Dolan, Raymond J

2003-09-01

Neocortical cholinergic afferents are proposed to influence both selective attention and emotional processing. In a study of healthy adults we used event-related fMRI while orthogonally manipulating attention and emotionality to examine regions showing effects of cholinergic modulation by the anticholinesterase physostigmine. Either face or house pictures appeared at task-relevant locations, with the alternative picture type at irrelevant locations. Faces had either neutral or fearful expressions. Physostigmine increased relative activity within the anterior fusiform gyrus for faces at attended, versus unattended, locations, but decreased relative activity within the posterolateral occipital cortex for houses in attended, versus unattended, locations. A similar pattern of regional differences in the effect of physostigmine on cue-evoked responses was also present in the absence of stimuli. Cholinergic enhancement augmented the relative neuronal response within the middle fusiform gyrus to fearful faces, whether at attended or unattended locations. By contrast, physostigmine influenced responses in the orbitofrontal, intraparietal and cingulate cortices to fearful faces when faces occupied task-irrelevant locations. These findings suggest that acetylcholine may modulate both selective attention and emotional processes through independent, region-specific effects within the extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, cholinergic inputs to the frontoparietal cortex may influence the allocation of attention to emotional information.

Prior knowledge guided active modules identification: an integrated multi-objective approach.

PubMed

Chen, Weiqi; Liu, Jing; He, Shan

2017-03-14

Active module, defined as an area in biological network that shows striking changes in molecular activity or phenotypic signatures, is important to reveal dynamic and process-specific information that is correlated with cellular or disease states. A prior information guided active module identification approach is proposed to detect modules that are both active and enriched by prior knowledge. We formulate the active module identification problem as a multi-objective optimisation problem, which consists two conflicting objective functions of maximising the coverage of known biological pathways and the activity of the active module simultaneously. Network is constructed from protein-protein interaction database. A beta-uniform-mixture model is used to estimate the distribution of p-values and generate scores for activity measurement from microarray data. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to search for Pareto optimal solutions. We also incorporate a novel constraints based on algebraic connectivity to ensure the connectedness of the identified active modules. Application of proposed algorithm on a small yeast molecular network shows that it can identify modules with high activities and with more cross-talk nodes between related functional groups. The Pareto solutions generated by the algorithm provides solutions with different trade-off between prior knowledge and novel information from data. The approach is then applied on microarray data from diclofenac-treated yeast cells to build network and identify modules to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of diclofenac toxicity and resistance. Gene ontology analysis is applied to the identified modules for biological interpretation. Integrating knowledge of functional groups into the identification of active module is an effective method and provides a flexible control of balance between pure data-driven method and prior information guidance.

Sex hormone therapy and progression of cardiovascular disease in menopausal women.

PubMed

Alhurani, Rabe E; Chahal, C Anwar A; Ahmed, Ahmed T; Mohamed, Essa A; Miller, Virginia M

2016-07-01

One of the most controversial health decisions facing women is deciding upon the use of hormonal treatments for symptoms of menopause. This brief review focuses on the historical context of use of menopausal hormone treatments (MHT), summarizes results of major observational, primary and secondary prevention studies of MHT and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes, provides evidence for how sex steroids modulate CV function and identifies challenges for future research. As medicine enters an era of personalization of treatment options, additional research into sex differences in the aetiology of CV diseases will lead to better risk identification for CV disease in women and identify whether a woman might receive CV benefit from specific formulations and doses of MHT. © 2016 The Author(s). published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.

The Tube 3 module designed for practicing vesicourethral anastomosis in a virtual reality robotic simulator: determination of face, content, and construct validity.

PubMed

Kang, Sung Gu; Cho, Seok; Kang, Seok Ho; Haidar, Abdul Muhsin; Samavedi, Srinivas; Palmer, Kenneth J; Patel, Vipul R; Cheon, Jun

2014-08-01

To better use virtual reality robotic simulators and offer surgeons more practical exercises, we developed the Tube 3 module for practicing vesicourethral anastomosis (VUA), one of the most complex steps in the robot-assisted radical prostatectomy procedure. Herein, we describe the principle of the Tube 3 module and evaluate its face, content, and construct validity. Residents and attending surgeons participated in a prospective study approved by the institutional review board. We divided subjects into 2 groups, those with experience and novices. Each subject performed a simulated VUA using the Tube 3 module. A built-in scoring algorithm recorded the data from each performance. After completing the Tube 3 module exercise, each subject answered a questionnaire to provide data to be used for face and content validation. The novice group consisted of 10 residents. The experienced subjects (n = 10) had each previously performed at least 10 robotic surgeries. The experienced group outperformed the novice group in most variables, including task time, total score, total economy of motion, and number of instrument collisions (P <.05). Additionally, 80% of the experienced surgeons agreed that the module reflects the technical skills required to perform VUA and would be a useful training tool. We describe the Tube 3 module for practicing VUA, which showed excellent face, content, and construct validity. The task needs to be refined in the future to reflect VUA under real operating conditions, and concurrent and predictive validity studies are currently underway. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

HAL/SM system functional design specification. [systems analysis and design analysis of central processing units

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, C.; Williams, G. P. W., Jr.

1975-01-01

The functional design of a preprocessor, and subsystems is described. A structure chart and a data flow diagram are included for each subsystem. Also a group of intermodule interface definitions (one definition per module) is included immediately following the structure chart and data flow for a particular subsystem. Each of these intermodule interface definitions consists of the identification of the module, the function the module is to perform, the identification and definition of parameter interfaces to the module, and any design notes associated with the module. Also described are compilers and computer libraries.

Verbal overshadowing of face memory does occur in children too!

PubMed Central

Dehon, Hedwige; Vanootighem, Valentine; Brédart, Serge

2013-01-01

Verbal descriptions of unfamiliar faces have been found to impair later identification of these faces in adults, a phenomenon known as the “verbal overshadowing effect” (VOE). Although determining whether children are good at describing unfamiliar individuals and whether these descriptions impair their recognition performance is critical to gaining a better understanding children's eyewitness ability, only a couple of studies have examined this dual issue in children and these found no evidence of VOE. However, as there are some methodological criticisms of these studies, we decided to conduct two further experiments in 7–8, 10–11, and 13–14-year-old children and in adults using a more optimal method for the VOE to be observed. Evidence of the VOE on face identification was found in both children and adults. Moreover, neither the accuracy of descriptions, nor delay nor target presence in the lineup was found to be associated with identification accuracy. The theoretical and developmental implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:24399985

Valence modulates source memory for faces.

PubMed

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel

2010-01-01

Previous studies in which the effects of emotional valence on old-new discrimination and source memory have been examined have yielded highly inconsistent results. Here, we present two experiments showing that old-new face discrimination was not affected by whether a face was associated with disgusting, pleasant, or neutral behavior. In contrast, source memory for faces associated with disgusting behavior (i.e., memory for the disgusting context in which the face was encountered) was consistently better than source memory for other types of faces. This data pattern replicates the findings of studies in which descriptions of cheating, neutral, and trustworthy behavior were used, which findings were previously ascribed to a highly specific cheater detection module. The present results suggest that the enhanced source memory for faces of cheaters is due to a more general source memory advantage for faces associated with negative or threatening contexts that may be instrumental in avoiding the negative consequences of encounters with persons associated with negative or threatening behaviors.

Social status gates social attention in humans.

PubMed

Dalmaso, Mario; Pavan, Giulia; Castelli, Luigi; Galfano, Giovanni

2012-06-23

Humans tend to shift attention in response to the averted gaze of a face they are fixating, a phenomenon known as gaze cuing. In the present paper, we aimed to address whether the social status of the cuing face modulates this phenomenon. Participants were asked to look at the faces of 16 individuals and read fictive curriculum vitae associated with each of them that could describe the person as having a high or low social status. The association between each specific face and either high or low social status was counterbalanced between participants. The same faces were then used as stimuli in a gaze-cuing task. The results showed a greater gaze-cuing effect for high-status faces than for low-status faces, independently of the specific identity of the face. These findings confirm previous evidence regarding the important role of social factors in shaping social attention and show that a modulation of gaze cuing can be observed even when knowledge about social status is acquired through episodic learning.

Modulation of Alpha Oscillations in the Human EEG with Facial Preference

PubMed Central

Kang, Jae-Hwan; Kim, Su Jin; Cho, Yang Seok; Kim, Sung-Phil

2015-01-01

Facial preference that results from the processing of facial information plays an important role in social interactions as well as the selection of a mate, friend, candidate, or favorite actor. However, it still remains elusive which brain regions are implicated in the neural mechanisms underlying facial preference, and how neural activities in these regions are modulated during the formation of facial preference. In the present study, we investigated the modulation of electroencephalography (EEG) oscillatory power with facial preference. For the reliable assessments of facial preference, we designed a series of passive viewing and active choice tasks. In the former task, twenty-four face stimuli were passively viewed by participants for multiple times in random order. In the latter task, the same stimuli were then evaluated by participants for their facial preference judgments. In both tasks, significant differences between the preferred and non-preferred faces groups were found in alpha band power (8–13 Hz) but not in other frequency bands. The preferred faces generated more decreases in alpha power. During the passive viewing task, significant differences in alpha power between the preferred and non-preferred face groups were observed at the left frontal regions in the early (0.15–0.4 s) period during the 1-s presentation. By contrast, during the active choice task when participants consecutively watched the first and second face for 1 s and then selected the preferred one, an alpha power difference was found for the late (0.65–0.8 s) period over the whole brain during the first face presentation and over the posterior regions during the second face presentation. These results demonstrate that the modulation of alpha activity by facial preference is a top-down process, which requires additional cognitive resources to facilitate information processing of the preferred faces that capture more visual attention than the non-preferred faces. PMID:26394328

An Adult Face Bias in Infants That is Modulated by Face Race

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heron-Delaney, Michelle; Damon, Fabrice; Quinn, Paul C.; Méary, David; Xiao, Naiqi G.; Lee, Kang; Pascalis, Olivier

2017-01-01

The visual preferences of infants for adult versus infant faces were investigated. Caucasian 3.5- and 6-month-olds were presented with Caucasian adult vs. infant face pairs and Asian adult vs. infant face pairs, in both upright and inverted orientations. Both age groups showed a visual preference for upright adult over infant faces when the faces…

Sad people are more accurate at expression identification with a smaller own-ethnicity bias than happy people.

PubMed

Hills, Peter J; Hill, Dominic M

2017-07-12

Sad individuals perform more accurately at face identity recognition (Hills, Werno, & Lewis, 2011), possibly because they scan more of the face during encoding. During expression identification tasks, sad individuals do not fixate on the eyes as much as happier individuals (Wu, Pu, Allen, & Pauli, 2012). Fixating on features other than the eyes leads to a reduced own-ethnicity bias (Hills & Lewis, 2006). This background indicates that sad individuals would not view the eyes as much as happy individuals and this would result in improved expression recognition and a reduced own-ethnicity bias. This prediction was tested using an expression identification task, with eye tracking. We demonstrate that sad-induced participants show enhanced expression recognition and a reduced own-ethnicity bias than happy-induced participants due to scanning more facial features. We conclude that mood affects eye movements and face encoding by causing a wider sampling strategy and deeper encoding of facial features diagnostic for expression identification.

Multiple independent identification decisions: a method of calibrating eyewitness identifications.

PubMed

Pryke, Sean; Lindsay, R C L; Dysart, Jennifer E; Dupuis, Paul

2004-02-01

Two experiments (N = 147 and N = 90) explored the use of multiple independent lineups to identify a target seen live. In Experiment 1, simultaneous face, body, and sequential voice lineups were used. In Experiment 2, sequential face, body, voice, and clothing lineups were used. Both studies demonstrated that multiple identifications (by the same witness) from independent lineups of different features are highly diagnostic of suspect guilt (G. L. Wells & R. C. L. Lindsay, 1980). The number of suspect and foil selections from multiple independent lineups provides a powerful method of calibrating the accuracy of eyewitness identification. Implications for use of current methods are discussed. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Landscape Management: Field Specialist.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newton, Deborah; Newton, Steve

This module is the second volume in a series of three publications on landscape management. The module contains five instructional units that cover the following topics: orientation; equipment; irrigation systems and maintenance; plant material identification and pests; and turf identification and pests. Each instructional unit follows a standard…

Vibro-Acoustic Modulation Based Damage Identification in a Composite Skin-Stiffener Structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ooijevaar, T. H.; Loendersloot, R.; Rogge, M. D.; Akkerman, R.; Tinga, T.

2014-01-01

The vibro-acoustic modulation method is applied to a composite skin-stiffener structure to investigate the possibilities to utilize this method for damage identification in terms of detection, localisation and damage quantification. The research comprises a theoretical part and an experimental part. An impact load is applied to the skin-stiffener structure, resulting in a delamination underneath the stiffener. The structure is interrogated with a low frequency pump excitation and a high frequency carrier excitation. The analysis of the response in a frequency band around the carrier frequency is employed to assess the damage identification capabilities and to gain a better understanding of the modulations occurring and the underlying physical phenomena. Though vibro-acoustic is shown to be a sensitive method for damage identification, the complexity of the damage, combined with a high modal density, complicate the understanding of the relation between the physical phenomena and the modulations occurring. more research is recommended to reveal the physics behind the observations.

Technology survey on video face tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Tong; Gomes, Herman Martins

2014-03-01

With the pervasiveness of monitoring cameras installed in public areas, schools, hospitals, work places and homes, video analytics technologies for interpreting these video contents are becoming increasingly relevant to people's lives. Among such technologies, human face detection and tracking (and face identification in many cases) are particularly useful in various application scenarios. While plenty of research has been conducted on face tracking and many promising approaches have been proposed, there are still significant challenges in recognizing and tracking people in videos with uncontrolled capturing conditions, largely due to pose and illumination variations, as well as occlusions and cluttered background. It is especially complex to track and identify multiple people simultaneously in real time due to the large amount of computation involved. In this paper, we present a survey on literature and software that are published or developed during recent years on the face tracking topic. The survey covers the following topics: 1) mainstream and state-of-the-art face tracking methods, including features used to model the targets and metrics used for tracking; 2) face identification and face clustering from face sequences; and 3) software packages or demonstrations that are available for algorithm development or trial. A number of publically available databases for face tracking are also introduced.

Three dimensional identification card and applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Changhe; Wang, Shaoqing; Li, Chao; Li, Hao; Liu, Zhao

2016-10-01

Three dimensional Identification Card, with its three-dimensional personal image displayed and stored for personal identification, is supposed be the advanced version of the present two-dimensional identification card in the future [1]. Three dimensional Identification Card means that there are three-dimensional optical techniques are used, the personal image on ID card is displayed to be three-dimensional, so we can see three dimensional personal face. The ID card also stores the three-dimensional face information in its inside electronics chip, which might be recorded by using two-channel cameras, and it can be displayed in computer as three-dimensional images for personal identification. Three-dimensional ID card might be one interesting direction to update the present two-dimensional card in the future. Three-dimension ID card might be widely used in airport custom, entrance of hotel, school, university, as passport for on-line banking, registration of on-line game, etc...

Effects of threshold on single-target detection by using modified amplitude-modulated joint transform correlator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaewkasi, Pitchaya; Widjaja, Joewono; Uozumi, Jun

2007-03-01

Effects of threshold value on detection performance of the modified amplitude-modulated joint transform correlator are quantitatively studied using computer simulation. Fingerprint and human face images are used as test scenes in the presence of noise and a contrast difference. Simulation results demonstrate that this correlator improves detection performance for both types of image used, but moreso for human face images. Optimal detection of low-contrast human face images obscured by strong noise can be obtained by selecting an appropriate threshold value.

Music-Elicited Emotion Identification Using Optical Flow Analysis of Human Face

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kniaz, V. V.; Smirnova, Z. N.

2015-05-01

Human emotion identification from image sequences is highly demanded nowadays. The range of possible applications can vary from an automatic smile shutter function of consumer grade digital cameras to Biofied Building technologies, which enables communication between building space and residents. The highly perceptual nature of human emotions leads to the complexity of their classification and identification. The main question arises from the subjective quality of emotional classification of events that elicit human emotions. A variety of methods for formal classification of emotions were developed in musical psychology. This work is focused on identification of human emotions evoked by musical pieces using human face tracking and optical flow analysis. Facial feature tracking algorithm used for facial feature speed and position estimation is presented. Facial features were extracted from each image sequence using human face tracking with local binary patterns (LBP) features. Accurate relative speeds of facial features were estimated using optical flow analysis. Obtained relative positions and speeds were used as the output facial emotion vector. The algorithm was tested using original software and recorded image sequences. The proposed technique proves to give a robust identification of human emotions elicited by musical pieces. The estimated models could be used for human emotion identification from image sequences in such fields as emotion based musical background or mood dependent radio.

Instruction via Web-Based Modules in Early Childhood Personnel Preparation: A Mixed-Methods Study of Effectiveness and Learner Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollingsworth, Heidi L.; Lim, Chih-Ing

2015-01-01

Effective personnel preparation is critical to the development of a high quality early childhood workforce that provides optimal care and education for young children. This mixed-methods study examined the effectiveness of, and learner perspectives on, instruction via web-based modules within face-to-face early childhood personnel preparation…

Enhanced Old-New Recognition and Source Memory for Faces of Cooperators and Defectors in a Social-Dilemma Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Musch, Jochen

2010-01-01

A popular assumption in evolutionary psychology is that the human mind comprises specialized cognitive modules for social exchange, including a module that serves to enhance memory for faces of cheaters. In the present study, participants played a trust game with computerized opponents, who either defected or cooperated. In a control condition, no…

Sparse modeling applied to patient identification for safety in medical physics applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewkowitz, Stephanie

Every scheduled treatment at a radiation therapy clinic involves a series of safety protocol to ensure the utmost patient care. Despite safety protocol, on a rare occasion an entirely preventable medical event, an accident, may occur. Delivering a treatment plan to the wrong patient is preventable, yet still is a clinically documented error. This research describes a computational method to identify patients with a novel machine learning technique to combat misadministration. The patient identification program stores face and fingerprint data for each patient. New, unlabeled data from those patients are categorized according to the library. The categorization of data by this face-fingerprint detector is accomplished with new machine learning algorithms based on Sparse Modeling that have already begun transforming the foundation of Computer Vision. Previous patient recognition software required special subroutines for faces and different tailored subroutines for fingerprints. In this research, the same exact model is used for both fingerprints and faces, without any additional subroutines and even without adjusting the two hyperparameters. Sparse modeling is a powerful tool, already shown utility in the areas of super-resolution, denoising, inpainting, demosaicing, and sub-nyquist sampling, i.e. compressed sensing. Sparse Modeling is possible because natural images are inherently sparse in some bases, due to their inherent structure. This research chooses datasets of face and fingerprint images to test the patient identification model. The model stores the images of each dataset as a basis (library). One image at a time is removed from the library, and is classified by a sparse code in terms of the remaining library. The Locally Competitive Algorithm, a truly neural inspired Artificial Neural Network, solves the computationally difficult task of finding the sparse code for the test image. The components of the sparse representation vector are summed by ℓ1 pooling, and correct patient identification is consistently achieved 100% over 1000 trials, when either the face data or fingerprint data are implemented as a classification basis. The algorithm gets 100% classification when faces and fingerprints are concatenated into multimodal datasets. This suggests that 100% patient identification will be achievable in the clinal setting.

Anxiety and Sensitivity to Eye Gaze in Emotional Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Amanda; Richards, Anne; Green, Simon

2006-01-01

This paper reports three studies in which stronger orienting to perceived eye gaze direction was revealed when observers viewed faces showing fearful or angry, compared with happy or neutral, emotional expressions. Gaze-related spatial cueing effects to laterally presented fearful faces and centrally presented angry faces were also modulated by…

The influence of stimulus format on drawing—a functional imaging study of decision making in portrait drawing

PubMed Central

Miall, R.C.; Nam, Se-Ho; Tchalenko, J.

2014-01-01

To copy a natural visual image as a line drawing, visual identification and extraction of features in the image must be guided by top-down decisions, and is usually influenced by prior knowledge. In parallel with other behavioral studies testing the relationship between eye and hand movements when drawing, we report here a functional brain imaging study in which we compared drawing of faces and abstract objects: the former can be strongly guided by prior knowledge, the latter less so. To manipulate the difficulty in extracting features to be drawn, each original image was presented in four formats including high contrast line drawings and silhouettes, and as high and low contrast photographic images. We confirmed the detailed eye–hand interaction measures reported in our other behavioral studies by using in-scanner eye-tracking and recording of pen movements with a touch screen. We also show that the brain activation pattern reflects the changes in presentation formats. In particular, by identifying the ventral and lateral occipital areas that were more highly activated during drawing of faces than abstract objects, we found a systematic increase in differential activation for the face-drawing condition, as the presentation format made the decisions more challenging. This study therefore supports theoretical models of how prior knowledge may influence perception in untrained participants, and lead to experience-driven perceptual modulation by trained artists. PMID:25128710

Interactions among the effects of head orientation, emotional expression, and physical attractiveness on face preferences.

PubMed

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

2010-01-01

Previous studies have shown that preferences for direct versus averted gaze are modulated by emotional expressions and physical attractiveness. For example, preferences for direct gaze are stronger when judging happy or physically attractive faces than when judging disgusted or physically unattractive faces. Here we show that preferences for front versus three-quarter views of faces, in which gaze direction was always congruent with head orientation, are also modulated by emotional expressions and physical attractiveness; participants demonstrated preferences for front views of faces over three-quarter views of faces when judging the attractiveness of happy, physically attractive individuals, but not when judging the attractiveness of relatively unattractive individuals or those with disgusted expressions. Moreover, further analyses indicated that these interactions did not simply reflect differential perceptions of the intensity of the emotional expressions shown in each condition. Collectively, these findings present novel evidence that the effect of the direction of the attention of others on attractiveness judgments is modulated by cues to the physical attractiveness and emotional state of the depicted individual, potentially reflecting psychological adaptations for efficient allocation of social effort. These data also present the first behavioural evidence that the effect of the direction of the attention of others on attractiveness judgments reflects viewer-referenced, rather than face-referenced, coding and/or processing of gaze direction.

Posed versus spontaneous facial expressions are modulated by opposite cerebral hemispheres.

PubMed

Ross, Elliott D; Pulusu, Vinay K

2013-05-01

Clinical research has indicated that the left face is more expressive than the right face, suggesting that modulation of facial expressions is lateralized to the right hemisphere. The findings, however, are controversial because the results explain, on average, approximately 4% of the data variance. Using high-speed videography, we sought to determine if movement-onset asymmetry was a more powerful research paradigm than terminal movement asymmetry. The results were very robust, explaining up to 70% of the data variance. Posed expressions began overwhelmingly on the right face whereas spontaneous expressions began overwhelmingly on the left face. This dichotomy was most robust for upper facial expressions. In addition, movement-onset asymmetries did not predict terminal movement asymmetries, which were not significantly lateralized. The results support recent neuroanatomic observations that upper versus lower facial movements have different forebrain motor representations and recent behavioral constructs that posed versus spontaneous facial expressions are modulated preferentially by opposite cerebral hemispheres and that spontaneous facial expressions are graded rather than non-graded movements. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The face-selective N170 component is modulated by facial color.

PubMed

Nakajima, Kae; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2012-08-01

Faces play an important role in social interaction by conveying information and emotion. Of the various components of the face, color particularly provides important clues with regard to perception of age, sex, health status, and attractiveness. In event-related potential (ERP) studies, the N170 component has been identified as face-selective. To determine the effect of color on face processing, we investigated the modulation of N170 by facial color. We recorded ERPs while subjects viewed facial color stimuli at 8 hue angles, which were generated by rotating the original facial color distribution around the white point by 45° for each human face. Responses to facial color were localized to the left, but not to the right hemisphere. N170 amplitudes gradually increased in proportion to the increase in hue angle from the natural-colored face. This suggests that N170 amplitude in the left hemisphere reflects processing of facial color information. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time course of implicit processing and explicit processing of emotional faces and emotional words.

PubMed

Frühholz, Sascha; Jellinghaus, Anne; Herrmann, Manfred

2011-05-01

Facial expressions are important emotional stimuli during social interactions. Symbolic emotional cues, such as affective words, also convey information regarding emotions that is relevant for social communication. Various studies have demonstrated fast decoding of emotions from words, as was shown for faces, whereas others report a rather delayed decoding of information about emotions from words. Here, we introduced an implicit (color naming) and explicit task (emotion judgment) with facial expressions and words, both containing information about emotions, to directly compare the time course of emotion processing using event-related potentials (ERP). The data show that only negative faces affected task performance, resulting in increased error rates compared to neutral faces. Presentation of emotional faces resulted in a modulation of the N170, the EPN and the LPP components and these modulations were found during both the explicit and implicit tasks. Emotional words only affected the EPN during the explicit task, but a task-independent effect on the LPP was revealed. Finally, emotional faces modulated source activity in the extrastriate cortex underlying the generation of the N170, EPN and LPP components. Emotional words led to a modulation of source activity corresponding to the EPN and LPP, but they also affected the N170 source on the right hemisphere. These data show that facial expressions affect earlier stages of emotion processing compared to emotional words, but the emotional value of words may have been detected at early stages of emotional processing in the visual cortex, as was indicated by the extrastriate source activity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bayesian module identification from multiple noisy networks.

PubMed

Zamani Dadaneh, Siamak; Qian, Xiaoning

2016-12-01

Module identification has been studied extensively in order to gain deeper understanding of complex systems, such as social networks as well as biological networks. Modules are often defined as groups of vertices in these networks that are topologically cohesive with similar interaction patterns with the rest of the vertices. Most of the existing module identification algorithms assume that the given networks are faithfully measured without errors. However, in many real-world applications, for example, when analyzing protein-protein interaction networks from high-throughput profiling techniques, there is significant noise with both false positive and missing links between vertices. In this paper, we propose a new model for more robust module identification by taking advantage of multiple observed networks with significant noise so that signals in multiple networks can be strengthened and help improve the solution quality by combining information from various sources. We adopt a hierarchical Bayesian model to integrate multiple noisy snapshots that capture the underlying modular structure of the networks under study. By introducing a latent root assignment matrix and its relations to instantaneous module assignments in all the observed networks to capture the underlying modular structure and combine information across multiple networks, an efficient variational Bayes algorithm can be derived to accurately and robustly identify the underlying modules from multiple noisy networks. Experiments on synthetic and protein-protein interaction data sets show that our proposed model enhances both the accuracy and resolution in detecting cohesive modules, and it is less vulnerable to noise in the observed data. In addition, it shows higher power in predicting missing edges compared to individual-network methods.

from the Adolescents’ Perspective in Malaysia

PubMed

Mohd Zin, Faridah; Hillaluddin, Azlin Hilma; Mustaffa, Jamaludin

2017-05-01

Objective: This study aims to develop, validate and determine the reliability of an interactive multimedia strategy to prevent tobacco use among the young (TUPY-S) from an adolescents’ perspective. Methods: A descriptive study design was utilized. A modular instruction guideline by Russel (1974) was followed in the entire process, comprising a feasibility study, a review of existing modules, specification of the objectives, identification of the construct criterion items, learner analysis and entry behavior specification, establishment of the sequence instruction and media selection, a tryout with students and a field test. Result: Feasibility was agreed among the researchers and the school authorities. Culturally suitable rigorously developed tobacco use preventive strategies delivered using information technology (IT) are lacking in the literature. The objective of TUPY-S is to prevent tobacco use among adolescents living in Malaysia. Identified construct criterion items include knowledge, attitude, intention to use, self-efficacy, and refusal skill. The target population was early adolescents belonging to generation-Z. Content was developed from the adolescents’ perspective and delivered using IT in Malay language. Content validity, assessed by six experts in the field and module development, was good at 86%. The students’ tryout showed satisfactory face validity subjectively and objectively (85.5%) and high alpha Cronbach reliability (0.91). Conclusion: TUPY-S was confirmed to suit early adolescents of the current generation living in Malaysia. It demonstrated good content validity among the experts, satisfactory face validity and reliability among the target population. TUPY-S is ready to be evaluated for its effectiveness among early adolescents. Creative Commons Attribution License

Tobacco Use Prevention for the Young (TUPY-S): Development, Validity and Reliability of an Interactive Multimedia Strategy from the Adolescents’ Perspective in Malaysia

PubMed Central

Zin, Faridah Mohd; Hillaluddin, Azlin Hilma; Mustaffa, Jamaludin

2017-01-01

Objective: This study aims to develop, validate and determine the reliability of an interactive multimedia strategy to prevent tobacco use among the young (TUPY-S) from an adolescents’ perspective. Methods: A descriptive study design was utilized. A modular instruction guideline by Russel (1974) was followed in the entire process, comprising a feasibility study, a review of existing modules, specification of the objectives, identification of the construct criterion items, learner analysis and entry behavior specification, establishment of the sequence instruction and media selection, a tryout with students and a field test. Result: Feasibility was agreed among the researchers and the school authorities. Culturally suitable rigorously developed tobacco use preventive strategies delivered using information technology (IT) are lacking in the literature. The objective of TUPY-S is to prevent tobacco use among adolescents living in Malaysia. Identified construct criterion items include knowledge, attitude, intention to use, self-efficacy, and refusal skill. The target population was early adolescents belonging to generation-Z. Content was developed from the adolescents’ perspective and delivered using IT in Malay language. Content validity, assessed by six experts in the field and module development, was good at 86%. The students’ tryout showed satisfactory face validity subjectively and objectively (85.5%) and high alpha Cronbach reliability (0.91). Conclusion: TUPY-S was confirmed to suit early adolescents of the current generation living in Malaysia. It demonstrated good content validity among the experts, satisfactory face validity and reliability among the target population. TUPY-S is ready to be evaluated for its effectiveness among early adolescents. PMID:28612599

Access to Awareness for Faces during Continuous Flash Suppression Is Not Modulated by Affective Knowledge

PubMed Central

Rabovsky, Milena; Stein, Timo; Abdel Rahman, Rasha

2016-01-01

It is a controversially debated topic whether stimuli can be analyzed up to the semantic level when they are suppressed from visual awareness during continuous flash suppression (CFS). Here, we investigated whether affective knowledge, i.e., affective biographical information about faces, influences the time it takes for initially invisible faces with neutral expressions to overcome suppression and break into consciousness. To test this, we used negative, positive, and neutral famous faces as well as initially unfamiliar faces, which were associated with negative, positive or neutral biographical information. Affective knowledge influenced ratings of facial expressions, corroborating recent evidence and indicating the success of our affective learning paradigm. Furthermore, we replicated shorter suppression durations for upright than for inverted faces, demonstrating the suitability of our CFS paradigm. However, affective biographical information did not modulate suppression durations for newly learned faces, and even though suppression durations for famous faces were influenced by affective knowledge, these effects did not differ between upright and inverted faces, indicating that they might have been due to low-level visual differences. Thus, we did not obtain unequivocal evidence for genuine influences of affective biographical information on access to visual awareness for faces during CFS. PMID:27119743

Differential Amygdala Response to Lower Face in Patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishitobi, Makoto; Kosaka, Hirotaka; Omori, Masao; Matsumura, Yukiko; Munesue, Toshio; Mizukami, Kimiko; Shimoyama, Tomohiro; Murata, Tetsuhito; Sadato, Norihiro; Okazawa, Hidehiko; Wada, Yuji

2011-01-01

Much functional neuroimaging evidence indicates that autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate marked brain abnormalities in face processing. Most of these findings were obtained from studies using tasks related to whole faces. However, individuals with ASD tend to rely more on individual parts of the face for identification than on the…

MO-DE-BRA-05: EUTEMPE-RX: Combining E-Learning and Face-To-Face Training to Build Expert Knowledge, Skills and Competences for Medical Physicists in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology

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

Bosmans, H; Van Peteghem, N; Creten, S

Purpose: In 2013, the EURATOM authorities of the European Commission decided to support the Horizon2020 project submission ‘EUTEMPE-RX’ that aimed for a new set of course modules to train medical physicists in diagnostic and interventional radiology to expert level with small group deep learning. Each module would consist of 2 phases: an e-learning and a face-to-face phase, each phase requiring typically 40h of participant time. Methods: The European Federation (EFOMP) and 13 European partners, all of them selected for their excellent scientific and/or educational skills, led the 12 course modules. A quality manual ensured the quality of course content andmore » organization. Educational workshops familiarized the teachers with e-learning techniques and methods for assessment. Content was set in accordance with the EC document RP174 that lists learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences (KSCs) for different specialties and levels of medical physics. Surveys for stake holder satisfaction were prepared. Results: Today the course modules are being realized. The modules cover most of the KSCs in RP174 document. Teachers have challenged the participants with unique tasks: case studies in medical physics leadership, Monte Carlo simulation of a complete x-ray imaging chain, development of a task specific QA protocol, compilation of optimization plans, simulation tasks with anthropomorphic breast models, etc. Participants undertook practical sessions in modern hospitals and visited a synchrotron facility, a calibration lab, screening organizations, etc. Feedback form quality surveys was very positive and constructive. A sustainability plan has been worked out. Conclusion: The modules have enabled the participants to develop their KSCs and cope with challenges in medical physics. The sustainability plan will be implemented to continue the unique combined e-learning and face to face training at high level training in diagnostic and interventional radiology also beyond Europe. The EUTEMPE-RX project is funded by the Horizon2020 - EURATOM program of the European Commission.« less

Counting to 20: Online Implementation of a Face-to-Face, Elementary Mathematics Methods Problem-Solving Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Catherine Stein

2012-01-01

This study describes implementation of the same problem-solving activity in both online and face-to-face environments. The activity, done in the first class period or first module of a K-2 mathematics methods course, was initially used in a face-to-face class and then adapted later for use in an online class. While the task was originally designed…

Blended learning for reinforcing dental pharmacology in the clinical years: A qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Eachempati, Prashanti; Kiran Kumar, K S; Sumanth, K N

2016-10-01

Blended learning has become the method of choice in educational institutions because of its systematic integration of traditional classroom teaching and online components. This study aims to analyze student's reflection regarding blended learning in dental pharmacology. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka-Manipal Medical College among 3 rd and 4 th year BDS students. A total of 145 dental students, who consented, participate in the study. Students were divided into 14 groups. Nine online sessions followed by nine face-to-face discussions were held. Each session addressed topics related to oral lesions and orofacial pain with pharmacological applications. After each week, students were asked to reflect on blended learning. On completion of 9 weeks, reflections were collected and analyzed. Qualitative analysis was done using thematic analysis model suggested by Braun and Clarke. The four main themes were identified, namely, merits of blended learning, skill in writing prescription for oral diseases, dosages of drugs, and identification of strengths and weakness. In general, the participants had a positive feedback regarding blended learning. Students felt more confident in drug selection and prescription writing. They could recollect the doses better after the online and face-to-face sessions. Most interestingly, the students reflected that they are able to identify their strength and weakness after the blended learning sessions. Blended learning module was successfully implemented for reinforcing dental pharmacology. The results obtained in this study enable us to plan future comparative studies to know the effectiveness of blended learning in dental pharmacology.

Blended learning for reinforcing dental pharmacology in the clinical years: A qualitative analysis

PubMed Central

Eachempati, Prashanti; Kiran Kumar, K. S.; Sumanth, K. N.

2016-01-01

Objectives: Blended learning has become the method of choice in educational institutions because of its systematic integration of traditional classroom teaching and online components. This study aims to analyze student’s reflection regarding blended learning in dental pharmacology. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka-Manipal Medical College among 3rd and 4th year BDS students. A total of 145 dental students, who consented, participate in the study. Students were divided into 14 groups. Nine online sessions followed by nine face-to-face discussions were held. Each session addressed topics related to oral lesions and orofacial pain with pharmacological applications. After each week, students were asked to reflect on blended learning. On completion of 9 weeks, reflections were collected and analyzed. Statistical Analysis: Qualitative analysis was done using thematic analysis model suggested by Braun and Clarke. Results: The four main themes were identified, namely, merits of blended learning, skill in writing prescription for oral diseases, dosages of drugs, and identification of strengths and weakness. In general, the participants had a positive feedback regarding blended learning. Students felt more confident in drug selection and prescription writing. They could recollect the doses better after the online and face-to-face sessions. Most interestingly, the students reflected that they are able to identify their strength and weakness after the blended learning sessions. Conclusions: Blended learning module was successfully implemented for reinforcing dental pharmacology. The results obtained in this study enable us to plan future comparative studies to know the effectiveness of blended learning in dental pharmacology. PMID:28031603

Enhanced processing of threat stimuli under limited attentional resources.

PubMed

De Martino, Benedetto; Kalisch, Raffael; Rees, Geraint; Dolan, Raymond J

2009-01-01

The ability to process stimuli that convey potential threat, under conditions of limited attentional resources, confers adaptive advantages. This study examined the neurobiology underpinnings of this capacity. Employing an attentional blink paradigm, in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging, we manipulated the salience of the second of 2 face target stimuli (T2), by varying emotionality. Behaviorally, fearful T2 faces were identified significantly more than neutral faces. Activity in fusiform face area increased with correct identification of T2 faces. Enhanced activity in rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) accounted for the benefit in detection of fearful stimuli reflected in a significant interaction between target valence and correct identification. Thus, under conditions of limited attention resources activation in rACC correlated with enhanced processing of emotional stimuli. We suggest that these data support a model in which a prefrontal "gate" mechanism controls conscious access of emotional information under conditions of limited attentional resources.

Selecting fillers on emotional appearance improves lineup identification accuracy.

PubMed

Flowe, Heather D; Klatt, Thimna; Colloff, Melissa F

2014-12-01

Mock witnesses sometimes report using criminal stereotypes to identify a face from a lineup, a tendency known as criminal face bias. Faces are perceived as criminal-looking if they appear angry. We tested whether matching the emotional appearance of the fillers to an angry suspect can reduce criminal face bias. In Study 1, mock witnesses (n = 226) viewed lineups in which the suspect had an angry, happy, or neutral expression, and we varied whether the fillers matched the expression. An additional group of participants (n = 59) rated the faces on criminal and emotional appearance. As predicted, mock witnesses tended to identify suspects who appeared angrier and more criminal-looking than the fillers. This tendency was reduced when the lineup fillers matched the emotional appearance of the suspect. Study 2 extended the results, testing whether the emotional appearance of the suspect and fillers affects recognition memory. Participants (n = 1,983) studied faces and took a lineup test in which the emotional appearance of the target and fillers was varied between subjects. Discrimination accuracy was enhanced when the fillers matched an angry target's emotional appearance. We conclude that lineup member emotional appearance plays a critical role in the psychology of lineup identification. The fillers should match an angry suspect's emotional appearance to improve lineup identification accuracy. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Effects of Online/Face-to-Face Professional Development on College Faculty Perceptions of Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buss, Jennifer

2015-01-01

This study was designed to assess the effects of participating in a professional development model that include a face-to-face and online module components. To measure the participants' self-reported knowledge and attitude before and after the professional development would provide information about possible effects of the professional…

Joint OSNR monitoring and modulation format identification in digital coherent receivers using deep neural networks.

PubMed

Khan, Faisal Nadeem; Zhong, Kangping; Zhou, Xian; Al-Arashi, Waled Hussein; Yu, Changyuan; Lu, Chao; Lau, Alan Pak Tao

2017-07-24

We experimentally demonstrate the use of deep neural networks (DNNs) in combination with signals' amplitude histograms (AHs) for simultaneous optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) monitoring and modulation format identification (MFI) in digital coherent receivers. The proposed technique automatically extracts OSNR and modulation format dependent features of AHs, obtained after constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalization, and exploits them for the joint estimation of these parameters. Experimental results for 112 Gbps polarization-multiplexed (PM) quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), 112 Gbps PM 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM), and 240 Gbps PM 64-QAM signals demonstrate OSNR monitoring with mean estimation errors of 1.2 dB, 0.4 dB, and 1 dB, respectively. Similarly, the results for MFI show 100% identification accuracy for all three modulation formats. The proposed technique applies deep machine learning algorithms inside standard digital coherent receiver and does not require any additional hardware. Therefore, it is attractive for cost-effective multi-parameter estimation in next-generation elastic optical networks (EONs).

Positive facial affect facilitates the identification of famous faces.

PubMed

Gallegos, Diana R; Tranel, Daniel

2005-06-01

Several convergent lines of evidence have suggested that the presence of an emotion signal in a visual stimulus can influence processing of that stimulus. In the current study, we picked up on this idea, and explored the hypothesis that the presence of an emotional facial expression (happiness) would facilitate the identification of familiar faces. We studied two groups of normal participants (overall N=54), and neurological patients with either left (n=8) or right (n=10) temporal lobectomies. Reaction times were measured while participants named familiar famous faces that had happy expressions or neutral expressions. In support of the hypothesis, naming was significantly faster for the happy faces, and this effect obtained in the normal participants and in both patient groups. In the patients with left temporal lobectomies, the effect size for this facilitation was large (d=0.87), suggesting that this manipulation might have practical implications for helping such patients compensate for the types of naming defects that often accompany their brain damage. Consistent with other recent work, our findings indicate that emotion can facilitate visual identification, perhaps via a modulatory influence of the amygdala on extrastriate cortex.

Exploring the time course of face matching: temporal constraints impair unfamiliar face identification under temporally unconstrained viewing.

PubMed

Ozbek, Müge; Bindemann, Markus

2011-10-01

The identification of unfamiliar faces has been studied extensively with matching tasks, in which observers decide if pairs of photographs depict the same person (identity matches) or different people (mismatches). In experimental studies in this field, performance is usually self-paced under the assumption that this will encourage best-possible accuracy. Here, we examined the temporal characteristics of this task by limiting display times and tracking observers' eye movements. Observers were required to make match/mismatch decisions to pairs of faces shown for 200, 500, 1000, or 2000ms, or for an unlimited duration. Peak accuracy was reached within 2000ms and two fixations to each face. However, intermixing exposure conditions produced a context effect that generally reduced accuracy on identity mismatch trials, even when unlimited viewing of faces was possible. These findings indicate that less than 2s are required for face matching when exposure times are variable, but temporal constraints should be avoided altogether if accuracy is truly paramount. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attentional Modulation of Emotional Conflict Processing with Flanker Tasks

PubMed Central

Zhou, Pingyan; Liu, Xun

2013-01-01

Emotion processing has been shown to acquire priority by biasing allocation of attentional resources. Aversive images or fearful expressions are processed quickly and automatically. Many existing findings suggested that processing of emotional information was pre-attentive, largely immune from attentional control. Other studies argued that attention gated the processing of emotion. To tackle this controversy, the current study examined whether and to what degrees attention modulated processing of emotion using a stimulus-response-compatibility (SRC) paradigm. We conducted two flanker experiments using color scale faces in neutral expressions or gray scale faces in emotional expressions. We found SRC effects for all three dimensions (color, gender, and emotion) and SRC effects were larger when the conflicts were task relevant than when they were task irrelevant, suggesting that conflict processing of emotion was modulated by attention, similar to those of color and face identity (gender). However, task modulation on color SRC effect was significantly greater than that on gender or emotion SRC effect, indicating that processing of salient information was modulated by attention to a lesser degree than processing of non-emotional stimuli. We proposed that emotion processing can be influenced by attentional control, but at the same time salience of emotional information may bias toward bottom-up processing, rendering less top-down modulation than that on non-emotional stimuli. PMID:23544155

Attentional modulation of emotional conflict processing with flanker tasks.

PubMed

Zhou, Pingyan; Liu, Xun

2013-01-01

Emotion processing has been shown to acquire priority by biasing allocation of attentional resources. Aversive images or fearful expressions are processed quickly and automatically. Many existing findings suggested that processing of emotional information was pre-attentive, largely immune from attentional control. Other studies argued that attention gated the processing of emotion. To tackle this controversy, the current study examined whether and to what degrees attention modulated processing of emotion using a stimulus-response-compatibility (SRC) paradigm. We conducted two flanker experiments using color scale faces in neutral expressions or gray scale faces in emotional expressions. We found SRC effects for all three dimensions (color, gender, and emotion) and SRC effects were larger when the conflicts were task relevant than when they were task irrelevant, suggesting that conflict processing of emotion was modulated by attention, similar to those of color and face identity (gender). However, task modulation on color SRC effect was significantly greater than that on gender or emotion SRC effect, indicating that processing of salient information was modulated by attention to a lesser degree than processing of non-emotional stimuli. We proposed that emotion processing can be influenced by attentional control, but at the same time salience of emotional information may bias toward bottom-up processing, rendering less top-down modulation than that on non-emotional stimuli.

Analysis of technical university information system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savelyev, N. A.; Boyarkin, M. A.

2018-05-01

The paper covers a set and interaction of the existing higher education institution automated control systems in φ state budgetary educational institution of higher professional education "Industrial University of Tyumen ". A structural interaction of the existing systems and their functions has been analyzed which has become a basis for identification of a number of system-related and local (related to separate modules) drawbacks of the university activities automation. The authors suggested a new structure of the automated control system, consisting of three major subsystems: management support; training and methodology support; distance and supplementary education support. Functionality for each subsystem has been defined in accordance with the educational institution automation requirements. The suggested structure of the ACS will solve the challenges facing the university during reorganization and optimization of the processes of management of the institution activities as a whole.

Collecting Pests for Identification. Module 12. Vocational Education Training in Environmental Health Sciences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Consumer Dynamics Inc., Rockville, MD.

This module, one of 25 on vocational education training for careers in environmental health occupations, contains self-instructional materials on collecting pests for identification. Following guidelines for students and instructors and an introduction that explains what the student will learn are three lessons: (1) identifying the parts and…

A signal-detection-based diagnostic-feature-detection model of eyewitness identification.

PubMed

Wixted, John T; Mickes, Laura

2014-04-01

The theoretical understanding of eyewitness identifications made from a police lineup has long been guided by the distinction between absolute and relative decision strategies. In addition, the accuracy of identifications associated with different eyewitness memory procedures has long been evaluated using measures like the diagnosticity ratio (the correct identification rate divided by the false identification rate). Framed in terms of signal-detection theory, both the absolute/relative distinction and the diagnosticity ratio are mainly relevant to response bias while remaining silent about the key issue of diagnostic accuracy, or discriminability (i.e., the ability to tell the difference between innocent and guilty suspects in a lineup). Here, we propose a signal-detection-based model of eyewitness identification, one that encourages the use of (and helps to conceptualize) receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to measure discriminability. Recent ROC analyses indicate that the simultaneous presentation of faces in a lineup yields higher discriminability than the presentation of faces in isolation, and we propose a diagnostic feature-detection hypothesis to account for that result. According to this hypothesis, the simultaneous presentation of faces allows the eyewitness to appreciate that certain facial features (viz., those that are shared by everyone in the lineup) are non-diagnostic of guilt. To the extent that those non-diagnostic features are discounted in favor of potentially more diagnostic features, the ability to discriminate innocent from guilty suspects will be enhanced.

Holistic face perception is modulated by experience-dependent perceptual grouping.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Entenman, Robert J; Fleming, Justin T

2016-07-01

What role do general-purpose, experience-sensitive perceptual mechanisms play in producing characteristic features of face perception? We previously demonstrated that different-colored, misaligned framing backgrounds, designed to disrupt perceptual grouping of face parts appearing upon them, disrupt holistic face perception. In the current experiments, a similar part-judgment task with composite faces was performed: face parts appeared in either misaligned, different-colored rectangles or aligned, same-colored rectangles. To investigate whether experience can shape impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception, a pre-task fostered the perception of either (a) the misaligned, differently colored rectangle frames as parts of a single, multicolored polygon or (b) the aligned, same-colored rectangle frames as a single square shape. Faces appearing in the misaligned, differently colored rectangles were processed more holistically by those in the polygon-, compared with the square-, pre-task group. Holistic effects for faces appearing in aligned, same-colored rectangles showed the opposite pattern. Experiment 2, which included a pre-task condition fostering the perception of the aligned, same-colored frames as pairs of independent rectangles, provided converging evidence that experience can modulate impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception. These results are surprising given the proposed impenetrability of holistic face perception and provide insights into the elusive mechanisms underlying holistic perception.

The effect of acute citalopram on face emotion processing in remitted depression: a pharmacoMRI study.

PubMed

Anderson, Ian M; Juhasz, Gabriella; Thomas, Emma; Downey, Darragh; McKie, Shane; Deakin, J F William; Elliott, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Both reduced serotonergic (5-HT) function and negative emotional biases have been associated with vulnerability to depression. In order to investigate whether these might be related we examined 5-HT modulation of affective processing in 14 remitted depressed subjects compared with 12 never depressed controls matched for age and sex. Participants underwent function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a covert face emotion task with and without intravenous citalopram (7.5mg) pretreatment. Compared with viewing neutral faces, and irrespective of group, citalopram enhanced left anterior cingulate blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response to happy faces, right posterior insula and right lateral orbitofrontal responses to sad faces, and reduced amygdala responses bilaterally to fearful faces. In controls, relative to remitted depressed subjects, citalopram increased bilateral hippocampal responses to happy faces and increased right anterior insula response to sad faces. These findings were not accounted for by changes in BOLD responses to viewing neutral faces. These results are consistent with previous findings showing 5-HT modulation of affective processing; differences found in previously depressed participants compared with controls may contribute to emotional processing biases underlying vulnerability to depressive relapse. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Spatial location in brief, free-viewing face encoding modulates contextual face recognition

PubMed Central

Felisberti, Fatima M.; McDermott, Mark R.

2013-01-01

The effect of the spatial location of faces in the visual field during brief, free-viewing encoding in subsequent face recognition is not known. This study addressed this question by tagging three groups of faces with cheating, cooperating or neutral behaviours and presenting them for encoding in two visual hemifields (upper vs. lower or left vs. right). Participants then had to indicate if a centrally presented face had been seen before or not. Head and eye movements were free in all phases. Findings showed that the overall recognition of cooperators was significantly better than cheaters, and it was better for faces encoded in the upper hemifield than in the lower hemifield, both in terms of a higher d′ and faster reaction time (RT). The d′ for any given behaviour in the left and right hemifields was similar. The RT in the left hemifield did not vary with tagged behaviour, whereas the RT in the right hemifield was longer for cheaters than for cooperators. The results showed that memory biases in contextual face recognition were modulated by the spatial location of briefly encoded faces and are discussed in terms of scanning reading habits, top-left bias in lighting preference and peripersonal space. PMID:24349694

Effect of positive emotion on consolidation of memory for faces: the modulation of facial valence and facial gender.

PubMed

Wang, Bo

2013-01-01

Studies have shown that emotion elicited after learning enhances memory consolidation. However, no prior studies have used facial photos as stimuli. This study examined the effect of post-learning positive emotion on consolidation of memory for faces. During the learning participants viewed neutral, positive, or negative faces. Then they were assigned to a condition in which they either watched a 9-minute positive video clip, or a 9-minute neutral video. Then 30 minutes after the learning participants took a surprise memory test, in which they made "remember", "know", and "new" judgements. The findings are: (1) Positive emotion enhanced consolidation of recognition for negative male faces, but impaired consolidation of recognition for negative female faces; (2) For males, recognition for negative faces was equivalent to that for positive faces; for females, recognition for negative faces was better than that for positive faces. Our study provides the important evidence that effect of post-learning emotion on memory consolidation can extend to facial stimuli and such an effect can be modulated by facial valence and facial gender. The findings may shed light on establishing models concerning the influence of emotion on memory consolidation.

Perceptual expertise in forensic facial image comparison

PubMed Central

White, David; Phillips, P. Jonathon; Hahn, Carina A.; Hill, Matthew; O'Toole, Alice J.

2015-01-01

Forensic facial identification examiners are required to match the identity of faces in images that vary substantially, owing to changes in viewing conditions and in a person's appearance. These identifications affect the course and outcome of criminal investigations and convictions. Despite calls for research on sources of human error in forensic examination, existing scientific knowledge of face matching accuracy is based, almost exclusively, on people without formal training. Here, we administered three challenging face matching tests to a group of forensic examiners with many years' experience of comparing face images for law enforcement and government agencies. Examiners outperformed untrained participants and computer algorithms, thereby providing the first evidence that these examiners are experts at this task. Notably, computationally fusing responses of multiple experts produced near-perfect performance. Results also revealed qualitative differences between expert and non-expert performance. First, examiners' superiority was greatest at longer exposure durations, suggestive of more entailed comparison in forensic examiners. Second, experts were less impaired by image inversion than non-expert students, contrasting with face memory studies that show larger face inversion effects in high performers. We conclude that expertise in matching identity across unfamiliar face images is supported by processes that differ qualitatively from those supporting memory for individual faces. PMID:26336174

Pose invariant face recognition: 3D model from single photo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Napoléon, Thibault; Alfalou, Ayman

2017-02-01

Face recognition is widely studied in the literature for its possibilities in surveillance and security. In this paper, we report a novel algorithm for the identification task. This technique is based on an optimized 3D modeling allowing to reconstruct faces in different poses from a limited number of references (i.e. one image by class/person). Particularly, we propose to use an active shape model to detect a set of keypoints on the face necessary to deform our synthetic model with our optimized finite element method. Indeed, in order to improve our deformation, we propose a regularization by distances on graph. To perform the identification we use the VanderLugt correlator well know to effectively address this task. On the other hand we add a difference of Gaussian filtering step to highlight the edges and a description step based on the local binary patterns. The experiments are performed on the PHPID database enhanced with our 3D reconstructed faces of each person with an azimuth and an elevation ranging from -30° to +30°. The obtained results prove the robustness of our new method with 88.76% of good identification when the classic 2D approach (based on the VLC) obtains just 44.97%.

Facial expression identification using 3D geometric features from Microsoft Kinect device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Dongxu; Al Jawad, Naseer; Du, Hongbo

2016-05-01

Facial expression identification is an important part of face recognition and closely related to emotion detection from face images. Various solutions have been proposed in the past using different types of cameras and features. Microsoft Kinect device has been widely used for multimedia interactions. More recently, the device has been increasingly deployed for supporting scientific investigations. This paper explores the effectiveness of using the device in identifying emotional facial expressions such as surprise, smile, sad, etc. and evaluates the usefulness of 3D data points on a face mesh structure obtained from the Kinect device. We present a distance-based geometric feature component that is derived from the distances between points on the face mesh and selected reference points in a single frame. The feature components extracted across a sequence of frames starting and ending by neutral emotion represent a whole expression. The feature vector eliminates the need for complex face orientation correction, simplifying the feature extraction process and making it more efficient. We applied the kNN classifier that exploits a feature component based similarity measure following the principle of dynamic time warping to determine the closest neighbors. Preliminary tests on a small scale database of different facial expressions show promises of the newly developed features and the usefulness of the Kinect device in facial expression identification.

In vivo imaging of palisades of Vogt in dry eye versus normal subjects using en-face spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

PubMed Central

Djerada, Zoubir; Liang, Hong; El Sanharawi, Mohamed; Labbé, Antoine; Baudouin, Christophe

2017-01-01

Purpose To evaluate a possible clinical application of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) using en-face module for the imaging of the corneoscleral limbus in normal subjects and dry eye patients. Patients and methods Seventy-six subjects were included in this study. Seventy eyes of 35 consecutive patients with dry eye disease and 82 eyes of 41 healthy control subjects were investigated. All subjects were examined with the Avanti RTVue® anterior segment OCT. En-face OCT images of the corneoscleral limbus were acquired in four quadrants (inferior, superior, nasal and temporal) and then were analyzed semi-quantitatively according to whether or not palisades of Vogt (POV) were visible. En-face OCT images were then compared to in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) in eleven eyes of 7 healthy and dry eye patients. Results En-face SD-OCT showed POV as a radially oriented network, located in superficial corneoscleral limbus, with a good correlation with IVCM features. It provided an easy and reproducible identification of POV without any special preparation or any direct contact, with a grading scale from 0 (no visualization) to 3 (high visualization). The POV were found predominantly in superior (P<0.001) and inferior (P<0.001) quadrants when compared to the nasal and temporal quadrants for all subjects examined. The visibility score decreased with age (P<0.001) and was lower in dry eye patients (P<0.01). In addition, the score decreased in accordance with the severity of dry eye disease (P<0.001). Conclusion En-face SD-OCT is a non-contact imaging technique that can be used to evaluate the POV, thus providing valuable information about differences in the limbal anatomy of dry eye patients as compared to healthy patients. PMID:29176786

RCRA, superfund and EPCRA hotline training module. Introduction to: Hazardous waste identification (40 cfr part 261) updated July 1996

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

NONE

1996-07-01

The module introduces a specific hazardous waste identification process, which involves asking and analyzing a series of questions about any waste being evaluated. It analyzes in detail the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) definition of `hazardous waste.` It explains concepts that are essential to identifying a RCRA hazardous waste: hazardous waste listing, hazardous waste characteristics, the `mixture` and `derived-from` rules, the `contained-in` policy, and the hazardous waste identification rules (HWIR).

Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Receptor Modulators and Drug Discovery

PubMed Central

Park, Soo-Jin; Im, Dong-Soon

2017-01-01

Initial discovery on sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) as an intracellular second messenger was faced unexpectedly with roles of S1P as a first messenger, which subsequently resulted in cloning of its G protein-coupled receptors, S1P1–5. The molecular identification of S1P receptors opened up a new avenue for pathophysiological research on this lipid mediator. Cellular and molecular in vitro studies and in vivo studies on gene deficient mice have elucidated cellular signaling pathways and the pathophysiological meanings of S1P receptors. Another unexpected finding that fingolimod (FTY720) modulates S1P receptors accelerated drug discovery in this field. Fingolimod was approved as a first-in-class, orally active drug for relapsing multiple sclerosis in 2010, and its applications in other disease conditions are currently under clinical trials. In addition, more selective S1P receptor modulators with better pharmacokinetic profiles and fewer side effects are under development. Some of them are being clinically tested in the contexts of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, such as, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, liver failure, renal failure, acute stroke, and transplant rejection. In this review, the authors discuss the state of the art regarding the status of drug discovery efforts targeting S1P receptors and place emphasis on potential clinical applications. PMID:28035084

Does skull shape mediate the relationship between objective features and subjective impressions about the face?

PubMed

Marečková, Klára; Chakravarty, M Mallar; Huang, Mei; Lawrence, Claire; Leonard, Gabriel; Perron, Michel; Pike, Bruce G; Richer, Louis; Veillette, Suzanne; Pausova, Zdenka; Paus, Tomáš

2013-10-01

In our previous work, we described facial features associated with a successful recognition of the sex of the face (Marečková et al., 2011). These features were based on landmarks placed on the surface of faces reconstructed from magnetic resonance (MR) images; their position was therefore influenced by both soft tissue (fat and muscle) and bone structure of the skull. Here, we ask whether bone structure has dissociable influences on observers' identification of the sex of the face. To answer this question, we used a novel method of studying skull morphology using MR images and explored the relationship between skull features, facial features, and sex recognition in a large sample of adolescents (n=876; including 475 adolescents from our original report). To determine whether skull features mediate the relationship between facial features and identification accuracy, we performed mediation analysis using bootstrapping. In males, skull features mediated fully the relationship between facial features and sex judgments. In females, the skull mediated this relationship only after adjusting facial features for the amount of body fat (estimated with bioimpedance). While body fat had a very slight positive influence on correct sex judgments about male faces, there was a robust negative influence of body fat on the correct sex judgments about female faces. Overall, these results suggest that craniofacial bone structure is essential for correct sex judgments about a male face. In females, body fat influences negatively the accuracy of sex judgments, and craniofacial bone structure alone cannot explain the relationship between facial features and identification of a face as female. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biometric correspondence between reface computerized facial approximations and CT-derived ground truth skin surface models objectively examined using an automated facial recognition system.

PubMed

Parks, Connie L; Monson, Keith L

2018-05-01

This study employed an automated facial recognition system as a means of objectively evaluating biometric correspondence between a ReFace facial approximation and the computed tomography (CT) derived ground truth skin surface of the same individual. High rates of biometric correspondence were observed, irrespective of rank class (R k ) or demographic cohort examined. Overall, 48% of the test subjects' ReFace approximation probes (n=96) were matched to his or her corresponding ground truth skin surface image at R 1 , a rank indicating a high degree of biometric correspondence and a potential positive identification. Identification rates improved with each successively broader rank class (R 10 =85%, R 25 =96%, and R 50 =99%), with 100% identification by R 57 . A sharp increase (39% mean increase) in identification rates was observed between R 1 and R 10 across most rank classes and demographic cohorts. In contrast, significantly lower (p<0.01) increases in identification rates were observed between R 10 and R 25 (8% mean increase) and R 25 and R 50 (3% mean increase). No significant (p>0.05) performance differences were observed across demographic cohorts or CT scan protocols. Performance measures observed in this research suggest that ReFace approximations are biometrically similar to the actual faces of the approximated individuals and, therefore, may have potential operational utility in contexts in which computerized approximations are utilized as probes in automated facial recognition systems. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The influence of working memory on the anger superiority effect.

PubMed

Moriya, Jun; Koster, Ernst H W; De Raedt, Rudi

2014-01-01

The anger superiority effect shows that an angry face is detected more efficiently than a happy face. However, it is still controversial whether attentional allocation to angry faces is a bottom-up process or not. We investigated whether the anger superiority effect is influenced by top-down control, especially working memory (WM). Participants remembered a colour and then searched for differently coloured facial expressions. Just holding the colour information in WM did not modulate the anger superiority effect. However, when increasing the probabilities of trials in which the colour of a target face matched the colour held in WM, participants were inclined to direct attention to the target face regardless of the facial expression. Moreover, the knowledge of high probability of valid trials eliminated the anger superiority effect. These results suggest that the anger superiority effect is modulated by top-down effects of WM, the probability of events and expectancy about these probabilities.

Performance evaluation of wavelet-based face verification on a PDA recorded database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellahewa, Harin; Jassim, Sabah A.

2006-05-01

The rise of international terrorism and the rapid increase in fraud and identity theft has added urgency to the task of developing biometric-based person identification as a reliable alternative to conventional authentication methods. Human Identification based on face images is a tough challenge in comparison to identification based on fingerprints or Iris recognition. Yet, due to its unobtrusive nature, face recognition is the preferred method of identification for security related applications. The success of such systems will depend on the support of massive infrastructures. Current mobile communication devices (3G smart phones) and PDA's are equipped with a camera which can capture both still and streaming video clips and a touch sensitive display panel. Beside convenience, such devices provide an adequate secure infrastructure for sensitive & financial transactions, by protecting against fraud and repudiation while ensuring accountability. Biometric authentication systems for mobile devices would have obvious advantages in conflict scenarios when communication from beyond enemy lines is essential to save soldier and civilian life. In areas of conflict or disaster the luxury of fixed infrastructure is not available or destroyed. In this paper, we present a wavelet-based face verification scheme that have been specifically designed and implemented on a currently available PDA. We shall report on its performance on the benchmark audio-visual BANCA database and on a newly developed PDA recorded audio-visual database that take include indoor and outdoor recordings.

Parametric modulation of neural activity by emotion in youth with bipolar disorder, severe mood dysregulation, and healthy subjects

PubMed Central

Thomas, Laura A.; Brotman, Melissa A.; Muhrer, Eli M.; Rosen, Brooke H.; Bones, Brian L.; Reynolds, Richard C.; Deveney, Christen; Pine, Daniel S.; Leibenluft, Ellen

2012-01-01

Context Youth with bipolar disorder (BD) and those with severe, non-episodic irritability (severe mood dysregulation, SMD) show amygdala dysfunction during face emotion processing. However, studies have not compared such patients to each other and to comparison subjects in neural responsiveness to subtle changes in face emotion; the ability to process such changes is important for social cognition. We employed a novel parametrically designed faces paradigm. Objective Using a parametrically morphed emotional faces task, we compared activation in the amygdala and across the brain in BD, SMD, and healthy volunteers (HV). Design Case-control study. Setting Government research institute. Participants 57 youths (19 BD, 15 SMD, 23 HV). Main Outcome Measure Blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) data. Neutral faces were morphed with angry and happy faces in 25% intervals; static face stimuli appeared for 3000ms. Subjects performed hostility or non-emotional facial feature (i.e., nose width) ratings. Slope of BOLD activity was calculated across neutral-to-angry (N→A) and neutral-to-happy (N→H) face stimuli. Results In HV, but not BD or SMD, there was a positive association between left amygdala activity and anger on the face. In the N→H whole brain analysis, BD and SMD modulated parietal, temporal, and medial-frontal areas differently from each other and from HV; with increasing facial-happiness, SMD increased, while BD decreased, activity in parietal, temporal, and frontal regions. Conclusions Youth with BD or SMD differ from HV in modulation of amygdala activity in response to small changes in facial anger displays. In contrast, BD and SMD show distinct perturbations in regions mediating attention and face processing in association with changes in the emotional intensity of facial happiness displays. These findings demonstrate similarities and differences in the neural correlates of face emotion processing in BD and SMD, suggesting these distinct clinical presentations may reflect differing pathologies along a mood disorders spectrum. PMID:23026912

What's behind a face: person context coding in fusiform face area as revealed by multivoxel pattern analysis.

PubMed

van den Hurk, J; Gentile, F; Jansma, B M

2011-12-01

The identification of a face comprises processing of both visual features and conceptual knowledge. Studies showing that the fusiform face area (FFA) is sensitive to face identity generally neglect this dissociation. The present study is the first that isolates conceptual face processing by using words presented in a person context instead of faces. The design consisted of 2 different conditions. In one condition, participants were presented with blocks of words related to each other at the categorical level (e.g., brands of cars, European cities). The second condition consisted of blocks of words linked to the personality features of a specific face. Both conditions were created from the same 8 × 8 word matrix, thereby controlling for visual input across conditions. Univariate statistical contrasts did not yield any significant differences between the 2 conditions in FFA. However, a machine learning classification algorithm was able to successfully learn the functional relationship between the 2 contexts and their underlying response patterns in FFA, suggesting that these activation patterns can code for different semantic contexts. These results suggest that the level of processing in FFA goes beyond facial features. This has strong implications for the debate about the role of FFA in face identification.

Development of face recognition: Dynamic causal modelling of MEG data.

PubMed

He, Wei; Johnson, Blake W

2018-04-01

Electrophysiological studies of adults indicate that brain activity is enhanced during viewing of repeated faces, at a latency of about 250 ms after the onset of the face (M250/N250). The present study aimed to determine if this effect was also present in preschool-aged children, whose brain activity was measured in a custom-sized pediatric MEG system. The results showed that, unlike adults, face repetition did not show any significant modulation of M250 amplitude in children; however children's M250 latencies were significantly faster for repeated than non-repeated faces. Dynamic causal modelling (DCM) of the M250 in both age groups tested the effects of face repetition within the core face network including the occipital face area (OFA), the fusiform face area (FFA), and the superior temporal sulcus (STS). DCM revealed that repetition of identical faces altered both forward and backward connections in children and adults; however the modulations involved inputs to both FFA and OFA in adults but only to OFA in children. These findings suggest that the amplitude-insensitivity of the immature M250 may be due to a weaker connection between the FFA and lower visual areas. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Functional connectivity between amygdala and facial regions involved in recognition of facial threat

PubMed Central

Harada, Tokiko; Ruffman, Ted; Sadato, Norihiro; Iidaka, Tetsuya

2013-01-01

The recognition of threatening faces is important for making social judgments. For example, threatening facial features of defendants could affect the decisions of jurors during a trial. Previous neuroimaging studies using faces of members of the general public have identified a pivotal role of the amygdala in perceiving threat. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study used face photographs of male prisoners who had been convicted of first-degree murder (MUR) as threatening facial stimuli. We compared the subjective ratings of MUR faces with those of control (CON) faces and examined how they were related to brain activation, particularly, the modulation of the functional connectivity between the amygdala and other brain regions. The MUR faces were perceived to be more threatening than the CON faces. The bilateral amygdala was shown to respond to both MUR and CON faces, but subtraction analysis revealed no significant difference between the two. Functional connectivity analysis indicated that the extent of connectivity between the left amygdala and the face-related regions (i.e. the superior temporal sulcus, inferior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus) was correlated with the subjective threat rating for the faces. We have demonstrated that the functional connectivity is modulated by vigilance for threatening facial features. PMID:22156740

Laboratory for Engineering Man/Machine Systems (LEMS): System identification, model reduction and deconvolution filtering using Fourier based modulating signals and high order statistics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pan, Jianqiang

1992-01-01

Several important problems in the fields of signal processing and model identification, such as system structure identification, frequency response determination, high order model reduction, high resolution frequency analysis, deconvolution filtering, and etc. Each of these topics involves a wide range of applications and has received considerable attention. Using the Fourier based sinusoidal modulating signals, it is shown that a discrete autoregressive model can be constructed for the least squares identification of continuous systems. Some identification algorithms are presented for both SISO and MIMO systems frequency response determination using only transient data. Also, several new schemes for model reduction were developed. Based upon the complex sinusoidal modulating signals, a parametric least squares algorithm for high resolution frequency estimation is proposed. Numerical examples show that the proposed algorithm gives better performance than the usual. Also, the problem was studied of deconvolution and parameter identification of a general noncausal nonminimum phase ARMA system driven by non-Gaussian stationary random processes. Algorithms are introduced for inverse cumulant estimation, both in the frequency domain via the FFT algorithms and in the domain via the least squares algorithm.

Network Interactions Explain Sensitivity to Dynamic Faces in the Superior Temporal Sulcus.

PubMed

Furl, Nicholas; Henson, Richard N; Friston, Karl J; Calder, Andrew J

2015-09-01

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) in the human and monkey is sensitive to the motion of complex forms such as facial and bodily actions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore network-level explanations for how the form and motion information in dynamic facial expressions might be combined in the human STS. Ventral occipitotemporal areas selective for facial form were localized in occipital and fusiform face areas (OFA and FFA), and motion sensitivity was localized in the more dorsal temporal area V5. We then tested various connectivity models that modeled communication between the ventral form and dorsal motion pathways. We show that facial form information modulated transmission of motion information from V5 to the STS, and that this face-selective modulation likely originated in OFA. This finding shows that form-selective motion sensitivity in the STS can be explained in terms of modulation of gain control on information flow in the motion pathway, and provides a substantial constraint for theories of the perception of faces and biological motion. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Culture modulates the brain response to human expressions of emotion: electrophysiological evidence.

PubMed

Liu, Pan; Rigoulot, Simon; Pell, Marc D

2015-01-01

To understand how culture modulates on-line neural responses to social information, this study compared how individuals from two distinct cultural groups, English-speaking North Americans and Chinese, process emotional meanings of multi-sensory stimuli as indexed by both behaviour (accuracy) and event-related potential (N400) measures. In an emotional Stroop-like task, participants were presented face-voice pairs expressing congruent or incongruent emotions in conditions where they judged the emotion of one modality while ignoring the other (face or voice focus task). Results indicated that while both groups were sensitive to emotional differences between channels (with lower accuracy and higher N400 amplitudes for incongruent face-voice pairs), there were marked group differences in how intruding facial or vocal cues affected accuracy and N400 amplitudes, with English participants showing greater interference from irrelevant faces than Chinese. Our data illuminate distinct biases in how adults from East Asian versus Western cultures process socio-emotional cues, supplying new evidence that cultural learning modulates not only behaviour, but the neurocognitive response to different features of multi-channel emotion expressions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Comparing Online and Face-to-Face Student Counselling: What Therapeutic Goals Are Identifed and What Are the Implications for Educational Providers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanley, Terry; Ersahin, Zehra; Sefi, Aaron; Hebron, Judith

2017-01-01

Online counselling is increasingly being used as an alternative to face-to-face student counselling. Using an exploratory mixed methods design, this project investigated the practice by examining the types of therapeutic goals that 11- to 25-year-olds identify online in routine practice. These goals were then compared to goals identified in…

Tweaked residual convolutional network for face alignment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Wenchao; Li, Ke; Zhao, Qijun; Zhang, Yi; Chen, Hu

2017-08-01

We propose a novel Tweaked Residual Convolutional Network approach for face alignment with two-level convolutional networks architecture. Specifically, the first-level Tweaked Convolutional Network (TCN) module predicts the landmark quickly but accurately enough as a preliminary, by taking low-resolution version of the detected face holistically as the input. The following Residual Convolutional Networks (RCN) module progressively refines the landmark by taking as input the local patch extracted around the predicted landmark, particularly, which allows the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to extract local shape-indexed features to fine tune landmark position. Extensive evaluations show that the proposed Tweaked Residual Convolutional Network approach outperforms existing methods.

Odor Valence Linearly Modulates Attractiveness, but Not Age Assessment, of Invariant Facial Features in a Memory-Based Rating Task

PubMed Central

Seubert, Janina; Gregory, Kristen M.; Chamberland, Jessica; Dessirier, Jean-Marc; Lundström, Johan N.

2014-01-01

Scented cosmetic products are used across cultures as a way to favorably influence one's appearance. While crossmodal effects of odor valence on perceived attractiveness of facial features have been demonstrated experimentally, it is unknown whether they represent a phenomenon specific to affective processing. In this experiment, we presented odors in the context of a face battery with systematic feature manipulations during a speeded response task. Modulatory effects of linear increases of odor valence were investigated by juxtaposing subsequent memory-based ratings tasks – one predominantly affective (attractiveness) and a second, cognitive (age). The linear modulation pattern observed for attractiveness was consistent with additive effects of face and odor appraisal. Effects of odor valence on age perception were not linearly modulated and may be the result of cognitive interference. Affective and cognitive processing of faces thus appear to differ in their susceptibility to modulation by odors, likely as a result of privileged access of olfactory stimuli to affective brain networks. These results are critically discussed with respect to potential biases introduced by the preceding speeded response task. PMID:24874703

Modeling Face Identification Processing in Children and Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwarzer, Gudrun; Massaro, Dominic W.

2001-01-01

Two experiments studied whether and how 5-year-olds integrate single facial features to identify faces. Results indicated that children could evaluate and integrate information from eye and mouth features to identify a face when salience of features was varied. A weighted Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception fit better than a Single Channel Model,…

Cortical deficits of emotional face processing in adults with ADHD: its relation to social cognition and executive function.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Agustin; Petroni, Agustin; Urquina, Hugo; Torrente, Fernando; Torralva, Teresa; Hurtado, Esteban; Guex, Raphael; Blenkmann, Alejandro; Beltrachini, Leandro; Muravchik, Carlos; Baez, Sandra; Cetkovich, Marcelo; Sigman, Mariano; Lischinsky, Alicia; Manes, Facundo

2011-01-01

Although it has been shown that adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impaired social cognition, no previous study has reported the brain correlates of face valence processing. This study looked for behavioral, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological markers of emotion processing for faces (N170) in adult ADHD compared to controls matched by age, gender, educational level, and handedness. We designed an event-related potential (ERP) study based on a dual valence task (DVT), in which faces and words were presented to test the effects of stimulus type (faces, words, or face-word stimuli) and valence (positive versus negative). Individual signatures of cognitive functioning in participants with ADHD and controls were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, including executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). Compared to controls, the adult ADHD group showed deficits in N170 emotion modulation for facial stimuli. These N170 impairments were observed in the absence of any deficit in facial structural processing, suggesting a specific ADHD impairment in early facial emotion modulation. The cortical current density mapping of N170 yielded a main neural source of N170 at posterior section of fusiform gyrus (maximum at left hemisphere for words and right hemisphere for faces and simultaneous stimuli). Neural generators of N170 (fusiform gyrus) were reduced in ADHD. In those patients, N170 emotion processing was associated with performance on an emotional inference ToM task, and N170 from simultaneous stimuli was associated with EF, especially working memory. This is the first report to reveal an adult ADHD-specific impairment in the cortical modulation of emotion for faces and an association between N170 cortical measures and ToM and EF.

Who is the Usual Suspect? Evidence of a Selection Bias Toward Faces That Make Direct Eye Contact in a Lineup Task

PubMed Central

van Golde, Celine; Verstraten, Frans A. J.

2017-01-01

The speed and ease with which we recognize the faces of our friends and family members belies the difficulty we have recognizing less familiar individuals. Nonetheless, overconfidence in our ability to recognize faces has carried over into various aspects of our legal system; for instance, eyewitness identification serves a critical role in criminal proceedings. For this reason, understanding the perceptual and psychological processes that underlie false identification is of the utmost importance. Gaze direction is a salient social signal and direct eye contact, in particular, is thought to capture attention. Here, we tested the hypothesis that differences in gaze direction may influence difficult decisions in a lineup context. In a series of experiments, we show that when a group of faces differed in their gaze direction, the faces that were making eye contact with the participants were more likely to be misidentified. Interestingly, this bias disappeared when the faces are presented with their eyes closed. These findings open a critical conversation between social neuroscience and forensic psychology, and imply that direct eye contact may (wrongly) increase the perceived familiarity of a face. PMID:28203355

Emotion-attention interactions in recognition memory for distractor faces.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Narayanan; Gupta, Rashmi

2010-04-01

Effective filtering of distractor information has been shown to be dependent on perceptual load. Given the salience of emotional information and the presence of emotion-attention interactions, we wanted to explore the recognition memory for emotional distractors especially as a function of focused attention and distributed attention by manipulating load and the spatial spread of attention. We performed two experiments to study emotion-attention interactions by measuring recognition memory performance for distractor neutral and emotional faces. Participants performed a color discrimination task (low-load) or letter identification task (high-load) with a letter string display in Experiment 1 and a high-load letter identification task with letters presented in a circular array in Experiment 2. The stimuli were presented against a distractor face background. The recognition memory results show that happy faces were recognized better than sad faces under conditions of less focused or distributed attention. When attention is more spatially focused, sad faces were recognized better than happy faces. The study provides evidence for emotion-attention interactions in which specific emotional information like sad or happy is associated with focused or distributed attention respectively. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of attention. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Is the Thatcher Illusion Modulated by Face Familiarity? Evidence from an Eye Tracking Study

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Thompson (1980) first detected and described the Thatcher Illusion, where participants instantly perceive an upright face with inverted eyes and mouth as grotesque, but fail to do so when the same face is inverted. One prominent but controversial explanation is that the processing of configural information is disrupted in inverted faces. Studies investigating the Thatcher Illusion either used famous faces or non-famous faces. Highly familiar faces were often thought to be processed in a pronounced configural mode, so they seem ideal candidates to be tested in one Thatcher study against unfamiliar faces–but this has never been addressed so far. In our study, participants evaluated 16 famous and 16 non-famous faces for their grotesqueness. We tested whether familiarity (famous/non-famous faces) modulates reaction times, correctness of grotesqueness assessments (accuracy), and eye movement patterns for the factors orientation (upright/inverted) and Thatcherisation (Thatcherised/non-Thatcherised). On a behavioural level, familiarity effects were only observable via face inversion (higher accuracy and sensitivity for famous compared to non-famous faces) but not via Thatcherisation. Regarding eye movements, however, Thatcherisation influenced the scanning of famous and non-famous faces, for instance, in scanning the mouth region of the presented faces (higher number, duration and dwell time of fixations for famous compared to non-famous faces if Thatcherised). Altogether, famous faces seem to be processed in a more elaborate, more expertise-based way than non-famous faces, whereas non-famous, inverted faces seem to cause difficulties in accurate and sensitive processing. Results are further discussed in the face of existing studies of familiar vs. unfamiliar face processing. PMID:27776145

Tools for Protecting the Privacy of Specific Individuals in Video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Datong; Chang, Yi; Yan, Rong; Yang, Jie

2007-12-01

This paper presents a system for protecting the privacy of specific individuals in video recordings. We address the following two problems: automatic people identification with limited labeled data, and human body obscuring with preserved structure and motion information. In order to address the first problem, we propose a new discriminative learning algorithm to improve people identification accuracy using limited training data labeled from the original video and imperfect pairwise constraints labeled from face obscured video data. We employ a robust face detection and tracking algorithm to obscure human faces in the video. Our experiments in a nursing home environment show that the system can obtain a high accuracy of people identification using limited labeled data and noisy pairwise constraints. The study result indicates that human subjects can perform reasonably well in labeling pairwise constraints with the face masked data. For the second problem, we propose a novel method of body obscuring, which removes the appearance information of the people while preserving rich structure and motion information. The proposed approach provides a way to minimize the risk of exposing the identities of the protected people while maximizing the use of the captured data for activity/behavior analysis.

Detecting gender before you know it: How implementation intentions control early gender categorization.

PubMed

Hügelschäfer, Sabine; Jaudas, Alexander; Achtziger, Anja

2016-10-15

Gender categorization is highly automatic. Studies measuring ERPs during the presentation of male and female faces in a categorization task showed that this categorization is extremely quick (around 130ms, indicated by the N170). We tested whether this automatic process can be controlled by goal intentions and implementation intentions. First, we replicated the N170 modulation on gender-incongruent faces as reported in previous research. This effect was only observed in a task in which faces had to be categorized according to gender, but not in a task that required responding to a visual feature added to the face stimuli (the color of a dot) while gender was irrelevant. Second, it turned out that the N170 modulation on gender-incongruent faces was altered if a goal intention was set that aimed at controlling a gender bias. We interpret this finding as an indicator of nonconscious goal pursuit. The N170 modulation was completely absent when this goal intention was furnished with an implementation intention. In contrast, intentions did not alter brain activity at a later time window (P300), which is associated with more complex and rather conscious processes. In line with previous research, the P300 was modulated by gender incongruency even if individuals were strongly involved in another task, demonstrating the automaticity of gender detection. We interpret our findings as evidence that automatic gender categorization that occurs at a very early processing stage can be effectively controlled by intentions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective attention modulates early human evoked potentials during emotional face-voice processing.

PubMed

Ho, Hao Tam; Schröger, Erich; Kotz, Sonja A

2015-04-01

Recent findings on multisensory integration suggest that selective attention influences cross-sensory interactions from an early processing stage. Yet, in the field of emotional face-voice integration, the hypothesis prevails that facial and vocal emotional information interacts preattentively. Using ERPs, we investigated the influence of selective attention on the perception of congruent versus incongruent combinations of neutral and angry facial and vocal expressions. Attention was manipulated via four tasks that directed participants to (i) the facial expression, (ii) the vocal expression, (iii) the emotional congruence between the face and the voice, and (iv) the synchrony between lip movement and speech onset. Our results revealed early interactions between facial and vocal emotional expressions, manifested as modulations of the auditory N1 and P2 amplitude by incongruent emotional face-voice combinations. Although audiovisual emotional interactions within the N1 time window were affected by the attentional manipulations, interactions within the P2 modulation showed no such attentional influence. Thus, we propose that the N1 and P2 are functionally dissociated in terms of emotional face-voice processing and discuss evidence in support of the notion that the N1 is associated with cross-sensory prediction, whereas the P2 relates to the derivation of an emotional percept. Essentially, our findings put the integration of facial and vocal emotional expressions into a new perspective-one that regards the integration process as a composite of multiple, possibly independent subprocesses, some of which are susceptible to attentional modulation, whereas others may be influenced by additional factors.

RCRA/UST, superfund and EPCRA hotline training module. Introduction to: Hazardous waste identification (40 CFR part 261) updated as of July 1995

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

NONE

1995-11-01

This module introduces a specific hazardous waste identification process, which involves asking and analyzing a series of questions about any waste being evaluated. Analyzes in detail the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) definition of hazardous waste. It explains the following concepts that are essential to identifying a RCRA hazardous waste: hazardous waste listing, hazardous waste characteristics, the mixture and derived-from rules, the contained-in policy, and the Hazardous Waste Identification Rule (HWIR).

The influence of stimulus format on drawing--a functional imaging study of decision making in portrait drawing.

PubMed

Miall, R C; Nam, Se-Ho; Tchalenko, J

2014-11-15

To copy a natural visual image as a line drawing, visual identification and extraction of features in the image must be guided by top-down decisions, and is usually influenced by prior knowledge. In parallel with other behavioral studies testing the relationship between eye and hand movements when drawing, we report here a functional brain imaging study in which we compared drawing of faces and abstract objects: the former can be strongly guided by prior knowledge, the latter less so. To manipulate the difficulty in extracting features to be drawn, each original image was presented in four formats including high contrast line drawings and silhouettes, and as high and low contrast photographic images. We confirmed the detailed eye-hand interaction measures reported in our other behavioral studies by using in-scanner eye-tracking and recording of pen movements with a touch screen. We also show that the brain activation pattern reflects the changes in presentation formats. In particular, by identifying the ventral and lateral occipital areas that were more highly activated during drawing of faces than abstract objects, we found a systematic increase in differential activation for the face-drawing condition, as the presentation format made the decisions more challenging. This study therefore supports theoretical models of how prior knowledge may influence perception in untrained participants, and lead to experience-driven perceptual modulation by trained artists. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Famous face identification in temporal lobe epilepsy: Support for a multimodal integration model of semantic memory

PubMed Central

Drane, Daniel L.; Ojemann, Jeffrey G.; Phatak, Vaishali; Loring, David W.; Gross, Robert E.; Hebb, Adam O.; Silbergeld, Daniel L.; Miller, John W.; Voets, Natalie L.; Saindane, Amit M.; Barsalou, Lawrence; Meador, Kimford J.; Ojemann, George A.; Tranel, Daniel

2012-01-01

This study aims to demonstrate that the left and right anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) perform critical but unique roles in famous face identification, with damage to either leading to differing deficit patterns reflecting decreased access to lexical or semantic concepts but not their degradation. Famous face identification was studied in 22 presurgical and 14 postsurgical temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and 20 healthy comparison subjects using free recall and multiple choice (MC) paradigms. Right TLE patients exhibited presurgical deficits in famous face recognition, and postsurgical deficits in both famous face recognition and familiarity judgments. However, they did not exhibit any problems with naming before or after surgery. In contrast, left TLE patients demonstrated both pre-and postsurgical deficits in famous face naming but no significant deficits in recognition or familiarity. Double dissociations in performance between groups were alleviated by altering task demands. Postsurgical right TLE patients provided with MC options correctly identified greater than 70% of famous faces they initially rated as unfamiliar. Left TLE patients accurately chose the name for nearly all famous faces they recognized (based on their verbal description) but initially failed to name, although they tended to rapidly lose access to this name. We believe alterations in task demands activate alternative routes to semantic and lexical networks, demonstrating that unique pathways to such stored information exist, and suggesting a different role for each ATL in identifying visually presented famous faces. The right ATL appears to play a fundamental role in accessing semantic information from a visual route, with the left ATL serving to link semantic information to the language system to produce a specific name. These findings challenge several assumptions underlying amodal models of semantic memory, and provide support for the integrated multimodal theories of semantic memory and a distributed representation of concepts. PMID:23040175

Famous face identification in temporal lobe epilepsy: support for a multimodal integration model of semantic memory.

PubMed

Drane, Daniel L; Ojemann, Jeffrey G; Phatak, Vaishali; Loring, David W; Gross, Robert E; Hebb, Adam O; Silbergeld, Daniel L; Miller, John W; Voets, Natalie L; Saindane, Amit M; Barsalou, Lawrence; Meador, Kimford J; Ojemann, George A; Tranel, Daniel

2013-06-01

This study aims to demonstrate that the left and right anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) perform critical but unique roles in famous face identification, with damage to either leading to differing deficit patterns reflecting decreased access to lexical or semantic concepts but not their degradation. Famous face identification was studied in 22 presurgical and 14 postsurgical temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and 20 healthy comparison subjects using free recall and multiple choice (MC) paradigms. Right TLE patients exhibited presurgical deficits in famous face recognition, and postsurgical deficits in both famous face recognition and familiarity judgments. However, they did not exhibit any problems with naming before or after surgery. In contrast, left TLE patients demonstrated both pre- and postsurgical deficits in famous face naming but no significant deficits in recognition or familiarity. Double dissociations in performance between groups were alleviated by altering task demands. Postsurgical right TLE patients provided with MC options correctly identified greater than 70% of famous faces they initially rated as unfamiliar. Left TLE patients accurately chose the name for nearly all famous faces they recognized (based on their verbal description) but initially failed to name, although they tended to rapidly lose access to this name. We believe alterations in task demands activate alternative routes to semantic and lexical networks, demonstrating that unique pathways to such stored information exist, and suggesting a different role for each ATL in identifying visually presented famous faces. The right ATL appears to play a fundamental role in accessing semantic information from a visual route, with the left ATL serving to link semantic information to the language system to produce a specific name. These findings challenge several assumptions underlying amodal models of semantic memory, and provide support for the integrated multimodal theories of semantic memory and a distributed representation of concepts. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social and emotional relevance in face processing: happy faces of future interaction partners enhance the late positive potential

PubMed Central

Bublatzky, Florian; Gerdes, Antje B. M.; White, Andrew J.; Riemer, Martin; Alpers, Georg W.

2014-01-01

Human face perception is modulated by both emotional valence and social relevance, but their interaction has rarely been examined. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) to happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions with different degrees of social relevance were recorded. To implement a social anticipation task, relevance was manipulated by presenting faces of two specific actors as future interaction partners (socially relevant), whereas two other face actors remained non-relevant. In a further control task all stimuli were presented without specific relevance instructions (passive viewing). Face stimuli of four actors (2 women, from the KDEF) were randomly presented for 1s to 26 participants (16 female). Results showed an augmented N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and late positive potential (LPP) for emotional in contrast to neutral facial expressions. Of particular interest, face processing varied as a function of experimental tasks. Whereas task effects were observed for P1 and EPN regardless of instructed relevance, LPP amplitudes were modulated by emotional facial expression and relevance manipulation. The LPP was specifically enhanced for happy facial expressions of the anticipated future interaction partners. This underscores that social relevance can impact face processing already at an early stage of visual processing. These findings are discussed within the framework of motivated attention and face processing theories. PMID:25076881

A multicenter prospective cohort study on camera navigation training for key user groups in minimally invasive surgery.

PubMed

Graafland, Maurits; Bok, Kiki; Schreuder, Henk W R; Schijven, Marlies P

2014-06-01

Untrained laparoscopic camera assistants in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) may cause suboptimal view of the operating field, thereby increasing risk for errors. Camera navigation is often performed by the least experienced member of the operating team, such as inexperienced surgical residents, operating room nurses, and medical students. The operating room nurses and medical students are currently not included as key user groups in structured laparoscopic training programs. A new virtual reality laparoscopic camera navigation (LCN) module was specifically developed for these key user groups. This multicenter prospective cohort study assesses face validity and construct validity of the LCN module on the Simendo virtual reality simulator. Face validity was assessed through a questionnaire on resemblance to reality and perceived usability of the instrument among experts and trainees. Construct validity was assessed by comparing scores of groups with different levels of experience on outcome parameters of speed and movement proficiency. The results obtained show uniform and positive evaluation of the LCN module among expert users and trainees, signifying face validity. Experts and intermediate experience groups performed significantly better in task time and camera stability during three repetitions, compared to the less experienced user groups (P < .007). Comparison of learning curves showed significant improvement of proficiency in time and camera stability for all groups during three repetitions (P < .007). The results of this study show face validity and construct validity of the LCN module. The module is suitable for use in training curricula for operating room nurses and novice surgical trainees, aimed at improving team performance in minimally invasive surgery. © The Author(s) 2013.

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Design work for a photovoltaic module, fabricated using single crystal silicon dendritic web sheet material, resulted in the identification of surface treatment to the module glass superstrate which improved module efficiencies. A final solar module environmental test, a simulated hailstone impact test, was conducted on full size module superstrates to verify that the module's tempered glass superstrate can withstand specified hailstone impacts near the corners and edges of the module. Process sequence design work on the metallization process selective, liquid dopant investigation, dry processing, and antireflective/photoresist application technique tasks, and optimum thickness for Ti/Pd are discussed. A noncontact cleaning method for raw web cleaning was identified and antireflective and photoresist coatings for the dendritic webs were selected. The design of a cell string conveyor, an interconnect feed system, rolling ultrasonic spot bonding heat, and the identification of the optimal commercially available programmable control system are also discussed. An economic analysis to assess cost goals of the process sequence is also given.

Welding. Module 8 of the Vocational Education Readiness Test (VERT).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Edward L., Comp.

Focusing on welding, this module is one of eight included in the Vocational Education Readiness Tests (VERT). The module begins by listing the objectives of the module and describing tools and equipment needed. The remainder of the module contains sections on manipulative skills, trade vocabulary, tool identification, trade computational skills,…

Basic Wiring. Module 2 of the Vocational Education Readiness Test (VERT).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Edward L., Comp.

Focusing on basic welding, this module is one of eight included in the Vocational Education Readiness Test (VERT). The module begins by listing the objectives of the module and describing tools and equipment needed. The remainder of the module contains sections on manipulative skills, trade vocabulary, tool identification, trade computation…

Masonry. Module 5 of the Vocational Education Readiness Test (VERT).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Edward L., Comp.

Focusing on masonry, this module is one of eight included in the Vocational Education Readiness Tests (VERT). The module begins by listing the objectives of the module and describing tools and equipment needed. The remainder of the module contains sections on manipulative skills, trade vocabulary, tool identification, trade computational skills,…

Perceptual expertise in forensic facial image comparison.

PubMed

White, David; Phillips, P Jonathon; Hahn, Carina A; Hill, Matthew; O'Toole, Alice J

2015-09-07

Forensic facial identification examiners are required to match the identity of faces in images that vary substantially, owing to changes in viewing conditions and in a person's appearance. These identifications affect the course and outcome of criminal investigations and convictions. Despite calls for research on sources of human error in forensic examination, existing scientific knowledge of face matching accuracy is based, almost exclusively, on people without formal training. Here, we administered three challenging face matching tests to a group of forensic examiners with many years' experience of comparing face images for law enforcement and government agencies. Examiners outperformed untrained participants and computer algorithms, thereby providing the first evidence that these examiners are experts at this task. Notably, computationally fusing responses of multiple experts produced near-perfect performance. Results also revealed qualitative differences between expert and non-expert performance. First, examiners' superiority was greatest at longer exposure durations, suggestive of more entailed comparison in forensic examiners. Second, experts were less impaired by image inversion than non-expert students, contrasting with face memory studies that show larger face inversion effects in high performers. We conclude that expertise in matching identity across unfamiliar face images is supported by processes that differ qualitatively from those supporting memory for individual faces. © 2015 The Author(s).

Face inversion decreased information about facial identity and expression in face-responsive neurons in macaque area TE.

PubMed

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Ohyama, Kaoru; Kawano, Kenji

2014-09-10

To investigate the effect of face inversion and thatcherization (eye inversion) on temporal processing stages of facial information, single neuron activities in the temporal cortex (area TE) of two rhesus monkeys were recorded. Test stimuli were colored pictures of monkey faces (four with four different expressions), human faces (three with four different expressions), and geometric shapes. Modifications were made in each face-picture, and its four variations were used as stimuli: upright original, inverted original, upright thatcherized, and inverted thatcherized faces. A total of 119 neurons responded to at least one of the upright original facial stimuli. A majority of the neurons (71%) showed activity modulations depending on upright and inverted presentations, and a lesser number of neurons (13%) showed activity modulations depending on original and thatcherized face conditions. In the case of face inversion, information about the fine category (facial identity and expression) decreased, whereas information about the global category (monkey vs human vs shape) was retained for both the original and thatcherized faces. Principal component analysis on the neuronal population responses revealed that the global categorization occurred regardless of the face inversion and that the inverted faces were represented near the upright faces in the principal component analysis space. By contrast, the face inversion decreased the ability to represent human facial identity and monkey facial expression. Thus, the neuronal population represented inverted faces as faces but failed to represent the identity and expression of the inverted faces, indicating that the neuronal representation in area TE cause the perceptual effect of face inversion. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3412457-13$15.00/0.

Facilitation of face recognition through the retino-tectal pathway.

PubMed

Nakano, Tamami; Higashida, Noriko; Kitazawa, Shigeru

2013-08-01

Humans can shift their gazes faster to human faces than to non-face targets during a task in which they are required to choose between face and non-face targets. However, it remains unclear whether a direct projection from the retina to the superior colliculus is specifically involved in this facilitated recognition of faces. To address this question, we presented a pair of face and non-face pictures to participants modulated in greyscale (luminance-defined stimuli) in one condition and modulated in a blue-yellow scale (S-cone-isolating stimuli) in another. The information of the S-cone-isolating stimuli is conveyed through the retino-geniculate pathway rather than the retino-tectal pathway. For the luminance stimuli, the reaction time was shorter towards a face than towards a non-face target. The facilitatory effect while choosing a face disappeared with the S-cone stimuli. Moreover, fearful faces elicited a significantly larger facilitatory effect relative to neutral faces, when the face (with or without emotion) and non-face stimuli were presented in greyscale. The effect of emotional expressions disappeared with the S-cone stimuli. In contrast to the S-cone stimuli, the face facilitatory effect was still observed with negated stimuli that were prepared by reversing the polarity of the original colour pictures and looked as unusual as the S-cone stimuli but still contained luminance information. These results demonstrate that the face facilitatory effect requires the facial and emotional information defined by luminance, suggesting that the luminance information conveyed through the retino-tectal pathway is responsible for the faster recognition of human faces. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Task demands affect spatial reference frame weighting during tactile localization in sighted and congenitally blind adults

PubMed Central

Schubert, Jonathan T. W.; Badde, Stephanie; Röder, Brigitte

2017-01-01

Task demands modulate tactile localization in sighted humans, presumably through weight adjustments in the spatial integration of anatomical, skin-based, and external, posture-based information. In contrast, previous studies have suggested that congenitally blind humans, by default, refrain from automatic spatial integration and localize touch using only skin-based information. Here, sighted and congenitally blind participants localized tactile targets on the palm or back of one hand, while ignoring simultaneous tactile distractors at congruent or incongruent locations on the other hand. We probed the interplay of anatomical and external location codes for spatial congruency effects by varying hand posture: the palms either both faced down, or one faced down and one up. In the latter posture, externally congruent target and distractor locations were anatomically incongruent and vice versa. Target locations had to be reported either anatomically (“palm” or “back” of the hand), or externally (“up” or “down” in space). Under anatomical instructions, performance was more accurate for anatomically congruent than incongruent target-distractor pairs. In contrast, under external instructions, performance was more accurate for externally congruent than incongruent pairs. These modulations were evident in sighted and blind individuals. Notably, distractor effects were overall far smaller in blind than in sighted participants, despite comparable target-distractor identification performance. Thus, the absence of developmental vision seems to be associated with an increased ability to focus tactile attention towards a non-spatially defined target. Nevertheless, that blind individuals exhibited effects of hand posture and task instructions in their congruency effects suggests that, like the sighted, they automatically integrate anatomical and external information during tactile localization. Moreover, spatial integration in tactile processing is, thus, flexibly adapted by top-down information—here, task instruction—even in the absence of developmental vision. PMID:29228023

Age and gender modulate the neural circuitry supporting facial emotion processing in adults with major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Briceño, Emily M; Rapport, Lisa J; Kassel, Michelle T; Bieliauskas, Linas A; Zubieta, Jon-Kar; Weisenbach, Sara L; Langenecker, Scott A

2015-03-01

Emotion processing, supported by frontolimbic circuitry known to be sensitive to the effects of aging, is a relatively understudied cognitive-emotional domain in geriatric depression. Some evidence suggests that the neurophysiological disruption observed in emotion processing among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) may be modulated by both gender and age. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of gender and age on the neural circuitry supporting emotion processing in MDD. Cross-sectional comparison of fMRI signal during performance of an emotion processing task. Outpatient university setting. One hundred adults recruited by MDD status, gender, and age. Participants underwent fMRI while completing the Facial Emotion Perception Test. They viewed photographs of faces and categorized the emotion perceived. Contrast for fMRI was of face perception minus animal identification blocks. Effects of depression were observed in precuneus and effects of age in a number of frontolimbic regions. Three-way interactions were present between MDD status, gender, and age in regions pertinent to emotion processing, including frontal, limbic, and basal ganglia. Young women with MDD and older men with MDD exhibited hyperactivation in these regions compared with their respective same-gender healthy comparison (HC) counterparts. In contrast, older women and younger men with MDD exhibited hypoactivation compared to their respective same-gender HC counterparts. This the first study to report gender- and age-specific differences in emotion processing circuitry in MDD. Gender-differential mechanisms may underlie cognitive-emotional disruption in older adults with MDD. The present findings have implications for improved probes into the heterogeneity of the MDD syndrome. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adjunctive selective estrogen receptor modulator increases neural activity in the hippocampus and inferior frontal gyrus during emotional face recognition in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Ji, E; Weickert, C S; Lenroot, R; Kindler, J; Skilleter, A J; Vercammen, A; White, C; Gur, R E; Weickert, T W

2016-05-03

Estrogen has been implicated in the development and course of schizophrenia with most evidence suggesting a neuroprotective effect. Treatment with raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, can reduce symptom severity, improve cognition and normalize brain activity during learning in schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia are especially impaired in the identification of negative facial emotions. The present study was designed to determine the extent to which adjunctive raloxifene treatment would alter abnormal neural activity during angry facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Twenty people with schizophrenia (12 men, 8 women) participated in a 13-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of adjunctive raloxifene treatment (120 mg per day orally) and performed a facial emotion recognition task during functional magnetic resonance imaging after each treatment phase. Two-sample t-tests in regions of interest selected a priori were performed to assess activation differences between raloxifene and placebo conditions during the recognition of angry faces. Adjunctive raloxifene significantly increased activation in the right hippocampus and left inferior frontal gyrus compared with the placebo condition (family-wise error, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in performance accuracy or reaction time between active and placebo conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence suggesting that adjunctive raloxifene treatment changes neural activity in brain regions associated with facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia. These findings support the hypothesis that estrogen plays a modifying role in schizophrenia and shows that adjunctive raloxifene treatment may reverse abnormal neural activity during facial emotion recognition, which is relevant to impaired social functioning in men and women with schizophrenia.

Exploring biological interaction networks with tailored weighted quasi-bicliques

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Biological networks provide fundamental insights into the functional characterization of genes and their products, the characterization of DNA-protein interactions, the identification of regulatory mechanisms, and other biological tasks. Due to the experimental and biological complexity, their computational exploitation faces many algorithmic challenges. Results We introduce novel weighted quasi-biclique problems to identify functional modules in biological networks when represented by bipartite graphs. In difference to previous quasi-biclique problems, we include biological interaction levels by using edge-weighted quasi-bicliques. While we prove that our problems are NP-hard, we also describe IP formulations to compute exact solutions for moderately sized networks. Conclusions We verify the effectiveness of our IP solutions using both simulation and empirical data. The simulation shows high quasi-biclique recall rates, and the empirical data corroborate the abilities of our weighted quasi-bicliques in extracting features and recovering missing interactions from biological networks. PMID:22759421

Adaptive weighted local textural features for illumination, expression, and occlusion invariant face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Chen; Asari, Vijayan K.

2014-03-01

Biometric features such as fingerprints, iris patterns, and face features help to identify people and restrict access to secure areas by performing advanced pattern analysis and matching. Face recognition is one of the most promising biometric methodologies for human identification in a non-cooperative security environment. However, the recognition results obtained by face recognition systems are a affected by several variations that may happen to the patterns in an unrestricted environment. As a result, several algorithms have been developed for extracting different facial features for face recognition. Due to the various possible challenges of data captured at different lighting conditions, viewing angles, facial expressions, and partial occlusions in natural environmental conditions, automatic facial recognition still remains as a difficult issue that needs to be resolved. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to tackling some of these issues by analyzing the local textural descriptions for facial feature representation. The textural information is extracted by an enhanced local binary pattern (ELBP) description of all the local regions of the face. The relationship of each pixel with respect to its neighborhood is extracted and employed to calculate the new representation. ELBP reconstructs a much better textural feature extraction vector from an original gray level image in different lighting conditions. The dimensionality of the texture image is reduced by principal component analysis performed on each local face region. Each low dimensional vector representing a local region is now weighted based on the significance of the sub-region. The weight of each sub-region is determined by employing the local variance estimate of the respective region, which represents the significance of the region. The final facial textural feature vector is obtained by concatenating the reduced dimensional weight sets of all the modules (sub-regions) of the face image. Experiments conducted on various popular face databases show promising performance of the proposed algorithm in varying lighting, expression, and partial occlusion conditions. Four databases were used for testing the performance of the proposed system: Yale Face database, Extended Yale Face database B, Japanese Female Facial Expression database, and CMU AMP Facial Expression database. The experimental results in all four databases show the effectiveness of the proposed system. Also, the computation cost is lower because of the simplified calculation steps. Research work is progressing to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed face recognition method on pose-varying conditions as well. It is envisaged that a multilane approach of trained frameworks at different pose bins and an appropriate voting strategy would lead to a good recognition rate in such situation.

Usability and reliability of a remotely administered adult autism assessment, the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS) module 4.

PubMed

Schutte, Jamie L; McCue, Michael P; Parmanto, Bambang; McGonigle, John; Handen, Benjamin; Lewis, Allen; Pulantara, I Wayan; Saptono, Andi

2015-03-01

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Module 4 is an autism assessment designed for verbally fluent adolescents and adults. Because of a shortage of available clinical expertise, it can be difficult for adults to receive a proper autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic assessment. A potential option to address this shortage is remote assessment. The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility, usability, and reliability of administering the ADOS Module 4 remotely using the Versatile and Integrated System for Telerehabilitation (VISYTER). VISYTER consists of computer stations at the client site and clinician site for video communication and a Web portal for managing and coordinating the assessment process. Twenty-three adults with an ASD diagnosis participated in a within-subject crossover design study in which both a remote ADOS and a face-to-face ADOS were administered. After completing the remote ADOS, participants completed a satisfaction survey. Participant satisfaction with the remote ADOS delivery system was high. The kappa value was greater than 0.61 on 21 of 31 ADOS items. There was substantial agreement on ADOS classification (i.e., diagnosis) between assessments delivered face-to-face versus assessments delivered remotely (interclass coefficient=0.92). Non-agreement may have been due to outside factors or practice effect despite a washout period. The results of this study demonstrate that an autism assessment designed to be delivered face to face can be administered remotely using an integrated Web-based system with high levels of usability and reliability.

Comprehensive, Mixed-Methods Assessment of a Blended Learning Model for Geospatial Literacy Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brodeur, J. J.; Maclachlan, J. C.; Bagg, J.; Chiappetta-Swanson, C.; Vine, M. M.; Vajoczki, S.

2013-12-01

Geospatial literacy -- the ability to conceptualize, capture, analyze and communicate spatial phenomena -- represents an important competency for 21st Century learners in a period of 'Geospatial Revolution'. Though relevant to in-course learning, these skills are often taught externally, placing time and resource pressures on the service providers - commonly libraries - that are relied upon to provide instruction. The emergence of online and blended modes of instruction has presented a potential means of increasing the cost-effectiveness of such activities, by simultaneously reducing instructional costs, expanding the audience for these resources, and addressing student preferences for asynchronous learning and '24-7' access. During 2011 and 2012, McMaster University Library coordinated the development, implementation and assessment of blended learning modules for geospatial literacy instruction in first-year undergraduate Social Science courses. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive mixed-methods approach to assess the efficacy of implementing blended learning modules to replace traditional (face-to-face), library-led, first-year undergraduate geospatial literacy instruction. Focus groups, personal interviews and an online survey were used to assess modules across dimensions of: student use, satisfaction and accessibility requirements (via Universal Instructional Design [UID] principles); instructor and teaching staff perception of pedagogical efficacy and instructional effectiveness; and, administrator cost-benefit assessment of development and implementation. Results showed that both instructors and students identified significant value in using the online modules in a blended-learning setting. Reaffirming assumptions of students' '24/7' learning preferences, over 80% of students reported using the modules on a repeat basis. Students were more likely to use the modules to better understand course content than simply to increase their grade in the course, which demonstrates applicability of the modules beyond a strict surface-learning approach. Instructors felt that giving students access to these modules increased flexibility in how in-class time was used, reduced student anxiety in busy lab sessions, and increased the effectiveness of face-to-face instruction and summative assessments. Though instructors perceived little to no change in grades as a result of the migration to blended-learning instruction, students overwhelmingly perceived a positive impact on their learning, as over 75% felt that the modules improved their geospatial literacy skills and general understanding in the course. Cost-benefit analyses proved challenging, as administrators struggled to estimate the true costs of both traditional instruction and module development. Recommendations for future module modification exposed the competing expectations of generalizing content to increase applicability and cost-effectiveness, versus tailoring modules to specific course content.

Neural mechanisms underlying the effects of face-based affective signals on memory for faces: a tentative model

PubMed Central

Tsukiura, Takashi

2012-01-01

In our daily lives, we form some impressions of other people. Although those impressions are affected by many factors, face-based affective signals such as facial expression, facial attractiveness, or trustworthiness are important. Previous psychological studies have demonstrated the impact of facial impressions on remembering other people, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this psychological process. The purpose of this article is to review recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies to investigate the effects of face-based affective signals including facial expression, facial attractiveness, and trustworthiness on memory for faces, and to propose a tentative concept for understanding this affective-cognitive interaction. On the basis of the aforementioned research, three brain regions are potentially involved in the processing of face-based affective signals. The first candidate is the amygdala, where activity is generally modulated by both affectively positive and negative signals from faces. Activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), as the second candidate, increases as a function of perceived positive signals from faces; whereas activity in the insular cortex, as the third candidate, reflects a function of face-based negative signals. In addition, neuroscientific studies have reported that the three regions are functionally connected to the memory-related hippocampal regions. These findings suggest that the effects of face-based affective signals on memory for faces could be modulated by interactions between the regions associated with the processing of face-based affective signals and the hippocampus as a memory-related region. PMID:22837740

An Improved Algorithm of Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) Method for Firearm Evidence Identifications

PubMed Central

Tong, Mingsi; Song, John; Chu, Wei

2015-01-01

The Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method was invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for firearm evidence identifications. The CMC method divides the measured image of a surface area, such as a breech face impression from a fired cartridge case, into small correlation cells and uses four identification parameters to identify correlated cell pairs originating from the same firearm. The CMC method was validated by identification tests using both 3D topography images and optical images captured from breech face impressions of 40 cartridge cases fired from a pistol with 10 consecutively manufactured slides. In this paper, we discuss the processing of the cell correlations and propose an improved algorithm of the CMC method which takes advantage of the cell correlations at a common initial phase angle and combines the forward and backward correlations to improve the identification capability. The improved algorithm is tested by 780 pairwise correlations using the same optical images and 3D topography images as the initial validation. PMID:26958441

An Improved Algorithm of Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) Method for Firearm Evidence Identifications.

PubMed

Tong, Mingsi; Song, John; Chu, Wei

2015-01-01

The Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method was invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for firearm evidence identifications. The CMC method divides the measured image of a surface area, such as a breech face impression from a fired cartridge case, into small correlation cells and uses four identification parameters to identify correlated cell pairs originating from the same firearm. The CMC method was validated by identification tests using both 3D topography images and optical images captured from breech face impressions of 40 cartridge cases fired from a pistol with 10 consecutively manufactured slides. In this paper, we discuss the processing of the cell correlations and propose an improved algorithm of the CMC method which takes advantage of the cell correlations at a common initial phase angle and combines the forward and backward correlations to improve the identification capability. The improved algorithm is tested by 780 pairwise correlations using the same optical images and 3D topography images as the initial validation.

Conceptual transitions in methods of skull-photo superimposition that impact the reliability of identification: a review.

PubMed

Jayaprakash, Paul T

2015-01-01

Establishing identification during skull-photo superimposition relies on correlating the salient morphological features of an unidentified skull with those of a face-image of a suspected dead individual using image overlay processes. Technical progression in the process of overlay has included the incorporation of video cameras, image-mixing devices and software that enables real-time vision-mixing. Conceptual transitions occur in the superimposition methods that involve 'life-size' images, that achieve orientation of the skull to the posture of the face in the photograph and that assess the extent of match. A recent report on the reliability of identification using the superimposition method adopted the currently prevalent methods and suggested an increased rate of failures when skulls were compared with related and unrelated face images. The reported reduction in the reliability of the superimposition method prompted a review of the transition in the concepts that are involved in skull-photo superimposition. The prevalent popular methods for visualizing the superimposed images at less than 'life-size', overlaying skull-face images by relying on the cranial and facial landmarks in the frontal plane when orienting the skull for matching and evaluating the match on a morphological basis by relying on mix-mode alone are the major departures in the methodology that may have reduced the identification reliability. The need to reassess the reliability of the method that incorporates the concepts which have been considered appropriate by the practitioners is stressed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

21 CFR 872.3910 - Backing and facing for an artificial tooth.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Backing and facing for an artificial tooth. 872.3910 Section 872.3910 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... artificial tooth. (a) Identification. A backing and facing for an artificial tooth is a device intended for...

Face processing in Williams syndrome is already atypical in infancy.

PubMed

D'Souza, Dean; Cole, Victoria; Farran, Emily K; Brown, Janice H; Humphreys, Kate; Howard, John; Rodic, Maja; Dekker, Tessa M; D'Souza, Hana; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

2015-01-01

Face processing is a crucial socio-cognitive ability. Is it acquired progressively or does it constitute an innately-specified, face-processing module? The latter would be supported if some individuals with seriously impaired intelligence nonetheless showed intact face-processing abilities. Some theorists claim that Williams syndrome (WS) provides such evidence since, despite IQs in the 50s, adolescents/adults with WS score in the normal range on standardized face-processing tests. Others argue that atypical neural and cognitive processes underlie WS face-processing proficiencies. But what about infants with WS? Do they start with typical face-processing abilities, with atypicality developing later, or are atypicalities already evident in infancy? We used an infant familiarization/novelty design and compared infants with WS to typically developing controls as well as to a group of infants with Down syndrome matched on both mental and chronological age. Participants were familiarized with a schematic face, after which they saw a novel face in which either the features (eye shape) were changed or just the configuration of the original features. Configural changes were processed successfully by controls, but not by infants with WS who were only sensitive to featural changes and who showed syndrome-specific profiles different from infants with the other neurodevelopmental disorder. Our findings indicate that theorists can no longer use the case of WS to support claims that evolution has endowed the human brain with an independent face-processing module.

Use of amplitude modulation cues recovered from frequency modulation for cochlear implant users when original speech cues are severely degraded.

PubMed

Won, Jong Ho; Shim, Hyun Joon; Lorenzi, Christian; Rubinstein, Jay T

2014-06-01

Won et al. (J Acoust Soc Am 132:1113-1119, 2012) reported that cochlear implant (CI) speech processors generate amplitude-modulation (AM) cues recovered from broadband speech frequency modulation (FM) and that CI users can use these cues for speech identification in quiet. The present study was designed to extend this finding for a wide range of listening conditions, where the original speech cues were severely degraded by manipulating either the acoustic signals or the speech processor. The manipulation of the acoustic signals included the presentation of background noise, simulation of reverberation, and amplitude compression. The manipulation of the speech processor included changing the input dynamic range and the number of channels. For each of these conditions, multiple levels of speech degradation were tested. Speech identification was measured for CI users and compared for stimuli having both AM and FM information (intact condition) or FM information only (FM condition). Each manipulation degraded speech identification performance for both intact and FM conditions. Performance for the intact and FM conditions became similar for stimuli having the most severe degradations. Identification performance generally overlapped for the intact and FM conditions. Moreover, identification performance for the FM condition was better than chance performance even at the maximum level of distortion. Finally, significant correlations were found between speech identification scores for the intact and FM conditions. Altogether, these results suggest that despite poor frequency selectivity, CI users can make efficient use of AM cues recovered from speech FM in difficult listening situations.

Co-expression analysis and identification of fecundity-related long non-coding RNAs in sheep ovaries

PubMed Central

Miao, Xiangyang; Luo, Qingmiao; Zhao, Huijing; Qin, Xiaoyu

2016-01-01

Small Tail Han sheep, including the FecBBFecBB (Han BB) and FecB+ FecB+ (Han++) genotypes, and Dorset sheep exhibit different fecundities. To identify novel long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with sheep fecundity to better understand their molecular mechanisms, a genome-wide analysis of mRNAs and lncRNAs from Han BB, Han++ and Dorset sheep was performed. After the identification of differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs, 16 significant modules were explored by using weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) followed by functional enrichment analysis of the genes and lncRNAs in significant modules. Among these selected modules, the yellow and brown modules were significantly related to sheep fecundity. lncRNAs (e.g., NR0B1, XLOC_041882, and MYH15) in the yellow module were mainly involved in the TGF-β signalling pathway, and NYAP1 and BCORL1 were significantly associated with the oxytocin signalling pathway, which regulates several genes in the coexpression network of the brown module. Overall, we identified several gene modules associated with sheep fecundity, as well as networks consisting of hub genes and lncRNAs that may contribute to sheep prolificacy by regulating the target mRNAs related to the TGF-β and oxytocin signalling pathways. This study provides an alternative strategy for the identification of potential candidate regulatory lncRNAs. PMID:27982099

Co-expression analysis and identification of fecundity-related long non-coding RNAs in sheep ovaries.

PubMed

Miao, Xiangyang; Luo, Qingmiao; Zhao, Huijing; Qin, Xiaoyu

2016-12-16

Small Tail Han sheep, including the FecB B FecB B (Han BB) and FecB + FecB + (Han++) genotypes, and Dorset sheep exhibit different fecundities. To identify novel long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with sheep fecundity to better understand their molecular mechanisms, a genome-wide analysis of mRNAs and lncRNAs from Han BB, Han++ and Dorset sheep was performed. After the identification of differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs, 16 significant modules were explored by using weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) followed by functional enrichment analysis of the genes and lncRNAs in significant modules. Among these selected modules, the yellow and brown modules were significantly related to sheep fecundity. lncRNAs (e.g., NR0B1, XLOC_041882, and MYH15) in the yellow module were mainly involved in the TGF-β signalling pathway, and NYAP1 and BCORL1 were significantly associated with the oxytocin signalling pathway, which regulates several genes in the coexpression network of the brown module. Overall, we identified several gene modules associated with sheep fecundity, as well as networks consisting of hub genes and lncRNAs that may contribute to sheep prolificacy by regulating the target mRNAs related to the TGF-β and oxytocin signalling pathways. This study provides an alternative strategy for the identification of potential candidate regulatory lncRNAs.

Many faces of expertise: fusiform face area in chess experts and novices.

PubMed

Bilalić, Merim; Langner, Robert; Ulrich, Rolf; Grodd, Wolfgang

2011-07-13

The fusiform face area (FFA) is involved in face perception to such an extent that some claim it is a brain module for faces exclusively. The other possibility is that FFA is modulated by experience in individuation in any visual domain, not only faces. Here we test this latter FFA expertise hypothesis using the game of chess as a domain of investigation. We exploited the characteristic of chess, which features multiple objects forming meaningful spatial relations. In three experiments, we show that FFA activity is related to stimulus properties and not to chess skill directly. In all chess and non-chess tasks, experts' FFA was more activated than that of novices' only when they dealt with naturalistic full-board chess positions. When common spatial relationships formed by chess objects in chess positions were randomly disturbed, FFA was again differentially active only in experts, regardless of the actual task. Our experiments show that FFA contributes to the holistic processing of domain-specific multipart stimuli in chess experts. This suggests that FFA may not only mediate human expertise in face recognition but, supporting the expertise hypothesis, may mediate the automatic holistic processing of any highly familiar multipart visual input.

Facing two faces: Defense activation varies as a function of personal relevance.

PubMed

Bublatzky, Florian; Alpers, Georg W

2017-04-01

It can be unsettling to be watched by a group of people, and when they express anger or hostility, this can prime defensive behavior. In contrast, when others smile at us, this may be comforting. This study tested to which degree the impact of facial expressions (happy, neutral, and angry) varies with the personal relevance of a social situation. Modelling a triadic situation, two faces looked either directly at the participant, faced each other, or they were back to back. Results confirmed that this variation constitutes a gradient of personal relevance (directed frontally > towards > away), as reflected by corresponding defensive startle modulation and autonomic nervous system activity. This gradient was particularly pronounced for angry faces and it was steeper in participants with higher levels of social anxiety. Thus, sender-recipient constellations modulate the processing of facial emotions in favor of adequate behavioral responding (e.g., avoidance) in group settings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of manifest ethnic identification on employment discrimination.

PubMed

Barron, Laura G; Hebl, Michelle; King, Eden B

2011-01-01

Evidence from recent laboratory experiments suggests that ethnic identification can lead to negative evaluations of ethnic minorities (Kaiser & Pratt-Hyatt, 2009). The current research considers the generalizability of these findings to face-to-face interactions in contexts wherein impression management concerns are salient: the workplace hiring process. In a field experiment, Black, Hispanic, and Irish individuals applied for retail jobs with or without visible display of their ethnic identification. Analysis of indicators of formal (e.g., application offering, interview scheduling) and interpersonal discrimination (e.g., interaction length, nonverbal negativity) suggest store personnel interacting with other-race applicants exhibited greater positivity and longer interactions when applicants displayed ethnic identification than when they did not. The findings suggest that psychologists need to understand not only attitudes or intentions expressed in the lab, but also the behavioral consequences of manifest group identity as they unfold in natural environments.

Arginine Vasopressin Effects on Subjective Judgments and Neural Responses to Same and Other-Sex Faces in Men and Women.

PubMed

Rilling, James K; Li, Ting; Chen, Xiangchuan; Gautam, Pritam; Haroon, Ebrahim; Thompson, Richmond R

2017-01-01

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) influences social and emotional behaviors across a wide range of species. In humans, intranasal AVP has been previously shown to alter physiological responses to and subjective judgments of same-sex faces in both men and women. The present study attempted to elucidate the neural mechanism for these effects by randomizing 40 healthy men and 40 healthy women to treatment with either 40 IU intranasal AVP or a saline placebo approximately 30 min before imaging their brain function with fMRI as they viewed same and other-sex faces. All subjects were also scanned a second time several days later with no treatment to evaluate the persistence of AVP effects over time. AVP acutely increased positive ratings of same-sex faces in women, with some evidence that these effects persisted until the second scan. While AVP had no acute effects on same-sex ratings in men, AVP increased positive ratings of same-sex faces several days later. On the other hand, AVP had no effect on other-sex face judgments in either sex. AVP modulation of brain function was focused on the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the lateral septum, two reward processing areas involved in the formation of social bonds. AVP provoked acute increases in right NAc and bilateral lateral septum responses to female faces among men, with left lateral septum responses persisting over time while right NAc responses reversed over time. Finally, AVP modulated hypothalamic activation to faces in both men and women. The present study therefore indicates that intranasal AVP affects subjective ratings and neural responses to same and other-sex faces in men and women, with some effects persisting and others emerging over time. Future studies should investigate whether AVP effects are modulated by individual variables such as genotype, personality, or attachment style as previously reported for other nonapeptides.

Neural Mechanisms of Reading Facial Emotions in Young and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Ebner, Natalie C.; Johnson, Marcia K.; Fischer, Håkan

2012-01-01

The ability to read and appropriately respond to emotions in others is central for successful social interaction. Young and older adults are better at identifying positive than negative facial expressions and also expressions of young than older faces. Little, however, is known about the neural processes associated with reading different emotions, particularly in faces of different ages, in samples of young and older adults. During fMRI, young and older participants identified expressions in happy, neutral, and angry young and older faces. The results suggest a functional dissociation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in reading facial emotions that is largely comparable in young and older adults: Both age groups showed greater vmPFC activity to happy compared to angry or neutral faces, which was positively correlated with expression identification for happy compared to angry faces. In contrast, both age groups showed greater activity in dmPFC to neutral or angry than happy faces which was negatively correlated with expression identification for neutral compared to happy faces. A similar region of dmPFC showed greater activity for older than young faces, but no brain-behavior correlations. Greater vmPFC activity in the present study may reflect greater affective processing involved in reading happy compared to neutral or angry faces. Greater dmPFC activity may reflect more cognitive control involved in decoding and/or regulating negative emotions associated with neutral or angry than happy, and older than young, faces. PMID:22798953

An Application for Driver Drowsiness Identification based on Pupil Detection using IR Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, K. S. Chidanand; Bhowmick, Brojeshwar

A Driver drowsiness identification system has been proposed that generates alarms when driver falls asleep during driving. A number of different physical phenomena can be monitored and measured in order to detect drowsiness of driver in a vehicle. This paper presents a methodology for driver drowsiness identification using IR camera by detecting and tracking pupils. The face region is first determined first using euler number and template matching. Pupils are then located in the face region. In subsequent frames of video, pupils are tracked in order to find whether the eyes are open or closed. If eyes are closed for several consecutive frames then it is concluded that the driver is fatigued and alarm is generated.

On the flexibility of social source memory: a test of the emotional incongruity hypothesis.

PubMed

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Kroneisen, Meike; Giang, Trang

2012-11-01

A popular hypothesis in evolutionary psychology posits that reciprocal altruism is supported by a cognitive module that helps cooperative individuals to detect and remember cheaters. Consistent with this hypothesis, a source memory advantage for faces of cheaters (better memory for the cheating context in which these faces were encountered) was observed in previous studies. Here, we examined whether positive or negative expectancies would influence source memory for cheaters and cooperators. A cooperation task with virtual opponents was used in Experiments 1 and 2. Source memory for the emotionally incongruent information was enhanced relative to the congruent information: In Experiment 1, source memory was best for cheaters with likable faces and for cooperators with unlikable faces; in Experiment 2, source memory was better for smiling cheater faces than for smiling cooperator faces, and descriptively better for angry cooperator faces than for angry cheater faces. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that the emotional incongruity effect generalizes to 3rd-party reputational information (descriptions of cheating and trustworthy behavior). The results are inconsistent with the assumption of a highly specific cheater detection module. Focusing on expectancy-incongruent information may represent a more efficient, general, and hence more adaptive memory strategy for remembering exchange-relevant information than focusing only on cheaters.

Photovoltaic module and module arrays

DOEpatents

Botkin, Jonathan; Graves, Simon; Lenox, Carl J. S.; Culligan, Matthew; Danning, Matt

2013-08-27

A photovoltaic (PV) module including a PV device and a frame, The PV device has a PV laminate defining a perimeter and a major plane. The frame is assembled to and encases the laminate perimeter, and includes leading, trailing, and side frame members, and an arm that forms a support face opposite the laminate. The support face is adapted for placement against a horizontal installation surface, to support and orient the laminate in a non-parallel or tilted arrangement. Upon final assembly, the laminate and the frame combine to define a unitary structure. The frame can orient the laminate at an angle in the range of 3.degree.-7.degree. from horizontal, and can be entirely formed of a polymeric material. Optionally, the arm incorporates integral feature(s) that facilitate interconnection with corresponding features of a second, identically formed PV module.

Photovoltaic module and module arrays

DOEpatents

Botkin, Jonathan [El Cerrito, CA; Graves, Simon [Berkeley, CA; Lenox, Carl J. S. [Oakland, CA; Culligan, Matthew [Berkeley, CA; Danning, Matt [Oakland, CA

2012-07-17

A photovoltaic (PV) module including a PV device and a frame. The PV device has a PV laminate defining a perimeter and a major plane. The frame is assembled to and encases the laminate perimeter, and includes leading, trailing, and side frame members, and an arm that forms a support face opposite the laminate. The support face is adapted for placement against a horizontal installation surface, to support and orient the laminate in a non-parallel or tilted arrangement. Upon final assembly, the laminate and the frame combine to define a unitary structure. The frame can orient the laminate at an angle in the range of 3.degree.-7.degree. from horizontal, and can be entirely formed of a polymeric material. Optionally, the arm incorporates integral feature(s) that facilitate interconnection with corresponding features of a second, identically formed PV module.

Role of temporal processing stages by inferior temporal neurons in facial recognition.

PubMed

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Kawano, Kenji

2011-01-01

In this review, we focus on the role of temporal stages of encoded facial information in the visual system, which might enable the efficient determination of species, identity, and expression. Facial recognition is an important function of our brain and is known to be processed in the ventral visual pathway, where visual signals are processed through areas V1, V2, V4, and the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In the IT cortex, neurons show selective responses to complex visual images such as faces, and at each stage along the pathway the stimulus selectivity of the neural responses becomes sharper, particularly in the later portion of the responses. In the IT cortex of the monkey, facial information is represented by different temporal stages of neural responses, as shown in our previous study: the initial transient response of face-responsive neurons represents information about global categories, i.e., human vs. monkey vs. simple shapes, whilst the later portion of these responses represents information about detailed facial categories, i.e., expression and/or identity. This suggests that the temporal stages of the neuronal firing pattern play an important role in the coding of visual stimuli, including faces. This type of coding may be a plausible mechanism underlying the temporal dynamics of recognition, including the process of detection/categorization followed by the identification of objects. Recent single-unit studies in monkeys have also provided evidence consistent with the important role of the temporal stages of encoded facial information. For example, view-invariant facial identity information is represented in the response at a later period within a region of face-selective neurons. Consistent with these findings, temporally modulated neural activity has also been observed in human studies. These results suggest a close correlation between the temporal processing stages of facial information by IT neurons and the temporal dynamics of face recognition.

Role of Temporal Processing Stages by Inferior Temporal Neurons in Facial Recognition

PubMed Central

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Kawano, Kenji

2011-01-01

In this review, we focus on the role of temporal stages of encoded facial information in the visual system, which might enable the efficient determination of species, identity, and expression. Facial recognition is an important function of our brain and is known to be processed in the ventral visual pathway, where visual signals are processed through areas V1, V2, V4, and the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In the IT cortex, neurons show selective responses to complex visual images such as faces, and at each stage along the pathway the stimulus selectivity of the neural responses becomes sharper, particularly in the later portion of the responses. In the IT cortex of the monkey, facial information is represented by different temporal stages of neural responses, as shown in our previous study: the initial transient response of face-responsive neurons represents information about global categories, i.e., human vs. monkey vs. simple shapes, whilst the later portion of these responses represents information about detailed facial categories, i.e., expression and/or identity. This suggests that the temporal stages of the neuronal firing pattern play an important role in the coding of visual stimuli, including faces. This type of coding may be a plausible mechanism underlying the temporal dynamics of recognition, including the process of detection/categorization followed by the identification of objects. Recent single-unit studies in monkeys have also provided evidence consistent with the important role of the temporal stages of encoded facial information. For example, view-invariant facial identity information is represented in the response at a later period within a region of face-selective neurons. Consistent with these findings, temporally modulated neural activity has also been observed in human studies. These results suggest a close correlation between the temporal processing stages of facial information by IT neurons and the temporal dynamics of face recognition. PMID:21734904

INCENTIVES TO IDENTIFY: RACIAL IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

PubMed Central

Antman, Francisca; Duncan, Brian

2016-01-01

We link data on racial self-identification with changes in state-level affirmative action policies to ask whether racial self-identification responds to economic incentives. We find that after a state bans affirmative action, multiracial individuals who face an incentive to identify under affirmative action are about 30 percent less likely to identify with their minority groups. In contrast, multiracial individuals who face a disincentive to identify under affirmative action are roughly 20 percent more likely to identify with their minority groups once affirmative action policies are banned. PMID:27635103

INCENTIVES TO IDENTIFY: RACIAL IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

PubMed

Antman, Francisca; Duncan, Brian

2015-07-01

We link data on racial self-identification with changes in state-level affirmative action policies to ask whether racial self-identification responds to economic incentives. We find that after a state bans affirmative action, multiracial individuals who face an incentive to identify under affirmative action are about 30 percent less likely to identify with their minority groups. In contrast, multiracial individuals who face a disincentive to identify under affirmative action are roughly 20 percent more likely to identify with their minority groups once affirmative action policies are banned.

Multisensory perception of the six basic emotions is modulated by attentional instruction and unattended modality

PubMed Central

Takagi, Sachiko; Hiramatsu, Saori; Tabei, Ken-ichi; Tanaka, Akihiro

2015-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the perception of facial and vocal affective expressions interacts with each other. Facial expressions usually dominate vocal expressions when we perceive the emotions of face–voice stimuli. In most of these studies, participants were instructed to pay attention to the face or voice. Few studies compared the perceived emotions with and without specific instructions regarding the modality to which attention should be directed. Also, these studies used combinations of the face and voice which expresses two opposing emotions, which limits the generalizability of the findings. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the emotion perception is modulated by instructions to pay attention to the face or voice using the six basic emotions. Also we examine the modality dominance between the face and voice for each emotion category. Before the experiment, we recorded faces and voices which expresses the six basic emotions and orthogonally combined these faces and voices. Consequently, the emotional valence of visual and auditory information was either congruent or incongruent. In the experiment, there were unisensory and multisensory sessions. The multisensory session was divided into three blocks according to whether an instruction was given to pay attention to a given modality (face attention, voice attention, and no instruction). Participants judged whether the speaker expressed happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, or surprise. Our results revealed that instructions to pay attention to one modality and congruency of the emotions between modalities modulated the modality dominance, and the modality dominance is differed for each emotion category. In particular, the modality dominance for anger changed according to each instruction. Analyses also revealed that the modality dominance suggested by the congruency effect can be explained in terms of the facilitation effect and the interference effect. PMID:25698945

A Framework for People Re-Identification in Multi-Camera Surveillance Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ammar, Sirine; Zaghden, Nizar; Neji, Mahmoud

2017-01-01

People re-identification has been a very active research topic recently in computer vision. It is an important application in surveillance system with disjoint cameras. This paper is focused on the implementation of a human re-identification system. First the face of detected people is divided into three parts and some soft-biometric traits are…

Face Recognition Is Affected by Similarity in Spatial Frequency Range to a Greater Degree Than Within-Category Object Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collin, Charles A.; Liu, Chang Hong; Troje, Nikolaus F.; McMullen, Patricia A.; Chaudhuri, Avi

2004-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that face identification is more sensitive to variations in spatial frequency content than object recognition, but none have compared how sensitive the 2 processes are to variations in spatial frequency overlap (SFO). The authors tested face and object matching accuracy under varying SFO conditions. Their results…

Principal component analysis for surface reflection components and structure in facial images and synthesis of facial images for various ages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirose, Misa; Toyota, Saori; Ojima, Nobutoshi; Ogawa-Ochiai, Keiko; Tsumura, Norimichi

2017-08-01

In this paper, principal component analysis is applied to the distribution of pigmentation, surface reflectance, and landmarks in whole facial images to obtain feature values. The relationship between the obtained feature vectors and the age of the face is then estimated by multiple regression analysis so that facial images can be modulated for woman aged 10-70. In a previous study, we analyzed only the distribution of pigmentation, and the reproduced images appeared to be younger than the apparent age of the initial images. We believe that this happened because we did not modulate the facial structures and detailed surfaces, such as wrinkles. By considering landmarks and surface reflectance over the entire face, we were able to analyze the variation in the distributions of facial structures and fine asperity, and pigmentation. As a result, our method is able to appropriately modulate the appearance of a face so that it appears to be the correct age.

The effect of exposure to multiple lineups on face identification accuracy.

PubMed

Hinz, T; Pezdek, K

2001-04-01

This study examines the conditions under which an intervening lineup affects identification accuracy on a subsequent lineup. One hundred and sixty adults observed a photograph of one target individual for 60 s. One week later, they viewed an intervening target-absent lineup and were asked to identify the target individual. Two days later, participants were shown one of three 6-person lineups that included a different photograph of the target face (present or absent), a foil face from the intervening lineup (present or absent), plus additional foil faces. The hit rate was higher when the foil face from the intervening lineup was absent from the test lineup and the false alarm rate was greater when the target face was absent from the test lineup. The results suggest that simply being exposed to an innocent suspect in an intervening lineup, whether that innocent suspect is identified by the witness or not, increases the probability of misidentifying the innocent suspect and decreases the probability of correctly identifying the true perpetrator in a subsequent test lineup. The implications of these findings both for police lineup procedures and for the interpretation of lineup results in the courtroom are discussed.

The temporal advantage for individuating objects of expertise: perceptual expertise is an early riser.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Gauthier, Isabel

2009-06-10

The identification of faces has a temporal advantage over that of other object categories. The orientation-specific nature of this advantage suggests that it stems from our extensive experience and resulting expertise with upright faces. While experts can identify objects faster than novices, it is unclear exactly how the temporal dynamics of identification are changed by expertise and whether the nature of this temporal advantage is similar for face and non-face objects of expertise. Here, we titrated encoding time using a backward-masking paradigm with variable stimulus-mask onset-asynchronies and mapped the resulting effect on recognition for upright and inverted faces (Experiment 1) and for cars among car experts and car novices (Experiment 2). Performance for upright faces and cars among car experts rose above chance between 33 and 70 ms before that for inverted faces or cars among car novices. A shifted exponential function fitted to these data suggested that performance started to rise earlier for experts than for novices, but that additional encoding time increased performance at a similar rate. Experience influences the availability of information early in processing, possibly through the recruitment of more category-selective neurons, while the rate of perceptual processing may be less flexible and limited by inherent physiological constraints.

Face Processing: Models For Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turk, Matthew A.; Pentland, Alexander P.

1990-03-01

The human ability to process faces is remarkable. We can identify perhaps thousands of faces learned throughout our lifetime and read facial expression to understand such subtle qualities as emotion. These skills are quite robust, despite sometimes large changes in the visual stimulus due to expression, aging, and distractions such as glasses or changes in hairstyle or facial hair. Computers which model and recognize faces will be useful in a variety of applications, including criminal identification, human-computer interface, and animation. We discuss models for representing faces and their applicability to the task of recognition, and present techniques for identifying faces and detecting eye blinks.

Effects of expectation congruency on event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial expressions depend on cognitive load during the expectation phase.

PubMed

Lin, Huiyan; Schulz, Claudia; Straube, Thomas

2016-10-01

Previous studies have shown that event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial expressions are modulated by expectation (congruency) and that the ERP effects of expectation congruency are altered by cognitive tasks during the expectation phase. However, it is as yet unknown whether the congruency ERP effects can be modulated by the amount of cognitive load during the expectation phase. To address this question, electroencephalogram (EEG) was acquired when participants viewed fearful and neutral facial expressions. Before the presentation of facial expressions, a cue indicating the expression of a face and subsequently, an expectation interval without any cues were presented. Facial expressions were congruent with the cues in 75% of all trials. During the expectation interval, participants had to solve a cognitive task, in which several letters were presented for target letter detection. The letters were all the same under low load, but differed under high load. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that the amount of cognitive load during the expectation phase altered the congruency effect in N2 and EPN amplitudes for fearful faces. Congruent as compared to incongruent fearful expressions elicited larger N2 and smaller EPN amplitudes under low load, but these congruency effects were not observed under high load. For neutral faces, a congruency effect in late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes was modulated by cognitive load during the expectation phase. The LPP was more positive for incongruent as compared to congruent faces under low load, but the congruency effect was not evident under high load. The findings indicate that congruency effects on ERPs are modulated by the amount of cognitive load the expectation phase and that this modulation is altered by facial expression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Harnessing Information Technology to Inform Patients Facing Routine Decisions: Cancer Screening as a Test Case.

PubMed

Krist, Alex H; Woolf, Steven H; Hochheimer, Camille; Sabo, Roy T; Kashiri, Paulette; Jones, Resa M; Lafata, Jennifer Elston; Etz, Rebecca S; Tu, Shin-Ping

2017-05-01

Technology could transform routine decision making by anticipating patients' information needs, assessing where patients are with decisions and preferences, personalizing educational experiences, facilitating patient-clinician information exchange, and supporting follow-up. This study evaluated whether patients and clinicians will use such a decision module and its impact on care, using 3 cancer screening decisions as test cases. Twelve practices with 55,453 patients using a patient portal participated in this prospective observational cohort study. Participation was open to patients who might face a cancer screening decision: women aged 40 to 49 who had not had a mammogram in 2 years, men aged 55 to 69 who had not had a prostate-specific antigen test in 2 years, and adults aged 50 to 74 overdue for colorectal cancer screening. Data sources included module responses, electronic health record data, and a postencounter survey. In 1 year, one-fifth of the portal users (11,458 patients) faced a potential cancer screening decision. Among these patients, 20.6% started and 7.9% completed the decision module. Fully 47.2% of module completers shared responses with their clinician. After their next office visit, 57.8% of those surveyed thought their clinician had seen their responses, and many reported the module made their appointment more productive (40.7%), helped engage them in the decision (47.7%), broadened their knowledge (48.1%), and improved communication (37.5%). Many patients face decisions that can be anticipated and proactively facilitated through technology. Although use of technology has the potential to make visits more efficient and effective, cultural, workflow, and technical changes are needed before it could be widely disseminated. © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Emotion Unchained: Facial Expression Modulates Gaze Cueing under Cognitive Load.

PubMed

Pecchinenda, Anna; Petrucci, Manuel

2016-01-01

Direction of eye gaze cues spatial attention, and typically this cueing effect is not modulated by the expression of a face unless top-down processes are explicitly or implicitly involved. To investigate the role of cognitive control on gaze cueing by emotional faces, participants performed a gaze cueing task with happy, angry, or neutral faces under high (i.e., counting backward by 7) or low cognitive load (i.e., counting forward by 2). Results show that high cognitive load enhances gaze cueing effects for angry facial expressions. In addition, cognitive load reduces gaze cueing for neutral faces, whereas happy facial expressions and gaze affected object preferences regardless of load. This evidence clearly indicates a differential role of cognitive control in processing gaze direction and facial expression, suggesting that under typical conditions, when we shift attention based on social cues from another person, cognitive control processes are used to reduce interference from emotional information.

Emotion Unchained: Facial Expression Modulates Gaze Cueing under Cognitive Load

PubMed Central

Petrucci, Manuel

2016-01-01

Direction of eye gaze cues spatial attention, and typically this cueing effect is not modulated by the expression of a face unless top-down processes are explicitly or implicitly involved. To investigate the role of cognitive control on gaze cueing by emotional faces, participants performed a gaze cueing task with happy, angry, or neutral faces under high (i.e., counting backward by 7) or low cognitive load (i.e., counting forward by 2). Results show that high cognitive load enhances gaze cueing effects for angry facial expressions. In addition, cognitive load reduces gaze cueing for neutral faces, whereas happy facial expressions and gaze affected object preferences regardless of load. This evidence clearly indicates a differential role of cognitive control in processing gaze direction and facial expression, suggesting that under typical conditions, when we shift attention based on social cues from another person, cognitive control processes are used to reduce interference from emotional information. PMID:27959925

Exploring the Williams Syndrome Face-Processing Debate: The Importance of Building Developmental Trajectories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karmiloff-Smith, Annette; Thomas, Michael; Annaz, Dagmara; Humphreys, Kate; Ewing, Sandra; Brace, Nicola; Van Duuren, Mike; Pike, Graham; Grice, Sarah; Campbell, Ruth

2004-01-01

Background: Face processing in Williams syndrome (WS) has been a topic of heated debate over the past decade. Initial claims about a normally developing ("intact") face-processing module were challenged by data suggesting that individuals with WS used a different balance of cognitive processes from controls, even when their behavioural scores fell…

Guided Saccades Modulate Face- and Body-Sensitive Activation in the Occipitotemporal Cortex during Social Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, James P.; Green, Steven R.; Marion, Brian; McCarthy, Gregory

2008-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has identified distinct brain regions in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) and lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) that are differentially activated by pictures of faces and bodies. Recent work from our laboratory has shown that the strong LOTC activation evoked by bodies in which the face is…

Asymmetric Correlation between Experienced Parental Attachment and Event-Related Potentials Evoked in Response to Parental Faces

PubMed Central

Dai, Junqiang; Zhai, Hongchang; Zhou, Anbang; Gong, Yongyuan; Luo, Lin

2013-01-01

This study aims to explore the modulation effects of attachment relationships with parents on the neural correlates that are associated with parental faces. The event-related potentials elicited in 31 college students while viewing facial stimuli of their parents in two single oddball paradigms (father vs. unfamiliar male and mother vs. unfamiliar female) were measured. We found that enhanced P3a and P3b and attenuated N2b were elicited by parental faces; however, the N170 component failed to discriminate parental faces from unfamiliar faces. An experienced attachment relationship with the father was positively correlated to the P3a response associated with the father’s face, whereas no correlation was found in the case of mothers. Further exploration in dipole source localization showed that, within the time window of the P300, distinctive brain regions were involved in the processing of parental faces; the father’s face was located in the medial frontal gyrus, which might be involved in self effect, and the anterior cingulate gyrus was activated in response to the mother’s face. This research is the first to demonstrate that neural mechanisms involved with parents can be modulated differentially by the qualities of the attachments to the parents. In addition, parental faces share a highly similar temporal pattern, but the origins of these neural responses are distinct, which could merit further investigation. PMID:23844240

Multi-stream face recognition for crime-fighting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jassim, Sabah A.; Sellahewa, Harin

2007-04-01

Automatic face recognition (AFR) is a challenging task that is increasingly becoming the preferred biometric trait for identification and has the potential of becoming an essential tool in the fight against crime and terrorism. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have increasingly been used over the last few years for surveillance in public places such as airports, train stations and shopping centers. They are used to detect and prevent crime, shoplifting, public disorder and terrorism. The work of law-enforcing and intelligence agencies is becoming more reliant on the use of databases of biometric data for large section of the population. Face is one of the most natural biometric traits that can be used for identification and surveillance. However, variations in lighting conditions, facial expressions, face size and pose are a great obstacle to AFR. This paper is concerned with using waveletbased face recognition schemes in the presence of variations of expressions and illumination. In particular, we will investigate the use of a combination of wavelet frequency channels for a multi-stream face recognition using various wavelet subbands as different face signal streams. The proposed schemes extend our recently developed face veri.cation scheme for implementation on mobile devices. We shall present experimental results on the performance of our proposed schemes for a number of face databases including a new AV database recorded on a PDA. By analyzing the various experimental data, we shall demonstrate that the multi-stream approach is robust against variations in illumination and facial expressions than the previous single-stream approach.

Face matching in a long task: enforced rest and desk-switching cannot maintain identification accuracy

PubMed Central

Alenezi, Hamood M.; Fysh, Matthew C.; Johnston, Robert A.

2015-01-01

In face matching, observers have to decide whether two photographs depict the same person or different people. This task is not only remarkably difficult but accuracy declines further during prolonged testing. The current study investigated whether this decline in long tasks can be eliminated with regular rest-breaks (Experiment 1) or room-switching (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated the accuracy decline for long face-matching tasks and showed that this could not be eliminated with rest or room-switching. These findings suggest that person identification in applied settings, such as passport control, might be particularly error-prone due to the long and repetitive nature of the task. The experiments also show that it is difficult to counteract these problems. PMID:26312179

45 CFR 164.508 - Uses and disclosures for which an authorization is required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... is in the form of: (A) A face-to-face communication made by a covered entity to an individual; or (B... meaningful fashion. (ii) The name or other specific identification of the person(s), or class of persons...

45 CFR 164.508 - Uses and disclosures for which an authorization is required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... is in the form of: (A) A face-to-face communication made by a covered entity to an individual; or (B... meaningful fashion. (ii) The name or other specific identification of the person(s), or class of persons...

The Development of Differential Use of Inner and Outer Face Features in Familiar Face Identification.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Ruth; And Others

1995-01-01

Studied 4- to 10-year-olds' familiarity judgments of peers. Found that, contrary to adults, external facial features were key. Also found that the switch to adult recognition pattern takes place after the ninth year. (ETB)

Asymmetric cultural effects on perceptual expertise underlie an own-race bias for voices

PubMed Central

Perrachione, Tyler K.; Chiao, Joan Y.; Wong, Patrick C.M.

2009-01-01

The own-race bias in memory for faces has been a rich source of empirical work on the mechanisms of person perception. This effect is thought to arise because the face-perception system differentially encodes the relevant structural dimensions of features and their configuration based on experiences with different groups of faces. However, the effects of sociocultural experiences on person perception abilities in other identity-conveying modalities like audition have not been explored. Investigating an own-race bias in the auditory domain provides a unique opportunity for studying whether person identification is a modality-independent construct and how it is sensitive to asymmetric cultural experiences. Here we show that an own-race bias in talker identification arises from asymmetric experience with different spoken dialects. When listeners categorized voices by race (White or Black), a subset of the Black voices were categorized as sounding White, while the opposite case was unattested. Acoustic analyses indicated listeners' perceptions about race were consistent with differences in specific phonetic and phonological features. In a subsequent person-identification experiment, the Black voices initially categorized as sounding White elicited an own-race bias from White listeners, but not from Black listeners. These effects are inconsistent with person-perception models that strictly analogize faces and voices based on recognition from only structural features. Our results demonstrate that asymmetric exposure to spoken dialect, independent from talkers' physical characteristics, affects auditory perceptual expertise for talker identification. Person perception thus additionally relies on socioculturally-acquired dynamic information, which may be represented by different mechanisms in different sensory modalities. PMID:19782970

A model for the use of blended learning in large group teaching sessions.

PubMed

Herbert, Cristan; Velan, Gary M; Pryor, Wendy M; Kumar, Rakesh K

2017-11-09

Although blended learning has the potential to enhance the student experience, both in terms of engagement and flexibility, it can be difficult to effectively restructure existing courses. To achieve these goals for an introductory Pathology course, offered to more than 250 undergraduate students at UNSW Sydney, we devised a novel approach. For each topic presented over 2-3 weeks, a single face-to-face overview lecture was retained. The remaining content that had previously been delivered as conventional lectures was converted into short (12-18 min) online modules. These were based on lecture slides with added animations/highlights, plus narration using edited excerpts of previous lecture recordings. The modules also incorporated interactive questions and review quizzes with feedback which used various question types. Modules were developed in PowerPoint and iSpring and uploaded to Moodle as SCORM packages. Each topic concluded with an interactive large-group session focussing on integration of the content, with in-class questions to which students could respond via the Echo360 Active Learning Platform (ALP). Overall, more than 50% of face-to-face lecture time was replaced by online modules and interactive large-group sessions. Quantitative evaluation data included usage statistics from 264 students and feedback via online survey responses from 41 students. Qualitative evaluation data consisted of reflective commentaries from 160 student ePortfolios, which were analysed to identify factors affecting learning benefits and user acceptability. All of the modules were completed by 74% of students and on average, 83.1% of students eventually passed the optional review quizzes. Notably, 88.4% of students responded to in-class questions during the integration and feedback sessions via the ALP. Student reflections emphasised that the modules promoted understanding, which was reinforced through active learning. The modules were described as enjoyable, motivating and were appreciated for their flexibility, which enabled students to work at their own pace. In transforming this introductory Pathology course, we have demonstrated a model for the use of blended learning in large group teaching sessions, which achieved high levels of completion, satisfaction and value for learning.

Around the World in Science Class.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubino, Ann M; Duerling, Carolyn K.

1991-01-01

Interdisciplinary learning modules called "Maude Visits..." are described. The modules apply basic scientific concepts to current and future problems facing people in various countries such as the Soviet Union. Activities using maps, money, and convection currents are included. (KR)

The design and development of a rectangular, shingle-type photovoltaic module

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shepard, N. F., Jr.

A shingle-type photovoltaic module has been designed and developed to meet the requirements of specifications for residential applications. The module is ideally suited for installation directly to the sheathing of a sloping, south-facing roof of a residential, industrial, or commercial building. The design requirements are examined, taking into account also module safety requirements. Aspects of module design and analysis are discussed, giving attention to installation details, solar cells and electrical circuit design, the encapsulation system, substrate lamination, and the module-to-module interconnecting cable. Details of module assembly experience and test and outdoor exposure experience are also considered.

The design and development of a rectangular, shingle-type photovoltaic module

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shepard, N. F., Jr.

1982-01-01

A shingle-type photovoltaic module has been designed and developed to meet the requirements of specifications for residential applications. The module is ideally suited for installation directly to the sheathing of a sloping, south-facing roof of a residential, industrial, or commercial building. The design requirements are examined, taking into account also module safety requirements. Aspects of module design and analysis are discussed, giving attention to installation details, solar cells and electrical circuit design, the encapsulation system, substrate lamination, and the module-to-module interconnecting cable. Details of module assembly experience and test and outdoor exposure experience are also considered.

Song Recognition without Identification: When People Cannot "Name that Tune" but Can Recognize It as Familiar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kostic, Bogdan; Cleary, Anne M.

2009-01-01

Recognition without identification (RWI) is a common day-to-day experience (as when recognizing a face or a tune as familiar without being able to identify the person or the song). It is also a well-established laboratory-based empirical phenomenon: When identification of recognition test items is prevented, participants can discriminate between…

KIRMES: kernel-based identification of regulatory modules in euchromatic sequences.

PubMed

Schultheiss, Sebastian J; Busch, Wolfgang; Lohmann, Jan U; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Rätsch, Gunnar

2009-08-15

Understanding transcriptional regulation is one of the main challenges in computational biology. An important problem is the identification of transcription factor (TF) binding sites in promoter regions of potential TF target genes. It is typically approached by position weight matrix-based motif identification algorithms using Gibbs sampling, or heuristics to extend seed oligos. Such algorithms succeed in identifying single, relatively well-conserved binding sites, but tend to fail when it comes to the identification of combinations of several degenerate binding sites, as those often found in cis-regulatory modules. We propose a new algorithm that combines the benefits of existing motif finding with the ones of support vector machines (SVMs) to find degenerate motifs in order to improve the modeling of regulatory modules. In experiments on microarray data from Arabidopsis thaliana, we were able to show that the newly developed strategy significantly improves the recognition of TF targets. The python source code (open source-licensed under GPL), the data for the experiments and a Galaxy-based web service are available at http://www.fml.mpg.de/raetsch/suppl/kirmes/.

RCRA, Superfund and EPCRA hotline training module. Introduction to: Applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements (updated February 1998)

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

NONE

1998-06-01

Topics addressed include the following: Regulatory Summary (Role and Definition of Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements); Types of ARARs; Extent of ARARs: On-Site vs. Off-Site Management; Remedial vs. Removal Actions; To-Be-Considered Guidelines and Other Controls; ARAR Identification (ARAR Identification Process); Federal ARARs: RCRA, CAA, CWA, SDWA, TSCA; State and Local ARARs and ARAR Waivers; and Module Summary.

Aerodynamic parameter estimation via Fourier modulating function techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pearson, A. E.

1995-01-01

Parameter estimation algorithms are developed in the frequency domain for systems modeled by input/output ordinary differential equations. The approach is based on Shinbrot's method of moment functionals utilizing Fourier based modulating functions. Assuming white measurement noises for linear multivariable system models, an adaptive weighted least squares algorithm is developed which approximates a maximum likelihood estimate and cannot be biased by unknown initial or boundary conditions in the data owing to a special property attending Shinbrot-type modulating functions. Application is made to perturbation equation modeling of the longitudinal and lateral dynamics of a high performance aircraft using flight-test data. Comparative studies are included which demonstrate potential advantages of the algorithm relative to some well established techniques for parameter identification. Deterministic least squares extensions of the approach are made to the frequency transfer function identification problem for linear systems and to the parameter identification problem for a class of nonlinear-time-varying differential system models.

Visual Persons Behavior Diary Generation Model based on Trajectories and Pose Estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gang, Chen; Bin, Chen; Yuming, Liu; Hui, Li

2018-03-01

The behavior pattern of persons was the important output of the surveillance analysis. This paper focus on the generation model of visual person behavior diary. The pipeline includes the person detection, tracking, and the person behavior classify. This paper adopts the deep convolutional neural model YOLO (You Only Look Once)V2 for person detection module. Multi person tracking was based on the detection framework. The Hungarian assignment algorithm was used to the matching. The person appearance model was integrated by HSV color model and Hash code model. The person object motion was estimated by the Kalman Filter. The multi objects were matching with exist tracklets through the appearance and motion location distance by the Hungarian assignment method. A long continuous trajectory for one person was get by the spatial-temporal continual linking algorithm. And the face recognition information was used to identify the trajectory. The trajectories with identification information can be used to generate the visual diary of person behavior based on the scene context information and person action estimation. The relevant modules are tested in public data sets and our own capture video sets. The test results show that the method can be used to generate the visual person behavior pattern diary with certain accuracy.

Digital Storytelling: Conveying the Essence of a Face-to-Face Lecture in an Online Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baim, Susan A

2015-01-01

As the percentage of university-level courses delivered online continues to increase, instructors who rely on storytelling approaches to convey key concepts in lecture-based coursework will likely face the need to translate their oral storytelling modules into one or more formats that are suitable for use in an online learning environment. While…

Neural processing of emotional facial and semantic expressions in euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) and its association with theory of mind (ToM).

PubMed

Ibanez, Agustin; Urquina, Hugo; Petroni, Agustín; Baez, Sandra; Lopez, Vladimir; do Nascimento, Micaela; Herrera, Eduar; Guex, Raphael; Hurtado, Esteban; Blenkmann, Alejandro; Beltrachini, Leandro; Gelormini, Carlos; Sigman, Mariano; Lischinsky, Alicia; Torralva, Teresa; Torrente, Fernando; Cetkovich, Marcelo; Manes, Facundo

2012-01-01

Adults with bipolar disorder (BD) have cognitive impairments that affect face processing and social cognition. However, it remains unknown whether these deficits in euthymic BD have impaired brain markers of emotional processing. We recruited twenty six participants, 13 controls subjects with an equal number of euthymic BD participants. We used an event-related potential (ERP) assessment of a dual valence task (DVT), in which faces (angry and happy), words (pleasant and unpleasant), and face-word simultaneous combinations are presented to test the effects of the stimulus type (face vs word) and valence (positive vs. negative). All participants received clinical, neuropsychological and social cognition evaluations. ERP analysis revealed that both groups showed N170 modulation of stimulus type effects (face > word). BD patients exhibited reduced and enhanced N170 to facial and semantic valence, respectively. The neural source estimation of N170 was a posterior section of the fusiform gyrus (FG), including the face fusiform area (FFA). Neural generators of N170 for faces (FG and FFA) were reduced in BD. In these patients, N170 modulation was associated with social cognition (theory of mind). This is the first report of euthymic BD exhibiting abnormal N170 emotional discrimination associated with theory of mind impairments.

Age-group differences in speech identification despite matched audiometrically normal hearing: contributions from auditory temporal processing and cognition

PubMed Central

Füllgrabe, Christian; Moore, Brian C. J.; Stone, Michael A.

2015-01-01

Hearing loss with increasing age adversely affects the ability to understand speech, an effect that results partly from reduced audibility. The aims of this study were to establish whether aging reduces speech intelligibility for listeners with normal audiograms, and, if so, to assess the relative contributions of auditory temporal and cognitive processing. Twenty-one older normal-hearing (ONH; 60–79 years) participants with bilateral audiometric thresholds ≤ 20 dB HL at 0.125–6 kHz were matched to nine young (YNH; 18–27 years) participants in terms of mean audiograms, years of education, and performance IQ. Measures included: (1) identification of consonants in quiet and in noise that was unmodulated or modulated at 5 or 80 Hz; (2) identification of sentences in quiet and in co-located or spatially separated two-talker babble; (3) detection of modulation of the temporal envelope (TE) at frequencies 5–180 Hz; (4) monaural and binaural sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS); (5) various cognitive tests. Speech identification was worse for ONH than YNH participants in all types of background. This deficit was not reflected in self-ratings of hearing ability. Modulation masking release (the improvement in speech identification obtained by amplitude modulating a noise background) and spatial masking release (the benefit obtained from spatially separating masker and target speech) were not affected by age. Sensitivity to TE and TFS was lower for ONH than YNH participants, and was correlated positively with speech-in-noise (SiN) identification. Many cognitive abilities were lower for ONH than YNH participants, and generally were correlated positively with SiN identification scores. The best predictors of the intelligibility of SiN were composite measures of cognition and TFS sensitivity. These results suggest that declines in speech perception in older persons are partly caused by cognitive and perceptual changes separate from age-related changes in audiometric sensitivity. PMID:25628563

Consciousness and arousal effects on emotional face processing as revealed by brain oscillations. A gamma band analysis.

PubMed

Balconi, Michela; Lucchiari, Claudio

2008-01-01

It remains an open question whether it is possible to assign a single brain operation or psychological function for facial emotion decoding to a certain type of oscillatory activity. Gamma band activity (GBA) offers an adequate tool for studying cortical activation patterns during emotional face information processing. In the present study brain oscillations were analyzed in response to facial expression of emotions. Specifically, GBA modulation was measured when twenty subjects looked at emotional (angry, fearful, happy, and sad faces) or neutral faces in two different conditions: supraliminal (10 ms) vs subliminal (150 ms) stimulation (100 target-mask pairs for each condition). The results showed that both consciousness and significance of the stimulus in terms of arousal can modulate the power synchronization (ERD decrease) during 150-350 time range: an early oscillatory event showed its peak at about 200 ms post-stimulus. GBA was enhanced by supraliminal more than subliminal elaboration, as well as more by high arousal (anger and fear) than low arousal (happiness and sadness) emotions. Finally a left-posterior dominance for conscious elaboration was found, whereas right hemisphere was discriminant in emotional processing of face in comparison with neutral face.

AUTISTIC TRAITS INFLUENCE GAZE-ORIENTED ATTENTION TO HAPPY BUT NOT FEARFUL FACES

PubMed Central

Lassalle, Amandine; Itier, Roxane J.

2017-01-01

The relationship between autistic traits and gaze-oriented attention to fearful and happy faces was investigated at the behavioral and neuronal levels. Upright and inverted dynamic face stimuli were used in a gaze-cueing paradigm while ERPs were recorded. Participants responded faster to gazed-at than to non-gazed-at targets and this Gaze Orienting Effect (GOE) diminished with inversion, suggesting it relies on facial configuration. It was also larger for fearful than happy faces but only in participants with high Autism Quotient (AQ) scores. While the GOE to fearful faces was of similar magnitude regardless of AQ scores, a diminished GOE to happy faces was found in participants with high AQ scores. At the ERP level, a congruency effect on target-elicited P1 component reflected enhanced visual processing of gazed-at targets. In addition, cue-triggered early directing attention negativity and anterior directing attention negativity reflected, respectively, attention orienting and attention holding at gazed-at locations. These neural markers of spatial attention orienting were not modulated by emotion and were not found in participants with high AQ scores. Together these findings suggest that autistic traits influence attention orienting to gaze and its modulation by social emotions such as happiness. PMID:25222883

Amygdala lesions disrupt modulation of functional MRI activity evoked by facial expression in the monkey inferior temporal cortex

PubMed Central

Hadj-Bouziane, Fadila; Liu, Ning; Bell, Andrew H.; Gothard, Katalin M.; Luh, Wen-Ming; Tootell, Roger B. H.; Murray, Elisabeth A.; Ungerleider, Leslie G.

2012-01-01

We previously showed that facial expressions modulate functional MRI activity in the face-processing regions of the macaque monkey’s amygdala and inferior temporal (IT) cortex. Specifically, we showed that faces expressing emotion yield greater activation than neutral faces; we term this difference the “valence effect.” We hypothesized that amygdala lesions would disrupt the valence effect by eliminating the modulatory feedback from the amygdala to the IT cortex. We compared the valence effects within the IT cortex in monkeys with excitotoxic amygdala lesions (n = 3) with those in intact control animals (n = 3) using contrast agent-based functional MRI at 3 T. Images of four distinct monkey facial expressions—neutral, aggressive (open mouth threat), fearful (fear grin), and appeasing (lip smack)—were presented to the subjects in a blocked design. Our results showed that in monkeys with amygdala lesions the valence effects were strongly disrupted within the IT cortex, whereas face responsivity (neutral faces > scrambled faces) and face selectivity (neutral faces > non-face objects) were unaffected. Furthermore, sparing of the anterior amygdala led to intact valence effects in the anterior IT cortex (which included the anterior face-selective regions), whereas sparing of the posterior amygdala led to intact valence effects in the posterior IT cortex (which included the posterior face-selective regions). Overall, our data demonstrate that the feedback projections from the amygdala to the IT cortex mediate the valence effect found there. Moreover, these modulatory effects are consistent with an anterior-to-posterior gradient of projections, as suggested by classical tracer studies. PMID:23184972

Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE): Developing self-directed professional development modules for secondary science teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buhr, S. M.; Lynds, S. E.; McCaffrey, M. S.; Morton, E.

2010-12-01

Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) is a NASA-funded project to develop online course modules and self-directed learning resources aligned with the Essential Principles of Climate Science. Following a national needs assessment survey and a face to face workshop to pilot test topics, a suite of online modules is being developed suitable for self-directed learning by secondary science teachers. Modules are designed around concepts and topics in which teachers express the most interest and need for instruction. Module design also includes attention to effective teaching strategies, such as awareness of student misconceptions, strategies for forestalling controversy and advice from master teachers on implementation and curriculum development. The resources are being developed in partnership with GLOBE, and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and is informed by the work of the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) project. ICEE will help to meet the professional development needs of teachers, including those participating in the GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign. Modules and self-directed learning resources will be developed and disseminated in partnership with the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). This presentation introduces the needs assessment and pilot workshop data upon which the modules are based, and describes the modules that are available and in development.

Identification of countermeasures for the youth crash problem related to alcohol

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1975-01-01

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with male New York State drivers. These groups, each containing young (16-24 years) and middle aged (35-49 years) drivers were sampled as follows: 1) random sample of the general population of licensed drivers (...

3D quantitative analysis of early decomposition changes of the human face.

PubMed

Caplova, Zuzana; Gibelli, Daniele Maria; Poppa, Pasquale; Cummaudo, Marco; Obertova, Zuzana; Sforza, Chiarella; Cattaneo, Cristina

2018-03-01

Decomposition of the human body and human face is influenced, among other things, by environmental conditions. The early decomposition changes that modify the appearance of the face may hamper the recognition and identification of the deceased. Quantitative assessment of those changes may provide important information for forensic identification. This report presents a pilot 3D quantitative approach of tracking early decomposition changes of a single cadaver in controlled environmental conditions by summarizing the change with weekly morphological descriptions. The root mean square (RMS) value was used to evaluate the changes of the face after death. The results showed a high correlation (r = 0.863) between the measured RMS and the time since death. RMS values of each scan are presented, as well as the average weekly RMS values. The quantification of decomposition changes could improve the accuracy of antemortem facial approximation and potentially could allow the direct comparisons of antemortem and postmortem 3D scans.

Study on the criteria for assessing skull-face correspondence in craniofacial superimposition.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Oscar; Valsecchi, Andrea; Cavalli, Fabio; Huete, María Isabel; Campomanes-Alvarez, Blanca Rosario; Campomanes-Alvarez, Carmen; Vicente, Ricardo; Navega, David; Ross, Ann; Wilkinson, Caroline; Jankauskas, Rimantas; Imaizumi, Kazuhiko; Hardiman, Rita; Jayaprakash, Paul Thomas; Ruiz, Elena; Molinero, Francisco; Lestón, Patricio; Veselovskaya, Elizaveta; Abramov, Alexey; Steyn, Maryna; Cardoso, Joao; Humpire, Daniel; Lusnig, Luca; Gibelli, Daniele; Mazzarelli, Debora; Gaudio, Daniel; Collini, Federica; Damas, Sergio

2016-11-01

Craniofacial superimposition has the potential to be used as an identification method when other traditional biological techniques are not applicable due to insufficient quality or absence of ante-mortem and post-mortem data. Despite having been used in many countries as a method of inclusion and exclusion for over a century it lacks standards. Thus, the purpose of this research is to provide forensic practitioners with standard criteria for analysing skull-face relationships. Thirty-seven experts from 16 different institutions participated in this study, which consisted of evaluating 65 criteria for assessing skull-face anatomical consistency on a sample of 24 different skull-face superimpositions. An unbiased statistical analysis established the most objective and discriminative criteria. Results did not show strong associations, however, important insights to address lack of standards were provided. In addition, a novel methodology for understanding and standardizing identification methods based on the observation of morphological patterns has been proposed. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Autistic traits and social anxiety predict differential performance on social cognitive tasks in typically developing young adults

PubMed Central

Burk, Joshua A.; Fleckenstein, Katarina; Kozikowski, C. Teal

2018-01-01

The current work examined the unique contribution that autistic traits and social anxiety have on tasks examining attention and emotion processing. In Study 1, 119 typically-developing college students completed a flanker task assessing the control of attention to target faces and away from distracting faces during emotion identification. In Study 2, 208 typically-developing college students performed a visual search task which required identification of whether a series of 8 or 16 emotional faces depicted the same or different emotions. Participants with more self-reported autistic traits performed more slowly on the flanker task in Study 1 than those with fewer autistic traits when stimuli depicted complex emotions. In Study 2, participants higher in social anxiety performed less accurately on trials showing all complex faces; participants with autistic traits showed no differences. These studies suggest that traits related to autism and to social anxiety differentially impact social cognitive processing. PMID:29596523

How Captain Amerika uses neural networks to fight crime

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rogers, Steven K.; Kabrisky, Matthew; Ruck, Dennis W.; Oxley, Mark E.

1994-01-01

Artificial neural network models can make amazing computations. These models are explained along with their application in problems associated with fighting crime. Specific problems addressed are identification of people using face recognition, speaker identification, and fingerprint and handwriting analysis (biometric authentication).

Task modulations of racial bias in neural responses to others' suffering.

PubMed

Sheng, Feng; Liu, Qiang; Li, Hong; Fang, Fang; Han, Shihui

2014-03-01

Recent event related brain potential research observed a greater frontal activity to pain expressions of racial in-group than out-group members and such racial bias in neural responses to others' suffering was modulated by task demands that emphasize race identity or painful feeling. However, as pain expressions activate multiple brain regions in the pain matrix, it remains unclear which part of the neural circuit in response to others' suffering undergoes modulations by task demands. We scanned Chinese adults, using functional MRI, while they categorized Asian and Caucasian faces with pain or neutral expressions in terms of race or identified painful feelings of each individual face. We found that pain vs. neutral expressions of Asian but not Caucasian faces activated the anterior cingulate (ACC) and anterior insular (AI) activity during race judgments. However, pain compared to race judgments increased ACC and AI activity to pain expressions of Caucasian but not Asian faces. Moreover, race judgments induced increased activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex whereas pain judgments increased activity in the bilateral temporoparietal junction. The results suggest that task demands emphasizing an individual's painful feeling increase ACC/AI activities to pain expressions of racial out-group members and reduce the racial bias in empathic neural responses. © 2013.

Bodily ownership modulation in defensive responses: physiological evidence in brain-damaged patients with pathological embodiment of other's body parts.

PubMed

Fossataro, C; Gindri, P; Mezzanato, T; Pia, L; Garbarini, F

2016-06-13

Do conscious beliefs about the body affect defensive mechanisms within the body? To answer this question we took advantage from a monothematic delusion of bodily ownership, in which brain-damaged patients misidentify alien limbs as their own. We investigated whether the delusional belief that an alien hand is their own hand modulates a subcortical defensive response, such as the hand-blink reflex. The blink, dramatically increases when the threated hand is inside the defensive peripersonal-space of the face. In our between-subjects design, including patients and controls, the threat was brought near the face either by the own hand or by another person's hand. Our results show an ownership-dependent modulation of the defensive response. In controls, as well as in the patients' intact-side, the response enhancement is significantly greater when the threat was brought near the face by the own than by the alien hand. Crucially, in the patients' affected-side (where the pathological embodiment occurs), the alien (embodied) hand elicited a response enhancement comparable to that found when the threat is brought near the face by the real hand. These findings suggest the existence of a mutual interaction between our conscious beliefs about the body and the physiological mechanisms within the body.

Eyewitness confidence in simultaneous and sequential lineups: a criterion shift account for sequential mistaken identification overconfidence.

PubMed

Dobolyi, David G; Dodson, Chad S

2013-12-01

Confidence judgments for eyewitness identifications play an integral role in determining guilt during legal proceedings. Past research has shown that confidence in positive identifications is strongly associated with accuracy. Using a standard lineup recognition paradigm, we investigated accuracy using signal detection and ROC analyses, along with the tendency to choose a face with both simultaneous and sequential lineups. We replicated past findings of reduced rates of choosing with sequential as compared to simultaneous lineups, but notably found an accuracy advantage in favor of simultaneous lineups. Moreover, our analysis of the confidence-accuracy relationship revealed two key findings. First, we observed a sequential mistaken identification overconfidence effect: despite an overall reduction in false alarms, confidence for false alarms that did occur was higher with sequential lineups than with simultaneous lineups, with no differences in confidence for correct identifications. This sequential mistaken identification overconfidence effect is an expected byproduct of the use of a more conservative identification criterion with sequential than with simultaneous lineups. Second, we found a steady drop in confidence for mistaken identifications (i.e., foil identifications and false alarms) from the first to the last face in sequential lineups, whereas confidence in and accuracy of correct identifications remained relatively stable. Overall, we observed that sequential lineups are both less accurate and produce higher confidence false identifications than do simultaneous lineups. Given the increasing prominence of sequential lineups in our legal system, our data argue for increased scrutiny and possibly a wholesale reevaluation of this lineup format. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Modulation of α power and functional connectivity during facial affect recognition.

PubMed

Popov, Tzvetan; Miller, Gregory A; Rockstroh, Brigitte; Weisz, Nathan

2013-04-03

Research has linked oscillatory activity in the α frequency range, particularly in sensorimotor cortex, to processing of social actions. Results further suggest involvement of sensorimotor α in the processing of facial expressions, including affect. The sensorimotor face area may be critical for perception of emotional face expression, but the role it plays is unclear. The present study sought to clarify how oscillatory brain activity contributes to or reflects processing of facial affect during changes in facial expression. Neuromagnetic oscillatory brain activity was monitored while 30 volunteers viewed videos of human faces that changed their expression from neutral to fearful, neutral, or happy expressions. Induced changes in α power during the different morphs, source analysis, and graph-theoretic metrics served to identify the role of α power modulation and cross-regional coupling by means of phase synchrony during facial affect recognition. Changes from neutral to emotional faces were associated with a 10-15 Hz power increase localized in bilateral sensorimotor areas, together with occipital power decrease, preceding reported emotional expression recognition. Graph-theoretic analysis revealed that, in the course of a trial, the balance between sensorimotor power increase and decrease was associated with decreased and increased transregional connectedness as measured by node degree. Results suggest that modulations in α power facilitate early registration, with sensorimotor cortex including the sensorimotor face area largely functionally decoupled and thereby protected from additional, disruptive input and that subsequent α power decrease together with increased connectedness of sensorimotor areas facilitates successful facial affect recognition.

Can the usage of human growth hormones affect facial appearance and the accuracy of face recognition systems?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rose, Jake; Martin, Michael; Bourlai, Thirimachos

2014-06-01

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. The goal of the study is to demonstrate that steroid usage significantly affects human facial appearance and hence, the performance of commercial and academic face recognition (FR) algorithms. In this work, we evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art FR algorithms on two unique face image datasets of subjects before (gallery set) and after (probe set) steroid (or human growth hormone) usage. For the purpose of this study, datasets of 73 subjects were created from multiple sources found on the Internet, containing images of men and women before and after steroid usage. Next, we geometrically pre-processed all images of both face datasets. Then, we applied image restoration techniques on the same face datasets, and finally, we applied FR algorithms in order to match the pre-processed face images of our probe datasets against the face images of the gallery set. Experimental results demonstrate that only a specific set of FR algorithms obtain the most accurate results (in terms of the rank-1 identification rate). This is because there are several factors that influence the efficiency of face matchers including (i) the time lapse between the before and after image pre-processing and restoration face photos, (ii) the usage of different drugs (e.g. Dianabol, Winstrol, and Decabolan), (iii) the usage of different cameras to capture face images, and finally, (iv) the variability of standoff distance, illumination and other noise factors (e.g. motion noise). All of the previously mentioned complicated scenarios make clear that cross-scenario matching is a very challenging problem and, thus, further investigation is required.

Cognitive Bias by Gender Interaction on N170 Response to Emotional Facial Expressions in Major and Minor Depression.

PubMed

Wu, Xingqu; Chen, Jiu; Jia, Ting; Ma, Wentao; Zhang, Yan; Deng, Zihe; Yang, Laiqi

2016-03-01

States of depression are considered to relate to a cognitive bias reactivity to emotional events. Moreover, gender effect may influence differences in emotional processing. The current study is to investigate whether there is an interaction of cognitive bias by gender on emotional processing in minor depression (MiD) and major depression (MaD). N170 component was obtained during a visual emotional oddball paradigm to manipulate the processing of emotional information in 33 MiD, 36 MaD, and 32 controls (CN). Compared with CN, in male, both MiD and MaD had lower N170 amplitudes for happy faces, but MaD had higher N170 amplitudes for sad faces; in female, both MiD and MaD had lower N170 amplitudes for happy and neutral faces, but higher N170 amplitudes for sad faces. Compared with MaD in male, MiD had higher N170 amplitudes for happy faces, lower N170 amplitudes for sad faces; in female, MiD only had higher N170 amplitudes for sad faces. Interestingly, a negative relationship was observed between N170 amplitude and the HDRS score for identification of happy faces in depressed patients while N170 amplitude was positively correlated with the HDRS score for sad faces identification. These results provide novel evidence for the mood-brightening effect with an interaction of cognitive bias by gender on emotional processing. It further suggests that female depression may be more vulnerable than male during emotional face processing with the unconscious negative cognitive bias and depressive syndromes may exist on a spectrum of severity on emotional face processing.

Evaluation of cleaners for photovoltaic modules exposed in an outdoor environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knapp, W. D.

1979-01-01

Power recovery of silicone encapsulated and glass covered photovoltaic modules, exposed for two years to a suburban environment, was measured after washing with a variety of cleaners including detergents, abrasive soap, and hydrocarbon solvents. Silicone encapsulated modules in operating environments may experience significant power losses or require extensive periodic cleaning. Glass front-faced modules in similar situations are much less affected. Organic hydrocarbon solvents or abrasives were found to be about five times more effective than mild detergents in cleaning encapsulated modules.

Startling similarity: Effects of facial self-resemblance and familiarity on the processing of emotional faces

PubMed Central

Larra, Mauro F.; Merz, Martina U.; Schächinger, Hartmut

2017-01-01

Facial self-resemblance has been associated with positive emotional evaluations, but this effect may be biased by self-face familiarity. Here we report two experiments utilizing startle modulation to investigate how the processing of facial expressions of emotion is affected by subtle resemblance to the self as well as to familiar faces. Participants of the first experiment (I) (N = 39) were presented with morphed faces showing happy, neutral, and fearful expressions which were manipulated to resemble either their own or unknown faces. At SOAs of either 300 ms or 3500–4500 ms after picture onset, startle responses were elicited by binaural bursts of white noise (50 ms, 105 dB), and recorded at the orbicularis oculi via EMG. Manual reaction time was measured in a simple emotion discrimination paradigm. Pictures preceding noise bursts by short SOA inhibited startle (prepulse inhibition, PPI). Both affective modulation and PPI of startle in response to emotional faces was altered by physical similarity to the self. As indexed both by relative facilitation of startle and faster manual responses, self-resemblance apparently induced deeper processing of facial affect, particularly in happy faces. Experiment II (N = 54) produced similar findings using morphs of famous faces, yet showed no impact of mere familiarity on PPI effects (or response time, either). The results are discussed with respect to differential (presumably pre-attentive) effects of self-specific vs. familiar information in face processing. PMID:29216226

Sound source localization identification accuracy: Envelope dependencies.

PubMed

Yost, William A

2017-07-01

Sound source localization accuracy as measured in an identification procedure in a front azimuth sound field was studied for click trains, modulated noises, and a modulated tonal carrier. Sound source localization accuracy was determined as a function of the number of clicks in a 64 Hz click train and click rate for a 500 ms duration click train. The clicks were either broadband or high-pass filtered. Sound source localization accuracy was also measured for a single broadband filtered click and compared to a similar broadband filtered, short-duration noise. Sound source localization accuracy was determined as a function of sinusoidal amplitude modulation and the "transposed" process of modulation of filtered noises and a 4 kHz tone. Different rates (16 to 512 Hz) of modulation (including unmodulated conditions) were used. Providing modulation for filtered click stimuli, filtered noises, and the 4 kHz tone had, at most, a very small effect on sound source localization accuracy. These data suggest that amplitude modulation, while providing information about interaural time differences in headphone studies, does not have much influence on sound source localization accuracy in a sound field.

Perceptually Salient Regions of the Modulation Power Spectrum for Musical Instrument Identification.

PubMed

Thoret, Etienne; Depalle, Philippe; McAdams, Stephen

2017-01-01

The ability of a listener to recognize sound sources, and in particular musical instruments from the sounds they produce, raises the question of determining the acoustical information used to achieve such a task. It is now well known that the shapes of the temporal and spectral envelopes are crucial to the recognition of a musical instrument. More recently, Modulation Power Spectra (MPS) have been shown to be a representation that potentially explains the perception of musical instrument sounds. Nevertheless, the question of which specific regions of this representation characterize a musical instrument is still open. An identification task was applied to two subsets of musical instruments: tuba, trombone, cello, saxophone, and clarinet on the one hand, and marimba, vibraphone, guitar, harp, and viola pizzicato on the other. The sounds were processed with filtered spectrotemporal modulations with 2D Gaussian windows. The most relevant regions of this representation for instrument identification were determined for each instrument and reveal the regions essential for their identification. The method used here is based on a "molecular approach," the so-called bubbles method. Globally, the instruments were correctly identified and the lower values of spectrotemporal modulations are the most important regions of the MPS for recognizing instruments. Interestingly, instruments that were confused with each other led to non-overlapping regions and were confused when they were filtered in the most salient region of the other instrument. These results suggest that musical instrument timbres are characterized by specific spectrotemporal modulations, information which could contribute to music information retrieval tasks such as automatic source recognition.

Beauty hinders attention switch in change detection: the role of facial attractiveness and distinctiveness.

PubMed

Chen, Wenfeng; Liu, Chang Hong; Nakabayashi, Kazuyo

2012-01-01

Recent research has shown that the presence of a task-irrelevant attractive face can induce a transient diversion of attention from a perceptual task that requires covert deployment of attention to one of the two locations. However, it is not known whether this spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty also modulates attention in change detection among multiple locations, where a slower, and more controlled search process is simultaneously affected by the magnitude of a change and the facial distinctiveness. Using the flicker paradigm, this study examines how spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty affects the detection of identity change among multiple faces. Participants viewed a display consisting of two alternating frames of four faces separated by a blank frame. In half of the trials, one of the faces (target face) changed to a different person. The task of the participant was to indicate whether a change of face identity had occurred. The results showed that (1) observers were less efficient at detecting identity change among multiple attractive faces relative to unattractive faces when the target and distractor faces were not highly distinctive from one another; and (2) it is difficult to detect a change if the new face is similar to the old. The findings suggest that attractive faces may interfere with the attention-switch process in change detection. The results also show that attention in change detection was strongly modulated by physical similarity between the alternating faces. Although facial beauty is a powerful stimulus that has well-demonstrated priority, its influence on change detection is easily superseded by low-level image similarity. The visual system appears to take a different approach to facial beauty when a task requires resource-demanding feature comparisons.

Module encapsulation technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Willis, P.

1986-01-01

The identification and development techniques for low-cost module encapsulation materials were reviewed. Test results were displayed for a variety of materials. The improved prospects for modeling encapsulation systems for life prediction were reported.

Stereo Particle Image Velocimetry Measurements of Transition Downstream of a Backward-Facing Step in a Swept-Wing Boundary Layer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eppink, Jenna L.; Yao, Chung-Sheng

2017-01-01

Stereo particle image velocimetry measurements were performed downstream of a backward-facing step in a stationary-cross flow dominated flow. The PIV measurements exhibit excellent quantitative and qualitative agreement with the previously acquired hotwire data. Instantaneous PIV snapshots reveal new information about the nature and cause of the \\spikes" that occurred prior to breakdown in both the hotwire and PIV data. The PIV snapshots show that the events occur simultaneously across multiple stationary cross flow wavelengths, indicating that this is not simply a local event, but is likely caused by the 2D Tollmien-Schlichting instability that is introduced by the step. While the TS instability is a 2D instability, it is also modulated in the spanwise direction due to interactions with the stationary cross flow, as are the other unsteady disturbances present. Because of this modulation, the "spike" events cause an instantaneous increase of the spanwise modulation of the streamwise and spanwise velocity initially caused by the stationary cross flow. Breakdown appears to be caused by this instantaneous modulation, possibly due to a high-frequency secondary instability similar to a traveling-cross flow breakdown scenario. These results further illuminate the respective roles of the stationary cross flow and unsteady disturbances in transition downstream of a backward-facing step.

Self-Construal Priming Modulates Self-Evaluation under Social Threat

PubMed Central

Zhang, Tianyang; Xi, Sisi; Jin, Yan; Wu, Yanhong

2017-01-01

Previous studies have shown that Westerners evaluate themselves in an especially flattering way when faced with a social-evaluative threat. The current study first investigated whether East Asians also have a similar pattern by recruiting Chinese participants and using social-evaluative threat manipulations in which participants perform self-evaluation tasks while adopting different social-evaluative feedbacks (Experiment 1). Then further examined whether the different response patterns can be modulated by different types of self-construal by using social-evaluative threat manipulations in conjunction with a self-construal priming task (Experiment 2). The results showed that, as opposed to Westerners' pattern, Chinese participants rated themselves as having significantly greater above-average effect only when faced with the nonthreatening feedback but not the social-evaluative threat. More importantly, we found that self-construal modulated the self-evaluation under social-evaluative threat: following independent self-construal priming, participants tended to show a greater above-average effect when faced with a social-evaluative threat. However, this pattern in conjunction with a social threat disappeared after participants received interdependent self-construal priming or neutral priming. These findings suggest that the effects of social-evaluative threat on self-evaluation are not culturally universal and is strongly modulated by self-construal priming. PMID:29081755

Consultation Focus: Identification of Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pian, Canta

This paper discusses some of the problems faced by Asian Americans. Major topics addressed include: (1) the lack of accurate census statistics on minorities, especially Asian and Pacific Americans; (2) the employment, health, and stereotypic portrayal problems faced by Asian and Pacific American women; (3) racially discriminatory immigration laws…

[Neural mechanisms of facial recognition].

PubMed

Nagai, Chiyoko

2007-01-01

We review recent researches in neural mechanisms of facial recognition in the light of three aspects: facial discrimination and identification, recognition of facial expressions, and face perception in itself. First, it has been demonstrated that the fusiform gyrus has a main role of facial discrimination and identification. However, whether the FFA (fusiform face area) is really a special area for facial processing or not is controversial; some researchers insist that the FFA is related to 'becoming an expert' for some kinds of visual objects, including faces. Neural mechanisms of prosopagnosia would be deeply concerned to this issue. Second, the amygdala seems to be very concerned to recognition of facial expressions, especially fear. The amygdala, connected with the superior temporal sulcus and the orbitofrontal cortex, appears to operate the cortical function. The amygdala and the superior temporal sulcus are related to gaze recognition, which explains why a patient with bilateral amygdala damage could not recognize only a fear expression; the information from eyes is necessary for fear recognition. Finally, even a newborn infant can recognize a face as a face, which is congruent with the innate hypothesis of facial recognition. Some researchers speculate that the neural basis of such face perception is the subcortical network, comprised of the amygdala, the superior colliculus, and the pulvinar. This network would relate to covert recognition that prosopagnosic patients have.

Emotion and sex of facial stimuli modulate conditional automaticity in behavioral and neuronal interference in healthy men.

PubMed

Kohn, Nils; Fernández, Guillén

2017-12-06

Our surrounding provides a host of sensory input, which we cannot fully process without streamlining and automatic processing. Levels of automaticity differ for different cognitive and affective processes. Situational and contextual interactions between cognitive and affective processes in turn influence the level of automaticity. Automaticity can be measured by interference in Stroop tasks. We applied an emotional version of the Stroop task to investigate how stress as a contextual factor influences the affective valence-dependent level of automaticity. 120 young, healthy men were investigated for behavioral and brain interference following a stress induction or control procedure in a counter-balanced cross-over-design. Although Stroop interference was always observed, sex and emotion of the face strongly modulated interference, which was larger for fearful and male faces. These effects suggest higher automaticity when processing happy and also female faces. Supporting behavioral patterns, brain data show lower interference related brain activity in executive control related regions in response to happy and female faces. In the absence of behavioral stress effects, congruent compared to incongruent trials (reverse interference) showed little to no deactivation under stress in response to happy female and fearful male trials. These congruency effects are potentially based on altered context- stress-related facial processing that interact with sex-emotion stereotypes. Results indicate that sex and facial emotion modulate Stroop interference in brain and behavior. These effects can be explained by altered response difficulty as a consequence of the contextual and stereotype related modulation of automaticity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Distance learning and toxicology: new horizons for Paracelsus.

PubMed

Huggins, Jane; Morris, John; Peterson, C Erik

2005-09-01

Distance learning offers many advantages to students and teachers of almost any scientific discipline. Toxicology is no exception. For example, should Paracelsus be interested in learning more about toxicology at Drexel University, he would have the opportunity to take two courses in this subject utilizing the content management software, WebCT. The two courses would offer a website from which he could view and/or download his notes for each class. He could correspond with the instructor as well as fellow students, participate in discussions about timely topics, and make presentations to the class, all via electronic communication. Moreover, his examinations would also be computerized. Although he might have the option of attending traditional "face-to-face" lectures with other students in the class, he could also access these lectures at any time from a remote location by using the archive of taped lectures on the class website. Overall, Paracelsus would have access to many tools to enhance his understanding of toxicology, and he probably would never have to worry about parking before class (!). The two WebCT modules in toxicology that we have developed at Drexel represent the successful migration of two courses from a traditional "face-to-face" model of classroom instruction to hybrid models that combine "face-to-face" interaction with online instruction. Student and faculty evaluations of these courses have been very positive. Future plans include linking the two modules together so that students in the advanced class can do "review" or "remedial" work in the basic module. Furthermore, a library of video clips is also planned in which researchers will be discussing their work on various toxicologic topics. Students will be able to access these clips as resources from which to write research papers.

Distance learning and toxicology: New horizons for Paracelsus

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

Huggins, Jane; Morris, John; Peterson, C. Erik

2005-09-01

Distance learning offers many advantages to students and teachers of almost any scientific discipline. Toxicology is no exception. For example, should Paracelsus be interested in learning more about toxicology at Drexel University, he would have the opportunity to take two courses in this subject utilizing the content management software, WebCT. The two courses would offer a website from which he could view and/or download his notes for each class. He could correspond with the instructor as well as fellow students, participate in discussions about timely topics, and make presentations to the class, all via electronic communication. Moreover, his examinations wouldmore » also be computerized. Although he might have the option of attending traditional 'face-to-face' lectures with other students in the class, he could also access these lectures at any time from a remote location by using the archive of taped lectures on the class website. Overall, Paracelsus would have access to many tools to enhance his understanding of toxicology, and he probably would never have to worry about parking before class ({exclamation_point}). The two WebCT modules in toxicology that we have developed at Drexel represent the successful migration of two courses from a traditional 'face-to-face' model of classroom instruction to hybrid models that combine 'face-to-face' interaction with online instruction. Student and faculty evaluations of these courses have been very positive. Future plans include linking the two modules together so that students in the advanced class can do 'review' or 'remedial' work in the basic module. Furthermore, a library of video clips is also planned in which researchers will be discussing their work on various toxicologic topics. Students will be able to access these clips as resources from which to write research papers.« less

Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry: Volitional choices to act or inhibit are modulated by subliminal perception of emotional faces.

PubMed

Parkinson, Jim; Garfinkel, Sarah; Critchley, Hugo; Dienes, Zoltan; Seth, Anil K

2017-04-01

Volitional action and self-control-feelings of acting according to one's own intentions and in being control of one's own actions-are fundamental aspects of human conscious experience. However, it is unknown whether high-level cognitive control mechanisms are affected by socially salient but nonconscious emotional cues. In this study, we manipulated free choice decisions to act or withhold an action by subliminally presenting emotional faces: In a novel version of the Go/NoGo paradigm, participants made speeded button-press responses to Go targets, withheld responses to NoGo targets, and made spontaneous, free choices to execute or withhold the response for Choice targets. Before each target, we presented emotional faces, backwards masked to render them nonconscious. In Intentional trials, subliminal angry faces made participants more likely to voluntarily withhold the action, whereas fearful and happy faces had no effects. In a second experiment, the faces were made supraliminal, which eliminated the effects of angry faces on volitional choices. A third experiment measured neural correlates of the effects of subliminal angry faces on intentional choice using EEG. After replicating the behavioural results found in Experiment 1, we identified a frontal-midline theta component-associated with cognitive control processes-which is present for volitional decisions, and is modulated by subliminal angry faces. This suggests a mechanism whereby subliminally presented "threat" stimuli affect conscious control processes. In summary, nonconscious perception of angry faces increases choices to inhibit, and subliminal influences on volitional action are deep seated and ecologically embedded.

Isotope Identification

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

Karpius, Peter Joseph

2017-09-18

The objective of this training modules is to examine the process of using gamma spectroscopy for radionuclide identification; apply pattern recognition to gamma spectra; identify methods of verifying energy calibration; and discuss potential causes of isotope misidentification.

Apollo 16/AS-511/LM-11 operational calibration curves. Volume 1: Calibration curves for command service module CSM 113

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Demoss, J. F. (Compiler)

1971-01-01

Calibration curves for the Apollo 16 command service module pulse code modulation downlink and onboard display are presented. Subjects discussed are: (1) measurement calibration curve format, (2) measurement identification, (3) multi-mode calibration data summary, (4) pulse code modulation bilevel events listing, and (5) calibration curves for instrumentation downlink and meter link.

Image-Based 3D Face Modeling System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, In Kyu; Zhang, Hui; Vezhnevets, Vladimir

2005-12-01

This paper describes an automatic system for 3D face modeling using frontal and profile images taken by an ordinary digital camera. The system consists of four subsystems including frontal feature detection, profile feature detection, shape deformation, and texture generation modules. The frontal and profile feature detection modules automatically extract the facial parts such as the eye, nose, mouth, and ear. The shape deformation module utilizes the detected features to deform the generic head mesh model such that the deformed model coincides with the detected features. A texture is created by combining the facial textures augmented from the input images and the synthesized texture and mapped onto the deformed generic head model. This paper provides a practical system for 3D face modeling, which is highly automated by aggregating, customizing, and optimizing a bunch of individual computer vision algorithms. The experimental results show a highly automated process of modeling, which is sufficiently robust to various imaging conditions. The whole model creation including all the optional manual corrections takes only 2[InlineEquation not available: see fulltext.]3 minutes.

Emotional reactivity and its impact on neural circuitry for attention-emotion interaction in childhood and adolescence

PubMed Central

Perlman, Susan B.; Hein, Tyler C.; Stepp, Stephanie D.

2013-01-01

Attention modulation when confronted with emotional stimuli is considered a critical aspect of executive function, yet rarely studied during childhood and adolescence, a developmental period marked with changes in these processes. We employed a novel, and child-friendly fMRI task that used emotional faces to investigate the neural underpinnings of the attention-emotion interaction in a child and adolescent sample (n=23, Age m=13.46, sd=2.86, range=8.05–16.93 years). Results implied modulation of activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) due to emotional distractor valence, which marginally correlated with participant age. Additionally, parent-reported emotional reactivity predicted the trajectory of BOLD signal increase for fearful emotional face distractors such that participants low in emotional reactivity had a steeper latency to peak activation. Results imply that the use of the OFC to modulate attention in the face of social/emotional stimuli may mature with age and may be tightly coupled with adaptive emotional functioning. Findings are discussed in the context of risk for the development of psychiatric disorders, where increased emotional reactivity is particularly apparent. PMID:24055416

21 CFR 862.2100 - Calculator/data processing module for clinical use.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Calculator/data processing module for clinical use... SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES CLINICAL CHEMISTRY AND CLINICAL TOXICOLOGY DEVICES Clinical Laboratory Instruments § 862.2100 Calculator/data processing module for clinical use. (a) Identification. A calculator...

Wireless tracking of cotton modules Part II: automatic machine identification and system testing

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Mapping the harvest location of cotton modules is essential to practical understanding and utilization of spatial-variability information in fiber quality. A wireless module-tracking system was recently developed, but automation of the system is required before it will find practical use on the far...

A Continuing Education Program on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kallas, Anmarie; Reeve, Ron E.; Welch, Ann B.; Wright, James V.

1997-01-01

Describes the four modules of a project for enhancing the knowledge and skills of educators to better serve children with attention deficits, and the inservice personnel-preparation program based on these modules. Modules focus on characteristics and identification, model school programs, effective classroom interventions, and policy and…

The time course of face processing: startle eyeblink response modulation by face gender and expression.

PubMed

Duval, Elizabeth R; Lovelace, Christopher T; Aarant, Justin; Filion, Diane L

2013-12-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of both facial expression and face gender on startle eyeblink response patterns at varying lead intervals (300, 800, and 3500ms) indicative of attentional and emotional processes. We aimed to determine whether responses to affective faces map onto the Defense Cascade Model (Lang et al., 1997) to better understand the stages of processing during affective face viewing. At 300ms, there was an interaction between face expression and face gender with female happy and neutral faces and male angry faces producing inhibited startle. At 3500ms, there was a trend for facilitated startle during angry compared to neutral faces. These findings suggest that affective expressions are perceived differently in male and female faces, especially at short lead intervals. Future studies investigating face processing should take both face gender and expression into account. © 2013.

Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorders during Face Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleinhans, Natalia M.; Richards, Todd; Sterling, Lindsey; Stegbauer, Keith C.; Mahurin, Roderick; Johnson, L. Clark; Greenson, Jessica; Dawson, Geraldine; Aylward, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

Abnormalities in the interactions between functionally linked brain regions have been suggested to be associated with the clinical impairments observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated functional connectivity within the limbic system during face identification; a primary component of social cognition, in 19 high-functioning…

Face and Emotion Recognition in MCDD versus PDD-NOS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herba, Catherine M.; de Bruin, Esther; Althaus, Monika; Verheij, Fop; Ferdinand, Robert F.

2008-01-01

Previous studies indicate that Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder (MCDD) children differ from PDD-NOS and autistic children on a symptom level and on psychophysiological functioning. Children with MCDD (n = 21) and PDD-NOS (n = 62) were compared on two facets of social-cognitive functioning: identification of neutral faces and facial…

Alpha-band rhythm modulation under the condition of subliminal face presentation: MEG study.

PubMed

Sakuraba, Satoshi; Kobayashi, Hana; Sakai, Shinya; Yokosawa, Koichi

2013-01-01

The human brain has two streams to process visual information: a dorsal stream and a ventral stream. Negative potential N170 or its magnetic counterpart M170 is known as the face-specific signal originating from the ventral stream. It is possible to present a visual image unconsciously by using continuous flash suppression (CFS), which is a visual masking technique adopting binocular rivalry. In this work, magnetoencephalograms were recorded during presentation of the three invisible images: face images, which are processed by the ventral stream; tool images, which could be processed by the dorsal stream, and a blank image. Alpha-band activities detected by sensors that are sensitive to M170 were compared. The alpha-band rhythm was suppressed more during presentation of face images than during presentation of the blank image (p=.028). The suppression remained for about 1 s after ending presentations. However, no significant difference was observed between tool and other images. These results suggest that alpha-band rhythm can be modulated also by unconscious visual images.

Multiple Confidence Estimates as Indices of Eyewitness Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sauer, James D.; Brewer, Neil; Weber, Nathan

2008-01-01

Eyewitness identification decisions are vulnerable to various influences on witnesses' decision criteria that contribute to false identifications of innocent suspects and failures to choose perpetrators. An alternative procedure using confidence estimates to assess the degree of match between novel and previously viewed faces was investigated.…

Face-space architectures: evidence for the use of independent color-based features.

PubMed

Nestor, Adrian; Plaut, David C; Behrmann, Marlene

2013-07-01

The concept of psychological face space lies at the core of many theories of face recognition and representation. To date, much of the understanding of face space has been based on principal component analysis (PCA); the structure of the psychological space is thought to reflect some important aspects of a physical face space characterized by PCA applications to face images. In the present experiments, we investigated alternative accounts of face space and found that independent component analysis provided the best fit to human judgments of face similarity and identification. Thus, our results challenge an influential approach to the study of human face space and provide evidence for the role of statistically independent features in face encoding. In addition, our findings support the use of color information in the representation of facial identity, and we thus argue for the inclusion of such information in theoretical and computational constructs of face space.

Reward learning modulates the attentional processing of faces in children with and without autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Li, Tianbi; Wang, Xueqin; Pan, Junhao; Feng, Shuyuan; Gong, Mengyuan; Wu, Yaxue; Li, Guoxiang; Li, Sheng; Yi, Li

2017-11-01

The processing of social stimuli, such as human faces, is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be accounted for by their lack of social motivation. The current study examined how the attentional processing of faces in children with ASD could be modulated by the learning of face-reward associations. Sixteen high-functioning children with ASD and 20 age- and ability-matched typically developing peers participated in the experiments. All children started with a reward learning task, in which the children were presented with three female faces that were attributed with positive, negative, and neutral values, and were required to remember the faces and their associated values. After this, they were tested on the recognition of the learned faces and a visual search task in which the learned faces served as the distractor. We found a modulatory effect of the face-reward associations on the visual search but not the recognition performance in both groups despite the lower efficacy among children with ASD in learning the face-reward associations. Specifically, both groups responded faster when one of the distractor faces was associated with positive or negative values than when the distractor face was neutral, suggesting an efficient attentional processing of these reward-associated faces. Our findings provide direct evidence for the perceptual-level modulatory effect of reward learning on the attentional processing of faces in individuals with ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1797-1807. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. In our study, we tested whether the face processing of individuals with ASD could be changed when the faces were associated with different social meanings. We found no effect of social meanings on face recognition, but both groups responded faster in the visual search task when one of the distractor faces was associated with positive or negative values than when the neutral face. The findings suggest that children with ASD could efficiently process faces associated with different values like typical children. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Using Event Related Potentials to Explore Stages of Facial Affect Recognition Deficits in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Wynn, Jonathan K.; Lee, Junghee; Horan, William P.; Green, Michael F.

2008-01-01

Schizophrenia patients show impairments in identifying facial affect; however, it is not known at what stage facial affect processing is impaired. We evaluated 3 event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore stages of facial affect processing in schizophrenia patients. Twenty-six schizophrenia patients and 27 normal controls participated. In separate blocks, subjects identified the gender of a face, the emotion of a face, or if a building had 1 or 2 stories. Three ERPs were examined: (1) P100 to examine basic visual processing, (2) N170 to examine facial feature encoding, and (3) N250 to examine affect decoding. Behavioral performance on each task was also measured. Results showed that schizophrenia patients’ P100 was comparable to the controls during all 3 identification tasks. Both patients and controls exhibited a comparable N170 that was largest during processing of faces and smallest during processing of buildings. For both groups, the N250 was largest during the emotion identification task and smallest for the building identification task. However, the patients produced a smaller N250 compared with the controls across the 3 tasks. The groups did not differ in behavioral performance in any of the 3 identification tasks. The pattern of intact P100 and N170 suggest that patients maintain basic visual processing and facial feature encoding abilities. The abnormal N250 suggests that schizophrenia patients are less efficient at decoding facial affect features. Our results imply that abnormalities in the later stage of feature decoding could potentially underlie emotion identification deficits in schizophrenia. PMID:18499704

The Other in Me: Interpersonal Multisensory Stimulation Changes the Mental Representation of the Self

PubMed Central

Tajadura-Jiménez, Ana; Grehl, Stephanie; Tsakiris, Manos

2012-01-01

Background Recent studies have shown that the well-known effect of multisensory stimulation on body-awareness can be extended to self-recognition. Seeing someone else’s face being touched at the same time as one’s own face elicits changes in the mental representation of the self-face. We sought to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms and the effects of interpersonal multisensory stimulation (IMS) on the mental representation of the self and others. Methodology/Principal Findings Participants saw an unfamiliar face being touched synchronously or asynchronously with their own face, as if they were looking in the mirror. Following synchronous, but not asynchronous, IMS, participants assimilated features of the other’s face in the mental representation of their own face as evidenced by the change in the point of subjective equality for morphed pictures of the two faces. Interestingly, synchronous IMS resulted in a unidirectional change in the self-other distinction, affecting recognition of one’s own face, but not recognition of the other’s face. The participants’ autonomic responses to objects approaching the other’s face were higher following synchronous than asynchronous IMS, but this increase was not specific to the pattern of IMS in interaction with the viewed object. Finally, synchronous, as compared to asynchronous, IMS resulted in significant differences in participants’ ratings of their experience, but unlike other bodily illusions, positive changes in subjective experience were related to the perceived physical similarity between the two faces, and not to identification. Conclusions/Significance Synchronous IMS produces quantifiable changes in the mental representations of one’s face, as measured behaviorally. Changes in autonomic responses and in the subjective experience of self-identification were broadly consistent with patterns observed in other bodily illusions, but less robust. Overall, shared multisensory experiences between self and other can change the mental representation of one’s identity, and the perceived similarity of others relative to one’s self. PMID:22866177

A high-speed BCI based on code modulation VEP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bin, Guangyu; Gao, Xiaorong; Wang, Yijun; Li, Yun; Hong, Bo; Gao, Shangkai

2011-04-01

Recently, electroencephalogram-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have attracted much attention in the fields of neural engineering and rehabilitation due to their noninvasiveness. However, the low communication speed of current BCI systems greatly limits their practical application. In this paper, we present a high-speed BCI based on code modulation of visual evoked potentials (c-VEP). Thirty-two target stimuli were modulated by a time-shifted binary pseudorandom sequence. A multichannel identification method based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used for target identification. The online system achieved an average information transfer rate (ITR) of 108 ± 12 bits min-1 on five subjects with a maximum ITR of 123 bits min-1 for a single subject.

Manipulation Detection and Preference Alterations in a Choice Blindness Paradigm

PubMed Central

Taya, Fumihiko; Gupta, Swati; Farber, Ilya; Mullette-Gillman, O'Dhaniel A.

2014-01-01

Objectives It is commonly believed that individuals make choices based upon their preferences and have access to the reasons for their choices. Recent studies in several areas suggest that this is not always the case. In choice blindness paradigms, two-alternative forced-choice in which chosen-options are later replaced by the unselected option, individuals often fail to notice replacement of their chosen option, confabulate explanations for why they chose the unselected option, and even show increased preferences for the unselected-but-replaced options immediately after choice (seconds). Although choice blindness has been replicated across a variety of domains, there are numerous outstanding questions. Firstly, we sought to investigate how individual- or trial-factors modulated detection of the manipulations. Secondly, we examined the nature and temporal duration (minutes vs. days) of the preference alterations induced by these manipulations. Methods Participants performed a computerized choice blindness task, selecting the more attractive face between presented pairs of female faces, and providing a typewritten explanation for their choice on half of the trials. Chosen-face cue manipulations were produced on a subset of trials by presenting the unselected face during the choice explanation as if it had been selected. Following all choice trials, participants rated the attractiveness of each face individually, and rated the similarity of each face pair. After approximately two weeks, participants re-rated the attractiveness of each individual face online. Results Participants detected manipulations on only a small proportion of trials, with detections by fewer than half of participants. Detection rates increased with the number of prior detections, and detection rates subsequent to first detection were modulated by the choice certainty. We show clear short-term modulation of preferences in both manipulated and non-manipulated explanation trials compared to choice-only trials (with opposite directions of effect). Preferences were altered in the direction that subjects were led to believe they selected. PMID:25247886

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.

Neural Processing of Emotional Facial and Semantic Expressions in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Its Association with Theory of Mind (ToM)

PubMed Central

Petroni, Agustín; Baez, Sandra; Lopez, Vladimir; do Nascimento, Micaela; Herrera, Eduar; Guex, Raphael; Hurtado, Esteban; Blenkmann, Alejandro; Beltrachini, Leandro; Gelormini, Carlos; Sigman, Mariano; Lischinsky, Alicia; Torralva, Teresa; Torrente, Fernando; Cetkovich, Marcelo; Manes, Facundo

2012-01-01

Background Adults with bipolar disorder (BD) have cognitive impairments that affect face processing and social cognition. However, it remains unknown whether these deficits in euthymic BD have impaired brain markers of emotional processing. Methodology/Principal Findings We recruited twenty six participants, 13 controls subjects with an equal number of euthymic BD participants. We used an event-related potential (ERP) assessment of a dual valence task (DVT), in which faces (angry and happy), words (pleasant and unpleasant), and face-word simultaneous combinations are presented to test the effects of the stimulus type (face vs word) and valence (positive vs. negative). All participants received clinical, neuropsychological and social cognition evaluations. ERP analysis revealed that both groups showed N170 modulation of stimulus type effects (face > word). BD patients exhibited reduced and enhanced N170 to facial and semantic valence, respectively. The neural source estimation of N170 was a posterior section of the fusiform gyrus (FG), including the face fusiform area (FFA). Neural generators of N170 for faces (FG and FFA) were reduced in BD. In these patients, N170 modulation was associated with social cognition (theory of mind). Conclusions/Significance This is the first report of euthymic BD exhibiting abnormal N170 emotional discrimination associated with theory of mind impairments. PMID:23056505

Visual short-term memory load modulates the early attention and perception of task-irrelevant emotional faces

PubMed Central

Yang, Ping; Wang, Min; Jin, Zhenlan; Li, Ling

2015-01-01

The ability to focus on task-relevant information, while suppressing distraction, is critical for human cognition and behavior. Using a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task, we investigated the effects of emotional face distractors (positive, negative, and neutral faces) on early and late phases of visual short-term memory (VSTM) maintenance intervals, using low and high VSTM loads. Behavioral results showed decreased accuracy and delayed reaction times (RTs) for high vs. low VSTM load. Event-related potentials (ERPs) showed enhanced frontal N1 and occipital P1 amplitudes for negative faces vs. neutral or positive faces, implying rapid attentional alerting effects and early perceptual processing of negative distractors. However, high VSTM load appeared to inhibit face processing in general, showing decreased N1 amplitudes and delayed P1 latencies. An inverse correlation between the N1 activation difference (high-load minus low-load) and RT costs (high-load minus low-load) was found at left frontal areas when viewing negative distractors, suggesting that the greater the inhibition the lower the RT cost for negative faces. Emotional interference effect was not found in the late VSTM-related parietal P300, frontal positive slow wave (PSW) and occipital negative slow wave (NSW) components. In general, our findings suggest that the VSTM load modulates the early attention and perception of emotional distractors. PMID:26388763

The ability of cochlear implant users to use temporal envelope cues recovered from speech frequency modulation.

PubMed

Won, Jong Ho; Lorenzi, Christian; Nie, Kaibao; Li, Xing; Jameyson, Elyse M; Drennan, Ward R; Rubinstein, Jay T

2012-08-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that normal-hearing listeners can understand speech using the recovered "temporal envelopes," i.e., amplitude modulation (AM) cues from frequency modulation (FM). This study evaluated this mechanism in cochlear implant (CI) users for consonant identification. Stimuli containing only FM cues were created using 1, 2, 4, and 8-band FM-vocoders to determine if consonant identification performance would improve as the recovered AM cues become more available. A consistent improvement was observed as the band number decreased from 8 to 1, supporting the hypothesis that (1) the CI sound processor generates recovered AM cues from broadband FM, and (2) CI users can use the recovered AM cues to recognize speech. The correlation between the intact and the recovered AM components at the output of the sound processor was also generally higher when the band number was low, supporting the consonant identification results. Moreover, CI subjects who were better at using recovered AM cues from broadband FM cues showed better identification performance with intact (unprocessed) speech stimuli. This suggests that speech perception performance variability in CI users may be partly caused by differences in their ability to use AM cues recovered from FM speech cues.

Cross-Category Adaptation: Objects Produce Gender Adaptation in the Perception of Faces

PubMed Central

Javadi, Amir Homayoun; Wee, Natalie

2012-01-01

Adaptation aftereffects have been found for low-level visual features such as colour, motion and shape perception, as well as higher-level features such as gender, race and identity in domains such as faces and biological motion. It is not yet clear if adaptation effects in humans extend beyond this set of higher order features. The aim of this study was to investigate whether objects highly associated with one gender, e.g. high heels for females or electric shavers for males can modulate gender perception of a face. In two separate experiments, we adapted subjects to a series of objects highly associated with one gender and subsequently asked participants to judge the gender of an ambiguous face. Results showed that participants are more likely to perceive an ambiguous face as male after being exposed to objects highly associated to females and vice versa. A gender adaptation aftereffect was obtained despite the adaptor and test stimuli being from different global categories (objects and faces respectively). These findings show that our perception of gender from faces is highly affected by our environment and recent experience. This suggests two possible mechanisms: (a) that perception of the gender associated with an object shares at least some brain areas with those responsible for gender perception of faces and (b) adaptation to gender, which is a high-level concept, can modulate brain areas that are involved in facial gender perception through top-down processes. PMID:23049942

The many faces of amnesia.

PubMed

Gold, Paul E

2006-01-01

Results from studies of retrograde amnesia provide much of the evidence for theories of memory consolidation. Retrograde amnesia gradients are often interpreted as revealing the time needed for the formation of long-term memories. The rapid forgetting observed after many amnestic treatments, including protein synthesis inhibitors, and the parallel decay seen in long-term potentiation experiments are presumed to reveal the duration of short-term memory processing. However, there is clear and consistent evidence that the time courses obtained in these amnesia experiments are highly variable within and across experiments and treatments. The evidence is inconsistent with identification of basic temporal properties of memory consolidation. Alternative views include modulation of memory and emphasize the roles that hormones and neurotransmitters have in regulating memory formation. Of related interest, converging lines of evidence suggest that inhibitors of protein synthesis and of other biochemical processes act on modulators of memory formation rather than on mechanisms of memory formation. Based on these findings, memory consolidation and reconsolidation studies might better be identified as memory modulation and "remodulation" studies. Beyond a missing and perhaps unattainable time constant of memory consolidation, some current views of memory consolidation assume that memories, once formed, are generally unmodifiable. It is this perspective that appears to have led to the recent interest in memory reconsolidation. But the view adopted here is that memories are continually malleable, being updated by new experiences and, at the same time, altering the memories of later experiences. Studies of memory remodulation offer promise of understanding the neurobiological bases by which new memories are altered by prior experiences and by which old memories are altered by new experiences.

For Better or Worse? The Marriage of Key Skills Development and On-line Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Norah; Fitzgibbon, Karen

2002-01-01

Analysis of the University of Glamorgan's electronic learning module on employability and professional development demonstrates the feasibility of teaching transferable, "soft" skills online. Advantages compared with face-to-face include transparency, flexibility, development of information technology skills, openness, and teamwork;…

PC_Eyewitness: evaluating the New Jersey method.

PubMed

MacLin, Otto H; Phelan, Colin M

2007-05-01

One important variable in eyewitness identification research is lineup administration procedure. Lineups administered sequentially (one at a time) have been shown to reduce the number of false identifications in comparison with those administered simultaneously (all at once). As a result, some policymakers have adopted sequential administration. However, they have made slight changes to the method used in psychology laboratories. Eyewitnesses in the field are allowed to take multiple passes through a lineup, whereas participants in the laboratory are allowed only one pass. PC_Eyewitness (PCE) is a computerized system used to construct and administer simultaneous or sequential lineups in both the laboratory and the field. It is currently being used in laboratories investigating eyewitness identification in the United States, Canada, and abroad. A modified version of PCE is also being developed for a local police department. We developed a new module for PCE, the New Jersey module, to examine the effects of a second pass. We found that the sequential advantage was eliminated when the participants were allowed to view the lineup a second time. The New Jersey module, and steps we are taking to improve on the module, are presented here and are being made available to the research and law enforcement communities.

After the Identification of Incompetence: Then What?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, Miles T.

Many factors make it difficult to identify a teacher formally as incompetent and to act on that identification once it is made. These factors include time constraints, bureaucratic requirements, and reluctance to face emotional stress. Once a poor teacher is identified, efforts are rarely made to help the teacher improve. Unsatisfactory…

The effect of emotionally valenced eye region images on visuocortical processing of surprised faces.

PubMed

Li, Shuaixia; Li, Ping; Wang, Wei; Zhu, Xiangru; Luo, Wenbo

2018-05-01

In this study, we presented pictorial representations of happy, neutral, and fearful expressions projected in the eye regions to determine whether the eye region alone is sufficient to produce a context effect. Participants were asked to judge the valence of surprised faces that had been preceded by a picture of an eye region. Behavioral results showed that affective ratings of surprised faces were context dependent. Prime-related ERPs with presentation of happy eyes elicited a larger P1 than those for neutral and fearful eyes, likely due to the recognition advantage provided by a happy expression. Target-related ERPs showed that surprised faces in the context of fearful and happy eyes elicited dramatically larger C1 than those in the neutral context, which reflected the modulation by predictions during the earliest stages of face processing. There were larger N170 with neutral and fearful eye contexts compared to the happy context, suggesting faces were being integrated with contextual threat information. The P3 component exhibited enhanced brain activity in response to faces preceded by happy and fearful eyes compared with neutral eyes, indicating motivated attention processing may be involved at this stage. Altogether, these results indicate for the first time that the influence of isolated eye regions on the perception of surprised faces involves preferential processing at the early stages and elaborate processing at the late stages. Moreover, higher cognitive processes such as predictions and attention can modulate face processing from the earliest stages in a top-down manner. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Face the hierarchy: ERP and oscillatory brain responses in social rank processing.

PubMed

Breton, Audrey; Jerbi, Karim; Henaff, Marie-Anne; Cheylus, Anne; Baudouin, Jean-Yves; Schmitz, Christina; Krolak-Salmon, Pierre; Van der Henst, Jean-Baptiste

2014-01-01

Recognition of social hierarchy is a key feature that helps us navigate through our complex social environment. Neuroimaging studies have identified brain structures involved in the processing of hierarchical stimuli but the precise temporal dynamics of brain activity associated with such processing remains largely unknown. Here, we used electroencephalography to examine the effect of social hierarchy on neural responses elicited by faces. In contrast to previous studies, the key manipulation was that a hierarchical context was constructed, not by varying facial expressions, but by presenting neutral-expression faces in a game setting. Once the performance-based hierarchy was established, participants were presented with high-rank, middle-rank and low-rank player faces and had to evaluate the rank of each face with respect to their own position. Both event-related potentials and task-related oscillatory activity were investigated. Three main findings emerge from the study. First, the experimental manipulation had no effect on the early N170 component, which may suggest that hierarchy did not modulate the structural encoding of neutral-expression faces. Second, hierarchy significantly modulated the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) within a 400-700 ms time-window, with more a prominent LPP occurring when the participants processed the face of the highest-rank player. Third, high-rank faces were associated with the highest reduction of alpha power. Taken together these findings provide novel electrophysiological evidence for enhanced allocation of attentional resource in the presence of high-rank faces. At a broader level, this study brings new insights into the neural processing underlying social categorization.

A Personalized Health Information Retrieval System

PubMed Central

Wang, Yunli; Liu, Zhenkai

2005-01-01

Consumers face barriers when seeking health information on the Internet. A Personalized Health Information Retrieval System (PHIRS) is proposed to recommend health information for consumers. The system consists of four modules: (1) User modeling module captures user’s preference and health interests; (2) Automatic quality filtering module identifies high quality health information; (3) Automatic text difficulty rating module classifies health information into professional or patient educational materials; and (4) User profile matching module tailors health information for individuals. The initial results show that PHIRS could assist consumers with simple search strategies. PMID:16779435

Online vs. face-to-face discussion in a Web-based research methods course for postgraduate nursing students: a quasi-experimental study.

PubMed

Campbell, Malcolm; Gibson, Will; Hall, Andy; Richards, David; Callery, Peter

2008-05-01

Web-based technologies are increasingly being used to create modes of online learning for nurses but their effect has not been assessed in nurse education. Assess whether participation in face-to-face discussion seminars or online asynchronous discussion groups had different effects on educational attainment in a web-based course. Non-randomised or quasi-experimental design with two groups-students choosing to have face-to-face discussion seminars and students choosing to have online discussions. The Core Methods module of a postgraduate research methods course. All 114 students participating in the first 2 yr during which the course teaching material was delivered online. Assignment mark for Core Methods course module. Background details of the students, their choices of modules and assignment marks were collected as part of the routine course administration. Students' online activities were identified using the student tracking facility within WebCT. Regression models were fitted to explore the association between available explanatory variables and assignment mark. Students choosing online discussions had a higher Core Methods assignment mark (mean 60.8/100) than students choosing face-to-face discussions (54.4); the difference was statistically significant (t=3.13, df=102, p=0.002), although this ignores confounding variables. Among online discussion students, assignment mark was significantly correlated with the numbers of discussion messages read (Kendall's tau(b)=0.22, p=0.050) and posted (Kendall's tau(b)=0.27, p=0.017); among face-to-face discussion students, it was significantly associated with the number of non-discussion hits in WebCT (Kendall's tau(b)=0.19, p=0.036). In regression analysis, choice of discussion method, whether an M.Phil./Ph.D. student, number of non-discussion hits in WebCT, number of online discussion messages read and number posted were associated with assignment mark at the 5% level of significance when taken singly; in combination, only whether an M.Phil./Ph.D. student (p=0.024) and number of non-discussion hits (p=0.045) retained significance. This study demonstrates that a research methods course can be delivered to postgraduate healthcare students at least as successfully by an entirely online method in which students participate in online discussion as by a blended method in which students accessing web-based teaching material attend face-to-face seminar discussions. Increased online activity was associated with higher assignment marks. The study highlights new opportunities for educational research that arise from the use of virtual learning environments that routinely record the activities of learners and tutors.

ADRA2B genotype differentially modulates stress-induced neural activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during emotional memory retrieval.

PubMed

Li, Shijia; Weerda, Riklef; Milde, Christopher; Wolf, Oliver T; Thiel, Christiane M

2015-02-01

Noradrenaline interacts with stress hormones in the amygdala and hippocampus to enhance emotional memory consolidation, but the noradrenergic-glucocorticoid interaction at retrieval, where stress impairs memory, is less understood. We used a genetic neuroimaging approach to investigate whether a genetic variation of the noradrenergic system impacts stress-induced neural activity in amygdala and hippocampus during recognition of emotional memory. This study is based on genotype-dependent reanalysis of data from our previous publication (Li et al. Brain Imaging Behav 2014). Twenty-two healthy male volunteers were genotyped for the ADRA2B gene encoding the α2B-adrenergic receptor. Ten deletion carriers and 12 noncarriers performed an emotional face recognition task, while their brain activity was measured with fMRI. During encoding, 50 fearful and 50 neutral faces were presented. One hour later, they underwent either an acute stress (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control procedure which was followed immediately by the retrieval session, where participants had to discriminate between 100 old and 50 new faces. A genotype-dependent modulation of neural activity at retrieval was found in the bilateral amygdala and right hippocampus. Deletion carriers showed decreased neural activity in the amygdala when recognizing emotional faces in control condition and increased amygdala activity under stress. Noncarriers showed no differences in emotional modulated amygdala activation under stress or control. Instead, stress-induced increases during recognition of emotional faces were present in the right hippocampus. The genotype-dependent effects of acute stress on neural activity in amygdala and hippocampus provide evidence for noradrenergic-glucocorticoid interaction in emotional memory retrieval.

Modulation of self-esteem in self- and other-evaluations primed by subliminal and supraliminal faces.

PubMed

Tao, Ran; Zhang, Shen; Li, Qi; Geng, Haiyan

2012-01-01

Past research examining implicit self-evaluation often manipulated self-processing as task-irrelevant but presented self-related stimuli supraliminally. Even when tested with more indirect methods, such as the masked priming paradigm, participants' responses may still be subject to conscious interference. Our study primed participants with either their own or someone else's face, and adopted a new paradigm to actualize strict face-suppression to examine participants' subliminal self-evaluation. In addition, we investigated how self-esteem modulates one's implicit self-evaluation and validated the role of awareness in creating the discrepancy on past findings between measures of implicit self-evaluation and explicit self-esteem. Participants' own face or others' faces were subliminally presented with a Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS) paradigm in Experiment 1, but supraliminally presented in Experiment 2, followed by a valence judgment task of personality adjectives. Participants also completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in each experiment. Results from Experiment 1 showed a typical bias of self-positivity among participants with higher self-esteem, but only a marginal self-positivity bias and a significant other-positivity bias among those with lower self-esteem. However, self-esteem had no modulating effect in Experiment 2: All participants showed the self-positivity bias. Our results provide direct evidence that self-evaluation manifests in different ways as a function of awareness between individuals with different self-views: People high and low in self-esteem may demonstrate different automatic reactions in the subliminal evaluations of the self and others; but the involvement of consciousness with supraliminally presented stimuli may reduce this dissociation.

Access of emotional information to visual awareness in patients with major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Sterzer, P; Hilgenfeldt, T; Freudenberg, P; Bermpohl, F; Adli, M

2011-08-01

According to cognitive theories of depression, negative biases affect most cognitive processes including perception. Such depressive perception may result not only from biased cognitive appraisal but also from automatic processing biases that influence the access of sensory information to awareness. Twenty patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 20 healthy control participants underwent behavioural testing with a variant of binocular rivalry, continuous flash suppression (CFS), to investigate the potency of emotional visual stimuli to gain access to awareness. While a neutral, fearful, happy or sad emotional face was presented to one eye, high-contrast dynamic patterns were presented to the other eye, resulting in initial suppression of the face from awareness. Participants indicated the location of the face with a key press as soon as it became visible. The modulation of suppression time by emotional expression was taken as an index of unconscious emotion processing. We found a significant difference in the emotional modulation of suppression time between MDD patients and controls. This difference was due to relatively shorter suppression of sad faces and, to a lesser degree, to longer suppression of happy faces in MDD. Suppression time modulation by sad expression correlated with change in self-reported severity of depression after 4 weeks. Our finding of preferential access to awareness for mood-congruent stimuli supports the notion that depressive perception may be related to altered sensory information processing even at automatic processing stages. Such perceptual biases towards mood-congruent information may reinforce depressed mood and contribute to negative cognitive biases. © Cambridge University Press 2011

Early and late temporo-spatial effects of contextual interference during perception of facial affect.

PubMed

Frühholz, Sascha; Fehr, Thorsten; Herrmann, Manfred

2009-10-01

Contextual features during recognition of facial affect are assumed to modulate the temporal course of emotional face processing. Here, we simultaneously presented colored backgrounds during valence categorizations of facial expressions. Subjects incidentally learned to perceive negative, neutral and positive expressions within a specific colored context. Subsequently, subjects made fast valence judgments while presented with the same face-color-combinations as in the first run (congruent trials) or with different face-color-combinations (incongruent trials). Incongruent trials induced significantly increased response latencies and significantly decreased performance accuracy. Contextual incongruent information during processing of neutral expressions modulated the P1 and the early posterior negativity (EPN) both localized in occipito-temporal areas. Contextual congruent information during emotional face perception revealed an emotion-related modulation of the P1 for positive expressions and of the N170 and the EPN for negative expressions. Highest amplitude of the N170 was found for negative expressions in a negatively associated context and the N170 amplitude varied with the amount of overall negative information. Incongruent trials with negative expressions elicited a parietal negativity which was localized to superior parietal cortex and which most likely represents a posterior manifestation of the N450 as an indicator of conflict processing. A sustained activation of the late LPP over parietal cortex for all incongruent trials might reflect enhanced engagement with facial expression during task conditions of contextual interference. In conclusion, whereas early components seem to be sensitive to the emotional valence of facial expression in specific contexts, late components seem to subserve interference resolution during emotional face processing.

Opposing Amygdala and Ventral Striatum Connectivity During Emotion Identification

PubMed Central

Satterthwaite, Theodore D.; Wolf, Daniel H.; Pinkham, Amy E.; Ruparel, Kosha; Elliott, Mark A.; Valdez, Jeffrey N.; Overton, Eve; Seubert, Janina; Gur, Raquel E.; Gur, Ruben C.; Loughead, James

2011-01-01

Lesion and electrophysiological studies in animals provide evidence of opposing functions for subcortical nuclei such as the amygdala and ventral striatum, but the implications of these findings for emotion identification in humans remain poorly described. Here we report a high-resolution fMRI study in a sample of 39 healthy subjects who performed a well-characterized emotion identification task. As expected, the amygdala responded to THREAT (angry or fearful) faces more than NON-THREAT (sad or happy) faces. A functional connectivity analysis of the time series from an anatomically defined amygdala seed revealed a strong anti-correlation between the amygdala and the ventral striatum /ventral pallidum, consistent with an opposing role for these regions in during emotion identification. A second functional connectivity analysis (psychophysiological interaction) investigating relative connectivity on THREAT vs. NON-THREAT trials demonstrated that the amygdala had increased connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex during THREAT trials, whereas the ventral striatum demonstrated increased connectivity with the posterior hippocampus on NON-THREAT trials. These results indicate that activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum may be inversely related, and that both regions may provide opposing affective bias signals during emotion identification. PMID:21600684

Diaper-Embedded Urinary Tract Infection Monitoring Sensor Module Powered by Urine-Activated Batteries.

PubMed

Seo, Weeseong; Yu, Wuyang; Tan, Tianlin; Ziaie, Babak; Jung, Byunghoo

2017-06-01

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections in humans. UTI is easily treatable using antibiotics if identified in early stage. However, without early identification and treatment, UTI can be a major source of serious complications in geriatric patients, in particular, those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. Also, for infants who have difficulty in describing their symptoms, UTI may lead to serious development of the disease making early identification of UTI crucial. In this paper, we present a diaper-embedded, wireless, self-powered, and autonomous UTI monitoring sensor module that allows an early detection of UTI with minimal effort. The sensor module consists of a paper-based colorimetric nitrite sensor, urine-activated batteries, a boost dc-dc converter, a low-power sensor interface utilizing pulse width modulation, and a Bluetooth low energy module for wireless transmission. Experimental results show a better detection of nitrite, a surrogate of UTI, than that of conventional dipstick testing. The proposed sensor module achieves a sensitivity of 1.35 ms/(mg/L) and a detection limit of 4 mg/L for nitrite.

The role of expression and race in weapons identification.

PubMed

Kubota, Jennifer T; Ito, Tiffany A

2014-12-01

Emotional expressions can signal intentions and so possess the power to moderate social inferences. Here, we test whether stereotypes implicitly elicited by a stigmatized racial outgroup member are moderated by facial expression. Participants classified pictures of guns and tools that were primed with pictures of Black and White male faces posing angry, happy, and neutral expressions. Across the 3 measures examined--response latencies, error rates, and automatic processing, facial expression modulated implicit stereotyping (Study 1, n = 71; Study 2, n = 166). A Black angry prime elicited implicit stereotyping, while a Black happy prime diminished implicit stereotyping. Responding after neutral primes varied as a function of the expression context. When viewed alongside more threatening expressions (Study 1), neutral Black targets no longer elicited implicit stereotyping, but when viewed alongside more threatening expressions (Study 2), neutral Black targets primed crime and danger-relevant stereotypes. These results demonstrate that an individual can activate different associations based on changes in emotional expression and that a feature present in many everyday encounters (a smile) attenuates implicit racial stereotyping.

ISS Expedition 18 Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Interior

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-11-19

ISS018-E-009225 (18 Nov. 2008) --- Astronaut Shane Kimbrough, STS-126 mission specialist, floats in the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module attached to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's Harmony node while Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked with the station.

ISS Expedition 18 Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Interior

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-11-19

ISS018-E-009227 (18 Nov. 2008) --- Astronaut Donald Pettit, STS-126 mission specialist, floats in the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module attached to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's Harmony node while Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked with the station.

Early top-down control of visual processing predicts working memory performance

PubMed Central

Rutman, Aaron M.; Clapp, Wesley C.; Chadick, James Z.; Gazzaley, Adam

2009-01-01

Selective attention confers a behavioral benefit for both perceptual and working memory (WM) performance, often attributed to top-down modulation of sensory neural processing. However, the direct relationship between early activity modulation in sensory cortices during selective encoding and subsequent WM performance has not been established. To explore the influence of selective attention on WM recognition, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to study the temporal dynamics of top-down modulation in a selective, delayed-recognition paradigm. Participants were presented with overlapped, “double-exposed” images of faces and natural scenes, and were instructed to either remember the face or the scene while simultaneously ignoring the other stimulus. Here, we present evidence that the degree to which participants modulate the early P100 (97–129 ms) event-related potential (ERP) during selective stimulus encoding significantly correlates with their subsequent WM recognition. These results contribute to our evolving understanding of the mechanistic overlap between attention and memory. PMID:19413473

Eye movement identification based on accumulated time feature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Baobao; Wu, Qiang; Sun, Jiande; Yan, Hua

2017-06-01

Eye movement is a new kind of feature for biometrical recognition, it has many advantages compared with other features such as fingerprint, face, and iris. It is not only a sort of static characteristics, but also a combination of brain activity and muscle behavior, which makes it effective to prevent spoofing attack. In addition, eye movements can be incorporated with faces, iris and other features recorded from the face region into multimode systems. In this paper, we do an exploring study on eye movement identification based on the eye movement datasets provided by Komogortsev et al. in 2011 with different classification methods. The time of saccade and fixation are extracted from the eye movement data as the eye movement features. Furthermore, the performance analysis was conducted on different classification methods such as the BP, RBF, ELMAN and SVM in order to provide a reference to the future research in this field.

Parameters Identification for Photovoltaic Module Based on an Improved Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm

PubMed Central

Wang, Hong-Hua

2014-01-01

A precise mathematical model plays a pivotal role in the simulation, evaluation, and optimization of photovoltaic (PV) power systems. Different from the traditional linear model, the model of PV module has the features of nonlinearity and multiparameters. Since conventional methods are incapable of identifying the parameters of PV module, an excellent optimization algorithm is required. Artificial fish swarm algorithm (AFSA), originally inspired by the simulation of collective behavior of real fish swarms, is proposed to fast and accurately extract the parameters of PV module. In addition to the regular operation, a mutation operator (MO) is designed to enhance the searching performance of the algorithm. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by various parameters of PV module under different environmental conditions, and the testing results are compared with other studied methods in terms of final solutions and computational time. The simulation results show that the proposed method is capable of obtaining higher parameters identification precision. PMID:25243233

Embodied simulation in exposure-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder—a possible integration of cognitive behavioral theories, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis

PubMed Central

Peri, Tuvia; Gofman, Mordechai; Tal, Shahar; Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka

2015-01-01

Exposure to the trauma memory is the common denominator of most evidence-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although exposure-based therapies aim to change associative learning networks and negative cognitions related to the trauma memory, emotional interactions between patient and therapist have not been thoroughly considered in past evaluations of exposure-based therapy. This work focuses on recent discoveries of the mirror-neuron system and the theory of embodied simulation (ES). These conceptualizations may add a new perspective to our understanding of change processes in exposure-based treatments for PTSD patients. It is proposed that during exposure to trauma memories, emotional responses of the patient are transferred to the therapist through ES and then mirrored back to the patient in a modulated way. This process helps to alleviate the patient's sense of loneliness and enhances his or her ability to exert control over painful, trauma-related emotional responses. ES processes may enhance the integration of clinical insights originating in psychoanalytic theories—such as holding, containment, projective identification, and emotional attunement—with cognitive behavioral theories of learning processes in the alleviation of painful emotional responses aroused by trauma memories. These processes are demonstrated through a clinical vignette from an exposure-based therapy with a trauma survivor. Possible clinical implications for the importance of face-to-face relationships during exposure-based therapy are discussed. PMID:26593097

Embodied simulation in exposure-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder-a possible integration of cognitive behavioral theories, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis.

PubMed

Peri, Tuvia; Gofman, Mordechai; Tal, Shahar; Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka

2015-01-01

Exposure to the trauma memory is the common denominator of most evidence-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although exposure-based therapies aim to change associative learning networks and negative cognitions related to the trauma memory, emotional interactions between patient and therapist have not been thoroughly considered in past evaluations of exposure-based therapy. This work focuses on recent discoveries of the mirror-neuron system and the theory of embodied simulation (ES). These conceptualizations may add a new perspective to our understanding of change processes in exposure-based treatments for PTSD patients. It is proposed that during exposure to trauma memories, emotional responses of the patient are transferred to the therapist through ES and then mirrored back to the patient in a modulated way. This process helps to alleviate the patient's sense of loneliness and enhances his or her ability to exert control over painful, trauma-related emotional responses. ES processes may enhance the integration of clinical insights originating in psychoanalytic theories-such as holding, containment, projective identification, and emotional attunement-with cognitive behavioral theories of learning processes in the alleviation of painful emotional responses aroused by trauma memories. These processes are demonstrated through a clinical vignette from an exposure-based therapy with a trauma survivor. Possible clinical implications for the importance of face-to-face relationships during exposure-based therapy are discussed.

Modulation format identification aided hitless flexible coherent transceiver.

PubMed

Xiang, Meng; Zhuge, Qunbi; Qiu, Meng; Zhou, Xingyu; Zhang, Fangyuan; Tang, Ming; Liu, Deming; Fu, Songnian; Plant, David V

2016-07-11

We propose a hitless flexible coherent transceiver enabled by a novel modulation format identification (MFI) scheme for dynamic agile optical networks. The modulation format transparent digital signal processing (DSP) is realized by a block-wise decision-directed least-mean-square (DD-LMS) equalizer for channel tracking, and a pilot symbol aided superscalar phase locked loop (PLL) for carrier phase estimation (CPE). For the MFI, the modulation format information is encoded onto the pilot symbols initially used for CPE. Therefore, the proposed MFI method does not require extra overhead. Moreover, it can identify arbitrary modulation formats including multi-dimensional formats, and it enables tracking of the format change for short data blocks. The performance of the proposed hitless flexible coherent transceiver is successfully evaluated with five modulation formats including QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, Hybrid QPSK/8QAM and set-partitioning (SP)-512-QAM. We show that the proposed MFI method induces a negligible performance penalty. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate that such a hitless transceiver can adapt to fast block-by-block modulation format switching. Finally, the performance improvement of the proposed MFI method is experimentally verified with respect to other commonly used MFI methods.

Decoding Face Information in Time, Frequency and Space from Direct Intracranial Recordings of the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Oya, Hiroyuki; Howard, Matthew A.; Adolphs, Ralph

2008-01-01

Faces are processed by a neural system with distributed anatomical components, but the roles of these components remain unclear. A dominant theory of face perception postulates independent representations of invariant aspects of faces (e.g., identity) in ventral temporal cortex including the fusiform gyrus, and changeable aspects of faces (e.g., emotion) in lateral temporal cortex including the superior temporal sulcus. Here we recorded neuronal activity directly from the cortical surface in 9 neurosurgical subjects undergoing epilepsy monitoring while they viewed static and dynamic facial expressions. Applying novel decoding analyses to the power spectrogram of electrocorticograms (ECoG) from over 100 contacts in ventral and lateral temporal cortex, we found better representation of both invariant and changeable aspects of faces in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. Critical information for discriminating faces from geometric patterns was carried by power modulations between 50 to 150 Hz. For both static and dynamic face stimuli, we obtained a higher decoding performance in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. For discriminating fearful from happy expressions, critical information was carried by power modulation between 60–150 Hz and below 30 Hz, and again better decoded in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. Task-relevant attention improved decoding accuracy more than10% across a wide frequency range in ventral but not at all in lateral temporal cortex. Spatial searchlight decoding showed that decoding performance was highest around the middle fusiform gyrus. Finally, we found that the right hemisphere, in general, showed superior decoding to the left hemisphere. Taken together, our results challenge the dominant model for independent face representation of invariant and changeable aspects: information about both face attributes was better decoded from a single region in the middle fusiform gyrus. PMID:19065268

Identity modulates short-term memory for facial emotion.

PubMed

Galster, Murray; Kahana, Michael J; Wilson, Hugh R; Sekuler, Robert

2009-12-01

For some time, the relationship between processing of facial expression and facial identity has been in dispute. Using realistic synthetic faces, we reexamined this relationship for both perception and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects tried to identify whether the emotional expression on a probe stimulus face matched the emotional expression on either of two remembered faces that they had just seen. The results showed that identity strongly influenced recognition short-term memory for emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects' similarity/dissimilarity judgments were transformed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) into a 2-D description of the faces' perceptual representations. Distances among stimuli in the MDS representation, which showed a strong linkage of emotional expression and facial identity, were good predictors of correct and false recognitions obtained previously in Experiment 1. The convergence of the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that the overall structure and configuration of faces' perceptual representations may parallel their representation in short-term memory and that facial identity modulates the representation of facial emotion, both in perception and in memory. The stimuli from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Does Face Inversion Change Spatial Frequency Tuning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willenbockel, Verena; Fiset, Daniel; Chauvin, Alan; Blais, Caroline; Arguin, Martin; Tanaka, James W.; Bub, Daniel N.; Gosselin, Frederic

2010-01-01

The authors examined spatial frequency (SF) tuning of upright and inverted face identification using an SF variant of the Bubbles technique (F. Gosselin & P. G. Schyns, 2001). In Experiment 1, they validated the SF Bubbles technique in a plaid detection task. In Experiments 2a-c, the SFs used for identifying upright and inverted inner facial…

Bodies Capture Attention When Nothing Is Expected

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Downing, Paul E.; Bray, David; Rogers, Jack; Childs, Claire

2004-01-01

Functional neuroimaging research has shown that certain classes of visual stimulus selectively activate focal regions of visual cortex. Specifically, cortical areas that generally and selectively respond to faces (Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face…

Beat Gestures Modulate Auditory Integration in Speech Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biau, Emmanuel; Soto-Faraco, Salvador

2013-01-01

Spontaneous beat gestures are an integral part of the paralinguistic context during face-to-face conversations. Here we investigated the time course of beat-speech integration in speech perception by measuring ERPs evoked by words pronounced with or without an accompanying beat gesture, while participants watched a spoken discourse. Words…

A ''Voice Inversion Effect?''

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bedard, Catherine; Belin, Pascal

2004-01-01

Voice is the carrier of speech but is also an ''auditory face'' rich in information on the speaker's identity and affective state. Three experiments explored the possibility of a ''voice inversion effect,'' by analogy to the classical ''face inversion effect,'' which could support the hypothesis of a voice-specific module. Experiment 1 consisted…

Cross-cultural differences in processing of architectural ranking: evidence from an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Mecklinger, Axel; Kriukova, Olga; Mühlmann, Heiner; Grunwald, Thomas

2014-01-01

Visual object identification is modulated by perceptual experience. In a cross-cultural ERP study we investigated whether cultural expertise determines how buildings that vary in their ranking between high and low according to the Western architectural decorum are perceived. Two groups of German and Chinese participants performed an object classification task in which high- and low-ranking Western buildings had to be discriminated from everyday life objects. ERP results indicate that an early stage of visual object identification (i.e., object model selection) is facilitated for high-ranking buildings for the German participants, only. At a later stage of object identification, in which object knowledge is complemented by information from semantic and episodic long-term memory, no ERP evidence for cultural differences was obtained. These results suggest that the identification of architectural ranking is modulated by culturally specific expertise with Western-style architecture already at an early processing stage.

Unsupervised real-time speaker identification for daily movies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ying; Kuo, C.-C. Jay

2002-07-01

The problem of identifying speakers for movie content analysis is addressed in this paper. While most previous work on speaker identification was carried out in a supervised mode using pure audio data, more robust results can be obtained in real-time by integrating knowledge from multiple media sources in an unsupervised mode. In this work, both audio and visual cues will be employed and subsequently combined in a probabilistic framework to identify speakers. Particularly, audio information is used to identify speakers with a maximum likelihood (ML)-based approach while visual information is adopted to distinguish speakers by detecting and recognizing their talking faces based on face detection/recognition and mouth tracking techniques. Moreover, to accommodate for speakers' acoustic variations along time, we update their models on the fly by adapting to their newly contributed speech data. Encouraging results have been achieved through extensive experiments, which shows a promising future of the proposed audiovisual-based unsupervised speaker identification system.

Developing a blended course on dying, loss, and grief.

PubMed

Kavanaugh, Karen; Andreoni, V Ann; Wilkie, Diana J; Burgener, Sandra; Buschmann, Mary Beth Tank; Henderson, Gloria; Hsiung, Yi-Fang Yvonne; Zhao, Zhongsheng

2009-01-01

An important component of end-of-life education is to provide health professionals with content related to dying, loss, and grief. The authors describe the strategies used to develop and offer a blended course (integration of classroom face-to-face learning with online learning) that addressed the sensitive and often emotional content associated with grieving and bereavement. Using Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, a set of 4 online learning modules, with engaging, interactive elements, was created. Course evaluations demonstrated the success of the blended course in comparison to the traditional, exclusive face-to-face approach.

Astronaut Vance Brand practices operating Docking Module hatch for ASTP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Astronaut Vance D. Brand, command module pilot of the American Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) prime crew, practices operating a Docking Module hatch during ASTP pre-flight training at JSC. The Docking Module is designed to link the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft during their docking in Earth orbit mission. Gary L. Doerre of JSC's Crew Training and Procedures Division is working with Brand. Doerre is wearing a face mask to help prevent possible exposure to Brand of disease prior to the ASTP launch.

The OBIS Trail Module. Trial Version.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairwell, Kay, Ed.; And Others

Designed to allow youngsters aged 10 to 15 to experience the challenges and problems environmental investigators might face making an environmental impact study, the trial version of the Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies (OBIS) Trail Module focuses on aspects of construction-related environment problems. Four activities are included in the…

Identification of a Maize Locus that Modulates the Hypersensitive Defense Response, Using Mutant-Assisted Gene Identification and Characterization (MAGIC)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The hypersensitive response (HR) is the most visible and arguably the most important defense response in plants, although the details of how it is controlled and executed remain patchy. In this paper a novel genetic technique called MAGIC (Mutant-Assisted Gene Identification and Characterization) i...

When Hearing the Bark Helps to Identify the Dog: Semantically-Congruent Sounds Modulate the Identification of Masked Pictures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yi-Chuan; Spence, Charles

2010-01-01

We report a series of experiments designed to assess the effect of audiovisual semantic congruency on the identification of visually-presented pictures. Participants made unspeeded identification responses concerning a series of briefly-presented, and then rapidly-masked, pictures. A naturalistic sound was sometimes presented together with the…

Identification and Structural Basis of Binding to Host Lung Glycogen by Streptococcal Virulence Factors

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

Lammerts van Bueren,A.; Higgins, M.; Wang, D.

2007-01-01

The ability of pathogenic bacteria to recognize host glycans is often essential to their virulence. Here we report structure-function studies of previously uncharacterized glycogen-binding modules in the surface-anchored pullulanases from Streptococcus pneumoniae (SpuA) and Streptococcus pyogenes (PulA). Multivalent binding to glycogen leads to a strong interaction with alveolar type II cells in mouse lung tissue. X-ray crystal structures of the binding modules reveal a novel fusion of tandem modules into single, bivalent functional domains. In addition to indicating a structural basis for multivalent attachment, the structure of the SpuA modules in complex with carbohydrate provides insight into the molecular basismore » for glycogen specificity. This report provides the first evidence that intracellular lung glycogen may be a novel target of pathogenic streptococci and thus provides a rationale for the identification of the streptococcal {alpha}-glucan-metabolizing machinery as virulence factors.« less

Feature instructions improve face-matching accuracy

PubMed Central

Bindemann, Markus

2018-01-01

Identity comparisons of photographs of unfamiliar faces are prone to error but important for applied settings, such as person identification at passport control. Finding techniques to improve face-matching accuracy is therefore an important contemporary research topic. This study investigated whether matching accuracy can be improved by instruction to attend to specific facial features. Experiment 1 showed that instruction to attend to the eyebrows enhanced matching accuracy for optimized same-day same-race face pairs but not for other-race faces. By contrast, accuracy was unaffected by instruction to attend to the eyes, and declined with instruction to attend to ears. Experiment 2 replicated the eyebrow-instruction improvement with a different set of same-race faces, comprising both optimized same-day and more challenging different-day face pairs. These findings suggest that instruction to attend to specific features can enhance face-matching accuracy, but feature selection is crucial and generalization across face sets may be limited. PMID:29543822

Why we respond faster to the self than to others? An implicit positive association theory of self-advantage during implicit face recognition.

PubMed

Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui

2010-06-01

Human adults usually respond faster to their own faces rather than to those of others. We tested the hypothesis that an implicit positive association (IPA) with self mediates self-advantage in face recognition through 4 experiments. Using a self-concept threat (SCT) priming that associated the self with negative personal traits and led to a weakened IPA with self, we found that self-face advantage in an implicit face-recognition task that required identification of face orientation was eliminated by the SCT priming. Moreover, the SCT effect on self-face recognition was evident only with the left-hand responses. Furthermore, the SCT effect on self-face recognition was observed in both Chinese and American participants. Our findings support the IPA hypothesis that defines a social cognitive mechanism of self-advantage in face recognition.

Orientation-modulated attention effect on visual evoked potential: Application for PIN system using brain-computer interface.

PubMed

Wilaiprasitporn, Theerawit; Yagi, Tohru

2015-01-01

This research demonstrates the orientation-modulated attention effect on visual evoked potential. We combined this finding with our previous findings about the motion-modulated attention effect and used the result to develop novel visual stimuli for a personal identification number (PIN) application based on a brain-computer interface (BCI) framework. An electroencephalography amplifier with a single electrode channel was sufficient for our application. A computationally inexpensive algorithm and small datasets were used in processing. Seven healthy volunteers participated in experiments to measure offline performance. Mean accuracy was 83.3% at 13.9 bits/min. Encouraged by these results, we plan to continue developing the BCI-based personal identification application toward real-time systems.

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The purpose of this program is to demonstrate the technical readiness of a cost effective process sequence that has the potential for the production of flat plate photovoltaic modules which met the price goal in 1986 of $.70 or less per watt peak. Program efforts included: preliminary design review, preliminary cell fabrication using the proposed process sequence, verification of sandblasting back cleanup, study of resist parameters, evaluation of pull strength of the proposed metallization, measurement of contact resistance of Electroless Ni contacts, optimization of process parameter, design of the MEPSDU module, identification and testing of insulator tapes, development of a lamination process sequence, identification, discussions, demonstrations and visits with candidate equipment vendors, evaluation of proposals for tabbing and stringing machine.

Racial bias in neural empathic responses to pain.

PubMed

Contreras-Huerta, Luis Sebastian; Baker, Katharine S; Reynolds, Katherine J; Batalha, Luisa; Cunnington, Ross

2013-01-01

Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain, principally involving regions of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula cortex. The degree of these empathic neural responses is modulated by racial bias, such that stronger neural activation is elicited by observing pain in people of the same racial group compared with people of another racial group. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a more general social group category, other than race, could similarly modulate neural empathic responses and perhaps account for the apparent racial bias reported in previous studies. Using a minimal group paradigm, we assigned participants to one of two mixed-race teams. We use the term race to refer to the Chinese or Caucasian appearance of faces and whether the ethnic group represented was the same or different from the appearance of the participant' own face. Using fMRI, we measured neural empathic responses as participants observed members of their own group or other group, and members of their own race or other race, receiving either painful or non-painful touch. Participants showed clear group biases, with no significant effect of race, on behavioral measures of implicit (affective priming) and explicit group identification. Neural responses to observed pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and somatosensory areas showed significantly greater activation when observing pain in own-race compared with other-race individuals, with no significant effect of minimal groups. These results suggest that racial bias in neural empathic responses is not influenced by minimal forms of group categorization, despite the clear association participants showed with in-group more than out-group members. We suggest that race may be an automatic and unconscious mechanism that drives the initial neural responses to observed pain in others.

Racial Bias in Neural Empathic Responses to Pain

PubMed Central

Contreras-Huerta, Luis Sebastian; Baker, Katharine S.; Reynolds, Katherine J.; Batalha, Luisa; Cunnington, Ross

2013-01-01

Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain, principally involving regions of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula cortex. The degree of these empathic neural responses is modulated by racial bias, such that stronger neural activation is elicited by observing pain in people of the same racial group compared with people of another racial group. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a more general social group category, other than race, could similarly modulate neural empathic responses and perhaps account for the apparent racial bias reported in previous studies. Using a minimal group paradigm, we assigned participants to one of two mixed-race teams. We use the term race to refer to the Chinese or Caucasian appearance of faces and whether the ethnic group represented was the same or different from the appearance of the participant' own face. Using fMRI, we measured neural empathic responses as participants observed members of their own group or other group, and members of their own race or other race, receiving either painful or non-painful touch. Participants showed clear group biases, with no significant effect of race, on behavioral measures of implicit (affective priming) and explicit group identification. Neural responses to observed pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and somatosensory areas showed significantly greater activation when observing pain in own-race compared with other-race individuals, with no significant effect of minimal groups. These results suggest that racial bias in neural empathic responses is not influenced by minimal forms of group categorization, despite the clear association participants showed with in-group more than out-group members. We suggest that race may be an automatic and unconscious mechanism that drives the initial neural responses to observed pain in others. PMID:24376780

Identification of Students with Dyslexia in California Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Futterman, Kathy R.

2017-01-01

One of the key problems facing public education today is the need for early and accurate identification of students with dyslexia. Students with dyslexia in public schools have historically been largely ignored or under-identified. California public school educators and administrators need to understand what dyslexia is and how to accurately…

Identification and Access Management: An Action Research Approach to Develop a Training Strategy for Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

San Nicolas-Rocca, Tonia

2010-01-01

Identification and access management has been among the top security issues facing institutions of higher education. Most institutions of higher education require end users to provide usernames and passwords to gain access to personally identifiable information (PII). This leaves universities vulnerable to unauthorized access and unauthorized…

From upright to upside-down presentation: A spatio-temporal ERP study of the parametric effect of rotation on face and house processing

PubMed Central

Jemel, Boutheina; Coutya, Julie; Langer, Caroline; Roy, Sylvain

2009-01-01

Background While there is a general agreement that picture-plane inversion is more detrimental to face processing than to other seemingly complex visual objects, the origin of this effect is still largely debatable. Here, we address the question of whether face inversion reflects a quantitative or a qualitative change in processing mode by investigating the pattern of event-related potential (ERP) response changes with picture plane rotation of face and house pictures. Thorough analyses of topographical (Scalp Current Density maps, SCD) and dipole source modeling were also conducted. Results We find that whilst stimulus orientation affected in a similar fashion participants' response latencies to make face and house decisions, only the ERPs in the N170 latency range were modulated by picture plane rotation of faces. The pattern of N170 amplitude and latency enhancement to misrotated faces displayed a curvilinear shape with an almost linear increase for rotations from 0° to 90° and a dip at 112.5° up to 180° rotations. A similar discontinuity function was also described for SCD occipito-temporal and temporal current foci with no topographic distribution changes, suggesting that upright and misrotated faces activated similar brain sources. This was confirmed by dipole source analyses showing the involvement of bilateral sources in the fusiform and middle occipital gyri, the activity of which was differentially affected by face rotation. Conclusion Our N170 findings provide support for both the quantitative and qualitative accounts for face rotation effects. Although the qualitative explanation predicted the curvilinear shape of N170 modulations by face misrotations, topographical and source modeling findings suggest that the same brain regions, and thus the same mechanisms, are probably at work when processing upright and rotated faces. Taken collectively, our results indicate that the same processing mechanisms may be involved across the whole range of face orientations, but would operate in a non-linear fashion. Finally, the response tuning of the N170 to rotated faces extends previous reports and further demonstrates that face inversion affects perceptual analyses of faces, which is reflected within the time range of the N170 component. PMID:19691846

From upright to upside-down presentation: a spatio-temporal ERP study of the parametric effect of rotation on face and house processing.

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Coutya, Julie; Langer, Caroline; Roy, Sylvain

2009-08-19

While there is a general agreement that picture-plane inversion is more detrimental to face processing than to other seemingly complex visual objects, the origin of this effect is still largely debatable. Here, we address the question of whether face inversion reflects a quantitative or a qualitative change in processing mode by investigating the pattern of event-related potential (ERP) response changes with picture plane rotation of face and house pictures. Thorough analyses of topographical (Scalp Current Density maps, SCD) and dipole source modeling were also conducted. We find that whilst stimulus orientation affected in a similar fashion participants' response latencies to make face and house decisions, only the ERPs in the N170 latency range were modulated by picture plane rotation of faces. The pattern of N170 amplitude and latency enhancement to misrotated faces displayed a curvilinear shape with an almost linear increase for rotations from 0 degrees to 90 degrees and a dip at 112.5 degrees up to 180 degrees rotations. A similar discontinuity function was also described for SCD occipito-temporal and temporal current foci with no topographic distribution changes, suggesting that upright and misrotated faces activated similar brain sources. This was confirmed by dipole source analyses showing the involvement of bilateral sources in the fusiform and middle occipital gyri, the activity of which was differentially affected by face rotation. Our N170 findings provide support for both the quantitative and qualitative accounts for face rotation effects. Although the qualitative explanation predicted the curvilinear shape of N170 modulations by face misrotations, topographical and source modeling findings suggest that the same brain regions, and thus the same mechanisms, are probably at work when processing upright and rotated faces. Taken collectively, our results indicate that the same processing mechanisms may be involved across the whole range of face orientations, but would operate in a non-linear fashion. Finally, the response tuning of the N170 to rotated faces extends previous reports and further demonstrates that face inversion affects perceptual analyses of faces, which is reflected within the time range of the N170 component.

Identification of in vitro cytochrome P450 modulators to detect induction by prototype inducers in the mallard duckling (Anas platyrhynchos

USGS Publications Warehouse

Renauld, A.E.; Melancon, M.J.; Sordillo, L.M.

1999-01-01

Seven modulators of mammalian monooxygenase activity were screened for their ability to selectively stimulate or inhibit in vitro monooxygenase activities of hepatic microsomes from mallard ducklings treated with phenobarbital, β-naphthoflavone, 3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl or vehicle. Microsomes were assayed fluorometrically for four monooxygenases: benzyloxy-, ethoxy-, methoxy-, and pentoxyresorufin-O-dealkylase, in combination with each of the seven modulators. Four combinations: α-naphthoflavone and 2-methylbenzimidazole with benzyloxyresorufin, and Proadifen with methoxy- and ethoxyresorufin, respectively, were evaluated further. β-Naphthoflavone-treated groups were clearly distinguished from the corn oil vehicle control group by all of the assays and by the effects of the modulators in three of the four assay/modulator combinations. Enzyme activities of the phenobarbital and saline groups were statistically similar (P≥0.05) when assayed without modulator added, but each assay/modulator combination distinguished between these groups. The PCB-treated group was distinguished from the corn oil vehicle control group only for BROD activity, with or without the presence of modulator. Graphing of per cent modulation of BROD activity versus initial BROD activity provided the clearest distinction between all of the study groups. Identification of these selective in vitro modulators may improve detection and measurement of low level cytochrome P450 induction in avian species. Also, both the monooxygenase activities induced and the impacts of the modulators indicated differences between mammalian and avian cytochromes P450.

Identification coding schemes for modulated reflectance systems

DOEpatents

Coates, Don M [Santa Fe, NM; Briles, Scott D [Los Alamos, NM; Neagley, Daniel L [Albuquerque, NM; Platts, David [Santa Fe, NM; Clark, David D [Santa Fe, NM

2006-08-22

An identifying coding apparatus employing modulated reflectance technology involving a base station emitting a RF signal, with a tag, located remotely from the base station, and containing at least one antenna and predetermined other passive circuit components, receiving the RF signal and reflecting back to the base station a modulated signal indicative of characteristics related to the tag.

PERSONNEL - PREFLIGHT - APOLLO-SOYUZ TEST PROJECT (ASTP) - EL-BAZ, FAROUK - JSC

NASA Image and Video Library

1975-07-08

S75-28229 (8 July 1975) --- The three American ASTP prime crew astronauts participate in a photography mission briefing in Building 5 with Dr. Farouk El-Baz (wearing face mask) during Apollo-Soyuz Test Project preflight activity at NASA's Johnson Space Center. They are, left to right, Thomas P. Stafford, commander; Vance D. Brand, command module pilot; Dr. El-Baz; and Donald K. Slayton, docking module pilot. Dr. El-Baz is with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. The face mask is to protect the crewmen from possible exposure to disease prior to launch time. Photo credit: NASA

Enhanced old-new recognition and source memory for faces of cooperators and defectors in a social-dilemma game.

PubMed

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Musch, Jochen

2010-12-01

A popular assumption in evolutionary psychology is that the human mind comprises specialized cognitive modules for social exchange, including a module that serves to enhance memory for faces of cheaters. In the present study, participants played a trust game with computerized opponents, who either defected or cooperated. In a control condition, no interaction took place. In a surprise memory test, old-new recognition for faces and source memory for the associated cooperative or non-cooperative behavior were assessed. A multinomial model was used to measure old-new discrimination, source memory, and guessing biases separately. Inconsistent with the assumption of a memory mechanism that focuses exclusively on cheating, the present study showed enhanced old-new discrimination and source memory for both cooperators and defectors. Rarity of the behavior strategies within the experiment modulated source memory, but only when the differences in base rates were extreme. The findings can be attributed to a mechanism that focuses on exchange-relevant information and flexibly adapts to take into account the relative significance of this information in the encoding context, which may be more beneficial than focusing exclusively on cheaters. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthesis and identification of three-dimensional faces from image(s) and three-dimensional generic models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zexi; Cohen, Fernand

2017-11-01

We describe an approach for synthesizing a three-dimensional (3-D) face structure from an image or images of a human face taken at a priori unknown poses using gender and ethnicity specific 3-D generic models. The synthesis process starts with a generic model, which is personalized as images of the person become available using preselected landmark points that are tessellated to form a high-resolution triangular mesh. From a single image, two of the three coordinates of the model are reconstructed in accordance with the given image of the person, while the third coordinate is sampled from the generic model, and the appearance is made in accordance with the image. With multiple images, all coordinates and appearance are reconstructed in accordance with the observed images. This method allows for accurate pose estimation as well as face identification in 3-D rendering of a difficult two-dimensional (2-D) face recognition problem into a much simpler 3-D surface matching problem. The estimation of the unknown pose is achieved using the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization process. Encouraging experimental results are obtained in a controlled environment with high-resolution images under a good illumination condition, as well as for images taken in an uncontrolled environment under arbitrary illumination with low-resolution cameras.

Mapping the impairment in decoding static facial expressions of emotion in prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Fiset, Daniel; Blais, Caroline; Royer, Jessica; Richoz, Anne-Raphaëlle; Dugas, Gabrielle; Caldara, Roberto

2017-08-01

Acquired prosopagnosia is characterized by a deficit in face recognition due to diverse brain lesions, but interestingly most prosopagnosic patients suffering from posterior lesions use the mouth instead of the eyes for face identification. Whether this bias is present for the recognition of facial expressions of emotion has not yet been addressed. We tested PS, a pure case of acquired prosopagnosia with bilateral occipitotemporal lesions anatomically sparing the regions dedicated for facial expression recognition. PS used mostly the mouth to recognize facial expressions even when the eye area was the most diagnostic. Moreover, PS directed most of her fixations towards the mouth. Her impairment was still largely present when she was instructed to look at the eyes, or when she was forced to look at them. Control participants showed a performance comparable to PS when only the lower part of the face was available. These observations suggest that the deficits observed in PS with static images are not solely attentional, but are rooted at the level of facial information use. This study corroborates neuroimaging findings suggesting that the Occipital Face Area might play a critical role in extracting facial features that are integrated for both face identification and facial expression recognition in static images. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Program Evaluation of Western Illinois University's English Language Learner Online Module

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beard, Marisa

2014-01-01

An issue faced by educators throughout the United States is how to successfully educate preservice teachers on various laws, cultural differences, attitudes, and current teaching strategies affecting English Language Learners (ELL) and their educators. Western Illinois University (WIU) implemented an online ELL Module in 2009 that all preservice…

Observing Shared Attention Modulates Gaze Following

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bockler, Anne; Knoblich, Gunther; Sebanz, Natalie

2011-01-01

Humans' tendency to follow others' gaze is considered to be rather resistant to top-down influences. However, recent evidence indicates that gaze following depends on prior eye contact with the observed agent. Does observing two people engaging in eye contact also modulate gaze following? Participants observed two faces looking at each other or…

Understanding gender bias in face recognition: effects of divided attention at encoding.

PubMed

Palmer, Matthew A; Brewer, Neil; Horry, Ruth

2013-03-01

Prior research has demonstrated a female own-gender bias in face recognition, with females better at recognizing female faces than male faces. We explored the basis for this effect by examining the effect of divided attention during encoding on females' and males' recognition of female and male faces. For female participants, divided attention impaired recognition performance for female faces to a greater extent than male faces in a face recognition paradigm (Study 1; N=113) and an eyewitness identification paradigm (Study 2; N=502). Analysis of remember-know judgments (Study 2) indicated that divided attention at encoding selectively reduced female participants' recollection of female faces at test. For male participants, divided attention selectively reduced recognition performance (and recollection) for male stimuli in Study 2, but had similar effects on recognition of male and female faces in Study 1. Overall, the results suggest that attention at encoding contributes to the female own-gender bias by facilitating the later recollection of female faces. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Microarray and network-based identification of functional modules and pathways of active tuberculosis.

PubMed

Bian, Zhong-Rui; Yin, Juan; Sun, Wen; Lin, Dian-Jie

2017-04-01

Diagnose of active tuberculosis (TB) is challenging and treatment response is also difficult to efficiently monitor. The aim of this study was to use an integrated analysis of microarray and network-based method to the samples from publically available datasets to obtain a diagnostic module set and pathways in active TB. Towards this goal, background protein-protein interactions (PPI) network was generated based on global PPI information and gene expression data, following by identification of differential expression network (DEN) from the background PPI network. Then, ego genes were extracted according to the degree features in DEN. Next, module collection was conducted by ego gene expansion based on EgoNet algorithm. After that, differential expression of modules between active TB and controls was evaluated using random permutation test. Finally, biological significance of differential modules was detected by pathways enrichment analysis based on Reactome database, and Fisher's exact test was implemented to extract differential pathways for active TB. Totally, 47 ego genes and 47 candidate modules were identified from the DEN. By setting the cutoff-criteria of gene size >5 and classification accuracy ≥0.9, 7 ego modules (Module 4, Module 7, Module 9, Module 19, Module 25, Module 38 and Module 43) were extracted, and all of them had the statistical significance between active TB and controls. Then, Fisher's exact test was conducted to capture differential pathways for active TB. Interestingly, genes in Module 4, Module 25, Module 38, and Module 43 were enriched in the same pathway, formation of a pool of free 40S subunits. Significant pathway for Module 7 and Module 9 was eukaryotic translation termination, and for Module 19 was nonsense mediated decay enhanced by the exon junction complex (EJC). Accordingly, differential modules and pathways might be potential biomarkers for treating active TB, and provide valuable clues for better understanding of molecular mechanism of active TB. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are Rich People Perceived as More Trustworthy? Perceived Socioeconomic Status Modulates Judgments of Trustworthiness and Trust Behavior Based on Facial Appearance.

PubMed

Qi, Yue; Li, Qi; Du, Feng

2018-01-01

In the era of globalization, people meet strangers from different countries more often than ever. Previous research indicates that impressions of trustworthiness based on facial appearance play an important role in interpersonal cooperation behaviors. The current study examined whether additional information about socioeconomic status (SES), including national prosperity and individual monthly income, affects facial judgments and appearance-based trust decisions. Besides reproducing previous conclusions that trustworthy faces receive more money than untrustworthy faces, the present study showed that high-income individuals were judged as more trustworthy than low-income individuals, and also were given more money in a trust game. However, trust behaviors were not modulated by the nationality of the faces. The present research suggests that people are more likely to trust strangers with a high income, compared with individuals with a low income.

The effects of oxytocin on social reward learning in humans.

PubMed

Clark-Elford, Rebecca; Nathan, Pradeep J; Auyeung, Bonnie; Voon, Valerie; Sule, Akeem; Müller, Ulrich; Dudas, Robert; Sahakian, Barbara J; Phan, K Luan; Baron-Cohen, Simon

2014-02-01

It has been hypothesised that the mechanisms modulating social affiliation are regulated by reward circuitry. Oxytocin, previously shown to support affiliative behaviour and the processing of socio-emotional stimuli, is expressed in areas of the brain involved in reward and motivation. However, limited data are available that test if oxytocin is directly involved in reward learning, or whether oxytocin can modulate the effect of emotion on reward learning. In a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, within-group study design, 24 typical male volunteers were administered 24 IU of oxytocin or placebo and subsequently completed an affective reward learning task. Oxytocin selectively reduced performance of learning rewards, but not losses, from happy faces. The mechanism by which oxytocin may be exerting this effect is discussed in terms of whether oxytocin is affecting identity recognition via affecting the salience of happy faces. We conclude that oxytocin detrimentally affects learning rewards from happy faces in certain contexts.

Psychopathic traits affect the visual exploration of facial expressions.

PubMed

Boll, Sabrina; Gamer, Matthias

2016-05-01

Deficits in emotional reactivity and recognition have been reported in psychopathy. Impaired attention to the eyes along with amygdala malfunctions may underlie these problems. Here, we investigated how different facets of psychopathy modulate the visual exploration of facial expressions by assessing personality traits in a sample of healthy young adults using an eye-tracking based face perception task. Fearless Dominance (the interpersonal-emotional facet of psychopathy) and Coldheartedness scores predicted reduced face exploration consistent with findings on lowered emotional reactivity in psychopathy. Moreover, participants high on the social deviance facet of psychopathy ('Self-Centered Impulsivity') showed a reduced bias to shift attention towards the eyes. Our data suggest that facets of psychopathy modulate face processing in healthy individuals and reveal possible attentional mechanisms which might be responsible for the severe impairments of social perception and behavior observed in psychopathy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characterizing open and non-uniform vertical heat sources: towards the identification of real vertical cracks in vibrothermography experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castelo, A.; Mendioroz, A.; Celorrio, R.; Salazar, A.; López de Uralde, P.; Gorosmendi, I.; Gorostegui-Colinas, E.

2017-05-01

Lock-in vibrothermography is used to characterize vertical kissing and open cracks in metals. In this technique the crack heats up during ultrasound excitation due mainly to friction between the defect's faces. We have solved the inverse problem, consisting in determining the heat source distribution produced at cracks under amplitude modulated ultrasound excitation, which is an ill-posed inverse problem. As a consequence the minimization of the residual is unstable. We have stabilized the algorithm introducing a penalty term based on Total Variation functional. In the inversion, we combine amplitude and phase surface temperature data obtained at several modulation frequencies. Inversions of synthetic data with added noise indicate that compact heat sources are characterized accurately and that the particular upper contours can be retrieved for shallow heat sources. The overall shape of open and homogeneous semicircular strip-shaped heat sources representing open half-penny cracks can also be retrieved but the reconstruction of the deeper end of the heat source loses contrast. Angle-, radius- and depth-dependent inhomogeneous heat flux distributions within these semicircular strips can also be qualitatively characterized. Reconstructions of experimental data taken on samples containing calibrated heat sources confirm the predictions from reconstructions of synthetic data. We also present inversions of experimental data obtained from a real welded Inconel 718 specimen. The results are in good qualitative agreement with the results of liquids penetrants testing.

Phasic alertness enhances processing of face and non-face stimuli in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Tanzer, Michal; Weinbach, Noam; Mardo, Elite; Henik, Avishai; Avidan, Galia

2016-08-01

Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) is a severe face processing impairment that occurs in the absence of any obvious brain damage and has often been associated with a more general deficit in deriving holistic relations between facial features or even between non-face shape dimensions. Here we further characterized this deficit and examined a potential way to ameliorate it. To this end we manipulated phasic alertness using alerting cues previously shown to modulate attention and enhance global processing of visual stimuli in normal observers. Specifically, we first examined whether individuals with CP, similarly to controls, would show greater global processing when exposed to an alerting cue in the context of a non-facial task (Navon global/local task). We then explored the effect of an alerting cue on face processing (upright/inverted face discrimination). Confirming previous findings, in the absence of alerting cues, controls showed a typical global bias in the Navon task and an inversion effect indexing holistic processing in the upright/inverted task, while CP failed to show these effects. Critically, when alerting cues preceded the experimental trials, both groups showed enhanced global interference and a larger inversion effect. These results suggest that phasic alertness may modulate visual processing and consequently, affect global/holistic perception. Hence, these findings further reinforce the notion that global/holistic processing may serve as a possible mechanism underlying the face processing deficit in CP. Moreover, they imply a possible route for enhancing face processing in individuals with CP and thus shed new light on potential amelioration of this disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory for friends or foes: the social context of past encounters with faces modulates their subsequent neural traces in the brain.

PubMed

Vrticka, Pascal; Andersson, Frédéric; Sander, David; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2009-01-01

Every day we encounter new people, interact with them, and form person impressions based on quick and automatic inferences from minimal contextual information. Previous studies have identified an extensive network of brain areas involved in familiar face recognition, but there is little evidence to date concerning the neural bases of negative vs. positive person impressions. In the present study, participants were repeatedly exposed to 16 unfamiliar face identities within a pseudo-interactive game context to generate a perception of either "friends" or "foes". Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was then performed during an old/new memory task to assess any difference in brain responses to these now familiar face identities, relative to unfamiliar faces. Importantly, whereas facial expressions were always emotional (either smiling or angry) during the encoding phase, they were always neutral during the memory task. Our results reveal that several brain regions involved in familiar face recognition, including fusiform cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala, plus additional areas involved in motivational control such as caudate and anterior cingulate cortex, were differentially modulated as a function of a previous encounter, and generally more activated when faces were perceived as "foes" rather than "friends". These findings underscore that a key dimension of social judgments, based on past impressions of who may be supportive or hostile, may lead to long-lasting effects on memory for faces and thus influence affective reactions to people during a subsequent encounter even in a different (neutral) context.

Psilocybin modulates functional connectivity of the amygdala during emotional face discrimination.

PubMed

Grimm, O; Kraehenmann, R; Preller, K H; Seifritz, E; Vollenweider, F X

2018-04-24

Recent studies suggest that the antidepressant effects of the psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonist psilocybin are mediated through its modulatory properties on prefrontal and limbic brain regions including the amygdala. To further investigate the effects of psilocybin on emotion processing networks, we studied for the first-time psilocybin's acute effects on amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity in an event-related face discrimination task in 18 healthy volunteers who received psilocybin and placebo in a double-blind balanced cross-over design. The amygdala has been implicated as a salience detector especially involved in the immediate response to emotional face content. We used beta-series amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity during an emotional face discrimination task to elucidate the connectivity pattern of the amygdala over the entire brain. When we compared psilocybin to placebo, an increase in reaction time for all three categories of affective stimuli was found. Psilocybin decreased the connectivity between amygdala and the striatum during angry face discrimination. During happy face discrimination, the connectivity between the amygdala and the frontal pole was decreased. No effect was seen during discrimination of fearful faces. Thus, we show psilocybin's effect as a modulator of major connectivity hubs of the amygdala. Psilocybin decreases the connectivity between important nodes linked to emotion processing like the frontal pole or the striatum. Future studies are needed to clarify whether connectivity changes predict therapeutic effects in psychiatric patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Following the time course of face gender and expression processing: a task-dependent ERP study.

PubMed

Valdés-Conroy, Berenice; Aguado, Luis; Fernández-Cahill, María; Romero-Ferreiro, Verónica; Diéguez-Risco, Teresa

2014-05-01

The effects of task demands and the interaction between gender and expression in face perception were studied using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants performed three different tasks with male and female faces that were emotionally inexpressive or that showed happy or angry expressions. In two of the tasks (gender and expression categorization) facial properties were task-relevant while in a third task (symbol discrimination) facial information was irrelevant. Effects of expression were observed on the visual P100 component under all task conditions, suggesting the operation of an automatic process that is not influenced by task demands. The earliest interaction between expression and gender was observed later in the face-sensitive N170 component. This component showed differential modulations by specific combinations of gender and expression (e.g., angry male vs. angry female faces). Main effects of expression and task were observed in a later occipito-temporal component peaking around 230 ms post-stimulus onset (EPN or early posterior negativity). Less positive amplitudes in the presence of angry faces and during performance of the gender and expression tasks were observed. Finally, task demands also modulated a positive component peaking around 400 ms (LPC, or late positive complex) that showed enhanced amplitude for the gender task. The pattern of results obtained here adds new evidence about the sequence of operations involved in face processing and the interaction of facial properties (gender and expression) in response to different task demands. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Ability of Visually Impaired Children to Read Expressions and Recognize Faces.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, H. D.; And Others

1987-01-01

Seventeen visually impaired children, aged 7-11 years, were compared with sighted children on a test of facial recognition and a test of expression identification. The visually impaired children were less able to recognize faces successfully but showed no disadvantage in discerning facial expressions such as happiness, anger, surprise, or fear.…

Enhancing On-Line Teaching with Verbal Immediacy through Self-Determination Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furlich, Stephen A.

2013-01-01

This paper explores the use of instructor verbal immediacy behaviors for on-line classes. Specifically, it demonstrates how instructor verbal immediacy behaviors found in face-to-face classes can also be displayed for on-line classes. It is argued that self-determination theory describes identification of the student as an important role in the…

Emotional Recognition in Autism Spectrum Conditions from Voices and Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Mary E.; McAdam, Clair; Ota, Mitsuhiko; Peppe, Sue; Cleland, Joanne

2013-01-01

The present study reports on a new vocal emotion recognition task and assesses whether people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) perform differently from typically developed individuals on tests of emotional identification from both the face and the voice. The new test of vocal emotion contained trials in which the vocal emotion of the sentence…

Self-identification with another person's face: the time relevant role of multimodal brain areas in the enfacement illusion.

PubMed

Bufalari, Ilaria; Porciello, Giuseppina; Sperduti, Marco; Minio-Paluello, Ilaria

2015-04-01

The illusory subjective experience of looking at one's own face while in fact looking at another person's face can surprisingly be induced by simple synchronized visuotactile stimulation of the two faces. A recent study (Apps MA, Tajadura-Jiménez A, Sereno M, Blanke O, Tsakiris M. Cereb Cortex. First published August 20, 2013; doi:10.1093/cercor/bht199) investigated for the first time the role of visual unimodal and temporoparietal multimodal brain areas in the enfacement illusion and suggested a model in which multisensory mechanisms are crucial to construct and update self-face representation. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Face recognition based on matching of local features on 3D dynamic range sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Echeagaray-Patrón, B. A.; Kober, Vitaly

2016-09-01

3D face recognition has attracted attention in the last decade due to improvement of technology of 3D image acquisition and its wide range of applications such as access control, surveillance, human-computer interaction and biometric identification systems. Most research on 3D face recognition has focused on analysis of 3D still data. In this work, a new method for face recognition using dynamic 3D range sequences is proposed. Experimental results are presented and discussed using 3D sequences in the presence of pose variation. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of conventional face recognition algorithms based on descriptors.

Optical correlators for recognition of human face thermal images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bauer, Joanna; Podbielska, Halina; Suchwalko, Artur; Mazurkiewicz, Jacek

2005-09-01

In this paper, the application of the optical correlators for face thermograms recognition is described. The thermograms were colleted from 27 individuals. For each person 10 pictures in different conditions were recorded and the data base composed of 270 images was prepared. Two biometric systems based on joint transform correlator and 4f correlator were built. Each system was designed for realizing two various tasks: verification and identification. The recognition systems were tested and evaluated according to the Face Recognition Vendor Tests (FRVT).

Service Modules for Coal Extraction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gangal, M. D.; Lewis, E. V.

1985-01-01

Service train follows group of mining machines, paying out utility lines as machines progress into coal face. Service train for four mining machines removes gases and coal and provides water and electricity. Flexible, coiling armored carriers protect cables and hoses. High coal production attained by arraying row of machines across face, working side by side.

Cultural Background Modulates How We Look at Other Persons' Gaze

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Senju, Atsushi; Vernetti, Angelina; Kikuchi, Yukiko; Akechi, Hironori; Hasegawa, Toshikazu; Johnson, Mark H.

2013-01-01

The current study investigated the role of cultural norms on the development of face-scanning. British and Japanese adults' eye movements were recorded while they observed avatar faces moving their mouth, and then their eyes toward or away from the participants. British participants fixated more on the mouth, which contrasts with Japanese…

Discussion Tool Effects on Collaborative Learning and Social Network Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomsic, Astrid; Suthers, Daniel D.

2006-01-01

This study investigated the social network structure of booking officers at the Honolulu Police Department and how the introduction of an online discussion tool affected knowledge about operation of a booking module. Baseline data provided evidence for collaboration among officers in the same district using e-mail, telephone and face-to-face media…

Stimulus Type, Level of Categorization, and Spatial-Frequencies Utilization: Implications for Perceptual Categorization Hierarchies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harel, Assaf; Bentin, Shlomo

2009-01-01

The type of visual information needed for categorizing faces and nonface objects was investigated by manipulating spatial frequency scales available in the image during a category verification task addressing basic and subordinate levels. Spatial filtering had opposite effects on faces and airplanes that were modulated by categorization level. The…

Modulation of neuronal oscillatory activity in the beta- and gamma-band is associated with current individual anxiety levels.

PubMed

Schneider, Till R; Hipp, Joerg F; Domnick, Claudia; Carl, Christine; Büchel, Christian; Engel, Andreas K

2018-05-26

Human faces are among the most salient visual stimuli and act both as socially and emotionally relevant signals. Faces and especially faces with emotional expression receive prioritized processing in the human brain and activate a distributed network of brain areas reflected, e.g., in enhanced oscillatory neuronal activity. However, an inconsistent picture emerged so far regarding neuronal oscillatory activity across different frequency-bands modulated by emotionally and socially relevant stimuli. The individual level of anxiety among healthy populations might be one explanation for these inconsistent findings. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis whether oscillatory neuronal activity is associated with individual anxiety levels during perception of faces with neutral and fearful facial expressions. We recorded neuronal activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 27 healthy participants and determined their individual state anxiety levels. Images of human faces with neutral and fearful expressions, and physically matched visual control stimuli were presented while participants performed a simple color detection task. Spectral analyses revealed that face processing and in particular processing of fearful faces was characterized by enhanced neuronal activity in the theta- and gamma-band and decreased activity in the beta-band in early visual cortex and the fusiform gyrus (FFG). Moreover, the individuals' state anxiety levels correlated positively with the gamma-band response and negatively with the beta response in the FFG and the amygdala. Our results suggest that oscillatory neuronal activity plays an important role in affective face processing and is dependent on the individual level of state anxiety. Our work provides new insights on the role of oscillatory neuronal activity underlying processing of faces. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Rapid social perception is flexible: approach and avoidance motivational states shape P100 responses to other-race faces

PubMed Central

Cunningham, William A.; Van Bavel, Jay J.; Arbuckle, Nathan L.; Packer, Dominic J.; Waggoner, Ashley S.

2012-01-01

Research on person categorization suggests that people automatically and inflexibly categorize others according to group memberships, such as race. Consistent with this view, research using electroencephalography (EEG) has found that White participants tend to show an early difference in processing Black versus White faces. Yet, new research has shown that these ostensibly automatic biases may not be as inevitable as once thought and that motivational influences may be able to eliminate these biases. It is unclear, however, whether motivational influences shape the initial biases or whether these biases can only be modulated by later, controlled processes. Using EEG to examine the time course of biased processing, we manipulated approach and avoidance motivational states by having participants pull or push a joystick, respectively, while viewing White or Black faces. Consistent with previous work on own-race bias, we observed a greater P100 response to White than Black faces; however, this racial bias was attenuated in the approach condition. These data suggest that rapid social perception may be flexible and can be modulated by motivational states. PMID:22661937

Different brain activity in response to emotional faces alone and augmented by contextual information.

PubMed

Lee, Kyung Hwa; Siegle, Greg J

2014-11-01

This study examined the extent to which emotional face stimuli differ from the neural reactivity associated with more ecological contextually augmented stimuli. Participants were scanned when they viewed contextually rich pictures depicting both emotional faces and context, and pictures of emotional faces presented alone. Emotional faces alone were more strongly associated with brain activity in paralimbic and social information processing regions, whereas emotional faces augmented by context were associated with increased and sustained activity in regions potentially representing increased complexity and subjective emotional experience. Furthermore, context effects were modulated by emotional intensity and valence. These findings suggest that cortical elaboration that is apparent in contextually augmented stimuli may be missed in studies of emotional faces alone, whereas emotional faces may more selectively recruit limbic reactivity. Copyright © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Fired Cartridge Case Identification Using Optical Images and the Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) Method

PubMed Central

Tong, Mingsi; Song, John; Chu, Wei; Thompson, Robert M

2014-01-01

The Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method for ballistics identification was invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CMC method is based on the correlation of pairs of small correlation cells instead of the correlation of entire images. Four identification parameters – TCCF, Tθ, Tx and Ty are proposed for identifying correlated cell pairs originating from the same firearm. The correlation conclusion (matching or non-matching) is determined by whether the number of CMC is ≥ 6. This method has been previously validated using a set of 780 pair-wise 3D topography images. However, most ballistic images stored in current local and national databases are in an optical intensity (grayscale) format. As a result, the reliability of applying the CMC method on optical intensity images is an important issue. In this paper, optical intensity images of breech face impressions captured on the same set of 40 cartridge cases are correlated and analyzed for the validation test of CMC method using optical images. This includes correlations of 63 pairs of matching images and 717 pairs of non-matching images under top ring lighting. Tests of the method do not produce any false identification (false positive) or false exclusion (false negative) results, which support the CMC method and the proposed identification criterion, C = 6, for firearm breech face identifications using optical intensity images. PMID:26601045

Fired Cartridge Case Identification Using Optical Images and the Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) Method.

PubMed

Tong, Mingsi; Song, John; Chu, Wei; Thompson, Robert M

2014-01-01

The Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method for ballistics identification was invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CMC method is based on the correlation of pairs of small correlation cells instead of the correlation of entire images. Four identification parameters - T CCF, T θ, T x and T y are proposed for identifying correlated cell pairs originating from the same firearm. The correlation conclusion (matching or non-matching) is determined by whether the number of CMC is ≥ 6. This method has been previously validated using a set of 780 pair-wise 3D topography images. However, most ballistic images stored in current local and national databases are in an optical intensity (grayscale) format. As a result, the reliability of applying the CMC method on optical intensity images is an important issue. In this paper, optical intensity images of breech face impressions captured on the same set of 40 cartridge cases are correlated and analyzed for the validation test of CMC method using optical images. This includes correlations of 63 pairs of matching images and 717 pairs of non-matching images under top ring lighting. Tests of the method do not produce any false identification (false positive) or false exclusion (false negative) results, which support the CMC method and the proposed identification criterion, C = 6, for firearm breech face identifications using optical intensity images.

Mexican Identification. Project Mexico.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castellano, Rita

This document presents an outline and teacher's guide for a community college-level teaching module in Mexican identification, designed for students in introductory courses in the social sciences. Although intended specifically for cultural anthropology, urban anthropology, comparative social organization and sex roles in cross-cultural…

Seed storage proteins as a system for teaching protein identification by mass spectrometry in biochemistry laboratory.

PubMed

Wilson, Karl A; Tan-Wilson, Anna

2013-01-01

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important tool in studying biological systems. One application is the identification of proteins and peptides by the matching of peptide and peptide fragment masses to the sequences of proteins in protein sequence databases. Often prior protein separation of complex protein mixtures by 2D-PAGE is needed, requiring more time and expertise than instructors of large laboratory classes can devote. We have developed an experimental module for our Biochemistry Laboratory course that engages students in MS-based protein identification following protein separation by one-dimensional SDS-PAGE, a technique that is usually taught in this type of course. The module is based on soybean seed storage proteins, a relatively simple mixture of proteins present in high levels in the seed, allowing the identification of the main protein bands by MS/MS and in some cases, even by peptide mass fingerprinting. Students can identify their protein bands using software available on the Internet, and are challenged to deduce post-translational modifications that have occurred upon germination. A collection of mass spectral data and tutorials that can be used as a stand-alone computer-based laboratory module were also assembled. Copyright © 2013 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Identification of glia phenotype modulators based on select glial function regulatory signaling pathways.

PubMed

Lee, Sun-Hwa; Suk, Kyoungho

2018-04-20

Despite the considerable social and economic burden on the healthcare system worldwide due to neurodegenerative diseases, there are currently few disease-altering treatment options for many of these conditions. Therefore, new approaches for both prevention and intervention for neurodegenerative diseases are urgently required. Microglia-mediated neurotoxicity is one of the pathologic hallmarks common to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Current therapeutic approaches to target microglia-mediated neurotoxicity are focused on the identification of glia phenotype modulators (GPMs), which can inhibit the 'classical' pro-inflammatory and neurotoxic phenotypes of microglia. Areas covered: This article reviews selected microglial molecular targets and pathways involved in either neurotoxicity or neuroprotection and how their identification. Expert opinion: Microglial activation and their signaling pathways have important implications in the neurotoxicity and brain disorders. Pharmacological modulation of microglial activation may serve as a potential therapeutic approach for targeting microglia-mediated neurotoxicity. However, given that microglia change their activation states depending on the timing, stage, and severity of disease, and even aging, the appropriate window should be considered for this approach to be clinically effective. In the future, the identification of unknown extracellular signals and intracellular molecular switches that control phenotypic shifts may facilitate the development of novel therapeutics targeting microglia-mediated neurotoxicity.

Influence of DARPP-32 genetic variation on BOLD activation to happy faces.

PubMed

Persson, Ninni; Lavebratt, Catarina; Ebner, Natalie C; Fischer, Håkan

2017-10-01

Dopaminergic pathways play a crucial role in reward processing, and advanced age can modulate its efficiency. DARPP-32 controls dopaminergic function and is a chemical nexus of reward processing. In 61 younger (20-30 years) and older adults (54% ♀) (65-74 years), we examined how blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) activation to emotional faces, vary over genotypes at three single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs), coding for DARPP-32 (rs879606; rs907094; 3764352). We also assessed age-magnification of DARPP-32 effects on BOLD activation. We found that major homozygote G, T or A genotypes, with higher cortical expression of DARPP-32, higher dopamine receptor efficacy, and greater bias toward positive cues, had increased functional connectivity in cortical-subcortical circuits in response to happy faces, engaging the dorsal prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), fusiform gyrus (FG) and the midbrain (MB). Local BOLD response to happy faces in FG, and MB was age-dependent, so that older carriers of the major G, T or A alleles showed lesser activation than minor genotypes. These genetic variants of DARPP-32 did not modulate BOLD response to angry faces, or engagement of the inferior occipital gyrus, to happy or angry faces. Taken together our results lend support for a potential role of DARPP-32 genetic variants in neural response to potential reward triggering cues. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Modulation of Self-Esteem in Self- and Other-Evaluations Primed by Subliminal and Supraliminal Faces

PubMed Central

Tao, Ran; Zhang, Shen; Li, Qi; Geng, Haiyan

2012-01-01

Background Past research examining implicit self-evaluation often manipulated self-processing as task-irrelevant but presented self-related stimuli supraliminally. Even when tested with more indirect methods, such as the masked priming paradigm, participants' responses may still be subject to conscious interference. Our study primed participants with either their own or someone else's face, and adopted a new paradigm to actualize strict face-suppression to examine participants' subliminal self-evaluation. In addition, we investigated how self-esteem modulates one's implicit self-evaluation and validated the role of awareness in creating the discrepancy on past findings between measures of implicit self-evaluation and explicit self-esteem. Methodology/Principal Findings Participants' own face or others' faces were subliminally presented with a Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS) paradigm in Experiment 1, but supraliminally presented in Experiment 2, followed by a valence judgment task of personality adjectives. Participants also completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in each experiment. Results from Experiment 1 showed a typical bias of self-positivity among participants with higher self-esteem, but only a marginal self-positivity bias and a significant other-positivity bias among those with lower self-esteem. However, self-esteem had no modulating effect in Experiment 2: All participants showed the self-positivity bias. Conclusions/Significance Our results provide direct evidence that self-evaluation manifests in different ways as a function of awareness between individuals with different self-views: People high and low in self-esteem may demonstrate different automatic reactions in the subliminal evaluations of the self and others; but the involvement of consciousness with supraliminally presented stimuli may reduce this dissociation. PMID:23091607

Bodily action penetrates affective perception

PubMed Central

Rigutti, Sara; Gerbino, Walter

2016-01-01

Fantoni & Gerbino (2014) showed that subtle postural shifts associated with reaching can have a strong hedonic impact and affect how actors experience facial expressions of emotion. Using a novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure (MAMIP), they found consistent congruency effects in participants who performed a facial emotion identification task after a sequence of visually-guided reaches: a face perceived as neutral in a baseline condition appeared slightly happy after comfortable actions and slightly angry after uncomfortable actions. However, skeptics about the penetrability of perception (Zeimbekis & Raftopoulos, 2015) would consider such evidence insufficient to demonstrate that observer’s internal states induced by action comfort/discomfort affect perception in a top-down fashion. The action-modulated mood might have produced a back-end memory effect capable of affecting post-perceptual and decision processing, but not front-end perception. Here, we present evidence that performing a facial emotion detection (not identification) task after MAMIP exhibits systematic mood-congruent sensitivity changes, rather than response bias changes attributable to cognitive set shifts; i.e., we show that observer’s internal states induced by bodily action can modulate affective perception. The detection threshold for happiness was lower after fifty comfortable than uncomfortable reaches; while the detection threshold for anger was lower after fifty uncomfortable than comfortable reaches. Action valence induced an overall sensitivity improvement in detecting subtle variations of congruent facial expressions (happiness after positive comfortable actions, anger after negative uncomfortable actions), in the absence of significant response bias shifts. Notably, both comfortable and uncomfortable reaches impact sensitivity in an approximately symmetric way relative to a baseline inaction condition. All of these constitute compelling evidence of a genuine top-down effect on perception: specifically, facial expressions of emotion are penetrable by action-induced mood. Affective priming by action valence is a candidate mechanism for the influence of observer’s internal states on properties experienced as phenomenally objective and yet loaded with meaning. PMID:26893964

Quantitative High-Throughput Identification of Drugs as Modulators of Human Constitutive Androstane Receptor

PubMed Central

Lynch, Caitlin; Zhao, Jinghua; Huang, Ruili; Xiao, Jingwei; Li, Linhao; Heyward, Scott; Xia, Menghang; Wang, Hongbing

2015-01-01

The constitutive androstane receptor (CAR, NR1I3) plays a key role in governing the transcription of numerous hepatic genes that involve xenobiotic metabolism/clearance, energy homeostasis, and cell proliferation. Thus, identification of novel human CAR (hCAR) modulators may not only enhance early prediction of drug-drug interactions but also offer potentially novel therapeutics for diseases such as metabolic disorders and cancer. In this study, we have generated a double stable cell line expressing both hCAR and a CYP2B6-driven luciferase reporter for quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) of hCAR modulators. Approximately 2800 compounds from the NIH Chemical Genomics Center Pharmaceutical Collection were screened employing both the activation and deactivation modes of the qHTS. Activators (115) and deactivators (152) of hCAR were identified from the primary qHTS, among which 10 agonists and 10 antagonists were further validated in the physiologically relevant human primary hepatocytes for compound-mediated hCAR nuclear translocation and target gene expression. Collectively, our results reveal that hCAR modulators can be efficiently identified through this newly established qHTS assay. Profiling drug collections for hCAR activity would facilitate the prediction of metabolism-based drug-drug interactions, and may lead to the identification of potential novel therapeutics. PMID:25993555

Design and Test of Wendelstein 7-X Water-Cooled Divertor Scraper

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

Boscary, J.; Greuner, Henri; Ehrke, Gunnar

Heat load calculations have indicated the possible overloading of the ends of the water-cooled divertor facing the pumping gap beyond their technological limit. The intention of the scraper is the interception of some of the plasma fluxes both upstream and downstream before they reach the divertor surface. The scraper is divided into six modules of four plasma facing components (PFCs); each module has four PFCs hydraulically connected in series by two water boxes (inlet and outlet). A full-scale prototype of one module has been manufactured. Development activities have been carried out to connect the water boxes to the cooling pipesmore » of the PFCs by tungsten inert gas internal orbital welding. This prototype was successfully tested in the GLADIS facility with 17 MW/m2 for 500 cycles. The results of these activities have confirmed the possible technological basis for a fabrication of the water-cooled scraper.« less

Using multimedia learning modules in a hybrid-online course in electricity and magnetism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadaghiani, Homeyra R.

2011-06-01

We have been piloting web-based multimedia learning modules (MLMs), developed by the Physics Education Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC), as a “prelecture assignment” in several introductory physics courses at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. In this study, we report the results from a controlled study utilizing modules on electricity and magnetism as a part of a blended hybrid-online course. We asked students in the experimental section to view the MLMs prior to attending the face-to-face class, and to make sure this would not result in additional instructional time, we reduced the weekly class time by one-third. We found that despite reduced class time, student-learning outcomes were not hindered; in fact, the implementation of the UIUC MLMs resulted in a positive effect on student performance on conceptual tests and classroom discussion questions.

Functional Module Analysis for Gene Coexpression Networks with Network Integration.

PubMed

Zhang, Shuqin; Zhao, Hongyu; Ng, Michael K

2015-01-01

Network has been a general tool for studying the complex interactions between different genes, proteins, and other small molecules. Module as a fundamental property of many biological networks has been widely studied and many computational methods have been proposed to identify the modules in an individual network. However, in many cases, a single network is insufficient for module analysis due to the noise in the data or the tuning of parameters when building the biological network. The availability of a large amount of biological networks makes network integration study possible. By integrating such networks, more informative modules for some specific disease can be derived from the networks constructed from different tissues, and consistent factors for different diseases can be inferred. In this paper, we have developed an effective method for module identification from multiple networks under different conditions. The problem is formulated as an optimization model, which combines the module identification in each individual network and alignment of the modules from different networks together. An approximation algorithm based on eigenvector computation is proposed. Our method outperforms the existing methods, especially when the underlying modules in multiple networks are different in simulation studies. We also applied our method to two groups of gene coexpression networks for humans, which include one for three different cancers, and one for three tissues from the morbidly obese patients. We identified 13 modules with three complete subgraphs, and 11 modules with two complete subgraphs, respectively. The modules were validated through Gene Ontology enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. We also showed that the main functions of most modules for the corresponding disease have been addressed by other researchers, which may provide the theoretical basis for further studying the modules experimentally.

System for face recognition under expression variations of neutral-sampled individuals using recognized expression warping and a virtual expression-face database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petpairote, Chayanut; Madarasmi, Suthep; Chamnongthai, Kosin

2018-01-01

The practical identification of individuals using facial recognition techniques requires the matching of faces with specific expressions to faces from a neutral face database. A method for facial recognition under varied expressions against neutral face samples of individuals via recognition of expression warping and the use of a virtual expression-face database is proposed. In this method, facial expressions are recognized and the input expression faces are classified into facial expression groups. To aid facial recognition, the virtual expression-face database is sorted into average facial-expression shapes and by coarse- and fine-featured facial textures. Wrinkle information is also employed in classification by using a process of masking to adjust input faces to match the expression-face database. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method using the CMU multi-PIE, Cohn-Kanade, and AR expression-face databases, and we find that it provides significantly improved results in terms of face recognition accuracy compared to conventional methods and is acceptable for facial recognition under expression variation.

Steeling Ourselves: Intragroup Communication while Anticipating Intergroup Contact Evokes Defensive Intergroup Perceptions.

PubMed

Greijdanus, Hedy; Postmes, Tom; Gordijn, Ernestine H; van Zomeren, Martijn

2015-01-01

Two experiments investigated the role of intragroup communication in intergroup conflict (de-)escalation. Experiment 1 examined the effects of intragroup communication (vs. individual thought) and anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact (vs. no anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact). The group discussions of stigmatized group members who anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact revolved more around intergroup hostility. This boosted ingroup identification and increased social creativity but also led to steeling (a hardening of perceived intergroup relations). In Experiment 2, new participants listened to the taped group discussions. The discussions of groups anticipating face-to-face intergroup contact evoked more intergroup anxiety-related discomfort than discussions of groups not anticipating face-to-face intergroup encounters. Together, these results support the idea that steeling is a defensive reaction to prepare for an anxiety-arousing intergroup confrontation. Although steeling is also associated with positive consequences such as increased ingroup solidarity and social creativity, this hardened stance may be an obstacle to conflict de-escalation.

Steeling Ourselves: Intragroup Communication while Anticipating Intergroup Contact Evokes Defensive Intergroup Perceptions

PubMed Central

Greijdanus, Hedy; Postmes, Tom; Gordijn, Ernestine H.; van Zomeren, Martijn

2015-01-01

Two experiments investigated the role of intragroup communication in intergroup conflict (de-)escalation. Experiment 1 examined the effects of intragroup communication (vs. individual thought) and anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact (vs. no anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact). The group discussions of stigmatized group members who anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact revolved more around intergroup hostility. This boosted ingroup identification and increased social creativity but also led to steeling (a hardening of perceived intergroup relations). In Experiment 2, new participants listened to the taped group discussions. The discussions of groups anticipating face-to-face intergroup contact evoked more intergroup anxiety-related discomfort than discussions of groups not anticipating face-to-face intergroup encounters. Together, these results support the idea that steeling is a defensive reaction to prepare for an anxiety-arousing intergroup confrontation. Although steeling is also associated with positive consequences such as increased ingroup solidarity and social creativity, this hardened stance may be an obstacle to conflict de-escalation. PMID:26098741

Robust Point Set Matching for Partial Face Recognition.

PubMed

Weng, Renliang; Lu, Jiwen; Tan, Yap-Peng

2016-03-01

Over the past three decades, a number of face recognition methods have been proposed in computer vision, and most of them use holistic face images for person identification. In many real-world scenarios especially some unconstrained environments, human faces might be occluded by other objects, and it is difficult to obtain fully holistic face images for recognition. To address this, we propose a new partial face recognition approach to recognize persons of interest from their partial faces. Given a pair of gallery image and probe face patch, we first detect keypoints and extract their local textural features. Then, we propose a robust point set matching method to discriminatively match these two extracted local feature sets, where both the textural information and geometrical information of local features are explicitly used for matching simultaneously. Finally, the similarity of two faces is converted as the distance between these two aligned feature sets. Experimental results on four public face data sets show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Project T.E.A.M. (Technical Education Advancement Modules). Introduction to Statistical Process Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billings, Paul H.

This instructional guide, one of a series developed by the Technical Education Advancement Modules (TEAM) project, is a 6-hour introductory module on statistical process control (SPC), designed to develop competencies in the following skill areas: (1) identification of the three classes of SPC use; (2) understanding a process and how it works; (3)…

Weight and See: Loading Working Memory Improves Incidental Identification of Irrelevant Faces

PubMed Central

Carmel, David; Fairnie, Jake; Lavie, Nilli

2012-01-01

Are task-irrelevant stimuli processed to a level enabling individual identification? This question is central both for perceptual processing models and for applied settings (e.g., eye-witness testimony). Lavie’s load theory proposes that working memory actively maintains attentional prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information. Loading working memory thus impairs attentional prioritization, leading to increased processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. Previous research has shown that increased working memory load leads to greater interference effects from response-competing distractors. Here we test the novel prediction that increased processing of irrelevant stimuli under high working memory load should lead to a greater likelihood of incidental identification of entirely irrelevant stimuli. To test this, we asked participants to perform a word-categorization task while ignoring task-irrelevant images. The categorization task was performed during the retention interval of a working memory task with either low or high load (defined by memory set size). Following the final experimental trial, a surprise question assessed incidental identification of the irrelevant image. Loading working memory was found to improve identification of task-irrelevant faces, but not of building stimuli (shown in a separate experiment to be less distracting). These findings suggest that working memory plays a critical role in determining whether distracting stimuli will be subsequently identified. PMID:22912623

The Confidence-Accuracy Relationship in Eyewitness Identification: Effects of Lineup Instructions, Foil Similarity, and Target-Absent Base Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, Neil; Wells, Gary L.

2006-01-01

Discriminating accurate from mistaken eyewitness identifications is a major issue facing criminal justice systems. This study examined whether eyewitness confidence assists such decisions under a variety of conditions using a confidence-accuracy (CA) calibration approach. Participants (N = 1,200) viewed a simulated crime and attempted 2 separate…

Seventh workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing

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

NONE

1997-08-01

This workshop is the latest in a series which has looked at technological issues related to the commercial development and success of silicon based photovoltaic (PV) modules. PV modules based on silicon are the most common at present, but face pressure from other technologies in terms of cell performance and cell cost. This workshop addresses a problem which is a factor in the production costs of silicon based PV modules.

Developing a Blended Course on Dying, Loss, and Grief

PubMed Central

Kavanaugh, Karen; Andreoni, V. Ann; Wilkie, Diana J.; Burgener, Sandra; Buschmann, MaryBeth Tank; Henderson, Gloria; Hsiung, Yi-Fang Yvonne; Zhao, Zhongsheng

2010-01-01

An important component of end-of-life education is to provide health professionals with content related to dying, loss, and grief. The authors describe the strategies used to develop and offer a blended course (integration of classroom face-to-face learning with online learning) that addressed the sensitive and often emotional content associated with grieving and bereavement. Using Kolb’s experiential learning theory, a set of 4 online learning modules, with engaging, interactive elements, was created. Course evaluations demonstrated the success of the blended course in comparison to the traditional, exclusive face-to-face approach. PMID:19412055

Priming global and local processing of composite faces: revisiting the processing-bias effect on face perception.

PubMed

Gao, Zaifeng; Flevaris, Anastasia V; Robertson, Lynn C; Bentin, Shlomo

2011-07-01

We used the composite-face illusion and Navon stimuli to determine the consequences of priming local or global processing on subsequent face recognition. The composite-face illusion reflects the difficulty of ignoring the task-irrelevant half-face while attending the task-relevant half if the half-faces in the composite are aligned. On each trial, participants first matched two Navon stimuli, attending to either the global or the local level, and then matched the upper halves of two composite faces presented sequentially. Global processing of Navon stimuli increased the sensitivity to incongruence between the upper and the lower halves of the composite face, relative to a baseline in which the composite faces were not primed. Local processing of Navon stimuli did not influence the sensitivity to incongruence. Although incongruence induced a bias toward different responses, this bias was not modulated by priming. We conclude that global processing of Navon stimuli augments holistic processing of the face.

Method and apparatus configured for identification of a material

DOEpatents

Slater, John M.; Crawford, Thomas M.

2000-01-01

The present invention includes an apparatus configured for identification of a material, and methods of identifying a material. One embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus including a first region configured to receive a first sample, the first region being configured to output a first spectrum corresponding to the first sample and responsive to exposure of the first sample to radiation; a modulator configured to modulate the first spectrum according to a first frequency; a second region configured to receive a second sample, the second region being configured to output a second spectrum corresponding to the second sample and responsive to exposure of the second sample to the modulated first spectrum; and a detector configured to detect the second spectrum having a second frequency greater than the first frequency.

A New Paradigm for Known Metabolite Identification in Metabonomics/Metabolomics: Metabolite Identification Efficiency

PubMed Central

Everett, Jeremy R.

2015-01-01

A new paradigm is proposed for assessing confidence in the identification of known metabolites in metabonomics studies using NMR spectroscopy approaches. This new paradigm is based upon the analysis of the amount of metabolite identification information retrieved from NMR spectra relative to the molecular size of the metabolite. Several new indices are proposed including: metabolite identification efficiency (MIE) and metabolite identification carbon efficiency (MICE), both of which can be easily calculated. These indices, together with some guidelines, can be used to provide a better indication of known metabolite identification confidence in metabonomics studies than existing methods. Since known metabolite identification in untargeted metabonomics studies is one of the key bottlenecks facing the science currently, it is hoped that these concepts based on molecular spectroscopic informatics, will find utility in the field. PMID:25750701

A new paradigm for known metabolite identification in metabonomics/metabolomics: metabolite identification efficiency.

PubMed

Everett, Jeremy R

2015-01-01

A new paradigm is proposed for assessing confidence in the identification of known metabolites in metabonomics studies using NMR spectroscopy approaches. This new paradigm is based upon the analysis of the amount of metabolite identification information retrieved from NMR spectra relative to the molecular size of the metabolite. Several new indices are proposed including: metabolite identification efficiency (MIE) and metabolite identification carbon efficiency (MICE), both of which can be easily calculated. These indices, together with some guidelines, can be used to provide a better indication of known metabolite identification confidence in metabonomics studies than existing methods. Since known metabolite identification in untargeted metabonomics studies is one of the key bottlenecks facing the science currently, it is hoped that these concepts based on molecular spectroscopic informatics, will find utility in the field.

Atypical Modulations of N170 Component during Emotional Processing and Their Links to Social Behaviors in Ex-combatants.

PubMed

Trujillo, Sandra P; Valencia, Stella; Trujillo, Natalia; Ugarriza, Juan E; Rodríguez, Mónica V; Rendón, Jorge; Pineda, David A; López, José D; Ibañez, Agustín; Parra, Mario A

2017-01-01

Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias toward anger observed in control participants whereby the latter group was more likely to misclassify neutral faces as angry. However, ex-combatants showed an atypical word valence processing. That is, words with different emotions yielded no differences in N170 modulations. SCB variables were successfully predicted by neurocognitive variables. Our results suggest that in ex-combatants the links between EP and SCB functions are reorganized. This may reflect neurocognitive modulations associated to chronic exposure to war experiences.

Atypical Modulations of N170 Component during Emotional Processing and Their Links to Social Behaviors in Ex-combatants

PubMed Central

Trujillo, Sandra P.; Valencia, Stella; Trujillo, Natalia; Ugarriza, Juan E.; Rodríguez, Mónica V.; Rendón, Jorge; Pineda, David A.; López, José D.; Ibañez, Agustín; Parra, Mario A.

2017-01-01

Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias toward anger observed in control participants whereby the latter group was more likely to misclassify neutral faces as angry. However, ex-combatants showed an atypical word valence processing. That is, words with different emotions yielded no differences in N170 modulations. SCB variables were successfully predicted by neurocognitive variables. Our results suggest that in ex-combatants the links between EP and SCB functions are reorganized. This may reflect neurocognitive modulations associated to chronic exposure to war experiences. PMID:28588462

Solar thermoelectric cooling using closed loop heat exchangers with macro channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atta, Raghied M.

2017-07-01

In this paper we describe the design, analysis and experimental study of an advanced coolant air conditioning system which cools or warms airflow using thermoelectric (TE) devices powered by solar cells. Both faces of the TE devices are directly connected to closed-loop highly efficient channels plates with macro scale channels and liquid-to-air heat exchangers. The hot side of the system consists of a pump that moves a coolant through the hot face of the TE modules, a radiator that drives heat away into the air, and a fan that transfer the heat over the radiator by forced convection. The cold side of the system consists also of a pump that moves coolant through the cold face of the TE modules, a radiator that drives cold away into the air, and a fan that blows cold air off the radiator. The system was integrated with solar panels, tested and its thermal performance was assessed. The experimental results verify the possibility of heating or cooling air using TE modules with a relatively high coefficient of performance (COP). The system was able to cool a closed space of 30 m3 by 14 °C below ambient within 90 min. The maximum COP of the whole system was 0.72 when the TE modules were running at 11.2 Å and 12 V. This improvement in the system COP over the air cooled heat sink is due to the improvement of the system heat exchange by means of channels plates.

Beyond the Four Walls: Examining the Use of Authentic Learning Modules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jagielski, Donna Marie

2016-01-01

While attempting to provide real world experiences in STEM, educators face numerous challenges including adhering to curriculum requirements and working with potentially limited resources. The purpose of this action research study was to examine how the addition of authentic learning modules to the existing University of Arizona Middle School…

Visuo-spatial interference affects the identification of emotional facial expressions in unmedicated Parkinson's patients.

PubMed

García-Rodríguez, Beatriz; Guillén, Carmen Casares; Barba, Rosa Jurado; io Valladolid, Gabriel Rub; Arjona, José Antonio Molina; Ellgring, Heiner

2012-02-15

There is evidence that visuo-spatial capacity can become overloaded when processing a secondary visual task (Dual Task, DT), as occurs in daily life. Hence, we investigated the influence of the visuo-spatial interference in the identification of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) in early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). We compared the identification of 24 emotional faces that illustrate six basic emotions in, unmedicated recently diagnosed PD patients (16) and healthy adults (20), under two different conditions: a) simple EFE identification, and b) identification with a concurrent visuo-spatial task (Corsi Blocks). EFE identification by PD patients was significantly worse than that of healthy adults when combined with another visual stimulus. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Mining a human transcriptome database for Nrf2 modulators

EPA Science Inventory

Nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key transcription factor important in the protection against oxidative stress. We developed computational procedures to enable the identification of chemical, genetic and environmental modulators of Nrf2 in a large database ...

Design of embedded intelligent monitoring system based on face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Weidong; Ding, Yan; Zhao, Liangjin; Li, Jia; Hu, Xuemei

2017-01-01

In this paper, a new embedded intelligent monitoring system based on face recognition is proposed. The system uses Pi Raspberry as the central processor. A sensors group has been designed with Zigbee module in order to assist the system to work better and the two alarm modes have been proposed using the Internet and 3G modem. The experimental results show that the system can work under various light intensities to recognize human face and send alarm information in real time.

The Heart, Not the Face: A Civil-War-Era Tale and the Persistent Challenge of Race in Religious Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafer, Peter William

2009-01-01

This article analyzes the 1863 pseudo slave narrative entitled "Black and White; Or, the Heart, Not the Face" by white Northerner Jane Dunbar Chaplin. The article sets this tale within the historical and literary context of "domestic abolitionism." The logic behind the story is described as "sympathetic identification," a perspective that,…

College Students in Crisis: Prevention, Identification, and Response Options for Campus Housing Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canto, Angela I.; Cox, Bradley E.; Osborn, Debra; Becker, Martin Swanbrow; Hayden, Seth

2017-01-01

Resident Assistants (RAs) are often faced with working and living among residents who are struggling, in distress, and, at times, in crisis. This article provides a primer on identifying residents in crisis as well as the tasks faced when working with students in transition and crisis. A discussion of the prevalence of distress reported by…

Not looking yourself: The cost of self-selecting photographs for identity verification.

PubMed

White, David; Burton, Amy L; Kemp, Richard I

2016-05-01

Photo-identification is based on the premise that photographs are representative of facial appearance. However, previous studies show that ratings of likeness vary across different photographs of the same face, suggesting that some images capture identity better than others. Two experiments were designed to examine the relationship between likeness judgments and face matching accuracy. In Experiment 1, we compared unfamiliar face matching accuracy for self-selected and other-selected high-likeness images. Surprisingly, images selected by previously unfamiliar viewers - after very limited exposure to a target face - were more accurately matched than self-selected images chosen by the target identity themselves. Results also revealed extremely low inter-rater agreement in ratings of likeness across participants, suggesting that perceptions of image resemblance are inherently unstable. In Experiment 2, we test whether the cost of self-selection can be explained by this general disagreement in likeness judgments between individual raters. We find that averaging across rankings by multiple raters produces image selections that provide superior identification accuracy. However, benefit of other-selection persisted for single raters, suggesting that inaccurate representations of self interfere with our ability to judge which images faithfully represent our current appearance. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Intelligent person identification system using stereo camera-based height and stride estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ko, Jung-Hwan; Jang, Jae-Hun; Kim, Eun-Soo

2005-05-01

In this paper, a stereo camera-based intelligent person identification system is suggested. In the proposed method, face area of the moving target person is extracted from the left image of the input steros image pair by using a threshold value of YCbCr color model and by carrying out correlation between the face area segmented from this threshold value of YCbCr color model and the right input image, the location coordinates of the target face can be acquired, and then these values are used to control the pan/tilt system through the modified PID-based recursive controller. Also, by using the geometric parameters between the target face and the stereo camera system, the vertical distance between the target and stereo camera system can be calculated through a triangulation method. Using this calculated vertical distance and the angles of the pan and tilt, the target's real position data in the world space can be acquired and from them its height and stride values can be finally extracted. Some experiments with video images for 16 moving persons show that a person could be identified with these extracted height and stride parameters.

Pim-1: A Molecular Target to Modulate Cellular Resistance to Therapy in Prostate Cancer

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-10-01

Reiter RE, Lilly MB: Gene expression profiling in R- flurbiprofen -treated prostate cancer: Identification of prostate stem cell antigen as a... flurbiprofen -regulated gene. (submitted, 2006). 51. Holder SL, Zemskova M, Bremner R, Neidigh J, Lilly MB: Identification of specific, cell-permeable...profiling in R- flurbiprofen - treated prostate cancer: Identification of prostate stem cell antigen as a flurbiprofen - regulated gene. (poster

An improved classification tree analysis of high cost modules based upon an axiomatic definition of complexity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tian, Jianhui; Porter, Adam; Zelkowitz, Marvin V.

1992-01-01

Identification of high cost modules has been viewed as one mechanism to improve overall system reliability, since such modules tend to produce more than their share of problems. A decision tree model was used to identify such modules. In this current paper, a previously developed axiomatic model of program complexity is merged with the previously developed decision tree process for an improvement in the ability to identify such modules. This improvement was tested using data from the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory.

Entering New Territory: Crossing over to Fully Synchronous, E-Learning Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Lorayne; Hardman, Wendy

2012-01-01

A training module of six sessions was designed for professors in higher education who were transitioning to teaching synchronous, e-learning courses from formerly teaching in either asynchronous courses or in face-to-face courses. Since the participants were experienced educators, the boundary of their expertise to be extended was moving to the…

Factors Affecting University Teaching Team Effectiveness in Detached Working Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Roger; Kane, Suzanne

2014-01-01

This paper presents the outcomes of a study of the factors that contribute to teaching team effectiveness in situations where team members rarely meet face to face. Academic faculty within a university Business School were asked to report the degrees to which they believed that the module teaching teams to which they belonged contained members who…

Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: The Multiyear Development and Evolution of a Virtual Instructional Tutorial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Danielle L.; Dalal, Heather A.; Dawson, Patricia H.

2016-01-01

The impetus to incorporate instruction on the efficient and responsible practice of chemical information literacy into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum has become exceptionally urgent. At Rider University, Chemical Information Instruction (CII) has accordingly evolved from face-to-face sessions into online modules to embed information…

Pedagogic Effectiveness of Print, Interactive Multimedia, and Online Resources: A Case Study of IGNOU

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dikshit, Jyotsna; Garg, Suresh; Panda, Santosh

2013-01-01

In the present paper, the authors report on a comparative study on the pedagogic effectiveness of printed self-learning text with face-to-face tutorial support, interactive multimedia CD-ROM and online learning in an introductory computing module at the certificate level offered at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India. The study…

Time, Space and Structure in an E-Learning and E-Mentoring Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loureiro-Koechlin, Cecilia; Allan, Barbara

2010-01-01

This study focuses on a project, "EMPATHY Net-Works," which developed a learning community as a means of encouraging women to progress into employment and management positions in the logistics and supply chain industries (LaSCI). Learning activities were organised in the form of a taught module containing face-to-face and online elements and…

On the Flexibility of Social Source Memory: A Test of the Emotional Incongruity Hypothesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Kroneisen, Meike; Giang, Trang

2012-01-01

A popular hypothesis in evolutionary psychology posits that reciprocal altruism is supported by a cognitive module that helps cooperative individuals to detect and remember cheaters. Consistent with this hypothesis, a source memory advantage for faces of cheaters (better memory for the cheating context in which these faces were encountered) was…

Re-Envisioning Professional Learning in Mathematics: Teachers' Performance, Perceptions, and Practices in Blended Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luebeck, Jennifer; Roscoe, Matt; Cobbs, Georgia; Diemert, Kacey; Scott, Lisa

2017-01-01

This paper reports findings from a study that followed K-12 mathematics teachers through the components of a blended professional development program, highlighting their engagement in a series of online modules that connect face-to-face gatherings across the school year. Data collected over four years illuminate the teachers' performance,…

Lecturer e-Training Program to Support University Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang-Tik, Chan

2017-01-01

This article attempts to explore the extent to which Lecturer e-Training Program (LeP) supports lecturers in their preparation for student-centred teaching. LeP was conducted in a blended mode, that is, it involved an online self-paced learning module followed by an interactive online discussion and ended with a face-to-face action learning. It…

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.

Long-Term Memory for Odors: Influences of Familiarity and Identification Across 64 Days

PubMed Central

Jönsson, Fredrik U.; Willander, Johan; Sikström, Sverker; Larsson, Maria

2015-01-01

Few studies have investigated long-term odor recognition memory, although some early observations suggested that the forgetting rate of olfactory representations is slower than for other sensory modalities. This study investigated recognition memory across 64 days for high and low familiar odors and faces. Memory was assessed in 83 young participants at 4 occasions; immediate, 4, 16, and 64 days after encoding. The results indicated significant forgetting for odors and faces across the 64 days. The forgetting functions for the 2 modalities were not fundamentally different. Moreover, high familiar odors and faces were better remembered than low familiar ones, indicating an important role of semantic knowledge on recognition proficiency for both modalities. Although odor recognition was significantly better than chance at the 64 days testing, memory for the low familiar odors was relatively poor. Also, the results indicated that odor identification consistency across sessions, irrespective of accuracy, was positively related to successful recognition. PMID:25740304

The contribution of local features to familiarity judgments in music.

PubMed

Bigand, Emmanuel; Gérard, Yannick; Molin, Paul

2009-07-01

The contributions of local and global features to object identification depend upon the context. For example, while local features play an essential role in identification of words and objects, the global features are more influential in face recognition. In order to evaluate the respective strengths of local and global features for face recognition, researchers usually ask participants to recognize human faces (famous or learned) in normal and scrambled pictures. In this paper, we address a similar issue in music. We present the results of an experiment in which musically untrained participants were asked to differentiate famous from unknown musical excerpts that were presented in normal or scrambled ways. Manipulating the size of the temporal window on which the scrambling procedure was applied allowed us to evaluate the minimal length of time necessary for participants to make a familiarity judgment. Quite surprisingly, the minimum duration for differentiation of famous from unknown pieces is extremely short. This finding highlights the contribution of very local features to music memory.

Blending online techniques with traditional face to face teaching methods to deliver final year undergraduate radiology learning content.

PubMed

Howlett, David; Vincent, Tim; Watson, Gillian; Owens, Emma; Webb, Richard; Gainsborough, Nicola; Fairclough, Jil; Taylor, Nick; Miles, Ken; Cohen, Jon; Vincent, Richard

2011-06-01

To review the initial experience of blending a variety of online educational techniques with traditional face to face or contact-based teaching methods to deliver final year undergraduate radiology content at a UK Medical School. The Brighton and Sussex Medical School opened in 2003 and offers a 5-year undergraduate programme, with the final 5 spent in several regional centres. Year 5 involves several core clinical specialities with onsite radiology teaching provided at regional centres in the form of small-group tutorials, imaging seminars and also a one-day course. An online educational module was introduced in 2007 to facilitate equitable delivery of the year 5 curriculum between the regional centres and to support students on placement. This module had a strong radiological emphasis, with a combination of imaging integrated into clinical cases to reflect everyday practice and also dedicated radiology cases. For the second cohort of year 5 students in 2008 two additional online media-rich initiatives were introduced, to complement the online module, comprising imaging tutorials and an online case discussion room. In the first year for the 2007/2008 cohort, 490 cases were written, edited and delivered via the Medical School managed learning environment as part of the online module. 253 cases contained a form of image media, of which 195 cases had a radiological component with a total of 325 radiology images. Important aspects of radiology practice (e.g. consent, patient safety, contrast toxicity, ionising radiation) were also covered. There were 274,000 student hits on cases the first year, with students completing a mean of 169 cases each. High levels of student satisfaction were recorded in relation to the online module and also additional online radiology teaching initiatives. Online educational techniques can be effectively blended with other forms of teaching to allow successful undergraduate delivery of radiology. Efficient IT links and good image quality are essential ingredients for successful student/clinician engagement. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

BUILDING MODEL ANALYSIS APPLICATIONS WITH THE JOINT UNIVERSAL PARAMETER IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF RELIABILITY (JUPITER) API

EPA Science Inventory

The open-source, public domain JUPITER (Joint Universal Parameter IdenTification and Evaluation of Reliability) API (Application Programming Interface) provides conventions and Fortran-90 modules to develop applications (computer programs) for analyzing process models. The input ...

Identification of potent, nonabsorbable agonists of the calcium-sensing receptor for GI-specific administration.

PubMed

Sparks, Steven M; Spearing, Paul K; Diaz, Caroline J; Cowan, David J; Jayawickreme, Channa; Chen, Grace; Rimele, Thomas J; Generaux, Claudia; Harston, Lindsey T; Roller, Shane G

2017-10-15

Modulation of gastrointestinal nutrient sensing pathways provides a promising a new approach for the treatment of metabolic diseases including diabetes and obesity. The calcium-sensing receptor has been identified as a key receptor involved in mineral and amino acid nutrient sensing and thus is an attractive target for modulation in the intestine. Herein we describe the optimization of gastrointestinally restricted calcium-sensing receptor agonists starting from a 3-aminopyrrolidine-containing template leading to the identification of GI-restricted agonist 19 (GSK3004774). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sulfoximines as potent RORγ inverse agonists.

PubMed

Ouvry, Gilles; Bihl, Franck; Bouix-Peter, Claire; Christin, Olivier; Defoin-Platel, Claire; Deret, Sophie; Feret, Christophe; Froude, David; Hacini-Rachinel, Feriel; Harris, Craig S; Hervouet, Catherine; Lafitte, Guillaume; Luzy, Anne-Pascale; Musicki, Branislav; Orfila, Danielle; Parnet, Veronique; Pascau, Coralie; Pascau, Jonathan; Pierre, Romain; Raffin, Catherine; Rossio, Patricia; Spiesse, Delphine; Taquet, Nathalie; Thoreau, Etienne; Vatinel, Rodolphe; Vial, Emmanuel; Hennequin, Laurent F

2018-05-01

Progress in the identification of suitable RORγ inverse agonists as clinical candidates has been hampered by the high lipophilicity that seems required for high potency on this nuclear receptor. In this context, we decided to focus on the replacement of the hydroxymethyl group found on known modulators to determine if more polarity could be tolerated in this position. SAR of the replacement of this moiety is presented in this article leading to the identification of sulfoximine derivatives as potent modulators with pharmacological activity in the in vivo mouse Imiquimod psoriasis model. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Even subtle cultural differences affect face tuning.

PubMed

Pavlova, Marina A; Heiz, Julie; Sokolov, Alexander N; Fallgatter, Andreas J; Barisnikov, Koviljka

2018-01-01

Culture shapes social cognition in many ways. Yet cultural impact on face tuning remains largely unclear. Here typically developing females and males from the French-speaking part of Switzerland were presented with a set of Arcimboldo-like Face-n-Food images composed of food ingredients and in different degree resembling a face. The outcome had been compared with previous findings obtained in young adults of the South-West Germany. In that study, males exhibit higher thresholds for face tuning on the Face-n-Food task than females. In Swiss participants, no gender differences exist in face tuning. Strikingly, males from the French-speaking part of Switzerland possess higher sensitivity to faces than their German peers, whereas no difference in face tuning occurs between females. The outcome indicates that even relatively subtle cultural differences as well as culture by gender interaction can modulate social cognition. Clarification of the nature of cultural impact on face tuning as well as social cognition at large is of substantial value for understanding a wide range of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Why it's easier to remember seeing a face we already know than one we don't: preexisting memory representations facilitate memory formation.

PubMed

Reder, Lynne M; Victoria, Lindsay W; Manelis, Anna; Oates, Joyce M; Dutcher, Janine M; Bates, Jordan T; Cook, Shaun; Aizenstein, Howard J; Quinlan, Joseph; Gyulai, Ferenc

2013-03-01

In two experiments, we provided support for the hypothesis that stimuli with preexisting memory representations (e.g., famous faces) are easier to associate to their encoding context than are stimuli that lack long-term memory representations (e.g., unknown faces). Subjects viewed faces superimposed on different backgrounds (e.g., the Eiffel Tower). Face recognition on a surprise memory test was better when the encoding background was reinstated than when it was swapped with a different background; however, the reinstatement advantage was modulated by how many faces had been seen with a given background, and reinstatement did not improve recognition for unknown faces. The follow-up experiment added a drug intervention that inhibited the ability to form new associations. Context reinstatement did not improve recognition for famous or unknown faces under the influence of the drug. The results suggest that it is easier to associate context to faces that have a preexisting long-term memory representation than to faces that do not.