What is "special" about face perception?

There is growing evidence that face recognition is "special" but less certainty concerning the way in which it is special. The authors review and compare previous proposals and their own more recent hypothesis, that faces are recognized "holistically" (i.e., using relatively less part decomposition than other types of objects). This hypothesis, which can account for a variety of data from experiments on face memory, was tested with 4 new experiments on face perception. A selective attention paradigm and a masking paradigm were used to compare the perception of faces with the perception of inverted faces, words, and houses. Evidence was found of relatively less part-based shape representation for faces. The literatures on machine vision and single unit recording in monkey temporal cortex are also reviewed for converging evidence on face representation. The neuropsychological literature is reviewed for-evidence on the question of whether face representation differs in degree or kind from the representation of other types of objects.     

Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry of Selenium(IV) at a Silver Disk Electrode

A new, simple, and reproducible method is described for the determination of selenium(IV) based on differential pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry. The optimized experimental conditions are as follows: selenium(IV) ions in an acidic medium (0.06 M HCl-0.07 M HNO(3)) are electrodeposited on a rotating silver disk electrode as silver selenide at -0.4 V vs SCE for 30 min; the deposit is then cathodically stripped in another solution (2 M NaOH) at a scan rate of 50 mV s(-1) to -1.2 V vs SCE. The cathodic stripping results in only a single well-defined peak at about -0.95 V vs SCE. The calibration (peak height vs selenium concentration) graph is linear up to at least 40 ng mL(-1) of selenium(IV) and passes through the origin, with a relative standard deviation of 2.7% for 20 ng mL(-1) (n = 5). The detection limit (3σ) is 0.20 ng mL(-1). The possible interferences have been evaluated. Dissolved oxygen does not affect the peak height of selenium. The electrode can be used repeatedly at least 20 times with excellent reproducibility without further polishing. The proposed method is an improvement over the existing cathodic stripping techniques.     

Randomly accessible, multilayered optical memory with a Bi(12)SiO(20) crystal

A read-and-write, randomly accessible, multilayered optical memory with a Bi(12) SiO(20) crystal as the medium is demonstrated. Data are recorded in the crystal as an absorption change that is due to the photochromic effect. These data are successfully recorded, read, and selectively erased in five layers in the crystal. The axial-separation distance between neighboring layers is 30 μm, and the lateral distance between bits is 5 μm. Selective bit erasure of the data is accomplished by illumination of the recorded bit datum with He-Ne laser light. To our knowledge, this is the first successful demonstration of the selective optical erasure of the photochromic effect in a BSO crystal.     

A cross-junction channel valveless-micropump with PZT actuation

A gas-jet micro pump with novel cross-junction channel has been designed and fabricated using a Si micromachining process. The valveless micro pump is composed of a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm actuator and fluidic network. The design of the valveless pump focuses on a cross-junction formed by the neck of the pump chamber and one outlet and two opposite inlet channels. The structure of cross-junction allows differences in fluidic resistance and fluidic momentum inside the channels during each PZT diaphragm vibration cycle, which leads to the gas flow being rectified without valves. The flow channels were easily fabricated by using silicon etching process. To investigate the effects of the structure of the cross-junction on the gas flow rate, two types of pump with different cross-junction were studied. The design and simulation were done using ANSYS-Fluent software. The simulations and experimental data revealed that the step-nozzle structure is much more advantageous than the planar structure. A flow rate of 5.2 ml/min was obtained for the pump with step structure when the pump was driven at its resonant frequency of 7.9 kHz by a sinusoidal voltage of 50 V_p–p.     

Fundamental characteristics of printed gelatin utilizing micro 3D printer

Gelatin is useful for biofabrication, because it can be used for cell scaffolds and it has unique properties. Therefore, we attempted to fabricate biodevices of gelatin utilizing micro 3D printer which is able to print with high precision. However, it has been difficult to fabricate 3D structure of gelatin utilizing 3D printer, because a printed gelatin droplet on the metal plate electrode would spread before solidification. To clear this problem, we developed a new experimental set-up with a peltier device that can control temperature of the impact point. At an impact point temperature of 80 °C, the spreading of printed gelatin droplets was prevented. Therefore, we were able to print a ball gelatin. In addition, we were able to print a narrower gelatin line than at an impact point temperature of 20 °C.     

A query model to synthesize answer intervals from indexed videounits

While a query result in a traditional database is a subset of the database, in a video database, it is a set of subintervals extracted from the raw video sequence. It is very hard, if not impossible, to predetermine all the queries that will be issued in the future, and all the subintervals that will become necessary to answer them. As a result, conventional query frameworks are not applicable to video databases. We propose a new video query model that computes query results by dynamically synthesizing needed subintervals from fragmentary indexed intervals in the database. We introduce new interval operations required for that computation. We also propose methods to compute relative relevance of synthesized intervals to a given query. A query result is a list of synthesized intervals sorted in the order of their degree of relevance     

Nonsingular BEM formulations for thin-walled structures and elastostatic crack problems

Summary This paper presents a unique approach, named mathematical regularization, to remove the nearly-singular and singular integrals occurring in the boundary integral formulations for the solution of the boundary value problems with a pathologica integration boundary due to the very near or coinciding parts of the total boundary. Nonsingular boundary integral equations are derived for thin-walled structure problems. In the case of crack-like problems, we present two kinds of the nonsingular integral representations of the secondary fields and the derivative boundary integral equations.     

Delayed hypersensitivity in untreated patients with Hodgkin''s disease--with special reference to small lymphocyte counts in the blood

A hundred and thirty patients have been treated with Amitriptylin in the "Clinique de Psychiatrie" in Marseille during the last eight years. The review of the hundred cases for which the information are the most detailed show that Amitriptylin remains one of the most powerful, manageable and well-tolerated anti-depressant drugs available at the present time. Its therapeutic indications are numerous, but the best ones are proceeding from depressed states with high anxious participation in subjects of less that 60 years of age.     

Surface degradation of polyamide nanocomposites caused by partial discharges using IEC (b) electrodes

Partial discharge (PD) degradation of polyamide both without nanoscale fillers (nanofillers) and with 2,4 and 5 wt% additions of nanofillers was investigated. Such materials were subjected to PDs using the IEC (b) electrodes for evaluation. Comparisons were made as to the surface roughness observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It was found that the change in the surface roughness is far smaller in specimens with nanofillers than those without nanofillers, and that the 2 wt% addition is sufficient for improvement of the surface roughness. Furthermore, it was elucidated that the difference of surface roughness of the degraded area due to PDs among the specimens originates from the difference in their crystalline structures. These results indicate that polyamide nanocomposite is more resistance to PDs than polyamide without nanofillers.