Image understanding architecture: exploiting potential parallelismin machine vision

A hardware architecture that addresses at least part of the potential parallelism in each of the three levels of vision abstraction, low (sensory), intermediate (symbolic), and high (knowledge-based), is described. The machine, called the image understanding architecture (IUA), consists of three different, tightly coupled parallel processors; the content addressable array parallel processor (CAAPP) at the low level, the intermediate communication associative processor (ICAP) at the intermediate level, and the symbolic processing array (SPA) at the high level. The CAAPP and ICAP levels are controlled by an array control unit (ACU) that takes its directions from the SPA level. The SPA is a multiple-instruction multiple-data (MIMD) parallel processor, while the intermediate and low levels operat in multiple modes. The CAAPP operates in single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) associative or multiassociative mode, and the ICAP operates in single-program multiple-data (SPMD) or MIMD mode     

Contingency management, self-control, and education support in the treatment of childhood phobic disorders: A randomized clinical trial.

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of an exposure-based contingency management (CM) treatment condition and an exposure-based cognitive self-control (SC) treatment condition relative to an education support (ES) control condition for treating children with phobic disorders. Eighty-one children and their parents completed a 10-week treatment program in which children and parents were seen in separate treatment sessions with the therapist, followed by a brief conjoint meeting. Children in both the CM and SC conditions showed substantial improvement on all of the outcome measures. These gains were maintained at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Interestingly, children in the ES condition also showed comparable improvements at posttreatment and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Implications of the findings are discussed with respect to knowledge development and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treating anxiety disorders in children with group cognitive-behavioral therapy: A randomized clinical trial.

A randomized clinical trial evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of group cognitive-behavioral therapy (GCBT) versus a wait-list control (WLC) condition to treat anxiety disorders in children. Results indicated that GCBT, with concurrent parent sessions, was highly efficacious in producing and maintaining treatment gains. Children in GCBT showed substantial improvement on all the main outcome measures, and these gains were maintained at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Children in the WLC condition did not show improvements from the pre- to postwait assessment point. These findings are discussed in terms of the need to continue to advance the development of practical, as well as conceptual, knowledge of efficacious treatment for anxiety disorders in children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An oscillatory Hebbian network model of short-term memory

Recurrent neural architectures having oscillatory dynamics use rhythmic network activity to represent patterns stored in short-term memory. Multiple stored patterns can be retained in memory over the same neural substrate because the network's state persistently switches between them. Here we present a simple oscillatory memory that extends the dynamic threshold approach of Horn and Usher (1991) by including weight decay. The modified model is able to match behavioral data from human subjects performing a running memory span task simply by assuming appropriate weight decay rates. The results suggest that simple oscillatory memories incorporating weight decay capture at least some key properties of human short-term memory. We examine the implications of the results for theories about the relative role of interference and decay in forgetting, and hypothesize that adjustments of activity decay rate may be an important aspect of human attentional mechanisms.     

The effect of intramammary antibiotic therapy at calving on udder health traits

The effect of intramammary antibiotic therapy at calving on mastitis infection prevalence, linear score milk somatic cell count, and milk NAGase activity, 30 d postpartum, and on milk production, 90 to 120 d postpartum, was tested. Cows (n = 175) were split into treatment and control groups at drying off. All cows received commercial dry cow therapy. At calving, treated cows received commercial lactating cow therapy in all quarters after the first two milkings; control cows were not treated. Composite milk samples were aseptically collected from all cows at drying off, calving, and 30 d postpartum. Udder health traits: linear score milk SCC, NAGase activity, and bacterial content in milk, were determined on all samples. The first three DHI milk weights were recorded for all cows. Treatment and control cows had similar prevalences of intramammary infections during the dry and 30-d postpartum periods. Least squares means of linear score milk SCC and NAGase activities were similar at drying off and calving. Cell count scores were similar between groups; NAGase activities were higher in control cows at 30 d postpartum. Control cows tended to produce more milk postpartum. Results demonstrated no advantage of intramammary therapy at calving in improving milk production or udder health.     

The spring scheduling coprocessor: a scheduling accelerator

The spring scheduling coprocessor is a novel very large scale integration (VLSI) accelerator for multiprocessor real-time systems. The coprocessor can be used for static as well as online scheduling. Many different policies and their combinations can be used (e.g., earliest deadline first, highest value first, or resource-oriented policies such as earliest available time first). In this paper, we describe a coprocessor architecture, a CMOS implementation, an implementation of the host/coprocessor interface and a study of the overall performance improvement. We show that the current VLSI chip speeds up the main portion of the scheduling operation by over three orders of magnitude. We also present an overall system improvement analysis by accounting for the operating system overheads and identify the next set of bottlenecks to improve. The scheduling coprocessor includes several novel VLSI features. It is implemented as a parallel architecture for scheduling that is parameterized for different numbers of tasks, numbers of resources, and internal wordlengths. The architecture was implemented using a single-phase clocking style in several novel ways. The 328 000 transistor custom 2-μm VLSI accelerator running with a 100-MHz clock, combined with careful hardware/software co-design results in a considerable performance improvement, thus removing a major bottleneck in real-time systems     

Aerial views and farm security administration photography

Abstract

Between September 1939 and April 1940 Arthur Rothstein and John Vachon, photographers for the US Government's Farm Security Administration (FSA), made three trips to Grundy County, Iowa to make photographs of Midwestern agrarian life. During these excursions the two men wandered along the streets of small towns and the furrows of farmers' fields taking snapshots that documented the events, places and patterns of rural life (figures 1, 2). In addition, during the cold winter month of February 1940, Rothstein again visited this rural landscape, this time from the cockpit of a small airplane. From vantage points high above the land he made scores more photographs of the town of Grundy Center and its environs (figures 3, 4). These aerial images presented broad visions of the network of farms, roads and fields that composed the local landscape. In doing so, these views served as visual complements to the up-close, personal photographs of farmers and town residents taken from ground level.     

The equivalence of regression models using difference scores and models using separate scores for each informant: Implications for the study of informant discrepancies.

Research on informant discrepancies has increasingly utilized difference scores. This article demonstrates the statistical equivalence of regression models using difference scores (raw or standardized) and regression models using separate scores for each informant to show that interpretations should be consistent with both models. First, regression equations were used to demonstrate that difference score models are equivalent to models using separate scores for each informant. Second, a hypothesis-driven empirical example (218 mother–child dyads, mean age = 11.5 years, 49% female participants, 49% White, 47% African American) was used to provide an illustration of the equivalence of the 2 models. Implications of the equivalence of models using difference scores and models using separate scores for each informant are discussed in terms of the growing prevalence of an interpretation in the literature of difference score analyses that is inconsistent with results from equivalent separate informant analyses. Differences in the separate predictive ability of informants should be acknowledged as an alternative interpretation of the difference score regression coefficient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)