Children communicating in cinematic codes: Effects on cognitive skills.

Assigned 87 5th-graders in 2 schools in Israel to 4 55-hr filmmaking courses on 8-mm cameras to examine the influence of active expression through cinematic codes on improving 8 mental skills. The 1st program in filmmaking included photography only; the 2nd, scenario design and photography; the 3rd, photography and editing; the 4th combined all 3 activities. A separate group of 22 Ss from the same classes who were engaged in an arts recreation program served as a control group. Background data were obtained for each S, and mastery levels of 8 mental skills were tested prior to the experiment as well as after the completion of the courses. Multivariate stepwise regression analyses revealed that filmmaking had a significant effect on the cultivation of the 8 mental skills, which included spatial aptitudes as well as logical inferences. The editing activity within the filmmaking process was more significant than other activities to the cultivation of 4 specific skills associated with logical inferences. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using a structured world model in flexible recognition of two dimensional patterns

An attempt for a world model driven recognition process of two dimensional visual patterns is presented. Patterns are organized in a world model according to their shapes. The world model is in a form of a lattice-like structure. The nodes represent either properties or relations of considered objects. The lattice structure of the world model allows us to recognize objects by partial information, because of the lattice property, e.g. the greatest lower bound. Examples of a computer recognition of two dimensional patterns are shown.     

Flying Together: Modelling Air Mission Teams

The problem of modelling air missions is part of a larger problem—simulating possible war-like scenarios in the air, sea, and on land. In modelling such military systems one is required to model the behaviour of various actors and the resources that are available to them. One aspect of this problem is the modelling of a group of actors as a team and then modelling the coordinated behaviour of such a team to achieve a joint goal.In the domain of air mission modelling the actors are pilots who control aircraft and their behaviour is referred to as tactics. In this paper we present the approach we adopted in modelling teams and team tactics as part of the development of the Smart Whole AiR Mission Model (SWARMM) for the Air Operations Division of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization. In our approach teams are composed of sub-teams and adopt organizational structures. Such structures define the responsibilities of the sub-teams towards the mission to be achieved as well as towards the control and coordination of the sub-teams. We also describe how communication is used when adopting a variety of control and coordination strategies and how one could reason about the choice of organizational structures for a given mission and situation.     

Supramolecular Nanofibers Self-Assembled from Foldamers: Structure Control through Preassembly

We used a helical polymer backbone (polyacrylamide) as a scaffold to organize perylene diimide chromophores into well-defined foldamers, which further undergo self-assembly into supramolecular tube-like arrays in aqueous media, as revealed by cryo-TEM imaging. The arrays are supramolecular polymers, whose structure is templated by folded primary building blocks, representing a useful tool for directing self-assembly . Exciton migration in the supramolecular arrays was studied by transient absorption and revealed a moderate exciton diffusion propensity.