Foveation time measure in Congenital Nystagmus through second order approximation of the slow phases

Congenital Nystagmus (CN) is an ocular-motor disorder characterised by involuntary, conjugated ocular oscillations, and its pathogenesis is still unknown. The pathology is de fined as "congenital" from the onset time of its arise which could be at birth or in the first months of life. Visual acuity in CN subjects is often diminished due to nystagmus continuous oscillations, mainly on the horizontal plane, which disturb image fixation on the retina. However, during short periods in which eye velocity slows down while the target image is placed onto the fovea (called foveation intervals) the image of a given target can still be stable, allowing a subject to reach a higher visual acuity. In CN subjects, visual acuity is usually assessed both using typical measurement techniques (e.g. Landolt C test) and with eye movement recording in different gaze positions. The offline study of eye movement recordings allows physicians to analyse nystagmus main features such as waveform shape, amplitude and frequency and to compute estimated visual acuity predictors. This analytical functions estimates the best corrected visual acuity using foveation time and foveation position variability, hence a reliable estimation of this two parameters is a fundamental factor in assessing visual acuity. This work aims to enhance the foveation time estimation in CN eye movement recording, computing a second order approximation of the slow phase components of nystag-mus oscillations. About 19 infraredoculographic eye-movement recordings from 10 CN subjects were acquired and the visual acuity assessed with an acuity predictor was compared to the one measured in primary position. Results suggest that visual acuity measurements based on foveation time estimation obtained from interpolated data are closer to value obtained during Landolt C tests. © 2010 IEEE.

“I thought I’d be safe there”:pre-empting blame in the talk of women reporting rape

One routine “common sense” means of explaining sexual violence is the ideologically facilitated tendency to blame the victim, and previous research has identified patterns of victim-blaming in the talk of perpetrators of rape, and also in that of the professionals who deal with rape in their day-to-day work. This article focuses on the discursive resources drawn on in police interviews by rape victims themselves as they attempt to account for their own behaviour in relation to the attack. It identifies and describes points within interviewees’ talk where they produce “accounts” (Potter and Wetherell, 1987), and considers what these tell us about the participants’ shared understanding of what is relevant to the on-going talk. Occasions when there is evidence of a mis-match in the understanding of the participants will also be discussed. The analyses illustrate that for the accounts of interviewees to be heard as relevant, a number of prevalent and problematic themes of victim-blaming must be assumed. Interviewees anticipate and pre-empt implications that various aspects of their own behaviour contributed to their attack, and interviewers vary in the level of skill they display at negotiating these shared understandings.

Selected psychosocial and demographic factors affecting levels of pre-retirement planning

In September 2002, the State of Florida implemented a new retirement structure for those employed in the Florida Public School System. Teachers were given the option to maintain their existing defined benefit plan or choose the newly offered defined contribution plan. The variables that affect planning for retirement are innumerable. Identifying the most significant variables is essential to understanding how one plans for retirement. ^ This study examined the relationship between hypothesized psychosocial and demographic factors and an individual's level of pre-retirement planning. The criterion variable, the level of pre-retirement planning, comprised two concepts. First, the time spent thinking about retirement was determined by the score an individual received on a pre-retirement planning scale. This scale included the concepts of information gathering, goals, anticipated resources, and long-range planning. Second, implementation of retirement plan procedures was determined by the percentage an individual annually deferred to retirement. ^ The survey used for data collection contained 50 close-ended items. It was distributed to all full-time teachers in nine randomly selected elementary, middle, and senior high schools throughout Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Multiple regression and crosstabulation indicated that math anxiety, general risk, years of service, and total family income were significant predictors of the level of pre-retirement planning, as measured by the pre-retirement planning scale. In addition, the statistical analysis indicated that math anxiety, internal locus of control, years of service, and total family income were significant predictors of the level pre-retirement planning, as measured by the amount deferred to retirement. An individual's level of math anxiety and family income were the two factors that were the most significant predictors for both concepts on the level of pre-retirement planning. ^ Based on the findings of the study, recommendations focused on assessing an individual's level of math anxiety and educating teachers, particularly pre-service candidates, about the factors that affect pre-retirement planning. Further research should investigate the benefit of such educational programs. ^

The effects of school mobility in pre -assessment grade levels on student performance and school accountability in urban Title I schools

This study examined the effects of student mobility and educational enrollment experiences on academic achievement. The educational progress, school enrollments and transfers of inner-city elementary students were tracked over a four-year period. Student achievement was measured by criterion-referenced reading tests administered in the second semester of the third grade. It further analyzed the degree to which the switch to different basal reading textbooks interrupted the continuity of education thereby contributing to the detrimental effects of intra-district mobility. ^ Mobility histories of 2,913 third grade students were collected to evaluate the number of times each student entered or withdrew from a Miami-Dade County Public School beginning in August 2000 through March 2004, and distinguished between transfers that occurred during the academic school year and those that occurred during summer months. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations and multiple regressions to determine if school mobility contributed to performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Third Grade Reading Test (FCAT). Transferring from one school to another was found to have a significant negative impact on student test scores. Transfers within the academic school year were more detrimental than transfers that occurred during the summer months. Third grade students who transferred into schools that used the same reading textbook series were found to have significantly higher FCAT reading scores than third graders who transferred into schools that used different reading textbooks. ^ The effects of mobility rates on overall school performance were also examined. Data was collected on 124 Title I elementary schools to determine the degree to which mobility affected school accountability scores. Title I schools with high student mobility rates had significantly lower accountability scores than schools with lower student mobility rates. ^ The results of this study highlight the impact of education and housing policy and imply a need for programs and practices that promote stability in the early elementary years. ^

The relationship between the use of Academic Text Talk and the comprehension of scientific academic language for diverse second graders

Changing demographics impact our schools as children come from more linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. The various social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the students affect their early language learning experiences which expose them to the academic language needed to succeed in school. Teachers can help students acquire academic language by introducing words that are within their Zone of Proximal Development and increasing exposure to and use of academic language. This study investigated the effects of increasing structured activities for students to orally interact with informational text on their scientific academic language development and comprehension of expository text. ^ The Academic Text Talk activities, designed to scaffold verbalization of new words and ideas, included discussion, retelling, games, and sentence walls. This study also evaluated if there were differences in scientific language proficiency and comprehension between boys and girls, and between English language learners and native English speakers. ^ A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the relationship between increasing students' oral practice with academic language and their academic language proficiency. Second graders (n = 91) from an urban public school participated in two science units over an 8 week period and were pre and post tested using the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised and vocabulary tests from the National Energy Education Project. Analysis of covariance was performed on the pre to post scores by treatment group to determine differences in academic language proficiency for students taught using Academic Text Talk compared to students taught using a text-centered method, using the initial Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading test as a covariate. Students taught using Academic Text Talk multimodal strategies showed significantly greater increases in their pre to posttest means on the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised Oral Language Totals and National Energy Education Development Project Vocabulary tests than students taught using the text-centered method, ps < .05. Boys did not show significantly greater increases than girls, nor did English language learners show significantly greater increases than the native English speakers. ^ This study informs the field of reading research by evaluating the effectiveness of a multimodal combination of strategies emphasizing discourse to build academic language.^

The rise of Islamism amongst Muslim youth in the UK

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible reasons why Muslim youth are increasingly becoming attracted to radical Islam in the UK. Recent studies involving focus groups of Muslim youth across the UK and opinion surveys were used to measure youth's level of religious guidance, integration in society and feelings of hostility or of an enemy image of Islam. It was found that alienation from traditional methods of religious education, parents/ imams, is the possible first step that makes youth more vulnerable to outside Islamist groups. The second step is the lack of integration due to discrimination and feeling as an enemy within society. The enemy image includes the government's decision to invade Iraq and the perception that Muslims and Islam are under attack. There is a strong need for youth to reconcile their national and religious identities in order to be active citizens in the future.

On-screen pre-deblurring of digital images using the wavefront aberration function of the human eye to improve computer access for the visually impaired

Traditional Optics has provided ways to compensate some common visual limitations (up to second order visual impairments) through spectacles or contact lenses. Recent developments in wavefront science make it possible to obtain an accurate model of the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the human eye. Through what is known as the "Wavefront Aberration Function" of the human eye, exact knowledge of the optical aberration of the human eye is possible, allowing a mathematical model of the PSF to be obtained. This model could be used to pre-compensate (inverse-filter) the images displayed on computer screens in order to counter the distortion in the user's eye. This project takes advantage of the fact that the wavefront aberration function, commonly expressed as a Zernike polynomial, can be generated from the ophthalmic prescription used to fit spectacles to a person. This allows the pre-compensation, or onscreen deblurring, to be done for various visual impairments, up to second order (commonly known as myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism). The technique proposed towards that goal and results obtained using a lens, for which the PSF is known, that is introduced into the visual path of subjects without visual impairment will be presented. In addition to substituting the effect of spectacles or contact lenses in correcting the loworder visual limitations of the viewer, the significance of this approach is that it has the potential to address higher-order abnormalities in the eye, currently not correctable by simple means.

Coral reef habitat maps derived from a high-spatial-resolution multi-spectral satellite image using object based image analysis

Coral reef maps at various spatial scales and extents are needed for mapping, monitoring, modelling, and management of these environments. High spatial resolution satellite imagery, pixel <10 m, integrated with field survey data and processed with various mapping approaches, can provide these maps. These approaches have been accurately applied to single reefs (10-100 km**2), covering one high spatial resolution scene from which a single thematic layer (e.g. benthic community) is mapped. This article demonstrates how a hierarchical mapping approach can be applied to coral reefs from individual reef to reef-system scales (10-1000 km**2) using object-based image classification of high spatial resolution images guided by ecological and geomorphological principles. The approach is demonstrated for three individual reefs (10-35 km**2) in Australia, Fiji, and Palau; and for three complex reef systems (300-600 km**2) one in the Solomon Islands and two in Fiji. Archived high spatial resolution images were pre-processed and mosaics were created for the reef systems. Georeferenced benthic photo transect surveys were used to acquire cover information. Field and image data were integrated using an object-based image analysis approach that resulted in a hierarchically structured classification. Objects were assigned class labels based on the dominant benthic cover type, or location-relevant ecological and geomorphological principles, or a combination thereof. This generated a hierarchical sequence of reef maps with an increasing complexity in benthic thematic information that included: 'reef', 'reef type', 'geomorphic zone', and 'benthic community'. The overall accuracy of the 'geomorphic zone' classification for each of the six study sites was 76-82% using 6-10 mapping categories. For 'benthic community' classification, the overall accuracy was 52-75% with individual reefs having 14-17 categories and reef systems 20-30 categories. We show that an object-based classification of high spatial resolution imagery, guided by field data and ecological and geomorphological principles, can produce consistent, accurate benthic maps at four hierarchical spatial scales for coral reefs of various sizes and complexities.

Habitat map of Danajon Bank, Philippines, derived from a high-spatial-resolution multi-spectral satellite image and georeferenced point intercept transect and spot-check survey field data, using an object-based image classification method

A mosaic of two WorldView-2 high resolution multispectral images (Acquisition dates: October 2010 and April 2012), in conjunction with field survey data, was used to create a habitat map of the Danajon Bank, Philippines (10°15'0'' N, 124°08'0'' E) using an object-based approach. To create the habitat map, we conducted benthic cover (seafloor) field surveys using two methods. Firstly, we undertook georeferenced point intercept transects (English et al., 1997). For ten sites we recorded habitat cover types at 1 m intervals on 10 m long transects (n= 2,070 points). Second, we conducted geo-referenced spot check surveys, by placing a viewing bucket in the water to estimate the percent cover benthic cover types (n = 2,357 points). Survey locations were chosen to cover a diverse and representative subset of habitats found in the Danajon Bank. The combination of methods was a compromise between the higher accuracy of point intercept transects and the larger sample area achievable through spot check surveys (Roelfsema and Phinn, 2008, doi:10.1117/12.804806). Object-based image analysis, using the field data as calibration data, was used to classify the image mosaic at each of the reef, geomorphic and benthic community levels. The benthic community level segregated the image into a total of 17 pure and mixed benthic classes.

AUTOMÓVEIS CHINESES CHERY NO MERCADO BRASILEIRO (2010-2014) – UM ESTUDO DE CASO

A globalização possibilitou aos países buscarem seus consumidores em qualquer parte, sendo o Brasil o quarto mercado consumidor de automóveis do mundo, e praticamente todos os fabricantes globais buscaram estar presentes neste mercado. Com os chineses, detentores do título de maiores produtores mundiais de automóveis, não seria diferente. Contudo, ao contrário do crescimento constante de sua produção mundial, viram suas vendas estagnarem em baixos níveis no Brasil nos últimos anos. O objetivo deste estudo é compreender o mau desempenho de vendas da marca Chery no Brasil, sob a óptica dos gerentes de vendas das agências de carros usados e dos ex-proprietários. Para tentar responder a esta questão, optou-se por um estudo de caráter exploratório, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica e uma pesquisa qualitativa, com entrevistas abertas em profundidade com base em um roteiro preestabelecido e um recorte na cidade de São Paulo – SP. Utilizou-se também uma pesquisa secundária em meios eletrônicos, que confirmou as informações obtidas na pesquisa de campo. Conforme apresentado no trabalho, todas as marcas tiveram redução em suas vendas, porém, as marcas chinesas sofreram maiores reduções que às marcas ditas nacionais. Na pesquisa, observa-se que três fatores foram decisivos para o mau desempenho das marcas chinesas e, consequentemente, da marca Chery também. O primeiro foi o aumento do Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados (IPI), o segundo foi a crise econômica que o Brasil atravessa e o terceiro foi a rejeição aos carros da Chery. Essa rejeição deveu-se a vários fatores, somados às experiências negativas que consumidores tiveram com marcas de veículos importados que deixaram o país, a imagem de que produtos chineses são cópias e ao hipotético preconceito que produtos chineses são de baixa qualidade. Portanto, ouvindo os entrevistados e por meio dos comentários sobre a marca Chery nos meios eletrônicos, pode-se deduzir que somente a crise econômica e o aumento de impostos não justificam totalmente o mau desempenho de vendas da marca Chery. Essa análise indica que os fatores de rejeição aos veículos da marca Chery tiveram participação decisiva nesta queda significativa de suas vendas no período de 2010 a 2014.

Characterization of dynamic speckle sequences using principal component analysis and image descriptors

Speckle is being used as a characterization tool for the analysis of the dynamic of slow varying phenomena occurring in biological and industrial samples. The retrieved data takes the form of a sequence of speckle images. The analysis of these images should reveal the inner dynamic of the biological or physical process taking place in the sample. Very recently, it has been shown that principal component analysis is able to split the original data set in a collection of classes. These classes can be related with the dynamic of the observed phenomena. At the same time, statistical descriptors of biospeckle images have been used to retrieve information on the characteristics of the sample. These statistical descriptors can be calculated in almost real time and provide a fast monitoring of the sample. On the other hand, principal component analysis requires longer computation time but the results contain more information related with spatial-temporal pattern that can be identified with physical process. This contribution merges both descriptions and uses principal component analysis as a pre-processing tool to obtain a collection of filtered images where a simpler statistical descriptor can be calculated. The method has been applied to slow-varying biological and industrial processes

Second Women's March down Fifth Avenue

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Second Women's March down Fifth Avenue

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Second women's march down Fifth Avenue

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Barbara Seaman holding vaginal cap at Pre-1980 Women's March press conference

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.