Status of radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia in 2011. Synthesis of the results from the IRSN's monitoring network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouisset, P.; Bernagout, S.; Leclerc, G.; Rua, J.; Delabbaye, P.; Cagnat, X.

2012-11-01

Radiological monitoring of the French environment is one of IRSN's permanent tasks as part of public policy on nuclear safety and radiological protection. It is helping to guarantee the best possible protection of the population. Exercised in Polynesia since 1962, this monitoring, which takes place on seven islands (Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, HivaOa, Mangareva and Tubuai) representing the five archipelagos, and consists of taking regular samples of various kinds from the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil, food...) with which the population may be in contact. Regarding food, the samples analyzed are representative of the diet of Polynesians living in the five archipelagos of that territory, and from the marine environment of the open sea, from the lagoon environment and from the terrestrial environment. Almost all samples are measured at the Laboratory for the Study and Monitoring of the Environment IRSN, based in Vairao on the island of Tahiti. The year 2011 was marked by the Fukushima nuclear accident, which occurred on March 11. In this context, IRSN conducted a strengthened monitoring of French Polynesia, thus confirming the absence of radiological impact in Caledonia and Polynesia. The results of analyzes have been published in the previous annual report (report DEI/SESURE 2011-40), this report does not include all data and results for the year 2011, but establishes a synthesis for this year. During the year 2011, results fall under the continuity of a regular reduction of the levels of radioactivity since the stop, in 1974, of the French atmospheric tests. This residual radioactivity relates to primarily the 137 Cs. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity is lower than 5 μSv.y -1 (5 micro-sieverts per year). This value corresponds to less than 0,5 % of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1 000 μSv.y -1 ). (authors)

Screening of anti-HIV-1 inophyllums by HPLC-DAD of Calophyllum inophyllum leaf extracts from French Polynesia Islands.

Science.gov (United States)

Laure, Frédéric; Raharivelomanana, Phila; Butaud, Jean-François; Bianchini, Jean-Pierre; Gaydou, Emile M

2008-08-22

Various pyranocoumarins, calophyllolide, inophyllums B, C, G(1), G(2) and P, from Calophyllum inophyllum (Clusiaceae) leaves of French Polynesia (Austral, Marquesas, Society and Tuamotu archipelagos) have been determined in 136 leaf extracts using a high pressure liquid chromatography-UV-diode array detection (HPLC-UV-DAD) technique. Results show a wide range in chemical composition within trees growing on eighteen islands. The use of multivariate statistical analyses (PCA) shows geographical distribution of inophyllums and indicate those rich in HIV-1 active (+)-inophyllums. Inophyllum B and P contents (0.0-39.0 and 0.0-21.8 mg kg(-1), respectively) confirm the chemodiversity of this species within the large area of French Polynesia. The study suggests the presence of interesting chemotypes which could be used as plant source for anti-HIV-1 drugs.

Radioactivity monitoring status in French Polynesia in 2008. Results from IRSN's monitoring network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Radiological monitoring of the French environment is one of IRSN's permanent tasks as part of public policy on nuclear safety and radiological protection. It is helping to guarantee the best possible protection of the population. The task addresses two objectives: - To monitor the levels of artificial radioactivity in all sectors of the environment and in major foodstuffs; - To estimate the exposure of the Polynesian population to this artificial radioactivity. The IRSN has monitored radioactivity levels in French Polynesia, excluding the Mururoa and Fangataufa nuclear experimentation centres, since 1962. This task is realized by the IRSN's Environmental Study and Monitoring Laboratory located in Tahiti (Vairao) This monitoring was instigated at the time when atmospheric nuclear weapons testing was being performed by the major powers (the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and China), causing fallout of artificial radionuclides, over several years, on a planetary scale. In French Polynesia, the IRSN is most particularly interested in fallout resulting from the 41 tests carried out by France in this region of the globe between 1966 and 1974, and in its consequent effects on the population. Today, just as in metropolitan France, the IRSN carries out monitoring as part of its mission to constantly monitor radiological protection factors. The monitoring takes place on seven islands (Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, Hiva Oa, Mangareva and Tubuai) representing the five archipelagoes and consists of taking monthly samples of various kinds from the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil, food...) with which the population may be in contact. For more than 40 years, the IRSN takes part in the evaluation of the dosimetric consequences of these atmospheric depositions in French Polynesia. This laboratory is established in Tahiti. The ingestion component of this dosimetric evaluation requires to collect the most representative samples of

Transmission Dynamics of Zika Virus in Island Populations: A Modelling Analysis of the 2013-14 French Polynesia Outbreak.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam J Kucharski

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Between October 2013 and April 2014, more than 30,000 cases of Zika virus (ZIKV disease were estimated to have attended healthcare facilities in French Polynesia. ZIKV has also been reported in Africa and Asia, and in 2015 the virus spread to South America and the Caribbean. Infection with ZIKV has been associated with neurological complications including Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS and microcephaly, which led the World Health Organization to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in February 2015. To better understand the transmission dynamics of ZIKV, we used a mathematical model to examine the 2013-14 outbreak on the six major archipelagos of French Polynesia. Our median estimates for the basic reproduction number ranged from 2.6-4.8, with an estimated 11.5% (95% CI: 7.32-17.9% of total infections reported. As a result, we estimated that 94% (95% CI: 91-97% of the total population of the six archipelagos were infected during the outbreak. Based on the demography of French Polynesia, our results imply that if ZIKV infection provides complete protection against future infection, it would take 12-20 years before there are a sufficient number of susceptible individuals for ZIKV to re-emerge, which is on the same timescale as the circulation of dengue virus serotypes in the region. Our analysis suggests that ZIKV may exhibit similar dynamics to dengue virus in island populations, with transmission characterized by large, sporadic outbreaks with a high proportion of asymptomatic or unreported cases.

French Polynesia Hotspot Swells Explained By Dynamic Topography

Science.gov (United States)

Adam, C.; Yoshida, M.; Isse, T.; Suetsugu, D.; Shiobara, H.; Sugioka, H.; Kanazawa, T.; Fukao, Y.; Barruol, G.

2007-12-01

Situated on the South Pacific Superswell, French Polynesia is a region characterized by numerous geophysical anomalies among which a high volcanism concentration. Seven hotspots are required to explain the observed chains, volcanism ages and geochemical trends. Many open questions still remain on the origin of these hotspot chains: are they created by passive uplift of magma due to discontinuities in the structure of the lithosphere or by the ascent of mantle plumes? In this case, at which depth do these plumes initiate in the mantle? Many geophysical observations (bathymetry, gravity, magnetism, volcanism ages..) are used to understand the unique phenomenon occurring on this region. The most useful information may come from tomography models since they provide a 3D view of the mantle. Until recently, the tomography models over the region were quite inaccurate because of the sparse location of the seismic stations. The deployment of two new seismic stations networks (BBOBS and temporary island stations) has lately remedied this failing. The resulting tomography model obtained through the inversion of Rayleigh waves provides the most accurate view of the shallowest part of the mantle (depths ≤ 240 km) beneath French Polynesia. Indeed, for the first time the accuracy of a tomography model is good enough to provide information about plume phenomenology in this complex region. In order to quantify the plumes effect on the seafloor, we compute the dynamic topography through an instantaneous flow model. The general trend of the observed depths anomalies (highs and lows) is well recovered. For example the amplitude, location and extension of the swells associated with the Society, Macdonald and Rarotonga are accurately described by the dynamic model. We also find that dynamic uplift is associated with the Tuamotu archipelago which means that a part of the observed swell is due to the present day action of plumes. Since no volcanism ages are available over this chain

Vector Competence of Aedes aegypti and Aedes polynesiensis Populations from French Polynesia for Chikungunya Virus.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vaea Richard

2016-05-01

Full Text Available From October 2014 to March 2015, French Polynesia experienced for the first time a chikungunya outbreak. Two Aedes mosquitoes may have contributed to chikungunya virus (CHIKV transmission in French Polynesia: the worldwide distributed Ae. aegypti and the Polynesian islands-endemic Ae. polynesiensis mosquito.To investigate the vector competence of French Polynesian populations of Ae. aegypti and Ae. polynesiensis for CHIKV, mosquitoes were exposed per os at viral titers of 7 logs tissue culture infectious dose 50%. At 2, 6, 9, 14 and 21 days post-infection (dpi, saliva was collected from each mosquito and inoculated onto C6/36 mosquito cells to check for the presence of CHIKV infectious particles. Legs and body (thorax and abdomen of each mosquito were also collected at the different dpi and submitted separately to viral RNA extraction and CHIKV real-time RT-PCR.CHIKV infection rate, dissemination and transmission efficiencies ranged from 7-90%, 18-78% and 5-53% respectively for Ae. aegypti and from 39-41%, 3-17% and 0-14% respectively for Ae. polynesiensis, depending on the dpi. Infectious saliva was found as early as 2 dpi for Ae. aegypti and from 6 dpi for Ae. polynesiensis. Our laboratory results confirm that the French Polynesian population of Ae. aegypti is highly competent for CHIKV and they provide clear evidence for Ae. polynesiensis to act as an efficient CHIKV vector.As supported by our findings, the presence of two CHIKV competent vectors in French Polynesia certainly contributed to enabling this virus to quickly disseminate from the urban/peri-urban areas colonized by Ae. aegypti to the most remote atolls where Ae. polynesiensis is predominating. Ae. polynesiensis was probably involved in the recent chikungunya outbreaks in Samoa and the Cook Islands. Moreover, this vector may contribute to the risk for CHIKV to emerge in other Polynesian islands like Fiji, and more particularly Wallis where there is no Ae. aegypti.

Temporal patterns and geographic heterogeneity of Zika virus (ZIKV outbreaks in French Polynesia and Central America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying-Hen Hsieh

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background Zika virus (ZIKV transmission has been reported in 67 countries/territories in the Oceania region and the Americas since 2015, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO to declare ZIKV as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in February 2016, due to its strong association with medical complications such as microcephaly and Guillain–Barré Syndrome (GBS. However, a substantial gap in knowledge still exists regarding differing temporal pattern and potential of transmission of ZIKV in different regions of the world. Methods We use a phenomenological model to ascertain the temporal patterns and transmission potential of ZIKV in various countries/territories, by fitting the model to Zika case data from Yap Island and French Polynesia in the Oceania region and 11 countries/territories with confirmed case data, namely, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, and Suriname, to pinpoint the waves of infections in each country/territory and to estimate the respective basic reproduction number R0. Results Six of these time series datasets resulted in statistically significant model fit of at least one wave of reported cases, namely that of French Polynesia, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Suriname and Saint Martin. However, only Colombia and Guatemala exhibited two waves of cases while the others had only one wave. Temporal patterns of the second wave in Colombia and the single wave in Suriname are very similar, with the respective turning points separated by merely a week. Moreover, the mean estimates of R0 for Colombia, Guatemala and Suriname, all land-based populations, range between 1.05 and 1.75, while the corresponding mean estimates for R0 of island populations in French Polynesia, Puerto Rico and Saint Martin are significantly lower with a range of 5.70–6.89. We also fit the Richards model to Zika case data from six main archipelagos in French

Situation Report--Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Laos, Liberia, Republic of Vietnam, Seychelles, Tahiti (French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

International Planned Parenthood Federation, London (England).

Data relating to population and family planning in eight foreign countries are presented in these situation reports. Countries included are Dominical Republic, Ethiopia, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Laos, Liberia, Republic of Vietnam, Seychelles, and Tahiti (French Polynesia). Information is provided, where appropriate and available, under two…

Situation of the surveillance of radioactivity in French Polynesia in 2007. Results of the I.R.S.N. 's surveillance network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

The 543 atmospheric nuclear tests released radionuclides that have deposited themselves throughout the world. The Environmental Study and Surveillance Laboratory, 'Laboratoire d etude et de suivi de l'environnement' (L.E.S.E.) of the Institute of nuclear safety and radiation protection (I.R.S.N.), takes part, for more than 35 years, in the evaluation of the dosimetric consequences of these atmospheric depositions, especially those originating with the 41 tests realized in the territory of French polynesia from 1966 to 1974. This laboratory is established in Tahiti. The actualized dosimetric evaluation due to the foodstuff ingestion requires to collect the most representative samples of the feed ration of the Polynesians living in the 5 archipelagoes of this territory. These samples belong to the marine environment of full sea, the lagoon environment and the terrestrial environment. Certain samples of the physical environment are also taken (air, water). 355 samples collected in 2007 are measured by Hp-Ge low background gamma spectrometry in order to be able to characterize lowest possible radioactivity levels. The levels of activity of Pu isotopes and 90 Sr are also given for 50 selected samples and tritium activities for 20 water samples. After a period of regular decay of radioactivity after the stop, in 1974, of the French atmospheric tests, the radiological state observed in the year 2007 is the same of that of the recent previous years, at a very low level. for example, the 137 Cs rate in the polynesian air is ten times lower than the parisian rate. In fact, the residual radioactivity essentially relates to 137 Cs, the only artificial radionuclide still measurable in the archipelago. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity is lower than 6 μSv by year. this value corresponds to less than 1% of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1 milli Sv). (N.C.)

Learning and training. Education in eighteenth-century traditional Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henri J.M. Claessen

2009-10-01

Full Text Available In this article some methods and types of education in traditional Polynesia will be presented. The emphasis will fall on the second half of the eighteenth century. This period has been selected for on the one hand it covers the final years of the Polynesian culture before it was deeply influenced by good intended efforts of missionaries and administrators who tried to erase heathen customs and introduce dresses, and introducing reading and writing and the negative forces of traders, whalers and colonizers, who came to the islands to relax after arduous travels, and to buy cheap goods and food. On the other hand many voyagers, missionaries, administrators and traders left us in their logs and journals detailed descriptions of the islanders and their cultures as they had seen them and tried to understand them. These publications will be considered here as ‘sources’.

Children Can Learn New Facts Equally Well From Interactive Media Versus Face to Face Instruction

OpenAIRE

Kwok, Kristine; Ghrear, Siba; Li, Vivian; Haddock, Taeh; Coleman, Patrick; Birch, Susan A. J.

2016-01-01

Today’s children have more opportunities than ever before to learn from interactive technology, yet experimental research assessing the efficacy of children’s learning from interactive media in comparison to traditional learning approaches is still quite scarce. Moreover, little work has examined the efficacy of using touch-screen devices for research purposes. The current study compared children’s rate of learning factual information about animals during a face-to-face instruction from an ad...

Effectiveness of a Heritage Educational Program for the Acquisition of Oral and Written French and Tahitian in French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Nocus, Isabelle; Guimard, Philippe; Vernaudon, Jacques; Paia, Mirose; Cosnefroy, Olivier; Florin, Agnes

2012-01-01

The research examines the effects of a bilingual pedagogical program (French/Tahitian) on the acquisition of oral and written French as well as the Tahitian language itself in primary schools in French Polynesia. 125 children divided into an experimental group (partially schooled in Tahitian for 300 min per week) and a control group (schooled in…

Reconstruction of individual doses for the subjects of a case-control study of thyroid cancer in French Polynesia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drozdovitch, V.; Cardis, E.; Doyon, F.; Vathaire, F. de; Bouville, A.

2006-01-01

A case-control study of thyroid cancer coordinated b y the Unit 605 I.N.S.E.R.M. as carried out in French Polynesia. Forty-six atmospheric nuclear weapons tests (including five safety tests) were conducted in French Polynesia between 966 and 1974. The study includes 600 subjects both cases and controls all aged up to 30 years old at start of nuclear weapons testing. Under the normal conditions following testing the radioactive debris was moved to the east from he test site (atolls Moruroa or Fangataufa) over the uninhabited regions of the Pacific. However, some of the radioactive debris in troposphere was caught in anticyclones eddies and were transferred back to the central South Pacific area in a few days. Radioactive clouds with changed direction result ed in the local deposition of radionuclides on the ground of inhabited islands of French Polynesia. Radiation doses to the thyroids of the subjects were assessed based on the available historical results of radiometric measurements and meteorological data. These included annual reports on the radiological situation in French Polynesia that had been sent to the Secretariat of UNSCEAR. Results of measurements of exposure rate and of total activity in filtered air were used to evaluate the ground depositions of specific radionuclides. Radiation monitoring also included measurements of 131 I and 137 Cs in cows milk produced in Tahiti and measurements of radioactivity in foodstuffs produced on the selected islands. For each atmospheric nuclear weapons test that contributed substantially to the local deposition of radionuclides, the radiation dose to the thyroid from 131 I intake via inhalation and ingestion was estimated. In additional, thyroid doses from the intake of short-lived radio iodines (132, 133, 135 I) and 132 Te, external exposure from gamma-emitted radionuclides deposited on the ground, and ingestion of long-lived 137 Cs were reconstructed. The assessment of individual thyroid doses took into account: (1

Recent disturbances augment community shifts in coral assemblages in Moorea, French Polynesia

KAUST Repository

Pratchett, Morgan S.; Trapon, Melanie L.; Berumen, Michael L.; Chong-Seng, Karen M.

2010-01-01

Coral reefs are often subject to disturbances that can cause enduring changes in community structure and abundance of coral reef organisms. In Moorea, French Polynesia, frequent disturbances between 1979 and 2003 caused marked shifts in taxonomic composition of coral assemblages. This study explores recent changes in live cover and taxonomic structure of coral communities on the north coast of Moorea, French Polynesia, to assess whether coral assemblages are recovering (returning to a previous Acropora-dominated state) or continuing to move towards an alternative community structure. Coral cover declined by 29.7% between July 2003 and March 2009, mostly due to loss of Acropora and Montipora spp. Coral mortality varied among habitats, with highest levels of coral loss on the outer reef slope (7-20 m depth). In contrast, there was limited change in coral cover within the lagoon, and coral cover actually increased on the reef crest. Observed changes in coral cover and composition correspond closely with the known feeding preferences and observed spatial patterns of Acanthaster planci L., though observed coral loss also coincided with at least one episode of coral bleaching, as well as persistent populations of the corallivorous starfish Culcita novaeguineae Muller & Troschel. While climate change poses an important and significant threat to the future structure and dynamics coral reef communities, outbreaks of A. planci remain a significant cause of coral loss in Moorea. More importantly, these recent disturbances have followed long-term shifts in the structure of coral assemblages, and the relative abundance of both Pocillopora and Porites continue to increase due to disproportionate losses of Acropora and Montipora. Moreover, Pocillopora and Porites dominate assemblages of juvenile corals, suggesting that there is limited potential for a return to an Acropora-dominated state, last recorded in 1979. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Recent disturbances augment community shifts in coral assemblages in Moorea, French Polynesia

KAUST Repository

Pratchett, Morgan S.

2010-09-19

Coral reefs are often subject to disturbances that can cause enduring changes in community structure and abundance of coral reef organisms. In Moorea, French Polynesia, frequent disturbances between 1979 and 2003 caused marked shifts in taxonomic composition of coral assemblages. This study explores recent changes in live cover and taxonomic structure of coral communities on the north coast of Moorea, French Polynesia, to assess whether coral assemblages are recovering (returning to a previous Acropora-dominated state) or continuing to move towards an alternative community structure. Coral cover declined by 29.7% between July 2003 and March 2009, mostly due to loss of Acropora and Montipora spp. Coral mortality varied among habitats, with highest levels of coral loss on the outer reef slope (7-20 m depth). In contrast, there was limited change in coral cover within the lagoon, and coral cover actually increased on the reef crest. Observed changes in coral cover and composition correspond closely with the known feeding preferences and observed spatial patterns of Acanthaster planci L., though observed coral loss also coincided with at least one episode of coral bleaching, as well as persistent populations of the corallivorous starfish Culcita novaeguineae Muller & Troschel. While climate change poses an important and significant threat to the future structure and dynamics coral reef communities, outbreaks of A. planci remain a significant cause of coral loss in Moorea. More importantly, these recent disturbances have followed long-term shifts in the structure of coral assemblages, and the relative abundance of both Pocillopora and Porites continue to increase due to disproportionate losses of Acropora and Montipora. Moreover, Pocillopora and Porites dominate assemblages of juvenile corals, suggesting that there is limited potential for a return to an Acropora-dominated state, last recorded in 1979. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Mastering the Multiplication Facts

Science.gov (United States)

D'Ettorre, Jenna

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to share the results of a six-week research project (after baseline data was collected) that focused on three different strategies (flashcards, interactive games, and music) and their effectiveness in helping fifth grade students memorize the basic multiplication facts. Many teachers face a serious problem when their…

Status of 2009 radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia. Results of IRSN's monitoring network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

Radiological monitoring of the French environment is one of IRSN's permanent tasks as part of public policy on nuclear safety and radiological protection. It is helping to guarantee the best possible protection of the population. Exercised in Polynesia since 1962, this monitoring, which takes place on seven islands (Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, Hiva Oa, Mangareva and Tubuai) representing the five archipelagoes, consists in regularly collecting samples of various kinds from the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil, food...) with which the population may be in contact. Regarding food, the samples analyzed are representative of the diet of Polynesians living in the five archipelagoes of that territory. They come from the marine environment of the open sea, from the marine lagoon environment and from the terrestrial environment. Almost all samples are measured at the IRSN Laboratory for the Environment Study and Monitoring, based in Vairao, Tahiti Island. The 239 samples collected in 2009 were measured by Hp-Ge low background gamma spectrometry in order to be able to characterize lowest possible radioactivity levels. The levels of activity of Pu isotopes have also been determined for 17 selected samples and tritium activities for 15 water samples. The results for the year 2009 are in the continuity of a regular reduction of the levels of radioactivity since the stop, in 1974, of the French atmospheric tests. This residual radioactivity relates to primarily the 137 Cs. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity is lower than 5 μSv.y -1 (5 micro Sieverts per year). This value corresponds to less than 0, 5 % of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1000 μSv.y -1 ). (authors)

Establishment of the Brown Widow Spider (Araneae: Theridiidae) and Infestation of its Egg Sacs by a Parasitoid, Philolema latrodecti (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

Science.gov (United States)

Marie, Jérôme; Vetter, Richard S

2015-11-01

This paper presents two newly established species for French Polynesia: the invasive brown widow spider, Latrodectus geometricus C. L. Koch, and its potential biocontrol agent, the parasitoid wasp, Philolema latrodecti (Fullaway). The brown widow spider was recorded from the island of Moorea in 2006 and, since that discovery, the occurrence of this species has expanded to two of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia including the main island of Tahiti and four of the Cook Islands. Although the tropical climate contributes to the establishment of L. geometricus, a biotic factor, P. latrodecti, may restrain population from demographic explosion. This eurytomid wasp is present in French Polynesia and is a parasitoid that has been used in biological control of the southern black widow Latrodectus mactans (F.) in Hawaii. This wasp could become a significant limiting factor for L. geometricus distribution on these islands, as it was found in 31% of the Tahitian brown widow spider egg sacs that were dissected. However, thus far, the wasp was only found on Tahiti in association with the brown widow spider. Although the brown widow is generally considered to be less toxic than its black widow relatives, it remains of medical concern in French Polynesia because reactions to its bites can, at times, be severe. The spider remains of public concern because it is a novel species; it has the word widow in its name and dark morphs are mistaken as black widows. © The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Temporal trends and epidemiological aspects of ciguatera in French Polynesia: a 10-year analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Chateau-Degat, Marie-Ludivine; Dewailly, Eric; Cerf, Nicole; Nguyen, Ngoc Lam; Huin-Blondey, Marie-Odile; Hubert, Bruno; Laudon, François; Chansin, René

2007-04-01

The purpose of this study was to report the temporal trends of the incidence of ciguatera poisoning from 1992 to 2001 in French Polynesia. This retrospective study analysed 7842 cases of ciguatera disease recorded over a period of 10 years. The annual incidence varied from 26.3 to 41.9 per 10,000 person-years. An analysis of cases grouped by archipelago revealed differences in incidences (P ciguatera poisoning appeared relatively stable during the 10 years of the study period. However, the gradient of remoteness observed suggests an adaptation of management of ciguatera disease to each archipelago.

Radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia and other countries and territories year 1998; Surveillance de la radioactivite en Polynesie francaise et autres pays et territoires annee 1998

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-07-01

This report presents the results of measures made in 1998 to provide the radioactivity monitoring in environment and food chains in french Polynesia. It does not concern the Fangataufa and Mururoa sites. The only radionuclides detected in the air, land and sea sampling of the French Polynesia are long life elements (Sr 90 included). The results of measurements are often under the detection limit, and when they are significant they stay very low. The efficient year dose coming from radioactivity for the Tahiti island is inferior or equal to 4 micro sievert for 1998. The annual radiation doses estimated in relation with exposure to artificial radionuclides are for the adults between 2 and 6 micro sievert and for children between 2 and five micro sievert. (N.C.)

Radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia and others countries and territories year 1999; Surveillance de la radioactivite en Polynesie francaise et autres pays et territoires annee 1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-08-01

This report presents the results of measures made in 1999 to provide the radioactivity monitoring in environment and food chains in french Polynesia. It does not concern the Fangataufa and Mururoa sites. The only radionuclides detected in the air, land and sea sampling of the French Polynesia are long life elements (Sr 90 included). The results of measurements are often under the detection limit, and when they are significant they stay very low. The efficient year dose coming from radioactivity for the Tahiti island is inferior or equal to 4 micro sievert for 1999. The annual radiation doses estimated in relation with exposure to artificial radionuclides are for the adults between 2 and 6 micro sievert and for children between 2 and five micro sievert. (N.C.)

Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod as a Novel Vector of Ciguatera Poisoning: Clinical Characterization and Follow-Up of a Mass Poisoning Event in Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clémence Mahana iti Gatti

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP is the most prevalent non-bacterial food-borne form of poisoning in French Polynesia, which results from the consumption of coral reef fish naturally contaminated with ciguatoxins produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Gambierdiscus. Since the early 2000s, this French territory has also witnessed the emergence of atypical forms of ciguatera, known as ciguatera shellfish poisoning (CSP, associated with the consumption of marine invertebrates. In June 2014, nine tourists simultaneously developed a major and persistent poisoning syndrome following the consumption of the gastropod Tectus niloticus collected in Anaho, a secluded bay of Nuku Hiva Island (Marquesas Archipelago, French Polynesia. The unusual nature and severity of this event prompted a multidisciplinary investigation in order to characterize the etiology and document the short/long-term health consequences of this mass-poisoning event. This paper presents the results of clinical investigations based on hospital medical records, medical follow-up conducted six and 20 months post-poisoning, including a case description. This study is the first to describe the medical signature of T. niloticus poisoning in French Polynesia and contributed to alerting local authorities about the potential health hazards associated with the consumption of this gastropod, which is highly prized by local communities in Pacific island countries and territories.

Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod) as a Novel Vector of Ciguatera Poisoning: Clinical Characterization and Follow-Up of a Mass Poisoning Event in Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

Gatti, Clémence Mahana Iti; Lonati, Davide; Darius, Hélène Taiana; Zancan, Arturo; Roué, Mélanie; Schicchi, Azzurra; Locatelli, Carlo Alessandro; Chinain, Mireille

2018-02-28

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most prevalent non-bacterial food-borne form of poisoning in French Polynesia, which results from the consumption of coral reef fish naturally contaminated with ciguatoxins produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Gambierdiscus . Since the early 2000s, this French territory has also witnessed the emergence of atypical forms of ciguatera, known as ciguatera shellfish poisoning (CSP), associated with the consumption of marine invertebrates. In June 2014, nine tourists simultaneously developed a major and persistent poisoning syndrome following the consumption of the gastropod Tectus niloticus collected in Anaho, a secluded bay of Nuku Hiva Island (Marquesas Archipelago, French Polynesia). The unusual nature and severity of this event prompted a multidisciplinary investigation in order to characterize the etiology and document the short/long-term health consequences of this mass-poisoning event. This paper presents the results of clinical investigations based on hospital medical records, medical follow-up conducted six and 20 months post-poisoning, including a case description. This study is the first to describe the medical signature of T. niloticus poisoning in French Polynesia and contributed to alerting local authorities about the potential health hazards associated with the consumption of this gastropod, which is highly prized by local communities in Pacific island countries and territories.

Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod) as a Novel Vector of Ciguatera Poisoning: Clinical Characterization and Follow-Up of a Mass Poisoning Event in Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia)

Science.gov (United States)

Lonati, Davide; Zancan, Arturo; Schicchi, Azzurra; Locatelli, Carlo Alessandro; Chinain, Mireille

2018-01-01

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most prevalent non-bacterial food-borne form of poisoning in French Polynesia, which results from the consumption of coral reef fish naturally contaminated with ciguatoxins produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Gambierdiscus. Since the early 2000s, this French territory has also witnessed the emergence of atypical forms of ciguatera, known as ciguatera shellfish poisoning (CSP), associated with the consumption of marine invertebrates. In June 2014, nine tourists simultaneously developed a major and persistent poisoning syndrome following the consumption of the gastropod Tectus niloticus collected in Anaho, a secluded bay of Nuku Hiva Island (Marquesas Archipelago, French Polynesia). The unusual nature and severity of this event prompted a multidisciplinary investigation in order to characterize the etiology and document the short/long-term health consequences of this mass-poisoning event. This paper presents the results of clinical investigations based on hospital medical records, medical follow-up conducted six and 20 months post-poisoning, including a case description. This study is the first to describe the medical signature of T. niloticus poisoning in French Polynesia and contributed to alerting local authorities about the potential health hazards associated with the consumption of this gastropod, which is highly prized by local communities in Pacific island countries and territories. PMID:29495579

First report of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in the giant African land snail Achatina fulica in French Polynesia detected using the SSU rRNA gene.

Science.gov (United States)

Fontanilla I, K C; Wade, C M

2012-12-01

The 5' end of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene was used to determine whether 3rd larval stage Angiostrongylus cantonensis are present in populations of the giant African land snail Achatina fulica from French Polynesia. Two populations, one from Moaroa Valley, Tahiti (n=5) and the other from Haapiti Valley, Moorea (n=10), were examined. All snails from Tahiti were infected with nematodes, with parasite load ranging from 12 to 28. A total of 92 nematodes were found, of which 91 were positively identified as A. cantonensis. No nematodes were found in the snails from Moorea. We report for the first time the presence of A. cantonensis in A. fulica snails from French Polynesia, indicating a viable route of human infection of A. cantonensis in the region through the handling of A. fulica or consumption of the snail or contaminated food crops associated with the snail.

Increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome during a Chikungunya outbreak, French Polynesia, 2014 to 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Oehler, Erwan; Fournier, Emmanuel; Leparc-Goffart, Isabelle; Larre, Philippe; Cubizolle, Stéphanie; Sookhareea, Chantal; Lastère, Stéphane; Ghawche, Frédéric

2015-01-01

During the recent chikungunya fever outbreak in French Polynesia in October 2014 to March 2015, we observed an abnormally high number of patients with neurological deficit. Clinical presentation and complementary exams were suggestive of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) for nine patients. All nine had a recent dengue-like syndrome and tested positive for chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in serology or RT-PCR. GBS incidence was increased four- to nine-fold during this period, suggesting a link to CHIKV infection.

Widespread occurrence of mycosporine-like amino acid compounds in scleractinians from French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Teai, T.; Drollet, J. H.; Bianchini, J.-P.; Cambon, A.; Martin, P. M. V.

1997-07-01

A survey of 23 species of scleractinians, belonging to seven families and 8 genera, collected from two different areas in French Polynesia, showed that all specimens possessed between four and seven UV-absorbing compounds, identified as mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). In all, 11 different MAAs molecules were found, of which two were previously unknown. Palythine and mycosporine-glycine were the most abundant MAAs in the corals. With few exceptions, most specimens of each species possessed the same pattern of MAAs. Similarly, species from the same genus also had very similar qualitative composition of MAAs, although quantities of individuals MAAs varied from specimen to specimen. This suggests that MAAs are ancient and evolutionarily well conserved.

Ciguatera fish toxicity in French Polynesia: size does not always matter.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaboriau, Matthias; Ponton, Dominique; Darius, H Taiana; Chinain, Mireille

2014-06-01

Accumulation of ciguatoxins (CTXs) in tropical reef fish tissues during their life is responsible of the most prevalent human seafood intoxication in the South Pacific called Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP). It has been assumed for a long time that CTXs are transferred and accumulated along the trophic food chain, and consequently that smaller individuals within a given fish species are safer to eat than larger ones. However, the relationship between toxicity and fish size has been studied for a limited number of species only and the conclusions are often contradictory. The toxicity of 856 fishes from 59 different species sampled in six islands in French Polynesia between 2003 and 2011 was assessed by Receptor Binding Assay. Among them, 45 species × island and 32 families × island for which the number of individuals was ≥6 allowed testing the relationship between toxicity and size. Except for six specimens of Lutjanus bohar caught in Fakarava (P < 0.01; R(2) = 0.854), the 44 remaining species × island showed no significant increase of CTXs concentration with fish total length (TL). Moreover, the proportion of toxic individuals decreased significantly for Epinephelus polyphekadion from Fakarava (n = 24; P < 0.05) and Kyphosus cinerascens from Raivavae (n = 29; P < 0.05), while no significant variation was detected for the other 43 species × island. At the family level, only three positive and three negative relationships between size and CTXs concentration were observed among the 32 family × island analyzed. No relationship between the proportion of toxic fish within a family and the relative total length of individuals were observed. The lack of relationship between toxicity and size observed for most of the species and families from the six islands suggests that fish size cannot be used as an efficient predictor of fish toxicity in French Polynesia. These results highlight the need for improving our knowledge about metabolic processes

[Ciguatera and acute polyradiculoneuritis. Description of two cases in French Polynesia: immunoallergic hypothesis?].

Science.gov (United States)

Oehler, E; Gatti, C; Legrand, A M; Ghawche, F

2009-02-01

Ciguatera is a foodborne poisoning caused by eating seafood from tropical and subtropical reef areas. According to official data from the local health department, cases of ciguatera in French Polynesia are estimated to involve 240 to 400 persons per 100 000 inhabitants. Associated with a wide spectrum of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, nervous, and general signs, ciguatera is usually benign although some forms can lead to hospitalization. The purpose of this report is to describe two unusual cases involving patients who developed acute polyradiculoneuritis with Guillain-Barré-syndrome-like peripheral nervous system deficits on the seventh day of ciguatera after ingestion of moray eel. The hypothesis of an immune-allergic reaction is raised especially in the light of rapid improvement of the patient who received polyvalent immunoglobulin treatment.

Rapid evolution of ritual architecture in central Polynesia indicated by precise 230Th/U coral dating.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharp, Warren D; Kahn, Jennifer G; Polito, Christina M; Kirch, Patrick V

2010-07-27

In Polynesia, the complex Society Islands chiefdoms constructed elaborate temples (marae), some of which reached monumental proportions and were associated with human sacrifice in the 'Oro cult. We investigated the development of temples on Mo'orea Island by 230Th/U dating of corals used as architectural elements (facing veneers, cut-and-dressed blocks, and offerings). The three largest coastal marae (associated with the highest-ranked chiefly lineages) and 19 marae in the inland 'Opunohu Valley containing coral architectural elements were dated. Fifteen corals from the coastal temples meet geochemical criteria for accurate 230Th/U dating, yield reproducible ages for each marae, and have a mean uncertainty of 9 y (2sigma). Of 41 corals from wetter inland sites, 12 show some diagenesis and may yield unreliable ages; however, the majority (32) of inland dates are considered accurate. We also obtained six 14C dates on charcoal from four marae. The dates indicate that temple architecture on Mo'orea Island developed rapidly over a period of approximately 140 y (ca. AD 1620-1760), with the largest coastal temples constructed immediately before initial European contact (AD 1767). The result of a seriation of architectural features corresponds closely with this chronology. Acropora coral veneers were superceded by cut-and-dressed Porites coral blocks on altar platforms, followed by development of multitier stepped altar platforms and use of pecked basalt stones associated with the late 'Oro cult. This example demonstrates that elaboration of ritual architecture in complex societies may be surprisingly rapid.

Status of radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia in 2012. Synthesis of IRSN's monitoring network results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouisset, P.; Bernagout, S.; Leclerc, G.; Rua, J.; Delabbaye, P.; De Vismes, P.A.

2013-01-01

Exercised in Polynesia since 1962, the radiological monitoring of the French environment, which takes place on seven islands (Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, Hiva Oa, Mangareva and Tubuai) representing the five archipelagos, and consists of taking regular samples of various kinds from the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil, food...) with which the population may be in contact. Regarding food, the samples analyzed are representative of the diet of Polynesians living in the five archipelagos of that territory, and from the marine environment of the open sea, from the lagoon environment and from the terrestrial environment. Almost all the samples are measured at the Laboratory for the Study and Monitoring of the Environment (LESE) IRSN, based in Vairao on the island of Tahiti. During the year 2012, were stable and typical of the regular reduction of the levels of radioactivity since the stop, in 1974, of the French atmospheric tests. This residual radioactivity relates primarily to the 137 Cs. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity is lower than 5 μSv.y -1 (5 micro-sieverts per year). This value corresponds to less than 0,5 % of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1 000 μSv.y -1 ). Enhanced radiological monitoring of the environment set up in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, continued in 2012 in the marine field. The measurements carried out throughout the year confirm the lack of impact of the contamination of Japanese marine area in Polynesian waters. Samples of pelagic fish (tuna, swordfish, dolphin fish, wahoo...) were made in the vicinity of five Polynesian archipelagos: no increase of 137 Cs compared to previous years was observed and 134 Cs was never detected. (authors) [fr

Thyroid cancer in French Polynesia: a population based case control study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brindel, P.; Doyon, F.; Adjadj, E.; Vathaire, F. de; Drozdovitch, V.; Bouville, A.; Paoaafaite, J.; Teuri, J.

2006-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Because a previous study had shown that registered thyroid cancer incidence is higher among natives of French Polynesia (FP) than in other Maori populations from Hawaii and New-Zealand, a case-control study of thyroid cancer coordinated by Unit 605 of INSERM was conducted in FP. The main objective was to assess the potential role of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests performed by France between 1966 and 1974 on such a high incidence. The study included 600 subjects born and residing in FP: 229 cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma diagnosed between 1979 and 2004, aged up to 30 years old at start of nuclear weapons testing and 371 control s matched on gender and birth date randomly selected from t he FP registry of births. Face to face interviews were conducted from 2002 to 2004 by specialized investigators native from FP who received a specific formation for this study. Addresses were collected from the territorial medical insurance, which covers all the inhabitants, whatever their professional status. Detailed information about nutrition at time of interview and at the end of adolescence was collected by means of a semi-quantitative method using pictures. Data concerning residence, hormonal and reproductive life, familial and personal background of thyroid pathologies and cancers, and professional and environmental exposure to carcinogens were also collected. For each study subject, radiation thyroid dose was estimated taking into account residential history and dietary habits of the subject and deposition densities of radionuclides reconstructed for each island where the subject resided during the testing period. The iodine intake will be estimated from the dietary questionnaire, as well as from mass-spectrometry measurements of stable iodine in nail clippings, which were collected during the interviews. Among the 229 cases, 89% were females, 54% declared themselves as of pure Maori origin, another 36% of Maori-Asian or Maori

Evolution of caesium 137 levels in coconut water and copra in french Polynesia, since 1967

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabis de Saint-Chamas, L.; Bablet, J.P.; Ducousso, R.; Arnould, C.

1991-01-01

Nuclear experiments have been carried out by France in french Polynesia since 1966. The tests were first atmospheric, they have been underground since 1975. The experiment monitoring programme includes monitoring of 137 Cs contents in coconuts from the whole french polynesian territory. The methodology is described and the results of the 2 589 samples collected for 1967 to 1988 are presented. The maximum content found since 1967 is 52 Bq.kg -1 for coconut water and 289 Bq.kg -1 for coconut copra. The decrease of 137 Cs content is constant without discontinuity, whatever the distance from the explosion sites. The committed dose equivalent from 137 Cs delivered by coconut water and copra consumption represents only a few microsieverts a year [fr

On the occurrence of a widespread contamination by herbicides of coral reef biota in French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvat, Bernard; Roche, Hélène; Ramade, François

2016-01-01

Research has been conducted within the framework of the French Initiative for Coral Reefs (IFRECOR) to assess pesticide pollution levels in the coral reef trophic webs in French Polynesia. Unexpected widespread contamination by herbicides was found in algae, fishes and macro-invertebrates located at various levels of the reef trophic web. Concentrations in organisms investigated were for the majority below the lowest observable effect level and do not pose a dietary risk to native population who subsist on these fish. However, the widespread contamination may affect the reef ecosystem in the future as coral symbiotic algae, Symbidinium sp. (Dinophyta) are particularly sensitive to photosystem II herbicides, particularly the substituted urea and triazine derivatives.

Report on the behalf of the Economy, Sustainable Development and Land Planning Commission on the bill project related to the follow-up of environmental consequences of French nuclear tests in French Polynesia - Nr 244

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Courteau, Roland

2012-01-01

In a first part of this report, the author recalls the history of the creation of the Pacific experiment centre and the test campaign which took place without a real consultation of local populations. He comments the end of nuclear tests while giving an overview of site dismantling and of radioactive materials which have been left there. Then, he addresses the environmental consequences of the nuclear tests in French Polynesia: follow-up system, follow-up of radiological consequences, risks related to subsoil steadiness, necessity of better information of local populations and acknowledgement of test effects. He presents the bill project concerning the return of both atolls within the authority of French Polynesia. The discussion of the bill project articles is reported

International waste management fact book

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Amaya, J P; LaMarche, M N; Upton, J F

1997-10-01

Many countries around the world are faced with nuclear and environmental management problems similar to those being addressed by the US Department of Energy. The purpose of this Fact Book is to provide the latest information on US and international organizations, programs, activities and key personnel to promote mutual cooperation to solve these problems. Areas addressed include all aspects of closing the commercial and nuclear fuel cycle and managing the wastes and sites from defense-related, nuclear materials production programs.

International waste management fact book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amaya, J.P.; LaMarche, M.N.; Upton, J.F.

1997-10-01

Many countries around the world are faced with nuclear and environmental management problems similar to those being addressed by the US Department of Energy. The purpose of this Fact Book is to provide the latest information on US and international organizations, programs, activities and key personnel to promote mutual cooperation to solve these problems. Areas addressed include all aspects of closing the commercial and nuclear fuel cycle and managing the wastes and sites from defense-related, nuclear materials production programs

Changes in bleaching susceptibility among corals subject to ocean warming and recurrent bleaching in Moorea, French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Pratchett, Morgan S; McCowan, Dominique; Maynard, Jeffrey A; Heron, Scott F

2013-01-01

Climate-induced coral bleaching poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems, mostly because of the sensitivities of key habitat-forming corals to increasing temperature. However, susceptibility to bleaching varies greatly among coral genera and there are likely to be major changes in the relative abundance of different corals, even if the wholesale loss of corals does not occur for several decades. Here we document variation in bleaching susceptibility among key genera of reef-building corals in Moorea, French Polynesia, and compare bleaching incidence during mass-bleaching events documented in 1991, 1994, 2002 and 2007. This study compared the proportion of colonies that bleached for four major genera of reef-building corals (Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora and Porites), during each of four well-documented bleaching events from 1991 to 2007. Acropora and Montipora consistently bleached in far greater proportions (up to 98%) than Pocillopora and Porites. However, there was an apparent and sustained decline in the proportion of colonies that bleached during successive bleaching events, especially for Acropora and Montipora. In 2007, only 77% of Acropora colonies bleached compared with 98% in 1991. Temporal variation in the proportion of coral colonies bleached may be attributable to differences in environmental conditions among years. Alternately, the sustained declines in bleaching incidence among highly susceptible corals may be indicative of acclimation or adaptation. Coral genera that are highly susceptible to coral bleaching, and especially Acropora and Montipora, exhibit temporal declines in their susceptibility to thermal anomalies at Moorea, French Polynesia. One possible explanation for these findings is that gradual removal of highly susceptible genotypes (through selective mortality of individuals, populations, and/or species) is producing a coral assemblage that is more resistant to sustained and ongoing ocean warming.

Changes in Bleaching Susceptibility among Corals Subject to Ocean Warming and Recurrent Bleaching in Moorea, French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Pratchett, Morgan S.; McCowan, Dominique; Maynard, Jeffrey A.; Heron, Scott F.

2013-01-01

Background Climate-induced coral bleaching poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems, mostly because of the sensitivities of key habitat-forming corals to increasing temperature. However, susceptibility to bleaching varies greatly among coral genera and there are likely to be major changes in the relative abundance of different corals, even if the wholesale loss of corals does not occur for several decades. Here we document variation in bleaching susceptibility among key genera of reef-building corals in Moorea, French Polynesia, and compare bleaching incidence during mass-bleaching events documented in 1991, 1994, 2002 and 2007. Methodology/Principal Findings This study compared the proportion of colonies that bleached for four major genera of reef-building corals (Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora and Porites), during each of four well-documented bleaching events from 1991 to 2007. Acropora and Montipora consistently bleached in far greater proportions (up to 98%) than Pocillopora and Porites. However, there was an apparent and sustained decline in the proportion of colonies that bleached during successive bleaching events, especially for Acropora and Montipora. In 2007, only 77% of Acropora colonies bleached compared with 98% in 1991. Temporal variation in the proportion of coral colonies bleached may be attributable to differences in environmental conditions among years. Alternately, the sustained declines in bleaching incidence among highly susceptible corals may be indicative of acclimation or adaptation. Conclusions/Significance Coral genera that are highly susceptible to coral bleaching, and especially Acropora and Montipora, exhibit temporal declines in their susceptibility to thermal anomalies at Moorea, French Polynesia. One possible explanation for these findings is that gradual removal of highly susceptible genotypes (through selective mortality of individuals, populations, and/or species) is producing a coral assemblage that is more resistant to

Duke FACE -- Forest-Atmosphere Carbon Transfer and Storage (FACTS I)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oren, Ram [Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)

2016-02-08

The Duke FACE experiment increases atmospheric [CO₂] to a height of 25 m in four 30-m diameter plots, each containing ~100 canopy trees and many sub-canopy individuals. The experiment was initiated in 1994 with CO₂ fumigation of the prototype plot, and reached full CO₂-fumigation capacity in 1996 when three additional FACE plots came on line. All elevated plots enriched the atmospheric CO₂ concentration by 200 ppmv relative to paired, ambient-CO₂ plots. Formalizing the analysis of CO₂ x N interactions, in March of 2005 each of the six FACE plots established in 1996 was trenched in half, and one half plot fertilized with nitrogen (N) at a rate of 11 g m^-2 yr^-1, following the approach established in 1998 in the prototype and its reference plot. The δ ¹³C of the fumigated plots’ atmosphere was -42.6‰, and while the ¹⁵N of the fertilizer did not affect the δ ¹⁵N of tissues directly it greatly reduced the effect of a ¹⁵N tracer study on tissue δ ¹⁵N. The CO₂ enrichment was completed in early November, 2010. Prior to termination of fumigation, 1-8 branches from 4-5 Pinus taeda individuals in each half plot were harvested, as well as most Juniperus occidentalis and broadleaved individuals <2 cm in diameter (1.4 m aboveground), including vine and herbaceous individuals. Following the termination, all individuals <8 cm in diameter, followed by all remaining individuals were harvested in half of each plot (a quarter in each CO₂ X N treatment). In all, 189 m³ of dry material and 826 m³ of wet material, or a total of 1014 m³ of material is stored in various suited settings. The project quantified the effect of CO₂ X N on carbon uptake, allocation to various pools, accumulation of carbon in these pools, the release of carbon to the atmosphere, and factors

Pooled analysis of two case-control studies in New Caledonia and French Polynesia of body mass index and differentiated thyroid cancer: the importance of body surface area.

Science.gov (United States)

Cléro, Enora; Leux, Christophe; Brindel, Pauline; Truong, Thérèse; Anger, Antoinette; Teinturier, Cécile; Diallo, Ibrahima; Doyon, Françoise; Guénel, Pascal; de Vathaire, Florent

2010-11-01

New Caledonia and French Polynesia have among of the world highest thyroid cancer incidence rates. Studies have demonstrated a relationship between anthropometric parameters and the prevalence of cancer. In this study we evaluated further the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and other anthropometric parameters on the incidence of thyroid cancer in the New Caledonia and French Polynesia populations. We performed a pooled analysis of two case-control studies in New Caledonia and French Polynesia. We included a total of 554 cases (65 men and 489 women) of differentiated thyroid cancers and 776 population control subjects matched on sex, age, and study. Anthropometric factors (height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage [BF%], and body surface area [BSA]), at age 18 and before diagnosis, were analyzed by conditional logistic regression, adjusting for other independent risk factors. A high proportion of cases (73%) were overweight (25-29.9 kg/m(2)) or obese (≥30 kg/m(2)) before diagnosis of thyroid cancer (against 57% of control subjects). An increased risk of thyroid cancer was observed with greater height, weight, BMI, BF%, and BSA. The association of thyroid cancer risk with height, weight, BMI, and BF% did not remain when adjustment was made for BSA. By comparison, the odds ratios for the highest versus the lowest quartile of BSA at age 18 were 3.97 (95% confidence interval, 2.57-6.15; p < 0.001) for women and 4.06 (95% confidence interval, 1.03-16.06; p = 0.04) for men. The association between thyroid cancer risk and each of anthropometric factors did not depend on tumor size or menopausal status before diagnosis. Among anthropometric factors, BSA plays a dominant role in thyroid cancer risk and explains the apparent role of BMI.

From face processing to face recognition: Comparing three different processing levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Besson, G; Barragan-Jason, G; Thorpe, S J; Fabre-Thorpe, M; Puma, S; Ceccaldi, M; Barbeau, E J

2017-01-01

levels as reflected by the face inversion effects. Furthermore, they underline how verifying that a face is from a target person and detecting a face as familiar - both often referred to as "Face Recognition" - in fact differs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stable isotope compositions (O-C) of reef fish otoliths from the Taiaro lagoon (Tuamotu, French Polynesia): isotopic and biologic implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blamart, D.; Juillet-Leclerc, A.; Ouahdi, R.; Escoubeyrou, K.; Lecomte-Finiger, R.

2002-01-01

Nuclei (larval stage) and outer parts (adult stage) of fish otoliths from the Taiaro closed lagoon (French Polynesia) and adjacent ocean have been analysed for the C-O isotopic compositions. δ 18 O values of the nuclei of both populations indicate that isotopic equilibrium is reached. This implies that the lagoonal fish population has done its complete biological cycle in the lagoon and represents an adaptation in a closed system. δ 18 O values of the outer parts show a slight isotopic disequilibrium ( 13 C values exhibit a strong isotopic disequilibrium related to metabolic activity. (authors)

Facing the Facts and Living our Values

Science.gov (United States)

Snieder, R.

2009-05-01

One of the major challenges for the 21st Century is to establish an energy system that is safe, affordable, sustainable, and environmentally responsible. With current reserves in coal and nonconventional oil, we will not run out of energy in the coming century, but we may pay a price with a climate that heats up with an unprecedented rate of change. Even with current technology, there is a wealth of information and solutions available, and we could benefit much by using this knowledge more effectively than we do now. An example is the McKinsey report on the cost of avoiding CO2 emissions (http://mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/greenhousegas.asp). According to this analysis, the USA can avoid about 40% of its CO2 emissions at zero total cost. About 20% of those emissions can be saved by taking steps that save money and reduce energy consumption. In the process of working on these steps for reducing CO2 emissions, many jobs are created. The energy and climate challenge thus comes with new opportunities. Geoscientists can make a difference by talking about energy and climate, and by helping create awareness for the energy challenge and the associated opportunities. Scientists and engineers are, in general, loath to discuss the issue of values. Yet, despite the logical basis of science, our science and the personal views of scientists can help shape our societal values. This can happen, however, only when scientists articulate their values and stimulate their students and the public to make conscious choices what their values are. Education, whether it is in the classroom, at a community center, church, or service club, can play an important role in making the public aware of the facts that are important for the choices that we need to make at a personal and societal level for our energy use. In order to facilitate this type of communication I have created a public lecture that is available online (http://www.mines.edu/˜rsnieder/Global_Energy.html). As a geoscientist

New pteridophyte species and combinations from the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Lorence

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Intensive botanical exploration of the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia for the Vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands and Flore de la Polynésie française projects has resulted in numerous additional new collections from these islands. Study of these collections has brought to light 11 new species of pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes which are described herein: Blechnum pacificum Lorence & A. R. Sm., sp. nov., Cyclosorus castaneus  A. R. Sm. & Lorence, sp. nov.,  Cyclosorus florencei A. R. Sm. & Lorence, sp. nov., Dryopteris macropholis Lorence & W. L. Wagner, sp. nov., Dryopteris sweetorum Lorence & W. L. Wagner, sp. nov., Polystichum kenwoodii Lorence & W. L. Wagner, sp. nov., Polystichum uahukaense Lorence & W. L. Wagner, sp. nov., Pteris hivaoaensis Lorence & K. Wood, sp. nov., Pteris marquesensis Lorence & K. R. Wood, sp. nov., Pteris tahuataensis Lorence & K. R. Wood, sp. nov., and Thelypteris marquesensis Lorence & K. R. Wood, sp. nov. One new combination is made: Cyclosorus marquesicus (Holttum Lorence & A. R. Sm., comb. nov. (based on Plesioneuron marquesicum Holttum.  An analysis of the conservation status of these new Marquesas Islands taxa reveals they are in need of inclusion in the IUCN Red List with conservation status ranging from vulnerable (one species, and endangered (four species, to critically endangered (five species.

Face the Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... families might initiate conversations. Back to top Key Considerations Determine what benefits are provided by Social Security and any pensions. Then, determine whether your parents are eligible for other financial programs. Ensure that each family member has a ...

Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod) as a Novel Vector of Ciguatera Poisoning: Detection of Pacific Ciguatoxins in Toxic Samples from Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

Darius, Hélène Taiana; Roué, Mélanie; Sibat, Manoella; Viallon, Jérôme; Gatti, Clémence Mahana Iti; Vandersea, Mark W; Tester, Patricia A; Litaker, R Wayne; Amzil, Zouher; Hess, Philipp; Chinain, Mireille

2017-12-21

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is a foodborne disease caused by the consumption of seafood (fish and marine invertebrates) contaminated with ciguatoxins (CTXs) produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Gambierdiscus . The report of a CFP-like mass-poisoning outbreak following the consumption of Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod) from Anaho Bay on Nuku Hiva Island (Marquesas archipelago, French Polynesia) prompted field investigations to assess the presence of CTXs in T. niloticus . Samples were collected from Anaho Bay, 1, 6 and 28 months after this poisoning outbreak, as well as in Taiohae and Taipivai bays. Toxicity analysis using the neuroblastoma cell-based assay (CBA-N2a) detected the presence of CTXs only in Anaho Bay T. niloticus samples. This is consistent with qPCR results on window screen samples indicating the presence of Gambierdiscus communities dominated by the species G. polynesiensis in Anaho Bay. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analyses revealed that P-CTX-3B was the major congener, followed by P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-4A and P-CTX-4B in toxic samples. Between July 2014 and November 2016, toxin content in T. niloticus progressively decreased, but was consistently above the safety limit recommended for human consumption. This study confirms for the first time T. niloticus as a novel vector of CFP in French Polynesia.

Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod as a Novel Vector of Ciguatera Poisoning: Detection of Pacific Ciguatoxins in Toxic Samples from Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hélène Taiana Darius

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP is a foodborne disease caused by the consumption of seafood (fish and marine invertebrates contaminated with ciguatoxins (CTXs produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Gambierdiscus. The report of a CFP-like mass-poisoning outbreak following the consumption of Tectus niloticus (Tegulidae, Gastropod from Anaho Bay on Nuku Hiva Island (Marquesas archipelago, French Polynesia prompted field investigations to assess the presence of CTXs in T. niloticus. Samples were collected from Anaho Bay, 1, 6 and 28 months after this poisoning outbreak, as well as in Taiohae and Taipivai bays. Toxicity analysis using the neuroblastoma cell-based assay (CBA-N2a detected the presence of CTXs only in Anaho Bay T. niloticus samples. This is consistent with qPCR results on window screen samples indicating the presence of Gambierdiscus communities dominated by the species G. polynesiensis in Anaho Bay. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS analyses revealed that P-CTX-3B was the major congener, followed by P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-4A and P-CTX-4B in toxic samples. Between July 2014 and November 2016, toxin content in T. niloticus progressively decreased, but was consistently above the safety limit recommended for human consumption. This study confirms for the first time T. niloticus as a novel vector of CFP in French Polynesia.

Aliphatic hydrocarbons and hopanes as biomarkers of the past 120 years sediment inputs in a coral reef lagoon (Tahiti, French Polynesia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, P.A.; Fichez, R.; Fernandez, J.M.; Saliot, A.

1999-01-01

Sediment cores were sampled in four sites in the coral reef lagoon surrounding the city of Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. Sediment cores were dated by mean of 210 Pb activity counting in order to reconstruct past trends in environmental changes. This paper focuses on the historical evolution of NAH and hopanes in a sediment core sampled in the harbour which yielded results over a period covering 120 years. Geochronoly results evidenced a large increase in sedimentation rates from 0.33 g.cm -2 .y -1 to 1.33 g.cm -2 .y -1 since 1967 ± 4 y

Tolerance for distorted faces: challenges to a configural processing account of familiar face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandford, Adam; Burton, A Mike

2014-09-01

Face recognition is widely held to rely on 'configural processing', an analysis of spatial relations between facial features. We present three experiments in which viewers were shown distorted faces, and asked to resize these to their correct shape. Based on configural theories appealing to metric distances between features, we reason that this should be an easier task for familiar than unfamiliar faces (whose subtle arrangements of features are unknown). In fact, participants were inaccurate at this task, making between 8% and 13% errors across experiments. Importantly, we observed no advantage for familiar faces: in one experiment participants were more accurate with unfamiliars, and in two experiments there was no difference. These findings were not due to general task difficulty - participants were able to resize blocks of colour to target shapes (squares) more accurately. We also found an advantage of familiarity for resizing other stimuli (brand logos). If configural processing does underlie face recognition, these results place constraints on the definition of 'configural'. Alternatively, familiar face recognition might rely on more complex criteria - based on tolerance to within-person variation rather than highly specific measurement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Zika virus and blood transfusion: the experience of French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Bierlaire, Damien; Mauguin, Sylvie; Broult, Julien; Musso, Didier

2017-03-01

Between October 2013 and March 2014, French Polynesia experienced the largest Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak ever described before the emergence of ZIKV in the Americas in 2015. As arbovirus transfusion-transmitted (TT) infections have been previously reported, we hypothesized that transfusion of blood products could also transmit ZIKV. Mitigation strategies to prevent ZIKV-TT infections included nonspecific measures and the implementation of a laboratory developed ZIKV-specific nucleic acid testing (NAT) assay. Donor sera were tested in pools of 3 and constitutive sera of ZIKV-reactive pools were tested individually. Donor sera were tested prospectively and retrospectively. A posttransfusion follow-up of a patient transfused with ZIKV RNA-reactive blood products was implemented. NAT detected 42 blood donor sera as ZIKV RNA reactive of 1505 tested (2.8%). Thirty ZIKV RNA-reactive blood products collected before the implementation of NAT were transfused to 26 recipients. Posttransfusion investigations were conducted by the hemovigilance unit and data were available for 12 recipients. Symptomatic ZIKV-TT infections were not reported. Predonation screening of blood donors, postdonation information, products discard, and quarantine of blood products were not effective enough to prevent transfusion of ZIKV RNA-reactive blood products. ZIKV NAT was an effective measure once implemented to prevent transfusion of ZIKV RNA-reactive blood products but it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of this measure to prevent ZIKV-TT infection, which is a rare event. © 2017 AABB.

Asymmetry and Symmetry in the Beauty of Human Faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marjan Hessamian

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The emphasis in the published literature has mostly been on symmetry as the critical source for beauty judgment. In fact, both symmetry and asymmetry serve as highly aesthetic sources of beauty, whether the context is perceptual or conceptual. The human brain is characterized by symbolic cognition and this type of cognition facilitates a range of aesthetic reactions. For example, both art and natural scenery contain asymmetrical elements, which nevertheless render the whole effect beautiful. A further good case in point is, in fact, human faces. Normally, faces are structurally left-right symmetrical content-wise but not size-wise or function-wise. Attractiveness has often been discussed in terms of content-wise full-face symmetry. To test whether or not attractiveness can be gleaned only from the presence of left-right full-faces we tested half faces. Three separate groups of participants viewed and rated the attractiveness of 56 full-faces (women’s and men’s, their 56 vertical left hemi-faces and 56 vertical right hemi-faces. We found no statistically significant differences in the attractiveness ratings of full- and hemi-faces (whether left or right. Instead, we found a strong and significant positive correlation between the ratings of the hemi- and full-faces. These results are consistent with the view that the underpinning of human facial beauty is complex and that bilateral symmetry does not constitute a principle factor in beauty assessment. We discuss that the highly evolved human brain, compared to other animals, as well as symbolic and abstract cognition in humans enable a wide variety of aesthetic reactions.

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Magic Finger Teaching Method in Learning Multiplication Facts among Deaf Students

Science.gov (United States)

Thai, Liong; Yasin, Mohd. Hanafi Mohd

2016-01-01

Deaf students face problems in mastering multiplication facts. This study aims to identify the effectiveness of Magic Finger Teaching Method (MFTM) and students' perception towards MFTM. The research employs a quasi experimental with non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group design. Pre-test, post-test and questionnaires were used. As…

Virtual clinics in glaucoma care: face-to-face versus remote decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Jonathan; Puertas, Renata; Kotecha, Aachal; Foster, Paul J; Barton, Keith

2017-07-01

To examine the agreement in clinical decisions of glaucoma status made in a virtual glaucoma clinic with those made during a face-to-face consultation. A trained nurse and technicians entered data prospectively for 204 patients into a proforma. A subsequent face-to-face clinical assessment was completed by either a glaucoma consultant or fellow. Proformas were reviewed remotely by one of two additional glaucoma consultants, and 12 months later, by the clinicians who had undertaken the original clinical examination. The interobserver and intraobserver decision-making agreements of virtual assessment versus standard care were calculated. We identified adverse disagreement between face-to-face and virtual review in 7/204 (3.4%, 95% CI 0.9% to 5.9%) patients, where virtual review failed to predict a need to accelerated follow-up identified in face-to-face review. Misclassification events were rare, occurring in 1.9% (95% CI 0.3% to 3.8%) of assessments. Interobserver κ (95% CI) showed only fair agreement (0.24 (0.04 to 0.43)); this improved to moderate agreement when only consultant decisions were compared against each other (κ=0.41 (0.16 to 0.65)). The intraobserver agreement κ (95% CI) for the consultant was 0.274 (0.073 to 0.476), and that for the fellow was 0.264 (0.031 to 0.497). The low rate of adverse misclassification, combined with the slowly progressive nature of most glaucoma, and the fact that patients will all be regularly reassessed, suggests that virtual clinics offer a safe, logistically viable option for selected patients with glaucoma. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Senge's Many Faces: Problem or Opportunity?

Science.gov (United States)

Ortenblad, Anders

2007-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss both possibilities and problems with Senge's (1990) many faces in The Fifth Discipline, i.e. the fact that different authors refer to different excerpts from his book as his version of the learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: The paper shows that the authors' understandings of Senge,…

Soil-to-plant, plant-to-milk and plant-to-meat transfers for the Oxi-sols in Tahiti, French Polynesia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Descamps, B.

2006-01-01

French Polynesia is included in the latitude band 10 -30 degrees S.. In this band the total deposition of 137 Cs is about 1000 Bq.m -2; the French tests represent 13 % of this total deposition. The radiological survey of the French Polynesia environment exists since the beginning of the French nuclear program in 1966.It concerns 7 islands: Hiva Oa in the north (10 degrees S), Tubuai in the south (25 degrees S) and, from east to west, Mangareva, Hao, Rangiroa, Tahiti and Maupiti. Tahiti is a recent, high and volcanic island;it is the largest of the French Polynesia as a whole.Under tropical humid climate with heavy rainfalls, high summer temperatures, and excessive air humidity, the strong relief has been considerably eroded with the formation of particular soils, the oxi-sols.On these soils, in the Taravao peninsula, a cattle breeding farm of about 400 hectares has been studied since more than 30 years. Local milk is an important contributor to the ingestion dose in Tahiti and also an excellent item for the determination of the effective decrease of long -lived radionuclides in the environment. During the 1974 -1994 period the long term decrease for milk shows an effective half-live of 14.8 years and an environmental half-live of 24.8 years.In west european zones the effective half-live is about 5 years. To explain this difference we must mainly consider that the pasture zone in Taravao peninsula is a natural area whereas it is semi-natural in Europe. Moreover we assume that a 137 Cs stocking zone exists with very humic soils in some higher summits; a progressive lixiviation of 137 Cs could take place then. For the 1974 -1994 period the effective half live for the beef meat is about 11.5 years against 18.5 years for the environmental half-live. The difference between effective half-live for milk and meat can be explain by a greater collection zone for meat than for milk. The soil-to-plant transfer factor (F.T.) is about 10 (reporting dry matter) for the genus

Comparative Effects of Different Disturbances in Coral Reef Habitats in Moorea, French Polynesia

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Mélanie L. Trapon

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Degradation and loss of critical coastal habitats has significant ramifications for marine fisheries, such that knowledge of changes in habitat quality and quantity are fundamental to effective ecosystem management. This study explores changes in the structure of coral reef habitats, specifically changes in coral cover and composition, in Moorea, French Polynesia, to assess the independent and combined effects of different disturbances since 1979. During this period, reefs on the north coast have been subject to coral bleaching, severe tropical storms, as well as outbreaks of Acanthaster. Coral cover varied significantly among years, showing marked declines during some, but not all, disturbances. The greatest rates of coral loss coincided with outbreaks of A. planci. Moreover, successive disturbances have had differential effects among coral genera, leading to strong directional shifts in coral composition. Acropora is declining in abundance and coral assemblages are becoming increasingly dominated by Pocillopora and Porites. Observed changes in the cover and composition of corals are likely to have further significant impacts on the reef fish assemblages. Given that significant disturbances have been mostly associated with outbreaks of A. planci, rather than climate change, effective ecosystem management may reduce and/or delay impending effects of climate change.

Existing knowledge in science and technology as subject of judicial establishment of facts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Czajika, D.

1982-02-01

The problems facing administrative courts in determining 'existing knowledge in science and technology' (No. 3 of paragraph 2 of sect. 7 of the Atomic Energy Law) cannot be solved by limiting the judicial establishment of facts. According to established law, in procedural or substantive law there is no foundation for doing so. Limits to this establishment of facts do result from the nature of the scientific process of understanding, which very often allows but the establishment of 'margins' pertaining to scientific opinions.

Generation Y facing the challenge of employability: facts against stereotypes

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Alberto Vallejo Peña

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Young people Spain classed as belonging Generation Y are facing the transition to employment under even more adverse conditions than the previous generation (X, as a result of the economic crisis (2008-2015 prevailing as they reach working age. This paper aims to address the generational traits that are attributed to these young people in Spain, and contrast them with the data offered (Labour Force Survey, LFS, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, mainly. This aims to achieve a better understanding of the phenomenon to distinguish their true features and generational experiences from the testimony of somewhat unreliable sources. To this end, we analyse the main social types attributed to this generation (Not in Education, Employment, or Training, NEETs, mileuristas and boomerangs, technological changes that determine their profile (digital society, new migration trends, the influence of social stratification and the contribution of the family. The conclusions look in particular at the influence of certain factors (education, social class to improve their employability, and the prevalence of the family as a key institution in supporting these young people, given the lack of other social actors.

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Facing Intuition: A functional characterization of intuitive judgment in the context of face perception

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Mega, Laura Francesca

2017-01-01

Intuition is by some conceived of as biased and by others as an important tool to make decisions in a fast paced and uncertain world. Yet, within social interactions, intuitively judging is often the only feasible option to interpret the content of our most important social signals, thus facilitating attunement to social affordances. In fact, humans expertly extract and use face information in an automatic and non-conscious fashion. Is intuition therefore a fundamental building bl...

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Genetic network and breeding patterns of a sicklefin lemon shark (Negaprion acutidens population in the Society Islands, French Polynesia.

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Johann Mourier

Full Text Available Human pressures have put many top predator populations at risk of extinction. Recent years have seen alarming declines in sharks worldwide, while their resilience remains poorly understood. Studying the ecology of small populations of marine predators is a priority to better understand their ability to withstand anthropogenic and environmental stressors. In the present study, we monitored a naturally small island population of 40 adult sicklefin lemon sharks in Moorea, French Polynesia over 5 years. We reconstructed the genetic relationships among individuals and determined the population's mating system. The genetic network illustrates that all individuals, except one, are interconnected at least through one first order genetic relationship. While this species developed a clear inbreeding avoidance strategy involving dispersal and migration, the small population size, low number of breeders, and the fragmented environment characterizing these tropical islands, limits its complete effectiveness.

DisFace: A Database of Human Facial Disorders

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Paramjit Kaur

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Face is an integral part of human body by which an individual communicates in the society. Its importance can be highlighted by the fact that a person deprived of face cannot sustain in the living world. In the past few decades, human face has gained attention of several researchers, whether it is related to facial anthropometry, facial disorder, face transplantation or face reconstruction. Several researches have also shown the correlation between neuropsychiatry disorders and human face and also that how face recognition abilities are correlated with these disorders. Currently, several databases exist which contain the facial images of several individuals captured from different sources. The advantage of these databases is that the images in these databases can be used for testing and training purpose. However, in current date no such database exists which would provide not only facial images of individuals; but also the literature concerning the human face, list of several genes controlling human face, list of facial disorders and various tools which work on facial images. Thus, the current research aims at developing a database of human facial disorders using bioinformatics approach. The database will contain information about facial diseases, medications, symptoms, findings, etc. The information will be extracted from several other databases like OMIM, PubChem, Radiopedia, Medline Plus, FDA, etc. and links to them will also be provided. Initially, the diseases specific for human face have been obtained from already created published corpora of literature using text mining approach. Becas tool was used to obtain the specific task.  A dataset will be created and stored in the form of database. It will be a database containing cross-referenced index of human facial diseases, medications, symptoms, signs, etc. Thus, a database on human face with complete existing information about human facial disorders will be developed. The novelty of the

Leptospira diversity in animals and humans in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Guernier, Vanina; Richard, Vaea; Nhan, Tuxuan; Rouault, Eline; Tessier, Anita; Musso, Didier

2017-06-01

Leptospirosis is a highly endemic bacterial zoonosis in French Polynesia (FP). Nevertheless, data on the epidemiology of leptospirosis in FP are scarce. We conducted molecular studies on Leptospira isolated from humans and the potential main animal reservoirs in order to identify the most likely sources for human infection. Wild rats (n = 113), farm pigs (n = 181) and domestic dogs (n = 4) were screened for Leptospira infection in Tahiti, the most populated island in FP. Positive samples were genotyped and compared to Leptospira isolated from human cases throughout FP (n = 51), using secY, 16S and LipL32 sequencing, and MLST analysis. Leptospira DNA was detected in 20.4% of rats and 26.5% of pigs. We identified two Leptospira species and three sequence types (STs) in animals and humans: Leptospira interrogans ST140 in pigs only and L. interrogans ST17 and Leptospira borgpetersenii ST149 in humans and rats. Overall, L. interrogans was the dominant species and grouped into four clades: one clade including a human case only, two clades including human cases and dogs, and one clade including human cases and rats. All except one pig sample showed a unique L. interrogans (secY) genotype distinct from those isolated from humans, rats and dogs. Moreover, LipL32 sequencing allowed the detection of an additional Leptospira genotype in pigs, clearly distinct from the previous ones. Our data confirm rats as a major potential source for human leptospirosis in FP. By contrast to what was expected, farm pigs did not seem to be a major reservoir for the Leptospira genotypes identified in human patients. Thus, further investigations will be required to determine their significance in leptospirosis transmission in FP.

Shoreline changes in reef islands of the Central Pacific: Takapoto Atoll, Northern Tuamotu, French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Duvat, Virginie K. E.; Pillet, Valentin

2017-04-01

Atoll reef islands are considered highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While accelerated sea-level rise is expected to destabilize reef islands, ocean warming and acidification are considered as major threats to coral reef growth, which is of primary importance for the persistence of islands and of food supply to islanders. Using multi-date aerial imagery, shoreline and island changes between 1969 and 2013 were assessed on Takapoto Atoll, Northern Tuamotu region, in French Polynesia. Results show that over the 44-year study period, 41% of islands were stable in area while 33% expanded and 26% contracted. Island expansion was the dominant mode of change on the leeward side of the atoll. Tropical Cyclone Orama (category 3, 1983) contributed to shoreline and island change on the windward side of the atoll through the reworking of previous storm deposits and the injection of fresh sediments in the island system (with up to 62% of an island's land area being covered with fresh sediments). Human activities contributed significantly to shoreline and island change throughout the atoll through infrastructure construction, the removal of the indigenous vegetation from a number of islets and sediment mining.

Lipid composition of water and surface sediments in Takapoto atoll lagoon (French Polynesia)

Science.gov (United States)

Saliot, A.; Bouloubassi, I.; Lorre-Boireau, A.; Trichet, J.; Poupet, P.; Charpy, L.

1994-11-01

Dissolved, particulate and sedimentary lipid compounds were analyzed in samples collected in May 1988 at three sites in the lagoon of the closed atoll of Takapoto (Tuamotu archipelago, French Polynesia). The study provides background information dealing with water quality and the nature and concentration of lipids. Non-aromatic hydrocarbons and fatty acids were isolated from lipids and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Non-aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations did not exceed 1000 ng l-1 in water, and 2300 ng g-1 in surface sediments and are among the lowest encountered in pristine marine environments. No noticeable petroleum pollution was evidenced in the lagoon. Nevertheless, traces of petroleum-derived compounds were detected at the central site for both surface and deep water. Total fatty acid concentrations varied in the range 6.3 14.4 μg l-1 for the particulate phase and in the range 0.5 3.2 μg l-1 for the dissolved phase. The molecular fingerprints of fatty acids and hydrocarbons evidenced a predominant algal, and to a lesser extent microbial, origin of the organic matter present in water and sediments. Mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential components for animal metabolism, were identified in noticeable amounts in suspended matter (1.8 4.6 μg l-1), and at highly variable levels in the dissolved phase (0.08 1.21 μg l-1).

Ciguatera risk management in French Polynesia: the case study of Raivavae Island (Australes Archipelago).

Science.gov (United States)

Chinain, Mireille; Darius, H Taiana; Ung, André; Fouc, Mote Tchou; Revel, Taina; Cruchet, Philippe; Pauillac, Serge; Laurent, Dominique

2010-10-01

Based on epidemiological data available through long-term monitoring surveys conducted by both the Public Health Directorate and the Louis Malardé Institute, ciguatera is highly endemic in French Polynesia, most notably in Raivavae (Australes) which appears as a hot spot of ciguatera with an average incidence rate of 140 cases/10,000 population for the period 2007-2008. In order to document the ciguatera risk associated with Raivavae lagoon, algal and toxin-based field monitoring programs were conducted in this island from April 2007 to May 2008. Practically, the distribution, abundance and toxicity of Gambierdiscus populations, along with the toxicity levels in 160 fish distributed within 25 distinct species, were assessed in various sampling locations. Herbivores such as Scarids (parrotfish) and Acanthurids (unicornfish) were rated as high-risk species based on receptor-binding assay toxicity data. A map of the risk stratification within the Raivavae lagoon was also produced, which indicates that locations where both natural and man-made disturbances have occurred remained the most susceptible to CFP incidents. Our findings also suggest that, locally, the traditional knowledge about ciguatera may not be scientifically complete but is functionally correct. Community education resulted in self-regulating behaviour towards avoidance of high-risk fish species and fishing locations. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seismic evidence of glacial-age river incision into the Tahaa barrier reef, French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Toomey, Michael; Woodruff, Jonathan D.; Ashton, Andrew D.; Perron, J. Taylor

2016-01-01

Rivers have long been recognized for their ability to shape reef-bound volcanic islands. On the time-scale of glacial–interglacial sea-level cycles, fluvial incision of exposed barrier reef lagoons may compete with constructional coral growth to shape the coastal geomorphology of ocean islands. However, overprinting of Pleistocene landscapes by Holocene erosion or sedimentation has largely obscured the role lowstand river incision may have played in developing the deep lagoons typical of modern barrier reefs. Here we use high-resolution seismic imagery and core stratigraphy to examine how erosion and/or deposition by upland drainage networks has shaped coastal morphology on Tahaa, a barrier reef-bound island located along the Society Islands hotspot chain in French Polynesia. At Tahaa, we find that many channels, incised into the lagoon floor during Pleistocene sea-level lowstands, are located near the mouths of upstream terrestrial drainages. Steeper antecedent topography appears to have enhanced lowstand fluvial erosion along Tahaa's southwestern coast and maintained a deep pass. During highstands, upland drainages appear to contribute little sediment to refilling accommodation space in the lagoon. Rather, the flushing of fine carbonate sediment out of incised fluvial channels by storms and currents appears to have limited lagoonal infilling and further reinforced development of deep barrier reef lagoons during periods of highstand submersion.

Manta rays in the Marquesas Islands: first records of Manta birostris in French Polynesia and most easterly location of Manta alfredi in the Pacific Ocean, with notes on their distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Mourier, J

2012-11-01

Based on direct observations of free-ranging specimens, the giant manta ray Manta birostris is reported from the Marquesas Islands, the first sighting in French Polynesia. Sightings of its sister species, the reef manta ray Manta alfredi, are also reported at the most easterly location in the Pacific Ocean. Preliminary individual identification as well as notes on their distribution are also reported. © 2012 The Author. Journal of Fish Biology © 2012 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

Active Orientation Models for Face Alignment In-the-Wild

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tzimiropoulos, Georgios; Alabort-i-Medina, Joan; Zafeiriou, Stefanos; Pantic, Maja

2014-01-01

We present Active Orientation Models (AOMs), generative models of facial shape and appearance, which extend the well-known paradigm of Active Appearance Models (AAMs) for the case of generic face alignment under unconstrained conditions. Robustness stems from the fact that the proposed AOMs employ a

Digital correlation applied to recognition and identification faces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arroyave, S.; Hernandez, L. J.; Torres, Cesar; Matos, Lorenzo

2009-01-01

It developed a system capable of recognizing faces of people from their facial features, the images are taken by the software automatically through a process of validating the presence of face to the camera lens, the digitized image is compared with a database that contains previously images captured, to subsequently be recognized and finally identified. The contribution of system set out is the fact that the acquisition of data is done in real time and using a web cam commercial usb interface offering an system equally optimal but much more economical. This tool is very effective in systems where the security is off vital importance, support with a high degree of verification to entities that possess databases with faces of people. (Author)

Situation of the surveillance of radioactivity in French Polynesia in 2006. results of the I.R.S.N. 's surveillance network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

The 543 atmospheric nuclear tests released radionuclides that have deposited themselves throughout the world. The Environmental Study and Surveillance Laboratory, 'Laboratoire d etude et de suivi de l environnement' (L.E.S.E.) of the Institute of nuclear safety and radiation protection (I.R.S.N.), takes part, for more than 35 years, in the evaluation of the dosimetric consequences of these atmospheric depositions, especially those originating with the 41 tests realized in the territory of French polynesia from 1966 to 1974. This laboratory is established in Tahiti. The ingestion component of this dosimetric evaluation requires to collect the most representative samples of the feed ration of the Polynesians living in the 5 archipelagoes of this territory. These samples belong to the marine environment of full sea, the lagoon environment and the terrestrial environment. Certain samples of the physical environment are also taken (air, water). 388 samples are measured by Hp-Ge low background gamma spectrometry in order to be able to characterize lowest possible radioactivity levels. The levels of activity of Pu isotopes and 90 Sr are also given for 50 selected samples and tritium activities for 14 water samples. Moreover, 101 soil samples were measured by gamma spectrometry to update the external dose due to 137 Cs deposition. During the year 2006 results fall under the continuity of a regular reduction in the levels of radioactivity since the stop, in 1974 of the French atmospheric tests. This residual radioactivity relates to primarily the 137 Cs. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity, estimated from the base of these measurements, is lower than 6 μSv by year (this maximum is obtained for the adults of the Gambiers archipelago). This value corresponds to less than 1% of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1 milli Sv). this value is of the same order with the estimates made for the previous years. (N.C.)

Towards Designing Android Faces after Actual Humans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios; Schärfe, Henrik

2015-01-01

Using their face as their prior affective interface, android robots and other agents embody emotional facial expressions, and convey messages on their identity, gender, age, race, and attractiveness. We are examining whether androids can convey emotionally relevant information via their static...... facial sig-nals, just as humans do. Based on the fact that social information can be accu-rately identified from still images of nonexpressive unknown faces, a judgment paradigm was employed to discover, and compare the style of facial expres-sions of the Geminoid-DK android (modeled after an actual...... initially made for the Original, suggesting that androids inherit the same style of facial expression as their originals. Our findings support the case of designing android faces after specific actual persons who portray facial features that are familiar to the users, and also relevant to the notion...

The Race to Document Archaeological Sites Ahead of Rising Sea Levels: Recent Applications of Geospatial Technologies in the Archaeology of Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark D. McCoy

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Marine environments are rich in natural resources, and therefore, have been targeted for human occupation from at least the Pleistocene. In the modern day, the preservation and documentation of the physical archaeological evidence of human occupation and use of coasts, islands, and the ocean must now include mitigating the impacts of global climate change. Here, I review recent efforts to document archaeological sites across the islands of Polynesia using geospatial technology, specifically remote sensing, high-resolution documentation, and the creation of archaeological site geodatabases. I discuss these geospatial technologies in terms of planning for likely future impacts from sea level rise; a problem that will be felt across the region, and based on current evidence, will affect more than 12% of all known sites in New Zealand (Aotearoa.

The Impact of Early Bilingualism on Face Recognition Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kandel, Sonia; Burfin, Sabine; Méary, David; Ruiz-Tada, Elisa; Costa, Albert; Pascalis, Olivier

2016-01-01

Early linguistic experience has an impact on the way we decode audiovisual speech in face-to-face communication. The present study examined whether differences in visual speech decoding could be linked to a broader difference in face processing. To identify a phoneme we have to do an analysis of the speaker's face to focus on the relevant cues for speech decoding (e.g., locating the mouth with respect to the eyes). Face recognition processes were investigated through two classic effects in face recognition studies: the Other-Race Effect (ORE) and the Inversion Effect. Bilingual and monolingual participants did a face recognition task with Caucasian faces (own race), Chinese faces (other race), and cars that were presented in an Upright or Inverted position. The results revealed that monolinguals exhibited the classic ORE. Bilinguals did not. Overall, bilinguals were slower than monolinguals. These results suggest that bilinguals' face processing abilities differ from monolinguals'. Early exposure to more than one language may lead to a perceptual organization that goes beyond language processing and could extend to face analysis. We hypothesize that these differences could be due to the fact that bilinguals focus on different parts of the face than monolinguals, making them more efficient in other race face processing but slower. However, more studies using eye-tracking techniques are necessary to confirm this explanation.

The impact of early bilingualism on face recognition processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonia Kandel

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Early linguistic experience has an impact on the way we decode audiovisual speech in face-to-face communication. The present study examined whether differences in visual speech decoding could be linked to a broader difference in face processing. To identify a phoneme we have to do an analysis of the speaker’s face to focus on the relevant cues for speech decoding (e.g., locating the mouth with respect to the eyes. Face recognition processes were investigated through two classic effects in face recognition studies: the Other Race Effect (ORE and the Inversion Effect. Bilingual and monolingual participants did a face recognition task with Caucasian faces (own race, Chinese faces (other race and cars that were presented in an Upright or Inverted position. The results revealed that monolinguals exhibited the classic ORE. Bilinguals did not. Overall, bilinguals were slower than monolinguals. These results suggest that bilinguals’ face processing abilities differ from monolinguals’. Early exposure to more than one language may lead to a perceptual organization that goes beyond language processing and could extend to face analysis. We hypothesize that these differences could be due to the fact that bilinguals focus on different parts of the face than monolinguals, making them more efficient in other race face processing but slower. However, more studies using eye-tracking techniques are necessary to confirm this explanation.

Gender differences in recognition of toy faces suggest a contribution of experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Kaitlin F; Gauthier, Isabel

2016-12-01

When there is a gender effect, women perform better then men in face recognition tasks. Prior work has not documented a male advantage on a face recognition task, suggesting that women may outperform men at face recognition generally either due to evolutionary reasons or the influence of social roles. Here, we question the idea that women excel at all face recognition and provide a proof of concept based on a face category for which men outperform women. We developed a test of face learning to measures individual differences with face categories for which men and women may differ in experience, using the faces of Barbie dolls and of Transformers. The results show a crossover interaction between subject gender and category, where men outperform women with Transformers' faces. We demonstrate that men can outperform women with some categories of faces, suggesting that explanations for a general face recognition advantage for women are in fact not needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nutrients, High Light and Shallow Depths Favor the Expansion of the Brown Macroalgae Turbinaria ornata in the Coral Reefs of Mo'orea, French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Nieves, M.; Cordoba, G.; Rogers, J.

2016-02-01

Coral reefs provide food, recreation and economic resources for billions of people. Despite this importance, anthropogenic stressors including climate change and nutrification threaten coral reefs globally, causing phase-shifts to algal dominated ecosystems and loss of coral habitats. Throughout the tropical South Pacific, the brown macroalgae Turbinaria ornata is expanding its range and now dominates areas where corals used to thrive, especially shallow areas on fringing reefs of French Polynesia. Abiotic factors like light and nutrient availability could enhance the expansion of T. ornata by promoting its growth or by making it physically tougher, which could reduce herbivory pressure and enhance its survival in high energy zones. To understand the abiotic factors favoring growth and survival of T. ornata in Mo'orea, French Polynesia, we conducted a field experiment testing the effect of nutrients (+/- fertilizer), depth (1m within Turbinaria zone, 1.5m at border, 2m below depth distribution), and light (+/- shade) on the growth and toughness of T. ornata. Three-factor ANOVA showed that an interaction between nutrients and light favored T. ornata biomass accumulation (p=0.04). In addition, T. ornata from shallow depths were significantly tougher than those at intermediate depths (p=0.01). These results imply that nutrient enrichment combined with high light levels common in shallow coral reefs may promote growth and expansion of T. ornata to near-shore reef environments. Increased survival and population growth is likely further enhanced by increased toughness of T. ornata in shallow areas, which may limit herbivore grazing and improve survival in strong wave action or currents. Future research should examine whether reducing nutrient loading to coastal waters may limit the expansion of T. ornata in the South Pacific.

Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; social issues fact sheet 11: Challenges to collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Christine Esposito

2006-01-01

Bringing the right people into a collaborative process can be difficult. Potential collaborators must all feel they have something to gain to justify investing resources, sharing knowledge, and perhaps compromising on goals and actions. This fact sheet discusses some of the common challenges that individuals, communities, and institutions face in collaboration.

Dissociating Face Identity and Facial Expression Processing Via Visual Adaptation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Xu

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Face identity and facial expression are processed in two distinct neural pathways. However, most of the existing face adaptation literature studies them separately, despite the fact that they are two aspects from the same face. The current study conducted a systematic comparison between these two aspects by face adaptation, investigating how top- and bottom-half face parts contribute to the processing of face identity and facial expression. A real face (sad, “Adam” and its two size-equivalent face parts (top- and bottom-half were used as the adaptor in separate conditions. For face identity adaptation, the test stimuli were generated by morphing Adam's sad face with another person's sad face (“Sam”. For facial expression adaptation, the test stimuli were created by morphing Adam's sad face with his neutral face and morphing the neutral face with his happy face. In each trial, after exposure to the adaptor, observers indicated the perceived face identity or facial expression of the following test face via a key press. They were also tested in a baseline condition without adaptation. Results show that the top- and bottom-half face each generated a significant face identity aftereffect. However, the aftereffect by top-half face adaptation is much larger than that by the bottom-half face. On the contrary, only the bottom-half face generated a significant facial expression aftereffect. This dissociation of top- and bottom-half face adaptation suggests that face parts play different roles in face identity and facial expression. It thus provides further evidence for the distributed systems of face perception.

Natural cleaning of the black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera by butterflyfishes (Chaetodon) in French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Bertucci, Frédéric; Legraverant, Yohann; Berthe, Cécile; Brooker, Rohan M.; Lo, Cédrik; Lecchini, David

2016-12-01

Biofouling increases the operational and economic costs associated with pearl production. As current procedures for reducing oyster biofouling can be detrimental to survival and growth and may pollute the surrounding environment developing alternative, biologically-mediated, methods could potentially increase both production and ecological sustainability. With this in mind, the present study investigated natural cleaning of black-lipped pearl oysters, Pinctada margaritifera, by butterflyfishes (Chaetodon). The feeding behaviour of six butterflyfish species was examined at Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia: Chaetodon auriga, Chaetodon citrinellus, Chaetodon ephippium, Chaetodon lunulatus, Chaetodon trifascialis and Chaetodon ulietensis. All species cleaned the surface of pearl oysters by removing epibionts (from 16% to 40% of total biomass), although dietary variation may explain different cleaning efficiencies. Generalist omnivores (C. auriga, C. citrinellus, C. ephippium and C. ulietensis) were the most efficient cleaners (% cleaning range: 26-40% of total biomass). Within this group, C. ephippium removed the most biomass (average of 41%) targeting algae and anemones. However, C. auriga targeted the most diverse range of epibionts, removing significant amounts of algae, sponges, tunicates, and anemones. These results suggest that foraging by butterflyfishes can substantially reduce biofouling on economically-important tropical bivalves.

Amount and type of derelict gear from the declining black pearl oyster aquaculture in Ahe atoll lagoon, French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Andréfouët, Serge; Thomas, Yoann; Lo, Cedrik

2014-06-15

Pearl oyster aquaculture is a major activity in French Polynesia atoll lagoons. After the economic decline that characterized the last decade, concerns recently rose about discarded installations and materials that supported aquaculture practices and by facilities abandoned after they had to close their activities. In May 2013, a first inventory of the type and amount of pearl farms derelict gear (PFDG) was achieved on 47 sites in Ahe lagoon. Surveys were conducted within and outside the boundaries of aquaculture concessions. Twenty types of PFDG littered the lagoon floor and the water column. The most impacted areas were near abandoned grafting houses with up to nine types of PFDG. Forty-five percent of the sites were impacted, including outside concessions. While management authorities are fully aware of the problem, this first assessment is a wake-up call to stimulate the cleaning of lagoons, enhance awareness among farmers, and identify potential ecological consequences on lagoon ecosystems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Complete and rapid reversal of the body color pattern in juveniles of the convict surgeonfish Acanthurus triostegus at Moorea Island (French Polynesia)

Science.gov (United States)

Besson, Marc; Salis, Pauline; Laudet, Vincent; Lecchini, David

2018-03-01

Color polymorphism is widespread in animals and can be associated with temporary adjustments to environmental variables (phenotypic plasticity). In teleost fishes, one of the most remarkable examples of color plasticity is background adaptation in flatfishes. However, such rapid and complete changes in body color and pattern remain relatively unreported in other species. The convict surgeonfish Acanthurus triostegus is a gregarious species whose body color pattern consists of black vertical bars on a whitish body. Here, we describe an entirely reverse body color pattern (white vertical bars on a blackish body) that we observed in some A. triostegus juveniles in a nursery area at Moorea Island, French Polynesia. In aquaria, we determined that change from one color pattern to the other is rapid, reversible, and corresponds to phenotypic plasticity associated with aggressive behavior.

Invariant Face recognition Using Infrared Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zahran, E.G.

2012-01-01

Over the past few decades, face recognition has become a rapidly growing research topic due to the increasing demands in many applications of our daily life such as airport surveillance, personal identification in law enforcement, surveillance systems, information safety, securing financial transactions, and computer security. The objective of this thesis is to develop a face recognition system capable of recognizing persons with a high recognition capability, low processing time, and under different illumination conditions, and different facial expressions. The thesis presents a study for the performance of the face recognition system using two techniques; the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and the Zernike Moments (ZM). The performance of the recognition system is evaluated according to several aspects including the recognition rate, and the processing time. Face recognition systems that use visual images are sensitive to variations in the lighting conditions and facial expressions. The performance of these systems may be degraded under poor illumination conditions or for subjects of various skin colors. Several solutions have been proposed to overcome these limitations. One of these solutions is to work in the Infrared (IR) spectrum. IR images have been suggested as an alternative source of information for detection and recognition of faces, when there is little or no control over lighting conditions. This arises from the fact that these images are formed due to thermal emissions from skin, which is an intrinsic property because these emissions depend on the distribution of blood vessels under the skin. On the other hand IR face recognition systems still have limitations with temperature variations and recognition of persons wearing eye glasses. In this thesis we will fuse IR images with visible images to enhance the performance of face recognition systems. Images are fused using the wavelet transform. Simulation results show that the fusion of visible and

Facing Tomorrow's Challenges - An Overview

Science.gov (United States)

,

2008-01-01

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a science strategy outlining the major natural-science issues facing the Nation in the next decade. The science strategy consists of six science directions of critical importance, focusing on areas where natural science can make a substantial contribution to the well-being of the Nation and the world. This fact sheet is an overview of the science strategy and describes how USGS research can strengthen the Nation with information needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Women, Work and Health Hazards: A Fact Sheet and Cosmetologists: Health Risks at Work.

Science.gov (United States)

National Commission on Working Women, Washington, DC.

The first part of this document is a fact sheet that provides information on health hazards faced by employed women. It covers the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), job-related diseases suffered by workers in female-dominated occupations, employer responsibilities under OSHA, and the lack of statistical reporting on job-related disease.…

Drug Facts

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... to main content Easy-to-Read Drug Facts Search form Search Menu Home Drugs That People Abuse Alcohol Facts ... Past Drug Use Prevention Phone Numbers and Websites Search Share Listen English Español Information about this page ...

[Neural basis of self-face recognition: social aspects].

Science.gov (United States)

Sugiura, Motoaki

2012-07-01

Considering the importance of the face in social survival and evidence from evolutionary psychology of visual self-recognition, it is reasonable that we expect neural mechanisms for higher social-cognitive processes to underlie self-face recognition. A decade of neuroimaging studies so far has, however, not provided an encouraging finding in this respect. Self-face specific activation has typically been reported in the areas for sensory-motor integration in the right lateral cortices. This observation appears to reflect the physical nature of the self-face which representation is developed via the detection of contingency between one's own action and sensory feedback. We have recently revealed that the medial prefrontal cortex, implicated in socially nuanced self-referential process, is activated during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for reference. The posterior cingulate cortex has also exhibited this activation modulation, and in the separate experiment showed a response to attractively manipulated self-face suggesting its relevance to positive self-value. Furthermore, the regions in the right lateral cortices typically showing self-face-specific activation have responded also to the face of one's close friend under the rich social context. This observation is potentially explained by the fact that the contingency detection for physical self-recognition also plays a role in physical social interaction, which characterizes the representation of personally familiar people. These findings demonstrate that neuroscientific exploration reveals multiple facets of the relationship between self-face recognition and social-cognitive process, and that technically the manipulation of social context is key to its success.

Emotional facial expressions differentially influence predictions and performance for face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Nomi, Jason S; Rhodes, Matthew G; Cleary, Anne M

2013-01-01

This study examined how participants' predictions of future memory performance are influenced by emotional facial expressions. Participants made judgements of learning (JOLs) predicting the likelihood that they would correctly identify a face displaying a happy, angry, or neutral emotional expression in a future two-alternative forced-choice recognition test of identity (i.e., recognition that a person's face was seen before). JOLs were higher for studied faces with happy and angry emotional expressions than for neutral faces. However, neutral test faces with studied neutral expressions had significantly higher identity recognition rates than neutral test faces studied with happy or angry expressions. Thus, these data are the first to demonstrate that people believe happy and angry emotional expressions will lead to better identity recognition in the future relative to neutral expressions. This occurred despite the fact that neutral expressions elicited better identity recognition than happy and angry expressions. These findings contribute to the growing literature examining the interaction of cognition and emotion.

Implementation of perceptual aspects in a face recognition algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crenna, F; Bovio, L; Rossi, G B; Zappa, E; Testa, R; Gasparetto, M

2013-01-01

Automatic face recognition is a biometric technique particularly appreciated in security applications. In fact face recognition presents the opportunity to operate at a low invasive level without the collaboration of the subjects under tests, with face images gathered either from surveillance systems or from specific cameras located in strategic points. The automatic recognition algorithms perform a measurement, on the face images, of a set of specific characteristics of the subject and provide a recognition decision based on the measurement results. Unfortunately several quantities may influence the measurement of the face geometry such as its orientation, the lighting conditions, the expression and so on, affecting the recognition rate. On the other hand human recognition of face is a very robust process far less influenced by the surrounding conditions. For this reason it may be interesting to insert perceptual aspects in an automatic facial-based recognition algorithm to improve its robustness. This paper presents a first study in this direction investigating the correlation between the results of a perception experiment and the facial geometry, estimated by means of the position of a set of repere points

Two-Stream Transformer Networks for Video-based Face Alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hao; Lu, Jiwen; Feng, Jianjiang; Zhou, Jie

2017-08-01

In this paper, we propose a two-stream transformer networks (TSTN) approach for video-based face alignment. Unlike conventional image-based face alignment approaches which cannot explicitly model the temporal dependency in videos and motivated by the fact that consistent movements of facial landmarks usually occur across consecutive frames, our TSTN aims to capture the complementary information of both the spatial appearance on still frames and the temporal consistency information across frames. To achieve this, we develop a two-stream architecture, which decomposes the video-based face alignment into spatial and temporal streams accordingly. Specifically, the spatial stream aims to transform the facial image to the landmark positions by preserving the holistic facial shape structure. Accordingly, the temporal stream encodes the video input as active appearance codes, where the temporal consistency information across frames is captured to help shape refinements. Experimental results on the benchmarking video-based face alignment datasets show very competitive performance of our method in comparisons to the state-of-the-arts.

Structure, diversity and environmental role of foraminiferal assemblages from reefal settings of Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia)

Science.gov (United States)

Fajemila, Olugbenga; Langer, Martin R.

2015-04-01

Reefal and shallow lagoonal environments around the island Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia) offer a spectacular variety of microhabitats providing a multitude niches and ideal settings for rich assemblages of tropical benthic foraminifera. The Society Islands are located near the hotspot of tropical marine diversity and represent a transitional location between the high diversity assemblages of the coral triangle and the low diversity biotas of the eastern Pacific. This area constitutes an important biogeographic link and stepping stone between the eastern and western biotas of the tropical Pacific Ocean. We have analyzed the structure, diversity and composition of benthic foraminiferal assemblages from around Moorea to document the composition, species richness and environmental role of larger and smaller benthic foraminifera from within the lagoonal system, the mangrove habitats and fore-reef sites. Foraminifera are prominent producers of calcium carbonate and contribute significantly to structures in reefal settings of the tropical Pacific. We evaluate the potential of larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera as environmental engineers and apply the FORAM-Index as proxy to assess the conditions around Moorea Island. We also evaluate the role of the Society Islands as stepping stone between biogeographic regions of the Pacific Ocean.

Robust 3D face landmark localization based on local coordinate coding.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Mingli; Tao, Dacheng; Sun, Shengpeng; Chen, Chun; Maybank, Stephen J

2014-12-01

In the 3D facial animation and synthesis community, input faces are usually required to be labeled by a set of landmarks for parameterization. Because of the variations in pose, expression and resolution, automatic 3D face landmark localization remains a challenge. In this paper, a novel landmark localization approach is presented. The approach is based on local coordinate coding (LCC) and consists of two stages. In the first stage, we perform nose detection, relying on the fact that the nose shape is usually invariant under the variations in the pose, expression, and resolution. Then, we use the iterative closest points algorithm to find a 3D affine transformation that aligns the input face to a reference face. In the second stage, we perform resampling to build correspondences between the input 3D face and the training faces. Then, an LCC-based localization algorithm is proposed to obtain the positions of the landmarks in the input face. Experimental results show that the proposed method is comparable to state of the art methods in terms of its robustness, flexibility, and accuracy.

Face Validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Symptom Index (FACT- B into Formal Arabic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loulou Kobeissi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Breast cancer affects over one million women annually and is the most common global malignancy among women. Extensive improvements have taken place in the management of breast cancer in recent years and a higher percentage of women are cured from this disease. A proper assessment of the quality of life of women with breast cancer is an essential component in disease management. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- Breast Symptom Index has been commonly used and well-validated among English speaking populations as well as other populations. To date, no formal translation and evaluation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast System Index exists in Arabic. Therefore, this study intends to translate, adapt and face-validate the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast System Index into Arabic, specifically in the context of the Lebanese culture. Methods: We conducted forward and backward translation in Arabic, combined with face validity by clinicians. This was followed by pre-testing to ensure the instrument’s adequacy and cultural sensitivity conducted by the administration of face-to-face interviews with individual breast cancer patients (n=33 and two focus groups (4 women/group to evaluate the relevance and appropriateness of each item and words used in the questionnaire. Results: Study results reinforced the value of the Arabic translated version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast System Index in capturing the quality of life of women with breast cancer in Lebanon. Conclusion: The instrument was perceived to be adequate, appropriate for use, culturally sensitive, simple as well as exhaustive. Suggestions have been made to enrich the instruments’ ability to incorporate other quality of life dimensions not captured, as well to enhance the cultural specificity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast System Index, when administered among Lebanese women diagnosed with

Creating the virtual Eiger North Face

Science.gov (United States)

Buchroithner, Manfred

The described activities aim at combining the potentials of photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital cartography and virtual reality/photorealism with the needs of modern spatial information systems for tourism and for alpinism in particular (the latter aspect is, however, not covered in the paper). Since for slopes steeper than 45°, a digital relief model in nadir projection cannot adequately depict the terrain even in low-angle views, digital Steep Slope Models (SSMs) with a rather vertical reference plane are desirable. This condition very much applies to the Eiger North Face which has been chosen as a testbed for the realisation of a virtual rock face and which shall later be embedded into a lower resolution synthetic landscape of the Eiger-Moench-Jungfrau Region generated from a DTM and satellite imagery. Our "SSM approach" seems justified by the fact that except for the visualisation, commercial software was used which is very limited both in DTM modelling and texture mapping. For the creation of the actual SSM, a pair of oblique coloured air photos has been used, resulting in both a digital face model of 3.7 m grid size and an orthophoto with a resolution of 0.25 m. To demonstrate the alpinistic potential of the product, climbing routes have been inserted into the face model, thus enabling even non-experienced individuals to enjoy the "virtual reality conquest" of the Eiger North Face and potential climbing candidates to prepare themselves for the actual "real world" enterprise.

Distribution and biological implications of plastic pollution on the fringing reef of Mo’orea, French Polynesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth J. Connors

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Coral reef ecosystems of the South Pacific are extremely vulnerable to plastic pollution from oceanic gyres and land-based sources. To describe the extent and impact of plastic pollution, the distribution of both macro- (>5 mm and microplastic (plastic < 5 mm of the fringing reef of an isolated South Pacific island, Mo’orea, French Polynesia was quantified. Macroplastic was found on every beach on the island that was surveyed. The distribution of this plastic was categorized by site type and by the presence of Turbinaria ornata, a common macroalgae on Mo’orea. Microplastics were discovered in the water column of the fringing reef of the island, at a concentration of 0.74 pieces m−2. Additionally, this study reports for the first time the ingestion of microplastic by the corallimorpha Discosoma nummiforme. Microplastics were made available to corallimorph polyps in a laboratory setting over the course of 108 h. Positively and negatively buoyant microplastics were ingested, and a microplastic particle that was not experimentally introduced was also discovered in the stomach cavity of one organism. This study indicates that plastic pollution has the potential to negatively impact coral reef ecosystems of the South Pacific, and warrants further study to explore the broader potential impacts of plastic pollution on coral reef ecosystems.

Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: a review of behavioral studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Weigelt, Sarah; Koldewyn, Kami; Kanwisher, Nancy

2012-03-01

Face recognition--the ability to recognize a person from their facial appearance--is essential for normal social interaction. Face recognition deficits have been implicated in the most common disorder of social interaction: autism. Here we ask: is face identity recognition in fact impaired in people with autism? Reviewing behavioral studies we find no strong evidence for a qualitative difference in how facial identity is processed between those with and without autism: markers of typical face identity recognition, such as the face inversion effect, seem to be present in people with autism. However, quantitatively--i.e., how well facial identity is remembered or discriminated--people with autism perform worse than typical individuals. This impairment is particularly clear in face memory and in face perception tasks in which a delay intervenes between sample and test, and less so in tasks with no memory demand. Although some evidence suggests that this deficit may be specific to faces, further evidence on this question is necessary. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual complexity of faces and voices modulates cross-modal behavioral facilitation effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric Joassin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Joassin et al. (Neuroscience Letters, 2004,369,132-137 observed that the recognition of face-voice associations led to an interference effect, i.e. to decreased performances relative to the recognition of faces presented in isolation. In the present experiment, we tested the hypothesis that this interference effect could be due to the fact that voices were more difficult to recognize than faces. For this purpose, we modified some faces by morphing to make them as difficult to recognize as the voices. Twenty one healthy volunteers performed a recogniton task of previously learned face-voice associations in 5 conditions: voices (A, natural faces (V, morphed faces (V30, voice-natural face associations (AV and voice-morphed faces associations (AV30. As expected, AV led to interference, as it was less well and slower performed than V. However, when faces were as difficult to recognize as voices, their simultaneous presentation produced a clear facilitation, AV30 being significantly better and faster performed than A and V30. These results demonstrate that matching or not the perceptual complexity of the unimodal stimuli modulates the potential cross-modal gains of the bimodal situations.

Superfund fact sheet: The remedial program. Fact sheet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-09-01

The fact sheet describes what various actions the EPA can take to clean up hazardous wastes sites. Explanations of how the criteria for environmental and public health risk assessment are determined and the role of state and local governments in site remediation are given. The fact sheet is one in a series providing reference information about Superfund issues and is intended for readers with no formal scientific training

Guillain-Barré Syndrome outbreak associated with Zika virus infection in French Polynesia: a case-control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao-Lormeau, V M; Blake, A; Mons, S; Lastere, S; Roche, C; Vanhomwegen, J; Dub, T; Baudouin, L; Teissier, A; Larre, P; Vial, A L; Decam, C; Choumet, V; Halstead, S K; Willison, H J; Musset, L; Manuguerra, J C; Despres, P; Fournier, E; Mallet, H P; Musso, D; Fontanet, A; Neil, J; Ghawché, F

2016-04-09

Between October, 2013, and April, 2014, French Polynesia experienced the largest Zika virus outbreak ever described at that time. During the same period, an increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome was reported, suggesting a possible association between Zika virus and Guillain-Barré syndrome. We aimed to assess the role of Zika virus and dengue virus infection in developing Guillain-Barré syndrome. In this case-control study, cases were patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome diagnosed at the Centre Hospitalier de Polynésie Française (Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia) during the outbreak period. Controls were age-matched, sex-matched, and residence-matched patients who presented at the hospital with a non-febrile illness (control group 1; n=98) and age-matched patients with acute Zika virus disease and no neurological symptoms (control group 2; n=70). Virological investigations included RT-PCR for Zika virus, and both microsphere immunofluorescent and seroneutralisation assays for Zika virus and dengue virus. Anti-glycolipid reactivity was studied in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome using both ELISA and combinatorial microarrays. 42 patients were diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome during the study period. 41 (98%) patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome had anti-Zika virus IgM or IgG, and all (100%) had neutralising antibodies against Zika virus compared with 54 (56%) of 98 in control group 1 (pZika virus IgM and 37 (88%) had experienced a transient illness in a median of 6 days (IQR 4-10) before the onset of neurological symptoms, suggesting recent Zika virus infection. Patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome had electrophysiological findings compatible with acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) type, and had rapid evolution of disease (median duration of the installation and plateau phases was 6 [IQR 4-9] and 4 days [3-10], respectively). 12 (29%) patients required respiratory assistance. No patients died. Anti-glycolipid antibody activity was found in 13

Facing facts - now or never

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1986-01-01

Criticism is made of the British Government for failing to react to anti-nuclear public opinion following the accident at the Chernobyl reactor. The Government has renewed its commitment to nuclear power because it believes that the cheap electricity provided is necessary to maintain the standard of modern living. This article, however, says it is unnecessarily expensive, and uneconomic and an unsuitable form of energy supply. Reactor accidents are seen as inevitable and the concept of ''living safety'' with nuclear power plants is discussed. (U.K.).

Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; economic uses fact sheet 04: My Fuel Treatment Planner

Science.gov (United States)

Rocky Mountain Research Station USDA Forest Service

2004-01-01

In the face of rapidly changing public and political attitudes toward fire and fuel planning, one thing remains constant: the fuel planner is ultimately responsible for making decisions on the land. This fact sheet discusses the options for fuel treatments, and the need, development, and use of the MS Excel-based tool, My Fuel Treatment Planner.

Tidal flushing and wind driven circulation of Ahe atoll lagoon (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) from in situ observations and numerical modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dumas, F.; Le Gendre, R.; Thomas, Y.; Andréfouët, S.

2012-01-01

Hydrodynamic functioning and water circulation of the semi-closed deep lagoon of Ahe atoll (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) were investigated using 1 year of field data and a 3D hydrodynamical model. Tidal amplitude averaged less than 30 cm, but tide generated very strong currents (2 m s −1 ) in the pass, creating a jet-like circulation that partitioned the lagoon into three residual circulation cells. The pass entirely flushed excess water brought by waves-induced radiation stress. Circulation patterns were computed for climatological meteorological conditions and summarized with stream function and flushing time. Lagoon hydrodynamics and general overturning circulation was driven by wind. Renewal time was 250 days, whereas the e-flushing time yielded a lagoon-wide 80-days average. Tide-driven flush through the pass and wind-driven overturning circulation designate Ahe as a wind-driven, tidally and weakly wave-flushed deep lagoon. The 3D model allows studying pearl oyster larvae dispersal in both realistic and climatological conditions for aquaculture applications.

Macroalgal bioindicators (growth, tissue N, δ15N) detect nutrient enrichment from shrimp farm effluent entering Opunohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, David T.; Fong, Peggy

2008-01-01

Nutrient enrichment from shrimp aquaculture poses an increasing environmental threat due to the industry's projected rapid growth and unsustainable management practices. Traditional methods to monitor impacts emphasize water quality sampling; however, there are many advantages to bioindicators, especially in developing countries. We investigated the usefulness of three bioindicators-growth, tissue nitrogen content and nitrogen stable isotope signature (δ 15 N)-in the tropical red macroalga Acanthophora spicifera. Algae were collected, cultured, and deployed in a spatial array around the outflow from a shrimp farm in Moorea, French Polynesia, to detect nitrogenous wastes. All three parameters were highest adjacent to the shrimp farm indicating nutrient enrichment, and δ 15 N values confirmed the shrimp farm as the dominant nutrient source (5.63-5.96 per mille ). Isotope ratios proved the most sensitive indicator, as δ 15 N signatures were detected at the most distant sites tested, confirming their usefulness in tracing nutrients and mapping the spatial extent of enrichment

Angiostrongylus cantonensis eosinophilic meningitis: a clinical study of 42 consecutive cases in French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Oehler, Erwan; Ghawche, Frédéric; Delattre, Alex; Berberian, Anthony; Levy, Marc; Valour, Florent

2014-06-01

In endemic areas, eosinophilic meningitis is mainly caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis. We describe a series of this poorly-known condition. Retrospective cohort study (2000-2012) including all patients diagnosed with eosinophilic meningitis in French Polynesia. Forty-two patients (males: 61.9%, age: 22 (IQR 17-32)) were diagnosed with a serologically proven (n=13) or probable A. cantonensis meningitis, mostly during the dry season (66.6%) and following the consumption of or prolonged contact with an intermediate/paratenic host (64.3%). No differential diagnosis was found in probable cases, in whom serological tests were performed earlier (7.5 days (6.5-10)) compared to positive patients (7.5 (6.5-10) versus 11 (7-30) days, p=0.02). The most commonly reported symptom was headache (92.8%). Fever (7.1%) and biological inflammatory syndrome (14.3%) were rare. Blood eosinophil count was 1200/mm(3) (900-2548). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis disclosed a protein level of 0.9 g/L (0.7-1.1), a CSF/plasma glucose ratio of 0.50 (0.40-0.55), and 500 leucocytes/mm(3) (292-725; eosinophils: 42.0% (29.5-60); lymphocytes: 46.5% (32.5-59.0)). Thirteen cases (31.0%) were severe, with 11 focal neurological deficits. A delayed hospital referral (OR 1.13, p=0.05) was associated with severity. A. cantonensis meningitis must be evocated in young patients with meningitic syndrome, severe headache, and CSF inflammation with predominance of eosinophils. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facts about Glaucoma

Science.gov (United States)

... Information » Glaucoma » Facts About Glaucoma Listen Facts About Glaucoma This information was developed by the National Eye ... is the best person to answer specific questions. Glaucoma Defined What is Glaucoma? Glaucoma is a group ...

Individual discriminative face recognition models based on subsets of features

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemmensen, Line Katrine Harder; Gomez, David Delgado; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær

2007-01-01

The accuracy of data classification methods depends considerably on the data representation and on the selected features. In this work, the elastic net model selection is used to identify meaningful and important features in face recognition. Modelling the characteristics which distinguish one...... person from another using only subsets of features will both decrease the computational cost and increase the generalization capacity of the face recognition algorithm. Moreover, identifying which are the features that better discriminate between persons will also provide a deeper understanding...... of the face recognition problem. The elastic net model is able to select a subset of features with low computational effort compared to other state-of-the-art feature selection methods. Furthermore, the fact that the number of features usually is larger than the number of images in the data base makes feature...

Familiar face + novel face = familiar face? Representational bias in the perception of morphed faces in chimpanzees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshi-Taka Matsuda

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Highly social animals possess a well-developed ability to distinguish the faces of familiar from novel conspecifics to induce distinct behaviors for maintaining society. However, the behaviors of animals when they encounter ambiguous faces of familiar yet novel conspecifics, e.g., strangers with faces resembling known individuals, have not been well characterised. Using a morphing technique and preferential-looking paradigm, we address this question via the chimpanzee’s facial–recognition abilities. We presented eight subjects with three types of stimuli: (1 familiar faces, (2 novel faces and (3 intermediate morphed faces that were 50% familiar and 50% novel faces of conspecifics. We found that chimpanzees spent more time looking at novel faces and scanned novel faces more extensively than familiar or intermediate faces. Interestingly, chimpanzees looked at intermediate faces in a manner similar to familiar faces with regards to the fixation duration, fixation count, and saccade length for facial scanning, even though the participant was encountering the intermediate faces for the first time. We excluded the possibility that subjects merely detected and avoided traces of morphing in the intermediate faces. These findings suggest a bias for a feeling-of-familiarity that chimpanzees perceive familiarity with an intermediate face by detecting traces of a known individual, as 50% alternation is sufficient to perceive familiarity.

Preference for Averageness in Faces Does Not Generalize to Non-Human Primates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivia B. Tomeo

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Facial attractiveness is a long-standing topic of active study in both neuroscience and social science, motivated by its positive social consequences. Over the past few decades, it has been established that averageness is a major factor influencing judgments of facial attractiveness in humans. Non-human primates share similar social behaviors as well as neural mechanisms related to face processing with humans. However, it is unknown whether monkeys, like humans, also find particular faces attractive and, if so, which kind of facial traits they prefer. To address these questions, we investigated the effect of averageness on preferences for faces in monkeys. We tested three adult male rhesus macaques using a visual paired comparison (VPC task, in which they viewed pairs of faces (both individual faces, or one individual face and one average face; viewing time was used as a measure of preference. We did find that monkeys looked longer at certain individual faces than others. However, unlike humans, monkeys did not prefer the average face over individual faces. In fact, the more the individual face differed from the average face, the longer the monkeys looked at it, indicating that the average face likely plays a role in face recognition rather than in judgments of facial attractiveness: in models of face recognition, the average face operates as the norm against which individual faces are compared and recognized. Taken together, our study suggests that the preference for averageness in faces does not generalize to non-human primates.

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Share the facts: Quick Facts Prevalence Mortality Caregivers Cost Special Report Alzheimer's in each state Quick Facts Share the facts: Prevalence The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's is growing — and growing fast. An ...

Macroalgal bioindicators (growth, tissue N, {delta}{sup 15}N) detect nutrient enrichment from shrimp farm effluent entering Opunohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, David T. [Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2538 McCarthy Mall, Edmondson 152, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)], E-mail: david.t.lin@ucla.edu; Fong, Peggy [Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)

2008-02-15

Nutrient enrichment from shrimp aquaculture poses an increasing environmental threat due to the industry's projected rapid growth and unsustainable management practices. Traditional methods to monitor impacts emphasize water quality sampling; however, there are many advantages to bioindicators, especially in developing countries. We investigated the usefulness of three bioindicators-growth, tissue nitrogen content and nitrogen stable isotope signature ({delta}{sup 15}N)-in the tropical red macroalga Acanthophora spicifera. Algae were collected, cultured, and deployed in a spatial array around the outflow from a shrimp farm in Moorea, French Polynesia, to detect nitrogenous wastes. All three parameters were highest adjacent to the shrimp farm indicating nutrient enrichment, and {delta}{sup 15}N values confirmed the shrimp farm as the dominant nutrient source (5.63-5.96 per mille ). Isotope ratios proved the most sensitive indicator, as {delta}{sup 15}N signatures were detected at the most distant sites tested, confirming their usefulness in tracing nutrients and mapping the spatial extent of enrichment.

Ciguatera fish poisoning: Incidence, health costs and risk perception on Moorea Island (Society archipelago, French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

Morin, Ewen; Gatti, Clémence; Bambridge, Tamatoa; Chinain, Mireille

2016-12-01

Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP) is a non-bacterial seafood poisoning well characterized in the remote archipelagos of French Polynesia, yet poorly documented in the Society archipelago, most notably on Moorea, the second most populated island in French Polynesia, which counts a high proportion of fishermen fishing on a regular basis. To address this knowledge gap, a holistic study of the ciguatera issue was conducted on Moorea. First, ciguatera risk was analysed in terms of incidence rate, fish species most commonly involved and risk stratification in Moorea lagoon based on 2007-2013 epidemiological data. A mean incidence rate of 8 cases per 10,000 inhabitants for the study period and an average under-reporting rate of 54% were found. Taking into account hospitalization and medication fees, and loss of productive days, the health-related costs due to CFP were estimated to be USD $1613 and $749 for each reported and unreported case, respectively, with an overall cost of USD $241,847 for the study period. Comparison of the present status of CFP on Moorea with a risk map established in the late 1970's showed that the spatial distribution of the risk has stayed relatively stable in time, with the north shore of the island remaining the most prone to ciguatera. Evaluation of the current knowledge on CFP among different populations groups, i.e. fishermen, residents and visitors, was also conducted through direct and indirect interviews. About half of the fishermen interviewed were actually able to identify risky fishing areas. While, overall, the CFP risk perception in the fishing community of Moorea seemed accurate, although not scientifically complete, it was sufficient for the safe practice of their fishing activities. This may be due in part to adaptive responses adopted by 36% of the fishermen interviewed, such as the avoidance of either high-risk fishing sites or toxic species. At the residents and visitors' level, the study points out a striking lack of awareness

Shear wave splitting and upper mantle deformation in French Polynesia: Evidence for small-scale heterogeneity related to the Society hotspot

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, R. M.; Okal, E. A.

1998-07-01

We determined shear wave splitting parameters at four island sites in French Polynesia: Tiputa (TPT) on Rangiroa in the Tuamotu archipelago; Papeete (PPT) on Tahiti in the Society Islands; Tubuai (TBI) in the Cook-Austral island chain; and Rikitea (RKT) on Mangareva in the Gambier Islands. We also examined splitting at Pitcairn (PTCN) on Pitcairn Island; because of the short time of operation of PTCN, our results there are preliminary. We find substantial differences in splitting, most likely caused by variable upper mantle deformation beneath the five stations. At TPT the fast split shear wave (ϕ) direction is N66°W±4°, parallel to the current Pacific-hotspots relative motion (APM) vector; the delay time between fast and slow waves is 1.3±0.2 s. At PPT, on Tahiti, we could detect no splitting despite many clear SKS observations. At TBI, on Tubuai we detected splitting with a delay time of 1.1±0.1 s and a ϕ direction midway between the local APM direction and the fossil spreading direction (N86°W±2°), as locally indicated by the nearby Austral Fracture Zone. At RKT in the Gambier Islands, ϕ trends N53°W±6°, 16° clockwise of the local APM azimuth, and delay time at RKT is 1.1±0.1 s. Results at PTCN include ϕ near N38°W±9° and a delay time of 1.1±0.3 s. These different results imply variable upper mantle deformation beneath the five sites. We interpret splitting at TPT and, possibly, RKT as indicative of asthenospheric flow or shear in the APM direction beneath the stations. At PPT, azimuthal isotropy indicates deformed upper mantle with a vertical symmetry axis, or absence of strong or consistently oriented mantle deformation fabric beneath Tahiti. Either effect could be related to recent hotspot magmatism on Tahiti. At TBI, splitting may be complicated by juxtaposition of different lithospheric thicknesses along the nearby Austral Fracture Zone, resulting in perturbation of asthenospheric flow. The absence of splitting related to fossil

Early ERP modulation for task-irrelevant subliminal faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan J Pegna

2011-05-01

Full Text Available A number of investigations have reported that emotional faces can be processed subliminally, and that they give rise to specific patterns of brain activation in the absence of awareness. Recent event-related potential (ERP studies have suggested that electrophysiological differences occur early in time (<200ms in response to backward masked emotional faces. These findings have been taken as evidence of a rapid non-conscious pathway, which would allow threatening stimuli to be processed rapidly and subsequently allow appropriate avoidance action to be taken. However, for this to be the case, subliminal processing should arise even if the threatening stimulus is not attended. This point has in fact not yet been clearly established. In this ERP study, we investigated whether subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs outside the focus of attention. Fourteen healthy participants performed a line judgement task while fearful and non-fearful (happy or neutral faces were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. ERPs were compared across the 4 experimental conditions (i.e., subliminal and supraliminal; fearful and non-fearful. The earliest differences between fearful and non fearful faces appeared as an enhanced posterior negativity for the former at 170ms (the N170 component over right temporo-occipital electrodes. This difference was observed for both subliminal (p<.05 and supraliminal presentations (p<.01. Our results confirm that subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs early in the course of visual processing, and more importantly, that this arises even when the subject’s attention is engaged in an incidental task.

Neural synchronization during face-to-face communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Jing; Dai, Bohan; Peng, Danling; Zhu, Chaozhe; Liu, Li; Lu, Chunming

2012-11-07

Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results showed a significant increase in the neural synchronization in the left inferior frontal cortex during a face-to-face dialog between partners but none during a back-to-back dialog, a face-to-face monologue, or a back-to-back monologue. Moreover, the neural synchronization between partners during the face-to-face dialog resulted primarily from the direct interactions between the partners, including multimodal sensory information integration and turn-taking behavior. The communicating behavior during the face-to-face dialog could be predicted accurately based on the neural synchronization level. These results suggest that face-to-face communication, particularly dialog, has special neural features that other types of communication do not have and that the neural synchronization between partners may underlie successful face-to-face communication.

Self-identification with another person's face: the time relevant role of multimodal brain areas in the enfacement illusion.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Ethnobotanical survey of cosmetic plants used in Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

Jost, Xénia; Ansel, Jean-Luc; Lecellier, Gaël; Raharivelomanana, Phila; Butaud, Jean-François

2016-11-29

Cosmetic plants and their uses have often been neglected in ethnobotanical surveys which focus mainly on plants with medicinal or food uses. Thus, this survey was carried out to specifically investigate cosmetics in a small community and to establish a cosmetopoeia, based on the model of pharmacopoeia for medicinal plants. The geographic spread of the survey covered the Marquesas Islands, one of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean). This archipelago was also recently investigated for its pharmacopoeia. This survey is based on individual interviews of Marquesan informants on the islands of Tahiti (Society archipelago) and Nuku Hiva (Marquesas archipelago). The methodological approach was semi-directive with open-ended questions based on cosmetic criteria (application area, cosmetic use, plant). Before each interview, researchers and the informant signed a Prior Informed Consent (PIC). Quantitative analyses were performed using basic statistics and the indice of Fidelity Level (FL). Twenty-eight informants from five of the six inhabited Marquesan islands were interviewed and yielded more than 500 cosmetic recipes. Marquesan cosmetopoeia included 79 plant taxa, of which 5% are Marquesan endemics, 23% are indigenous, 28% are Polynesian introductions and 44% are modern introductions. Among the introduced species, half were cultivated whereas the other half were weedy species. Most of the plants were abundant and only eight species were considered rare, of which four were Marquesan endemics. Main cosmetic plants were identified through informant citations and fidelity levels, and included Calophyllum inophyllum, Cananga odorata, Citrus aurantiifolia, Cocos nucifera, Curcuma longa, Gardenia taitensis, Mentha spp., Ocimum basilicum, Rauvolfia nukuhivensis and Santalum insulare var. marchionense. The most referred application areas were skin, hair and private parts whereas the main cosmetic uses were perfume, hydration, medicinal care and healing

Brain Aneurysm Statistics and Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... Statistics and Facts A- A A+ Brain Aneurysm Statistics and Facts An estimated 6 million people in ... Understanding the Brain Warning Signs/ Symptoms Brain Aneurysm Statistics and Facts Seeking Medical Attention Risk Factors Aneurysm ...

Decoding of faces and face components in face-sensitive human visual cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David F Nichols

2010-07-01

Full Text Available A great challenge to the field of visual neuroscience is to understand how faces are encoded and represented within the human brain. Here we show evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI for spatially distributed processing of the whole face and its components in face-sensitive human visual cortex. We used multi-class linear pattern classifiers constructed with a leave-one-scan-out verification procedure to discriminate brain activation patterns elicited by whole faces, the internal features alone, and the external head outline alone. Furthermore, our results suggest that whole faces are represented disproportionately in the fusiform cortex (FFA whereas the building blocks of faces are represented disproportionately in occipitotemporal cortex (OFA. Faces and face components may therefore be organized with functional clustering within both the FFA and OFA, but with specialization for face components in the OFA and the whole face in the FFA.

Famous face recognition, face matching, and extraversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Lander, Karen; Poyarekar, Siddhi

2015-01-01

It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.

Systematic reviews: Separating fact from fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Haddaway, Neal R; Bilotta, Gary S

2016-01-01

The volume of scientific literature continues to expand and decision-makers are faced with increasingly unmanageable volumes of evidence to assess. Systematic reviews (SRs) are powerful tools that aim to provide comprehensive, transparent, reproducible and updateable summaries of evidence. SR methods were developed, and have been employed, in healthcare for more than two decades, and they are now widely used across a broad range of topics, including environmental management and social interventions in crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare. Despite these successes and the increasing acceptance of SR methods as a 'gold standard' in evidence-informed policy and practice, misconceptions still remain regarding their applicability. The aim of this article is to separate fact from fiction, addressing twelve common misconceptions that can influence the decision as to whether a SR is the most appropriate method for evidence synthesis for a given topic. Through examples, we illustrate the flexibility of SR methods and demonstrate their suitability for addressing issues on environmental health and chemical risk assessment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Saline flushing fluids restricting contamination of the near-face zone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weil, W

1982-01-01

Questions are covered which concern the characteristics and main properties of saline solutions without solid phase and their use as flushing fluids. Attention is drawn to the fact that these solutions are universally used in flushing and other operations of wells with high gradients of bed pressures, and also in those cases where the oil and gas levels are especially sensitive to negative influence of traditional clay solutions which cause irreversible decrease in permeability of the reservoirs through contamination and plugging of the pores in the near-face zone, and consequently, influence the decrease in bed productivity. The described methods and chemical reagents decrease the filtering of these solutions in the reservoirs, improve viscosity and stabilize the near-face zone.

Key Facts about Tularemia

Science.gov (United States)

... Submit What's this? Submit Button Key Facts About Tularemia Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir This fact ... and Prevention (CDC) Tularemia Web site . What is Tularemia? Tularemia is a potentially serious illness that occurs ...

Meningitis Myths and Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... Diseases Infographic Prevention and Control of Meningococcal Disease Meningitis Myths and Facts Myth: Meningococcal disease is easy ... infected person, such as shaking hands. Fact: Meningococcal meningitis is spread through air droplets and direct contact ...

Cocaine (Coke, Crack) Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... That People Abuse » Cocaine (Coke, Crack) Facts Cocaine (Coke, Crack) Facts Listen Cocaine is a white ... 69 KB) "My life was built around getting cocaine and getting high." ©istock.com/ Marjot Stacey is ...

Chlamydia - CDC Fact Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

... Archive STDs Home Page Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) Chlamydia Gonorrhea Genital Herpes Hepatitis HIV/AIDS & STDs Human Papillomavirus ( ... sheet Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) – CDC fact sheet Gonorrhea – CDC fact sheet STDs Home Page Bacterial Vaginosis ( ...

Face-to-Face Activities in Blended Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Annemette

While blended learning combines online and face-to-face teaching, research on blended learning has primarily focused on the role of technology and the opportunities it creates for engaging students. Less focus has been put on face-to-face activities in blended learning. This paper argues...... that it is not only the online activities in blended learning that provide new opportunities for rethinking pedagogy in higher education, it is also imperative to reconsider the face-to-face activities when part of the learning is provided online. Based on a review of blended learning in business and management...... education, we identify what forms of teaching and learning are suggested to take place face-to-face when other activities are moved online. We draw from the Community of Inquiry framework to analyze how face-to-face activities contribute to a blended learning pedagogy and discuss the implications...

Face recognition system and method using face pattern words and face pattern bytes

Science.gov (United States)

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.

High Blood Pressure Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... Stroke Heart Disease Cholesterol Salt Million Hearts® WISEWOMAN High Blood Pressure Facts Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir On ... Top of Page CDC Fact Sheets Related to High Blood Pressure High Blood Pressure Pulmonary Hypertension Heart Disease Signs ...

The Fabulous Fact Fan.

Science.gov (United States)

Couch, Jene P.

1994-01-01

Discusses the use and construction of "fact fans," fun and easy-to-make manipulatives that provide elementary school students with the opportunity to explore mathematics operations being studied in the classroom and to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. (BB)

John Searle on Institutional Facts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

m Abdullahi

2010-09-01

Here we argue that the essence of institutional facts is status functions. Humans recognize these functions which contain a set of deontic powers through collective intentionality. Therefore, institutional facts are ontologically subjective and epistemologically objective. Nevertheless, objectivity of institutional facts totally depends on language which itself is a fundamental institution for other institutions.

Face facts: Genes, environment, and clefts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murray, J.C. [Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City IA (United States)

1995-08-01

Cleft lip and/or palate provides an ideal, albeit complex, model for the study of human developmental anomalies. Clefting disorders show a mix of well-defined syndromic causes (many with single-gene or environmental etiologies) coupled with their more common presentation in the nonsyndromic form. This summary presents some insight into the genetic causes of, etiology of and animal models for cleft lip and/or palate. 79 refs.

Guillain–Barré Syndrome (42 Cases) Occurring During a Zika Virus Outbreak in French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Watrin, Louise; Ghawché, Frédéric; Larre, Philippe; Neau, Jean-Philippe; Mathis, Stéphane; Fournier, Emmanuel

2016-01-01

Abstract Zika virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) reached French Polynesia for the first time in 2013, leading to an epidemic affecting 10% of the total population. So far, it has not been known to induce any neurological complications, but, a few weeks after the outbreak, an unexpectedly high number of 42 patients presented with Guillain–Barré syndrome. We report the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of this series. Males predominated with a sex ratio of 2.82 (mean age: 46). All patients (except 2) were native Polynesian. At admission, 55% were able to walk unaided against 38% at nadir, 24% had swallowing troubles (nadir: 45%), 74% had motor weakness of the limbs (nadir: 86%) and deep tendon reflexes were diminished or not found in the vast majority of patients. Mean duration of the progressive phase and of the plateau phase was respectively 7 and 9 days. Thirty-eight percent of the patients were admitted in intensive care unit and 10 patients underwent tracheotomy. Nerve electrophysiological studies at admission showed marked distal motor conduction alterations, which had almost completely disappeared at the 4th month; this pattern was more suggestive of acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) than of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP). Lumbar puncture showed elevated proteins in 90% of the cases, with cell count always inferior to 50/μL. This epidemic raises several questions, such as the potential existence of interactions between Zika virus and Polynesian HLA system and/or the consequences of several recombination events of this virus. This situation should call for increased vigilance, especially in countries where Aedes mosquitoes are present. PMID:27057874

Guillain-Barré Syndrome (42 Cases) Occurring During a Zika Virus Outbreak in French Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Watrin, Louise; Ghawché, Frédéric; Larre, Philippe; Neau, Jean-Philippe; Mathis, Stéphane; Fournier, Emmanuel

2016-04-01

Zika virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) reached French Polynesia for the first time in 2013, leading to an epidemic affecting 10% of the total population. So far, it has not been known to induce any neurological complications, but, a few weeks after the outbreak, an unexpectedly high number of 42 patients presented with Guillain-Barré syndrome.We report the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of this series. Males predominated with a sex ratio of 2.82 (mean age: 46). All patients (except 2) were native Polynesian. At admission, 55% were able to walk unaided against 38% at nadir, 24% had swallowing troubles (nadir: 45%), 74% had motor weakness of the limbs (nadir: 86%) and deep tendon reflexes were diminished or not found in the vast majority of patients. Mean duration of the progressive phase and of the plateau phase was respectively 7 and 9 days. Thirty-eight percent of the patients were admitted in intensive care unit and 10 patients underwent tracheotomy. Nerve electrophysiological studies at admission showed marked distal motor conduction alterations, which had almost completely disappeared at the 4th month; this pattern was more suggestive of acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) than of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP). Lumbar puncture showed elevated proteins in 90% of the cases, with cell count always inferior to 50/μL.This epidemic raises several questions, such as the potential existence of interactions between Zika virus and Polynesian HLA system and/or the consequences of several recombination events of this virus. This situation should call for increased vigilance, especially in countries where Aedes mosquitoes are present.

Virtual & Real Face to Face Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Teneqexhi, Romeo; Kuneshka, Loreta

2016-01-01

In traditional "face to face" lessons, during the time the teacher writes on a black or white board, the students are always behind the teacher. Sometimes, this happens even in the recorded lesson in videos. Most of the time during the lesson, the teacher shows to the students his back not his face. We do not think the term "face to…

Facing the facts: the suspension of a design requirement applicable to nuclear power reactor effluents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amado, Valeria; Biaggio, Alfredo; Canoba, Analia; Curti, Adriana

2008-01-01

A design requirement aimed at limiting the discharge of globally dispersed long-lived radionuclides released by nuclear power reactors was in force in Argentine since 1979 till recently. The practical results of such regulatory measure was the need to retain C-14 in the PHWR under construction, as well as in furniture heavy water reactors to be built in the country. This paper explains the basis of such requirement, which was formulated as a collective dose constraint per unit of energy generated, and the main assumptions that triggered it. The differences between the assumptions made at the time and the reality of nuclear power generation at the beginning of the 21 st century, as well as their implications in relation to the requirement are described, including the Suess effect and its impact in the total dose due to C-14. Finally, the facts that made no longer reasonable to keep in force the above mentioned requirement are presented. (author)

Reconstructing Mid- to Late Holocene Sea-Level Change from Coral Microatolls, French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Hallmann, N.; Camoin, G.; Eisenhauer, A.; Vella, C.; Samankassou, E.; Botella, A.; Milne, G. A.; Pothin, V.; Dussouillez, P.; Fleury, J.

2017-12-01

Coral microatolls are sensitive low-tide recorders, as their vertical accretion is limited by the mean low water springs level, and can be considered therefore as high-precision recorders of sea-level change. They are of pivotal importance to resolving the rates and amplitudes of millennial-to-century scale changes during periods of relative climate stability such as the Mid- to Late Holocene, which serves as an important baseline of natural variability prior to the Anthropocene. It provides therefore a unique opportunity to study coastal response to sea-level rise, even if the rates of sea-level rise during the Mid- to Late Holocene were lower than the current rates and those expected in the near future. Mid- to Late Holocene relative sea-level changes in French Polynesia encompassing the last 6,000 years were reconstructed based on the coupling between absolute U/Th dating of in situ coral microatolls and their precise positioning via GPS RTK (Real Time Kinematic) measurements. The twelve studied islands represent ideal settings for accurate sea-level studies because: 1) they can be regarded as tectonically stable during the relevant period (slow subsidence), 2) they are located far from former ice sheets (far-field), 3) they are characterized by a low tidal amplitude, and 4) they cover a wide range of latitudes which produces significantly improved constraints on GIA (Glacial Isostatic Adjustment) model parameters. A sea-level rise of less than 1 m is recorded between 6 and 3-3.5 ka, and is followed by a gradual fall in sea level that started around 2.5 ka and persisted until the past few centuries. In addition, growth pattern analysis of coral microatolls allows the reconstruction of low-amplitude, high-frequency sea-level change on centennial to sub-decadal time scales. The reconstructed sea-level curve extends the Tahiti last deglacial sea-level curve [Deschamps et al., 2012, Nature, 483, 559-564], and is in good agreement with a geophysical model tuned to

Reading faces and Facing words

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robotham, Julia Emma; Lindegaard, Martin Weis; Delfi, Tzvetelina Shentova

unilateral lesions, we found no patient with a selective deficit in either reading or face processing. Rather, the patients showing a deficit in processing either words or faces were also impaired with the other category. One patient performed within the normal range on all tasks. In addition, all patients......It has long been argued that perceptual processing of faces and words is largely independent, highly specialised and strongly lateralised. Studies of patients with either pure alexia or prosopagnosia have strongly contributed to this view. The aim of our study was to investigate how visual...... perception of faces and words is affected by unilateral posterior stroke. Two patients with lesions in their dominant hemisphere and two with lesions in their non-dominant hemisphere were tested on sensitive tests of face and word perception during the stable phase of recovery. Despite all patients having...

Face Attention Network: An Effective Face Detector for the Occluded Faces

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jianfeng; Yuan, Ye; Yu, Gang

2017-01-01

The performance of face detection has been largely improved with the development of convolutional neural network. However, the occlusion issue due to mask and sunglasses, is still a challenging problem. The improvement on the recall of these occluded cases usually brings the risk of high false positives. In this paper, we present a novel face detector called Face Attention Network (FAN), which can significantly improve the recall of the face detection problem in the occluded case without comp...

How Well Do Computer-Generated Faces Tap Face Expertise?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Crookes

Full Text Available The use of computer-generated (CG stimuli in face processing research is proliferating due to the ease with which faces can be generated, standardised and manipulated. However there has been surprisingly little research into whether CG faces are processed in the same way as photographs of real faces. The present study assessed how well CG faces tap face identity expertise by investigating whether two indicators of face expertise are reduced for CG faces when compared to face photographs. These indicators were accuracy for identification of own-race faces and the other-race effect (ORE-the well-established finding that own-race faces are recognised more accurately than other-race faces. In Experiment 1 Caucasian and Asian participants completed a recognition memory task for own- and other-race real and CG faces. Overall accuracy for own-race faces was dramatically reduced for CG compared to real faces and the ORE was significantly and substantially attenuated for CG faces. Experiment 2 investigated perceptual discrimination for own- and other-race real and CG faces with Caucasian and Asian participants. Here again, accuracy for own-race faces was significantly reduced for CG compared to real faces. However the ORE was not affected by format. Together these results signal that CG faces of the type tested here do not fully tap face expertise. Technological advancement may, in the future, produce CG faces that are equivalent to real photographs. Until then caution is advised when interpreting results obtained using CG faces.

The Chimes of Freedom: Bob Dylan, Epigrammatic Validity, and Alternative Facts.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, John

2018-01-01

This essay brings together work I have done over the past 10 years: on the nature of ethics, on the purpose of ethics, and on its foundations in a way that, I hope, as E.M. Forster put it, connects "the prose and the passion." I deploy lessons learned in this process to identify and face what I believe to be crucial challenges to science and to freedom (as defended by, among others, Cicero, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell). Finally I consider threats to freedom of a different sort, posed by the creation and dissemination of "alternative facts" and by what is sometimes called "super" or "full" artificial intelligence (AI).

Neural synchronization during face-to-face communication

OpenAIRE

Jiang, J.; Dai, B.; Peng, D.; Zhu, C.; Liu, L.; Lu, C.

2012-01-01

Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results showed a significant increase in the neural synchronization in the left inferior frontal cortex during a face-to-...

Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets

Science.gov (United States)

... website Submit Search NIH Office of Dietary Supplements Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets Search the list ... Supplements: Background Information Botanical Dietary Supplements: Background Information Vitamin and Mineral Fact Sheets Botanical Supplement Fact Sheets ...

Five Indisputable Facts on Modern Power Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bloom, Aaron P [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Brinkman, Gregory L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lopez, Anthony J [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Holttinen, Hannele [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland; Helman, Udi [Helman Analytics; Summers, Kate [Pacific Hydro; Bakke, Jordan [Midcontinent Independent System Operator

2017-08-01

This presentation overviews five indisputable facts about modern power systems: Fact one: The grid can handle more renewable generation than previously thought. Fact two: Geographic and resource diversity provide additional reliability to the system. Fact three: Wind and solar forecasting provide significant value. Fact four: Our electric power markets were not originally designed for variable renewables -- but they could be adapted. Fact five: Modern power electronics are creating new sources of essential reliability services.

Facing aggression: cues differ for female versus male faces.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shawn N Geniole

Full Text Available The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio, is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36 = 7.43, p = 0.01. In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively and masculinity (negatively ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".

Facing aggression: cues differ for female versus male faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Geniole, Shawn N; Keyes, Amanda E; Mondloch, Catherine J; Carré, Justin M; McCormick, Cheryl M

2012-01-01

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36) = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".

Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

Science.gov (United States)

Geniole, Shawn N.; Keyes, Amanda E.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Carré, Justin M.; McCormick, Cheryl M.

2012-01-01

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F1,36 = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as “honest signals”. PMID:22276184

Fluent conceptual processing and explicit memory for faces are electrophysiologically distinct.

Science.gov (United States)

Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2006-01-18

Implicit memory and explicit memory are fundamentally different manifestations of memory storage in the brain. Yet, conceptual fluency driven by previous experience could theoretically be responsible for both conceptual implicit memory and aspects of explicit memory. For example, contemplating the meaning of a word might serve to speed subsequent processing of that word and also make it seem familiar. We examined electrophysiological correlates of conceptual priming with 180 celebrity faces to determine whether or not they resemble electrophysiological correlates of explicit memory. Celebrity faces are ideal for this purpose because they carry with them preexisting conceptual information (i.e., biographical facts) that can selectively be brought to mind such that conceptual processing can be manipulated systematically. In our experiment, exposure to biographical information associated with only one-half of the celebrities yielded conceptual priming for those faces, whereas all faces were perceptually primed. Conceptual priming was indexed by positive brain potentials over frontal regions from approximately 250 to 500 ms. Explicit memory retrieval was associated with later brain potentials over posterior regions that were strikingly similar to potentials previously associated with pure familiarity for faces (when a face seems familiar in the absence of retrieval of any specific information about previous occurrence). Furthermore, the magnitude of conceptual priming was correlated across subjects with the amplitude of frontal but not posterior potentials, whereas the opposite was true for explicit memory. Distinct brain processes were thus associated with conceptual priming and conscious recognition of faces, thus providing a sharper focus on the border between implicit and explicit memory.

Drug Facts

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Nicotine Facts Other Drugs of Abuse What is Addiction? What are some signs and symptoms of someone ... use problem? How Does Drug Use Become an Addiction? What Makes Someone More Likely to Get Addicted ...

Facts about Anophthalmia and Microphthalmia

Science.gov (United States)

... Facts About Anophthalmia and Microphthalmia Listen Facts About Anophthalmia and Microphthalmia This information was developed by the ... is the best person to answer specific questions. Anophthalmia and Microphthalmia Defined What are anophthalmia and microphthalmia? ...

Community metabolism and air-sea CO[sub 2] fluxes in a coral reef ecosystem (Moorea, French Polynesia)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gattuso, J P; Pichon, M; Delesalle, B; Frankignoulle, M [Observatory of European Oceanology (Monaco)

1993-06-01

Community metabolism (primary production, respiration and calcification) and air-sea CO[sub 2] fluxes of the 'Tiahura barrier reef' (Moorea, French Polynesia) were investigated in November and December 1991. Gross production and respiration were respectively 640.2 to 753 and 590.4 to 641.5 mmol (O[sub 2] or CO[sub 2]) m[sup 2] d[sup -1] (7.7 to 9.0 and 7.1 to 7.7 g C m)[sup 2] d[sup -1] and the reef displayed a slightly negative excess (net) production. The contribution of planktonic primary production to reef metabolism was negligible (0.15% of total gross production). Net calcification was positive both during the day and at night; its daily value was 243 mmol CaCO[sub 3] m[sup 2] d[sup -1] (24.3 g CaCO)[sub 3] m[sup -2] d[sup -1]. Reef metabolism decreased seawater total CO[sub 2] by 433.3 mmol m[sup 2] d[sup -1]. The air-sea CO[sub 2] fluxes were close to zero in the ocean but displayed a strong daily pattern at the reef front and the back reef. Fluxes were positive (CO[sub 2] evasion) at night, decreased as irradiance increased and were negative during the day (CO[sub 2] invasion). Integration of the fluxes measured during a 24 h experiment at the back reef showed that the reef was a source of CO[sub 2] to the atmosphere (1.5 mmol m[sup 2] d[sup -1]).

Field Audit Checklist Tool (FACT)

Science.gov (United States)

Download EPA's The Field Audit Checklist Tool (FACT). FACT is intended to help auditors perform field audits, to easily view monitoring plan, quality assurance and emissions data and provides access to data collected under MATS.

Implicit self-other discrimination affects the interplay between multisensory affordances of mental representations of faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeugin, David; Arfa, Norhan; Notter, Michael; Murray, Micah M; Ionta, Silvio

2017-08-30

Face recognition is an apparently straightforward but, in fact, complex ability, encompassing the activation of at least visual and somatosensory representations. Understanding how identity shapes the interplay between these face-related affordances could clarify the mechanisms of self-other discrimination. To this aim, we exploited the so-called "face inversion effect" (FIE), a specific bias in the mental rotation of face images (of other people): with respect to inanimate objects, face images require longer time to be mentally rotated from the upside-down. Via the FIE, which suggests the activation of somatosensory mechanisms, we assessed identity-related changes in the interplay between visual and somatosensory affordances between self- and other-face representations. Methodologically, to avoid the potential interference of the somatosensory feedback associated with musculoskeletal movements, we introduced the tracking of gaze direction to record participants' response. Response times from twenty healthy participants showed the larger FIE for self- than other-faces, suggesting that the impact of somatosensory affordances on mental representation of faces varies according to identity. The present study lays the foundations of a quantifiable method to implicitly assess self-other discrimination, with possible translational benefits for early diagnosis of face processing disturbances (e.g. prosopagnosia), and for neurophysiological studies on self-other discrimination in ethological settings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Concurrent Relations between Face Scanning and Language: A Cross-Syndrome Infant Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dean D'Souza

Full Text Available Typically developing (TD infants enhance their learning of spoken language by observing speakers' mouth movements. Given the fact that word learning is seriously delayed in most children with neurodevelopmental disorders, we hypothesized that this delay partly results from differences in visual face scanning, e.g., focusing attention away from the mouth. To test this hypothesis, we used an eye tracker to measure visual attention in 95 infants and toddlers with Down syndrome (DS, fragile X syndrome (FXS, and Williams syndrome (WS, and compared their data to 25 chronological- and mental-age matched 16-month-old TD controls. We presented participants with two talking faces (one on each side of the screen and a sound (/ga/. One face (the congruent face mouthed the syllable that the participants could hear (i.e., /ga/, while the other face (the incongruent face mouthed a different syllable (/ba/ from the one they could hear. As expected, we found that TD children with a relatively large vocabulary made more fixations to the mouth region of the incongruent face than elsewhere. However, toddlers with FXS or WS who had a relatively large receptive vocabulary made more fixations to the eyes (rather than the mouth of the incongruent face. In DS, by contrast, fixations to the speaker's overall face (rather than to her eyes or mouth predicted vocabulary size. These findings suggest that, at some point in development, different processes or strategies relating to visual attention are involved in language acquisition in DS, FXS, and WS. This knowledge may help further explain why language is delayed in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. It also raises the possibility that syndrome-specific interventions should include an early focus on efficient face-scanning behaviour.

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Home Text size: A A A 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures Download the full report: Download ... about memory loss? KNOW THE 10 SIGNS Alzheimer's Disease Facts in Each State The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... THE 10 SIGNS Alzheimer's Disease Facts in Each State The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report ... on the impact of this disease in every state across the nation. Click below to see the ...

Vehicle Technologies’ Fact of the Week 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Stacy Cagle [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Diegel, Susan W. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Moore, Sheila A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Boundy, Robert Gary [Roltek, Inc., Clinton, TN (United States)

2014-04-01

Each week the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) posts a Fact of the Week on their website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ . These Facts provide statistical information, usually in the form of charts and tables, on vehicle sales, fuel economy, gasoline prices, and other transportation-related trends. Each Fact is a stand-alone page that includes a graph, text explaining the significance of the data, the supporting information on which the graph was based, and the source of the data. A link to the current week’s Fact is available on the VTO homepage, but older Facts are archived and still available at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/. This report is a compilation of the Facts that were posted during calendar year 2013. The Facts were written and prepared by staff in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Analysis.

Vehicle Technologies Fact of the Week 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Stacy Cagle [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Williams, Susan E. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Moore, Sheila A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Boundy, Robert Gary [Roltek, Inc., Clinton, TN (United States)

2014-03-01

Each week the U.S. Department of Energy s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) posts a Fact of the Week on their website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ . These Facts provide statistical information, usually in the form of charts and tables, on vehicle sales, fuel economy, gasoline prices, and other transportation-related trends. Each Fact is a stand-alone page that includes a graph, text explaining the significance of the data, the supporting information on which the graph was based, and the source of the data. A link to the current week s Fact is available on the VTO homepage, but older Facts are archived and still available at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/. This report is a compilation of the Facts that were posted during calendar year 2013. The Facts were written and prepared by staff in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Analysis.

Vehicle Technologies Fact of the Week 2015

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Stacy C. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Diegel, Susan W. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Moore, Sheila A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Boundy, Robert G. [Roltek, Inc., Clinton, TN (United States)

2016-05-01

Each week the U.S. Department of Energy s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) posts a Fact of the Week on their website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ . These Facts provide statistical information, usually in the form of charts and tables, on vehicle sales, fuel economy, gasoline prices, and other transportation-related trends. Each Fact is a stand-alone page that includes a graph, text explaining the significance of the data, the supporting information on which the graph was based, and the source of the data. A link to the current week s Fact is available on the VTO homepage, but older Facts (back to 2009) are archived and still available at: http://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/current-and-past-years-facts-week. Each Fact of the Week website page includes a link to an Excel file. That file contains the data from the Supporting Information section of the page so that researchers can easily use data from the Fact of the Week in their work. Beginning in August of 2015, a subscription list is available on the DOE website so that those interested can sign up for an email to be sent each Monday which includes the text and graphic from the current week s Fact. This report is a compilation of the Facts that were posted during calendar year 2015. The Facts were created, written and prepared by staff in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Analysis.

Rubella - Fact Sheet for Parents

Science.gov (United States)

... and 4 through 6 years Fact Sheet for Parents Color [2 pages] Español: Rubéola The best way ... according to the recommended schedule. Fact Sheets for Parents Diseases and the Vaccines that Prevent Them Chickenpox ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Dementia >> Home Text size: A A A 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures Download the full report: Download ... worried about memory loss? KNOW THE 10 SIGNS Alzheimer's Disease Facts in Each State The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease ...

Successful decoding of famous faces in the fusiform face area.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vadim Axelrod

Full Text Available What are the neural mechanisms of face recognition? It is believed that the network of face-selective areas, which spans the occipital, temporal, and frontal cortices, is important in face recognition. A number of previous studies indeed reported that face identity could be discriminated based on patterns of multivoxel activity in the fusiform face area and the anterior temporal lobe. However, given the difficulty in localizing the face-selective area in the anterior temporal lobe, its role in face recognition is still unknown. Furthermore, previous studies limited their analysis to occipito-temporal regions without testing identity decoding in more anterior face-selective regions, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. In the current high-resolution functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, we systematically examined the decoding of the identity of famous faces in the temporo-frontal network of face-selective and adjacent non-face-selective regions. A special focus has been put on the face-area in the anterior temporal lobe, which was reliably localized using an optimized scanning protocol. We found that face-identity could be discriminated above chance level only in the fusiform face area. Our results corroborate the role of the fusiform face area in face recognition. Future studies are needed to further explore the role of the more recently discovered anterior face-selective areas in face recognition.

Real Time Face Quality Assessment for Face Log Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamal, Nasrollahi; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2009-01-01

Summarizing a long surveillance video to just a few best quality face images of each subject, a face-log, is of great importance in surveillance systems. Face quality assessment is the back-bone for face log generation and improving the quality assessment makes the face logs more reliable....... Developing a real time face quality assessment system using the most important facial features and employing it for face logs generation are the concerns of this paper. Extensive tests using four databases are carried out to validate the usability of the system....

International conference - Papeete - French Polynesia - June 29, 2006. Scientists and nuclear tests consequence on health. The Colloquium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allison, Lyn; Cavillon, Arlette; Rowland, Al; Parmentier, Claude; Vahaire, Florent de; Brindel, Pauline; Doyon, Francoise; Drozdovich, Vladimir; Rachedi, Frederique; Boissin; Sebag, Joseph; Shan, Larys; Bezeaud, Frederique; Petitdidier, Patrick; Paaoafaite, John; Teuri, Joseph; Hirshon, Unutea; Luc, Helene; ONG, Cara; Bouveret, Patrice; Ruff, Tilman A.; Smith, Nick; Okumura, Eiji; Valatx, Jean-Louis; Tardieu, Arlette; Hervieux, J.C.; NOONAN, Anne; Sercombe, Robert

2006-06-01

Forty years after the first bomb in Moruroa, a conference to promote recognition and justice for all victims of nuclear tests. More than thirty speakers, scientists, legal experts, parliamentarians and members of associations from French Polynesia, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands and France debated on June 29-30, at the President's palace in Papeete, on the rights of the victims of nuclear tests to be recognized by nuclear powers. During this conference, we heard scientists explain very clearly that contamination and irradiation had widespread consequences including on the gene pool of the victims. Today, damage found on the chromosomes of Polynesian thyroid cancer patients who lived 1000 km away from Moruroa is ten times higher than damage found on average nuclear workers. Researchers tell us that many of those who worked on nuclear sites die earlier. Average life expectancy for the veterans from New Zealand is for example 51 years - and for most of them a life marred by suffering and cancers. Researchers tell us that conducting credible surveys is becoming more and more difficult as the impact of radiations that were absorbed 20, 30 or even 40 years earlier is getting more difficult to discern from damages due to old age or other illnesses. Testimonies and information given at this conference are indispensable for the public to realize the actual impact of the nuclear tests as well as show the elected representatives how urgent it is to meet the expectations of the victims. The suffering and strong discontent of the former test site workers moved the parliamentarians as well as the public. The strong words that were said will have to give a human face to the law we will have to implement in order to do justice to the victims. An impact of nuclear testing on health and environment are experienced by many peoples in the world. The testing nations are of course the ones who should compensate the victims. But there is also

Cross-modal face recognition using multi-matcher face scores

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yufeng; Blasch, Erik

2015-05-01

The performance of face recognition can be improved using information fusion of multimodal images and/or multiple algorithms. When multimodal face images are available, cross-modal recognition is meaningful for security and surveillance applications. For example, a probe face is a thermal image (especially at nighttime), while only visible face images are available in the gallery database. Matching a thermal probe face onto the visible gallery faces requires crossmodal matching approaches. A few such studies were implemented in facial feature space with medium recognition performance. In this paper, we propose a cross-modal recognition approach, where multimodal faces are cross-matched in feature space and the recognition performance is enhanced with stereo fusion at image, feature and/or score level. In the proposed scenario, there are two cameras for stereo imaging, two face imagers (visible and thermal images) in each camera, and three recognition algorithms (circular Gaussian filter, face pattern byte, linear discriminant analysis). A score vector is formed with three cross-matched face scores from the aforementioned three algorithms. A classifier (e.g., k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, binomial logical regression [BLR]) is trained then tested with the score vectors by using 10-fold cross validations. The proposed approach was validated with a multispectral stereo face dataset from 105 subjects. Our experiments show very promising results: ACR (accuracy rate) = 97.84%, FAR (false accept rate) = 0.84% when cross-matching the fused thermal faces onto the fused visible faces by using three face scores and the BLR classifier.

Meta-analytic review of the development of face discrimination in infancy: Face race, face gender, infant age, and methodology moderate face discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugden, Nicole A; Marquis, Alexandra R

2017-11-01

Infants show facility for discriminating between individual faces within hours of birth. Over the first year of life, infants' face discrimination shows continued improvement with familiar face types, such as own-race faces, but not with unfamiliar face types, like other-race faces. The goal of this meta-analytic review is to provide an effect size for infants' face discrimination ability overall, with own-race faces, and with other-race faces within the first year of life, how this differs with age, and how it is influenced by task methodology. Inclusion criteria were (a) infant participants aged 0 to 12 months, (b) completing a human own- or other-race face discrimination task, (c) with discrimination being determined by infant looking. Our analysis included 30 works (165 samples, 1,926 participants participated in 2,623 tasks). The effect size for infants' face discrimination was small, 6.53% greater than chance (i.e., equal looking to the novel and familiar). There was a significant difference in discrimination by race, overall (own-race, 8.18%; other-race, 3.18%) and between ages (own-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 7.32%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 9.17%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 7.68%; other-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 6.12%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 3.70%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 2.79%). Multilevel linear (mixed-effects) models were used to predict face discrimination; infants' capacity to discriminate faces is sensitive to face characteristics including race, gender, and emotion as well as the methods used, including task timing, coding method, and visual angle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Development NGOs: Basic Facts

OpenAIRE

Aldashev, Gani; Navarra, Cecilia

2017-01-01

This paper systematizes the results of the empirical literature on development non-governmental organizations (NGOs), drawing both from quantitative and qualitative analyses, and constructs a set of basic facts about these organizations. These basic facts concern the size of the development NGO sector and its evolution, the funding of NGOs, the allocation of NGO aid and projects across beneficiary countries, the relationship of NGOs with beneficiaries, and the phenomenon of globalization of d...

Voicing on Virtual and Face to Face Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Yamat, Hamidah

2013-01-01

This paper presents and discusses findings of a study conducted on pre-service teachers' experiences in virtual and face to face discussions. Technology has brought learning nowadays beyond the classroom context or time zone. The learning context and process no longer rely solely on face to face communications in the presence of a teacher.…

Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

OpenAIRE

Geniole, Shawn N.; Keyes, Amanda E.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Carr?, Justin M.; McCormick, Cheryl M.

2012-01-01

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judge...

Buzz: Face-to-Face Contact and the Urban Economy

OpenAIRE

Michael Storper; Anthony J. Venables

2003-01-01

This paper argues that existing models of urban concentrations are incomplete unless grounded in the most fundamental aspect of proximity; face-to-face contact. Face-to-face contact has four main features; it is an efficient communication technology; it can help solve incentive problems; it can facilitate socialization and learning; and it provides psychological motivation. We discuss each of these features in turn, and develop formal economic models of two of them. Face-to-face is particular...

[Sports injuries of the face].

Science.gov (United States)

Chrzavzez, G; Chrzavzez, J P; D'Erceville, T; Kharrat, N; Barbillon, C; Pilz, F

1984-01-01

Of 249 patients with facial injuries admitted to the Department of Stomatology and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hôpital Bel Air, Thionville, France, between 1981 and 1982, 45 (18%) were cases of injury from sporting activities. The particular characteristics of the latter lesions were their predominance in males, their increased seasonal frequency in spring and early summer, the high incidence of damage to the nasal pyramid and maxillomalar complex, and the fact that the most implicated sport was football (71% of cases). Whereas most accidents resulted in relatively minor lesions, three cases--including two from riding--involved severe, complex injuries comparable to those seen in certain car accidents. Findings in this series confirm the natural "bumper" property of the face. Emphasis is placed on the importance of well-conducted training, and the need to eliminate consideration of sport as a means for expressing aggressiveness that is not always possible in daily life.

Analysis of singular interface stresses in dissimilar material joints for plasma facing components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

You, J.H. E-mail: jeong-ha.you@ipp.mpg.de; Bolt, H

2001-10-01

Duplex joint structures are typical material combinations for the actively cooled plasma facing components of fusion devices. The structural integrity under the incident heat loads from the plasma is one of the most crucial issues in the technology of these components. The most critical domain in a duplex joint component is the free surface edge of the bond interface between heterogeneous materials. This is due to the fact that the thermal stress usually shows a singular intensification in this region. If the plasma facing armour tile consists of a brittle material, the existence of the stress singularity can be a direct cause of failure. The present work introduces a comprehensive analytical tool to estimate the impact of the stress singularity for duplex PFC design and quantifies the relative stress intensification in various materials joints by use of a model formulated by Munz and Yang. Several candidate material combinations of plasma facing armour and metallic heat sink are analysed and the results are compared with each other.

Analysis of singular interface stresses in dissimilar material joints for plasma facing components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

You, J.H.; Bolt, H.

2001-01-01

Duplex joint structures are typical material combinations for the actively cooled plasma facing components of fusion devices. The structural integrity under the incident heat loads from the plasma is one of the most crucial issues in the technology of these components. The most critical domain in a duplex joint component is the free surface edge of the bond interface between heterogeneous materials. This is due to the fact that the thermal stress usually shows a singular intensification in this region. If the plasma facing armour tile consists of a brittle material, the existence of the stress singularity can be a direct cause of failure. The present work introduces a comprehensive analytical tool to estimate the impact of the stress singularity for duplex PFC design and quantifies the relative stress intensification in various materials joints by use of a model formulated by Munz and Yang. Several candidate material combinations of plasma facing armour and metallic heat sink are analysed and the results are compared with each other

European cinema: face to face with Hollywood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elsaesser, T.

2005-01-01

In the face of renewed competition from Hollywood since the early 1980s and the challenges posed to Europe's national cinemas by the fall of the Wall in 1989, independent filmmaking in Europe has begun to re-invent itself. European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood re-assesses the different

Reptile Facts.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinheimer, Margaret

1993-01-01

Describes an award-winning bulletin board for introducing a unit on reptiles. This interactive bulletin board contains fun facts and counters common misconceptions about reptiles. Twelve true-false statements are hidden behind pull-up flaps. Four pictures ask students to identify the difference between often-confused animals. (PR)

The face is not an empty canvas: how facial expressions interact with facial appearance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hess, Ursula; Adams, Reginald B; Kleck, Robert E

2009-12-12

Faces are not simply blank canvases upon which facial expressions write their emotional messages. In fact, facial appearance and facial movement are both important social signalling systems in their own right. We here provide multiple lines of evidence for the notion that the social signals derived from facial appearance on the one hand and facial movement on the other interact in a complex manner, sometimes reinforcing and sometimes contradicting one another. Faces provide information on who a person is. Sex, age, ethnicity, personality and other characteristics that can define a person and the social group the person belongs to can all be derived from the face alone. The present article argues that faces interact with the perception of emotion expressions because this information informs a decoder's expectations regarding an expresser's probable emotional reactions. Facial appearance also interacts more directly with the interpretation of facial movement because some of the features that are used to derive personality or sex information are also features that closely resemble certain emotional expressions, thereby enhancing or diluting the perceived strength of particular expressions.

[Suicide, a social fact].

Science.gov (United States)

Baudelot, Christian

2017-04-01

Treating suicide as a social fact means disregarding its individual and dramatic dimensions. Sociologists do not reason on the basis of specific cases but by studying the variations, in space and time, of suicide rates. Their contribution relates essentially to a renewed perspective on society: suicide is in fact a very accurate indicator of the intensity and quality of the bonds which unite or isolate individuals in a society. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The Caledonian face test: A new test of face discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Logan, Andrew J; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2016-02-01

This study aimed to develop a clinical test of face perception which is applicable to a wide range of patients and can capture normal variability. The Caledonian face test utilises synthetic faces which combine simplicity with sufficient realism to permit individual identification. Face discrimination thresholds (i.e. minimum difference between faces required for accurate discrimination) were determined in an "odd-one-out" task. The difference between faces was controlled by an adaptive QUEST procedure. A broad range of face discrimination sensitivity was determined from a group (N=52) of young adults (mean 5.75%; SD 1.18; range 3.33-8.84%). The test is fast (3-4 min), repeatable (test-re-test r(2)=0.795) and demonstrates a significant inversion effect. The potential to identify impairments of face discrimination was evaluated by testing LM who reported a lifelong difficulty with face perception. While LM's impairment for two established face tests was close to the criterion for significance (Z-scores of -2.20 and -2.27) for the Caledonian face test, her Z-score was -7.26, implying a more than threefold higher sensitivity. The new face test provides a quantifiable and repeatable assessment of face discrimination ability. The enhanced sensitivity suggests that the Caledonian face test may be capable of detecting more subtle impairments of face perception than available tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face-Lift Satisfaction Using the FACE-Q.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinno, Sammy; Schwitzer, Jonathan; Anzai, Lavinia; Thorne, Charles H

2015-08-01

Face lifting is one of the most common operative procedures for facial aging and perhaps the procedure most synonymous with plastic surgery in the minds of the lay public, but no verifiable documentation of patient satisfaction exists in the literature. This study is the first to examine face-lift outcomes and patient satisfaction using a validated questionnaire. One hundred five patients undergoing a face lift performed by the senior author (C.H.T.) using a high, extended-superficial musculoaponeurotic system with submental platysma approximation technique were asked to complete anonymously the FACE-Q by e-mail. FACE-Q scores were assessed for each domain (range, 0 to 100), with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Fifty-three patients completed the FACE-Q (50.5 percent response rate). Patients demonstrated high satisfaction with facial appearance (mean ± SD, 80.7 ± 22.3), and quality of life, including social confidence (90.4 ± 16.6), psychological well-being (92.8 ± 14.3), and early life impact (92.2 ± 16.4). Patients also reported extremely high satisfaction with their decision to undergo face lifting (90.5 ± 15.9). On average, patients felt they appeared 6.9 years younger than their actual age. Patients were most satisfied with the appearance of their nasolabial folds (86.2 ± 18.5), cheeks (86.1 ± 25.4), and lower face/jawline (86.0 ± 20.6), compared with their necks (78.1 ± 25.6) and area under the chin (67.9 ± 32.3). Patients who responded in this study were extremely satisfied with their decision to undergo face lifting and the outcomes and quality of life following the procedure.

A Face Inversion Effect without a Face

Science.gov (United States)

Brandman, Talia; Yovel, Galit

2012-01-01

Numerous studies have attributed the face inversion effect (FIE) to configural processing of internal facial features in upright but not inverted faces. Recent findings suggest that face mechanisms can be activated by faceless stimuli presented in the context of a body. Here we asked whether faceless stimuli with or without body context may induce…

Fact Book on Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Marks, Joseph L.; Diaz, Alicia A.

2009-01-01

The "Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Fact Book on Higher Education" is one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of comparative data on higher education. For decades, state leaders, policy-makers, researchers and journalists have used the "Fact Book" to find useful data quickly--and to learn more about…

Report of the preliminary mission of radiological controls on the island of Mangareva and the atolls of Tureia and Hao (French Polynesia). Investigation performed by the CRIIRAD laboratory on the request of the inquiry Commission on consequences of atmospheric nuclear tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

After a presentation of the objectives of the mission, and a summary of the undertaken actions on each site, this document gives some general information on radionuclides and on the sampling and analysis method. Then, it discusses the results obtained by radiological analyses and gives recommendations about the current radiological situation of the studied island and atolls. It shows that official assessment of radiation doses undergone by the French Polynesia population during the period atmospheric nuclear tests must be revised. It outlines the need of new exhaustive investigations on health consequences of these past exposures to ionizing radiation. Recommendations are formulated

Series 'Facing Radiation'. 2 Facing radiation is facing residents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanzawa, Takahiro

2013-01-01

The series is to report how general people, who are not at all radiological experts, have faced and understood the problems and tasks of radiation given by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (Mar. 2011). The section 2 is reported by an officer of Date City, which localizes at 60 km northern west of the Plant, borders on Iitate Village of Fukushima prefecture, and is indicated as the important area of contamination search (IACS), which the reporter has been conducted for as responsible personnel. In July 2011, the ambient dose was as high as 3.0-3.5 mc-Sv/h and the tentative storage place of contaminated materials was decided by own initiative of residents of a small community, from which the real decontamination started in the City. The target dose after decontamination was defined to be 1.0 mc-Sv/h: however, 28/32 IACS municipalities in the prefecture had not defined the target although they had worked for 2 years after the Accident for their areas exceeding the standard 0.23 mc-Sv/h. At the moment of decontamination of the reporter's own house, he noticed that resident's concerns had directed toward its work itself, not toward the target dose, and wondered if these figures had obstructed to correctly face the radiation. At present that about 2.5 years have passed since the Accident, all of Date citizens have personal accumulated glass dosimeters for seeing the effective external dose and it seems that their dose will not exceed 1 mSv/y if the ambient dose estimated is 0.3-5 mc-Sv/h. Media run to popularity not to face radiation, experts tend to hesitate to face media and residents, and radiation dose will be hardly reduced to zero, despite that correct understanding of radiation is a shorter way for residents' own ease: facing radiation is facing residents. (T.T.)

New insights on intraplate volcanism in French Polynesia from wavelet analysis of GRACE, CHAMP, and sea surface data

Science.gov (United States)

Panet, I.; Chambodut, A.; Diament, M.; Holschneider, M.; Jamet, O.

2006-09-01

In this paper, we discuss the origin of superswell volcanism on the basis of representation and analysis of recent gravity and magnetic satellite data with wavelets in spherical geometry. We computed a refined gravity field in the south central Pacific based on the GRACE satellite GGM02S global gravity field and the KMS02 altimetric grid, and a magnetic anomaly field based on CHAMP data. The magnetic anomalies are marked by the magnetic lineation of the seafloor spreading and by a strong anomaly in the Tuamotu region, which we interpret as evidence for crustal thickening. We interpret our gravity field through a continuous wavelet analysis that allows to get a first idea of the internal density distribution. We also compute the continuous wavelet analysis of the bathymetric contribution to discriminate between deep and superficial sources. According to the gravity signature of the different chains as revealed by our analysis, various processes are at the origin of the volcanism in French Polynesia. As evidence, we show a large-scale anomaly over the Society Islands that we interpret as the gravity signature of a deeply anchored mantle plume. The gravity signature of the Cook-Austral chain indicates a complex origin which may involve deep processes. Finally, we discuss the particular location of the Marquesas chain as suggesting that the origin of the volcanism may interfere with secondary convection rolls or may be controlled by lithospheric weakness due to the regional stress field, or else related to the presence of the nearby Tuamotu plateau.

Face time: educating face transplant candidates.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamparello, Brooke M; Bueno, Ericka M; Diaz-Siso, Jesus Rodrigo; Sisk, Geoffroy C; Pomahac, Bohdan

2013-01-01

Face transplantation is the innovative application of microsurgery and immunology to restore appearance and function to those with severe facial disfigurements. Our group aims to establish a multidisciplinary education program that can facilitate informed consent and build a strong knowledge base in patients to enhance adherence to medication regimes, recovery, and quality of life. We analyzed handbooks from our institution's solid organ transplant programs to identify topics applicable to face transplant patients. The team identified unique features of face transplantation that warrant comprehensive patient education. We created a 181-page handbook to provide subjects interested in pursuing transplantation with a written source of information on the process and team members and to address concerns they may have. While the handbook covers a wide range of topics, it is easy to understand and visually appealing. Face transplantation has many unique aspects that must be relayed to the patients pursuing this novel therapy. Since candidates lack third-party support groups and programs, the transplant team must provide an extensive educational component to enhance this complex process. As face transplantation continues to develop, programs must create sound education programs that address patients' needs and concerns to facilitate optimal care.

Math Fact Strategies Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Boso, Annie

2011-01-01

An action research project was conducted in order to determine effective math fact strategies for first graders. The traditional way of teaching math facts included using timed tests and flashcards, with most students counting on their fingers or a number line. Six new research-based strategies were taught and analyzed to decide which methods…

Confusing the drug facts on one nonprescription drug label with those on another: The Drug Facts Label as a text schema

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael P Ryan

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The Drug Facts Label is designed to guide consumers in comparing nonprescription drugs. Undergraduates studied and recalled drug facts for three analgesic or non-analgesic labels using Drug Facts Label headings as retrieval cues. They then studied and recalled drug facts from an aspirin label. Aspirin recall was greater when the prior labels were analgesics, but prior-label intrusion errors were also greater. These two effects were associated with the number of prior drug labels on which facilitating and interfering drug facts appeared. Using the Drug Facts Label schema to read drug labels can both enhance and degrade the recall of nonprescription drug facts.

Bayesian Face Recognition and Perceptual Narrowing in Face-Space

Science.gov (United States)

Balas, Benjamin

2012-01-01

During the first year of life, infants' face recognition abilities are subject to "perceptual narrowing", the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in…

CMS Fast Facts

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — CMS has developed a new quick reference statistical summary on annual CMS program and financial data. CMS Fast Facts includes summary information on total program...

Situation of radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia in 2014. Synthesis of results from the IRSN's monitoring network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouisset, P.; Nohl, M.; Leclerc, G.; Rua, J.; Bernagout, S.; Delabbaye, P.; Vismes, A. de

2015-01-01

Exercised in Polynesia since 1962, the radiological monitoring of the environment, which takes place on seven islands (Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, Hiva Oa, Mangareva and Tubuai) representing the five archipelagos, and consists in taking regular samples of various kinds from the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil) with which the population may be in contact and foods. For the first time in 2014, IRSN have participating to the TURBO DGA and CEA program, in charge of the military atoll radiological monitoring, and have collecting ocean samples at Moruroa. Regarding food, the samples analysed are representative of the diet of Polynesians living in the five archipelagos of that territory, and from the marine environment of the open sea, from the lagoon environment and from the terrestrial environment. Almost all samples are measured at the Laboratory for the Study and Monitoring of the Environment IRSN, based in Vairao on the island of Tahiti. After a steady fall in radioactivity levels since the French atmospheric tests come to an end in 1974, the radiological level observed in 2014 has been stable in the recent year and is now very low. This residual radioactivity relates primarily to the 137 Cs. In term of additional dose, this artificial and residual radioactivity is lower than 5 μSv.y -1 (5 micro-sieverts per year). This value corresponds to less than 0.5 % of exposure due to natural radioactivity in Polynesia (approximately 1,000 μSv.y -1 ). From 2010, monitoring of natural radioactivity was performed in several islands. Dose rates are very low, below 1,000 μSv.y -1 . However, highest results were observed when soils come from volcanoes rocks, like on the 'marae'. The highest value, 6,000 μSv.y -1 , was detected on the Taiata mount at Tubuai. In 2014, these maps concerned Tahiti, Moorea, Hao and Gambier islands. Enhanced radiological monitoring of the environment set up in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, continued in 2014

Teaching English as A Foreign Language at Madrasah Ibtidaiyyah: Facts and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wakhid Nashruddin

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The mastery of English as a tool of communication among nations, cultures, and people around the globe is an undeniable fact. This is just like an unstoppable virus spreading worldwide. It is rather difficult to emerge new languages to stop or even just to slow down the wide use of English. Islam world also needs to follow this by equipping its people with English as a communication tool. As Arabic is used for the communication inside Islam, English is needed to communicate Islam to other people around the earth both to Muslims or Non-Muslims. Teaching English has become an increasingly significant element in Islamic education. For this, the issue of teaching English at madrasah is an important concern for practitioners in the area of TEFL in Islamic institutions. This paper will explore the writer’s ten-year experience in teaching English at a madrasah ibtidaiyyah in Cirebon, West Java-Indonesia. The conditions that will be pictured are the culture, the students, the teaching and learning process, and the outcome of the current practices in madrasah ibtidaiyyah, mainly in the area of TEFL. Then, all these conditions will be contrasted to up to date research findings and theories so that the facts and the challenges can be clearly seen. This will also be seen from the perspective of current curriculum in Indonesia, namely curriculum 2013, which bears contradictions with the presence of it. In fact, the curriculum 2013 eliminates English as a subject learned at primary school level. What madrasah ibtidaiyyah will do in the next coming years can direct the expected outcome of the teaching of English at this level. Kinds of program that can be designed to empower the state of English mastery are an essential case to discuss. This all facts and challenges can provide insights so that people working in and with madrasah ibtidaiyyah understand and are ready to face the global communication era.

Nuclear tests: the late indemnification of victims; Essais nucleaire: l'indemnisation tardive des victimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Charbonneau, S. [Bordeaux-1 Univ., 33 (France)

2010-04-15

The author briefly recalls the historical context of the creation of the CEA and outlines the silence and denial about the radioactive contamination of military personnel during the nuclear tests performed in the Algerian Sahara and in Polynesia. He also outlines the continuous action of the association of veterans and victims of these nuclear tests which gathered proofs of health consequences. He comments the content and scope of application of laws which have been lately adopted (in 2010) to acknowledge these facts and indemnify the victims

Attention to internal face features in unfamiliar face matching.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Kingsley I; Butavicius, Marcus A; Lee, Michael D

2008-08-01

Accurate matching of unfamiliar faces is vital in security and forensic applications, yet previous research has suggested that humans often perform poorly when matching unfamiliar faces. Hairstyle and facial hair can strongly influence unfamiliar face matching but are potentially unreliable cues. This study investigated whether increased attention to the more stable internal face features of eyes, nose, and mouth was associated with more accurate face-matching performance. Forty-three first-year psychology students decided whether two simultaneously presented faces were of the same person or not. The faces were displayed for either 2 or 6 seconds, and had either similar or dissimilar hairstyles. The level of attention to internal features was measured by the proportion of fixation time spent on the internal face features and the sensitivity of discrimination to changes in external feature similarity. Increased attention to internal features was associated with increased discrimination in the 2-second display-time condition, but no significant relationship was found in the 6-second condition. Individual differences in eye-movements were highly stable across the experimental conditions.

Face recognition : implementation of face recognition on AMIGO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geelen, M.J.A.J.; Molengraft, van de M.J.G.; Elfring, J.

2011-01-01

In this (traineeship)report two possible methods of face recognition were presented. The first method describes how to detect and recognize faces by using the SURF algorithm. This algorithm finally was not used for recognizing faces, with the reason that the Eigenface algorithm was an already tested

Childhood Obesity Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... and Local Programs Related Topics Diabetes Nutrition Childhood Obesity Facts Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir On ... Children (WIC) Program, 2000-2014 Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in the United States Childhood obesity is a ...

Some basic facts about radioactive radon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duval, J.S.; Tanner, A.B.

1990-01-01

This article presents some basic facts about 222 Rn. These facts include: half-life; diffusion patterns; how radon enters a house; health risks; and means of definition and estimation of radon hazard potential

The complex duration perception of emotional faces: Effects of face direction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katrin Martina Kliegl

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The perceived duration of emotional face stimuli strongly depends on the expressed emotion. But, emotional faces also differ regarding a number of other features like gaze, face direction, or sex. Usually, these features have been controlled by only using pictures of female models with straight gaze and face direction. Doi and Shinohara (2009 reported that an overestimation of angry faces could only be found when the model’s gaze was oriented towards the observer. We aimed at replicating this effect for face direction. Moreover, we explored the effect of face direction on the duration perception sad faces. Controlling for the sex of the face model and the participant, female and male participants rated the duration of neutral, angry and sad face stimuli of both sexes photographed from different perspectives in a bisection task. In line with current findings, we report a significant overestimation of angry compared to neutral face stimuli that was modulated by face direction. Moreover, the perceived duration of sad face stimuli did not differ from that of neutral faces and was not influenced by face direction. Furthermore, we found that faces of the opposite sex appeared to last longer than those of the same sex. This outcome is discussed with regards to stimulus parameters like the induced arousal, social relevance and an evolutionary context.

Households facing constraints. Fuel poverty put into context

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dubois, Ute; Meier, Helena

2014-01-01

The present paper discusses the concept of fuel poverty taking into account the arbitrages made by households when they are facing economic constraints. Fuel poverty is still lacking a common definition throughout Europe: while the UK and France have (different) official definitions, there is still no definition in a country like Germany, or at the European level. Where definitions exist, they often consider that fuel poor households have high energy needs. The possibility of being fuel poor even without having high energy needs and the various arbitrage possibilities of households - i.e. to under-spend and use too little energy - are not systematically discussed. Our paper tries to fill that gap by putting fuel poverty into the larger context of constraints faced by households. Based on a graphical analysis, it shows that different situations of fuel poverty might occur. It results in the identification of two distinct fuel poverty problems: an ''energy inequality'' problem, reflected by the fact that some households pay disproportionately high energy bills, and an ''energy affordability'' problem that can affect a larger share of the population. It finally explores the two types of fuel poverty for European countries and discusses policy implications.

Vehicle Technologies' Fact of the Week 2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Stacy Cagle [ORNL; Diegel, Susan W [ORNL; Moore, Sheila A [ORNL; Boundy, Robert Gary [ORNL

2013-02-01

Each week the U.S. Department of Energy s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) posts a Fact of the Week on their website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ . These Facts provide statistical information, usually in the form of charts and tables, on vehicle sales, fuel economy, gasoline prices, and other transportation-related trends. Each Fact is a stand-alone page that includes a graph, text explaining the significance of the data, the supporting information on which the graph was based, and the source of the data. A link to the current week s Fact is available on the VTO homepage, but older Facts are archived and still available at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/. This report is a compilation of the Facts that were posted during calendar year 2012. The Facts were written and prepared by staff in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Analysis.

Vehicle Technologies' Fact of the Week 2011

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Stacy Cagle [ORNL; Diegel, Susan W [ORNL; Boundy, Robert Gary [ORNL

2012-04-01

Each week the U.S. Department of Energy s Vehicle Technology Program (VTP) posts a Fact of the Week on their website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/. These Facts provide statistical information, usually in the form of charts and tables, on vehicle sales, fuel economy, gasoline prices, and other transportation-related trends. Each Fact is a stand-alone page that includes a graph, text explaining the significance of the data, the supporting information on which the graph was based, and the source of the data. A link to the current Fact is available Monday through Friday on the VTP homepage, but older Facts are archived and still available at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/. This report is a compilation of the Facts that were posted during calendar year 2011. The Facts were written and prepared by staff in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Analysis.

A causal relationship between face-patch activity and face-detection behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadagopan, Srivatsun; Zarco, Wilbert; Freiwald, Winrich A

2017-04-04

The primate brain contains distinct areas densely populated by face-selective neurons. One of these, face-patch ML, contains neurons selective for contrast relationships between face parts. Such contrast-relationships can serve as powerful heuristics for face detection. However, it is unknown whether neurons with such selectivity actually support face-detection behavior. Here, we devised a naturalistic face-detection task and combined it with fMRI-guided pharmacological inactivation of ML to test whether ML is of critical importance for real-world face detection. We found that inactivation of ML impairs face detection. The effect was anatomically specific, as inactivation of areas outside ML did not affect face detection, and it was categorically specific, as inactivation of ML impaired face detection while sparing body and object detection. These results establish that ML function is crucial for detection of faces in natural scenes, performing a critical first step on which other face processing operations can build.

Postpartum Depression Facts

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... Where can I find more information? Share Postpartum Depression Facts Download PDF Download ePub Download Mobi Order ... for herself or her family. What is postpartum depression? Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that can ...

Snapple[R] Real Facts Watercolors

Science.gov (United States)

Hodge, Stephanie

2007-01-01

Did you know that a hummingbird weighs less than a penny? Or that an elephant swims twenty miles a day? These are just two of the many facts that Snapple prints on the lids of their drink bottles. When Snapple first introduced the Snapple Real Facts the author was excited to see that something so trivial was also educational. She asked herself if…

Growth, Survival and Reproduction of the Giant Clam Tridacna maxima (Röding 1798, Bivalvia) in Two Contrasting Lagoons in French Polynesia

Science.gov (United States)

Van Wynsberge, Simon; Andréfouët, Serge; Gaertner-Mazouni, Nabila; Wabnitz, Colette C. C.; Menoud, Mathilde; Le Moullac, Gilles; Levy, Peva; Gilbert, Antoine; Remoissenet, Georges

2017-01-01

Shell growth, reproduction, and natural mortality of the giant clam Tridacna maxima were characterized over a two-year-period in the lagoon of the high island of Tubuai (Austral Archipelago) and in the semi-closed lagoon of Tatakoto (Tuamotu Archipelago) in French Polynesia. We also recorded temperature, water level, tidal slope, tidal range, and mean wave height in both lagoons. Lower lagoon aperture and exposure to oceanic swells at Tatakoto than at Tubuai was responsible for lower lagoon water renewal, as well as higher variability in temperature and water level at Tatakoto across the studied period. These different environmental conditions had an impact on giant clams. Firstly, spawning events in the lagoon of Tatakoto, detected by gonad maturity indices in June and July 2014, were timed with high oceanic water inflow and a decrease in lagoon water temperature. Secondly, temperature explained differences in shell growth rates between seasons and lagoons, generating different growth curves for the two sites. Thirdly, local mortality rates were also found to likely be related to water renewal patterns. In conclusion, our study suggests that reef aperture and lagoon water renewal rates play an integral role in giant clam life history, with significant differences in rates of shell growth, mortality and fertility found between open versus semi-closed atoll lagoons in coral reef ecosystems. PMID:28118406

Growth, Survival and Reproduction of the Giant Clam Tridacna maxima (Röding 1798, Bivalvia in Two Contrasting Lagoons in French Polynesia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Van Wynsberge

Full Text Available Shell growth, reproduction, and natural mortality of the giant clam Tridacna maxima were characterized over a two-year-period in the lagoon of the high island of Tubuai (Austral Archipelago and in the semi-closed lagoon of Tatakoto (Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. We also recorded temperature, water level, tidal slope, tidal range, and mean wave height in both lagoons. Lower lagoon aperture and exposure to oceanic swells at Tatakoto than at Tubuai was responsible for lower lagoon water renewal, as well as higher variability in temperature and water level at Tatakoto across the studied period. These different environmental conditions had an impact on giant clams. Firstly, spawning events in the lagoon of Tatakoto, detected by gonad maturity indices in June and July 2014, were timed with high oceanic water inflow and a decrease in lagoon water temperature. Secondly, temperature explained differences in shell growth rates between seasons and lagoons, generating different growth curves for the two sites. Thirdly, local mortality rates were also found to likely be related to water renewal patterns. In conclusion, our study suggests that reef aperture and lagoon water renewal rates play an integral role in giant clam life history, with significant differences in rates of shell growth, mortality and fertility found between open versus semi-closed atoll lagoons in coral reef ecosystems.

Alternative face models for 3D face registration

Science.gov (United States)

Salah, Albert Ali; Alyüz, Neşe; Akarun, Lale

2007-01-01

3D has become an important modality for face biometrics. The accuracy of a 3D face recognition system depends on a correct registration that aligns the facial surfaces and makes a comparison possible. The best results obtained so far use a one-to-all registration approach, which means each new facial surface is registered to all faces in the gallery, at a great computational cost. We explore the approach of registering the new facial surface to an average face model (AFM), which automatically establishes correspondence to the pre-registered gallery faces. Going one step further, we propose that using a couple of well-selected AFMs can trade-off computation time with accuracy. Drawing on cognitive justifications, we propose to employ category-specific alternative average face models for registration, which is shown to increase the accuracy of the subsequent recognition. We inspect thin-plate spline (TPS) and iterative closest point (ICP) based registration schemes under realistic assumptions on manual or automatic landmark detection prior to registration. We evaluate several approaches for the coarse initialization of ICP. We propose a new algorithm for constructing an AFM, and show that it works better than a recent approach. Finally, we perform simulations with multiple AFMs that correspond to different clusters in the face shape space and compare these with gender and morphology based groupings. We report our results on the FRGC 3D face database.

Withholding response to self-face is faster than to other-face.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Min; Hu, Yinying; Tang, Xiaochen; Luo, Junlong; Gao, Xiangping

2015-01-01

Self-face advantage refers to adults' response to self-face is faster than that to other-face. A stop-signal task was used to explore how self-face advantage interacted with response inhibition. The results showed that reaction times of self-face were faster than that of other-face not in the go task but in the stop response trials. The novelty of the finding was that self-face has shorter stop-signal reaction time compared to other-face in the successful inhibition trials. These results indicated the processing mechanism of self-face may be characterized by a strong response tendency and a corresponding strong inhibition control.

Anesthesia Fact Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

... Education About NIGMS NIGMS Home > Science Education > Anesthesia Anesthesia Tagline (Optional) Middle/Main Content Area En español ... Version (464 KB) Other Fact Sheets What is anesthesia? Anesthesia is a medical treatment that prevents patients ...

Facts about Omphalocele

Science.gov (United States)

... label> Information For… Media Policy Makers Facts about Omphalocele Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on Facebook ... hardly ever is open or broken. What is Omphalocele? Omphalocele, also known as exomphalos, is a birth ...

Facts and Figures

Science.gov (United States)

... Saves Lives Facts & Figures My Blood, Your Blood Blood Donation Types Did you know there is more than one type of blood donation? Learn more about blood donation types here. Blood Safety and Testing The blood supply ...

Michigan transportation facts & figures : public transportation

Science.gov (United States)

2002-08-16

This on-line document is part of a series, Transportation Facts & Figures, by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). The Public Transit section of Transportation Facts & Figures cover such topics as intercity bus service, intercity rail se...

About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Richler, Jennifer J; Floyd, R Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically.

Dengue 1 diversity and microevolution, French Polynesia 2001-2006: connection with epidemiology and clinics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elodie Descloux

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Dengue fever (DF is an emerging infectious disease in the tropics and subtropics. Determinants of DF epidemiology and factors involved in severe cases-dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF and dengue shock syndrome (DSS-remain imperfectly characterized. Since 2000, serotype 1 (DENV-1 has predominated in the South Pacific. The aim of this study was (i to determine the origin and (ii to study the evolutionary relationships of DENV-1 viruses that have circulated in French Polynesia (FP from the severe 2001 outbreak to the recent 2006 epidemic, and (iii to analyse the viral intra-host genetic diversity according to clinical presentation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sequences of 181 envelope gene and 12 complete polyproteins of DENV-1 viruses obtained from human sera in FP during the 2001-2006 period were generated. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all DENV-1 FP strains belonged to genotype IV-"South Pacific" and derived from a single introduction event from South-East Asia followed by a 6-year in situ evolution. Although the ratio of nonsynonymous/synonymous substitutions per site indicated strong negative selection, a mutation in the envelope glycoprotein (S222T appeared in 2002 and was subsequently fixed. It was noted that genetic diversification was very significant during the 2002-2005 period of endemic DENV-1 circulation. For nine DF sera and eight DHF/DSS sera, approximately 40 clones/serum of partial envelope gene were sequenced. Importantly, analysis revealed that the intra-host genetic diversity was significantly lower in severe cases than in classical DF. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: First, this study showed that DENV-1 epidemiology in FP was different from that described in other South-Pacific islands, characterized by a long sustained viral circulation and the absence of new viral introduction over a 6-year period. Second, a significant part of DENV-1 evolution was observed during the endemic period characterized by the rapid

Faces in places: humans and machines make similar face detection errors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernard Marius 't Hart

Full Text Available The human visual system seems to be particularly efficient at detecting faces. This efficiency sometimes comes at the cost of wrongfully seeing faces in arbitrary patterns, including famous examples such as a rock configuration on Mars or a toast's roast patterns. In machine vision, face detection has made considerable progress and has become a standard feature of many digital cameras. The arguably most wide-spread algorithm for such applications ("Viola-Jones" algorithm achieves high detection rates at high computational efficiency. To what extent do the patterns that the algorithm mistakenly classifies as faces also fool humans? We selected three kinds of stimuli from real-life, first-person perspective movies based on the algorithm's output: correct detections ("real faces", false positives ("illusory faces" and correctly rejected locations ("non faces". Observers were shown pairs of these for 20 ms and had to direct their gaze to the location of the face. We found that illusory faces were mistaken for faces more frequently than non faces. In addition, rotation of the real face yielded more errors, while rotation of the illusory face yielded fewer errors. Using colored stimuli increases overall performance, but does not change the pattern of results. When replacing the eye movement by a manual response, however, the preference for illusory faces over non faces disappeared. Taken together, our data show that humans make similar face-detection errors as the Viola-Jones algorithm, when directing their gaze to briefly presented stimuli. In particular, the relative spatial arrangement of oriented filters seems of relevance. This suggests that efficient face detection in humans is likely to be pre-attentive and based on rather simple features as those encoded in the early visual system.

Temporal and Spatial Comparisons of Underwater Sound Signatures of Different Reef Habitats in Moorea Island, French Polynesia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric Bertucci

Full Text Available As environmental sounds are used by larval fish and crustaceans to locate and orientate towards habitat during settlement, variations in the acoustic signature produced by habitats could provide valuable information about habitat quality, helping larvae to differentiate between potential settlement sites. However, very little is known about how acoustic signatures differ between proximate habitats. This study described within- and between-site differences in the sound spectra of five contiguous habitats at Moorea Island, French Polynesia: the inner reef crest, the barrier reef, the fringing reef, a pass and a coastal mangrove forest. Habitats with coral (inner, barrier and fringing reefs were characterized by a similar sound spectrum with average intensities ranging from 70 to 78 dB re 1 μPa.Hz(-1. The mangrove forest had a lower sound intensity of 70 dB re 1 μPa.Hz(-1 while the pass was characterized by a higher sound level with an average intensity of 91 dB re 1 μPa.Hz(-1. Habitats showed significantly different intensities for most frequencies, and a decreasing intensity gradient was observed from the reef to the shore. While habitats close to the shore showed no significant diel variation in sound intensities, sound levels increased at the pass during the night and barrier reef during the day. These two habitats also appeared to be louder in the North than in the West. These findings suggest that daily variations in sound intensity and across-reef sound gradients could be a valuable source of information for settling larvae. They also provide further evidence that closely related habitats, separated by less than 1 km, can differ significantly in their spectral composition and that these signatures might be typical and conserved along the coast of Moorea.

Main facts 1995

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

This report presents the main facts of the studies carried out by the Direction des Etudes et Recherches (DER) of Electricite de France: new applications of electricity, classical and nuclear thermal power plants, electrical equipment, environment protection, monitoring and plants operations

Face-to-face or face-to-screen? Undergraduates' opinions and test performance in classroom vs. online learning

Science.gov (United States)

Kemp, Nenagh; Grieve, Rachel

2014-01-01

As electronic communication becomes increasingly common, and as students juggle study, work, and family life, many universities are offering their students more flexible learning opportunities. Classes once delivered face-to-face are often replaced by online activities and discussions. However, there is little research comparing students' experience and learning in these two modalities. The aim of this study was to compare undergraduates' preference for, and academic performance on, class material and assessment presented online vs. in traditional classrooms. Psychology students (N = 67) at an Australian university completed written exercises, a class discussion, and a written test on two academic topics. The activities for one topic were conducted face-to-face, and the other online, with topics counterbalanced across two groups. The results showed that students preferred to complete activities face-to-face rather than online, but there was no significant difference in their test performance in the two modalities. In their written responses, students expressed a strong preference for class discussions to be conducted face-to-face, reporting that they felt more engaged, and received more immediate feedback, than in online discussion. A follow-up study with a separate group (N = 37) confirmed that although students appreciated the convenience of completing written activities online in their own time, they also strongly preferred to discuss course content with peers in the classroom rather than online. It is concluded that online and face-to-face activities can lead to similar levels of academic performance, but that students would rather do written activities online but engage in discussion in person. Course developers could aim to structure classes so that students can benefit from both the flexibility of online learning, and the greater engagement experienced in face-to-face discussion. PMID:25429276

Face-to-face or face-to-screen? Undergraduates' opinions and test performance in classroom vs. online learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemp, Nenagh; Grieve, Rachel

2014-01-01

As electronic communication becomes increasingly common, and as students juggle study, work, and family life, many universities are offering their students more flexible learning opportunities. Classes once delivered face-to-face are often replaced by online activities and discussions. However, there is little research comparing students' experience and learning in these two modalities. The aim of this study was to compare undergraduates' preference for, and academic performance on, class material and assessment presented online vs. in traditional classrooms. Psychology students (N = 67) at an Australian university completed written exercises, a class discussion, and a written test on two academic topics. The activities for one topic were conducted face-to-face, and the other online, with topics counterbalanced across two groups. The results showed that students preferred to complete activities face-to-face rather than online, but there was no significant difference in their test performance in the two modalities. In their written responses, students expressed a strong preference for class discussions to be conducted face-to-face, reporting that they felt more engaged, and received more immediate feedback, than in online discussion. A follow-up study with a separate group (N = 37) confirmed that although students appreciated the convenience of completing written activities online in their own time, they also strongly preferred to discuss course content with peers in the classroom rather than online. It is concluded that online and face-to-face activities can lead to similar levels of academic performance, but that students would rather do written activities online but engage in discussion in person. Course developers could aim to structure classes so that students can benefit from both the flexibility of online learning, and the greater engagement experienced in face-to-face discussion.

Main facts 1993

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

This report presents the main facts of the studies carried out by the Direction des Etudes et Recherches (DER) of Electricite de France: new applications of electricity, classical and nuclear thermal power plants, electrical equipment, environment protection, network analysis, information and informatic equipment

Tuberculosis Facts - You Can Prevent TB

Science.gov (United States)

Tuberculosis (TB) Facts You Can Prevent TB What is TB? “TB” is short for a disease called tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air from one ... Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Division of Tuberculosis Elimination TB Facts: You Can Prevent TB What ...

Tuberculosis Facts - TB Can Be Treated

Science.gov (United States)

Tuberculosis (TB) Facts TB Can Be Treated What is TB? “TB” is short for a disease called tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air from one ... Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Division of Tuberculosis Elimination Page 1 of 2 TB Facts: TB ...

Effectiveness of link prediction for face-to-face behavioral networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsugawa, Sho; Ohsaki, Hiroyuki

2013-01-01

Research on link prediction for social networks has been actively pursued. In link prediction for a given social network obtained from time-windowed observation, new link formation in the network is predicted from the topology of the obtained network. In contrast, recent advances in sensing technology have made it possible to obtain face-to-face behavioral networks, which are social networks representing face-to-face interactions among people. However, the effectiveness of link prediction techniques for face-to-face behavioral networks has not yet been explored in depth. To clarify this point, here we investigate the accuracy of conventional link prediction techniques for networks obtained from the history of face-to-face interactions among participants at an academic conference. Our findings were (1) that conventional link prediction techniques predict new link formation with a precision of 0.30-0.45 and a recall of 0.10-0.20, (2) that prolonged observation of social networks often degrades the prediction accuracy, (3) that the proposed decaying weight method leads to higher prediction accuracy than can be achieved by observing all records of communication and simply using them unmodified, and (4) that the prediction accuracy for face-to-face behavioral networks is relatively high compared to that for non-social networks, but not as high as for other types of social networks.

FACTS device control strategy using PMU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Tauseef Khan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The laying and commissioning of new transmission line is very difficult due to socio-economic problems, like environmental clearances, right of way, etc. Therefore, there is an emphasis on better utilization of available transmission infrastructure. FACTS devices can provide reactive power compensation, transmission capability enhancement, and voltage and stability improvement. FACTS devices operate under the command of system operator who analyses its demand by the data acquired through traditional SCADA system, state estimation algorithms and PMUs. SCADA together with PMU give accurate information about the operational state of power system. This paper proposes a scheme to automate the FACTS devices in collaboration with PMUs in a more efficient way. Highly precised data from PMUs can be fed to intelligent controllers for effective analyzing and automating the FACTS device through control command. Thus, this combination can provide real time control of reactive power, together with enhancement of power handling capability and stability improvement.

Face to Face or E-Learning in Turkish EFL Context

Science.gov (United States)

Solak, Ekrem; Cakir, Recep

2014-01-01

This purpose of this study was to understand e-learners and face to face learners' views towards learning English through e-learning in vocational higher school context and to determine the role of academic achievement and gender in e-learning and face to face learning. This study was conducted at a state-run university in 2012-2013 academic year…

The construction FACE database - Codifying the NIOSH FACE reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Xiuwen Sue; Largay, Julie A; Wang, Xuanwen; Cain, Chris Trahan; Romano, Nancy

2017-09-01

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published reports detailing the results of investigations on selected work-related fatalities through the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program since 1982. Information from construction-related FACE reports was coded into the Construction FACE Database (CFD). Use of the CFD was illustrated by analyzing major CFD variables. A total of 768 construction fatalities were included in the CFD. Information on decedents, safety training, use of PPE, and FACE recommendations were coded. Analysis shows that one in five decedents in the CFD died within the first two months on the job; 75% and 43% of reports recommended having safety training or installing protection equipment, respectively. Comprehensive research using FACE reports may improve understanding of work-related fatalities and provide much-needed information on injury prevention. The CFD allows researchers to analyze the FACE reports quantitatively and efficiently. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and National Safety Council. All rights reserved.

Elektronická komunikace vs. komunikace face to face

OpenAIRE

Pipková, Zuzana

2009-01-01

This thesis deals with new forms of communication particularly electronic ones. The main goal is to distinguish electronic communication from face to face communication in a way that differs from traditional media theories. By using examples of the most important medium in electronic communication, Internet, it is shown that nowadays we have such forms of electronic communication that surpass the traditional classification of oral/written communication, immediate/mediate communication, face t...

The Online and Face-to-Face Counseling Attitudes Scales: A Validation Study

Science.gov (United States)

Rochlen, Aaron B.; Beretvas, S. Natasha; Zack, Jason S.

2004-01-01

This article reports on the development of measures of attitudes toward online and face-to-face counseling. Overall, participants expressed more favorable evaluations of face-to-face counseling than of online counseling. Significant correlations were found between online and face-to-face counseling with traditional help-seeking attitudes, comfort…

Facebook and MySpace: complement or substitute for face-to-face interaction?

Science.gov (United States)

Kujath, Carlyne L

2011-01-01

Previous studies have claimed that social-networking sites are used as a substitute for face-to-face interaction, resulting in deteriorating relationship quality and decreased intimacy among its users. The present study hypothesized that this type of communication is not a substitute for face-to-face interaction; rather, that it is an extension of communication with face-to-face partners. A survey was administered to examine the use of Facebook and MySpace in this regard among 183 college students. The study confirmed that Facebook and MySpace do act as an extension of face-to-face interaction, but that some users do tend to rely on Facebook and MySpace for interpersonal communication more than face-to-face interaction.

Encouraging Participation in Face-to-Face Lectures: The Index Card Technique

Science.gov (United States)

Daws, Laura Beth

2018-01-01

Courses: This activity will work in any face-to-face communication lecture course. Objectives: By the end of the semester in a face-to-face lecture class, every student will have engaged in verbal discussion.

Species co-occurrence affects the trophic interactions of two juvenile reef shark species in tropical lagoon nurseries in Moorea (French Polynesia).

Science.gov (United States)

Matich, Philip; Kiszka, Jeremy J; Mourier, Johann; Planes, Serge; Heithaus, Michael R

2017-06-01

Food web structure is shaped by interactions within and across trophic levels. As such, understanding how the presence and absence of predators, prey, and competitors affect species foraging patterns is important for predicting the consequences of changes in species abundances, distributions, and behaviors. Here, we used plasma δ 13 C and δ 15 N values from juvenile blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and juvenile sicklefin lemon sharks (Negaprion acutidens) to investigate how species co-occurrence affects their trophic interactions in littoral waters of Moorea, French Polynesia. Co-occurrence led to isotopic niche partitioning among sharks within nurseries, with significant increases in δ 15 N values among sicklefin lemon sharks, and significant decreases in δ 15 N among blacktip reef sharks. Niche segregation likely promotes coexistence of these two predators during early years of growth and development, but data do not suggest coexistence affects life history traits, such as body size, body condition, and ontogenetic niche shifts. Plasticity in trophic niches among juvenile blacktip reef sharks and sicklefin lemon sharks also suggests these predators are able to account for changes in community structure, resource availability, and intra-guild competition, and may fill similar functional roles in the absence of the other species, which is important as environmental change and human impacts persist in coral reef ecosystems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of Human Face Literature Database Using Text Mining Approach: Phase I.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Paramjit; Krishan, Kewal; Sharma, Suresh K

2018-06-01

The face is an important part of the human body by which an individual communicates in the society. Its importance can be highlighted by the fact that a person deprived of face cannot sustain in the living world. The amount of experiments being performed and the number of research papers being published under the domain of human face have surged in the past few decades. Several scientific disciplines, which are conducting research on human face include: Medical Science, Anthropology, Information Technology (Biometrics, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence, etc.), Psychology, Forensic Science, Neuroscience, etc. This alarms the need of collecting and managing the data concerning human face so that the public and free access of it can be provided to the scientific community. This can be attained by developing databases and tools on human face using bioinformatics approach. The current research emphasizes on creating a database concerning literature data of human face. The database can be accessed on the basis of specific keywords, journal name, date of publication, author's name, etc. The collected research papers will be stored in the form of a database. Hence, the database will be beneficial to the research community as the comprehensive information dedicated to the human face could be found at one place. The information related to facial morphologic features, facial disorders, facial asymmetry, facial abnormalities, and many other parameters can be extracted from this database. The front end has been developed using Hyper Text Mark-up Language and Cascading Style Sheets. The back end has been developed using hypertext preprocessor (PHP). The JAVA Script has used as scripting language. MySQL (Structured Query Language) is used for database development as it is most widely used Relational Database Management System. XAMPP (X (cross platform), Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl) open source web application software has been used as the server.The database is still under the

Early (N170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects

Science.gov (United States)

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Kveraga, Kestutis; Naik, Paulami; Ahlfors, Seppo P.

2009-01-01

The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of ‘real’ faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at about 170ms after stimulus onset; but what happens when non-face objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas common objects did not evoke such activation. An earlier peak at 130 ms was also seen for images of real faces only. Our findings suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late re-interpretation cognitive phenomenon. PMID:19218867

Pseudomonas - Fact Sheet

OpenAIRE

Public Health Agency

2012-01-01

Fact sheet on Pseudomonas, including:What is Pseudomonas?What infections does it cause?Who is susceptible to pseudomonas infection?How will I know if I have pseudomonas infection?How can Pseudomonas be prevented from spreading?How can I protect myself from Pseudomonas?How is Pseudomonas infection treated?

Face-to-Face Interference in Typical and Atypical Development

Science.gov (United States)

Riby, Deborah M.; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

2012-01-01

Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze…

Faces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Kristine Køhler; Brotherton, Chloe

2018-01-01

for the face the be put into action. Based on an ethnographic study of Danish teenagers’ use of SnapChat we demonstrate how the face is used as a central medium for interaction with peers. Through the analysis of visual SnapChat messages we investigate how SnapChat requires the sender to put an ‘ugly’ face...... already secured their popular status on the heterosexual marketplace in the broad context of the school. Thus SnapChat functions both as a challenge to beauty norms of ‘flawless faces’ and as a reinscription of these same norms by further manifesting the exclusive status of the popular girl...

Spina Bifida: General Information. Fact Sheet Number 12 = La Espina Bifida: Informacion General. Fact Sheet Number 12.

Science.gov (United States)

National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, Washington, DC.

This fact sheet offers definitions of the three types of spina bifida, outlines their incidence, describes characteristics of individuals with spina bifida, and reviews educational implications. The fact sheet emphasizes that school programs should be flexible to accommodate these students' special needs and frequent absences, that children with…

A specialized face-processing model inspired by the organization of monkey face patches explains several face-specific phenomena observed in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Farzmahdi, Amirhossein; Rajaei, Karim; Ghodrati, Masoud; Ebrahimpour, Reza; Khaligh-Razavi, Seyed-Mahdi

2016-04-26

Converging reports indicate that face images are processed through specialized neural networks in the brain -i.e. face patches in monkeys and the fusiform face area (FFA) in humans. These studies were designed to find out how faces are processed in visual system compared to other objects. Yet, the underlying mechanism of face processing is not completely revealed. Here, we show that a hierarchical computational model, inspired by electrophysiological evidence on face processing in primates, is able to generate representational properties similar to those observed in monkey face patches (posterior, middle and anterior patches). Since the most important goal of sensory neuroscience is linking the neural responses with behavioral outputs, we test whether the proposed model, which is designed to account for neural responses in monkey face patches, is also able to predict well-documented behavioral face phenomena observed in humans. We show that the proposed model satisfies several cognitive face effects such as: composite face effect and the idea of canonical face views. Our model provides insights about the underlying computations that transfer visual information from posterior to anterior face patches.

Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Key Facts Infographic

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Explore the Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Key Facts Infographic which outlines key facts related to electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including...

Households facing constraints. Fuel poverty put into context

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dubois, Ute [ISG Business School, Paris (France); Meier, Helena [Koeln Univ. (Germany). Energiewirtschaftliches Inst.

2014-02-15

The present paper discusses the concept of fuel poverty taking into account the arbitrages made by households when they are facing economic constraints. Fuel poverty is still lacking a common definition throughout Europe: while the UK and France have (different) official definitions, there is still no definition in a country like Germany, or at the European level. Where definitions exist, they often consider that fuel poor households have high energy needs. The possibility of being fuel poor even without having high energy needs and the various arbitrage possibilities of households - i.e. to under-spend and use too little energy - are not systematically discussed. Our paper tries to fill that gap by putting fuel poverty into the larger context of constraints faced by households. Based on a graphical analysis, it shows that different situations of fuel poverty might occur. It results in the identification of two distinct fuel poverty problems: an ''energy inequality'' problem, reflected by the fact that some households pay disproportionately high energy bills, and an ''energy affordability'' problem that can affect a larger share of the population. It finally explores the two types of fuel poverty for European countries and discusses policy implications.

Early (M170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Kveraga, Kestutis; Naik, Paulami; Ahlfors, Seppo P

2009-03-04

The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of 'real' faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at approximately 170 ms after stimulus onset, but what happens when nonface objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography, we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165 ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas common objects did not evoke such activation. An earlier peak at 130 ms was also seen for images of real faces only. Our findings suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late reinterpretation cognitive phenomenon.

Collaborative Random Faces-Guided Encoders for Pose-Invariant Face Representation Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Ming; Zhang, Yizhe; Fu, Yun

2018-04-01

Learning discriminant face representation for pose-invariant face recognition has been identified as a critical issue in visual learning systems. The challenge lies in the drastic changes of facial appearances between the test face and the registered face. To that end, we propose a high-level feature learning framework called "collaborative random faces (RFs)-guided encoders" toward this problem. The contributions of this paper are three fold. First, we propose a novel supervised autoencoder that is able to capture the high-level identity feature despite of pose variations. Second, we enrich the identity features by replacing the target values of conventional autoencoders with random signals (RFs in this paper), which are unique for each subject under different poses. Third, we further improve the performance of the framework by incorporating deep convolutional neural network facial descriptors and linking discriminative identity features from different RFs for the augmented identity features. Finally, we conduct face identification experiments on Multi-PIE database, and face verification experiments on labeled faces in the wild and YouTube Face databases, where face recognition rate and verification accuracy with Receiver Operating Characteristic curves are rendered. In addition, discussions of model parameters and connections with the existing methods are provided. These experiments demonstrate that our learning system works fairly well on handling pose variations.

16 CFR 460.13 - Fact sheets.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... INSULATION § 460.13 Fact sheets. If you are a manufacturer, you must give retailers and installers fact... uses. (b) A heading: “This is ____ insulation.” Fill in the blank with the type and form of your... compressed during installation.” (e) After the chart and any statement dealing with the specific type of...

Configuration perception and face memory, and face context effects in developmental prosopagnosia.

Science.gov (United States)

Huis in 't Veld, Elisabeth; Van den Stock, Jan; de Gelder, Beatrice

2012-01-01

This study addresses two central and controversial issues in developmental prosopagnosia (DP), configuration- versus feature-based face processing and the influence of affective information from either facial or bodily expressions on face recognition. A sample of 10 DPs and 10 controls were tested with a previously developed face and object recognition and memory battery (Facial Expressive Action Stimulus Test, FEAST), a task measuring the influence of emotional faces and bodies on face identity matching (Face-Body Compound task), and an emotionally expressive face memory task (Emotional Face Memory task, FaMe-E). We show that DPs were impaired in upright, but not inverted, face matching but they performed at the level of controls on part-to-whole matching. Second, DPs showed impaired memory for both neutral and emotional faces and scored within the normal range on the Face-Body Compound task. Third, configural perception but not feature-based processing was significantly associated with memory performance. Taken together the results indicate that DPs have a deficit in configural processing at the perception stage that may underlie the memory impairment.

International nuclear waste management fact book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abrahms, C.W.; Patridge, M.D.; Widrig, J.E.

1995-11-01

The International Nuclear Waste Management Fact Book has been compiled to provide current data on fuel cycle and waste management facilities, R and D programs, and key personnel in 24 countries, including the US; four multinational agencies; and 20 nuclear societies. This document, which is in its second year of publication supersedes the previously issued International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book (PNL-3594), which appeared annually for 12 years. The content has been updated to reflect current information. The Fact Book is organized as follows: National summaries--a section for each country that summarizes nuclear policy, describes organizational relationships, and provides addresses and names of key personnel and information on facilities. International agencies--a section for each of the international agencies that has significant fuel cycle involvement and a list of nuclear societies. Glossary--a list of abbreviations/acronyms of organizations, facilities, and technical and other terms. The national summaries, in addition to the data described above, feature a small map for each country and some general information that is presented from the perspective of the Fact Book user in the US

International nuclear waste management fact book

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abrahms, C W; Patridge, M D; Widrig, J E

1995-11-01

The International Nuclear Waste Management Fact Book has been compiled to provide current data on fuel cycle and waste management facilities, R and D programs, and key personnel in 24 countries, including the US; four multinational agencies; and 20 nuclear societies. This document, which is in its second year of publication supersedes the previously issued International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book (PNL-3594), which appeared annually for 12 years. The content has been updated to reflect current information. The Fact Book is organized as follows: National summaries--a section for each country that summarizes nuclear policy, describes organizational relationships, and provides addresses and names of key personnel and information on facilities. International agencies--a section for each of the international agencies that has significant fuel cycle involvement and a list of nuclear societies. Glossary--a list of abbreviations/acronyms of organizations, facilities, and technical and other terms. The national summaries, in addition to the data described above, feature a small map for each country and some general information that is presented from the perspective of the Fact Book user in the US.

The Face-to-Face Light Detection Paradigm: A New Methodology for Investigating Visuospatial Attention Across Different Face Regions in Live Face-to-Face Communication Settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Laura A; Malloy, Daniel M; Cone, John M; Hendrickson, David L

2010-01-01

We introduce a novel paradigm for studying the cognitive processes used by listeners within interactive settings. This paradigm places the talker and the listener in the same physical space, creating opportunities for investigations of attention and comprehension processes taking place during interactive discourse situations. An experiment was conducted to compare results from previous research using videotaped stimuli to those obtained within the live face-to-face task paradigm. A headworn apparatus is used to briefly display LEDs on the talker's face in four locations as the talker communicates with the participant. In addition to the primary task of comprehending speeches, participants make a secondary task light detection response. In the present experiment, the talker gave non-emotionally-expressive speeches that were used in past research with videotaped stimuli. Signal detection analysis was employed to determine which areas of the face received the greatest focus of attention. Results replicate previous findings using videotaped methods.

Cholera Fact Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

... news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cholera","@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article"}; العربية 中文 français русский español ... that includes feedback at the local level and information-sharing at the global level. Cholera cases are ...

Using online learning in a traditional face-to-face environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Kozlowski, Dawn

2002-01-01

A model for designing online learning was developed and implemented in a Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing course using online and face-to-face methodologies. The combination of online and face-to-face learning modalities may help the student who is a novice Internet explorer or seasoned Web navigator by offering technological support as well as providing constant in-person feedback regarding course requirements. The face-to-face component facilitates a sense of community and peer support that sometimes is lacking in an entirely online course. During the 2 semesters this model was used, students expressed satisfaction with having the course facilitator/professor physically available for consultation and advisement. Evaluation of this online/on-site course is ongoing and uses computer-administered qualitative questionnaires, a facilitator-moderated focus group, and Likert-type course evaluations.

Posterior cortical atrophy: An investigation of scan paths generated during Face Matching tasks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin P Meek

2013-06-01

Full Text Available When viewing a face, healthy individuals focus more on the area containing the eyes and upper nose in order to retrieve important featural and configural information. In contrast, individuals with face blindness (prosopagnosia tend to direct fixations towards individual facial features – particularly the mouth. Presented here is an examination of face perception deficits in individuals with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA. PCA is a rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by atrophy in occipito-parietal and occipito-temporal cortices. PCA primarily affects higher visual processing, while memory, reasoning, and insight remain relatively intact. A common symptom of PCA is a decreased effective field of vision caused by the inability to ‘see the whole picture’. Individuals with PCA and healthy control participants completed a same/different discrimination task in which images of faces were presented as cue-target pairs. Eye-tracking equipment and a novel computer-based perceptual task – the Viewing Window paradigm – were used to investigate scan patterns when faces were presented in open view or through a restricted-view, respectively. In contrast to previous prosopagnosia research, individuals with PCA each produced unique scan paths that focused on non-diagnostically useful locations. This focus on non-diagnostically useful locations was also present when using a restricted viewing aperture, suggesting that individuals with PCA have difficulty processing the face at either the featural or configural level. In fact, it appears that the decreased effective field of view in PCA patients is so severe that it results in an extreme dependence on local processing, such that a feature-based approach is not even possible.

Hibernia fact sheet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1994-01-01

This fact sheet gives details of the Hibernia oil field including its location, discovery date, oil company's interests in the project, the recoverable reserves of the two reservoirs, the production system used, capital costs of the project, and overall targets for Canadian benefit. Significant dates for the Hibernia project are listed. (UK)

Best management strategies for sustainable giant clam fishery in French Polynesia islands: answers from a spatial modeling approach.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Van Wynsberge

Full Text Available The giant clam Tridacna maxima has been largely overexploited in many tropical regions over the past decades, and was therefore listed in appendix II of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES in 1985. In French Polynesia, several atolls and islands harbor the world's highest stocks of giant clams in very shallow and accessible areas, which are therefore highly vulnerable to fishing pressure. The local fishery authority (i.e., Direction des Resources Marines or "DRM" implemented several management schemes in 2002 to control and regulate fishing pressure. However, for further decisions DRM was missing a sensitivity analysis on the effectiveness of the possible management actions. Here, we report on the use of a deterministic Viable Population Analysis (VPA and spatially-explicit age-based population model that simulated the 30-year trajectory of a Tridacna maxima stock under different management approaches. Specifically, given various scenarios of intra-island larval dispersal, we tested which of No-take-Areas (NTAs, rotational closures, size limits, quotas, and restocking schemes would lead to the highest future stocks in Tubuai and Raivavae, two exploited islands of the Austral archipelago. For both islands, stock abundances were estimated in 2004/2010 and 2005/2010 respectively, and natural mortalities were assessed previously only in Tubuai. When compared to field data, the model successfully predicted the 2010 stocks for Tubuai, but proved to be less reliable for Raivavae, where natural mortality rates may well be different from those on Tubuai. For Tubuai, the spatial model suggested that reducing fishing effort (through fixed quotas and banning fishing below the 12 cm size limit (as currently implemented were the most effective management actions to sustain T. maxima populations into the future. Implementing NTAs was of poor effectiveness. NTAs increased giant clam stock inside the protected area, but also

Looking at My Own Face: Visual Processing Strategies in Self–Other Face Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anya Chakraborty

2018-02-01

Full Text Available We live in an age of ‘selfies.’ Yet, how we look at our own faces has seldom been systematically investigated. In this study we test if the visual processing of the highly familiar self-face is different from other faces, using psychophysics and eye-tracking. This paradigm also enabled us to test the association between the psychophysical properties of self-face representation and visual processing strategies involved in self-face recognition. Thirty-three adults performed a self-face recognition task from a series of self-other face morphs with simultaneous eye-tracking. Participants were found to look longer at the lower part of the face for self-face compared to other-face. Participants with a more distinct self-face representation, as indexed by a steeper slope of the psychometric response curve for self-face recognition, were found to look longer at upper part of the faces identified as ‘self’ vs. those identified as ‘other’. This result indicates that self-face representation can influence where we look when we process our own vs. others’ faces. We also investigated the association of autism-related traits with self-face processing metrics since autism has previously been associated with atypical self-processing. The study did not find any self-face specific association with autistic traits, suggesting that autism-related features may be related to self-processing in a domain specific manner.

The part task of the part-spacing paradigm is not a pure measurement of part-based information of faces.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Zhu

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Faces are arguably one of the most important object categories encountered by human observers, yet they present one of the most difficult challenges to both the human and artificial visual systems. A variety of experimental paradigms have been developed to study how faces are represented and recognized, among which is the part-spacing paradigm. This paradigm is presumed to characterize the processing of both the featural and configural information of faces, and it has become increasingly popular for testing hypotheses on face specificity and in the diagnosis of face perception in cognitive disorders. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In two experiments we questioned the validity of the part task of this paradigm by showing that, in this task, measuring pure information about face parts is confounded by the effect of face configuration on the perception of those parts. First, we eliminated or reduced contributions from face configuration by either rearranging face parts into a non-face configuration or by removing the low spatial frequencies of face images. We found that face parts were no longer sensitive to inversion, suggesting that the previously reported inversion effect observed in the part task was due in fact to the presence of face configuration. Second, self-reported prosopagnosic patients who were selectively impaired in the holistic processing of faces failed to detect part changes when face configurations were presented. When face configurations were scrambled, however, their performance was as good as that of normal controls. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, consistent evidence from testing both normal and prosopagnosic subjects suggests the part task of the part-spacing paradigm is not an appropriate task for either measuring how face parts alone are processed or for providing a valid contrast to the spacing task. Therefore, conclusions from previous studies using the part-spacing paradigm may need re-evaluation with

Use of social media to encourage face to face communication

OpenAIRE

Čufer, Matija; Knežević, Anja

2017-01-01

Face-to-face communication is of key importance for successful socialization of a person into a society. Social media makes a good complement to such form of communication. Parents and pedagogical workers must be aware of children not replacing face-to-face communication for communication through the social media in the process of education and growing up. Young people nevertheless frequently communicate through the social media. For this reason, we tried to extract positive features of those...

Faces in the Mist: Illusory Face and Letter Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cory A. Rieth

2011-06-01

Full Text Available We report three behavioral experiments on the spatial characteristics evoking illusory face and letter detection. False detections made to pure noise images were analyzed using a modified reverse correlation method in which hundreds of observers rated a modest number of noise images (480 during a single session. This method was originally developed for brain imaging research, and has been used in a number of fMRI publications, but this is the first report of the behavioral classification images. In Experiment 1 illusory face detection occurred in response to scattered dark patches throughout the images, with a bias to the left visual field. This occurred despite the use of a fixation cross and expectations that faces would be centered. In contrast, illusory letter detection (Experiment 2 occurred in response to centrally positioned dark patches. Experiment 3 included an oval in all displays to spatially constrain illusory face detection. With the addition of this oval the classification image revealed an eyes/nose/mouth pattern. These results suggest that face detection is triggered by a minimal face-like pattern even when these features are not centered in visual focus.

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender

OpenAIRE

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People are able to simultaneously process multiple dimensions of facial properties. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. This paper examined the processing of facial emotion, face race and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interfered with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gend...

Early (N170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects

OpenAIRE

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Kveraga, Kestutis; Naik, Paulami; Ahlfors, Seppo P.

2009-01-01

The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of ‘real’ faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at about 170ms after stimulus onset; but what happens when non-face objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar t...

Cerebral Palsy: General Information. Fact Sheet Number 2 = La Paralisis Cerebral: Informacion General. Fact Sheet Number 18.

Science.gov (United States)

Interstate Research Associates, McLean, VA.

This fact sheet on cerebral palsy is offered in both English and Spanish. First, it provides a definition and considers various causes (e.g., an insufficient amount of oxygen reaching the fetal or newborn brain). The fact sheet then offers incidence figures and explains characteristics of the three main types of cerebral palsy: spastic, athetoid,…

Tinnitus: Understanding the Facts

Science.gov (United States)

American Tinnitus Association Donate Become A Member Member Login Find A Provider Support Search form Search Menu Close Understanding The Facts Managing Your Tinnitus Research Toward A Cure About Us Initiatives News & ...

Whooping Cough (Pertussis) - Fact Sheet for Parents

Science.gov (United States)

... months 4 through 6 years Fact Sheet for Parents Color [2 pages] Español: Tosferina (pertussis) The best ... according to the recommended schedule. Fact Sheets for Parents Diseases and the Vaccines that Prevent Them Chickenpox ...

How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Educators Search English Español How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label (Video) KidsHealth / For Parents / How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label (Video) Print en español Cómo leer ...

The effect of cleft lip on adults' responses to faces: cross-species findings.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine E Parsons

Full Text Available Cleft lip and palate is the most common of the congenital conditions affecting the face and cranial bones and is associated with a raised risk of difficulties in infant-caregiver interaction; the reasons for such difficulties are not fully understood. Here, we report two experiments designed to explore how adults respond to infant faces with and without cleft lip, using behavioural measures of attractiveness appraisal ('liking' and willingness to work to view or remove the images ('wanting'. We found that infants with cleft lip were rated as less attractive and were viewed for shorter durations than healthy infants, an effect that was particularly apparent where the cleft lip was severe. Women rated the infant faces as more attractive than men did, but there were no differences in men and women's viewing times of these faces. In a second experiment, we found that the presence of a cleft lip in domestic animals affected adults' 'liking' and 'wanting' responses in a comparable way to that seen for human infants. Adults' responses were also remarkably similar for images of infants and animals with cleft lip, although no gender difference in attractiveness ratings or viewing times emerged for animals. We suggest that the presence of a cleft lip can substantially change the way in which adults respond to human and animal faces. Furthermore, women may respond in different ways to men when asked to appraise infant attractiveness, despite the fact that men and women 'want' to view images of infants for similar durations.

Assessing Students Perceptions on Intensive Face to Face in Open ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Therefore, this study assessed students‟ perception on Intensive Face to Face sessions. The study specifically aimed at identifying students‟ perception on quality of interaction between tutors and students and between students on the other hand. It also explored the nature of challenges students meet in attending face to ...

Structural Biology Fact Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

... NIGMS NIGMS Home > Science Education > Structural Biology Structural Biology Tagline (Optional) Middle/Main Content Area PDF Version (688 KB) Other Fact Sheets What is structural biology? Structural biology is the study of how biological ...

Cholesterol Facts and Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

... Managing High Cholesterol Cholesterol-lowering Medicine High Cholesterol Statistics and Maps High Cholesterol Facts High Cholesterol Maps ... Deo R, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2017 update: a report from the American Heart ...

Nuclear fact book

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, O. F.; Platt, A. M.; Robinson, J. V. [comps

1983-05-01

This reference provides significant highlights and summary facts in the following areas: general energy; nuclear energy; nuclear fuel cycle; uranium supply and enrichment; nuclear reactors; spent fuel and advanced repacking concepts; reprocessing; high-level waste; gaseous waste; transuranic waste; low-level waste; remedial action; transportation; disposal; radiation information; environment; legislation; socio-political aspects; conversion factors; and a glossary. (GHT)

Developmental Changes in Mother-Infant Face-to-Face Communication: Birth to 3 Months.

Science.gov (United States)

Lavelli, Manuela; Fogel, Alan

2002-01-01

Investigated development of face-to-face communication in infants between 1 and 14 weeks old and their mothers. Found a curvilinear development of early face-to-face communication, with increases occurring between weeks 4 and 9. When placed on a sofa, infants' face-to-face communication was longer than when they were held. Girls spent a longer…

Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

Science.gov (United States)

Dettmer, Amanda M.; Kaburu, Stefano S. K.; Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Paukner, Annika; Sclafani, Valentina; Byers, Kristen L.; Murphy, Ashley M.; Miller, Michelle; Marquez, Neal; Miller, Grace M.; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier F.

2016-01-01

In primates, including humans, mothers engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants, with frequencies varying both within and across species. However, the impact of this variation in face-to-face interactions on infant social development is unclear. Here we report that infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta) who engaged in more neonatal face-to-face interactions with mothers have increased social interactions at 2 and 5 months. In a controlled experiment, we show that this effect is not due to physical contact alone: monkeys randomly assigned to receive additional neonatal face-to-face interactions (mutual gaze and intermittent lip-smacking) with human caregivers display increased social interest at 2 months, compared with monkeys who received only additional handling. These studies suggest that face-to-face interactions from birth promote young primate social interest and competency. PMID:27300086

Alcohol Facts and Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

... Standard Drink? Drinking Levels Defined Alcohol Facts and Statistics Print version Alcohol Use in the United States: ... 1238–1245, 2004. PMID: 15010446 National Center for Statistics and Analysis. 2014 Crash Data Key Findings (Traffic ...

Food Preparation. I: Food Facts for Home. II: Facts about Foodservice.

Science.gov (United States)

Procter and Gamble Educational Services, Cincinnati, OH.

This package is intended for use in home economics classes focusing on nutrition and food preparation and service. The teaching guide is divided into two parts. The first centers on selected first-time facts on nutrition, meal planning, and basic food preparation skills. It includes modules on nutrition, meal management, initial steps in food…

Facts about Birth Defects

Science.gov (United States)

... label> Information For… Media Policy Makers Facts about Birth Defects Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on ... having a baby born without a birth defect. Birth Defects Are Common Every 4 ½ minutes, a ...

Facts about Physical Activity

Science.gov (United States)

... Micronutrient Malnutrition State and Local Programs Facts about Physical Activity Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Some Americans ... Activity Guideline for aerobic activity than older adults. Physical activity and socioeconomic status Adults with more education are ...

How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... A) Staying Safe Videos for Educators Search English Español How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label (Video) ... Read a Nutrition Facts Label (Video) Print en español Cómo leer las etiquetas de datos nutricionales (video) ...

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender). PMID:27840621

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender).

Interpersonal similarity between body movements in face-to-face communication in daily life.

Science.gov (United States)

Higo, Naoki; Ogawa, Ken-ichiro; Minemura, Juichi; Xu, Bujie; Nozawa, Takayuki; Ogata, Taiki; Ara, Koji; Yano, Kazuo; Miyake, Yoshihiro

2014-01-01

Individuals are embedded in social networks in which they communicate with others in their daily lives. Because smooth face-to-face communication is the key to maintaining these networks, measuring the smoothness of such communication is an important issue. One indicator of smoothness is the similarity of the body movements of the two individuals concerned. A typical example noted in experimental environments is the interpersonal synchronization of body movements such as nods and gestures during smooth face-to-face communication. It should therefore be possible to estimate quantitatively the smoothness of face-to-face communication in social networks through measurement of the synchronization of body movements. However, this is difficult because social networks, which differ from disciplined experimental environments, are open environments for the face-to-face communication between two individuals. In such open environments, their body movements become complicated by various external factors and may follow unstable and nonuniform patterns. Nevertheless, we consider there to be some interaction during face-to-face communication that leads to the interpersonal synchronization of body movements, which can be seen through the interpersonal similarity of body movements. The present study aims to clarify such interaction in terms of body movements during daily face-to-face communication in real organizations of more than 100 people. We analyzed data on the frequency of body movement for each individual during face-to-face communication, as measured by a wearable sensor, and evaluated the degree of interpersonal similarity of body movements between two individuals as their frequency difference. Furthermore, we generated uncorrelated data by resampling the data gathered and compared these two data sets statistically to distinguish the effects of actual face-to-face communication from those of the activities accompanying the communication. Our results confirm an

Interpersonal similarity between body movements in face-to-face communication in daily life.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naoki Higo

Full Text Available Individuals are embedded in social networks in which they communicate with others in their daily lives. Because smooth face-to-face communication is the key to maintaining these networks, measuring the smoothness of such communication is an important issue. One indicator of smoothness is the similarity of the body movements of the two individuals concerned. A typical example noted in experimental environments is the interpersonal synchronization of body movements such as nods and gestures during smooth face-to-face communication. It should therefore be possible to estimate quantitatively the smoothness of face-to-face communication in social networks through measurement of the synchronization of body movements. However, this is difficult because social networks, which differ from disciplined experimental environments, are open environments for the face-to-face communication between two individuals. In such open environments, their body movements become complicated by various external factors and may follow unstable and nonuniform patterns. Nevertheless, we consider there to be some interaction during face-to-face communication that leads to the interpersonal synchronization of body movements, which can be seen through the interpersonal similarity of body movements. The present study aims to clarify such interaction in terms of body movements during daily face-to-face communication in real organizations of more than 100 people. We analyzed data on the frequency of body movement for each individual during face-to-face communication, as measured by a wearable sensor, and evaluated the degree of interpersonal similarity of body movements between two individuals as their frequency difference. Furthermore, we generated uncorrelated data by resampling the data gathered and compared these two data sets statistically to distinguish the effects of actual face-to-face communication from those of the activities accompanying the communication. Our results

Facts about Type 2

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Facts about Type 2

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Full Text Available ... Your Risk Alert Day Diabetes Basics Home Symptoms Diagnosis America's Diabetes Challenge Type 1 Type 2 Facts ... Online Community Site Menu Are You at Risk? Diagnosis Lower Your Risk Risk Test Alert Day Prediabetes ...

Facts about Folic Acid

Science.gov (United States)

... Information For… Media Policy Makers Facts About Folic Acid Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on Facebook ... of the baby’s brain and spine. About folic acid Folic acid is a B vitamin. Our bodies ...

Facts about Type 2

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Full Text Available ... August 1, 2013 Last Edited: October 27, 2015 Articles from Diabetes Forecast® magazine: lp-type-2, . In this section Diabetes Basics Type 2 Facts About Type 2 Recently Diagnosed Treatment and Care Blood ...

Development of Critical Thinking Skills through Writing Tasks: Challenges Facing Maritime English Students at Aqaba College, AlBalqa Applied University, Jordan

Science.gov (United States)

Alidmat, Ali Odeh Hammoud; Ayassrah, Mohamed Ayed

2017-01-01

Teaching English for Special Purposes (ESP) in a context where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL) is no easy task. There is in fact extensive research reporting on challenges facing both teacher and student in the Foreign Language classroom where language skills must be learnt outside their usual context. Even more challenging is…

Eyewitness Memory in Face-to-Face and Immersive Avatar-to-Avatar Contexts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donna A. Taylor

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Technological advances offer possibilities for innovation in the way eyewitness testimony is elicited. Typically, this occurs face-to-face. We investigated whether a virtual environment, where interviewer and eyewitness communicate as avatars, might confer advantages by attenuating the social and situational demands of a face-to-face interview, releasing more cognitive resources for invoking episodic retrieval mode. In conditions of intentional encoding, eyewitnesses were interviewed 48 h later, either face-to-face or in a virtual environment (N = 38. Participants in the virtual environment significantly outperformed those interviewed face-to-face on all episodic performance measures – improved correct reporting reduced errors, and increased accuracy. Participants reported finding it easier to admit not remembering event information to the avatar, and finding the avatar easier to talk to. These novel findings, and our pattern of retrieval results indicates the potential of avatar-to-avatar communication in virtual environments, and provide impetus for further research investigating eyewitness cognition in contemporary retrieval contexts.

Eyewitness Memory in Face-to-Face and Immersive Avatar-to-Avatar Contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Donna A; Dando, Coral J

2018-01-01

Technological advances offer possibilities for innovation in the way eyewitness testimony is elicited. Typically, this occurs face-to-face. We investigated whether a virtual environment, where interviewer and eyewitness communicate as avatars, might confer advantages by attenuating the social and situational demands of a face-to-face interview, releasing more cognitive resources for invoking episodic retrieval mode. In conditions of intentional encoding, eyewitnesses were interviewed 48 h later, either face-to-face or in a virtual environment ( N = 38). Participants in the virtual environment significantly outperformed those interviewed face-to-face on all episodic performance measures - improved correct reporting reduced errors, and increased accuracy. Participants reported finding it easier to admit not remembering event information to the avatar, and finding the avatar easier to talk to. These novel findings, and our pattern of retrieval results indicates the potential of avatar-to-avatar communication in virtual environments, and provide impetus for further research investigating eyewitness cognition in contemporary retrieval contexts.

CMS fact sheet : to give an overview of the basic facts on the CMS Detector, its aims and collaboration

CERN Multimedia

CMS, Outreach

2010-01-01

2-sided color print A4 size sheet containing the facts on the CMS Detector, its name, what it is designed to do, questions scientists hope to answer, collaboration members, detector parts and their functions, and other miscellaneous facts on the CMS detector

Characteristics of problem drinkers in e-therapy versus face-to-face treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Postel, Marloes G; de Haan, Hein A; Ter Huurne, Elke D; Becker, Eni S; de Jong, Cor A J

2011-11-01

The availability of online treatment programs offers the potential to reach more problem drinkers. This study compared the client populations of an e-therapy program (asynchronous client-therapist communication via the Internet) and a face-to-face treatment program. To determine whether e-therapy and face-to-face groups differed from each other and changed over time. We compared the baseline characteristics of four naturalistic groups (N = 4593): two e-therapy groups (2005-2006 and 2008-2009) and two consecutive series of ambulant face-to-face clients admitted for treatment as usual. The characteristics we were interested in were gender, age, education level, working situation, and earlier treatment for drinking problems. The results showed that the baseline characteristics of e-therapy and face-to-face clients differed by gender, education level, work situation, prior alcohol treatment, and age. We also found that both e-therapy groups differed over time by gender, work situation, and prior alcohol treatment. The e-therapy program successfully attracted clients who were different from those who were represented in regular face-to-face alcohol treatment services. This indicates that e-therapy decreases the barriers to treatment facilities and enhances the accessibility. However, the e-therapy population changed over time. Although the e-therapy program still reached an important new group of clients in 2008-2009, this group showed more overlap with the traditional face-to-face group of clients probably as a result of improved acceptance of e-therapy in the general population. Although e-therapy seems to be better accepted in the general population, anonymous treatment seems necessary to reach a broader range of problem drinkers.

Face validity of a Wii U video game for training basic laparoscopic skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalink, Maarten B; Goris, Jetse; Heineman, Erik; Pierie, Jean-Pierre E N; Ten Cate Hoedemaker, Henk O

2015-06-01

Although the positive effects of playing video games on basic laparoscopic skills have been studied for several years, no games are actually used in surgical training. This article discusses the face validity of the first video game and custom-made hardware, which takes advantage of these effects. Participants were recruited at the Chirurgendagen 2013 and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons 2014 annual meeting. In total, 72 laparoscopic surgeons completed a demo of the game and filled in a questionnaire. On a 1-to-10 scale, the mean score for hardware realism was 7.2 and the mean score for usefulness as a training tool was 8.4. Participants did not mind the fact that the workspace does not look like an abdominal cavity, but do have some trouble with the absence of tactile feedback. We obtained face validity for both the hardware and the usefulness of Underground, a video game made for training basic laparoscopic skills. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Facts about Type 2

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Facts about Type 2

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Full Text Available ... for Association Events Messaging Tools Recruiting Advocates Local Market Planning Training Webinars News & Events Advocacy News Call ... Diabetes Basics > Type 2 Share: Print Page Text Size: A A A Listen En Español Facts About ...

Improving Posthospital Discharge Telephone Reach Rates Through Prehospital Discharge Face-to-Face Meetings.

Science.gov (United States)

Vergara, Franz H; Sheridan, Daniel J; Sullivan, Nancy J; Budhathoki, Chakra

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a face-to-face meeting with patients by a telephonic case manager prehospital discharge would result in increased telephone follow-up (TFU) reach rates posthospital discharge. Acute care adult medicine inpatient units. A quasiexperimental design was utilized. Two adult inpatient medicine units were selected as the intervention and comparison groups. The framework of the study is the transitions theory. A convenience sampling technique was used, whereby 88 eligible patients on the intervention unit received face-to-face meetings prehospital discharge whereas 123 patients on the comparison unit received standard care (no face-to-face meetings). Cross-tabulation and chi-square tests were employed to examine the association of face-to-face meeting intervention and TFU reach rates. Implementing brief (face-to-face meetings by a telephonic case manager prehospital discharge resulted in a TFU reach rate of 87% on the intervention unit, whereas the comparison unit only had a 58% TFU reach rate (p communication with more patients posthospital discharge. A brief prehospital discharge face-to-face meeting with patients assisted them to understand the reasons for a posthospital discharge telephone call, identified the best times to call using accurate telephone numbers, and taught patients how best to prepare for the call. In addition, by meeting patients face-to-face, the telephonic case manager was no longer an unknown person on the telephone asking them questions about their medical condition. These factors combined may have significantly helped to increase TFU reach rates.

Facts about food irradiation: Controlling the process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

This fact sheet briefly reviews the procedures that exist to control the process of food irradiation. It also summarizes the difficulties in identifying irradiated food, which stem from the fact that irradiation does not physically change the food or cause significant chemical changes in foods. 4 refs

Gaze Cueing by Pareidolia Faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kohske Takahashi

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon. While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.

Gaze cueing by pareidolia faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2013-01-01

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.

Problems Faced by Beginning Teachers in Private Elementary Schools: A Comparative Study between Spain and Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magda Yolanda Cantú Tijerina

2006-11-01

Full Text Available In order to explore the problems faced by beginning teachers in private elementary schools in the Spanish city of Madrid and in the Mexican city of Monterrey, questionnaires were applied to private school teachers just starting out in both cities. The results indicate that in both contexts, as beginners, teachers face problems of an academic, organizational, social, and material and technological nature. However, it stresses the fact that Mexican teachers perceive more problems in all the categories than do their Spanish colleagues. Similarity in the results was found in the category of social problems, which was the one mentioned least by the teachers in both cities. This suggests that the cultural nature of these two countries may be a factor to be considered in connection with fostering beginning teachers’ adaptation process.

Illumination robust face recognition using spatial adaptive shadow compensation based on face intensity prior

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Cheng-Ta; Huang, Kae-Horng; Lee, Chang-Hsing; Han, Chin-Chuan; Fan, Kuo-Chin

2017-12-01

Robust face recognition under illumination variations is an important and challenging task in a face recognition system, particularly for face recognition in the wild. In this paper, a face image preprocessing approach, called spatial adaptive shadow compensation (SASC), is proposed to eliminate shadows in the face image due to different lighting directions. First, spatial adaptive histogram equalization (SAHE), which uses face intensity prior model, is proposed to enhance the contrast of each local face region without generating visible noises in smooth face areas. Adaptive shadow compensation (ASC), which performs shadow compensation in each local image block, is then used to produce a wellcompensated face image appropriate for face feature extraction and recognition. Finally, null-space linear discriminant analysis (NLDA) is employed to extract discriminant features from SASC compensated images. Experiments performed on the Yale B, Yale B extended, and CMU PIE face databases have shown that the proposed SASC always yields the best face recognition accuracy. That is, SASC is more robust to face recognition under illumination variations than other shadow compensation approaches.

Face ethnicity and measurement reliability affect face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosia: evidence from the Cambridge Face Memory Test-Australian.

Science.gov (United States)

McKone, Elinor; Hall, Ashleigh; Pidcock, Madeleine; Palermo, Romina; Wilkinson, Ross B; Rivolta, Davide; Yovel, Galit; Davis, Joshua M; O'Connor, Kirsty B

2011-03-01

The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT, Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006) provides a validated format for testing novel face learning and has been a crucial instrument in the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Yet, some individuals who report everyday face recognition symptoms consistent with prosopagnosia, and are impaired on famous face tasks, perform normally on the CFMT. Possible reasons include measurement error, CFMT assessment of memory only at short delays, and a face set whose ethnicity is matched to only some Caucasian groups. We develop the "CFMT-Australian" (CFMT-Aus), which complements the CFMT-original by using ethnicity better matched to a different European subpopulation. Results confirm reliability (.88) and validity (convergent, divergent using cars, inversion effects). We show that face ethnicity within a race has subtle but clear effects on face processing even in normal participants (includes cross-over interaction for face ethnicity by perceiver country of origin in distinctiveness ratings). We show that CFMT-Aus clarifies diagnosis of prosopagnosia in 6 previously ambiguous cases. In 3 cases, this appears due to the better ethnic match to prosopagnosics. We also show that face memory at short (<3-min), 20-min, and 24-hr delays taps overlapping processes in normal participants. There is some suggestion that a form of prosopagnosia may exist that is long delay only and/or reflects failure to benefit from face repetition. © 2011 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

OpenAIRE

Dettmer, Amanda M.; Kaburu, Stefano S. K.; Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Paukner, Annika; Sclafani, Valentina; Byers, Kristen L.; Murphy, Ashley M.; Miller, Michelle; Marquez, Neal; Miller, Grace M.; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier F.

2016-01-01

In primates, including humans, mothers engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants, with frequencies varying both within and across species. However, the impact of this variation in face-to-face interactions on infant social development is unclear. Here we report that infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta) who engaged in more neonatal face-to-face interactions with mothers have increased social interactions at 2 and 5 months. In a controlled experiment, we show that this effect is not due...

Quantified Faces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Mette-Marie Zacher

2016-01-01

artist Marnix de Nijs' Physiognomic Scrutinizer is an interactive installation whereby the viewer's face is scanned and identified with historical figures. The American artist Zach Blas' project Fag Face Mask consists of three-dimensional portraits that blend biometric facial data from 30 gay men's faces...... and critically examine bias in surveillance technologies, as well as scientific investigations, regarding the stereotyping mode of the human gaze. The American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates three-dimensional portraits of persons she has “identified” from their garbage. Her project from 2013 entitled...

About Face

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About Face

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Full Text Available ... Treatment What is AboutFace? Resources for Professionals Get Help Home Watch Videos by Topic Videos by Type ... Treatment What is AboutFace? Resources for Professionals Get Help PTSD We've been there. After a traumatic ...

Editing faces in videos

OpenAIRE

Amberg, Brian

2011-01-01

Editing faces in movies is of interest in the special effects industry. We aim at producing effects such as the addition of accessories interacting correctly with the face or replacing the face of a stuntman with the face of the main actor. The system introduced in this thesis is based on a 3D generative face model. Using a 3D model makes it possible to edit the face in the semantic space of pose, expression, and identity instead of pixel space, and due to its 3D nature allows...

Energy in Sweden. Facts and figures 2005

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-12-01

Energy in Sweden. Facts and Figures 2005 contains the tabular data for most of the diagrams in the main publication. These data consist primarily of the results of the Agency's processing of basic data from Statistics Sweden. Facts and Figures is available at www.stem.se in pdf- and excel file formats. With effect from the 2001 edition, statistics are of preliminary character for the two preceding years (2003 and 2004). Breakdowns into certain types of fuels vary somewhat depending on whether preliminary or final data has been used. Further information about the statistics can be found in Energy in Sweden, chapter 8 Energy Facts

Evidence for view-invariant face recognition units in unfamiliar face learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Etchells, David B; Brooks, Joseph L; Johnston, Robert A

2017-05-01

Many models of face recognition incorporate the idea of a face recognition unit (FRU), an abstracted representation formed from each experience of a face which aids recognition under novel viewing conditions. Some previous studies have failed to find evidence of this FRU representation. Here, we report three experiments which investigated this theoretical construct by modifying the face learning procedure from that in previous work. During learning, one or two views of previously unfamiliar faces were shown to participants in a serial matching task. Later, participants attempted to recognize both seen and novel views of the learned faces (recognition phase). Experiment 1 tested participants' recognition of a novel view, a day after learning. Experiment 2 was identical, but tested participants on the same day as learning. Experiment 3 repeated Experiment 1, but tested participants on a novel view that was outside the rotation of those views learned. Results revealed a significant advantage, across all experiments, for recognizing a novel view when two views had been learned compared to single view learning. The observed view invariance supports the notion that an FRU representation is established during multi-view face learning under particular learning conditions.

Some Surprising Introductory Physics Facts and Numbers

Science.gov (United States)

Mallmann, A. James

2016-01-01

In the entertainment world, people usually like, and find memorable, novels, short stories, and movies with surprise endings. This suggests that classroom teachers might want to present to their students examples of surprising facts associated with principles of physics. Possible benefits of finding surprising facts about principles of physics are…

Happy faces are preferred regardless of familiarity--sad faces are preferred only when familiar.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Hsin-I; Shimojo, Shinsuke; Yeh, Su-Ling

2013-06-01

Familiarity leads to preference (e.g., the mere exposure effect), yet it remains unknown whether it is objective familiarity, that is, repetitive exposure, or subjective familiarity that contributes to preference. In addition, it is unexplored whether and how different emotions influence familiarity-related preference. The authors investigated whether happy or sad faces are preferred or perceived as more familiar and whether this subjective familiarity judgment correlates with preference for different emotional faces. An emotional face--happy or sad--was paired with a neutral face, and participants rated the relative preference and familiarity of each of the paired faces. For preference judgment, happy faces were preferred and sad faces were less preferred, compared with neutral faces. For familiarity judgment, happy faces did not show any bias, but sad faces were perceived as less familiar than neutral faces. Item-by-item correlational analyses show preference for sad faces--but not happy faces--positively correlate with familiarity. These results suggest a direct link between positive emotion and preference, and argue at least partly against a common cause for familiarity and preference. Instead, facial expression of different emotional valence modulates the link between familiarity and preference.

Facts about Type 2

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Full Text Available ... Alert Day Diabetes Basics Home Symptoms Diagnosis America's Diabetes Challenge Type 1 Type 2 Facts About Type 2 Enroll in ... Where Do I Begin With Type2? Living With Type 1 Diabetes Enroll in the Living WIth Type 2 Diabetes ...

Toxicological Investigations on the Sea Urchin Tripneustes gratilla (Toxopneustidae, Echinoid from Anaho Bay (Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia: Evidence for the Presence of Pacific Ciguatoxins

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hélène Taiana Darius

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla (Toxopneustidae, Echinoids is a source of protein for many islanders in the Indo-West Pacific. It was previously reported to occasionally cause ciguatera-like poisoning; however, the exact nature of the causative agent was not confirmed. In April and July 2015, ciguatera poisonings were reported following the consumption of T. gratilla in Anaho Bay (Nuku Hiva Island, Marquesas archipelago, French Polynesia. Patient symptomatology was recorded and sea urchin samples were collected from Anaho Bay in July 2015 and November 2016. Toxicity analysis using the neuroblastoma cell–based assay (CBA-N2a detected the presence of ciguatoxins (CTXs in T. gratilla samples. Gambierdiscus species were predominant in the benthic assemblages of Anaho Bay, and G. polynesiensis was highly prevalent in in vitro cultures according to qPCR results. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS analyses revealed that P-CTX-3B was the major ciguatoxin congener in toxic sea urchin samples, followed by 51-OH-P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-4A, and P-CTX-4B. Between July 2015 and November 2016, the toxin content in T. gratilla decreased, but was consistently above the safety limit allowed for human consumption. This study provides evidence of CTX bioaccumulation in T. gratilla as a cause of ciguatera-like poisoning associated with a documented symptomatology.

Toxicological Investigations on the Sea Urchin Tripneustes gratilla (Toxopneustidae, Echinoid) from Anaho Bay (Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia): Evidence for the Presence of Pacific Ciguatoxins.

Science.gov (United States)

Darius, Hélène Taiana; Roué, Mélanie; Sibat, Manoella; Viallon, Jérôme; Gatti, Clémence Mahana Iti Iti; Vandersea, Mark W; Tester, Patricia A; Litaker, R Wayne; Amzil, Zouher; Hess, Philipp; Chinain, Mireille

2018-04-06

The sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla ( Toxopneustidae , Echinoids) is a source of protein for many islanders in the Indo-West Pacific. It was previously reported to occasionally cause ciguatera-like poisoning; however, the exact nature of the causative agent was not confirmed. In April and July 2015, ciguatera poisonings were reported following the consumption of T. gratilla in Anaho Bay (Nuku Hiva Island, Marquesas archipelago, French Polynesia). Patient symptomatology was recorded and sea urchin samples were collected from Anaho Bay in July 2015 and November 2016. Toxicity analysis using the neuroblastoma cell-based assay (CBA-N2a) detected the presence of ciguatoxins (CTXs) in T. gratilla samples. Gambierdiscus species were predominant in the benthic assemblages of Anaho Bay, and G. polynesiensis was highly prevalent in in vitro cultures according to qPCR results. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analyses revealed that P-CTX-3B was the major ciguatoxin congener in toxic sea urchin samples, followed by 51-OH-P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-3C, P-CTX-4A, and P-CTX-4B. Between July 2015 and November 2016, the toxin content in T. gratilla decreased, but was consistently above the safety limit allowed for human consumption. This study provides evidence of CTX bioaccumulation in T. gratilla as a cause of ciguatera-like poisoning associated with a documented symptomatology.

International Nuclear Waste Management Fact Book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leigh, I.W.

1994-05-01

International Nuclear Waste Management Fact Book has been compiled in an effort to provide current data concerning fuel cycle and waste management facilities, R ampersand D programs, and key personnel in 24 countries, including the US, four multinational agencies and 21 nuclear societies. This publication succeeds the previously issued International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book (PNL-3594), which appeared annually for 13 years. While the title is different, there are no substantial changes in the content

Face inversion increases attractiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Leder, Helmut; Goller, Juergen; Forster, Michael; Schlageter, Lena; Paul, Matthew A

2017-07-01

Assessing facial attractiveness is a ubiquitous, inherent, and hard-wired phenomenon in everyday interactions. As such, it has highly adapted to the default way that faces are typically processed: viewing faces in upright orientation. By inverting faces, we can disrupt this default mode, and study how facial attractiveness is assessed. Faces, rotated at 90 (tilting to either side) and 180°, were rated on attractiveness and distinctiveness scales. For both orientations, we found that faces were rated more attractive and less distinctive than upright faces. Importantly, these effects were more pronounced for faces rated low in upright orientation, and smaller for highly attractive faces. In other words, the less attractive a face was, the more it gained in attractiveness by inversion or rotation. Based on these findings, we argue that facial attractiveness assessments might not rely on the presence of attractive facial characteristics, but on the absence of distinctive, unattractive characteristics. These unattractive characteristics are potentially weighed against an individual, attractive prototype in assessing facial attractiveness. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International nuclear fuel cycle fact book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-09-01

The International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book has been compiled in an effort to provide current data concerning fuel cycle and waste management facilities, R ampersand D programs and key personnel on 23 countries, including the US, four multi-national agencies, and 21 nuclear societies. The Fact Book is organized as follows: National summaries-a section for each country which summarizes nuclear policy, describes organizational relationships, and provides addresses and names of key personnel and information on facilities. International agencies-a section for each of the international agencies which has significant fuel cycle involvement and a listing of nuclear societies. Glossary-a list of abbreviations/acronyms of organizations, facilities, technical and other terms. The national summaries, in addition to the data described above, feature a small map for each country as well as some general information. The latter presented from the perspective of the Fact Book user in the United States

Measuring External Face Appearance for Face Classification

OpenAIRE

Masip, David; Lapedriza, Agata; Vitria, Jordi

2007-01-01

In this chapter we introduce the importance of the external features in face classification problems, and propose a methodology to extract the external features obtaining an aligned feature set. The extracted features can be used as input to any standard pattern recognition classifier, as the classic feature extraction approaches dealing with internal face regions in the literature. The resulting scheme follows a top-down segmentation approach to deal with the diversity inherent to the extern...

Remote versus face-to-face check-ups for asthma.

Science.gov (United States)

Kew, Kayleigh M; Cates, Christopher J

2016-04-18

Asthma remains a significant cause of avoidable morbidity and mortality. Regular check-ups with a healthcare professional are essential to monitor symptoms and adjust medication.Health services worldwide are considering telephone and internet technologies as a way to manage the rising number of people with asthma and other long-term health conditions. This may serve to improve health and reduce the burden on emergency and inpatient services. Remote check-ups may represent an unobtrusive and efficient way of maintaining contact with patients, but it is uncertain whether conducting check-ups in this way is effective or whether it may have unexpected negative consequences. To assess the safety and efficacy of conducting asthma check-ups remotely versus usual face-to-face consultations. We identified trials from the Cochrane Airways Review Group Specialised Register (CAGR) up to 24 November 2015. We also searched www.clinicaltrials.gov, the World Health Organization (WHO) trials portal, reference lists of other reviews and contacted trial authors for additional information. We included parallel randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of adults or children with asthma that compared remote check-ups conducted using any form of technology versus standard face-to-face consultations. We excluded studies that used automated telehealth interventions that did not include personalised contact with a health professional. We included studies reported as full-text articles, as abstracts only and unpublished data. Two review authors screened the literature search results and independently extracted risk of bias and numerical data. We resolved any disagreements by consensus, and we contacted study authors for missing information.We analysed dichotomous data as odds ratios (ORs) using study participants as the unit of analysis, and continuous data as mean differences using the random-effects models. We rated all outcomes using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and

Web-Based vs. Face-to-Face MBA Classes: A Comparative Assessment Study

Science.gov (United States)

Brownstein, Barry; Brownstein, Deborah; Gerlowski, Daniel A.

2008-01-01

The challenges of online learning include ensuring that the learning outcomes are at least as robust as in the face-to-face sections of the same course. At the University of Baltimore, both online sections and face-to-face sections of core MBA courses are offered. Once admitted to the MBA, students are free to enroll in any combination of…

Recognition of face and non-face stimuli in autistic spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Arkush, Leo; Smith-Collins, Adam P R; Fiorentini, Chiara; Skuse, David H

2013-12-01

The ability to remember faces is critical for the development of social competence. From childhood to adulthood, we acquire a high level of expertise in the recognition of facial images, and neural processes become dedicated to sustaining competence. Many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor face recognition memory; changes in hairstyle or other non-facial features in an otherwise familiar person affect their recollection skills. The observation implies that they may not use the configuration of the inner face to achieve memory competence, but bolster performance in other ways. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of a group of high-functioning unmedicated adolescents with ASD and a matched control group on a "surprise" face recognition memory task. We compared their memory for unfamiliar faces with their memory for images of houses. To evaluate the role that is played by peripheral cues in assisting recognition memory, we cropped both sets of pictures, retaining only the most salient central features. ASD adolescents had poorer recognition memory for faces than typical controls, but their recognition memory for houses was unimpaired. Cropping images of faces did not disproportionately influence their recall accuracy, relative to controls. House recognition skills (cropped and uncropped) were similar in both groups. In the ASD group only, performance on both sets of task was closely correlated, implying that memory for faces and other complex pictorial stimuli is achieved by domain-general (non-dedicated) cognitive mechanisms. Adolescents with ASD apparently do not use domain-specialized processing of inner facial cues to support face recognition memory. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Facts about Volunteers. NCJW Center for the Child Fact Sheet Number 5.

Science.gov (United States)

National Council of Jewish Women, New York, NY. Center for the Child.

Volunteering is a vital and widespread activity in the United States; in fact, volunteers perform many essential community functions. Those who believe that most volunteers are women with time on their hands, that volunteers just do "charity work," and that volunteers are a source of cheap labor who can replace paid professionals and…

Facts about Type 2

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... from Diabetes Forecast® magazine: lp-type-2, . In this section Diabetes Basics Type 2 Facts About Type ... ensureArray(data.submitSurveyResponse.errors); $.each(surveyErrors, function () { if (this.errorField) { $('input[name="' + this.errorField + '"]').closest('.form-group') . ...

Homosexuality: Facts for Teens

Science.gov (United States)

... Talking to Your Kids About VirginityTalking to Your Kids About Sex Home Family Health Kids and Teens Homosexuality: Facts ... by: familydoctor.org editorial staff Categories: Family Health, Kids and Teens, Prevention and Wellness, Sex and Birth Control, Sex and SexualityTags: female, Gay ...

Faces with Light Makeup Are Better Recognized than Faces with Heavy Makeup.

Science.gov (United States)

Tagai, Keiko; Ohtaka, Hitomi; Nittono, Hiroshi

2016-01-01

Many women wear facial makeup to accentuate their appeal and attractiveness. Makeup may vary from natural (light) to glamorous (heavy), depending of the context of interpersonal situations, an emphasis on femininity, and current societal makeup trends. This study examined how light makeup and heavy makeup influenced attractiveness ratings and facial recognition. In a rating task, 38 Japanese women assigned attractiveness ratings to 36 Japanese female faces with no makeup, light makeup, and heavy makeup (12 each). In a subsequent recognition task, the participants were presented with 36 old and 36 new faces. Results indicated that attractiveness was rated highest for the light makeup faces and lowest for the no makeup faces. In contrast, recognition performance was higher for the no makeup and light make up faces than for the heavy makeup faces. Faces with heavy makeup produced a higher rate of false recognition than did other faces, possibly because heavy makeup creates an impression of the style of makeup itself, rather than the individual wearing the makeup. The present study suggests that light makeup is preferable to heavy makeup in that light makeup does not interfere with individual recognition and gives beholders positive impressions.

Faces with light makeup are better recognized than faces with heavy makeup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keiko eTagai

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Many women wear facial makeup to accentuate their appeal and attractiveness. Makeup may vary from natural (light to glamorous (heavy, depending of the context of interpersonal situations, an emphasis on femininity, and current societal makeup trends. This study examined how light makeup and heavy makeup influenced attractiveness ratings and facial recognition. In a rating task, 38 Japanese women assigned attractiveness ratings to 36 Japanese female faces with no makeup, light makeup, and heavy makeup (12 each. In a subsequent recognition task, the participants were presented with 36 old and 36 new faces. Results indicated that attractiveness was rated highest for the light makeup faces and lowest for the no makeup faces. In contrast, recognition performance was higher for the no makeup and light make up faces than for the heavy makeup faces. Faces with heavy makeup produced a higher rate of false recognition than did other faces, possibly because heavy makeup creates an impression of the style of makeup itself, rather than the individual wearing the makeup. The present study suggests that light makeup is preferable to heavy makeup in that light makeup does not interfere with individual recognition and gives beholders positive impressions.

Chernobyl: the facts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radicella, Renato

2007-01-01

The Chernobyl accident and its consequences are briefly outlined in order to provide a synthesis of the facts from the most reliable sources. The paper describes in main lines the accident and the measures that were taken to mitigate its effects. The data on the radiation doses received by the population and the effects of the accident on the human health as well as on the environment are summarized. (author) [es

Visual search of Mooney faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica Emeline Goold

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Faces spontaneously capture attention. However, which special attributes of a face underlie this effect are unclear. To address this question, we investigate how gist information, specific visual properties and differing amounts of experience with faces affect the time required to detect a face. Three visual search experiments were conducted investigating the rapidness of human observers to detect Mooney face images. Mooney images are two-toned, ambiguous images. They were used in order to have stimuli that maintain gist information but limit low-level image properties. Results from the experiments show: 1 although upright Mooney faces were searched inefficiently, they were detected more rapidly than inverted Mooney face targets, demonstrating the important role of gist information in guiding attention towards a face. 2 Several specific Mooney face identities were searched efficiently while others were not, suggesting the involvement of specific visual properties in face detection. 3 By providing participants with unambiguous gray-scale versions of the Mooney face targets prior to the visual search task, the targets were detected significantly more efficiently, suggesting that prior experience with Mooney faces improves the ability to extract gist information for rapid face detection. However, a week of training with Mooney face categorization did not lead to even more efficient visual search of Mooney face targets. In summary, these results reveal that specific local image properties cannot account for how faces capture attention. On the other hand, gist information alone cannot account for how faces capture attention either. Prior experience facilitates the effect of gist on visual search of faces, making faces a special object category for guiding attention.

Lost in Translation: Adapting a Face-to-Face Course Into an Online Learning Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenzig, Melissa J

2015-09-01

Online education has grown dramatically over the past decade. Instructors who teach face-to-face courses are being called on to adapt their courses to the online environment. Many instructors do not have sufficient training to be able to effectively move courses to an online format. This commentary discusses the growth of online learning, common challenges faced by instructors adapting courses from face-to-face to online, and best practices for translating face-to-face courses into online learning opportunities. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

The activation of visual face memory and explicit face recognition are delayed in developmental prosopagnosia.

Science.gov (United States)

Parketny, Joanna; Towler, John; Eimer, Martin

2015-08-01

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) are strongly impaired in recognizing faces, but the causes of this deficit are not well understood. We employed event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to study the time-course of neural processes involved in the recognition of previously unfamiliar faces in DPs and in age-matched control participants with normal face recognition abilities. Faces of different individuals were presented sequentially in one of three possible views, and participants had to detect a specific Target Face ("Joe"). EEG was recorded during task performance to Target Faces, Nontarget Faces, or the participants' Own Face (which had to be ignored). The N250 component was measured as a marker of the match between a seen face and a stored representation in visual face memory. The subsequent P600f was measured as an index of attentional processes associated with the conscious awareness and recognition of a particular face. Target Faces elicited reliable N250 and P600f in the DP group, but both of these components emerged later in DPs than in control participants. This shows that the activation of visual face memory for previously unknown learned faces and the subsequent attentional processing and conscious recognition of these faces are delayed in DP. N250 and P600f components to Own Faces did not differ between the two groups, indicating that the processing of long-term familiar faces is less affected in DP. However, P600f components to Own Faces were absent in two participants with DP who failed to recognize their Own Face during the experiment. These results provide new evidence that face recognition deficits in DP may be linked to a delayed activation of visual face memory and explicit identity recognition mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An exploration into pedagogic frailty: Transitioning from face-to-face to online

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irina Niculescu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Pedagogic frailty and concept mapping can simultaneously encourage personal and organisational change by supporting critical reflection and resilience. These ideas are nascent within higher education institutions and currently, at the University of Surrey, are only developed through face-to-face sessions. This revealed the need for a scalable intervention which engages academics with the discourse on introspective and professional development practices. In response, we have created the design for a blended programme of online foundation for concept mapping leading to face-to-face workshops to explore the pedagogic frailty model. This paper will discuss some significant challenges arising from transitioning self-reflective practices from face-to-face to online spaces. In the process, we will consider ways in which learning design can take the learner context into account.

Gaze Cueing by Pareidolia Faces

OpenAIRE

Kohske Takahashi; Katsumi Watanabe

2013-01-01

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cuei...

Crossing the “Uncanny Valley”: adaptation to cartoon faces can influence perception of human faces

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Haiwen; Russell, Richard; Nakayama, Ken; Livingstone, Margaret

2013-01-01

Adaptation can shift what individuals identify to be a prototypical or attractive face. Past work suggests that low-level shape adaptation can affect high-level face processing but is position dependent. Adaptation to distorted images of faces can also affect face processing but only within sub-categories of faces, such as gender, age, and race/ethnicity. This study assesses whether there is a representation of face that is specific to faces (as opposed to all shapes) but general to all kinds of faces (as opposed to subcategories) by testing whether adaptation to one type of face can affect perception of another. Participants were shown cartoon videos containing faces with abnormally large eyes. Using animated videos allowed us to simulate naturalistic exposure and avoid positional shape adaptation. Results suggest that adaptation to cartoon faces with large eyes shifts preferences for human faces toward larger eyes, supporting the existence of general face representations. PMID:20465173

Fake facts and alternative truths in medical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Bjørn

2018-01-27

Fake news and alternative facts have become commonplace in these so-called "post-factual times." What about medical research - are scientific facts fake as well? Many recent disclosures have fueled the claim that scientific facts are suspect and that science is in crisis. Scientists appear to engage in facting interests instead of revealing interesting facts. This can be observed in terms of what has been called polarised research, where some researchers continuously publish positive results while others publish negative results on the same issue - even when based on the same data. In order to identify and address this challenge, the objective of this study is to investigate how polarised research produce "polarised facts." Mammography screening for breast cancer is applied as an example. The main benefit with mammography screening is the reduced breast cancer mortality, while the main harm is overdiagnosis and subsequent overtreatment. Accordingly, the Overdiagnosis to Mortality Reduction Ratio (OMRR) is an estimate of the risk-benefit-ratio for mammography screening. As there are intense interests involved as well as strong opinions in debates on mammography screening, one could expect polarisation in published results on OMRR. A literature search identifies 8 studies publishing results for OMRR and reveals that OMRR varies 25-fold, from 0.4 to 10. Two experts in polarised research were asked to rank the attitudes of the corresponding authors to mammography screening of the identified publications. The results show a strong correlation between the OMRR and the authors' attitudes to screening (R = 0.9). Mammography screening for breast cancer appears as an exemplary field of strongly polarised research. This is but one example of how scientists' strong professional interests can polarise research. Instead of revealing interesting facts researchers may come to fact interests. In order to avoid this and sustain trust in science, researchers should disclose

Power system stability enhancement using facts controllers: a review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abido, M. A

2009-01-01

In recent years, power demand has increased substantially while the expansion of power generation and transmission has been severely limited due to limited resources and environmental restrictions. As a consequence, some transmission lines are heavily loaded and the system stability becomes a power transfer-limiting factor. Flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) controllers have been mainly used for solving various power system steady state control problems. However, recent studies reveal that FACTS controllers could be employed to enhance power system stability in addition to their main function of power flow control. The literature shows an increasing interest in this subject for the last two decades, where the enhancement of system stability using FACTS controllers has been extensively investigated. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the research and developments in the power system stability enhancement using FACTS damping controllers. Several technical issues related to FACTS installations have been highlighted and performance comparison of different FACTS controllers has been discussed. In addition, some of the utility experience, real-world installations, and semiconductor technology development have been reviewed and summarized. Applications of FACTS to other power system studies have also been discussed. About two hundred twenty seven research publications have been classified and appended for a quick reference. (author)

Facts in nuclear engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buenemann, D.

1979-07-01

This compilation of facts has been published on behalf of Kerntechnische Gesellschaft (Society for Nuclear Engineering), as a basis for the discussion between promoters and opponents of nuclear power. It intends to make the nuclear discussion less emotional by providing relevant data material. (orig./HP) [de

Facts about Vitamin K

Science.gov (United States)

Facts about Vitamin K 1 R. Elaine Turner and Wendy J. Dahl 2 FCS8666 Figure 1. Vitamin K is mostly found in vegetables, especially green ... ColognePhotos/iStock/Thinkstock, © ColognePhotos Why do we need vitamin K? Vitamin K is one of the fat- ...

Diet myths and facts

Science.gov (United States)

... night will make you fat. FACT: People who eat late at night do tend to put on extra weight. One possible reason is that late-night eaters tend to choose high-calorie treats. Some people who snack after dinner do not sleep well, which can lead to ...

31 CFR 306.95 - Attorneys in fact.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... recognized until the Bureau receives proof of revocation or proof of the grantor's death or incompetency. (b... to by an officer who has access to the records: (1) A copy of the resolution of the governing body... fact, or (3) A copy of the resolution of the governing body directly appointing an attorney in fact. If...

A multi-view face recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hongjun; Chen, Pei; Shen, Wei

2018-03-01

In this research, we present a framework for multi-view face detect and recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib. This method is aimed to solve the problems of low efficiency and low accuracy in multi-view face recognition, to build a multi-view face recognition system, and to discover a suitable monitoring scheme. For face detection, the cascade face detector is used to extracted the Haar-like feature from the training samples, and Haar-like feature is used to train a cascade classifier by combining Adaboost algorithm. Next, for face recognition, we proposed an improved distance model based on Dlib to improve the accuracy of multiview face recognition. Furthermore, we applied this proposed method into recognizing face images taken from different viewing directions, including horizontal view, overlooks view, and looking-up view, and researched a suitable monitoring scheme. This method works well for multi-view face recognition, and it is also simulated and tested, showing satisfactory experimental results.

Situation of radioactivity monitoring in French Polynesia in 2015. Synthesis of results from the IRSN's monitoring network. 2016 mission report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-12-01

The radiological monitoring of the environment conducted in Polynesia by the Laboratory for the Study and Monitoring of the Environment (LESE lab), consists in regularly collecting and measuring radioactivity in samples from different environmental natures such as air, water, soil but also foodstuff etc, with which the inhabitants may come in contact. This regular monitoring has been carried out since 1962 on seven islands namely Tahiti, Maupiti, Hao, Rangiroa, Iva Oa, Mangareva and Tubuai representative for the five archipelagos. In 2015, the scope of this monitoring was enlarged by including specific a radiological study, consisting in analyzing local foodstuff in the Raivavae atoll, so as to assess the additional man-made radioactivity through the food chain, and soil samples so as to review the residual amount of "1"3"7Cs and Pu isotopes. A few additional measurements, complementary to the ones already made in 2012, were carried out to develop a map of external exposure all over this Austral atoll. For the second year in a row, the LESE lab took part in the Turbo program leaded by DGA and CEA, organizations in charge of radiological monitoring of the military atolls, by analyzing three ocean samples collected on an atoll shore and offshore from the island Moruroa. Almost all samples were processed and evaluated by the LESE laboratory, located on the Tahiti main land, in Vairao; some of the samples were analyzed in one of IRSN's other laboratories based in a suburb from Paris called Orsay in France. A steady decrease in radioactivity level has been observed since the end of the French atmospheric nuclear tests in 1974; the latest observations (2015) show a stable radiological situation, identical throughout the previous years of observation, and measured at a very low level. This residual radioactivity level comes, for the main part, from the "1"3"7Cs. The efficient annual dose, i.e. the additional man-made radioactivity, is below 5 μSv.y"-"1 (5 micro

Mixmaster: fact and belief

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinzle, J Mark; Uggla, Claes

2009-01-01

We consider the dynamics towards the initial singularity of Bianchi type IX vacuum and orthogonal perfect fluid models with a linear equation of state. Surprisingly few facts are known about the 'Mixmaster' dynamics of these models, while at the same time most of the commonly held beliefs are rather vague. In this paper, we use Mixmaster facts as a base to build an infrastructure that makes it possible to sharpen the main Mixmaster beliefs. We formulate explicit conjectures concerning (i) the past asymptotic states of type IX solutions and (ii) the relevance of the Mixmaster/Kasner map for generic past asymptotic dynamics. The evidence for the conjectures is based on a study of the stochastic properties of this map in conjunction with dynamical systems techniques. We use a dynamical systems formulation, since this approach has so far been the only successful path to obtain theorems, but we also make comparisons with the 'metric' and Hamiltonian 'billiard' approaches.

The Use of Computer-Mediated Communication To Enhance Subsequent Face-to-Face Discussions.

Science.gov (United States)

Dietz-Uhler, Beth; Bishop-Clark, Cathy

2001-01-01

Describes a study of undergraduate students that assessed the effects of synchronous (Internet chat) and asynchronous (Internet discussion board) computer-mediated communication on subsequent face-to-face discussions. Results showed that face-to-face discussions preceded by computer-mediated communication were perceived to be more enjoyable.…

Adjudicating between face-coding models with individual-face fMRI responses.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johan D Carlin

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The perceptual representation of individual faces is often explained with reference to a norm-based face space. In such spaces, individuals are encoded as vectors where identity is primarily conveyed by direction and distinctiveness by eccentricity. Here we measured human fMRI responses and psychophysical similarity judgments of individual face exemplars, which were generated as realistic 3D animations using a computer-graphics model. We developed and evaluated multiple neurobiologically plausible computational models, each of which predicts a representational distance matrix and a regional-mean activation profile for 24 face stimuli. In the fusiform face area, a face-space coding model with sigmoidal ramp tuning provided a better account of the data than one based on exemplar tuning. However, an image-processing model with weighted banks of Gabor filters performed similarly. Accounting for the data required the inclusion of a measurement-level population averaging mechanism that approximates how fMRI voxels locally average distinct neuronal tunings. Our study demonstrates the importance of comparing multiple models and of modeling the measurement process in computational neuroimaging.

Importance of the inverted control in measuring holistic face processing with the composite effect and part-whole effect.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elinor eMcKone

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Holistic coding for faces is shown in several illusions that demonstrate integration of the percept across the entire face. The illusions occur upright but, crucially, not inverted. Converting the illusions into experimental tasks that measure their strength – and thus index degree of holistic coding – is often considered straightforward yet in fact relies on a hidden assumption, namely that there is no contribution to the experimental measure from secondary cognitive factors. For the composite effect, a relevant secondary factor is size of the "spotlight" of visuospatial attention. The composite task assumes this spotlight can be easily restricted to the target half (e.g., top half of the compound face stimulus. Yet, if this assumption were not true then a large spotlight, in the absence of holistic perception, could produce a false composite effect, present even for inverted faces and contributing partially to the score for upright faces. We review evidence that various factors can influence spotlight size: race/culture (Asians often prefer a more global distribution of attention than Caucasians; sex (females can be more global; appearance of the join or gap between face halves; and location of the eyes, which typically attract attention. Results from 5 experiments then show inverted faces can sometimes produce large false composite effects, and imply that whether this happens or not depends on complex interactions between causal factors. We also report, for both identity and expression, that only top-half-face targets (containing eyes produce valid composite measures. A sixth experiment demonstrates an example of a false inverted part-whole effect, where encoding-specificity is the secondary cognitive factor. We conclude the inverted face control should be tested in all composite and part-whole studies, and an effect for upright faces should be interpreted as a pure measure of holistic processing only when the experimental design produces

Importance of the Inverted Control in Measuring Holistic Face Processing with the Composite Effect and Part-Whole Effect

Science.gov (United States)

McKone, Elinor; Davies, Anne Aimola; Darke, Hayley; Crookes, Kate; Wickramariyaratne, Tushara; Zappia, Stephanie; Fiorentini, Chiara; Favelle, Simone; Broughton, Mary; Fernando, Dinusha

2013-01-01

Holistic coding for faces is shown in several illusions that demonstrate integration of the percept across the entire face. The illusions occur upright but, crucially, not inverted. Converting the illusions into experimental tasks that measure their strength – and thus index degree of holistic coding – is often considered straightforward yet in fact relies on a hidden assumption, namely that there is no contribution to the experimental measure from secondary cognitive factors. For the composite effect, a relevant secondary factor is size of the “spotlight” of visuospatial attention. The composite task assumes this spotlight can be easily restricted to the target half (e.g., top-half) of the compound face stimulus. Yet, if this assumption were not true then a large spotlight, in the absence of holistic perception, could produce a false composite effect, present even for inverted faces and contributing partially to the score for upright faces. We review evidence that various factors can influence spotlight size: race/culture (Asians often prefer a more global distribution of attention than Caucasians); sex (females can be more global); appearance of the join or gap between face halves; and location of the eyes, which typically attract attention. Results from five experiments then show inverted faces can sometimes produce large false composite effects, and imply that whether this happens or not depends on complex interactions between causal factors. We also report, for both identity and expression, that only top-half face targets (containing eyes) produce valid composite measures. A sixth experiment demonstrates an example of a false inverted part-whole effect, where encoding-specificity is the secondary cognitive factor. We conclude the inverted face control should be tested in all composite and part-whole studies, and an effect for upright faces should be interpreted as a pure measure of holistic processing only when the experimental design produces no

Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures Report

Science.gov (United States)

Each year EPA releases the Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures report, formerly called Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures. It includes information on Municipal Solid Waste generation, recycling, an

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2018-05-29

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.

Face-blind for other-race faces: Individual differences in other-race recognition impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Lulu; Crookes, Kate; Dawel, Amy; Pidcock, Madeleine; Hall, Ashleigh; McKone, Elinor

2017-01-01

We report the existence of a previously undescribed group of people, namely individuals who are so poor at recognition of other-race faces that they meet criteria for clinical-level impairment (i.e., they are "face-blind" for other-race faces). Testing 550 participants, and using the well-validated Cambridge Face Memory Test for diagnosing face blindness, results show the rate of other-race face blindness to be nontrivial, specifically 8.1% of Caucasians and Asians raised in majority own-race countries. Results also show risk factors for other-race face blindness to include: a lack of interracial contact; and being at the lower end of the normal range of general face recognition ability (i.e., even for own-race faces); but not applying less individuating effort to other-race than own-race faces. Findings provide a potential resolution of contradictory evidence concerning the importance of the other-race effect (ORE), by explaining how it is possible for the mean ORE to be modest in size (suggesting a genuine but minor problem), and simultaneously for individuals to suffer major functional consequences in the real world (e.g., eyewitness misidentification of other-race offenders leading to wrongful imprisonment). Findings imply that, in legal settings, evaluating an eyewitness's chance of having made an other-race misidentification requires information about the underlying face recognition abilities of the individual witness. Additionally, analogy with prosopagnosia (inability to recognize even own-race faces) suggests everyday social interactions with other-race people, such as those between colleagues in the workplace, will be seriously impacted by the ORE in some people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Dissociation between face perception and face memory in adults, but not children, with developmental prosopagnosia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirsten A. Dalrymple

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Cognitive models propose that face recognition is accomplished through a series of discrete stages, including perceptual representation of facial structure, and encoding and retrieval of facial information. This implies that impaired face recognition can result from failures of face perception, face memory, or both. Studies of acquired prosopagnosia, autism spectrum disorders, and the development of normal face recognition support the idea that face perception and face memory are distinct processes, yet this distinction has received little attention in developmental prosopagnosia (DP. To address this issue, we tested the face perception and face memory of children and adults with DP. By definition, face memory is impaired in DP, so memory deficits were present in all participants. However, we found that all children, but only half of the adults had impaired face perception. Thus, results from adults indicate that face perception and face memory are dissociable, while the results from children provide no evidence for this division. Importantly, our findings raise the possibility that DP is qualitatively different in childhood versus adulthood. We discuss theoretical explanations for this developmental pattern and conclude that longitudinal studies are necessary to better understand the developmental trajectory of face perception and face memory deficits in DP.

Dissociation between face perception and face memory in adults, but not children, with developmental prosopagnosia.

Science.gov (United States)

Dalrymple, Kirsten A; Garrido, Lúcia; Duchaine, Brad

2014-10-01

Cognitive models propose that face recognition is accomplished through a series of discrete stages, including perceptual representation of facial structure, and encoding and retrieval of facial information. This implies that impaired face recognition can result from failures of face perception, face memory, or both. Studies of acquired prosopagnosia, autism spectrum disorders, and the development of normal face recognition support the idea that face perception and face memory are distinct processes, yet this distinction has received little attention in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). To address this issue, we tested the face perception and face memory of children and adults with DP. By definition, face memory is impaired in DP, so memory deficits were present in all participants. However, we found that all children, but only half of the adults had impaired face perception. Thus, results from adults indicate that face perception and face memory are dissociable, while the results from children provide no evidence for this division. Importantly, our findings raise the possibility that DP is qualitatively different in childhood versus adulthood. We discuss theoretical explanations for this developmental pattern and conclude that longitudinal studies are necessary to better understand the developmental trajectory of face perception and face memory deficits in DP. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Orienting to face expression during encoding improves men's recognition of own gender faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Fulton, Erika K; Bulluck, Megan; Hertzog, Christopher

2015-10-01

It is unclear why women have superior episodic memory of faces, but the benefit may be partially the result of women engaging in superior processing of facial expressions. Therefore, we hypothesized that orienting instructions to attend to facial expression at encoding would significantly improve men's memory of faces and possibly reduce gender differences. We directed 203 college students (122 women) to study 120 faces under instructions to orient to either the person's gender or their emotional expression. They later took a recognition test of these faces by either judging whether they had previously studied the same person or that person with the exact same expression; the latter test evaluated recollection of specific facial details. Orienting to facial expressions during encoding significantly improved men's recognition of own-gender faces and eliminated the advantage that women had for male faces under gender orienting instructions. Although gender differences in spontaneous strategy use when orienting to faces cannot fully account for gender differences in face recognition, orienting men to facial expression during encoding is one way to significantly improve their episodic memory for male faces. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do international flights promote FDI? : the role of face-to-face communication

OpenAIRE

Tanaka, Kiyoyasu

2016-01-01

Air transportation facilitates face-to-face interactions across borders for the spatial expansion of manufacturing production. I investigate the impact of international flights on FDI entry by Japanese firms. I find that FDI entry significantly increases with the weekly frequency of flights from Japan, and the positive impact increases with a proxy for an intensity of face-to-face communication between the parent firm and foreign affiliate. The results are robust to estimation methods, additi...

Getting a New Pancreas: Facts about Pancreas Transplants

Science.gov (United States)

... 2003 December 2006 March 2012 Getting A New Pancreas Facts About Pancreas Transplants American Society of Transplantation 1120 Route 73, ... the views of the Society. _________________________________________________________________ Getting a New Pancreas Facts About Pancreas Transplants When you get a ...

Doctor-patient communication: a comparison between telemedicine consultation and face-to-face consultation.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiao; Sawada, Yoshie; Takizawa, Takako; Sato, Hiroko; Sato, Mahito; Sakamoto, Hironosuke; Utsugi, Toshihiro; Sato, Kunio; Sumino, Hiroyuki; Okamura, Shinichi; Sakamaki, Tetsuo

2007-01-01

The objective of this study was to compare doctor-patient communications in clinical consultations via telemedicine technology to doctor-patient communications in face-to-face clinical consultations. Five doctors who had been practicing internal medicine for 8 to 18 years, and twenty patients were enrolled in this study; neither doctors nor patients had previous experience of telemedicine. The patients received both a telemedicine consultation and a face-to-face consultation. Three measures--video observation, medical record volume, and participants' satisfaction--were used for the assessment. It was found that the time spent on the telemedicine consultation was substantially longer than the time spent on the face-to-face consultation. No statistically significant differences were found in the number of either closed or open-ended questions asked by doctors between both types of consultation. Empathy-utterances, praise-utterances, and facilitation-utterances were, however, seen less in the telemedicine consultations than in the face-to-face consultations. The volume of the medical records was statistically smaller in the telemedicine consultations than in the face-to-face consultations. Patients were satisfied with the telemedicine consultation, but doctors were dissatisfied with it and felt hampered by the communication barriers. This study suggests that new training programs are needed for doctors to develop improved communication skills and the ability to express empathy in telemedicine consultations.

Energy in Sweden. Facts and figures 2004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-12-01

Energy in Sweden 2004: Facts and Figures contains the tabular data for most of the diagrams in the main publication. These data consist primarily of the results of the Agency's processing of basic data from Statistics Sweden. Facts and Figures is available at www.stem.se in pdf- and excel file formats. Since the year 2001 statistics for the period 1983-1998 are revised compared to data for previous editions. With effect from the 2001 edition, statistics are of preliminary character for the two preceding years. Breakdowns into certain types of fuels vary somewhat depending on whether preliminary or final data has been used. Further information about the statistics can be found in Energy in Sweden, chapter 8 Energy Facts.

International nuclear cycle fact book: Revision 9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leigh, I.W.

1989-01-01

The International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book has been compiled in an effort to provide current data concerning fuel cycle and waste management facilities, R and D programs and key personnel. The Fact Book contains: national summaries in which a section for each country which summarizes nuclear policy, describes organizational relationships and provides addresses, names of key personnel, and facilities information; and international agencies in which a section for each of the international agencies which has significant fuel cycle involvement, and a listing of nuclear societies. The national summaries, in addition to the data described above, feature a small map for each country as well as some general information. The latter is presented from the perspective of the Fact Book user in the United States

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Leadership: sad facts and silver linings.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, T J

1979-01-01

The typical CEO has endless interruptions and limited options for action. In addition, he may not even hear about his choices, or any bad news that might require action, until it is almost too late. Finally, any decision he does make will probably require months or years to implement fully. This author suggests that this gloomy picture has another side. In fact, each of these "sad facts" of managerial life can be turned into an opportunity to communicate values and to persuade, and they add up to a new notion of the chief executive's function.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuji Nihei

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing, the N170 component (face detection, and the N250 component (personal detection reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing.

A Comparison of Online and Face-to-Face Approaches to Teaching Introduction to American Government

Science.gov (United States)

Bolsen, Toby; Evans, Michael; Fleming, Anna McCaghren

2016-01-01

This article reports results from a large study comparing four different approaches to teaching Introduction to American Government: (1) traditional, a paper textbook with 100% face-to-face lecture-style teaching; (2) breakout, a paper textbook with 50% face-to-face lecture-style teaching and 50% face-to-face small-group breakout discussion…

Attention Capture by Faces

Science.gov (United States)

Langton, Stephen R. H.; Law, Anna S.; Burton, A. Mike; Schweinberger, Stefan R.

2008-01-01

We report three experiments that investigate whether faces are capable of capturing attention when in competition with other non-face objects. In Experiment 1a participants took longer to decide that an array of objects contained a butterfly target when a face appeared as one of the distracting items than when the face did not appear in the array.…

Real-time teleophthalmology versus face-to-face consultation: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Irene J; Dobson, Lucy P; Bartnik, Stephen; Muir, Josephine; Turner, Angus W

2017-08-01

Introduction Advances in imaging capabilities and the evolution of real-time teleophthalmology have the potential to provide increased coverage to areas with limited ophthalmology services. However, there is limited research assessing the diagnostic accuracy of face-to-face teleophthalmology consultation. This systematic review aims to determine if real-time teleophthalmology provides comparable accuracy to face-to-face consultation for the diagnosis of common eye health conditions. Methods A search of PubMed, Embase, Medline and Cochrane databases and manual citation review was conducted on 6 February and 7 April 2016. Included studies involved real-time telemedicine in the field of ophthalmology or optometry, and assessed diagnostic accuracy against gold-standard face-to-face consultation. The revised quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS-2) tool assessed risk of bias. Results Twelve studies were included, with participants ranging from four to 89 years old. A broad number of conditions were assessed and include corneal and retinal pathologies, strabismus, oculoplastics and post-operative review. Quality assessment identified a high or unclear risk of bias in patient selection (75%) due to an undisclosed recruitment processes. The index test showed high risk of bias in the included studies, due to the varied interpretation and conduct of real-time teleophthalmology methods. Reference standard risk was overall low (75%), as was the risk due to flow and timing (75%). Conclusion In terms of diagnostic accuracy, real-time teleophthalmology was considered superior to face-to-face consultation in one study and comparable in six studies. Store-and-forward image transmission coupled with real-time videoconferencing is a suitable alternative to overcome poor internet transmission speeds.

Comparing face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous learning: postgraduate dental resident preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunin, Marc; Julliard, Kell N; Rodriguez, Tobias E

2014-06-01

The Department of Dental Medicine of Lutheran Medical Center has developed an asynchronous online curriculum consisting of prerecorded PowerPoint presentations with audio explanations. The focus of this study was to evaluate if the new asynchronous format satisfied the educational needs of the residents compared to traditional lecture (face-to-face) and synchronous (distance learning) formats. Lectures were delivered to 219 dental residents employing face-to-face and synchronous formats, as well as the new asynchronous format; 169 (77 percent) participated in the study. Outcomes were assessed with pretests, posttests, and individual lecture surveys. Results found the residents preferred face-to-face and asynchronous formats to the synchronous format in terms of effectiveness and clarity of presentations. This preference was directly related to the residents' perception of how well the technology worked in each format. The residents also rated the quality of student-instructor and student-student interactions in the synchronous and asynchronous formats significantly higher after taking the lecture series than they did before taking it. However, they rated the face-to-face format as significantly more conducive to student-instructor and student-student interaction. While the study found technology had a major impact on the efficacy of this curricular model, the results suggest that the asynchronous format can be an effective way to teach a postgraduate course.

Recommendations on Arresting Global Health Challenges Facing Adolescents and Young Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Lassi, Zohra S; Salam, Rehana A; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A

The health challenges faced by young people are more complex than adults and can compromise their full growth and development. Attention must be paid to the health of this age group, yet adolescents and youth remain largely invisible and often disappear from the major global datasets. The aim of this paper is to discuss the global health challenges faced by adolescents and youth, global legislations and guidelines pertaining to this particular age group, recommendations to arrest these challenges, and research priorities. Major direct and indirect global health risks faced by adolescents include early pregnancy and childbirth, femicide, honor killing, female genital mutilation, nutritional habits and choices, social media, and peer pressure. There are no standard legal age cut-offs for adulthood; rather, the age varies for different activities, such as age of consent or the minimum age that young people can legally work, leave school, drive, buy alcohol, marry, be held accountable for criminal action, and make medical decisions. This reflects the fact that the existing systems and structures are focused on either children or adults, with very few investments and interventions directed specifically to young people. Existing legislation and guidelines need transformation to bring about a specific focus on adolescents in the domains of substance use and sexual behaviors, and the capacity for adolescent learning should be exploited through graduated legal and policy frameworks. Sustainable development goals provide an opportunity to target this neglected and vulnerable age group. A multisectoral approach is needed to bring about healthy change and address the challenges faced by adolescents and youth, from modifications at a broader legislative and policy level to ground-level (community-level) implementations. Copyright © 2017 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Non-egalitarian allocations among preschool peers in a face-to-face bargaining task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alicia P Melis

Full Text Available In face-to-face bargaining tasks human adults almost always agree on an equal split of resources. This is due to mutually recognized fairness and equality norms. Early developmental studies on sharing and equality norms found that egalitarian allocations of resources are not common before children are 5 or 6 years old. However, recent studies have shown that in some face-to face collaborative situations, or when recipients express their desires, children at much younger ages choose equal allocations. We investigated the ability of 3.5 and 5-year-olds to negotiate face-to-face, whether to collaborate to obtain an equal or an unequal distribution of rewards. We hypothesized that the face-to-face interaction and interdependency between partners would facilitate egalitarian outcomes at both ages. In the first experiment we found that 5-year-olds were more egalitarian than 3.5-year-olds, but neither of the age classes shared equally. In the second experiment, in which we increased the magnitude of the inequality, we found that children at both ages mostly agreed on the unequal distribution. These results show that communication and face-to-face interactions are not sufficient to guarantee equal allocations at 3-5 years of age. These results add to previous findings suggesting that in the context of non-collaboratively produced resources it is only after 5 years of age that children use equality norms to allocate resources.

Thorndike Revisited--Some Facts

Science.gov (United States)

Tuinman, J. Jaap

1971-01-01

Examines some historical facts surrounding Thorndike's 1917 article, Reading as Reasoning: A Study of Mistakes in Paragraph Reading," (republished in Reading Research Quarterly, 1971, 6, 425-48), in an attempt to put the article in its proper perspective both as a research study and as a contribution to the psychology of reading. (VJ)

Ethanol Basics (Fact Sheet)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2015-01-01

Ethanol is a widely-used, domestically-produced renewable fuel made from corn and other plant materials. More than 96% of gasoline sold in the United States contains ethanol. Learn more about this alternative fuel in the Ethanol Basics Fact Sheet, produced by the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities program.

Best Management Practice Fact Sheet. 12, Filtering Practices

OpenAIRE

Sample, David; Barlow, Stefani

2013-01-01

This fact sheet is one of a 15-part series on urban stormwater management practices. This fact sheet discusses filtering practices, what they are, where they are used, how they work, maintenance, limitations, performance, expected costs and includes a glossary of terms.

Best Management Practice Fact Sheet. 10, Dry Swale

OpenAIRE

Sample, David; Doumar, Lia

2013-01-01

This fact sheet is one of a 15-part series on urban stormwater management practices. This fact sheet discusses dry swales, what they are, where they are used, how they work, maintenance, limitations, performance, expected costs and includes a glossary of terms.

Best Management Practice Fact Sheet. 11, Wet Swale

OpenAIRE

Sample, David; Doumar, Lia

2013-01-01

This fact sheet is one of a 15-part series on urban stormwater management practices. This fact sheet discusses wet swales, what they are, where they are used, how they work, maintenance, limitations, performance, expected costs and includes a glossary of terms.

Highlights from a Literature Review Prepared for the Face to Face Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

National Literacy Trust, 2010

2010-01-01

Between March 2009 and March 2011, Talk To Your Baby has been engaged in a research project, under the title of Face to Face, to identify key messages for parents and carers in relation to communicating with babies and young children, and has examined the most effective ways to promote these messages to parents and carers. The Face to Face project…

NJ transportation fact book, 2007

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

The New Jersey Transportation Fact Book 2006-07 presents information about the New Jersey Department of Transportation : and other agencies that provide transportation services in New Jersey. We hope it will prove helpful.

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... Join the Cause alz.org >> Alzheimer's & Dementia >> Home Text size: A A A 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures Download the full report: Download the Infographic: English Spanish Share the ...

Face to Face

OpenAIRE

Robert Leckey

2013-01-01

This paper uses Queer theory, specifically literature on Bowers v. Hardwick, to analyze debates over legislation proposed in Quebec regarding covered faces. Queer theory sheds light on legal responses to the veil. Parliamentary debates in Quebec reconstitute the polity, notably as secular and united. The paper highlights the contradictory and unstable character of four binaries: legislative text versus social practice, act versus status, majority versus minority, and knowable versus unknowabl...

The neural code for face orientation in the human fusiform face area.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Fernando M; Cichy, Radoslaw M; Allefeld, Carsten; Haynes, John-Dylan

2014-09-03

Humans recognize faces and objects with high speed and accuracy regardless of their orientation. Recent studies have proposed that orientation invariance in face recognition involves an intermediate representation where neural responses are similar for mirror-symmetric views. Here, we used fMRI, multivariate pattern analysis, and computational modeling to investigate the neural encoding of faces and vehicles at different rotational angles. Corroborating previous studies, we demonstrate a representation of face orientation in the fusiform face-selective area (FFA). We go beyond these studies by showing that this representation is category-selective and tolerant to retinal translation. Critically, by controlling for low-level confounds, we found the representation of orientation in FFA to be compatible with a linear angle code. Aspects of mirror-symmetric coding cannot be ruled out when FFA mean activity levels are considered as a dimension of coding. Finally, we used a parametric family of computational models, involving a biased sampling of view-tuned neuronal clusters, to compare different face angle encoding models. The best fitting model exhibited a predominance of neuronal clusters tuned to frontal views of faces. In sum, our findings suggest a category-selective and monotonic code of face orientation in the human FFA, in line with primate electrophysiology studies that observed mirror-symmetric tuning of neural responses at higher stages of the visual system, beyond the putative homolog of human FFA. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3412155-13$15.00/0.

Dental Health: The Basic Facts

Science.gov (United States)

Dental Health THE BASIC FACTS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS Kim, diagnosed in 1986 People with a chronic disease may neglect their general health and wellness, research shows. Dental care is no exception. A tendency to focus ...

2008 public transportation fact book

Science.gov (United States)

2008-06-01

This Public Transportation Fact Book presents statistics describing the entire United States transit industry for 1995 : through 2006 with additional detail and overview presentations for 2006. Also included are definitions of reported data : items.

2010 public transportation fact book

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

The Public Transportation Fact Book, published annually, contains national aggregate statistical data covering all aspects of the transit industry in the United States and Canada. Two appendices, also available, provide additional in-depth informatio...

Facts about Jaundice and Kernicterus

Science.gov (United States)

... Search Form Controls Cancel Submit Search the CDC Jaundice & Kernicterus Note: Javascript is disabled or is not ... Websites Information For… Media Policy Makers Facts about Jaundice and Kernicterus Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir ...

Back Pain Facts and Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

... Marketing Patient Fact Sheets Contact the ACA State Licensing Boards Research JMPT Abstracts Latest Issue Evidence in ... Chiropractic Posture Backpack Safety Spinal Health Winter Activities Kids and Sports Exercising Outdoors with Baby Gardening Chronic ...

Definition and Facts for Constipation

Science.gov (United States)

... Causes Diagnosis Treatment Eating, Diet, & Nutrition Clinical Trials Definition & Facts for Constipation What is constipation? Constipation is ... and Treatment. New York, NY: Springer Science and Business Media; 2014. May 2018 Share Previous: Constipation Next: ...

Chemical Agents: Facts about Evacuation

Science.gov (United States)

... What CDC is Doing Blog: Public Health Matters Chemical Agents: Facts About Evacuation Format: Select One PDF [ ... on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Some kinds of chemical accidents or attacks, such as a train derailment ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Science.gov (United States)

... Dementia >> Home Text size: A A A 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures Download the full report: ... twice as high. Invest in a world without Alzheimer's. Donate Caregivers Eighty-three percent of the help ...

State Fact Sheets on COPD

Science.gov (United States)

... Submit Search The CDC Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Note: Javascript is disabled or is not supported ... message, please visit this page: About CDC.gov . COPD Homepage Data and Statistics Fact Sheets Publications Publications ...

At face value : categorization goals modulate vigilance for angry faces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Dillen, L.F.; Lakens, D.; Bos, van den K.

2010-01-01

The present research demonstrates that the attention bias to angry faces is modulated by how people categorize these faces. Since facial expressions contain psychologically meaningful information for social categorizations (i.e., gender, personality) but not for non-social categorizations (i.e.,

Learning discriminant face descriptor.

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Zhen; Pietikäinen, Matti; Li, Stan Z

2014-02-01

Local feature descriptor is an important module for face recognition and those like Gabor and local binary patterns (LBP) have proven effective face descriptors. Traditionally, the form of such local descriptors is predefined in a handcrafted way. In this paper, we propose a method to learn a discriminant face descriptor (DFD) in a data-driven way. The idea is to learn the most discriminant local features that minimize the difference of the features between images of the same person and maximize that between images from different people. In particular, we propose to enhance the discriminative ability of face representation in three aspects. First, the discriminant image filters are learned. Second, the optimal neighborhood sampling strategy is soft determined. Third, the dominant patterns are statistically constructed. Discriminative learning is incorporated to extract effective and robust features. We further apply the proposed method to the heterogeneous (cross-modality) face recognition problem and learn DFD in a coupled way (coupled DFD or C-DFD) to reduce the gap between features of heterogeneous face images to improve the performance of this challenging problem. Extensive experiments on FERET, CAS-PEAL-R1, LFW, and HFB face databases validate the effectiveness of the proposed DFD learning on both homogeneous and heterogeneous face recognition problems. The DFD improves POEM and LQP by about 4.5 percent on LFW database and the C-DFD enhances the heterogeneous face recognition performance of LBP by over 25 percent.

Cyber- and Face-to-Face Bullying: Who Crosses Over?

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Hwayeon Helene; Braithwaite, Valerie; Ahmed, Eliza

2016-01-01

A total of 3956 children aged 12-13 years who completed the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC Wave 5) were studied about their experiences of traditional face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying in the last month. In terms of prevalence, sixty percent of the sample had been involved in traditional bullying as the victim and/or the…

InterFace: A software package for face image warping, averaging, and principal components analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kramer, Robin S S; Jenkins, Rob; Burton, A Mike

2017-12-01

We describe InterFace, a software package for research in face recognition. The package supports image warping, reshaping, averaging of multiple face images, and morphing between faces. It also supports principal components analysis (PCA) of face images, along with tools for exploring the "face space" produced by PCA. The package uses a simple graphical user interface, allowing users to perform these sophisticated image manipulations without any need for programming knowledge. The program is available for download in the form of an app, which requires that users also have access to the (freely available) MATLAB Runtime environment.

A truly human interface: Interacting face-to-face with someone whose words are determined by a computer program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kevin eCorti

2015-05-01

Full Text Available We use speech shadowing to create situations wherein people converse in person with a human whose words are determined by a conversational agent computer program. Speech shadowing involves a person (the shadower repeating vocal stimuli originating from a separate communication source in real-time. Humans shadowing for conversational agent sources (e.g., chat bots become hybrid agents (echoborgs capable of face-to-face interlocution. We report three studies that investigated people’s experiences interacting with echoborgs and the extent to which echoborgs pass as autonomous humans. First, participants in a Turing Test spoke with a chat bot via either a text interface or an echoborg. Human shadowing did not improve the chat bot’s chance of passing but did increase interrogators’ ratings of how human-like the chat bot seemed. In our second study, participants had to decide whether their interlocutor produced words generated by a chat bot or simply pretended to be one. Compared to those who engaged a text interface, participants who engaged an echoborg were more likely to perceive their interlocutor as pretending to be a chat bot. In our third study, participants were naïve to the fact that their interlocutor produced words generated by a chat bot. Unlike those who engaged a text interface, the vast majority of participants who engaged an echoborg neither sensed nor suspected a robotic interaction. These findings have implications for android science, the Turing Test paradigm, and human-computer interaction. The human body, as the delivery mechanism of communication, fundamentally alters the social psychological dynamics of interactions with machine intelligence.

International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leigh, I.W.; Patridge, M.D.

1991-05-01

As the US Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE contractors have become increasingly involved with other nations in nuclear fuel cycle and waste management cooperative activities, a need has developed for a ready source of information concerning foreign fuel cycle programs, facilities, and personnel. This Fact Book was compiled to meet that need. The information contained in the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Fact Book has been obtained from many unclassified sources: nuclear trade journals and newsletters; reports of foreign visits and visitors; CEC, IAEA, and OECN/NEA activities reports; not reflect any one single source but frequently represent a consolidation/combination of information.

Spatial Location in Brief, Free-Viewing Face Encoding Modulates Contextual Face Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatima M. Felisberti

2013-08-01

Full Text Available 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.

Enriching Addition and Subtraction Fact Mastery through Games

Science.gov (United States)

Bay-Williams, Jennifer M.; Kling, Gina

2014-01-01

The learning of "basic facts"--single-digit combinations for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division--has long been a focus of elementary school mathematics. Many people remember completing endless worksheets, timed tests, and flash card drills as they attempted to "master" their basic facts as children. However,…

Face shape and face identity processing in behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia: A specific deficit for familiarity and name recognition of famous faces.

Science.gov (United States)

De Winter, François-Laurent; Timmers, Dorien; de Gelder, Beatrice; Van Orshoven, Marc; Vieren, Marleen; Bouckaert, Miriam; Cypers, Gert; Caekebeke, Jo; Van de Vliet, Laura; Goffin, Karolien; Van Laere, Koen; Sunaert, Stefan; Vandenberghe, Rik; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Van den Stock, Jan

2016-01-01

Deficits in face processing have been described in the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD), primarily regarding the recognition of facial expressions. Less is known about face shape and face identity processing. Here we used a hierarchical strategy targeting face shape and face identity recognition in bvFTD and matched healthy controls. Participants performed 3 psychophysical experiments targeting face shape detection (Experiment 1), unfamiliar face identity matching (Experiment 2), familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching (Experiment 3). The results revealed group differences only in Experiment 3, with a deficit in the bvFTD group for both familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching. Voxel-based morphometry regression analyses in the bvFTD group revealed an association between grey matter volume of the left ventral anterior temporal lobe and familiarity recognition, while face-name matching correlated with grey matter volume of the bilateral ventral anterior temporal lobes. Subsequently, we quantified familiarity-specific and name-specific recognition deficits as the sum of the celebrities of which respectively only the name or only the familiarity was accurately recognized. Both indices were associated with grey matter volume of the bilateral anterior temporal cortices. These findings extent previous results by documenting the involvement of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in familiarity detection and the right ATL in name recognition deficits in fronto-temporal lobar degeneration.

Factors defining face-to-face interruptions in the office environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matysiak, A.J.; Markopoulos, P.

2006-01-01

This paper presents an on-going investigation on interruptions in the office caused by face-to-face interactions between knowledge workers. The study aims to identify opportunities for interactive solutions that will support both, the interrupters and the interrupted. The study involves contextual

Shared or separate mechanisms for self-face and other-face processing? Evidence from adaptation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brendan eRooney

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Evidence that self-face recognition is dissociable from general face recognition hasimportant implications both for models of social cognition and for our understanding offace recognition. In two studies, we examine how adaptation affects the perception ofpersonally familiar faces, and we use a visual adaptation paradigm to investigatewhether the neural mechanisms underlying the recognition of one’s own and other facesare shared or separate. In Study 1 we show that the representation of personally familiarfaces is rapidly updated by visual experience with unfamiliar faces, so that theperception of one’s own face and a friend’s face is altered by a brief period ofadaptation to distorted unfamiliar faces. In Study 2, participants adapted to images oftheir own and a friend’s face distorted in opposite directions; the contingent aftereffectswe observe are indicative of separate neural populations, but we suggest that thesereflect coding of facial identity rather than of the categories ‘self’ and ‘other’.

Type 1 Diabetes Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... Affiliates JDRF Celebrity Ambassadors JDRF Logo Usage Contact Us Donate Events More Type 1 Diabetes Facts Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune ... about Insulin and T1D Learn More What Is Diabetes? Causes of T1D The Complexity of Diagnosing ... US CAREERS NEWSROOM FOR RESEARCHERS © JDRF 2018 • Privacy Policy • ...

DER 86: main facts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-01-01

This report presents the important facts among the studies carried out by the Direction des Etudes et Recherches (E.D.F.): new applications of electric power for customers, protection of environment, classical equipments for power plants and nuclear equipments, monitoring and control of power plants, electrical equipments, development and operation of electrical networks, informatics and office automation [fr

Gun Sales. Firearm Facts.

Science.gov (United States)

Duker, Laurie, Ed.

Minimal federal regulations on firearm sales have facilitated the proliferation of guns, gun owners, and gun dealers in the United States. This fact sheet offers data on the growing number of firearm dealers, the relative ease of obtaining and keeping a license to sell guns from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the lack of…

Filtering Dialysis Myths from Facts

Science.gov (United States)

... to work. Fact: Many dialysis patients continue to work, go to school, or volunteer . Some take time off when they first start dialysis treatment and back to work or school after they have gotten used to ...

Tuberculosis Facts - Exposure to TB

Science.gov (United States)

Tuberculosis (TB) Facts Exposure to TB What is TB? “TB” is short for a disease called tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air from one ... Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Division of Tuberculosis Elimination

Tuberculosis Facts - Testing for TB

Science.gov (United States)

Tuberculosis (TB) Facts Testing for TB What is TB? “TB” is short for a disease called tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air from one ... Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Division of Tuberculosis Elimination

Facts about food irradiation. A series of fact sheets from the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1991-12-01

The safety and benefits of foods processed by ionizing radiation are well documented. In an effort to provide governments, especially those of developing countries, with scientifically accurate information on issues of general interest to the public, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation (ICGFI), which was established under the aegis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the IAEA, decided at its 7th Annual Meeting in Rome, Italy, on October 1990, to issue a series of ''Fact Sheets'' on the subject. ICGFI, an inter-governmental body with a membership of 37 governments, has as one of its mandates the function to provide information to Member States of the FAO, WHO, and IAEA and to the three organizations themselves on the safe and proper use of food irradiation technology. The Fact Sheets included here cover issues relating to: status and trends; scientific and technical terms; food irradiation and radioactivity; chemical changes in irradiated food; nutritional quality of irradiated foods; genetic studies; microbiological safety of irradiated food; irradiation and food safety; irradiation and food additives and residues; packaging of irradiated foods; safety of irradiation facilities; controlling the process; food irradiation costs; and irradiated foods and the consumer. The Fact Sheets have been separately indexed and included in the INIS Database under Reference Numbers 23011206-23011217, 23011319 and 23012743. The Fact Sheets were first issued by the ICGFI Secretariat (Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Vienna, Austria) in May 1991.

Facts about food irradiation. A series of fact sheets from the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-12-01

The safety and benefits of foods processed by ionizing radiation are well documented. In an effort to provide governments, especially those of developing countries, with scientifically accurate information on issues of general interest to the public, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation (ICGFI), which was established under the aegis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the IAEA, decided at its 7th Annual Meeting in Rome, Italy, on October 1990, to issue a series of ''Fact Sheets'' on the subject. ICGFI, an inter-governmental body with a membership of 37 governments, has as one of its mandates the function to provide information to Member States of the FAO, WHO, and IAEA and to the three organizations themselves on the safe and proper use of food irradiation technology. The Fact Sheets included here cover issues relating to: status and trends; scientific and technical terms; food irradiation and radioactivity; chemical changes in irradiated food; nutritional quality of irradiated foods; genetic studies; microbiological safety of irradiated food; irradiation and food safety; irradiation and food additives and residues; packaging of irradiated foods; safety of irradiation facilities; controlling the process; food irradiation costs; and irradiated foods and the consumer. The Fact Sheets have been separately indexed and included in the INIS Database under Reference Numbers 23011206-23011217, 23011319 and 23012743. The Fact Sheets were first issued by the ICGFI Secretariat (Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Vienna, Austria) in May 1991

MobileFaceNets: Efficient CNNs for Accurate Real-time Face Verification on Mobile Devices

OpenAIRE

Chen, Sheng; Liu, Yang; Gao, Xiang; Han, Zhen

2018-01-01

In this paper, we proposed a class of extremely efficient CNN models, MobileFaceNets, which use less than 1 million parameters and are specifically tailored for high-accuracy real-time face verification on mobile and embedded devices. We first make a simple analysis on the weakness of common mobile networks for face verification. The weakness has been well overcome by our specifically designed MobileFaceNets. Under the same experimental conditions, our MobileFaceNets achieve significantly sup...

Publication bias and the canonization of false facts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nissen, Silas Boye; Magidson, Tali; Gross, Kevin

2016-01-01

canonized as fact. Data-dredging, p-hacking, and similar behaviors exacerbate the problem. Should negative results become easier to publish as a claim approaches acceptance as a fact, however, true and false claims would be more readily distinguished. To the degree that the model reflects the real world...

50 Facts about Oral, Head and Neck Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

... Marketplace Find an ENT Doctor Near You 50 Facts about Oral, Head and Neck Cancer 50 Facts about Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Patient Health ... cancer has increased in all races and both sexes. Thyroid cancers account for ... who work in environments with dust, glues, formaldehyde, mustard gas, ...

Matching faces with emotional expressions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenfeng eChen

2011-08-01

Full Text Available There is some evidence that faces with a happy expression are recognized better than faces with other expressions. However, little is known about whether this happy face advantage also applies to perceptual face matching, and whether similar differences exist among other expressions. Using a sequential matching paradigm, we systematically compared the effects of seven basic facial expressions on identity recognition. Identity matching was quickest when a pair of faces had an identical happy/sad/neutral expression, poorer when they had a fearful/surprise/angry expression, and poorest when they had a disgust expression. Faces with a happy/sad/fear/surprise expression were matched faster than those with an anger/disgust expression when the second face in a pair had a neutral expression. These results demonstrate that effects of facial expression on identity recognition are not limited to happy faces when a learned face is immediately tested. The results suggest different influences of expression in perceptual matching and long-term recognition memory.

The Kent Face Matching Test.

Science.gov (United States)

Fysh, Matthew C; Bindemann, Markus

2018-05-01

This study presents the Kent Face Matching Test (KFMT), which comprises 200 same-identity and 20 different-identity pairs of unfamiliar faces. Each face pair consists of a photograph from a student ID card and a high-quality portrait that was taken at least three months later. The test is designed to complement existing resources for face-matching research, by providing a more ecologically valid stimulus set that captures the natural variability that can arise in a person's appearance over time. Two experiments are presented to demonstrate that the KFMT provides a challenging measure of face matching but correlates with established tests. Experiment 1 compares a short version of this test with the optimized Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). In Experiment 2, a longer version of the KFMT, with infrequent identity mismatches, is correlated with performance on the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and the Cambridge Face Perception Test (CFPT). The KFMT is freely available for use in face-matching research. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Examination of program exposure across intervention delivery modes: face-to-face versus internet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mummery W Kerry

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There has been increasing interest in the ability of the internet to produce behaviour change. The focus of this study was to describe program exposure across three intervention groups from a randomised trial (RT comparing traditional face-to-face, internet-mediated (combined internet plus face-to-face, and internet-only program delivery. Methods Baseline and immediately post-intervention survey data, and exposure rates from participants that commenced the RT were included (n = 192. Exposure was defined as either face-to-face attendance, website usage, or a combination of both for the internet-mediated group. Characteristics of participants who were exposed to at least 75% of the program material were explored. Descriptive analysis and logistical regression were used to examine differences between groups for program exposure. Results All groups showed decrease in program exposure over time. Differences were also observed (χ2 = 10.37, p Conclusion These results suggest that the internet groups were as effective as the face-to-face delivery mode in engaging participants in the program material. However, different delivery methods may be more useful to different sub-populations. It is important to explore which target groups that internet-based programs are best suited, in order to increase their impact.

Electronic and face-to-face communication in maintaining social relationships

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tillema, T.; Dijst, M.J.; Schwanen, T.

2007-01-01

Although the spectacular spread of wired and wireless communication technologies such as the Internet and mobile phone have been discussed extensively in the academic literature, knowledge of the interactions among face-to-face (F2F) and electronic communication modes and their implications for

75 FR 55340 - Recovery Fact Sheet 9580.100, Mold Remediation

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-10

...] Recovery Fact Sheet 9580.100, Mold Remediation AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION... accepting comments on Recovery Fact Sheet RP9580.100, Mold Remediation. DATES: Comments must be received by... 20472-3100. II. Background The Recovery Fact Sheet RP9580.100, Mold Remediation, identifies the expenses...

Energy conservation using face detection

Science.gov (United States)

Deotale, Nilesh T.; Kalbande, Dhananjay R.; Mishra, Akassh A.

2011-10-01

Computerized Face Detection, is concerned with the difficult task of converting a video signal of a person to written text. It has several applications like face recognition, simultaneous multiple face processing, biometrics, security, video surveillance, human computer interface, image database management, digital cameras use face detection for autofocus, selecting regions of interest in photo slideshows that use a pan-and-scale and The Present Paper deals with energy conservation using face detection. Automating the process to a computer requires the use of various image processing techniques. There are various methods that can be used for Face Detection such as Contour tracking methods, Template matching, Controlled background, Model based, Motion based and color based. Basically, the video of the subject are converted into images are further selected manually for processing. However, several factors like poor illumination, movement of face, viewpoint-dependent Physical appearance, Acquisition geometry, Imaging conditions, Compression artifacts makes Face detection difficult. This paper reports an algorithm for conservation of energy using face detection for various devices. The present paper suggests Energy Conservation can be done by Detecting the Face and reducing the brightness of complete image and then adjusting the brightness of the particular area of an image where the face is located using histogram equalization.

Optimal placement of FACTS devices using optimization techniques: A review

Science.gov (United States)

Gaur, Dipesh; Mathew, Lini

2018-03-01

Modern power system is dealt with overloading problem especially transmission network which works on their maximum limit. Today’s power system network tends to become unstable and prone to collapse due to disturbances. Flexible AC Transmission system (FACTS) provides solution to problems like line overloading, voltage stability, losses, power flow etc. FACTS can play important role in improving static and dynamic performance of power system. FACTS devices need high initial investment. Therefore, FACTS location, type and their rating are vital and should be optimized to place in the network for maximum benefit. In this paper, different optimization methods like Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) etc. are discussed and compared for optimal location, type and rating of devices. FACTS devices such as Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC), Static Var Compensator (SVC) and Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) are considered here. Mentioned FACTS controllers effects on different IEEE bus network parameters like generation cost, active power loss, voltage stability etc. have been analyzed and compared among the devices.

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report contains data on the impact of this disease in every ... with third parties. Please read our security and privacy policy . Plan ahead Get help and support I ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... home care. Take action. Become an advocate SPECIAL REPORT: FINANCIAL AND PERSONAL BENEFITS OF EARLY DIAGNOSIS Early ... State The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report contains data on the impact of this disease ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... 272.3900 Donate Alzheimer's & Dementia What Is Alzheimer's? Brain Tour Younger/Early Onset Risk Factors Genetics Myths ... Dementia Korsakoff Syndrome Related Conditions CTE MCI Traumatic Brain Injury Facts and Figures Know the 10 Signs ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... Dementia >> Home Text size: A A A 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures Download the full report: ... twice as high. Invest in a world without Alzheimer's. Donate Caregivers Eighty-three percent of the help ...

FaceIt: face recognition from static and live video for law enforcement

Science.gov (United States)

Atick, Joseph J.; Griffin, Paul M.; Redlich, A. N.

1997-01-01

Recent advances in image and pattern recognition technology- -especially face recognition--are leading to the development of a new generation of information systems of great value to the law enforcement community. With these systems it is now possible to pool and manage vast amounts of biometric intelligence such as face and finger print records and conduct computerized searches on them. We review one of the enabling technologies underlying these systems: the FaceIt face recognition engine; and discuss three applications that illustrate its benefits as a problem-solving technology and an efficient and cost effective investigative tool.

Social cognition in autism: Face tuning.

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlova, Marina A; Guerreschi, Michele; Tagliavento, Lucia; Gitti, Filippo; Sokolov, Alexander N; Fallgatter, Andreas J; Fazzi, Elisa

2017-05-26

Faces convey valuable information for social cognition, effective interpersonal interaction, and non-verbal communication. Face perception is believed to be atypical in autism, but the origin of this deficit is controversial. Dominant featural face encoding is suggested to be responsible for face tuning scarcity. Here we used a recently developed Face-n-Food paradigm for studying face tuning in individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). The key benefit of these images is that single components do not explicitly trigger face processing. In a spontaneous recognition task, adolescents with autism and typically developing matched controls were presented with a set of Face-n-Food images in different degree resembling a face (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). The set of images was shown in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Thresholds for recognition of the Face-n-Food images as a face in ASD individuals were substantially higher than in typically developing controls: they did not report seeing a face on the images, which controls easily recognized as a face, and gave overall fewer face responses. This outcome not only lends support to atypical face tuning, but provides novel insights into the origin of face encoding deficits in autism.

Chernobyl: the facts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stanbridge, R.; Dept. of Journalism, Media and Communication Studies)

1993-01-01

In these Search Strategies, searchers from different countries and professions are given a question to answer, a budget of Pounds 50 and a time in which to produce their report. We hope that these blow-by-blow accounts, together with the hints and tips picked up along the way, will help readers to develop their own search strategies. Journalists are more and more coming to use online services and here the author gives a journalist's account of tracking down the elusive facts surrounding the Chernobyl disaster. (author)

Darwinism Defined: The Difference Between Fact and Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Gould, Stephen Jay

1987-01-01

Discusses various developments in both science and theology following the work of Charles Darwin on evolution. Differentiates between the facts regarding evolution and the theory of natural selection as a mechanism for evolutionary change. Warns that the differences between facts and theory have not been adequately emphasized by scientists. (TW)

Antenatal counselling for parents facing an extremely preterm birth: limitations of the medical evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Janvier, Annie; Lorenz, John M; Lantos, John D

2012-08-01

When physicians are asked for a consult for women in premature labour, they face a complex set of challenges. Policy statements recommend that women be given detailed information about the risks of various outcomes, including death, long-term disability and various specific neonatal problems. Both personal narratives and studies suggest that parents also base their decisions on factors other than the probabilistic facts about expected outcomes. Statistics are difficult to understand at any time. Rational decision-making may be difficult when taking life-and-death decisions. Furthermore, the role of emotions is not discussed in peri-viability guidelines. We argue against trying to tell parents every fact that we think might be relevant to their decision. This may be overwhelming for many parents. Instead, doctors should try to discern, on a case-by-case basis, what particular parents want and need. Information and delivery of information should be personalized. Unfortunately, evidence in this area is limited. © 2012 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2012 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

2012 Swimming Season Fact Sheets

Science.gov (United States)

To help beachgoers make informed decisions about swimming at U.S. beaches, EPA annually publishes state-by-state data about beach closings and advisories for the previous year's swimming season. These fact sheets summarize that information by state.

76 FR 41032 - Medicaid Program; Face-to-Face Requirements for Home Health Services; Policy Changes and...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-12

... documentation must also describe how the health status of the recipient at the time of the face-to-face... [CMS 2348-P] RIN 0938-AQ36 Medicaid Program; Face-to-Face Requirements for Home Health Services; Policy... document the existence of a face-to-face encounter (including through the use of telehealth) with the...

Facial emotion recognition, face scan paths, and face perception in children with neurofibromatosis type 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Amelia K; Porter, Melanie A; Williams, Tracey A; Bzishvili, Samantha; North, Kathryn N; Payne, Jonathan M

2017-05-01

This study aimed to investigate face scan paths and face perception abilities in children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) and how these might relate to emotion recognition abilities in this population. The authors investigated facial emotion recognition, face scan paths, and face perception in 29 children with NF1 compared to 29 chronological age-matched typically developing controls. Correlations between facial emotion recognition, face scan paths, and face perception in children with NF1 were examined. Children with NF1 displayed significantly poorer recognition of fearful expressions compared to controls, as well as a nonsignificant trend toward poorer recognition of anger. Although there was no significant difference between groups in time spent viewing individual core facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, and nonfeature regions), children with NF1 spent significantly less time than controls viewing the face as a whole. Children with NF1 also displayed significantly poorer face perception abilities than typically developing controls. Facial emotion recognition deficits were not significantly associated with aberrant face scan paths or face perception abilities in the NF1 group. These results suggest that impairments in the perception, identification, and interpretation of information from faces are important aspects of the social-cognitive phenotype of NF1. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Adaptation improves face trustworthiness discrimination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce D Keefe

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Adaptation to facial characteristics, such as gender and viewpoint, has been shown to both bias our perception of faces and improve facial discrimination. In this study, we examined whether adapting to two levels of face trustworthiness improved sensitivity around the adapted level. Facial trustworthiness was manipulated by morphing between trustworthy and untrustworthy prototypes, each generated by morphing eight trustworthy and eight untrustworthy faces respectively. In the first experiment, just-noticeable differences (JNDs were calculated for an untrustworthy face after participants adapted to an untrustworthy face, a trustworthy face, or did not adapt. In the second experiment, the three conditions were identical, except that JNDs were calculated for a trustworthy face. In the third experiment we examined whether adapting to an untrustworthy male face improved discrimination to an untrustworthy female face. In all experiments, participants completed a two-interval forced-choice adaptive staircase procedure, in which they judged which face was more untrustworthy. JNDs were derived from a psychometric function fitted to the data. Adaptation improved sensitivity to faces conveying the same level of trustworthiness when compared to no adaptation. When adapting to and discriminating around a different level of face trustworthiness there was no improvement in sensitivity and JNDs were equivalent to those in the no adaptation condition. The improvement in sensitivity was found to occur even when adapting to a face with different gender and identity. These results suggest that adaptation to facial trustworthiness can selectively enhance mechanisms underlying the coding of facial trustworthiness to improve perceptual sensitivity. These findings have implications for the role of our visual experience in the decisions we make about the trustworthiness of other individuals.

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... health and long-term care costs. worried about memory loss? KNOW THE 10 SIGNS Alzheimer's Disease Facts ... Copyright © 2018 Alzheimer's Association ® . All rights reserved. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's Formed in 1980, ...

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

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Full Text Available ... health and long-term care costs. worried about memory loss? KNOW THE 10 SIGNS Alzheimer's Disease Facts ... is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Copyright © 2018 Alzheimer's Association ® . All rights reserved. Our ...

Face Prediction Model for an Automatic Age-invariant Face Recognition System

OpenAIRE

Yadav, Poonam

2015-01-01

07.11.14 KB. Emailed author re copyright. Author says that copyright is retained by author. Ok to add to spiral Automated face recognition and identi cation softwares are becoming part of our daily life; it nds its abode not only with Facebooks auto photo tagging, Apples iPhoto, Googles Picasa, Microsofts Kinect, but also in Homeland Security Departments dedicated biometric face detection systems. Most of these automatic face identification systems fail where the e ects of aging come into...

The Accountability Turn in Third Wave Human Rights Fact-Finding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federica D'Alessandra

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Whereas the characteristics of human rights fact-finding largely vary depending on the typology and scope of the entity that carries it out, consensus seems to be developing that a common set of challenges to human rights fact-finding exists. This is especially so when carried out under United Nations auspices. For example, it has long been acknowledged that the very nature of the institution, sitting as it does at the crossroads of international politics, as well as the seemingly irresolvable tension between calls for human rights protection on the one hand, and State sovereignty on the other, present some structural challenges to human rights fact-finding. Furthermore, issues of coordination between the United Nations and other institutions (such as international governmental and non-governmental organisations, or international tribunals, as well as what some have called a ‘lack of institutional memory’ arguably often feature as regular traits among fact-finding mechanisms. In recent years, a further set of challenges has been added to the mix by additional requirements, featuring increasingly often in mandates, that instruct fact-finding mechanisms to make further determinations of facts (concerning, 'e.g.', the identity of those most responsible for the violations being documented, or the existence of an armed conflict and even consider questions of law ('e.g.' the qualification of the violations as crimes under international law. Building on an expanding body of scholarship on the subject, as well as the author’s own experience with fact-finding efforts sitting at the intersection between traditional international human rights law and international criminal justice, this article argues: (i that human rights fact-finding has evolved in three waves; (ii that the third wave of human rights fact-finding is characterised by an “accountability turn”; and that (iii this turn has brought about an additional set of challenges to the

Side-View Face Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santemiz, P.; Spreeuwers, Lieuwe Jan; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.

2010-01-01

Side-view face recognition is a challenging problem with many applications. Especially in real-life scenarios where the environment is uncontrolled, coping with pose variations up to side-view positions is an important task for face recognition. In this paper we discuss the use of side view face

Friends with Faces: How Social Networks Can Enhance Face Recognition and Vice Versa

Science.gov (United States)

Mavridis, Nikolaos; Kazmi, Wajahat; Toulis, Panos

The "friendship" relation, a social relation among individuals, is one of the primary relations modeled in some of the world's largest online social networking sites, such as "FaceBook." On the other hand, the "co-occurrence" relation, as a relation among faces appearing in pictures, is one that is easily detectable using modern face detection techniques. These two relations, though appearing in different realms (social vs. visual sensory), have a strong correlation: faces that co-occur in photos often belong to individuals who are friends. Using real-world data gathered from "Facebook," which were gathered as part of the "FaceBots" project, the world's first physical face-recognizing and conversing robot that can utilize and publish information on "Facebook" was established. We present here methods as well as results for utilizing this correlation in both directions. Both algorithms for utilizing knowledge of the social context for faster and better face recognition are given, as well as algorithms for estimating the friendship network of a number of individuals given photos containing their faces. The results are quite encouraging. In the primary example, doubling of the recognition accuracy as well as a sixfold improvement in speed is demonstrated. Various improvements, interesting statistics, as well as an empirical investigation leading to predictions of scalability to much bigger data sets are discussed.

FACT. Energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Temme, Fabian; Einecke, Sabrina; Buss, Jens [TU Dortmund, Experimental Physics 5, Otto-Hahn-Str.4, 44221 Dortmund (Germany); Collaboration: FACT-Collaboration

2016-07-01

The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope is the first Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope which uses silicon photon detectors (G-APDs aka SiPM) as photo sensors. With more than four years of operation, FACT proved an application of SiPMs is suitable for the field of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. Due to the stable flux at TeV energies, the Crab Nebula is handled as a ''standard candle'' in Cherenkov astronomy. The analysis of its energy spectrum and comparison with other experiments, allows to evaluate the performance of FACT. A modern analysis chain, based on data stream handling and multivariate analysis methods was developed in close cooperation with the department of computer science at the TU Dortmund. In this talk, this analysis chain and its application are presented. Further to this, results, including the energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula, measured with FACT, are shown.

Guided Online or Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia: A Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Lancee, Jaap; van Straten, Annemieke; Morina, Nexhmedin; Kaldo, Viktor; Kamphuis, Jan H

2016-01-01

To compare the efficacy of guided online and individual face-to-face cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia (CBT-I) to a wait-list condition. A randomized controlled trial comparing three conditions: guided online; face-to-face; wait-list. Posttest measurements were administered to all conditions, along with 3- and 6-mo follow-up assessments to the online and face-to-face conditions. Ninety media-recruited participants meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria for insomnia were randomly allocated to either guided online CBT-I (n = 30), individual face-to-face CBT-I (n = 30), or wait-list (n = 30). At post-assessment, the online (Cohen d = 1.2) and face-to-face (Cohen d = 2.3) intervention groups showed significantly larger treatment effects than the wait-list group on insomnia severity (insomnia severity index). Large treatment effects were also found for the sleep diary estimates (except for total sleep time), and anxiety and depression measures (for depression only in the face-to-face condition). Face-to-face treatment yielded a statistically larger treatment effect (Cohen d = 0.9) on insomnia severity than the online condition at all time points. In addition, a moderate differential effect size favoring face-to-face treatment emerged at the 3- and 6-mo follow-up on all sleep diary estimates. Face-to-face treatment further outperformed online treatment on depression and anxiety outcomes. These data show superior performance of face-to-face treatment relative to online treatment. Yet, our results also suggest that online treatment may offer a potentially cost-effective alternative to and complement face-to-face treatment. Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01955850. A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 13. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

AutoFACT: An Automatic Functional Annotation and Classification Tool

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lang B Franz

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Assignment of function to new molecular sequence data is an essential step in genomics projects. The usual process involves similarity searches of a given sequence against one or more databases, an arduous process for large datasets. Results We present AutoFACT, a fully automated and customizable annotation tool that assigns biologically informative functions to a sequence. Key features of this tool are that it (1 analyzes nucleotide and protein sequence data; (2 determines the most informative functional description by combining multiple BLAST reports from several user-selected databases; (3 assigns putative metabolic pathways, functional classes, enzyme classes, GeneOntology terms and locus names; and (4 generates output in HTML, text and GFF formats for the user's convenience. We have compared AutoFACT to four well-established annotation pipelines. The error rate of functional annotation is estimated to be only between 1–2%. Comparison of AutoFACT to the traditional top-BLAST-hit annotation method shows that our procedure increases the number of functionally informative annotations by approximately 50%. Conclusion AutoFACT will serve as a useful annotation tool for smaller sequencing groups lacking dedicated bioinformatics staff. It is implemented in PERL and runs on LINUX/UNIX platforms. AutoFACT is available at http://megasun.bch.umontreal.ca/Software/AutoFACT.htm.

Facts about Tetralogy of Fallot

Science.gov (United States)

... Websites Information For… Media Policy Makers Facts about Tetralogy of Fallot Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on Facebook ... in the mother’s womb during pregnancy. What is Tetralogy of Fallot? Tetralogy of Fallot is made up of the ...

Face learning and the emergence of view-independent face recognition: an event-related brain potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmermann, Friederike G S; Eimer, Martin

2013-06-01

Recognizing unfamiliar faces is more difficult than familiar face recognition, and this has been attributed to qualitative differences in the processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces are assumed to be represented by view-independent codes, whereas unfamiliar face recognition depends mainly on view-dependent low-level pictorial representations. We employed an electrophysiological marker of visual face recognition processes in order to track the emergence of view-independence during the learning of previously unfamiliar faces. Two face images showing either the same or two different individuals in the same or two different views were presented in rapid succession, and participants had to perform an identity-matching task. On trials where both faces showed the same view, repeating the face of the same individual triggered an N250r component at occipito-temporal electrodes, reflecting the rapid activation of visual face memory. A reliable N250r component was also observed on view-change trials. Crucially, this view-independence emerged as a result of face learning. In the first half of the experiment, N250r components were present only on view-repetition trials but were absent on view-change trials, demonstrating that matching unfamiliar faces was initially based on strictly view-dependent codes. In the second half, the N250r was triggered not only on view-repetition trials but also on view-change trials, indicating that face recognition had now become more view-independent. This transition may be due to the acquisition of abstract structural codes of individual faces during face learning, but could also reflect the formation of associative links between sets of view-specific pictorial representations of individual faces. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Related Fact Checks: a tool for combating fake news

OpenAIRE

Guha, Sreya

2017-01-01

The emergence of "Fake News" and misinformation via online news and social media has spurred an interest in computational tools to combat this phenomenon. In this paper we present a new "Related Fact Checks" service, which can help a reader critically evaluate an article and make a judgment on its veracity by bringing up fact checks that are relevant to the article. We describe the core technical problems that need to be solved in building a "Related Fact Checks" service, and present results ...

Comparing Face Detection and Recognition Techniques

OpenAIRE

Korra, Jyothi

2016-01-01

This paper implements and compares different techniques for face detection and recognition. One is find where the face is located in the images that is face detection and second is face recognition that is identifying the person. We study three techniques in this paper: Face detection using self organizing map (SOM), Face recognition by projection and nearest neighbor and Face recognition using SVM.

Discrimination between smiling faces: Human observers vs. automated face analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Del Líbano, Mario; Calvo, Manuel G; Fernández-Martín, Andrés; Recio, Guillermo

2018-05-11

This study investigated (a) how prototypical happy faces (with happy eyes and a smile) can be discriminated from blended expressions with a smile but non-happy eyes, depending on type and intensity of the eye expression; and (b) how smile discrimination differs for human perceivers versus automated face analysis, depending on affective valence and morphological facial features. Human observers categorized faces as happy or non-happy, or rated their valence. Automated analysis (FACET software) computed seven expressions (including joy/happiness) and 20 facial action units (AUs). Physical properties (low-level image statistics and visual saliency) of the face stimuli were controlled. Results revealed, first, that some blended expressions (especially, with angry eyes) had lower discrimination thresholds (i.e., they were identified as "non-happy" at lower non-happy eye intensities) than others (especially, with neutral eyes). Second, discrimination sensitivity was better for human perceivers than for automated FACET analysis. As an additional finding, affective valence predicted human discrimination performance, whereas morphological AUs predicted FACET discrimination. FACET can be a valid tool for categorizing prototypical expressions, but is currently more limited than human observers for discrimination of blended expressions. Configural processing facilitates detection of in/congruence(s) across regions, and thus detection of non-genuine smiling faces (due to non-happy eyes). Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computer-mediated and face-to-face communication in metastatic cancer support groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Vilhauer, Ruvanee P

2014-08-01

To compare the experiences of women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in computer-mediated and face-to-face support groups. Interviews from 18 women with MBC, who were currently in computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs), were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The CMSGs were in an asynchronous mailing list format; women communicated exclusively via email. All the women were also, or had previously been, in a face-to-face support group (FTFG). CMSGs had both advantages and drawbacks, relative to face-to-face groups (FTFGs), for this population. Themes examined included convenience, level of support, intimacy, ease of expression, range of information, and dealing with debilitation and dying. CMSGs may provide a sense of control and a greater level of support. Intimacy may take longer to develop in a CMSG, but women may have more opportunities to get to know each other. CMSGs may be helpful while adjusting to a diagnosis of MBC, because women can receive support without being overwhelmed by physical evidence of disability in others or exposure to discussions about dying before they are ready. However, the absence of nonverbal cues in CMSGs also led to avoidance of topics related to death and dying when women were ready to face them. Agendas for discussion, the presence of a facilitator or more time in CMSGs may attenuate this problem. The findings were discussed in light of prevailing research and theories about computer-mediated communication. They have implications for designing CMSGs for this population.

The special status of sad infant faces: age and valence differences in adults' cortical face processing.

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Colasante, Tyler; Mossad, Sarah I; Dudek, Joanna; Haley, David W

2017-04-01

Understanding the relative and joint prioritization of age- and valence-related face characteristics in adults' cortical face processing remains elusive because these two characteristics have not been manipulated in a single study of neural face processing. We used electroencephalography to investigate adults' P1, N170, P2 and LPP responses to infant and adult faces with happy and sad facial expressions. Viewing infant vs adult faces was associated with significantly larger P1, N170, P2 and LPP responses, with hemisphere and/or participant gender moderating this effect in select cases. Sad faces were associated with significantly larger N170 responses than happy faces. Sad infant faces were associated with significantly larger N170 responses in the right hemisphere than all other combinations of face age and face valence characteristics. We discuss the relative and joint neural prioritization of infant face characteristics and negative facial affect, and their biological value as distinct caregiving and social cues. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Myths and Facts about SIDS and Safe Infant Sleep

Science.gov (United States)

... Myths and Facts About SIDS and Safe Infant Sleep Page Content Myth: Babies can “catch” SIDS. Fact: ... sleep environment for your baby. Myth: Babies who sleep on their backs will choke if they spit ...

Modeling human dynamics of face-to-face interaction networks

OpenAIRE

Starnini, Michele; Baronchelli, Andrea; Pastor-Satorras, Romualdo

2013-01-01

Face-to-face interaction networks describe social interactions in human gatherings, and are the substrate for processes such as epidemic spreading and gossip propagation. The bursty nature of human behavior characterizes many aspects of empirical data, such as the distribution of conversation lengths, of conversations per person, or of inter-conversation times. Despite several recent attempts, a general theoretical understanding of the global picture emerging from data is still lacking. Here ...

Face-to-face Tobacco Sales: What Retailers Need to Know

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2010-09-30

This podcast reviews new federal tobacco product regulations that require retailers to sell cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in a face-to-face exchange.  Created: 9/30/2010 by The CDC Division of News and Electronic Media and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.   Date Released: 9/30/2010.

Undergraduate Essay Writing: Online and Face-to-Face Peer Reviews

Science.gov (United States)

Chong, Mike R.; Goff, Lori; Dej, Kimberly

2012-01-01

We implemented two different approaches of using peer review to support undergraduate essay assignments for students taking large second-year courses in life sciences and biology: a web-based online peer review (OPR) approach and a more traditional face-to-face peer review (FPR) approach that was conducted in tutorial settings. The essays…

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Facts 2013

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-01

creativity . Representative Technical Positions ■■ Aerospace engineer ■■ Applications engineer ■■ Bioengineer ■■ Biologist 16 Facts 2012–2013...schedules, part-time employment, and telecommuting opportunities. Child Care The Technology Children’s Center facility in Lexington (TCC Lincoln

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Medline Plus

Full Text Available ... and support I have Alzheimer's I am a caregiver I am a care professional I am a physician I am a researcher Message boards Get the facts 10 warning signs & symptoms What is dementia What is Alzheimer's 7 stages of ...

Blacktip reef sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus, have high genetic structure and varying demographic histories in their Indo-Pacific range

KAUST Repository

Vignaud, Thomas M.

2014-10-13

For free-swimming marine species like sharks, only population genetics and demographic history analyses can be used to assess population health/status as baseline population numbers are usually unknown. We investigated the population genetics of blacktip reef sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus; one of the most abundant reef-associated sharks and the apex predator of many shallow water reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Our sampling includes 4 widely separated locations in the Indo-Pacific and 11 islands in French Polynesia with different levels of coastal development. Four-teen microsatellite loci were analysed for samples from all locations and two mitochondrial DNA fragments, the control region and cytochrome b, were examined for 10 locations. For microsatellites, genetic diversity is higher for the locations in the large open systems of the Red Sea and Australia than for the fragmented habitat of the smaller islands of French Polynesia. Strong significant structure was found for distant locations with FST values as high as ∼0.3, and a smaller but still significant structure is found within French Polynesia. Both mitochondrial genes show only a few mutations across the sequences with a dominant shared haplotype in French Polynesia and New Caledonia suggesting a common lineage different to that of East Australia. Demographic history analyses indicate population expansions in the Red Sea and Australia that may coincide with sea level changes after climatic events. Expansions and flat signals are indicated for French Polynesia as well as a significant recent bottleneck for Moorea, the most human-impacted lagoon of the locations in French Polynesia.

Blacktip reef sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus, have high genetic structure and varying demographic histories in their Indo-Pacific range.

Science.gov (United States)

Vignaud, Thomas M; Mourier, Johann; Maynard, Jeffrey A; Leblois, Raphael; Spaet, Julia; Clua, Eric; Neglia, Valentina; Planes, Serge

2014-11-01

For free-swimming marine species like sharks, only population genetics and demographic history analyses can be used to assess population health/status as baseline population numbers are usually unknown. We investigated the population genetics of blacktip reef sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus; one of the most abundant reef-associated sharks and the apex predator of many shallow water reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Our sampling includes 4 widely separated locations in the Indo-Pacific and 11 islands in French Polynesia with different levels of coastal development. Four-teen microsatellite loci were analysed for samples from all locations and two mitochondrial DNA fragments, the control region and cytochrome b, were examined for 10 locations. For microsatellites, genetic diversity is higher for the locations in the large open systems of the Red Sea and Australia than for the fragmented habitat of the smaller islands of French Polynesia. Strong significant structure was found for distant locations with FST values as high as ~0.3, and a smaller but still significant structure is found within French Polynesia. Both mitochondrial genes show only a few mutations across the sequences with a dominant shared haplotype in French Polynesia and New Caledonia suggesting a common lineage different to that of East Australia. Demographic history analyses indicate population expansions in the Red Sea and Australia that may coincide with sea level changes after climatic events. Expansions and flat signals are indicated for French Polynesia as well as a significant recent bottleneck for Moorea, the most human-impacted lagoon of the locations in French Polynesia. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Nature-based tourism in the Algarve: A fact or a myth?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuela Guerreiro

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The Algarve is a mature destination in the south of Portugal and is mainly well-known for its offerings of sun and sea. In addition to strong seasonal changes, the region also faces strong competition from other nearby destinations, which has affected its ability to better attract tourists. Regional stakeholders have recognized the need to diversify the tourist experience, and a strong effort has been dedicated to the development of complementary tourist products, with special attention to eco-tourism. The present study uses data from a survey of tourists who visited the Algarve in December 2010 (low season to determine the extent to which tourists visiting the region would actively search for nature-related activities, and the profile of these individuals. In particular, the study aims to understand whether these tourists share environmentally friendly values or, instead, have chosen the Algarve based on its attributes of traditional appealing climatic conditions and beaches. Depending on whether nature-based tourism in the Algarve is a fact or a myth, strategies for repositioning the destination can be adapted, new tourist products can be proposed and communication campaigns may need to be rethought.

Emotion Words: Adding Face Value.

Science.gov (United States)

Fugate, Jennifer M B; Gendron, Maria; Nakashima, Satoshi F; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2017-06-12

Despite a growing number of studies suggesting that emotion words affect perceptual judgments of emotional stimuli, little is known about how emotion words affect perceptual memory for emotional faces. In Experiments 1 and 2 we tested how emotion words (compared with control words) affected participants' abilities to select a target emotional face from among distractor faces. Participants were generally more likely to false alarm to distractor emotional faces when primed with an emotion word congruent with the face (compared with a control word). Moreover, participants showed both decreased sensitivity (d') to discriminate between target and distractor faces, as well as altered response biases (c; more likely to answer "yes") when primed with an emotion word (compared with a control word). In Experiment 3 we showed that emotion words had more of an effect on perceptual memory judgments when the structural information in the target face was limited, as well as when participants were only able to categorize the face with a partially congruent emotion word. The overall results are consistent with the idea that emotion words affect the encoding of emotional faces in perceptual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).