Curvature and the visual perception of shape: theory on information along object boundaries and the minima rule revisited

Previous empirical studies have shown that information along visual contours is known to be concentrated in regions of high magnitude of curvature, and, for closed contours, segments of negative curvature (i.e., concave segments) carry greater perceptual relevance than corresponding regions of positive curvature (i.e., convex segments). Lately, Feldman and Singh (2005, Psychological Review, 112, 243-252) proposed a mathematical derivation to yield information content as a function of curvature along a contour. Here, we highlight several fundamental errors in their derivation and in its associated implementation, which are problematic in both mathematical and psychological senses. Instead, we propose an alternative mathematical formulation for information measure of contour curvature that addresses these issues. Additionally, unlike in previous work, we extend this approach to 3-dimensional (3D) shape by providing a formal measure of information content for surface curvature and outline a modified version of the minima rule relating to part segmentation using curvature in 3D shape.     

Impaired categorical perception of lexical tones in Mandarin-speaking congenital amusics

The degree to which cognitive resources are shared in the processing of musical pitch and lexical tones remains uncertain. Testing Mandarin amusics on their categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones may provide insight into this issue. In the present study, a group of 15 amusic Mandarin speakers identified and discriminated Mandarin tones presented as continua in separate blocks. The tonal continua employed were from a high-level tone to a mid-rising tone and from a high-level tone to a high-falling tone. The two tonal continua were made in the contexts of natural speech and of nonlinguistic analogues. In contrast to the controls, the participants with amusia showed no improvement for discrimination pairs that crossed the classification boundary for either speech or nonlinguistic analogues, indicating a lack of categorical perception. The lack of categorical perception of Mandarin tones in the amusic group shows that the pitch deficits in amusics may be domain-general, and this suggests that the processing of musical pitch and lexical tones may share certain cognitive resources and/or processes (Patel 2003, 2008, 2012).     

Observance of Forms: An Aesthetic Analysis of Analects 6.25

This essay analyzes how the zhengming ???? theory of Confucius is linked to the problem of ??observances of form?? in light of the methodology of Confucian aesthetics. This essay argues that the ??name-shape?? combination in the zhengming paradigm is ultimately connected with the ??name-role?? combination. The ??name-shape?? paradigm continuously maintains and strengthens the ??name-role?? paradigm. However, the ??name-shape?? paradigm itself ultimately becomes more meaningful than the ??name-role?? paradigm. This is because the aesthetic structure that appears peculiar in the Analects constitutes the ??name-shape?? paradigm. In this aesthetic structure, what is ultimately important is ??form.??     

PROsetta: An R Package for Linking Patient-Reported Outcome Measures

A common problem when using a variety of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for diverse populations and subgroups is establishing a harmonized scale for the incommensurate outcomes. The lack of comparability in metrics (e.g., raw summed scores vs. scaled scores) among different PROs poses practical challenges in studies comparing effects across studies and samples. Linking has long been used for practical benefit in educational testing. Applying various linking techniques to PRO data has a relatively short history; however, in recent years, there has been a surge of published studies on linking PROs and other health outcomes, owing in part to concerted efforts such as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS^®) project and the PRO Rosetta Stone (PROsetta Stone^®) project (www.prosettastone.org). Many R packages have been developed for linking in educational settings; however, they are not tailored for linking PROs where harmonization of data across clinical studies or settings serves as the main objective. We created the PROsetta package to fill this gap and disseminate a protocol that has been established as a standard practice for linking PROs.     

Occasionalism and non-reductive physicalism: another look at the continuous creation argument

Malebranche’s so-called conservation is continuous creation (CCC) argument has been celebrated as a powerful and persuasive argument for Occasionalism—the claim that only God has and exercises causal powers. In this paper I want to examine the CCC argument for Occasionalism by comparing it to Jaegwon Kim’s so-called Supervenience argument against non-reductive physicalism. Because the arguments have deep similarities it is interesting and fruitful to consider them in tandem. First I argue that both the CCC argument and the Supervenience argument turn on the same general principle, what Kim calls Edward’s Dictum. It is doubtful that Malebranche or Kim succeed in grounding Edward’s Dictum, though Malebranche, I think, has more resources at his disposal to make his case. Even if this worry is waived, however, I argue that the completion of Stage 1 of the Supervenience argument can be used to raise a further worry for the CCC argument that cannot easily be resolved.     

Mental Health Diversion Courts: A Two Year Recidivism Study of a South Australian Mental Health Court Program

The need to develop specialized judicial processes to deal with offenders with mental illnesses is now widely recognized and has led to the introduction of mental health court diversion programs around the world. At present, however, there is only limited evidence from which to assess the impact of these initiatives. This paper describes the South Australian model of diversion, with specific reference to the relationship between identified participant characteristics, program compliance rates, and re‐offending outcomes. The results of a two‐year recidivism study suggest that involvement with the program has a positive impact on recidivism, but that this is independent from the individual's level of success in the program. Lower risk offenders were more likely to achieve successful outcomes than those in the higher risk categories. The implications of these results, as well the factors that might inform the ongoing development of mental health court programs, are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is compatibilism intuitive?

Eddy Nahmias, with various collaborators, has used experimental data to argue for the claim that folk intuition is generally compatibilist. We try to undermine this claim in two ways. First, we argue that the various formulations of determinism he uses are not conceptually equivalent, jeopardizing the kinds of conclusions that can be drawn from the resulting data. Second, prompted by these conceptual worries we supplement the typical quantitative surveys that dominate the extant literature with short qualitative interviews. This, in turn, guides us to make a minor modification to the quantitative survey that provides better access to the relevant folk intuitions.     

Dislocation dissociation and stacking-fault energies in Ge1-xSix alloys

Dislocations in deformed Ge_1-xSi_x alloys in the whole range 0 < x < 1 have been investigated by means of weak-beam transmission electron microscopy. They are dissociated into Shockley partial dislocations bounding intrinsic stacking-faults. The intrinsic stacking-fault energy in the alloys decreases from 61 +/- 10 to 55 +/- 10 mJm^-2 with increasing Si content.