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The biological basis of the experience and categorization of colour
Get PDFWe used the Land Colour Mondrian experiments in a Bayesian context to test the degree to which subjects vary in categorizing the colour of different patches, when each patch is made to reflect light of the identical wavelength-energy composition. The brain uses a ratio-taking mechanism to determine the ratio of light of every waveband reflected from a surface and from its surrounds. Our (Bayesian) hypothesis was that this ratio-taking mechanism is similar in all humans and therefore leads to a constant categorization of colours that differs little between them. The similarly categorized colours are the initial priors, with initial hues attached to them. Twenty subjects of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, for all but one of whom English was not the primary language, viewed eight patches of different colour in two Mondrian displays; each patch, when viewed, was made to reflect identical ratios of long-, middle- and short-wave light. Subjects were asked to match the colour of the viewed patch with that of the Munsell chip coming closest in colour to that of the viewed patch, without using language. In terms of hue, there was less variability in matching warm hues than cool ones. In terms of colour categorization, there was little variability overall. We take the lack of significant variability between subjects in the matches made as a pointer to similar computational mechanisms being employed in different subjects to perceive colours, thus permitting them to assume that their categorization of colours has universal agreement and assent
Reconstructing Mesoscale Network Structures
Get PDFWhen facing the problem of reconstructing complex mesoscale network structures, it is generally believed that models encoding the nodes organization into modules must be employed. The present paper focuses on two block structures that characterize the empirical mesoscale organization of many real-world networks, i.e., the bow-tie and the core-periphery ones, with the aim of quantifying the minimal amount of topological information that needs to be enforced in order to reproduce the topological details of the former. Our analysis shows that constraining the network degree sequences is often enough to reproduce such structures, as confirmed by model selection criteria as AIC or BIC. As a byproduct, our paper enriches the toolbox for the analysis of bipartite networks, still far from being complete: both the bow-tie and the core-periphery structure, in fact, partition the networks into asymmetric blocks characterized by binary, directed connections, thus calling for the extension of a recently proposed method to randomize undirected , bipartite networks to the directed case
Rusty Knives, Runes and Vikings: The Valdemarian Kings and the Danish Past in a Comparative Perspective
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Forced private tutoring in Egypt: Moving away from a corrupt social norm
Get PDFEgypt stands as a showcase for a practice of private tutoring which severely impedes quality of education. Teachers compel students to pay for additional private tutoring, putting increased financial strain on the poorest members of society. Based on an original dataset on primary education in public schools, this paper joins empirical data and evolutionary theory to study the impact of policies to alleviate Forced Private Tutoring (FPT). Our model explains the limited impact of increases to teachers’ wages in 2012. We identify alternative policies which foster a FPT-free social norm and improve the quality of education in public schools
Understanding proximity mobile payment adoption through technology acceptance model and organisational semiotics: an exploratory study
Get PDFMobile technologies, in particular, smartphones are reshaping individual and organisational behaviour at different levels and pace. This research focuses on the multi-cultural use and acceptance of proximity mobile payment (m-payment) which is more prevalent in some countries than other countries. Previous analysis of m-payment adoption extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to include external factors of use and acceptance identified through Organisational Semiotics (OS). This paper presents the development of constructs and measurements based on the identified requirements for m-payment adoption. It also presents the exploratory study results to validate the salient factors. This study furthers m-payment research by addressing the technical and social aspects via TAM and OS, as well as identifying empirical factors to increase m-payment adoption in multi-cultural context
Food, Peacemaking, and Maintenance in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century England
No full textThis chapter explores the role of gifts of food and hospitality in the maintenance and creation of peace and allegiance in medieval Europe. It discusses the methodological challenges involved in understanding the everyday experience of ritualised exchanges, such as gift giving, in the Middle Ages. The chapter focuses on evidence from twelfth- and thirteenth-century England and draws on normative texts, such as didactive poems and courtesy texts, narratives from romances, saints’ lives, and chronicles, looking in detail at the History of William Marshal. It contrasts the image of gift exchange found in narratives with that provided by household records and discusses the different possibilities and challenges various categories of sources present
