2,020 research outputs found
Letter from Alexander Merchant, Department of State, Division of the American Republics, to DCR-W, November 9, 1943
No full textIn this letter, the author expresses his favorable opinion of Mr. Emmerson's report on the Japanese of Peru. Merchant praises his "extensive use of Japanese-language," and Spanish language materials as well.Collection of notes, articles, correspondence, photographs, and term papers collected by Yukio Mochizuki, a student at CSU Dominguez Hills, while researching Japanese American incarceration and Japanese Peruvian internment during World War II
Debates in AI Symposium: Brian Merchant, What\u27s Work Got to Do With It?
No full textBrian Merchant, a technology journalist and former tech columnist at the LA Times, is widely recognized for his insightful analysis of automation, labor and technology’s environmental impact. Merchant is author of the bestselling The One Device (Little, Brown and Company, 2017) and most recently Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (Little, Brown and Company, 2023). This new book explores the Luddites’ misunderstood uprising and the modern implications of tech deployment. In addition to writing for prominent publications, Merchant founded Terraform, VICE’s speculative fiction site. He shares updates and discussions on technology’s societal impact through his newsletter, offering a critical perspective on who technology serves and its broader consequences
The Cantelowe Accounts - Multilingual merchant records from Tuscany, 1450-1451
No full textThe Cantelowe Accounts appear to offer the earliest evidence of an English merchant using Italian as a second language. They were written by John Balmayn, an unknown Londoner, who travelled to Tuscany to oversee the sale of a valuable wool shipment in 1450-51 on behalf of his master - the Mercer, Sir William Cantelowe. The author uses an intriguing mix of four languages, combining Middle English, Latin and Anglo-French with the administrative Tuscan that he has learnt working alongside Florentine partners, such as the Salviati company. Two other striking features of the text are the extensive use of Arabic numerals, unparalleled in fifteenth-century English accounting, and the unusually detailed descriptions of merchant marks that were used to identify the woolsacks. Overall, the accounts are unique amongst multilingual medieval sources and will interest economic historians and historical linguists alike
Decoding of path-guided apparent motion from neural ensembles in posterior parietal cortex
No full textWe compared quantitatively the psychometric capacity of human subjects to detect path-guided apparent motion (PAM) and the accuracy of cell ensembles in area 7a to code the same type of stimuli. Nine human subjects performed a detection task of PAM. They were instructed to indicate with a key-press whether they perceived a circularly moving object when five stimuli were flashed successively at the vertices of a regular pentagon. The stimuli were presented along a low contrast circular path with one of 33 speeds (150-600°/s). The average psychometric curve revealed that the threshold for PAM detection was 314°/s. The minimum and maximum thresholds for individual subjects were 277° and 378°/s, respectively. In addition, the activity of cells in area 7a that were modulated by the stimulus position in real or apparent motion was used in a multivariate linear regression analysis to recover the stimulus position over time. Real stimulus motion was decoded successfully from neural ensemble activity at all speeds. In contrast, the decoding of PAM was poor at low stimulus speeds but improved markedly above 300°/s: in fact, this was very close to the threshold above for human subjects to perceive continuous stimulus motion in this condition. These results suggest that the posterior parietal cortex is part of a high-level system that is directly involved in the dynamic representation of complex motion. © Springer-Verlag 2004
Neural responses in motor cortex and area 7a to real and apparent motion
No full textThe neural activity in area 7a and the arm area of motor cortex was recorded while real or path-guided apparent motion stimuli were presented to behaving monkeys in the absence of a motor response. A smooth stimulus motion was produced in the real motion condition, whereas in the apparent motion condition five stimuli were flashed successively at the vertices of a regular pentagon. The stimuli moved along a low contrast circular path with one of five speeds (180-540 deg/s). We found strong neural responses to real and apparent motion in area 7a and motor cortex. In the motor cortex, a substantial population of neurons showed a selective response to real moving stimuli in the absence of a motor response. This activity was modulated in some cases by the stimulus speed, and some of the neurons showed a response during a particular part of the circular trajectory of the stimulus; the preferred stimulus angular locations were evenly distributed across this neuronal ensemble. It is likely that these neural signals are continuously available to the motor cortex in order to generate responses that demand immediate action. In area 7a, two overlapping populations of neurons were observed. The first comprised cells the activity of which was tuned to the angular location of a circularly moving stimulus in the real motion condition. These cells also responded to apparent motion at high stimulus speeds. A visual receptive field analysis showed that the angular tuning in most of the area 7a neurons did not depend on the spatial location of the stimulus in relation to their receptive field. The second population was selective to apparent moving stimuli and showed a periodic entrainment of activation with the period of the inter-stimulus interval of the flashing dots. Both the angular location and the inter-stimulus interval neural signals can be used to generate precise behavioral responses towards real or apparent moving stimuli
Interception of real and apparent motion targets: Psychophysics in humans and monkeys
No full textHuman subjects and monkeys intercepted real (RM) and apparent (AM) moving targets that traveled through a low contrast circular path. The subjects intercepted the targets at 6 o'clock by applying a net force pulse on a semi-isometric joystick which controlled a cursor on the screen. Eight target speeds (180-560°/s) were used. The starting points of the moving target were systematically placed around the circle in order to determine the effect of the target travel time and velocity on the decision to initiate the interception movement and on the interception accuracy. It was found that the probability of interception in the first revolution varied as a function of the target travel time, which followed an S-shaped psychometric curve. The minimum processing time (MPT) was defined as the target travel that corresponded to a 75% probability of interception in the first revolution on the psychometric curve. The MPT decreased slightly as a function of target speed and was larger in AM than RM. In addition, the interception accuracy increased when the target travel time was above the MPT, and the angular error was smaller in RM than in AM. Finally, the interception movement was initiated at different target locations and time-to-contacts, depending on the target speed and the motion condition. Interestingly, similar findings were observed in human subjects and monkeys. These results suggest that the neural mechanisms engaged in extracting the visual motion information and in the implementation of the response are more efficient during RM than AM, and that such mechanisms need less processing time when the target is moving faster
Technical Change and the Wage Structure During the Second Industrial Revolution: Evidence from the Merchant Marine, 1865-1912
No full textUsing a large, individual-level wage data set, we examine the impact of a major technological innovation — the development of powerful and economical steam engines — on skill demand and the wage structure among the merchant marine. Our data reveal a complex range of responses to the new technology. The new technology created a new demand for skilled workers, the engineers, while destroying other skills relevant only to sail. There were also contradictory effects among the less skilled. On the one hand, technological innovation may have been deskilling for production work since many experienced able-bodied seamen were replaced by laborers in the engine room. On the other hand, able-bodied seamen employed on steam earned a premium relative to their counterparts on sail. Our data allow us to identify this steam premium as a skill premium rather than a compensating differential. At the managerial level, we identify a skill premium on steam for mates, whose job became more complex on the larger vessels, but not for bosuns whose job did not. In aggregate, there is little change traditional measures of the skill premium, but such measures are too crude to illuminate the rich wage dynamics induced by a major technical innovation.steam power, wage inequality, skill premium, technical change, merchant marine, Canada
Northwind Merchant Company
No full text11 p.The author describes his experience developing a small internet retail business selling printer cartidges.Northwind Merchant Company. Morrison, Colorado
Hugo, George B., collection, 1909-1919
No full textThe George B. Hugo Correspondence consists of his book Socialism: The Creed of Despair and 25 letters related to its publication.
George B. Hugo was born in 1866 in Massachusetts to French immigrants. Hugo married Jennie Saulsbury in 1888 in Boston and in 1893 a daughter they named Ruth was born. In Boston, Massachusetts, George worked as a merchant. In 1909 he published his book, Socialism: The Creed of Despair. The book is further described as a “Joint Debate in Faneuil Hall, March 22, 1909 between George B. Hugo, President Employers\u27 Association of Massachusetts, Affirmative, and James F. Carey, State Secretary Socialist Party of Massachusetts.” Hugo died in 1925 in Springfield, Massachusetts.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/fa/1356/thumbnail.jp
Keeping time and rhythm by internal simulation of sensory stimuli and behavioral actions
No full textEffective behavior often requires synchronizing our actions with changes in the environment. Rhythmic changes in the environment are easy to predict, and we can readily time our actions to them. Yet, how the brain encodes and maintains rhythms is not known. Here, we trained primates to internally maintain rhythms of different tempos and performed large-scale recordings of neuronal activity across the sensory-motor hierarchy. Results show that maintaining rhythms engages multiple brain areas, including visual, parietal, premotor, prefrontal, and hippocampal regions. Each recorded area displayed oscillations in firing rates and oscillations in broadband local field potential power that reflected the temporal and spatial characteristics of an internal metronome, which flexibly encoded fast, medium, and slow tempos. The presence of widespread metronome-related activity, in the absence of stimuli and motor activity, suggests that internal simulation of stimuli and actions underlies timekeeping and rhythm maintenance.To keep a rhythm, the brain uses an internal dynamic simulation that recreates the stimuli and actions that define such rhythm.Effective behavior often requires synchronizing our actions with changes in the environment. Rhythmic changes in the environment are easy to predict, and we can readily time our actions to them. Yet, how the brain encodes and maintains rhythms is not known. Here, we trained primates to internally maintain rhythms of different tempos and performed large-scale recordings of neuronal activity across the sensory-motor hierarchy. Results show that maintaining rhythms engages multiple brain areas, including visual, parietal, premotor, prefrontal, and hippocampal regions. Each recorded area displayed oscillations in firing rates and oscillations in broadband local field potential power that reflected the temporal and spatial characteristics of an internal metronome, which flexibly encoded fast, medium, and slow tempos. The presence of widespread metronome-related activity, in the absence of stimuli and motor activity, suggests that internal simulation of stimuli and actions underlies timekeeping and rhythm maintenance.To keep a rhythm, the brain uses an internal dynamic simulation that recreates the stimuli and actions that define such rhythm
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