We assessed age differences in the ability to resolve competition for figural status in stationary displays using small, enclosed, symmetrical silhouettes that participants classified as depicting "novel" or "familiar" shapes. The silhouettes were biased such that the inside was perceived as the shaped figure, and the outside was perceived as a shapeless ground. The critical manipulation was wh...

s multi-threaded processing, exact system signal control, and Ethernet transfer between computers. The Player server offers a powerful, easy, and innovative approach to systems integration. On each computer with an operating system, Player runs as a server providing device interfaces. Device interfaces are implemented as plugins to the Player server. For example, on the EDA Player runs a driver...

Soil erosion rates in alpine regions are related to high spatial variability complicating assessment of risk and damages. A crucial parameter triggering soil erosion that can be derived from satellite imagery is fractional vegetation cover (FVC). The objective of this study is to assess the applicability of normalized differenced vegetation index (NDVI), linear spectral unmixing (LSU) andmixtur...

The use of automated methods to estimate fractional vegetation cover (FVC) from digital photographs has increased in recent years given its potential to produce accurate, fast and inexpensive FVC measurements. Wide acceptance has been delayed because of the limitations in accuracy, speed, automation and generalization of these methods. This work introduces a novel technique, the Automated Canop...

Figure-ground assignment is thought to entail inhibitory competition between potential objects on opposite sides of a shared border; the winner is perceived as the figure, and the loser as the shapeless ground. Computational models and response time measures support this understanding but to date no online measure of inhibitory competition during figure-ground assignment has been reported. The ...

Interspecific competition commonly selects for divergence in ecology, morphology or physiology, but direct observation of interspecific competition under natural conditions is difficult. Herbivorous white-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys leucurus) employ an unusual strategy to reduce interspecific competition: they kill, but do not consume, herbivorous Wyoming ground squirrels (Urocitellus elegans)...

Most of atoms and molecule found in nature are capable of evolving towards and staying at their ground states, the lowest energy states. This paper offers a global optimization approach to understand the ground state as the equilibrium point of an n-player game under cooperation. With the same approach, Nash equilibrium can be viewed as the equilibrium point under competition. The former can of...