Search results for "Interest"

Perception of Biological Motion in Central and Peripheral Visual Fields

2017

Abstract Studies analysing biological motion perception based on reduced number of dots have demonstrated that biological motion can be perceived even when only the lower part of the body is visible or when the number of dots representing the object is reduced. What is the minimal amount of information that enables biological motion to be distinguished from its scrambled version? The results of the current experiment demonstrate that biological motion can be distinguished from its scrambled version when the object is formed of approximately 5 (4.7 ± 0.1) dots. Additionally, we also investigated whether the threshold value for biological motion perception differs in central and peripheral vi…

2015

We present a method to discover discriminative brain metabolism patterns in [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) scans, facilitating the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In the work, the term "pattern" stands for a certain brain region that characterizes a target group of patients and can be used for a classification as well as interpretation purposes. Thus, it can be understood as a so-called "region of interest (ROI)". In the literature, an ROI is often found by a given brain atlas that defines a number of brain regions, which corresponds to an anatomical approach. The present work introduces a semi-data-driven approach that is based on learning the charac…

Preliminary Studies on Microbial Biomass and the Microarthropod Community as Soil Health and Quality Indicators in Urban Grasslands, Rīga as an Examp…

2015

Antropogēnais piesārņojums tiek uzskatīts par vienu no galvenajiem faktoriem, kas ietekmē augsni pilsētās. 2014. gadā uzsākts pētījums par augsnes kvalitāti urbānajos zālājos Rīgā. Pētījuma mērķis bija noteikt augsnes mikrobiālo biomasu un augsnes sīkposmkāju kopienu dažādu zālāju augsnēs Rīgā un izvērtēt iespējas tos izmantot kā pilsētvides augsnes veselības un kvalitātes rādītājus. Rīgā atšķirīgos pilsētas rajonos tika izvēlēti seši dažāda lieluma parauglaukumi ar atšķirīgām vietas apbūves īpatnībām, ielu un dzelzceļu tīkla blīvumu un transporta noslogojumu, vidi piesārņojošo objektu iespējamo ietekmi, kā arī citām, urbānu vidi raksturojošām īpatnībām. Substrāta izraisītas elpošanas metod…

The role of expectation in music: from the score to emotions and the brain

2013

Like discourse, music is a dynamic process that occurs over time. Listeners usually expect some events or structures of events to occur in the prolongation of a given context. Part of the musical emotional experience would depend upon how composers (improvisers) fulfill these expectancies. Musical expectations are a core phenomenon of music cognition, and the present article provides an overview of its foundation in the score as well as in listeners' behavior and brain, and how it can be simulated by artificial neural networks. We highlight parallels to language processing and include the attentional and emotional dimensions of musical expectations. Studying musical expectations is thus val…

Helvetius

2014

This chapter is a brief summary of the political thought of Helvetius.

The influence of gender role on negotiation development and outcome

2007

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of gender differences on negotiation behaviour choice and, consequently, on its outcome. The analysis undertaken is first defined by distinguishing between sex and gender role. It gender role and not biological sex the factor that can have a direct impact on behaviour. With a contextual perspective, we have chosen the negotiation processes of strategic alliances as our contextual framework of analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a qualitative methodology, particularly case study analysis.FindingsA higher degree of complexity increases the perception of ambiguity, which then leads to the influence of gender in the neg…

Three Models of Public Administration Reform and the Legitimacy of Civil Service

2018

Public administration is subject to permanent reforms, adapting its organization, tasks, approach to the needs and ideas of the modern world. At the same time, looking for the elements and forms that legitimize its functioning. Introduced reforms change the role and position of the civil service, affecting its legitimacy. Executive Management Model NPM affects the range of public benefits, and thus, indirectly, acceptance of a new model of public service. NPG model strengthens the position of the citizen in the process of setting public purpose, forces civil service to the negotiations, consensual activities while defining the public interest. In this way, a citizen deciding together with t…

The Impact of Monetary Policy on Bank Profitability

2020

This chapter analyzes the effect of the monetary policy on both net interest margin and bank profitability using a panel data from 31 OECD countries over the period 2000–2017. The main results show that expansionary monetary policy measures adopted in numerous economies had a negative impact on net interest margins and, therefore, on bank profitability. The relationship between interest rates and the slope of the yield curve with both the net interest margin and profitability is non-linear, more specifically concave. This suggests that the negative impact of low interest rates and the flat yield curve is greater the lower and flattened they are, respectively. Therefore, a potential normaliz…

Profit change and its drivers in the English and Welsh water industry: is output quality important?

2014

Abstract The assessment of profit change over time and its drivers is essential to analyse firms' financial performance. This paper investigates profit change and its components for the 10 English and Welsh water and sewerage water companies over the period 1991–2008 and for three regulatory sub-periods. Profit changes and their drivers are computed following two approaches, namely: without controlling for water and sewerage quality issues, and after decomposing the output effect into high quality and low quality output effect. In both cases, profit change is decomposed into various factors such as quantity and price effect, technical change, efficiency change, resource mix, product mix, an…

L’attualità dell’inattuale metodo genealogico nietzscheano

2017

The subject of this paper is the untimely character in Nietzsche’s philosophy considered from a contemporary hermeneutic standpoint. Assuming that Nietzsche has worked outside the conceptual and behavioural schemes ruling his age, I will address the question of which part of his untimely thought is still timely. My aim is to show that this part is the genealogic method and that the genealogy is a way to intend knowledge characterized by a specific Weltanschauung. Indeed, the Nietzsche’s genealogy is founded on the distinction between the origin and the ultimate usefulness. What is now a determinate phenomenon or the meaning of a term is something different from and not teleologically tied t…