The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of trained musicians and musically untrained college students to discriminate music instrument timbre as a function of duration. Specific factors investigated were the thresholds for timbre discrimination as a function of duration, musical ensemble participation as training, and the relative discrimination abilities of vocalists and instrumentalists. Under the conditions of this study, it can be concluded that the threshold for timbre discrimination as a function of duration is at or below 20 ms. Even though trained musicians tended to discriminate timbre better than musically untrained college students, musicians cannot discriminate timbre significantly better then those subjects who have not participated in musical ensembles. Additionally, instrumentalists tended to discriminate timbre better than vocalists, but the discrimination is not significantly different. Recommendations for further research include suggestions for a timbre discrimination measurement tool that takes into consideration the multidimensionality of timbre and the relationship of timbre discrimination to timbre source, duration, pitch, and loudness.

Functional traits, particularly those that impact fitness, can shape the ecological and evolutionary relationships among coexisting species of the same trophic level. Thus, examining these traits and properties of their distributions (underdispersion, overdispersion) within communities can provide insights into key ecological interactions (e.g., competition, facilitation) involved in community assembly. For instance, the distribution of floral colors in a community may reflect pollinator-mediated interactions between sympatric plant species, and the phylogenetic distribution of color can inform how evolutionary contingencies can continue to shape extant community assemblages. Additionally, the abundance and species richness of the local habitat may influence the type or strength of ecological interactions among co-occurring species. To evaluate the impact of community size and species richness on mechanisms shaping the distribution of ecologically relevant traits, we examined how floral color (defined by pollinator color vision models) is distributed within co-flowering assemblages. We modeled floral reflectance spectra of 55 co-flowering species using honeybee (Apis mellifera) and syrphid fly (Eristalis tenax) visual systems to assess the distributions of flower color across 14 serpentine seep communities in California. We found that phylogenetic relatedness had little impact on the observed color assemblages. However, smaller seep communities with lower species richness were more overdispersed for flower color than larger, more species-rich communities. Results support that competitive exclusion could be a dominant process shaping the species richness of flower color in smaller-sized communities with lower species richness, but this is less detectable or overwhelmed by other processes at larger, more speciose communities.

This thesis investigates how the color red can potentially affect the player’s perception of horror game environments. The test was conducted by asking participants to play through a horror level made in Unreal Engine 4 which used realistic-looking assets. The study was performed using a mixed methodology of A/B/C testing with surveys and interviews to gather the data. The A, B, and C versions of the test used the same game-level in all versions however the color of the lighting was different in all of them. Version A used white lights, version B used red lights, and version C used red flickering lights. The results revealed that the players found the version with the white lights to be the scariest and the version with the flickering lights to be the second scariest. This was most likely due to the order in which the players played the levels, the version with white being the first that the players played. The players indicated that the realistic colors in version A added to the sense of immersion, whereas the continuous red lights in version B were perceived by some players as overdone or unnatural and would have been better suited for localized areas associated with supernatural elements. The flickering lights were well received by players and associated with a higher potential for danger and jump scares

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of faculty of color in K-12 independent schools in the United States with particular attention to either supportive or non-supportive factors in their work. This study was designed to explore strategies for school leaders to retain faculty of color. This study was composed of the interviews of 12 faculty of color working at independent schools. Although there has recently been more attention given to the need to diversify the student body in independent schools, these schools still face challenges in diversifying the faculty population. The findings indicate that there are many factors associated with faculty of color feeling supported at independent schools including general job satisfaction, support from school administration, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the school, emotional and psychological impacts, internal and external social issues, and support from colleagues, parents, and alumni of the school.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第18467号 / 人健博第21号 / 新制||人健||2(附属図書館) / 31345 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 任 和子, 教授 横出 正之, 教授 田村 恵子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

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In this project a dashboard was created on behalf of the company Combitech who wanted to visualize a part of a workgroup’s information flow in hope of improving their communication. The only restriction was that it could not be interactive. The focus and goal with this study was to explore what factors one should keep in mind when designing a non-interactive dashboard. The two main theories used to guide this work were: information visualization and accessibility (focus on color vision deficiency). Designing digital products with accessibility needs in mind is not standard practice, but needs to be as society is becoming more filled with them. The process of creating the dashboard started with a literature review to read relevant works to gain insight. Interviews and user evaluations were conducted to gather insight from the users. An accessibility evaluation was performed to check for potential accessibility problems with the design. The result of the study suggests that information visualization and accessibility can be used together to produce a non-interactive dashboard that is viewed as both useful and appealing. The aspects used to achieve this were: understanding and involving the users to be able to prioritize information, being aware of how human perception works and how to apply color in an accessible way. / I detta projekt skapades en dashboard på uppdrag av företaget Combitech som ville visualisera en del av en av deras arbetsgruppers informationsflöde i hopp om att förbättra deras kommunikation. Den enda begränsningen var att den inte kunde vara interaktiv. Fokuset och målet med denna studie var att utforska vilka faktorer man bör tänka på när man designar en icke-interaktiv dashboard. De två huvudsakliga teorierna som användes för att styra detta arbete var: informationsvisualisering och tillgänglighet (fokus på defekt färgseende). Att designa digitala produkter med tillgänglighetsbehov i åtanke är inte standardpraxis, men behöver bli det då samhället blir mer fyllt av dem.  Processen att skapa dashboarden började med en litteraturgenomgång för att läsa relevanta verk för att få insikt. Intervjuer och användarutvärderingar genomfördes för att samla åsikter från användarna. En tillgänglighetsutvärdering gjordes för att kontrollera eventuella tillgänglighetsproblem med designen.   Resultatet av studien tyder på att informationsvisualisering och tillgänglighet kan användas tillsammans för att skapa en icke-interaktiv dashboard som ses som både användbar och tilltalande. Aspekterna som användes för att uppnå detta var: förstå och involvera användarna för att kunna prioritera information, vara medveten om hur mänsklig perception fungerar och hur man kan applicera färg på ett tillgängligt sätt.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study evaluated the color stability of bleach shade composites when activated by a high-intensity quartz tungsten-halogen (QTH) light source after 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days of exposure to different conditions. The color stability of bleach shade composites depends on various factors, namely, the resin material, the shade of the resin material, the storage method, and the storage time.

Simulating light is a very computationally expensive proposition. There are a wide variety of global illumination algorithms that are implemented and used by major motion picture companies to render interesting and believable scenes. Every algorithm strives to find a balance between speed and accuracy. The Point Based Approximate Color Bleeding algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithms in the field today. The Point Based Approximate Color Bleeding(PBACB) global illumination algorithm is based on the central idea that the geometry and direct illumination of the scene can be approximated by using a point cloud representation. This point cloud representation can then be used to generate the indirect illumination. The most basic unit of the point cloud is a surfel. A surfel is a two dimensional circle in space that contains the direct illumination for that section of space. The surfels are gathered in a tree structure and approximations are generated for the different levels of the tree. This tree is then used to calculate the appropriate color bleeding effect to apply to the surfaces in a rendered image. The main goal of this project was to explore the possibility of applying CUDA to the PBACB global illumination algorithm. CUDA is an extension of the C/C++ programing languages which allows for GPU parallel programming. In this paper, we present our GPU based implementation of the PBACB algorithm. The PBACB algorithm involves three central steps, creation of a surfel point cloud, generation of the spherical harmonics approximations for the point cloud, and using the surfel point cloud to generate an approximation for global illumi- nation. For this project, CUDA was applied to two of the steps of the PBACB algorithm, the generation of the spherical harmonic representations and the ap- plication of the surfel point cloud to generate indirect illumination. Our final GPU algorithm was able to obtain a 4.0 times speedup over our CPU version. We also discuss future work which could include the use of CUDA’s Dynamic Parallelism and a stack free implementation which could increase the speedups seen by our algorithm.

Models of sensory processing have historically abstracted underlying biological circuits, due to unknown connectivity and/or complexity. In contrast, the use of tractable and anatomically well-characterized model organisms such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster allows us to utilize biological constraints in models of sensory processing to understand underlying circuit mechanisms and make more accurate predictions. This approach has been used to dissect motion vision circuits, but investigations into color vision - a salient visual feature for many animals - have been limited. Here, we investigate the circuit mechanisms of the early color circuit of the fruit fly and assess its information processing capabilities. Using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and genetic manipulations, we measure the chromatic tuning properties of photoreceptor axons and their primary targets in the medulla neuropil. At the level of photoreceptor axons, we show that opponent processes are the result of a dual mechanism - a direct pathway specific to insect physiology and an indirect pathway found across the animal kingdom. Both pathways are necessary to decorrelate incoming signals and efficiently represent chromatic information. We built an anatomically constrained model that is able to quantitatively reproduce these color opponent responses without fitting synaptic weights. Instead, we used electron-microscopy-derived synaptic count, an anatomically defined measure, as a proxy for synaptic weight, thereby linking structure to function. Downstream of photoreceptors, we find that neurons shift their tuning and become highly selective for particular directions in color space - similar to “hue-selective” neurons in primate cortex. To achieve this selectivity, these neurons require input from all types of photoreceptors and an interneuron that determines the neuron's preferred chromatic direction. We extended our anatomically constrained model to incorporate these downstream neurons and are able to predict their responses, qualitatively and quantitatively.In summary, the detailed reconstruction of the fly circuit anatomy predicts the mechanisms of multiple stages of color information processing and allows us to infer functional roles for each part of the circuit. The circuit motifs, we uncover, are shared across species and hint at convergent mechanisms that underlie the transformation from an opponent neural code to a hue selective code.