The visual recognition of complex movements and actions is crucial for communication and survival in many species. Remarkable sensitivity and robustness of biological motion perception have been demonstrated in psychophysical experiments. In recent years, neurons and cortical areas involved in action recognition have been identified in neurophysiological and imaging studies. However, the detailed neural mechanisms that underlie the recognition of such complex movement patterns remain largely unknown. This paper reviews the experimental results and summarizes them in terms of a biologically plausible neural model. The model is based on the key assumption that action recognition is based on learned prototypical patterns and exploits information from the ventral and the dorsal pathway. The model makes specific predictions that motivate new experiments.

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Countries across the globe have started taking measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions andto power the future with more sustainable forms of energy. One such initiative towards sustainableenergy generation is through wind energy. The wind energy contribution has shown a drastic increasein Sweden during the last few years. However there are several issues due to improper siting of windmills. This thesis aims to conduct a multi-criteria evaluation to determine suitable wind farm sites inVästernorrland County. The spatial planning through multi-criteria evaluation is done jointly usinganalytical hierarchy processing and weighted linear combination in ArcMap. There are 29 criteriataken into account and the buffer zones from each criterion are decided based on Swedish legislation,discussions with stakeholders and from similar previous studies. Three scenarios namely green,economy and tourism are created giving emphasize on the aspects as the title implies. The scenarioeconomy has the least area with very high suitability scores when compared to the other two scenarios.The results obtained for the three scenarios are grouped into classes with suitability scores. About 60%of the total area is unsuitable for wind farm installations and most of the area has less to moderaterange of suitability. The major constraints that restrict the wind mill installations are spaces with landcover like water, roads and national protected areas. Based on the suitability scores, the best three sitesare finally selected which covers the three scenario aspects. Other sites are excluded due to reasons likelow suitability, closeness to the county boundary and too small in size. Among the best three sites, twosites already have permission to build wind farms. The proposed third site is about 2.5 squarekilometres located to the south-east of the county. In conclusion, the project result not only shows thatthere are more potential / Länder över hela världen har börjat vidta åtgärder för att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser och att iframtiden övergå till mer hållbara energikällor. Ett sådant initiativ mot en hållbar energiproduktion äratt satsa på vindkraft. Vindenergi har visat en drastisk ökning i Sverige under de senaste åren. Detfinns dock flera problem på grund av olämplig placering av vindkraftverk. Avhandlingen syftar till attgenomföra en utvärdering av flera kriterier för att bestämma lämpliga lägen för vindkraftparker iVästernorrlands län. Den fysiska planeringen genom utvärdering av flera kriterier görs gemensamtmed hjälp av en analytisk hierarki-bearbetning och vägd linjär kombination i ArcMap. Det tas hänsyntill cirka 29 kriterier och buffertzoner för varje kriterium bestäms utifrån svensk lagstiftning,diskussioner med intressenter och liknande tidigare studier. Tre scenarier, med respektive tonvikt påekologi, ekonomi och turism skapas och analyseras. Scenario ekonomi har det minsta området medmycket höga lämplighetspoäng jämfört med de andra två scenarierna. Resultaten som erhållits för detre scenarierna grupperas i klasser med olika lämplighetsresultat. Cirka 60% av den totala arealen ärolämplig för vindkraftsanläggningar och majoriteten av området har mindre till måttligt lämpligtutbud. De stora begränsningarna som sätter gränser för vindkraftsanläggningar är de områden somupptas av exempelvis vatten, vägar och nationella skyddsområden. Baserat på lämplighetspoängen ärde bästa tre platserna utvalda som representerar de tre scenarierna. Andra platser utesluts på grund avskäl som låg lämplighet, närhet till länets gräns och alltför små områden. Bland de utvalda områdenahar två redan tillstånd att bygga vindkraftparker. Den föreslagna tredje platsen är cirka 2,5kvadratkilometer belägen i sydöstra delen av länet. Sammanfattningsvis visarprojektet resultatet intebara att det finns fler potentiella platser men identifierar också de mest lämpliga platserna förinstallation av vindkraftverk i Västernorrlands län.

The studies investigated the impact of predictive visual information about the pitch and location of a forthcoming sound on the sound processing. In Symbol-to-Sound matching paradigms, symbols induced predictions of particular sounds. The brain’s error signals (IR and N2b components of the event-related potential) were measured in response to occasional violations of the prediction, i.e. when a sound was incongruent to the corresponding symbol. IR and N2b index the detection of prediction violations at different levels, IR at a sensory and N2b at a cognitive level. Participants evaluated the congruency between prediction and actual sound by button press. When the prediction referred to only the pitch or only the location feature (Exp. 1), the violation of each feature elicited IR and N2b. The IRs to pitch and location violations revealed differences in the in time course and topography, suggesting that they were generated in feature-specific sensory areas. When the prediction referred to both features concurrently (Exp. 2), that is, the symbol predicted the sound´s pitch and location, either one or both predictions were violated. Unexpectedly, no significant effects in the IR range were obtained. However, N2b was elicited in response to all violations. N2b in response to concurrent violations of pitch and location had a shorter latency. We conclude that associative predictions can be established by arbitrary rule-based symbols and for different sound features, and that concurrent violations are processed in parallel. In complex situations as in Exp. 2, capacity limitations appear to affect processing in a hierarchical manner. While predictions were presumably not reliably established at sensory levels (absence of IR), they were established at more cognitive levels, where sounds are represented categorially (presence of N2b).

Face recognition that is invariant to pose and illumination is a problem solved effortlessly by the human brain, but the computational details that underlie such efficient recognition are still far from clear. This thesis draws on research from psychology and neuroscience about face and object recognition and the visual system in order to develop a novel computational method for face detection, feature selection and representation, and memory structure for recall. A biologically plausible framework for developing a face recognition system will be presented. This framework can be divided into four parts: 1) A face detection system. This is an improved version of a biologically inspired feedforward neural network that has modifiable connections and reflects the hierarchical and elastic structure of the visual system. The face detection system can detect if a face is present in an input image, and determine the region which contains that face. The system is also capable of detecting the pose of the face. 2) A face region selection mechanism. This mechanism is used to determine the Gabor-style features corresponding to the detected face, i.e., the features from the region of interest. This region of interest is selected using a feedback mechanism that connects the higher level layer of the feedforward neural network where ultimately the face is detected to an intermediate level where the Gabor style features are detected. 3) A face recognition system which is based on the binary encoding of the Gabor style features selected to represent a face. Two alternative coding schemes are presented, using 2 and 4 bits to represent a winning orientation at each location. The effectiveness of the Gabor-style features and the different coding schemes in discriminating faces from different classes is evaluated using the Yale B Face Database. The results from this evaluation show that this representation is close to other results on the same database. 4) A theoretical approach for a memory system capable of memorising sequences of poses. A basic network for memorisation and recall of sequences of labels have been implemented, and from this it is extrapolated a memory model that could use the ability of this model to memorise and recall sequences, to assist in the recognition of faces by memorising sequences of poses. Finally, the capabilities of the detection and recognition parts of the system are demonstrated using a demo application that can learn and recognise faces from a webcam.

The studies investigated the impact of predictive visual information about the pitch and location of a forthcoming sound on the sound processing. In Symbol-to-Sound matching paradigms, symbols induced predictions of particular sounds. The brain’s error signals (IR and N2b components of the event-related potential) were measured in response to occasional violations of the prediction, i.e. when a sound was incongruent to the corresponding symbol. IR and N2b index the detection of prediction violations at different levels, IR at a sensory and N2b at a cognitive level. Participants evaluated the congruency between prediction and actual sound by button press. When the prediction referred to only the pitch or only the location feature (Exp. 1), the violation of each feature elicited IR and N2b. The IRs to pitch and location violations revealed differences in the in time course and topography, suggesting that they were generated in feature-specific sensory areas. When the prediction referred to both features concurrently (Exp. 2), that is, the symbol predicted the sound´s pitch and location, either one or both predictions were violated. Unexpectedly, no significant effects in the IR range were obtained. However, N2b was elicited in response to all violations. N2b in response to concurrent violations of pitch and location had a shorter latency. We conclude that associative predictions can be established by arbitrary rule-based symbols and for different sound features, and that concurrent violations are processed in parallel. In complex situations as in Exp. 2, capacity limitations appear to affect processing in a hierarchical manner. While predictions were presumably not reliably established at sensory levels (absence of IR), they were established at more cognitive levels, where sounds are represented categorially (presence of N2b).

Direct response advertising in the financial services industry in South Africa has become one of the most important tactics companies utilise to build and maintain market share. Ensuring that these advertising campaigns yield optimal return on investment numbers is the responsibility of marketing departments and their partners in the marketing and sales processes, such as the creative and media agencies, the distribution force, as well as the client service area that supports the client value proposition. The marketing executive therefore is accountable for the planning, budgeting and execution of direct response campaigns, which need to deliver sufficient results to support the company’s overall business objectives. The challenge all marketers face is the lack of a proven structured and scientific methodology to facilitate this planning, budgeting and execution process. It has always been a general view in the marketing fraternity that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to combine creative output measures, which are subjective in nature, with cost, sales and profit measures, which are objective in nature. This study aims to create a structured approach to marketing strategising and planning, by creating a marketing metrics model that enables the marketing practitioner to budget according to output needed to achieve the overarching business objectives of sales, cost management and profit. This marketing metrics model therefore unpacks the business drivers in detail, but through a marketing effort lense, to link the various factors underlying successful marketing output, to the bigger business objectives. This is done by incorporating both objective (verifiable data, such as cost per sale) and subjective variables (qualitative factors, such as creative quality) into a single model, which enables the marketing practitioner to identify areas of underperformance, which can then be managed, tweaked or discontinued in order to optimise marketing return on investment. Although many marketing metrics models and variables exist, there is a gap in the combination of objective and subjective factors in a single model, such as the proposed model, which will give the marketer a single tool to plan, analyse and manage the output in relation to pre-determined performance benchmarks. / Business Management / DCOM (Business Management)

Direct response advertising in the financial services industry in South Africa has become one of the most important tactics companies utilise to build and maintain market share. Ensuring that these advertising campaigns yield optimal return on investment numbers is the responsibility of marketing departments and their partners in the marketing and sales processes, such as the creative and media agencies, the distribution force, as well as the client service area that supports the client value proposition. The marketing executive therefore is accountable for the planning, budgeting and execution of direct response campaigns, which need to deliver sufficient results to support the company’s overall business objectives. The challenge all marketers face is the lack of a proven structured and scientific methodology to facilitate this planning, budgeting and execution process. It has always been a general view in the marketing fraternity that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to combine creative output measures, which are subjective in nature, with cost, sales and profit measures, which are objective in nature. This study aims to create a structured approach to marketing strategising and planning, by creating a marketing metrics model that enables the marketing practitioner to budget according to output needed to achieve the overarching business objectives of sales, cost management and profit. This marketing metrics model therefore unpacks the business drivers in detail, but through a marketing effort lense, to link the various factors underlying successful marketing output, to the bigger business objectives. This is done by incorporating both objective (verifiable data, such as cost per sale) and subjective variables (qualitative factors, such as creative quality) into a single model, which enables the marketing practitioner to identify areas of underperformance, which can then be managed, tweaked or discontinued in order to optimise marketing return on investment. Although many marketing metrics models and variables exist, there is a gap in the combination of objective and subjective factors in a single model, such as the proposed model, which will give the marketer a single tool to plan, analyse and manage the output in relation to pre-determined performance benchmarks. / Business Management / DCOM (Business Management)