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Sony's new Vita impressive if a bit overwhelming
Sony's PlayStation Vita is a bit of an anachronism in a mobile gaming world awash in casual iPhone games and the warm-and-fuzzy Nintendo 3DS.
Despite the gaming industry's mad stampede for casual players, Sony is bold enough to release a gaming gadget this week with so much going on, it risks overwhelming the average player.
Is the Vita an impressive piece of hardware? Absolutely. Sony's skill in engineering excellent electronics isn't the issue here.
But truly compelling personal electronics - the kind that change the way people interact with their technology - must be also elegant and intuitive to use. And the PlayStation Vita's software might be just a bit too busy and complex for the casual crowd.
System software has never been Sony's strongest suit - there, I said it - and the Vita's operating system is yet another example an inelegant interface.
Sony's new portable gaming device looks like a gaming gadget. As the successor to Sony's PlayStation Portable, which was released in 2005, the Vita even sports the little knobs, buttons, triggers and other controls that clearly show its playing pedigree.
From a technical standpoint, the Vita is a serious upgrade, including a razor-crisp, touch-sensitive screen; front- and rear-facing cameras; a motion-sensing system using a gyroscope and accelerometer; and an electronic compass.
In addition to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the Vita can link to a 3G mobile network, via AT&T, with monthly data plans required.
The Wi-Fi-only model of the Vita costs $249.99, while the version with Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities costs $299.99.
The Vita also has a multi-touch pad on the back of the device that felt a bit superfluous to me, and it introduces a new medium for games that uses tiny flash memory cards.
On paper - and in person - the Vita's specifications are impressive. But the path to using all those abilities isn't as smooth as you'd expect. In its defense, Sony includes a comprehensive video tutorial to get its new owners familiar with all the features, but it's unfortunate such guidance is required at all.
Games are the star on the PlayStation Vita, and they look bright and brilliant on its five-inch organic light emitting diode, or OLED, display. Original PlayStation Portable games can be downloaded and installed - at a price - through Sony's online PlayStation Store.
Vita game cards aren't much bigger than a thumbnail and slide into a slot atop the device, taking several seconds to boot up before being ready to play.
Still, it is worth the wait. The Vita's launch lineup is substantial, ranging from child-friendly games like "Touch My Katamari" to racing games like "Asphalt Injection," to action titles "Shinobido 2" and "Dungeon Hunter Alliance."
The initial library also includes addictive puzzle games including "Lumines Electronic Symphony" and music-rhythm games such as "Michael Jackson: The Experience."
Some titles, like the action-platforming adventure "Uncharted: Golden Abyss," combine the Vita's control sticks, buttons and touch screen in interesting ways that make the most of all the control options.
For example, although many stages of "Golden Abyss" require players to run the game's action hero through obstacles using standard analog sticks, there are some scenarios in which the main character can be maneuvered by tracing a route for him to take by swiping a finger along a specific path.
Portable sophistication
Games on the Vita are unlike any other portable system out, packing next-generation sophistication into a portable package.
And of course, the Vita is multitalented, providing multimedia and online features such as Web surfing. Browsing the Web on the Vita was surprisingly smooth, thanks to the touch-adjustable screen, which lets viewers zoom in and shift pages similar to many popular smartphones. However, this is a bit of a pause when adjusting a page's profile in the Vita's browser - a delay some users could find annoying.
Vita owners - Vitans?- also can listen to music, watch videos and take photos in addition to playing on the Internet. The device connects to Sony's robust online entertainment network, with more than 46,000 downloadable movies and television episodes. And on Wednesday, when the Vita goes on sale, it will also offer social media apps like Twitter and Flickr.
The Vita also can connect apparently to a PlayStation 3 or personal computer to transfer content back and forth through a USB cord. Unfortunately, I couldn't try out this feature before deadline because the PC software required wasn't available from the Web link the Vita provided.
For all of the Vita's fine qualities, there are a few flaws beyond its slightly clunky interface.
The device uses proprietary media cards to store data like music, video and game data, adding extra costs. The price gouging starts at $24.99 for a 4GB card up to $99.99 for 32GB of storage space. Some versions of the Vita don't come with a card, so the extra costs could come as an unpleasant surprise.
It's also unfortunate that transferring data between the Vita and a computer requires extra software to chaperon the process.
Still, overall the Vita is a nice addition to the mobile gaming market. It's just hard to imagine casual consumers grabbing this gadget up.
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through Ohio
(You can visit a map of land migration routes at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/Gwen/migration.htm.)
Index of Articles
From the book: Genealogical Research in Ohio (Page 19)
History of Ohio In Five Volumes
Perhaps no region on the continent was better adapted to human habitation than this Ohio Country, which fact may have had much to do with the keen competition among the native tribes for its possession. The climate was most favorable since man, whether savage, barbarian or civilized, is at his best in a temperate clime. The geography of the region was ideal. There were mountainous sections and level plateaus; broad valleys and extensive plains; rich forest and open prairies, each with its own peculiar products of animal, vegetable and mineral wealth.
Two great drainage systems -- the Ohio River on the south and the Great Lakes on the north -- afforded the best of facilities for travel and transportation. Both systems were extensively used in east and west travel by the Indians, and later by white men; while the numerous rivers tributary thereto -- particularly the Miamis, the Scioto and the Muskingum, flowing into the Ohio; and the Maumee, the Sandusky and the Cuyahoga, discharging their waters into the lake -- the headwaters of which were separated only by short portages, furnished natural highways for travel north and south. Both the Ohio River and the Lakes seem to have been looked upon by the Indian as natural boundary lines, and the territory enclosed between them as a distinct section from that to the north or south.
In connection with the water highways of the country, there should be mentioned the numerous Indian trails which either supplemented or replaced them. These trails, while not natural highways in the sense that the lakes and rivers were, did follow natural lines of travel, and many of them doubtless were as old as the human occupation of the country itself. They not only traversed those districts devoid of waterways and crossed the portages between the headwaters of the navigable streams, but often followed the course of the water routes throughout their entire extent. The reason for this is obvious. The streams were not navigable in seasons of extreme drought, while in winter they often were frozen. Besides, some of the tribes preferred land travel, while all of them found it more convenient at times than that by boat or canoe.
The Indian trails often followed the high ground through which they passed, later becoming what are known as the "ridge roads" of the present time. The importance of the trails as factors in the settlement and development of the State of Ohio cannot be over-estimated. In many instances they determined the location of white settlements, forts and military roads, some of them later becoming public highways. Along these aboriginal trails the native tribes passed to and fro from one location to another, whether engaged in warfare, the chase, trade or migration. Later, together with the navigable streams, they served as the means of entrance to the white traders and settlers who pushed their way into the country north and west of the Ohio River.
Among the most important of these aboriginal highways was the so-called Great Trail, which was the western extension of the great highway between the Indian country around Delaware and Chesapeake bays, and the forks of the Ohio. Passing westward from Pittsburg this trail traversed Northeastern Ohio to Sandusky Bay, from whence it led around the west end of Lake Erie and northward to Detroit. Later it was the important military highway connecting Fort Pitt, Fort Laurens, Fort Sandusky and Fort Detroit.
The most important of the north and south trails of the state was the Scioto trail, between Sandusky Bay on the north and the Ohio River at the mouth of the Scioto on the south. Ascending the Sandusky River from its mouth, crossing the portage and descending the Scioto, it crossed the Ohio and joined the famous "Warriors' Trail" leading far away into the Indian country of the southland. Other important trails connected the Muskingum towns of the Delawares, the Shawnee towns on the Scioto and the Shawnee and Miami towns on the Miamis. Many trails of lesser importance traversed the country in all directions.
Toward the west, the Ohio Country extended till it merged with the Mississippi Valley, while its eastern boundary was the Alleghany Mountains. At the "forks of the Ohio," where Pittsburg now stands, was its eastern gateway, through which the native tribes passed in either direction, and which not only served the european explorer and settler for the same purpose but was the scene of many of the early activities which characterized the struggle between the French and the English for the possession of the rich prize lying to the westward.
In 1797 Ebenezer Zane opened "Zane's Trace" from Wheeling to Limestone (Maysville). It passed through the site of Lancaster (Fairfield County, Ohio), at a fording known as "crossing of the Hockhocking." He located at Lancaster one of the three tracts of land given him by the government for his work performed in opening the "Trace".
Extracts from the book:
Extracts from the book:
Thus, Zane's Trace was blazed through the wilderness during the summers of 1796 and 1797. It provided a much-needed corridor connecting the settlements of western Virginia and Pennsylvania with those of Kentucky. In blazing the Trace, Indian trails were utilized for the greater part of the way from Wheeling to the Scioto River; and Todd's military trace was followed from the Scioto River to the Ohio. Therefore, to lay out the route, all that was necessary was to complete identifying blazes and remove underbrush and other minor obstacles. Despite its primitive nature, mail carriers, emigrants, adventureres, businessmen, and circuit riders, on horseback and by foot, moved along the Trace into and through the rapidly expanding Ohio frontier.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Each month we search the market for fun, new and exciting items that range from nail art, accessories, lifestyle items, fun school supplies, body, skin, and hair care. What makes us different is that included in our box is our positive 'monthly message' of inspiration and empowerment to help your girls feel more confident about themselves and to embrace who they are and believe in what they can become. Our boxes are fun to anticipate receiving in the mailbox, opening and exploring all the goodies while getting a great positive message to carry them through the month.


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Cast away the pressures of daily life at the 11th annual Island Lake Bass Derby, running July 13 and 14 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The event, an annual fundraiser for Island Lake Conservation Area projects, is hosted jointly by Credit Valley Conservation (CVC), Credit Valley Conservation Foundation (CVCF) and the Friends of Island Lake (FOIL).
"Our two-day catch and release derby is a great event for first-time and experienced anglers," said Bob Shirley, Chair of FOIL. "We have special prize categories for adults and kids to help encourage fishing at all ages. Our goal is to promote fishing at Island Lake, help people connect with nature, and raise money for projects around the park."
Up to 300 people take part in the bass derby throughout the weekend. This year participants have a chance to win over $5000 in prizes. Categories include big catch prizes for the top 10 Bass, as well as special categories for the top Pike, Perch and Crappie. There are separate kids' categories for youth ages 11 and under. Daily ceremonies will be held to award trophies in all kids' categories.
Registration for the derby includes daily admission to the park and boat launch access. Registrants must each have an Ontario fishing license and aerated live well. Electric boat rental and live bait are also available at additional cost. Participants registering before July 1 will receive an early bird special rate. Online registration is open until noon on July 12 or in-person at the park until the day of the derby, space permitting.
The annual derby is supported by local businesses including Gold Sponsor Sunshine Landscape Design and Construction, and Media Sponsor Country 105.
For more details about the Island Lake Bass Derby, registration, sponsors and prize information, please visit www.islandlakederby.ca.
Caption: CVC's Phil Bird holding a Largemouth Bass from the Island Lake Bass Derby
Link: https://cvc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Derby2011-mod.jpg
Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) is one of 36 conservation authorities in Ontario. Conservation authorities are provincial/municipal partnerships that manage the natural environment of a watershed, an area of land where the rain and snowmelt drain into a body of water. For more than 60 years, CVC has worked with its partners to build a thriving environment that protects, connects and sustains us. CVC is a member of Conservation Ontario.
Media Contact
Jamie Williams
Specialist, Marketing & Communications
Credit Valley Conservation
905-670-1615 ext. 285
[email protected]


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Jerk seasoning is a fantastic Caribbean export. A fiery mix of chili peppers and herbs
The key ingredients of a jerk are invariably the extremely hot Scotch Bonnet peppers and allspice (Jamaican Pimento) . Other ingredients can include garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme and cloves but each family in Jamaica has their own blend.
Jerk chicken or pork
Most jerk recipes and techniques are kept secret, but occasionally a great chef spills the beans.
Here is our jerk chicken recipe. Getting hold of it involved a long evening with far too much rum, so enjoy it because we really suffered (the next morning) to bring it to you.
Jamaican jerk chicken recipe
For one chicken (serves 4) or 4 chicken thigh portions
Firstly make your jerk seasoning as follows:
Blitz these ingredients in a blender at high speed for about 30 seconds (pulse setting if you have one)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 medium jalapeno peppers
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground nutmeg
Next prick the chicken all over, take a lime and rub into the skin. prick again and now rub as much of the jerk mixture in as you can. Leave to marinade for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight in the fridge) before grilling or barbecuing on a low heat for about 30 minutes.


text:
Q.) Can I visit your factory to check on my trailers being built?
Of course. Give us a call ahead of time and let us know when you are stopping by and one of our dedicated employees will give you a tour of the facility.
Q.) What if I need a trailer that isn't listed on the Evans website?
Customization is our specialty! Give our sales department a call at 800-745-0518 and we will discuss your needs.
Q. Is there an Evans dealer in my area?
We have an extensive list of dealers who represent Evans around the country. Take a look at our dealers page to find one close to you.
Q. Do you sell replacement parts for your trailers?
If you're looking for replacement parts please contact our Parts Dept. at 866-949-4774 (toll-free) or submit a Parts Inquiry Form here.
Q. My question wasn't answered. Whom should I contact?
Please contact our sales department at 800-745-0518 or e-mail us below. We're happy to hear from you!


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If you are looking for a place to stay which near airport then these two rooms will be your best choice.
Host are a lovely couple, who are really kind.Moreover,they work as freelance English and Chinese translators,basically work at home and are ready to help guest without language barrier.
They have two rooms all near Incheon airport.
This room have many advantages:
• Located at the closest village to the airport
• Free ride to Incheon Airport
• Perfect layover spot
• Calm environment just beside the park
• 2-stop ride to Incheon Airport via metro
• Exclusively constructed as a guesthouse
• Free breakfast (8-10am) / wifi
• Latex Mattress on Tatami Floor, In-room GiGA Speed Wifi, Air Conditioner, Makeup mirror, Public Bathroom
• Designed in a traditional setting with oriental flair offering guests with relaxing environment. It was aired on famous TV show "Superstar K 2016" a.k.a. "Korean Idol" for 6 weeks as a residence.
Moreover,host will prepare free delicious Korean style breakfast for guest also they can pick up guest in airport for free!
check more details here:
No1 in Korea / Private apartment, guesthouse & Hanok booking


text:
International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical SciencesVolume 2003 (2003), Issue 59, Pages 3753-3759doi:10.1155/S0161171203208322
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Letters, Istanbul Kültür University, Sirinevler 34510, Istanbul, Turkey
Received 31 August 2002
Copyright © 2003 Yaşar Polatoğlu and Metın Bolcal. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The aim of this paper is to give a coefficient inequality for the
class of analytic functions in the unit disc D={z||z| <1}.


text:
Where To Eat and Drink at Shanghai Pudong International Airport
If you're at all familiar with Shanghai's great food scene, prepare to be disappointed. Despite being one of the world's most-traveled-through airports, Shanghai Pudong International Airport is woefully sparse of good restaurants or bars to kill time while waiting for a flight. The lack of options has inspired locals and tourists alike to claim they don't eat at the airport except when "in [a] starving situation," and that the "best bet is Burger King or Subway." Though after a long, grueling flight if you're coming from the States, the Starbucks can be a welcome sight.
If you don't want American fast food, these are your best options for both terminals. You'll be eating before going through security here, so make sure to give yourself enough time (all of the options are on the quicker side, though). Other than the below, you're generally stuck with quick tea and coffee shops.
Terminal 1
Tai Hing: A fast sit down restaurant that focuses on Cantonese dishes. There are soup, noodle, and rice dishes, along with pork, duck, and shrimp. Don't expect anything fancy (food comes on a plastic tray), but it will fill you up.
Tsui Wah: Clean and easy Hong Kong-style fast food. Wonton noodles, fish balls, and other Cantonese classics fill the menu, and those not hungry can stick with some green tea.
Chez Choux: While admittedly not a restaurant, Chez Choux is a fine stop for a wide variety of choux pastries. Choux is a fluffy pastry that uses steam to puff up rather than yeast or baking soda.
Sunrise Restaurant: A mix of Western and Chinese food. You can choose noodle soups or dumplings or burger and fries. If you're really feeling out there, there's pizza.
Yu Ren Wan: One of the only halal restaurants, offering noodle dishes, tea, and juices.
Terminal 2
Tian Xia Dumplings: Maybe you're sick of dumplings, but Terminal 2 is a land primarily populated by Hope Star Coffee Shops and Western fast food, so there's not much else.
Grappa's Cellar: An Italian-themed restaurant bar with bright red Mediterranean colors and Italian coffee, European beer, and simple cocktails.
Ajisen Ramen: An always trustworthy chain of Japanese noodle shops that has locations around the world.
Yonghe King: The outpost of a large chain with restaurants throughout Taiwan and mainland China. Breakfast options include youtiao (kind of like a Chinese doughnut) and rice and noodle dishes with pork, chicken, and beef.


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Because my books have a gardening theme, I often attend garden & foodie events, as well as trade shows large and small. This is a no-brainer for non-fiction titles. My book series, Seed Savers, however, is fiction. It's always a bit of a challenge to get passers-by to realize the books are fiction, despite my many signs and display of the book covers.
Seed Savers is a series of five books set in a not-so-distant future where gardening and saving seeds is illegal. All the food is processed and the children don't know what real food is. The government and big corporations are united and have total control of the food supply.
This week I had a booth at the International Master Gardener Conference. My husband and I staffed the booth, complete with prize spinning wheel and book-related merchandise, in addition to my books, of course.
It was a very different experience than the Heirloom Expo, where I've had a booth for the past three years. The trade show was much smaller, in that there were many fewer vendors. The potential buyers were also fewer. Though open to the public for several hours a day, not a lot of the public stopped in. So basically, the people walking by were many of the same people for three days.
I was worried, at first, that after great sales the first day, no one would come by on the next two days. What happened, in fact, was that some customers bought book 1 and started reading it while at the conference! One person came back and bought the rest of the series before leaving. Another person bought the whole set for her daughter and stopped by on the last day to tell me her daughter had already read the first book and half of the second, and loved them! That was very encouraging.
Some of you authors considering trade shows related to your books might be wondering if it's worth it.
I usually consider a wide-reaching trade show a success if I break even (or come close). Why? Because of the personal connections you make. In my case, I truly believe my books fit nicely into gardening classes, clubs, etc., for kids. And while there are many fine fiction and nonfiction gardening picture books, there are very few novels. I want to get the word out to folks who might be looking for a book like mine.
The Master Gardener Conference is great because delegates come from all over the United States and Canada. That's why I only need to break even on sales. Because I'm also there to meet people. (And don't forget to have people sign up for your newsletter!)
I could make this a "How To" on trade shows post (and I will if someone wants me to), but I think there are plenty of those already out there. I pretty much just wanted to let you know what I've been up to and to share some fun pictures.
The decor for the show were decorated bicycles from various Oregon county Master Gardener associations. They were awesome! In fact, there are so many great photos, I think I'll share more in a second post.
A bonus for me at this conference was that I got to meet a Master Gardener Seed Savers fan from Florida with whom I've been corresponding for a few years!
This is Carol.
I almost forgot to mention that my booth was in a prime location: near the entrance, across from lunch, and I paid extra for a corner, meaning I had two sides to greet the public. Here's a panorama of the day lunch was served a tad bit late and the people milling around, waiting.
Okay, now for the fun bicycles brought to us from different counties in Oregon, and more coming in the next post!


text: It's no secret that Samsung has been struggling recently, even going so far as to freeze salaries for all of its employees. In the wake of these issues, Business Insider has just published an extensive profile of the company and its struggles. The profile, which comes in at 3,000 words, details all of the highs and lows for the company, as well as its performance against companies like Apple and Xiaomi.


text:
Here we go again! If I had a nickel for all the articles I've written and read about the improper use of federal grant dollars, I'd be a rich man by now. Even with all the efforts now to ensure…
Tag Archives: energy
Funds Under Energy Award Used for Alcohol, Spa Services
February 20, 2018 – 9:15 am
By Jerry Ashworth | Posted in Awards, Single Audits, State and Local Governments | Also tagged alcohol, improper payments, Texas | Comments (0)
L/SFR Sneak Preview: HUD Announces $1.6 Billion in Homelessness Assistance, Other Initiatives
September 13, 2011 – 4:11 pm
(This post is excerpted from a story in the Sept. 19 issue of Local/State Funding Report.) On Aug. 31, HUD made $1.63 billion available for homeless assistance through its Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance program. The money will support permanent…
By Liza Casabona | Posted in Grant Seeking, Grants/Funding Announcements | Also tagged homelessness, HUD | Comments (0)


text: By McAlvany Weekly Commentary Posted February 10, 2010 In PodCasts The Global and American Paradigm Shift2010-02-102017-10-04https://mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/wp-content/uploads/mwc-logo.svgMcAlvany Weekly Commentaryhttps://mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/wp-content/uploads/mwc-logo.svg200px200px http://www.mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/wp-content/uploads/ica2010-0210.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS McAlvany Weekly Commentary McAlvany Financial Group (MFG) is a precious metals brokerage and wealth management company that was established in 1972 by Don McAlvany. The company specializes in the sale of bullion, semi-numismatic and numismatic coins, physical gold IRAs, offshore storage for precious metals in Switzerland, Canada, and Delaware, and wealth management services. Recent PostsFed Pays Banks 3.9% To Not Loan Money!Will Sesame Credits Be Xi's Tiananmen Tank?FTX, "Effective Altruism" Proves All-FalseCarry Trade Heaven now Hari-Kari Hades


text:
How Close Are Blackwater and JSOC?
Earlier this week I wrote about Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the military special forces command once run directly out of the Bush White House that is now displacing some of the CIA's more shadowy work in national security and counterterrorism. Vanity Fair's profile of Blackwater CEO Erik Prince may now reveal even more authority under JSOC's belt.
Prince outs himself as a CIA asset, a relationship that presumably did much to strengthen Blackwater's incredibly close ties to the agency. But his admission would seem to effectively end that relationship (or, more to the point, imply that it had been ended). Vanity Fair explored Prince's and Blackwater's CIA work in detail, yet it conspicuously wrote around the company's well-established work with JSOC, making no mention of the group. Why?
Marcy Wheeler thinks the profile is "an attempt to fully burn one cover, in an attempt to sustain another cover." Could Prince be airing his CIA work to distract from his work with JSOC? As I wrote, operations from predator drones to militant detention seem to be shifting from the CIA to JSOC. As Marc wrote, Blackwater is controversial within the CIA and with the agency's congressional overseers. But JSOC has no such problems. If Blackwater's special operations work is being moved from CIA to JSOC, that would help Blackwater continue programs like drone-spotting in Pakistan unabated. It would also be yet another case of transferring authority from CIA to JSOC.
In related news, the State Department -- not the Pentagon -- is now fielding media inquiries about JSOC, further removing them from the traditional military command.


text:
Humans shape their hands to grasp, manipulate objects, and to communicate. From nonhuman primate studies, we know that visual and motor properties for grasps can be derived from cells in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Are non-grasp-related hand shapes in humans represented similarly? Here we show for the first time how single neurons in the PPC of humans are selective for particular imagined hand shapes independent of graspable objects. We find that motor imagery to shape the hand can be successfully decoded from the PPC by implementing a version of the popular Rock-Paper-Scissors game and its extension Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. By simultaneous presentation of visual and auditory cues, we can discriminate motor imagery from visual information and show differences in auditory and visual information processing in the PPC. These results also demonstrate that neural signals from human PPC can be used to drive a dexterous cortical neuroprosthesis.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study shows for the first time hand-shape decoding from human PPC. Unlike nonhuman primate studies in which the visual stimuli are the objects to be grasped, the visually cued hand shapes that we use are independent of the stimuli. Furthermore, we can show that distinct neuronal populations are activated for the visual cue and the imagined hand shape. Additionally we found that auditory and visual stimuli that cue the same hand shape are processed differently in PPC. Early on in a trial, only the visual stimuli and not the auditory stimuli can be decoded. During the later stages of a trial, the motor imagery for a particular hand shape can be decoded for both modalities.
The cognitive processes which result in grasping and hand shaping can be investigated on many levels. On the level of single neurons, we can ask how spiking activity is correlated with specific features of a hand shape. It has been shown that specific grasp shapes can be decoded from motor signals of motor cortex neurons in monkeys and humans (Vargas-Irwin et al., 2010; Wodlinger et al., 2015). Before the details of muscle activation are defined in the motor cortex, an intention to shape the hand has to be formed in high-level areas of the brain. Grasp intentions have been decoded from neurons in the premotor cortex of monkeys (Carpaneto et al., 2011). In the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), such intentional signals can be derived as well (Andersen and Buneo, 2002; Culham et al., 2006). Several monkey studies have identified the anterior intraparietal (AIP) area to be one such high-level area involved in grasp actions (Sakata et al., 1995, 1997; Baumann et al., 2009; Townsend et al., 2011). Interestingly neurons in this area have also been reported to be tuned to visual properties of graspable objects (Murata et al., 1997, 2000; Schaffelhofer et al., 2015). In all mentioned monkey studies, hand shaping was studied in the context of grasping or interacting with a physical or sometimes virtual object. However, it remains unclear whether these results translate to humans who have an even larger repertoire of grasps and who also use hand shapes unrelated to grasping and independent of objects (eg, in sign language). Can we use high-level signals from PPC for decoding complex human hand shapes similarly and can these signals still be extracted in paralyzed subjects who have not used their hands in many years? In the field of neuroprosthetics, motor cortex decoding of simple grasp actions has been demonstrated using various robotic limbs (Hochberg et al., 2012; Collinger et al., 2013) but the human hand with its 20 degrees of freedom (DOF) allows for far more complex operations. Improving neuroprostheses and allowing tetraplegic patients—who rate hand and arm function to be of highest importance (Anderson, 2004; Snoek et al., 2004)—to have better control over their environment could be achieved using control signals from the PPC. For decoding reaches, we have shown that PPC provides a strong representation of the 3D goal of an imagined reach (Aflalo et al., 2015). In this study, we now examine the representation of imagined hand shapes.
A tetraplegic subject, E.G.S., was implanted with two microelectrode arrays in the left hemisphere of the PPC. One array was placed in a reach-related area on the surface of the superior parietal lobule (putative human Brodmann's area 5; BA5). The other one was placed in a grasp-related area at the junction of the intraparietal sulcus and postcentral sulcus (putative human AIP). We used the neuronal activity from recorded units to control the physical robotic limb as well as a virtual reality version of the limb. For training purposes and to investigate how these areas represent hand shapes we implemented a task based on the popular Rock-Paper-Scissors game and its extension Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. We used variations of this task to further analyze how visual information and motor imagery signals interact in the posterior parietal cortex. Our results show that complex hand shapes can be decoded from human PPC and area AIP in particular. We also find visual information of objects to be encoded by neurons of this area. In contrast, we do not find early information of objects cued by auditory stimuli. Furthermore, we can show that visual object information and motor-imagery information are encoded in largely separate populations of cells. This finding of two populations is important for separating attentional-visual components of neuronal response from motor-related components, which can be used to drive neuroprostheses in an intuitive manner.
Materials and Methods
This study was approved by the institutional review boards at the California Institute of Technology, Rancho Los Amigos, and the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles. We obtained informed consent from the patient before participation in the study. We also obtained an investigative device exemption from the FDA (IDE no. G120096) to use the implanted devices throughout the study period. This study is registered with (NCT01849822).
The subject in this study, E.G.S., is a male tetraplegic patient who was 32 years old at the time of implantation. His spinal cord lesion was complete at cervical level C3-4 with a paralysis of all limbs. At the time of implantation, he was 10 years postlesion. We implanted two 96 channel microelectrode arrays (Blackrock Microsystems) arranged in a 10 × 10 grid in two areas of the posterior parietal cortex (Fig. 1a). One was implanted on the surface of the superior parietal lobule (putative human BA5) and one at the junction of the intraparietal sulcus with the postcentral sulcus (putative human AIP). The electrodes were 1.5 mm long and putatively record from cortical layer 5. The array electrodes had platinum-coated tips and were spaced 400 μm apart. The exact placement of the arrays was based on an fMRI task, which E.G.S. performed before implantation. Recordings for this study were made over 12 months during which other experiments also took place. More information about the implantation method can be found in a previous study in which the same patient participated (Aflalo et al., 2015).
fMRI task and array locations.
To determine the placement for the two implanted arrays, we had the patient perform an imagined hand reaching and grasping task during an fMRI scan.
A GE 3T scanner at the USC Keck Medical Center was used for scanning. Parameters for the functional scan were as follows: T2*-weighted single-shot echoplanar acquisition sequence (TR = 2000 ms; slice thickness = 3 mm; in-plane resolution = 3 × 3 mm; TE = 30 ms; flip angle = 80; FOV = 192 × 192 mm; matrix size = 64 × 64; 33 slices (no-gap) oriented 20° relative to anterior and posterior commissure line). Parameters for the anatomical scan were as follows: GE T1 Bravo sequence (TR = 1590 ms; TE = 2.7 ms; FOV = 176 × 256 × 256 mm; 1 mm isotropic voxels). Surface reconstruction of the cortex was done using Freesurfer software (http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/).
The imagined reach and grasp task started with a 3 s fixation period in which E.G.S. had to fixate a dot in the center of the screen. In the following cue phase, he was cued to the type of imagined action to perform, which could be a precision grip, power grip, or a reach without hand shaping. Next, a cylindrical object was presented in the stimulus phase. If the object was "whole" ("go" condition) E.G.S. had to imagine performing the previously cued action on the object and report back the color of the part of the object which was closest to his thumb. The object could be presented in one of six possible orientations and E.G.S. could freely choose how to align his imagined hand with regard to the object. The reported color allowed us to determine whether the imagined action was performed with an overhand or underhand posture. Analysis of the orientation of the object and the reported color suggested that E.G.S. was imagining biomechanically plausible, naturalistic arm movements. If the object presented in the stimulus phase was "broken" ("no go" condition) E.G.S. had to withhold the cued action. This was used as a control condition.
The BOLD response from this task was then used to determine possible implantation sites for surgery (Fig. 1a). Based on the highest activation for grasping and reaching, and intraoperative constraints (blood vessel locations, cable and pedestal placement, etc), two implantation sites were picked. Statistical analysis was restricted to the superior parietal lobule to increase statistical power. More details about the fMRI task and its implementation were previously described (Aflalo et al., 2015).
Behavioral setup.
During all tasks of this study, E.G.S. was sitting in his wheelchair 2 m in front of a LCD screen (1190 mm screen diagonal). Stimulus presentation was controlled using a combination of Unity (Unity Technologies) and MATLAB (MathWorks). For the grasp training (GT) task (see "Online control and grasp training task," below) a 17 DOF anthropomorphic robotic arm (modular prosthetic limb; MPL) was used. The MPL was designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and approximates the functions of a complete human limb. For on-line control, the GT task only relied on the function of the robotic hand to replicate the different hand shapes we were using. A virtual version of the MPL (vMPL) was also available in conjunction with the Unity environment and was used in on-line control as well. The vMPL was designed so that it resembles the MPL in form and function within the Unity 3d environment.
Data collection.
The data for the current work was collected over a period of 12 months (including pauses) in 2-4 study sessions per week. No device-related adverse events occurred throughout the study. Two neural signal processors (Blackrock Microsystems) were used to record neuronal signals. The raw data were amplified, and then digitized using a 30 kHz sampling rate. The threshold for waveform detection was set to −4.5 times the root-mean-square of the high-pass filtered full-bandwidth signal. Off-line spike sorting was done semi automatically using a Gaussian mixture model based on the first two principal components of the detected waveforms. Cluster centroids were selected manually by the researchers and the results of the clustering algorithm were visually inspected and adjusted if necessary. In on-line experiments, only unsorted action potential threshold crossings were used (using −4.5 times the root-mean-square as threshold). Overall, the unit yield on the BA5 array was substantially lower than on the AIP array. On average, we could record only ∼¼ the number of units on the BA5 array compared with the AIP array. In this study, we therefore focus mainly on data recorded from the AIP array. Only for a neuron dropping comparison did we compare the two arrays.
Rock-Paper-Scissors task.
Selectivity for hand shapes was evaluated using a task based on the popular Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) game (Fig. 1b). In the RPS task, E.G.S. was shown a symbolic representation of rock, paper, or scissors (Fig. 1c) on a display screen for 200 ms. The symbols on the screen occupied a space of 200 × 150 mm (2.9° × 2.2° of visual angle). The cue phase was followed by a delay phase in which a blank screen was shown for 1000 ms. At the end of the task, E.G.S. was instructed to imagine making the corresponding hand shape with his right hand and to verbally report the cued symbol (response phase). The onset of a text saying, "report same" would indicate the start of the response phase. The verbal reports were used to keep E.G.S. engaged in the task and check whether the correct cue was remembered. The symbol reported by E.G.S. was recorded by the experimenter. Trials in which he would not answer within 4 s were marked as "no answer" trials.
All symbols were interleaved and at least 10 repetitions were recorded for each condition. For data analysis, all trials in which E.G.S. reported an incorrect cue during the response phase and "no answer" trials (see above) were excluded. The analyses from this task are based on 20 recording sessions.
Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock task.
This task was an extension of the RPS task, which included two additional hand shapes to increase the repertoire of possible hand shapes available to E.G.S. The general task flow corresponds to that of the RPS task. Two additional symbols, lizard and Spock, and their associated hand shapes, a pinch grasp and a spherical grasp, respectively, were added (Fig. 1c). The symbol for lizard resembled a cartoon lizard and the symbol for Spock was a photo of the face of Leonard Nimoy dressed as Mr. Spock from the TV series (Fig. 1c). Importantly, unlike the symbols in the RPS task, which E.G.S. could arguably imagine to grasp, these symbols were chosen not to be intuitively graspable. The corresponding grasps, a pinch and a spherical grasp (Fig. 1c), do not correspond to those of the original Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock (RPSLS) game but instead were chosen to widen the repertoire of usable grasps.
The dataset for this task is composed of 12 recording sessions which were taken mostly after the completion of the RPS recordings (only 3 recording days at the end of the RPS recording period overlap).
Cue conflict task.
Task progression and timing of this task correspond to the RPS task in every aspect except that two cues were presented to E.G.S. during the cue phase instead of one. One of the cues was the visual representation of the object (as in the RPS task) and the other cue consisted of a corresponding auditory representation (a synthetic voice saying "rock," "paper," and "scissors"). All permutations of the visual and auditory cue were used, which means that in one-third of the trials the cues were congruent and in two-thirds of the trials the cues were incongruent. Fifteen repetitions were recorded for each symbol (5 congruent trials and 10 incongruent trials). In each block of this task, the experimenter would instruct E.G.S. in the beginning to either respond to the visual ("attend object" condition) or the auditory cue ("attend auditory" condition). One block of "attend object" and "attend audio" was recorded right after each other on a recording day and the order of block presentation was changed randomly. Except for the instruction at the beginning of a block, the blocks were identical in all other aspects. As in the previous tasks, E.G.S. had to imagine and verbalize what he was imagining and we only used trials in which he responded correctly for analysis.
The cue conflict (CC) task dataset consists of eight recordings for the "attend object" condition and eight recordings for the "attend audio" condition. One block of each was recorded on the same recording day. All CC recordings were made after the RPS and RPSLS sessions.
Online control and grasp training task.
In various on-line decode experiments E.G.S. directly brain-controlled either the MPL or the vMPL to open, close, and hold objects or play Rock-Paper-Scissors with the experimenters. The on-line experiments did not follow a strict task structure, and other than E.G.S.'s subjective verbal feedback, no recorded performance data are available for them. To train the decoder for on-line control we implemented a grasp training (GT) task (Fig. 1d). During the GT task, E.G.S. was not controlling the robot arm but had to imagine hand shapes, which were cued. The data from this training was then used as input for a decoder for on-line control. Off-line analyses of this training data are shown in the current work. To make the analysis as similar as possible to the on-line decoding we use only threshold crossing and no additional spike sorting for this off-line decoding analysis.
In the GT task, E.G.S. had to imagine making hand shapes that corresponded to the ones the MPL was performing in front of him. An open hand ("paper" gesture) and a power grasp ("rock" gesture) were used as the two grasp types in addition to a relaxation state. Opening and closing of the robotic hand was accompanied by verbal instructions, which corresponded to the hand movements (ie, paper for open hand, rock for power grasp). The relaxation state was verbally instructed ("release"). The robot hand in front of E.G.S. was still visible during the relaxation state, like in the open hand or power grasp state and remained in the last position presented to E.G.S.; ie, either in the open hand or power-grasp state. In the relaxation state, there was no explicit behavioral instruction for E.G.S. other than to relax. Typically, he would look at the screen during this state but his gaze was neither restricted nor controlled. Unlike the previous tasks, there was no verbal confirmation or control of the E.G.S.'s attention in this task.
Data for the GT task consists of 41 recordings which were taken over a period of 3 months during which the data for the CC task was also recorded.
Off-line discrete decoding.
To measure decoding performance we used the same off-line decoding procedure for the RPS, RPSLS, and GT tasks. In the RPS and RPSLS tasks, only correct trials (see above) were used for decoding. In the GT task, there was no verbal feedback and therefore no trial exclusion. Units with a low mean firing rate (<1.5 Hz) during the task were excluded. The time window for decoding started 600 ms before the response phase and lasted 1500 ms. The time window was chosen to include the buildup of activity just before the response phase onset, which we attribute to anticipation by the patient and a large fraction of the response phase itself during which we assumed the highest specificity for hand shapes. We used a linear discriminant classifier with a uniform prior for classification. The decoder was trained and performance was evaluated using leave-one-out cross-validation. One trial is used for validation and all other trials are used as the training set for a given recording session. Then another trial is used for validation and the remainder as the training set. This is repeated until every trial has been validated. The average performance of all validations is then used as the performance for that recording session.
CC continuous decoding.
For the CC continuous decoding analysis we used a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier (k = 4). All units recorded in the CC task that had a mean firing rate of 1.5 Hz and higher were included. Recorded units in the attend object and attend audio conditions were treated separately. For both groups we used the KNN classifier to decode the visual cue and the audio cue independently for each 50 ms time step. To ensure that all units of a dataset would have identical number of trials for each condition, we only used the lowest number of trials per condition that occurred in the entire dataset (12 trials per condition in this case). The features for the decoder were binned and smoothed firing rates (spike timestamps binned in non-overlapping 50 ms windows smoothed using a 500 ms Gaussian filter) of all included units. We then performed a principal component analysis for dimensionality reduction and used the first five components for decoding. The decoder was trained and performance was evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation.
Neuron-dropping analysis.
Neuron-dropping analysis provides a way to assess the decoding potential of the implantation site even when units are not stable over time. Instead of analyzing each recording session separately, the total recorded population of units is used as though it was recorded in one session. For this analysis, an artificial feature set was created using firing rates from all sorted units in the dataset of a task, which had a minimum firing rate of 1.5 Hz. All units, which were recorded on different days (sessions), were treated as independent units. Analysis of waveform features (trough-to-peak width and half-point width) and other features (mean firing rate and interspike interval) of successive days indicated that most units did not remain the same between sessions (data not shown). Performance is then calculated with subpopulations of the entire feature set by systematically removing single units. We used the same time window as the discrete decoding analysis (see above) starting at 600 ms before response phase onset and ending 900 ms after response phase onset. Units for the subpopulations were randomly drawn from the total population. Two additional analyses for the RPS task were performed using a window for the cue and a window for the response phase. Both time windows were 400 ms long and started 100 ms after start of the respective phase. This was done to compare decoding differences of BA5 and AIP depending on the task phase. For each data point, 100 subpopulations were created. Two-thirds of trials were used for training and one-third for testing. Trial assignment was done randomly with 10 repetitions for each subpopulation. After feature selection, we used principal component analysis for dimensionality reduction. The first five principal components were used for classification with the linear discriminant method (see Off-line discrete decoding).
Representations of hand shapes
To study the relationship between imagined hand shapes and neuronal activity we implemented a task which was modeled after the popular RPS game and its extension RPSLS. The task consists of three phases (Fig. 1b). In the cue phase an object which corresponds to one of the hand shapes (Fig. 1c) was shown to E.G.S. on a screen. In the following delay phase, the screen turned blank. Finally, text would appear instructing E.G.S. to imagine the cued grasp shape and verbalize which shape he imagined.
We found single units which had a preferred tuning for each of the different hand shapes that we used in our task. Figure 2 shows example neurons tuned to each of the five hand shapes used in the RPS (top row) and RPSLS (bottom row) tasks. The depicted units were especially active during the delay and response phase which indicates that they did not (or only slightly as in case of the paper example unit shown in Fig. 2b) respond to the visual cue. In addition to units that were preferentially active during the delay or response phases we also found units that were more active during or shortly after stimulus presentation and not in the response phase (Fig. 3). Those units were not significantly tuned in the response phase and are assumed to reflect the visual cue.
From a total of 803 sorted units recorded from AIP in the RPS task a total of 237 units (30%) were tuned (Fig. 4). Based on these findings we separated the tuned units into those tuned during the cue phase ("visual units") and those tuned during the response phase ("motor-imagery units"). To be considered in one of the two groups a unit had to be significantly tuned (one-way ANOVA; significance level 0.05) in a 400 ms window that started 100 ms after the occurrence of either the cue or response event (Figs. 2, 3, orange and gray bars). The time window was chosen to take into account processing latencies and the length of the time window so as to keep the overlap between cue and delay phase at a minimum. Our analysis shows that approximately one-half of the tuned cells belong to either of the two categories (Fig. 4, left column of pie diagrams). This was true for the RPS and the RPSLS task even though the RPSLS task showed slightly more motor-imagery units. In both of these tasks we also found that approximately one-half of the units were tuned for the scissors symbol which makes this symbol largely overrepresented (cue phase: p = 2.6 × 10−6; response phase: p = 7.5 × 10−3; χ2 test) in the recorded population assuming an equal representation of the three symbol types (Fig. 4a, middle and right pie diagrams). E.G.S. also said that the scissors grasp shape was the most difficult to imagine.
In the RPSLS task 147 (37%) of 397 total recorded units recorded from AIP were tuned. Only ∼¼ of the units were tuned for the two new symbols introduced by the RPSLS task (Fig. 4b, middle and right pie diagrams). Furthermore we found that visual and motor-imagery units were almost entirely exclusive populations of neurons with only ∼11%-13% of overlap in both RPS and RPSLS tasks (Fig. 4 left column of pie diagrams). Visuomotor units (Fig. 4, labeled "v") were units that were tuned during both the cue and the response phase of the task and had the same preferred tuning in both phases. Switching units (Fig. 4, labeled "s") were also tuned during both the cue and the response phase but did not have the same preferred tuning in both phases. The spatial distribution of tuned units on the AIP array is shown in Figure 5 for the cue and response phases of the RPS (top row) and RPSLS (bottom row) tasks. Although there are some hot spots where most of the units recorded on a channel are only tuned during the cue or response phase as can be seen from the contrast plots (Fig. 5c,f), on most channels a mix of cue- or response-tuned cells could be found. When comparing the distribution of units for the RPS and the RPSLS tasks some changes can be observed, but the general areas where tuned units could be found stayed approximately the same.
Context dependency
To further investigate visual and intention properties of neurons, we implemented the CC task which uses two cues, a visual and an auditory cue, which are presented simultaneously (see Materials and Methods). The task progression is identical to the RPS task with the exception that during the cue phase one visual object is presented and simultaneously an auditory cue is played. Importantly, only in one-third of trials both cues were congruent. The auditory cue is a verbal representation of one of the shapes; ie, rock, paper, and scissors. At the beginning of each session the experimenter would instruct E.G.S. to either attend to the object (attend object condition) or the auditory cue (attend audio condition). A total of 184 sorted units (47%) which met the 1.5 Hz minimum firing rate criterion of 395 total units, were used in the attend object condition. In the attend audio condition, 191 units (49%) which met the minimum firing rate criterion of 393 total units were used. In addition to the 1.5 Hz minimum firing rate criterion, no further selection criteria were applied for this analysis. The decoding analysis shows that in the case of the attend object condition the visual cue can be decoded soon after it is presented and decoding accuracy stays high during the response period (Fig. 5a). It starts declining ∼1000 ms after the start of the response phase and reaches chance level at ∼3200 ms after cue onset. The audio cue on the other hand cannot be decoded throughout the trial. In the attend audio condition the decoding curve looks very different (Fig. 5b). The visual cue can be decoded shortly after it has been presented but decoding accuracy reaches chance level quickly thereafter, ∼300 ms before start of response phase, and stays at chance for the remainder of the trial. The audio cue cannot be decoded during cue presentation. However, ∼100 ms before the start of the response phase, decoding accuracy for the audio cue starts to rise, reaches a peak 1000 ms after response phase onset, and then slowly declines reaching chance level ∼3200 ms after cue presentation. These results are consistent with the finding of two different populations of which one is selective during the (visual) cue phase and the other during the response phase (see above). By using two different modalities, we can now further differentiate the functional properties of these populations. The cue phase-tuned units are selectively active for the visual modality. On the other hand, the response phase tuned neurons encode the required hand shape independent of the sensory modality.
Off-line discrete decoding in RPS and RPSLS tasks
To assess the potential of the recorded population to be used in a neuroprosthetic scenario, we calculated the decoding performance for each recording session of the RPS and RPSLS tasks (Fig. 7). The decoder used 19.6 ± 7.3 units (mean ± SD) per session in the RPS task and 18.3 ± 4.7 units (mean ± SD) per session in the RPSLS task. In both tasks, the decoding performance was above chance level throughout the whole recording period. Performance quickly reached a stable plateau and stayed constant with day-to-day variability. The example confusion matrices (Fig. 7b,d) show that all hand shapes can be decoded, although the probabilities for each of the shapes can vary in the RPSLS task.
GT task and on-line brain control
The GT task was used to train a decoder for on-line brain control as described in Materials and Methods (Fig. 1d). Training was done using the physical robotic limb that would perform one of two states, a power grasp or an open hand, in front of E.G.S. A third relaxation state in which the robotic limb did not move was used as an intermediary state. The decoder used 37 ± 14 units (mean ± SD; units were defined only by threshold crossings, see Materials and Methods) per session in the GT task. The decoding analysis (Fig. 7e,f) shows performance above chance level for all sessions. This corresponds well with E.G.S.'s ability to control the robotic limb on-line. It was difficult initially for him to maintain a grasp shape. With subsequent training and using a relaxation state (see Materials and Methods), E.G.S. was able to maintain grasp for longer periods. The off-line decoding performance for all recording sessions in the GT task is shown in Figure 7e. After an initial phase of relatively low performance, a plateau is reached and mean performance stays stable over the whole recording period. Throughout the recording period, performance varied considerably but was always above chance level (33%; Fig. 7, red line). The example confusion matrices in Figure 7f illustrate that all states in the GT task could be decoded with approximately equal probability.
Neuron-dropping analysis
For this analysis, a total pool of 321 sorted units in the RPS task (222 sorted units in RPSLS) were available from the AIP array and 61 sorted units (45 sorted units in RPSLS) were available from the BA5 array. Only units with a minimum mean firing rate of 1.5 Hz were used for this analysis. The maximum number of pooled units shown for the AIP array was cutoff at 150 units and the maximum number of pooled units shown for the BA5 array was cutoff at 50 units (no cutoff for RPSLS) to make comparison of the curves easier. Note that to create the neural dropping curves, the units used and the trials assigned for training and cross-validation were randomly chosen (see Materials and Methods). The neuron-dropping curves show that the correct hand shape in the RPS (Fig. 8a) and RPSLS (Fig. 8b) tasks can be decoded with high accuracy if a sufficient number of units are available. Interpolating from the neuron-dropping curve an average performance of 90% could be achieved with ∼52 randomly selected units in the RPS task and 63 in the RPSLS task.
Comparing the neuron-dropping curves from AIP and BA5 using the 1500 ms time window that overlaps the delay and response phases shows a generally worse performance for the BA5 array (Fig. 8a,b). However, when we compare the curves for particular phases of the task it becomes apparent that this difference is for the phase and not because of the differences in the sampled neuron populations, which were of lower yield for the BA5 array (see Materials and Methods). When comparing neuron dropping curves for the cue phase (Fig. 8c) and the response phase (Figure 8d) this can easily be seen. In the case of AIP, decoding is good in both phases, whereas the BA5 array performed well only for the cue phase and decoding was not possible during the response phase. This result shows a specialization of AIP for intended hand shaping.
Our results show for the first time encoding of visual and motor-imagery aspects of hand shaping by single neurons recorded from human PPC. These neurons are selectively active for specific complex hand shapes during a Rock-Paper-Scissors inspired task. We found two mostly separate populations of neurons that either show visual or motor-imagery-related activity during a task, which requires identifying a cue and imagining performing a corresponding hand shape. In addition, simultaneous presentation of visual and auditory cues distinguished visual processing from motor-imagery and showed differences in encoding of the two sensory modalities.
Finding two mostly different populations of neurons, which are either tuned during the cue presentation or the motor imagery, could have different interpretations. It is possible, but not very likely, that the AIP array recorded from different layers of cortex, which had different functional properties. In the spatial distribution plots (Fig. 5), we could not find a clear gradual shift from visual to motor imagery which would support this theory either because the array was not evenly inserted or because it followed a bend in the cortex. Another explanation could be that the different populations were indeed functionally separated and distributed in small patches. From monkey experiments we know that "visuomotor" cells, which would be active during cue presentation and execution of a movement, are rather rare in PPC and only comprise ∼7% of recorded units (Gail and Andersen, 2006), which corresponds to our findings.
Cells that are selectively active for specific grasps have been reported in area AIP of nonhuman primates (Vargas-Irwin et al., 2010; Carpaneto et al., 2011; Schaffelhofer et al., 2015). In these studies, healthy animals would grasp objects that were visually presented either throughout the trial or at the beginning of a trial. The neuronal responses of motor intent could therefore be mixed with visual responses and/or (anticipated) proprioceptive feedback. In our case, the hand shapes were purely imagined and, in the CC condition, the relevant hand shape was audibly cued. For these reasons, we assume that imagined proprioceptive feedback and visual memory are unlikely to be responsible for the tuned activity of the motor-imagery units. Additionally, in the RPSLS task the two new visual cues, lizard and Spock, were chosen to resemble icons rather than graspable objects.
The dynamics of the continuous decoding analysis in the CC task show further interesting properties. Even though the task is identical except for the initial instruction, the continuous decoding curves show a very different result (Fig. 6). The visual cue can be decoded early in the attend visual and the attend audio condition, whereas the auditory cue can only be decoded later and only in the condition in which it is relevant for task performance. These observations clearly show the importance of visual stimuli within this cortical area and the absence of tuning for auditory stimuli. At the same time, this task reveals that many cells in this area are selectively active for the imagined action.
As mentioned above, the CC task results argue against a sustained visual or attentional interpretation of the data. Interestingly the decoding performance after the visual cue response is lower in the attend audio condition for the delay and response phases (Fig. 6, compare a and b) and there seems to be a "decoding gap" between the peak for the visual cue decoding and the onset of audio decoding (Fig. 6b, solid vs dashed curve). The dynamic changes in decoding (Fig. 6) are compatible with the idea of a "default plan" (Rosenbaum et al., 2001), which would be activated by visual but not auditory cues. Competing motor plans which are modulated by a top-down contextual signal from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex have been shown (Cisek and Kalaska, 2005; Klaes et al., 2011) and several computational studies use models that are based on this mechanism (Erlhagen and Schöner, 2002; Cisek, 2006; Klaes et al., 2012, p.212; Christopoulos et al., 2015). The graded responses for each hand shape which we observed (Fig. 2) rather than a categorical response for one specific shape (and no response for any other) is also compatible with this idea. If this theory were true, dissimilar plans would be actively suppressing each other, whereas more similar plans would suppress each other less. As a result, tuned neurons would have a graded response, which would depend on the similarity between competing hand shapes and the preferred hand shape of the neuron.
Tuning representations
It is interesting to note that the scissors symbol is highly overrepresented in the recorded neuronal population. This could be a sampling artifact or related to the additional effort that E.G.S. had to make to imagine the grasp shape, which he reported to be the most difficult on several occasions. If effort was involved the question would remain why the overrepresentation can already be observed in the cue phase. Another possibility is that the scissors symbol represents a tool that requires complicated hand motions to interact with it. If a default plan was formed to interact with the scissors object rather than to perform the scissors gesture this could explain a difficulty based overrepresentation. When the new symbols lizard and Spock were introduced with the RPSLS task, they were represented by a relatively low number of neurons. There are several possible explanations for this: first, the other three symbols had already been trained for a long time before the new symbols had been introduced. Second, the new symbols were represented by icons rather than graspable objects, which might have made a difference for neurons in this area. Third, for the neurons that were tuned during the response phase it might be that their actual preferred hand gesture lies in between those gestures which we used during those tasks. Therefore, it could have happened that the new gestures did not fit well into the hand shape space represented by the recorded neuron pool. The spherical and pinch grasps might have been too similar to be well distinguished or E.G.S. might have had difficulties of imagining the two separately. A similar argument could be made for visual object categories, which might have been more similar between the two non-graspable images than the previously trained objects. More data with different hand shapes and/or more subjects are needed to confirm either of these hypotheses.
AIP and BA5 differences
As mentioned previously, we focus mainly on the data that we collected from the AIP array because the array implanted in BA5 had a much lower neural yield. Nevertheless, comparing decoding from both areas showed interesting results (Fig. 8). The neuron-dropping analysis shows that tuning during the cue phase seems to be present but not present during the response phase in BA5. On the other hand, AIP shows tuning in both the cue and response phases. An explanation for this difference could be that AIP is specialized for intending grasp movements whereas BA5 is not. Such a specialization of PPC areas has been shown in nonhuman primates for the lateral intraparietal area for saccades (Andersen et al., 1990; Snyder et al., 1997), AIP for grasping (Murata et al., 2000; Baumann et al., 2009), and the parietal reach region and area 5 d for reaches (Snyder et al., 1997; Cui and Andersen, 2011; Chang and Snyder, 2012). According to this idea of a map of intentions, human BA5 would not be specialized for intending grasping, whereas AIP would be.
The grasp-decoding results indicate that human PPC is well suited for neuroprosthetic applications, which require grasping and hand shaping, using an anthropomorphic robot hand. Using motor imagery signals from higher cortical areas, such as AIP, in which single-neuron tuning reflects complex effector configurations, could be advantageous in real time applications. A strategy could be to decode complete hand configurations from well-tuned single cells instead of decoding individual joint angles. This information could be used complementary to motor cortex signals, which in addition can provide information about individual joint angles. It is remarkable that after >10 years E.G.S. was still able to imagine performing complex hand shapes. The neuron-dropping analysis shows that a stable daily population of 50–75 units from AIP would be sufficient to achieve 90% performance in grasping tasks that involve 3–5 distinct hand shapes.
Author contributions: C.K. and R.A.A. designed research; C.K., S.K., T.A., B.L., K.P., K.S., S.H.-J., M.A., C.H., and C.L. performed research; C.K. analyzed data; C.K. and R.A.A. wrote the paper.
This work was supported by the NIH (grants EY013337, EY015545, and P50 MH942581A), the Boswell Foundation, the USC Neurorestauration Center, and DoD contract N66001-10-C-4056. We thank Viktor Shcherbatyuk for computer assistance, Tessa Yao, Alicia Berumen, and Sandra Oviedo for administrative support; Kirsten Durkin for nursing assistance; and our colleagues from the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University for technical support with the robotic limb.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
- Correspondence should be addressed to Richard A. Andersen, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125. andersen{at}vis.caltech.edu


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Fire, Preventative
10 Things Never to Plug into a Power Strip
No matter where you live—house, apartment, dorm room, mobile home—one factor remains constant: There never seem to be enough power outlets. This may explain the popularity of multi-outlet power strips, which provide additional outlets and also let you control…
Refrigerators and Freezers1/11Large appliances like refrigerators require a lot of power and frequently cycle on and off, which can easily overload a power strip. These devices should be plugged directly into a wall outlet dedicated solely to powering the appliance. If you try to plug additional appliances into the same outlet, you risk tripping the circuit.
Microwaves2/11The microwave is a miracle of modern food preparation, thawing, cooking, and reheating food in a fraction of the time it takes a conventional oven. But all that marvelous activity requires more energy than a power strip can provide. Like a conventional electric oven, the microwave should have its own dedicated power outlet.
Coffee Makers3/11You may not think that your morning cup of joe requires that much energy to brew, but most coffee makers need quite bit of amperage to turn those roasted beans into a hot beverage. Plug your coffee maker directly into the outlet or you run the risk of waking up to a half-brewed pot of coffee.
Toasters4/11If you've ever peered into a toaster to remove a particularly stubborn piece of broken crust, you know that the inside is basically a bunch of wires that heat up to red-hot temperatures to toast the bread. The current draw that those wires require can easily cause a power strip to overheat. This same issue affects toaster ovens, electric skillets, and waffle irons as well.
Slow Cookers and Hot Plates5/11You might think you're one clever cook when you plug your slow cooker into a power strip to free up outlet space for other countertop appliances, but you'd be wrong. These cooking appliances require more juice over a longer period of time than a power strip can handle. And because the appeal of a slow cooker is that it can operate without supervision, you definitely want to make sure it is safely plugged into a wall outlet to minimize any hazardous outcomes.
Hair-Care Appliances6/11It takes a tremendous amount of electricity to power your hair dryers, curling wands, and flat irons. In fact, to prevent the circuit breaker from tripping, any hairdressing accessory that operates with heat should be plugged directly into a wall outlet—preferably a GFCI outlet to avoid the danger of accidental water exposure, a common bathroom hazard.
Portable Heaters and Air Conditioners7/11Portable heaters and air conditioners are designed to cycle on and off, and they draw a large amount of current when they switch on. This activity can overload a power strip and either trip the circuit breaker or cause dangerous overheating. For that reason, these appliances should always be plugged into a dedicated outlet.
Sump Pumps8/11A sump pump is often the last defense for a dry basement in the event of flooding. Because most power strips are not designed to be used in damp or wet conditions, they're unsuitable for use with a sump pump. Instead, plug a sump pump into a GFCI outlet, preferably one installed some height above the floor in case flooding ever does occur.
Air Compressors9/11Portable air compressors are handy household helpers for the ambitious DIYer, but they draw a huge amount of energy on start-up. Rather than overloading a power strip, stick to a heavy-duty, properly rated extension cord to get the maximum use and benefit from your air tools.
Another Power Strip10/11Power strips are not meant to be used in conjunction with one another. In fact, plugging multiple power strips together, which is known as "daisy-chaining," is the quickest way to overload your electrical system—and it's also dangerous and violates most fire safety codes. For the same reason, avoid the use of extension cords with power strips. If you find yourself short of outlets, try unplugging one device before you plug another one in—or cut the cord and find power-free alternatives to your household appliances. If you have more questions about some of the items posted here, feel free to call Spectrum at 541-385-0752


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Michal Simčina
Baker & McKenzie s.r.o., advokátní kancelář
Michal Simčina is a member of the Firm's Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group. He advises on corporate registration matters, corporate changes and liquidation, corporate restructuring and regulatory issues.
Practice Focus
Mr. Simčina provides a full range of corporate registration and maintenance services to public and private companies, including overall support with incorporation of legal entities and branches, subsequent corporate changes and possible liquidation. Mr. Simčina also provides complex structuring and regulatory advice in connection with mergers, acquisitions (including privatization transactions) and corporate restructuring.
- Czech Republic (2013)
- Cardiff University
- Charles University, Prague
Baker & McKenzie s.r.o., advokátní kancelář is a member of Baker & McKenzie International, a Swiss Verein.


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Virtual Tour
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2021 Cancelled
Growing Churches
The Growing Churches Conference is for anyone who is presently serving in their home church and anyone who desires to serve the Lord. The goal of the Growing Churches Conference is to give church staff and lay people quality training and encouragement for any and all ministries they may encounter. Whether you've been serving for 20 years, 2 months, or still trying to get up the nerve to volunteer, there are sessions that will be geared toward you. The sessions included in this years conference are varied and in-depth. The conference leaders are top notch and come from a variety of places, such as New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Mississippi Baptist Convention, Lifeway, and various churches across our state and the south. You will not find a better training conference that will guide you as you minister and also allow you to have the resources you need for when you get home. Please join us as we strive to serve our Lord to the best of our abilities.
2021 Growing Churches Conference
August 6-7, 2021 @ Harrisburg Baptist Church
Event is from 6:00pm-9:00pm.
Contact Sunday School & Discipleship Ministries for more info


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Zombie Sci-Fi Thriller "Patient Zero" Hits Splatterfest Film Festival
Sequel to Humans vs Zombies Also Gets DVD Release
The new zombie sci-fi thriller Patient Zero will make its theatrical premiere at the Splatterfest Film Festival, located at the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Houston, Texas, on October 4, 2012.
The prequel to Humans Vs. Zombies (also directed by Brian T. Jaynes) will show the origins of the zombie apocalypse, starting with "Patient Zero." The film is also set to be released on DVD through Hannover House.
Brian Jaynes will be present at the Splatterfest event to conduct a Q&A with audience members after the screening. Some of the film's cast members are also expected to attend.
Patient Zero stars Brandon Slagle (Area 51 Confidential), Amanda Phillips (Sin City, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell), Carl Savering, Natalie Wilemon, Jackey Hall, Frederic Doss (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Van Quattro (End of Days).
Watch the Patient Zero teaser trailer below:
The theatrical screening of Patient Zero will be held on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 at the Alamo Drafthouse, 531 South Mason Road, Katy, TX, 77450. Tickets may be ordered directly from the theater or from Splatterfest.
Hannover House has entered into an agreement with Origin Cinema Group for up to an additional six new features from Brian Jaynes, two of which are currently in production.Magbo Invite Codes: 8727733PK6


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The Day of the Jackal
Forsyth, Frederick
One of the greatest thrillers of all time, The Day of the Jackal is a novel about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French dissident paramilitary organization, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France. Using his own specialised knowledge assembled from his journalistic work and encounters with mercenaries, Forsyth creates a spine-tingling suspenseful tale told in a convincing realistic documentary style. We follow the Jackal, the unnamed assassin, as he plans meticulously for his mission appearing always to be more than one step ahead of the authorities. This dangerous game of cat and mouse grows in intensity as the fascinating and surprising climax nears. On its first publication in 1971, this novel was an overnight success and has sold over ten million copies.'The Day of the Jackal is a perfect example of the adventure story. It is very well written, entirely believable, with this intriguing, enigmatic character at its centre.' Robert Harris
Publication date: 2013
OPAC reference: KOHA-OAI-BCP:4930


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Marketo Engage
Bryson Runser is a Content Marketing Specialist at Marketo. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in Atlanta, graduating in 2017. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, spending time outdoors, and playing with his two yellow labs.
5 Tips to Improve Your Omnichannel Marketing
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Using Test and Control Groups to Measure Marketing ROI
Why Marketing Depends on Metrics
3 Retargeting Strategies to Boost Conversions
4 More Content Promotion Strategies to Increase Engagement
How to Generate the Leads that Sales Wants with Paid Social


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In an unprecedented show of generosity earlier this week, Angelina Jolie decided to take it all off . . . for charity!
The 2010 Take It All Off For Charity is an event that receives little or no coverage for obvious reasons. Past participants have included Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Alyssa Milano and a bevy of other Hollywood beauties.
"We always get a big turnout for this event," said the event's planning committee Chair Mike Oxobig. "We do allow cameras, but attendees who bring them must donate 3000 dollars to the cause in order to use them."
The event usually raises anywhere from 50 to 200 million dollars and the proceeds go, in their entirety, to the Hollywood chapter of Toys For Twits, which brings Christmas cheer to the Baldwins.
After a few preliminary remarks and introductions, the event got underway. Tyra Banks, Reese Witherspoon, and for some reason, Torrie Spelling all took it all off.
However, the high point of the evening undoubtedly occurred when Angelina, sans Brad Pitt, took it all off.
"I couldn't believe it," said Mike Oxobig. "She really took it all off!"
Most fans in attendance expressed pleasureable shock at seeing such a high-power starlet taking off all her . . . MAKEUP (pigs!)


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Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas
what does TBC mean on an arrest record issued by county sherrif's office.
Asked on 10/08/11, 5:44 pm
1 Answer from Attorneys
M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley
I can't think of anything that would mean except "Trial By Court" (meaning a trial in front of the judge, rather than a jury." If you're talking about a local criminal history that would tell what happened in court with the case, that's it. If you literally mean something about the arrest itself or jail, I don't have a clue.
Answered on 10/08/11, 6:09 pm
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The ITC (International Trade Commission) has announced that they are to start its investigation into Kodak's patent row with Apple and RIM. The row is to do with their handsets and their built-in digital cameras and how they preview images.
The ITC announced the investigation today, but this is not an indication that they will take things further. According to Reuters, neither Research In Motion who make BlackBerry handsets nor Apple who makes the iPhone was available for comment.
We do know that Kodak is looking for compensation from RIM and Apple for using what they say is their technology. Kodak has been hit hard by the recession, so trying to get payouts for patent infringements is seen as an important source of revenue for them. Kodak themselves were at the center of an infringement back in March 2009 with LG, which we discussed here.
Head over to Reuters for more details on this story.
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.


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- Corporate Leader- Planning, Design and Con. »
- Building Services Supervisor (Evening shift) »
- Town of Littleton Facilities Manager »
- Assistant Chief Facilities Officer (Buses) »
How To Select High-Performance HVAC Systems
Selecting an HVAC system type for any building can be a simple or complex process based on the purpose or function of the building and the guiding parameters for the project. Projects can run the spectrum from being straightforward applications such as a shipping warehouse that can typically be driven by low initial cost or reduced maintenance concerns, all the way up to complex applications such as hospitals and laboratories that carry an increased level of demands, a variety of required thermal conditions, and a requirement for reliability. While most design situations might already have a preferred HVAC option based on the project type or building owner preference, these may not provide the optimum solution for a specific project. That optimum solution is a high-performance HVAC system.
When the words "high-performance HVAC system" are mentioned, building owners may automatically think of an isolated focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. While a high-performance system will seek to maximize sustainability, that is not always going to be the top priority. A high-performance HVAC system is one that is optimally designed not only to meet the day one requirements but to remain a strategic solution through continued operation and maintenance.
The design function of buildings as workplaces plays a major role in helping organizations achieve their mission. Building owners can benefit from a high-performance design approach that can effectively evaluate and communicate the trade-offs associated with design strategies and technologies to reach an optimal solution. Design that truly performs for the building owner arises from a collaborative and integrative design approach that leverages the knowledge and experience of all project team members including building owners, facility staff, and end-users, as well as designers and builders. High-performance design energizes collaboration and integration across all the design team disciplines to deliver a project design that is not only environmentally conscious and can create environments that address the wellbeing, comfort, and productivity of its occupants but one that truly fits with the owner's financial and operational needs.
How To Select High-Performance HVAC Systems
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Harvey Weinstein never met a ratings controversy that he couldn't massage into a publicity campaign. He did it in the '90s, when he turned up the heat on the teensploitation psychodrama Kids, all because the film received a rating of NC-17 (which it probably deserved). He did it two years ago, when the downbeat-sexy Blue Valentine got slapped with the same scarlet letter (which it didn't deserve at all). But in the case of Bully, Weinstein isn't just mounting a PR blitz — he's fighting the good fight. The movie is a sensitive and eye-opening documentary about the epidemic of bullying in American public schools. It's a film that would do well to be seen by as many teenagers as possible, and Weinstein had wanted to show it in schools. Yet Bully received an R rating, all because the F-word is used in it a handful of times. The Weinstein Co. has now decided to release Bully unrated. This doesn't solve the problem, since some theaters refuse to show unrated movies. So the very audience that Bully was made for still might have a hard time getting near it.
Weinstein hired David Boies and Ted Olson, the attorneys who helped overturn California's Proposition 8, to take on the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA, with its famously fusty, punitive, and — some would say — arbitrary ratings system, defended the R rating for Bully, stating that it wouldn't be fair to make an exception just because of the movie's good intentions. I agree that they shouldn't just make an exception: They should do a heck of a lot more. That the MPAA is content to keep a film as humane and as deeply unsensational as Bully away from most of the adolescents whose lives it could possibly help is a folly and outrage.
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch, takes a sympathetic, insightful look at five anguished kids from suburban and rural communities around the country and how the bullying that they've endured has shaped their lives. Tyler, 17 years old, was so mocked by his peers that he hanged himself. Alex, 12, born prematurely (at just 26 weeks), is a sweet, smart kid singled out because of his "fish face." He has been slammed into lockers, sat on during bus rides, called "bitch" and "faggot" — and after all that, it was only really clear how bad the problem was when he stopped complaining. (Being bullied had become his only reality.) Kelby, a 16-year-old lesbian, suffered abuse to the point that she tried to commit suicide three times.
Why are these kids targeted? Some of it is based on looks and prejudice, but much of it represents nothing more — or less — than the ostracization of those who are lonely or shy. They're viewed as "outsiders," and then vilified for it. Bully is a portrait of good kids reduced to shells of themselves by a climate of toxic hate and fear. There's only one thing missing from the movie, and that's an in-depth look at the bullies themselves. We're forced to guess at what has made them into junior sadists. My own conjecture is that their almost complete lack of empathy represents the channeling of a larger current of intolerance now at loose in the culture — the kind you see increasingly in politics, not to mention all over the Internet.
Arguments against the ratings system have, of course, been made many times before: by directors, producers, and film critics — and, in 2006, by Kirby Dick in his documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which opened the door on the MPAA's antiquated maze of codes and restrictions. As Dick powerfully argued, what's fundamentally broken about the MPAA isn't the system so much as the thinking behind the judgments. The ratings-board members, swathed in their shadow of anonymity, insist on a nearly Victorian double standard for sex and violence: Anything associated with the former (like the word "f—") is treated as taboo, whereas horror and action films that feature over-the-top violence routinely get a PG-13. This outdated distinction may be a reflection of "American values," but that does not make it right. And the fact that the board tends to go easier on big-budget blockbusters may be the shoddiest double standard of all. It's an indication that too many questionable agendas are guiding these judgments.
A film like Bully makes it clear that there's something deeply wrong with this picture. For this is an urgent and moral movie; there shouldn't be a puritanical roadblock standing between it and its audience. As long as the MPAA is issuing its cavalier decrees, though, they're the ones acting like bullies. Bully: B+


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"A regime which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another cannot long preserve its legitimacy." Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character
The structural change in the employment market has led to far-reaching changes in almost all jobs and branches of the economy.
The job as a lifelong orientation model is replaced by changing jobs or discontinuous job biographies. It is noticeable, however, that the working population continues to base its working activity on high and stable ethical standards that are of importance outside work.
Based on our conviction that people are the hub of the working world, we integrate the interests, wishes, ideas and self-image of the individual into our solutions and proposals in harmony with the economic interests of the company.
Spectrum of services:
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- strategy development
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