The investigation of the ability to perceive, recognize, and judge upon social intentions, such as communicative intentions, on the basis of body motion is a growing research area. Cross-cultural differences in ability to perceive and interpret biological motion, however, have been poorly investigated so far. Progress in this domain strongly depends on the availability of suitable stimulus material. In the present method paper, we describe the multilingual CID-5, an extension of the CID-5 database, allowing for the investigation of how non-conventional communicative gestures are classified and identified by speakers of different languages. The CID-5 database contains 14 communicative interactions and 7 non-communicative actions performed by couples of agents and presented as point-light displays. For each action, the database provides movie files with the point-light animation, text files with the 3-D spatial coordinates of the point-lights, and five different response alternatives. In the multilingual CID-5 the alternatives were translated into seven languages (Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Polish). Preliminary data collected to assess the recognizability of the actions in the different languages suggest that, for most of the action stimuli, information presented in point-light displays is sufficient for the distinctive classification of the action as communicative vs. individual, as well as for identification of the specific communicative gesture performed by the actor in all the available languages.

The perception of socially relevant stimuli (e.g., faces and bodies) has received considerable attention in the vision science community. It is now widely accepted that human faces are processed holistically and not only analytically. One observation that has been taken as evidence for holistic face processing is the face composite effect: two identical top halves of a face tend to be perceived as being different when combined with different bottom halves. This supports the hypothesis that face processing proceeds holistically. Indeed, the interference effect disappears when the two face parts are misaligned (blocking holistic perception). In the present study, we investigated whether there is also a composite effect for the perception of body postures: are two identical body halves perceived as being in different poses when the irrelevant body halves differ from each other? Both a horizontal (i.e., top-bottom body halves; Experiment 1) and a vertical composite effect (i.e., left-right body halves; Experiment 2) were examined by means of a delayed matching-to-sample task. Results of both experiments indicate the existence of a body posture composite effect. This provides evidence for the hypothesis that body postures, as faces, are processed holistically.

We have performed, for the first time, the successful automated detection of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in data from the inner heliospheric imager (HI-1) cameras on the STEREO-A spacecraft. Detection of CMEs is done in time–height maps based on the application of the Hough transform, using a modified version of the CACTus software package, conventionally applied to coronagraph data. In this paper, we describe the method of detection. We present the results of the application of the technique to a few CMEs, which are well detected in the HI-1 imagery, and compare these results with those based on manual-cataloging methodologies. We discuss, in detail, the advantages and disadvantages of this method.

Generalization from previous experiences to new situations is a hallmark of intelligent behavior and a prerequisite for category learning. It has been proposed that category learning in humans relies on multiple brain systems that compete with each other, including an explicit, rule-based system and an implicit system. Given that humans are biased to follow rule-based strategies, a counterintuitive prediction of this model is that other animals, in which this rule-based system is less developed, might generalize better to new stimuli in implicit category-learning tasks that are not rule-based. To test this prediction, rats and humans were trained in rule-based and information-integration category-learning tasks with visual stimuli. The generalization performance of rats and humans was equal in rule-based categorization, but rats outperformed humans on generalization in the information-integration task. The performance of rats was consistent with a nondimensional, similarity-based categorization strategy. These findings illustrate through a comparative approach that the bias toward rule-based strategies can impede humans' performance on generalization tasks.

Abstract. The Solar Influences Data analysis Center (SIDC)is the World Data Center for the production and the distribution of the International Sunspot Index, coordinating a network of about 80 stations worldwide. From this core activity, the SIDC has grown in recent years to a European center for nowcasting and forecasting of solar activity on all timescales. This paper reviews the services (data, forecasts, alerts, software) that the SIDC currently offers to the scientific community. The SIDC operates instruments both on the ground and in space. The USET telescope in Brussels produces daily white light and Hα images. Several members of the SIDC are co-investigators of the EIT instrument onboard SOHO and are involved in the development of the next generation of Europe's solar weather monitoring capabilities. While the SIDC is staffed only during day-time (7 days/week), the monitoring service is a 24 h activity thanks to the implementation of autonomous software for data handling and analysis and the sending of automated alerts. We will give an overview of recently developed techniques for visualization and automated analysis of solar images and detection of events significant for space weather (e.g. CMEs or EIT waves). As part of the involvement of the SIDC in the ESA Pilot Project for Space Weather Applications we have developed services dedicated to the users of the Global Positioning System (GPS). As a Regional Warning Center (RWC) of the International Space Environment Service (ISES), the SIDC produces daily forecasts of flaring probability, geomagnetic activity and 10.7 cm radio flux. The accuracy of these forecasts will be investigated through an in-depth quality analysis.