Let R be a real closed field. The Pierce-Birkhoff conjecture says that any piecewise polynomial function f on Rn can be obtained from the polynomial ring R[x1, . . . , xn] by iterating the operations of maximum and minimum. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we state a new conjecture, called the Connectedness conjecture, which asserts, for every pair of points α, β ∈ Sper R[x1, . . ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether school connectedness demonstrated an independent protective association with risk of depression in students in grades 10 to 12 attending a high school in a rural community in southwestern Nova Scotia. METHODS Students at a high school in rural Nova Scotia participated in a self-completion survey in May 2009. Students were asked about a wide range of health-relat...

Background: The precise quantification of negative symptoms is necessary to improve differential diagnosis and prognosis prediction in Schizophrenia. In chronic psychotic patients, the representation of verbal reports as word graphs provides automated sorting of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and control groups based on the degree of speech connectedness. Here we aim to use machine learning to...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the cognitive and neural correlates of discourse impairment in corticobasal syndrome (CBS). BACKGROUND Difficulty communicating is a frequent clinical manifestation in patients with CBS. However, the mechanisms underlying this disabling problem are not well understood. METHODS Twenty patients with CBS and 8 healthy seniors narrated a picture story. Narratives were a...

Interpolation of two-dimensional shapes described by iterated function systems is explored. Iterated function systems define shapes using self-transformations, and interpolation of these shapes requires interpolation of these transformations. Polar decomposition is used to avoid singular intermediate transformations and to better simulate articulated motion. Unlike some other representations, s...

This study examined the relationship between the number of communication technologies used for social interactions (i.e., multimodal connectedness) and well-being across the lifespan. Consistent with the assumptions of media multiplexity, multimodal connectedness and frequency of strong-tie communication enhancedwell-being, but only for older-age cohorts (35–54 and 55–70+). For young adults (18...

In this paper, we propose an approach of unsupervised segmentation with fuzzy connectedness. Valid seeds are first specified by an unsupervised method based on scale space theory. A region is then extracted for each seed with a relative object extraction method of fuzzy connectedness. Afterwards, regions are merged according to the values between them of an introduced measure. Some theorems and...

At the present time, one of the best methods for semiautomatic image segmentation seems to be the approach based on the fuzzy connectedness principle. First, we identify some deficiencies of this approach and propose a way to improve it, through the introduction of competitive learning. Second, we propose a different approach, based on watersheds. We show that the competitive fuzzy connectednes...

This research studies the moderating effect of country-specific social connectedness on the relation between financial literacy and stock market participation. This is done by using the extensive and multi-country SHARE data. The positive relation between financial literacy and stock market participation is reconfirmed. Moreover, the findings show that country-specific social connectedness sign...

The literature on adolescent development refers to the adolescent’s need to be connected to others in a meaningful way. However, research on adolescent connectedness in the South African context is limited, particularly with regard to gender influences. This exploratory, descriptive research project therefore aimed at investigating gender differences in the connectedness of Grade 8 and Grade 11...