People can recognize the meaning or gist of a scene from a single glance, and a few recent studies have begun to examine the sorts of information that contribute to scene gist recognition. The authors of the present study used visual masking coupled with image manipulations (randomizing phase while maintaining the Fourier amplitude spectrum; random image structure evolution [RISE]; J. Sadr & P. Sinha, 2004) to explore whether and when unlocalized Fourier amplitude information contributes to gist perception. In 4 experiments, the authors found that differences between scene categories in the Fourier amplitude spectrum are insufficient for gist recognition or gist masking. Whereas the global 1/f spatial frequency amplitude spectra of scenes plays a role in gist masking, local phase information is necessary for gist recognition and for the strongest gist masking. Moreover, the ability to recognize the gist of a target image was influenced by mask recognizability, suggesting that conceptual masking occurs even at the earliest stages of scene processing.

The egg industry has transitioned, or is in the process of transitioning, from conventional cages to alternative hen housing systems in response to legal changes in many states across the United States (US). However, consumers find it is increasingly difficult to understand the details behind those labels and specific attributes conveyed. There are multiple hen housing options with a wide range of costs and impacts on hens, workers, and the environment. This research furthers the understanding of US public perceptions and attitudes related to hen housing systems and corresponding animal welfare, worker, economic, and environmental effects. Results reveal that the US public perceives cage-free aviaries as achieving essentially the same positive impact on hen health and stress, hen behavior, and environmental impact as free-range systems when compared to conventional cage systems. The information provided can assist industry, marketing, and policy decisions with respect to hen housing.

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The goal of combining the robustness of neural networks and the expressivity of symbolic methods has rekindled the interest in Neuro-Symbolic AI. One specifically interesting branch of research is deep probabilistic programming languages (DPPLs) which carry out probabilistic logical programming via the probability estimations of deep neural networks. However, recent SOTA DPPL approaches allow only for limited conditional probabilistic queries and do not offer the power of true joint probability estimation. In our work, we propose an easy integration of tractable probabilistic inference within a DPPL. To this end we introduce SLASH, a novel DPPL that consists of Neural-Probabilistic Predicates (NPPs) and a logical program, united via answer set programming. NPPs are a novel design principle allowing for the unification of all deep model types and combinations thereof to be represented as a single probabilistic predicate. In this context, we introduce a novel +/- notation for answering various types of probabilistic queries by adjusting the atom notations of a predicate. We evaluate SLASH on the benchmark task of MNIST addition as well as novel tasks for DPPLs such as missing data prediction, generative learning and set prediction with state-of-the-art performance, thereby showing the effectiveness and generality of our method.

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Selecting optimal corn and soybean seeding rates are difficult decisions to make. A survey of Ohio and Michigan farm operators finds that, although generally keen to learn from others, they tend to emphasize their own experience over outside information sources. Soybean growers declare university and extension recommendations as more important than do corn growers. In response to direct queries and in free comments, growers place more emphasis on understanding the agronomic and technological problems at hand than on adjusting to the market environment. Given the decision environment, we argue that these responses are reasonable.

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