企业寻求什么样的"外脑"

我们常常用木桶原理来比喻企业运营资源,即一只木桶盛水量的多少取决于它最短的一块木板,而一个企业经营的成果也往往取决于企业自身最短的那一部分要素和资源。而作为咨询业的从业人员,我们的任务就是帮助企业找到并修补好短缺的那块“板”,以使企业这只“木桶”能盛更多的水。然而,在为企业提供咨询服务的过程中,我们却发现一些企业主在寻求“外脑”帮助之前,自己的头脑中却存在一些问题。     

Scalable architecture in mammalian brains

Comparison of mammalian brain parts has often focused on differences in absolute size, revealing only a general tendency for all parts to grow together. Attempts to find size-independent effects using body weight as a reference variable obscure size relationships owing to independent variation of body size and give phylogenies of questionable significance. Here we use the brain itself as a size reference to define the cerebrotype, a species-by-species measure of brain composition. With this measure, across many mammalian taxa the cerebellum occupies a constant fraction of the total brain volume (0.13 +/- 0.02), arguing against the hypothesis that the cerebellum acts as a computational engine principally serving the neocortex. Mammalian taxa can be well separated by cerebrotype, thus allowing the use of quantitative neuroanatomical data to test evolutionary relationships. Primate cerebrotypes have progressively shifted and neocortical volume fractions have become successively larger in lemurs and lorises, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and hominoids, lending support to the idea that primate brain architecture has been driven by directed selection pressure. At the same time, absolute brain size can vary over 100-fold within a taxon, while maintaining a relatively uniform cerebrotype. Brains therefore constitute a scalable architecture.     

人眼定位算法研究与实现

基于2D Gabor函数与高等动物视觉皮层接受场的一致性,采用一种基于Gabor变换的眼睛定位方法:在对图像进行规一化处理以减少光照影响的基础上,利用Gabor变换后的图像在眼睛处的幅值较大的特点,通过投影方法得到眼睛的坐标。算法运算时间较短,结合简单有效的灰度投影分析,大大提高了定位的速度。实验结果表明,该算法能够精确地定位眼睛,并能克服非均匀光照、噪声以及饰件对眼睛定位的影响,对各种脸部姿势变化有较强的适应性。     

宗教和技术发凡

通过对中国的儒教、佛教、道教和西方的犹太-基督教等主要教派的技术观进行梳理,便可发现宗教和技术在长期的历史发展中形成了丰富多样的关系,既有血与火一般的对立和冲突,也有共生和共融,更有互不相干之时。技术和宗教各有其存在的空间,技术主要是同客观的物质世界打交道,宗教主要是同世界的价值观念打交道。技术虽能解决人类物质文明方面的问题,却不能完全解决人类精神文明和精神归宿问题,而且技术本身还有关乎造福人类抑或贻害人类的发展方向问题。为确保技术沿着造福人类的方向健康发展,需要诸多社会力量和文化因素的协同作用,而宗教无疑是其中一种重要的力量和因素。     

Evolutionary radiations and convergences in the structural organization of mammalian brains

The sizes of mammalian brain components seem to be mostly related to the sizes of the whole brain (and body), suggesting a one-dimensional scale of encephalization. Previous multivariate study of such data concludes that evolutionary selection for enlargement of any one brain part is constrained to selection for a concerted enlargement of the whole brain. However, interactions between structurally related pairs of brain parts confirm reports of differential change in brain nuclei, and imply mosaic rather than concerted evolution. Here we analyse a large number of variables simultaneously using multi-dimensional methods. We show that the relative proportions of different systems of functionally integrated brain structures vary independently between different mammalian orders, demonstrating separate evolutionary radiations in mammalian brain organization. Within each major order we identify clusters of unrelated species that occupy similar behavioural niches and have convergently evolved similar brain proportions. We conclude that within orders, mosaic brain organization is caused by selective adaptation, whereas between orders it suggests an interplay between selection and constraints.