Bottom-up Process Research Articles

Switching perception of musical meters by listening to different acoustic cues of biphasic sound stimulus.

Meter is one of the core features of music perception. It is the cognitive grouping of regular sound sequences, typically for every 2, 3, or 4 beats. Previous studies have suggested that one can not only passively perceive the meter from acoustic cues such as loudness, pitch, and duration of sound elements, but also actively perceive it by paying attention to isochronous sound events without any acoustic cues. Studying the interaction of top-down and bottom-up processing in meter perception leads to understanding the cognitive system’s ability to perceive the entire structure of music. The present study aimed to demonstrate that meter perception requires the top-down process (which maintains and switches attention between cues) as well as the bottom-up process for discriminating acoustic cues. We created a “biphasic” sound stimulus, which consists of successive tone sequences designed to provide cues for both the triple and quadruple meters in different sound attributes, frequency, and duration. Participants were asked to focus on either frequency or duration of the stimulus, and to answer how they perceived meters on a five-point scale (ranged from “strongly triple” to “strongly quadruple”). As a result, we found that participants perceived different meters by switching their attention to specific cues. This result adds evidence to the idea that meter perception involves the interaction between top-down and bottom-up processes.

What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values

AbstractInstagram is the place for the visualization of everything, from travel and food to abstract concepts such as freedom. Over the past decade, the platform has introduced a bottom-up process where users co-produce image repertoires that shape the boundaries of the imaginable. Drawing on an epistemology of social constructionism, we ask which visual repertoires are associated with value-related terms on Instagram. We studied 20 widely used value hashtags, sampling the top 100 posts for each (N = 2,000). A combined qualitative–quantitative content analysis revealed that 19 of the 20 hashtags possess distinct visual footprints, typically reflecting an orientation toward the self and an emphasis on consumption. We conclude by discussing three implications of our findings: the role of images in the social construction of the meaning of values, the distinction between internalized and externalized value depictions, and aestheticized consumption as an organizing principle of Instagram’s mainstream.

Children's vicarious ratings of social touch are tuned to the velocity but not the location of a caress.

Affective sharing is a bottom-up process involving automatic processing of sensory inputs that facilitate vicarious experience of another’s emotional state. It is grounded directly in the prior experiences of the perceiver. In adults, vicarious ratings of affective touch match the known velocity tuning and hypothesised anatomical distribution of C-tactile afferents (CT), a subclass of C-fibre which respond preferentially to low force/velocity stroking touch, typically perceived as pleasant. Given the centrality of touch to early nurturing interactions, here we examined whether primary school aged children’s vicarious ratings of affective touch show the same anatomical and velocity specific patterns reported in adults. Forty-four children aged between 8 and 11 (mean age 9, 24 male) rated a sequence of video clips depicting one individual being touched by another on 5 different upper-body sites (palm, dorsal forearm, ventral forearm, upper-arm and back) at 3 different velocities (static, CT optimal, slow stroking and non-CT optimal, fast stroking). Immediately after viewing each clip, participants were asked to rate how pleasant they perceived the touch to be. While children rated the CT optimal velocity significantly higher than static or non-CT optimal touch, unlike adults their ratings did not vary across skin sites. This difference may reflect the fact children’s ratings are grounded in bottom-up affective resonance while adults also draw on top-down cognitive evaluation of the broader social context when rating the stimuli.

Measuring Digital Competence: An Exploratory Study Mapping Digital Competence Profiles of Sri Lankan English Language Teachers

The overall vision for 21st century learning has incorporated digitalisation as a key focus in teaching and learning practices. In Sri Lanka, however, despite major initiatives taken to improve digital competency of teachers, only minor improvement was noted. Using the DigCompEdu assessment tool, this study investigates to what extent Sri Lankan English language teachers are digitally competent. The results aim to inform national initiatives to facilitate the shift towards a bottom-up process, informed by actual realities based on skills and competences. The DigCompEdu 22-item quantitative survey was used to sample 40 English language teachers working within the public education system. Overall, the study finds that not even 50% of the sample is at one competency band. It is recommended that for substantial changes to occur, a more varied and individualised teacher-training is recommended, using the DigCompEdu as a diagnostic guide.

The Power of Co-Creation in the Energy Transition—DART Model in Citizen Energy Communities Projects

Successful energy transformation is interconnected with greater citizenry participation as prosumers. The search for novel solutions to implement the transition to renewable energy that will neutralize the barriers to this process, e.g., the reluctance of citizens to get involved, lack of trust in decision-makers and lack of co-ownership of energy projects, is inevitable as a part of the bottom-up process. Energy communities have vast potential to scale up Renewable Energy projects. Due to the fact that in Poland, establishing citizen energy communities in the cities is not allowed, the key success factor of energy transformation is to engage housing cooperatives and other housing communities in this process. A similar legal framework prevents communities from establishing themselves in the Czech Republic and Hungary. The research problem of this paper is to identify determinants of the co-creation process in Renewable Energy project activation at the housing cooperative level. The aim is to identify key conditions that housing cooperatives should establish in order to successfully undertake Renewable Energy project implementation using a co-creation approach. The literature study shows that the term “co-creation” is not often used in energy transition projects, although many local energy transitions are indeed co-created, unfortunately not in a structured methodical manner. In the research, we apply the DART (Dialogue, Access, Risk, Transparency) model as the framework to conduct the analysis. The study has been carried out using quantitative and qualitative research methods and based on primary and secondary data. Our findings indicate that considering the different areas of the DART model, co-creation was most visible in the area of dialogue-communication between cooperative authorities and its members, while it was least visible in the area of transparency. Based on the results pertaining to the implemented project, the researchers postulate the inclusion of factors beyond the DART model that further shape the co-creation process.

Capturing Continuous Economic Development from a Bottom-Up Exchange Process a Complex Adaptive Systems Model

How do an economic system’s elementary components aggregate and affect the macro-level performance? How do changes to these micro-level components change the macro-level development of economic vitality? Prior research has not fully addressed these important questions. Built on the broad framework of complex adaptive systems, this research presents an agent-based model of economic exchanges that captures a bottom-up process with three interrelated elements: agents that comprise basic entities of actions, economic exchanges that represent the interactions and mutual adaptions of the agents, and an environment that structures the agents’ economic exchanges. We have developed a computer simulation program to quantitatively explore the macro-level performance of economic exchanges along with the variation of three elementary components. The experiments in this study have several findings of that indicate ways to sustain the economic system’s prosperity through managing the system’s micro-level components.

Hydrothermal synthesis of highly pure brookite-type titanium oxide powder from aqueous sols of titanate nanosheets

Hydrothermal synthesis of brookite-type titanium dioxide was examined using aqueous sols of titanate nanosheets, which were prepared with Ti[OCH(CH3)2]4 and N(CH3)4OH by a bottom-up process in aqueous solutions. Highly pure brookite powders were yielded at hydrothermal temperatures as low as 120 °C and N(CH3)4OH/Ti[OCH(CH3)2]4 molar ratios greater than 2. Although titanate nanosheets are formed at N(CH3)4OH/Ti[OCH(CH3)2]4 ≥ 0.4, the addition of excess N(CH3)4OH was critical in forming highly pure brookite powders. Excess N(CH3)4+ caused the precipitation of layered titanates, which were formed by stacking titanate nanosheets. Additionally, the crystal nucleation of brookite occurred in the precipitates. Then, the adsorption of titanate nanosheets on brookite particles caused the particles to transform into rod-like shapes elongated along the c-axis. The adsorbed titanate nanosheets were structurally converted into brookite under the influence of the underlying brookite crystal. Despite having a rough surface, the resulting brookite particles were single crystal-like. Moreover, the use of any tetraalkylammonium hydroxides other than N(CH3)4OH did not yield brookite. The addition of N(CH3)4OH to the reaction sols yielded precipitates of small titanate nanosheets. The morphology of the titanate nanosheets could have a significant influence on brookite crystallization.

Preparation of Li2CO3 powder nanoparticles by vacuum freeze drying

Decreasing the particle size of Li2CO3 powder is beneficial for advancing its applications in the manufacturing of different materials and drug delivery. Therefore, in this study, a novel bottom-up process based on freezing is proposed for the production of nanoparticles. Herein, two methods of explosive nucleation were used: addition of an anti-solvent and rapid freezing. Explosive nucleation of Li2CO3 occurred during the initial stage of anti-solvent addition; in contrast, in the freezing method, it occurred at a stage when the solute, which had not migrated, was extruded to the solid–liquid interface. Li2CO3 concentration had an effect on both the crystal grain and particle size. The controlled preparation of Li2CO3 nanoparticles was achieved within a certain range of A/B ratio; when the ratio decreased from 10/0 to 10/20 v/v, the controlled synthesis of Li2CO3 nanoparticles was achieved. A lower concentration of Li2CO3 decreased the size of the crystal grain and increased the size of the particles, as observed via transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. When the A/B ratio (where A is saturated Li2CO3 solution and B is deionised water) was decreased below 10/20 v/v, the crystal grain size of Li2CO3 did not reduce significantly. To further understand the nucleation, freezing was carried out at two temperatures, i.e. 223 ± 2 K and 267 ± 2 K. The lower freezing temperature resulted in a smaller crystal grain size and more concentrated distribution.

How to leverage manufacturing digitalization for green process innovation?

Although the stream of literature has focused on various internal and external drivers for green innovation, less attention has been paid to the role of manufacturing digitalization. Addressing this limitation, our study aims to explore how to leverage manufacturing digitalization for green process innovation. Based on the information processing theory, we investigated the effects of manufacturing digitalization on green process innovation and thus financial performance. We also investigated the moderating effects of organizational structure (information sharing and bottom-up learning) and also technological modularization. Five hypotheses were proposed and tested with a dataset from 334 manufacturing firms in China. We find a significant positive effect of manufacturing digitalization on green process innovation. Furthermore, fit organization structure is needed to leverage this positive effects for green process innovation. We found that inter-department information sharing strengthens while bottom-up learning process weakens the positive effect. We also find that manufacturing modularization can improve the impact of manufacturing digitalization on green process innovation. More importantly, we find that green process innovation has a positive effect on financial performance.

New Graduate Nurses’ Professional Identification Awakened During COVID-19

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put health-care employees, especially nurses, under tremendous pressure, it may provide these workers with a chance to reassess their professional identification and break the “hangover” effect in socialization. Drawing on an identity construction process perspective, we explore the trajectory of professional identification among new graduate nurses, and propose that since the COVID-19 outbreak, new graduate nurses’ professional identification increases. Furthermore, the increased professional identification is positively related to both sensegiving, as a top-down process, and moral elevation, as a bottom-up process of identity construction via work meaningfulness. Using nine-wave longitudinal data (five waves before and four after the COVID-19 outbreak) from 322 new graduate nurses at a public hospital in China, we conducted discontinuous growth modeling (DGM) analyses to test our hypotheses. We found that new graduate nurses’ professional identification gradually fell during the initial months into professional practice (hangover effect), but rose significantly after the onset of COVID-19. Sensegiving and moral elevation, mediated by work meaningfulness, were positively associated with this increase in professional identification. Our findings shed light on professional identification dynamics in the crisis context and the disruptive socialization processes to overcome the hangover effect.

Electrochemical processes mediated via adsorbed Enzymes: Flat and porous electrodes Compared. Understanding Nano-confinement

• Adsorbed-enzyme-mediated electrochemical processes are investigated via simulations. • Potential dependent Michaelis constants are explained. • Four classes of voltammograms are introduced to help understand current responses. • Porous electrodes can create enhanced effective surface coverage and sensing ability. We present theory for electrolysis at electrode surfaces modified by a layer of electroactive enzyme which can mediate the reduction of a substrate to a product. In particular, we compare and contrast immobilisation on flat surfaces with that on porous surfaces. We identify the conditions under which the adoption of porous electrodes facilitates markedly improves turnover rates and develop the analysis on the basis of the porous layer conferring a much-increased effective surface coverage. For both types of electrode, the role of the electrode potential in controlling the thermodynamics of the binding of the substrate with the reduced layer of immobilised enzymes is quantified, and the observation of apparent potential dependent Michaelis constants are explained. Four distinct classes of voltammetric responses are categorised allowing bottom-up process optimisation.

The Bottom-up Place Branding of a Neighborhood: Analyzing a Case of Selective Empowerment

This article analyzes the entanglement of social impacts of bottom-up urban branding processes on local hyperdiverse communities, through an ethnography of a neighborhood of Milan recently named by a group of residents as “NoLo.” Indeed, existing literature has broadly investigated urban rebranding as a tool used by policy makers to foster social change and economic capital, imposing top-down transformations. Nevertheless, a gap in the bottom-up place rebranding processes exists. We inspect it through the aforementioned case study and by combining place branding literature, the loss of place identity and theories on empowerment. Empirically, we analyze the socioeconomic processes and the actors that enabled the rebranding, discussing the positive externalities and the criticalities in terms of marginalization of weaker social groups and cultural hegemony. As for the theory, we contribute to the literature arguing that a bottom-up process is not enough to avoid a loss of place identity, as it can lead to selective empowerment.

Storytelling: Restorative Approaches to Post-2003 Iraq Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT Top-down national reconciliation initiatives overlook the significance of, and connection between, story and culture in social conflict resolution. They have thus failed to emerge in post-2003 Iraq. This article draws on the theoretical insights from social constructionism to examine the potential of centreing storytelling within a bottom-up restorative peacebuilding process. It posits that integrating storytelling-based practices, such as restorative justice dialogue and restorative education, within Iraq's legal and educations systems can promote an inclusive, cross-communal public discourse and facilitate bottom-up and inclusive peacebuilding practices.

How can we categorise \u2018nationality\u2019 and \u2018second generation\u2019 in surveys without (re)producing stigmatisation?

Whilst reflexive migration studies have criticised the use of categories such as ‘nationality’ and ‘second generation’ in quantitative research, several gaps on how to develop such reflexivity remain. In qualitative data, the co-construction of knowledge seems feasible during fieldwork, whereas the deductive process of quantitative research limits such interactions and is more at risk of reproducing a ‘state thought’. Through a longitudinal database, the LIVES-FORS cohort survey of the National Center of Competence in Research LIVES – Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives and FORS – the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Social Sciences (herafter LCS), we engage in this discussion and provide some answers. The LCS is an annual longitudinal survey that, in 2013, started following a cohort of young adults born between 1988 and 1997 who grew up in Switzerland. The underlying hypothesis of the LCS is that migrants’ descendants have access to different resources (and often a lack thereof) to Swiss natives. In this paper, we discuss both the theoretical and empirical challenges to using the categories ‘nationality’ and ‘second generation’. We show the fluidity and subjectivity of these categories. By changing the definition of the category ‘second generation’, we increased the proportion of ‘second-generation’ participants from 43 to almost 62% of the sample. Looking across the five waves of the survey, we notice a 2% unexplained variation in the first nationality mentioned by the participants and 31% missing values regarding the nationality at birth – which are both indicators that nationality is a subjective category as well as a legal one. We illustrate that the static and neutral conceptions of these categories reproduce a false and stigmatised image of migrant descendants. To avoid these pitfalls we suggest developing multilevel geographical comparisons to consider the effects of time (age and historical), to use a wider range of information in order to be more precise, to examine different nationalities instead of focusing on the traditional nationalities of labour immigrants in a given country and to explore the reasons for the lack of answers to certain questions. Thus the questionnaires should include both more flexibility in the possibilities for answers and details and more-open questions regarding sensitive issues about the definition of the self. They should be developed through a participative and bottom-up process fostering mixed methods.

Two-step droplet formation in monodisperse nanodroplet generation in quenched hydrothermal solution as revealed by spontaneous transformation of nanodroplets to swollen micelles in octane‑in‑water nanoemulsions

HypothesisMonodisperse nanodroplet generation in quenched hydrothermal solution (MAGIQ) is a newly developed bottom-up process for preparing nanoemulsions. In this process, homogeneous solutions of oil in supercritical water are quenched by adding cold water containing a surfactant to induce rapid phase-separation, during which oil molecules self-assemble to form nano-sized oil droplets. The droplet size in MAGIQ is known to be influenced by the interplay of the phase‐separation dynamics, coalescence kinetics of the droplets, and adsorption kinetics of the surfactant on the droplet surface; however, the primary stages of the droplet formation are still elusive. ExperimentsOctane‑in‑water nanoemulsions containing 0.5, 1, and 3 vol% octane were prepared by the MAGIQ method. Their ripening was studied by dynamic light scattering, and the phase diagram was established. FindingsThe nanoemulsions containing 0.5 and 1 vol% octane transformed to thermodynamically stable microemulsions containing swollen micelles, whereas the nanoemulsion containing 3 vol% octane underwent Ostwald ripening. The initial formation of the nano-sized droplets in the former was ascribed to a unique mechanism of droplet formation in MAGIQ—the droplets are first formed by the phase separation of homogeneous binary solutions of oil in supercritical water and then stabilized upon surfactant adsorption.

Bulk Nanostructured Metal from Multiply-Twinned Nanowires.

Using chemically synthesized silver nanowires with 5-fold twinning planes as a model system, a bottom-up process to generate a bulk nanostructured metal has been demonstrated. Although the nanowires would be shortened and deformed during densification, they are chosen as a model system because they are currently the most scalable and convenient way to obtain Ag particles with high twinning densities. Direct cold pressing of a silver nanowire filter cake did not generate a sufficiently cohesive sample, while hot pressing at 190 °C for 8 h resulted in extensive sintering, eliminating the nanowire morphology. Copper was then electroplated on the silver nanowires as a binder and filler to increase the densification upon hot pressing; despite nonuniform plating across the thickness of the filter cake, the thermal stability of the nanowires was increased, allowing hot pressing at 390 °C. Finally, a uniform copper coating on silver nanowires was achieved by electroless plating, leading to cohesive bulk metal after hot pressing.

Polarization but Not Pillarization Catholicism and Cultural Change in Post-Transformation Poland

The modern Polish cultural system emerges through the interplay between social structure and agency, which represent different properties and powers or, more precisely, ‘independent properties, capable of exerting autonomous influences.’ I argue that Polish Catholicism entered the transformation process to some extent as an agential force which shaped progressive social change and delivered ‘energy’ for the transformation of Polish society. However, the process of transformation has changed the public position of the Catholic Church as it is no longer an actor within a dominating social movement that thrived in the quest for freedom and human rights. Catholicism that has played a role in shaping social conflicts, still represents to some degree ‘a public good’. That is why, despite strong political polarization in Poland, there is no context for ‘pillarization’ within Polish society. The situation of Catholicism in the modern Polish social configuration should be described using the category of ‘polarization’ rather than ‘pillarization’. My study of Polish Catholicism confirms that social polarization in Poland is not a bottom-up process but rather, is driven from the top down as a cultural process.

Titanium infiltration into ultrathin PMMA brushes

Vapor phase infiltration (VPI) is a bottom-up process that involves the infiltration of polymers, often using atomic layer deposition compatible precursors. By exposing a polymer to an organo-metallic precursor, area selective material formation is achieved where the precursor reacts with regions covered by an infiltration-receptive polymer brush. Combining receptive and rejecting polymers that have the capability of forming complex nanopatterns could potentially allow for the creation of nanofeatures, offering a route to area selective deposition. This work is concerned with the creation and characterization of titanium-infiltrated films with a VPI process. Thin films of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were infused with titanium isopropoxide and subsequently analyzed with angular resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. All XPS analysis and VPI treatments were completed without breaking vacuum in an integrated ultrahigh vacuum setup, with O 1s, C 1s, Ti 2p, and Si 2p core levels revealing the successful incorporation of titanium into the polymer. Grazing angle Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy demonstrates the breaking of carbon–oxygen double bonds within the PMMA structure due to titanium incorporation.

Different Roles of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes in the Distribution of Size-Fractionated Phytoplankton in Gwangyang Bay

The interactive roles of zooplankton grazing (top-down) and nutrient (bottom-up) processes on phytoplankton distribution in a temperate estuary were investigated via dilution and nutrient addition experiments. The responses of size-fractionated phytoplankton and major phytoplankton groups, as determined by flow cytometry, were examined in association with zooplankton grazing and nutrient availability. The summer bloom was attributed to nanoplankton, and microplankton was largely responsible for the winter bloom, whereas the picoplankton biomass was relatively consistent throughout the sampling periods, except for the fall. The nutrient addition experiments illustrated that nanoplankton responded more quickly to phosphate than the other groups in the summer, whereas microplankton had a faster response to most nutrients in the winter. The dilution experiments ascribed that the grazing mortality rates of eukaryotes were low compared to those of the other groups, whereas autotrophic cyanobacteria were more palatable to zooplankton than cryptophytes and eukaryotes. Our experimental results indicate that efficient escape from zooplankton grazing and fast response to nutrient availability synergistically caused the microplankton to bloom in the winter, whereas the bottom-up process (i.e., the phosphate effect) largely governed the nanoplankton bloom in the summer.

Let the people decide: citizen deliberation on the role of GMOs in Mali\u2019s agriculture

This paper describes and critically reflects on a participatory policy process which resulted in a government decision not to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton in farmers’ fields in Mali (West Africa). In January 2006, 45 Malian farmers gathered in Sikasso to deliberate on GM cotton and the future of farming in Mali. As an invited policy space convened by the government of Sikasso region, this first-time farmers' jury was unique in West Africa. It was known as l’ECID—Espace Citoyen d’Interpellation Démocratique (Citizen’s Space for Democratic Deliberation)—and it had an unprecedented impact on the region. In this Deliberative and Inclusive Process (DIP), the ECID combined the citizens’ jury method with indigenous methods for debate and dialogue, including the traditional African palaver. The ECID brought together male and female producers representing every district in the Sikasso region of southern Mali, specialist witnesses from various continents and a panel of independent observers, as well as resource persons and members of the national and international press and media. As an experiment in deliberative democracy, the ECID of Sikasso aimed to give men and women farmers the opportunity to share knowledge on the benefits and risks of GM cotton, and make policy recommendations on the future of GM technology in Malian agriculture. Designed as a bottom-up and participatory process, the ECID’s outcomes significantly changed national policy on the release of GM technology and have had an enduring influence in Mali. In this paper, we describe our positionality as action researchers and co-organisers of the ECID. We explain the methodology used for the ECID of Sikasso and critically reflect on the safeguards that were put in place to ensure a balanced and trustworthy deliberative process. The ECID and its key outcomes are discussed in the context of the political economy of GM cotton in West Africa. Last, we briefly highlight the relevance of the ECID for current international debates on racism in the theory and practice deliberative democracy; the production of post-normal transdisciplinary knowledge for technology risk-assessments; and the politics of knowledge in participatory policy-making for food and agriculture.