Non-living Objects Research Articles

Habitat utilization by an intertidal isopod, Dynoides dentisinus Shen, 1929 (Isopoda, Sphaeromatidae)

Abstract Intertidal isopods use a variety of living or non-living objects as habitats, although only a few studies have been made on their ecological function and significance. In the present study, the habitat utilization by the sphaeromatid isopod, Dynoides dentisinus was recorded based on observations on intertidal rocky shores in the warm temperate zone of Japan during the period from 2014 to 2018. The adults of this species have a remarkable sexual dimorphism in the morphology of their armature: adult males possess an elongate pleonal process, like a large horn, on the dorsal side of the pleon and have large uropods. On the other hand, females do not have such a horn, and the uropods are small. Differences in habitat use were seen according to the stage in the life history of the species. Juveniles lived on, or amongst, algae and were sometimes associated with molluscs such as chitons, limpets and whelks. Adults inhabited the cryptic habitats such as gaps in algal holdfasts, oscula of demosponges, dead barnacle shells, cavities of dead corals, and crevices in sand rocks. Generally, a single adult male was present in each cryptic habitat, keeping head in down position, and one or more females cohabited inside with the male. These suggest that D. dentisinus has a biphasic life history; juveniles live and feed on algal cover or use the spaces between the ventral sides of the molluscs and the surfaces of the rocks as a refuge from desiccation. Adults breed in the cryptic habitats, forming a polygynous group.

Echoes of the Vision of Hindu Philosophy in T. S. Eliot’s Writings

This paper makes an attempt to explore the echoes of the vision of Hindu philosophy in the selected works of T. S. Eliot. The works of Eliot such as his primary essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” and his primary poems such as “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Gerontion,” The Waste Land, “Ash Wednesday,” “A Song for Simeon” and Four Quartets are under scrutiny in this paper. Eliot’s primary texts echo the vision of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Patanjali Yoga Sutras of the Hindu (Vedic) philosophy. The vision is that rebirth is conditioned by one’s karma (actions). No one can escape from the fruits of his karma. One needs to undergo the self-realization to know the Essence (Brahman). When one knows the Essence, he is liberated from the wheel of life and death. Man himself is Brahman. The soul is immortal. The basic essence of Hindu philosophy is non-dual, which says that all the living beings and non-living objects are the manifestations of the same Ultimate Reality (Brahman). Eliot suggests that the knowledge of this essence can help humanity to promote equality and justice by ignoring discrimination and duality, to end human sorrows and to achieve real peace and happiness. This finding can assist humanity in the quest for understanding the meaning of human existence and the true spiritual nature of life to address the human sorrows resulted from the gross materialistic thinking.

Developmental Changes in Number Personification by Elementary School Children.

Children often personify non-living objects, such as puppets and stars. This attribution is considered a healthy phenomenon, which can simulate social exchange and enhance children's understanding of social relationships. In this study, we considered that the tendency of children to engage in personification could potentially be observed in abstract entities, such as numbers. We hypothesized that children tend to attribute personalities to numbers, which diminishes during the course of development. By consulting the methodology to measure ordinal linguistic personification (OLP), which is a type of synesthesia, we quantified the frequency with which child and adult populations engage in number personification. Questionnaires were completed by 151 non-synesthetic children (9–12 years old) and 55 non-synesthetic adults. Children showed a higher tendency than adults to engage in number personification, with respect to temporal consistency and the frequency of choosing meaningful answers. Additionally, children tended to assign unique and exclusive descriptions to each number from zero to nine. By synthesizing the series of analyses, we revealed the process in which number personification diminishes throughout development. In the discussion, we examined the possibility that number personification serves as a discrimination clue to aid children's comprehension of the relationships between numbers.

Brain Responses to Emotional Faces in Natural Settings: A Wireless Mobile EEG Recording Study.

The detection of a human face in a visual field and correct reading of emotional expression of faces are important elements in everyday social interactions, decision making and emotional responses. Although brain correlates of face processing have been established in previous fMRI and electroencephalography (EEG)/MEG studies, little is known about how the brain representation of faces and emotional expressions of faces in freely moving humans. The present study aimed to detect brain electrical potentials that occur during the viewing of human faces in natural settings. 64-channel wireless EEG and eye-tracking data were recorded in 19 participants while they moved in a mock art gallery and stopped at times to evaluate pictures hung on the walls. Positive, negative and neutral valence pictures of objects and human faces were displayed. The time instants in which pictures first occurred in the visual field were identified in eye-tracking data and used to reconstruct the triggers in continuous EEG data after synchronizing the time axes of the EEG and eye-tracking device. EEG data showed a clear face-related event-related potential (ERP) in the latency interval ranging from 165 to 210 ms (N170); this component was not seen whilst participants were viewing non-living objects. The face ERP component was stronger during viewing disgusted compared to neutral faces. Source dipole analysis revealed an equivalent current dipole in the right fusiform gyrus (BA37) accounting for N170 potential. Our study demonstrates for the first time the possibility of recording brain responses to human faces and emotional expressions in natural settings. This finding opens new possibilities for clinical, developmental, social, forensic, or marketing research in which information about face processing is of importance.

Romantic Sublime in Kalidas’s Works: An Ecocritical Approach to the Study of ‘Abhijnanashakuntalam’

Kalidas’s plays are replete with descriptive details of flora and fauna and vivid pictures of naturedrawn from diverse sources and rich imagery. His works particularly “Ritusambharam’’, “Meghdutam’’ and ‘’Abhijnanashakuntalam’’ also show a symbiotic relationship between man and nature. Though there are many works on his plays and epicscritiquingnature,its grandeur and other related aspects. This paper attempts to critique the Ecocritical concept of Romantic sublime in “Abhijnanashakuntalam “. This paper examines the ecosystem presented in this play by Kalidas, which endorses the emotional experiences of the wonder of nature. It also critiques the text with reference to Lee Rozelle’s concept of ‘ ecosublime’ which suggests that sublime encounter with nature inspires awe which further invites ecological catastrophe as well as environmental responsibility. This paper further discusses the profundity of thought, emotion and spirit represented by spectacular landscapes, characters and living and non-living objects in the forest. It further interrogates the ecocentric setting of the play which extends an egalitarian perspective with respect to all elements of nature and acknowledges the intrinsic value of all living beings. The paper concludes that ‘Abhjjnashakuntalam’ presents the ecocritical perspective of society, culture and gender,which highlight nature and evoke emotional experiences with awe and wonder in postmodern world faced with danger of environmental catastrophe.

Elements of Nature as the Object of Escapism in Maya Angelou�s �Woman Work�

The research aimed to discuss the elements of nature in the poem entitled Woman Work written by Maya Angelou. The speaker of the poem used nature as the object of escapism. The research used some theories to meet the topic of discussion. The basic theories of the research were symbol, imagery and figures of speech. They were two figures of speech as the poetic devices in the poem: personification and apostrophe. They were two supporting theories that dealt with the topic, i.e. nature and escapism. There were two approaches that were used: structural and formalistic approaches. Library research is the technique of collecting data. The finding of the research was that the speaker of the poem endowed the elements of nature (which are non-living objects) with human qualities in an attempt to feel less lonely. In the absence of human company, it was the sun, the rain, the snow, dewdrops, the wind, the sky, mountains, oceans, leaves, stones, star shine and moon glow that were her friends. Woman Work was a very domestic poem depicting the typical routine life of a woman who performed her daily chores effectively and then yearned for a fantastic break amidst the elements of nature to give her strength and comfort.Keywords: nature, escapism, symbol, imagery, personification

ELEMENTS OF NATURE AS THE OBJECT OF ESCAPISM IN MAYA ANGELOU’S “WOMAN WORK”

The research aimed to discuss the elements of nature in the poem entitled “Woman Work” written by Maya Angelou. The speaker of the poem used nature as the object of escapism. The research used some theories to meet the topic of discussion. The basic theories of the research were symbol, imagery and figures of speech. They were two figures of speech as the poetic devices in the poem: personification and apostrophe. They were two supporting theories that dealt with the topic, i.e. nature and escapism. There were two approaches that were used: structural and formalistic approaches. Library research is the technique of collecting data. The finding of the research was that the speaker of the poem endowed the elements of nature (which are non-living objects) with human qualities in an attempt to feel less lonely. In the absence of human company, it was the sun, the rain, the snow, dewdrops, the wind, the sky, mountains, oceans, leaves, stones, “star shine” and “moon glow” that were her friends. “Woman Work” was a very domestic poem depicting the typical routine life of a woman who performed her daily chores effectively and then yearned for a fantastic break amidst the elements of nature to give her strength and comfort. Keywords: nature, escapism, symbol, imagery, personification

Review of Necroculture by Charles Thorpe (Palgrave Macmillan)

Charles Thorpe’s Necroculture attempts to demonstrate that the variegated experiences of alienation under the technocratic culture of neoliberal capital are experiences tantamount to a culture of death. Thorpe suggests that the root of the necrophilia that defines contemporary capitalist culture is in the valuing of non-living objects over living human beings. In the alienation and replacement of imperfect human labor with automated dead labor and in a highly atomized consumer culture where social participation is mediated by commodity fetishism, the non-living are given priority over the living.

P367 Identification of neural responses to human faces using wireless multichannel EEG recordings

Objectives Previous neuroimaging studies have shown face-specific neural responses to faces compared to objects. The detection of face-specific brain activation in freely behaving and moving people has yet to be accomplished. The purpose of our research was to identify, using wireless multichannel EEG in freely moving participants, eye movement related potentials (EMRPs) during viewing of human faces. Method Mobile EEG and eye tracking was recorded from 19 freely moving participants whilst they freely viewed a mock art gallery. Stimuli were presented on 20 printed poster panels displaying positive, negative and neutral valence images. A head-mounted wearable eye-tracker was used to capture real-world video recordings of gaze locations used to synchronize the EEG and eye-tracking time-series. Results Synchronized EEG and eye-tracking recordings allowed identification of a face-related EMRP component (N185 potential) that was not present whilst participants were viewing non-living objects. Source dipole analysis of the evoked component accounted for the ocular-retinal movement artefact and revealed three additional equivalent current dipoles. In the latency interval from 100 to 300 ms one dipole was located to left extrastriate, one to primary visual cortex and one to the right fusiform gyrus. Discussion Right fusiform gyrus source activity showed sensitivity towards emotional valence suggesting emotional encoding of faces in the fusiform gyrus at a latency interval between 100 and 300 ms. Conclusion We demonstrate the feasibility of recording EMRP’s in freely behaving individuals in a naturalistic setting. Significance These results open new possibilities to BCI as well as clinical, developmental, social or marketing research.

Image color adjustment for harmony with a target color

AbstractAlthough a number of methods have been developed for image adjustment in various applications, very little work has been done in the context of visual design. In this regard, this article introduces a novel and practical context of image color adjustment and develops a method to adjust an image for harmony with a target color. The experiment with designers revealed that designers made significant changes in hue dimension, and preferred to promote color similarity between the image and the target color. Based on insights from designers, we proposed a method to achieve a harmonious combination of an image and a color element by increasing the hue similarity between them. The result of a user test revealed that our method is particularly useful for images with nonliving objects but less effective for images involving human skin, foods, and so on. It is expected that the practical context investigated in this study can promote a variety of related studies that satisfy the tangible needs of industries and academia.

Anthropocentric by Default? Attribution of Familiar and Novel Properties to Living Things.

Humans naturally and effortlessly use a set of cognitive tools to reason about biological entities and phenomena. Two such tools, essentialist thinking and teleological thinking, appear to be early developmental cognitive defaults, used extensively in childhood and under limited circumstances in adulthood, but prone to reemerge under time pressure or cognitive load. We examine the nature of another such tool: anthropocentric thinking. In four experiments, we examined patterns of property attribution to a wide range of living and non-living objects, manipulating time pressure, response type, and property (either novel or familiar) in a total of 471 participants. Results showed no tendency toward increased similarity-based attribution patterns indicative of anthropocentric thinking under time pressure. However, anthropocentric thinking was consistently observed for unfamiliar properties. These findings suggest that anthropocentric thinking is not a developmentally persistent cognitive default, but rather a cognitive strategy deliberately employed insituations of uncertainty.

Latency of evoked potentials in the tasks involving classification of images after wavelet filtration

We studied the characteristics of evoked potentials recorded during the recognition test based on four types of series of images subjected to the wavelet filtration: images of living objects containing either low frequency or high frequency portion of the spatial frequency spectrum, and imaging of non-living objects in the same two spatial frequency bands. Each subject had to classify the image either by its semantic feature (live-not live), or by its physical feature (low-high frequency). The purpose of this study was to compare the time characteristics of evoked potentials in these two types of tasks, which provides information on the time characteristics of categorization mechanisms of visual images. Analysis of the latent periods and amplitudes of the components of evoked potentials enabled to detect the occipital areas of the leads where the early components (up to 170 ms) are associated with spatial and frequency characteristics of the image, the frontal and temporal areas where the components of 170-200 ms correspond with the process of categorization, and the later frontal, central and parietal areas (300-500 ms) correspond with the process of error detection and the organization of motor response.

Animacy, Frequency and Working Memory Effects in the Acquisition of a Noun-Adjective Agreement Pattern in L2 under Incidental Learning Conditions

<p>Animacy is recognized as an important feature in cognition and language processing. The present paper reports the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of animacy of the head noun (animate, denoting animals-epicenes, and inanimate, denoting non-living objects) and working memory on the learning of a noun-adjective agreement pattern in Russian. Participants were 60 novice learners whose L1 did not mark grammatical gender. The between-subjects design manipulated token frequency (high vs. low) under incidental learning conditions. No animacy effect was found in either learning condition. Working memory was a significant factor in both incidental learning conditions, and it explained a greater amount of variance in the high token frequency condition where accuracy was also significantly higher than in the low token condition. The results have implications for incidental learning research and language learning practices, specifically how different factors contribute to the acquisition of L2 grammatical knowledge.</p>

General Theory of Systems, Cybernetics and Evaluation of Human Competence by Solving Present Crisis Problems of Civilisation

Abstract Present crisis problems of civilisation create the opportunity and need to analyse the possibilities of use of knowledge from system theory of cybernetics and evaluation of human competence, which has been accumulated and published up to now. Use of this knowledge should help, among other non-elaborated scientific knowledge to stop the impact of the global crisis and to ensure sustainable development of human civilization. Uses of this knowledge allude to several facts. Primarily, use of knowledge of cybernetics is in practice frequently connected with natural and scientific problems and their solving. Use of knowledge of the general theory of systems, however not all, collides with notional problems. Nevertheless, this knowledge can be used in wider scope of activities. And in expertise, even if knowledge is oriented mainly on evaluation of “non-living objects” and intellectual property, the evaluations of working competence occur more and more.

Experimental pain impairs recognition memory irrespective of pain predictability.

Pain is hardwired to signal threat and tissue damage and therefore automatically attracts attention to initiate withdrawal or defensive behaviour. This well-known interruptive function of pain interferes with cognitive functioning and is modulated by bottom-up and top-down variables. Here, we applied predictable or unpredictable painful heat stimuli simultaneously to the presentation of neutral images to investigate (I) whether the predictability of pain modulated its effect on the encoding of images (episodic memory) and (II) whether subjects remember that certain images have been previously presented with pain (source memory). Twenty-four healthy subjects performed a categorization task in which 80 images had to be categorized into living or non-living objects. We compared the processing and encoding of these images during cued and non-cued pain trials as well as cued and non-cued pain-free trials. Effects on recognition performance and source memory for pain were immediately tested using a surprise recognition task. Painful thermal stimulation impaired recognition accuracy (d', recollection, familiarity). This negative effect of pain was positively correlated with the individual expectation of pain interference and the attentional avoidance of pain-related words. However, the interruptive effect of pain was not modulated by the predictability of pain. Source memory for painful stimulation was at chance level, indicating that subjects did not explicitly remember that images had been paired with pain. Targeting negative expectations and a maladaptive attentional bias for pain-related material might help reducing frequently reported pain-induced cognitive impairments.

Verbal Description of Concrete Objects: A Method for Assessing Semantic Circumlocution in Persons With Aphasia.

We investigated from a theoretically motivated perspective what information differentiated sufficient from insufficient descriptions of objects provided by persons with aphasia. Twenty-one adults with aphasia consequent to single left-hemisphere stroke verbally described 9 living and 9 nonliving objects. Responses were scored for accuracy (i.e., sufficiency) and tallied for type and quantity of semantic feature information provided. Main effects and interactions were identified using repeated measures analyses of variance, with significant findings followed up with planned comparisons. Differences between correct and incorrect descriptions were identified with respect to both feature type and feature distinctiveness for living and nonliving items, in particular highlighting the importance of distinctive features in descriptions of both domains. These findings add to the relatively small body of literature investigating semantic feature processing in adults with aphasia. This is a critical gap to close when considered in light of the preponderance of semantically based treatments for word-retrieval impairment in stroke-aphasia. Our findings provide preliminary support for the notion that semantically guided treatments for word-retrieval impairment in stroke-aphasia may be geared toward increasing specificity of semantic circumlocution to increase semantic self-cueing and to improve communication of information to conversation partners.

Modeling with Nonliving Objects to Enhance Understanding of Phylogenetic Tree Construction

Understanding how to read and interpret phylogenetic trees is an essential skill for biology students. We tested an alternative approach in which students draw trees showing the evolution of familiar nonliving objects, such as cell phones and vehicles, rather than unfamiliar species. We surveyed students in a two-semester biology sequence for majors to determine whether this approach increased engagement, and we found that they preferred the alternative approach. Another group of students performing the activity with nonliving objects showed that performance on a content assessment was not changed before and after the activity. A final group showed that students who had drawn trees of nonliving objects beforehand were able to draw phylogenetic trees of living species more accurately than classmates who did not draw them previously. Although drawing trees of nonliving objects rather than living species did not affect students’ content-learning outcomes, it did improve their ability to draw phylogenetic trees accurately, and they preferred it. These pieces of evidence suggest that drawing trees showing the evolution of nonliving objects is an engaging and beneficial addition to evolution lesson plans.

Examining How Management Research Learns from Research in the Physical Sciences

AbstractThis paper examined the views in which how management research can learn from the research in physical sciences. The discussions evolved on the understanding of scientific knowledge science in the area of sciences and relation to the study in management research. Management research might not be scientific as in physical sciences such as physics, chemistry or astronomy because the former are inter-related with human behavior and whereas the latter investigates physical objects (non-living objects). The following discussion explored the distinction between management and physical science researches. Synthesizing this discussion, it is depicted that the concept of science has been differently interpreted by various physical sciences are schools of thoughts. It is recommended here that one of the ways to progress management inquiry or research, is to challenge the traditional methodologies and to use scientific approach in observing, measuring, analyzing, and concluding management phenomena. Hence, this reflects from learning of the physical science research.

The Man Whose Fetish Object is Ejaculate: A Case Report

Fetishism is a form of paraphilia, a disorder that is characterized by recurrent, intense, sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies generally non-living objects or a highly specific focus on non-genital body parts. While any object may become a fetish, the distinguishing feature is its connection with sex or sexual gratification. Focus in fetishism is on sexual objects closely related to the human body (shoes, gloves, stockings, slippers, etc.). This case chooses the human ejaculate different from those objects used often. Moreover, he cannot help himself from spreading it, which is bought from young men, on his genital area. The case represents an uncommon object selection, which is non-living but comes from living human secretion. This paper aims that the fetish objects should be considered in a wide range.

Is this car looking at you? How anthropomorphism predicts fusiform face area activation when seeing cars.

Anthropomorphism encompasses the attribution of human characteristics to non-living objects. In particular the human tendency to see faces in cars has long been noticed, yet its neural correlates are unknown. We set out to investigate whether the fusiform face area (FFA) is associated with seeing human features in car fronts, or whether, the higher-level theory of mind network (ToM), namely temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) show a link to anthropomorphism. Twenty participants underwent fMRI scanning during a passive car-front viewing task. We extracted brain activity from FFA, TPJ and MPFC. After the fMRI session participants were asked to spontaneously list adjectives that characterize each car front. Five raters judged the degree to which each adjective can be applied as a characteristic of human beings. By means of linear mixed models we found that the implicit tendency to anthropomorphize individual car fronts predicts FFA, but not TPJ or MPFC activity. The results point to an important role of FFA in the phenomenon of ascribing human attributes to non-living objects. Interestingly, brain regions that have been associated with thinking about beliefs and mental states of others (TPJ, MPFC) do not seem to be related to anthropomorphism of car fronts.