Opaque Condition Research Articles

More Satisfaction, Less Equality: Distributive Effects of Transparent Needs in a Laboratory Experiment

Societies are confronted with the dilemma that need satisfaction requires transparent individual needs. We study the effect of information about others’ needs on the distribution of a joint endowment in a three-player network exchange game in a laboratory experiment. Need levels are exogenously given and either transparent (known to all three network members) or opaque (only known to the players themselves). The three players negotiate in dyads until two players agree on a distribution. We expect that the transparency of need thresholds raises need satisfaction but lowers equality. The results suggest that the members of the dyad who agree on the distribution can satisfy their own need thresholds even when information about thresholds is opaque. The effect of transparency on the remaining network member is antithetical: while transparency increases the rate of need satisfaction, it decreases the average share of allocations when needs are low. In the opaque condition, allocated shares are larger, but need satisfaction is lower. This reveals the ambivalent distributive effects of transparent need thresholds: Transparency helps those with the highest need thresholds, but it can hurt those with lower need thresholds, and it barely affects the ones with the most influence on the decision.

Spectral, visual, thermal, energy and circadian assessment of PDLC glazing in warm and humid climate

This paper detailed the experimental investigation of the Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) glazing over visual comfort, thermal performance, circadian entrainment, and energy consumption of an office room in a warm and humid climate. In addition, an elaborated study was carried out on the PDLC glazing's spectral, visual, thermal, and circadian characteristics. The thermal evaluation was carried out with a test cell of size 0.3*0.4 m. It was observed that the internal glass surface temperature was comparatively higher than the external glass temperature. It indicates the high solar gain of PDLC glazing. Under opaque and transparent states, the Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) and a Colour Rendering Index (CRI, Ra) were almost identical. For an ultraviolet (UV) lamp source, PDLC film reflects most of the radiation under an opaque condition. Circadian Stimulus is 10–20 % more under clear states than the opaque state. A real-time experiment was performed in a test room at Manipal, where the PDLC sheet was pasted on the west-oriented window. Colour rendering and circadian effectiveness were satisfactory. CS was always above 0.3, the minimum requirement for circadian entrainment. Due to the milky appearance of the opaque state, a low solar elevation angle induces more reflection on the workspace, and hence more daylight comes into the interior. Under these conditions, uniformity is less. It is observed that PDLC is most suitable in the south and the north orientation windows for the southern tropical climate. The energy consumption was observed as 0.5 kWh /day.

Carotid Sinus Syndrome And Hypersensitivity – A Frequent Cause of Syncope

The autonomic nervous system, the body's control system, maintains bodily functions, heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, and many others. The carotid sinus syndrome is an exaggerated response to stimulation of carotid sinus baro-receptor and it is described as an autonomic nervous system disease. The history of the condition in the context of its contemporary understanding is reviewed in this article and recommendations are made in how we view pacing in the context of this intriguingly opaque condition.

Bronz Heykelde Kullanılan Yapay Patinanın Seramik Bünye Üzerinde Yeni Uygulama ve Sonuçları

The patina techniques applied to the surface in the sculpture are the applications which apparently support the perception of the form integrity and that put the plastic affect to further forefront. In ceramics, except ordinary glazing process, surface applications such as undercoating, sooting, reduction, sgrafitto and underglaze decoration are the techniques that carry the work to the final. In this sense, ceramics and sculpture arts might relate to each other in terms of surface intervention. In this study, how the patina techniques are applied on metal surface, what impact it has on the appearance of ceramic material and whether it creates the same effect as it has on bronze surface. During the experiments, a copper nitrate recipe which gives the closest oxidation result (blue-green / green) of bronze material that is natural and common is used. The application of patina solution has resulted the same effect on the ceramic body in transparent or opaque condition. The indications obtained at the end of the experiments are discussed in terms of the importance of the work.

Should We Ever Pace for Carotid Sinus Syndrome?

Carotid sinus syndrome has been associated with transient loss of consciousness for millennia, and while steeped in cardiovascular lore, there is little in the way of solid evidence to guide its main treatment modality, permanent cardiac pacing. This article reviews the history of the condition in the context of its contemporary understanding before examining three key concepts in the consideration of what constitutes a manageable disease: first, is there a pathophysiologic rationale for the disease (in this case carotid sinus syndrome)? Second, is there a good diagnostic test that will identify it reliably? And finally, is there a convincingly evidence-based treatment for the disease? Relevant literature is reviewed, and recommendations made in how we view pacing in the context of this intriguingly opaque condition.

THE PROCESSING OF ENGLISH PREFIXED WORDS BY CHINESE-ENGLISH BILINGUALS

AbstractThe present study examined whether Chinese-English bilinguals showed morphological sensitivity toward prefixed words. In the experiment, English monolinguals showed masked priming effects in a Transparent condition (disagree-AGREE) and an Opaque condition (mischief-CHIEF), but not in a Form condition (stranger-ANGER). In contrast, bilinguals showed equivalent priming effects across the three conditions. Indeed, the difference between the magnitude of priming in the Form condition relative to that in the other two conditions was statistically smaller for the bilinguals than for the monolinguals. These findings suggest Chinese-English bilinguals are less sensitive to the morphological status of prefixes, compared with monolinguals.

The message in the box: how exposure to money affects charitable giving

Does donation box transparency matter in regard to donation behavior? The purpose of this research is to test the effect of donation box transparency on potential donors’ charitable behavior. In a series of experimental studies, including a field experiment, data were collected on willingness to donate and donation amount in three treatments: a wooden donation box (opaque condition), transparent donation box containing very little money, and transparent box almost full of money. Participants in the transparent box treatment were both less willing to donate money and they donated less money compared to subjects in the opaque box treatment. Moreover, data was collected to demonstrate that participants in the transparent box conditions experienced a heightened state of self-sufficiency due to the effect of money exposure. Implications are discussed for theory development and future research avenues and in terms of practical considerations for charity organizations.

Children benefit from morphological relatedness independently of orthographic relatedness when they learn to spell new words

We examined whether French children in Grades 3 and 5 (aged ∼ 8–11 years) benefit from morphological relatedness beyond orthographic relatedness in the implicit learning of new spellings. Children silently read stories that included two target nonwords. One nonword was in an opaque condition in that nothing in the story could justify the spelling of its final sound. The other nonword was in either a morphological condition (for children in the morphological group) or an orthographic condition (for children in the orthographic group). In the morphological condition, the final spelling of the target nonword was justified by two morphologically related nonwords. For example, coirardage, obtained by adding the suffixage to coirard, designates the coirard’s song and justifies the final silentdofcoirard. The orthographic condition included two nonwords that were orthographically but not morphologically related to the target. For example, the coirard’s song wascoirardume, obtained by addingume,which is not a suffix, tocoirard. Then, 30 min after reading the stories, children were asked to choose the correct spelling of each nonword from among three phonologically plausible alternatives (e.g.,coirard, coirars, coirar). In the morphological group, both third and fifth graders more often selected the correct spellings for items presented in the morphological condition than for items presented in the opaque condition. In the orthographic group, the results were very similar in the opaque and orthographic conditions.The findings show that the benefit of morphological relatedness in the implicit learning of new spellings cannot be reduced to orthographic relatedness.

NONENZYMATIC BROWNING KINETIC REACTION AND ASCORBIC ACID DEGREDATION OF HEAT-TREATED ORANGE JUICE DURING STORAGE

The kinetics of ascorbic acid (AA) degradation and nonenzymatic browning (NEB) of heat-treated single strength orange juice (OJ) over a temperature between 70-95 oC for 2-10 min. and stored under opaque condition at 4 and 20 oC for 2 months have been studied. Analysis of kinetic data by measuring absorbance at 420 nm (A420) suggested a zero-order reaction for NEB, while AA degradation followed a first-order reaction. The temperature dependence of NEB and AA degradation were adequately modeled by the Arrhenius equation. Activation energy of NEB and AA degradation as affected by heat-treatment and storage condition followed the same trend. The obtained results indicate that AA degradation can be evaluated by the intensity of brown colour development of OJ.

Parallel morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic activation in processing second language morphologically complex words: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals

Objectives/research questions:The present study focused on the performance of Chinese learners of English to investigate the activation of morpho-semantic information in the early processing of second language (L2) morphologically complex words when participants’ first language (L1) and L2 are typologically different.Methodology:We used forward masked priming paradigm to compare the priming effect in three prime conditions, semantically transparent, semantically opaque and semantically related. In Experiment 1, the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 40 milliseconds (ms), while, In Experiment 2, the SOA was extended to 80 ms.Data and analysis:Reaction time and comprehension accuracy data were analysed using the linear mixed-effects model.Findings/conclusions:In Experiment 1, we only found a priming effect in the semantically transparent condition. In Experiment 2, we found a reliable priming effect in the semantically opaque condition, but not in the semantically related condition. These results suggest e...

Compound Verb Processing in Second Language Speakers of Persian

This study investigates compound verb processing in second language speakers (L2) of Persian. Forty-six near-native L2 speakers of Persian were tested to examine the processing of transparent (non-idiomatic) and opaque (idiomatic) compound verbs, under masked priming paradigm. The results revealed a significant nominal priming effect in the opaque condition, and a numerically stronger nominal priming effect in the transparent condition. There was also an increase in the processing load on the parser when the target was an opaque compound. The results of this study seem to be compatible with the dual access or dual route hypothesis, yet with the version that assumes the two routes are activated in parallel rather than the version that assumes high frequency words are represented lexically but low frequency words are decomposed.

Children benefit from morphological relatedness when they learn to spell new words

Use of morphologically related words often helps in selecting among spellings of sounds in French. For instance, final /wa/ may be spelled oi (e.g., envoi “sendoff”), oit (e.g., exploit “exploit”), ois (e.g., siamois, “siamese”), or oie (e.g., joie “joy”). The morphologically complex word exploiter “to exploit”, with a pronounced t, can be used to indicate that the stem exploit is spelled with a silent t. We asked whether 8-year-old children benefited from such cues to learn new spellings. Children read silently stories which included two target nonwords, one presented in an opaque condition and the other in a morphological condition. In the opaque condition, the sentence provided semantic information (e.g., a vensois is a musical instrument) but no morphological information that could justify the spelling of the target word's final sound. Such justification was available in the morphological condition (e.g., the vensoisist plays the vensois instrument, which justifies that vensois includes a final silent s). 30 min after having read the stories, children's orthographic learning was assessed by asking them to choose the correct spelling of each nonword from among three phonologically plausible alternatives (e.g., vensois, vensoit, vensoie). Children chose correct spellings more often in the morphological condition than the opaque condition, even though the root (vensois) had been presented equally often in both conditions. That is, children benefited from information about the spelling of the morphologically complex word to learn the spelling of the stem.

Do 18-Month-Olds Really Attribute Mental States to Others?

In the research reported here, we investigated whether 18-month-olds would use their own past experience of visual access to attribute perception and consequent beliefs to other people. Infants in this study wore either opaque blindfolds (opaque condition) or trick blindfolds that looked opaque but were actually transparent (trick condition). Then both groups of infants observed an actor wearing one of the same blindfolds that they themselves had experienced, while a puppet removed an object from its location. Anticipatory eye movements revealed that infants who had experienced opaque blindfolds expected the actor to behave in accordance with a false belief about the object’s location, but that infants who had experienced trick blindfolds did not exhibit that expectation. Our results suggest that 18-month-olds used self-experience with the blindfolds to assess the actor’s visual access and to update her belief state accordingly. These data constitute compelling evidence that 18-month-olds infer perceptual access and appreciate its causal role in altering the epistemic states of other people.

Fast morphological effects in first and second language word recognition

In three experiments we compared the performance of native English speakers to that of Spanish–English and Dutch–English bilinguals on a masked morphological priming lexical decision task. The results do not show significant differences across the three experiments. In line with recent meta-analyses, we observed a graded pattern of facilitation across stem priming with transparent suffixed primes (e.g., viewer– view), opaque suffixed or pseudo-suffixed primes (e.g., corner– corn) and form control primes (e.g., freeze– free). Priming was largest in the transparent condition, smallest in the form condition and intermediate in the opaque condition. Our data confirm the hypothesis that bilinguals largely adopt the same processing strategies as native speakers (e.g., Lemhöfer et al., 2008), and constrain the hypothesis that bilinguals rely more heavily on whole-word processing in their second language ( Clahsen, Felser, Neubauer, Sato, & Silva, 2010; Ullman, 2004, 2005). The observed pattern of morphological priming is in line with earlier monolingual studies, further highlighting the reality of semantic transparency effects in the initial stages of word recognition.

What do fully visible primes and brain potentials reveal about morphological decomposition?

To examine the role of meaning in morphological decomposition ({re-}+{play}), researchers have employed the priming paradigm. Perceptually masked primes lead to facilitation both when decomposition is semantically appropriate (hunter-HUNT) and when it is not (corner-CORN), whereas with fully visible primes facilitation is observed only in the former case. We investigated the N400 brain potential time-locked to words preceded by fully visible primes. At ∼300-380 ms, N400 was equally attenuated in the semantically "transparent" condition (hunter-HUNT) and semantically "opaque" condition (corner-CORN). In the transparent condition, N400 remained attenuated after 380 ms, whereas in the opaque condition it returned to the level of a nonmorphological form condition (brothel-BROTH). This pattern of N400 priming is consistent with an orthography-based, morphological decomposition mechanism, "licensed" at a later stage by semantic information.

Emulation and “overemulation” in the social learning of causally opaque versus causally transparent tool use by 23- and 30-month-olds

We explored whether a rising trend to blindly “overcopy” a model’s causally irrelevant actions between 3 and 5 years of age, found in previous studies, predicts a more circumspect disposition in much younger children. Children between 23 and 30 months of age observed a model use a tool to retrieve a reward from either a transparent or opaque puzzle box. Some of the tool actions were irrelevant to reward retrieval, whereas others were causally necessary. The causal relevance of the tool actions was highly visible in the transparent box condition, allowing the participants to potentially discriminate which actions were necessary. In contrast, the causal efficacy of the tool was hidden in the opaque box condition. When both the 23- and 30-month-olds were presented with either the transparent or opaque box, they were most commonly emulative rather than imitative, performing only the causally necessary actions. This strategy contrasts with the blanket imitation of both causally irrelevant and causally relevant actions witnessed at 3 and 5 years of age in our previous studies. The results challenge a current view of 1- and 2-year-olds as largely “blind imitators”; instead, they show that these young children have a variety of social learning processes available to them. More broadly the emerging patterns of results suggest, rather counterintuitively, that the human species becomes more imitative rather than less imitative with age, in some ways “mindlessly” so.

Conduction and radiation in a rectangular isotropic scattering medium with black surfaces by the RTNAM

The ray tracing-node analyzing method (RTNAM) has been successfully developed to solve 1-D coupled heat transfer in isotropic and anisotropic scattering media in the past, and in this paper it is further extended to solving the 2-D coupled heat transfer in a rectangular isotropic scattering medium. Using the control-volume method, the partial transient energy equation is discretized in implicit scheme. The effect of radiation on heat transfer is considered as a radiative source term (RST) in the discretized energy equation, and in combination with spectral band model, the RST is calculated using the radiative transfer coefficients (RTCs), which are deduced by the ray tracing method. The Patankar’s linearization method is used to linearize the RST and the opaque boundary condition, and the linearized equations are solved by the ADI method. Before solving the RTCs for isotropic scattering media, the RTCs without considering scattering must be solved at first. And then, the RTCs without considering scattering are normalized according to their integrality relationships. In addition, the correctness of the results obtained by the RTNAM is validated, and effects of scattering albedo and refractive index on transient temperature distribution are investigated.

Transient coupled heat transfer in a rectangular medium with black surfaces

The main objective of this paper is to extend to two-dimensional (2-D) medium the ray tracing-node analyzing method, which has already been successfully used to solve one-dimensional (1-D) problem of coupled heat transfer in a semitransparent medium. For simplicity, an infinitely long rectangular semitransparent medium with four black opaque surfaces is chosen as our studying object. A control volume method in the implicit scheme is adopted for discretizing the partial transient energy equation. In combination with spectral band model, the radiative heat source term is calculated using the radiative transfer coefficients (RTCs), which are deduced by the ray tracing method. The Partankar's linearization method is used to linearize the radiative source term and the opaque boundary condition, and the linearized equations are solved by the ADI method. Effects of absorption coefficient, refractive index and conductivity on transient cooling process in the 2-D gray rectangular medium are investigated under the condition that the radiation and convection processes cool one side of the rectangular medium while heat the remaining three sides.

Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens)

This study explored whether the tendency of chimpanzees and children to use emulation or imitation to solve a tool-using task was a response to the availability of causal information. Young wild-born chimpanzees from an African sanctuary and 3- to 4-year-old children observed a human demonstrator use a tool to retrieve a reward from a puzzle-box. The demonstration involved both causally relevant and irrelevant actions, and the box was presented in each of two conditions: opaque and clear. In the opaque condition, causal information about the effect of the tool inside the box was not available, and hence it was impossible to differentiate between the relevant and irrelevant parts of the demonstration. However, in the clear condition causal information was available, and subjects could potentially determine which actions were necessary. When chimpanzees were presented with the opaque box, they reproduced both the relevant and irrelevant actions, thus imitating the overall structure of the task. When the box was presented in the clear condition they instead ignored the irrelevant actions in favour of a more efficient, emulative technique. These results suggest that emulation is the favoured strategy of chimpanzees when sufficient causal information is available. However, if such information is not available, chimpanzees are prone to employ a more comprehensive copy of an observed action. In contrast to the chimpanzees, children employed imitation to solve the task in both conditions, at the expense of efficiency. We suggest that the difference in performance of chimpanzees and children may be due to a greater susceptibility of children to cultural conventions, perhaps combined with a differential focus on the results, actions and goals of the demonstrator.

The efficiency of depth discrimination for non-transparent and transparent stereoscopic surfaces

The perception of transparency in binocular vision presents a challenge for any model of stereopsis. We investigate here how well human observers cope with stereo transparency by comparing their efficiency between transparent and opaque depth judgments. In two experiments, the efficiency measure was computed relative to an ideal observer to take into account the larger correspondence ambiguity in the transparent condition. We found that thresholds for human and ideal observers were consistently higher in the transparent condition than in the opaque condition, across a range of dot densities (Experiment 1) and disparity ratios (Experiment 2). Efficiencies (the ratio of human to ideal performance) were approximately equivalent for the opaque and transparent conditions across all stimulus conditions. Therefore, the cost for stereoscopic transparency can be accounted for by the greater correspondence problem in that condition. Indeed, the fact that efficiencies were very low, around 1%, and decreased with increasing dot density demonstrates that human observers use far less information than is available to perform the task. This account contrasts with previous interpretations for the cost in stereoscopic transparency in terms of inhibitory interactions specific to transparent configurations. We relate our findings to a previous and comparable study of motion efficiency, and discuss our findings in terms of a physiologically plausible model.