Perceptual Qualities Research Articles

Evaluation of multiple perceptual qualities of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for evoked tactile sensation in forearm amputees

Objective. Evoked tactile sensation (ETS) elicited by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is promising to convey digit-specific sensory information to amputees naturally and non-invasively. Fitting ETS-based sensory feedback to amputees entails customizing coding of multiple sensory information for each stimulation site. This study was to elucidate the consistency of percepts and qualities by TENS at multiple stimulation sites in amputees retaining ETS. Approach. Five transradial amputees with ETS and fourteen able-bodied subjects participated in this study. Surface electrodes with small size (10 mm in diameter) were adopted to fit the restricted projected finger map on the forearm stump of amputees. Effects of stimulus frequency on sensory types were assessed, and the map of perceptual threshold for each sensation was characterized. Sensitivity for vibration and buzz sensations was measured using distinguishable difference in stimulus pulse width. Rapid assessments for modulation ranges of pulse width at fixed amplitude and frequency were developed for coding sensory information. Buzz sensation was demonstrated for location discrimination relating to prosthetic fingers. Main results. Vibration and buzz sensations were consistently evoked at 20 Hz and 50 Hz as dominant sensation types in all amputees and able-bodied subjects. Perceptual thresholds of different sensations followed a similar strength-duration curve relating stimulus amplitude to pulse width. The averaged distinguishable difference in pulse width was 12.84 ± 7.23 μs for vibration and 15.21 ± 6.47 μs for buzz in able-bodied subjects, and 14.91 ± 10.54 μs for vibration and 11.30 ± 3.42 μs for buzz in amputees. Buzz coding strategy enabled five amputees to discriminate contact of individual fingers with an overall accuracy of 77.85%. Significance. The consistency in perceptual qualities of dominant sensations can be exploited for coding multi-modality sensory feedback. A fast protocol of sensory coding is possible for fitting ETS-based, non-invasive sensory feedback to amputees.

Teenage beginners’ perceptions of learning Chinese characters: A case study

This study investigates teenage beginners’ perceptions of learning Chinese characters and their perceived effective strategies for learning in a British secondary school. A qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews is adopted in the case study. Sixteen beginners learning Chinese as a second language from 12 to 16 years old participated in the study. Results indicate that students are generally keen to learn and memorize characters. The challenge that students face is the large number of characters to be memorized in terms of pronunciation, orthographic forms, and meanings. Learners also express their dilemma of following the correct stroke order when practicing writing. Moreover, reviewing flashcards, writing practice, making use of radicals and orthographic clues, as well as interactive activities, are reported as effective ways of learning by students. It indicates that both memory and cognitive strategies were useful for character learning from learners’ perspectives. The key factor affecting students’ commitment to learning comes from their pleasant learning and instructional experience. Implications are drawn from the results regarding learning and teaching Chinese characters with young learners in secondary schools.

A Collaborative Caching-Transmission Method for Heterogeneous Video Services in Cache-Enabled Terahertz Heterogeneous Networks

To mitigate the impact of the dramatic growth of wireless video traffic and provide users with heterogeneous video services, a collaborative caching-transmission method in cache-enabled terahertz (THz) heterogeneous networks is studied in this paper. We propose a novel scalable video coding (SVC)-based two-tier cooperative caching strategy that can provide video services with different perceptual qualities. In addition, we propose a hierarchical hybrid transmission scheme where users obtain the requested layer files through the cooperative cellular multicast-D2D and THz transmissions. A base layer-based multicast group aggregation process is presented to improve resource utilization, while an efficient multicast transmission resource scheduling scheme can make better use of the spatial reusability. We derive the expressions for the average offloading capacity gain and average energy consumption, and formulate an efficiency function optimization problem. The problem is efficiently solved by the greedy strategy-gradient descent based caching solution and long tail distribution based heuristic caching solution. Simulation results validate the two solutions and demonstrate that the proposed caching-transmission method can achieve quasi-optimal performance compared with other contrasting schemes.

The death and life of Australian suburbs: Relationships between social activity and the physical qualities of Australian suburban neighbourhood centres

This paper reports on research into social activity in commercial/retail centres in Australian low-density suburbs. While low-density suburbs have been criticised for declining vitality and sociability, some commercial/retail precincts still thrive there. This study sought to determine the relationship between the physical qualities of the built environment and social activity in such thriving suburban neighbourhood centres. Three areas in Geelong, Victoria, were studied as representative of three common forms of Australian suburban commercial/retail centre. First, behavioural observations identified which of the three centres was the most vital and sociable. Next, semi-structured interviews with users of that centre who resided in its containing suburb explored perceptions of the environment to identify the physical features that contributed to its social affordances. The findings suggest that diversity of uses is key to the vibrancy of commercial centres. Walkability, perceptions of safety and physical qualities such as landscaping, good pedestrian pathways and pavement dining were also found to contribute to vitality. Importantly, it appears that in neighbourhoods with high transient populations, residents do not associate these types of socially active environments with sense of community. • This study focuses on identifying the physical features that contributes to the social affordances of commercial streets. • The findings suggest that diversity of uses is key to commercial streets' vibrancy. • Walkability, perceptions of safety and physical qualities were also found to contribute to vitality of commercial streets.

Associations between Street-View Perceptions and Housing Prices: Subjective vs. Objective Measures Using Computer Vision and Machine Learning Techniques

This study investigated the extent to which subjectively and objectively measured street-level perceptions complement or conflict with each other in explaining property value. Street-scene perceptions can be subjectively assessed from self-reported survey questions, or objectively quantified from land use data or pixel ratios of physical features extracted from street-view imagery. Prior studies mainly relied on objective indicators to describe perceptions and found that a better street environment is associated with a price premium. While very few studies have addressed the impact of subjectively-assessed perceptions. We hypothesized that human perceptions have a subtle relationship to physical features that cannot be comprehensively captured with objective indicators. Subjective measures could be more effective to describe human perceptions, thus might explain more housing price variations. To test the hypothesis, we both subjectively and objectively measured six pairwise eye-level perceptions (i.e., Greenness, Walkability, Safety, Imageability, Enclosure, and Complexity). We then investigated their coherence and divergence for each perception respectively. Moreover, we revealed their similar or opposite effects in explaining house prices in Shanghai using the hedonic price model (HPM). Our intention was not to make causal statements. Instead, we set to address the coherent and conflicting effects of the two measures in explaining people’s behaviors and preferences. Our method is high-throughput by extending classical urban design measurement protocols with current artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks for urban-scene understanding. First, we found the percentage increases in housing prices attributable to street-view perceptions were significant for both subjective and objective measures. While subjective scores explained more variance over objective scores. Second, the two measures exhibited opposite signs in explaining house prices for Greenness and Imageability perceptions. Our results indicated that objective measures which simply extract or recombine individual streetscape pixels cannot fully capture human perceptions. For perceptual qualities that were not familiar to the average person (e.g., Imageability), a subjective framework exhibits better performance. Conversely, for perceptions whose connotation are self-evident (e.g., Greenness), objective measures could outperform the subjective counterparts. This study demonstrates a more holistic understanding for street-scene perceptions and their relations to property values. It also sheds light on future studies where the coherence and divergence of the two measures could be further stressed.

Crystal or jelly? Effect of color on the perception of translucent materials with photographs of real-world objects.

Translucent materials are ubiquitous in nature (e.g. teeth, food, and wax), but our understanding of translucency perception is limited. Previous work in translucency perception has mainly used monochromatic rendered images as stimuli, which are restricted by their diversity and realism. Here, we measure translucency perception with photographs of real-world objects. Specifically, we use three behavior tasks: binary classification of “translucent” versus “opaque,” semantic attribute rating of perceptual qualities (see-throughness, glossiness, softness, glow, and density), and material categorization. Two different groups of observers finish the three tasks with color or grayscale images. We find that observers’ agreements depend on the physical material properties of the objects such that translucent materials generate more interobserver disagreements. Further, there are more disagreements among observers in the grayscale condition in comparison to that in the color condition. We also discover that converting images to grayscale substantially affects the distributions of attribute ratings for some images. Furthermore, ratings of see-throughness, glossiness, and glow could predict individual observers’ binary classification of images in both grayscale and color conditions. Last, converting images to grayscale alters the perceived material categories for some images such that observers tend to misjudge images of food as non-food and vice versa. Our result demonstrates that color is informative about material property estimation and recognition. Meanwhile, our analysis shows that mid-level semantic estimation of material attributes might be closely related to high-level material recognition. We also discuss individual differences in our results and highlight the importance of such consideration in material perception.

"They're Not True Humans:" Beliefs about Moral Character Drive Denials of Humanity.

A puzzling feature of paradigmatic cases of dehumanization is that the perpetrators often attribute uniquely human traits to their victims. This has become known as the "paradox of dehumanization." I address the paradox by arguing that the perpetrators think about their victims as human in one sense, while denying that they are human in another sense. I do so by providing evidence that people harbor a dual character concept of humanity. Research has found that dual character concepts have two independent sets of criteria for their application, one of which is descriptive and one of which is normative. Four experiments provided evidence that people deploy a descriptive criterion according to which being human is a matter of being a Homo sapiens; as well as a normative criterion according to which being human is a matter of possessing a deep-seated commitment to do the morally right thing. Importantly, I found that people are willing to affirm that someone is human in the descriptive sense, while denying that they are human in the normative sense, and vice versa. In addition to providing a solution to the paradox of dehumanization, these findings suggest that perceptions of moral character have a central role to play in driving dehumanization.

Free Beauty and Functional Perspective in Medieval Aesthetics

The concept of functional beauty is characterized by including an aesthetic appreciation of objects that evaluates their efficiency in terms of satisfaction of attributions. As opposed to the concept of free beauty, which includes an appreciation of perceptual qualities for their own sake, the knowledge of functions is a necessary condition for the aesthetic experience itself. The aim of this paper is to reintegrate the medieval tension between these two conceptions, which has been surprisingly neglected in contemporary aesthetic reflection. We start from the hypothesis that the modern opposition between functional beauty and free beauty is rooted in the medieval controversies concerning the role assigned to sensitive beauty. If this is true, it would open a path of interlocution for contemporary aesthetic and theological thought that, based on Patristics, runs through the whole of the Middle Ages. We focus on three tensions which constitute three turning points: (1) the categorical distinction between beauty and appropriateness through St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636), who raise the question in the tradition of Latin Patristics; (2) the opposition between aesthetic judgment based on function satisfaction or one based on the free and mere appearance of the object, as can be seen in the foundational thought of St. Basil the Great (330–379), whose influence is not only extraordinary in Greek Patristics, but also in the Latin world; finally, the controversy about practical value of aesthetic attitude, through texts by Hugh of St. Victor (1096–1141), St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Suger of St. Denis (1081–1151). The conclusions reveal the irreducible aesthetic value of functional beauty in medieval period and the extraordinary difficulties in accommodating a free and autonomous notion of beauty, as well as the practical benefits of its everyday treatment. In fact, the consideration of a free beauty as a good in itself persists in medieval thought, which is important not only for History of Philosophy, but also for the contemporary concern shared by Philosophy of Religion and Aesthetics about the role of sensitive beauty in the life of human being.

Research on Microvideo Character Perception and Recognition Based on Target Detection Technology

With the rapid development of the Internet short-video platform, microvideo is increasingly attracting users because of its small traffic and time period. However, the content of microvideo on the Internet is complex, with illegal information. This research is an improved algorithm based on target detection technology, aiming at the characteristics of difficult character recognition in microvideo. The algorithm combines Gabor wavelet transform algorithm and 2D principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm and makes full use of video perception technology to realize character recognition in microvideo. Through MATLAB simulation analysis, it can be seen that the accuracy of the optimization algorithm proposed in this paper is 86.34% and the recognition time is 34.28s. Compared with the traditional PCA algorithm and artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm, the optimization algorithm proposed in this paper has better recognition rate and recognition efficiency.

Explorations of Young People’s Sense of Place Using Urban Design Qualities in Surabaya, Indonesia

This study aims to assess a sense of place in the context of an Indonesian city through real-time walking experience. With rapid urban development, the cityscape may change, leading to a lack of a sense of place. Here, the sense of place was measured by utilizing individual reactions to different urban design qualities and perceptual qualities during walking. Previous methods on visitors’ evaluation of places, walking experience and photographing, were adapted by adding two more stages: in-depth interviews and a workshop, obtaining participants’ opinions and behaviours. The analysis results showed that the participants experienced the sense of place through physical and non-physical features corresponding to walking speed. While the old buildings and ornament details attracted participants’ attention, this study demonstrated that the two-way interaction with residents also strengthened the sense of place. The major finding was that the participants were concerned about improving pedestrian infrastructure and the conservation of old buildings in the area. With the assistance of in-depth interviews and a workshop, participants’ perspectives were visually reflected in a comprehensive way. This study may be helpful for urban planners to manage the sense of place in historic city centres under the pressure of rapid urban development.

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN THREE CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY BARBARA KIMENYE

The study sought to critically analyze the representation of gender in three selected children books by Barbara Kimenye; Moses in a Mess, Moses on the move and Moses and the Raffle. Children’s books act as socialization agents. They transmit social customs, and replicate the morals of a community. However, the representation of gender in numerous books of childrenis imbalanced. This is most likely to negatively affect children’s character and perception of character that is acceptable for their gender in the community. Objective of this study examined how female and male characters have been represented in children’s books. The study analyzed children’s books for ages 10 and 16. The study sought to create awareness to parents and teachers on the importance of identifying books that are not gender biased and that are not gender imbalanced. This research study is thus a useful material for reference to other researchers and readers. The study was guided by Sandra Bem’s Gender Schema theory: The concept of Gender-Typed Knowledge. The study was conducted through descriptive research design. The three children’s books were selected from the target population using purposive sampling technique. The researcher used contextual analysis as a method of qualitative analysis in order to analyze the selected sample. The study provided enough and viable information on improving the quality of children’s books which have a positive impact in children’s holistic development.

Qualities of mentalization and perception of parental mirroring in a group of Italian transgender people: An empirical study.

Qualities of mentalization and perception of parental mirroring in a group of Italian transgender people: An empirical study.

Нетленный Иоганн Себастьян: Dramatik

That figurative sphere which may be defined by the conception of Dramatik is presented in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in a very broad range, spanning from elegiac moods to a condensed dramaticism and even certain tragic qualities of world perception. His elegiac qualities have been interpreted in the range from emphatic sadness to emphasized melancholy. Dramatic figurativeness asserts itself with the greatest amount of distinctness in Bach’s music when the motives of depiction of the struggle of lie are depicted. In contrast to the struggles of a proud titanic nature, Bach turned upon numerous times to depicting the perturbed human spirit, which was naturally connected with heightened expression and complex psychologism. The composer elaborated most frequently the idea of the path of life, which was his first artistic discovery. Comprehending perfectly well the entire drama of human existence, Bach brought out in his music a humanistic conception of stirring confrontation with darkness and grief, and also that which according to its semantic essence may be defined by such conceptions as the special tenderness of the soul and deep commiseration to the sufferings of man.

УКРАЇНСЬКА ІСТОРІЯ У ТВОРАХ ЗЕНОНА ФІША (НА МАТЕРІАЛІ ПОВІСТІ «НЕСТОР ПИСАНКА»)

The article observes the creative work of Polish writer Z. Fisz, which is nowadays somewhat forgotten. However, it must take a decent place in the history of the Polish and Ukrainian literature. Fisz’s activity is multifaceted: writer, playwright, historian, memoirist, ethnographer, publicist – these are far from all facets of his talent. Z. Fisz is the representative of the “Ukrainian school” in the Polish writing. Hence, the Ukrainian theme dominates in his creative heritage. He was interested in the Ukrainian history connected with Cherkasy region (for example, described in the novel “Nestor Pysanka”). The story vividly describes the culture, traditions in Ukraine. In the novel “Nestor Pysanka” the haidamakas uprising is shown on the ex- ample of the fate of the character whose name gave the title to the work. The dramatic events of Koliivshchyna are presented retrospectively, through the prism of the perception of the main character, who tells the author-narrator the secret of his life. Z. Fisz’s approach in evaluating the haidamakas uprising and its apogee is characterized as pro-noble, the author’s ambiguous attitude towards the participants of the haidamaks uprising is noted. One gets the impression that the writer sympathizes with the Haidamak leader for his desperation, sociability, courage, justice, insight, indifference to accumulation, and organizational skills. Perhaps the author is aware of the ambiguity of his own vision of the haidamaks uprising and therefore tries to leave the evaluation of those bloody events to posterity and, thus, to remove responsibility from himself. Z. Fisz is not only well-versed in Ukrainian history, but also in love with Ukrainian nature, as evidenced by numerous picturesque descriptions of localities, Ukrainian customs, rites, traditions, folklore, and language. Numerous proverbs and sayings are embedded in the artistic canvas of the story as elements of intertext. All these factors create a powerful Ukrainian element, which unfolds not only in this story, but also in other works of the writer.

Perceptions of Chinese women and men character: A cross-group study

Perceptions of Chinese women and men character: A cross-group study

Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Low-Dose Computed Tomography Denoising

Deep neural networks have shown great improvements in low-dose computed tomography (CT) denoising. Early deep learning-based low-dose CT denoising algorithms were primarily based on supervised learning. However, supervised learning requires a large number of training samples, which is impractical in real-world scenarios. To address this problem, we propose a novel unsupervised domain adaptation approach for low-dose CT denoising. This proposed framework adapts the network pretrained with paired low- and normal-dose phantom images (source domain) to denoise unlabeled low-dose human CT images (target domain). Our framework modifies the action of the domain classifier, enabling the denoising network to be adapted to the target domain. Furthermore, we introduce a new backpropagation method, which we call domain-independent weighted backpropagation. By combining these techniques, we demonstrate that the denoising network can be properly trained without using clinical clean CT images. The experimental results showed that our method exhibited better performance in terms of both objective and perceptual image qualities when compared with current unsupervised denoising algorithms. Our proposed domain adaptation represents a first-use case in the context of CT denoising problems, with the possibility of extension to other image restoration tasks.

Perceptual odor qualities predict successful odor identification in old age.

Odor identification is a common assessment of olfaction, and it is affected in a large number of diseases. Identification abilities decline with age, but little is known about whether there are perceptual odor features that can be used to predict identification. Here, we analyzed data from a large, population-based sample of 2,479 adults, aged 60 years or above, from the Swedish National study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen. Participants performed both free and cued odor identification tests. In a separate experiment, we assessed perceived pleasantness, familiarity, intensity, and edibility of all odors in the first sample, and examined how odor identification performance is associated with these variables. The analysis showed that high-intensity odors are easier to identify than low-intensity odors overall, but also that they are more susceptible to the negative repercussions of old age. This result indicates that sensory decline is a major aspect of age-dependent odor identification impairment, and suggests a framework where identification likelihood is proportional to the perceived intensity of the odor. Additional analyses further showed that high-performing individuals can discriminate target odors from distractors along the pleasantness and edibility dimensions and that unpleasant and inedible odors show smaller age-related differences in identification. Altogether, these results may guide further development and optimization of brief and efficient odor identification tests as well as influence the design of odorous products targeted toward older consumers.

지역사회 건강증진을 위한 시민들의 지역사회 공동체의식과 지역사회 전반적 특성에 관한 인식 및 지역사회 문제 인지정도와의 관련성

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between citizens’ perception of community qualities, awareness of community issues, and their sense of community in a Korean city having both rural and urban communities. Methods: We analyzed the 2020 survey data, “Citizen Opinions for Healthy City Nonsan”. The survey was based on responses to a self-reported questionnaire, collected through quota sampling from 1,118 community participants aged over 19 in 15 administrative communities of Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do in Korea. We measured “Sense of Community” by using the Sense of Community Index, and “Perception of Community Qualities” and “Awareness of Community Issues” by using 5-point Likert scales. We conducted correlation and multiple regression analyses to examine the relationship between citizens’ perception of community qualities, awareness of community issues, and their sense of community. Results: We found that citizens’ perception of community qualities and awareness of community issues were associated with, and had a positive impact on their sense of community. Conclusion: We can heighten the sense of community to facilitate community participation for promoting community health through efforts that build the qualities of healthy communities and cities and by increasing community awareness of issues related to health and surrounding environments.

A descriptive phenomenological approach to perception of affective quality in design inspiration

The psychological term affective quality denotes the ability of objects to change how individuals feel when they encounter those objects. In design research, the affective qualities of inspirational materials and the perception of such affective qualities have been studied, mainly from a positivist standpoint. This involves experimental methodologies and tools like rating scales which imply objective measurements of perception of affective qualities to establish cause-effect relationships. However, affective quality is enmeshed in cultural and contextual frameworks. This implies that there can be subjective perceptions of affective quality that demand more descriptive research. This paper contextualises a descriptive phenomeological approach to study designers’ subjective perceptions of affective qualities of inspirational material. This approach fosters methodological diversity and theory-building research in design.

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS FOR ACTIVITIES ON NATIONAL-PATRIOTIC EDUCATION OF STUDENTS IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF GENERAL SECONDARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Summary. The article considers one of the important problems of preparing teachers for the activities of nationalpatriotic education of students in the educational process of general secondary education. The main focus is on civic and patriotic education of young people, because today it is especially relevant for a number of reasons: the level of information of the younger generation is growing, democratization processes and multiparty system create some difficulties for young people to understand patriotism and civic duty. The pedagogical conditions for achieving this goal are defined and substantiated: formation of positive motivation of teachers for patriotic education of students (this condition involves the development of teachers' interest in patriotic issues, their perception of patriotic qualities as professionally significant), and their attitude to patriotism as; implementation of additional education in the aspect of patriotic education (this condition requires the design and testing of additional professional training programs designed for senior students); active use of information and communication technologies in preparing teachers for patriotic education of students. The article identifies the necessary information resources on patriotic education with which teachers should be acquainted. Possibilities of their application in the practice of educational activity are substantiated: databases and banks of historical documents; technologies and services for creating interactive projects; thematic sites; interactive presentations; virtual tours and virtual museums; web-quests, etc. Educational directions of our author's workshop for teachers aimed at mastering the essence, content, forms, means and methods of patriotic education. Workshop for teachers «Theory and methods of patriotic education of students», aimed at solving the following tasks: the formation of respect for such values as justice, respect for elders, responsibility, honesty; assertion of humanistic morality; creating favorable conditions for self-realization of students in accordance with their abilities and interests; formation of respectful and tolerant attitude to other traditions and cultures; affirming a sense of patriotism and a sense of belonging to the Ukrainian people and homeland; formation of responsibility and social activity of students; ability to be democratic and ready to participate in self-government processes; formation of physical and psychological readiness of students for constitutional and civic duty to the State; development of students' motivation for military service; formation of legal and political culture; affirmation of respect for the legislation, the Constitution of Ukraine, the state language and state symbols.