Visual Exposure Research Articles

The ephemerality of prominence: A geospatial analysis of acoustic affordances in a hillfort landscape

Prominent places were powerful places. The persistence and stability of prominent places typically depends upon the prioritisation of their physical and visual attributes. Yet if we are interested in the expression of prominence and power, then we should take account of the potential ways that places reached acoustically into the landscape. Acoustics complement visibility since sound like sight helps shape human experiences, memories and emotions. In this paper, we employ a geospatial framework where patterns of sound propagation are modelled and brought into conversation with visibility and mobility-based analyses often applied in geospatial studies of prominence. We apply our approach to a study of the Bryn-y-Castell hillfort in North West Wales. Geospatial studies, employing viewshed and least-cost modelling, examine how topographic and visual exposure might have accentuated the presence of hillforts. We demonstrate the analytical value of combining acoustic, visibility and mobility approaches in mapping zones in which a trade-off in visual and acoustic messages may have been a feature of how landscape prominence was expressed. The contribution of this study lies in challenging us to think, conceptually and methodologically, of prominence as something that varied, was ephemeral, and that lost and gained potency with intensities of inhabitation and landscape dynamics.

Estimation of meal portions in bulimia nervosa compared to anorexia nervosa and healthy controls

PurposeBulimia nervosa (BN) and anorexia nervosa (AN) are potentially life-threatening eating disorders (ED) that primarily affect young people, mostly women. The central common pathology is linked to the relationship with food and with abnormalities in food intake. A previous study indicated that individuals with AN tend to overestimate food portion sizes compared to healthy controls (HC), but no study has investigated these patterns in BN, which was the objective of this study.MethodsWomen with BN (27), AN (28), and HC (27) were asked to rate different meal portion sizes in two conditions: as if they were supposed to eat them (intent-to-eat condition) or in general (general condition). BN results were compared to HC and AN using mixed model analyses.ResultsBN showed larger estimations compared to HC, while smaller estimations compared to AN. These differences were found mostly for intermediate portion sizes. No difference for conditions (intent-to-eat; general) was found between groups.ConclusionWhen estimating food portion sizes, individuals with BN seem to fall intermediately between HC and AN. ED symptoms in BN were most strongly associated with higher portion estimation. This might therefore reflect one aspect of the cognitive distortions typically seen also in AN. A therapeutic option could include the frequent visual exposure to increasing portions of food, what may serve to recalibrate visual perceptions of what a “normal-sized” portion of food looks like.Level of evidenceLevel II: Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

Deconstructing viewshed analysis makes it possible to construct a useful visual impact map for wind projects

The analysis of wind project visual impact assessments (VIAs) is dominated by photosimulations at a limited number of viewpoints. While wind project VIAs typically include a cumulative viewshed map, they fail to integrate information about distance zone, visible exposure and project extent into a useful measure of visual impact. As a result, the quality of the spatial analysis of visual impacts is of limited value.This study presents an approach to assessing the visual prominence of individual wind turbines based on their distance from the viewer and the turbine’s visual exposure. These results provide useful guidance concerning which turbine locations should be permitted. Several ways to combine the impact of individual turbines into a map of visual impact are evaluated. The contrast rating of photosimulations at 17 viewpoints is used as the criterion to validate these maps. The results show significant improvement over the traditional cumulative viewshed map. The contrast ratings are also used to calibrate mapped levels of visual impact.

Landscape values of the Island of Jakljan, Dubrovnik – Neretva County in Croatia

Abstract This paper aims to present an approach to landscape evaluation, on the example of the island of Jakljan, which is a part of the Elaphiti Islands in the Dubrovnik Neretva County. Special emphasis is placed on the evaluation of natural, cultural, and visual qualities, which were identified in order to direct their protection in future development processes taking into account their role in the landscape. After determining the main qualities, the submodels of individual landscape qualities were determined. Next, the relationship between landscape quality and potential quality degradation was analysed, and a database of spatial data was prepared. Natural qualities included biodiversity valuation and perception of naturalness of the most dominant landscape patterns in this area. Cultural qualities included agricultural landscape evaluation and cultural-historic heritage. Finally, based on the evaluation of the visual units and visually attractive and authentic elements of the landscape and the analysis of visual exposure, a final model of visual landscape qualities was carried out. Evaluation maps were obtained using the GIS tools. The paper pointed out the most important values which must not be lost if the existing character of the space is to be preserved.

Early visual exposure primes future cross-modal specialization of the fusiform face area in tactile face processing in the blind

The fusiform face area (FFA) is a core cortical region for face information processing. Evidence suggests that its sensitivity to faces is largely innate and tuned by visual experience. However, how experience in different time windows shape the plasticity of the FFA remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of visual experience at different time points of an individual's early development in the cross-modal face specialization of the FFA. Participants (n = 74) were classified into five groups: congenital blind, early blind, late blind, low vision, and sighted control. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired when the participants haptically processed carved faces and other objects. Our results showed a robust and highly consistent face-selective activation in the FFA region in the early blind participants, invariant to size and level of abstraction of the face stimuli. The cross-modal face activation in the FFA was much less consistent in other groups. These results suggest that early visual experience primes cross-modal specialization of the FFA, and even after the absence of visual experience for more than 14 years in early blind participants, their FFA can engage in cross-modal processing of face information.

Viewshed-based modelling of visual exposure to urban greenery – An efficient GIS tool for practical planning applications

Quantifying green visual exposure is necessary to assess aesthetic, social and health benefits from urban greenery. Viewshed analysis has been successfully used to model and map green visual exposure from human perspective in continuous representation and in places where street view imagery for widely-used photography-based methods is not available. However, current viewshed-based methods for modelling green visual exposure are often difficult to generalise beyond their specific application purpose, inefficient in processing large spatial extents and have limited use due to demands on technical knowledge. This hampers their wider use in research and practice. In this paper, we develop a viewshed analysis-based method for modelling visual exposure to urban greenery with special focus on the method’s applicability in research and practice. The method is implemented as a tool in GRASS GIS which makes it available as a practical and flexible tool. Extensive validation and assessment of the method on the specific case of urban trees confirm that the method is a highly accurate alternative to modelling visual exposure from street view imagery (ρ = 0.96) but that data quality and viewshed parametrisation are essential for achieving accurate results. Thanks to parallel processing and effective implementation, the method is applicable for city-wide scale analysis with high-resolution data on commodity hardware (here illustrated on the case of Oslo, Norway). Therewith, the method has potential application in many areas including strategic tree planting, scenario modelling and urban ecosystem accounting, as well as ecosystem service research.

Introvert vs. Extrovert: Emotional Differences and Responses towards a Provocative Visual Stimuli in Social Media

This study aims to determine the emotional differences through a visual stimuli watched in social media towards two personalities; namely Introvert and Extrovert. Activities in social media are associated with personalities as each user can hide their identities from the knowledge of other users. Not only that, each personality tends to deal with different emotional states (stability-neuroticism) when interacting or socializing with others in social media. By using an online experimental approach, a total of 60 subjects (30 Introverts and 30 Extroverts) aged 20-29 were selected on Facebook and they were provoked with a visual uploaded in the group. The emotional differences for each personality were analysed using the Wilcoxon Matched-Pair Signed Rank Test. Results suggested that the provocative visual stimuli affected the Extroverts’ emotional stability (Z=-2.099, p=0.036) more than the Introverts (Z=-1.170, p=0.077), the Extroverts are highly responsive while the Introverts are more sarcastic even in a stable emotional states. Therefore, it can be said that a visual exposure affects the emotional states and the responses towards the content of the visual also plays a role in influencing both personalities’ emotions.

LiDAR-based method for analysing landmark visibility to pedestrians in cities: case study in Kraków, Poland

ABSTRACT We propose a method for analysing landmark visibility from a pedestrian’s perspective. A case study is performed in Kraków, a city with many architectural monuments, where airborne LiDAR is used to model both buildings and urban greenery. The proposed method involves preliminary and detailed stages. The preliminary stage entails an inverse analysis (I–Vis) that departs from the typical visibility analysis to enable the use of landmarks as observers instead of targets. I–Vis results in paths with high landmark visibility. The detailed stage involves the use of a virtual panorama (V-Pan) to determine the visual exposure of the landmarks. Landmarks considered visible by I–Vis are generally consistent with landmarks identified by V-Pan. Discrepancies occur when trees appear in the near field-of-view. In addition, the accuracy of the skyline length and visible landmark surface area is evaluated against ground observations. The obtained results show that V-Pan can evaluate landmark visibility with an accuracy of approximately 75%. The key contributions of the work to visibility analysis of urban landmarks are in the inverse viewshed strategy and evaluation of the visual exposure parameters on LiDAR virtual panoramas.

Documentation of the Development of Various Visuomotor Responses in Typically Reared Kittens and Those Reared With Early Selected Visual Exposure by Use of a New Procedure.

A new procedure was used to study the development of gaze (responses to moving targets or laser spots in normal kittens, those that had been reared in total darkness to 6 weeks of age, and others that received a period of monocular deprivation (MD). Gaze responses were observed to all stimuli in normal kittens at between 25–30 days of age and striking responses occurred on the same day or the next. Despite slow acquisition of spatial vision in the dark reared kittens over 3 months, they were able to follow and even strike at moving visual stimuli within a day of their initial exposure to light. By contrast, for a week following a period of MD, kittens showed no gaze or striking responses to moving stimuli when using their previously deprived eye. The very different profiles of acquisition of visuomotor skills and spatial vision in visually deprived kittens point to a dissociation between the neuronal populations that support these functions.

VeggieSense: A non-taste multisensory exposure technique for increasing vegetable acceptance in young children

Vegetable consumption falls well below recommended levels for children in the UK. Previous research has found that repeated non-taste sensory exposure over the course of several days increases young children's willingness to touch and taste vegetables. The current study examined the impact of a one-off multisensory non-taste exposure intervention that took place on a single day on children's willingness to taste and intake of the exposed vegetables. Children (N = 110) aged 3- to 4-years-old were assigned to one of three intervention groups or to a control group. Children in all groups participated individually in a single activity session delivered in their nursery. Children in the intervention conditions took part in fun activities that provided either (a) visual exposure, (b) smell and visual exposure, or (c) smell, touch and visual exposure to six raw and prepared vegetables. Children in the control group engaged in a visual exposure activity with non-food items. After the exposure activities, all children were offered the prepared vegetables to eat; their willingness to taste and intake of the vegetables were measured. Results confirmed previous findings of sensory exposure activities increasing children's willingness to taste and intake of vegetables and revealed linear trends in both measures of acceptance with the number of senses engaged; children who took part in smell, touch and visual activities showed the highest level of acceptance. Findings suggest that multisensory exposures are effective in increasing consumption of vegetables in young children and that the effect of sensory exposure to healthy foods may be cumulative, with the more senses engaged prior to offering a food, the better.

Visual exposure enhances stimulus encoding and persistence in primary cortex

The brain adapts to the sensory environment. For example, simple sensory exposure can modify the response properties of early sensory neurons. How these changes affect the overall encoding and maintenance of stimulus information across neuronal populations remains unclear. We perform parallel recordings in the primary visual cortex of anesthetized cats and find that brief, repetitive exposure to structured visual stimuli enhances stimulus encoding by decreasing the selectivity and increasing the range of the neuronal responses that persist after stimulus presentation. Low-dimensional projection methods and simple classifiers demonstrate that visual exposure increases the segregation of persistent neuronal population responses into stimulus-specific clusters. These observed refinements preserve the representational details required for stimulus reconstruction and are detectable in postexposure spontaneous activity. Assuming response facilitation and recurrent network interactions as the core mechanisms underlying stimulus persistence, we show that the exposure-driven segregation of stimulus responses can arise through strictly local plasticity mechanisms, also in the absence of firing rate changes. Our findings provide evidence for the existence of an automatic, unguided optimization process that enhances the encoding power of neuronal populations in early visual cortex, thus potentially benefiting simple readouts at higher stages of visual processing.

Association Between Childhood Visual Acuity and Late Adolescent Psychotic Experiences: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study.

A cross-sectional association between visual impairment and psychosis exists, but longitudinal evidence from children and young people is limited. We investigated whether childhood visual acuity was associated with subsequent psychotic experiences. Our sample was 6686 individuals from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). We investigated whether our primary exposures, best corrected visual acuity at ages 7 and 11, were associated with psychotic experiences at ages 17 and 24. We also tested whether the following exposures at ages 7 and 11 were associated with subsequent psychotic experiences: requiring glasses, presence of any visual impairment, and between-eye visual acuity difference; and at age 7: strabismus, measures of binocular vision, history of eye patch, near vision impairment, and abnormal saccadic or pursuit eye movements. Analyses used multilevel models before and after adjusting for confounders. Odds of psychotic experiences increased with each 0.1-point deterioration in visual acuity score at age 11 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06–1.42), and at age 7 (AOR 1.18; 95% CI 1.00–1.40). Wearing glasses and visual impairment at age 11 were associated with psychotic experiences (AOR 1.63; 95% CI 1.21–2.19; AOR 1.64; 95% CI 1.23–2.19, respectively). There was no evidence of an association with other visual exposures. Visual acuity impairment in childhood is associated with psychotic experiences in late adolescence. Future research should aim to elucidate the nature of this association.

The light’s in my eyes: optical modeling demonstrates wind is more important than sea surface-reflected sunlight for foraging herons

Multiple lineages of birds have independently evolved foraging strategies that involve catching aquatic prey by striking at them through the water’s surface. Diurnal, visual predators that hunt across the air-water interface encounter several visual challenges, including sun glint, or reflection of sunlight by the water surface. Intense sun glint is common at the air-water interface, and it obscures visual cues from submerged prey. Visually-hunting, cross-media predators must therefore solve the problem of glint to hunt effectively. One obvious solution is to turn away from the sun, which would result in reduction of glint effects. However, turning too far will cast shadows over prey, causing them to flee. Therefore, we hypothesized that foraging herons would orient away from, but not directly opposite to the sun. Our ability to understand how predators achieve a solution to glint is limited by our ability to quantify the amount of glint that free-living predators are actually exposed to under different light conditions. Herons (Ardea spp.) are a good model system for answering questions about cross-media hunting because they are conspicuous, widely distributed, and forage throughout a variety of aquatic habitats, on a variety of submerged prey. To test our hypothesis, we employed radiative transfer modeling of water surface reflectance, drawn from optical oceanography, in a novel context to estimate the visual exposure to glint of free-living, actively foraging herons. We found evidence that Ardea spp. do not use body orientation to compensate for sun glint while foraging and therefore they must have some other, not yet understood, means of compensation, either anatomical or behavioral. Instead of facing away from the sun, herons tended to adjust their position to face into the wind at higher wind speeds. We suggest that radiative transfer modeling is a promising tool for elucidating the ecology and evolution of air-to-water foraging systems.

Modeling pedestrian emotion in high-density cities using visual exposure and machine learning: Tracking real-time physiology and psychology in Hong Kong

People's mental health has been deteriorating as a result of urban living, which also causes disability, pain, or even death among metropolitan residents. Understanding the interaction between human emotions and the built environment is therefore essential for developing strategies towards a psychologically friendly and socially resilient environment. This study aims to model the pedestrian emotion in high-density urban areas of Hong Kong using machine learning based on environmental visual exposure, which is one of the most significant factors affecting emotions. Using ambulatory sensing and portable technologies, two-dimensional emotional data from 99 pedestrians are retrieved from coupled data with respect to wearable arousal, subjective report preference, and the location at a high spatiotemporal resolution (4 m). The visual environment is quantified by isovist and street view factors. This study examines the impact of visual exposures using two multiple linear regression (MLR) models and establishes a predictive model using random forest (RF) (N = 548). The MLR models have R2 values around 0.5 and suggest that in the high-density environment, exposure to more trees, visual volume, and drift magnitude can cause positive emotions. Conversely, areas with a view of sign symbols, object proportion, min-radial, and occlusivity can cause negative emotions. The resultant predictive model with nine visual exposure variables can explain 79% of the spatial variance of pedestrian emotion. Furthermore, the methodological framework provides opportunities for spatial, data-driven approaches to portable sensing and urban planning research. The findings are also applicable to optimize the infrastructure design of outdoor environments for more psychologically friendly experiences.

See & Eat! Using E-books to Promote Vegetable Eating Among Preschoolers: Findings From an Italian Sample.

Different strategies have been developed to help parents with introducing new or disliked vegetables. Nonetheless, many parents of preschoolers struggle against children's refusal to eat vegetables. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of e-books in promoting positive attitudes toward vegetables through repeated visual exposures. A total of 61 families with preschoolers joined the See & Eat study and received an e-book about one of two vegetables chosen from a list of 24. Parents provided ratings of children's willingness to taste, intake, and liking of the chosen vegetables before and after reading the e-book; parents also evaluated their children's food fussiness and their agreement with respect to three mealtime goals of the family. Using a 2 (vegetable: target or non-target) × 2 (time: pre-test or post-test) within-subjects analysis, results from 53 families revealed a significant increase in children's willingness to taste, intake, and liking at post-test of both target and non-target vegetables. Following a two-week parent-child e-book reading intervention, children's food fussiness and parents' endorsement of positive mealtime goals slightly but significantly increased. Results suggest that e-books are effective in encouraging healthy eating among preschoolers and that the positive effect of e-book reading can generalize to other vegetables.

Determinants of intrauterine contraceptive device utilization at primary health care facilities in Mekelle City, northern Ethiopia

BackgroundEach year, the current level of modern contraceptive use averts 188 million unintended pregnancies, which in turn results in 112 million fewer abortions. Of the 867 million women in the developing world who are sexually active and want to avoid becoming pregnant, approximately 222 million of them have an unmet need for modern contraception. In spite of several advantages and potential effectiveness of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device, its utilization still too low in Sub Saharan African countries including Ethiopia.ObjectivesTo identify the determinant factors for utilization of intra uterine contraceptive device among women visiting primary health care facilities in Mekelle city.MethodFacility based unmatched case-control study design was conducted among 234 women (78 cases and 156 controls). Data was collected by structured questionnaire. Data entry and cleaning was done using EPI- Info version 5.3.1 and analysis done using SPSS version 20.0 statistical software. During analysis the variables were defined, categorized and the difference in variables was determined. Odds ratio used to show degree of association between independent variables with Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device.ResultMarital status ([AOR (95%CI) =8.59(2.60–28.43)], number of pregnancies (AOR (95%) CI = 5.69(1.020–31.802), number of alive children [AOR (95%CI) =3.5 (1.03–11.9) are variables continued to have statistically significant association with use of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device. Other determinants found to have significant association includes awareness about Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device, visual exposure to Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device, and participants told about availability of health care provider able to insert Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device.ConclusionThis study has identified marital status, Gravidity, number of alive children and awareness to Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device as major determinants for use of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device. Thus, it is vital at addressing the aforementioned determinants will be vital to improve utilization of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device.Plain English summaryAmong long acting reversible modern contraceptive methods, Intra Uterine Contraceptive Devices (IUCDs) are the most reliable and effective as well as with fewer side effects. Despite these advantages and cost effective potential of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device its utilization is still too low in Sub Saharan countries like Ethiopia. Thus, this study intended to identify the factors that limit the utilization of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device among women of Ethiopia in Mekele City. The study identify that the utilization of Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device was determined by the marital status of the women, the number of previous pregnancy and recent alive children and the level of awareness about Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device of the women. Therefore, providers training that focus on promoting Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device, centering on increasing awareness and practice about Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device is very important.

A Quantitative Method for Evaluation of Visual Privacy in Residential Environments

With the rapid expansion of high-rise and high-density buildings in urban areas, visual privacy has become one of the major concerns affecting human environmental quality. Evaluation of residents’ visual exposure to outsiders has attracted more attention in the past decades. This paper presents a quantitative indicator; namely, the Potential Visual Exposure Index (PVEI), to assess visual privacy by introducing the damage of potential visual incursion from public spaces and neighborhoods in high-density residences. The method for computing the PVEI mainly consists of three steps: extracting targets and potential observers in a built environment, conducting intervisibility analysis and identifying visible sightlines, and integrating sightlines from building level and ground level to compute the PVEI value of each building opening. To validate the proposed PVEI, a case study with a sample building located at the center of Kowloon, Hong Kong, was evaluated. The results were in accordance with the common-sense notion that lower floors are subjected to poor visual privacy, and privacy is relatively well-preserved in upper floors in a building. However, residents of middle floors may suffer the worst circumstances with respect to visual privacy. The PVEI can be a useful indicator to assess visual privacy and can provide valuable information in architectural design, hotel room selection, and building management.

Disparity between central and peripheral refraction inheritance in twins

The last decades have witnessed a sudden increase in myopia incidence among youngsters that have been related to modern lifestyle along with the use of emerging technologies affecting visual exposure. Increasing exposures to known risk factors for myopia, such as time spent indoors, close-distance work, or low-light conditions are thought to be responsible for this public health issue. In most cases, development of myopia is secondary to a vitreous chamber enlargement, although the related mechanisms and the potential interaction between central and peripheral retinal area remain unclear. For a better understanding, we performed a classical twin study where objective refractive error along 70° of horizontal retinal arc was measured in 100 twin pairs of university students, 78% of which showed manifest myopia. We found the variance of shared environmental origin (range 0.34 to 0.67) explained most of the objective refractive error variance within central 42° of the retina (22° temporal to 19° nasal), whereas additive genetic variance (range 0.34 to 0.76) was predominant in the peripheral retinal areas measured. In this sample of millennial university students, with a large prevalence of myopia, environmental exposures were mostly responsible for inter-individual variation in the retinal horizontal area surrounding the macula, while their relative weight on phenotypic variance was gradually descending, and replaced by the variance of genetic origin, towards the retinal periphery.

Itch reduction using immersive virtual reality-An experimental pilot study.

In a previous proof-of-concept study we have demonstrated that visual exposure to specific colors results in pruritic or antipruritic effects. To determine the effect of "antipruritic" colors when using immersive virtual reality (VR) and to assess whether psychometric values correlate with the response to the color exposure. In this cross-sectional interventional single-center study, itch patients were exposed to their subjective "antipruritic color" (defined by the Manchester Color Wheel) in a virtual monochromatic room for 10min using a head-mounted display. Itch intensity rating (0-10 numerical rating scale [NRS]) was repeated at 1-min intervals. Additionally, dermatology life quality index, itch-related quality of life and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaires were completed. Twenty-two patients (mean age 51.9 ± 23 years, 13 females) participated in the study. Following color exposure for 10min itch intensity was significantly reduced compared to baseline (exact Wilcoxon signed-rank test, mdn-NRS 4.5 vs 3.0; z=-3.025, p=0.001), confirmed by the area under the curve (z=-3.118; p=0.001). No significant correlation between itch reduction and questionnaire scores was found (Spearman's Rho for all questionnaires). Visual exposure to the "antipruritic color" using immersive VR resulted in a significant decrease in itch intensity. This aligns with previous findings on the influence of colors on itch perception. The response of the intervention appeared independent of psychometric values. Thus, color exposure using immersive VR is a promising, low-cost, rapidly-acting, easily-applicable, non-pharmacological experimental antipruritic method.

The Study of Spatial Safety and Social Psychological Health Features of Deaf Children and Children with an Intellectual Disability in the Public School Environment Based on the Visual Access and Exposure (VAE) Model.

Nowadays, there is increasing attention towards the safety and feelings of children in urban or architectural space. In this study, the authors suggest a new approach based on the Visual Access and Exposure (VAE) Model to evaluate the spatial safety and social psychological health features of deaf children and children with an intellectual disability in the public school environment. The authors present a preliminary study of deaf children and children with an intellectual disability in a primary school located in Deyang by measuring the visual exposure and visual access in the public environment. The results illustrate that there are a few spaces, such as a long corridor and the space behind the elevators, that are not very safe for deaf children and children with an intellectual disability. In terms of social psychosocial preference, this special group prefers to stay in low visual access areas, which may be influenced by their introverted and impaired social communication ability. This study could have implications for the existence and optimization of an architecture design for relevant groups. With the increase in school bullying incidents and public psychological health problems related to youth, this approach could be used widely in the area of school safety and public psychological health management.