Non-egalitarian allocations among preschool peers in a face-to-face bargaining task.

PubMed

Melis, Alicia P; Floedl, Anja; Tomasello, Michael

2015-01-01

In face-to-face bargaining tasks human adults almost always agree on an equal split of resources. This is due to mutually recognized fairness and equality norms. Early developmental studies on sharing and equality norms found that egalitarian allocations of resources are not common before children are 5 or 6 years old. However, recent studies have shown that in some face-to face collaborative situations, or when recipients express their desires, children at much younger ages choose equal allocations. We investigated the ability of 3.5 and 5-year-olds to negotiate face-to-face, whether to collaborate to obtain an equal or an unequal distribution of rewards. We hypothesized that the face-to-face interaction and interdependency between partners would facilitate egalitarian outcomes at both ages. In the first experiment we found that 5-year-olds were more egalitarian than 3.5-year-olds, but neither of the age classes shared equally. In the second experiment, in which we increased the magnitude of the inequality, we found that children at both ages mostly agreed on the unequal distribution. These results show that communication and face-to-face interactions are not sufficient to guarantee equal allocations at 3-5 years of age. These results add to previous findings suggesting that in the context of non-collaboratively produced resources it is only after 5 years of age that children use equality norms to allocate resources.

A visual processing advantage for young-adolescent deaf observers: Evidence from face and object matching tasks

PubMed Central

Megreya, Ahmed M.; Bindemann, Markus

2017-01-01

It is unresolved whether the permanent auditory deprivation that deaf people experience leads to the enhanced visual processing of faces. The current study explored this question with a matching task in which observers searched for a target face among a concurrent lineup of ten faces. This was compared with a control task in which the same stimuli were presented upside down, to disrupt typical face processing, and an object matching task. A sample of young-adolescent deaf observers performed with higher accuracy than hearing controls across all of these tasks. These results clarify previous findings and provide evidence for a general visual processing advantage in deaf observers rather than a face-specific effect. PMID:28117407

The Face in the Crowd Effect Unconfounded: Happy Faces, Not Angry Faces, Are More Efficiently Detected in Single- and Multiple-Target Visual Search Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becker, D. Vaughn; Anderson, Uriah S.; Mortensen, Chad R.; Neufeld, Samantha L.; Neel, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Is it easier to detect angry or happy facial expressions in crowds of faces? The present studies used several variations of the visual search task to assess whether people selectively attend to expressive faces. Contrary to widely cited studies (e.g., Ohman, Lundqvist, & Esteves, 2001) that suggest angry faces "pop out" of crowds, our review of…

Assessments of Fracture Toughness of Monolithic Ceramics-SEPB Versus SEVNB Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choi, Sung R.; Gyekenyesi, John P.

2006-01-01

Fracture toughness of a total of 13 advanced monolithic ceramics including silicon nitrides, silicon carbide, aluminas, and glass ceramic was determined at ambient temperature by using both single edge precracked beam (SEPB) and single edge v-notched beam (SEVNB) methods. Relatively good agreement in fracture toughness between the two methods was observed for advanced ceramics with flat R-curves; whereas, poor agreement in fracture toughness was seen for materials with rising R-curves. The discrepancy in fracture toughness between the two methods was due to stable crack growth with crack closure forces acting in the wake region of cracks even in SEVNB test specimens. The effect of discrepancy in fracture toughness was analyzed in terms of microstructural feature (grain size and shape), toughening exponent in R-curve, and stable crack growth determined using back-face strain gaging.

Self-concept organisation and mental toughness in sport.

PubMed

Meggs, Jennifer; Ditzfeld, Christopher; Golby, Jim

2014-01-01

The present study examines the relationship between individual differences in evaluative self-organisation and mental toughness in sport, proposing that motivation and emotional resiliency (facets of mental toughness) stem from differences in core self. A cross-sectional assessment of 105 athletes competing at a range of performance levels took part in an online study including measures of self-reported mental toughness (Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire; Sheard, M., Golby, J., & van Wersch, A. (2009). Progress towards construct validation of the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 25(3), 186-193. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.25.3.186) and self-organisation (self-descriptive attribute task; Showers, C. J. (2002). Integration and compartmentalisation: A model of self-structure and self-change. In D. Cervone & W. Mischel (Eds.), Advances in personality science (pp. 271-291). New York, NY: Guilford Press). As predicted, global mental toughness was associated with self-concept positivity, which was particularly high in individuals with positive-integrative self-organisation (individuals who distribute positive and negative self-attributes evenly across multiple selves). Specifically, positive integration was associated with constancy (commitment to goal achievement despite obstacles and the potential for failure), which extends presumably from positive integratives' emotional stability and drive to resolve negative self-beliefs.

Effects on automatic attention due to exposure to pictures of emotional faces while performing Chinese word judgment tasks.

PubMed

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.

Effects on Automatic Attention Due to Exposure to Pictures of Emotional Faces while Performing Chinese Word Judgment Tasks

PubMed Central

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition. PMID:24124486

Context Influences Holistic Processing of Non-face Objects in the Composite Task

PubMed Central

Richler, Jennifer J.; Bukach, Cindy M.; Gauthier, Isabel

2013-01-01

We explore whether holistic-like effects can be observed for non-face objects in novices as a result of the task context. We measure contextually-induced congruency effects for novel objects (Greebles) in a sequential matching selective attention task (composite task). When format at study was blocked, congruency effects were observed for study-misaligned, but not study-aligned, conditions (Experiment 1). However, congruency effects were observed in all conditions when study formats were randomized (Experiment 2), revealing that the presence of certain trial types (study-misaligned) in an experiment can induce congruency effects. In a dual task, a congruency effect for Greebles was induced in trials where a face was first encoded, only if it was aligned (Experiment 3). Thus, congruency effects can be induced by context that operates at the scale of the entire experiment or within a single trial. Implications for using the composite task to measure holistic processing are discussed. PMID:19304644

FaceSheet Push-off Tests to Determine Composite Sandwich Toughness at Cryogenic Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, Thomas S.; Herring, Helen M.

2001-01-01

A new novel test method, associated analysis, and experimental procedures are developed to investigate the toughness of the facesheet-to-core interface of a sandwich material at cryogenic temperatures. The test method is designed to simulate the failure mode associated with facesheet debonding from high levels of gas pressure in the sandwich core. The effects of specimen orientation are considered, and the results of toughness measurements are presented. Comparisons are made between room and liquid nitrogen (-196 C) test temperatures. It was determined that the test method is insensitive to specimen facesheet orientation and strain energy release rate increases with a decrease in the test temperature.

Childhood anxiety and attention to emotion faces in a modified stroop task.

PubMed

Hadwin, Julie A; Donnelly, Nick; Richards, Anne; French, Christopher C; Patel, Umang

2009-06-01

This study used an emotional face stroop task to investigate the effects of self-report trait anxiety, social concern (SC), and chronological age (CA) on reaction time to match coloured outlines of angry, happy, and neutral faces (and control faces with scrambled features) with coloured buttons in a community sample of 74 children aged 6-12 years. The results showed an interference of colour matching for angry (relative to neutral) faces in children with elevated SC. The same effect was not found for happy or control faces. In addition, the results suggest that selective attention to angry faces in children with social concern (SC) was not significantly moderated by age.

Heterogeneous Face Attribute Estimation: A Deep Multi-Task Learning Approach.

PubMed

Han, Hu; K Jain, Anil; Shan, Shiguang; Chen, Xilin

2017-08-10

Face attribute estimation has many potential applications in video surveillance, face retrieval, and social media. While a number of methods have been proposed for face attribute estimation, most of them did not explicitly consider the attribute correlation and heterogeneity (e.g., ordinal vs. nominal and holistic vs. local) during feature representation learning. In this paper, we present a Deep Multi-Task Learning (DMTL) approach to jointly estimate multiple heterogeneous attributes from a single face image. In DMTL, we tackle attribute correlation and heterogeneity with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) consisting of shared feature learning for all the attributes, and category-specific feature learning for heterogeneous attributes. We also introduce an unconstrained face database (LFW+), an extension of public-domain LFW, with heterogeneous demographic attributes (age, gender, and race) obtained via crowdsourcing. Experimental results on benchmarks with multiple face attributes (MORPH II, LFW+, CelebA, LFWA, and FotW) show that the proposed approach has superior performance compared to state of the art. Finally, evaluations on a public-domain face database (LAP) with a single attribute show that the proposed approach has excellent generalization ability.

Enhancements to the TOUGH2 Simulator as Implemented in iTOUGH2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finsterle, Stefan

iTOUGH2 is a program for parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty propagation analysis. It is based on the TOUGH2 simulator for non-isothermal multiphase, multicomponent flow and transport in fractured and porous media [Pruess, 1987, 1991, 2005, 2011; Falta et al., 1995; Pruess et al., 1999, 2002, 2012; Doughty, 2013]. The core of iTOUGH2 contains slightly modified versions of TOUGH2 modules. Most code modifications are editorial and do not affect the simulation results. As a result, standard TOUGH2 input files can be used in iTOUGH2, and identical results are obtained if iTOUGH2 is run in forward mode. However, a number ofmore » modifications have been made as described in this report. They enhance the functionality, flexibilitu, and eas-of-use of the forward simulator. This report complements the reports iTOUGH2 User's Guide, iTOUGH2 Command Referecne, and the collection of tutorial examples in iTOUGH2 Sample Problems.« less

Goal Profiles, Mental Toughness and its Influence on Performance Outcomes among Wushu Athletes

PubMed Central

Roy, Jolly

2007-01-01

This study examined the association between goal orientations and mental toughness and its influence on performance outcomes in competition. Wushu athletes (n = 40) competing in Intervarsity championships in Malaysia completed Task and Ego Orientations in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) and Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI). Using cluster analysis techniques including hierarchical methods and the non-hierarchical method (k-means cluster) to examine goal profiles, a three cluster solution emerged viz. cluster 1 - high task and moderate ego (HT/ME), cluster 2 - moderate task and low ego (MT/LE) and, cluster 3 - moderate task and moderate ego (MT/ME). Analysis of the fundamental areas of mental toughness based on goal profiles revealed that athletes in cluster 1 scored significantly higher on negative energy control than athletes in cluster 2. Further, athletes in cluster 1 also scored significantly higher on positive energy control than athletes in cluster 3. Chi-square (χ2) test revealed no significant differences among athletes with different goal profiles on performance outcomes in the competition. However, significant differences were observed between athletes (medallist and non medallist) in self- confidence (p = 0.001) and negative energy control (p = 0.042). Medallist’s scored significantly higher on self-confidence (mean = 21.82 ± 2.72) and negative energy control (mean = 19.59 ± 2.32) than the non-medallists (self confidence-mean = 18.76 ± 2.49; negative energy control mean = 18.14 ± 1.91). Key points Mental toughness can be influenced by certain goal profile combination. Athletes with successful outcomes in performance (medallist) displayed greater mental toughness. PMID:24198700

Discrimination of face gender and expression under dual-task conditions.

PubMed

García-Gutiérrez, Ana; Aguado, Luis; Romero-Ferreiro, Verónica; Pérez-Moreno, Elisa

2017-02-01

In order to test whether expression and gender can be attended to simultaneously without a cost in accuracy four experiments were carried out using a dual gender-expression task with male and female faces showing different emotional expressions that were backward masked by emotionally neutral faces. In the dual-facial condition the participants had to report both the gender and the expression of the targets. In two control conditions the participant reported either the gender or the expression of the face and indicated whether a surrounding frame was continuous or discontinuous. In Experiments 1-3, with angry and happy targets, asymmetric interference was observed. Gender discrimination, but no expression discrimination, was impaired in the dual-facial condition compared to the corresponding control. This effect was obtained with a between-subjects design in Experiment 1, with a within-subjects design in Experiment 2, and with androgynous face masks in Experiment 3. In Experiments 4a and 4b different target combinations were tested. No decrement of performance in the dual-facial task was observed for either gender or expression discrimination with fearful-disgusted (Experiment 4a) or fearful-happy faces (Experiment 4b). We conclude that the ability to attend simultaneously to gender and expression cues without a decrement in performance depends on the specific combination of expressions to be differentiated between. Happy and angry expressions are usually directed at the perceiver and command preferential attention. Under conditions of restricted viewing such as those of the present study, discrimination of these expressions is prioritized leading to impaired discrimination of other facial properties such as gender.

Peek-a-What? Infants' Response to the Still-Face Task after Normal and Interrupted Peek-a-Boo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bigelow, Ann E.; Best, Caitlin

2013-01-01

Infants' sensitivity to the vitality or tension envelope within dyadic social exchanges was investigated by examining their responses following normal and interrupted games of peek-a-boo embedded in a Still-Face Task. Infants 5-6 months old engaged in two modified Still-Face Tasks with their mothers. In one task, the initial interaction ended with…

Decoding Task and Stimulus Representations in Face-responsive Cortex

PubMed Central

Kliemann, Dorit; Jacoby, Nir; Anzellotti, Stefano; Saxe, Rebecca R.

2017-01-01

Faces provide rich social information about others’ stable traits (e.g., age) and fleeting states of mind (e.g., emotional expression). While some of these facial aspects may be processed automatically, observers can also deliberately attend to some features while ignoring others. It remains unclear how internal goals (e.g., task context) influence the representational geometry of variable and stable facial aspects in face-responsive cortex. We investigated neural response patterns related to decoding i) the intention to attend to a facial aspect before its perception, ii) the attended aspect of a face and iii) stimulus properties. We measured neural responses while subjects watched videos of dynamic positive and negative expressions, and judged the age or the expression’s valence. Split-half multivoxel pattern analyses (MVPA) showed that (i) the intention to attend to a specific aspect of a face can be decoded from left fronto-lateral, but not face-responsive regions; (ii) during face perception, the attend aspect (age vs emotion) could be robustly decoded from almost all face-responsive regions; and (iii) a stimulus property (valence), was represented in right posterior superior temporal sulcus and medial prefrontal cortices. The effect of deliberately shifting the focus of attention on representations suggest a powerful influence of top-down signals on cortical representation of social information, varying across cortical regions, likely reflecting neural flexibility to optimally integrate internal goals and dynamic perceptual input. PMID:27978778

Holistic Processing in the Composite Task Depends on Face Size

PubMed Central

Ross, David A.; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Holistic processing is a hallmark of face processing. There is evidence that holistic processing is strongest for faces at identification distance, 2 – 10 meters from the observer. However, this evidence is based on tasks that have been little used in the literature and that are indirect measures of holistic processing. We use the composite task– a well validated and frequently used paradigm – to measure the effect of viewing distance on holistic processing. In line with previous work, we find a congruency x alignment effect that is strongest for faces that are close (2m equivalent distance) than for faces that are further away (24m equivalent distance). In contrast, the alignment effect for same trials, used by several authors to measure holistic processing, produced results that are difficult to interpret. We conclude that our results converge with previous findings providing more direct evidence for an effect of size on holistic processing. PMID:26500423

Flexible and inflexible task sets: asymmetric interference when switching between emotional expression, sex, and age classification of perceived faces.

PubMed

Schuch, Stefanie; Werheid, Katja; Koch, Iring

2012-01-01

The present study investigated whether the processing characteristics of categorizing emotional facial expressions are different from those of categorizing facial age and sex information. Given that emotions change rapidly, it was hypothesized that processing facial expressions involves a more flexible task set that causes less between-task interference than the task sets involved in processing age or sex of a face. Participants switched between three tasks: categorizing a face as looking happy or angry (emotion task), young or old (age task), and male or female (sex task). Interference between tasks was measured by global interference and response interference. Both measures revealed patterns of asymmetric interference. Global between-task interference was reduced when a task was mixed with the emotion task. Response interference, as measured by congruency effects, was larger for the emotion task than for the nonemotional tasks. The results support the idea that processing emotional facial expression constitutes a more flexible task set that causes less interference (i.e., task-set "inertia") than processing the age or sex of a face.

Faces in-between: evaluations reflect the interplay of facial features and task-dependent fluency.

PubMed

Winkielman, Piotr; Olszanowski, Michal; Gola, Mateusz

2015-04-01

Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and trustworthy when they have more smiling features and also more female features. However, the influence of facial features on evaluations should be qualified by the affective consequences of fluency (cognitive ease) with which such features are processed. Further, fluency (along with its affective consequences) should depend on whether the current task highlights conflict between specific features. Four experiments are presented. In 3 experiments, participants saw faces varying in expressions ranging from pure anger, through mixed expression, to pure happiness. Perceivers first categorized faces either on a control dimension, or an emotional dimension (angry/happy). Thus, the emotional categorization task made "pure" expressions fluent and "mixed" expressions disfluent. Next, participants made social evaluations. Results show that after emotional categorization, but not control categorization, targets with mixed expressions are relatively devalued. Further, this effect is mediated by categorization disfluency. Additional data from facial electromyography reveal that on a basic physiological level, affective devaluation of mixed expressions is driven by their objective ambiguity. The fourth experiment shows that the relative devaluation of mixed faces that vary in gender ambiguity requires a gender categorization task. Overall, these studies highlight that the impact of facial features on evaluation is qualified by their fluency, and that the fluency of features is a function of the current task. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on emotional reactions to ambiguity. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Face matching in a long task: enforced rest and desk-switching cannot maintain identification accuracy

PubMed Central

Alenezi, Hamood M.; Fysh, Matthew C.; Johnston, Robert A.

2015-01-01

In face matching, observers have to decide whether two photographs depict the same person or different people. This task is not only remarkably difficult but accuracy declines further during prolonged testing. The current study investigated whether this decline in long tasks can be eliminated with regular rest-breaks (Experiment 1) or room-switching (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated the accuracy decline for long face-matching tasks and showed that this could not be eliminated with rest or room-switching. These findings suggest that person identification in applied settings, such as passport control, might be particularly error-prone due to the long and repetitive nature of the task. The experiments also show that it is difficult to counteract these problems. PMID:26312179

Prolonged Interruption of Cognitive Control of Conflict Processing Over Human Faces by Task-Irrelevant Emotion Expression

PubMed Central

Kim, Jinyoung; Kang, Min-Suk; Cho, Yang Seok; Lee, Sang-Hun

2017-01-01

As documented by Darwin 150 years ago, emotion expressed in human faces readily draws our attention and promotes sympathetic emotional reactions. How do such reactions to the expression of emotion affect our goal-directed actions? Despite the substantial advance made in the neural mechanisms of both cognitive control and emotional processing, it is not yet known well how these two systems interact. Here, we studied how emotion expressed in human faces influences cognitive control of conflict processing, spatial selective attention and inhibitory control in particular, using the Eriksen flanker paradigm. In this task, participants viewed displays of a central target face flanked by peripheral faces and were asked to judge the gender of the target face; task-irrelevant emotion expressions were embedded in the target face, the flanking faces, or both. We also monitored how emotion expression affects gender judgment performance while varying the relative timing between the target and flanker faces. As previously reported, we found robust gender congruency effects, namely slower responses to the target faces whose gender was incongruent with that of the flanker faces, when the flankers preceded the target by 0.1 s. When the flankers further advanced the target by 0.3 s, however, the congruency effect vanished in most of the viewing conditions, except for when emotion was expressed only in the flanking faces or when congruent emotion was expressed in the target and flanking faces. These results suggest that emotional saliency can prolong a substantial degree of conflict by diverting bottom-up attention away from the target, and that inhibitory control on task-irrelevant information from flanking stimuli is deterred by the emotional congruency between target and flanking stimuli. PMID:28676780

Tough2{_}MP: A parallel version of TOUGH2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Keni; Wu, Yu-Shu; Ding, Chris

2003-04-09

TOUGH2{_}MP is a massively parallel version of TOUGH2. It was developed for running on distributed-memory parallel computers to simulate large simulation problems that may not be solved by the standard, single-CPU TOUGH2 code. The new code implements an efficient massively parallel scheme, while preserving the full capacity and flexibility of the original TOUGH2 code. The new software uses the METIS software package for grid partitioning and AZTEC software package for linear-equation solving. The standard message-passing interface is adopted for communication among processors. Numerical performance of the current version code has been tested on CRAY-T3E and IBM RS/6000 SP platforms. Inmore » addition, the parallel code has been successfully applied to real field problems of multi-million-cell simulations for three-dimensional multiphase and multicomponent fluid and heat flow, as well as solute transport. In this paper, we will review the development of the TOUGH2{_}MP, and discuss the basic features, modules, and their applications.« less

Integral Face Shield Concept for Firefighter's Helmet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abeles, F.; Hansberry, E.; Himel, V.

1982-01-01

Stowable face shield could be made integral part of helmet worn by firefighters. Shield, made from same tough clear plastic as removable face shields presently used, would be pivoted at temples to slide up inside helmet when not needed. Stowable face shield, being stored in helmet, is always available, ready for use, and is protected when not being used.

Oxytocin decreases aversion to angry faces in an associative learning task.

PubMed

Evans, Simon; Shergill, Sukhwinder S; Averbeck, Bruno B

2010-12-01

Social and financial considerations are often integrated when real life decisions are made, and recent studies have provided evidence that similar brain networks are engaged when either social or financial information is integrated. Other studies, however, have suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin can specifically affect social behaviors, which would suggest separable mechanisms at the pharmacological level. Thus, we examined the hypothesis that oxytocin would specifically affect social and not financial information in a decision making task, in which participants learned which of the two faces, one smiling and the other angry or sad, was most often being rewarded. We found that oxytocin specifically decreased aversion to angry faces, without affecting integration of positive or negative financial feedback or choices related to happy vs sad faces.

Structural face encoding: How task affects the N170's sensitivity to race.

PubMed

Senholzi, Keith B; Ito, Tiffany A

2013-12-01

The N170 event-related potential (ERP) component differentiates faces from non-faces, but studies aimed at investigating whether the processing indexed by this component is also sensitive to racial differences among faces have garnered conflicting results. Here, we explore how task affects the influence of race on the N170 among White participants. N170s were larger to ingroup White faces than outgroup Black faces, but only for those required to attend to race, suggesting that attention to race can result in deeper levels of processing for ingroup members. Conversely, N170s were larger to Black faces than White faces for participants who attended to the unique identity of the faces, suggesting that attention to identity can result in preferential recruitment of cognitive resources for outgroup members. Taken together, these findings suggest that race can differentially impact face processing at early stages of encoding, but differences in processing are contingent upon one's goal state.

iMatTOUGH: An open-source Matlab-based graphical user interface for pre- and post-processing of TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tran, Anh Phuong; Dafflon, Baptiste; Hubbard, Susan

TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 are powerful models that simulate the heat and fluid flows in porous and fracture media, and perform parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty propagation analysis. However, setting up the input files is not only tedious, but error prone, and processing output files is time consuming. Here, we present an open source Matlab-based tool (iMatTOUGH) that supports the generation of all necessary inputs for both TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 and visualize their outputs. The tool links the inputs of TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2, making sure the two input files are consistent. It supports the generation of rectangular computational mesh, i.e.,more » it automatically generates the elements and connections as well as their properties as required by TOUGH2. The tool also allows the specification of initial and time-dependent boundary conditions for better subsurface heat and water flow simulations. The effectiveness of the tool is illustrated by an example that uses TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 to estimate soil hydrological and thermal properties from soil temperature data and simulate the heat and water flows at the Rifle site in Colorado.« less

iMatTOUGH: An open-source Matlab-based graphical user interface for pre- and post-processing of TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 models

DOE PAGES

Tran, Anh Phuong; Dafflon, Baptiste; Hubbard, Susan

2016-04-01

TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 are powerful models that simulate the heat and fluid flows in porous and fracture media, and perform parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty propagation analysis. However, setting up the input files is not only tedious, but error prone, and processing output files is time consuming. Here, we present an open source Matlab-based tool (iMatTOUGH) that supports the generation of all necessary inputs for both TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 and visualize their outputs. The tool links the inputs of TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2, making sure the two input files are consistent. It supports the generation of rectangular computational mesh, i.e.,more » it automatically generates the elements and connections as well as their properties as required by TOUGH2. The tool also allows the specification of initial and time-dependent boundary conditions for better subsurface heat and water flow simulations. The effectiveness of the tool is illustrated by an example that uses TOUGH2 and iTOUGH2 to estimate soil hydrological and thermal properties from soil temperature data and simulate the heat and water flows at the Rifle site in Colorado.« less

Mental toughness and behavioural perseverance: A conceptual replication and extension.

PubMed

Giles, Brandon; Goods, Paul S R; Warner, Dylan R; Quain, Dale; Peeling, Peter; Ducker, Kagan J; Dawson, Brian; Gucciardi, Daniel F

2018-06-01

The purpose of this study was to conduct a conceptual replication of the proposition that mental toughness is associated positively with behavioural perseverance. Repeated-measures design. In total, 38 male Australian rules footballers took part in this study (age, 21±3 y; mass, 82.7±11.0kg; height, 1.84±.07m; football experience, 13±4 y). Participants self-reported mental toughness approximately one week prior to their first testing session where we assessed their aerobic capacity via the measurement of peak oxygen consumption (V˙O 2peak ). Approximately one week later, participants completed a 20m shuttle run test (MST). The final testing session took place approximately one week later, where participants completed a simulated team game circuit (STGC; 60min) to simulate game-relevant level of fatigue, which was followed immediately by a 20m MST. Mental toughness was a salient determinant of the variation in behavioural perseverance under typical circumstances, when prior knowledge from past research was incorporated directly into the estimation process. However, the positive association between mental toughness and behavioural perseverance did not generalise to a performance context in which participants were fatigued. The results of the current study suggest that mental toughness represents a salient psychological correlate of behavioural perseverance in a discrete physical task that taxes the aerobic energy system in some but not all situations. When fatigued, the effect of mental toughness is outweighed by greater underlying fitness. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positive and negative emotion enhances the processing of famous faces in a semantic judgment task.

PubMed

Bate, Sarah; Haslam, Catherine; Hodgson, Timothy L; Jansari, Ashok; Gregory, Nicola; Kay, Janice

2010-01-01

Previous work has consistently reported a facilitatory influence of positive emotion in face recognition (e.g., D'Argembeau, Van der Linden, Comblain, & Etienne, 2003). However, these reports asked participants to make recognition judgments in response to faces, and it is unknown whether emotional valence may influence other stages of processing, such as at the level of semantics. Furthermore, other evidence suggests that negative rather than positive emotion facilitates higher level judgments when processing nonfacial stimuli (e.g., Mickley & Kensinger, 2008), and it is possible that negative emotion also influences latter stages of face processing. The present study addressed this issue, examining the influence of emotional valence while participants made semantic judgments in response to a set of famous faces. Eye movements were monitored while participants performed this task, and analyses revealed a reduction in information extraction for the faces of liked and disliked celebrities compared with those of emotionally neutral celebrities. Thus, in contrast to work using familiarity judgments, both positive and negative emotion facilitated processing in this semantic-based task. This pattern of findings is discussed in relation to current models of face processing. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Repetition priming of face recognition in a serial choice reaction-time task.

PubMed

Roberts, T; Bruce, V

1989-05-01

Marshall & Walker (1987) found that pictorial stimuli yield visual priming that is disrupted by an unpredictable visual event in the response-stimulus interval. They argue that visual stimuli are represented in memory in the form of distinct visual and object codes. Bruce & Young (1986) propose similar pictorial, structural and semantic codes which mediate the recognition of faces, yet repetition priming results obtained with faces as stimuli (Bruce & Valentine, 1985), and with objects (Warren & Morton, 1982) are quite different from those of Marshall & Walker (1987), in the sense that recognition is facilitated by pictures presented 20 minutes earlier. The experiment reported here used different views of familiar and unfamiliar faces as stimuli in a serial choice reaction-time task and found that, with identical pictures, repetition priming survives and intervening item requiring a response, with both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Furthermore, with familiar faces such priming was present even when the view of the prime was different from the target. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

Famous face recognition, face matching, and extraversion.

PubMed

Lander, Karen; Poyarekar, Siddhi

2015-01-01

It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.

Novel in Vitro Modification of Bone for an Allograft with Improved Toughness Osteoconductivity

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

osteocalcin, Runx2, and col1a1 by RT-PCR. Spectrophotometry and fluorescence microscopy were used to quantify AGEs. 2. KEYWORDS Fracture toughness, R...markers (alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, RUNX2 and COL1A1 ) Completed Task 10 Data analysis, publications, reports Completed Task 1. Retrieval...FEMALE 25 Task 9. Measure expression of molecular markers of mineralization, osteocalcin, RUNX2 and COL1A1 using quantitative RT-PCR with specific

Sex difference in the processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant social information: an event-related potential study of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Jinzhao; Kitayama, Shinobu; Han, Shihui

2011-08-23

Behavioral studies suggest that men are more likely to develop independent self-construals whereas women are more likely to develop interdependent self-construals. The gender difference in self-construals leads to two predictions. First, independent self-construals may result in a bias of attentional processing of self-related information that is stronger in men than in women. Second, interdependent self-construals may induce greater sensitivity to contextual information from the environment in women than in men. The present study tested these hypotheses by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) to familiar faces (self-, mother-, and father-faces) and unfamiliar faces (gender/age matched strangers' faces) from 14 male and 14 female adults. Using an odd ball paradigm, in separate blocks of trials, familiar faces were designated as either targets that required behavioral responses or as non-targets that did not require a behavioral response. We found that a long latency positivity at 420-620 ms over the parietal area (the attention sensitive target P3) showed a larger amplitude to self-face than to mother-/father-faces that were designated as targets in men but not in women. In contrast, a long latency positivity at 430-530 ms over the central area (the context sensitive novelty P3) was enlarged to familiar compared to strangers' faces that were designated as non-targets and this effect was greater in women than in men. Our results showed ERP evidence for sex differences in the processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant social information. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Cambridge Car Memory Test: a task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects.

PubMed

Dennett, Hugh W; McKone, Elinor; Tavashmi, Raka; Hall, Ashleigh; Pidcock, Madeleine; Edwards, Mark; Duchaine, Bradley

2012-06-01

Many research questions require a within-class object recognition task matched for general cognitive requirements with a face recognition task. If the object task also has high internal reliability, it can improve accuracy and power in group analyses (e.g., mean inversion effects for faces vs. objects), individual-difference studies (e.g., correlations between certain perceptual abilities and face/object recognition), and case studies in neuropsychology (e.g., whether a prosopagnosic shows a face-specific or object-general deficit). Here, we present such a task. Our Cambridge Car Memory Test (CCMT) was matched in format to the established Cambridge Face Memory Test, requiring recognition of exemplars across view and lighting change. We tested 153 young adults (93 female). Results showed high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .84) and a range of scores suitable both for normal-range individual-difference studies and, potentially, for diagnosis of impairment. The mean for males was much higher than the mean for females. We demonstrate independence between face memory and car memory (dissociation based on sex, plus a modest correlation between the two), including where participants have high relative expertise with cars. We also show that expertise with real car makes and models of the era used in the test significantly predicts CCMT performance. Surprisingly, however, regression analyses imply that there is an effect of sex per se on the CCMT that is not attributable to a stereotypical male advantage in car expertise.

TOUGH3: A new efficient version of the TOUGH suite of multiphase flow and transport simulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jung, Yoojin; Pau, George Shu Heng; Finsterle, Stefan; Pollyea, Ryan M.

2017-11-01

The TOUGH suite of nonisothermal multiphase flow and transport simulators has been updated by various developers over many years to address a vast range of challenging subsurface problems. The increasing complexity of the simulated processes as well as the growing size of model domains that need to be handled call for an improvement in the simulator's computational robustness and efficiency. Moreover, modifications have been frequently introduced independently, resulting in multiple versions of TOUGH that (1) led to inconsistencies in feature implementation and usage, (2) made code maintenance and development inefficient, and (3) caused confusion to users and developers. TOUGH3-a new base version of TOUGH-addresses these issues. It consolidates both the serial (TOUGH2 V2.1) and parallel (TOUGH2-MP V2.0) implementations, enabling simulations to be performed on desktop computers and supercomputers using a single code. New PETSc parallel linear solvers are added to the existing serial solvers of TOUGH2 and the Aztec solver used in TOUGH2-MP. The PETSc solvers generally perform better than the Aztec solvers in parallel and the internal TOUGH3 linear solver in serial. TOUGH3 also incorporates many new features, addresses bugs, and improves the flexibility of data handling. Due to the improved capabilities and usability, TOUGH3 is more robust and efficient for solving tough and computationally demanding problems in diverse scientific and practical applications related to subsurface flow modeling.

ERP Correlates of Target-Distracter Differentiation in Repeated Runs of a Continuous Recognition Task with Emotional and Neutral Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treese, Anne-Cecile; Johansson, Mikael; Lindgren, Magnus

2010-01-01

The emotional salience of faces has previously been shown to induce memory distortions in recognition memory tasks. This event-related potential (ERP) study used repeated runs of a continuous recognition task with emotional and neutral faces to investigate emotion-induced memory distortions. In the second and third runs, participants made more…

Testing Differential Holistic Processing Within a Face: No Evidence of Asymmetry from the Complete Composite Task.

PubMed

Shyi, Gary C-W; Wang, Chao-Chih

2016-01-01

The composite face task is one of the most popular research paradigms for measuring holistic processing of upright faces. The exact mechanism underlying holistic processing remains elusive and controversial, and some studies have suggested that holistic processing may not be evenly distributed, in that the top-half of a face might induce stronger holistic processing than its bottom-half counterpart. In two experiments, we further examined the possibility of asymmetric holistic processing. Prior to Experiment 1, we confirmed that perceptual discriminability was equated between top and bottom face halves; we found no differences in performance between top and bottom face halves when they were presented individually. Then, in Experiment 1, using the composite face task with the complete design to reduce response bias, we failed to obtain evidence that would support the notion of asymmetric holistic processing between top and bottom face halves. To further reduce performance variability and to remove lingering holistic effects observed in the misaligned condition in Experiment 1, we doubled the number of trials and increased misalignment between top and bottom face halves to make misalignment more salient in Experiment 2. Even with these additional manipulations, we were unable to find evidence indicative of asymmetric holistic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that holistic processing is distributed homogenously within an upright face.

Neutral face distractors differentiate performance between depressed and healthy adolescents during an emotional working memory task.

PubMed

Tavitian, Lucy R; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Nahas, Ziad; Khater, Beatrice; Brent, David A; Maalouf, Fadi T

2014-08-01

The aim of the present study is to examine the effect of neutral and emotional facial expressions on voluntary attentional control using a working memory (WM) task in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). We administered the Emotional Face n-back (EFNBACK) task, a visual WM task with neutral, happy and angry faces as distractors to 22 adolescents with MDD (mean age 15.7 years) and 21 healthy controls (HC) (mean age 14.7 years). There was a significant group by distractor type interaction (p = 0.045) for mean percent accuracy rates. Group comparisons showed that MDD youth were less accurate on neutral trials than HC (p = 0.027). The two groups did not differ on angry, happy and blank trials (p > 0.05). Reaction time did not differ across groups. In addition, when comparing the differences between accuracies on neutral trials and each of the happy and angry trials, respectively [(HAP-NEUT) and (ANG-NEUT)], there was a group effect on (HAP-NEUT) where the difference was larger in MDD than HC (p = 0.009) but not on ANG-NEUT (p > 0.05). Findings were independent of memory load. Findings indicate that attentional control to neutral faces is impaired and negatively affected performance on a WM task in adolescents with MDD. Such an impact of neutral faces on attentional control in MDD may be at the core of the social-cognitive impairment observed in this population.

Age-Related Changes in the Processing of Emotional Faces in a Dual-Task Paradigm.

PubMed

Casares-Guillén, Carmen; García-Rodríguez, Beatriz; Delgado, Marisa; Ellgring, Heiner

2016-01-01

Background/ Study Context: Age-related changes appear to affect the ability to identify emotional facial expressions in dual-task conditions (i.e., while simultaneously performing a second visual task). The level of interference generated by the secondary task depends on the phase of emotional processing affected by the interference and the nature of the secondary task. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of these variables on age-related changes in the processing of emotional faces. The identification of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) was assessed in a dual-task paradigm using the following variables: (a) the phase during which interference was applied (encoding vs. retrieval phase); and (b) the nature of the interfering stimulus (visuospatial vs. verbal). The sample population consisted of 24 healthy aged adults (mean age = 75.38) and 40 younger adults (mean age = 26.90). The accuracy of EFE identification was calculated for all experimental conditions. Consistent with our hypothesis, the performance of the older group was poorer than that of the younger group in all experimental conditions. Dual-task performance was poorer when the interference occurred during the encoding phase of emotional face processing and when both tasks were of the same nature (i.e., when the experimental condition was more demanding in terms of attention). These results provide empirical evidence of age-related deficits in the identification of emotional facial expressions, which may be partially explained by the impairment of cognitive resources specific to this task. These findings may account for the difficulties experienced by the elderly during social interactions that require the concomitant processing of emotional and environmental information.

Target-context unitization effect on the familiarity-related FN400: a face recognition exclusion task.

PubMed

Guillaume, Fabrice; Etienne, Yann

2015-03-01

Using two exclusion tasks, the present study examined how the ERP correlates of face recognition are affected by the nature of the information to be retrieved. Intrinsic (facial expression) and extrinsic (background scene) visual information were paired with face identity and constituted the exclusion criterion at test time. Although perceptual information had to be taken into account in both situations, the FN400 old-new effect was observed only for old target faces on the expression-exclusion task, whereas it was found for both old target and old non-target faces in the background-exclusion situation. These results reveal that the FN400, which is generally interpreted as a correlate of familiarity, was modulated by the retrieval of intra-item and intrinsic face information, but not by the retrieval of extrinsic information. The observed effects on the FN400 depended on the nature of the information to be retrieved and its relationship (unitization) to the recognition target. On the other hand, the parietal old-new effect (generally described as an ERP correlate of recollection) reflected the retrieval of both types of contextual features equivalently. The current findings are discussed in relation to recent controversies about the nature of the recognition processes reflected by the ERP correlates of face recognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

TRITIUM EFFECTS ON WELDMENT FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morgan, M; Michael Tosten, M; Scott West, S

2006-07-17

The effects of tritium on the fracture toughness properties of Type 304L stainless steel and its weldments were measured. Fracture toughness data are needed for assessing tritium reservoir structural integrity. This report provides data from J-Integral fracture toughness tests on unexposed and tritium-exposed weldments. The effect of tritium on weldment toughness has not been measured until now. The data include tests on tritium-exposed weldments after aging for up to three years to measure the effect of increasing decay helium concentration on toughness. The results indicate that Type 304L stainless steel weldments have high fracture toughness and are resistant to tritiummore » aging effects on toughness. For unexposed alloys, weldment fracture toughness was higher than base metal toughness. Tritium-exposed-and-aged base metals and weldments had lower toughness values than unexposed ones but still retained good toughness properties. In both base metals and weldments there was an initial reduction in fracture toughness after tritium exposure but little change in fracture toughness values with increasing helium content in the range tested. Fracture modes occurred by the dimpled rupture process in unexposed and tritium-exposed steels and welds. This corroborates further the resistance of Type 304L steel to tritium embrittlement. This report fulfills the requirements for the FY06 Level 3 milestone, TSR15.3 ''Issue summary report for tritium reservoir material aging studies'' for the Enhanced Surveillance Campaign (ESC). The milestone was in support of ESC L2-1866 Milestone-''Complete an annual Enhanced Surveillance stockpile aging assessment report to support the annual assessment process''.« less

What Types of Visual Recognition Tasks Are Mediated by the Neural Subsystem that Subserves Face Recognition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Brian E.; Cooper, Eric E.

2006-01-01

Three divided visual field experiments tested current hypotheses about the types of visual shape representation tasks that recruit the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying face recognition. Experiment 1 found a right hemisphere advantage for subordinate but not basic-level face recognition. Experiment 2 found a right hemisphere advantage for…

Sustaining visual attention in the face of distraction: a novel gradual-onset continuous performance task.

PubMed

Rosenberg, Monica; Noonan, Sarah; DeGutis, Joseph; Esterman, Michael

2013-04-01

Sustained attention is a fundamental aspect of human cognition and has been widely studied in applied and clinical contexts. Despite a growing understanding of how attention varies throughout task performance, moment-to-moment fluctuations are often difficult to assess. In order to better characterize fluctuations in sustained visual attention, in the present study we employed a novel continuous performance task (CPT), the gradual-onset CPT (gradCPT). In the gradCPT, a central face stimulus gradually transitions between individuals at a constant rate (1,200 ms), and participants are instructed to respond to each male face but not to a rare target female face. In the distractor-present version, the background distractors consist of scene images, and in the distractor-absent condition, of phase-scrambled scene images. The results confirmed that the gradCPT taxes sustained attention, as vigilance decrements were observed over the task's 12-min duration: Participants made more commission errors and showed increasingly variable response latencies (RTs) over time. Participants' attentional states also fluctuated from moment to moment, with periods of higher RT variability being associated with increased likelihood of errors and greater speed-accuracy trade-offs. In addition, task performance was related to self-reported mindfulness and the propensity for attention lapses in everyday life. The gradCPT is a useful tool for studying both low- and high-frequency fluctuations in sustained visual attention and is sensitive to individual differences in attentional ability.

Damage Tolerance of Sandwich Plates with Debonded Face Sheets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Avery, John L., III; Sankar, Bhavani V.

1998-01-01

Axial compression tests were performed on debonded sandwich composites made of graphite/epoxy face-sheets and aramid fiber honeycomb core. The sandwich beams were manufactured using a vacuum baccrin2 process. The face-sheet and the sandwich beam were co-cured. Delamination between one of the face sheets and the core was introduced by using a Teflon layer during the curing process. Axial compression tests were performed to determine the ultimate load carrying capacity of the debonded beams. Flatwise tension tests and Double Cantilever Beam tests were performed to determine. respectively, the strength and fracture toughness of the face-sheet/core interface. From the test results semi-empirical formulas were derived for the fracture toughness and ultimate compressive load carrying capacity in terms of the core density. core thickness. face-sheet thickness and debond length. Four different failure modes and their relation to the structural properties were identified. Linear buckling analysis was found to be inadequate in predicting the compressive load carrying capacity of the debonded sandwich composites.

Is attentional prioritisation of infant faces unique in humans?: Comparative demonstrations by modified dot-probe task in monkeys.

PubMed

Koda, Hiroki; Sato, Anna; Kato, Akemi

2013-09-01

Humans innately perceive infantile features as cute. The ethologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that the infantile features of mammals and birds, known as the baby schema (kindchenschema), motivate caretaking behaviour. As biologically relevant stimuli, newborns are likely to be processed specially in terms of visual attention, perception, and cognition. Recent demonstrations on human participants have shown visual attentional prioritisation to newborn faces (i.e., newborn faces capture visual attention). Although characteristics equivalent to those found in the faces of human infants are found in nonhuman primates, attentional capture by newborn faces has not been tested in nonhuman primates. We examined whether conspecific newborn faces captured the visual attention of two Japanese monkeys using a target-detection task based on dot-probe tasks commonly used in human visual attention studies. Although visual cues enhanced target detection in subject monkeys, our results, unlike those for humans, showed no evidence of an attentional prioritisation for newborn faces by monkeys. Our demonstrations showed the validity of dot-probe task for visual attention studies in monkeys and propose a novel approach to bridge the gap between human and nonhuman primate social cognition research. This suggests that attentional capture by newborn faces is not common to macaques, but it is unclear if nursing experiences influence their perception and recognition of infantile appraisal stimuli. We need additional comparative studies to reveal the evolutionary origins of baby-schema perception and recognition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Why Some Humanoid Faces Are Perceived More Positively Than Others: Effects of Human-Likeness and Task

PubMed Central

Rogers, Wendy A.

2015-01-01

Ample research in social psychology has highlighted the importance of the human face in human–human interactions. However, there is a less clear understanding of how a humanoid robot's face is perceived by humans. One of the primary goals of this study was to investigate how initial perceptions of robots are influenced by the extent of human-likeness of the robot's face, particularly when the robot is intended to provide assistance with tasks in the home that are traditionally carried out by humans. Moreover, although robots have the potential to help both younger and older adults, there is limited knowledge of whether the two age groups' perceptions differ. In this study, younger (N = 32) and older adults (N = 32) imagined interacting with a robot in four different task contexts and rated robot faces of varying levels of human-likeness. Participants were also interviewed to assess their reasons for particular preferences. This multi-method approach identified patterns of perceptions across different appearances as well as reasons that influence the formation of such perceptions. Overall, the results indicated that people's perceptions of robot faces vary as a function of robot human-likeness. People tended to over-generalize their understanding of humans to build expectations about a human-looking robot's behavior and capabilities. Additionally, preferences for humanoid robots depended on the task although younger and older adults differed in their preferences for certain humanoid appearances. The results of this study have implications both for advancing theoretical understanding of robot perceptions and for creating and applying guidelines for the design of robots. PMID:26294936

Why Some Humanoid Faces Are Perceived More Positively Than Others: Effects of Human-Likeness and Task.

PubMed

Prakash, Akanksha; Rogers, Wendy A

2015-04-01

Ample research in social psychology has highlighted the importance of the human face in human-human interactions. However, there is a less clear understanding of how a humanoid robot's face is perceived by humans. One of the primary goals of this study was to investigate how initial perceptions of robots are influenced by the extent of human-likeness of the robot's face, particularly when the robot is intended to provide assistance with tasks in the home that are traditionally carried out by humans. Moreover, although robots have the potential to help both younger and older adults, there is limited knowledge of whether the two age groups' perceptions differ. In this study, younger ( N = 32) and older adults ( N = 32) imagined interacting with a robot in four different task contexts and rated robot faces of varying levels of human-likeness. Participants were also interviewed to assess their reasons for particular preferences. This multi-method approach identified patterns of perceptions across different appearances as well as reasons that influence the formation of such perceptions. Overall, the results indicated that people's perceptions of robot faces vary as a function of robot human-likeness. People tended to over-generalize their understanding of humans to build expectations about a human-looking robot's behavior and capabilities. Additionally, preferences for humanoid robots depended on the task although younger and older adults differed in their preferences for certain humanoid appearances. The results of this study have implications both for advancing theoretical understanding of robot perceptions and for creating and applying guidelines for the design of robots.

About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing.

PubMed

Richler, Jennifer J; Floyd, R Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically.

About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing

PubMed Central

Richler, Jennifer J.; Floyd, R. Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically. PMID:26223027

46 CFR 154.605 - Toughness test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Toughness test. 154.605 Section 154.605 Shipping COAST....605 Toughness test. (a) Each toughness test under §§ 154.610 through 154.625 must meet Subpart 54.05 of this chapter. (b) If subsize test specimens are used for the Charpy V-notch toughness test, the...

Neural substrates of cognitive switching and inhibition in a face processing task.

PubMed

Piguet, Camille; Sterpenich, Virginie; Desseilles, Martin; Cojan, Yann; Bertschy, Gilles; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2013-11-15

We frequently need to change our current occupation, an operation requiring additional effortful cognitive demands. Switching from one task to another may involve two distinct processes: inhibition of the previously relevant task-set, and initiation of a new one. Here we tested whether these two processes are underpinned by separate neural substrates, and whether they differ depending on the nature of the task and the emotional content of stimuli. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy human volunteers who categorize emotional faces according to three different judgment rules (color, gender, or emotional expression). Our paradigm allowed us to separate neural activity associated with inhibition and switching based on the sequence of the tasks required on successive trials. We found that the bilateral medial superior parietal lobule and left intraparietal sulcus showed consistent activation during switching regardless of the task. On the other hand, no common region was activated (or suppressed) as a consequence of inhibition across all tasks. Rather, task-specific effects were observed in brain regions that were more activated when switching to a particular task but less activated after inhibition of the same task. In addition, compared to other conditions, the emotional task elicited a similar switching cost but lower inhibition cost, accompanied by selective decrease in the anterior cingulate cortex when returning to this task shortly after inhibiting it. These results demonstrate that switching relies on domain-general processes mediated by postero-medial parietal areas, engaged across all tasks, but also provide novel evidence that task inhibition produces domain-specific decreases as a function of particular task demands, with only the latter inhibition component being modulated by emotional information. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Visual short-term memory load modulates the early attention and perception of task-irrelevant emotional faces

PubMed Central

Yang, Ping; Wang, Min; Jin, Zhenlan; Li, Ling

2015-01-01

The ability to focus on task-relevant information, while suppressing distraction, is critical for human cognition and behavior. Using a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task, we investigated the effects of emotional face distractors (positive, negative, and neutral faces) on early and late phases of visual short-term memory (VSTM) maintenance intervals, using low and high VSTM loads. Behavioral results showed decreased accuracy and delayed reaction times (RTs) for high vs. low VSTM load. Event-related potentials (ERPs) showed enhanced frontal N1 and occipital P1 amplitudes for negative faces vs. neutral or positive faces, implying rapid attentional alerting effects and early perceptual processing of negative distractors. However, high VSTM load appeared to inhibit face processing in general, showing decreased N1 amplitudes and delayed P1 latencies. An inverse correlation between the N1 activation difference (high-load minus low-load) and RT costs (high-load minus low-load) was found at left frontal areas when viewing negative distractors, suggesting that the greater the inhibition the lower the RT cost for negative faces. Emotional interference effect was not found in the late VSTM-related parietal P300, frontal positive slow wave (PSW) and occipital negative slow wave (NSW) components. In general, our findings suggest that the VSTM load modulates the early attention and perception of emotional distractors. PMID:26388763

User's Guide for TOUGH2-MP - A Massively Parallel Version of the TOUGH2 Code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Earth Sciences Division; Zhang, Keni; Zhang, Keni

TOUGH2-MP is a massively parallel (MP) version of the TOUGH2 code, designed for computationally efficient parallel simulation of isothermal and nonisothermal flows of multicomponent, multiphase fluids in one, two, and three-dimensional porous and fractured media. In recent years, computational requirements have become increasingly intensive in large or highly nonlinear problems for applications in areas such as radioactive waste disposal, CO2 geological sequestration, environmental assessment and remediation, reservoir engineering, and groundwater hydrology. The primary objective of developing the parallel-simulation capability is to significantly improve the computational performance of the TOUGH2 family of codes. The particular goal for the parallel simulator ismore » to achieve orders-of-magnitude improvement in computational time for models with ever-increasing complexity. TOUGH2-MP is designed to perform parallel simulation on multi-CPU computational platforms. An earlier version of TOUGH2-MP (V1.0) was based on the TOUGH2 Version 1.4 with EOS3, EOS9, and T2R3D modules, a software previously qualified for applications in the Yucca Mountain project, and was designed for execution on CRAY T3E and IBM SP supercomputers. The current version of TOUGH2-MP (V2.0) includes all fluid property modules of the standard version TOUGH2 V2.0. It provides computationally efficient capabilities using supercomputers, Linux clusters, or multi-core PCs, and also offers many user-friendly features. The parallel simulator inherits all process capabilities from V2.0 together with additional capabilities for handling fractured media from V1.4. This report provides a quick starting guide on how to set up and run the TOUGH2-MP program for users with a basic knowledge of running the (standard) version TOUGH2 code, The report also gives a brief technical description of the code, including a discussion of parallel methodology, code structure, as well as mathematical and numerical

iTOUGH2 v7.1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

FINSTERLE, STEFAN; JUNG, YOOJIN; KOWALSKY, MICHAEL

2016-09-15

iTOUGH2 (inverse TOUGH2) provides inverse modeling capabilities for TOUGH2, a simulator for multi-dimensional, multi-phase, multi-component, non-isothermal flow and transport in fractured porous media. iTOUGH2 performs sensitivity analyses, data-worth analyses, parameter estimation, and uncertainty propagation analyses in geosciences and reservoir engineering and other application areas. iTOUGH2 supports a number of different combinations of fluids and components (equation-of-state (EOS) modules). In addition, the optimization routines implemented in iTOUGH2 can also be used for sensitivity analysis, automatic model calibration, and uncertainty quantification of any external code that uses text-based input and output files using the PEST protocol. iTOUGH2 solves the inverse problem bymore » minimizing a non-linear objective function of the weighted differences between model output and the corresponding observations. Multiple minimization algorithms (derivative-free, gradient-based, and second-order; local and global) are available. iTOUGH2 also performs Latin Hypercube Monte Carlo simulations for uncertainty propagation analyses. A detailed residual and error analysis is provided. This upgrade includes (a) global sensitivity analysis methods, (b) dynamic memory allocation (c) additional input features and output analyses, (d) increased forward simulation capabilities, (e) parallel execution on multicore PCs and Linux clusters, and (f) bug fixes. More details can be found at http://esd.lbl.gov/iTOUGH2.« less

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender.

PubMed

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender).

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender

PubMed Central

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender). PMID:27840621

Decreased response inhibition to sad faces during explicit and implicit tasks in females with depression: Evidence from an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Yu, Fengqiong; Zhou, Xiaoqing; Qing, Wu; Li, Dan; Li, Jing; Chen, Xingui; Ji, Gongjun; Dong, Yi; Luo, Yuejia; Zhu, Chunyan; Wang, Kai

2017-01-30

The present study aimed to investigate neural substrates of response inhibition to sad faces across explicit and implicit tasks in depressed female patients. Event-related potentials were obtained while participants performed modified explicit and implicit emotional go/no-go tasks. Compared to controls, depressed patients showed decreased discrimination accuracy and amplitudes of original and nogo-go difference waves at the P3 interval in response inhibition to sad faces during explicit and implicit tasks. P3 difference wave were positively correlated with discrimination accuracy and were independent of clinical assessment. The activation of right dorsal prefrontal cortex was larger for the implicit than for the explicit task in sad condition in health controls, but was similar for the two tasks in depressed patients. The present study indicated that selectively impairment in response inhibition to sad faces in depressed female patients occurred at the behavior inhibition stage across implicit and explicit tasks and may be a trait-like marker of depression. Longitudinal studies are required to determine whether decreased response inhibition to sad faces increases the risk for future depressive episodes so that appropriate treatment can be administered to patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face puzzle—two new video-based tasks for measuring explicit and implicit aspects of facial emotion recognition

PubMed Central

Kliemann, Dorit; Rosenblau, Gabriela; Bölte, Sven; Heekeren, Hauke R.; Dziobek, Isabel

2013-01-01

Recognizing others' emotional states is crucial for effective social interaction. While most facial emotion recognition tasks use explicit prompts that trigger consciously controlled processing, emotional faces are almost exclusively processed implicitly in real life. Recent attempts in social cognition suggest a dual process perspective, whereby explicit and implicit processes largely operate independently. However, due to differences in methodology the direct comparison of implicit and explicit social cognition has remained a challenge. Here, we introduce a new tool to comparably measure implicit and explicit processing aspects comprising basic and complex emotions in facial expressions. We developed two video-based tasks with similar answer formats to assess performance in respective facial emotion recognition processes: Face Puzzle, implicit and explicit. To assess the tasks' sensitivity to atypical social cognition and to infer interrelationship patterns between explicit and implicit processes in typical and atypical development, we included healthy adults (NT, n = 24) and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 24). Item analyses yielded good reliability of the new tasks. Group-specific results indicated sensitivity to subtle social impairments in high-functioning ASD. Correlation analyses with established implicit and explicit socio-cognitive measures were further in favor of the tasks' external validity. Between group comparisons provide first hints of differential relations between implicit and explicit aspects of facial emotion recognition processes in healthy compared to ASD participants. In addition, an increased magnitude of between group differences in the implicit task was found for a speed-accuracy composite measure. The new Face Puzzle tool thus provides two new tasks to separately assess explicit and implicit social functioning, for instance, to measure subtle impairments as well as potential improvements due to social cognitive

Working memory representations persist in the face of unexpected task alterations.

PubMed

Swan, Garrett; Wyble, Brad; Chen, Hui

2017-07-01

It is well known that information can be held in memory while performing other tasks concurrently, such as remembering a color or number during a separate visual search task. However, it is not clear what happens to stored information in the face of unexpected tasks, such as the surprise questions that are often used in experiments related to inattentional and change blindness. Does the unpredicted shift in task context cause memory representations to be cleared in anticipation of new information? To answer this question, we ran two experiments where the task unexpectedly switched partway through the experiment with a surprise question. Half of the participants were asked to report the same attribute (Exp. 1 = Identity, Exp. 2 = Color) of a target stimulus in both presurprise and postsurprise trials, while for the other half, the reported attribute switched from identity to color (Exp. 1) or vice versa (Exp. 2). Importantly, all participants had to read an unexpected set of instructions and respond differently on the surprise trial. Accuracy on the surprise trial was higher for the same-attribute groups than the different-attribute groups. Furthermore, there was no difference in reaction time on the surprise trial between the two groups. These results suggest that information participants expected to report can survive an encounter with an unexpected task. The implication is that failures to report information on a surprise trial in many experiments reflect genuine differences in memory encoding, rather than forgetting or overwriting induced by the surprise question.

Brain connectivity analysis from EEG signals using stable phase-synchronized states during face perception tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamal, Wasifa; Das, Saptarshi; Maharatna, Koushik; Pan, Indranil; Kuyucu, Doga

2015-09-01

Degree of phase synchronization between different Electroencephalogram (EEG) channels is known to be the manifestation of the underlying mechanism of information coupling between different brain regions. In this paper, we apply a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) based analysis technique on EEG data, captured during face perception tasks, to explore the temporal evolution of phase synchronization, from the onset of a stimulus. Our explorations show that there exists a small set (typically 3-5) of unique synchronized patterns or synchrostates, each of which are stable of the order of milliseconds. Particularly, in the beta (β) band, which has been reported to be associated with visual processing task, the number of such stable states has been found to be three consistently. During processing of the stimulus, the switching between these states occurs abruptly but the switching characteristic follows a well-behaved and repeatable sequence. This is observed in a single subject analysis as well as a multiple-subject group-analysis in adults during face perception. We also show that although these patterns remain topographically similar for the general category of face perception task, the sequence of their occurrence and their temporal stability varies markedly between different face perception scenarios (stimuli) indicating toward different dynamical characteristics for information processing, which is stimulus-specific in nature. Subsequently, we translated these stable states into brain complex networks and derived informative network measures for characterizing the degree of segregated processing and information integration in those synchrostates, leading to a new methodology for characterizing information processing in human brain. The proposed methodology of modeling the functional brain connectivity through the synchrostates may be viewed as a new way of quantitative characterization of the cognitive ability of the subject, stimuli and information integration

Ultrasonic ranking of toughness of tungsten carbide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vary, A.; Hull, D. R.

1983-01-01

The feasibility of using ultrasonic attenuation measurements to rank tungsten carbide alloys according to their fracture toughness was demonstrated. Six samples of cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co) were examined. These varied in cobalt content from approximately 2 to 16 weight percent. The toughness generally increased with increasing cobalt content. Toughness was first determined by the Palmqvist and short rod fracture toughness tests. Subsequently, ultrasonic attenuation measurements were correlated with both these mechanical test methods. It is shown that there is a strong increase in ultrasonic attenuation corresponding to increased toughness of the WC-Co alloys. A correlation between attenuation and toughness exists for a wide range of ultrasonic frequencies. However, the best correlation for the WC-Co alloys occurs when the attenuation coefficient measured in the vicinity of 100 megahertz is compared with toughness as determined by the Palmqvist technique.

Meta-analytic review of the development of face discrimination in infancy: Face race, face gender, infant age, and methodology moderate face discrimination.

PubMed

Sugden, Nicole A; Marquis, Alexandra R

2017-11-01

Infants show facility for discriminating between individual faces within hours of birth. Over the first year of life, infants' face discrimination shows continued improvement with familiar face types, such as own-race faces, but not with unfamiliar face types, like other-race faces. The goal of this meta-analytic review is to provide an effect size for infants' face discrimination ability overall, with own-race faces, and with other-race faces within the first year of life, how this differs with age, and how it is influenced by task methodology. Inclusion criteria were (a) infant participants aged 0 to 12 months, (b) completing a human own- or other-race face discrimination task, (c) with discrimination being determined by infant looking. Our analysis included 30 works (165 samples, 1,926 participants participated in 2,623 tasks). The effect size for infants' face discrimination was small, 6.53% greater than chance (i.e., equal looking to the novel and familiar). There was a significant difference in discrimination by race, overall (own-race, 8.18%; other-race, 3.18%) and between ages (own-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 7.32%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 9.17%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 7.68%; other-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 6.12%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 3.70%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 2.79%). Multilevel linear (mixed-effects) models were used to predict face discrimination; infants' capacity to discriminate faces is sensitive to face characteristics including race, gender, and emotion as well as the methods used, including task timing, coding method, and visual angle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Fracture toughness testing of polymer matrix composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grady, Joseph E.

1992-01-01

A review of the interlaminar fracture indicates that a standard specimen geometry is needed to obtain consistent fracture toughness measurements in polymer matrix composites. In general, the variability of measured toughness values increases as the toughness of the material increases. This variability could be caused by incorrect sizing of test specimens and/or inconsistent data reduction procedures. A standard data reduction procedure is therefore needed as well, particularly for the tougher materials. Little work has been reported on the effects of fiber orientation, fiber architecture, fiber surface treatment or interlaminar fracture toughness, and the mechanisms by which the fibers increase fracture toughness are not well understood. The little data that is available indicates that woven fiber reinforcement and fiber sizings can significantly increase interlaminar fracture toughness.

Tough Questions for Tough Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parrett, William; Budge, Kathleen

2009-01-01

Six high-performing/high-poverty schools provide insights into what it takes to make a dramatic turnaround. School leaders had to make tough calls--and many of those decisions were about how to use resources. The budget in a high-performing, high-poverty school is a moral document, reflective of the school's beliefs about the conditions necessary…

Face-name association task reveals memory networks in patients with left and right hippocampal sclerosis.

PubMed

Klamer, Silke; Milian, Monika; Erb, Michael; Rona, Sabine; Lerche, Holger; Ethofer, Thomas

2017-01-01

We aimed to identify reorganization processes of episodic memory networks in patients with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) due to hippocampal sclerosis as well as their relations to neuropsychological memory performance. We investigated 28 healthy subjects, 12 patients with left TLE (LTLE) and 9 patients with right TLE (RTLE) with hippocampal sclerosis by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a face-name association task, which combines verbal and non-verbal memory functions. Regions-of-interest (ROIs) were defined based on the group results of the healthy subjects. In each ROI, fMRI activations were compared across groups and correlated with verbal and non-verbal memory scores. The face-name association task yielded activations in bilateral hippocampus (HC), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral angular gyrus (AG), bilateral medial prefrontal cortex and right anterior temporal lobe (ATL). LTLE patients demonstrated significantly less activation in the left HC and left SFG, whereas RTLE patients showed significantly less activation in the HC bilaterally, the left SFG and right AG. Verbal memory scores correlated with activations in the left and right HC, left SFG and right ATL and non-verbal memory scores with fMRI activations in the left and right HC and left SFG. The face-name association task can be employed to examine functional alterations of hippocampal activation during encoding of both verbal and non-verbal material in one fMRI paradigm. Further, the left SFG seems to be a convergence region for encoding of verbal and non-verbal material.

A leftward bias however you look at it: Revisiting the emotional chimeric face task as a tool for measuring emotion lateralization.

PubMed

R Innes, Bobby; Burt, D Michael; Birch, Yan K; Hausmann, Markus

2015-12-28

Left hemiface biases observed within the Emotional Chimeric Face Task (ECFT) support emotional face perception models whereby all expressions are preferentially processed by the right hemisphere. However, previous research using this task has not considered that the visible midline between hemifaces might engage atypical facial emotion processing strategies in upright or inverted conditions, nor controlled for left visual field (thus right hemispheric) visuospatial attention biases. This study used novel emotional chimeric faces (blended at the midline) to examine laterality biases for all basic emotions. Left hemiface biases were demonstrated across all emotional expressions and were reduced, but not reversed, for inverted faces. The ECFT bias in upright faces was significantly increased in participants with a large attention bias. These results support the theory that left hemiface biases reflect a genuine bias in emotional face processing, and this bias can interact with attention processes similarly localized in the right hemisphere.

Withholding response to self-face is faster than to other-face.

PubMed

Zhu, Min; Hu, Yinying; Tang, Xiaochen; Luo, Junlong; Gao, Xiangping

2015-01-01

Self-face advantage refers to adults' response to self-face is faster than that to other-face. A stop-signal task was used to explore how self-face advantage interacted with response inhibition. The results showed that reaction times of self-face were faster than that of other-face not in the go task but in the stop response trials. The novelty of the finding was that self-face has shorter stop-signal reaction time compared to other-face in the successful inhibition trials. These results indicated the processing mechanism of self-face may be characterized by a strong response tendency and a corresponding strong inhibition control.

Effortful versus automatic emotional processing in schizophrenia: Insights from a face-vignette task.

PubMed

Patrick, Regan E; Rastogi, Anuj; Christensen, Bruce K

2015-01-01

Adaptive emotional responding relies on dual automatic and effortful processing streams. Dual-stream models of schizophrenia (SCZ) posit a selective deficit in neural circuits that govern goal-directed, effortful processes versus reactive, automatic processes. This imbalance suggests that when patients are confronted with competing automatic and effortful emotional response cues, they will exhibit diminished effortful responding and intact, possibly elevated, automatic responding compared to controls. This prediction was evaluated using a modified version of the face-vignette task (FVT). Participants viewed emotional faces (automatic response cue) paired with vignettes (effortful response cue) that signalled a different emotion category and were instructed to discriminate the manifest emotion. Patients made less vignette and more face responses than controls. However, the relationship between group and FVT responding was moderated by IQ and reading comprehension ability. These results replicate and extend previous research and provide tentative support for abnormal conflict resolution between automatic and effortful emotional processing predicted by dual-stream models of SCZ.

Mental toughness latent profiles in endurance athletes

PubMed Central

Zeiger, Robert S.

2018-01-01

Mental toughness in endurance athletes, while an important factor for success, has been scarcely studied. An online survey was used to examine eight mental toughness factors in endurance athletes. The study aim was to determine mental toughness profiles via latent profile analysis in endurance athletes and whether associations exist between the latent profiles and demographics and sports characteristics. Endurance athletes >18 years of age were recruited via social media outlets (n = 1245, 53% female). Mental toughness was measured using the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ), Psychological Performance Inventory-Alternative (PPI-A), and self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). A three-class solution emerged, designated as high mental toughness (High MT), moderate mental toughness (Moderate MT) and low mental toughness (Low MT). ANOVA tests showed significant differences between all three classes on all 8 factors derived from the SMTQ, PPI-A and the RSE. There was an increased odds of being in the High MT class compared to the Low MT class for males (OR = 1.99; 95% CI, 1.39, 2.83; P<0.001), athletes who were over 55 compared to those who were 18–34 (OR = 2.52; 95% CI, 1.37, 4.62; P<0.01), high sports satisfaction (OR = 8.17; 95% CI, 5.63, 11.87; P<0.001), and high division placement (OR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.46,3.26; P<0.001). The data showed that mental toughness latent profiles exist in endurance athletes. High MT is associated with demographics and sports characteristics. Mental toughness screening in athletes may help direct practitioners with mental skills training. PMID:29474398

The Face-to-Face Light Detection Paradigm: A New Methodology for Investigating Visuospatial Attention Across Different Face Regions in Live Face-to-Face Communication Settings.

PubMed

Thompson, Laura A; Malloy, Daniel M; Cone, John M; Hendrickson, David L

2010-01-01

We introduce a novel paradigm for studying the cognitive processes used by listeners within interactive settings. This paradigm places the talker and the listener in the same physical space, creating opportunities for investigations of attention and comprehension processes taking place during interactive discourse situations. An experiment was conducted to compare results from previous research using videotaped stimuli to those obtained within the live face-to-face task paradigm. A headworn apparatus is used to briefly display LEDs on the talker's face in four locations as the talker communicates with the participant. In addition to the primary task of comprehending speeches, participants make a secondary task light detection response. In the present experiment, the talker gave non-emotionally-expressive speeches that were used in past research with videotaped stimuli. Signal detection analysis was employed to determine which areas of the face received the greatest focus of attention. Results replicate previous findings using videotaped methods.

The Face-to-Face Light Detection Paradigm: A New Methodology for Investigating Visuospatial Attention Across Different Face Regions in Live Face-to-Face Communication Settings

PubMed Central

Thompson, Laura A.; Malloy, Daniel M.; Cone, John M.; Hendrickson, David L.

2009-01-01

We introduce a novel paradigm for studying the cognitive processes used by listeners within interactive settings. This paradigm places the talker and the listener in the same physical space, creating opportunities for investigations of attention and comprehension processes taking place during interactive discourse situations. An experiment was conducted to compare results from previous research using videotaped stimuli to those obtained within the live face-to-face task paradigm. A headworn apparatus is used to briefly display LEDs on the talker’s face in four locations as the talker communicates with the participant. In addition to the primary task of comprehending speeches, participants make a secondary task light detection response. In the present experiment, the talker gave non-emotionally-expressive speeches that were used in past research with videotaped stimuli. Signal detection analysis was employed to determine which areas of the face received the greatest focus of attention. Results replicate previous findings using videotaped methods. PMID:21113354

iTOUGH2 V6.5

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finsterle, Stefan A.

2010-11-01

iTOUGH2 (inverse TOUGH2) provides inverse modeling capabilities for TOUGH2, a simulator for multi-dimensional , multi-phase, multi-component, non-isothermal flow and transport in fractured porous media. It performs sensitivity analysis, parameter estimation, and uncertainty propagation, analysis in geosciences and reservoir engineering and other application areas. It supports a number of different combination of fluids and components [equation-of-state (EOS) modules]. In addition, the optimization routines implemented in iTOUGH2 can also be used or sensitivity analysis, automatic model calibration, and uncertainty quantification of any external code that uses text-based input and output files. This link is achieved by means of the PEST application programmingmore » interface. iTOUGH2 solves the inverse problem by minimizing a non-linear objective function of the weighted differences between model output and the corresponding observations. Multiple minimization algorithms (derivative fee, gradient-based and second-order; local and global) are available. iTOUGH2 also performs Latin Hypercube Monte Carlos simulation for uncertainty propagation analysis. A detailed residual and error analysis is provided. This upgrade includes new EOS modules (specifically EOS7c, ECO2N and TMVOC), hysteretic relative permeability and capillary pressure functions and the PEST API. More details can be found at http://esd.lbl.gov/iTOUGH2 and the publications cited there. Hardware Req.: Multi-platform; Related/auxiliary software PVM (if running in parallel).« less

Fracture toughness of fibrous composite materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poe, C. C., Jr.

1984-01-01

Laminates with various proportions of 0 deg, 45 deg, and 90 deg plies were fabricated from T300/5208 and T300/BP-907 graphite/epoxy prepreg tape material. The fracture toughness of each laminate orientation or lay-up was determined by testing center-cracked specimens, and it was also predicted with the general fracture-toughness parameter. The predictions were good except when crack-tip splitting was large, at which time the toughness and strengths tended to be underpredicted. By using predictions, a parametric study was also made of factors that influence fracture toughness. Fiber and matrix properties as well as lay-up were investigated. Without crack-tip splitting, fracture toughness increases in proportion to fiber strength and fiber volume fraction, increases linearly with E(22)/E(11), is largest when the modulus for non-0 deg fibers is greater than that of 0 deg fibers, and is smallest for 0(m)/90(p)(s) lay-ups. (The E(11) and E(22) are Young's moduli of the lamina parallel to and normal to the direction of the fibers, respectively). For a given proportion of 0 deg plies, the most notch-sensitive lay-ups are 0(m)/90(p)(s) and the least sensitive are 0(m)/45(n)(s) and alpha(s). Notch sensitivity increases with the proportion of 0 deg plies and decreases with alpha. Strong, tough matrix materials, which inhibit crack-tip splitting, generally lead to minimum fracture toughness.

Processing of face identity in the affective flanker task: a diffusion model analysis.

PubMed

Mueller, Christina J; Kuchinke, Lars

2016-11-01

Affective flanker tasks often present affective facial expressions as stimuli. However, it is not clear whether the identity of the person on the target picture needs to be the same for the flanker stimuli or whether it is better to use pictures of different persons as flankers. While Grose-Fifer, Rodrigues, Hoover & Zottoli (Advances in Cognitive Psychology 9(2):81-91, 2013) state that attentional focus might be captured by processing the differences between faces, i.e. the identity, and therefore use pictures of the same individual as target and flanker stimuli, Munro, Dywan, Harris, McKee, Unsal & Segalowitz (Biological Psychology, 76:31-42, 2007) propose an advantage in presenting pictures of a different individual as flankers. They state that participants might focus only on small visual changes when targets and flankers are from the same individual instead of processing the affective content of the stimuli. The present study manipulated face identity in a between-subject design. Through investigation of behavioral measures as well as diffusion model parameters, we conclude that both types of flankers work equally efficient. This result seems best supported by recent accounts that propose an advantage of emotional processing over identity processing in face recognition. In the present study, there is no evidence that the processing of the face identity attracts sufficient attention to interfere with the affective evaluation of the target and flanker faces.

Face-to-face interference in typical and atypical development

PubMed Central

Riby, Deborah M; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

2012-01-01

Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze it interferes with task completion. In this novel study we quantify face interference for the first time in Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These disorders of development impact on cognition and social attention, but how do faces interfere with cognitive processing? Individuals developing typically as well as those with ASD (n = 19) and WS (n = 16) were recorded during a question and answer session that involved mathematics questions. In phase 1 gaze behaviour was not manipulated, but in phase 2 participants were required to maintain eye contact with the experimenter at all times. Looking at faces decreased task accuracy for individuals who were developing typically. Critically, the same pattern was seen in WS and ASD, whereby task performance decreased when participants were required to hold face gaze. The results show that looking at faces interferes with task performance in all groups. This finding requires the caveat that individuals with WS and ASD found it harder than individuals who were developing typically to maintain eye contact throughout the interaction. Individuals with ASD struggled to hold eye contact at all points of the interaction while those with WS found it especially difficult when thinking. PMID:22356183

46 CFR 54.05-6 - Toughness test temperatures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Toughness test temperatures. 54.05-6 Section 54.05-6... Toughness Tests § 54.05-6 Toughness test temperatures. Each toughness test must be conducted at temperatures not warmer than −20 °F or 10 °F below the minimum service temperature, whichever is lower, except that...

46 CFR 54.05-6 - Toughness test temperatures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Toughness test temperatures. 54.05-6 Section 54.05-6... Toughness Tests § 54.05-6 Toughness test temperatures. Each toughness test must be conducted at temperatures not warmer than −20 °F or 10 °F below the minimum service temperature, whichever is lower, except that...

46 CFR 54.05-6 - Toughness test temperatures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Toughness test temperatures. 54.05-6 Section 54.05-6... Toughness Tests § 54.05-6 Toughness test temperatures. Each toughness test must be conducted at temperatures not warmer than −20 °F or 10 °F below the minimum service temperature, whichever is lower, except that...

46 CFR 54.05-6 - Toughness test temperatures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Toughness test temperatures. 54.05-6 Section 54.05-6... Toughness Tests § 54.05-6 Toughness test temperatures. Each toughness test must be conducted at temperatures not warmer than −20 °F or 10 °F below the minimum service temperature, whichever is lower, except that...

Face-n-Food: Gender Differences in Tuning to Faces.

PubMed

Pavlova, Marina A; Scheffler, Klaus; Sokolov, Alexander N

2015-01-01

Faces represent valuable signals for social cognition and non-verbal communication. A wealth of research indicates that women tend to excel in recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether females are better tuned to faces. We presented healthy adult females and males with a set of newly created food-plate images resembling faces (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Females not only more readily recognized the images as a face (they reported resembling a face on images, on which males still did not), but gave on overall more face responses. The findings are discussed in the light of gender differences in deficient face perception. As most neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental and psychosomatic disorders characterized by social brain abnormalities are sex specific, the task may serve as a valuable tool for uncovering impairments in visual face processing.

Face-n-Food: Gender Differences in Tuning to Faces

PubMed Central

Pavlova, Marina A.; Scheffler, Klaus; Sokolov, Alexander N.

2015-01-01

Faces represent valuable signals for social cognition and non-verbal communication. A wealth of research indicates that women tend to excel in recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether females are better tuned to faces. We presented healthy adult females and males with a set of newly created food-plate images resembling faces (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Females not only more readily recognized the images as a face (they reported resembling a face on images, on which males still did not), but gave on overall more face responses. The findings are discussed in the light of gender differences in deficient face perception. As most neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental and psychosomatic disorders characterized by social brain abnormalities are sex specific, the task may serve as a valuable tool for uncovering impairments in visual face processing. PMID:26154177

TOUGH3 v1.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

PAU, GEORGE; JUNG, YOOJIN; FINSTERLE, STEFAN

2016-09-14

TOUGH3 V1.0 capabilities to simulate multi-dimensional, multi-phase, multi-component, non-isothermal flow and transport in fractured porous media, with applications geosciences and reservoir engineering and other application areas. TOUGH3 V1.0 supports a number of different combinations of fluids and components (updated equation-of-state (EOS) modules from previous versions of TOUGH, including EOS1, EOS2, EOS3, EOS4, EOS5, EOS7, EOS7R, EOS7C, EOS7CA, EOS8, EOS9, EWASG, TMVOC, ECO2N, and ECO2M). This upgrade includes (a) expanded list of updated equation-of-state (EOS) modules, (b) new hysteresis models, (c) new implementation of parallel and solver functionalities, (d) new linear solver options based on PETSc libraries, (e) new automatic buildmore » system that automatically downloads and builds third-party libraries and TOUGH3, (f) new printout in CSV format, (g) dynamic memory allocation, (h) various user features, and (i) bug fixes.« less

iTOUGH2 Universal Optimization Using the PEST Protocol

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finsterle, S.A.

2010-07-01

iTOUGH2 (http://www-esd.lbl.gov/iTOUGH2) is a computer program for parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty propagation analysis [Finsterle, 2007a, b, c]. iTOUGH2 contains a number of local and global minimization algorithms for automatic calibration of a model against measured data, or for the solution of other, more general optimization problems (see, for example, Finsterle [2005]). A detailed residual and estimation uncertainty analysis is conducted to assess the inversion results. Moreover, iTOUGH2 can be used to perform a formal sensitivity analysis, or to conduct Monte Carlo simulations for the examination for prediction uncertainties. iTOUGH2's capabilities are continually enhanced. As the name implies, iTOUGH2more » is developed for use in conjunction with the TOUGH2 forward simulator for nonisothermal multiphase flow in porous and fractured media [Pruess, 1991]. However, iTOUGH2 provides FORTRAN interfaces for the estimation of user-specified parameters (see subroutine USERPAR) based on user-specified observations (see subroutine USEROBS). These user interfaces can be invoked to add new parameter or observation types to the standard set provided in iTOUGH2. They can also be linked to non-TOUGH2 models, i.e., iTOUGH2 can be used as a universal optimization code, similar to other model-independent, nonlinear parameter estimation packages such as PEST [Doherty, 2008] or UCODE [Poeter and Hill, 1998]. However, to make iTOUGH2's optimization capabilities available for use with an external code, the user is required to write some FORTRAN code that provides the link between the iTOUGH2 parameter vector and the input parameters of the external code, and between the output variables of the external code and the iTOUGH2 observation vector. While allowing for maximum flexibility, the coding requirement of this approach limits its applicability to those users with FORTRAN coding knowledge. To make iTOUGH2 capabilities accessible to many

46 CFR 54.05-6 - Toughness test temperatures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Toughness test temperatures. 54.05-6 Section 54.05-6 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING PRESSURE VESSELS Toughness Tests § 54.05-6 Toughness test temperatures. Each toughness test must be conducted at temperatures not warmer than −20 °F or 10 °F below the...

On "Tough" Movement in Spanish.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reider, Michael

1993-01-01

A survey of native Spanish speakers from both Spain and Latin America found that the choice of predicate adjectives governing "tough" constructions in Spanish (e.g., "el libro es facil de leer") varies by individual, but some patterns did emerge that suggest "tough" constructions and "it is" constructions…

Framing faces: Frame alignment impacts holistic face perception.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Entenman, Robert

2016-11-01

Traditional accounts of face perception emphasise the importance of the prototypical configuration of features within faces. However, here we probe influences of more general perceptual grouping mechanisms on holistic face perception. Participants made part-matching judgments about composite faces presented in intact external oval frames or frames made from misaligned oval parts. This manipulation served to disrupt basic perceptual grouping cues that facilitate the grouping of the two face halves together. This manipulation also produced an external face contour like that in the standard misaligned condition used within the classic composite face task. Notably, by introducing a discontinuity in the external contour, grouping of the face halves into a cohesive unit was discouraged, but face configuration was preserved. Conditions where both the face parts and the frames were misaligned together, as in the typical composite task paradigm, or where just the internal face parts where misaligned, were also included. Disrupting only the face frame similarly disrupted holistic face perception as disrupting both the frame and face configuration. However, misaligned face parts presented in aligned frames also incurred a cost to holistic perception. These findings provide support for the contribution of general-purpose perceptual grouping mechanisms to holistic face perception and are presented and discussed in the context of an enhanced object-based selection account of holistic perception.

Attentional bias for emotional faces in paediatric anxiety disorders: an investigation using the emotional Go/No Go task.

PubMed

Waters, Allison M; Valvoi, Jaya S

2009-06-01

The present study examined contextual modulation of attentional control processes in paediatric anxiety disorders. Anxious children (N=20) and non-anxious controls (N=20) completed an emotional Go/No Go task in which they responded on some trials (i.e., Go trials) when neutral faces were presented amongst either angry or happy faces to which children avoided responding (i.e., No Go trials) or when angry and happy faces were presented as Go trials and children avoided responding to neutral faces. Anxious girls were slower responding to neutral faces with embedded angry compared with happy face No Go trials whereas non-anxious girls were slower responding to neutral faces with embedded happy versus angry face No Go trials. Anxious and non-anxious boys showed the same basic pattern as non-anxious girls. There were no significant group differences on No Go trials or when the emotional faces were presented as Go trials. Results are discussed in terms of selective interference by angry faces in the control of attention in anxious girls.

How Fast is Famous Face Recognition?

PubMed Central

Barragan-Jason, Gladys; Lachat, Fanny; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.

2012-01-01

The rapid recognition of familiar faces is crucial for social interactions. However the actual speed with which recognition can be achieved remains largely unknown as most studies have been carried out without any speed constraints. Different paradigms have been used, leading to conflicting results, and although many authors suggest that face recognition is fast, the speed of face recognition has not been directly compared to “fast” visual tasks. In this study, we sought to overcome these limitations. Subjects performed three tasks, a familiarity categorization task (famous faces among unknown faces), a superordinate categorization task (human faces among animal ones), and a gender categorization task. All tasks were performed under speed constraints. The results show that, despite the use of speed constraints, subjects were slow when they had to categorize famous faces: minimum reaction time was 467 ms, which is 180 ms more than during superordinate categorization and 160 ms more than in the gender condition. Our results are compatible with a hierarchy of face processing from the superordinate level to the familiarity level. The processes taking place between detection and recognition need to be investigated in detail. PMID:23162503

Posterior cortical atrophy: an investigation of scan paths generated during face matching tasks

PubMed Central

Meek, Benjamin P.; Locheed, Keri; Lawrence-Dewar, Jane M.; Shelton, Paul; Marotta, Jonathan J.

2013-01-01

When viewing a face, healthy individuals focus more on the area containing the eyes and upper nose in order to retrieve important featural and configural information. In contrast, individuals with face blindness (prosopagnosia) tend to direct fixations toward individual facial features—particularly the mouth. Presented here is an examination of face perception deficits in individuals with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA). PCA is a rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by atrophy in occipito-parietal and occipito-temporal cortices. PCA primarily affects higher visual processing, while memory, reasoning, and insight remain relatively intact. A common symptom of PCA is a decreased effective field of vision caused by the inability to “see the whole picture.” Individuals with PCA and healthy control participants completed a same/different discrimination task in which images of faces were presented as cue-target pairs. Eye-tracking equipment and a novel computer-based perceptual task—the Viewing Window paradigm—were used to investigate scan patterns when faces were presented in open view or through a restricted-view, respectively. In contrast to previous prosopagnosia research, individuals with PCA each produced unique scan paths that focused on non-diagnostically useful locations. This focus on non-diagnostically useful locations was also present when using a restricted viewing aperture, suggesting that individuals with PCA have difficulty processing the face at either the featural or configural level. In fact, it appears that the decreased effective field of view in PCA patients is so severe that it results in an extreme dependence on local processing, such that a feature-based approach is not even possible. PMID:23825453

Improving the toughness of ultrahigh strength steel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, Koji

2002-01-01

The ideal structural steel combines high strength with high fracture toughness. This dissertation discusses the toughening mechanism of the Fe/Co/Ni/Cr/Mo/C steel, AerMet 100, which has the highest toughness/strength combination among all commercial ultrahigh strength steels. The possibility of improving the toughness of this steel was examined by considering several relevant factors. Chapter 1 reviews the mechanical properties of ultrahigh strength steels and the physical metallurgy of AerMet 100. It also describes the fracture mechanisms of steel, i.e. ductile microvoid coalescence, brittle transgranular cleavage, and intergranular separation. Chapter 2 examines the strength-toughness relationship for three heats of AerMet 100. A wide variation of toughness is obtained at the same strength level. The toughness varies despite the fact that all heat fracture in the ductile fracture mode. The difference originates from the inclusion content. Lower inclusion volume fraction and larger inclusion spacing gives rise to a greater void growth factor and subsequently a higher fracture toughness. The fracture toughness value, JIc, is proportional to the particle spacing of the large non-metallic inclusions. Chapter 3 examines the ductile-brittle transition of AerMet 100 and the effect of a higher austenitization temperature, using the Charpy V-notch test. The standard heat treatment condition of AerMet 100 shows a gradual ductile-brittle transition due to its fine effective grain size. Austenitization at higher temperature increases the prior austenite grain size and packet size, leading to a steeper transition at a higher temperature. Both transgranular cleavage and intergranular separation are observed in the brittle fracture mode. Chapter 4 examines the effect of inclusion content, prior austenite grain size, and the amount of austenite on the strength-toughness relationship. The highest toughness is achieved by low inclusion content, small prior austenite grain size

TOUGH+ v1.5 Core Code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moridis, George J.

TOUGH+ v1.5 is a numerical code for the simulation of multi-phase, multi-component flow and transport of mass and heat through porous and fractured media, and represents the third update of the code since its first release [Moridis et al., 2008]. TOUGH+ is a successor to the TOUGH2 [Pruess et al., 1991; 2012] family of codes for multi-component, multiphase fluid and heat flow developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is written in standard FORTRAN 95/2003, and can be run on any computational platform (workstations, PC, Macintosh). TOUGH+ v1.5 employs dynamic memory allocation, thus minimizing storage requirements. It has amore » completely modular structure, follows the tenets of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), and involves the advanced features of FORTRAN 95/2003, i.e., modules, derived data types, the use of pointers, lists and trees, data encapsulation, defined operators and assignments, operator extension and overloading, use of generic procedures, and maximum use of the powerful intrinsic vector and matrix processing operations. TOUGH+ v1.5 is the core code for its family of applications, i.e., the part of the code that is common to all its applications. It provides a description of the underlying physics and thermodynamics of non-isothermal flow, of the mathematical and numerical approaches, as well as a detailed explanation of the general (common to all applications) input requirements, options, capabilities and output specifications. The core code cannot run by itself: it needs to be coupled with the code for the specific TOUGH+ application option that describes a particular type of problem. The additional input requirements specific to a particular TOUGH+ application options and related illustrative examples can be found in the corresponding User's Manual.« less

When the going gets tough: Mental toughness and its relationship with behavioural perseverance.

PubMed

Gucciardi, Daniel F; Peeling, Peter; Ducker, Kagan J; Dawson, Brian

2016-01-01

This study examined the association between self-reported mental toughness and behavioural perseverance among a sample of male Australian footballers in a naturalistic context. Cross-sectional field study, with the multistage 20m shuttle run test (MST) employed as a proxy for behavioural perseverance. 330 male Australian footballers aged between 15 and 18 years (M=16.86; SD=.71) with between 2 and 14 years playing experience (M=9.32; SD=2.51) participated. Initially, footballers completed a mental toughness questionnaire, before having their height and body mass measurements taken. Subsequently, a performance testing session was completed, which included the 20m sprint, Australian football-specific agility run, vertical jump, and the MST. Bayesian estimation was employed to allow for the simultaneous examination of existing findings with our new data in a way that provides an automatic meta-analysis of evidence in this area. The analysis indicated a 95% probability that the association between mental toughness and behavioural perseverance lies between .14 and .34, even when controlling for other factors known to influence MST performance, including age, height, body mass, and years playing experience. Taken together with previous research, these findings support the theoretical proposition that persistence, effort or perseverance represents a behavioural signature of mental toughness. Copyright © 2014 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Test-Free Fracture Toughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minnetyan, Levon; Chamis, Christos C. (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

Computational simulation results can give the prediction of damage growth and progression and fracture toughness of composite structures. The experimental data from literature provide environmental effects on the fracture behavior of metallic or fiber composite structures. However, the traditional experimental methods to analyze the influence of the imposed conditions are expensive and time consuming. This research used the CODSTRAN code to model the temperature effects, scaling effects and the loading effects of fiber/braided composite specimens with and without fiber-optic sensors on the damage initiation and energy release rates. The load-displacement relationship and fracture toughness assessment approach is compared with the test results from literature and it is verified that the computational simulation, with the use of established material modeling and finite element modules, adequately tracks the changes of fracture toughness and subsequent fracture propagation for any fiber/braided composite structure due to the change of fiber orientations, presence of large diameter optical fibers, and any loading conditions.

Test-Free Fracture Toughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minnetyan, Levon; Chamis, Christos C. (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

Computational simulation results can give the prediction of damage growth and progression and fracture toughness of composite structures. The experimental data from literature provide environmental effects on the fracture behavior of metallic or fiber composite structures. However, the traditional experimental methods to analyze the influence of the imposed conditions are expensive and time consuming. This research used the CODSTRAN code to model the temperature effects, scaling effects and the loading effects of fiberbraided composite specimens with and without fiber-optic sensors on the damage initiation and energy release rates. The load-displacement relationship and fracture toughness assessment approach is compared with the test results from literature and it is verified that the computational simulation, with the use of established material modeling and finite element modules, adequately tracks the changes of fracture toughness and subsequent fracture propagation for any fiberbraided composite structure due to the change of fiber orientations, presence of large diameter optical fibers, and any loading conditions.

Rapid Thermal Processing to Enhance Steel Toughness.

PubMed

Judge, V K; Speer, J G; Clarke, K D; Findley, K O; Clarke, A J

2018-01-11

Quenching and Tempering (Q&T) has been utilized for decades to alter steel mechanical properties, particularly strength and toughness. While tempering typically increases toughness, a well-established phenomenon called tempered martensite embrittlement (TME) is known to occur during conventional Q&T. Here we show that short-time, rapid tempering can overcome TME to produce unprecedented property combinations that cannot be attained by conventional Q&T. Toughness is enhanced over 43% at a strength level of 1.7 GPa and strength is improved over 0.5 GPa at an impact toughness of 30 J. We also show that hardness and the tempering parameter (TP), developed by Holloman and Jaffe in 1945 and ubiquitous within the field, is insufficient for characterizing measured strengths, toughnesses, and microstructural conditions after rapid processing. Rapid tempering by energy-saving manufacturing processes like induction heating creates the opportunity for new Q&T steels for energy, defense, and transportation applications.

Collaborative Accounting Problem Solving via Group Support Systems in a Face-to-Face versus Distant Learning Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Jacqueline A.

2001-01-01

Accounting students (n=128) used either face-to-face or distant Group support systems to complete collaborative tasks. Participation and social presence perceptions were significantly higher face to face. Task difficulty did not affect participation in either environment. (Contains 54 references.) (JOW)

Dynamic toughness in elastic nonlinear viscous solids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, S.; Guo, T. F.; Cheng, L.

2009-02-01

This work addresses the interrelationship among dissipative mechanisms—material separation in the fracture process zone (FPZ), nonelastic deformation in the surrounding background material and kinetic energy—and how they affect the macroscopic dynamic fracture toughness as well as the limiting crack speed in strain rate sensitive materials. To this end, a micromechanics-based model for void growth in a nonlinear viscous solid is incorporated into a microporous strip of cell elements that forms the FPZ. The latter is surrounded by background material described by conventional constitutive relations. In the first part of the paper, the background material is assumed to be purely elastic. Here, the computed dynamic fracture toughness is a convex function of crack velocity. In the second part, the background material as well as the FPZ are described by similar rate-sensitivity parameters. Voids grow in the strain rate strengthened FPZ as the crack velocity increases. Consequently, the work of separation increases. By contrast, the inelastic dissipation in the background material appears to be a concave function of crack velocity. At the lower crack velocity regime, where dissipation in the background material is dominant, toughness decreases as crack velocity increases. At high crack velocities, inelastic deformation enhanced by the inertial force can cause a sharp increase in toughness. Here, the computed toughness increases rapidly with crack velocity. There exist regimes where the toughness is a non-monotonic function of the crack velocity. Two length scales—the width of the FPZ and the ratio of the shear wave speed to the reference strain rate—can be shown to strongly affect the dynamic fracture toughness. Our computational simulations can predict experimental data for fracture toughness vs. crack velocity reported in several studies for amorphous polymeric materials.

Toughness and strength of nanocrystalline graphene

DOE PAGES

Shekhawat, Ashivni; Ritchie, Robert O.

2016-01-28

Pristine monocrystalline graphene is claimed to be the strongest material known with remarkable mechanical and electrical properties. However, graphene made with scalable fabrication techniques is polycrystalline and contains inherent nanoscale line and point defects—grain boundaries and grain-boundary triple junctions—that lead to significant statistical fluctuations in toughness and strength. These fluctuations become particularly pronounced for nanocrystalline graphene where the density of defects is high. Here we use large-scale simulation and continuum modelling to show that the statistical variation in toughness and strength can be understood with ‘weakest-link’ statistics. We develop the first statistical theory of toughness in polycrystalline graphene, and elucidatemore » the nanoscale origins of the grain-size dependence of its strength and toughness. Lastly, our results should lead to more reliable graphene device design, and provide a framework to interpret experimental results in a broad class of two-dimensional materials.« less

Anterior medial prefrontal cortex exhibits activation during task preparation but deactivation during task execution.

PubMed

Koshino, Hideya; Minamoto, Takehiro; Ikeda, Takashi; Osaka, Mariko; Otsuka, Yuki; Osaka, Naoyuki

2011-01-01

The anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) exhibits activation during some cognitive tasks, including episodic memory, reasoning, attention, multitasking, task sets, decision making, mentalizing, and processing of self-referenced information. However, the medial part of anterior PFC is part of the default mode network (DMN), which shows deactivation during various goal-directed cognitive tasks compared to a resting baseline. One possible factor for this pattern is that activity in the anterior medial PFC (MPFC) is affected by dynamic allocation of attentional resources depending on task demands. We investigated this possibility using an event related fMRI with a face working memory task. Sixteen students participated in a single fMRI session. They were asked to form a task set to remember the faces (Face memory condition) or to ignore them (No face memory condition), then they were given 6 seconds of preparation period before the onset of the face stimuli. During this 6-second period, four single digits were presented one at a time at the center of the display, and participants were asked to add them and to remember the final answer. When participants formed a task set to remember faces, the anterior MPFC exhibited activation during a task preparation period but deactivation during a task execution period within a single trial. The results suggest that the anterior MPFC plays a role in task set formation but is not involved in execution of the face working memory task. Therefore, when attentional resources are allocated to other brain regions during task execution, the anterior MPFC shows deactivation. The results suggest that activation and deactivation in the anterior MPFC are affected by dynamic allocation of processing resources across different phases of processing.

Toughness Properties of Nodular Iron

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradley, Walter L.

1985-01-01

The German government recently certified ductile iron for construction of nuclear waste transport containers. This approved use of ductile iron for such a critical application represents the culmination of ten years worth of research bringing to light the surprising toughness of ductile iron. This article explains how modern fracture mechanics and microstructure/property relationships have altered the stereotype of ductile iron as a low toughness material.

The human body odor compound androstadienone leads to anger-dependent effects in an emotional Stroop but not dot-probe task using human faces.

PubMed

Hornung, Jonas; Kogler, Lydia; Wolpert, Stephan; Freiherr, Jessica; Derntl, Birgit

2017-01-01

The androgen derivative androstadienone is a substance found in human sweat and thus is a putative human chemosignal. Androstadienone has been studied with respect to effects on mood states, attractiveness ratings, physiological and neural activation. With the current experiment, we aimed to explore in which way androstadienone affects attention to social cues (human faces). Moreover, we wanted to test whether effects depend on specific emotions, the participants' sex and individual sensitivity to smell androstadienone. To do so, we investigated 56 healthy individuals (thereof 29 females taking oral contraceptives) with two attention tasks on two consecutive days (once under androstadienone, once under placebo exposure in pseudorandomized order). With an emotional dot-probe task we measured visuo-spatial cueing while an emotional Stroop task allowed us to investigate interference control. Our results suggest that androstadienone acts in a sex, task and emotion-specific manner as a reduction in interference processes in the emotional Stroop task was only apparent for angry faces in men under androstadienone exposure. More specifically, men showed a smaller difference in reaction times for congruent compared to incongruent trials. At the same time also women were slightly affected by smelling androstadienone as they classified angry faces more often correctly under androstadienone. For the emotional dot-probe task no modulation by androstadienone was observed. Furthermore, in both attention paradigms individual sensitivity to androstadienone was neither correlated with reaction times nor error rates in men and women. To conclude, exposure to androstadienone seems to potentiate the relevance of angry faces in both men and women in connection with interference control, while processes of visuo-spatial cueing remain unaffected.

The human body odor compound androstadienone leads to anger-dependent effects in an emotional Stroop but not dot-probe task using human faces

PubMed Central

Kogler, Lydia; Wolpert, Stephan; Freiherr, Jessica; Derntl, Birgit

2017-01-01

The androgen derivative androstadienone is a substance found in human sweat and thus is a putative human chemosignal. Androstadienone has been studied with respect to effects on mood states, attractiveness ratings, physiological and neural activation. With the current experiment, we aimed to explore in which way androstadienone affects attention to social cues (human faces). Moreover, we wanted to test whether effects depend on specific emotions, the participants' sex and individual sensitivity to smell androstadienone. To do so, we investigated 56 healthy individuals (thereof 29 females taking oral contraceptives) with two attention tasks on two consecutive days (once under androstadienone, once under placebo exposure in pseudorandomized order). With an emotional dot-probe task we measured visuo-spatial cueing while an emotional Stroop task allowed us to investigate interference control. Our results suggest that androstadienone acts in a sex, task and emotion-specific manner as a reduction in interference processes in the emotional Stroop task was only apparent for angry faces in men under androstadienone exposure. More specifically, men showed a smaller difference in reaction times for congruent compared to incongruent trials. At the same time also women were slightly affected by smelling androstadienone as they classified angry faces more often correctly under androstadienone. For the emotional dot-probe task no modulation by androstadienone was observed. Furthermore, in both attention paradigms individual sensitivity to androstadienone was neither correlated with reaction times nor error rates in men and women. To conclude, exposure to androstadienone seems to potentiate the relevance of angry faces in both men and women in connection with interference control, while processes of visuo-spatial cueing remain unaffected. PMID:28369152

The Use of Doublers in Delamination Toughness Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reeder, James R.; Demarco, Kevin; Whitley, Karen S.

2002-01-01

In this paper, the data reduction equations for common delamination toughness tests are rederived for use with specimens which have bonded doublers. The common toughness tests considered here are the double cantilever beam (DCB) for mode I toughness; the end notch flexure (3ENF) and 4 point ENF (4ENF) for mode II toughness; and the mixed mode bending (MMB) test for testing under combined mode I and mode II loading. Because the addition of the doublers changes the bending stiffness of the specimens, these data reduction equations may need to be corrected. Doublers were added to the delamination test specimens to solve a premature failure problem. Delamination toughness is normally tested using a beam with an imbedded insert so that one end of the specimen is split into two arms. If the specimen is too thin, or if the toughness of the material is too high, an arm of the specimen may fail in bending before the delamination grows. When this occurs, the toughness of the material cannot be determined. To delay the bending failure so that delamination growth occurs, doubler plates were bonded to both top and bottom surfaces of the specimen. A doubler parameter, beta, which describes how much the use of doubler plates changed the ratio of full thickness to delaminated bending stiffnesses, was defined. When changes to the data reduction equations were required, the changes were minor when written in terms of the beta parameter. The doubler plate technique was demonstrated by measuring the mixed-mode fracture toughness of a carbon-carbon composite using test specimens which would otherwise have failed before delamination growth occurred. The doubler plate technique may solve several problems that can be encountered when testing delamination fracture toughness.

Anterior Medial Prefrontal Cortex Exhibits Activation during Task Preparation but Deactivation during Task Execution

PubMed Central

Koshino, Hideya; Minamoto, Takehiro; Ikeda, Takashi; Osaka, Mariko; Otsuka, Yuki; Osaka, Naoyuki

2011-01-01

Background The anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) exhibits activation during some cognitive tasks, including episodic memory, reasoning, attention, multitasking, task sets, decision making, mentalizing, and processing of self-referenced information. However, the medial part of anterior PFC is part of the default mode network (DMN), which shows deactivation during various goal-directed cognitive tasks compared to a resting baseline. One possible factor for this pattern is that activity in the anterior medial PFC (MPFC) is affected by dynamic allocation of attentional resources depending on task demands. We investigated this possibility using an event related fMRI with a face working memory task. Methodology/Principal Findings Sixteen students participated in a single fMRI session. They were asked to form a task set to remember the faces (Face memory condition) or to ignore them (No face memory condition), then they were given 6 seconds of preparation period before the onset of the face stimuli. During this 6-second period, four single digits were presented one at a time at the center of the display, and participants were asked to add them and to remember the final answer. When participants formed a task set to remember faces, the anterior MPFC exhibited activation during a task preparation period but deactivation during a task execution period within a single trial. Conclusions/Significance The results suggest that the anterior MPFC plays a role in task set formation but is not involved in execution of the face working memory task. Therefore, when attentional resources are allocated to other brain regions during task execution, the anterior MPFC shows deactivation. The results suggest that activation and deactivation in the anterior MPFC are affected by dynamic allocation of processing resources across different phases of processing. PMID:21829668

46 CFR 54.05-16 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 54.05-16 Section 54.05-16... Toughness Tests § 54.05-16 Production toughness testing. (a) For vessels of welded construction, production... welding procedures shall be the same as used in the fabrication of the vessel. From each test plate, one...

Mental Toughness Moderates Social Loafing in Cycle Time-Trial Performance.

PubMed

Haugen, Tommy; Reinboth, Michael; Hetlelid, Ken J; Peters, Derek M; Høigaard, Rune

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if mental toughness moderated the occurrence of social loafing in cycle time-trial performance. Twenty-seven men (Mage = 17.7 years, SD = 0.6) completed the Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire prior to completing a 1-min cycling trial under 2 conditions: once with individual performance identified, and once in a group with individual performance not identified. Using a median split of the mental toughness index, participants were divided into high and low mental toughness groups. Cycling distance was compared using a 2 (trial) × 2 (high-low mental toughness) analysis of variance. We hypothesized that mentally tough participants would perform equally well under both conditions (i.e., no indication of social loafing) compared with low mentally tough participants, who would perform less well when their individual performance was not identifiable (i.e., demonstrating the anticipated social loafing effect). The high mental toughness group demonstrated consistent performance across both conditions, while the low mental toughness group reduced their effort in the non-individually identifiable team condition. The results confirm that (a) clearly identifying individual effort/performance is an important situational variable that may impact team performance and (b) higher perceived mental toughness has the ability to negate the tendency to loaf.

Judging Normality and Attractiveness in Faces: Direct Evidence of a More Refined Representation for Own-Race, Young Adult Faces.

PubMed

Zhou, Xiaomei; Short, Lindsey A; Chan, Harmonie S J; Mondloch, Catherine J

2016-09-01

Young and older adults are more sensitive to deviations from normality in young than older adult faces, suggesting that the dimensions of face space are optimized for young adult faces. Here, we extend these findings to own-race faces and provide converging evidence using an attractiveness rating task. In Experiment 1, Caucasian and Chinese adults were shown own- and other-race face pairs; one member was undistorted and the other had compressed or expanded features. Participants indicated which member of each pair was more normal (a task that requires referencing a norm) and which was more expanded (a task that simply requires discrimination). Participants showed an own-race advantage in the normality task but not the discrimination task. In Experiment 2, participants rated the facial attractiveness of own- and other-race faces (Experiment 2a) or young and older adult faces (Experiment 2b). Between-rater variability in ratings of individual faces was higher for other-race and older adult faces; reduced consensus in attractiveness judgments reflects a less refined face space. Collectively, these results provide direct evidence that the dimensions of face space are optimized for own-race and young adult faces, which may underlie face race- and age-based deficits in recognition. © The Author(s) 2016.

Back-Face Strain for Monitoring Stable Crack Extension in Precracked Flexure Specimens

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salem, Jonathan A.; Ghosn, Louis J.

2010-01-01

Calibrations relating back-face strain to crack length in precracked flexure specimens were developed for different strain gage sizes. The functions were verified via experimental compliance measurements of notched and precracked ceramic beams. Good agreement between the functions and experiments occurred, and fracture toughness was calculated via several operational methods: maximum test load and optically measured precrack length; load at 2 percent crack extension and optical precrack length; maximum load and back-face strain crack length. All the methods gave vary comparable results. The initiation toughness, K(sub Ii) , was also estimated from the initial compliance and load.The results demonstrate that stability of precracked ceramics specimens tested in four-point flexure is a common occurrence, and that methods such as remotely-monitored load-point displacement are only adequate for detecting stable extension of relatively deep cracks.

Covert face recognition in congenital prosopagnosia: a group study.

PubMed

Rivolta, Davide; Palermo, Romina; Schmalzl, Laura; Coltheart, Max

2012-03-01

Even though people with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) never develop a normal ability to "overtly" recognize faces, some individuals show indices of "covert" (or implicit) face recognition. The aim of this study was to demonstrate covert face recognition in CP when participants could not overtly recognize the faces. Eleven people with CP completed three tasks assessing their overt face recognition ability, and three tasks assessing their "covert" face recognition: a Forced choice familiarity task, a Forced choice cued task, and a Priming task. Evidence of covert recognition was observed with the Forced choice familiarity task, but not the Priming task. In addition, we propose that the Forced choice cued task does not measure covert processing as such, but instead "provoked-overt" recognition. Our study clearly shows that people with CP demonstrate covert recognition for faces that they cannot overtly recognize, and that behavioural tasks vary in their sensitivity to detect covert recognition in CP. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

Emotional conflict occurs at an early stage: evidence from the emotional face-word Stroop task.

PubMed

Zhu, Xiang-ru; Zhang, Hui-jun; Wu, Ting-ting; Luo, Wen-bo; Luo, Yue-jia

2010-06-30

The perceptual processing of emotional conflict was studied using electrophysiological techniques to measure event-related potentials (ERPs). The emotional face-word Stroop task in which emotion words are written in prominent red color across a face was use to study emotional conflict. In each trial, the emotion word and facial expression were either congruent or incongruent (in conflict). When subjects were asked to identify the expression of the face during a trial, the incongruent condition evoked a more negative N170 ERP component in posterior lateral sites than in the congruent condition. In contrast, when subjects were asked to identify the word during a trial, the incongruent condition evoked a less negative N170 component than the congruent condition. The present findings extend our understanding of the control processes involved in emotional conflict by demonstrating that differentiation of emotional congruency begins at an early perceptual processing stage. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

46 CFR 54.05-5 - Toughness test specimens.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Toughness test specimens. 54.05-5 Section 54.05-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING PRESSURE VESSELS Toughness Tests § 54.05-5 Toughness test specimens. (a) Charpy V-notch impact tests. Where required, Charpy V-notch tests shall be conducted in accordanc...

Motivational correlates of mentally tough behaviours in tennis.

PubMed

Gucciardi, Daniel F; Jackson, Ben; Hanton, Sheldon; Reid, Machar

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine motivational correlates of mentally tough behaviours among adolescent tennis players. Two-phase study, involving the development of an informant-rated measure of mentally tough behaviours, followed by a cross-sectional survey including athlete and parent assessments of study variables. In Phase One, 17 adult, high-performance tennis coaches and 20 athletes participated in focus group interviews. Four scholars with expertise in performance psychology also completed a short, online survey. In Phase Two, a total of 347 adolescent tennis players (nmales=184; nfemales=163) aged 12-18 years (M=13.93, SD=1.47) and one respective parent took part in this study. An online multisection survey containing dimensions of passion, inspiration, fear of failure, and mentally tough behaviours was completed. Athletes self-reported all motivational variables, whereas parents rated their child solely on mentally tough behaviours. Structural equation modelling revealed that harmonious passion (β=.26, p<.01) and frequency of inspiration (β=.32, p<.001) were associated with significantly higher levels of mentally tough behaviours. In contrast, fear of failure (β=-.32, p<.001) and obsessive passion (β=-.15, p<.01) were inversely related to mentally tough behaviours. Inspiration intensity was not significantly associated with mentally tough behaviour (β=.13, p=.21). Motivational variables that are dispositional in nature, contextualised and contingent upon features of the environment, and concern one's identity are important considerations for understanding mentally tough behaviours. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fracture Toughness and Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of As-Cast High-Entropy Alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seifi, Mohsen; Li, Dongyue; Yong, Zhang; Liaw, Peter K.; Lewandowski, John J.

2015-08-01

The fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth behavior of two as-vacuum arc cast high-entropy alloys (HEAs) (Al0.2CrFeNiTi0.2 and AlCrFeNi2Cu) were determined. A microstructure examination of both HEA alloys revealed a two-phase structure consisting of body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-centered cubic (fcc) phases. The notched and fatigue precracked toughness values were in the range of those reported in the literature for two-phase alloys but significantly less than recent reports on a single phase fcc-HEA that was deformation processed. Fatigue crack growth experiments revealed high fatigue thresholds that decreased significantly with an increase in load ratio, while Paris law slopes exhibited metallic-like behavior at low R with significant increases at high R. Fracture surface examinations revealed combinations of brittle and ductile/dimpled regions at overload, with some evidence of fatigue striations in the Paris law regime.

Preface to the Special Issue on TOUGH Symposium 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanco-Martín, Laura

2017-11-01

The TOUGH Symposium 2015 was held in Berkeley, California, September 28-30, 2015. The TOUGH family of codes, developed at the Energy Geosciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), is a suite of computer programs for the simulation of multiphase and multicomponent fluid and heat flows in porous and fractured media with applications in many geosciences fields, such as geothermal reservoir engineering, nuclear waste disposal, geological carbon sequestration, oil and gas reservoirs, gas hydrate research, vadose zone hydrology and environmental remediation. Since the first release in the 1980s, many modifications and enhancements have been continuously made to TOUGH and its various descendants (iTOUGH2, TOUGH+, TOUGH-MP, TOUGHREACT, TOUGH+HYDRATE, TMVOC...), at LBNL and elsewhere. Today, these codes are used worldwide in academia, government organizations and private companies in problems involving coupled hydrological, thermal, biogeochemical and geomechanical processes. The Symposia, organized every 2-3 years, bring together developers and users for an open exchange on recent code enhancements and applications. In 2015, the Symposium was attended by one hundred participants, representing thirty-four nationalities. This Special Issue in Computers & Geosciences gathers extended versions of selected Symposium proceedings related to (i) recent enhancements to the TOUGH family of codes and (ii) coupled flow and geomechanics processes modeling.

Igniting Innovation: Colleges Get Creative to Meet Persistent Challenges in Race to the Top

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Violino, Bob

2012-01-01

When the going gets tough, the tough get...innovative. That's the approach some forward-thinking community college leaders are taking as their institutions set about the task of restocking the nation's workforce in the face of historic enrollments and severe, if seemingly unending, budget cuts. Recognized by the Aspen Institute as the most…

An overview of TOUGH-based geomechanics models

DOE PAGES

Rutqvist, Jonny

2016-09-22

After the initial development of the first TOUGH-based geomechanics model 15 years ago based on linking TOUGH2 multiphase flow simulator to the FLAC3D geomechanics simulator, at least 15 additional TOUGH-based geomechanics models have appeared in the literature. This development has been fueled by a growing demand and interest for modeling coupled multiphase flow and geomechanical processes related to a number of geoengineering applications, such as in geologic CO 2 sequestration, enhanced geothermal systems, unconventional hydrocarbon production, and most recently, related to reservoir stimulation and injection-induced seismicity. This paper provides a short overview of these TOUGH-based geomechanics models, focusing on somemore » of the most frequently applied to a diverse set of problems associated with geomechanics and its couplings to hydraulic, thermal and chemical processes.« less

Tough poly(arylene ether) thermoplastics as modifiers for bismaleimides

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stenzenberger, H. D.; Roemer, W.; Hergenrother, P. M.; Jensen, B. J.

1989-01-01

Several aspects of research on thermoplastics as toughness modifiers are discussed, including the contribution of the backbone chemistry and the concentration of the poly(arylene ether) thermoplastic to fracture toughness, influence of the molecular weight of the poly(arylene ether) thermoplastic on neat resin fracture toughness, and the morphology of the thermoplastic modified networks. The results show that fracture toughness of brittle bismaleimide resins can be improved significantly with poly(arylene ether) thermoplastic levels of 20 percent by weight, and that high molecular weight poly(arylene ether) based on bisphenol A provides the highest degree of toughening. Preliminary composite evaluation shows that improvements in neat resin toughness translate into carbon fabric composite.

Proceedings of the TOUGH Symposium 2009

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moridis, George J.; Doughty, Christine; Finsterle, Stefan

2009-10-01

Welcome to the TOUGH Symposium 2009. Within this volume are the Symposium Program for eighty-nine papers to be presented in both oral and poster formats. The full papers are available as pdfs linked from the Symposium Program posted on the TOUGH Symposium 2009 website http://esd.lbl.gov/newsandevents/events/toughsymposium09/program.html Additional updated information including any changes to the Program will also be available at the website. The papers cover a wide range of application areas and reflect the continuing trend toward increased sophistication of the TOUGH codes. A CD containing the proceedings papers will be published immediately following the Symposium and sent to all participants.more » As in the prior Symposium, selected papers will be invited for submission to a number of journals for inclusion in Special Issues focused on applications and developments of the TOUGH codes. These journals include, Transport in Porous Media, Geothermics, Energy Conversion and Management, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, and the Vadose Zone Journal.« less

Tough Composite Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vosteen, L. F. (Compiler); Johnson, N. J. (Compiler); Teichman, L. A. (Compiler)

1984-01-01

Papers and working group summaries are presented which address composite material behavior and performance improvement. Topic areas include composite fracture toughness and impact characterization, constituent properties and interrelationships, and matrix synthesis and characterization.

Fracture toughness of hot-pressed beryllium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lemon, D. D.; Brown, W. F., Jr.

1985-01-01

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the fracture toughness, sustained-load flaw growth, and fatigue-crack propagation resistance of S200E hot-pressed beryllium at room temperature. It also reviews the literature pertaining to the influence of various factors on the fracture toughness of hot-pressed beryllium determined using fatigue-cracked specimens.

Tough bonding of hydrogels to diverse non-porous surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuk, Hyunwoo; Zhang, Teng; Lin, Shaoting; Parada, German Alberto; Zhao, Xuanhe

2016-02-01

In many animals, the bonding of tendon and cartilage to bone is extremely tough (for example, interfacial toughness ~800 J m-2 refs ,), yet such tough interfaces have not been achieved between synthetic hydrogels and non-porous surfaces of engineered solids. Here, we report a strategy to design tough transparent and conductive bonding of synthetic hydrogels containing 90% water to non-porous surfaces of diverse solids, including glass, silicon, ceramics, titanium and aluminium. The design strategy is to anchor the long-chain polymer networks of tough hydrogels covalently to non-porous solid surfaces, which can be achieved by the silanation of such surfaces. Compared with physical interactions, the chemical anchorage results in a higher intrinsic work of adhesion and in significant energy dissipation of bulk hydrogel during detachment, which lead to interfacial toughness values over 1,000 J m-2. We also demonstrate applications of robust hydrogel-solid hybrids, including hydrogel superglues, mechanically protective hydrogel coatings, hydrogel joints for robotic structures and robust hydrogel-metal conductors.

Laser notching ceramics for reliable fracture toughness testing

DOE PAGES

Barth, Holly D.; Elmer, John W.; Freeman, Dennis C.; ...

2015-09-19

A new method for notching ceramics was developed using a picosecond laser for fracture toughness testing of alumina samples. The test geometry incorporated a single-edge-V-notch that was notched using picosecond laser micromachining. This method has been used in the past for cutting ceramics, and is known to remove material with little to no thermal effect on the surrounding material matrix. This study showed that laser-assisted-machining for fracture toughness testing of ceramics was reliable, quick, and cost effective. In order to assess the laser notched single-edge-V-notch beam method, fracture toughness results were compared to results from other more traditional methods, specificallymore » surface-crack in flexure and the chevron notch bend tests. Lastly, the results showed that picosecond laser notching produced precise notches in post-failure measurements, and that the measured fracture toughness results showed improved consistency compared to traditional fracture toughness methods.« less

Fracture Toughness Properties of Gd123 Superconducting Bulks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujimoto, H.; Murakami, A.

Fracture toughness properties of melt growth GdBa2Cu3Ox (Gd123) large single domain superconducting bulks with Ag2O of 10 wt% and Pt of 0.5 wt%; 45 mm in diameter and 25 mm in thickness with low void density were evaluated at 77 K through flexural tests of specimens cut from the bulks, and compared to those of a conventional Gd123 with voids. The densified Gd123 bulks were prepared with a seeding and temperature gradient method; first melt processed in oxygen, then crystal growth in air; two-step regulated atmosphere heat treatment. The plane strain fracture toughness, KIC was obtained by the three point flexure test of the specimens with through precrack, referring to the single edge pre-cracked beam (SEPB) method, according to the JIS-R-1607, Testing Methods for Fracture Toughness of High Performance Ceramics. The results show that the fracture toughness of the densified Gd123 bulk with low void density was higher than that of the standard Gd123 bulk with voids, as well as the flexural strength previously reported. We also compared the fracture toughness of as-grown bulks with that of annealed bulks. The relation between the microstructure and the fracture toughness of the Gd123 bulk was clearly shown.

Comparative Study of Sport Mental Toughness between Soccer Officials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miçoogullari, Bülent Okan; Gümüsdag, Hayrettin; Ödek, Ugur; Beyaz, Özkan

2017-01-01

Gucciardi et al. (2009) suggest that mental toughness is more a function of environment than domains, and as such, mental toughness is potentially important in any environment that requires performance setting, challenges, and adversities. Due to vital importance of mental toughness in sports and particularly in soccer, this paper focused on the…

Mental Toughness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Tori; Cavanaugh, Lauren

2017-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is defined as a set of attributes that allow an individual to persevere through difficult circumstances that ultimately can lead to successful outcomes. It is also a critical component of maximizing the performance of an athlete. These attributes assist with and promote a state of mind that enhances performance. A negative…

Tritium Effects on Fracture Toughness of Stainless Steel Weldments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MORGAN, MICHAEL; CHAPMAN, G. K.; TOSTEN, M. H.

2005-05-12

The effects of tritium on the fracture toughness properties of Type 304L and Type 21-6-9 stainless steel weldments were measured. Weldments were tritium-charged-and-aged and then tested in order to measure the effect of the increasing decay helium content on toughness. The results were compared to uncharged and hydrogen-charged samples. For unexposed weldments having 8-12 volume percent retained delta ferrite, fracture toughness was higher than base metal toughness. At higher levels of weld ferrite, the fracture toughness decreased to values below that of the base metal. Hydrogen-charged and tritium-charged weldments had lower toughness values than similarly charged base metals and toughnessmore » decreased further with increasing weld ferrite content. The effect of decay helium content was inconclusive because of tritium off-gassing losses during handling, storage and testing. Fracture modes were dominated by the dimpled rupture process in unexposed weldments. In hydrogen and tritium-exposed weldments, the fracture modes depended on the weld ferrite content. At high ferrite contents, hydrogen-induced transgranular fracture of the weld ferrite phase was observed.« less

Informal Face-to-Face Interaction Improves Mood State Reflected in Prefrontal Cortex Activity

PubMed Central

Watanabe, Jun-ichiro; Atsumori, Hirokazu; Kiguchi, Masashi

2016-01-01

Recent progress with wearable sensors has enabled researchers to capture face-to-face interactions quantitatively and given great insight into human dynamics. One attractive field for applying such sensors is the workplace, where the relationship between the face-to-face behaviors of employees and the productivity of the organization has been investigated. One interesting result of previous studies showed that informal face-to-face interaction among employees, captured by wearable sensors that the employees wore, significantly affects their performance. However, the mechanism behind this relationship has not yet been adequately explained, though experiences at the job scene might qualitatively support the finding. We hypothesized that informal face-to-face interaction improves mood state, which in turn affects the task performance. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the change of mood state before and after break time for two groups of participants, one that spent their breaks alone and one that spent them with other participants, by administering questionnaires and taking brain activity measurements. Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested a significant relationship between mood state and brain activity. Here, we show that face-to-face interaction during breaks significantly improved mood state, which was measured by Profiles of Mood States (POMS). We also observed that the verbal working memory (WM) task performance of participants who did not have face-to-face interaction during breaks decreased significantly. In this paper, we discuss how the change of mood state was evidenced in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity accompanied by WM tasks measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). PMID:27199715

Healthy Aging Delays Scalp EEG Sensitivity to Noise in a Face Discrimination Task

PubMed Central

Rousselet, Guillaume A.; Gaspar, Carl M.; Pernet, Cyril R.; Husk, Jesse S.; Bennett, Patrick J.; Sekuler, Allison B.

2010-01-01

We used a single-trial ERP approach to quantify age-related changes in the time-course of noise sensitivity. A total of 62 healthy adults, aged between 19 and 98, performed a non-speeded discrimination task between two faces. Stimulus information was controlled by parametrically manipulating the phase spectrum of these faces. Behavioral 75% correct thresholds increased with age. This result may be explained by lower signal-to-noise ratios in older brains. ERP from each subject were entered into a single-trial general linear regression model to identify variations in neural activity statistically associated with changes in image structure. The fit of the model, indexed by R2, was computed at multiple post-stimulus time points. The time-course of the R2 function showed significantly delayed noise sensitivity in older observers. This age effect is reliable, as demonstrated by test–retest in 24 subjects, and started about 120 ms after stimulus onset. Our analyses suggest also a qualitative change from a young to an older pattern of brain activity at around 47 ± 4 years old. PMID:21833194

Small-scale fracture toughness of ceramic thin films: the effects of specimen geometry, ion beam notching and high temperature on chromium nitride toughness evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Best, James P.; Zechner, Johannes; Wheeler, Jeffrey M.; Schoeppner, Rachel; Morstein, Marcus; Michler, Johann

2016-12-01

For the implementation of thin ceramic hard coatings into intensive application environments, the fracture toughness is a particularly important material design parameter. Characterisation of the fracture toughness of small-scale specimens has been a topic of great debate, due to size effects, plasticity, residual stress effects and the influence of ion penetration from the sample fabrication process. In this work, several different small-scale fracture toughness geometries (single-beam cantilever, double-beam cantilever and micro-pillar splitting) were compared, fabricated from a thin physical vapour-deposited ceramic film using a focused ion beam source, and then the effect of the gallium-milled notch on mode I toughness quantification investigated. It was found that notching using a focused gallium source influences small-scale toughness measurements and can lead to an overestimation of the fracture toughness values for chromium nitride (CrN) thin films. The effects of gallium ion irradiation were further studied by performing the first small-scale high-temperature toughness measurements within the scanning electron microscope, with the consequence that annealing at high temperatures allows for diffusion of the gallium to grain boundaries promoting embrittlement in small-scale CrN samples. This work highlights the sensitivity of some materials to gallium ion penetration effects, and the profound effect that it can have on fracture toughness evaluation.

EFFECT OF TRITIUM AND DECAY HELIUM ON WELDMENT FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morgan, M; Scott West, S; Michael Tosten, M

2006-09-26

The fracture toughness data collected in this study are needed to assess the long-term effects of tritium and its decay product on tritium reservoirs. The results show that tritium and decay helium have negative effects on the fracture toughness properties of stainless steel and its weldments. The data and report from this study has been included in a material property database for use in tritium reservoir modeling efforts like the Technology Investment Program ''Lifecycle Engineering for Tritium Reservoirs''. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the data: (1) For unexposed Type 304L stainless steel, the fracture toughness of weldmentsmore » was two to three times higher than the base metal toughness. (2) Tritium exposure lowered the fracture toughness properties of both base metals and weldments. This was characterized by lower J{sub Q} values and lower J-da curves. (3) Tritium-exposed-and-aged base metals and weldments had lower fracture toughness values than unexposed ones but still retained good toughness properties.« less

TOUGH2 User's Guide Version 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pruess, K.; Oldenburg, C.M.; Moridis, G.J.

1999-11-01

TOUGH2 is a numerical simulator for nonisothermal flows of multicomponent, multiphase fluids in one, two, and three-dimensional porous and fractured media. The chief applications for which TOUGH2 is designed are in geothermal reservoir engineering, nuclear waste disposal, environmental assessment and remediation, and unsaturated and saturated zone hydrology. TOUGH2 was first released to the public in 1991; the 1991 code was updated in 1994 when a set of preconditioned conjugate gradient solvers was added to allow a more efficient solution of large problems. The current Version 2.0 features several new fluid property modules and offers enhanced process modeling capabilities, such asmore » coupled reservoir-wellbore flow, precipitation and dissolution effects, and multiphase diffusion. Numerous improvements in previously released modules have been made and new user features have been added, such as enhanced linear equation solvers, and writing of graphics files. The T2VOC module for three-phase flows of water, air and a volatile organic chemical (VOC), and the T2DM module for hydrodynamic dispersion in 2-D flow systems have been integrated into the overall structure of the code and are included in the Version 2.0 package. Data inputs are upwardly compatible with the previous version. Coding changes were generally kept to a minimum, and were only made as needed to achieve the additional functionalities desired. TOUGH2 is written in standard FORTRAN77 and can be run on any platform, such as workstations, PCs, Macintosh, mainframe and supercomputers, for which appropriate FORTRAN compilers are available. This report is a self-contained guide to application of TOUGH2 to subsurface flow problems. It gives a technical description of the TOUGH2 code, including a discussion of the physical processes modeled, and the mathematical and numerical methods used. Illustrative sample problems are presented along with detailed instructions for preparing input data.« less

Origin of Toughness in Dispersion-Cast Nafion Membranes

DOE PAGES

Kim, Yu Seung; Welch, Cynthia F.; Hjelm, Rex Paul; ...

2015-03-23

In this study, the gelation behavior of Nafion dispersions was investigated using small-angle neutron scattering to better understand the mechanical toughness of dispersion-cast Nafion membranes. Three types of gelation were observed, depending on dispersing fluids: (i) homogeneous, thermally reversible gelation that was present in most aprotic polar dispersing fluids; (ii) inhomogeneous, thermally irreversible gelation as films, found in alcohols; and (iii) inhomogeneous, thermally irreversible gelation which precipitates in water/monohydric alcohol mixtures. The mechanical toughness of dispersion-cast Nafion membranes depends on the dispersing fluid, varying by more than 4 orders of magnitude. Excellent correlation between the critical gelation concentration and mechanicalmore » toughness was demonstrated with the Nafion membranes cast at 140 °C. Additional thermal effects among Nafion membranes cast at 190 °C were qualitatively related to the boiling point of dispersing fluids. Little correlation between mechanical toughness and percent crystalline area of Nafion was observed, suggesting that the origin of mechanical toughness of dispersion-cast Nafion membranes is due to chain entanglements rather than crystallinity. Finally, the correlation between critical gelation concentration and mechanical toughness is a new way of predicting mechanical behavior in dispersion-cast polymer systems in which both polymer-dispersing fluid and polymer–polymer interactions play a significant role in the formation of polymer chain entanglements.« less

Fracture toughness of dentin/resin-composite adhesive interfaces.

PubMed

Tam, L E; Pilliar, R M

1993-05-01

The reliability and validity of tensile and shear bond strength determinations of dentin-bonded interfaces have been questioned. The fracture toughness value (KIC) reflects the ability of a material to resist crack initiation and unstable propagation. When applied to an adhesive interface, it should account for both interfacial bond strength and inherent defects at or near the interface, and should therefore be more appropriate for characterization of interface fracture resistance. This study introduced a fracture toughness test for the assessment of dentin/resin-composite bonded interfaces. The miniature short-rod specimen geometry was used for fracture toughness testing. Each specimen contained a tooth slice, sectioned from a bovine incisor, to form the bonded interface. The fracture toughness of an enamel-bonded interface was assessed in addition to the dentin-bonded interfaces. Tensile bond strength specimens were also prepared from the dentin surfaces of the cut bovine incisors. A minimum of ten specimens was fabricated for each group of materials tested. After the specimens were aged for 24 h in distilled water at 37 degrees C, the specimens were loaded to failure in an Instron universal testing machine. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the dental adhesives tested. Generally, both the fracture toughness and tensile bond strength measurements were highest for AllBond 2, intermediate for 3M MultiPurpose, and lowest for Scotchbond 2. Scanning electron microscopy of the fractured specimen halves confirmed that crack propagation occurred along the bond interface during the fracture toughness test. It was therefore concluded that the mini-short-rod fracture toughness test provided a valid method for characterization of the fracture resistance of the dentin-resin composite interface.

Inter-hemispheric interaction facilitates face processing.

PubMed

Compton, Rebecca J

2002-01-01

Many recent studies have revealed that interaction between the left and right cerebral hemispheres can aid in task performance, but these studies have tended to examine perception of simple stimuli such as letters, digits or simple shapes, which may have limited naturalistic validity. The present study extends these prior findings to a more naturalistic face perception task. Matching tasks required subjects to indicate when a target face matched one of two probe faces. Matches could be either across-field, requiring inter-hemispheric interaction, or within-field, not requiring inter-hemispheric interaction. Subjects indicated when faces matched in emotional expression (Experiment 1; n=32) or in character identity (Experiment 2; n=32). In both experiments, across-field performance was significantly better than within-field performance, supporting the primary hypothesis. Further, this advantage was greater for the more difficult character identity task. Results offer qualified support for the hypothesis that inter-hemispheric interaction is especially advantageous as task demands increase.

"Under the Tough Old Stars": Ecopedagogical Essays.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jardine, David W.

This book reviews the pedagogy and ecology of education and the philosophical and historical conditions of these theories, and discusses problems of the curriculum. Contents include: (1) "Introduction: Learning to Work Under the Tough Old Stars"; (2) "Under the Tough Old Stars: Meditation on Pedagogical Hyperactivity and the Mood of Environmental…

Tough, High-Performance, Thermoplastic Addition Polymers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pater, Ruth H.; Proctor, K. Mason; Gleason, John; Morgan, Cassandra; Partos, Richard

1991-01-01

Series of addition-type thermoplastics (ATT's) exhibit useful properties. Because of their addition curing and linear structure, ATT polymers have toughness, like thermoplastics, and easily processed, like thermosets. Work undertaken to develop chemical reaction forming stable aromatic rings in backbone of ATT polymer, combining high-temperature performance and thermo-oxidative stability with toughness and easy processibility, and minimizing or eliminating necessity for tradeoffs among properties often observed in conventional polymer syntheses.

Are adolescents with high mental toughness levels more resilient against stress?

PubMed

Gerber, Markus; Kalak, Nadeem; Lemola, Sakari; Clough, Peter J; Perry, John L; Pühse, Uwe; Elliot, Catherine; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith; Brand, Serge

2013-04-01

Mental toughness has been explored predominantly within sport contexts. Nevertheless, it is difficult to conceive mental toughness as only applicable to athletes. This study examines whether mentally tough participants exhibit resilience against stress. This is a cross-sectional study based on two different samples: Sample 1 consisted of 284 high school students (99 males, 185 females, M = 18.3 years). Sample 2 consisted of 140 first through fifth semester undergraduate students (53 males, 87 females, M = 20.0 years). Participants provided information about their level of perceived stress (10-item Perceived Stress Scale), mental toughness (48-item Mental Toughness Questionnaire) and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory). Consistent across the two samples, mental toughness mitigated the relationship between high stress and depressive symptoms. The interaction between stress and mental toughness explained 2% of variance in the adolescent sample and 10% of variance among young adults. The promotion of protective factors that foster resilient adaptation is a relevant issue. Mental toughness may appeal to individuals that are typically difficult to be reached with health interventions. Because mental toughness is part of young people's daily speech, it may serve as a less academic resource than other health psychology concepts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Less impairment in face imagery than face perception in early prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Michelon, Pascale; Biederman, Irving

2003-01-01

There have been a number of reports of preserved face imagery in prosopagnosia. We put this issue to experimental test by comparing the performance of MJH, a 34-year-old prosopagnosic since the age of 5, to controls on tasks where the participants had to judge faces of current celebrities, either in terms of overall similarity (Of Bette Midler, Hillary Clinton, and Diane Sawyer, whose face looks least like the other two?) or on individual features (Is Ronald Reagan's nose pointy?). For each task, a performance measure reflecting the degree of agreement of each participant with the average of the others (not including MJH) was calculated. On the imagery versions of these tasks, MJH was within the lower range of the controls for the agreement measure (though significantly below the mean of the controls). When the same tasks were performed from pictures, agreement among the controls markedly increased whereas MJH's performance was virtually unaffected, placing him well below the range of the controls. This pattern was also apparent with a test of facial features of emotion (Are the eyes wrinkled when someone is surprised?). On three non-face imagery tasks assessing color (What color is a football?), relative lengths of animal's tails (Is a bear's tail long in proportion to its body?), and mental size comparisons (What is bigger, a camel or a zebra?), MJH was within or close to the lower end of the normal range. As most of the celebrities became famous after the onset of MJH's prosopagnosia, our confirmation of the reports of less impaired face imagery in some prosopagnosics cannot be attributed to pre-lesion storage. We speculate that face recognition, in contrast to object recognition, relies more heavily on a representation that describes the initial spatial filter values so the metrics of the facial surface can be specified. If prosopagnosia is regarded as a form of simultanagnosia in which some of these filter values cannot be registered on any one encounter with

Understanding mental toughness in Australian soccer: perceptions of players, parents, and coaches.

PubMed

Coulter, Tristan J; Mallett, Clifford J; Gucciardi, Daniel F

2010-05-01

We explored mental toughness in soccer using a triangulation of data capture involving players (n = 6), coaches (n = 4), and parents (n = 5). Semi-structured interviews, based on a personal construct psychology (Kelly, 1955/1991) framework, were conducted to elicit participants' perspectives on the key characteristics and their contrasts, situations demanding mental toughness, and the behaviours displayed and cognitions employed by mentally tough soccer players. The results from the research provided further evidence that mental toughness is conceptually distinct from other psychological constructs such as hardiness. The findings also supported Gucciardi, Gordon, and Dimmock's (2009) process model of mental toughness. A winning mentality and desire was identified as a key attribute of mentally tough soccer players in addition to other previously reported qualities such as self-belief, physical toughness, work ethic/motivation, and resilience. Key cognitions reported by mentally tough soccer players enabled them to remain focused and competitive during training and matches and highlighted the adoption of several forms of self-talk in dealing with challenging situations. Minor revisions to Gucciardi and colleagues' definition of mental toughness are proposed.

Performance evaluation of wavelet-based face verification on a PDA recorded database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellahewa, Harin; Jassim, Sabah A.

2006-05-01

The rise of international terrorism and the rapid increase in fraud and identity theft has added urgency to the task of developing biometric-based person identification as a reliable alternative to conventional authentication methods. Human Identification based on face images is a tough challenge in comparison to identification based on fingerprints or Iris recognition. Yet, due to its unobtrusive nature, face recognition is the preferred method of identification for security related applications. The success of such systems will depend on the support of massive infrastructures. Current mobile communication devices (3G smart phones) and PDA's are equipped with a camera which can capture both still and streaming video clips and a touch sensitive display panel. Beside convenience, such devices provide an adequate secure infrastructure for sensitive & financial transactions, by protecting against fraud and repudiation while ensuring accountability. Biometric authentication systems for mobile devices would have obvious advantages in conflict scenarios when communication from beyond enemy lines is essential to save soldier and civilian life. In areas of conflict or disaster the luxury of fixed infrastructure is not available or destroyed. In this paper, we present a wavelet-based face verification scheme that have been specifically designed and implemented on a currently available PDA. We shall report on its performance on the benchmark audio-visual BANCA database and on a newly developed PDA recorded audio-visual database that take include indoor and outdoor recordings.

Fractography and fracture toughness of human dentin.

PubMed

Yan, J; Taskonak, B; Mecholsky, J J

2009-10-01

Dentin, the mineralized tissue forming the bulk of the tooth, serves as an energy-absorbing cushion for the hard, wear-resistant enamel and protects the inner soft tissues. Several studies used fracture mechanics methods to study the fracture toughness of dentin. However, all of them utilized precracks and cannot be used to estimate the intrinsic critical flaw size of dentin. We applied quantitative fractography to study the fracture pattern and fracture toughness of human dentin. Sixteen specimens were prepared from the coronal dentin and fractured in three-point flexure. Fracture surfaces were examined using a scanning electron microscope and the fracture toughness was calculated using a fracture mechanics equation. It was found that human dentin has a fracture surface similar to those of brittle materials. Twist hackle markings were observed and were used to identify the fracture origins. Average fracture toughness of all specimens was found to be 2.3 MPa m(1/2) and the average critical flaw size was estimated to 120 mum. It is suggested that fractography is a promising technique in analyzing the fracture of dentin under catastrophic failure.

Toughness of the Virunga mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) diet across an altitudinal gradient.

PubMed

Glowacka, Halszka; McFarlin, Shannon C; Vogel, Erin R; Stoinski, Tara S; Ndagijimana, Felix; Tuyisingize, Deo; Mudakikwa, Antoine; Schwartz, Gary T

2017-08-01

The robust masticatory system of mountain gorillas is thought to have evolved for the comminution of tough vegetation, yet, compared to other primates, the toughness of the mountain gorilla diet is unremarkable. This may be a result of low plant toughness in the mountain gorilla environment or of mountain gorillas feeding selectively on low-toughness foods. The goal of this paper is to determine how the toughness of the mountain gorilla diet varies across their habitat, which spans a large altitudinal range, and whether there is a relationship between toughness and food selection by mountain gorillas. We collected data on the following variables to determine whether, and if so how, they change with altitude: leaf toughness of two plant species consumed by mountain gorillas, at every 100 m increase in altitude (2,600-3,700 m); toughness of consumed foods comprising over 85% of the gorilla diet across five vegetation zones; and toughness of unconsumed/infrequently consumed plant parts of those foods. Although leaf toughness increased with altitude, the toughness of the gorilla diet remained similar. There was a negative relationship between toughness and consumption frequency, and toughness was a better predictor of consumption frequency than plant frequency, biomass, and density. Consumed plant parts were less tough than unconsumed/infrequently consumed parts and toughness of the latter increased with altitude. Although it is unclear whether gorillas select food based on toughness or use toughness as a sensory cue to impart other plant properties (e.g., macronutrients, chemicals), our results that gorillas maintain a consistent low-toughness dietary profile across altitude, despite toughness increasing with altitude, suggest that the robust gorilla masticatory apparatus evolved for repetitive mastication of foods that are not high in toughness. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Critical Fracture Toughness Measurements of an Antarctic Ice Core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christmann, Julia; Müller, Ralf; Webber, Kyle; Isaia, Daniel; Schader, Florian; Kippstuhl, Sepp; Freitag, Johannes; Humbert, Angelika

2014-05-01

Fracture toughness is a material parameter describing the resistance of a pre-existing defect in a body to further crack extension. The fracture toughness of glacial ice as a function of density is important for modeling efforts aspire to predict calving behavior. In the presented experiments this fracture toughness is measured using an ice core from Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The samples were sawed in an ice lab at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven at -20°C and had the dimensions of standard test samples with thickness 14 mm, width 28 mm and length 126 mm. The samples originate from a depth of 94.6 m to 96 m. The grain size of the samples was also identified. The grain size was found to be rather uniform. The critical fracture toughness is determined in a four-point bending approach using single edge V-notch beam samples. The initial notch length was around 2.5 mm and was prepared using a drilling machine. The experimental setup was designed at the Institute of Materials Science at Darmstadt. In this setup the force increases linearly, until the maximum force is reached, where the specific sample fractures. This procedure was done in an ice lab with a temperature of -15°C. The equations to calculate the fracture toughness for pure bending are derived from an elastic stress analysis and are given as a standard test method to detect the fracture toughness. An X-ray computer tomography (CT scanner) was used to determine the ice core densities. The tests cover densities from 843 kg m-3 to 871 kg m-3. Thereby the influence of the fracture toughness on the density was analyzed and compared to previous investigations of this material parameter. Finally the dependence of the measured toughness on thickness, width, and position in the core cross-section was investigated.

Tolerance for distorted faces: challenges to a configural processing account of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Sandford, Adam; Burton, A Mike

2014-09-01

Face recognition is widely held to rely on 'configural processing', an analysis of spatial relations between facial features. We present three experiments in which viewers were shown distorted faces, and asked to resize these to their correct shape. Based on configural theories appealing to metric distances between features, we reason that this should be an easier task for familiar than unfamiliar faces (whose subtle arrangements of features are unknown). In fact, participants were inaccurate at this task, making between 8% and 13% errors across experiments. Importantly, we observed no advantage for familiar faces: in one experiment participants were more accurate with unfamiliars, and in two experiments there was no difference. These findings were not due to general task difficulty - participants were able to resize blocks of colour to target shapes (squares) more accurately. We also found an advantage of familiarity for resizing other stimuli (brand logos). If configural processing does underlie face recognition, these results place constraints on the definition of 'configural'. Alternatively, familiar face recognition might rely on more complex criteria - based on tolerance to within-person variation rather than highly specific measurement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Is naming faces different from naming objects? Semantic interference in a face- and object-naming task.

PubMed

Marful, Alejandra; Paolieri, Daniela; Bajo, M Teresa

2014-04-01

A current debate regarding face and object naming concerns whether they are equally vulnerable to semantic interference. Although some studies have shown similar patterns of interference, others have revealed different effects for faces and objects. In Experiment 1, we compared face naming to object naming when exemplars were presented in a semantically homogeneous context (grouped by their category) or in a semantically heterogeneous context (mixed) across four cycles. The data revealed significant slowing for both face and object naming in the homogeneous context. This semantic interference was explained as being due to lexical competition from the conceptual activation of category members. When focusing on the first cycle, a facilitation effect for objects but not for faces appeared. This result permits us to explain the previously observed discrepancies between face and object naming. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with the exception that half of the stimuli were presented as face/object names for reading. Semantic interference was present for both face and object naming, suggesting that faces and objects behave similarly during naming. Interestingly, during reading, semantic interference was observed for face names but not for object names. This pattern is consistent with previous assumptions proposing the activation of a person identity during face name reading.

Passive and Motivated Perception of Emotional Faces: Qualitative and Quantitative Changes in the Face Processing Network

PubMed Central

Skelly, Laurie R.; Decety, Jean

2012-01-01

Emotionally expressive faces are processed by a distributed network of interacting sub-cortical and cortical brain regions. The components of this network have been identified and described in large part by the stimulus properties to which they are sensitive, but as face processing research matures interest has broadened to also probe dynamic interactions between these regions and top-down influences such as task demand and context. While some research has tested the robustness of affective face processing by restricting available attentional resources, it is not known whether face network processing can be augmented by increased motivation to attend to affective face stimuli. Short videos of people expressing emotions were presented to healthy participants during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Motivation to attend to the videos was manipulated by providing an incentive for improved recall performance. During the motivated condition, there was greater coherence among nodes of the face processing network, more widespread correlation between signal intensity and performance, and selective signal increases in a task-relevant subset of face processing regions, including the posterior superior temporal sulcus and right amygdala. In addition, an unexpected task-related laterality effect was seen in the amygdala. These findings provide strong evidence that motivation augmentsco-activity among nodes of the face processing network and the impact of neural activity on performance. These within-subject effects highlight the necessity to consider motivation when interpreting neural function in special populations, and to further explore the effect of task demands on face processing in healthy brains. PMID:22768287

Phasic alertness enhances processing of face and non-face stimuli in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Tanzer, Michal; Weinbach, Noam; Mardo, Elite; Henik, Avishai; Avidan, Galia

2016-08-01

Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) is a severe face processing impairment that occurs in the absence of any obvious brain damage and has often been associated with a more general deficit in deriving holistic relations between facial features or even between non-face shape dimensions. Here we further characterized this deficit and examined a potential way to ameliorate it. To this end we manipulated phasic alertness using alerting cues previously shown to modulate attention and enhance global processing of visual stimuli in normal observers. Specifically, we first examined whether individuals with CP, similarly to controls, would show greater global processing when exposed to an alerting cue in the context of a non-facial task (Navon global/local task). We then explored the effect of an alerting cue on face processing (upright/inverted face discrimination). Confirming previous findings, in the absence of alerting cues, controls showed a typical global bias in the Navon task and an inversion effect indexing holistic processing in the upright/inverted task, while CP failed to show these effects. Critically, when alerting cues preceded the experimental trials, both groups showed enhanced global interference and a larger inversion effect. These results suggest that phasic alertness may modulate visual processing and consequently, affect global/holistic perception. Hence, these findings further reinforce the notion that global/holistic processing may serve as a possible mechanism underlying the face processing deficit in CP. Moreover, they imply a possible route for enhancing face processing in individuals with CP and thus shed new light on potential amelioration of this disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the Automaticity of Emotion Processing in Words and Faces: Event-Related Brain Potentials Evidence from a Superficial Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rellecke, Julian; Palazova, Marina; Sommer, Werner; Schacht, Annekathrin

2011-01-01

The degree to which emotional aspects of stimuli are processed automatically is controversial. Here, we assessed the automatic elicitation of emotion-related brain potentials (ERPs) to positive, negative, and neutral words and facial expressions in an easy and superficial face-word discrimination task, for which the emotional valence was…

Faces with Light Makeup Are Better Recognized than Faces with Heavy Makeup

PubMed Central

Tagai, Keiko; Ohtaka, Hitomi; Nittono, Hiroshi

2016-01-01

Many women wear facial makeup to accentuate their appeal and attractiveness. Makeup may vary from natural (light) to glamorous (heavy), depending of the context of interpersonal situations, an emphasis on femininity, and current societal makeup trends. This study examined how light makeup and heavy makeup influenced attractiveness ratings and facial recognition. In a rating task, 38 Japanese women assigned attractiveness ratings to 36 Japanese female faces with no makeup, light makeup, and heavy makeup (12 each). In a subsequent recognition task, the participants were presented with 36 old and 36 new faces. Results indicated that attractiveness was rated highest for the light makeup faces and lowest for the no makeup faces. In contrast, recognition performance was higher for the no makeup and light make up faces than for the heavy makeup faces. Faces with heavy makeup produced a higher rate of false recognition than did other faces, possibly because heavy makeup creates an impression of the style of makeup itself, rather than the individual wearing the makeup. The present study suggests that light makeup is preferable to heavy makeup in that light makeup does not interfere with individual recognition and gives beholders positive impressions. PMID:26973553

Faces with Light Makeup Are Better Recognized than Faces with Heavy Makeup.

PubMed

Tagai, Keiko; Ohtaka, Hitomi; Nittono, Hiroshi

2016-01-01

Many women wear facial makeup to accentuate their appeal and attractiveness. Makeup may vary from natural (light) to glamorous (heavy), depending of the context of interpersonal situations, an emphasis on femininity, and current societal makeup trends. This study examined how light makeup and heavy makeup influenced attractiveness ratings and facial recognition. In a rating task, 38 Japanese women assigned attractiveness ratings to 36 Japanese female faces with no makeup, light makeup, and heavy makeup (12 each). In a subsequent recognition task, the participants were presented with 36 old and 36 new faces. Results indicated that attractiveness was rated highest for the light makeup faces and lowest for the no makeup faces. In contrast, recognition performance was higher for the no makeup and light make up faces than for the heavy makeup faces. Faces with heavy makeup produced a higher rate of false recognition than did other faces, possibly because heavy makeup creates an impression of the style of makeup itself, rather than the individual wearing the makeup. The present study suggests that light makeup is preferable to heavy makeup in that light makeup does not interfere with individual recognition and gives beholders positive impressions.

A parametric study of fracture toughness of fibrous composite materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poe, C. C., Jr.

1987-01-01

Impacts to fibrous composite laminates by objects with low velocities can break fibers giving crack-like damage. The damage may not extend completely through a thick laminate. The tension strength of these damage laminates is reduced much like that of cracked metals. The fracture toughness depends on fiber and matrix properties, fiber orientations, and stacking sequence. Accordingly, a parametric study was made to determine how fiber and matrix properties and fiber orientations affect fracture toughness and notch sensitivity. The values of fracture toughness were predicted from the elastic constants of the laminate and the failing strain of the fibers using a general fracture toughness parameter developed previously. For a variety of laminates, values of fracture toughness from tests of center-cracked specimens and values of residual strength from tests of thick laminates with surface cracks were compared to the predictions to give credibility to the study. In contrast to the usual behavior of metals, it is shown that both ultimate tensile strength and fracture toughness of composites can be increased without increasing notch sensitivity.

Does my face FIT?: a face image task reveals structure and distortions of facial feature representation.

PubMed

Fuentes, Christina T; Runa, Catarina; Blanco, Xenxo Alvarez; Orvalho, Verónica; Haggard, Patrick

2013-01-01

Despite extensive research on face perception, few studies have investigated individuals' knowledge about the physical features of their own face. In this study, 50 participants indicated the location of key features of their own face, relative to an anchor point corresponding to the tip of the nose, and the results were compared to the true location of the same individual's features from a standardised photograph. Horizontal and vertical errors were analysed separately. An overall bias to underestimate vertical distances revealed a distorted face representation, with reduced face height. Factor analyses were used to identify separable subconfigurations of facial features with correlated localisation errors. Independent representations of upper and lower facial features emerged from the data pattern. The major source of variation across individuals was in representation of face shape, with a spectrum from tall/thin to short/wide representation. Visual identification of one's own face is excellent, and facial features are routinely used for establishing personal identity. However, our results show that spatial knowledge of one's own face is remarkably poor, suggesting that face representation may not contribute strongly to self-awareness.

Neural architecture underlying classification of face perception paradigms.

PubMed

Laird, Angela R; Riedel, Michael C; Sutherland, Matthew T; Eickhoff, Simon B; Ray, Kimberly L; Uecker, Angela M; Fox, P Mickle; Turner, Jessica A; Fox, Peter T

2015-10-01

We present a novel strategy for deriving a classification system of functional neuroimaging paradigms that relies on hierarchical clustering of experiments archived in the BrainMap database. The goal of our proof-of-concept application was to examine the underlying neural architecture of the face perception literature from a meta-analytic perspective, as these studies include a wide range of tasks. Task-based results exhibiting similar activation patterns were grouped as similar, while tasks activating different brain networks were classified as functionally distinct. We identified four sub-classes of face tasks: (1) Visuospatial Attention and Visuomotor Coordination to Faces, (2) Perception and Recognition of Faces, (3) Social Processing and Episodic Recall of Faces, and (4) Face Naming and Lexical Retrieval. Interpretation of these sub-classes supports an extension of a well-known model of face perception to include a core system for visual analysis and extended systems for personal information, emotion, and salience processing. Overall, these results demonstrate that a large-scale data mining approach can inform the evolution of theoretical cognitive models by probing the range of behavioral manipulations across experimental tasks. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Second-order relational face processing is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

PubMed

Matheson, H E; Bilsbury, T G; McMullen, P A

2012-03-01

A large body of research suggests that faces are processed by a specialized mechanism within the human visual system. This specialized mechanism is made up of subprocesses (Maurer, LeGrand, & Mondloch, 2002). One subprocess, called second- order relational processing, analyzes the metric distances between face parts. Importantly, it is well established that other-race faces and contrast-reversed faces are associated with impaired performance on numerous face processing tasks. Here, we investigated the specificity of second-order relational processing by testing how this process is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast. Participants completed a feature displacement discrimination task, directly measuring the sensitivity to second-order relations between face parts. Across three experiments we show that, despite absolute differences in sensitivity in some conditions, inversion impaired performance in all conditions. The presence of robust inversion effects for all faces suggests that second-order relational processing can be applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

Repetition Blindness for Faces: A Comparison of Face Identity, Expression, and Gender Judgments.

PubMed

Murphy, Karen; Ward, Zoe

2017-01-01

Repetition blindness (RB) refers to the impairment in reporting two identical targets within a rapid serial visual presentation stream. While numerous studies have demonstrated RB for words and picture of objects, very few studies have examined RB for faces. This study extended this research by examining RB when the two faces were complete repeats (same emotion and identity), identity repeats (same individual, different emotion), and emotion repeats (different individual, same emotion) for identity, gender, and expression judgment tasks. Complete RB and identity RB effects were evident for all three judgment tasks. Emotion RB was only evident for the expression and gender judgments. Complete RB effects were larger than emotion or identity RB effects across all judgment tasks. For the expression judgments, there was more emotion than identity RB. The identity RB effect was larger than the emotion RB effect for the gender judgments. Cross task comparisons revealed larger complete RB effects for the expression and gender judgments than the identity decisions. There was a larger emotion RB effect for the expression than gender judgments and the identity RB effect was larger for the gender than for the identity and expression judgments. These results indicate that while faces are subject to RB, this is affected by the type of repeated information and relevance of the facial characteristic to the judgment decision. This study provides further support for the operation of separate processing mechanisms for face gender, emotion, and identity information within models of face recognition.

Repetition Blindness for Faces: A Comparison of Face Identity, Expression, and Gender Judgments

PubMed Central

Murphy, Karen; Ward, Zoe

2017-01-01

Repetition blindness (RB) refers to the impairment in reporting two identical targets within a rapid serial visual presentation stream. While numerous studies have demonstrated RB for words and picture of objects, very few studies have examined RB for faces. This study extended this research by examining RB when the two faces were complete repeats (same emotion and identity), identity repeats (same individual, different emotion), and emotion repeats (different individual, same emotion) for identity, gender, and expression judgment tasks. Complete RB and identity RB effects were evident for all three judgment tasks. Emotion RB was only evident for the expression and gender judgments. Complete RB effects were larger than emotion or identity RB effects across all judgment tasks. For the expression judgments, there was more emotion than identity RB. The identity RB effect was larger than the emotion RB effect for the gender judgments. Cross task comparisons revealed larger complete RB effects for the expression and gender judgments than the identity decisions. There was a larger emotion RB effect for the expression than gender judgments and the identity RB effect was larger for the gender than for the identity and expression judgments. These results indicate that while faces are subject to RB, this is affected by the type of repeated information and relevance of the facial characteristic to the judgment decision. This study provides further support for the operation of separate processing mechanisms for face gender, emotion, and identity information within models of face recognition. PMID:29038663

Microstructure and fracture toughness of Mn-stabilized cubic titanium trialuminide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zbroniec, Leszek Ireneusz

This thesis project is related to the fracture toughness aspects of the mechanical behavior of the selected Mn-modified cubic Ll2 titanium trialuminicles. Fracture toughness was evaluated using two specimen types: Single-Edge-Precracked-Beam (SEPB) and Chevron-Notched-Beam (CNB). The material tested was in cast, homogenized and HIP-ed condition. In the preliminary stage of the project due to lack of the ASTM Standard for fracture toughness testing of the chevron-notched specimens in bending the analyses of the CNB configuration were done to establish the optimal chevron notch dimensions. Two types of alloys were investigated: (a) boron-free and boron doped low-Mn (9at.% Mn), as well as (b) boron-free and boron-doped high-Mn (14at.% Mn). Toughness was investigated in the temperature range from room temperature to 1000°C and was calculated from the maximum load. It has been found that toughness of coarse-grained "base" 9Mn-25Ti alloy exhibits a broad peak at the 200--500°C temperature range and then decreases with increasing temperature, reaching its room temperature value at 10000°C. However, the work of fracture (gammaWOF) and the stress intensity factor calculated from it (KIWOF) increases continuously with increasing temperature. Also the fracture mode dependence on temperature has been established. To understand the effect of environment on the fracture toughness of coarse-grained "base", boron-free 9Mn-25Ti alloy, the tests were carried out in vacuum (˜1.3 x 10-5 Pa), argon, oxygen, water and liquid nitrogen. It has been shown that fracture toughness at ambient temperature is not affected by the environments containing moisture (water vapor). It seems that at ambient temperatures these materials are completely immune to the water-vapor hydrogen embrittlement and their cause of brittleness is other than environment. To explore the influence of the grain size on fracture toughness the fracture toughness tests were also performed on the dynamically

Familiarity and face emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Lahera, Guillermo; Herrera, Sara; Fernández, Cristina; Bardón, Marta; de los Ángeles, Victoria; Fernández-Liria, Alberto

2014-01-01

To assess the emotion recognition in familiar and unknown faces in a sample of schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Face emotion recognition of 18 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IVTR) and 18 healthy volunteers was assessed with two Emotion Recognition Tasks using familiar faces and unknown faces. Each subject was accompanied by 4 familiar people (parents, siblings or friends), which were photographed by expressing the 6 Ekman's basic emotions. Face emotion recognition in familiar faces was assessed with this ad hoc instrument. In each case, the patient scored (from 1 to 10) the subjective familiarity and affective valence corresponding to each person. Patients with schizophrenia not only showed a deficit in the recognition of emotions on unknown faces (p=.01), but they also showed an even more pronounced deficit on familiar faces (p=.001). Controls had a similar success rate in the unknown faces task (mean: 18 +/- 2.2) and the familiar face task (mean: 17.4 +/- 3). However, patients had a significantly lower score in the familiar faces task (mean: 13.2 +/- 3.8) than in the unknown faces task (mean: 16 +/- 2.4; p<.05). In both tests, the highest number of errors was with emotions of anger and fear. Subjectively, the patient group showed a lower level of familiarity and emotional valence to their respective relatives (p<.01). The sense of familiarity may be a factor involved in the face emotion recognition and it may be disturbed in schizophrenia. © 2013.

Social and emotional relevance in face processing: happy faces of future interaction partners enhance the late positive potential

PubMed Central

Bublatzky, Florian; Gerdes, Antje B. M.; White, Andrew J.; Riemer, Martin; Alpers, Georg W.

2014-01-01

Human face perception is modulated by both emotional valence and social relevance, but their interaction has rarely been examined. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) to happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions with different degrees of social relevance were recorded. To implement a social anticipation task, relevance was manipulated by presenting faces of two specific actors as future interaction partners (socially relevant), whereas two other face actors remained non-relevant. In a further control task all stimuli were presented without specific relevance instructions (passive viewing). Face stimuli of four actors (2 women, from the KDEF) were randomly presented for 1s to 26 participants (16 female). Results showed an augmented N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and late positive potential (LPP) for emotional in contrast to neutral facial expressions. Of particular interest, face processing varied as a function of experimental tasks. Whereas task effects were observed for P1 and EPN regardless of instructed relevance, LPP amplitudes were modulated by emotional facial expression and relevance manipulation. The LPP was specifically enhanced for happy facial expressions of the anticipated future interaction partners. This underscores that social relevance can impact face processing already at an early stage of visual processing. These findings are discussed within the framework of motivated attention and face processing theories. PMID:25076881

Face matching impairment in developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

White, David; Rivolta, Davide; Burton, A Mike; Al-Janabi, Shahd; Palermo, Romina

2017-02-01

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is commonly referred to as 'face blindness', a term that implies a perceptual basis to the condition. However, DP presents as a deficit in face recognition and is diagnosed using memory-based tasks. Here, we test face identification ability in six people with DP, who are severely impaired on face memory tasks, using tasks that do not rely on memory. First, we compared DP to control participants on a standardized test of unfamiliar face matching using facial images taken on the same day and under standardized studio conditions (Glasgow Face Matching Test; GFMT). Scores for DP participants did not differ from normative accuracy scores on the GFMT. Second, we tested face matching performance on a test created using images that were sourced from the Internet and so varied substantially due to changes in viewing conditions and in a person's appearance (Local Heroes Test; LHT). DP participants showed significantly poorer matching accuracy on the LHT than control participants, for both unfamiliar and familiar face matching. Interestingly, this deficit is specific to 'match' trials, suggesting that people with DP may have particular difficulty in matching images of the same person that contain natural day-to-day variations in appearance. We discuss these results in the broader context of individual differences in face matching ability.

Crack-shape effects for indentation fracture toughness measurements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smith, S.M.; Scattergood, R.O.

1992-02-01

Various methods to measure fracture toughness using indentation precracks were compared using soda-lime glass as a test material. In situ measurements of crack size as a function of applied stress allow both the toughness K[sub c] and the residual-stress factor [chi] to be independently determined. Analysis of the data showed that stress intensity factors based on classical half-penny crack shapes overestimate toughness values and produce an apparent R-curve effect. This is due to a constraint on crack shape imposed by primary lateral cracks in soda-lime glass. Models based on elliptical cracks were developed to account for the crack-shape effects.

46 CFR 57.06-5 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 57.06-5 Section 57.06-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING WELDING AND BRAZING Production Tests § 57.06-5 Production toughness testing. (a) In addition to the test specimens required by...

46 CFR 57.06-5 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 57.06-5 Section 57.06-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING WELDING AND BRAZING Production Tests § 57.06-5 Production toughness testing. (a) In addition to the test specimens required by...

46 CFR 57.06-5 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 57.06-5 Section 57.06-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING WELDING AND BRAZING Production Tests § 57.06-5 Production toughness testing. (a) In addition to the test specimens required by...

46 CFR 57.06-5 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 57.06-5 Section 57.06-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING WELDING AND BRAZING Production Tests § 57.06-5 Production toughness testing. (a) In addition to the test specimens required by...

46 CFR 57.06-5 - Production toughness testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Production toughness testing. 57.06-5 Section 57.06-5 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE ENGINEERING WELDING AND BRAZING Production Tests § 57.06-5 Production toughness testing. (a) In addition to the test specimens required by...

Over-Aging Effect on Fracture Toughness of Beryllium Copper Alloy C17200

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jen, Kei-Peng; Xu, Liqun; Hylinski, Steven; Gildersleeve, Nate

2008-10-01

This study experimentally increased the fracture toughness of Beryllium Copper (CuBe) UNS C17200 alloy using three different age hardening processes. At the same time, the micro- and macro-fracture behavior of this alloy were comprehensively studied. ASTM E399 fracture toughness, tensile, and Charpy impact tests were conducted for all three heat-treated rods. The fracture surfaces were examined under both an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope to investigate the failure mechanisms. Multiple test orientations were considered to explore isotropy. Increasing the temperature and duration at which age hardening was performed increased fracture toughness while decreasing ultimate tensile strength. The maximum fracture toughness was reached on the most overaged specimen, while retaining a serviceable tensile strength. The specimen test data allowed a relationship to be established among Charpy impact toughness, fracture toughness, and yield strength. Analysis of fracture behavior revealed an interesting relationship between fracture toughness and pre-cracking fatigue propagation rate.

Priming global and local processing of composite faces: revisiting the processing-bias effect on face perception.

PubMed

Gao, Zaifeng; Flevaris, Anastasia V; Robertson, Lynn C; Bentin, Shlomo

2011-07-01

We used the composite-face illusion and Navon stimuli to determine the consequences of priming local or global processing on subsequent face recognition. The composite-face illusion reflects the difficulty of ignoring the task-irrelevant half-face while attending the task-relevant half if the half-faces in the composite are aligned. On each trial, participants first matched two Navon stimuli, attending to either the global or the local level, and then matched the upper halves of two composite faces presented sequentially. Global processing of Navon stimuli increased the sensitivity to incongruence between the upper and the lower halves of the composite face, relative to a baseline in which the composite faces were not primed. Local processing of Navon stimuli did not influence the sensitivity to incongruence. Although incongruence induced a bias toward different responses, this bias was not modulated by priming. We conclude that global processing of Navon stimuli augments holistic processing of the face.

Familiar Face Recognition in Children with Autism: The Differential Use of Inner and Outer Face Parts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Rebecca; Pascalis, Olivier; Blades, Mark

2007-01-01

We investigated whether children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) have a deficit in recognising familiar faces. Children with ASD were given a forced choice familiar face recognition task with three conditions: full faces, inner face parts and outer face parts. Control groups were children with developmental delay (DD) and typically…

Duchenne muscular dystrophy drugs face tough path to approval.

PubMed

Hodgkinson, L; Sorbera, L; Graul, A I

2016-03-01

Highly anticipated as new disease-modifying treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), therapeutics by BioMarin Pharmaceutical (Kyndrisa™; drisapersen) and Sarepta Therapeutics (eteplirsen; AVI-4658) both recently received negative FDA reviews and are now facing battles for approval in the U.S. At present, BioMarin is committed to working with the FDA to forge a pathway to approval following the failure of its NDA, while Sarepta awaits the formal decision on its NDA, which is expected by late May 2016. Despite the critical nature of both reviews, analysts consider that there is still a narrow possibility of approval of both drugs. According to Consensus forecasts from Thomson Reuters Cortellis for Competitive Intelligence, Kyndrisa is forecast to achieve sales of USD 533.71 million in 2021. Copyright 2016 Prous Science, S.A.U. or its licensors. All rights reserved.

Increasing the Cryogenic Toughness of Steels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rush, H. F.

1986-01-01

Grain-refining heat treatments increase toughness without substantial strength loss. Five alloys selected for study, all at or near technological limit. Results showed clearly grain sizes of these alloys refined by such heat treatments and grain refinement results in large improvement in toughness without substantial loss in strength. Best improvements seen in HP-9-4-20 Steel, at low-strength end of technological limit, and in Maraging 200, at high-strength end. These alloys, in grain refined condition, considered for model applications in high-Reynolds-number cryogenic wind tunnels.

Mental toughness in sport: motivational antecedents and associations with performance and psychological health.

PubMed

Mahoney, John W; Gucciardi, Daniel F; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Mallett, Cliff J; Mallet, Cliff J

2014-06-01

We argue that basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) offers impetus to the value of mental toughness as a mechanism for optimizing human functioning. We hypothesized that psychological needs satisfaction (thwarting) would be associated with higher (lower) levels of mental toughness, positive affect, and performance and lower (higher) levels of negative affect. We also expected that mental toughness would be associated with higher levels of positive affect and performance and lower levels of negative affect. Further, we predicted that coaching environments would be related to mental toughness indirectly through psychological needs and that psychological needs would indirectly relate with performance and affect through mental toughness. Adolescent cross-country runners (136 male and 85 female, M(age) = 14.36) completed questionnaires pertaining to BPNT variables, mental toughness, and affect. Race times were also collected. Our findings supported our hypotheses. We concluded that BPNT is generative in understanding some of the antecedents and consequences of mental toughness and is a novel framework useful for understanding mental toughness.

Rock Fracture Toughness Study Under Mixed Mode I/III Loading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aliha, M. R. M.; Bahmani, A.

2017-07-01

Fracture growth in underground rock structures occurs under complex stress states, which typically include the in- and out-of-plane sliding deformation of jointed rock masses before catastrophic failure. However, the lack of a comprehensive theoretical and experimental fracture toughness study for rocks under contributions of out-of plane deformations (i.e. mode III) is one of the shortcomings of this field. Therefore, in this research the mixed mode I/III fracture toughness of a typical rock material is investigated experimentally by means of a novel cracked disc specimen subjected to bend loading. It was shown that the specimen can provide full combinations of modes I and III and consequently a complete set of mixed mode I/III fracture toughness data were determined for the tested marble rock. By moving from pure mode I towards pure mode III, fracture load was increased; however, the corresponding fracture toughness value became smaller. The obtained experimental fracture toughness results were finally predicted using theoretical and empirical fracture models.

Not All Faces Are Processed Equally: Evidence for Featural Rather than Holistic Processing of One's Own Face in a Face-Imaging Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenberg, Seth N.; Goshen-Gottstein, Yonatan

2009-01-01

The present work considers the mental imaging of faces, with a focus in own-face imaging. Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated an own-face disadvantage, with slower generation of mental images of one's own face than of other familiar faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that mental images of facial parts are generated more quickly for one's…

Artificial faces are harder to remember

PubMed Central

Balas, Benjamin; Pacella, Jonathan

2015-01-01

Observers interact with artificial faces in a range of different settings and in many cases must remember and identify computer-generated faces. In general, however, most adults have heavily biased experience favoring real faces over synthetic faces. It is well known that face recognition abilities are affected by experience such that faces belonging to “out-groups” defined by race or age are more poorly remembered and harder to discriminate from one another than faces belonging to the “in-group.” Here, we examine the extent to which artificial faces form an “out-group” in this sense when other perceptual categories are matched. We rendered synthetic faces using photographs of real human faces and compared performance in a memory task and a discrimination task across real and artificial versions of the same faces. We found that real faces were easier to remember, but only slightly more discriminable than artificial faces. Artificial faces were also equally susceptible to the well-known face inversion effect, suggesting that while these patterns are still processed by the human visual system in a face-like manner, artificial appearance does compromise the efficiency of face processing. PMID:26195852

[Relative fracture toughness of differents dental ceramics].

PubMed

Pagani, Clovis; Miranda, Carolina Baptista; Bottino, Marco Cícero

2003-03-01

Although ceramics present high compressive strength, they are brittle materials due to their low tensile strength so they have lower capacity to absorb shocks. This study evaluated the fracture toughness of different ceramic systems, which refers to the ability of a friable material to absorb defformation energy. Three ceramic systems were investigated. Ten cylindrical samples (5,0mm x 3,0mm), were obtained from each ceramic material as follows: G1- 10 samples of Vitadur Alpha (Vita-Zahnfabrik); G2- 10 samples of IPS Empress2 (Ivoclar-Vivadent); G3- 10 samples of In-Ceram Alumina (Vita-Zahnfabrik). Fracture toughness values were collected upon indentation tests that were performed under a heavy load. A microhardness tester (Digital Microhardness Tester FM) utilized a 500gf load cell during 10seconds to perform four impressions on each sample. Statistically significant results were observed (ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests). In-Ceram Alumina presented the highest median toughness values (2,96N/m3/2), followed by Vitadur Alpha (2,08N/m3/2) and IPS Empress2 (1,05N/m3/2). It may be concluded that different ceramic systems present distinct fracture toughness values, thus In-Ceram is capable of absorbing superior stress when compared to Vitadur Alpha and IPS Empress2.

Face to face with emotion: holistic face processing is modulated by emotional state.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Johnson, Kareem J; Tyson, Alyssa

2012-01-01

Negative emotions are linked with a local, rather than global, visual processing style, which may preferentially facilitate feature-based, relative to holistic, processing mechanisms. Because faces are typically processed holistically, and because social contexts are prime elicitors of emotions, we examined whether negative emotions decrease holistic processing of faces. We induced positive, negative, or neutral emotions via film clips and measured holistic processing before and after the induction: participants made judgements about cued parts of chimeric faces, and holistic processing was indexed by the interference caused by task-irrelevant face parts. Emotional state significantly modulated face-processing style, with the negative emotion induction leading to decreased holistic processing. Furthermore, self-reported change in emotional state correlated with changes in holistic processing. These results contrast with general assumptions that holistic processing of faces is automatic and immune to outside influences, and they illustrate emotion's power to modulate socially relevant aspects of visual perception.

Continuum Damage Modeling for Dynamic Fracture Toughness of Metal Matrix Composites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Intaek; Ochi, Yasuo; Bae, Sungin; Song, Jungil

Short fiber reinforced metal-matrix composites (MMCs) have widely adopted as structural materials and many experimental researches have been performed to study fracture toughness of it. Fracture toughness is often referred as the plane strain(maximum constraint) fracture toughness KIc determined by the well-established standard test method, such as ASTM E399. But the application for dynamic fracture toughness KId has not been popular yet, because of reliance in capturing the crack propagating time. This paper deals with dynamic fracture toughness testing and simulation using finite element method to evaluate fracture behaviors of MMCs manufactured by squeeze casting process when material combination is varied with the type of reinforcement (appearance, size), volume fraction and combination of reinforcements, and the matrix alloy. The instrumented Charphy impact test was used for KId determination and continuum damage model embedded in commercial FE program is used to investigate the dynamic fracture toughness with the influence of elasto-visco-plastic constitutive relation of quasi-brittle fracture that is typical examples of ceramics and some fibre reinforced composites. With Compared results between experimental method and FE simulation, the determination process for KId is presented. FE simulation coupled with continuum damage model is emphasized single shot simulation can predict the dynamic fracture toughness, KId and real time evolution of that directly.

The Loss of Activating Transcription Factor 4 (ATF4) Reduces Bone Toughness and Fracture Toughness

PubMed Central

Makowski, Alexander J.; Uppuganti, Sasidhar; Waader, Sandra A.; Whitehead, Jack M.; Rowland, Barbara J.; Granke, Mathilde; Mahadevan-Jansen, Anita; Yang, Xiangli; Nyman, Jeffry S.

2014-01-01

Even though age-related changes to bone tissue affecting fracture risk are well characterized, only a few matrix-related factors have been identified as important to maintaining fracture resistance. As a gene critical to osteoblast differentiation, activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) is possibly one of the seimportant factors. To test the hypothesis that the loss of ATF4 affects the fracture resistance of bone beyond bone mass and structure, we harvested bones from Atf4+/+ and Atf4−/− littermates at 8 and 20 weeks of age (n≥9 per group) for bone assessment across several length scales. From whole bone mechanical tests in bending, femurs from Atf4−/− mice were found to be brittle with reduced toughness and fracture toughness compared to femurs from Atf4+/+ mice. However, there were no differences in material strength and in tissue hardness, as determined by nanoindentation, between the genotypes, irrespective age. Tissue mineral density of the cortex at the point of loading as determined by micro-computed tomography was also not significantly different. However, by analyzing local composition by Raman Spectroscopy (RS), bone tissue of Atf4−/− mice was found to have higher mineral to collagen ratio compared to wild-type tissue, primarily at 20 weeks of age. From RS analysis of intact femurs at 2 orthogonal orientations relative to the polarization axis of the laser, we also found that the organizational-sensitive peak ratio, ν1 Phosphate per Amide I, changed to a greater extent upon bone rotation for Atf4-deficient tissue, implying bone matrix organization may contribute to the brittleness phenotype. Target genes of ATF4 activity are not only important to osteoblast differentiation but also maintaining bone toughness and fracture toughness. PMID:24509412

The loss of activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) reduces bone toughness and fracture toughness.

PubMed

Makowski, Alexander J; Uppuganti, Sasidhar; Wadeer, Sandra A; Whitehead, Jack M; Rowland, Barbara J; Granke, Mathilde; Mahadevan-Jansen, Anita; Yang, Xiangli; Nyman, Jeffry S

2014-05-01

Even though age-related changes to bone tissue affecting fracture risk are well characterized, only a few matrix-related factors have been identified as important to maintaining fracture resistance. As a gene critical to osteoblast differentiation, activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) is possibly one of these important factors. To test the hypothesis that the loss of ATF4 affects the fracture resistance of bone beyond bone mass and structure, we harvested bones from Atf4+/+ and Atf4-/- littermates at 8 and 20 weeks of age (n≥9 per group) for bone assessment across several length scales. From whole bone mechanical tests in bending, femurs from Atf4-/- mice were found to be brittle with reduced toughness and fracture toughness compared to femurs from Atf4+/+ mice. However, there were no differences in material strength and in tissue hardness, as determined by nanoindentation, between the genotypes, irrespective of age. Tissue mineral density of the cortex at the point of loading as determined by micro-computed tomography was also not significantly different. However, by analyzing local composition by Raman Spectroscopy (RS), bone tissue of Atf4-/- mice was found to have higher mineral to collagen ratio compared to wild-type tissue, primarily at 20 weeks of age. From RS analysis of intact femurs at 2 orthogonal orientations relative to the polarization axis of the laser, we also found that the organizational-sensitive peak ratio, ν1Phosphate per Amide I, changed to a greater extent upon bone rotation for Atf4-deficient tissue, implying bone matrix organization may contribute to the brittleness phenotype. Target genes of ATF4 activity are not only important to osteoblast differentiation but also in maintaining bone toughness and fracture toughness. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Application of fracture toughness scaling models to the ductile-to- brittle transition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Link, R.E.; Joyce, J.A.

1996-01-01

An experimental investigation of fracture toughness in the ductile-brittle transition range was conducted. A large number of ASTM A533, Grade B steel, bend and tension specimens with varying crack lengths were tested throughout the transition region. Cleavage fracture toughness scaling models were utilized to correct the data for the loss of constraint in short crack specimens and tension geometries. The toughness scaling models were effective in reducing the scatter in the data, but tended to over-correct the results for the short crack bend specimens. A proposed ASTM Test Practice for Fracture Toughness in the Transition Range, which employs a mastermore » curve concept, was applied to the results. The proposed master curve over predicted the fracture toughness in the mid-transition and a modified master curve was developed that more accurately modeled the transition behavior of the material. Finally, the modified master curve and the fracture toughness scaling models were combined to predict the as-measured fracture toughness of the short crack bend and the tension specimens. It was shown that when the scaling models over correct the data for loss of constraint, they can also lead to non-conservative estimates of the increase in toughness for low constraint geometries.« less

Categorical and Coordinate Relations in Faces, or Fechner's Law and Face Space Instead?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKone, Elinor; Aitkin, Alex; Edwards, Mark

2005-01-01

E. E. Cooper and T. J. Wojan (2000) applied the categorical-coordinate relations distinction to faces on the basis of a finding that two-eyes-up versus one-eye-up distortions had opposite effects in between-class (face normality) and within-class (face identity) tasks. However, Cooper and Wojan failed to match amount of metric change between their…

The feasibility of ranking material fracture toughness by ultrasonic attenuation measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vary, A.

1975-01-01

A preliminary study was conducted to assess the feasibility of ultrasonically ranking material fracture toughness. Specimens of two grades of maraging steel for which fracture toughness values were measured were subjected to ultrasonic probing. The slope of the attenuation coefficient vs frequency curve was empirically correlated with the plane strain fracture toughness value for each grade of steel.

The feasibility of ranking material fracture toughness by ultrasonic attenuation measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vary, A.

1975-01-01

A preliminary study was conducted to assess the feasibility of ultrasonically ranking material fracture toughness. Specimens of two grades of maraging steel for which fracture toughness values were measured were subjected to ultrasonic probing. The slope of the attenuation coefficient versus frequency curve was empirically correlated with the plane strain fracture toughness value for each grade of steel.

Semantic Learning Modifies Perceptual Face Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heisz, Jennifer J.; Shedden, Judith M.

2009-01-01

Face processing changes when a face is learned with personally relevant information. In a five-day learning paradigm, faces were presented with rich semantic stories that conveyed personal information about the faces. Event-related potentials were recorded before and after learning during a passive viewing task. When faces were novel, we observed…

Fracture toughness of ultrashort pulse-bonded fused silica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richter, S.; Naumann, F.; Zimmermann, F.; Tünnermann, A.; Nolte, S.

2016-02-01

We determined the bond interface strength of ultrashort pulse laser-welded fused silica for different processing parameters. To this end, we used a high repetition rate ultrashort pulse laser system to inscribe parallel welding lines with a specific V-shaped design into optically contacted fused silica samples. Afterward, we applied a micro-chevron test to measure the fracture toughness and surface energy of the laser-inscribed welding seams. We analyzed the influence of different processing parameters such as laser repetition rate and line separation on the fracture toughness and fracture surface energy. Welding the entire surface a fracture toughness of 0.71 {MPa} {m}^{1/2}, about 90 % of the pristine bulk material ({≈ } 0.8 {MPa} {m}^{1/2}), is obtained.

Fiber reinforced solids possessing great fracture toughness: The role of interfacial strength

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkins, A. G.

1974-01-01

The high tensile strength characteristic of strong interfacial filament/matrix bonding can be combined with the high fracture toughness of weak interfacial bonding, when the filaments are arranged to have alternate sections of high and low shear stress (and low and high toughness). Such weak and strong areas can be achieved by appropriate intermittent coating of the fibers. An analysis is presented for toughness and strength which demonstrates, in broad terms, the effects of varying the coating parameters of concern. Results show that the toughness of interfaces is an important parameter, differences in which may not be shown up in terms of interfacial strength. Some observations are made upon methods of measuring the components of toughness in composites.

Cognitive demands of face monitoring: evidence for visuospatial overload.

PubMed

Doherty-Sneddon, G; Bonner, L; Bruce, V

2001-10-01

Young children perform difficult communication tasks better face to face than when they cannot see one another (e.g., Doherty-Sneddon & Kent, 1996). However, in recent studies, it was found that children aged 6 and 10 years, describing abstract shapes, showed evidence of face-to-face interference rather than facilitation. For some communication tasks, access to visual signals (such as facial expression and eye gaze) may hinder rather than help children's communication. In new research we have pursued this interference effect. Five studies are described with adults and 10- and 6-year-old participants. It was found that looking at a face interfered with children's abilities to listen to descriptions of abstract shapes. Children also performed visuospatial memory tasks worse when they looked at someone's face prior to responding than when they looked at a visuospatial pattern or at the floor. It was concluded that performance on certain tasks was hindered by monitoring another person's face. It is suggested that processing of visual communication signals shares certain processing resources with the processing of other visuospatial information.

Anomalous scaling law of strength and toughness of cellulose nanopaper

PubMed Central

Zhu, Hongli; Zhu, Shuze; Jia, Zheng; Parvinian, Sepideh; Li, Yuanyuan; Vaaland, Oeyvind; Hu, Liangbing; Li, Teng

2015-01-01

The quest for both strength and toughness is perpetual in advanced material design; unfortunately, these two mechanical properties are generally mutually exclusive. So far there exists only limited success of attaining both strength and toughness, which often needs material-specific, complicated, or expensive synthesis processes and thus can hardly be applicable to other materials. A general mechanism to address the conflict between strength and toughness still remains elusive. Here we report a first-of-its-kind study of the dependence of strength and toughness of cellulose nanopaper on the size of the constituent cellulose fibers. Surprisingly, we find that both the strength and toughness of cellulose nanopaper increase simultaneously (40 and 130 times, respectively) as the size of the constituent cellulose fibers decreases (from a mean diameter of 27 μm to 11 nm), revealing an anomalous but highly desirable scaling law of the mechanical properties of cellulose nanopaper: the smaller, the stronger and the tougher. Further fundamental mechanistic studies reveal that reduced intrinsic defect size and facile (re)formation of strong hydrogen bonding among cellulose molecular chains is the underlying key to this new scaling law of mechanical properties. These mechanistic findings are generally applicable to other material building blocks, and therefore open up abundant opportunities to use the fundamental bottom-up strategy to design a new class of functional materials that are both strong and tough. PMID:26150482

Strong, tough and stiff bioinspired ceramics from brittle constituents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouville, Florian; Maire, Eric; Meille, Sylvain; van de Moortèle, Bertrand; Stevenson, Adam J.; Deville, Sylvain

2014-05-01

High strength and high toughness are usually mutually exclusive in engineering materials. In ceramics, improving toughness usually relies on the introduction of a metallic or polymeric ductile phase, but this decreases the material’s strength and stiffness as well as its high-temperature stability. Although natural materials that are both strong and tough rely on a combination of mechanisms operating at different length scales, the relevant structures have been extremely difficult to replicate. Here, we report a bioinspired approach based on widespread ceramic processing techniques for the fabrication of bulk ceramics without a ductile phase and with a unique combination of high strength (470 MPa), high toughness (22 MPa m1/2), and high stiffness (290 GPa). Because only mineral constituents are needed, these ceramics retain their mechanical properties at high temperatures (600 °C). Our bioinspired, material-independent approach should find uses in the design and processing of materials for structural, transportation and energy-related applications.

Holistic processing, contact, and the other-race effect in face recognition.

PubMed

Zhao, Mintao; Hayward, William G; Bülthoff, Isabelle

2014-12-01

Face recognition, holistic processing, and processing of configural and featural facial information are known to be influenced by face race, with better performance for own- than other-race faces. However, whether these various other-race effects (OREs) arise from the same underlying mechanisms or from different processes remains unclear. The present study addressed this question by measuring the OREs in a set of face recognition tasks, and testing whether these OREs are correlated with each other. Participants performed different tasks probing (1) face recognition, (2) holistic processing, (3) processing of configural information, and (4) processing of featural information for both own- and other-race faces. Their contact with other-race people was also assessed with a questionnaire. The results show significant OREs in tasks testing face memory and processing of configural information, but not in tasks testing either holistic processing or processing of featural information. Importantly, there was no cross-task correlation between any of the measured OREs. Moreover, the level of other-race contact predicted only the OREs obtained in tasks testing face memory and processing of configural information. These results indicate that these various cross-race differences originate from different aspects of face processing, in contrary to the view that the ORE in face recognition is due to cross-race differences in terms of holistic processing. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Instant tough bonding of hydrogels for soft machines and electronics

PubMed Central

Wirthl, Daniela; Pichler, Robert; Drack, Michael; Kettlguber, Gerald; Moser, Richard; Gerstmayr, Robert; Hartmann, Florian; Bradt, Elke; Kaltseis, Rainer; Siket, Christian M.; Schausberger, Stefan E.; Hild, Sabine; Bauer, Siegfried; Kaltenbrunner, Martin

2017-01-01

Introducing methods for instant tough bonding between hydrogels and antagonistic materials—from soft to hard—allows us to demonstrate elastic yet tough biomimetic devices and machines with a high level of complexity. Tough hydrogels strongly attach, within seconds, to plastics, elastomers, leather, bone, and metals, reaching unprecedented interfacial toughness exceeding 2000 J/m2. Healing of severed ionic hydrogel conductors becomes feasible and restores function instantly. Soft, transparent multilayered hybrids of elastomers and ionic hydrogels endure biaxial strain with more than 2000% increase in area, facilitating soft transducers, generators, and adaptive lenses. We demonstrate soft electronic devices, from stretchable batteries, self-powered compliant circuits, and autonomous electronic skin for triggered drug delivery. Our approach is applicable in rapid prototyping and in delicate environments inaccessible for extended curing and cross-linking. PMID:28691092

Instant tough bonding of hydrogels for soft machines and electronics.

PubMed

Wirthl, Daniela; Pichler, Robert; Drack, Michael; Kettlguber, Gerald; Moser, Richard; Gerstmayr, Robert; Hartmann, Florian; Bradt, Elke; Kaltseis, Rainer; Siket, Christian M; Schausberger, Stefan E; Hild, Sabine; Bauer, Siegfried; Kaltenbrunner, Martin

2017-06-01

Introducing methods for instant tough bonding between hydrogels and antagonistic materials-from soft to hard-allows us to demonstrate elastic yet tough biomimetic devices and machines with a high level of complexity. Tough hydrogels strongly attach, within seconds, to plastics, elastomers, leather, bone, and metals, reaching unprecedented interfacial toughness exceeding 2000 J/m 2 . Healing of severed ionic hydrogel conductors becomes feasible and restores function instantly. Soft, transparent multilayered hybrids of elastomers and ionic hydrogels endure biaxial strain with more than 2000% increase in area, facilitating soft transducers, generators, and adaptive lenses. We demonstrate soft electronic devices, from stretchable batteries, self-powered compliant circuits, and autonomous electronic skin for triggered drug delivery. Our approach is applicable in rapid prototyping and in delicate environments inaccessible for extended curing and cross-linking.

The weak interfaces within tough natural composites: experiments on three types of nacre.

PubMed

Khayer Dastjerdi, Ahmad; Rabiei, Reza; Barthelat, Francois

2013-03-01

Mineralization is a typical strategy used in natural materials to achieve high stiffness and hardness for structural functions such as skeletal support, protection or predation. High mineral content generally leads to brittleness, yet natural materials such as bone, mollusk shells or glass sponge achieve relatively high toughness considering the weakness of their constituents through intricate microstructures. In particular, nanometers thick organic interfaces organized in micro-architectures play a key role in providing toughness by various processes including crack deflection, crack bridging or energy dissipation. While these interfaces are critical in these materials, their composition, structure and mechanics is often poorly understood. In this work we focus on nacre, one of the most impressive hard biological materials in terms of toughness. We performed interfacial fracture tests on chevron notched nacre samples from three different species: red abalone, top shell and pearl oyster. We found that the intrinsic toughness of the interfaces is indeed found to be extremely low, in the order of the toughness of the mineral inclusions themselves. Such low toughness is required for the cracks to follow the interfaces, and to deflect and circumvent the mineral tablets. This result highlights the efficacy of toughening mechanisms in natural materials, turning low-toughness inclusions and interfaces into high-performance composites. We found that top shell nacre displayed the highest interfacial toughness, because of higher surface roughness and a more resilient organic material, and also through extrinsic toughening mechanisms including crack deflection, crack bridging and process zone. In the context of biomimetics, the main implication of this finding is that the interface in nacre-like composite does not need to be tough; the extensibility or ductility of the interfaces may be more important than their strength and toughness to produce toughness at the macroscale

The evolution of face processing in primates

PubMed Central

Parr, Lisa A.

2011-01-01

The ability to recognize faces is an important socio-cognitive skill that is associated with a number of cognitive specializations in humans. While numerous studies have examined the presence of these specializations in non-human primates, species where face recognition would confer distinct advantages in social situations, results have been mixed. The majority of studies in chimpanzees support homologous face-processing mechanisms with humans, but results from monkey studies appear largely dependent on the type of testing methods used. Studies that employ passive viewing paradigms, like the visual paired comparison task, report evidence of similarities between monkeys and humans, but tasks that use more stringent, operant response tasks, like the matching-to-sample task, often report species differences. Moreover, the data suggest that monkeys may be less sensitive than chimpanzees and humans to the precise spacing of facial features, in addition to the surface-based cues reflected in those features, information that is critical for the representation of individual identity. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the available data from face-processing tasks in non-human primates with the goal of understanding the evolution of this complex cognitive skill. PMID:21536559

The automaticity of face perception is influenced by familiarity.

PubMed

Yan, Xiaoqian; Young, Andrew W; Andrews, Timothy J

2017-10-01

In this study, we explore the automaticity of encoding for different facial characteristics and ask whether it is influenced by face familiarity. We used a matching task in which participants had to report whether the gender, identity, race, or expression of two briefly presented faces was the same or different. The task was made challenging by allowing nonrelevant dimensions to vary across trials. To test for automaticity, we compared performance on trials in which the task instruction was given at the beginning of the trial, with trials in which the task instruction was given at the end of the trial. As a strong criterion for automatic processing, we reasoned that if perception of a given characteristic (gender, race, identity, or emotion) is fully automatic, the timing of the instruction should not influence performance. We compared automaticity for the perception of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Performance with unfamiliar faces was higher for all tasks when the instruction was given at the beginning of the trial. However, we found a significant interaction between instruction and task with familiar faces. Accuracy of gender and identity judgments to familiar faces was the same regardless of whether the instruction was given before or after the trial, suggesting automatic processing of these properties. In contrast, there was an effect of instruction for judgments of expression and race to familiar faces. These results show that familiarity enhances the automatic processing of some types of facial information more than others.

A causal relationship between face-patch activity and face-detection behavior.

PubMed

Sadagopan, Srivatsun; Zarco, Wilbert; Freiwald, Winrich A

2017-04-04

The primate brain contains distinct areas densely populated by face-selective neurons. One of these, face-patch ML, contains neurons selective for contrast relationships between face parts. Such contrast-relationships can serve as powerful heuristics for face detection. However, it is unknown whether neurons with such selectivity actually support face-detection behavior. Here, we devised a naturalistic face-detection task and combined it with fMRI-guided pharmacological inactivation of ML to test whether ML is of critical importance for real-world face detection. We found that inactivation of ML impairs face detection. The effect was anatomically specific, as inactivation of areas outside ML did not affect face detection, and it was categorically specific, as inactivation of ML impaired face detection while sparing body and object detection. These results establish that ML function is crucial for detection of faces in natural scenes, performing a critical first step on which other face processing operations can build.

Developing Mental Toughness: Lessons from Paralympians.

PubMed

Powell, Alexander J; Myers, Tony D

2017-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is a key psychological variable related to perseverance and success in performance domains. MT and its development has been explored across a range of contexts and across different sports, but no research to date has examined MT in relation to Paralympic athletes. We sought to understand the lived-experiences of mentally tough Paralympians, aiming to conceptualize MT in a Paralympic context and investigate its development. Ten Paralympic athletes were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews served as the data for an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three broad themes and several subthemes emerged in conceptualizing Paralympian MT: characteristics (determination, defiance, pragmatic, optimistic, resilient, self-belief and independence and autonomy), cognitions (normalization, sense of escape, non-acceptance of constraints, influence perception and connection) and cognitive strategies (rational thinking, goal setting, pain management and control). In understanding MT development, two broad themes and several subthemes emerged: formative experiences (challenge, classification, setbacks, critical incident, trauma and recovery, sustained commitment, development of mind-set and perspective during challenge, failure, and acceptance), and support and coping resources (social support and significant others, external shaping, social support, overcoming problems, social comparison and reflective practice). The findings suggest that Paralympians benefited from exposure to highly demanding situations in a supportive environment and this helped develop mentally tough characteristics and behaviors and individualized cognitive coping strategies. Our findings highlight the association between the adaptive development of personal characteristics by overcoming physical and mental setbacks over a sustained time period. Overall, the findings suggest that to develop mentally tough characteristics

Developing Mental Toughness: Lessons from Paralympians

PubMed Central

Powell, Alexander J.; Myers, Tony D.

2017-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is a key psychological variable related to perseverance and success in performance domains. MT and its development has been explored across a range of contexts and across different sports, but no research to date has examined MT in relation to Paralympic athletes. We sought to understand the lived-experiences of mentally tough Paralympians, aiming to conceptualize MT in a Paralympic context and investigate its development. Ten Paralympic athletes were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews served as the data for an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three broad themes and several subthemes emerged in conceptualizing Paralympian MT: characteristics (determination, defiance, pragmatic, optimistic, resilient, self-belief and independence and autonomy), cognitions (normalization, sense of escape, non-acceptance of constraints, influence perception and connection) and cognitive strategies (rational thinking, goal setting, pain management and control). In understanding MT development, two broad themes and several subthemes emerged: formative experiences (challenge, classification, setbacks, critical incident, trauma and recovery, sustained commitment, development of mind-set and perspective during challenge, failure, and acceptance), and support and coping resources (social support and significant others, external shaping, social support, overcoming problems, social comparison and reflective practice). The findings suggest that Paralympians benefited from exposure to highly demanding situations in a supportive environment and this helped develop mentally tough characteristics and behaviors and individualized cognitive coping strategies. Our findings highlight the association between the adaptive development of personal characteristics by overcoming physical and mental setbacks over a sustained time period. Overall, the findings suggest that to develop mentally tough characteristics

"Sleep well, our tough heroes!"--in adolescence, greater mental toughness is related to better sleep schedules.

PubMed

Brand, Serge; Gerber, Markus; Kalak, Nadeem; Kirov, Roumen; Lemola, Sakari; Clough, Peter J; Pühse, Uwe; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith

2014-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is understood as the display of confidence, commitment, challenge, and control. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which greater MT is associated with subjectively assessed sleep among adolescents. A total of 284 adolescents (M = 18.26 years) completed a series of questionnaires assessing MT, psychological functioning, and sleep. Greater MT was significantly associated with better sleep quality, shorter sleep onset latency, fewer awakenings after sleep onset, and longer sleep duration. Greater MT was also associated with less perceived stress and less depressive symptoms. MT was directly and indirectly associated with sleep quality. Mentally tough adolescents report good sleep quality and sleep schedules, along with psychological wellbeing.

Visual Search Efficiency is Greater for Human Faces Compared to Animal Faces

PubMed Central

Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Mertins, Haley L.; Yee, Krysten; Fullerton, Alison; Jakobsen, Krisztina V.

2015-01-01

The Animate Monitoring Hypothesis proposes that humans and animals were the most important categories of visual stimuli for ancestral humans to monitor, as they presented important challenges and opportunities for survival and reproduction; however, it remains unknown whether animal faces are located as efficiently as human faces. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether human, primate, and mammal faces elicit similarly efficient searches, or whether human faces are privileged. In the first three experiments, participants located a target (human, primate, or mammal face) among distractors (non-face objects). We found fixations on human faces were faster and more accurate than primate faces, even when controlling for search category specificity. A final experiment revealed that, even when task-irrelevant, human faces slowed searches for non-faces, suggesting some bottom-up processing may be responsible for the human face search efficiency advantage. PMID:24962122

Comparative Effectiveness and Student Choice for Online and Face-to-Face Classwork

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nemetz, Patricia Louise; Eager, Wendy M.; Limpaphayom, Wanthanee

2017-01-01

The authors examined learning and task choices made by students when the same interactive course design was used online and face-to-face. A survey was administered in an operations management course covering both conceptual and quantitative topics. Course grades were compared and correlations were measured to determine relevant relationships.…

Initiation and propagation toughness of delamination crack under an impact load

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Prashant; Kishore, N. N.

1998-10-01

A combined experimental and finite element method is developed to determine the interlaminar dynamic fracture toughness. An interlaminar crack is propagated at very high speed in a double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen made of two steel strips with a precrack. A special fixture is designed to apply impact load to one cantilever and determine the deflection of the cantilever-end, initiation time and crack propagation history. The experimental results are used as input data in a FE code to calculate J-integral by the gradual release of nodal forces to model the propagation of the interlaminar crack. The initiation fracture toughness and propagation fracture toughness are evaluated for interlaminar crack propagating between 850 and 1785 ms. The initiation and propagation toughness were found to vary between 90-200 Jm 2 and 2-13 Jm 2 respectively. The technique is extended to study initiation and propagation toughness of interlaminar crack in unidirectional FRP laminates. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Sex differences in face gender recognition: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Sun, Yueting; Gao, Xiaochao; Han, Shihui

2010-04-23

Multiple level neurocognitive processes are involved in face processing in humans. The present study examined whether the early face processing such as structural encoding is modulated by task demands that manipulate attention to perceptual or social features of faces and such an effect, if any, is different between men and women. Event-related brain potentials were recorded from male and female adults while they identified a low-level perceptual feature of faces (i.e., face orientation) and a high-level social feature of faces (i.e., gender). We found that task demands that required the processing of face orientations or face gender resulted in modulations of both the early occipital/temporal negativity (N170) and the late central/parietal positivity (P3). The N170 amplitude was smaller in the gender relative to the orientation identification task whereas the P3 amplitude was larger in the gender identification task relative to the orientation identification task. In addition, these effects were much stronger in women than in men. Our findings suggest that attention to social information in faces such as gender modulates both the early encoding of facial structures and late evaluative process of faces to a greater degree in women than in men.

How Well Do Computer-Generated Faces Tap Face Expertise?

PubMed

Crookes, Kate; Ewing, Louise; Gildenhuys, Ju-Dith; Kloth, Nadine; Hayward, William G; Oxner, Matt; Pond, Stephen; Rhodes, Gillian

2015-01-01

The use of computer-generated (CG) stimuli in face processing research is proliferating due to the ease with which faces can be generated, standardised and manipulated. However there has been surprisingly little research into whether CG faces are processed in the same way as photographs of real faces. The present study assessed how well CG faces tap face identity expertise by investigating whether two indicators of face expertise are reduced for CG faces when compared to face photographs. These indicators were accuracy for identification of own-race faces and the other-race effect (ORE)-the well-established finding that own-race faces are recognised more accurately than other-race faces. In Experiment 1 Caucasian and Asian participants completed a recognition memory task for own- and other-race real and CG faces. Overall accuracy for own-race faces was dramatically reduced for CG compared to real faces and the ORE was significantly and substantially attenuated for CG faces. Experiment 2 investigated perceptual discrimination for own- and other-race real and CG faces with Caucasian and Asian participants. Here again, accuracy for own-race faces was significantly reduced for CG compared to real faces. However the ORE was not affected by format. Together these results signal that CG faces of the type tested here do not fully tap face expertise. Technological advancement may, in the future, produce CG faces that are equivalent to real photographs. Until then caution is advised when interpreting results obtained using CG faces.

Effect of environment on fracture toughness of 96 wt pct alumina

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choi, Sung R.; Tikare, Veena; Salem, Jonathan A.

1993-01-01

An effort is made to deepen understanding of environmental effects on the fracture toughness of an alumina composition that contains a residual glassy phase, by ascertaining the fracture toughness under atmospheric conditions in such varied environments as air distilled water, silicone oil, and liquid nitrogen. Fracture toughness was determined via the single-edge-precracked beam technique. Weibull strength parameters are compared for polished specimens tested both in air and silicone environments.

Recognition of face and non-face stimuli in autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Arkush, Leo; Smith-Collins, Adam P R; Fiorentini, Chiara; Skuse, David H

2013-12-01

The ability to remember faces is critical for the development of social competence. From childhood to adulthood, we acquire a high level of expertise in the recognition of facial images, and neural processes become dedicated to sustaining competence. Many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor face recognition memory; changes in hairstyle or other non-facial features in an otherwise familiar person affect their recollection skills. The observation implies that they may not use the configuration of the inner face to achieve memory competence, but bolster performance in other ways. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of a group of high-functioning unmedicated adolescents with ASD and a matched control group on a "surprise" face recognition memory task. We compared their memory for unfamiliar faces with their memory for images of houses. To evaluate the role that is played by peripheral cues in assisting recognition memory, we cropped both sets of pictures, retaining only the most salient central features. ASD adolescents had poorer recognition memory for faces than typical controls, but their recognition memory for houses was unimpaired. Cropping images of faces did not disproportionately influence their recall accuracy, relative to controls. House recognition skills (cropped and uncropped) were similar in both groups. In the ASD group only, performance on both sets of task was closely correlated, implying that memory for faces and other complex pictorial stimuli is achieved by domain-general (non-dedicated) cognitive mechanisms. Adolescents with ASD apparently do not use domain-specialized processing of inner facial cues to support face recognition memory. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Face-gender discrimination is possible in the near-absence of attention.

PubMed

Reddy, Leila; Wilken, Patrick; Koch, Christof

2004-03-02

The attentional cost associated with the visual discrimination of the gender of a face was investigated. Participants performed a face-gender discrimination task either alone (single-task) or concurrently (dual-task) with a known attentional demanding task (5-letter T/L discrimination). Overall performance on face-gender discrimination suffered remarkably little under the dual-task condition compared to the single-task condition. Similar results were obtained in experiments that controlled for potential training effects or the use of low-level cues in this discrimination task. Our results provide further evidence against the notion that only low-level representations can be accessed outside the focus of attention.

Many faces of expertise: fusiform face area in chess experts and novices.

PubMed

Bilalić, Merim; Langner, Robert; Ulrich, Rolf; Grodd, Wolfgang

2011-07-13

The fusiform face area (FFA) is involved in face perception to such an extent that some claim it is a brain module for faces exclusively. The other possibility is that FFA is modulated by experience in individuation in any visual domain, not only faces. Here we test this latter FFA expertise hypothesis using the game of chess as a domain of investigation. We exploited the characteristic of chess, which features multiple objects forming meaningful spatial relations. In three experiments, we show that FFA activity is related to stimulus properties and not to chess skill directly. In all chess and non-chess tasks, experts' FFA was more activated than that of novices' only when they dealt with naturalistic full-board chess positions. When common spatial relationships formed by chess objects in chess positions were randomly disturbed, FFA was again differentially active only in experts, regardless of the actual task. Our experiments show that FFA contributes to the holistic processing of domain-specific multipart stimuli in chess experts. This suggests that FFA may not only mediate human expertise in face recognition but, supporting the expertise hypothesis, may mediate the automatic holistic processing of any highly familiar multipart visual input.

Fracture toughness of advanced ceramics at room temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, George D.; Salem, Jonathan; Bar-On, Isa; Cho, Kyu; Foley, Michael; Fang, HO

1992-01-01

Results of round-robin fracture toughness tests on advanced ceramics are reported. A gas-pressure silicon nitride and a zirconia-toughened alumina were tested using three test methods: indentation fracture, indentation strength, and single-edge precracked beam. The latter two methods have produced consistent results. The interpretation of fracture toughness test results for the zirconia alumina composite is shown to be complicated by R-curve and environmentally assisted crack growth phenomena.

Repetition priming of access to biographical information from faces.

PubMed

Johnston, Robert A; Barry, Christopher

2006-02-01

Two experiments examined repetition priming on tasks that require access to semantic (or biographical) information from faces. In the second stage of each experiment, participants made either a nationality or an occupation decision to faces of celebrities, and, in the first stage, they made either the same or a different decision to faces (in Experiment 1) or the same or a different decision to printed names (in Experiment 2). All combinations of priming and test tasks produced clear repetition effects, which occurred irrespective of whether the decisions made were positive or negative. Same-domain (face-to-face) repetition priming was larger than cross-domain (name-to-face) priming, and priming was larger when the two tasks were the same. It is discussed how these findings are more readily accommodated by the Burton, Bruce, and Johnston (1990) model of face recognition than by episode-based accounts of repetition priming.

iTOUGH2: A multiphysics simulation-optimization framework for analyzing subsurface systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finsterle, S.; Commer, M.; Edmiston, J. K.; Jung, Y.; Kowalsky, M. B.; Pau, G. S. H.; Wainwright, H. M.; Zhang, Y.

2017-11-01

iTOUGH2 is a simulation-optimization framework for the TOUGH suite of nonisothermal multiphase flow models and related simulators of geophysical, geochemical, and geomechanical processes. After appropriate parameterization of subsurface structures and their properties, iTOUGH2 runs simulations for multiple parameter sets and analyzes the resulting output for parameter estimation through automatic model calibration, local and global sensitivity analyses, data-worth analyses, and uncertainty propagation analyses. Development of iTOUGH2 is driven by scientific challenges and user needs, with new capabilities continually added to both the forward simulator and the optimization framework. This review article provides a summary description of methods and features implemented in iTOUGH2, and discusses the usefulness and limitations of an integrated simulation-optimization workflow in support of the characterization and analysis of complex multiphysics subsurface systems.

On the feasibility of quantitative ultrasonic determination of fracture toughness: A literature review

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fu, L. S.

1980-01-01

The three main topics covered are: (1) fracture toughness and microstructure, (2) quantitative ultrasonic and microstructure; and (3) scattering and related mathematical methods. Literature in these areas is reviewed to give insight to the search of a theoretical foundation for quantitative ultrasonic measurement of fracture toughness. The literature review shows that fracture toughness is inherently related to the microstructure and in particular, it depends upon the spacing of inclusions or second particles and the aspect ratio of second phase particles. There are indications that ultrasonic velocity attenuation measurements can be used to determine fracture toughness. The leads to a review of the mathematical models available in solving boundary value problems related to microstructural factors that govern facture toughness and wave motion. A framework towards the theoretical study for the quantitative determination of fracture toughness is described and suggestions for future research are proposed.

Task relevance of emotional information affects anxiety-linked attention bias in visual search.

PubMed

Dodd, Helen F; Vogt, Julia; Turkileri, Nilgun; Notebaert, Lies

2017-01-01

Task relevance affects emotional attention in healthy individuals. Here, we investigate whether the association between anxiety and attention bias is affected by the task relevance of emotion during an attention task. Participants completed two visual search tasks. In the emotion-irrelevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of neutral, middle-aged faces was old or young. Irrelevant to the task, target faces displayed angry, happy, or neutral expressions. In the emotion-relevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of middle-aged neutral faces was happy or angry (target faces also varied in age). Trait anxiety was not associated with attention in the emotion-relevant task. However, in the emotion-irrelevant task, trait anxiety was associated with a bias for angry over happy faces. These findings demonstrate that the task relevance of emotional information affects conclusions about the presence of an anxiety-linked attention bias. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Solving iTOUGH2 simulation and optimization problems using the PEST protocol

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finsterle, S.A.; Zhang, Y.

2011-02-01

The PEST protocol has been implemented into the iTOUGH2 code, allowing the user to link any simulation program (with ASCII-based inputs and outputs) to iTOUGH2's sensitivity analysis, inverse modeling, and uncertainty quantification capabilities. These application models can be pre- or post-processors of the TOUGH2 non-isothermal multiphase flow and transport simulator, or programs that are unrelated to the TOUGH suite of codes. PEST-style template and instruction files are used, respectively, to pass input parameters updated by the iTOUGH2 optimization routines to the model, and to retrieve the model-calculated values that correspond to observable variables. We summarize the iTOUGH2 capabilities and demonstratemore » the flexibility added by the PEST protocol for the solution of a variety of simulation-optimization problems. In particular, the combination of loosely coupled and tightly integrated simulation and optimization routines provides both the flexibility and control needed to solve challenging inversion problems for the analysis of multiphase subsurface flow and transport systems.« less

Face verification with balanced thresholds.

PubMed

Yan, Shuicheng; Xu, Dong; Tang, Xiaoou

2007-01-01

The process of face verification is guided by a pre-learned global threshold, which, however, is often inconsistent with class-specific optimal thresholds. It is, hence, beneficial to pursue a balance of the class-specific thresholds in the model-learning stage. In this paper, we present a new dimensionality reduction algorithm tailored to the verification task that ensures threshold balance. This is achieved by the following aspects. First, feasibility is guaranteed by employing an affine transformation matrix, instead of the conventional projection matrix, for dimensionality reduction, and, hence, we call the proposed algorithm threshold balanced transformation (TBT). Then, the affine transformation matrix, constrained as the product of an orthogonal matrix and a diagonal matrix, is optimized to improve the threshold balance and classification capability in an iterative manner. Unlike most algorithms for face verification which are directly transplanted from face identification literature, TBT is specifically designed for face verification and clarifies the intrinsic distinction between these two tasks. Experiments on three benchmark face databases demonstrate that TBT significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art subspace techniques for face verification.

Glued to Which Face? Attentional Priority Effect of Female Babyface and Male Mature Face.

PubMed

Zheng, Wenwen; Luo, Ting; Hu, Chuan-Peng; Peng, Kaiping

2018-01-01

A more babyfaced individual is perceived as more child-like and this impression from babyface, as known as babyface effect, has an impact on social life among various age groups. In this study, the influence of babyfaces on visual selective attention was tested by cognitive task, demonstrating that the female babyface and male mature face would draw participants' attention so that they take their eyes off more slowly. In Experiment 1, a detection task was applied to test the influence of babyfaces on visual selective attention. In this experiment, a babyface and a mature face with the same gender were presented simultaneously with a letter on one of them. The reaction time was shorter when the target letter was overlaid with a female babyface or male mature face, suggesting an attention capture effect. To explore how this competition influenced by attentional resources, we conducted Experiment 2 with a spatial cueing paradigm and controlled the attentional resources by cueing validity and inter-stimulus interval. In this task, the female babyface and male mature face prolonged responses to the spatially separated targets under the condition of an invalid and long interval pre-cue. This observation replicated the result of Experiment 1. This indicates that the female babyface and male mature face glued visual selective attention once attentional resources were directed to them. To further investigate the subliminal influence from a babyface, we used continuous flash suppression paradigm in Experiment 3. The results, again, showed the advantage of the female babyfaces and male mature faces: they broke the suppression faster than other faces. Our results provide primary evidence that the female babyfaces and male mature faces can reliably glue the visual selective attention, both supra- and sub-liminally.

Glued to Which Face? Attentional Priority Effect of Female Babyface and Male Mature Face

PubMed Central

Zheng, Wenwen; Luo, Ting; Hu, Chuan-Peng; Peng, Kaiping

2018-01-01

A more babyfaced individual is perceived as more child-like and this impression from babyface, as known as babyface effect, has an impact on social life among various age groups. In this study, the influence of babyfaces on visual selective attention was tested by cognitive task, demonstrating that the female babyface and male mature face would draw participants’ attention so that they take their eyes off more slowly. In Experiment 1, a detection task was applied to test the influence of babyfaces on visual selective attention. In this experiment, a babyface and a mature face with the same gender were presented simultaneously with a letter on one of them. The reaction time was shorter when the target letter was overlaid with a female babyface or male mature face, suggesting an attention capture effect. To explore how this competition influenced by attentional resources, we conducted Experiment 2 with a spatial cueing paradigm and controlled the attentional resources by cueing validity and inter-stimulus interval. In this task, the female babyface and male mature face prolonged responses to the spatially separated targets under the condition of an invalid and long interval pre-cue. This observation replicated the result of Experiment 1. This indicates that the female babyface and male mature face glued visual selective attention once attentional resources were directed to them. To further investigate the subliminal influence from a babyface, we used continuous flash suppression paradigm in Experiment 3. The results, again, showed the advantage of the female babyfaces and male mature faces: they broke the suppression faster than other faces. Our results provide primary evidence that the female babyfaces and male mature faces can reliably glue the visual selective attention, both supra- and sub-liminally. PMID:29559946

The Fracture Toughness of Nuclear Graphites Grades

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burchell, Timothy D.; Erdman, III, Donald L.; Lowden, Rick R.

2017-04-01

New measurements of graphite mode I critical stress intensity factor, KIc (commonly referred to as the fracture toughness) and the mode II critical shear stress intensity, KIIc, are reported and compared with prior data for KIc and KIIc. The new data are for graphite grades PCEA, IG-110 and 2114. Variations of KIc and acoustic emission (AE) data with graphite texture are reported and discussed. The Codes and Standards applications of fracture toughness, KIc, data are also discussed. A specified minimum value for nuclear graphite KIc is recommended.

Face identity matching is selectively impaired in developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Fisher, Katie; Towler, John; Eimer, Martin

2017-04-01

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have severe face recognition deficits, but the mechanisms that are responsible for these deficits have not yet been fully identified. We assessed whether the activation of visual working memory for individual faces is selectively impaired in DP. Twelve DPs and twelve age-matched control participants were tested in a task where they reported whether successively presented faces showed the same or two different individuals, and another task where they judged whether the faces showed the same or different facial expressions. Repetitions versus changes of the other currently irrelevant attribute were varied independently. DPs showed impaired performance in the identity task, but performed at the same level as controls in the expression task. An electrophysiological marker for the activation of visual face memory by identity matches (N250r component) was strongly attenuated in the DP group, and the size of this attenuation was correlated with poor performance in a standardized face recognition test. Results demonstrate an identity-specific deficit of visual face memory in DPs. Their reduced sensitivity to identity matches in the presence of other image changes could result from earlier deficits in the perceptual extraction of image-invariant visual identity cues from face images. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. Revised and Expanded Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley, 2008

2008-01-01

"Tough Choices or Tough Times," the report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, shows how the dynamics of the global economy will lead to a steady decline in the American standard of living if this country does not undertake the first thorough overhaul of its education system in a century. This new revised and expanded…

Holistic face perception is modulated by experience-dependent perceptual grouping.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Entenman, Robert J; Fleming, Justin T

2016-07-01

What role do general-purpose, experience-sensitive perceptual mechanisms play in producing characteristic features of face perception? We previously demonstrated that different-colored, misaligned framing backgrounds, designed to disrupt perceptual grouping of face parts appearing upon them, disrupt holistic face perception. In the current experiments, a similar part-judgment task with composite faces was performed: face parts appeared in either misaligned, different-colored rectangles or aligned, same-colored rectangles. To investigate whether experience can shape impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception, a pre-task fostered the perception of either (a) the misaligned, differently colored rectangle frames as parts of a single, multicolored polygon or (b) the aligned, same-colored rectangle frames as a single square shape. Faces appearing in the misaligned, differently colored rectangles were processed more holistically by those in the polygon-, compared with the square-, pre-task group. Holistic effects for faces appearing in aligned, same-colored rectangles showed the opposite pattern. Experiment 2, which included a pre-task condition fostering the perception of the aligned, same-colored frames as pairs of independent rectangles, provided converging evidence that experience can modulate impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception. These results are surprising given the proposed impenetrability of holistic face perception and provide insights into the elusive mechanisms underlying holistic perception.

Counting to 20: Online Implementation of a Face-to-Face, Elementary Mathematics Methods Problem-Solving Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Catherine Stein

2012-01-01

This study describes implementation of the same problem-solving activity in both online and face-to-face environments. The activity, done in the first class period or first module of a K-2 mathematics methods course, was initially used in a face-to-face class and then adapted later for use in an online class. While the task was originally designed…

Determination of toughness and embrittlement for reactor pressure vessel steels using ultrasonic measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiser, Allen Lee, Jr.

Neutron irradiation embrittlement of nuclear reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels results in a loss of fracture toughness (e.g., reduction in load carrying capacity of the steel). For the setting of operational limits and assuring the continued safe operation of the plant, current procedures estimate the effects of neutron embrittlement using empirical relations or the results of small samples irradiated in the plant. These procedures account for uncertainties in the estimates through the use of margin terms to ensure the conservatism of the resultant estimate vis-a-vis the "real" material toughness. Therefore, the ability to develop non destructive measurements that can estimate the actual RPV steel fracture toughness in situ would provide more accurate evaluations of operating limits for plants. This study was undertaken to evaluate the suitability of ultrasonic attenuation measurements for estimating the fracture toughness of RPV steels. Ultrasonic measurements were made on samples in three distinct phases: (1) a heat treated RPV steel to induce changes in its fracture toughness; (2) several irradiated RPV steels to assess actual neutron embrittlement changes in fracture toughness; and (3) a matrix of unirradiated RPV steels with a range of as fabricated toughness levels. The results indicate that ultrasonic attenuation is generally able to identify differences in responses for samples with different toughness levels, although in some cases the differences in ultrasonic responses are small. The results from the three phases are not consistent, as in some cases reduced toughness results in higher attenuation and in other cases lower attenuation. This trend is not surprising given the different types of microstructural changes that result in the toughness changes for each phase of this work. In addition, different trends were identified for plate and weld materials.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going": Motivation towards closure and effort investment in the performance of cognitive tasks.

PubMed

Sankaran, Sindhuja; Szumowska, Ewa; Kossowska, Małgorzata

2017-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that the need for closure (NFC), which refers to an individual's aversion toward uncertainty and the desire to quickly reduce it, leads to reluctance to invest effort in judgments and decision making. However, we argue that NFC may lead to either an increase or a decrease in effort depending on the availability of easy vs. difficult means to achieve closure and perceived importance of the task goal. We found that when closure could be achieved via both less and more demanding means, NFC was associated with decreased effort unless the task was perceived as important (Study 1). However, when attaining closure was possible via demanding means only, NFC was associated with increased effort, regardless of the task importance (Study 2). Moreover, NFC was related to choosing a more instrumental strategy for the goal of closure, even if this strategy required effort (Study 3). The results are discussed in the light of cognitive energetics theory.

Domain specificity versus expertise: factors influencing distinct processing of faces.

PubMed

Carmel, David; Bentin, Shlomo

2002-02-01

To explore face specificity in visual processing, we compared the role of task-associated strategies and expertise on the N170 event-related potential (ERP) component elicited by human faces with the ERPs elicited by cars, birds, items of furniture, and ape faces. In Experiment 1, participants performed a car monitoring task and an animacy decision task. In Experiment 2, participants monitored human faces while faces of apes were the distracters. Faces elicited an equally conspicuous N170, significantly larger than the ERPs elicited by non-face categories regardless of whether they were ignored or had an equal status with other categories (Experiment 1), or were the targets (in Experiment 2). In contrast, the negative component elicited by cars during the same time range was larger if they were targets than if they were not. Furthermore, unlike the posterior-temporal distribution of the N170, the negative component elicited by cars and its modulation by task were more conspicuous at occipital sites. Faces of apes elicited an N170 that was similar in amplitude to that elicited by the human face targets, albeit peaking 10 ms later. As our participants were not ape experts, this pattern indicates that the N170 is face-specific, but not specie-specific, i.e. it is elicited by particular face features regardless of expertise. Overall, these results demonstrate the domain specificity of the visual mechanism implicated in processing faces, a mechanism which is not influenced by either task or expertise. The processing of other objects is probably accomplished by a more general visual processor, which is sensitive to strategic manipulations and attention.

Development of Critical Thinking Skills through Writing Tasks: Challenges Facing Maritime English Students at Aqaba College, AlBalqa Applied University, Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alidmat, Ali Odeh Hammoud; Ayassrah, Mohamed Ayed

2017-01-01

Teaching English for Special Purposes (ESP) in a context where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL) is no easy task. There is in fact extensive research reporting on challenges facing both teacher and student in the Foreign Language classroom where language skills must be learnt outside their usual context. Even more challenging is…

Newborn preference for a new face vs. a previously seen communicative or motionless face.

PubMed

Cecchini, Marco; Baroni, Eleonora; Di Vito, Cinzia; Piccolo, Federica; Lai, Carlo

2011-06-01

Newborn infants prefer to look at a new face compared to a known face (still-face). This effect does not happen with the mother-face. The newborns could be attracted by the mother-face because, unlike the still-face, it confirms an expectation of communication. Fifty newborns were video-recorded. Sixteen of them were recruited in the final sample: nine were exposed to a communicative face and seven to a still-face. All the 16 newborns were successively exposed to two preference-tasks where a new face was compared with the known face. Only newborns previously exposed to a still-face preferred to look at a new face instead of the known face. The results suggest that the newborns are able to build a dynamic representation of faces. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of deformation twin on toughness in magnesium binary alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Somekawa, Hidetoshi; Inoue, Tadanobu; Tsuzaki, Kaneaki

2015-08-01

The impact of alloying elements on toughness was investigated using eight kinds of Mg-0.3 at.% X (X = Al, Ag, Ca, Gd, Mn, Pb, Y and Zn) binary alloys with meso-grained structures. These binary alloys had an average grain size of approximately 20 μm. The fracture toughness and crack propagation behaviour were influenced by the alloying elements; the Mg-Ag and Mg-Pb alloys had the highest and the lowest toughness amongst the alloys, respectively, irrespective of presence in their ? type deformation twins. The twin boundaries affected the crack propagation behaviour in most of the alloys; in contrast, not only was the fracture related to the twin boundaries, but also the intergranular fracture occurred in the alloys that included rare earth elements. The influential factor for toughness in the meso- and the coarse-grained magnesium alloys, which readily formed deformation twins during plastic deformation, was not the change in lattice parameter with chemical composition, but the twin boundary segregation energy.

Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Face-to-Face versus Oral Computer-Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yanguas, Íñigo; Flores, Alayne

2014-01-01

The present study had two main goals: to explore performance differences in a task-based environment between face-to-face (FTF) and oral computer-mediated communication (OCMC) groups, and to investigate the relationship between trait-like willingness to communicate (WTC) and performance in the FTF and OCMC groups. Students from two intact…

Electrophysiological evidence for women superiority on unfamiliar face processing.

PubMed

Sun, Tianyi; Li, Lin; Xu, Yuanli; Zheng, Li; Zhang, Weidong; Zhou, Fanzhi Anita; Guo, Xiuyan

2017-02-01

Previous research has reported that women superiority on face recognition tasks, taking sex difference in accuracy rates as major evidence. By appropriately modifying experimental tasks and examining reaction time as behavioral measure, it was possible to explore which stage of face processing contributes to womens' superiority. We used a modified delayed matching-to-sample task to investigate the time course characteristics of face recognition by ERP, for both men and women. In each trial, participants matched successively presented faces to samples (target faces) by key pressing. It was revealed that women were more accurate and faster than men on the task. ERP results showed that compared to men, women had shorter peak latencies of early components P100 and N170, as well as larger mean amplitude of the late positive component P300. Correlations between P300 mean amplitudes and RTs were found for both sexes. Besides, reaction times of women but not men were positively correlated with N170 latencies. In general, we provided further evidence for women superiority on face recognition in both behavioral and neural aspects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

The faces of development: a review of early face processing over childhood.

PubMed

Taylor, M J; Batty, M; Itier, R J

2004-10-01

The understanding of the adult proficiency in recognizing and extracting information from faces is still limited despite the number of studies over the last decade. Our knowledge on the development of these capacities is even more restricted, as only a handful of such studies exist. Here we present a combined reanalysis of four ERP studies in children from 4 to 15 years of age and adults (n = 424, across the studies), which investigated face processing in implicit and explicit tasks. We restricted these analyses to what was common across studies: early ERP components and upright face processing across all four studies and the inversion effect, investigated in three of the studies. These data demonstrated that processing faces implicates very rapid neural activity, even in young children--at the P1 component--with protracted age-related change in both P1 and N170, that were sensitive to the different task demands. Inversion produced latency and amplitude effects on the P1 from the youngest group, but on N170 only starting in mid childhood. These developmental data suggest that there are functionally different sources of the P1 and N170, related to the processing of different aspects of faces.

Processing and characterization of zeta-Ta4C 3-x: A high toughness tantalum carbide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sygnatowicz, Michael M.

Tantalum carbides are commonly processed by hot-pressing, canned hot-isostatic-pressing, or spark-plasma sintering because of their high melting temperatures and low diffusivities. This study reports processing of dense ζ-Ta4C 3-x by reaction sintering of a Ta and TaC powder mixture (C/Ta atomic ratio = 0.66). ζ-Ta4C3-x is of interest due to its rhombohedral (trigonal) crystal structure that may be characterized as a polytype with both face-centered-cubic (fcc) and hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) Ta stacking sequences interrupted by stacking faults and missing carbon layers. This structure leads to easy cleaving on the basal planes and high fracture toughness. A key step in processing is the hydrogenation of the Ta powder to produce beta-TaH x, a hard and brittle phase that enables efficient comminution during milling and production of small, equiaxed Ta particles that can be packed to high green density with the TaC powder. Studies of phase evolution by quantitative X-ray diffraction during sintering revealed several intermediate reactions: (a) decomposition of beta-TaHx to Ta, (b) diffusion of C from gamma-TaC to Ta leading to the formation of α-Ta2Cy' with the kinetics described by the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equation with an exponent, n = 0.5, and an activation energy of 221 kJ/mole, (c) equilibration of α-Ta2Cy' and gamma-TaC 0.78 phases, and (d) formation of ζ-Ta4C2.56 from the equilibrated α-Ta2C and gamma-TaC0.78 phases with the kinetics characterized by a higher JMAK exponent ( n ≈ 3) and higher activation energy (1089 kJ/mole). The microstructure showed evidence of nucleation and growth of the ζ-Ta4C 2.56 phase in both the α-Ta2C and gamma-TaC0.78 parent phases with distinct difference in the morphology due to the different number of variants of the habit plane. A hot-pressed and hot-isostatic-pressed (HIPed) material (C/Ta atomic ratio = 0.66), having formed 95 w% ζ-phase, attained a fracture toughness of 15.6 +/- 0.5 MPa√m and a

Age-Group Differences in Interference from Young and Older Emotional Faces.

PubMed

Ebner, Natalie C; Johnson, Marcia K

2010-11-01

Human attention is selective, focusing on some aspects of events at the expense of others. In particular, angry faces engage attention. Most studies have used pictures of young faces, even when comparing young and older age groups. Two experiments asked (1) whether task-irrelevant faces of young and older individuals with happy, angry, and neutral expressions disrupt performance on a face-unrelated task, (2) whether interference varies for faces of different ages and different facial expressions, and (3) whether young and older adults differ in this regard. Participants gave speeded responses on a number task while irrelevant faces appeared in the background. Both age groups were more distracted by own than other-age faces. In addition, young participants' responses were slower for angry than happy faces, whereas older participants' responses were slower for happy than angry faces. Factors underlying age-group differences in interference from emotional faces of different ages are discussed.

Computer Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, and Learning in Online versus Face to Face Medium

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Richard; Paul, Ravi; Bradley, John

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between changes to computer self-efficacy (CSE) and computer anxiety and the impact on performance on computer-related tasks in both online and face-to-face mediums. While many studies have looked at these factors individually, relatively few have included multiple measures of these…

Task relevance regulates the interaction between reward expectation and emotion.

PubMed

Wei, Ping; Kang, Guanlan

2014-06-01

In the present study, we investigated the impact of reward expectation on the processing of emotional facial expression using a cue-target paradigm. A cue indicating the reward condition of each trial (incentive vs. non-incentive) was followed by the presentation of a picture of an emotional face, the target. Participants were asked to discriminate the emotional expression of the target face in Experiment 1, to discriminate the gender of the target face in Experiment 2, and to judge a number superimposed on the center of the target face as even or odd in Experiment 3, rendering the emotional expression of the target face as task relevant in Experiment 1 but task irrelevant in Experiments 2 and 3. Faster reaction times (RTs) were observed in the monetary incentive condition than in the non-incentive condition, demonstrating the effect of reward on facilitating task concentration. Moreover, the reward effect (i.e., RTs in non-incentive conditions versus incentive conditions) was larger for emotional faces than for neutral faces when emotional expression was task relevant but not when it was task irrelevant. The findings suggest that top-down incentive motivation biased attentional processing toward task-relevant stimuli, and that task relevance played an important role in regulating the influence of reward expectation on the processing of emotional stimuli.

The development and maintenance of mental toughness: perceptions of elite performers.

PubMed

Connaughton, Declan; Wadey, Ross; Hanton, Sheldon; Jones, Graham

2008-01-01

Seven participants from a previous study (Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2002) agreed to be interviewed about the development of mental toughness. We also aimed to determine whether mental toughness requires maintenance. Semistructured interviews were conducted to elicit the participants' perceptions of how mental toughness is cultivated and retained. Findings indicated that the development of mental toughness is a long-term process that encompasses a multitude of underlying mechanisms that operate in a combined, rather than independent, fashion. In general, these perceived underlying mechanisms related to many features associated with a motivational climate (e.g. enjoyment, mastery), various individuals (i.e. coaches, peers, parents, grandparents, siblings, senior athletes, sport psychologists, team-mates), experiences in and outside sport, psychological skills and strategies, and an insatiable desire and internalized motives to succeed. It was also reported that once mental toughness had been developed, three perceived underlying mechanisms were required to maintain this construct: a desire and motivation to succeed that was insatiable and internalized, a support network that included sporting and non-sporting personnel, and effective use of basic and advanced psychological skills. Practical implications and future avenues of research are discussed.

Serotonin transporter genotype modulates subgenual response to fearful faces using an incidental task.

PubMed

O'Nions, Elizabeth J P; Dolan, Raymond J; Roiser, Jonathan P

2011-11-01

This study assessed the impact of serotonin transporter genotype (5-HTTLPR) on regional responses to emotional faces in the amygdala and subgenual cingulate cortex (sgACC), while subjects performed a gender discrimination task. Although we found no evidence for greater amygdala reactivity or reduced amygdala-sgACC coupling in short variant 5-HTTLPR homozygotes (s/s), we observed an interaction between genotype and emotion in sgACC. Only long variant homozygotes (la/la) exhibited subgenual deactivation to fearful versus neutral faces, whereas the effect in s/s subjects was in the other direction. This absence of subgenual deactivation in s/s subjects parallels a recent finding in depressed subjects [Grimm, S., Boesiger, P., Beck, J., Schuepbach, D., Bermpohl, F., Walter, M., et al. Altered negative BOLD responses in the default-mode network during emotion processing in depressed subjects. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34, 932-943, 2009]. Taken together, the findings suggest that subgenual cingulate activity may play an important role in regulating the impact of aversive stimuli, potentially conferring greater resilience to the effects of aversive stimuli in la/la subjects. Using dynamic causal modeling of functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we explored the effects of genotype on effective connectivity and emotion-specific changes in coupling across a network of regions implicated in social processing. Viewing fearful faces enhanced bidirectional excitatory coupling between the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus, and increased the inhibitory influence of the amygdala over the sgACC, although this modulation of coupling did not differ between the genotype groups. The findings are discussed in relation to the role of sgACC and serotonin in moderating responses to aversive stimuli [Dayan, P., & Huys, Q. J., Serotonin, inhibition, and negative mood. PLoS Comput Biol, 4, e4, 2008; Mayberg, H. S., Liotti, M., Brannan, S. K., McGinnis, S., Mahurin, R. K., Jerabek, P. A., et

High confidence in falsely recognizing prototypical faces.

PubMed

Sampaio, Cristina; Reinke, Victoria; Mathews, Jeffrey; Swart, Alexandra; Wallinger, Stephen

2018-06-01

We applied a metacognitive approach to investigate confidence in recognition of prototypical faces. Participants were presented with sets of faces constructed digitally as deviations from prototype/base faces. Participants were then tested with a simple recognition task (Experiment 1) or a multiple-choice task (Experiment 2) for old and new items plus new prototypes, and they showed a high rate of confident false alarms to the prototypes. Confidence and accuracy relationship in this face recognition paradigm was found to be positive for standard items but negative for the prototypes; thus, it was contingent on the nature of the items used. The data have implications for lineups that employ match-to-suspect strategies.

Modulations of eye movement patterns by spatial filtering during the learning and testing phases of an old/new face recognition task.

PubMed

Lemieux, Chantal L; Collin, Charles A; Nelson, Elizabeth A

2015-02-01

In two experiments, we examined the effects of varying the spatial frequency (SF) content of face images on eye movements during the learning and testing phases of an old/new recognition task. At both learning and testing, participants were presented with face stimuli band-pass filtered to 11 different SF bands, as well as an unfiltered baseline condition. We found that eye movements varied significantly as a function of SF. Specifically, the frequency of transitions between facial features showed a band-pass pattern, with more transitions for middle-band faces (≈5-20 cycles/face) than for low-band (≈<5 cpf) or high-band (≈>20 cpf) ones. These findings were similar for the learning and testing phases. The distributions of transitions across facial features were similar for the middle-band, high-band, and unfiltered faces, showing a concentration on the eyes and mouth; conversely, low-band faces elicited mostly transitions involving the nose and nasion. The eye movement patterns elicited by low, middle, and high bands are similar to those previous researchers have suggested reflect holistic, configural, and featural processing, respectively. More generally, our results are compatible with the hypotheses that eye movements are functional, and that the visual system makes flexible use of visuospatial information in face processing. Finally, our finding that only middle spatial frequencies yielded the same number and distribution of fixations as unfiltered faces adds more evidence to the idea that these frequencies are especially important for face recognition, and reveals a possible mediator for the superior performance that they elicit.

The Caledonian face test: A new test of face discrimination.

PubMed

Logan, Andrew J; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2016-02-01

This study aimed to develop a clinical test of face perception which is applicable to a wide range of patients and can capture normal variability. The Caledonian face test utilises synthetic faces which combine simplicity with sufficient realism to permit individual identification. Face discrimination thresholds (i.e. minimum difference between faces required for accurate discrimination) were determined in an "odd-one-out" task. The difference between faces was controlled by an adaptive QUEST procedure. A broad range of face discrimination sensitivity was determined from a group (N=52) of young adults (mean 5.75%; SD 1.18; range 3.33-8.84%). The test is fast (3-4 min), repeatable (test-re-test r(2)=0.795) and demonstrates a significant inversion effect. The potential to identify impairments of face discrimination was evaluated by testing LM who reported a lifelong difficulty with face perception. While LM's impairment for two established face tests was close to the criterion for significance (Z-scores of -2.20 and -2.27) for the Caledonian face test, her Z-score was -7.26, implying a more than threefold higher sensitivity. The new face test provides a quantifiable and repeatable assessment of face discrimination ability. The enhanced sensitivity suggests that the Caledonian face test may be capable of detecting more subtle impairments of face perception than available tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of Elevated Temperature and Loading Rate on Delamination Fracture Toughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reeder, J. R.; Allen, D. H.; Bradley, W. L.

2003-01-01

The effects of temperature and loading rate on delamination growth were studied. The delamination fracture toughness of IM7/K3B was measured at 149 C, 177 C, and 204 C. At each temperature the tests were performed with a variety of loading rates so that the delamination initiated over the range of time from 0.5 sec to 24 hrs. The double cantilever beam (DCB) test was used to measure fracture toughness. The results showed that the delamination resistance is a complicated function of both time and temperature with the effect of temperature either increasing or decreasing the fracture toughness depending on the time scale. The results also showed that the fracture toughness changed by as much as a factor of three as the time scale changed over the five orders of magnitude tested.

Effect of distracting faces on visual selective attention in the monkey.

PubMed

Landman, Rogier; Sharma, Jitendra; Sur, Mriganka; Desimone, Robert

2014-12-16

In primates, visual stimuli with social and emotional content tend to attract attention. Attention might be captured through rapid, automatic, subcortical processing or guided by slower, more voluntary cortical processing. Here we examined whether irrelevant faces with varied emotional expressions interfere with a covert attention task in macaque monkeys. In the task, the monkeys monitored a target grating in the periphery for a subtle color change while ignoring distracters that included faces appearing elsewhere on the screen. The onset time of distracter faces before the target change, as well as their spatial proximity to the target, was varied from trial to trial. The presence of faces, especially faces with emotional expressions interfered with the task, indicating a competition for attentional resources between the task and the face stimuli. However, this interference was significant only when faces were presented for greater than 200 ms. Emotional faces also affected saccade velocity and reduced pupillary reflex. Our results indicate that the attraction of attention by emotional faces in the monkey takes a considerable amount of processing time, possibly involving cortical-subcortical interactions. Intranasal application of the hormone oxytocin ameliorated the interfering effects of faces. Together these results provide evidence for slow modulation of attention by emotional distracters, which likely involves oxytocinergic brain circuits.

Optimization design of strong and tough nacreous nanocomposites through tuning characteristic lengths

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Yong; Song, Zhaoqiang; Jiang, Hongyuan; Yu, Shu-Hong; He, Linghui

2015-08-01

How nacreous nanocomposites with optimal combinations of stiffness, strength and toughness depend on constituent property and microstructure parameters is studied using a nonlinear shear-lag model. We show that the interfacial elasto-plasticity and the overlapping length between bricks dependent on the brick size and brick staggering mode significantly affect the nonuniformity of the shear stress, the stress-transfer efficiency and thus the failure path. There are two characteristic lengths at which the strength and toughness are optimized respectively. Simultaneous optimization of the strength and toughness is achieved by matching these lengths as close as possible in the nacreous nanocomposite with regularly staggered brick-and-mortar (BM) structure where simultaneous uniform failures of the brick and interface occur. In the randomly staggered BM structure, as the overlapping length is distributed, the nacreous nanocomposite turns the simultaneous uniform failure into progressive interface or brick failure with moderate decrease of the strength and toughness. Specifically there is a parametric range at which the strength and toughness are insensitive to the brick staggering randomness. The obtained results propose a parametric selection guideline based on the length matching for rational design of nacreous nanocomposites. Such guideline explains why nacre is strong and tough while most artificial nacreous nanocomposites aere not.

Mechanical Behavior of Tough Hydrogels for Structural Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Illeperuma, Widusha Ruwangi Kaushalya

Hydrogels are widely used in many commercial products including Jell-O, contact lenses, and superabsorbent diapers. In recent decades, hydrogels have been under intense development for biomedical applications, such as scaffolds in tissue engineering, carriers for drug delivery, and valves in microfluidic systems. But the scope is severely limited as conventional hydrogels are weak and brittle and are not very stretchable. This thesis investigates the approaches that enhance the mechanical properties of hydrogels and their structural applications. We discov¬ered a class of exceptionally stretchable and tough hydrogels made from poly-mers that form networks via ionic and covalent crosslinks. Although such a hydrogel contains ~90% water, it can be stretched beyond 20 times its initial length, and has a fracture energy of ~9000 J/m2. The combination of large stretchability, remarkable toughness, and recoverability of stiffness and toughness, along with easy synthesis makes this material much superior over existing hydrogels. Extreme stretchability and blunted crack tips of these hydrogels question the validity of traditional fracture testing methods. We re-examine a widely used pure shear test method to measure the fracture energy. With the experimental and simulation results, we conclude that the pure shear test method can be used to measure fracture energy of extremely stretchable materials. Even though polyacrylamide-alginate hydrogels have an extremely high toughness, it has a relatively low stiffness and strength. We improved the stiffness and strength by embedding fibers. Most hydrogels are brittle, allowing the fibers to cut through the hydrogel when the composite is loaded. But tough hydrogel composites do not fail by the fibers cutting the hydrogel; instead, it undergoes large deforming by fibers sliding through the matrix. Hydrogels were not considered as materials for structural applications. But with enhanced mechanical properties, they have opened up

Simplified data reduction methods for the ECT test for mode 3 interlaminar fracture toughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Jian; Obrien, T. Kevin

1995-01-01

Simplified expressions for the parameter controlling the load point compliance and strain energy release rate were obtained for the Edge Crack Torsion (ECT) specimen for mode 3 interlaminar fracture toughness. Data reduction methods for mode 3 toughness based on the present analysis are proposed. The effect of the transverse shear modulus, G(sub 23), on mode 3 interlaminar fracture toughness characterization was evaluated. Parameters influenced by the transverse shear modulus were identified. Analytical results indicate that a higher value of G(sub 23) results in a low load point compliance and lower mode 3 toughness estimation. The effect of G(sub 23) on the mode 3 toughness using the ECT specimen is negligible when an appropriate initial delamination length is chosen. A conservative estimation of mode 3 toughness can be obtained by assuming G(sub 23) = G(sub 12) for any initial delamination length.

Semi-interpenetrating polymer network's of polyimides: Fracture toughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Marion Glenn

1988-01-01

The objective was to improve the fracture toughness of the PMR-15 thermosetting polyimide by co-disolving LaRC-TPI, a thermoplastic polyimide. The co-solvation of a thermoplastic into a thermoset produces an interpenetration of the thermoplastic polymer into the thermoset polyimide network. A second research program was planned around the concept that to improve the fracture toughness of a thermoset polyimide polymer, the molecular weight between crosslink points would be an important macromolecular topological parameter in producing a fracture toughened semi-IPN polyimide.

Investigating Face-to-Face Peer Interaction Patterns in a Collaborative Web Discovery Task: The Bene?ts of a Shared Display

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, C-W.; Lee, C-C.; Liu, C-C.

2013-01-01

Mobile computers are now increasingly applied to facilitate face-to-face collaborative learning. However, the factors affecting face-to-face peer interactions are complex as they involve rich communication media. In particular, non-verbal interactions are necessary to convey critical communication messages in face-to-face communication. Through…

Low expansion superalloy with improved toughness

DOEpatents

Smith, Darrell F.; Stein, Larry I.; Hwang, Il S.

1995-01-01

A high strength, low coefficient of thermal expansion superalloy exhibiting improved toughness over a broad temperature range down to about 4.degree. K. The composition is adapted for use with wrought superconducting sheathing.

Engineering of High-Toughness Carbon Nanotubes Hierarchically Laminated Composites

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-27

REPORT TYPE Final 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) Jul-10 - Jul-11 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Program Title: ENGINEERING OF HIGH-TOUGHNESS CARBON NANOTUBES ...LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON Program Title: ENGINEERING OF HIGH-TOUGHNESS CARBON NANOTUBES ...Ashby plots can be attained (Fig. 2B). 5. New doping method of carbon nanotubes was developed. Funding Profile: (Give the fiscal year funding

Fracture Toughness of Polypropylene-Based Particulate Composites

PubMed Central

Arencón, David; Velasco, José Ignacio

2009-01-01

The fracture behaviour of polymers is strongly affected by the addition of rigid particles. Several features of the particles have a decisive influence on the values of the fracture toughness: shape and size, chemical nature, surface nature, concentration by volume, and orientation. Among those of thermoplastic matrix, polypropylene (PP) composites are the most industrially employed for many different application fields. Here, a review on the fracture behaviour of PP-based particulate composites is carried out, considering the basic topics and experimental techniques of Fracture Mechanics, the mechanisms of deformation and fracture, and values of fracture toughness for different PP composites prepared with different particle scale size, either micrometric or nanometric.

Multi-scale Multi-mechanism Design of Tough Hydrogels: Building Dissipation into Stretchy Networks

PubMed Central

Zhao, Xuanhe

2014-01-01

As swollen polymer networks in water, hydrogels are usually brittle. However, hydrogels with high toughness play critical roles in many plant and animal tissues as well as in diverse engineering applications. Here we review the intrinsic mechanisms of a wide variety of tough hydrogels developed over past few decades. We show that tough hydrogels generally possess mechanisms to dissipate substantial mechanical energy but still maintain high elasticity under deformation. The integrations and interactions of different mechanisms for dissipating energy and maintaining elasticity are essential to the design of tough hydrogels. A matrix that combines various mechanisms is constructed for the first time to guide the design of next-generation tough hydrogels. We further highlight that a particularly promising strategy for the design is to implement multiple mechanisms across multiple length scales into nano-, micro-, meso-, and macro-structures of hydrogels. PMID:24834901

Influence of motion on face recognition.

PubMed

Bonfiglio, Natale S; Manfredi, Valentina; Pessa, Eliano

2012-02-01

The influence of motion information and temporal associations on recognition of non-familiar faces was investigated using two groups which performed a face recognition task. One group was presented with regular temporal sequences of face views designed to produce the impression of motion of the face rotating in depth, the other group with random sequences of the same views. In one condition, participants viewed the sequences of the views in rapid succession with a negligible interstimulus interval (ISI). This condition was characterized by three different presentation times. In another condition, participants were presented a sequence with a 1-sec. ISI among the views. That regular sequences of views with a negligible ISI and a shorter presentation time were hypothesized to give rise to better recognition, related to a stronger impression of face rotation. Analysis of data from 45 participants showed a shorter presentation time was associated with significantly better accuracy on the recognition task; however, differences between performances associated with regular and random sequences were not significant.

Tough composite materials: Recent developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vosteen, L. F. (Editor); Johnston, N. J. (Editor); Teichman, L. A. (Editor); Blankenship, C. P. (Editor)

1985-01-01

The present volume broadly considers topics in composite fracture toughness and impact behavior characterization, composite system constituent properties and their interrelationships, and matrix systems' synthesis and characterization. Attention is given to the characterization of interlaminar crack growth in composites by means of the double cantilever beam specimen, the characterization of delamination resistance in toughened resin composites, the effect of impact damage and open holes on the compressive strength of tough resin/high strain fiber laminates, the effect of matrix and fiber properties on compression failure mechanisms and impact resistance, the relation of toughened neat resin properties to advanced composite mechanical properties, and constituent and composite properties' relationships in thermosetting matrices. Also treated are the effect of cross-link density on the toughening mechanism of elastomer-modified epoxies, the chemistry of fiber/resin interfaces, novel carbon fibers and their properties, the development of a heterogeneous laminating resin, solvent-resistant thermoplastics, NASA Lewis research in advanced composites, and opportunities for the application of composites in commercial aircraft transport structures.

Interlaminar shear fracture toughness and fatigue thresholds for composite materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Obrien, T. Kevin; Murri, Gretchen B.; Salpekar, Satish A.

1987-01-01

Static and cyclic end notched flexure tests were conducted on a graphite epoxy, a glass epoxy, and graphite thermoplastic to determine their interlaminar shear fracture toughness and fatigue thresholds for delamination in terms of limiting values of the mode II strain energy release rate, G-II, for delamination growth. The influence of precracking and data reduction schemes are discussed. Finite element analysis indicated that the beam theory calculation for G-II with the transverse shear contribution included was reasonably accurate over the entire range of crack lengths. Cyclic loading significantly reduced the critical G-II for delamination. A threshold value of the maximum cyclic G-II below which no delamination occurred after one million cycles was identified for each material. Also, residual static toughness tests were conducted on glass epoxy specimens that had undergone one million cycles without delamination. A linear mixed-mode delamination criteria was used to characterize the static toughness of several composite materials; however, a total G threshold criterion appears to characterize the fatigue delamination durability of composite materials with a wide range of static toughness.

Low expansion superalloy with improved toughness

DOEpatents

Smith, D.F.; Stein, L.I.; Hwang, I.S.

1995-06-20

A high strength, low coefficient of thermal expansion superalloy exhibiting improved toughness over a broad temperature range down to about 4 K is disclosed. The composition is adapted for use with wrought superconducting sheathing.

Selective attention modulates high-frequency activity in the face-processing network.

PubMed

Müsch, Kathrin; Hamamé, Carlos M; Perrone-Bertolotti, Marcela; Minotti, Lorella; Kahane, Philippe; Engel, Andreas K; Lachaux, Jean-Philippe; Schneider, Till R

2014-11-01

Face processing depends on the orchestrated activity of a large-scale neuronal network. Its activity can be modulated by attention as a function of task demands. However, it remains largely unknown whether voluntary, endogenous attention and reflexive, exogenous attention to facial expressions equally affect all regions of the face-processing network, and whether such effects primarily modify the strength of the neuronal response, the latency, the duration, or the spectral characteristics. We exploited the good temporal and spatial resolution of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) and recorded from depth electrodes to uncover the fast dynamics of emotional face processing. We investigated frequency-specific responses and event-related potentials (ERP) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC), ventral temporal cortex (VTC), anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and amygdala when facial expressions were task-relevant or task-irrelevant. All investigated regions of interest (ROI) were clearly modulated by task demands and exhibited stronger changes in stimulus-induced gamma band activity (50-150 Hz) when facial expressions were task-relevant. Observed latencies demonstrate that the activation is temporally coordinated across the network, rather than serially proceeding along a processing hierarchy. Early and sustained responses to task-relevant faces in VOTC and VTC corroborate their role for the core system of face processing, but they also occurred in the anterior insula. Strong attentional modulation in the OFC and amygdala (300 msec) suggests that the extended system of the face-processing network is only recruited if the task demands active face processing. Contrary to our expectation, we rarely observed differences between fearful and neutral faces. Our results demonstrate that activity in the face-processing network is susceptible to the deployment of selective attention. Moreover, we show that endogenous attention operates along the whole

An Exploration of Online Environments Supporting Follow-Up to Face-to-Face Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Marybeth; Cifuentes, Lauren

2008-01-01

In this study we examined the effects of online follow-up and online peer interaction following a face-to face professional development workshop on attitudes towards that professional development and completion of a professional development task. School librarians were invited to work online on a three page plan outlining interventions a library…

Computer-mediated communication: task performance and satisfaction.

PubMed

Simon, Andrew F

2006-06-01

The author assessed satisfaction and performance on 3 tasks (idea generation, intellective, judgment) among 75 dyads (N = 150) working through 1 of 3 modes of communication (instant messaging, videoconferencing, face to face). The author based predictions on the Media Naturalness Theory (N. Kock, 2001, 2002) and on findings from past researchers (e.g., D. M. DeRosa, C. Smith, & D. A. Hantula, in press) of the interaction between tasks and media. The present author did not identify task performance differences, although satisfaction with the medium was lower among those dyads communicating through an instant-messaging system than among those interacting face to face or through videoconferencing. The findings support the Media Naturalness Theory. The author discussed them in relation to the participants' frequent use of instant messaging and their familiarity with new communication media.

Tough Choices or Tough Times: Bolder Steps for Education Philanthropy? Notes and Resources from the GFE Foundation Leaders Institute (Tamaya, New Mexico, October 19, 2007)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackinnon, Anne

2007-01-01

In late 2006, the National Center on Education and the Economy released "Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce." With compelling language, the report updated and sharpened the findings of the center's influential 1990 report, "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages," which called…

TRITIUM AND DECAY HELIUM EFFECTS ON THE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS PROPERTIES OF STAINLESS STEEL WELDMENTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morgan, M; Scott West, S; Michael Tosten, M

2007-08-31

J-Integral fracture toughness tests were conducted on tritium-exposed-and-aged Types 304L and 21-6-9 stainless steel weldments in order to measure the combined effects of tritium and its decay product, helium-3 on the fracture toughness properties. Initially, weldments have fracture toughness values about three times higher than base-metal values. Delta-ferrite phase in the weld microstructure improved toughness provided no tritium was present in the microstructure. After a tritium-exposure-and-aging treatment that resulted in {approx}1400 atomic parts per million (appm) dissolved tritium, both weldments and base metals had their fracture toughness values reduced to about the same level. The tritium effect was greater inmore » weldments (67 % reduction vs. 37% reduction) largely because the ductile discontinuous delta-ferrite interfaces were embrittled by tritium and decay helium. Fracture toughness values decreased for both base metals and weldments with increasing decay helium content in the range tested (50-200 appm).« less

Mental Toughness Moderates Social Loafing in Cycle Time-Trial Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haugen, Tommy; Reinboth, Michael; Hetlelid, Ken J.; Peters, Derek M.; Høigaard, Rune

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if mental toughness moderated the occurrence of social loafing in cycle time-trial performance. Method: Twenty-seven men (M[subscript age] = 17.7 years, SD = 0.6) completed the Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire prior to completing a 1-min cycling trial under 2 conditions: once with individual…

Prescriptions for Tough Vegetation Problems

Treesearch

James H. Miller

1999-01-01

Most tough forst vegetation problems are caused by non-native plants. These foreign invaders-often called exotic, alien, or noxious weeds-occur as trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses. Some have been introduced into this country accidentally, but most were brought here intentionally for livestock forage or as ornamentals.

Perceptual impairment in face identification with poor sleep

PubMed Central

Beattie, Louise; Walsh, Darragh; McLaren, Jessica; Biello, Stephany M.

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown impaired memory for faces following restricted sleep. However, it is not known whether lack of sleep impairs performance on face identification tasks that do not rely on recognition memory, despite these tasks being more prevalent in security and forensic professions—for example, in photo-ID checks at national borders. Here we tested whether poor sleep affects accuracy on a standard test of face-matching ability that does not place demands on memory: the Glasgow Face-Matching Task (GFMT). In Experiment 1, participants who reported sleep disturbance consistent with insomnia disorder show impaired accuracy on the GFMT when compared with participants reporting normal sleep behaviour. In Experiment 2, we then used a sleep diary method to compare GFMT accuracy in a control group to participants reporting poor sleep on three consecutive nights—and again found lower accuracy scores in the short sleep group. In both experiments, reduced face-matching accuracy in those with poorer sleep was not associated with lower confidence in their decisions, carrying implications for occupational settings where identification errors made with high confidence can have serious outcomes. These results suggest that sleep-related impairments in face memory reflect difficulties in perceptual encoding of identity, and point towards metacognitive impairment in face matching following poor sleep. PMID:27853547

Fracture Toughness of Advanced Ceramics at Room Temperature

PubMed Central

Quinn, George D.; Salem, Jonathan; Bar-on, Isa; Cho, Kyu; Foley, Michael; Fang, Ho

1992-01-01

This report presents the results obtained by the five U.S. participating laboratories in the Versailles Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS) round-robin for fracture toughness of advanced ceramics. Three test methods were used: indentation fracture, indentation strength, and single-edge pre-cracked beam. Two materials were tested: a gas-pressure sintered silicon nitride and a zirconia toughened alumina. Consistent results were obtained with the latter two test methods. Interpretation of fracture toughness in the zirconia alumina composite was complicated by R-curve and environmentally-assisted crack growth phenomena. PMID:28053447

Visual information processing of faces in body dysmorphic disorder.

PubMed

Feusner, Jamie D; Townsend, Jennifer; Bystritsky, Alexander; Bookheimer, Susan

2007-12-01

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a severe psychiatric condition in which individuals are preoccupied with perceived appearance defects. Clinical observation suggests that patients with BDD focus on details of their appearance at the expense of configural elements. This study examines abnormalities in visual information processing in BDD that may underlie clinical symptoms. To determine whether patients with BDD have abnormal patterns of brain activation when visually processing others' faces with high, low, or normal spatial frequency information. Case-control study. University hospital. Twelve right-handed, medication-free subjects with BDD and 13 control subjects matched by age, sex, and educational achievement. Intervention Functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing matching tasks of face stimuli. Stimuli were neutral-expression photographs of others' faces that were unaltered, altered to include only high spatial frequency visual information, or altered to include only low spatial frequency visual information. Blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging signal changes in the BDD and control groups during tasks with each stimulus type. Subjects with BDD showed greater left hemisphere activity relative to controls, particularly in lateral prefrontal cortex and lateral temporal lobe regions for all face tasks (and dorsal anterior cingulate activity for the low spatial frequency task). Controls recruited left-sided prefrontal and dorsal anterior cingulate activity only for the high spatial frequency task. Subjects with BDD demonstrate fundamental differences from controls in visually processing others' faces. The predominance of left-sided activity for low spatial frequency and normal faces suggests detail encoding and analysis rather than holistic processing, a pattern evident in controls only for high spatial frequency faces. These abnormalities may be associated with apparent perceptual distortions in patients with BDD. The

Effect of cryogenic treatment on the fracture toughness of aircraft aluminum alloy 7075

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermishkin, V. A.; Soloveva, Y. B.

2018-04-01

Influence of three types of the treatment on fracture toughness of the Al-7075 alloy was investigated in this study. Commercial Al-7075 alloy in the solid solution heat-treated condition was processed by hardening with post-cryogenic deformation treatment and PVD deposition titanium and copper coatings. The fracture toughness was estimated with using macroscopic and microscopic approaches. The conditions for the coincidence of the fracture toughness estimates between brittle fracture mechanics and the photometric analysis of structural images (PHASI) methods were achieved. The highest fracture toughness was obtained by applying hardening, cryogenic compression, ageing and deposition of the Ti-coating, leading to dispersion particles precipitation.

Parallel Processing in Face Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martens, Ulla; Leuthold, Hartmut; Schweinberger, Stefan R.

2010-01-01

The authors examined face perception models with regard to the functional and temporal organization of facial identity and expression analysis. Participants performed a manual 2-choice go/no-go task to classify faces, where response hand depended on facial familiarity (famous vs. unfamiliar) and response execution depended on facial expression…

The complex duration perception of emotional faces: effects of face direction.

PubMed

Kliegl, Katrin M; Limbrecht-Ecklundt, Kerstin; Dürr, Lea; Traue, Harald C; Huckauf, Anke

2015-01-01

The perceived duration of emotional face stimuli strongly depends on the expressed emotion. But, emotional faces also differ regarding a number of other features like gaze, face direction, or sex. Usually, these features have been controlled by only using pictures of female models with straight gaze and face direction. Doi and Shinohara (2009) reported that an overestimation of angry faces could only be found when the model's gaze was oriented toward the observer. We aimed at replicating this effect for face direction. Moreover, we explored the effect of face direction on the duration perception sad faces. Controlling for the sex of the face model and the participant, female and male participants rated the duration of neutral, angry, and sad face stimuli of both sexes photographed from different perspectives in a bisection task. In line with current findings, we report a significant overestimation of angry compared to neutral face stimuli that was modulated by face direction. Moreover, the perceived duration of sad face stimuli did not differ from that of neutral faces and was not influenced by face direction. Furthermore, we found that faces of the opposite sex appeared to last longer than those of the same sex. This outcome is discussed with regards to stimulus parameters like the induced arousal, social relevance, and an evolutionary context.

Dynamic Fracture Toughness Evaluation by Measurement of CTOD (Crack Tip Opening Displacement).

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-03-15

fracture toughness of structural steels were reported by Shoemaker and Rolfe [1]; these and similar results are also presented in the text by Rolfe and...8217 MPaV/-m/s. Following the dynamic tests of Shoemaker and Rolfe , extensions of the familiar ASTM E-399 static fracture toughness tests were examined. This...s.V.: **.4* .4 5, -~ 5 5 - 𔃿 .4.4 References [1] Shoemaker, A.K. and Rolfe , S.T., "The Static and Dynamic Low-Temperature Crack-Toughness

Attractiveness judgments and discrimination of mommies and grandmas: perceptual tuning for young adult faces.

PubMed

Short, Lindsey A; Mondloch, Catherine J; Hackland, Anne T

2015-01-01

Adults are more accurate in detecting deviations from normality in young adult faces than in older adult faces despite exhibiting comparable accuracy in discriminating both face ages. This deficit in judging the normality of older faces may be due to reliance on a face space optimized for the dimensions of young adult faces, perhaps because of early and continuous experience with young adult faces. Here we examined the emergence of this young adult face bias by testing 3- and 7-year-old children on a child-friendly version of the task used to test adults. In an attractiveness judgment task, children viewed young and older adult face pairs; each pair consisted of an unaltered face and a distorted face of the same identity. Children pointed to the prettiest face, which served as a measure of their sensitivity to the dimensions on which faces vary relative to a norm. To examine whether biases in the attractiveness task were specific to deficits in referencing a norm or extended to impaired discrimination, we tested children on a simultaneous match-to-sample task with the same stimuli. Both age groups were more accurate in judging the attractiveness of young faces relative to older faces; however, unlike adults, the young adult face bias extended to the match-to-sample task. These results suggest that by 3 years of age, children's perceptual system is more finely tuned for young adult faces than for older adult faces, which may support past findings of superior recognition for young adult faces. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Method to increase the toughness of aluminum-lithium alloys at cryogenic temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sankaran, Krishnan K. (Inventor); Sova, Brian J. (Inventor); Babel, Henry W. (Inventor)

2006-01-01

A method to increase the toughness of the aluminum-lithium alloy C458 and similar alloys at cryogenic temperatures above their room temperature toughness is provided. Increasing the cryogenic toughness of the aluminum-lithium alloy C458 allows the use of alloy C458 for cryogenic tanks, for example for launch vehicles in the aerospace industry. A two-step aging treatment for alloy C458 is provided. A specific set of times and temperatures to age the aluminum-lithium alloy C458 to T8 temper is disclosed that results in a higher toughness at cryogenic temperatures compared to room temperature. The disclosed two-step aging treatment for alloy 458 can be easily practiced in the manufacturing process, does not involve impractical heating rates or durations, and does not degrade other material properties.

Mode I Fracture Toughness of Rock - Intrinsic Property or Pressure-Dependent?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoeckhert, F.; Brenne, S.; Molenda, M.; Alber, M.

2016-12-01

The mode I fracture toughness of rock is usually regarded as an intrinsic material parameter independent of pressure. However, most fracture toughness laboratory tests are conducted only at ambient pressure. To investigate fracture toughness of rock under elevated pressures, sleeve fracturing laboratory experiments were conducted with various rock types and a new numerical method was developed for the evaluation of these experiments. The sleeve fracturing experiments involve rock cores with central axial boreholes that are placed in a Hoek triaxial pressure cell to apply an isostatic confining pressure. A polymere tube is pressurized inside these hollow rock cylinders until they fail by tensile fracturing. Numerical simulations incorporating fracture mechanical models are used to obtain a relation between tensile fracture propagation and injection pressure. These simulations indicate that the magnitude of the injection pressure at specimen failure is only depending on the fracture toughness of the tested material, the specimen dimensions and the magnitude of external loading. The latter two are known parameters in the experiments. Thus, the fracture toughness can be calculated from the injection pressure recorded at specimen breakdown. All specimens had a borehole diameter to outer diameter ratio of about 1:10 with outer diameters of 40 and 62 mm. The length of the specimens was about two times the diameter. Maximum external loading was 7.5 MPa corresponding to maximum injection pressures at specimen breakdown of about 100 MPa. The sample set tested in this work includes Permian and Carboniferous sandstones, Jurassic limestones, Triassic marble, Permian volcanic rocks and Devonian slate from Central Europe. The fracture toughness values determined from the sleeve fracturing experiments without confinement using the new numerical method were found to be in good agreement with those from Chevron bend testing according to the ISRM suggested methods. At elevated

Feature saliency in judging the sex and familiarity of faces.

PubMed

Roberts, T; Bruce, V

1988-01-01

Two experiments are reported on the effect of feature masking on judgements of the sex and familiarity of faces. In experiment 1 the effect of masking the eyes, nose, or mouth of famous and nonfamous, male and female faces on response times in two tasks was investigated. In the first, recognition, task only masking of the eyes had a significant effect on response times. In the second, sex-judgement, task masking of the nose gave rise to a significant and large increase in response times. In experiment 2 it was found that when facial features were presented in isolation in a sex-judgement task, responses to noses were at chance level, unlike those for eyes or mouths. It appears that visual information available from the nose in isolation from the rest of the face is not sufficient for sex judgement, yet masking of the nose may disrupt the extraction of information about the overall topography of the face, information that may be more useful for sex judgement than for identification of a face.

Gaze control during face exploration in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Delerue, Céline; Laprévote, Vincent; Verfaillie, Karl; Boucart, Muriel

2010-10-04

Patients with schizophrenia perform worse than controls on various face perception tasks. Studies monitoring eye movements have shown reduced scan paths and a lower number of fixations to relevant facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) than to other parts. We examine whether attentional control, through instructions, modulates visual scanning in schizophrenia. Visual scan paths were monitored in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 controls. Participants started with a "free viewing" task followed by tasks in which they were asked to determine the gender, identify the facial expression, estimate the age, or decide whether the face was known or unknown. Temporal and spatial characteristics of scan paths were compared for each group and task. Consistent with the literature, patients with schizophrenia showed reduced attention to salient facial features in the passive viewing. However, their scan paths did not differ from that of controls when asked to determine the facial expression, the gender, the age or the familiarity of the face. The results are interpreted in terms of attentional control and cognitive flexibility. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tough by name, tough by nature.

PubMed

Baillie, Jonathan

2015-04-01

Few beds, one would imagine, could withstand three-quarters of a ton landing on them, but this was the challenge successfully met by a box bed from a furniture manufacturer for challenging behaviour environments, Tough Furniture, when, to reassure a customer that the bed could accommodate 30-stone patients, 13 of the company's staff jumped repeatedly on it to ensure that it would survive intact in a real-world setting. Such testing may seem extreme, but is vital, since much of the company's furniture is destined for environments where patients will abuse, and indeed attempt to destroy, components. As MD David Vesty explained to HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, when he visited the company's Shropshire headquarters, it is through manufacturing premium quality cabinet furniture that is both attractive and distinctly non-institutional, but will equally withstand the harshest use, that the company has ensured that its products can live up to the brand name.

Socially Important Faces Are Processed Preferentially to Other Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in a Priming Task across a Range of Viewpoints

PubMed Central

Keyes, Helen; Zalicks, Catherine

2016-01-01

Using a priming paradigm, we investigate whether socially important faces are processed preferentially compared to other familiar and unfamiliar faces, and whether any such effects are affected by changes in viewpoint. Participants were primed with frontal images of personally familiar, famous or unfamiliar faces, and responded to target images of congruent or incongruent identity, presented in frontal, three quarter or profile views. We report that participants responded significantly faster to socially important faces (a friend’s face) compared to other highly familiar (famous) faces or unfamiliar faces. Crucially, responses to famous and unfamiliar faces did not differ. This suggests that, when presented in the context of a socially important stimulus, socially unimportant familiar faces (famous faces) are treated in a similar manner to unfamiliar faces. This effect was not tied to viewpoint, and priming did not affect socially important face processing differently to other faces. PMID:27219101

Heavy section fracture toughness screening specimen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shannon, J. L., Jr.; Donald, J. K.; Brown, W. F., Jr.

1976-01-01

Size requirements for a pin loaded double edge notch + crack tension specimen proposed for fracture toughness screening heavy section alloys were studied. Ranking of eight selected alloys based on the specimen's net strength was compared with that based on the valid plane strain fracture toughness separately determined. Performance of the specimen was judged on the basis of that comparison. The specimen's net strength was influenced by three critical specimen dimensions: distance between the crack plane and the loading hole, specimen width, and specimen thickness. Interaction between the stress fields of the crack and the loading holes reduced the net strength, but this effect disappeared as the separation reached a dimension equal to the specimen width. The effects of specimen width and thickness are interrelated and affect the net strength through their influence on the development of the crack tip plastic zone.

Face format at encoding affects the other-race effect in face memory.

PubMed

Zhao, Mintao; Hayward, William G; Bülthoff, Isabelle

2014-08-07

Memory of own-race faces is generally better than memory of other-races faces. This other-race effect (ORE) in face memory has been attributed to differences in contact, holistic processing, and motivation to individuate faces. Since most studies demonstrate the ORE with participants learning and recognizing static, single-view faces, it remains unclear whether the ORE can be generalized to different face learning conditions. Using an old/new recognition task, we tested whether face format at encoding modulates the ORE. The results showed a significant ORE when participants learned static, single-view faces (Experiment 1). In contrast, the ORE disappeared when participants learned rigidly moving faces (Experiment 2). Moreover, learning faces displayed from four discrete views produced the same results as learning rigidly moving faces (Experiment 3). Contact with other-race faces was correlated with the magnitude of the ORE. Nonetheless, the absence of the ORE in Experiments 2 and 3 cannot be readily explained by either more frequent contact with other-race faces or stronger motivation to individuate them. These results demonstrate that the ORE is sensitive to face format at encoding, supporting the hypothesis that relative involvement of holistic and featural processing at encoding mediates the ORE observed in face memory. © 2014 ARVO.

Fluid-driven cracks in an elastic matrix in the toughness-dominated limit

PubMed Central

Lai, Ching-Yao; Zheng, Zhong; Dressaire, Emilie

2016-01-01

The dynamics of fluid-driven cracks in an elastic matrix is studied experimentally. We report the crack radius R(t) as a function of time, as well as the crack shapes w(r,t) as a function of space and time. A dimensionless parameter, the pressure ratio Δpf/Δpv, is identified to gauge the relative importance between the toughness (Δpf) and viscous (Δpv) effects. In our previous paper (Lai et al. 2015 Proc. R. Soc. A 471, 20150255. (doi:10.1098/rspa.2015.0255)), we investigated the viscous limit experimentally when the toughness-related stresses are negligible for the crack propagation. In this paper, the experimental parameters, i.e. Young’s modulus E of the gelatin, viscosity μ of the fracturing liquid and the injection flow rate Q, were chosen so that the viscous effects in the flow are negligible compared with the toughness effects, i.e. Δpf/Δpv≫1. In this limit, the crack dynamics can be described by the toughness-dominated scaling laws, which give the crack radius R(t)∝t2/5 and the half maximum crack thickness W(t)∝t1/5. The experimental results are in good agreement with the predictions of the toughness scaling laws: the experimental data for crack radius R(t) for a wide range of parameters (E,μ,Q) collapse after being rescaled by the toughness scaling laws, and the rescaled crack shapes w(r,t) also collapse to a dimensionless shape, which demonstrates the self-similarity of the crack shape. The appropriate choice of the viscous or toughness scaling laws is important to accurately describe the crack dynamics. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Energy and the subsurface’. PMID:27597782

Tough and tunable adhesion of hydrogels: experiments and models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Teng; Yuk, Hyunwoo; Lin, Shaoting; Parada, German A.; Zhao, Xuanhe

2017-06-01

As polymer networks infiltrated with water, hydrogels are major constituents of animal and plant bodies and have diverse engineering applications. While natural hydrogels can robustly adhere to other biological materials, such as bonding of tendons and cartilage on bones and adhesive plaques of mussels, it is challenging to achieve such tough adhesions between synthetic hydrogels and engineering materials. Recent experiments show that chemically anchoring long-chain polymer networks of tough synthetic hydrogels on solid surfaces create adhesions tougher than their natural counterparts, but the underlying mechanism has not been well understood. It is also challenging to tune systematically the adhesion of hydrogels on solids. Here, we provide a quantitative understanding of the mechanism for tough adhesions of hydrogels on solid materials via a combination of experiments, theory, and numerical simulations. Using a coupled cohesive-zone and Mullins-effect model validated by experiments, we reveal the interplays of intrinsic work of adhesion, interfacial strength, and energy dissipation in bulk hydrogels in order to achieve tough adhesions. We further show that hydrogel adhesion can be systematically tuned by tailoring the hydrogel geometry and silanization time of solid substrates, corresponding to the control of energy dissipation zone and intrinsic work of adhesion, respectively. The current work further provides a theoretical foundation for rational design of future biocompatible and underwater adhesives.

Fracture Toughness (KIC) of Lithography Based Manufactured Alumina Ceramic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nindhia, T. G. T.; Schlacher, J.; Lube, T.

2018-04-01

Precision shaped ceramic components can be obtained by an emerging technique called Lithography based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM). A green part is made from a slurry consisting of a ceramic powder in a photocurable binder with addition of dispersant and plasticizer. Components are built in a layer–by-layer way by exposing the desired cross- sections to light. The parts are subsequently sintered to their final density. It is a challenge to produce ceramic component with this method that yield the same mechanical properties in all direction. The fracture toughness (KIc) of of LCM-alumina (prepared at LITHOZ GmbH, Austria) was tested by using the Single-Edge-V-Notched Beam (SEVNB) method. Notches are made into prismatic bend-bars in all three direction X, Y and Z to recognize the value of fracture toughness of the material in all three directions. The microstructure was revealed with optical microscopy as well as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that the fracture toughness in Y-direction has the highest value (3.10 MPam1/2) that is followed by the one in X-direction which is just a bit lower (2.90 MPam1/2). The Z-direction is found to have a similar fracture toughness (2.95 MPam1/2). This is supported by a homogeneous microstructure showing no hint of the layers used during production.

Shyness and Toughness: Unique and Moderated Relations with Men's Emotional Inexpression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruch, Monroe A.

2002-01-01

The author examined the role of toughness (an aspect of masculine ideology) and shyness in predicting correlates of men's emotional inexpression. Results showed that shyness and toughness had an additive role in predicting men's general difficulties in emotional expression and in expression of affection to other men. Results also showed that…

Mental Toughness and Transitions to High School and to Undergraduate Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St Clair-Thompson, Helen; Giles, Rebecca; McGeown, Sarah P.; Putwain, David; Clough, Peter; Perry, John

2017-01-01

Mental toughness can be conceptualised as a set of attributes that allow people to deal effectively with challenges, stressors and pressure. Recent work has suggested that it may be a valuable construct to consider within educational settings. The current studies explored the associations between mental toughness and educational transitions. Study…

The "parts and wholes" of face recognition: A review of the literature.

PubMed

Tanaka, James W; Simonyi, Diana

2016-10-01

It has been claimed that faces are recognized as a "whole" rather than by the recognition of individual parts. In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1993, Martha Farah and I attempted to operationalize the holistic claim using the part/whole task. In this task, participants studied a face and then their memory presented in isolation and in the whole face. Consistent with the holistic view, recognition of the part was superior when tested in the whole-face condition compared to when it was tested in isolation. The "whole face" or holistic advantage was not found for faces that were inverted, or scrambled, nor for non-face objects, suggesting that holistic encoding was specific to normal, intact faces. In this paper, we reflect on the part/whole paradigm and how it has contributed to our understanding of what it means to recognize a face as a "whole" stimulus. We describe the value of part/whole task for developing theories of holistic and non-holistic recognition of faces and objects. We discuss the research that has probed the neural substrates of holistic processing in healthy adults and people with prosopagnosia and autism. Finally, we examine how experience shapes holistic face recognition in children and recognition of own- and other-race faces in adults. The goal of this article is to summarize the research on the part/whole task and speculate on how it has informed our understanding of holistic face processing.

Tough Ceramic Mimics Mother of Pearl

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ritchie, Robert

2008-12-05

Berkeley Lab scientists have mimicked the structure of mother of pearl to create what may well be the toughest ceramic ever produced. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2008/12/05/scientists-create-tough-ceramic-that-mimics-mother-of-pearl/

Tough Ceramic Mimics Mother of Pearl

ScienceCinema

Ritchie, Robert

2017-12-12

Berkeley Lab scientists have mimicked the structure of mother of pearl to create what may well be the toughest ceramic ever produced. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2008/12/05/scientists-create-tough-ceramic-that-mimics-mother-of-pearl/

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL TOUGHNESS, STRESS, AND BURNOUT AMONG ADOLESCENTS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY WITH SWISS VOCATIONAL STUDENTS (.).

PubMed

Gerber, Markus; Feldmeth, Anne Karina; Lang, Christin; Brand, Serge; Elliot, Catherine; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith; Pühse, Uwe

2015-12-01

Past research has shown that higher stress is associated with increased burnout symptoms. The purpose of this study was to test whether mental toughness protects against symptoms of burnout and whether mental toughness moderates the relationship between perceived stress and burnout over time. Fifty-four vocational students (M age = 18.1 yr., SD = 1.2; 27 males, 27 females) completed self-report questionnaires twice, 10 mo. apart. Perceived stress, mental toughness, and burnout were measured using the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire (MTQ), and the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM). Students who perceived higher stress and lower mental toughness scores reported higher burnout symptoms. Although no significant interaction effects were found between stress and mental toughness in the prediction of burnout, the graphical inspection of the interactions indicated that among students with high stress, those with high mental toughness remained below the cutoff for mild burnout, whereas an increase in burnout symptoms was observable among peers with low mental toughness.

Four Takes on Tough Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rebell, Michael A.; Odden, Allan; Rolle, Anthony; Guthrie, James W.

2012-01-01

Educational Leadership talks with four experts in the fields of education policy and finance about how schools can weather the current financial crisis. Michael A. Rebell focuses on the recession and students' rights; Allan Odden suggests five steps schools can take to improve in tough times; Anthony Rolle describes the tension between equity and…

Face Processing: Models For Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turk, Matthew A.; Pentland, Alexander P.

1990-03-01

The human ability to process faces is remarkable. We can identify perhaps thousands of faces learned throughout our lifetime and read facial expression to understand such subtle qualities as emotion. These skills are quite robust, despite sometimes large changes in the visual stimulus due to expression, aging, and distractions such as glasses or changes in hairstyle or facial hair. Computers which model and recognize faces will be useful in a variety of applications, including criminal identification, human-computer interface, and animation. We discuss models for representing faces and their applicability to the task of recognition, and present techniques for identifying faces and detecting eye blinks.

Increased N250 amplitudes for other-race faces reflect more effortful processing at the individual level.

PubMed

Herzmann, Grit

2016-07-01

The N250 and N250r (r for repetition, signaling a difference measure of priming) has been proposed to reflect the activation of perceptual memory representations for individual faces. Increased N250r and N250 amplitudes have been associated with higher levels of familiarity and expertise, respectively. In contrast to these observations, the N250 amplitude has been found to be larger for other-race than own-race faces in recognition memory tasks. This study investigated if these findings were due to increased identity-specific processing demands for other-race relative to own-race faces and whether or not similar results would be obtained for the N250 in a repetition priming paradigm. Only Caucasian participants were available for testing and completed two tasks with Caucasian, African-American, and Chinese faces. In a repetition priming task, participants decided whether or not sequentially presented faces were of the same identity (individuation task) or same race (categorization task). Increased N250 amplitudes were found for African-American and Chinese faces relative to Caucasian faces, replicating previous results in recognition memory tasks. Contrary to the expectation that increased N250 amplitudes for other-race face would be confined to the individuation task, both tasks showed similar results. This could be due to the fact that face identity information needed to be maintained across the sequential presentation of prime and target in both tasks. Increased N250 amplitudes for other-race faces are taken to represent increased neural demands on the identity-specific processing of other-race faces, which are typically processed less holistically and less on the level of the individual. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Source Reconstruction of Brain Potentials Using Bayesian Model Averaging to Analyze Face Intra-Domain vs. Face-Occupation Cross-Domain Processing

PubMed Central

Olivares, Ela I.; Lage-Castellanos, Agustín; Bobes, María A.; Iglesias, Jaime

2018-01-01

We investigated the neural correlates of the access to and retrieval of face structure information in contrast to those concerning the access to and retrieval of person-related verbal information, triggered by faces. We experimentally induced stimulus familiarity via a systematic learning procedure including faces with and without associated verbal information. Then, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in both intra-domain (face-feature) and cross-domain (face-occupation) matching tasks while N400-like responses were elicited by incorrect eyes-eyebrows completions and occupations, respectively. A novel Bayesian source reconstruction approach plus conjunction analysis of group effects revealed that in both cases the generated N170s were of similar amplitude but had different neural origin. Thus, whereas the N170 of faces was associated predominantly to right fusiform and occipital regions (the so-called “Fusiform Face Area”, “FFA” and “Occipital Face Area”, “OFA”, respectively), the N170 of occupations was associated to a bilateral very posterior activity, suggestive of basic perceptual processes. Importantly, the right-sided perceptual P200 and the face-related N250 were evoked exclusively in the intra-domain task, with sources in OFA and extensively in the fusiform region, respectively. Regarding later latencies, the intra-domain N400 seemed to be generated in right posterior brain regions encompassing mainly OFA and, to some extent, the FFA, likely reflecting neural operations triggered by structural incongruities. In turn, the cross-domain N400 was related to more anterior left-sided fusiform and temporal inferior sources, paralleling those described previously for the classic verbal N400. These results support the existence of differentiated neural streams for face structure and person-related verbal processing triggered by faces, which can be activated differentially according to specific task demands. PMID:29628877

Source Reconstruction of Brain Potentials Using Bayesian Model Averaging to Analyze Face Intra-Domain vs. Face-Occupation Cross-Domain Processing.

PubMed

Olivares, Ela I; Lage-Castellanos, Agustín; Bobes, María A; Iglesias, Jaime

2018-01-01

We investigated the neural correlates of the access to and retrieval of face structure information in contrast to those concerning the access to and retrieval of person-related verbal information, triggered by faces. We experimentally induced stimulus familiarity via a systematic learning procedure including faces with and without associated verbal information. Then, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in both intra-domain (face-feature) and cross-domain (face-occupation) matching tasks while N400-like responses were elicited by incorrect eyes-eyebrows completions and occupations, respectively. A novel Bayesian source reconstruction approach plus conjunction analysis of group effects revealed that in both cases the generated N170s were of similar amplitude but had different neural origin. Thus, whereas the N170 of faces was associated predominantly to right fusiform and occipital regions (the so-called "Fusiform Face Area", "FFA" and "Occipital Face Area", "OFA", respectively), the N170 of occupations was associated to a bilateral very posterior activity, suggestive of basic perceptual processes. Importantly, the right-sided perceptual P200 and the face-related N250 were evoked exclusively in the intra-domain task, with sources in OFA and extensively in the fusiform region, respectively. Regarding later latencies, the intra-domain N400 seemed to be generated in right posterior brain regions encompassing mainly OFA and, to some extent, the FFA, likely reflecting neural operations triggered by structural incongruities. In turn, the cross-domain N400 was related to more anterior left-sided fusiform and temporal inferior sources, paralleling those described previously for the classic verbal N400. These results support the existence of differentiated neural streams for face structure and person-related verbal processing triggered by faces, which can be activated differentially according to specific task demands.

The Hierarchical Brain Network for Face Recognition

PubMed Central

Zhen, Zonglei; Fang, Huizhen; Liu, Jia

2013-01-01

Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified multiple cortical regions that are involved in face processing in the human brain. However, few studies have characterized the face-processing network as a functioning whole. In this study, we used fMRI to identify face-selective regions in the entire brain and then explore the hierarchical structure of the face-processing network by analyzing functional connectivity among these regions. We identified twenty-five regions mainly in the occipital, temporal and frontal cortex that showed a reliable response selective to faces (versus objects) across participants and across scan sessions. Furthermore, these regions were clustered into three relatively independent sub-networks in a face-recognition task on the basis of the strength of functional connectivity among them. The functionality of the sub-networks likely corresponds to the recognition of individual identity, retrieval of semantic knowledge and representation of emotional information. Interestingly, when the task was switched to object recognition from face recognition, the functional connectivity between the inferior occipital gyrus and the rest of the face-selective regions were significantly reduced, suggesting that this region may serve as an entry node in the face-processing network. In sum, our study provides empirical evidence for cognitive and neural models of face recognition and helps elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition at the network level. PMID:23527282

The hierarchical brain network for face recognition.

PubMed

Zhen, Zonglei; Fang, Huizhen; Liu, Jia

2013-01-01

Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified multiple cortical regions that are involved in face processing in the human brain. However, few studies have characterized the face-processing network as a functioning whole. In this study, we used fMRI to identify face-selective regions in the entire brain and then explore the hierarchical structure of the face-processing network by analyzing functional connectivity among these regions. We identified twenty-five regions mainly in the occipital, temporal and frontal cortex that showed a reliable response selective to faces (versus objects) across participants and across scan sessions. Furthermore, these regions were clustered into three relatively independent sub-networks in a face-recognition task on the basis of the strength of functional connectivity among them. The functionality of the sub-networks likely corresponds to the recognition of individual identity, retrieval of semantic knowledge and representation of emotional information. Interestingly, when the task was switched to object recognition from face recognition, the functional connectivity between the inferior occipital gyrus and the rest of the face-selective regions were significantly reduced, suggesting that this region may serve as an entry node in the face-processing network. In sum, our study provides empirical evidence for cognitive and neural models of face recognition and helps elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition at the network level.

Illumination robust face recognition using spatial adaptive shadow compensation based on face intensity prior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Cheng-Ta; Huang, Kae-Horng; Lee, Chang-Hsing; Han, Chin-Chuan; Fan, Kuo-Chin

2017-12-01

Robust face recognition under illumination variations is an important and challenging task in a face recognition system, particularly for face recognition in the wild. In this paper, a face image preprocessing approach, called spatial adaptive shadow compensation (SASC), is proposed to eliminate shadows in the face image due to different lighting directions. First, spatial adaptive histogram equalization (SAHE), which uses face intensity prior model, is proposed to enhance the contrast of each local face region without generating visible noises in smooth face areas. Adaptive shadow compensation (ASC), which performs shadow compensation in each local image block, is then used to produce a wellcompensated face image appropriate for face feature extraction and recognition. Finally, null-space linear discriminant analysis (NLDA) is employed to extract discriminant features from SASC compensated images. Experiments performed on the Yale B, Yale B extended, and CMU PIE face databases have shown that the proposed SASC always yields the best face recognition accuracy. That is, SASC is more robust to face recognition under illumination variations than other shadow compensation approaches.

Matching voice and face identity from static images.

PubMed

Mavica, Lauren W; Barenholtz, Elan

2013-04-01

Previous research has suggested that people are unable to correctly choose which unfamiliar voice and static image of a face belong to the same person. Here, we present evidence that people can perform this task with greater than chance accuracy. In Experiment 1, participants saw photographs of two, same-gender models, while simultaneously listening to a voice recording of one of the models pictured in the photographs and chose which of the two faces they thought belonged to the same model as the recorded voice. We included three conditions: (a) the visual stimuli were frontal headshots (including the neck and shoulders) and the auditory stimuli were recordings of spoken sentences; (b) the visual stimuli only contained cropped faces and the auditory stimuli were full sentences; (c) we used the same pictures as Condition 1 but the auditory stimuli were recordings of a single word. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same task as in Condition 1 of Experiment 1 but with the stimuli presented in sequence. Participants also rated the model's faces and voices along multiple "physical" dimensions (e.g., weight,) or "personality" dimensions (e.g., extroversion); the degree of agreement between the ratings for each model's face and voice was compared to performance for that model in the matching task. In all three conditions, we found that participants chose, at better than chance levels, which faces and voices belonged to the same person. Performance in the matching task was not correlated with the degree of agreement on any of the rated dimensions.

Exploring the time course of face matching: temporal constraints impair unfamiliar face identification under temporally unconstrained viewing.

PubMed

Ozbek, Müge; Bindemann, Markus

2011-10-01

The identification of unfamiliar faces has been studied extensively with matching tasks, in which observers decide if pairs of photographs depict the same person (identity matches) or different people (mismatches). In experimental studies in this field, performance is usually self-paced under the assumption that this will encourage best-possible accuracy. Here, we examined the temporal characteristics of this task by limiting display times and tracking observers' eye movements. Observers were required to make match/mismatch decisions to pairs of faces shown for 200, 500, 1000, or 2000ms, or for an unlimited duration. Peak accuracy was reached within 2000ms and two fixations to each face. However, intermixing exposure conditions produced a context effect that generally reduced accuracy on identity mismatch trials, even when unlimited viewing of faces was possible. These findings indicate that less than 2s are required for face matching when exposure times are variable, but temporal constraints should be avoided altogether if accuracy is truly paramount. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face-name learning in older adults: a benefit of hyper-binding.

PubMed

Weeks, Jennifer C; Biss, Renée K; Murphy, Kelly J; Hasher, Lynn

2016-10-01

Difficulty remembering faces and corresponding names is a hallmark of cognitive aging, as is increased susceptibility to distraction. Given evidence that older adults spontaneously encode relationships between target pictures and simultaneously occurring distractors (a hyper-binding phenomenon), we asked whether memory for face-name pairs could be improved through prior exposure to faces presented with distractor names. In three experiments, young and older adults performed a selective attention task on faces while ignoring superimposed names. After a delay, they learned and were tested on face-name pairs that were either maintained or rearranged from the initial task but were not told of the connection between tasks. In each experiment, older but not younger participants showed better memory for maintained than for rearranged pairs, indicating that older adults' natural propensity to tacitly encode and bind relevant and irrelevant information can be employed to aid face-name memory performance.

Effect of tritium and decay helium on the fracture toughness properties of stainless steel weldments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morgan, M. J.; West, S.; Tosten, M. H.

2008-07-15

J-Integral fracture toughness tests were conducted on tritium-exposed-and- aged Types 304L and 21-6-9 stainless steel weldments in order to measure the combined effects of tritium and its decay product, helium-3 on the fracture toughness properties. Initially, weldments have fracture toughness values about three times higher than base-metal values. Delta-ferrite phase in the weld microstructure improved toughness provided no tritium was present in the microstructure. After a tritium-exposure-and-aging treatment that resulted in {approx}1400 atomic parts per million (appm) dissolved tritium, both weldments and base metals had their fracture toughness values reduced to about the same level. The tritium effect was greatermore » in weldments (67 % reduction vs. 37% reduction) largely because the ductile discontinuous delta-ferrite phase was embrittled by tritium and decay helium. For both base metals and weldments, fracture toughness values decreased with increasing decay helium content in the range tested (50-800 appm). (authors)« less

Test-Retest Reliability of Brain Activation Using the Face-Name Paired-Associates fMRI Task in Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louis, Chelsey N.

Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder associated with cognitive impairments, and clinical symptoms of hallucinations and delusions. Recent imaging and behavioral studies have repeatedly shown aberrant brain activity in the hippocampal regions in relation to episodic memory impairments associated with schizophrenia. These findings have warranted further research to elucidate the neural processes associated with episodic memory. Therefore, the current study examined activity in a priori brain regions associated with episodic memory using the face-name paired-associates fMRI task to determine whether there was reliable activation patterns observed in healthy subjects and patients with self-reported schizophrenia. This was evaluated by using ROI analysis and whole brain analysis to examine activity between subjects during a session, and by using Pearson's R correlation coefficients to examine test-retest reliability over time. 30 schizophrenic (SZ) patients and 31 healthy control (HC) volunteers underwent a series of assessments including the fMRI behavioral task, face-name paired-associates task. The tests were conducted twice with a 14-day interval for the subjects. The results indicated no reliable brain activation in the hippocampus between scanning sessions for either the SZ or HC groups. However, distinct activation patterns were observed within sessions for both groups. These patterns were observed in the hippocampus, and regions of the frontal lobe and occipital lobe. Future studies should further explore these brain activity patterns across sessions in SZ patients compared to HC subjects to determine whether these patterns are due to pathological mechanisms associated with schizophrenia.

Holistic face training enhances face processing in developmental prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Cohan, Sarah; Nakayama, Ken

2014-01-01

Prosopagnosia has largely been regarded as an untreatable disorder. However, recent case studies using cognitive training have shown that it is possible to enhance face recognition abilities in individuals with developmental prosopagnosia. Our goal was to determine if this approach could be effective in a larger population of developmental prosopagnosics. We trained 24 developmental prosopagnosics using a 3-week online face-training program targeting holistic face processing. Twelve subjects with developmental prosopagnosia were assessed before and after training, and the other 12 were assessed before and after a waiting period, they then performed the training, and were then assessed again. The assessments included measures of front-view face discrimination, face discrimination with view-point changes, measures of holistic face processing, and a 5-day diary to quantify potential real-world improvements. Compared with the waiting period, developmental prosopagnosics showed moderate but significant overall training-related improvements on measures of front-view face discrimination. Those who reached the more difficult levels of training (‘better’ trainees) showed the strongest improvements in front-view face discrimination and showed significantly increased holistic face processing to the point of being similar to that of unimpaired control subjects. Despite challenges in characterizing developmental prosopagnosics’ everyday face recognition and potential biases in self-report, results also showed modest but consistent self-reported diary improvements. In summary, we demonstrate that by using cognitive training that targets holistic processing, it is possible to enhance face perception across a group of developmental prosopagnosics and further suggest that those who improved the most on the training task received the greatest benefits. PMID:24691394

Fracture toughness and crack growth of Zerodur

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Viens, Michael J.

1990-01-01

The fracture toughness and crack growth parameters of Zerodur, a low expansion glass ceramic material, were determined. The fracture toughness was determined using indentation techniques and was found to be 0.9 MPa x m(sup 1/2). The crack growth parameters were determined using indented biaxial specimens subjected to static and dynamic loading in an aqueous environment. The crack growth parameters n and 1n(B) were found to be 30.7 and -6.837, respectively. The crack growth parameters were also determined using indented biaxial specimens subjected to dynamic loading in an ambient 50 percent relative humidity environment. The crack growth parameters n and 1n(B) at 50 percent relative humidity were found to be 59.3 and -17.51, respectively.

Resin blending for toughness in balloon films

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farr, M. P.; Harrison, I. R.

1993-01-01

The influence of chain architecture on toughness is examined by testing blends of HDPE with different types of low density PEs. The LDPE and LLDPE used have reported similar molecular weights, and densities. Two structural factors differentiate these polymers, long chain branching is peculiar to LDPE, and the short chain branching distribution of the two polymers are different. LDPE has branches which are evenly distributed among all chains. In contrast, the short chain branches in LLDPE are distributed heterogeneously. LLDPE and ULDPE have similar branch distributions but, ULDPE has a higher average number of branches per 1000 carbons and consequently a lower density. The effect which these structural differences have on mechanical properties can be used to investigate which parameters control toughness in PE materials.

The Role of Face Familiarity in Eye Tracking of Faces by Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Dawson, Geraldine; Webb, Sara; Murias, Michael; Munson, Jeffrey; Panagiotides, Heracles; Aylward, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

It has been shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate normal activation in the fusiform gyrus when viewing familiar, but not unfamiliar faces. The current study utilized eye tracking to investigate patterns of attention underlying familiar versus unfamiliar face processing in ASD. Eye movements of 18 typically developing participants and 17 individuals with ASD were recorded while passively viewing three face categories: unfamiliar non-repeating faces, a repeating highly familiar face, and a repeating previously unfamiliar face. Results suggest that individuals with ASD do not exhibit more normative gaze patterns when viewing familiar faces. A second task assessed facial recognition accuracy and response time for familiar and novel faces. The groups did not differ on accuracy or reaction times. PMID:18306030

Tough, but Where's the Love?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coussey, Mary

2008-01-01

Every government wants to appear to be tough on asylum seekers. But in failing to offer newcomers immediate access to English language learning one runs the risk of missing out on significant economic and social cohesion benefits. In this article, the author argues that asylum seekers need to get English language support in their first six months…

Interlaminar fracture toughness of thermoplastic composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinkley, J. A.; Johnston, N. J.; Obrien, T. K.

1988-01-01

Edge delamination tension and double cantilever beam tests were used to characterize the interlaminar fracture toughness of continuous graphite-fiber composites made from experimental thermoplastic polyimides and a model thermoplastic. Residual thermal stresses, known to be significant in materials processed at high temperatures, were included in the edge delamination calculations. In the model thermoplastic system (polycarbonate matrix), surface properties of the graphite fiber were shown to be significant. Critical strain energy release rates for two different fibers having similar nominal tensile properties differed by 30 to 60 percent. The reason for the difference is not clear. Interlaminar toughness values for the thermoplastic polyimide composites (LARC-TPI and polyimidesulfone) were 3 to 4 in-lb/sq in. Scanning electron micrographs of the EDT fracture surfaces suggest poor fiber/matrix bonding. Residual thermal stresses account for up to 32 percent of the strain energy release in composites made from these high-temperature resins.

Tough photoluminescent hydrogels doped with lanthanide.

PubMed

Wang, Mei Xiang; Yang, Can Hui; Liu, Zhen Qi; Zhou, Jinxiong; Xu, Feng; Suo, Zhigang; Yang, Jian Hai; Chen, Yong Mei

2015-03-01

Photoluminescent hydrogels have emerged as novel soft materials with potential applications in many fields. Although many photoluminescent hydrogels have been fabricated, their scope of usage has been severely limited by their poor mechanical performance. Here, a facile strategy is reported for preparing lanthanide (Ln)-alginate/polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels with both high toughness and photoluminescence, which has been achieved by doping Ln(3+) ions (Ln = Eu, Tb, Eu/Tb) into alginate/PAAm hydrogel networks, where Ln(3+) ions serve as both photoluminescent emitters and physical cross-linkers. The resulting hydrogels exhibit versatile advantages including excellent mechanical properties (∼ MPa strength, ≈ 20 tensile strains, ≈ 10(4) kJ m(-3) energy dissipation), good photoluminescent performance, tunable emission color, excellent processability, and cytocompatibility. The developed tough photoluminescent hydrogels hold great promises for expanding the usage scope of hydrogels. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Social presence and the composite face effect.

PubMed

Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Fernandes, Alexandre; Fonseca, Ricardo; Prada, Marilia

2015-06-01

A robust finding in social psychology research is that performance is modulated by the social nature of a given context, promoting social inhibition or facilitation effects. In the present experiment, we examined if and how social presence impacts holistic face perception processes by asking participants, in the presence of others and alone, to perform the composite face task. Results suggest that completing the task in the presence of others (i.e., mere co-action) is associated with better performance in face recognition (less bias and higher discrimination between presented and non-presented targets) and with a reduction in the composite face effect. These results make clear that social presence impact on the composite face effect does not occur because presence increases reliance on holistic processing as a "dominant" well-learned response, but instead, because it increases monitoring of the interference produced by automatic response. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Impact of Cognitive Complexity on Feedback Efficacy during Online Versus Face-to-Face Interactive Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baralt, Melissa

2013-01-01

Informed by the cognition hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), recent studies indicate that more cognitively complex tasks can result in better incorporation of feedback during interaction and, as a consequence, more learning. It is not known, however, how task complexity and feedback work together in computerized environments. The present study addressed…

Processing and testing of high toughness silicon nitride ceramics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tikare, Veena; Sanders, William A.; Choi, Sung R.

1993-01-01

High toughness silicon nitride ceramics were processed with the addition of small quantities of beta-Si3N4 whiskers in a commercially available alpha-Si3N4 powder. These whiskers grew preferentially during sintering resulting in large, elongated beta-grains, which acted to toughen the matrix by crack deflection and grain pullout. The fracture toughness of these samples seeded with beta-Si3N4 whiskers ranged from 8.7 to 9.5 MPa m(exp 0.5) depending on the sintering additives.

Face-induced expectancies influence neural mechanisms of performance monitoring.

PubMed

Osinsky, Roman; Seeger, Jennifer; Mussel, Patrick; Hewig, Johannes

2016-04-01

In many daily situations, the consequences of our actions are predicted by cues that are often social in nature. For instance, seeing the face of an evaluator (e.g., a supervisor at work) may activate certain evaluative expectancies, depending on the history of prior encounters with that particular person. We investigated how such face-induced expectancies influence neurocognitive functions of performance monitoring. We recorded an electroencephalogram while participants completed a time-estimation task, during which they received performance feedback from a strict and a lenient evaluator. During each trial, participants first saw the evaluator's face before performing the task and, finally, receiving feedback. Therefore, faces could be used as predictive cues for the upcoming evaluation. We analyzed electrocortical signatures of performance monitoring at the stages of cue processing, task performance, and feedback reception. Our results indicate that, at the cue stage, seeing the strict evaluator's face results in an anticipatory preparation of fronto-medial monitoring mechanisms, as reflected by a sustained negative-going amplitude shift (i.e., the contingent negative variation). At the performance stage, face-induced expectancies of a strict evaluation rule led to increases of early performance monitoring signals (i.e., frontal-midline theta power). At the final stage of feedback reception, violations of outcome expectancies differentially affected the feedback-related negativity and frontal-midline theta power, pointing to a functional dissociation between these signatures. Altogether, our results indicate that evaluative expectancies induced by face-cues lead to adjustments of internal performance monitoring mechanisms at various stages of task processing.

Recent development in low-constraint fracture toughness testing for structural integrity assessment of pipelines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Jidong; Gianetto, James A.; Tyson, William R.

2018-03-01

Fracture toughness measurement is an integral part of structural integrity assessment of pipelines. Traditionally, a single-edge-notched bend (SE(B)) specimen with a deep crack is recommended in many existing pipeline structural integrity assessment procedures. Such a test provides high constraint and therefore conservative fracture toughness results. However, for girth welds in service, defects are usually subjected to primarily tensile loading where the constraint is usually much lower than in the three-point bend case. Moreover, there is increasing use of strain-based design of pipelines that allows applied strains above yield. Low-constraint toughness tests represent more realistic loading conditions for girth weld defects, and the corresponding increased toughness can minimize unnecessary conservatism in assessments. In this review, we present recent developments in low-constraint fracture toughness testing, specifically using single-edgenotched tension specimens, SENT or SE(T). We focus our review on the test procedure development and automation, round-robin test results and some common concerns such as the effect of crack tip, crack size monitoring techniques, and testing at low temperatures. Examples are also given of the integration of fracture toughness data from SE(T) tests into structural integrity assessment.

Perceptual and Gaze Biases during Face Processing: Related or Not?

PubMed Central

Samson, Hélène; Fiori-Duharcourt, Nicole; Doré-Mazars, Karine; Lemoine, Christelle; Vergilino-Perez, Dorine

2014-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated a left perceptual bias while looking at faces, due to the fact that observers mainly use information from the left side of a face (from the observer's point of view) to perform a judgment task. Such a bias is consistent with the right hemisphere dominance for face processing and has sometimes been linked to a left gaze bias, i.e. more and/or longer fixations on the left side of the face. Here, we recorded eye-movements, in two different experiments during a gender judgment task, using normal and chimeric faces which were presented above, below, right or left to the central fixation point or on it (central position). Participants performed the judgment task by remaining fixated on the fixation point or after executing several saccades (up to three). A left perceptual bias was not systematically found as it depended on the number of allowed saccades and face position. Moreover, the gaze bias clearly depended on the face position as the initial fixation was guided by face position and landed on the closest half-face, toward the center of gravity of the face. The analysis of the subsequent fixations revealed that observers move their eyes from one side to the other. More importantly, no apparent link between gaze and perceptual biases was found here. This implies that we do not look necessarily toward the side of the face that we use to make a gender judgment task. Despite the fact that these results may be limited by the absence of perceptual and gaze biases in some conditions, we emphasized the inter-individual differences observed in terms of perceptual bias, hinting at the importance of performing individual analysis and drawing attention to the influence of the method used to study this bias. PMID:24454927

Changes in bone microstructure and toughness during the healing process of long bones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishimoto, T.; Nakano, T.; Umakoshi, Y.; Tabata, Y.

2009-05-01

It is of great importance to understand how bone defects regain the microstructure and mechanical function of bone and how the microstructure affects the mechanical function during the bone healing process. In the present study on long bone defects, we investigated the relationship between the recovery process of fracture toughness and biological apatite (BAp)/collagen (Col) alignment as an index of the bone microstructure to clarify the bone toughening mechanisms. A 5-mm defect introduced in the rabbit ulna was allowed to heal naturally and a three-point bending test was conducted on the regenerated site to assess bone toughness. The bone toughness was quite low at the early stage of bone regeneration but increased during the postoperative period. The change in toughness agreed well with the characteristics of the fracture surface morphology, which reflected the history of the crack propagation. SEM and microbeam X-ray diffraction analyses indicated that the toughness was dominated by the degree and orientation of the preferred BAp/Col alignment, i.e. bundles aligned perpendicular to the crack propagation clearly contributed to the bone toughening owing to extra energy consumption for resistance to crack propagation. In conclusion, regenerated bone improves fracture toughness by reconstructing the preferred BAp/Col alignment along the bone longitudinal axis during the healing process of long bones.

Bone toughness at the molecular scale: A model for fracture toughness using crosslinked osteopontin on synthetic and biogenic mineral substrates.

PubMed

Cavelier, S; Dastjerdi, A K; McKee, M D; Barthelat, F

2018-05-01

The most prominent structural components in bone are collagen and mineral. However, bone additionally contains a substantial amount of noncollagenous proteins (most notably of the SIBLING protein family), some of which may act as cohesive/adhesive "binders" for the composite hybrid collagen/mineral scaffolding, whether in the bulk phase of bone, or at its interfaces. One such noncollagenous protein - osteopontin (OPN) - appears to be critical to the deformability and fracture toughness of bone. In the present study, we used a reconstructed synthetic mineral-OPN-mineral interface, and a biogenic (natural tooth dentin) mineral/collagen-OPN-mineral/collagen interface, to measure the fracture toughness of OPN on mineralized substrates. We used this system to test the hypothesis that OPN crosslinking by the enzyme tissue transglutaminase 2 (TG2) that is found in bone enhances interfacial adhesion to increase the fracture toughness of bone. For this, we prepared double-cantilever beam substrates of synthetic pure hydroxyapatite mineral, and of narwhal dentin, and directly apposed them to one another under different intervening OPN/crosslinking conditions, and fracture toughness was tested using a miniaturized loading stage. The work-of-fracture of the OPN interface was measured for different OPN formulations (monomer vs. polymer), crosslinking states, and substrate composition. Noncrosslinked OPN provided negligible adhesion on pure hydroxyapatite, whereas OPN crosslinking (by the chemical crosslinker glutaraldehyde, and TG2 enzyme) provided strong interfacial adhesion for both hydroxyapatite and dentin using monomeric and polymeric OPN. Pre-coating of the substrate beams with monomeric OPN further improved the adhesive performance of the samples, likely by allowing effective binding of this nascent OPN form to mineral/matrix components, with this pre-attachment providing a protein layer for additional crosslinking between the substrates. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Interfering with memory for faces: The cost of doing two things at once.

PubMed

Wammes, Jeffrey D; Fernandes, Myra A

2016-01-01

We inferred the processes critical for episodic retrieval of faces by measuring susceptibility to memory interference from different distracting tasks. Experiment 1 examined recognition of studied faces under full attention (FA) or each of two divided attention (DA) conditions requiring concurrent decisions to auditorily presented letters. Memory was disrupted in both DA relative to FA conditions, a result contrary to a material-specific account of interference effects. Experiment 2 investigated whether the magnitude of interference depended on competition between concurrent tasks for common processing resources. Studied faces were presented either upright (configurally processed) or inverted (featurally processed). Recognition was completed under FA, or DA with one of two face-based distracting tasks requiring either featural or configural processing. We found an interaction: memory for upright faces was lower under DA when the distracting task required configural than featural processing, while the reverse was true for memory of inverted faces. Across experiments, the magnitude of memory interference was similar (a 19% or 20% decline from FA) regardless of whether the materials in the distracting task overlapped with the to-be-remembered information. Importantly, interference was significantly larger (42%) when the processing demands of the distracting and target retrieval task overlapped, suggesting a processing-specific account of memory interference.

Validation of the Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test.

PubMed

Wang, Chao-Chih; Ross, David A; Gauthier, Isabel; Richler, Jennifer J

2016-01-01

The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test (VHPT-F) is a new measure of holistic face processing with better psychometric properties relative to prior measures developed for group studies (Richler et al., 2014). In fields where psychologists study individual differences, validation studies are commonplace and the concurrent validity of a new measure is established by comparing it to an older measure with established validity. We follow this approach and test whether the VHPT-F measures the same construct as the composite task, which is group-based measure at the center of the large literature on holistic face processing. In Experiment 1, we found a significant correlation between holistic processing measured in the VHPT-F and the composite task. Although this correlation was small, it was comparable to the correlation between holistic processing measured in the composite task with the same faces, but different target parts (top or bottom), which represents a reasonable upper limit for correlations between the composite task and another measure of holistic processing. These results confirm the validity of the VHPT-F by demonstrating shared variance with another measure of holistic processing based on the same operational definition. These results were replicated in Experiment 2, but only when the demographic profile of our sample matched that of Experiment 1.

Validation of the Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test

PubMed Central

Wang, Chao-Chih; Ross, David A.; Gauthier, Isabel; Richler, Jennifer J.

2016-01-01

The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test (VHPT-F) is a new measure of holistic face processing with better psychometric properties relative to prior measures developed for group studies (Richler et al., 2014). In fields where psychologists study individual differences, validation studies are commonplace and the concurrent validity of a new measure is established by comparing it to an older measure with established validity. We follow this approach and test whether the VHPT-F measures the same construct as the composite task, which is group-based measure at the center of the large literature on holistic face processing. In Experiment 1, we found a significant correlation between holistic processing measured in the VHPT-F and the composite task. Although this correlation was small, it was comparable to the correlation between holistic processing measured in the composite task with the same faces, but different target parts (top or bottom), which represents a reasonable upper limit for correlations between the composite task and another measure of holistic processing. These results confirm the validity of the VHPT-F by demonstrating shared variance with another measure of holistic processing based on the same operational definition. These results were replicated in Experiment 2, but only when the demographic profile of our sample matched that of Experiment 1. PMID:27933014

Missed Opportunities for Science Learning: Unacknowledged Unscientific Arguments in Asynchronous Online and Face-To-Face Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callis-Duehl, Kristine; Idsardi, Robert; Humphrey, Eve A.; Gougis, Rebekka Darner

2018-01-01

We explored the scientific argumentation that occurs among university biology students during an argumentation task implemented in two environments: face-to-face in a classroom and online in an asynchronous discussion. We observed 10 student groups, each composed of three students. Our analysis focused on how students respond to their peers'…

Fracture toughness testing on ferritic alloys using the electropotential technique

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, F.H.; Wire, G.L.

1981-06-11

Fracture toughness measurements as done conventionally require large specimens (5 x 5 x 2.5 cm) which would be prohibitively expensive to irradiate over the fluence and temperature ranges required for first wall design. To overcome this difficulty a single specimen technique for J intergral fracture toughness measurements on miniature specimens (1.6 cm OD x 0.25 cm thick) was developed. Comparisons with specimens three times as thick show that the derived J/sub 1c/ is constant, validating the specimen for first wall applications. The electropotential technique was used to obtain continuous crack extension measurements, allowing a ductile fracture resistence curve to bemore » constructed from a single specimen. The irradiation test volume required for fracture toughness measurements using both miniature specimens and single specimen J measurements was reduced a factor of 320, making it possible to perform a systematic exploration of irradiation temperature and dose variables as required for qualification of HT-9 and 9Cr-1Mo base metal and welds for first wall application. Fracture toughness test results for HT-9 and 9Cr-1Mo from 25 to 539/sup 0/C are presented to illustrate the single specimen technique.« less

A laboratory means to produce tough aluminum sheet from powder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singleton, O. R.; Royster, D. M.; Thomas, J. R.

1990-01-01

The rapid solidification of aluminum alloys as powder and the subsequent fabrication processes can be used to develop and tailor alloys to satisfy specific aerospace design requirements, including high strength and toughness. Laboratory procedures to produce aluminum powder-metallurgy (PM) materials are efficient but require evidence that the laboratory methods used can produce a product with superior properties. This paper describes laboratory equipment and procedures which can be used to produce tough aluminum PM sheet. The processing of a 2124 + 0.9 percent Zr aluminum alloy powder is used as an example. The fully hardened sheet product is evaluated in terms of properties and microstructure. The key features of the vacuum hot press pressing operation used to consolidate the powder are described. The 2124 + 0.9 percent Zr - T8 temper aluminum sheet produced was both strong (460-490 MPa yield strength) and tough (Kahn Tear unit-propagation- energy values over three times those typical for ingot metallurgy 2024-T81). Both the longitudinal and longitudinal-transverse directions of the sheet were tested. The microstructure was well refined with subgrains of one or two micrometers. Fine dispersoids of Al3Zr in the precipitate free regions adjacent to boundaries are believed to contribute to the improved toughness.

How the toughness in metallic glasses depends on topological and chemical heterogeneity

PubMed Central

An, Qi; Samwer, Konrad; Demetriou, Marios D.; Floyd, Michael C.; Duggins, Danielle O.; Johnson, William L.; Goddard, William A.

2016-01-01

To gain insight into the large toughness variability observed between metallic glasses (MGs), we examine the origin of fracture toughness through bending experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for two binary MGs: Pd82Si18 and Cu46Zr54. The bending experiments show that Pd82Si18 is considerably tougher than Cu46Zr54, and the higher toughness of Pd82Si18 is attributed to an ability to deform plastically in the absence of crack nucleation through cavitation. The MD simulations study the initial stages of cavitation in both materials and extract the critical factors controlling cavitation. We find that for the tougher Pd82Si18, cavitation is governed by chemical inhomogeneity in addition to topological structures. In contrast, no such chemical correlations are observed in the more brittle Cu46Zr54, where topological low coordination number polyhedra are still observed around the critical cavity. As such, chemical inhomogeneity leads to more difficult cavitation initiation in Pd82Si18 than in Cu46Zr54, leading to a higher toughness. The absence of chemical separation during cavitation initiation in Cu46Zr54 decreases the energy barrier for a cavitation event, leading to lower toughness. PMID:27307438

Stable face representations

PubMed Central

Jenkins, Rob; Burton, A. Mike

2011-01-01

Photographs are often used to establish the identity of an individual or to verify that they are who they claim to be. Yet, recent research shows that it is surprisingly difficult to match a photo to a face. Neither humans nor machines can perform this task reliably. Although human perceivers are good at matching familiar faces, performance with unfamiliar faces is strikingly poor. The situation is no better for automatic face recognition systems. In practical settings, automatic systems have been consistently disappointing. In this review, we suggest that failure to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar face processing has led to unrealistic expectations about face identification in applied settings. We also argue that a photograph is not necessarily a reliable indicator of facial appearance, and develop our proposal that summary statistics can provide more stable face representations. In particular, we show that image averaging stabilizes facial appearance by diluting aspects of the image that vary between snapshots of the same person. We review evidence that the resulting images can outperform photographs in both behavioural experiments and computer simulations, and outline promising directions for future research. PMID:21536553

Functionalized poly(arylene ethers) as toughness modifiers for bismaleimides

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stenzenberger, H. D.; Roemer, W.; Hergenrother, P. M.; Jensen, B.; Breitigam, W.

1990-01-01

A family of novel, low molecular weight functionalized poly(arylene ether) resins has been investigated to ascertain its members' toughness-imparting contribution to neat bismaleimide (BMI) resin and BMI-matrix laminate composite properties. Attention is given to the contribution of the reactive poly(arylene ether)'s backbone chemistry to fracture toughness, as well as to the comparative influence of high and low molecular weight reactive poly(arylene ether) types on the modified BMI resin systems. The modified BMIs possess a polyphase morphology, with good adhesion between the thermoplastic nodules and the host thermoset systems.

Evaluation of Sport Mental Toughness and Psychological Wellbeing in Undergraduate Student Athletes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Micoogullari, Bulent Okan; Odek, Ugur; Beyaz, Ozkan

2017-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the relationships between sport mental toughness (SMT) and psychological wellbeing (PWB) of undergraduate student athletes. Mental toughness represents the ability of a person to cope with the demands of training and competition, increased determination, focus, confidence, and maintain control under pressure. Mental…

Face and body perception in schizophrenia: a configural processing deficit?

PubMed

Soria Bauser, Denise; Thoma, Patrizia; Aizenberg, Victoria; Brüne, Martin; Juckel, Georg; Daum, Irene

2012-01-30

Face and body perception rely on common processing mechanisms and activate similar but not identical brain networks. Patients with schizophrenia show impaired face perception, and the present study addressed for the first time body perception in this group. Seventeen patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were compared to 17 healthy controls on standardized tests assessing basic face perception skills (identity discrimination, memory for faces, recognition of facial affect). A matching-to-sample task including emotional and neutral faces, bodies and cars either in an upright or in an inverted position was administered to assess potential category-specific performance deficits and impairments of configural processing. Relative to healthy controls, schizophrenia patients showed poorer performance on the tasks assessing face perception skills. In the matching-to-sample task, they also responded more slowly and less accurately than controls, regardless of the stimulus category. Accuracy analysis showed significant inversion effects for faces and bodies across groups, reflecting configural processing mechanisms; however reaction time analysis indicated evidence of reduced inversion effects regardless of category in schizophrenia patients. The magnitude of the inversion effects was not related to clinical symptoms. Overall, the data point towards reduced configural processing, not only for faces but also for bodies and cars in individuals with schizophrenia. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Atomic and vibrational origins of mechanical toughness in bioactive cement during setting

PubMed Central

Tian, Kun V.; Yang, Bin; Yue, Yuanzheng; Bowron, Daniel T.; Mayers, Jerry; Donnan, Robert S.; Dobó-Nagy, Csaba; Nicholson, John W.; Fang, De-Cai; Greer, A. Lindsay; Chass, Gregory A.; Greaves, G. Neville

2015-01-01

Bioactive glass ionomer cements (GICs) have been in widespread use for ∼40 years in dentistry and medicine. However, these composites fall short of the toughness needed for permanent implants. Significant impediment to improvement has been the requisite use of conventional destructive mechanical testing, which is necessarily retrospective. Here we show quantitatively, through the novel use of calorimetry, terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and neutron scattering, how GIC's developing fracture toughness during setting is related to interfacial THz dynamics, changing atomic cohesion and fluctuating interfacial configurations. Contrary to convention, we find setting is non-monotonic, characterized by abrupt features not previously detected, including a glass–polymer coupling point, an early setting point, where decreasing toughness unexpectedly recovers, followed by stress-induced weakening of interfaces. Subsequently, toughness declines asymptotically to long-term fracture test values. We expect the insight afforded by these in situ non-destructive techniques will assist in raising understanding of the setting mechanisms and associated dynamics of cementitious materials. PMID:26548704

Tough, soluble, aromatic, thermoplastic copolyimides

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Robert G. (Inventor)

1994-01-01

Tough, soluble, aromatic, thermoplastic copolyimides were prepared by reacting 4,4'-oxydiphthalic anhydride, 3,4,3',4'-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride and 3,4'-oxydianiline. These copolyimides were found to be soluble in common amide solvents such as acetamide, Nmethylpyrrolidinone, and dimethylformamide allowing them to be applied as the fully imidized copolymer and to be used to prepare a wide range of articles.

46 CFR 154.605 - Toughness test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Toughness test. 154.605 Section 154.605 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) CERTAIN BULK DANGEROUS CARGOES SAFETY STANDARDS FOR SELF-PROPELLED VESSELS CARRYING BULK LIQUEFIED GASES Design, Construction and Equipment Materials § 154...

46 CFR 154.605 - Toughness test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Toughness test. 154.605 Section 154.605 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) CERTAIN BULK DANGEROUS CARGOES SAFETY STANDARDS FOR SELF-PROPELLED VESSELS CARRYING BULK LIQUEFIED GASES Design, Construction and Equipment Materials § 154...

46 CFR 154.605 - Toughness test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Toughness test. 154.605 Section 154.605 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) CERTAIN BULK DANGEROUS CARGOES SAFETY STANDARDS FOR SELF-PROPELLED VESSELS CARRYING BULK LIQUEFIED GASES Design, Construction and Equipment Materials § 154...

46 CFR 154.605 - Toughness test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Toughness test. 154.605 Section 154.605 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) CERTAIN BULK DANGEROUS CARGOES SAFETY STANDARDS FOR SELF-PROPELLED VESSELS CARRYING BULK LIQUEFIED GASES Design, Construction and Equipment Materials § 154...

Losing face: impaired discrimination of featural and configural information in the mouth region of an inverted face.

PubMed

Tanaka, James W; Kaiser, Martha D; Hagen, Simen; Pierce, Lara J

2014-05-01

Given that all faces share the same set of features-two eyes, a nose, and a mouth-that are arranged in similar configuration, recognition of a specific face must depend on our ability to discern subtle differences in its featural and configural properties. An enduring question in the face-processing literature is whether featural or configural information plays a larger role in the recognition process. To address this question, the face dimensions task was designed, in which the featural and configural properties in the upper (eye) and lower (mouth) regions of a face were parametrically and independently manipulated. In a same-different task, two faces were sequentially presented and tested in their upright or in their inverted orientation. Inversion disrupted the perception of featural size (Exp. 1), featural shape (Exp. 2), and configural changes in the mouth region, but it had relatively little effect on the discrimination of featural size and shape and configural differences in the eye region. Inversion had little effect on the perception of information in the top and bottom halves of houses (Exp. 3), suggesting that the lower-half impairment was specific to faces. Spatial cueing to the mouth region eliminated the inversion effect (Exp. 4), suggesting that participants have a bias to attend to the eye region of an inverted face. The collective findings from these experiments suggest that inversion does not differentially impair featural or configural face perceptions, but rather impairs the perception of information in the mouth region of the face.

Developmental Changes in Face Processing Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mondloch, Catherine J.; Geldart, Sybil; Maurer, Daphne; Le Grand, Richard

2003-01-01

Two experiments examined the impact of slow development of processing differences among faces in the spacing among facial features (second-order relations). Computerized tasks involving various face-processing skills were used. Results of experiment with 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds and with adults indicated that slow development of sensitivity to…

Faces in Context: Does Face Perception Depend on the Orientation of the Visual Scene?

PubMed

Taubert, Jessica; van Golde, Celine; Verstraten, Frans A J

2016-10-01

The mechanisms held responsible for familiar face recognition are thought to be orientation dependent; inverted faces are more difficult to recognize than their upright counterparts. Although this effect of inversion has been investigated extensively, researchers have typically sliced faces from photographs and presented them in isolation. As such, it is not known whether the perceived orientation of a face is inherited from the visual scene in which it appears. Here, we address this question by measuring performance in a simultaneous same-different task while manipulating both the orientation of the faces and the scene. We found that the face inversion effect survived scene inversion. Nonetheless, an improvement in performance when the scene was upside down suggests that sensitivity to identity increased when the faces were more easily segmented from the scene. Thus, while these data identify congruency with the visual environment as a contributing factor in recognition performance, they imply different mechanisms operate on upright and inverted faces. © The Author(s) 2016.

The Effect of Strike Face Geometry on the Dynamic Delamination of Composite Back Plates

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

behind the ceramic (Zuogang et al. 2010). In many cases, Kevlar , S-2 glass, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, or a similar high- performance...composite laminate is used as the strike face backing or “backer”. The latter will be the focus in this report. Woven fabrics have interlacing fibers...over other weaves. Woven fabrics also have better fracture toughness than unidirectional and cross- ply laminates (Kim and Sham 2000). However, a

The importance of fracture toughness in ultrafine and nanocrystalline bulk materials

PubMed Central

Pippan, R.; Hohenwarter, A.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT The suitability of high-strength ultrafine and nanocrystalline materials processed by severe plastic deformation methods and aimed to be used for structural applications will strongly depend on their resistance against crack growth. In this contribution some general available findings on the damage tolerance of this material class will be summarized. Particularly, the occurrence of a pronounced fracture anisotropy will be in the center of discussion. In addition, the great potential of this generated anisotropy to obtain high-strength materials with exceptionally high fracture toughness in specific loading and crack growth directions will be enlightened. IMPACT STATEMENT Severely plastically deformed materials are reviewed in light of their damage tolerance. The frequently observed toughness anisotropy allows unprecedented fracture toughness – strength combinations. PMID:27570712

The influence of composition and location on the toughness of human atherosclerotic femoral plaque tissue.

PubMed

Cunnane, E M; Barrett, H E; Kavanagh, E G; Mongrain, R; Walsh, M T

2016-02-01

The toughness of femoral atherosclerotic tissue is of pivotal importance to understanding the mechanism of luminal expansion during cutting balloon angioplasty (CBA) in the peripheral vessels. Furthermore, the ability to relate this parameter to plaque composition, pathological inclusions and location within the femoral vessels would allow for the improvement of existing CBA technology and for the stratification of patient treatment based on the predicted fracture response of the plaque tissue to CBA. Such information may lead to a reduction in clinically observed complications, an improvement in trial results and an increased adoption of the CBA technique to reduce vessel trauma and further endovascular treatment uptake. This study characterises the toughness of atherosclerotic plaque extracted from the femoral arteries of ten patients using a lubricated guillotine cutting test to determine the critical energy release rate. This information is related to the location that the plaque section was removed from within the femoral vessels and the composition of the plaque tissue, determined using Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy, to establish the influence of location and composition on the toughness of the plaque tissue. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is employed to examine the fracture surfaces of the sections to determine the contribution of tissue morphology to toughness. Toughness results exhibit large inter and intra patient and location variance with values ranging far above and below the toughness of healthy porcine arterial tissue (Range: 1330-3035 for location and 140-4560J/m(2) for patients). No significant difference in mean toughness is observed between patients or location. However, the composition parameter representing the calcified tissue content of the plaque correlates significantly with sample toughness (r=0.949, p<0.001). SEM reveals the presence of large calcified regions in the toughest sections that are absent from the least tough

Evidence for view-invariant face recognition units in unfamiliar face learning.

PubMed

Etchells, David B; Brooks, Joseph L; Johnston, Robert A

2017-05-01

Many models of face recognition incorporate the idea of a face recognition unit (FRU), an abstracted representation formed from each experience of a face which aids recognition under novel viewing conditions. Some previous studies have failed to find evidence of this FRU representation. Here, we report three experiments which investigated this theoretical construct by modifying the face learning procedure from that in previous work. During learning, one or two views of previously unfamiliar faces were shown to participants in a serial matching task. Later, participants attempted to recognize both seen and novel views of the learned faces (recognition phase). Experiment 1 tested participants' recognition of a novel view, a day after learning. Experiment 2 was identical, but tested participants on the same day as learning. Experiment 3 repeated Experiment 1, but tested participants on a novel view that was outside the rotation of those views learned. Results revealed a significant advantage, across all experiments, for recognizing a novel view when two views had been learned compared to single view learning. The observed view invariance supports the notion that an FRU representation is established during multi-view face learning under particular learning conditions.

Encoding deficit during face processing within the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Walther, Sebastian; Federspiel, Andrea; Horn, Helge; Bianchi, Piero; Wiest, Roland; Wirth, Miranka; Strik, Werner; Müller, Thomas Jörg

2009-06-30

Face processing is crucial to social interaction, but is impaired in schizophrenia patients, who experience delays in face recognition, difficulties identifying others, and misperceptions of affective content. The right fusiform face area plays an important role in the early stages of human face processing and thus may be affected in schizophrenia. The aim of the study was therefore to investigate whether face processing deficits are related to dysfunctions of the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia patients compared with controls. In a rapid, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, we investigated the encoding of new faces, as well as the recognition of newly learned, famous, and unfamiliar faces, in 13 schizophrenia patients and 21 healthy controls. We applied region of interest analysis to each individual's right fusiform face area and tested for group differences. Controls displayed higher blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activation during the memorization of faces that were later successfully recognized. In schizophrenia patients, this effect was not observed. During the recognition task, schizophrenia patients exhibited lower BOLD responses, less accuracy, and longer reaction times to famous and unfamiliar faces. Our results support the hypothesis that impaired face processing in schizophrenia is related to early-stage deficits during the encoding and recognition of faces.

Effects of electric field on the fracture toughness (KIc) of ceramic PZT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goljahi, Sam; Lynch, Christopher S.

2013-09-01

This work was motivated by the observation that a small percentage of the ceramic lead zirconate titanate (PZT) parts in a device application, one that requires an electrode pattern on the PZT surface, developed fatigue cracks at the edges of the electrodes; yet all of the parts were subjected to similar loading. To obtain additional information on the fracture behavior of this material, similar specimens were run at higher voltage in the laboratory under a microscope to observe the initiation and growth of the fatigue cracks. A sequence of experiments was next performed to determine whether there were fracture toughness variations that depended on material processing. Plates were cut from a single bar in different locations and the Vickers indentation technique was used to measure the relative fracture toughness as a function of position along the bar. Small variations in toughness were found, that may account for some of the devices developing fatigue cracks and not others. Fracture toughness was measured next as a function of electric field. The surface crack in flexure technique was modified to apply an electric field perpendicular to a crack. The results indicate that the fracture toughness drops under a positive electric field and increases under a negative electric field that is less than the coercive field, but as the negative coercive field is approached the fracture toughness drops. Examination of the fracture surfaces using an optical microscope and a surface profilometer reveal the initial indentation crack shape and (although less accurately) the crack shape and size at the transition from stable to unstable growth. These results are discussed in terms of a ferroelastic toughening mechanism that is dependent on electric field.

Toughness of Wear-Resistant Cu-Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersen, Laura M.

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have the potential to exhibit exceptional wear-resistance due to their high hardness and strength. Combined with their other unique properties, this makes them ideal candidates for a wide range of technological applications (e.g. gears, bearings, biomaterials). In the course of this dissertation, high-glass-forming bulk metallic glasses are prepared and characterized in order to identify wear-resistant compositions and optimize their toughness. First, a comprehensive study identifies a class of Cu-Zr-based BMGs that exhibit more exceptional wear performance than other BMGs. The results demonstrate that when BMGs are designed properly, they exhibit wear properties that compete with, and can surpass, state-of-the-art engineering materials. It is identified that, in order to optimize the wear performance of Cu-Zr-based BMG gears, toughness should be maximized. Second, the notch toughness of wear-resistant Cu43Zr 43Al7Be7 BMGs with in-situ crystallization is investigated. In order to identify in-situ crystallization using X-ray diffraction (XRD) with Cu K? radiation, extremely long dwell times and high X-ray fluxes are required. This demonstrates the importance of reporting operating parameters when trying to evaluate the amorphous nature of BMGs. XRD, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) are used to identify the metastable crystalline phase. The notch toughness is found to correlate closely with the amount of crystallization and the composition of the remaining amorphous matrix. Finally, the effect of substituting standard-grade zirconium lump (99.8% excluding up to 4% hafnium) for high-purity zirconium crystal bar (99.5%) in Cu43Zr43Al7Be7 is investigated. Introducing low-purity zirconium significantly decreases the glass-forming-ability and reduces the notch toughness of the BMG. Furthermore, Weibull statistics provide an analysis of the variability in toughness for high-purity ingots

Enhanced Visual Short-Term Memory for Angry Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Margaret C.; Wu, Chia-Yun; Linden, David E. J.; Raymond, Jane E.

2009-01-01

Although some views of face perception posit independent processing of face identity and expression, recent studies suggest interactive processing of these 2 domains. The authors examined expression-identity interactions in visual short-term memory (VSTM) by assessing recognition performance in a VSTM task in which face identity was relevant and…

On the facilitative effects of face motion on face recognition and its development

PubMed Central

Xiao, Naiqi G.; Perrotta, Steve; Quinn, Paul C.; Wang, Zhe; Sun, Yu-Hao P.; Lee, Kang

2014-01-01

For the past century, researchers have extensively studied human face processing and its development. These studies have advanced our understanding of not only face processing, but also visual processing in general. However, most of what we know about face processing was investigated using static face images as stimuli. Therefore, an important question arises: to what extent does our understanding of static face processing generalize to face processing in real-life contexts in which faces are mostly moving? The present article addresses this question by examining recent studies on moving face processing to uncover the influence of facial movements on face processing and its development. First, we describe evidence on the facilitative effects of facial movements on face recognition and two related theoretical hypotheses: the supplementary information hypothesis and the representation enhancement hypothesis. We then highlight several recent studies suggesting that facial movements optimize face processing by activating specific face processing strategies that accommodate to task requirements. Lastly, we review the influence of facial movements on the development of face processing in the first year of life. We focus on infants' sensitivity to facial movements and explore the facilitative effects of facial movements on infants' face recognition performance. We conclude by outlining several future directions to investigate moving face processing and emphasize the importance of including dynamic aspects of facial information to further understand face processing in real-life contexts. PMID:25009517

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation.

PubMed

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation

PubMed Central

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing. PMID:29503612

Familiarity facilitates feature-based face processing.

PubMed

Visconti di Oleggio Castello, Matteo; Wheeler, Kelsey G; Cipolli, Carlo; Gobbini, M Ida

2017-01-01

Recognition of personally familiar faces is remarkably efficient, effortless and robust. We asked if feature-based face processing facilitates detection of familiar faces by testing the effect of face inversion on a visual search task for familiar and unfamiliar faces. Because face inversion disrupts configural and holistic face processing, we hypothesized that inversion would diminish the familiarity advantage to the extent that it is mediated by such processing. Subjects detected personally familiar and stranger target faces in arrays of two, four, or six face images. Subjects showed significant facilitation of personally familiar face detection for both upright and inverted faces. The effect of familiarity on target absent trials, which involved only rejection of unfamiliar face distractors, suggests that familiarity facilitates rejection of unfamiliar distractors as well as detection of familiar targets. The preserved familiarity effect for inverted faces suggests that facilitation of face detection afforded by familiarity reflects mostly feature-based processes.

Reciprocal Altruism: The Effect of Self-Esteem and Anticipation of Face-to-Face Interaction on Reciprocation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregor, Gary L.; Conner, Hubert

The study attempts to measure the effects of self-esteem and face-to-face interaction on a person's giving behavior (altruism). Seventy-two introductory psychology students were paired on a task which required that one of each pair become "indebted" to the other. Their roles were then reversed, and data was collected to see if the…

Observations in Fracture Toughness Testing of Glasses and Optical Ceramics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salem, Jon

2017-01-01

Fracture toughness is a critical structural design parameter and an excellent metrics to rank materials. Itdetermines fracture strength by way of the flaws, both inherent and induced, and defines the endpoint of the slow crackgrowth curve. The fracture toughness of structural and optical ceramics, and glasses as measured by several techniques is compared. When good metrology is employed, the results are very comparable with two exceptions: materials exhibiting crack growth resistance and those with a low SCG exponents. For materials with R-curves, the result is a function of extension and can be minimized with short cracks. For materials with low SCG exponents, such as glasses, elimination of the corrosive media andor increasing the stress intensity rate minimizes effects. A summary of values is given, and it appears that highly modified glasses exhibit lower fracture toughness and slow crack growth exponent than high purity glasses such as fused silica.

Fracture toughness of copper-base alloys for ITER applications: A preliminary report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alexander, D.J.; Zinkle, S.J.; Rowcliffe, A.F.

1997-04-01

Oxide-dispersion strengthened copper alloys and a precipitation-hardened copper-nickel-beryllium alloy showed a significant reduction in toughness at elevated temperature (250{degrees}C). This decrease in toughness was much larger than would be expected from the relatively modest changes in the tensile properties over the same temperature range. However, a copper-chromium-zirconium alloy strengthened by precipitation showed only a small decrease in toughness at the higher temperatures. The embrittled alloys showed a transition in fracture mode, from transgranular microvoid coalescence at room temperature to intergranular with localized ductility at high temperatures. The Cu-Cr-Zr alloy maintained the ductile microvoid coalescence failure mode at all test temperatures.

The fracture toughness of borides formed on boronized cold work tool steels

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sen, Ugur; Sen, Saduman

2003-06-15

In this study, the fracture toughness of boride layers of two borided cold work tool steels have been investigated. Boriding was carried out in a salt bath consisting of borax, boric acid, ferro-silicon and aluminum. Boriding was performed at 850 and 950 deg. C for 2 to 7 h. The presence of boride phases were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Hardness and fracture toughness of borides were measured via Vickers indenter. Increasing of boriding time and temperature leads to reduction of fracture toughness of borides. Metallographic examination showed that boride layer formed on cold work tool steels was compactmore » and smooth.« less

Effect of Precipitation on Cryogenic Toughness in Isothermally Aged Austenitic Stainless Steel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saucedo-Muñoz, M. L.; Lopez-Hirata, V. M.; Avila-Davila, E. O.; Villegas-Cardenas, J. D.; Gonzalez-Velazquez, J. L.

2017-03-01

The effect of grain-boundary precipitates on cryogenic impact toughness of two corrosion steels (standard AISI 316 and a steel with a nitrogen additive) is studied. The steels are aged at 600 - 900°C with a hold of up to 1000 min. The KCV impact toughness at -196°C is determined. It is shown that the impact toughness of the nitrogen-containing steel decreases under cooling after the aging at 700 and 800°C more considerably than that of steel 316 after aging at 800 and 900°C. The causes of the embrittlement of the nitrogen-containing steel are determined.

Performance and biocompatibility of extremely tough alginate/polyacrylamide hydrogels.

PubMed

Darnell, Max C; Sun, Jeong-Yun; Mehta, Manav; Johnson, Christopher; Arany, Praveen R; Suo, Zhigang; Mooney, David J

2013-11-01

Although hydrogels now see widespread use in a host of applications, low fracture toughness and brittleness have limited their more broad use. As a recently described interpenetrating network (IPN) of alginate and polyacrylamide demonstrated a fracture toughness of ≈ 9000 J/m(2), we sought to explore the biocompatibility and maintenance of mechanical properties of these hydrogels in cell culture and in vivo conditions. These hydrogels can sustain a compressive strain of over 90% with minimal loss of Young's Modulus as well as minimal swelling for up to 50 days of soaking in culture conditions. Mouse mesenchymal stem cells exposed to the IPN gel-conditioned media maintain high viability, and although cells exposed to conditioned media demonstrate slight reductions in proliferation and metabolic activity (WST assay), these effects are abrogated in a dose-dependent manner. Implantation of these IPN hydrogels into subcutaneous tissue of rats for 8 weeks led to mild fibrotic encapsulation and minimal inflammatory response. These results suggest the further exploration of extremely tough alginate/PAAM IPN hydrogels as biomaterials. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HYDRATE v1.5 OPTION OF TOUGH+ v1.5

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moridis, George

HYDRATE v1.5 is a numerical code that for the simulation of the behavior of hydrate-bearing geologic systems, and represents the third update of the code since its first release [Moridis et al., 2008]. It is an option of TOUGH+ v1.5 [Moridis and Pruess, 2014], a successor to the TOUGH2 [Pruess et al., 1999, 2012] family of codes for multi-component, multiphase fluid and heat flow developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. HYDRATE v1.5 needs the TOUGH+ v1.5 core code in order to compile and execute. It is written in standard FORTRAN 95/2003, and can be run on any computational platformmore » (workstation, PC, Macintosh) for which such compilers are available. By solving the coupled equations of mass and heat balance, the fully operational TOUGH+HYDRATE code can model the non-isothermal gas release, phase behavior and flow of fluids and heat under conditions typical of common natural CH 4-hydrate deposits (i.e., in the permafrost and in deep ocean sediments) in complex geological media at any scale (from laboratory to reservoir) at which Darcy's law is valid. TOUGH+HYDRATE v1.5 includes both an equilibrium and a kinetic model of hydrate formation and dissociation. The model accounts for heat and up to four mass components, i.e., water, CH 4, hydrate, and water-soluble inhibitors such as salts or alcohols. These are partitioned among four possible phases (gas phase, liquid phase, ice phase and hydrate phase). Hydrate dissociation or formation, phase changes and the corresponding thermal effects are fully described, as are the effects of inhibitors. The model can describe all possible hydrate dissociation mechanisms, i.e., depressurization, thermal stimulation, salting-out effects and inhibitor-induced effects.« less

Face and object encoding under perceptual load: ERP evidence.

PubMed

Neumann, Markus F; Mohamed, Tarik N; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2011-02-14

According to the perceptual load theory, processing of a task-irrelevant distractor is abolished when attentional resources are fully consumed by task-relevant material. As an exception, however, famous faces have been shown to elicit repetition modulations in event-related potentials - an N250r - despite high load at initial presentation, suggesting preserved face-encoding. Here, we recorded N250r repetition modulations by unfamiliar faces, hands, and houses, and tested face specificity of preserved encoding under high load. In an immediate (S1-S2) repetition priming paradigm, participants performed a letter identification task on S1 by indicating whether an "X" vs. "N" was among 6 different (high load condition) or 6 identical (low load condition) letters. Letter strings were superimposed on distractor faces, hands, or houses. Subsequent S2 probes were either identical repetitions of S1 distractors, non-repeated exemplars from the same category, or infrequent butterflies, to which participants responded. Independent of attentional load at S1, an occipito-temporal N250r was found for unfamiliar faces. In contrast, no repetition-related neural modulation emerged for houses or hands. This strongly suggests that a putative face-selective attention module supports encoding under high load, and that similar mechanisms are unavailable for other natural or artificial objects. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mental toughness profiles and their relations with achievement goals and sport motivation in adolescent Australian footballers.

PubMed

Gucciardi, Daniel F

2010-04-01

The aims of this study were to identify the mental toughness profiles of adolescent Australian footballers and to explore the relations between the mental toughness clusters and achievement goals and sport motivation. A total of 214 non-elite, male Australian footballers aged 16-18 years (mean = 16.8, s = 0.7) provided self-reports of mental toughness, achievement goals, and sport motivation. Cluster analysis supported the presence of two-groups in which players evidenced moderate and high levels of all four mental toughness subscales. Significant multivariate effects were observed for achievement goals and sport motivation with the high mental toughness group favouring both mastery- and performance-approach goals and self-determined as well as extrinsic motivational tendencies. The results suggest that adolescent Australian footballers' self-perceptions of mental toughness fall within two clusters involving high and moderate forms of all four components, and that these profiles show varying relations with achievement goals (particularly mastery-approach) and sport motivation.

Emotion-attention interactions in recognition memory for distractor faces.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Narayanan; Gupta, Rashmi

2010-04-01

Effective filtering of distractor information has been shown to be dependent on perceptual load. Given the salience of emotional information and the presence of emotion-attention interactions, we wanted to explore the recognition memory for emotional distractors especially as a function of focused attention and distributed attention by manipulating load and the spatial spread of attention. We performed two experiments to study emotion-attention interactions by measuring recognition memory performance for distractor neutral and emotional faces. Participants performed a color discrimination task (low-load) or letter identification task (high-load) with a letter string display in Experiment 1 and a high-load letter identification task with letters presented in a circular array in Experiment 2. The stimuli were presented against a distractor face background. The recognition memory results show that happy faces were recognized better than sad faces under conditions of less focused or distributed attention. When attention is more spatially focused, sad faces were recognized better than happy faces. The study provides evidence for emotion-attention interactions in which specific emotional information like sad or happy is associated with focused or distributed attention respectively. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of attention. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

A Comparison between the Occurrence of Pauses, Repetitions and Recasts under Conditions of Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Communication: A Preliminary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cabaroglu, Nese; Basaran, Suleyman; Roberts, Jon

2010-01-01

This study compares pauses, repetitions and recasts in matched task interactions under face-to-face and computer-mediated conditions. Six first-year English undergraduates at a Turkish University took part in Skype-based voice chat with a native speaker and face-to-face with their instructor. Preliminary quantitative analysis of transcripts showed…

Outlining face processing skills of portrait artists: Perceptual experience with faces predicts performance.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Barsics, Catherine

2016-10-01

Most humans seem to demonstrate astonishingly high levels of skill in face processing if one considers the sophisticated level of fine-tuned discrimination that face recognition requires. However, numerous studies now indicate that the ability to process faces is not as fundamental as once thought and that performance can range from despairingly poor to extraordinarily high across people. Here we studied people who are super specialists of faces, namely portrait artists, to examine how their specific visual experience with faces relates to a range of face processing skills (perceptual discrimination, short- and longer term recognition). Artists show better perceptual discrimination and, to some extent, recognition of newly learned faces than controls. They are also more accurate on other perceptual tasks (i.e., involving non-face stimuli or mental rotation). By contrast, artists do not display an advantage compared to controls on longer term face recognition (i.e., famous faces) nor on person recognition from other sensorial modalities (i.e., voices). Finally, the face inversion effect exists in artists and controls and is not modulated by artistic practice. Advantages in face processing for artists thus seem to closely mirror perceptual and visual short term memory skills involved in portraiture. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of fracture toughness of human dentin using elastic-plastic fracture mechanics.

PubMed

Yan, Jiahau; Taskonak, Burak; Platt, Jeffrey A; Mecholsky, John J

2008-01-01

Dentin, the mineralized tissue forming the bulk of the tooth, lies between the enamel and the pulp chamber. It is a rich source of inspiration for designing novel synthetic materials due to its unique microstructure. Most of the previous studies investigating the fracture toughness of dentin have used linear-elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) that ignores plastic deformation and could underestimate the toughness of dentin. With the presence of collagen (approximately 30% by volume) aiding the toughening mechanisms in dentin, we hypothesize that there is a significant difference between the fracture toughness estimated using LEFM (Kc) and elastic-plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) (KJc). Single-edge notched beam specimens with in-plane (n=10) and anti-plane (n=10) parallel fractures were prepared following ASTM standard E1820 and tested in three-point flexure. KJc of the in-plane parallel and anti-plane parallel specimens were found to be 3.1 and 3.4 MPa m 1/2 and Kc were 2.4 and 2.5 MPa m 1/2, respectively. The fracture toughness estimated based on KJc is significantly greater than that estimated based on Kc (32.5% on average; p<0.001). In addition, KJc of anti-plane parallel specimens is significantly greater than that of in-plane parallel specimens. We suggest that, in order to critically evaluate the fracture toughness of human dentin, EPFM should be employed.

Emotions & Relationships: Dealing with the Tough Stuff

Cancer.gov

Emotions & Relationships: Dealing with the Tough Stuff; emotional health; emotional health; emotional health article; emotional health articles; best way to deal with emotions; best ways to deal with relationships; how to build relationships; how to strengthen relationships

TOUGH2: A general-purpose numerical simulator for multiphase nonisothermal flows

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pruess, K.

1991-06-01

Numerical simulators for multiphase fluid and heat flows in permeable media have been under development at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for more than 10 yr. Real geofluids contain noncondensible gases and dissolved solids in addition to water, and the desire to model such `compositional` systems led to the development of a flexible multicomponent, multiphase simulation architecture known as MULKOM. The design of MULKOM was based on the recognition that the mass-and energy-balance equations for multiphase fluid and heat flows in multicomponent systems have the same mathematical form, regardless of the number and nature of fluid components and phases present. Application ofmore » MULKOM to different fluid mixtures, such as water and air, or water, oil, and gas, is possible by means of appropriate `equation-of-state` (EOS) modules, which provide all thermophysical and transport parameters of the fluid mixture and the permeable medium as a function of a suitable set of primary thermodynamic variables. Investigations of thermal and hydrologic effects from emplacement of heat-generating nuclear wastes into partially water-saturated formations prompted the development and release of a specialized version of MULKOM for nonisothermal flow of water and air, named TOUGH. TOUGH is an acronym for `transport of unsaturated groundwater and heat` and is also an allusion to the tuff formations at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The TOUGH2 code is intended to supersede TOUGH. It offers all the capabilities of TOUGH and includes a considerably more general subset of MULKOM modules with added capabilities. The paper briefly describes the simulation methodology and user features.« less

Analyzing Interactions by an IIS-Map-Based Method in Face-to-Face Collaborative Learning: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Lanqin; Yang, Kaicheng; Huang, Ronghuai

2012-01-01

This study proposes a new method named the IIS-map-based method for analyzing interactions in face-to-face collaborative learning settings. This analysis method is conducted in three steps: firstly, drawing an initial IIS-map according to collaborative tasks; secondly, coding and segmenting information flows into information items of IIS; thirdly,…

Face Recognition by Metropolitan Police Super-Recognisers

PubMed Central

Robertson, David J.; Noyes, Eilidh; Dowsett, Andrew J.; Jenkins, Rob; Burton, A. Mike

2016-01-01

Face recognition is used to prove identity across a wide variety of settings. Despite this, research consistently shows that people are typically rather poor at matching faces to photos. Some professional groups, such as police and passport officers, have been shown to perform just as poorly as the general public on standard tests of face recognition. However, face recognition skills are subject to wide individual variation, with some people showing exceptional ability—a group that has come to be known as ‘super-recognisers’. The Metropolitan Police Force (London) recruits ‘super-recognisers’ from within its ranks, for deployment on various identification tasks. Here we test four working super-recognisers from within this police force, and ask whether they are really able to perform at levels above control groups. We consistently find that the police ‘super-recognisers’ perform at well above normal levels on tests of unfamiliar and familiar face matching, with degraded as well as high quality images. Recruiting employees with high levels of skill in these areas, and allocating them to relevant tasks, is an efficient way to overcome some of the known difficulties associated with unfamiliar face recognition. PMID:26918457

Face Recognition by Metropolitan Police Super-Recognisers.

PubMed

Robertson, David J; Noyes, Eilidh; Dowsett, Andrew J; Jenkins, Rob; Burton, A Mike

2016-01-01

Face recognition is used to prove identity across a wide variety of settings. Despite this, research consistently shows that people are typically rather poor at matching faces to photos. Some professional groups, such as police and passport officers, have been shown to perform just as poorly as the general public on standard tests of face recognition. However, face recognition skills are subject to wide individual variation, with some people showing exceptional ability-a group that has come to be known as 'super-recognisers'. The Metropolitan Police Force (London) recruits 'super-recognisers' from within its ranks, for deployment on various identification tasks. Here we test four working super-recognisers from within this police force, and ask whether they are really able to perform at levels above control groups. We consistently find that the police 'super-recognisers' perform at well above normal levels on tests of unfamiliar and familiar face matching, with degraded as well as high quality images. Recruiting employees with high levels of skill in these areas, and allocating them to relevant tasks, is an efficient way to overcome some of the known difficulties associated with unfamiliar face recognition.

Tough, Soluble, Aromatic, Thermoplastic Copolyimides

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Robert G. (Inventor)

1998-01-01

Tough, soluble, aromatic, thermoplastic copolyimides were prepared by reacting 4,4'-oxydiphthalic anhydride, 3,4,3',4'-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride and 3,4'-oxydianiline. These copolyimides were found to be soluble in common amide solvents such as N,N'-dimethyl acetamide, N-methylpyrrolidinone, and dimethylformamide allowing them to be applied as the fully imidized copolymer and to be used to prepare a wide range of articles.

During early and mid-adolescence, greater mental toughness is related to increased sleep quality and quality of life.

PubMed

Brand, Serge; Kalak, Nadeem; Gerber, Markus; Clough, Peter J; Lemola, Sakari; Pühse, Uwe; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith

2016-06-01

The aim of this study was to explore the association between mental toughness, subjective sleep, physical activity, and quality of life during early and mid-adolescence. A total of 1475 participants (mean age = 13.4 years; range: 11-16 years) took part in the study. They completed questionnaires related to mental toughness, physical activity, subjective sleep, and quality of life. Greater mental toughness was related to more favorable quality of life and increased subjective sleep. Mental toughness was not related to physical activity. Increased mental toughness, favorable quality of life, and sleep are related during early and mid-adolescence. Against our expectations, mental toughness was not related to physical activity. © The Author(s) 2014.

Neural networks related to dysfunctional face processing in autism spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

Nickl-Jockschat, Thomas; Rottschy, Claudia; Thommes, Johanna; Schneider, Frank; Laird, Angela R.; Fox, Peter T.; Eickhoff, Simon B.

2016-01-01

One of the most consistent neuropsychological findings in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a reduced interest in and impaired processing of human faces. We conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis on 14 functional imaging studies on neural correlates of face processing enrolling a total of 164 ASD patients. Subsequently, normative whole-brain functional connectivity maps for the identified regions of significant convergence were computed for the task-independent (resting-state) and task-dependent (co-activations) state in healthy subjects. Quantitative functional decoding was performed by reference to the BrainMap database. Finally, we examined the overlap of the delineated network with the results of a previous meta-analysis on structural abnormalities in ASD as well as with brain regions involved in human action observation/imitation. We found a single cluster in the left fusiform gyrus showing significantly reduced activation during face processing in ASD across all studies. Both task-dependent and task-independent analyses indicated significant functional connectivity of this region with the temporo-occipital and lateral occipital cortex, the inferior frontal and parietal cortices, the thalamus and the amygdala. Quantitative reverse inference then indicated an association of these regions mainly with face processing, affective processing, and language-related tasks. Moreover, we found that the cortex in the region of right area V5 displaying structural changes in ASD patients showed consistent connectivity with the region showing aberrant responses in the context of face processing. Finally, this network was also implicated in the human action observation/imitation network. In summary, our findings thus suggest a functionally and structurally disturbed network of occipital regions related primarily to face (but potentially also language) processing, which interact with inferior frontal as well as limbic regions and may be the core of

Face likeability mediates the memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young but not older adults.

PubMed

Lin, Tian; Lendry, Reesa; Ebner, Natalie C

2016-11-01

Evidence of effects of face attractiveness on memory is mixed and little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Previous work suggests a possible mediating role of affective responding to faces (i.e., face likeability) on the relationship between face attractiveness and memory. Age-related change in social motivation may reduce the relevance of face attractiveness in older adults, with downstream effects on memory. In the present study, 50 young and 51 older participants were presented with face-trait pairs. Faces varied in attractiveness. Participants then completed a face-trait associative recognition memory task and provided likeability ratings for each face. There was a memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young (but not older) participants, which was partially mediated by face likeability. In addition, more attractive and less attractive (compared to moderately attractive) faces were more likely remembered by both young and older participants. This quadratic effect of face attractiveness on memory was not mediated by face likeability. Findings are discussed in the context of motivational influences on memory that vary with age.

A New Maraging Stainless Steel with Excellent Strength-Toughness-Corrosion Synergy.

PubMed

Tian, Jialong; Wang, Wei; Babar Shahzad, M; Yan, Wei; Shan, Yiyin; Jiang, Zhouhua; Yang, Ke

2017-11-10

A new maraging stainless steel with superior strength-toughness-corrosion synergy has been developed based on an innovative concept of alloy design. The high strength-toughness combination is achieved by forming dispersive nano-sized intermetallic compounds in the soft lath martensitic matrix with a slight amount of residual austenite. The good corrosion resistance is guaranteed by exactly controlling the Co content based on understanding the synergistic effect between Co and Cr. The fine structure characteristics of two dominant strengthening precipitations including Ni₃Ti and Mo-rich phases were finely characterized associated with transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) analyses. The relationship among microstructure, strength and toughness is discussed. The precipitation mechanism of different precipitates in the new maraging stainless steel is revealed based on the APT analysis.

Determination of fracture toughness of human permanent and primary enamel using an indentation microfracture method.

PubMed

Hayashi-Sakai, Sachiko; Sakai, Jun; Sakamoto, Makoto; Endo, Hideaki

2012-09-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the fracture toughness and Vickers microhardness number of permanent and primary human enamel using the indentation microfracture method. Crack resistance and a parameter indirectly related to fracture toughness were measured in 48 enamel specimens from 16 permanent teeth and 12 enamel specimens obtained from six primary teeth. The Vickers microhardness number of the middle portion was greater than the upper portion in primary enamel. The fracture toughness was highest in the middle portion of permanent enamel, because fracture toughness greatly depends upon microstructure. These findings suggest that primary teeth are not miniature permanent teeth but have specific and characteristic mechanical properties.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder scan own-race faces differently from other-race faces.

PubMed

Yi, Li; Quinn, Paul C; Fan, Yuebo; Huang, Dan; Feng, Cong; Joseph, Lisa; Li, Jiao; Lee, Kang

2016-01-01

It has been well documented that people recognize and scan other-race faces differently from faces of their own race. The current study examined whether this cross-racial difference in face processing found in the typical population also exists in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants included 5- to 10-year-old children with ASD (n=29), typically developing (TD) children matched on chronological age (n=29), and TD children matched on nonverbal IQ (n=29). Children completed a face recognition task in which they were asked to memorize and recognize both own- and other-race faces while their eye movements were tracked. We found no recognition advantage for own-race faces relative to other-race faces in any of the three groups. However, eye-tracking results indicated that, similar to TD children, children with ASD exhibited a cross-racial face-scanning pattern: they looked at the eyes of other-race faces longer than at those of own-race faces, whereas they looked at the mouth of own-race faces longer than at that of other-race faces. The findings suggest that although children with ASD have difficulty with processing some aspects of faces, their ability to process face race information is relatively spared. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Strength and Fracture Toughness of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrolyte Material Improved

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bansal, Narottam P.; Choi, Sung R.

2002-01-01

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are being developed for various applications in the automobile, power-generation, and aeronautics industries. Recently, the NASA Glenn Research Center has been exploring the possibility of using SOFC's for aeropropulsion under its Zero Carbon Dioxide Emission Technology (ZCET) Program. 10-mol% yttriastabilized zirconia (10YSZ) is a very good anionic conductor at high temperatures and is, therefore, used as an oxygen solid electrolyte in SOFC. However, it has a high thermal expansion coefficient, low thermal shock resistance, low fracture toughness, and poor mechanical strength. For aeronautic applications, the thin ceramic electrolyte membrane of the SOFC needs to be strong and tough. Therefore, we have been investigating the possibility of enhancing the strength and fracture toughness of the 10YSZ electrolyte without degrading its electrical conductivity to an appreciable extent. We recently demonstrated that the addition of alumina to zirconia electrolyte increases its strength as well as its fracture toughness. Zirconia-alumina composites containing 0 to 30 mol% of alumina were fabricated by hot pressing. The hot pressing procedure was developed and various hot pressing parameters were optimized, resulting in dense, crackfree panels of composite materials. Cubic zirconia and a-alumina were the only phases detected, indicating that there was no chemical reaction between the constituents during hot pressing at elevated temperatures. Flexure strength sf and fracture toughness K(sub IC) of the various zirconia-alumina composites were measured at room temperature as well as at 1000 C in air. Both properties showed systematic improvement with increased alumina addition at room temperature and at 1000 C. Use of these modified electrolytes with improved strength and fracture toughness should prolong the life and enhance the performance of SOFC in aeronautics and other applications.

Looking at My Own Face: Visual Processing Strategies in Self–Other Face Recognition

PubMed Central

Chakraborty, Anya; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev

2018-01-01

We live in an age of ‘selfies.’ Yet, how we look at our own faces has seldom been systematically investigated. In this study we test if the visual processing of the highly familiar self-face is different from other faces, using psychophysics and eye-tracking. This paradigm also enabled us to test the association between the psychophysical properties of self-face representation and visual processing strategies involved in self-face recognition. Thirty-three adults performed a self-face recognition task from a series of self-other face morphs with simultaneous eye-tracking. Participants were found to look longer at the lower part of the face for self-face compared to other-face. Participants with a more distinct self-face representation, as indexed by a steeper slope of the psychometric response curve for self-face recognition, were found to look longer at upper part of the faces identified as ‘self’ vs. those identified as ‘other’. This result indicates that self-face representation can influence where we look when we process our own vs. others’ faces. We also investigated the association of autism-related traits with self-face processing metrics since autism has previously been associated with atypical self-processing. The study did not find any self-face specific association with autistic traits, suggesting that autism-related features may be related to self-processing in a domain specific manner. PMID:29487554

Enhancing Scalability and Efficiency of the TOUGH2_MP for LinuxClusters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Keni; Wu, Yu-Shu

2006-04-17

TOUGH2{_}MP, the parallel version TOUGH2 code, has been enhanced by implementing more efficient communication schemes. This enhancement is achieved through reducing the amount of small-size messages and the volume of large messages. The message exchange speed is further improved by using non-blocking communications for both linear and nonlinear iterations. In addition, we have modified the AZTEC parallel linear-equation solver to nonblocking communication. Through the improvement of code structuring and bug fixing, the new version code is now more stable, while demonstrating similar or even better nonlinear iteration converging speed than the original TOUGH2 code. As a result, the new versionmore » of TOUGH2{_}MP is improved significantly in its efficiency. In this paper, the scalability and efficiency of the parallel code are demonstrated by solving two large-scale problems. The testing results indicate that speedup of the code may depend on both problem size and complexity. In general, the code has excellent scalability in memory requirement as well as computing time.« less

Face recognition and description abilities in people with mild intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

Gawrylowicz, Julie; Gabbert, Fiona; Carson, Derek; Lindsay, William R; Hancock, Peter J B

2013-09-01

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are as likely as the general population to find themselves in the situation of having to identify and/or describe a perpetrator's face to the police. However, limited verbal and memory abilities in people with ID might prevent them to engage in standard police procedures. Two experiments examined face recognition and description abilities in people with mild intellectual disabilities (mID) and compared their performance with that of people without ID. Experiment 1 used three old/new face recognition tasks. Experiment 2 consisted of two face description tasks, during which participants had to verbally describe faces from memory and with the target in view. Participants with mID performed significantly poorer on both recognition and recall tasks than control participants. However, their group performance was better than chance and they showed variability in performance depending on the measures introduced. The practical implications of these findings in forensic settings are discussed. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Does the medium matter? The interaction of task type and technology on group performance and member reactions.

PubMed

Straus, S G; McGrath, J E

1994-02-01

The authors investigated the hypothesis that as group tasks pose greater requirements for member interdependence, communication media that transmit more social context cues will foster group performance and satisfaction. Seventy-two 3-person groups of undergraduate students worked in either computer-mediated or face-to-face meetings on 3 tasks with increasing levels of interdependence: an idea-generation task, an intellective task, and a judgment task. Results showed few differences between computer-mediated and face-to-face groups in the quality of the work completed but large differences in productivity favoring face-to-face groups. Analysis of productivity and of members' reactions supported the predicted interaction of tasks and media, with greater discrepancies between media conditions for tasks requiring higher levels of coordination. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of using computer-mediated communications systems for group work.

The “parts and wholes” of face recognition: a review of the literature

PubMed Central

Tanaka, James W.; Simonyi, Diana

2016-01-01

It has been claimed that faces are recognized as a “whole” rather than the recognition of individual parts. In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1993, Martha Farah and I attempted to operationalize the holistic claim using the part/whole task. In this task, participants studied a face and then their memory presented in isolation and in the whole face. Consistent with the holistic view, recognition of the part was superior when tested in the whole-face condition compared to when it was tested in isolation. The “whole face” or holistic advantage was not found for faces that were inverted, or scrambled, nor for non-face objects suggesting that holistic encoding was specific to normal, intact faces. In this paper, we reflect on the part/whole paradigm and how it has contributed to our understanding of what it means to recognize a face as a “whole” stimulus. We describe the value of part/whole task for developing theories of holistic and non-holistic recognition of faces and objects. We discuss the research that has probed the neural substrates of holistic processing in healthy adults and people with prosopagnosia and autism. Finally, we examine how experience shapes holistic face recognition in children and recognition of own- and other-race faces in adults. The goal of this article is to summarize the research on the part/whole task and speculate on how it has informed our understanding of holistic face processing. PMID:26886495

Tough high performance composite matrix

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pater, Ruth H. (Inventor); Johnston, Norman J. (Inventor)

1994-01-01

This invention is a semi-interpentrating polymer network which includes a high performance thermosetting polyimide having a nadic end group acting as a crosslinking site and a high performance linear thermoplastic polyimide. Provided is an improved high temperature matrix resin which is capable of performing in the 200 to 300 C range. This resin has significantly improved toughness and microcracking resistance, excellent processability, mechanical performance, and moisture and solvent resistances.

Passing faces: sequence-dependent variations in the perceptual processing of emotional faces.

PubMed

Karl, Christian; Hewig, Johannes; Osinsky, Roman

2016-10-01

There is broad evidence that contextual factors influence the processing of emotional facial expressions. Yet temporal-dynamic aspects, inter alia how face processing is influenced by the specific order of neutral and emotional facial expressions, have been largely neglected. To shed light on this topic, we recorded electroencephalogram from 168 healthy participants while they performed a gender-discrimination task with angry and neutral faces. Our event-related potential (ERP) analyses revealed a strong emotional modulation of the N170 component, indicating that the basic visual encoding and emotional analysis of a facial stimulus happen, at least partially, in parallel. While the N170 and the late positive potential (LPP; 400-600 ms) were only modestly affected by the sequence of preceding faces, we observed a strong influence of face sequences on the early posterior negativity (EPN; 200-300 ms). Finally, the differing response patterns of the EPN and LPP indicate that these two ERPs represent distinct processes during face analysis: while the former seems to represent the integration of contextual information in the perception of a current face, the latter appears to represent the net emotional interpretation of a current face.

Controlling coaching and athlete thriving in elite adolescent netballers: The buffering effect of athletes' mental toughness.

PubMed

Gucciardi, Daniel F; Stamatis, Andreas; Ntoumanis, Nikos

2017-08-01

The purposes of this study were to examine the association between controlling coach behaviours and athlete experiences of thriving and test the buffering effect of mental toughness on this relation. A cross-sectional survey. In total, 232 female netballers aged 11 to 17 years (14.97+1.52) with between 1 and 15 years of experience in their sport (7.50+2.28) completed measures of controlling coach interpersonal style, mental toughness and thriving. Latent moderated structural models indicated that (i) controlling coach behaviours were inversely related with experiences of vitality and learning; (ii) mental toughness was positively associated with psychological experiences of both dimensions of thriving; and (iii) mental toughness moderated the effect of coach's controlling interpersonal style on learning but not vitality experiences, such that the effect was weaker for individuals who reported higher levels of mental toughness. This study extends past work and theory to show that mental toughness may enable athletes to counteract the potentially deleterious effect of controlling coach interpersonal styles. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reward Activates Stimulus-Specific and Task-Dependent Representations in Visual Association Cortices

PubMed Central

Muller, Timothy; Yeung, Nick; Waszak, Florian

2014-01-01

Humans reliably learn which actions lead to rewards. One prominent question is how credit is assigned to environmental stimuli that are acted upon. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have provided evidence that representations of rewarded stimuli are activated upon reward delivery, providing possible eligibility traces for credit assignment. Our study sought evidence of postreward activation in sensory cortices satisfying two conditions of instrumental learning: postreward activity should reflect the stimulus category that preceded reward (stimulus specificity), and should occur only if the stimulus was acted on to obtain reward (task dependency). Our experiment implemented two tasks in the fMRI scanner. The first was a perceptual decision-making task on degraded face and house stimuli. Stimulus specificity was evident as rewards activated the sensory cortices associated with face versus house perception more strongly after face versus house decisions, respectively, particularly in the fusiform face area. Stimulus specificity was further evident in a psychophysiological interaction analysis wherein face-sensitive areas correlated with nucleus accumbens activity after face-decision rewards, whereas house-sensitive areas correlated with nucleus accumbens activity after house-decision rewards. The second task required participants to make an instructed response. The criterion of task dependency was fulfilled as rewards after face versus house responses activated the respective association cortices to a larger degree when faces and houses were relevant to the performed task. Our study is the first to show that postreward sensory cortex activity meets these two key criteria of credit assignment, and does so independently from bottom-up perceptual processing. PMID:25411489

Priming Effects for Affective vs. Neutral Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burton, Leslie A.; Rabin, Laura; Wyatt, Gwinne; Frohlich, Jonathan; Vardy, Susan B.; Dimitri, Diana

2005-01-01

Affective and Neutral Tasks (faces with negative or neutral content, with different lighting and orientation) requiring reaction time judgments of poser identity were administered to 32 participants. Speed and accuracy were better for the Affective than Neutral Task, consistent with literature suggesting facilitation of performance by affective…