Shaping taste

A growing body of empirical research on the crossmodal correspondences, that is, on the associations between abstract features that we share across the senses, demonstrates that people associate (gustatory) tastes and visual shape features in a non-random manner. Such abstract features of shapes (e.g., symmetry or curvature) can, under certain circumstances, guide our taste expectations and even taste experiences. Here, it is argued that the different dimensions of the shapes associated with our food experiences, such as the tableware (what some have called tablescapes), the way in which we plate the food, and the food itself, may all impact the expected and experienced taste of food. Further, we discuss how food experience designers (think chefs, culinary artists, and food companies) may capitalize on these recently-discovered correspondences when designing dining experiences and present directions for future researc

Roles of the Bloom's syndrome helicase in the maintenance of genome stability

The RecQ family of DNA helicases is highly conserved in evolution from bacteria to humans. Of the five known human RecQ family members, three (BLM, WRN and RECQ4, which cause Bloom's syndrome, Werner's syndrome and Rothmund-Thomson syndrome respectively) are mutated in distinct clinical disorders associated with cancer predisposition and/or premature aging. BLM forms part of a multienzyme complex including topoisomerase IIIalpha, replication protein A and a newly identified factor called BLAP75. Together, these proteins play a role in the resolution of DNA structures that arise during the process of homologous recombination repair. In the absence of BLM, cells show genomic instability and a high incidence of sister-chromatid exchanges. In addition to a DNA structure-specific helicase activity, BLM also catalyses Holliday-junction branch migration and the annealing of complementary single-stranded DNA molecules

Welcome to MTI—A New Open Access Journal Dealing with Blue Sky Research and Future Trends in Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

In this era of massive use of computers and other computational devices (e.g., low-cost wearable sensors, smartphones, other smart devices, etc.), the nature of digital data is becoming more complex and heterogeneous

Perceptions and Responsiveness to Intimacy with Robots; A User Evaluation

In human-robot interactions research it is significant to question what measures humans will take to contest the challenges and what will become of them. Levy hypothesizes that robots will stimulate human senses with their many capabilities and humans will accept them as intimate companions because the human perception of intimacy will transform to accommodate various nuances. However, the question remains, how much humans understand and accept intimacies with robots. We argue that perceptions of human-robot interactions (HRI) and intimate interactions with robots have a certain impact on how individuals comprehend intimacies with robots. Long term contact with robots, in terms of robotic technology and conversations, will change our views and practices regarding intimacy with robots. Our study revealed that lack of awareness of the potentials of future AI robots has created a fear; fear of losing both tangible, intangible, and the sense of dominance. Yet, our participants’ intimate interactions with robots produced varying degree of responses that, we believe are revealing another scope of human-robot interactions

The semantic basis of taste-shape associations

Previous research shows that people systematically match tastes with shapes. Here, we assess the extent to which matched taste and shape stimuli share a common semantic space and whether semantically congruent versus incongruent taste/shape associations can influence the speed with which people respond to both shapes and taste words. In Experiment 1, semantic differentiation was used to assess the semantic space of both taste words and shapes. The results suggest a common semantic space containing two principal components (seemingly, intensity and hedonics) and two principal clusters, one including round shapes and the taste word “sweet,” and the other including angular shapes and the taste words “salty,” “sour,” and “bitter.” The former cluster appears more positively-valenced whilst less potent than the latter. In Experiment 2, two speeded classification tasks assessed whether congruent versus incongruent mappings of stimuli and responses (e.g., sweet with round versus sweet with angular) would influence the speed of participants’ responding, to both shapes and taste words. The results revealed an overall effect of congruence with congruent trials yielding faster responses than their incongruent counterparts. These results are consistent with previous evidence suggesting a close relation (or crossmodal correspondence) between tastes and shape curvature that may derive from common semantic coding, perhaps along the intensity and hedonic dimensions

Interactive Multi-Domain System Analysis and Design

Abstract This paper presents a MATLAB tool for interactive transfer function analysis which can be used to enhance students and engineers understanding of system characteristics and behaviour. It allows a user to develop an intuitive feeling for the relationship between time and frequency domains, and locations of roots of a transfer function

Seismic Effect of the Offshore Structure Under Different Earthquake Loadings

Peninsular Malaysia is most affected by the distant Sumatra subduction zone earthquake. Meanwhile, Eastern Malaysia was subjected to major Philippine and Indonesian earthquake. Most of the offshore platform is at Terengganu, Sabah, and Sarawak. More than 65% of the offshore platform structure exceed the range of design between 20-30 years. This research aims to determine the vulnerability and risk analysis for the existing 3-legged offshore platform under earthquake load, study the behaviors of an offshore platform under major or minor earth-quake loading, and study the dynamic characteristic of an offshore platform. SAP 2000 is use to analyses and modelling the 3-legged offshore platform. In SAP 2000, the response spectrum, time history, and free vibration will be performed. The mixed load of the platform consists of dead load, imposed load, environment loads, and earthquake load. The position of the offshore platform has referred to American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. The major earthquake under off-shore platform is El-Centro and the minor is Aceh compared to time history. Based on this study, Malaysia can withstand this low seismic activity, overall joint acceleration, velocity and displacement

Seismic Effect of the Offshore Structure Under Different Earthquake Loadings

Peninsular Malaysia is most affected by the distant Sumatra subduction zone earthquake. Meanwhile, Eastern Malaysia was subjected to major Philippine and Indonesian earthquake. Most of the offshore platform is at Terengganu, Sabah, and Sarawak. More than 65% of the offshore platform structure exceed the range of design between 20-30 years. This research aims to determine the vulnerability and risk analysis for the existing 3-legged offshore platform under earthquake load, study the behaviors of an offshore platform under major or minor earth-quake loading, and study the dynamic characteristic of an offshore platform. SAP 2000 is use to analyses and modelling the 3-legged offshore platform. In SAP 2000, the response spectrum, time history, and free vibration will be performed. The mixed load of the platform consists of dead load, imposed load, environment loads, and earthquake load. The position of the offshore platform has referred to American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. The major earthquake under off-shore platform is El-Centro and the minor is Aceh compared to time history. Based on this study, Malaysia can withstand this low seismic activity, overall joint acceleration, velocity and displacement