Interrupting the cascade: Orienting contributes to decision making even in the absence of visual stimulation

Most systematic studies of human decision making approach the subject from a cost analysis point of view and assume that people make the highest utility choice. Very few articles investigate subjective decision making, such as that involving preference, although such decisions are very important for our daily functioning. We have argued (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo, & Scheier, 2003) that an orienting bias effectively leads to the preference decision by means of a positive feedback loop involving mere exposure and preferential looking. The illustration of this process is a continually increasing gaze bias toward the eventual choice, which we call the gaze cascade effect. In the present study, we interrupt the natural process of preference selection, but we show that gaze behavior does not change even when the stimuli are removed from observers’ visual field. This demonstrates that once started, the involvement of orienting in decision making cannot be stopped and that orienting acts independently of the presence of visual stimuli. We also show that the cascade effect is intrinsically linked to the decision itself and is not triggered simply by a tendency to look at preferred targets

Enhancement of seismic resistance of buildings

The objectives of the paper are both seismic instrumentation for damage assessment and enhancing of seismic resistance of buildings. In according with seismic design codes in force the buildings are designed to resist at seismic actions. Due to the time evolution of these design provisions, there are buildings that were designed decades ago, under the less stringent provisions. The conceptual conformation is nowadays provided in all Codes of seismic design. According to the Code of seismic design P100-1:2006 the asymmetric structures do not have an appropriate seismic configuration; they have disadvantageous distribution of volumes, mass and stiffness. Using results of temporary seismic instrumentation the safety condition of the building may be assessed in different phases of work. Based on this method, the strengthening solutions may be identified and the need of seismic joints may be emphasised. All the aforementioned ideas are illustrated through a case study. Therefore it will be analysed the dynamic parameter evolution of an educational building obtained in different periods. Also, structural intervention scenarios to enhance seismic resistance will be presented

Gaze bias both reflects and influences preference

Emotions operate along the dimension of approach and aversion, and it is reasonable to assume that orienting behavior is intrinsically linked to emotionally involved processes such as preference decisions. Here we describe a gaze 'cascade effect' that was present when human observers were shown pairs of human faces and instructed to decide which face was more attractive. Their gaze was initially distributed evenly between the two stimuli, but then gradually shifted toward the face that they eventually chose. Gaze bias was significantly weaker in a face shape discrimination task. In a second series of experiments, manipulation of gaze duration, but not exposure duration alone, biased observers' preference decisions. We thus conclude that gaze is actively involved in preference formation. The gaze cascade effect was also present when participants compared abstract, unfamiliar shapes for attractiveness, suggesting that orienting and preference for objects in general are intrinsically linked in a positive feedback loop leading to the conscious choice

The Perspective of Cluster Ranking Analysis in the Development of Food Safety Measures

Food safety policies have gained considerable importance in recent years, food safety being one of the indicators that illustrates the standard of living and quality of life within a nation state. In order to assess food security, we analyzed the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) that, economically, is based on GDP, degree of poverty and agricultural production, extending also to areas such as government and public policies, which are usually not directly included in food safety indicators or generating factors. Considering the importance and impact of food safety, starting from the theoretical concepts, from the current state of food safety in Europe, presented by the means of GFSI and its components, we developed a set of measures based on the grouping (correlation) of states following the analysis of hierarchical ranking of clusters. To analyse clusters hierarchical ranking the food safety indicators were used as input, dependent data. As an independent variable, with a strong influence on all the others, determined by means of multiple linear regression, we considered GDP/inhabitant at the level of each analysed state. The design of the set of measures considered the correlation that can be established among the various GFSI indicators that influence and generate the current state of food security in different European countries and the influence these indicators can have on maintaining or improving this state

Is open surgery still part of the current treatment of inguinal hernias?

Inguinal hernia repair represents one of the most frequent pathologies with surgical addressability. From the multitude of surgical procedures, a limited number still keep their indication in the current treatment of hernias. Open surgery, the exclusive repair method until recently, is associated with laparoscopic techniques with benefits that are at least superposable on those in open repair. We conducted a study, analyzing several types of procedures in open surgery and comparing them to each other, but also with the TAPP approach, which is still at the beginning in our service. The non-mesh procedures scored poorly in terms of recurrence, the duration of the surgical intervention, and complications of the pain type, the Lichtenstein procedure was frequently associated with non-infectious inflammatory complications, and the TAPP, which is still in the learning curve, presented a prolonged duration of the surgical intervention. The Lichtenstein procedure maintains its usefulness and represents the most frequent technique for sanctioning inguinal hernia, the non-mesh processes, less used lately, are more frequently preferred in situations where hernia strangulation is associated with a septic complication. Open surgery hernia repair remains a feasible option in the era of minimal invasiveness, especially under the conditions of performing a tension-free technique, for specific categories of patients or surgical services remaining the first intention solution

ETHNIC HOMOGENEITY AND HETEROGENEITY IN BIHOR COUNTY IN THE FIRST YEARS OF THE 3RD MILLENNIUM

The study of ethnic communities has aroused and continues to arouse the interest of specialists from various scientific disciplines, geographers, historians, sociologists, jurists, political scientists, etc. This study aims to highlight, from a geographical perspective, the evolution of ethnic communities, respectively the ethnic homogeneity or heterogeneity in Bihor County in the first years of the 3rd millennium. For this purpose, the evolution of the communities of Romanians, Hungarians, Roma and Slovaks was analyzed in the censuses of 2002, 2011 and 2021 in order to be able to capture the changes occurring, from a numerical point of view, within these ethnic communities. The ethnic homogeneity index was also calculated, which highlights those areas where there is ethnic homogeneity and those with ethnic heterogeneity

Orienting and Preference: An Enquiry into the Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Decision Making

The present work is an extensive investigation of the contribution of orienting behavior to preference decision making in humans. The central claim of this thesis is that gaze assists cognition in choosing preference, integrating phenomena previously demonstrated in the literature, the mere exposure effect and preferential looking, in a positive feedback loop leading to the conscious decision. In other words, the more we look at something, the more we like it, but also the more we like it, the more we look at it. This leads to the effect we observed when tracking subjects' eye-movements while they were choosing the preferred stimulus in two-alternative forced-choice tasks: the likelihood of gazing towards choice continually increased as the decision moment was approaching. We called this pattern the "gaze cascade effect" to illustrate its reinforcing nature, and we showed that it is an indispensable part of any preference decision, no matter the circumstances, as long as subjects' gaze is natural and unrestricted. We obtained the cascade effect even when the stimuli were no longer present on the screen, and the decision was based entirely on internal reconstruction. Moreover, we influenced observers' preference by manipulating their gaze, an effect that could not be accounted for by mere exposure. These results demonstrate that preference formation starts early in the visual processing stream, sharing fast reciprocal connections with simpler, somatic-based behaviors, such as orienting. As general implications, our work contradicts views of the brain as a collection of sequential modules, starting with sensation, through perceptual integration and cognitive association to emotional valence, decision making, motor preparation and motor response. Instead, it supports more recent views, which assume a multitude of parallel modules heavily interconnected and exercising influences on each other from very early on in information processing

The simulation of an industrial building demolition

The paper present a way of checking and optimization of a demolition scenario at an industrial building based on controlled blasting method in order to transition to the actual demolition of the building in question. For this purpose we used a specialized computer system that describes the behaviour of the structure at exceptional actions, from the application of forces, the opening and propagation of cracks, the separation structural elements up to total collapse of the building