Benefits, Challenges, and Recommendations for Implementing a Sustainability-Based Service-Learning Program at Utah State University: An Initial Assessment of the Community Bridge Initiative

As communities continue to face issues relating to sustainability and with students demanding more university courses focused on solving these issues, a program that works to address both factors could prove beneficial. Modeled after the University of Oregon’s Sustainable Cities Initiative, the Community Bridge Initiative (CBI) at Utah State University aims to tackle specific community sustainability concerns by enlisting student and faculty expertise to create innovative ideas and provide increased capacity. While CBI is still in its pilot year, this thesis identified the benefits and challenges associated with the application of this program and provided recommendations to best implement this program once it leaves the pilot stage. Data were collected from a community needs assessment and from students enrolled in CBI pilot classes. The community needs assessment revealed that of 35 local organizations surveyed, 91% wanted to partner with USU in efforts to address current and future issues, showing that CBI would have the needed community support should it choose to partner with local organizations on various issues. Organization needs included improving the communities of Cache Valley, educating the public about important issues and spreading awareness of their specific programs, and mitigating funding and physical resource issues. For partnerships, organizations were most interested in pairing with USU on education and volunteer initiatives and sustainability-based efforts. In regard to students enrolled in CBI courses, the program also gained student validation as 92% of the students reported that the class positively impacted them, 88% would take a CBI course again, 63% would list the experience on their resume, and 73% felt that the class was more effective in communicating course content in comparison to traditional USU courses. Following these results, full implementation of the CBI program at Utah State University is recommended

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics for Predicting Hydraulic Performance of Arced Labyrinth Weirs

Our world is dynamic and as hydrologic research continues, the magnitude of flood estimates used in hydraulic design for reservoirs has increased. Consequently, many existing spillways are now undersized and unable to meet discharge requirements. These spillways often have a fixed footprint, so nonlinear weirs (e.g., labyrinth weirs) are often a viable solution. For reservoir applications, arcing labyrinth weirs in plan view increases hydraulic efficiency because of better cycle orientation to the approaching flow from the reservoir. This study supplements available physical arced labyrinth weir hydraulic data by observing flow characteristics of two numerical models (α=16°; θ=10° and α=20°; θ=30°). Both numerical models were developed using two commercially available CFD software. The purpose of the CFD analysis was to assess the appropriateness of default settings in a CFD model and to better understand CFD as a design tool for arced labyrinth weir rating curve development. Results determined that default settings are not always appropriate for a rating curve. For arced labyrinth weirs, CFD can be a useful tool for implementing site-specific conditions; however, CFD models should be calibrated to reliable laboratory or field data. This study’s data may be used, with sound engineering judgement, to aid in the design of arced labyrinth weirs

Visual adaptation of the perception of “life”: Animacy is a basic perceptual dimension of faces

One critical component of understanding another’s mind is the perception of “life” in a face. However, little is known about the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this perception of animacy. Here, using a visual adaptation paradigm, we ask whether face animacy is (1) a basic dimension of face perception and (2) supported by a common neural mechanism across distinct face categories defined by age and species. Observers rated the perceived animacy of adult human faces before and after adaptation to (1) adult faces, (2) child faces, and (3) dog faces. When testing the perception of animacy in human faces, we found significant adaptation to both adult and child faces, but not dog faces. We did, however, find significant adaptation when morphed dog images and dog adaptors were used. Thus, animacy perception in faces appears to be a basic dimension of face perception that is species specific but not constrained by age categories.Simons Foundatio

Representation of Sex from the Face and Body: Evidence from a Visual Adaptation Task

Observers readily make judgments of sex from the appearance of others' faces and bodies. Researchers have used visual adaptation techniques with such social stimuli to demonstrate high level after-effects such that ambiguous bodies or faces appear more male or female following adaptation to a female or male adaptor. Such findings have typically been interpreted in terms of a symmetrical mental 'space'. However, previous evidence from visual search tasks suggests that ‘female’, in both body shape and in face appearance, is coded as an extension of a ‘male’ default. That is, there is an asymmetry in the representation of ‘male’ and ‘female’ in the perceptual system. This hypothetical polarised representation of sex predicts asymmetric effects of adaptation in adaptation paradigms. However, to our knowledge, there are no attempts in the literature to directly compare the strength of the perceptual aftereffect of adaptation for ‘male’ versus ‘female’ faces and bodies. To this end, we utilised a visual adaptation paradigm, where participants were exposed to computer-generated strongly female, strongly male, or perceptually ambiguous faces and body silhouettes (adaptors) and were then asked to categorise subsequent slightly male, slightly female, or perceptually ambiguous faces or body silhouettes. The results showed a strong aftereffect of adaptation, such that after prolonged exposure to strongly ‘male’ stimuli, participants categorized the target stimuli as more ‘female’, and vice versa. However, to date, we have not found strong evidence for asymmetric representation of ‘male’ compared to ‘female’, contrary to our original hypothesis. Evidence about the organisation of male/female face and body representations does not converge on whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical

Attentional Bias towards Social Interactions during Viewing of Naturalistic Scenes

Human visual attention is readily captured by the social information in scenes. Multiple studies have shown that social areas of interest (AOIs) such as faces and bodies attract more attention than non-social AOIs (e.g., objects or background). However, whether this attentional bias is moderated by the presence (or absence) of a social interaction remains unclear. Here, the gaze of 70 young adults was tracked during the free viewing of 60 naturalistic scenes. All photographs depicted two people, who were either interacting or not. Analyses of dwell time revealed that more attention was spent on human than background AOIs in the interactive pictures. In non-interactive pictures, however, dwell time did not differ between AOI type. In the time-to-first-fixation analysis, humans always captured attention before other elements of the scene, although this difference was slightly larger in interactive than non-interactive scenes. These findings confirm the existence of a bias towards social information in attentional capture and suggest our attention values social interactions beyond the presence of two people