Analysis of Agricultural Economics for the Central Valley Project Improvement Act Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

Environmental Economics and Policy,

An Economic Model of Water Transfer Analysis for the Central Valley Project Improvement Act

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Perceptual Precedence in Picture Processing

One important assumption of information processing models of human perception is that such processing occurs as a sequence of events or stages which take place over time. Recent investigations (Navon 1977, 1981) have sug gested that the global aspects of a stimulus are perceived at an earlier stage in the time course of processing than are the local elements of the stimulus. Other studies (Kinchla § Wolfe 1979; Martin 1979; Hoffman 1980) have sug gested that neither global forms nor local elements are necessarily perceived prior to the other structural level, but that other factors such as the size of the stimulus, the sparcity of the local elements, and the goodness of the form in the stimulus mediate the perceptual precedence of global and local levels. Attempts to generalize the results of the above studies to real-world perception are very tentative. The nature of the stimuli used in global precedence research is markedly different from that of real-world stimuli. Pomerantz (1981) has defined two types of relationships that exist between the global and local levels in visual stimuli: In one type there is no predictive relationship between the global and local levels (i.e., their identities are independent), while the second type contains mutually predictable (dependent) global and local levels. Real-world viewing involves the processing of stimuli of the latter type, but the global precedence studies to date have all utilized stimuli with independent global and local levels. It is not known whether generalizations can be made across these two configural types with respect to the perceptual precedence of the global or local levels. The present study investigated perceptual precedence in pictorial stimuli in which the identity of global and lo cal levels were dependent on one another. Perceptual pre cedence was measured through the use of a Stroop-like inter ference task, similar to that used by Navon C1977). The task required that subjects direct their attention to either the global or local level, as cued by the experimenter prior to each trial, and then respond yes or no to the pres ence of the cued object (local level) or scene (global level). Response latencies were recorded for each trial. Half of the trials contained inconsistent global and local levels, and the interference produced by the irrelevant level was taken as evidence for the processing precedence of that level. Stimulus display size was also varied across trials. The results indicated that for small scenes, subtend ing 4° of visual angle, global precedence did occur, but for large scenes (16°) the opposite effect ( local prece dence ) was found. The pattern very closely parallels the findings of Kinchla and Wolfe (1979), using global local independent stimuli, suggesting that the relationship between the global and local levels is not critical in de termining perceptual precedence. A model was proposed in which the structural level first perceived is determined by the spatial frequency or size of the stimulus display. The model suggests that a critical sampling bandwidth exists and that the initial pro cessing of a stimulus occurs at that level whose spatial frequency falls within the bandwidth. A post-hoc examina tion of the spatial frequencies present in the stimuli used in this study suggests that the band is centered at about 4 contour changes per degree of visual angle and ranges from 2 to 8 changes per degree

Evaluating the Effect of Mental Illness Stigma on Voting Behaviors

Mental health stigma is defined as stereotypes and prejudice resulting from misconceptions about mental illness (Corrigan Watson, 2002 Boor 1978 found simulated college voters cast fewer votes for a candidate when it was known the candidate had consulted a psychotherapist, indicating negative attitudes indeed exist towards perceived psychological treatment even in the absence of a diagnosed mental illness This poses a significant problem, as research suggests that voters may sense a desire to “get even” with political candidates in electoral context for perceived wrongdoings and may make suboptimal choices when casting a ballot Bechwati Morrin 2007 Coupled with the above, this is indicative of a link between voting behavior and negative treatment of those with a mental illness Despite this, little research has been done on how mental health issues attributed to the candidate affects voting behaviors Six candidate vignettes for a hypothetical Kansas Governor election were created with gender neutral names and indicative of policies aligning with participant views Two vignettes of each had symptoms related to a mental illness, a diagnosis, or neutral Participants were also asked questions regarding their personal attitudes and general stigma toward mental illness Results indicated participants were more likely to endorse statements suggesting general stereotypes than statements indicating negative attitudes towards individuals with a mental illness Our study did show that voters had an aversion toward candidates with a mental health diagnosis which partially supports our initial hypothesi

Multi-objective heat transfer optimization of 2D helical micro-fins using NSGA-II

Citation: Mann, G. W., & Eckels, S. (2019). Multi-objective heat transfer optimization of 2D helical micro-fins using NSGA-II. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 132, 1250–1261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.12.078A numerical simulation of helical micro-fins is implemented in ANSYS Fluent 15. The model is scripted to automatically set up and execute given three input parameters: fin height, helix angle, and number of starts. The simulation results reasonably predict experimental pressure drop and heat transfer for multiple micro-fin geometries. A multi-objective parameter optimization is implemented based on the NSGA-II algorithm to estimate the optimal trade-off (Pareto front) between Nusselt number and friction factor of a micro-fin tube for 0.0006 < e/D < 0.045, 10 < Ns < 70, at Reynolds number of 49,013. The resulting Pareto front is analyzed and compared with several experimental data points. From the optimal results, a distinct difference in flow characteristics was identified between geometries above and below a helix angle of approximately 45°. How the Pareto front can be used to choose micro-fin geometries for different performance evaluation criterion scenarios is demonstrated. Optimal results from various existing correlations are also compared to the optimization results

Naturally small Dirac neutrino masses in supergravity

We show that Dirac neutrino masses of the right size can arise from the Kahler potential of supergravity. They are proportional to the supersymmetry and the electroweak breaking scales. We find that they have the experimentally observed value provided that the ultraviolet cut-off of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is between the Grand Unification (GUT) scale and the heterotic string scale. If lepton number is not conserved, then relatively suppressed Majorana masses can also be present, resulting in pseudo-Dirac neutrino masses.Comment: 6 pages, Revtex 4, published versio