We designed a metamaterial solar absorber by combining impedance matching theory and equivalent circuit model. This design model can improve design efficiency and reduce calculations relative to ...conventional design methods. The absorption bandwidth of the metamaterial solar absorber is 2550 nm at an absorption rate greater than 90%, which can cover both visible and near-infrared wavelengths (300 − 2850 nm). The absorption over the whole wavelength range (300 − 3000 nm) (weighted directly around the sun by solar AM 1.5) is more than 90%. In addition, the proposed absorber has polarization-insensitive and wide-angle absorption characteristics, and the average absorption exceeds 88% when the wide-incidence angle is up to 60° for both transverse electric mode and transverse magnetic mode. The perfect absorption characteristics of the absorber are mainly attributed to the local surface plasmon resonance, cavity resonance and the synergistic interaction with each other. We proposed design has high broadband absorption and great potential for solar thermal energy harvesting, fire detection, and thermoelectric applications.
The sound of im/politeness Caballero, Jonathan A.; Vergis, Nikos; Jiang, Xiaoming ...
Speech communication,
September 2018, 2018-09-00, 20180901, Letnik:
102
Journal Article
Recenzirano
•Global and local acoustic differences distinguish polite and impolite utterances.•Requests’ imposition level affects acoustic variables from the utterance onset.•Results are consistent with ...proposals on prosody's role in emotive communication.•Pitch, speech rate and voice quality contribute to differentiate politeness levels.
Until recently, research on im/politeness has primarily focused on the role of linguistic strategies while neglecting the contributions of prosody and acoustic cues for communicating politeness. Here, we analyzed a large set of recordings — verbal requests spoken in a direct manner (Lend me a nickel), preceded by the word “Please”, or in a conventionally-indirect manner (Can you) — which were known to convey polite or rude impressions on the listener. The pragmatic imposition of the request was also manipulated (Lend me a nickel vs. hundred). Fundamental frequency (f0: mean, range, contour shape), duration, and voice quality (harmonics-to-noise ratio) were measured over the whole utterance and for key constituents within the utterance. Differences in perceived politeness corresponded with systematic differences in continuous utterance measures as well as local acoustic adjustments, defined by both categorical and graded vocal contrasts. Compared to polite utterances, rude requests displayed a slower speech rate, lower pitch, and tended to fall in pitch (or rise less markedly in the context of yes-no questions). The high versus low imposition of a request separately influenced the acoustic structure of requests, with evidence of these effects right at utterance-onset. Results are consistent with theoretical proposals about how prosody functions to convey speaker politeness as one facet of emotive communication. It is suggested that while a specific “prosody of politeness” may not exist, prosodic cues routinely and potently interact with other sources of information to allow listeners to generate inferences about im/politeness.
In social interactions, speakers often use their tone of voice (“prosody”) to communicate their interpersonal stance to pragmatically mark an ironic intention (e.g., sarcasm). The neurocognitive ...effects of prosody as listeners process ironic statements in real time are still poorly understood. In this study, 30 participants judged the friendliness of literal and ironic criticisms and compliments in the absence of context while their electrical brain activity was recorded. Event-related potentials reflecting the uptake of prosodic information were tracked at two time points in the utterance. Prosody robustly modulated P200 and late positivity amplitudes from utterance onset. These early neural responses registered both the speaker's stance (positive/negative) and their intention (literal/ironic). At a later timepoint (You are such a
great/horrible
cook), P200, N400, and P600 amplitudes were all greater when the critical word valence was congruent with the speaker’s vocal stance, suggesting that irony was contextually facilitated by early effects from prosody. Our results exemplify that rapid uptake of salient prosodic features allows listeners to make online
predictions
about the speaker’s ironic intent. This process can constrain their representation of an utterance to uncover nonliteral meanings without violating contextual expectations held about the speaker, as described by
parallel-constraint satisfaction
models.
Emotional expressions constitute valuable information for decision-making in social interaction contexts. However, the range of emotions that have been studied is limited. The present study addresses ...the effects of a wider range of emotional expressions using a methodology modeling interdependent decision-making in social contexts, the Assurance Dilemma. Joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and emotionally neutral vocal expressions were presented to 46 participants taking part in the Assurance Dilemma, obtaining behavioral and judgment data on cooperation behavior. For each emotion, predictions based on theoretical accounts and research on emotion induction in decision-making contexts were advanced; joy, sadness and fear were predicted to increase cooperation while anger and disgust to decrease it, as compared to neutral expressions. Results show that emotional expressions reliably affected cooperation, although not always according to the predictions: except for joy, all emotions decreased cooperation. Judgment measures provide further insight into the decision-making process. When collected before participants experienced feedback in the interactions, judgment measures show that participants hold a priori expectations on others’ likely behaviors depending on the emotional expression they display and are willing to use them to guide their decision-making process. This data aligns more closely with predictions. However, after experiencing outcomes, expectations are revised and converge with the behavioral patterns observed in the actual interactions. Results are discussed in terms of how emotional expressions are used for guiding expectations and taking decisions in social interaction contexts and the role that experience plays in this process. Limitations are pointed out directions for future research suggested.
Social decision-making in Parkinson's disease Caballero, Jonathan A.; Auclair Ouellet, Noémie; Phillips, Natalie A. ...
Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology,
04/2022, Letnik:
44, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Parkinson's Disease (PD) commonly affects cognition and communicative functions, including the ability to perceive socially meaningful cues from nonverbal behavior and spoken language (e.g., a ...speaker's tone of voice). However, we know little about how people with PD use social information to make decisions in daily interactions (e.g., decisions to trust another person) and whether this ability rests on intact cognitive functions and executive/decision-making abilities in nonsocial domains.
Non-demented adults with and without PD were presented utterances that conveyed differences in speaker confidence or politeness based on the way that speakers formulated their statement and their tone of voice. Participants had to use these speech-related cues to make trust-related decisions about interaction partners while playing the Trust Game. Explicit measures of social perception, nonsocial decision-making, and related cognitive abilities were collected.
Individuals with PD displayed significant differences from control participants in social decision-making; for example, they showed greater trust in game partners whose voice sounded confident and who explicitly stated that they would cooperate with the participant. The PD patients displayed relative intact social perception (speaker confidence or politeness ratings) and were unimpaired on a nonsocial decision-making task (the Dice game). No obvious relationship emerged between measures of social perception, social decision-making, or cognitive functioning in the PD sample.
Results provide evidence of alterations in decision-making restricted to social contexts in PD individuals with relatively preserved cognition with minimal changes in social perception. Researchers and practitioners interested in how PD affects social perception and cognition should include assessments that emulate social interactions, as non-interactive tasks may fail to detect the full impact of the disease on those affected.
Information in the tone of voice alters social impressions and underlying brain activity as listeners evaluate the interpersonal relevance of utterances. Here, we presented requests that expressed ...politeness distinctions through the voice (polite/rude) and explicit linguistic markers (half of the requests began with Please). Thirty participants performed a social perception task (rating friendliness) while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Behaviorally, vocal politeness strategies had a much stronger influence on the perceived friendliness than the linguistic marker. Event-related potentials revealed rapid effects of (im)polite voices on cortical activity prior to ~300 ms; P200 amplitudes increased for polite versus rude voices, suggesting that the speaker's polite stance was registered as more salient in our task. At later stages, politeness distinctions encoded by the speaker's voice and their use of Please interacted, modulating activity in the N400 (300-500 ms) and late positivity (600-800 ms) time windows. Patterns of results suggest that initial attention deployment to politeness cues is rapidly influenced by the motivational significance of a speaker's voice. At later stages, processes for integrating vocal and lexical information resulted in increased cognitive effort to reevaluate utterances with ambiguous/contradictory cues. The potential influence of social anxiety on the P200 effect is also discussed.
The grain growth at high temperature significantly affects the ultimate grain sizes and mechanical properties of superalloy. To study the grain growth behavior of a new-type nickel-base superalloy, ...GH4065 alloy, a series of grain growth tests within the holding temperature range of 1100–1350 K and holding time range of 0–14,400 s were conducted. Via the morphology analysis, it was concluded that the grains of GH4065 alloy normally grow during the temperature range of 1100–1250 K and abnormally grow during the temperature range of 1300–1350 K. The average grain sizes at different experimental conditions were counted and the influences of holding temperature and holding time on the average grain sizes of GH4065 alloy were investigated. It was revealed that the grain sizes increase but the grain growth rates gradually slow down with the increase of holding time; the grain sizes increase with the holding temperature increase and higher temperature further promotes the grain growth degree. Based on the Sellar-type and Anelli-type grain growth mathematics model, an improved two-segment grain growth model was developed and computed to describe the grain growth behavior of GH4065 alloy at high temperature. The evaluation results show that the constructed grain growth model possesses high prediction precision in grain growth behavior characterization of GH4065 alloy.
Macroscopic deformation and microstructural evolution simultaneously exist in the hot forming processes of superalloy. In order to effectively and accurately study the hot forming processes of ...superalloy turbine disk with the numerical simulation method, a multi-scale finite element model of GH4065 superalloy turbine disk involving macroscopic and microscopic aspects was established by defining macro- and micromaterial model of superalloy, hot forming processing parameters, and boundary conditions. Via the numerical simulations of superalloy turbine disk, the macroscopic material flow and microstructural evolution behaviors in the hot forming processes of superalloy turbine disk were studied. Besides, the macroscopic deformation and microstructure distribution states after the hot forming processes were revealed and analyzed. A corresponding hot forming physical test of superalloy turbine disk was conducted to verify the results of the numerical simulation. Via the qualitative and quantitative analyses, it was concluded that the macroscopic deformation and microstructural evolution in the hot forming processes of superalloy turbine disk can be accurately predicted by the numerical simulation method.
People often evaluate speakers with nonstandard accents as being less competent or trustworthy, which is often attributed to in-group favoritism. However, speakers can also modulate social ...impressions in the listener through their vocal expression (e.g., by speaking in a confident vs. a doubtful tone of voice). Here, we addressed how both accents and vocally-expressed confidence affect social outcomes in an interaction setting using the Trust Game, which operationalizes interpersonal trust using a monetary exchange situation. In a first study, 30 English Canadians interacted with partners speaking English with a Canadian, Australian, or foreign (French) accent. Speakers with each accent vocally expressed themselves in different ways (confident, doubtful, or neutral voice). Results show that trust decisions were significantly modulated by a speaker's accent (fewer tokens were given to foreign-accented speakers) and by vocally-expressed confidence (less tokens were given to doubtful-sounding speakers). Using the same paradigm, a second study then tested whether manipulating the social identity of the speaker-listener led to similar trust decisions in participants who spoke English as a foreign language (EFL; 60 native speakers of French or Spanish). Again, EFL participants trusted partners who spoke in a doubtful manner and those with a foreign accent less, regardless of the participants' linguistic background. Taken together, results suggest that in social-interactive settings, listeners implicitly use different sources of vocal cues to derive social impressions and to guide trust-related decisions, effects not solely driven by shared group membership. The influence of voice information on trust decisions was very similar for native and nonnative listeners.
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