In perceptual decision-making, uncertainties regarding both noisy sensory information and changing environmental regularities must be considered. We aimed to clarify the relationship between these ...two sources of uncertainty using a combined motion discrimination and audiovisual reversal learning task with Bayesian modeling. As predicted, the influence of learned beliefs regarding audiovisual associations on perceptual decisions was greater under high sensory uncertainty. Critically, this modulatory effect was larger under high than low environmental uncertainty. Moreover, the degree to which observers relied on learned beliefs when making perceptual decisions depended on their individual tendency to change beliefs. While these findings suggest that weighting of the available sensory information against learned beliefs is modulated by their respective uncertainties, belief learning was not found to rely on sensory uncertainty. Unraveling of these interactive effects of sensory and environmental uncertainties in perception might aid in the understanding of aberrant perceptual inference in psychopathology such as schizophrenia.
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•Sensory and environmental uncertainty interactively influence perceptual decision-making•Observers show individual differences in relying on beliefs in perception•Learning of beliefs is influenced by perceptual decisions
Biological sciences; Neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience
Filtration of cathode air is one of the challenges in operating proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The poisoning with air contaminants can lead to rapid performance degradation and initiate ...an aging process of the fuel cell. Various commercially available cathode filters are being tested in a laboratory gas test bench within the research project X-EMU (03B10502B and 03B10502B2). A literature review of harmful gas contaminants in the air used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the cathode side was conducted. Experimental investigations took place at 40 °C with synthetic humid air containing low concentration contaminants such as ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and toluene. Test durations varied from 3 to 24 h depending on the filtration efficiency. Each gas contaminant showed different reactions with the investigated filters. The filters did not let sulfur-containing components pass. However, carbon monoxide could not be filtrated by any of the tested filters. The filtration of nitrogen oxides was not efficient for all tested filters, while additional filter materials were essential for a successful filtration of ammonia. Comparative results lead to a discussion of possible effects on a fuel cell with an outlook on optimization of the filtration behavior.
The Heart of Judgment, which was originally published in 2006, explores the nature, historical significance, and continuing relevance of practical wisdom. Primarily a work in moral and political ...thought, it also relies extensively on research in cognitive neuroscience to confirm and extend our understanding of the faculty of judgment. Ever since the ancient Greeks first discussed practical wisdom, the faculty of judgment has been an important topic for philosophers and political theorists. It remains one of the virtues most demanded of our public officials. The greater the liberties and responsibilities accorded to citizens in democratic regimes, the more the health and welfare of society rest upon their exercise of good judgment. While giving full credit to the roles played by reason and deliberation in good judgment, the book underlines the central importance of intuition, emotion, and worldly experience.
"Leslie Paul Thiele provides a much-needed analysis of the driving forces within the environmental movement and the key challenges that it faces." "Through extensive interviews and a critical study ...of environmental publications and scholarly research, the author provides an inside look at the environmental movement. His analysis illuminates the social, economic, political and cultural forces that shape the environmental movement today and set its trajectory for the 21st century. Anyone interested the future of environmentalism will find this book an invaluable guide."--Jacket.
A realistic accelerated stress test (AST) was derived by applying the worldwide harmonized light vehicles test cycle on a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electric vehicle to analyze ...degradation mechanisms in fuel cells used in automotive applications. Two commercial PEMFC stacks were tested using the AST profile at different air inlet relative humidities (50% and 70%). After 173.5 h, the tested cells show degradation rates of up to 452 μV h−1 (after 147.5 h 247 μV h−1 for the second stack) at 1.0 A cm−2. Neither open circuit voltage nor high frequency resistance clearly indicate membrane degradation. Increased activation overpotential and mass transport resistance are observed, likely caused by Pt dissolution and/or agglomeration, carbon corrosion and PTFE loss. No significant correlation between air humidity and degradation is observed. The results show the method's ability to accelerate degradation while improving the result transferability of ASTs to real applications. It is adaptable and therefore applicable for other cycles and applications.
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•Correlation between degradation mechanisms in fuel cells for automotive applications.•Development of accelerated stress tests based on real application in automotive vehicles.•Realistic accelerated stress test leads to catalyst and gas diffusion layer degradation.
As climate change is unlikely to follow a linear path, climate policies should anticipate varied outcomes and be flexibly responsive. The case for such “robust policy” is compelling. However, ...advocates of robust approaches to policymaking often understate the challenge, as the variability of climate is just one of at least three interactive arenas of uncertainty that require attention. Emerging technologies will have a significant but indeterminate impact on climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. Uncertainty is also heightened because politics is an arena of disruptive change. The development of robust climate policy given the convergence of unknowns in the climatic, technological, and political realms entails three components: (1) diverse, distributed, and transparent participation; (2) safe-to-fail experimentation; and (3) exploratory foresight.
Humans have served their needs and interests by modifying plants, animals, and ecosystems for millennia. Technology has expanded, accelerated, and intensified the impact. Experimental efforts are now ...under way to rescue or re-create nature employing highly sophisticated technologies. These endeavors are not aimed at satisfying basic human needs or serving economic interests; their goal is the conservation of biodiversity and ecological restoration. At the same time, they fundamentally alter the fabric of life and guarantee unintended consequences. An examination of the ecological and cultural risks, benefits, and costs of employing synthetic biology to assist evolution and de-extinct species provides a valuable test case for environmentalists and conservationists grappling with the implications of ecological restoration technologies.
Geoengineering is regarded by advocates as a creative and responsible technological option in the face of a climate emergency. Critics often see it as a hubristic attempt to play God, with disastrous ...consequences for the planet and humanity. These antipodal perspectives are represented by the ideal types of Prometheans and Gaians. Prometheans and Gaians typically talk past each other. The geoengineering debate can be made more fruitful by well articulating their respective positions and subsequently situating them in the discourse of sustainability. A sustainability orientation does not answer the troubling question whether geoengineering should be developed and deployed. But it can foster a 'fusion of horizons' between Prometheans and Gaians, providing common ground in an otherwise polarized debate and making a more productive dialogue possible.
Longing for Total Dichotomies Thiele, Leslie Paul
Critical review (New York, N.Y.),
04/2021, Letnik:
33, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Bernard Yack's Longing for Total Revolution asserts that a prominent tradition of modern moral and political theory is founded on the binary opposition between nature and culture. Yack rejects this ...dichotomy in favor of an Aristotelean outlook, and in so doing embraces the opposition between the ancients and the moderns. Neither binary is as oppositional as Yack suggests. There is, however, a more viable distinction to be made between the ancients and the moderns-concerning the role played by teleology-and it better serves the purpose of mapping the historical trajectory of moral and political theorizing. Teleology does not survive modernity, and it is this development that was truly revolutionary.
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