Designing aesthetically appealing models is vital for the marketing success of industrial products. In this paper, we propose quasi-Aesthetic Curves that can be used in CAD systems for aesthetic shape design. Quasi-Aesthetic Curves represented in rational cubic Bézier Forms are curves whose logarithmic curvature histograms (LCHs) become nearly straight lines. The monotonicity of curvature of qu...

This dissertation is concerned with the improvisation of electro-acoustic music from musicological, aesthetic, practical and technical design standpoints. Detailed ethnographic descriptions of the author’s performance experience are offered alongside accounts of software applications which have been developed to support the improvisation of electroacoustic music. A CD accompanies the submission...

BACKGROUND There is a perception that cosmetic breast surgery has more favorable aesthetic outcomes than reconstructive breast surgery. We tested this hypothesis by comparing aesthetic outcomes after breast augmentation and reconstruction. METHODS Postoperative images of 10 patients (cosmetic, n = 4; reconstructive, n = 6; mean follow-up, 27 months) were presented anonymously to participants ...

Social interactions are widely recognized as a potential influence on risk-related behaviors.We present a mediation model in which social interactions (classified as formal= informal and generic=fire-specific) are associated with beliefs about wildfire risk and mitigation options, which in turn shape wildfire mitigation behaviors. We test this model using survey data from fire-prone areas of Co...

Aesthetic appreciation is a complex cognitive processing with inherent aspects of cold as well as hot cognition. Research from the last decades of empirical has shown that evaluations of aesthetic appreciation are highly reliable. Most frequently, facial attractiveness was used as the corner case for investigating aesthetic appreciation. Evaluating facial attractiveness shows indeed high intern...

Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres get shorter each time a cell divides, and critically shortened telomeres trigger cellular senescence. Thus, telomere length is hypothesized to be a biological marker of aging. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between neighborhood characteristics and leukocyte telomere length. Using data fr...

Design and implementation of health-promoting community interventions can advance public health and community well-being; however, realization of such programs is often challenging. Even more challenging is the implementation of ecologic interventions to revitalize built urban environments. A structured intervention entitled ;Intersection Repair; was devised in Portland, Oregon, by a non-profit...

Neuroimage experiments have been essential for identifying active brain networks. During cognitive tasks as in, e.g., aesthetic appreciation, such networks include regions that belong to the default mode network (DMN). Theoretically, DMN activity should be interrupted during cognitive tasks demanding attention, as is the case for aesthetic appreciation. Analyzing the functional connectivity dyn...