61 research outputs found
Sustainable Water management scheme for the Negin Safari Park
No full textThough the perils of climate change on our environment are common knowledge its mitigation through informed planning is widely absent. This research project aims to aid the architect in developing a design which has a comparatively lower ecological footprint and focuses on opportunistic utilization of renewable resources readily available in the context. Within the preview of this thesis the potential of developing a sustainable water management scheme for the Negin safari park located in the Fars province of Iran is studied.Iran is facing a situation of drought for the past few years which has had an adverse impact on the region. One of the communities to have been affected by this are the Qashqai nomads of Iran, who have been threatened with deprivation of their freedom due to the economic woes brought by drought. The Negin safari park being developed in the region aims to uplift this community and provide a platform for them to be able to share their work and culture. However, the influx of tourists due to the development of a Safari park further increases the stress on the depleting water resources in the region. In turn development of water technologies facilitating the reclamation of waste water, conservation of water and mitigation of extreme withdrawal of resources needs to be studied and implemented. In order to create a design which consciously uses the water resources and facilitates re-use of waste water, different water technologies have been identified and studied to understand its feasibility for installation in Iran. Once the ideal technologies were identified, a water management scheme was developed which facilitated water autarky in the park. Further on the relation of the built form with the technology was explored. The technologies which were shortlisted entailed requirements which had a direct impact on the design of the built form and its spatial organization. The final product of this thesis entails a customized set of design guidelines for the development of a Safari park in Iran. These guidelines have stemmed from the optimization strategy used in designing the Negin safari park with the intended water technologies. Adhering to the concept of developing the park as an eco-tourist destination attention has been placed to propose sustainable technologies with lower energy requirement and maintenance. It is believed that through implementation of these technologies the added stress on water demand caused by the erection of a Negin safari park in a drought hit region can be reduced. The implementation of these technologies can also further help in educating the local community and lead to encouragement of widespread implementation of these systems. This graduation project is an attempt to develop an informed relation between resource flows and spatial design in order to enable an uninterrupted functioning of the Safari park leading to prosperity of the region and its people. Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science
From attributes to value: neural correlates of a front-of-package label on food decision-making – an fMRI study
No full textDiet-related chronic diseases remain a major public health concern worldwide, motivating policymakers to implement behavioral interventions such as front-of-package labels (FoPLs) to encourage healthier food choices. Although FoPLs like the Nutri-Score are increasingly used to communicate nutritional quality in a simple way, little is known about how they shape specific attributes of food perception and choice, and how these effects manifest in the brain.
This dissertation bridges behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience to examine how a simplified color-coded frame, modeled on the Nutri-Score system, influences food-related decisions. Using a multi-method design, the project first established robust theoretical and methodological foundations through targeted pilot experiments. These confirmed that the chosen valuation paradigm and the operationalization of the color-coded frame reliably affect willingness-to-pay (WTP), perceived healthiness, and tastiness.
In the main fMRI experiment, forty healthy participants (28 females, age: M = 23.8 years, SD = 3.1 years) rated food products under control and treatment conditions while brain activity was recorded. Results showed that the color-coded frame systematically decreased WTP and tastiness ratings for less healthy items and aligned healthiness perceptions with the nutritional information implied by the frame. Neural data revealed distinct patterns of activity within valuation-related areas (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior prefrontal cortex), regions linked to self-regulation and goal-directed behavior (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus), and the thalamus, highlighting the interplay of reward processing, cognitive control, and homeostatic integration. Additional analyses examined how nutritional composition interacted with the label’s effect and explored whether FoPLs alter the supra-additive reward response to high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods. Finally, out-of-sample forecasting demonstrated that neural measures, particularly signals in the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex, could predict binary choices for new products, underlining the added value of neural data beyond self-reports.
Taken together, these findings show that FoPLs can shift food choices by engaging affective and deliberative pathways, supporting a goal-directed decision-making process. This work offers new insights into the conditions under which labeling can alter habitual patterns and provides a neurobehavioral basis for designing nudges that promote sustained healthy eating
Results fMRI - 2nd level analyses
No full textHere you can find all 2nd level results for the contrast analyses, the conjunciton analysis, as well as the parametric modulation analysis for WT
From attributes to value: The neural impact of a front-of-packaging label on food decision-making - an fMRI study
No full textThis project includes all data and analysis plan for the project "From attributes to value: The neural impact of a front-of-packaging label on food decision-making - an fMRI study
Scripts (fMRI and Behavioral)
No full textHere you can find the following scripts:
Behavioral:
- ANOVA and Reaction time analysis under behavioral_analysis.R
- Multilevel analysis under multilevel_analysis_NJ.R (needs also df_nddm.csv)
fMRI:
- preprocessing.m (includes all preprocessing steps)
- GLM contrasts analysis (1stlevel and 2ndlevel analysis)
- Conjunction analysi
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