Urban streetscapes are outdoor areas in which the general public can appreciate green landscapes and engage in outdoor activities along the street. This study tested the extent to which the degree of awareness of urban street trees impacts attention restoration and perceived restorativeness. We manipulated the degree of awareness of street trees. Participants were placed into four groups and shown different images: (a) streetscapes with absolutely no trees; (b) streetscapes with flashes of trees in which participants had minimal awareness of the content; (c) streetscapes with trees; and (d) streetscapes with trees to which participants were told to pay attention. We compared the performance of 138 individuals on measures of attention and their evaluations of perceived restorativeness. Two main findings emerged. First, streetscapes with trees improved the performance of participants on attentional tests even without their awareness of the trees. Second, participants who had raised awareness of street trees performed best on the attentional test and rated the streetscapes as being more restorative. These findings enhance our knowledge about the role of an individual's awareness of restorative elements and have implications for designers and individuals who are at risk of attentional fatigue.

Interaction between the nonionic surfactant Tergitol 15-S-7 and hydrophobically modified 2-hydroxyethyl cellulose (HMHEC) was studied rheologically in a semidilute regime of HMHEC. The low-shear viscosity of HMHEC was increased with addition of surfactant from 25 to 250 ppm, in which the critical micelle concentration of surfactant was near 39 ppm, and then decreased to a value smaller than that of pure HMHEC with further addition of surfactant to 1000 ppm. An interesting shear-induced phenomenon was observed. The steady-state shear measurements show that there exist crossovers between viscosity-shear rate curves of HMHEC solutions with and without surfactant added, whereas it was not observed in the HEC-surfactant systems. Moreover, added Tergitol 15-S-7 reversed the temperature effect on the viscosity of the HMHEC solution. That is, increasing temperature to or near the cloud point raises the viscosity of the HMHEC-surfactant aggregates, in contrast to the viscosity decrease in the pure HMHEC solutions. A possible mechanism based on the necklace model and the clouding phenomenon is conjecturally introduced to explain such phenomena.

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Interaction between an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and a nonionic polymer, 2-hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) hydrophobically modified with benzoyl chloride (bmHEC), is studied by viscometry and two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect NMR spectroscopy (2D NOESY) in a semidilute regime of bmHEC. The hydrophobicity of bmHEC was varied with different substitution of benzoyl group to HEC macromolecules. In general, the low-shear viscosity of 1 wt % bmHEC aqueous solution is increased with added SDS surfactant having concentration from 0 to 0.5 wt %, and then decreased significantly with a further addition of surfactant to 3 wt %. The activation energy of transient network formation in 1 wt % bmHEC aqueous solution present with SDS surfactant is found to be dependent with SDS concentration, which varies from 32.7 to 69.80 kJ/mol. The maximum activation energy takes place when 0.5 wt % SDS is added, which coincides with that of the maximal viscosity. The 2D NOESY displays that the surfactants actually interact with bmHEC not only on the hydrophobes, namely benzoyl groups, but also the polymer backbone, i.e., glucose units. In contrast, no interaction is revealed by 2D NOESY in the aqueous system containing SDS surfactant and HEC polymer.