Am I acceptable to you? Effect of a robot’s verbal language forms on people’s social distance from robots

This study is to examine the effect of robots’ language forms on people’s acceptance of robots. We applied a concept of social distance to measure people’s acceptance of robots. In an experiment, calling participants by name vs. not calling by name as well as the robot’s speech styles (familiar vs. honorific), were used to impose a verticality and horizontality of social relationships between participants and robots. After the conversation with a robot, participants rated the robot’s interpersonal traits and their comfortable approach distance to the robot, and their response to the robot during the experiment were analyzed. As a result, participants whom the robot called by their name perceived the robot as friendlier. They introduced themselves more actively, and were more intently focused on what the robot said. They asked the robot questions more frequently. Participants called by their names consequently approached the robot more closely than participants who were not called. An interaction effect was found between speech styles and whether names were used in regard to the perceived friendliness of robots, negative response to robots, and comfortable approach distance to robots. We discuss verbal interaction design for increasing people’s acceptance of robots.     

Invariance of bipartite separability and PPT-probabilities over Casimir invariants of reduced states

Milz and Strunz (J Phys A 48:035306, 2015) recently studied the probabilities that two-qubit and qubit–qutrit states, randomly generated with respect to Hilbert–Schmidt (Euclidean/flat) measure, are separable. They concluded that in both cases, the separability probabilities (apparently exactly \(\frac{8}{33}\) in the two-qubit scenario) hold constant over the Bloch radii (r) of the single-qubit subsystems, jumping to 1 at the pure state boundaries (\(r=1\)). Here, firstly, we present evidence that in the qubit–qutrit case, the separability probability is uniformly distributed, as well, over the generalized Bloch radius (R) of the qutrit subsystem. While the qubit (standard) Bloch vector is positioned in three-dimensional space, the qutrit generalized Bloch vector lives in eight-dimensional space. The radii variables r and R themselves are the lengths/norms (being square roots of quadratic Casimir invariants) of these (“coherence”) vectors. Additionally, we find that not only are the qubit–qutrit separability probabilities invariant over the quadratic Casimir invariant of the qutrit subsystem, but apparently also over the cubic one—and similarly the case, more generally, with the use of random induced measure. We also investigate two-qutrit (\(3 \times 3\)) and qubit–qudit (\(2 \times 4\)) systems—with seemingly analogous positive partial transpose-probability invariances holding over what has been termed by Altafini the partial Casimir invariants of these systems.     

BPA,BPAF and TMBPF Alter Adipogenesis and Fat Accumulation in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells,with Implications for Obesity

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine-disrupting chemical used in the production of plastics, and is linked to developmental, reproductive, and metabolic disorders including obesity. Manufacturers have begun using ‘BPA-free’ alternatives instead of BPA in many consumer products. However, these alternatives have had much less testing and oversight, yet they are already being mass-produced and used across industries from plastics to food-contact coatings. Here, we used human female adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), a type of adult mesenchymal stem cell, to compare the effects of BPA and BPA alternatives on adipogenesis or fat cell development in vitro. We focused on two commonly used BPA replacements, bisphenol AF (BPAF) and tetramethyl bisphenol F (TMBPF; monomer of the new valPure V70 food-contact coating). Human ASCs were differentiated into adipocytes using chemically defined media in the presence of control differentiation media with and without 17β-estradiol (E2; 10 μM), or with increasing doses of BPA (0, 0.1 and 1 μM), BPAF (0, 0.1, 1 and 10 nM), or TMBPF (0, 0.01 and 0.1 μM). After differentiation, the cells were stained and imaged to visualize and quantify the accumulation of lipid vacuoles and number of developing fat cells. Treated cells were also examined for cell viability and apoptosis (programmed cell death) using the respective cellular assays. Similar to E2, BPA at 0.1 μM and BPAF at 0.1 nM, significantly increased adipogenesis and lipid production by 20% compared to control differentiated cells (based on total lipid vacuole number to cell number ratios), whereas higher levels of BPA and BPAF significantly decreased adipogenesis (p < 0.005). All tested doses of TMBPF significantly reduced adipogenesis and lipid production by 30–40%, likely at least partially through toxic effects on stem cells, as viable cell numbers decreased and apoptosis levels increased throughout differentiation. These findings indicate that low, environmentally-relevant doses of BPA, BPAF, and TMBPF have significant effects on fat cell development and lipid accumulation, with TMBPF having non-estrogenic, anti-adipogenic effects. These and other recent results may provide a potential cellular mechanism between exposure to bisphenols and human obesity, and underscore the likely impact of these chemicals on fat development in vivo.     

44—SIMULATION OF THE ELECTRIC FIELD IN EVENNESS-TESTING CAPACITORS

A method for simulating the capacitive field of a yarn-evenness tester by a resistive technique is presented and is used to study the effect of guard plates, and of the presence of a yarn on the field. More precise detection of the yarn is achieved with guard plates, and the potential applied to them is shown not to be too critical.     

A comparison of novel ozone-based systems and photocatalysis for the removal of water pollutants

Three ozone-based systems and a photocatalytic system have been compared for the removal of a reactive dyestuff, orange RO16, and 2-chlorophenol in relation to degradation performances and ozone and energy consumptions. These systems were (1) liquid/gas–ozone (LGO): ozone was applied as it is produced in the gas phase; (2) liquid/solid–ozone (LSO): ozone was adsorbed on particulate silica-based material and then applied to water; (3) liquid/liquid–ozone (LLO): ozone was dissolved in a water-immiscible solvent and then applied to water; and (4) photocatalytic system using titanium dioxide catalyst (PHC). All four systems were capable of degrading the pollutants but presented different characteristics. The LSO system offered the possibility of using long contact times for slow ozone reactions and the LLO system is most suitable for fast ozone reactions. Both systems offer the prospect of more efficient use of ozone by extracting specific pollutants away from the water phase to the solid or the solvent phases. The PHC system presented the lowest rates and the highest energy consumptions by a factor of up to 400 times as compared to the ozone-based systems. The four systems were classified on the basis of their energy consumption as follows: for the degradation of RO16 (LLO相似文献   

The chording glove: a glove-based text input device

This paper introduces a new text input device called the chording glove. The keys of a chord keyboard are mounted on the fingers of a glove. A chord can be made by pressing the fingers against any surface. Shift buttons placed on the index finger enable the glove to enter the full ASCII character set. The chording glove is designed as a text input device for wearable computers and virtual environments. An experiment was conducted to assess the performance of the glove. After an average of 80 min of a tutorial, ten subjects reached a continuous text input speed of 8.9±1.4 words/min, and after 10 1-hr sessions, they achieved 16.8±2.5 words/min     

Public speaking in virtual reality: facing an audience of avatars

What happens when someone talks in public to an audience they know to be entirely computer generated-to an audience of avatars? If the virtual audience seems attentive, well-behaved, and interested, if they show positive facial expressions with complimentary actions such as clapping and nodding, does the speaker infer correspondingly positive evaluations of performance and show fewer signs of anxiety? On the other hand, if the audience seems hostile, disinterested, and visibly bored, if they have negative facial expressions and exhibit reactions such as head-shaking, loud yawning, turning away, falling asleep, and walking out, does the speaker infer correspondingly negative evaluations of performance and show more signs of anxiety? We set out to study this question during the summer of 1998. We designed a virtual public speaking scenario, followed by an experimental study. We wanted mainly to explore the effectiveness of virtual environments (VEs) in psychotherapy for social phobias. Rather than plunge straight in and design a virtual reality therapy tool, we first tackled the question of whether real people's emotional responses are appropriate to the behavior of the virtual people with whom they may interact. The project used DIVE (Distributive Interactive Virtual Environment) as the basis for constructing a working prototype of a virtual public speaking simulation. We constructed as a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) model, a virtual seminar room that matched the actual seminar room in which subjects completed their various questionnaires and met with the experimenters     

Revealing the form and function of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: A real-time ecological assessment study among adolescents and young adults.

Self-injurious behaviors are among the leading causes of death worldwide. However, the basic nature of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) is not well understood because prior studies have relied on long-term, retrospective, aggregate, self-report assessment methods. The authors used ecological momentary assessment methods to measure suicidal and nonsuicidal SITBs as they naturally occur in real time. Participants were 30 adolescents and young adults with a recent history of self-injury who completed signal- and event-contingent assessments on handheld computers over a 14-day period, resulting in the collection of data on 1,262 thought and behavior episodes. Participants reported an average of 5.0 thoughts of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) per week, most often of moderate intensity and short duration (1–30 min), and 1.6 episodes of NSSI per week. Suicidal thoughts occurred less frequently (1.1 per week), were of longer duration, and led to self-injurious behavior (i.e., suicide attempts) less often. Details are reported about the contexts in which SITBs most often occur (e.g., what participants were doing, who they were with, and what they were feeling before and after each episode). This study provides a first glimpse of how SITBs are experienced in everyday life and has significant implications for scientific and clinical work on self-injurious behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Randomized controlled trial of a family cognitive-behavioral preventive intervention for children of depressed parents.

A family cognitive-behavioral preventive intervention for parents with a history of depression and their 9–15-year-old children was compared with a self-study written information condition in a randomized clinical trial (n = 111 families). Outcomes were assessed at postintervention (2 months), after completion of 4 monthly booster sessions (6 months), and at 12-month follow-up. Children were assessed by child reports on depressive symptoms, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems; by parent reports on internalizing and externalizing problems; and by child and parent reports on a standardized diagnostic interview. Parent depressive symptoms and parent episodes of major depression also were assessed. Evidence emerged for significant differences favoring the family group intervention on both child and parent outcomes; strongest effects for child outcomes were found at the 12-month assessment with medium effect sizes on most measures. Implications for the prevention of adverse outcomes in children of depressed parents are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Watching and drinking: Expectancies, prototypes, and friends’ alcohol use mediate the effect of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent drinking.

Objective: To investigate the psychological processes that underlie the relation between exposure to alcohol use in media and adolescent alcohol use. Design: The design consisted of a structural equation modeling analysis of data from four waves of a longitudinal, nationally representative, random-digit dial telephone survey of adolescents in the United States. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measures were adolescent alcohol consumption and willingness to use alcohol. Tested mediators were alcohol-related norms, prototypes, expectancies, and friends’ use. Results: Alcohol prototypes, expectancies, willingness, and friends’ use of alcohol (but not perceived prevalence of alcohol use among peers) were significant mediators of the relation between movie alcohol exposure and alcohol consumption, even after controlling for demographic, child, and family factors associated with both movie exposure and alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Established psychological and interpersonal predictors of alcohol use mediate the effects of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent alcohol consumption. The findings suggest that exposure to movie portrayals may operate through similar processes as other social influences, highlighting the importance of considering these exposures in research on adolescent risk behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)