Response biases in lineups and showups.

The showup, or presentation of a single suspect to an eyewitness, is widely believed to be a more biased and suggestive identification procedure than the lineup even though there has been no empirical work on this issue. Results suggest, however, that witnesses at a lineup are less likely to say "not there" than are witnesses at a showup. This tendency is seen in both live and photographic identification procedures, in both laboratory studies and real-world identifications. Showups in the lab resulted in no more mistaken identifications than lineups. Results also suggest that a showup is not equivalent to a poor lineup (i.e., a lineup with a functional size of 1). It is hypothesized that a showup leads to an absolute judgment, whereas a lineup leads to a relative judgment, and that the police pressures on witnesses are unlikely to be any greater for showup than for lineup identifications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can the Shape of Nanoparticles Enable the Targeting to Cancer Cells over Healthy Cells?

Macropinocytosis is a consequence of oncogenic alterations of cancer cells while most healthy cells are non-macropinocytic. It is currently unclear whether macropinocytic cancer cells can be targeted rather than healthy cells, by adjusting the shape and size of nanoparticles. Herein, the endocytosis of two differently shaped nanoparticles; nanorods and nanospheres are compared in cancer and healthy cells. The cells are breast epithelial cancer cells (MCF7) and breast epithelial healthy cells (MCF10A) and pancreas cancer cells (PANC-1 cells) and non-tumourogenic patient-derived cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). The endocytosis pathway is quantified by a combination of pair correlation microscopy and endocytosis inhibitors. MCF7 cells use clathrin-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis to take up the nanorods while MCF10A cells use predominantly clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Based on the comparison of endocytic behavior of cancer and healthy cells, MCF7 cells can be induced to take up more nanorods and suppress the metabolism and endocytosis of nanorods in MCF10A cells. The nanorods allow targeting to breast cancer MCF7 cells and pancreas cancer cells over the healthy cells. This study opens exciting possibilities for shape to target the cancer cells over healthy cells, by adjusting nanoparticle shape.     

Proud Americans and lucky Japanese: Cultural differences in appraisal and corresponding emotion.

Appraisal theories of emotion propose that the emotions people experience correspond to their appraisals of their situation. In other words, individual differences in emotional experiences reflect differing interpretations of the situation. We hypothesized that in similar situations, people in individualist and collectivist cultures experience different emotions because of culturally divergent causal attributions for success and failure (i.e., agency appraisals). In a test of this hypothesis, American and Japanese participants recalled a personal experience (Study 1) or imagined themselves to be in a situation (Study 2) in which they succeeded or failed, and then reported their agency appraisals and emotions. Supporting our hypothesis, cultural differences in emotions corresponded to differences in attributions. For example, in success situations, Americans reported stronger self-agency emotions (e.g., proud) than did Japanese, whereas Japanese reported a stronger situation-agency emotion (lucky). Also, cultural differences in attribution and emotion were largely explained by differences in self-enhancing motivation. When Japanese and Americans were induced to make the same attribution (Study 2), cultural differences in emotions became either nonsignificant or were markedly reduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion.

Reviews reasons why the 2 emotional dimensions of pleasantness and arousal are the only ones found consistently across studies. Two theories of emotions by I. Roseman (1984) and K. R. Sherer (see record 1984-19281-001) are integrated with the review to develop a model to differentiate emotional experience. This model was tested in a within-Ss design with 16 undergraduates who were asked to recall past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions and rate them along the 2 proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions—pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self–other responsibility/control, and situational control—were identified. The emotions varied systematically along these dimensions, indicating a strong relationship between the appraisal of circumstances and emotional state. The strength of this relationship was demonstrated in a discriminant analysis in which the 15 emotions were correctly predicted over 40% of the time on the basis of the corresponding patterns of cognitive appraisal. It is suggested that if it is known how an individual sees his/her environment, it is easier to identify that individual's emotional state; conversely, if it is known what an individual is feeling, much can be deduced about how that individual is interpreting his/her circumstances. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning proactive behavior for interactive social robots

Learning human–robot interaction logic from example interaction data has the potential to leverage “big data” to reduce the effort and time spent on designing interaction logic or crafting interaction content. Previous work has demonstrated techniques by which a robot can learn motion and speech behaviors from non-annotated human–human interaction data, but these techniques only enable a robot to respond to human-initiated inputs, and do not enable the robot to proactively initiate interaction. In this work, we propose a method for learning both human-initiated and robot-initiated behavior for a social robot from human–human example interactions, which we demonstrate for a shopkeeper interacting with a customer in a camera shop scenario. This was achieved by extending an existing technique by (1) introducing a concept of a customer yield action, (2) incorporating interaction history, represented by sequences of discretized actions, as inputs for training and generating robot behavior, and (3) using an “attention mechanism” in our learning system for training robot behaviors, that learns which parts of the interaction history are more important for generating robot behaviors. The proposed method trains a robot to generate multimodal actions, consisting of speech and locomotion behaviors. We compared this study with the previous technique in two ways. Cross-validation on the training data showed higher social appropriateness of predicted behaviors using the proposed technique, and a user study of live interaction with a robot showed that participants perceived the proposed technique to produce behaviors that were more proactive, socially-appropriate, and better in overall quality.     

Fiber Formation from Silk Fibroin Using Pressurized Gyration

Silk has attracted considerable interest for use in biomedical applications due to its high strength and promising biocompatibility. Degummed silk, consisting only of silk fibroin (SF), has been processed using various methods and can be made into films, sponges, and fibers. Pressurized gyration (PG) is capable of rapidly producing aligned fibers and offers a great amount of control over their structure and morphology. Here, SF fibers are produced for the first time using PG. The effect of varying SF concentration and applied working pressure to the gyration vessel is reported, along with the resulting effect on fiber diameter, morphology, and structural composition. Aligned microfibers are found at concentrations of 8, 10, 12 w/v%, with the lowest fiber diameters reported at 8 w/v% SF 0.3 MPa applied pressure (2.1 ± 1.3 µm). Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirms the existence of PG spun fibers in both random coil and β‐sheet formations.     

Impairment of Coronary Arteriolar Endothelium-Dependent Dilation after Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Inhalation: A Time-Course Study

Engineered nanomaterials have been developed for widespread applications due to many highly unique and desirable characteristics. The purpose of this study was to assess pulmonary inflammation and subepicardial arteriolar reactivity in response to multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) inhalation and evaluate the time course of vascular alterations. Rats were exposed to MWCNT aerosols producing pulmonary deposition. Pulmonary inflammation via bronchoalveolar lavage and MWCNT translocation from the lungs to systemic organs was evident 24 h post-inhalation. Coronary arterioles were evaluated 24–168 h post-exposure to determine microvascular response to changes in transmural pressure, endothelium-dependent and -independent reactivity. Myogenic responsiveness, vascular smooth muscle reactivity to nitric oxide, and α-adrenergic responses all remained intact. However, a severe impact on endothelium-dependent dilation was observed within 24 h after MWCNT inhalation, a condition which improved, but did not fully return to control after 168 h. In conclusion, results indicate that MWCNT inhalation not only leads to pulmonary inflammation and cytotoxicity at low lung burdens, but also a low level of particle translocation to systemic organs. MWCNT inhalation also leads to impairments of endothelium-dependent dilation in the coronary microcirculation within 24 h, a condition which does not fully dissipate within 168 h. The innovations within the field of nanotechnology, while exciting and novel, can only reach their full potential if toxicity is first properly assessed.     

The disenchantment of affect

In computing design, experience is often broken down, compartmentalized, and engineered: a process that often disenchants the original experience. In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility to design for experience, not by formalizing and rationalizing it, but instead by supporting open-ended engagement and appropriation. We illustrate this approach through Affector, a case study in affective computing, in which we focus on user interpretation and construction of emotional experience over its computational modeling. We derive design and evaluation strategies for enchantment that focus on supporting the ongoing construction and interpretation of experience by human participants over the course of interaction. We suggest that enchanting experiences may be designed only by approaching enchantment obliquely: not by engineering it in, but by providing opportunities where it may emerge.     

The "general acceptance" of psychological research on eyewitness testimony: A survey of the experts.

63 experts on eyewitness testimony were surveyed about their courtroom experiences and opinions on various issues. There was a strong consensus indicated by an agreement rate of at least 80% that the data on the following topics are reliable enough to present in court: the wording of questions, lineup instructions, misleading postevent information, the accuracy–confidence correlation, attitudes and expectations, exposure time, unconscious transference, showups, and the forgetting curve. Over 70% of the experts also endorsed lineup fairness, the cross-race identification bias among White witnesses, and the tendency to overestimate the duration of events. Although most eyewitness experts who have testified have done so on behalf of criminal defendants, they were just as likely to consent for the prosecution as for the defense; moreover, they were more likely to agree to testify in civil cases than in criminal. Concerning their role in court, most respondents indicated that their main objective is to educate the jury, and that juries are more competent with the aid of experts than without. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)