Independent distribution of blood group types and two genetically determined traits in a female population

Certain traits in humans are known to be neutral in nature as they do not influence fitness of the individuals. Traits like ABO blood group, phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) tasting and ear lobe structure are genetically determined and follow Mendelian pattern of inheritance. Genes deciding their expression are situated on separate chromosomes and therefore would be certainly following independent assortment during gametogenesis. Data regarding association of these traits were collected from human female subjects to test whether blood group types show their dependency with other two features. An analysis in this regard clearly indicated that there exist no association between blood group type and PTC tasting and also between blood group and ear lobe structure. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.131473

Independent distribution of blood group types and two genetically determined traits in a female population

Certain traits in humans are known to be neutral in nature as they do not influence fitness of the individuals. Traits like ABO blood group, phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) tasting and ear lobe structure are genetically determined and follow Mendelian pattern of inheritance. Genes deciding their expression are situated on separate chromosomes and therefore would be certainly following independent assortment during gametogenesis. Data regarding association of these traits were collected from human female subjects to test whether blood group types show their dependency with other two features. An analysis in this regard clearly indicated that there exist no association between blood group type and PTC tasting and also between blood group and ear lobe structure. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.131473

The Road to Post Apocalyptic Fiction: McCarthy’s Challenges to Post-Apocalyptic Genre

This presentation examines The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) set in the United States after some undetermined apocalypse where an unnamed man and his son negotiate starvation and the devastated landscape. The novel presents several challenges to the Post Apocalypse genre. It foregrounds character development rather than plot and counterbalances horror with lyricism. The novel also confronts the more typical happy ending of a new family suggested by the religious imagery, instead predicting the inevitable approach of human extinction, but also promising a third, the long-term, rebirth of life (not necessarily human) through the mystery of re-evolution

Artificial morality: Making of the artificial moral agents

Abstract: Artificial Morality is a new, emerging interdisciplinary field that centres around the idea of creating artificial moral agents, or AMAs, by implementing moral competence in artificial systems. AMAs are ought to be autonomous agents capable of socially correct judgements and ethically functional behaviour. This request for moral machines comes from the changes in everyday practice, where artificial systems are being frequently used in a variety of situations from home help and elderly care purposes to banking and court algorithms. It is therefore important to create reliable and responsible machines based on the same ethical principles that society demands from people. New challenges in creating such agents appear. There are philosophical questions about a machine’s potential to be an agent, or mora l agent, in the first place. Then comes the problem of social acceptance of such machines, regardless of their theoretic agency status. As a result of efforts to resolve this problem, there are insinuations of needed additional psychological (emotional and cogn itive) competence in cold moral machines. What makes this endeavour of developing AMAs even harder is the complexity of the technical, engineering aspect of their creation. Implementation approaches such as top- down, bottom-up and hybrid approach aim to find the best way of developing fully moral agents, but they encounter their own problems throughout this effort

Layered evaluation of interactive adaptive systems : framework and formative methods

Peer reviewedPostprin

What Is Wrong with the No-Report Paradigm and How to Fix It

Is consciousness based in prefrontal circuits involved in cognitive processes like thought, reasoning, and memory or, alternatively, is it based in sensory areas in the back of the neocortex? The no-report paradigm has been crucial to this debate because it aims to separate the neural basis of the cognitive processes underlying post-perceptual decision and report from the neural basis of conscious perception itself. However, the no-report paradigm is problematic because, even in the absence of report, subjects might engage in post-perceptual cognitive processing. Therefore, to isolate the neural basis of consciousness, a no-cognition paradigm is needed. Here, I describe a no-cognition approach to binocular rivalry and outline how this approach can help resolve debates about the neural basis of consciousness

Conversational Agents, Humorous Act Construction, and Social Intelligence

Humans use humour to ease communication problems in human-human interaction and \ud in a similar way humour can be used to solve communication problems that arise\ud with human-computer interaction. We discuss the role of embodied conversational\ud agents in human-computer interaction and we have observations on the generation\ud of humorous acts and on the appropriateness of displaying them by embodied\ud conversational agents in order to smoothen, when necessary, their interactions\ud with a human partner. The humorous acts we consider are generated spontaneously.\ud They are the product of an appraisal of the conversational situation and the\ud possibility to generate a humorous act from the elements that make up this\ud conversational situation, in particular the interaction history of the\ud conversational partners