228 research outputs found

    Pathway to Future Symbiotic Creativity

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    This report presents a comprehensive view of our vision on the development path of the human-machine symbiotic art creation. We propose a classification of the creative system with a hierarchy of 5 classes, showing the pathway of creativity evolving from a mimic-human artist (Turing Artists) to a Machine artist in its own right. We begin with an overview of the limitations of the Turing Artists then focus on the top two-level systems, Machine Artists, emphasizing machine-human communication in art creation. In art creation, it is necessary for machines to understand humans' mental states, including desires, appreciation, and emotions, humans also need to understand machines' creative capabilities and limitations. The rapid development of immersive environment and further evolution into the new concept of metaverse enable symbiotic art creation through unprecedented flexibility of bi-directional communication between artists and art manifestation environments. By examining the latest sensor and XR technologies, we illustrate the novel way for art data collection to constitute the base of a new form of human-machine bidirectional communication and understanding in art creation. Based on such communication and understanding mechanisms, we propose a novel framework for building future Machine artists, which comes with the philosophy that a human-compatible AI system should be based on the "human-in-the-loop" principle rather than the traditional "end-to-end" dogma. By proposing a new form of inverse reinforcement learning model, we outline the platform design of machine artists, demonstrate its functions and showcase some examples of technologies we have developed. We also provide a systematic exposition of the ecosystem for AI-based symbiotic art form and community with an economic model built on NFT technology. Ethical issues for the development of machine artists are also discussed

    Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West

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    The twentieth century saw intensive intellectual exchange between Eastern and Central Europe and the West. Yet political and linguistic obstacles meant that many important trends in East and Central European thought and knowledge hardly registered in Western Europe and the US. This book uncovers the hidden westward movements of Eastern European literary theory and its influence on Western scholarship

    Age differences in conspiracy beliefs around Covid-19 pandemic and (dis)trust in the government

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    Objective: Times of societal crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, during which people need to make sense of a chaotic world and to protect their health and lives, according to psychological research, represent suitable ground for the development of conspiracy theories about origins, spread, and treatment of the threat (coronavirus). Although numerous studies have been conducted on this issue since the beginning of the pandemic until today, most of the studies were conducted on the adult population with limited insights into development of the conspiracy beliefs in adolescence or over the lifespan. Objective of this study is precisely to explore how conspiracy beliefs regarding COVID-19 pandemic differentiate between multiple age groups (cross-sectional design), what are their sources and contexts, and how do they relate with the tendency to trust the government. Methodology: Data were gathered through eight focus group discussions with four age groups (11-12, 14-15, 18-19, 30+) in Serbia. Results: Based on critical discourse analysis, this paper identifies the differences in content and the sources of conspiracy thinking and how it relates to trust in the government. Study shows that high distrust in Serbian government is associated with conspiracy beliefs both within youth and adults. However, while among adolescents this finding is exclusively related with their beliefs that ruling structures have financial gain from the pandemic, against the interests of citizens, among adults it is related to the belief that the government (un)intentionally submits to the new global order that is managed by one or more powerful actors who are coordinated in secret action to achieve an outcome that is of public interest, but not public knowledge. Conclusion: The results will be discussed within current socio-political climate in Serbia, as well as the basis for understanding psychological factors which may underlie these tendencies in conspiracy theorizing, such as social identification, collective narcissism, authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation

    Introduction: Volatility in Finance, Art, and Culture

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    The term 'volatility' applies to changeability: both that which can be measured, such as temperatures and stock prices, and that which cannot be easily measured, such as affects and emotions. Quantitative financial volatility has typically been studied quite separately from art, culture, and everyday life. Randy Martin's work, which addressed the resonances between volatility in dance and finance, was a notable exception. Martin focused on derivatives, which played a critical role in the development of financialized capitalism, especially between 1973-2008. Arguably, however, derivatives are no longer the key drivers of volatility as a social and cultural logic. New assemblages of asset managers, rentiers, and online platforms-along with a pandemic, new banking crises, and ongoing climate emergency-are reshaping how volatility is produced and navigated. How might we rethink volatility in order to better grasp its changing logics? This introduction unpacks existing debates on volatility in finance, art, and culture, suggesting several directions in which new work in this area might depart from existing frameworks-some of which are pursued in this special issue. We focus on three broad lines of exploration: rethinking the intellectual histories of volatility; rethinking volatility across disparate post-2008 contexts; and imagining volatile futures through art practice

    Actor & Avatar: A Scientific and Artistic Catalog

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    What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of "technical others" and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material

    Stretchable Surface Electromyography Electrode Array Based on Liquid Metal and Conductive Polymer

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    Electromyography (EMG), the science of detecting and interpreting muscle electrical activity, plays a crucial role in clinical diagnostics and research. It enables assessment of muscle function, detection of abnormalities, and monitoring of rehabilitation progress. However, the current use of EMG devices is primarily limited to clinical settings, preventing its potential to revolutionize personal health management. If surface electromyography (sEMG) electrodes are stretchable, arrayed, reusable and able to continuously record, their applications for personal health management are broadened. Existing electrodes lack these essential features, hampering their widespread adoption. This thesis addresses these limitations by designing an adhesive dry electrode using tannic acid, polyvinyl alcohol, and PEDOT:PSS (TPP). Through meticulous optimization, TPP electrodes offer superior stretchability and adhesiveness compared to conventional Ag/AgCl electrodes. This ensures stable and long-term skin contact for recording. Furthermore, a metal-polymer electrode array patch (MEAP) is introduced, featuring liquid metal (LM) circuits and TPP electrodes. MEAPs exhibit better conformability than current commercial arrays, resulting in higher signal quality and stable recordings, even during significant skin deformations caused by muscle movements. Manufactured using scalable screen-printing, MEAPs combine stretchable materials and array architecture for real-time monitoring of muscle stress, fatigue, and tendon displacement. They hold great promise in reducing muscle and tendon injuries and enhancing performance in both daily exercise and professional sports. In addition, a pilot study compares MEAP performance in clinical electrodiagnostics with needle electrodes, demonstrating the non-invasive advantage of MEAP by successfully recording the signals from the same motor unit as the needle. These advancements position MEAP at the forefront of the EMG field, poised to drive breakthroughs in electrodiagnostics, personalized medicine, sports science, and rehabilitation

    A Personalized Medicine Approach to the Diagnosis and Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder

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    This collection of articles provides an overview of the current and future methods for applying a personalized medicine approach to the diagnosis, management, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder

    Fielding Design, Design Fielding:Learning, Leading & Organising in New Territories

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    A framing question; What does (meaningful) collaboration look like in action? led to the search for and identification of a polycontext, a site where advanced collaborative activity is intelligible. This research aims to explore how the epistemic foundations of learning and design theory can adapt to collaborative approaches to organizing, learning and leadership as the macro-economic transition of digital transformation proceeds. Through embedded ethnographic engagement within a learning organization facilitating group-oriented, design-led collaborative learning experiences, a case study investigates multiple sites within a global organizational network whose distinctive methodology and culture provides a setting emblematic of frontier digital economic activity. The organization’s activity generates environments which notionally act as boundary sites where negotiation of epistemic difference is necessitated, consequently distinctive forms of expertise in brokerage and perspective-taking arise to support dynamic coordination, presenting a distinct take on group-oriented learning. Comprising interacting investigation of communities of facilitators and learning designers tasked to equip learners with distinctive forms of integrative expertise, with the objective of forming individuals adept at rapid orientation to contingent circumstances achieved by collaborative organizing. In parallel, investigating narratives of an organization’s formation led to grounded theory about how collaborative activity is enabled by shared reframing practices. Consequently, the organization anticipates and reshapes the field it operates within, the research discusses scalar effects of learning communities on industry work practices. The inquiry interrogates design-led learning and expertise formation apt for transformative activity within and beyond the digital economy. Exploring how methodological innovations within collaborative learning organizations are enacted and scaled, primary perspectives on design-led, group-oriented learning are evaluated alongside relevant secondary theoretic perspectives on collaborative organizing, learning and leading. The study synthesizes contributions that point to expansions of existing learning paradigms and anticipates how collaborative learning by design intervenes with the schematic assumptions at work in individuals, communities and fields. Observational insight, systematic analysis and theoretical evaluation are applied to problematize assumptions underlying social theory to anticipate generational expansions to the design methods field which responds to inadequacies in planning and organizing approaches applied by design. The research attempts to habituate understanding from outside design methods to better equip an explanatory understanding of contemporary design-led learning and expertise formation occurring in modern professional structures, especially in the creative industries. Together, the research investigates how learners navigate challenges of organizing, learning and leading into unseen territories

    Xenopus

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    This book focuses on the amphibian, Xenopus, one of the most commonly used model animals in the biological sciences. Over the past 50 years, the use of Xenopus has made possible many fundamental contributions to our knowledge in cell biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, and neurobiology. In recent years, with the completion of the genome sequence of the main two species and the application of genome editing techniques, Xenopus has emerged as a powerful system to study fundamental disease mechanisms and test treatment possibilities. Xenopus has proven an essential vertebrate model system for understanding fundamental cell and developmental biological mechanisms, for applying fundamental knowledge to pathological processes, for deciphering the function of human disease genes, and for understanding genome evolution. Key Features Provides historical context of the contributions of the model system Includes contributions from an international team of leading scholars Presents topics spanning cell biology, developmental biology, genomics, and disease model Describes recent experimental advances Incorporates richly illustrated diagrams and color images Related Titles Green, S. L. The Laboratory Xenopus sp. (ISBN 978-1-4200-9109-0) Faber, J. & P. D. Nieuwkoop. Normal Table of Xenopus laevis (Daudin): A Systematical & Chronological Survey of the Development from the Fertilized Egg till the End of Metamorphosis (ISBN 978-0-8153-1896-5) Jarret, R. L. & K. McCluskey. The Biological Resources of Model Organisms (ISBN 978-1-0320-9095-5

    Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

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    Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting
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