Telerobotic Pointing Gestures Shape Human Spatial Cognition

This paper aimed to explore whether human beings can understand gestures produced by telepresence robots. If it were the case, they can derive meaning conveyed in telerobotic gestures when processing spatial information. We conducted two experiments over Skype in the present study. Participants were presented with a robotic interface that had arms, which were teleoperated by an experimenter. The robot could point to virtual locations that represented certain entities. In Experiment 1, the experimenter described spatial locations of fictitious objects sequentially in two conditions: speech condition (SO, verbal descriptions clearly indicated the spatial layout) and speech and gesture condition (SR, verbal descriptions were ambiguous but accompanied by robotic pointing gestures). Participants were then asked to recall the objects' spatial locations. We found that the number of spatial locations recalled in the SR condition was on par with that in the SO condition, suggesting that telerobotic pointing gestures compensated ambiguous speech during the process of spatial information. In Experiment 2, the experimenter described spatial locations non-sequentially in the SR and SO conditions. Surprisingly, the number of spatial locations recalled in the SR condition was even higher than that in the SO condition, suggesting that telerobotic pointing gestures were more powerful than speech in conveying spatial information when information was presented in an unpredictable order. The findings provide evidence that human beings are able to comprehend telerobotic gestures, and importantly, integrate these gestures with co-occurring speech. This work promotes engaging remote collaboration among humans through a robot intermediary.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Gettered GaP Substrates for Improved Multijunction Solar Cell Devices

We report on the characterization of gettered p-type GaP substrates for application in high-efficiency multijunction solar cells. A commercial zinc-doped GaP substrate was divided, with one piece soaked in a phosphorus-saturated gallium-aluminum melt at 975A degrees C. Low-temperature continuous-wave photoluminescence indicated a significant decrease in deep-level impurity peaks due to oxygen and zinc-oxygen complexes after gettering in the phosphorus-saturated gallium-aluminum melt. To illustrate what effect this has on minority-carrier diffusion lengths, Au/GaP Schottky solar cells were fabricated on the substrates, and the spectral response of each was examined. A marked increase in response across all wavelengths on the gettered sample indicates an increase in minority-carrier diffusion lengths. To ensure these results were not simply due to an increase in the depletion region width resulting from a change in carrier density, C-V profiling was performed and found only a small change in carrier concentration of the gettered sample

Carbon stocks and changes of dead organic matter in China's forests

Forests play an important role in global carbon cycles. However, the lack of available information on carbon stocks in dead organic matter, including woody debris and litter, reduces the reliability of assessing the carbon cycles in entire forest ecosystems. Here we estimate that the national DOM carbon stock in the period of 2004-2008 is 925 +/- 54 Tg, with an average density of 5.95 +/- 0.35 Mg C ha(-1). Over the past two decades from periods of 1984-1988 to 2004-2008, the national dead organic matter carbon stock has increased by 6.7 +/- 2.2 Tg carbon per year, primarily due to increasing forest area. Temperature and precipitation increase the carbon density of woody debris, but decrease that of litter. Additionally, the woody debris increases significantly with above ground biomass and forest age. Our results can improve estimates of the carbon budget in China's forests and for better understanding of effects of climate and stand characteristics on dead organic matter distribution

Motivational Interviewing With Court-Ordered Populations

Book Summary: This book reviews how new and promising evidence-based interventions are being used with those involved in the criminal justice system. While there has been an increased emphasis on evidence-based practice within forensic treatment, there remains a disjoint between what we know works and adapting these interventions to those involved in the criminal justice system. This book seeks to bridge that gap by providing an overview of what we know works and how that information has been translated into offender treatment. In addition, it highlights avenues where additional research is needed