Circling Around the Uncanny Valley: Design Principles for Research Into the Relation Between Human Likeness and Eeriness

The uncanny valley effect (UVE) is a negative emotional response experienced when encountering entities that appear almost human. Research on the UVE typically investigates individual, or collections of, near human entities but may be prone to methodological circularity unless the properties that give rise to the emotional response are appropriately defined and quantified. In addition, many studies do not sufficiently control the variation in human likeness portrayed in stimulus images, meaning that the nature of stimuli that elicit the UVE is also not well defined or quantified. This article describes design criteria for UVE research to overcome the above problems by measuring three variables (human likeness, eeriness, and emotional response) and by using stimuli spanning the artificial to human continuum. These criteria allow results to be plotted and compared with the hypothesized uncanny valley curve and any effect observed can be quantified. The above criteria were applied to the methods used in a subset of existing UVE studies. Although many studies made use of some of the necessary measurements and controls, few used them all. The UVE is discussed in relation to this result and research methodology more broadly

Morphology and severity of peri-implantitis bone defects

BackgroundPeri-implant defect morphology has shown to potentially impact upon the reconstructive outcomes for the management of peri-implantitis. Given the role that defect morphology plays upon the decision-making in the treatment of peri-implantitis, the present study aimed at assessing the morphology and severity of peri-implantitis bone defects and to insight on the patient-, implant- and site-related variables associated to these.Material and MethodsA cone-beam computed tomography study was carried out to classify peri-implantitis defects according to the type of defect, number of remaining bony walls and severity according to the extension of vertical bone loss. Three major defect categories were proposed: class I-infraosseous; class II-horizontal; class III-combined of class I and II. These were then subclassified into: (a) dehiscence; (b) 2/3-wall; and (c) circumferential-type defect. According to the severity the defects were further subclassified into: A: advanced; M: moderate; and S: slight. In addition, 20 site-, implant-, and patient-related variables were analyzed by generalized estimating equations (GEEs) of multilevel logistic regression models.ResultsBased on an a priori power calculation, 332 implants were screened in 47 peri-implantitis patients. Of these, 158 peri-implantitis implants were eligible. The most prevalent defect morphology type was class Ib (55%) followed by class Ia (16.5%), and class IIIb (13.9%). On the contrary, the less frequent defect was class II (1.9%). The most frequent degree of severity was M (50.6%) with S (10.1%) being the least prevalent. Buccal bone loss was significantly greater compared to the other bony walls in class I and class III defects. Age was associated with the type of defect. Age and smoking habit were associated with the morphology of the defects, while smoking habit, type of prosthesis and distance to adjacent implant were associated with the severity of the defects (vertical bone loss).ConclusionPeri-implantitis defects frequently course with an infraosseous component and often with buccal bone loss. Certain patient-, implant-, and site-specific variables are related with defect morphology and severity. However, morphological patterns for peri-implantitis bone defects could not be proven (NCT NCT03777449).Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151323/1/cid12791.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151323/2/cid12791_am.pd

UNA EXTENSIÓN DEL MÉTODO SUBGRADIENTE PARA FUNCIONES CUASICONVEXAS

In this work, we consider the problem of minimizing a quasiconvex, continue and Hölder function on the set optimal, not necessarily differentiable. We use the normalized direction of the normal con e of the set level of function and employ the stepsize rule based in knowledge of the optimal value of the objective function; we also present an example and us computational implementations in Matlab

The effects of iron fortification on the gut microbiota in African children: a randomized controlled trial in Cote d'Ivoire.

BACKGROUND: Iron is essential for the growth and virulence of many pathogenic enterobacteria, whereas beneficial barrier bacteria, such as lactobacilli, do not require iron. Thus, increasing colonic iron could select gut microbiota for humans that are unfavorable to the host. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the effect of iron fortification on gut microbiota and gut inflammation in African children. DESIGN: In a 6-mo, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial, 6-14-y-old Ivorian children (n = 139) received iron-fortified biscuits, which contained 20 mg Fe/d, 4 times/wk as electrolytic iron or nonfortifoed biscuits. We measured changes in hemoglobin concentrations, inflammation, iron status, helminths, diarrhea, fecal calprotectin concentrations, and microbiota diversity and composition (n = 60) and the prevalence of selected enteropathogens. RESULTS: At baseline, there were greater numbers of fecal enterobacteria than of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria (P < 0.02). Iron fortification was ineffective; there were no differences in iron status, anemia, or hookworm prevalence at 6 mo. The fecal microbiota was modified by iron fortification as shown by a significant increase in profile dissimilarity (P < 0.0001) in the iron group as compared with the control group. There was a significant increase in the number of enterobacteria (P < 0.005) and a decrease in lactobacilli (P < 0.0001) in the iron group after 6 mo. In the iron group, there was an increase in the mean fecal calprotectin concentration (P < 0.01), which is a marker of gut inflammation, that correlated with the increase in fecal enterobacteria (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Anemic African children carry an unfavorable ratio of fecal enterobacteria to bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, which is increased by iron fortification. Thus, iron fortification in this population produces a potentially more pathogenic gut microbiota profile, and this profile is associated with increased gut inflammation. This trial was registered at controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN21782274

Current measures of metabolic heterogeneity within cervical cancer do not predict disease outcome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A previous study evaluated the intra-tumoral heterogeneity observed in the uptake of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in pre-treatment positron emission tomography (PET) scans of cancers of the uterine cervix as an indicator of disease outcome. This was done via a novel statistic which ostensibly measured the spatial variations in intra-tumoral metabolic activity. In this work, we argue that statistic is intrinsically <it>non</it>-spatial, and that the apparent delineation between unsuccessfully- and successfully-treated patient groups via that statistic is spurious.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We first offer a straightforward mathematical demonstration of our argument. Next, we recapitulate an assiduous re-analysis of the originally published data which was derived from FDG-PET imagery. Finally, we present the results of a principal component analysis of FDG-PET images similar to those previously analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that the previously published measure of intra-tumoral heterogeneity is intrinsically non-spatial, and actually is only a surrogate for tumor volume. We also find that an optimized linear combination of more canonical heterogeneity quantifiers does not predict disease outcome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Current measures of intra-tumoral metabolic activity are not predictive of disease outcome as has been claimed previously. The implications of this finding are: clinical categorization of patients based upon these statistics is invalid; more sophisticated, and perhaps innately-geometric, quantifications of metabolic activity are required for predicting disease outcome.</p

The Effect of Locally Delivered Controlledâ Release Doxycycline or Scaling and Root Planing on Periodontal Maintenance Patients Over 9 Months

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142157/1/jper0022.pd

First Neutrino Observations from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The first neutrino observations from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are presented from preliminary analyses. Based on energy, direction and location, the data in the region of interest appear to be dominated by 8B solar neutrinos, detected by the charged current reaction on deuterium and elastic scattering from electrons, with very little background. Measurements of radioactive backgrounds indicate that the measurement of all active neutrino types via the neutral current reaction on deuterium will be possible with small systematic uncertainties. Quantitative results for the fluxes observed with these reactions will be provided when further calibrations have been completed.Comment: Latex, 7 pages, 10 figures, Invited paper at Neutrino 2000 Conference, Sudbury, Canada, June 16-21, 2000 to be published in the Proceeding