Motivation of R and D enterpreneurs - Determinants of company success

Human performance related to motivations of achievement, power, and company affiliations for determining leadership qualitie

Getting to know Pepper : Effects of people’s awareness of a robot’s capabilities on their trust in the robot

© 2018 Association for Computing MachineryThis work investigates how human awareness about a social robot’s capabilities is related to trusting this robot to handle different tasks. We present a user study that relates knowledge on different quality levels to participant’s ratings of trust. Secondary school pupils were asked to rate their trust in the robot after three types of exposures: a video demonstration, a live interaction, and a programming task. The study revealed that the pupils’ trust is positively affected across different domains after each session, indicating that human users trust a robot more the more awareness about the robot they have

The Communicability of Graphical Alternatives to Tabular Displays of Statistical Simulation Studies

Simulation studies are often used to assess the frequency properties and optimality of statistical methods. They are typically reported in tables, which may contain hundreds of figures to be contrasted over multiple dimensions. To assess the degree to which these tables are fit for purpose, we performed a randomised cross-over experiment in which statisticians were asked to extract information from (i) such a table sourced from the literature and (ii) a graphical adaptation designed by the authors, and were timed and assessed for accuracy. We developed hierarchical models accounting for differences between individuals of different experience levels (under- and post-graduate), within experience levels, and between different table-graph pairs. In our experiment, information could be extracted quicker and, for less experienced participants, more accurately from graphical presentations than tabular displays. We also performed a literature review to assess the prevalence of hard-to-interpret design features in tables of simulation studies in three popular statistics journals, finding that many are presented innumerately. We recommend simulation studies be presented in graphical form

A Pilot Study with a Novel Setup for Collaborative Play of the Humanoid Robot KASPAR with children with autism

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article describes a pilot study in which a novel experimental setup, involving an autonomous humanoid robot, KASPAR, participating in a collaborative, dyadic video game, was implemented and tested with children with autism, all of whom had impairments in playing socially and communicating with others. The children alternated between playing the collaborative video game with a neurotypical adult and playing the same game with the humanoid robot, being exposed to each condition twice. The equipment and experimental setup were designed to observe whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviours while playing the video game and interacting with the adult than performing the same activities with the humanoid robot. The article describes the development of the experimental setup and its first evaluation in a small-scale exploratory pilot study. The purpose of the study was to gain experience with the operational limits of the robot as well as the dyadic video game, to determine what changes should be made to the systems, and to gain experience with analyzing the data from this study in order to conduct a more extensive evaluation in the future. Based on our observations of the childrens’ experiences in playing the cooperative game, we determined that while the children enjoyed both playing the game and interacting with the robot, the game should be made simpler to play as well as more explicitly collaborative in its mechanics. Also, the robot should be more explicit in its speech as well as more structured in its interactions. Results show that the children found the activity to be more entertaining, appeared more engaged in playing, and displayed better collaborative behaviours with their partners (For the purposes of this article, ‘partner’ refers to the human/robotic agent which interacts with the children with autism. We are not using the term’s other meanings that refer to specific relationships or emotional involvement between two individuals.) in the second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first sessions. One way of explaining these findings is that the children’s intermediary play session with the humanoid robot impacted their subsequent play session with the human adult. However, another longer and more thorough study would have to be conducted in order to better re-interpret these findings. Furthermore, although the children with autism were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children showed more examples of collaborative play and cooperation while playing with the human adult.Peer reviewe

The Cluster of Galaxies Abell 970

We present a dynamical analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 970 based on a new set of radial velocities measured at ESO, Pic du Midi and Haute-Provence observatories. Our analysis indicates that this cluster has a substructure and is out of dynamical equilibrium. This conclusion is also supported by differences in the positions of the peaks of the surface density distribution and X-ray emission, as well as by the evidence of a large scale velocity gradient in the cluster. We also found a discrepancy between the masses inferred with the virial theorem and with the X-ray emission, what is expected if the galaxies and the gas inside the cluster are not in hydrostatic equilibrium. Abell 970 has a modest cooling flow, as is expected if it is out of equilibrium as suggested by Allen (1998). We propose that cooling flows may have an intermittent behavior, with phases of massive cooling flows being followed by phases without significant cooling flows after the acretion of a galaxy group massive enough to disrupt the dynamical equilibrium in the center of the clusters. A massive cooling flow will be established again, after a new equilibrium is achieved.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, submitted to A&

The X-ray Luminosity - Velocity Dispersion relation in the REFLEX Cluster Survey

We present an estimate of the bolometric X-ray luminosity - velocity dispersion L_x - sigma_v relation measured from a new, large and homogeneous sample of 171 low redshift, X-ray selected galaxy clusters. The linear fitting of log(L_x) - log(sigma_v) gives L_x = 10^{32.72 \pm 0.08} sigma^{4.1 \pm 0.3}_v erg s^{-1} h^{-2}_{50}. Furthermore, a study of 54 clusters, for which the X-ray temperature of the intracluster medium T is available, allows us to explore two other scaling relations, L_x -T and sigma_v -T. From this sample we obtain L_x \propto T^{3.1 \pm 0.2} and sigma_v \propto T^{1.00 \pm 0.16}, which are fully consistent with the above result for the L_x-sigma_v. The slopes of L_x -T and sigma_v -T are incompatible with the values predicted by self-similarity (L_x \propto T^{2} \propto \sigma_v^4), thus suggesting the presence of non-gravitational energy sources heating up the intracluster medium, in addition to the gravitational collapse, in the early stages of cluster formation. On the other hand, the result on log(L_x) - log(sigma_v) supports the self-similar model.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

Enlightening the structure and dynamics of Abell 1942

We present a dynamical analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 1942 based on a set of 128 velocities obtained at the European Southern Observatory. Data on individual galaxies are presented and the accuracy of the determined velocities is discussed as well as some properties of the cluster. We have also made use of publicly available Chandra X-ray data. We obtained an improved mean redshift value z = 0.22513 \pm 0.0008 and velocity dispersion sigma = 908^{+147}_{-139} km/s. Our analysis indicates that inside a radius of ~1.5 h_{70}^{-1} Mpc (~7 arcmin) the cluster is well relaxed, without any remarkable feature and the X-ray emission traces fairly well the galaxy distribution. Two possible optical substructures are seen at ~5 arcmin from the centre towards the Northwest and the Southwest direction, but are not confirmed by the velocity field. These clumps are however, kinematically bound to the main structure of Abell 1942. X-ray spectroscopic analysis of Chandra data resulted in a temperature kT = 5.5 \pm 0.5 keV and metal abundance Z = 0.33 \pm 0.15 Z_odot. The velocity dispersion corresponding to this temperature using the T_X-sigma scaling relation is in good agreement with the measured galaxies velocities. Our photometric redshift analysis suggests that the weak lensing signal observed at the south of the cluster and previously attributed to a "dark clump", is produced by background sources, possibly distributed as a filamentary structure.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 15 pages, 15 figures, table w/ positions, photometric data and redshift