939 research outputs found
How Do You Like Me in This: User Embodiment Preferences for Companion Agents
We investigate the relationship between the embodiment of an artificial companion and user perception and interaction with it. In a Wizard of Oz study, 42 users interacted with one of two embodiments: a physical robot or a virtual agent on a screen through a role-play of secretarial tasks in an office, with the companion providing essential assistance. Findings showed that participants in both condition groups when given the choice would prefer to interact with the robot companion, mainly for its greater physical or social presence. Subjects also found the robot less annoying and talked to it more naturally. However, this preference for the robotic embodiment is not reflected in the users’ actual rating of the companion or their interaction with it. We reflect on this contradiction and conclude that in a task-based context a user focuses much more on a companion’s behaviour than its embodiment. This underlines the feasibility of our efforts in creating companions that migrate between embodiments while maintaining a consistent identity from the user’s point of view
Electrochemical De-intercalation, Oxygen Non-stoichiometry, and Crystal Growth of NaxCoO2-d
We report a detailed study of de-intercalation of Na from the compound
NaxCoO2-d using an electrochemical technique. We find evidence for stable
phases with Na contents near the fractions ~1/3, 1/2, 5/8, 2/3, and 3/4.
Details regarding the floating-zone crystal growth of Na0.75CoO2 single
crystals are discussed as well as results from magnetic susceptibility
measurements. We observe the presence of significant oxygen deficiencies in
powder samples of Na0.75CoO2-d prepared in air, but not in single crystal
samples prepared in an oxygen atmosphere. The oxygen deficiencies in a
Na0.75CoO2-d sample with d ~ 0.08 remain even after electrochemically
de-intercalating to Na0.3CoO2-d.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Information-Geometric Indicators of Chaos in Gaussian Models on Statistical Manifolds of Negative Ricci Curvature
A new information-geometric approach to chaotic dynamics on curved
statistical manifolds based on Entropic Dynamics (ED) is proposed. It is shown
that the hyperbolicity of a non-maximally symmetric 6N-dimensional statistical
manifold M_{s} underlying an ED Gaussian model describing an arbitrary system
of 3N degrees of freedom leads to linear information-geometric entropy growth
and to exponential divergence of the Jacobi vector field intensity, quantum and
classical features of chaos respectively.Comment: 8 pages, final version accepted for publicatio
Entanglement of a qubit with a single oscillator mode
We solve a model of a qubit strongly coupled to a massive environmental
oscillator mode where the qubit backaction is treated exactly. Using a
Ginzburg-Landau formalism, we derive an effective action for this well known
localization transition. An entangled state emerges as an instanton in the
collective qubit-environment degree of freedom and the resulting model is shown
to be formally equivalent to a Fluctuating Gap Model (FGM) of a disordered
Peierls chain. Below the transition, spectral weight is transferred to an
exponentially small energy scale leaving the qubit coherent but damped. Unlike
the spin-boson model, coherent and effectively localized behaviors may coexist.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; added calculation of entanglement entrop
Anterior Hippocampus and Goal-Directed Spatial Decision Making
Contains fulltext :
115487.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
No Effects of New Zealand Blackcurrant Extract on Physiological and Performance Responses in Trained Male Cyclists Undertaking Repeated Testing across a Week Period
No effect of New Zealand blackcurrant extract on recovery of muscle damage following running a half-marathon
New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) contains anthocyanins, known to moderate blood flow and display anti-inflammatory properties that may improve recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. The authors examined whether NZBC extract supplementation enhances recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage after a half-marathon race. Following a randomized, double-blind, independent groups design, 20 (eight women) recreational runners (age 30 ± 6 years, height 1.73 ± 0.74 m, body mass 68.5 ± 7.8 kg, half-marathon finishing time 1:56:33 ± 0:18:08 hr:min:s) ingested either two 300-mg/day capsules of NZBC extract (CurraNZ™) or a visually matched placebo, for 7 days prior to and 2 days following a half-marathon. Countermovement jump performance variables, urine interleukin-6, and perceived muscle soreness and fatigue were measured pre, post, and at 24 and 48 hr after the half-marathon and analyzed using a mixed linear model with statistical significance set a priori at p .05). Urine interleukin-6 increased 48-hr post-half-marathon in the NZBC group only (p .05). Perceived muscle soreness and fatigue increased immediately post-half-marathon (p .05). Supplementation with NZBC extract had no effect on the recovery of countermovement jump variables and perceptions of muscle soreness or fatigue following a half-marathon in recreational runners
The State of Self-Organized Criticality of the Sun During the Last 3 Solar Cycles. I. Observations
We analyze the occurrence frequency distributions of peak fluxes , total
fluxes , and durations of solar flares over the last three solar cycles
(during 1980--2010) from hard X-ray data of HXRBS/SMM, BATSE/CGRO, and RHESSI.
From the synthesized data we find powerlaw slopes with mean values of
for the peak flux, for the total
flux, and for flare durations. We find a systematic
anti-correlation of the powerlaw slope of peak fluxes as a function of the
solar cycle, varying with an approximate sinusoidal variation
, with a
mean of , a variation of , a solar cycle
period yrs, and a cycle minimum time . The
powerlaw slope is flattest during the maximum of a solar cycle, which indicates
a higher magnetic complexity of the solar corona that leads to an
overproportional rate of powerful flares.Comment: subm. to Solar Physic
Holographic Renormalization of Foliation Preserving Gravity and Trace Anomaly
From the holographic renormalizationg group viewpoint, while the scale
transformation plays a primary role in the duality by providing the extra
dimension, the special conformal transformation seems to only play a secondary
role. We, however, claim that the space-time diffeomorphism is crucially
related to the latter. For its demonstration, we study the holographic
renormalization group flow of a foliation preserving diffeomophic theory of
gravity (a.k.a. space-time flipped Horava gravity). We find that the dual field
theory, if any, is only scale invariant but not conformal invariant. In
particular, we show that the holographic trace anomaly in four-dimension
predicts the Ricci scalar squared term that would be incompatible with the
Wess-Zumino consistency condition if it were conformal. This illustrates how
the foliation preserving diffeomophic theory of gravity could be inconsistent
with a theorem of the dual unitary quantum field theory.Comment: 18 pages, v2: reference added, v3: comments on more recent literature
added in response to referee's reques
Analogue Models for T and CPT Violation in Neutral-Meson Oscillations
Analogue models for CP violation in neutral-meson systems are studied in a
general framework. No-go results are obtained for models in classical mechanics
that are nondissipative or that involve one-dimensional oscillators. A complete
emulation is shown to be possible for a two-dimensional oscillator with
rheonomic constraints, and an explicit example with spontaneous T and CPT
violation is presented. The results have implications for analogue models with
electrical circuits.Comment: 9 page
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