[Review of] Earl Lovelace. A Brief Conversion and Other Stories

A gentle beauty pervades these stories. It softens the ironies, dignifies the poverty, and serves as a subtle reminder of the indomitability of the human spirit

[Review of] Harold Bascom. Apata

Apata is subtitled: The story of the reluctant criminal. This more or less sums up the plot, for after page sixty-three, the hero\u27s fortunes plummet steadily, culminating in the biggest manhunt ever seen in the colony of British Guiana, with Apata both predator and prey, alternatively. With the unflinching pessimism of naturalism, Bascom traces the life of Michael Rayburn Apata, a young Guianese with a brilliant academic career ahead of him. The forces of heredity and environment conspire to destroy his chance for admission to King\u27s College, prevent him from marrying the woman he loves, and limit him to dead-end jobs in the interior. He is thrown out of school because he openly criticizes the colonial system. The brown-skinned mother of the woman he loves rejects him as a prospective son-in-law because, Beverly ent going to marry a black skin, ugly thing like you! NEVER! Sensing that his efforts to make something of himself are doomed, Apata reflects: It seems as though \u27us people\u27 get quick recognition as criminals, especially if your skin is dark …. Is it only when we become criminals they\u27re prepared to take us serious

Are human-like robots trusted like humans? An investigation into the effect of anthropomorphism on trust in robots measured by expected value as reflected by feedback related negativity and P300

Robots are becoming more prevalently used in industry and society. However, in order to ensure effective use of the trust, must be calibrated correctly. Anthropomorphism is one factors which is important in trust in robots (Hancock et al., 2011). Questionnaires and investment games have been used to investigate the impact of anthropomorphism on trust, however, these methods have led to disparate findings. Neurophysiological methods have also been used as an implicit measure of trust. Feedback related negativity (FRN) and P300 are event related potential (ERP) components which have been associated with processes involved in trust such as outcome evaluation. This study uses the trust game (Berg et al., 1995), along with questionnaires and ERP data to investigate trust and expectations towards three agents varying in anthropomorphism, a human, an anthropomorphic robot, and a computer. The behavioural and self-reported findings suggest that the human is perceived as the most trustworthy and there is no difference between the robot and the computer. The ERP data revealed a robot driven difference in FRN and P300 activation, which suggests that robots violated expectations more so than a human or a computer. The present findings are explained in terms of the perfect automation schema and trustworthiness and dominance perceptions. Future research into the impact of voice pitch on dominance and trustworthiness and the impact of trust violations is suggested in order to gain a more holistic picture of the impact of anthropomorphism on trust

The data mining: An analysis of 20 eclipsing binary light-curves observed by the INTEGRAL/OMC

Twenty eclipsing binaries were selected for an analysis from a huge database of observations made by the INTEGRAL/OMC camera. The photometric data were processed and analyzed, resulting in a first light-curve study of these neglected eclipsing binaries. Most of the selected systems are the detached ones. The system ET Vel was discovered to be an eccentric one. Due to missing spectroscopic study of these stars, further detailed analyses are still needed.Comment: 4 pages, published in 2009 New Astronomy 14, 12

Exhibit Poster: Visualizing Neighborhood Narratives (Typography)

Poster at entrance of exhibit area explains the rationale behind the works of students in the Typography II course. Faculty advisor: Misty Thomas-Trout. Finished size: 11 inches wide, 17 inches high

Exhibit Poster: Visitor Comments

Poster invited participants to answer the question, What inspired you about this exhibit, and what is it calling you to do next? Finished size: 24 inches wide, 36 inches high

Program: Reception and Exhibits

Includes a description of the Facing Project, a list of sessions and exhibits, and a map to the gallery and classroom locations

Email Invitation

Invitation sent via email, inviting people to reception and celebration for the completion and release of Facing Dayton: Neighborhood Narratives

Mellow Babies : a randomised feasibility trial of an intervention to improve the quality of parent-infant interactions and parental mental wellbeing

Acknowledgments: We are extremely grateful to the late Pam Sherriff for administrative support to the study, and to Gerry King, who worked as a research assistant to the study and no longer works in academic research. We are also most grateful to the Mellow Babies practitioners for helping facilitate the research.Peer reviewe

A game of two halves: Looking for evidence for both embedded and direct procurement in a simulated dataset

The concepts of embedded and direct procurement have become weighted with extra baggage over the years. In embedded procurement, lithics are obtained along with other resources, while direct procurement involves a deliberate trip to the source for the sole purpose of obtaining that raw material. Lewis Binford suggested that direct procurement means something went wrong (a sign of poor planning), and that embedded procurement is the norm. Other authors found valid reasons why direct procurement could be deliberate, planned, and beneficial. Regardless, the two have often been seen as diametrically opposed, and applied to interpretations of mobility and lithic procurement as if they are mutually exclusive of one another. They have also been variously conflated with expedient and curated technology, the use of local vs. exotic raw materials, and so on. The often site-centric vision of archaeologists (we find it hard to see that people may have been passing through a site, not based there and going out and coming back), can further confuse the issue. The most important problem, however, is: how can we tell the difference between embedded and direct procurement from the stone tools collected at an archaeological site? We created the scenario of a site with various proportions of stone tools from different sources. In order to not influence the site characteristics through a priori expectations, we randomly assigned source qualities and percentages in the assemblage, along with the distances and directions of each source relative to the site. Then each author analysed those data from one of two points of view: LW convinced in advance that the evidence supported embedded lithic procurement, and PM equally certain that a direct strategy was apparent. In both cases, the authors felt they had sufficient “justification” to bolster their point of view and build a strong case for their raw material procurement strategy. This exercise gave some insight into the usefulness and limitations of these two concepts as heuristic devices, as they continue to be a major influence on anyone trying to interpret lithic procurement