Effects of robot facial characteristics and gender in persuasive human-robot interaction

The growing interest in social robotics makes it relevant to examine the potential of robots as persuasive agents and, more specifically, to examine how robot characteristics influence the way people experience such interactions and comply with the persuasive attempts by robots. The purpose of this research is to identify how the (ostensible) gender and the facial characteristics of a robot influence the extent to which people trust it and the psychological reactance they experience from its persuasive attempts. This paper reports a laboratory study where SociBot™, a robot capable of displaying different faces and dynamic social cues, delivered persuasive messages to participants while playing a game. In-game choice behavior was logged, and trust and reactance toward the advisor were measured using questionnaires. Results show that a robotic advisor with upturned eyebrows and lips (features that people tend to trust more in humans) is more persuasive, evokes more trust, and less psychological reactance compared to one displaying eyebrows pointing down and lips curled downwards at the edges (facial characteristics typically not trusted in humans). Gender of the robot did not affect trust, but participants experienced higher psychological reactance when interacting with a robot of the opposite gender. Remarkably, mediation analysis showed that liking of the robot fully mediates the influence of facial characteristics on trusting beliefs and psychological reactance. Also, psychological reactance was a strong and reliable predictor of trusting beliefs but not of trusting behavior. These results suggest robots that are intended to influence human behavior should be designed to have facial characteristics we trust in humans and could be personalized to have the same gender as the user. Furthermore, personalization and adaptation techniques designed to make people like the robot more may help ensure they will also trust the robot.</p

Effects of Robot Facial Characteristics and Gender in Persuasive Human-Robot Interaction

The growing interest in social robotics makes it relevant to examine the potential of robots as persuasive agents and, more specifically, to examine how robot characteristics influence the way people experience such interactions and comply with the persuasive attempts by robots. The purpose of this research is to identify how the (ostensible) gender and the facial characteristics of a robot influence the extent to which people trust it and the psychological reactance they experience from its persuasive attempts. This paper reports a laboratory study where SociBot™, a robot capable of displaying different faces and dynamic social cues, delivered persuasive messages to participants while playing a game. In-game choice behavior was logged, and trust and reactance toward the advisor were measured using questionnaires. Results show that a robotic advisor with upturned eyebrows and lips (features that people tend to trust more in humans) is more persuasive, evokes more trust, and less psychological reactance compared to one displaying eyebrows pointing down and lips curled downwards at the edges (facial characteristics typically not trusted in humans). Gender of the robot did not affect trust, but participants experienced higher psychological reactance when interacting with a robot of the opposite gender. Remarkably, mediation analysis showed that liking of the robot fully mediates the influence of facial characteristics on trusting beliefs and psychological reactance. Also, psychological reactance was a strong and reliable predictor of trusting beliefs but not of trusting behavior. These results suggest robots that are intended to influence human behavior should be designed to have facial characteristics we trust in humans and could be personalized to have the same gender as the user. Furthermore, personalization and adaptation techniques designed to make people like the robot more may help ensure they will also trust the robot

Psychological impact and health-related quality-of-life outcomes of Mayer-Rokitansky-K&#252;ster-Hauser syndrome : A systematic review and narrative synthesis

Mayer-Rokitansky-K\ufcster-Hauser syndrome causes absence or underdevelopment of uterus and vagina, but women's subjective experience remains understudied. This systematic review was conducted to examine the psychological and health-related quality-of-life outcomes of Mayer-Rokitansky-K\ufcster-Hauser syndrome. In total, 22 articles identified through electronic search matched the inclusion criteria and were included in our review. Mayer-Rokitansky-K\ufcster-Hauser syndrome may be associated with psychological symptoms and impaired quality of life, but especially with poor sexual esteem and genital image. Women may experience difficulties managing intimacy and disclosing to partners. Mothers may be perceived as overinvolved, with consequent negative emotions in women with the disease

Microfluidic-based immunohistochemistry for breast cancer diagnosis: a comparative clinical study.

Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease. The efficacy of tailored therapeutic strategies relies on the precise detection of diagnostic biomarkers by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Therefore, considering the increasing incidence of breast cancer cases, a concomitantly time-efficient and accurate diagnosis is clinically highly relevant. Microfluidics is a promising innovative technology in the field of tissue diagnostic, enabling for rapid, reliable, and automated immunostaining. We previously reported the microfluidic-based HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) detection in breast carcinomas to greatly correlate with the HER2 gene amplification level. Here, we aimed to develop a panel of microfluidic-based IHC protocols for prognostic and therapeutic markers routinely assessed for breast cancer diagnosis, namely HER2, estrogen/progesterone receptor (ER/PR), and Ki67 proliferation factor. The microfluidic IHC protocol for each marker was optimized to reach high staining quality comparable to the standard procedure, while concomitantly shortening the staining time to 16 min-excluding deparaffinization and antigen retrieval step-with a turnaround time reduction up to 7 folds. Comparison of the diagnostic score on 50 formaldehyde-fixed paraffin-embedded breast tumor resections by microfluidic versus standard staining showed high concordance (overall agreement: HER2 94%, ER 95.9%, PR 93.6%, Ki67 93.7%) and strong correlation (ρ coefficient: ER 0.89, PR 0.88, Ki67 0.87; p &lt; 0.0001) for all the analyzed markers. Importantly, HER2 genetic reflex test for all discordant cases confirmed the scores obtained by the microfluidic technique. Overall, the microfluidic-based IHC represents a clinically validated equivalent approach to the standard chromogenic staining for rapid, accurate, and automated breast cancer diagnosis

d-Wave Spin Density Wave phase in the Attractive Hubbard Model with Spin Polarization

We investigate the possibility of unconventional spin density wave (SDW) in the attractive Hubbard model with finite spin polarization. We show that pairing and density fluctuations induce the transverse d-wave SDW near the half-filling. This novel SDW is related to the d-wave superfluidity induced by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, in the sense that they are connected with each other through Shiba's attraction-repulsion transformation. Our results predict the d-wave SDW in real systems, such as cold Fermi atom gases with population imbalance and compounds involving valence skipper elements

STUDY ON THE FRUIT MORPHOLOGY OF MAPANIA SPECIES (CYPERACEAE) EASTERN NORTH OF SARAWAK

The study of fruit morphology of Mapania species from Eastern North of Sarawak is presented in this paper. The samples were collected from various localities in the Eastern North of Sarawak, includes Lambir Hills National Park (LHNP), Bukit Sembiling Nature Reserve (BSNR), Ulu Mentawai, Mulu National Park (UMMNP), Long Banga (LB) and Tama Abu Production Forest (TAPF). Matured fruits were obtained by dissecting the spike. Morphological characteristics were observed use USB Portable Microscopes (500x) and parameters were measured use digital caliper. The morphological characteristics were compared and analyzed. Fruits of M. meditensis were the biggest (9 mm long, 4.25 mm diam.) and the smallest fruit was M. debilis (2.45 mm long, 1.5 mm diam.). Overall the fruit morphological was very useful to differentiate the species level particularly the sizes, exocarp appearance and the present of costae

A hybrid analysis of critical discourse analysis and systemic functional language to unmask ideological stance inside President Joko Widodo’s political speech text

President Joko Widodo is a phenomenon president because he is the one and only president who comes from a lower level class as compared to the other presidents who comes from Indonesia’s elite, especially the Javanese elite. Of the importance of the Indonesian people, every Indonesian President is concerned with the people’s interests to gain the people’s sympathy. Hence, this study unentangles how Jokowi disseminated his ideology to influence the Indonesian people through his political speech text. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate Jokowi’s ideological stance inside his political speech text. This study also identifies why Jokowi prioritizes Indonesia’s people as the main concern in his program. This study integrated interpretivism as the underlying paradigm. Meanwhile, case study research design was applied as this study centered on Jokowi’s speeches as Indonesian President. Data were collected from the first official speech text of President Jokowi delivered on August 16, 2015. This paper combined Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics, particularly the Appraisal System’s judgmental analysis. The paper formed Judgement as a sub-type of the attitudinal classification rather than the other two, Affect and Appreciation. The Judgmental categories dominated by the sub-type of Capacity have exceeded other judgmental subtypes. Jokowi mostly evaluated Indonesia’s people using the positive Capacity to show that the People of Indonesia the capable people to overcome their problems. The reason behind Indonesia’s people’s political inclination is that Jokowi is supported by the people-based political party, Struggle-Indonesian Democratic Party (PDIP). The analysis of this study illustrates the importance of a leader’s ideological stance in facing and communicating with the people. This is because the stance allows Jokowi to inspire and empower the Indonesian people with his speeche

Comments on the d-wave pairing mechanism for cuprate high TcT_c superconductors: Higher is different?

The question of pairing glue for the cuprate superconductors (SC)is revisited and its determination through the angle resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES) is discussed in detail. There are two schools of thoughts about the pairing glue question: One argues that superconductivity in the cuprates emerges out of doping the spin singlet resonating valence bond (RVB) state. Since singlet pairs are already formed in the RVB state there is no need for additional boson glue to pair the electrons. The other instead suggests that the d-wave pairs are mediated by the collective bosons like the conventional low $T_c$ SC with the alteration that the phonons are replaced by another kind of bosons ranging from the antiferromagnetic (AF) to loop current fluctuations. An approach to resolve this dispute is to determine the frequency and momentum dependences of the diagonal and off-diagonal self-energies directly from experiments like the McMillan-Rowell procedure for the conventional SC. In that a simple d-wave BCS theory describes superconducting properties of the cuprates well, the Eliashberg analysis of well designed high resolution experimental data will yield the crucial frequency and momentum dependences of the self-energies. This line of approach using ARPES are discussed in more detail in this review, and some remaining problems are commented.Comment: Invited review article published in the Journal of Korean Physical Society; several typos corrected and a few comments and references adde