Politically engaged artistic practice: Strategies and tactics

This paper explores political forms of artistic practice operating within Tate Exchange broadly and within the authors’ creative practice specifically. It identifies the tensions and obstacles inherent to socially engaged artistic practice and forms of expertise, and proposes a method of practice that is grounded in prefiguration and solidarity

Isoprene Emission and Carbon Dioxide Protect Aspen Leaves from Heat Stress

High temperature, especially above 35oC, is known to reduce leaf photosynthetic rate in many tree species. This study investigated the effect of high temperature on isoprene-emitting (aspen) and non- emitting (birch) trees under ambient and elevated CO2 under open field conditions. Aspen trees tolerate heat better than birch trees and elevated CO2 protects both species against moderate heat stress. The increased thermotolerance in aspen trees compared to the birch trees may result from the aspen's ability to produce isoprene. Elevated CO2 increased carboxylation capacity, photosynthetic electron transport capacity and triose phosphate use in both birch and aspen trees. High temperature decreased all of these parameters in birch regardless of CO2 treatment but only photosynthetic electron transport and triose phosphate use at ambient CO2 were reduced in aspen. As temperature rises, non-isoprene-emitting trees will be at a disadvantage and biological diversity and species richness might be lost in some ecosystems. Our results indicate that isoprene emitting tree species will have an advantage over non-isoprene emitting ones under high temperatures

Impact of robot responsiveness and adult involvement on children's social behaviours in human-robot interaction

A key challenge in developing engaging social robots is creating convincing, autonomous and responsive agents, which users perceive, and treat, as social beings. As a part of the collaborative project: Expressive Agents for Symbiotic Education and Learning (EASEL), this study examines the impact of autonomous response to children's speech, by the humanoid robot Zeno, on their interactions with it as a social entity. Results indicate that robot autonomy and adult assistance during HRI can substantially influence children's behaviour during interaction and their affect after. Children working with a fully-autonomous, responsive robot demonstrated greater physical activity following robot instruction than those working with a less responsive robot, which required adult assistance to interact with. During dialogue with the robot, children working with the fully-autonomous robot also looked towards the robot in anticipation of its vocalisations on more occasions. In contrast, a less responsive robot, requiring adult assistance to interact with, led to greater self-report positive affect and more occasions of children looking to the robot in response to its vocalisations. We discuss the broader implications of these findings in terms of anthropomorphism of social robots and in relation to the overall project strategy to further the understanding of how interactions with social robots could lead to task-appropriate symbiotic relationships

Should we welcome robot teachers?

Abstract Current uses of robots in classrooms are reviewed and used to characterise four scenarios: (s1) Robot as Classroom Teacher; (s2) Robot as Companion and Peer; (s3) Robot as Care-eliciting Companion; and (s4) Telepresence Robot Teacher. The main ethical concerns associated with robot teachers are identified as: privacy; attachment, deception, and loss of human contact; and control and accountability. These are discussed in terms of the four identified scenarios. It is argued that classroom robots are likely to impact children’s’ privacy, especially when they masquerade as their friends and companions, when sensors are used to measure children’s responses, and when records are kept. Social robots designed to appear as if they understand and care for humans necessarily involve some deception (itself a complex notion), and could increase the risk of reduced human contact. Children could form attachments to robot companions (s2 and s3), or robot teachers (s1) and this could have a deleterious effect on their social development. There are also concerns about the ability, and use of robots to control or make decisions about children’s behaviour in the classroom. It is concluded that there are good reasons not to welcome fully fledged robot teachers (s1), and that robot companions (s2 and 3) should be given a cautious welcome at best. The limited circumstances in which robots could be used in the classroom to improve the human condition by offering otherwise unavailable educational experiences are discussed

Nrf2-mediated neuroprotection response to recurrent hypoglycemia is insufficient to prevent cognitive impairment in a rodent model of type 1 diabetes

It remains uncertain whether recurrent nonsevere hypoglycemia (Hypo) results in long-term cognitive impairment in type 1 diabetes (T1D). This study tested the hypothesis that specifically in the T1D state, Hypo leads to cognitive impairment via a pathological response to oxidative stress. Wild-type (Control) and nuclear factor–erythroid 2 p45–related factor 2 (Nrf2) null mice were studied. Eight groups of mice (Control and Nrf2−/− ± T1D and ± Hypo) were subject to recurrent, twice-weekly, insulin or saline injections over 4 weeks, after which cognitive function was assessed and brain tissue analyzed. Recurrent moderate hypoglycemia in T1D, but not Control, mice significantly impaired cognitive performance, and this was associated with hippocampal oxidative damage and inflammation despite an enhanced expression of Nrf2 and its target genes Hmox1 and Nqo1. In Nrf2−/− mice, both T1D and Hypo independently resulted in impaired cognitive performance, and this was associated with oxidative cell damage and marked inflammation. Together, these data suggest that Hypo induces an Nrf2-dependent antioxidant response in the hippocampus, which counteracts oxidative damage. However, in T1D, this neuroprotective mechanism is insufficient to prevent neuronal oxidative damage, resulting in chronic deficits in working and long-term memory.</jats:p

Spatial and temporal variability of biogenic isoprene emissions from a temperate estuary

[1] Isoprene is important for its atmospheric impacts and the ecophysiological benefits it affords to emitting organisms; however, isoprene emissions from marine systems remain vastly understudied compared to terrestrial systems. This study investigates for the first time drivers of isoprene production in a temperate estuary, and the role this production may play in enabling organisms to tolerate the inherently wide range of environmental conditions. Intertidal sediment cores as well as high and low tide water samples were collected from four sites along the Colne Estuary, UK, every six weeks over a year. Isoprene concentrations in the water were significantly higher at low than high tide, and decreased toward the mouth of the estuary; sediment production showed no spatial variability. Diel isoprene concentration increased with light availability and decreased with tidal height; nighttime production was 79% lower than daytime production. Seasonal isoprene production and water concentrations were highest for the warmest months, with production strongly correlated with light (r2 = 0.800) and temperature (r2 = 0.752). Intertidal microphytobenthic communities were found to be the primary source of isoprene, with tidal action acting as a concentrating factor for isoprene entering the water column. Using these data we estimated an annual production rate for this estuary of 681 μmol m−2 y−1. This value falls at the upper end of other marine estimates and highlights the potentially significant role of estuaries as isoprene sources. The control of estuarine isoprene production by environmental processes identified here further suggests that such emissions may be altered by future environmental change

Children's Age Influences Their Perceptions of a Humanoid Robot as Being Like a Person or Machine

Models of children’s cognitive development indicate that as children grow, they transition from using behavioral cues to knowledge of biology to determine a target’s animacy. This paper explores the impact of children’s’ ages and a humanoid robot’s expressive behavior on their perceptions of the robot, using a simple, low-demand measure. Results indicate that children’s ages have influence on their perceptions in terms of the robot’s status being a person, a machine, or a composite. Younger children (aged 6) tended to rate the robot as being like a person to a substantially greater extent than older children (aged 7) did. However, additional facially-expressive cues from the robot did not substantively impact on children’s responses. Implications for future HRI studies are discussed

Social Roles and Baseline Proxemic Preferences for a Domestic Service Robot

© The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. 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. The work described in this paper was conducted within the EU Integrated Projects LIREC (LIving with Robots and intEractive Companions, funded by the European Commission under contract numbers FP7 215554, and partly funded by the ACCOMPANY project, a part of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n287624The goal of our research is to develop socially acceptable behavior for domestic robots in a setting where a user and the robot are sharing the same physical space and interact with each other in close proximity. Specifically, our research focuses on approach distances and directions in the context of a robot handing over an object to a userPeer reviewe

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on STEMI care: An expanded analysis from the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic migitation measures on of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) care. BACKGROUND: We previously reported a 38% decline in cardiac catheterization activations during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures. This study extends our early observations using a larger sample of STEMI programs representative of different US regions with the inclusion of more contemporary data. METHODS: Data from 18 hospitals or healthcare systems in the US from January 2019 to April 2020 were collecting including number activations for STEMI, the number of activations leading to angiography and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), and average door to balloon (D2B) times. Two periods, January 2019-February 2020 and March-April 2020, were defined to represent periods before (BC) and after (AC) initiation of pandemic mitigation measures, respectively. A generalized estimating equations approach was used to estimate the change in response variables at AC from BC. RESULTS: Compared to BC, the AC period was characterized by a marked reduction in the number of activations for STEMI (29%, 95% CI:18-38, p \u3c .001), number of activations leading to angiography (34%, 95% CI: 12-50, p = .005) and number of activations leading to PPCI (20%, 95% CI: 11-27, p \u3c .001). A decline in STEMI activations drove the reductions in angiography and PPCI volumes. Relative to BC, the D2B times in the AC period increased on average by 20%, 95%CI (-0.2 to 44, p = .05). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 Pandemic has adversely affected many aspects of STEMI care, including timely access to the cardiac catheterization laboratory for PPCI

Microguards and micromessengers of the genome

The regulation of gene expression is of fundamental importance to maintain organismal function and integrity and requires a multifaceted and highly ordered sequence of events. The cyclic nature of gene expression is known as ‘transcription dynamics’. Disruption or perturbation of these dynamics can result in significant fitness costs arising from genome instability, accelerated ageing and disease. We review recent research that supports the idea that an important new role for small RNAs, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), is in protecting the genome against short-term transcriptional fluctuations, in a process we term ‘microguarding’. An additional emerging role for miRNAs is as ‘micromessengers’—through alteration of gene expression in target cells to which they are trafficked within microvesicles. We describe the scant but emerging evidence that miRNAs can be moved between different cells, individuals and even species, to exert biologically significant responses. With these two new roles, miRNAs have the potential to protect against deleterious gene expression variation from perturbation and to themselves perturb the expression of genes in target cells. These interactions between cells will frequently be subject to conflicts of interest when they occur between unrelated cells that lack a coincidence of fitness interests. Hence, there is the potential for miRNAs to represent both a means to resolve conflicts of interest, as well as instigate them. We conclude by exploring this conflict hypothesis, by describing some of the initial evidence consistent with it and proposing new ideas for future research into this exciting topic