Views from within a narrative : Evaluating long-term human-robot interaction in a naturalistic environment using open-ended scenarios

Open Access 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. Date of acceptance: 16/06/2014This article describes the prototyping of human–robot interactions in the University of Hertfordshire (UH) Robot House. Twelve participants took part in a long-term study in which they interacted with robots in the UH Robot House once a week for a period of 10 weeks. A prototyping method using the narrative framing technique allowed participants to engage with the robots in episodic interactions that were framed using narrative to convey the impression of a continuous long-term interaction. The goal was to examine how participants responded to the scenarios and the robots as well as specific robot behaviours, such as agent migration and expressive behaviours. Evaluation of the robots and the scenarios were elicited using several measures, including the standardised System Usability Scale, an ad hoc Scenario Acceptance Scale, as well as single-item Likert scales, open-ended questionnaire items and a debriefing interview. Results suggest that participants felt that the use of this prototyping technique allowed them insight into the use of the robot, and that they accepted the use of the robot within the scenarioPeer reviewe

Picomolar, selective, and subtype-specific small-molecule inhibition of TRPC1/4/5 channels

The concentration of free cytosolic Ca(2+) and the voltage across the plasma membrane are major determinants of cell function. Ca(2+)-permeable non-selective cationic channels are known to regulate these parameters but understanding of these channels remains inadequate. Here we focus on Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 4 and 5 proteins (TRPC4 and TRPC5) which assemble as homomers or heteromerize with TRPC1 to form Ca(2+)-permeable non-selective cationic channels in many mammalian cell types. Multiple roles have been suggested including in epilepsy, innate fear, pain and cardiac remodeling but limitations in tools to probe these channels have restricted progress. A key question is whether we can overcome these limitations and develop tools which are high-quality, reliable, easy to use and readily accessible for all investigators. Here, through chemical synthesis and studies of native and over-expressed channels by Ca(2+) and patch-clamp assays, we describe compound 31 (C31), a remarkable small-molecule inhibitor of TRPC1/4/5 channels. Its potency ranged from 9 to 1300 pM, depending on the TRPC1/4/5 subtype and activation mechanism. Other channel types investigated were unaffected, including TRPC3, TRPC6, TRPV1, TRPV4, TRPA1, TRPM2, TRPM8 and store-operated Ca(2+) entry mediated by Orai1. These findings suggest identification of an important experimental tool compound which has much higher potency for inhibiting TRPC1/4/5 channels than previously reported agents, impressive specificity, and graded subtype selectivity within the TRPC1/4/5 channel family. The compound should greatly facilitate future studies of these ion channels. We suggest naming this TRPC1/4/5-inhibitory compound Pico145

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

The transitioning experiences of internationally-educated nurses into a Canadian health care system: A focused ethnography

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Beyond well-documented credentialing issues, internationally-educated nurses (IENs) may need considerable support in transitioning into new social and health care environments. This study was undertaken to gain an understanding of transitioning experiences of IENs upon relocation to Canada, while creating policy and practice recommendations applicable globally for improving the quality of transitioning and the retention of IENs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A focused ethnography of newly-recruited IENs was conducted, using individual semi-structured interviews at both one-to-three months (Phase 1) and nine-to-twelve months post-relocation (Phase 2). A purposive sample of IENs was recruited during their orientation at a local college, to a health authority within western Canada which had recruited them for employment throughout the region. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and data was managed using qualitative analytical software. Data analysis was informed by Roper and Shapira's framework for focused ethnography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty three IENs consented to participate in 31 interviews. All IENs which indicated interest during their orientation sessions consented to the interviews, yet 14 did not complete the Phase 2 interview due to reorganization of health services and relocation. The ethno-culturally diverse group had an average age of 36.4 years, were primarily educated to first degree level or higher, and were largely (under) employed as "Graduate Nurses". Many IENs reported negative experiences related to their work contract and overall support upon arrival. There were striking differences in nursing practice and some experiences of perceived discrimination. The primary area of discontentment was the apparent communication breakdown at the recruitment stage with subsequent discrepancy in expected professional role and financial reimbursement.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Explicit and clear communication is needed between employers and recruitment agencies to avoid employment contract misunderstandings and to enable clear interpretation of the credentialing processes. Pre-arrival orientation of IENs including health care communications should be encouraged and supported by the recruiting institution. Moreover, employers should provide more structured and comprehensive workplace orientation to IENs with consistent preceptorship. Similar to findings of many other studies, diversity should be valued and incorporated into the professional culture by nurse managers.</p

Niche as a determinant of word fate in online groups

Patterns of word use both reflect and influence a myriad of human activities and interactions. Like other entities that are reproduced and evolve, words rise or decline depending upon a complex interplay between {their intrinsic properties and the environments in which they function}. Using Internet discussion communities as model systems, we define the concept of a word niche as the relationship between the word and the characteristic features of the environments in which it is used. We develop a method to quantify two important aspects of the size of the word niche: the range of individuals using the word and the range of topics it is used to discuss. Controlling for word frequency, we show that these aspects of the word niche are strong determinants of changes in word frequency. Previous studies have already indicated that word frequency itself is a correlate of word success at historical time scales. Our analysis of changes in word frequencies over time reveals that the relative sizes of word niches are far more important than word frequencies in the dynamics of the entire vocabulary at shorter time scales, as the language adapts to new concepts and social groupings. We also distinguish endogenous versus exogenous factors as additional contributors to the fates of words, and demonstrate the force of this distinction in the rise of novel words. Our results indicate that short-term nonstationarity in word statistics is strongly driven by individual proclivities, including inclinations to provide novel information and to project a distinctive social identity.Comment: Supporting Information is available here: http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchSingleRepresentation.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0019009.s00

Morris dancers, matriarchs and paperbacks:Doing the village in contemporary Britain

To call a place rural is to categorize it as a particular kind of place and, often, to presume that particular kinds of being innately occur there. Over the past 20 years, however, trends in British rural studies have problematized easy ascription; this article is an ethnographic contribution within those trends. If it is no longer adequate to read the rural as a container for being, then, as I contend here, rurality can be explored anew through doing. I draw upon David Matless’s (1994) frame of ‘doing the village’ representationally, and amplify it to include concepts of place as representational and relational. I thus use ‘doing’ to read the multiple ways in which diverse residents in a Northern England village engage with both their real locality and with nationally shared rural imaginings

The Morphology of the Rat Vibrissal Array: A Model for Quantifying Spatiotemporal Patterns of Whisker-Object Contact

In all sensory modalities, the data acquired by the nervous system is shaped by the biomechanics, material properties, and the morphology of the peripheral sensory organs. The rat vibrissal (whisker) system is one of the premier models in neuroscience to study the relationship between physical embodiment of the sensor array and the neural circuits underlying perception. To date, however, the three-dimensional morphology of the vibrissal array has not been characterized. Quantifying array morphology is important because it directly constrains the mechanosensory inputs that will be generated during behavior. These inputs in turn shape all subsequent neural processing in the vibrissal-trigeminal system, from the trigeminal ganglion to primary somatosensory (“barrel”) cortex. Here we develop a set of equations for the morphology of the vibrissal array that accurately describes the location of every point on every whisker to within ±5% of the whisker length. Given only a whisker's identity (row and column location within the array), the equations establish the whisker's two-dimensional (2D) shape as well as three-dimensional (3D) position and orientation. The equations were developed via parameterization of 2D and 3D scans of six rat vibrissal arrays, and the parameters were specifically chosen to be consistent with those commonly measured in behavioral studies. The final morphological model was used to simulate the contact patterns that would be generated as a rat uses its whiskers to tactually explore objects with varying curvatures. The simulations demonstrate that altering the morphology of the array changes the relationship between the sensory signals acquired and the curvature of the object. The morphology of the vibrissal array thus directly constrains the nature of the neural computations that can be associated with extraction of a particular object feature. These results illustrate the key role that the physical embodiment of the sensor array plays in the sensing process