This paper investigates the effects of group interaction in a storytelling situation for children using two robots: a reader robot and a listener robot as a side-participant. We developed a storytelling system that consists of a reader robot, a listener robot, a display, a gaze model, a depth sensor, and a human operator who responds and provides easily understandable answers to the children’s questions. We experimentally investigated the effects of using a listener robot and either one or two children during (...) a storytelling situation on the children’s preferences and their speech activities. Our experimental results showed that the children preferred storytelling with the listener robot. Although two children obviously produced more speech than one child, the listener robot discouraged the children’s speech regardless of whether one or two were listening. (shrink)

Recent advances in automation technology have increased the opportunity for collaboration between humans and multiple autonomous systems such as robots and self-driving cars. In research on autonomous system collaboration, the trust users have in autonomous systems is an important topic. Previous research suggests that the trust built by observing a task can be transferred to other tasks. However, such research did not focus on trust in multiple different devices but in one device or several of the same devices. Thus, we (...) do not know how trust changes in an environment involving the operation of multiple different devices such as a construction site. We investigated whether trust can be transferred among multiple different devices, and investigated the effect of two factors: the similarity among multiple devices and the agency attributed to each device, on trust transfer among multiple devices. We found that the trust a user has in a device can be transferred to other devices and that attributing different agencies to each device can clarify the distinction among devices, preventing trust from transferring. (shrink)

This study examined the relationship between origami performance, personality traits, and spatial ability. The researchers asked 43 Japanese university students to fold three models of origami. Their performance was assessed by the number of successes in correctly folding the paper to make the models. They also answered the personality inventory NEO-FFI and completed the block-design test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV, which measures the spatial ability of people. The results showed that although origami performance demonstrated no significant relation (...) with neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, or conscientiousness, it improved as introversion tendency and spatial ability increased. There were no differences based on sex in origami performance. The findings suggest that performing origami requires spatial ability, which supports the view that origami is a potential educational material for training and enhancing spatial ability, and that introversion is advantageous to origami performance. (shrink)

Transcriptional regulation is coupled with numerous intracellular signaling processes often mediated by second messengers. Now, growing evidence points to the importance of Ca2+, one of the most versatile second messengers, in activating or inhibiting gene transcription through actions frequently mediated by members of the EF‐hand superfamily of Ca2+‐binding proteins. Calmodulin and calcineurin, representative members of this EF‐hand superfamily, indirectly regulate transcription through phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of transcription factors in response to a Ca2+ increase in the cell. Recently, a novel EF‐hand Ca2+‐binding protein (...) called DREAM has been found to interact with regulatory sequences of DNA, thereby acting as a direct regulator of transcription. Finally, S100B, a dimeric EF‐hand Ca2+‐binding protein, interacts with the tumor suppressor p53 and controls its transcriptional activity. In light of the structural studies reported to date, this review provides an overview of the structural basis of EF‐hand Ca2+‐binding proteins linked with transcriptional regulation. BioEssays 24:625–636, 2002. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Across languages, lexical items specific to infant‐directed speech (i.e., ‘baby‐talk words’) are characterized by a preponderance of onomatopoeia (or highly iconic words), diminutives, and reduplication. These lexical characteristics may help infants discover the referential nature of words, identify word referents, and segment fluent speech into words. If so, the amount of lexical input containing these properties should predict infants’ rate of vocabulary growth. To test this prediction, we tracked the vocabulary size in 47 English‐learning infants from 9 to 21 months (...) and examined whether the patterns of growth can be related to measures of iconicity, diminutives, and reduplication in the lexical input at 9 months. Our analyses showed that both diminutives and reduplication in the input were associated with vocabulary growth, although measures of iconicity were not. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that phonological properties typical of lexical input in infant‐directed speech play a role in early vocabulary growth. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je me tourne vers Maurice Merleau-Ponty et Luce Irigaray pour offrir une phénoménologie critique de l’expérience de l’orgasme en relation à la sexualité trans. Je le fais afin de démontrer comment les compréhensions dominantes de la sexualité empêchent des possibilités sexuelles pour les personnes trans tout autant que cisgenres. Les expériences sexuelles trans servent d’illustration non pas en tant qu’exceptionnelles, mais simplement parce que la profondeur des normes inscrites dans nos expériences sexuelles deviennent apparentes lorsque certains présupposés (...) (par exemple, à propos de la configuration génitale) sont remis en question. Je commence en examinant le rôle de la sexualité dans la perception en conjonction avec la discussion par Merleau-Ponty du schéma sexuel. De là, je me tourne vers un examen de l’orgasme et j’offre une brève phénoménologie de l’expérience orgasmique trans féminine. Je porte particulièrement attention aux manières dont l’expérience orgasmique change au fil des processus de transition, de sorte qu’à saper le langage de la perte qui détermine les compréhensions cisnormatives de la sexualité trans. Enfin, j’offre une lecture de la notion de différence sexuelle d’Irigaray qui vise à faire exploser les conceptions du genre et de la sexualité en s’attardant sur les moments d’hésitation dans son œuvre comme un site d’où le travail de phénoménologie critique sur la sexualité pourrait débuter. Je place cette lecture en conversation avec la notion de sexualité comme une « écologie de sensations » développée par Amit Rai afin d’offrir une direction possible pour reconceptualiser la sexualité. (shrink)

In this translation of his 1936 essay, Tosaka Jun critically examines Tanabe Hajime’s “logic of species,” paying particular attention to its basis, i.e. the logic of “absolute mediation” that Tanabe had devised earlier. In 1936, the logic of species had only been developed within a few texts, including “The Logic of Social Being” (1934–5) and “The Logic of Species and the World Schema” (1935). Interestingly enough, Tosaka agrees to a certain extent with Tanabe’s criticism of the “logic of nothingness” lying (...) at the bottom of Nishida Kitaro’s philosophy, according to which criticism the place of nothingness represents a mystical immediacy. Tosaka, however, also criticizes Tanabe’s own position, claiming that his idea of absolute mediation, in which all immediacies are mediated, leads to a logical absolutism neglecting the materiality of nature. Tosaka claims that the temporal relationship between the mediator and the mediated should be addressed in terms of a “chronology” in which nature exists prior to the subject. Not only Tosaka’s immanent criticism of Tanabe contributed to the development of the “Kyoto School” (an expression Tosaka invented himself in 1932), but the question of “chronology,” with regard to mediation, has a modern theoretical significance as a point of contention in the contemporary debate between realism and constructivism. (shrink)

This paper is a slightly expanded and altered version of comments delivered in response to a paper by Andrew Dilts at the 35th Annual Spindel Conference in Memphis, TN. I focus on the elision of the state in Dilts' paper in order to demonstrate the need for a genealogy that takes seriously the role of sovereignty in constructing the present of trans femmes and trans women of color.

In the last several years, queer and trans people have grown in prominence in our public discussions of policy, education, health care, and other spaces of social life. Politicians, health care practitioners, and average citizens are increasingly aware of our existence and the particular challenges we present, albeit this awareness is often not well-intentioned or informed. Indeed, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, trans people, in particular, specifically avoid accessing needed health care due to either fearing negative interactions with (...) health care providers or being unable to afford health care, and those who do manage to... (shrink)

Cadherins are a large family of single‐pass transmembrane proteins principally involved in Ca2+‐dependent homotypic cell adhesion. The cadherin molecules comprise three domains, the intracellular domain, the transmembrane domain and the extracellular domain, and form large complexes with a vast array of binding partners (including cadherin molecules of the same type in homophilic interactions and cellular protein catenins), orchestrating biologically essential extracellular and intracellular signalling processes. While current, contrasting models for classic cadherin homophilic interaction involve varying numbers of specific repeats found (...) in the extracellular domain, the structure of the domain itself clearly remains the main determinant of cell stability and binding specificity. Through intracellular interactions, cadherin enhances its adhesive properties binding the cytoskeleton via cytoplasmic associated factors α‐ catenin, β‐catenin and p120ctn. Recent structural studies on classic cadherins and these catenin molecules have provided new insight into the essential mechanisms underlying cadherin‐mediated cell interaction and catenin‐mediated cellular signalling. Remarkable structural diversity has been observed in β‐catenin recognition of other cellular factors including APC, Tcf and ICAT, proteins that contribute to or compete with cadherin/catenin functioning. BioEssays 26:497–511, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)