Matrix elements and duality for type 2 unitary representations of the Lie superalgebra gl(m|n)

The characteristic identity formalism discussed in our recent articles is further utilized to derive matrix elements of type 2 unitary irreducible $gl(m|n)$ modules. In particular, we give matrix element formulae for all gl(m|n) generators, including the non-elementary generators, together with their phases on finite dimensional type 2 unitary irreducible representations. Remarkably, we find that the type 2 unitary matrix element equations coincide with the type 1 unitary matrix element equations for non-vanishing matrix elements up to a phase.Comment: 24 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1311.424

What is a robot companion - friend, assistant or butler?

The study presented in this paper explored people's perceptions and attitudes towards the idea of a future robot companion for the home. A human-centred approach was adopted using questionnaires and human-robot interaction trials to derive data from 28 adults. Results indicated that a large proportion of participants were in favour of a robot companion and saw the potential role as being an assistant, machine or servant. Few wanted a robot companion to be a friend. Household tasks were preferred to child/animal care tasks. Humanlike communication was desirable for a robot companion, whereas humanlike behaviour and appearance were less essential. Results are discussed in relation to future research directions for the development of robot companions

Reduced Wigner coefficients for Lie superalgebra gl(m|n) corresponding to unitary representations and beyond

In this paper fundamental Wigner coefficients are determined algebraically by considering the eigenvalues of certain generalized Casimir invariants. Here this method is applied in the context of both type 1 and type 2 unitary representations of the Lie superalgebra gl(mjn). Extensions to the non-unitary case are investigated. A symmetry relation between two classes of Wigner coefficients is given in terms of a ratio of dimensions.Comment: 17 page

Close encounters : spatial distances between people and a robot of mechanistic appearance

Peer reviewe

Reef-fidelity and migration of tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, across the Coral Sea

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 9 (2014): e83249, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083249.Knowledge of the habitat use and migration patterns of large sharks is important for assessing the effectiveness of large predator Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), vulnerability to fisheries and environmental influences, and management of shark–human interactions. Here we compare movement, reef-fidelity, and ocean migration for tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, across the Coral Sea, with an emphasis on New Caledonia. Thirty-three tiger sharks (1.54 to 3.9 m total length) were tagged with passive acoustic transmitters and their localised movements monitored on receiver arrays in New Caledonia, the Chesterfield and Lord Howe Islands in the Coral Sea, and the east coast of Queensland, Australia. Satellite tags were also used to determine habitat use and movements among habitats across the Coral Sea. Sub-adults and one male adult tiger shark displayed year-round residency in the Chesterfields with two females tagged in the Chesterfields and detected on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, after 591 and 842 days respectively. In coastal barrier reefs, tiger sharks were transient at acoustic arrays and each individual demonstrated a unique pattern of occurrence. From 2009 to 2013, fourteen sharks with satellite and acoustic tags undertook wide-ranging movements up to 1114 km across the Coral Sea with eight detected back on acoustic arrays up to 405 days after being tagged. Tiger sharks dove 1136 m and utilised three-dimensional activity spaces averaged at 2360 km3. The Chesterfield Islands appear to be important habitat for sub-adults and adult male tiger sharks. Management strategies need to consider the wide-ranging movements of large (sub-adult and adult) male and female tiger sharks at the individual level, whereas fidelity to specific coastal reefs may be consistent across groups of individuals. Coastal barrier reef MPAs, however, only afford brief protection for large tiger sharks, therefore determining the importance of other oceanic Coral Sea reefs should be a priority for future research.Funding was provided by the the Agence Francaise de Développement (http://www.afd.fr), French Pacific Fund, the CRISP program (www.crisponline.info) and QLD Fisheries

Developing a protocol and experimental setup for using a humanoid robot to assist children with autism to develop visual perspective taking skills

Visual Perspective Taking (VPT) is the ability to see the world from another person's perspective, taking into account what they see and how they see it, drawing upon both spatial and social information. Children with autism often find it difficult to understand that other people might have perspectives, viewpoints, beliefs and knowledge that are different from their own, which is a fundamental aspect of VPT. In this research we aimed to develop a methodology to assist children with autism develop their VPT skills using a humanoid robot and present results from our first long-term pilot study. The games we devised were implemented with the Kaspar robot and, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to improve the VPT skills of children with autism through playing and interacting with a humanoid robot. We describe in detail the standard pre- and post- assessments that we performed with the children in order to measure their progress and also the inclusion criteria derived from the results for future studies in this field. Our findings suggest that some children may benefit from this approach of learning about VPT, which shows that this approach merits further investigation.Peer reviewe

Elizabeth Hallam, Anatomy Museum: Death and the Body Displayed

Elizabeth Hallam, Anatomy Museum: Death and the Body Displayed, London: Reaktion Books, 2016, hardback £35.00, pp. viii+44

What's Left of Rights? Arendt and political ontology in the anthropocene

My project in this paper is to make a perverse, post-human, and even queer return to Arendt’s thinking on the ontological foundation of rights, to ask: What is left of rights? Could the challenge of encompassing and representing non-human entities re-energize the political pursuits that have hinged on rights thinking? Post-humanist proponents of critical race theory, indigenous studies, disability and queer studies have thoroughly problematized the givenness of the liberal rights-bearing subject, and the attributes of sovereignty, autonomy, motility, reason, self-possession, intention, speech, and efficacy that have qualified it, defining the parameters of the human in the process by disqualifying bodies (the woman, the slave, the refugee, the disabled) deemed different. But they have, largely, stopped short of inquiring into a concept of rights that embraces a radically non-human subject, limiting themselves instead to arguing either for a continual expansion of the domain of the human beyond its foundational exclusions, or for an abandonment of rights altogether. But how might conceptualizing rights away from inherited presumptions about how a rights-bearing subject acts, manifests, or appears help us reclaim what was politically generative about the project of rights in the first place? Ultimately, do rights retain any validity if they do not also embrace the non-human? How might performance help us imagine non-human rights—help us figure, speak with and for, non-humans in the domain of the political? And what insight might we gain from revisiting Arendt in the light of post-humanist thought

Unscheduled DNA synthesis after partial UV irradiation of the cell nucleus

Cells of an euploid strain of the Chinese hamster synchronized in the G1 phase were microirradiated in the nucleus with a laser UV microbeam (λ = 257 nm) and pulse-labelled with [3H]thymidine. In autoradiographs of cells fixed immediately after the pulse unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) was found restricted to the microirradiated part of the nucleus. The rate of UDS varied with the UV energy applied and the post-irradiation incubation time. In other experiments chromosome preparations were established after an additional chase and a subsequent growth period. In 28 mitotic cells autoradiographic label was found concentrated on a few chromosomes which lay adjacent to each other in one part of the metaphase plate. The distribution of label on the chromosomes could clearly be distinguished from patterns which originate from semi-conservative DNA synthesis within S phase. The label on chromosomes of microirradiated cells thus represents UDS. Our findings support the following ideas on the arrangement of interphase chromosomes: (1) Decondensed interphase chromosomes may occupy rather compact territories. (2) Chromosomes do not necessarily exhibit a close and permanent association with their respective homologues