From When to When: Evaluating Naturalness of Reaction Time via Viewing Turn around Behaviors

This paper addresses the effects of visual reaction times of a turn around behavior toward touch stimulus in the context of perceived naturalness. People essentially prefer a quick and natural reaction time to interaction partners, but appropriate reaction times will change due to the kinds of partners, e.g., humans, computers, and robots. In this study, we investigate two visual reaction times in touch interaction: the time length from the touched timing to the start of a reaction behavior, and the time length of the reaction behavior. We also investigated appropriate reaction times for different beings: three robots (Sota, Nao and Pepper) and humans (male and female). We conducted a web-survey based experiment to investigate natural reaction times for robots and humans, and the results concluded that the best combinations of both reaction times are different between each robot (i.e., among Sota, Nao and Pepper) and the humans (i.e., between male and female). We also compared the effect of using the best combinations for each robot and human to prove the importance of using each appropriate reaction timing for each being. The results suggest that an appropriate reaction time combination investigated from the male model is not ideal for robots, and the combination investigated from the female model is a better choice for robots. Our study also suggests that calibrating parameters for individual robots’ behavior design would enable better performances than using parameters of robot behaviors based on observing human-human interaction, although such an approach is a typical method of robot behavior design.

Masks and racial stereotypes in a pandemic: the case for surgical masks

To contain the spread of COVID-19, experts emphasize the importance of wearing masks. Unfortunately, this practice may put black people at elevated risk for being seen as potential threats by some Americans. In this study, we evaluate whether and how different types of masks affect perceptions of black and white male models. We find that non-black respondents perceive a black male model as more threatening and less trustworthy when he is wearing a bandana or a cloth mask than when he is not wearing his face covering—especially those respondents who score above average in racial resentment, a common measure of racial bias. When he is wearing a surgical mask, however, they do not perceive him as more threatening or less trustworthy. Further, it is not that non-black respondents find bandana and cloth masks problematic in general. In fact, the white model in our study is perceived more positively when he is wearing all types of face coverings. Although mandated mask wearing is an ostensibly race-neutral policy, our findings demonstrate the potential implications are not.

Accuracy of ECG chest electrode placements by paramedics: an observational study

Background: The use of the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is common in sophisticated pre-hospital emergency medical services but its value depends upon accurate placement of the ECG electrodes. Several studies have shown widespread variation in the placement of chest electrodes by other health professionals but no studies have addressed the accuracy of paramedics. The main objective of this study was to ascertain the accuracy of the chest lead placements by registered paramedics.Methods: Registered paramedics who attended the Emergency Services Show in Birmingham in September 2018 were invited to participate in this observational study. Participants were asked to place the chest electrodes on a male model in accordance with their current practice. Correct positioning was determined against the Society for Cardiological Science and Technology’s 2017 clinical guidelines for recording a standard 12-lead ECG, with a tolerance of 19 mm being deemed acceptable based upon previous studies.Results: Fifty-two eligible participants completed the study. Measurement of electrode placement in the vertical and horizontal planes showed a high level of inaccuracy, with 3/52 (5.8%) participants able to accurately place all chest electrodes. In leads V1‐V3, the majority of incorrect placements were related to vertical displacement, with most participants able to identify the correct horizontal position. In V4, the tendency was to place the electrode too low and to the left of the pre-determined position, while V5 tended to be below the expected positioning but in the correct horizontal alignment. There was a less defined pattern of error in V6, although vertical displacement was more likely than horizontal displacement.Conclusions: Our study identified a high level of variation in the placement of chest ECG electrodes, which could alter the morphology of the ECG. Correct placement of V1 improved placement of other electrodes. Improved initial and refresher training should focus on identification of landmarks and correct placement of V1.

Propensity for social surfing among the Russian youth: Regional specificity

Introduction. The phenomenon of social surfing, as a specific mobility strategy, largely determines the life of Y and Z generations, and creates an ambiguous context in terms of threats and opportunities for the formation of life trajectories of Russian youth. This actualised the search for theoretical and methodological foundations of understanding and practical tools for assessing the state of this problem, which, in turn, made it possible to scale this phenomenon in the context of the modern youth environment in Russia.The aim of the present research was to identify the degree of loyalty and potential tendency to use the “social surfing” strategy by the representatives of young people in Russian regions, taking into account the assessment of the approval of gender models of this behaviour strategy.Research methodology, methods and techniques. The methodological framework for describing the phenomenon of social surfing is based on the social topology of M. Castells, the het-erological concept of the rhizome by J. Deleuze and F. Guattari, the philosophy of mobility by J. Urry, Z. Bauman, U. Beck, the theory of transitivity (E. M. Dubovskaya, T. D. Martsinkovskaya, E. A. Kiselev), the studies of the specifics of youth identity and self-realisation in social space (M. C. Schippers, N. Ziegler, M. Loreto Martmez, P. Cumsille, A. K. Vikulov, T. V. Plotnikova and others) and the modern concepts of happiness (M. Argyll, D. A. Leontiev, A. L. Zhuravlev and others) The study was conducted in different regions of Russia (Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Glazov) using psychodiagnostic methodology “Propensity to social surfing of young people” developed by the authors. The study involved young people (N = 510 people aged 18-27 years old, among them female - 68 %, male - 32 %).Results and scientific novelty. It was found that 11.2 % of young men and women approve of social surfing, evaluate its behavioural model as positive and allow similar options for choosing their own life trajectory. Comparative analysis revealed significant differences in loyalty to the social surfing strategy among young people living in different regions of the Russian Federation: the greatest loyalty was manifested by the young residents of Ekaterinburg, Glazov, and Kazan, while the residents of Chelyabinsk predominantly demonstrated a negative attitude to this strategy. The respondents showed an unequal attitude towards male and female social surfing models: with a relatively condescending attitude towards the male model, social surfing of women is frowned upon and is associated with weakness and statement. Meanwhile, the approval of the male model of social surfing creates certain risks of marginalisation and value-semantic anomie among young people.The practical significance of the conducted research is due to the potential possibilities of using the data obtained for choosing approaches to work with young people in the conditions of their high mobility, as well as for creating educational and professional trajectories.

The Feminine Paradigm of Culture in Alice Voinescu’s Conception

"The Feminine Paradigm of Culture in Alice Voinescu’s Conception. Alice Voinescu, the first Romanian woman to obtain a PhD in Philosophy, proposed a female cultural paradigm in the conferences she held between 1933-1943, in the context of the women’s emancipation movement of the interwar period. In her view, the male model of knowledge, based on abstract thinking, must be permanently conjoined with the female one, based on intuition and affect, in a totalizing, modern perspective. The salvation of the “eternal human” through the “eternal feminine”, characterized by respect for tradition and continuity both in culture and in society, represents an alternative for materialistic civilization, which is the outcome of the male cognitive pattern. Keywords: Alice Voinescu, femininity, feminism, spirituality, masculine, culture, generation, new man "

Man-made man: The role of the fashion photograph in the development of masculinity

As a former male model and fashion photographer, I am fascinated by the visual representation of masculinity. Currently, this representation is in the midst of a shift away from traditional, singular notions of masculinity towards a more diverse and inclusive representation. This article looks to analyse the role of fashion photography in the changing landscape of masculinity in male fashion photographs. I will be examining the historic creation of singular hegemonic masculine ideals and comparing them to current representations in male fashion photography, which have become more complex and inclusive of gestures and elements that were once ascribed to non-normative ideals. My research has uncovered the role of authors who create male fashion photographs and the process they follow in the creation of new narratives that are more diverse in the current climate of accelerated digitized media.

A Method to Use Kriging With Large Sets of Control Points to Morph Finite Element Models of the Human Body

As developing finite element (FE) human body models for automotive impact is a time-consuming process, morphing using interpolation methods such as kriging has often been used to rapidly generate models of different shapes and sizes. Kriging can be computationally expensive when many control points (CPs) are used, i.e., for very detailed target geometry (e.g., shape of bones and skin). It can also lead to element quality issues (up to inverted elements) preventing the use of the morphed models for finite element simulation. This paper presents a workflow combining iterative subsampling and spatial subdivision methodology that effectively reduces the computational costs and allows for the generation of usable models through kriging with hundreds of thousands of control points. As subdivision introduces discontinuities in the interpolation function that can cause distortion of elements on the boundaries of individual subdivision areas, algorithms for smoothing the interpolation over those boundaries are proposed and compared. Those techniques and their combinations were tested and evaluated in a scenario of mass change on the detailed 50th percentile male model of the global human body models consortium (GHBMC): the model, which has body mass index (BMI) 25.34, was morphed toward a statistical surface model of a person with body mass index 20, 22.7 and 35. 234 777 control points were used to successfully morph the model in less than 15 min on an office PC. Open source implementation is provided.

The Reliability of Individual Differences in VOT Imitation

Recent work has shown that individuals vary in phonetic behaviors in ways that deviate from group norms and are not attributable to sociolinguistically relevant dimensions such as gender or social class. However, it is unknown whether these individual differences observed in the lab are stable characteristics of individuals or whether they simply reflect noise or sporadic fluctuations. This study investigates the individual-level stability in imitation of a model talker’s artificially-lengthened VOT. We use a test–retest design in which the same set of participants perform the same lexical shadowing task on two separate occasions and find that degree of convergence or divergence is highly correlated on an individual basis across visits. Further, we find a strong correlation between individual VOT shifts toward a male model talker and shifts toward a female model talker. Findings contribute to a growing body of literature suggesting that averaging over groups of participants masks the complexity of phonetic behaviors, such as imitation, and suggest that individual differences in phonetic behavior are an area of promising future study.