Richard J. Owellen

A series of Vinca alkaloids were found to block polymerization of crude tubulin extracts of porcine brain in a dose-dependent manner. This appears to be a specific effect occurring at low concentrations of drug. The concentration of vinblastine that prevents polymerization by 50% was 4.3 x 10(-7) mole/liter for a tubulin concentration of 3.0 mg/ml, and this concentration is consistent with levels achieved in vivo following routine pharmacological doses in humans.

<p>We demonstrate the longest bidirectional and unrepeatered SOA-based transmission of 16x10Gbit/s DPSK-channels over single-mode fiber. DPSK constant-envelope prevents Cross-Gain Modulation in SOA-boosters. A new type of WDM-DSPK demodulator strongly enhances the signal tolerance to chromatic dispersion.</p>

In many future social interactions between robots and humans, robots may need to convince people to change their behavior. People may dislike and resist such persuasive attempts, a phenomenon known as psychological reactance. This paper examines how reactance, measured in terms of negative cognitions and feelings of anger, is affected by the persuading agent's social agency cues and the level of controlling language used. Participants played a decision-making game in which a persuasive agent attempted to influence their choices exhibiting high or low controlling language, and three different levels of social agency. Results suggest that controlling language will lead to increased reactance when the persuasive agent does not exhibit social cues. Surprisingly, reactance is not affected by controlling language in the same way when the persuading agent is a social robot exhibiting social cues.