Can robots lie? A posthumanist approach to robotic animals and deceptive practices in dementia care.

Robotic animals are designed to resemble real, living animals, but at the same time, dementia care guidelines and policies often emphasize the value of transparency in relation to robots-people should not be led to believe that robots have capacities that they in fact lack. However, it is not obvious how to separate truth from lies in everyday care practice. Based on participant observations and interviews with certified assistant nurses and nursing assistants in Swedish nursing homes for people with dementia, this article studies how robotic animals become "real" in care practice.

Making robots matter in dementia care: Conceptualising the triadic interaction between caregiver, resident and robot animal.

While previous research studies have focused on either caregivers' or residents' perception and use of social robots, this article offers an empirical and theoretical examination of joint activities in triadic human-robot interaction. The symptomatology of dementia creates an asymmetrical relation wherein the impetus to employ a robot often originates from the caregiver. Drawing on field work and video recorded interactions in dementia care homes, the article investigates how caregivers draw on embodied resources to involve residents and robot animals in interaction.

Robotic misinformation in dementia care: emotions as sense-making resources in residents' encounters with robot animals.

Robot animals, designed to mimic living beings, pose ethical challenges in the context of caring for vulnerable patients, specifically concerning deception. This paper explores how emotions become a resource for dealing with the misinformative nature of robot animals in dementia care homes. Based on observations of encounters between residents, care workers, and robot animals, the study shows how persons with dementia approach the ambiguous robots as either living beings, material artifacts, or something in-between.

Racemic Ketamine as an Alternative to Electroconvulsive Therapy for Unipolar Depression: A Randomized, Open-Label, Non-Inferiority Trial (KetECT).

Background: Ketamine has emerged as a fast-acting and powerful antidepressant, but no head to head trial has been performed, Here, ketamine is compared with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), the most effective therapy for depression.

Methods: Hospitalized patients with unipolar depression were randomized (1:1) to thrice-weekly racemic ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) infusions or ECT in a parallel, open-label, non-inferiority study.

Interfacial Behavior of n-decyl-beta-D-maltopyranoside on hydrophobic interfaces and the effect of small amounts of surface-active impurities.

The effect of small amounts of surface-active impurities on the interfacial properties of n-decyl-beta-D-maltopyranoside was investigated using various methods. The n-Decyl-beta-D-maltopyranoside was used both as received from Sigma (<98% by GC) and after being purified with the surfactant-purifying apparatus developed by Lunkenheimer, which removes impurities that are more surface active than the major component. Surface tension measurements demonstrate that the surface elasticity of the surfactant-loaded liquid-vapor interface increased after purification.

Soluble monolayers of n-decyl glucopyranoside and n-decyl maltopyranoside. Phase changes in the gaseous to the liquid-expanded range.

To examine the transition from the gaseous to the liquid-expanded monolayer state, surface tension data were recorded for n-decyl beta-d-glucopyranoside (Glu) and n-decyl beta-d-maltopyranoside (Mal) solutions at low concentrations and at different temperatures. Comparisons were also made with n-decyl beta-d-thiomaltopyranoside (S-Mal) solutions at room temperature. The transitions observed occur at very low concentrations and surface pressures, about 0.

Headgroup and hydrocarbon tail effects on the surface tension of sugar-based surfactant solutions.

Measurements of surface tension isotherms were conducted for water solutions of pure and mixed n-decyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside (C(10)-Glu) and n-decyl-beta-d-maltopyranoside (C(10)-Mal) surfactants. By applying the Gibbs surface tension equation, the surface densities of Glu and Mal were derived for different compositions and concentrations. The surface fractions were compared with theoretically calculated values where the headgroups were modeled as hard disks.

n-Decyl-glucopyranoside and n-decyl-maltopyranoside gibbs monolayers. Phase changes in the dilute liquid-expanded range.

Surface tension isotherms were recorded for n-decyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside (Glu) and n-decyl-beta-D-maltopyranoside (Mal) solutions at temperatures of 8, 22, and 29 degrees C. Comparison was made with isotherms of n-decyl-beta-D-thiomaltopyranoside (S-Mal) at 22 degrees C. In addition to the transition from the gaseous to the liquid-expanded (LE) state, a second transition was observed in the early stages of the LE regime for Glu, Mal, and S-Mal at room temperature.

Testing the Gouy-Chapman theory by means of surface tension measurements for SDS-NaCl-H2O mixtures.

Surface tension isotherms were measured for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at different concentrations of added salt (NaCl). The free energy of the surfactant monolayer was assessed by invoking the Gouy-Chapman theory for the charged head groups, the hydrophobic (Tanford) free energy of transfer of the hydrocarbon chain, and the hydrocarbon chain configurational free energy according to Gruen's calculations and finally macroscopic contact terms. In particular, the effect of an increased salt concentration in bulk was examined.