Previous research shows that eating together (i.e., commensality) impacts food choice, time spent eating, and enjoyment. Conversely, alone is considered a possible cause of unhappiness. In this paper, we conceptually explore how interactive technology might allow for the creation artificial commensal companions: embodied agents providing company to humans during meals (e.g., person living in is...

Past research with 152 preschoolers found that having an imaginary companion or impersonating an imaginary character was positively correlated with theory of mind performance. Three years later, 100 children from this study were retested to assess the developmental course of play with imaginary companions and impersonation of imaginary characters and how these types of role play were related to...

We carried out a search for companions to B stars using the adaptive optics system of the Advanced ElectroOptical System 3.6 m telescope. We observed 70 B stars in the I band, finding 16 companions, 10 of which are newly discovered companions. For each system with a detected companion we give its measured astrometry and differential magnitude. We then put the observation in context of the syste...

Acute care of stroke victims largely relies on the rapid identification and timely clinical and radiological assessment. We evaluated the effect of the number of patient companions on the efficiency of the diagnostic process in the emergency department (ED). Consecutive stroke patients admitted to the ED between August 2011 and October 2012 were evaluated. Clinical, epidemiological, and timelin...

Aims. We aim to detect and characterize substellar companions to K giant stars to further our knowledge of planet formation and stellar evolution of intermediate-mass stars. Methods. For more than a decade we have used Doppler spectroscopy to acquire high-precision radial velocity measurements of K giant stars. All data for this survey were taken at Lick Observatory. Our survey includes 373 G a...

We focus on an affective aspect of communications by e-mail. In this study university students communicated their information to anonymous companions by e-mail to examine the relations between their affective traits, affective states and affective interpretations. Before the e-mail communication, as the affective traits, they were asked to give the frequencies of 12 affects that they experience...

The aim of the Degenerate Objects around Degenerate Objects (DODO) survey is to search for very low mass brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets in wide orbits around white dwarfs via direct imaging. The direct detection of such companions would allow the spectroscopic investigation of objects with temperatures much lower (< 500 K) than the coolest brown dwarfs currently observed. These ultra–low m...

We present VLT-FORS2 optical (5700-9400 Å) spectroscopy of close (r < 1.5 ") companions to three nearby (d < 200 pc) Herbig Ae/Be stars (HD 144432, HD 150193, KK Oph) and one T Tauri star (S CrA). We report the detection of Li I (6707 Å) in absorption and emission lines (H α , Ca II triplet) in the spectra of the companions. Our observations strongly suggest that the companions are physically a...

We present results from an adaptive optics survey for substellar and stellar companions to Sun-like stars. The survey targeted 266 F5–K5 stars in the 3 Myr to 3 Gyr age range with distances of 10– 190 pc. Results from the survey include the discovery of two brown dwarf companions (HD 49197B and HD 203030B), 24 new stellar binaries, and a triple system. We infer that the frequency of 0.012– 0.07...

Aims. We present the results of near-infrared, follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations at VLT, aimed at characterizing the long-period companions of the exoplanet host stars HD 196885, HD 1237 and HD 27442. The three companions were previously discovered in the course of our CFHT and VLT coronographic imaging survey dedicated to the search for faint companions of exoplanet host stars. ...