Towards a Context-Aware Intelligent Assistant for Multimodal Exploratory Visualization Dialogue

Visualization is a core component of exploring data, providing a guided search through the data to gain meaningful insight and verify hypotheses. However it is also cognitively demanding to construct visualizations particularly for users that are novice to visualization. Such users tend to struggle translating hypotheses and relevant questions into data attributes, only select familiar plot types such as bar, line, and pie charts, and can misinterpret visualizations once they are created. Although visualization tools can alleviate these problems by performing some of the decision making for constructing the visualization, the software interface for these tools requires a steep learning curve. Rooted on the commercial success of natural language processing in technologies such as iPhone, Android, and Alexa, there has been an increased focus on building natural language interfaces to assist the user in data exploration. The broader goal of our research is towards developing a natural language interface implemented using dialogue system architecture capable of conversing with humans through language and hand pointing gestures. In this thesis, we highlight our approach to modeling the dialogue. In particular, we built a multi-modal dialogue corpus for exploring data visualizations, capturing user speech and hand gestures during the conversation. As part of this work we also developed the natural language interface capable of processing speech and gesture using multimodal interfaces. Evaluation of our visualization system shows it is effective in interpreting speech and pointing gestures as well as generating appropriate visualizations with real subjects in a live environment. We also focused on advanced models for language processing. We modeled user intent by informing our language interpretation module of the nearby utterances with respect to the current request to give it context for the interpretation. We also addressed the small size of our corpus by developing a paraphrasing approach to augment its size, leading to improvement in predicting the user intent. Since the user can switch between request and thinking aloud we also modeled the ability to differentiate between them and used that to segment incoming utterances into the request and surrounding think aloud. Finally, we developed an approach to recognize visualization-referring language and pointing gestures and resolve them to the appropriate target visualization on the screen, as well as create new visualizations using the referred-to visualization as a template. We performed intrinsic evaluation of these individual models as well as an incremental evaluation of the end-to-end system, indicating effectiveness in predicting user intent as well as recognizing and resolving visualization-referring language and pointing gestures

Additional file 5: Table S3. of MicroRNA expression in bone marrow-derived human multipotent Stromal cells

Common miRNA Sequences Expressed by 8 Different Donors at Three Passages. (XLS 38 kb

Additional file 6: Figure S2. of MicroRNA expression in bone marrow-derived human multipotent Stromal cells

The mean absolute difference between cancer and MSC expression of samples versus the technical variability cutoffs of A) within chip; and B) between chips. C) Signal distribution of the negative controls used to determine the background cutoff. (JPEG 674 kb

Additional file 4: Figure S1. of MicroRNA expression in bone marrow-derived human multipotent Stromal cells

Boxplots representing the miRNA signal distribution of the A) raw data; B) AFE-TGS normalized data; and C) quantile normalized data. Kernel density plots for the distribution of the D) within chip technical variability; and E) between chip technical variability for both AFE-TGS and quantile normalized data. Mean expression per miRNA sequence for the quantile normalized data versus the F) within chip technical variability; and G) between chip technical variability. (JPEG 816 kb

ANK Magazine Vol1

ANK aims at being a medium that is easy and cheap to print, read and (re)distribute among students at any of the schools.We have designed the magazine in a way that all the content fits onto a single A4 sheet and can be printed and distributed for just Re.1 per copy by anyone

Why Does CuFeS₂ Resemble Gold?

While several potential applications of CuFeS₂ quantum dots have already been reported, doubts regarding their optical and physical properties persist. In particular, it is unclear if the quantum dot material is metallic, a degenerately doped semiconductor, or else an intrinsic semiconductor material. Here we examine the physical properties of CuFeS₂ quantum dots in order to address this issue. Specifically, we study the bump that is observed in the optical spectra of these quantum dots at ∼500 nm. Using a combination of structural and optical characterization methods, ultrafast spectroscopy, as well as electronic structure calculations, we ascertain that the unusual purple color of CuFeS₂ quantum dots as well the golden luster of CuFeS₂ films arise from the existence of a plasmon resonance in these materials. While the presence of free carriers causes this material to resemble gold, surface treatments are also described to suppress the plasmon resonance altogether

A 2D Co(II) coordination polymer based on 1,3,5-tris(1H-imidazol-1-yl)benzene: photocatalytic properties and theoretical analysis

<p>A new 2D Co(II) based coordination polymer (CP), {[Co₂(tib)₂(NO₃)₃(H₂O)₂·NO₃]_n (<b>1</b>), has been synthesized using 1,3,5-tris(1-imidazolyl)benzene (tib) ligand. The single crystal X-ray diffraction study indicates that <b>1</b> possesses an infinite 2D layer, which is further extended into a 3D supramolecular network <i>via</i> O–H···O hydrogen bonding interactions. Additionally, the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of CP indicates its decomposition temperature was about 268 °C. The UV/Vis diffuse-reflection spectrum of <b>1</b> indicates its semiconducting nature on the basis of which the photocatalytic properties of <b>1</b> against photodecomposition of organic dyes have been studied. The possible mechanism associated with the photocatalytic activity of <b>1</b> against organic dyes is addressed using density of states (DOS) calculations.</p

A fluorescent Cd(II) based 2-D coordination polymer for highly selective detection of nitroaromatics and Hg²⁺

<p>A 2-D Cd(II) coordination polymer (CP), {[Cd₂(L)₂(4,4′-bipy)₂(H₂O)∙7H₂O]_n (<b>1</b>), has been synthesized using 5-aminoisophthalic acid (H₂L) as ligand and 4,4′-bipyridine as co-ligand. A single-crystal X-ray diffraction study shows that <b>1</b> is an infinite 2-D layer. CP <b>1</b> behaves as a highly selective and sensitive fluorescence chemosensor for detection of Hg²⁺ and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Furthermore, possible emission quenching in <b>1</b> in the presence of nitroaromatics has been addressed with the aid of theoretical calculations. The calculations indicated that there are both electron and energy transfer processes, in addition to electrostatic interaction between <b>1</b> and nitroaromatics which contributes to the selective fluorescence quenching.</p

A 2D Cd(II)-MOF as a multifunctional luminescencent sensor for nitroaromatics, iron(III) and chromate ions

<p>A Cd(II)-MOF, {[Cd(L)(4,4′-bipy)]·H₂O·DMF}_n (<b>1</b>) (L = nicotinic acid (2,4-dihydroxybenzylidene)-hydrazide and 4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine), has been synthesized and characterized by microanalyses, FTIR, TGA, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Additionally, powder X-ray diffraction was performed to check the phase purity of the synthesized compound. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals that <b>1</b> has a 2D grid network. Photoluminescent sensing of nitrobenzene, Fe(III) and CrO₄²⁻ ions indicates that <b>1</b> could be a candidate for developing selective luminescent sensors for these species. Theoretical calculations have been performed to gain insight into the possible mechanism of quenching effect in emission on addition of nitrobenzene in <b>1</b> which supports the mechanism operating through ground state charge transfer between <b>1</b> and nitrobenzene.</p

Efficient photocatalytic degradation of methyl violet with two metall–organic frameworks

<p>Two metal–organic frameworks, [Co₂(L)(H₂O)₂(4,4′-bipy)]·3CH₃CN (<b>1</b>) and [Mn₂(L)(1,10-phen)(H₂O)]·H₂O (<b>2</b>) (H₄L = 5-[bis(4-carboxybenzyl)-amino]isophthalic acid; 4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine, 1,10-phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), with two different N-donor ligands have been synthesized. The structures of both MOFs were determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction technique. MOF <b>1</b> shows 3D uncommon (4,6,6)-c net with (4.5³.6²)₂(5⁷.6⁶.8²)(4².5⁴.6⁶.7².8) topology while in the case of <b>2</b>, only L⁴⁻ ligands link Mn(II) ions into a 2D layer structure with chelating 1,10-phen ligand. The results demonstrate that variation in the N-donor ligands plays a pivotal role in deciding the framework of the two MOFs. Both MOFs have been exploited as photocatalyst materials for the degradation of MV. The photocatalysis results indicate that the two MOFs are stable and are prospective candidates for degradation of methyl violet under UV light irradiation. Additionally, <b>2</b> displayed superior photocatalytic activity in comparison to <b>1</b>. The probable photocatalytic activity mechanism for both <b>1</b> and <b>2</b> against MV has been proposed using density of states (DOS) calculations.</p