Evaluating Competing Agent Strategies for a Voice Email Agent

This paper reports experimental results comparing a mixed-initiative to a system-initiative dialog strategy in the context of a personal voice email agent. To independently test the effects of dialog strategy and user expertise, users interact with either the system-initiative or the mixed-initiative agent to perform three successive tasks which are identical for both agents. We report performance comparisons across agent strategies as well as over tasks. This evaluation utilizes and tests the PARADISE evaluation framework, and discusses the performance function derivable from the experimental data.Comment: 6 pages latex, uses icassp91.sty, psfi

Estimation of pre-eruptive magmatic water fugacity in the Phlegrean Fields, Naples, Italy

International audienceWe estimated the water fugacity (fH(2)O) in the trachytic magma of Phlegrean Fields using the biotite-magnetite-sanidine equilibrium. We confirm that the partly ionic model is the most appropriate to estimate annite activity (a(annite)) for the experimental biotite. Crystallization experiments were carried out on a representative sample of trachytic Breccia Museo eruption, Naples, Italy. Experiments were performed in the temperature and pressure range or 725-870 degrees C and 50-200 MPa, and redox conditions ranging from NNO (nickel- nickel oxide) + 1 (+/- 0.2) to FMQ (fayalite + magnetite + quartz). Most experiments were done under conditions of H2O saturation (P-water = P-total). Few experiments were done using a mixed H2O-CO2 fluid phase. The pre-eruptive fH(2)O of the Phlegrean Fields magma is estimated at 735 bars, which compares well with available melt inclusion constraints. Our results confirm that this geohygrometer can be used in any magmatic systems bearing the worked assemblage

Experimental cannibalization of plagioclase by alkaline basalt magmas

Time-series crystallization/dissolution experiments were conducted on a natural potassic basalt seeded with bytownitic plagioclases (Plg) at atmospheric pressure, in air, at 1180- 1240 °C and isothermal dwell time up to 20 hours. Plg-seed presence promotes the early formation of new-Plg, dampening the clinopyroxene (Cpx) crystallization. New-Plgs grow at a rate from 10-6 up to 10-8 cm·s-1 as the dwell time increases. Seeds overgrow at similar rate. Cpx crystallizes with a delay of at least 3 hours; this has a significant impact on the composition of both residual melt and new-Plgs. For undercooling >35 °C the Cpx delay causes a strong supersaturation of this phase in the melt resulting in a decrease in the new-Plg nucleation rate by 2 orders of magnitude in the 3 h-experiment. In the 15h-run, Cpx coarsening and the decrease of crystallinity suggest the achievement of a near-equilibrium conditions. Cpx growth rate is in the order of 10-7 cm·s-1 showing very limited variation. Finally, for the investigated superheating (5-15 °C) only the long lasting experiments allows an estimation of Plg dissolution rate (10-9 cm·s-1) although changes in the melt composition are already detectable in the 3h-runs. As a whole our results suggest that in natural systems, the takeover of antecrysts/ xenocrysts by a magma can induce on a short time scales, changes in its initial nucleation behavior with remarkable petrological implications for the solidification paths and eruptive dynamics of potassic magmatic systems

Crystallization Kinetics of Alkali Feldspar in Peralkaline Rhyolitic Melts: Implications for Pantelleria Volcano

Peralkaline rhyolites, associated with extensional tectonic settings, are medium to low viscosity magmas that often produce eruptive styles ranging from effusive to highly explosive eruptions. The role of pre-eruptive conditions and crystallization kinetics in influencing the eruptive style of peralkaline rhyolitic magmas has been investigated and debated considering equilibrium conditions. However, experimental constraints on the effect of disequilibrium in crystallization in such magmas are currently lacking in the literature. Therefore, we performed isobaric cooling experiments to investigate alkali feldspar crystallization kinetics in peralkaline rhyolitic melts. Experiments were performed under water-saturated, water-undersaturated, and anhydrous conditions between 25 and 100 MPa, at 670–790°C and with experimental durations ranging from 0.5 to 420 h. Here we present the first data on crystallization kinetics of alkali feldspar, which is the main crystal phase in peralkaline rhyolitic melts, in order to improve our understanding of the evolutionary timescales of these melts and their ability to shift between effusive and explosive activity. Our experimental results indicate that the alkali feldspar nucleation delay can range from hours to several days as a function of undercooling and H2O content in the melt. Thus, a peralkaline rhyolitic magma can be stored at the pre-eruptive conditions for days without important variations of its crystal fraction. This suggests that crystallization may not necessarily play the main role in triggering fragmentation during explosive eruptions of peralkaline rhyolitic magmas

Chemical zonation in olivine-hosted melt inclusions

Significant zonation in major, minor, trace, and volatile elements has been documented in naturally glassy olivine-hosted melt inclusions from the Siqueiros Fracture Zone and the Galapagos Islands. Components with a higher concentration in the host olivine than in the melt (e.g., MgO, FeO, Cr_2O_3, and MnO) are depleted at the edges of the zoned melt inclusions relative to their centers, whereas except for CaO, H_2O, and F, components with a lower concentration in the host olivine than in the melt (e.g., Al_2O_3, SiO_2, Na_2O, K_2O, TiO_2, S, and Cl) are enriched near the melt inclusion edges. This zonation is due to formation of an olivine-depleted boundary layer in the adjacent melt in response to cooling and crystallization of olivine on the walls of the melt inclusions, concurrent with diffusive propagation of the boundary layer toward the inclusion center. Concentration profiles of some components in the melt inclusions exhibit multicomponent diffusion effects such as uphill diffusion (CaO, FeO) or slowing of the diffusion of typically rapidly diffusing components (Na_2O, K_2O) by coupling to slow diffusing components such as SiO_2 and Al_2O_3. Concentrations of H_2O and F decrease toward the edges of some of the Siqueiros melt inclusions, suggesting either that these components have been lost from the inclusions into the host olivine late in their cooling histories and/or that these components are exhibiting multicomponent diffusion effects. A model has been developed of the time-dependent evolution of MgO concentration profiles in melt inclusions due to simultaneous depletion of MgO at the inclusion walls due to olivine growth and diffusion of MgO in the melt inclusions in response to this depletion. Observed concentration profiles were fit to this model to constrain their thermal histories. Cooling rates determined by a single-stage linear cooling model are 150–13,000 °C h^(−1) from the liquidus down to ~1,000 °C, consistent with previously determined cooling rates for basaltic glasses; compositional trends with melt inclusion size observed in the Siqueiros melt inclusions are described well by this simple single-stage linear cooling model. Despite the overall success of the modeling of MgO concentration profiles using a single-stage cooling history, MgO concentration profiles in some melt inclusions are better fit by a two-stage cooling history with a slower-cooling first stage followed by a faster-cooling second stage; the inferred total duration of cooling from the liquidus down to ~1,000 °C ranges from 40 s to just over 1 h. Based on our observations and models, compositions of zoned melt inclusions (even if measured at the centers of the inclusions) will typically have been diffusively fractionated relative to the initially trapped melt; for such inclusions, the initial composition cannot be simply reconstructed based on olivine-addition calculations, so caution should be exercised in application of such reconstructions to correct for post-entrapment crystallization of olivine on inclusion walls. Off-center analyses of a melt inclusion can also give results significantly fractionated relative to simple olivine crystallization. All melt inclusions from the Siqueiros and Galapagos sample suites exhibit zoning profiles, and this feature may be nearly universal in glassy, olivine-hosted inclusions. If so, zoning profiles in melt inclusions could be widely useful to constrain late-stage syneruptive processes and as natural diffusion experiments

Fatty acids and triacylglycerols profiles from sicilian (Cold pressed vs. soxhlet) grape seed oils

Among the Sicilian economic productive sectors, that of wine production has today a considerable economic value. However, with the growth of this sector, notable was the increase in the production of waste, which to date is not only an economic damage for companies, but also a threat to the environment. It is known that waste from wine production has properties (e.g., antioxidants) which have potential reuse at cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutritional levels to obtain economically sustainable applications. A new goal is given by the recovery of added value compounds from agri-food wastes and by-products. Grape seed oil is a promising vegetable fat and cold pressing does not involve the use of chemicals, which are harmful to health. It implies that cold-pressed seed oils may contain phytochemicals, as well as natural antioxidants, more than refined oils. In this context, this works aims at studying the chemical characterization (triglycerides profile and composition in fatty acids) of grape seed oils obtained from Soxhlet and cold pressed extraction from Sicilian red grape seeds and white grape seeds. The possibility of obtaining high yields of triglycerides and fatty acids from the waste of wine production through new extraction methods would open up new perspectives for the reuse of waste in a human and animal food context. The results of this work allow the opening up of new perspectives to reuse and then reduce these wastes, helping not only to reduce the damage to the environment and costs for companies but also to create a new product that is environmentally sustainable and with an important economic value