Harmonizing Code-mixed Conversations: Personality-assisted Code-mixed Response Generation in Dialogues

Code-mixing, the blending of multiple languages within a single conversation, introduces a distinctive challenge, particularly in the context of response generation. Capturing the intricacies of code-mixing proves to be a formidable task, given the wide-ranging variations influenced by individual speaking styles and cultural backgrounds. In this study, we explore response generation within code-mixed conversations. We introduce a novel approach centered on harnessing the Big Five personality traits acquired in an unsupervised manner from the conversations to bolster the performance of response generation. These inferred personality attributes are seamlessly woven into the fabric of the dialogue context, using a novel fusion mechanism, PA3. It uses an effective two-step attention formulation to fuse the dialogue and personality information. This fusion not only enhances the contextual relevance of generated responses but also elevates the overall performance of the model. Our experimental results, grounded in a dataset comprising of multi-party Hindi-English code-mix conversations, highlight the substantial advantages offered by personality-infused models over their conventional counterparts. This is evident in the increase observed in ROUGE and BLUE scores for the response generation task when the identified personality is seamlessly integrated into the dialogue context. Qualitative assessment for personality identification and response generation aligns well with our quantitative results.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables. Accepted at EACL (findings) 202

Microfluidic Integrated Technology: A Potential Tool for Portable Radiation Biodosimetry

In the event of a mass radiological or nuclear incident, a large number of individuals would require rapid biodosimetric screening for proper medical care, mitigation and follow-up procedures. Mass radiological triage is critical after any such large-scale event because of the need for Dose assessment of suffered individuals at an early stage. With the increasing probability of such unprecedented incidents around the world, the need for modelling and development of new medical countermeasures for potential future chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear has been well established. Unfortunately, the capacity of most of these methods are still restricted to laboratory establishments due to resource limitations, need of high end expertise or general immobility of bulky instruments required for the same. So far there exists no rapid diagnostic technique that may reliably discriminate levels of ionising radiation exposure based on samples collected at a single time point. In classical clinical settings, complete blood count, particularly the lymphocyte count is based on temporal assessment. The diagnostic ‘gold standard’ in the field of radiation biodosimetry is the dicentric chromosome assay which happens to be highly labour-intensive and extensively time consuming, rendering it inefficient in case of mass casualty situations. Advanced technologies such as microfluidic platform, BioMEMS, μTAS carry the potential to make system highly portable, cost efficient and independent of high skilled expertise. In this review of the latest advances in portable biodosimetry we evaluate our progress and identify areas that still need to be addressed to achieve true field-deployment readiness

Utilizing Composted Jatropha & Neem cake and Tobacco Waste to sustain Garlic yields in Indo-Gangetic plains

The effect of composted Jatropha de-oiled cake, neem de-oiled cake and tobacco waste on morphological parameters like maximum leaf length, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of bulb and yield was studied for Garlic (Allium sativum L.). Trials were conducted on field plots under the RBD design. The parameters recorded for plants grown on soil treated with composted organic fertilizer treatments were compared to those recorded for plants grown on chemical fertilizer treated soil and control. The results showed that the application of 2 tones per hectare mixture of composted Jatropha cake and tobacco waste (in ratio 2:1) resulted in an increase of 22.88 % in fresh bulb weight, 29.52% in dried bulb weight per plant and 18.3% in average yield of bulb as compared to control. This yield enhancement was significantly higher than control and comparable to that recorded for plants grown on soil treated with chemical fertilizers. The significant increase in garlic yield on application of composted Jatropha cake and tobacco waste is due to the availability o

Efficacy of topical recombinant epidermal growth factor as compared to Povidone Iodine on chronic diabeic foot ulcers

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer is a common surgical complication in patient of diabetes mellitus. It is the most frequent reason for hospitalization for patients with diabetes. Still the ideal material for dressing is not known.  This study has been conducted to compare the efficacy of topical application of Povidone- Iodine with recombinant epidermal growth factor in  chronic diabetic foot ulcers of size 5 to 10 cm2. Methods: Diabetic foot ulcers which were non-healing for more than 3 months were  randomized into two groups of 30 each. Clinical examination of the ulcer and limb was  done. Ischemic ulcers, ulcers with gangrene or associated osteomyelitis were excluded. One group  had received Povidone iodine  (Betadine 10% solution) soaked dressing while other group was dressed with  Recombinant Epidermal Growth Factor gel (Eugraf 150 mcg gel) dressing  twice weekly for 12 weeks. At the end of twelve weeks ulcers were assessed for healing. Results:There were total 60 cases from Jan 2014 till Dec 2014. Age range from 45 to 70 yrs (mean age 55 yrs). There were 45 males and 15 females (M: F:  3:1).  The ulcers were developed  most commonly in foot in 48 patients ( 80%) followed by  in lower leg around ankle in 06 patients ( 10%)  and in 10 % of cases involved foot and leg both.  Six (20%) patients on Povidone- Iodine dressing group showed complete wound healing while 23 (76%) patients on recombinant epidermal growth factor dressing group showed complete wound healing. Dressing with recombinant epidermal growth factor is the more effective than Povidone iodine dressing (P<. 001). Average healing time for complete healing for completely healed ulcers was 11 weeks in  Povidone-Iodine Dressing and 8 weeks in Recombinant epidermal growth factor  dressing group. Conclusion: Recombinant epidermal growth factor dressing is the significantly effective dressing in comparison to Povidone-Iodine in diabetic foot  non healing ulcers of size 5 to 10 cm in size. Average time of complete healing of diabetic foot  non healing ulcers is less with topical application of Recombinant epidermal growth factor  soaked dressing as compared to Povidone – Iodine dressings

Factors associated with dietary adherence and quality of life in people with Coeliac Disease

Background Coeliac Disease (CD) is a chronic condition that is managed by adhering to a gluten-free diet. Factors such as food attitudes and behaviours are associated with dietary adherence and Quality of Life (QoL) in people with CD, however the role of perfectionism has not previously been investigated. Perfectionism is associated with lower QoL in people with other chronic health conditions and linked to lower levels of self-compassion. This study aims to explore the interrelationships and mediating effects between self-compassion, perfectionism, food attitudes and behaviours, on dietary adherence and QoL. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted where 458 international participants with CD completed an online questionnaire. Data were collected using the following measures: The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS), The Coeliac Disease Quality of Life survey (CD-QOL), The Celiac Dietary Adherence Test (CDAT), and The Coeliac Disease Food Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (CD-FAB). Results Pearson’s correlation showed significant associations between self-compassion, perfectionism and food attitudes and behaviours with dietary adherence, and only self-compassion predicted dietary adherence in a regression model. Pearson’s correlation also showed age, age of diagnosis, length of diagnosis, self-compassion, perfectionism, food attitudes and behaviours and dietary adherence had significant relationships with QoL. The regression model showed food attitudes and behaviours and dietary adherence significantly predicted QoL. There were no mediating variables that influenced dietary adherence or QoL. However, the direct relationships remained significant in the presence of the mediators. Conclusions This study demonstrates that self-compassion is an important psychological factor to consider in the management of CD and factors such as perfectionism and food attitudes and behaviours should be taken into consideration

Versatile roles of brassinosteroid in plants in the context of its homoeostasis, signaling and crosstalks

Brassinosteroids are a class of steroidal plant hormones that play diverse roles in plant growth and developmental processes. Recently, the easy availability of biological resources, and development of new molecular tools and approaches have provided the required impetus for deeper understanding of the processes involved in brassinosteroids biosynthesis, transport, signaling and degradation pathways. From recent studies it is also evident that brassinosteroids interact with other phytohormones such as auxin, cytokinin, ethylene, gibberellin, jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, salicylic acid and polyamine in regulating wide range of physiological and developmental processes in plants. The inputs from these studies are now being linked to the versatile roles of brassinosteroids. The present review highlights the conceptual development with regard to BR homeostasis, signaling and its crosstalk with other phytohormones. This information will assist in developing predictive models to modulate various useful traits in plants and address current challenges in agriculture