121 research outputs found
Democratizing Chatbot Debugging: A Computational Framework for Evaluating and Explaining Inappropriate Chatbot Responses
Evaluating and understanding the inappropriateness of chatbot behaviors can
be challenging, particularly for chatbot designers without technical
backgrounds. To democratize the debugging process of chatbot misbehaviors for
non-technical designers, we propose a framework that leverages dialogue act
(DA) modeling to automate the evaluation and explanation of chatbot response
inappropriateness. The framework first produces characterizations of
context-aware DAs based on discourse analysis theory and real-world
human-chatbot transcripts. It then automatically extracts features to identify
the appropriateness level of a response and can explain the causes of the
inappropriate response by examining the DA mismatch between the response and
its conversational context. Using interview chatbots as a testbed, our
framework achieves comparable classification accuracy with higher
explainability and fewer computational resources than the deep learning
baseline, making it the first step in utilizing DAs for chatbot response
appropriateness evaluation and explanation.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted to CUI 2023 poster trac
Charge Measurement of Cosmic Ray Nuclei with the Plastic Scintillator Detector of DAMPE
One of the main purposes of the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is to
measure the cosmic ray nuclei up to several tens of TeV or beyond, whose origin
and propagation remains a hot topic in astrophysics. The Plastic Scintillator
Detector (PSD) on top of DAMPE is designed to measure the charges of cosmic ray
nuclei from H to Fe and serves as a veto detector for discriminating gamma-rays
from charged particles. We propose in this paper a charge reconstruction
procedure to optimize the PSD performance in charge measurement. Essentials of
our approach, including track finding, alignment of PSD, light attenuation
correction, quenching and equalization correction are described detailedly in
this paper after a brief description of the structure and operational principle
of the PSD. Our results show that the PSD works very well and almost all the
elements in cosmic rays from H to Fe are clearly identified in the charge
spectrum.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure
A leaf vein-like hierarchical silver grids transparent electrode towards high-performance flexible electrochromic smart windows
Abstract(#br)As essential components of numerous flexible and wearable optoelectronic devices, the flexible transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) with sufficient optical transmittance and electric conductivity become more and more important. In this work, we fabricated a large-area flexible TCE based on leaf vein-like hierarchical metal grids (HMG) comprising of mesoscale “trunk” and microscale “branches”. The self-formed branched grids made the conducting paths distributing uniformly while the laser-etching trunk grids enabled to transport the collected electrons across long-distance. The Ag HMG exhibited high optical transmittance (~81%) with low sheet resistance (1.36 Ω sq –1 ), which could be simply optimized through adjusting the grids’ widths, spaces, and the sizes of the TiO 2 colloidal crackle patterns. In addition, on the basis of such advanced HMG electrode, flexible electrochromic devices (ECDs) with remarkable cyclic performance were fabricated. The HMG with high transparency, conductivity, and flexibility provides a promising TCE for the next-generation flexible and wearable optoelectronic devices
Nanofat lysate ameliorates pain and cartilage degradation of osteoarthritis through activation of TGF-β–Smad2/3 signaling of chondrocytes
Introduction: Nanofat is an effective cell therapy for osteoarthritis (OA). However, it has clinical limitations due to its short half-life. We developed Nanofat lysate (NFL) to overcome the defect of Nanofat and explore its anti-OA efficacy and mechanism.Methods: Monoiodoacetate (MIA) was employed to establish rat OA model. For pain assessment, paw withdrawal latency (PWL) and thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) were evaluated. Degeneration of cartilage was observed by histopathological and immunohistochemical examination. Primary chondrocytes were treated with TNF-α to establish the cellular model of OA. MTT, wound healing, and transwell assays were performed to assess effects of NFL on chondrocytes. RNA-seq, qPCR and Western blot assays were conducted to clarify the mechanism of NFL.Results and Discussion: The animal data showed that PWL and TWL values, Mankin’s and OARSI scorings, and the Col2 expression in cartilage were significantly improved in the NFL-treated OA rats. The cellular data showed that NFL significantly improved the proliferation, wound healing, and migration of chondrocytes. The molecular data showed that NFL significantly restored the TNF-α-altered anabolic markers (Sox9, Col2 and ACAN) and catabolic markers (IL6 and Mmp13). The RNA-seq identified that TGF-β-Smad2/3 signaling pathway mediated the efficacy of NFL, which was verified by qPCR and Western blot that NFL significantly restored the abnormal expressions of TGFβR2, phosphorylated-Smad2, phosphorylated-Smad2/3, Col2, Mmp13 and Mmp3. After long-term storage, NFL exerted similar effects as its fresh type, indicating its advantage of storability. In sum, NFL was developed as a new therapeutic approach and its anti-OA efficacy and mechanism that mediated by TGF-β-Smad2/3 signaling was determined for the first time. Besides, the storability of NFL provided a substantial advantage than other living cell-based therapies
Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in cold-chain transportation environments and the efficacy of disinfection measures
BackgroundLow temperature is conducive to the survival of COVID-19. Some studies suggest that cold-chain environment may prolong the survival of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and increase the risk of transmission. However, the effect of cold-chain environmental factors and packaging materials on SARS-CoV-2 stability remains unclear.MethodsThis study aimed to reveal cold-chain environmental factors that preserve the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and further explore effective disinfection measures for SARS-CoV-2 in the cold-chain environment. The decay rate of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus in the cold-chain environment, on various types of packaging material surfaces, i.e., polyethylene plastic, stainless steel, Teflon and cardboard, and in frozen seawater was investigated. The influence of visible light (wavelength 450 nm-780 nm) and airflow on the stability of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus at -18°C was subsequently assessed.ResultsExperimental data show that SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus decayed more rapidly on porous cardboard surfaces than on nonporous surfaces, including polyethylene (PE) plastic, stainless steel, and Teflon. Compared with that at 25°C, the decay rate of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus was significantly lower at low temperatures. Seawater preserved viral stability both at -18°C and with repeated freeze−thaw cycles compared with that in deionized water. Visible light from light-emitting diode (LED) illumination and airflow at -18°C reduced SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus stability.ConclusionOur studies indicate that temperature and seawater in the cold chain are risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and LED visible light irradiation and increased airflow may be used as disinfection measures for SARS-CoV-2 in the cold-chain environment
Validation of CyTOF Against Flow Cytometry for Immunological Studies and Monitoring of Human Cancer Clinical Trials
Flow cytometry is a widely applied approach for exploratory immune profiling and biomarker discovery in cancer and other diseases. However, flow cytometry is limited by the number of parameters that can be simultaneously analyzed, severely restricting its utility. Recently, the advent of mass cytometry (CyTOF) has enabled high dimensional and unbiased examination of the immune system, allowing simultaneous interrogation of a large number of parameters. This is important for deep interrogation of immune responses and particularly when sample sizes are limited (such as in tumors). Our goal was to compare the accuracy and reproducibility of CyTOF against flow cytometry as a reliable analytic tool for human PBMC and tumor tissues for cancer clinical trials. We developed a 40+ parameter CyTOF panel and demonstrate that compared to flow cytometry, CyTOF yields analogous quantification of cell lineages in conjunction with markers of cell differentiation, function, activation, and exhaustion for use with fresh and viably frozen PBMC or tumor tissues. Further, we provide a protocol that enables reliable quantification by CyTOF down to low numbers of input human cells, an approach that is particularly important when cell numbers are limiting. Thus, we validate CyTOF as an accurate approach to perform high dimensional analysis in human tumor tissue and to utilize low cell numbers for subsequent immunologic studies and cancer clinical trials
Early innate and adaptive immune perturbations determine long-term severity of chronic virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis coinfection.
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