Examining the predictive relationship between personality and emotion traits and students’ agent-directed emotions: towards emotionally-adaptive agent-based learning environments

The current study examined the relationships between learners’ (\(N = 123\)) personality traits, the emotions they typically experience while studying (trait studying emotions), and the emotions they reported experiencing as a result of interacting with four pedagogical agents (agent-directed emotions) in MetaTutor, an advanced multi-agent learning environment. Overall, significant relationships between a subset of trait emotions (trait anger, trait anxiety) and personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) were found for four agent-directed emotions (enjoyment, pride, boredom, and neutral) though the relationships differed between pedagogical agents. These results demonstrate that some trait emotions and personality traits can be used to predict learners’ emotions directed toward specific pedagogical agents (with different roles). Results provide suggestions for adapting pedagogical agents to support learners’ (with certain characteristics; e.g., high in neuroticism or agreeableness) experience of adaptive emotions (e.g., enjoyment) and minimize their experience on non-adaptive emotions (e.g., boredom). Such an approach presents a scalable and easily implementable method for creating emotionally-adaptive, agent-based learning environments, and improving learner-pedagogical agent interactions in order to support learning.     

Sensor network algorithms and applications

A sensor network is a collection of nodes with processing, communication and sensing capabilities deployed in an area of interest to perform a monitoring task. There has now been about a decade of very active research in the area of sensor networks, with significant accomplishments made in terms of both designing novel algorithms and building exciting new sensing applications. This Theme Issue provides a broad sampling of the central challenges and the contributions that have been made towards addressing these challenges in the field, and illustrates the pervasive and central role of sensor networks in monitoring human activities and the environment.     

Quantitative analysis of deuterium in zircaloy using double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) and helium gas plasma without a sample chamber

A crucial safety measure to be strictly observed in the operation of heavy-water nuclear power plants is the mandatory regular inspection of the concentration of deuterium penetrated into the zircaloy fuel vessels. The existing standard method requires a tedious, destructive, and costly sample preparation process involving the removal of the remaining fuel in the vessel and melting away part of the zircaloy pipe. An alternative method of orthogonal dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) is proposed by employing flowing atmospheric helium gas without the use of a sample chamber. The special setup of ps and ns laser systems, operated for the separate ablation of the sample target and the generation of helium gas plasma, respectively, with properly controlled relative timing, has succeeded in producing the desired sharp D I 656.10 nm emission line with effective suppression of the interfering H I 656.28 nm emission by operating the ps ablation laser at very low output energy of 26 mJ and 1 μs ahead of the helium plasma generation. Under this optimal experimental condition, a linear calibration line is attained with practically zero intercept and a 20 μg/g detection limit for D analysis of zircaloy sample while creating a crater only 10 μm in diameter. Therefore, this method promises its potential application for the practical, in situ, and virtually nondestructive quantitative microarea analysis of D, thereby supporting the more-efficient operation and maintenance of heavy-water nuclear power plants. Furthermore, it will also meet the anticipated needs of future nuclear fusion power plants, as well as other important fields of application in the foreseeable future.     

Conditionals,Counterfactuals, and Rational Reasoning: An Experimental Study on Basic Principles

We present a unified approach for investigating rational reasoning about basic argument forms involving indicative conditionals, counterfactuals, and basic quantified statements within coherence-based probability logic. After introducing the rationality framework, we present an interactive view on the relation between normative and empirical work. Then, we report a new experiment which shows that people interpret indicative conditionals and counterfactuals by coherent conditional probability assertions and negate conditionals by negating their consequents. The data support the conditional probability interpretation of conditionals and the narrow-scope reading of the negation of conditionals. Finally, we argue that coherent conditional probabilities are important for probabilistic analyses of conditionals, nonmonotonic reasoning, quantified statements, and paradoxes.     

Evaluation of Lipophilic Antioxidant Efficacy in Vivo by the Biomarkers Hydroxyoctadecadienoic Acid and Isoprostane

The evaluation of antioxidant activity in vivo is difficult. In this study, the effects of dietary natural and synthetic antioxidants on the lipid peroxidation in mice were assessed using a biomarker, total hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (tHODE). Biological samples such as plasma, erythrocytes, and tissues were first reduced and then saponified to convert various oxidation products of linoleates to tHODE. Subsequently, the absolute concentration of tHODE and its stereoisomer ratio, [9- and 13-(Z,E)-HODE)/[9- and 13-(E,E)-HODE], which is a measure of the hydrogen donor capacity of antioxidants, were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses. These were then compared with total 8-iso-prostaglandin F_2α (t8-iso-PGF_2α) which was also assessed after reduction and saponification. Remarkable increases in tHODE and t8-iso-PGF_2α levels were observed in the plasma, erythrocytes, liver, and brain of mice that were fed an α-tocopherol (αT)-stripped (E-free) diet for 1 month when compared with those of mice that were fed a standard diet (αT = 0.002 wt%). When mice were fed for 1 month on an E-free diet supplemented with a lipophilic antioxidant (0.04 wt%), namely, αT, α-tocotrienol (αT3), γ-tocopherol (γT), or 2,3-dihydro-5-hydroxy-4,6-di-tert-butyl-2,2-dipentylbenzofuran (BO-653), a potent synthetic antioxidant, the increases of tHODE and t8-iso-PGF_2α in the plasma, erythrocytes, liver, and brain were suppressed to the levels lower than those of mice fed a standard diet. The (Z,E/E,E) HODE ratio was decreased in the plasma and erythrocytes of mice fed the E-free diet when compared with that in mice fed the standard diet. This stereo-isomeric ratio was significantly recovered by the addition of αT and BO-653. These results show that the tHODE level and the (Z,E/E,E) HODE ratio are useful biomarkers for the assessment of antioxidant capacity in vivo and that the antioxidant capacity decreased in the order: BO-653 > αT3 ≧ αT, γT, as assessed by tHODE levels from blood, liver, and brain.     

Delivery of cisplatin by folic acid-targeted liposomal nanoparticles into liver cancer cell line

This study aimed to prepare cisplatin-loaded PEGylated liposomal nanoparticles targeted with folic acid and evaluate their efficacy on liver cancer cell line PLC/PRF/5 (Alexander hepatoma cell line). Nanoparticles were prepared by reverse phase evaporation technique and characterized by dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide techniques. Nanoscale particles with appropriate drug encapsulation efficiency (13%) were prepared. Cytotoxicity results indicated that the superior potency of targeted cisplatin-loaded nanoparticles compared to the nontargeted counterpart with 23% more cytotoxicity. Findings of this study confirmed the potency of targeted PEGylated liposomal nanoparticles.     

Antioxidant action of a lipophilic nitroxyl radical,cyclohexane-1-spiro-2′-(4′-oxyimidazolidine-1′-oxyl)-5′-spiro-1″-cyclohexane,against lipid peroxidation under hypoxic conditions

Nitroxyl radicals are known to act as radical scavenging antioxidants. In the present study, a lipophilic nitroxyl radical, cyclohexane-1-spiro-2′-(4′-oxyimidazolidine-1′-oxyl)-5′-spiro-1″-cyclohexane (nitroxyl radical I) was synthesized and its antioxidant capacity was assessed in comparison with a hydrophilic nitroxyl radical, 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (Tempol). Both nitroxyl radical I and Tempol inhibited methyl linoleate oxidation induced by free radicals, and the efficacy increased with decreasing partial pressure of oxygen, the effect being more pronounced for nitroxyl radical I than Tempol. Their hydroxylamines inhibited lipid peroxidation more effectively than their corresponding parent nitroxyl radicals. In liposomal membranes, a synergistic effect was observed in the combination of nitroxyl radical I with ascorbic acid, whereas only an additive effect was observed between Tempol and ascorbic acid. The present study suggests that nitroxyl radical I and its hydroxylamine may act as potent antioxidants, especially in combination with ascorbic acid under hypoxic conditions.