Bandit algorithms to personalize educational chatbots

Machine Learning - To emulate the interactivity of in-person math instruction, we developed MathBot, a rule-based chatbot that explains math concepts, provides practice questions, and offers...     

Enhanced reaction kinetics and impact strength of cyanate ester reinforced with multiwalled carbon nanotubes

In this work, the effect of multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the properties of a unique, low viscosity bisphenol E cyanate ester (BECy) resin is characterized during various stages of nanocomposite preparation. The effect of surface functionalization, with nanotubes containing hydroxyl groups (OH CNTs) and carboxylic acid groups (COOH CNTs), on the rheological, cure, thermal, and impact properties of the nanocomposite properties are also examined. Based on rheology measurements prior to cure, the unfunctionalized nanotube suspensions are found to exhibit the highest viscosity and the most dramatic shear thinning behavior. Cure characterization using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) reveals that the nanotubes catalyze the cure of BECy and the OH CNTs exhibiting the most dramatic catalytic effect. The DSC data is well described by an nth order autocatalytic model. The impact strength of fully cured BECy is found to increase by 91% and 63% upon incorporation of 1 wt% COOH and OH CNTs, respectively. While incorporation of 1 wt% unfunctionalized nanotubes results in an 8 degrees C decrease in the glass transition temperature (T(g)) of BECy, chemical functionalization greatly mitigates the magnitude of the reduction.     

Improving TLB performance on current chip multiprocessor architectures through demand‐driven superpaging

Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLBs) can play a critical role in improving the performance of emerging parallel workloads. Most current chip multiprocessor systems include multilevel TLBs and provide support for superpages both at the hardware and software level. Judicious use of superpages can significantly cut down the number of TLB misses and improve overall system performance. However, indiscriminate superpage allocation results in page fragmentation and increased application footprint, which often outweigh the benefits of reduced TLB misses. Previous research has explored policies for smart allocation of superpages from an operating system perspective. This paper presents a compiler‐based strategy for automatic and profitable memory allocation via superpages. A significant advantage of a compiler‐based approach is the availability of data‐reuse information within an application. Our strategy employs data‐locality analysis to estimate the TLB demands for both single‐threaded and multi‐threaded programs and uses this metric to apply selective superpage allocation. Apart from its obvious utility in improving TLB performance, this strategy can be used to improve the effectiveness of certain data‐layout transformations and can be a useful tool in benchmarking and automatic performance tuning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy with experiments on three multicore platforms on a workload that contains both sequential and parallel applications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel and Annotated Long Noncoding RNAs Associated with Ischemia in the Human Heart

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to identify novel lncRNAs associated with the early response to ischemia in the heart. Methods and Results: RNA sequencing data gathered from 81 paired left ventricle samples from patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass was collected before and after a period of ischemia. Novel lncRNAs were validated with Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing. Gene modules associated with an early ischemic response were identified and the subcellular location of selected lncRNAs was determined with RNAscope. A total of 2446 mRNAs, 270 annotated lncRNAs and one novel lncRNA differed in response to ischemia (adjusted p < 0.001, absolute fold change >1.2). The novel lncRNA belonged to a gene module of highly correlated genes that also included 39 annotated lncRNAs. This module associated with ischemia (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.69, p = 1 × 10⁻²³) and activation of cell death pathways (p < 6 × 10⁻⁹). A further nine novel cardiac lncRNAs were identified, of which, one overlapped five cis-eQTL eSNPs for the gene RWD Domain-Containing Sumoylation Enhancer (RWDD3) and was itself correlated with RWDD3 expression (Pearson correlation coefficient −0.2, p = 0.002). Conclusion: We have identified 10 novel lncRNAs, one of which was associated with myocardial ischemia and may have potential as a novel therapeutic target or early marker for myocardial dysfunction.     

How long do Chinese Americans stay in psychotherapy?

A sample of 145 Chinese-American outpatient clients was analyzed to determine how long they would stay in psychotherapy when ethnic- and language-matched therapists were provided. Results indicate that the median duration of psychotherapy for this sample was 8 sessions. The mean duration was 12.00 sessions, and the dropout rate was 12.38%. The Chinese-American clients' length of psychotherapy was comparable to that of the general American public. The results also showed that a small percentage of clients made the majority of psychotherapy visits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Descriptive characteristics and length of psychotherapy of Chinese American clients seen in private practice.

Professional psychologists often have a need for information on the patterns of service accessing and service use by ethnic groups. Demographic characteristics and psychotherapy use of 229 Chinese American clients, seen in a Southern California private practice between 1989 and 1996, are described. Diagnostic evaluations of 27 assessment requests, 77 consultations, and 125 psychotherapy cases indicated that depressive disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, and relational problems were the most frequently presented problems. For the 125 treated cases, length of treatment ranged from 1–38 sessions with a median of 4 and mean of 5.98 sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Governing Decentralized Production: Institutions, Public Policy, and the Prospects for Inter-firm Collaboration in US Manufacturing

Much of the literature on the changing face of US manufacturing acknowledges that successful governance of decentralized production is vital to its future but questions whether in practice firms will engage in the collaborative relationships envisaged by optimistic theorists of a "new production paradigm". Our interview-based field research on large and small metalworking firms in the US upper Midwest shows that although large manufacturers are actively seeking to improve collaboration by sharing strategic information and engaging in joint design, pervasive organizational dysfunctions create systemic barriers to the fuller development of cooperative relations with suppliers. But these barriers do not appear insurmountable. The example of a Wisconsin policy experiment is used to demonstrate the viability of institutional solutions that can help resolve inter- and intra-organizational blockages, while encouraging manufacturing firms to follow through on the collaborative strategies they officially espouse.     

Electric field sensing with a hybrid polymer/glass fiber

We demonstrate the operation of an in-fiber electric field sensor. The sensor is fabricated with selective chemical etching of the core of a D-shaped optical fiber followed by the deposition of an electro-optic polymer (PMMA/DR1), which forms a hybrid core. The device demonstrates electromagnetic field sensitivity less than 100 V/m at a frequency of 2.9 GHz. Epi is estimated to be 60 MV/m with an insertion loss of 14.4 dB.