Understanding Contradictions in Times of Change: A CHAT Analysis in an Art Museum

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Child-to-child interaction and corrective feedback during a tandem chat exchange project

L’objectif principal de cette recherche était d’examiner l’interaction entre élèves d’ALS et de FLS de sixième année du primaire du Québec et de l’Ontario communicant par clavardage et utilisant l’approche en Tandem. Plus spécifiquement, elle visait à vérifier si ces apprenants offraient de la rétroaction corrective et, le cas échéant, si cette dernière suscitait de la réparation. L’opinion des participants par rapport à leur expérience de communication en Tandem a été examinée. Les sessions de clavardage ont eu lieu sur une période de quatre mois produisant 16 séances de clavardage (8 en anglais et 8 en français). Les résultats montrent que des apprenants de langue seconde ont offert de la rétroaction corrective à 370 occasions. L’examen des données révèle que les sujets ont utilisé les trois types de rétroaction: la rétroaction explicite, la reformulation et la négociation de la forme. Contrairement à ce qui a pu être observé dans d’autres études antérieures impliquant de jeunes apprenants, une des découvertes majeures de cette recherche fut l’utilisation, par les participants, de la rétroaction explicite plutôt que la reformulation. Par contraste avec la recherche de Morris (2005) qui impliquait également de jeunes apprenants de niveau primaire utilisant le clavardage, le taux de réparation a été plutôt bas. La grande majorité des élèves d’ALS ont aimé utiliser l’ordinateur comme moyen d’apprentissage de leur L2 et de leur L1 contrairement aux élèves de FLS. Les implications pédagogiques des résultats de cette recherche ainsi que des suggestions pour de futures recherches sont également discutées.

Teaching by chat

This paper discusses some didactical aspects of chat usage for instructional purposes. Areas covered range from the choice of course type and student group for using chats, to the preparation and moderation of chats, and discussing how to manage both troublemaking students and systems. In February 1998 I was the chair of a committee at my previous university that was authoring a recommendation list about the Internet to the president of the school. One of our recommendations was to eliminate the IRC server (Internet Relay Chat), since it was only causing traffic and was just being used for games. We stated that we could not envision a use for chatting either for research or for instructional purposes. Five years later here I am: teaching 4 of my 5 courses by way of chat. There has been an enormous growth in the use of chat-based instruction, but also quite a lot of problems encountered. Much of the available literature addresses technical problems, or discusses chats from an educational psychology perspective. This paper will address ten of the didactical issues in chat-based instruction, summarizing the experiences that I have made in many years of chat experience (DIPF/Orig.)

Data sensitivity detection in chat interactions for privacy protection

In recent years, there has been exponential growth in using virtual spaces, including dialogue systems, that handle personal information. The concept of personal privacy in the literature is discussed and controversial, whereas, in the technological field, it directly influences the degree of reliability perceived in the information system (privacy ‘as trust’). This work aims to protect the right to privacy on personal data (GDPR, 2018) and avoid the loss of sensitive content by exploring sensitive information detection (SID) task. It is grounded on the following research questions: (RQ1) What does sensitive data mean? How to define a personal sensitive information domain? (RQ2) How to create a state-of-the-art model for SID?(RQ3) How to evaluate the model? RQ1 theoretically investigates the concepts of privacy and the ontological state-of-the-art representation of personal information. The Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) is the taxonomic resource taken as an authoritative reference for the definition of the knowledge domain. Concerning RQ2, we investigate two approaches to classify sensitive data: the first - bottom-up - explores automatic learning methods based on transformer networks, the second - top-down - proposes logical-symbolic methods with the construction of privaframe, a knowledge graph of compositional frames representing personal data categories. Both approaches are tested. For the evaluation - RQ3 – we create SPeDaC, a sentence-level labeled resource. This can be used as a benchmark or training in the SID task, filling the gap of a shared resource in this field. If the approach based on artificial neural networks confirms the validity of the direction adopted in the most recent studies on SID, the logical-symbolic approach emerges as the preferred way for the classification of fine-grained personal data categories, thanks to the semantic-grounded tailor modeling it allows. At the same time, the results highlight the strong potential of hybrid architectures in solving automatic tasks.

CartBot: un’applicazione di chat bot mobile per l’e-grocery

Sempre più negli ultimi anni si interagisce con i chatbot, software che simulano una conversazione con un essere umano utilizzando il linguaggio naturale. L’elaborato di tesi mira ad uno studio più approfondito della tematica, a partire da come tale tecnologia si è evoluta nel corso degli anni. Si procede analizzando le principali applicazioni dei bot, soffermandosi anche sui cambiamenti apportati dalla pandemia di Covid-19, ed evidenziando le principali ragioni che portano aziende e singoli al loro utilizzo. Inoltre, vengono descritti i diversi tipi di bot esistenti e viene analizzato il Natural Language Processing, ramo dell’Intelligenza Artificiale che mira alla comprensione del linguaggio naturale. Nei capitoli successivi viene descritto il progetto CartBot, un’applicazione di chat mobile per l’e-grocery, implementata come un chatbot che guida il cliente all’acquisto della spesa online. Vengono descritte le tecnologie utilizzate, con particolare riferimento al software di Google Dialogflow, che permette di sviluppare bot; inoltre viene analizzata come è stata effettuata la progettazione, sia lato front-end che back-end, allegando il flowchart, un diagramma di flusso realizzato per definire la sequenza di azioni e passaggi richiesti dal bot per effettuare l’acquisto. Infine, sono descritte le varie sottosezioni di CartBot, che riguardano la visualizzazione dei prodotti e il completamento dell’ordine, allegando screenshot dell’interfaccia finale ottenuta e inserendo il codice di alcune funzioni rilevanti.

Development, implementation, and assessment of a distance module in endocrine physiology

Rangel EM, Mendes IA, Carnio EC, Marchi Alves LM, Godoy S, Crispim JA. Development, implementation, and assessment of a distance module in endocrine physiology. Adv Physiol Educ 34: 70-74, 2010; doi: 10.1152/advan.00070.2009.-This study aimed to develop, implement, and assess a distance module in endocrine physiology in TelEduc for undergraduate nursing students from a public university in Brazil, with a sample size of 44 students. Stage 1 consisted of the development of the module, through the process of creating a distance course by means of the Web. Stage 2 was the planning of the module's practical functioning, and stage 3 was the planning of student evaluations. In the experts' assessment, the module complied with pedagogical and technical requirements most of the time. In the practical functioning stage, 10 h were dedicated for on-site activities and 10 h for distance activities. Most students (93.2%) were women between 19 and 23 yr of age (75%). The internet was the most used means to remain updated for 23 students (59.0%), and 30 students (68.2%) accessed it from the teaching institution. A personal computer was used by 23 students (56.1%), and most of them (58.1%) learned to use it alone. Access to a forum was more dispersed (variation coefficient: 86.80%) than access to chat (variation coefficient: 65.14%). Average participation was 30 students in forums and 22 students in the chat. Students' final grades in the module averaged 8.5 (SD: 1.2). TelEduc was shown to be efficient in supporting the teaching- learning process of endocrine physiology.

Effects of protein deprivation and re-feeding on P2X(2) receptors in enteric neurons

AIM: To investigate the effects of malnutrition and refeeding on the P2X(2) receptor, nitric oxide synthase (NOS), calretinin, calbindin and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in neurons of the rat ileum. METHODS: We analyzed the co-localization, numbers and sizes of P2X(2)-expressing neurons in relation to NOS-IR (immunoreactive), calbindin-IR, ChAT-IR, and calretinin-IR neurons of the myenteric and submucosal plexus. The experimental groups consisted of: (1) rats maintained on normal feed throughout pregnancy until 42 d post-parturition (N); (2) rats deprived of protein throughout pregnancy and 42 d post-parturition (D); and (3) rats undernourished for 21 d post-parturition and then given a protein diet from days 22 to 42 (DR). The myenteric and submucosal plexuses were evaluated by double labeling by immunohistochemical methods for P2X(2) receptor, NOS, ChAT, calbindin and calretinin. RESULTS: We found similar P2X(2) receptor immunoreactivity in the cytoplasm and surface membranes of myenteric and submucosal neurons from the N, D and DR groups. Double labeling of the myenteric plexus demonstrated that approximately 100% of NOS-IR, calbindin-IR, calretinin-IR and ChAT-IR neurons in all groups also expressed the P2X(2) receptor. In the submucosal plexus, the calretinin-IR, ChAT-IR and calbindinIR neurons were nearly all immunoreactive for the P2X(2) receptor. In the myenteric plexus, there was a 19% increase in numbers per cm(2) for P2X(2) receptor-IR neurons, 64% for NOS-IR, 84% for calretinin-IR and 26% for ChAT-IR neurons in the D group. The spatial density of calbindin-IR neurons, however, did not differ among the three groups. The submucosal neuronal density increased for calbindin-IR, calretinin-IR and ChAT-IR neurons. The average size of neurons in the myenteric plexus neurons in the D group was less than that in the controls and, in the re-fed rats; there was a 34% reduction in size only for the calretinin-IR neurons. CONCLUSION: This work demonstrates that expression of the P2X(2) receptor is present in inhibitory, intrinsic primary afferent, cholinergic secretomotor and vasomotor neurons. Undernutrition affected P2X(2) receptor expression in the submucosal plexus, and neuronal and size. These changes were rescued in the re-fed rats. (C) 2010 Baishideng. All rights reserved.

Repeated fed-batch cultivation of Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis using urea as nitrogen source

Arthospira (Spirulina) platensis (Nordstedt) Gomont was autotrophically cultivated for biomass production in repeated fed-batch process using urea as nitrogen source, with the aim of making large-scale production easier, increasing cell productivity and then reducing the production costs. It was investigated the influence or the ratio of renewed volume to total volume (R), the Urea feeding time (t(f)) and the number of successive repealed fed-batch cycles on the maximum cell concentration (X(m)), cell productivity (P(x)), nitrogen-to-cell conversion yield (Y(x/n)), maximum specific growth rate (mu(m)) and protein content of, dry biomass. The experimental results demonstrated chat R=0.80 and t(f) = 6d were the best cultivation conditions, being able to simultaneously ensure, throughout the three fed-batch cycles, the highest average values of three of the five responses (X(m) = 2101 +/- 113 mg L(-1), P(x) = 219 +/- 13 mg L(-1) d(-1) and Y(x/n) = 10.3 +/- 0.8,g g(-1)). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early motor and electrophysiological changes in transgenic mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and gender differences on clinical outcome

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive degenerative disorder affecting motoneurons and the SOD1(G93A) transgenic mice are widely employed to study disease physiopathology and therapeutic strategies. Despite the cellular and biochemical evidences of an early motor system dysfunction, the conventional behavioral tests do not detect early motor impairments in SOD1 mouse model. We evaluated early changes in motor behavior of ALS mice by doing the analyses of tail elevation, footprint, automatic recording of motor activities by means of an infrared motion sensor activity system and electrophysiological measurements in male and female wild-type (WT) and SOD1(G93A) mice from postnatal day (P) 20 up to endpoint. The classical evaluations of mortality, weight loss, tremor, rotometer, hanging wire and inclined plane were also employed. There was a late onset (after P90) of the impairments of classical parameters and the outcome varied between genders of ALS mice, being tremor, cumulative survival, weight loss and neurological score about 10 days earlier in male than female ALS mice and also about 20 days earlier in ALS males regarding rotarod and hanging wire performances. While diminution of hindpaw base was 10 days earlier in ALS males (P110) compared to females, the steep length decreased 40 days earlier in ALS females (P60) than ALS males. The automatic analysis of motor impairments showed substantial late changes (after P90) of motility and locomotion in the ALS females, but not in the ALS males. It was surprising that the scores of tail elevation were already decreased in ALS males and females by P40, reaching the minimal values at the endpoint. The electrophysiological analyses showed early changes of measures in the ALS mouse sciatic nerve, i.e., decreased values of amplitude (P40) and nerve conduction velocity (P20), and also an increased latency (P20) reaching maximal level of impairments at the late disease phase. The early changes were not accompanied by reductions of neuronal protein markers of neurofilament 200 and ChAT in the ventral part of the lumbar spinal cord of P20 and P60 ALS mice by means of Western blot technique, despite remarkable decreases of those protein levels in P120 ALS mice. In conclusion, early changes of motor behavior and electrophysiological parameters in ALS mouse model must be taken into attention in the analyses of disease mechanisms and therapeutic effects. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.

A university extension course in leprosy: telemedicine in the Amazon for primary healthcare

There is a high prevalence of leprosy in the Amazon region of Brazil. We have developed a distance education course in leprosy for training staff of the Family Health Teams (FHTs). The course was made available through a web portal. Tele-educational resources were mediated by professors and coordinators, and included the use of theoretical content available through the web, discussion lists, Internet chat, activity diaries, 3-D video animations (Virtual Human on Leprosy), classes in video streaming and case simulation. Sixty-five FHT staff members were enrolled. All of them completed the course and 47 participants received a certificate at the end of the course. At the end of the course, 48 course-evaluation questionnaires were answered. A total of 47 participants (98%) considered the course as excellent. The results demonstrate the feasibility of an interactive, tele-education model as an educational resource for staff in isolated regions. Improvements in diagnostic skills should increase diagnostic suspicion of leprosy and may contribute to early detection.

Projections from the substantia nigra pars reticulata to the motor thalamus of the rat: Single axon reconstructions and immunohistochemical study

This is a study in the rat of the distribution of specific neurotransmitters in neurones projecting from the substantia nigra reticulata (SNR) to the ventrolateral (VL) and ventromedial (VM) thalamic nuclei. Individual axons projecting from the SNR to these thalamic nuclei have also been reconstructed following small injection of the anterograde tracer dextran biotin into the the SNR. Analysis of reconstructions revealed two populations of SNR neurones projecting onto the VL and VM thalamic nuclei. One group projects directly onto the VM and VL, and the other projects to the VM/VL and to the parafascicular nucleus. In another set of experiments Fluoro-Gold was injected into the VL/VM to label SNR projection neurones retrogradely, and immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the distribution of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT), gamma -aminobutyric acid (GABA), and glutamate in Fluoro-Gold-labelled SNR projection neurones. Most SNR-VL/VM thalamic projection neurones were immunoreactive to acetylcholine or glutamate, whereas only 25% of the projection neurones were found to be immunoreactive to GABA. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Localization of neurotransmitters and calcium binding proteins to neurons of salamander and mudpuppy retinas

We wished to identify the different types of retinal neurons on the basis of their content of neuroactive substances in both larval tiger salamander and mudpuppy retinas, favored species for electrophysiological investigation. Sections and wholemounts of retinas were labeled by immunocytochemical methods to demonstrate three calcium binding protein species and the common neurotransmitters, glycine, GABA and acetylcholine. Double immunostained sections and single labeled wholemount retinas were examined by confocal microscopy. Immunostaining patterns appeared to be the same in salamander and mudpuppy. Double and single cones, horizontal cells, some amacrine cells and ganglion cells were strongly calbindin-immunoreactive (IR). Calbindin-IR horizontal cells colocalized GABA. Many bipolar cells, horizontal cells, some amacrine cells and ganglion cells were strongly calretinin-IR. One type of horizontal cell and an infrequently occurring amacrine cell were parvalbumin-IR. Acetylcholine as visualized by ChAT-immunoreactivity was seen in a mirror-symmetric pair of amacrine cells that colocalized GABA and glycine. Glycine and GABA colocalized with calretinin, calbindin and occasionally with parvalbumin in amacrine cells. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-Markovian homodyne-mediated feedback on a two-level atom: a quantum trajectory treatment

Quantum feedback can stabilize a two-level atom against decoherence (spontaneous emission), putting it into an arbitrary (specified) pure state. This requires perfect homodyne detection of the atomic emission, and instantaneous feedback. Inefficient detection was considered previously by two of us. Here we allow for a non-zero delay time tau in the feedback circuit. Because a two-level atom is a non-linear optical system, an analytical solution is not possible. However, quantum trajectories allow a simple numerical simulation of the resulting non-Markovian process. We find the effect of the time delay to be qualitatively similar to chat of inefficient detection. The solution of the non-Markovian quantum trajectory will not remain fixed, so that the time-averaged state will be mixed, not pure. In the case where one tries to stabilize the atom in the excited state, an approximate analytical solution to the quantum trajectory is possible. The result, that the purity (P = 2Tr[rho (2)] - 1) of the average state is given by P = 1 - 4y tau (where gamma is the spontaneous emission rate) is found to agree very well with the numerical results. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.