Polite behavior in intelligent conversational systems requires mixed-initiative dialog. AutoTutor is an intelligent tutoring system in which several of these conversational skills are implemented. This paper discusses some aspects of mixed-initiative dialog, as implemented in AutoTutor ranging from discourse markers, dialog moves and speech acts to question answering. In addition some of the st...

In recent times, human cell-based assays are gaining attention in assessments of immunomodulatory effects of chemicals. In the study here, the possible effects of cypermethrin and mancozeb on lymphocyte proliferation and proinflammatory (tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) α) and immunoregulatory cytokine (interferon- (IFN-) γ, interleukins (IL) 2, 4, 6, and 10) formation in vitro were investigated. H...

This study investigated the immunomodulatory effects of ferulic acid (FA) on antigen-presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in vitro and its antiallergic effects against ovalbumin- (OVA-) induced Th2-mediated allergic asthma in mice. The activation of FA-treated bone marrow-derived DCs by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation induced a high level of interleukin- (IL-) 12 but reduced the expression lev...

Temperature profoundly influences physiological responses in animals, primarily due to the effects on biochemical reaction rates. Since physiological responses are often exemplified by their rate dependency (e.g., rate of blood flow, rate of metabolism, rate of heat production, and rate of ion pumping), the study of temperature adaptations has a long history in comparative and evolutionary phys...

The flower buds of Daphne genkwa Sieb. et Zucc. have been used as a traditional Chinese medicine although their functional mechanisms have not been discovered yet. We have studied the potential effects of the plant extracts on natural killer (NK) cell activation, and isolated an active fraction. Genkwadaphnin (GD-1) displayed a potent efficacy to induce IFN-γ transcription in NK cells with conc...

Previous research has shown that the perception of speech in infants moves gradually from being language-general to being language-specific during the first year of life. Recently, it was found that infants learning a tone language begin to show particular response patterns to tones in their native language during their first year [1]. In this study we explore the relevance of tone production t...