We explain dialogue management techniques for collaborative activities with humans, involving multiple concurrent tasks. Conversational context for multiple concurrent activities is represented using a “Dialogue Move Tree” and an “Activity Tree” which support multiple interleaved threads of dialogue about different activities and their execution status. We also describe the incremental message ...

Electrochemical oxidation of some selected catechol derivatives, using cyclic voltammetry, in the presence of different 2-aryl-1,3-indandiones as nucleophiles, resulted in electrochemical synthesis of new 1,3- indandione derivatives in an undivided cell in good yield and purity. A Michael addition mechanism was proposed for the formation of the analogs based on the reaction conditions which wer...

Effects of ?-cyclodextrin, ?CD, on refolding of lysozyme was investigated at pH 12 employing isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) at 300K in 30mM Tris buffer solution. ?CD was employed as an anti-aggregation agent and the heats obtained for lysozyme+?CD interactions are reported and analyzed in terms of the extended solvation model. It was indicated that there are two sets of identical and no...

Mg(2+) at an optimal concentration of 2mM (ph 6.5) induces large increases (up to 30 percent) in the optical density of bovine heart mitochondria incubated under conditions of low ionic strength (< approx. 0.01). The increases are associated with aggregation (sticking together) of the inner membranes and are little affected by changes in the energy status of the mitochondria. Virtually all of a...

Objective(s): This paper describes a selective and sensitive biosensor based on the dissolution and aggregation of aptamer wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes. We report on the direct detection of aptamer–cocaine interactions, namely between a DNA aptamer and cocaine molecules based on near-infrared absorption at λ807. Materials and Methods: First a DNA aptamer recognizing cocaine was non-co...

Image analysis techniques were developed and applied to quantify the process of anaerobic granulation in an expanded granular sludge blanket reactor (EGSB) fed with a synthetic substrate based on glucose [60-30% COD (chemical oxygen demand)] and volatile fatty acids (40-70% COD) over 376 days. In a first operation period that lasted 177 days, the aggregation of dispersed sludge was quantitative...

The Stober process is frequently used to prepare silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. This is usually achieved by seeding a reaction mixture consisting of water, ethanol and a catalyst with iron oxide particles and adding a silica precursor. The hydrolysis and condensation of precursor monomers results in the deposition of a silica layer on iron oxide particles. However, this process is acco...

BACKGROUND Since genetic and most environmental factors shape the context of families, some studies have been initiated to investigate the role of familial relationships in metabolic syndrome (MetS). OBJECTIVES To estimate the familial aggregation of MetS and its components by identifying both case and control probands among Tehranian adults with different socio-behavioral and reproductive ch...