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We introduce the concept of complexintuitionistic fuzzy soft sets which is parametric in nature. However, the theoryof complex fuzzy sets and complex intuitionistic fuzzy sets are independent of theparametrization tools. Some real life problems, for example, multicriteria decision makingproblems, involve the parametrization tools. In order to get their new entropies,some important properties and operations on the complex intuitionistic fuzzy softsets have also been discussed. On the basis of some well-known distance measures,some new distance measures for the complex intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets havealso been obtained. Further, we have established correspondence between theproposed entropies and the distance measures of complex intuitionistic fuzzy softsets.

The renewed interest in rammed earth (RE) as a sustainable construction material requires addressing its inherent limitations related to moisture sensitivity, low tensile capacity, and variability in mechanical performance. This study investigates a stepwise stabilization strategy combining pine fibers (PF) as discrete reinforcement, limestone dust powder (LSP) as a mineral filler, and limestone calcined clay cement (LC 3 ) as a low-carbon binder to improve mechanical performance, short-term moisture resistance, and microstructural characteristics of RE composites. This approach also supports sustainability by valorizing forest-derived pine biomass associated with wildfire fuel loads and quarry fines, while reducing clinker content through LC 3 incorporation. Rammed earth blocks were produced with 1% PF and 10–25% LSP, followed by the introduction of a fixed 10% LC 3 dosage into the optimized PF-LSP composition. Performance was evaluated through compaction characteristics, dry and wet compressive strength, flexural strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and 24 h water absorption. Microstructural evolution was examined using FESEM-EDS, XRD, and TGA. Among the tested formulations, SREPF1LS20LC10 exhibited the best overall performance, achieving a dry compressive strength of 5.47 MPa, flexural strength of 1.47 MPa, UPV of 2858 m/s, water absorption of 10.96%, and a wet-to-dry strength ratio of 0.51. Microstructural analyses provided evidence consistent with matrix densification, pore refinement, and the presence of poorly crystalline hydration products and secondary carbonate phases, while fiber-matrix interaction remained predominantly mechanical. Within the investigated design space, the proposed system demonstrates a technically viable and low-carbon pathway for enhancing rammed earth performance, with durability claims limited to short-term moisture resistance indicators.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a therapeutic technique that has been successful in helping smokers reduce smoking but has limited accessibility due to the high cost and low availability of clinicians. To address this, the MIBot project has sought to develop a chatbot that emulates an MI session with a client with the specific goal of moving an ambivalent smoker toward the direction of quitting. One key element of an MI conversation is reflective listening, where a therapist expresses their understanding of what the client has said by uttering a reflection that encourages the client to continue their thought process. Complex reflections link the client's responses to relevant ideas and facts to enhance this contemplation. Backward-looking complex reflections (BLCRs) link the client's most recent response to a relevant selection of the client's previous statements. Our current chatbot can generate complex reflections-but not BLCRs-using large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-2, which allows the generation of unique, human-like messages customized to client responses. Recent advancements in these models, such as the introduction of GPT-4, provide a novel way to generate complex text by feeding the models instructions and conversational history directly, making this a promising approach to generate BLCRs. This study aims to develop a method to generate BLCRs for an MI-based smoking cessation chatbot and to measure the method's effectiveness. LLMs such as GPT-4 can be stimulated to produce specific types of responses to their inputs by \"asking\" them with an English-based description of the desired output. These descriptions are called prompts, and the goal of writing a description that causes an LLM to generate the required output is termed prompt engineering. We evolved an instruction to prompt GPT-4 to generate a BLCR, given the portions of the transcript of the conversation up to the point where the reflection was needed. The approach was tested on 50 previously collected MIBot transcripts of conversations with smokers and was used to generate a total of 150 reflections. The quality of the reflections was rated on a 4-point scale by 3 independent raters to determine whether they met specific criteria for acceptability. Of the 150 generated reflections, 132 (88%) met the level of acceptability. The remaining 18 (12%) had one or more flaws that made them inappropriate as BLCRs. The 3 raters had pairwise agreement on 80% to 88% of these scores. The method presented to generate BLCRs is good enough to be used as one source of reflections in an MI-style conversation but would need an automatic checker to eliminate the unacceptable ones. This work illustrates the power of the new LLMs to generate therapeutic client-specific responses under the command of a language-based specification.

Background:The motivational interviewing (MI) approach has been shown to help move ambivalent smokers toward the decision to quit smoking. There have been several attempts to broaden access to MI through text-based chatbots. These typically use scripted responses to client statements, but such nonspecific responses have been shown to reduce effectiveness. Recent advances in natural language processing provide a new way to create responses that are specific to a client’s statements, using a generative language model.Objective:This study aimed to design, evolve, and measure the effectiveness of a chatbot system that can guide ambivalent people who smoke toward the decision to quit smoking with MI-style generative reflections.Methods:Over time, 4 different MI chatbot versions were evolved, and each version was tested with a separate group of ambivalent smokers. A total of 349 smokers were recruited through a web-based recruitment platform. The first chatbot version only asked questions without reflections on the answers. The second version asked the questions and provided reflections with an initial version of the reflection generator. The third version used an improved reflection generator, and the fourth version added extended interaction on some of the questions. Participants’ readiness to quit was measured before the conversation and 1 week later using an 11-point scale that measured 3 attributes related to smoking cessation: readiness, confidence, and importance. The number of quit attempts made in the week before the conversation and the week after was surveyed; in addition, participants rated the perceived empathy of the chatbot. The main body of the conversation consists of 5 scripted questions, responses from participants, and (for 3 of the 4 versions) generated reflections. A pretrained transformer-based neural network was fine-tuned on examples of high-quality reflections to generate MI reflections.Results:The increase in average confidence using the nongenerative version was 1.0 (SD 2.0; P=.001), whereas for the 3 generative versions, the increases ranged from 1.2 to 1.3 (SD 2.0-2.3; P<.001). The extended conversation with improved generative reflections was the only version associated with a significant increase in average importance (0.7, SD 2.0; P<.001) and readiness (0.4, SD 1.7; P=.01). The enhanced reflection and extended conversations exhibited significantly better perceived empathy than the nongenerative conversation (P=.02 and P=.004, respectively). The number of quit attempts did not significantly change between the week before the conversation and the week after across all 4 conversations.Conclusions:The results suggest that generative reflections increase the impact of a conversation on readiness to quit smoking 1 week later, although a significant portion of the impact seen so far can be achieved by only asking questions without the reflections. These results support further evolution of the chatbot conversation and can serve as a basis for comparison against more advanced versions.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging as pivotal porous crystalline materials with diverse applications. Typically, MOFs are synthesized using solvothermal techniques at high temperatures and pressures. In this study, a novel approach was employed to synthesize zinc-based MOFs, specifically MOF-5, at low temperatures (up to 50 °C) via chemical mixing at standard pressures. Varying the temperature and solvents, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), in the chemical mixing process, the highest yield of the material was observed with DMF at 50 °C (M1). Two additional samples, M2 and M3, are synthesized at room temperature using DMF and NMP, respectively. Despite similarities in XRD, Raman, and FTIR analyses confirming successful MOF-5 formation, noticeable differences in sample morphology arise due to distinct synthesis conditions, particularly solvent and temperature variations. The MOF-5 samples exhibit UV absorption with varying band gaps. Notably, when employed as photocatalysts for organic dye (methylene blue) degradation, M2 outperforms others, achieving an impressive 85% degradation under simulated solar light irradiation. This work underscores the significance of tuning MOF photocatalyst properties through tailored synthesis routes, recognizing the profound impact of morphology and elemental composition on enhancing photocatalytic dye degradation performance. Copyright © 2024 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). 

The combining microelectronic devices and associated technologies onto a single silicon chip poses a substantial challenge. However, in recent years, the area of silicon photonics has experienced remarkable advancements and notable leaps in performance. The performance of silicon on insulator (SOI) based photonic devices, such as fast silicon optical modulators, photonic transceivers, optical filters, etc., have been discussed. This would be a step forward in creating standalone silicon photonic devices, strengthening the possibility of single on-chip nanophotonic integrated circuits. Suppose an integrated silicon photonic chip is designed and fabricated. In that case, it might drastically modify these combined photonic component costs, power consumption, and size, bringing substantial, perhaps revolutionary, changes to the next-generation communications sector. Yet, the monolithic integration of photonic and electrical circuitry is a significant technological difficulty. A complicated set of factors must be carefully considered to determine which application will have the best chance of success employing silicon-based integrated product solutions. The processing limitations connected to the current process flow, the process generation (sometimes referred to as lithography node generation), and packaging requirements are a few of these factors to consider. This review highlights recent developments in integrated silicon photonic devices and their proven applications, including but not limited to photonic waveguides, photonic amplifiers and filters, on-chip photonic transceivers, and the state-of-the-art of silicon photonic in multidimensional quantum systems. The investigated devices aim to expedite the transfer of silicon photonics from academia to industry by opening the next phase in on-chip silicon photonics and enabling the application of silicon photonic-based devices in various optical systems.

Desired modifications of surfaces at the nanoscale may be achieved using energetic ion beams. In the present work, a complete study of self-assembled ripple pattern fabrication on Si and Ge by 100 keV Ar + ion beam bombardment is discussed. The irradiation was performed in the ion fluence range of ≈3 × 10 17 to 9 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 and at an incident angle of θ ≈ 60° with respect to the surface normal. The investigation focuses on topographical studies of pattern formation using atomic force microscopy, and induced damage profiles inside Si and Ge by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy. The ripple wavelength was found to scale with ion fluence, and energetic ions created more defects inside Si as compared to that of Ge. Although earlier reports suggested that Ge is resistant to structural changes upon Ar + ion irradiation, in the present case, a ripple pattern is observed on both Si and Ge. The irradiated Si and Ge targets clearly show visible damage peaks between channel numbers (1000–1100) for Si and (1500–1600) for Ge. The clustering of defects leads to a subsequent increase of the damage peak in irradiated samples (for an ion fluence of ≈9 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 ) compared to that in unirradiated samples.

The work reports the near‐surface doping of N ions, and post implantation effects on the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of Al‐doped ZnO [AZO] thin film deposited by the Radion Frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method, investigated at room temperature. The Grazing Incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXRD) studies revealed the structural modifications caused by the implanted ions. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) micrographs showed the morphological modifications in the AZO thin film due to implantation. The crystallinity of the thin film structure was preserved even after high ion implantation of 1 × 1016 ions/cm2. Optical analysis revealed a noticeable decrease in average transmittance in the wavelength range of 350 to 500 nm. An increase in electrical resistivity value was witnessed as a post‐implantation effect.The Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to study the ion implantation on the vibrational properties. The study shows that the ion implantation method can effectively be used to dope N ions into AZO thin films to tailor their various properties. Nitrogen‐doped AZO thin films, with reduced transmittance in the 350–500 nm range and mid‐gap states, exhibit enhanced ultraviolet (UV) sensitivity, making them ideal for optoelectronic applications. This work reports near‐surface nitrogen ion implantation in Al‐doped ZnO thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering and examines post‐implantation effects at room temperature. Structural, morphological, optical, and electrical modifications are analyzed. Preserved crystallinity, reduced transmittance (350–500 nm), increased resistivity, and induced mid‐gap states demonstrate enhanced UV sensitivity for optoelectronic applications.

Evaluation of the in vitro immunomodulatory potential of Artemisia indica Willd. methanolic extract in chicken lymphocyte culture system through lymphocyte (B and T cells) proliferation assay, after standardizing the maximum non-cytotoxic dose (MNCD) in chicken lymphocytes. Fresh aerial parts of A. indica Willd. (family: Asteraceae) specimens were collected (altitude 1560 m), gotten authenticated, processed, dried, and Soxhlet extracted to yield methanolic extract (AME). Chicken splenocytes were isolated from spleens collected from healthy birds; lymphocytes were separated by density gradient centrifugation, percentage cell viability determined and final cell count adjusted to 10 cells/ml in RPMI-1640 medium. MNCD of AME in chicken lymphocytes was determined through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide dye reduction assay. Immunomodulatory potential of AME was evaluated through lymphocytes proliferation or B and T cells blastogenesis assay in the presence of appropriate mitogens, namely, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and concanavalin A (Con A), respectively. Maximum concentration of AME exhibiting 100% cell viability (MNCD) was 200 μg/ml and was selected for further in vitro analysis. The in vitro exposure of chicken lymphocytes to 200 µg/ml dose of AME, resulted in significant (p<0.05) upregulation of 11.76% in B cell proliferation in the presence of B cell mitogen (LPS) and a significant (p<0.05) increase of 12.018% T cells proliferation in the presence of the mitogen (Con A), as compared to the control. The significant upregulation in the proliferation of two major cell types modulating the immune system is an indication of the immunostimulatory potential of the plant. It would be worthwhile to further evaluate A. indica on relevant immunomodulatory aspects, especially the in vivo studies in a poultry system.

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi (winter) seasons of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 at the Central Research Farm under Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, to study the effects of planting techniques, irrigation regimes, and nursery bed management on the growth, yield, nutrient dynamics, water productivity, and economics of summer rice (cv. Shatabdi) production. The experiment was performed in a strip-split plot design with twelve treatment combinations, which were replicated three times. The design consisted of two types of transplanted rice establishment methods (viz., puddled transplanted rice (PTR) and nonpuddled transplanted rice (NPTR)) allocated to the main plot, three irrigation regimes (three-day intervals; six-day intervals; nine-day intervals) allocated to the subplot, and two nursery bed management practices (conventional seedbed and improved seedbed) allocated to the subplot. Higher growth attributes, such as plant height, tiller count, biomass, and LAI, were found under nonpuddled conditions at the time of harvesting. Similarly, a three-day irrigation interval and improved seedlings led to better growth traits. The yield attributes and yield varied nonsignificantly among the crop establishment methods. However, the lowest irrigation intervals accounted for 53.78% and 43.02% greater grain yield than did the nine-day intervals in two consecutive years, respectively, and produced statistically similar yields with six-day intervals. The percentage of seedlings transplanted from improved seedbeds was 4.01 and 4.13% greater than that from conventional seedlings. A similar trend was observed for both input and irrigation water productivity, except that the nine-day irrigation interval resulted in significantly greater water productivity than did the other intervals. The treatment consisted of nonpuddled transplanted rice along with six six-day irrigation intervals and improved seedbed management, resulting in the highest net return and benefit:cost ratio due to the low production cost. Thus, it can be concluded that transplanting seedlings into nonpuddled soil from an improved seedbed with intermittent irrigation might be the most judicious and recommended in terms of productivity as well as profitability for summer rice production.