Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Virtually the Same Experience?: Learning from User Experience Evaluation of In-vehicle Systems in VR and in the Field

In order to investigate how a VR study context influence participants' User Experience responses of an interactive system an UX evaluation of the same in-vehicle systems was conducted in the field and in virtual reality. The virtual environment featured a virtual road scene and an interactive in-car environment, paired with a physical set-up containing a table-mounted steering wheel and a touch-sensitive panel. The VR system enabled a high estimation of presence and focus, however participants voiced less affect in the virtual setting and had difficulty in separating judgments of the VR experience from the UX of the in-vehicle systems. No significant differences in UX questionnaire data were identified between VR and the field, but there were correlations between rated presence in the VR system and UX ratings, especially for reported stimulation. Based on the lessons learned, a number of methodological and technological consequences are recommended in the paper, such as the need for more dynamic movement behaviour, improved resolution of graphics of the virtual vehicle and introducing the test leader as visually present in the virtual environment.
Redesigning the Teacher Education Technology Course to Emphasize Integration

Abstract Teacher education programs in the United States are trying to equip tomorrow's teachers with the technology skills needed to impact learning in the classroom. During the past decade there has been a realization that teaching technology skills alone is not adequate-pre-service teachers must also learn how to integrate the use of technology into their curriculum. This paper describes BYU's instructional technology course and the design process that a team of instructors went through to redesign the course in order to put greater emphasis on technology integration. An iterative redesign approach was used. Several iterations of the course redesign will be shared along with the strengths and limitations discovered in the design and implementation process.
The Cross-Sensory Globe: Participatory Design of a 3D Audio-Tactile Globe Prototype for Blind and Low-Vision Users to Learn Geography

We present our participatively and iteratively designed 3D audio-tactile globe that enables blind and low-vision users to perceive geo-spatial information. Blind and low-vision users rely on learning aids such as 2D-tactile graphics, braille maps and 3D models to learn about geography. We employed participatory design as an approach to prototyping and evaluating four different iterations of a cross-sensory globe that uses 3D detachable continents to provide geo-spatial haptic information in combination with audio labels. Informed by our participatory design and evaluation, we discuss cross-sensory educational aids as an alternative to visually-oriented globes. Our findings reveal affordances of 3D-tactile models for conveying concrete features of the Earth (such as varying elevations of landforms) and audio labels for conveying abstract categories about the Earth (such as continent names). We highlight the advantages of longitudinal participatory design that includes the lived experiences and DIY innovations of blind and low-vision users and makers.
Are there any gender differences in students' emotional reactions to programming learning activities?

Novice programmers experience a wide set of emotions when they are learning to program. This exploratory study analyzes the emotions experienced by a group of students when solving diverse programming tasks. The goal was to understand if there are gender differences in the emotions reported by the students. A self-report tool to track emotions was used. The results show that, regardless of the type of learning activity, there is a tendency for women to attribute themselves negative emotions to a greater extent, which happens to be the opposite with men. It is concluded that further research is needed to understand the factors that cause these differences.
Strongly Truthful Interactive Regret Minimization

When faced with a database containing millions of tuples, an end user might be only interested in finding his/her (close to) favorite tuple in the database. Recently, a regret minimization query was proposed to obtain a small subset from the database that fits the user's needs, which are expressed through an unknown utility function. Specifically, it minimizes the "regret'' level of a user, which we quantify as the regret ratio if s/he gets the best tuple in the selected subset but not the best tuple among all tuples in the database. We study how to enhance the regret minimization query with user interactions : when presented with a small number of tuples (which can be artificial tuples or true tuples inside the database), a user is asked to indicate the tuple s/he favors the most among them. In particular, we are also interested in the special case of determining the favorite tuple for a user in the entire database with a small amount of interaction, measured by the number of questions we ask the user. Different from the previous work which displays artificial tuples to users, we achieve a stronger result in this paper by always displaying true tuples in the database. Specifically, we present a generic framework for interactive regret minimization, under which we propose algorithms that ask an asymptotically optimal number of questions in 2-dimensional spaces and algorithms with provable performance guarantees in d-dimensional spaces ($d \geq 2$) where each dimension corresponds to a description of a tuple. Experiments on real and synthetic datasets showed that our algorithms outperform the existing one by locating the favorite tuple and guaranteeing a small regret ratiowith much fewer questions.
The Log-Structured Merge-Bush & the Wacky Continuum

Data-intensive key-value stores based on the Log-Structured Merge-Tree are used in numerous modern applications ranging from social media and data science to cloud infrastructure. We show that such designs exhibit an intrinsic contention between the costs of point reads, writes and memory, and that this trade-off deteriorates as the data size grows. The root of the problem is that in all existing designs, the capacity ratio between any pair of levels is fixed. This causes write cost to increase with the data size while yielding exponentially diminishing returns for point reads and memory. We introduce the Log-Structured Merge-Bush (LSM-Bush), a new data structure that sets increasing capacity ratios between adjacent pairs of smaller levels. As a result, smaller levels get lazier by gathering more runs before merging them. By using a doubly-exponential ratio growth rate, LSM-bush brings write cost down from \small$O(łog N)$ to \small$O(łogłog N)$, and it can trade this gain to either improve point reads or memory. Thus, it enables more scalable trade-offs all around. We further introduce Wacky, a design continuum that includes LSM-Bush as well as all state-of-the-art merge policies, from laziest to greediest, and can assume any of them within a single implementation. Wacky encompasses a vast space of performance properties, including ones that favor range reads, and it can be searched analytically to find the design that performs best for a given workload in practice.
PS2: Parameter Server on Spark

Most of the data is extracted and processed by Spark in Tencent Machine Learning Platform. However, seldom of them use Spark MLlib, an official machine learning (ML) library on top of Spark due to its inefficiency. In contrast, systems like parameter servers, XGBoost and TensorFlow are more used, which incur expensive cost of transferring data in and out of Spark ecosystem. In this paper, we identify the causes of inefficiency in Spark MLlib and solve the problem by building parameter servers on top of Spark. We propose PS2, a parameter server architecture that integrates Spark without hacking the core of Spark. With PS2, we leverage the power of Spark for data processing and ML training, and parameter servers for maintaining ML models. By carefully analyzing Tencent ML workloads, we figure out a widely existing computation pattern for ML models---element-wise operations among multiple high dimensional vectors. Based on this observation, we propose a new data abstraction, called Dimension Co-located Vector (DCV) for efficient model management in PS2. A DCV is a distributed vector that considers locality in parameter servers and enables efficient computation with multiple co-located distributed vectors. For ease-of-use, we also design a wide variety of advanced operators for operating DCVs. Finally, we carefully implement the PS2 system and evaluate it against existing systems on both public and Tencent workloads. Empirical results demonstrate that PS2 can outperform Spark MLlib by up to 55.6X and specialized ML systems like Petuum by up to 3.7X.
Real-Time Smart-Digital Stethoscope System for Heart Diseases Monitoring

One of the major causes of death all over the world is heart disease or cardiac dysfunction. These diseases could be identified easily with the variations in the sound produced due to the heart activity. These sophisticated auscultations need important clinical experience and concentrated listening skills. Therefore, there is an unmet need for a portable system for the early detection of cardiac illnesses. This paper proposes a prototype model of a smart digital-stethoscope system to monitor patient’s heart sounds and diagnose any abnormality in a real-time manner. This system consists of two subsystems that communicate wirelessly using Bluetooth low energy technology: A portable digital stethoscope subsystem, and a computer-based decision-making subsystem. The portable subsystem captures the heart sounds of the patient, filters and digitizes, and sends the captured heart sounds to a personal computer wirelessly to visualize the heart sounds and for further processing to make a decision if the heart sounds are normal or abnormal. Twenty-seven t-domain, f-domain, and Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) features were used to train a public database to identify the best-performing algorithm for classifying abnormal and normal heart sound (HS). The hyper parameter optimization, along with and without a feature reduction method, was tested to improve accuracy. The cost-adjusted optimized ensemble algorithm can produce 97% and 88% accuracy of classifying abnormal and normal HS, respectively.
Embolism resistance in petioles and leaflets of palms.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hydraulic studies are currently biased towards conifers and dicotyledonous angiosperms; responses of arborescent monocots to increasing temperature and drought remain poorly known. This study aims to assess xylem resistance to drought-induced embolism in palms. METHODS We quantified embolism resistance via P50 (xylem pressure inducing 50% of embolism or loss of hydraulic conductivity) in petioles or leaflets of six palm species differing in habitat and phylogenetic relatedness using three techniques: in vivo X-ray-based micro-computed tomography, in situ flow centrifuge and the optical vulnerability method. KEY RESULTS Our results show that P50 of petioles varies greatly in the palm family from -2.2±0.4 MPa in Dypsis baronii to -5.8±0.3 MPa in Rhapis excelsa (Mean ± SE). No difference or weak differences were found between petioles and leaf blades within species. Surprisingly, where differences occurred, leaflets were less vulnerable to embolism than petioles. Embolism resistance in palms is not correlated with conduit size (r = 0.37, p = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS This study represents the first estimate of drought-induced xylem embolism in palms across biomes and provides the first step towards understanding hydraulic adaptations in long-lived arborescent monocots. It showed an almost three-fold range of embolism resistance between palm species, as large as that reported in all angiosperms. We found little evidence for hydraulic segmentation between leaflets and petioles in palms, suggesting that when it happens, hydraulic segregation may lack a clear relationship with organ cost or replaceability.
Characteristics of patients vaccinated against influenza in physician offices versus pharmacies and predictors of vaccination location: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND Little is known about those vaccinated against influenza after pharmacists were added to the Ontario Universal Influenza Immunization Program, in 2012. Our aim was to identify characteristics of patients vaccinated against influenza and predictors of vaccination at a physician's office versus a community pharmacy. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of Ontario residents who had a record of receipt of an influenza vaccine between October and March in the 2013/14 and 2015/16 influenza seasons in Ontario using health administrative databases. We used Poisson regression models to estimate associations between baseline characteristics and the receipt of influenza vaccination in a community pharmacy. All analyses were stratified by age group (≤ 65 yr or ≥ 66 yr). RESULTS Overall, we found a 7.9% decrease in vaccinations administered in 2015/16 (2 454 178) compared to 2013/14 (2 677 278). The number of patients vaccinated in community pharmacies increased between the 2 periods (757 729 [28.3%] in 2013/14 v. 859 794 [35.0%] in 2015/16). Living in nonurban areas or higher-income neighbourhoods, not identifying as an immigrant, not having a diagnosis of diabetes or hypertension, and receiving a pharmacist service on the same day as the vaccination were predictors of being vaccinated in a pharmacy, regardless of age group. Among patients aged 66 or more, those who had a hospital admission in the previous year were more likely to be vaccinated in a pharmacy than in a physician's office (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.09), whereas those with higher annual medication costs were more likely to be vaccinated in a physician's office. The location of the previous season's vaccination predicted the current season's place of vaccination (age ≥ 66 yr: physician's office: adjusted IRR 0.56 [95% CI 0.56-0.57], pharmacy: adjusted IRR 2.37 [95% CI 2.35-2.39]; age ≤ 65 yr: physician's office: adjusted IRR 0.57 [95% CI 0.57-0.57], pharmacy: adjusted IRR 2.19 [95% CI 2.18-2.20]). INTERPRETATION For the 2013/14 and 2015/16 influenza seasons, the influenza vaccine was administered more frequently in physician offices than in community pharmacies, but the proportion of patients vaccinated in community pharmacies increased between the 2 periods. Physicians and pharmacists can encourage patients to take advantage of the availability of influenza vaccines across various settings.
Comparison of Complication Rates between Manual and Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Techniques for Intrastromal Corneal Ring Segments Implantation in Keratoconus

ABSTRACT Purpose: To compare the incidence of complications between manual and femtosecond-laser assisted surgery for intrastromal corneal ring segments (ICRS) implantation. Material and methods: This study included keratoconus patients who had ICRS implantation using manual dissection and using the femtosecond laser with a minimum follow-up of 12 months. Uncorrected (UDVA) corrected (CDVA) distance visual acuity (CDVA), refraction, corneal topography and aberrometry, pachymetry map and slit-lamp microscopy were assessed before and after surgery. Results: The study included 265 eyes in the manual group and 111 in the femtosecond laser group. In the manual group, there were complications in 48 eyes (18.11%); while in the femtosecond laser 4 eyes had a complication (3.6%). In the manual group, the most frequent complications were ICRS exchange/adjustment for visual and refractive enhancement (25 eyes; 9.43%) and late ICRS spontaneous extrusion (15 eyes; 5.66%). In the manual group, 81.25% of complications were observed during the first 3 years of surgeon’s experience. Eyes who suffered a complication had preoperatively higher mean refractive (p = .002) and topographic cylinder (p = .003) and lower UDVA (p = .005) and CDVA (p = .002). After a second surgical procedure for complication management visual, refractive and topographic outcomes significantly improved. Conclusion: Manual mechanical ICRS surgery shows a higher rate of intra- and postoperative mechanical and refractive complications when compared to femtosecond laser assisted technique. The incidence is specially higher during the surgeon’s first years of implementation of the technique.
Prognostic Implications of PD-L1 Expression in Breast Cancer: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Immunohistochemistry and Pooled Analysis of Transcriptomic Data

Purpose: Conflicting data have been reported on the prognostic value of PD-L1 protein and gene expression in breast cancer. Experimental Design: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science Core Collection were searched, and data were extracted independently by two researchers. Outcomes included pooled PD-L1 protein positivity in tumor cells, immune cells, or both, per subtype and per antibody used, and its prognostic value for disease-free and overall survival. A pooled gene expression analysis of 39 publicly available transcriptomic datasets was also performed. Results: Of the initial 4,184 entries, 38 retrospective studies fulfilled the predefined inclusion criteria. The overall pooled PD-L1 protein positivity rate was 24% (95% CI, 15%–33%) in tumor cells and 33% (95% CI, 14%– 56%) in immune cells. PD-L1 protein expression in tumor cells was prognostic for shorter overall survival (HR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.07–2.46; P = 0.02); there was significant heterogeneity (I2 = 80%, Pheterogeneity < 0.001). In addition, higher PD-L1 gene expression predicted better survival in multivariate analysis in the entire population (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.74–0.90; P < 0.001 for OS) and in basal-like tumors (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.52–0.80; P < 0.001 for OS; Pinteraction 0.005). Conclusions: The largest to our knowledge meta-analysis on the subject informs on PD-L1 protein positivity rates and its prognostic value in breast cancer. Standardization is needed prior to routine implementation. PD-L1 gene expression is a promising prognostic factor, especially in basal-like breast cancer. Discrepant prognostic information might be related to PD-L1 gene expression in the stroma.
Flickering Stimuli Do Not Reliably Induce Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson’s Disease

Visual hallucinations are a common and often distressing feature of Parkinson’s disease; they are ephemeral and capricious, making them difficult to study but tend to be more prominent in dim illumination. Flickering stimuli can induce simple hallucinations even in healthy individuals. We tested a stroboscope and an equivalent full-screen flickering stimulus in 16 participants: 7 patients with Parkinson’s and habitual visual hallucinations, 6 Parkinson’s patients without hallucinations and 3 controls. Both flicker sources induced varied geometrical hallucinations in 4 participants (25%) and complex hallucinations in 1 but neither induced typical Parkinson’s-associated hallucinations.
Vascular age is associated with the risk of dialysis or death in chronic kidney disease

Increased arterial stiffness is associated with progressive renal deterioration and poor clinical outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Assessment of vascular age as derived from arterial stiffness parameters might be an important clinical marker of cardiovascular risks. The aim of the present study is to evaluate whether the difference (△age) between vascular age and chronological age can predict the risk of reaching dialysis or death in patients with known CKD.
The Role of Endothelial Dysfunction in Peripheral Blood Nerve Barrier: Molecular Mechanisms and Pathophysiological Implications

The exchange of solutes between the blood and the nerve tissue is mediated by specific and high selective barriers in order to ensure the integrity of the different compartments of the nervous system. At peripheral level, this function is maintained by the Blood Nerve Barrier (BNB) that, in the presence, of specific stressor stimuli can be damaged causing the onset of neurodegenerative processes. An essential component of BNB is represented by the endothelial cells surrounding the sub-structures of peripheral nerves and increasing evidence suggests that endothelial dysfunction can be considered a leading cause of the nerve degeneration. The purpose of this review is to highlight the main mechanisms involved in the impairment of endothelial cells in specific diseases associated with peripheral nerve damage, such as diabetic neuropathy, erectile dysfunction and inflammation of the sciatic nerve.
Human Coronavirus: Host-Pathogen Interaction.

Human coronavirus (HCoV) infection causes respiratory diseases with mild to severe outcomes. In the last 15 years, we have witnessed the emergence of two zoonotic, highly pathogenic HCoVs: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Replication of HCoV is regulated by a diversity of host factors and induces drastic alterations in cellular structure and physiology. Activation of critical signaling pathways during HCoV infection modulates the induction of antiviral immune response and contributes to the pathogenesis of HCoV. Recent studies have begun to reveal some fundamental aspects of the intricate HCoV-host interaction in mechanistic detail. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of host factors co-opted and signaling pathways activated during HCoV infection, with an emphasis on HCoV-infection-induced stress response, autophagy, apoptosis, and innate immunity. The cross talk among these pathways, as well as the modulatory strategies utilized by HCoV are also discussed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Microbiology Volume 73 is September 9, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews. org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Pathways of DNA Transfer to Plants from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Related Bacterial Species.

Genetic transformation of host plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and related species represents a unique model for natural horizontal gene transfer. Almost five decades of studying the molecular interactions between Agrobacterium and its host cells have yielded countless fundamental insights into bacterial and plant biology, even though several steps of the DNA transfer process remain poorly understood. Agrobacterium spp. may utilize different pathways for transferring DNA, which likely reflects the very wide host range of Agrobacterium. Furthermore, closely related bacterial species, such as rhizobia, are able to transfer DNA to host plant cells when they are provided with Agrobacterium DNA transfer machinery and T-DNA. Homologs of Agrobacterium virulence genes are found in many bacterial genomes, but only one non-Agrobacterium bacterial strain, Rhizobium etli CFN42, harbors a complete set of virulence genes and can mediate plant genetic transformation when carrying a T-DNA-containing plasmid. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Phytopathology Volume 57 is August 26, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews. org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.