Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementation of an NGS panel for clinical practice in paraffin-embedded tissue samples from locally advanced and metastatic melanoma patients

Aim: Single biomarker diagnostic test of BRAFV600 locus in metastatic melanoma is mandatory for treatment decision; however, multiple-gene based techniques, such as targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) are being used to maximize the number of patients that can benefit from a targeted therapy. The main objective of this study is to investigate whether an NGS panel could be adopted in routine clinical care for advanced melanoma. Methods: Patients diagnosed with advanced melanoma at our center from 2017 to 2019 were included. Presence of genetic alterations was performed using two methods: real-time polymerase chain reaction-based Idylla test (Biocartis) and NGS with the oncomine solid tumor DNA kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Total genomic DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded samples for sequencing. Results: A total of 155 samples were evaluated for molecular analysis but 40 samples (25.8%) were inadequate for sequencing. The clinical utility of BRAFV600 real-time polymerase chain reaction and targeted-NGS was compared in 29 samples and a very good concordance was observed (Kappa = 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.68 ± 1.05). An oncogenic mutation by NGS was found in 75 samples (65%)–53% of whom were candidates for personalized therapies. The most prevalent mutated genes were BRAF (39%), TP53 (23%), and NRAS (14%). Other genes identified at lower incidence (< 5%) were: PIK3CA, ERBB4, CTNNB1, STK11, FGFR1, SMAD4, KRAS, FGFR3, PTEN and AKT. Co-occurrence of oncogenic mutations was detected in 40% of the samples. Among the mutations identified, TP53 was significantly more prevalent in men (men 31.8% versus women 12.2%, P = 0.03) and NRAS in women (men 9.1% versus women 24.4%, P = 0.03). Conclusions: Targeted-NGS testing is a feasible technique to implement in the routine clinical practice. Based on our results, NGS has provided more information on target-genes than RT-PCR technique, maximizing the benefit for patients with advanced melanoma.
Interpreting experience and working memory effects on L1 and L2 morphological prediction

The human brain tries to process information as efficiently as possible through mechanisms like prediction. Native speakers predict linguistic information extensively, but L2 learners show variability. Interpreters use prediction while working and research shows that interpreting experience mediates L2 prediction. However, it is unclear whether advantages related to interpreting are due to higher working memory (WM) capacity, a typical characteristic of professional interpreters. To better understand the role of WM during L1 and L2 prediction, English L2 learners of Spanish with and without interpreting experience and Spanish monolinguals completed a visual-world paradigm eye-tracking task and a number-letter sequencing working memory task. The eye-tracking task measured prediction of verbal morphology (present, past) based on suprasegmental information (lexical stress: paroxytone, oxytone) and segmental information (syllabic structure: CV, CVC). Results revealed that WM mediates L1 prediction, such that higher WM facilitates prediction of morphology in monolinguals. However, higher WM hinders prediction in L2 processing for non-interpreters. Interestingly, interpreters behaved similarly to monolinguals, with higher WM facilitating L2 prediction. This study provides further understanding of the variability in L2 prediction.
A Novel Approach to Measuring Urban Waterlogging Depth from Images Based on Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network

Quickly obtaining accurate waterlogging depth data is vital in urban flood events, especially for emergency response and risk mitigation. In this study, a novel approach to measure urban waterlogging depth was developed using images from social networks and traffic surveillance video systems. The Mask region-based convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) model was used to detect tires in waterlogging, which were considered to be reference objects. Then, waterlogging depth was calculated using the height differences method and Pythagorean theorem. The results show that tires detected from images can been used as an effective reference object to calculate waterlogging depth. The Pythagorean theorem method performs better on images from social networks, and the height differences method performs well both on the images from social networks and on traffic surveillance video systems. Overall, the low-cost method proposed in this study can be used to obtain timely waterlogging warning information, and enhance the possibility of using existing social networks and traffic surveillance video systems to perform opportunistic waterlogging sensing.
Integrated nutrient management effect on rice (Oryza sativa) - wheat (Triticum aestivum) system productivity in subhumid ecosystem

A long-term field experiment was initiated during 1983-84 at 8 locations (Ranjitsinghpura, Palampur, Pantnagar, Varanasi, Faizabad, Sabour, Jabalpur and Raipur) in rice (Oryza sativa L.) - wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend Fiori & Paol.) cropping system. The results of the last 5-10 years indicated the possibility of substituting 50% N needs of rice through farmyard manure at Ranjitsinghpura, Palampur, Varanasi, Faizabad, Sabour and Raipur and through prickly sesban [Sesbania cannabina Pers. var cannabina Baker syn Sesbania aculeata (Retz.) Pers. ] green-manure at Palampur and Raipur. In soils having high organic matter content at Pantnagar and high-clay soils at Jabalpur, N substitution by organic sources was not possible without any significant adverse effect on system productivity. Significant yield advantages with N substitution through farmyard manure at Palampur and prickly sesban green-manure at Raipur were also observed. Continuous rice-wheat cropping had variable effect on soil fertility depending on soil type, nutrient application and productivity levels. Integrated nutrient supply generally had beneficial effect on soil fertility.
An integration of gauge, satellite and reanalysis precipitation datasets for the largest river basin of the Tibetan Plateau

As the largest river basin of the Tibetan Plateau, the upper Brahmaputra River basin (also called “Yarlung Zangbo” in Chinese) has profound impacts on the water security of local and downstream inhabitants. Precipitation in the basin is mainly controlled by the Indian summer monsoon and westerly and is the key to understanding the water resources available in the basin; however, due to sparse observational data constrained by a harsh environment and complex topography, there remains a lack of reliable information on basin-wide precipitation (there are only nine national meteorological stations with continuous observations). To improve the accuracy of basin-wide precipitation data, we integrate various gauge, satellite, and reanalysis precipitation datasets, including GLDAS, ITP-Forcing, MERRA2, TRMM, and CMA datasets, to develop a new precipitation product for the 1981–2016 period over the upper Brahmaputra River basin, at 3 h and 5 km resolution. The new product has been rigorously validated at different temporal scales (e.g., extreme events, daily to monthly variability, and long-term trends) and spatial scales (point and basin scale) with gauge precipitation observations, showing much improved accuracies compared to previous products. An improved hydrological simulation has been achieved (low relative bias: − 5.94 %; highest Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (NSE): 0.643) with the new precipitation inputs, showing reliability and potential for multidisciplinary studies. This new precipitation product is openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3711155 (Wang et al., 2020) and additionally at the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (https://data.tpdc.ac.cn, last access: 10 July 2020, login required).
Superhydrophobic Polypyrrole-Coated Cigarette Filters for Effective Oil/Water Separation

To facilitate the recycling and reuse of cigarette filters and oil/water separation, a superhydrophobic cigarette filter was made by coating with dodecanethiol-modified polypyrrole (Ppy) particles by a dip-coating method. SEM, FTIR, and XPS were used to analyze the surface morphology and chemical compositions. The as-prepared superhydrophobic cigarette filter can realize wettability alteration via changing the ammonium persulfate (APS) concentration from 0.15 mol/L to 3 mol/L, and the contact angle increased from 0° on the original cigarette filter to 155° with a sliding angle of 5°. The superhydrophobic cigarette filter could effectively separate various oils and organic solvents. The separation efficiency was 98.8% and the separation stability was good. Furthermore, the as-prepared superhydrophobic cigarette filter had a large oil absorption range and could absorb different oils and organic solvents, including petroleum ether, engine oil, vegetable oil, n-hexane, and chloroform, with maximum absorption capacities ranging from 9.4 g/g to 22.7 g/g. According to the above results, we believe that the as-prepared superhydrophobic cigarette filter should have great potential in the recovery of solid waste and high-efficiency oil/water separation.
Effect of Different Varieties and Sowing Dates on Growth, Productivity and Economics of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the leading food crops of the world farming and occupies significant position among the cultivated cereals. Cultivation of wheat has been the symbolic of green revolution that played pivotal role in making the nation a food surplus nation. It belongs to poaceae family with chromosome number 42 and a self-pollinated crop. Wheat ranks first among the world food crops, in terms of cultivated area (223.813 mha) or production (733.144 mt) and with productivity of (3280 kg ha -1 ) (USDA 2016). It can be grown from below sea level to 5000 m altitude and in areas where rainfall ranges between 300-1130 mm. Wheat contributes more calories (20%) and International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 2 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Can Psychological Interventions Improve Intergroup Attitudes Post Terror Attacks?

This research concurrently investigated the effectiveness of three established bias-reducing interventions (i.e., positive affirmation, secure attachment, and cognitive dissonance) in the wake of the Paris and Brussels terror attacks. Using frequentist and Bayesian analyses, Study 1 (N = 1,676), launched within days of the attacks, found that compared to a control condition, the interventions did not significantly improve intergroup attitudes. Instead, the data showed strong support of the null hypotheses that there were no intervention effects. Proximity to the attacks did not moderate the effect. Study 2 (N = 285) reexamined the effects of the three interventions 2.5 years after the attacks, generally replicating the pattern of findings in Study 1. Together, this research highlights the challenge of intergroup bias reduction following terror attacks. We conclude by discussing several recommendations for how psychological interventions could play a more impactful role in contexts of heightened conflict.
The Influence of Social Media on Students’ Academic Life in Higher Education: The Case of University for Development Studies, Tamale

In recent times the proliferation of Information and Communication Technology has facilitated social interaction among different groups of people. Besides, communication in different forms is now easy with the creation of social media platforms that enable large groups of people to have a common discussion on a common platform. Some students of higher educational institutions are addicted to the use of these social media sites and could be detrimental to their academic achievement if not used effectively. This study provides empirical evidence from the Wa Campus students of the University for Development Studies (Ghana) on their awareness, use and effects of use of social media on their academic life. Primary data were collected from 380 randomly selected students through the use of a questionnaire and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics. With the exception of 2go and Tumblr where 46.1% and 44.7% of the respondents respectively are aware of, almost 80% of the respondents are aware of all the social media sites identified. The results therefore, indicate high awareness of current social media sites among the students with all the respondents becoming aware of at least Facebook and WhatsApp. Average time spent on frequently used social media sites is 40 hours per week. The use of smartphones, tablets and laptops which are very mobile is responsible for the relative higher intensity of social media use. The results also point out that social media sites are used for entertainment, social networking with friends and families, as well as for academic purpose. It is concluded that there are mixed effects of social media use on students’ academic life. The University’s Students Representative Council in collaboration with top management should develop strategies of informing students on the negative use of social media in their life. Keywords: Social Media, Academic Life, Information Literacy, Tertiary Students DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-4-13 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Assessing the Importance of Internal and External Self-Esteem and Their Relationship to Honor Concerns in Six Countries

We assessed empirical support for (a) the widely held notion that across so-called “honor, dignity, and face cultures,” internal and external components of self-esteem are differentially important for overall self-esteem; and (b) the idea that concerns for honor are related to internal and external components of self-esteem in honor cultures but not in dignity and face cultures. Most importantly, we also set out to (c) investigate whether measures are equivalent, that is, whether a comparison of means and relationships across cultural groups is possible with the employed scales. Data were collected in six countries (N = 1,099). We obtained only metric invariance for the self-esteem and honor scales, allowing for comparisons of relationships across samples, but not scale means. Partly confirming theoretical ideas on the importance of internal and external components of self-esteem, we found that only external rather than both external and internal self-esteem was relatively more important for overall self-esteem in “honor cultures”; in a “dignity” culture, internal self-esteem was relatively more important than external self-esteem. Contrary to expectations, in a “face” culture, internal self-esteem was relatively more important than external self-esteem. We were not able to conceptually replicate earlier reported relationships between components of self-esteem and the concern for honor, as we observed no cultural differences in the relationship between self-esteem and honor. We point toward the need for future studies to consider invariance testing in the field of honor to appropriately understand differences and similarities between samples.
Where Women Stand in Tribal vs. Non-Tribal Gaming Leadership

Introduction In the last decade, women have made impressive strides in the American corporate workplace. In 2018, women held more than half (51.5%) of all management, professional, and related occupations (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). In 2019, 44% of companies had three or more women in their c-suite, as compared to 29% of companies in 2015 (Thomas et al., 2019). Companies are hiring more women at the director level or above and on average, senior-level women are promoted at higher rates than men — both trends resulting in more women in senior leadership (Thomas et al., 2019). Companies are more committed to gender diversity, the equal representation of women on boards and senior management positions, than ever (Francoeur, Labelle, & SinclairDesgagné, 2008; Thomas et al., 2019). Now, 87% of companies state they are highly committed to gender diversity, compared to 56% in 2012 (Thomas et al., 2019). When evaluating senior leaders, 73% are highly committed to gender diversity and nearly half are putting mechanisms in place to improve gender diversity within their organizations (Thomas et al., 2019). In 2019, 59% of managers said gender diversity was a high priority for them, compared to only 42% in 2015 (Thomas et al., 2019). Further, more than half (51%) of male managers state gender diversity is a high priority for them, compared to 33% in 2015, and 61% of women say it is a high priority for them compared to 44% in 2015 (Thomas et al., 2019).
Grasping Unknown Objects by Coupling Deep Reinforcement Learning, Generative Adversarial Networks, and Visual Servoing

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for transferring a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) grasping agent from simulation to a real robot, without fine tuning in the real world. The approach utilises a CycleGAN to close the reality gap between the simulated and real environments, in a reverse real-to-sim manner, effectively "tricking" the agent into believing it is still in the simulator. Furthermore, a visual servoing (VS) grasping task is added to correct for inaccurate agent gripper pose estimations derived from deep learning. The proposed approach is evaluated by means of real grasping experiments, achieving a success rate of 83 % on previously seen objects, and the same success rate for previously unseen, semi-compliant objects. The robustness of the approach is demonstrated by comparing it with two baselines, DRL plus CycleGAN, and VS only. The results clearly show that our approach outperforms both baselines.
English for University Graduate Employability: Students and Employers’ Voices

Currently, English has taken a more significant role in all domains of life and is always associated with globalization and industrialization. In Indonesia, the growing importance of English has created new purposes and needs for learning English mainly by university students. This also calls for a shift in the mindset of universities from nurturing graduates for local to the global market. This study investigated the voices of university students and employers on the need for English language proficiency and skills for employment. Data were collected through interviews with forty final year undergraduate students at a private university and five employers from hospitality, service, and trading companies in Indonesia. The results show that both parties agree that English plays a major role in employability. English is important for a job interview in multinational companies and communication in the workplace (corporate training, company meeting, and presentation). It also becomes one of the keys to engaging in international communities and very important people in industries. In addition, there is a general agreement among students that good speaking skills are very important. However, in trading and service industries, employers put a great emphasis on listening and reading, followed by speaking and writing skills while in hospitality industries speaking skills are considered the most important. This study suggested that university should design English syllabus which caters the students’ needs to meet local and global industrial demands.
Challenges of teachers when teaching sentence-based mathematics problem-solving skills

Sentence-based mathematics problem-solving skills are essential as the skills can improve the ability to deal with various mathematical problems in daily life, increase the imagination, develop creativity, and develop an individual’s comprehension skills. However, mastery of these skills among students is still unsatisfactory because students often find it difficult to understand mathematical problems in verse, are weak at planning the correct solution strategy, and often make mistakes in their calculations. This study was conducted to identify the challenges that mathematics teachers face when teaching sentence-based mathematics problem-solving skills and the approaches used to address these challenges. This study was conducted qualitatively in the form of a case study. The data were collected through observations and interviews with two respondents who teach mathematics to year four students in a Chinese national primary school in Kuala Lumpur. This study shows that the teachers have faced three challenges, specifically low mastery skills among the students, insufficient teaching time, and a lack of ICT infrastructure. The teachers addressed these challenges with creativity and enthusiasm to diversify the teaching approaches to face the challenges and develop interest and skills as part of solving sentence-based mathematics problems among year four students. These findings allow mathematics teachers to understand the challenges faced while teaching sentence-based mathematics problem solving in depth as part of delivering quality education for every student. Nevertheless, further studies involving many respondents are needed to understand the problems and challenges of different situations and approaches that can be used when teaching sentence-based mathematics problem-solving skills.
A comparative multi-centre study on the clinical and imaging features of comfirmed and uncomfirmed patients with COVID-19

Background Previous studies had described the differences in clinical characteristics between ICU and non-ICU patients. However, seldom study focused on confirmed and unconfirmed groups. Our aim was to compare clinical and imaging characteristics of COVID-19 patients outside Hubei province between confirmed and unconfirmed group. Methods We retrospectively enrolled 163 consecutive adult patients with suspected COVID-19 from three tertiary hospitals in two provinces outside Hubei province from January 12, 2020 to February 13, 2020 and the differences in epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and imaging characteristics between the two groups were compared. Results This study enrolled 163 patients with 62 confirmed cases and 101 unconfirmed cases. Most confirmed patients were clustered (31, 50.0%) and with definite epidemiological exposure. Symptoms of COVID-19 were nonspecific, largely fever and dry cough. Laboratory findings in confirmed group were characterized by normal or reduced white blood cell count, reduced the absolute value of lymphocytes, and elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and accelerated Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). The typical chest CT imaging features of patients with confirmed COVID-19 were peripherally distributed multifocal GGO with predominance in the lower lung lobe. Compared with unconfirmed patients, confirmed patients had significantly higher proportion of dry cough, leucopenia, lymphopenia and accelerated ESR (P<0.05); but not with alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, D-dimer, lactic dehydrogenase, and myoglobin (P>0.05). Proportion of peripheral, bilateral or lower lung distribution and multi-lobe involvement, GGO, crazy-paving pattern, air bronchogram and pleural thickening in the confirmed group were also higher (P<0.05). Conclusions Symptoms of COVID-19 were nonspecific. Leukopenia, lymphopenia and ESR, as well as chest CT could be used as a clue for clinical diagnosis of COVID-19.