Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How ChatGPT Will Change Software Engineering Education

This position paper discusses the potential for using generative AIs like ChatGPT in software engineering education. Currently, discussions center around potential threats emerging from student's use of ChatGPT. For instance, generative AI will limit the usefulness of graded homework dramatically. However, there exist potential opportunities as well. For example, ChatGPT's ability to understand and generate human language allows providing personalized feedback to students, and can thus accompany current software engineering education approaches. This paper highlights the potential for enhancing software engineering education. The availability of generative AI will improve the individualization of education approaches. In addition, we discuss the need to adapt software engineering curricula to the changed profiles of software engineers. Moreover, we point out why it is important to provide guidance for using generative AI and, thus, integrate it in courses rather than accepting the unsupervised use by students, which can negatively impact the students' learning.
An Experience Report on Introducing Explicit Strategies into Testing Checklists for Advanced Beginners

Software testing is a critical skill for computing students, but learning and practicing testing can be challenging, particularly for beginners. A recent study suggests that a lightweight testing checklist that contains testing strategies and tutorial information could assist students in writing quality tests. However, students expressed a desire for more support in knowing how to test the code/scenario. Moreover, the potential costs and benefits of the testing checklist are not yet examined in a classroom setting. To that end, we improved the checklist by integrating explicit testing strategies to it (ETS Checklist), which provide step-by-step guidance on how to transfer semantic information from instructions to the possible testing scenarios. In this paper, we report our experiences in designing explicit strategies in unit testing, as well as adapting the ETS Checklist as optional tool support in a CS1.5 course. With the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the survey responses and lab assignment submissions generated by students, we discuss students' engagement with the ETS Checklists. Our results suggest that students who used the checklist intervention had significantly higher quality in their student-authored test code, in terms of code coverage, compared to those who did not, especially for assignments earlier in the course. We also observed students' unawareness of their need for help in writing high-quality tests.
Seeing Program Output Improves Novice Learning Gains

In this article, we report results from a randomized controlled trial where novice programmers completed code mimicking exercises -- writing and modifying code shown to them -- designed to help learn the basics of how variables work. Using a tailored code writing system with feedback on program correctness, we conducted a two-group design study where only one of the groups could see the program output and feedback on the correctness of the program they wrote, while the other group just saw feedback on correctness. Learning gain was measured using a code-reading multiple choice questionnaire as both a pretest and a posttest. Our data suggests that being able to see program output leads to higher learning gains for novices, when compared to just being able to see feedback on the correctness of the code. For more experienced students, we observed benefits from code mimicking in both groups, without a strong distinction between being able to see the output and not being able to see the output. Based on our experiment, we recommend that environments used by novices for learning programming should encourage -- or even require -- running the code before allowing submitting the program for assessment.
Want to Raise Cybersecurity Awareness? Start with Future IT Professionals.

As cyber threats endanger everyone, from regular users to computing professionals, spreading cybersecurity awareness becomes increasingly critical. Therefore, our university designed an innovative cybersecurity awareness course that is freely available online for students, employees, and the general public. The course offers simple, actionable steps that anyone can use to implement defensive countermeasures. Compared to other resources, the course not only suggests learners what to do, but explains why and how to do it. To measure the course impact, we administered it to 138 computer science undergraduates within a compulsory information security and cryptography course. They completed the course as a part of their homework and filled out a questionnaire after each lesson. Analysis of the questionnaire responses revealed that the students valued the course highly. They reported new learning, perspective changes, and transfer to practice. Moreover, they suggested suitable improvements to the course. Based on the results, we have distilled specific insights to help security educators design similar courses. Lessons learned from this study are relevant for cybersecurity instructors, course designers, and educational managers.
Castle and Stairs to Learn Iteration: Co-designing a UMC Learning Module with Teachers

This experience report presents a participatory process that involved primary school teachers and computer science education researchers. The objective of the process was to co-design a learning module to teach iteration to second graders using a visual programming environment and based on the Use-Modify-Create methodology. The co-designed learning module was piloted with three second-grade classes. We experienced that sharing and reconciling the different perspectives of researchers and teachers was doubly effective. On the one hand, it improved the quality of the resulting learning module; on the other hand, it constituted a very significant professional development opportunity for both teachers and researchers. We describe the co-designed learning module, discuss the most significant hinges in the process that led to such a product, and reflect on the lessons learned.
Improving Perceptions of Underrepresented Students towards Computing Majors through Mentoring

The low sense of belonging and self-efficacy have been identified as key factors for underrepresented students not choosing computing careers and retaining in computing disciplines. Researchers advised that without adequate mentorship and role models, many of these students do not view computing as a viable option. Even though several works utilized mentoring, they do not provide detailed guidelines on how this may have been accomplished and how it could be applied to other settings. In this study, we explore the efficacy of incorporating mentoring into the curriculum of an introductory undergraduate computing course. In this work, we seek the answer to the following two research questions: (1) How do culturally diverse mentor-mentee relationships impact the sense of belonging, computing identity, and self-efficacy of underrepresented students in computing programs? (2) How does the integration of mentoring initiatives influence the perceptions of underrepresented students toward computing majors? We implemented mentoring practices in the Fall of 2022 and results show that our mentoring interventions were able to improve participants' sense of belonging and computing identity. Mentors and mentees also shared positive opinions toward our initiatives.
Project-Based and Assignment-Based Courses: A Study of Piazza Engagement and Gender in Online Courses

Project-based (PB) learning has become increasingly popular in computer science education, particularly as studies have found that the teaching style better prepares students for future careers and improves learning outcomes through increased student engagement. Online forum usage is one measurable component of engagement. In order to study the impact of PB learning on online forum engagement, Piazza usage data from seven online computer science courses at a higher education institution were collected and examined. We analyzed the differences in online forum usage between PB and assignment-based (AB) learning, in addition to differences between men and women in each course type. Specifically, this study builds upon and replicates a previous study on Piazza that measured student engagement, anonymity usage, and peer parity. We found that students in PB courses were less actively engaged in online forums than students in AB courses; they were less likely to ask and answer questions on Piazza but were more likely to view posts and be logged on more days. Across both course types, students posted anonymously a similar amount as a proportion of the total number of questions and answers and experienced a proportionally similar amount of peer parity. Our findings mirror prior results on gender engagement on Piazza. Across both PB and AB courses, women were more engaged, asked and viewed more questions, posted anonymously more frequently, and were less likely to experience peer parity than men.
Effects of midsole stack height and foam on the metabolic cost of running

The modernisation of cushioning materials has led to increasing midsole stack height while minimally compromising the mass of the running footwear. Some have argued that increased midsole stack height itself may improve running performance (Burns & Tam, 2020), citing work on effective leg length across terrestrial animals (Pontzer, 2007). However, despite having governing bodies implementing limitations to this aspect of footwear construction, the isolated effect of increasing midsole thickness is not well understood.
Comparison of the Microwave Absorption Characteristics of Hematite, Magnetite and Pyrite

Abstract We provide an understanding of the microwave absorption characteristics of hematite, magnetite and pyrite by measuring and comparing the microwave heating rate, dielectric and magnetic properties and the absorbed microwave energy. The three methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and supplement each other. Magnetite showed the strongest microwave absorption and rapid heating rate because of its dielectric and magnetic losses. Dielectric properties and calorimetry indicate that two pyrite samples had different microwave absorption characteristics, but a similar heating rate. Three types of hematite had a significant difference in interaction with the microwave. The heating rate of one of the hematite samples was most rapid and the sample had a higher dielectric loss factor. The ability of these minerals to absorb microwaves was maintained at a certain level when the microwave power and microwave heating time increased. For microwave-sensitive materials, the amount of absorbed microwave energy increased significantly with their mass.
Increased shoe bending stiffness changes ankle kinematics during high degree cutting movements

Timo Bagehorn, Patrick Mai, Kevin Bill, Alexis Herbaut, Uwe G. Kersting and Mark de Zee Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; Institute of Biomechanics and Orthopaedics, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany; Institute for Advanced Biomechanics and Motion Studies, Offenburg University, Offenburg, Germany; SportsLab, Decathlon, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Families of Children with Disabilities: Challenges and Coping Strategies in Some Selected Towns of Arsi Zone

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the common challenges that families faced and the different coping strategies they employed in bringing up their children with disability in some selected towns of Arsi Zone. Arsi zone is found in central Ethiopia located in the Oromia region state about 175 kilometers from Addis Ababa. Researcher employed a qualitative research design. Ten interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted with parents of children with disabilities who send their children to Arsi zone government schools that have special classes for such children. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit the study participants. A digital recorder was used to record all the interviews and focus group discussions. The results indicate that parents of children with disabilities experience common challenges including objective challenges (problems associated with time constraint, financial burden, impact on day to day activities, lack of social support) and subjective challenges (Feeling of consistent chronic sorrow, less social interaction). They described experiences of their positive perceptions in raising their children and discuss coping strategies that have been most helpful to them such as beliefs in God, evaluating child’s progress, service provision and experience sharing. They also indicated their strong needs about vocational training for their children.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Human Resource Management Priorities

Abstract The pandemic situation associated with the Covid-19 disease has changed people's lives and significantly affected the functioning of companies and organizations. Managers of industrial companies faced a new situation and had to look for new solutions to the problems that arose. Employees were forced to get used to new conditions and adapt not only to new private along with new work situations caused by the pandemic. The success of any organization depends on its employees, which is why a high-quality human resource management was important also in the pandemic situation. The aim of the article is to interpret the results of research aimed at identifying priorities in the field of human resource management in terms of the situation before and during the pandemic as well as the priorities that will dominate after the return to the standard work regime. The collection tool was a questionnaire distributed online. As many as 70 managers and specialists from industrial companies in Slovakia took part in the questionnaire survey. The obtained data were evaluated through descriptive statistics, in the form of graphs and tables. The results can be useful for practice of industrial companies in the field of setting priorities, or evaluating and comparing the situation in the field of human resource management before and during the pandemic as well as after the return to the standard work regime.
Sustainability Reporting and Earnings Management of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

Abstract The effects of sustainability reporting on earnings management was examined in the study extensively. Causal research design was employed in this study. The study population comprises of all the 112 quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria, sample size is 22 listed manufacturing firms purposively selected for the purpose of this study. The study covered 7 years’ period ranging from 2015-2021. The data used for this study were gotten from the annual reports and sustainability reports of the selected firms. Data used for this study were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and panel regression analysis. Sustainability reporting was measured in this study by using the social, economic and environmental disclosures index, whereas earnings management was measured using discretionary accrual and real earning. The outcome of the analysis of the study revealed that sustainability reporting has a significant negative effect on discretionary accruals and real earnings evidenced by t-statistics = (-2.31, -2.54, -2.95) and p-values of (0.037, 0.018 and 0.023) respectively for social, environmental and economic report disclosures on discretionary accruals and t-statistics of = (-2.53, -2.23, -2.86) and p-values of (0.012, 0.029 and 0.005) respectively for social, environmental and economic report disclosures on real earnings. The study concludes that the firms with low sustainability disclosure will probably be more involved in earnings management practices than the firms who actively disclosed their sustainability matters in details. The study recommends that firms should ensure they disclose in details the true state of their sustainability activities.
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE TEST OF INTRINSIC MODE FUNCTIONS

One of the preliminary tasks when analyzing a dataset is to determine whether it or its components contain useful information. The task is essentially a binary hypothesis testing problem in which a null hypothesis of pure noise is often preproposed. To test against the null hypothesis, the characteristics of noise need to be understood first, and often, these characteristics pertain to the analysis method used. In this paper, the characteristics of Gaussian white noise are studied by using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method. Statistical testing methods for Gaussian white noise for the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are designed based on the characteristics of Gaussian white noise by using EMD. These methods are applied to well-studied geophysical datasets to demonstrate the method’s validity and effectiveness.
Aneuploidies are an ancestral feature of trypanosomatids, and an ancient chromosome duplication is maintained in extant species

Background Aneuploidy is widely observed in both unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes, usually associated with adaptation to stress conditions. Chromosomal duplication stability is a tradeoff between the fitness cost of having unbalanced gene copies and the potential fitness gained from increased dosage of specific advantageous genes. Trypanosomatids, a family of protozoans which include species that cause neglected tropical diseases, are a relevant group to study aneuploidies, as their life cycle has several stressors that would benefit from the rapid adaptation provided by aneuploidies. Results By evaluating the data from 866 isolates covering 7 Trypanosomatids genera, we have observed that aneuploidies are present in the majority of clades, and have a reduced occurrence in a specific monophyletic clade that has undergone large genomic reorganisation and chromosomal fusions. We have also identified an ancient chromosomal duplication that was maintained across these parasite’s speciations, which has increased sequence diversity, unusual gene structure and expression regulation. Conclusion Aneuploidies are an important and ancestral feature in Trypanosomatids. Chromosomal duplication/loss is a constant event in these protozoans, common in Leishmania and Leptomonas and repressed in T. brucei and closely related protozoans. The number of chromosomes with extra copies in a given isolate is usually low, and only one chromosomal duplication was kept for long enough to greatly impact its nucleotide diversity. The thigh control of gene expression in this chromosome suggests that these parasites have adapted to mitigate the fitness cost of having this ancient chromosomal duplication.
The role of binocular disparity in the neural representation of multiple moving stimuli in the visual cortex

A fundamental process of vision is to segment visual scenes into distinct objects and surfaces. Stereoscopic depth and visual motion cues are particularly important for segmentation. However, how the primate visual system uses depth and motion cues to segment multiple surfaces in 3-dimensional space is not well understood. We investigated how neurons in the middle temporal (MT) cortex represented two overlapping surfaces located at different depths and moved simultaneously in different directions. We recorded neuronal activities in MT of three male macaque monkeys while they performed discrimination tasks under different attention conditions. We found that neuronal responses to overlapping surfaces showed a robust bias toward the horizontal disparity of one of the two surfaces. For all animals, the disparity bias in response to two surfaces was positively correlated with the disparity preference of the neurons to single surfaces. For two animals, neurons that preferred the near disparities of single surfaces (near neurons) showed a near bias to overlapping stimuli, and neurons that preferred the far disparities (far neurons) showed a far bias. For the third animal, both near and far neurons showed a near bias, although the near neurons showed a stronger near bias than the far neurons. Interestingly, for all three animals, both near and far neurons showed an initial near bias relative to the average of the responses to the individual surfaces. Although attention can modulate neuronal response to better represent the attended surface, the disparity bias was still present when attention was directed away from the visual stimuli, indicating that the disparity bias cannot be explained by an attention bias. We also found that the effect of attention modulation of MT responses was consistent with object-based rather than feature-based attention. We proposed a model in which the pool size of the neuron population that weighs the responses to individual stimulus components can be variable. Our model is a novel extension of the standard normalization model and provides a unified explanation of the disparity bias across animals. Our results revealed the neural encoding rule for multiple moving stimuli located at different depths and showed new evidence of response modulation by object-based attention in MT. The disparity bias would allow subgroups of neurons to preferentially represent individual surfaces at different depths of multiple stimuli and therefore facilitate segmentation. Attention can further select a surface and enhance its neural representation.
PepFlow: direct conformational sampling from peptide energy landscapes through hypernetwork-conditioned diffusion

Deep learning approaches have spurred substantial advances in the single-state prediction of biomolecular structures. The function of biomolecules is, however, dependent on the range of conformations they can assume. This is especially true for peptides, a highly flexible class of molecules that are involved in numerous biological processes and are of high interest as therapeutics. Here, we introduce PepFlow, a generalized Boltzmann generator that enables direct all-atom sampling from the allowable conformational space of input peptides. We train the model in a diffusion framework and subsequently use an equivalent flow to perform conformational sampling. To overcome the prohibitive cost of generalized all-atom modelling, we modularize the generation process and integrate a hyper-network to predict sequence-specific network parameters. PepFlow accurately predicts peptide structures and effectively recapitulates experimental peptide ensembles at a fraction of the running time of traditional approaches. PepFlow can additionally be used to sample conformations that satisfy constraints such as macrocyclization.