Blended learning combines online digital resources with traditional classroom activities and enables students to attain higher learning performance through well-defined interactive strategies ...involving online and traditional learning activities. Learning analytics is a conceptual framework and as a part of our Precision education used to analyze and predict students' performance and provide timely interventions based on student learning profiles. This study applied learning analytics and educational big data approaches for the early prediction of students' final academic performance in a blended Calculus course. Real data with 21 variables were collected from the proposed course, consisting of video-viewing behaviors, out-of-class practice behaviors, homework and quiz scores, and after-school tutoring. This study applied principal component regression to predict students' final academic performance. The experimental results show that students' final academic performance could be predicted when only one-third of the semester had elapsed. In addition, we identified seven critical factors that affect students' academic performance, consisting of four online factors and three traditional factors. The results showed that the blended data set combining online and traditional critical factors had the highest predictive performance.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Umifenovir (Arbidol®) is an antiviral drug being used to treat influenza in Russia ...and China. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of umifenovir for COVID-19.
A retrospective study was performed in a non-intensive care unit (ICU) ward in Jinyintan Hospital from 2 February 2020 to 20 March 2020. COVID-19 was confirmed by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay of pharyngeal swab specimens. The confirmed patients were divided into the umifenovir group and the control group according to the use of umifenovir. The main outcomes were the rate of negative pharyngeal swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 within 1 week after admission and the time for the virus to turn negative. The negativity time of SARS-CoV-2 was defined as the first day of a negative test if the nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 was negative for two consecutive tests.
A total of 81 COVID-19 patients were included, with 45 in the umifenovir group and 36 in the control group. Baseline clinical and laboratory characteristics were comparable between the two groups. Thirty-three out of 45 (73%) patients in the umifenovir group tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 within 7 days after admission, the number was 28/36 (78%) in the control group (p 0.19). The median time from onset of symptoms to SARS-CoV-2 turning negative was 18 days (interquartile range (IQR) 12–21) in the umifenovir group and 16 days (IQR 11–21) in the control group (p 0.42). Patients in the umifenovir group had a longer hospital stay than patients in the control group (13 days (IQR 9–17) vs 11 days (IQR 9–14), p 0.04). No deaths or severe adverse reactions were found in both groups.
Umifenovir might not improve the prognosis or accelerate SARS-CoV-2 clearance in non-ICU patients. A randomized control clinical trial is needed to assess the efficacy of umifenovir.
We employ a global magnetohydrodynamic model to study the effects of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) strength and direction upon the cross section of the magnetotail at lunar distances. The ...anisotropic pressure of draped magnetosheath magnetic field lines and the inclusion of a reconnection‐generated standing slow mode wave fan bounded by a rotational discontinuity within the definition of the magnetotail result in cross sections elongated in the direction parallel to the component of the IMF in the plane perpendicular to the Sun‐Earth line. Tilted cross‐tail plasma sheets separate the northern and southern lobes within these cross sections. Greater fast‐mode speeds perpendicular than parallel to the draped magnetosheath magnetic field lines result in greater distances to the bow shock in the direction perpendicular than parallel to the component of the IMF in the plane transverse to the Sun‐Earth line. The magnetotail cross section responds rapidly to variations in the IMF orientation. The rotational discontinuity associated with newly reconnected magnetic field lines requires no more than the magnetosheath convection time to appear at any distance downstream, and further adjustments of the cross section in response to the anisotropic pressures of the draped magnetic field lines require no more than 10–20 min. Consequently, for typical ecliptic IMF orientations and strengths, the magnetotail cross section is oblate, while the bow shock is prolate.
Key Points
An ecliptic IMF causes prolate bow shock but oblate magnetotail cross sections
The oblate lunar magnetotail cross sections include broad slow‐mode fans
Lunar magnetotail and bow shock cross sections respond rapidly to IMF variations
Focus Serial: Frontiers of Nonlinear Optics Several kinds of nonlinear optical effects have been observed in recent years using silicon waveguides, and their device applications are attracting ...considerable attention. In this review, we provide a unified theoretical platform that not only can be used for understanding the underlying physics but should also provide guidance toward new and useful applications. We begin with a description of the third-order nonlinearity of silicon and consider the tensorial nature of both the electronic and Raman contributions. The generation of free carriers through two-photon absorption and their impact on various nonlinear phenomena is included fully within the theory presented here. We derive a general propagation equation in the frequency domain and show how it leads to a generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation when it is converted to the time domain. We use this equation to study propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in the presence of self-phase modulation and show the possibility of soliton formation and supercontinuum generation. The nonlinear phenomena of cross-phase modulation and stimulated Raman scattering are discussed next with emphasis on the impact of free carriers on Raman amplification and lasing. We also consider the four-wave mixing process for both continuous-wave and pulsed pumping and discuss the conditions under which parametric amplification and wavelength conversion can be realized with net gain in the telecommunication band.
The caspase family is well characterized as playing a crucial role in modulation of programmed cell death (PCD), which is a genetically regulated, evolutionarily conserved process with numerous links ...to many human diseases, most notably cancer. In this review, we focus on summarizing the intricate relationships between some members of the caspase family and their key apoptotic mediators, involving tumour necrosis factor receptors, the Bcl‐2 family, cytochrome c, Apaf‐1 and IAPs in cancer initiation and progression. We elucidate new emerging types of cross‐talk between several caspases and autophagy‐related genes (Atgs) in cancer. Moreover, we focus on presenting several PCD‐modulating agents that may target caspases‐3, ‐8 and ‐9, and their substrates PARP‐1 and Beclin‐1, which may help us harness caspase‐modulated PCD pathways for future drug discovery.
The aim of this work was to determine the magnitude of the priming effect,
i.e. short-term changes in the rate (negative or positive) of mineralisation of native soil organic carbon (C), following ...addition of biochars. The biochars were made from
Miscanthus giganteus, a C4 plant, naturally enriched with
13C. The biochars were produced at 350 °C (biochar350) and 700 °C (biochar700) and applied with and without ryegrass as a substrate to a clay-loam soil at pH 3.7 and 7.6. A secondary aim was to determine the effect of ryegrass addition on the mineralisation of the two biochars.
After 87 days, biochar350 addition caused priming effects equivalent to 250 and 319 μg CO
2–C g
−1 soil, in the low and high pH soil, respectively. The largest priming effects occurred at the start of the incubations. The size of the priming effect was decreased at higher biochar pyrolysis temperatures, which may be a way of controlling priming effects following biochar incorporation to soil, if desired. The priming effect was probably induced by the water soluble components of the biochar. At 87 days of incubation, 0.14% and 0.18% of biochar700 and 0.61% and 0.84% of biochar350 were mineralized in the low and high pH soil, respectively. Ryegrass addition gave an increased biochar350 mineralisation of 33% and 40%, and increased biochar700 at 137% and 70%, in the low and high pH soils, respectively. Certainly, on the basis of our results, if biochar is used to sequester carbon a priming effect may occur, increasing CO
2–C evolved from soil and decreasing soil organic C. However, this will be more than compensated for by the increased soil C caused by biochar incorporation. A similar conclusion holds for accelerated mineralisation of biochar due to incorporation of fresh labile substrates. We consider that our results are the first to unequivocally demonstrate the initiation, progress and termination of a true positive priming effect by biochar on native soil organic C.
► Priming effects on soil organic matter following incorporation of biochar to soil. ► Detecting the interactions between biochar and soil pH. ► Enhanced biochar mineralisation following substrate addition.
The field of dark matter detection is a highly visible and highly competitive one. In this paper, we propose recommendations for presenting dark matter direct detection results particularly suited ...for weak-scale dark matter searches, although we believe the spirit of the recommendations can apply more broadly to searches for other dark matter candidates, such as very light dark matter or axions. To translate experimental data into a final published result, direct detection collaborations must make a series of choices in their analysis, ranging from how to model astrophysical parameters to how to make statistical inferences based on observed data. While many collaborations follow a standard set of recommendations in some areas, for example the expected flux of dark matter particles (to a large degree based on a paper from Lewin and Smith in 1995), in other areas, particularly in statistical inference, they have taken different approaches, often from result to result by the same collaboration. We set out a number of recommendations on how to apply the now commonly used Profile Likelihood Ratio method to direct detection data. In addition, updated recommendations for the Standard Halo Model astrophysical parameters and relevant neutrino fluxes are provided. The authors of this note include members of the DAMIC, DarkSide, DARWIN, DEAP, LZ, NEWS-G, PandaX, PICO, SBC, SENSEI, SuperCDMS, and XENON collaborations, and these collaborations provided input to the recommendations laid out here. Wide-spread adoption of these recommendations will make it easier to compare and combine future dark matter results.
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