Assessment techniques to achieve learning outcomes in the speaking skill of 6th semester PINE major student at UPSE.

This thesis examines the assessment techniques used to achieve desired learning outcomes in speaking skills among 6th-semester PINE major students at UPSE. It acknowledges the paramount importance of effective speaking skills in language acquisition and the challenges students face in their development. By conducting qualitative research, this study aims to shed light on current assessment practices, identify areas for improvement, and assess their alignment with intended learning outcomes and instructional strategies. The research objectives include identifying existing assessment techniques, investigating perceptions of teachers and students regarding their effectiveness, and analyzing the alignment between assessment techniques, learning outcomes, and instructional strategies. Through these objectives, the study aims to enhance students' oral proficiency and contribute to the improvement of assessment practices in PINE courses. This research fills a crucial knowledge gap, providing insights into the use of assessment techniques in promoting effective speaking skills and paving the way for enhanced coherence and effectiveness in assessing students' oral proficiency

A Primer on Motion Capture with Deep Learning: Principles, Pitfalls and Perspectives

Extracting behavioral measurements non-invasively from video is stymied by the fact that it is a hard computational problem. Recent advances in deep learning have tremendously advanced predicting posture from videos directly, which quickly impacted neuroscience and biology more broadly. In this primer we review the budding field of motion capture with deep learning. In particular, we will discuss the principles of those novel algorithms, highlight their potential as well as pitfalls for experimentalists, and provide a glimpse into the future.Comment: Review, 21 pages, 8 figures and 5 boxe

AmadeusGPT: a natural language interface for interactive animal behavioral analysis

The process of quantifying and analyzing animal behavior involves translating the naturally occurring descriptive language of their actions into machine-readable code. Yet, codifying behavior analysis is often challenging without deep understanding of animal behavior and technical machine learning knowledge. To limit this gap, we introduce AmadeusGPT: a natural language interface that turns natural language descriptions of behaviors into machine-executable code. Large-language models (LLMs) such as GPT3.5 and GPT4 allow for interactive language-based queries that are potentially well suited for making interactive behavior analysis. However, the comprehension capability of these LLMs is limited by the context window size, which prevents it from remembering distant conversations. To overcome the context window limitation, we implement a novel dual-memory mechanism to allow communication between short-term and long-term memory using symbols as context pointers for retrieval and saving. Concretely, users directly use language-based definitions of behavior and our augmented GPT develops code based on the core AmadeusGPT API, which contains machine learning, computer vision, spatio-temporal reasoning, and visualization modules. Users then can interactively refine results, and seamlessly add new behavioral modules as needed. We benchmark AmadeusGPT and show we can produce state-of-the-art performance on the MABE 2022 behavior challenge tasks. Note, an end-user would not need to write any code to achieve this. Thus, collectively AmadeusGPT presents a novel way to merge deep biological knowledge, large-language models, and core computer vision modules into a more naturally intelligent system. Code and demos can be found at: https://github.com/AdaptiveMotorControlLab/AmadeusGPT.Comment: demo available https://github.com/AdaptiveMotorControlLab/AmadeusGP

Servicio de venta y delivery de alimentos para el hogar “HOMMIE MARKET”

En los últimos años, el perfil del consumidor de Lima Moderna ha cambiado, adoptando nuevos estilos de vida y mostrando un incremento en la preferencia de la compra online, específicamente, en el rubro de alimentos. En este contexto, nace Hommie Market, un emprendimiento de venta de alimentos y productos de primera necesidad online con servicio de delivery, dirigido a las familias de los distritos de Jesús María, San Isidro y Magdalena, de los niveles socioeconómicos AB, quienes no cuentan con el tiempo suficiente para realizar esta actividad. Hommie Market está orientada a ofrecer una plataforma e-commerce fácil de usar, con productos y marcas de buena calidad, con un servicio de entrega en un máximo de 48 horas y, cuidando la experiencia del cliente en todo el proceso de compra. Por otro lado, el análisis económico- financiero del proyecto comprende un horizonte de 5 años comenzando en diciembre 2020, como mes de inversión y los flujos de caja del periodo 2021 al 2025. El valor de inversión inicial del proyecto es de S/. 106,250.00 soles. La ganancia estimada del proyecto es de S/. 1’797,865.00 soles a un costo del WACC de 9.17% anual, mientras que la ganancia de los inversionistas por su aporte será de S/.1,865,216.00 soles, a un costo del COK de 7.15%. Finalmente, se proyecta un crecimiento promedio anual 1.10% respecto a la utilidad neta, estableciéndose como un objetivo a cumplir.In recent years, the consumer profile of Modern Lima has changed, achieving a new lifestyle and showing an increase in the preference for online shopping, specifically in the food retail sector. In this context, Hommie Market was born, a startup that sells food and essential products online with a delivery service, aimed at families from the districts of Jesús Maria, San Isidro and Magdalena, of the AB socioeconomic levels, who do not have with enough time to do this activity. Hommie Market are focus on offering an easy-to-use e-commerce platform, with good quality products and brands, with a delivery in a maximum of 48 hours and, taking care of the customer's experience. On the other hand, the economic-financial analysis of the project includes a 5-year horizon starting in January 2021. The initial investment value of the project is S /. 106,250.00 soles. The estimated profit of the project is S/.1'797,865.00 soles at a WACC cost of 9.17% per annum, while the profit of investors for their contribution will be S/.1,865,216.00 soles, at a COK cost of 7.15%. Finally, an average annual growth of 1.10% is projected concerning net income, an established objective to be met.Trabajo de investigació

Egg-Phosphatidylcholine Attenuates T-Cell Dysfunction in High-Fat Diet Fed Male Wistar Rats

Obesity is associated with immune dysfunction including an impaired T-cell function characterized by a lower IL-2 (proliferation marker) production after stimulation. Phosphatidylcholine (PC), a form of choline mostly found in eggs, has been shown to beneficially modulate T-cell responses during the lactation period by increasing the production of IL-2. To determine the impact of egg-PC as part of a high-fat diet on immune function we randomly fed male Wistar rats one of three diets containing the same amount of total choline but differing in the form of choline: 1—Control low fat [CLF, 10% wt/wt fat, 100% free choline (FC)]; 2— Control high-fat (CHF, 25% wt/wt fat, 100% FC); 3— PC high-fat (PCHF, 25% wt/wt, 100% PC). After 9 weeks of feeding, rats were euthanized. Cell phenotypes and ex vivo cytokine production by splenocytes stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate plus ionomycin (PMA+I), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and pokeweed (PWM) were measured by flow cytometry and ELISA, respectively. Rats fed the PCHF diet had a lower proportion of CD3+ cells when compared to both the CLF and the CHF. Following PMA+I stimulation, splenocytes from the CHF group produced less IL-2 and TNF-α compared to CLF and PCHF groups. No significant differences in cytokine production were found among groups after LPS and PWM stimulation. Our results show that feeding a high-fat diet impairs T-cell responses, as measured by ex vivo cytokine production, which can be attenuated by providing egg-PC

Plant biosystems design research roadmap 1.0

Human life intimately depends on plants for food, biomaterials, health, energy, and a sustainable environment. Various plants have been genetically improved mostly through breeding, along with limited modification via genetic engineering, yet they are still not able to meet the ever-increasing needs, in terms of both quantity and quality, resulting from the rapid increase in world population and expected standards of living. A step change that may address these challenges would be to expand the potential of plants using biosystems design approaches. This represents a shift in plant science research from relatively simple trial-and-error approaches to innovative strategies based on predictive models of biological systems. Plant biosystems design seeks to accelerate plant genetic improvement using genome editing and genetic circuit engineering or create novel plant systems through de novo synthesis of plant genomes. From this perspective, we present a comprehensive roadmap of plant biosystems design covering theories, principles, and technical methods, along with potential applications in basic and applied plant biology research. We highlight current challenges, future opportunities, and research priorities, along with a framework for international collaboration, towards rapid advancement of this emerging interdisciplinary area of research. Finally, we discuss the importance of social responsibility in utilizing plant biosystems design and suggest strategies for improving public perception, trust, and acceptance

Efficacy and safety of low-dose IL-2 in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Objectives Open-labelled clinical trials suggested that low-dose IL-2 might be effective in treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A double-blind and placebocontrolled trial is required to formally evaluate the safety and efficacy of low-dose IL-2 therapy. Methods A randomised, double-blind and placebocontrolled clinical trial was designed to treat 60 patients with active SLE. These patients received either IL-2 (n=30) or placebo (n=30) with standard treatment for 12 weeks, and were followed up for additional 12 weeks. IL-2 at a dose of 1 million IU or placebo was administered subcutaneously every other day for 2 weeks and followed by a 2-week break as one treatment cycle. The primary endpoint was the SLE Responder Index-4 (SRI-4) at week 12. The secondary endpoints were other clinical responses, safety and dynamics of immune cell subsets. Results At week 12, the SRI-4 response rates were 55.17% and 30.00% for IL-2 and placebo, respectively (p=0.052). At week 24, the SRI-4 response rate of IL-2 group was 65.52%, compared with 36.67% of the placebo group (p=0.027). The primary endpoint was not met at week 12. Low-dose IL-2 treatment resulted in 53.85% (7/13) complete remission in patients with lupus nephritis, compared with 16.67% (2/12) in the placebo group (p=0.036). No serious infection was observed in the IL-2 group, but two in placebo group. Besides expansion of regulatory T cells, low-dose IL-2 may also sustain cellular immunity with enhanced natural killer cells. Conclusions Low-dose IL-2 might be effective and tolerated in treatment of SThe work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31530020,31570880,81471601,81601417 and 81701598), Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences to ZG LI, Beijing Sci-Tech Committee Z171100000417007,Clinical Medicine Plus X-Young Scholars Project of Peking University (PKU2019LCXQ013) supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Beijing Nova Program Z171100001117025, National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0909003 to DY), BellberryViertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship to DY and Beijing SL PHARM