Measuring Developers' Episodic Experience of Low-Code Development Platforms

Developer Experience (DX) is being emphasized in recent research, either on the topic of understanding its concepts or measurements. It refers to how developers think and feel as they work towards a goal in the software development environment. Episodic experience is the term used to describe the experience that arises over a period of minutes or hours. Just as the user experience is based on the use of the product, DX is often linked to the development tools. However, measuring developers’ episodic experience when using software development products for a particular task in a given situation has not been specifically studied. In addition, Low-code Development Platforms (LCDPs) are becoming popular in recent years with the aim of allowing users to build applications easily and efficiently. The users of LCDP can be seen as special developers, with or without professional programming experience. This thesis presents a questionnaire to measure developers’ episodic experience of a specific LCDP with various experience items based on literature review and Delphi study with experts knowledgeable about DX. Observational task-based test was used to validate how it correlated with different aspects of the platform. The role of prior backgrounds in this context was also investigated. Using descriptive and statistical methods, I found significant differences in the prediction of tool quality and task difficulty across experience items. I also compared these items in groups with similar backgrounds. The results of the study indicated the experience of programming, LCDP, and design showed various impacts on the performance and feelings of developers. Based on the results of the study, the questionnaire with experience items is able to make some recommendations for the design of LCDPs. The thesis also provides some insights for further research in this area

3,4-Bis(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione

In the title compound, C18H15NO4, the benzene rings form quite different dihedral angles [16.07 (1) and 59.50 (1)°] with the central pyrrole ring, indicating a twisted mol­ecule. Conjugation is indicated between the five- and six-membered rings by the lengths of the C—C bonds which link them [1.462 (3) and 1.477 (3) Å]. The most prominent feature of the crystal packing is the formation of inversion dimers via eight-membered {⋯HNCO}2 synthons

Observation of self-accelerating Bessel-like optical beams along arbitrary trajectories

We experimentally demonstrate self-accelerating Bessel-like optical beams propagating along arbitrary trajectories in free space. With computer generated holography, such beams are designed to follow different controllable trajectories while their main lobe transverse profiles remain nearly invariant and symmetric. Examples include parabolic, snake-like, hyperbolic, hyperbolic secant, and even three-dimensional spiraling trajectories. The self-healing property of such beams is also demonstrated. This new class of optical beams can be considered as a hybrid between accelerating and non-accelerating nondiffracting beams that may find a variety of applications

Overexpression of SIRT1 in Mouse Forebrain Impairs Lipid/Glucose Metabolism and Motor Function

SIRT1 plays crucial roles in glucose and lipid metabolism, and has various functions in different tissues including brain. The brain-specific SIRT1 knockout mice display defects in somatotropic signaling, memory and synaptic plasticity. And the female mice without SIRT1 in POMC neuron are more sensitive to diet-induced obesity. Here we created transgenic mice overexpressing SIRT1 in striatum and hippocampus under the control of CaMKIIα promoter. These mice, especially females, exhibited increased fat accumulation accompanied by significant upregulation of adipogenic genes in white adipose tissue. Glucose tolerance of the mice was also impaired with decreased Glut4 mRNA levels in muscle. Moreover, the SIRT1 overexpressing mice showed decreased energy expenditure, and concomitantly mitochondria-related genes were decreased in muscle. In addition, these mice showed unusual spontaneous physical activity pattern, decreased activity in open field and rotarod performance. Further studies demonstrated that SIRT1 deacetylated IRS-2, and upregulated phosphorylation level of IRS-2 and ERK1/2 in striatum. Meanwhile, the neurotransmitter signaling in striatum and the expression of endocrine hormones in hypothalamus and serum T3, T4 levels were altered. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that SIRT1 in forebrain regulates lipid/glucose metabolism and motor function

Chinese herb medicine in augmented reality

Augmented reality becomes popular in education gradually, which provides a contextual and adaptive learning experience. Here, we develop a Chinese herb medicine AR platform based the 3dsMax and the Unity that allows users to visualize and interact with the herb model and learn the related information. The users use their mobile camera to scan the 2D herb picture to trigger the presentation of 3D AR model and corresponding text information on the screen in real-time. The system shows good performance and has high accuracy for the identification of herbal medicine after interference test and occlusion test. Users can interact with the herb AR model by rotating, scaling, and viewing transformation, which effectively enhances learners' interest in Chinese herb medicine

Flashlight-Net : A Modular Convolutional Neural Network for Motor Imagery EEG Classification

Peer reviewe

Liquid-liquid phase equilibrium and interaction exploration for separation of azeotrope (2,2,3,3-tetrafluoro-1-propanol + water) with two imidazolium-based ionic liquids

For separating azeotropic mixture 2,2,3,3-tetrafluoro-1-propanol (TFP) and water, two kinds of imidazolium-based ionic liquids 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate ([HMIM][OTf]) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate ([OMIM][OTf]) were adopted to separate TFP and water. The liquid-liquid equilibrium behavior for the mixtures (water + TFP + [HMIM][OTf]) and (water + TFP + [OMIM][OTf]) were measured at temperature of 298.15 K and pressure of 101.3 kPa. The extraction ability of [HMIM][OTf] and [OMIM][OTf] was explored with partition ratio and selectivity. In the meantime, the hydrogen bond lengths, total electron density, interaction energies and deformation electron density were calculated to analyze the interactions between the [HMIM][OTf]/[OMIM][OTf] and (TFP/water). Also, the liquid-liquid equilibrium data was fitted by the NRTL model.This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21978155), Shandong Provincial Key Research & Development Project (2018GGX107001)