92 research outputs found
Chinese International Graduate Students’ Perspectives of Individual Writing Consultations
When entering graduate school, many Chinese international graduate students, particularly those in education programs, struggle to meet the new academic expectations they encounter (Huang & Klinger, 2006), particularly with respect to writing assignments as they are writing in an additional language at an academic level for the first time. To support these students, many universities offer writing support in the form of writing centres that offer one-on-one consultations. These programs are critical to give students the support they need to improve their academic outcomes and achieve their potential. However, these services face a number of issues, ranging from a lack of funding and training, to the establishment of clear pedagogical guidelines, and there is limited research on the strategies these writing centres employ and how they can be improved. In addition, there is a gap in the literature on individual writing consultations (IWCs) with respect to students’ perspective as most research focuses on the perspectives of those operating writing support services. This exploratory study’s objective is to investigate what a small group of Chinese international graduate students enrolled in education programs think of IWCs at a Canadian university. This study is unique because it focuses on students’ experiences and perceptions of IWCs. By exploring these perspectives, the current study seeks to examine what these services need to effectively support this population, what they lack, and how they can be improved
Influence of ischemia before vein grafting on early hyperplasia of the graft and the dynamic changes of the intima after grafting
BACKGROUND: To investigate both the influence of ischemia before grafting on early hyperplasia of the vein grafts, and the dynamic changes of the intima after grafting in a rabbit model of vein graft disease. METHODS: We performed paired vein graft experiments under different ischemic conditions (15 vs. 60 min; 15 vs. 90 min) in the neck of the rabbits and compared the differences between the grafts. Clopidogrel, an anti-platelet agent, was administered before and after surgery. Twenty-eight days after the grafting procedure, the veins were evaluated microscopically. The dynamic changes of the intima after grafting were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy over time. RESULTS: The vein grafts subjected to 60- or 90-min ischemia exhibited no differences compared to those subjected to 15-min ischemia in terms of the mean thickness of the intimal, medial, and adventitial layers of the graft. Similarly, there was no difference in the Ki-67 labeling index (proliferation marker) between the vein grafts. Vein grafts with 15-min ischemia lost endothelial cells (ECs) but healed by 3 days post graft, whereas vein grafts with 90-min ischemia suffered serious EC loss, which was restored with new ECs during days 2 to 14 post graft. CONCLUSIONS: Ninety-minute ischemia before vein grafting can cause serious EC loss, but does not increase early intimal hyperplasia when clopidogrel is administered. Protecting the vein from ischemia and reperfusion injury preserves ECs
Differentiable matrix product states for simulating variational quantum computational chemistry
Quantum Computing is believed to be the ultimate solution for quantum chemistry problems. Before the advent of large-scale, fully fault-tolerant quantum computers, the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) is a promising heuristic quantum algorithm to solve real world quantum chemistry problems on near-term noisy quantum computers. Here we propose a highly parallelizable classical simulator for VQE based on the matrix product state representation of quantum state, which significantly extend the simulation range of the existing simulators. Our simulator seamlessly integrates the quantum circuit evolution into the classical auto-differentiation framework, thus the gradients could be computed efficiently similar to the classical deep neural network, with a scaling that is independent of the number of variational parameters. As applications, we use our simulator to study commonly used small molecules such as HF, HCl, LiH and HO, as well as larger molecules CO, BeH and H with up to qubits. The favorable scaling of our simulator against the number of qubits and the number of parameters could make it an ideal testing ground for near-term quantum algorithms and a perfect benchmarking baseline for oncoming large scale VQE experiments on noisy quantum computers
The prognostic value of negative lymph node count for patients with cervical cancer after radical surgery
Negative lymph node (NLN) count has been recognized as a prognostic indicator in various cancers. However, the relationship between NLN count and the prognosis of cervical cancer is still unknown. In this study, 10, 500 cervical cancer patients after radical surgery were selected from Epidemiology and End Results Program (SEER) data. Clinicopathological characteristics were collected for analysis, including year of diagnosis, age, race, grade, primary site, FIGO stage and cause specific survival (CSS). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess risk factors for survival of patients. X-tile plots identified 6 as the optimal cutoff value of NLN count to divide patients into high and low risk subsets in terms of CSS (χ2 = 183.95, P < 0.001). The rate of 5-year CCS of cervical cancer patients was improved with an increase in NLN count from 0 to 23 (all P < 0.001). NLN count was validated as an independently prognostic factor by the multivariate Cox analysis (HR: 1.571, 95% CI: 1.370~1.801, P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that NLN count was a prognosis factor in FIGO stage I (χ2=35.023, P < 0.001), stage II (χ2 = 12.910, P < 0.001), stage III + IV (χ2 = 9.732, P = 0.002) and unknown stage (χ2 = 16.654, P < 0.001). Conclusively, this study demonstrated the NLN count was an independent prognostic factor for cervical cancer patients
Real-time tracking and in vivo visualization of β-galactosidase activity in colorectal tumor with a ratiometric near-infrared fluorescent probe
Development of “smart”
noninvasive bioimaging probes
for trapping specific enzyme activities is highly desirable for cancer
therapy in vivo. Given that β-galactosidase (β-gal) is
an important biomarker for cell senescence and primary ovarian cancers,
we design an enzyme-activatable ratiometric near-infrared (NIR) probe
(DCM-βgal) for the real-time fluorescent quantification and
trapping of β-gal activity in vivo and in situ. DCM-βgal
manifests significantly ratiometric and turn-on NIR fluorescent signals
simultaneously in response to β-gal concentration, which makes
it favorable for monitoring dynamic β-gal activity in vivo with
self-calibration in fluorescent mode. We exemplify DCM-βgal
for the ratiometric tracking of endogenously overexpressed β-gal
distribution in living 293T cells via the <i>lacZ</i> gene
transfection method and OVCAR-3 cells, and further realize real-time
in vivo bioimaging of β-gal activity in colorectal tumor-bearing
nude mice. Advantages of our system include light-up ratiometric NIR
fluorescence with large Stokes shift, high photostability, and pH
independency under the physiological range, allowing for the in vivo
real-time evaluation of β-gal activity at the tumor site with
high-resolution three-dimensional bioimaging for the first time. Our
work provides a potential tool for in vivo real-time tracking enzyme
activity in preclinical applications
Influence of ischemia before vein grafting on early hyperplasia of the graft and the dynamic changes of the intima after grafting
Leptin promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer via the upregulation of pyruvate kinase M2
Reduced lignin content and altered lignin composition in the warm season forage grass Paspalum dilatatum by down-regulation of a Cinnamoyl CoA Reductase Gene
Evolution and expression analysis reveal the potential role of the HD-Zip gene family in regulation of embryo abortion in grapes (Vitis vinifera L.)
Abstract Background The HD-Zip family has a diversity of functions during plant development. In this study, we identify 33 HD-Zip transcription factors in grape and detect their expressions in ovules and somatic embryos, as well as in various vegetative organs. Results A genome-wide survey for HD-Zip transcription factors in Vitis was conducted based on the 12 X grape genome (V. vinifera L.). A total of 33 members were identified and classified into four subfamilies (I-IV) based on phylogeny analysis with Arabidopsis, rice and maize. VvHDZs in the same subfamily have similar protein motifs and intron/exon structures. An evaluation of duplication events suggests several HD-Zip genes arose before the divergence of the grape and Arabidopsis lineages. The 33 members of HD-Zip were differentially expressed in ovules of the stenospermic grape, Thompson Seedless and of the seeded grape, Pinot noir. Most have higher expressions during ovule abortion in Thompson Seedless. In addition, transcripts of the HD-Zip family were also detected in somatic embryogenesis of Thompson Seedless and in different vegetative organs of Thompson Seedless at varying levels. Additionally, VvHDZ28 is located in the nucleus and had transcriptional activity consistent with the typical features of the HD-Zip family. Our results provide a foundation for future grape HD-Zip gene function research. Conclusions The identification and expression profiles of the HD-Zip transcription factors in grape, reveal their diverse roles during ovule abortion and organ development. Our results lay a foundation for functional analysis of grape HDZ genes
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