The Impacts of Low-Code Development on IS Learning

New jobs in the IT/IS fields increasingly emphasize the importance of technological skills such as programming and soft skills like communication and collaboration. MIS educators have explored various strategies to actively engage students in a meaningful learning experience and enable the development of essential skills. Emerging technology and method, such as lowcode and no-code platforms, enables software development without writing codes. A low-code development platform allows the configuration and application of technology at a high level of abstraction and enables accelerated delivery of applications with reduced effort on coding. Additionally, the social and collaboration capabilities on the platform facilitate communication and improve the learning process. This study explores the benefits that low-code platforms bring to IS students’ learning. Based on absorptive capacity theory, this paper examines how features of low-code development and platform facilitate students’ development of knowledge creation and utilization. Research hypotheses are developed, and plans for data collection are discussed. The results of this study will potentially offer insights into IS students’ learning processes on low-code development

Reconstructing Transit Vehicle Trajectory Using High-Resolution GPS Data

High-resolution location ("heartbeat") data of transit fleet vehicles is a relatively new data source for many transit agencies. On its surface, the heartbeat data can provide a wealth of information about all operational details of a recorded transit vehicle trip, from its location trajectory to its speed and acceleration profiles. Previous studies have mainly focused on decomposing the total trip travel time into different components by vehicle state and then extracting measures of delays to draw conclusions on the performance of a transit route. This study delves into the task of reconstructing a complete, continuous and smooth transit vehicle trajectory from the heartbeat data that allows for the extraction of operational information of a bus at any point in time into its trip. Using only the latitude, longitude, and timestamp fields of the heartbeat data, the authors demonstrate that a continuous, smooth, and monotonic vehicle trajectory can be reconstructed using local regression in combination with monotonic cubic spline interpolation. The resultant trajectory can be used to evaluate transit performance and identify locations of bus delay near infrastructure such as traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, and bus stops.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in IEEE ITSC-202

Multi-frequency VLBI Observations of the M 84 Inner Jet/Counterjet

Observational studies of inner-most regions of the edge-on jets in nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) are crucial to understand their kinematics and morphology. For the inner jet of the nearby low luminosity AGN in M 84, we present new high-sensitivity observations with very long baseline interferometry since 2019, as well as archival Very Long Baseline Array observations in 2014. We find that the compact core in M 84 has an inverted-to-flat spectrum from 1.5 to 88 GHz. Based on the turnover frequency of $4.2\pm 0.2$ GHz in the spectrum, we estimated a magnetic field strength of 1-10mG and an electron number density of $\sim 10^5 cm^{-3}$ in the core region. Three inner jet components within $\sim 3$ mas from the core are identified and traced in the images at 22 GHz, whose apparent speeds are 0.11 c, 0.27 c, and 0.32 c, respectively. We calculate the viewing angle of $\sim58$ degree for the inner jet based on the proper motion and the flux ratio of jet-to-counterjet. A propagating sinusoidal model with a wavelength of $\sim 3.4$ mas is used to fit the helical morphology of the jet extended to 20 mas ($\sim 2.2\times 10^4$ Schwarzschild Radii).Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted by the Ap

Mid-late Holocene temperature and precipitation variations in the Guanting Basin, upper reaches of the Yellow River

The reconstruction of prehistoric temperature and precipitation variations in the upper reaches of the Yellow River is essential for understanding the cultural evolution of the region, but related information is sparse due to the limitations of the available proxies. Recent studies have shown that microbial glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are promising tools for reconstructing mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) in terrestrial deposits. In this study, we reconstructed mid-late Holocene climatic changes using GDGT distributions in a loess-paleosol sequence in the Lajia Ruins of the Neolithic Qijia Culture, Guanting Basin, in the southwestern end of the Chinese Loess Plateau. Our GDGT records show that MAP decreased from ca. 600 mm to 430 mm, while MAT decreased from 11.9 degrees C to 8.0 degrees C, during the past ca. 7000 yr, and a drastic decline in MAP (70 mm), accompanied by a 0.8 degrees C decline in MAT, occurred at 3800-3400 yr BP. Our results provide direct evidence supporting a hypothesis that the flourishing (4200-4000 yr BP) and decline (4000-3600 yr BP) of the Qijia culture (mainly based on millets cultivation) and subsequent rise of the Xindian/Kayue culture (3600-2600 yr BP), based on mixed agriculture of sheep husbandry and millets cultivation were triggered by climate change

Association of maternal thyroid peroxidase antibody during pregnancy with placental morphology and inflammatory and oxidative stress responses

BackgroundStudies suggest that thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) positivity exposure during pregnancy may contribute to changes in placental morphology and pathophysiology. However, little is known about the association of maternal TPOAb during pregnancy with placental morphology and cytokines. This study focuses on the effect of repeated measurements of maternal TPOAb during pregnancy on the placental morphology and cytokines.MethodsBased on Ma’anshan Birth Cohort (MABC) in China, maternal TPOAb levels were retrospectively detected in the first, second and third trimesters. Placental tissues were collected 30 minutes after childbirth, placental morphological indicators were obtained by immediate measurement and formula calculation, and cytokine mRNA expression was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) afterward. Generalized linear models and linear mixed models were analyzed for the relationships of maternal TPOAb in the first, second and third trimesters with placental indicators.ResultsTotally 2274 maternal-fetal pairs were included in the analysis of maternal TPOAb levels and placental morphology, and 2122 pairs were included in that of maternal TPOAb levels and placental cytokines. Maternal TPOAb levels in early pregnancy were negatively associated with placental length, thickness, volume, weight and disc eccentricity, while positively correlated with placental IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, CD68, MCP-1, IL-10, HO-1, HIF-1α and GRP78. In mid-pregnancy, maternal TPOAb levels were negatively correlated with placental length, width and area. In late pregnancy, maternal TPOAb levels were negatively correlated with placental length, area, volume and weight. Repeated measures analysis showed that maternal TPOAb positivity tended to increase placental TNF-α, CD68 and MCP-1 while decreasing placental length, width and area than TPOAb negativity. Repeated measures analysis showed that maternal TPOAb levels were positively correlated with placental IL-6, TNF-α, CD68, MCP-1, IL-10, HO-1, HIF-1α and GRP78, while negatively correlated with placental length, area, volume, weight, and disc eccentricity.ConclusionThere may be trimester-specific associations between maternal TPOAb levels and placental morphology and inflammatory and oxidative stress responses. The effect of maternal TPOAb levels on placental morphology is present throughout pregnancy. Early pregnancy may be the critical period for the association between maternal TPOAb levels and placental inflammatory and oxidative stress responses

Virtual histological staining of unlabeled autopsy tissue

Histological examination is a crucial step in an autopsy; however, the traditional histochemical staining of post-mortem samples faces multiple challenges, including the inferior staining quality due to autolysis caused by delayed fixation of cadaver tissue, as well as the resource-intensive nature of chemical staining procedures covering large tissue areas, which demand substantial labor, cost, and time. These challenges can become more pronounced during global health crises when the availability of histopathology services is limited, resulting in further delays in tissue fixation and more severe staining artifacts. Here, we report the first demonstration of virtual staining of autopsy tissue and show that a trained neural network can rapidly transform autofluorescence images of label-free autopsy tissue sections into brightfield equivalent images that match hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained versions of the same samples, eliminating autolysis-induced severe staining artifacts inherent in traditional histochemical staining of autopsied tissue. Our virtual H&E model was trained using >0.7 TB of image data and a data-efficient collaboration scheme that integrates the virtual staining network with an image registration network. The trained model effectively accentuated nuclear, cytoplasmic and extracellular features in new autopsy tissue samples that experienced severe autolysis, such as COVID-19 samples never seen before, where the traditional histochemical staining failed to provide consistent staining quality. This virtual autopsy staining technique can also be extended to necrotic tissue, and can rapidly and cost-effectively generate artifact-free H&E stains despite severe autolysis and cell death, also reducing labor, cost and infrastructure requirements associated with the standard histochemical staining.Comment: 24 Pages, 7 Figure

Acupuncture for Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Patient-Reported Outcomes

AbstractThe present systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to evaluate the effects of acupuncture in women with breast cancer (BC), focusing on patient-reported outcomes (PROs).MethodsA comprehensive literature search was carried out for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting PROs in BC patients with treatment-related symptoms after undergoing acupuncture for at least four weeks. Literature screening, data extraction, and risk bias assessment were independently carried out by two researchers.ResultsOut of the 2, 524 identified studies, 29 studies representing 33 articles were included in this meta-analysis. At the end of treatment (EOT), the acupuncture patients’ quality of life (QoL) was measured by the QLQ-C30 QoL subscale, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Endocrine Symptoms (FACT-ES), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General/Breast (FACT-G/B), and the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL), which depicted a significant improvement. The use of acupuncture in BC patients lead to a considerable reduction in the scores of all subscales of the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) measuring pain. Moreover, patients treated with acupuncture were more likely to experience improvements in hot flashes scores, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and anxiety compared to those in the control group, while the improvements in depression were comparable across both groups. Long-term follow-up results were similar to the EOT results.ConclusionsCurrent evidence suggests that acupuncture might improve BC treatment-related symptoms measured with PROs including QoL, pain, fatigue, hot flashes, sleep disturbance and anxiety. However, a number of included studies report limited amounts of certain subgroup settings, thus more rigorous, well-designed and larger RCTs are needed to confirm our results

First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way

We present the first Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the Galactic center source associated with a supermassive black hole. These observations were conducted in 2017 using a global interferometric array of eight telescopes operating at a wavelength of λ = 1.3 mm. The EHT data resolve a compact emission region with intrahour variability. A variety of imaging and modeling analyses all support an image that is dominated by a bright, thick ring with a diameter of 51.8 \ub1 2.3 μas (68% credible interval). The ring has modest azimuthal brightness asymmetry and a comparatively dim interior. Using a large suite of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the EHT images of Sgr A* are consistent with the expected appearance of a Kerr black hole with mass ∼4 7 106 M☉, which is inferred to exist at this location based on previous infrared observations of individual stellar orbits, as well as maser proper-motion studies. Our model comparisons disfavor scenarios where the black hole is viewed at high inclination (i > 50\ub0), as well as nonspinning black holes and those with retrograde accretion disks. Our results provide direct evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and for the first time we connect the predictions from dynamical measurements of stellar orbits on scales of 103-105 gravitational radii to event-horizon-scale images and variability. Furthermore, a comparison with the EHT results for the supermassive black hole M87* shows consistency with the predictions of general relativity spanning over three orders of magnitude in central mass