Using <i>Grammarly</i> to Enhance Students’ Academic Writing Skills

The paper aims to present the results of the experiment in applying the online writing assistant Grammarly.com to evaluate ESP students’ essay writing skills. One hundred master students’ papers were processed by the application to identify persisting errors at a master’s level. Quantitative and qualitative methods enabled the researchers to analyze the essays by setting five parameters: audience, formality, domain, tone, and intent. At the other end, the application broke down the outcome by five measurable factors: correctness, clarity, delivery, engagement, and style issues. The representative number of the essays fed into Grammarly.com provided a vivid and reliable picture of which lexis, grammar, structure, or style issues still need addressing. The most common mistakes detected by Grammarly.com were punctuation, wordy sentences, redundancy, and the abundance of personal pronouns in a formal style. They show that the gaps in students’ academic writing need a remedial course. Another objective of the research was to explore the potential of the online writing tool for students’ self-study. Grammarly.com cannot do work for students: it cannot think for them, neither can it write for them, but it can help learners identify the reoccurring writing problems, eliminate them, and monitor the progress. The application could be particularly useful for advanced students. The functionality of the Grammarly premium version allows for a choice of styles, type of addressee, tone of writing, and many other nuances, which could be beneficial not only for studies but in future professional life. Nonetheless, despite Grammarly’s advanced features, it only suggests a better variant, sometimes it errs, and in no way is it a substitute for a teacher

Subunit Mobility and the Chaperone Activity of Recombinant αB-Crystallin

The comparison of the chaperone-like activity of native and covalently cross-linked human αB-crystallins has confirmed the important role of the subunit mobility in the chaperoning mechanism. Our data clearly demonstrate that the chaperone-like activity of α-crystallin is not only a surface phenomenon as was suggested by some researchers

Large-Scale Distributed Bayesian Matrix Factorization using Stochastic Gradient MCMC

Despite having various attractive qualities such as high prediction accuracy and the ability to quantify uncertainty and avoid over-fitting, Bayesian Matrix Factorization has not been widely adopted because of the prohibitive cost of inference. In this paper, we propose a scalable distributed Bayesian matrix factorization algorithm using stochastic gradient MCMC. Our algorithm, based on Distributed Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics, can not only match the prediction accuracy of standard MCMC methods like Gibbs sampling, but at the same time is as fast and simple as stochastic gradient descent. In our experiments, we show that our algorithm can achieve the same level of prediction accuracy as Gibbs sampling an order of magnitude faster. We also show that our method reduces the prediction error as fast as distributed stochastic gradient descent, achieving a 4.1% improvement in RMSE for the Netflix dataset and an 1.8% for the Yahoo music dataset

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ УДАРНОГО КОНТАКТА ИНДЕНТОРА С НЕЖЕСТКИМИ СТАЛЬНЫМИ КОНСТРУКЦИЯМИ ПРИ ИЗМЕРЕНИИ ТВЕРДОСТИ

The problems of measuring hardness of constructions with insufficient rigidity by the dynamic indentation are discussed. The disadvantages of the existing dynamic hardness testers are described, the operation of which consists in impact indentation and determination of the hardness, depending on the restitution coefficient. Finite-element models of the contact of the indenter and the pipes samples with various wall thicknesses and diameters and cantilevered plates of various thicknesses are developed. Indentation diagrams for the investigated samples of pipes and plates in the coordinate plane of force-displacement are obtained. The results of the simulation have good convergence with the experimental data. With the help of the finite element models the separation of local penetration and deflection of construction is made. It is shown the influence of steel construction deflection on the process of indenter impression into the material tested and the change of indentation parameters as restitution coefficient, contact force, penetration depth and time of the active part of the impact. The limits of possible application of dynamic hardness testers have been determined. The ways of the increasing of the hardness measurement accuracy on the base of the data obtained during impact interaction are shown. It is established that the use of dependences between hardness and the time of the active stage of impact, as well as the ratio of the contact force to the depth of penetration at the loading stage, makes it possible to evaluate the hardness for pipes with the wall thickness exceeding 5 mm and cantilevered plates at the distance from the fixed support up to 100 mm. Рассматриваются вопросы измерения твердости конструкций недостаточной жесткости методом ударного вдавливания индентора. Описываются недостатки существующих динамических твердомеров, принцип действия которых заключается в нанесении удара по испытуемому образцу и регистрации коэффициента восстановления скорости, зависящего от твердости. Построены конечно-элементные модели ударного взаимодействия индентора с образцами труб с различной толщиной стенки и диаметром, а также консольно закрепленных пластин разной толщины. Получены диаграммы вдавливания индентора в исследуемые образцы труб и пластин в координатах контактное усилие – перемещение. Показана достаточно хорошая сходимость между результатами моделирования и экспериментальными данными, полученными на твердомере, позволяющем регистрировать кривую нагружения в процессе ударного взаимодействия. С помощью построенных конечно-элементных моделей выделен вклад локальной деформации и прогиба в общий отклик конструкции при индентировании. Установлено влияние прогиба конструкций на процесс внедрения индентора в материал, а также на такие параметры индентирования, как коэффициент восстановления скорости, контактное усилие, перемещение и время активного этапа удара. Определены границы допустимого использования твердомеров ударного действия. Показаны пути повышения точности измерения твердости на основе данных, получаемых на этапе внедрения индентора. Установлено, что использование градуировочных зависимостей между твердостью и временем активного этапа удара, а также отношением контактного усилия к глубине внедрения на этапе нагружения позволяет провести оценку твердости для труб с толщиной стенки свыше 5 мм и консольно закрепленных пластин на расстоянии от места закрепления вплоть до 100 мм.

Clinical case of de novo anaplastic ganglioglioma and current status of the problem

The authors report a rare case of de novo malignant ganglioglioma (WHO grade III) in a 26-year old female. The patient has complained of periodic feeling fear, anxiety, episodes of impaired consciousness with extremity muscle cramps sometimes followed by urination, as well as flashes before eyes. Computed tomography perfusion and magnetic resonance spectroscopy were carried out for differential diagnosis between different types of tumors. Stereotactic biopsy was performed for histological examination. High surgical risk became a contraindication to gross total resection of the tumor. The patient has received radiation therapy (Trilogy linear accelerator) in a total dose of 60 Gy. The tumor shrank significantly. In 7 months, monitoring MRT did not detect further growth of the tumor. The authors have analyzed the case and reviewed the existing literature data regarding gangliogliomas. Taking into account low prevalence of these tumors (0.4-1% of all brain tumors), especially of their malignant forms (3-10% of gangliogliomas), lack of sufficient data regarding prognostic factors, life expectancy, time of recurrence, lack of accurate indications for different methods of treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy), these tumors still need further research that should also involve supplementary neuroimaging techniques and stereotactic biopsy

Analytic review of the factors influencing on of the stomatologic status of sportsmen

Учитывая, что сегодня в занятия физической культурой и спортом вовлекаются все более широкие массы населения различного возраста, уровня здоровья и подготовленности, достижения оздоровительного эффекта и высокой стабильности результатов становятся лишь при полном соответствии нагрузок спорта физическими возможностями организма. Установлена связь между' показателями иммунной защиты и проявлениями заболеваний пародонта в полости рта. Considering, that in employment of physical training and sports is involved today more and broader masses of the various age, health and readiness level achievement of improving effect and high stability of the results become only at full conformity of loadings of sports physical possibilities of the organism. It is established the connection between indicators of immune protection and displays the periodontal diseases in an oral cavity

MIP/Aquaporin 0 Represents a Direct Transcriptional Target of PITX3 in the Developing Lens

The PITX3 bicoid-type homeodomain transcription factor plays an important role in lens development in vertebrates. PITX3 deficiency results in a spectrum of phenotypes from isolated cataracts to microphthalmia in humans, and lens degeneration in mice and zebrafish. While identification of downstream targets of PITX3 is vital for understanding the mechanisms of normal ocular development and human disease, these targets remain largely unknown. To isolate genes that are directly regulated by PITX3, we performed a search for genomic sequences that contain evolutionarily conserved bicoid/PITX3 binding sites and are located in the proximity of known genes. Two bicoid sites that are conserved from zebrafish to human were identified within the human promoter of the major intrinsic protein of lens fiber, MIP/AQP0. MIP/AQP0 deficiency was previously shown to be associated with lens defects in humans and mice. We demonstrate by both chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay that PITX3 binds to MIP/AQP0 promoter region in vivo and is able to interact with both bicoid sites in vitro. In addition, we show that wild-type PITX3 is able to activate the MIP/AQP0 promoter via interaction with the proximal bicoid site in cotransfection experiments and that the introduction of mutations disrupting binding to this site abolishes this activation. Furthermore, mutant forms of PITX3 fail to produce the same levels of transactivation as wild-type when cotransfected with the MIP/AQP0 reporter. Finally, knockdown of pitx3 in zebrafish affects formation of a DNA-protein complex associated with mip1 promoter sequences; and examination of expression in pitx3 morphant and control zebrafish revealed a delay in and reduction of mip1 expression in pitx3-deficient embryos. Therefore, our data suggest that PITX3 is involved in direct regulation of MIP/AQP0 expression and that the alteration of MIP/AQP0 expression is likely to contribute to the lens phenotype in cataract patients with PITX3 mutations