Exploring the communicative competence of Chinese graduate students at Memorial University

A considerable number of Chinese international students enter Canada to pursue higher education every year. However, their less than adequate education in communicative competence domestically causes challenges in intercultural communication even for those students who study abroad by pursuing their Master's or doctoral degree. A great number of studies about Chinese students and their experiences in English speaking countries have been done in recent years. However, little research has provided a holistic picture of what Chinese students think about their own communicative competence, how they improve it consciously as well as what they think of the social and academic support offered by their universities. Therefore, this phenomenological ethnographic qualitative research project intends to fill this research gap. The results show that participants in this study perceived more challenges in terms of pragmatic competence and fluency. The strategies they used and the support provided by Memorial University and the province for improving their communicative competence were described. Pedagogical implications for ESL teachers and further support that should be provided by MUN are also addressed

Research on renewable energy power demand forecasting method based on IWOA-SA-BILSTM modeling

This paper introduces a novel coupling method to enhance the precision of short- and medium-term renewable energy power load demand forecasting. Firstly, the Tent chaotic mapping incorporates the standard WOA and modifies its internal convergence factor to a nonlinear convergence mode, resulting in an improved IWOA. It is used for the weight optimization part of BILSTM. Then, the SA is introduced to optimize the learning rate, the number of nodes in hidden layers 1 and 2, and the number of iterations of BILSTM, constructing an IWOA-SA-BILSTM prediction model. Finally, through case analysis, the prediction model proposed in this paper has the highest improvement of 76.7%, 74.5%, and 45.9% in terms of Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Square Error, and R2, respectively, compared to other optimal benchmark models, proving the effectiveness of the model

Tumor-associated M2 macrophages in the immune microenvironment influence the progression of renal clear cell carcinoma by regulating M2 macrophage-associated genes

BackgroundRenal clear cell carcinoma (RCC) has negative prognosis and high mortality due to its early diagnosis difficulty and early metastasis. Although previous studies have confirmed the negative progression of RCC is closely related to M2 macrophages in tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), the specific mechanism is still unknownMethodsWe used immunofluorescence labeling and flow cytometry to detect the proportion of M2 macrophages in RCC tissues. And bioinformatics technique was used to obtain 9 M2 macrophage-related model genes, including SLC40A1, VSIG4, FUCA1, LIPA, BCAT1, CRYBB1, F13A, TMEM144, COLEC12. Using these genes, model formulas are constructed to devide samples into high and low risk groups, and then the overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of the high and low risk groups were analyzed. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to measure the expression of model genes between normal kidney tissue and RCC tissue, as well as between HK-2 cell and 786-O cell. Besides, we induced the M2 differentiation of THP-1 cell, and then co-cultured with the RCC cell 786-O in transwell to observe what effect M2 macrophages will cause on the invasion, migration and the expression of model genes of RCC.ResultsOur study demonstrated M2 macrophages in RCC was about 2 folds that of normal renal tissue (P<0.0001) and M2 macrophages affected the prognosis of patients with RCC by affecting the co-expressed genes, which were mainly enriched in immune-related pathways. The results of in vitro experiments showed that in RCC tissues and 786-O cells, the model gene FUCA1 was down-regulated, and SLC40A1, VSIG4, CRYBB1 and LIPA were up-regulated. Besides, the results of co-culture showed that after 786-O co-culture with M2 macrophages, the ability of migration and invasion was promoted and the expressions of FUCA1, SLC40A1, VSIG4, CRYBB1, LIPA and TMEM144 were all up-regulated.ConclusionThe proportion of tumor-associated M2 macrophages in RCC tissues is upregulated, and M2 macrophages promote the progression of RCC by regulating the expression of SLC40A1, VSIG4, FUCA1, LIPA, BCAT1, CRYBB1, F13A, TMEM144, COLEC12 genes, thereby affecting the prognosis of patients with RCC

Recent Advances in RecBole: Extensions with more Practical Considerations

RecBole has recently attracted increasing attention from the research community. As the increase of the number of users, we have received a number of suggestions and update requests. This motivates us to make some significant improvements on our library, so as to meet the user requirements and contribute to the research community. In order to show the recent update in RecBole, we write this technical report to introduce our latest improvements on RecBole. In general, we focus on the flexibility and efficiency of RecBole in the past few months. More specifically, we have four development targets: (1) more flexible data processing, (2) more efficient model training, (3) more reproducible configurations, and (4) more comprehensive user documentation. Readers can download the above updates at: https://github.com/RUCAIBox/RecBole.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Case Report: A rare case of multicentric angiosarcomas of bone mimicking multiple myeloma on 18F-FDG PET/CT

BackgroundAngiosarcoma, a rare endothelial-origin tumor, can develop throughout the body, with the head and neck skin being the most commonly affected areas. It can also originate in other sites such as the breast, iliac artery, and visceral organs including the liver, spleen, and kidneys. Angiosarcoma of the bone is remarkably rare, presenting as either unifocal or multifocal bone lesions and often leading to a grim prognosis. Diagnosing bone angiosarcoma poses a significant challenge. 18F-FDG PET/CT serves as a reliable and indispensable imaging modality for evaluating distant metastases and clinically staging angiosarcomas.Case reportA 57-year-old woman presented with a 10-day history of dizziness and headaches. Cranial CT scan revealed bone destruction of the parietal bone, accompanied by soft tissue lesions, protruding into the epidural space. MRI examination demonstrated lesions with slightly elevated signal intensity on T2FLAIR, showing moderate enhancement. Furthermore, multiple foci were observed within the T12, L1-5, and S1-2 vertebrae, as well as in the bilateral iliac bones. For staging, 18F-FDG PET/CT was performed. The MIP PET showed multifocal FDG-avid lesions in the sternum, bilateral clavicles, bilateral scapulae, multiple ribs, and pelvic bones. Heterogeneous FDG uptake was observed in multiple bone lesions, including intracranial (SUVmax = 11.3), right transverse process of the T10 vertebra (SUVmax = 5.8), ilium (SUVmax = 3.3), and pubis (SUVmax = 4.7). The patient underwent surgical resection of the cranial lesion. The pathological diagnosis was made with a highly differentiated angiosarcoma.ConclusionAngiosarcoma of bone on FDG PET/CT scans is characterized by abnormal FDG uptake along with osteolytic destruction. This case highlights that angiosarcoma of bone can manifest as multicentric FDG uptake, resembling the pattern seen in multiple myeloma. FDG PET/CT can be a useful tool for staging this rare malignant tumor, offering the potential to guide biopsy procedures toward the most metabolically active site. And it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of multiple osteolytic lesions, including metastatic carcinoma, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma of bone

A Survey of Large Language Models

Language is essentially a complex, intricate system of human expressions governed by grammatical rules. It poses a significant challenge to develop capable AI algorithms for comprehending and grasping a language. As a major approach, language modeling has been widely studied for language understanding and generation in the past two decades, evolving from statistical language models to neural language models. Recently, pre-trained language models (PLMs) have been proposed by pre-training Transformer models over large-scale corpora, showing strong capabilities in solving various NLP tasks. Since researchers have found that model scaling can lead to performance improvement, they further study the scaling effect by increasing the model size to an even larger size. Interestingly, when the parameter scale exceeds a certain level, these enlarged language models not only achieve a significant performance improvement but also show some special abilities that are not present in small-scale language models. To discriminate the difference in parameter scale, the research community has coined the term large language models (LLM) for the PLMs of significant size. Recently, the research on LLMs has been largely advanced by both academia and industry, and a remarkable progress is the launch of ChatGPT, which has attracted widespread attention from society. The technical evolution of LLMs has been making an important impact on the entire AI community, which would revolutionize the way how we develop and use AI algorithms. In this survey, we review the recent advances of LLMs by introducing the background, key findings, and mainstream techniques. In particular, we focus on four major aspects of LLMs, namely pre-training, adaptation tuning, utilization, and capacity evaluation. Besides, we also summarize the available resources for developing LLMs and discuss the remaining issues for future directions.Comment: ongoing work; 51 page

Multimodality imaging of Xp11.2 translocation/TFE3 gene fusion associated with renal cell carcinoma: a case report

BackgroundXp11.2 translocation/TFE3 gene fusion associated with renal cell carcinoma (Xp11.2 RCC) exhibits unique biological characteristics and is associated with an increased incidence of tumor thrombosis, lymph node metastasis, and advanced disease stages. Multimodality imaging, including US, contrast-enhanced CT, multi-parametric MRI, and 18F-FDG PET/CT plays a crucial role in the preoperative diagnosis and differentiation of renal tumors.Case reportA 15-year-old female presented with lumbar pain worsened, and developed persistent painless hematuria. The CT attenuation values of the scan without contrast, corticomedullary phase, nephrographic phase, and delayed phases were 35 HU, 83 HU, 82 HU, and 75 HU, respectively. The solid component of the mass displayed heterogeneous marked enhancement. Furthermore, MRU indicated that the lesion involved the cortical medulla and infringed on the renal sinus fat. The lesion appeared isosignal in T1WI, slightly low signal in T2WI, and slightly high signal in DWI. The degree of enhancement in the three phases of enhancement scan was lower than that in the renal parenchyma, and hemorrhage and necrosis were observed within the internal part of the lesion. To further clarify the staging, the patient underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT. PET/CT images showed multiple irregular occupancies in the right kidney with unclear borders, showing a heterogeneous increase in 18F-FDG uptake, with SUVmax values ranging from 2.3 to 5.2 in the routine imaging phase (60 min post-injection), compared to SUVmax values ranging from 2.8 to 6.9 in the delayed imaging phase (160 min post-injection). Additionally, multiple enlarged and fused lymph nodes were observed in the medial part of the right kidney and the retroperitoneum, exhibiting a heterogeneous increase in 18F-FDG uptake, with SUVmax values ranging from 4.1 to 8.7 in the routine imaging phase, compared to SUVmax values ranging from 4.4 to 9.1 in the delayed imaging phase. The postoperative pathology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular analysis of histiocytes were consistent with a diagnosis of Xp11.2 RCC. One month after surgery, enhanced-CT examination of the patient revealed lung metastasis, peritoneal metastasis, and multiple lymph node metastases throughout the body, with an overall survival of 16 months.ConclusionXp11.2 RCC exhibits unique biological characteristics and is associated with an increased incidence of tumor thrombosis, lymph node metastasis, and advanced disease stages. Long-term follow-up is essential to monitor the likelihood of recurrence and metastasis. 18F-FDG PET/CT examination can comprehensively visualize the lesion’s location and extent, providing a basis for clinical tumor staging and aiding in treatment monitoring and follow-up. To address the limitations of FDG, the utilization of specific tracers designed for RCC or tracers that are not excreted via the urinary system would be ideal. Further advancements in molecular imaging technologies and the development of novel tracers hold great promise in advancing the diagnosis and management of RCC, ultimately contributing to better patient outcomes and overall disease management

Co-Injection of Non-Condensable Gas and Foam in SAGD using a Modified Well Configuration - A Simulation Study

The objective of this research is to examine the feasibility of foam co-injection with steam in SAGD using modified well configurations using numerical simulation. The foam used in this project is a composition of water, non-condensable gas (NCG) and surfactant. The application of foam in this study is for achieving the gas mobility reduction and decreasing the residual oil saturation. The use of foam forms a more stable insulating layer below the top of formation, which results in lowered overburden heat loss and cSOR. To place the foam directly below the overburden rock, vertical steam injectors are implemented in this study. Simulation runs are created using CMG STARS (Thermal and Advanced Process Simulator) using Long Lake Pad 16 as the target location. These simulation results demonstrated substantial improvement in cSOR by co-injecting foam with steam using the vertical injectors. Non-flowing boundary condition was used in all simulations. The producer operational constraint is a combination of maximum live steam rate and minimum bottom hole pressure (BHP). The base case forecasts production from January 2017 to January 2027 in steam only SAGD operation. The base case showed approximately 75,000 m3 oil production in 10 years, with a cumulative Steam Oil Ratio (cSOR) of 6.19. The simulation results show that injecting the foam improved both cumulative oil production and cSOR. As expected, foam reduces the gas mobility and stabilizes the insulating blanket formed by high gas saturation at the top of the steam chamber. Injection of foam also increases the trapped gas saturation and reduces the residual oil saturation. The optimized simulation case with three vertical wells enabled the cSOR to be as low as 4.3 at 3,500 kPa operation pressure. However, the maximum allowed operating pressure at Long Lake is 2,600 kPa. The optimized case under lowered pressure of 2,500 kPa uses four injection-wells configuration, which gave cSOR of 4.25

The Impact of Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in Urban Agglomerations along the Coast of the Bohai Rim, China

Local ecosystem services have been significantly affected by land cover changes associated with rapid urbanization in China. Based on the 2000 and 2010 land cover data products with 30-m resolution, we examined the similarities and differences in the impacts of land cover change on ecosystem service values (ESV) at three coastal urban agglomerations in China between 2000 and 2010 (Liaodong Peninsula (LP), Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ) and Shandong Peninsula (SP)). A rapid evaluation method developed by Xie et al. (2008) was used to derive an ecosystem service value coefficient. The most significant change was an increase in artificial surfaces, due to urban expansion, which mainly occurred on cultivated land. The greatest loss in total ESV (2273 million Chinese Yuan) occurred in SP, due to the large decrease in wetland areas, because this service has the highest estimated coefficient. The second greatest loss in ESV (893 million Yuan) occurred in JJJ, due to the urban expansion of major cities. In contrast, ESV increased (72 million Yuan) in LP. This study demonstrates that urban expansion does not necessarily lead to a net decline in ESV. In conclusion, land use and land cover policymaking should consider the sustainability of ecosystem services in relation to economic growth