Intelligent vs. unintelligent programming systems for novices

Objective This study aimed to describe treatment sequencing and healthcare costs among chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) patients treated with venetoclax in a US managed care population. Methods CLL/SLL patients initiating venetoclax between 04/11/2016 and 06/30/2019 were selected from Optum’s de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database. Costs per-patient-per-month were described during the first 60 days of venetoclax-based treatment (initiation phase) and subsequent post-initiation phase. Based on venetoclax prescribing information, clinical event-related costs were identified through claims for tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) diagnosis, monitoring, prophylaxis, immunoglobulin treatment, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, infection, renal impairment, hypertension, or cardiac arrhythmia. Statistical testing was not conducted due to small sample size. Results Twenty-five, 30, and 66 patients initiated venetoclax as their first observed regimen (1L), second observed regimen (2L), and third or later observed regimen (3L+), respectively. Most 2L (56.7%) and 3L+ (74.2%) venetoclax recipients previously received ibrutinib. Mean monthly all-cause costs during the initiation phase were $26,429 (1L cohort), $19,580 (2L cohort), and $23,918 (3L + cohort). Among the 2L cohort, mean monthly all-cause [clinical event-related] (including TLS) costs during initiation and post-initiation phases of venetoclax treatment were $15,506 [$6368] (initiation phase) and $14,318 [$5273] (post-initiation phase; median duration: 3.7 months) for patients receiving 1L ibrutinib, and $24,908 [$12,198] (initiation phase) and $16,905 [$7066] (post-initiation phase; median duration: 3.0 months) for patients not receiving 1L ibrutinib. Conclusions In this descriptive study, highest mean costs were observed during venetoclax initiation phase. Venetoclax patients previously receiving ibrutinib had lower mean total all-cause and clinical event-related (including TLS) costs during their venetoclax line of therapy than those previously receiving non-ibrutinib therapy.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of mind mapping with cooperative learning (MMCL) and cooperative learning (CL) on: (a) programming performance; (b) problem solving skill; and (c) metacognitive knowledge among computer science students in Malaysia. The moderating variable is the students' logical thinking level with two categories: high logical thinking (HLT) ability and low logical thinking (LLT) ability. Past research has shown problems with regard to computer programming. Many discussion and debates among computer science experts agree that there are problems due to the traditional method used to teach computer programming which did not contribute to the development of above dependent variables. There were gaps or deficiencies identified in students' knowledge in computer programming in each phase of the programming processes. The critical problem, which was due to the lacking of skills in analyzing programming problems, was identified at the first phase of the programming processes. This problem consequently will have an effect on the next phase of a programming sequence. Based on the literature, the above independent variables identified can be used to help lessen the burden at the first phase of the programming processes. The study further investigated the effects of MMCL and CL among the students with high logical thinking (HLT) and low logical thinking (LLT) on the three above mentioned dependent variables. A quasi-experimental study with posttest-only control group method that employed a 3 × 2 Factorial Design was applied in the study. The sample consisted of 127 students from 2 classes in three Universiti Teknologi MARA campuses which were all randomly selected and assigned to the treatment groups (MMCL and CL) and control (T) group. The equivalence of all groups was established using the homogeneity test between the three groups based on the students' Malaysian Education Certificate (SPM) grades in Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physic, and Chemistry subjects. The results showed that the students in MMCL and CL groups have significant positive overall effects in programming performance, problem solving skill, and metacognitive knowledge. Students taught via the MMCL method significantly outperformed the students taught via the T method in programming performance and metacognitive knowledge. Meanwhile, students taught via the CL method significantly outperformed the students taught via the T method in metacognitive knowledge. Even though there was no significant effect between MMCL and CL on any dependent variables, the descriptive statistics for programming performance and metacognitive knowledge between the three instructional method groups did show some positive effects. For the effects of instructional methods on programming performance mean scores, there were two major findings. First, the results showed that the overall mean scores for programming performance for the students taught via MMCL method were higher than the CL group whose scores were, in turn, higher than the scores of the students taught via the T method. Second, both HLT and LLT students' mean scores in programming performance for MMCL method were higher compared to the mean scores acquired by the CL and T methods. For the effects of instructional methods on metacognitive knowledge mean scores, there were two major findings. First, the results showed that the mean scores for metacognitive knowledge for the LLT students taught via MMCL method was higher than LLT students taught via CL method whose scores, in turn, were higher than the LLT students taught via the T method. Second, the results showed that the HLT students taught via the CL method outperformed the HLT students taught via the T method in metacognitive knowledge. The results of this study also showed that the difference between HLT and LLT students among the three instructional methods were significant, overall in both programming performance and problem solving skills. Further analysis revealed that the HLT students taught via both MMCL and CL methods significantly outperformed the LLT students taught via the same method in problem solving skills. Finally, the results showed that there were no significant interaction effects between the instructional methods and the students' logical thinking levels for programming performance, problem solving skills, and metacognitive knowledge scores. The findings of this study suggest that mind mapping with cooperative learning method (MMCL) is preferred compared to CL and T methods in programming performance, problem solving skills, and metacognitive knowledge for students of all logical thinking levels.

This study aimed to clarify how elementary school students’ programming performance could be affected by scaffolding types, and how high and low working memory students profited from the intervention. The impact of different scaffolding types was empirically scrutinized with four conditions: cognitive scaffolding, metacognitive scaffolding, a combination of cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding (mixed), or no scaffolding. Students were classified into high and low working memory subjects based on their performance on the working memory test. Two-way MANCOVA results demonstrated that, compared to non-scaffolding instruction, scaffolding had a significantly superior impact on programming knowledge but not on programming skills. The mixed scaffolding group did not show significantly better scores for programming knowledge and skills than the cognitive or metacognitive scaffolding groups. Likewise, no significant difference was found between the metacognitive and cognitive scaffolding groups in programming knowledge and skills. Furthermore, interaction effects were found between scaffolding type and working memory on programming knowledge. High working memory students benefited more from the mixed scaffolding and metacognitive scaffolding. This study offers insightful suggestions for the design and development of different scaffolds to enhance programming instruction for diverse learners, especially learners with different working memory levels.

Lymph node blood vessels play important roles in the support and trafficking of immune cells. The blood vasculature is a component of the vascular-stromal compartment that also includes the lymphatic vasculature and fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs). During immune responses as lymph nodes swell, the blood vasculature undergoes a rapid proliferative growth that is initially dependent on CD11c(+) cells and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) but is independent of lymphocytes. The lymphatic vasculature grows with similar kinetics and VEGF dependence, suggesting coregulation of blood and lymphatic vascular growth, but lymphatic growth has been shown to be B cell dependent. In this article, we show that blood vascular, lymphatic, and FRC growth are coordinately regulated and identify two distinct phases of vascular-stromal growth--an initiation phase, characterized by upregulated vascular-stromal proliferation, and a subsequent expansion phase. The initiation phase is CD11c(+) cell dependent and T/B cell independent, whereas the expansion phase is dependent on B and T cells together. Using CCR7(-/-) mice and selective depletion of migratory skin dendritic cells, we show that endogenous skin-derived dendritic cells are not important during the initiation phase and uncover a modest regulatory role for CCR7. Finally, we show that FRC VEGF expression is upregulated during initiation and that dendritic cells can stimulate increased fibroblastic VEGF, suggesting the scenario that lymph node-resident CD11c(+) cells orchestrate the initiation of blood and lymphatic vascular growth in part by stimulating FRCs to upregulate VEGF. These results illustrate how the lymph node microenvironment is shaped by the cells it supports.

The swift progression of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact on software development and programming education, permitting the formation of adept systems that aid programmers in producing effective and flaw-free code. However, there is a lack of personalized mentorship and real-time feedback in existing coding platforms, which are crucial for enhancing problem-solving abilities and interview preparation. This research solves this problem using the AI Driven Programming Mistake Analyser, an AI-based programming analyzer that offers users structured and mentoring support for learning and problem-solving. Rule-based analysis, combined with basic AI techniques to check users’ submitted codes, leads to the system that is developed in Python. It generates the syntax, clarifies logical errors and offers suggestions for further improvements in the overall coding experience. The methodology includes designing a modular architecture for this purpose that receives input code, applies analysis algorithms, and gives meaningful feedback to the users in an interactive manner. The results show that the proposed system is successful in helping the users to identify errors in their codes, programming knowledge, and problem-solving skills. The results indicate that compared to traditional coding tools, the proposed system performs better in helping users to identify errors in their code, assimilate programming concepts, and hone their problem-solving skills. It is to say that the study concludes that incorporating AI-based systems into programming education can greatly improve learning efficiency as well as increase user engagement. It can be further improved by integrating powerful AI models or introducing multi-lingual capabilities to make it more effective in its assistance. Keywords— Artificial Intelligence; Programming Analyzer; Code Analysis; Intelligent Tutoring System; Software Development; Machine Learning

Extinction learning and recovery effects are known to be essential learning mechanisms. We investigated whether spontaneous recovery effects transfer to skill acquisition and play a role in the context of widely used but also criticized German orthography instruction methods that implement a prolonged phase of phonological spelling without correction. To test our hypothesis in a controlled manner, in the current experimental study, adult participants learned how to spell an artificial vocabulary with the help of a phonological spelling instruction method that emulates the criticized German orthography instruction methods. We compared participants (148 University students) who did not receive correction in the initial learning phase (delayed correction) with participants who received correction from the beginning (immediate correction). Although the incorrect spellings which were practiced in the initial learning phase (acquisition phase) were extinguished in the subsequent learning phase (extinction phase), the erroneous spellings recovered after a break of 24 hr in the delayed correction condition. The results indicate that learning with methods that emphasize phonological spelling, without correction in the initial learning phase, can lead to spontaneous recovery of initially learned incorrect spellings after the incorrect spellings have seemingly been extinguished. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Program: The AmeriCorps ArtsUSF program was a federally funded outreach program that provided hands-on arts experience to underserved children in culturally and economically deprived communities in and around a large metropolitan area. The project had two components: Getting Things Done (GTD) and Member Development (MD). Objectives: The goals of GTD were to help improve the communities’ self-image, stability, and culture by providing accessible, safe, and affordable cultural activities and programs. The goals of MD were to help the AmeriCorps volunteer artist-teacher members develop an awareness of societal problems, teaching and class management skills, and to become responsible citizens. Methods: GTD goals were measured using a quantitative survey instrument developed for the program. Pre (November) and post (May) data were compared using paired one-tailed t-tests to see if there were significant changes. MD outcomes were summarized from content analysis of member journals. Results: Data showed progress in all measured items, particularly, integrating arts to life, group problem-solving skills, attitude on diversity, and attitude on being-kind-to-each-other. Factor analysis results demonstrated strong connections among arts skills, expression through the arts, art appreciation skills, and integrating arts to life. There was an association among class learning skills, attitude on diversity, and attitude on being kind-to-each-other. Independent problem-solving skills were associated with expressive skills through the arts, integrating arts to life, attitude on diversity, and class learning skills. In the post data, independent problem-solving skills were further related to anti-drug, alcohol, and smoking attitude, and art skills. Members expressed that AmeriCorps ArtsUSF experience provided a life-changing impact on them. Seeing the effects of their input on other, they realized that one way of achieving the American dream was by helping others. Conclusion: The program gave a sense of pride and ownership to the underserved communities, and the experience gave the artist-members the confidence and self-esteem necessary to pursue their own life’s goals. Novelty: Federally funded, community-wide supported program with novel program and curriculum. Improvement: The initial phase could be better organized and more affective narratives could be added in the survey instrument.

A systematic study of Al/metal reactions has been performed. The thin-film interactions of Al with refractory metals (Ti, V, Ta, Cr, Mo, W and Co) and near-noble metals (Ni, Pd, and Pt) have been investigated. The initial aluminide phases to grow are the Al-rich phases: TiAl3, Val3, TaAl3, Cr2Al13, MoAl12, Wal12, Co2Al9, NiAl3, Pd2Al3, and Pt2Al3 at temperatures between 225 and 525°C. With the exceptions of Val3, Pd2Al3, and Pt2Al3. these are the most Al-rich phases on the phase diagrams. Marker experiments were performed and Al was the dominant diffusing species during the growth of these phases, TiAl3, Val3, Cr2Al3, MoAl12, Co2Al2, NiAl3, Pd2Al3, and Pt2AI3. Consistent with the faster Al diffusion, which provides a greater supply of Al to the growing interface, is the growth of the most Al-rich phase initially. For the exceptions to this rule, Val3, Pd2AI3, and Pt2 Al3, the complexity of the Al-rich V, Pd, and Pt end phases may have hindered nucleation, resulting in the growth of the observed phases. The subsequent phase formation was examined in the Ni-, Pd-, and Pt-Al systems. After initial phase formation consumed all the Al or metal, subsequent phases formed in accordance with the overall stoichiometry. The results of this study, along with a brief literature review, are presented and the generalized behavior of Al/transition metal reactions discussed.

Although nerve-sparing prostatectomy is widely practiced, the results with respect to potency preservation often do not meet expectations. The concept of intraoperative cavernous nerve stimulation is rational. Recent data that link the response to sildenafil after prostatectomy to bilateral nerve sparing has increased the importance of optimizing nerve sparing. The cavernous nerves are often difficult to visualize and may have a variable course. A tumescent response to nerve stimulation can be consistently demonstrated. The response may be subtle, and characterized by a minimal increase in penile circumference and blood flow. Immediately after prostectomy, proximal nerve stimulation identifies whether neural continuity has been maintained, and is predictive of recovery of erectile function. A new device, the Cavermap, has been developed to permit intraoperative nerve stimulation with tumescence monitoring. An initial phase 2 and subsequent phase 3 single blinded, randomized, multicenter study that compared Cavermap-assisted prostatectomy with conventional nerve sparing demonstrated a significant benefit in terms of the duration of nocturnal tumescence by Rigiscan (Timm Medical Technologies, Eden Prairie, Minnesota) at 1 year. Other approaches are being explored, including sural nerve grafting, use of nerve stimulation during cystectomy or abdominal-perineal resection, and direct corpus cavernosum pressure monitoring during nerve stimulation. These approaches warrant further evaluation.

We have characterized chicken gizzard smooth muscle Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM-PKII) with particular focus on its autophosphorylation. The autophosphorylation of smooth muscle CaMPKII produced a partially constitutively active enzyme, as occurs with the alpha- and beta-isoforms of this enzyme, but the autophosphorylation kinetics were significantly slower. Phosphorylation during the initial rapid phase coincided with the production of constitutively active enzyme. The phosphorylation was on both serine and threonine residues, which is distinct from the brain enzyme where threonine phosphorylation is much faster and more prevalent than serine phosphorylation. The major autophosphorylation sites identified were different from the known autophosphorylation sites of the alpha- and beta-isoforms. During the initial autophosphorylation phase Ser-319, Ser-352 and a Thr residue within residues 345-368 were found to be phosphorylated. During the subsequent gradual phase two serine residues in the variable region and Ser-280 were phosphorylated, but Thr-286 and Thr-305, which are the known major autophosphorylation sites for the alpha- and beta-isoforms, were not detected as the major autophosphorylation sites of smooth muscle CaMPKII. By comparing the phosphopeptide sequence with the known sequences of various isoforms, we concluded that isoform gamma-b, which contains a unique insertion and two deletions at the C-terminal side of the calmodulin binding domain, is the dominant CaMPKII isoform in smooth muscle. The molecular mass of smooth muscle CaMPKII was estimated to be 240 kDa which would comprise four subunits, fewer than in the alpha- and beta-isoforms. The results show that smooth muscle CaMPKII is functionally distinct from the alpha- and beta-isoforms of this enzyme, which might be crucial for its physiological relevance.

Programmers often re-appropriate code or new programming skills they find in unfamiliar code within their own programs [1], [2]. This process enables programmers, including novices, to acquire new programming knowledge while working on their own programming projects. Unfortunately, novice programmers often have difficultly understanding and integrating existing code into their own programs [3], thereby limiting acquisition of new programming concepts found within unfamiliar code. In this paper, I describe my prior work attempting to decrease the burden of learning new programming concepts found in unfamiliar code with automatically generated programming tutorials. Later, I introduce my proposal to create a programming environment that adapts to the skill level of the programmer while introducing programming concepts found within existing code by suggesting example code alongside programming puzzles.

Recent research has found that many novice programmers often hold non-viable mental models of basic programming concepts which can limit their potential to develop appropriate programming skills. Previous work by the authors suggests that a teaching model that integrates cognitive conflict and program visualisation can help novices formulate appropriate mental models. This paper first outlines a 'concepts roadmap' that provides an ordered approach to learning programming concepts allowing students to build on fundamental base knowledge. It then reports the results of a series of studies investigating the use of the Jeliot visualisation tool as the visualisation component of the proposed learning model when applied to these concepts. The findings include: the ease with which Jeliot can be tailored to visualise a range of concepts using a variety of examples; the Jeliot visualisation of object reference was too complex for CS1 students; further evidence that CS1 students struggle to develop appropriate understanding of a range of key programming concepts; and, further evidence that an integrated cognitive conflict/visualisation strategy can help students develop an appropriate understanding of key programming concepts.

This full research category paper reports the result of an experiment that designed and implemented peer code review (PCR) to help introductory computer science (CS1) students understand programming concepts and improve their programming skills. Instructors at North Dakota State University have observed that students enrolled in CS1 programming course experience difficulty understanding programming concepts. We performed an empirical study that evaluated if PCR can help address the problem. We analyzed data collected from the PCR session, code development activity and end-of-study questionnaire. Our result provides insights into the most and least reported error types. Students were able to systematically improve the review output. More importantly, PCR had a significant positive impact on students' performance when developing their own code. PCR can be an effective teaching tool that when used in CS1 programming course can improve students' understanding of programming concepts and improve their programming skills.

A mixed reality simulation framework is being developed as a tool to facilitate the elaboration, testing and deployment of control and collaborative strategies for teams of UAVs. The virtual world within the framework must contain a model of the phenomenon under analysis. It has been shown that, for complex cases, the use of real UAVs in an initiation phase could serve to simplify this model while increasing its accuracy. In a second step, a subsequent intermediate phase is implemented now. In this phase the virtual model is first scaled and then used to provide measurement data to the real planes that are equipped with virtual sensors in an augmented reality scenario. This way the cost and time of checking the coordination strategies and communications when several real planes are flying simultaneously can be greatly reduced. Once everything is tuned and adjusted within this intermediate phase, the whole system could be implemented in the full size real environment. An application on pollutant plume dispersion is used as a workbench case to show how this procedure is implemented in practice.

The paper analyzes the possibilities of transforming C programming language constructs into objects of EO programming language. The key challenge of the method is the transpilation from a system programming language into a language of a higher level of abstraction, which does not allow direct manipulations with computer memory. Almost all application and domain-oriented programming languages disable such direct access to memory. Operations that need to be supported in this case include the use of dereferenced pointers, the imposition of data of different types in the same memory area, and different interpretation of the same data which is located in the same memory address space. A decision was made to create additional EO-objects that directly simulate the interaction with computer memory as in C language. These objects encapsulate unreliable data operations which use pointers. An abstract memory object was proposed for simulating the capabilities of C language to provide interaction with computer memory. The memory object is essentially an array of bytes. It is possible to write into memory and read from memory at a given index. The number of bytes read or written depends on which object is being used. The transformation of various C language constructs into EO code is considered at the level of the compilation unit. To study the variants and analyze the results a transpiler was developed that provides necessary transformations. It is implemented on the basis of Clang, which forms an abstract syntax tree. This tree is processed using LibTooling and LibASTMatchers libraries. As a result of compiling a C program, code in EO language is generated. The considered approach turns out to be appropriate for solving different problems. One of such problems is static code analysis. Such solutions make it possible to isolate low-level code fragments into separate program objects, focusing on their study and possible transformations into more reliable code.