ChatGPT is an emerging tool that can be employed in many activities including in learning/teaching in universities. Like many other tools, it has its benefits and its drawbacks. If used properly, it can improve learning, and if used irresponsibly, it can have a negative impact on learning. The aim of this research is to study how ChatGPT can be used in academia to improve teaching/learning activities. In this paper, we study students’ opinions about how the tool can be used positively in learning activities. A survey is conducted among 430 students of an MSc degree in computer science at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and their opinions about the tool are studied. The survey tries to capture different aspects in which the tool can be employed in academia and the ways in which it can harm or help students in learning activities. The findings suggest that many students are familiar with the tool but do not regularly use it for academic purposes. Moreover, students are skeptical of its positive impacts on learning and think that universities should provide more vivid guidelines and better education on how and where the tool can be used for learning activities. The students’ feedback responses are analyzed and discussed and the authors’ opinions regarding the subject are presented. This study shows that ChatGPT can be helpful in learning/teaching activities, but better guidelines should be provided for the students in using the tool.

Microbial transformation of testosterone (17β-hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one) (1) by Curvularia lunata and Pleurotus oestreatus yielded 17-dehydrotestosterone (androst-4-ene-3,17-dione) (2) and 15α-hydroxytestosterone (15α, 17β-dihydroxyandrost-4-en-3- one) (3), respectively.

We obtained, with artificial evolution, very small (one or two interneurons, one output neuron) spiking neural networks (SNNs) recognizing a simple temporal pattern in a continuous input stream. The patterns the network evolved to recognize consisted of three different signals. In other words, the task was equivalent to searching in a stream (sequence) of three symbols (say, ABBCACBC.) for a specific subsequence (ABC). The fitness function we used rewarded spiking after the occurrence of the correct pattern (subsequence), and penalized spikes elsewhere. We found out that the networks did not go below two interneurons when they evolved to solve this task with a brief interval of silence between signals. However - surprisingly - for a longer interval of silences between signals the task could be accomplished with just one interneuron. We then analyzed how the spiking networks work by mapping the states of the network onto states of Finite State Machines - a general model of computation on time series. Our long term goal is to understand the mechanisms governing the neural networks that accomplish computational tasks in a way that is robust to noise and damage.

Visual analysis of peripheral blood smear slides using medical image analysis is required to diagnose red blood cell (RBC) morphological deformities caused by anemia. The absence of a complete anaemic RBC dataset has hindered the training and testing of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for computer-aided analysis of RBC morphology. We introduce a benchmark RBC image dataset named Anemic RBC (AneRBC) to overcome this problem. This dataset is divided into two versions: AneRBC-I and AneRBC-II. AneRBC-I contains 1000 microscopic images, including 500 healthy and 500 anaemic images with 1224 × 960 pixel resolution, along with manually generated ground truth of each image. Each image contains approximately 1550 RBC elements, including normocytes, microcytes, macrocytes, elliptocytes, and target cells, resulting in a total of approximately 1 550 000 RBC elements. The dataset also includes each image’s complete blood count and morphology reports to validate the CNN model results with clinical data. Under the supervision of a team of expert pathologists, the annotation, labeling, and ground truth for each image were generated. Due to the high resolution, each image was divided into 12 subimages with ground truth and incorporated into AneRBC-II. AneRBC-II comprises a total of 12 000 images, comprising 6000 original and 6000 anaemic RBC images. Four state-of-the-art CNN models were applied for segmentation and classification to validate the proposed dataset. Database URL: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/hms3sjzt7f/1

To understand how biological and bio-inspired complex computational networks can function in the presence of noise and damage, we have evolved very small spiking neural networks in the presence of noise on the membrane potential. The networks were built with adaptive exponential integrate and fire neurons. The simple but not trivial task we evolved the networks for consisted of recognizing a short temporal pattern in the activity of the network inputs. This task can be described in abstract terms as finding a specific subsequence of symbols (“ABC”) in a continuous sequence of symbols (“..ABCCCAAABCAC..”). We show that networks with three interneurons and one output neuron can solve this task in the presence of biologically plausible levels of noise. We describe how such a network works by mapping its activity onto the state of a finite state transducer—an abstract model of computation on continuous time series. We demonstrate that the networks evolved with noise are much more robust than networks evolved without noise to the modification of neuronal parameters and variation of the properties of the input. We also show that the networks evolved with noise are denser and have stronger connections than the networks evolved without noise. Finally, we demonstrate the emergence of memory in the evolved networks—sustained spiking of some neurons maintained thanks to the presence of self-excitatory loops. To understand how biological and bio-inspired complex computational networks can function in the presence of noise and damage, we have evolved very small spiking neural networks in the presence of noise on the membrane potential. The networks were built with adaptive exponential integrate and fire neurons. The simple but not trivial task we evolved the networks for consisted of recognizing a short temporal pattern in the activity of the network inputs. This task can be described in abstract terms as finding a specific subsequence of symbols (“ABC”) in a continuous sequence of symbols (“..ABCCCAAABCAC..”). We show that networks with three interneurons and one output neuron can solve this task in the presence of biologically plausible levels of noise. We describe how such a network works by mapping its activity onto the state of a finite state transducer—an abstract model of computation on continuous time series. We demonstrate that the networks evolved with noise are much more robust than networks evolved without noise to the modification of neuronal parameters and variation of the properties of the input. We also show that the networks evolved with noise are denser and have stronger connections than the networks evolved without noise. Finally, we demonstrate the emergence of memory in the evolved networks—sustained spiking of some neurons maintained thanks to the presence of self-excitatory loops. To understand how biological and bio-inspired complex computational networks can function in the presence of noise and damage, we have evolved very small spiking neural networks in the presence of noise on the membrane potential. The networks were built with adaptive exponential integrate and fire neurons. The simple but not trivial task we evolved the networks for consisted of recognizing a short temporal pattern in the activity of the network inputs. This task can be described in abstract terms as finding a specific subsequence of symbols (“ABC”) in a continuous sequence of symbols (“..ABCCCAAABCAC..”). We show that networks with three interneurons and one output neuron can solve this task in the presence of biologically plausible levels of noise. We describe how such a network works by mapping its activity onto the state of a finite state transducer—an abstract model of computation on continuous time series. We demonstrate that the networks evolved with noise are much more robust than networks evolved without noise to the modification of neuronal parameters and variation of the properties of the input. We also show that the networks evolved with noise are denser and have stronger connections than the networks evolved without noise. Finally, we demonstrate the emergence of memory in the evolved networks—sustained spiking of some neurons maintained thanks to the presence of self-excitatory loops.

Modern web applications change frequently in response to user and market needs, making their testing challenging. Manual testing and automation methods often struggle to keep up with these changes. We propose an automated testing framework, AutoQALLMs, that utilises various LLMs (Large Language Models), including GPT-4, Claude, and Grok, alongside Selenium WebDriver, BeautifulSoup, and regular expressions. This framework enables one-click testing, where users provide a URL as input and receive test results as output, thus eliminating the need for human intervention. It extracts HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) elements from the webpage and utilises the LLMs API to generate Selenium-based test scripts. Regular expressions enhance the clarity and maintainability of these scripts. The scripts are executed automatically, and the results, such as pass/fail status and error details, are displayed to the tester. This streamlined input–output process forms the core foundation of the AutoQALLMs framework. We evaluated the framework on 30 websites. The results show that the system drastically reduces the time needed to create test cases, achieves broad test coverage (96%) with Claude 4.5 LLM, which is competitive with manual scripts (98%), and allows for rapid regeneration of tests in response to changes in webpage structure. Software testing expert feedback confirmed that the proposed AutoQALLMs method for automated web application testing enables faster regression testing, reduces manual effort, and maintains reliable test execution. However, some limitations remain in handling complex page changes and validation. Although Claude 4.5 achieved slightly higher test coverage in the comparative evaluation of the proposed experiment, GPT-4 was selected as the default model for AutoQALLMs due to its cost-efficiency, reproducibility, and stable script generation across diverse websites. Future improvements may focus on increasing accuracy, adding self-healing techniques, and expanding to more complex testing scenarios.