LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Diagnosis of thyroid follicular neoplasm: fine-needle aspiration versus core-needle biopsy.

BACKGROUND
Although fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a safe and accurate diagnostic procedure for assessing thyroid nodules, it has limitations in diagnosing follicular neoplasms due to its relatively high false-positive rate. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic role of core-needle biopsy (CNB) for thyroid nodules with follicular neoplasm (FN) in comparison with FNA.


METHODS
A series of 107 patients (24 men, 83 women; mean age, 47.4 years) from 231 FNAs and 107 patients (29 men, 78 women; mean age, 46.3 years) from 186 CNBs with FN readings, all of whom underwent surgery, from October 2008 to December 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. The false-positive rate, unnecessary surgery rate, and malignancy rate for the FNA and CNB patients according to the final diagnosis following surgery were evaluated.


RESULTS
The CNB showed a significantly lower false-positive and unnecessary surgery rate than the FNA (4.7% versus 30.8%, 3.7% versus 26.2%, p < 0.001, respectively). In the FNA group, 33 patients (30.8%) had non-neoplasms, including nodular hyperplasia (n = 32) and chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (n = 1). In the CNB group, 5 patients (4.7%) had non-neoplasms, all of which were nodular hyperplasia. Moreover, the CNB group showed a significantly higher malignancy rate than FNA (57.9% versus 28%, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
CNB showed a significantly lower false-positive rate and a higher malignancy rate than FNA in diagnosing FN. Therefore, CNB could minimize unnecessary surgery and provide diagnostic confidence when managing patients with FN to perform surgery.
Does the Mediterranean diet counteract the adverse effects of abdominal adiposity?

BACKGROUND AND AIM
We tested the hypothesis that an intervention with a Mediterranean diet (MeDiet) could mitigate the well-known harmful effects of abdominal obesity on cardiovascular health.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We assessed the relationship between baseline waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and major cardiovascular events during a median follow-up of 4.8 years in the Prevention with Mediterranean Diet (PREDIMED) randomized primary prevention trial, which tested a MeDiet against a control diet (advice on a low-fat diet). We also examined whether the MeDiet intervention was able to counteract the detrimental cardiovascular effects of an increased WHtR. The trial included 7447 participants (55-80 years old, 57% women) at high cardiovascular risk but free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) at enrollment. An increased risk of CVD events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death) was apparent for the highest versus the lowest quartile of WHtR (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio: 1.98) (95% confidence interval: 1.10-3.57; linear trend: p = 0.019) only in the control-diet group, but not in the two groups allocated to intervention with MeDiet (p for interaction = 0.034). This apparent interaction suggesting that the intervention counterbalanced the detrimental cardiovascular effects of adiposity was also significant for body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.01) and waist circumference (p = 0.043).


CONCLUSIONS
The MeDiet may counteract the harmful effects of increased adiposity on the risk of CVD.
BCR-ABL messenger RNA levels continue to decline in patients with chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia treated with imatinib for more than 5 years and approximately half of all first-line treated patients have stable undetectable BCR-ABL using strict sensitivity criteria.

PURPOSE
In the first years of imatinib treatment, BCR-ABL remained detectable in all but a small minority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. We determined whether BCR-ABL continues to decline with longer imatinib exposure and the incidence and consequence of undetectable BCR-ABL.


EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
BCR-ABL levels were measured in a subset of 53 imatinib-treated IRIS trial patients for up to 7 years (29 first-line, 24 second-line). Levels were deemed undetectable using strict PCR sensitivity criteria.


RESULTS
By 18 months, the majority achieved a 3-log reduction [major molecular response (MMR)]. BCR-ABL continued to decline but at a slower rate (median time to 4-log reduction and undetectable BCR-ABL of 45 and 66 months for first-line). The probability of undetectable BCR-ABL increased considerably from 36 to 81 months of first-line imatinib {7% [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0-17%] versus 52% (95% CI, 32-72%)}. Undetectable BCR-ABL was achieved in 18 of 53 patients and none of these 18 lost MMR after a median follow-up of 33 months. Conversely, MMR was lost in 6 of 22 (27%) patients with sustained detectable BCR-ABL and was associated with BCR-ABL mutations in 3 of 6. Loss of MMR was recently defined as suboptimal imatinib response. There was no difference in the probability of achieving molecular responses between first- and second-line patients but first-line had a significantly higher probability of maintaining MMR [P = 0.03; 96% (95% CI, 88-100%) versus 71% (95% CI, 48-93%)].


CONCLUSIONS
With prolonged therapy, BCR-ABL continued to decline in most patients and undetectable BCR-ABL was no longer a rare event. Loss of MMR was only observed in patients with sustained detectable BCR-ABL.
Update on the Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol of IEEE 802.11s

HWMP, the default routing protocol of IEEE 802.11s has been revised during the comment resolution of the first letter ballot. The paper gives an update on three areas where major changes have been introduced to HWMP: support for interworking with other networks; revised concept for proactive routing trees to root MPs; and a better aligned extensible path selection framework.
Ankle-knee prosthesis with active ankle and energy transfer: Development of the CYBERLEGs Alpha-Prosthesis

This paper presents the development of the CYBERLEGs Alpha-Prototype prosthesis, a new transfemoral prosthesis incorporating a new variable stiffness ankle actuator based on the MACCEPA architecture, a passive knee with two locking mechanisms, and an energy transfer mechanism that harvests negative work from the knee and delivers it to the ankle to assist pushoff. The CYBERLEGs Alpha-Prosthesis is part of the CYBERLEGs FP7-ICT project, which combines a prosthesis system to replace a lost limb in parallel with an exoskeleton to assist the sound leg, and sensory array to control both systems. The prosthesis attempts to produce a natural level ground walking gait that approximates the joint torques and kinematics of a non-amputee while maintaining compliant joints, which has the potential to decrease impulsive losses, and ultimately reduce the end user energy consumption. This first prototype consists of a passive knee and an active ankle which are energetically coupled to reduce the total power consumption of the device. Here we present simulations of the actuation system of the ankle and the passive behavior of the knee module with and without the energy transfer effects, the mechanical design of the prosthesis, and empirical results from testing of the A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the Wearable Robotics Workshop, Neurotechnix 2013. ∗Corresponding author Email addresses: lflynn@vub.ac.be (Louis Flynn), jgeeroms@vub.ac.be (Joost Geeroms), rjimenez@vub.ac.be (Rene Jimenez-Fabian), bram.vanderborght@vub.ac.be (Bram Vanderborght), n.vitiello@sssup.it (Nicola Vitiello), dlefeber@vub.ac.be (Dirk Lefeber) Preprint submitted to Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems November 30, 2014 physical device with amputee subjects.
A recurrent wavelet neural network controller with improved particle swarm optimization for linear synchronous motor drive

A recurrent wavelet neural network (RWNN) controller is proposed in this study to control the mover of a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) servo drive to track periodic reference trajectories. First, the dynamic model of the PMLSM drive system is derived. Next, an RWNN controller is proposed to control the PMLSM. Moreover, the connective weights, translations and dilations of the RWNN are trained online by back-propagation (BP) method. Furthermore, an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) is adopted to adapt the learning rates of the RWNN to improve the learning capability. Finally, the control performance of the proposed RWNN controller with IPSO is verified by some experimental results.
Disposable eyelid-warming device for the treatment of meibomian gland dysfunction.

PURPOSE
To assess the clinical efficacy of a newly developed disposable eyelid-warming device (Eye Warmer) for the treatment of meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).


METHODS
The Eye Warmer was applied for 5 minutes to 44 eyes of 22 patients who exhibited decreased tear break-up time (BUT) and dry-eye symptoms. Its efficacy was assessed on the basis of BUT and dry-eye symptoms in the short-term study. In the therapeutic study, the Eye Warmer was applied to 34 eyes of 17 MGD patients with decreased BUT and dry-eye symptoms for 5 minutes once a day for 2 weeks. The 16 eyes of 8 patients served as untreated controls. We examined tear film lipid layer interference patterns, BUT, meibomian gland secretion, and dry-eye symptoms in both groups before and after the treatment.


RESULTS
BUT and dry-eye symptoms significantly improved after the treatment in both the short-term and the therapeutic study (P<.01). The incidence of normal tear lipid layer in the treated group was significantly higher after treatment (28 eyes [82.4%]) than before (19 eyes [55.9%]) (P=.036). The incidence of meibomian gland obstruction was significantly decreased after treatment (14 eyes [41.2%]) compared to before treatment (26 eyes [76.5%]) (P=.006).


CONCLUSIONS
Warming the eyelids with the Eye Warmer improved the stability and uniformity of the tear lipid layer in MGD patients by melting the meibomian gland lipid. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of the Eye Warmer for the treatment of MGD.
New spines, new memories

For more than a century dendritic spines have been a source of fascination and speculation. The long-held belief that these anatomical structures are involved in learning and memory are addressed. Specifically, two lines of evidence that support this claim are reviewed. In the first, we review evidence that experimental manipulations that affect dendritic spine number in the hippocampus also affect learning processes of various sorts. In the second, we review evidence that learning itself affects the presence of dendritic spines in the hippocampus. Based on these observations, we propose that the presence of spines enhances synaptic efficacy and thereby the excitability of the network involved in the learning process. With this scheme, learning is not dependent on changes in spine density but rather changes in the presence of dendritic spines provide anatomical support for the processing of novel information used in memory formation.
Inviting free-riders or appealing to prosocial behavior? game-theoretical reflections on communicating herd immunity in vaccine advocacy.

OBJECTIVE
Vaccination yields a direct effect by reducing infection, but also has the indirect effect of herd immunity: If many individuals are vaccinated, the immune population will protect unvaccinated individuals (social benefit). However, due to a vaccination's costs and risks, individual incentives to free-ride on others' protection also increase with the number of individuals who are already vaccinated (individual benefit). The objective was to assess the consequences of communicating the social and/or individual benefits of herd immunity on vaccination intentions. We assume that if social benefits are salient, vaccination intentions increase (prosocial behavior), whereas salience of individual benefits might decrease vaccination intentions (free-riding).


METHODS
In an online-experiment (N = 342) the definition of herd immunity was provided with one sentence summarizing the gist of the message, either making the individual or social benefit salient or both. A control group received no information about herd immunity. As a moderator, we tested the costs of vaccination (effort in obtaining the vaccine). The dependent measure was intention to vaccinate.


RESULTS
When a message emphasized individual benefit, vaccination intentions decreased (free-riding). Communication of social benefit reduced free-riding and increased vaccination intentions when costs to vaccinate were low.


CONCLUSIONS
Communicating the social benefit of vaccination may prevent free-riding and should thus be explicitly communicated if individual decisions are meant to consider public health benefits. Especially when vaccination is not the individually (but instead collectively) optimal solution, vaccinations should be easily accessible in order to reach high coverage.
Usefulness of the adenosine triphosphate with a sufficient observation period for detecting reconduction after pulmonary vein isolation.

BACKGROUND
Although reconduction after pulmonary vein (PV) isolation is considered to play a key role in the recurrence of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), there have been few reports regarding the precise time course of early reconduction. Several studies have suggested that transient PV reconduction facilitated by adenosine may predict long-term AF recurrence. This study was designed to clarify the incidence and time course of early reconduction after PVI during the procedure and to confirm whether the use of ATP after a certain observation period was useful to detect early reconduction after PVI.


METHODS
In 21 patients (18 males, 56 +/- 11 years) with drug refractory AF, radiofrequency circumferential PV antrum ablation was performed in all 4 PVs. After the completion of isolation, electrograms in each PV were repeatedly recorded (1.98 +/- 0.57 times per PV) using a circular mapping catheter for an observation period of 87 +/- 29 minutes. After isolation of all 4 PVs, 30 mg of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was administered during isoproterenol infusion.


RESULTS
PV electrical isolation was initially achieved in all 81 PVs. During the observation period, 12 (15%) PVs in 10 (48%) of 21 patients exhibited spontaneous reconduction. Among the remaining 69 PVs, 8 (12%) additional PVs had reconduction with the use of ATP. All PV reconduction was successfully eliminated by 4.5 +/- 2.2 additional radiofrequency applications.


CONCLUSION
A sufficient observation period and the use of ATP are useful to detect early reconduction after PV isolation.
Reliable detection of LSB steganography in color and grayscale images

A large number of commercial steganographic programs use the Least Significant Bit embedding (LSB) as the method of choice for message hiding in 24-bit, 8-bit color images, and grayscale images. It is commonly believed that changes to the LSBs of colors cannot be detected due to noise that is always present in digital images. In this paper, we describe a new very accurate and reliable method that can detect LSB embedding in randomly scattered pixels in both 24-bit color images and 8-bit grayscale or color images. It is based on our previous work on lossless data embedding [1]. By inspecting the differences in the number of regular and singular groups for the LSB and the "shifted LSB plane", we can reliably detect messages as short as 0.03bpp.
An Investigation into the Challenges and Opportunities Associated with the Application of Internet of Things (IoT) in the Agricultural Sector-A Review

Corresponding author: Sarfraz Fayaz Khan Department of Management Information Systems, College of Commerce and Business Administration, Dhofar University, Salalah, Sultanate of Oman Email: 1skhan@du.edu.om 2mismail@du.edu.om Abstract: Internet of things has acquired attention all over the globe. It has transformed the agricultural field and allowed farmers to compete with massive issues they face. The aim of this paper is to review the various challenges and opportunities associated with the applications of internet of things in agricultural sector. This research makes use of secondary sources that have been gathered from existing academic literature such as journals, books, articles, magazines, internet, newsletter, company publications and whitepapers. Applications reviewed in this research are about crop sensing, mapping and monitoring the croplands pattern, managing and controlling with the help of radio frequency identification and real-time monitoring of environment. Some of the challenges that were taken into consideration for reviewing the applications of internet of things are software complexity, security, lack of supporting infrastructure and technical skill requirement. Complexity in the software has to be rectified in order to support the IoT network. Therefore software must be developed as user-friendly for improving the farming, production and quality of the crop. Security is the major threat in the IoT applications. Security has to be enhanced through proper access control, data confidentiality and user authentication. Technical skill is required for farming to enhance the organizational abilities and to perform the farming functions, solving problems and more. Proper supporting infrastructure can be developed with proper internet availability and connectivity. Some of the opportunities were taken for reviewing the applications of internet of things are low power wireless sensor, better connectivity, operational efficiency and remote management.
A review of short-term electricity price forecasting techniques in deregulated electricity markets

Short-term electricity price forecasting has become a crucial issue in the power markets, since it forms the basis of maximising profits for the market participants. This paper presents an extensive review of the established approaches to electricity price forecasting. It summarizes the influencing factors of price behaviour and proposes an extended taxonomy of price forecasting methods. Through the comparison of different approaches, such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average Models (ARIMA) and Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM), the hybrid methods that combine different models in order to offset the inherent weakness of individual models are highlighted with regard to the future trend of electricity price forecasting methodology.
Comparison between single- and multi-sensor oesophageal temperature probes during atrial fibrillation ablation: thermodynamic characteristics.

AIMS
Oesophageal temperature monitoring with single-sensor probe (SSP) has a variable ability to predict oesophageal ulceration as a consequence of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Multi-sensor self-expandable probes (MSPs) may offer improved thermal monitoring. The objective of this study was to compare the thermodynamic characteristics of both probes during PVI.


METHODS AND RESULTS
This prospective study enrolled 20 patients undergoing index PVI. Ten patients (group A) underwent dual monitoring with SSP and MSP and 10 control patients (group B) were monitored with SSP alone. Time to initial rise (>0.2°C), time to 1.0°C rise, peak temperature, and decay were recorded with each posterior wall lesion (20 W, 198 applications). The operator was blinded to the MSP temperature data and ablation was only interrupted when SSP temperature increased by ≥2°C. All patients underwent endoscopy within 24 h. Initial temperature increase was detected earlier with MSP (13.4 ± 7.5 vs. 30.5 ± 15.4 s; P < 0.001); led to shorter time to 1.0°C rise (18.5 ± 10.1 vs. 32.1 ± 12.0 s; P < 0.001); and higher change in peak temperature (1.6 ± 2.0 vs. 0.60 ± 0.53°C; P < 0.001). Decay time was similar between the probes (146.1 ± 35.3 vs. 150.4 ± 48.4 s; P = 0.89). The incidence of oesophageal ulceration was similar between the Groups A and B (5 and 4, respectively). Multi-sensor self-expandable probe provided greater sensitivity (100 vs. 60%) and similar specificity (60%) for detection of oesophageal ulceration. Five swine underwent oesophageal mapping before and after MSP placement without alteration in size or position.


CONCLUSION
Multi-sensor probes provide a superior thermodynamic profile. Its clinical value in reducing oesophageal injury requires further evaluation.
Compound Composite Odontoma diagnosed using Various Radiographic Examinations

Odontomas are benign lesions that take origin from dental tissues. They are generally classified into complex and composite type. Odontomas are usually asymptomatic but may present with signs and symptoms relating to their presence. The present case report is based on incidental finding of odontoma detected on routine radiographic examination of a 16-year-old female patient, who complained of over-retained deciduous tooth and missing of permanent tooth in maxillary anterior region of jaw. Various radiographic examinations using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) were performed, which exhibited compound odontoma. The lesion was surgically operated and given for histopathological examination. Final diagnosis was given based on biopsy report obtained after surgical removal of the lesion.
Myocardial strain measurement with feature-tracking cardiovascular magnetic resonance: normal values.

AIMS
Myocardial deformation is a key to clinical decision-making. Feature-tracking cardiovascular magnetic resonance (FT-CMR) provides quantification of motion and strain using standard steady-state in free-precession (SSFP) imaging, which is part of a routine CMR left ventricular (LV) study protocol. An accepted definition of a normal range is essential if this technique is to enter the clinical arena.


METHODS AND RESULTS
One hundred healthy individuals, with 10 men and women in each of 5 age deciles from 20 to 70 years, without a history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, renal impairment, or family history of cardiovascular disease, and with a normal stress echocardiogram, underwent FT-CMR assessment of LV myocardial strain and strain rate using SSFP cines.Peak systolic longitudinal strain (Ell) was -21.3 ± 4.8%, peak systolic circumferential strain (Ecc) was -26.1 ± 3.8%, and peak systolic radial strain (Err) was 39.8 ± 8.3%. On Bland-Altman analyses, peak systolic Ecc had the best inter-observer agreement (bias 0.63 ± 1.29% and 95% CI -1.90 to 3.16) and peak systolic Err the least inter-observer agreement (bias 0.13 ± 6.41 and 95% CI -12.44 to 12.71). There was an increase in the magnitude of peak systolic Ecc with advancing age, which was greatest in subjects over the age of 50 years (R(2) = 0.11, P = 0.003). There were significant gender differences (P < 0.001) in peak systolic Ell, with a greater magnitude of deformation in females (-22.7%) than in males (-19.3%).


CONCLUSION
Normal values for myocardial strain measurements using FT-CMR are provided. All circumferential and longitudinal based variables had excellent intra- and inter-observer variability.