Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Prospective Assessment Defining the Limitations of Thyroid Nodule Pathologic Evaluation

BACKGROUND Clinical management of thyroid neoplasms is based on light microscopic diagnosis, but its accuracy and precision are poorly defined. OBJECTIVE To assess inter- and intraobserver variability of preoperative cytopathologic and postoperative histopathologic thyroid diagnoses. DESIGN Samples were collected in a prospective, multicenter trial validating a gene expression classifier between June 2009 and December 2010. SETTING 14 academic and 35 community clinical sites. PATIENTS 653 patients with 776 surgically resected thyroid nodules of 1 cm or greater. MEASUREMENTS Intraobserver concordance among 2 or more central histopathologists who independently read histopathology slides was calculated. Interobserver concordance between the diagnoses made by the central histopathologists and those made by local pathologists were calculated. Intra- and interobserver concordance for cytopathology was similarly calculated by comparing diagnoses made by local pathologists with those made by a central panel of 3 cytopathologists. RESULTS Concordance on the histopathologic distinction between benign and malignant diagnoses was 91% comparing local with central histopathologists and 90% comparing 2 central histopathologists. Using the 6-category Bethesda System, 64.0% of diagnoses made by local and central cytopathologists and 74.7% of intraobserver diagnoses were concordant. Central cytopathologists made fewer indeterminate diagnoses than local pathologists (41.2% vs. 55.0%). LIMITATIONS Many local pathologists did not use the Bethesda System, so their reports were translated to allow comparison. The study required histopathology, and the study population and specimens did not encompass all newly evaluated patients with a thyroid nodule. CONCLUSION Substantial inter- and intraobserver variability exists in the cytopathologic and histopathologic evaluation of thyroid nodules, confirming an inherent limitation of visual microscopic diagnosis. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE Veracyte.
Attitudes and Practices of Parents: Disadvantage and Access to Education

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children’s educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children’s access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their children, because of their lower level of economic, cultural, and social capital. Nevertheless, this association does not operate as an automatic mechanism. Indeed, against a backdrop of persisting inequalities, research data show a plurality of intraclass and intragroup dynamics, with disadvantaged parents having diverse ways of avoiding blaming processes, saving dignity, and acting as proactive agents for their children’s educational career.
Structure of epitaxial graphene on Ir(111)

A graphene monolayer has been prepared on an Ir(111) single crystal via pyrolytic cleavage of ethylene (C2H4). The resulting superstructure has been examined with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction. It has been identified as a well aligned, incommensurate (9.32×9.32) pattern, which is described as a moiré. This pattern shows three distinct regions resulting from different local configurations of the carbon adlayer with respect to the Ir-substrate. These regions are imaged differently by STM and differ strongly in their ability to bind metal deposits.
Oral Anticoagulants Initiation in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: Real-World Data from a Population-Based Cohort

Objective: Little is known about initial prescription of currently used oral anticoagulants (OAC), and correlated characteristics in real-world practice. We aimed to assess patterns of initiation of Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) and non-VKA oral anticoagulants (NOAC) in naive patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation and the factors associated with starting treatment with NOAC. Methods: Population-based retrospective cohort study of all patients with NVAF who had a first prescription of OAC from November 2011 to February 2014 in the Valencia region, Spain (n = 21,881). Temporal trends of OAC initiation are described for the whole population and by type of OAC and therapeutic agent. Factors associated with starting treatment with NOAC (vs. VKA) were identified using logistic multivariate regression models. Results: Among the patients initiating OAC, 25% started with NOAC 2 years after market release. Regarding temporal trends, prescription of NOAC doubled during the study period. VKA prescription also increased (by around 13%), resulting in a 30% rise in total treatment initiation with OAC during 2011–2014. NOAC initiation (vs. VKA) was associated with a lower baseline risk of thromboembolism and higher income. Conclusions: In this Spanish population-based cohort, initiation of OAC therapy saw a rapid increase, mainly but not exclusively, due to a two-fold rise in the use of NOAC. Initiation with NOAC was associated with a lower baseline risk of thromboembolism and higher income, which opposes the indications of NOAC use and reflects disparities in care. Inadequate prescription patterns might threaten the effectiveness and safety of these therapies, thus monitoring OAC prescription is necessary and should be setting-specific.
Target Selection of Social Skills for Children

The present studies represent a preliminary test of the template-matching procedure as a means of empirically identifying critical social behaviors for individual client children. Study 1 assessed the consistency with which female child informants identified behaviors they preferred in their friends (template behaviors). Study 2 validated these template behaviors on the same subjects by manipulating the behaviors in nonscripted confederates and assessing the impact of the manipulations on behavioral and sociometric measures. It was found that: (1) subjects were consistent when identifying most preferred template behaviors; (2) subjects reciprocated template behaviors in kind; (3) different patterns of acceleration of template behaviors in confederates were associated with collateral increases in untrained behavior in subjects and in subject responsivity to confederates; and (4) sociometric ratings obtained from some subjects increased, but these increases were not statistically significant. Implications of these findings for future development of the template-matching procedure are discussed.
Web Text Corpus for Natural Language Processing

Web text has been successfully used as training data for many NLP applications. While most previous work accesses web text through search engine hit counts, we created a Web Corpus by downloading web pages to create a topic-diverse collection of 10 billion words of English. We show that for context-sensitive spelling correction the Web Corpus results are better than using a search engine. For thesaurus extraction, it achieved similar overall results to a corpus of newspaper text. With many more words available on the web, better results can be obtained by collecting much larger web corpora.
Age, social-cognitive development, and the use of comforting strategies

Although considerable research indicates that both functional communication skills and prosocial behaviors increase across childhood and adolescence, relatively few studies have examined developmental and individual differences in the prosocial communication skill of comforting. The present study examines relationships among age, social‐cognitive development, and comforting skill and investigates how these relationships change over the course of development. Assessments of several social‐cognitive indices and the use of listener‐sensitive comforting strategies were obtained from 137 students enrolled in grades one through 12. All of the social‐cognitive indices were moderate to strong predictors of comforting skill, and remained moderate predictors even when controlling for the effects of age. Each of the indices made an independent contribution to the prediction of comforting skill. Moreover, the relationship between social‐cognitive ability and comforting skill apparently is contingent on age; social‐co.
Recovery of resting brain connectivity ensuing mild traumatic brain injury

Brains reveal amplified plasticity as they recover from an injury. We aimed to define time dependent plasticity changes in patients recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Twenty-five subjects with mild head injury were longitudinally evaluated within 36 h, 3 and 6 months using resting state functional connectivity (RSFC). Region of interest (ROI) based connectivity differences over time within the patient group and in comparison with a healthy control group were analyzed at p < 0.005. We found 33 distinct ROI pairs that revealed significant changes in their connectivity strength with time. Within 3 months, the majority of the ROI pairs had decreased connectivity in mTBI population, which increased and became comparable to healthy controls at 6 months. Within this diffuse decreased connectivity in the first 3 months, there were also few regions with increased connections. This hyper connectivity involved the salience network and default mode network within 36 h, and lingual, inferior frontal and fronto-parietal networks at 3 months. Our findings in a fairly homogenous group of patients with mTBI evaluated during the 6 month window of recovery defines time varying brain connectivity changes as the brain recovers from an injury. A majority of these changes were seen in the frontal and parietal lobes between 3 and 6 months after injury. Hyper connectivity of several networks supported normal recovery in the first 6 months and it remains to be seen in future studies whether this can predict an early and efficient recovery of brain function.
An Intracellular Laccase Is Responsible for Epicatechin-Mediated Anthocyanin Degradation in Litchi Fruit Pericarp1[OPEN]

Anthocyanin degradation by an intracellular laccase, mediated by epicatechin oxidation, causes the loss of red color in Lichi fruit peel. In contrast to the detailed molecular knowledge available on anthocyanin synthesis, little is known about its catabolism in plants. Litchi (Litchi chinensis) fruit lose their attractive red color soon after harvest. The mechanism leading to quick degradation of anthocyanins in the pericarp is not well understood. An anthocyanin degradation enzyme (ADE) was purified to homogeneity by sequential column chromatography, using partially purified anthocyanins from litchi pericarp as a substrate. The purified ADE, of 116 kD by urea SDS-PAGE, was identified as a laccase (ADE/LAC). The full-length complementary DNA encoding ADE/LAC was obtained, and a polyclonal antibody raised against a deduced peptide of the gene recognized the ADE protein. The anthocyanin degradation function of the gene was confirmed by its transient expression in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) leaves. The highest ADE/LAC transcript abundance was in the pericarp in comparison with other tissues, and was about 1,000-fold higher than the polyphenol oxidase gene in the pericarp. Epicatechin was found to be the favorable substrate for the ADE/LAC. The dependence of anthocyanin degradation by the enzyme on the presence of epicatechin suggests an ADE/LAC epicatechin-coupled oxidation model. This model was supported by a dramatic decrease in epicatechin content in the pericarp parallel to anthocyanin degradation. Immunogold labeling transmission electron microscopy suggested that ADE/LAC is located mainly in the vacuole, with essential phenolic substances. ADE/LAC vacuolar localization, high expression levels in the pericarp, and high epicatechin-dependent anthocyanin degradation support its central role in pigment breakdown during pericarp browning.
The relationship of strategic performance management to team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of strategic performance management to team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains each of the components in this relationship before introducing the problematic issues regarding this relationship and where the gaps are missing in the extant literature; hence the need for the special issue is justified.Findings – The paper finds that the concluding remarks are offered to suggest that strategic performance management can take place at top management, middle management, or strategic operations levels, and the their impact on team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness can be regarded as a special phenomenon, termed “strategic team performance management”. Originality/value – This editorial provides an overview of this compilation which comprises five original papers that are examples of latest developments in this resear.
Homogeneous Commercial Property Market Groupings and Portfolio Construction in the United Kingdom

Property portfolios are traditionally constructed by diversifying across geographical areas, property types, or a combination of both. In the United Kingdom it is normal practice to use regions rather than towns or local market areas as the geographical divisions. The authors use cluster analysis to construct homogeneous groups from 157 UK local markets, by means of commercial property returns. The results show strong property-type dimensions and only very broad geographical dimensions in the clusters. These clusters are found, in general, to have temporal stability with changes in cluster membership being explained by the changing economic geography of the United Kingdom. The cluster-derived groupings are used to derive efficient investment frontiers and are compared with frontiers based on conventional heuristic groupings. It is shown that strategies based on parsimonious cluster-based groupings, appropriate for smaller investors, generate results that are comparable with those of conventional groupings and capture the main drivers of property performance.
Conscious learning semiotics systems to assist human persons (CLS2H)

Challenged by the growing societal demand for Ambient Assistive Living (AAL) technologies, we are dedicated to develop intelligent technical devices which are able to communicate with human persons in a truly human-like manner. The core of the project is a simulation environment which enables the development of conscious learning semiotic agents which will be able to assist human persons in their daily life. We are reporting first results and future perspectives.
Intragroup conflict as a mediator between cultural diversity and work group outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which intragroup conflict mediates the relationship between cultural diversity and group outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – Three types of intragroup conflict were considered: relationship, process, and task conflict. Cultural diversity was defined as group members' dissimilarity in horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism. Group outcomes were operationalized as satisfaction with the group and perceived performance of the group. Mediated regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships with data from 76 science research groups.Findings – Cultural diversity was positively related to relationship, process, and task conflict. In turn, the three conflict types were associated with unfavorable group outcomes. Further, the three types of conflict were shown to mediate the relationship between cultural diversity and group outcomes.Research limitations/implications – Potential limitations of this study include.
Out-of-Order Transmission for In-Order Arrival Scheduling for Multipath TCP

MPTCP exploits using a device's multiple interfaces to achieve higher end-to-end throughput and increased robustness during times of path failure. We consider potential delay advantages that MPTCP can provide users of real-time applications (e.g, online gaming) where higher throughput does not necessarily guarantee a higher quality experience. We first explain a situation where jitter can occur in an MPTCP data transfer even when underlying network paths are stable. We propose a new scheduling policy that mitigates jitter by transmitting packets out-of-order on different sub flows such that they arrive in-order at the MPTCP receiver.
The heart requires glycerol as an energy substrate through aquaporin 7, a glycerol facilitator.

AIMS Cardiomyocytes require fatty acids and glucose for energy production. However, other nutrients and substrates that may serve as possible candidates for a cardiac energy source have not been fully studied. Several reports showed that a moderate expression of aquaporin 7 (AQP7), a member of the aquaglyceroporin family that is permeated by glycerol and water, is observed in heart tissue. However, the functional role of cardiac AQP7 is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of glycerol as a cardiac energy substrate and to clarify the role of cardiac AQP7. METHODS AND RESULTS Heart function and morphology were examined in AQP7-knockout (KO) mice under basal conditions and during pressure overload [isoproterenol infusion and transverse aortic constriction (TAC)]. Glycerol uptake and glycerol-dependent ATP production were measured in AQP7-knockdown cardiac cells. Cardiac glycerol consumption was analysed in ex vivo beating hearts. Cardiac morphology and function in KO mice were similar to those of wild-type (WT) mice under basal conditions, although low glycerol and ATP content were noted in hearts of KO mice. In H9c2 cardiomyotubes, knockdown of AQP7 was associated with a significant reduction of glycerol uptake. The ex vivo heart study demonstrated that cardiac glycerol consumption levels in KO mice were significantly lower than those of WT mice. Furthermore, isoproterenol challenge induced severe left ventricular hypertrophy in KO mice, and TAC resulted in a higher mortality rate in KO mice than in WT mice. CONCLUSION The results indicate that AQP7 acts as a glycerol facilitator in cardiomyocytes and that glycerol is a substrate for cardiac energy production.
Secrecy without one-way functions

Abstract. We show that some problems in information security can be solved without using one-way functions. The latter are usually regarded as a central concept of cryptography, but the very existence of one-way functions depends on difficult conjectures in complexity theory, most notably on the notorious “” conjecture. This is why cryptographic primitives that do not employ one-way functions are often called “unconditionally secure”. In this paper, we suggest protocols for secure computation of the sum, product, and some other functions of two or more elements of an arbitrary constructible ring, without using any one-way functions. A new input that we offer here is that, in contrast with other proposals, we conceal “intermediate results” of a computation. For example, when we compute the sum of k numbers, only the final result is known to the parties; partial sums are not known to anybody. Other applications of our method include voting/rating over insecure channels and a rather elegant and efficient solution of the “two millionaires problem”. Then, while it is fairly obvious that a secure (bit) commitment between two parties is impossible without a one-way function, we show that it is possible if the number of parties is at least 3. We also show how our unconditionally secure (bit) commitment scheme for three parties can be used to arrange an unconditionally secure (bit) commitment between just two parties if they use a “dummy” (e.g., a computer) as the third party. We explain how our concept of a “dummy” is different from the well-known concept of a “trusted third party”. Based on a similar idea, we also offer an unconditionally secure k-n oblivious transfer protocol between two parties who use a “dummy”. We also suggest a protocol, without using a one-way function, for the so-called “mental poker”, i.e., a fair card dealing (and playing) over distance. Finally, we propose a secret sharing scheme where an advantage over Shamir's and other known secret sharing schemes is that nobody, including the dealer, ends up knowing the shares (of the secret) owned by any particular player. It should be mentioned that computational cost of our protocols is negligible to the point that all of them can be executed without a computer.
Bisexuality and Mental Health: Future Research Directions

Studies have indicated that bisexual individuals may report worse mental health than their heterosexual and gay/lesbian counterparts. This article reviews research related to bisexuality and mental health. Further, the main theories relevant to why bisexual individuals may face mental health disparities—namely, minority stress and lifetime adversity—are discussed. Based on a review of the literature, the second part of the article outlines directions for future research on bisexuality and mental health. It is suggested that studies explore how sexual orientation disclosure; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community support; and sexual behavior may help to explain the association between bisexuality and mental health.
Truth Inference in Crowdsourcing: Is the Problem Solved?

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a novel problem-solving paradigm, which facilitates addressing problems that are hard for computers, e.g., entity resolution and sentiment analysis. However, due to the openness of crowdsourcing, workers may yield low-quality answers, and a redundancy-based method is widely employed, which first assigns each task to multiple workers and then infers the correct answer (called truth) for the task based on the answers of the assigned workers. A fundamental problem in this method is Truth Inference, which decides how to effectively infer the truth. Recently, the database community and data mining community independently study this problem and propose various algorithms. However, these algorithms are not compared extensively under the same framework and it is hard for practitioners to select appropriate algorithms. To alleviate this problem, we provide a detailed survey on 17 existing algorithms and perform a comprehensive evaluation using 5 real datasets. We make all codes and datasets public for future research. Through experiments we find that existing algorithms are not stable across different datasets and there is no algorithm that outperforms others consistently. We believe that the truth inference problem is not fully solved, and identify the limitations of existing algorithms and point out promising research directions.
Facilitating AHP-TOPSIS Method for Reliability Analysis of a Marine LNG-Diesel Dual Fuel Engine

Abstract: Recent years, with the rapid development of world economy, energy consumption is sharply increaseing and the environment is deteriorating. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), a clean renewable energy which can be used as ship fuel, is drawing attentions from more and more countries over the world. However, the conversion of the LNG-diesel dual fuel engine (DFE) in China as a new research is just in its infancy, therefore the operability and safety of the technology have to be further concerned. In view of this, taking the China inland's first transformed marine DFE GC6135ACz as an example, a risk assessment on the failures of DFE engine has been carried out by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. Key factors for failures of DFE as well as the optimal risk control options (RCOs) have been obtained by expert survey data, so as to enhance the safety level of marine LNG-diesel DFEs.