Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interrater Reliability of Various Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) Classifications for Differentiating Benign from Malignant Thyroid Nodules

Background: Thyroid ultrasound(US) is used as the first diagnostic tool to assess the management of disease but is operator dependent. There have been few reports evaluating interrater variability in US assessment. Therefore, we evaluated interrater reliability in US assessment of thyroid nodules and estimated its diagnostic accuracy for various TIRADS systems. Methods: This retrospective study included 24 malignant nodules and 84 benign nodules from January 2015 to October 2017. Two blinded observers independently reviewed stored US images by using TIRADS. All analyses followed guidelines proposed by ACR-TR, Siriraj-TR and EU-TR systems. Interrater reliability was calculated using Cohen’s Kappa statistics. Diagnostic accuracy were also calculated. Results: Interobserver agreement showed substantial agreement for composition (K=0.616); echogenicity and echogenic foci showed fair agreement (K=0.327 and 0.288, respectively); margin showed slight agreement (K=0.143). Interrater reliability for the final assessment; moderate agreement for ACR-TIRADS system (K=0.500); fair agreement for EU-TIRADS system (K=0.209) and slight agreement (K=0.114) for Siriraj-TIRADS system. The diagnostic performance from the two observers; ACR-TIRADS system; sensitivities were 75% and 79.2%, specificities were 58.3% and 56%, positive predictive value (PPV) were 34% and 33.9% and negative predictive value (NPV) were 89.1% and 90.4%. For the Siriraj-TIRADS system, sensitivities were 41.7% and 25%, specificities were 84.5% and 89.3%, positive predictive value (PPV) were 43.5% and 40% and negative predictive value (NPV) were 83.5% and 80.6%. For the EU-TIRADS system, sensitivities were 45.8% and 66.7%, specificities were 79.8% and 72.6%, positive predictive value (PPV) were 39.3% and 41% and negative predictive value (NPV) were 83.8% and 88.4%. Conclusion: The ACR-TIRADS had highest interobserver agreement, a trend to have highest sensitivity and negative predictive value for diagnosis of malignant thyroid nodules. Siriraj-TIRADS had higher specificity and accuracy, but lower interobserver agreement.
Effects of cultural distanceon Swedish international trade

The study aims at distinguishing the effect cultural distance on bilateral trade between Sweden and other countries. Commonly cultural variables have been included in previous studies in the form of dummy variables indicating shared colonial background, religion and language. This thesis takes culture in the form of values and attitudes in account, an approach that is lesser explored by researchers. By using data on culture and values for 97 countries from the World Value Survey and applying Inglehart’s two dimensions of culture in a gravity model, this thesis finds some evidence of cultural distance playing an important role in the volume traded. The sample included 344 observations of cultural distance under the period 1990-2014 and Swedish trade as well as interpreting the effects of exports and imports of manufactured products separately. Regression results using random effects modelling discovers a negative and significant effect of distance in traditional/secular-rational values on total trade and exports and a positive effect of survival/self-expression values on exports. This could indicate that depending of the type of cultural values measured, trade is affected in different ways. Key-words International Trade, Culture, Sweden, World Value Survey, Cultural distance, Economics, Gravity model
Exact real-time dynamics of single-impurity Anderson model from a single-spin hybridization-expansion

In this work we introduce a modified real-time continuous-time hybridization-expansion quantum Monte Carlo solver for a time-dependent single-orbital Anderson impurity model: CT-1/2-HYB-QMC. In the proposed method the diagrammatic expansion is performed only for one out of the two spin channels, while the resulting effective single-particle problem for the other spin is solved semi-analytically for each expansion diagram. CT-1/2-HYB-QMC alleviates the dynamical sign problem by reducing the order of sampled diagrams and makes it possible to reach twice as long time scales in comparison to the standard CT-HYB method. We illustrate the new solver by calculating an electric current through impurity in paramagnetic and spin-polarized cases.
Child outcomes after placement of a cervical pessary in women with a multiple pregnancy: A 4‐year follow‐up of the ProTWIN trial

The ProTWIN trial previously showed no beneficial effect of treatment with a cervical pessary vs usual care to prevent preterm birth in women with a multiple pregnancy. However, in women with a midtrimester short cervix (<38 mm), pessary did reduce the composite outcome of neonatal morbidity and mortality. This follow‐up study evaluates the long‐term outcomes of all children born to mothers who participated in the ProTWIN trial at 4 years of age.
Sodium–glucose co‐transporter 2 inhibition with empagliflozin improves cardiac function in non‐diabetic rats with left ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction

Sodium–glucose co‐transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibition reduces heart failure hospitalizations in patients with diabetes, irrespective of glycaemic control. We examined the effect of SGLT2 inhibition with empagliflozin (EMPA) on cardiac function in non‐diabetic rats with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction after myocardial infarction (MI).
Prevalence of post-concussion-like symptoms in the general population in Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Objectives: To evaluate the frequency of post-concussion symptoms and prevalence and risk factors of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) in the general population, investigate the association between the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) and self-perceived health, and evaluate differences between three European countries. Methods: A web-based survey including the RPQ and EQ-5D was conducted among representative samples in three European countries. Results: A total of 11,759 respondents completed the questionnaire. The most frequently reported symptom was fatigue (49.9%). Almost half (45.1%) of the respondents were classified as having PCS considering rating score 2 (three RPQ items with score ≥ 2) as a cut-off. Chronic health complaints were found as a significant risk factor for PCS. All items of the RPQ were positively correlated with the EQ-5D and the strongest positive correlation (0.633, p<0.001) was between RPQ item ‘feeling depressed or tearful’ and EQ-5D domain ‘anxiety/depression’. Conclusions: We found a high frequency of post-concussion-like symptoms and PCS in the general population, indicating that these symptoms are not specific for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and PCS is not a unique syndrome after TBI. Therefore, the use of post-concussion symptoms and PCS as outcome following mild TBI should be interpreted with caution.
Communicating Awareness and Intent in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

Drivers use nonverbal cues such as vehicle speed, eye gaze, and hand gestures to communicate awareness and intent to pedestrians. Conversely, in autonomous vehicles, drivers can be distracted or absent, leaving pedestrians to infer awareness and intent from the vehicle alone. In this paper, we investigate the usefulness of interfaces (beyond vehicle movement) that explicitly communicate awareness and intent of autonomous vehicles to pedestrians, focusing on crosswalk scenarios. We conducted a preliminary study to gain insight on designing interfaces that communicate autonomous vehicle awareness and intent to pedestrians. Based on study outcomes, we developed four prototype interfaces and deployed them in studies involving a Segway and a car. We found interfaces communicating vehicle awareness and intent: (1) can help pedestrians attempting to cross; (2) are not limited to the vehicle and can exist in the environment; and (3) should use a combination of modalities such as visual, auditory, and physical.
Cell Biology International

Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer‐related death in women worldwide. There is an urgent need to find novel targets for the treatment of CC. Recently, microRNA have emerged as critical factors in tumorigenesis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanism of miR‐641 on the migration and invasion of CC cells. In silico analysis revealed putative interaction between miR‐641 and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) RNA/lncRNA tumor suppressor candidate 8 (TUSC8). Hence we evaluated the expression of TUSC8, miR‐641, and PTEN. We found that the expressions of TUSC8 and PTEN were decreased in CC tissues, whereas miR‐641 expression was increased. Inhibition of miR‐641 suppressed the migration and invasion of Hela cells. In addition, TUSC8 and PTEN were upstream and downstream target molecule of miR‐ 641, respectively. Overexpression of TUSC8 promoted PTEN expression, and suppressed the invasion and migration of Hela cells, whereas miR‐641 mimic treatment changed the effects. These results demonstrated that overexpression of TUSC8 could inhibit the invasion and migration of CC cells by upregulating PTEN via miR‐641.
Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis in children: Adherence to guidelines: A cohort study.

AIMS Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) is an important measure to reduce post-operative infections. Guidelines exist, but their efficacy and performance in children is poorly understood compared with adults. To review adherence to SAP guidelines, this study assesses risk factors for non-adherence and rate of early post-surgical infections. METHODS A retrospective cohort study of paediatric surgical cases (0-<18 years) at a tertiary children's hospital was performed. Patient characteristics, surgical factors and antimicrobial details were evaluated against hospital guidelines for overall adherence and domains of: antimicrobial choice, dose, re-dosing, timing and duration. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine risk factors for non-adherence. Hospital records were reviewed for post-operative infections at 7 and 30 days. RESULTS Among 326 cases, overall guideline adherence was 39.6% but varied by domain and surgical subspecialty. Incorrect wound classification was associated with overall non-adherence on multivariate regression (odds ratio (OR): 2.59; P < 0.001). Incorrect antimicrobial choice was more likely in children with penicillin hypersensitivity (OR 138.34, P = 0.004) and incorrect dosing more likely in adolescent patients (OR 4.33; P = 0.004). Presence of invasive devices was associated with prolonged duration of antimicrobials (OR 2.92, P = 0.016). Only two post-operative infections were documented by 30 days, but data were insufficient to exclude mild infections managed in the community. CONCLUSIONS SAP was suboptimal in children, with areas for improvement including better guidance on wound classification, allergy management and care for adolescent patients. Documented infections were rare, but mild infections were unable to be excluded due to limited post-discharge information.
How Does It Feel to Be Treated Like an Object? Direct and Indirect Effects of Exposure to Sexual Objectification on Women’s Emotions in Daily Life

Exposure to sexual objectification is an everyday experience for many women, yet little is known about its emotional consequences. Fredrickson and Roberts’ (1997) objectification theory proposed a within-person process, wherein exposure to sexual objectification causes women to adopt a third-person perspective on their bodies, labeled self-objectification, which has harmful downstream consequences for their emotional well-being. However, previous studies have only tested this model at the between-person level, making them unreliable sources of inference about the proposed intraindividual psychological consequences of objectification. Here, we report the results of Bayesian multilevel structural equation models that simultaneously tested Fredrickson and Roberts’ (1997) predictions both within and between persons, using data from 3 ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies of women’s (N = 268) experiences of sexual objectification in daily life. Our findings support the predicted within-person indirect effect of exposure to sexual objectification on increases in negative and self-conscious emotions via self-objectification. However, lagged analyses suggest that the within-person indirect emotional consequences of exposure to sexual objectification may be relatively fleeting. Our findings advance research on sexual objectification by providing the first comprehensive test of the within-person process proposed by Fredrickson and Roberts’ (1997) objectification theory.
STANCE: Locomotion Adaptation Over Soft Terrain

Whole-Body Control (WBC) has emerged as an important framework in locomotion control for legged robots. However, most WBC frameworks fail to generalize beyond rigid terrains. Legged locomotion over soft terrain is difficult due to the presence of unmodeled contact dynamics that WBCs do not account for. This introduces uncertainty in locomotion and affects the stability and performance of the system. In this article, we propose a novel soft terrain adaptation algorithm called STANCE: Soft Terrain Adaptation and Compliance Estimation. STANCE consists of a WBC that exploits the knowledge of the terrain to generate an optimal solution that is contact consistent and an online terrain compliance estimator that provides the WBC with terrain knowledge. We validated STANCE both in simulation and experiment on the Hydraulically actuated Quadruped (HyQ) robot, and we compared it against the state-of-the-art WBC. We demonstrated the capabilities of STANCE with multiple terrains of different compliances, aggressive maneuvers, different forward velocities, and external disturbances. STANCE allowed HyQ to adapt online to terrains with different compliances (rigid and soft) without pretuning. HyQ was able to successfully deal with the transition between different terrains and showed the ability to differentiate between compliances under each foot.
Particle acceleration and fast magnetic reconnection

Mathematics demonstrates that an ideally evolving magnetic field has an exponentially increasing sensitivity to non-ideal effects for all but truly exceptional evolutions. On a time scale that depends only logarithmically on the magnitude of non-ideality, an evolving magnetic field will generally reach a state of fast magnetic reconnection. The effects of fast magnetic reconnection proceed at a rate determined by Alfv\'enic, not resistive, physics. The best known of these effects are associated with the transfer of magnetic field energy to the plasma and the conservation of magnetic helicity, which limits the energy transfer. As will be shown, weak non-ideality implies helicity conservation in regions bounded by magnetic surfaces or rigid perfect conductors. But, weak non-ideality makes the rapid transfer of energy subtle. This transfer can be understood by the drive for Alfv\'en waves and two other effects, which are present even in an ideal evolution, an effective parallel electric field $\mathcal{E}_{||}$, which can accelerate particles despite the particle acceleration due to the true parallel electric field $E_{||}$ being negligible, and a coefficient $\nu_K$, which gives a rate for exponentiation of the kinetic energy of particle motion along the magnetic field. Classical theories of reconnection are two-dimensional and exclude the exponentially increasing sensitivity that is robustly present for magnetic fields in three-dimensional space.
Improvements in Psychological and Occupational Well-Being in a Pragmatic Controlled Trial of a Yoga-Based Program for Professionals.

Objective: The purpose of this pragmatic controlled trial was to examine changes in psychological and occupational well-being in professionals who attended a yoga-based program. Setting: The 5-day RISE (resilience, integration, self-awareness, engagement) program was delivered at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. RISE included 5 h per day of yoga, meditation, lectures, and experiential activities. Subjects: Adult professionals from education, corrections, and social service institutions were pragmatically assigned to the RISE group (n = 61) or a waitlist control group (n = 60). Outcome measures: Measures of psychological and occupational well-being were completed before RISE (baseline), immediately after RISE (postprogram), and 2 months after RISE (follow-up). Analyses of covariance were conducted to compare change scores between groups. Results: Eighty-two participants (RISE n = 41, control n = 41) completed baseline and postmeasures and were included in the analysis, and 57 (RISE n = 27, control n = 30) also completed the follow-up. Relative to controls, the RISE group reported improvements in stress (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.51), resilience (p = 0.028, r2 = 0.34), positive affect (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.52), negative affect (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.52), mindfulness (p = 0.021, r2 = 0.13), and job satisfaction (p = 0.034, r2 = 0.08) from baseline to postprogram. From baseline to follow-up, compared with controls the RISE group showed improvements in stress (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.33), resilience (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.24), positive affect (p = 0.006, r2 = 0.49), negative affect (p = 0.043, r2 = 0.32), mindfulness (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.28), empowerment (p = 0.005, r2 = 0.20), and self-compassion (p = 0.011, r2 = 0.19). Conclusions: The RISE program was associated with improvements in psychological and occupational well-being immediately after and 2 months after the program. Future research is needed to confirm these results.
Hiding in the Crowd: an Analysis of the Effectiveness of Browser Fingerprinting at Large Scale

Browser fingerprinting is a stateless technique, which consists in collecting a wide range of data about a device through browser APIs. Past studies have demonstrated that modern devices present so much diversity that fingerprints can be exploited to identify and track users online. With this work, we want to evaluate if browser fingerprinting is still effective at uniquely identifying a large group of users when analyzing millions of fingerprints over a few months. We collected 2,067,942 browser fingerprints from one of the top 15 French websites. The analysis of this novel dataset sheds a new light on the ever-growing browser fingerprinting domain. The key insight is that the percentage of unique fingerprints in our dataset is much lower than what was reported in the past: only 33.6% of fingerprints are unique by opposition to over 80% in previous studies. We show that non-unique fingerprints tend to be fragile. If some features of the fingerprint change, it is very probable that the fingerprint will become unique. We also confirm that the current evolution of web technologies is benefiting users» privacy significantly as the removal of plugins brings down substantively the rate of unique desktop machines.
Greedy Strategy Works for k-Center Clustering with Outliers and Coreset Construction

We study the problem of $k$-center clustering with outliers in arbitrary metrics and Euclidean space. Though a number of methods have been developed in the past decades, it is still quite challenging to design quality guaranteed algorithm with low complexity for this problem. Our idea is inspired by the greedy method, Gonzalez's algorithm, for solving the problem of ordinary $k$-center clustering. Based on some novel observations, we show that this greedy strategy actually can handle $k$-center clustering with outliers efficiently, in terms of clustering quality and time complexity. We further show that the greedy approach yields small coreset for the problem in doubling metrics, so as to reduce the time complexity significantly. Our algorithms are easy to implement in practice. We test our method on both synthetic and real datasets. The experimental results suggest that our algorithms can achieve near optimal solutions and yield lower running times comparing with existing methods.
Spatial decoupling of agricultural production and consumption: quantifying dependences of countries on food imports due to domestic land and water constraints

In our globalizing world, the geographical locations of food production and consumption are becoming increasingly disconnected, which increases reliance on external resources and their trade. We quantified to what extent water and land constraints limit countries’ capacities, at present and by 2050, to produce on their own territory the crop products that they currently import from other countries. Scenarios of increased crop productivity and water use, cropland expansion (excluding areas prioritized for other uses) and population change are accounted for. We found that currently 16% of the world population use the opportunities of international trade to cover their demand for agricultural products. Population change may strongly increase the number of people depending on ex situ land and water resources up to about 5.2 billion (51% of world population) in the SRES A2r scenario. International trade will thus have to intensify if population growth is not accompanied by dietary change towards less resource-intensive products, by cropland expansion, or by productivity improvements, mainly in Africa and the Middle East. Up to 1.3 billion people may be at risk of food insecurity in 2050 in present low-income economies (mainly in Africa), if their economic development does not allow them to afford productivity increases, cropland expansion and/or imports from other countries.
Asymptotic Analysis of Large Intelligent Surface Assisted MIMO Communication

This work focuses on the downlink of a single-cell multi-user (MU) system in which a base station (BS) equipped with $M$ antennas communicates with $K$ single-antenna users through a large intelligent surface (LIS) installed in the line-of-sight (LoS) of the BS. LIS is envisioned to offer unprecedented massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) like gains by utilizing $N$ passive reflecting elements that induce phase shifts on the impinging electromagnetic waves to smartly reconfigure the signal propagation environment. We study the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) achieved by the optimal linear precoder (OLP), that maximizes the minimum SINR subject to a given power constraint for any given LIS phase matrix, for the cases where the LoS channel matrix between the BS and the LIS is of rank-one and of full-rank. In the former scenario, the minimum SINR is bounded by a quantity that goes to zero with $K$. For the high-rank scenario, we develop accurate deterministic approximations for the parameters of the asymptotically OLP, which are then utilized to optimize the LIS phase matrix. Simulation results show that the LIS-assisted system can offer massive MIMO like gains with a much fewer number of active antennas, thereby significantly reducing the energy consumption at the BS.
Comparative analysis of the toxicity of gold nanoparticles in zebrafish

The use of nanoparticles – particles that range in size from 1 to 100 nm – has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, bringing with it a variety of potential toxic effects. Zebrafish embryos were exposed during the 3 day postfertilization period to gold nanospheres (GNSs), gold nanorods (GNRs), GNRs coated with polystyrene sulphate (PSS‐GNRs) and GNRs coated with both PSS and polyallamine hydrochloride (PAH‐PSS‐GNRs). All nanorods were stabilized with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. GNSs were the least toxic of the nanoparticles studied, with exposure resulting in no significant changes in mortality, hatching or heart rate. Exposure to GNRs and PSS‐GNRs resulted in significant increases in mortality and significant decreases in hatching and heart rate. Treatment with GNRs caused significant changes in the expression of a variety of oxidative stress genes. The toxic effects of GNRs were ameliorated by coating them with PSS and, to a more marked extent, with a double coating of PSS and polyallamine hydrochloride.