Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Superiority of delayed risk stratification in differentiated thyroid cancer after total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine ablation

AimThe aim of this study was to validate the effectiveness of delayed risk stratification (DRS) in predicting structural progression and compare the predictive value of American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk stratification with that of DRS in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). MethodsA total of 398 patients with DTC who underwent surgery followed by radioactive iodine ablation were enrolled. Patients were categorized as having excellent response, acceptable response, biochemical incomplete response, or structural incomplete response at 8–15 months’ evaluation after radioactive iodine ablation for DRS. Effectiveness of DRS was evaluated according to structural progression-free survival (PFS; median follow-up, 10.7 years). ResultsA total of 229 patients (57.5%) were classified as having excellent response, 78 (19.6%) as having acceptable response, 62 (15.6%) as having biochemical incomplete response, and 29 patients (7.3%) as having structural incomplete response. After DRS, 60.2% of intermediate-risk patients and 20.5% of high-risk patients were shifted to the excellent response category. Sixty-nine patients (17.3%) showed structural progression. DRS showed statistical difference in PFS (hazard ratio, 4.268; 95% confidence interval, 3.258–5.477; P<0.001). In multivariate analysis of ATA risk stratification and DRS, DRS was significantly associated with PFS (hazard ratio, 4.383; 95% confidence interval, 3.250–5.912; P<0.001), but ATA risk stratification was not. There was no significant difference in deviances between the use of DRS alone and the use of both DRS and ATA risk stratification (&khgr;2=0.103, d.f.=1, P=0.748). ConclusionDRS is superior to ATA risk stratification in predicting structural disease progression for DTC patients.
Strategy for Population Triage Based on Dicentric Analysis

Abstract Vaurijoux, A. , Gruel, G. , Pouzoulet, F. , Grégoire, E. , Martin, C. , Roch-Lefèvre, S. , Voisin, P., Voisin, P. and Roy, L. Strategy for Population Triage Based on Dicentric Analysis. Radiat. Res. 171, 541–548 (2009). After large-scale accidental overexposure to ionizing radiation, a rapid triage of the exposed population can be performed by scoring dicentrics and ring chromosomes among 50 metaphases. This is rapid but is not accurate because the sensitivity is around 0.5 Gy. After the triage step, dose can be estimated by scoring 500 metaphases. This is lengthy but very accurate because the sensitivity is between 0.1 and 0.2 Gy. To improve the methodology, we propose the use of software for automatic dicentric scoring that was tested on victims of an accident in Dakar. Manual scoring of 50 metaphases was carried out, then manual scoring of 500 metaphases, and automatic scoring. Comparison between the dose classifications obtained with manual scoring on 50 metaphases and 500 metaphases showed 50% misclassification with the manual scoring on 50 metaphases. Comparison between the dose classifications obtained with the automatic scoring and manual scoring on 500 metaphases showed only 4.35% misclassification with the automatic scoring. The automatic scoring method is more accurate than the manual scoring on 50 metaphases and can therefore be used for triage, and in place of the manual scoring on 500 metaphases method for individual dose estimation, because it is as accurate and much faster.
Are trans diagnostic models of eating disorders fit for purpose? A consideration of the evidence for food addiction

Explanatory models for eating disorders have changed over time to account for changing clinical presentations. The transdiagnostic model evolved from the maintenance model, which provided the framework for cognitive behavioural therapy for bulimia nervosa. However, for many individuals (especially those at the extreme ends of the weight spectrum), this account does not fully fit. New evidence generated from research framed within the food addiction hypothesis is synthesized here into a model that can explain recurrent binge eating behaviour. New interventions that target core maintenance elements identified within the model may be useful additions to a complex model of treatment for eating disorders.
Neutrophil hyperactivation correlates with Alzheimer's disease progression

Recent studies have underlined the effect of systemic inflammation on the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neutrophils are key components of early innate immunity and contribute to uncontrolled systemic inflammation if not tightly regulated. The aim of our study was to fully characterize human circulating neutrophils at different disease stages in AD.
Distribution Matching in Variational Inference

With the increasingly widespread deployment of generative models, there is a mounting need for a deeper understanding of their behaviors and limitations. In this paper, we expose the limitations of Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), which consistently fail to learn marginal distributions in both latent and visible spaces. We show this to be a consequence of learning by matching conditional distributions, and the limitations of explicit model and posterior distributions. It is popular to consider Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) as a means of overcoming these limitations, leading to hybrids of VAEs and GANs. We perform a large-scale evaluation of several VAE-GAN hybrids and analyze the implications of class probability estimation for learning distributions. While promising, we conclude that at present, VAE-GAN hybrids have limited applicability: they are harder to scale, evaluate, and use for inference compared to VAEs; and they do not improve over the generation quality of GANs.
No-Reference View Synthesis Quality Prediction for 3-D Videos Based on Color–Depth Interactions

In a 3-D video system, automatically predicting the quality of synthesized 3-D video based on the inputs of color and depth videos is an urgent but very difficult task, while the existing full-reference methods usually measure the perceptual quality of the synthesized video. In this paper, a high-efficiency view synthesis quality prediction (HEVSQP) metric for view synthesis is proposed. Based on the derived VSQP model that quantifies the influences of color and depth distortions and their interactions in determining the perceptual quality of 3-D synthesized video, color-involved VSQP and depth-involved VSQP indices are predicted, respectively, and are combined to yield an HEVSQP index. Experimental results on our constructed NBU-3D Synthesized Video Quality Database demonstrate that the proposed HEVSOP has good performance evaluated on the entire synthesized video-quality database, compared with other full-reference and no-reference video-quality assessment metrics.
Phylogenetic Relationships and Acaricidal Effects of Beauveria bassiana Obtained from Cattle Farm Soils Against Rhipicephalus microplus

Abstract The objectives of the present study were to isolate Beauveria bassiana strains from cattle farm soils, analyze the phylogenetic relationships among the fungal strains isolated from these soils, and determine the acaricidal effect of B. bassiana isolates on engorged Rhipicephalus microplus tick strains resistant or susceptible to chemical acaricides. Six strains of B. bassiana were obtained and isolated from cattle farm soils in the Mexican tropics using the Galleria bait method, and their acaricidal effect was assessed against 2 populations of R. microplus (“Media Joya” chemical acaricide-resistant strain or “CLAR” chemical acaricide-susceptible strain) using the adult immersion test. The BbV03 strain produced 86.7% and 60% mortality in resistant and susceptible ticks on day 20, respectively, whereas the BbV04 strain produced 66.7% and 53.5% mortality in resistant and susceptible ticks on day 20, respectively. The BbV03 and BbV04 strains reduced egg laying on both R. microplus populations. There was no statistical difference in the acaricidal effect of B. bassiana strains among chemical acaricide-susceptible or -resistant R. microplus populations (P > 0.05). The BbV03 strain was the most virulent against R. microplus with an LC50 of 2 × 107 and LC99 of 7 × 108 conidia/ml. We found that the 6 B. bassiana isolated clustered in the same clade with other previously reported B. bassiana strains (from GenBank) but were separated into 3 different sub-clades. This study shows that some B. bassiana strains are a promising coadjuvant alternative for biological tick control, including tick populations that are resistant to chemical acaricides. Beauveria bassiana is present in the pastures of tropic cattle farms, and there are genetic variations between B. bassiana strains living in this ecosystem that might play an important role in the natural control of R. microplus in cattle farm paddocks.
Thermosonic Flip Chip Interconnection Using Electroplated Copper Column Arrays

A novel flip chip process is reported in which bare dies are thermosonically bonded to arrays of electroplated copper columns formed on a substrate. The new process is intended as a low-cost, lead-free chip-on-board (COB) interconnection method for high-frequency devices. A detailed study has been performed of the electroplating and thermosonic bonding techniques involved. It was found that oxygen plasma treatment of the resist mask could increase the yield of the fine-pitch (<150 mum) column electroplating process, while the flatness of the resulting columns was affected by the plating current density and the sidewall profiles in the resist mold. Under optimal conditions, column arrays with flat tops could be produced with a 100% yield, and with a column height deviation of less than 0.5 mum over an area of 10 mmtimes10 mm. The array thermosonic bonding process was studied with the aid of Box-Behnken design of experiments based on response surface methodology. A second-order relationship between the input bonding variables and the bonding strength was derived and used to determine optimal process conditions. With this optimized process, silicon chips with aluminium metallization were thermosonically flip chip bonded to quartz test boards bumped with gold-capped copper columns. Sixteen prototype assemblies without underfill protection were evaluated by accelerated lifetime tests. The contact resistances of single column connections showed no significant change after 50 thermal shocks of 0 degC to 100 degC, and samples subjected to high-temperature storage remained intact at all bonding interfaces after 1.5 h at 300 degC. Thermal cycling between -55degC and 125 degC produced open-circuit defects in a small number of connections after 70 cycles
Levels of cytokines in umbilical cord blood in relation to spontaneous term labor

Abstract Objective: Inflammatory mechanisms are thought to play an important role in the process of labor, both in preterm and spontaneous term delivery. We aimed to determine whether normal spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) at term was associated with an inflammatory activation compared with elective cesarean section (ECS) without previous onset of labor. Methods: Cytokine concentrations were measured in venous cord blood obtained from 60 term newborns (ECS, n=35; SVD, n=25) born to mothers with clinically uneventful pregnancy and without signs of infection. Results: Both study groups showed no differences in birth weight, umbilical artery pH, Apgar at 5 min, and gender distribution. Infants delivered by ECS had lower gestational age: mean, 38.5 weeks (range, 37.0–39.6 weeks) vs. mean, 39.8 weeks (range, 37.9–42.4 weeks) (P<0.001). Concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-12p70, IL-17, IL-1 receptor antagonist, soluble IL-2 receptor α, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, interferon (IFN)-α2, IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, TNF-β, and interferon inducible protein 10 were not different between ECS and SVD. Newborns after SVD displayed increased levels of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1): mean, 8580 pg/mL (95% CI, 5554–11,606) vs. mean, 4864 pg/mL (95% CI, 2471–7257) (P<0.0012). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, in healthy, term neonates, the exposition to normal spontaneous delivery and labor is not associated with systemic activation of different inflammatory mediators compared with ECS except for TGF-β1. Further studies are needed to evaluate the immunomodulatory role of labor-associated TGF-β1 increase in fetal cord blood.
One-Stop Cholecystectomy Clinic: An Application of Lean Thinking - Can it Improve the Outcomes?

Lean thinking principles were utilised to set up ‘One-stop cholecystectomy clinics' at which patients underwent the surgical and the preoperative assessment during the same visit. The main aims were to reduce the number of patient hospital visits, preoperative admissions and the waiting time to surgery. The results showed a significant reduction in the number of patient visits as well as the waiting time to surgery thus highlighting that patient care can be improved by good team working and lean management.
Full Interchangeability in Regard to Immunogenicity Between the Infliximab Reference Biologic and Biosimilars CT-P13 and SB2 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background Infliximab (IFX) biosimilars CT-P13 and SB2 have comparable efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity to the originator Remicade (RMC). However, concerns about cross-switching patients between the 3 brands were raised in the absence of cross reactivity data between them. We aimed to determine whether antibodies to infliximab (ATI) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients cross-react with RMC, CT-P13, and SB2. Methods Based on previous ATI status, samples from 34 patients participating in the BIOSIM01 study (13 RMC, 9 CT-P13, and 12 switchers) were selected. Patients were treated with either RMC only, or CT-P13 only, or with RMC switched to CT-P13. Additionally, 28 IFX-naïve patients were assayed as controls. In total, 180 samples were analyzed. ATI trough levels were measured in parallel with 3 different bridging Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays constructed using the 3 drugs. Spearman's coefficient and percentages of agreement were used to study the correlation between each assay. Results In total, 76 samples out of 152 IFX-treated patient samples were ATI-positive (30 RMC, 14 CT-P13, and 32 switchers). All resulted ATI-positive when either CT-P13 or SB2 bridging assays were used. The overall percentage of agreement was 100% when compared either with CT-P13 or SB2 assays. No significant differences were found among ATI levels and coefficients (Spearman's 0.98 to 1.0, P < 0.0001). Conclusions ATI of RMC-treated, CT-P13-treated or RMC to CT-P13 switched patients show full cross-reactivity with CT-P13 and SB2. Findings suggest that immunodominant epitopes in the reference and CT-P13 drugs are equally present in SB2. Data support full interchangeability between biosimilars in regard to immunogenicity.
Misidentification of genome assemblies in public databases: The case of Naumovozyma dairenensis and proposal of a protocol to correct misidentifications

Online sequence databases such as NCBI GenBank serve as a tremendously useful platform for researchers to share and reuse published data. However, submission systems lack control for errors such as organism misidentification, which once entered in the database can be propagated and mislead downstream analyses. Here we present an illustrating case of misidentification of Candida albicans from a clinical sample as Naumovozyma dairenensis based on whole‐genome shotgun data. Analyses of phylogenetic markers, read mapping and single nucleotide polymorphisms served to correct the identification. We propose that the routine use of such analyses could help to detect misidentifications arising from unsupervised analyses and correct them before they enter the databases. Finally, we discuss broader implications of such misidentifications and the difficulty of correcting them once they are in the records.
Dynamic Properties of Reactive Powder Concrete Subjected to Repeated Impacts

The ability to resist repeated impacts is necessary for protective structures. Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is a new type of ultra-high-performance concrete with very high strength and durability and is expected to be used for protective structures. The dynamic properties of RPC subjected to repeated impacts were investigated using the split Hopkinson pressure bar. The dynamic damage to the RPC was measured by ultrasonic wave velocity methods after each impact. Three kinds of repeated impact modes were used. The projectile speed on the first impact increased in the different modes to ensure the specimens had different initial levels of damage. A Viscoelastic Damage Model was proposed to simulate the stress-strain curves of RPC subjected to repeated impacts. The fracture process of RPC was simulated using the Johnson_Holmquist_ Concrete (JHC) Model and the finite element software LS-DYNA. The results showed that the simulation values were very close to those of the experiments.
A semi-outsourcing secure data privacy scheme for IoT data transmission

Deploying trusted (private) cloud computing to exchange, store and analyse data from IoT networks has become mainstream. In this paper, we describe a data privacy transmission scheme for IoT data collection, which supports one-way identity authentication and a dual data integrity validation for low resource devices called the Lo-A&DI (Low-resource for IoT 1-way Authentication and Dual Integrity) scheme. Unlike other schemes that use trusted clouds, the Lo-A&DI can be applied to untrusted public clouds while protecting data security and privacy. Unlike other untrusted cloud security schemes, the Lo-A&DI scheme can be used to support end-to-end data security and privacy from low-resource ICT IoT devices. An experimental validation shows that the performance of the Lo-A&DI is much more adaptable for use in resource-constrained IoT devices when compared to a baseline trusted cloud scheme such as one based upon an interactive (2-way) certificate authentication scheme for IoT data exchange.
Local Probabilistic Matrix Factorization for Personal Recommendation

Matrix factorization is an efficient method to predict users' preference in recommender systems. Probabilistic matrix factorization (PMF) is an improved version of matrix factorization, and its assumption is more realistic. However PMF is prone to over-fitting. The algorithm local low-rank matrix approximation (LLORMA) performs well as it assumes the observed ratings matrix is local low-rank. Inspired by this, local probabilistic matrix factorization (LPMF) is proposed by introducing LLORMA to PMF. LPMF can find a certain number of local optimal points to estimate the parameters, and it will effectively alleviate over-fitting in every local model. By testing two benchmark datasets, MovieLens and Netflix, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm could help PMF to find better parameters to a material extent.
Adolescent Healthcare Brokering: Prevalence, Experience, Impact, and Opportunities.

BACKGROUND Limited health literacy disproportionately affects those with limited English proficiency (LEP). Parents with LEP might rely on their adolescent children to interpret health information. We call this adolescent healthcare brokering. This study uncovers the prevalence of brokering, kinds of tasks, emotional and academic impact, and desired support. METHODS We invited 165 students from health classes (in a community in which 29.8% are foreign-born and 53.4% speak another language at home) to complete a survey. We used IBM SPSS to calculate descriptive statistics. RESULTS Of the 159 who received parental consent and assented, 54.1% (N = 86) assist with healthcare tasks. When brokering, 80.2% (N = 69) translate. Most common tasks were talking to a doctor, reading prescriptions, and searching on the Internet. Participants were most confident reading prescriptions and talking to a doctor and least confident finding healthcare services. Among brokers, 29.1% (N = 24) missed school; 33.7% did not complete homework. They most wanted to learn about filling out insurance forms and talking to doctors. CONCLUSIONS Despite assurances that children are not permitted to interpret, adolescents are acting as healthcare brokers. The impact can be academic and emotional. Findings indicate a need for further research and support for adolescents who want to learn about healthcare tasks.
A Dose–Volume Response Model for Brain Metastases Treated With Frameless Single-Fraction Robotic Radiosurgery: Seeking to Better Predict Response to Treatment

Purpose/Objective(s): To establish a dose–volume response relationship for brain metastases treated with single-fraction robotic stereotactic radiosurgery and identify predictors of local control. Materials/Methods: We reviewed a prospective institutional database of all patients treated for intact brain metastases with stereotactic radiosurgery alone using the CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system from 2012 to 2015. Tumor response was determined based on Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors version 1.1. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Logistic regression modeling was used to identify predictors of outcome and establish a dose–volume response relationship. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed to evaluate the predictive capability of the relationship. Results: There were 357 metastases evaluated in 111 patients with a median diameter of 8.14 mm (2.00-40.77 mm). At 6 and 12 months, local control was 86.9% and 82.2%, respectively. For lesions of similar volumes, higher maximum dose, mean dose, and minimum dose (all P values <.05) predicted for better local control. Tumor volume and diameter were strongly correlated, and a dose–volume response relationship was constructed using mean dose per lesion diameter (Gy/mm) that was predictive of local control (odds ratio: 1.34, 95% confidence interval: 1.06-1.70). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for local control and mean dose by volume was 0.6199 with a threshold of 2.05 Gy/mm (local failure 7.6% above and 17.3% below 2.05 Gy/mm). Conclusion: A dose–volume response relationship exists for brain metastases treated with robotic stereotactic radiosurgery. Mean dose per volume is strongly predictive of local control and can be potentially useful during stereotactic radiosurgery plan evaluation while respecting previously established dose constraints.
Interdependence of PRC1 and PRC2 for recruitment to Polycomb Response Elements

Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins are epigenetic repressors essential for control of development and cell differentiation. They form multiple complexes of which PRC1 and PRC2 are evolutionary conserved and obligatory for repression. The targeting of PRC1 and PRC2 is poorly understood and was proposed to be hierarchical and involve tri-methylation of histone H3 (H3K27me3) and/or monoubiquitylation of histone H2A (H2AK118ub). Here, we present a strict test of this hypothesis using the Drosophila model. We discover that neither H3K27me3 nor H2AK118ub is required for targeting PRC complexes to Polycomb Response Elements (PREs). We find that PRC1 can bind PREs in the absence of PRC2 but at many PREs PRC2 requires PRC1 to be targeted. We show that one role of H3K27me3 is to allow PcG complexes anchored at PREs to interact with surrounding chromatin. In contrast, the bulk of H2AK118ub is unrelated to PcG repression. These findings radically change our view of how PcG repression is targeted and suggest that PRC1 and PRC2 can communicate independently of histone modifications.