Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive detection of brain gliomas using plasma cell‐free DNA 5‐hydroxymethylcytosine sequencing

Liquid biopsy techniques based on deep sequencing of plasma cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) could detect the low‐frequency somatic mutations and provide an accurate diagnosis for many cancers. However, for brain gliomas, reliable performance of these techniques currently requires obtaining cfDNA from patients' cerebral spinal fluid, which is cumbersome and risky. Here we report a liquid biopsy method based on sequencing of plasma cfDNA fragments carrying 5‐hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) using selective chemical labeling (hMe‐Seal). We first constructed a dataset including 180 glioma patients and 229 non‐glioma controls. We found marked concordance between cfDNA hydroxymethylome and the aberrant transcriptome of the underlying gliomas. Functional analysis also revealed overrepresentation of the differentially hydroxymethylated genes (DhmGs) in oncogenic and neural pathways. After splitting our dataset into training and test cohort, we showed that a penalized logistic model constructed with training set DhmGs could distinguish glioma patients from healthy controls in both our test set (AUC = 0.962) and an independent dataset (AUC = 0.930) consisting of 111 gliomas and 111 controls. Additionally, the DhmGs between gliomas with mutant and wild‐type isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) could be used to train a cfDNA predictor of the IDH mutation status of the underlying tumor (AUC = 0.816), and patients with predicted IDH mutant gliomas had significantly better outcome (P = .01). These results indicate that our plasma cfDNA 5hmC sequencing method could obtain glioma‐specific signals, which may be used to noninvasively detect these patients and predict the aggressiveness of their tumors.
Moving to Medical Treatment for COVID-19 Influence on Pediatric Appendicitis: A Meta-Analysis

Acute appendicitis (AA) is cited as the leading cause of surgical acute abdomen in pediatrics and the most frequent urgent surgical pathology worldwide. For a long time, surgical appendectomy has been effectively used as the first-line treatment for AA. Other conservative management practices, such as the use of antibiotics, have been applied in the treatment of appendicitis. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the surgical treatment strategies of AA in pediatrics, with many pediatric surgeons having to shift from upfront surgical appendectomy to conservative management involving the use of antibiotics as a treatment strategy. This meta-analysis compares the outcomes between appendectomy and conservative therapy in the management of AA during COVID-19 in pediatrics. Twenty-one articles fully met the inclusion criteria. Articles that were published more than five years ago were excluded from the analysis. Also, articles that included studies on the adult population were excluded. Results from various retrospective studies, prospective clinical controlled trials, correlational studies, and randomized clinical trials were analyzed. This study reveals that the use of antibiotics has been demonstrated to be safe and effective in the treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis. However, antibiotics have been shown to have some complications. Despite this being the case, the studies identified the potential of using antibiotics as a definitive treatment of uncomplicated AA in pediatrics. Further studies are required to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and recurrence of AA of this alternative treatment method.
Gradient enhanced thermo‐mechanical damage model for concrete at high temperatures including transient thermal creep

A thermo‐mechanical model for concrete under transient high temperatures is presented. Particular emphasis is placed on the transient thermal creep model, which can be seen as an extension of Thelandersson's formulation, and the gradient‐enhanced damage model that has been extended here to include temperature dependency. Degradation of the material stiffness due to exposure to elevated temperatures is included via a simple thermal damage model. The model's performance is illustrated on several benchmark problems under both transient and steady state heating conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reading and Theory of Mind during the Primary-Secondary Educational Transition: A Multiple Case Study in Pupils with a Cochlear Implant

Abstract The transition to secondary education is a sensitive period for social and academic development and also for student identity. However, there is scarce evidence of the development of reading comprehension and theory of mind in pupils with cochlear implant (CI) during the educational trajectory. The results show that pupils with CI obtain age-appropriate reading scores during the educational transition. Theory of mind development seems to be heterogeneous in CI users and be affected after the educational transition compared to their own performance in the first wave. This variability could be related to adaptation to secondary education and their individual characteristics.
Urine-to-Plasma Urea Ratio: Disentangling Tubular Concentrating Ability From GFR.

he kidney tubules make up the vast majority of the kidney’s cortical structure, expend most of the energy used by the kidneys, and play a central role in a variety of essential biological functions. However, chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosis, staging, and prognosis remain anchored to estimated glomerular ﬁltration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria, which primarily reﬂect glomerular health and do not fully capture tubular pathology. 1 Biopsy-proven interstitial ﬁbrosis and tubular atrophy is found in nearly all forms of CKD
Quantum-plasmonic interaction: emission enhancement of Er3+ - Tm3+ co-doped tellurite glass via tuning nanobowtie

Metallic nanobowtie is well known as a suitable structure for development of antennas that can be integrated on wide number of devices, especially in optical communications. Such feature is achieved due the presence of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) that provides a great charge density on nearby region from its tips. Considerable studies have described theoretical and experimentally the influence of gap between tips on radiation emission, once this parameter may improve the local field, as such length decrease. In optical regime, the emission enhancement is due the quantum-plasmonic interaction created from tips’ region (localized field) and the transition levels from rare earth ion of erbium (Er3+) and thulium (Tm3+). However, metallic nanobowtie with absence of gap still deserve attention, because in addition to present similar properties from regular case as previously mentioned, can also interacts with different systems, like gain materials, that can be embedded thermically into the substrate. Rare earth ion is one of the remarkable and suitable for our proposition, not only for the enhancement on measured intensity, but also its easiness to implement it on glasses, which constitute the main type of substrate adopted on plasmonic structures. In this work we performed the analysis of effects due implementation of Er3+ and Tm3+ ions into BK7 glass over a pattern of nanobowtie on absence of gap between its tips, fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) technique from gold (Au) films. The bowties were vertically excited by an Argon laser (Ar) which wavelength ( ) is 488 nm. Furthermore, computational simulations based on finite element method (FEM), were performed to verify the dependence of nanobowtie’s geometry over the electric field along its symmetry axis.
Genetic impact of non-consanguineous marriages in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Physicians and geneticists face challenges in making accurate diagnoses during clinical evaluations; affecting patients and clinicians. The aim of this study was to estimate the hit rate of the non-consanguineous population. Moreover, prevalence of the genetic disorder in both the consanguineous and non- consanguineous population of Saudi Arabia at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh data. Methods: We reviewed 681 families and 1563 individuals with 2,565,335 variants in the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) Genomic Database (KGD), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All the ES requests were obtained from the physician and clinical geneticist of KAIMRC, and the test was performed either in-house or in a College of American Pathologists accredited laboratory center for clinical purposes. Results: A total of 151 non-consanguineous individuals with exome sequencing requests in the population genomic database of King Abdullah International Medical Research Center was considered for the study. In total, 27 had disease-causing variants, and the hit rate was 27/151 (18%). Among the 28 different variants in the 27 individuals, 50% were de novo variants and 50% inherited. The hit rate of the variants causing autosomal recessive disorders was 12/28 (42.8%), autosomal dominant disorders 13/28 (46.4%), and X-linked disorders 3/28 (10.7%). Conclusion: Non-consanguineous marriages have a lower risk of genetic disorders, and reducing consanguinity reduces the risk of genetic disorders by two to three times.
An Analytic-Numerical Method for Computation of the Liapunov and Period Constants Derived from Their Algebraic Structure

We consider the problem of computing the Liapunov and the period constants for a smooth differential equation with a nondegenerate critical point. First, we investigate the structure of both constants when they are regarded as polynomials on the coefficients of the differential equation. Second, we take advantage of this structure to derive a method to obtain the explicit expression of the above-mentioned constants. Although this method is based on the use of the Runge--Kutta--Fehlberg methods of orders 7 and 8 and the use of Richardson's extrapolation, it provides the real expression for these constants.
Inequalities in the omission of axillary dissection in sentinel lymph node positive patients in the Netherlands: Innovative hospitals are early adopters of a de‐escalating approach

During the last decade completion axillary lymph node dissection (cALND) was gradually omitted in sentinel lymph node positive (SLN+) breast cancer patients. However, adoption varies among hospitals. We analyzed factors associated with the omission of cALND in all Dutch SLN+ patients. As one of the focus hospital‐related factors we defined “innovative” as the percentage of gene‐expression profile (GEP) deployment within the indicated group of patients per hospital as a proxy for early adoption of innovations. cT1‐2N0M0 SLN+ patients treated between 2011 and 2018 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Hospitals were defined to be innovative based on their GEP use. Multivariable logistic regression (MLR) was performed to assess the relationship between innovative capacity, patient‐, treatment‐ and hospital‐related characteristics and cALND performance. 14 317 patients were included. Treatment in a hospital with high innovative capacity was associated with a lower probability of receiving cALND (OR 0.69, OR 0.46 and OR 0.35 in modestly, fairly and very innovative, respectively). Other factors associated with a lower probability of receiving a cALND were age 70 and 79 years and ≥79 years (ORs 0.59 [95% CI: 0.50‐0.68] and 0.21 [95% CI: 0.17‐0.26]) and treatment in an academic hospital (OR 0.41 [95% CI: 0.33‐0.51]). Factors associated with an increased probability of undergoing cALND were HR−/HER2− tumors (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.19‐1.80]), macrometastatic lymph node involvement (OR 6.37 [95% CI: 5.70‐7.13]) and mastectomy (OR 4.57 [95% CI: 4.09‐5.10]). Patients treated in a hospital that early adopted innovations were less likely to receive cALND. Our findings endorse the need for studies on barriers and facilitators of implementing innovations.
Influence of Different Activators on the Structure and Properties of Activated Carbon Based on Bamboo Fiber

In order to explore the influence of different activators on the structure and properties of the prepared activated carbon, bamboo fiber-based activated carbons (BFACs) were prepared by four activators of phosphoric acid, pyrophosphoric acid, zinc chloride, and diammonium biphosphate (BFAC-H3PO4, BFAC-H4P2O7, BFAC-ZnCl2, and BFAC-(NH4)2HPO4) and BFACs adsorption performance and electrochemical properties were investigated. The main conclusions were: the specific surface area of the four BFACs varies greatly, among which BFAC-ZnCl2 was the highest, at 1908.5074 m2/g, and BFAC-(NH4)2HPO4 was the lowest, at 641.5941 m2/g. In terms of the pore structure, BFAC-H3PO4 and BFAC-H4P2O7 are mainly mesopores and BFAC-ZnCl2 and BFAC-(NH4)2HPO4 are mainly micropores. The BFAC-ZnCl2 sample had the largest specific capacitance, with a specific capacitance of 121.2730 F/g at a current density of 0.2 A/g, with a small internal resistance and good electrochemical reversibility and capacitance performance. The adsorption properties were better for BFAC-ZnCl2 and BFAC-H3PO4 and the adsorption amounts were 648.75 and 548.75 mg/g, respectively.
Low-cost self-cleaning room temperature SnO2 thin film gas sensor on polymer nanostructures

We have successfully fabricated SnO2 thin film CO gas sensors on nanospiked polyurethane (PU) polymer surfaces that are replicated with a low-cost soft nanolithography method from nanospiked silicon surfaces formed with femtosecond laser irradiations. The sensors show sensitive responses to the CO gas at room temperature because of the sharp structures of the nanospikes. This is much different from the sensors of SnO2 thin film coated on smooth surfaces that show no response to the CO gas at room temperature. To make the nanostructure sensor surface behave self-cleaning like lotus leaves, we deposited a silane monolayer on the surface of the sensors with the 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (PFOTS) which has low surface energy. The contact angle measurement conducted on the PFOTS monolayer-coated SnO2 gas sensors indicates that a super-hydrophobic surface formed on the nanospike sensor. The CO gas response sensitivity of the PFOTS-coated SnO2 sensors is almost the same to that of the as-fabricated SnO2 sensors without the PFOTS coating. Such a super-hydrophobic surface can protect the sensors exposed to moisture and heavy particulates, and can perform cleaning-in-place operations to prolong the lifetime of the sensors. These results show a great potential to fabricate thousands of identical gas sensors at low cost.
Developing an Extended Theory of UTAUT 2 Model to Explore Factors Influencing Taiwanese Consumer Adoption of Intelligent Elevators

Followed by the fast developments in Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, utilizing cloud architecture and big data, have been integrated into various aspects of our daily lives. Such an integration results in high levels of convenience, comfort, and energy savings. Deploying such new technologies benefits the elevator industry as well. Intelligent elevator with energy control schemes can improve the energy efficiency of eco-friendly applications. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that affect the intelligent elevator adoption of Taiwanese people using the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT 2) model, which considers factors such as environmental consciousness, artificial intelligence optimism, attitude, and perceived quality. A well-structured face-to-face survey is performed to obtain data from the consumers living in central Taiwan. The data acquired are analyzed via structural equation modeling using the partial least squares method. The analysis results indicate that attitude, habit, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and perceived quality are important factors that affect the behavioral intentions of consumers when adopting new technologies, such as an intelligent elevator. However, facilitating conditions adversely affect the behavioral intentions. In addition, environmental consciousness and artificial intelligence optimism are crucial factors that affect performance and effort expectancies, whereas the latter two contribute positively to attitude. The findings of this study supplement existing literature regarding the behavioral intentions for adopting intelligent elevators. Finally, the theoretical and practical significances of this research study are discussed.
Effect‐Based Trigger Values Are Essential for the Uptake of Effect‐Based Methods in Water Safety Planning

Effect‐based methods (EBMs) using in vitro bioassays and well plate–based in vivo assays are recommended for water quality monitoring because they can capture the mixture effects of the many chemicals present in water. Many in vitro bioassays are highly sensitive, so an effect in a bioassay does not necessarily indicate poor chemical water quality. Consequently, effect‐based trigger values (EBTs) have been introduced to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable chemical water quality and are required for the wider acceptance of EBMs by the water sector and regulatory bodies. These EBTs have been derived for both drinking water and surface water to protect human and ecological health, respectively, and are available for assays indicative of specific receptor‐mediated effects, as well as assays indicative of adaptive stress responses, apical effects, and receptor‐mediated effects triggered by many chemicals. An overview of currently available EBTs is provided, and a simple approach is proposed to predict interim EBTs for assays currently without an EBT based on the effect concentration of the assay reference compound. There was good agreement between EBTs predicted using this simplistic approach and EBTs from the literature derived using more robust methods. Finally, an interpretation framework that outlines the steps to take if the effect of a sample exceeds the EBT was developed to help facilitate the uptake of EBMs in routine water quality monitoring and water safety planning for drinking water production. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:714–726. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.
Physics of a novel magnetic resonance and electrical impedance combination for breast cancer diagnosis

A new technique is proposed and experimentally validated for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. The technique combines magnetic resonance with electrical impedance measurements and has the potential to increase the specificity of magnetic resonance mammography (MRM) thereby reducing false positive biopsy rates. The new magnetic resonance electrical impedance mammography (MREIM) adds a time varying electric field during a supplementary sequence to a standard MRM examination with an apparatus that is “invisible” to the patient. The applied electric field produces a current that creates an additional magnetic field with a component aligned with the bore magnetic field that can alter the native signal in areas of higher electrical conductivity. The justification for adding the electric field is that the electrical conductivity of cancerous breast tissue is approximately 3-40 times higher than normal breast tissue and, hence, conductivity of malignant tissue represents a known clinical disease biomarker. In a pilot study with custom-made phantoms and experimental protocols, it was demonstrated that MREIM can produce, as theoretically predicted, a detectable differential signal in areas of higher electrical conductivity (tumor surrogate regions); the evidence indicates that the differential signal is produced by the confluence of two different effects at full image resolution without gadolinium chelate contrast agent injection, without extraneous reconstruction techniques, and without cumbersome multi-positioned patient electrode configurations. This paper describes the theoretical model that predicts and explains the observed experimental results that were also confirmed by simulation studies.
Cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament dynamic profiles predict cognitive progression in individuals with de novo Parkinson’s disease

Background Neurofilament light chain protein (NfL) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) reflects the severity of neurodegeneration, with its altered concentrations discovered in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Parkinson’s disease dementia (PD-D). Objective To determine whether CSF NfL, a promising biomarker of neuronal/axonal damage, can be used to monitor cognitive progression in de novo Parkinson’s disease and predict future cognitive decline. Methods A total of 259 people were recruited in this study, including 85 healthy controls (HC) and 174 neonatal PD patients from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). Multiple linear regression and linear mixed effects models were used to examine the associations of baseline/longitudinal CSF NfL with cognitive decline and other CSF biomarkers. Kaplan–Meier analysis and log-rank test were used to compare the cumulative probability risk of cognition progression during the follow-up. Multivariate cox regression was used to detect cognitive progression in de novo PD. Results We found PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) was higher than with normal cognition (PD-NC) in terms of CSF NfL baseline levels (p = 0.003) and longitudinal increase rate (p = 0.034). Both baseline CSF NfL and its rate of change predicted measurable cognitive decline in de novo PD (MoCA, β = −0.010, p = 0.011; β = −0.0002, p < 0.001, respectively). The predictive effects in de novo PD patients aged >65, male, ill-educated (<13 years) and without carrying Apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) seemed to be more obvious and reflected in more domains investigated. We also observed that CSF NfL levels predicted progression in de novo PD patients with different cognitive diagnosis and amyloid status. After an average follow-up of 6.66 ± 2.54 years, higher concentration above the median of baseline CSF NfL was associated with a future high risk of PD with dementia (adjusted HR 2.82, 95% CI: 1.11–7.20, p = 0.030). Conclusion Our results indicated that CSF NfL is a promising prognostic predictor of PD, and its concentration and dynamics can monitor the severity and progression of cognitive decline in de novo PD patients.
Cyclotron maser radiation from inhomogeneous plasmas

Cyclotron maser instabilities are important in space, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas. While extensive work has been done on these instabilities, most of it deals with homogeneous plasmas with uniform magnetic fields while in practice, of course, the systems are generally inhomogeneous. Here we expand on our previous work [R. A. Cairns, I. Vorgul, and R. Bingham, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 215003 (2008)] in which we showed that localized regions of instability can exist in an inhomogeneous plasma and that the way in which waves propagate away from this region is not necessarily obvious from the homogeneous plasma dispersion relation. While we consider only a simple ring distribution in velocity space, because of its tractability, the ideas may point toward understanding the behavior in the presence of more realistic distributions. The main object of the present work is to move away from consideration of the local dispersion relation and show how global growing eigenmodes can be constructed.