Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Construction and Validation of a Prediction Model for Identifying Clinical Risk Factors of Lateral Lymph Node Metastasis in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma

Purpose Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare but highly invasive malignancy, especially in terms of cervical lymph node metastasis. However, the role of prophylactic lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) is still controversial. We hereby aim to explore the risk factors of lateral lymph node metastasis (LLNM) in patients with MTC to guide clinical practice. Patients and Methods The clinicopathological characteristics of patients with MTC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were reviewed and analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistics regression analyses were used to screen the risk factors of LLNM in patients with MTC. Results Four variables, including male gender, multifocality, extrathyroidal invasion (EI), and large tumor size (all p < 0.05), were identified as potential independent factors of LLNM in patients with MTC. Based on these results, an individualized prediction model was subsequently developed with a satisfied C-index of 0.798, supported by both internal and external validation with a C-index of 0.816 and 0.896, respectively. We also performed the decision curve analysis (DCA) and calibration curve, which indicated a remarkable agreement in our model for predicting the risk of LLNM. Conclusion We determined that various clinical characteristics, male gender, multifocality, EI, and large tumor size, were significantly associated with LLNM in patients with MTC. Thus, a validated prediction model utilizing readily available variables was successfully established to help clinicians make individualized clinical decisions on MTC management, especially regarding whether the LLND is necessary for patients with clinical negative lateral lymph node involvement and the frequency of follow-up without LLND.
Airway Fusobacterium is Associated with Poor Response to Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer

Purpose There is a major limitation in the immunotherapy for solid cancer is that it only benefited a minority of cancer patients. This study aims to investigate whether the differential composition of the lung microbiome could affect the sustained clinical responses in lung cancers treated with immunotherapy. Methods Twenty-seven non-responders and 19 responders treated with anti-PD-1 therapy were included in the discovery set. Bacterial load in bronchoalveolar lavage from lung cancer patients was examined by quantitative PCR of 16S rRNA copies. Bacterial 16S rDNA was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq on the 16S rDNA V3-V4 variable region. Operational taxonomic unit (OTU) analysis was performed using VSEARCH v2. The α-diversity and β-diversity were calculated using QIIME software. Results The mean copy number of bacterial 16S DNA levels significantly decreased after anti-PD-1 treatment (after: 1.8 ± 0.6×104 copies per milliliter vs prior to treatment: 3.3 ± 1.1x104, p = 0.0036). In addition, longitudinal analysis revealed that microbial diversity was reduced taxonomically after treatment compared to those prior to the treatment (Shannon values: before: 3.291 ± 0.067 vs after: 2.668 ± 0.168, p < 0.01). Further, we observed a reduction of Fusobacterium nucleatum, including phylum Fusobacteria (p < 0.01), class Fusobacteria (p < 0.01), order Fusobacteria (p < 0.01), family Fusobacteria (p < 0.01), genus Fusobacteria (p = 0.025) in the responders post anti-PD-1 treatment. However, there was no significant difference of Fusobacterium in non-responders. An independent cohort was used to validate the levels of Fusobacterium, demonstrating that patients with higher abundance of Fusobacterium prior to treatment were significantly more likely to have poor response to anti-PD-1 therapy (p < 0.001). Conclusion Airway enriched Fusobacterium prior to anti-PD-1 therapy is associated with poor response in lung cancer, which indicated that potential resistance to immunotherapy can be attributed to lung microbiome.
Osthole Regulates Secretion of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines and Expression of TLR2 and NF-κB in Normal Human Keratinocytes and Fibroblasts

Introduction Osthole (OST), an active compound isolated from Cnidium monnieri, is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of human diseases. Although OST has a good therapeutic effect, the underlying mechanism of its action in inflammatory skin diseases in humans is still unknown. Purpose The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that OST can be used as an herbal substance that minimizes skin inflammation and barrier dysfunction. In this study, histamine and LPS were used to induce inflammation in skin keratinocytes and fibroblasts to test whether OST can inhibit their responses. Methods Cell migration was analyzed using a wound healing assay. Changes in cell monolayer integrity were assessed by the measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance. Secretion of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, CCL2/MCP-1, CCL5/RANTES, and COX-2 was measured by ELISA, while expression of TLR2, NF-κB, and COX-2 was analyzed by qPCR. Results OST decreased the level of IL-1β, TNF-α, CCL2/MCP-1 and CCL5/RANTES, and expression of TLR2, NF-κB and COX-2 during histamine/LPS-induced inflammation in human keratinocytes and fibroblasts. OST also improved cell migration and cell barrier function. Conclusion Our results suggest that OST suppresses inflammatory responses via regulation of IL-1β, TNF-α, CCL2/MCP-1 and CCL5/RANTES secretion, and TLR2, and COX-2 expression.
Biomarkers in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells: The State of the Art in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease, characterized by the progressive loss of lower motor neurons, weakness and muscle atrophy. ALS lacks an effective cure and diagnosis is often made by exclusion. Thus, it is imperative to search for biomarkers. Biomarkers can help in understanding ALS pathomechanisms, identification of targets for treatment and development of effective therapies. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) represent a valid source for biomarkers compared to cerebrospinal fluid, as they are simple to collect, and to plasma, because of the possibility of detecting lower expressed proteins. They are a reliable model for patients’ stratification. This review provides an overview on PBMCs as a potential source of biomarkers in ALS. We focused on altered RNA metabolism (coding/non-coding RNA), including RNA processing, mRNA stabilization, transport and translation regulation. We addressed protein abnormalities (aggregation, misfolding and modifications); specifically, we highlighted that SOD1 appears to be the most characterizing protein in ALS. Finally, we emphasized the correlation between biological parameters and disease phenotypes, as regards prognosis, severity and clinical features. In conclusion, even though further studies are needed to standardize the use of PBMCs as a tool for biomarker investigation, they represent a promising approach in ALS research.
Linear, nonlinear and quantum optics in Silicon Photonics

This thesis work covers both classical and quantum aspects of nonlinear propagation of photons in nanophotonic Silicon waveguides. The work has been carried out within the framework of the project SIQURO, which aims to bring the quantum world into integrated photonics by using the Silicon platform and, therefore, permitting in a natural way the integration of quantum photonics with electronics. The research towards on chip bright quantum sources of photon pairs has been done by investigating Multi Modal Four Wave Mixing in micrometer-size waveguides, thus exploiting the large third order nonlinearity of Silicon. The possibility to induce second order nonlinearities by straining its unit cell has been also analyzed through the study of the electro-optic effect. This has been done with the aim to promote Silicon as a platform for the integration of quantum sources of entangled photons based on Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion. New quantum interference effects have been reported in a free space unbalanced Mach Zehnder interferometer asymmetrically excited by colour entangled photon pairs. Innovative designs of integrated quantum circuits have been proposed, which extend the capabilities of the quantum circuits demonstrated so far and provide additional functionalities. This work represents a step forward to the realization of self subsistent integrated devices for quantum enhanced measurement, quantum computation and quantum crypthography.
Diverse Assemblage of Middle Triassic Continental Tetrapods from the Newark Supergroup of Nova Scotia (Canada)

ABSTRACT Triassic strata of the Economy Member of the Wolfville Formation (Newark Supergroup) exposed along the shorelines in Colchester County, Nova Scotia, have yielded an assemblage of continental tetrapods that is clearly different from other Triassic tetrapod communities in eastern North America, including the Late Triassic (Carnian) one from the overlying Evangeline Member of the Wolfville Formation. Although dissociated and fragmentary, the skeletal elements document the presence of a lonchorhynchine trematosaurid and at least two taxa of capitosauroid temnospondyls, procolophonid parareptiles, several taxa of archosauromorph reptiles, and a kannemeyeriiform dicynodont synapsid. Particularly noteworthy is the first definite record of the long-necked archosauromorph Tanystropheus from eastern North America. The strata of the Economy Member were deposited in a semiarid setting but the presence of various temnospondyls indicates the existence of perennial bodies of water. The age of this unit has long been regarded as Middle Triassic (Anisian to Ladinian) based on the tetrapod record, and the present study supports this assessment. The tetrapod assemblage most closely resembles those from the upper Moenkopi Formation of the American Southwest and the upper Middle to Upper Buntsandstein of Germany. The Economy Member is the oldest known Triassic tetrapod-bearing stratigraphic unit as well as the first occurrence of Middle Triassic continental tetrapods in eastern North America.
An industry-scale modeling for the turbulence agglomeration of fine particles

Turbulence-induced agglomeration of fine particles/droplets in aerosol is important in various industrial and natural processes. Despite abundant theoretical and numerical studies on turbulent collision kernels, convincing numerical methods for industry-scale applications are still lacking. In this work, we develop a mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian model for the modeling of turbulence-induced agglomeration of fine particles/droplets. As advantages over Sommerfeld’s model, the present model searches for real collision pairs based on a new mesh-independent method and uses appropriate turbulent collision kernels to calculate the collision frequencies. Benchmark simulations are carried out and compared with the results provided by the well-characterized experiment by Duru et al.
The Problems Concerning the Response of China's Cropping Systems to Global Climatic Changes I The Effect of Climatic Changes on Cropping Systems in China

There will be an obvious important effect of global climatic change in future on cropping systems in China The heat resource will be increased to a certain extent in all regions of China, and the north borderline of two crops per annual or three crops per annual will move northwardly, the cropping range, output and quality of crps will be changed However, there will be a uncertainty of changes of cropping systems due to the adverse impact of moisture changes of climate in the future
Bohayella rodrigodiazi sp. nov.: a new species from Ecuador with an updated key to the New World species of Bohayella Belokobylskij (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Cardiochilinae)

The New World species of Bohayella Belokobylskij, 1987 are revised based on morphological data, and a new species of the genus from Ecuador is described: Bohayella rodrigodiazi Kang, sp. nov. This work includes an updated identification key to species of Bohayella in the New World along with images of diagnostic characters. The number of recorded Bohayella species in the New World is increased from two to three.
Analysis on Power Load and Consumption Characteristics of Representative Consumers

Based on the investigation of more than one hundred representative consumers in Shanghai,Tianjin and Beijing,this paper compares the load characteristics of several kinds of power consumers and summarizes their basic characteristics from aspects of load density,annual maximum load utilization hours and load characteristic curves.Several solutions are proposed in order to improve the accuracy of distribution network planning for "Twelfth-Five Plan"(2011-2015),including enhancing the collection and management of the power consuming information of power consumers and conducting study on optimal combination of representative consumers.
Revisiting English language proficiency and its impact on the academic performance of domestic university students in Singapore

The role of international students’ English language proficiency has been extensively researched to understand its impact on academic achievement in English-medium universities, mainly because of students’ non-English-speaking backgrounds. However, the relationship between language proficiency and academic achievement among English-speaking-background students remains under-researched, especially in multilingual societies, such as Singapore. The present study explored the relationship among university students’ previous academic experience, English language proficiency, and their current academic performance within a sample of 514 Singaporean students (252 females and 262 males). Findings showed that students’ proficiency scores significantly predicted their current grade point average (GPA) with their prior academic performance being controlled. Moreover, proficiency scores significantly strengthened the association between students’ prior academic performance and their current GPA. Finally, academic discipline showed a marginally significant moderating effect in the relationship between proficiency scores and current GPA. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
Effect of slaughter age on carcass characteristics and meat quality of Barind lamb

The study was undertaken aiming to study the effect of age on carcass traits and meat quality of Barind sheep of Bangladesh. Ninety six male lambs were reared by 16 farmers at two upazila namely Paba and Godagari in Rajshahi district. Lambs were slaughtered at 6 (T1 ), 9 (T2 ) and 12 (T3 ) month‘s age. Each farmer kept 6 lambs (Two lambs for each 3 age category). Four types dressing percentages were measured; DRSWIEO (on the basis of slaughter weight and hot carcass weight including edible offal), DRSWEXEO (on the basis of slaughter weight and hot carcass weight excluding edible offal), DREMIEO (On the basis of empty body weight and hot carcass weight including edible offal) and DREMIEO (On the basis of empty body weight and hot carcass weight excluding edible offal). All lambs received maternal milk and a supplementation of commercial concentrate @ of 1.5% of live weight up to slaughter and allowed to graze for 8 hours a day on natural grassland. The Redness (a) was more (18.80±0.06) in 12 month‘s lamb and Yellowness (b) was higher (10.17±0.06) in 6 month‘s lamb. Ultimate pH (pHu ) varied significantly among age groups and it was lowest (5.62±0.01) at 6 month and highest at 9 month. Drip loss (DL) was highest on young and lowest in aged lambs. Dry matter (DM) and Crude protein (CP) both were varied significantly (p<0.05) in age groups showing highest DM (27.64±0.06%) and CP (23.61±0.03%) in young (6 month of age) lambs for both attributes. Minerals (Ash) was highest (0.89±0.06%) in aged (12 month of age) group and lowest (0.78±0.01) in young (6 month of age) and it was differed significantly (p<0.01) among treatments. Cooking loss (CL) and Ether extract (EE) were not differed (p>0.05) among treatments. The panel of examiners was attracted more to the color of aged lambs (12 month of age) and acquiring number (4.43±0.03) was varied significantly (p<0.01) among ages. Flavor was varied significantly (p<0.05) among ages tended to secure more point for 9 month lambs. Overall acceptability was differed significantly (p<.01) among ages and meat of 9 month lamb showed highest (4.57±0.03) acceptance.
Relational leadership in local governance: the engagement of mayors with citizens, public managers and politicians

ABSTRACT This paper studies how mayors engage with citizens, public managers and politicians across the policy cycle and specifically in four local governance processes: agenda setting, decision-making, public services design and delivery. Drawing from a survey of 1,067 Italian mayors, we identify four clusters of engagement: Centralized Leadership, Semi-Inclusive Leadership, Conventional Leadership and Multi-Actor Leadership. We find that some mayors prefer to engage with politicians for issues related to public service design and delivery, rather than with public managers, and that if mayors engage citizens in local governance, this is generally done across all the stages of the policy cycle.
Tactile Displays: From the Cockpit to the Clinic

There is a great deal in common between a pilot maintaining controlled flight in aviation and a person maintaining balance while standing upright. Both activities require sufficient and accurate sensory information provided in a format permitting the central nervous system to respond quickly with appropriate corrective motor actions to prevent a fall or a mishap. Loss of control in either environment is a frequent occurrence when sensory information is compromised such as in degraded visual environments (DVE), or when a patient experiences loss of sensation. We developed an alternative sensory cueing device using the sense of touch, which can prevent loss of control in both the aviation and terrestrial environments. A single belt with tactile transducers provides touch cues concerning direction, velocity, and extent of movement. This continuous, intuitive, orientation information to pilots and patients reduces the likelihood of a loss of aircraft control or a fall. The algorithms providing tactile cues are similar for a pilot hovering a helicopter in DVE and a sensory-compromised patient performing balance tasks. The rapidity of learning correct responses to tactile cues reflects the intuitive nature of tactile cueing.
The Reporting Frequency of Ketoacidosis Events with Dapagliflozin from the European Spontaneous Reporting System: The DAPA-KETO Study

Dapagliflozin was associated with an increased risk of diabetic ketoacidosis that has led to the European withdrawal of the authorization for the type 1 diabetes. However, it is still used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the occurrence of dapagliflozin-induced ketoacidosis events by using the European spontaneous reporting system. The reporting odds ratios (ROR) were computed to assess the reporting frequency of ketoacidosis events for dapagliflozin compared to Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, insulins, or all other Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors. A total of 2406 cases with dapagliflozin reported at least one event of ketoacidosis. The three most reported events were: diabetic ketoacidosis (1412; 55.39%), ketoacidosis (476; 18.67%), and euglycaemic diabetic ketoacidosis (296; 11.61%). Dapagliflozin was associated with the higher reporting frequency of ketoacidosis events compared to DPP-4 inhibitors (ROR 12.07, 95%CI 11.67–13.81) or insulins (ROR 7.59, 95%CI 7.13–7.89). A lower reporting frequency was instead observed compared to other SGLT2 inhibitors (ROR 0.91, 95%CI 0.87–0.96). Considering the higher reporting frequency of ketoacidosis observed with dapagliflozin then DPP-4 inhibitors or insulins, attention should be given to patients treated with this drug.
Self-Injury in Adolescence Is Associated with Greater Behavioral Risk Avoidance, Not Risk-Taking

Strategies to link impulsivity and self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) show highly variable results, and may differ depending on the impulsivity measure used. To better understand this lack of consistency, we investigated correlations between self-report and behavioral impulsivity, inhibitory control, SIBs, and rumination. We included participants aged 13–17 years with either current or remitted psychopathology who have (n = 31) and who do not have (n = 14) a history of SIBs. Participants completed self-report measures of impulsivity, the Rumination Responsiveness Scale (RRS), and two behavioral measures of impulsivity: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and Parametric Go/No-Go (PGNG). Lifetime SIBs were positively associated with self-reported impulsivity, specifically positive and negative urgency. However, individuals with greater lifetime SIBs demonstrated greater risk aversion (lower impulsivity) as measured by the BART, whereas there was no relation between lifetime SIBs and PGNG performance. There was no relation between rumination and behavioral impulsivity, although greater rumination was associated with higher negative urgency. Future research examining the role of SIBs in the context of active versus remitted psychopathology is warranted. Because most adolescents were remitted from major depressive disorder at the time of study, follow-up studies can determine if lower risk-taking may aid individuals with more prior SIBs to achieve and maintain a remitted state.
Empirical research on the impact of customer integration and information sharing on supply chain performance in community-based homestays in China

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the relationship between customer integration, information sharing and supply chain performance in China’s community-based homestays. A valid questionnaire was constructed to explore the relationship between the three variables and distributed to Chinese homestay owners, customers, practitioners and researchers. A total of 208 questionnaires were collected and analysed using correlation and regression analysis. Customer integration and information sharing directly and indirectly positively affected supply chain performance. This study has strengthened knowledge of supply chain management activities of community-based homestays. It is benefit from practices to improve performance and provide meaningful theoretical and practical insights for practitioners.