Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Potential Diagnostic Accuracy of Let-7 Family for Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Cancer is a global public health problem affecting human health. Early stage of cancer diagnosis, when it is not too large and has not spread is important for successful treatment. Many researchers have proposed that the let-7 microRNA family can be used as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis. The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate whether let-7 family can be used as a diagnostic tool for cancer patients. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive literature search on PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang database, updated to October 23, 2020. A random effects model was used to pool the sensitivity and specificity. Besides, we measured the diagnostic value using positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the curve (AUC) were pooled. In addition, meta-regression and subgroup analysis were performed to explore the possible sources of heterogeneity, and Deeks’ funnel chart was used to assess whether there was publication bias. Results: 31 studies from 15 articles were included in the current meta-analysis. The overall sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR and AUC were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.75-0.85), 0.81 (95% CI: 0.74-0.86), 4.2 (95% CI: 2.9-5.9), 0.24 (95% CI: 0.19-0.32), 17 (95% CI: 10-29) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.84-0.90), respectively. Subgroup analysis shows that the let-7 family cluster of serum type showed a better diagnostic accuracy of cancer, especially the breast cancer. Although there is no publication bias, it still has some limitations. Conclusions: let-7 family can be considered as a promising non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for cancer.
Edible Coating from Enzymatically Reticulated Whey Protein-Pectin to Improve Shelf Life of Roasted Peanuts

Edible coatings are a viable alternative method to enhance food shelf life that can be designed using different biopolymers. This study evaluated the effect of a whey protein–pectin coating reticulated by microbial transglutaminase (mTG) on improving roasted peanuts’ shelf life. Peroxide value, water content, peanut color, and the solution’s contact angle were studied. The latter was improved by the presence of the enzyme. The results showed that the presence of the coating on the peanut surface reduces the peroxide value and water content, probably as a consequence of an improved barrier effect due to the presence of mTG, which protects the kernel. Enzymatically reticulated whey protein–pectin coatings are a promising alternative to enhance the shelf life of roasted peanut kernels using natural ingredients.
A community based cross-sectional study on morbidity profile of elderly in a rural area of Puducherry

Background: The proportion of elderly increases worldwide. India entered into the list of “greying nation”. The process of biological ageing brings with it various illnesses. This study was conducted with the objective of determining the morbidity profile of elderly people residing in a rural area.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly aged 60 years and above residing in rural area of Puducherry. Simple random sampling was used to select two sub-centre areas among four, under the field practice area and all the eligible elderly individuals were included. House to house visit was made and after obtaining informed consent, the data were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and examination.Results: A total of 954 individuals were included in the study of which 66.4% and 33.6% of them were females and males respectively (Mean: 68 ± 6.8 years). Acute and chronic illnesses were present among 4% and 47.7% of elderly individuals respectively. Hypertension (42.5%) was observed to be the predominant chronic illness followed by Diabetes (29.6%), Osteoarthritis (8.1%) and Asthma (7.9%), Visual problems (4.3%), Coronary artery disease (2.9%), Cerebrovascular accident (1.2%) and hearing problems (0.9%). Conclusions: Chronic illnesses were more common among elderly than acute illnesses. Hence it is recommended to screen elderly individuals utilizing the platform of community based assessment for non-communicable diseases. The study also recommends implementing stringent tobacco control measures so as to curtail the silent epidemic of non-communicable diseases.
Actual Evapotranspiration Estimates in Arid Cold Regions Using Machine Learning Algorithms with In Situ and Remote Sensing Data

Actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimations in arid regions are challenging because this process is highly dynamic over time and space. Nevertheless, several studies have shown good results when implementing empirical regression formulae that, despite their simplicity, are comparable in accuracy to more complex models. Although many types of regression formulae to estimate ETa exist, there is no consensus on what variables must be included in the analysis. In this research, we used machine learning algorithms—through implementation of empirical linear regression formulae—to find the main variables that control daily and monthly ETa in arid cold regions, where there is a lack of available ETa data. Meteorological data alone and then combined with remote sensing vegetation indices (VIs) were used as input in ETa estimations. In situ ETa and meteorological data were obtained from ten sites in Chile, Australia, and the United States. Our results indicate that the available energy is the main meteorological variable that controls ETa in the assessed sites, despite the fact that these regions are typically described as water-limited environments. The VI that better represents the in situ ETa is the Normalized Difference Water Index, which represents water availability in plants and soils. The best performance of the regression equations in the validation sites was obtained for monthly estimates with the incorporation of VIs (R2 = 0.82), whereas the worst performance of these equations was obtained for monthly ETa estimates when only meteorological data were considered. Incorporation of remote-sensing information results in better ETa estimates compared to when only meteorological data are considered.
Astilbe and Coneflower Growth as Affected by Fertilizer Rate and Substrate Volumetric Water Content

Improved irrigation and fertilization practices, such as reduced applications, are needed to improve the sustainability of container plant production. The objective of this study was to assess growth of Visions astilbe (Astilbe chinensis ‘Visions’) and Mellow Yellow coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘Mellow Yellow’) grown at two controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) rates (100% or 50% of the medium bag rate) and two volumetric water contents (VWC; 40% and 18%). For coneflower, there were no significant treatment effects for height, growth index, shoot dry weight, or leaf size. There was a significant VWC effect on number of flowers with the 40% treatment having more flowers (5.6) per plant than the 18% treatment (2.7). Shoot dry weight, growth index, and leaf size of astilbe were greater for the 40% VWC treatment than the 18% VWC treatment with no fertilizer rate effect. Astilbe height and number of flowers was not significant. These results indicate that there is a species-specific effect of VWC on growth whereas reduced fertilizer applications are possible for both species without impacting growth. Although a substrate VWC of 18% is likely too low to produce salable plants, a VWC below 40% can potentially be used to support adequate growth.
COLD IN PROTECTION OF THE HEART

Впервые указывается перечень разработанных автором оригинальных способов и средств медикамен-тозной, холодовой и фармакохолодовой защиты сердца, конечностей, кишечника и других органов и тканей от инфаркта (некроза) при их ишемии. Указана научная гипотеза, лежащая в основе разработок, и приведена хронология лабораторных, экспериментальных и клинических исследований, посвященных их созданию. Показано, что все разработки были созданы на основе обнаруженной автором in vitro и in vivo темпера-турной зависимости аэробного метаболизма, анаэробного гликолиза, функциональной активности попереч-но-полосатых и гладких мышц, полупроницаемых мембран кардиомиоцитов и других клеток, а также адап-тационной способности сердца и других органов и тканей к недостатку артериальной крови и кислорода. Указаны основные результаты, полученные автором в опытах с изолированными митохондриями, порциями крови, сегментами миокарда, кровеносных сосудов, кишечника, матки, с сердцем, кишечником и конечно-стями экспериментальных животных in situ и демонстрирующих зависимость их состояния от локальных медикаментозных и температурных воздействий. Выяснено, что снижение температуры с +37 до +18°С уг-нетает аэробный обмен в митохондриях, водно-солевой обмен на уровне полупроницаемых мембран кле-точных стенок, сократительную активность мышечных элементов миокарда, кишки, матки и кровеносных сосудов, угнетает чувствительность рецепторов клеточных стенок, функциональную активность полупро-ницаемых мембран субклеточных структур, клеток, тканей и органов, повышает вязкость крови, плазмы, многих растворов лекарственных средств и других коллоидных жидкостей, снижает эластичность кожи, подкожно-жировой клетчатки, стенок кровеносных сосудов и других тканей, угнетает коагуляцию плазмы и свертывание крови. Еще в 1983 году автором было доказано, что защита сердца от инфаркта, достигаемая путем охлаждения зоны ишемии, не имеет альтернативы. Дело в том, что введение лекарств (за исключе-нием кислорода) в зону ишемии миокарда и других органов и тканей лекарства не удлиняет, а локальное охлаждение этих участков и частей тела удлиняет в несколько раз продолжительность безопасной ишемии и предотвращает развитие необратимых ишемических повреждений (инфаркта, некроза). Ключевые слова: холод, сердце, защита
Mining Open Government Data for Business Intelligence Using Data Visualization: A Two-Industry Case Study

The business intelligence (BI) market has grown at a tremendous rate in the past decade due to technological advancements, big data and the availability of open source content. Despite this growth, the use of open government data (OGD) as a source of information is very limited among the private sector due to a lack of knowledge as to its benefits. Scant evidence on the use of OGD by private organizations suggests that it can lead to the creation of innovative ideas as well as assist in making better informed decisions. Given the benefits but lack of use of OGD to generate business intelligence, we extend research in this area by exploring how OGD can be used to generate business intelligence for the identification of market opportunities and strategy formulation; an area of research that is still in its infancy. Using a two-industry case study approach (footwear and lumber), we use latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling to extract emerging topics in these two industries from OGD, and a data visualization tool (pyLDAVis) to visualize the topics in order to interpret and transform the data into business intelligence. Additionally, we perform an environmental scanning of the environment for the two industries to validate the usability of the information obtained. The results provide evidence that OGD can be a valuable source of information for generating business intelligence and demonstrate how topic modeling and visualization tools can assist organizations in extracting and analyzing information for the identification of market opportunities.
Developing students’ relationships with mathematics

ABSTRACT In this study we investigated how to support students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness to develop their relationships with mathematics with respect to students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self-perception in relation to mathematics and math anxiety. There is a substantial amount of research that shows how negative relationships with mathematics affect students’ achievement. In this action research project, we followed an action research spiral. The model gave us the opportunity to plan, act and reflect in an ongoing cycle, which was important to us since we had four measurement points during the year and we repeated our investigation every year for three years. Addressing the research problem and studying the evidence presented, several conclusions can be made. It can be concluded that activities that support students’ basic psychological needs have an impact on their relationship with mathematics, which corresponds to earlier research findings. Additionally, this study provided further insights into the importance of a scaffolding teacher.
Unilateral axilla-bilateral areola approach for thyroidectomy by da Vinci robot vs. open surgery in thyroid cancer: a retrospective observational study.

Background To compare the efficacy and safety of unilateral axilla-bilateral areola (UABA) approach for robot-assisted thyroidectomy with conventional open surgery in thyroid cancer patients. Methods The clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes of 194 thyroid cancer patients treated by robotic surgery using the UABA approach and 217 patients treated by open surgery in our department from January 2017 to August 2018 were analysed and compared. Results The operation time was longer in the robotic group than in the open surgery group. The patients' satisfaction with neck appearance was higher in the robotic group than in the open surgery group (91.2% vs. 21.6%, P<0.01). After total thyroidectomy and central lymph node dissection, the incidence of postoperative transient hypoparathyroidism and postoperative permanent hypoparathyroidism in the open surgery group was 29.7% (44/148) and 6.8% (10/148), higher than that [17.9% (27/151) and 2.0% (3/151)] in the robotic group (P<0.05 respectively). No significant difference was observed in the number of dissected lymph nodes or postoperative serum thyroglobulin (TG) levels or incidence of transient or permanent hoarseness of voice between the two groups. No recurrence or metastasis was found. Conclusions Compared with open surgery, UABA robotic surgery preserved the neck appearance and effectively reduced hypoparathyroidism by super-meticulous capsular dissection (SMCD).
Effectiveness of Online Learning during The Covid-19 Pandemic in Deli Serdang District Junior High School

The purpose of this study is to explain about the effectiveness of online learning during the covid-19 pandemic in junior high school in Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, this research method is descriptive qualitative and conducted with online media, the result of this study is: The implementation of online learning in SMP Deli Serdang district contributes to habituation efforts in using online applications that are likely to grow in the future. Teachers' ability to choose learning methods and their skills in operationalizing online learning applications strongly supports the online learning process. All teachers of Deli Serdang District Junior High School are able to operate WhatsApp application even though it is not yet maximized. This online learning is considered ineffective in Deli Serdang Junior High School, because there are still obstacles such as: 1) quotas that must be purchased by students, 2) the assignments given always accumulate, 3) the conditions and circumstances of the student's home are different so that students must be divided into focus with other things, 4) understanding and explanation of the teacher has been delivered but less so directly understood by students so that they need help from others, 5) intrinsic motivation of students, lack of motivation to learn from parents. The success of the online learning system depends largely on some components of learning itself, whether from students, learning resource teachers, or information technology.
Tribological Behaviour and Lubricating Mechanism of Tire Pyrolysis Oil

The four-ball tester was used in this analysis to demonstrate the lubricity of tire pyrolysis oil (TPO). The tribological performance of the tire pyrolysis oil was compared with diesel fuel (DF) and their blends, DT10 (TPO 10%, Diesel 90%) and DT20 (TPO 20%, Diesel 80%). A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to investigate the wear scar. In contrast to diesel fuel, TPO demonstrated better antiwear behaviour in terms of higher load-carrying capacity. DT10, DT20, and TPO’s wear scar diameter (WSD) was 22.35%, 16.01%, and 31.99% smaller than that of diesel at 80 kg load, respectively. The scanning electron microscope micrographs showed that the TPO and DT10 had less wear than their counterparts.
miR-124-3p enhances dendritic cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity by targeting CYLD/4-1BBL pathway

Background: MicroRNAs play important roles in dendritic cell (DCs)-mediated immunity, but their specific functions in lung cancer remain unclear.Objective: To investigate miR-124-3p regulation of DC-mediated immune response via CYLD/4-1BBL pathway, and the inhibitory effect of miR-124-3p on lung cancer.Methods: DCs were cultured and amplified in vitro, and then transfected with miR-124-3p mimic, miR-124-3P inhibitor, or siRNA CYLD. Double luciferase reporter genes were used to detect the target relationship between miR-124-3p and CYLD. qRT-PCR and western blotting were used to detect the expression levels of CYLD and 4-1BBL. Flow cytometry was used to assess the proliferation rate of CD4+ T cells co-cultured with untransfected DCs and those transfected with miR-124-3p mimic or miR-124-3p inhibitor. C57BL/6 tumor bearing mice, implanted with LL/2 lung adenocarcinoma cells, were administered DCs transfected with the miR-124-3p mimic or untransfected DCs. The tumor size and weight of mice were then measured. Results: miR-124-3p and CYLD3’UTR contained target-binding site, and overexpression of miR-124-3p enhanced the expression of CYLD and 4-1BBL. CD4+ T cells co-cultured with miR-124-3p mimic-transfected DCs showed significantly increased proliferation. In tumor-bearing mice, tumor inhibition rate was 73.5%, and tumor volume and weight were significantly decreased after the administration of DCs containing the miR-124-3p mimic.Conclusions: The expression of CYLD was regulated by miR-124-3p, which, in turn, increased the expression of 4-1BBL. miR-124-3p regulated DCs function via CYLD/4-1BBL cascade. miR-124-3p plays important roles in DCs-induced T cells, thereby enhancing anti-tumor immunity.
Development of an empirical hyperbolic material model for TDA utilizing large-scale triaxial testing

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest in reusing scrap tires in civil engineering applications. Previous studies have shown that there are many promising applications in civil engineering. In most of these applications, scrap tires are not used directly but are shredded to form a product referred to as tire-derived aggregate (TDA). Unlike most other civil engineering materials, TDA has not yet been subjected to sufficient experimental scrutiny to identify its physical properties. Most of the experiments conducted on TDA have been limited to small TDA shreds with no steel wires. This study aims to address this problem through a series of consolidated drained triaxial tests on TDA using a large-scale triaxial apparatus. The results of the tests are presented, discussed and fitted to empirical equations. In addition, an empirical hyperbolic material model that represents the test results has been developed based on the hyperbolic model of Duncan and Chang.
Source Mechanisms of Laboratory Earthquakes During Fault Nucleation and Formation

Identifying deformation and pre‐failure mechanisms preceding faulting is key for fault mechanics and for interpreting precursors to fault rupture. This study presents the results of a new and robust derivation of first motion polarity focal mechanism solutions (FMS) applied to acoustic emission (AE). FMS are solved using a least squares minimization of the fit between projected polarity measurements and the deviatoric stress field induced by dilatational (T‐type), shearing (S‐type), and compressional (C‐type) sources. 4 × 10 cm cylindrical samples of Alzo Granite (AG, porosity <1%) and Darley Dale Sandstone (DDS, porosity ≈14%) underwent conventional triaxial tests in order to investigate the relationships between increasing confining pressure (5, 10, 20, and 40 MPa), deformation and failure mode, and role of microstructural features. Results highlight that S‐type events occur in very low numbers with poor spatial correlation to fault structure. Instead, deformation is driven by a complex interplay between compactant (C‐type) and dilatant (T‐type) regions of deformation. C‐type events are the earliest precursor related to crack nucleation and T‐type events mark new cracks opening, with the onset of fracture growth characterized by periodic cycles of coalescence. For AG a single sequence is able to lead to dynamic failure, while for DDS several cycles are needed for coalescence to take place due to the competition between dilatant and compactant deforming regions induced by multiple fracture nucleation sites. The occurrence of C‐ and S‐type events is also consistent with a quasi‐static premonitory phase, or foreshock, before a critical nucleation length allows the development of a planar localization.
Extreme Rainfall in Taiwan: Seasonal Statistics and Trends

Taiwan regularly experiences precipitation extremes of hundreds of millimeters per day, especially between May and September. In this study, Taiwan’s extreme rainfall (ER) is analyzed over a 56-year time period in different seasons and geographic regions, using a recently released, high-resolution gridded rainfall dataset. ER is defined using a seasonally- and geographically-varying 99th percentile threshold to better resolve the characteristics of the most intense rainfall seen in different locations and times of year. The resulting monthly ER rates are largest in typhoon season and smallest in fall, winter, and spring. ER is spatially homogeneous in Mei-Yu and typhoon seasons and concentrated in northern Taiwan in during the rest of the year.A trend analysis revealed a positive trend in island-mean ER for the winter, spring, and typhoon seasons. In winter and spring, these trends are most pronounced in the north. In Mei-Yu season, ER has increased most over the southwestern mountain slopes; and in typhoon season, ER has increased consistently over much of Taiwan. These changes often exceed 1% per year. In many areas, typhoon season accounts for the largest fraction of the observed annual ER trend. TCs produce most of the observed typhoon season ER and ER trend, with nearly half of the typhoon season ER trend being associated with increases in TC frequency and duration around central and northern Taiwan.Certain regional changes in ER characteristics, particularly in areas with low sample size or complex seasonal contributions, merit further investigation in future work.