Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haemangioma of the Testis: A Review and Update of the Literature

Less than 60 cases of haemangiomas of the testis (HOTs) have been reported sporadically in different parts of the world in diverse age groups including in children and adults even though it has been more commonly reported in individuals who are younger than 20 years. HOTs may present with lump/mass in testis/scrotum, scrotal enlargement with or without associated pain/discomfort. The results of serum germ cell tumour marker levels tend to be normal always. The clinical examination does reveal a discrete lump/mass in the testis which may or may not be tender. Radiology imaging does illustrate a discrete mass which usually tends to be well-demarcated but at times the lesion could be abutting the tunica albuginea testis. Doppler scan would tend to show increased vascularity and blood flow within the lesion which may also contain calcifications and at times radiology imaging could illustrate some degree of mild contrast enhancement and these features at times may suggest the possibility of benign disease but malignancy cannot be excluded. An incidental lesion of HOT was identified incidentally in radiology imaging in the absence of a palpable mass/lump. The ideal treatment for HOT is testis-sparing partial orchidectomy which has been undertaken in about a third of cases of HOT reported and radical orchidectomy has been undertaken in two-thirds of cases of HOT under a provisional diagnosis of malignant testicular tumour and the final diagnosis has been based upon the post-operative pathology reports. Diagnosis of HOT tends to be based upon the histopathology examination findings of small tubules with red blood cells that are lined by mesothelial like cells that have uniform vesicular nuclei but they can have focally infiltrative growth pattern with entrapment of seminiferous tubules. Immunohistochemistry staining studies of HOTs do show positive staining for Factor VIII, CD31, CD34, and FLI1 but negative staining for Pancytokeratin AE1/AE3, Keratin 8 / 18, EMA, placental herpesvirus 8, human chorionic gonadotrophin, c-kit, and p53. No recurrence has been reported following either testis-sparing partial orchidectomy after frozen section pathology examination or after radical orchidectomy. If urologist and radiologists have a high index of suspicion for the disease, and intraoperative frozen section excision biopsies are undertaken in all cases of testicular tumours in all age groups with the knowledge of normal levels of germ cell tumour markers then testis-preserving surgery can be undertaken and unnecessary radical orchidectomy can be avoided.
Adaptive fuzzy control for the stabilisation of chaotic systems

In this paper, we investigate the stabilisation of unstable periodic orbits of continuous time chaotic systems using adaptive fuzzy controllers. For this aim, we present a control method that can achieve the stabilisation of an unstable periodic orbit (UPO) without any knowledge of the system model. Thus, a fuzzy adaptive linear controller is proposed based on time-delay feedback approach to obtain one that achieves UPO stabilisation. Finally, we use reduced order sliding observer to estimate the necessary state for the controller construction. The efficiency of proposed methods is demonstrated using numerical simulations applied to Chua's system.
High-temperature condensation particle counter using a systematically selected dedicated working fluid for automotive applications

Abstract A stable high-temperature condensation particle counter (HTCPC), operating above 170 °C was realized. First a dedicated working fluid was identified in a two-stage process, consisting of a pre-selection based on relevant substance properties and a subsequent experimental evaluation. A prototype for experimental evaluation of the concept was designed and built, supported by CFD simulations considering the properties of the working fluid. The surface tension of the working fluid was measured at different temperatures, revealing higher values than predicted and a specific adhesion to graphite. With a especially developed high-temperature optics module, the proof of principle was verified. Calibration measurements have been performed against an automotive grade CPC. The operation in compliance to the legislative requirements for particle number counters was successfully proven. Copyright © 2020 American Association for Aerosol Research
Exchange Rate Volatility and Pass-Through to Inflation in South Africa

Does the South African rand’s relatively large volatility affect inflation? To shed some light on this question, a standard estimation technique of exchange rate pass-through to inflation is extended to incorporate exchange rate volatility. Estimated results suggest that higher exchange rate volatility tends to increase core inflation but to a relatively limited extent in South Africa. The finding lends support to the policy of allowing the rand to float freely and work as a shock absorber, consistent with the nation’s successful inflation targeting regime.
SENSITIVITY OF THE CYCLIC RESPONSE OF SUBSTANDARD BEAM-COLUMN JOINTS TO MATERIAL PROPERTIES

The uncertainties related to the material properties may significantly affect the seismic performance of structural components. In this study, the influence of each material property on the global response of reinforced concrete substandard beam-column joints is evaluated by means of a sensitivity analysis. An experimentally validated finite element model (FEM) is used for probabilistic numerical simulations. The material properties defined as random variables are generated by Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS). The existing correlation among the material parameters is also considered by the simulated annealing approach in generating the random samples. A set of load-displacement curves is obtained by the numerical simulations with the randomized material parameters. The investigated outcomes (i.e., response variables) are the joint shear strength at the first cracking, the joint peak strength, and joint strength and crack width at serviceability limit state, which is considered as a repairability threshold value. The basic statistics of the response variables together with the probability distribution functions (PDF) are calculated at different drift levels. The partial correlation coefficient between material parameters and response variables is also evaluated to outline the parameters which mainly contribute to the joint global response. The reparability level of the joint is also identified stochastically by the crack width distribution corresponding to the serviceability limit state.
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Based Variation Analysis: A New Practical Biomarker for Beef Tenderness Assessment

Evaluation of some meat quality attributes using genetic analysis is steadily increasing. PCR based targeted variation analysis is one of the most commonly preferred techniques for this purpose. Recently, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) method has drawn considerable attention because of its’ high analysis capacity. The purpose of the current study was to determine variations in CAST gene from Brangus and Simmental cattle by performing whole gene sequencing using NGS, and to investigate the potential of NGS method in evaluating meat tenderness based on the high genomic data it provides. Whole gene sequence analysis was performed on Calpastatin (CAST) gene of samples acquired from 52 Brangus and 52 Simmental beef cattle breeds using NGS method, and the variations detected were evaluated in terms of their potential in measuring meat tenderness and quality. NGS outputs were analyzed in Ensemble “cow” database platform and 13 variations were detected. One of these variations (EXON 8 c.439C>G/ p.L147V ) was evaluated as undeclared before. In 20 Brangus cattle and in 9 Simmental cattle, no variations were detected whereas 6 variations (V1, V2, V5, V8, V10 and V13) were found significantly different (p<0.05) based on their distribution in breeds.
Three‐Dimensional Surface Displacements During the 2016 MW 7.8 Kaikōura Earthquake (New Zealand) From Photogrammetry‐Derived Point Clouds

High‐resolution, three‐dimensional (3‐D) measurements of surface displacements during earthquakes can provide constraints on fault geometry and near‐surface slip and also quantify on‐fault and off‐fault deformation. However, measurements of surface displacements are often hampered by a lack of high‐resolution preearthquake elevation data, such as lidar. For example, preearthquake lidar for the 2016 MW 7.8 Kaikōura, New Zealand, earthquake only covers ≲10% of ~180 km of mapped surface ruptures. To overcome a lack of preearthquake lidar, we measure 3‐D coseismic displacements during the Kaikōura earthquake using point clouds generated from aerial photographs. From these point clouds, which cover the whole area of the 2016 surface ruptures, it is possible to measure 3‐D displacements to within ±0.2 m. We measure coseismic slip and estimate the geometries of faults in the steep, inaccessible Seaward Kaikōura mountains, where postearthquake field observations are very sparse. The Jordan Fault (previously the Jordan Thrust) ruptured in 2016 as a moderate‐to‐steeply dipping (~50–80°), predominantly strike‐slip fault. Slip on this fault in 2016—which included a normal‐sense component in some areas—contrasts with field observations that indicate significant longer‐term shortening across the Jordan Fault during the Holocene. It is therefore likely that different earthquakes on the Jordan Fault have very different slip vectors and that the fault does not exhibit “characteristic” slip behavior. For faults like the Jordan Fault, long‐term time‐averaged estimates of slip rate may not be reliable indicators of the sense and magnitude of slip in individual earthquakes.
A neoclassical calculation of toroidal rotation profiles and comparison with DIII-D measurements

Momentum and particle balance and neoclassical viscosity were applied to calculate the radial profile of toroidal rotation velocity in several DIII-D [J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] discharges in a variety of energy confinement regimes (low-mode, low-mode with internal transport barrier, high-mode, and high-mode with quiescentd double barrier). Calculated toroidal rotation velocities generally were found to (over) predict measured values to well within a factor of 2.
ITO/SiO2/ITO Structure on a Sapphire Substrate Using the Oxidation of Ultra-Thin Si Films as an Insulating Layer for One-Glass-Solution Capacitive Touch-Screen Panels

The SiO2 generated by low-temperature oxidation of ultra-thin metallic silicon (thickness = 50 nm) film was evaluated for implementation in one-glass-solution capacitive touch-screen panels (OGS-TSPs) on sapphire-based substrates. Our results show that the silicon films oxidized at 823 K exhibited the highest visible transmittance about 91% at 550 nm, compared to ~72% transmittance of the as-deposited silicon films which were deposited at room temperature. Additionally, the annealed films exhibited a more uniform, dense, and smooth surface microstructure than that of the as-deposited Si films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results revealed that the low-temperature oxidation of Si films at 823 K yielded SiO2. Furthermore, when the insulating SiO2 film obtained by low-temperature oxidation was sandwiched between two indium tin oxide (ITO) layers (ITO/SiO2/ITO) on a sapphire substrate, the SiO2 film resulted in the dielectric strength of approximately 3 MV/cm. In addition, the highest optical transmittance obtained by the ITO/SiO2/ITO films is about 88.3%. The change in capacitance of the ITO/SiO2/ITO structure was approximately 3.2 pF, which indicates the possibility of implementation in capacitive touch-screen panel devices.
A plant-specific syntaxin-6 protein contributes to the intracytoplasmic route for begomoviruses

Due to limited free diffusion in the cytoplasm, viruses must use active transport mechanisms to move intracellularly. Nevertheless, how the plant ssDNA begomoviruses hijacks the host intracytoplasmic transport machinery to move from the nucleus to the plasmodesmata remains enigmatic. Here, we identified nuclear shuttle protein (NSP)-interacting proteins from Arabidopsis by probing a protein microarray and demonstrated that the Cabbage leaf curl virus (CabLCV) NSP, a facilitator of the nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of viral (v)DNA, interacts with an endosomal vesicle-localized plant-specific syntaxin-6 protein, designated NSP-interacting syntaxin-6 domain-containing protein (NISP) in planta. NISP displays a pro-viral function, but not the syntaxin-6 paralog AT2G18860 that failed to interact with NSP. Consistent with these findings, nisp-1 mutant plants were less susceptible to begomovirus infection, a phenotype reversed by NISP complementation. NISP-overexpressing lines accumulated higher levels of viral DNA than wild-type. Furthermore, NISP interacted with NIG, an NSP-interacting GTPase involved in NSP-vDNA nucleocytoplasmic translocation. The NISP-NIG interaction was enhanced by NSP. We also showed that NISP associates with vDNA and might assemble a NISP-NIG-NSP-vDNA-complex. NISP may function as a docking site for recruiting NIG and NSP into endosomes, providing a mechanism for the intracytoplasmic translocation of the NSP-vDNA complex towards to and from the cell periphery. Author Summary As viruses must use an active and directed intracellular movement, they hijack the intracellular host transport system for their own benefits. Therefore, the identification of interactions between host proteins and begomovirus movement proteins should target the intracellular transport machinery. This work focused on the identification of these protein-protein interactions; it addressed the molecular bases for the intracellular transport of begomoviruses. We used a protein microarray to identify cellular partners for the movement protein (MP) and the viral nuclear shuttle protein (NSP), which is a facilitator of the nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of viral (v)DNA. We identified relevant protein-protein interaction (PPI) hubs connecting host and viral proteins. We revealed a novel NSP-interacting protein, which functions in the intracytoplasmic transport of proteins and DNA from begomoviruses and was designated NSP-interacting syntaxin domain-containing protein (NISP). Our data suggest an intracellular route connecting the release of newly synthesized begomoviral DNA in the cytosol with the cell surface. Resolving viral DNA-host protein complexes led to the identification of a novel class of components of the cell machinery and a representative member, NISP, that functions as a susceptibility gene against begomoviruses. As geminiviruses pose a severe threat to agriculture and food security, this recessive gene can now be exploited as a target for engineering resistance by gene editing in crops.
Strategies to Support (Female) STEM Faculty as Voiced by Female STEM Faculty at a Major Research University

This paper reports the results of qualitative research, viewed through the theoretical lenses of social learning theory and communities of practice, which aimed to investigate strategies to support female STEM faculty at all ranks at East Coast University (ECU). Sixteen such strategies were identified via the iterative analysis of interviews with 19 tenured/tenuretrack female STEM faculty at ECU, representative of all academic ranks and of multiple departments across the College of Science & Mathematics and College of Engineering. The strategies responded to initiatives and policies in place at ECU to support female STEM faculty, were specifically mentioned by at least one participant, or attended to issues common to female faculty such as work-life balance. The strategies were organized into four categories: 1) changing culture (category contains five strategies, including “emphasize data-driven decision making”); 2) building networks of support and information (three strategies, including “encourage informal networking among female STEM faculty”); 3) supporting work-life balance (three strategies, including “continue, clarify and enhance family-friendly policies”); and 4) other strategies to support female STEM faculty (five strategies, including “increase opportunities for female STEM faculty to be officially recognized for their work”). The study has implications not only for how ECU might better support female STEM faculty, but also how other universities might do the same.
Knowledge and Attitude of Cone Beam CT- A Questionnaire Based Study among Saudi Dental Students

questionnaire the data and statistically the introduction and results. the analysis of the study, the discussion and ABSTRACT Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) among undergraduate (UGS) and postgraduate (PGS) Saudi female dental students in College of Dentistry, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al Monwarah. Study Design: Observational cross-sectional study. Study: between January 2016 till 2016. Methodology: This study incorporated 108 female dental students. The information was assembled through an online anonymous pre-prepared questionnaire consisted of 15 structured Original Research Article close-ended questions. Descriptive statistics calculated in terms of frequencies and percentages by Chi-Square test. Results: Our study showed that the majority of participants knew CBCT (93.8%). Awareness of CBCT was nearly similar between UGS (92.9%) and PGS (100.0%). The highest percentage of participants (67.9%) acquired information about CBCT from faculty lessons. Only three (3.7%) did not work with digital radiography. Most of the UGS agreed that the faculty provided adequate education regarding CBCT (70%), in contrast with PGS who disagreed (90.9%). 86.4% of contributors supposed it is needed for CBCT to be available at dental faculties. There was a high satisfaction of using CBCT amongst UGS (78.6%) and PGS (90.9%). Conclusion: The study participants’ responses reflect the importance of CBCT in the dental field. Nevertheless, the study necessitates that dental school curriculum should include adequate CBCT practical training and its integration with other clinical courses to improve students’ basic knowledge and interpretation regarding this recent technology.
VPP Self-Scheduling Strategy Using Multi-Horizon IGDT, Enhanced Normalized Normal Constraint, and Bi-Directional Decision-Making Approach

This paper presents a new robust self-scheduling strategy for virtual power plants (VPPs) considering the uncertainty sources of electricity prices, wind generations, and loads. Multi-horizon information-gap decision theory (MH-IGDT) as a non-deterministic and non-probabilistic uncertainty modeling framework is proposed here to specifically model the uncertainty sources considering their various uncertainty horizons. Since each uncertain parameter tends to optimize its uncertainty horizon competitively for a particular value of the uncertainty budget, the proposed MH-IGDT model is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. To solve this multi-objective problem, enhanced normalized normal constraint (ENNC) method is presented, which can obtain efficient uniformly-distributed Pareto optimal solutions. The proposed ENNC includes augmented normalized normal constraint method and lexicographic optimization technique to enhance the search performance in the objective space. To address the unsolved issue of being risk-averse or risk-seeker for a VPP in the market, a bi-directional decision-making approach is presented. This decision maker comprises an ex-ante performance evaluation method and a forward-backward dynamic programming approach to hourly find the best Pareto solution within the generated risk-averse and risk-seeker Pareto frontiers. Simulation results of the proposed self-scheduling strategy are presented for a VPP including dispatchable/non-dispatchable units, storages, and loads.
Dense plasmas with partially degenerate semiclassical ions: screening and structural properties

The screened interaction potential between ions taking into account the wave nature of ions is presented. The parameters considered in this paper correspond to those of dense plasmas with ideal or weakly coupled quantum electrons and semiclassical non-ideal ions. The wave nature of ions is described using the concept of quantum potentials. The obtained effective interaction potential between ions takes into account screening by electrons and ionic quantum nonlocality. It is shown that the polarization of electrons around an ion leads to a decrease in the ion’s effective thermal wavelength and, conversely, screening of the ion field by electrons becomes weaker due to the wave nature of the ion. Furthermore, on the basis of the derived ion–ion interaction potential, we investigate the structural properties of semiclassical non-ideal ions. For hydrogen plasmas, the ionic quantum nonlocality effect is significant at rS < 0.3. The obtained results are relevant to high energy density physics.
Phenotypic Diversity of Pea Genotypes (Pisum sativum L.) Based on Multivariate Analysis

The present study was conducted to identify the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence among fifty five genotypes based on phenotypical traits using the multivariate analysis. Based on cluster analysis, the genotypes were best fitted into six clusters. The maximum and minimum genotypes grouped in cluster III (14) and minimum were in Cluster IV (4) respectively. The maximum intra-cluster distance was shown by cluster I (D2 2.543) indicating maximum difference among the genotypes within and the minimum value was shown by cluster II (D2 =1.827). Maximum value of inter-cluster distance (D2=6.471) was recorded between cluster I and cluster IV revealing that the genotypes of these clusters were highly diverse from others and can be used as divergent parents for hybridization and selection. Thus, for getting high heterosis for recovering transgressive segregants, genotypes from cluster I and IV can be used as distant parents in any breeding programme for successful pea improvement. The Optimum number of K-means clusters formed were four. The result of PCA revealed that all the four principal components (PC-I, PC-II, PC-III and PC-IV) contributed 86.7% of the total variability. The results of present study could be exploited in the future genetic improvement programme of pea genotypes in Uttar Pradesh region.
Evaluating the impact of visualization of risk upon emergency route-planning

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a controlled experiment evaluating how different cartographic representations of risk affect participants’ performance on a complex spatial decision task: route planning. The specific experimental scenario used is oriented towards emergency route-planning during flood response. The experiment compared six common abstract and metaphorical graphical symbolizations of risk. The results indicate a pattern of less-preferred graphical symbolizations associated with slower responses and lower-risk route choices. One mechanism that might explain these observed relationships would be that more complex and effortful maps promote closer attention paid by participants and lower levels of risk taking. Such user considerations have important implications for the design of maps and mapping interfaces for emergency planning and response. The data also highlights the importance of the ‘right decision, wrong outcome problem’ inherent in decision-making under uncertainty: in individual instances, more risky decisions do not always lead to worse outcomes.