Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of endoscopic thyroidectomy by complete areola approach and conventional open surgery in the treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: A retrospective study and meta-analysis

Background The feasibility of endoscopic thyroidectomy by complete areola approach (ETCA) remains controversial. This study was conducted by combining our clinical data with the data obtained from a systematic review literature search to examine the effectiveness and safety of ETCA compared with conventional open thyroidectomy (COT) in differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Methods A total of 136 patients with a diagnosis of DTC who underwent unilateral thyroidectomy with central neck dissection from August 2020 to June 2021 were enrolled. The enrolled patients were divided into the ETCA group (n = 73) and the COT group (n = 63). The operative time, intraoperative bleeding volume, number of removed lymph nodes, number of metastatic lymph nodes, postoperative drainage volume, length of postoperative hospital stay, postoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels, and complications were analyzed. Then, a systemic review and comprehensive literature search were conducted by using PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP database up to June 2022. Review Manager software version 5.3 was used for the meta-analysis. Results The results of clinical data showed that there were significant differences between the two groups in the operative time, intraoperative bleeding volume, removed lymph nodes, and postoperative drainage volume. There were no statistical differences in the length of postoperative hospital stay, number of metastatic lymph nodes, postoperative PTH level, and complications. In the systematic review and meta-analysis, 2,153 patients from fourteen studies (including our data) were ultimately included. The results of the meta-analysis found that ETCA had a longer operative time, larger postoperative drainage volume, and lower intraoperative bleeding volume. In terms of the length of postoperative hospital stay, the number of removed lymph nodes, and surgical complications, there was no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion ETCA poses lower surgical bleeding and better cosmetic appearance compared with COT, while the length of operation and postoperative drainage in ETCA is less favorable compared with COT. In addition, ETCA is not inferior to COT in terms of the postoperative hospitalization stay, the number of removed lymph nodes, and surgical complications. Given its overall advantages and risks, ETCA is an effective and safe alternative for patients with cosmetic concerns.
Diversity, distribution, and sustainability of traditional medicinal plants in Kaski district, western Nepal

Medicinal plants are the primary source of traditional healthcare systems in many rural areas mostly in developing countries. This study aimed to document and analyze the diversity, distribution, and sustainability of the traditional medicinal plants used by the Gurung people of the Sikles region in western Nepal. Ethnobotanical data were collected through focus group discussions and individual interviews, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Prior informed consent was obtained before each interview. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices such as informant consensus factor, relative frequency of citation, and use values were also calculated. A possible association among these indices was tested using correlation analysis. A total of 115 wild medicinal plant species belonging to 106 genera and 71 families were documented. Asteraceae and Rosaceae were the dominant families whereas herbs were the most dominant life form. Roots were the most used plant part, paste was the most common method of preparation, and most of the medical formulations were taken orally. The highest number of medicinal plants were used to treat stomach disorders. The average informant consensus value of 0.79 indicates a high consensus among respondents in selecting medicinal plants. Lindera neesiana, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Paris polyphylla, and Bergenia ciliata were found to be high-ranking medicinal plants based on the relative frequency of citation and use value. The genders did not affect medicinal plants’ knowledge but age had a significant correlation. Most of the informants agreed that medicinal plants are under pressure due to overharvesting and a lack of proper forest management practices. The number of medicinal plants reported from the study area indicates that the Gurung people possess rich traditional knowledge, and the vegetation of the Sikles region constitutes rich diversity of medicinal plants.
AUF-1 knockdown in mice undermines gut microbial butyrate-driven hypocholesterolemia through AUF-1–Dicer-1–mir-122 hierarchy

Introduction and objective Cholesterol homeostasis is a culmination of cellular synthesis, efflux, and catabolism to important physiological entities where short chain fatty acid, butyrate embodied as a key player. This discourse probes the mechanistic molecular details of butyrate action in maintaining host-cholesterol balance. Methods Hepatic mir-122 being the most indispensable regulator of cholesterol metabolic enzymes, we studied upstream players of mir-122 biogenesis in the presence and absence of butyrate in Huh7 cells and mice model. We synthesized unique self-transfecting GMO (guanidinium-morpholino-oligo) linked PMO (Phosphorodiamidate-Morpholino Oligo)-based antisense cell-penetrating reagent to selectively knock down the key player in butyrate mediated cholesterol regulation. Results We showed that butyrate treatment caused upregulation of RNA-binding protein, AUF1 resulting in RNase-III nuclease, Dicer1 instability, and significant diminution of mir-122. We proved the importance of AUF1 and sequential downstream players in AUF1-knock-down mice. Injection of GMO-PMO of AUF1 in mouse caused near absence of AUF1 coupled with increased Dicer1 and mir-122, and reduced serum cholesterol regardless of butyrate treatment indicating that butyrate acts through AUF1. Conclusion The roster of intracellular players was as follows: AUF1-Dicer1-mir-122 for triggering butyrate driven hypocholesterolemia. To our knowledge this is the first report linking AUF-1 with cholesterol biogenesis.
Near Term Applications of Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Research

For the past 15 years, the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) fusion group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been conducting experiments to demonstrate that there can be many near term applications of fusion research long before the production of electricity in commercial fusion power plants. This research has concentrated on three fuel cycles: DD, D3He, and 3He3He. Some of the major accomplishments are listed below: a. The production of > 108 DD neutrons per second on a steady state basis b. The production of pulsed DD neutrons to over 1010 per second in 10Hz, 100 μs bursts. c. The production of 14.7 MeV protons at > 108 per second (steady state) from the D3He reaction. d. Demonstrated the detection of the explosive C-4 with steady state DD neutrons. e. Demonstrated the detection of Highly Enriched U (HEU) with pulsed DD neutron fluxes. f. Production of the positron emission tomography (PET) isotopes, 94mTc and 13Nusing D3He protons. g. Production of the first measured 3He3He fusion reactions in an IEC device. h. Development of unique diagnostic techniques to measure the rate, spectrum, and location of fusion reactions in IEC devices. i. Use of an IEC device to study the behavior of materials at high temperature during charged particle bombardment. The accomplishments above were carried out in 3 devices HOMER, 3HeCTRE, and HELIOS that have operated up to 180 kV and meter currents of 65 mA. New applications are currently being explored and expanded roles for the IEC device will be described.
Dietary intake of fructose increases purine de novo synthesis: A crucial mechanism for hyperuricemia

Background Fructose consumption is a potential risk factor for hyperuricemia because uric acid (UA) is a byproduct of fructose metabolism caused by the rapid consumption of adenosine triphosphate and accumulation of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and other purine nucleotides. Additionally, a clinical experiment with four gout patients demonstrated that intravenous infusion of fructose increased the purine de novo synthesis rate, which implied fructose-induced hyperuricemia might be related to purine nucleotide synthesis. Moreover, the mechanistic (mammalian) target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a key protein both involved in fructose metabolism and purine de novo synthesis. The present study was conducted to elucidate how fructose influences mTOR and purine de novo synthesis in a hepatic cell line and livers of mice. Materials and methods RNA-sequencing in NCTC 1469 cells treated with 0- and 25-mM fructose for 24 h and metabolomics analysis on the livers of mice fed with 0- and 30-g/kg fructose for 2 weeks were assessed. Gene and protein expression of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthase (PRPSAP1), Glutamine PRPP aminotransferase (PPAT), adenyl succinate lyase (ADSL), adenyl succinate synthetase isozyme-1 (Adss1), inosine-5’-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH), and guanine monophosphate synthetase (GMPS) was measured. The location of PRPSAP1 and PPAT in the liver was assessed by an immunofluorescence assay. Results Metabolite profiling showed that the level of AMP, adenine, adenosine, hypoxanthine, and guanine was increased significantly. RNA-sequencing showed that gene expression of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthase (PRPS2), phosphoribosyl glycinamide formyl transferase (GART), AICAR transformylase (ATIC), ADSL, Adss1, and IMPDH were raised, and gene expression of adenosine monophosphate deaminase 3 (AMPD3), adenosine deaminase (ADA), 5’,3’-nucleotidase, cytosolic (NT5C), and xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) was also increased significantly. Fructose increased the gene expression, protein expression, and fluorescence intensity of PRPSAP1 and PPAT in mice livers by increasing mTOR expression. Fructose increased the expression and activity of XOR, decreased the expression of uricase, and increased the serum level of UA. Conclusion This study demonstrated that the increased purine de novo synthesis may be a crucial mechanism for fructose-induced hyperuricemia.
A CW-CNN regression model-based real-time system for virtual hand control

For upper limb amputees, wearing a myoelectric prosthetic hand is the only way for them to continue normal life. Even until now, the proposal of a high-precision and natural performance real-time control system based on surface electromyography (sEMG) signals is still challenging. Researchers have proposed many strategies for motion classification or regression prediction tasks based on sEMG signals. However, most of them have been limited to offline analysis only. There are even few papers on real-time control based on deep learning models, almost all of which are about motion classification. Rare studies tried to use deep learning-based regression models in real-time control systems for multi-joint angle estimation via sEMG signals. This paper proposed a CW-CNN regression model-based real-time control system for virtual hand control. We designed an Adaptive Kalman Filter to smooth the joint angles output before sending them as control commands to control a virtual hand. Eight healthy participants were invited, and three sessions experiments were conducted on two different days for all of them. During the real-time experiment, we analyzed the joint angles estimation accuracy and computational latency. Moreover, target achievement control (TAC) test was applied to emphasize motion regression in real-time. The experimental results show that the proposed control system has high precision for 3-DOFs motion regression in simultaneously, and the system remains stable and low computational latency. In the future, the proposed real-time control system can be applied to actual prosthetic hand.
Motivational mediation between coping and post-traumatic growth in previously bullied college students

Research has consistently shown that experiences of peer victimization may have long lasting negative consequences on health and academic achievement. Less attention has been paid to the association between past bullying and post-traumatic growth in college students. This cross-sectional study aims to examine the role of different motivational orientations (The Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Systems (BIS/BAS) and regulatory focus) as potential mediators between cognitive strategies (rumination and resilient coping) and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Using a large sample of 1,134 college students, 85 were selected who were in their first year of college and had reported having previously experienced bullying. After classifying the participants acording to their the 33rd and 66th percentile scores on post-traumatic growth, a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant differences between the low and high groups, with those highest in PTG showing the highest scores on drive approach, focus on promotion, and resilient coping. Conditional process analysis with these significant variables revealed that regulatory focus on promotion mediates between resilient coping and post-traumatic growth, whereas drive moderates the link between both variables. The findings shed light on the motivational mechanisms underlying PTG, which may be useful to guide interventions to prevent the consequences of bullying.
The ecological adaptation of the unparalleled plastome character evolution in slipper orchids

Plastomes may have undergone adaptive evolution in the process of plant adaptation to diverse environments, whereby species may differ in plastome characters. Cypripedioideae successfully colonized distinct environments and could be an ideal group for studying the interspecific variation and adaptive evolution of plastomes. Comparative study of plastomes, ancestral state reconstruction, phylogenetic-based analysis, ecological niche modelling, and selective pressure analysis were conducted to reveal the evolutionary patterns of plastomes in Cypripedioideae and their relationship with environmental factors. The plastomes of the three evolved genera had reduced plastome size, increased GC content, and compacted gene content compared to the basal group. Variations in plastome size and GC content are proved to have clear relationships with climate regions. Furthermore, ecological niche modelling revealed that temperature and water factors are important climatic factors contributing to the distributional difference which is directly correlated with the climate regions. The temperature-sensitive genes ndh genes, infA, and rpl20 were found to be either lost/pseudogenized or under positive selection in the evolved groups. Unparalleled plastome character variations were discovered in slipper orchids. Our study indicates that variations in plastome characters have adaptive consequences and that temperature and water factors are important climatic factors that affect plastome evolution. This research highlights the expectation that plants can facilitate adaptation to different environmental conditions with the changes in plastome and has added critical insight for understanding the process of plastome evolution in plants.
Single-tube three-dimensional scanner for scanning tunneling microscopy

We report a new type of three‐dimensional mechanical scanner fabricated from a single piezoelectric tube. It has a typical response of 5 nm/V in each orthogonal direction and mechanical resonances at 8 kHz (bending perpendicular to the tube axis) and 40 kHz (motion parallel to the tube axis). When used in a scanning tunneling microscope it is the higher frequency mode which is most critical since it corresponds to motion perpendicular to the sample surface. We show an image of the atomic surface of graphite taken in air using a tube scanner incorporated into a scanning tunneling microscope. The tube scanner allows the development of smaller, simpler, and faster scanning tunneling microscopes.
Spin and Pairing Algebras and ODLRO in a Hubbard Model

The states of a simple Hubbard model fall into representations of the su(2) spin algebra and of an su(2) pairing algebra. A half-filled band momentum eigenstate has off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) if it belongs to an irreducible representation with pairing spin η > (N - s)/3, N being the number of lattice sites and s the spin of the representation.
Towards the universal nuclear energy density functional

The UNEDF SciDAC project to develop and optimize the energy density functional for atomic nuclei using state-of-the art computational infrastructure is briefly described. The ultimate goal is to replace current phenomenological models of the nucleus with a well-founded microscopic theory with minimal uncertainties, capable of describing nuclear data and extrapolating to unknown regions.
Nonlocal electron transport in laser heated plasmas

Nonlocal theory of an electron transport in laser-produced plasmas with the large ion charge and arbitrary ratio of the characteristic spatial scale length to the electron mean free path has been developed for small potential perturbations. Closure relations have been derived from the solution to the electron Fokker–Planck equation which includes inverse bremsstrahlung heating and ponderomotive effects. All electron transport coefficients and their dependence on the laser intensity have been found. An expression for the electron heat flux includes laser field and plasma flow contributions. Identification of these different sources is necessary for the unique definition of the thermal transport coefficient which is independent of the particular application. A complete derivation of the potential part of the ponderomotive force in the presence of inverse bremsstrahlung heating has been presented.
Rates of ultrasonic vocalizations are more strongly related than acoustic features to non-vocal behaviors in mouse pups

Mouse pups produce. ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to isolation from the nest (i.e., isolation USVs). Rates and acoustic features of isolation USVs change dramatically over the first two weeks of life, and there is also substantial variability in the rates and acoustic features of isolation USVs at a given postnatal age. The factors that contribute to within age variability in isolation USVs remain largely unknown. Here, we explore the extent to which non-vocal behaviors of mouse pups relate to the within age variability in rates and acoustic features of their USVs. We recorded non-vocal behaviors of isolated C57BL/6J mouse pups at four postnatal ages (postnatal days 5, 10, 15, and 20), measured rates of isolation USV production, and applied a combination of pre-defined acoustic feature measurements and an unsupervised machine learning-based vocal analysis method to examine USV acoustic features. When we considered different categories of non-vocal behavior, our analyses revealed that mice in all postnatal age groups produce higher rates of isolation USVs during active non-vocal behaviors than when lying still. Moreover, rates of isolation USVs are correlated with the intensity (i.e., magnitude) of non-vocal body and limb movements within a given trial. In contrast, USVs produced during different categories of non-vocal behaviors and during different intensities of non-vocal movement do not differ substantially in their acoustic features. Our findings suggest that levels of behavioral arousal contribute to within age variability in rates, but not acoustic features, of mouse isolation USVs
Ultrasound images-based deep learning radiomics nomogram for preoperative prediction of RET rearrangement in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Purpose To create an ultrasound -based deep learning radiomics nomogram (DLRN) for preoperatively predicting the presence of RET rearrangement among patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods We retrospectively enrolled 650 patients with PTC. Patients were divided into the RET/PTC rearrangement group (n = 103) and the non-RET/PTC rearrangement group (n = 547). Radiomics features were extracted based on hand-crafted features from the ultrasound images, and deep learning networks were used to extract deep transfer learning features. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression was applied to select the features of nonzero coefficients from radiomics and deep transfer learning features; then, we established the deep learning radiomics signature. DLRN was constructed using a logistic regression algorithm by combining clinical and deep learning radiomics signatures. The prediction performance was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis. Results Comparing the effectiveness of the models by linking the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of each model, we found that the area under the curve of DLRN could reach 0.9545 (95% confidence interval: 0.9133–0.9558) in the test cohort and 0.9396 (95% confidence interval: 0.9185–0.9607) in the training cohort, indicating that the model has an excellent performance in predicting RET rearrangement in PTC. The decision curve analysis demonstrated that the combined model was clinically useful. Conclusion The novel ultrasonic-based DLRN has an important clinical value for predicting RET rearrangement in PTC. It can provide physicians with a preoperative non-invasive primary screening method for RET rearrangement diagnosis, thus facilitating targeted patients with purposeful molecular sequencing to avoid unnecessary medical investment and improve treatment outcomes.
Study on novel recovery strategies and algorithms in IP over WDM networks

The survivability of IP over WDM network gains importance as the volume of traffic to be transported by the network keeps growing. In this article we investigate the restoration schemes for handling dynamic traffic demand failures in IP/MPLS over WDM networks. We classify the various restoration schemes into two broad categories: recovery at the lowest layer and recovery at the highest layer. Six specific restoration schemes will be introduced and analyzed. Simulation will be performed to compare the network utilization of the six restoration schemes.
Linking self-efficacy, entrepreneurial fit, family support, and entrepreneurial intentions: An explanatory mechanism

Entrepreneurial ventures are outcomes of favorable internal and external factors. But the outcomes are always uncertain, often creating a situation of cognitive/perceptual dismay. One of such perceptual aspect of entrepreneurship that has recently emerged is person-entrepreneurship fit (P-E fit). By using this underlying aspect, this study entails investigation of its antecedents (entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and consequences (entrepreneurial intentions) in presence of boundary condition of family support. Data is collected through a structured questionnaire from 359 students enrolled in the last semester of their graduate and postgraduate programs at three large public sector universities. The findings of the study reveal that entrepreneurial self-efficacy influences perceptions of P-E fit and entrepreneurial intentions, while P-E fit works as a partial mediator. This study also found that family support is an important boundary condition that influences the relationship of self-efficacy and P-Ent fit.