Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term follow up and comparison between conservative and interventional therapy in postoperative bronchopleural fistula—a cohort study

Background Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a relatively rare postoperative complication with high mortality. The management is tough and controversial. The aim of this study was to compare the short and long-term outcomes between the conservative and the interventional therapy in postoperative BPF. We also concluded our own strategy and experience of treatment in postoperative BPF. Methods Postoperative BPF patients with malignancies, aged from 18 to 80 years old who had undergone thoracic surgery between June 2011 and June 2020, were included in this study and followed up from 20 months to 10 years. They were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Results Ninety-two BPF patients were included in this study, 39 of whom underwent interventional treatment. Significant differences were found in the 28-day and the 90-day survival rates between the conservative and the interventional therapy (P=0.001, 43.40% vs. 76.92%; P=0.006, 35.85% vs. 66.67%). Simple conservative therapy was independently associated with 90-day mortality between the groups in postoperative BPF [P=0.002, hazards ratio (HR) =2.913, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.480–5.731]. Conclusions Postoperative BPF is notorious for its high mortality. Surgical and bronchoscopic interventions are recommendable in postoperative BPF as they guarantee better short and long-term outcomes compared with the conservative therapy.
Identification of Genetic Alterations in Rapid Progressive Glioblastoma by Use of Whole Exome Sequencing

Background: Glioblastoma poses an inevitable threat to patients despite aggressive therapy regimes. It displays a great level of molecular heterogeneity and numerous substitutions in several genes have been documented. Next-generation sequencing techniques have identified various molecular signatures that have led to a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of glioblastoma. In this limited study, we sought to identify genetic variants in a small number of rare patients with aggressive glioblastoma. Methods: Five tumor tissue samples were isolated from four patients with rapidly growing glioblastoma. Genomic DNA was isolated and whole exome sequencing was used to study protein-coding regions. Generated FASTQ files were analyzed and variants were called for each sample. Variants were prioritized with different approaches and functional annotation was applied for the detrimental variants. Results: A total of 49,780 somatic variants were identified in the five glioblastoma samples studied, with the majority as missense substitutions. The top ten genes with the highest number of substitutions were MUC3A, MUC4, MUC6, OR4C5, PDE4DIP, AHNAK2, OR4C3, ZNF806, TTN, and RP1L1. Notably, variant prioritization after annotation indicated that the MTCH2 (Chr11: 47647265 A>G) gene sequence change was putative deleterious in all of the aggressive tumor samples. Conclusion: The MTCH2 (Chr11: 47647265 A>G) gene substitution was identified as putative deleterious in highly aggressive glioblastomas, which merits further investigation. Moreover, a high tumor mutation burden was observed, with a signature of the highest substitutions in MUC3A, MUC4, MUC6, OR4C5, PDE4DIP, AHNAK2, OR4C3, ZNF806, TTN, and RP1L1 genes. The findings provide critical, initial data for the further rational design of genetic screening and diagnostic approaches against aggressive glioblastoma.
Design and experimental verification of a hoverable quadrotor composed of only clockwise rotors

This paper presents a novel structure for a quadrotor, making it hover only with clockwise rotors, where we denote it as a 4P (Positive) rotor. We first investigate the condition for a 4P rotor to hover. More specifically, we conduct the hoverability analysis, which is closely related to the controllability analysis, and show that the tilting angles of each rotor are crucial conditions for the hoverability of the 4P rotor. The derived condition for the tilting angles is then utilized to present two prototypes. Each prototype is developed with the following design purposes: One is to reduce the horizontal force generated by the tilted rotors, and the other is to make its torque generation the same as that of a standard quadrotor. The hoverability and dynamical property of both prototype is demonstrated in simulations and experiments. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Enhanced Protection Coordination for Inverter Interfaced Distributed Generation (IIDG) with a Robust Multi-Loop Controller

Abstract Increasing penetration of inverter interfaced distributed generation (IIDG) in distribution networks has severely impacted protection coordination. False tripping, sympathetic tripping, protection blinding, failure of reclosing, and increase in short circuit levels are the critical complications and consequently disturbed the protection setting of the distribution network. This paper presents a novel multiloop current control scheme based on single integrator backstepping with a proportional resonant (PR) controller assisted by the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) to integrate IIDG in the distribution network. This control approach is designed to mitigate the maloperation of the overcurrent protection, due to the IIDG's current contribution during various types of faults. Inner loop backstepping is utilized to track converter side current and in addition, the PR controller is designed to track grid current in an outer loop. Using the proposed methodology, the injected current to the grid is effectively controlled to the rated level during several types of faults or disturbances. The performance of the proposed control strategy is verified by time-domain results and through eigenvalues trajectory and results have been compared with a current state-of-the-art which corroborates the effective control capability of the present controller.
Multipoles of the SLS storage ring: manufacturing and magnetic measurements

The quadrupoles and sextupoles for the Swiss Light Source had severe requirements on the manufacturing tolerances and the alignment of their magnetic axis. The 306 multipoles were manufactured, and magnetically measured at BINP and after delivery also at PSI. The features of manufacturing and precise magnetic measurements of SLS multipoles are discussed.
Serological surveillance on potential Plasmodium vivax exposure risk in a post-elimination setting

China was declared malaria free in June of 2021. In the post-elimination setting, vigilant surveillance is essential to sustain malaria free status. Serological surveillance has been recognized as an efficient tool for assessing the immunity levels and exposure risk in a population. In this study, a cross-sectional serological survey was conducted in Yingjiang County, China, in August–September, 2021. The study sites were villages along the borders with Myanmar, which have no local transmission since the last indigenous case registered in 2016. A total of 923 participants from six villages were enrolled. The majority was aged > 36 years (56.12%) and 12.46% (115/923) participants had experienced malaria infection at least once. A magnetic- bead-based assay was used to test antibodies against Plasmodium vivax antigen PvMSP-119 to evaluate the prevalence of antibody positive subjects. A reversible catalytic model was used to assess the risk of exposure. The prevalence of anti-PvMSP-119 IgG was 12.84% [95% confidence interval (CI): 9.22%–16.47%], 13.93% (95% CI: 10.11%–17.74%), and 3.57% (95% CI: 1.40%–5.75%) in three different line-of-defense areas, which differed significantly (P < 0.0001). The prevalence of anti-PvMSP-119 IgG increased with age and no statistically significant difference was detected between the sexes. The reversible catalytic model indicated that the seropositive conversion rate and seronegative reversion rate were 0.0042, 0.0034, 0.0032 and 0.0024, 0.0004, 0.0065 in the first-, second-line-of-defense area and total areas, respectively, and the fitted value did not differ significantly from the observed value (P > 0.1). Although this study found the prevalence of antibody-positive subjects and the seroconversion rate in this post-elimination setting were lower than that in transmission setting, the population still had an exposure risk. Serological surveillance should be considered in post-elimination settings to provide valuable information with which to evaluate the risk of malaria re-establishment.
Relationship between single‐crystal and polycrystal electrical conductivity

The problem of the prediction of the effective electrical conductivity of a polycrystal from the electrical conductivity of a single crystal is considered. It is shown that the familiar Voigt‐Reuss bounds on the behavior of a polycrystal are the very best generally valid bounds that have thus far been proposed and that the various methods that are claimed to predict exact effective conductivity (or narrow bounds) all include implicit restrictions on the internal geometry of the polycrystal. This is accomplished by constructing a series of statistically homogeneous and isotropic polycrystal models for which the effective conductivity can be exactly calculated. It is hence to be expected that no universal relationship between single‐crystal and polycrystal conductivity exists. Experimental evidence is adduced to support this conclusion. The results are also applicable to the analogous problems of thermal conductivity and electrical permittivity.
Comparative transcriptome analysis identifies candidate genes related to seed coat color in rapeseed

Yellow seed coat in rapeseed (Brassica napus) is a desirable trait that can be targeted to improve the quality of this oilseed crop. To better understand the inheritance mechanism of the yellow-seeded trait, we performed transcriptome profiling of developing seeds in yellow- and black-seeded rapeseed with different backgrounds. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during seed development showed significant characteristics, these genes were mainly enriched for the Gene Ontology (GO) terms carbohydrate metabolic process, lipid metabolic process, photosynthesis, and embryo development. Moreover, 1206 and 276 DEGs, which represent candidates to be involved in seed coat color, were identified between yellow- and black-seeded rapeseed during the middle and late stages of seed development, respectively. Based on gene annotation, GO enrichment analysis, and protein–protein interaction network analysis, the downregulated DEGs were primarily enriched for the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Notably, 25 transcription factors (TFs) involved in regulating flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, including known (e.g., KNAT7, NAC2, TTG2 and STK) and predicted TFs (e.g., C2H2-like, bZIP44, SHP1, and GBF6), were identified using integrated gene regulatory network (iGRN) and weight gene co-expression networks analysis (WGCNA). These candidate TF genes had differential expression profiles between yellow- and black-seeded rapeseed, suggesting they might function in seed color formation by regulating genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway. Thus, our results provide in-depth insights that facilitate the exploration of candidate gene function in seed development. In addition, our data lay the foundation for revealing the roles of genes involved in the yellow-seeded trait in rapeseed.
A Palletizing System for Microchannel Heat Exchangers Based on 3D Visual Guidance

Aiming at the problems of slow manual palletizing, high risk and easy damage to products after the assembly of microchannel heat exchanger, a palletizing system based on 3D visual guidance is presented in this paper. Firstly, an automatic calibration method for RGB-D camera extrinsic parameters was adopted: used random sample consensus algorithm RANSAC for plane fitting, and the pallet was idealized as a plane. The camera extrinsic parameters were calculated according to the rotation relationship between the plane normal vector and the camera coordinate system. When it was performing detection, converted depth data into point cloud data and preprocessed, including coordinate transformation, downsampling, etc. After that, according to the characteristics of stacking, a point cloud segmentation algorithm based on depth and the number of points was used, which could not only segment the pallet and sponge strips, but also effectively detect obstacles. For different parts segmented, the pallet was positioned by fitting the minimum bounding rectangle, and the stacking depths were obtained by calculating the centroid of the sponge strips. Finally, a series of constraints were used to determine whether the unloading conditions were met. The experimental results show that the automatic calibration is effective, the time consuming is about 0.43 s, and the depth range of the pallet is 11 mm after calibration. The algorithm can accurately identify various situations above the stacking and the time consuming is about 1.63 s.
Proton‐cyclotron instability induced by the thermal anisotropy of minor ions

[1] We study ion cyclotron instabilities due to the thermal anisotropy of minor heavy ions. Very large thermal anisotropies have been observed in O+5 ions in coronal holes [Cranmer, 2001], and as is well known, the thermal anisotropy of an ion species is the free-energy source of ion cyclotron waves of the corresponding species. Nevertheless, as the heavy ion thermal anisotropy in coronal holes develops, the ions are being heated and accelerated, and therefore they acquire a drift velocity relative to the protons. Owing to the drift velocity a new instability branch develops very close to the proton gyrofrequency. In other words, heavy ion cyclotron waves can also trigger proton-cyclotron waves as a result of the drift velocity of the minor heavy ions. We propose that the proton-cyclotron waves generated by this mechanism are absorbed by the protons, and therefore this process can contribute to fast proton heating in coronal holes.
ULTRAVIOLET GLOW FROM THE HYDROGEN WALL

We compare new results of models of the interplanetary H Lyα intensity background in the outer heliosphere with scans performed by the Voyager 1/2 UV spectrometer (UVS) instruments between 1993 and 2003. This study shows that the excess intensity initially reported by Quémerais et al. can be explained by models of the hydrogen atom distribution including effects of the heliospheric interface. The models of the hydrogen atom distribution in the interplanetary medium used in this work have been developed following the numerical scheme presented by Baranov & Malama. Recent improvements are described by Izmodenov et al. Radiative transfer computations of the interplanetary Lyα intensity are made following a Monte Carlo approach presented by Quémerais and Quémerais & Izmodenov. We find that the upwind intensity excess observed in the outer heliosphere initially reported by Quémerais et al. can be explained by a full radiative transfer computation. This computation must include a full description of the velocity distributions of the different hydrogen populations that enter the heliosphere after crossing the interface. The excess upwind intensity observed by UVS on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 can be explained as an emission of the decelerated hydrogen atoms near the stagnation point of the heliopause. Because those atoms are slowed down relative to the main hydrogen flow, photons they scatter suffer less absorption and are visible at a much larger distance than is the case for photons scattered by atoms in the main flow. The shape and extent of the excess emission gives information about the decelerated population near the heliopause stagnation point. A detailed comparison between the data and our present model does not show a complete agreement. The modeled intensity excess is larger than the observed one. We discuss possible improvements to the H distribution model in order to decrease the size of the excess in the model, for example, by decreasing the density of H atoms in the hydrogen wall.
GeoBox: design and evaluation of a tool for resilient and decentralised data management in agriculture

Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) are an important core component of modern farming companies as they allow, e.g. to document activities, create fertilisation plans, and feed digital equipment with required data. Since the entire agricultural sector is an essential component of food production, high standards of resilience should be established in the involved companies. Accordingly, the used software should also be designed with high standards on reliability and crisis capability. Based on a literature review, we found that software for farmers with certain resilience needs is lacking. Thus, we designed and evaluated a new FMIS concept with the user-centred design method. By conducting focus groups (two rounds, total N = 57) in 2017 and 2019, we raised speci ﬁ c front-end and back-end requirements of farmers. Based on the requirements, we developed our concept for both front-and back-end in terms of a decentralised and o ﬄ ine-working FMIS. Through the evaluation with practitioners ( N = 16) of the implemented concept, we derived ﬁ ndings and implications, highlighting the need for privacy, stability, and o ﬄ ine-capability, as well as the UI-requirement to be supportive, e.g. with easy to understand icons and terms.
Location Privacy-Aware Task Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing

In mobile edge computing (MEC), users can offload tasks to nearby MEC servers to reduce computation cost. Considering that the size of offloaded tasks could disclose user location information, several location privacy-preserving task offloading mechanisms have been proposed under the single-server scenario. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of them could provide a strict privacy protection guarantee or be applicable to the multi-server scenario where the user's location can be inferred more accurately if servers collude with each other. In this paper, we propose a novel location privacy-aware task offloading framework (LPA-Offload) for both single-server and multi-server scenarios, which provides strict and provable location privacy protection while achieving efficient task offloading. Specifically, we propose a location perturbation mechanism that allows each user to perturb its real location within a rational perturbation region and provides a differential privacy guarantee. To make a satisfactory offloading strategy, we propose a perturbation region determination mechanism and an offloading strategy generation mechanism that adaptively select a proper perturbation region according to the customized privacy factor, and then generate an optimal offloading strategy based on the perturbed location within the decided region. The determination of the perturbation region could achieve personalized privacy requirements while reducing computation cost. LPA-Offload is proved to satisfy <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\epsilon,\delta)$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi>ε</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>δ</mml:mi><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="hu-ieq1-3254553.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-differential privacy, and the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework.
El Niño-Southern Oscillation impacts on grape yields in Santana do Livramento, Brazil: understanding and early warning of crop failure conditions

El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important source of year–to–year fluctuations in the whole global climate system and in the southern Brazilian climate. El Niño events affect this region, imposing unfavorable weather conditions (rainy/humid/overcast) during critical grapevine phenological stages, compromising yields in the current and following crop seasons. The analysis of 29 crop cycles revealed patterns about grape yield oscillations in Santana do Livramento, Campanha Gaúcha, RS, Brazil. Yield deviations showed correlations with the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) 3 months running means centered in November. La Niña events correlate with yield oscillations close to or above the tendency line. El Niño events are linked to various results, including the lowest and the highest yields. The four largest crop failures happened in El Niño events, while the three most severe of them happened in cases of early El Niño consolidation. The seven lowest yields were linked to El Niño, or low or descending yields in the previous year (s), or all these factors combined. Simple criteria allowing early warning of crop failure conditions were defined: ONI (or the monthly Niño - 3.4 Index) ≥ +0.5 °C in July (or earlier); and low or descending yields in the previous year (s).
Investigating Biochemical and Histopathological Responses between Raspberries and Aculeastrum americanum

Late leaf rust is a fungal disease in raspberries caused by Aculeastrum americanum (Farl.) M. Scholler U. Braun (syn. Thekopsora americana (Farl.) Aime McTaggart) leading to early defoliation and yield losses. Red raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) are susceptible to this pathogen, although this susceptibility varies among cultivars. In contrast, black raspberries were previously reported to be more resistant (Rubus occidentalis L.) and immune (Rubus niveus Thunb.) to this pathogen, raising their importance in plant breeding programs. However, what features make them respond differently to the same pathogen? In this study, we characterize for the first time the pre- and post-formed structural and biochemical defense mechanisms of R. idaeus cv. Autumn Bliss, R. occidentalis and R. niveus. Ultrastructural and histopathological analyses were used to uncover the interactions between these raspberries and A. americanum. The ultrastructural results indicate that the pathogen germinates on both leaf surfaces but can only form appressoria on the stomata. Although the three raspberry species were infected and colonized by A. americanum, a clear difference in susceptibility was observed between them. A compact mesophyll, pre- and post-formed phenolic compounds, and post-formed pectic compounds were the main plant defense mechanisms against fungal colonization. These findings provide new information about raspberries’ defense mechanisms in response to A. americanum and elucidate the interactions occurring in these pathosystems.
Anomalous diffusion of energetic particles: connecting experiment and simulations

Recent experimental and theoretical studies highlight the need to predict the turbulence-induced radial diffusion of energetic particles quantitatively in present-day and future fusion devices. Gyrokinetic simulations with passive fast ion species in realistic tokamak equilibria are used to investigate the influence of the particle energy on diffusion due to electrostatic and electromagnetic turbulence. To facilitate more straightforward comparisons between theory and experiments, scaling relations are derived that allow for writing the relevant diffusivities as functions of experimentally readily accessible quantities. In this context, an improved method for estimating the magnetic fluctuation level is described.
Gain switching of an external cavity grating-coupled surface emitting laser with wide tunability

The gain-switched, single frequency operation of an external cavity grating-coupled surface emitting laser with a wavelength tuning range of 100 nm was presented. The light in the grating section was coupled out of the laser at a specific angle to the surface of the device. Analysis showed that within the driving current range, lasing in the device only occurred when the external cavity was properly aligned.