bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Molecular testing for cytologically suspicious and malignant (Bethesda V and VI) thyroid nodules to optimize the extent of surgical intervention: A retrospective chart review
Authors: Hier Jessica , Avior Galit , Pusztaszeri Marc , Krasner Joshua R. , Alyouha Noura , Forest Veronique-Isabelle , Hier Michael P. , Mlynarek Alex , Richardson Keith , Sadeghi Nader , Tamilia Michael , Payne Richard J. 
Published: April 2021

Background Molecular testing has been used for cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules (Bethesda III and IV), where the risk of malignancy is 10–40%. However, to date, the role of molecular testing in cytologically suspicious or positive for malignancy (Bethesda V and VI) thyroid nodules has been controversial. The aim of this study was to determine whether patients who had molecular testing in Bethesda V and VI thyroid nodules had the optimal extent of surgery performed more often than patients who did not have molecular testing performed. Methods A retrospective chart review of 122 cases was performed: 101 patients from the McGill University teaching hospitals and 21 patients from the Hillel Yaffe Medical center, Technion University. Patients included in the study were those with Bethesda V or VI thyroid nodules who underwent molecular testing (ThyGenext® or ThyroseqV3®) (McGill n = 72, Hillel Yaffe n = 14). Patients with Bethesda V or VI thyroid nodules who did not undergo molecular testing were used as controls (McGill n = 29, Hillel Yaffe n = 7). Each case was reviewed in order to determine whether the patient had optimal surgery. This was defined as total thyroidectomy in the presence of either a positive lymph node, extrathyroidal extension, or an aggressive pathological variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (tall cell, hobnail, columnar cell, diffuse sclerosing, and solid/trabecular) documented on the final pathology report. In all other cases, a lobectomy/hemi/subtotal thyroidectomy was considered as optimal surgery. Chi-squared testing was performed to compare groups. Results When molecular testing was done, 91.86% (79/86) of surgeries in the molecular testing group were optimal, compared to 61.11% (22/36) in the control group. At McGill University teaching hospitals and at Hillel Yaffe, 91.67% (66/72) and 92.86% (13/14) of surgeries in the intervention group were considered as optimal, respectively. This compares to 58.62% (17/29) at McGill and 71.43% (5/7) at Hillel Yaffe when molecular testing was not performed ( p = .001, p = .186). Conclusions In this study, molecular testing in Bethesda V and VI thyroid tumors significantly improved the likelihood of optimal surgery. Therefore, molecular testing may have an important role in optimizing surgical procedures performed in the setting of Bethesda V and VI thyroid nodules. Prospective studies with larger sample sizes are required to further investigate this finding. Graphical Abstract
Multiple hepatic inflammatory pseudotumors with elevated alpha-fetoprotein and alpha-fetoprotein lectin 3 fraction with various PET accumulations: a case report
Authors: Maruno Masataka , Imai Katsunori , Nakao Yosuke , Kitano Yuki , Kaida Takayoshi , Mima Kosuke , Hayashi Hiromitsu , Yamashita Yo-Ichi , Mikami Yoshiki , Baba Hideo 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBackgroundHepatic inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) is a rare, benign, tumor-like lesion. Because there are no characteristic laboratory markers or radiological features, hepatic IPT is often misdiagnosed as a malignant neoplasm such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Case presentationA 68-year-old man with liver dysfunction due to chronic hepatitis C virus infection and alcoholic liver disease presented with hepatic tumors in segments III and VIII. The levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and itsLens culinarisagglutinin-reactive fraction, AFP lectin 3 (AFP-L3), were elevated to 822.8 ng/ml and 75.2%, respectively. The tumor showed contrast enhancement on contrast-enhanced computed tomography and various accumulation on positron emission tomography. Based on these biological and imaging features, HCC was suspected, and we performed laparoscopic partial hepatectomy for these two tumors. Pathological diagnosis revealed that both tumors were hepatic IPTs with no malignant characteristics. After hepatectomy, the serum AFP and AFP-L3 levels decreased to the normal range.ConclusionWe report a very rare case of hepatic IPT with elevated serum AFP and AFP-L3, mimicking HCC. Clinicians should include this rare neoplasm in the differential diagnoses of hepatic tumors even when the serum markers for HCC are elevated.
Biological control of soil borne cucumber diseases using green marine macroalgae
Authors: El-Sheekh Mostafa M. , Ahmed Ayman Y. , Soliman Amira S. , Abdel-Ghafour Siham E. , Sobhy Hassan M. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBackgroundIn this study, the potential of extracts and powders of green seaweeds,Ulva fasciata, andEnteromorpha flexuosawas evaluated as biocontrol against the pathogenic soil-borne fungi,Macrophomina phaseolinaandFusarium solani, infecting cucumber plants in Egypt. The antifungal activity of the algal extracts was evaluated in vitro against the pathogens mycelial fungal growth using five organic solvents.ResultsObtained results indicated that mycelial growth inhibition was noticed withF. solaniin all algal extracts tested. InM. phaseolina, all algal extracts did not inhibit the fungal growth but affected microsclerotia formation (the main source of the second infection). In the case ofF. solani, the highest reduction (68.6%) was noticed, while the chloroform extract ofU. fasciatainhibited the radial growth ofF. solanito 2.5 cm whenE. flexuosainhibited the radial growth to 4.3 cm as compared with the control (8.0 cm). The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the infrared spectroscopy analyses revealed that iron-monocarbonyl, cyclononasiloxane, and their functional groups, including amine, ether, etc., might play a core role in the anti-fungal activity of the seaweed extracts used.ConclusionThis work concluded that the macroalgae species with many unique antifungal properties components had an inhibitory effect against soil-borne cucumber diseases. The antimicrobial activity might be explored in the future in numerous diverse applications in agriculture and plant disease control, revealing their actions to control some plant fungal pathogens.
Echo from the underground: the heritage customization of subway infrastructures in Shanghai’s listed areas
Authors: González Martínez Plácido 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe design of metro stations constitutes a clear example of the new core role of culture in a city such as Shanghai that remains to be assessed from a critical heritage perspective. As an unexplored dimension of a massive heritage institutional apparatus, metro stations act as ‘white canvases’ where commercial, political and cultural messages are displayed. These messages contribute to city branding while simultaneously influencing the perception and interpretation of the historic urban landscape above ground. This research offers insights into the subway stations located in the listed heritage areas of Shanghai and the architectural, artistic and exhibitive resources that ‘give character’ to these stations. The research applies visual methods and discursive analysis based on direct observation of these ‘characteristic’ elements in metro stations. The paper establishes the argument that the amount and distribution of these characteristic elements in the metro network offers unequal representation of the importance of the heritage areas above. When represented, we argue that such features convey renewed narratives of urban identity according to an authorised heritage discourse in Shanghai. These narratives cater to an image of ideal, harmonious continuity between the past and the future that aims to characterise Shanghai as a Chinese global metropolis.
Violation of Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation by Stern-Gerlach measurements
Authors: Inoue Yuki , Ozawa Masanao 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Although Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is represented by a rigorously proven relation about intrinsic indeterminacy in quantum states, Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation (EDR) has been commonly believed as another aspect of the principle. However, recent developments of quantum measurement theory made Heisenberg's EDR testable to observe its violations. Here, we study the EDR for Stern-Gerlach measurements. In a previous report, it has been pointed out that their EDR is close to the theoretical optimal. The present letter reports that even the original Stern-Gerlach experiment in 1922, as the available experimental data show, violates Heisenberg's EDR. The results suggest that Heisenberg's EDR is more ubiquitously violated than it has long been supposed.
Leveraging Alternatives
Authors: Ivaska Andrew 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis article explores the place of the USSR in the imagination, circuitry, and everyday practice of the early Mozambican nationalist movement configuring itself in exile in Dar es Salaam. Soviet plans, like those of the US, for engaging African liberation movements were ambitiously imagined, but superpower influence cohered within relatively narrow, if global, corridors. This impact (through funding, scholarships, and more) was at once significant and unfolded in unpredictable ways. The article traces these contingent forms across scales of “comrade life,” from the leadership rivalries playing out between Dar, Accra, Moscow, Washington DC, and Cairo, to the “view from the veranda”: the aspirations, grievances, and material struggles that marked the daily rhythms of life for rank-and-file cadres. What emerges is a less-familiar face of the USSR in Africa. Rather than the Cold War superpower confidently guiding its impact, it appears here as an intimate part of an African-managed infrastructure of political exile.
A National Vocation
Authors: Lawson Owain 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis article writes engineers into the history of Lebanese political-economic thought. Historians of Lebanon's postindependence period have emphasized how a narrow, elite “consortium” espoused a national ideology that authorized laissez-faire monetary and trade policies. These intellectuals and businessmen invoked environmental determinism to claim that trade, tourism, and services were Lebanon's national vocation. This article reveals that engineers formed an influential and underexamined countercurrent advocating statist developmentalism. Engineer-bureaucrats saw the postindependence era as an opportunity to claim their profession's status and redefine bourgeois culture and its relationship to governing institutions according to their conceptions of modernity. By reinterpreting the consortium's environmental narrative of Lebanese history, the hydrological engineer Ibrahim Abd-El-Al portrayed rational development of water resources and agriculture as an organic expression of national identity. These efforts cultivated a critical and technically literate reading public that favored statism and shaped how that public understood their national subjectivity and relationship to the natural world.
Integrity of the short arm of the nuclear pore Y-complex is required for mouse embryonic stem cell growth and differentiation
Authors: Gonzalez-Estevez Alba , Verrico Annalisa , Orniacki Clarisse , Reina-San-Martin Bernardo , Doye Valérie 
Published: April 2021

ABSTRACT
Many cellular processes, ranging from cell division to differentiation, are controlled by nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). However, studying the contributions of individual NPC subunits to these processes in vertebrates has long been impeded by their complexity and the lack of efficient genetic tools. Here, we use genome editing in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to characterize the role of NPC structural components, focusing on the short arm of the Y-complex that comprises Nup85, Seh1 and Nup43. We show that Seh1 and Nup43, although dispensable in pluripotent mESCs, are required for their normal cell growth rates, their viability upon differentiation and for the maintenance of proper NPC density. mESCs with an N-terminally truncated Nup85 mutation (in which interaction with Seh1 is greatly impaired) feature a similar reduction of NPC density. However, their proliferation and differentiation are unaltered, indicating that it is the integrity of the Y-complex, rather than the number of NPCs, that is critical to ensure these processes.
Agency and development of key competences in nonformal learning contexts
Authors: Põlda Halliki , Roosalu Triin , Karu Katrin , Teder Lianne , Lepik Maigi 
Published: April 2021

Artiklis anname ülevaate üldpädevuste käsitlemisest mitteformaalõppes. Eesmärk on välja selgitada, kuidas mitteformaalõppe poliitikadokumentides ja praktikas avaldub üldpädevuste arendamine ja osaliste agentsus. Selleks analüüsime üldpädevuste avaldumist kuue valdkondliku raja 23 poliitikadokumendis ja nende radade praktikute arusaamades. Mitteformaalõppe põhimõtete rakendajat ega tehtud 12 fookusgrupiintervjuu põhjal selgitasime välja, kuidas toetatakse ja arendatakse üldpädevusi ning konstrueeritakse osaliste agentsust. Kriitilisel diskursuseanalüüsil selgus, et üldpädevusi poliitikadokumentides otseselt ei nimetata, ent sisuliselt need mitteformaalõppele seatud eesmärkides siiski väljenduvad. Ka praktikud kirjeldavad üldpädevuste arendamist oma igapäevatöös, kuid ei nimeta neid riiklikust õppekavast tuttavate terminitega ega mõtesta üldpädevustena. Praktikute kirjeldustes konstrueeritakse mitteformaalõpet õppija agentsuse toetajana, mis annab õppe eesmärgi seadel ja hindamisel vastutuse õppijale. Praktikute enesekäsitluses on läbi põimunud osaleja, arendaja ja õppimise võimaldaja rollid.
Summary
Modeling of Laboratory Animals Exposure Conditions behind Local Concrete Shielding Bombarded by 650-MeV Protons
Authors: Ivanov A , Krylov A , Molokanov A. , Bushmanov A. , Samoylov A. 
Published: April 2021

Purpose: To estimate the radiation fields formed after the passage of high-energy protons through the concrete protection for subsequent radiobiological experiments on animals on this model.
Material and methods: The results of the calculation of the secondary characteristics of a field of mixed radiation behind the local concrete with thickness 20, 40, and 80 cm, bombarded by a proton beam of 650 MeV at the JINR Phasotron and experimental estimation of the values of the absorbed dose phantoms of mice irradiated for protection during radiobiological experiments.
The calculation was performed by the Monte Carlo method according to the MCNPX program for secondary protons, neutrons, π-mesons, and gamma rays. To verify the adequacy of calculations was performed the comparison of calculated and measured in the experiment spatial distribution of activation threshold detectors for aluminum protection, as well as a comparison of the calculated values of absorbed dose for radiation protection with the results of absorbed dose measurements with a diamond detector.
Results: The calculations made it possible to obtain the characteristics of the fields of mixed secondary radiation behind local concrete shields of different thickness irradiated with protons with an energy of 650 MeV and to estimate the values of absorbed doses in the irradiation sites of mice in the radiobiological experiment. The reliability of the calculations was confirmed by experimental verification of the activation of aluminum threshold detectors behind a 20 cm thick protection, as well as direct measurements using a diamond detector.
Conclusion: The calculated assessment of radiation fields formed after protons pass through the concrete protection and its comparison with the results of radiation dose measurements for the subsequent radiobiological experiment on animals on this model in the interests of designing protective structures on the Moon and other space bodies, as well as biological defenses on charged-particles accelerators.
Analysis of the Effects of Low-Dose Radiation on Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Authors: Usupzhanova D. , Astrelina T. , Kobzeva I. , Nikitina V. , Suchkova Yu. , Brunchukov V. , Rastorgueva A. , Brumberg V. , Bushmanov A. , Samoylov A. 
Published: April 2021

Purpose: The aim of the study was to study the effect of low X-ray doses on human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in long-term cultivation in vitro.
Material and methods: MSCs of the mucosal gum tissue of human were used. Cells were irradiated using an RUST-M1 X-ray unit (Russia) at doses of 50, 80, 100, 250 and 1000 mGy (dose rate40 mGy/min) and then cultivated according to standard methods. Immunological characteristics and viability of MSCs were evaluated on a FACSCanto II flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson CA, USA) for early and late passengers. Proliferative activity (PA) was evaluated using an xCelligence real-time cell analyzer (ACEA Biosciencs, Inc.).
Results: It was shown that the proliferative activity (PA) of MSCs of the mucosal gum tissue which were irradiated at dose 50 mGy is comparable with the control group in long-term cultivation while doses of 100 and 250 mGy showed a decrease of PA. Also non-irradiated MSCs showed a significant decrease of the PA during cultivation in a conditioned medium from cells that received dose of 1000 mGy and an increase of PA during cultivation in a conditioned medium of cells that received doses of 50, 100 and 250 mGy. The cells were previously irradiated at dose 250 mGy showed adaptive response during cultivation in conditioned medium from cells that received dose of 1000 mGy.
Сonclusion: The assessment of the effects of low radiation doses was focused on the bystander effect in the presented study. It was noted after adding conditioned media from irradiated cells to previously irradiated and non-irradiated MSCs. The bystander effects for low and high doses are different and their biological meaning requires further study. The phenomenon of adaptive response was shown after addition conditioned media from cells irradiated at dose 1000 mGy to pre-irradiated MSCs received a dose of 250 mGy. The obtained result leads to the conclusion that the effects of low doses can be positive. Thus, the results of study mainly correspond to the threshold nonlinear concept, according to which the effect is not proportional to the received radiation dose.
ANALISIS PENGARUH KEBIJAKAN HUTANG TERHADAP KINERJA KEUANGAN
Authors: Wijaya Ari Triadi , Fikri Muhammad Ali 
Published: April 2021

This study aims to determine the effect of debt policy on financial performance of coal companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Policy debt is proxied by short term debt (STD), long term debt (LTD), and total debt (TD), while financial performance is proxied by return on equity (ROE). This research carried out for 3 (three) years, namely 2015-2017. This research is a causal research with a quantitative approach, whereas based on the level of exploration of this study, including associative research. Population research is a coal company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2015-2017. Samples obtained were based on purposive sampling technique, and obtained 21 company. Data analysis technique used panel data regression. Regression with using the free variable short term debt (STD), long term debt (LTD), and total debt (TD). Based on the results of data analysis, STD has no significant effect on ROE. Variable LTD has a significant effect on ROE. The TD variable has no significant effect with ROE. so the STD and LTD variables are able to influence the ROE variable explained by other factors outside this research model.
Self-reported quality of activities of daily living task performance in four diagnostic groups with chronic conditions
Authors: Nielsen Kristina Tomra , Klokker Louise , Wæhrens Eva Ejlersen 
Published: April 2021

Background/aims To design intervention programmes addressing activities of daily living task performance problems in individuals with chronic conditions, more knowledge about the types of challenges these individuals experience is needed. The aim of this study was to examine the types of activities of daily living tasks, as well as the types of problems related to the quality of task performance, that individuals with chronic conditions report and determine similarities and differences in four diagnostic sub-groups. Methods Data on self-reported quality of activities of daily living task performance were collected among 593 individuals with rheumatological disease, incurable cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and schizophrenia, using the ADL-Interview. Activities of daily living tasks most frequently reported as problematic were identified within each sub-group. Sub-group profiles were generated to identify similarities and differences in quality of performance. Results Participants reported problems performing similar types of activities of daily living tasks across diagnostic sub-groups, especially within instrumental activities of daily living. Moreover, participants mainly reported a decreased quality of performance in terms of using extra time and/or increased physical effort while performing personal activities of daily living. Conclusions As individuals across four chronic conditions reported somewhat similar problems related to activities of daily living task performance, generic activities of daily living interventions addressing these problems seem appropriate, especially interventions addressing problems related to use of extra time and increased effort.
Numerical simulation of all-optical logic gates based on hybrid-cavity semiconductor lasers
Authors: Liu Jia-Chen , Huang Yong-Zhen , Wang Fu-Li , Hao You-Zeng , Ma Chun-Guang , Yang Ke , Yang Yue-De , Xiao Jin-Long 
Published: April 2021

All-optical switch and multiple logic gates have been demonstrated using a hybrid-cavity semiconductor laser composed of a square microcavity and a Fabry–Perot cavity experimentally. In this paper, two-section tri-mode rate equations with optical injection terms are proposed and applied to study all-optical logic gates of NOT, NOR, and NAND operations utilizing the hybrid-cavity laser. Steady-state and dynamical characteristics of all-optical multiple logic gates are simulated, taking into account the influence of mode frequency detuning, gain suppression coefficients, mode Q factor, injection energy, and biasing current. All-optical logic NOT, NOR, and NAND gates up to 20, 15, and 20 Gbit/s are obtained numerically with dynamic extinction ratios of over 20, 20, and 10 dB, respectively, which are potential response speeds of the all-optical logic gates based on the hybrid-cavity semiconductor lasers.