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One of the important genes for eyespot development in butterfly wings is Distal-less. Its function has been evaluated via several methods, including CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. However, functional inhibition may be performed at the right time at the right place using a different method. Here, we used a novel protein delivery method for pupal wing tissues in vivo to inactivate a target protein, Distal-less, with a polyclonal anti-Distal-less antibody using the blue pansy butterfly Junonia orithya. We first demonstrated that various antibodies including the anti-Distal-less antibody were delivered to wing epithelial cells in vivo in this species. Treatment with the anti-Distal-less antibody reduced eyespot size, confirming the positive role of Distal-less in eyespot development. The treatment eliminated or deformed a parafocal element, suggesting a positive role of Distal-less in the development of the parafocal element. This result also suggested the integrity of an eyespot and its corresponding parafocal element as the border symmetry system. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the antibody-mediated protein knockdown method is a useful tool for functional assays of proteins, such as Distal-less, expressed in pupal wing tissues, and that Distal-less functions for eyespots and parafocal elements in butterfly wing color pattern development.

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Eyespot foci on butterfly wings function as organizers of eyespot color patterns during development. Despite their importance, focal structures have not been examined in detail. Here, we microscopically examined scales, sockets, and the wing membrane in the butterfly eyespot foci of both expanded and unexpanded wings using the Blue Pansy butterfly Junonia orithya. Images from a high-resolution light microscope revealed that, although not always, eyespot foci had scales with disordered planar polarity. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images after scale removal revealed that the sockets were irregularly positioned and that the wing membrane was physically distorted as if the focal site were mechanically squeezed from the surroundings. Focal areas without eyespots also had socket array irregularities, but less frequently and less severely. Physical damage in the background area induced ectopic patterns with socket array irregularities and wing membrane distortions, similar to natural eyespot foci. These results suggest that either the process of determining an eyespot focus or the function of an eyespot organizer may be associated with wing-wide mechanics that physically disrupt socket cells, scale cells, and the wing membrane, supporting the physical distortion hypothesis of the induction model for color pattern determination in butterfly wings.

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A growing body of evidence indicates that the global diversity of freshwater fishes has not been fully documented. Studies of freshwater fishes that were previously thought to be morphologically variable have revealed the existence of deeply divergent lineages, with many distinct species. In southern Africa a number of Enteromius species exhibit either exceedingly wide or divided distribution patterns that should be rare for freshwater fishes with limited dispersal opportunities between river systems. One such species is the sidespot barb, Enteromius neefi. As currently defined, E. neefi has a disjunct distribution that is divided between rivers in the northeast escarpment in South Africa and Eswatini, and tributaries of the Upper Zambezi in Zambia and southern Congo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a large geographic gap between these two populations. With the use of molecular and morphological methods, the level of divergence between the two populations was examined, and a new species was described from the Steelpoort River in the Limpopo River system of South Africa. Findings from this study provide further evidence for a number of taxonomic problems within the goldie barbs of southern Africa, and some taxonomic rearrangements are proposed for this group.

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Foliar pigmentation patterns vary among plant species and growth conditions. In this study, we utilize hyperspectral imaging to assess foliar pigmentation in the bryophyte Marchantia polymorpha under nutrient stress and identify associated genetic factors. Using singular value decomposition (SVD) for feature selection, we quantitate color variations induced by deficiencies in phosphate, nitrate, magnesium, calcium, and iron. Pseudo-colored thallus images show that disrupting MpWRKY10 causes irregular pigmentation with auronidin accumulation. Transcriptomic profiling shows that MpWRKY10 regulates phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes and R2R3-MYB transcription factors during phosphate deficiency, with MpMYB14 upregulation preceding pigment accumulation. MpWRKY10 is downregulated in older, pigmented thalli under phosphate deficiency but maintained in young thalli, where it suppresses pigmentation genes. This downregulation is absent in pigmented thalli due to aging. Comparative transcriptome analysis suggests similar WRKY and MYB roles in nutrient response and pigmentation in red-leaf lettuce, alluding to conserved genetic factors controlling foliar pigmentation patterns under nutrient deficiency.

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Animal body coloration is often linked to social dominance and mating success. This is because it can carry information on an animal's body condition and competitive ability by reflecting the genetic quality of individuals or by responding to their current or past living conditions. The present study investigates genetic and environmental effects on a conspicuous color pattern of the cichlid fish Tropheus sp. black "Ikola," in which the size of a carotenoid-based yellow area on the body co-varies with social dominance. To examine environmental plasticity of the color pattern, we tested for effects of early-life stress, induced by reduced feeding of juveniles prior to color pattern formation, as well as effects of a stress treatment administered to fully colored adult fish. None of the stress treatments affected the color pattern as quantified by the width of the yellow bar. However, offspring bar width was correlated to parental values in mid-parent-mid-offspring regression analyses, and animal models estimated significant additive genetic effects on bar width, indicating heritability of the trait. Depending on the random effects structure of the animal models (i.e., whether including or excluding maternal and brood effects), narrow-sense heritability estimates for bar width ranged between 0.2 and 0.8, with the strongest statistical support for the highest estimate. In each of the alternative models, a large proportion of the total variance in bar width was explained by the included random effects, suggesting that bar width is strongly determined by genetic factors or shared maternal and brood environments, with limited scope for environmental influences later in life.

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The color pattern of insects is one of the most diverse adaptive evolutionary phenotypes. However, the molecular regulation of this color pattern is not fully understood. In this study, we found that the transcription factor Bm-mamo is responsible for black dilute (bd) allele mutations in the silkworm. Bm-mamo belongs to the BTB zinc finger family and is orthologous to mamo in Drosophila melanogaster. This gene has a conserved function in gamete production in Drosophila and silkworms and has evolved a pleiotropic function in the regulation of color patterns in caterpillars. Using RNAi and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technology, we showed that Bm-mamo is a repressor of dark melanin patterns in the larval epidermis. Using in vitro binding assays and gene expression profiling in wild-type and mutant larvae, we also showed that Bm-mamo likely regulates the expression of related pigment synthesis and cuticular protein genes in a coordinated manner to mediate its role in color pattern formation. This mechanism is consistent with the dual role of this transcription factor in regulating both the structure and shape of the cuticle and the pigments that are embedded within it. This study provides new insight into the regulation of color patterns as well as into the construction of more complex epidermal features in some insects.

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Petal blotch is a specific flower color pattern commonly found in angiosperm families. In particular, Rosa persica is characterized by dark red blotches at the base of yellow petals. Modern rose cultivars with blotches inherited the blotch trait from R. persica. Therefore, understanding the mechanism for blotch formation is crucial for breeding rose cultivars with various color patterns. In this study, the metabolites and genes responsible for the blotch formation in R. persica were identified for the first time through metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses using LC-MS/MS and RNA-seq. A total of 157 flavonoids were identified, with 7 anthocyanins as the major flavonoids, namely, cyanidin 3-O-(6″-O-malonyl) glucoside 5-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin 3-O-galactoside, cyanidin O-rutinoside-O-malonylglucoside, pelargonidin 3-O-glucoside, pelargonidin 3,5-O-diglucoside, and peonidin O-rutinoside-O-malonylglucoside, contributing to pigmentation and color darkening in the blotch parts of R. persica, whereas carotenoids predominantly influenced the color formation of non-blotch parts. Zeaxanthin and antheraxanthin mainly contributed to the yellow color formation of petals at the semi-open and full bloom stages. The expression levels of two 4-coumarate: CoA ligase genes (Rbe014123 and Rbe028518), the dihydroflavonol 4-reductase gene (Rbe013916), the anthocyanidin synthase gene (Rbe016466), and UDP-flavonoid glucosyltransferase gene (Rbe026328) indicated that they might be the key structural genes affecting the formation and color of petal blotch. Correlation analysis combined with weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) further characterized 10 transcription factors (TFs). These TFs might participate in the regulation of anthocyanin accumulation in the blotch parts of petals by modulating one or more structural genes. Our results elucidate the compounds and molecular mechanisms underlying petal blotch formation in R. persica and provide valuable candidate genes for the future genetic improvement of rose cultivars with novel flower color patterns.

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The genus Stictochironomus (Diptera: Chironomidae) has an almost worldwide distribution, with more than 30 species. However, species delimitation and identification based on the markings on the wings and legs are controversial and uncertain. In this study, we focused on color patterns to review the adults of the genus from China, and two new species (S. trifuscipes sp. nov. and S. quadrimaculatus sp. nov.) are described and figured. DNA barcodes can accurately separate the two new species with specific color patterns. However, heterospecific individuals form a monophyletic cluster in the phylogeny tree. For example, S. maculipennis (Meigen) and S. pictulus (Meigen), which have a lower interspecific genetic divergence, form a single clade. Sequences with the same species name but with high intraspecific distance form more than one phylogenetic clade, such as S. sticticus (Fabricius) of three clades, S. pictulus of four clades, S. akizukii (Tokunaga) and S. juncaii Qi, Shi, and Wang of two clades, might have potential cryptic species diversity. Species delimitation analysis using ASAP, PTP, and GMYC clearly delineated them as separate species. Consequently, color patterns are a good diagnostic characteristic for species delimitation in Stictochironomus. The distance-based analysis shows that a threshold of 4.5-7.7% is appropriate for species delimitation in Stictochironomus. Additionally, an updated key including color pattern variation for male adults of known Stictochironomus species from China is provided.

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BACKGROUND: Well-being is commonly communicated across industries; however, experimental understanding how human perceive skin health and skin stresses are not sufficient. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Image analysis algorithm, a* gradient, was developed to evaluate spatial pattern and shape of red signal on skin. Human perception for skin health and stresses were compared with technical measurements in two visual perception studies. RESULTS: a* gradient correlated with perceived Inflamed Skin (R = 0.73, p < 0.01), Stressed Skin (R = 0.79, p < 0.01), Sensitive Skin (R = 0.75, p < 0.01), Healthy Skin (R = -0.83, p < 0.01), and Start Aging (R = 0.75, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Disordered spatial pattern of redness signal drives human perception of skin health, stress, and aging. This new skin index of redness signal shows higher correlation with those human perception than basal a* mean, unevenness of a*, and other conventional skin color attributes.

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Aposematic prey advertise their unprofitability with conspicuous warning signals that are often composed of multiple color patterns. Many species show intraspecific variation in these patterns even though selection is expected to favor invariable warning signals that enhance predator learning. However, if predators acquire avoidance to specific signal components, this might relax selection on other aposematic traits and explain variability. Here, we investigated this idea in the aposematic moth Amata nigriceps that has conspicuous black and orange coloration. The size of the orange spots in the wings is highly variable between individuals, whereas the number and width of orange abdominal stripes remains consistent. We produced artificial moths that varied in the proportion of orange in the wings or the presence of abdominal stripes. We presented these to a natural avian predator, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), and recorded how different warning signal components influenced their attack decisions. When moth models had orange stripes on the abdomen, birds did not discriminate between different wing signals. However, when the stripes on the abdomen were removed, birds chose the model with smaller wing spots. In addition, we found that birds were more likely to attack moths with a smaller number of abdominal stripes. Together, our results suggest that bird predators primarily pay attention to the abdominal stripes of A. nigriceps, and this could relax selection on wing coloration. Our study highlights the importance of considering individual warning signal components if we are to understand how predation shapes selection on prey warning coloration.

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The brilliant colors of coral reef fish have received much research attention. This is well exemplified by anemonefish, which have distinct white bar patterns and inhabit host anemones and defend them as a territory. The 28 described species have between 0 and 3 white bars present, which has been suggested to be important for species recognition. In the present study, we found that Amphiprion ocellaris (a species that displays three white bars) hatched and reared in aquaria, when faced with an intruder fish, attacked their own species more frequently than other species of intruding anemonefish. Additionally, we explicitly tested whether this species could distinguish models with different numbers of bars. For this, 120 individuals of A. ocellaris were presented with four different models (no bars, and 1, 2 and 3 bars) and we compared whether the frequency of aggressive behavior towards the model differed according to the number of bars. The frequency of aggressive behavior toward the 3-bar model was the same as against living A. ocellaris, and was higher than towards any of the other models. We conclude that A. ocellaris use the number of white bars as a cue to identify and attack only competitors that might use the same host. We considered this as an important behavior for efficient host defense.

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Ecological interactions can promote phenotypic diversification in sympatric species. While competition can enhance trait divergence, other ecological interactions may promote convergence in sympatric species. Within butterflies, evolutionary convergences in wing color patterns have been reported between distantly related species, especially in females of palatable species, where mimetic color patterns are promoted by predator communities shared with defended species living in sympatry. Wing color patterns are also often involved in species recognition in butterflies, and divergence in this trait has been reported in closely related species living in sympatry as a result of reproductive character displacement. Here, we investigate the effect of sympatry between species on the convergence vs. divergence of their wing color patterns in relation to phylogenetic distance, focusing on the iconic swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae). We developed an unsupervised machine learning-based method to estimate phenotypic distances among wing color patterns of 337 species, enabling us to finely quantify morphological diversity at the global scale among species and allowing us to compute pairwise phenotypic distances between sympatric and allopatric species pairs. We found phenotypic convergence in sympatry, stronger among distantly related species, while divergence was weaker and restricted to closely related males. The convergence was stronger among females than males, suggesting that differential selective pressures acting on the two sexes drove sexual dimorphism. Our results highlight the significant effect of ecological interactions driven by predation pressures on trait diversification in Papilionidae and provide evidence for the interaction between phylogenetic proximity and ecological interactions in sympatry, acting on macroevolutionary patterns of phenotypic diversification.

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Body coloration in ectotherms serves multiple biological functions, including avoiding predators, communicating with conspecific individuals, and involvement in thermoregulation. As ectotherms rely on environmental sources of heat to regulate their internal body temperature, stable melanistic body coloration or color change can be used to increase or decrease heat absorption and heat exchange with the environment. While melanistic coloration for thermoregulation functions to increase solar radiation absorption and consequently heating in many diurnal ectotherms, research on crepuscular and nocturnal ectotherms is lacking. Since crepuscular and nocturnal ectotherms generally absorb heat from the substrate, in these organisms melanistic coloration may have other primary functions beside thermoregulation. As such, in this work we hypothesized that the proportion of dorsal melanistic body coloration would not influence heating and cooling rates in the crepuscular gecko, Eublepharis macularius, and that changes in environmental temperature would not trigger color changes in this species. Temperature measurements of the geckos and of the environment were taken using infrared thermography and temperature loggers. Color data were obtained using objective photography and a newly developed custom software package. We found that body temperature reflected substrate temperatures, and that the proportion of melanistic coloration has no influence on heating or cooling rates or on color changes. These findings support that melanistic coloration in E. macularius may not be used for thermoregulation and strengthen the hypothesis that in animals active in low light conditions, melanistic coloration may be used instead for camouflage or other functions.

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There are numerous examples of Batesian mimics that only imperfectly resemble their models. Given that inaccurate mimics are known to be predated more frequently than accurate ones, imperfect mimicry therefore poses something of a conundrum. One putative explanation, the relaxed selection hypothesis, predicts that when the cost of attacking a model is high relative to the benefit of consuming a mimic, selection against imperfect mimics will be relaxed, allowing mimics to be more imperfect for a given level of fitness. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is equivocal. Here, we report an experimental test of the relaxed selection hypothesis, in which human participants were tasked with discriminating between artificial stimuli representing models and mimics. In response to "attacking" a model (i.e., misclassifying it as palatable, or non-aversive) they received either a mild electric shock (high cost) or vibratory feedback (low cost). Consistent with the predictions of this hypothesis, we found that when the cost of attacking a model was high, mimetic phenotype could deviate more from the model (i.e., be more imperfect) for a given level of fitness than when the cost of attacking a model was low. Moreover, when the cost of attacking a model was high, participants showed an increased latency to attack. This finding shows that given sufficient costs, the relaxed selection hypothesis is a plausible explanation for the evolution of imperfect mimicry.

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Colonic hamartomatous polyps are clinically benign tumors. Colonic hamartomas are polypoid lesions that are rare in adults and most commonly encountered in infants and children. We report an unusual case of giant colonic hamartomatous polyps that were found incidentally during a medical workup for acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding in a 26-year-old woman. We present the color Doppler ultrasound, computed tomography scan, and endoscopic pattern of colonic hamartomatous polyps.

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Thermal plasticity of melanin pigmentation patterns in Drosophila species has been studied as a model to investigate developmental mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity. The developmental process of melanin pigmentation patterns on wings of Drosophila is divided into two parts, prepattern specification during the pupal period and wing vein-dependent transportation of melanin precursors after eclosion. Which part can be affected by thermal changes? To address this question, we used polka-dotted melanin spots on wings of Drosophila guttifera, whose spot areas are specified by wingless morphogen. In this research, we reared D. guttifera at different temperatures to test whether wing spots show thermal plasticity. We found that wing size becomes larger at lower temperature and that different spots have different reaction norms. Furthermore, we changed the rearing temperature in the middle of the pupal period and found that the most sensitive developmental periods for wing size and spot size are different. The results suggest that the size control mechanisms for the thermal plasticity of wing size and spot size are independent. We also found that the most sensitive stage for spot size was part of the pupal period including stages at which wingless is expressed in the polka-dotted pattern. Therefore, it is suggested that temperature change might affect the prepattern specification process and might not affect transportation through wing veins.

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The genus Microtendipes Kieffer (Diptera: Chironomidae) has a nearly worldwide distribution, comprising more than 60 species, which are further divided into two species groups based on larval stage. However, species delimitation and identification among the adults of this genus are controversial and uncertain. For instance, previous studies have provided many synonymies based on conspecific color pattern variations in Microtendipes species. Here, we used DNA barcode data to address Microtendipes species delimitation as well as to test whether color pattern variations can be diagnostic characters for interspecific identification. The 151 DNA barcodes used, 51 of which were contributed by our laboratory, represent 21 morphospecies. Species with specific color patterns could be accurately separated based on DNA barcodes. Consequently, the color patterns of adult males could be important diagnostic characters. The average intraspecific and interspecific sequence divergences were 2.8% and 12.5%, respectively, and several species exhibited deep intraspecific divergences higher than 5%. Molecular operational taxonomic units (OTUs) ranged from 21 to 73, based on methods including phylogenetic trees, the assemble species by automatic partitioning method, the Poisson tree process (PTP), and the general mixed Yule-coalescent (GMYC) method. As a result of these analyses, five new species were recognized (M. baishanzuensis sp. nov., M. bimaculatus sp. nov., M. nigrithorax sp. nov., M. robustus sp. nov., and M. wuyiensis sp. nov.).

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AbstractPhenotypic differentiation within polytypic species is often attributed to selection, particularly when selection might be acting on a trait that serves as a signal for predator avoidance and mate choice. We evaluated this hypothesis by examining phenotypic and genotypic clines between populations of the strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio, a polytypic species that exhibits aposematic color pattern variation that is thought to be subject to both natural and sexual selection. Our aim was to assess the extent of admixture and to estimate the strength of selection acting on coloration across a region of Panama where monomorphic populations of distinctly colored frogs are separated by polymorphic populations containing both color variants alongside intermediately colored individuals. We detected sharp clinal transitions across the study region, which is an expected outcome of strong selection, but we also detected evidence of widespread admixture, even at sites far from the phenotypic transition zone. Additionally, genotypic and phenotypic clines were neither concordant nor coincident, and with one exception, selection coefficients estimated from cline attributes were small. These results suggest that strong selection is not required for the maintenance of phenotypic divergence within polytypic species, challenging the long-standing notion that strong selection is implicit in the evolution of warning signals.

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A unique combinatorial bioluminescence (BL) imaging system was developed for determining molecular events in mammalian cells with various colors and BL intensity patterns. This imaging system consists of one or multiple reporter luciferases and a series of novel coelenterazine (CTZ) analogues named "S-series". For this study, ten kinds of novel S-series CTZ analogues were synthesized and characterized concerning the BL intensities, spectra, colors, and specificity of various marine luciferases. The characterization revealed that the S-series CTZ analogues luminesce with blue-to-orange-colored BL spectra with marine luciferases, where the most red-shifted BL spectrum peaked at 583 nm. The colors completed a visible light color palette with those of our precedent C-series CTZ analogues. The synthesized substrates S1, S5, S6, and S7 were found to have a unique specificity with marine luciferases, such as R86SG, NanoLuc (shortly, NLuc), and ALuc16. They collectively showed unique BL intensity patterns to identify the marine luciferases together with colors. The marine luciferases, R86SG, NLuc, and ALuc16, were multiplexed into multi-reporter systems, the signals of which were quantitatively unmixed with the specific substrates. When the utility was applied to a single-chain molecular strain probe, the imaging system simultaneously reported three different optical indexes for a ligand, i.e., unique BL intensity and color patterns for identifying the reporters, together with the ligand-specific fold intensities in mammalian cells. This study directs a new combinatorial BL imaging system to specific image molecular events in mammalian cells with multiple optical indexes.

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Objective: This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of quantitative shear wave elastography (SWE) and a new qualitative color pattern SWE for the differentiation of benign and malignant American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging, Reporting, and Data System (ACR TI-RADS) 4 or 5 category thyroid nodules measuring ≤10 mm. Materials and methods: From May 2020 to July 2022, a total of 237 patients with 270 thyroid nodules were enrolled, and conventional ultrasound and SWE examinations were performed for each patient. Each ACR TI-RADS 4 or 5 category thyroid nodule measuring ≤10 mm was evaluated by quantitative SWE and a new qualitative color pattern SWE. The diagnostic performance of quantitative SWE parameters, the new qualitative color pattern SWE, and the combination of SWE with ACR TI-RADS, respectively, for the differentiation of benign and malignant ACR TI-RADS 4 or 5 category thyroid nodules measuring ≤10 mm was evaluated and compared. Results: Among 270 thyroid nodules in 237 patients, 72 (26.67%) thyroid nodules were benign and 198 (73.33%) thyroid nodules were malignant. The qualitative color pattern SWE showed better diagnostic performance than the quantitative SWE parameters. When combining the qualitative color pattern SWE with ACR TI-RADS scores, with the optimal cutoff value of the total points ≥8, the thyroid nodules were considered malignant. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC were 89.90%, 56.94%, 81.11%, and 0.820 (95% CI: 0.768-0.864), respectively. Compared with using qualitative color pattern SWE alone, the combination of qualitative color pattern SWE and ACR TI-RADS had better diagnostic performance, which was significantly different (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The combination of qualitative SWE color patterns and ACR TI-RADS had high sensitivity and accuracy, which might be a convenient and useful method to differentiate benign and malignant ACR TI-RADS 4 or 5 category thyroid nodules measuring ≤10 mm. It would be helpful for the management of thyroid nodules and improving prognosis.

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