Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyperthyroidism and antithyroid medications: a friend and an enemy of psychosis

Since the middle of the past century three classes of antithyroid medications, namely thionamides (carbimazole, methimazole and propylthiouracil), anion inhibitors (potassium perchlorate) and iodides (potassium iodide), are used for the pharmacological treatment of hyperthyroidism [1,2]. Their use has had a fundamental therapeutic impact in the management of patients with overactive thyroid function and these medications are largely used worldwide, though with some geographical differences in the use of one rather than another drug of the thionamide class and with some selective indications or restrictions with regard to the use of potassium perchlorate and potassium iodide. The possible impact of thyroid hormone abnormalities on the development of a new onset or the worsening of a pre-existing neurological or psychiatric disorder, including psychosis, is historically well defined. On the contrary, the safety profile of antithyroid medications in connection with the risk of occurrence of a neurological or psychiatric illness has never been precisely documented, with the exception of only few sporadic reports raising a doubtful and uncertain warning. In the current issue of Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, Vita et al. have reviewed the relationship between the administration of antithyroid drugs and the development of psychosis [3]. Interestingly, the review of the literature led the authors to explore such issue deep back in the past as most of the reports of a suspicious manifestation of psychosis following the use of antithyroid medications are just historical. Though the universal clinical experience and the routine practice induce the physicians to safely prescribe antithyroid drugs for the treatment of hyperthyroidism without any specific concern regarding the risk of occurrence of iatrogenic psychosis, an evidencebased conclusion supported by the analysis of the reported cases has never been done so far. Following a careful review of the literature, the authors have now put a stone in favor of the safe use of antithyroid medications against the hypothetical and never confirmed risk of development of psychosis when managing patients with hyperthyroidism.
Cutting Edge of Traumatic Maculopathy with Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography – A Review

This article reviews clinically relevant data regarding traumatic maculopathy (TM), frequently observed in clinical practice, especially due to sport or traffic accident injuries. It is characterized by transient gray-whitish retinal coloration and reduction of visual acuity (VA) with closed, blunt object globe trauma of their prior. It may be limited to the posterior pole (Berlin’s edema), or peripheral areas of the retina. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) provides detail insight using high resolution cross-sectional tomographs of the ocular tissue. It is a potent non-invasive tool for the clinician to follow-up. Clinicians are, thereby empowered with a tool that enables evaluation of the retinal status and allows for prediction of the prognosis. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography supports the idea that the major site of injury is in the photoreceptor and layers of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Depending on the severity of the trauma, SD-OCT may reveal differential optical densities of intraretinal spaces ranging from disappearance of the thin hyporeflective optical space in mild lesions, or areas of disruption of the inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) junction and hyperreflectivity of the overlying retina, pigment disorders and retinal atrophy, in more severe cases. The prognosis for recovery of vision is generally good, and improvement occurs within 3-4 weeks.
A phase II study of topotecan plus gemcitabine in the treatment of patients with relapsed ovarian cancer after failure of first-line chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND Second-line chemotherapy for patients with ovarian cancer who failed platinum and paclitaxel treatment remains a therapeutic challenge. We investigated the toxicity profile and therapeutic efficacy of a novel combination regimen, topotecan plus gemcitabine, in a clinical phase II study. PATIENTS AND METHODS Women with relapsed epithelial ovarian cancer after platinum and paclitaxel treatment were eligible to participate in this trial. Topotecan was given at an initial dose of 0.5 mg/m(2) daily (days 1-5), combined with gemcitabine 800 mg/m(2) and 600 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8, respectively. Precluding good tolerability, this protocol facilitated subsequent dose increases of topotecan up to 1.0 mg/m(2). The primary objective was to determine the dose-limiting toxicity, whereas secondary objectives comprised measurable and CA-125 response rates, disease-free and overall survival. RESULTS The twenty-one patients (median age 57 years, range 37-70 years) who were allocated to this trial received a total of 94 courses of chemotherapy. Median follow-up was 20.5 months. Topotecan dosage could be escalated to 0.75 mg/m(2) in nine patients and 1 mg/m(2) in another two patients. Dose reduction was not necessary in any case. There were no episodes of neutropenic fever, sepsis or chemotherapy-related fatalities. Only one patient developed CTC grade 4 leukopenia after the first treatment cycle, whereas three patients showed grade 3/4 anaemia. Five patients experienced thrombocytopenia grade 4 without clinical sequelae. Non-hematological toxicities were mild and rare. Eleven patients could be evaluated for clinical tumour response, with three complete, and four partial remissions. Two patients each had stable and progressive diseases. The median progression-free survival rate was 8.8 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 6.3-13.4 months]. The median overall survival rate was 21.1 months (95% CI 14.8-22.1 months). CONCLUSIONS Topotecan combined with gemcitabine has a favourable toxicity profile and encouraging efficacy in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.
A longitudinal study of children's early literacy experiences at home and later literacy development at home and school.

Studies of literacy attainment in the early years of school have identified various measures at school entry which predict later attainment. The study reported has sought not only to replicate earlier findings but to investigate significant home factors from a younger age. Literacy experiences of 42 children at ages 3, 5 and 7 were investigated, and the relationship of home factors to literacy development explored. Findings are reported concerning two outcome measures at age 7: children's reading level, as determined by the difficulty level of their school reading book, and whether or not children at age 7 were judged to have literacy difficulties. Significant factors included having favourite books at age 3; letter knowledge and parents reading to children at school entry; and at age 7, access to home computers, and parents’ knowledge of literacy teaching in school. Children with literacy difficulties owned fewer books, were less likely to read to themselves or their parents, and generally had less support for literacy at home. Implications for teachers, highlighting the relevance of home literacy, are discussed. The findings underline the importance of home factors for children's literacy development.
Social Justice and Counseling Psychology: Listening to the Voices of Doctoral Trainees

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand counseling psychology doctoral trainees’ perceptions of social justice training in their academic programs. Participants ( N = 66) completed an online social justice survey with open-ended questions. Researchers identified major themes of participants’ responses (e.g., promotion of social equality, infusion across training contexts, training opportunities outside of programs, importance of “walking the talk”). Implications, future directions, and limitations of the study are presented.
Capnography and the Bispectral Index—Their Role in Pediatric Sedation: A Brief Review

Sedation in children is increasingly emerging as a minimally invasive technique that may be associated with local anaesthesia or diagnostic and therapeutic procedures which do not necessarily require general anaesthesia. Standard monitoring requirements are not sufficient to ensure an effective control of pulmonary ventilation and deep sedation. Capnography in pediatric sedation assesses the effect of different drugs on the occurrence of respiratory failure and records early indicators of respiratory impairment. The Bispectral index (BIS) allows the reduction of dose requirements of anaesthetic drugs, the reduction in the time to extubation and eye opening, and the reduction in the time to discharge. In the field of pediatric sedation, capnography should be recommended to prevent respiratory complications, particularly in spontaneous ventilation. The use of the BIS index, however, needs further investigation due to a lack of evidence, especially in infants. In this paper, we will investigate the role of capnography and the BIS index in improving monitoring standards in pediatric sedation.
Pedagogical knowledge representation through concept mapping as a study and collaboration tool in teacher education

This study explored (a) pre-service teachers' perceptions of using concept mapping (CM) in one of their pedagogical courses, (b) the predictive power of such implementation in course achievement, and (c) the role of prior experience with CM, type of mapping, and gender on their perceptions and performances in CM and achievement. The subjects were 89 pre-service teachers majoring in technical education in Turkey. Each participant developed five concept maps and shared them with classmates. The data sources included assessments of concept maps, midterm exam scores, and student feedback questionnaires. Overall, participants had positive perceptions about CM. They indicated that CM helped them prepare for class lessons and examinations, understand complex issues, and reflect on their (mis)understandings. CM significantly predicted course achievement. Gender, prior experience with CM, and type of mapping were found to be insignificant factors in their perceptions and performances in CM and in the prediction of achievement.
Negative Affect and Overconfidence: a Laboratory Investigation Behavioral Effects of Negative Affect Performance Self-evaluation (activity 2)

We conduct a carefully designed random-assignment experiment to investigate whether negative affect impacts overconfidence. Our result indicates that, compared to neutral-affect, fear and sadness significantly increase overconfidence. All decisions were incentivized, and the result is robust to various specification checks. Further, our result has implications for the role of emotions in economic decision making, in general. Finally, we reconfirm the ubiquity of overconfidence and start to explore its determinants (JEL D01, D83, D03). ). We wish to thank seminar participants at various locations. Financial support from Santa Clara University's Presidential Research Grant DPROV004 and Leavey Grant is gratefully acknowledged. All opinions and errors are those of the authors. 2 Introduction Overconfidence, defined as the " overestimat[ion] of [one's own] performance in tasks requiring ability, including the precision of [one's own] information (DellaVigna 2009, p. 341), " is an important deviation from standard utility theory. A vast behavioral finance literature has identified overconfidence as a key determinant of financial outcomes (Alpert and Raiffa 1982; and Barberis and Thaler 2003). While corollaries of overconfidence abound, its identified determinants number few; generally, overconfidence is higher in men than women and is prevalent across levels of task-performance and expertise. In recent work, Ifcher and Zarghamee (2011b) establish that positive affect significantly increases overconfidence in a laboratory experiment. From this work, though, the effect of negative affect on overconfidence cannot be determined: negative and positive affects do not necessarily have opposing effects, and different negative affective states—i.e. fear versus anger—often give rise to very different behaviors (Isen 2007). Following the design of Ifcher and Zarghamee (2011b), we conduct a laboratory experiment to identify the effect of three negative affects—fear, anger, and sadness—on overconfidence. After completing a monetarily incentivized set of trivia and math questions, subjects watch an affect-inducing film clip and then estimate their performance, both in absolute terms and relative to other subjects. These estimations are also monetarily incentivized. We find that, like positive affect, these negative affects increase overconfidence, reducing earnings. 3 Literature Review 1 Overconfidence It has been consistently found that decision makers' own-estimated performance exceeds their actual performance, and their estimated ranking among peers exceeds their actual ranking (DellaVigna 2009). Overconfidence has been identified amongst both novices and experts in a variety of professions, including clinical psychologists, physicians, inferior corporate investments (Malmendier and Tate 2005), and acceptance of stock options as compensation (Oyer and Schafer 2005). Although its effects are many, the …
A framework for facilitating adaptation to organizational transition

Purpose – Transitions – including mergers, acquisitions, downsizings, and restructurings – are used by organizational leaders to accelerate the achievement of strategic objectives. However, the manner in which most transitions are implemented runs counter to research findings on the process of effective change management and, in particular, disregards the natural process of human adaptation. As a result, mismanaged transitions tend to have negative consequences for organizations and their members. Ironically, the characteristic of transitions that prompts individual and organizational strife – the capacity to disrupt the status quo – also enables an opportunity for individual and organizational renewal. For that to occur, however, members must make progress through the natural process of adaptation. This paper aims to propose a framework for facilitating adaptation to organizational transition, to both overcome the undesirable consequences of transitions and to accelerate achievement of the transition's s.
An Improved Halftone Visual Secret Sharing Scheme for Gray-Level Images Based on Error Diffusion in Forward and Backward Direction

Visual cryptography is data security technique which allows visual information to be encrypted in such away that their decryption can be performed by human visual system. Visual secret sharing scheme encode a secret image into some shares which separately reveal no knowledge about the secret information. The share are obtained using basic visual (2, 2) scheme. The visible image is first converted into halftones shares using halftone error diffusion method. Then secret image is encoded into halftone shares carrying significant visual information. Shares are distributed to participants and then they are super imposed to reveal the secret. In this paper work, the visual quality of recovered secret images obtained after different error diffusion techniques is analysed with respect to PSNR, NCC, MSE and UQI. On analysis it is found that results of recovered secret image are better when errors are distributed uniformly to each of neighboring pixels in both forward and backward direction in the image.
A qualitative exploration of the experiences of children with spina bifida and their parents around incontinence and social participation.

BACKGROUND Urinary incontinence is frequently experienced by children with spina bifida, putting them at increased risk for low self-esteem and impacting upon participation in home, school and leisure activities. However, little is known about children's experiences of these continence issues. OBJECTIVE This study explored the experiences of children and young people with spina bifida around continence issues, social participation and peer relationships, in order to identify potential areas of support healthcare professionals can provide. METHODS Children and youth aged 6-18 years with diagnoses of spina bifida and neurogenic bladder and their parents were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Descriptive thematic analysis was employed. RESULTS Eleven children (with a range of mobility levels, types of spina bifida and degrees of bladder control) and their parents participated in the study. Three broad themes were identified, which encompassed the following: (1) normal versus different; (2) independence, ownership and the road to continence; and (3) peer relationships and acceptance. DISCUSSION The experiences discussed by the children and parents in this study ranged from minimal impact of incontinence on their day-to-day living to significant social isolation and rejection. The stigma of incontinence was apparent in all interviews. Children and youth who were able to control their bladder with minimal accidents had greater independence and more opportunities for social participation. Healthcare professionals need to take into account that parents and their children may differ in attitudes and desires about the management of incontinence.
Reliable Identification of Deep Sulcal Pits: The Effects of Scan Session, Scanner, and Surface Extraction Tool

Sulcal pit analysis has been providing novel insights into brain function and development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of sulcal pit extraction with respect to the effects of scan session, scanner, and surface extraction tool. Five subjects were scanned 4 times at 3 MRI centers and other 5 subjects were scanned 3 times at 2 MRI centers, including 1 test-retest session. Sulcal pits were extracted on the white matter surfaces reconstructed with both Montreal Neurological Institute and Freesurfer pipelines. We estimated similarity of the presence of sulcal pits having a maximum value of 1 and their spatial difference within the same subject. The tests showed high similarity of the sulcal pit presence and low spatial difference. The similarity was more than 0.90 and the spatial difference was less than 1.7 mm in most cases according to different scan sessions or scanners, and more than 0.85 and about 2.0 mm across surface extraction tools. The reliability of sulcal pit extraction was more affected by the image processing-related factors than the scan session or scanner factors. Moreover, the similarity of sulcal pit distribution appeared to be largely influenced by the presence or absence of the sulcal pits on the shallow and small folds. We suggest that our sulcal pit extraction from MRI is highly reliable and could be useful for clinical applications as an imaging biomarker.
Is Written Language Production more Difficult than Oral Language Production? A Working Memory Approach

Abstract Is written language production more difficult than oral language production? Probably, yes. But why? Several experiments were conducted in order to test the impact of low-level activities involved in writing on the performance of higher-level activities also involved in writing. Three assumptions were made: (1) the capacity of working-memory is limited, (2) every component of writing has a cognitive load, and (3) every increase in the load devoted to the activity of one component would lead to a decrease in the remaining resources available for the other components. These low-level activities are more resource-consuming in children than in adults because children have not yet automated these activities. So, it was hypothezised that the difficulties encountered by children in dealing with the low-level activities would have a negative impact on the performance of higher activities. To test that hypothesis, a serial recall paradigm was used. Adults and children were asked to recall series of words,.
Negative Effects of Perceived Crowding on Travelers’ Identification with Cruise Brand

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of perceived crowding on cruise ships on passengers’ perceived luxury brand value and brand identification. Based on the results of previous studies, we propose some causal relationships and test our proposed hypotheses using empirical data collected from 342 luxury cruise passengers. The results indicate that perceived crowding has a negative effect on perceived luxury brand value, thereby hindering brand identification. In addition, a psychological variable – the need for uniqueness – moderated the relationship between perceived luxury brand value and brand identification. We conclude by delineating important theoretical and managerial implications.
Is grammatical competence a precondition for belief-desire reasoning? Evidence from typically developing children and those with autism

Children with autism are thought to have a deficit in theory of mind. It is now widely regarded that theory of mind development has a strong relationship with language ability. In particular, current research has focused upon the syntactic aspects of language as a means of relating communicative competence and what is considered the culmination of theory of mind, the false belief task. This current study was an exploratory examination into the ability of 3 children with autism on the false belief task and 3 tasks considered precursors to false belief ability. Further language examinations sought to investigate how language ability may relate to their performance on these tasks. It was hypothesized that the ability to understand false belief tasks was not purely dependent upon linguistic formulation, but also utterance conceptualization. Language competencies at the Conceptualizer and Formulator levels of Levelt's model of speaking were assessed. The results challenge the current beliefs concerning the theory of mind deficit in individuals with autism and provide possible avenues for future research.
Leadership for Whom? Socioeconomic Factors Predicting Undergraduate Students' Positional Leadership Participation

This study examined the associations between undergraduate students’ socioeconomic background (i.e., first-generation status and household income) and their participation as positional leaders at six large, public research universities. Results from logistic regressions predicting positional leadership in student organizations suggested that first-generation students and students from low-income backgrounds were significantly less likely to participate in positional leadership positions controlling for demographic, environmental, and leadership interest variables.
The Relationship Between Work Engagement and Performance

Engagement has been defined in a variety of ways. Engagement in the workplace generally is viewed as a positive, fulfilling, affective-motivational state of work-related well-being. Due to its structural relationship between antecedents (e.g., job resources and personal resources) and consequences (e.g., performance and turnover intention), work engagement has been receiving considerable attention from both scholars and practitioners in the fields of human resource development (HRD), organization development (OD), psychology, and business. In spite of this popularity, there is a scarcity of empirical research on work engagement in the academic literature. The relationship between work engagement and performance, in particular, is deserving of attention given our field’s focus on performance improvement. In this article, we review and analyze relevant research and then propose a research agenda to guide future research on this topic. Conclusions and implications for HRD and OD are discussed.
A New Conservative High-Order Modified FDTD(2,4) Scheme

In this paper, we propose a new 3-D conservative FDTD(2, 4) scheme exhibiting properties close to the 2-D-M24 scheme. This scheme is designed to retain a 2-D stencil in the field update equations and has high-phase accuracy at low-grid resolutions. Moreover, an accurate Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition has been validated for this scheme. Some experiments are conducted to assess the higher accuracy of the proposed scheme.