Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in the modern management of patients with brain metastases

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is an established non-invasive ablative therapy for brain metastases. Early clinical trials with SRS proved that tumor control rates are superior to whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) alone. As a result, WBRT plus SRS was widely adopted for patients with a limited number of brain metastases (“limited number” customarily means 1-4). Subsequent trials focused on answering whether WBRT upfront was necessary at all. Based on current randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses comparing SRS alone to SRS plus WBRT, adjuvant WBRT results in better intracranial control; however, at the expense of neurocognitive functioning and quality of life. These adverse effects of WBRT may also negatively impact on survival in younger patients. Based on the results of these studies, treatment has shifted to SRS alone in patients with a limited number of metastases. Additionally, RCTs are evaluating the role of SRS alone in patients with >4 brain metastases. New developments in SRS include fractionated SRS for large tumors and the integration of SRS with targeted systemic therapies that cross the blood brain barrier and/or stimulate an immune response. We present in this review the current high level evidence and rationale supporting SRS as the standard of care for patients with limited brain metastases, and emerging applications of SRS.
Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Determine the Social Network Usage Behavior in Saudi Arabia

This study examines the participation intention(s) and behavior of individuals on Social Networking Sites (SNSs), utilizing the theory of planned behavior. The data collected from a survey of 1100 participants, is distilled to 657 usable sets and further analyzed to assess the predictive power of TPB model via structural equation modelling. The results show that the attitude and subjective norm have a significant effect on the participation intention of adopters. Further, the results depict that participation intention have a significant effect on participation behavior. On the other hand, the study reveals that perceived behavioral control has no significant effect on participation intention or behavior of adopters. The model adopted in this study explains 52% of the variance in “Participation Intentions” and 38% of the variance in “Participation Behavior”. Participation of behavioral intention in the model’s explanatory power was the highest amongst the constructs (able to explain 20% of usage behavior). On the other hand, attitude was able to explain around 12% of the usage behavior on SNSs.
Light Curve of a Source Orbiting a Black Hole: A Fitting Formula

A simple, analytical fitting-formula for a photometric light curve of a source of light orbiting around a black hole is presented. The formula is applicable for sources on a circular orbit with radius smaller than 45 gravitational radii from the black hole. This range of radii requires gravitational focusation of light rays and the Doppler effect to be taken into account with care. The fitting-formula is therefore useful for modelling the X-ray variability of inner regions in active galactic nuclei.
Role of the vehicle in the genesis of bladder carcinomas in mice by the pellet implantation technic.

Summary Several compounds—arachic acid, hexaethylbenzene, hexamethylbenzene, 1-octadecanol, palmitic acid, and stearamide—were individually compressed as pellets and tested, by implantation into the mouse bladder, as possible vehicles for carcinogenicity experiments. All of these compounds were found to be associated with a 3–17% incidence of bladder carcinomas. Pellets of 20-methylcholanthrene (MC) 2 used alone induced an incidence of 52%, whereas pellets of XAE used alone induced an incidence of 1.6%. The pellets of XAE disintegrated within 2 days following surgical introduction into the mouse bladder. When cholesterol pellets were placed in the mouse bladder and XAE was injected s.c. , a 30% incidence of bladder carcinomas was observed. However, the repeated s.c. injection of XAE into mice whose bladders did not contain cholesterol pellets failed to produce any bladder carcinomas. XAE was observed to be present in the urine of mice following s.c. injection. It was suggested that the prolonged presence of the vehicle in the mouse bladder had a promoting effect on the genesis of the bladder carcinomas. Several metabolites of the essential amino acid tryptophan were quantitatively measured in the urine of mice. It was found that 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine was present in mouse urine; this had previously been demonstrated to be associated with the production of a significant incidence of mouse bladder carcinomas when implanted in a cholesterol vehicle. It was postulated that the combination of continued excretion of this compound or some other metabolite in the urine and the protracted presence of a pellet resulted in the genesis of a low-background incidence of bladder carcinomas in mice.
Evaluation of the BACTEC MGIT 960 and the MB/BacT Systems for Recovery of Mycobacteria from Clinical Specimens and for Species Identification by DNA AccuProbe

ABSTRACT A total of 120 mycobacterial isolates were recovered from 1,068 clinical specimens. Of these, 82.5% were in MGIT 960, 83.3% were in MB/BacT, 80% were in BACTEC 460, and 70% were on Löwenstein-Jensen medium. Mean times to detection ofMycobacterium tuberculosis (n = 96) were significantly shorter with MGIT 960 (12.6 days, P = 0.003) and BACTEC 460 (11.8 days, P < 0.001) than with MB/BacT (15.9 days). Although, MGIT 960 showed the lowest rate of recovery of M. kansasii genotype I (64.3%), the earliest growth was detected with this system (8.9 days). Low and similar rates of contamination were obtained with MGIT 960 (3.3%) and MB/BacT (3%). The AccuProbe test for identification showed excellent sensitivities with MGIT 960 (96.8%) and MB/BacT (100%) cultures. In addition to being nonradiometric, both MGIT 960 and MB/BacT are accurate, rapid, and labor-saving detection systems which could replace the radiometric method.
Selected Complementary Feeding Practices and Their Association With Maternal Education

OBJECTIVE. As infants transition from a milk-based diet to one that includes most food groups, the timing of the transition, how infants are fed, and the quality of their diet can have important health implications. Our objective is to describe these factors for US infants. METHODS. We analyzed data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II. Sample sizes varied for relevant questions from ∼1600 to ∼2400. We analyzed the prevalence of 14 feeding practices and their association with the mothers' education and also examined participants' use of commercial baby foods. RESULTS. Approximately 21% of the mothers introduced solid foods before 4 months; 7% introduced solids after 6 months. Twenty-nine percent of the mothers introduced >3 new foods per week to infants aged 5 to 10 months. Approximately 20% of the mothers fed juice before 6 months, fed cow's milk before 12 months, and fed infants <5 times per day after 5 months. Fourteen percent of the mothers chewed food for their infant. Approximately 15% of the mothers fed <1 serving daily of either a fruit or vegetable to infants aged ≥9 months, half added salt to their infant's food, and more than one third who added salt used noniodized salt. Approximately 20% fed reduced-fat cow's milk at 1 year. Almost half of the 10-month-old infants had eaten restaurant food in a restaurant in the previous week, 22% had eaten carry-out food, and 28% had eaten either type of restaurant food ≥2 times. The prevalence of 8 of the 14 unhealthful infant feeding practices we examined was inversely associated with maternal education. CONCLUSIONS. Nutrition and feeding guidance should be especially targeted to mothers with a high school education or less.
Is employee narcissism always toxic? – The role of narcissistic admiration, rivalry and leaders’ implicit followership theories for employee voice

ABSTRACT Organizational researchers are increasingly interested in investigating the influence of narcissism on the workplace. Drawing on self-determination theory and recent research that distinguishes two dimensions of narcissism and their different underlying motivational dynamics, we hypothesized that employee empowerment and, in turn, voice are differentially influenced by the two narcissism facets admiration and rivalry. In particular, we expected that employees’ narcissistic admiration is positively related to voice via empowerment, whereas rivalry is negatively related to voice via empowerment. Moreover, we investigated leaders’ implicit followership theories (IFTs) as moderator of the relationships between narcissistic rivalry and narcissistic admiration with empowerment. We argue that a leader’s positive IFTs buffer the negative effect of narcissistic rivalry and foster the positive effect of narcissistic admiration on empowerment, and in turn voice (i.e., first-stage moderated mediations). We found support for most of our predictions in a multi-wave field study using data from 268 leader–employee dyads. Theoretical and practical implications are explored.
Assessment of Choroidal Thickness in Healthy and Glaucomatous Eyes Using Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose To evaluate choroidal thickness (CT) in healthy and glaucomatous eyes using Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography (SS-OCT). Methods A cross-sectional observational study of 216 eyes of 140 subjects with glaucoma and 106 eyes of 67 healthy subjects enrolled in the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study. CT was assessed from wide-field (12×9 mm) SS-OCT scans. The association between CT and potential confounding variables including age, gender, axial length, intraocular pressure, central corneal thickness and ocular perfusion pressure was examined using univariable and multivariable regression analyses. Results Overall CT was thinner in glaucomatous eyes with a mean (± standard deviation) of 157.7±48.5 µm in glaucoma compared to 179.9±36.1 µm in healthy eyes (P<0.001). The choroid was thinner in both the peripapillary and macular regions in glaucoma compared to controls. Mean peripapillary CT was 154.1±44.1 µm and 134.0±56.9 µm (P<0.001) and macular CT 199.3±46.1 µm and 176.2±57.5 µm (P<0.001) for healthy and glaucomatous eyes respectively. However, older age (P<0.001) and longer axial length (P<0.001) were also associated with thinner choroid and when differences in age and axial length between glaucomatous and healthy subjects were accounted for, glaucoma was not significantly associated with CT. There was also no association between glaucoma severity and CT. Conclusions Glaucoma was not associated with CT measured using SS-OCT; however, older age and longer axial length were associated with thinner choroid so should be considered when interpreting CT measurements.
Unsupervised Time Series Segmentation for High-Dimensional Body Sensor Network Data Streams

The vast amounts of data which can be collected using body-sensor networks with high temporal and spatial resolution require a novel analysis approach. In this context, state-of-the-art Bayesian approaches based on variational, non-parametric or MCMC derived methods often become computationally intractable when faced with several million data points. Here, we present how the simple combination of PCA, approximate Bayesian segmentation and temporal correlation processing can achieve reliable time series segmentation. We use our method, which relies on simple iterative covariance, correlation and maximum likelihood operations, to perform complex behavioural time series segmentation over millions of samples in 18 dimensions in linear time and space. Our approach is suitable for even higher dimensional data streams as performance scales near constantly with the dimensionality of the time series samples. We validate this novel approach on an artificially-generated time series and demonstrate that our method is very robust to noise and achieves a segmentation accuracy of over 86% of matching segments against ground-truth. We conclude that our approach makes Big Data driven approaches to stream processing Body Sensor Network (BSN) data tractable, and is required for BSN-driven Neurotechnology applications in Brain-Machine Interfacing and Neuroprosthetics.
Serotonin Affects Association of Aversive Outcomes to Past Actions

Impairment in the serotonergic system has been linked to action choices that are less advantageous in a long run. Such impulsive choices can be caused by a deficit in linking a given reward or punishment with past actions. Here, we tested the effect of manipulation of the serotonergic system by tryptophan depletion and loading on learning the association of current rewards and punishments with past actions. We observed slower associative learning when actions were followed by a delayed punishment in the low serotonergic condition. Furthermore, a model-based analysis revealed a positive correlation between the length of the memory trace for aversive choices and subjects' blood tryptophan concentration. Our results suggest that the serotonergic system regulates the time scale of retrospective association of punishments to past actions.
Axonal Versus Dendritic Outgrowth Is Differentially Affected by Radial Glia in Discrete Layers of the Retina

Formation of neural cell polarity defined by oriented extension of axons and dendrites is a crucial event during the development of the nervous system. Ganglion cells of the chicken retina extend axons exclusively into the inner retina, whereas their dendrites grow into the outer retina. To analyze guidance cues for specific neurite extension, novel in vitro systems were established. Ganglion cells were purified by enzymatically facilitated detachment of the ganglion cell layer. A newly developed retrograde labeling technique and the expression analysis of the cell type-specific 2A1 antigen were used to monitor ganglion cell purification. In highly purified ganglion cells explanted onto retinal cryosections (cryoculture), axon formation was induced when the cells were positioned on the inner retina. In contrast, on outer layers of the developing retina dendritic outgrowth was prevalent. Because radial glia have been demonstrated to be instructive in neuritogenesis, distinct glial cell compartments located in inner and outer retina, respectively, were isolated for functional assays. Glial end feet were purified by a physical detachment technique. Glial somata were purified by complement mediated cytolysis of all nonglial cells. When ganglion cells were cultured on different glial compartments, axon formation occurred on end feet but not on glial somata. In striking contrast, on glial somata dendrites were formed. The data support the notion that ganglion cell polarity is affected by the retinal microenvironment, which in turn is possibly influenced by radial glia, being themselves polarized.
Response selection difficulty modulates the behavioral impact of rapidly learnt action effects

It is well-established that we can pick up action effect associations when acting in a free-choice intentional mode. However, it is less clear whether and when action effect associations are learnt and actually affect behavior if we are acting in a forced-choice mode, applying a specific stimulus–response (S–R) rule. In the present study, we investigated whether response selection difficulty imposed by S–R rules influences the initial rapid learning and the behavioral expression of previously learnt but weakly practiced action effect associations when those are re-activated by effect exposure. Experiment 1 showed that the rapid learning of action effect associations is not directly influenced by response selection difficulty. By contrast, the behavioral expression of re-activated action effect associations is prevented when actions are directly activated by highly over-learnt response cues and thus response selection difficulty is low. However, all three experiments showed that if response selection difficulty is sufficiently high during re-activation, the same action effect associations do influence behavior. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that the effect of response selection difficulty cannot be fully reduced to giving action effects more time to prime an action, but seems to reflect competition during response selection. Finally, the present data suggest that when multiple novel rules are rapidly learnt in succession, which requires a lot of flexibility, action effect associations continue to influence behavior only if response selection difficulty is sufficiently high. Thus, response selection difficulty might modulate the impact of experiencing multiple learning episodes on action effect expression and learning, possibly via inducing different strategies.
Performance of recursive integration for pricing European-style Asian options

An Asian option is a security whose payoff depends on the price average of the underlying asset. It remains a challenge to be able to price an Asian option quickly and accurately, since no explicit pricing formula exists even for most European-style Asian options. In this paper, we demonstrate the method of recursive numerical integration for pricing European-style Asian options, for which early exercise is not allowed. The price average is written in such a way as to allow the evaluation of its density through a recursive sequence of one-dimensional integrals involving the univariate normal distribution. We highlight features of this implementation that are superior to competing methods. However, as recursive numerical integration can prove to be computationally intensive with a large number of fixings, we suggest two alternatives to circumvent this difficulty. The first uses a parametric approximation of the price average density; the other is based on the relationship between the number of fixings and the option price. As a by-product of the latter, we are able to deduce the price of a continuously monitored Asian option from a sequence of similar discretely monitored Asian options.
An Entire Solution to the Lotka-Volterra Competition-Diffusion Equations

We deal with a system of Lotka–Volterra competition-diffusion equations on $\mathbb{R}$, which is a competing two species model with diffusion. It is known that the equations allow traveling waves with monotone profile. In this article we prove the existence of an entire solution which behaves as two monotone waves propagating from both sides of the x-axis, where an entire solution is meant by a classical solution defined for all space and time variables. The global dynamics for this entire solution exhibits the extinction of the inferior species by the superior one invading from both sides. The proof is carried out by applying the comparison principle for the competition-diffusion equations, that is, using an appropriate pair of a subsolution and a supersolution.
Money and prices: An I(2) analysis for the euro area

The concept of integrated stochastic processes is widely used in empirical macroeconomics; and cointegration analysis is an important framework to analyze economic time series both in single equation and in system approaches. This framework is not only suited to study the relationships between variables that are integrated of order one, denoted by I(1), but also to analyze variables that are integrated of higher order. However, in the literature the analysis of I(1) models is much more popular than the analysis of I(2) models although there is some evidence that relevant economic times series like nominal money and the price level in the euro area are integrated of order two. This is confirmed by applying tests on double unit roots. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the analysis of I(2) variables and to show how this technique can be applied to explore the relationship between money and prices. The leading indicator property of money for prices, money demand analysis and the role of money in the transmission mechanism are addressed. It turns out that the I(2) analysis provides a considerable empirical method for extracting information from monetary aggregates for monetary policy purposes.
Synergistic algorithm for estimating vegetation canopy leaf area index and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active

A synergistic algorithm for producing global leaf area index and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation fields from canopy reflectance data measured by MODIS (moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer) and MISR (multiangle imaging spectroradiometer) instruments aboard the EOS-AM 1 platform is described here. The proposed algorithm is based on a three-dimensional formulation of the radiative transfer process in vegetation canopies. It allows the use of information provided by MODIS (single angle and up to 7 shortwave spectral bands) and MISR (nine angles and four shortwave spectral bands) instruments within one algorithm. By accounting features specific to the problem of radiative transfer in plant canopies, powerful techniques developed in reactor theory and atmospheric physics are adapted to split a complicated three-dimensional radiative transfer problem into two independent, simpler subproblems, the solutions of which are stored in the form of a look-up table. The theoretical background required for the design of the synergistic algorithm is discussed. Large-scale ecosystem modeling is used to simulate a range of ecological responses to changes in climate and chemical composition of the atmosphere, including changes in the distribution of terrestrial plant communities across the globe in response to climate changes. Leaf area index (LAI) is a state parameter in all models describing the exchange of fluxes of energy, mass (e.g., water and CO 2), and momentum between the surface and the planetary boundary layer. Analyses of global carbon budget indicate a large terrestrial middle- to high-latitude sink, without which the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere would be higher than the present rate. The problem of accurately evaluating the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial vegetation therefore requires special attention. In this context the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) absorbed by global vegetation is a key state variable in most ecosystem productivity models and in global models of climate, hydrology, biogeochemestry, and ecology (Sellers et al., 1997). Therefore these variables that describe vegetation canopy structure and its energy absorption capacity are required by many of the EOS Interdisciplinary Projects (Myneni et al., 1997a). In order to quantitatively and accurately model global dynamics of these processes, differentiate short-term from long-term trends, as well as to distinguish regional from global phenomena, these two
Social emotions, heritage and recognition. The Struggle of Colina Stonemasons in Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT In this article we refer to the way in which emotions affect the relationship between heritage appreciation and community recognition. For this purpose, we analyse different factors that cause misrecognition, contrasting them with the case of a guild of stonemasons that had to face state policies, lobbying of real estate companies, and the hegemony of the Authorized Heritage Discourse. As a result, we reached the conclusion that in the complex network of interactions of heritage with recognition there are certain types of social emotions that we conceptualize as ‘affection for preferential citizenships’. This concept contains predilections and aversions such as aporophobia, which not only distort institutional practices in the field of heritage, but also interfere with the representations through which the communities themselves validate their identity and status.