Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Background Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use cause considerable morbidity and mortality, but good cross-national epidemiological data are limited. This paper describes such data from the first 17 countries participating in the World Health Organization's (WHO's) World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative. Methods and Findings Household surveys with a combined sample size of 85,052 were carried out in the Americas (Colombia, Mexico, United States), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine), Middle East and Africa (Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa), Asia (Japan, People's Republic of China), and Oceania (New Zealand). The WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was used to assess the prevalence and correlates of a wide variety of mental and substance disorders. This paper focuses on lifetime use and age of initiation of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine. Alcohol had been used by most in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand, with smaller proportions in the Middle East, Africa, and China. Cannabis use in the US and New Zealand (both 42%) was far higher than in any other country. The US was also an outlier in cocaine use (16%). Males were more likely than females to have used drugs; and a sex–cohort interaction was observed, whereby not only were younger cohorts more likely to use all drugs, but the male–female gap was closing in more recent cohorts. The period of risk for drug initiation also appears to be lengthening longer into adulthood among more recent cohorts. Associations with sociodemographic variables were consistent across countries, as were the curves of incidence of lifetime use. Conclusions Globally, drug use is not distributed evenly and is not simply related to drug policy, since countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did not have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones. Sex differences were consistently documented, but are decreasing in more recent cohorts, who also have higher levels of illegal drug use and extensions in the period of risk for initiation.
Feasibility of using two‐dimensional array dosimeter for in vivo dose reconstruction via transit dosimetry

Two‐dimensional array dosimeters are commonly used to perform pretreatment quality assurance procedures, which makes them highly desirable for measuring transit fluences for in vivo dose reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if an in vivo dose reconstruction via transit dosimetry using a 2D array dosimeter was possible. To test the accuracy of measuring transit dose distribution using a 2D array dosimeter, we evaluated it against the measurements made using ionization chamber and radiochromic film (RCF) profiles for various air gap distances (distance from the exit side of the solid water slabs to the detector distance; 0 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50 cm, and 60 cm) and solid water slab thicknesses (10 cm and 20 cm). The backprojection dose reconstruction algorithm was described and evaluated. The agreement between the ionization chamber and RCF profiles for the transit dose distribution measurements ranged from ‐0.2%~ 4.0% (average 1.79%). Using the backprojection dose reconstruction algorithm, we found that, of the six conformal fields, four had a 100% gamma index passing rate (3%/3 mm gamma index criteria), and two had gamma index passing rates of 99.4% and 99.6%. Of the five IMRT fields, three had a 100% gamma index passing rate, and two had gamma index passing rates of 99.6% and 98.8%. It was found that a 2D array dosimeter could be used for backprojection dose reconstruction for in vivo dosimetry. PACS number: 87.55. N‐
Comparison of RTP dose distributions in heterogeneous phantoms with the beam Monte Carlo simulation system

Therapeutic treatment plan evaluation is often based on examining the radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) system dose distributions in the target and surrounding normal structures. To study the effects of tissue inhomogeneities on photon dose distributions, we compared FOCUS RTP system dose distributions from the measurement‐based Clarkson and model‐based MultiGrid Superposition (MGS) algorithms with those from the beam Monte Carlo code system in a set of heterogeneous phantoms. The phantom inhomogeneities mimic relevant clinical treatment sites, which include lung slab, lung‐bone slab, bone‐lung slab, mediastinum, and tumor geometries. The benchmark comparisons were performed in lung densities of 0.20 and 0.31g/cm3, and a bone density of 2.40g/cm3 for 5×5cm2 and 10×10cm2,6− and 15‐MV photon beams. Benchmark comparison results show that the MGS model and beam doses match better than 3% or 3 mm, and the MGS model is more accurate than the Clarkson model in all phantoms. The MGS model, unlike the Clarkson model, predicts the build‐down and build‐up of dose near tissue interfaces and penumbra broadening in lung associated with high energy beams. The Clarkson model overestimates the dose in lung by a maximum of 10% compared to beam. Dose comparisons suggest turning‐off the effective path length inhomogeneity correction in the Clarkson model for lung treatments. PACS number(s): 87.53. –j, 87.53. Bn
Increased Serum Level of IGF‐1 Correlates With Better Cognitive Status in End‐Stage Renal Disease Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

Prevalence of cognitive function decline in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis is higher than in the general population. We analyzed risk factors for cognitive function decline in those patients. This study included 93 ESRD patients undergoing hemodialysis two or three times a week in three centers for hemodialysis in Montenegro. The cognitive status of patients was assessed using the mini mental score examination (MMSE) test. All 93 patients have been divided into three groups according to the results of MMSE. Patients in the first group had severe cognitive impairment and MMSE score below 17 (26.88%), patients in the second group with MMSE score 18–23 had moderate cognitive impairment (40.86%) and third group of patients have MMSE >24 and no cognitive impairment (32.26%). There were no significant differences between groups for gender, smoking habits and level of parathyroid hormone. Level of schooling was significantly different between groups of patients (P < 0.001). Laboratory markers observed in this study with significant differences between groups were: IGF 1, IGFBP 3, erythrocytes and hemoglobin (P < 0.001, P = 0.004, P < 0.001, P = 0.002, respectively). IGF 1 proved to be of great importance for evaluating cognitive status in our study. This marker was statistically different between groups (P < 0.001) and Tukey post hoc analysis showed significant differences between all three groups (first and second group P = 0.045, second and third group P = 0.015, first and third group P < 0.001). Our data suggest that IGF 1 can be considered as novel biomarker for assessment of cognitive functioning in CKD patients, which can be of huge clinical importance.
The eigenvalues of stochastic blockmodel graphs

We derive the limiting distribution for the largest eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix for a stochastic blockmodel graph when the number of vertices tends to infinity. We show that, in the limit, these eigenvalues are jointly multivariate normal with bounded covariances. Our result extends the classic result of F\"{u}redi and Koml\'{o}s on the fluctuation of the largest eigenvalue for Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi graphs.
Expected clinical impact of the differences between planned and delivered dose distributions in helical tomotherapy for treating head and neck cancer using helical megavoltage CT images

Helical Tomotherapy (HT) has become increasingly popular over the past few years. However, its clinical efficacy and effectiveness continues to be investigated. Pre‐treatment patient repositioning in highly conformal image‐guided radiation therapy modalities is a prerequisite for reducing setup uncertainties. A MVCT image set has to be acquired to account for daily changes in the patient's internal anatomy and setup position. Furthermore, a comparison should be performed to the kVCT study used for dosimetric planning, by a registration process that results in repositioning the patient according to specific transitional and rotational shifts. Different image registration techniques may lead to different repositioning of the patient and, as a result, to varying delivered doses. This study aims to investigate the expected effect of patient setup correction using the Hi·Art TomoTherapy system by employing radiobiological measures such as the biologically effective uniform dose (D¯¯) and the complication‐free tumor control probability (P+). In this study, a typical case of lung cancer with metastatic head and neck disease was investigated by developing a Helical Tomotherapy plan. For the TomoTherapy Hi·Art plan, the dedicated tomotherapy treatment planning station was used. Three dose distributions (planned and delivered with and without patient setup correction) were compared based on radiobiological measures by using the P+ index and the D¯¯ concept as the common prescription point of the plans, and plotting the tissue response probabilities against the mean target dose for a range of prescription doses. The applied plan evaluation method shows that, in this cancer case, the planned and delivered dose distributions with and without patient setup correction give a P+ of 81.6%, 80.9% and 72.2%, for a D¯¯ to the planning target volume (PTV) of 78.0Gy, 77.7Gy and 75.4Gy, respectively. The corresponding tumor control probabilities are 86.3%, 85.1% and 75.1%, whereas the total complication probabilities are 4.64%, 4.20% and 2.89%, respectively. HT can encompass the often large PTV required while minimizing the volume of the organs at risk receiving high dose. However, the effectiveness of an HT treatment plan can be considerably deteriorated if an accurate patient setup system is not available. Taking into account the dose‐response relations of the irradiated tumors and normal tissues, a radiobiological treatment plan evaluation can be performed, which may provide a closer association of the delivered treatment with the clinical outcome. In such situations, for effective evaluation and comparison of different treatment plans, traditional dose based evaluation tools can be complemented by the use of P+−D¯¯ diagrams. PACS number: 87.55. Qr Quality assurance in radiotherapy
Oxidative Stress: Placenta Function and Dysfunction

During pregnancy, the placenta is a site of active oxygen metabolism that continuously generates oxidative stress (OS). Overproduction of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species can destroy normal placental functions. Therefore, the feto‐placental unit generates abundant antioxidants to keep OS under control. Properly controlled oxidative species have been proven to serve as indispensable cellular signal messengers by regulating gene expression and downstream cellular activities. OS also plays an important immunoregulatory role during pregnancy. Oxidative disorder and immune disturbances are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as spontaneous abortion, preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. In this review, we introduce recent studies revealing basal functions and regulatory roles of placental OS in metabolism and immunity. The relationships between OS‐ and pregnancy‐related disorders are also discussed.
Influence of Turnaround Strategy Adoption on Revenue Performance of Kenya Revenue Authority

All organizations are set up with an objective to create value to the society. This necessitates organizations to generate revenues to support all its stakeholders. However, in the rat race to succeed, most organizations are unable to generate revenues for sustainable operations. Organizations cannot survive without profits/surpluses and the inability to generate surpluses would lead to corporate decline or failure. Getting such organizations back to health requires entrepreneurial strategies at two levels, namely, from the negative to the breakeven and from breakeven to the positive. Hence, the turnaround management is a doubly entrepreneurial act. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of turnaround strategy adoption on the revenue performance of Kenya Revenue Authority. Specifically, the study aimed to find out how cost reduction, modernization of internal processes, employee motivation and corporate planning strategies have influenced the revenue performance of Kenya Revenue Authority. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The study targeted top and middle level managers at Kenya Revenue Authority who were directly responsible for formulation and implementation of corporate policies and plans. They constituted the target population. The study used both primary and secondary data which was analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The study established that turnaround strategy adopted by KRA contributed to better revenue performance.
Performance of Dower's inverse transform and Frank lead system for Identification of Myocardial Infarction

This study performs a comparison between Dower's inverse transform and Frank lead system for Myocardial Infarction (MI) identification. We have selected a set of relevant features for MI detection from the vectorcardiogram and used the lasso method after that to build a model for the Dower's inverse transform and one for the Frank leads system. Then we analyzed the performance between both models on MI detection. The proposed methods have been tested using PhysioNet PTB database that contains 550 records from which 368 are MIs. Two main conclusions are coming from this study. The first one is that Dower's inverse transform performs equally well than Frank leads in identification of MI patients. The second one is that lead positions have a large influence on the accuracy of MI patient identification.
Safety of non-anesthesia provider administered propofol sedation in non-advanced gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures: A meta-analysis

Background/Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the safety of non-anesthesia provider (NAPP) administered propofol sedation in patients undergoing non-advanced gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopic procedures. Materials and Methods: Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane central register of controlled trials, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched for prospective observational trials involving non-advanced endoscopic procedures. From a total of 608 publications, 25 [colonoscopy (9), upper GI endoscopy (5), and combined procedures (11)] were identified to meet inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Data was analyzed for hypoxia rates, airway intervention rates, and airway complication rates. Results: A total of 137,087 patients were involved. A total of 2931 hypoxia episodes (defined as an oxygen saturation below 90%) were reported with a pooled hypoxia rate of 0.014 (95% CI being 0.008-0.023). Similarly, pooled airway intervention rates and pooled airway complication rates were 0.002 (95% CI being 0.006–0.001) and 0.001 (95% CI being 0.000–0.001), respectively. Conclusions: The rates of adverse events in patients undergoing non-advanced GI endoscopic procedures with NAPP sedation are extremely small. Similar data for anesthesia providers is not available. It is prudent for anesthesia providers to demonstrate their superiority in prospective randomized controlled trials, if they like to retain exclusive ownership over propofol sedation in patients undergoing GI endoscopy.
Hypnotherapy to Reduce Hot Flashes: Examination of Response Expectancies as a Mediator of Outcomes

The mechanism of action responsible for hypnotherapy’s effect in reducing hot flashes is not yet known. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of response expectancies as a potential mediator. Hypnotizability was also tested as an effect moderator. Data were collected from a sample of 172 postmenopausal women, who had been randomized to receive either a 5-week hypnosis intervention or structured attention counseling. Measures of response expectancies were analyzed to determine if the relationship between group assignment and hot flashes frequency was mediated by expectancies for treatment efficacy. A series of simple mediation and conditional process analyses did not support mediation of the relationship between treatment condition and hot flash frequency through response expectancy. The effect of hypnotherapy in reducing hot flashes does not appear to be due to placebo effects as determined by response expectancies. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.
Modified independent component analysis for initializing non-negative matrix factorization: An approach to hyperspectral image unmixing

Hyperspectral unmixing consists of identifying, from mixed pixel spectra, a set of pure constituent spectra (endmembers) in a scene and a set of abundance fractions for each pixel. Most linear blind source separation (BSS) techniques are based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA) or Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF). Using only one of these techniques does not resolve the unmixing problem because of, respectively, the statistical dependence between the abundance fractions of the different constituents and the non-uniqueness of the NMF results. To overcome this issue, we propose an unsupervised unmixing approach called ModifICA-NMF (which stands for modified version of ICA followed by NMF). Consider the ideal case of a hyperspectral image combining (M-1) statistically independent source images, and an Mth image depending on them due to the sum-to-one constraint. Our modified ICA first estimates these (M-1) sources and associated mixing coefficients, then derives the remaining source and coefficients, while it also removes the BSS scale indeterminacy. In real conditions, the above (M-1) sources may be somewhat dependent. Our modified ICA method then only yields approximate data. These are then used as the initial values of an NMF method, which refines them. Our tests show that this joint modifICA-NMF approach significantly outperforms the considered classical methods.
You Shall Not Pass: Root Vacuoles as a Symplastic Checkpoint for Metal Translocation to Shoots and Possible Application to Grain Nutritional Quality

Plant nutrient uptake is performed mostly by roots, which have to acquire nutrients while avoiding excessive amounts of essential and toxic elements. Apoplastic barriers such as the casparian strip and suberin deposition block free diffusion from the rhizosphere into the xylem, making selective plasma membrane transporters able to control elemental influx into the root symplast, efflux into the xylem and therefore shoot translocation. Additionally, transporters localized to the tonoplast of root cells have been demonstrated to regulate the shoot ionome, and may be important for seed elemental translocation. Here we review the role of vacuolar transporters in the detoxification of elements such as zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) that are co-transported with iron (Fe) during the Fe deficiency response in Arabidopsis thaliana, and the possible conservation of this mechanism in rice (Oryza sativa). We also discuss the evidence that vacuolar transporters are linked to natural variation in shoot ionome in Arabidopsis and rice, indicating that vacuolar storage might be amenable to genetic engineering without strong phenotypical changes. Finally, we discuss the possible use of root’s vacuolar transporters to increase the nutritional quality of crop grains.
Upregulation of lactate dehydrogenase a by 14-3-3ζ leads to increased glycolysis critical for breast cancer initiation and progression

Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer. Elevated glycolysis in cancer cells switches the cellular metabolic flux to produce more biological building blocks, thereby sustaining rapid proliferation. Recently, new evidence has emerged that metabolic dysregulation may occur at early-stages of neoplasia and critically contribute to cancer initiation. Here, our bioinformatics analysis of microarray data from early-stages breast neoplastic lesions revealed that 14-3-3ζ expression is strongly correlated with the expression of canonical glycolytic genes, particularly lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA). Experimentally, increasing 14-3-3ζ expression in human mammary epithelial cells (hMECs) up-regulated LDHA expression, elevated glycolytic activity, and promoted early transformation. Knockdown of LDHA in the 14-3-3ζ-overexpressing hMECs significantly reduced glycolytic activity and inhibited transformation. Mechanistically, 14-3-3ζ overexpression activates the MEK-ERK-CREB axis, which subsequently up-regulates LDHA. In vivo, inhibiting the activated the MEK/ERK pathway in 14-3-3ζ-overexpressing hMEC-derived MCF10DCIS.COM lesions led to effective inhibition of tumor growth. Therefore, targeting the MEK/ERK pathway could be an effective strategy for intervention of 14-3-3ζ-overexpressing early breast lesions. Together, our data demonstrate that overexpression of 14-3-3ζ in early stage pre-cancerous breast epithelial cells may trigger an elevated glycolysis and transcriptionally up-regulating LDHA, thereby contributes to human breast cancer initiation.
Dosimetric evaluation of four‐dimensional dose distributions of CyberKnife and volumetric‐modulated arc radiotherapy in stereotactic body lung radiotherapy

Advanced image‐guided stereotatic body lung radiotherapy techniques using volumetric‐modulated arc radiotherapy (VMAT) with four‐dimensional cone‐beam computed tomography (4D CBCT) and CyberKnife with real‐time target tracking have been clinically implemented by different authors. However, dosimetric comparisons between these techniques are lacking. In this study, 4D CT scans of 14 patients were used to create VMAT and CyberKnife treatment plans using 4D dose calculations. The GTV and the organs at risk (OARs) were defined on the end‐exhale images for CyberKnife planning and were then deformed to the midventilation images (MidV) for VMAT optimization. Direct 4D Monte Carlo dose optimizations were performed for CyberKnife (4DCK). Four‐dimensional dose calculations were also applied to VMAT plans to generate the 4D dose distributions (4DVMAT) on the exhale images for direct comparisons with the 4DCK plans. 4DCK and 4DVMAT showed comparable target conformity (1.31±0.13 vs. 1.39±0.24,p=0.05). GTV mean doses were significantly higher with 4DCK. Statistical differences of dose volume metrics were not observed in the majority of OARs studied, except for esophagus, with 4DVMAT yielding marginally higher D1% than 4DCK. The normal tissue volumes receiving 80%, 50%, and 30% of the prescription dose (V80%,V50%, and V30%) were higher with 4DVMAT, whereas 4DCK yielded slightly higher V10% in posterior lesions than 4DVMAT. VMAT resulted in much less monitor units and therefore greater delivery efficiency than CyberKnife. In general, it was possible to produce dosimetrically acceptable plans with both techniques. The selection of treatment modality should consider the dosimetric results as well as the patient's tolerance of the treatment process specific to the SBRT technique. PACS numbers: 87.53. Ly, 87.55. km