Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Malignant pleural mesothelioma caused by environmental exposure to asbestos or erionite in rural Turkey: CT findings in 84 patients.

OBJECTIVE Malignant pleural mesothelioma in rural Turkey frequently results from environmental exposure to tremolite asbestos or fibrous zeolite (erionite). The aim of this study was to determine the CT features of malignant pleural mesothelioma in patients exposed to asbestos or erionite. MATERIALS AND METHODS The CT scans of 84 patients with proved malignant pleural mesothelioma were retrospectively evaluated. Twenty patients (24%) had been exposed to erionite and 64 patients (76%) had been exposed to asbestos. The CT scans were interpreted by seven observers who did not know the clinical or pathologic findings. RESULTS CT scans showed either unilateral pleural thickening or pleural nodules/masses in all patients. Pleural nodules were present in 25 patients (30%) and pleural masses in 44 patients (52%). Pleural effusion was found in 61 patients (73%), mediastinal pleural involvement in 78 (93%), pleural calcifications in 52 (62%), involvement of the interlobar fissures in 64 (76%), and volume contraction in 61 (73%). Reduced size of the hemithorax was significantly correlated with chest wall involvement. On the basis of CT findings, the preassigned staging was changed in 21 patients (25%), including 44% of the patients with disease that had been classified as stage I. CT findings were not significantly different between the patients exposed to erionite and those exposed to asbestos. CONCLUSION The most common CT findings in cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma were unilateral pleural thickening or pleural nodules/masses with or without effusion. CT provided valuable information on the extent of the disease, which was important for staging. Although the CT features are not pathognomonic, they provide valuable clues to the diagnosis in patients who have been exposed to mineral fibers.
Causal inference in paired two‐arm experimental studies under noncompliance with application to prognosis of myocardial infarction

Motivated by a study about prompt coronary angiography in myocardial infarction, we propose a method to estimate the causal effect of a treatment in two‐arm experimental studies with possible noncompliance in both treatment and control arms. We base the method on a causal model for repeated binary outcomes (before and after the treatment), which includes individual covariates and latent variables for the unobserved heterogeneity between subjects. Moreover, given the type of noncompliance, the model assumes the existence of three subpopulations of subjects: compliers, never‐takers, and always‐takers. We estimate the model using a two‐step estimator: at the first step, we estimate the probability that a subject belongs to one of the three subpopulations on the basis of the available covariates; at the second step, we estimate the causal effects through a conditional logistic method, the implementation of which depends on the results from the first step. The estimator is approximately consistent and, under certain circumstances, exactly consistent. We provide evidence that the bias is negligible in relevant situations. We compute standard errors on the basis of a sandwich formula. The application shows that prompt coronary angiography in patients with myocardial infarction may significantly decrease the risk of other events within the next 2 years, with a log‐odds of about − 2. Given that noncompliance is significant for patients being given the treatment because of high‐risk conditions, classical estimators fail to detect, or at least underestimate, this effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Antimicrobial activity of a new synthetic peptide loaded in polylactic acid or poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanoparticles against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Nanocarrier systems are currently being developed for peptide, protein and gene delivery to protect them in the blood circulation and in the gastrointestinal tract. Polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles loaded with a new antimicrobial GIBIM-P5S9K peptide were obtained by the double emulsion solvent extraction/evaporation method. PLA- and PLGA-NPs were spherical with sizes between 300 and 400 nm for PLA and 200 and 300 nm for PLGA and <0.3 polydispersity index as determined by dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy), having the zeta potential of >20 mV. The peptide-loading efficiency of PLA-NP and PLGA-NPs was 75% and 55%, respectively. PLA- and PLGA-NPs released around 50% of this peptide over 8 h. In 10% human sera the size of peptide loaded PLA- and PLGA-NPs increased between 25.2% and 39.3%, the PDI changed from 3.2 to 5.1 and the surface charge from −7.15 to 14.6 mV. Both peptide loaded PLA- and PLGA-NPs at 0.5 μM peptide concentration inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas. aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). In contrast, free peptide inhibited at 10 μM but did not inhibit at 0.5 and 1 μM. These PLA- and PLGA-NPs presented <10% hemolysis indicating that they are hemocompatible and promising for delivery and protection system of GIBIM-P5S9K peptide.
Assessment of Reproductive Function in Southern African Spiny Mice (Acomys spinosissimus) using Faeces as Hormone Matrix

For spiny mice, detailed long-term data on reproductive endocrine function is lacking, as limited blood volumes make frequent collections of individual plasma samples for hormone monitoring impractical. To provide the necessary tools in order to fill this gap, this study examined the suitability of two enzyme immunoassays for monitoring male and female reproductive function in the southern African spiny mouse (Acomys spinosissimus) based on faecal hormone analysis. Fourteen non-pregnant and one pregnant female and 24 male spiny mice were wild-caught and subsequently monitored under controlled conditions. Thirteen of the 14 non-pregnant females revealed elevated faecal progestagen metabolite concentrations with eight individuals showing indications of a luteal phase. Two females showed two post-ovulatory luteal phases with estimated cycle lengths of 16 and 18 days, respectively. The pregnant female had an elevated (231%) mean faecal progestagen metabolite level compared with the overall mean baseline hormone concentration determined for the 14 non-pregnant females. Males exposed to a long photoperiod, simulating summer-related breeding activity, exhibited a 47.8% increase in faecal androgen metabolite levels compared with males exposed to a short photoperiod. Collectively, the data demonstrated that reproductive endocrine function can be monitored in male and female spiny mice by measuring respective faecal hormone metabolites.
Are Accounting Standards Diversifiable? Evidence of the Aggregate Valuation Effects of Standards

Prior accounting research documents that individual stock's returns respond to earnings differently under new accounting standards, regulations, or changes in enforcement. We take a macro perspective and study the properties of aggregate earnings, aggregate cash flows, aggregate returns on the market portfolio. First, we document that aggregate earnings and operating income have remained relatively stable after 1951, a period with changes in accounting standards and the only discernable patterns are from SFAS 142. Second, we document that the relation between market returns and aggregate earnings appears stable over long time periods. Third, we show that the relation between aggregate accounting earnings and GDP has remained stable over time as well. Finally, we show that common earnings attributes (such as asymmetric timeliness, asymmetric earnings persistence, and predictability of cash flows), while present in firm-level analyses, disappear in the aggregate. Overall, our results lend support to accounting standards having limited effect in the aggregate from a valuation perspective.
Quantum Lower Bound for the Collision Problem with Small Range

We extend Aaronson and Shi's quantum lower bound for the r-to-one collision problem. An r-to-one function is one where every element of the image has exactly r preimages. The r-to-one collision problem is to distinguish between one-to-one functions and r-to-one functions over an n-element domain. Recently, Aaronson and Shi proved a lower bound of Ω((n/r) 1/3 ) quantum queries for the r-to-one collision problem. Their bound is tight, but their proof applies only when the range has size at least 3n/2. We give a modified version of their argument that removes this restriction.
Acupuncture and Moxibustion in the Treatment of Active Crohn’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Study

Background: Acupuncture has traditionally been used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease in China and is increasingly being applied in Western countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of active Crohn’s disease (CD). Methods: A prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blind clinical trial was carried out to analyze the change in the CD activity index (CDAI) after treatment as a main outcome measure, and the changes in quality of life and general well-being, serum markers of inflammation (α1-acid glycoprotein, C-reactive protein) as secondary outcome measures. 51 patients with mild to moderately active CD were treated in a single center for complementary medicine by three trained acupuncturists and randomly assigned to receive either traditional acupuncture (TCM group, n = 27) or control treatment at non-acupuncture points (control group, n = 24). Patients were treated in 10 sessions over a period of 4 weeks and followed up for 12 weeks. Results: In the TCM group the CDAI decreased from 250 ± 51 to 163 ± 56 points as compared with a mean decrease from 220 ± 42 to 181 ± 46 points in the control group (TCM vs. control group: p = 0.003). In both groups these changes were associated with improvements in general well-being and quality of life. With regard to general well-being, traditional acupuncture was superior to control treatment (p = 0.045). α1-acid glycoprotein concentration fell significantly only in the TCM group (p = 0.046). Conclusions: Apart from a marked placebo effect, traditional acupuncture offers an additional therapeutic benefit in patients with mild to moderately active CD.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Bullying: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

This study is an analysis of the nature and meaning of bullying in schools. First, the literature on student bullying is reviewed and a definition of bullying is proposed. Next, we developed a set of items to operationalize teacher perceptions of student bullying. An initial, exploratory factor analysis suggested two rather distinct aspects of bullying—teachers’ description of student bullying and their attempt to protect students from intimidation and harm. A test of the factor structure of the bullying measure in a new comprehensive sample supported the initial conceptualization and measure. Further analysis suggested that there were no gender differences or school level differences in perceived bullying. Finally, student bullying was related to the climate of schools in both surprising and unsurprising ways.
Modout: Learning Multi-Modal Architectures by Stochastic Regularization

Model selection methods based on stochastic regularization have been widely used in deep learning due to their simplicity and effectiveness. The well-known Dropout method treats all units, visible or hidden, in the same way, thus ignoring any a priori information related to grouping or structure. Such structure is present in multi-modal learning applications such as affect analysis and gesture recognition, where subsets of units may correspond to individual modalities. Here we describe Modout, a model selection method based on stochastic regularization, which is particularly useful in the multi-modal setting. Different from other forms of stochastic regularization, it is capable of learning whether or when to fuse two modalities in a layer, which is usually considered to be an architectural hyper-parameter by deep learning researchers and practitioners. Modout is evaluated on two real multi-modal datasets. The results indicate improved performance compared to other forms of stochastic regularization. The result on the Montalbano dataset shows that learning a fusion structure by Modout is on par with a state-of-the-art carefully designed architecture.
amoA-encoding archaea and thaumarchaeol in the lakes on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

All known ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) belong to the phylum Thaumarchaeota within the domain Archaea. AOA possess the diagnostic amoA gene (encoding the alpha subunit of ammonia monooxygenase) and produce lipid biomarker thaumarchaeol. Although the abundance and diversity of amoA gene-encoding archaea (AEA) in freshwater lakes have been well-studied, little is known about AEA ecology in saline/hypersaline lakes. In this study, the distribution of the archaeal amoA gene and thaumarchaeol were investigated in nine Qinghai–Tibetan lakes with a salinity range from freshwater to salt-saturation (salinity: 325 g L-1). The results showed that the archaeal amoA gene was present in hypersaline lakes with salinity up to 160 g L-1. The archaeal amoA gene diversity in Tibetan lakes was different from those in other lakes worldwide, suggesting Tibetan lakes (high elevation, strong ultraviolet, and dry climate) may host a unique AEA population of different evolutionary origin from those in other lakes. Thaumarchaeol was present in all of the studied hypersaline lakes, even in those where no AEA amoA gene was observed. Future research is needed to determine the ecological function of AEA and possible sources of thaumarchaeol in the Qinghai–Tibetan hypersaline lakes.
Cognitive-behavioral treatments for couples affected by childhood sexual abuse: An extension of the literature

Past research regarding cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors tended to focus on individual treatments even though it has been suggested that couples therapy may be beneficial or even necessary for CSA survivors in serious relationships. There is empirical support for CBT treatments for couples impacted by several forms of trauma, but past couples research generally neglected specific issues related to CSA. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how CBT used for CSA survivors may translate into working with CSA survivors seeking couples therapy. Research on CBT for individual CSA survivors and couples impacted by trauma are reviewed and critically analyzed to determine potential adaptability for couples impacted by CSA. A proposed treatment combining findings from research on individual CSA treatments and couples trauma treatments is presented. Degree Type Dissertation Rights Terms of use for work posted in CommonKnowledge. Comments Library Use: LIH This dissertation is available at CommonKnowledge: http://commons.pacificu.edu/spp/1124 Copyright and terms of use If you have downloaded this document directly from the web or from CommonKnowledge, see the “Rights” section on the previous page for the terms of use. If you have received this document through an interlibrary loan/document delivery service, the following terms of use apply: Copyright in this work is held by the author(s). You may download or print any portion of this document for personal use only, or for any use that is allowed by fair use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.). Except for personal or fair use, you or your borrowing library may not reproduce, remix, republish, post, transmit, or distribute this document, or any portion thereof, without the permission of the copyright owner. [Note: If this document is licensed under a Creative Commons license (see “Rights” on the previous page) which allows broader usage rights, your use is governed by the terms of that license. ] Inquiries regarding further use of these materials should be addressed to: CommonKnowledge Rights, Pacific University Library, 2043 College Way, Forest Grove, OR 97116, (503) 352-7209. Email inquiries may be directed to:. copyright@pacificu.edu This dissertation is available at CommonKnowledge: http://commons.pacificu.edu/spp/1124 COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL TREATMENTS FOR COUPLES AFFECTED BY CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE: AN EXTENSION OF THE LITERATURE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY PACIFIC UNIVERSITY HILLSBORO, OREGON BY JUSTIN K. DONOVAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY APRIL 18, 2014
Measurements of human cerebral GABA at 4.1 T using numerically optimized editing pulses

The goal of this work was to develop and evaluate a numerically optimized inversion pulse to be used with a homonuclear editing sequence to measure human cerebral GABA 117 vivo at 4.1 T in the occipital lobe. The optimized pulse was constructed using pallindromic symmetry with 30 pulses and 29 delays. The optimized pulse provided greater selectivity than the equivalent bandwidth matched DANTE pulse and sine shaped DANTE. The improved selectivity reduced the co‐editing of the macromolecule resonance, permitting the GABA edited doublet to be resolved in vivo. Using cerebral creatine as a reference, 7.1 mM, the measured GABA level was 1.15 ± 0.13 mM in the occipital lobe.
Women on Ice: Methamphetamine Use among Suburban Women by Miriam Williams Boeri

Boeri, Miriam Williams. Women on Ice: Methamphetamine Use among Suburban Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2013. xvii + 233 pages. Paper, $27.95. This is an extremely difficult book to read--not because it is poorly written, but precisely because it is written so well. The stories of these women are gut-wrenching. Sociologist Miriam Williams Boeri sets out to study an almost invisible group of women and really accomplishes much more than that. This study is a window on an America produced by suburbanization, patriarchy, and social class division. What emerges from this candid, engaged, and detailed study is a picture of how a marginalized population is produced by the convergence of those forces. The author applies a wide variety of appropriate theoretical models from sociology, including Howard Becker's resilient idea of the drug career, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social capital, Erving Goffman's interaction ritual, the Thomas Theorum (that what is believed to be real is real in its consequences) and a rich ethnographic tool-kit of typologies and middle-range theoretical models that give her data coherence and meaningful context. Boeri describes a social landscape that she calls post-modern suburbia. This is not the stereotypical suburbia of homogeneous middle-class blandness and security. It is a new and much more complex social landscape possibly the result of the expanding ring of suburbs around cities encroaching on existing rural culture. This has left pockets of typically rural poverty encircled by more typically middle-class sprawl. Such pockets are significant structural features of the post-modern suburbia, in which most of these stories take place. Exacerbating the structural features that support meth use in post-modern suburbia is the recent Great Recession. Lives that were already marginal plummet into desperation in such times. Each chapter of this book begins with the name of an individual ethnographic subject and her story. This gives the book an accessible empirical grounding. These are often followed by related stories and then a theoretical concept that gives the stories broader context. Then additional stories are told, with the theoretical concepts already integrated into them. This is a masterful approach to the wedding of theory and data to which the social sciences aspire. For example, having introduced Bourdieu's idea of social capital and how it can be manifested through bonding (relationships within groups) and bridging (relationships across group lines), Boeri describes how subjects relate to each other to produce bonds and with "mainstream" social entities to produce bridges. …
The Role of the Management Sciences in Research on Personalization

We present a review of research studies that deal with personalization and synthesize current knowledge about these areas. We identify issues that we envision will be of interest to researchers working in the management sciences, taking an interdisciplinary approach that spans the areas of economics, marketing, information technology (IT), and operations research. We present a framework for personalization that allows us to identify key players in the personalization process as well as key stages of personalization. The framework enables us to examine the strategic role of personalization in the interactions between a firm and other key players in the firm's value system. We conceptualize the personalization process as consisting of three stages: (1) learning about consumer preferences, (2) matching offerings to customers, and (3) evaluation of the learning and matching processes. This review focuses on the learning stage, with an emphasis on utility-based approaches to estimate preference functions using data on customer interactions with a firm.
Intrapopulation Variation in Ecological Energetics of the Garter Sanke Thamnophis sirtalis, with Analysis of the Precision of Doubly Labeled Water Measurements

The evolution of energetics must begin with variation within population in ecologically realized rates of energy acquisistion and expenditure. We measured aspects of field energy budgets (including metabolic rates, feeding rates, and growth rates) in a large sample of free living garter snakes (Thammophis sirtalis) from a single temperate/mesic population in northwestern California during their summer active season. We then analyzed interindividual variation for correlations among variables and patterns attributable to body size and sex. Field metabolic rates (measured with use of doubly labeled water) scaled in direct proportion to body mass. These rates of field energy expenditure were higher (both in absolute terms and in realtion to resting metabolic rates) than those previously measured in snakes and iguanian lizards and were similar to those reported for highly active, widely foraging scincomorphan lizards. Feeding rates (as indedexed by water influx rates) and growth rates were correspondingly high compared to those of other squamate reptiles. We found considerable residual variation in all measured variables not attributable to body size. Effects of sex were detected for water influx and growth rates (females > males), but not for field metabolic rate. Individual field metabolic rate was apparently consistent (repeatable) over time, water influx rate was not, and individual growth rates were strongly negatively correlated over two sequential time periods. We were unable to detect convincing correlations between any individual measures of field energetics and any commonly measured, standard laboratory measurements of exygen consumption (standard metabolic rate at two bodyt temperatures and maximal oxygen consumption for exercise) made on the same individuals. Howere, body‐size‐independent field rates of energy expenditure, energy intake, and growth were strongly and positively intercorrelated among individuals. We attribute these patterns to an overriding effect of costs associated with digestion and growth on field energetics, such that individual snakes that were effective foragers achieved high feeding rates and, hence, high growth rates, but also incurred high costs of growth and digestion that largely determined field metabolic rate.