Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occupational hazard: radiation exposure for the urologist--developing a reference standard.

INTRODUCTION To date, there is a paucity of literature offering practicing urologists a reference for the amount of radiation exposure received while surgically managing urolithiasis. This study examines the cumulative radiation exposure of an urologist over 9 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS We present a case series of fluoroscopic exposures of an experienced stone surgeon operating at an academic comprehensive stone center between April and December 2011. Radiation exposure measurements were determined by a thermoluminescent dosimeter worn on the outside of the surgeon's thyroid shield. Estimations of radiation exposure (mrem) per month were charted with fluoroscopy times, using scatter plots to estimate Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. RESULTS The total 9-month radiation exposure was 87 mrems for deep dose equivalent (DDE), 293 mrem for lens dose equivalent (LDE), and 282 mrem for shallow dose equivalent (SDE). Total fluoroscopy time was 252.44 minutes for 64 ureteroscopies (URSs), 29 percutaneous nephrolithtomies (PNLs), 20 cystoscopies with ureteral stent placements, 9 shock wave lithotripsies (SWLs), 9 retrograde pyelograms (RPGs), 2 endoureterotomies, and 1 ureteral balloon dilation. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients examining the association between fluoroscopy time and radiation exposure were not significant for DDE (p = 0.6, Spearman's rho = 0.2), LDE (p = 0.6, Spearman's rho = 0.2), or SDE (p = 0.6, Spearman's rho = 0.2). CONCLUSIONS Over a 9-month period, total radiation exposures were well below annual accepted limits (DDE 5000 mrem, LDE 15,000 mrem and SDE 50,000 mrem). Although fluoroscopy time did not correlate with radiation exposure, future prospective studies can account for co-variates such as patient obesity and urologist distance from radiation source.
Intracellular Aggregation of Polypeptides with Expanded Polyglutamine Domain Is Stimulated by Stress-Activated Kinase Mekk1

Abnormal proteins, which escape chaperone-mediated refolding or proteasome-dependent degradation, aggregate and form inclusion bodies (IBs). In several neurodegenerative diseases, such IBs can be formed by proteins with expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) domains (e.g., huntingtin). This work studies the regulation of intracellular IB formation using an NH2-terminal fragment of huntingtin with expanded polyQ domain. We demonstrate that the active form of MEKK1, a protein kinase that regulates several stress-activated signaling cascades, stimulates formation of the IBs. This function of MEKK1 requires kinase activity, as the kinase-dead mutant of MEKK1 cannot stimulate this process. Exposure of cells to UV irradiation or cisplatin, both of which activate MEKK1, also augmented the formation of IBs. The polyQ-containing huntingtin fragment exists in cells in two distinct forms: (a) in a discrete soluble complex, and (b) in association with insoluble fraction. MEKK1 strongly stimulated recruitment of polyQ polypeptides into the particulate fraction. Notably, a large portion of the active form of MEKK1 was associated with the insoluble fraction, concentrating in discrete sites, and polyQ-containing IBs always colocalized with them. We suggest that MEKK1 is involved in a process of IB nucleation. MEKK1 also stimulated formation of IBs with two abnormal polypeptides lacking the polyQ domain, indicating that this kinase has a general effect on protein aggregation.
A pilot study of a narrative competence group to enhance coping and quality of life in patients with HIV

Background: Writing about traumatic or emotional events can result in improvements in physical and psychological health. The objective of the current pilot study is to evaluate the impact of an expressive writing group on the psychological functioning of individuals living with HIV. Methods: Thirty-one participants with HIV completed measures of psychological distress prior to and following the Narrative Competence Psychotherapy (NCP) intervention. Open-ended questions designed to assess participants' perceptions of the NCP group were completed after the intervention. Results: Significant improvements in some of the measures from pre- to post-intervention (e.g. self-esteem) were found through paired t-tests. Thematic analysis of the post-group questionnaires revealed a positive view of the NCP experience. Conclusion: The results are consistent with those of previous studies using expressive writing in other patient populations. The results suggest that this type of intervention may provide benefit for patients dealing with the psychological impact of chronic illness.
Socioeconomic factors and mental health of Swedish adolescents – a cross-sectional study among Stockholm high-school students aged 15–19 years

Adolescence is a period of rapid biological and behavioral changes that may increase the risk of mental health problems. This study investigates the path between self-reported mental health, feeling of alienation, and self-reported physical health by examining the role of demographic factors and socioeconomic variables. Participants were recruited from high schools in Stockholm, Sweden. In total, 445 students participated, aged 15–19 years (SD = 1.01, mean = 17.00); 263 (59.4%) were female and 180 were (40.6%) male. The Nottingham Health Profile and Jessor and Jessor alienation scale were used, and statistical analysis was performed by using regression and path analysis. The results revealed a significant correlation between feeling of alienation and mental health, and found alienation to be a mediating factor between mental health problems and physical health. Female students reported more problems than males. The relationship between neighborhood characteristics (geographical location and type of home) and mental health was also significant. An immigrant background was also found to be one of the important variables for self-reported mental health. The results indicated that having a Swedish mother and father was associated with lower mental health problems, whereas having a father and mother from the Middle East was associated with greater self-reported mental health problems.
Crustal thickness beneath the Andes and Sierras Pampeanas at 30°S inferred from Pn apparent phase velocities

We obtained a 2D crustal model beneath central Chile and western Argentina using apparent Pn phase velocities recorded along an EW trending transect at 30°S. This model is characterized by a thick (65 km) crustal root beneath the High Cordillera, a 60 km thick crust beneath the Precordillera, and a gradual shallowing of Moho depths beneath the Sierras Pampeanas from 55 km in the west to 40 km in the east. Beneath the Sierras Pampeanas, where very little crustal shortening is observed, the thick crust must be explained by means other than simple tectonic shortening. Isostatically balanced crustal thickness is consistently shallower than our model shows, suggesting the existence of dynamic forces possibly linked to the flat slab.
Global reported endophthalmitis risk following intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF: a literature review and analysis

Purpose To report on endophthalmitis occurrence and associated risk factors following the intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF agents based on a review of published literature. Materials and methods A Medline search was performed using the terms “bevacizumab” and “ranibizumab”. A total of 534 English-language articles of varying design and published from 2006 to November 2013 were analyzed for endophthalmitis occurrence and contributing perioperative factors. Results A total of 445,503 injections were counted. There were 103 cases of postinjection endophthalmitis in 176,124 injections (0.058%) with bevacizumab (Avastin) versus 79 cases in 269,379 injections (0.029%) with ranibizumab (Lucentis). This difference was due to a significantly higher occurrence of culture-negative endophthalmitis associated with bevacizumab injections. Culture-positive risk was not statistically different between the two drugs. The reported use of postinjection topical antibiotics increased the risk of culture-positive endophthalmitis. No association was found with the use of povidone iodine, a lid speculum, a mask, or an operating room. Streptococcus spp. were the most prevalent causative organism, accounting for nine of 54 (17%) of all culture-positive cases. Conclusion Reported postinjection endophthalmitis occurred significantly more in patients treated with bevacizumab than those treated with ranibizumab. However, culture-positive occurrence was similar. Despite the potential for contamination at the time of drug compounding, bevacizumab does not appear to confer a higher risk of culture-positive endophthalmitis than ranibizumab. This study also suggests antibiotic use may increase endophthalmitis occurrence.
Effect of fingerpad mechanics and anatomical structures on tactile detection of compliant object

Human fingerpad and planar objects in contact constitute a complex mechanical system, and contact mechanics involving in this system is important for object recognition and tactile virtual rendering. Although the interactions of fingerpad and compliant planar objects are common, there are not general mechanistic models for fingerpad and planar objects in contact to uncover the role of contact deformation dependent on skin mechanics and anatomical structures in tactile recognition. A 2-D FE model combined with Augmented Lagrange algorithm, from the physiological characteristics of fingerpad, is developed to simulate the interactions between fingerpad and compliant plates with finite thickness, and attempts are made to develop an analytical models of total contact force versus indentation, or contact-area radius, and spatial distribution profiles of contact pressure, respectively. It is demonstrated that the exponential law is more approximate than the power law in describing the compressive stress-strain behaviors of soft tissues within fingertip in the case of human fingerpad against planar objects. However, in the case of contact force versus contact-area radius, the power law is more suitable. In addition, the study indicates that the contact pressure decays following an exponential law away from the contact center. By multiplying the exponential term dependent on bone width into Hertz contact pressure model, a modified model can describe well the spatial contact pressure profiles
A Defense of RBC: Understanding the Puzzling Effects of Technology Shocks

The research led by Gali (AER 1999) and Basu et al. (AER 2006) raises two important questions regarding the validity of the RBC theory: (i) How important are technology shocks in explaining the business cycle? (ii) Do impulse responses to technology shocks found in the data reject the assumption of flexible prices? This paper argues that the conditional impulse responses of the U.S. economy to technology shocks are not grounds to reject the notion that technology shocks are the main driving force of the business cycle and the assumption of flexible prices, in contrary to the conclusions reached by the literature. Our paper also provides a new approach to deriving aggregate production functions and TFP.
Upregulation of fibronectin , vitronectin and claudin-7 in cervical cancer

Objectives: To examine the protein expression pattern and clinical significance of cell adhesion-related molecules including fibronectin, vitronectin and claudin-7 in cervival cancer tissues. Methods Western blotting were carried out to detect the protein expression of the above three molecules in 40 pairs of cervical cancer tissues. The association of their protein expression levels with clinical characteristics (age, tumor size, tumor grade, LNM, vessel invasion) was statistically analyzed to reveal the clinical significance of these proteins. Results All these three molecules emerged as notably upregulation in our collected cervical cancer tissues. Specifically, the upregulation rate was 70% (28/40) for fibronectin, 82.5% (33/40) for vitronectin, and 87.5% (35/40) for claudin-7. Statistical analysis revealed that almost none of these three proteins correlated with any of our recorded clinicalpathological factors. Notably, vitronectin was expressed higher in CC patients younger than 55 years old. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that fibronectin, vitronectin and claudin-7 were all significantly upregulated in cervival cancer tissues, indicating their vital roles in cervical cancer cells. However, these three proteins seemed not correlated with any of the recording clinical characteristics, except that higher vitronection was negatively correlated with age. Efforts were still needed to annotate their clinical significance in future.
Self- and Other-initiated Modified Output during Task-based Interaction.

This study examines the role self- and other-initiations play in providing opportunities for modified output (MO), which Swain (1995, 1998) and Swain and Lapkin (1995) suggest is important for successful second language acquisition. Thirty-five adult participants—8 native speakers (NSs) and 27 nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English representing 13 different L1 backgrounds—performed three tasks (picture description, opinion exchange, and decision making). The first two tasks were performed in NS-NNS and NNS-NNS pairs and were audiotaped, and the third was completed in NNS groups and was audio- and videotaped. The results showed that both self- and other-initiations provided NNSs with abundant opportunities to produce MO. However, in four of the five interactional contexts examined in the study, significantly more instances of MO resulted from self-initiation than from other-initiation. These results suggest that self-initiations play an important role in prompting MO and that learners need both time and opportunity to initiate and complete repair of their own messages.
Charismatic leadership in organizations

PART ONE: THEORY DEVELOPMENT Evolution of the Field A Model of Charismatic Leadership Charismatic Leadership Measurement and Empirical Validity PART TWO: COMPONENTS OF CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP The Leader's Search for Opportunity Aligning The Organization through Vision Implementing the Vision PART THREE: REMAINING CHALLENGES The Shadow Side of Charisma Looking to the Future
The creative cognition approach.

Mental processes are the essence of creative endeavor. The Creative Cognition Approach extends this particular view of creativity, first proposed and developed by the editors in their earlier book Creative Cognition, to the programs and theoretical views of some of the most prominent researchers in the areas of problem solving, concept formation, and thinking. Chapters cover a wide range of approaches and processes that play a role in creative cognition, from those that have their roots in associationism (the notion that creative ideas are produced incrementally), to the Gestalt point of view (particularly insight), to current computational approaches. Each chapter deals with central issues in cognition and creativity, and many consider new ways in which creativity can be studied under controlled conditions. The Creative Cognition Approach begins with a new look at an ancient subject, dreams. It then takes up intuition and insight from a contemporary cognitive perspective, and the importance of using prior knowledge in the incremental view of creative problem solving, which is contrasted with the importance of various forms of fixation and sudden insight. Studies are presented that provide new methods for distinguishing insight problem solving from analytic problem solving, and a general description of recall, problem solving, and creative thinking is provided along with relevant experimental evidence. Numerous laboratory studies of creative idea generation are described that reveal the conceptual structures that give rise to imaginative thinking. Visual representations are considered in the context of memory distortions, and in the use of diagrams in scientific discovery. Models that help clarify the relation between comprehension and creativity are discussed, and a novel integration of ideas (primary and secondary process thinking, conditioning, genetic algorithms, chaos theory, the thermodynamics of crystallography) are brought together in a connectionist framework. A multivariate investment approach is used to study creative performance, and criteria for assessing and enhancing creative realism are detailed. A Bradford Book
Attribute constrained subspace learning

Visual attributes are high-level semantic descriptions of visual data that are close to the human language. They have been used intensively in various applications such as image classification, active learning, and interactive search. However, the usage of attributes in subspace learning (or dimensionality reduction) has not been considered yet. In this work, we propose to utilize relative attributes as semantic cues in subspace learning. To this end, we employ Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) constrained by embedded relative attributes to learn a subspace representation of image content. Experiments conducted on two datasets show the efficiency of attributes in discriminative subspace learning.
The Application of Rate Adaptation with Finite Alphabet in MIMO-OFDM

To maximize the spectral efficiency of MIMO-OFDM under a certain target bit error rate (BER) in an environment where alphabet is discrete and upper bounded, it is necessary to apply adaptive power control and rate adaptation to always find the maximal alphabet size it can support. Although water filling (WF) can achieve the capacity of MIMO fading channel theoretically, it is not a preferable power allocation strategy in practice when alphabet is finite. To get higher spectral efficiency, a modified power control based on water filling can be utilized. In this paper we will compare these bit-, power-loading algorithms in the scenario where instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is known to the transmitter. Besides, the space-time block coding (STBC) with rate adaptation is implemented and it turns out that STBC can even achieve higher spectral efficiency in some cases
Successful development of generic capabilities in an undergraduate medical education program

The development of generic capabilities or graduate attributes in communication, teamwork, critical analysis of information, problem solving and ethical practice is widely recognised as a desired outcome of higher education. This emphasis on generic capabilities has emerged despite ongoing debates about the concept and development of such capabilities. A recent review of comprehensive audits of Australian universities has found little evidence that such outcomes are being achieved. We used data from four different evaluations, both qualitative and quantitative, to explore whether these important generic capabilities are being learned by undergraduate students in the University of New South Wales (UNSW) new Medicine Program. University of New South Wales medical students are significantly more positive than other UNSW students that their university experience is developing several generic capabilities. Measurements concerning generic skills development from the Australian 2009 Learning and Teaching Performance Fund process support these findings. Analyses of qualitative data from two methodologically different student surveys found consistent evidence that medical students value generic capability development in the UNSW program. Furthermore, we report evidence that current UNSW medical students rate their clinical learning in professional placements as a significantly better experience than students in the previous discipline-based program. We believe this is a consequence of generic capability learning in the early years of the new program, such that our students are better prepared to maximise the value of learning from professional experiences. Our results represent consistent evidence of successful generic capability development as a result of a program-wide innovation in undergraduate education. To validate further our conclusions, external assessments of our graduates' generic capabilities in-action in the workplace are currently being obtained.
Neo‐osseous Flaps Using Demineralized Allogeneic Bone in a Rat Model

&NA; Surgical reconstruction with revascularized bone grafts can be compromised by donor tissue limitations and may be refined by prefabrication of compound neoflaps using bone substitutes. The principal suitability of demineralized allogeneic bone (DALB) slabs in fabricating neo‐osseous flaps based on the inferior epigastric vascular system was studied and compared with neoflaps with autologous bone (AUB). In 45 rats, the histological pattern of bone formation in response to angiogenesis induced by vessel implantation was assessed, and characteristics of vascularization of the neoflap were studied microangiographically at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. Histological techniques included decalcified and nondecalcified sections, as well as intravital polyfluorochrome labeling. Blood flow of the neoflap was also assessed quantitatively using 15‐&mgr;m microspheres labeled with technetium 99‐methylene diphosphate (99‐MDP) 8 weeks after flap fabrication. Although the DALB neoflaps showed consistent bone formation and neovascularization, the bone regeneration process was delayed distinctly in comparison with AUB. Microangio‐graphically, however, no differences between the two types of grafts became apparent during all time periods tested. Furthermore, the radioactivity of the DALB neoflap, which means bone blood flow per dry weight, was significantly higher than in AUB grafts and even more than that of intact iliac bone (p = 0.001). The exact meaning of elevated blood flow in DALB and similar degrees of vascularization corresponding to native AUB grafts remains to be determined, but may be a sign of ongoing bone formation resulting in a suitable DALB‐containing neo‐osseous flap in the long term. The authors findings support that allogeneic bone could be a potential substitute for AUB in creating a prefabricated neo‐osseous flap. Lee J‐H, Cornelius CP, Schwenzer N. Neo‐osseous flaps using demineralized allogeneic bone in a rat model. Ann Plast Surg 2000;44:195‐204
Genomic Divergence during Speciation Driven by Adaptation to Altitude

Even though Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” implied selection being the main driver of species formation, the role of natural selection in speciation remains poorly understood. In particular, it remains unclear how selection at a few genes can lead to genomewide divergence and the formation of distinct species. We used a particularly attractive clear-cut case of recent plant ecological speciation to investigate the demography and genomic bases of species formation driven by adaptation to contrasting conditions. High-altitude Senecio aethnensis and low-altitude S. chrysanthemifolius live at the extremes of a mountain slope on Mt. Etna, Sicily, and form a hybrid zone at intermediate altitudes but remain morphologically distinct. Genetic differentiation of these species was analyzed at the DNA polymorphism and gene expression levels by high-throughput sequencing of transcriptomes from multiple individuals. Out of ∼18,000 genes analyzed, only a small number (90) displayed differential expression between the two species. These genes showed significantly elevated species differentiation (FST and Dxy), consistent with diversifying selection acting on these genes. Genomewide genetic differentiation of the species is surprisingly low (FST = 0.19), while ∼200 genes showed significantly higher (false discovery rate < 1%; mean outlier FST > 0.6) interspecific differentiation and evidence for local adaptation. Diversifying selection at only a handful of loci may be enough for the formation and maintenance of taxonomically well-defined species, despite ongoing gene flow. This provides an explanation of why many closely related species (in plants, in particular) remain phenotypically and ecologically distinct despite ongoing hybridization, a question that has long puzzled naturalists and geneticists alike.