Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breathing interplay effects during proton beam scanning: simulation and statistical analysis

Treatment delivery with active beam scanning in proton radiation therapy introduces the problem of interplay effects when pencil beam motion occurs on a similar time scale as intra-fractional tumor motion. In situations where fractionation may not provide enough repetition to blur the effects of interplay, repeated delivery or ‘repainting’ of each field several times within a fraction has been suggested. The purpose of this work was to investigate the effectiveness of different repainting strategies in proton beam scanning. To assess the dosimetric impact of interplay effects, we performed a series of simulations considering the following parameters: tumor motion amplitude, breathing period, asymmetry in the motion trajectory for the target and time required to change the beam energy for the delivery system. Several repainting strategies were compared in terms of potential vulnerability to a dose delivery error. Breathing motion perpendicular to the beam direction (representing superior–inferior type tumor motion in patients) was considered and modeled as an asymmetric sine function with a peak-to-peak amplitude of between 10 and 30 mm. The results show that motion effects cause a narrowing of the high-dose profile and widening of the penumbra. The 90% isodose area was reduced significantly when considering a large motion amplitude of 3 cm. The broadening of the penumbra appears to depend only on the amplitude of tumor motion (assuming harmonic motion). The delivered dose exhibits a shift of 10–15% of the tumor amplitude (or 1–5 mm) in the caudal direction due to breathing asymmetry observed for both sin4(x) and sin6(x) motion. Of the five repainting techniques studied, so-called ‘breath sampling’ turned out to be most effective in reducing dose errors with a minimal increase in treatment time. In this method, each energy level is repainted at several evenly spaced times within one breathing period. To keep dose delivery errors below 5% while minimizing treatment time, it is recommended that breath sampling repainting be employed using 5–10 paintings per field for an assumed tumor volume of 8.5 × 8.5 × 10 cm3. For smaller tumor volumes more repaintings will be required, while for larger volumes five repaintings should be sufficient to achieve the required dose accuracy.
Lay theories of psychotherapy: perceptions of the efficacy of different 'cures' for specific disorders

This study concerns the structure and determinants of lay beliefs about psychotherapy in general and speci cally the effectiveness of various therapies for four different disorders. Two hundred and seventeen participants completed a two-part questionnaire. The  rst part was a replication of Furnham and Wardley’s (1990) ‘Attitudes to and beliefs about psychotherapy’ questionnaire, while the second part was a modi ed version of Furnham and Wardley’s (1991) ‘Ef cacy of psychological cures’ questionnaire. Participants had to rate the effectiveness of 24 different therapies for depression, schizophrenia, delusional disorder and anorexia nervosa. The highest and lowest rated item of the  rst questionnaire replicated earlier  ndings. Participants’ ef cacy ratings of the different therapies did differ markedly across the disorders. The mean ratings revealed more optimism about the ‘curability of depression’ as opposed to the other three disorders. Factor analysis of the ratings of ef cacy of the 24 therapies revealed four factors: cognitive, behavioural, physical and rational. Cognitive therapies were thought most appropriate for delusional disorders, behaviour therapies for depression and physical therapies for anorexia. Results were discussed in terms of how people acquire knowledge of clinical psychological processes.
Role of the B1 Kinin Receptor in the Regulation of Cardiac Function and Remodeling After Myocardial Infarction

Kinins exert cardioprotective effects via 2 G-protein-coupled receptors, B1 and B2. Using B1 kinin receptor gene knockout mice (B1−/−), we tested the hypotheses that the B1 receptor plays an important role in preservation of cardiac function, whereas lack of B1 may accelerate cardiac remodeling and dysfunction after myocardial infarction, and that B2 receptors may compensate for lack of B1, whereas blockade of B2 receptors in B1−/− mice may cause further deterioration of cardiac function and remodeling. Female B1−/− mice and wild-type controls (C57BL/6J, B1+/+) underwent sham surgery or myocardial infarction and were treated with either vehicle or B2-antagonist (icatibant, 500 &mgr;g/kg per day, subcutaneous) for 8 weeks. We found that in sham myocardial infarction, B1−/− mice had a larger left ventricular diastolic chamber dimension both initially and at 4 to 8 weeks compared with B1+/+. Left ventricular mass and myocyte size were also larger in B1−/− with sham operation than in B1+/+, although cardiac function did not differ between strains. After myocardial infarction, cardiac remodeling and function were similar in both strains, although B1−/− mice tended to have lower blood pressure. Blockade of B2 receptors tended to worsen cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in B1−/− but not in B1+/+. These results may suggest that B2 receptors play an important role in compensating for lack of B1 receptors in mice with myocardial infarction. Dual blockade of both B1 and B2 eliminates this compensation, leading to further deterioration of cardiac dysfunction and remodeling after myocardial infarction.
Economical Reactive Powder Concrete Cast Using Available Materials in North Sinai, Egypt

Abstract In this research reactive powder concrete (RPC) was prepared using sand from North Sinai. The mechanical properties of locally cast RPC were investigated and evaluated by studying the effects of using different cement and silica fume contents and new steel fibers’ aspect ratios as reinforcement for RPC. Specimens’ preparation, curing regimes and testing procedures to evaluate the compressive strength, the modulus of elasticity, the indirect tensile strength and the flexural strength were discussed. A compressive strength of 154.5MPa, indirect tensile strength of 11.98MPa, modulus of elasticity of 45.1GPa and flexural strength of 30.26MPa have been achieved for reinforced RPC contains 800 kg/m3 cement content and silica fume content 30% of cement weight. The test results showed some improvements by increasing cement and silica fume contentsas well as adding steel fibers on the compressive strength, modulus of elasticity and indirect tensile strength.
Weighted sum-rate maximization in multiuser-OFDM systems under differentiated quality-of-service constraints

We consider the maximization of the weighted sum-rate on a multiuser-OFDM downlink with adaptive modulation and power under a total transmit power constraint and a user-wise target BER. We allow each subcarrier to be shared by more than one user. We show that this optimization problem can be decomposed into two subproblems: a subcarrier assignment and a power allocation. We prove that the optimal subcarrier assignment is exclusive, that is each subcarrier is allocated to only one user. The optimal power allocation corresponds to a multilevel water-filling. When the achievable rate region is convex, the optimality of the exclusive subcarrier assignment for arbitrary weights means that the OFDMA is the optimal sharing scheme for various performance criteria.
Parental Perceptions of the Efficacy of Cogmed Working Memory Training

Many articles have been written about the effectiveness of Cogmed Working Memory Training (CWMT). As Cogmed licensees, we have provided CWMT to more than 350 trainees and have collected pre- and post-training assessment data and parental feedback from about 280 child and adolescent trainees and their parents. On all nine measures of working memory and other selected executive functions, we have found statistically significant improvement. We also offer many of the comments and feedback that we have received from families about the changes they have experienced. There are limitations to the one group pre-test post-test design used in this study that need to be considered as the results are reviewed.
Minimum Bayes Risk Decoding for BLEU

We present a Minimum Bayes Risk (MBR) decoder for statistical machine translation. The approach aims to minimize the expected loss of translation errors with regard to the BLEU score. We show that MBR decoding on N-best lists leads to an improvement of translation quality. We report the performance of the MBR decoder on four different tasks: the TC-STAR EPPS Spanish-English task 2006, the NIST Chinese-English task 2005 and the GALE Arabic-English and Chinese-English task 2006. The absolute improvement of the BLEU score is between 0.2% for the TC-STAR task and 1.1% for the GALE Chinese-English task.
Statistics for the Luria-Delbrück distribution

The Luria-Delbruck distribution is a classical model of mu- tations in cell kinetics. It is obtained as a limit when the probability of mutation tends to zero and the number of divisions to infinity. It can be interpreted as a compound Poisson distribution (for the number of muta- tions) of exponential mixtures (for the developing time of mutant clones) of geometric distributions (for the number of cells produced by a mutant clone in a given time). The probabilistic interpretation, and a rigourous proof of convergence in the general case, are deduced from classical results on Bellman-Harris branching processes. The two parameters of the Luria- Delbruck distribution are the expected number of mutations, which is the parameter of interest, and the relative fitness of normal cells compared to mutants, which is the heavy tail exponent. Both can be simultaneously estimated by the maximum likehood method. However, the computation becomes numerically unstable when the maximal value of the sample is large, which occurs frequently due to the heavy tail property. Based on the empirical probability generating function, robust estimators are proposed and their asymptotic variance is given. They are comparable in precision to maximum likelihood estimators, with a much broader range of calculability, a better numerical stability, and a negligible computing time.
What's the Big Idea?: The Third Generation of Policies for Economic Growth

"Economists and reform minded policymakers in Latin America are asking themselves, and are being asked, hard questions these days. The broad consensus is that two decades of reform have had too little toshow for it. Sporadic and sputtering economic growth and stagnant real wages (especially for the unskilled) is not what was expected. This paper puts the Latin American experience in the global context and examines the processes that brought the region to this point. We look at the trends in policy advice on economic growth and how they were formed, and we address the question of what economists can do now to help the region move in restoring economic growth. "
First Report on the OPTN National Variance: Allocation of A2/A2B Deceased Donor Kidneys to Blood Group B Increases Minority Transplantation

In 2002, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Minority Affairs Committee (MAC) implemented a national, prospective, “variance of practice” to allow deceased donor, ABO blood group incompatible, A2 antigen, kidney transplantation into blood group B recipients; outcomes of this cohort were compared to ABO compatible recipients. The goal of the variance was to increase the number of transplants to B candidates without negatively impacting survival or compromising system equity. Only B recipients with low anti‐A IgG titers (<1:8) were eligible to receive these kidneys. Across eight participating Donation Service Areas (DSA), there were 101 A2/A2B to B transplants through 12/31/11, of which the majority of the recipients (61%) were ethnic minorities. At 12, 24, and 36 months, Kaplan–Meier graft survival rates for the B recipients of A2/A2B kidneys were 95.0%, 90.6%, and 85.4%, respectively, comparable to outcomes for B recipients of B kidneys, 92.6%, 87.9%, and 82.5%, respectively (p‐value = 0.48). Five DSAs increased the proportion of B transplants during 41 months postvariance, with a lesser proportional decrease in blood group A transplants. The data support the proposition that this allocation algorithm may provide a robust mechanism to increase access of blood group B minority candidates to kidney transplantation.
Long-Range Electron Transport Donor-Acceptor in Nonlinear Lattices

We study here several simple models of the electron transfer (ET) in a one-dimensional nonlinear lattice between a donor and an acceptor and propose a new fast mechanism of electron surfing on soliton-like excitations along the lattice. The nonlinear lattice is modeled as a classical one-dimensional Morse chain and the dynamics of the electrons are considered in the tight-binding approximation. This model is applied to the processes along a covalent bridge connecting donors and acceptors. First, it is shown that the electron forms bound states with the solitonic excitations in the lattice. These so-called solectrons may move with supersonic speed. In a heated system, the electron transfer between a donor and an acceptor is modeled as a diffusion-like process. We study in detail the role of thermal factors on the electron transfer. Then, we develop a simple model based on the classical Smoluchowski–Chandrasekhar picture of diffusion-controlled reactions as stochastic processes with emitters and absorbers. Acceptors are modeled by an absorbing boundary. Finally, we compare the new ET mechanisms described here with known ET data. We conclude that electron surfing on solitons could be a special fast way for ET over quite long distances.
Anorexia nervosa and the Val158Met polymorphism of the COMT gene: meta-analysis and new data

Objectives This study aimed to test the association between the Val158Met polymorphism (rs4680) of the catechol-O-methyl transferase gene and anorexia nervosa (AN). Methods First, an association study on two cohorts (306 cases and 1009 controls from Utrecht, and 174 cases and 466 controls from Leiden/NTR) was performed. Subsequently, the results were integrated into a meta-analysis, together with all the case–control and family-based studies, which were testing the same hypothesis and were available in the literature. Altogether, eight studies (11 datasets) were included in this meta-analysis, with a total of 2021 cases, 2848 controls, and 89 informative (heterozygous) trios. Results The present association studies found no association between AN and rs4680 when testing the allelic contrast [Utrecht odds ratio (OR)=1.14, P=0.14; Leiden OR=1.02, P=0.85]. There was an indication of an association under the dominant model of genetic effect in the Utrecht cohort (for the Met allele, OR=1.42, P=0.03). Nevertheless, the meta-analyses of both the allelic contrast and the dominant effect were nonsignificant (the allelic pooled OR=1.03, P=0.42 and the dominant pooled OR=1.1, P=0.18). The meta-analyses were performed under the fixed-effect model and there was no significant heterogeneity among the effect sizes. Conclusion Meta-analytically combined evidence from the present genotypings and the literature search shows that the effect sizes are homogeneous across studies and that rs4680 is not associated with AN.
Clinical trial comparing bacitracin with Strep-A-Chek for accuracy and turnaround time in the presumptive identification of Streptococcus pyogenes

In a clinical trial, Strep-A-Chek (a 10-min chromogenic test) was compared with the bacitracin disk susceptibility test for accuracy and turnaround time in the presumptive identification of Streptococcus pyogenes. Among 461 isolates of beta-hemolytic streptococci (344 throat isolates and 117 isolates from other sites), 303 group A S. pyogenes isolates were found. The sensitivities of the Strep-A-Chek and bacitracin tests were high (96.4 and 100%, respectively), but the bacitracin test had a lower specificity (84.2%) than the Strep-A-Chek test (98.7%). The predictive values for positive and negative test results were 99.3 and 93.4%, respectively, for Strep-A-Chek and 92.4 and 100%, respectively, for bacitracin. Strep-A-Chek correctly identified all isolates upon repeat testing. All bacitracin tests were performed on subcultures of isolates from the primary plate. Strep-A-Chek testing was performed on colonies from the primary plate when isolated colonies were available. This shortened the turnaround time for Strep-A-Chek compared with bacitracin by at least 24 h on nearly one-half (45%) of the isolates. A peripheral finding of this study was that sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim blood agar offered no advantage over conventional blood agar with regard to the number of false-positive bacitracin tests obtained from each medium.
Erythropoietin supports the survival of prostate cancer, but not growth and bone metastasis

Erythropoietin (Epo) is used in clinical settings to enhance hematopoietic function and to improve the quality of life for patients undergoing chemotherapy by reducing fatigue and the need for transfusions. However, several meta‐analyses have revealed that Epo treatments are associated with an increased risk of mortality in cancer patients. In this study, we examined the role of Epo in prostate cancer (PCa) progression, using in vitro cell culture systems and in vivo bone metastatic assays. We found that Epo did not stimulate the proliferation of PCa cell lines, but did protect PCa cells from apoptosis. In animal models of PCa metastasis, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that Epo enhances metastasis. Together, these findings suggest that Epo may be useful for treating severe anemia in PCa patients without increasing metastatic risk. J. Cell. Biochem. 114: 2471–2478, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Can computed tomography identify patients with anaemia?

Thirty-three in-patients attended for non-contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) of chest and/or abdomen within a six-week period (11 M, 21 F) . All had measurement of their full blood profile within the previous 72 hours. Patients with a blood dyscrasia or known history of active bleeding were excluded. All patients were imaged using a Siemens Somatom Plus S scanner. The scanning parameters were standardised at 210 mA, 120 kV, 10 mm slice thickness, pitch of 1. Following image review, circular regions of interest (ROI) were defined within the lumina of the aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC) at the level of the superior mesenteric artery origin. The mean attenuation value was calculated using on-board computer software, and recorded. The mean patient age was 59.6 years (range 18-85 years). A non-parametric correlation analysis was performed and a linear regression plot obtained. A significant correlation was demonstrated between haemoglobin measurement and the aortic and IVC attenuation value. The correlation was stronger (r = 0.64) for the aortic attenuation value than for the IVC attenuation values (r = 0.57). In addition, if anaemia is defined as less than 14g/I for a male and less than 12g/I for a female, then, in our study group, no male with an aortic attenuation value greater than 50HU and no female with an aortic attenuation greater than 45 HU was found to be anaemic. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between patients' haemoglobin measurement and the derived aortic attenuation value. We do not propose this as a method of accurately measuring the patient's haemoglobin; however, we feel that it may be possible for a radiologist at non-contrast enhanced CT examination to note the probable presence of anaemia. ImagesFig 1
The psychoactive ingredient of marijuana induces behavioural sensitization

Here we describe, for the first time, the occurrence of behavioural sensitization after chronic exposure to Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol. Rats were treated twice a day, for five days, with increasing doses (5, 10, 20, 40, 40 mg/kg i.p.) of Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol or its vehicle and after 20 days of withdrawal, animals were challenged with 5 mg/kg (i.p.) of the drug and their behaviour was assessed. Contrary to the motor inhibition induced in control rats, challenge with Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol in pre‐exposed animals elicited a complex behavioural syndrome mainly characterized by oral stereotyped items. Due to the relevance of behavioural sensitization in drug‐seeking behaviour that persists long after discontinuation of drug use, our findings suggest that cannabinoids could trigger neurobiological alteration not dissimilar from those observed with more harmful abused drugs.
Abusive Language Detection on Arabic Social Media

In this paper, we present our work on detecting abusive language on Arabic social media. We extract a list of obscene words and hashtags using common patterns used in offensive and rude communications. We also classify Twitter users according to whether they use any of these words or not in their tweets. We expand the list of obscene words using this classification, and we report results on a newly created dataset of classified Arabic tweets (obscene, offensive, and clean). We make this dataset freely available for research, in addition to the list of obscene words and hashtags. We are also publicly releasing a large corpus of classified user comments that were deleted from a popular Arabic news site due to violations the site’s rules and guidelines.
Purification and Characterization of meta-Cresol Purple for Spectrophotometric Seawater pH Measurements

Spectrophotometric procedures allow rapid and precise measurements of the pH of natural waters. However, impurities in the acid–base indicators used in these analyses can significantly affect measurement accuracy. This work describes HPLC procedures for purifying one such indicator, meta-cresol purple (mCP), and reports mCP physical–chemical characteristics (thermodynamic equilibrium constants and visible-light absorbances) over a range of temperature (T) and salinity (S). Using pure mCP, seawater pH on the total hydrogen ion concentration scale (pHT) can be expressed in terms of measured mCP absorbance ratios (R = λ2A/λ1A) as follows:where −log(K2Te2) = a + (b/T) + c ln T – dT; a = −246.64209 + 0.315971S + 2.8855 × 10–4S2; b = 7229.23864 – 7.098137S – 0.057034S2; c = 44.493382 – 0.052711S; d = 0.0781344; and mCP molar absorbance ratios (ei) are expressed as e1 = −0.007762 + 4.5174 × 10–5T and e3/e2 = −0.020813 + 2.60262 × 10–4T + 1.0436 × 10–4 (S – 35). The mCP absorbances, λ1A and λ2A, used to calculate R are measured at wavelengths (λ) of 434 and 578 nm. This characterization is appropriate for 278.15 ≤ T ≤ 308.15 and 20 ≤ S ≤ 40.
SKYVISION: A SOFTWARE TOOL TO CALCULATE THE OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DAYLIGHTING PERFORMANCE OF SKYLIGHTS

Skylights can offer useful benefits in reducing building energy consumption and improving building occupants satisfaction. Skylights may also offer interesting features which increase a building’s market value by conveying an aesthetic look to buildings, admitting natural light indoors and connecting building occupants to the outside world. While skylight features are fully exploited, their benefits are still not fully understood and accounted for in currently available computer tools. In fact, research has shown that skylights may result in highenergy consumption if not properly designed. The SkyVision software aims to assist skylight manufacturers and building designers in developing appropriate skylight designs for given buildings and daylighting applications. The software analyses the optical characteristics of various types and shapes of skylights, and calculates their daylighting and energy performance. This paper presents a description of the software and its capabilities along with some preliminary software comparison studies. SkyVision predictions of indoor illuminance compared very well with the ADELINE 3 suite of programs (RADIANCE and SUPERLITE).