Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solid Pancreatic Tumors with Unilocular Cyst-Like Appearance on CT: Differentiation from Unilocular Cystic Tumors Using CT

Objective To describe the computed tomography (CT) features of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and solid pseudopapillary tumors (SPTs) with unilocular cyst-like appearance, and to compare them with those of unilocular cystic tumors of the pancreas. Materials and Methods This retrospective study was approved by our Institutional Review Board, and informed consent was waived. We included 112 pancreatic tumors with unilocular cyst-like appearance on CT (16 solid tumors [nine NETs and seven SPTs] and 96 cystic tumors [45 serous cystadenomas, 30 mucinous cystic neoplasms, and 21 branch-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms]). Two radiologists reviewed the CT images in consensus to determine tumor location, long diameter, morphological features, wall thicknesses, ratio of wall thickness to tumor size, wall enhancement patterns, intratumoral contents, and accompanying findings. Fisher's exact test was used to analyze the results. Results All 16 solid tumors had perceptible walls (mean thickness, 2.7 mm; mean ratio of wall thickness to tumor size, 7.7%) with variable enhancement. Four NETs and seven SPTs had hemorrhage, calcifications, and/or mural nodules. Six CT findings were specific for solid tumors with unilocular cyst-like appearance: a thick (> 2 mm) wall, uneven thickness of the wall, high ratio of wall thickness to tumor size, hyper- or hypo-attenuation of the wall in the arterial and portal phase, and heterogeneous internal contents. When three or more of the above criteria were used, 100% specificity and 87.5-92% accuracy were obtained for solid tumors with unilocular cyst-like appearance. Conclusion A combination of CT features was useful for distinguishing solid tumors with unilocular cyst-like appearance from unilocular cystic tumors of the pancreas.
Diffusion of high molecular weight compounds through sclera.

PURPOSE To determine the in vitro permeability of the sclera to high molecular weight compounds and the relationship between scleral permeability and molecular size. METHODS Fresh rabbit sclera was mounted in a two-chamber diffusion apparatus, and its permeability to sodium fluorescein, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated bovine serum albumin, FITC-IgG, and FITC dextrans ranging in molecular weight from 4 to 150 kDa was determined by fluorescence spectrophotometry. Electron microscopy was used to assess the impact of the experimental design on scleral ultrastructural integrity. The effect of the diffusion apparatus on scleral hydration was examined. Rabbit scleral permeability was compared with previously reported data for human and bovine sclera. RESULTS Scleral permeability decreased with increasing molecular weight and molecular radius, consistent with previous human and bovine data. Molecular radius was a better predictor of scleral permeability than molecular weight. The sclera was more permeable to globular proteins than to linear dextrans of similar molecular weight. The experimental apparatus did not alter scleral ultrastructure. Permeability of rabbit sclera was similar to human sclera but greater than bovine sclera. CONCLUSIONS Large molecules, such as IgG, diffuse across sclera in a manner consistent with porous diffusion through a fiber matrix. Transscleral delivery of immunoglobulins and other large compounds to the choroid and retina may be feasible.
Magnetic resonance imaging evidence for presymptomatic change in thalamus and caudate in familial Alzheimer’s disease

Amyloid imaging studies of presymptomatic familial Alzheimer’s disease have revealed the striatum and thalamus to be the earliest sites of amyloid deposition. This study aimed to investigate whether there are associated volume and diffusivity changes in these subcortical structures during the presymptomatic and symptomatic stages of familial Alzheimer’s disease. As the thalamus and striatum are involved in neural networks subserving complex cognitive and behavioural functions, we also examined the diffusion characteristics in connecting white matter tracts. A cohort of 20 presenilin 1 mutation carriers underwent volumetric and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological and clinical assessments; 10 were symptomatic, 10 were presymptomatic and on average 5.6 years younger than their expected age at onset; 20 healthy control subjects were also studied. We conducted region of interest analyses of volume and diffusivity changes in the thalamus, caudate, putamen and hippocampus and examined diffusion behaviour in the white matter tracts of interest (fornix, cingulum and corpus callosum). Voxel-based morphometry and tract-based spatial statistics were also used to provide unbiased whole-brain analyses of group differences in volume and diffusion indices, respectively. We found that reduced volumes of the left thalamus and bilateral caudate were evident at a presymptomatic stage, together with increased fractional anisotropy of bilateral thalamus and left caudate. Although no significant hippocampal volume loss was evident presymptomatically, reduced mean diffusivity was observed in the right hippocampus and reduced mean and axial diffusivity in the right cingulum. In contrast, symptomatic mutation carriers showed increased mean, axial and in particular radial diffusivity, with reduced fractional anisotropy, in all of the white matter tracts of interest. The symptomatic group also showed atrophy and increased mean diffusivity in all of the subcortical grey matter regions of interest, with increased fractional anisotropy in bilateral putamen. We propose that axonal injury may be an early event in presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, causing an initial fall in axial and mean diffusivity, which then increases with loss of axonal density. The selective degeneration of long-coursing white matter tracts, with relative preservation of short interneurons, may account for the increase in fractional anisotropy that is seen in the thalamus and caudate presymptomatically. It may be owing to their dense connectivity that imaging changes are seen first in the thalamus and striatum, which then progress to involve other regions in a vulnerable neuronal network.
Enhancing Parenting Effectiveness, Fathers' Involvement, Couple Relationship Quality, and Children's Development: Breaking Down Silos in Family Policy Making and Service Delivery

Author(s): Cowan, CP; Cowan, PA | Abstract: © 2018 National Council on Family Relations In this article, we examine family-based interventions designed to increase parenting effectiveness, fathers' positive involvement, and couple relationship quality, all with the goal of enhancing children's development. We focus on the fact that government funding policies, service delivery systems, and research evaluations of interventions to benefit children and families typically operate in separate silos. We provide a theoretical model, along with empirical evidence, to argue that a more integrated, collaborative perspective is likely to produce more optimal outcomes for parents and children than current siloed attempts to improve child and family well-being. We discuss some of the obstacles to using evidence to guide policy decisions. We offer suggestions for policy makers and service providers in an attempt to describe a more integrated approach to supporting family well-being, and to encourage the increased use of systematic data in making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources for family support.
BARRIERS TO UTILIZATION OF LONG ACTING REVERSIBLE AND PERMANENT CONTRACEPTIVE METHODS IN ETHIOPIA: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Globally the use of Long-Acting Reversible and Permanent Methods (LARPMs) has been recommended as the first-line, highly effective options for pregnancy prevention. They have greater efficacy than short acting contraceptive methods and are associated with lower rates of unwanted pregnancy. Ethiopia has made significant progress in family planning (FP); however, one fourth of married women still have unmet need for FP and nearly three-fourth of family planning users depend on short acting injectable contraceptives. The aim of this study was to review existing researches to identify barriers to long acting reversible and permanent contraceptive use in emerging regions of Ethiopia.METHOD: Published and unpublished literatures were searched using major search engines and different search terms related to the topic. Literature search was carried out from March to May 2016. Six selection criteria were prepared to summarize the findings using PRISMA protocol. A checklist of eight-item quality assessment criteria was used to rate the quality of studies independently by two investigators, and the third investigator cross checked and decided on agreements. The studies were critically appraised, and thematic analysis was used to synthesize the data.RESULTS: Using the screening criteria, 69 eligible full-text articles and reports were reviewed; of which 34 articles and 8 policy/strategy documents were considered for data synthesis. The review has included policy related, individual, socio-cultural and health facility related barriers/factors affecting LARPMs use in emerging regions. Lack of strategies to reach the mobile population of emerging regions, facility readiness to provide LARPMs and quality of care were major policy and health care factors contributing for the low utilization of LARPMs. Low knowledge of LARPMs, health concerns, fear of side effects, and lower education were among individual level barriers identified through the review. Moreover, the review showed that men’s (partner’s) objection, desire for more children (especially by the male partner), absence of male involvement, lack of women’s decision-making power and lack of discussion with partners were gender related barriers.CONCLUSION: The regional disparity in LARPM use, particularly in emerging regions, requires targeted policy and strategic direction to address the prevailing inequality in family planning use and method mix. To improve the utilization of LARPMs, efforts should be made to address the key demand and supply side barriers. More context specific research evidences should be generated to understand barriers that are specific to these regions. (Ethiopian Journal of Reproductive Health 2018; 10; 3: 1-24)
Methylation of MGMT and ADAMTS14 in normal colon mucosa: biomarkers of a field defect for cancerization preferentially targeting elder African-Americans

Somatic hypermethylation of the O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase gene (MGMT) was previously associated with G > A transition mutations in KRAS and TP53 in colorectal cancer (CRC). We tested the association of MGMT methylation with G > A mutations in KRAS and TP53 in 261 CRCs. Sixteen cases, with and without MGMT hypermethylation, were further analyzed by exome sequencing. No significant association of MGMT methylation with G > A mutations in KRAS, TP53 or in the whole exome was found (p > 0.5 in all comparisons). The result was validated by in silico comparison with 302 CRCs from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) consortium dataset. Transcriptional silencing associated with hypermethylation and stratified into monoallelic and biallelic. We also found a significant clustering (p = 0.001) of aberrant hypermethylation of MGMT and the matrix metalloproteinase gene ADAMTS14 in normal colonic mucosa of CRC patients. This suggested the existence of an epigenetic field defect for cancerization disrupting the methylation patterns of several loci, including MGMT or ADAMTS14, that may lead to predictive biomarkers for CRC. Methylation of these loci in normal mucosa was more frequent in elder (p = 0.001) patients, and particularly in African Americans (p = 1 × 10−5), thus providing a possible mechanistic link between somatic epigenetic alterations and CRC racial disparities in North America.
Condensing class diagrams by analyzing design and network metrics using optimistic classification

A class diagram of a software system enhances our ability to understand software design. However, this diagram is often unavailable. Developers usually reconstruct the diagram by reverse engineering it from source code. Unfortunately, the resultant diagram is often very cluttered; making it difficult to learn anything valuable from it. Thus, it would be very beneficial if we are able to condense the reverse- engineered class diagram to contain only the important classes depicting the overall design of a software system. Such diagram would make program understanding much easier. A class can be important, for example, if its removal would break many connections between classes. In our work, we estimate this kind of importance by using design (e.g., number of attributes, number of dependencies, etc.) and network metrics (e.g., betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, etc.). We use these metrics as features and input their values to our optimistic classifier that will predict if a class is important or not. Different from standard classification, our newly proposed optimistic classification technique deals with data scarcity problem by optimistically assigning labels to some of the unlabeled data and use them for training a better statistical model. We have evaluated our approach to condense reverse-engineered diagrams of 9 software systems and compared our approach with the state-of-the-art work of Osman et al. Our experiments show that our approach can achieve an average Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) score of 0.825, which is a 9.1% improvement compared to the state-of-the-art approach.
Characterization of Intrastriatal Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated Gene Transfer of Human Tyrosine Hydroxylase and Human GTP-Cyclohydrolase I in a Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease

To achieve local, continuous l-DOPA delivery in the striatum by gene replacement as a model for a gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, the present studies used high titer purified recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) containing cDNAs encoding human tyrosine hydroxylase (hTH) or human GTP-cyclohydrolase I [GTPCHI, the rate-limiting enzyme for tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) synthesis] or both to infect the 6-OHDA denervated rat striatum. Striatal TH and GTPCHI staining was observed 3 weeks after rAAV transduction, with little detectable perturbation of the tissue. Six months after intrastriatal rAAV transduction, TH staining was present but apparently reduced compared with the 3 week survival time. In a separate group of animals, striatal TH staining was demonstrated 1 year after rAAV transduction. Double staining studies using the neuronal marker NeuN indicated that >90% of rAAV-transduced cells expressing hTH were neurons. Microdialysis experiments indicated that only those lesioned animals that received the mixture of MD–TH and MD–GTPCHI vector displayed BH4 independent in vivol-DOPA production (mean ∼4–7 ng/ml). Rats that received the hTH rAAV vector alone produced measurablel-DOPA (mean ∼1–4 ng/ml) only after receiving exogenous BH4. l-Aromatic amino acid decarboxylase blockade, but not 100 mm KCl-induced depolarization, enhanced l-DOPA overflow, and animals in the non-hTH groups (GTPCHI and alkaline phosphatase) yielded minimal l-DOPA. Although elevated l-DOPA was observed in animals that received mixed hTH and hGTPCHI rAAV vectors, there was no reduction of apomorphine-induced rotational behavior 3 weeks after intrastriatal vector injection. These data demonstrate that purified rAAV, a safe and nonpathogenic viral vector, mediates long-term striatal hTH transgene expression in neurons and can be used to successfully deliverl-DOPA to the striatum.
A Novel Extraction Method and Some Physicochemical Properties of Extractives of Irvingia Gabonensis seeds

The plant Irvingia gabonensis contains lipids and polymer extractives that can be a good source of excipients for oral pharmaceutical formulations. These constituents are usually extracted from the seeds with the aid of either organic solvents or enzymes. The purpose of this paper was to describe a novel, simpler, cheaper, and safer method for the simultaneous extraction of lipids and gum from I. gabonensis. A 100.0 g of seeds of I. gabonensis in 200 mL deionized water was heated at 78°C in the presence of 2.0 g sodium chloride for 1 h, and the mixture was allowed to stand for the lipids to be separated and removed by filtration. The samples were air dried at 25-30°C. The liquid fraction was centrifuged at 3445 rpm for 30 min, and the supernatant portion containing the gum was freeze dried. The samples were investigated for their true, bulk, and tapped densities as well as particle size and particle size distributions. The rheological, and near infrared absorption spectra as well as thermal behavior of the samples were also studied. The lipid and the polymeric components of I. gabonensis seeds were successfully extracted simultaneously. The true densities of the fatty and gum components were, respectively, 1.000 and 1.544 g/cm 3 . The melting point of the fat was 40°C and Tg of the gum was 232°C. These values were similar to those described in the literature for the components using the traditional method, demonstrating the effectiveness and efficiency of this simple novel method.
Switching Monetary Policy Regimes and the Nominal Term Structure

In this paper I propose a regime-switching approach to explain why the U.S. nominal yield curve on average has been steeper since the mid-1980s than during the Great Inflation of the 1970s. I show that, once the possibility of regime switches in the short-rate process is incorporated into investors beliefs, the average slope of the yield curve generally will contain a new component called . level risk. Level-risk estimates, based on a Markov-Switching VAR model of the U.S. economy, are then provided. I find that the level risk was large and negative during the Great Inflation, reflecting a possible switch to lower short-rate levels in the future. Since the mid-1980s the level risk has been moderate and positive, reflecting a small but still relevant possibility of a return to the regime of the 1970s. I replicate these results in a Markov- Switching dynamic general equilibrium model, where the monetary policy rule followed by the Fed shifts between an active and a passive regime. The model also explains why in recent decades the U.S. yield curve on average has been steeper than the yield curve in countries that adopted explicit inflation targeting frameworks.
Interspecific Variation in Bumblebee Performance on Pollen Diet: New Insights for Mitigation Strategies

Bumblebees (i.e. Bombus genus) are major pollinators of flowering wild plants and crops. Although many species are currently in decline, a number of them remain stable or are even expanding. One factor potentially driving changes in bumblebee distribution is the suitability of plant communities. Actually, bees probably have specific nutritional requirements that could shape their floral choices and constraint them in the current context of global change. However, most studies primarily focus on one bumblebee species at a time, making comparative studies scarce. Herein we performed comparative bioassays on three bumblebee species (i.e. Bombus hypnorum, B. pratorum and B. terrestris) fed on three different pollen diets with distinct nutritive content (Cistus, Erica and Salix pollen diets). Micro-colony performance was compared through different developmental and resource collection parameters for understanding the impact of change in pollen diet on different bumblebee species. The evidence suggests that B. terrestris is by far the most competitive species because of its performance compared to the other species, regardless of pollen diet. Our results also highlight a Bombus species effect as pollen diet impacts the micro-colonies in different ways according to the actual bumblebee species. Such interspecific variation in Bombus performance in response to a dietetic change underlines the importance of considering different bumblebee species in mitigation strategies. Such comparative studies are good advice for developing appropriate suites of plant species that can benefit threatened species while supporting stable or expanding ones.
Bayes Factors: What They are and What They are Not

Abstract Bayes factors have been offered by Bayesians as alternatives to P values (or significance probabilities) for testing hypotheses and for quantifying the degree to which observed data support or conflict with a hypothesis. In an earlier article, Schervish showed how the interpretation of P values as measures of support suffers a certain logical flaw. In this article, we show how Bayes factors suffer that same flaw. We investigate the source of that problem and consider what are the appropriate interpretations of Bayes factors.
Identity, Beliefs, and Political Conflict

We present a theory of identity politics that builds on two ideas. First, when policy conflict renders a certain social divide—economic or cultural—salient, a voter identifies with her economic or cultural group. Second, the voter slants her beliefs toward the stereotype of the group she identifies with. We obtain three implications. First, voters’ beliefs are polarized along the distinctive features of salient groups. Second, if the salience of cultural policies increases, cultural conflict rises, redistributive conflict falls, and polarization becomes more correlated across issues. Third, economic shocks hurting conservative voters may trigger a switch to cultural identity, causing these voters to demand less redistribution. We discuss U.S. survey evidence in light of these implications.
Safety of older pedestrians: strategy for future research and action initiatives

While older pedestrian crashes are relatively few in number, their rates are significant per head of population. Moreover, with expected increases in the proportion and mobility of older people in the years ahead, the problem will only get worse without active intervention. This review aimed to identify issues of relevance to the safety of older pedestrians and prioritise research and countermeasures for future initiatives. A literature review was conducted along with discussions with local and overseas specialists to highlight management and research issues likely to be of relevance. A total of 16 action and 14 research items were then distributed to a panel of Australian and international gerontology experts where these items were rated in terms of their likely importance for improved older pedestrian safety. Priority action initiatives emphasised more pedestrian friendly environments in high older pedestrian areas, while research into exposure, travel patterns and older pedestrian road crossing behaviour were recommended.
Half‐century seasonal relationships between the Southern Annular mode and Antarctic temperatures

In this short communication, we examine the relationship between the Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM) and Antarctic near‐surface temperatures using data from Antarctic stations for 1957–2004. This near half‐century period is significantly longer than those analysed in previous studies. Furthermore, the four seasons are considered independently while the longer datasets allow the temporal stability of the relationship to be investigated.