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The subthalamic nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus internus (GPi) have recently been shown to encode reward, but few studies have been performed in humans. We investigated STN and GPi encoding of reward and loss (i.e., valence) in humans with Parkinson's disease. To test the hypothesis that STN and GPi neurons would change their firing rate in response to reward- and loss-related stimuli, we recorded the activity of individual neurons while participants performed a behavioral task. In the task, action choices were associated with potential rewarding, punitive, or neutral outcomes. We found that STN and GPi neurons encode valence-related information during action control, but the proportion of valence-responsive neurons was greater in the STN compared to the GPi. In the STN, reward-related stimuli mobilized a greater proportion of neurons than loss-related stimuli. We also found surprising limbic overlap with the sensorimotor regions in both the STN and GPi, and this overlap was greater than has been previously reported. These findings may help to explain alterations in limbic function that have been observed following deep brain stimulation therapy of the STN and GPi. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1952-1964, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postoperative management of prostate cancer with lymph node involvement (LNI) is controversial. Retrospective evidence supports the selective use of radiotherapy (RT) after extended pelvic lymph node dissection. It is unclear whether this is generalizable to practice in the United States, where extended dissection is uncommon. The authors identified patients with LNI who potentially could derive a survival benefit with adjuvant RT plus androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT).Methods: Patients with N1M0 prostate adenocarcinoma who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) and subsequently received ADT from 2003 through 2011 were identified from the National Cancer Database. Kaplan-Meier analyses, log-rank tests, and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression were performed using overall survival (OS) as the primary outcome.Results: In total, 906 of 2569 eligible patients (35.3%) received RT, and RT was more frequently received by patients who were diagnosed in later years, had fewer positive lymph nodes, had involved surgical margins, and were aged <65 years (all P < .05). The 5-year OS rate was 87% versus 82% in those who received RT versus those who did not (P = .007). After propensity score matching, 826 patients remained in each cohort. RT retained an association with OS (5-year OS: 88% vs 81%; P = .009; hazard ratio, 1.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-1.86; P = .008). No interaction was identified between the effect of RT on OS across tested strata of total lymph nodes examined, lymph node ratio, total number of positive lymph nodes, margin status, Gleason score, and prostate-specific antigen.Conclusions: RT plus ADT was associated with improved OS after RP in patients with LNI. These results may help guide therapy in the absence of randomized evidence. Cancer 2017;123:512-520. © 2016 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The technological advances in real-time ultrasound image guidance for high-dose-rate (HDR) prostate brachytherapy have placed this treatment modality at the forefront of innovation in cancer radiotherapy. Prostate HDR treatment of ten involves placing the HDR catheters (needles) into the prostate gland under the transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guidance, then generating a radiation treatment plan based on CT prostate images, and subsequently delivering high dose of radiation through these catheters. The main challenge for this HDR procedure is to accurately segment the prostate volume in the CT images for the radiation treatment planning. In this study, the authors propose a novel approach that integrates the prostate volume from 3D TRUS images into the treatment planning CT images to provide an accurate prostate delineation for prostate HDR treatment. Methods: The authors' approach requires acquisition of 3D TRUS prostate images in the operating room right after the HDR catheters are inserted, which takes 1-3 min. These TRUS images are used to create prostate contours. The HDR catheters are reconstructed from the intraoperative TRUS and postoperative CT images, and subsequently used as landmarks for the TRUS-CT image fusion. After TRUS-CT fusion, the TRUS-based prostate volume is deformed to the CT images for treatment planning. This method was first validated with a prostate-phantom study. In addition, a pilot study of ten patients undergoing HDR prostate brachytherapy was conducted to test its clinical feasibility. The accuracy of their approach was assessed through the locations of three implanted fiducial (gold) markers, as well as T2-weighted MR prostate images of patients. Results: For the phantom study, the target registration error (TRE) of gold-markers was 0.41 ± 0.11 mm. For the ten patients, the TRE of gold markers was 1.18 ± 0.26 mm; the prostate volume difference between the authors' approach and the MRI-based volume was 7.28% ± 0.86%, and the prostate volume Dice overlap coefficient was 91.89% ± 1.19%. Conclusions: The authors have developed a novel approach to improve prostate contour utilizing intraoperative TRUS-based prostate volume in the CT-based prostate HDR treatment planning, demonstrated its clinical feasibility, and validated its accuracy with MRIs. The proposed segmentation method would improve prostate delineations, enable accurate dose planning and treatment delivery, and potentially enhance the treatment outcome of prostate HDR brachytherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND C-reactive protein (CRP) has been associated with outcomes in patients with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Associations between prostate adenocarcinoma-specific endpoints and CRP in patients who are treated for localized disease remain unknown. METHODS In total, 206 patients who received radiation therapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate had at least 1 CRP measured in follow-up and were analyzed. The primary outcome was biochemical failure-free survival. In addition, associations were examined between CRP and prostate-specific antigen (PSA). RESULTS On univariate analysis, higher CRP levels were associated significantly with shorter biochemical failure-free survival for patients who received radiation therapy after undergoing radical prostatectomy. For patients who were managed with definitive radiation therapy alone, higher CRP levels also were associated significantly with shorter biochemical failure-free survival on univariate and multivariable analyses (hazard ratio, 2.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-3.47; P = .009). In addition, CRP levels were associated significantly with PSA after radical prostatectomy for patients who had Gleason scores ≥8 ( P = .037), for high-risk patients ( P = .008), and for those with pretreatment PSA levels >20 ng/mL ( P = .05). In patients who received definitive radiation therapy, CRP levels also were associated with PSA both for those with pretreatment PSA levels >20 ng/mL ( P < .001), and for the intermediate-risk ( P = .029) and high-risk ( P = .009) subgroups. CONCLUSIONS A higher CRP level was associated with shorter biochemical failure-free survival on univariate and multivariable analyses in patients who received definitive radiation therapy. CRP was also associated with PSA in exploratory subgroups. These findings warrant further exploration in a prospectively enrolled patient cohort. Cancer 2013;119:3272-9. © 2013 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many consumer packaged goods products, researchers have documented inertia in brand choice, a form of persistence whereby consumers have a higher probability of choosing a product that they have purchased in the past. We show that the finding of inertia is robust to flexible controls for preference heterogeneity and not due to autocorrelated taste shocks. We explore three economic explanations for the observed structural state dependence: preference changes due to past purchases or consumption experiences which induce a form of loyalty, search, and learning. Our data are consistent with loyalty, but not with search or learning. This distinction is important for policy analysis, because the alternative sources of inertia imply qualitative differences in firm's pricing incentives and lead to quantitatively different equilibrium pricing outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which aims at conserving habitat for the endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Eastern Taiwan Strait. The study describes the habitat requirements of the dolphins and discusses the causes of the degradation of the species. It found that the dolphins are exposed to sewage and chemicals, as well as noise and disturbances. It recommends that priority habitat must be available to areas of high dolphin density or intensive dolphin use.

In this article the author argues that United States academic sociology threatens to slip into the limited relevance of scholasticism. Applied sociology and academic sociology are both quite heterogeneous sets of activities. The core of academic sociology consists of teaching, scholarship, and research. There are many different ways to fulfill each function, however: some teach primarily lower-division courses whereas others spend most of their teaching time with graduate students. Indeed, a case can be made that one specialty within sociology is what might be called "LD sociology," i.e., lower-division sociology. Similarly, scholarship and research are also quite heterogeneous. On average, if one counts all sorts of publications, faculty members publish one item every other year, but the median is close to zero, indicating that the average is strongly influenced by a minority who publish very heavily. Cutting across academic activities are the various intellectual styles within so ciology and subject matter specialization.

Comments on the American Evaluators Association's (AEA) Guiding Principles for Evaluators. Weakness of the guiding principles; Difficulty in applying the principles in concrete circumstances; Ambiguity of the principles.

Discusses the history of the conflict between qualitative and quantitative evaluation styles. Social programs fueled by optimism; Strains in the structure of evaluative tasks; Task evaluation; Impact assessment.

Examines the advances in quantitative evaluation from 1987-1996. Definition of the evaluation; Information on the three types of advances; Development of data collection methods.

A factorial survey, designed to parallel a study conducted at the University of California (Reilly, Carpenter, Dull, & Bartlett, 1982), was used to assess judgments of the nature of sexual harassment among under- graduate students at the University of Massachusetts. The factors deter- mining ratings of harassment proved to be very consistent across student populations and across different judgment tasks. However, there was some indication that the factors that influence defining an incident as sexual harassment are not entirely the same as the determinants of perceived seriousness of an incident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early twentieth century concerns with social problems and pathologies perceived as stemming from rural to urban migration, neighborhood transiency and an absence of spatially stable communities fueled the early study of residential mobility. Knowing why people moved, it seemed, presented a potential for fostering neighborhood stability, place oriented community and a cure for urban ills such as crime, delinquency and other forms of anomie behavior. The finding that residential mobility was neither pathological nor indicative of normlessness but was a normal process through which families improve their housing situations set the tone for later mobility research. The myriad of studies on mobility precipitants and housing adjustment processes have, today, firmly established the finding that residential shifts are driven by family compositional changes accompanying family life cycle stages. Without a problems context, it appears that residential mobility research has little obvious relevance to public policy concerns. To be relevant to public policy, we propose that mobility research change focus from looking at the precipitants of residential moves toward looking at the mechanisms that structure the patterning of residential choices within metropolitan areas. We present some new directions for mobility research dealing with factors governing housing production and its spatial distribution along with why and where people live where they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops an approach for analyzing the dynamics of a nonlinear time series that is represented by a nonparametric estimate of its one-step ahead conditional density. The approach entails examination of conditional moment profiles corresponding to certain shocks; a conditional moment profile is the conditional expectation evaluated at time t of a time invariant function evaluated at time t + j regarded as a function of j. Comparing the conditional moment profiles to baseline profiles is the nonlinear analog of conventional impulse-response analysis. The approach includes strategies for laying out realistic perturbation experiments in multivariate situations and for undertaking statistical inference using bootstrap methods. It also includes examination of profile bundles for evidence of damping or persistence. The empirical work investigates a bivariate series comprised of daily changes in the Standard and Poor's composite price index and daily NYSE transactions volume from 1928 to 1987. The effort uncovers evidence showing the heavily damped character of the "leverage effect" and the differential response (short-term increase, long-term decline) of trading volume to "common-knowledge" price shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Population-Based Case-Control Study of Recreational Drug Use and Testis Cancer Confirms an Association Between Marijuana Use and Nonseminoma Risk," by J. C. Lacson et al. published in the 2012 issue of "Cancer."

Purpose: This study's purpose is to develop a quantitative ultrasound technology to evaluate radiation-induced vaginal fibrosis. Radiation therapy (RT) is an important treatment modality for most gynecologic (GYN) malignancies. However, vaginal fibrosis is a common chronic side-effect, affecting 80% of women post vaginal or pelvic RT. Vaginal fibrosis leads to pain, sexual dysfunction, and poor quality of life. Methods: The authors propose a novel ultrasound approach that combines conventional B-mode imaging with Nakagami parameter imaging to quantitatively evaluate post-RT vaginal injury. From the B-mode image, vaginal wall thickness and echo intensity were calculated to capture the anatomy and echogenicity of the vaginal wall. From Nakagami imaging, two statistical parameters, Nakagami probability density function (PDF) and Nakagami shape, were computed to measure the concentration and arrangement of vaginal tissue microstructures. This novel ultrasound imaging concept was investigated in a pilot study of 12 patients, who were previously diagnosed and treated for endometrial cancer. The 12 participants were stratified into two groups: (1) the control group consisted of 6 patients who received surgery (hysterectomy) alone and (2) the post-RT group consisted of 6 patients who received surgery plus radiotherapy, with a follow-up time of 12-38 months. Each participant underwent one transvaginal ultrasound study (6 MHz). Three transverse images of the anterior vaginal wall were acquired in a 2 cm step from the apex (vaginal cuff) to the introitus (vagina opening). The vaginal wall thickness, echo intensity, Nakagami PDF, and Nakagami parameter were calculated to evaluate radiation-induced vaginal fibrosis. Results: Both B-mode and Nakagami methods showed significant differences in parameters between the post-RT and nonirradiated vaginal walls. Compared with the control group, the vaginal wall thickness of the post-RT group increased by 153.2% (p = 0.002), the echo intensity increased by 11.6% (p = 0.017), the Nakagami PDF increased by 72.3% (p < 0.001), and the Nakagami shape valued increased by 33.0% (p = 0.028). Conclusions: Vaginal fibrosis appears to be associated with a thickened vaginal wall, higher echogenicity, as well as increased Nakagami PDF and shape parameters. This pilot study shows the authors' quantitative ultrasound approach combining B-mode and Nakagami imaging is a promising imaging method to evaluate vaginal fibrosis. This imaging method may be useful as physicians try to address vaginal toxicities and sexual dysfunction in women after radiotherapy for GYN malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]