Does Incentive Provision Increase the Quality of Peer Review? An Experimental Study

Although peer review is crucial for innovation and experimental discoveries in science, it is poorly understood in scientific terms. Discovering its true dynamics and exploring adjustments which improve the commitment of everyone involved could benefit scientific development for all disciplines and consequently increase innovation in the economy and the society. We have reported the results of an innovative experiment developed to model peer review. We demonstrate that offering material rewards to referees tends to decrease the quality and efficiency of the reviewing process. Our findings help to discuss the viability of different options of incentive provision, supporting the idea that journal editors and responsible of research funding agencies should be extremely careful in offering material incentives on reviewing, since these might undermine moral motives which guide referees' behavior

A Content-Analysis Approach for Exploring Usability Problems in a Collaborative Virtual Environment

As Virtual Reality (VR) products are becoming more widely available in the consumer market, improving the usability of these devices and environments is crucial. In this paper, we are going to introduce a framework for the usability evaluation of collaborative 3D virtual environments based on a large-scale usability study of a mixedmodality collaborative VR system. We first review previous literature about important usability issues related to collaborative 3D virtual environments, supplemented with our research in which we conducted 122 interviews after participants solved a collaborative virtual reality task. Then, building on the literature review and our results, we extend previous usability frameworks. We identified twelve different usability problems, and based on the causes of the problems, we grouped them into three main categories: VR environment-, device interaction-, and task-specific problems. The framework can be used to guide the usability evaluation of collaborative VR environments

The log-Brunn-Minkowski inequality

For origin-symmetric convex bodies (i.e., the unit balls of finite dimensional Banach spaces) it is conjectured that there exist a family of inequalities each of which is stronger than the classical Brunn-Minkowski inequality and a family of inequalities each of which is stronger than the classical Minkowski mixed-volume inequality. It is shown that these two families of inequalities are "equivalent" in that once either of these inequalities is established, the other must follow as a consequence. All of the conjectured inequalities are established for plane convex bodies. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Affine images of isotropic measures

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given in order for a Borel measure on the Euclidean sphere to have an affine image that is isotropic. A sharp reverse affine isoperimetric inequality for Borel measures on the sphere is presented. This leads to sharp reverse affine isoperimetric inequalities for convex bodies. © 2015, International Press of Boston, Inc. All rights reserved

A quantitative stability result for the sphere packing problem in dimensions 8 and 24

We prove explicit stability estimates for the sphere packing problem in dimensions 8 and 24, showing that, in the lattice case, if a lattice is $\sim \varepsilon$ close to satisfying the optimal density, then it is, in a suitable sense, $O(\varepsilon^{1/2})$ close to the $E_8$ and Leech lattices, respectively. In the periodic setting, we prove that, under the same assumptions, we may take a large 'frame' through which our packing locally looks like $E_8$ or $\Lambda_{24}.$ Our methods make explicit use of the magic functions constructed by M. Viazovska in dimension 8 and by H. Cohn, A. Kumar, S. Miller, the second author, and M. Viazovska in dimension 24, together with results of independent interest on the abstract stability of the lattices $E_8$ and $\Lambda_{24}.$Comment: 24 page

Neuroendokrin daganat májmetasztázisainak teljes és tartós remissziója szomatosztatinanalóg-kezelés hatására

Somatostatin analogues represent a major treatment modality in the therapy of neuroendocrine tumors. Their efficacy is well documented in the inhibition of hormone secretion; however, novel data seem to underline their effectiveness in tumor regression, as well. In this report authors present a case of type 1 neuroendocrine tumors of the stomach associated with liver metastases. Somatostatin analogue treatment resulted in a complete regression of the primary tumor and the metastases within two years. This case draws attention on the importance of somatostatin analogue treatment not only in the control of hormonal symptoms but also in the inhibition of tumor growth. Orv. Hetil., 2011, 152, 407-410

Humán albuminnal kezelt strukturális proximális tibialis allograft alkalmazása kiterjedt térdízületi periprotetikus csonthiány esetén és a késői szövődmény elhárítása

A szerzők 74 éves beteg kórtörténetét ismertetik, akinél kiterjedt szegmentális térdízületi periprotetikus csontvesztés műtéti kezelése során strukturális proximalis tibialis allograftot alkalmaztak és beszámolnak a műtét után kialakult késői szövődmény ellátásáról. Kiemelik, hogy az allograftokkal történő csontpótlás fiziológiás eljárás, amely lehetőséget ad stabil implantátum rögzítésére, lágyrész-rekonstrukcióra, kiterjedt csontvesztés pótlására, és a beavatkozás költsége is kevesebb. A liofilizált allograft albuminnal történő kezelése bizonyítottan javítja azt a képességet, hogy a csontvelő-eredetű mesenchymalis őssejtek az allograft felszínén megtapadjanak, azon proliferáljanak, valamint annak pórusaiba is beterjedjenek és ezáltal a graft mélyebb rétegeibe is eljussanak. Kimutatható osteoblast tevékenység alakult ki a graft felszínén és a belsejében is. Orv. Hetil., 2015, 156(2), 67–70