Multiple Central Nervous System Cryptococcomas Masquerading as Lymphoma.

Cryptococcal meningitis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus. In over 90% of cases, it occurs at CD4 T lymphocyte (CD4) cell counts of less than 100 cells/mm. Cryptococcomas are rare granulomatous lesions that can occur in disseminated central nervous system cryptococcal infection, primarily in immunocompetent hosts.

"Home Field Advantage": The Presence of a "Home" Neurosurgical Residency Training Program is Associated With Improved Match Outcomes.

Background And Objectives: Competition for neurosurgical residency training positions remains fierce. The support provided by applicants' home neurosurgery residency training programs (NRTP) is suspected to play a key role in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) process. We sought to evaluate the impact of the presence of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited NRTP at medical students' home institutions has on NRMP match outcomes.

Trends in utilization of standardized letters of recommendation in the 2021-2022 neurosurgery application process.

Objective: Standardized letters of recommendation (SLORs) were introduced during the 2020-2021 neurosurgery residency application cycle, but suffered from poor interrater reliability and grade inflation. Changes were made to the SLOR template and utilization patterns in response to these shortcomings. The authors examined the second year of SLOR utilization.

Words matter: using natural language processing to predict neurosurgical residency match outcomes.

Objective: Narrative letters of recommendation (NLORs) are considered by neurosurgical program directors to be among the most important parts of the residency application. However, the utility of these NLORs in predicting match outcomes compared to objective measures has not been determined. In this study, the authors compare the performance of machine learning models trained on applicant NLORs and demographic data to predict match outcomes and investigate whether narrative language is predictive of standardized letter of recommendation (SLOR) rankings.

An Examination of Standardized Letters of Recommendation Rating Scales Among Neurosurgical Residency Candidates During the 2020-2021 Application Cycle.

Background: Letters of recommendation (LORs) are historically an important, though subjective, component of the neurosurgery residency application process. Standardized LORs (SLORs) were introduced during the 2020 to 2021 application cycle. The intent of SLORs is to allow objective comparison of applicants and to reduce bias.

Motivation and Engagement during Visually Guided Behavior.

Animal behavior is motivated by internal drives, such as thirst and hunger, generated in hypothalamic neurons that project widely to many brain areas. We find that water-restricted mice maintain stable, high-level contrast sensitivity and brief reaction time while performing a visual task, but then abruptly stop and become disengaged. Mice consume a significant amount of water when freely provided in their home cage immediately after the task, indicating that disengagement does not reflect cessation of thirst.