A hybrid approach for the analysis of complex categorical data structures: assessment of latent distance learning perception in higher education.

A long tradition of analysing ordinal response data deals with parametric models, which started with the seminal approach of cumulative models. When data are collected by means of Likert scale survey questions in which several scored items measure one or more latent traits, one of the sore topics is how to deal with the ordered categories. A stacked ensemble (or hybrid) model is introduced in the proposal to tackle the limitations of summing up the items.

Predicting the early visual outcomes in sellar-suprasellar lesions compressing the chiasm: the role of SD-OCT series of 20 patients operated via endoscopic endonasal approach.

Background: Tumors involving the sellar area often cause visual disorders due to optic nerves/chiasm compression, so that surgery is required. However, the likelihood of visual improvement/restoration is variable. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a valid diagnostic tool for defining pathological conditions of the optic apparatus.

The endoscopic endonasal approach for the management of craniopharyngiomas: a series of 103 patients.

Object: Despite their benign histological appearance, craniopharyngiomas can be considered a challenge for the neurosurgeon and a possible source of poor prognosis for the patient. With the widespread use of the endoscope in endonasal surgery, this route has been proposed over the past decade as an alternative technique for the removal of craniopharyngiomas.

Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed data from a series of 103 patients who underwent the endoscopic endonasal approach at two institutions (Division of Neurosurgery of the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy, and Division of Neurosurgery of the Bellaria Hospital, Bologna, Italy), between January 1997 and December 2012, for the removal of infra- and/or supradiaphragmatic craniopharyngiomas.

Endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal removal of recurrent and regrowing pituitary adenomas: experience on a 59-patient series.

Objective: The nature of the pituitary adenomas itself exposes the possibility of a recurrence of the tumor. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach for the removal of recurrent and residual pituitary adenomas, already treated by a microscopic or endoscopic transsphenoidal approach or by a transcranial route.

Methods: A total of 59 adult patients with a recurrent or regrowing pituitary adenoma underwent surgery using a pure endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach.

The "suprasellar notch," or the tuberculum sellae as seen from below: definition, features, and clinical implications from an endoscopic endonasal perspective.

Object: The tuberculum sellae is a bony elevation ridge that lines up the anterior aspect of the sella, dividing it from the chiasmatic groove. The recent use of the endoscopic endonasal transtuberculum approach has provided surgeons with a method to reach the suprasellar area, offering a new surgical point of view somehow "opposite" of this area. The authors of this study aimed to define the tuberculum sellae as seen from the endoscopic endonasal view while also providing CT-based systematic measurements to objectively detail the anatomical features of such a structure, which was renamed the "suprasellar notch.

Sellar repair with fibrin sealant and collagen fleece after endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery.

Objective: To determine, in patients undergoing sellar repair after endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery, the clinical efficacy of a combination of fibrin sealant/collagen fleece compared to the use of fibrin sealant or collagen fleece alone, in preventing CSF-related (cerebrospinal fluid) postoperative complications.

Methods: From a retrospective analysis of our series of 242 consecutive endoscopic transsphenoidal procedures, in 56 out of the 90 cases in which the sella had been repaired, fibrin sealant and/or collagen fleece was employed, both in combination with one or multiple layers of other materials. The incidence of postoperative CSF leaks and the need for a postoperative lumbar drainage in the groups of fibrin sealant or collagen fleece treated patients were compared to the group of patients treated with the fibrin sealant/collagen fleece combination.