Number Of Conditions Research Articles

Implementation and analysis of a parallel kalman filter algorithm for lidar localization based on CUDA technology.

Introduction: Navigation satellite systems can fail to work or work incorrectly in a number of conditions: signal shadowing, electromagnetic interference, atmospheric conditions, and technical problems. All of these factors can significantly affect the localization accuracy of autonomous driving systems. This emphasizes the need for other localization technologies, such as Lidar. Methods: The use of the Kalman filter in combination with Lidar can be very effective in various applications due to the synergy of their capabilities. The Kalman filter can improve the accuracy of lidar measurements by taking into account the noise and inaccuracies present in the measurements. Results: In this paper, we propose a parallel Kalman algorithm in three-dimensional space to speed up the computational speed of Lidar localization. At the same time, the initial localization accuracy of the latter is preserved. A distinctive feature of the proposed approach is that the Kalman localization algorithm itself is parallelized, rather than the process of building a map for navigation. The proposed algorithm allows us to obtain the result 3.8 times faster without compromising the localization accuracy, which was 3% for both cases, making it effective for real-time decision-making. Discussion: The reliability of this result is confirmed by a preliminary theoretical estimate of the acceleration rate based on Ambdahl's law. Accelerating the Kalman filter with CUDA for Lidar localization can be of significant practical value, especially in real-time and in conditions where large amounts of data from Lidar sensors need to be processed.

Management of stress urinary incontinence associated with perimenopause

Pelvic health physiotherapy is recommended as first-line treatment for those with lower urinary tract symptoms and pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic health physiotherapists treat a number of genitourinary conditions conservatively, including stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, pelvic organ prolapse and vaginal atrophy. When physiotherapy management alone does not fully resolve symptoms, medication may be required. Independent prescribing enables the physiotherapist to maintain continuity of care, allowing a smoother, more effective patient journey. This offers quicker access to medicines and helps avoid delays in commencing appropriate treatment, reducing waiting times across other services. In this article, the role of the pelvic health physiotherapy independent prescriber is detailed in a case study of a patient referred with symptoms of stress urinary incontinence associated with impaired pelvic floor function and episodic constipation, in addition to perimenopausal vaginal dryness causing dyspareunia.

Ultrasparse Ultrasparsifiers and Faster Laplacian System Solvers

In this paper we provide an O ( m loglog O (1) n log (1/ϵ))-expected time algorithm for solving Laplacian systems on n -node m -edge graphs, improving upon the previous best expected runtime of \(O(m \sqrt {\log n} \mathrm{log log}^{O(1)} n \log (1/\epsilon)) \) achieved by (Cohen, Kyng, Miller, Pachocki, Peng, Rao, Xu 2014). To obtain this result we provide efficient constructions of low spectral stretch graph approximations with improved stretch and sparsity bounds. As motivation for this work, we show that for every set of vectors in \(\mathbb {R}^d \) (not just those induced by graphs) and all integer k > 1 there exist an ultra-sparsifier with d − 1 + O ( d / k ) re-weighted vectors of relative condition number at most k 2 . For small k , this improves upon the previous best known multiplicative factor of \(k \cdot \tilde{O}(\log d) \) , which is only known for the graph case. Additionally, in the graph case we employ our low-stretch subgraph construction to obtain n − 1 + O ( n / k )-edge ultrasparsifiers of relative condition number k 1 + o (1) for k = ω (log δ n ) for any δ > 0: this improves upon the previous work for k = o (exp (log 1/2 − δ n )).

Energy Insecurity Indicators Associated With Increased Odds Of Respiratory, Mental Health, And Cardiovascular Conditions.

Energy insecurity, defined as the inability to meet household energy needs, has multiple economic, physical, and coping dimensions that affect health. We conducted the first citywide representative survey of energy insecurity and health in a sample of 1,950 New York City residents in 2022. We compiled ten indicators that characterize energy insecurity as experienced in New York City housing settings and then examined associations between number and types of indicators and health conditions. Nearly 30percent of residents experienced three or more indicators, with significantly higher levels among Black non-Latino/a and Latino/a residents compared with White non-Latino/a residents, renters compared with owners, recent immigrants compared with those living in the United States for longer, and those in households with children compared with those with no children. Residents with three or more indicators of energy insecurity had higher odds of respiratory, mental health, and cardiovascular conditions and electric medical device dependence than residents with no indicators. Our study demonstrates that broadening the understanding of energy insecurity with context-specific metrics can help guide interventions and policies that address disparities relevant to health and energy equity.

Effect of timeframes to define long term conditions and sociodemographic factors on prevalence of multimorbidity using disease code frequency in primary care electronic health records: retrospective study

ObjectiveTo determine the extent to which the choice of timeframe used to define a long term condition affects the prevalence of multimorbidity and whether this varies with sociodemographic factors.DesignRetrospective study...

Comparing Medicare plan selection among beneficiaries with and without a history of cancer.

Individuals aging into Medicare must choose among plans that vary in their scope of benefits, access to health care providers, and exposure to out-of-pocket expenses. When faced with complex coverage decisions, it is unclear whether older adults consider their experiences with prior serious illness or current medical conditions. We estimated the association between a self-reported history of cancer and initial plan selection among 3811 Health and Retirement Study participants aging into Medicare between 2008 and 2020. The proportion of individuals with and without a history of cancer who chose Medicare Advantage was similar; however, the probability of selecting traditional Medicare plus supplemental coverage was 8.03 percentage points (95% confidence interval, 2.99-13.07) higher for respondents with a history of cancer compared with those without a history of cancer. Individuals with a history of cancer may have accounted for their previous experiences with high-cost health care services and prioritized plans with robust benefits (eg, greater financial protections). Raising awareness of and enhancing educational resources could ensure that older adults select plans that meet their current and evolving health care needs.

A reduced-condition-number algorithm for single-frequency precise point positioning based on regularized Kalman filter

Single-frequency receivers are low cost and portable, thus being widely applied in engineering; the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is commonly used to perform single-frequency precise point positioning (SF-PPP). However, the positioning performance of SF-PPP is seriously influenced by various errors. Due to the large process noise and initial variance of the estimated parameters, the weight matrix of state parameters will be ill-conditioned, and since the noise of the pseudo-range is much higher than that of the carrier phase, the weight matrix of observations presents as ill-conditioned. Additionally, the condition number of the normal matrix will jump on the conditions of cycle slip, new emerging satellites, and signal outages. To reduce the condition number of the normal matrix, the regularized Kalman filter (RKF) algorithm is proposed, with additional support for the maximum variance matrix and singular value decomposition, thereby improving the accuracy and stability of SF-PPP. Through static and dynamic experiments, it is found that the proposed method can reduce both the ill-conditioning of the weight matrices of the observations and the state parameters. The condition number of the normal matrix is <500 per epoch, and the convergence time is shortened by >40%. Compared with the SF-PPP using EKF, centimeter-level static positioning accuracies of 1.13, 0.73, and 2.92 cm and decimeter-level kinematic positioning accuracies of 12.5, 10.8, and 27.3 cm in the east, north, and vertical components, respectively, using RKF; this yielded 38.3, 29.8, and 45.2% and 39.6, 41.9, and 21.3% improvement in the static and kinematic scenarios, respectively.

Syndemic of Substance Abuse, Depression, and Type 2 Diabetes and Their Association with Retention in Care Among People Living with HIV.

Substance abuse (SA), depression, and type 2 diabetes (DM2) often co-occur among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Guided by a syndemic framework, this cross-sectional retrospective study examined the cumulative and interaction effects of SA, depression, and DM2 on retention in HIV care (RIC) among 621 PLHIV receiving medical care in central Pennsylvania. We performed logistic regression analysis to test the associations between SA, depression, and DM2 and RIC. To test the "syndemic" model, we assessed additive and multiplicative interactions. In an unadjusted model, a dose-response pattern between the syndemic index (total number of health conditions) and RIC was detected (OR for 1 syndemic factor vs. none: 1.01, 95% CI: 0.69-1.47; 2 syndemic factors: 1.59, 0.89-2.84; 3 syndemic factors: 1.62, 0.44-5.94), but no group reached statistical significance. Interactions on both additive and multiplicative scales were not significant, demonstrating no syndemic effect of SA, depression, and DM2 on RIC among our study sample. Our findings highlight that comorbid conditions may, in some populations, facilitate RIC rather than act as barriers, which may be due to higher levels of engagement with medical care.

Metabolic puzzle: Exploring liver fibrosis differences in Asian metabolic-associated fatty liver disease subtypes.

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a liver condition marked by excessive fat buildup in the absence of heavy alcohol use. It is primarily linked with metabolic issues like insulin resistance, obesity, and abnormal lipid levels, and is often observed with other conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, whether the subtypes of MAFLD based on the metabolic disorder differentially impact liver fibrosis is not well explicated, especially in the Asian population. To compare the severity of liver fibrosis among different MAFLD subtypes. A total of 322 adult patients of either gender with fatty liver on ultrasound were enrolled between January to December 2021. MAFLD was defined as per the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver guidelines. Fibrosis-4 index (Fib-4) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score (NFS) were employed to evaluate liver fibrosis. The mean age was 44.84 ± 11 years. Seventy-two percent of the patients were female. Two hundred and seventy-three patients were classified as having MAFLD, of which 110 (40.3%) carried a single, 129 (47.3%) had two, and 34 (12.5%) had all three metabolic conditions. The cumulative number of metabolic conditions was related to elevated body mass index, triglyceride (TG) levels, and glycated hemoglobin, lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels, higher liver inflammation (by aspartate aminotransferase and γ-glutamyl transferase), and higher likelihood of fibrosis (by NFS and Fib-4 scores) (P < 0.05 for all). The proportion of advanced fibrosis also increased with an increase in the number of metabolic conditions (4.1%, 25.5%, 35.6%, and 44.1% by NFS and 6.1%, 10.9%, 17%, and 26.5% by Fib-4 for no MAFLD and MAFLD with 1, 2, and 3 conditions, respectively). Among MAFLD patients, those with diabetes alone were the eldest and had the highest mean value of NFS score and Fib-4 score (P < 0.05), while MAFLD patients diagnosed with lean metabolic dysfunction exhibited the highest levels of TG and alanine aminotransferase but the lowest HDL levels (P < 0.05). The study suggests that the severity of liver fibrosis in MAFLD patients is influenced by the number and type of metabolic conditions present. Early identification and management of MAFLD, particularly in patients with multiple metabolic conditions, are crucial to prevent liver-related complications.

A mid‑pandemic night's dream: Melatonin, fromharbinger of anti‑inflammation to mitochondrial savior in acute and long COVID‑19 (Review).

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), a systemic illness caused by severe acute respiratory distress syndrome2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), has triggered a worldwide pandemic with symptoms ranging from asymptomatic to chronic, affecting practically every organ. Melatonin, an ancient antioxidant found in all living organisms, has been suggested as a safe and effective therapeutic option for the treatment of SARS‑CoV‑2 infection due to its good safety characteristics and broad‑spectrum antiviral medication properties. Melatonin is essential in various metabolic pathways and governs physiological processes, such as the sleep‑wake cycle and circadian rhythms. It exhibits oncostatic, anti‑inflammatory, antioxidant and anti‑aging properties, exhibiting promise for use in the treatment of numerous disorders, including COVID‑19. The preventive and therapeutic effects of melatonin have been widely explored in a number of conditions and have been well‑established in experimental ischemia/reperfusion investigations, particularly in coronary heart disease and stroke. Clinical research evaluating the use of melatonin in COVID‑19 has shown various improved outcomes, including reduced hospitalization durations; however, the trials are small. Melatonin can alleviate mitochondrial dysfunction in COVID‑19, improve immune cell function and provide antioxidant properties. However, its therapeutic potential remains underexplored due to funding limitations and thus further investigations are required.

Association between serum lactate, lactate clearance rate, and 30-day mortality among patients undergoing mechanical ventilation: A retrospective cohort study of MIMIC-III database.

Serum lactate has been used as a prognostic indicator in intensive care unit patients, and however, the single lactate value may not be enough to reflect changes during illness conditions. Herein, this study aims to explore the association between serum lactate and lactate clearance rate and 30-day mortality in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation (MV). Demographic and clinical data of 2628 adults were extracted from the medical information mart for intensive care-III clinical database in this retrospective cohort study. The lactate clearance rate was calculated using the serum lactate at the beginning of MV (T0), and serum lactate at the12 hours after MV beginning (T1). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to screen covariates, and explore the association between serum lactate and lactate clearance rate and 30-day mortality. We also explored these associations in different T0 serum lactate level subgroups. The evaluation indexes were hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. In addition, receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve with area under the curve (AUC) was used to reflect the predictive performance of serum lactate and lactate clearance rate on 30-day mortality. A total of 827 (31.47%) mechanically ventilated patients died within 30 days. After adjusting for covariates, elevated T0 (HR = 1.04, 95%CI: [1.02-1.07]) and T1 (HR = 1.07, 95%CI: [1.04-1.10]) serum lactate was both associated with an increased risk of 30-day mortality, while higher lactate clearance rate was negatively associated with the risk of 30-day mortality (HR = 0.64, 95%CI: [0.50-0.81]). Among patients with T0 lactate ≥2 mmol/L, T1 serum lactate ≥4 mmol/L was associated with an increased risk of 30-day mortality, while lactate clearance rate ≥50 was associated with a decreased risk (all P < .05). Moreover, T1 serum lactate had a potential predictive value on 30-day mortality with an AUC of 0.605. Serum lactate and lactate clearance rate were both associated with 30-day mortality in patients undergoing MV. Our results may provide some references for further studies to explore the roles of serum lactate and lactate clearance rate in prognoses of critical patients.

RSSI Measurement Analysis of Zigbee-Based Wireless Sensor Networks in Various Topologies for Solar Panel Monitoring

Abstract— Solar panels require performance monitoring when energy shortages occur in the area. Monitoring solar panels requires a detection device to detect solar panels, including the ACS712 current sensor for monitoring the output current of the solar panel, a DC voltage sensor for monitoring battery performance, and a DHT11 temperature sensor for monitoring the temperature of the solar panel storage battery. The WSN technology that can work is ZigBee communication. This ZigBee communication research uses various topology methods, including star, tree, and mesh topologies. Solar panel monitoring tests are carried out indoors and outdoors. The ZigBee communication device used is the XBee S2C device, which operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. From a comparison of various topologies, the mesh topology is a topology with good performance because it has the characteristic of choosing a router with the fastest path to reach the coordinator. It is proven by monitoring solar panels with an optimal distance of 80 m, which is carried out from outdoors with an RSSI value of -84 dBm, a throughput of 0.55 kbps, and a delay of 2.77 ms, producing power for 150 minutes with an average current of 0.14 A, voltage of 9.86 V, and temperature of 31.48°C. The number of disturbances and weather conditions greatly affect signal propagation, which can hamper the data transmission process. Throughput fluctuates due to uncertain weather conditions, and delay fluctuates due to a lot of interference from other radio signals.&#x0D; Keyworrds— Wireless Sensor Nirbael (WSN), RSSI, ZigBee, Panel Surya, Thinger.IO

Differences in provider recommendations for Black/African American and White patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Health disparities and barriers to equitable care for patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds are common. We sought to evaluate disparities in management recommendations among Black/African American (AA) patients seeking care for IBS. We assembled a retrospective cohort of patients at two tertiary care centers who were self-identifying as Black/AA and attended a first gastroenterology consult for IBS. These patients were age- and sex-matched to White controls with IBS also attending an initial gastroenterology consult. Retrospective chart review determined patient demographics, income, comorbidities, as well as provider management recommendations including pharmacologic therapies and non-pharmacologic interventions. Among 602 IBS patients ages 14-88 (M ± SD = 43.6 ± 18.6 years) with IBS, those who identified as Black/AA (n = 301) had a lower estimated mean income and were significantly more likely to have a number of specific chronic medical conditions. Black/AA patients were significantly less likely to have implemented dietary changes for symptoms prior to receiving a diagnosis of IBS from a gastroenterologist. Black/AA patients were also less likely to receive a referral to a dietician within 1 year following their diagnosis of IBS (p = 0.01). Black/AA patients were prescribed pharmacologic therapy more often for constipation (41.9% vs. 34.6%, p = 0.01). It was more common for White patients to present at the initial encounter having already initiated a neuromodulator (41.9% vs. 27.9%, p < 0.001). Management recommendations for IBS appear to vary by race, specifically for dietary advice and referrals.

Health Care Contact Days Among Older Adults in Traditional Medicare : A Cross-Sectional Study.

Days spent obtaining health care outside the home can represent not only access to needed care but also substantial time, effort, and cost, especially for older adults and their care partners. Yet, these "health care contact days" have not been characterized. To assess composition of, variation and patterns in, and factors associated with contact days among older adults. Cross-sectional study. Nationally representative 2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data linked to claims. Community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older in traditional Medicare. Ambulatory contact days (days with a primary care or specialty care office visit, test, imaging, procedure, or treatment) and total contact days (ambulatory days plus institutional days in a hospital, emergency department, skilled-nursing facility, or hospice facility); multivariable mixed-effects Poisson regression to identify patient factors associated with contact days. In weighted results, 6619 older adults (weighted: 29 694 084) had means of 17.3 ambulatory contact days (SD, 22.1) and 20.7 total contact days (SD, 27.5) in the year; 11.1% had 50 or more total contact days. Older adults spent most contact days on ambulatory care, including primary care visits (mean [SD], 3.5 [5.0]), specialty care visits (5.7 [9.6]), tests (5.3 [7.2]), imaging (2.6 [3.9]), procedures (2.5 [6.4]), and treatments (5.7 [13.3]). Half of the test and imaging days were not on the same days as office visits (48.6% and 50.1%, respectively). Factors associated with more ambulatory contact days included younger age, female sex, White race, non-Hispanic ethnicity, higher income, higher educational attainment, urban residence, more chronic conditions, and care-seeking behaviors (for example, "go to the doctor…as soon as (I)…feel bad"). Study population limited to those in traditional Medicare. On average, older adults spent 3 weeks in the year getting care outside the home. These contact days were mostly ambulatory and varied widely not only by number of chronic conditions but also by sociodemographic factors, geography, and care-seeking behaviors. These results show factors beyond clinical need that may drive overuse and underuse of contact days and opportunities to optimize this person-centered measure to reduce patient burdens, for example, via care coordination. National Institute on Aging.

Epidemiology of multimorbidity associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the United States, 1999–2018

BackgroundThe multimorbidity of Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and many other chronic conditions is becoming common. This study aimed to assess multimorbidity distribution in ASCVD among adults in the United States from 1999 to 2018.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2018 using stratified multistage probability design. Among the 53,083 survey respondents during the study period, 5,729 US adults aged ≥ 20 years with ASCVD. Joinpoint regression was used to assess the statistical significance of prevalence trends in the prevalence of ASCVD stratified by multimorbidity. The Apriori association rule mining algorithm was used to identify common multimorbidity association patterns in ASCVD patients.ResultsOverall, 5,729 of 53,083 individuals had ASCVD, and the prevalence showed a slow declining trend (biannual percentage change = -0.81%, p = 0.035, average 7.71%). The prevalence of ASCVD significantly decreased in populations without dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and arthritis (all groups, p < 0.05). Additionally, 65.6% of ASCVD patients had at least four of the 12 selected chronic conditions, with four and five being the most common numbers of conditions (17.9% and 17.7%, respectively). The five most common chronic conditions were (in order) dyslipidemia, hypertension, arthritis, chronic kidney disease, and DM. The coexistence of hypertension and dyslipidemia had the highest support in association rules (support = 0.63), while the coexistence of dyslipidemia, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and DM had the highest lift (lift = 1.82).ConclusionsDuring the 20-year survey period, there was a significant decrease in the overall prevalence of ASCVD. However, this reduction was primarily observed in individuals without dyslipidemia, DM, hypertension, asthma, COPD, and arthritis. Among populations with any of the evaluated chronic conditions, the prevalence of ASCVD remained unchanged. Most of ASCVD patients had four or more concurrent chronic conditions.

2012 The long-term clinical outcomes of older adults with frailty following acute hospital admission in Tanzania

Abstract Background Non-communicable disease, multimorbidity and frailty are posing considerable challenges as global populations age. Healthcare systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries are having to rapidly adapt services to meet the needs of older people. Objective This study, the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, aimed to establish whether screening older people for frailty on admission to hospital could be used to identify those at greatest risk of adverse outcomes. Methods At baseline assessment, 308 participants aged ≥60 years, admitted to medical wards at four hospitals in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, were screened for frailty using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). After 10-12 months, participants, and their informants, were contacted by telephone to establish clinical outcomes. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios ( 95% confidence interval) for mortality, with dichotomised CFS frailty status (frail if ≥5) as the independent variable. Results Primary outcome data were obtained for 194 (63.0%) of the original participants after a mean follow-up period of 10.8 ( 0.9) months. Mean age was 75.1 years and 99 (51%) of respondents were female. A total of 100 (51.5%) respondents were deceased and hazard ratios for all-cause mortality demonstrate that those with frailty were at significantly greater risk of mortality (HR 2.27 [CI 1.39 – 3.69], p&amp;lt;0.01), an effect that persisted even after adjustment for age, baseline Barthel Index, education and number of chronic conditions. Conclusion For older people living in Tanzania, unplanned admission to hospital is associated with high mortality and frailty is a strong independent predicator. In accurately identifying which older people are at the greatest risk, frailty screening using the CFS could provide a starting point for the development of targeted care pathways and interventions.

Comparative Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of two cultivars of Hordeum vulgare L.

Hordeum vulgare L. is a multi-nutritional food grain crop of the Poaceae family. It is a significant staple crop in Asia with significant nutritional and commercial importance. It is possible to grow this plant under a number of abiotic conditions of stress, such as fluoride stress. The objective of the current study was to determine whether two chosen cultivars of Hordeum vulgare could endure or tolerate fluoride stress conditions by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The two H. vulgare cultivars’ seeds that were chosen, RD2786 and RD2794, were planted in pH-5 soil and allowed to mature for a month in clay pots. Different concentrations of fluoride (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 ppm) were added to the soil as supplements. Moreover, GC-MS was used to assess factors such as protein content and nitric oxide. Additional TLC analysis was carried out using a TLC sheet. As a result of free radical production, the cultivar RD2786 had higher total protein and nitric oxide scavenging enzyme (NOSA) activity than RD2794. Because of its osmoprotectant properties and ability to tolerate fluoride stress conditions, cultivar RD2786 of H. vulgare is therefore advised for farmers in fluoride-affected regions based on the results of this study.

Periodontitis and Alzheimer’s Disease: Is There a Connection?

The oral health/systemic health connection has been an area of research interest that increased dramatically during the 1990s. Periodontal disease has been associated with a number of systemic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pre-term low-birth-weight infants, respiratory conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Inflammation is the obvious link that connects periodontal disease with these conditions, but is this association casual or causal? We will address the biologic plausibility, evidence from human studies, evidence from animal studies, and therapeutic interventions as we review the current understanding of the link between periodontitis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Recent Advances in the Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Management of Myxoinflammatory Fibroblastic Sarcoma.

Myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma (MIFS) is an infiltrative, locally aggressive fibroblastic neoplasm of intermediate malignancy that typically arises in the distal extremities of middle-aged adults. It can histologically be confused with a number of benign and malignant conditions. Recently, high-grade examples of MIFS have been described. Immunohistochemistry plays a very limited role in the diagnosis of MIFS. Several genetic alterations have been identified in MIFS, including a t(1;10)(p22;q24) translocation with TGFBR3 and/or OGA rearrangements, BRAF rearrangement, and VGLL3 amplification. Although it appears that VGLL3 amplification is the most consistent alteration, the molecular pathogenesis of MIFS remains poorly understood. A wide resection is considered the standard treatment for MIFS. Radiotherapy may be a viable option in cases with inadequate surgical margins or cases where surgery is likely to cause significant functional impairment. The systemic treatment options for advanced or metastatic disease are very limited. This review provides an updated overview of the clinicoradiological features, pathogenesis, histopathology, and treatment of MIFS.

An efficient algorithm for the minimal least squares solution of linear systems with indefinite symmetric matrices

In this work, a new algorithm for solving symmetric indefinite systems of linear equations is presented. It factorizes the matrix into the form LDLt using Jacobi rotations in order to increase the pivot´s absolute value. Furthermore, Rook´s pivoting strategy is also adapted and implemented. In determinate compatible systems, the computational cost of the algorithm was similar to the cost of the Bunch-Kaufman method, but the error was approximately 50 % smaller for intermediate and large matrices, regardless of the condition number of the coefficient matrix. Furthermore, unlike Bunch-Kaufman, the new algorithm calculates with little additional cost the fundamental basis of the null space, and obtains the minimal least squares and minimum norm solutions. In minimal least squares with minimum norm problems, the new algorithm was compared with the LAPACK Complete Orthogonal Decomposition algorithm, among others. The obtained error with both algorithms was similar but the computational cost was at least 20 % smaller with the new algorithm, even though the Complete Orthogonal Decomposition is implemented in a blocked form.