Short Observation Time Research Articles

MO1006: Cni-Induced Hypomagnesemia in Kidney Transplantation: A Comparative Monocentric Study Between Sucrosomial Magnesium and Magnesium Pidolate

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS Magnesium (Mg) is the second cation in the intracellular space and the fourth prevalent cation in the body. It contributes to DNA and protein synthesis, infiammatory processes and cardiac excitability, while Mg deficiency leads to increased cardiovascular risk, atherosclerosis and diabetes [1]. In addition to gastrointestinal losses, loop or thiazide diuretics induce renal wasting, volume expansion and nephrotoxins including antibiotics Hypomagnesemia (HypoMg) is observed early after kidney transplantation and is associated with a faster decline of allograft function. Main determinants are calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs), protonic pump inhibitors (PPI), low Mg intake and diuretics. CNIs, in particular, induce HypoMg with mechanisms not fully understood, likely via downregulation of the Mg channel TRPM6 in the distal collecting tubule [2]. HypoMg should be corrected with oral supplements. Recently, in order to increase magnesium bioavailability and tolerance not shown by convetional oral magnesium supplements, a new sucrosomial magnesium formulation has been developed. Its innovative preparation encapsulates magnesium oxide in a phospholipid membrane covered by a sucrester matrix, which enhances Mg passage through the gastric and intestinal environment without any interaction with the intestinal mucosa [3]. This study evaluates magnesium bioavailability, tolerance and effectiveness after administration of sucrosomial magnesium compared with magnesium pidolate. METHOD We recruited 32 adult single, double or combined kidney-pancreas transplant recipients within 1 year from transplantation, who developed CNI-induced hypomagnesemia. Exclusion criteria include: HypoMg due to PPI or gastrointestinal losses. A total of 13 patients received magnesium pidolate, and 19 patients received sucrosomial magnesium. Venous blood samples were taken at baseline (T0) and after 10 days of magnesium supplement (T1). RESULTS Sucrosomial magnesium increased Mg bioavailability and tolerance: 0.60 ± 0.02 T0 mmoL/L versus 0.69 ± 0.05 T1; P < .0001 versus magnesium pidolate: 0.61 ± 0.05 T0 versus 0.64 ± 0.05 T1; P = .72 N.S. (Fig. 1A). Sucrosomial magnesium provided an increase of Mg over magnesium pidolate in terms of $\Delta \% $ increase: 12.4% for sucrosomial Mg versus 5.4%, P = .04 (Fig. 1B). CONCLUSION Our data, although obtained by a small cohort of transplant patients, shows that sucrosomial Mg is more efficient and better tolerated compared with magnesium pidolate. On the one hand, the fact that our study is the first in transplant patients to evaluate the impact of sucrosomial Mg for the correction of HypoMg might justify the limited number of patients enrolled and the short observation time; on the other hand, our results could serve as a working hypothesis for further studies with a larger number of transplant patients and for extended study duration to confirm the benefit of sucrosomial Mg.

244P The incidence of infusion related reactions with trastuzumab-emtansine

Ado-trastuzumab-emtansine (T-DM1) is licensed as palliative and adjuvant treatment for breast cancer. The recommendation is for post-infusion observation of 90 minutes following cycle 1, and 30 minutes for subsequent cycles, owing to the risk of hypersensitivity reactions. The need for observation has significant implications for oncology day unit capacity and patient time in hospital. This study aimed to evaluate the rate and severity of trastuzumab-emtansine infusion reactions in our cohort of patients, to determine if shorter observation times would be safe.

Mental Rotation of Tactic Board Instructions in Basketball: Domain-Specific Expertise Improves On-Court Performance

ABSTRACT Purpose: In basketball, tactical instructions are presented on tactic boards under temporal constraints (e.g., time-outs). Based on the disparity in the orientation of the tactic board and the players’ egocentric on-court visual perspective, there are high affordances in visual-spatial transformation (e.g., mental rotation), which impede information processing and decrease execution accuracy. The aim of this study was to scrutinize how the effect of different orientations of visual tactical displays on information processing demands and execution accuracy is affected by expertise in basketball.Methods: In a mixed-factors-design with two factors, 48 participants were assigned to a group of experienced basketball players (n = 24) and novices (n = 24). They were instructed to execute basketball playing patterns, which were presented on a virtual tactic board in five different spatial disparities to the players’ on-court perspective.Results: The self-controlled time for watching the instructions before execution was significantly shorter and spatial accuracy in pattern execution was significantly higher for lower disparities between instruction perspective and on-court perspective. Experienced basketball players displayed shorter observation times as well as higher accuracy as a global effect, being independent of stimulus orientation. Moreover, the effect of orientation on observation times was lower in the experienced group as compared to the novices.Conclusion: Extensive experience over several years with visuo-spatial transformations of tactical instructions reduced, but not eliminated, the effects of model-observer disparity. Accordingly, coaches should align their tactic boards to their players’ on-court viewing perspective to enable fast processing and errorless execution of tactical instructions.

‘Fast but not so Furious’: Short observation time after subcutaneous Daratumumab administration is both a safe and cost-effective strategy

BackgroundDaratumumab, an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, is a key component in the treatment paradigms of multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis in both the newly diagnosed and relapsed and/or refractory setting. Intravenous (IV) daratumumab administration requires extended infusion times and is associated with higher rates of infusion related reactions (IRRs) when compared to the subcutaneous (SC) formulation. We report real world safety outcomes and infusion chair time savings associated with SC administration in daratumumab naïve patients. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed medical records at our institution for the incidence and severity of IRRs following differing observation periods post SC daratumumab administration. Infusion chair time was calculated to quantify chair time savings with SC administration. ResultsSixty-six daratumumab naïve patients were included. Nine percent of patients developed IRRs with SC daratumumab with all reactions occurring within six hours of the first dose. All reactions were grade ≤ 2 in severity and were reversible with supportive care. Over the 18 month study period, a total of 904 SC doses were administered, amounting to a potential 1785 hours of infusion chair time savings when compared to IV administration. ConclusionSC daratumumab may be given safely with a short initial observation period and without observation for subsequent doses, resulting in reduced infusion chair time as well as administration related cost and resources.

Efficacy and safety of Abelmoschus manihot in treating chronic kidney diseases: A multicentre, open-label and single-arm clinical trial

Rationale and objectiveThe efficacy of Abelmoschus manihot (AM) in treating of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been confirmed by prior trials. AM is also commonly combined to other medicines among CKD patients in clinic. This trial aimed at evaluating the safety of AM combination application, and further verifying the efficacy of AM in treating various types of CKD. Study designA multicentre, prospective, open-label, single-arm trial Setting and participantsApproximately 2000 CKD patients with proteinuria (≥ 150 mg/d), from 105 centres across China InterventionsAM was administered to patients three times per day for 24 weeks: the daily dose was based on age (> 12 years old: 2.5 g tid; 6∼12 years old: 1.5 g tid; 2∼6 years old: 1 g tid) OutcomesThe efficacy outcomes were the change in 24-hour proteinuria and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from baseline to week 24. Safety outcomes included adverse events and laboratory tests. Results2054 CKD patients from 105 centres were enrolled in this trial, with 1843 (89.7%) completing the 24-week follow-up. The participants’ median age was 44 years old and 44.6% were female. Compared to baseline, 24-hour proteinuria decreased 471 mg (95% confident interval, 367 to 575, p < 0.001) at week 24. eGFR did not change significantly relative to baseline with the mean increase as 1.7 ml/min/1.73 m2 (95% confident interval, -0.3 to 3.7, p = 0.09). 902 (43.9%) participants combined medication to AM during follow-up. The total incidence of adverse events was 12.9%; and the most common adverse events were hyperlipidaemia (4.1%), abnormal liver function (2.3%), upper respiratory infection (1.8%), and hyperglycaemia (1.1%). Combined medications did not change the risk for hyperlipidaemia and upper respiratory infection. The combination application with antiplatelet reagents increased the risk of abnormal liver function, and with calcium channel blockers increased the risk of hyperglycaemia. LimitationsSingle-arm clinical trial and short observation time ConclusionWe have provided safety information of AM on various types of CKD in a large trial, especially when combination to medications most commonly prescribed to CKD patients. AM also showed to decrease proteinuria with stable kidney function during follow up. AM is a promising treatment for CKD patients.

Diagnosing eyewitness identifications with reaction time-based concealed information test: the effect of observation time

Eyewitness identification procedures rely heavily on explicit identification from lineups. Lineups have been criticized because they have a considerable error rate. We tested the potential of implicit identifications in a Concealed Information Test (CIT) as an alternative. Previous experiments have suggested that implicit identification procedures might be suited when viewing conditions were favorable. In two experiments, mock eyewitnesses (Ns = 94, 509) witnessed a videotaped mock theft with longer or shorter observation time. We derived eyewitness identifications either implicitly from CIT reaction times or explicitly from simultaneous photo lineups. In Experiment 2, we also manipulated perpetrator presence. In both experiments, the perpetrator-present CIT showed capacity to diagnose face recognition, with large effect sizes (dE1 = 0.85 [0.51; 1.18]; dE2 = 0.74 [0.52; 0.96]), as expected. Unexpectedly, no moderation by observation time was found. In line with our hypothesis, no CIT effect emerged in the perpetrator-absent condition, indicating the absence of recognition (dE2 = 0.02 [− 0.17; 0.20]). We found no compelling evidence that one method would outperform the other. This work adds to accumulating evidence that suggests that, under favorable viewing conditions and replication provided, the RT-CIT might be diagnostic of facial recognition, for example when witnesses are hesitant of making an explicit identification. Future work might investigate conditions that affect performance in one, but not the other identification method.

A block-movement-based analysis for cohesive powders in a rotating drum experiment

The precise characterization of the flow behavior of cohesive powders can be challenging. With the block-movement-based analysis, we introduce a more immediate characterization technique that even works for highly cohesive powders. Based on the strongly discontinuous dynamics in rotating drums dominated by the formation of large blocks and their subsequent breakage in abrupt avalanche events, it describes the flow behavior with geometrical properties of the falling down structures like block height or speed. Its advantages are the higher information content and the short observation time to get stable results. These properties make it a promising candidate for calibrating parameters for computer simulations. In addition, its high sensitivity allows to detect even small changes in the flow behavior. We demonstrate the method with three metal powders and identify the differences in their flowability. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of preconditioning at different humidity to underline the sensitivity of our approach.

Anisotropic diffusion of ellipsoidal tracers in microswimmer suspensions

Tracer particles immersed in suspensions of biological microswimmers such as E. coli or C. reinhardtii display phenomena unseen in conventional equilibrium systems, including strongly enhanced diffusivity relative to the Brownian value and non-Gaussian displacement statistics. In dilute, 3-dimensional suspensions, these phenomena have typically been explained by the hydrodynamic advection of point tracers by isolated microswimmers, while, at higher concentrations, correlations between pusher microswimmers such as E. coli can increase the effective diffusivity even further. Anisotropic tracers in active suspensions can be expected to exhibit even more complex behaviour than spherical ones, due to the presence of a nontrivial translation-rotation coupling. Using large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations of model microswimmers described by extended force dipoles, we study the motion of ellipsoidal point tracers immersed in 3-dimensional microswimmer suspensions. We find that the rotational diffusivity of tracers is much less affected by swimmer-swimmer correlations than the translational diffusivity. We furthermore study the anisotropic translational diffusion in the particle frame and find that, in pusher suspensions, the diffusivity along the ellipsoid major axis is higher than in the direction perpendicular to it, albeit with a smaller ratio than for Brownian diffusion. Thus, we find that far field hydrodynamics cannot account for the anomalous coupling between translation and rotation observed in experiments, as was recently proposed. Finally, we study the probability distributions (PDFs) of translational and rotational displacements. In accordance with experimental observations, for short observation times we observe strongly non-Gaussian PDFs that collapse when rescaled with their variance, which we attribute to the ballistic nature of tracer motion at short times.

Eigenvalues-Based Detector Design for Radar Small Floating Target Detection in Sea Clutter

In this letter, the correlation structure inherent in the received data is exploited to improve detection performance for sea-surface small floating targets in short observation time. Three detectors are devised resorting to the eigenvalues of covariance matrix that are versatile statistics reflecting the signal correlation. Specifically, the proposed detectors respectively exploit the maximum eigenvalue to arithmetic mean (MAM) of all eigenvalues, the maximum eigenvalue to geometric mean (MGM) of all eigenvalues, and the maximum eigenvalue to minimum eigenvalue (MME) to form test statistics. At the analysis stage, the three-parameter Burr function is exploited to approximate the statistical distributions of the test statistics under null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. Besides, the analytic expressions of false alarm probability, detection probability, and thresholds of the proposed detectors are derived. Finally, simulation results on real sea clutter show that the proposed detectors provide effective solutions to the problem of target detection in sea clutter.

Small Target Detection in X-Band Sea Clutter Using the Visibility Graph

Small target detection in high-resolution sea clutter is one of the important problems in radar target detection. We propose a new detector that adopts the visibility graph (VG) algorithm and the graph convolution neural network (GCN). This detector extracts the graph feature of radar echo networks for target detection after converting the phase information of radar echo into complex networks. Different from the existing detector based on graph connectivity, the VG algorithm does not need radar data preprocessing and it can directly convert the radar data into complex networks by judging whether the series data are visible mutually. We extracted the graph feature that can effectively distinguish the background clutter and target echo by GCN instead of calculating the statistic of graphs manually. Experiments on the IPIX radar datasets show that the proposed method achieves superior performance than the existing detector based on graph connectivity, especially in a short observation time. When the observation time is 0.256 s, the average accuracy of &#x0023;17, &#x0023;54, and &#x0023;320 datasets can reach 84.82&#x0025;, 94.84&#x0025;, and 90.59&#x0025;, respectively.

Two-Step Channel Observation Scheme Considering Spread of Observation Results in Dynamic Spectrum Sharing

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), in which multiple wireless systems share the same radio resource, has been studied to improve frequency utilization efficiency. In DSS, the channel occupation ratio (COR), the usage of radio resources (channels) used by other wireless systems, is measured. The wireless system dynamically selects the channel with the lowest COR for communication. A long observation time is required to measure the COR with high accuracy. However, as the number of observed channels increases, the observation time per channel becomes shorter. Since the shorter observation time, the degradation of the accuracy of observed COR is a problem. This paper proposes a two-step channel observation scheme considering the spread of observed results. In the first observation, the proposed scheme measures all channels and excludes channels with high COR, considering the spread due to the error in the observed results. Only remaining channels are observed in the second observation, so the observation time can be relatively long. Computer simulation results show that the proposed scheme with 200 ms or more of first observation can improve communication reliability compared to the conventional scheme.

Histologic evaluation of dentin bridge formation by pachymic acid and biodentine in human tooth culture model

Histologic evaluation of dentin bridge formation by pachymic acid and biodentine in human tooth culture model

Total mesometrial resection (TMMR) for cervical cancer FIGO IB-IIA: first results from the multicentric TMMR register study.

SynopsisAvailable data on total mesometrial resection and therapeutic lymphadenectomy (TMMR+tLNE) for the treatment of cervical cancer show excellent locoregional control rates without adjuvant chemoradiation. In 116 patients with cervical cancer stages IB–IIA the overall recurrence rate was 7.8% in a median follow-up time of 24 months. Locoregional recurrences occurred in 6.0% of patients.

Validation of the Italian version of Behavioral Pain Scale in sedated, intubated, and mechanically ventilated pediatric patients.

Pain assessment in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a demanding challenge. The COMFORT-B scale is recognized as the gold standard in such patients. However, the use of this instrument in PICU setting is disputed. The Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS), instead, is considered to be the gold standard for pain assessment in deeply sedated, mechanically ventilated adult patients. The BPS has been validated in Italian, requires a short observation time compared to the COMFORT-B and does not increase workloads. A first evaluation of BPS was made in PICU with good results regarding face validity and content validity, however suggesting further studies given the small sample on which it was tested. The aim of this study was the validation of the BPS in sedated, intubated, and mechanically ventilated pediatric patients. A descriptive, comparative design was used. A convenience sample of 84 non-verbal, sedated and mechanically ventilated critical care pediatric patients was included. Patient pain was assessed concurrently with three observational scales (BPS, COMFORT-B, NRS) before, during and after routine procedures that are considered painful and non-painful. Internal consistency was α = .86. Correlations between BPS and the other instruments were high, demonstrating a good concurrent validity of the BPS. T test and assessment of ROC curves demonstrated a good discriminant validity of the BPS. The BPS proved to be valid and reliable for the assessment of pain also in the use with pediatric patients.

Flexible and consistent quantile estimation for intensity–duration–frequency curves

Abstract. Assessing the relationship between the intensity, duration, and frequency (IDF) of extreme precipitation is required for the design of water management systems. However, when modeling sub-daily precipitation extremes, there are commonly only short observation time series available. This problem can be overcome by applying the duration-dependent formulation of the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution which fits an IDF model with a range of durations simultaneously. The originally proposed duration-dependent GEV model exhibits a power-law-like behavior of the quantiles and takes care of a deviation from this scaling relation (curvature) for sub-hourly durations (Koutsoyiannis et al., 1998). We suggest that a more flexible model might be required to model a wide range of durations (1 min to 5 d). Therefore, we extend the model with the following two features: (i) different slopes for different quantiles (multiscaling) and (ii) the deviation from the power law for large durations (flattening), which is newly introduced in this study. Based on the quantile skill score, we investigate the performance of the resulting flexible model with respect to the benefit of the individual features (curvature, multiscaling, and flattening) with simulated and empirical data. We provide detailed information on the duration and probability ranges for which specific features or a systematic combination of features leads to improvements for stations in a case study area in the Wupper catchment (Germany). Our results show that allowing curvature or multiscaling improves the model only for very short or long durations, respectively, but leads to disadvantages in modeling the other duration ranges. In contrast, allowing flattening on average leads to an improvement for medium durations between 1 h and 1 d, without affecting other duration regimes. Overall, the new parametric form offers a flexible and enhanced performance model for consistently describing IDF relations over a wide range of durations, which has not been done before as most existing studies focus on durations longer than 1 h or day and do not address the deviation from the power law for very long durations (2–5 d).

Depth-distributions and migration of fallout radionuclides in mountain soils from Chréa National Park (Algeria): The role of rhizospheres

The distribution and migration of artificial fallout radionuclides in natural soils has been profusely studied for assessing radioecological impacts and predicting their long-term behaviour, among other topics. Despite the standardized use of the analytical solutions of a simplified convection-diffusion equation (CDE), there are still some concerns and open questions. This work is aimed at contributing to the understanding of basic processes governing the distribution of fallout radionuclides in vegetated soils with rhizospheres. It studies 210Pb and 137Cs in soil cores and vegetal samples from Chréa National Park, in Algeria, along with other natural radionuclides and some major and trace elements. Results include surficial and depth distributions of radionuclide concentrations, and site and plant-specific concentration ratios (CR). Inventories of 137Cs (3620 ± 120 Bq m−2) and 210Pbexc (9000 ± 900 Bq m−2) in soils are typical from global fallout in high precipitation areas in the Northern Hemisphere. A simple model of a polyphasic soil, including rhizospheres, provides a realistic description in the studied case, where plant roots occupy about 45% of the volume in the 0–10 cm interval, with a high porosity around rhizomes. This composite soil matrix explains the different patterns observed in the depth distribution of the studied elements. The depth-distributions of 137Cs and 210Pbexc have been modelled with different approaches: i) analytical solution of the CDE with mean annual convection and large observation times; ii) as before, but with convection representing infiltration events and short observation times; iii) numerical modelling of the 137Cs profile in the mineral phase using CDE with fast initial distributions. The three approaches fit the empirical data, but they predict different time evolutions. The approach iii) provides a more realistic description. Results are questioning the common accepted analysis and its predictive use.

Cost-Effective Vibration Analysis through Data-Backed Pipeline Optimisation.

Vibration analysis is an active area of research, aimed, among other targets, at an accurate classification of machinery failure modes. The analysis often leads to complex and convoluted signal processing pipeline designs, which are computationally demanding and often cannot be deployed in IoT devices. In the current work, we address this issue by proposing a data-driven methodology that allows optimising and justifying the complexity of the signal processing pipelines. Additionally, aiming to make IoT vibration analysis systems more cost- and computationally efficient, on the example of MAFAULDA vibration dataset, we assess the changes in the failure classification performance at low sampling rates as well as short observation time windows. We find out that a decrease of the sampling rate from 50 kHz to 1 kHz leads to a statistically significant classification performance drop. A statistically significant decrease is also observed for the 0.1 s time window compared to the 5 s one. However, the effect sizes are small to medium, suggesting that in certain settings lower sampling rates and shorter observation windows might be worth using, consequently making the use of the more cost-efficient sensors feasible. The proposed optimisation approach, as well as the statistically supported findings of the study, allow for an efficient design of IoT vibration analysis systems, both in terms of complexity and costs, bringing us one step closer to the widely accessible IoT/Edge-based vibration analysis.

Reconstruction of summer NDVI over the past 339 years based on the tree-ring width of Picea schrenkiana in Bayinbuluke, Central Tianshan, China

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used in various fields of vegetation research. Due to the short observation time, however, it is difficult to meet the research needs at long time scale. Here, we established a tree-ring width chronology (STD) based on Picea schrenkiana in Bayinbuluke, and calculated the correlation coefficient of chronology and NDVI with meteorological data. The results showed that both tree-ring width index and NDVI were significantly correlated with meteorological data. Combined with the significant positive correlation between width chronology and NDVI in June-August (r=0.7, P<0.01, n=38), summer NDVI (from June to August) was reconstructed over the past 339 years using a regression model. During 1680-2018, the reconstruction series had four dense vegetation periods (1738-1765, 1786-1798, 1964-1973 and 2000-2018) and five sparse vegetation periods (1690-1714, 1825-1834, 1850-1880, 1895-1920 and 1945-1955). The reconstruction reflected the hydrological signals in the central Tianshan Mountains. The comparison with the surrounding reconstructions revealed that when the runoff of Kaidu River increased and the local environment was humid, the vegetation coverage was high; otherwise the vegetation coverage was low. The extreme value of the reconstruction series also captured a series of natural disasters recorded in historical documents. Results of HYSPLT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model) backward trajectory model and wind field analysis showed that NDVI anomalies were affected by the precipitation from Westerlies.

A Bayesian Machine Learning Algorithm for Predicting ENSO Using Short Observational Time Series

AbstractA simple and efficient Bayesian machine learning (BML) training algorithm, which exploits only a 20‐year short observational time series and an approximate prior model, is developed to predict the Niño 3 sea surface temperature (SST) index. The BML forecast significantly outperforms model‐based ensemble predictions and standard machine learning forecasts. Even with a simple feedforward neural network (NN), the BML forecast is skillful for 9.5 months. Remarkably, the BML forecast overcomes the spring predictability barrier to a large extent: the forecast starting from spring remains skillful for nearly 10 months. The BML algorithm can also effectively utilize multiscale features: the BML forecast of SST using SST, thermocline, and windburst improves on the BML forecast using just SST by at least 2 months. Finally, the BML algorithm also reduces the forecast uncertainty of NNs and is robust to input perturbations.

ISAR Signal Tracking and High-Resolution Imaging by Kalman Filtering

In a short observation time, after the range alignment and phase adjustment, the motion of a target can be approximated as a uniform rotation. The radar observing process can be simply described as multiplying an observation matrix on the ISAR image, which can be thought of as a linear system. It is known that the longer observation time is, the higher cross-range resolution is. In order to deal with the conflict between short observation time and high cross-range resolution, we introduce Kalman filtering (KF) into the ISAR imaging and propose a novel method to reconstruct a high-resolution image with short time observed data. As KF has excellent reconstruction performance, it leads to a good application in ISAR image reconstruction. At each observation aperture, the reconstructed image denotes the state vector in KF at the aperture time. It is corrected by a two-step KF process: prediction and update. As iteration continues, the state vector is gradually corrected to a well-focused high-resolution image. Thus, the proposed method can obtain a high-resolution image in a short observation time. Both simulated and real data are applied to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.