Analysis Coordinator Report

We present the IVS analysis coordination issues of 2012. The IVS Analysis Coordinator is responsible for generating and disseminating the official IVS products. This requires consistency of the input data by strict adherence to models and conventions. The term of the current IVS Analysis Coordinator will end on February 28, 2013

The impact of celestial pole offset modelling on VLBI UT1 Intensive results

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Intensive sessions are scheduled to provide operational Universal Time (UT1) determinations with low latency. UT1 estimates obtained from these observations heavily depend on the model of the celestial pole motion used during data processing. However, even the most accurate precession-nutation model, IAU 2000/2006, is not accurate enough to realize the full potential of VLBI observations. To achieve the highest possible accuracy in UT1 estimates, a celestial pole offset (CPO), which is the difference between the actual and modelled precession-nutation angles, should be applied. Three CPO models are currently available for users. In this paper, these models have been tested and the differences between UT1 estimates obtained with those models are investigated. It has been shown that neglecting CPO modelling during VLBI UT1 Intensive processing causes systematic errors in UT1 series of up to 20 microarcseconds. It has been also found that using different CPO models causes the differences in UT1 estimates reaching 10 microarcseconds. Obtained results are applicable to the satellite data processing as well.Comment: 8 pp., accepted for publication in Journal of Geodes

2015 Update on Acute Adverse Reactions to Gadolinium based Contrast Agents in Cardiovascular MR. Large Multi-National and Multi-Ethnical Population Experience With 37788 Patients From the EuroCMR Registry

Objectives: Specifically we aim to demonstrate that the results of our earlier safety data hold true in this much larger multi-national and multi-ethnical population. Background: We sought to re-evaluate the frequency, manifestations, and severity of acute adverse reactions associated with administration of several gadolinium- based contrast agents during routine CMR on a European level. Methods: Multi-centre, multi-national, and multi-ethnical registry with consecutive enrolment of patients in 57 European centres. Results: During the current observation 37788 doses of Gadolinium based contrast agent were administered to 37788 patients. The mean dose was 24.7 ml (range 5–80 ml), which is equivalent to 0.123 mmol/kg (range 0.01 - 0.3 mmol/kg). Forty-five acute adverse reactions due to contrast administration occurred (0.12 %). Most reactions were classified as mild (43 of 45) according to the American College of Radiology definition. The most frequent complaints following contrast administration were rashes and hives (15 of 45), followed by nausea (10 of 45) and flushes (10 of 45). The event rate ranged from 0.05 % (linear non-ionic agent gadodiamide) to 0.42 % (linear ionic agent gadobenate dimeglumine). Interestingly, we also found different event rates between the three main indications for CMR ranging from 0.05 % (risk stratification in suspected CAD) to 0.22 % (viability in known CAD). Conclusions: The current data indicate that the results of the earlier safety data hold true in this much larger multi-national and multi-ethnical population. Thus, the “off-label” use of Gadolinium based contrast in cardiovascular MR should be regarded as safe concerning the frequency, manifestation and severity of acute events

The Advent of Transport Authorities in South Africa

Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

The Financing of Land Transport in South Africa

Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Current variables, definitions and endpoints of the European Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Registry

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is increasingly used in daily clinical practice. However, little is known about its clinical utility such as image quality, safety and impact on patient management. In addition, there is limited information about the potential of CMR to acquire prognostic information. METHODS: The European Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Registry (EuroCMR Registry) will consist of two parts: 1) Multicenter registry with consecutive enrolment of patients scanned in all participating European CMR centres using web based online case record forms. 2) Prospective clinical follow up of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) every 12 months after enrolment to assess prognostic data. CONCLUSION: The EuroCMR Registry offers an opportunity to provide information about the clinical utility of routine CMR in a large number of cases and a diverse population. Furthermore it has the potential to gather information about the prognostic value of CMR in specific patient populations

Evaluation of presumably disease causing SCN1A variants in a cohort of common epilepsy syndromes

Objective: The SCN1A gene, coding for the voltage-gated Na+ channel alpha subunit NaV1.1, is the clinically most relevant epilepsy gene. With the advent of high-throughput next-generation sequencing, clinical laboratories are generating an ever-increasing catalogue of SCN1A variants. Variants are more likely to be classified as pathogenic if they have already been identified previously in a patient with epilepsy. Here, we critically re-evaluate the pathogenicity of this class of variants in a cohort of patients with common epilepsy syndromes and subsequently ask whether a significant fraction of benign variants have been misclassified as pathogenic. Methods: We screened a discovery cohort of 448 patients with a broad range of common genetic epilepsies and 734 controls for previously reported SCN1A mutations that were assumed to be disease causing. We re-evaluated the evidence for pathogenicity of the identified variants using in silico predictions, segregation, original reports, available functional data and assessment of allele frequencies in healthy individuals as well as in a follow up cohort of 777 patients. Results and Interpretation: We identified 8 known missense mutations, previously reported as path

Combinatorial optimization applied to VLBI scheduling

Due to the advent of powerful solvers, today linear programming has seen many applications in production and routing. In this publication, we present mixed-integer linear programming as applied to scheduling geodetic very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations. The approach uses combinatorial optimization and formulates the scheduling task as a mixed-integer linear program. Within this new method, the schedule is considered as an entity containing all possible observations of an observing session at the same time, leading to a global optimum. In our example, the optimum is found by maximizing the sky coverage score. The sky coverage score is computed by a hierarchical partitioning of the local sky above each telescope into a number of cells. Each cell including at least one observation adds a certain gain to the score. The method is computationally expensive and this publication may be ahead of its time for large networks and large numbers of VLBI observations. However, considering that developments of solvers for combinatorial optimization are progressing rapidly and that computers increase in performance, the usefulness of this approach may come up again in some distant future. Nevertheless, readers may be prompted to look into these optimization methods already today seeing that they are available also in the geodetic literature. The validity of the concept and the applicability of the logic are demonstrated by evaluating test schedules for five 1-h, single-baseline Intensive VLBI sessions. Compared to schedules that were produced with the scheduling software sked, the number of observations per session is increased on average by three observations and the simulated precision of UT1-UTC is improved in four out of five cases (6μs average improvement in quadrature). Moreover, a simplified and thus much faster version of the mixed-integer linear program has been developed for modern VLBI Global Observing System telescopes