Resource Allocation for Outdoor-to-Indoor Multicarrier Transmission with Shared UE-side Distributed Antenna Systems

In this paper, we study the resource allocation algorithm design for downlink multicarrier transmission with a shared user equipment (UE)-side distributed antenna system (SUDAS) which utilizes both licensed and unlicensed frequency bands for improving the system throughput. The joint UE selection and transceiver processing matrix design is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem for the maximization of the end-to-end system throughput (bits/s). In order to obtain a tractable resource allocation algorithm, we first show that the optimal transmitter precoding and receiver post-processing matrices jointly diagonalize the end-to-end communication channel. Subsequently, the optimization problem is converted to a scalar optimization problem for multiple parallel channels, which is solved by using an asymptotically optimal iterative algorithm. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed resource allocation algorithm for the SUDAS achieves an excellent system performance and provides a spatial multiplexing gain for single-antenna UEs.Comment: accepted for publication at the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) Spring, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, May 201

Postpartum Blood Loss in Women Treated for Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy

OBJECTIVE To evaluate postpartum blood loss in women with treated intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. METHODS In a retrospective case-control study, 15,083 deliveries including 348 women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (2.3%) were analyzed from 2004 to 2014. To adjust for differences in baseline characteristics, a propensity analysis was performed and women in the control group were matched to the women in the intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy group in a 5:1 ratio. Blood loss was analyzed by estimated blood loss and Δ hemoglobin (Hb, difference between prepartum and postpartum Hb). A subgroup analysis regarding severity of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy based on maximum bile acid level (mild [less than 40 micromoles/L], moderate [40-99 micromoles/L], and severe intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy [100 micromoles/L or greater]) was performed. Differences in estimated blood loss, ΔHb, and meconium staining between subgroups were analyzed. A Spearman rank correlation was performed to evaluate the association of bile acid levels and blood loss within subgroups. RESULTS Estimated blood loss (median 400 [300-600] mL compared with 400 [300-600] mL, P=.22), ΔHb (14.0 [5.0-22.0] compared with 12.0 [4.0-21.0] g/L, P=.09), meconium staining (14.5% compared with 11.4%, P=.12), and number of stillbirths after 26 weeks of gestation (0.6% compared with 1.8%, P=.10) were not significantly different in the study compared with the control group. In moderate and severe intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, meconium staining was observed significantly more often compared with that in a control group (23.0% and 32.3% compared with 11.4%, P<.01). There was no correlation between estimated blood loss or ΔHb and severity of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS In our cohort of women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy who are treated with ursodeoxycholic acid and have planned delivery (induction of labor or planned cesarean delivery) at 38 weeks of gestation, no differences in postpartum blood loss were seen

HemoCue®, an Accurate Bedside Method of Hemoglobin Measurement?

Objective. Evaluate the accuracy of this bedside method to determinehemoglobin (Hb) concentration in general surgery over a wide range of Hbvalues and to determine potential sources of error. Methods. Accuracy of Hbmeasurement using HemoCue® (AB Leo Diagnostics, Helsinborg, Sweden) wasassessed in 140 surgical blood samples using 7 HemoCue® devices incomparison with a CO-Oximeter (IL 482, Instrumentation Laboratory,Lexington, MA). To analyze potential sources of error, packed red cells andfresh frozen plasma were reconstituted to randomized Hb levels of 2-18g/dL. Results. In the surgical blood samples, the Hb concentrationdetermined by the CO-Oximeter (HbCOOX) ranged from 5.1 to 16.7 g/dL and theHb concentration measured by HemoCue® (HbHC) from 4.7 to 16.0 g/dL. Bias(HbCOOX - HbHC) between HbCOOX and HbHC was 0.6 ± 0.6 g/dL(mean ± SD) or 5.4 ± 5.0% (p < 0.001). Also in thereconstituted blood, the bias between HbCOOX and HbHC was significant (0.2± 0.3 g/dL or 2.1 ± 3.2%; p < 0.001). Themicrocuvette explained 68% of the variability between HbCOOX andHbHC. HemoCue® thus underestimates the Hb concentration by2-5% and exhibits a 8-10 times higher variability withonly 86.4% of HbHC being within ± 10% of HbCOOX.Conclusion. Although the mean bias between HbCOOX and HbHC was relativelylow, Hb measurement by HemoCue® exhibited a significant variability.Loading multiple microcuvettes and averaging the results may increase theaccuracy of Hb measurement by HemoCue

Management and outcome of Ebstein's anomaly in children

Abstract Objectives To assess clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome of children with Ebstein's anomaly. Background Data on long-term outcome of children with Ebstein's anomaly are scarce. Methods Retrospective analysis of all children with Ebstein's anomaly treated between February, 1979 and January, 2009 in a single tertiary institution. Primary outcomes included patient survival and need for intervention, either cardiac surgery or catheter intervention. Results A total of 42 patients were diagnosed with Ebstein's anomaly at a median age of 5 days ranging from 1 day to 11.7 years. Symptoms included cyanosis, heart murmur, and/or dyspnoea. Associated cardiac anomalies occurred in 90% of the patients. Average follow-up was 9.5 plus or minus 7.0 years. The overall mortality rate was 14%. Of the six patients, three died postnatally before treatment. Cardiac surgery and/or catheter-guided interventions were required in 33 patients (79%). Cardiac surgery was performed in 21 (50%) patients at a median age of 9.1 years (range 0.1-16.5 years), including biventricular repair in 13 (62%), one-and-a-half chamber repair in seven (33%), and a staged single-ventricle repair in one. Peri-operative mortality was 4%. Catheter-guided interventions consisted of device closure of an atrial septal defect in three cases and radiofrequency ablation of accessory pathways in nine patients. The estimated 10-year survival was 85.3 plus or minus 5.6%. Conclusion In children, Ebstein's anomaly is usually diagnosed in the first year of age. Even though children with Ebstein's anomaly often require an intervention, their peri-operative mortality is low and long-term survival is good. Symptomatic newborns requiring an intervention may have a worse outcom

Antibodies to the endoplasmic reticulum-resident chaperones calnexin, BiP and Grp94 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives. To investigate the presence of autoantibodies against mammalian chaperones of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in patients with RA and other immune-mediated diseases. Methods. Sera from healthy donors, from early RA patients with two follow-up samples, patients with SLE, SSc and IBD were collected and analysed for anti-ER chaperone antibodies. Detection of serum IgG antibodies against immunoglobulin heavy chain binding protein (BiP), glucose-regulated protein 94 (Grp94) and calnexin was carried out using ELISA. The specificity of sera positive for individual ER chaperones was confirmed by immunoblotting. Statistical analysis was performed using Welch's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, partial correlation and Pearson's correlation. Results. In patients with RA and SLE, autoantibody titres against BiP, Grp94 and calnexin were significantly higher than those in healthy controls. These autoantibodies were detectable in patients with early RA and titres remained stable for at least 6-12 months. Also several SSc and IBD patients exhibited autoantibodies against these ER chaperones; however, titres and frequencies were lower than in RA or SLE patients. Furthermore, anti-calnexin antibodies correlated significantly with the presence of BiP and Grp94 autoantibodies in patients with RA and SLE. Conclusion. Calnexin and Grp94 were identified as novel autoantigens in RA and calnexin in SLE. Since calnexin, Grp94 and BiP are ER-resident proteins of eukaryotic cells, our data suggest that autoantibody generation against ER chaperones is independent of initial exposure to the corresponding bacterial chaperones; rather, ER chaperones may represent genuine autoantigen

Topic Embeddings – A New Approach to Classify Very Short Documents Based on Predefined Topics

Traditional unsupervised topic modeling approaches like Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) lack the ability to classify documents into a predefined set of topics. On the other hand, supervised methods require significant amounts of labeled data to perform well on such tasks. We develop a new unsupervised method based on word embeddings to classify documents into predefined topics. We evaluate the predictive performance of this novel approach and compare it to seeded LDA. We use a real-world dataset from online advertising, which is comprised of markedly short documents. Our results indicate the two methods may complement one another well, leading to remarkable sensitivity and precision scores of ensemble learners trained thereupon

Strain-dependent effects of clinical echovirus 30 outbreak isolates at the blood-CSF barrier

Background: Echovirus (E) 30 (E-30) meningitis is characterized by neuroinflammation involving immune cell pleocytosis at the protective barriers of the central nervous system (CNS). In this context, infection of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB), which has been demonstrated to be involved in enteroviral CNS pathogenesis, may affect the tight junction (TJ) and adherens junction (AJ) function and morphology. Methods: We used an in vitro human choroid plexus epithelial (HIBCPP) cell model to investigate the effect of three clinical outbreak strains (13-311, 13-759, and 14-397) isolated in Germany in 2013, and compared them to E-30 Bastianni. Conducting transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), paracellular dextran flux measurement, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), western blot, and immunofluorescence analysis, we investigated TJ and AJ function and morphology as well as strain-specific E-30 infection patterns. Additionally, transmission electron and focused ion beam microscopy electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) was used to evaluate the mode of leukocyte transmigration. Genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were performed to discriminate potential genetic differences among the outbreak strains. Results: We observed a significant strain-dependent decrease in TEER with strains E-30 Bastianni and 13-311, whereas paracellular dextran flux was only affected by E-30 Bastianni. Despite strong similarities among the outbreak strains in replication characteristics and particle distribution, strain 13-311 was the only outbreak isolate revealing comparable disruptive effects on TJ (Zonula Occludens (ZO) 1 and occludin) and AJ (E-cadherin) morphology to E-30 Bastianni. Notwithstanding significant junctional alterations upon E-30 infection, we observed both para- and transcellular leukocyte migration across HIBCPP cells. Complete genome sequencing revealed differences between the strains analyzed, but no explicit correlation with the observed strain-dependent effects on HIBCPP cells was possible. Conclusion: The findings revealed distinct E-30 strain-specific effects on barrier integrity and junctional morphology. Despite E-30-induced barrier alterations leukocyte trafficking did not exclusively occur via the paracellular route