'PartBreCon' study. A UK multicentre retrospective cohort study to assess outcomes following PARTial BREast reCONstruction with chest wall perforator flaps

Background: Partial breast reconstruction with a pedicled chest wall perforator flap (CWPF) enables breast conservation in a higher tumour: breast volume ratio scenario. Since there is limited evidence, this retrospective cohort study aimed to ascertain immediate (30-days) and medium-term (follow-up duration) surgical outcomes.Methods: STROBE-compliant protocol ascertained CWPF outcomes between March 2011-March 2021. UK centres known to perform CWPF were invited to participate if they performed at least 10 cases. Data were retrospectively collected, including patient demographics, tumour and treatment characteristics, and surgical and oncological outcomes. Statistical analysis (R™) included multivariable logistic regression and sensitivity analysis.Results: Across 15 centres, 507 patients with median age (54 years, IQR; 48-62), body mass index (25.4 kg/m2, IQR; 22.5-29), tumour size (26 mm, IQR; 18-35), and specimen weight (62 g, IQR; 40-92) had following flap types: LiCAP (54.1%, n = 273), MiCAP/AiCAP (19.6%, n = 99), LiCAP + LTAP (19.8%, n = 100) and TDAP (2.2%, n = 11). 30-days complication rates were in 12%: haematoma (4.3%, n = 22), wound infection (4.3%, n = 22), delayed wound healing (2.8%, n = 14) and flap loss (0.6%, n = 3; 1 full) leading to readmissions (2.6%, n = 13) and re-operations (2.6%, n = 13). Positive margins (n = 88, 17.7%) led to 15.9% (n = 79) re-excisions, including 7.5% (n = 37) at the planned 2nd of 2-stage surgery and 1.8% (n = 9) mastectomy. At median 23 months (IQR; 11-39) follow-up, there were 1.2% (n = 6) symmetrisations; recurrences: local (1%), regional/nodal (0.6%) and distant (3.2%).Conclusions: This large multicentre cohort study demonstrates acceptable complication and margin re-excision rates. CWPF extends the range of breast conservation techniques. Further studies are required for long-term oncological outcomes.</p

Combined Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid and Antibody Testing for SARS-CoV-2 following Emergence of D614G Spike Variant

Rapid COVID-19 diagnosis in the hospital is essential, although this is complicated by 30%-50% of nose/throat swabs being negative by SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). Furthermore, the D614G spike mutant dominates the pandemic and it is unclear how serological tests designed to detect anti-spike antibodies perform against this variant. We assess the diagnostic accuracy of combined rapid antibody point of care (POC) and nucleic acid assays for suspected COVID-19 disease due to either wild-type or the D614G spike mutant SARS-CoV-2. The overall detection rate for COVID-19 is 79.2% (95% CI 57.8-92.9) by rapid NAAT alone. The combined point of care antibody test and rapid NAAT is not affected by D614G and results in very high sensitivity for COVID-19 diagnosis with very high specificity

Combined Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid and Antibody Testing for SARS-CoV-2 following Emergence of D614G Spike Variant

Rapid COVID-19 diagnosis in the hospital is essential, although this is complicated by 30%–50% of nose/throat swabs being negative by SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). Furthermore, the D614G spike mutant dominates the pandemic and it is unclear how serological tests designed to detect anti-spike antibodies perform against this variant. We assess the diagnostic accuracy of combined rapid antibody point of care (POC) and nucleic acid assays for suspected COVID-19 disease due to either wild-type or the D614G spike mutant SARS-CoV-2. The overall detection rate for COVID-19 is 79.2% (95% CI 57.8–92.9) by rapid NAAT alone. The combined point of care antibody test and rapid NAAT is not affected by D614G and results in very high sensitivity for COVID-19 diagnosis with very high specificity

D4.3 Final Report on Network-Level Solutions

Research activities in METIS reported in this document focus on proposing solutions to the network-level challenges of future wireless communication networks. Thereby, a large variety of scenarios is considered and a set of technical concepts is proposed to serve the needs envisioned for the 2020 and beyond. This document provides the final findings on several network-level aspects and groups of solutions that are considered essential for designing future 5G solutions. Specifically, it elaborates on: -Interference management and resource allocation schemes -Mobility management and robustness enhancements -Context aware approaches -D2D and V2X mechanisms -Technology components focused on clustering -Dynamic reconfiguration enablers These novel network-level technology concepts are evaluated against requirements defined by METIS for future 5G systems. Moreover, functional enablers which can support the solutions mentioned aboveare proposed. We find that the network level solutions and technology components developed during the course of METIS complement the lower layer technology components and thereby effectively contribute to meeting 5G requirements and targets.Aydin, O.; Valentin, S.; Ren, Z.; Botsov, M.; Lakshmana, TR.; Sui, Y.; Sun, W.... (2015). D4.3 Final Report on Network-Level Solutions. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/7675

Collision avoidance in 5G using MEC and NFV: The vulnerable road user safety use case

Automotive is considered one of the driving use cases for the 5th Generation (5G) systems, which currently formulates numerous scenarios and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), via advanced Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services and applications. Minimum end-to-end delay, as well as advanced contextual awareness requirements, pose novel architectural and functional challenges. This paper exploits two key enablers, namely Multiple Access/Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and acts in a two-fold manner: Firstly, it proposes a hybrid architecture for 5G systems, which exploits the afore-mentioned technologies, and performs computing resources’ selection among MEC and/or centralized, cloud-based resources (as VNFs), towards efficient service orchestration. The second contribution of this paper is a novel V2X service and algorithm, namely VRU-safe, that operates on top of the proposed architecture. VRU-Safe is an efficient, lightweight, low time complexity scheme, capable of identifying and predicting potential imminent road hazards between moving vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). The performance and viability of the proposed solutions are evaluated in a real-world 5G testbed in Europe. © 202

Management and control applications in Agriculture domain via a Future Internet Business-to-Business platform

The Agriculture business domain, as a vital part of the overall supply chain, is expected to highly evolve in the upcoming years via the developments, which are taking place on the side of the Future Internet. This paper presents a novel Business-to-Business collaboration platform from the agri-food sector perspective, which aims to facilitate the collaboration of numerous stakeholders belonging to associated business domains, in an effective and flexible manner. The contemporary B2B collaboration schemes already place the requirements for swift deployment of cloud applications, capable of both integrating diverse legacy systems, as well as developing in a rapid way new services and systems, which will be able to instantly communicate and provide complete, “farm-to-fork” solutions for farmers, agri-food and logistics service providers, ICT companies, end-product producers, etc. To this end, this conceptual paper describes how these requirements are addressed via the FIspace B2B platform, focusing on the Greenhouse Management &amp; Control scenarios. © 2015 China Agricultural Universit

Management and control applications in Agriculture domain via a Future Internet Business-to-Business platform

The Agriculture business domain, as a vital part of the overall supply chain, is expected to highly evolve in the upcoming years via the developments, which are taking place on the side of the Future Internet. This paper presents a novel Business-to-Business collaboration platform from the agri-food sector perspective, which aims to facilitate the collaboration of numerous stakeholders belonging to associated business domains, in an effective and flexible manner. The contemporary B2B collaboration schemes already place the requirements for swift deployment of cloud applications, capable of both integrating diverse legacy systems, as well as developing in a rapid way new services and systems, which will be able to instantly communicate and provide complete, “farm-to-fork” solutions for farmers, agri-food and logistics service providers, ICT companies, end-product producers, etc. To this end, this conceptual paper describes how these requirements are addressed via the FIspace B2B platform, focusing on the Greenhouse Management &amp; Control scenarios

5G Vehicle-to-Everything Services in Cross-Border Environments: Standardization and Challenges

Vehicles will be wirelessly connected in the future, and they will be able to exchange information with other vehicles and their surroundings for safer and more efficient driving. 5G communication systems have introduced advanced functionalities and radio solutions to support connected, cooperative, and automated mobility (CCAM) services with demanding quality of service requirements. However, interoperability among involved stakeholders, seamless connectivity, and the uninterrupted delivery of real-time services across borders are issues that should be carefully analyzed for the realization of cross-border CCAM services. This article provides an overview of key standardization bodies by analyzing recent work on key technologies to provide cross-border connectivity services for CCAM. Standardization gaps and regulatory barriers that may affect fast and efficient adoption of 5G-enabled CCAM services are also discussed. © 2017 IEEE

Resource and Mobility Management in the Network Layer of 5G Cellular Ultra-Dense Networks

The provision of very high capacity is one of the big challenges of the 5G cellular technology. This challenge will not be met using traditional approaches like increasing spectral efficiency and bandwidth, as witnessed in previous technology generations. Cell densification will play a major role thanks to its ability to increase the spatial reuse of the available resources. However, this solution is accompanied by some additional management challenges. In this article, we analyze and present the most promising solutions identified in the METIS project for the most relevant network layer challenges of cell densification: Resource, interference and mobility management. © 2017 IEEE