Assessment of Kidney Injury Molecule-1 in Acute Kidney Injury in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Study in Northeast Iran from 2019 to 2020

Background: Drugs cause approximately 20%-40% of acute kidney injuries (AKI). Amikacin (AMK) is one of the common medications used as empiric therapy for severe infections, such as sepsis in neonates. One of the newly recommended biomarkers in AKI is Kidney Injury Molecule-1 (KIM-1). In this study, we evaluated the use of KIM-1 for diagnosing tubular injury in neonates treated with Amikacin in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of our educational hospital in Gorgan, Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at the NICU of the two educational hospitals affiliated to the Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. There were two groups of patients, namely neonates treated with Amikacin plus Ampicillin (group A; n=45) and neonates treated with Ampicillin plus Cefotaxime (group B; n=45). Demographic characteristics were recorded. Blood and urine samples were collected in both groups. The urinary secretion of KIM-1 was determined using an ELISA kit.Results: The total number of patients in both groups was 45, 26 (57.8%) of whom were male, and 19 (42.2%) cases were female. The mean age was obtained at 5.25±1.47 days in group A and 5.15±1.5 days in group B. None of our patients had AKI. There was no difference between leukocyte count and platelets on the first and seventh day. There was a significant difference among K, Na, urine specific gravity, C-reactive protein, Cr, and BUN on the seventh day, compared to the first day. The difference between urinary levels of KIM-1 in the two groups was not statistically significant.Conclusion: We have not found a significant relationship between urinary KIM-1 and AKI in our patients

Dynamic Control of Spontaneous Emission Using Magnetized InSb Higher-Order-Mode Antennas

We exploit InSb's magnetic-induced optical properties to propose THz sub-wavelength antenna designs that actively tune the radiative decay rates of dipole emitters at their proximity. The proposed designs include a spherical InSb antenna and a cylindrical Si-InSb hybrid antenna that demonstrate distinct behaviors; the former dramatically enhances both radiative and non-radiative decay rates in the epsilon-near-zero region due to the dominant contribution of the Zeeman splitting electric octupole mode. The latter realizes significant radiative decay rate enhancement via magnetic octupole mode, mitigating the quenching process and accelerating the photon production rate. A deep learning-based optimization of emitter positioning further enhances the quantum efficiency of the proposed hybrid system. These novel mechanisms are potentially promising for tunable THz single-photon sources in integrated quantum networks

Glomerular Filtration Rate Changes in Neonates with Sepsis Treated with Amikacin and Cefotaxime

Background and purpose: Aminoglycosides (AG) such as Amikacin that are widely used to prevent and treat infections in neonates have nephrotoxic effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of urinary index to Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in diagnosis of tubular renal injury following administration of Amikacin in neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Materials and methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 45 neonates admitted to NICU with confirmed sepsis undergone treatment with Amikacin and Ampicillin and 45 neonates were treated with Ampicillin and Cefotaxime. GFR was calculated using Schwartz's formula (serum creatinine/height * 0.45) and categorized based on Fanaroff table. In both groups, BUN, Cr, and GFR were measured at days one and seven. Data analysis was performed in SPSS. Results: Two (4.4%) patients in the group treated with Amikacin and Ampicillin and one (2.2%) in the group who received Ampicillin and Cefotaxime developed acute kidney injury (AKI). GFR changes and Cr levels at day seven were not found to be significantly different between septic neonates treated with Amikacin and Ampicillin and neonates treated with other non-aminoglycosidic antibiotics (P>0.05). Conclusion: There was no difference in incidence of AKI between neonates receiving Amikacin and Ampicillin and those who received Ampicillin and Cefotaxime. Hence, AKI in these neonates requires further evaluations

Range-ISL Minimization and Spectral Shaping in MIMO Radar Systems via Waveform Design

peer reviewedIn this paper, we look at a waveform design problem for colocated Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar systems. Under continuous phase constraint, we aim to minimize the range-Integrated Sidelobe Level (ISL) with a compatible spectral response. In this regard, we define the range-ISL function in the time domain first, and then express it in the frequency domain using the Parseval relation. Following that, we incorporate weights on the range-ISL in the frequency domain to apply spectral compatibility. As a result, we have a multi-variable, non-convex, NP-hard optimization problem. We proposed an iterative algorithm based on the Coordinate Descent (CD) method to obtain a local optimum solution. We show the performance of the proposed method and compare it to the counterparts in the numerical results

Generalized Waveform Design for Sidelobe Reduction in MIMO Radar Systems

peer reviewedMultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars transmit a set of sequences that exhibit small cross-correlation sidelobes, which enhance sensing performance by separating them at the matched filter outputs. Small auto-correlation sidelobes are also required in order to avoid masking of weak targets by the range sidelobes of strong targets and to mitigate the negative effects of distributed clutter. In light of these requirements, in this paper, we design a set of phase-only (constant modulus) sequences that exhibit near-optimal properties in terms of Peak Sidelobe Level (PSL) and Integrated Sidelobe Level (ISL). At the design stage, we adopt weighted ℓp-norm of auto- and cross-correlation sidelobes as the objective function and minimize it for a general p value, using block successive upper bound minimization (BSUM). Considering the limitation of radar amplifiers, we design unimodular sequences which make the design problem non-convex and NP-hard. To tackle the problem, in every iteration of the BSUM algorithm, we introduce different local approximation functions and optimize them concerning a block, containing a code entry or a code vector. The numerical results show that the performance of the optimized set of sequences outperforms the state-of-the-art counterparts, in terms of both PSL values and computational time

Compensating Power Amplifier Distortions on Radar Signals via Waveform Design

peer reviewedThis paper aims to study the distortion effect of Power Amplifiers (PAs) on radar waveforms in terms of Integrated Sidelobe Level in Single Input and Single Output (SISO) radar systems. To this end, we consider Memory Polynomial (MP) model as behavior of the PA which considers both non-linearity and memory distortions. Then, we consider minimizing the auto-correlation of the PA output in the baseband as a design metric for compensating the distortion effect of the PA. In this regard, we proposed an algorithm based on Coordinate Descent (CD) method to design an M-ary Phase Shift Keying (MPSK) waveform, which is a discrete phase waveform. Finally, in the numerical results, we evaluate the performance of the proposed method and compare it with Digital Predistortion (DPD) method as a conventional approach for compensating the distortion effect of PA

Joint Waveform and Receive Filter Design for Pulse Compression in Weather Radar Systems

peer reviewedThe meteorological industry is currently exploring Solid State Weather Radar (SSWR) systems, a new technology that emits minimal transmission power, to minimize harm to the environment and reduce system cost. However, accurately estimating reflectivity for each polarization and decreasing the blind range present significant challenges for SSWR systems that use pulse compression. In these systems, transmit waveforms and receive filters play a crucial role in enhancing estimation accuracy, while implementing partial correlation can reduce the blind range. In this research, we propose a novel joint design technique for transmit waveforms and receive filters in weather radar systems using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) and Coordinate Descent (CD) optimization approaches. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique by iteratively solving nonconvex design problems and showcasing the convergence of the objective function. Furthermore, we assess the impact of our proposed waveform and receive filter, as well as the blind range, on dual-polarized real weather radar data, illustrating the practicality of our approach. Our research provides a promising solution for the challenges faced by SSWR systems and offers a sustainable and efficient solution for the industry’s needs

Neonatal meningitis caused by streptococcus pneumonia in Iran

Meningitis, pneumonia, and sepsis in newborns and young infants (age < 60 days) are the main causes of childhood mortality in developing countries. Even though streptococcus pneumonia is the most commonly detected microorganism in pediatric bacterial meningitis, it is rare in newborn infants. The following article reports a case of pneumococcal meningitis that was detected early in a newborn infant in 2013. A female baby was born by vaginal delivery with a birth weight of 2900 grams. She was symptomatic (poor feeding) from her first day of life, but she was admitted with a toxic status (dehydrated, lethargic, cyanotic, hypo tone, hypo reflex) to our referral center on her third day life. Her blood culture showed no growth of any organism and her urine culture was also negative, but the Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture showed growth of streptococcus pneumonia. The maternal sepsis workup was normal. Despite all therapeutic management, unfortunately, the patient died on her fourth day after admission