Development of a Novel Renal Activity Index of Lupus Nephritis in Children and Young Adults

OBJECTIVE: Noninvasive estimation of the degree of inflammation seen on kidney biopsy with lupus nephritis (LN) remains difficult. The objective of this study was to develop a Renal Activity Index for Lupus (RAIL) that, based solely on laboratory measures, accurately reflects histologic LN activity. METHODS: We assayed traditional LN laboratory tests and 16 urine biomarkers (UBMs) in children (n = 47) at the time of kidney biopsy. Histologic LN activity was measured by the National Institutes of Health activity index (NIH-AI) and the tubulointerstitial activity index (TIAI). High LN-activity status (versus moderate/low) was defined as NIH-AI scores >10 (versus ≤10) or TIAI scores >5 (versus ≤5). RAIL algorithms that predicted LN-activity status for both NIH-AI and TIAI were derived by stepwise multivariate logistic regression, considering traditional biomarkers and UBMs as candidate components. The accuracy of the RAIL for discriminating by LN-activity status was determined. RESULTS: The differential excretion of 6 UBMs (neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, monocyte chemotactic protein 1, ceruloplasmin, adiponectin, hemopexin, and kidney injury molecule 1) standardized by urine creatinine was considered in the RAIL. These UBMs predicted LN-activity (NIH-AI) status with >92% accuracy and LN-activity (TIAI) status with >80% accuracy. RAIL accuracy was minimally influenced by concomitant LN damage. Accuracies between 71% and 85% were achieved without standardization of the UBMs. The strength of these UBMs to reflect LN-activity status was confirmed by principal component and linear discriminant analyses. CONCLUSION: The RAIL is a robust and highly accurate noninvasive measure of LN activity. The measurement properties of the RAIL, which reflect the degree of inflammatory changes as seen on kidney biopsy, will require independent validation

Bottom-Up Organizing with Tools from On High: Understanding the Data Practices of Labor Organizers

This paper provides insight into the use of data tools in the American labor movement by analyzing the practices of staff employed by unions to organize alongside union members. We interviewed 23 field-level staff organizers about how they use data tools to evaluate membership. We find that organizers work around and outside of these tools to develop access to data for union members and calibrate data representations to meet local needs. Organizers mediate between local and central versions of the data, and draw on their contextual knowledge to challenge campaign strategy. We argue that networked data tools can compound field organizers' lack of discretion, making it more difficult for unions to assess and act on the will of union membership. We show how the use of networked data tools can lead to less accurate data, and discuss how bottom-up approaches to data gathering can support more accurate membership assessments

Raw data is an oxymoron

We live in the era of Big Data, with storage and transmission capacity measured not just in terabytes but in petabytes (where peta- denotes a quadrillon, or a thousand trillon). Data collection is constant and even insidious, with every click and every "like" stored somewhere for something

News as “Content”: Instances and Implications

Will Slauter’s recent Who Owns the News? traces questions of what news is via questions of what copyright is for. Focusing on the Anglo-American tradition from before 1710 and into the twentieth century, Slauter explores the interplay of publishing and law that helped to produce facts as distinct from copyrightable expressions. By implication this is a history of journalistic objectivity as an orienting ideal. By extension it aims at ways of knowing that crucially remain the epistemic conditions of modern life

Recall this Book 3: Old and New Media with Lisa Gitelman

In this episode, John and Elizabeth speak with Lisa Gitelman, a professor in the departments of English and Media, Culture and Communications at New York University. They discuss Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and Rudyard Kipling's "Wireless" (1902). Both works examine shifts in media technologies that people had only just gotten used to: what can Benjamin's essay and Kipling's uneasy story teach us about contemporary economic shifts to blockchain, or from artistic transmission to social media interactions? We investigate brain metaphors and their aesthetic implications, whether and how Benjamin is optimistic, (and another thing). Then in our segment Recallable Books, Lisa recommends "The Migration of the Aura, or How to Explore the Original Through its Facsimiles" by Bruno Latour and Adam Lowe, Elizabeth recommends "Mobile Phones and Mipoho's Prophecy," by Janet McIntosh and John thinks about recommending Henry James's "In the Cage" but instead recommends "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster