Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Patterns of Children and Adults With IgA Nephropathy or IgA Vasculitis: Findings From the CureGN Study

Introduction: The Cure Glomerulonephropathy Network (CureGN) is a 66-center longitudinal observational study of patients with biopsy-confirmed minimal change disease, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, membranous nephropathy, or IgA nephropathy (IgAN), including IgA vasculitis (IgAV). This study describes the clinical characteristics and treatment patterns in the IgA cohort, including comparisons between IgAN versus IgAV and adult versus pediatric patients. Methods: Patients with a diagnostic kidney biopsy within 5 years of screening were eligible to join CureGN. This is a descriptive analysis of clinical and treatment data collected at the time of enrollment. Results: A total of 667 patients (506 IgAN, 161 IgAV) constitute the IgAN/IgAV cohort (382 adults, 285 children). At biopsy, those with IgAV were younger (13.0 years vs. 29.6 years, P < 0.001), more frequently white (89.7% vs. 78.9%, P = 0.003), had a higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (103.5 vs. 70.6 ml/min per 1.73 m2, P < 0.001), and lower serum albumin (3.4 vs. 3.8 g/dl, P < 0.001) than those with IgAN. Adult and pediatric individuals with IgAV were more likely than those with IgAN to have been treated with immunosuppressive therapy at or prior to enrollment (79.5% vs. 54.0%, P < 0.001). Conclusion: This report highlights clinical differences between IgAV and IgAN and between children and adults with these diagnoses. We identified differences in treatment with immunosuppressive therapies by disease type. This description of baseline characteristics will serve as a foundation for future CureGN studies

A Roadmap for HEP Software and Computing R&D for the 2020s

Particle physics has an ambitious and broad experimental programme for the coming decades. This programme requires large investments in detector hardware, either to build new facilities and experiments, or to upgrade existing ones. Similarly, it requires commensurate investment in the R&D of software to acquire, manage, process, and analyse the shear amounts of data to be recorded. In planning for the HL-LHC in particular, it is critical that all of the collaborating stakeholders agree on the software goals and priorities, and that the efforts complement each other. In this spirit, this white paper describes the R&D activities required to prepare for this software upgrade.Peer reviewe

Correction to: Cluster identification, selection, and description in Cluster randomized crossover trials: the PREP-IT trials

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article

Ultrafast all-optical switching via subdiffractional photonic nanojets and select semiconductor nanoparticles

Nanophotonic all-optical switching is anticipated to replace electronic processing in future optical fibre front-end systems—unlocking capabilities for all-optical terabit-per-second processing. This work introduces a new all-optical switch (AOS) as a fundamental element for such processing. The AOS applies a nanophotonic superlens, in the form of a dielectric microsphere, to form an intense nonevanescent subdiffractional focus called a photonic nanojet. The photonic nanojet materializes in a coating of semiconductor nanoparticles at the rear of the microsphere. The AOS is refined using Lorenz- Mie theory simulations and free-carrier dynamical modelling. Experiments with microspheres coated by Si, CdTe, InP, and CuO nanoparticles, having radii of 40, 30, 20, and 20 nm, reveal switching energies of 1 pJ, 500 fJ, 400 fJ, and 300 fJ, and switching times of 2 ps, 2.3 ps, 900 fs, and 350 fs, respectively. The realized AOS meets the ultimate goals of femtojoule switching energies and femtosecond switching times.Applied Science, Faculty ofEngineering, School of (Okanagan)ReviewedFacult