The role of kidney registries in expediting large-scale collection of patient-reported outcome measures for people with chronic kidney disease

In this issue of Clinical Kidney Journal, Van der Willik et al. report findings from a pilot study where they introduced collection of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) into routine kidney care in Dutch dialysis centres. It is comparable to a registry-led PROMs initiative in Sweden, published in Clinical Kidney Journal in 2020. Both studies reported low average PROMs response rates with substantial between-centre variation, and both identified suboptimal patient and staff engagement as a key barrier to implementing PROMs in routine care for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). This suggests that national kidney registries could be well placed to facilitate large-scale collection of PROMs data, but that they may require additional guidance on how to do this successfully. In this editorial, we discuss the current state-of-play of PROMs collection by kidney registries and provide an overview of what is (un)known about the feasibility and effectiveness of PROMs in CKD and other conditions. We anticipate that the fast-growing evidence base on whether, and how, PROMs can be of value in CKD settings will expedite registry-based PROMs collection, which will ultimately lead to more valuable and person-centred services and to enhanced health and well-being of people with CKD

Seeking cyclonic activity records in speleothems from central Pacific: preliminary sample screening

PosterInternational audienceIdeal cyclone-sensitive speleothems would have the following properties: active at the time of sampling and recording the past few millenia, with fast growth rate, made of clean primary calcite, precipitated without kinetic fractionation, and fed by water with a short residence time allowing for the isotopic signal of short events like cyclones to be transferred but long enough for the drip water to be supersaturated. The screening for this type of speleothem is still in progress and the results presented here are very preliminary. U-Th dating: low U concentration (9-40ng/g; host rock is reef limestone) ; significant detrital content, involving large corrections and large final age uncertainties. Growth rate is highly variable, from ~0.12 mm/yr to ~0.03mm/yr. Tau12A: δ 18 O profile shows some quite large variations (~3‰), with several abrupt events that we will try to identify in other archives. δ 13 C signal amplitude is very large (~-4 to ~-14‰) suggesting the effect of prior calcite precipitation. The δ 18 O signal gets heavier when the δ 13 C does, which could reflect the rainfall amount in this context. Var12C: δ 18 O profile shows values between-3.1 and-6.3‰, with decadal or centennial fluctuations, superimposed on a general trend which is consistent with the one of the δ 13 C profile without being correlated, which implies that calcite precipitation could occur in conditions close to isotopic equilibrium. Once properly dated, this record should provide interesting information about past rainfall regimes on the island

Supersymmetric D-branes in the D1-D5 background

We construct supersymmetric D-brane probe solutions in the background of the 2-charge D1-D5 system on M, where M is either K3 or T^4. We focus on `near-horizon bound states' that preserve supersymmetries of the near-horizon AdS_3 x S^3 x M geometry and are static with respect to the global time coordinate. We find a variety of half-BPS solutions that span an AdS_2 subspace in AdS_3, carry worldvolume flux and can wrap an S^2 within S^3 and/or supersymmetric cycles in M.Comment: Latex, 24 pages. v2: references added, modified Discussion, published versio

D-brane charges on non-simply connected groups

The maximally symmetric D-branes of string theory on the non-simply connected Lie group SU(n)/Z_d are analysed using conformal field theory methods, and their charges are determined. Unlike the well understood case for simply connected groups, the charge equations do not determine the charges uniquely, and the charge group associated to these D-branes is therefore in general not cyclic. The precise structure of the charge group depends on some number theoretic properties of n, d, and the level of the underlying affine algebra k. The examples of SO(3)=SU(2)/Z_2 and SU(3)/Z_3 are worked out in detail, and the charge groups for SU(n)/Z_d at most levels k are determined explicitly.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. 2 refs added. Added the observation: the charge group for each su(2) theory equals the centre of corresponding A-D-E grou

Probing Orientifold Behavior Near NS Branes

The effect of NS 5 branes on an orientifold is studied. The orientifold is allowed to pass through a pile of k NS branes forming a regularized CHS geometry. Its effect on open strings in its vicinity is used to study the change in the orientifold charge induced by the NS branes.Comment: Important references added, 30 pages, 8 figure

D-brane charges on SO(3)

In this letter we discuss charges of D-branes on the group manifold SO(3). Our discussion will be based on a conformal field theory analysis of boundary states in a Z_2-orbifold of SU(2). This orbifold differs from the one recently discussed by Gaberdiel and Gannon in its action on the fermions and leads to a drastically different charge group. We shall consider maximally symmetric branes as well as branes with less symmetry, and find perfect agreement with a recent computation of the corresponding K-theory groups.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. Some comments adde

Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period.

Abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period have been detected in a global array of palaeoclimate records, but our understanding of their absolute timing and regional synchrony is incomplete. Our compilation of 63 published, independently dated speleothem records shows that abrupt warmings in Greenland were associated with synchronous climate changes across the Asian Monsoon, South American Monsoon, and European-Mediterranean regions that occurred within decades. Together with the demonstration of bipolar synchrony in atmospheric response, this provides independent evidence of synchronous high-latitude-to-tropical coupling of climate changes during these abrupt warmings. Our results provide a globally coherent framework with which to validate model simulations of abrupt climate change and to constrain ice-core chronologies

Crosscap States for Orientifolds of Euclidean AdS_3

Crosscap states for orientifolds of Euclidean AdS_3 are constructed. We show that our crosscap states describe the same orientifolds which were obtained by the classical analysis. The spectral density of open strings in the system with orientifold can be read from the M"obius strip amplitudes and it is compared to that of the open strings stretched between branes and their mirrors. We also compute the Klein bottle amplitudes.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX2e, v2: clarification and discussion added, v3: minor changes, to appear in JHE

Boundary States of c=1 and 3/2 Rational Conformal Field Theories

We study the boundary states for the rational points in the moduli spaces of c=1 conformal and c=3/2 superconformal field theories, including the isolated Ginsparg points. We use the orbifold and simple-current techniques to relate the boundary states of different theories and to obtain symmetry-breaking, non-Cardy boundary states. We show some interesting examples of fractional and twisted branes on orbifold spaces.Comment: Latex, 46 pages, 1 figur

Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period

Many geographically dispersed records from across the globe reveal the occurrence of abrupt climate changes, called interstadial events, during the last glacial period. These events appear to have happened at the same time, but the difficulty of determining absolute dates in many of the records have made that proposition difficult to prove. Corrick et al. present results from 63 precisely dated speleothems that confirm the synchrony of those interstadial events. Their results also provide a tool with which to validate model simulations of abrupt climate change and calibrate other time series such as ice-core chronologies.Science, this issue p. 963Abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period have been detected in a global array of palaeoclimate records, but our understanding of their absolute timing and regional synchrony is incomplete. Our compilation of 63 published, independently dated speleothem records shows that abrupt warmings in Greenland were associated with synchronous climate changes across the Asian Monsoon, South American Monsoon, and European-Mediterranean regions that occurred within decades. Together with the demonstration of bipolar synchrony in atmospheric response, this provides independent evidence of synchronous high-latitude–to-tropical coupling of climate changes during these abrupt warmings. Our results provide a globally coherent framework with which to validate model simulations of abrupt climate change and to constrain ice-core chronologies