Long-Term Outcomes in IgA Nephropathy

BACKGROUND: IgA nephropathy can progress to kidney failure, and risk assessment soon after diagnosis has advantages both for clinical management and the development of new therapeutics. We present relationships among proteinuria, eGFR slope and lifetime risks for kidney failure. METHODS: The IgA nephropathy cohort (2,299 adults, 140 children) of the UK National Registry of Rare Kidney Diseases (RaDaR) was analyzed. Patients enrolled had a biopsy-proven diagnosis of IgA nephropathy, plus proteinuria >0.5 g/day or eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73m 2 . Incident and prevalent populations were studied as well as a population representative of a typical phase 3 clinical trial cohort. Analyses of kidney survival were conducted using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. eGFR slope was estimated using linear mixed models with random intercept and slope. RESULTS: Median (Q1, Q3) follow-up was 5.9 (3.0, 10.5) years; 50% of patients reached kidney failure or died in the study period. Median (95% CI) kidney survival was 11.4 (10.5, 12.5) years; mean age at kidney failure/death was 48 years, and most patients progressed to kidney failure within 10-15 years. Based on eGFR and age at diagnosis, almost all patients are at risk of progression to kidney failure within their expected lifetime unless a rate of eGFR loss ≤1 ml/min/1.73m 2 /year can be maintained. Time-averaged proteinuria was significantly associated with worse kidney survival and more rapid eGFR loss in incident, prevalent, and "clinical trial" populations. 30% of patients with time-averaged proteinuria of 0.44 to <0.88 g/g and approximately 20% of patients with time-averaged proteinuria <0.44 g/g developed kidney failure within 10 years. In the "clinical trial" population each 10% decrease in time-averaged proteinuria from baseline was associated with a hazard ratio (95% CI) for kidney failure/death of 0.89 (0.87-0.92). CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes in this large IgA nephropathy cohort are generally poor with few patients expected to avoid kidney failure in their lifetime. Significantly, patients traditionally regarded as being "low-risk", with proteinuria <0.88 g/g (<100 mg/mmol), have high rates of kidney failure within 10 years

Retinoic acid receptor-dependent, cell-autonomous, endogenous retinoic acid signaling and its target genes in mouse collecting duct cells.

Vitamin A is necessary for kidney development and has also been linked to regulation of solute and water homeostasis and to protection against kidney stone disease, infection, inflammation, and scarring. Most functions of vitamin A are mediated by its main active form, all-trans retinoic acid (tRA), which binds retinoic acid receptors (RARs) to modulate gene expression. We and others have recently reported that renal tRA/RAR activity is confined to the ureteric bud (UB) and collecting duct (CD) cell lineage, suggesting that endogenous tRA/RARs primarily act through regulating gene expression in these cells in embryonic and adult kidney, respectively

Early-type galaxies with core collapse supernovae

It is widely accepted that the progenitors of core collapse SNe are young massive stars and therefore their host galaxies are mostly spiral or irregular galaxies dominated by a young stellar population. Surprisingly, among morphologically classified hosts of core collapse SNe, we find 22 cases where the host has been classified as an Elliptical or S0 galaxy. To clarify this apparent contradiction, we carry out a detailed morphological study and an extensive literature search for additional information on the sample objects. Our results are as follows: 1. Of 22 "early type" objects, 17 are in fact misclassified spiral galaxies, one is a misclassified irregular, and one is a misclassified ring galaxy. 2. Of the 3 objects maintaining the early type classification, one (NGC2768) is a suspected merger remnant, another (NGC4589) is definitely a merger, and the third (NGC2274) is in close interaction. The presence of some amount of young stellar population in these galaxies is therefore not unexpected. These results confirm the presence of a limited, but significant, number of core collapse SNe in galaxies generally classified of early type. In all cases, anyway, there are independent indicators of the presence in host galaxies of recent star formation due to merging or gravitational interaction.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&

Competition and Cooperation between Professional Sports Franchises: The Impact on Ticket Prices

An important issue in many antitrust lawsuits involving professional sports leagues and their member teams is the extent to which franchises within the same, and across different, professional sports leagues compete with one another for fans and advertisers. Complicating the issue is the fact that some sports franchises also cooperate with other franchises in the same or different leagues by, for example, participating in a joint venture to build and operate the stadium in which they will play their games or a regional sports network joint venture to televise their games. An extreme form of cooperation is common ownership: some franchises in different sports leagues have common ownership. This study investigates the impact of competition and cooperation among the franchises of the four major professional sports leagues (i.e., the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball) on ticket prices for the 2008 season. The regression results suggest that the existence of one or more rival sports franchises in the same metropolitan area does not have a statistically significant impact on ticket prices. On the other hand, there is at best weak evidence that cooperation between sports franchises impacts ticket prices. These findings are consistent with a number of alternative hypotheses

Pelatihan Teknik Pengambilan Gambar Video Kebaktian Secara Daring Di Vihara Buddha Gaya Bandung

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some houses of worship have to carry out worship activities online. The obstacle is the human resources in a house of worship who do not yet have the ability or are accustomed to conducting online services. One of the materials that can be taught is the direction of taking online devotional videos. Through this training, it is hoped that the youth at the Vihara Gaya Buddha Bandung organization can add insight and expertise in the creation of online devotional video content. The method used is to combine online and offline training. The online method is used when viewing and learning the needs needed for training activities. The offline method provides hands-on training on how to take videos properly and correctly. The result of the training is an online service production at Vihara Buddha Gaya, Bandung. The training materials are divided into two categories, namely shooting techniques and sound systems. The success of this training was measured by conducting practical tests to assess the results of the two categories. The results of the practical test assessment showed that the training participants had 100% success in making online devotional videos properly and correctly.Dengan adanya kondisi pandemi Covid-19 maka sebagian rumah ibadah harus melaksanakan kegiatan kebaktian secara daring. Kendala yang ada adalah sumberdaya manusia dalam suatu rumah ibadah yang belum memiliki kemampuan atau terbiasa membuat kebaktian secara daring. Salah satu materi yang dapat diajarkan adalah arahan pengambilan gambar video kebaktian secara daring.&nbsp; pelatihan-pelatihan diharapkan pemuda pada organisasi Vihara Buddha Gaya Bandung dapat menambah wawasan dan keahlian dalam pembuatan konten video kebaktian daring. yang digunakan adalah dengan menggabungkan pelatihan secara daring dan luring. Cara daring digunakan pada saat melihat dan mempelajari kebutuhan yang diperlukan untuk kegiatan pelatihan. Cara luring digunakan untuk memberikan secara langsung pelatihan bagaimana cara mengambil video dengan baik dan benar. Tujuan dari pelatihan ini untuk menghasilkan Hasil dari penilaian tes praktek didapatkan bahwa para peserta pelatihan telah berhasil 100% membuat video kebaktian daring dengan baik dan benar

Pelatihan Pembuatan Materi Pengajaran dan Penggunaan Aplikasi Perpustakaan bagi Guru SMP Swadaya Karya Cibuni Desa Indragiri Bandung

Swadaya Karya Cibuni Junior High School, Indragiri Village, Bandung Regency, feels the need for a better learning system. One of them is the creation of learning materials that can be used online and offline. Therefore, it will be taught how to make teaching materials using PowerPoint accompanied by videos. Apart from that, it is necessary to use computer applications to make the process of borrowing books in the SMP Swadaya Karya Cibuni library more well-organized. The method used in this training is a direct training system in schools. Maranatha Christian University prepared the training materials and also created a library application that Swadaya Karya Middle School can use. Training is given to teachers at Swadaya Karya Junior High School directly at school. The results of this training were considered suitable by the training participants based on the survey results. The training participants felt that the materials for making these teaching materials were beneficial. In addition, the participants also thought that the library application was easy to use and very useful.SMP Swadaya Karya Cibuni Desa Indragiri Kabupaten Bandung merasakan adanya kebutuhkan sistem pembelajaran yang yang lebih baik. Salah satunya adalah pembuatan materi pembelajaran yang dapat digunakan secara daring dan luring. Oleh karena itu akan diajarkan pembuatan materi pengajaran menggunakan power point yang disertai dengan video. Selain itu pula dalam rangka membuat proses peminjaman buku diperpustakaan SMP Swadaya Karya Cibuni lebih terorganisasi dengan baik, maka perlu adanya penggunakan aplikasi komputer. Metode yang digunakan dalam pelatihan ini adalah sistem pelatihan secara langsung di sekolah. Universitas Kristen Maranatha mempersiapkan materi pelatihan tersebut dan juga membuat aplikasi perpustakaan yang dapat digunakan oleh SMP Swadaya Karya. Pelatihan diberikan bagi guru-guru di SMP Swadaya Karya secara langsung di sekolah. Hasil pelatihan ini dinilai baik oleh para peserta pelatihan berdasarkan hasil survei. Para peserta pelatihan merasa bahwa materi pembuatan bahan pengajaran ini sangat berguna. Selain itu juga para peserta merasa bahwa aplikasi perpustakaan mudah dipakai dan sangat berguna

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

New insights into the role of motion and form vision in neurodevelopmental disorders

A selective deficit in processing the global (overall) motion, but not form, of spatially extensive objects in the visual scene is frequently associated with several neurodevelopmental disorders, including preterm birth. Existing theories that proposed to explain the origin of this visual impairment are, however, challenged by recent research. In this review, we explore alternative hypotheses for why deficits in the processing of global motion, relative to global form, might arise. We describe recent evidence that has utilised novel tasks of global motion and global form to elucidate the underlying nature of the visual deficit reported in different neurodevelopmental disorders. We also examine the role of IQ and how the sex of an individual can influence performance on these tasks, as these are factors that are associated with performance on global motion tasks, but have not been systematically controlled for in previous studies exploring visual processing in clinical populations. Finally, we suggest that a new theoretical framework is needed for visual processing in neurodevelopmental disorders and present recommendations for future research