Prevalence and Severity of Glaucoma in the California Medicare Population.

PURPOSE: To examine the prevalence of glaucoma by type and severity in the 2019 California (CA) Medicare population, and to identify associated demographic and systemic factors. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional design. METHODS: The study population included all 2019 CA Medicare beneficiaries ≥65 years of age with Part A and Part B coverage. Outcomes included prevalence of any glaucoma, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), secondary open angle glaucoma (SOAG), and angle closure glaucoma (ACG). Covariates included age, sex, race and ethnicity, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score, pseudophakia, and age-related macular degeneration. Logistic regression modeling was used to examine multivariable predictors of each type of glaucoma. RESULTS: Of 5,856,491 beneficiaries in the 2019 California Medicare population, there were 220,662 (3.8%) with any glaucoma, 171,988 (2.9%) with POAG, 8,827 (0.2%) with SOAG, and 12,978 (0.2%) with ACG. The largest proportion of beneficiaries had moderate to severe glaucoma (68,553 of 220,662 [31.0%] for any glaucoma moderate stage, 3,168 of 12,978 [24.4%] for ACG severe stage). Multivariable predictors of any glaucoma included age ≥85 years vs 65 to 69 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.03, 95% CI = 2.00, 2.06), female vs male sex (aOR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.04), Black vs non-Hispanic White race and ethnicity (aOR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.67, 1.73), and CCI ≥5 vs 0 (aOR = 5.59, 95% = 5.51, 5.67). CONCLUSIONS: In the 2019 CA Medicare population, multiple demographic and systemic factors were associated with increased likelihood of glaucoma, and beneficiaries with glaucoma had a high prevalence of moderate to severe disease. Strategies are needed to improve early screening and diagnosis for elderly individuals at risk for glaucoma in California.

Disparities in Glaucoma Surgery: A Review of Current Evidence and Future Directions for Improvement.

There is a need to understand existing disparities in glaucoma surgery and to create strategies to eliminate these disparities. Disparities can exist in several aspects of glaucoma surgical management, including patient selection and timing of surgery, type of surgery performed, intra-operative and postoperative surgical complications, follow-up surgical care, and long-term surgical outcomes. Additionally, multiple types of disparities can exist within each of these realms, including disparities by race and ethnicity, age, gender, insurance type, people with disabilities, and other social, economic, and demographic factors. Disparities in glaucoma surgery have been examined in large scale datasets, retrospective clinical studies, and clinical trials, and several studies have identified likely racial and ethnic disparities in glaucoma surgical incidence and outcomes. We present existing literature on disparities in glaucoma surgery, analyze the advantages and limitations of various study designs for the investigation of these disparities, and propose directions for future research and interventions to identify and eliminate disparities in surgical glaucoma care.

Social Vulnerability, Prevalence of Glaucoma, and Incidence of Glaucoma Surgery in the California Medicare Population.

PURPOSE: To examine associations of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) scores with prevalence of glaucoma and incidence of glaucoma surgery in 2019 California Medicare beneficiaries. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: 2019 California Medicare beneficiaries ≥ 65 years old with part A and part B coverage. METHODS: The exposure of interest was SVI score, which was assessed overall and by themes. Outcomes included prevalence of glaucoma in the study population and incidence of glaucoma surgery in beneficiaries with glaucoma. Logistic regression modeling was performed to assess associations between quartiles of each type of SVI score, prevalence of glaucoma, and incidence of glaucoma surgery, controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, pseudophakia, and age-related macular degeneration. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of any glaucoma, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), secondary open angle glaucoma (SOAG), and angle closure glaucoma in all beneficiaries. Incidence of any glaucoma surgery, trabeculectomy, tube shunt, minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), and cyclophotocoagulation (CPC) in beneficiaries with glaucoma. RESULTS: Of 5 725 245 beneficiaries in the total study population, there were 215 814 (3.8%) with any glaucoma, and of those with glaucoma, 10 135/215 814 (4.7%) underwent glaucoma surgery. In adjusted analyses for overall SVI score, where higher levels of SVI refer to higher levels of social vulnerability, there were decreased odds of any glaucoma (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.82, 0.84 for Q4 vs. Q1), POAG (aOR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.84, 0.87 for Q4 vs. Q1), and SOAG (aOR = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.55, 0.63 for Q4 vs. Q1) in higher (Q4) vs. lower (Q1) SVI quartile. There were increased odds of any glaucoma surgery (aOR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.12, 1.26 for Q4 vs. Q1), MIGS (aOR = 1.24; 95% CI = 1.15, 1.33 for Q4 vs. Q1), and CPC (aOR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.29, 1.76 for Q4 vs. Q1) for higher (Q4) vs. lower (Q1) SVI quartile. CONCLUSIONS: In the 2019 California Medicare population, there were variable associations between SVI score, prevalence of glaucoma, and incidence of glaucoma surgery. Further investigation is needed to understand the role of social, economic, and demographic factors in glaucoma care on the individual and structural levels. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Association Between Myopia and Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma by Race and Ethnicity in Older Adults in the California Medicare Population.

Importance: Racial and ethnic differences in the association between myopia and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) are not well understood. Objective: To investigate the association between myopia and POAG in the 2019 California Medicare population and to investigate whether there was evidence of effect measure modification of this association by race and ethnicity. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used administrative claims data from 2019 California Medicare beneficiaries 65 years or older with California residence and active coverage with Medicare parts A and B. Analysis took place between October 2021 and October 2023. Exposures: The primary exposure was myopia, which was defined by International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) diagnosis codes. Main Outcomes and Measures: The outcome of interest was POAG, which was defined by ICD-10-CM code. Results: Of 2 717 346 California Medicare beneficiaries in 2019, 1 440 769 (53.0%) were aged 65 to 74 years, 1 544 479 (56.8%) identified as female, 60 211 (2.2%) had myopia, and 171 988 (6.3%) had POAG. Overall, 346 723 individuals (12.8%) identified as Asian, 117 856 (4.3%) as Black, 430 597 (15.8%) as Hispanic, 1 705 807 (62.8%) as White, and 115 363 (4.2%) as other race and ethnicity. In adjusted logistic regression analyses, beneficiaries with myopia had higher odds of POAG compared with beneficiaries without myopia (odds ratio [OR], 2.41; 95% CI, 2.35-2.47). In multivariable models stratified by race and ethnicity, the association between myopia and POAG was stronger in Asian (OR, 2.74; 95% CI, 2.57-2.92), Black (OR, 2.60; 95% CI, 2.31-2.94), and Hispanic (OR, 3.28; 95% CI, 3.08-3.48) beneficiaries compared with non-Hispanic White beneficiaries (OR, 2.14; 95% CI, 2.08-2.21). Conclusions and Relevance: In the 2019 California Medicare population, myopia was associated with greater adjusted odds of POAG. This association was stronger among Asian, Black, and Hispanic beneficiaries compared with non-Hispanic White beneficiaries. These findings suggest possible disparities in glaucoma risk by race and ethnicity in individuals with myopia and may indicate greater need for glaucoma screening in individuals with myopia from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Evaluating Discrepancies in Self-Reported Glaucoma and Electronic Health Records in the National Institutes of Health All of Us Database.

PURPOSE: Patient understanding of glaucoma diagnosis is critical for disease management and it is unclear if there are racial/ethnic differences in this regard. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of agreement between glaucoma diagnosis by self-report and electronic health record (EHR) data using the National Institute of Health's "All of Us (AoU)" database and to examine the association between race/ethnicity and discordance of glaucoma diagnosis between self-report and EHR data. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals in AoU who answered a survey question about glaucoma diagnosis and had EHR data availability. METHODS: The agreement between self-reported glaucoma and EHR data was estimated using Cohen's κ coefficient. Multivariable logistic regression was performed, adjusting for age, sex, education level, income, and health care literacy, to examine the associations between race/ethnicity and discordance between self-reported glaucoma and EHR diagnosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Agreement between self-reported glaucoma and EHR diagnosis. RESULTS: Of all 87 782 individuals, 1985 (2.26%) had both self-reported and EHR glaucoma, 81 781 (92.16%) had no glaucoma, 2022 (2.31%) individuals had EHR-only glaucoma, and 1994 (2.27%) had self-report-only glaucoma (Cohen's κ = 0.47). In the multivariable regression, Black or African American (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.40-1.98), Asian (aOR, 2.63; 95% CI, 1.97-3.44), and Hispanic or Latino (aOR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.33-1.99) individuals were more likely to have EHR-only glaucoma than White individuals. Additionally, Black or African American (aOR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.97-2.67) and Hispanic or Latino individuals (aOR,1.47; 95% CI, 1.21-1.79) were more likely to have self-report-only glaucoma compared with White individuals. CONCLUSIONS: In the AoU database, we found that Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino individuals had higher odds of discordance between glaucoma diagnosis by self-report and EHR. Future studies are needed to examine the issues leading to this discordance, such as a lack of patient understanding regarding their diagnosis or a lack of culturally appropriate physician explanation/teaching. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Associations Between Niacin Intake and Glaucoma in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

PRCIS: This study examined the association between dietary niacin intake and glaucoma in the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Increased niacin intake was associated with lower odds of glaucoma overall and among women. PURPOSE: To examine the association between dietary niacin intake and glaucoma in the 2005-2008 NHANES. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included adult participants of the 2005-2008 NHANES. The exposure was dietary niacin intake, which was examined as a continuous and categorical variable. The outcome was glaucoma as defined by regraded disc images. Covariates included age, sex, race/ethnicity, education level, income, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, daily energy intake, vitamin B2 and B6 consumption, and macular degeneration. Adjusting for all covariates, logistic regression was performed to examine the association between niacin intake and glaucoma in the overall population and stratified by sex. RESULTS: The weighted population included 5371 individuals (109,734,124 weighted), of whom 55 (1.0%) had glaucoma. Each 1 mg increase in niacin intake was associated with a 6% decreased odds of glaucoma odds [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.90, 0.98]. Among women, increased niacin intake was associated with decreased odds of glaucoma both with niacin as a continuous (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.80, 0.99 per 1 mg increase in niacin intake) and binary variable (aOR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.14, 0.90 for higher vs lower niacin intake). CONCLUSIONS: In the 2005-2008 NHANES population, higher levels of niacin intake were associated with decreased odds of glaucoma overall and in women. Further studies are needed to examine the potential protective effects of niacin on glaucoma risk.

Access to Eye Care Providers and Glaucoma Severity in the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program.

PRCIS: In the "All of Us (AoU) Research Program," individuals with access to vision care were more likely to have mild, moderate, or severe glaucoma and undergo incisional surgery compared with those without vision care access. PURPOSE: To examine the associations between access to eye care, glaucoma severity, and incisional glaucoma surgery using data from the National Institute of Health AoU Research Program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Individuals with International Classification of Diseases Ninth or 10th Revision codes and who answered the survey question about eye care access in AoU were included in the study. The exposure variable was access to eye care services, with outcome variables (1) glaucoma severitys and (2) likelihood of incisional surgery. Unadjusted multinomial logistic regression compared access to eye care services and glaucoma severity. In addition, unadjusted logistic regression models compared access to eye care and the likelihood of incisional surgery. These were repeated using adjusted analyses, controlling for sex assigned at birth, race and ethnicity, and age. RESULTS: Compared with individuals without access to eye care services, those with access were more likely to have all levels of glaucoma severity [mild adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 5.81, 95% CI: 3.15-10.73, moderate aOR: 4.44, 95% CI: 2.45-8.02, severe aOR: 6.95, 95% CI: 2.69-17.93, and unspecified aOR: 3.06, 95% CI: 2.72, 3.45]. Access to eye care was associated with increased odds of any incisional glaucoma surgery (aOR: 3.00, 95% CI: 1.24-9.90) and of trabeculectomy (aOR: 3.30, 95% CI: 1.02-20.28) but not of tube shunt procedures (aOR: 2.65, 95% CI: 0.80-16.38). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that access to eye care services was associated with a higher prevalence of all levels of glaucoma severity; those with access to eye care services were more likely to undergo incisional surgery than those without access. Future research should focus on methods to best encourage eye care to limit glaucoma progression.

Guiding principle of reservoir computing based on "small-world" network.

Reservoir computing is a computational framework of recurrent neural networks and is gaining attentions because of its drastically simplified training process. For a given task to solve, however, the methodology has not yet been established how to construct an optimal reservoir. While, "small-world" network has been known to represent networks in real-world such as biological systems and social community. This network is categorized amongst those that are completely regular and totally disordered, and it is characterized by highly-clustered nodes with a short path length. This study aims at providing a guiding principle of systematic synthesis of desired reservoirs by taking advantage of controllable parameters of the small-world network. We will validate the methodology using two different types of benchmark tests-classification task and prediction task.

Adjunctive steroid therapy versus antibiotics alone for acute endophthalmitis after intraocular procedure.

BACKGROUND: Endophthalmitis refers to severe infection within the eye that involves the aqueous humor or vitreous humor, or both, and that threatens vision. Most cases of endophthalmitis are exogenous (i.e. due to inoculation of organisms from an outside source), and most exogenous endophthalmitis is acute and occurs after an intraocular procedure. The mainstay of treatment is emergent administration of broad-spectrum intravitreous antibiotics. Due to their anti-inflammatory effects, steroids in conjunction with antibiotics have been proposed as being beneficial in endophthalmitis management. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of antibiotics combined with steroids versus antibiotics alone for the treatment of acute endophthalmitis following intraocular surgery or intravitreous injection. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Trials Register) (2021, Issue 8), MEDLINE Ovid (1946 to August 2021), Embase Ovid (1980 to August 2021), LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature database) (1982 to August 2021), the ISRCTN registry; searched August 2021, ClinicalTrials.gov; searched August 2021, and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform; searched August 2021. We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effectiveness of adjunctive steroids with antibiotics alone in the management of acute, clinically diagnosed endophthalmitis following intraocular surgery or intravitreous injection. We excluded trials with participants with endogenous endophthalmitis unless outcomes were reported by source of infection. We imposed no restrictions on the method or order of administration, dose, frequency, or duration of antibiotics and steroids. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard Cochrane methodology, and graded the certainty of the body of evidence for six outcomes using the GRADE classification. MAIN RESULTS: We included four RCTs with a total of 264 eyes of 264 participants in this review update. The studies were conducted in South Africa, India, and the Netherlands. All studies used intravitreous dexamethasone for adjunctive steroid therapy and a combination of two intravitreous antibiotics that provided gram-positive and gram-negative coverage for the antibiotic therapy. We judged two trials to be at overall low risk of bias, and the other two studies to be at overall unclear risk of bias due to lack of reporting of study methods. Only one study was registered in a clinical trial register.  While none of the included studies reported the primary outcome of complete resolution of endophthalmitis as defined in our protocol, one study reported combined anatomical and functional success (i.e. proportion of participants with intraocular pressure of at least 5 mmHg and visual acuity of at least 6/120). Very low certainty evidence suggested no difference in combined success when comparing adjunctive steroid to antibiotics alone (risk ratio (RR) 1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.80 to 1.45; 32 participants). Low certainty evidence from two studies suggested that adjunctive dexamethasone may result in having a good visual outcome (Snellen visual acuity 6/6 to 6/18) at 3 months compared with antibiotics alone (RR 1.95, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.60; 60 participants); however, the evidence was less conclusive at 12 months (RR 1.12, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.37; 2 studies; 195 participants; low certainty evidence). Investigators of one study reported improvement in visual acuity, but we could not estimate the effect of adjunctive steroid therapy because the study investigators did not provide any estimates of precision. Only one study examined intraocular pressure (IOP). The evidence suggests that adjunctive dexamethasone may reduce IOP slightly after 12 months of interventions (mean difference -1.90, 95% CI -3.78 to 0.07; 1 study; 167 participants; low certainty evidence). Three studies reported adverse events (retinal detachment, hypotony, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, seclusion of pupil, floaters, and pucker). The total numbers of adverse events were 14 out of 111 (12.6%) for those who received dexamethasone versus 12 out of 116 (10.3%) for those who did not. We could only perform a pooled analysis for the occurrence of retinal detachment: any difference between the two treatment groups was uncertain (RR 1.41, 95% CI 0.53 to 3.74; 227 participants; low certainty evidence). No study reported cost-related outcomes. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The currently available evidence on the effectiveness of adjunctive steroid therapy versus antibiotics alone in the management of acute endophthalmitis after intraocular surgery is inadequate. We found no studies that had enrolled cases of acute endophthalmitis following intravitreous injection. A combined analysis of two studies suggests that use of adjunctive steroids may provide a higher chance of having a good visual outcome at three months than not using adjunctive steroids. However, considering that most of the confidence intervals crossed the null, and that this review was limited in scope and applicability to clinical practice, it is not possible to conclude whether the use of adjunctive steroids is effective at this time. Any future trials should examine whether adjunctive steroids may be useful in certain clinical settings such as type of causative organism or etiology. These studies should include outcomes that take patients' symptoms and clinical examination into account; report outcomes in a uniform and consistent manner; and follow up at short- and long-term intervals.

The Agreement Between an iPad Visual Field App and Humphrey Frequency Doubling Technology in Visual Field Screening at Health Fairs.

PRECIS: This is the first exploratory study demonstrating the promising potential of app-based visual fields testing in a low-resource health fair setting for community screening of high-risk Latino adults. PURPOSE: To compare the "Visual Fields Easy" (VFE) iPad application against the Humphrey Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT) N-30-5 in detecting abnormal visual fields in a low-resource health fair setting. METHODS: Latinos aged 40 to 80 years were recruited at a health fair in Los Angeles, California, in November 2017. Both eyes were tested using VFE and FDT. To account for possible nested correlations between participants and eyes, linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the difference in test time and the association in percent of missed points. A Bland-Altman plot and receiver operator characteristic curve were constructed for further comparisons. RESULTS: Forty-five participants with a mean age of 58.5 years (SD=9.5 y) were recruited and both eyes were tested (90 eyes). VFE testing took on average 141 seconds longer per eye than FDT (95% confidence interval: 137-145 s), and FDT resulted in having 7.50% more missed points than VFE (95% confidence interval: 2.56%-12.43%, P=0.002). The Bland-Altman plot depicted reduced agreement with increasing average of percent of points missed. The sensitivity and specificity of VFE were 67% and 77%, respectively, with an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.71. CONCLUSIONS: In this exploratory study, VFE exhibited moderate discrimination for identifying Latino adults with abnormal visual fields compared with FDT. Agreement between FDT and VFE was greater for patients with mild-to-moderate visual field loss. Further software enhancements of app-based fields testing, in concert with other portable testing, represents promising screening methods for high-risk groups in resource-limited environments.

High-fidelity indoor MIMO radio access for 5G and beyond based on legacy multimode fiber and real-time analog-to-digital-compression.

Dedicated indoor radio access network (RAN, such as C-RAN with fronthaul) will be in urgent demand for 5G and beyond ((B)5G), as it becomes more difficult for outdoor base stations to serve indoor mobile/IoT terminals due to the loss issue induced by higher carrier frequency. One cost-effective and time-saving strategy for indoor (B)5G RAN is to reuse the legacy multimode fibers (MMF) deployed in buildings and premises worldwide. In this work, we introduce the concept of indoor (B)5G fronthaul over legacy MMF based on analog-to-digital-compression (ADX), termed as ADX-RoMMF. Enabled by ADX for MIMO data compression, both high radio signal fidelity and fronthaul bandwidth efficiency can be achieved, which alleviates the limitation of low MMF bandwidth-distance product and supports decent indoor coverage. Meanwhile, its digital nature is highly compatible with low-cost optical transceivers (with nonlinearity and/or imperfection) and packet-based fronthaul networking such as time-sensitive networking. Furthermore, the ultralow latency of ADX processing meets the requirement of low-delay (B)5G fronthauling. We experimentally demonstrate an ADX-RoMMF link serving 16-channel MIMO signals with NR-class bandwidth and 1024QAM, leveraging a real-time ADX prototyped on a single-chip field-programmable radio platform. Results show that this 32Gb/s CPRI-equivalent rate can be transported over MMF distance of 850m within 1024QAM EVM requirement, which is 4-fold larger than that of conventional fronthaul compression scheme. Moreover, 500ns ADX latency overhead is also verified.

Filling the gaps in the Peruvian care continuum for HIV-infected pregnant mothers: a case-control study in metropolitan Lima-Callao, Peru.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) accounts for a significant proportion of new HIV infections in Peru. The purpose of this case-control study was to examine maternal and infant factors associated with MTCT in Peru from 2015 to 2016. For each biologically confirmed case infant, we randomly selected four birth year- and birth hospital-matched controls from five hospitals in Lima-Callao. Maternal and infant information were gathered from medical records. Simple conditional logistic regression was utilized to examine possible maternal and infant characteristics associated with MTCT. The rate of MTCT was 6.9% in 2015 and 2.7% in 2016. A total of 63 matched controls were identified for 18 cases. Protective factors included higher number of prenatal visits (odds ratio [OR]: 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55-0.94, p = 0.012) and having more children (OR: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.01-0.79, p = 0.029). Risk factors included later maternal diagnosis (OR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.06-1.34; p = 0.001) and greater viral load at the time of maternal diagnosis (OR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.01-1.10; p = 0.022). Our study highlights the importance of targeting early and continued prenatal care as specific areas to target to prevent gaps in the HIV treatment cascade for pregnant HIV-infected women. These strategies can ensure early screening and initiation of antiretroviral therapy to reduce MTCT rates.

Demonstration of PAM4-OCDM system with electrical amplitude-level pre-tuning and post-equalization for data centers applications.

A PAM4-OCDM system with optical multi-/demultiplexing and electrical pre-/post-processing is proposed for short-reach applications. We experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, a power-efficient 4 OC x 10 GSymbol/s PAM4-OCDM system. The four PSK-OCs are simultaneously generated using a single light source and a passive multiport optical encoder and received by a single optical decoder and cascaded DSP. The effectiveness of the electrical-domain amplitude level pre-tuning and post-equalizer are demonstrated, considering different values of shot and beat noises.

A cup of magic.

This reflective piece tells the story of an impactful patient interaction that shaped the practice of a medical student. The essay focuses on the power of shared time and the development of meaningful relationships as a form of adjunctive therapy for patients, regardless of diagnosis or prognosis. Fostering an appreciation for the present moment and savoring glimpses of human interaction are other themes that are touched upon in this piece.

Adaptive space-time compression for efficient massive MIMO fronthauling.

One of the key features of the forthcoming fifth-generation (5G) communications is the deployment of massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antennas to support ultra-high mobile traffic density. This scenario will pose a serious challenge on the capacity of mobile fronthaul in the centralized/cloud radio access network (C-RAN) since the required fronthaul bandwidth would linearly increase with number of antennas if conventional fronthaul interfaces (e.g., CPRI) are used. In this paper, we propose an adaptive space-time compression technique to significantly improve bandwidth efficiency of fronthaul. The technique incorporates an adaptive spatial filter to track the signal subspace and reduce the number of spatial channels, followed by adaptive quantizers to compress bandwidth of each channel in time domain. Enabled by the technique, the required fronthaul bandwidth becomes only dependent on the number of users, which is no longer proportional to the number of antennas. Moreover, compared with traditional fronthaul compression schemes in only the time domain, the flexibility of the compressor increases, and joint space-time optimization becomes feasible. On the other hand, optical fronthaul bandwidth is usually limited by cost-effective optical and electronic components. Moreover, increased reach would limit the bandwidth of IM-DD-based fronthaul (due to chromatic dispersion) as well as the received optical power. We experimentally investigate the combined optimization of a proposed space-time compressor with an optical fronthaul link. Experimental results of uplink 256-antenna fronthaul (259.5-Gb/s CPRI-equivalent rate) show that 32 users with 20MHz (30.72MSa/s) OFDM signal with lower-than-1% EVM are supported by 10GBd PAM4 optical interface.

Syphilis in the Americas: a protocol for a systematic review of syphilis prevalence and incidence in four high-risk groups, 1980-2016.

BACKGROUND: Syphilis infection has recently resurfaced as a significant public health problem. Although there has been a tremendous amount of research on the epidemiology of syphilis, there has been limited work done to synthesize the extensive body of research and systematically estimate patterns of disease within high-risk groups in the Americas. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to (1) summarize recent patterns of syphilis infection in North and South America among four high-risk groups (MSM, transgender women, sex workers, and incarcerated individuals) from 1980 to 2016, (2) identify and differentiate regional geographic epidemiologic characteristics, and (3) compare the epidemics of the economically developed countries of North America from the developing countries and public health systems of Latin America and the Caribbean. METHODS/DESIGN: Primary studies reporting syphilis prevalence and/or incidence in at least one of the four high-risk groups will be identified from Medline/PubMed, Embase, Lilacs, SciELO, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, CINAHL, Clase, and Periódica, as well as "gray" literature sources (conference abstracts, country reports, etc.). Studies published from 1980 through 2016 will be included. Data will be extracted from studies meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria and a random effects meta-analysis of prevalence and incidence estimates will be conducted. Heterogeneity, risk of bias, and publication bias will be assessed. Pooled prevalence and incidence estimates will be calculated for comparisons based on geographic region, risk factors, and time period. DISCUSSION: Our systematic review and meta-analysis aims to contribute to an improved understanding of global epidemiologic patterns of syphilis infection in most-at-risk populations. Through systematic classification of the existing literature, and comparison of disease patterns across regional, temporal and socio-behavioral differences, we hope to improve public health surveillance and improve efforts to control the spread of disease across the Americas. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016047306.

Patient and provider perspectives on the potential value and use of a bilingual online patient portal in a Spanish-speaking safety-net population.

OBJECTIVE: To assess patient and provider perspectives on the potential value and use of a bilingual patient portal in a large safety-net health system serving predominantly Spanish-speaking patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We captured patient and provider perspectives through the administration of surveys to assess Internet access, barriers, and facilitators to patient portal adoption, along with portal preferences. We report on these survey results using descriptive and comparative statistics. RESULTS: Four hundred patients (82% response rate) and 59 providers (80% response rate) participated in the study. Although 73% of providers believed that the patient portal would increase patient satisfaction, just 39% planned to recommend portal use to patients, citing concerns related to time and reimbursement. In contrast, 72% of patients believed the patient portal would strengthen the patient-provider relationship and 77% believed it would improve the quality of care. Latino patients in particular believed the patient portal would strengthen the patient-provider relationship. Seventy-five percent of patients reported interest in a mobile version of the portal. DISCUSSION: Patients from a safety-net health system, most of whom were Spanish-speaking, reported a high level of interest in the patient portal. Providers at the same health system expressed reluctance about the portal due to concerns related to time and reimbursement. CONCLUSION: Bilingual patient portal implementation has considerable potential to promote health care engagement within Spanish-speaking safety-net populations; however, lack of provider engagement in the process could undermine the effort.

Scalable two- and three-dimensional optical labels generated by 128-port encoder/decoder for optical packet switching.

This paper deals with massive number of optical code (OC) label generation and recognition for scalable optical packet switching (OPS) networks. In order to expand the system scalability of code label processing, we develop a record port count 128 x 128 optical encoder/decoder (E/D) and propose a novel three-dimensional (3-D) optical label combining code label with wavelength and polarization. In the experiment, we conduct a proof-of-concept demonstration of 4-code x 2-wavelength x 2-polarization and validate that the 3-D labeling scheme can consequently increase the available number of code label up to more than 1,000 labels. Real-time labeling performance using a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based processor and crosstalk influence at an optical switch are also experimentally evaluated.

Species-specific loss of sexual dimorphism in vocal effectors accompanies vocal simplification in African clawed frogs (Xenopus).

Phylogenetic studies can reveal patterns of evolutionary change, including the gain or loss of elaborate courtship traits in males. Male African clawed frogs generally produce complex and rapid courtship vocalizations, whereas female calls are simple and slow. In a few species, however, male vocalizations are also simple and slow, suggesting loss of male-typical traits. Here, we explore features of the male vocal organ that could contribute to loss in two species with simple, slow male calls. In Xenopus boumbaensis, laryngeal morphology is more robust in males than in females. Larynges are larger, have a more complex cartilaginous morphology and contain more muscle fibers. Laryngeal muscle fibers are exclusively fast-twitch in males but are both fast- and slow-twitch in females. The laryngeal electromyogram, a measure of neuromuscular synaptic strength, shows greater potentiation in males than in females. Male-specific physiological features are shared with X. laevis, as well as with a species of the sister clade, Silurana tropicalis, and thus are likely ancestral. In X. borealis, certain aspects of laryngeal morphology and physiology are sexually monomorphic rather than dimorphic. In both sexes, laryngeal muscle fibers are of mixed-twitch type, which limits the production of muscle contractions at rapid intervals. Muscle activity potentiation and discrete tension transients resemble female rather than male X. boumbaensis. The de-masculinization of these laryngeal features suggests an alteration in sensitivity to the gonadal hormones that are known to control the sexual differentiation of the larynx in other Xenopus and Silurana species.

A low-power photonic quantization approach using OFDM subcarrier spectral shifts.

Photonic analog-to-digital conversion and optical quantization are demonstrated, based on the spectral shifts of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing subcarriers and a frequency-packed arrayed waveguide grating. The system is extremely low-energy consuming since the spectral shifts are small and generated by cross-phase modulation, using a linear-slope high-speed and low-jitter pulse train generated by a mode locked laser diode. The feasibility of a 2, 3 and 4-bit optical quantization scheme is demonstrated.