Fertility and pregnancy outcomes in primary hyperparathyroidism: Observations from a large insured population.

Context: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has initially been implicated in adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, while subsequent population studies have failed to show an association.

Objective: To compare maternal, pregnancy, and neonatal outcomes in patients with and without PHPT.

Design: Retrospective matched-cohort study (2005-2020).

The many faces of takotsubo syndrome: A review.

Takotsubo syndrome is a state of an acute heart failure featuring reversible left ventricular dysfunction. In recent years, the incidence of Takotsubo syndrome has risen 8-fold. In this case series and literature review, we present the rare presentations or complications of Takotsubo syndrome and highlight diagnostic or management strategies.

Self-assembled porous polymer films for improved oxygen sensing.

Absolute oxygen sensors based on quenching of phosphorescence have been the subject of numerous studies for the monitoring of biological environments. Here, we used simple fabrication techniques with readily available polymers to obtain high performance phosphorescent films. Specifically, evaporation-based phase separation and the breath figure technique were used to induce porosity.

Long-term effects of primary hyperparathyroidism and parathyroidectomy on kidney function.

Importance: Limited evidence supports kidney dysfunction as an indication for parathyroidectomy in asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Objective: To investigate the natural history of kidney function in PHPT and whether parathyroidectomy alters renal outcomes.

Design: Matched control study.

Diving into a pool or volcano? Examining the influence of sentence context and task demands on sentence reading in younger and older adults.

Cognitive ageing is often associated with slower lexical processing, which might influence both language production and comprehension. Words are typically used in context, which can further influence word processing and potential age differences. However, it remains unclear how older adults are affected by context during reading.

Parathyroidectomy for nephrolithiasis in primary hyperparathyroidism: Beneficial but not a panacea.

Background: Nephrolithiasis is a classic indication for parathyroidectomy in primary hyperparathyroidism patients; however, the effects of parathyroidectomy on nephrolithiasis recurrence are not well studied. The aim was to determine effect of parathyroidectomy on time to first nephrolithiasis recurrence and recurrence rate per patient-years.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism and at least one episode of nephrolithiasis was performed.

A 40 Mb/s VLC System Reusing an Existing Large LED Panel in an Indoor Office Environment.

With advances in solid-state lighting, visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising technology to enhance existing light-emitting diode (LED)-based lighting infrastructure by adding data communication capabilities to the illumination functionality. The last decade has witnessed the evolution of the VLC concept through global standardisation and product launches. Deploying VLC systems typically requires replacing existing light sources with new luminaires that are equipped with data communication functionality.

EVM Loss: A Loss Function for Training Neural Networks in Communication Systems.

Neural networks and their application in communication systems are receiving growing attention from both academia and industry. The authors note that there is a disconnect between the typical objective functions of these neural networks with regards to the context in which the neural network will eventually be deployed and evaluated. To this end, a new loss function is proposed and shown to increase the performance of neural networks when implemented in a communication system compared to previous methods.

Bandwidth limits of luminescent solar concentrators as detectors in free-space optical communication systems.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have recently emerged as a promising receiver technology in free-space optical communications due to their inherent ability to collect light from a wide field-of-view and concentrate it into small areas, thus leading to high optical gains. Several high-speed communication systems integrating LSCs in their detector blocks have already been demonstrated, with the majority of efforts so far being devoted to maximising the received optical power and the system's field-of-view. However, LSCs may pose a severe bottleneck on the bandwidth of such communication channels due to the comparably slow timescale of the fluorescence events involved, a situation further aggravated by the inherent reabsorption in these systems, and yet, an in-depth study into such dynamic effects remains absent in the field.

Experimental multi-user VLC system using non-orthogonal multi-band CAP modulation.

This paper provides experimental results for a multi-user visible light communications system using multi-band carrier-less amplitude and phase (m-CAP) modulation scheme. We optimize the system performance by adapting pulse shaping filter parameters, subcarrier spacing and allocating different baud rates to individual sub-bands called allocated m-CAP (Am-CAP). We show that a maximal system data rate of ∼468 Mb/s for four users can be supported while gaining higher flexibility for optimization and the same or lower computational complexity compared with the conventional m-CAP scheme.

Visible light communication with efficient far-red/near-infrared polymer light-emitting diodes.

Visible light communication (VLC) is a wireless technology that relies on optical intensity modulation and is potentially a game changer for internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity. However, VLC is hindered by the low penetration depth of visible light in non-transparent media. One solution is to extend operation into the "nearly (in)visible" near-infrared (NIR, 700-1000 nm) region, thus also enabling VLC in photonic bio-applications, considering the biological tissue NIR semitransparency, while conveniently retaining vestigial red emission to help check the link operativity by simple eye inspection.

Indoor Intruder Tracking Using Visible Light Communications.

This paper proposes a comprehensive study of indoor intruder tracking using visible light communication (VLC). A realistic indoor VLC channel was developed, taking into consideration reflections, shadowing, and ambient noise. The intruder was considered smart and aiming to escape tracking.

Skeletal effects of combined medical and surgical management of primary hyperparathyroidism.

Background: Parathyroidectomy (PTX) increases bone mineral density and decreases fracture risk in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. This study examined the effect of adding bisphosphonates either before or after PTX on skeletal outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of bisphosphonate-naïve patients (1995-2016) with osteoporosis and primary hyperparathyroidism (calcium >10.

Filter-less WDM for visible light communications using colored pulse amplitude modulation.

This Letter demonstrates, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a new wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) scheme for visible light communications using multi-level colored pulse amplitude modulation. Unlike traditional WDM, no optical bandpass filters are required, and only a single optical detector is used. We show that, by transmitting n independent sets of weighted on-off keying non-return-to-zero data on separate wavelengths over a line-of-sight transmission path, the resultant additive symbols can be successfully demodulated.

Hypocalcemia after Total Thyroidectomy in Graves Disease.

Context: Total thyroidectomy has been shown to provide a cost-effective and efficient method of permanently treating Graves disease; however, hypocalcemia can be a common complication.

Objective: To evaluate the risk of hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy in patients with vs without Graves disease.

Design: The 2016 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program participant use data files for procedure-targeted thyroidectomy and from 5871 patients were merged.

Visible light communications: multi-band super-Nyquist CAP modulation.

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the performance of a non-orthogonal multi-band super-Nyquist carrier-less amplitude and phase (m-SCAP) modulation for visible light communications (VLC). We break the orthogonality between sub-bands in the frequency domain by compressing the spectrum, purposely overlapping them, and introducing inter-band interference (IBI). We demonstrate that our proposed system can tolerate IBI, and hence spectral efficiency can be increased without introducing additional complexity to the receiver.

BIOCHEMICAL DYNAMICS OF UNTREATED PRIMARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.

The natural biochemical history of untreated primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of biochemical fluctuations in patients with PHPT. Retrospective cohort study from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2014.

End-organ effects of primary hyperparathyroidism: A population-based study.

Background: Patients with primary hyperparathyroidism are at risk for skeletal and renal end-organ damage.

Methods: We studied patients with biochemically confirmed primary hyperparathyroidism from 1995-2014 and quantified the frequency of osteoporosis, nephrolithiasis, hypercalciuria, and decrease in renal function.

Results: The cohort comprised 9,485 patients.

Skeletal effects of failed parathyroidectomy.

Background: Parathyroidectomy improves bone mineral density and decreases risk for fracture in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. The aim of this study was to determine skeletal consequences of failed parathyroidectomy.

Methods: A retrospective, cohort study of patients with biochemically confirmed primary hyperparathyroidism within a vertically integrated health system was performed (1995-2014).

Population-Level Incidence and Predictors of Surgically Induced Diabetes and Exocrine Insufficiency after Partial Pancreatic Resection.

Context: Endocrine and exocrine insufficiency after partial pancreatectomy affect quality of life, cardiovascular health, and nutritional status. However, their incidence and predictors are unknown.

Objective: To identify the incidence and predictors of new-onset diabetes and exocrine insufficiency after partial pancreatectomy.