[Efficacy and safety of choline alfoscerate in the preventive therapy of dementia in elderly patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: a three-year prospective comparative study].

Objective: To study the efficacy and safety of the use of annual course therapy of choline alfoscerate (CA) as a drug potentially capable of slowing or preventing the transition of amnesic type mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) into clinically pronounced dementia in a three-year open comparative study, as well as to explore the possibility of predicting the preventive effect of such therapy based on a number of clinical and biological parameters.

Material And Methods: The study included 100 patients with aMCI, randomly divided into 2 groups: the therapeutic group consisted of 50 patients who received CA course therapy once a year for 3 years (20 intravenous infusions of 1000 mg (4 ml) in 100 ml of saline solution for 4 weeks) and a comparison group of 50 patients who underwent an annual examination at the center and did not receive therapy. Clinical and psychopathological, psychometric, immunological, follow-up, and statistical methods were used.

Healthcare Resource Utilization and Goals of Care Discussions in Patients with Cirrhosis and Acute Kidney Injury.

Background: Patients with cirrhosis and acute kidney injury (AKI) are critically ill and have high health care resource utilization (HCRU). The impact and timing of goals of care discussions on HCRU are not well described.

Methods: 221 patients enrolled in a prospective cohort study of patients admitted with AKI and cirrhosis were reviewed.

Intravenous Sodium Thiosulphate for Calciphylaxis of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Calciphylaxis is a rare disease with high mortality mainly involving patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sodium thiosulphate (STS) has been used as an off-label therapeutic in calciphylaxis, but there is a lack of clinical trials and studies that demonstrate its effect compared with those without STS treatment.

Objective: To perform a meta-analysis of the cohort studies that provided data comparing outcomes among patients with calciphylaxis treated with and without intravenous STS.

Patient-Reported and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients With Calciphylaxis.

Objective: To describe the pain intensity among hospitalized patients with calciphylaxis, elucidate the factors associated with pain improvement, and examine the link between pain improvement and clinical outcomes.

Patients And Methods: Patients were identified from the Partners Research Patient Data Registry and the Partners Calciphylaxis Registry and Biorepository (Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT03032835).

Intravenous sodium thiosulphate for vascular calcification of hemodialysis patients-a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Vascular calcification (VC) is a common comorbidity among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), indicating major cardiovascular events. This study aimed to evaluate the effects and safety of intravenous sodium thiosulphate (STS) for VC in CKD patients.

Methods: Electronic databases were searched for clinical trials that provided data comparing outcomes among patients treated with and without STS.

The Gut and Blood Microbiome in IgA Nephropathy and Healthy Controls.

Background: IgA nephropathy (IgAN) has been associated with gut dysbiosis, intestinal membrane disruption, and translocation of bacteria into blood. Our study aimed to understand the association of gut and blood microbiomes in patients with IgAN in relation to healthy controls.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study with 20 patients with progressive IgAN, matched with 20 healthy controls, and analyzed bacterial DNA quantitatively in blood using 16S PCR and qualitatively in blood and stool using 16S metagenomic sequencing.

[Prognosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment: clinical and immunological correlations].

Objective: To determine the long-term (three-year) prognosis of the cognitive deficits progression in elderly people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) based on the analysis of the initial clinical and immunological parameters.

Material And Methods: This study is based on a clinical and follow-up study of 252 outpatients with aMCI, who were observed in the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution «Mental Health Research Center» from 2018 to 2020. The psychometric assessment complex included the following scales and tests: MMSE, MoCA, The 10 words test, BNT, David Wechsler's Scale, subtest 6, CDT, Memory test of 5 geometric shapes, BVRT Test, DRS - Mattis Dementia Rating Scale: Verbal fluency, DRS - Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, The Munsterberg Test.

Urinary NGAL as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker for Acute Kidney Injury in Cirrhosis: A Prospective Study.

Introduction: Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) has shown promise in differentiating acute tubular necrosis (ATN) from other types of acute kidney injuries (AKIs) in cirrhosis, particularly hepatorenal syndrome (HRS). However, NGAL is not currently available in clinical practice in North America.

Methods: Urinary NGAL was measured in a prospective cohort of 213 US hospitalized patients with decompensated cirrhosis (161 with AKI and 52 reference patients without AKI).

Filter clotting with continuous renal replacement therapy in COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be associated with increased arterial and venous thromboembolic disease. These presumed abnormalities in hemostasis have been associated with filter clotting during continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). We aimed to characterize the burden of CRRT filter clotting in COVID-19 infection and to describe a CRRT anticoagulation protocol that used anti-factor Xa levels for systemic heparin dosing.

Serum Angiopoietin-2 Predicts Mortality and Kidney Outcomes in Decompensated Cirrhosis.

Acute kidney injury in decompensated cirrhosis has limited therapeutic options, and novel mechanistic targets are urgently needed. Angiopoietin-2 is a context-specific antagonist of Tie2, a receptor that signals vascular quiescence. Considering the prominence of vascular destabilization in decompensated cirrhosis, we evaluated Angiopoietin-2 to predict clinical outcomes.

Changes in Hospital Quality Associated with Hospital Value-Based Purchasing.

Background: Starting in fiscal year 2013, the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program introduced quality performance-based adjustments of up to 1% to Medicare reimbursements for acute care hospitals.

Methods: We evaluated whether quality improved more in acute care hospitals that were exposed to HVBP than in control hospitals (Critical Access Hospitals, which were not exposed to HVBP). The measures of quality were composite measures of clinical process and patient experience (measured in units of standard deviations, with a value of 1 indicating performance that was 1 standard deviation [SD] above the hospital mean) and 30-day risk-standardized mortality among patients who were admitted to the hospital for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia.

Association Between Hospitals' Engagement in Value-Based Reforms and Readmission Reduction in the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program.

Importance: Medicare is experimenting with numerous concurrent reforms aimed at improving quality and value for hospitals. It is unclear if these myriad reforms are mutually reinforcing or in conflict with each other.

Objective: To evaluate whether hospital participation in voluntary value-based reforms was associated with greater improvement under Medicare's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP).

Long-term evidence for the effect of pay-for-performance in primary care on mortality in the UK: a population study.

Background: Introduced in 2004, the UK's Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is the world's largest primary care pay-for-performance programme. We tested whether the QOF was associated with reduced population mortality.

Methods: We used population-level mortality statistics between 1994 and 2010 for the UK and other high-income countries that were not exposed to pay-for-performance.

Statistical analysis of the chaotic optical field from a self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser.

We use Rice's theory of shot noise random processes to provide a statistical analysis of the evolution of the amplitude and phase of the chaotic optical field from a high-gain, self-amplified, spontaneous-emission (SASE) free-electron laser. The theoretical framework developed is compared with recent frequency-resolved optical-gating measurements of the SASE output at the LEUTL facility at Argonne National Laboratory.

Initial results from an in-vacuum undulator in the NSLS X-ray ring.

A short-period in-vacuum undulator for the NSLS X-ray Ring has been developed in a collaboration between SPring-8 and the NSLS, and has achieved its project design goals during commissioning studies. The device is called IVUN (in-vacuum undulator) and employs magnet arrays (31 periods, with an 11 mm period) developed at SPring-8, while the requisite vacuum chamber and mechanical systems were developed at the NSLS. At a magnet gap of 3.

Model for nonlinear behavior in the self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser.

We introduce a simplified model for the saturation of a self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser. Within this model, we determine the effect of nonlinearity upon the statistical properties of the output radiation. Comparing our results with the computer simulations of Saldin, Schneidmiller, and Yurkov [The Physics of Free Electron Lasers (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2000)], we find that the model provides a good description of the average intensity, field correlation function, and coherence time, but underestimates the intensity fluctuation.

Characterization of a chaotic optical field using a high-gain, self-amplified free-electron laser.

We report on a characterization of the chaotic optical field from a high-gain, self-amplified spontaneous-emission (SASE) free-electron laser. The temporal structure of the amplitude and phase are measured in a single-shot mode, with a resolution well below the coherence length, and the statistics over multiple pulses is determined. The measurement is in excellent quantitative agreement with the prediction based on analysis of random noise, and further verifies the chaotic nature of the SASE optical field.

First ultraviolet high-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser.

We report the first experimental results on a high-gain harmonic-generation (HGHG) free-electron laser (FEL) operating in the ultraviolet. An 800 nm seed from a Ti:sapphire laser has been used to produce saturated amplified radiation at the 266 nm third harmonic. The results confirm the predictions for HGHG FEL operation: stable central wavelength, narrow bandwidth, and small pulse-energy fluctuation.

Characterization of a high-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser at saturation.

We report on an experimental investigation characterizing the output of a high-gain harmonic-generation (HGHG) free-electron laser (FEL) at saturation. A seed CO2 laser at a wavelength of 10.6 microm was used to generate amplified FEL output at 5.

High-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser.

A high-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser is demonstrated. Our approach uses a laser-seeded free-electron laser to produce amplified, longitudinally coherent, Fourier transform-limited output at a harmonic of the seed laser. A seed carbon dioxide laser at a wavelength of 10.

The feeling of knowing in deaf adolescents.

Forty prelingually deaf high school students were asked to define words from the 1981 Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). The students then ranked the words they had missed in terms of the difficulty they would expect to have in picking out a picture of the word; that is, they were asked to judge their "feeling of knowing" for the missed words. The PPVT was then given to the students and served as a measure of accuracy for their rank-order judgments.