A wide range of complex social behaviors are facilitated by the recognition of individual conspecifics. Individual recognition requires sufficient phenotypic variation to provide identity information ...as well as receivers that process and respond to identity information. Understanding how a complex trait such as individual recognition evolves requires that we consider how each component has evolved. Previous comparative studies have examined phenotypic variability in senders and receiver learning abilities, although little work has compared receiver responses to identity information among related species with and without individual recognition. Here, we compare responses to identity information in two Polistes paper wasps: P. fuscatus, which visually recognizes individuals, and P. metricus, which does not normally show evidence of individual recognition. Although the species differ in individual recognition, the results of this study show that receiver responses to experimentally manipulated identity information are surprisingly similar in both species. Receivers direct less aggression toward identifiable individuals than unidentifiable individuals. Therefore, the responses necessary for individual recognition may pre‐date its evolution in the P. fuscatus lineage. Additionally, our data demonstrate the apparent binary differences in a complex behavior between the two species, such as individual recognition, likely involve incremental differences along a number of axes.
Abstract Context Management of urinary stones is a major issue for most urologists. Treatment modalities are minimally invasive and include extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL), ureteroscopy ...(URS), and percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL). Technological advances and changing treatment patterns have had an impact on current treatment recommendations, which have clearly shifted towards endourologic procedures. These guidelines describe recent recommendations on treatment indications and the choice of modality for ureteral and renal calculi. Objective To evaluate the optimal measures for treatment of urinary stone disease. Evidence acquisition Several databases were searched to identify studies on interventional treatment of urolithiasis, with special attention to the level of evidence. Evidence synthesis Treatment decisions are made individually according to stone size, location, and (if known) composition, as well as patient preference and local expertise. Treatment recommendations have shifted to endourologic procedures such as URS and PNL, and SWL has lost its place as the first-line modality for many indications despite its proven efficacy. Open and laparoscopic techniques are restricted to limited indications. Best clinical practice standards have been established for all treatments, making all options minimally invasive with low complication rates. Conclusion Active treatment of urolithiasis is currently a minimally invasive intervention, with preference for endourologic techniques. Patient summary For active removal of stones from the kidney or ureter, technological advances have made it possible to use less invasive surgical techniques. These interventions are safe and are generally associated with shorter recovery times and less discomfort for the patient.
Abstract Context An optimum metabolic evaluation strategy for urinary stone patients has not been clearly defined. Objective To evaluate the optimum strategy for metabolic stone evaluation and ...management to prevent recurrent urinary stones. Evidence acquisition Several databases were searched to identify studies on the metabolic evaluation and prevention of stone recurrence in urolithiasis patients. Special interest was given to the level of evidence in the existing literature. Evidence synthesis Reliable stone analysis and basic metabolic evaluation are highly recommended in all patients after stone passage (grade A). Every patient should be assigned to a low- or high-risk group for stone formation. It is highly recommended that low-risk stone formers follow general fluid and nutritional intake guidelines, as well as lifestyle-related preventative measures to reduce stone recurrences (grade A). High-risk stone formers should undergo specific metabolic evaluation with 24-h urine collection (grade A). More specifically, there is strong evidence to recommend pharmacological treatment of calcium oxalate stones in patients with specific abnormalities in urine composition (grades A and B). Treatment of calcium phosphate stones using thiazides is only highly recommended when hypercalciuria is present (grade A). In the presence of renal tubular acidosis (RTA), potassium citrate and/or thiazide are highly recommended based on the relative urinary risk factor (grade A or B). Recommendations for therapeutic measures for the remaining stone types are based on low evidence (grade C or B following panel consensus). Diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms are presented for all stone types based on the best level of existing evidence. Conclusion Metabolic stone evaluation is highly recommended to prevent stone recurrences. Patient summary In this report, we looked at how patients with urolithiasis should be evaluated and treated in order to prevent new stone formation. Stone type determination and specific blood and urine analysis are needed to guide patient treatment.
Passive optical networks (PONs) facilitate small-cell deployments. Back- and midhaul over PON is being deployed today. As opposed to point-to-point optics, PON extends the aggregation gain into the ...access domain. We explain the steps taken in the mobile and PON industries to enable efficient eCPRI fronthaul over PON. We explain how fronthaul has evolved into a bandwidth-efficient eCPRI and what mechanisms are in place to enable coordinated scheduling decisions of the mobile and PON systems. The recent end-to-end demonstration of coordinated scheduling helps pave the way towards future industry adoption.
Abstract Context Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) and ureteroscopy (URS), with or without intracorporeal lithotripsy, are the most common treatments for upper ureteric stones. With ...advances in technology, it is unclear which treatment is most effective and/or safest. Objective To systematically review literature reporting benefits and harms of SWL and URS in the management of upper ureteric stones. Evidence acquisition Databases including Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane library were searched from January 2000 to November 2014. All randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-randomised controlled trials, and nonrandomised studies comparing any subtype or variation of URS and SWL were included. The primary benefit outcome was stone-free rate (SFR). The primary harm outcome was complications. Secondary outcomes included retreatment rate, need for secondary, and/or adjunctive procedures. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess RCTs, and an extended version was used to assess nonrandomised studies. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation was used to assess the quality of evidence. Evidence synthesis Five thousand-three hundred and eighty abstracts and 387 full-text articles were screened. Forty-seven studies met inclusion criteria; 19 (39.6%) were RCTs. No studies on children met inclusion criteria. URS and SWL were compared in 22 studies (4 RCTs, 1 quasi-randomised controlled trial, and 17 nonrandomised studies). Meta-analyses were inappropriate due to data heterogeneity. SFR favoured URS in 9/22 studies. Retreatment rates were higher for SWL compared with URS in all studies but one. Longer hospital stay and adjunctive procedures (most commonly the insertion of a JJ stent) were more common when primary treatment was URS. Complications were reported in 11 out of 22 studies. In eight studies, it was possible to report this as a Clavien-Dindo Grade. Higher complication rates across all grades were reported for URS compared with SWL. For intragroup (intra-SWL and intra-URS) comparative studies, 25 met the inclusion criteria. These studies varied greatly in outcomes measured with data being heterogeneous. Conclusions Compared with SWL, URS was associated with a significantly greater SFR up to 4 wk but the difference was not significant at 3 mo in the included studies. URS was associated with fewer retreatments and need for secondary procedures, but with a higher need for adjunctive procedures, greater complication rates, and longer hospital stay. Patient summary In this paper, the relative benefits and harms of the two most commonly offered treatment options for urinary stones located in the upper ureter were reviewed. We found that both treatments are safe and effective options that should be offered based on individual patient circumstances and preferences.
Primary hyperoxaluria Type 1 is a rare autosomal recessive inborn error of glyoxylate metabolism, caused by a deficiency of the liver-specific enzyme alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase. The disorder ...results in overproduction and excessive urinary excretion of oxalate, causing recurrent urolithiasis and nephrocalcinosis. As glomerular filtration rate declines due to progressive renal involvement, oxalate accumulates leading to systemic oxalosis. The diagnosis is based on clinical and sonographic findings, urine oxalate assessment, enzymology and/or DNA analysis. Early initiation of conservative treatment (high fluid intake, pyridoxine, inhibitors of calcium oxalate crystallization) aims at maintaining renal function. In chronic kidney disease Stages 4 and 5, the best outcomes to date were achieved with combined liver-kidney transplantation.
High-density inner-city residential neighbourhoods are often characterised by serious parking pressure and illegal parking. We study parking choices in a historical neighbourhood in Dortmund, ...Germany, using a household survey. Specifically, we look at the availability of and distance to private parking, the use of available private and on-street parking, and search duration. Additionally, we look at simple measures of satisfaction with parking and with the neighbourhood in general. Our results show that available private parking is not necessarily used where there is little control of illegal on-street parking. Furthermore, search durations and distance to cars parked on-street suggest that parking pressure is lower than commonly perceived in the neighbourhood. Private parking is under-utilised to the extent that we estimate that illegal parking can be reduced by 28 to 49% if private parking were consistently used by those who have it available. Even more substantial reductions in illegal parking can be achieved by deviating from standard sizes for public parking spaces. From our results we draw conclusions for urban parking policy. These include introducing parking fees, coupled with paid parking permits for residents and, perhaps, employees; defining short-stay parking zones; providing parking spaces of different sizes; and increasing the level of enforcement.
We demonstrate concepts and results of a field trial for a flexible-rate passive optical network (FLCS-PON), which delivers bitrates up to 100 Gbit/s and allows for adaptations in the transmission ...method to match the users' channel conditions and optimize throughput. FLCS-PON builds on top of the hardware ecosystem that will be developed for ITU-T 50 Gbit/s PON and employs three new ingredients: optical network unit (ONU) grouping, flexible modulation format, and flexible forward error correction (FEC) code rate. Together, these techniques take advantage of the optical distribution network (ODN) statistics to realize a system capable of more than twofold throughput increase compared to the upcoming 50 Gbit/s PON, but still able to support a full array of deployed fiber edge cases, which are problematic for legacy PONs. In this paper we explain the concepts behind enabling techniques of FLCS-PON. We then report on a field trial over a deployed fiber infrastructure, using a system consisting of one FLCS-PON OLT and two ONUs. We report both pre- and post-forward-error-correction (post-FEC) performance of our system, demonstrating achievable net bitrate over an operator's fiber infrastructure. We realize a downlink transmission at double the speed of ITU-T 50 Gbit/s PON for ONUs exhibiting lower optical path loss (OPL), while simultaneously continue to support ONUs at high OPLs. We additionally realize a record-high 31.5 dB loss budget for 100 Gbit/s transmission using a direct-detection ONU with an optical preamplifier.
Due to continuously emerging high bandwidth applications, research and standardization of time division multiplexed passive optical networks (TDM-PONs) have focused on increasing the peak bitrate. ...However, increasing the bitrate while supporting the stringent optical power budget of a PON becomes increasingly challenging because of the larger chromatic dispersion penalties as well as reduced receiver sensitivity when the bitrate of the intensity modulation with direct-detection (IM-DD) based PON is increased. Also, increasing bitrate generally causes higher power consumption, which leads to more challenging thermal designs and misalignment with environmental targets. In this paper we give an overview of flexible concepts that can help achieve the required optical power budget and support reduced power consumption of a future IM-DD based TDM-PON. We demonstrate that a flexible PON can provide an increased overall throughput or an extended reach and power budget with the use of flexible modulation formats, probabilistic and geometric shaping, and flexible rate forward error correction (FEC). Another dimension of flexibility in the form of a configurable optical distribution network (ODN) is described and its merits and challenges are discussed. Flexible concepts based on interleaving of FEC codewords can align signal processing like FEC decoding and the protocol processing closer to the user-rate of an optical network unit (ONU), which leads to reduced power consumption. Flexibility based on multiple channels based on wavelength multiplexing or spatial multiplexing enables optimization of the power consumption to the amount of traffic on the PON. Several flexible concepts have already been adopted in the PON standards. We highlight flexible gain FEC for upstream 50G PON, the transmitter dispersion eye closure (TDEC) metric, and the flexible split-ratio ODN for power saving. Flexible modulation has not been adopted yet in PON standards, but it is expected that flexibility is more and more needed to support the performance, cost effectiveness, and power conservation of future optical access systems.
Next-generation passive optical networks (PONs) with upstream rates of 50 Gbit/s and beyond will require a new class of burst-mode transimpedance amplifiers (BMTIAs) that are linear to enable ...(digital) equalization of channel impairments. Such linear BMTIAs also enable higher-order modulation formats like 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4). In this paper, we demonstrate operation of a novel linear BMTIA integrated together with a commercial off-the-shelf 25G-class avalanche photodiode (APD), achieving 50 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) operation with a sensitivity of -23.7 dBm optical modulation amplitude (OMA) and dynamic range exceeding 21.7 dB and 100 Gbit/s PAM-4 operation with a sensitivity of -15.8 dBm OMA and dynamic range exceeding 15.4 dB, both at a bit error ratio (BER) of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">10^{-2}</tex-math></inline-formula>. In addition, fast burst-mode gain-control and balancing circuits limit loud-soft sensitivity penalties in the case of AC-coupled circuits to less than 1.3 dB. The chip was designed in a 0.13 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu</tex-math></inline-formula>m SiGe:C BiCMOS technology, has an area of 1.2×1.7 mm<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">^{2}</tex-math></inline-formula> and consumes between 260 mW and 310 mW. This receiver paves the way to a next-generation class of BMTIAs, supporting the ITU-T G.9804.3 Amd 1 standard.
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