Xerox (France)

My family has had autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease for more than 100 years. It was not until my dad's generation that having that disease was not a death sentence. Because of the science and advancements of drugs and treatment, he and I have lived amazing lives. Dad passed away in 2025 at the age of 86, a good long life for any man, and I am now 67 and still walking this earth. In the 1960s, my doctor was not a fan of early diagnosis. He felt it would affect my ability to thrive as a kid, but when I turned out to be a great specimen for flag football in middle school, he agreed to have me diagnosed. At 12 years, using radioactive dye and x-rays, it was confirmed that I was the frightened owner of polycystic kidneys and liver. There is a lot to unpack in this sentence, but I shared this with you to show how far technology has come. X-rays and dye that caused most patients to vomit and harmed the very organs we were viewing were the only diagnostic tool available to us. But as the years went on, new and noninvasive diagnostic tools became available. The amount of information available to me to slow down the disease at the time of diagnosis was nonexistent, and even in my 20s, the only thing my doctor could suggest was to control my BP and maybe not drink coffee. As time went on, studies like this one added more information to my toolbox to improve or maintain my health for as long as possible. At the age of 12, I was told my lifespan was <50 years, but, as of authoring this article, I am 67 years old. I hope to live as long as my dad did. With better medications like this study shows, I just might. The study I have been asked to comment on “Efficacy, Mechanisms and Safety of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial” had the primary objective to evaluate BP lowering with dapagliflozin.1 Secondary outcomes were iohexol-measured GFR, natriuresis, body composition, noninvasive cardiac output monitoring, arterial stiffness, heart rate variability, neurohormones, and safety in kidney transplant patients. Being a lay person, I had some difficulty absorbing the information in this study and spent quite a lot of time asking questions of folks I know who were able to help me understand. With their help and a better understanding of the metrics used, I feel this was an important and meaningful experiment for my family. The connection of polycystic kidney disease and heart disease is truly clear in my family and though few if any of us has died of heart disease, most deaths were complicated by it. Also, post-transplant onset diabetes has affected most of us, although I have remained prediabetic for 15 years, I still hold hope that my path may turn out differently. While the importance of this study is obvious, I think it is crucial to look at the possible weak points. Almost 80% of the subjects were men, and the authors attribute this to a pattern of more men getting transplants than women. From the National Kidney Foundation2 to the National Library of Medicine,3 other works have confirmed this comment. I would like to see more done to find a way to correct this inequality to half of the world's population. I want to thank all the people who have made my life and my family's lives better and are filled with hope for the next new advance that will make the life of the kidney community healthier and more productive as was planned way back in the 70s.

Background. Among the agents causing respiratory and skin pathologies, fungal allergens play a significant role. The epidemiological situation regarding fungal sensitization in Ukraine, specifically in the Vinnytsia region, remains insufficiently studied. Conversely, its characteristics, defined at both the individual and population levels, may contribute to understanding patterns relevant to prevention of fungal allergy. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence and analyze the sensitivity profiles to fungal allergens among residents of the Vinnytsia region. Materials and Methods. We analyzed sensitization profiles to 13 fungal allergens in 2,623 residents of the Vinnytsia region using the ALEX multicomponent test. We considered sIgE levels for major molecules and extracts of Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Malassezia, Penicillium, and Saccharomyces (sensitivity threshold ≥ 0.31 kU/L). We examined the overall prevalence and isolated sensitization cases. Statistical analysis utilized non-parametric methods (Mann–Whitney U-test, χ² with Yates’ correction, p &lt; 0.05) in Statistica 8.0 and MS Excel. Results. The overall prevalence of sensitization to fungal allergens was 9.57 %, and it was 1.85 times more common in children. The leading allergen was Alternaria alternata (Alt a 1), with sensitivity observed in 70.12 % of patients sensitized to fungal components. Among children, 82.93 % were sensitized to Alt a 1 alone. The mediansIgE value for Alt a 1 in children (25.64 kU/L) was significantly higher than in adults (7.87 kU/L) and was the highest among sIgE levels for all fungal components. Aspergillus fumigatus allergens (Asp f 1, Asp f 6) did not show isolated sensitization, which is consistent with their classification as secondary sensitizing agent, although their sIgE levels were substantial. Adults showed more frequent sensitization to Asp f 1 and Asp f 6, while sensitivity to Alt a 1 and Mala s 6 was more prominent in children. Conclusions. The obtained data confirm a high prevalence of fungal sensitization in the Vinnytsia region, particularly hypersensitivity to Alt a 1 among children. The identified age-related and immunological features of allergen sensitivity could contribute to the diagnosis and development of effective, personalized allergen-specific immunotherapy programs.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has emerged as a promising technology for sixth-generation (6G) communication networks. At the same time, ensuring the privacy of targets in ISAC is important in contexts where a malicious sensor is present. In this paper, we investigate a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted ISAC system designed to protect a sensing region against an adversarial detector (AD), where the base station (BS) has imperfect knowledge of the AD’s location. The RIS consists of both reflecting and absorptive elements (the latter serving as sensing elements), which can be adaptively reconfigured to meet system requirements. Specifically, the system is designed to maximize the jamming power from the BS to the AD by jointly optimizing the transmit beamformer at the BS, the RIS phase-shift matrix, the receive beamformer at the RIS, and the allocation between reflecting and absorptive elements at the RIS while ensuring a minimum sensing signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at sample points within the sensing region, as well as a minimum communication SINR for each user. To address this challenging optimization problem, we propose an alternating optimization framework combined with a successive convex approximation method tailored for each subproblem. Our results show that the proposed system model offers significant protection of the sensing area compared to the case where the target privacy is not considered. Simulations also confirm that the proposed adaptive RIS partitioning outperforms the fixed RIS partitioning approach.

Affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM) is an emerging waveform candidate for future sixth-generation (6G) systems offering a range of promising features, such as enhanced robustness in heterogeneous and high-mobility environments, as well as inherent suitability for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) applications. In addition, unlike other candidates such as orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation, AFDM provides several unique advantages that strengthen its relevance to practical deployment and standardization in 6G. Notably, as a natural generalization of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), strong backward compatibility with existing conventional systems is guaranteed, while also offering novel possibilities in waveform design, for example to enable physical-layer security through its inherent chirp parametrization. In all, this article provides an overview of AFDM, emphasizing its suitability as a candidate waveform for 6G standardization. First, we provide a concise introduction to the fundamental properties and unique characteristics of AFDM, followed by highlights of its advantageous features, and finally a discussion of its potential and challenges in 6G standardization efforts and representative requirements.

We consider a polling system with two queues, where a single server is attending the queues in a cyclic order and requires non-zero switching times to switch between the queues. Our aim is to identify a fairly general and comprehensive class of Markovian switching policies that renders the system stable. Potentially a class of policies that can cover the Pareto frontier related to individual-queue-centric performance measures like the stationary expected number of waiting customers in each queue; for instance, such a class of policies is identified recently for a polling system near the fluid regime (with large arrival and departure rates), and we aim to include that class. We also aim to include a second class that facilitates switching between the queues at the instance the occupancy in the opposite queue crosses a threshold and when that in the visiting queue is below a threshold (this inclusion facilitates design of ‘robust’ polling systems). Towards this, we consider a class of two-phase switching policies, which includes the above mentioned classes. In the maximum generality, our policies can be represented by eight parameters, while two parameters are sufficient to represent the aforementioned classes. We provide simple conditions to identify the sub-class of switching policies that ensure system stability. By numerically tuning the parameters of the proposed class, we illustrate that the proposed class can cover the Pareto frontier for the stationary expected number of customers in the two queues.

To investigate the genotype-phenotype correlation in RHO-associated retinopathy, with a focus on delineating an ethnic-specific variant spectrum and comparing clinical severity across biological classes and common variants. Retrospective cohort study and literature review. We systematically reviewed all published cases of RHO-associated retinal diseases (2196 patients, 1278 probands) and analyzed clinical, genetic, and imaging data from our institutional cohort (80 probands). Variants were categorized by type and by biological class (Class 1-7), and phenotypes were compared across different biological classes and three common variants. A marked geographic divergence was observed: P23H was common in North America but rare in other populations, whereas P347L and R135W were major common variants in European and Asian populations. Genotype-phenotype analysis revealed that Class 2 variants were associated with later onset and slower visual decline, whereas Class 1 and Class 3 variants correlated with earlier onset (P < .0001) and more aggressive phenotypes. Notably, R135W (Class 3) emerged as an under-recognized but highly aggressive variant, with earlier onset (P < .01) and potentially earlier macular involvement. Our study represents the largest study integrating ethnic, genotypic, and clinical data in RHO-associated retinopathy. The findings highlight substantial inter-ethnic differences in common variants and underscore the clinical relevance of biological classification in predicting disease course. In particular, R135W and P347L warrants closer clinical attention due to their aggressive trajectory, which may inform prioritization in gene therapy trials and individualized patient management.

In the context of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), predicting server-side anomalies is critical for maintaining web service availability. This study addresses the prediction of anomalous HTTP status codes using machine learning on a real-world dataset from an E-commerce site. We monitored eight predictors, with anomalous codes representing only 1% of the data. Three gradient boosting models (Categorical Boosting (CatBoost), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM)) were tuned with Optuna, and class imbalance was mitigated using resampling methods (Condensed Nearest Neighbors (CNN), Random Undersampling (RUS), Cluster Centroids (CC), Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE)). Evaluation yielded precision, recall, and F1-scores of 0.94, 0.98, and 0.97, respectively. SMOTE achieved the best results, demonstrating its applicability for rare Anomaly Detection (AD).

This study proposes a comprehensive framework for the detection of fake base stations (FBS) within integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) networks, characterized by multiple sources of interference. We develop a signal model that incorporates a mix of self, mutual, and clutter interference to facilitate practical realization of ISAC systems. Utilizing a one-class support vector machine, we achieve efficient detection of FBSs with robust recall through the optimization of radial basis function kernels. Additionally, we introduce an artificial intelligence-driven multi-criteria detection algorithm, incorporating a hierarchical machine learning framework to ensure zero false negatives. Furthermore, we present an aggressive anomaly detection strategy that prioritizes threat detection over classification precision by employing Chebyshev inequality-based adaptive thresholding. Comprehensive simulations demonstrate that the system achieves an overall accuracy of 64.15 percent while maintaining an average confidence level of 93.84 percent, indicating a high degree of certainty in decision-making processes.

Liver radioembolization is a minimally invasive treatment for liver malignancies, requiring precise imaging to ensure accurate delivery of therapeutic agents. This paper addresses the key challenges in image registration for liver radioembolization, highlighting recent advancements with a focus on the integration of 3D Slicer software and the ellipsoid method. The oriented bounding boxes (OBBs) technique streamlines the representation of complex liver segments, which represent the object's contours. It simplifies them into simple oriented geometric shapes, making them easier to align. These shapes are then mathematically approximated as ellipsoids (a stretched sphere), enabling precise computations such as alignments, which form a central focus of this paper. This study evaluates the impact of using the OBBs as references for multi-modal medical imaging. Validation is performed with a liver phantom imaged via SPECT-CT (single-photon emission computed tomography) and PET-CT (positron emission tomography), confirming the accuracy and reliability of the proposed approach. Additionally, promising visual results on a patient's liver are also presented.

To address the limited biocompatibility of conventional removable dental prostheses (RDPs), new materials and manufacturing techniques are being actively investigated. This in vitro study aimed to evaluate and compare the biological response of human fibroblast (HGF) to cobalt-chrome (Co-Cr), titanium alloy (Ti), and polyetheretherketone (PEEK), fabricated via tree distinct methods: casting, selective laser melting (SLM) and machining. The surface chemical composition and the wettability of cast Co-Cr, SLM Co-Cr, SLM Ti, machined Ti, and PEEK were assessed. HGF were cultured in contact with material extracts, and all assays were conducted following this exposure. Ion release was assessed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and pH measurement. Surface roughness was subsequently measured on each sample. Cell viability was assessed using the Live/Dead staining, while metabolic activity was evaluated using the Alamar Blue assay. Cell morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy, while inflammatory profile was assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (p < 0.05 and 0.001). SLM Co-Cr exhibited higher Co and Cr surface content than cast Co-Cr, while SLM Ti showed a reduced titanium content and increased aluminum content relative to machined Ti. Among all tested materials, machined Ti demonstrated the highest surface wettability, evidenced by a significantly lower contact angle (p < 0.001). HGF exposed to extracts of machined Ti and PEEK exhibited greater cell viability and metabolic activity, comparable to the control group. In contrast, cast Co-Cr was associated with significantly increased IL-6 secretion, although TNF-α and IL-10 levels remained stable across tested groups. Machined titanium (Ti) and PEEK exhibited favorable in vitro biocompatibility, with high cell viability, enhanced cellular adhesion, and no significant cytotoxicity under our experimental conditions. These findings suggest that both materials may represent promising alternatives to CoCr alloys for the fabrication of removable partial dentures, although their clinical application requires further validation of their mechanical, physical, and long-term properties.