Critically ill patients whose course is complicated by acute kidney injury often receive renal replacement therapy (RRT). For these patients, initiation of RRT results in a considerable escalation in both the complexity and associated cost of care. While RRT is extensively used in clinical practice, there remains uncertainty about the ideal circumstances of when to initiate RRT and for what ind...

INTRODUCTION Previous studies using Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN)/RIFLE criteria to classify early initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) have defined it as the therapy started in less severe AKIN/RIFLE stages. Generally, these studies failed in demonstrating measurable benefits. METHODS We compared RRT initiation in critically ill patients and defined early or late RRT in referen...

Path planning plays an important role in autonomous robot systems. Effective understanding of the surrounding environment and efficient generation optimal collision-free path are both critical parts for solving path-planning problems. Although conventional sampling-based algorithms, such as rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) its improved version (RRT*), have been widely used problems because t...

Sampling-based algorithms for path planning have achieved great success during the last 15 years, thanks to their ability to efficiently solve complex high-dimensional problems. However, standard versions of these algorithms cannot guarantee optimality or even high-quality for the produced paths. In recent years, variants of these methods, taking cost criteria into account during the exploratio...

BACKGROUND A preliminary review of the UK Renal Registry (UKRR) pre-RRT study data revealed results suggesting that, for some patients, the date of start of renal replacement therapy (RRT), as reported to the UKRR, was incorrect and often significantly later than the true date of start. A more detailed study then aimed to validate a set of criteria to identify patients with an incorrect start d...

In this paper we propose a new family of RRT based algorithms, named RRT+, that are able to find faster solutions in high-dimensional configuration spaces compared to other existing RRT variants by finding paths in lower dimensional subspaces of the configuration space. The method can be easily applied to complex hyperredundant systems and can be adapted by other RRT based planners. We introduc...

BACKGROUND Fabry disease, an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by deficiency of alpha-galactosidase activity, is associated with progressive loss of kidney function. This study was undertaken to characterize Fabry disease among patients who reached end-stage renal disease. METHODS Data from 2,712 patients in the Fabry Registry were analysed to identify clinical characteristics of pat...

Although the use of renal replacement therapy (RRT) to support critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) has become routine, many of the fundamental questions regarding optimal management of RRT remain. This review summarizes current evidence regarding the timing of initiation of RRT, the selection of the specific modality of RRT, and prescription of the intensity of therapy. Altho...

Avian influenza viruses (AIV) affect a wide range of birds and mammals, cause severe economic damage to the poultry industry, and pose a serious threat to humans. Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI) H5N1 were first identified in Southeast Asia in 1996 and spread to four continents over the following years. The viruses have caused high mortality in chickens and various bird species ...