bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fabrication of optimized transducer head masses via additive manufacturing
Authors: Eadie Christopher , Brumbaugh Scott , Fellabaum Chloe , Cleckner Thomas , Meyer Richard J.
Published: April 2023

The Applied Research Laboratory conducted an investigation into additive manufacturing (AM) as an avenue to improve transducer head mass performance. Techniques, such as powder bed fusion (PBF) of metals and direct ink writing (DIW) of ceramics, offer benefits, including increased design freedom and faster design iteration. The transducer head mass acts as an acoustic radiator and receiver, and is required to have a high stiffness-to-weight ratio. Aluminum is commonly used for this application due to a balance between performance and cost. AlSi10Mg, an aluminum alloy, is readily printed via PBF, making it an excellent candidate for geometric optimization. A technique known as topology optimization has been used to great effect, reducing weight of the part and bridging the performance gap between aluminum and AlBeMet. High performance composites and ceramics are sometimes used for head masses, however their high price and long turnaround time often eliminate them as an option. Recently, DIW has been used to manufacture boron carbide head masses. DIW reduces the need for expensive machining, reducing the cost and time required to employ such a high performance material. This presentation will discuss the optimization of the transducer head mass, including topology optimization of AlSi10Mg and DIW of B4C.
Examination of the static and dynamic forces at the termination of a bowed string
Authors: Lampis Alessio , Mayer Alexander , Pàmies-Vilà Montserrat , Chatziioannou Vasileios
Published: April 2023

In bowed-string instruments, the force exerted by the string on the bridge may be used for analyzing the excitation process. This force is caused by the vibration of the string due to the musician's bowing action. The dynamic component of this force has been investigated in the relevant literature. In this study, focusing on a monochord, an approach is proposed to simultaneously measure both the static and the dynamic components of the force exerted by the string on a rigid support. The use of a robotic arm to excite the string via a linear bowing action permits to measure this force under controlled excitation conditions. The static and dynamic components of the force are analyzed in the transverse plane to the string at several moments of the bow stroke, as well as for selected bowing positions and bow velocities.
The meaning of post-pandemic soundscapes
Authors: Schulte-Fortkamp Brigitte
Published: April 2023

Following the pandemic, current times classified as post-pandemic have to be seen from a multidisciplinary view point when it comes to soundscape research. During the pandemic, it was under duress, that worldwide daily life was changed and new habits had to be developed as for example according to home office, home schooling, family life in narrow space, lock downs. At the beginning, it was causing irritation and helplessness, but later it was changed to habits in regard to so called daily routines. Following, post-pandemic soundscape research must be related to daily life in its status and noticeable changes. Post-pandemic soundscapes will show changes for examples in regard to pioneering city-planning involving the concepts of smart growth and smart cities. Taking this into account, soundscape research in post pandemic times has to get new technologies under scrutiny as well as new approaches in soundscape methodologically also including virtual reality. Expected is a revised perception of the acoustic environment based on collected experiences and knowledge of people concerned. The review of the respective soundscape research will summarize the current situation in post-pandemic times.
Are new requirements for soundscape research resulting from the pandemic?
Authors: Fiebig Andre
Published: April 2023

The pandemic caused short-term but also medium-term changes in many areas of life, which moderated the demands on the acoustic environment. For example, the flexibilization of the workplace led to increased requirements for environmental conditions to allow for effective work. At the same time, outdoor spaces took on new meanings and uses as people increasingly sought opportunities for social interactions and recreation. The change of the acoustic environments and the adaptation of individual and social needs proceeded equally; and it appears likely that certain pandemic related developments endure to a certain extent in post-pandemic soundscapes. Therefore, the question appears justified to what extent requirements for noise protection in urban context would have to take account any of the new conditions of post-pandemic times. Data regarding the change of acoustic environments based on long-term measurements over the last years as well as observations on recent noise complaints behavior are presented and discussed from the perspective of current noise legislative and urban health.
New methods for predicting soundscape
Authors: Genuit Klaus
Published: April 2023

The ISO 12913 series Soundscape standard provides procedures to describe the acoustic environment in context and cognition and to interpret it with the help of psychoacoustics. This presupposes the presence of an acoustic environment and to interview people living in this soundscape. As during the pandemic interactive communication was limited, a greater focus was led on creating artificial acoustic environments. With the help of a simulation method, a human-focused acoustic virtual environment for the auralization of traffic noise is implemented based on existing traffic data. Traffic noise is an important attribute for the design of attractive living spaces. A reliable prediction of this burden in urban development and traffic planning offers a great potential. For this purpose, source, transmission, and receiver properties as well as movement profiles from traffic data and possible noise reduction measures are considered. Methods and concepts for simulation as well as human perception are focused. The potential to exploit available data from traffic and planning is demonstrated using example scenarios. The simulation enables the auralization and evaluation of the perception of traffic noise in different scenarios.
Soundscape of war
Authors: Talebzadeh Arezoo
Published: April 2023

Soundscape refers to the perception of the sonic environment; the recent pandemic has changed our perception of our living environment and reminded us of the need to study unpredicted and unpleasant soundscapes. For many, the pandemic brought quietness and a lack of stimuli; however, the soundscape was chaotic and fearful for healthcare workers and frontline workers. The experience also reminded us that there are neglected soundscapes to evaluate. One acoustic environment rarely studied or evaluated is the soundscape of war. There is insufficient attention to the auditory sensation of horror and terror caused by conflicts. When talking about the soundscape of war not referring to sonophobia, as one may not fear loud noises, yet being in the conflict has its specific auditory effect. How to use soundscape methods to evaluate the war soundscape? When soundwalk and interview are not practical, what will be the best way to evaluate the soundscape? Where are terror and horror in eight scale evaluation of pleasant, chaotic, vibrant, uneventful, calm, annoying, eventful and monotonous? There are studies on the effect of sound on veterans with PTSD, but not on people living in war zones. Should research use Virtual Reality to evaluate the soundscape of war? The goal is to find ways to assess the short-term and long-term effects of war soundscape on people and to find ways to improve their well-being.
Laboratory characterization of induced seismicity
Authors: Kalyan Evani Sai , Popovics John
Published: April 2023

Subsurface fluid injection causes an increase in seismic activity near injection sites. To ensure public safety and improve public acceptance of subsurface fluid injection, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms giving rise to these behaviors and characterize the factors affecting induced seismicity. The work reported here aims to better understand induced seismicity in faulted/fractured subsurface rock formations. A series of experiments are conducted in core flooding and triaxial configurations on test samples with a preexisting fracture/fault to study frictional slipping at small and large scales respectively. The geometries of both surfaces on either side of the fault are characterized using x-ray CT. The extent of fault gouging in a specimen after slipping is quantified by defining a cumulative gouging parameter using x-ray CT measurements before and after the experiment. Acoustic emission (AE) events emanating from the specimens in both configurations are monitored. The results demonstrate that (1) the orientation of fault relative to the major principal stress direction affects the slip characteristics, (2) frictional slipping at a fault can occur at different length scales, (3) with an increase in the scale of slipping, the spectral ratio of low-frequency bins increases while high-frequency bins reduces, and (4) locations on the fault surface that exhibit a sudden change in surface normal are most susceptible to gouging/damage during frictional slipping.
Cortical tracking of speech in quiet and noise in infants and children
Authors: Jabeen Talat , Wong Sharon , Lau Bonnie K.
Published: April 2023

Past research has shown that in multi-talker listening situations, cortical tracking of the speech envelope is observed for the target speech stream in adults. While children are known to perform worse than adults under noisy conditions, many aspects of how the cortical processing of speech develops is unknown. Here, we recorded EEG responses to continuous speech in infants and 7-to-18-year-olds in Quiet, Co-located Noise, and Segregated Noise. The target speech stream consisted of infant directed speech or an audiobook for children. The noise consisted of four-talker babble and was constructed from four audiobooks read by 2 males and 2 females. Thirty-two channels of EEG data were recorded with the stimuli presented at an overall level of 65 dB SPL for children and 70 dB SPL for infants with a +5 dB target-to-noise SNR via speakers at 0°, +90°, and −90° azimuth. EEG signals were analyzed using the decoding model of the Multivariate Temporal Response Function toolbox to assess how well the stimulus envelope could be reconstructed from the recorded neural responses. Preliminary results show evidence of cortical tracking of the speech envelope for both infants and children in quiet and that cortical tracking degrades in both Co-located and Segregated Noise.
Contribution of listening effort and cognitive processing to psychometric functions during adolescence and young adulthood
Authors: Huyck Julia J.
Published: April 2023

Hearing and listening are critical to how adolescents communicate, learn new information, and engage with technology and culture. However, performance on auditory perceptual tasks takes a long time to mature. Age-related improvements in executive functions and other cognitive functions likely contribute to this long developmental trajectory. To examine how listening effort and cognition relate to psychometric functions on auditory perceptual tasks in adolescents and young adults, we used the method of constant stimuli to test 10- to 23-year-olds on frequency discrimination, temporal interval discrimination, and gap detection. During task performance, an eye tracker was used to measure pupil size and blink rate as proxies for listening effort or engagement. Typically, larger pupil size and fewer blinks are associated with higher engagement. All listeners also completed a battery of cognitive tests including tests of verbal and nonverbal reasoning, working memory, processing speed, and attention. We will demonstrate any changes in the estimated thresholds and psychometric function slopes during adolescence and will relate these developmental changes to individual differences in listening effort and cognition. [Work funded by NIDCD.]
Auditory cortex plasticity supports social learning
Authors: Sanes Dan , Paraouty Nihaad , Yao Justin , Varnet Léo , Chou Chi-Ning , Chung Sue Yeon
Published: April 2023

The acquisition of new auditory skills can be facilitated by experiencing a conspecific performing a well-defined behavior (i.e., social learning). Although the neural bases for auditory social learning remain uncertain, one plausible hypothesis is that social experience induces long-term changes to auditory cortex, thereby facilitating the subsequent acquisition of an auditory skill. To explore this idea, we developed a social learning paradigm in which naïve observer gerbils are exposed to a demonstrator that performs an amplitude modulation (AM) rate discrimination task on the other side of an opaque divider. Thus, observers have no access to visual cues. When exposed to a demonstrator for five successive days, observers subsequently acquire the AM task more rapidly than controls. Two experiments suggest that auditory cortex is necessary and sufficient for social learning. First, inactivating the observer’s auditory cortex during each social exposure session significantly delayed task acquisition. Second, recordings from the observer’s auditory cortex revealed that individual neurons displayed a significant improvement in AM stimulus discrimination across the five exposure sessions, and the magnitude of neural improvement correlated with an animal’s subsequent rate of task acquisition. Together, these findings suggest that auditory cortex plasticity plays a pivotal role in social learning.
Effects of acoustic-phonetic access on audiovisual speech perception in children
Authors: Lalonde Kaylah , Bosen Adam K. , Dwyer Grace A. , Pitts Abby
Published: April 2023

Visual speech helps compensate for degraded acoustic input, especially when redundancy between the accessible acoustic and visual cues is low. Recent findings indicate that children who are hard of hearing benefit more from visual speech than their peers with normal hearing, yet the two groups demonstrate similar speechreading ability. It is unclear whether this increased benefit reflects differences in auditory and multisensory development or differences in redundancy between the visual and acoustic cues available to each group. This study examines the extent to which acoustic-phonetic access (acoustic frequency content) influences auditory and audiovisual word recognition in children with normal hearing. Isolated word and word-in-sentence recognition accuracy are measured for auditory-only and audiovisual speech that were high-pass filtered and low-pass filtered with a 2 kHz cutoff frequency. Data collection is ongoing. We hypothesize that children will demonstrate greater audiovisual benefit when acoustic speech is low-pass filtered than when it is high-pass filtered, because low-frequency acoustic content is less redundant with visual speech cues than high-frequency acoustic content. These findings will elucidate whether acoustic-phonetic access can explain differences in audiovisual benefit between children with normal hearing and children who are hard of hearing. [Work supported by NIH R21DC020544.]
Infusing social justice in the development and instruction of a course on the history of phonetics
Authors: Garellek Marc , Nielson Shai , Rhodes Tamara L. , Clem Emily
Published: April 2023

We describe the design and implementation of a mixed undergraduate and graduate seminar on the history of phonetics (from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries). The goal of the course was to teach and learn about the history of the field using a pedagogical framework in which all aspects of the course are framed with the values of antiracism, social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Planning for the course involved discussion between the instructor, the graduate student DEI committee, the department Curriculum Committee, the linguistics librarian, and the teaching and learning resource center. Seminar topics included the development of systems of phonetic annotation and speech technology; the emergence of modern phonetics, speech-language pathology, and linguistics; and advancements in speech acoustics. In this presentation, we will also discuss students’ participation and evaluation of the course, which were very enthusiastic. Overall, we show how a course on the history of phonetics can be modeled and taught in such a way as to show the ways in which our field has marginalized and discriminated against certain communities, as well as to consider the ways in which we may learn from our history so as to be a more just and inclusive discipline moving forward.
Vague terminology and pedagogy
Authors: Weissler Rachel Elizabeth
Published: April 2023

A key challenge for any academic field is using, and teaching about, field-specific terminology. Speech science faces a unique set of circumstances, since many students and non-experts believe they understand a specific term. However, their definitions may vary drastically from the agreed upon definitions within the field. This becomes even more complicated when a specific piece of terminology is contentious within the field. Take, for example, the term “non-native.” Recent work has demonstrated that this term is simultaneously imprecise (i.e., does not refer to all and only individuals who meet specific criteria) and othering (i.e., inherently places one group in opposition to the “normal” group of native speakers). However, this terminological conundrum provides a ripe ground for pedagogical shift. In this presentation, we address both the pedagogical opportunities available in addressing these terminological issues, including metalinguistic discussions of the notions of categories and how this may tie into discussions around linguistic relativity. Furthermore, this approach allows for a broader discussion in the classroom that changing terminology only solves part of the problem; regardless of the terminology we use, we do not mitigate the bigger issues of interest. In fact, altering terminology alone can result in virtue-signaling (miles-hercules & Muwwakkil 2021).
Model and data-driven homework problems for learning signal processing concepts
Authors: Siderius Martin
Published: April 2023

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Portland State University offers a course in Sensor Array Processing. The content is designed to be introductory and approachable for undergraduate, first year graduate and students from other disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering or Physics. The signal processing techniques explored use two or more sensors and can be applied to acoustics or electromagnetic waves. I have two favorite homework problems: one is based on simulated data and the other based on measured data and both help solidify important concepts. For the simulations, a model is developed based on the method of images and can be applied to signals from a sonar in the ocean or to voices in a room. These multipath environments are used to illustrate how a signal (such as an audio clip the student creates) would change in different environments or source/receiver geometry. The channel impulse response is modeled and together with convolution allows different waveform responses to be easily computed. My favorite problem using measured data is based on recordings of a broadband source on two sensors. Cross-correlation is used to determine the source direction. This problem explores the concepts of pulse compression and pre-whitening for time-delay and direction estimation.
Introducing bellhopcxx/bellhopcuda: Modern, parallel BELLHOP(3D)
Authors: Pisha Louis A. , Snider Joseph , Jackson Khalil , Jaffe Jules S.
Published: April 2023

BELLHOP and BELLHOP3D are popular ray/beam based underwater acoustics simulation programs, written in Fortran by Dr. Michael B. Porter starting in 1983. We introduce bellhopcxx/bellhopcuda, a translation of these programs into a modern, multithreaded C + +/CUDA codebase. This open-source codebase can be built and run on a multicore CPU or an NVIDIA GPU and can also be built as a library for integration into other software without requiring output data to be written to files. The new version is typically somewhat faster than the Fortran version even in single-threaded mode, and in multithreaded mode usually scales roughly with the number of logical CPU cores minus some overhead. In runs with large numbers of rays, depending on the hardware, the CUDA version can bring several times additional performance gain over the multithreaded CPU version, sometimes reaching over 100x the performance of BELLHOP or BELLHOP3D. The results of the new version closely match those of the original version in most cases, but there are occasionally mismatches, partly due to edge case issues inherent in the BELLHOP physics model. We have improved the handling of these cases and made other improvements to the Fortran version, bringing these changes to the new version.
Informing the acoustical privacy of mothers’ rooms with measurement data
Authors: Krapfl Blake R. , Epstein Jennifer M. , Underwood Samuel H. , Wang Lily M.
Published: April 2023

Mothers’ rooms (also referred to as lactation rooms) have become more prominent in workplaces in the United States in recent decades. Since the amendment of Fair Labor Standards Act in 2010, employers in the United States with more than 50 employees have been required to provide a non-restroom space for mothers to nurse or pump breast milk. Such spaces are often designed to offer privacy and comfort—however, little consideration has been given to the acoustical criteria that would be appropriate for these spaces. To inform the development of best practice criteria for sound isolation, a sample of different breast pump models from different manufacturers has been measured to estimate the range of sound power levels and spectral content associated with lactation pump noise. Comparisons are then made between pump noise levels and common workplace wall constructions to test the efficacy of published sound isolation criteria. Additional consideration is given to the unique usage of this space type in comparison to common adjacency types to propose a data-driven sound isolation criteria for mothers’ rooms. Results from this effort also aim to inform further work towards developing criteria for reverberation time and background noise levels in mothers’ rooms.
Source separation with an acoustic vector sensor for terrestrial bioacoustics
Authors: Tolkova Irina , Klinck Holger
Published: April 2023

Passive acoustic monitoring is emerging as a low-cost, non-invasive methodology for automated species-level population surveys. However, systems for automating the detection and classification of vocalizations in complex soundscapes are significantly hindered by the overlap of calls and environmental noise. We propose addressing this challenge by utilizing an acoustic vector sensor to separate contributions from different sound sources. More specifically, we describe and implement an analytical pipeline consisting of (1) calculating direction-of-arrival, (2) decomposing the azimuth estimates into angular distributions for individual sources, and (3) numerically reconstructing source signals. Using both simulation and experimental recordings, we evaluate the accuracy of direction-of-arrival estimation through the active intensity method (AIM) against the baselines of white noise gain constraint beamforming (WNC) and multiple signal classification (MUSIC). Additionally, we demonstrate and compare source signal reconstruction with simple angular thresholding and a wrapped Gaussian mixture model. Overall, we show that AIM achieves higher performance than WNC and MUSIC, with a mean angular error of about 5°, robustness to environmental noise, flexible representation of multiple sources, and high fidelity in source signal reconstructions. Finally, we illustrate applications of AVS-based source separation for spatiotemporal analysis of birdsong in dawn chorus recordings.
EEG study of attention on an auditory target detection task in dolphins and humans
Authors: Schalles Matt , Pei Alexander , Noyce Abigail , Mulsow Jason , Houser Dorian , Finneran James J. , Tyack Peter , Shinn-Cunningham Barbara
Published: April 2023

How do dolphins attend to echos and ignore background noise? Is the process similar to how humans attend to conversations in a crowded room? Studies of human selective attention have highlighted endogenous brain processes modulating the magnitude of early responses to sounds in auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), yet these rely on task-specific instructions difficult to employ in animal studies. We trained an adult male dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) to attend to a stream of rapidly presented tones, and provide a whistle response to a “target” tone while withholding responses to “background” tones in an amplitude discrimination task. The background sounds were designed to function as a tonal mismatch negativity paradigm with two frequencies: a standard tone presented 80% of the time, and a deviant presented 20% of the time. Depending on condition, the target could be the same frequency as the standard or the deviant. We observed an enhanced AEP response to a deviant of the same frequency as the target, while the AEP response to the standard-target condition was reduced. This was not predicted by previous human experiments, and we are currently following up with a pilot a human task modeled after the dolphin implicit target detection task.
In situ approach to characterize effects of pile-driving on black sea bass behavior, Centroprisits striata
Authors: Jarriel Sierra , Jezequel Youenn , Cones Seth , Formel Nathan , Aoki Nadége , Stanley Jenni , Mooney T. Aran
Published: April 2023

With the threat of climate change and global energy demands rapidly growing, offshore wind farms are quickly becoming a contender in renewable energy strategies in countries around the world, including the United States. In the US, numerous offshore wind turbines are in the planning process for coastal Mid-Atlantic waters, spurring investigation into potential effects of the high-intensity construction noise on local species. Black sea bass, Centropristis striata, is a commercially important mid-water fish that inhabits these same waters and are reported to experience behavioral changes in response to pile-driving, although only demonstrated in the lab. Verification and expansion on these results requires an in situ approach to minimize tank effects on sound propagation and animal behavior. This study, conducted in coastal waters of Woods Hole, MA, used video observation to characterize behavior of 40 caged black sea bass before and during 15-min bouts of actual impact and vibratory hammer pile driving, repeated 5 times per day. Pressure and particle motion were measured. We examined immediate reactions to the onset of noise, prolonged behavioral changes, and habituation. Initial results show increased hiding or sheltering behaviors, as well as bursts of escape-motivated movements in response to the noise. While preliminary, the results suggest that pile driving can induce a range of behavioral impacts on this important fisheries species, and some concern is warranted with respect to offshore wind development.
Kalimba tine boundary condition models
Authors: Ludwigsen Daniel
Published: April 2023

The kalimba or African thumb piano is a musical instrument with thin metal tines plucked by the thumbs at their free end. The opposite end is secured to a wood resonator with a three-point clamp that provides downward force in the middle, between points of upward force at the bridge and the back bar. The simplest model is an Euler-Bernoulli thin beam, free at the plucked end and clamped at the mount. Chapman [J. Acoust. Soc. Am 131, 945 (2012)] explored the benefits to modeling the bridge as a simply supported point, with a clamped condition at the load point in the middle. Considerations in the present work are related to the modes of vibration of the resonator box. (i) The bridge is the point where vibration is transmitted to the resonator box, itself designed to better radiate sound, and thus the mechanical impedance at that point provides a complex boundary condition to be implemented in the tine model. (ii) Measurements of the attack of the kalimba tones include harmonic content not predicted by the thin beam model; recent work on this “offset” boundary condition is approached computationally, extending beyond the theoretical thin beam model.
The Effects of Posture and Dynamic Stretching on the Electromechanical Delay of the Paraspinal Muscles
Authors: Fagbemigun Richard O. , Cavallo Melissa , Brown Stephen H.M.
Published: April 2023

Electromechanical delay (EMD) of muscle is influenced in part by its in-series arrangement with connective tissue. Therefore, studying EMD might provide a better understanding of the muscle–connective tissue interaction. Here, EMD of the thoracic and lumbar erector spinae muscles were investigated under conditions that could influence muscle–connective tissue interaction. A total of 19 participants performed isometric back extension contractions in 3 different postures that influence lumbar spine angle: sitting, standing, and kneeling. They then performed a 15-minute dynamic stretching routine and repeated the standing contractions. Mean lumbar flexion angles of 0.5°, 9.9°, and 19.8° were adopted for standing, kneeling, and sitting, respectively. No statistically significant differences in the thoracic erector spinae EMD were found between the different postures. Lumbar erector spinae EMD was significantly longer in the sitting (94.1 ms) compared to the standing (69.9 ms) condition, with no differences compared to kneeling (79.7 ms). There were no statistically significant differences of the thoracic or lumbar erector spinae EMDs before and after dynamic stretching. These results suggest that dynamic stretching does not affect the mechanical behavior of the muscle-tendon–aponeurosis units in a way that alters force generation and transmission, but a sitting posture can alter how force is transmitted through the musculotendinous complex of the lumbar erector spinae.
Reporting of Adverse Events in Muscle Strengthening Interventions in Youth: A Systematic Review
Authors: Mack Diane E. , Anzovino Daniel , Sanderson Malcolm , Dotan Raffy , Falk Bareket
Published: April 2023

Clear definition, identification, and reporting of adverse event (AE) monitoring during training interventions are essential for decision making regarding the safety of training and testing in youths. Purpose: To document the extent to which AEs, resulting from intervention studies targeting muscle strengthening training (MST) in youth, are reported by researchers. Methods: Electronic databases (CINAHL, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science) were searched for English peer-reviewed articles published before April 2018. Inclusion criteria were: (1) average age <16 years, (2) use of MST, (3) statement(s) linked to the presence/absence of AEs, and (4) randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental designs. Risk of reporting bias for AEs followed recommendations by the Cochrane Collaboration group. Results: One hundred and ninety-one full-text articles were screened. One hundred and thirty met all MST criteria, out of which only 44 (33.8%; n = 1278, age = 12.1 [1.1] y) included a statement as to the presence/absence of adverse events. The 86 other studies (66.2%) included no such statement. Of the reporting 44 studies, 18 (40.1%) indicated one or more adverse events. Of the 93 reported adverse events, 55 (59.1%) were linked to training or testing. Conclusions: Most MST studies in youth do not report presence/absence of adverse events, and when reported, adverse events are not well defined.
Experimentally realized in situ backpropagation for deep learning in photonic neural networks
Authors: Pai Sunil , Sun Zhanghao , Hughes Tyler W. , Park Taewon , Bartlett Ben , Williamson Ian A. D. , Minkov Momchil , Milanizadeh Maziyar , Abebe Nathnael , Morichetti Francesco , Melloni Andrea , Fan Shanhui , Solgaard Olav , Miller David A. B.
Published: April 2023

Integrated photonic neural networks provide a promising platform for energy-efficient, high-throughput machine learning with extensive scientific and commercial applications. Photonic neural networks efficiently transform optically encoded inputs using Mach-Zehnder interferometer mesh networks interleaved with nonlinearities. We experimentally trained a three-layer, four-port silicon photonic neural network with programmable phase shifters and optical power monitoring to solve classification tasks using “in situ backpropagation,” a photonic analog of the most popular method to train conventional neural networks. We measured backpropagated gradients for phase-shifter voltages by interfering forward- and backward-propagating light and simulated in situ backpropagation for 64-port photonic neural networks trained on MNIST image recognition given errors. All experiments performed comparably to digital simulations (

>

94% test accuracy), and energy scaling analysis indicated a route to scalable machine learning.
Comment on “Metabolic scaling is the product of life-history optimization”
Authors: Kearney Michael R. , Jusup Marko
Published: April 2023

The model used by White
et al
. (

1

) to explore life-history optimization of metabolic scaling has limited ability to capture observed combinations of growth and reproduction, including those of the domestic chicken. The analyses and interpretations may change substantially with realistic parameters. The model’s biological and thermodynamic realism needs further exploration and justification before being applied to life-history optimization studies.
Bacterial spore germination receptors are nutrient-gated ion channels
Authors: Gao Yongqiang , Amon Jeremy D. , Artzi Lior , Ramírez-Guadiana Fernando H. , Brock Kelly P. , Cofsky Joshua C. , Marks Deborah S. , Kruse Andrew C. , Rudner David Z.
Published: April 2023

Bacterial spores resist antibiotics and sterilization and can remain metabolically inactive for decades, but they can rapidly germinate and resume growth in response to nutrients. Broadly conserved receptors embedded in the spore membrane detect nutrients, but how spores transduce these signals remains unclear. Here, we found that these receptors form oligomeric membrane channels. Mutations predicted to widen the channel initiated germination in the absence of nutrients, whereas those that narrow it prevented ion release and germination in response to nutrients. Expressing receptors with widened channels during vegetative growth caused loss of membrane potential and cell death, whereas the addition of germinants to cells expressing wild-type receptors triggered membrane depolarization. Therefore, germinant receptors act as nutrient-gated ion channels such that ion release initiates exit from dormancy.
Put your whole self in
Authors: Thorp H. Holden
Published: April 2023

Increasingly hot topics in both science and journalism are diversifying the practitioners of these professions and examining what is meant by “objectivity” in this improved world. Bringing wider experiences and perspectives to the laboratory or the newsroom improves outputs, better serving the public. As both professions become more enriched with varied backgrounds and views, are the old ideas of objectivity outdated? I sat down with Amna Nawaz, the new co-anchor of Public Broadcasting Service’s
NewsHour
(in the United States), who shared how she brings her “whole self” to her work. We explored what this means and the parallels in science.
In Other Journals
Authors: Vignieri Sacha , Ray L. Bryan , Stern Peter , Uzogara Ekeoma , Suleymanov Yury , Wible Brad , Grocholski Brent
Published: April 2023

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature
Biden to nominate Monica Bertagnolli to lead NIH
Authors: Mervis Jeffrey
Published: April 2023

The NCI director and surgical oncologist would fill a 16-month vacancy
The College Board can’t be trusted
Authors: Thorp H. Holden
Published: April 2023

An institution that has long influenced academia in the United States has lost credibility. The College Board—a nonprofit organization that oversees the development of Advanced Placement (AP) precollege courses and the administration of the SAT exam that is used in college admissions—has been caught in an outright lie about its practices, raising questions about its vulnerability to political pressures. With the integrity of the College Board now in question, academia must decide whether it can be trusted.
Genomic Analyses of a Fungemia Outbreak Caused by Lodderomyces elongisporus in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Delhi, India
Authors: Yadav Anamika , Jain Peeyush , Jain Kusum , Wang Yue , Singh Aditi , Singh Ashutosh , Xu Jianping , Chowdhary Anuradha
Published: April 2023

Lodderomyces elongisporus
was initially considered a teleomorph of
Candida parapsilosis
. However, DNA sequence analyses revealed it as a distinctive species.
Draft Genome Sequence of Citrobacter freundii AYS58, a Potential Plant Growth-Promoting Endophyte
Authors: Fadiji Ayomide Emmanuel , Ayangbenro Ayansina Segun , Babalola Olubukola Oluranti
Published: April 2023

Here, we report the draft genome sequence of
Citrobacter freundii
AYS58, an endophyte isolated from the roots of a maize plant in Mafikeng, South Africa. The genome was 5,569,547 bp and exhibited a GC content of 50.5% and 5,904 genes, with 5,658 coding sequences, 3 rRNAs, 82 tRNAs, and 1 CRISPR.
Role of the NaHCO
3
Transporter MpsABC in the NaHCO
3
–β-Lactam-Responsive Phenotype in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Fan Sook-Ha , Proctor Richard A. , Ersoy Selvi C. , Manna Adhar C. , Cheung Ambrose L. , Götz Friedrich , Chambers Henry F. , Bayer Arnold S.
Published: April 2023

MRSA infections are increasingly difficult to treat, due in part to their resistance to most β-lactam antibiotics. A novel and relatively common phenotype, termed NaHCO
3
responsiveness, has been identified in which MRSA strains show increased susceptibility
in vitro
and
in vivo
to β-lactams in the presence of NaHCO
3
.
Hyphal Growth in
Trichosporon asahii
Is Accelerated by the Addition of Magnesium
Authors: Aoki Keita , Yamamoto Kosuke , Ohkuma Moriya , Sugita Takashi , Tanaka Naoto , Takashima Masako
Published: April 2023

Understanding the mechanism underlying fungal dimorphism is crucial to discern its invasion into human cells. Invasion is caused by the hyphal form rather than the yeast form; therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of transition from the yeast to hyphal form.
UvATG6 Interacts with BAX Inhibitor 1 Proteins and Plays Critical Roles in Growth, Conidiation, and Virulence in
Ustilaginoidea virens
Authors: Gu Lifan , Wang Yufu , Xie Songlin , Liu Yueran , Yan Jiali , Yin Weixiao , Luo Chaoxi
Published: April 2023

Ustilaginoidea virens
causes destructive panicle disease in rice, significantly threatening agricultural production. UvATG6 is required for autophagy and contributes to growth, conidiation, and virulence in
U. virens
.
Stool specimen for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in adults: a systematic review
Authors: Sultana Saima , Afrin Sadia , Hasan Mahamudul , Ansar Adnan , Saif-Ur-Rahman KM
Published: April 2023

Objective

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of stool specimens to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in adults.

Design

Systematic review.

Data sources

MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science and the Cochrane database were searched from inception to 9 March 2023–10 March 2023 using a comprehensive search strategy; reference lists of selected articles and relevant review articles were manually searched.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies

Studies in English reporting diagnostic performance of stool specimens against respiratory specimens using mycobacterial culture or smear microscopy or Xpert assay to diagnose PTB in adults were eligible for this systematic review.

Data extraction and synthesis

Two reviewers independently screened the retrieved citations and extracted data. The risk of bias and applicability of results were assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. Narrative data synthesis was performed.

Results

A total of 1658 citations were screened, and 28 full-text articles were assessed. Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The reported sensitivity and specificity of stool culture varied between 21.4% and 63.9%, and 61.5% and 100%, respectively. In stool smear microscopy, sensitivities and specificities ranged from 12.1% to 53.9%, and from 79.5% to 100%, respectively. The reported sensitivities of PCR assays, including Xpert assays, ranged from 69.7% to 100%, with specificities ranging from 69.8% to 100%. Most of the studies had a low risk of bias and a low applicability concern in all domains.

Conclusion

This systematic review could not conclude on the diagnostic accuracy of stool specimens for PTB diagnosis in adults. Further studies are required to evaluate the accuracy of stool specimens in adults to enable meta-analyses in updates of this review as well as other systematic reviews.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42021245203.
Effect of cold atmospheric plasma therapy on wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Li Zinan , Zhou Qian , Yang Jiao , Qiu Xianliang , Fu Shunlian , Chen Qiu
Published: April 2023

Introduction

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), one of the most common and serious consequences of diabetes, affects many individuals and often leads to amputation, death and other disastrous outcomes. Diabetic foot ulcers have a relatively poor response to therapy, which increases the likelihood of recurrence. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) therapy is an emerging treatment method for DFU that can reduce bacterial loads and speed up the healing of chronic wounds. Although some studies have reported that CAP could improve the wound healing speed compared with conventional traditional therapy, the samples in these studies are small and not sufficiently representative. The purpose of the current systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of CAP in DFU treatment and provide a scientific basis for its clinical application.

Methods and analysis

The following databases will be searched: Wanfang, China Biology and Medicine CD, Embase, PubMed and The Cochrane Library. We will retrieve publications, conference documents, current trials and internal reports written in English or Chinese related to the effect of CAP therapy on wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers up to 30 June 2022. The selected articles will be read independently by two reviewers, and valid information such as first author, publication date and outcome indicators will be extracted. Researchers will also assess the quality of the literature using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool 2. RevMan 5.3.5, EndNote X7 and STATA V.13.0 will be used for data analysis.

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical review is necessary for this systematic review because it is based on previously published data and does not include patient intervention. A peer-reviewed publication will publish the findings of this investigation.
Examining clinical capability of township healthcare centres for rural health service planning in Sichuan, China: an administrative data analysis
Authors: Zou Kun , Duan Zhanqi , Zhang Ziwu , Hu Jinliang , Zhang Juying , Pan Jay , Liu Chaojie , Yang Min
Published: April 2023

Objective

This study aimed to examine the clinical capability of township healthcare centres (THCs), the main primary care providers in rural China, as a basis for rural health service planning.

Design

Observational study of quantitative analysis using administrative data.

Setting

Three counties with low, middle and high social economic development level, respectively, in Sichuan province western China.

Participants

9 THCs and 6 county hospitals (CHs) were purposively selected in the three counties. Summary of electronic medical records of 31 633 admissions from 1 January 2015 to 30 December 2015 of these selected health institutions was obtained from the Health Information Centre of Sichuan province.

Main outcome measures

Six indicators in scope of inpatient services related to diseases and surgeries in the THCs as proxy of clinical capability, were compared against national standard of capability building of THCs, among counties, and between THCs and CHs of each county.

Results

The clinical capability of THCs was suboptimal against the national standard, though that of the middle-developed county was better than that in the rich and the poor counties. THCs mainly provided services of infectious or inflammatory diseases, of respiratory and digestive systems, but lacked clinical services related to injuries, poisoning, pregnancy, childbirth and surgeries. A large proportion of the top 20 diseases of inpatients were potentially avoidable hospitalisations (PAHs) and were overlapped between THCs and CHs.

Conclusions

The clinical capability of THCs was generally suboptimal against national standard. It may be affected by the economics, population size, facilities, workforce and the share of services of THCs in local health systems. Identification of absent services and PAHs may help to identify development priorities of local THCs. Clarification of the roles of THCs and CHs in the tiered rural health system in China is warranted to develop a better integrated health system.
Influence of health system and patient characteristics on expectations and outcome in total hip arthroplasty patients in the Dutch-German border region: protocol for a mixed-methods prospective observational comparative study (hip across)
Authors: Mooiweer Yvet , Seeber Gesine H , Brütt Anna Levke , Eleveld Rienk , Ulitzka Raimund , Lazovic Djordje , Ansmann Lena , Stevens Martin
Published: April 2023

Introduction

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is the treatment of choice for end-stage osteoarthritis of the hip. Management of THA differs between countries, and it is hypothesised that this can influence patients’ expectations and self-efficacy. Using Chen’s intervening mechanism evaluation approach, this study aims to explore how structure of care influences expectations and self-efficacy of patients undergoing THA, and how expectations and self-efficacy in turn influence outcome in terms of perceived physical function and satisfaction.

Methods and analysis

A mixed-methods study will be conducted in two German and two Dutch hospitals near the Dutch-German border. In the quantitative part, patients will complete questionnaires at three timepoints: preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. Data analysis will include multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling. In the qualitative part, interviews will be held with patients (preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively) and healthcare providers. Analysis will be performed using structured qualitative content analysis.

Ethics and dissemination

The study is approved by the Institutional Review Boards of both Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg (2021–167) and University Medical Center Groningen (METc 2021/562 and METc 2021/601). The results will be disseminated in the international scientific community via publications and conference presentations.

Trial registration number

The study is registered in the German Clinical Trials Registry (DRKS: DRKS00026744).