bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wheel track loosening can reduce the risk of pesticide leaching to surface waters
Authors: Vuaille Jeanne , Daraghmeh Omar , Abrahamsen Per , Jensen Signe M. , Nielsen Søren Kirkegaard , Munkholm Lars J. , Green Ole , Petersen Carsten T.
Published: September 2020

Wheel tracks can lower topsoil infiltrability and increase water ponding in agricultural fields. A seedbed harrow mounted with two goosefeet tine points, the eradicators, was used to investigate track loosening at different depths on a sandy loam soil as a way of mitigating compaction effects and reducing the risk of pesticide transport to surface waters. Loosening strongly affected air permeability and steady‐state infiltration. The agro‐ecological system model Daisy was used to simulate the effects of soil structural and hydraulic changes on pesticide leaching to subsurface drain lines over a 332‐year period. Measured properties of the topsoil were combined with a representative subsoil and weather series and with realistic management scenarios. The loads of pesticide in the drains for 3 months after loosening were calculated for each year, and the risk was defined as the 90th percentile of the load. We focused on three different herbicides used in sugar beet cultivation in spring: glyphosate, metamitron and phenmedipham. Our simulations showed that for all pesticides loosening could lower the risk by 10% on average for a 3‐m working width, and the tracks contribution to the risk by 34%, for all drain spacing and working width settings. Wheeling did not affect the risk but this result was sensitive to the parameterization of the hydraulic conductivity in the compacted soil layer, showing potentially higher risk under certain conditions. These results showed that wheel track loosening is an effective strategy for reducing the risk of surface water contamination from pesticides used in agriculture.
Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in wild boar (Sus scrofa) in southern Italy: Epidemiological survey and associated risk for consumers
Authors: Sgroi Giovanni , Viscardi Maurizio , Santoro Mario , Borriello Giorgia , D'Alessio Nicola , Boccia Federica , Pacifico Laura , Fioretti Alessandro , Veneziano Vincenzo , Fusco Giovanna
Published: September 2020

Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread protozoan parasite (phylum Apicomplexa), which causes a zoonotic parasitic disease, known as toxoplasmosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and genotypes of T. gondii in wild boars of southern Italy and thus to assess the risk of infection for consumers. The boars were inspected during the hunting season within the regional project ‘Wild Boar Emergency Plan in Campania’, and molecular analyses were performed on 338 boars analysing a total number of 884 matrices (263 brains, 310 hearts and 311 masseter muscles). Toxoplasma gondii was detected in 134 out of 338 boars (39.6%). No significant statistical difference between genders was found (χ2 = 0.15 p = .70). The prevalence was 47.1%, 39.3% and 39.2% in piglets, yearlings and adults, respectively (χ2 = 0.41; p = .81). The highest prevalence of T. gondii was found in masseter muscles (74/311, 23.8%), followed by the heart (70/310, 22.6%) and brain (58/263, 22.0%), respectively. Microsatellite (MS) analysis of 11 samples revealed eleven T. gondii genotypes (nine atypical, one belonging to type II one to type III). Most of the genotypes found were thus atypical and may be virulent in humans. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed the presence of three distinct clusters, with the majority of atypical genotypes in the GII‐GIII cluster. The high prevalence of infection in masseters highlights the potential risk for public health, considering that this muscle is commonly used to prepare raw meat products (‘guanciale’ and sausages), which may be a source of T. gondii infection in humans. Wild boars may act as an interface role between wildlife, livestock and humans. Our data highlight the urgent need to minimize the risk of infection for animals and humans by setting up a surveillance programme and preventive strategies in a One Health approach to wildlife species.
Locomotor muscle group III/IV afferents constrain stroke volume and contribute to exercise intolerance in human heart failure
Authors: Smith Joshua R. , Joyner Michael J. , Curry Timothy B. , Borlaug Barry A. , Keller‐Ross Manda L. , Van Iterson Erik H. , Olson Thomas P.
Published: September 2020

Key points

Heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) exhibit severe limitations in exercise capacity ( peak).

One of the primary peripheral mechanisms suggested to underlie exercise intolerance in HFrEF is excessive locomotor muscle group III/IV afferent feedback; however, this has never been investigated in human heart failure.

HFrEF patients and controls performed an incremental exercise test to volitional exhaustion to determine peak with lumbar intrathecal fentanyl or placebo. During exercise, cardiac output, leg blood flow and radial artery and femoral venous blood gases were measured.

With fentanyl, compared with placebo, patients with HFrEF achieved a higher peak workload, peak, cardiac output, stroke volume and leg blood flow.

These findings suggest that locomotor muscle group III/IV afferent feedback in HFrEF leads to increased systemic vascular resistance, which constrains stroke volume, cardiac output and O2 delivery thereby impairing peak and thus exercise capacity.

To better understand the underlying mechanisms contributing to exercise limitation in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), we investigated the influence of locomotor muscle group III/IV afferent inhibition via lumbar intrathecal fentanyl on peak exercise capacity ( peak) and the contributory mechanisms. Eleven HFrEF patients and eight healthy matched controls were recruited. The participants performed an incremental exercise test to volitional exhaustion to determine peak with lumbar intrathecal fentanyl or placebo. During exercise, cardiac output and leg blood flow () were measured via open‐circuit acetylene wash‐in technique and constant infusion thermodilution, respectively. Radial artery and femoral venous blood gases were measured. peak was 15% greater with fentanyl compared with placebo for HFrEF (P < 0.01), while no different in the controls. During peak exercise with fentanyl, cardiac output was 12% greater in HFrEF secondary to significant decreases in systemic vascular resistance and increases in stroke volume compared with placebo (all, P < 0.01). From placebo to fentanyl, leg , and O2 delivery were greater for HFrEF during peak exercise (all, P < 0.01), but not control. These findings indicate that locomotor muscle group III/IV afferent feedback in patients with HFrEF leads to increased systemic vascular resistance, which constrains stroke volume, cardiac output and O2 delivery, thereby impairing peak and thus exercise capacity. These findings have important clinical implications as peak is highly predictive of morbidity and mortality in HF.
Enhanced Pseudo-Three-Dimensional Model for Multiple Hydraulic Fractures
Authors: Protasov Innokentiy , Dontsov Egor , Ballarini Roberto
Published: September 2020

Modeling the propagation of hydraulic fractures is a complex problem that involves solving the equations that describe the intimate coupling between the cracked and porous solid phase and the fracturing fluid that drives the process according to established crack extension criteria. Most of the existing computational techniques become prohibitively expensive if applied to three-dimensional configurations, especially those involving multiple fractures because their accuracy relies on extremely fine discretizations of the geometry. These include the standard finite element method and standard displacement discontinuity method, which require substantial mesh densities in the vicinity of the crack front to capture the complex nature of the singular fields associated with fluid-driven cracks. Models have recently been proposed that offer sufficient accuracy and a significant increase in computational efficiency. These include the enhanced pseudo-3D model that explicitly incorporates a non-local elasticity relation and known crack-front asymptotic solutions that capture the multiscale near-front behavior. Here, we present an enhanced pseudo-3D model for simulating the propagation of multiple planar and nonplanar hydraulic fractures in a linear elastic medium. The algorithm is built on a fixed mesh with an adaptive tip element, and it incorporates leak-off, as well as stress interaction between the fractures. The model is validated against reference solutions of plane strain, radial, and multi-planar fracture geometries, for various sets of parameters that cover the majority of the problem parametric space.
Macro- and microstructural changes in cosmonauts’ brains after long-duration spaceflight
Authors: Jillings Steven , Van Ombergen Angelique , Tomilovskaya Elena , Rumshiskaya Alena , Litvinova Liudmila , Nosikova Inna , Pechenkova Ekaterina , Rukavishnikov Ilya , Kozlovskaya Inessa B. , Manko Olga , Danilichev Sergey , Sunaert Stefan , Parizel Paul M. , Sinitsyn Valentin , Petrovichev Victor , Laureys Steven , zu Eulenburg Peter , Sijbers Jan , Wuyts Floris L. , Jeurissen Ben
Published: September 2020

Spaceflight causes persisting sensorimotor neuroplasticity and reversible gray matter morphological changes.
Live-cell imaging and analysis reveal cell phenotypic transition dynamics inherently missing in snapshot data
Authors: Wang Weikang , Douglas Diana , Zhang Jingyu , Kumari Sangeeta , Enuameh Metewo Selase , Dai Yan , Wallace Callen T. , Watkins Simon C. , Shu Weiguo , Xing Jianhua
Published: September 2020

Live-cell imaging in multidimensional feature space reveals parallel transition paths of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
Activities of Cefiderocol with Simulated Human Plasma Concentrations against Carbapenem-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacilli in an
In Vitro
Chemostat Model
Authors: Matsumoto Shuhei , Kanazawa Sachi , Sato Takafumi , Yamano Yoshinori
Published: September 2020

Activities of cefiderocol under simulated human plasma concentrations at the recommended dosing regimen of 2 g every 8 h with a 3-h infusion were evaluated using an
in vitro
chemostat model. Against a total of 6 meropenem-resistant Gram-negative strains with cefiderocol MICs of 0.5 to 4 μg/ml, including metallo-β-lactamase producers and carbapenem-resistant
Acinetobacter baumannii
, cefiderocol treatment showed a bactericidal effect within 8 h and sustained efficacy with no marked bacterial regrowth over 24 h.
Host and Bacterial Glycolysis during
Chlamydia trachomatis
Infection
Authors: Ende Rachel J. , Derré Isabelle
Published: September 2020

The obligate intracellular pathogen
Chlamydia trachomatis
is the leading cause of noncongenital blindness and causative agent of the most common sexually transmitted infection of bacterial origin. With a reduced genome,
C. trachomatis
is dependent on its host for survival, in part due to a need for the host cell to compensate for incomplete bacterial metabolic pathways. However, relatively little is known regarding how
C. trachomatis
is able to hijack host cell metabolism.
Two RNA Tunnel Inhibitors Bind in Highly Conserved Sites in Dengue Virus NS5 Polymerase: Structural and Functional Studies
Authors: Arora Rishi , Liew Chong Wai , Soh Tingjin Sherryl , Otoo Dorcas Adobea , Seh Cheah Chen , Yue Kimberley , Nilar Shahul , Wang Gang , Yokokawa Fumiaki , Noble Christian G. , Chen Yen Liang , Shi Pei-Yong , Lescar Julien , Smith Thomas M. , Benson Timothy E. , Lim Siew Pheng
Published: September 2020

Dengue virus (DENV), an important arthropod-transmitted human pathogen that causes a spectrum of diseases, has spread dramatically worldwide in recent years. Despite extensive efforts, the only commercial vaccine does not provide adequate protection to naive individuals. DENV NS5 polymerase is a promising drug target, as exemplified by the development of successful commercial drugs against hepatitis C virus (HCV) polymerase and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. High-throughput screening of compound libraries against this enzyme enabled the discovery of inhibitors that induced binding sites in the RNA template channel. Characterizations by biochemical, biophysical, and reverse genetics approaches provide a better understanding of the biological relevance of these allosteric sites and the way forward to design more-potent inhibitors.
Slip rate determined from cosmogenic nuclides on normal-fault facets
Authors: Tesson Jim , Benedetti Lucilla , Godard Vincent , Novaes Catherine , Fleury Jules ,   the ASTER Team
Published: September 2020

Facets are major topographic features built over several 100 k.y. above active normal faults. Their development integrates cumulative displacements over a longer time frame than many other geomorphological markers, and they are widespread in diverse extensional settings. We have determined the 36Cl cosmogenic nuclide concentration on limestone faceted spurs at four sites in the Central Apennines (Italy), representing variable facet height (100–400 m). The 36Cl concentration profiles show nearly constant values over the height of the facet, suggesting the facet slope has reached a steady-state equilibrium for 36Cl production. We model the 36Cl buildup on a facet based on a gradual exposure of the sample resulting from fault slip and denudation. Data inversion with this forward model yields accurate constraints on fault slip rates over the past 20–200 k.y., which are in agreement with the long-term rate independently determined on some of those faults over the past 1 m.y. 36Cl measurements on faceted spurs can therefore constrain fault slip rate over time spans as long as 200 k.y., a time period presently undersampled in most morphotectonic studies.
Seismic anisotropy in southern Costa Rica confirms upper mantle flow from the Pacific to the Caribbean
Authors: Levin Vadim , Elkington Stephen , Bourke James , Arroyo Ivonne , Linkimer Lepolt
Published: September 2020

Surrounded by subducting slabs and continental keels, the upper mantle of the Pacific is largely prevented from mixing with surrounding areas. One possible outlet is beneath the southern part of the Central American isthmus, where regional observations of seismic anisotropy, temporal changes in isotopic composition of volcanic eruptions, and considerations of dynamic topography all suggest upper mantle flow from the Pacific to the Caribbean. We derive new constraints on the nature of seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle of southern Costa Rica from observations of birefringence in teleseismic shear waves. Fast and slow components separate by ∼1 s, with faster waves polarized along the 40°–50° (northeast) direction, near-orthogonally to the Central American convergent margin. Our results are consistent with upper mantle flow from the Pacific to the Caribbean and require an opening in the lithosphere subducting under the region.
How to interpret lactate
Authors: Marikar Dilshad , Babu Pratusha , Fine-Goulden Miriam
Published: September 2020

The association between hyperlactataemia and poorer outcomes in acutely unwell adults and children is well recognised. Blood lactate testing has become readily available in acute settings and is considered a first-line investigation in international guidelines for the management of sepsis. However, while healthcare professionals do appreciate the value of measuring blood lactate in acute severe illness, its clinical significance and interpretation remain less well understood. In this paper, we present the evidence for the use of lactate as a diagnostic test and prognostic marker in acutely unwell children.
Clinical and cost-effectiveness of a guided internet-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to improve chronic pain–related disability in green professions (PACT-A): study protocol of a pragmatic randomised controlled trial
Authors: Terhorst Yannik , Braun Lina , Titzler Ingrid , Buntrock Claudia , Freund Johanna , Thielecke Janika , Ebert David , Baumeister Harald
Published: September 2020

Introduction

Chronic pain is highly prevalent, associated with substantial personal and economic burdens, and increased risk for mental disorders. Individuals in green professions (agriculturists, horticulturists, foresters) show increased prevalence of chronic pain and other risk factors for mental disorders. Available healthcare services in rural areas are limited. Acceptance towards face-to-face therapy is low. Internet and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) might be a promising alternative for this population and may enable effective treatment of chronic pain. The present study aims to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of an ACT-based IMI for chronic pain in green professions in comparison with enhanced treatment as usual (TAU+).

Methods and analysis

A two-armed pragmatic randomised controlled trial will be conducted. Two hundred eighty-six participants will be randomised and allocated to either an intervention or TAU+ group. Entrepreneurs in green professions, collaborating spouses, family members and pensioners with chronic pain are eligible for inclusion. The intervention group receives an internet-based intervention based on ACT (7 modules, over 7 weeks) guided by a trained e-coach to support adherence (eg, by positive reinforcement). Primary outcome is pain interference (Multidimensional Pain Interference scale; MPI) at 9 weeks post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes are depression severity (Quick Inventory Depressive Symptomology; QIDS-SR16), incidence of major depressive disorder, quality of life (Assessment of Quality of Life; AQoL-8D) and possible side effects associated with the treatment (Inventory for the Assessment of Negative Effects of Psychotherapy; INEP). Psychological flexibility (Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire, Committed Action Questionnaire, Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire) will be evaluated as a potential mediator of the treatment effect. Furthermore, mediation, moderation and health-economic analyses from a societal perspective will be performed. Outcomes will be measured using online self-report questionnaires at baseline, 9-week, 6-month, 12-month, 24-month and 36-month follow-ups.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Ulm, Germany (file no. 453/17—FSt/Sta; 22 February 2018). Results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences.

Trial registration number

German Clinical Trial Registration: DRKS00014619. Registered on 16 April 2018.
Readability and understandability of clinical research patient information leaflets and consent forms in Ireland and the UK: a retrospective quantitative analysis
Authors: O'Sullivan Lydia , Sukumar Prasanth , Crowley Rachel , McAuliffe Eilish , Doran Peter
Published: September 2020

Objectives

The first aim of this study was to quantify the difficulty level of clinical research Patient Information Leaflets/Informed Consent Forms (PILs/ICFs) using validated and widely used readability criteria which provide a broad assessment of written communication. The second aim was to compare these findings with best practice guidelines.

Design

Retrospective, quantitative analysis of clinical research PILs/ICFs provided by academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and investigators.

Setting

PILs/ICFs which had received Research Ethics Committee approval in the last 5 years were collected from Ireland and the UK.

Intervention

Not applicable.

Main outcome measures

PILs/ICFs were evaluated against seven validated readability criteria (Flesch Reading Ease, Flesh Kincaid Grade Level, Simplified Measure of Gobbledegook, Gunning Fog, Fry, Raygor and New Dale Chall). The documents were also scored according to two health literacy-based criteria: the Clear Communication Index (CCI) and the Suitability Assessment of Materials tool. Finally, the documents were assessed for compliance with six best practice metrics from literacy agencies.

Results

A total of 176 PILs were collected, of which 154 were evaluable. None of the PILs/ICFs had the mean reading age of <12 years recommended by the American Medical Association. 7.1% of PILs/ICFs were evaluated as ‘Plain English’, 40.3%: ‘Fairly Difficult’, 51.3%: ‘Difficult’ and 1.3%: ‘Very Difficult’. No PILs/ICFs achieved a CCI >90. Only two documents complied with all six best practice literacy metrics.

Conclusions

When assessed against both traditional readability criteria and health literacy-based tools, the PILs/ICFs in this study are inappropriately complex. There is also evidence of poor compliance with guidelines produced by literacy agencies. These data clearly evidence the need for improved documentation to underpin the consent process.
Identifying research priorities in cardiac surgery: a report from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership in adult heart surgery
Authors: Lai Florence Y , Abbasciano Riccardo G , Tabberer Bethany , Kumar Tracy , Murphy Gavin J
Published: September 2020

Objective

To identify research priorities that address the needs of people affected by cardiac surgery and those who support and care for them.

Design

James Lind Alliance (JLA) process—two surveys and a consensus workshop guided by an independent JLA adviser.

Setting

The UK with international participation.

Participants

Three stakeholder groups—heart surgery patients, carers and healthcare professionals involved in care delivery.

Methods

The initial survey was set to collect potential research questions in cardiac surgery as identified by stakeholders. Submitted questions were summarised into indicative questions. The existing evidence was searched to verify that these indicative questions had not been answered. In the second survey, stakeholders then voted for their top 10 from the list of unanswered questions. The top voted questions were taken forward for final ranking in a workshop.

Results

In the initial survey, 629 respondents (28% patients/carers, 62% healthcare professionals) submitted 1082 potential questions. Of these, 797 in-scope questions were summarised into 49 indicative questions and of which 45 had not been answered by existing research. In the second survey, 492 respondents (43% patients/carers, 49% healthcare professionals) cast their votes with the top 12 from each of the three stakeholder groups totalling 21 questions advancing to the final priority setting workshop. The workshop attended by 25 delegates (10 patients/carers and 15 healthcare professionals) agreed on the top 10 research questions including long-term outcomes (quality of life), and aspects from preoperative personalised care (prehabilitation, frailty, comorbidities), intraoperative management (minimally invasive techniques), to prevention and management of postoperative complications (organ injury, atrial fibrillation, infection).

Conclusions

This Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) identified the priorities and unmet needs of patients and clinicians in cardiac surgery. The next step is to disseminate and implement the PSP results to ensure that these priorities shape future research and improve clinical services.
Gender disparity in care-seeking behaviours and treatment outcomes for dehydrating diarrhoea among under-5 children admitted to a diarrhoeal disease hospital in Bangladesh: an analysis of hospital-based surveillance data
Authors: Mahmud Imteaz , Das Subhasish , Khan Soroar Hossain , Faruque A S G , Ahmed Tahmeed
Published: September 2020

Introduction

Despite economic development and augmented literacy rates, Bangladeshi households are still discriminating against girls when it comes to seeking medical care. We examined gender disparities in diarrhoeal disease severity and the treatment outcomes of under-5 children.

Setting

A tertiary level diarrhoeal disease hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Participants

13 361 under-5 children admitted to the hospital between January 2008 and December 2017.

Outcome variables and methods

The primary outcome of interest was severity of diarrhoea, defined as ‘dehydrating diarrhoea’ or ‘non-dehydrating diarrhoea’. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between ‘gender’ and admission to hospital for dehydrating diarrhoea.

Results

Data on 13 321 children under 5 years of age were analysed, of whom 61.5% were male and 38.5% were female. The mean (±SD) age of children with diarrhoea was 5.63 (±3.49) months. The median distance travelled to come to the hospital for admission was 10 miles (IQR: 6–25) and was significantly higher for boys (10 miles, IQR: 6–25) than girls (9.5 miles, IQR: 6–23) (p<0.001). Girls had 1.11 times higher odds (adjusted OR: 1.11, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.20, p=0.007) of presenting with dehydrating diarrhoea than boys at the time of hospital admission. Almost 20% of children received two or more medications during the period of hospital admission and this did not differ by gender. The median duration of hospital stay was 11 hours and was similar in both sexes. No gender-based disparity was observed in the management of diarrhoea and in the hospital outcome of children.

Conclusion

We found that girls were more likely to have dehydrating diarrhoea when they were presented to the Dhaka hospital of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. No gender-based disparity was observed in the hospital outcome of children.
Administration of label and off-label drugs by the subcutaneous route in palliative care: an observational cohort study
Authors: Jensen Jesper Jørgen , Sjøgren Per
Published: September 2020

Background

The marketing authorisation for many injectable drugs used in palliative care does not cover the frequently preferred subcutaneous route. Consequently, subcutaneous off-label drug administration is often practised.

Aim

To assess the use, safety and tolerability of subcutaneous label and subcutaneous off-label drug administration in a Danish hospice.

Material and methods

Retrospective data from hospice inpatient records registered with subcutaneous drug administration. Prospective data of subcutaneous drug administration registered to hospice inpatients over a period of 2 months.

Results

Drugs were administered subcutaneously to 90% of patients in both studied cohorts. Thirty different drugs were administered subcutaneously. Ten (33%) drugs were authorised for subcutaneous administration, 14 (47%) for intramuscular and 6 (20%) for intravenous administration only. A search in major palliative literature and scientific publications revealed that 11 of the 20 subcutaneous off-labelled drugs were administered with little to no support from these sources. In seven patients, 11 adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were registered. ADRs were all minor local reactions and led to drug discontinuation in two patients only.

Conclusion

Subcutaneous drug administration was frequently used in the hospice. Two-thirds of the drugs were administered subcutaneously off-label. The findings of only a few and minor ADRs indicate that the drugs identified in this study, although often subcutaneously off-label and with little support from palliative literature, were administered with acceptable safety and tolerability. Off-label treatment practised in the clinic should be identified, reported and serve as inspiration for future scientific research and incentives for extension of marketing authorisations.
Use of three-dimensional printing for simulation in ultrasound education: a scoping review
Authors: Gallagher Patrick , Smith Ryan , Sheppard Gillian
Published: September 2020

Background

There is a significant learning curve when teaching ultrasonography to medical trainees; task trainers can help learners to bridge this gap and develop their skills. Three-dimensional printing technology has the potential to be a great tool in the development of such simulators.

Objective

This scoping review aimed to identify what 3D-printed models have been used in ultrasound education to date, how they were created and the pros and limitations involved.

Design

Researchers searched three online databases to identify 3D-printed ultrasound models used in medical education.

Results

Twelve suitable publications were identified for inclusion in this review. The models from included articles simulated largely low frequency and/or high stakes events, with many models simulating needle guidance procedures. Most models were created by using patient imaging data and a computer-aided design software to print structures directly or print casting molds. The benefits of 3D-printed educational trainers are their low cost, reproducibility, patient specificity and accuracy. The current limitations of this technology are upfront investments and a lack of optimisation of materials.

Conclusions

The use of 3D-printed ultrasound task trainers is in its infancy, and more research is needed to determine whether or not this technology will benefit medical learners in the future.
Simulation versus live tissue training randomised trial for ECMO proficiency: is one better than the other?
Authors: Mu Thornton , Garcia-Choudary Tricia , Staudt Amanda , Tyree Melissa , Valdez-Delgado Krystal , Caldwell Nicole , Carr Nicholas , Borgman Matthew , Delaney Heather
Published: September 2020

Introduction

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a classic low-volume high-risk procedure that requires just in time and/or refresher training through animal or simulation modalities. This manuscript evaluated the performance of ECMO personnel trained with both modalities to determine which is better suited for ECMO skills training.

Methods

Participants (physicians, nurses and respiratory/medical technicians) completed a series of ECMO scenarios with synthetic tissue cannulation task trainer as well as a live tissue model. Objective performance quality was based on task completion using a validated ECMO skills assessment tool.

Results

Thirty-eight individuals completed this study. Participants completed individual scenario tasks 3 min faster using the simulator (26 min vs 29 min; p=0.03). No differences were seen in percentage of individual tasks completed. In the group scenarios, participants completed a higher percentage of critical tasks using the simulator (97%) versus the animal model (91%; p=0.05), but no differences were seen in task completion times. Additionally, no differences were seen in either lab-based or participants’ prelab cognitive scores.

Conclusions

Regardless of their self-assessment or experience, participants’ objective performances were similar among both animal and simulation labs. Task completion times were quicker with simulation model. The distinction between simulation versus animal model may be less important as both demonstrate benefit in development of and/or maintaining skill competency. In the era of questioning the need for and costs of live tissue training, expanding the role of simulation may achieve similar training goals.
Manifesto for healthcare simulation practice
Authors: Park Christine S , Clark Louise , Gephardt Grace , Robertson Jamie M , Miller Jane , Downing Dayna K , Koh Bee Leng Sabrina , Bryant Kellie D , Grant David , Pai Dinker R , Gavilanes Jesika S , Herrera Bastida Edgar Israel , Li Li , Littlewood Keith , Escudero Eliana , Kelly Michelle Ann , Nestel Debra , Rethans Jan-Joost
Published: September 2020

A pandemic has sent the world into chaos. It has not only upended our lives; hundreds of thousands of lives have already been tragically lost. The global crisis has been disruptive, even a threat, to healthcare simulation, affecting all aspects of operations from education to employment. While simulationists around the world have responded to this crisis, it has also provided a stimulus for the continued evolution of simulation. We have crafted a manifesto for action, incorporating a more comprehensive understanding of healthcare simulation, beyond tool, technique or experience, to understanding it now as a professional practice. Healthcare simulation as a practice forms the foundation for the three tenets comprising the manifesto: safety, advocacy and leadership. Using these three tenets, we can powerfully shape the resilience of healthcare simulation practice for now and for the future. Our call to action for all simulationists is to adopt a commitment to comprehensive safety, to advocate collaboratively and to lead ethically.
Metabolic disease testing on farms: epidemiological principles
Authors: Mann Sabine , McArt Jessica , Abuelo Ãngel
Published: September 2020

Background

Although many clinical metabolic diseases have been successfully controlled in modern dairy herds, subclinical metabolic diseases are often prevalent and associated with significant economic losses. Given the absence of easily identifiable clinical signs, their diagnosis often requires testing for metabolic markers in blood, urine, or milk. On‐farm testing with point‐of‐care devices can facilitate the acceptance of a metabolic screening programme that is economically feasible and delivers a high quality of information. The goal of such a screening programme is to establish a baseline, set goals for an acceptable herd‐level prevalence, and supervise the success or failure of any management changes required to attain these goals.

Aim of the article

The article discusses the practical aspects of metabolic disease testing with examples of results and their interpretation.
PUC Program: the pulse pile up correction for X-ray and gamma ray spectrometry
Authors: Karabıdak S.M. , Kaya S.
Published: September 2020

Pile up and dead time are two important corrections in the analysis of X-ray and gamma ray spectra. The most important of these is pile up correction because these peaks do not really exist in the spectra; they only seem to exist. For this reason, these peaks affect both the qualitative and quantitative accuracy of the analysis. In addition, the pile up pulses forming the pile up peaks increase the background count in the spectrum. Companies that produce X-ray or gamma ray detector systems design pile up reject circuits and integrate them into detector systems to prevent these pulses. These circuits have time limitations because they are made up of electronic devices. For this reason, the pile up problem cannot be solved completely in these circuits. Therefore, mathematical models based on a statistical approach are needed. Such a model was developed in this study. A computer program based on this model was developed. This developed program has been applied to X-ray and gamma ray spectra. It has been shown that this model provides about 2% correction in the main peak regions and significantly reduces background counts.
Influence of host rock composition on permeability reduction in shallow fault zones – implications for fault seal analysis (Vienna Basin, Austria)
Authors: Schröckenfuchs Theresa , Schuller Volker , Zamolyi Andras , Mekonnen Elias , Grasemann Bernhard
Published: September 2020

In order to calibrate equations for fault seal capacities to a specific basin, faults were analysed using core material from several Neogene hydrocarbon fields in the Vienna Basin, Austria. All studied specimens are siliciclastic rocks that were sampled from a depth interval of <2000 m, and share a similar depth at time of faulting, diagenetic conditions and maximum burial depth. Laboratory results showed a permeability reduction in all fault rocks compared to the host rocks. Both the highest and the lowest fault seal capacities were observed in the same fault rock type with a low phyllosilicate and clay content, and classifying as cataclastic deformation bands. Investigating the strong permeability variations within these fault rocks, microscopic analyses revealed that the fault seal potential is strongly linked to the detrital dolomite content in the host rock. Grain-size reduction processes occur preferably in the dolomite grains, accompanied by cementation. Our study suggests that – in addition to using standard fault seal analysis algorithms – accounting for host rock composition and grain-size reduction therein might help to further constrain fault seal behaviour in shallow depths. Fault seal mechanisms need to be understood on field, formation and micro scales before drawing conclusions for a full basin calibration.

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Fault and top seals collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/fault-and-top-seals-2019
MotioNet
Authors: Shi Mingyi , Aberman Kfir , Aristidou Andreas , Komura Taku , Lischinski Dani , Cohen-Or Daniel , Chen Baoquan
Published: September 2020

We introduce
MotioNet
, a deep neural network that directly reconstructs the motion of a 3D human skeleton from a monocular video. While previous methods rely on either rigging or inverse kinematics (IK) to associate a consistent skeleton with temporally coherent joint rotations, our method is the first data-driven approach that directly outputs a kinematic skeleton, which is a complete, commonly used motion representation. At the crux of our approach lies a deep neural network with embedded kinematic priors, which decomposes sequences of 2D joint positions into two separate attributes: a single, symmetric skeleton encoded by bone lengths, and a sequence of 3D joint rotations associated with global root positions and foot contact labels. These attributes are fed into an integrated forward kinematics (FK) layer that outputs 3D positions, which are compared to a ground truth. In addition, an adversarial loss is applied to the velocities of the recovered rotations to ensure that they lie on the manifold of natural joint rotations. The key advantage of our approach is that it learns to infer natural joint rotations directly from the training data rather than assuming an underlying model, or inferring them from joint positions using a data-agnostic IK solver. We show that enforcing a single consistent skeleton along with temporally coherent joint rotations constrains the solution space, leading to a more robust handling of self-occlusions and depth ambiguities.
COVID-19 Data Visualization through Automatic Phase Detection
Authors: Biswas Pradipta , Saluja Kamalpreet Singh , Arjun Somnath , Murthy Lrd , Prabhakar Gowdham , Sharma Vinay Krishna , Dv Jeevitha Shree
Published: September 2020

This article presents a new interactive visualization system to represent and compare rate of spread of COVID-19 pandemic across different countries over time. We surveyed existing visualization techniques used in various websites and media outlets and introduced use of a knee detection algorithm that divides the exponential spread in multiple linear components. A set of use cases demonstrates the utility of the system in comparing the spread across different countries for both analysis and prediction.
Hello There! Is Now a Good Time to Talk?
Authors: Cha Narae , Kim Auk , Park Cheul Young , Kang Soowon , Park Mingyu , Lee Jae-Gil , Lee Sangsu , Lee Uichin
Published: September 2020

Increasing number of researchers and designers are envisioning a wide range of novel proactive conversational services for smart speakers such as context-aware reminders and restocking household items. When initiating conversational interactions proactively, smart speakers need to consider users' contexts to minimize disruption. In this work, we aim to broaden our understanding of opportune moments for proactive conversational interactions in domestic contexts. Toward this goal, we built a voice-based experience sampling device and conducted a one-week field study with 40 participants living in university dormitories. From 3,572 in-situ user experience reports, we proposed 19 activity categories to investigate contextual factors related to interruptibility. Our data analysis results show that the key determinants for opportune moments are closely related to both personal contextual factors such as busyness, mood, and resource conflicts for dual-tasking, and the other contextual factors associated with the everyday routines at home, including user mobility and social presence. Based on these findings, we discuss the need for designing context-aware proactive conversation management features that dynamically control conversational interactions based on users' contexts and routines.
MultiSense
Authors: Zeng Youwei , Wu Dan , Xiong Jie , Liu Jinyi , Liu Zhaopeng , Zhang Daqing
Published: September 2020

In recent years, we have seen efforts made to simultaneously monitor the respiration of multiple persons based on the channel state information (CSI) retrieved from commodity WiFi devices. Existing approaches mainly rely on spectral analysis of the CSI amplitude to obtain respiration rate information, leading to multiple limitations: (1) spectral analysis works when multiple persons exhibit dramatically different respiration rates, however, it fails to resolve similar rates; (2) spectral analysis can only obtain the average respiration rate over a period of time, and it is unable to capture the detailed rate change over time; (3) they fail to sense the respiration when a target is located at the "blind spots" even the target is close to the sensing devices.

To overcome these limitations, we propose MultiSense, the first WiFi-based system that can robustly and continuously sense the detailed respiration patterns of multiple persons even they have very similar respiration rates and are physically closely located. The key insight of our solution is that the commodity WiFi hardware nowadays is usually equipped with multiple antennas. Thus, each individual antenna can receive a different mix copy of signals reflected from multiple persons. We successfully prove that the reflected signals are linearly mixed at each antenna and propose to model the multi-person respiration sensing as a blind source separation (BSS) problem. Then, we solve it using independent component analysis (ICA) to separate the mixed signal and obtain the reparation information of each person. Extensive experiments show that with only one pair of transceivers, each equipped with three antennas, MultiSense is able to accurately monitor respiration even in the presence of four persons, with the mean absolute respiration rate error of 0.73 bpm (breaths per minute).
CarOSense
Authors: Ma Yongsen , Zeng Yunze , Jain Vivek
Published: September 2020

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a popular technology to provide high accuracy localization, asset tracking and access control applications. Due to the accurate ranging feature and robustness to relay attacks, car manufacturers are upgrading the keyless entry infrastructure to UWB. As car occupancy monitoring is an essential step to support regulatory requirements and provide customized user experience, we build CarOSense to explore the possibility of reusing UWB keyless infrastructure as an orthogonal sensing modality to detect per-seat car occupancy. CarOSense uses a novel deep learning model, MaskMIMO, to learn spatial/time features by 2D convolutions and per-seat attentions by a multi-task mask. We collect UWB data from 10 car locations with up to 16 occupancy states in each location. We implement CarOSense as a cross-platform demo and evaluate it in 15 different scenarios, including leave-one-out test of unknown car locations and stress test of unseen scenarios. Results show that the average accuracy is 94.6% for leave-one-out test and 87.0% for stress test. CarOSense is robust in a large set of untrained scenarios with the model trained on a small set of training data. We also benchmark the computation cost and demonstrate that CarOSense is lightweight and can run smoothly in real-time on embedded devices.
ESPRESSO
Authors: Deldari Shohreh , Smith Daniel V. , Sadri Amin , Salim Flora
Published: September 2020

Extracting informative and meaningful temporal segments from high-dimensional wearable sensor data, smart devices, or IoT data is a vital preprocessing step in applications such as Human Activity Recognition (HAR), trajectory prediction, gesture recognition, and lifelogging. In this paper, we propose ESPRESSO (Entropy and ShaPe awaRe timE-Series SegmentatiOn), a hybrid segmentation model for multi-dimensional time-series that is formulated to exploit the entropy and temporal shape properties of time-series. ESPRESSO differs from existing methods that focus upon particular statistical or temporal properties of time-series exclusively. As part of model development, a novel temporal representation of time-series WCAC was introduced along with a greedy search approach that estimate segments based upon the entropy metric. ESPRESSO was shown to offer superior performance to four state-of-the-art methods across seven public datasets of wearable and wear-free sensing. In addition, we undertake a deeper investigation of these datasets to understand how ESPRESSO and its constituent methods perform with respect to different dataset characteristics. Finally, we provide two interesting case-studies to show how applying ESPRESSO can assist in inferring daily activity routines and the emotional state of humans.
Leveraging Free-Hand Sketches for Potential Screening of PTSD
Authors: Shahid Farhana , Rahman Wasifur , Rahman M. Saifur , Purabi Sharmin Akther , Seddiqa Ayesha , Mostakim Moin , Feroz Farhan , Soron Tanjir Rashid , Hossain Fahmida , Khan Nabila , Islam Anika Binte , Paul Nipi , Hoque Ehsan , Al Islam A. B. M. Alim
Published: September 2020

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) negatively influences a person's ability to cope and increases psychiatric morbidity. The existing diagnostic tools of PTSD are often difficult to administer within marginalized communities due to language and cultural barriers, lack of skilled clinicians, and stigma around disclosing traumatic experiences. We present an initial proof of concept for a novel, low-cost, and creative method to screen the potential cases of PTSD based on free-hand sketches within three different communities in Bangladesh: Rohingya refugees (n = 44), slum-dwellers (n = 35), and engineering students (n = 85). Due to the low overhead and nonverbal nature of sketching, our proposed method potentially overcomes communication and resource barriers. Using corner and edge detection algorithms, we extracted three features (number of corners, number and average length of strokes) from the images of free-hand sketches. We used these features along with sketch themes, participants' gender and group to train multiple logistic regression models for potentially screening PTSD (accuracy: 82.9-87.9%). We improved the accuracy (99.29%) by integrating EEG data with sketch features in a Random Forest model for the refugee population. Our proposed initial assessment method of PTSD based on sketches could potentially be integrated with phones and EEG headsets, making it widely accessible to the underrepresented communities.