bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Deep-tissue photoacoustic imaging of photoswitchable transgenic mouse models
Authors: Yao Junjie
Published: April 2023

Compared with visible light, near-infrared (NIR) light (700–1300 nm) is capable of deep-tissue penetration because of low tissue attenuation, and thus holds great promise for deep-tissue optical manipulation and imaging. In this work, we take advantages of the NIR Rhodopseudomonas palustris bacterial phytochrome photoreceptors (BphP1) and generate a loxP-BphP1 photoswitchable transgenic mouse model that enables Cre-dependent temporal and spatial targeting of BphP1 expression at the whole-body scale in vivo. This BphP1 phytochrome incorporates biliverdin chromophore and reversibly switches between the ground state and activated state, which enabled the light-controlled manipulation of gene expression and differential detection in photoacoustic tomography (PAT). We first validated the optogenetic performance of BphP1 that binds its engineered protein partner QPAS1 to trigger gene transcription in primary cells and living mice, and demonstrated its superior capability of deep-tissue optogenetics over the existing visible-light proteins. Then, by taking advantage of PAT's deep-tissue non-invasive imaging ability and the BphP1's photoswitching properties, we can suppress the non-switching signals from background blood and improve the molecular detection sensitivity by three orders of magnitude. This study shows the BphP1-encoded photoswitchable transgenic mouse model can be used for both NIR optogenetic manipulation and deep-tissue PAT.
Quartz tuning fork based photoacoustic spectroscopy and sensing
Authors: Zifarelli Andrea , Patimisco Pietro , Sampaolo Angelo , Giglio Marilena , Di Gioia Michele , Dong Lei , Wu Hongpeng , Spagnolo Vincenzo
Published: April 2023

Quartz crystal tuning forks (QTFs) resonators are key components for timing and frequency measurements, due to their high stability, high-quality factors and low power consumptions. Thanks to their piezoelectric properties, QTFs are employed as sensitive element in many fields and systems such as atomic force microscopy, near-field and microwave microscopy, and mass/viscosity sensor. Since 2002, QTFs are also widely used as a sharply resonant acoustic transducer to detect weak photoacoustic excitation for Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS). Among most sensitive optical techniques, QEPAS was demonstrated as the leading-edge technology for addressing these application requirements, providing also modularity, ruggedness, portability and allowing the use of extremely small volumes. QEPAS technique does not require an optical detector, it is wavelength independent, it is immune to environmental noise and can operate in a wide range of temperature and pressure. These factors, together with its proven reliability and ruggedness, represent the main distinct advantages with respect to other laser-based techniques for environmental monitoring and in situ detection. Starting from the basic physical principles governing the QTF physics, I will review the main results achieved by exploiting custom QTFs for QEPAS sensing and as photodetector in LITES setup, with a main focus on real-world applications.
In situ monitoring of electromigration in a single nano wire by picosecond ultrasonics
Authors: Nagakubo Akira , Asanuma Eriko , Ogi Hirotsugu
Published: April 2023

Recent nano-scale fabrication has realized the progress of integrated circuits, where current density increases with the downscaling of each electronic component, leading to failure due to electromigration. Electromigration is the transport of materials via momentum exchange from high-density conducting electrons to metal atoms. Defects of atoms result in the disconnection of the circuits and the accumulation of atoms causes the short circuit. Therefore, electromigration due to highly dense current flow has been studied for long years. However, it is difficult to non-destructively evaluate the structural and physical property changes due to the electromigration in an in-situ and microscopic measurement. In this study, we develop a real-time monitoring method of structural and mechanical property changes of a single nanowire using picosecond ultrasonics. Picosecond ultrasonics is ultrafast pump-probe laser ultrasonics using femtosecond pulse laser to excite and detect sub-THz ultrasound. We can focus the laser light within 1-micrometer diameter, enabling us to evaluate the mechanical property changes in a single nanowire from the ultrasound propagation. By applying direct current and observing ultrasound, we discuss the relationship among mechanical, electrical, and structural changes due to electromigration.
Validation of a clinical test of auditory emotion recognition
Authors: Morgan Shae D. , LaPaugh Bailey , Cullum Emily , McClure Camryn , O'Donell Anna Grace
Published: April 2023

Currently, there are no accessible clinical tests that can be used to measure auditory emotion recognition. Experimental emotion recognition tasks usually involve many stimuli and take a lot of time to complete, making them unfeasible for use in a clinical setting. Prior research from our laboratory has measured the impact of various test factors on auditory emotion recognition, including the number of emotion categories, the number of stimuli per emotion category, the number of talkers, and using sentence versus word materials. In this study, we present a preliminary validation of a proposed audiotry emotion recognition test. Based on the results from our laboratory, the test consists of forty sentences (1 sentence × 10 talkers × 4 emotions) in order to maintain an appropriate test duration for a clinical setting. Listeners with normal hearing will complete the testing in quiet. Results will be compared with expectations informed by prior research. Performance and duration of the task will be measured, and standard deviation of scores among all participants will be assessed. Implications will be discussed, including the percentage correct of emotion recognition by normal hearing listeners.
The influence of musical abilities on the processing of second language prosody: An eye-tracking study
Authors: Jansen Nelleke , Loerts Hanneke , Harding Eleanor , Baskent Deniz , Lowie Wander
Published: April 2023

The perception of speech prosody in a second language (L2) remains challenging even for proficient L2 users. Eye-tracking evidence indicates that Dutch listeners show difficulty in the processing of pitch accents that signal a contrast (i.e., contrastive focus) in English, whereas native English listeners use this cue in perception to anticipate upcoming information [Ge et al., Appl. Psycholinguist. 42, 1057–1088 (2021)]. Prosody perception abilities in foreign languages have been associated with individual differences in musical abilities [Jansen et al., Speech Prosody, 713–717 (2022)]. We investigated whether musical abilities influenced the processing of prosodic cues by 45 Dutch adult L2 English users, using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm. Participants listened to sentences with pitch accent cues to contrastive focus on different words, while viewing pictures showing objects and characters mentioned. We investigated to what extent participants showed anticipatory fixations on the image reflecting the alternative of the contrast, after hearing the accented word. We measured participants’ music perception abilities with a standardised test and analysed its influence on anticipatory fixations. Initial analyses indicate that individuals with stronger musical abilities show more anticipation. This suggests that having stronger perceptual resources underlying both music and speech processing [Patel, Front. Psychol. 2, 142 (2011)] may benefit L2 prosody perception.
Decoding speech envelopes from electroencephalographic recordings: A comparison of regularized linear regression and long short-term memory deep neural network
Authors: Guo Zhe-chen , Pangottil Kevin , Chandrasekaran Bharath , Llanos Fernando
Published: April 2023

The speech envelope provides enough acoustic information to accurately recognize consonants and vowels (Shannon et al., 1995). The neural representation of speech envelopes is often assessed by reconstructing the envelopes from neural oscillations in the electroencephalogram (EEG) using linear decoders. One such approach is the multivariate temporal response function (mTRF), which achieves envelope reconstruction through regularized linear regression. Here, we compared the envelope reconstructions achieved by the mTRF and a non-linear alternative derived from a long-short term memory (LSTM) deep network. EEGs were collected from 15 native English speakers listening to an English audiobook (Reetzke et al., 2021). We trained a different decoder for each consonant and vowel in each listener. Reconstruction accuracy was measured as the Pearson coefficient (r) between observed and reconstructed envelopes. Preliminary results for the reconstruction of all vowels revealed that speech envelopes were moreaccurately reconstructed by the LSTM decoder (r: M = 0.247, SEM = 0.0024) than the mTRF (r: M = 0.074, SEM = 0.0025). Reconstruction accuracy was equally high and less variable across subjects for the LSTM approach. Additionally, high vowels showed lower decoding performance potentially due to their lower amplitude. These findings demonstrate the potential of non-linear approaches to investigating the neural representation of speech envelope cues.
The influence of non-canonical vowels on phonetic parsing
Authors: Tashiro Yuka
Published: April 2023

Speech segments are highly context sensitive due to coarticulation. This paper investigates phonetic context effects and how listeners parse the acoustic signal (Fowler, 1984). The previous literature reported that listeners could parse adjacent segments in a dissimilative manner (e.g., Mann, 1980), or in an assimilative manner (e.g., Fujimura et al., 1978). More recently, Rysling et al. (2019) reported that spectrally ambiguous or discontinuous transition can lead dissimilative parsing than assimilative parsing. This paper examines how non-canonical vowels affect the perception of adjacent consonant. When listeners hear non-canonical vowels, they may parse the incoming phonetic signal matching canonical exemplars, and assign any deviance in the spectral frequencies to the adjacent consonant. Hence, listeners may do assimilative parsing even with or without appropriate vowel transitions. American English listeners identified synthetic CV and VC syllables with an ambiguous fricative noise between [s] and [ʃ], and vowels including a good exemplar and poor exemplars of [i] and [u], each vowel with or without vowel transitions. Analyses are currently underway, but will illuminate the cause of assimilative parsing with respect to exemplar matching in the exemplar-based model (e.g., Johnson, 1997; Pierrehumbert, 2001).
Objectivization of the occlusion effect induced by earplugs in laboratory conditions—Effect of earplug type, insertion depth and background noise levels
Authors: Saint-Gaudens Hugo , Nélisse Hugues , Sgard Franck , Doutres Olivier
Published: April 2023

Blocking the earcanal’s entrance with an earplug can lead users to experience discomforts, one being the occlusion effect (OE), typically described as a distorted perception of one’s own voice. This discomfort sometimes causes users to misuse or remove their earplugs which significantly lower their efficiency. Reducing the OE generated by earplugs is therefore critical to make them more comfortable. However, assessing the OE is cumbersome and time-consuming as participants’ feedback is required. Moreover, the influence of factors on the OE, namely, the type or earplug, the insertion depth, and the background noise level, remains to be understood. Hence, this ongoing research aims at objectivizing the OE induced by earplugs during speech. To do so, the OE is assessed in laboratory conditions with 30 normal hearing participants using a questionnaire and by using surrogate earplugs for in-ear microphonic measurements. Various sound pressure level-based indicators are proposed and correlated to the (dis)comfort during the objectivization step. Multiple combinations of earplugs, insertion depths and background noise levels are tested to obtain a ranking of the conditions generating more or less OE. The objectivization of the OE will be a useful tool for manufacturers developing new earplugs without requiring participants’ feedback.
Effect of target word position on use of sentence context in acoustic-hearing listeners to spectrally degraded speech
Authors: Tinnemore Anna R. , Gordon-Salant Sandra , Goupell Matthew J.
Published: April 2023

Understanding of degraded speech can be greatly improved by using sentence context cues. While sentence context effects for sentence-final words are well known, relatively little is known about sentence context effects for sentence-initial words. It is possible that subsequent sentence context can be used to improve understanding of a missed initial word. This study measured phoneme classification of a voice-onset time continuum. The target words from the continuum were presented in one of two sentence locations (beginning, end), and the sentence context cued one target word interpretation (based on phoneme classification) or the other. Acoustic-hearing listeners were presented sentences in clear and spectrally degraded (vocoded) conditions. Preliminary results suggest that sentence context effects are greater when the target word is at the beginning rather than the end of the sentence. We hypothesize that listeners may revise their initial acoustics-based interpretation of the degraded target word based on the sentence context when the target word is first in the sentence, but not when it is last. These location-dependent context effects may interact with individual cognitive skills, such as working memory and processing speed. The data supporting this hypothesis and an analysis of contributing factors (e.g., cognitive skills, age) will be presented.
Age-related rollover for spectrally degraded temporal speech contrasts
Authors: Tinnemore Anna R. , Doyle Erin , Atluri Pallavi , Cleary Miranda , Gibbs Bobby E. , Huang Chengjie G. , Goupell Matthew J.
Published: April 2023

Some speech sounds, or phonemes, are primarily distinguished acoustically from other phonemes by temporal cues. A decline in temporal-processing abilities is a common consequence of aging that might cause a listener to have difficulty differentiating between sounds, especially when the speech is degraded. One type of signal degradation occurs in a cochlear-implant vocoder simulation, which eliminates most of the spectral information in speech while maintaining the temporal envelope. In addition, temporal processing abilities may be challenged at higher presentation levels causing a decrease in performance (i.e., rollover), particularly in older listeners. This study measures the phoneme classification of younger and older listeners of four spectro-temporal contrasts when presented in quiet with and without vocoding at a range of presentation levels. We hypothesized that, due to declines in temporal processing abilities, older listeners would be more susceptible to rollover, measured by a decrease in phoneme classification performance for degraded temporal contrasts as presentation levels increase. We further hypothesized that performance rollover would occur more often for vocoded speech than for unprocessed speech, especially in older listeners. Preliminary data show interactions between speech contrasts, presentation levels, and vocoding. Our results will help facilitate understanding speech perception difficulties in older cochlear-implant users.
Hourly sound level exposures for preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit
Authors: Khudr Jana , Ananthanarayana Rohit M. , Monson Brian B.
Published: April 2023

Infants born preterm are at greater risk for auditory dysfunction than full-term infants. To better understand and characterize the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) auditory experience, we sought to examine the sound pressure levels (SPLs) in the NICU and the presence of a circadian pattern of sound level exposure. Data were collected for very preterm infants (born ≤ 32 weeks’ gestation; n = 36) during NICU stay. Audio recordings were collected over 24-hour intervals, three times per week for each subject using a LENA recorder that was adhered to the inside wall of the infant’s incubator or crib. Average hourly SPL values were calculated from the raw recordings. Preliminary analysis indicates that the highest hourly exposures occurred during the hours of 8–9 AM and 8–9 PM, presumably corresponding to a shift change of the NICU nursing staff. Ongoing analyses are examining whether 24-hour patterns of exposure are affected by bed type and location in the NICU. It is hoped that this line of study will lead to interventions designed to prevent audiological impairments associated with preterm birth and NICU environmental exposures. [Work supported by NIH Grant R21-DC017820.]
Help your students and postdoctoral fellows realize their worth
Authors: Holland Christy K.
Published: April 2023

Hallmarks of a wonderful lab include exciting projects, collaborative publications, and students and postdoctoral fellows who have found good jobs. The head of the lab knows how to and is willing to pass along skills, guidance, and networking opportunities for regional and national recognition to other members of the lab. Strategies will be discussed for providing access to funded grant proposals, manuscripts in preparation, and lab protocols. A “one-pager,” which includes career goals, research goals, and planned time off, can be solicited and posted digitally for open access by lab members. Additionally, each student and postdoctoral fellow can be encouraged to write an individual development plan that identifies career goals, objectives necessary for achieving career goals, professional development needs, and progress toward achieving career goals. Examples of a “one-pager” and an individual development plan will be discussed. Mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows is one of the most important things that can be accomplished, as the impact will be long term.
Material variability compensation in a finite element model of a classical guitar by appropriate geometry modifications
Authors: Brauchler Alexander , Ziegler Pascal , Eberhard Peter
Published: April 2023

The sound of some old master instruments like the Stradivari violins or the Torres guitars is still unrivaled for many musicians. The common practice among instrument makers is to copy these instruments by building instruments with the same geometry as the original. However, audible differences between these copies and the original instruments are unavoidable, mainly due to the natural variability of the wood characteristics. A suitable measure to objectively characterize an instrument's sound is evaluating its modal parameters. Our project aims to develop a methodology to design copies of the old master instruments that match these modal parameters of the original instruments instead of copying their geometry. After showing that such an approach is appropriate for an individual guitar soundboard in a recent publication, we now present a parameter study to find suitable geometric modifications on an entire guitar to compensate for the natural material variation. Therefore, this study is based on a detailed finite-element model that shall predict the effect of suitable geometry alterations on the instrument's modal parameters and suited optimization techniques. Geometric modifications like the shape of the braces, the thickness of the fretboard, and the thickness of the plates are taken into account.
Exploring the impact hearing differences have on the development of speech perception during infancy
Authors: Uhler Kristin M. , Walker Kerry A. , Tollin Daniel , Gilley Phillip
Published: April 2023

Early periods of perceptual skill development are driven by the dynamic interplay between language experiences and maturation of auditory sensory pathways. Among infants with normal hearing (INH), the first year of life is a seminal period for refining speech perception abilities shaped by exposure to language. Research suggests that refinement of speech discrimination abilities depends on an infant’s exposure to speech sounds, thus infants who are hard-of-hearing (IHH) are susceptible to atypical development during this period. Currently, the impact of inconsistent auditory cue access on development of speech perception is unknown among IHH. To investigate this, our lab has employed both electroencephalography (EEG) and a conditioned head turn (CHT) paradigm to examine auditory cue access and speech perception abilities, respectively, over the first year of life. We will provide a broad overview of our recent and continuing work among IHH and INH using EEG and CHT findings which suggest: (1) early EEG measures of cue access predict later behavioral speech perception abilities, (2) hearing age (duration of time between hearing aid fitting and testing) is related to speech perception abilities measured by CHT, and (3) a significant relationship between infant speech perception and both spoken expressive and receptive language abilities.
The further adventures of Lynn Eyar, Ty Minvariant, and Connie Volution
Authors: Buck John R. , Singer Andrew C. , Wage Kathleen E.
Published: April 2023

My favorite homework problems challenge students to grow beyond direct procedural mathematics, engaging their reasoning with higher level tasks from Bloom's Taxonomy: Analyze, Evaluate, & Create. This whirlwind tour presents four flavors of signal processing homework problems. First, graph-based conceptual problems require students to reason from figures, rather than deriving equations. These problems scaffold students as they transfer intuition from closed form analytic equations to the often messy time series and power spectra obtained with real world data. Second, Matlab problems require students to work with audio data on problems that are often deliberately underspecified. These problems introduce students to the cyclic trial and error nature of engineering design. Third, module problems require students to design systems to meet a specification, while also considering some form of cost. Real engineering is almost always a multivariate optimization problem balancing performance with constraints. Finally, story problems require students to identify common misconceptions in the mouths of fictional peers. Team dynamics reward engineers who can succinctly identify the shortcomings or misconceptions in poor approaches as well advocate on behalf of their own designs. This talk may include some audience participation.
Identifying the presence and importance of 3D acoustic effects in New England Shelf Break Acoustics experiment data
Authors: DeCourcy Brendan J. , Lin Ying-Tsong
Published: April 2023

During the 2021 New England Shelf Break Acoustics (NESBA) experiments, a real-time physical oceanographic and ocean acoustic modeling effort sought to predict planned acoustic transmissions between a network of moorings in situ. While positive comparisons between simulated acoustics and hydrophone observation were made during field experiments, updates to ocean environment models post-cruise have improved the model and data agreement. Of importance to this real-time modeling effort is to use the disagreement between acoustic simulation and acoustic data to estimate model environment errors. By identifying spatial locations of likely error in the modeled sound speed, in situ acoustic simulations can identify acoustically significant locations to perform measurements of ocean water state properties such as temperature and salinity, as well as marine geological features. This presentation will focus on comparison efforts, extracting model environment error estimates, and explore the influence of 3D effects on this process. [This research is supported by the Office of Naval Research.]
Exploring Virtual Coach Education in USA Lacrosse
Authors: Langdon Jody , Van Arkel Johanna , Greene Kevin
Published: April 2023

In 2020, USA Lacrosse moved all coach training workshops to a virtual format in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing that in-person coach training has been heavily studied regarding the motivation of the coaches who participate, the shift to virtual delivery of coach education prompted the researchers to examine how the workshops themselves supported the basic needs, motivation, and engagement of coach learners. Aligned with self-determination theory’s conception of motivation and the three basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the researchers drew upon observation and survey data that were collected to determine the success of the virtual training. Using this information, the researchers found that the coach trainers used a variety of need-supportive behaviors and very few need-thwarting behaviors. Surveys revealed that the coaches displayed high levels of autonomous motivation, low levels of controlled motivation, and favorable engagement. These results are discussed in conjunction with the literature that is focused on in-person training programs as well as best practices in technology-enhanced learning to provide input into how virtual programming may be of benefit to coach learners and how coach trainers can best support coaches’ needs in a virtual environment.
Csx28 is a membrane pore that enhances CRISPR-Cas13b–dependent antiphage defense
Authors: VanderWal Arica R. , Park Jung-Un , Polevoda Bogdan , Nicosia Julia K. , Molina Vargas Adrian M. , Kellogg Elizabeth H. , O’Connell Mitchell R.
Published: April 2023

Type VI CRISPR-Cas systems use RNA-guided ribonuclease (RNase) Cas13 to defend bacteria against viruses, and some of these systems encode putative membrane proteins that have unclear roles in Cas13-mediated defense. We show that Csx28, of type VI-B2 systems, is a transmembrane protein that assists to slow cellular metabolism upon viral infection, increasing antiviral defense. High-resolution cryo–electron microscopy reveals that Csx28 forms an octameric pore-like structure. These Csx28 pores localize to the inner membrane in vivo. Csx28’s antiviral activity in vivo requires sequence-specific cleavage of viral messenger RNAs by Cas13b, which subsequently results in membrane depolarization, slowed metabolism, and inhibition of sustained viral infection. Our work suggests a mechanism by which Csx28 acts as a downstream, Cas13b-dependent effector protein that uses membrane perturbation as an antiviral defense strategy.
Invasive Non-Typhoidal
Salmonella
Lineage Biofilm Formation and Gallbladder Colonization Vary But Do Not Correlate Directly with Known Biofilm-Related Mutations
Authors: Vasicek Erin M. , Gunn John S.
Published: April 2023

Non-typhoidal
Salmonella
(NTS) serovars have a broad host range and cause gastroenteritis in humans. However, invasive NTS (iNTS) bloodstream infections have increased in the last decade, causing 60,000 deaths annually.
Complete Genome Sequence of Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum Strain Sw698, Isolated from Solanum lycopersicum
Authors: Jeong HwangWeon , Oh Jae-Hyeon , Kim Sung-Mi , Seol Young-Joo , Yoon Hye-Jin , Lee Jinjeong , Ra Su Jung , Kim Eunhee , Kang Myeong Jin , Ahn Il-Pyung
Published: April 2023

Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum
is a member of the
Ralstonia solanacearum
species complex (RSSC), which is composed of three species and diverse subspecific groups. Some strains cause bacterial wilt in
Solanum lycopersicum
; others are beneficial for their hosts. Herein, we present the complete genome sequence of an RSSC strain, Sw698, beneficial for
S. lycopersicum
growth.
Diabetes care cascade and associated factors in 10 700 middle-aged adults in four sub-Saharan African countries: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Wade Alisha N , Maposa Innocent , Agongo Godfred , Asiki Gershim , Boua Palwende , Choma Solomon S R , Gómez-Olivé F Xavier , Maimela Eric , Micklesfield Lisa K , Mohamed Shukri F , Nonterah Engelbert A , Norris Shane A , Sorgho Hermann , Ramsay Michele , Crowther Nigel J
Published: April 2023

Objectives

We investigated progression through the care cascade and associated factors for people with diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa to identify attrition stages that may be most appropriate for targeted intervention.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

Community-based study in four sub-Saharan African countries.

Participants

10 700 individuals, aged 40–60 years.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcome measure was the diabetes cascade of care defined as the age-adjusted diabetes prevalence (self-report of diabetes, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) ≥7 mmol/L or random plasma glucose ≥11.1 mmol/L) and proportions of those who reported awareness of having diabetes, ever having received treatment for diabetes and those who achieved glycaemic control (FPG <7.2 mmol/L). Secondary outcome measures were factors associated with having diabetes and being aware of the diagnosis.

Results

Diabetes prevalence was 5.5% (95% CI 4.4% to 6.5%). Approximately half of those with diabetes were aware (54%; 95% CI 50% to 58%); 73% (95% CI 67% to 79%) of aware individuals reported ever having received treatment. However, only 38% (95% CI 30% to 46%) of those ever having received treatment were adequately controlled. Increasing age (OR 1.1; 95% CI 1.0 to 1.1), urban residence (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.6 to 3.5), hypertension (OR 1.9; 95% CI 1.5 to 2.4), family history of diabetes (OR 3.9; 95% CI 3.0 to 5.1) and measures of central adiposity were associated with higher odds of having diabetes. Increasing age (OR 1.1; 95% CI 1.0 to 1.1), semi-rural residence (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.1 to 5.7), secondary education (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2 to 4.9), hypertension (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.0 to 2.4) and known HIV positivity (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.2 to 4.4) were associated with greater likelihood of awareness of having diabetes.

Conclusions

There is attrition at each stage of the diabetes care cascade in sub-Saharan Africa. Public health strategies should target improving diagnosis in high-risk individuals and intensifying therapy in individuals treated for diabetes.
Neurologic Physiology after Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT) study: study protocol of a multicentre, prospective, observational, pilot feasibility study of neurophysiology after withdrawal of life-sustaining measures
Authors: Gofton Teneille , Dhanani Sonny , Meade Maureen , Boyd John Gordon , Chamberlain Erika , Chandler Jennifer , Chassé Michaël , Scales Nathan B , Choi Yun-Hee , D'Aragon Frédérick , Debicki Derek , English Shane , Fantaneanu Tadeu A , Kramer Andreas H , Kromm Julie , Murphy Nicholas , Norton Loretta , Singh Jeffrey , Smith Maxwell J , Weijer Charles , Shemie Sam , Bentall Tracey C , Campbell Eileen , Slessarev Marat
Published: April 2023

Introduction

In donation after circulatory determination of death, death is declared 5 min after circulatory arrest. This practice assumes, but does not explicitly confirm, permanent loss of brain activity. While this assumption is rooted a strong physiological rationale, paucity of direct human data regarding temporal relationship between cessation of brain activity and circulatory arrest during the dying process threatens public and healthcare provider trust in deceased organ donation.

Methods and analysis

In this cohort study, we will prospectively record cerebral and brainstem electrical activity, cerebral blood flow velocity and arterial blood pressure using electroencephalography (EEG), brainstem evoked potentials, transcranial doppler and bedside haemodynamic monitors in adult patients undergoing planned withdrawal of life sustaining measures in the intensive care units at five hospital sites for 18 months. We will use MATLAB to synchronise waveform data and compute the time of cessation of each signal relative to circulatory arrest. Our primary outcome is the feasibility of patient accrual, while secondary outcomes are (a) proportion of patients with complete waveform recordings and data transfer to coordinating site and (b) time difference between cessation of neurophysiological signals and circulatory arrest. We expect to accrue 1 patient/site/month for a total of 90 patients.

Ethics and dissemination

We have ethics approval from Clinical Trials Ontario (protocol #3862, version 1.0, date 19 January 2022.) and the relevant Research Ethics Board for each site. We will obtain written informed consent from legal substitute decision makers. We will present study results at research conferences including donor family partner forum and in peer-reviewed publications.

Trial registration number

NCT05306327.
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia survival in an English regional ECMO center
Authors: O'Connor Elizabeth , Tamura Ryo , Hannon Therese , Harigopal Sundeep , Jaffray Bruce
Published: April 2023

Introduction

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) remains a cause of neonatal death. Our aims are to describe contemporary rates of survival and the variables associated with this outcome, contrasting these with our study of two decades earlier and recent reports.

Materials and methods

A retrospective review of all infants diagnosed in a regional center between January 2000 and December 2020 was performed. The outcome of interest was survival. Possible explanatory variables included side of defect, use of complex ventilatory or hemodynamic strategies (inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and Prostin), presence of antenatal diagnosis, associated anomalies, birth weight, and gestation. Temporal changes were studied by measuring outcomes in each of four consecutive 63-month periods.

Results

A total of 225 cases were diagnosed. Survival was 60% (134 of 225). Postnatal survival was 68% (134 of 198 liveborn), and postrepair survival was 84% (134 of 159 who survived to repair). Diagnosis was made antenatally in 66% of cases. Variables associated with mortality were the need for complex ventilatory strategies (iNO, HFOV, Prostin, and ECMO), antenatal diagnosis, right-sided defects, use of patch repair, associated anomalies, birth weight, and gestation. Survival has improved from our report of a prior decade and did not vary during the study period. Postnatal survival has improved despite fewer terminations. On multivariate analysis, the need for complex ventilation was the strongest predictor of death (OR=50, 95% CI 13 to 224, p<0.0001), and associated anomalies ceased to be predictive.

Conclusions

Survival has improved from our earlier report, despite reduced numbers of terminations. This may be related to increased use of complex ventilatory strategies.
Parameterized Complexity Classes Defined by Threshold Circuits and Their Connection with Sorting Networks
Authors: Paranhos Raffael Muralha , Silva Janio Carlos Nascimento , Souza Uéverton dos Santos
Published: April 2023

The main complexity classes of the Parameterized Intractability Theory are based on weighted Boolean circuit satisfiability problems and organized into a hierarchy so-called W-hierarchy. The W-hierarchy enables fine-grained complexity analyses of parameterized problems that are unlikely to belong to the FPT class. In this paper, we introduce the Th-hierarchy, a natural generalization of the W-hierarchy defined by unweighted threshold circuit satisfiability problems. Investigating the relationship between Th-hierarchy and W-hierarchy, we discuss the complexity of transforming Threshold circuits into Boolean circuits, and observe that sorting networks are powerful tools to handle such transformations. First, we show that these hierarchies collapse at the last level (W[P][Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]Th[P]). After that, we present a time complexity analysis of an AKS sorting network construction, which supports some of our results. Finally, we prove that Th[[Formula: see text]] [Formula: see text] W[SAT] for every [Formula: see text]. As a by-product, our studies suggest that it is relevant to consider a new class based on logarithmic depth circuits in the W-hierarchy.
Theory of Cooperative Public Choice Games
Authors: Chen Jeanpantz
Published: April 2023

This paper establishes an analytical framework for cooperative public choice games. In a cooperative public choice game under unanimity rule, all the players who belong to the only coalition will equally divide the cooperative payoff surplus, the equilibrium public choice is the one which can bring about the maximum cooperative payoff among all the public choices. In a cooperative public choice game under majority rule, compared with other public choices, the public choice with maximum comparative payoff will finally win the required majority of votes because of its greatest capability of attracting the intermediate team. When in a public choice game under majority rule there are more than two public choices which can bring about the maximum comparative payoff to the supporter coalition, the equilibrium choice will be the same one in the same public choice game under unanimity rule.
Framework for Effective Urban Development Partnership in Affordable Housing in Egypt
Authors: EL-BIALY Fekria
Published: April 2023

The government’s vision is oriented towards reforming the urban map and increasing the urban communities’ ability to face current and future urban development challenges. However, it is becoming increasingly aware that it cannot achieve this by acting alone. This in turn poses an important question about good urban governance, and appropriate management mechanisms that may enable the achievement of the strategic goals. In this context, the government adopted a “National Housing Strategy”, which aims to transfer the current situation of the housing sector in Egypt and encourage the private sector to provide more diversity of patterns of holdings in this sector. However, to what extent the government can develop this approach into an effective public–private partnership framework that ensures a strong private sector response in the delivery of affordable housing is still unclear. Accordingly, this research aims to develop a conceptual framework to guide decision-makers on how the state can apply urban development partnership as an integrated approach to better development of affordable housing in Egypt.
Asymptotic Analysis of Probabilistic Scheduling for Erasure-Coded Heterogeneous Systems
Authors: Jinan Rooji , Gautam Gaurav , Parag Parimal , Aggarwal Vaneet
Published: April 2023

We consider (k, k) fork-join scheduling on a large number (say, N) of parallel servers with two sets of heterogeneous rates. An incoming task is split into k sub-tasks and dispatched to k servers according to a probabilistic selection policy, with parameter ps being the selection probability of slower servers. Mean task completion time admits an integral form, and thus it is analytically intractable to compute ps that minimizes it. In this work, we provide an upper bound on the mean task completion time, and determine ps that minimizes this upper bound. Numerically, this choice has been shown to be near-optimal.
Augmenting Epidemic Models with Graph Neural Networks
Authors: Hwang Wonjun , Kim Yoora , Lee Kyunghan
Published: April 2023

Conventional epidemic models are limited in their ability to capture the dynamics of real world epidemics in a sense that they either place restrictions on the models such as their topology and contact process for mathematical tractability or focus only on the average global behavior, which lacks details for further analysis. We propose a novel modeling approach that augments the conventional epidemic models using Graph Neural Networks to improve their expressive power while preserving useful mathematical structures. Simulation results show that our proposed model can predict spread times in both node-level and network-wide perspectives with high accuracy having median relative errors below 15% for a wide range of scenarios.
Efficient Federated Learning with Self-Regulating Clients
Authors: Talukder Zahidur , Islam Mohammad A.
Published: April 2023

Motivation. Since its inception [6], Federated Learning (FL) has been enjoying a strong interest from the privacypreserving AI research community. FL also has been commercially implemented in popular applications such as Google's Gboard and Apple Siri. In FL, Machine Learning (ML) models are trained cooperatively by many clients (e.g., mobile phones) without explicitly sharing their identity and private data. The training is done through iterative communication rounds between a central parameter/model server and clients. In each communication round, the global model is supplied to a subset of clients who use their private data to do local training on their respective devices. The updated models from each participating client are anonymously sent back to the central server and aggregated to get the global model for the next communication round.
Learning to Dynamically Select Cost Optimal Schedulers in Cloud Computing Environments
Authors: Tuli Shreshth , Casale Giuliano , Jennings Nicholas R.
Published: April 2023

The operational cost of a cloud computing platform is one of the most significant Quality of Service (QoS) criteria for schedulers, crucial to keep up with the growing computational demands. Several data-driven deep neural network (DNN)-based schedulers have been proposed in recent years that outperform alternative approaches by providing scalable and effective resource management for dynamic workloads. However, state-of-the-art schedulers rely on advanced DNNs with high computational requirements, implying high scheduling costs. In non-stationary contexts, the most sophisticated schedulers may not always be required, and it may be sufficient to rely on low-cost schedulers to temporarily save operational costs. In this work, we propose MetaNet, a surrogate model that predicts the operational costs and scheduling overheads of a large number of DNNbased schedulers and chooses one on-the-fly to jointly optimize job scheduling and execution costs. This facilitates improvements in execution costs, energy usage and service level agreement violations of up to 11%, 43% and 13% compared to the state-of-the-art methods.
Minimizing Age of Information under Arbitrary Arrival Model with Arbitrary Packet Size
Authors: Saurav Kumar , Vaze Rahul
Published: April 2023

In networked systems such as internet-of-things, cyberphysical systems, etc., information timeliness is a critical requirement. Timely updates ensure that the information available at the subsystems (nodes) are accurate, and actions are well-coordinated. One popular metric to capture information timeliness is the age of information (AoI) [2]. At any time, for a source-destination pair, AoI is equal to the time elapsed since the generation time of the latest update 1 of the source that has been completely transmitted to the destination.
On the Regret of Online Edge Service Hosting
Authors: Prakash R Sri , Karamchandani Nikhil , Moharir Sharayu
Published: April 2023

We consider the problem of service hosting where a service provider can dynamically rent edge resources via short term contracts to ensure better quality of service to its customers. The total cost incurred by the system is modeled as a combination of the rent cost, the service cost incurred due to latency in serving customers, and the fetch cost incurred as a result of the bandwidth used to fetch the code/databases of the service from the cloud servers to host the service at the edge. In this paper, we compare multiple hosting policies with regret as a metric, defined as the difference in the cost incurred by the policy and the optimal policy over some time horizon T. In particular we consider the Retro Renting (RR) and Follow The Perturbed Leader (FTPL) policies proposed in the literature and provide performance guarantees on the regret of these policies. We show that under i.i.d Bernoulli arrivals, RR policy has linear regret while FTPL policy has constant regret. Next, we propose a variant of FTPL, namely Wait then FTPL (W-FTPL), which also has constant regret while demonstrating much better dependence on the fetch cost. We also show that under adversarial arrivals, RR policy has linear regret while both FTPL and W-FTPL have regret O(pT) which is order-optimal.
Shift, scale and restart smaller models to estimate larger ones: Agent based simulators in epidemiology
Authors: Mittal Daksh , Juneja Sandeep , Agrawal Shubhada
Published: April 2023

Agent-based simulators (ABS) are a popular epidemiological modelling tool to study the impact of non medical interventions in managing epidemics [1], [2]. They accurately model a heterogeneous population with time and location varying, person specific interactions. Government policies such as partial and location specific lock downs, case isolation, home quarantine, school closures, partially opened workplaces, etc. are easily modelled and ABS allow flexibility to incorporate important pandemic developments over time including variants and vaccines. For accuracy, each person is modelled separately. This however may make computational time prohibitive when the city population and the simulated time are large. We observe that simply considering a smaller representative model and scaling up the output leads to inaccuracies. In this note we focus on the COVID- 19 pandemic and dig deeper into the underlying probabilistic structure of generic ABS to arrive at modifications that allow smaller models to give accurate statistics for larger ones. We exploit the observation that in the initial disease spread phase, the starting infections create a family tree of infected individuals more-or-less independent of the other trees and are modelled well as a multi-type super-critical branching process whose relative proportions across infected population types stabilize soon and thereafter are invariant to shifts in time. Further, for large city population, once enough people have been infected, the future evolution of the pandemic is closely approximated by its mean field limit with a random starting state. We build upon these insights to develop a shifted, scaled and restart based algorithm that accurately evaluates the ABS's performance using a much smaller model while carefully reducing the bias that may arise from just scaling. Our key contributions are: 1) we develop an algorithm by carefully exploiting the closeness of the underlying exposed/infected process (process of number exposed/infected of each type at each time) initially to a branching process, and then the normalised infection process (infection process divided by the city population) to its mean field limit, so that the output from the smaller model accurately matches the output from the larger model in a realistic city setting. 2) we provide theoretical support for the proposed approach through an asymptotic analysis where the population increases to infinity. For brevity, we conduct the analysis in a simpler and yet practically useful setting.
Portomesenteric Reconstruction during Whipple Procedure Using Autologous Left Renal Vein Patch Graft in a Patient with a Gastric Cancer Recurrence
Authors: Ljubicic Lidija , Petrovic Igor , Crkvenac Gregorek Andrea , Silovski Hrvoje
Published: April 2023

The case of vascular reconstruction of the superior mesenteric and portal vein confluence using a left renal vein (LRV) graft has been researched in this paper. The patient was a 66-year-old female who presented with features of biliary obstruction. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan revealed bile duct dilatation and a common bile duct tumor mass. Four years ago, she underwent stomach resection with subsequent Billroth II gastrojejunostomy due to gastric cancer. After surgical resection, on histopathological and immunohistochemistry examination, a recurrence of previously resected poorly cohesive gastric cancer was found.