Circumpolar Deep Water upwelling is a primary source of 10Be in Antarctic continental shelf sediments

Beryllium-10 (10Be) has been proposed as a potential proxy for investigating ice shelf presence and absence, or meltwater discharge in coastal polar environments. However, the sources and distribution of atmospherically produced meteoric-10Be in the Antarctic marine realm are yet to be fully characterized, making any inferences about its concentration in sediments challenging. We present a dataset of 9Be and 10Be concentrations, and 10Be/9Be ratios in seafloor surface sediments from the Antarctic continental shelf - including from sub ice shelf cores - to assess the sources and processes contributing Be-isotopes to ice-sheet proximal marine settings. We show that upwelling waters (e.g. Circumpolar Deep Water) are a significant source of 10Be to continental shelf sediments. This limits the use of 10Be/9Be as a proxy for ice shelf environment or meltwater discharge, but instead provides a potential proxy for reconstructing Circumpolar Deep Water incursions onto Antarctic continental shelves

Size-Dependent Effects in the Modified Green–Lindsay Thermoelasticity Model: Analysis of Ultrashort Pulse Interactions in the Presence of Electromagnetic Fields

This study provides a more detailed model for wave transmission and reflection in a complex thermodynamic framework. The governing equations are developed from multiphase electromagnetic size-dependent thermoelasticity models. The main focus here is on the development of the Modified-Green Lindsay nonlocal generalized thermoelasticity model that improves previous nonlocal approaches by incorporating additional strain and temperature rate terms. This study also examines how materials react to very short pulses and the effect of external electric and magnetic fields. The highly developed nonlinear equations in this study are solved using advanced programming techniques, including an iterative approach that combines finite element methods with a Newmark time-marching scheme. The results of this work established the nonlocal heat conduction theory of generalized thermoelasticity along with nonlocal continuum theory as a new improvement and progress in the field of thermoelasticity. This model shows that without considering thermal nonlocality interactions, predictions may miss essential aspects of wave behavior. The results show that the materials experience changes in mechanical properties, particularly an increase in hardness, when exposed to stronger magnetic fields. In addition, the results show that as the duration of laser pulses decreases, the speed of wave propagation increases. Shortening the pulse duration increases the wave propagation speed, which can create steep thermal gradients. In the case of pure metals heated by ultra-short pulse lasers, the fast electron heat conduction prevents the formation of significant thermal waves, while these pulses induce more intense and localized thermal stresses. Analysis of wave propagation also shows that the return time can exceed the forward time as the waves react to applied electric and magnetic fields

Pain intensity estimation via multimodal fusion:Leveraging ternary textures of derivatives in EDA and PPG signals

In the event of pain, the autonomic nervous system reacts by affecting different physiological parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance, and perspiration levels, among others. This research presents an innovative approach to pain intensity recognition through a multimodal system that fuses bio-information from the skin (Electrodermal Activity or EDA) and heart (Photoplethysmograph or PPG) signals. The study involved a self-collected dataset from 61 healthy participants and encompassed two pain intensity levels (low and high) experienced at different anatomical locations (hand and forearm). Employing IIR bandpass filters, the collected EDA and PPG signals were preprocessed. A novel feature extraction method named Ternary Textures of Derivatives (TTD) is proposed, which, when fused with statistical features, exhibited robust potential as a pain intensity biomarker. Feature selection using Joint Mutual Information preceded the utilisation of an Ensemble classifier. The developed multimodal fusion-based pain recognition system outperformed the unimodal (PPG and EDA) approaches by achieving notable accuracies: 83.1%±8.8% for No Pain vs. Low Pain, 87.1%±6.7% for No Pain vs. High Pain, and 74.5%±6.8% for the No Pain vs. Low Pain vs. High Pain scenario. This approach offers an objective means of pain assessment that can furnish valuable insights to clinical teams, aiding in treatment evaluation, surgical decision-making, and overall patient care quality assessment.</p

A two-stage architecture for identifying and locating the source of pain using novel multi-domain binary patterns of EDA

Pain, an extremely unpleasant sensory experience, lacks an objective diagnostic test for accurate measurement. When individuals are unable to communicate, identifying and locating pain becomes crucial for improving treatment outcomes. Despite numerous studies on pain identification, a reliable consensus has yet to be reached. This study, utilising the AI4Pain dataset, aims to establish a strong correlation between Electrodermal Activity (EDA) signal features and the presence of acute pain, as well as clarify the relationship between classified signals and the pain's location. To this end, EDA signals were recorded from 61 subjects while inducing electrical pain in either of two anatomical locations (hand and forearm) for each subject. The EDA data underwent preprocessing to eliminate irrelevant information using a Butterworth IIR bandpass filter and a median filter. A novel feature descriptor called Multi-Domain Binary Patterns (MDBP) was proposed for this research. These MDBPs were combined with time domain features, and a reduced feature vector was obtained using Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR). The resulting vector then formed the input of ensemble classification algorithms. The proposed method consists of two stages: The first stage focuses on pain detection, while the second stage focuses on pain localisation. Using leave-one-subject-out cross-validation, the proposed method achieved an accuracy of 77.9% in pain detection (Stage I), while the pain localisation experiment (Stage II) resulted in an accuracy of 69.67%. The efficacy of the proposed method was also validated through the publicly available BioVid database.</p

A Unified Deep Learning-Based EEG Biometric Authentication System for Cross-Session Scenarios

Advancements in technology have heightened concerns over personal privacy and security. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, valued for their unique and non-forgeable characteristics, have garnered increasing interest for biometric verification. Yet challenges persist in real-world applications, including poor performance in cross-session recognition, lack of generalizability, and narrow focus on specific EEG elicitation protocols. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based EEG biometric verification system. Our approach introduces advancements in feature extraction: starting with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for converting signals to frequency domain, followed by feature mining through a convolutional autoencoder. User verification is accomplished using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), known for its superior performance in data mining and classification tasks. In addition, to evaluate the generalizability of the proposed method, extensive experiments are carried out with EEG data collected under seven distinct signal elicitation protocols and over two different recording sessions. Results highlight the stability and reliability of the our method cross diverse scenarios. Comparative analysis with state-of-the-art approaches for EEG biometrics shows that our method excels in robust feature extraction, resulting in better verification performance.</p

Physiological and Biomechanical Characteristics of Inline Speed Skating:A Systematic Scoping Review

The physiological and biomechanical characteristics of inline speed skating have not been systematically mapped nor research evidence synthesized. The aim was to identify and synthesize novel elements across studies, including participant characteristics, outcomes measures, experimental protocol, main outcomes and other relevant information, to inform evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a systematic search of databases was conducted to identify relevant studies. The extracted data were charted and synthesized to summarize the physiological and biomechanical aspects of inline speed skating. From 272 records, 22 studies met the defined criteria. Studies related to inline speed skating focused primarily on physiological variables (n = 14) and lower limb muscles function, with limited evidence on biomechanics of inline speed skating (n = 5) and the combination of biomechanics and physiology (n = 3). An overall unclear risk of bias was observed (59% of studies). Although studies have examined physiological and biomechanical variables, continuous physiological and biomechanical assessments of skaters performing different skills on both straight and curved tracks have not been conducted. Therefore, well-planned physiological and biomechanics studies are required to uncover underexplored areas in research and support the development of sport-specific studies.</p

The Effects of Refractive Imbalance on Binocular Vision Status, Reading Performance, and Vision-Related Reading Difficulty Symptoms in Expert Readers

PURPOSE: To investigate how refractive imbalance affects binocular vision parameters, reading performance, and vision-related reading difficulty symptomatology after short periods of reading with different simulated ophthalmic lens power conditions in expert adult readers.METHODS: Eighteen adult participants (18-35 years of age) were recruited. They were expert readers, defined as currently studying, or previously studied to, at least a bachelor's degree tertiary education level. Refractive imbalance conditions were simulated by placing -2.00, -1.00, 0.00, +1.00, and +2.00 diopters (D) ophthalmic lenses in front of the dominant eye over their full refractive error correction. For each condition, participants were required to read sets of three paragraphs from the background section of an academic journal paper, after which reading comprehension, reading speed, symptomatology, visual acuity, and binocular vision status were assessed for each set through refractive imbalance conditions.RESULTS: A significant reduction of binocular visual acuity was observed for distance (+2.00 D condition) and near (±2.00 D conditions) viewing distances. The greater the refractive imbalance stimulus provided to the dominant eye monocularly, the more underfocused the binocular accommodative response. Simulated refractive imbalance did not affect reading speed and comprehension. Stereoacuity and subjective vision-related reading difficulty symptoms worsened with increased absolute refractive imbalance.CONCLUSIONS: Simulated refractive imbalance did not affect reading performance for the short reading task but resulted in statistically significant reductions in clarity, increased binocular difficulties, and visual discomfort. During reading, full correction of refractive imbalance is beneficial and recommended.</p

Validating adverse events in administrative healthcare data in ireland:a retrospective chart review study

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia, urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and delirium are adverse events that affect older inpatients. Accurate administrative data are key to improving patient safety and healthcare quality. The aim of the study was to validate Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) data on the occurrence of pneumonia, urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and delirium in older patients discharged from an acute hospital in Ireland through retrospective chart review.METHODS: A cohort of one thousand randomly selected admissions of inpatients aged over 65 from a university, tertiary hospital in 2022 were reviewed using a two-stage retrospective chart review. The researchers, healthcare professionals and patient representatives co-produced a study-specific chart review protocol and data collection instrument. HIPE data were validated by comparing the chart review data to the HIPE data. Since HIPE only codes the presence of the respective adverse event once, the comparisons between the HIPE data and the chart review data were carried out at admission level.RESULTS: Of the 1,000 admissions reviewed, 231 (23.1%) contained at least one adverse event. At event level, 373 adverse events were identified including 133 pressure ulcers in 71 admissions, 101 delirium episodes in 100 admissions, 84 pneumonia episodes in 79 admissions and 55 urinary tract infections in 52 admissions. Of the 302 adverse events found in chart review on admission level, 96 (31.8%) of these were coded in the HIPE data and flagged by the Hospital Acquired Diagnosis indicator. Compared with chart review data, the overall sensitivity of the administrative data was low, and the specificity was high. The positive predictive values varied, and the negative predictive values were generally high. In HIPE data, 42 adverse events were found that were not identified in the chart review.CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that HIPE data may not accurately represent these specific adverse events as experienced by older patients. Improving the accuracy of these data may facilitate benchmarking of adverse events across hospitals and countries and provide opportunities for improvements in patient safety.</p

Parametric design in construction:a new paradigm for quality management and defect reduction

In the realm of construction, the iterative occurrence of design defects during the latter stages frequently jeopardizes building quality, leading to considerable repercussions. Despite extensive research into the causation of design and construction defects and methods to enhance quality outcomes, a noticeable gap persists in comprehensively understanding how parametric design influences building quality. Hence, this study probes the intricate relationship between parametric design and building quality, aiming to forge a conceptual framework that encapsulates their interplay and collective impact on construction excellence. Through a meticulous literature review, the pivotal elements such as design defects, documentation errors, construction technologies, building performance, defect management, cost and time efficiencies, and quality control mechanisms were investigated. The research delineates the pivotal factors that bolster building quality and curtail defects, with a spotlight on integrating parametric design into the fabric of construction quality management. By weaving together current literature insights and focusing on a symbiotic integration of parametric design, this study contributes a novel conceptual framework that stands to advance architectural practices and elevate the paradigm of building quality.</p