Searching for Clusters with SUMSS

Statistical overdensities of radiosources in the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) are used as signposts to identify high-redshift clusters of galaxies. These potential clusters have been observed at 20 and 13 cm at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to obtain better positional accuracy for the sources. A subsample have been imaged in V, R and I at the 2.3-m telescope at Siding Spring and in J and K at the Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) and the New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla, Chile. The colours obtained from these observations will be used to estimate redshifts for the potential cluster members.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 4 figures Elsevier Science format. To appear in "Radio galaxies: past, present & future". eds. M. Jarvis et al., Leiden, Nov 200

Effect of classroom-based physical activity interventions on academic and physical activity outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is associated with many physical and mental health benefits, however many children do not meet the national physical activity guidelines. While schools provide an ideal setting to promote children\u27s physical activity, adding physical activity to the school day can be difficult given time constraints often imposed by competing key learning areas. Classroom-based physical activity may provide an opportunity to increase school-based physical activity while concurrently improving academic-related outcomes. The primary aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the impact of classroom-based physical activity interventions on academic-related outcomes. A secondary aim was to evaluate the impact of these lessons on physical activity levels over the study duration. METHODS: A systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, ERIC, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO) was performed in January 2016 and updated in January 2017. Studies that investigated the association between classroom-based physical activity interventions and academic-related outcomes in primary (elementary) school-aged children were included. Meta-analyses were conducted in Review Manager, with effect sizes calculated separately for each outcome assessed. RESULTS: Thirty-nine articles met the inclusion criteria for the review, and 16 provided sufficient data and appropriate design for inclusion in the meta-analyses. Studies investigated a range of academic-related outcomes including classroom behaviour (e.g. on-task behaviour), cognitive functions (e.g. executive function), and academic achievement (e.g. standardised test scores). Results of the meta-analyses showed classroom-based physical activity had a positive effect on improving on-task and reducing off-task classroom behaviour (standardised mean difference = 0.60 (95% CI: 0.20,1.00)), and led to improvements in academic achievement when a progress monitoring tool was used (standardised mean difference = 1.03 (95% CI: 0.22,1.84)). However, no effect was found for cognitive functions (standardised mean difference = 0.33 (95% CI: -0.11,0.77)) or physical activity (standardised mean difference = 0.40 (95% CI: -1.15,0.95)). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest classroom-based physical activity may have a positive impact on academic-related outcomes. However, it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions due to the level of heterogeneity in intervention components and academic-related outcomes assessed. Future studies should consider the intervention period when selecting academic-related outcome measures, and use an objective measure of physical activity to determine intervention fidelity and effects on overall physical activity levels

Effect of audibility on spatial release from speech-on-speech masking

This study investigated to what extent spatial release from masking (SRM) deficits in hearing-impaired adults may be related to reduced audibility of the test stimuli. Sixteen adults with sensorineural hearing loss and 28 adults with normal hearing were assessed on the Listening in Spatialized Noise–Sentences test, which measures SRM using a symmetric speech-on-speech masking task. Stimuli for the hearing-impaired listeners were delivered using three amplification levels (National Acoustic Laboratories - Revised Profound prescription (NAL-RP) +25%, and NAL-RP +50%), while stimuli for the normal-hearing group were filtered to achieve matched audibility. SRM increased as audibility increased for all participants. Thus, it is concluded that reduced audibility of stimuli may be a significant factor in hearing-impaired adults' reduced SRM even when hearing loss is compensated for with linear gain. However, the SRM achieved by the normal hearers with simulated audibility loss was still significantly greater than that achieved by hearing-impaired listeners, suggesting other factors besides audibility may still play a role

Niemann-Pick C-like endo-lysosomal dysfunction in DHDDS patient cells, a congenital disorder of glycosylation, can be treated with miglustat

DHDDS (dehydrodolichol diphosphate synthetase) and NgBR (Nogo-B Receptor) collectively form an enzymatic complex important for the synthesis of dolichol, a key component of protein N-glycosylation. Mutations in DHDDS and the gene encoding NgBR (NUS1) are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders that clinically present with epilepsy, motor impairments, and developmental delay. Previous work has demonstrated both DHDDS and NgBR can also interact with NPC2 (Niemann-Pick C (NPC) type 2), a protein which functions to traffic cholesterol out of the lysosome and, when mutated, can cause a lysosomal storage disorder (NPC disease) characterised by an accumulation of cholesterol and glycosphingolipids. Abnormal cholesterol accumulation has also been reported in cells from both individuals and animal models with mutations in NUS1, and suspected lipid storage has been shown in biopsies from individuals with mutations in DHDDS. Our findings provide further evidence for overlap between NPC2 and DHDDS disorders, showing that DHDDS patient fibroblasts have increased lysosomal volume, store cholesterol and ganglioside GM1, and have altered lysosomal Ca2+ homeostasis. Treatment of DHDDS cells, with the approved NPC small molecule therapy, miglustat, improves these disease-associated phenotypes, identifying a possible therapeutic option for DHDDS patients. These data suggest that treatment options currently approved for NPC disease may be translatable to DHDDS/NUS1 patients

What do people with aphasia want to be able to say? A content analysis of words identified as personally relevant by people with aphasia

Background Word finding is a common difficulty for people with aphasia. Targeting words that are relevant to the individual could maximise the usefulness and impact of word finding therapy. Aims To provide insights into words that people with aphasia perceive to be personally relevant. Methods and procedures 100 people with aphasia were each asked to identify 100 words that would be particularly important for them to be able to say. Two speech and language therapist researchers conducted a quantitative content analysis of the words selected. The words were coded into a framework of topics and subtopics. The frequency with which different words and topics were selected was then calculated. Outcomes and results 100 participants representing 20 areas of the United Kingdom ranged in age from 23 to 85 years. Word finding difficulties ranged from mild to severe. The sample of 9999 words selected for practice included 3095 different words in 27 topics. The majority of words selected (79.4%) were from the topics ‘food and drink’ (30.6%), ‘nature and gardening’ (10.3%), ‘entertainment’ (9.4%), ‘places’ (7.3%), ‘people’ (6.7%), ‘house’ (6.5%), ‘clothes’ (5.2%) and ‘travel’ (3.5%). The 100 words types chosen with the greatest frequency were identified. These account for 27 percent of the 9999 words chosen by the participants. Discussion Personally relevant vocabulary is unique to each individual and is likely to contain specific or specialist words for which material needs to be individually prepared. However there is some commonality in the words chosen by people with aphasia. This could inform pre-prepared materials for use in word finding therapy from which personally relevant words could be selected for practice

Revised Modelling of the Addition of Synchronous Chemotherapy to Radiotherapy in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck-A Low ?

Background: The effect of synchronous chemotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) has been modelled as additional Biologically Effective Dose (BED) or as a prolonged tumour cell turnover time during accelerated repopulation. Such models may not accurately predict the local control seen when hypofractionated accelerated radiotherapy is used with synchronous chemotherapy. Methods: For the purposes of this study three isoeffect relationships were assumed: Firstly, from the RTOG 0129 trial, synchronous cisplatin chemotherapy with 70 Gy in 35 fractions over 46 days results in equivalent local control to synchronous cisplatin chemotherapy with 36 Gy in 18# followed by 36 Gy in 24# (2# per day) over a total of 39 days. Secondly, in line with primary local control outcomes from the PET-Neck study, synchronous cisplatin chemotherapy with 70 Gy in 35# over 46 days results in equivalent local control to synchronous cisplatin chemotherapy delivered with 65 Gy in 30# over 39 days. Thirdly, from meta-analysis data, 70 Gy in 35# over 46 days with synchronous cisplatin results in equivalent local control to 84 Gy in 70# over 46 days delivered without synchronous chemotherapy. Using the linear quadratic equation the above isoeffect relationships were expressed algebraically to determine values of α, α/β, and k for SCCHN when treated with synchronous cisplatin using standard parameters for the radiotherapy alone schedule (α = 0.3 Gy−1, α/β = 10 Gy, and k = 0.42 Gy10day−1). Results: The values derived for α/β, α and k were 2 Gy, 0.20 and 0.21 Gy−1, and 0.65 and 0.71 Gy2day−1. Conclusions: Within the limitations of the assumptions made, this model suggests that accelerated repopulation may remain a significant factor when synchronous chemotherapy is delivered with radiotherapy in SCCHN. The finding of a low α/β for SCCHN treated with cisplatin suggests a greater tumour susceptibility to increasing dose per fraction and underlines the importance of the completion of randomized trials examining the role of hypofractionated acceleration in SCCHN

Hypergraph Topological Features for Autoencoder-Based Intrusion Detection for Cybersecurity Data

In this position paper, we argue that when hypergraphs are used to capture multi-way local relations of data, their resulting topological features describe global behaviour. Consequently, these features capture complex correlations that can then serve as high fidelity inputs to autoencoder-driven anomaly detection pipelines. We propose two such potential pipelines for cybersecurity data, one that uses an autoencoder directly to determine network intrusions, and one that de-noises input data for a persistent homology system, PHANTOM. We provide heuristic justification for the use of the methods described therein for an intrusion detection pipeline for cyber data. We conclude by showing a small example over synthetic cyber attack data

Stepping out of Flatland: Discovering Behavior Patterns as Topological Structures in Cyber Hypergraphs

Data breaches and ransomware attacks occur so often that they have become part of our daily news cycle. This is due to a myriad of factors, including the increasing number of internet-of-things devices, shift to remote work during the pandemic, and advancement in adversarial techniques, which all contribute to the increase in both the complexity of data captured and the challenge of protecting our networks. At the same time, cyber research has made strides, leveraging advances in machine learning and natural language processing to focus on identifying sophisticated attacks that are known to evade conventional measures. While successful, the shortcomings of these methods, particularly the lack of interpretability, are inherent and difficult to overcome. Consequently, there is an ever-increasing need to develop new tools for analyzing cyber data to enable more effective attack detection. In this paper, we present a novel framework based in the theory of hypergraphs and topology to understand data from cyber networks through topological signatures, which are both flexible and can be traced back to the log data. While our approach's mathematical grounding requires some technical development, this pays off in interpretability, which we will demonstrate with concrete examples in a large-scale cyber network dataset. These examples are an introduction to the broader possibilities that lie ahead; our goal is to demonstrate the value of applying methods from the burgeoning fields of hypernetwork science and applied topology to understand relationships among behaviors in cyber data.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. This paper is written for a general audienc

Interleukin-1β Produced in Response to Islet Autoantigen Presentation Differentiates T-Helper 17 Cells at the Expense of Regulatory T-Cells: Implications for the Timing of Tolerizing Immunotherapy

OBJECTIVE-The effectiveness of tolerizing immunotherapeutic strategies, such as anti-CD40L or dendritic cells (DCs), is greater when administered to young nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice than at peak insulitis. RelB(lo) DCs, generated in the presence of an nuclear factor-kappa B inhibitor, induce T-regulatory (Treg) cells and suppress inflammation in a model of rheumatoid arthritis. Interleukin (IL)-1 beta is overexpressed in humans and mice at risk of type 1 diabetes, dysregulates Treg cells, and accelerates diabetes in NOD mice. We investigated the relationship between IL-1 beta production and the response to RelB(lo) DCs in the prediabetic period

Validation of an MRI-only planning workflow for definitive pelvic radiotherapy

Purpose: Previous work on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) only planning has been applied to limited treatment regions with a focus on male anatomy. This research aimed to validate the use of a hybrid multi-atlas synthetic computed tomography (sCT) generation technique from a MRI, using a female and male atlas, for MRI only radiation therapy treatment planning of rectum, anal canal, cervix and endometrial malignancies. Patients and methods: Forty patients receiving radiation treatment for a range of pelvic malignancies, were separated into male (n = 20) and female (n = 20) cohorts for the creation of gender specific atlases. A multi-atlas local weighted voting method was used to generate a sCT from a T1-weighted VIBE DIXON MRI sequence. The original treatment plans were copied from the CT scan to the corresponding sCT for dosimetric validation. Results: The median percentage dose difference between the treatment plan on the CT and sCT at the ICRU reference point for the male cohort was − 0.4% (IQR of 0 to − 0.6), and − 0.3% (IQR of 0 to − 0.6) for the female cohort. The mean gamma agreement for both cohorts was &gt; 99% for criteria of 3%/2 mm and 2%/2 mm. With dose criteria of 1%/1 mm, the pass rate was higher for the male cohort at 96.3% than the female cohort at 93.4%. MRI to sCT anatomical agreement for bone and body delineated contours was assessed, with a resulting Dice score of 0.91 ± 0.2 (mean ± 1 SD) and 0.97 ± 0.0 for the male cohort respectively; and 0.96 ± 0.0 and 0.98 ± 0.0 for the female cohort respectively. The mean absolute error in Hounsfield units (HUs) within the entire body for the male and female cohorts was 59.1 HU ± 7.2 HU and 53.3 HU ± 8.9 HU respectively. Conclusions: A multi-atlas based method for sCT generation can be applied to a standard T1-weighted MRI sequence for male and female pelvic patients. The implications of this study support MRI only planning being applied more broadly for both male and female pelvic sites. Trial registration This trial was registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) (www.anzctr.org.au) on 04/10/2017. Trial identifier ACTRN12617001406392.</p