Extending the Ehresmann-Schein-Nambooripad Theorem

We extend the `join-premorphisms' part of the Ehresmann-Schein-Nambooripad Theorem to the case of two-sided restriction semigroups and inductive categories, following on from a result of Lawson (1991) for the `morphisms' part. However, it is so-called `meet-premorphisms' which have proved useful in recent years in the study of partial actions. We therefore obtain an Ehresmann-Schein-Nambooripad-type theorem for meet-premorphisms in the case of two-sided restriction semigroups and inductive categories. As a corollary, we obtain such a theorem in the inverse case.Comment: 23 pages; final section on Szendrei expansions removed; further reordering of materia

Active perception for plume source localisation with underwater gliders

© 2018 Australasian Robotics and Automation Association. All rights reserved. We consider the problem of localising an unknown underwater plume source in an energy-optimal manner. We first develop a specialised Gaussian process (GP) regression technique for estimating the source location given concentration measurements and an ambient flow field. Then, we use the GP upper confidence bound (GP-UCB) for active perception to choose sampling locations that both improve the estimate of the source and lead the glider to the correct source location. A trim-based FMT∗planner is then used to find the sequence of controls that minimise the energy consumption. We provide a theoretical guarantee on the performance of the algorithm, and demonstrate the algorithm using both artificial and experimental datasets

Online estimation of ocean current from sparse GPS data for underwater vehicles

© 2019 IEEE. Underwater robots are subject to position drift due to the effect of ocean currents and the lack of accurate localisation while submerged. We are interested in exploiting such position drift to estimate the ocean current in the surrounding area, thereby assisting navigation and planning. We present a Gaussian process (GP)-based expectation-maximisation (EM) algorithm that estimates the underlying ocean current using sparse GPS data obtained on the surface and dead-reckoned position estimates. We first develop a specialised GP regression scheme that exploits the incompressibility of ocean currents to counteract the underdetermined nature of the problem. We then use the proposed regression scheme in an EM algorithm that estimates the best-fitting ocean current in between each GPS fix. The proposed algorithm is validated in simulation and on a real dataset, and is shown to be capable of reconstructing the underlying ocean current field. We expect to use this algorithm to close the loop between planning and estimation for underwater navigation in unknown ocean currents

A case study of an 87-year-old male bodybuilder with complex health conditions

This exploratory clinical case report presents an 87-year-old man who began bodybuilding at the age of 76 years and was officially recognised as the world’s oldest competitive bodybuilder, competing until age 83. He has a background of complex health conditions including polio, strokes, cardiac arrest, atrial fibrillation, prostate disease, osteoarthritis, depression, bowel obstruction, reflux, and bladder cancer. Assessments of body composition, bone density, muscle performance, and diet-related practices were performed. The bodybuilder had superior fat-free mass, lower fat mass, and generally greater muscle performance compared to untrained healthy males of a similar age. Commencement of bodybuilding in older age appears to be possible, even with ongoing complex health conditions, and the potential benefits of this practice require systematic investigation in the future

The effect of surface flooding on the physical-biogeochemical dynamics of a warm-core eddy off southeast Australia

Warm-core eddies (WCEs) formed from the East Australian Current (EAC) play an important role in the heat, mass and biogeochemical budgets of the western Tasman Sea. The development and separation of an EAC WCE during July-December 2008 was observed using remotely sensed temperature, ocean colour and sea-level elevation, three Argo floats, a shipboard CTD, a shelf mooring array and a 15-day deployment of a Slocum glider. The eddy formed from an EAC meander during the first half of 2008 and in late August had a ~275m deep surface mixed layer. In the two months before separation in early December, fresher and warmer EAC water flooded the top of the eddy, submerging the winter mixed layer. The rate of vertical transport due to submergence was estimated to be between 1 and 6Sv, at the time accounting for a significant fraction of the mean southward flow of the EAC. The core of the eddy had a surface chlorophyll a concentration of <0.4mgm-3 throughout the observations. A 20-40m thick pycnocline formed at the interface of the flooding surface waters and the submerged layer. Chlorophyll a concentration in the pycnocline ranged from 0.5 to 2mgm-3, with depth-integrated concentration ranging between 25 and 75mgm-2. The development of a sub-surface maximum suggests that flooding increased light levels in the pycnocline. Elevated levels of coloured dissolved organic matter in the submerged layer correspond to oxygen depletion, suggesting respiration of organic matter. A comparison is made with observations from WCEs in 1978 and 1997 in which, unusually, surface flooding did not occur, but solar heating stratified the top 50m. In the two eddies with surface capping, surface chlorophyll a concentrations were an order of magnitude higher than the 2008 flooded eddy, but depth-integrated chlorophyll a was similar. These findings suggest that EAC WCEs with relatively shallow surface flooding contain more phytoplankton biomass than surface images would suggest, with the vertical position of the chlorophyll a maximum depending on whether, and to what depth, the winter surface mixed layer is submerged. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd

Behavioural responses to SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in England: REACT-2 study

Background: This study assesses the behavioural responses to SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-2 (REACT-2) research programme, a large community-based surveillance study of antibody prevalence in England. Methods: A follow-up survey was conducted six weeks after the SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. The follow-up survey included 4500 people with a positive result and 4039 with a negative result. Reported changes in behaviour were assessed using difference-in-differences models. A nested interview study was conducted with 40 people to explore how they thought through their behavioural decisions. Results: While respondents reduced their protective behaviours over the six weeks, we did not find evidence that positive test results changed participant behaviour trajectories in relation to the number of contacts the respondents had, for leaving the house to go to work, or for leaving the house to socialise in a personal place. The qualitative findings supported these results. Most people did not think that they had changed their behaviours because of their test results, however they did allude to some changes in their attitudes and perceptions around risk, susceptibility, and potential severity of symptoms. Conclusions: We found limited evidence that knowing your antibody status leads to behaviour change in the context of a research study. While this finding should not be generalised to widespread self-testing in other contexts, it is reassuring given the importance of large prevalence studies, and the practicalities of doing these at scale using self-testing with lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA)

Linked electronic health records for research on a nationwide cohort of more than 54 million people in England: data resource.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a novel England-wide electronic health record (EHR) resource enabling whole population research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease while ensuring data security and privacy and maintaining public trust. DESIGN: Data resource comprising linked person level records from national healthcare settings for the English population, accessible within NHS Digital's new trusted research environment. SETTING: EHRs from primary care, hospital episodes, death registry, covid-19 laboratory test results, and community dispensing data, with further enrichment planned from specialist intensive care, cardiovascular, and covid-19 vaccination data. PARTICIPANTS: 54.4 million people alive on 1 January 2020 and registered with an NHS general practitioner in England. MAIN MEASURES OF INTEREST: Confirmed and suspected covid-19 diagnoses, exemplar cardiovascular conditions (incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack and incident myocardial infarction) and all cause mortality between 1 January and 31 October 2020. RESULTS: The linked cohort includes more than 96% of the English population. By combining person level data across national healthcare settings, data on age, sex, and ethnicity are complete for around 95% of the population. Among 53.3 million people with no previous diagnosis of stroke or transient ischaemic attack, 98 721 had a first ever incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack between 1 January and 31 October 2020, of which 30% were recorded only in primary care and 4% only in death registry records. Among 53.2 million people with no previous diagnosis of myocardial infarction, 62 966 had an incident myocardial infarction during follow-up, of which 8% were recorded only in primary care and 12% only in death registry records. A total of 959 470 people had a confirmed or suspected covid-19 diagnosis (714 162 in primary care data, 126 349 in hospital admission records, 776 503 in covid-19 laboratory test data, and 50 504 in death registry records). Although 58% of these were recorded in both primary care and covid-19 laboratory test data, 15% and 18%, respectively, were recorded in only one. CONCLUSIONS: This population-wide resource shows the importance of linking person level data across health settings to maximise completeness of key characteristics and to ascertain cardiovascular events and covid-19 diagnoses. Although this resource was initially established to support research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease to benefit clinical care and public health and to inform healthcare policy, it can broaden further to enable a wide range of research

The Historical Context of the Gender Gap in Mathematics

This chapter is based on the talk that I gave in August 2018 at the ICM in Rio de Janeiro at the panel on "The Gender Gap in Mathematical and Natural Sciences from a Historical Perspective". It provides some examples of the challenges and prejudices faced by women mathematicians during last two hundred and fifty years. I make no claim for completeness but hope that the examples will help to shed light on some of the problems many women mathematicians still face today