The use of animal sensor data for predicting sheep metabolisable energy intake using machine learning

The use of sensors for monitoring livestock has opened up new possibilities for the management of livestock in extensive grazing systems. The work presented in this paper aimed to develop a model for predicting the metabolisable energy intake (MEI) of sheep by using temperature, pitch angle, roll angle, distance, speed, and grazing time data obtained directly from wearable sensors on the sheep. A Deep Belief Network (DBN) algorithm was used to predict MEI, which to our knowledge, has not been attempted previously. The results demonstrated that the DBN method could predict the MEI for sheep using sensor data alone. The mean square error (MSE) values of 4.46 and 20.65 have been achieved using the DBN model for training and testing datasets, respectively. We also evaluated the influential sensor data variables, i.e., distance and pitch angle, for predicting the MEI. Our study demonstrates that the application of machine learning techniques directly to on-animal sensor data presents a substantial opportunity to interpret biological interactions in grazing systems directly from sensor data. We expect that further development and refinement of this technology will catalyse a step-change in extensive livestock management, as wearable sensors become widely used by livestock producers

Bottom-up thermalization in heavy ion collisions

We describe how thermalization occurs in heavy ion collisions in the framework of perturbative QCD. When the saturation scale $Q_s$ is large compared to $\Lambda_{QCD}$, thermalization takes place during a time of order $\alpha^{-13/5}Q_s^{-1}$ and the maximal temperature achieved is $\alpha^{2/5}Q_s$.Comment: 11 pages; acknowledgement added; section IIIB slightly extended, version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Acute ST-segment myocardial infarction-evolution of treatment strategies

The commonest cause of acute myocardial infarction involves the rupture or erosion of vulnerable athero- sclerotic plaques followed by aggregation of platelets and subsequent thrombus formation, leading to par- tial or complete epicardial coronary arterial occlusion. Over the last 25 years, advancement in therapeutic options for acute myocardial infarction has resulted in substantial improvement in morbidity and mortal- ity. As a result, the absolute risk reduction of in-hos- pital deaths for patients presenting with STEMI has been on the decline in the last decade. The focus of the treatment for acute myocardial infarction invol- ves achieving epicardial and microvascular patency, prevention of recurrent ischaemic events while bal- ancing the risk of bleeding. This involves antiplatelet and antithrombotic therapies or fibrinolytic agents when timely performance of primary percutaneous coronary intervention is not possible. We review the evolution of treatment strategies for STEMI that has contributed to the improvement in patient outcome.Dennis T. L. Wong, Rishi Puri, Peter J. Psaltis, Stephen G. Worthley, Matthew I. Worthle

Effects of Pore Walls and Randomness on Phase Transitions in Porous Media

We study spin models within the mean field approximation to elucidate the topology of the phase diagrams of systems modeling the liquid-vapor transition and the separation of He$^3$--He$^4$ mixtures in periodic porous media. These topologies are found to be identical to those of the corresponding random field and random anisotropy spin systems with a bimodal distribution of the randomness. Our results suggest that the presence of walls (periodic or otherwise) are a key factor determining the nature of the phase diagram in porous media.Comment: REVTeX, 11 eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

The role of OCT-A in retinal disease management

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) is a non-invasive, non-dye-based imaging modality that has the potential to enhance our understanding of retinal diseases. While this rapidly advancing imaging modality offers great potential, there is a need for community-wide understanding of the range of technologies and methods for interpreting the images, as well as a need to enhance understanding of images from disease-free eyes for reference when screening for retinal diseases. Importantly, clinical trials have been designed without OCT-A-based endpoints; therefore, caution is required when making treatment decisions based on OCT-A imaging alone. With this in mind, a full understanding of the advantages and limitations of OCT-A will be vital for effective development of the technique within the field of ophthalmology. On behalf of the Vision Academy Steering Committee (sponsored by Bayer), this publication summarizes the views of the authors on the current use of OCT-A imaging and explores its potential for future applications in research and clinical practice

N and C Isotope Variations Along an Extreme Eutrophication and Salinity Gradient in the Coorong Lagoon, South Australia

The Coorong Lagoon is a unique hydrological and depositional system at the terminus of the Murray–Darling Basin, the largest river system in Australia. It exhibits large salinity, nutrient, and organic matter gradients, providing a modern analogue to study and validate the use of δ15N and δ13C as tracers of past and contemporary geochemical cycles in estuarine environments. To this end, water and surface sediment samples were analyzed for particulate organic nitrogen (PON) and carbon (POC) concentrations, and the respective δ15N and δ13C signatures of particulate nitrogen and carbon. PON and POC exhibited positive relationships to chlorophyll-a, indicating the dominance of phytoplankton production upon suspended organic matter. There was also a general trend of increasing δ15N of PON (δ15NPON) values and decreasing δ13C of particulate carbon (δ13CPC) values with increasing salinity and eutrophication in the restricted South Lagoon. In a multiple linear regression for δ15NPON, the best two predictors in combination are PON and C:N molar ratio, highlighting the importance of productivity and the type or source of organic matter. For δ13CPC, the best two predictors are total dissolved phosphorus and latitude, suggesting influences from productivity and proximity to the ocean. Sediment δ15N values across the Coorong Lagoon overlap with the δ15NPON in the water column, suggesting that PON derived from algal material represents the main source of nitrogen to lagoon sediments. We hypothesize that limited N loss via denitrification leads to PON being recycled almost exclusively to ammonium, due to low rates of nitrification and dominance of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). We propose that preferential volatilization of 14N in ammonia increases the δ15N of ammonium assimilated by phytoplankton, thereby increasing the δ15N within suspended organic matter and surface sediment in the South Lagoon. By contrast, the gradient exhibited in δ13CPC data was countered by a relatively constant sedimentary organic carbon δ13C. Data from the Coorong, therefore, suggest that δ15N values in sediments can be used to infer palaeoproductivity in this hypereutrophic and hypersaline depositional environment, however, the measured δ13CPC may be influenced by δ13CDIC or preferential loss of 13C during sedimentation that alter the sedimentary δ13C record of organic carbon.Stacey C. Priestley, Jonathan Tyler, Savannah R. Liebelt, Luke M. Mosley, Wei Wen Wong, Yuexiao Shao, Zara Woolston, Mark Farrell, David T. Welsh, Justin D. Brookes, Alan S. Collins, Chris Keneally, and Juraj Farka

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02