The soundscape of neonatal intensive care: a mixed-methods study of the parents’ experience

Parents who have infants hospitalised in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) experience high levels of stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, whether sounds contribute to parents’ stress remains largely unknown. Critically, researchers lack a com-prehensive instrument to investigate the relationship between sounds in NICUs and parental stress. To address this gap, this report presents the “Soundscape of NICU Questionnaire” (SON-Q), which was developed specifically to capture parents’ perceptions and beliefs about the impact that sound had on them and their infants, from pre-birth throughout the NICU stay and in the first postdischarge period. Parents of children born preterm (n = 386) completed the SON-Q and the Perinatal PTSD Questionnaire (PPQ). Principal Component Analysis identifying underly-ing dimensions comprising the parental experience of the NICU soundscape was followed by an exploration of the relationships between subscales of the SON-Q and the PPQ. Moderation analy-sis was carried out to further elucidate relationships between variables. Finally, thematic analy-sis was employed to analyse one memory of sounds in NICU open question. The results highlight systematic associations between aspects of the NICU soundscape and parental stress/trauma. The findings underscore the importance of developing specific studies in this area and devising inter-ventions to best support parents’ mental health, which could in turn support infants’ develop-mental outcomes

On the estimation of time dependent lift of a European Starling during flapping

We study the role of unsteady lift in the context of flapping wings in birds' flight. Both aerodynamicists and biologists attempt to address this subject, yet it seems that the contribution of the unsteady lift still holds many open questions. The current study deals with the estimation of unsteady aerodynamic forces on a freely flying bird through analysis of wingbeat kinematics and near wake flow measurements using time resolved particle image velocimetry. The aerodynamic forces are obtained through unsteady thin airfoil theory and lift calculation using the momentum equation for viscous flows. The unsteady lift is comprised of circulatory and non-circulatory components. Both are presented over wingbeat cycles. Using long sampling data, several wingbeat cycles have been analyzed in order to cover the downstroke and upstroke phases. It appears that the lift varies over the wingbeat cycle emphasizing its contribution to the total lift and its role in power estimations. It is suggested that the circulatory lift component cannot assumed to be negligible and should be considered when estimating lift or power of birds in flapping motion

Post-ISCO Ringdown Amplitudes in Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral

An extreme mass ratio inspiral consists of two parts: adiabatic inspiral and plunge. The plunge trajectory from the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) is special (somewhat independent of initial conditions). We write an expression for its solution in closed-form and for the emitted waveform. In particular we extract an expression for the associated black-hole ringdown amplitudes, and evaluate them numerically.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. v4: added section with numerical evaluation of the ringdown amplitude

An efficient CDMA decoder for correlated information sources

We consider the detection of correlated information sources in the ubiquitous Code-Division Multiple-Access (CDMA) scheme. We propose a message-passing based scheme for detecting correlated sources directly, with no need for source coding. The detection is done simultaneously over a block of transmitted binary symbols (word). Simulation results are provided demonstrating a substantial improvement in bit-error-rate in comparison with the unmodified detector and the alternative of source compression. The robustness of the error-performance improvement is shown under practical model settings, including wrong estimation of the generating Markov transition matrix and finite-length spreading codes.Comment: 11 page

A new measurement of the 7Li(d,p)8Li cross section and consequences for 7Be(p,gamma)8B

A novel scheme for measuring the cross section of the 7Be(p,gamma)8B reaction, the major source of high energy neutrinos from t he sun, is presented. The scheme involves a strictly uniform particle beam and overcomes some of the recognized experimental uncertainties of previous measurements. A new measurement of sigma[7Li(d,p)8Li] has been carried out using this setup,and the present value of sigma[7Li(d,p)8Li] = 155(8) mbarn at the top of the E_d(lab.)= 776 keV resonance is compared to previous measurements. A new issue regarding both the (d,p) and (p,gamma) reactions has been examined: reaction-product nuclei which are backscattered out of the target. Measurements and simulations carried out in the course of this investigation are presented and discussed in the context of possible effects on the measured cross sections of these reactions.Comment: 4 figure

Enhanced UV-Reflection Facilitated a Shift in the Pollination System of the Red Poppy, Papaver rhoeas (Papaveraceae)

Evolutionary change is considered a major factor influencing the invasion of new habitats by plants. Yet, evidence on how such modifications promote range expansion remains rather limited. Here we investigated flower color modifications in the red poppy, Papaver rhoeas (Papaveraceae), as a result of its introduction into Central Europe and the impact of those modifications on its interactions with pollinators. We found that while flowers of Eastern Mediterranean poppies reflect exclusively in the red part of the spectrum, those of Central European poppies reflect both red and ultraviolet (UV) light. This change coincides with a shift from pollination by glaphyrid beetles (Glaphyridae) to bees. Glaphyrids have red-sensitive photoreceptors that are absent in bees, which therefore will not be attracted by colors of exclusively red-reflecting flowers. However, UV-reflecting flowers are easily detectable by bees, as revealed by visual modeling. In the North Mediterranean, flowers with low and high UV reflectance occur sympatrically. We hypothesize that Central European populations of P. rhoeas were initially polymorphic with respect to their flower color and that UV reflection drove a shift in the pollination system of P. rhoeas that facilitated its spread across Europe

High and Low Dimensions in The Black Hole Negative Mode

The negative mode of the Schwarzschild black hole is central to Euclidean quantum gravity around hot flat space and for the Gregory-Laflamme black string instability. We analyze the eigenvalue as a function of space-time dimension by constructing two perturbative expansions: one for large d and the other for small d-3, and determining as many coefficients as we are able to compute analytically. Joining the two expansions we obtain an interpolating rational function accurate to better than 2% through the whole range of dimensions including d=4.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. v2: added reference. v3: published versio

Randomized Trials of Retosiban Versus Placebo or Atosiban in Spontaneous Preterm Labor.

OBJECTIVE:  The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of retosiban in spontaneous preterm labor (sPTL). STUDY DESIGN:  Two multicenter, randomized, and double-blind trials compared retosiban with placebo and retosiban with atosiban in women with a singleton pregnancy and intact membranes in sPTL at 24 to 336/7 weeks' gestation. Coprimary endpoints in the placebo-controlled trial were time to delivery (TTD) or treatment failure (whichever occurred first) and neonatal composite morbidity and mortality. The primary endpoint of the atosiban comparator trial was TTD. RESULTS:  The trials were terminated early because of slow recruitment. The placebo-controlled trial enrolled 23 participants (February 2016-July 2017; 2.6% of target);the atosiban-comparator trial enrolled 97 (March 2015-August 2017; 29% of target). Baseline participant characteristics were similar between treatments. In the placebo-controlled trial, mean gestational ages at randomization were 30.8 (retosiban, n = 10) and 30.5 weeks (placebo, n = 13), and mean times to delivery/treatment failure were 18.9 days (retosiban) and 11.1 days (placebo). Two and four neonates in the retosiban and placebo groups, respectively, had ≥1 component of the neonatal composite endpoint. In the atosiban-comparator trial, mean gestational age at randomization was 31.5 weeks (for both retosiban, n = 47, and atosiban, n = 50), and adjusted mean TTDs were 32.51 days (retosiban) and 33.71 days (atosiban; p > 0.05). Adverse events were no more common with retosiban than placebo or atosiban. CONCLUSION:  Despite considerable efforts to conduct two adequate and well-controlled studies in patients with sPTL, both studies were unable to recruit effectively and consequently terminated prematurely. Key factors negatively affecting participation were patient and physician resistance to use of a placebo comparator, lack of investigator consensus on diagnostic criteria and acceptance of protocol procedures, and ethics committee decisions. Meaningful cooperation between pharmaceutical companies, regulatory authorities, and the obstetric community is essential for future development of drugs to treat sPTL

High Thermoelectric Performance in PbSe–NaSbSe2 Alloys from Valence Band Convergence and Low Thermal Conductivity

PbSe is an attractive thermoelectric material due to its favorable electronic structure, high melting point, and lower cost compared to PbTe. Herein, the hitherto unexplored alloys of PbSe with NaSbSe2 (NaPbmSbSem+2) are described and the most promising p‐type PbSe‐based thermoelectrics are found among them. Surprisingly, it is observed that below 500 K, NaPbmSbSem+2 exhibits unorthodox semiconducting‐like electrical conductivity, despite possessing degenerate carrier densities of ≈1020 cm−3. It is shown that the peculiar behavior derives from carrier scattering by the grain boundaries. It is further demonstrated that the high solubility of NaSbSe2 in PbSe augments both the thermoelectric properties while maintaining a rock salt structure. Namely, density functional theory calculations and photoemission spectroscopy demonstrate that introduction of NaSbSe2 lowers the energy separation between the L‐ and Σ‐valence bands and enhances the power factors under 700 K. The crystallographic disorder of Na+, Pb2+, and Sb3+ moreover provides exceptionally strong point defect phonon scattering yielding low lattice thermal conductivities of 1–0.55 W m‐1 K‐1 between 400 and 873 K without nanostructures. As a consequence, NaPb10SbSe12 achieves maximum ZT ≈1.4 near 900 K when optimally doped. More importantly, NaPb10SbSe12 maintains high ZT across a broad temperature range, giving an estimated record ZTavg of ≈0.64 between 400 and 873 K, a significant improvement over existing p‐type PbSe thermoelectrics.The high solubility of NaSbSe2 in PbSe is exploited to facilitate convergence of L‐ and Σ‐valence bands and to produce strong point defect phonon scattering. These processes yield enhanced power factors and low lattice thermal conductivity over ≈300–700 K, which together give NaPb10SbSe12 outstanding thermoelectric performance with a maximum ZT ≈ 1.4 at 873 K and ZTavg ≈0.64 over 400–873 K.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151353/1/aenm201901377.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151353/2/aenm201901377-sup-0001-S1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151353/3/aenm201901377_am.pd

Weak Electron Phonon Coupling and Deep Level Impurity for High Thermoelectric Performance Pb1â xGaxTe

High ZT of 1.34 at 766 K and a record high average ZT above 1 in the temperature range of 300â 864 K are attained in nâ type PbTe by engineering the temperatureâ dependent carrier concentration and weakening electronâ phonon coupling upon Ga doping. The experimental studies and first principles band structure calculations show that doping with Ga introduces a shallow level impurity contributing extrinsic carriers and imparts a deeper impurity level that ionizes at higher temperatures. This adjusts the carrier concentration closer to the temperatureâ dependent optimum and thus maximizes the power factor in a wide temperature range. The maximum power factor of 35 µW cmâ 1 Kâ 2 is achieved for the Pb0.98Ga0.02Te compound, and is maintained over 20 µWcmâ 1 Kâ 2 from 300 to 767 K. Band structure calculations and Xâ ray photoelectron spectroscopy corroborate the amphoteric role of Ga in PbTe as the origin of shallow and deep levels. Additionally, Ga doping weakens the electronâ phonon coupling, leading to high carrier mobilities in excess of 1200 cm2 Vâ 1 sâ 1. Enhanced point defect phonon scattering yields a reduced lattice thermal conductivity. This work provides a new avenue, beyond the conventional shallow level doping, for further improving the average ZT in thermoelectric materials.Ga doping in PbTe not only induces a shallow level impurity but also imparts a deeper impurity level that ionizes at higher temperatures, facilitating the engineering of the temperatureâ dependent carrier concentration, maximizing the power factor over a wider temperature range. This work provides a new avenue, beyond the conventional shallow level doping, for further improving the average ZT in thermoelectric materials.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145409/1/aenm201800659.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145409/2/aenm201800659_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145409/3/aenm201800659-sup-0001-S1.pd