Pub crawling at scale:tapping untappd to explore social drinking

There has been a recent surge of research looking at the reporting of food consumption on social media. The topic of alcohol consumption, however, remains poorly investigated. Social media has the potential to shed light on a topic that, traditionally, is difficult to collect fine-grained information on. One social app stands out in this regard: Untappd is an app that allows users to ‘check-in’ their consumption of beers. It operates in a similar fashion to other location-based applications, but is specifically tailored to the collection of information on beer consumption. In this paper, we explore beer consumption through the lens of social media. We crawled Untappd in real time over a period of 112 days, across 40 cities in the United States and Europe. Using this data, we shed light on the drinking habits of over 369k users. We focus on per-user and per-city characterisation, highlighting key behavioural trends

Stock assessment of Queensland east coast dusky flathead (Platycephalus fuscus), Australia, with data to December 2020

In Queensland, dusky flathead (Platycephalus fuscus) are found in inshore waters of east coastal regions from south of Cairns to the New South Wales (NSW) border and targeted by commercial, charter and recreational fishers. Dusky flathead are a gonochore (born male or female and does not change sex) and spawn primarily in the summer months. Female dusky flathead grow much larger and live longer than males. For Queensland’s east coast, they generally attain maximum average length of 85 cm (total length) and live for 11 years. Dusky flathead are believed to be a single population on the east coast of Queensland. Eighteen scenarios were run to cover a range of modelling assumptions and sensitivity tests for the stock model. Base case (most plausible) results suggested that the dusky flathead biomass experienced a decline in the period of 1901–2000 to reach 30% unfished spawning biomass (Figure 3). At the beginning of 2021, the stock level was estimated to be 46% unfished biomass with the 95% confidence interval between 31% and 62%. The East coast inshore fishery harvest strategy: 2021–2026 identifies a target reference point (Btarg) of between 50 and 60 % for tier 2 species within the fishery which applies to dusky flathead (Fisheries Queensland (2021b)). This variation in biomass targets for tier 2 species recognises different biological and economic characteristics among target species in the fishery. The equilibrium yield curve produced as part of this assessment suggests that a 50 % target reference point would maintain the stock in a more productive state than a 60 % target, and is therefore likely to be the most reflective of MEY. The harvest consistent with maintaining a spawning biomass of 50% was estimated at 138 t and for rebuilding the stock back to 50% target, the assessment recommends a biological catch of 106 t for 2021. The harvest consistent with maintaining a spawning biomass of 60% was estimated at 112 t. For a 60% target, the assessment recommends a biological catch of 60 t for 2021(Table 1)

Stock Assessment of Queensland East Coast black jewfish (Protonibea diacanthus), Australia, with data to December 2021

Black jewfish (Protonibea diacanthus) are caught on the east coast of Queensland by commercial, recreational, charter and Indigenous fishers. The fishery is focused around Central Queensland, and has recently experienced a large shift in commercial effort and gear types. The species was historically considered a byproduct species within the inshore net fishery, but has now become a targeted line caught species. In Australia, black jewfish are found from Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia, north and east across Northern Australia, to the east coast of Queensland. Research suggests that stocks cover hundreds of kilometres. This is the first stock assessment of the Queensland East Coast stock. The stock assessment was conducted on calendar years and included input data through to December 2021. Eight model scenarios were run, covering different combinations of recreational dead catch and population steepness (productivity parameter). Base case (preferred) scenario results suggested that biomass declined gradually from the 1940s to the 1980s and has increased slightly since then. The spawning stock level at the beginning of 2022 for base-case scenarios was estimated to be between 56% and 99% with a median estimate of 79%. The estimates from other scenarios ranged from 80% to 92%. Despite high uncertainty around the exact level of biomass, the model outputs indicate that the biomass is probably at or above the target reference point of 60% unfished biomass

Boolean network model predicts cell cycle sequence of fission yeast

A Boolean network model of the cell-cycle regulatory network of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces Pombe) is constructed solely on the basis of the known biochemical interaction topology. Simulating the model in the computer, faithfully reproduces the known sequence of regulatory activity patterns along the cell cycle of the living cell. Contrary to existing differential equation models, no parameters enter the model except the structure of the regulatory circuitry. The dynamical properties of the model indicate that the biological dynamical sequence is robustly implemented in the regulatory network, with the biological stationary state G1 corresponding to the dominant attractor in state space, and with the biological regulatory sequence being a strongly attractive trajectory. Comparing the fission yeast cell-cycle model to a similar model of the corresponding network in S. cerevisiae, a remarkable difference in circuitry, as well as dynamics is observed. While the latter operates in a strongly damped mode, driven by external excitation, the S. pombe network represents an auto-excited system with external damping.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Special Considerations in Randomized Trials Investigating Neonatal Surgical Treatments

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are challenging, but are the studies most likely to change practice and benefit patients. RCTs investigating neonatal surgical therapies are rare. The Necrotizing Enterocolitis Surgery Trial (NEST) was the first surgical RCT conducted by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Neonatal Research Network (NRN), and multiple lessons were learned. NEST was conducted over a 7.25-year enrollment period and the primary outcome was death or neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) at 18-22 months corrected age. Surgical investigators designing clinical trials involving neonatal surgical treatments have many considerations to include, including how to study eligible but non-randomized patients, heterogeneity of treatment effect, use of frequentist and Bayesian analyses, assessment of generalizability, and anticipating criticisms during peer review. Surgeons are encouraged to embrace these challenges and seek innovative methods to acquire evidence that will be used to improve patient outcomes

Laser Guide Stars for Extremely Large Telescopes: Efficient Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Design using Weighted center-of-gravity algorithm

Over the last few years increasing consideration has been given to the study of Laser Guide Stars (LGS) for the measurement of the disturbance introduced by the atmosphere in optical and near-infrared astronomical observations from the ground. A possible method for the generation of a LGS is the excitation of the Sodium layer in the upper atmosphere at approximately 90 km of altitude. Since the Sodium layer is approximately 10 km thick, the artificial reference source looks elongated, especially when observed from the edge of a large aperture. The spot elongation strongly limits the performance of the most common wavefront sensors. The centroiding accuracy in a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, for instance, decreases proportionally to the elongation (in a photon noise dominated regime). To compensate for this effect a straightforward solution is to increase the laser power, i.e. to increase the number of detected photons per subaperture. The scope of the work presented in this paper is twofold: an analysis of the performance of the Weighted Center of Gravity algorithm for centroiding with elongated spots and the determination of the required number of photons to achieve a certain average wavefront error over the telescope aperture.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure

Pub crawling at scale: tapping Untappd to explore social drinking

There has been a recent surge of research looking at the reporting of food consumption on social media. The topic of alcohol consumption, however, remains poorly investigated. Social media has the potential to shed light on a topic that, traditionally, is difficult to collect fine-grained information on. One social app stands out in this regard: Untappd is an app that allows users to ‘check-in’ their consumption of beers. It operates in a similar fashion to other location-based applications, but is specifically tailored to the collection of information on beer consumption. In this paper, we explore beer consumption through the lens of social media. We crawled Untappd in real time over a period of 112 days, across 40 cities in the United States and Europe. Using this data, we shed light on the drinking habits of over 369k users. We focus on per-user and per-city characterisation, highlighting key behavioural trends

The eIF4G homolog DAP5/p97 supports the translation of select mRNAs during endoplasmic reticulum stress

DAP5/p97 is a member of the eIF4G family of translation initiation factors that has been suggested to play an important role in the translation of select messenger RNA molecules. We have shown previously that the caspase-cleaved form of DAP5/p97, termed p86, is required for the induction of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-responsive internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the caspase inhibitor HIAP2. We show here that expression of DAP5/p97 is enhanced during ER stress by selective recruitment of DAP5/p97 mRNA into polysomes via the DAP5/p97 IRES. Importantly, enhanced translation mediated by the DAP5/p97 IRES is dependent on DAP5/p97 itself, thus providing a positive feedback loop. In addition, we show that activation of DAP5/p97 and HIAP2 IRES during ER stress requires DAP5/p97. Significantly, the induction of DAP5/p97 during ER stress is caspase-independent, whereas the induction of HIAP2 requires proteolytic processing of DAP5/p97. Thus, DAP5/p97 is a translational activator that selectively modulates translation of specific mRNAs during conditions of cellular stress in both a caspase-dependent and caspase-independent manner

Performance of Queensland’s net-free zones

On 1 November 2015, three net-free zones (NFZs) were established in the Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton regions. The objective of the NFZs is for recreational fishers to catch more and bigger fish, which will increase their enjoyment of recreational fishing in the region. If this occurs, fishers are likely to travel from further afield to fish NFZs, thereby supporting local businesses and tourism. To examine the impact of the NFZs on recreational fishing, surveys were undertaken at local boat ramps and tackle shops from 2015–18. These surveys examined: • if fishing effort has increased • whether important recreational fish species were larger and more commonly caught • if fishers travelled further to fish the NFZs • if recreational fishers’ satisfaction and expectations of fishing in NFZs have changed through time. The results of these surveys were compared to a combined set of reference areas (other areas in Queensland where NFZs were not introduced in November 2015) to assess the impacts of the NFZs relative to other trends in recreational fishing through time. The full benefits of NFZs on the number and size of fish caught by recreational fishers are likely to take time to emerge, however recreational fishers are now harvesting larger barred javelin in the Rockhampton NFZ compared to the reference areas, which have not changed. In 2016 and 2017 Barramundi kept by recreational fishers in the Rockhampton NFZ were also larger than the reference areas. The size or number of fish caught by recreational fishers has not increased in the Mackay or Cairns NFZs. More fishers are travelling further to fish the Rockhampton NFZ since it was created in November 2015. This is likely due to the high levels of community engagement and awareness in Rockhampton, with the council and local groups supporting and promoting the NFZ. The number of trailers counted at the boat ramps has remained steady at all NFZs and reference areas since the NFZs were implemented. Recreational fishers’ satisfaction with fishing in the NFZs is generally positive and appears to be increasing. Overall, fishing satisfaction over the previous 12 months was greater in 2018 than in 2015 or 2016. In Cairns and Rockhampton, satisfaction was similar between years, but in Mackay satisfaction was significantly greater in 2016 and 2018 than 2015. In 2018, recreational fishers in the NFZs were more satisfied with the following activities compared to 2015 and 2016: more exciting fights with fish; the number and size of fish caught; the quality of fishing in the area. Expectations varied depending on the NFZ and frequency of fishing. Interestingly, while catching a fish is important to recreational fishers, many people stated that it is not necessary for a satisfying fishing trip. Generally, the effects of NFZs have been positive for recreational fishing. The predicted flow-on benefits of NFZs (e.g. tourism) requires that fishers are satisfied with their fishing trips, which depends largely on them catching more targeted species. As NFZs age, they might produce stronger effects on recreational fishing catches, but these effects will vary between regions due to the area covered by the NFZ, environmental factors such as floods and drought, and the reproductive and migratory capabilities of the targeted fish and their prey. Monitoring the performance of NFZs will continue as part of Fisheries Queensland’s Fisheries Monitoring program

Impact of a Novel Adaptive Optimization Algorithm on 30-Day Readmissions Evidence From the Adaptive CRT Trial

AbstractObjectivesThis study investigated the impact of the Medtronic AdaptivCRT (aCRT) (Medtronic, Mounds View, Minnesota) algorithm on 30-day readmissions after heart failure (HF) and all-cause index hospitalizations.BackgroundThe U.S. Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, which includes a focus on HF, reduces Medicare inpatient payments when readmissions within 30 days of discharge exceed a moving threshold based on national averages and hospital-specific risk adjustments. Internationally, readmissions within 30 days of any discharge may attract reduced or no payment. Recently, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices equipped with the aCRT algorithm allowing automated ambulatory device programming were introduced. The Adaptive CRT trial demonstrated the algorithm’s safety and comparable outcome against a rigorous echocardiography-based optimization protocol.MethodsWe analyzed data from the Adaptive CRT trial, which randomized patients undergoing CRT defibrillation on a 2:1 basis to aCRT (n = 318) or to CRT with echocardiographic optimization (Echo, n = 160) and followed up these patients for a mean of 20.2 months (range: 0.2 to 31.3 months). Logistic regression with generalized estimating equation methodology was used to compare the proportion of patients hospitalized for HF and for all causes who had a readmission within 30 days.ResultsFor HF hospitalizations, the 30-day readmission rate was 19.1% (17 of 89) in the aCRT group and 35.7% (15 of 42) in the Echo group (odds ratio: 0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.19 to 0.86; p = 0.02). For all-cause hospitalization, the 30-day readmission rate was 14.8% (35 of 237) in the aCRT group compared with 24.8% (39 of 157) in the Echo group (odds ratio: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.94; p = 0.03). The risk of readmission after HF or all-cause index hospitalization with aCRT was also significantly reduced beyond 30 days.ConclusionsUse of the aCRT algorithm is associated with a significant reduction in the probability of a 30-day readmission after both HF and all-cause hospitalizations. (Adaptive Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Study [aCRT]; NCT00980057