Validity of resting heart rate derived from contact-based smartphone photoplethysmography compared with electrocardiography:a scoping review and checklist for optimal acquisition and reporting

Background: With the rise of smartphone ownership and increasing evidence to support the suitability of smartphone usage in healthcare, the light source and smartphone camera could be utilized to perform photoplethysmography (PPG) for the assessment of vital signs, such as heart rate (HR). However, until rigorous validity assessment has been conducted, PPG will have limited use in clinical settings.Objective: We aimed to conduct a scoping review assessing the validity of resting heart rate (RHR) acquisition from PPG utilizing contact-based smartphone devices. Our four specific objectives of this scoping review were to (1) conduct a systematic search of the published literature concerning contact-based smartphone device-derived PPG, (2) map study characteristics and methodologies, (3) identify if methodological and technological advancements have been made, and (4) provide recommendations for the advancement of the investigative area.Methods: ScienceDirect, PubMed and SPORTDiscus were searched for relevant studies between January 1st, 2007, and November 6th, 2022. Filters were applied to ensure only literature written in English were included. Reference lists of included studies were manually searched for additional eligible studies.Results: In total 10 articles were included. Articles varied in terms of methodology including study characteristics, index measurement characteristics, criterion measurement characteristics, and experimental procedure. Additionally, there were variations in reporting details including primary outcome measure and measure of validity. However, all studies reached the same conclusion, with agreement ranging between good to very strong and correlations ranging from r = .98 to 1.Conclusions: Smartphone applications measuring RHR derived from contact-based smartphone PPG appear to agree with gold standard electrocardiography (ECG) in healthy subjects. However, agreement was established under highly controlled conditions. Future research could investigate their validity and consider effective approaches that transfer these methods from laboratory conditions into the “real-world”, in both healthy and clinical populations

Regimes of thermo-compositional convection and related dynamos in rotating spherical shells

Convection and magnetic field generation in the Earth and planetary interiors are driven by both thermal and compositional gradients. In this work numerical simulations of finite-amplitude double-diffusive convection and dynamo action in rapidly rotating spherical shells full of incompressible two-component electrically-conducting fluid are reported. Four distinct regimes of rotating double-diffusive convection identified in a recent linear analysis (Silva, Mather and Simitev, Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 2019, 113, 377) are found to persist significantly beyond the onset of instability while their regime transitions remain abrupt. In the semi-convecting and the fingering regimes characteristic flow velocities are small compared to those in the thermally- and compositionally-dominated overturning regimes, while zonal flows remain weak in all regimes apart from the thermally-dominated one. Compositionally-dominated overturning convection exhibits significantly narrower azimuthal structures compared to all other regimes while differential rotation becomes the dominant flow component in the thermally-dominated case as driving is increased. Dynamo action occurs in all regimes apart from the regime of fingering convection. While dynamos persist in the semi-convective regime they are very much impaired by small flow intensities and very weak differential rotation in this regime which makes poloidal to toroidal field conversion problematic. The dynamos in the thermally-dominated regime include oscillating dipolar, quadrupolar and multipolar cases similar to the ones known from earlier parameter studies. Dynamos in the compositionally-dominated regime exhibit subdued temporal variation and remain predominantly dipolar due to weak zonal flow in this regime. These results significantly enhance our understanding of the primary drivers of planetary core flows and magnetic fields

The onset of thermo-compositional convection in rotating spherical shells

Double-diffusive convection driven by both thermal and compositional buoyancy in a rotating spherical shell can exhibit a rather large number of behaviours often distinct from that of the single diffusive system. In order to understand how the differences in thermal and compositional molecular diffusivities determine the dynamics of thermo-compositional convection we investigate numerically the linear onset of convective instability in a double-diffusive setup. We construct an alternative equivalent formulation of the non-dimensional equations where the linearised double-diffusive problem is described by an effective Rayleigh number, Ra, measuring the amplitude of the combined buoyancy driving, and a second parameter, α, measuring the mixing of the thermal and compositional contributions. This formulation is useful in that it allows for the analysis of several limiting cases and reveals dynamical similarities in the parameters space which are not obvious otherwise. We analyse the structure of the critical curves in this Ra−α space, explaining asymptotic behaviours in α, transitions between inertial and diffusive regimes, and transitions between large-scale (fast drift) and small-scale (slow drift) convection. We perform this analysis for a variety of diffusivities, rotation rates and shell aspect ratios showing where and when new modes of convection take place

Crowd-sourcing of structure-from-motion data for terrain modelling in a real-world disaster scenario:a proof of concept

Structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry techniques are now widely available to generate digital terrain models (DTMs) from optical imagery, providing an alternative to costlier options such as LiDAR or satellite surveys. SfM could be a useful tool in hazard studies because its minimal cost makes it accessible even in developing regions and its speed of use can provide updated data rapidly in hazard-prone regions. Our study is designed to assess whether crowd-sourced SfM data is comparable to an industry standard LiDAR dataset, demonstrating potential real-world use of SfM if employed for disaster risk reduction purposes. Three groups with variable SfM knowledge utilized 16 different camera models, including four camera phones, to collect 1001 total photos in one hour of data collection. Datasets collected by each group were processed using VisualSFM, and the point densities, accuracies and distributions of points in the resultant point clouds (DTM skeletons) were compared. Our results show that the point clouds are resilient to inconsistency in users’ SfM knowledge: crowd-sourced data collected by a moderately informed general public yields topography results comparable in data density and accuracy to those produced with data collected by highly-informed SfM users or experts using LiDAR. This means that in a real-world scenario involving participants with a diverse range of expertise, topography models could be produced from crowd-sourced data quite rapidly and to a very high standard. This could be beneficial to disaster risk reduction as a relatively quick, simple and low-cost method to attain rapidly updated knowledge of terrain attributes, useful for the prediction and mitigation of many natural hazards

Babesia microti, Upstate New York

Five cases of human babesiosis were reported in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York State in 2001. An investigation to determine if Babesia microti was present in local Ixodes scapularis ticks yielded 5 positive pools in 123 pools tested, the first detection of B. microti from field-collected I. scapularis in upstate New York

Excess Mucin Impairs Subglottic Epithelial Host Defense in Mechanically Ventilated Patients

Rationale: Aspiration of infective subglottic secretions causes ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in mechanically ventilated patients. Mechanisms underlying subglottic colonization in critical illness have not been defined, limiting strategies for targeted prevention of VAP. Objectives: To characterize subglottic host defense dysfunction in mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). To determine whether subglottic mucin contributes to neutrophil phagocytic impairment and bacterial growth. Methods: Prospective subglottic sampling in mechanically ventilated patients (intubated for four or more days), and newly intubated control patients (intubated for less than 30 minutes). Isolation and culture of primary subglottic epithelial cells from controls. Laboratory analysis of host innate immune defenses. Measurements and Main Results: Twenty-four patients in the ICU and 27 newly intubated control patients were studied. Subglottic ICU samples had significantly reduced microbiological diversity and contained potential respiratory pathogens. The subglottic microenvironment in ICU was characterized by neutrophilic inflammation, significantly increased pro-inflammatory cytokines and neutrophil proteases, and altered physical properties of subglottic secretions, including accumulation of mucins. Subglottic mucin from ICU patients impaired the capacity of neutrophils to phagocytose and kill bacteria. Phagocytic function was reversible upon treatment with a mucolytic agent. Subglottic mucus promoted growth and invasion of bacterial pathogens in a novel air-liquid interface model of primary human subglottic epithelium. Conclusions: Mechanical ventilation in ICU is characterized by substantial mucin secretion and neutrophilic inflammation. Mucin impairs neutrophil dysfunction and promotes bacterial growth. Mucolytic agents reverse mucin-mediated neutrophil dysfunction. Enhanced mucus disruption and removal has potential to augment preventive benefits of subglottic drainage

Working Title Films and Universal : The Integration of a British Production Company into a Hollywood Studio

Working Title Films is arguably the most successful and well-known production company in Britain today. For over 30 years, it has produced a diverse range of critically and commercially successful British films including romantic comedies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), family films like Bean (1997) and Nanny McPhee (2005) and dramas including Atonement (2007) and The Theory of Everything (2014). For the majority of its history, however, Working Title has been defined in business terms by its status as a subsidiary of one of two multinational media conglomerates, PolyGram (1992–8) and Universal (1998–present). The transition between the two began when PolyGram, and its film studio, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE), was sold to Seagram, the parent company of Universal. This article examines Working Title’s integration into Universal and the evolving media ecology which shaped the processes of development, green-lighting, production, marketing and distribution at play within and between both companies between 1998 and 2006. In these respects, Working Title’s transition between parent companies is a narrative of both continuity and change. Significantly, three key stages of gatekeeping remained common to both the PFE and Universal eras: development, green-lighting and distribution. The institutional perimeters within which these points of decision-making occurred, however, changed considerably. The article concludes by considering the impact of such structures and processes on the films which Working Title produced, particularly their various representations of Britain and ‘Britishness’

Differential antimicrobial susceptibility profiles between symptomatic and asymptomatic non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in Vietnamese children.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars, sequences types and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles have specific associations with animal and human infections in Vietnam. Antimicrobial resistance may have an effect on the manifestation of human NTS infections, with isolates from asymptomatic individuals being more susceptible to antimicrobials than those associated with animals and human diarrhoea

The role of animals as a source of antimicrobial resistant nontyphoidal Salmonella causing invasive and non-invasive human disease in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) are associated with both diarrhea and bacteremia. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is common in NTS in low-middle income countries, but the major source(s) of AMR NTS in humans are not known. Here, we aimed to assess the role of animals as a source of AMR in human NTS infections in Vietnam. We retrospectively combined and analyzed 672 NTS human and animal isolates from four studies in southern Vietnam and compared serovars, sequence types (ST), and AMR profiles. We generated a population structure of circulating organisms and aimed to attribute sources of AMR in NTS causing invasive and noninvasive disease in humans using Bayesian multinomial mixture models. RESULTS: Among 672 NTS isolates, 148 (22%) originated from human blood, 211 (31%) from human stool, and 313 (47%) from animal stool. The distribution of serovars, STs, and AMR profiles differed among sources; serovars Enteritidis, Typhimurium, and Weltevreden were the most common in human blood, human stool, and animals, respectively. We identified an association between the source of NTS and AMR profile; the majority of AMR isolates were isolated from human blood (p < 0.001). Modelling by ST-AMR profile found chickens and pigs were likely the major sources of AMR NTS in human blood and stool, respectively; but unsampled sources were found to be a major contributor. CONCLUSIONS: Antimicrobial use in food animals is hypothesized to play role in the emergence of AMR in human pathogens. Our cross-sectional population-based approach suggests a significant overlap between AMR in NTS in animals and humans, but animal NTS does explain the full extent of AMR in human NTS infections in Vietnam

The thinning of subcontinental lithosphere: The roles of plume impact and metasomatic weakening

Geologically rapid (tens of Myr) partial removal of thick continental lithosphere is evident beneath Precambrian terranes, such as North China Craton, southern Africa, and the North Atlantic Craton,and has been linked with thermomechanical erosion by mantle plumes. We performed numerical experiments with realistic viscosities to test this hypothesis and constrain the most important parameters that influence cratonic lithosphere erosion. Our models indicate that the thermomechanical erosion by a plume impact on typical Archean lithospheric mantle is unlikely to be more effective than long-term erosion from normal plate-mantle interaction. Therefore, unmodified cratonic roots that have been stable for billions of years will not be significantly disrupted by the erosion of a plume event. However, the buoyancy and strength of highly depleted continental roots can be modified by fluid-melt metasomatism, and our models show that this is essential for the thinning of originally stable continental roots. The long-term but punctuated history of metasomatic enrichment beneath ancient continents makes this mode of weakening very likely. The effect of the plume impact is to speed up the erosion significantly and help the removal of the lithospheric root to occur within tens of Myr if affected by metasomatic weakening