Epileptic multi-seizure type classification using electroencephalogram signals from the Temple University Hospital Seizure Corpus:A review

Epilepsy is one of the most paramount neurological diseases, affecting about 1% of the world's population. Seizure detection and classification are difficult tasks and are ongoing challenges in biomedical signal processing to enhance medical diagnosis. This paper presents and highlights the unique frequency and amplitude information found within multiple seizure types, including their morphologies, to aid the development of future seizure classification algorithms. Whilst many published works in the literature have reported on seizure detection using electroencephalogram (EEG), there has yet to be an exhaustive review detailing multi-seizure type classification using EEG. Therefore, this paper also includes a detailed review of multi-seizure type classification performance based on the Temple University Hospital Seizure Corpus (TUSZ) dataset for focal and generalised classification, and multi-seizure type classification. Deep learning techniques have a higher overall average performance for focal and generalised classification compared to machine learning techniques, whereas hybrid deep learning approaches have the highest overall average performance for multi-seizure type classification. Finally, this paper also highlights the limitations of the TUSZ dataset and suggests some future work, including the curation of a standardised training and testing dataset from the TUSZ that would allow a proper comparison of classification methods and spur advancement in the field.</p

Neutrino flavor conversion in a neutrino background: single- versus multi-particle description

In the early Universe, or near a supernova core, neutrino flavor evolution may be affected by coherent neutrino-neutrino scattering. We develop a microscopic picture of this phenomenon. We show that coherent scattering does not lead to the formation of entangled states in the neutrino ensemble and therefore the evolution of the system can always be described by a set of one-particle equations. We also show that the previously accepted formalism overcounts the neutrino interaction energy; the correct one-particle evolution equations for both active-active and active-sterile oscillations contain additional terms. These additional terms modify the index of refraction of the neutrino medium, but have no effect on oscillation physics.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, minor typos correcte

Micron scale thermometry using lanthanide doped tellurite glass

Conference 11200 - AOS Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT) and Australian Conference on Optics, Lasers, and Spectroscopy (ACOLS) 2019Nanoscale thermometry of biological systems offers new insights into cell metabolism at a sub-cellular scale. Currently, there is no way in which we can achieve high resolution temperature sensing on these systems without the use of foreign materials such as biological markers. Using rare-earth doped tellurite glass as a platform for thermometry, we report micron scale scale temperature sensing via confocal scanning microscopy. We demonstrate this technique by monitoring the cooling from a water droplet and report a net temperature change of 7.04K with a sensitivity of 0.12K. These results pave the way for "marker free" micron scale temperature sensing in biological systems.Daniel Stavrevski, Erik P. Schartner, Amanda Abraham, Ivan Maksymov, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Robert A. McLaughlin, and Andrew D. Greentre

Constraints on Large Extra Dimensions with Bulk Neutrinos

We consider right-handed neutrinos propagating in $\delta$ (large) extra dimensions, whose only coupling to Standard Model fields is the Yukawa coupling to the left-handed neutrino and the Higgs boson. These theories are attractive as they can explain the smallness of the neutrino mass, as has already been shown. We show that if $\delta$ is bigger than two, there are strong constraints on the radius of the extra dimensions, resulting from the experimental limit on the probability of an active state to mix into the large number of sterile Kaluza-Klein states of the bulk neutrino. We also calculate the bounds on the radius resulting from requiring that perturbative unitarity be valid in the theory, in an imagined Higgs-Higgs scattering channel.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, revtex4. v2: Minor typos corrected, references adde

The Magnificent Seven: Magnetic fields and surface temperature distributions

Presently seven nearby radio-quiet isolated neutron stars discovered in ROSAT data and characterized by thermal X-ray spectra are known. They exhibit very similar properties and despite intensive searches their number remained constant since 2001 which led to their name ``The Magnificent Seven''. Five of the stars exhibit pulsations in their X-ray flux with periods in the range of 3.4 s to 11.4 s. XMM-Newton observations revealed broad absorption lines in the X-ray spectra which are interpreted as cyclotron resonance absorption lines by protons or heavy ions and / or atomic transitions shifted to X-ray energies by strong magnetic fields of the order of 10^13 G. New XMM-Newton observations indicate more complex X-ray spectra with multiple absorption lines. Pulse-phase spectroscopy of the best studied pulsars RX J0720.4-3125 and RBS 1223 reveals variations in derived emission temperature and absorption line depth with pulse phase. Moreover, RX J0720.4-3125 shows long-term spectral changes which are interpreted as due to free precession of the neutron star. Modeling of the pulse profiles of RX J0720.4-3125 and RBS 1223 provides information about the surface temperature distribution of the neutron stars indicating hot polar caps which have different temperatures, different sizes and are probably not located in antipodal positions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science, in the proceedings of "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface", edited by D. Page, R. Turolla and S. Zan

Impacts of agriculture on the parasite communities of northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) in southern Quebec, Canada

Given that numerous amphibians are suffering population declines, it is becoming increasingly important to examine the relationship between disease and environmental disturbance. Indeed, while many studies relate anthropogenic activity to changes in the parasitism of snails and fishes, little is known of the impact on the parasites of amphibians, particularly from agriculture. For 2 years, the parasite communities of metamorphic northern leopard frogs from 7 agricultural wetlands were compared with those from 2 reference wetlands to study differences in parasite community diversity and abundance of various species under pristine conditions and 3 categories of disturbance: only agricultural landscape, only pesticides, and agricultural landscape with pesticides. Agricultural (and urban) area was negatively related to species richness, and associated with the near absence of adult parasites and species that infect birds or mammals. We suggest that agriculture and urbanization may hinder parasite transmission to frogs by limiting access of other vertebrate hosts of their parasites to wetlands. The only parasite found at all localities was an unidentified echinostome infecting the kidneys. This parasite dominated communities in localities surrounded by the most agricultural land, suggesting generalist parasites may persist in disrupted habitats. Community composition was associated with dissolved organic carbon and conductivity, but few links were found with pesticides. Pollution effects may be masked by a strong impact of land use on parasite transmission

Two new species of Cyperus (Cyperaceae) from Brazil

Abstract Two new species of Cyperus L. (Cyperaceae), both from Brazil, are described and compared to near relatives. Cyperus hooperae is described from two collections from the Chapada do Veadeiros in the State of Goiás; it is most similar to C. refractus of the southeastern U.S. Cyperus thomasii is described from a single collection from the municipality of Caruaru in Pernambuco; it is most similar to C. granatensis of Colombia. Following IUCN standards, both are considered threatened

Optical fibre-enabled photoswitching for localised activation of an anti-cancer therapeutic drug

Local activation of an anti-cancer drug when and where needed can improve selectivity and reduce undesirable side effects. Photoswitchable drugs can be selectively switched between active and inactive states by illumination with light; however, the clinical development of these drugs has been restricted by the difficulty in delivering light deep into tissue where needed. Optical fibres have great potential for light delivery in vivo, but their use in facilitating photoswitching in anti-cancer compounds has not yet been explored. In this paper, a photoswitchable chemotherapeutic is switched using an optical fibre, and the cytotoxicity of each state is measured against HCT-116 colorectal cancer cells. The performance of optical-fibre-enabled photoswitching is characterised through its dose response. The UV–Vis spectra confirm light delivered by an optical fibre effectively enables photoswitching. The activated drug is shown to be twice as effective as the inactive drug in causing cancer cell death, characterised using an MTT assay and fluorescent microscopy. This is the first study in which a photoswitchable anti-cancer compound is switched using an optical fibre and demonstrates the feasibility of using optical fibres to activate photoswitchable drugs for potential future clinical applications.Kathryn A. Palasis, Noor A. Lokman, Bryden C. Quirk, Alaknanda Adwal, Loretta Scolaro, Weikun Huang, Carmela Ricciardelli, Martin K. Oehler, Robert A. McLaughlin and Andrew D. Abel

Extrapolating SMBH correlations down the mass scale: the case for IMBHs in globular clusters

Empirical evidence for both stellar mass black holes M_bh<10^2 M_sun) and supermassive black holes (SMBHs, M_bh>10^5 M_sun) is well established. Moreover, every galaxy with a bulge appears to host a SMBH, whose mass is correlated with the bulge mass, and even more strongly with the central stellar velocity dispersion sigma_c, the `M-sigma' relation. On the other hand, evidence for "intermediate-mass" black holes (IMBHs, with masses in the range 1^2 - 10^5 M_sun) is relatively sparse, with only a few mass measurements reported in globular clusters (GCs), dwarf galaxies and low-mass AGNs. We explore the question of whether globular clusters extend the M-sigma relationship for galaxies to lower black hole masses and find that available data for globular clusters are consistent with the extrapolation of this relationship. We use this extrapolated M-sigma relationship to predict the putative black hole masses of those globular clusters where existence of central IMBH was proposed. We discuss how globular clusters can be used as a constraint on theories making specific predictions for the low-mass end of the M-sigma relation.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science; fixed typos and a quote in Sec.

Band-gaps in long Josephson junctions with periodic phase-shifts

We investigate analytically and numerically a long Josephson junction on an infnite domain, having arbitrary periodic phase shift of k, that is, the so-called 0-k long Josephson junction. The system is described by a one-dimensional sine-Gordon equation and has relatively recently been proposed as artificial atom lattices. We discuss the existence of periodic solutions of the system and investigate their stability both in the absence and presence of an applied bias current. We find critical values of the phase-discontinuity and the applied bias current beyond which a solution switches to its complementary counterpart. Due to the periodic discontinuity in the phase, the system admits regions of allowed and forbidden bands. We perturbatively investigate the Arnold tongues that separate the region of allowed and forbidden bands, and discuss the effect of an applied bias current on the band-gap structure. We present numerical simulations to support our analytical results