PSS8 Use of consumer market research panels to generate prevalence and disease burden estimates in data-sparse diseases: a case study in severe Chronic Hand Eczema

Farrando, Jordi;Febles, Maria Dolors ;Henrich, Jordi;Tarrasó, Olga ;Fuertes, J.C.;Pérez, S

Inverse-designed diamond photonics

Diamond hosts optically active color centers with great promise in quantum computation, networking, and sensing. Realization of such applications is contingent upon the integration of color centers into photonic circuits. However, current diamond quantum optics experiments are restricted to single devices and few quantum emitters because fabrication constraints limit device functionalities, thus precluding color center integrated photonic circuits. In this work, we utilize inverse design methods to overcome constraints of cutting-edge diamond nanofabrication methods and fabricate compact and robust diamond devices with unique specifications. Our design method leverages advanced optimization techniques to search the full parameter space for fabricable device designs. We experimentally demonstrate inverse-designed photonic free-space interfaces as well as their scalable integration with two vastly different devices: classical photonic crystal cavities and inverse-designed waveguide-splitters. The multi-device integration capability and performance of our inverse-designed diamond platform represents a critical advancement toward integrated diamond quantum optical circuits

Individual and combined impacts of carbon dioxide enrichment, heatwaves, flow velocity variability, and fine sediment deposition on stream invertebrate communities

Climate change and land‐use change are widely altering freshwater ecosystem functioning and there is an urgent need to understand how these broad stressor categories may interact in future. While much research has focused on mean temperature increases, climate change also involves increasing variability of both water temperature and flow regimes and increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2, all with potential to alter stream invertebrate communities. Deposited fine sediment is a pervasive land‐use stressor with widespread impacts on stream invertebrates. Sedimentation may be managed at the catchment scale; thus, uncovering interactions with these three key climate stressors may assist mitigation of future threats. This is the first experiment to investigate the individual and combined effects of enriched CO2, heatwaves, flow velocity variability, and fine sediment on realistic stream invertebrate communities. Using 128 mesocosms simulating small stony‐bottomed streams in a 7‐week experiment, we manipulated dissolved CO2 (ambient; enriched), fine sediment (no sediment; 300 g dry sediment), temperature (ambient; two 7‐day heatwaves), and flow velocity (constant; variable). All treatments changed community composition. CO2 enrichment reduced abundances of Orthocladiinae and Chironominae and increased Copepoda abundance. Variable flow velocity had only positive effects on invertebrate abundances (7 of 13 common taxa and total abundance), in contrast to previous experiments showing negative impacts of reduced velocity. CO2 was implicated in most stressor interactions found, with CO2 × sediment interactions being most common. Communities forming under enriched CO2 conditions in sediment‐impacted mesocosms had ~20% fewer total invertebrates than those with either treatment alone. Copepoda abundances doubled in CO2‐enriched mesocosms without sediment, whereas no CO2 effect occurred in mesocosms with sediment. Our findings provide new insights into potential future impacts of climate change and land use in running freshwaters, in particular highlighting the potential for elevated CO2 to interact with fine sediment deposition in unpredictable ways

Reduced Order Modeling of an Adaptive Mesh Ocean Model

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Temperature dependence of the (π,0)(\pi,0) anomaly in the excitation spectrum of the 2D quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet

It is well established that in the low-temperature limit, the two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice (2DQHAFSL) exhibits an anomaly in its spectrum at short-wavelengths on the zone-boundary. In the vicinity of the $(\pi,0)$ point the pole in the one-magnon response exhibits a downward dispersion, is heavily damped and attenuated, giving way to an isotropic continuum of excitations extending to high energies. The origin of the anomaly and the presence of the continuum are of current theoretical interest, with suggestions focused around the idea that the latter evidences the existence of spinons in a two-dimensional system. Here we present the results of neutron inelastic scattering experiments and Quantum Monte Carlo calculations on the metallo-organic compound Cu(DCOO)$_2\cdot 4$D$_2$O (CFTD), an excellent physical realisation of the 2DQHAFSL, designed to investigate how the anomaly at $(\pi,0)$ evolves up to finite temperatures $T/J\sim2/3$. Our data reveal that on warming the anomaly survives the loss of long-range, three-dimensional order, and is thus a robust feature of the two-dimensional system. With further increase of temperature the zone-boundary response gradually softens and broadens, washing out the $(\pi,0)$ anomaly. This is confirmed by a comparison of our data with the results of finite-temperature Quantum Monte Carlo simulations where the two are found to be in good accord. At lower energies, in the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic zone centre, there was no significant softening of the magnetic excitations over the range of temperatures investigated.Comment: Dedicated to the life and work of Professor Roger Cowley. 22 pages, 8 figure

Facing Up to Longevity with Old Actuarial Methods: A Comparison of Pooled Funds and Income Tontines

We compare the concepts underlying modern actuarial solutions to pension insurance and present two recently developed pension products—pooled annuity overlay funds (based on actuarial fairness) and equitable income tontines (based on equitability). These two products adopt specific approaches to the management of longevity risk by mutualising it among participants rather than transferring it completely to the insurer. As the market would appear to be ready for such innovations, our study seeks to establish a general framework for their introduction. We stress that the notion of actuarial fairness, which characterises pooled annuity overlay funds, enables participants to join and exit the fund at any time. Such freedom of action is a quite remarkable feature and one that cannot be matched by lifelong contracts

Evaluating the use of the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire (CAIDS-Q) to estimate IQ in children with low intellectual ability

In situations where completing a full intellectual assessment is not possible or desirable the clinician or researcher may require an alternative means of accurately estimating intellectual functioning. There has been limited research in the use of proxy IQ measures in children with an intellectual disability or low IQ. The present study aimed to provide a means of converting total scores from a screening tool (the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire: CAIDS-Q) to an estimated IQ. A series of linear regression analyses were conducted on data from 428 children and young people referred to clinical services, where FSIQ was predicted from CAIDS-Q total scores. Analyses were conducted for three age groups between ages 6 and 18 years. The study presents a conversion table for converting CAIDS-Q total scores to estimates of FSIQ, with corresponding 95% prediction intervals to allow the clinician or researcher to estimate FSIQ scores from CAIDS-Q total scores. It is emphasised that, while this conversion may offer a quick means of estimating intellectual functioning in children with a below average IQ, it should be used with caution, especially in children aged between 6 and 8 years old

The future of biotic indices in the ecogenomic era: Integrating (e)DNA metabarcoding in biological assessment of aquatic ecosystems

The bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems is currently based on various biotic indices that use the occurrence and/ or abundance of selected taxonomic groups to define ecological status. These conventional indices have some limitations, often related to difficulties inmorphological identification of bioindicator taxa. Recent development of DNA barcoding and metabarcoding could potentially alleviate some of these limitations, by using DNA sequences instead of morphology to identify organisms and to characterize a given ecosystem. In this paper,we review the structure of conventional biotic indices, andwe present the results of pilotmetabarcoding studies using environmental DNA to infer biotic indices. We discuss the main advantages and pitfalls of metabarcoding approaches to assess parameters such as richness, abundance, taxonomic composition and species ecological values, to be used for calculation of biotic indices.We present some future developments to fully exploit the potential of metabarcoding data and improve the accuracy and precision of their analysis. We also propose some recommendations for the future integration of DNA metabarcoding to routine biomonitoring program