The Temple of Immensity: for Choir and Electronics

the temple of immensity is a composition for 16-part choir and fixed media electronics composed by Steven Naylor using astronomical data concerning the stars nearest to Earth and their properties. “The temple of immensity” is an archaic and rarely used term, defined as “the universe or the complete overhead expanse of the heavens, especially as conceived as an object of religious reverence.” This piece seeks to convey feelings of wonder and awe for outer space through the setting of an original self-composed poem and through the use of star data to determine musical aspects. The resulting 28-minute composition blends voices and electronics to musically depict stars, giving performers and listeners a striking musical experience to immerse themselves in, occupying a cross-disciplinary territory between the sciences and the arts

Observational Bias and Young Massive Cluster Characterisation II. Can Gaia accurately observe young clusters and associations?

Observations of clusters suffer from issues such as completeness, projection effects, resolving individual stars and extinction. As such, how accurate are measurements and conclusions are likely to be? Here, we take cluster simulations (Westerlund2- and Orion- type), synthetically observe them to obtain luminosities, accounting for extinction and the inherent limits of Gaia, then place them within the real Gaia DR3 catalogue. We then attempt to rediscover the clusters at distances of between 500pc and 4300pc. We show the spatial and kinematic criteria which are best able to pick out the simulated clusters, maximising completeness and minimising contamination. We then compare the properties of the 'observed' clusters with the original simulations. We looked at the degree of clustering, the identification of clusters and subclusters within the datasets, and whether the clusters are expanding or contracting. Even with a high level of incompleteness (e.g. $<2\%$ stellar members identified), similar qualitative conclusions tend to be reached compared to the original dataset, but most quantitative conclusions are likely to be inaccurate. Accurate determination of the number, stellar membership and kinematic properties of subclusters, are the most problematic to correctly determine, particularly at larger distances due to the disappearance of cluster substructure as the data become more incomplete, but also at smaller distances where the misidentification of asterisms as true structure can be problematic. Unsurprisingly, we tend to obtain better quantitative agreement of properties for our more massive Westerlund2-type cluster. We also make optical style images of the clusters over our range of distances.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Being there? A Collaborative Inquiry into Attendance

There is a growing concern among universities over the levels of student absenteeism at teaching activities. Attendance is an increasingly important issue in the UK, but also internationally, for its impact on the student experience, academic performance and engagement.  This article explores the topic of poor attendance in one of the larger universities in the UK, through a collaborative action research methodology that includes Education Studies lecturers and students as research partners.  Initial findings suggest that attendance is conceptualised in different ways by different actors. We found that a key theme in understanding attendance and engagement was that students’ identities are multi-layered and complex, and that their identities as students are often interwoven. We also found that technology and the virtual world play a fundamental role in understanding practices and conceptualising attendance and engagement. Concerning this, the way that a Virtual Learning Environments is approached in our study illustrates how physical attendance is challenged (but also supported)  as a privileged form of getting access to the knowledge presented in taught sessions

Lessons Learned from Testing the Quality Cost Model of Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) Transitional Care

Purpose To describe the development, testing, modification, and results of the Quality Cost Model of Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) Transitional Care on patient outcomes and health care costs in the United States over 22 years, and to delineate what has been learned for nursing education, practice, and further research. Organizing Construct The Quality Cost Model of APN Transitional Care. Methods Review of published results of seven randomized clinical trials with very low birth-weight (VLBW) infants; women with unplanned cesarean births, high risk pregnancies, and hysterectomy surgery; elders with cardiac medical and surgical diagnoses and common diagnostic related groups (DRGs); and women with high risk pregnancies in which half of physician prenatal care was substituted with APN care. Ongoing work with the model is linking the process of APN care with the outcomes and costs of care. Findings APN intervention has consistently resulted in improved patient outcomes and reduced health care costs across groups. Groups with APN providers were rehospitalized for less time at less cost, reflecting early detection and intervention. Optimal number and timing of postdischarge home visits and telephone contacts by the APNs and patterns of rehospitalizations and acute care visits varied by group. Conclusions To keep people well over time, APNs must have depth of knowledge and excellent clinical and interpersonal skills that are the hallmark of specialist practice, an in-depth understanding of systems and how to work within them, and sufficient patient contact to effect positive outcomes at low cost

Graph Neural Network-based Tracking as a Service

Recent studies have shown promising results for track finding in dense environments using Graph Neural Network (GNN)-based algorithms. However, GNN-based track finding is computationally slow on CPUs, necessitating the use of coprocessors to accelerate the inference time. Additionally, the large input graph size demands a large device memory for efficient computation, a requirement not met by all computing facilities used for particle physics experiments, particularly those lacking advanced GPUs. Furthermore, deploying the GNN-based track-finding algorithm in a production environment requires the installation of all dependent software packages, exclusively utilized by this algorithm. These computing challenges must be addressed for the successful implementation of GNN-based track-finding algorithm into production settings. In response, we introduce a ``GNN-based tracking as a service'' approach, incorporating a custom backend within the NVIDIA Triton inference server to facilitate GNN-based tracking. This paper presents the performance of this approach using the Perlmutter supercomputer at NERSC.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Proceeding of Connected the Dots Workshop (CTD 2023

The use of mobile health to deliver self-management support to young people with type 1 diabetes: a cross-sectional survey

Background: Young people living with type 1 diabetes face not only the challenges typical of adolescence, but also the challengesof daily management of their health and evolving understanding of the impact of their diagnosis on their future. Adolescence isa critical time for diabetes self-management, with a typical decline in glycemic control increasing risk for microvascular diabetescomplications. To improve glycemic control, there is a need for evidence-based self-management support interventions thataddress the issues pertinent to this population, utilizing platforms that engage them. Increasingly, mobile health (mHealth)interventions are being developed and evaluated for this purpose with some evidence supporting improved glycemic control. Anecessary step to enhance effectiveness of such approaches is to understand young people&rsquo;s preferences for this mode of delivery.Objective: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the current and perceived roles of mHealth in supportingyoung people to manage their diabetes.Methods: Young adults (16-24 years) with type 1 diabetes in Auckland, New Zealand, were invited to take part in a survey vialetter from their diabetes specialist.Results: A total of 115 young adults completed the survey (mean age 19.5 years; male 52/115, 45%; European 89/115, 77%),with all reporting they owned a mobile phone and 96% (110/115) of those were smartphones. However, smartphone apps fordiabetes management had been used by only 33% (38/115) of respondents. The most commonly reported reason for not usingapps was a lack of awareness that they existed. Although the majority felt they managed their diabetes well, 63% (72/115) reportedwanting to learn more about diabetes and how to manage it. A total of 64% (74/115) respondents reported that they would beinterested in receiving diabetes self-management support via text message (short message service, SMS).Conclusions: Current engagement with mHealth in this population appears low, although the findings from this study providesupport for the use of mHealth in this group because of the ubiquity and convenience of mobile devices. mHealth has potentialto provide information and support to this population, utilizing mediums commonplace for this group and with greater reach thantraditional methods

Serum Neurofilament Light-Chain Levels and Long-Term Treatment Outcomes in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Post Hoc Analysis of the Randomized CombiRx Trial

BACKGROUND: CombiRx was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial in treatment-naive relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients randomized to intramuscular interferon beta-1a (IM IFN beta-1a), glatiramer acetate (GA), or both therapies. OBJECTIVE: This analysis investigated changes in serum neurofilament light-chain (sNfL) levels in response to treatment and assessed baseline sNfL as a predictor of relapse. METHODS: RRMS patients treated with IM IFN beta-1a 30 µg weekly + placebo (n = 159), GA 20 mg/mL daily + placebo (n = 172), or IM IFN beta-1a + GA (n = 344) were included. A linear mixed model compared sNfL values over time. Cox regression models analyzed baseline sNfL and gadolinium-enhancing (Gd+) lesions as predictors of relapse. RESULTS: In all treatment arms, the proportion of patients with sNfL ≥16 pg/mL decreased significantly from baseline to 6 months and was maintained at 36 months. A significantly higher percentage of patients with both baseline sNfL ≥16 pg/mL and ≥1 Gd+ lesion experienced relapses within 90 days compared to patients with sNfL/mL and/or no Gd+ lesions. CONCLUSION: sNfL levels were reduced within 6 months and remained low at 36 months. Results suggest that the combination of lesion activity and sNfL was a stronger predictor of relapse than either factor alone

Immunogenic death of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in mice expressing caspase-resistant ROCK1 is not replicated by ROCK inhibitors

The morphological changes during apoptosis help facilitate “immunologically silent” cell death. Caspase cleavage of the ROCK1 kinase results in its activation, which drives the forceful contraction of apoptotic cells. We previously showed that when ROCK1 was mutated to render it caspase-resistant, there was greater liver damage and neutrophil recruitment after treatment with the hepatotoxin diethylnitrosamine (DEN). We now show that acute DEN-induced liver damage induced higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, indicative of immunogenic cell death (ICD), in mice expressing non-cleavable ROCK1 (ROCK1nc). Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumours in ROCK1nc mice had more neutrophils and CD8+ T cells relative to mice expressing wild-type ROCK1, indicating that spontaneous tumour cell death also was more immunogenic. Since ICD induction has been proposed to be tumour-suppressive, the effects of two distinct ROCK inhibitors on HCC tumours was examined. Both fasudil and AT13148 significantly decreased tumour numbers, areas and volumes, but neither resulted in greater numbers of neutrophils or CD8+ T cells to be recruited. In the context of acute DEN-induced liver damage, AT13148 inhibited the recruitment of dendritic, natural killer and CD8+ T cells to livers. These observations indicate that there is an important role for ROCK1 cleavage to limit immunogenic cell death, which was not replicated by systemic ROCK inhibitor administration. As a result, concomitant administration of ROCK inhibitors with cancer therapeutics would be unlikely to result in therapeutic benefit by inducing ICD to increase anti-tumour immune responses

Sustained-release hydromorphone microparticles produced by supercritical fluid polymer encapsulation

Chronic cancer pain remains prevalent and severe for many patients, particularly in those with advanced disease. The effectiveness of analgesic/adjuvant drug treatments in routine practice has changed little in the last 30 years. To address these issues herein, we have developed sustained-release poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticles of hydromorphone for intrathecal injection aimed at producing prolonged periods of satisfactory analgesia in patients, as a novel strategy for alleviation of intractable cancer-related pain. These hydromorphone-loaded microparticles were produced successfully using organic solvent-free supercritical fluid polymer encapsulation. Drug loading at 9.2% and encapsulation efficacy at 92% were achieved for particles in the desired size range (20-45 μm) with sustained release over a 5-week period in vitro