RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League: Evaluation Challenges

We summarise the results of RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League in 2016 (Leipzig), including the main competition and the evaluation round. The evaluation round held in Leipzig confirmed the strength of RoboCup-2015 champion (WrightEagle, i.e. WE2015) in the League, with only eventual finalists of 2016 competition capable of defeating WE2015. An extended, post-Leipzig, round-robin tournament which included the top 8 teams of 2016, as well as WE2015, with over 1000 games played for each pair, placed WE2015 third behind the champion team (Gliders2016) and the runner-up (HELIOS2016). This establishes WE2015 as a stable benchmark for the 2D Simulation League. We then contrast two ranking methods and suggest two options for future evaluation challenges. The first one, "The Champions Simulation League", is proposed to include 6 previous champions, directly competing against each other in a round-robin tournament, with the view to systematically trace the advancements in the League. The second proposal, "The Global Challenge", is aimed to increase the realism of the environmental conditions during the simulated games, by simulating specific features of different participating countries.Comment: 12 pages, RoboCup-2017, Nagoya, Japan, July 201

Modulation of visual processing of food by transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS)

Present project is concerned with the possibility to modulate the neural regulation of food intake by non-invasive stimulation of the vagus nerve. This nerve carries viscero-afferent information from the gut and other internal organs and therefore serves an important role in ingestive behavior. The electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) is a qualified procedure in the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy and depression. Since weight loss is a known common side effect of VNS treatment in patients with implanted devices, VNS is evaluated as a treatment of obesity. To investigate potential VNS-related changes in the cognitive processing of food-related items, 21 healthy participants were recorded in a 3-Tesla scanner in two counterbalanced sessions. Participants were presented with 72 food pictures and asked to rate how much they liked that food. Before entering the scanner subjects received a 1-h sham or verum stimulation, which was implemented transcutanously with a Cerbomed NEMOS® device. We found significant activations in core areas of the vagal afferent pathway, including left brainstem, thalamus, temporal pole, amygdala, insula, hippocampus, and supplementary motor area for the interaction between ratings (high vs low) and session (verum vs sham stimulation). Significant activations were also found for the main effect of verum compared to sham stimulation in the left inferior and superior parietal cortex. These results demonstrate an effect of tVNS on food image processing even with a preceding short stimulation period. This is a necessary prerequisite for a therapeutic application of tVNS which has to be evaluated in longer-term studies

Soil natural capital in Europe; a framework for state and change assessment

Soils underpin our existence through food production and represent the largest terrestrial carbon store. Understanding soil state-and-change in response to climate and land use change is a major challenge. Our aim is to bridge the science-policy interface by developing a natural capital accounting structure for soil, for example, attempting a mass balance between soil erosion and production, which indicates that barren land, and woody crop areas are most vulnerable to potential soil loss. We test out our approach using earth observation, modelling and ground based sample data from the European Union’s Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS) soil monitoring program. Using land cover change data for 2000–2012 we are able to identify land covers susceptible to change, and the soil resources most at risk. Tree covered soils are associated with the highest carbon stocks, and are on the increase, while areas of arable crops are declining, but artificial surfaces are increasing. The framework developed offers a substantial step forward, demonstrating the development of biophysical soil accounts that can be used in wider socio-economic and policy assessment; initiating the development of an integrated soil monitoring approach called for by the United Nations Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils

Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems

Microplastic (MP) is a pervasive pollutant in nature that is colonised by diverse groups of microbes, including potentially pathogenic species. Fungi have been largely neglected in this context, despite their affinity for plastics and their impact as pathogens. To unravel the role of MP as a carrier of fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems and the immediate human environment, epiplastic mycobiomes from municipal plastic waste from Kenya were deciphered using ITS metabarcoding as well as a comprehensive meta-analysis, and visualised via scanning electron as well as confocal laser scanning microscopy. Metagenomic and microscopic findings provided complementary evidence that the terrestrial plastisphere is a suitable ecological niche for a variety of fungal organisms, including important animal and plant pathogens, which formed the plastisphere core mycobiome. We show that MPs serve as selective artificial microhabitats that not only attract distinct fungal communities, but also accumulate certain opportunistic human pathogens, such as cryptococcal and Phoma-like species. Therefore, MP must be regarded a persistent reservoir and potential vector for fungal pathogens in soil environments. Given the increasing amount of plastic waste in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, this interrelation may have severe consequences for the trans-kingdom and multi-organismal epidemiology of fungal infections on a global scale

GRS 1758–258: RXTE Monitoring of a Rare Persistent Hard State Black Hole

GRS 1758–258 is the least studied of the three persistent black hole X-ray binaries in our Galaxy. It is also one of only two known black hole candidates, including all black hole transients, which shows a decrease of its 3-10 keV flux when entering the thermally dominated soft state, rather than an increase.We present the spectral evolution of GRS 1758–258 from RXTE-PCA observations spanning a time of about 11 years from 1996 to 2007. During this time, seven dim soft states are detected. We also consider INTEGRAL monitoring observations of the source and compare the long-term behavior to that of the bright persistent black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1. We discuss the observed state transitions in the light of physical scenarios for black hole transitions

The tools used to assess psychological symptoms in women and their partners after termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly: A scoping review

Termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly (TOPFA) represents a uniquely distressing and challenging situation for women and their partners. Having appropriate screening tools that best highlight the psychological symptoms experienced by women and their partners is important to be able to guide care. Many validated screening tools for pregnancy and psychological distress exist, with variation in the ease of application and the domains addressed in each. We undertook a scoping review of tools used to assess psychological symptoms in women and/ or partners after TOPFA. Of 909 studies, 93 studies including 6248 women and 885 partners were included. Most of the included studies assessed symptoms within six months of TOPFA and highlighted high rates of distress, grief and trauma symptoms. There was broad variation in the tools used between studies and the timing of their implementation. Focusing the care of women and families who undergo TOPFA to validated, broadly available and easily applied screening tools that assess a range of psychological symptoms is key in being able to identify the potential interventions that may be of benefit.Laura Slade, Kate Obst, Andrea Deussen, Jodie Dod

Microplastic polymer properties as deterministic factors driving terrestrial plastisphere microbiome assembly and succession in the field

Environmental microplastic (MP) is ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems providing artificial habitats for microbes. Mechanisms of MP colonization, MP polymer impacts, and effects on soil microbiomes are largely unknown in terrestrial systems. Therefore, we experimentally tested the hypothesis that MP polymer type is an important deterministic factor affecting MP community assembly by incubating common MP polymer types in situ in landfill soil for 14 months. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing indicated that MP polymers have specific impacts on plastisphere microbiomes, which are subsets of the soil microbiome. Chloroflexota, Gammaproteobacteria, certain Nitrososphaerota, and Nanoarchaeota explained differences among MP polymers and time points. Plastisphere microbial community composition derived from different MP diverged over time and was enriched in potential pathogens. PICRUSt predictions of pathway abundances and quantitative PCR of functional marker genes indicated that MP polymers exerted an ambivalent effect on genetic potentials of biogeochemical cycles. Overall, the data indicate that (i) polymer type as deterministic factor rather than stochastic factors drives plastisphere community assembly, (ii) MP impacts greenhouse gas metabolism, xenobiotic degradation and pathogen distribution, and (iii) MP serves as an ideal model system for studying fundamental questions in microbial ecology such as community assembly mechanisms in terrestrial environments