82 research outputs found
Design of Full-Duplex Millimeter-Wave Integrated Access and Backhaul Networks
One of the key technologies for the future cellular networks is full duplex
(FD)-enabled integrated access and backhaul (IAB) networks operating in the
millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies. The main challenge in realizing FD-IAB
networks is mitigating the impact of self-interference (SI) in the wideband
mmWave frequencies. In this article, we first introduce the 3GPP IAB network
architectures and wideband mmWave channel models. By utilizing the
subarray-based hybrid precoding scheme at the FD-IAB node, multiuser
interference is mitigated using zero-forcing at the transmitter, whereas the
residual SI after successfully deploying antenna and analog cancellation is
canceled by a minimum mean square error baseband combiner at the receiver. The
spectral efficiency (SE) is evaluated for the RF insertion loss (RFIL) with
different kinds of phase shifters and channel uncertainty. Simulation results
show that, in the presence of the RFIL, the almost double SE, which is close to
that obtained from fully connected hybrid precoding, can be achieved as
compared to half duplex systems when the uncertainties are of low strength
Design and Analysis of Wideband In-Band-Full-Duplex FR2-IAB Networks
This paper develops a 3GPP-inspired design for the in-band-full-duplex (IBFD)
integrated access and backhaul (IAB) networks in the frequency range 2 (FR2)
band, which can enhance the spectral efficiency (SE) and coverage while
reducing the latency. However, the self-interference (SI), which is usually
more than 100 dB higher than the signal-of-interest, becomes the major
bottleneck in developing these IBFD networks. We design and analyze a
subarray-based hybrid beamforming IBFD-IAB system with the RF beamformers
obtained via RF codebooks given by a modified Linde-Buzo-Gray (LBG) algorithm.
The SI is canceled in three stages, where the first stage of antenna isolation
is assumed to be successfully deployed. The second stage consists of the
optical domain (OD)-based RF cancellation, where cancelers are connected with
the RF chain pairs. The third stage is comprised of the digital cancellation
via successive interference cancellation followed by minimum mean-squared error
baseband receiver. Multiuser interference in the access link is canceled by
zero-forcing at the IAB-node transmitter. Simulations show that under 400 MHz
bandwidth, our proposed OD-based RF cancellation can achieve around 25 dB of
cancellation with 100 taps. Moreover, the higher the hardware impairment and
channel estimation error, the worse digital cancellation ability we can obtain
Exploring concurrency and reachability in the presence of high temporal resolution
Network properties govern the rate and extent of spreading processes on
networks, from simple contagions to complex cascades. Recent advances have
extended the study of spreading processes from static networks to temporal
networks, where nodes and links appear and disappear. We review previous
studies on the effects of temporal connectivity for understanding the spreading
rate and outbreak size of model infection processes. We focus on the effects of
"accessibility", whether there is a temporally consistent path from one node to
another, and "reachability", the density of the corresponding "accessibility
graph" representation of the temporal network. We study reachability in terms
of the overall level of temporal concurrency between edges, quantifying the
overlap of edges in time. We explore the role of temporal resolution of
contacts by calculating reachability with the full temporal information as well
as with a simplified interval representation approximation that demands less
computation. We demonstrate the extent to which the computed reachability
changes due to this simplified interval representation.Comment: To appear in Holme and Saramaki (Editors). "Temporal Network Theory".
Springer- Nature, New York. 201
How can frontline expertise and new models of care best contribute to safely reducing avoidable acute admissions? A mixed-methods study of four acute hospitals
BackgroundHospital emergency admissions have risen annually, exacerbating pressures on emergency departments (EDs) and acute medical units. These pressures have an adverse impact on patient experience and potentially lead to suboptimal clinical decision-making. In response, a variety of innovations have been developed, but whether or not these reduce inappropriate admissions or improve patient and clinician experience is largely unknown.AimsTo investigate the interplay of service factors influencing decision-making about emergency admissions, and to understand how the medical assessment process is experienced by patients, carers and practitioners.MethodsThe project used a multiple case study design for a mixed-methods analysis of decision-making about admissions in four acute hospitals. The primary research comprised two parts: value stream mapping to measure time spent by practitioners on key activities in 108 patient pathways, including an embedded study of cost; and an ethnographic study incorporating data from 65 patients, 30 carers and 282 practitioners of different specialties and levels. Additional data were collected through a clinical panel, learning sets, stakeholder workshops, reading groups and review of site data and documentation. We used a realist synthesis approach to integrate findings from all sources.FindingsPatientsâ experiences of emergency care were positive and they often did not raise concerns, whereas carers were more vocal. Staffâs focus on patient flow sometimes limited time for basic care, optimal communication and shared decision-making. Practitioners admitted or discharged few patients during the first hour, but decision-making increased rapidly towards the 4-hour target. Overall, patientsâ journey times were similar, although waiting before being seen, for tests or after admission decisions, varied considerably. The meaning of what constituted an âadmissionâ varied across sites and sometimes within a site. Medical and social complexity, targets and âbed pressureâ, patient safety and risk, each influenced admission/discharge decision-making. Each site responded to these pressures with different initiatives designed to expedite appropriate decision-making. New ways of using hospital âspaceâ were identified. Clinical decision units and observation wards allow potentially dischargeable patients with medical and/or social complexity to be âoff the clockâ, allowing time for tests, observation or safe discharge. New teams supported admission avoidance: an acute general practitioner service filtered patients prior to arrival; discharge teams linked with community services; specialist teams for the elderly facilitated outpatient treatment. Senior doctors had a range of roles: evaluating complex patients, advising and training juniors, and overseeing ED activity.ConclusionsThis research shows how hospitals under pressure manage complexity, safety and risk in emergency care by developing âground-upâ initiatives that facilitate timely, appropriate and safe decision-making, and alternative care pathways for lower-risk, ambulatory patients. New teams and âoff the clockâ spaces contribute to safely reducing avoidable admissions; frontline expertise brings value not only by placing senior experienced practitioners at the front door of EDs, but also by using seniors in advisory roles. Although the principal limitation of this research is its observational design, so that causation cannot be inferred, its strength is hypothesis generation. Further research should test whether or not the service and care innovations identified here can improve patient experience of acute care and safely reduce avoidable admissions.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research programme (project number 10/1010/06). This research was supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula
The bien r package: A tool to access the Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) database
There is an urgent need for largeĂą scale botanical data to improve our understanding of community assembly, coexistence, biogeography, evolution, and many other fundamental biological processes. Understanding these processes is critical for predicting and handling humanĂą biodiversity interactions and global change dynamics such as food and energy security, ecosystem services, climate change, and species invasions.The Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) database comprises an unprecedented wealth of cleaned and standardised botanical data, containing roughly 81 million occurrence records from c. 375,000 species, c. 915,000 trait observations across 28 traits from c. 93,000 species, and coĂą occurrence records from 110,000 ecological plots globally, as well as 100,000 range maps and 100 replicated phylogenies (each containing 81,274 species) for New World species. Here, we describe an r package that provides easy access to these data.The bien r package allows users to access the multiple types of data in the BIEN database. Functions in this package query the BIEN database by turning user inputs into optimised PostgreSQL functions. Function names follow a convention designed to make it easy to understand what each function does. We have also developed a protocol for providing customised citations and herbarium acknowledgements for data downloaded through the bien r package.The development of the BIEN database represents a significant achievement in biological data integration, cleaning and standardization. Likewise, the bien r package represents an important tool for open science that makes the BIEN database freely and easily accessible to everyone.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142458/1/mee312861_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142458/2/mee312861.pd
How can frontline expertise and new models of care best contribute to safely reducing avoidable acute admissions? A mixed-methods study of four acute hospitals
Background
Hospital emergency admissions have risen annually, exacerbating pressures on emergency departments (EDs) and acute medical units. These pressures have an adverse impact on patient experience and potentially lead to suboptimal clinical decision-making. In response, a variety of innovations have been developed, but whether or not these reduce inappropriate admissions or improve patient and clinician experience is largely unknown.
Aims
To investigate the interplay of service factors influencing decision-making about emergency admissions, and to understand how the medical assessment process is experienced by patients, carers and practitioners.
Methods
The project used a multiple case study design for a mixed-methods analysis of decision-making about admissions in four acute hospitals. The primary research comprised two parts: value stream mapping to measure time spent by practitioners on key activities in 108 patient pathways, including an embedded study of cost; and an ethnographic study incorporating data from 65 patients, 30 carers and 282 practitioners of different specialties and levels. Additional data were collected through a clinical panel, learning sets, stakeholder workshops, reading groups and review of site data and documentation. We used a realist synthesis approach to integrate findings from all sources.
Findings
Patientsâ experiences of emergency care were positive and they often did not raise concerns, whereas carers were more vocal. Staffâs focus on patient flow sometimes limited time for basic care, optimal communication and shared decision-making. Practitioners admitted or discharged few patients during the first hour, but decision-making increased rapidly towards the 4-hour target. Overall, patientsâ journey times were similar, although waiting before being seen, for tests or after admission decisions, varied considerably. The meaning of what constituted an âadmissionâ varied across sites and sometimes within a site. Medical and social complexity, targets and âbed pressureâ, patient safety and risk, each influenced admission/discharge decision-making. Each site responded to these pressures with different initiatives designed to expedite appropriate decision-making. New ways of using hospital âspaceâ were identified. Clinical decision units and observation wards allow potentially dischargeable patients with medical and/or social complexity to be âoff the clockâ, allowing time for tests, observation or safe discharge. New teams supported admission avoidance: an acute general practitioner service filtered patients prior to arrival; discharge teams linked with community services; specialist teams for the elderly facilitated outpatient treatment. Senior doctors had a range of roles: evaluating complex patients, advising and training juniors, and overseeing ED activity.
Conclusions
This research shows how hospitals under pressure manage complexity, safety and risk in emergency care by developing âground-upâ initiatives that facilitate timely, appropriate and safe decision-making, and alternative care pathways for lower-risk, ambulatory patients. New teams and âoff the clockâ spaces contribute to safely reducing avoidable admissions; frontline expertise brings value not only by placing senior experienced practitioners at the front door of EDs, but also by using seniors in advisory roles. Although the principal limitation of this research is its observational design, so that causation cannot be inferred, its strength is hypothesis generation. Further research should test whether or not the service and care innovations identified here can improve patient experience of acute care and safely reduce avoidable admissions
Vegetation trends over eleven years on mountain summits in NW Argentina
As global climate change leads to warmer and dryer conditions in the central Andes, alpine plant communities are forced to upward displacements following their climatic niche. Species range shifts are predicted to have major impacts on alpine communities by reshuffling species composition and abundances. Using a standardized protocol, we surveyed alpine plant communities in permanent plots on four high Andean summits in NW Argentina, which range from 4,040 to 4,740 m a.s.l. After a baseline survey in 2006â2008, we resurvey the same plots in 2012, and again in 2017. We found a significant decrease in plant cover, species richness, and diversity across the elevation gradient in the three censuses and a strong decrease in soil temperature along the elevation gradient. We found a high plant community turnover (37%â49%) among censuses, differentiating according to summits and aspects; major changes of community turnover were observed in the lowest summit (49%) and on the northern (47%) and western (46%) aspects. Temporal patterns in community changes were represented by increases in plant cover in the highest summit, in species richness in the lower summit, and in diversity (Shannon index) in the four summits, over time, together with increase in small herbs and non-tussock grasses. We suggest that the observed trend in plant community dynamics responds to short-term temperature and precipitation variability, which is influenced by El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and due to time lags in plant community response, it may take much longer than one decade for the observed trends to become stables and statistically significant. Our study provides an important foundation for documenting more profound changes in these subtropical alpine plant communities as global climate change continues.Fil: Carilla, Julieta. Universidad Nacional de TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional; ArgentinaFil: Halloy, Stephan. Ministry for Primary Industries; Nueva ZelandaFil: Cuello, Ana Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - TucumĂĄn. Instituto de QuĂmica del Noroeste. Universidad Nacional de TucumĂĄn. Facultad de BioquĂmica, QuĂmica y Farmacia. Instituto de QuĂmica del Noroeste; ArgentinaFil: Grau, Alfredo. Universidad Nacional de TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional; ArgentinaFil: Malizia, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - TucumĂĄn. Instituto de EcologĂa Regional; ArgentinaFil: Cuesta, Francisco. Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la EcorregiĂłn Andina; Ecuador. University of Amsterdam; PaĂses Bajo
Implementation of child-centred outcome measures in routine paediatric healthcare practice: a systematic review
Background: Person-centred outcome measures (PCOMs) are commonly used in routine adult healthcare to measure and improve outcomes, but less attention has been paid to PCOMs in childrenâs services. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and synthesise existing evidence of the determinants, strategies, and mechanisms that influence the implementation of PCOMs into paediatric healthcare practice. Methods: The review was conducted and reported in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Databased searched included CINAHL, Embase, Medline, and PsycInfo. Google scholar was also searched for grey literature on 25th March 2022. Studies were included if the setting was a childrenâs healthcare service, investigating the implementation or use of an outcome measure or screening tool in healthcare practice, and reported outcomes relating to use of a measure. Data were tabulated and thematically analysed through deductive coding to the constructs of the adapted-Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Results were presented as a narrative synthesis, and a logic model developed. Results: We retained 69 studies, conducted across primary (n = 14), secondary (n = 13), tertiary (n = 37), and community (n = 8) healthcare settings, including both child self-report (n = 46) and parent-proxy (n = 47) measures. The most frequently reported barriers to measure implementation included staff lack of knowledge about how the measure may improve care and outcomes; the complexity of using and implementing the measure; and a lack of resources to support implementation and its continued use including funding and staff. The most frequently reported facilitators of implementation and continued use include educating and training staff and families on: how to implement and use the measure; the advantages of using PCOMs over current practice; and the benefit their use has on patient care and outcomes. The resulting logic model presents the mechanisms through which strategies can reduce the barriers to implementation and support the use of PCOMs in practice. Conclusions: These findings can be used to support the development of context-specific implementation plans through a combination of existing strategies. This will enable the implementation of PCOMs into routine paediatric healthcare practice to empower settings to better identify and improve child-centred outcomes. Trial registration: Prospero CRD 42022330013
Bridging reproductive and microbial ecology: a case study in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Offspring size is a key trait for understanding the reproductive ecology of species, yet studies addressing the ecological meaning of offspring size have so far been limited to macro-organisms. We consider this a missed opportunity in microbial ecology and provide what we believe is the first formal study of offspring-size variation in microbes using reproductive models developed for macro-organisms. We mapped the entire distribution of fungal spore size in the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (subphylum Glomeromycotina) and tested allometric expectations of this trait to offspring (spore) output and body size. Our results reveal a potential paradox in the reproductive ecology of AM fungi: while large spore-size variation is maintained through evolutionary time (independent of body size), increases in spore size trade off with spore output. That is, parental mycelia of large-spored species produce fewer spores and thus may have a fitness disadvantage compared to small-spored species. The persistence of the large-spore strategy, despite this apparent fitness disadvantage, suggests the existence of advantages to large-spored species that could manifest later in fungal life history. Thus, we consider that solving this paradox opens the door to fruitful future research establishing the relationship between offspring size and other AM life history traits
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