A lightweight sensing platform for monitoring sleep quality and posture: a simulated validation study

Background The prevalence of self-reported shoulder pain in the UK has been estimated at 16%. This has been linked with significant sleep disturbance. It is possible that this relationship is bidirectional, with both symptoms capable of causing the other. Within the field of sleep monitoring, there is a requirement for a mobile and unobtrusive device capable of monitoring sleep posture and quality. This study investigates the feasibility of a wearable sleep system (WSS) in accurately detecting sleeping posture and physical activity. Methods Sixteen healthy subjects were recruited and fitted with three wearable inertial sensors on the trunk and forearms. Ten participants were entered into a ‘Posture’ protocol; assuming a series of common sleeping postures in a simulated bedroom. Five participants completed an ‘Activity’ protocol, in which a triphasic simulated sleep was performed including awake, sleep and REM phases. A combined sleep posture and activity protocol was then conducted as a ‘Proof of Concept’ model. Data were used to train a posture detection algorithm, and added to activity to predict sleep phase. Classification accuracy of the WSS was measured during the simulations. Results The WSS was found to have an overall accuracy of 99.5% in detection of four major postures, and 92.5% in the detection of eight minor postures. Prediction of sleep phase using activity measurements was accurate in 97.3% of the simulations. The ability of the system to accurately detect both posture and activity enabled the design of a conceptual layout for a user-friendly tablet application. Conclusions The study presents a pervasive wearable sensor platform, which can accurately detect both sleeping posture and activity in non-specialised environments. The extent and accuracy of sleep metrics available advances the current state-of-the-art technology. This has potential diagnostic implications in musculoskeletal pathology and with the addition of alerts may provide therapeutic value in a range of areas including the prevention of pressure sores

Single Mode Lasing from Hybrid Hemispherical Microresonators

Enormous attention has been paid to optical microresonators which hold a great promise for microlasers as well as fundamental studies in cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we demonstrate a three-dimensional (3D) hybrid microresonator combining self-assembled hemispherical structure with a planar reflector. By incorporating dye molecules into the hemisphere, optically pumped lasing phenomenon is observed at room temperature. We have studied the lasing behaviors with different cavity sizes, and particularly single longitudinal mode lasing from hemispheres with diameter ∼15 μm is achieved. Detailed characterizations indicate that the lasing modes shift under varying pump densities, which can be well-explained by frequency shift and mode hopping. This work provides a versatile approach for 3D confined microresonators and opens an opportunity to realize tunable single mode microlasers

Recent Results from the VERITAS Collaboration

A decade after the discovery of TeV gamma-rays from the blazar Mrk 421 (Punch et al. 1992), the list of TeV blazars has increased to five BL Lac objects: Mrk 421 (Punch et al. 1992; Petry et al. 1996; Piron et al. 2001), Mrk 501 (Quinn et al. 1996; Aharonian et al. 1999; Djannati-Atai et al. 1999), 1ES2344+514 (Catanese et al. 1998), H1426+428 (Horan et al. 2000, 2002; Aharonian et al. 2002; Djannati-Atai et al. 2002) and 1ES1959+650 (Nishiyama et al. 1999; Konopelko et al. 2002; Holder et al. 2002). In this paper we report results from recent observations of Mrk 421, H1426+428 and 1ES1959+650 using the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope

A bi-articular model for scapular-humeral rhythm reconstruction through data from wearable sensors

Patient-specific performance assessment of arm movements in daily life activities is fundamental for neurological rehabilitation therapy. In most applications, the shoulder movement is simplified through a socket-ball joint, neglecting the movement of the scapular-thoracic complex. This may lead to significant errors. We propose an innovative bi-articular model of the human shoulder for estimating the position of the hand in relation to the sternum. The model takes into account both the scapular-toracic and gleno-humeral movements and their ratio governed by the scapular-humeral rhythm, fusing the information of inertial and textile-based strain sensors

Reproductive responses to varying food supply in a population of Darwin's finches: Clutch size, growth rates and hatching synchrony

I show how food shortage affects reproduction in a population of Darwin's Medium Ground Finches, Geospiza fortis . Despite the common occurrence of starvation and absence of nest predation, hatching is typically nighly synchronous and adaptive brood reductionappears to be absent. Variation in both growth rates and clutch size in association with the varying conditions is documented. This variation is interpreted as being a direct response to environmental conditions rather than adaptive phenotypic plasticity. I conclude that selection pressures to raise one or two chicks during times of food shortage, or to delay growth rates, are weak or absent.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47759/1/442_2004_Article_BF00378307.pd

Vertically transmitted rhabdoviruses are found across three insect families and have dynamic interactions with their hosts.

A small number of free-living viruses have been found to be obligately vertically transmitted, but it remains uncertain how widespread vertically transmitted viruses are and how quickly they can spread through host populations. Recent metagenomic studies have found several insects to be infected with sigma viruses ($\textit{Rhabdoviridae}$). Here, we report that sigma viruses that infect Mediterranean fruit flies ($\textit{Ceratitis capitata}$), $\textit{Drosophila}$ immigrans, and speckled wood butterflies ($\textit{Pararge aegeria}$) are all vertically transmitted. We find patterns of vertical transmission that are consistent with those seen in $\textit{Drosophila}$ sigma viruses, with high rates of maternal transmission, and lower rates of paternal transmission. This mode of transmission allows them to spread rapidly in populations, and using viral sequence data we found the viruses in $\textit{D. immigrans}$ and $\textit{C. capitata}$ had both recently swept through host populations. The viruses were common in nature, with mean prevalences of 12% in $\textit{C. capitata}$, 38% in $\textit{D. immigrans}$ and 74% in $\textit{P. aegeria}$. We conclude that vertically transmitted rhabdoviruses may be widespread in a broad range of insect taxa, and that these viruses can have dynamic interactions with their hosts.B.L. is supported by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (grant no. 109356/Z/15/Z). B.L. and F.M.J. are supported by an NERC grant no. (NE/L004232/1 http://www.nerc.ac.uk/) and by an ERC grant (281668, DrosophilaInfection, http://erc.europa.eu/). P.T.L., T.C. and L.A.F. are supported by a BBSRC grant no. (BB/K000489/1)

A comparison of SNP and STR loci for delineating population structure and performing individual genetic assignment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Technological advances have lead to the rapid increase in availability of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a range of organisms, and there is a general optimism that SNPs will become the marker of choice for a range of evolutionary applications. Here, comparisons between 300 polymorphic SNPs and 14 short tandem repeats (STRs) were conducted on a data set consisting of approximately 500 Atlantic salmon arranged in 10 samples/populations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Global F_STranged from 0.033-0.115 and -0.002-0.316 for the 14 STR and 300 SNP loci respectively. Global F_STwas similar among 28 linkage groups when averaging data from mapped SNPs. With the exception of selecting a panel of SNPs taking the locus displaying the highest global F_STfor each of the 28 linkage groups, which inflated estimation of genetic differentiation among the samples, inferred genetic relationships were highly similar between SNP and STR data sets and variants thereof. The best 15 SNPs (30 alleles) gave a similar level of self-assignment to the best 4 STR loci (83 alleles), however, addition of further STR loci did not lead to a notable increase assignment whereas addition of up to 100 SNP loci increased assignment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Whilst the optimal combinations of SNPs identified in this study are linked to the samples from which they were selected, this study demonstrates that identification of highly informative SNP loci from larger panels will provide researchers with a powerful approach to delineate genetic relationships at the individual and population levels.</p

2022 Review of Data-Driven Plasma Science

Data-driven science and technology offer transformative tools and methods to science. This review article highlights the latest development and progress in the interdisciplinary field of data-driven plasma science (DDPS), i.e., plasma science whose progress is driven strongly by data and data analyses. Plasma is considered to be the most ubiquitous form of observable matter in the universe. Data associated with plasmas can, therefore, cover extremely large spatial and temporal scales, and often provide essential information for other scientific disciplines. Thanks to the latest technological developments, plasma experiments, observations, and computation now produce a large amount of data that can no longer be analyzed or interpreted manually. This trend now necessitates a highly sophisticated use of high-performance computers for data analyses, making artificial intelligence and machine learning vital components of DDPS. This article contains seven primary sections, in addition to the introduction and summary. Following an overview of fundamental data-driven science, five other sections cover widely studied topics of plasma science and technologies, i.e., basic plasma physics and laboratory experiments, magnetic confinement fusion, inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density physics, space and astronomical plasmas, and plasma technologies for industrial and other applications. The final section before the summary discusses plasma-related databases that could significantly contribute to DDPS. Each primary section starts with a brief introduction to the topic, discusses the state-of-the-art developments in the use of data and/or data-scientific approaches, and presents the summary and outlook. Despite the recent impressive signs of progress, the DDPS is still in its infancy. This article attempts to offer a broad perspective on the development of this field and identify where further innovations are required

Group B Streptococcal β-Hemolysin/Cytolysin Directly Impairs Cardiomyocyte Viability and Function

BACKGROUND: Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a leading cause of neonatal sepsis where myocardial dysfunction is an important contributor to poor outcome. Here we study the effects of the GBS pore-forming beta-hemolysin/cytolysin (Bh/c) exotoxin on cardiomyocyte viability, contractility, and calcium transients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: HL-1 cardiomyocytes exposed to intact wild-type (WT) or isogenic Deltabeta h/c mutant GBS, or to cell-free extracts from either strain, were assessed for viability by trypan blue exclusion and for apoptosis by TUNEL staining. Functionality of exposed cardiomyocytes was analyzed by visual quantitation of the rate and extent of contractility. Mitochondrial membrane polarization was measured in TMRE-loaded cells exposed to GBS beta h/c. Effects of GBS beta h/c on calcium transients were studied in fura-2AM-loaded primary rat ventricular cardiomyocytes. Exposure of HL-1 cardiomyocytes to either WT GBS or beta h/c extracts significantly reduced both rate and extent of contractility and later induced necrotic and apoptotic cell death. No effects on cardiomyocyte viability or function were observed after treatment with Deltabeta h/c mutant bacteria or extracts. The beta h/c toxin was associated with complete and rapid loss of detectable calcium transients in primary neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes and induced a loss of mitochondrial membrane polarization. These effects on viability and function were abrogated by the beta h/c inhibitor, dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data show a rapid loss of cardiomyocyte viability and function induced by GBS beta h/c, and these deleterious effects are inhibited by DPPC, a normal constituent of human pulmonary surfactant.. These findings have clinical implications for the cardiac dysfunction observed in neonatal GBS infections