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London taxi drivers exploit neighbourhood boundaries for hierarchical route planning
Get PDFHumans show an impressive ability to plan over complex situations and environments. A classic approach to explaining such planning has been tree-search algorithms which search through alternative state sequences for the most efficient path through states. However, this approach fails when the number of states is large due to the time to compute all possible sequences. Hierarchical route planning has been proposed as an alternative, offering a computationally efficient mechanism in which the representation of the environment is segregated into clusters. Current evidence for hierarchical planning comes from experimentally created environments which have clearly defined boundaries and far fewer states than the real-world. To test for real-world hierarchical planning we exploited the capacity of London licensed taxi drivers to use their memory to construct a street by street plan across London, UK (>26,000 streets). The time to recall each successive street name was treated as the response time, with a rapid average of 1.8 s between each street. In support of hierarchical planning we find that the clustered structure of London's regions impacts the response times, with minimal impact of the distance across the street network (as would be predicted by tree-search). We also find that changing direction during the plan (e.g. turning left or right) is associated with delayed response times. Thus, our results provide real-world evidence for how humans structure planning over a very large number of states, and give a measure of human expertise in planning
Default viewing: Reconceptualising choice and habit in television audience research
Get PDFWhen choosing what to watch, television audiences habitually default to particular channels, shows and apps as part of their everyday routines. Additionally, streaming platforms and devices also default to particular content, services or ads as determined by their software settings. In other words, television viewing is commonly shaped by both behavioural and technological defaults. How can television audience research account for these two distinct, yet related, phenomena? What does defaulting mean for our understanding of media choice in the streaming age? Drawing on the authors’ recent empirical work, this article develops a conceptual framework for understanding the role of defaults in contemporary television viewing. Our analysis synthesises ideas from fields of knowledge that are rarely considered together – television audience studies, platform studies and the sociology of habit – to revise longstanding debates about defaults, and to update them for the present context of streaming television
Ecological study of the association between the English national vaccination programme and area deprivation inequalities in COVID-19 mortality
Get PDFObjective: To understand how area deprivation inequalities in COVID-19 mortality changed during the national vaccination programme in England and to identify the extent to which these inequalities might be explained by unequal vaccination uptake.
Design: Ecological study.
Setting: 307 Lower Tier Local Authorities in England, March 2020 – December 2022.
Main outcome: measure Inequality in age-standardised mortality rates 28 days after a positive COVID-19 test by area-level deprivation from March 2020 to December 2022. We employ three different measures of this inequality: the disparity index, the concentration and generalised concentration index, and absolute and relative measures of inequality. We use the 2019 edition of the Index of Multiple Deprivation, transformed into quintiles.
Results: Relative inequalities in age-standardised mortality rates 28 days after a positive COVID-19 test reduced substantially (from around 6.9 times higher in most deprived to least deprived to 1.2 times higher) in the 25 months after the national vaccination rollout began. Vaccination uptake between the most and least deprived quintiles widened with each dose. Inequalities in cumulative mortality rates developed quickly, and while they stabilised and reduced, they did not disappear. We estimate that if vaccination rates in the most deprived areas had been the same as those in the least deprived, absolute disparity inequality would have been reduced from 118.9 per 100 000 (95% CI 117.0 to 120.7) to 40.2 (95% CI 3.7 to 76.7) at the end of 2022.
Conclusions: National COVID-19 vaccination strategies offer the potential to significantly reduce inequalities in COVID-19 mortality rates. However, more could be achieved if barriers to vaccination uptake in the most deprived areas are overcome
Eco-friendly synthesis of gold nanoparticles via tangerine peel extract: Unveiling their multifaceted biological and catalytic potentials
Get PDFRecent advancements in nanoscience underscore the transformative potential of nanomaterials in environmental and biological applications. In this study, we synthesized gold nanoparticles (Au@TPE NPs) using an eco-friendly and cost-effective approach, leveraging tangerine peel extract as both a capping and reducing agent. This method presents a sustainable alternative to traditional chemical agents. We optimized synthesis parameters, including time (5, 30, 60, and 90 min), temperature (25, 40, and 60 °C), and gold concentration (5, 10, 15, and 20 mM) to refine the nanoparticles size and morphology. Characterization via UV–Vis, XRD, FT-IR, EDAX, FESEM, and TEM revealed that nanoparticles synthesized at 40 °C and 15 mM gold concentration exhibited an optimal size (∼26 ± 5 nm) and a spherical shape. The Au@TPE NPs demonstrated antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 31.25 μg/ml for Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, and 62.5 μg/ml for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Notably, they also exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans and demonstrated 92.7 % antioxidant activity in a DPPH scavenging assay at 250 μg/ml. Photocatalytic tests revealed that the nanoparticles effectively degraded methyl orange and rhodamine B, achieving 88.6 % and 93.2 % degradation under UV light, respectively, and 67.3 % and 74.1 % degradation under sunlight. These promising biological and catalytic properties suggest significant potential for diverse applications
+VeriRel: Verification feedback to enhance document retrieval for scientific fact checking
No full textIdentification of appropriate supporting evidence is critical to the success of scientific fact checking. However, existing approaches rely on off-the-shelf Information Retrieval algorithms that rank documents based on relevance rather than the evidence they provide to support or refute the claim being checked. This paper proposes +VeriRel which includes verification success in the document ranking. Experimental results on three scientific fact checking datasets (SciFact, SciFact-Open and Check-Covid) demonstrate consistently leading performance by +VeriRel for document evidence retrieval and a positive impact on downstream verification. This study highlights the potential of integrating verification feedback to document relevance assessment for effective scientific fact checking systems. It shows promising future work to evaluate fine-grained relevance when examining complex documents for advanced scientific fact checking
The mixed-meal tolerance test as an appetite assay: methodological and practical considerations
Get PDFAppetite control is a topic which attracts widespread interest given its importance to energy balance and obesity. In this research area, the mixed-meal tolerance test (MM-TT) has emerged as an ‘appetite regulation assay’, facilitating the dynamic assessment of appetite parameters (e.g. subjective appetite perceptions, appetite-related hormones, food reward) in response to an individual meal. The MM-TT is commonly employed in observational and experimental studies to examine population differences and intervention effects. Problematically, no practice standard exists for the MM-TT and protocols vary widely. This presents a challenge for researchers designing new MM-TTs and hampers the comparability of findings. Therefore, within this narrative review we sought to identify and discuss key methodological considerations inherent within a MM-TT. The scope of our review extends to evaluating participant familiarisation and methodological standardisation practices, test meal characteristics, appetite perception assessment, blood sampling techniques, measurement of appetite-related hormones and data handling/analysis. A checklist has been devised to summarise relevant methodological issues identified within this review. This checklist can be used as a tool by researchers to facilitate MM-TT design and promote greater standardisation/comparability between studies. This review highlights the need for broader standardisation of MM-TT procedures to support consistency across future research. Additional research is needed to strengthen the evidence base on which various recommendations are made, particularly relating to participant familiarisation and methodological standardisation practices. Additional scrutiny of less common outcomes employed in MM-TTs (not addressed here), such as diet-induced thermogenesis, gastric emptying and ad libitum energy intake, is also needed
Meeting the needs of women in the perinatal period, who use or are in treatment for using drugs: a mixed-methods systematic review
Get PDFBackground
Women who use and/or are in treatment for using drugs during the perinatal period have complex health and social care needs. Substance use in the perinatal period is multifaceted, with many confounding factors that may impact the long-term health and well-being of both mothers and children. Evidence is needed to identify which psychosocial interventions are effective for women who use and/or are in treatment for drug use during the perinatal period.
Objective(s)
(1) Describe the range of psychosocial interventions available for women who use and/or are in treatment for drugs in the perinatal period; (2) to document evidence on the effectiveness of interventions and (3) identify interventions that women feel most meet their needs.
Design
A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted following a predetermined protocol and the Joanna Briggs Institute guidance for mixed-methods systematic reviews, adopting a segregated approach.
Review methods
Eight databases were searched for articles meeting the inclusion criteria on 7 April 2022, and updated searches were run on 5 February 2024. The search was limited to include peer-reviewed articles published after 1990 and available in English. In total, 15,655 articles were identified. Following screening by four reviewers by title and abstract and then full text, 197 articles were included in the review. A data extraction template was used to extract study characteristics and results. Quality was assessed using the mixed-methods Quality Appraisal Tool. Cohen’s d was used to measure the effect size for quantitative data to understand if an intervention had a small (> 0.2), medium (> 0.5) or large effect (> 0.8). Effectiveness was measured through three outcomes: (1) improvements and engagement with and retention in substance use treatment services for women in the prenatal and postnatal period; (2) reductions in substance use by women in the perinatal period and (3) improvements in engagement with and retention in prenatal care. For qualitative data, articles were grouped by the intervention type and the authors’ analytical themes and conclusions were thematically synthesised
Detection of genome-wide methylation changes in bladder cancer by long-read sequencing of urinary DNA
Get PDFBackground
Non-invasive urine tests for bladder cancer (BC) could reduce dependence on flexible cystoscopy for diagnosis and surveillance. Most recent developments in urine testing are based on targeted detection of genomic and/or epigenomic markers. We hypothesised that long-read whole-genome sequencing of urinary DNA with direct methylation profiling may allow accurate BC detection and insights into disease biology. However, the feasibility of such an approach has not yet been reported.
Methods
We applied long-read whole-genome sequencing with direct methylation detection to urine cell pellet DNA (ucpDNA) from 21 haematuria clinic patients: 13 BCs and 8 non-BCs. The modkit Hidden Markov Model algorithm was used to define differentially methylated regions across the genome. The ability to discriminate between BC and non-BC, and the cellular pathways affected were tested using PCA, h-clust and GSEA.
Results
We observed global hypomethylation and cancer-specific patterns of promoter hypermethylation in urine from BC patients. Sequencing of a single ucpDNA sample per flow cell yielded read depths of 18-34x; furthermore, BC methylation patterns were also evident with 2–5x multiplex sequencing. Copy number changes were also evident in ucpDNAs from BC patients. A limitation of the study is the small number of samples analysed; however, the detection of cancer-specific events demonstrates the feasibility of the approach, both in single and multiplexed flow-cell runs.
Conclusions
Even at low-read depths, genome-wide methylation patterns in urinary DNA reflect the presence of BC, potentially permitting rapid, non-invasive and cost-effective BC detection
OpenLimbTT, a transtibial residual limb shape model for prosthetics simulation and design: creating a statistical anatomic model using sparse data
Get PDFPoor socket fit is the leading cause of prosthetic limb discomfort. However, currently clinicians have limited objective data to support and improve socket design. Finite element analysis predictions might help improve the fit, but this requires internal and external anatomy models. While external 3D surface scans are often collected in routine clinical computer-aided design practice, detailed internal anatomy imaging (e.g., MRI or CT) is not. We present a prototype statistical shape model (SSM) describing the transtibial amputated residual limb, generated using a sparse dataset of 33 MRI and CT scans. To describe the maximal shape variance, training scans are size-normalized to their estimated intact tibia length. A mean limb is calculated and principal component analysis used to extract the principal modes of shape variation. In an illustrative use case, the model is interrogated to predict internal bone shapes given a skin surface shape. The model attributes ~52% of shape variance to amputation height and ~17% to slender-bulbous soft tissue profile. In cross-validation, left-out shapes influenced the mean by 0.14–0.88 mm root mean square error (RMSE) surface deviation (median 0.42 mm), and left-out shapes were recreated with 1.82–5.75 mm RMSE (median 3.40 mm). Linear regression between mode scores from skin-only- and full-model SSMs allowed prediction of bone shapes from the skin with 3.56–10.9 mm RMSE (median 6.66 mm). The model showed the feasibility of predicting bone shapes from surface scans, which addresses a key barrier to implementing simulation within clinical practice, and enables more representative prosthetic biomechanics research
3D tensile fracture analysis of tailored fibre placement composites using digital volume correlation
No full textTailored Fibre Placement (TFP) composites, manufactured using one of the latest dry-fibre technologies, feature unique 3D fibre bundle architectures and complex layup configurations involving stitching threads and base materials. Damage development under load is therefore challenging to observe and failure hard to predict. In this study, in-situ tensile testing of a TFP composite was conducted for the first time within an X-ray Computed Tomography microscope to capture the 3D damage evolution up to failure. Segmented image-based models were used to correlate crack locations with strain distributions measured using Digital Volume Correlation by post-processing X-ray images recorded at regular load intervals throughout the test. Results revealed that initial cracks appeared at applied stresses below 50% UTS, and propagated mainly within fibre bundles. The first initiation site matched the location of the maximum value (about 0.008) of the local strain component transverse to the fibre direction within the ply where the first crack appeared. Propagation followed bands of strain concentration along the fibre bundle direction, first in off-axis plies and then in longitudinal plies towards the end of the test, with the crack volume fraction increasing exponentially after initiation. Very limited delamination was observed after 90 % UTS, with stitching threads thought to be responsible for this retardation. Results therefore showed that fracture can be controlled through optimisation of the manufacturing process and laminate design. They also provide the foundation for the future development of physically-based multiscale strength prediction models needed for this optimal design of TFP composites for lightweight structural applications
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