30796 research outputs found
Sort by
Enhanced Signal-to-Noise Ratio Estimation in Optical Fiber Communications: A Pilot-Based Approach
Get PDFThis paper presents two innovative, pilot-assisted, neural network (NN)-based signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimators for application in optical fiber communications. These estimators, termed pilot-assisted feature complexity reduction (PAF-CR) and pilot-assisted feature accuracy enhancement (PAF-AE), are designed to jointly estimate both linear and non-linear SNR components. The architectures of these proposed estimators employ feedforward NNs (FFNNs) for the SNR estimation, with PAF-CR utilizing a two-hidden layer FFNN and PAF-AE employing a single-hidden layer FFNN. Novel features are extracted from pilot signals to utilize the pilot overhead in transmitted signals, such as mean absolute error and mean signed deviation, which statistically measure the error between transmitted and received pilot signals. Additionally, features are directly extracted from the received data signal, such as average absolute deviation, entropy, and arithmetic mean, to capture its statistical dispersion characteristics. The proposed features are carefully selected to effectively capture the characteristics of both linear and non-linear SNR components. The estimation accuracy of the SNR components achieved by the proposed estimators is evaluated using the normalized root mean square error and the standard deviation of the estimation errors. A comprehensive computational complexity analysis of the proposed PAF-CR and PAF-AE estimators is conducted, expressed in terms of real-valued multiplications and additions. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed PAF-CR and PAF-AE estimators achieve a favorable trade-off between the SNR estimation accuracy and computational complexity compared with existing literature estimators. The proposed PAF-CR offers significant computational complexity reduction with a slight enhancement in estimation accuracy, while the proposed PAF-AE provides substantial estimation accuracy improvement while slightly decreasing computational complexity
Fusion of Personalized Federated Learning (PFL) with Differential Privacy (DP) Learning for Diagnosis of Arrhythmia Disease
Get PDFThis paper presents a novel privacy-preserving architecture, a fusion of Federated Learning with Personalized Models and Differential Privacy (FLPMDP), for diagnosing arrhythmia from 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The architecture supports collaborative training in decentralized healthcare institutions without exposing sensitive patient information. By employing gated recurrent units (GRUs) for temporal sequence modeling along with feature fusion techniques and local differential privacy enforcement, FLPMDP ensures robust classification performance with data confidentiality. The architecture is evaluated on four experimental setups and demonstrates significant performance gain over centralized and federated baseline models. An empirical experiment on a large ECG dataset of 10,646 recordings indicates that the FLPMDP approach achieves an average accuracy of 93.71%. The FLPMDP approach yields F1-scores of 0.98, 0.93, 0.88, and 0.89 for sinus bradycardia (SB), atrial fibrillation (AFIB), supraventricular tachycardia (GSVT), and sinus rhythm (SR), respectively. Additionally, FLPMDP recorded a specificity up to 0.98, with a Kappa score of 0.8971 and a Matthews Correlation Coefficient of 0.9042, indicating high diagnostic accuracy and model strength. Comparative analysis against state-of-the-art methods—such as CNN, ResNet, and attention-based RNNs indicate that FLPMDP consistently outperforms current models in accuracy, sensitivity, and robustness when facing non-IID data conditions. In the context of this research, federated learning is highly pertinent to modern healthcare, enabling secure and collaborative model training across institutions while complying with data privacy. The proposed FLPMDP framework offers a scalable and privacy-compliant solution for real-time arrhythmia detection, marking a step forward in deploying trustworthy artificial intelligencefor decentralized medical diagnostics
Management of fatigue in gynaecological cancer: A feasibility study of an app-based exercise and mindfulness intervention
Get PDFObjectivesCancer-related fatigue (CRF) is an issue for many people living with and beyond cancer. Evidence suggests that exercise and mindfulness may help in management of CRF, however, adherence to such interventions remains poor and there is little evidence for combining these interventions or for digital delivery. Few interventions have targeted women who have gynaecological cancer. This study developed and assessed the feasibility of digitally delivering mindfulness and exercise interventions to manage CRF in this population.MethodsAn 8-week feasibility randomised control trial was delivered via a mobile app to two groups (mindfulness only; mindfulness and exercise). Feasibility was assessed through retention, adherence and attrition rates. Participant-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep and health-related quality of life were collected pre and post intervention and analysed using descriptive statistics (mean, median, inter-quartile ranges and line graphs). Online focus groups explored patient experiences, acceptability and satisfaction with the interventions.ResultsTwenty-five participants (mindfulness only n = 13, mindfulness and exercise n = 12) had overall retention rate of 88 %, adherence was 72.72 % and attrition was 12 %. Both groups demonstrated improvements in fatigue (mindfulness-alone; 7.8, mindfulness and exercise 14.11), anxiety (2.9; 4.87), depression (2.06; 4.26), sleep, (2.8; 2.71), and HRQOL (6.4; 10.4), based on changes in mean scores. Qualitative findings identified three main themes: benefits of participation, barriers to participation and digital delivery of the intervention.ConclusionBoth groups experienced improvements in CRF, anxiety, depression, sleep and HRQoL. Retention and adherence rates were high with a good level of app engagement. Feasibility was demonstrated through retention, adherence and attrition rates and interventions were deemed acceptable. These findings suggest that a fully powered RCT is warranted. While online recruitment was challenging, the online delivery of interventions enabled broader participant inclusion and scalability
Gut modulation to regulate NF-κB in colorectal and gastric cancer therapy and inflammation
Get PDFThe nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway plays a pivotal role in cancer progression, immune regulation, and inflammation. Aberrant activation of this pathway, often driven by gut microbiota dysbiosis, contributes to tumorigenesis, therapy resistance, and chronic inflammation. Emerging evidence highlights the bidirectional interaction between gut microbiota and NF-κB signalling, suggesting that microbiota modulation may enhance cancer treatment efficacy and reduce treatment-induced inflammation. This review explores the mechanistic underpinnings of gut microbiota-mediated NF-κB regulation, focusing on microbial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and microbial-associated molecular patterns, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS). It examines how conventional cancer treatments, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, exacerbate dysbiosis and NF-κB-driven inflammation, further complicating treatment outcomes. Additionally, this review evaluates the therapeutic potential of gut-targeted interventions, including probiotics, prebiotics, faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and dietary modifications, in restoring microbial homeostasis and modulating NF-κB signalling. Despite promising findings, challenges remain regarding the clinical translation of microbiota-based therapies, including the need for standardised microbiota profiling, regulatory frameworks, and long-term safety assessments. Advances in metagenomics and metabolomics are proposed as essential tools to personalise gut-targeted interventions and optimise cancer treatment strategies. Integrating gut modulation into oncology represents a paradigm shift, offering a holistic, patient-centric approach to cancer therapy. However, further research is required to validate these strategies and ensure their efficacy in clinical applications. [Abstract copyright: © 2025. The Author(s).
Association between dynapenic abdominal obesity and mild cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older community-dwelling adults
Get PDFObjectives: Dynapenic abdominal obesity (DAO) may potentially increase risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but data is scarce, and community-based studies are lacking. Thus, we aimed to investigate the association between DAO and MCI in a large nationally representative community-based sample from six LMICs (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa). Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. Dynapenia was defined as handgrip strength of < 26 kg for men and < 16 kg for women. Abdominal obesity was defined as waist circumference of > 88 cm for women and > 102 cm for men. DAO was defined as having both dynapenia and abdominal obesity. The National Institute on Ageing-Alzheimer’s Association criteria were used to define MCI. Multivariable logistic regression was performed. Results: Data on 32,715 individuals aged ≥ 50 years were analyzed [mean (SD) age 62.1 (15.6) years; 48.3% males]. Among those aged 50–64 years, dynapenia alone and DAO were significantly associated with MCI with the OR for DAO (OR = 1.79; 95%CI = 1.26–2.56) being higher than that of dynapenia alone (OR = 1.40; 95%CI = 1.15–1.71). In those aged ≥ 65 years, only dynapenia alone (OR = 1.53; 95%CI = 1.23–1.89) was significantly associated with MCI but not DAO. Abdominal obesity alone was not significantly associated with MCI in both age groups. Conclusions: Among community-dwellers in six LMICs, DAO was significantly associated with MCI among middle-aged individuals, but not among older people. However, it is important to note that the study was cross-sectional in nature, and thus, it is not known whether DAO leads to MCI or vice versa. Therefore, future longitudinal studies are necessary to clarify temporal associations and possible causality
Shame and Guilt Proneness as Mediators of PTSD/DSO Symptoms in Young Adults
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between trauma exposure, shame and guilt proneness and the development of PTSD and Disturbances in Self‐Organisation (DSO) symptoms in young adults. Specifically, we hypothesised that trauma exposure would be positively correlated with PTSD and DSO symptoms and that shame and guilt would mediate this relationship. A total of 160 young adults participated in this study. Three models were tested: (1) a model with direct effects from trauma exposure to PTSD and DSO, (2) an indirect effects model where the direct paths were constrained and (3) a full model with both direct and indirect effects. Shame and guilt proneness showed a strong correlation with PTSD and DSO. Direct effects revealed that trauma exposure predicted PTSD, DSO, guilt and shame proneness. Guilt had a strong effect on PTSD, while shame had the strongest effect on DSO. Indirect effects showed that trauma exposure significantly predicted both PTSD and DSO through heightened guilt and shame. The strongest indirect relationships were trauma exposure to PTSD via guilt and trauma exposure to DSO via shame. This study demonstrates that trauma exposure is associated with heightened levels of shame and guilt proneness, which, in turn, predict greater severity of PTSD and DSO symptoms. These findings suggest that emotional regulation, particularly in relation to shame and guilt proneness, should be targeted in interventions for trauma‐related disorders. Future research should further explore the role of these emotions in the development of complex PTSD
Review Manipulation and Filtering on Digital Platforms
Get PDFDigital platforms strive to filter out consumer reviews that are manipulated, which has become a common and increasingly vexing problem that can take anywhere from days to months to detect. Yet little is known about the consequences of such reviews on product market performance. Usingdata from Apple App Store, we examine how the app’s ranking changes when it receives manipulated reviews that are later filtered out by Apple. Our findings reveal that both one-star and five-star manipulated reviews have a significant positive effect on app rankings within a week of posting. The positive effect of one-star manipulated reviews is particularly surprising, as it contradictsthe expected effect of organic negative reviews and the intent behind using such reviews to harm competitors. We also explore how these effects evolve over time, shedding light on the role of filtering policies in mitigating distortions related to review manipulation. Results show that these effects become negative as platforms filter out manipulated reviews, but this process can take aslong as six months to fully materialize. These findings highlight the need for digital platforms to increase their investment to promptly and accurately control review manipulation for the welfare of both businesses and users on the platform. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically analyze the short-term and long-term effects of manipulated reviews on productsales, which provides crucial managerial implications for practitioners
Future Island-Island Impact Cards:Colours of Rathlin
Get PDFChallengeThe Colours of Rathlin project explores natural dyeing using wool from the island, creatively repurposing non-indigenous plants and organic waste from local cafés and bars. This sustainable approach highlights Rathlin’s unique ecology and culture while reducing waste and celebrating natural colour palettes through environmentally conscious textile practices.ApproachThe project uses practice-based research, combining ethnographic observation with experimental dye techniques. It engages local stakeholders through participatory methods, collecting plant materials and waste streams. The approach emphasises sustainability, material innovation, and place-based knowledge, with iterative testing and documentation informing both the creative process and environmental impact assessment.OutcomesOutputs include naturally dyed wool samples, a colour archive, and public exhibitions. Outcomes involve increased awareness of sustainable practices, strengthened community engagement, and reduced waste through creative reuse. The project fosters local pride, informs future eco-textile regenerative initiatives, and contributes to broader dialogues on sustainability, craft, and place-based innovation.LearningsThe project reveals how Rathlin’s colours can regenerate value from waste, transforming discarded materials into meaningful, place-specific textiles. It highlights the potential of local, non-indigenous plants and food waste as sustainable dye sources, encouraging circular practices, enhancing environmental awareness, and fostering a deeper connection between community, landscape, and craft.ImpactThis project enhances sustainability by repurposing local waste for natural dyeing, reducing landfill use. It promotes cultural and ecological awareness through community innovation, influencing sustainable practices regionally and nationally. Through workshops, exhibitions, and publications, it builds regenerative textile collaborations that embed circular economy principles in craft, education, and rural development
Still Somebody: a photography exhibition on female homelessness at Feile an Phobail, Belfast
Get PDFThis exhibition presented the photographic work produced by a group of women experiencing homelessness. Together with Dr Clare Gallagher and Cormac McArt, they explored narratives around home and housing and reflected on their own experiences. The work they produced extends the imagery around homelessness beyond the journalistic and illustrative, and gives creative voice to the underrepresented female experience. The exhibition also showcased new advocacy materials - posters, leaflets and postcards - produced with the women's images and texts written in collaboration with them and these extend the impact of this underrepresented issue
