Motor Variability in Complex Gesture Learning: Effects of Movement Sonification and Musical Background

With the increasing interest in movement sonification and expressive gesture-based interaction, it is important to understand which factors contribute to movement learning and how. We explore the effects of movement sonification and users’ musical background on motor variability in complex gesture learning. We contribute an empirical study in which musicians and non-musicians learn two gesture sequences over three days, with and without movement sonification. Results show the interlaced interaction effects of these factors and how they unfold in the three-day learning process. For gesture 1, which is fast and dynamic with a direct “action-sound” sonification, movement sonification induces higher variability for both musicians and non-musicians on day 1. While musicians reduce this variability to a similar level as no auditory feedback condition on day 2 and day 3, non-musicians remain to have significantly higher variability. Across three days, musicians also have significantly lower variability than non-musicians. For gesture 2, which is slow and smooth with an “action-music” metaphor, there are virtually no effects. Based on these findings, we recommend future studies to take into account participants’ musical background, consider longitudinal study to examine these effects on complex gestures, and use awareness when interpreting the results given a specific design of gesture and sound.

Comparative Analysis of GEDI’s Elevation Accuracy from the First and Second Data Product Releases over Inland Waterbodies

Spaceborne LiDAR altimetry has been demonstrated to be an essential source of data for the estimation and monitoring of inland water level variations. In this study, water level estimates from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) were validated against in situ gauge station records over Lake Geneva for the period between April 2019 and September 2020. The performances of the first and second releases (V1 and V2, respectively) of the GEDI data products were compared, and the effects on the accuracy of the instrumental and environmental factors were analyzed in order to discern the most accurate GEDI acquisitions. The respective influences of five parameters were analyzed in this study: (1) the signal-over-noise ratio (SNR); (2) the width of the water surface peak within the waveform (gwidth); (3) the amplitude of the water surface peak within the waveform (A); (4) the viewing angle of GEDI (VA); and (5) the acquiring beam. Results indicated that all these factors, except the acquiring beam, had an effect on the accuracy of GEDI elevations. Nonetheless, using VA as a filtering criterion was demonstrated to be the best compromise between retained shot count and water level estimation accuracy. Indeed, by choosing the shots with a VA ≤ 3.5°, 74.6% of the shots (after an initial filter) were retained with accuracies similar to choosing A > 400 (46.2% retained shots), SNR > 15 dB (63.3% retained shots), or gwidth < 10 bins (46.5% of retained shots). Finally, the comparison between V1 and V2 elevations showed that V2, overall, provided elevations with a more constant, but higher, bias and fewer deviations to the in situ data than V1. Indeed, by choosing GEDI shots with VA ≤ 3.5°, the unbiased RMSE (ubRMSE) of GEDI elevations was 27.1 cm with V2 (r = 0.66) and 42.8 cm with V1 (r = 0.34). Results also show that the accuracy of GEDI (ubRMSE) does not seem to depend on the beam number and GEDI acquisition dates for the most accurate GEDI acquisitions (VA ≤ 3.5°). Regarding the bias, a higher value was observed with V2, but with lower variability (54 cm) in comparison to V1 (35 cm). Finally, the bias showed a slight dependence on beam GEDI number and strong dependence on GEDI dates.

Usefulness of 99mTc–pertechnetate SPECT-CT in thyroid tissue volumetry: phantom studies and a clinical case series

Background: An accurate measurement of the target volume is of primary importance in theragnostics of hyperthyroidism Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate the accuracy of a threshold–based isocontour extraction procedure for thyroid tissue volumetry from SPECT-CT. Methods: Cylindrical vials with a fixed volume of 99mTcO4 at different activities were inserted into a neck phantom in two different thickness settings. Images were acquired by orienting the phantom in different positions, i.e., 40 planar images and 40 SPECT-CT. The fixed values of the iso-contouring threshold for SPECT and SPECT-CT were calculated by means of linear and spline regression models. Mean, Median, Standard Deviation, Standard Error, Mean Absolute Percentage Error and Root Mean-Square Error were computed. Any difference between the planar method, SPECT and SPECT-CT and the effective volume was evaluated by means of ANOVA and post-hoc tests. Moreover, planar and SPECT-CT acquisitions were performed in 8 patients with hyperthyroidism, considering relevant percentage differences greater than > 20 % from CT gold standard. Results: Concerning phantom studies, the planar method shows higher values of each parameter than the other two methods. SPECT-CT shows lower variability. However, no significant differences were observed between SPECT and SPECT-CT measurements. In patients, relevant differences were found in 7 out of 9 lesions with the planar method, in 6 lesions with SPECT, but in only one with SPECT-CT. Conclution: Our study confirms the superiority of SPECT in volume measurement if compared with the planar method. A more accurate measurement can be obtained from SPECT-CT.

Risk factors relate to the variability of health outcomes as well as the mean: a GAMLSS tutorial

Background: Risk factors or interventions may affect the variability as well as the mean of health outcomes. Understanding this can aid aetiological understanding and public health translation, in that interventions which shift the outcome mean and reduce variability are typically preferable to those which affect only the mean. However, most commonly used statistical tools do not test for differences in variability. Tools that do have few epidemiological applications to date, and fewer applications still have attempted to explain their resulting findings. We thus provide a tutorial for investigating this using GAMLSS (Generalised Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape). Methods: The 1970 British birth cohort study was used, with body mass index (BMI; N=6,007) and mental wellbeing (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale; N=7,104) measured in midlife (42-46 years) as outcomes. We used GAMLSS to investigate how multiple risk factors (sex, childhood social class and midlife physical inactivity) related to differences in health outcome mean and variability. Results: Risk factors were related to sizable differences in outcome variability-for example males had marginally higher mean BMI yet 28% lower variability; lower social class and physical inactivity were each associated with higher mean and higher variability (6.1% and 13.5% higher variability, respectively). For mental wellbeing, gender was not associated with the mean while males had lower variability (-3.9%); lower social class and physical inactivity were each associated with lower mean yet higher variability (7.2% and 10.9% higher variability, respectively). Conclusions: The results highlight how GAMLSS can be used to investigate how risk factors or interventions may influence the variability in health outcomes. This underutilised approach to the analysis of continuously distributed outcomes may have broader utility in epidemiologic, medical, and psychological sciences. A tutorial and replication syntax is provided online to facilitate this (https://osf.io/5tvz6/). Funding: DB is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/M001660/1), The Academy of Medical Sciences / Wellcome Trust ('Springboard Health of the Public in 2040' award: HOP001/1025); DB and LW are supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/V002147/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Sr isotope ratio in vegetable crops and apple trees depends on that of the soil environment while is unaffected by the genotype

The 87Sr/86Sr ratio is an effective geographical tracer for horticultural products. In plants this ratio reflects closely the characteristics of the growing area. However, information about the variability of this parameter when measured in different plant species or cultivars is still scarce. In this work, we have tested the hypothesis that, when plants are growing in the same environment, their 87Sr/86Sr ratio is independent from the plant species or cultivar. For this, four to six vegetable species were collected from two fields in different locations in South Tyrol (Italy), together with the corresponding soils. Additionally, within a single apple orchard located in the same area, apple leaves were collected from trees of five cultivars. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio was measured applying an established and validated method. In general, vegetable species growing in the same field had similar 87Sr/86Sr ratios and showed a lower variability compared to their corresponding soils, while a significant difference was found comparing the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the two vegetable fields. Apple leaves sampled from different tree cultivars also did not show a significant difference in their 87Sr/86Sr ratio. We concluded that the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in vegetables and apple trees was affected by the soil, but not significantly by the type of species or cultivar. Therefore, within limited areas, the results of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio analysis based on samples of a certain species/cultivar can be extended to other similar plants growing in the same site.

Benchmarking the economic and environmental performance of water utilities: a comparison of frontier techniques

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate and compare the efficiency of several water utilities using three frontier techniques. Moreover, this study estimates the impact of several qualities of service variables on water utilities’ performance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilizes three frontier techniques such as data envelopment analysis (DEA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and stochastic non-parametric envelopment of data (StoNED) to estimate efficiency scores.FindingsEfficiency scores for each methodological approach were different being on average, 0.745, 0.857 and 0.933 for SFA, DEA and StoNED methods, respectively. Moreover, it was evidenced that water leakage had a statistically significant impact on water utilities’ costs.Research limitations/implicationsThe choice of an adequate and robust method for benchmarking the efficiency of water utilities is very relevant for water regulators because it affects decision making process such as water tariffs and design incentives to improve the performance and quality of service of water utilities.Originality/valueThis paper evaluates and compares the performance of a sample of water utilities using three different frontier methods. It has been revealed that the choice of the efficiency assessment method matters. Unlike SFA and DEA, a lower variability was shown in the efficiency scores obtained from the StoNED method.

Use of standard U-bottom and V-bottom well plates to generate neuroepithelial embryoid bodies

The use of organoids has become increasingly popular recently due to their self-organizing abilities, which facilitate developmental and disease modeling. Various methods have been described to create embryoid bodies (EBs) generated from embryonic or pluripotent stem cells but with varying levels of differentiation success and producing organoids of variable size. Commercial ultra-low attachment (ULA) V-bottom well plates are frequently used to generate EBs. These plates are relatively expensive and not as widely available as standard concave well plates. Here, we describe a cost-effective and low labor-intensive method that creates homogeneous EBs at high yield in standard V- and U-bottom well plates by applying an anti-adherence solution to reduce surface attachment, followed by centrifugation to enhance cellular aggregation. We also explore the effect of different seeding densities, in the range of 1 to 11 ×10 3 cells per well, for the fabrication of neuroepithelial EBs. Our results show that the use of V-bottom well plates briefly treated with anti-adherent solution (for 5 min at room temperature) consistently yields functional neural EBs in the range of seeding densities from 5 to 11×10 3 cells per well. A brief post-seeding centrifugation step further enhances EB establishment. EBs fabricated using centrifugation exhibited lower variability in their final size than their non-centrifuged counterparts, and centrifugation also improved EB yield. The span of conditions for reliable EB production is narrower in U-bottom wells than in V-bottom wells (i.e., seeding densities between 7×10 3 and 11×10 3 and using a centrifugation step). We show that EBs generated by the protocols introduced here successfully developed into neural organoids and expressed the relevant markers associated with their lineages

An In Silico Head-to-Head Comparison of the Do-It-Yourself Artificial Pancreas Loop and Bio-Inspired Artificial Pancreas Control Algorithms

Background: User-developed automated insulin delivery systems, also referred to as do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems (DIY APS), are in use by people living with type 1 diabetes. In this work, we evaluate, in silico, the DIY APS Loop control algorithm and compare it head-to-head with the bio-inspired artificial pancreas (BiAP) controller for which clinical data are available. Methods: The Python version of the Loop control algorithm called PyLoopKit was employed for evaluation purposes. A Python-MATLAB interface was created to integrate PyLoopKit with the UVa-Padova simulator. Two configurations of BiAP (non-adaptive and adaptive) were evaluated. In addition, the Tandem Basal-IQ predictive low-glucose suspend was used as a baseline algorithm. Two scenarios with different levels of variability were used to challenge the algorithms on the adult (n = 10) and adolescent (n = 10) virtual cohorts of the simulator. Results: Both BiAP and Loop improve, or maintain, glycemic control when compared with Basal-IQ. Under the scenario with lower variability, BiAP and Loop perform relatively similarly. However, BiAP, and in particular its adaptive configuration, outperformed Loop in the scenario with higher variability by increasing the percentage time in glucose target range 70-180 mg/dL (BiAP-Adaptive vs Loop vs Basal-IQ) (adults: 89.9% ± 3.2%* vs 79.5% ± 5.3%* vs 67.9% ± 8.3%; adolescents: 74.6 ± 9.5%* vs 53.0% ± 7.7% vs 55.4% ± 12.0%, where * indicates the significance of P < .05 calculated in sequential order) while maintaining the percentage time below range (adults: 0.89% ± 0.37% vs 1.72% ± 1.26% vs 3.41 ± 1.92%; adolescents: 2.87% ± 2.77% vs 4.90% ± 1.92% vs 4.17% ± 2.74%). Conclusions: Both Loop and BiAP algorithms are safe and improve glycemic control when compared, in silico, with Basal-IQ. However, BiAP appears significantly more robust to real-world challenges by outperforming Loop and Basal-IQ in the more challenging scenario.

CHILES VERDES: Radio Variability at an Unprecedented Depth and Cadence in the COSMOS Field

Although it is well established that some extragalactic radio sources are time-variable, the properties of this radio variability, and its connection with host galaxy properties, remain to be explored—particularly for faint sources. Here we present an analysis of radio variable sources from the CHILES Variable and Explosive Radio Dynamic Evolution Survey (CHILES VERDES)—a partner project of the 1.4 GHz COSMOS H i Large Extragalactic Survey. CHILES VERDES provides an unprecedented combination of survey depth, duration, and cadence, with 960 hr of 1–2 GHz continuum VLA data obtained over 209 epochs between 2013 and 2019 in a 0.44 deg2 section of the well-studied extragalactic deep field, COSMOS. We identified 18 moderate-variability sources (showing 10%–30% flux density variation) and 40 lower-variability sources (2%–10% flux density variation). They are mainly active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with radio luminosities in the range of 1022–1027 W Hz−1, based on cross-matching with COSMOS multiwavelength catalogs. The moderate-variability sources span redshifts z = 0.22–1.56, have mostly flat radio spectra (α > −0.5), and vary on timescales ranging from days to years. The lower-variability sources have similar properties, but generally have higher radio luminosities than the moderate-variability sources, extending to z = 2.8, and have steeper radio spectra (α < −0.5). No star-forming galaxy showed statistically significant variability in our analysis. The observed variability likely originates from scintillation on short (∼week) timescales, and Doppler-boosted intrinsic AGN variability on long (month–year) timescales.

Heart Rate Variability and Muscle Strength in Young Adults with Sedentary Behaviour

Introduction: Sedentary behaviour or physical inactivity has been relatively prevalent among young adults globally. Multiple studies pointed out that Malaysia has been listed as one of the Asian countries with high prevalence of inactivity. Objective: This study aimed to examine the heart rate variability (HRV) and muscle strength among young adults in order to identify the early impact of this behaviour on their physiological and physical health. Method: This cross-sectional study involved 185 healthy male adults aged 18-25 years old. Participants’ height and body compositions were measured and their level of physical activities were obtained using Short Questionnaire to Assess Health (SQuASH). Those with less than 150 minutes per week of physical activity engagement were classified as sedentary. Their HRV was analysed as a determinant for early physiological change that was influenced by the sedentary behaviour. Muscle strength of upper and lower body was assessed via handheld dynamometer to identify the physical fitness associated to the behaviour. Results: Among the participants that volunteered in this study, approximately 44% were classified as sedentary. Analyses revealed that those with sedentary behaviour had lower variability of their HRV and lower muscle strength as compared to those who engaged with at least 150 minutes per week of physical activities. Conclusion: The highlighted evidence of the difference on parameters of HRV and muscle strength with this behaviour suggested that these parameters were suitable parameters to be utilised in determining subclinical improvement on health with any intervention to curb sedentary behaviour.