Baseline clinical features of COVID-19 patients, delay of hospital admission and clinical outcome: A complex relationship

Introduction Delay between symptom onset and access to care is essential to prevent clinical worsening for different infectious diseases. For COVID-19, this delay might be associated with the clinical prognosis, but also with the different characteristics of patients. The objective was to describe characteristics and symptoms of community-acquired (CA) COVID-19 patients at hospital admission according to the delay between symptom onset and hospital admission, and to identify determinants associated with delay of admission. Methods The present work was based on prospective NOSO-COR cohort data, and restricted to patients with laboratory confirmed CA SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to Lyon hospitals between February 8 and June 30, 2020. Long delay of hospital admission was defined as ≥6 days between symptom onset and hospital admission. Determinants of the delay between symptom onset and hospital admission were identified by univariate and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results Data from 827 patients were analysed. Patients with a long delay between symptom onset and hospital admission were younger (p<0.01), had higher body mass index (p<0.01), and were more frequently admitted to intensive care unit (p<0.01). Their plasma levels of C-reactive protein were also significantly higher (p<0.01). The crude in-hospital fatality rate was lower in this group (13.3% versus 27.6%), p<0.01. Multiple analysis with correction for multiple testing showed that age ≥75 years was associated with a short delay between symptom onset and hospital admission (≤5 days) (aOR: 0.47 95% CI (0.34–0.66)) and CRP>100 mg/L at admission was associated with a long delay (aOR: 1.84 95% CI (1.32–2.55)). Discussion Delay between symptom onset and hospital admission is a major issue regarding prognosis of COVID-19 but can be related to multiple factors such as individual characteristics, organization of care and severe pathogenic processes. Age seems to play a key role in the delay of access to care and the disease prognosis.

Adolescent Verbal Memory as a Psychosis Endophenotype: A Genome-Wide Association Study in an Ancestrally Diverse Sample

Verbal memory impairment is one of the most prominent cognitive deficits in psychosis. However, few studies have investigated the genetic basis of verbal memory in a neurodevelopmental context, and most genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been conducted in European-ancestry populations. We conducted a GWAS on verbal memory in a maximum of 11,017 participants aged 8.9 to 11.1 years in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study®, recruited from a diverse population in the United States. Verbal memory was assessed by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which included three measures of verbal memory: immediate recall, short-delay recall, and long-delay recall. We adopted a mixed-model approach to perform a joint GWAS of all participants, adjusting for ancestral background and familial relatedness. The inclusion of participants from all ancestries increased the power of the GWAS. Two novel genome-wide significant associations were found for short-delay and long-delay recall verbal memory. In particular, one locus (rs9896243) associated with long-delay recall was mapped to the NSF (N-Ethylmaleimide Sensitive Factor, Vesicle Fusing ATPase) gene, indicating the role of membrane fusion in adolescent verbal memory. Based on the GWAS in the European subset, we estimated the SNP-heritability to be 15% to 29% for the three verbal memory traits. We found that verbal memory was genetically correlated with schizophrenia, providing further evidence supporting verbal memory as an endophenotype for psychosis.

Law of coal caving behind the flexible shield support in pseudo-inclined working face

Complex boundary conditions are the major influencing factors of coal caving law in the pseudo-inclined working face. The main purpose of this study is to analyze coal caving law of flexible shield support and then to establish the internal relations among coal caving parameters under complex boundary conditions. Firstly, the law of coal caving in different falling modes is simulated physically. Secondly, the coal caving shape, displacement field, and contact force field is simulated. Then, coal caving law and process parameters is analyzed theoretically. Finally, the test was performed in Bai-Ji Mine. The research shows that ellipsoidal ore drawing theory has universal applicability in coal drawing law analysis and parameter optimization. After the Isolated Extraction Zone and Isolated Movement Zone reach the roof, the expansion speed is marked by a short delay, and then, while expanding to the floor, two butted incomplete ellipsoids are formed. There is a time-space difference in coal caving after the support, and some coal will be mined in the next round of coal caving. There are obvious differences in the coal loosening range, displacement field, and contact force field on both sides of the long axis. When the support falls along with the bottom plate, it is more conducive to the release of coal. The test shows that the research is of great significance for optimizing the caving parameters of flexible shield support in the pseudo-inclined working face of the steep seam.

Investigating the Suitability of Different Routing Strategies In Specific VANET Application Class

Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET), is an emerging technology that holds the opportunity to create potential applications that directly impact peoples' lives, traffic management, and infotainment services. Understanding VANET applications and the available routing protocols can help to infer the most suitable protocols that satisfy VANET application requirements. This paper develops a systematic classification methodology to classify VANET applications from a routing perspective, each application class has different network requirements which are laid down by VANET Projects conducted in different countries. Some of these requirements are related to the routing aspects and need to be satisfied by the selected routing strategies (proactive and reactive). The paper identifies routing strategies performance metrics related to each application class requirement, to efficiently guide the development of these routing strategies towards guaranteeing satisfactory performance for the applications under a wide variety of realistic VANET scenarios. It is also worth mentioning that minimum delay is a requirement needed by time and event-driven application classes. However, high reliability is a requirement needed by on-demand applications. The paper aims to provide a comparative study on the performance of routing strategies in different VANET application classes, to identify which routing strategies have better performance in specific VANET applications class. End-to-end delay is employed as a performance metric to evaluate the short delay requirement, while, the Routing Overhead (RO) is used to assess the reliability requirement. Simulation results showed that proactive routing protocol has a lower delay, which means that it is suitable for delay-sensitive applications such as time-driven and event-driven applications. The result also showed that the reactive routing protocol outperforms the proactive routing protocol in terms of RO, which means that reactive routing protocols can be nominated as proper routing strategies to satisfy the reliability requirement of the On-demand driven applications.

Automatic Synthesis Technology of Music Teaching Melodies Based on Recurrent Neural Network

Computer music creation boasts broad application prospects. It generally relies on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to generate the music score that matches the original mono-symbol score model or memorize/recognize the rhythms and beats of the music. However, there are very few music melody synthesis models based on artificial neural networks (ANNs). Some ANN-based models cannot adapt to the transposition invariance of original rhythm training set. To overcome the defect, this paper tries to develop an automatic synthesis technology of music teaching melodies based on recurrent neural network (RNN). Firstly, a strategy was proposed to extract the acoustic features from music melody. Next, the sequence-sequence model was adopted to synthetize general music melodies. After that, an RNN was established to synthetize music melody with singing melody, such as to find the suitable singing segments for the music melody in teaching scenario. The RNN can synthetize music melody with a short delay solely based on static acoustic features, eliminating the need for dynamic features. The proposed model was proved valid through experiments.

The effect of selective discussion on young people's autobiographical memories

<p>Young people frequently talk about memories of experienced events with their parents and peers. These conversations are selective and little is known about the fate of memories that are not talked about. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994) is an experimental paradigm that can be used as a proxy for selective conversations under controlled conditions. While some studies have been conducted with adults (see Storm et al., 2015 for review), the impact of selective discussion on young people’s recall of their autobiographical memories has not yet been investigated. This thesis, therefore, addresses a number of key gaps in the literature. In the first study, we investigated the impact of selective discussion on 8-9-year-old children’s (N = 65) recall of their autobiographical memories. Selective discussion produced RIF for children’s positive and negative memories. Selective discussion also produced RIF for children’s memory details; even when non-discussed memories were recalled, they were recalled in sparser detail. In addition, children who discussed a selection of their memories in more detail later forgot a greater proportion of their non-discussed memories. These findings are the first to demonstrate that selective discussion with children results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. Moreover, the findings indicate the importance of memory detail in RIF for autobiographical memories. In the second study, we investigated the short and long-term impact of selective discussion on 13-15-year-old adolescents’ (N = 58) recall of their autobiographical memories. After a short delay, selective discussion led to RIF for adolescents’ negative memories only; RIF did not occur for adolescents’ positive memories. After a long delay, RIF occurred for both positive and negative autobiographical memories. Given that Study 1 demonstrated that for children, RIF occurred for both positive and negative memories after a short delay, these findings with adolescents represent a novel developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories with regard to memory valence. In addition, they suggest that RIF for different kinds of stimuli may occur over different delay periods. In the third study, we expanded on the findings of Study 1, investigating the impact of selective discussion on specific kinds of autobiographical memory details for both children and adolescents (N = 123; combined sample from Study 1 and 2). RIF occurred for some memory details but did not occur for others. Moreover, the details of children’s, as compared to adolescents’, non-discussed autobiographical memories were more vulnerable to being forgotten following selective discussion. These findings again demonstrate a developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories and highlight the importance of investigating how selective discussion may impair non-discussed autobiographical memories even when they are recalled. Overall, our findings extend the field by establishing that selective discussion about young people’s everyday autobiographical memories results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. More specifically, we found developmental differences with regard to memory valence and detail that had previously been overlooked in developmental studies of RIF. Our findings add clarity about the specific types of memory detail that are vulnerable to being forgotten from non-discussed memories and highlight the necessity of investigating the long-term effects of selective discussion, even when RIF is not immediately evident.</p>

The effect of selective discussion on young people's autobiographical memories

<p>Young people frequently talk about memories of experienced events with their parents and peers. These conversations are selective and little is known about the fate of memories that are not talked about. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994) is an experimental paradigm that can be used as a proxy for selective conversations under controlled conditions. While some studies have been conducted with adults (see Storm et al., 2015 for review), the impact of selective discussion on young people’s recall of their autobiographical memories has not yet been investigated. This thesis, therefore, addresses a number of key gaps in the literature. In the first study, we investigated the impact of selective discussion on 8-9-year-old children’s (N = 65) recall of their autobiographical memories. Selective discussion produced RIF for children’s positive and negative memories. Selective discussion also produced RIF for children’s memory details; even when non-discussed memories were recalled, they were recalled in sparser detail. In addition, children who discussed a selection of their memories in more detail later forgot a greater proportion of their non-discussed memories. These findings are the first to demonstrate that selective discussion with children results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. Moreover, the findings indicate the importance of memory detail in RIF for autobiographical memories. In the second study, we investigated the short and long-term impact of selective discussion on 13-15-year-old adolescents’ (N = 58) recall of their autobiographical memories. After a short delay, selective discussion led to RIF for adolescents’ negative memories only; RIF did not occur for adolescents’ positive memories. After a long delay, RIF occurred for both positive and negative autobiographical memories. Given that Study 1 demonstrated that for children, RIF occurred for both positive and negative memories after a short delay, these findings with adolescents represent a novel developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories with regard to memory valence. In addition, they suggest that RIF for different kinds of stimuli may occur over different delay periods. In the third study, we expanded on the findings of Study 1, investigating the impact of selective discussion on specific kinds of autobiographical memory details for both children and adolescents (N = 123; combined sample from Study 1 and 2). RIF occurred for some memory details but did not occur for others. Moreover, the details of children’s, as compared to adolescents’, non-discussed autobiographical memories were more vulnerable to being forgotten following selective discussion. These findings again demonstrate a developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories and highlight the importance of investigating how selective discussion may impair non-discussed autobiographical memories even when they are recalled. Overall, our findings extend the field by establishing that selective discussion about young people’s everyday autobiographical memories results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. More specifically, we found developmental differences with regard to memory valence and detail that had previously been overlooked in developmental studies of RIF. Our findings add clarity about the specific types of memory detail that are vulnerable to being forgotten from non-discussed memories and highlight the necessity of investigating the long-term effects of selective discussion, even when RIF is not immediately evident.</p>

A Study of Millisecond Blasting on High Bench at Barun Iron Ore Operation

To improve the productivity and efficient of modern large-scale open-cut mines, a number of technologies are developed and trialed, including new blasting equipment, larger blasting holes, high benches, air spacing, and short-delay blasting within holes. However, the relative blasting parameters need field calibration and further investigation of theories on these techniques are required. This paper studied the open-cut bench blasting at Barun Eboxi Mine of Baotou Iron and Steel Group via theoretical analysis on shock wave, numerical simulation, and field test. According to the technical conditions of the site, three sets of vertical boreholes at 310 mm diameter were drilled on 24 m high batter; and three sets of air-spaced charges were set up. The digital electronic detonator was used to initiate at millisecond intervals. The study found that under the condition of 24 m high bench, the use of intermediate air interval is beneficial to the rock fragmentation. The delay time within the hole is 3-8 ms. The bottom of the lower explosives and the top of the upper explosives were devised for initiation to optimize the initiation location. The peak effective stress points are 63.6%, 52.2%, and 8.9% higher, respectively. The field test of high-bench intrahole millisecond blasting in Barun Eboxi mine shows that the intrahole millisecond blasting parameters proposed in this study are feasible.

An 8-bit Radix-4 Non-Volatile Parallel Multiplier

The data movement between the processing and storage units has been one of the most critical issues in modern computer systems. The emerging Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) technology has drawn tremendous attention due to its non-volatile ability and the potential in computation application. These properties make them a perfect choice for application in modern computing systems. In this paper, an 8-bit radix-4 non-volatile parallel multiplier is proposed, with improved computational capabilities. The corresponding booth encoding scheme, read-out circuit, simplified Wallace tree, and Manchester carry chain are presented, which help to short the delay of the proposed multiplier. While the presence of RRAM save computational time and overall power as multiplicand is stored beforehand. The area of the proposed non-volatile multiplier is reduced with improved computing speed. The proposed multiplier has an area of 785.2 μm2 with Generic Processing Design Kit 45 nm process. The simulation results show that the proposed multiplier structure has a low computing power at 161.19 μW and a short delay of 0.83 ns with 1.2 V supply voltage. Comparative analyses are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multiplier design. Compared with conventional booth multipliers, the proposed multiplier structure reduces the energy and delay by more than 70% and 19%, respectively.

Does endogenous variation in stress modulate risk and time preferences?

It has been argued that one dimension of the cycle of poverty is that poverty is a state of chronic stress and that chronic stress impairs decision-making. These poor decisions, made under chronic stress, might include carrying high-interest loans, failure to buy health insurance, gambling or drug use. As such, these decisions can contribute to the cycle of poverty. More specifically, a few studies suggest that increased stress may lead to more risk-aversion and steeper delay-discounting. While the deleterious effects of chronic stress on brain function are well established, much less is known about how chronic stress influences financial decision making specifically. Here, in a longitudinal design within six weeks period we aimed to incorporate biological mechanisms to improve our understanding of how stress influences economic decisions. We used a combination of decision-making tasks, questionnaires, saliva and hair samples within-subject (N=41). We assessed time and risk preferences using hierarchical Bayesian techniques to both pool data and allow heterogeneity in decision making and compared those to cortisol levels and self-reported stress. We found only weak links between endogenous variation in stress and model-based estimates of risk and time preferences. In particular, we found that fluctuations in the stress level measured via hair sample were not only positively correlated with time preferences in the short delay task and risk preferences, but also the decision noise in the risk task. However, relationships for the risk task disappeared when an outlier was removed. Also, we found model-free task measures in the short delay task to be moderately related to both hair cortisol as well as the stressful life events questionnaire measure. For example, we observed that endogenous stress fluctuations and the life change units were negatively correlated with the proportion of later choices. Finally, we established that for the reaction times the curvilinear relationship was preferred to the linear one for those with increase in biological stress level compared to the baseline: when cortisol level increased slightly, participants decided slower, but when stress increased to higher levels, they decided quicker.