Online Simulation Education for Audiometry Training

Purpose: The purpose of this clinical focus article was to describe a new online simulation program for pure-tone audiometry. Method: Fictional but realistic patient profiles and testing environments were created to teach students about hearing screening protocols and pure-tone audiology. The diversity of the demographics of the United States is represented throughout the program. The web app was created using HTML/JS/CSS with a Flask server backend and MySQL database. Results: The program allows students to learn the process of conducting a hearing screening and measuring audiometric thresholds using a web-based virtual clinical audiometer. The virtual audiometer includes standard audiometer features and allows for instruction based on standard guidelines. The diversity of the patients within the simulation program allows for discussions of diversity to be woven throughout the curriculum. Conclusions: The new simulation program is designed for use as a clinical training tool enabling undergraduate and graduate students to actively participate in hearing screening testing and pure-tone audiometry using any web browser. The program is also designed with the intent to improve pedagogical outcomes at the undergraduate and graduate level for communication sciences and disorders education for pure-tone audiometry by providing instructors with content that focuses on the diversity that is represented in the demographics of the United States.

Multistage noise reduction processing for vibration signal of hydropower units

In actual field testing environments of hydropower units, unit vibration signals are often contaminated with noise. In order to obtain the real vibration signal, a multi-stage vibration signal denoise method SG-SVD-VMD is proposed for the guide bearing nonlinear and non-stationary vibration signals. And the root mean square error (RMSE) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) are used to evaluate the noise reduction ability of eight methods. The results show that the noise-canceling ability of this proposed method has improved to some extent. It can effectively suppress the noise of the hydropower units vibration signals. This method can effectively identify the shaft track and the running state of hydropower units.

Comparison of Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of as-Cast Al-Cu-Mg-Ag Alloys: Room Temperature vs. High Temperature

Unfolding the structure–property linkages between the mechanical performance and microstructural characteristics could be an attractive pathway to develop new single- and polycrystalline Al-based alloys to achieve ambitious high strength and fuel economy goals. A lot of polycrystalline as-cast Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy systems fabricated by conventional casting techniques have been reported to date. However, no one has reported a comparison of mechanical and microstructural properties that simultaneously incorporates the effects of both alloy chemistry and mechanical testing environments for the as-cast Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy systems. This preliminary prospective paper presents the examined experimental results of two alloys (denoted Alloy 1 and Alloy 2), with constant Cu content of ~3 wt.%, Cu/Mg ratios of 12.60 and 6.30, and a constant Ag of 0.65 wt.%, and correlates the synergistic comparison of mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures. According to experimental results, the effect of the precipitation state and the mechanical properties showed strong dependence on the composition and testing environments for peak-aged, heat-treated specimens. In the room-temperature mechanical testing scenario, the higher Cu/Mg ratio alloy with Mg content of 0.23 wt.% (Alloy 1) possessed higher ultimate tensile strength when compared to the low Cu/Mg ratio with Mg content of 0.47 wt.% (Alloy 2). From phase constitution analysis, it is inferred that the increase in strength for Alloy 1 under room-temperature tensile testing is mainly ascribable to the small grain size and fine and uniform distribution of θ precipitates, which provided a barrier to slip by deaccelerating the dislocation movement in the room-temperature environment. Meanwhile, Alloy 2 showed significantly less degradation of mechanical strength under high-temperature tensile testing. Indeed, in most cases, low Cu/Mg ratios had a strong influence on the copious precipitation of thermally stable omega phase, which is known to be a major strengthening phase at elevated temperatures in the Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloying system. Consequently, it is rationally suggested that in the high-temperature testing scenario, the improvement in mechanical and/or thermal stability in the case of the Alloy 2 specimen was mainly due to its compositional design.

Researching Displaced Persons During COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created additional barriers to human interactions. For those conducting research with displaced persons, the barriers posed by COVID-19 add up to the existing linguistic, cultural, geographical and ethical obstacles that this type of research involves. In most cases, researchers have resorted to technological solutions to bridge the communication gap caused by the pandemic. However, the heterogeneous profiles and disadvantaged circumstances of displaced persons require further considerations and planning. This paper examines the experiences of researchers conducting research with displaced persons during COVID. It outlines the special considerations taken and provides recommendations for those conducting research in similar contexts. The communities that engaged in this research were based in Greece, Poland, Italy, Lebanon and Spain. While the focus of the study is displaced persons, the insights presented can be of benefit to those conducting research with other vulnerable groups. Lay summary The COVID-19 pandemic has affected human interaction. Research often involves face-to-face contact with participants and other agents, which COVID-19 prevented. The mobility restrictions and safety regulations have difficulted data collection. Many processes have been moved online, but not everybody can interact successfully with technology i.e., some people do not have access to devices or internet, others do not have the skills required. Other barriers can be linguistic or cultural. Researchers must ensure that the research is safe and accessible to participants. This study presents how researchers working with migrants in the field of Media Accessibility have adapted their studies during COVID-19. The study reports on the results of a questionnaire distributed among researchers working on three projects conducted in European countries and Lebanon. The results show that more time was invested in data collection, and that flexibility and innovation were key to the success of the projects. The paper explains how researchers made data collection tools accessible to participants to ensure that participants could take part in the study. The considerations taken could be applied beyond the pandemic as it is adaptable to other research contexts, testing environments, diverse audiences, and disciplines.

Genome-Wide Association Mapping Identifies Novel Panicle Morphology Loci and Candidate Genes in Sorghum

Panicle morphology is an important trait in racial classification and can determine grain yield and other agronomic traits in sorghum. In this study, we performed association mapping of panicle length, panicle width, panicle compactness, and peduncle recurving in the sorghum mini core panel measured in multiple environments with 6,094,317 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. We mapped one locus each on chromosomes 7 and 9 to recurving peduncles and eight loci for panicle length, panicle width, and panicle compactness. Because panicle length was positively correlated with panicle width, all loci for panicle length and width were colocalized. Among the eight loci, two each were on chromosomes 1, 2, and 6, and one each on chromosomes 8 and 10. The two loci on chromosome 2, i.e., Pm 2-1 and Pm 2-2, were detected in 7 and 5 out of 11 testing environments, respectively. Pm 2-2 colocalized with panicle compactness. Candidate genes were identified from both loci. The rice Erect Panicle2 (EP2) ortholog was among the candidate genes in Pm 2-2. EP2 regulates panicle erectness and panicle length in rice and encodes a novel plant-specific protein with unknown functions. The results of this study may facilitate the molecular identification of panicle morphology-related genes and the enhancement of yield and adaptation in sorghum.

Data-Driven Investigation of Gait Patterns in Individuals Affected by Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a chronic and progressive disease that affects predominantly elderly subjects. The most prevalent symptoms are gait disorders, generally determined by visual observation or measurements taken in complex laboratory environments. However, controlled testing environments can have a significant influence on the way subjects walk and hinder the identification of natural walking characteristics. The study aimed to investigate the differences in walking patterns between a controlled environment (10 m walking test) and real-world environment (72 h recording) based on measurements taken via a wearable gait assessment device. We tested whether real-world environment measurements can be beneficial for the identification of gait disorders by performing a comparison of patients’ gait parameters with an aged-matched control group in both environments. Subsequently, we implemented four machine learning classifiers to inspect the individual strides’ profiles. Our results on twenty young subjects, twenty elderly subjects and twelve NPH patients indicate that patients exhibited a considerable difference between the two environments, in particular gait speed (p-value p=0.0073), stride length (p-value p=0.0073), foot clearance (p-value p=0.0117) and swing/stance ratio (p-value p=0.0098). Importantly, measurements taken in real-world environments yield a better discrimination of NPH patients compared to the controlled setting. Finally, the use of stride classifiers provides promise in the identification of strides affected by motion disorders.

Vulnerability Management Models Using a Common Vulnerability Scoring System

Vulnerability prioritization is an essential element of the vulnerability management process in data communication networks. Accurate prioritization allows the attention to be focused on the most critical vulnerabilities and their timely elimination; otherwise, organizations may face severe financial consequences or damage to their reputations. In addition, the large amounts of data generated by various components of security systems further impede the process of prioritizing the detected vulnerabilities. Therefore, the detection and elimination of critical vulnerabilities are challenging tasks. The solutions proposed for this problem in the scientific literature so far—e.g., PatchRank, SecureRank, Vulcon, CMS, VDNF, or VEST—are not sufficient because they do not consider the context of the organization. On the other hand, commercial solutions, such as Nessus, F-Secure, or Qualys, do not provide detailed information regarding the prioritization procedure, except for the scale. Therefore, in this paper, the authors present an open-source solution called the Vulnerability Management Center (VMC) in order to assist organizations with the vulnerability prioritization process. The VMC presents all calculated results in a standardized way by using a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), which allows security analysts to fully understand environmental components’ influences on the criticality of detected vulnerabilities. In order to demonstrate the benefits of using the the open-source VMC software developed here, selected models of a vulnerability management process using CVSS are studied and compared by using three different, real testing environments. The open-source VMC suite developed here, which integrates information collected from an asset database, is shown to accelerate the process of removal for the critical vulnerabilities that are detected. The results show the practicability and efficacy of the selected models and the open-source VMC software, which can thus reduce organizations’ exposure to potential threats.

ManyDogs 1: A Multi-Lab Replication Study of Dogs' Pointing Comprehension

To promote collaboration across canine science, address reproducibility issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of preregistering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly robust, dogs’ ability to follow human pointing, with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as an informative gesture, as an imperative command, or as a simple associative cue? We collected preliminary data (N = 61) from a single laboratory on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup without making eye-contact or saying the dog’s name). Dogs followed the ostensive point, but not the non-ostensive point, significantly more often than expected by chance. Preliminary results also provided suggestive evidence for variability in point-following across dog breeds. The next phase is the global participation stage of the project. We propose to replicate this protocol in a large and diverse sample of research sites, simultaneously assessing replicability between labs and further investigating the question of dogs’ point-following comprehension.