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This work studies enhancing the capabilities of compact laser spectroscopes integrated into space-exploration rovers by adding 3D topography measurement techniques. Laser spectroscopy enables the in situ analysis of sample composition, aiding in the understanding of the geological history of extraterrestrial bodies. To complement spectroscopic data, the inclusion of 3D imaging is proposed to provide unprecedented contextual information. The morphological information aids material characterization and hence the constraining of rock and mineral histories. Assigning height information to lateral pixels creates topographies, which offer a more complete spatial dataset than contextual 2D imaging. To aid the integration of 3D measurement into future proposals for rover-based laser spectrometers, the relevant scientific, rover, and sample constraints are outlined. The candidate 3D technologies are discussed, and estimates of performance, weight, and power consumptions guide the down-selection process in three application examples. Technology choice is discussed from different perspectives. Inline microscopic fringe-projection profilometry, incoherent digital holography, and multiwavelength digital holography are found to be promising candidates for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic surveys for sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were conducted in the Mediterranean Sea in summer 2018 as part of the vessel-based component of the ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative (ASI). Equal-spaced zigzag transects provided uniform coverage of key sperm whale habitats and were surveyed using a towed hydrophone array deployed from a research vessel at speeds of 5-8 knots. A total of 14,039 kmof tracklines were surveyed in the western basin, Hellenic Trench and Libyan waters, with an acoustic coverage of 10% realised for sperm whales. During these surveys, 254 individual spermwhales were detected on the trackline, with an additional 66 individuals off-track. Sperm whales were only seen ten times ontrack, with an additional 16 off-track sightings. Estimates of slant range to echolocating whales were used to derive density estimates through both design- and model-based distance sampling methodologies. An acoustic availability of 0.912 (sd = 0.036) was derived from via published models. When correcting for availability bias, a design-based abundance estimates of 2,673 individuals (95% CI 1,739-4,105; CV = 0.21) was derived for the surveyed blocks, which incorporated most known sperm whale habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. The equivalent model-based estimate was 2,825 whales (2,053-3,888; CV = 0.16). Over 97% of detected whales were in the western basin, with highest densities in the Algerian and Liguro-Provencal Basins between Algeria and Spain/France. In the eastern basin, detections were sparse and concentrated along the Hellenic Trench. A density surface modelling (DSM) exercise identified location and benthic aspect as being the most instructive covariates for predicting whale abundance. Distance sampling results were used in a power analysis to quantify the survey effort required to identify population trends. In the most extreme scenario modelled (10% per annum decline with decennial surveys), the population could have dropped by 90% before the decline was identified with high statistical power. Increasing the regularity of surveys would allow population trends to be detected more expediently. Mediterranean sperm whales are listed as Endangered on the IUCN's Red List and the need for urgent conservation measures to reduce injury and mortality remains paramount for this unique sub-population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting marine mammal research can raise several important ethical issues. For example, the continuation of whaling for commercial purposes despite the international moratorium provides opportunities for scientists to obtain data and tissue samples. In 2021 we analysed 35 peer-reviewed papers reporting research based on collaborations with Icelandic whalers. Results highlighted little consideration or understanding of the legal and ethical issues associated with the deliberate killing of whales amongst those researchers, funding bodies, universities and journals involved. Ethical statements were rarely provided. Those that were written were incomplete. Whilst research using whaling data may seem acceptable to some, it often becomes hard to justify when subject to scrutiny by the media and the public. Thus, there is a particular danger of reputational harm for early career researchers who may become unwittingly involved in such activities. Here we also consider the broader variety of ethical issues raised by non-lethal research (both historical and recent) on marine mammals including tagging and biopsy. We discuss instances where study animals were harmed or even killed and where the public mistook tags for harpoons. Without clear guidelines, reviewers and journal editors are put in an impossible position when considering whether to reject papers on ethical grounds. We propose that for such studies, universities, funders, journals, and permit issuers must require ethical assessments and that journals more effectively implement their existing policies on publishing ethical statements. The professional marine mammal societies need to work together to produce modern ethical guidance. Such guidance should require transparency in the provenance of data and samples while including advice on law, welfare issues, involvement of local scientists, and offshoring. Furthermore, it should require appraisal of and justification for the absolute necessity of invasive procedures. As is already the case in biomedical disciplines, ethical statements should be required in marine mammal science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grammatical Evolution is a Genetic Programming variant which evolves problems in any arbitrary language that is BNF compliant. Since its inception, Grammatical Evolution has been used to solve real-world problems in different domains such as bio-informatics, architecture design, financial modelling, music, software testing, game artificial intelligence and parallel programming. Multi-output problems deal with predicting numerous output variables simultaneously, a notoriously difficult problem. We present a Multi-Genome Grammatical Evolution better suited for tackling multi-output problems, specifically digital circuits. The Multi-Genome consists of multiple genomes, each evolving a solution to a single unique output variable. Each genome is mapped to create its executable object. The mapping mechanism, genetic, selection, and replacement operators have been adapted to make them well-suited for the Multi-Genome representation and the implementation of a new wrapping operator. Additionally, custom grammar syntax rules and a cyclic dependency-checking algorithm have been presented to facilitate the evolution of inter-output dependencies which may exist in multi-output problems. Multi-Genome Grammatical Evolution is tested on combinational digital circuit benchmark problems. Results show Multi-Genome Grammatical Evolution performs significantly better than standard Grammatical Evolution on these benchmark problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural networks have revolutionised the way we approach problem solving across multiple domains; however, their effective design and efficient use of computational resources is still a challenging task. One of the most important factors influencing this process is model hyperparameters which vary significantly with models and datasets. Recently, there has been an increased focus on automatically tuning these hyperparameters to reduce complexity and to optimise resource utilisation. From traditional human-intuitive tuning methods to random search, grid search, Bayesian optimisation, and evolutionary algorithms, significant advancements have been made in this direction that promise improved performance while using fewer resources. In this article, we propose HyperGE, a two-stage model for automatically tuning hyperparameters driven by grammatical evolution (GE), a bioinspired population-based machine learning algorithm. GE provides an advantage in that it allows users to define their own grammar for generating solutions, making it ideal for defining search spaces across datasets and models. We test HyperGE to fine-tune VGG-19 and ResNet-50 pre-trained networks using three benchmark datasets. We demonstrate that the search space is significantly reduced by a factor of ~90% in Stage 2 with fewer number of trials. HyperGE could become an invaluable tool within the deep learning community, allowing practitioners greater freedom when exploring complex problem domains for hyperparameter fine-tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care interoperability unfolds the way for personalized health care services at a reduced cost. Furthermore, a decentralized system holds the promise to prevent compromises such as cyber‐attacks due to data breaches. Hence, there is a need for a framework that seamlessly integrates and shares data across the system stakeholders. We propose SEquestered aNd SynergIstic BLockchain Ecosystem (SENSIBLE), a blockchain‐powered, knowledge‐driven data‐sharing framework that gives patients complete control of their medical history and can extract rich information hidden in it using knowledge graphs (KGs). By incorporating both blockchain and KGs, we can provide a platform for secure data sharing among stakeholders by maintaining data privacy and integrity through data authentication and robust data integration. We present a Proof‐of‐Concept of the SENSIBLE network with Ethereum to share dynamic knowledge across stakeholders. Dynamic knowledge generation on the blockchain provides a two‐fold advantage of cooperation and communication amongst the stakeholders in the health care ecosystem. This leads to operational ease through sharing relevant portions of complex information while also ensuring the isolation of sensitive medical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CCAMLR can use its management mandate to protect krill-dependent predators, including baleen whales, from adverse interactions with the krill fishery (Meyer et al., [11]). Within this multispecies aggregation of krill predators there were also four commercial krill vessels actively harvesting krill (Figure 1B). Prior to krill fishing, whales and phytoplankton blooms were often spatially separated perhaps due to local top-down control of phytoplankton by krill grazing (Hardy, [6]). Industrial krill harvesting in direct competition with foraging fin whales is concerning because the regional abundance of fin whales and krill remains far below the prewhaling baseline. [Extracted from the article]

Robotics technology has made significant advancements in various fields in industry and society. It is clear how robotics has transformed manufacturing processes and increased productivity. Additionally, navigation robotics has also been impacted by these advancements, with investors now investing in autonomous transportation for both public and private use. This research aims to explore how training scenarios affect the learning process for autonomous navigation tasks. The primary objective is to address whether the initial conditions (learning cases) have a positive or negative impact on the ability to develop general controllers. By examining this research question, the study seeks to provide insights into how to optimize the training process for autonomous navigation tasks, ultimately improving the quality of the controllers that are developed. Through this investigation, the study aims to contribute to the broader goal of advancing the field of autonomous navigation and developing more sophisticated and effective autonomous systems. Specifically, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of a particular navigation environment using evolutionary computing to develop controllers for a robot starting from different locations and aiming to reach a specific target. The final controller was then tested on a large number of unseen test cases. Experimental results provide strong evidence that the initial selection of the learning cases plays a role in evolving general controllers. This work includes a preliminary analysis of a specific set of small learning cases chosen manually, provides an in-depth analysis of learning cases in a particular navigation task, and develops a tool that shows the impact of the selected learning cases on the overall behavior of a robot's controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient knowledge extraction from Big Data is quite a challenging topic. Recognizing relevant concepts from unannotated data while considering both context and domain knowledge is critical to implementing successful knowledge extraction. In this research, we provide a novel platform we call Active Learning Integrated with Knowledge Extraction (ALIKE) that overcomes the challenges of context awareness and concept extraction, which have impeded knowledge extraction in Big Data. We propose a method to extract related concepts from unorganized data with different contexts using multiple agents, synergy, reinforcement learning, and active learning. We test ALIKE on the datasets of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge. The experiment result suggests that the ALIKE platform can more efficiently distinguish inherent concepts from different papers than a non-agent-based method (without active learning) and that our proposed approach has a better chance to address the challenges of knowledge extraction with heterogeneous datasets. Moreover, the techniques used in ALIKE are transferable across any domain with multidisciplinary activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photo‐catalysis by small‐molecules is often limited by catalyst degradation and low electron‐transfer efficiency. Herein we report a stable N‐phenyl‐phenothiazine (PTH)‐derived porous coordination cage (PCC) as a highly efficient photocatalyst. By the incorporation of the photocatalytic PTH moiety into a PCC, aggregation‐induced quenching (AIQ) was shown to be reduced. An improvement in catalyst stability was discovered, ascribed to the synergistic effects of the PTH moieties. The catalyst, operating through a photolytic single‐electron transfer, was utilized for photo‐catalyzed dehalogenation and borylation. Evaluation of the catalytic mechanism in the borylation reaction showed that the improved performance results from the more efficient formation of the electron donor‐acceptor (EDA) complex with the cage. This discovery provides a potential strategy to improve the photophysical properties and stabilities of small‐molecule organic photocatalysts via supramolecular chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photo‐catalysis by small‐molecules is often limited by catalyst degradation and low electron‐transfer efficiency. Herein we report a stable N‐phenyl‐phenothiazine (PTH)‐derived porous coordination cage (PCC) as a highly efficient photocatalyst. By the incorporation of the photocatalytic PTH moiety into a PCC, aggregation‐induced quenching (AIQ) was shown to be reduced. An improvement in catalyst stability was discovered, ascribed to the synergistic effects of the PTH moieties. The catalyst, operating through a photolytic single‐electron transfer, was utilized for photo‐catalyzed dehalogenation and borylation. Evaluation of the catalytic mechanism in the borylation reaction showed that the improved performance results from the more efficient formation of the electron donor‐acceptor (EDA) complex with the cage. This discovery provides a potential strategy to improve the photophysical properties and stabilities of small‐molecule organic photocatalysts via supramolecular chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For cetaceans to be sentinels of environmental change, reliable methods to assess overall health and physiological state are required. Blubber lipid content of remotely darted biopsies has been used to approximate energy stores and overall health. However, studies on beluga (Delphinapterus leucas), fin (Balaenoptera physalus) and killer whales (Orcinus orca) found a sampling effect (lipid-loss) biasing blubber biopsy lipid content. To determine if this applies to all cetaceans, we conducted a literature review, comparing the lipid content of outer blubber from biopsy (darted) and stranding (excised) samples for 27 species. For 16 species of five taxa (Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae, Delphinidae, Physeteridae and Ziphiidae), independent observations (n = 1346) of both biopsies and strandings were available. With taxon as a factor, a beta regression model (pseudo-R2 = 0.638) determined that the mean lipid content of biopsies is 11.1 ± 1.9% lower than that of strandings. Post hoc Šidák tests confirmed that the difference among sampling methods was statistically significant (α = 0.05) for all taxa (p < 0.001). This is a universal problem, likely due to tissue disruption associated with the force of the biopsy dart resulting in lipid loss and confirms that biopsy lipid content estimates are unreliable indicators of health or body condition. Our results have unexplored implications for the quantification of blubber biopsy lipid fractions for fatty acid or contaminant analyses, for example. There is a welfare and conservation imperative to develop alternative markers of overall health and physiological state from biopsies. In this regard, emerging technologies such as 'omics analyses look particularly promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archived logbooks detailing landings at Scottish shore‐based whaling stations between 1903 and 1951 were used to map whale catch locations. Historical distribution and occurrence are inferred and summary statistics on total landings are updated for blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), North Atlantic right (Eubalaena glacialis), sei (Balaenoptera borealis) and sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) whales: a total of 9,996 whales were caught during this period, which is 3.7% higher than previously reported and 25% higher for blue whales.The most frequently caught species were fin and sei whales. Whaling off Scotland in the 1920s contributed to the likely extinction of right whales in the eastern North Atlantic. Blue whales, once regularly hunted to the west of Scotland, are now rarely documented there and North‐east Atlantic whaling appears to have had a significant and lasting impact on sei whales.Analysis of whaling effort indicates that catch rates remained high despite the depletion of some species. This, may be a consequence of two features of Scottish shore‐based whaling: (1) the mixed species catch composition; and (2) the catching of whales as they migrated through Scottish waters.The findings of this study highlight the historical significance of the shelf‐seas around Scotland as a habitat for some species, which was not apparent from previous studies. These results can inform where there may be potential for the recovery of some species in the future.Current major threats in the North Atlantic include entanglement, ship strike and displacement owing to the effects of climate change. The baseline and historical information on distribution and seasonal occurrence examined here is important for informing spatial and temporal measures to reduce these threats. If populations are to recover post‐whaling there is an increasing need to reduce threats such as ship strikes and entanglement, whose magnitude is proportional to whale density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the potential for using Grammatical Evolution (GE) to generate an initial seed for the construction of a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) and cryptographically secure (CS) PRNG. We demonstrate the suitability of GE as an entropy source and show that the initial seeds exhibit an average entropy value of 7.940560934 for 8-bit entropy, which is close to the ideal value of 8. We then construct two random number generators, GE-PRNG and GE-CSPRNG, both of which employ these initial seeds. We use Monte Carlo simulations to establish the efficacy of the GE-PRNG using an experimental setup designed to estimate the value for pi, in which 100,000,000 random numbers were generated by our system. This returned the value of pi of 3.146564000, which is precise up to six decimal digits for the actual value of pi. We propose a new approach called control_flow_incrementor to generate cryptographically secure random numbers. The random numbers generated with CSPRNG meet the prescribed National Institute of Standards and Technology SP800-22 and the Diehard statistical test requirements. We also present a computational performance analysis of GE-CSPRNG demonstrating its potential to be used in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We use a novel data set from a private online marketplace to estimate the demand for individual health insurance among a set comprising many high-income households across 18 states. Households earning more than four times the federal poverty level (FPL) are willing to pay $30 to $135 per month to increase the actuarial value of their insurance by 10 percentage points, much less than households earning less than 2.5 times FPL. Higher-income households are also less likely to forgo insurance because of a premium increase. These results are important for understanding the effect of health reform proposals targeting higher-income populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As mobile beam-bandwidth-product requirements accelerate, millimeter-wave (mmW) bands have been opened to telecommunications networks to enable wider channel bandwidths, while Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (mMIMO) technology has been implemented to concurrently address multiple devices at the same frequency from a single base station. Such space-division multiplexing can be combined with spectral multiplexing to enable a very large number of concurrent users, but currently is implemented through computationally intensive digital beamforming networks. We show that a radio-frequency (RF) photonic receiver system, previously shown to be capable of sorting signals into respective spatial-spectral ‘bins’ is further capable, through an injection-locked tunable optical local oscillator (TOLO), of recovering the data upon each signal in the RF scene. The TOLO is combined in free-space with an up-converted optical sideband and the combined optical field impinges upon an array of photodetectors, each corresponding to separate points in k-space, defined by unique combinations of angle-of-arrival (AoA) and carrier frequency. Using this free-space LO insertion, we demonstrate simultaneous recovery of multiple spatially co-located data streams with resilience to interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Myokymic discharges are classically associated with nerve injury from prior radiation but may occur in other neuromuscular disorders. Using quantitative analysis we aimed to identify the spectrum of conditions in which myokymic discharges are present and determine if there are electrophysiological features that distinguish postradiation from nonradiation causes of myokymia.Methods: We reviewed the clinical history of all patients examined in our electromyography labs with myokymic discharges recorded from June 2017 to February 2020. Quantitative analysis of each myokymic discharge was performed using a custom MATLAB script, assessing features such as burst frequency, spikes per burst, and burst regularity.Results: Eighty-eight distinct myokymic discharges (70 patients) were analyzed: 51 postradiation recordings from 35 patients and 37 recordings from 35 nonradiation patients. The diagnostic spectrum of nonradiation cases was diverse, with common causes being median neuropathy (n = 8), cervical (n = 7), and lumbar (n = 5) radiculopathy, and motor neuron disease (n = 5). On quantitative analysis, postradiation myokymia had an increased burst-to-silence ratio (median, 0.29; nonradiation, 0.08) and greater peak number (median, 15; nonradiation, 7). Except for one patient with hereditary peripheral nerve hyperexcitability, all patients who had two or more muscles demonstrating myokymic discharges belonged to postradiation group.Conclusions: Myokymic discharges can be seen in diverse neuromuscular conditions; most common in our cohort was chronic median neuropathy. Postradiation myokymia appears to have distinguishing morphological features when quantitatively analyzed compared with nonradiation cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene oxide (GO), a functional derivative of graphene, is a promising nanomaterial for a variety of optoelectronic applications as it exhibits fluorescence and maintains many of graphene's beneficial physical properties. although other graphene derivatives are chemically plausible and may serve to the benefit of the aforementioned applications, GO remains the one heavily used. the nature of optical behavior of other graphene derivatives has yet to be fully understood and studied. in this work we develop a variety of graphene derivatives and characterize their optical properties concomitantly suggesting a unified model for optical emission in graphene derivatives. in this process we examine the influence of different functional groups on the surface of graphene on its optoelectronic properties. mildly oxidized graphene (oxo-g1), nitrated graphene, arylated graphene, brominated graphene, and fluorinated graphene are obtained and characterized via TEM and EDX, FTIR and fluorescence spectroscopies with the latter indicating a potential band gap-derived fluorescence from each of the materials. this suggests that optical properties of graphene derivatives have minimal functional group dependence and are manifested by the localized environments within the flakes. this is confirmed by the hyperchem theoretical modeling of all aforementioned graphene derivatives indicating a similar electronic configuration for all, assessed by the pm3 semi-empirical approach. this work can further serve to describe and predict optical properties of similar graphene-based structures and promote graphene derivatives other than GO for utilization in research and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some ethical and legal issues regarding international research conducted on whales killed by Iceland since it resumed whaling in 2003. In total, 35 peer-reviewed publications and 11 conference presentations were identified, wherein international research directly or indirectly relied on contemporary whaling for samples or data. The authors of these publications were affiliated with 56 institutions from 13 countries. Parallels are drawn between this research and the offshoring of biomedical research that exploited weaker regulations elsewhere. Ethical assessments were rarely included in the reviewed papers, and none of them addresses the issue of compatibility with the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) or with the laws and ethical standards within the countries where the researchers are based. Diplomatic efforts to uphold international treaties to protect whales may be undermined by research using the outcome of whaling. Government grants were used by research institutions in four ICRW member countries (Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) where the governments had formally objected to Iceland's reservation against the ICRW whaling moratorium. Researchers and their institutions may become tacitly complicit in contemporary commercial and alleged scientific whaling, when these activities may not be consistent with the ethical standards or laws within their own countries. Greater transparency is needed among academic institutions, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, funding bodies, journals, and professional societies regarding legal and ethical issues when data or samples from such whaling operations are used. Ethical frameworks need to be developed analogous to those used in international biomedical research and other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus has had a huge impact on the world, not only for those infected, but for the population at large in the context of the work, money incoming, economy. In this paper, our objective is to study different types of tweets collected from Twitter from different perspectives of analysis, and machine learning classification. Previous work extracted a large corpus of tweets based on keywords such as [الصین ، تفشي ، السفر ، كورونا,[which translate to China, Corona, outbreak, travel; however, we hypothesis that not all these are genuinely relevant to Covid-19. In this work, we combine different machine learning models to classify tweets into those that do discuss the Coronavirus and those that do not. In our result, based on the different analysis and models, we have seen that more than 55% of these tweets were talking about topics other than the Coronavirus. These indicates the care that must be taken when extracting tweets, particularly in a language like Arabic, which has many nuances that make simple keyword approaches prone to error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine if Angelman syndrome patients with sleep complaints have an increased risk of iron deficiency, and if iron therapy improves their sleep difficulties. Background: About two-thirds of Angelman syndrome patients experience sleep difficulties, which are likely multifactorial. Because iron deficiency can contribute toward restlessness in sleep, we investigated whether it might be a contributing factor in this special population. Methods: This retrospective study involved medical record review of Angelman syndrome patients <18 years old who had attended our multidisciplinary Angelman syndrome clinic and had sleep complaints. Serum ferritin levels were compared to age- and sex-matched controls. Sleep history and nocturnal polysomnogram findings of the Angelman syndrome patients were also characterized. Results: Nineteen Angelman syndrome patients (9 female, mean age 6.2±4.4 years) were identified. All 19 reported sleep difficulties. The mean serum ferritin level was 19.9±8.5 μg/L, while that in controls was 27.8±17.8 μg/L (P value.13). The odds ratio of iron deficiency in Angelman syndrome compared to controls was 4.17 (95% confidence interval 1.23-14.10), using normal serum ferritin level of 24 μg/L based on literature. Fifteen Angelman syndrome patients underwent nocturnal polysomnogram with 9/15 showing an elevated periodic limb movement index (overall mean 9.8±10.4). Seventeen of 19 received iron therapy. Twelve had follow-up after iron therapy, with parents reporting improved sleep quality. Eight had serum ferritin levels rechecked after iron therapy, showing a mean increase of 24±5.1 μg/L. Conclusions: Sleep difficulties in Angelman syndrome, though multifactorial, may in part be related to iron deficiency. Treatment with iron improved sleep to a modest degree in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of graphene, there has been an interest in utilizing this material and its derivative, graphene oxide (GO) for novel applications in nanodevices such as bio and gas sensors, solid-state supercapacitors and solar cells. Although GO exhibits lower conductivity and structural stability, it possesses an energy band gap that enables fluorescence emission in the visible/near infrared leading to a plethora of optoelectronic applications. In order to allow fine-tuning of its optical properties in the device geometry, new physical techniques are required that, unlike existing chemical approaches, yield substantial alteration of GO structure. Such a desired new technique is one that is electronically controlled and leads to reversible changes in GO optoelectronic properties. In this work, we for the first time investigate the methods to controllably alter the optical response of GO with the electric field and provide theoretical modeling of the electric field-induced changes. Field-dependent GO emission is studied in bulk GO/polyvinylpyrrolidone films with up to 6% reversible decrease under 1.6 V µm−1 electric fields. On an individual flake level, a more substantial over 50% quenching is achieved for select GO flakes in a polymeric matrix between interdigitated microelectrodes subject to two orders of magnitude higher fields. This effect is modeled on a single exciton level by utilizing Wentzel, Kremer, and Brillouin approximation for electron escape from the exciton potential well. In an aqueous suspension at low fields, GO flakes exhibit electrophoretic migration, indicating a degree of charge separation and a possibility of manipulating GO materials on a single-flake level to assemble electric field-controlled microelectronics. As a result of this work, we suggest the potential of varying the optical and electronic properties of GO via the electric field for the advancement and control over its optoelectronic device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We assessed glioma incidence and disparities in postglioma survival rate in the Olmsted County, Minnesota, population. Methods This population-based study assessed the incidence of pathologically confirmed primary gliomas between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2014. Age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates per 100 000 person-years were calculated and standardized to the US white 2010 population. We compared incidence trends of glioma during our study period with previously published Olmsted County data from 1950 to 1990. We assessed postglioma survival rates among individuals with different socioeconomic status (SES), which was measured by a validated individual HOUsing-based SES index (HOUSES). Results We identified 135 incident glioma cases (93% white) with 20 pediatric (50% female) and 115 adult cases (44% female). Overall incidence rate during our study period, 5.51 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI: 4.56-6.46), showed no significant changes and was similar to that seen in 1950 to 1990, 5.5 per 100 000 person-years. The incidence of pediatric (age < 20 years) glioma was 2.49 (95% CI: 1.40-3.58), whereas adult glioma incidence was 6.47 (95% CI: 5.26-7.67). Among those with grade II to IV gliomas, individuals with lower SES (< median HOUSES) had significantly lower 5-year survival rates compared to those with higher SES, adjusted hazard ratio 1.61 (95% CI: 1.01-2.85). Conclusion In a well-defined North American population, long-term glioma incidence appears stable since 1950. Significant socioeconomic disparities exist for postglioma survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Existing normal value references for pediatric nerve conduction studies (NCS) are based on limited sample sizes with uncertain reliability, suggesting a need for better normative data.Methods: Electronic medical records were reviewed for pediatric patients (0 to <18 years) with normal findings on electromyography and NCS during the period from January 1, 1997 through September 20, 2017. Electrodiagnostic and demographic data were collected. Gaussian and descriptive statistics were used to establish normal values by age group.Results: In this study we analyzed 1,918 normal NCS on 1,849 unique pediatric patients. Patients were stratified by age: 0 to <1 month; 1 to <6 months; 6 to <12 months; 12 to <24 months; 2 to <3 years; 3 to <4 years; 4 to <5 years; 5 to <10 years; 10 to <15 years; and 15 to <18 years. Normal reference ranges for amplitude, conduction velocity, and distal latency were established for each age group for 4 motor and 4 sensory nerves.Discussion: The large sample size of this study provides reliable reference values for interpreting pediatric NCS. Muscle Nerve 60: 155-160, 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Literature suggests an inconsistent, but largely inverse, association between asthma and risk of glioma, which is primarily due to methodological inconsistency in sampling frame and ascertainment of asthma. The objective of the study was to clarify the association between asthma and risk of glioma by minimising methodological biases (eg, recall and detection bias). Design A population-based case-control study. Setting General population in Olmsted County, Minnesota, USA. Participants All eligible biopsy-proven incident glioma cases (1995-2014) and two sets of controls among residents matched to age and sex (first set: community controls without glioma; second set: MRI-negative controls from the same community). Methods The predetermined asthma criteria via medical record review were applied to ascertain asthma status of cases and controls. History of asthma prior to index date was compared between glioma cases and their matched controls using conditional logistic regression models. Propensity score for asthma status was adjusted for multivariate analysis. Results We enrolled 135 glioma cases (median age at index date: 53 years) and 270 controls. Of the cases, 21 had a history of asthma (16%), compared with 36 of MRI controls (27%) (OR (95% CI) 0.48 (0.26 to 0.91), p=0.03). With MRI controls, an inverse association between asthma and risk of glioma persisted after adjusting for the propensity score for asthma status, but did not reach statistical significance probably due to the lack of statistical power (OR (95% CI) 0.48 (0.21 to 1.09); p=0.08). Based on comparison of characteristics of controls and cases, community controls seem to be more susceptible to a detection bias. Conclusions While differential detection might account for the association between asthma and risk of glioma, asthma may potentially pose a protective effect on risk of glioma. Our study results need to be replicated by a larger study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we utilize a bottom-up approach to synthesize nitrogen self-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) from a single glucosamine precursor via an eco-friendly microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. Structural and optical properties of as-produced NGQDs are further modified using controlled ozone treatment. Ozone-treated NGQDs (Oz-NGQDs) are reduced in size to 5.5 nm with clear changes in the lattice structure and ID/IG Raman ratios due to the introduction/alteration of oxygen-containing functional groups detected by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer and further verified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showing increased atomic/weight percentage of oxygen atoms. Along with structural modifications, GQDs experience decrease in ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) absorption coupled with progressive enhancement of visible (up to 16 min treatment) and near-infrared (NIR) (up to 45 min treatment) fluorescence. This allows fine-tuning optical properties of NGQDs for solar cell applications yielding controlled emission increase, while controlled emission quenching was achieved by either blue laser or thermal treatment. Optimized Oz-NGQDs were further used to form a photoactive layer of solar cells with a maximum efficiency of 2.64% providing a 6-fold enhancement over untreated NGQD devices and a 3-fold increase in fill factor/current density. This study suggests simple routes to alter and optimize optical properties of scalably produced NGQDs to boost the photovoltaic performance of solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the detection of humpback whale song during the austral and boreal spring at the Cape Verde Islands. Topics include the use of the North Atlantic's Cape Verde Islands as the breeding place for the endangered and small population of humpback whales, the strategy of male humpback whales in using song for their reproductive display and the coincidence on the detection of songs and the breeding season of humpback whales.

The coherent optical processing technique, referred to as k-space tomography, enables simultaneous detection of radio waves’ frequency and angle of arrival. As with the majority of signals, the spatial and spectral distribution of RF signals in the electromagnetic environment is sparse in nature. This inherent characteristic provides an ideal opportunity to merge this imaging modality with compressive sensing techniques. Compressive sensing has set a foundation for data acquisition of sparse signals from a small amount of data. By adapting specific aspects from this methodology, and applying them to k-space tomography, compressive k-space tomography is developed. Fundamental performance limits of this compressive sensing application are defined through numerical simulations, and these responses are subsequently utilized in experimental spatial-spectrum utilization mapping for impending 5G bands between 28 and 40 GHz. As a result, reconstruction data size and processing time are reduced consistently by a factor of over 100, without loss of information, for sufficiently sparse RF scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some of the earliest Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) utilized bivariate marginal distribution models, up to now, all discrete bivariate EDAs had one serious limitation: they were constrained to exploiting only a limited O(d) subset out of all possible O(d2) bivariate dependencies. As a first we present a family of discrete bivariate EDAs that can learn and exploit allO(d2) dependencies between variables, and yet have the same run-time complexity as their more limited counterparts. This family of algorithms, which we label DICE (DIscrete Correlated Estimation of distribution algorithms), is rigorously based on sound statistical principles, and particularly on a modelling technique from statistical physics: dichotomised multivariate Gaussian distributions. Initially (Lane et al. in European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, Springer, 1999), DICE was trialled on a suite of combinatorial optimization problems over binary search spaces. Our proposed dichotomised Gaussian (DG) model in DICE significantly outperformed existing discrete bivariate EDAs; crucially, the performance gap increasingly widened as dimensionality of the problems increased. In this comprehensive treatment, we generalise DICE by successfully extending it to multary search spaces that also allow for categorical variables. Because correlation is not wholly meaningful for categorical variables, interactions between such variables cannot be fully modelled by correlation-based approaches such as in the original formulation of DICE. Therefore, here we extend our original DG model to deal with such situations. We test DICE on a challenging test suite of combinatorial optimization problems, which are defined mostly on multary search spaces. While the two versions of DICE outperform each other on different problem instances, they both outperform all the state-of-the-art bivariate EDAs on almost all of the problem instances. This further illustrates that these innovative DICE methods constitute a significant step change in the domain of discrete bivariate EDAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dynamin 1-like gene (DNM1L) encodes a GTPase that mediates mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission and fusion. We report a new clinical presentation associated with a DNM1L pathogenic variant and review the literature. Results: A 13-year-old boy with mild developmental delays and paroxysmal dystonia presented acutely with multifocal myoclonic super-refractory status epilepticus. Despite sustained and aggressive treatment, seizures persisted and care was ultimately withdrawn in the context of extensive global cortical atrophy. Rapid trio-whole exome sequencing revealed a de novo heterozygous c.1207C>T (p.R403C) pathogenic variant in DNM1L. Immunofluorescence staining of fibroblast mitochondria revealed abnormally elongated and tubular morphology. Conclusions: This case highlights the diagnostic importance of rapid whole exome sequencing within a critical care setting and reveals the expanding phenotypic spectrum associated with DNM1L variants. This now includes progressive paroxysmal dystonia and adolescent-onset super-refractory myoclonic status epilepticus contributing to strikingly rapid and progressive cortical atrophy and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 2D distributed-aperture imaging system paired with a newly developed imaging modality, k-space tomography, is presented for detection of radio waves’ frequency and angle of arrival in azimuthal and elevation directions through coherent optical processing. This technique uses fiber-length dispersion in conjunction with a distributed antenna array to provide unique spatio-temporally encoded charge-coupled device (CCD)-captured interferograms, from which a computational tomographic reconstruction of the RF signal environment at newly allocated 5G bands can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by degeneration of the corticospinal and spinocerebellar tracts leading to progressive spasticity. One subtype, spastic paraplegia type 47 (SPG47 or HSP‐AP4B1), is due to bi‐allelic loss‐of‐function mutations in the AP4B1 gene. AP4B1 is a subunit of the adapter protein complex 4 (AP‐4), a heterotetrameric protein complex that regulates the transport of membrane proteins. Since 2011, 11 individuals from six families with AP4B1 mutations have been reported, nine of whom had homozygous mutations and were from consanguineous families. Here we report eight patients with AP4B1‐associated SPG47, the majority born to non‐consanguineous parents and carrying compound heterozygous mutations. Core clinical features in this cohort and previously published patients include neonatal hypotonia that progresses to spasticity, early onset developmental delay with prominent motor delay and severely impaired or absent speech development, episodes of stereotypic laughter, seizures including frequent febrile seizures, thinning of the corpus callosum, and delayed myelination/white matter loss. Given that some of the features of AP‐4 deficiency overlap with those of cerebral palsy, and the discovery of the disorder in non‐consanguineous populations, we believe that AP‐4 deficiency may be more common than previously appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, Scotland was estimated to have one of the highest proportion of whale-watching tourists of any European country, providing important economic benefits to rural coastal communities. Since then, information has been lacking on how the industry is developing. Because whale watching is not regulated or licensed, basic information on the number of operators and capacity of the industry is difficult to obtain. Wildlife tour operators (N =77) were identified in the west of Scotland using internet searches and categorized as "whale-watch operators" where 66%-100% of income was derived from using the opportunity of encountering cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) to market tours (N=40). Questionnaires were circulated to 35 whale-watch operators with responses received from 22. It was estimated that 72 full-time equivalent jobs exist in the sector in the study area. Over half of the operators (54%) have been conducting whale watching for greater than 10 years, suggesting it can be a reliable source of employment. Inclement weather followed by the number of tourists were cited, respectively, as the greatest challenges for operators. Almost half of respondents (46%) said that the amount of wildlife was not a challenge, with minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) being the main target species. In 2015 an estimated 51,200 people went whale watching on boats in the west of Scotland, generating an estimated £2.3 million and £3.7 million of direct and indirect revenue, respectively. Since 2000, the number of whale-watching passengers declined by 17.3%. In the same period, revenue generated by the industry declined by 1.4% per annum. Although whale watching remains unregulated, the current lack of growth presents an opportunity to foster an environmentally and economically sustainable model for the industry in the west of Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a thinly veiled attack on the popular Grammatical Evolution (GE) system, the second in the space of year. The paper presents itself as a philosophical discussion on a framework they present, based on a handful of Sterelny's guidelines. However, it quickly degenerates into an assault on GE, initially by attributing assumptions to the inventors, and latterly by the use of misleading claims. This rebuttal addresses both of these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use Monte Carlo experiments to study how pass-through can improve merger price predictions, focusing on the first order approximation (FOA) proposed in Jaffe and Weyl []. FOA addresses the functional form misspecification that can exist in standard merger simulations. We find that the predictions of FOA are tightly distributed around the true price effects if pass-through is precise, but that measurement error in pass-through diminishes accuracy. As a comparison to FOA, we also study a methodology that uses pass-through to select among functional forms for use in simulation. This alternative also increases accuracy relative to standard merger simulation and proves more robust to measurement error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]