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Selective attention comprises essential infrastructural functions supporting cognition—anticipating, prioritizing, selecting, routing, integrating, and preparing signals to guide adaptive behavior. Most studies have examined its consequences, systems, and mechanisms in a static way, but attention is at the confluence of multiple sources of flux. The world advances, we operate within it, our minds change, and all resulting signals progress through multiple pathways within the dynamic networks of our brains. Our aim in this review is to raise awareness of and interest in three important facets of how timing impacts our understanding of attention. These include the challenges posed to attention by the timing of neural processing and psychological functions, the opportunities conferred to attention by various temporal structures in the environment, and how tracking the time courses of neural and behavioral modulations with continuous measures yields surprising insights into the workings and principles of attention.

As the bandwidth of radio signals increases significantly over the evolution of communication systems, the analysis bandwidth of many current instruments becomes insufficient. In this article, we study analysis bandwidth extension using the so-called band stitching. Specifically, we propose a two-step delay estimation method, which combines the cross correlation and an additional refining step to resolve the timing impairment between different sampling branches in postprocessing. We verify the method with a sequential measurement setup, using vector signal analyzers (VSAs). The result shows the necessity of conducting the refining step for getting a more accurate delay estimate to successfully recover the original wideband signal. Besides, a good agreement is found between the stitched data and the reference data in terms of the waveforms and error vector magnitude (EVM), which shows the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed calibration method in practice.

Purpose of reviewTo summarize recent research on critical care nutrition focusing on the optimal composition, timing, and monitoring of enteral feeding strategies for (post)-ICU patients. We provide new insights on energy and protein recommendations, feeding intolerance, and describe nutritional practices for coronavirus disease 2019 ICU patients.Recent findingsThe use of indirect calorimetry to establish individual energy requirements for ICU patients is considered the gold standard. The limited research on optimal feeding targets in the early phase of critical illness suggests avoiding overfeeding. Protein provision based upon the absolute lean body mass is rational. Therefore, body composition measurements should be considered. Body impedance analysis and muscle ultrasound seem reliable, affordable, and accessible methods to assess body composition at the bedside. There is inadequate evidence to change our practice of continuous enteral feeding into intermittent feeding. Finally, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 patients are prone to underfeeding due to hypermetabolism and should be closely monitored.SummaryNutritional therapy should be adapted to the patient's characteristics, diagnosis, and state of metabolism during ICU stay and convalescence. A personalized nutrition plan may prevent harmful over- or underfeeding and attenuate muscle loss. Despite novel insights, more research is warranted into tailored nutrition strategies during critical illness and convalescence.

Wartime is fundamentally important to the study of international politics but not especially well understood. In this paper, we use timing theory and the concept of liturgy to unpack the contemporary dynamics of US wartime. A theory of political timing posits that all temporalities derive from and symbolize underlying social processes, and that these timing efforts unfold according to a master organizing standard. Liturgy highlights the way that ritualized acts help participants commune with the sacred – whether this be God or the nation-state. Scrutinizing contemporary US culture practices, we combine these ideas to argue that the notion of victory, as enacted through a widespread set of performative routines, acts as an organizing standard that embeds and reifies wartime in US security policy and daily life. Prevalent ideals of winning wars gather together a stylized past, explicate present problems, and generate expectations about future problems and conflicts. We tabulate several highly influential examples of this liturgy of triumph from national calendars, commemorative sites and events, and cultural practices like spectator sports. In addition to normalizing a view of wartime as having clear beginnings and uniquely successful endings, the US liturgy of triumph highlights a growing gap in the country’s relationship to the use of force. Most of what performative war liturgies commemorate is ‘finished’; it has been seen, known, and ostensibly won. Yet, much of what defines 21st century conflict is anything but certain or victorious. Moreover, US victory culture has only grown more acute the longer the concrete victories fail to materialize, suggesting a tragic code at the heart of US security politics.

International audience; The inventory routing problem (IRP) arises in a broad spectrum of real-life applications related to joint decisions of inventory and routing. In the basic IRP, a supplier has to make decisions about the delivery timing, delivered quantity of a single product and routing with a single vehicle to a set of retailers without backlog. It poses computational challenge due to its natural complexity. To tackle this problem, we propose a two-phase decomposition-based heuristic method. In Phase 1, a logic-based Benders like decomposition method is employed to first determine the retailers' replenishments, followed by the routing decisions individually for each period. Valid cuts, inequalities for diversification constraints and for greedy search are employed. Then, the solutions obtained in Phase 1 are improved with a restricted mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model in Phase 2. Computational experiments are conducted on 220 benchmark problem instances with up to 200 retailers and 6 periods. The results show the high performance of the proposed method and it is comparable to the state-of-the-art heuristics in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness.

1. Animal migration is one of the most spectacular and visible behavioural phenomena in nature with profound implications for a range of ecological and evolutionary processes. Successful migration hinges on the ability to exploit temporary resources (e.g. food) and evade threats (e.g. predators) as they arise, and thus the timing of migration is often regarded as a dominant predictor of individual migratory success. 2. However, with the exception of intensively studied taxa (mainly birds), relatively few studies have investigated inter-individual annual and seasonal variation in migratory timing and performance, or tested predictions on how migration across high and low predation-risk habitats may exert selection on migratory timing. In particular, studies that assess the survival consequences of variation in migratory timing remain rare, which is most likely due to the logistical challenges associated with monitoring survival success and population-level characteristics simultaneously. 3. Here, we address the above-mentioned questions using roach Rutilus rutilus, a fish that migrates from lakes characterised by high predation risk into low-risk streams during winter. Specifically, we used individual-based tracking of roach in two European lake systems over multiple migration periods (9 and 7 years respectively), to obtain highly detailed (year-round scheduling, repeat journeys and the fate of individuals) data on the variability/synchrony of migratory timing in spring and autumn respectively. 4. We report seasonal differences in the variability of migratory timing, with lower variance and higher migration synchrony in spring lake arrival timing as compared to autumn lake departure timing. Furthermore, the timing of autumn migration is more variable across years than the timing of spring migration. Second, we find that later arrival to the lake habitat is positively associated with apparent survival from 1 year to the next, whereas we found no effect of lake departure timing on survival probability. 5. These findings represent rare evidence showing how intraspecific variation in timing in migratory fish differs across years and seasons, and how variation in timing can translate into survival consequences for prey in systems characterised by high predation risk.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the possible relationship between chronotype, sleeping, and eating patterns in 74 Italian adults (71.6% women). Based on Morningness-Eveningness Questionnare (MEQ) score, participants were classified as morning (

With the advent of 5G technology, the notion of latency got a prominent role in wireless connectivity, serving as a proxy term for addressing the requirements for real-time communication. As wireless systems evolve toward 6G, the ambition to immerse the digital into physical reality will increase. Besides making the real-time requirements more stringent, this immersion will bring the notions of time, simultaneity, presence, and causality to a new level of complexity A growing body of research points out that latency is insufficient to parameterize all real-time requirements. Notably, one such requirement that received significant attention is information freshness, defined through the Age of Information (AoI) and its derivatives. In general, the metrics derived from a conventional black-box approach to communication network design are not representative of new distributed paradigms, such as sensing, learning, or distributed consensus. The objective of this article is to investigate the general notion of timing in wireless communication systems and networks, and its relation to effective information generation, processing, transmission, and reconstruction at the senders and receivers. We establish a general statistical framework of timing requirements in wireless communication systems, which subsumes both latency and AoI. The framework is made by associating a timing component with the two basic statistical operations: decision and estimation. We first use the framework to present a representative sample of the existing works that deal with timing in wireless communication. Next, it is shown how the framework can be used with different communication models of increasing complexity, starting from the basic Shannon one-way communication model and arriving at communication models for consensus, distributed learning, and inference. Overall, this article fills an important gap in the literature by providing a systematic treatment of various timing measures in wireless communication and sets the basis for design and optimization for the next-generation real-time systems. Funding Agencies|Velux Foundation under Villum Investigator Grant WATER; Danish Council for Independent Research [8022-00284B]; European Research Council (ERC) through the European Union [101003431]; Swedish Research Council (VR); ELLIIT; CENIIT

Choosing a career pathway in medicine is a high stakes decision for both medical students and the field of medicine as a whole. While past research has examined how characteristics of the medical student or specialties influence this decision, we introduce temporal elements as novel variables influencing career selection decisions in medicine. Specifically, we investigate how timing and duration of residency options, based on a rotation schedule that medical students have limited control over, influence their career selection decisions. An archival study investigating 5 years of medical student rotation schedules (N = 115) reveals that clinical rotation options appearing earlier and more often in the schedule were more likely to be selected. Moreover, timing and duration of exposure interacted such that such that residency options appearing later in the schedules were more likely to be selected if they also appeared more often. Conditional logistic regressions using student fixed-effects to control for idiosyncratic medical student differences (i.e., gender, & debt, etc.), and residency fixed-effects to control for idiosyncratic residency differences (income, and lifestyle, etc.), revealed the rotation schedule had a significant impact on residency selection decisions even when controlling for factors typically influencing this decision. Medical students’ career decisions are influenced by when and how long different choice options appear in their rotation schedule, especially when they have limited influence over this schedule. The results have implications for healthcare policy by highlighting a tool for adjusting physician workforce composition by broadening exposure to a greater array of career options.

Generalization allows responses acquired in one situation to be transferred to similar situations. For temporal stimuli, a discontinuity has been found between zero and non-zero durations: responses in trials with no (or 0-s) stimuli and in trials with very short stimuli differ more than what would be expected by generalization. This discontinuity may happen because 0-s durations do not belong to the same continuum as non-zero durations. Alternatively, the discontinuity may be due to generalization decrement effects: a 0-s stimulus differs from a short stimulus not only in duration, but also in its presence, thus leading to greater differences in performance. Aiming to reduce differences between trials with and without a stimulus, we used two procedures to test whether a potential reduction in generalization decrement would bring performance following zero and non-zero durations closer. In both procedures, there was a reduction in the discontinuity between 0-s and short durations, supporting the hypothesis that 0-s durations are integrated in the temporal subjective continuum., Open access funding provided by FCT vertical bar FCCN (b-on). The present work was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (Ref.: UIDB/PSI/01662/2020).

To mitigate the cost of manually producing and maintaining models capturing software specifications,specification miningtechniques can be exploited to automatically derive up-to-date models that faithfully represent the behavior of software systems. So far,specification mining solutions focused on extracting information about the functional behavior of the system, especially in the form ofmodels that represent the ordering of the operations. Well-known examples are finite state models capturing the usage protocol ofsoftware interfaces and temporal rules specifying relations among system events.Although the functional behavior of a software system is a primary aspect of concern, there are several other non-functionalcharacteristics that must be typically addressed jointly with the functional behavior of a software system. Efficiency is one of the most relevant characteristics. Indeed, an application that delivers the right functionalities with an inefficient implementation may fail to satisfy the expectations of its users.Interestingly, the timing behavioris strongly dependent on the functional behavior of a software system. For instance, the timing of an operation depends on the functional complexity and size of the computation that is performed. Consequently, models that combine the functional and timing behaviors, as well as their dependencies, are extremely important to precisely reason on the behavior of software systems.In this paper, we address the challenge of generating models that capture both the functional and timing behavior of a software system from execution traces. The result is the Timed k-Tail (TkT) specification mining technique, which can mine finite state models that capture such an interplay: the functional behavior is represented by the possible order of the events accepted by the transitions, while the timing behavior is represented through clocks and clock constraints of different nature associated with transitions.Our empirical evaluation with several libraries and applications shows that TkT can generate accurate models, capable of supporting the identification of timing anomalies due to overloaded environment and performance faults. Furthermore, our study shows that TkT outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in terms of scalability and accuracy of the mined models.

Our previous work selected for Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security 2020 demonstrates that it is possible to reverse engineer neural networks by using side-channel attacks. We developed a framework that considers each part of the neural network separately and then, by combining the information, manages to reverse engineer all relevant hyper-parameters and parameters. Our work is a proof of concept (but also a realistic demonstration) that such attacks are possible and warns that more effort should be given to developing countermeasures. While we have used microcontrollers for our experiments, the attack applies to other targets like FPGAs and GPUs. National Research Foundation (NRF) Accepted version This research is partly supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, under its National Cybersecurity Research & Development Programme / Cyber-Hardware Forensic & Assurance Evaluation R&D Programme (Award: NRF2018NCR-NCR009-0001)

While transcription often occurs in a bursty manner, various possible regulations can lead to complex promoter patterns such as promoter cycles, giving rise to an important question: How do promoter kinetics shape transcriptional bursting kinetics? Here we introduce and analyze a general model of the promoter cycle consisting of multi-OFF states and multi-ON states, focusing on the effects of multi-ON mechanisms on transcriptional bursting kinetics. The derived analytical results indicate that burst size follows a mixed geometric distribution rather than a single geometric distribution assumed in previous studies, and ON and OFF times obey their own mixed exponential distributions. In addition, we find that the multi-ON mechanism can lead to bimodal burst-size distribution, antagonistic timing of ON and OFF, and diverse burst frequencies, each further contributing to cell-to-cell variability in the mRNA expression level. These results not only reveal essential features of transcriptional bursting kinetics patterns shaped by multi-state mechanisms but also can be used to the inferences of transcriptional bursting kinetics and promoter structure based on experimental data.

Time-of-Flight positron emission tomography scanners demand fast and efficient photo sensors and scintillators coupled to fast readout electronics. This article presents the high resolution flexible Time-over-Threshold (HRFlexToT), a 16-channel application-specific-integrated circuit for silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) anode readout manufactured using XFAB 0.18- \mu \text{m} CMOS technology. The main features of the HRFlexToT are a linear Time-over-Threshold with an extended dynamic range (10 bits) for energy measurement, low power consumption (≈ 3.5 mW/ch), and an excellent timing response. The experimental measurements show an energy linearity error of ≈ 3% and an energy resolution of about 12% at 511 keV. Single-photon time resolution measurements performed using an Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) SiPM NUV-HD ( 4 \times 4 mm2 pixel, 40- \mu \text{m} cell) and a Hamamatsu SiPM S13360-3050CS are around 142 and 167 ps full width at half maximum (FWHM), respectively. Coincidence time resolution (CTR) measurements with small cross-section pixelated crystals (LSO:Ce,Ca 0.4%, 2 \times 2 \times 5 mm3) coupled to the same Hamamatsu S13360-3050CS and FBK NUV-HD sensors yield a CTR of 117 ps and 119 ps, respectively. Measurements performed with a large cross-section monolithic crystal (LFS crystal measuring 25 \times 25 \times 20 mm3) and a Hamamatsu SiPM array S13361-6050NE-04 show a CTR of 324 ps FWHM after time-walk and time-skew correction.

Background During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of ventilators and ICU beds overwhelmed health-care systems. Whether early tracheostomy reduces the duration of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay is controversial. Research Question Can failure-free day outcomes focused on ICU resources help to decide the optimal timing of tracheostomy in overburdened health-care systems during viral epidemics? Study Design and Methods This retrospective cohort study included consecutive patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who had undergone tracheostomy in 15 Spanish ICUs during the surge, when ICU occupancy modified clinician criteria to perform tracheostomy in Patients with COVID-19. We compared ventilator-free days at 28 and 60 days and ICU- and hospital bed-free days at 28 and 60 days in propensity score-matched cohorts who underwent tracheostomy at different timings (≤ 7 days, 8-10 days, and 11-14 days after intubation). Results Of 1,939 patients admitted with COVID-19 pneumonia, 682 (35.2%) underwent tracheostomy, 382 (56%) within 14 days. Earlier tracheostomy was associated with more ventilator-free days at 28 days (≤ 7 days vs > 7 days [116 patients included in the analysis]: median, 9 days [interquartile range (IQR), 0-15 days] vs 3 days [IQR, 0-7 days]; difference between groups, 4.5 days; 95% CI, 2.3-6.7 days; 8-10 days vs > 10 days [222 patients analyzed]: 6 days [IQR, 0-10 days] vs 0 days [IQR, 0-6 days]; difference, 3.1 days; 95% CI, 1.7-4.5 days; 11-14 days vs > 14 days [318 patients analyzed]: 4 days [IQR, 0-9 days] vs 0 days [IQR, 0-2 days]; difference, 3 days; 95% CI, 2.1-3.9 days). Except hospital bed-free days at 28 days, all other end points were better with early tracheostomy. Interpretation Optimal timing of tracheostomy may improve patient outcomes and may alleviate ICU capacity strain during the COVID-19 pandemic without increasing mortality. Tracheostomy within the first work on a ventilator in particular may improve ICU availability.

IntroductionPrecise motor timing including the ability to adjust movements after changes in the environment is fundamental to many daily activities. Sensorimotor timing in the sub-and supra-second range might rely on at least partially distinct brain networks, with the latter including the basal ganglia (BG) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Since both structures are particularly vulnerable to age-related decline, the present study investigated whether age might distinctively affect sensorimotor timing and error correction in the supra-second range.MethodsA total of 50 healthy right-handed volunteers with 22 older (age range: 50–60 years) and 28 younger (age range: 20–36 years) participants synchronized the tap-onsets of their right index finger with an isochronous auditory pacing signal. Stimulus onset asynchronies were either 900 or 1,600 ms. Positive or negative step-changes that were perceivable or non-perceivable were occasionally interspersed to the fixed intervals to induce error correction. A simple reaction time task served as control condition.Results and DiscussionIn line with our hypothesis, synchronization variability in trials with supra-second intervals was larger in the older group. While reaction times were not affected by age, the mean negative asynchrony was significantly smaller in the elderly in trials with positive step-changes, suggesting more pronounced tolerance of positive deviations at older age. The analysis of error correction by means of the phase correction response (PCR) suggests reduced error correction in the older group. This effect emerged in trials with supra-second intervals and large positive step-changes, only. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that sensorimotor synchronization in the sub-second range is maintained but synchronization accuracy and error correction in the supra-second range is reduced in the elderly as early as in the fifth decade of life suggesting that these measures are suitable for the early detection of age-related changes of the motor system.

Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) enable more flexible connectivity solutions than traditional systems, but still face several challenges hindering their widespread adoption. General-Purpose Processor (GPP) based SDRs have generally been too slow for low-latency protocols. Meanwhile Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based SDR setups suffer from high prices and a steep learning curve for developers. This paper investigates the feasibility of implementing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) in a GPP based Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connected SDR. In particular, we focus on adhering to the timing requirements of BLE in a practical SDR implementation. For this, we propose a multi-threaded implementation based on a subset of the open-source BLE library BTLE. Using a signal generator and oscilloscope, we show that the SDR is able to achieve a response time down to 105 μs and can accurately respond in the required 150 ± 2μs Inter Frame Space (IFS) time window. Furthermore, we also validate that channel hopping is supported by the SDR-based platform. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first SDR implementation able to meet the IFS requirements of BLE, hereby leading the way for more complete fully software based BLE protocol stacks.

While gig work platforms have been a lifeline for independent workers before and during the pandemic, little has been researched about the most effective ways to support their savings towards building financial resilience. Partnering with a Chilean Fintech that serves both gig workers and regular users, we are exploring ways in which their existing products and services can support short-term savings. Through the app, users can create two virtual pre-paid cards to deposit money into and use as per convenience. In order to help improve savings, we are exploring framing one of the virtual cards as a “savings card” that can be used to cover emergencies or unexpected expenses. More specifically, we are exploring when is the most suitable moment to prompt users to create a virtual savings card and start making deposits. The present study seeks to understand whether people are more willing to create a prepaid savings card and make deposits when prompted to do so before or after receiving an income deposit. The study also explores differences between gig workers that receive weekly income deposits and regular users that receive weekly or biweekly deposits.

Measuring recall for audio information with different pitch and time patterns

Purpose: To correlate postoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) thickness changes of each retinal layer with different patterns of visual recovery after idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM) surgery in a cohort of patients showing no known risk factors for poor visual recovery at preoperative imaging. Methods: Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCT images were acquired preoperatively and 1 month, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively. Patients were divided into four groups according to postoperative BCVA improvement: improvement < 15 ETDRS letters (GROUP 1), immediate improvement of BCVA without further improvements at later follow-ups (GROUP 2), immediate improvement of BCVA with further improvements at later follow-ups (GROUP 3) and delayed improvement of BCVA (GROUP 4). Results: Eighty-five patients were included. GROUP1 was the only one characterized by retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness increase and ganglion cell layer/central macular thickness (GCL/CMT) ratio decrease at 1 month and outer nuclear layer (ONL) thickness decrease at 3 and 6 months. GROUP 2 was the only one showing a decrease in GCL/inner plexiform layer (GCL/IPL) ratio at 1 month. GROUP 3 and 4 showed higher preoperative RNFL thickness compared to the other, and GROUP 4 manifested a late increase in RNFL thickness at 6 months. Conclusions: Different patterns of VA recovery are associated with specific layer thickness changes. If further confirmed, this would help detect those cases characterized by poor or delayed visual recovery despite the absence of other known imaging risk factors.

This paper focuses on the timing of coalition formation under presidential systems. While elections in parliamentary regimes have recently been characterized by a high degree of uncertainty both in the results and the formation of cabinets, this is not the case for presidential politics. As a result, we argue that coalition cycles differ across systems of government. As a matter of fact, we argue that the process of coalition formation under presidentialism is more complicated. To test our claim, we look at forty-four multiparty governments in Latin America and Asia. We find that presidentialism — with its fixed mandate and its specific institutional mechanism for selecting the president — directly affects the ‘coalition life cycle’ and fosters a stronger propensity to pre-electoral agreements.

Documenting advance care planning (ACP) conversations in an advance care planning tool (ACPT) at one central place in the electronic patient record (EPR) makes it possible to view the wishes regarding future care and treatment by the involved healthcare professionals. This information needs to be available to all involved healthcare providers, because fragmented documentation and poor communication between professionals are well known barriers to good end-of-life-care. We know form the literature that end-of-life care starts relatively late and often does not match the preferences of patients. In this scoping review we are researching the following question: What is known about the optimal timing of starting the advance care planning process from the perspective of patients, their relatives and healthcare professionals?

Background: Thyroid surgeries are commonly done nowadays for benign and malignant conditions. Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (RLNP) is an important and potentially catastrophic complication of thyroid surgery. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of rigid endoscopy (Hopkins rod-lens telescope) performed at different time intervals on the diagnosis of RLNP in post-thyroid surgery patients. Aims and Objectives: To assess Proper Timing of Laryngoscopy in Post-thyroid Surgery patients to Detect RLN Injury. Materials and Methods: Rigid endoscopy was performed postoperatively at day 0 (T0), at 2nd day post-op (T1), and day 14 (T2). For patients with RLNP, repeated examinations were performed at 2 months (T3), 6 months (T4), and 12 months (T5). Results: The study included 50 patients of thyroid swelling with different diagnoses. Overall, 35 patients appeared for postoperative laryngoscopic examination of the vocal folds at our center, providing 61 nerves at risk. RLNP rate was 8.1% at T0, 11.5% at T1, 9.8% at T2, 8.1% at T3, 4.9% at T4, and 3.3% at T5. T1 was significantly superior to all other time intervals in terms of diagnosis of RLNP but statistically not significant. Conclusion: Rigid endoscopy is essential for the detection of vocal cord paralysis after thyroidectomy. We report different time evaluation criteria of vocal cord morbidity with great and significant variability of results. Second day post-op inspection of the larynx (T1) is suggested.

When RTL designers define the hierarchy of a system, they exploit their knowledge about the conceptual abstractions devised during the design and the functional interactions between the logical components. This valuable information is often lost during physical synthesis. This paper proposes HiDaP, a novel multi-level algorithm that uses RTL information and analytical methods for the macro placement problem of modern designs dominated by multi-cycle connection pipelines. By taking advantage of the hierarchy tree, the netlist is divided into blocks containing macros and standard cells, and their dataflow affinity is inferred considering the register latency and flow width of their interaction. The layout is represented using slicing structures and generated with a top-down algorithm capable of handling blocks with both hard and soft components. An adaptive multi-objective cost function is used to simultaneously minimize wirelength, timing, overlap and distance to preferred locations, which can be user-defined or generated by analytic methods (spectral and force-directed). These techniques have been applied to a set of large industrial circuits and compared against state-of-theart commercial and academic placers, and also to handcrafted floorplans generated by expert back-end engineers. The proposed approach outperforms previous algorithmic methods and can produce solutions with better wirelength and timing than the best handcrafted floorplans. Post-routing layouts are almost brought to timing closure and DRC cleanness with minimal engineer modification, showing that the generated floorplans provide an excellent starting point for the physical design flow and contribute to reduce turn-around time significantly. This work has been partially supported by a grant from Inphi Corporation and funds from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and the European Union (FEDER funds) under grant TIN2017-86727-C2-1-R, and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR 786).

Peer reviewed: True, The aim of this systematic review was to report the evidence on optimal prandial timing of insulin bolus in youths with type 1 diabetes. A systematic search was performed including studies published in the last 20 years (2002-2022). A PICOS framework was used in the selection process and evidence was assessed using the GRADE system. Up to one third of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes injected rapid-acting insulin analogues after a meal. Moderate-high level quality studies showed that a pre-meal bolus compared with a bolus given at the start or after the meal was associated with a lower peak blood glucose after one to two hours, particularly after breakfast, as well as with reduced HbA1c, without any difference in the frequency of hypoglycemia. There were no differences related to the timing of bolus in total daily insulin and BMI, although these results were based on a single study. Data on individuals' treatment satisfaction were limited but did not show any effect of timing of bolus on quality of life. In addition, post-prandial administration of fast-acting analogues was superior to rapid-acting analogues on post-prandial glycemia. There was no evidence for any difference in outcomes related to the timing of insulin bolus across age groups in the two studies. In conclusion, prandial insulin injected before a meal, particularly at breakfast, provides better post-prandial glycemia and HbA1c without increasing the risk of hypoglycemia, and without affecting total daily insulin dose and BMI. For young children who often have variable eating behaviors, fast-acting analogues administered at mealtime or post-meal could provide an additional advantage.

In soft real-time systems, tasks may occasionally miss their deadlines. This possibility has triggered research on probabilistic timing analysis for the execution time of a single program and probabilistic response time analysis of concurrently executed tasks. Under fixed-priority preemptive uniprocessor scheduling, it was shown that the classical critical instant theorem (for deriving the worst-case schedulability or response time) by Liu and Layland (in JACM 1973) can be applied to analyze the worst-case deadline failure probability (WCDFP) and the worst-case response time exceedance probability (WCRTEP). In this work, we present a counterexample for this result, showing that the WCDFP and WCRTEP derived by the classical critical instant theorem is unsound. We further provide two sound methods: one is to account for one additional carry-in job of a higher-priority task and another is to sample and inflate the execution time of certain jobs without adding one additional carry-in job. We show that these two methods do not dominate each other and, in the evaluation, apply them to two well-known approaches based on direct convolution and Chernoff bounds.

According to the World Health Organization as of September 16, 2021, there have been over 226 million documented cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has resulted in more than 4.6 million deaths and approximately 14% develop a more severe disease that requires respiratory assistance such as intubation. Early tracheostomy is recommended for patients that are expected to be on prolonged mechanical ventilation; however, supporting data has not yet been provided for early tracheostomies in COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study was to explore established guidelines for performing tracheostomies in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Factors considered were patient outcomes such as mortality, ventilator-associated pneumonia, intensive care unit length of stay, complications associated with procedures, and risks to healthcare providers that performed tracheostomies. Various observational studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews were collected through a PubMed Database search. Additional sources were found through Google. The search was refined to publications in English and between the years of 2003 and 2021. The keywords used were "Coronavirus" and/or "guidelines'' and/or "tracheostomy" and/or "intensive care". Twenty-three studies were retained. Due to the complex presentation of the respiratory virus COVID-19, previously established guidelines for tracheostomies had to be reevaluated to determine if these guidelines were still applicable to these critically ill ventilated patients. More specifically, medical guidelines state benefits to early tracheostomies in critically ill ventilated non-COVID-19 patients. However, after having conducted this review, the assumptions about the benefits of early tracheostomies in critically ill ventilated patients may not be appropriate for COVID-19 patients.

This article explores timing, kairos, in human interaction by analyzing nonverbal communication. The skill of timing, being able to do “the right thing at the right time,” is important for rhetorical agency. What are the silent processes in human interaction, and how do they influence the possibility for a kairotic moment to occur? Empirical material consisting of theater rehearsals has been analyzed. The findings show that the actio qualities: tempo and energy, as well as phronesis, are important factors for the appearance of a kairotic moment., Niniejszy artykuł bada zagadnienia dotyczące czasu, tj. kairos, w interakcjach międzyludzkich poprzez analizę komunikacji niewerbalnej. Umiejętność wyczucia czasu, zdolność do zrobienia „właściwej rzeczy we właściwym czasie”, jest ważna dla retorycznej sprawczości. Jakie procesy niewerbalne występują w interakcji międzyludzkiej i jak wpływają one na możliwość zaistnienia momentu kairotycznego? Analizie poddano materiał empiryczny, na który składają się próby teatralne. Wyniki badań wskazują, że takie cechy actio, jak tempo i energia, a także phronesis są ważnymi czynnikami sprzyjającymi pojawieniu sięmomentu kairotycznego.

1. Repeatable individual variation in behaviour has been demonstrated in all taxa, though few studies have explored the broader ecological consequences of such consistent behaviour.2. We tagged and tracked 401 individual sea trout (Salmo trutta) with passive integrated transponder telemetry over two to four spawning seasons as they migrated between freshwater and marine environments to spawn and feed, respectively.3. We found the timing (time of river entry) and duration of migration (time spent in freshwater and time spent at sea) to be repeatable within individuals across years. In addition, we identified two peaks in return migration timing; a group of summer-migrating fish, and a group of fall-migrating fish. At the time of first spawning, sea trout differed in size depending on how long the first marine phase was, but summer-migrating fish were smaller in all subsequent spawnings. Furthermore, summer-migrating fish had significantly better marine survival than fall-migrating fish.4. Our study suggests that the timing of arrival in freshwater is an important fitness-relevant trait, such that summer-migrating fish have decreased fitness but remain in somewhat safer conditions, while fall-migrating fish have increased fitness but are exposed to more risky conditions. Taken together, our findings suggest that migration timing and duration is determined via a trade-off between size and survival, which resulted in two evolutionary stable strategies.

A project which investigates the types of adversity most associated with substance use and the dimension of when these adverse experiences occur

Today, the Moroccan capital market presents significant financing opportunities for SMEs, whether to finance their investment or operating cycle. In addition to the advantages offered by the financial market, the listing on the stock exchange may involve constraints inducing explicit costs and others of an implicit nature that may influence the medium and long-term performance of the company introduced. This article aims to assess the impact of the IPO on the economic performance of SMEs. To this end, we examined the theoretical foundation of the agency, the signal, and the behavioral model of timing. By studying a sample of eight SMEs introduced on the stock exchange between 2004 and 2016, via an event study, it emerges that the companies in the sample outperformed the year before an IPO and underperformed after listing, except that this underperformance is not statistically significant.

Aims: Although different plant foraging responses to the two macronutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are well researched, the effect of timing of fertilizer application on root system architecture (RSA) remains largely unknown. We, therefore, aimed to understand how RSA of Hordeum vulgare L. responds to timing of N and P application. Methods: Plants were grown in rhizoboxes for 38 days in nutrient-poor soil and watered with nutrient solution, lacking either N or P, with the absent nutrient applied once either 2/3/4 weeks after sowing. Positive controls were continuously receiving N and P and a negative control receiving both N and P only after 3 weeks. We tracked root growth over time, measured plant biomass and nutrient uptake. Results: Late N application strongly reduced total root biomass and visible root length compared with continuous NP and late P application. Root mass fractions (total root biomass/total plant biomass) remained similar over all treatments, but relative allocation (% of total root biomass) was higher in lower depth with late N application. Shoot P concentrations remained relatively stable, but the plants receiving P later had higher N concentrations. Conclusions: Late N application had overall more negative effects on early plant growth compared with late P. We propose that future studies under field conditions should try to disentangle the effect of timing from the nutrient availability on RSA responses and hence ultimately plant performance.

Knowledge of the kinematics of young fencers is important when teaching fencing, but it has been minimally investigated in the literature, especially in young subjects, and further research is needed. Our aims were to assess whether anthropometric factors or kinematic factors are more closely related to lunge performance (speed and range of motion) in young fencers and to investigate gender differences in relation to kinematics. Fifteen fencers participated in this study (8 females and 7 males, age 12.9 ± 2.7 years, height 157.4 ± 15.1 cm, weight 49.7 ± 11.7 kg). Lunge kinematics and anthropometrics were collected with a 10-camera optoelectronic system. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, t-test, and simple regression were performed. Peak lunge velocity was mainly correlated with posterior knee extension (r = 0.56, p = 0.031). The lunge distance and mean hip velocity were mostly correlated with the fencers’ height (r = 0.85, p = 0.000 and r = 0.76, p = 0.001) and fat-free mass (r = 0.79, p = 0.000 and r = 0.73, p = 0.002). Young fencers use a lower limb-driven strategy to perform the lunge, while adults are reported to use an upper limb-driven strategy for the lunge attack. Linear and angular velocities and ranges of motion were lower in young fencers in comparison to those of adults. Based on these results, we suggest a different approach to teaching the lunge action in young foil fencers. The implications of our study are that when teaching the lunge technique to this age group, a different approach for males and females is not required, and that strength is not a discriminant physical quality for the correctness of performance.

The current study uses fMRI in combination with finger sequence production from memory to study the evolution of cortical sequence control across planning and execution phases. Multivariate pattern analysis is used to tease out the representation of finger order and timing in premotor, primary motor and parietal regions.

In this study, we will investigate how having limited response time and information about whether or not your fellow group members have already made a decision, affects volunteering in a one-round volunteer's dilemma.

In the field of verbal short-term memory (STM), numerous theoretical models have been proposed to explain how serial order information is processed and represented. Evidence suggests that serial order is represented through associations between items and a varying contextual signal coding the position of each item in a sequence, but the nature of this contextual signal is still a matter of debate (i.e., event-based vs. time-based varying signal). According to event-based models of serial order, the contextual signal coding serial order is not sensitive to temporal manipulations, as it is the case in irregularly timed sequences. Up to now, the study of the temporal factors influencing serial order STM has been limited to temporal grouping and temporal isolation effects. The goal of the present study is to specify in more detail the role played by temporal factors in serial order STM tasks. To accomplish this, we compared recall performance and error patterns for sequences presenting items at a regular or an irregular and unpredictable timing in three experiments. The results showed that irregular timing does not affect serial recall nor the pattern of errors. These data clearly favour the view that serial order in verbal STM is represented with event-based rather than time-based codes.

Comparative study

Online study exploring perception of asynchronous audiovisual speech and the relationship with responses on the autism spectrum quotient

Presenting items in a temporally structured manner during encoding leads to greater subsequent memory compared with when items are presented in an unstructured temporal framework (e.g., Jones & Ward, 2019; Thavabalasingam, O’Neil, Zeng, & Lee, 2016). Jones and Ward (2019) observed that presenting to-be-remembered objects in a rhythmic manner during encoding produced greater recognition compared with when objects were presented with arrhythmic onset timings, and memory-specific ERP components were differentially affected by rhythmic encoding – the FN400 old/new effect was unaffected by rhythmic encoding, while the late positive component (LPC) old/new effect was observed only for rhythmically encoded items. The Dynamic Attending Theory (DAT; Large & Jones, 1999) proposes that rhythms automatically entrain peaks of heightened attention that modulate the gain of sensory input, which provides a benefit to processing (encoding) stimuli presented in phase with the rhythm. This is in line with evidence that intrinsic brain oscillations entrain to external rhythms, aligning the neuronal firing such that stimuli presented in phase are at a processing advantage compared with those presented out of phase (Arnal & Giraud, 2012; Calderone, Lakatos, Butler, & Castellanos, 2014; Henry & Herrmann, 2014; Lakatos, Karmos, Mehta, Ulbert, & Schroeder, 2008). Given this, one would expect that presenting items out of synchrony with an entrained rhythm will be particularly detrimental to memory formation. This aim of this project is to test this hypothesis. A handful of recent studies have examined memory for items that were presented in and out of synchrony with rhythms, however, in all cases rhythm has been an irrelevant background feature. For example, Johndro, Jacobs, Patel, and Race, (2019) reported greater recognition of face stimuli that were presented in synchrony with a rhythmic auditory background beat during encoding, and Hickey, Merseal, Patel, and Race (2020) showed that enhanced neural tracking was associated with greater recognition of objects that appeared in-synchrony with an auditory background beat, compared to those that appeared out-of-synchrony. Here, we outline an experimental paradigm that allows us to explore how changes in the temporal structure of information presented during encoding effects subsequent recognition memory. Specifically, we aim to replicate previous findings showing that rhythmic presentation of stimuli enhances recognition. Second, we aim to test whether items presented out of synchrony with an ongoing rhythm during encoding effects subsequent recognition. Importantly, our paradigm allows us to also consider the underlying neural processes involved at encoding and recognition.

Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed pollutant. Its sub-lethal effects on reproduction of birds have been used as indicators of contamination and of potential demographic effects. However, studies typically used single endpoints that might not be representative of entire reproductive cycle. To estimate timing and net cumulative effects of Hg exposure under field conditions, we used observational data over 11 years from >1200 nests of great egrets breeding under temporally and spatially varying food availability and Hg exposures in the Florida Everglades. We collected measures of fish biomass and availability (>100 locations annually) and used four avian reproductive endpoints that represented the entire breeding cycle. We calculated net reproductive loss by adding estimated Hg effects on failures prior to egg laying, clutch size, hatching success and nestling survival in response to food availability and Hg exposure. To validate and assess results of the observational egret study, we ran the same analyses with data of captive breeding white ibises experimentally exposed to Hg with ad libitum food over 3 years. We found large (>50 %) reductions in great egret offspring with high Hg exposure (18 mug/g dw THg nestling feather, ~0.7 mug/g ww whole egg THg) and high food availability, and even larger reductions (up to 100 %) with high Hg exposure and low food. Timing and the relative contribution of different endpoints to overall reproductive failure varied with food availability. Failures prior to egg laying were relevant at all food availabilities and proportionally most important during high food availability (~70 % of total losses). Under high food, post-hatching failures increased moderately with increasing exposure (~10 % of total losses), and under low food, hatching failures became dominant (~50 % of total losses). Patterns of failure of captive white ibis fed ad libitum resembled those of great egrets under high food availability but differed in total magnitude. We suggest that, a) net reproductive effects of Hg in free-ranging animals are probably much higher than generally reported in studies using single endpoints, b) Hg effect sizes vary considerably among different endpoints and c) food availability is a strong driver of timing and net effects of Hg exposure. This work was supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (W912HZ-12-02-0007) and by grants of equipment from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Egret monitoring was performed under University of Florida IACUC permit 201708650. Fish sampling was supported by Cooperative Agreements W912HZ-11-2-0048 and W912HZ-16-2-0008 between Florida International University (FIU) and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and Contract 4600001083 between FIU and the South Florida Water Management District. Fish monitoring was performed under FIU IACUC permits including IACUC-08-004, -09-029, -10-026, 12-020, -13-060, and -16-033. Nestling ibises were collected from the field under Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission permit WX03527, which also allowed for their maintenance in captivity, and with a modification, re-release into the wild. Ibises were held in captivity under Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee permit D424-2006. Great egret picture in Fig. 1 was taken by J. A. Gonzalez-Oreja and used with his permission while the White Ibis image in the same figure was extracted from a picture downloaded from www.all-free-photos.com licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the ms.

Purpose of reviewCircadian rhythms, i.e., periodic oscillations in internal biological processes, modulate metabolic processes such as hormonal signalling, nutrient absorption, and xenobiotic detoxification. Meal timing is a strong entraining cue for peripheral clocks in various organs, and eating out of circadian phases can impair glucose, gastrointestinal, and muscle metabolism. Sleep/wake cycles and circadian rhythms are extremely disrupted during critical illness. Timing of nutritional support may help preserve circadian rhythms and improve post-Intensive Care Unit (ICU) recovery. This review summarises circadian disruptors during ICU admission and evaluates the potential benefits of intermittent feeding on metabolism and circadian rhythms.Recent findingsRhythmic expression of core clock genes becomes rapidly disturbed during critical illness and remains disturbed for weeks. Intermittent, bolus, and cyclic enteral feeding have been directly compared to routine continuous feeding, yet no benefits on glycaemic control, gastrointestinal tolerance, and muscle mass have been observed and impacts of circadian clocks remain untested.SummaryAligning timing of nutritional intake, physical activity, and/or medication with circadian rhythms are potential strategies to reset peripheral circadian rhythms and may enhance ICU recovery but is not proven beneficial yet. Therefore, selecting intermittent feeding over continuous feeding must be balanced against the pros and cons of clinical practice.

Almost all brain cells contain cilia, antennae-like microtubule-based organelles. Yet, the significance of cilia, once considered vestigial organelles, in the higher-order brain functions is unknown. Cilia act as a hub that senses and transduces environmental sensory stimuli to generate an appropriate cellular response. Similarly, the striatum, a brain structure enriched in cilia, functions as a hub that receives and integrates various types of environmental information to drive appropriate motor response. To understand cilia’s role in the striatum functions, we used loxP/Cre technology to ablate cilia from the dorsal striatum of male mice and monitored the behavioral consequences. Our results revealed an essential role for striatal cilia in the acquisition and brief storage of information, including learning new motor skills, but not in long-term consolidation of information or maintaining habitual/learned motor skills. A fundamental aspect of all disrupted functions was the “time perception/judgment deficit.” Furthermore, the observed behavioral deficits form a cluster pertaining to clinical manifestations overlapping across psychiatric disorders that involve the striatum functions and are known to exhibit timing deficits. Thus, striatal cilia may act as a calibrator of the timing functions of the basal ganglia-cortical circuit by maintaining proper timing perception. Our findings suggest that dysfunctional cilia may contribute to the pathophysiology of neuro-psychiatric disorders, as related to deficits in timing perception.

A design modification to an existing 3D-trenched pixel detector is proposed, aimed at animproved fabrication yield. The device concept is studied and its performance is evaluatedby TCAD simulations, in comparison to the existing one. Although the modified designfeatures a less uniform electric field distribution, it is still expected to yield a very good timingperformance and high radiation tolerance, also exploiting charge multiplication effects.

A general and flexible technique is proposed for sampling the complex envelope of a bandpass signal by using a nonuniformly interleaved two-channel analog-to-digital converter (TIADC). The signal is sampled directly without any demodulation operation, but the two sampling channels are not uniformly interleaved, since some TIADC timing offsets are rendered forbidden. The proposed complex envelope sampling scheme requires the implementation of two digital FIR filters and a discrete-time modulator. Quadrature sampling, a special case that assumes certain parameter relations, is investigated as an approximation technique. Computer simulations are presented and illustrate a -57dB mean-square error (MSE) can be achieved via quadrature approximation for sufficiently large filter orders.

AIM: To compare the outcomes between early surgery and late surgery for intermittent exotropia (IXT) with a Meta-analysis. METHODS: Scientific databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched prior to December 16, 2019. From this broad database search, we performed some Meta-analysis including eleven independent studies, to further evaluate the outcome(s) when comparing early versus late surgery for IXT. The boundaries between early and late surgery and the surgery methods were not inconsistent, so subgroup analyses were conducted by different boundaries of age at surgery and different surgical approaches. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated according to the random-effects model for high heterogeneity between studies. RESULTS: Eleven retrospective studies were included in this Meta-analysis. No significant difference between early and late surgery was observed for IXT patients (ORFirst follow-up= 0.88, 95%CI 0.53-1.44, P=0.61; ORFinal follow-up=1.48, 95%CI 0.94-2.31, P=0.09). However, sensitivity analysis performed by sequentially omitting individual studies showed that the final follow-up result was not stable. Subgroup analyses revealed that an earlier surgical procedure could lead to a better outcome in the 4-year boundary subgroup as well as the bilateral lateral rectus recession (BLR) subgroup for the final follow-up (OR4y=2.64, 95%CI 1.57-4.44, P=0.00; ORBLR=2.25, 95%CI 1.36-3.74, P=0.00). CONCLUSION: Early surgery for IXT provides a better long term follow-up outcome when patients are younger than 4 years old or choose the BLR surgical method.

Thanks to the improvement in mitral regurgitation (MR) diagnostic and therapeutic management, with the introduction of minimally invasive techniques which have considerably reduced the individual surgical risk, the optimization of the timing for MR “open” or percutaneous surgical treatment has become a main concern which has highly raised scientific interest. In fact, the current indications for intervention in MR, especially in asymptomatic patients, rely on echocardiographic criteria with high severity cut-offs that are fulfilled only when not only mitral valve apparatus but also the cardiac chambers’ structure and function are severely impaired, which results in poor benefits for post-operative clinical outcome. This led to the need of new indices to redefine the optimal surgical timing in these patients. Speckle tracking echocardiography provides early markers of cardiac dysfunction due to subtle myocardial impairment; therefore, it could offer pivotal information in this setting. In fact, left ventricular and left atrial strains have already shown evidence about their usefulness in recognizing MR impact not only on symptoms and quality of life but also on cardiovascular events and new-onset atrial fibrillation in these patients. Moreover, right ventricular strain could be used to identify those patients with advanced cardiac damage and different grades of right ventricular dysfunction, which entails higher risks for cardiac surgery that could overweigh surgical benefits. This review aims to describe the importance of reconsidering the timing of intervention in MR and to analyze the potential additive value of speckle tracking echocardiography in this clinical setting.

Purpose We aimed to assess whether home collection and increased time to semen processing are associated with altered sperm parameters, fertilization rates (FR), day 5 usable quality blastocyst development rates (D5-UQBR), or pregnancy rates (PR) in patients undergoing IVF/ICSI. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing IVF/ICSI before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (“clinic” collection, n = 119) and after COVID-19 (“home” collection, n = 125) at an academic fertility practice. Home collection occurred within 2 h of semen processing. Patient sperm parameters, FR (#2PN/MII), D5-UQBR (# transferable and freezable quality blastocysts/# 2PN), and PR in fresh transfer cycles were compared between clinic and home groups with t-tests. The association between time to processing on outcomes was assessed with regression modeling, controlling for potential confounders. Results Mean male age was 37.9 years in the clinic group and 37.2 years in the home group (p = 0.380). On average, men were abstinent for 3.0 days (SD 1.7) in the clinic group and 4.1 days (SD 5.4) in the home group (p = 0.028). Mean time to semen processing was 35.7 min (SD 9.4) in the clinic group and 82.6 min (SD 33.8) in the home group (p < 0.001). There was no association between collection location and increased time to processing on sperm motility, total motile count, FR, D5-UQBR, or PR. Conclusions Our data suggest that increased time to processing up to 2 h with home semen collection does not negatively impact sperm parameters or early IVF/ICSI outcomes.

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Successful translation of regenerative medicine projects to the clinic requires attention to the complex interaction of spatial and timing issues from manufacturing to clinical use. Wellcome Trust (WT218807/Z/19/Z, WT208198/Z/17/Z and WT219875/Z/19/Z); UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/P002943/1); Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2017-330).

The late Miocene deposits from core 3AGN2S04, located in the northern Caltanissetta Basin (Sicily), display the pre-Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) and the MSC events. The present study describes the entire core in terms of lithology, biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy and aims to enlighten the relationship between MSC evaporite cyclicity and astronomical forcing. The lithological and micro−/macro-paleontological descriptions document the MSC record, with Stage 1 (onset and Calcare di Base member), Stage 2 (Messinian Erosional Surface) and part of Stage 3 (Upper Gypsum and Lago Mare). Detailed micro-fossil analyses of the pre-evaporites reveal several biostratigraphic events that permit correlations to the well-dated Mediterranean planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphic zonation of the late Tortonian and Messinian. An integrated bio-cyclostratigraphic analysis allows bed-to-bed correlations of core 3AGN2S04 with the reference sections of Falconara/Gibliscemi (Sicily) and Sorbas (Spain), but also with various other sections from the Caltanissetta Basin. Our cyclostratigraphic correlations show a stratigraphical gap in the core between the late Tortonian Terravecchia Formation and the pre-evaporitic Messinian Tripoli Formation. This hiatus is probably related to the tectonically active geological setting of the northern Caltanissetta Basin. Finally, we show that the repercussions of the paleoenvironmental evolution towards evaporitic deposition and the MSC onset seem to have been diachronous throughout the various perched basins on Sicily characterized by different paleobathymetries. In particular, the onset of the Calcare di Base took place around 40–100 ka before the deposition of the first gypsum bed of the Primary Lower Gypsum units.