Common Trajectory Research Articles

Neuro-evolutionary evidence for a universal fractal primate brain shape.

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a universal multi-scale description of primate cortices. We show that all cortical shapes can be described as a set of nested folds of different sizes. As neighbouring folds are gradually merged, the cortices of 11 primate species follow a common scale-free morphometric trajectory, that also overlaps with over 70 other mammalian species. Our results indicate that all cerebral cortices are approximations of the same archetypal fractal shape with a fractal dimension of df = 2.5. Importantly, this new understanding enables a more precise quantification of brain morphology as a function of scale. To demonstrate the importance of this new understanding, we show a scale-dependent effect of ageing on brain morphology. We observe a more than fourfold increase in effect size (from two standard deviations to eight standard deviations) at a spatial scale of approximately 2 mm compared to standard morphological analyses. Our new understanding may, therefore, generate superior biomarkers for a range of conditions in the future.

Neuro-evolutionary evidence for a universal fractal primate brain shape

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a universal multi-scale description of primate cortices. We show that all cortical shapes can be described as a set of nested folds of different sizes. As neighbouring folds are gradually merged, the cortices of 11 primate species follow a common scale-free morphometric trajectory, that also overlaps with over 70 other mammalian species. Our results indicate that all cerebral cortices are approximations of the same archetypal fractal shape with a fractal dimension of df = 2.5. Importantly, this new understanding enables a more precise quantification of brain morphology as a function of scale. To demonstrate the importance of this new understanding, we show a scale-dependent effect of ageing on brain morphology. We observe a more than fourfold increase in effect size (from two standard deviations to eight standard deviations) at a spatial scale of approximately 2 mm compared to standard morphological analyses. Our new understanding may, therefore, generate superior biomarkers for a range of conditions in the future.

Assessing antidepressant exposure and response using UK electronic health record data

Objective and ApproachMany people do not respond to antidepressants and our poor mechanistic understanding of antidepressant response has hampered efforts to personalise treatment. Understanding how and when antidepressants work at an individual level requires real-world antidepressant exposure and response data, at scale. To date, studies have rarely had access to sufficiently detailed clinical data at the scales needed to derive such phenotypes and track them longitudinally. Indeed, many studies use research-based measures and phenotypes that are not commonly used in clinical settings, making translation to clinically-applicable tools difficult. This study aims to develop novel measures of antidepressant treatment exposure and response by capitalising on the variety and volume of UK clinical records. We identify cases of depression from national primary and secondary care records, and derive longitudinal antidepressant treatment episodes from national community dispensing data. ResultsFocusing on the Generation Scotland cohort (N = 21,000), we describe common antidepressant treatment trajectories and identify changes in medication, dose and strength. We examine the frequency of drug switching, augmentation, and drug stability, contrasting these to other UK linked cohorts. We also describe the demographic characteristics of those defined as treatment resistant and those identified as in drug maintenance. ConclusionsLinked electronic records provide the opportunity to track antidepressant exposure and response longitudinally. Changes in treatment can provide new measures that help to better understand treatment resistance and maintenance. ImplicationsBy better tracking antidepressant response, the present study helps inform mechanistic research to understand treatment effectiveness and ultimately to develop personalised treatments.

Trajectories of negative and positive marital quality during later life

This study aims to establish trajectories of later-life marital quality and assess predictors of trajectory membership. Although numerous studies examine marital quality across the early years of marriage, much less is known about older adults’ trajectories. Existing studies assess average patterns of stability or decline over the life course but have not explored the possibility of multiple trajectories during later life. This study uses nationally-representative data from the 2008–2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study ( https://www.hrs.isr.umich.edu ). Latent growth mixture models are estimated to identify unique trajectories of positive and negative dimensions of marital quality over an eight-year time period among a sample of adults aged 51 to 97 ( n = 4,467). Results show two distinct patterns of marital quality during later life: (1) high, slightly increasing positive marital quality with low, slightly declining negative marital quality; and (2) moderate, sharply declining positive marital quality with moderate, stable negative marital quality. Significant predictors of trajectory membership include gender, household income, marital duration, remarriage, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. Rather than patterns of stability or continual decline in marital quality over the later life course, we find the most common trajectory during later life is slight improvement. Only about 12% of older adults experience decline, and that decline is limited to the dimension of positive marital quality, with no uptick in negative marital quality.

Distinct trajectories of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the 12 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI): a TRACK-TBI study.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and often resolve within 3 months post-injury. However, the degree to which individual patients follow this course is unknown. We characterized trajectories of neuropsychiatric symptoms over 12 months post-TBI. We hypothesized that a substantial proportion of individuals would display trajectories distinct from the group-average course, with some exhibiting less favorable courses. Participants were level 1 trauma center patients with TBI (n = 1943), orthopedic trauma controls (n = 257), and non-injured friend controls (n = 300). Trajectories of six symptom dimensions (Depression, Anxiety, Fear, Sleep, Physical, and Pain) were identified using growth mixture modeling from 2 weeks to 12 months post-injury. Depression, Anxiety, Fear, and Physical symptoms displayed three trajectories: Stable-Low (86.2-88.6%), Worsening (5.6-10.9%), and Improving (2.6-6.4%). Among symptomatic trajectories (Worsening, Improving), lower-severity TBI was associated with higher prevalence of elevated symptoms at 2 weeks that steadily resolved over 12 months compared to all other groups, whereas higher-severity TBI was associated with higher prevalence of symptoms that gradually worsened from 3-12 months. Sleep and Pain displayed more variable recovery courses, and the most common trajectory entailed an average level of problems that remained stable over time (Stable-Average; 46.7-82.6%). Symptomatic Sleep and Pain trajectories (Stable-Average, Improving) were more common in traumatically injured groups. Findings illustrate the nature and rates of distinct neuropsychiatric symptom trajectories and their relationship to traumatic injuries. Providers may use these results as a referent for gauging typical v. atypical recovery in the first 12 months post-injury.

‘Firm but fair’? Migrant children’s rights through dramaturgy and nation branding in Norway and the UK

Applying nation branding literature and the work of Erving Goffman on dramaturgy to the situation of asylum-seeking children in Norway and in the UK, this paper develops a comparative framework for understanding why child rights appear to be de-prioritised in the current climate of ‘migration control’. The paper identifies historically grounded differential approaches towards child rights and children in the two countries, which currently appear to merge into a common trajectory of migration control, framed in terms of national security and economic productivity. It explores similar tensions in both countries between the discourses of national migration management on the one hand and children's welfare and rights on the other. It finds that universal rights which should protect the welfare of all children are limited and fragmented by ideas of nationalism and foreignness. Despite a more robust legal framework for child rights, Norway is on a similar pathway as the UK; a worrying indictment of how nations fulfil their obligations towards children.

Shared structure facilitates working memory of multiple sequences.

Daily experiences often involve the processing of multiple sequences, yet storing them challenges the limited capacity of working memory (WM). To achieve efficient memory storage, relational structures shared by sequences would be leveraged to reorganize and compress information. Here, participants memorized a sequence of items with different colors and spatial locations and later reproduced the full color and location sequences one after another. Crucially, we manipulated the consistency between location and color sequence trajectories. First, sequences with consistent trajectories demonstrate improved memory performance and a trajectory correlation between reproduced color and location sequences. Second, sequences with consistent trajectories show neural reactivation of common trajectories, and display spontaneous replay of color sequences when recalling locations. Finally, neural reactivation correlates with WM behavior. Our findings suggest that a shared common structure is leveraged for the storage of multiple sequences through compressed encoding and neural replay, together facilitating efficient information organization in WM.

Shared structure facilitates working memory of multiple sequences

Daily experiences often involve the processing of multiple sequences, yet storing them challenges the limited capacity of working memory (WM). To achieve efficient memory storage, relational structures shared by sequences would be leveraged to reorganize and compress information. Here, participants memorized a sequence of items with different colors and spatial locations and later reproduced the full color and location sequences one after another. Crucially, we manipulated the consistency between location and color sequence trajectories. First, sequences with consistent trajectories demonstrate improved memory performance and a trajectory correlation between reproduced color and location sequences. Second, sequences with consistent trajectories show neural reactivation of common trajectories, and display spontaneous replay of color sequences when recalling locations. Finally, neural reactivation correlates with WM behavior. Our findings suggest that a shared common structure is leveraged for the storage of multiple sequences through compressed encoding and neural replay, together facilitating efficient information organization in WM.

High-confidence calling of normal epithelial cells allows identification of a novel stem-like cell state in the colorectal cancer microenvironment.

Single-cell analyses can be confounded by assigning unrelated groups of cells to common developmental trajectories. For instance, cancer cells and admixed normal epithelial cells could adopt similar cell states thus complicating analyses of their developmental potential. Here, we develop and benchmark CCISM (for Cancer Cell Identification using Somatic Mutations) to exploit genomic single nucleotide variants for the disambiguation of cancer cells from genomically normal non-cancer cells in single-cell data. We find that our method and others based on gene expression or allelic imbalances identify overlapping sets of colorectal cancer versus normal colon epithelial cells, depending on molecular characteristics of individual cancers. Further, we define consensus cell identities of normal and cancer epithelial cells with higher transcriptome cluster homogeneity than those derived using existing tools. Using the consensus identities, we identify significant shifts of cell state distributions in genomically normal epithelial cells developing in the cancer microenvironment, with immature states increased at the expense of terminal differentiation throughout the colon, and a novel stem-like cell state arising in the left colon. Trajectory analyses show that the new cell state extends the pseudo-time range of normal colon stem-like cells in a cancer context. We identify cancer-associated fibroblasts as sources of WNT and BMP ligands potentially contributing to increased plasticity of stem cells in the cancer microenvironment. Our analyses advocate careful interpretation of cell heterogeneity and plasticity in the cancer context and the consideration of genomic information in addition to gene expression data when possible.

Hybrid Position and Force Control for Upper Limb Rehabilitation of Stroke Patient

This paper presents hybrid position and force control (HPFC) methodology for position and as well as force tracking for upper limb rehabilitation of stroke patients. Stroke is a leading cause of disability in humans. Traditional rehabilitative therapies help regain motor function and ameliorate impairment, but they depend on the therapist’s experience and require many therapists, which is cost-prohibitive. Most robotic tasks with high severity such as rehabilitation, demands an effective force as well as position control scheme to ensure the safe physical contact between the robot and its environment in this case the patient. Some rehabilitation robots have been developed to help stroke survivors recover motor function. In past robots used for upper-limb rehabilitation employed general control schemes such as proportional integral derivative. To overcome the problem of force tracking in rehabilitation, robots require modern control techniques. To mimic the human upper-limb, and universality of application, an end-effector based robot is used for this study. To ensure the convergence of position and force errors to zero extensive simulations are performed. Two of assistant modes passive and active assistive rehabilitation are considered. Most common rehabilitation trajectories horizontal reaching, and vertical reaching are selected as robot’s motion for both passive and active assistive activities. The mathematical model of robots’ kinematics, dynamics, alongside the proposed control scheme has been discussed in detail.

Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Gas Consumption in England and Wales: Assessing the Residential Sector Using Sequence Analysis

The UK residential sector is energy inefficient and has an overwhelming reliance on natural gas as a heating source. For the UK to meet its 2050 net zero obligations, the sector will need to go through a process of decarbonisation. Previous studies acknowledge the spatial disparities of household energy consumption, but have neglected how consumption varies over time. This paper advances such shortcomings via a sequence and clustering analysis to identify common gas consumption trajectories within neighbourhoods in England and Wales between 2010 and 2020. Four clusters are identified: “Very High to High Consumption”; “High to Medium Consumption”; “Medium to Low Consumption” and “Low to Very Low Consumption”. The clusters were contextualised using spatial datasets representing the socio-economic and built environment. Across all clusters, the proportion of energy inefficient dwellings were high, but there was a trend of high consumption associated with lower proportions of energy efficient dwellings. The results provide useful insight to policy makers and practitioners about where best to target electrification and retrofitting measures to facilitate a cleaner and more equitable residential sector. Policy targeting of areas with continual high gas consumption will accelerate the decarbonisation process, whilst targeting areas who continually under consume will likely enhance household health and well-being.

The three axioms of resilience.

This article summarizes the growing literature on resilience in the face of aversive and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) in three basic axioms: (a) resilience is a common outcome, 2) there are no "key" traits to resilience (resilience is not a type), and (c) resilient outcomes occur through flexible self-regulation. The first axiom highlights the limitation of a traditional, binary view of trauma in terms of the presence-absence of posttraumatic stress disorder, emphasizing instead the heterogeneity of trauma outcomes. Four prototypical trajectories are reviewed: chronic symptoms; delayed symptoms; recovery; and the most common trajectory, resilience. The second axiom reviews the paradoxical inability of known correlates of resilience to adequately predict resilient outcomes. Resilience is instead described as a multifaceted phenomenon with no singular set of key traits, as various factors contribute to resilient outcomes in complex ways. The third axiom provides an explanation of how resilience can emerge from this complex array by introducing the concept of flexible self-regulation. The flexibility mindset is described as providing the motivation for flexible responding. The flexibility sequence is described as explaining the mechanisms underlying flexibility in terms of three serial stages: context sensitivity, strategy repertoire, and feedback adjustment. The final section briefly considers clinical implications.

Feasibility of using simple diet self-assessment tool (SDSAT) to establish trajectory of dietary intake for patients undergoing chemotherapy.

e13805 Background: Chemotherapy is often accompanied by impaired dietary intake, which is associated with poor clinical outcomes without effective intervention. Predicting dietary changes during chemotherapy enables early nutritional support, but the dynamic pattern and interindividual variability in dietary intake during chemotherapy remain unclear. Our aim was thus to assess the feasibility of using the Simple Diet Self-Assessment Tool (SDSAT) to establish dietary intake trajectories in patients receiving chemotherapy. Methods: This study used data from an ongoing, prospective cohort study (Patient-Reported Outcome Management Including Surveillance and Intervention in Nutritional Group) of patients receiving chemotherapy in 2021 and 2022. Diet was assessed using the SDSAT once before the treatment and at least three times during one chemotherapy cycle. We applied a group-based trajectory model to identify trajectories of dietary intake. The 24-hour dietary recall (24HR) was used to verify the validity of energy and protein intake estimated by SDSAT; compliance with SDSAT was also assessed. Results: Five trajectory groups were identified for food intake based on 217 entries by 56 patients. The compliance rate accounted for 81.11% for ≥4 cumulative responses per cycle. The agreement between the SDSAT score and the dietary energy and protein intake estimated from 24HR was high (κ: 0.888–1.0, P<0.001). Groups 1 and 2 had significantly lower dietary energy/protein intake than Groups 4 and 5 (P<0.001) but with distinct dietary patterns. Group 4 was the most common dietary trajectory (35.10%). Furthermore, Groups 1, 2, and 3 had significantly weaker handgrip strength (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02–1.22, P=0.016) compared with Groups 4 and 5. Conclusions: SDSAT was feasible to establish dietary trajectories during one chemotherapy cycle. Longitudinal analysis highlights the interindividual differences in dietary intake patterns among patients receiving chemotherapy and may help to inform proactive and individually tailored nutritional interventions.

Common carotid artery inima-media thickness trajectories over time are more strongly associated with incident cardiovascular disease than a one off measurement

Common carotid artery inima-media thickness trajectories over time are more strongly associated with incident cardiovascular disease than a one off measurement

Investigating positive reading trajectories among children who experienced out-of-home care

BackgroundChildren who experience out-of-home care (OOHC) often have low academic achievement which subsequently negatively affects their adult life outcomes, yet a smaller proportion succeed in spite of adversity. Scant research has examined the trajectories of children who achieve well in school and factors associated with positive educational outcomes. Objectives(1) Describe the reading trajectories from Year 3 to Year 7 of school of children who experienced OOHC, with a focus on higher achievement and improving trajectories. (2) Identify child, carer and placement characteristics plus supports and services associated with positive reading trajectories among children who have experienced OOHC. Participants and settingThe study included 325 children from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS) in New South Wales, Australia. MethodsThe POCLS is a prospective cohort study including linked survey data and administrative child protection and education data. Group based trajectory modeling (GBTM) was used to identify and describe common trajectories of reading achievement. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with different reading trajectories. ResultsGBTM revealed three reading trajectories among non-Aboriginal children, and two among Aboriginal children. A high achieving group (12% of non-Aboriginal children) were the only trajectory group to maintain their level of achievement across the study. Improving achievement was rare, while falling behind over time was common across achievement levels. ConclusionsResults point to the need for early intervention supporting school readiness and catch-up growth, with ongoing interventions for children who experience OOHC to prevent declining student outcomes across achievement levels and extend talented students.

Дундад үеийн монгол хэлний үгийн дундаас сулран сугарсан гийгүүлэгчийг ханз үсгээр тэмдэглэсэн нь

This article explores how the velar fricative γ/g, through intervocalic consonant lenition in Middle Mongolian, found representation in the written monuments of Mongolian recorded in Chinese scripts from that time. First and foremost, our work pays attention to the alignment between the Mongolian syllable structure and their corresponding transcription of Chinese Characters. Additionally, we delve into the problem of the actual pronunciation of the Chinese characters used to denote these consonants, referencing the “Rhyme Book” (韻書). Among the significant phonetic evolutions in Mongolian, the lengthening of the vowel following the fricative consonant γ/g was observed, leading to a gradual lenition and eventual disappearance of the preceding consonant. This process caused the consonant to morph into variants like the weak pharyngeal fricative -h-, weak labial fricative -w-, or palatal fricative -y-, until finally reducing to a weak exhalation affecting only the two neighboring vowels. This transformation was determined according to the common trajectory of phoneme development, and was analyzed through texts such as the “Secret History of Mongols” and other 14-15th century documents written in Chinese characters, namely “Zhi-yuan Yi-yu” (至元譯語), “Hua-yi Yi-yu” (華夷譯語), and “Bei-lu Yi-yu” (北虜譯語). This study highlights the transcription methods for the weakened consonants of Middle Mongolian, referencing the “Rhyme Book” (韻書).

Developmental maturation of millimeter-scale functional networks across brain areas.

Interacting with the environment to process sensory information, generate perceptions, and shape behavior engages neural networks in brain areas with highly varied representations, ranging from unimodal sensory cortices to higher-order association areas. Recent work suggests a much greater degree of commonality across areas, with distributed and modular networks present in both sensory and non-sensory areas during early development. However, it is currently unknown whether this initially common modular structure undergoes an equally common developmental trajectory, or whether such a modular functional organization persists in some areas-such as primary visual cortex-but not others. Here we examine the development of network organization across diverse cortical regions in ferrets of both sexes using in vivo widefield calcium imaging of spontaneous activity. We find that all regions examined, including both primary sensory cortices (visual, auditory, and somatosensory-V1, A1, and S1, respectively) and higher order association areas (prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices) exhibit a largely similar pattern of changes over an approximately 3 week developmental period spanning eye opening and the transition to predominantly externally-driven sensory activity. We find that both a modular functional organization and millimeter-scale correlated networks remain present across all cortical areas examined. These networks weakened over development in most cortical areas, but strengthened in V1. Overall, the conserved maintenance of modular organization across different cortical areas suggests a common pathway of network refinement, and suggests that a modular organization-known to encode functional representations in visual areas-may be similarly engaged in highly diverse brain areas.

Contributions of Coping Flexibility and Associated Functional Brain Connectivity to Resilient Trajectories of Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge for individual mental health. In this study, we examined the lasting impact of the pandemic on mental health among Chinese college students and tested whether different coping dimensions contributed to resilience. Using a 2-year longitudinal design with four waves, we identified four common trajectories for individuals’ levels of depression and anxiety: resilient, recovered, delayed, and chronic. With prepandemic coping and resting-state neuroimaging data as predictors, we found that coping flexibility and corresponding connectivity patterns significantly predicted increased odds ratios of resilient trajectories for depression and anxiety. However, use of specific emotion-regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) did not predict resilient trajectories. Overall, findings help to identify heterogeneity in emotional trajectories during the pandemic and indicate that coping flexibility plays a critical role in resilience. This work has implications for clinical-risk identification and developing mental-health interventions for the current pandemic and future crises.

A movement-aware measure for trajectory similarity and its application for ride-sharing path extraction in a road network

Recognizing common travel paths of crowds in a road network is valuable for understanding human mobility patterns and developing intelligent ride-sharing services. To achieve this, it is critical to measure the similarity of their trajectories. Although many measures have been proposed in the past decades, they often ignore movement consistency, exhibit one or more deficiencies in the face of noise and misaligned trajectories, or require extra parameters to tune predictions. In this paper, we propose an improved similarity measure called the directed segment path distance (DSPD), which considers the spatial proximity and movement consistency of trajectories. By integrating the spatial proximity distance and moving direction similarity between trajectories, the DSPD is a competitive parameter-free similarity measure that can effectively distinguish trajectories with different movement characteristics. To verify the effectiveness of the DSPD, we conducted a quantitative comparative study between the DSPD measure and 11 state-of-the-art trajectory similarity measures on six simulated trajectory datasets and applied the DSPD to two typical application scenarios: trajectory clustering for road network generation and retrieving common trajectories for ride-sharing path planning. The results demonstrate the effectiveness, robustness, and superiority of the DSPD and its great potential in trajectory search, clustering, and classification.

A modified Kushner-Moore approach to characterising small-scale blender performance impact on tablet compaction

Continuous Direct Compaction (CDC) has emerged as a promising route towards producing solid dosage forms while reducing material, development time and energy consumption. Understanding the response of powder processing unit operations, especially blenders, is crucial. There is a substantial body of work around how lubrication via batch blender operation affects tablet critical quality attributes such as hardness and tensile strength. But, aside from being batch operations, the design of these blenders is such that they operate with low-shear, low-intensity mixing at Froude number values significantly below 0.4 (Froude number Fr being the dimensionless ratio of inertial to gravitational forces). The present work explores the performance of a mini-blender which has a fundamentally different mode of operation (static vessel with rotating blades around a mixing shaft as opposed to rotating vessel with no mixing shaft). This difference allows a substantially wider operating range in terms of speed and shear (and Fr values). The present work evaluates how its performance compares to other blenders studied in the literature. Tablet compaction data from blends produced at various intensities and regimes of mixing in the mini-blender follow a common trajectory. Model equations from literature are suitably modified by inclusion of the Froude number Fr, but only for situations where the Froude number was sufficiently high (1 < Fr). The results suggest that although a similar lubrication extent plateau is eventually reached it is the intensity of mixing (i.e. captured using the Froude number as a surrogate) which is important for the lubrication dynamics in the mini-blender, next to the number of revolutions. The degree of fill or headspace, on the other hand, is only crucial to the performance of common batch blenders. Testing using alternative formulations shows the same common trend across mixing intensities, suggesting the validity of the approach to capture lubrication dynamics for this system.