Deep Dives Research Articles

Exploring Horizons: Publish with us to Impact Surgery

Impact Surgery aims to expand options for authors of surgical research, with a fast, flexible platform that can offer deep dives on a wide range of surgical topics. It aims to be crosscutting across all surgical and perioperative disciplines, appealing to the generality of surgery. Our goal is to be inclusive of ethnicity, gender, income status, and other markers of diversity.

Learning From International Comparators of National Medical Imaging Initiatives for AI Development: Multiphase Qualitative Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic drove investment and research into medical imaging platforms to provide data to create artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for the management of patients with COVID-19. Building on the success of England's National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database, the national digital policy body (NHSX) sought to create a generalized national medical imaging platform for the development, validation, and deployment of algorithms. This study aims to understand international use cases of medical imaging platforms for the development and implementation of algorithms to inform the creation of England's national imaging platform. The National Health Service (NHS) AI Lab Policy and Strategy Team adopted a multiphased approach: (1) identification and prioritization of national AI imaging platforms; (2) Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (PESTLE) factor analysis deep dive into national AI imaging platforms; (3) semistructured interviews with key stakeholders; (4) workshop on emerging themes and insights with the internal NHSX team; and (5) formulation of policy recommendations. International use cases of national AI imaging platforms (n=7) were prioritized for PESTLE factor analysis. Stakeholders (n=13) from the international use cases were interviewed. Themes (n=8) from the semistructured interviews, including interview quotes, were analyzed with workshop participants (n=5). The outputs of the deep dives, interviews, and workshop were synthesized thematically into 8 categories with 17 subcategories. On the basis of the insights from the international use cases, policy recommendations (n=12) were developed to support the NHS AI Lab in the design and development of the English national medical imaging platform. The creation of AI algorithms supporting technology and infrastructure such as platforms often occurs in isolation within countries, let alone between countries. This novel policy research project sought to bridge the gap by learning from the challenges, successes, and experience of England's international counterparts. Policy recommendations based on international learnings focused on the demonstrable benefits of the platform to secure sustainable funding, validation of algorithms and infrastructure to support in situ deployment, and creating wraparound tools for nontechnical participants such as clinicians to engage with algorithm creation. As health care organizations increasingly adopt technological solutions, policy makers have a responsibility to ensure that initiatives are informed by learnings from both national and international initiatives as well as disseminating the outcomes of their work.

Rapture of the deep: gas narcosis may impair decision-making in scuba divers.

While gas narcosis is familiar to most divers conducting deep (> 30 metres) dives, its effects are often considered minuscule or subtle at 30 metres. However, previous studies have shown that narcosis may affect divers at depths usually considered safe from its influence, but little knowledge exists on the effects of gas narcosis on higher cognitive functions such as decision-making in relatively shallow water at 30 metres. Impaired decision-making could be a significant safety issue for a multitasking diver. We conducted a study exploring the effects of gas narcosis on decision-making in divers breathing compressed air underwater. The divers (n = 22) were evenly divided into 5-metre and 30-metre groups. In the water, we used underwater tablets equipped with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a well-known psychological task used to evaluate impairment in decision-making. The divers at 30 metres achieved a lower score (mean 1,584.5, standard deviation 436.7) in the IGT than the divers at 5 metres (mean 2,062.5, standard deviation 584.1). Age, body mass index, gender, or the number of previous dives did not affect performance in the IGT. Our results suggest that gas narcosis may affect decision-making in scuba divers at 30 metres depth. This supports previous studies showing that gas narcosis is present at relatively shallow depths and shows that it may affect higher cognitive functions.

Magnets to Adversaries—An Analysis of the Attacks on Public Cloud Servers

Security adversaries are always constantly looking for targets to exploit. The mechanism of exploitation used by security adversaries varies significantly. Many focus on easy compromises as mere pivots to extend their attacks from these exploited systems to continue accomplishing their original goals. The cloud environment is a highly susceptible target for adversaries and provides a solid mechanism for observing adversary behavior. The sheer volume of attacks on the cloud provides insights into the attacker’s objectives and attack patterns, which can be leveraged for protecting infrastructure. This work deep dives into the practices used by adversaries on the commonly exposed protocols in the Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platforms. A robust honeypot model is documented that compares attacker behavior across various ports and protocols running in multiple cloud environments. This work illustrates that adversary activity is highly versatile in the public cloud environment, with an average of 700 new and unique IP addresses found attacking honeypot infrastructure daily. Further, this article illustrates the security safeguards a typical organization can leverage to mitigate the threats from these adversaries constantly probing insecure targets on the cloud platform.

Developing digital team ethnography of global media events on social media

The live character of suddenly breaking global media events along with the massive volume of digital traces they produce pose considerable challenges for research in the current communication environment. In this methodological article, we use the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks as an empirical context for methodological reflection. We suggest a new type of ethnographic investigation of events—a digital team ethnography augmented by computational methods for studying media events. We show how “fieldwork” and the related “field” are constructed as part of the empirical workflow and present a four-phase model to structure the research process: (1) research readiness, (2) mobilization of fieldwork, (3) exploring the computationally organized ethnographic field, and (4) deep dives that enable thick description on social media. We conclude with a reflection on the benefits and limitations of the proposed methodological approach for the study of global media events.

Quantifying Self-Noise of the Seaglider AUV Using a Passive Acoustic Monitor

Abstract The Seaglider, a type of underwater glider, is a relatively quiet vehicle in comparison with propelled autonomous underwater vehicles, making it a desirable acoustic receiving platform. Vehicle operations, such as pumping/bleeding oil to change buoyancy, shifting/rotating the battery to change pitch/roll, and oceanographic data collection, do, however, produce some self-noise. This system performance study analyzes the prevalence, frequency content, duration, and levels of self-noise associated with vehicle operations using data collected with a passive acoustic monitoring system mounted on the body of a Seaglider vehicle. Guidance and control functions, including pitch, roll, and buoyancy changes, were the major source of platform noise, producing broadband noise ranging from less than a second to over 3 min in duration, with sound pressure levels of 120‐145.5 dB re 1μPa. Frequencies below 10 kHz were the most impacted by self-noise, with a maximum 1/3 octave level of 137.5 dB re 1μPa in the 2.5kHz band caused by the pumping of oil in the variable buoyancy device. Guidance and control changes occurred during 4%‐13% of the dive for dives greater than 500 m. The bulk of these operations, however, were performed near the surface and apogee of the dive and typically affected only about 6% of the dive cycle duration for deep dives.

Composition of cetacean communities worldwide shapes their contribution to ocean nutrient cycling

Defecation by large whales is known to fertilise oceans with nutrients, stimulating phytoplankton and ecosystem productivity. However, our current understanding of these processes is limited to a few species, nutrients and ecosystems. Here, we investigate the role of cetacean communities in the worldwide biological cycling of two major nutrients and six trace nutrients. We show that cetaceans release more nutrients in mesotrophic to eutrophic temperate waters than in oligotrophic tropical waters, mirroring patterns of ecosystem productivity. The released nutrient cocktails also vary geographically, driven by the composition of cetacean communities. The roles of small cetaceans, deep diving cetaceans and baleen whales differ quantitatively and functionally, with contributions of small cetaceans and deep divers exceeding those of large whales in some areas. The functional diversity of cetacean communities expands beyond their role as top predators to include their role as active nutrient vectors, which might be equally important to local ecosystem dynamics.

A sperm whale cautionary tale about estimating acoustic cue rates for deep divers.

Passive acoustic density estimation has been gaining traction in recent years. Cue counting uses detected acoustic cues to estimate animal abundance. A cue rate, the number of acoustic cues produced per animal per unit time, is required to convert cue density into animal density. Cue rate information can be obtained from animal borne acoustic tags. For deep divers, like beaked whales, data have been analyzed considering deep dive cycles as a natural sampling unit, based on either weighted averages or generalized estimating equations. Using a sperm whale DTAG (sound-and-orientation recording tag) example we compare different approaches of estimating cue rate from acoustic tags illustrating that both approaches used before might introduce biases and suggest that the natural unit of analysis should be the whole duration of the tag itself.

What is 'agency' in torture and trauma recovery? An inquiry into the properties and explanations of the concept of agency and it's impacts.

This paper presents learnings from trauma recovery mechanisms and social movements from around the world relating to a survivor's role and as such- their agency. It unpacks various conceptual frameworks as possible alternative, effective and strategic pathways in torture rehabilitation. Ongoing and new challenges such as resourcing, cultural adaptability limitations, lack of access to services and inhumane foreign policies pose barriers to established systems that render some practices inadequate in terms of meaningful service delivery or social impact for torture survivors (Wheildon et al., 2022, p. 1689). It is well documented that "Torture aims to dehumanise survivors through calculated acts of cruelty to remove the survivors' dignity and make them powerless." (Luci and Di Rado, 2020, p. 3). As such this paper deliberately straddles multiple thematic fields, all grappling with relatable notions of restoring power or agency to survivors. At the risk of discursiveness into fields beyond torture rehabilitation then, this paper aims to showcase and learn from other successful movements. It also invites you as the reader into this discourse of inquiry and self-reflection, in order to counter the ten- dency of assuming a prescriptive, blanket (or blank) meaning of survivor engagement activities. Its findings suggest the manifestation of bespoke programming according to context and survivors' needs. It does not suggest a systematic overhaul, but rather a shift of incremental and cumulative changes that are recognised as advantageous. This paper deep dives into theories on agency, looking firstly at the broader archetypes that provide commonality and structure before then exploring particularities from different contexts. Implications for practice are then discussed, with nuances drawn out from the findings.

A Brief History of the Progress of Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals in Europe

Abstract The progress of additive manufacturing (AM) within the last few decades has been phenomenal, progressing from a polymeric technique to a method for manufacturing metallic aerospace components. We take a look at various technological advances which have helped paved the way for this growth, focussing on European input, as currently, 54% of AM machines are sold by European manufacturers (Wohlers, Campbell, Diegel, Kowen, Mostow, and Fidan, 2022, “Wohlers Report 2022: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Global State of the Industry,” Wohlers Associates, ASTM International, Fort Collins, Colo., Washington, DC). We take deep dives into several critical topics including sensing and monitoring, preheating, and multi-laser technology and illustrate how these develop from research ideas into industrial products. Finally, an outlook is provided, highlighting the topics currently gaining research traction, and which are expected to be the next key breakthroughs.

Stuck in a corner: Anthropogenic noise threatens narwhals in their once pristine Arctic habitat.

Niche-conservative species are especially susceptible to changes in their environment, and detecting the negative effects of new stressors in their habitats is vital for safeguarding of these species. In the Arctic, human disturbance including marine traffic and exploration of resources is increasing rapidly due to climate change-induced reduction of sea ice. Here, we show that the narwhal, Monodon monoceros, is extremely sensitive to human-made noise. Narwhals avoided deep diving (> 350 m) with simultaneous reduction of foraging and increased shallow diving activity as a response to either ship sound alone or ship sound with concurrent seismic airgun pulses. Normal behavior decreased by 50 to 75% at distances where received sound levels were below background noise. Narwhals were equally responsive to both disturbance types, hence demonstrating their acute sensitivity to ship sound. This sensitivity coupled with their special behavioral-ecological strategy including a narrow ecological niche and high site fidelity makes them thus especially vulnerable to human impacts in the Arctic.

Intizar Hussain: The Master of Urdu-Hindi Civilization

Intizar Hussain was a fiction writer with a novel use of symbolic and metaphorical styles, but for all his retrospect and escapism and denial of the future, his writings have a strange poignancy and beauty. It has the same charm one feels in old buildings on moonlit nights. Besides being a respected name in Urdu fiction, he was a great challenge to the pioneer fiction writers due to his style and changing tones. The atmosphere of his writings echoes the stories of the past. Regret, rememberance of past , love of the classics, nostalgia for the past, lamenting the past and seeking refuge in tradition are very prominent here. In many places, the style and tone become harsh in expressing the sadness and expression of the disintegration of the old values ​​and the superficial and sentimental nature of the new values. He also made the mythological trend a part of his writings. Extensive study is also required to find out the mysteries of their legends. A special kind of tension regarding migration is ongoing with Intizar Hussain. He could not logically separate himself from this situation. He was not interested in the external structure of life, but he cared about the condition that was faced inwardly. This is the deep diving and stylistic diversity of Intar Hussain. But they also call it intellectual and visual backwardness. In such a case, they declare the moral struggle of the individual as meaningless. This thematic and stylistic level is where Intizar Hussain seems to enter the foreground of fiction.

Deep dives and high tissue density increase mean dive costs in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus).

Diving is central to the foraging strategies of many marine mammals and seabirds. Still, the effect of dive depth on foraging cost remains elusive because energy expenditure is difficult to measure at fine temporal scales in wild animals. We used depth and acceleration data from eight lactating California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) to model body density and investigate the effect of dive depth and tissue density on rates of energy expenditure. We calculated body density in 5 s intervals from the rate of gliding descent. We modeled body density across depth in each dive, revealing high tissue densities and diving lung volumes (DLVs). DLV increased with dive depth in four individuals. We used the buoyancy calculated from dive-specific body-density models and drag calculated from swim speed to estimate metabolic power and cost of transport in 5 s intervals during descents and ascents. Deeper dives required greater mean power for round-trip vertical transit, especially in individuals with higher tissue density. These trends likely follow from increased mean swim speed and buoyant hinderance that increasingly outweighs buoyant aid in deeper dives. This suggests that deep diving is either a 'high-cost, high-reward' strategy or an energetically expensive option to access prey when prey in shallow waters are limited, and that poor body condition may increase the energetic costs of deep diving. These results add to our mechanistic understanding of how foraging strategy and body condition affect energy expenditure in wild breath-hold divers.

Fake news as systematically distorted communication: an LIS intervention

PurposeThe broader analytical framing of systematically distorted communication (SDC) helps extract value out of the enormous amount of scholarship on fake news.Design/methodology/approachThe massive literature on fake news has been the subject of handbook overviews, systematic literature reviews, summaries, taxonomies, citation studies and so on. Deploying these tools, the approaches that the literature takes can be characterized, Habermas' concept of systematically distorted communication (SDC) will then be presented in its context, reviewed and put to work to frame fake news research to tell us new things that individual pieces of specific analysis and research do not. Conclusions will be offered from this analysis.FindingsFake news research has become repetitive, revolving around themes such as the fate of journalism, the role of technology, remediating its effects and deep dives into definitional components (disinformation, misinformation, lies and so on). A broader framing of systematically distorted communication allows us to arrive at some conclusions about contemporary fake news: that it is a power strategy with a particular right-wing slant and it creates a sociology – that is, its own interpretive environment – hostile to democratic functioning. It answers the question: what is fake news for?Originality/valueA perspective on fake news research is much needed and Habermas' concept is a useful framing mechanism for the large corpus of research. Systematically distorted communication asks – and answers – different questions of the research. Meanwhile, SDC itself is modified by its application to fake news research and contemporary conditions.

Reflections and Thoughts on the Future of Science From AGU Hydrology Section Fellows

AbstractAt the inaugural Frontiers in Hydrology Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the summer of 2022, the Hydrology Section organized a poster session and invited our 2020 and 2021 Classes of AGU Fellows, with the initial goal of both celebrating their careers as well as to provide an opportunity for an informal exchange and connection between the section's early career members and our more senior and established scientists and engineers. Due to the challenges of time zones, virtual poster presentations and other logistics, the formal poster session was adjourned but continued as a hybrid “meet‐up” with six of our Section's Fellows (Suzanne Anderson, Paul Brooks, Aaron Packman, Remko Uijlenhoet, Andrew Western, and Xubin Zeng) from around the world. As you will see, what started as an informal chat quickly took deep dives into pressing issues in our section and science in general, including thoughts on how our community values (or in some cases doesn't value) multi‐ and interdisciplinary accomplishments, critiques of our system of rewards and awards including how we assess publication impacts and finally, a frank and honest discussion of our current efforts to diversify our community and where/why are we still failing. We hope that by sharing this open and impromptu dialogue that these discussions can expand to our entire community, and to encourage future Fellows exchanges such as this to reach our entire community of scientists and engineers.

Deep diving by offshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.)

AbstractWe used satellite‐linked tags to evaluate dive behavior in offshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) near the island of Bermuda. The data provide evidence that bottlenose dolphins commonly perform both long (>272 s) and deep (>199 m) dives, with the deepest and longest dives being to 1,000 m and 826 s (13.8 min), respectively. The data show a relationship between dive duration and dive depth for dives longer than about 272 s. There was a diurnal pattern to dive behavior, with most dives deeper than 50 m being performed at night; deep diving began at sunset and varied throughout the night. We used the cumulative frequency of dive duration to estimate a behavioral aerobic dive limit (bADL) of around 560–666 s (9.3–11.1 min) in adult dolphins in this population. Dives exceeding the bADL spent significantly longer time in the upper‐most 50 m following a dive as compared with dives less than the bADL. We conclude that the offshore ecotype off Bermuda, unlike the shallow‐diving near‐shore bottlenose dolphin, is a deep‐diving ecotype, and may provide a useful animal model to study extreme diving behavior and adaptations.

Unlocking the depths: multiple factors contribute to risk for hypoxic blackout during deep freediving

PurposeTo examine the effect of freediving depth on risk for hypoxic blackout by recording arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) during deep and shallow dives in the sea.MethodsFourteen competitive freedivers conducted open-water training dives wearing a water-/pressure proof pulse oximeter continuously recording HR and SpO2. Dives were divided into deep (> 35 m) and shallow (10–25 m) post-hoc and data from one deep and one shallow dive from 10 divers were compared.ResultsMean ± SD depth was 53 ± 14 m for deep and 17 ± 4 m for shallow dives. Respective dive durations (120 ± 18 s and 116 ± 43 s) did not differ. Deep dives resulted in lower minimum SpO2 (58 ± 17%) compared with shallow dives (74 ± 17%; P = 0.029). Overall diving HR was 7 bpm higher in deep dives (P = 0.002) although minimum HR was similar in both types of dives (39 bpm). Three divers desaturated early at depth, of which two exhibited severe hypoxia (SpO2 ≤ 65%) upon resurfacing. Additionally, four divers developed severe hypoxia after dives.ConclusionsDespite similar dive durations, oxygen desaturation was greater during deep dives, confirming increased risk of hypoxic blackout with increased depth. In addition to the rapid drop in alveolar pressure and oxygen uptake during ascent, several other risk factors associated with deep freediving were identified, including higher swimming effort and oxygen consumption, a compromised diving response, an autonomic conflict possibly causing arrhythmias, and compromised oxygen uptake at depth by lung compression possibly leading to atelectasis or pulmonary edema in some individuals. Individuals with elevated risk could likely be identified using wearable technology.

“Breath holding” as a thermoregulation strategy in the deep-diving scalloped hammerhead shark

Fish moving between different thermal environments experience heat exchange via conduction through the body wall and convection from blood flow across the gills. We report a strategy of preventing convective heat loss at the gills during excursions into deep, cold water by the tropical scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphryna lewini). Adult scalloped hammerhead sharks dive rapidly and repeatedly from warm (~26°C) surface waters to depths exceeding 800 meters with temperatures as low as 5°C. Biologgers attached to adult sharks show that warm muscle temperatures were maintained throughout the deepest portion of each dive. Substantive cooling only occurred during the latter stages of the ascent phase and, once initiated, was rapid. Heat transfer coefficient modeling indicated that convective heat transfer was suspended, probably by suppressing gill function during deep dives. This previously unobserved strategy has broad similarities to marine mammal "breath hold" diving.

Physiological and behavioral responses of northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) to global change among three northern California rookeries

The California coast provides a unique study system for investigating the effects of warming and habitat quality on the thermoregulatory capacity of the northern elephant seal (NES). In California, island rookeries such as the offshore site at the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge are experiencing habitat loss and reduced suitable haul-out surfaces due to erosion from storm events. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity with global change. Semi-aquatic animals face a unique thermal challenge. They possess adaptations to conserve heat when immersed in cold water during deep dives but must compensate for such heat-conserving properties of their physiology when transitioning to heat exposure on land. Therefore, these animals must precisely thermoregulate with physiological and behavioral adjustments across a broad thermal range. We investigated how environmental variables affect seal thermoregulation at three northern California rookeries, the southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE) and Año Nuevo State Park (ANSP). Infrared thermography was used to determine seal skin surface temperature and weather data was collected at each site. We found that average surface temperature increases with solar radiation, maximum surface temperature decreases with increasing wind speed, and thermal window area percentage decreases with relative humidity and increases with ambient temperature. Climatic variation may present physiological and behavioral challenges for marine mammals that experience significant life-history stages on land. Such ongoing findings will be fundamental in predicting climate change vulnerabilities and will be critical in mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic warming and promoting resilience in these populations. Carol Baird Graduate Student Award for Field Research; The Neubacher Fund for Marine Science at Point Reyes National Seashore. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Hitchhiking to the abyss.

We investigated, for the first time, the hitchhiker-host fidelity of deep-diving whale sharks and Chilean devil rays. We found that two of the most ubiquitous oceanic hitchhikers, the common remora and the pilot fish, are able to follow their hosts to bathypelagic depths, where they are exposed to extreme gradients of light, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pressure. We documented a deep dive of a large whale shark hosting remoras and pilot fish. Common remora was observed at the deepest section of the dive, at 1460 m, where the water temperature was 3.6°C. A pilot fish was recorded at 900 m, during the ascent phase, with the water temperature of 7.5°C. Although the adaptations that allow these hitchhikers to mitigate the impacts of such extreme environmental conditions remain unknown, we discuss these findings in the framework of the ecophysiology of deep diving and the hitchhiker-host fidelity.