Sampling Duration Research Articles

Prevalence and factors of sexual dysfunctions among military men: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Background Military men are at a higher risk of developing sexual dysfunction (SD) as compared to the general population because military deployment exposes soldiers to stressful situations (e.g., death of comrades, combat stress, war inflicted injuries, severe environment, lack of sleep, mental distress, isolation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), polluted environment and substance abuse, etc.) that may alter their psychological and underlying biological processes. Understanding mechanisms and estimating the burden of SD in military men would also be helpful for the implication in the general population of men exposed to such harsh conditions. Objective To systematically review published reports on SD in military men. Methods Medline was searched for original articles published between 2008 and 2020 by using the search terms “sexual dysfunction in military personnel,” and “sexual dysfunction in veterans”. Quality evaluation and data extraction were done by two authors. Studies that reported the sexual dysfunction in newly inducted or interviewed men in recruitment centres or specific disease cohorts, and that reported the effect of different drugs on sexual health under controlled conditions were excluded. Information related to the sampling duration, sampling method, sample size, methods of diagnosis, cut off values, the prevalence of different sexual dysfunctions and associated factors were extracted. All discrepancies were resolved by discussion. Results A total of 8211 studies were identified initially. After the removal of duplicates, 5186 studies were screened based on titles and abstracts. The full articles were downloaded for 54 studies, of which 27 studies were finally included in the qualitative study. Among the included studies 16 were conducted in North America (US=15 and Canada=01), 4 in Europe (Netherlands=1, France=1 and Croatia=2) and 7 in Asia (Israel=3, Iran=1, South Korea=1 and Taiwan=2). All the studies included in the present review had variable sample sizes (n=53 - 456,340). Sampling methods included mailed questionnaires, in-person interviews, medical chart reviews and secondary data taken from large surveys and patients from outpatient clinics. The studies reported a wide range of prevalence of overall SD (5.6% - 88.7%), erectile dysfunction (ED) (2% - 83.4%), ejaculatory dysfunction (0.1% - 25.5.0%), orgasmic dysfunction (0.2% - 15.4%) sexual desire disorders (0.3% - 74.0%) and sexual dissatisfaction (11.8% - 73.5%). The prevalence of mild ED (16.7% - 30.3%) was highest followed by mild to moderate ED (3.4% - 20.5%), moderate ED (1.1% - 9.3%) and severe ED (0.3% - 10%). Prevalence of premature and delayed ejaculation was 0.1% - 25.5% and 18.0%, respectively. Prevalence of quick orgasms and difficulty in orgasm was reported in 15.4% and 13.8%, respectively. Orgasmic anhedonia was also reported in 11 % of men. The prevalence of SD was positively associated with PTSD, depression and anxiety, using nicotine and antidepressants, physical health (infections, cardiovascular diseases), and being non-white race. However, age, alcohol, body weight and education had no association with SD in military men. Conclusion A considerably variable number of military men had SD due to different factors. Studies in Asian and European countries were limited in number and magnitude. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no.

Liver alterations are not improved by inulin supplementation in alcohol use disorder patients during alcohol withdrawal: A pilot randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

SummaryBackgroundEmerging evidence highlights that targeting the gut microbiota could be an interesting approach to improve alcohol liver disease due to its important plasticity. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of inulin supplementation on liver parameters in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients (whole sample) and in a subpopulation with early alcohol-associated liver disease (eALD).MethodsFifty AUD patients, hospitalized for a 3-week detoxification program, were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study and assigned to prebiotic (inulin) versus placebo for 17 days. Liver damage, microbial translocation, inflammatory markers and 16S rDNA sequencing were measured at the beginning (T1) and at the end of the study (T2).FindingsCompared to placebo, AST (β = 8.55, 95% CI [2.33:14.77]), ALT (β = 6.01, 95% CI [2.02:10.00]) and IL-18 (β = 113.86, 95% CI [23.02:204.71]) were statistically significantly higher in the inulin group in the whole sample at T2. In the eALD subgroup, inulin supplementation leads to specific changes in the gut microbiota, including an increase in Bifidobacterium and a decrease of Bacteroides. Despite those changes, AST (β = 14.63, 95% CI [0.91:28.35]) and ALT (β = 10.40, 95% CI [1.93:18.88]) at T2 were higher in the inulin group compared to placebo. Treatment was well tolerated without important adverse events or side effects.InterpretationThis pilot study shows that 17 days of inulin supplementation versus placebo, even though it induces specific changes in the gut microbiota, did not alleviate liver damage in AUD patients. Further studies with a larger sample size and duration of supplementation with adequate monitoring of liver parameters are needed to confirm these results. Gut2Brain study: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03803709FundingFédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, FRS-FNRS, Fondation Saint-Luc.

Validated analysis of modulated signals: From de Prony to Padé and beyond

The spectral analysis of modulated signals has attracted quite some research, mainly because of the fact that Fourier methods are not particularly suitable. Among the challenges, we mention the separation of close components that differ significantly in magnitude, the limitation of the sampling duration, the probable ill-conditioning of certain structured matrices.We show how a validated exponential analysis add-on, for use with any standard exponential analysis method, offers a lot of advantages in the context of these challenges. The add-on uses an alias-free decimation technique and essentially combines the basics of de Prony’s method for exponential fitting with the theory of Padé approximation theory.

Time Synchronization of Multimodal Physiological Signals through Alignment of Common Signal Types and Its Technical Considerations in Digital Health

Background: Despite advancements in digital health, it remains challenging to obtain precise time synchronization of multimodal physiological signals collected through different devices. Existing algorithms mainly rely on specific physiological features that restrict the use cases to certain signal types. The present study aims to complement previous algorithms and solve a niche time alignment problem when a common signal type is available across different devices. Methods: We proposed a simple time alignment approach based on the direct cross-correlation of temporal amplitudes, making it agnostic and thus generalizable to different signal types. The approach was tested on a public electrocardiographic (ECG) dataset to simulate the synchronization of signals collected from an ECG watch and an ECG patch. The algorithm was evaluated considering key practical factors, including sample durations, signal quality index (SQI), resilience to noise, and varying sampling rates. Results: The proposed approach requires a short sample duration (30 s) to operate, and demonstrates stable performance across varying sampling rates and resilience to common noise. The lowest synchronization delay achieved by the algorithm is 0.13 s with the integration of SQI thresholding. Conclusions: Our findings help improve the time alignment of multimodal signals in digital health and advance healthcare toward precise remote monitoring and disease prevention.

The economic impact of workplace physical activity interventions in Europe: a systematic review of available evidence

PurposeThere is growing interest in the economic impact of workplace physical activity interventions, but the evidence is still lacking — especially in Europe. Although, some evidence on the return on investment (ROI) is found in literature, the included studies may not be applicable to the Europe situation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to review current evidence on the economic impact of workplace physical activity interventions in European countries.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review on the economic impact of worksite health promotion programs aiming at increasing physical activity was conducted. Five electronic databases (MEDLINE (Ovid), MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, NHS-EED and Emerald Insights) were searched for relevant studies published between 2000 and 2020.FindingsA total of 953 abstracts were screened, and 28 were reviewed, 11 of which met all inclusion criteria. The studies varied substantially in sample size, intervention type, duration and frequency of follow-up measurements, valuation methods and assessed economic outcomes. There is inconclusive evidence for decreasing absenteeism, positive net benefit (NB) and positive ROI. No evidence was found to indicate an effect on self-assessed productivity or job satisfaction.Originality/valueThis study is the first try to take the different working conditions from Europe into consideration. The authors found that working conditions could have some impact on the valuation of absenteeism costs and thereof on the ROI. Further, this study provides insight into how to deploy effective and efficient workplace physical activity interventions, based on a standardized and validated methodology and program scope.

Myosteatosis in Cirrhosis: A Review of Diagnosis, Pathophysiological Mechanisms and Potential Interventions.

Myosteatosis, or pathological excess fat accumulation in muscle, has been widely defined as a lower mean skeletal muscle radiodensity on computed tomography (CT). It is reported in more than half of patients with cirrhosis, and preliminary studies have shown a possible association with reduced survival and increased risk of portal hypertension complications. Despite the clinical implications in cirrhosis, a standardized definition for myosteatosis has not yet been established. Currently, little data exist on the mechanisms by which excess lipid accumulates within the muscle in individuals with cirrhosis. Hyperammonemia may play an important role in the pathophysiology of myosteatosis in this setting. Insulin resistance, impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, diminished lipid oxidation in muscle and age-related differentiation of muscle stem cells into adipocytes have been also been suggested as potential mechanisms contributing to myosteatosis. The metabolic consequence of ammonia-lowering treatments and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in reversing myosteatosis in cirrhosis remains uncertain. Factors including the population of interest, design and sample size, single/combined treatment, dosing and duration of treatment are important considerations for future trials aiming to prevent or treat myosteatosis in individuals with cirrhosis.

Effect of sampling duration on the estimate of pollutant concentration behind a heavy-duty vehicle: A large-eddy simulation

Plume chasing is cost-effective, measuring individual, on-road vehicular emissions. Whereas, wake-flow-generated turbulence results in intermittent, rapid pollutant dilution and substantial fluctuating concentrations right behind the vehicle being chased. The sampling duration is therefore one of the important factors for acquiring representative (average) concentrations, which, however, has been seldom addressed. This paper, which is based on the detailed spatio-temporal dispersion data after a heavy-duty truck calculated by large-eddy simulation (LES), examines how sampling duration affects the uncertainty of the measured concentrations in plume chasing. The tailpipe dispersion is largely driven by the jet-like flows through the vehicle underbody with approximate Gaussian concentration distribution for x ≤ 0.6h, where x is the distance after the vehicle and h the characteristic vehicle size. Thereafter for x ≥ 0.6h, the major recirculation plays an important role in near-wake pollutant transport whose concentrations are highly fluctuating and positively shewed. Plume chasing for a longer sampling duration is more favourable but is logistically impractical in busy traffic. Sampling duration, also known as averaging time in the statistical analysis, thus has a crucial role in sampling accuracy. With a longer sampling (averaging) duration, the sample mean concentration converges to the population mean, improving the sample reliability. However, this effect is less pronounced in long sampling duration. The sampling accuracy is also influenced by the locations of sampling points. For the region x > 0.6h, the sampling accuracy is degraded to a large extent. As a result, acceptable sample mean is hardly achievable. Finally, frequency analysis unveils the mechanism leading to the variance in concentration measurements which is attributed to sampling duration. Those data with frequency higher than the sampling frequency are filtered out by moving average in the statistical analyses.

A global indicator of utilized wildlife populations: Regional trends and the impact of management

A global indicator of utilized wildlife populations: Regional trends and the impact of management

Placebo Effects On Natriuretic Peptide Levels In Patients With Heart Failure: A Systematic Review Of Contemporary Randomized Controlled Trials

<h3>Background</h3> In planning and executing clinical trials, a key assumption involves change in the placebo group. Changes over time to an endpoint - such as natriuretic peptides (NP) - within a placebo group are a composite of the natural progression of disease, the variability in the measurement of the endpoint itself, and a placebo effect. <h3>Methods</h3> A systematic search of the MEDLINE database identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated drug or device effects on NP measurements (both brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP)) in patients with heart failure (HF), for trials published between January 2015 and November 2020. <h3>Results</h3> From an abstract review of 334 studies from a MEDLINE search, with subsequent full text review, 27 double-blind placebo controlled RCTs were identified, with availability of either raw NP values or percentage change in NP values over the course of the trial. There were a total of 8,967 patients (69% male, average age 66 years) with HF (NYHA class I - 1%, class II - 54%, class III - 41%, class IV - 4 %) randomized to the placebo arm in the 27 studies. At trial completion (median duration 24 weeks, range 2 days to 106 weeks) the mean NP % change was - 6.5 +/- 31.2 %. Fourteen of 27 studies reported an NP decrease, and 13 reported an increase in NP values. Mean NP % change in trials of duration ≤ 24 weeks (n=15) was -12.4 +/- 29.1 %, whereas mean NP % change in trials > 24 weeks (n=12) was +4.5 +/- 32.5 % (p < 0.001 vs. ≤ 24 weeks). Of the 27 RCTs, 4 trials included only patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), 18 included only patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), and 5 included both. The 4 trials with HFpEF patients had a total of 253 patients and had a mean NP % change of 9.0 +/- 28.4%. The 18 trials with HFrEF patients had a total of 7389 patients and had a mean NP % change of -1.3 +/- 27.0 % (p<0.001 vs. HFpEF) <h3>Conclusion</h3> In contemporary RCTs in patients with HF, NP responses in the placebo-group arm have wide variability, may increase or decrease, are different in patients with HFpEF or HFrEF, and are associated with the duration of the trial. The ability to quantify the contribution of placebo effects in the context of trial duration can help determine sample sizes and duration of study for trials involving biomarker endpoints.

Positional Behavior and Substrate Use in Wild Tibetan Macaques.

Simple SummaryBody size and individual development are essential factors that affect primate movement through the canopy and access to food. However, only a few studies have been conducted on immature wild macaques. Although adults are significantly heavier than the other age groups, this study found that they did not exhibit higher frequencies of climbing and bridging. Jumps and suspensions were more frequent in juveniles than adults. We also found that juveniles exhibited rare behaviors during play, such as cling locomotion, suspensory locomotion, and bounding. We hypothesized that juveniles would exhibit diverse positional behaviors associated with altered skeletal muscle development. Diverse positional abilities facilitate habitat exploitation and the avoidance of danger.Body size and individual development significantly affect positional behavior and substrate use. However, only a few studies have been conducted on immature wild macaques. We studied wild Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) inhabiting Mt. Huangshan, China, to explore the degree of interspecific variation in positional behavior in relation to body weight and individual development. From September 2020 to August 2021, we used instantaneous scan sampling (duration 5 min, interval 10 min) to record age–sex groups, locomotions, postures, and substrate attributes. The results showed that Tibetan macaques used terrestrial substrates in nearly two-thirds of the recorded observations. The main postural modes were sitting and quadrupedal standing. The main locomotor modes were quadrupedal walking and climbing among all age–sex group records. Positional behavior and substrate use in adults only significantly differed from those in juveniles and infants. Although adult males were larger than the other age–sex groups, they did not climb and bridge more frequently than the other age–sex groups. The frequency of climbing, leaping, and suspension was significantly higher in juveniles than in adults. In addition, adult males used terrestrial and larger substrates more frequently, while juveniles and infants used arboreal substrates and terminals more frequently than adult males during traveling and feeding. We hypothesize that the more positional behavioral spectrum of Tibetan macaque juveniles’ may be related to rapid skeletal muscle development. These results suggest that differences in interspecific positional behavior may be caused by the individual development and survival needs of individuals, rather than just body size.

Robust attitude control of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles using optimized disturbance observer

AbstractThis article proposes a method of realizing robust attitude stabilization control of a quadrotor UAV using the disturbance observer (DOB), where Q–filter is optimally designed considering performances of attenuating disturbance and estimation noise, and robust stability against parameter variations and sampling duration delay due to discrete time control in microcontroller. Disturbance rejection performance mainly depends on the bandwidth determined by cut‐off frequency of DOB's Q–filter. However, extension of the Q–filter's bandwidth must be restricted due to the requirement of robust stability against parameter uncertainty and sampling duration delay in onboard microcontroller for flight control of quadrotor. In order to optimize the disturbance rejection performance under the restriction of bandwidth, an norm minimization problem is defined considering the frequency bands of disturbance and noise. The optimization problem is transformed into standard control design problem by pseudo loop factorization method so as to resolve the structural constraint of Q–filter. Then, stability of the discrete time system configured by digital controller is tested in relation with the time constant of the designed DOB's Q–filter under different inertia moment values. The comparisons between simulation results by different control methods validate that the robust control method using proposed DOB provides a better performance of disturbance attenuation than that using conventional DOB.

Detecting Rare Species With Passive Sampling Tools: Optimizing the Duration and Frequency of Sampling for Benthic Taxa

The choice of the duration and frequency of sampling to detect relevant patterns in field experiments or for environmental monitoring is always challenging since time and material resources are limited. In practice, duration and frequency of sampling are often chosen based on logistical constraints, experience, or practices described in published works but are rarely justified and almost never optimized before initiating sampling. Settlement plates are commonly used as a passive sampling tool to study recruitment patterns of fouling organisms (including non-indigenous species) and their deployment is amenable to experimentation with respect to manipulating duration and frequency of sampling. This study aimed to determine the optimal sampling strategy to detect rare species (e.g., a non-indigenous species early in the invasion process when its population size is still small). To do so, we deployed a series of settlement plates of various durations (1–32 days) and sampling frequencies (daily to biweekly) during the seasonal onset of recruitment, when larval supply was low, a situation that mimics the low propagule pressure of the early stages of the invasion process. We demonstrated that a combination of longer sampling duration and higher sampling frequency was the best strategy to maximize taxonomic richness. However, we found that an intermediate sampling duration of 1–2 weeks was optimal for detecting most species. These results can guide species-specific and assemblage-level sampling strategies using settlement plates. Additionally, this study can serve as a practical template for optimizing sampling of other taxonomic groups that were not examined in the present study as well as for the use of other methods.

Coordination of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater and clinical testing of university students demonstrates the importance of sampling duration and collection time

Wastewater surveillance has been a useful tool complementing clinical testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, transitioning surveillance approaches to small populations, such as dormitories and assisted living facilities poses challenges including difficulties with sample collection and processing. Recently, the need for reliable and timely data has coincided with the need for precise local forecasting of the trajectory of COVID-19. This study compared wastewater and clinical data from the University of Delaware (Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters), and evaluated wastewater collection practices for enhanced virus detection sensitivity. Fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 is known to occur in infected individuals. However, shedding concentrations and duration has been shown to vary. Therefore, three shedding periods (14, 21, and 30 days) were presumed and included for analysis of wastewater data. SARS-CoV-2 levels detected in wastewater correlated with clinical virus detection when a positive clinical test result was preceded by fecal shedding of 21 days (p< 0.05) and 30 days (p < 0.05), but not with new cases (p = 0.09) or 14 days of shedding (p = 0.17).Discretely collected wastewater samples were compared with 24-hour composite samples collected at the same site. The discrete samples (n = 99) were composited examining the influence of sampling duration and time of day on SARS-CoV-2 detection. SARS-CoV-2 detection varied among dormitory complexes and sampling durations of 3-hour, 12-hour, and 24-hour (controls). Collection times frequently showing high detection values were between the hours of 03:00 to 05:00 and 23:00 to 08:00. In each of these times of day 33% of samples (3/9) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the control sample. The remainder (6/9) of the collection times (3-hour and 12-hour) were not different (p > 0.05) from the control. This study provides additional framework for continued methodology development for microbiological wastewater surveillance as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses and in preparation for future epidemiological efforts.

Comparison of Auto Sampling and Passive Sampling Methods for SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Wastewater.

Wastewater-based surveillance is emerging as an important tool for the COVID-19 pandemic trending. Current methods of wastewater collection, such as grab and auto-composite sampling, have drawbacks that impede effective surveillance, especially from small catchments with limited accessibility. Passive samplers, which are more cost-effective and require fewer resources to process, are promising candidates for monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2. Here, we compared traditional auto sampling with passive sampling for SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater. A torpedo-style 3D-printed passive sampler device containing both cotton swabs and electronegative filter membranes was used. Between April and June 2021, fifteen passive samplers were placed at a local hospital’s wastewater outflow alongside an autosampler. Reverse transcription and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the samples after processing and RNA extraction. The swab and membrane of the passive sampler showed similar detection rates and cycle threshold (Ct) values for SARS-CoV-2 RNA for the N1 and N2 gene targets. The passive method performed as well as the grab/auto sampling, with no significant differences between N1 and N2 Ct values. There were discrepant results on two days with negative grab/auto samples and positive passive samples, which might be related to the longer duration of passive sampling in the study. Overall, the passive sampler was rapid, reliable, and cost-effective, and could be used as an alternative sampling method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.

The Effect of Hydraulic Coupling on Mechanical Deformation Characteristics of Shallow Coal Seam in Western Mining Area

During coal mining, the mechanical and deformation behavior of the overburden is affected by water and stress. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the mechanical behavior of the surrounding rock under the action of hydraulic coupling. For high-intensity mining with shallow coal seam and large mining and strong strata behavior in stope, the hydraulic support is often damaged. Based on basic experiments and physical similarity simulations, overburden fracture in shallow coal seam in western mining area under hydraulic coupling was studied. The results show that under the loading rate range of 0.5~5 mm/min, the compressive strength of sandstone increases with the loading rate. The faster the loading rate, the shorter the duration of the rock sample being loaded and damaged, and the fewer the acoustic emission events. The first weighting step of the main roof of the working face is 54 m, the periodic weighting step is 12.75~28 m, and the average periodic weighting step is 22 m. There are only caving zone and fractured zone in the overburden of working face; the height of caving zone and fractured zone is 60 m and 168 m, respectively. The strength of the saturated sample is significantly reduced. During the excavation of the working face, the temperature difference between the fracture and the overburden value is ≥1°C, which can be used as a threshold for judging the development range of overburden fracture in similar simulation experiments.

Native language identification for Indian-speakers by an ensemble of phoneme-specific, and text-independent convolutions

Identifying the social background of an unknown speaker by speech accent has multiple applications including in forensic profiling and adaptation of speech recognition. The most effective accent classification models based on phoneme pronunciation require the presence of certain phonemes in the test speech and hence, are applicable only for a longer duration of test samples. On the other hand, the text-independent classifiers disregard the phoneme and linguistic information completely. This paper proposes an ensemble of convolutional neural networks for phoneme-based short-term and text-independent long-term classification of speech regarding speaker background profiling. The model is evaluated by classifying the native language of Indian speakers by their English speech. Both the classifiers within the ensemble complement each other positively; to give higher classification accuracy as compared to classification accuracies obtained from the individual classifiers. Low-pass filtering based speech augmentation has been proven to further improve the classification performance and average accuracy, with up to 79% and 73.7% accuracies achieved for speaker-level and sentence-level tests, respectively.

Pilot study of repeated blood-brain barrier disruption in patients with mild Alzheimer\u2019s disease with an implantable ultrasound device

BackgroundTemporary disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) using pulsed ultrasound leads to the clearance of both amyloid and tau from the brain, increased neurogenesis, and mitigation of cognitive decline in pre-clinical models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) while also increasing BBB penetration of therapeutic antibodies. The goal of this pilot clinical trial was to investigate the safety and efficacy of this approach in patients with mild AD using an implantable ultrasound device.MethodsAn implantable, 1-MHz ultrasound device (SonoCloud-1) was implanted under local anesthesia in the skull (extradural) of 10 mild AD patients to target the left supra-marginal gyrus. Over 3.5 months, seven ultrasound sessions in combination with intravenous infusion of microbubbles were performed twice per month to temporarily disrupt the BBB. 18F-florbetapir and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) imaging were performed on a combined PET/MRI scanner at inclusion and at 4 and 8 months after the initiation of sonications to monitor the brain metabolism and amyloid levels along with cognitive evaluations. The evolution of cognitive and neuroimaging features was compared to that of a matched sample of control participants taken from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).ResultsA total of 63 BBB opening procedures were performed in nine subjects. The procedure was well-tolerated. A non-significant decrease in amyloid accumulation at 4 months of − 6.6% (SD = 7.2%) on 18F-florbetapir PET imaging in the sonicated gray matter targeted by the ultrasound transducer was observed compared to baseline in six subjects that completed treatments and who had evaluable imaging scans. No differences in the longitudinal change in the glucose metabolism were observed compared to the neighboring or contralateral regions or to the change observed in the same region in ADNI participants. No significant effect on cognition evolution was observed in comparison with the ADNI participants as expected due to the small sample size and duration of the trial.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate the safety of ultrasound-based BBB disruption and the potential of this technology to be used as a therapy for AD patients. Research of this technique in a larger clinical trial with a device designed to sonicate larger volumes of tissue and in combination with disease-modifying drugs may further enhance the effects observed.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03119961

Testing the effects of aspect and total insolation on luminescence depth profiles for rock surface exposure dating

Using luminescence to date the burial and exposure ages of rock surfaces has been a revolutionary new geochronological approach developed and refined over the past decade. Rock surface exposure dating is based on the principle that the depth to which the luminescence signal is bleached into a rock surface is dependent on the duration of that rock surface's exposure to sunlight. However, given the recentness of method development, the effects of basic light exposure variables such as the orientation of rock surfaces and the incidence angle of incoming light on bleaching depth have not been tested. We designed an experiment in which we controlled the exposure duration (t) and orientation of granite and sandstone samples while measuring the light attenuation coefficient (μ) and the photon flux at the rock surface (φ0) to determine the influence of spatial orientation of a rock surface on its respective bleaching depth. Our results confirm that the opacity of the rock (μ) and the total insolation have significant effects on the bleaching depth for vertically oriented surfaces. We also observed that the bleaching depth is strongly related to the incidence angle at which the sunlight hits the rock surface, indicating that the effectiveness of bleaching of a given rock surface follows seasonal cycles. Our data suggest that optimal calibration samples for rock surface exposure dating should be of the same lithology and have the same geographical location and orientation of the target sample. Additionally, calibration samples should be collected in year increments so that no season's solar incidence angles are preferred.

Heterogeneity in the Effects of Group Lending in Microfinance-The Case of Mongolia

This study examines the heterogeneity of the effects of the joint and several liability systems of microfinance in Mongolia. The heterogeneity was examined from three perspectives: consumption, repayment rate, and income. In terms of business income and business expenditure, the older the household, the greater the number of loans, and the more private businesses the household owns, the greater the business expenditure. For household consumption, there is no difference between group and individual lending except in the number of private businesses, but when we restrict the analysis to food consumption, group lending increases food consumption more for households with more than one borrower and borrowers with longer borrowing periods. While more variable heterogeneity was found for the whole sample, only age and borrowing duration were found to affect household income across different types of microfinance for the poorest households with below median household income. The results of this study suggest that even if there was no significant difference in each attribute between the treatment and control groups, joint and several liabilities may or may not be effective depending on the level of the attribute. To maximize the effect of a simple measure, it is important to understand the factors that affect heterogeneity and the effective level of the heterogeneity. Even if a measure is not effective, it may become effective if the level of the attribute changes.

Perovskite Catalyst for In-Cylinder Coating to Reduce Raw Pollutant Emissions of Internal Combustion Engines.

Aiming to achieve the highest combustion efficiency and less pollutant emission, a catalytic coating for cylinder walls in internal combustion engines was developed and tested under several conditions. The coating consists of a La0.8Sr0.2CoO3 (LSCO) catalyst on an aluminum-based ceramic support. Atomic force microscopy was applied to investigate the surface roughness of the LSCO coating, while in situ diffuse infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy was used to obtain the molecular understanding of adsorption and conversion. In addition, the influence of LSCO-coated substrates on the flame quenching distance was studied in a constant-volume combustion chamber. Investigations conclude that an LSCO coating leads to a reduction of flame quenching at low wall temperatures but a negligible effect at high temperatures. Finally, the influence of LSCO coatings on the in-cylinder wall-near gas composition was investigated using a fast gas sampling methodology with sample durations below 1 ms. Ion molecule reaction mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed a significant reduction of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide when LSCO coating was applied.