Short Latency Research Articles

Interpersonal synchrony: Interaction variables and gender differences in preschoolers with ASD.

BackgroundFemales with ASD tend to be under-recognized as they might present a different symptom manifestation, better social abilities, and masking behaviors. Since the main limitation of current literature on gender differences is represented by focusing on broad constructs, research needs to prioritize narrower constructs related to the subdomains of social abilities. Hence, the aim of this work was to explore gender differences in Interpersonal Synchrony of children with ASD.MethodN = 51 psychologist-child dyads, 25 females and 26 males participated in the study. An Observational Coding Scheme to study interaction features was applied to video-recorded sessions of the ADOS-2 administration.ResultsFemales presented more synchronous behaviors with shorter latencies. Their interplays were longer, more complex, more engaging and most frequently adequately concluded with respect to males. The complexity of interchanges, their total duration and the proportion of exchanges adequately terminated correlated with the Social Affect score, Personal-Social, and Language Quotients in females, but not in males. The success rate of psychologist proposals correlated with Language Quotient in both males and females. The number of exchanges positively correlated with the Performance Quotient in males. Despite females being significantly older than males, age-related differences did not emerge.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the importance of studying gender differences with respect to interaction variables. Females may present better IS abilities which, in turn, may promote social and language development. Further, our results suggested that successful interactions seem to rely more on social abilities in females, while males appeared to rely more on performance skills.

Scheduling and Securing Drone Charging System Using Particle Swarm Optimization and Blockchain Technology

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a powerful technology for introducing untraditional solutions to many challenges in non-military fields and industrial applications in the next few years. However, the limitations of a drone’s battery and the available optimal charging techniques represent a significant challenge in using UAVs on a large scale. This problem means UAVs are unable to fly for a long time; hence, drones’ services fail dramatically. Due to this challenge, optimizing the scheduling of drone charging may be an unusual solution to drones’ battery problems. Moreover, authenticating drones and verifying their charging transactions with charging stations is an essential associated problem. This paper proposes a scheduling and secure drone charging system in response to these challenges. The proposed system was simulated on a generated dataset consisting of 300 drones and 50 charging station points to evaluate its performance. The optimization of the proposed scheduling methodology was based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and game theory-based auction model. In addition, authenticating and verifying drone charging transactions were executed using a proposed blockchain protocol. The optimization and scheduling results showed the PSO algorithm’s efficiency in optimizing drone routes and preventing drone collisions during charging flights with low error rates with an MAE = 0.0017 and an MSE = 0.0159. Moreover, the investigation to authenticate and verify the drone charging transactions showed the efficiency of the proposed blockchain protocol while simulating the proposed system on the Ethereum platform. The obtained results clarified the efficiency of the proposed blockchain protocol in executing drone charging transactions within a short time and low latency within an average of 0.34 s based on blockchain performance metrics. Moreover, the proposed scheduling methodology achieved a 96.8% success rate of drone charging cases, while only 3.2% of drones failed to charge after three scheduling rounds.

TU-136. Short latency afferent inhibition and facilitation in the motor cortex of patients with progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 1 (EPM1)

TU-136. Short latency afferent inhibition and facilitation in the motor cortex of patients with progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 1 (EPM1)

AASLD practice guidance on drug, herbal, and dietary supplement-induced liver injury.

AASLD practice guidance on drug, herbal, and dietary supplement-induced liver injury.

Specific sensorimotor interneuron circuits are sensitive to cerebellar-attention interactions.

Background: Short latency afferent inhibition (SAI) provides a method to investigate mechanisms of sensorimotor integration. Cholinergic involvement in the SAI phenomena suggests that SAI may provide a marker of cognitive influence over implicit sensorimotor processes. Consistent with this hypothesis, we previously demonstrated that visual attention load suppresses SAI circuits preferentially recruited by anterior-to-posterior (AP)-, but not posterior-to-anterior (PA)-current induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation. However, cerebellar modulation can also modulate these same AP-sensitive SAI circuits. Yet, the consequences of concurrent cognitive and implicit cerebellar influences over these AP circuits are unknown.Objective: We used cerebellar intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) to determine whether the cerebellar modulation of sensory to motor projections interacts with the attentional modulation of sensory to motor circuits probed by SAI.Methods: We assessed AP-SAI and PA-SAI during a concurrent visual detection task of varying attention load before and after cerebellar iTBS.Results: Before cerebellar iTBS, a higher visual attention load suppressed AP-SAI, but not PA-SAI, compared to a lower visual attention load. Post-cerebellar iTBS, the pattern of AP-SAI in response to visual attention load, was reversed; a higher visual attention load enhanced AP-SAI compared to a lower visual attention load. Cerebellar iTBS did not affect PA-SAI regardless of visual attention load.Conclusion: These findings suggest that attention and cerebellar networks converge on overlapping AP-sensitive circuitry to influence motor output by controlling the strength of the afferent projections to the motor cortex. This interaction has important implications for understanding the mechanisms of motor performance and learning.

Anti-scattering light focusing with full-polarization digital optical phase conjugation based on digital micromirror devices.

The high resolution of optical imaging and optogenetic stimulation in the deep tissue requires focusing light against strong scattering with high contrast. Digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) has emerged recently as a promising solution for this requirement, because of its short latency. A digital micromirror device (DMD) in the implementation of DOPC enables a large number of modulation modes and a high speed of modulation both of which are important when dealing with a highly dynamic scattering medium. Here, we propose full-polarization DOPC (fpDOPC) in which two DMDs simultaneously modulate the two orthogonally polarized components of the optical field, respectively, to mitigate the effect of depolarization caused by strong scattering. We designed a simple system to overcome the difficulty of alignment encountered when modulating two polarized components independently. Our simulation and experiment showed that fpDOPC could generate a high-contrast focal spot, even though the polarization of light had been highly randomized by scattering. In comparison with the conventional method of modulating the polarization along a particular direction, fpDOPC can improve the peak to background ratio of the focal spot by a factor of two. This new technique has good potential in applications such as high-contrast light focusing in vivo.

Determination of orellanine and muscarine in biological fluids in suspected or proven poisoning cases: About several cases

To present the application of validated methods for determination of (i) orellanine, a highly nephrotoxic molecule responsible of the toxicity of some Cortinarius mushroom and (ii) muscarine, another mushroom toxin, acting as a neurotoxin not reaching the central nervous system, in biological fluids using LC-HRMS/MS technology in poisoning case context. These toxins are annually responsible of poisoning cases or even cases of death. We developed analytical methods using LC-HRMS/MS with Orbitrap technology and a liquid/liquid extraction. These two validated methods were applied to 17 suspecting or proven mushroom intoxication cases (12 for orellanine determination and 5 for muscarine). Biological fluids (whole blood and/or plasma and/or urine) were obtained from the national study CHAMPITOX or from the classical patient care. For orellanine cases, because of the long latency period between intake and first symptoms, the delay between intake and sample collection was particularly long (average of 8.5 days). As muscarinic syndrome is one of the short latency syndromes, a shorter sample collection delay was related to these cases (average of 14.5 hours). A full quantitative validation was performed for orellanine in plasma and urine (LOD: 0.1 μg/L, LLOQ 0.5 μg/L) and a qualitative in whole blood (LOD: 0.5 μg/L) [Flament E. J Anal Toxicol 2022:bkac018.]. Applied to our cases, we have highlighted orellanine in 8 out of the 12 cases with very low concentrations (near to the LLOQ or between the LLOQ and the LOD). Concerning the muscarine, a full quantitative validation was performed in the three matrices (in whole blood and plasma, the LOD and LLOQ were 0.05 and 0.1 μg/L, respectively, and in urine, LOD and LLOQ were 0.5 and 1 μg/L, respectively). Muscarine was identified and quantified in all cases. Concentrations (ranging from 0.12 to 752 μg/L in the three matrices) were much higher than those for orellanine. For orellanine cases, concentrations were very low owing to the high delay between intake and sample collection. In addition, orellanine half-life was estimated to be 109 ± 6 min with reabsorption by proximal tubular cells (in rats) [Najar D. Toxins 2018;10(8):333.]. This reabsorption phenomenon allows the detection of the toxin for up to 17 days in whole blood and 24 days in urine. Concentrations of muscarine were higher because of the shorter sample collection delay after the intake. To our knowledges, these results are (i) the first identification reports of orellanine in biological fluids with quantification in urines, and also (ii) the first identification and quantification reports of muscarine in blood matrices (whole blood and/or plasma). These analytical methods are (i) essential tools for clinicians in order to document mushroom poisoning cases (ii) but also for analysts to fill the knowledge gap about these mycotoxins, and (iii) tools which can be applied to post-mortem cases.

Personality drives activity and space use in a mammalian herbivore

BackgroundAnimal personality has emerged as a key concept in behavioral ecology. While many studies have demonstrated the influence of personality traits on behavioral patterns, its quantification, especially in wild animal populations, remains a challenge. Only a few studies have established a link between personality and recurring movements within home ranges, although these small-scale movements are of key importance for identifying ecological interactions and forming individual niches. In this regard, differences in space use among individuals might reflect different exploration styles between behavioral types along the shy-bold continuum.MethodsWe assessed among-individual differences in behavior in the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a characteristic mammalian herbivore in agricultural landscapes using a standardized box emergence test for captive and wild hares. We determined an individuals’ degree of boldness by measuring the latencies of behavioral responses in repeated emergence tests in captivity. During capture events of wild hares, we conducted a single emergence test and recorded behavioral responses proven to be stable over time in captive hares. Applying repeated novel environment tests in a near-natural enclosure, we further quantified aspects of exploration and activity in captive hares. Finally, we investigated whether and how this among-individual behavioral variation is related to general activity and space use in a wild hare population. Wild and captive hares were treated similarly and GPS-collared with internal accelerometers prior to release to the wild or the outdoor enclosure, respectively. General activity was quantified as overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) obtained from accelerometers. Finally, we tested whether boldness explained variation in (i) ODBA in both settings and (ii) variation in home ranges and core areas across different time scales of GPS-collared hares in a wild population.ResultsWe found three behavioral responses to be consistent over time in captive hares. ODBA was positively related to boldness (i.e., short latencies to make first contact with the new environment) in both captive and wild hares. Space use in wild hares also varied with boldness, with shy individuals having smaller core areas and larger home ranges than bold conspecifics (yet in some of the parameter space, this association was just marginally significant).ConclusionsAgainst our prediction, shy individuals occupied relatively large home ranges but with small core areas. We suggest that this space use pattern is due to them avoiding risky, and energy-demanding competition for valuable resources. Carefully validated, activity measurements (ODBA) from accelerometers provide a valuable tool to quantify aspects of animal personality along the shy-bold continuum remotely. Without directly observing—and possibly disturbing—focal individuals, this approach allows measuring variability in animal personality, especially in species that are difficult to assess with experiments. Considering that accelerometers are often already built into GPS units, we recommend activating them at least during the initial days of tracking to estimate individual variation in general activity and, if possible, match them with a simple novelty experiment. Furthermore, information on individual behavioral types will help to facilitate mechanistic understanding of processes that drive spatial and ecological dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.

Changes in the Electrically Evoked Compound Action Potential over time After Implantation and Subsequent Deafening in Guinea Pigs

The electrically evoked compound action potential (eCAP) is a direct measure of the responsiveness of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation from a cochlear implant (CI). CIs offer a unique opportunity to study the auditory nerve’s electrophysiological behavior in individual human subjects over time. In order to understand exactly how the eCAP relates to the condition of the auditory nerve, it is crucial to compare changes in the eCAP over time in a controlled model of deafness-induced auditory nerve degeneration. In the present study, 10 normal-hearing young adult guinea pigs were implanted and deafened 4 weeks later, so that the effect of deafening could be monitored within-subject over time. Following implantation, but before deafening, most examined eCAP characteristics significantly changed, suggesting increasing excitation efficacy (e.g., higher maximum amplitude, lower threshold, shorter latency). Conversely, inter-phase gap (IPG) effects on these measures – within-subject difference measures that have been shown to correlate well with auditory nerve survival – did not vary for most eCAP characteristics. After deafening, we observed an initial increase in excitability (steeper slope of the eCAP amplitude growth function (AGF), lower threshold, shorter latency and peak width) which typically returned to normal-hearing levels within a week, after which a slower process, probably reflecting spiral ganglion cell loss, took place over the remaining 6 weeks (e.g., decrease in maximum amplitude, AGF slope, peak area, and IPG effect for AGF slope; increase in IPG effect for latency). Our results suggest that gradual changes in peak width and latency reflect the rate of neural degeneration, while peak area, maximum amplitude, and AGF slope reflect neural population size, which may be valuable for clinical diagnostics.

Association of sleep-related disorders with cardiovascular disease among adults in the United States: A cross-sectional study based on national health and nutrition examination survey 2005-2008.

Background and objectiveThe association between sleep-related disorders and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remains controversial and lacks epidemiological evidence in the general population. We investigated whether sleep-related disorders are related to CVDs in a large, nationally representative, diverse sample of American adults.Materials and methodsData were collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005–2008. Logistic regression was performed to explore associations of sleep-related disorders with the prevalence of total and specific CVDs. Stratified subgroup analysis was performed to exclude interactions between variables and sleep-related disorders. Non-linearity was explored using restricted cubic splines.ResultsIn total, 7,850 participants aged over 20 years were included. After controlling for confounders, multivariate regression analysis showed that sleep problems were associated increases in risk of 75% for CVD (OR: 1.75; 95% CI 1.41, 2.16), 128% for congestive heart failure (CHF) (OR: 2.28; 95% CI 1.69, 3.09), 44% for coronary heart disease (CHD) (OR: 1.44; 95% CI 1.12, 1.85), 96% for angina pectoris (AP) (OR: 1.96; 95% CI 1.40, 2.74), 105% for heart attack (OR: 2.05; 95% CI 1.67, 2.53) and 78% for stroke (OR: 1.78; 95% CI 1.32, 2.40). Daytime sleepiness was associated increases in risk of 54% for CVD (OR: 1.54; 95% CI 1.25, 1.89), 73% for CHF (OR: 1.73; 95% CI 1.22, 2.46), 53% for AP (OR: 1.53; 95% CI 1.12, 2.10), 51% for heart attack (OR: 1.51; 95% CI 1.18, 1.95), and 60% for stroke (OR: 1.60; 95% CI 1.09, 2.36). Participants with insufficient sleep had a 1.42-fold higher likelihood of CVD (OR: 1.42; 95% CI 1.13, 1.78) and a 1.59-fold higher likelihood of heart attack (OR: 1.59; 95% CI 1.19, 2.13) than participants with adequate sleep. Prolonged sleep-onset latency was associated with an increased risk of CVD (OR: 1.59; 95% CI 1.17, 2.15), CHF (OR: 2.08; 95% CI 1.33, 3.23) and heart attack (OR: 1.76; 95% CI 1.29, 2.41). Short sleep-onset latency was associated with a 36% reduction in stroke risk (OR: 0.64; 95% CI 0.45, 0.90). The association of sleep problems with CVD risk was more pronounced in the group younger than 60 years (p for interaction = 0.019), and the relationship between short sleep-onset latency and total CVD differed by sex (p for interaction = 0.049). Additionally, restricted cubic splines confirmed a linear relationship between sleep-onset latency time and CVD (p for non-linearity = 0.839) and a non-linear relationship between sleep duration and CVD (p for non-linearity <0.001).ConclusionAccording to a limited NHANES sample used to examine sleep-related disorders and CVD, total and specific CVDs could be associated with certain sleep-related disorders. Additionally, our study uniquely indicates that CVD risk should be considered in participants younger than 60 years with sleep problems, and shortened sleep-onset latency may be a CVD protective factor in females.

Detection of a GLIS3 fusion in an infant with AML refractory to chemotherapy.

Infants diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) frequently harbor cytogenetically cryptic fusions involving KMT2A, NUP98, or GLIS2. Those with AML driven specifically by CBFA2T3::GLIS2 fusions have a dismal prognosis and are currently risk-stratified to receive hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in first remission. Here we report an infant with AML who was refractory to multiple lines of chemotherapy but lacked an identifiable fusion despite cytogenetic, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) testing. Research-grade RNA-seq from a relapse sample revealed in-frame CBFA2T3::GLIS3 and GLIS3::CBFA2T3 fusions. A patient-derived xenograft (PDX) generated from this patient has a short latency period and represents a strategy to test novel agents that may be effective in this aggressive subtype of AML. This report describes the first case of AML with a CBFA2T3::GLIS3 fusion and highlights the need for unbiased NGS testing including RNA-seq at diagnosis, as patients with CBFA2T3::GLIS3 fusions should be considered for HSCT in first remission.

Low-Latency and Reconfigurable VLSI-Architectures for Computing Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors Using CORDIC-Based Parallel Jacobi Method

This article proposes a low-latency parallel Jacobi-method-based algorithm for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n\times n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -sized real-symmetric matrix. It is a coordinate rotations digital-computer (CORDIC)-based iterative algorithm that comprises multiple rotations and hence the key contribution of our work is to reduce the time cost of each rotation. Thus, alleviating the total latency for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors using the parallel Jacobi method. Based on this proposed algorithm and additional architectural optimizations, a new low-latency and highly accurate VLSI-architecture has been presented in this manuscript for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of real-symmetric matrix. Subsequently, this work proposes a reconfigurable algorithm and its VLSI-architecture for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of complex Hermitian (CH), complex skew-Hermitian (CSH), and real skew-symmetric (RSS) matrices. Performance analysis of the proposed architectures has demonstrated minimal error-percentage of 0.0106% which is adequate for the wide range of real-time applications. The proposed architectures are hardware implemented on Zynq Ultrascale+ field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-board that consumed short latency of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9.377~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> while operating at maximum clock frequency of 172.75 MHz. Comparison of our implementation results with the reported works showed that the proposed architecture incurs 43.75% lower latency and 89.4% better accuracy than the state-of-the-art implementation.

The Tenuous Role of Distress in the Diagnosis of Premature Ejaculation: A Narrative Review.

BackgroundUnlike the other 2 criteria for diagnosing premature ejaculation (PE), namely lack of ejaculatory control and short ejaculation latency (EL), the role of bother/distress has received only minimal consideration and investigation.AimThe specific aim was to determine both why distress is included in the PE diagnosis and whether such inclusion is advantageous to achieving better diagnostic outcomes. To this end, the review explored the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the inclusion of “bother/ distress” in the diagnosis of PE, with reference to the larger role that distress has played in the diagnosis of mental disorders, in an attempt to understand the utility (or lack thereof) of this construct in making a PE diagnosis.MethodsWe reviewed the role of bother/distress across current professional definitions for PE and then expanded this discussion to include the role of distress in other sexual dysfunctions. We then included a brief historical perspective regarding the role that distress has played in the diagnosis of PE. This discussion is followed by a deeper look at 2 nosological systems, namely DSM and ICD, to allow perspective on the inclusion of the bother/distress construct in the diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders, including the assumptions/arguments put forward to include or exclude bother/distress as an important criterion underlying various professional assumptions.OutcomeDetermination of the value and/or need of including bother/distress as a necessary criterion for the diagnosis of PE.ResultsBased on the research literature, bother/distress does not appear to be as critical for a PE diagnosis as either the lack of ejaculatory control or short EL. It is the weakest of the differences among men with and without PE, and recent evidence suggests that its inclusion is generally redundant with the severity of the 2 other criteria for PE, ejaculatory control and EL.Clinical TranslationBother/distress appears to serve little purpose in the diagnosis of PE yet its assessment may be important for the treatment strategy and for assessing treatment effectiveness.Strengths and LimitationsThis review did not provide a critical analysis of the literature regarding the role of bother/distress in PE, but rather focused on its potential value in understanding and diagnosing PE.ConclusionAlthough bother/distress appears to add little to the improvement of accuracy for a PE diagnosis, understanding and assessing the man's or couple's experience of distress has important implications for the treatment strategy and focus, as well as for assessing treatment success.Rowland DL, Cooper SE. The Tenuous Role of Distress in the Diagnosis of Premature Ejaculation: A Narrative Review. Sex Med 2022;10:100546.

Idiosyncratic Drug-Induced Liver Injury Associated With and Without Drug Reaction With Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms.

Immunoallergic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) presenting with features of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a distinct phenotype. We describe the clinical characteristics, hepatitis pattern, severity, complications, and implicated medications in DILI patients with and without DRESS. Using established criteria, we analyzed DILI registry patients with and without DRESS from 1998 to 2021. DILI associated with DRESS (DwD) comprised 179 among 943 cases (19%) of DILI. Compared with the cohort without DRESS, patients with DwD are more often women and have shorter latency, lesser degrees of injury ( P < 0.01), and lower mortality (7.8%) than those without DRESS (16%). Antiepileptic drugs (36%), sulfonamides (19%), antituberculosis drugs (14%), antibiotics (10%), and antiretroviral drugs (8%) account for 87% of the cases of DwD. A limited number of drugs cause DwD, representing a fifth of patients with DILI. DwD is characterized by lesser degrees of liver injury and mortality likely because of earlier presentation.

New-Onset Cancer Cases in FDA's Sentinel System: A Large Distributed System of US Electronic Healthcare Data.

Evaluations of cancer etiology and safety and effectiveness of cancer treatments are predicated on large numbers of patients with sufficient baseline and follow-up data. To assess feasibility of FDA's Sentinel System's electronic healthcare data for surveillance of malignancy onset and examination of product safety, this study examined patterns of enrollment surrounding new-onset cancers. Using a retrospective cohort of patients based on administrative claims, we identified incident events of 19 cancers among 292.5 million health plan members from January 2000 to February 2020 using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnosis codes. Annual incident cases were stratified by sex, age, medical and drug coverage, and insurer type. Descriptive statistics were calculated for observable time prior to and following diagnosis. We identified 10,697,573 incident cancer events among members with medical coverage. When drug coverage was additionally required, number of incident cancers was reduced by 41%. Medicare data contributed 61% of cases, with similar duration trends as other insurers. Mean duration of follow-up prior to diagnosis ranged from 4.0 to 4.6 years, whereas follow-up post diagnosis ranged from 1.1 to 3.3 years. Approximately a third (36.1%) had at least 2 years both prior to and following diagnosis. The FDA Sentinel System's electronic healthcare data may be useful for characterizing relatively short latency cancer risk, examining cancer drug utilization and safety after diagnosis, and conducting surveillance for acute adverse events among patients with cancers. A national distributed system with electronic health data, the Sentinel system provides opportunity for rapid pharmacoepidemiologic assessments relevant in oncology.

Horizontal connectivity in V1: Prediction of coherence in contour and motion integration

This study demonstrates the functional importance of the Surround context relayed laterally in V1 by the horizontal connectivity, in controlling the latency and the gain of the cortical response to the feedforward visual drive. We report here four main findings: 1) a centripetal apparent motion sequence results in a shortening of the spiking latency of V1 cells, when the orientation of the local inducer and the global motion axis are both co-aligned with the RF orientation preference; 2) this contextual effects grows with visual flow speed, peaking at 150–250°/s when it matches the propagation speed of horizontal connectivity (0.15–0.25 mm/ms); 3) For this speed range, the axial sensitivity of V1 cells is tilted by 90° to become co-aligned with the orientation preference axis; 4) the strength of modulation by the surround context correlates with the spatiotemporal coherence of the apparent motion flow. Our results suggest an internally-generated binding process, linking local (orientation /position) and global (motion/direction) features as early as V1. This long-range diffusion process constitutes a plausible substrate in V1 of the human psychophysical bias in speed estimation for collinear motion. Since it is demonstrated in the anesthetized cat, this novel form of contextual control of the cortical gain and phase is a built-in property in V1, whose expression does not require behavioral attention and top-down control from higher cortical areas. We propose that horizontal connectivity participates in the propagation of an internal “prediction” wave, shaped by visual experience, which links contour co-alignment and global axial motion at an apparent speed in the range of saccade-like eye movements.

A Cocktail of Three Virulent Phages Controls Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Enteritidis Infection in Poultry.

Salmonella enterica is not only the most common pathogen of poultry and poultry-derived products but is also a significant foodborne pathogen. In recent years, many S. enterica isolates have exhibited multi-drug resistance, which places huge pressure on global economy and health. Since phages are an attractive alternative to biocontrol pathogens, we isolated a total of 15 Salmonella phages from sewage effluent, sediment, and chicken manure. The GRNsp1, GRNsp3, GRNsp6, GRNsp21, GRNsp27, GRNsp30, GRNsp50, and GRNsp51 phages exhibited a wide host range against S. enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium in vitro. In particular, GRNsp51 exerted highly efficient lytic effects against a large proportion of S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium strains isolated from different regions of China. Meanwhile, GRNsp8 expanded the host range of GRNsp6 and GRNsp51. Based on their host ranges and lytic capacities, GRNsp6, GRNssp8, and GRNsp51 were selected for further investigation. Morphology, one-step growth curves, and stability assays revealed that GRNsp6, GRNsp8, and GRNsp51 all belong to the Caudovirales order and display relatively short latency periods with broad pH and thermal stability. Genomic analysis indicated that the genomes of these three phages contained no genes related to virulence, antibiotic resistance, or lysogeny. In addition, we tested the effectiveness of a cocktail composed of these three phages against S. Enteritidis in a chicken model. Treatment with the oral phage cocktail 24 h before or alongside Salmonella challenge significantly reduced colonization of the intestinal tract and decreased the mRNA expression of IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-1β in the duodenum. Together, these findings indicate that a cocktail of the GRNsp6, GRNsp8, and GRNsp51 phages could serve as an effective antimicrobial therapeutic agent against multidrug-resistant Salmonella in animal production to mitigate infections by multiple zoonotic Salmonella species.

Effect of Ingestion of Ice Slurry on the Sleep Quality of Rugby Union Players in the Summer Season

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ingestion of ice slurry before bedtime on the sleep quality of rugby union players in the summer season. Thirteen healthy male university rugby union players volunteered for this study. The participants ingested either ice slurry or a room-temperature beverage (control) 30 min before bedtime. A wearable activity-based sleep monitor was used to analyze objective sleep parameters, and the subjective sleep scores were assessed using the Oguri–Shirakawa–Azumi Sleep Inventory, middle-aged and aged version (OSA-MA). No differences in the amount or efficiency of sleep were observed between the ice slurry/control beverage conditions. Significant shortening of the sleep latency was observed in the ice slurry condition as compared with the control beverage condition. Moreover, significant improvement of the subjective sleep score for “feeling refreshed” on the OSA-MA was observed in the ice slurry condition. There were no significant differences in the other subjective sleep scores between the two conditions. The results suggest that ice slurry ingestion before bedtime may improve the latency of sleep onset, accelerate recovery from fatigue, and be useful as a sleep improvement strategy in rugby union players engaging in exercises during the summer season.

FastCredit: Expediting credit-based congestion control in datacenters

Receiver-driven transports that leverage hop-by-hop credits have the merits of fast convergence, short queueing, and strong congestion avoidability, making them high-efficiency in managing congestion in current high-speed data centers. However, these transport protocols treat long and latency-sensitive short flows equally, increasing flow completion times and affecting user experiences. Although flow scheduling mechanisms have been studied extensively, they are hard to be deployed into hop-by-hop credit-based transports. The root cause is that most traditional flow scheduling mechanisms mainly work in the long queue containing flows of various sizes, while credit-based proactive transports maintain the extremely short bounded queue.Based on this observation, this paper presents FastCredit, making the first attempt to expedite short-flow scheduling in hop-by-hop credit-based congestion control. In FastCredit, we schedule credit transmission at both receivers and switches to indirectly perform data flow scheduling, and we develop an ECN-based credit rate control mechanism to mitigate the problems caused by credit loss. Compared to the state-of-the-art credit-based transport protocol, FastCredit reduces average flow completion time to 0.71x and greatly improves the short flow transmission latency to 0.45x in realistic workloads. Especially, FastCredit reduces average flow completion time to 0.72x under incast circumstances and 0.56x in many-to-one traffic mode. Moreover, FastCredit still maintains the advantages of the short queue and high throughput and essentially reduces credit loss by employing credit rate control.

Phonation-induced Upper Esophageal Sphincter Contraction Caused by Different Phonation Types

The upper esophageal sphincter (UES) has been reported to show activity during phonation. As it is still unknown whether the phonation-induced UES contraction represents a reflex or a simultaneous activation phenomenon, i.e. co-innervation, this study aims to investigate and characterize the phonation-induced contraction of the UES in healthy individuals by analyzing the influence of various phonation tasks on pressure parameters of the UES. Twenty-five healthy volunteers produced the German neutral vowel [ə] in five different phonation tasks (modal voice, whispering, voiceless speech, creaky voice, and whispery voice). Simultaneously, they underwent high resolution manometry and electroglottography for measurement of pressure parameters in the region of the UES and latencies between larynx and UES activation. During all types of phonation, the maximum pressures of the UES increased significantly (maximum pressure increases of 72%-132%). With regard to mean pressures this was valid for modal voice and whispering (mean pressure increases of 20%-25%). Differences concerning total pressure changes reached statistical significance when comparing whispering and voiceless speech as well as whispery voice. However, differences concerning the total pressure change between modal voices on the one hand and voiceless speech and whispery voice on the other hand turned out to be small. The averaged time delay between larynx and UES activation ranged from approximately -15 ms (whispery voice) to +15 ms (whispering). A phonation induced pressure increase of the UES was confirmed in this study and did exist for different types of phonation. The extent of total pressure changes in the UES increases in relation with laryngeal muscle activity necessary for the phonation type. Next to varying effects of different types of phonation on UES activation, very short latencies indicate that a phonation induced contraction of the UES exists most likely due to co-innervation of UES and laryngeal muscles by the vagus nerve.