Simultaneous Occurrences Research Articles

Simultaneous Infection of Elaphostrongylus Nematode Species and Parasite Sharing between Sympatrically Occurring Cervids: Moose, Roe Deer, and Red Deer in Poland.

It is important to assess the distribution of parasite species across wildlife populations, to design strategies for game management and effective disease control in nature. In this project we quantified the prevalence of Elaphostrongylus species in eight moose populations. We used molecular methods for identification of parasite species and host individual genotypes from fecal samples. We also demonstrated sharing of parasite species between three cervid hosts sympatrically occurring in the Biebrza River valley, North-Eastern Poland, which is occupied by the largest autochthonous, non-harvested moose population in Central Europe. Nematode species from the genus Elaphostrongylus are ubiquitous in the studied moose populations. The presence of a single parasite species (e.g., E. alces) in moose individuals was more common than simultaneous infection with E. alces and E. cervi. The prevalence of both E. alces and E. cervi was higher in males than females. The distribution of E. alces and E. cervi prevalence in moose, roe deer, and red deer were in accordance with the membership of a host to a subfamily. Simultaneous occurrences of both Elaphostrongylus species were significantly more frequently noted in red deer fecal samples than those collected from moose or roe deer. Thus, we consider red deer to play a dominant role in sharing of those nematodes to other cervids. Our findings promote applications of molecular methods of identifying parasite species and the assessment of the exchange of parasite community between wild ruminant species in management and health monitoring of game animal populations.

Global compound floods from precipitation and storm surge: Hazards and the roles of cyclones

AbstractDuring simultaneous or successive occurrences of precipitation and storm surges, the interplay of the two types of extremes can exacerbate the impact to a greater extent than either of them in isolation. The compound flood hazards from precipitation and storm surges vary across regions of the world because of the various weather conditions. By analyzing in-situ observations of precipitation and storm surges across the globe, we found that the return periods of compound floods with marginal values exceeding the 98.5th percentile (i.e., equivalent to a joint return period of 12 years if the marginal variables are independent) are < 2 years in most areas, while those in northern Europe are > 8 years due to weaker dependence. Our quantitative assessment shows that cyclones (i.e., tropical cyclones (TCs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs)) are the major triggers of compound floods. More than 80% of compound floods in East Asia and > 50% of those in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Australia are associated with TCs, while in northern Europe and the higher latitude coast of North America, ETCs contribute to the majority of compound floods (i.e., 80%). Weather patterns characterized by deep low pressure, cyclonic wind, and abundant precipitable water content are conducive to the occurrence of compound floods. Extreme precipitation and extreme storm surges over Europe tend to occur in different months, which explains the relatively lower probability of compound floods in Europe. The comprehensive hazard assessment of global compound floods in this study serves as an important reference for flood risk management in coastal regions across the globe.

Impact of upwelling on phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia along the Chinese coast in the East China Sea

This study evaluates the rarely observed phenomenon of the simultaneous occurrences of phytoplankton blooms, hypoxia, and upwelling along the Zhejiang coast in the East China Sea. Results show that the upwelling uplifted bottom water to 5–10 m below the surface. In the upwelling region, phytoplankton blooms (Chl a = 10.9 μg L−1) occurred and hypoxia or low-oxygen appeared below the surface water. High concentrations of nitrate and phosphate were regenerated in the hypoxic regions, corresponding with mean values (± SD) of 16.9 (± 1.5) and 0.90 (± 0.14) μM, respectively. The upwelling expanded the region of hypoxic water, which nearly reached the surface, thereby increasing the threat to marine life. In addition to fluvial nutrients, the upwelling of water with high nutrient levels, especially phosphates, can enhance phytoplankton blooms. The results suggest that hypoxia can become more severe due to further decomposition of bloom-derived organic matter after blooms crash.

Multiskin Color Segmentation Through Morphological Model Refinement

This study used dynamic maps for skin color detection and applied a morphological closing operator to identify supplementary pixels in the image space to update the color map. Dual constraints were considered in the refinement system to prevent overestimation, which are the centroid of the skin color region in image space and dynamic range in color model space. As a result, the proposed system enables us to update the skin color map continuously. This paper presents a simple, rapid, and effective method for single skin color detection. This paper proposes skin color detection for images involving multiskin color regions (i.e., multiple human subjects of different races) by using the AdaBoost face detection mechanism. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method is highly robust for detection of diverse skin colors and simultaneous occurrences of multiskin color regions.

Co-occurrence of latent Dickeya and Pectobacterium species in potato seed tuber samples from northern Finland

Recent methodological developments have uncovered the etiological diversity of the potato blackleg and soft rot Pectobacteriaceae. At least five species in the genera Dickeya and Pectobacterium have been confirmed to cause blackleg on potatoes in Finland. The bacteria are seed borne and remain latent in the tuber until conditions favourable for growth, multiplication and infection prevail. Tubers could be infected by one or more of these species. This short communication is based on the results of molecular detection data collected for more than 14 years from potato seed lots produced in Finland. Diagnostic PCR assay specific to Dickeya solani, Pectobacterium atrosepticum, Pectobacterium carotovorum, P. brasiliense and P. parmentieri revealed that potatoes are infected by one or more of these species; it also revealed that single species infection is more common than multiple colonization. An event of simultaneous occurrences of different strains from the Pectobacterium species appears to be more frequent than that observed between Dickeya and Pectobacterium species. The absence of co-occurrence of Dickeya solani and Pectobacterium atrosepticum is intriguing.

Clustering Simultaneous Occurrences of the Extreme Floods in the Neckar Catchment

Flood protection is crucial for making socioeconomic policies due to the high losses of extreme floods. So far, the synchronous occurrences of flood events have not been deeply investigated. In this paper, multivariate analysis was implemented to reveal the interconnection between these floods in spatiotemporal resolution. The discharge measurements of 46 gauges with a continuous daily time series for 55 years were taken over the Neckar catchment. Initially, the simultaneous floods were identified. The Kendall correlation between the pair sets of peaks was determined to scrutinize the similarities between the simultaneous events. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering tree (AHCT) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) were employed, and obtained clusters were compared and evaluated with the Silhouette verification method. AHCT shows that the Average and Ward algorithms are appropriate to detect reasonable clusters. The Neckar catchment has been divided into three major clusters: the first cluster mainly covers the western part and is bounded by the Black Forest and Swabian Alps. The second cluster is mostly located in the eastern part of the upper Neckar. The third cluster contains the remaining lowland areas of the Neckar basin. The results illustrate that the clusters act relatively as a function of topography, geology, and anthropogenic alterations of the catchment.

Multimorbidity from Chronic Conditions among Adults in Urban Slums: The AWI-Gen Nairobi Site Study Findings

Background:In the era of double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, the burden of multimorbidity is likely to be common. However, there is limited evidence on the burden and its associated factors in the sub-Saharan African context.Objective:The aim of this study was to determine the levels and identify determinants of multimorbidity from chronic conditions in two urban slums in Nairobi.Methods:Data collected from 2003 study participants aged 40–60 years in two urban slums of the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System in 2015 were used. Using self-report, anthropometry and key biomarkers, data on 16 conditions including chronic diseases, behavioral disorders and metabolic abnormalities were gathered. Lifetime multimorbidity defined by the occurrence of at least two chronic conditions in an individual at any time during their life course was computed. Factors associated with lifetime multimorbidity were identified using multiple logistic regression.Findings:A total of 2,081 chronic conditions were identified among 1,302 individuals. While 701 (35.0%) had no chronic condition, single morbidity was reported in 726 (36.2%) of the study population. The overall prevalence of lifetime multimorbidity was 28.7%. The prevalence of dyads and triads of simultaneous occurrences of conditions (episodic multimorbidity) was 20.8% and 6.1%, respectively. Single morbidity was positively associated with gender and alcohol consumption; and negatively associated with employment. Women, older people, the unemployed, current smokers and current alcohol consumers had higher levels of lifetime multimorbidity in the study population.Interpretation:The findings of this study indicate that a considerable proportion of adults living in urban slums experience multimorbidity from chronic conditions. Further studies with a better rigor to establish temporal associations between socio-demographic factors and the occurrence of chronic conditions are needed to explore the impacts and implications on health status and health system.

A new framework of complex system reliability with imperfect maintenance policy

The interactions and dependencies between software and hardware are often neglected in modeling system reliability in the past few decades due to the mathematical complexity. However, many system failures occurred from the interactions or simultaneous occurrences of software and hardware. This paper first proposes a new diagram of categorizing system-level failures and further incorporates such a diagram into the development of complex system reliability framework. System-level failures result from software subsystem, hardware subsystem, and the interactions of software and hardware subsystems. The focus of this study is on the investigation of the interactions failures generated from the interactions of software and hardware subsystems. In addition to the considerations of total hardware failures, software-induced hardware failures, and hardware-induced software failures introduced by Zhu and Pham (Mathematics 7(11):1049, 2019), we further introduce the partial hardware failures that can be respectively induced by hardware and software to explicitly demonstrate the dependencies and interactions between software and hardware. Hence, a new complex system reliability framework is developed based on such system-level failure categorization with the Markov process. Furthermore, the numerical examples are studied to illustrate the impacts on system reliability with the changes of state transition parameters that modeling the interactions of software and hardware subsystems. Finally, we have studied two maintenance policies of the proposed complex system reliability model.

Fault diagnosis of a nonlinear hybrid system using adaptive unscented Kalman filter bank

In this paper, a model-based fault diagnosis scheme of a nonlinear hybrid system using an adaptive unscented Kalman filter (AUKF) bank is proposed. The hybrid system is an amalgamation of discrete dynamics and continuous states. Fault diagnosis for simultaneous occurrences of multiple faults such as leakage fault, clogging fault, sensor fault, and actuator fault on a benchmark three-tank system are simulated. The residual signal based output generates some discrete modes that guarantee the uniqueness of the concerning fault. The efficacy of the proposed scheme is compared with that of the adaptive extended Kalman filter (AEKF) bank on the same system to prove its better response over AEKF.

Detection and Characterization of Physical Activity and Psychological Stress from Wristband Data

Wearable devices continuously measure multiple physiological variables to inform users of health and behavior indicators. The computed health indicators must rely on informative signals obtained by processing the raw physiological variables with powerful noise- and artifacts-filtering algorithms. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the effects of signal processing techniques on the accuracy of detecting and discriminating physical activity (PA) and acute psychological stress (APS) using physiological measurements (blood volume pulse, heart rate, skin temperature, galvanic skin response, and accelerometer) collected from a wristband. Data from 207 experiments involving 24 subjects were used to develop signal processing, feature extraction, and machine learning (ML) algorithms that can detect and discriminate PA and APS when they occur individually or concurrently, classify different types of PA and APS, and estimate energy expenditure (EE). Training data were used to generate feature variables from the physiological variables and develop ML models (naïve Bayes, decision tree, k-nearest neighbor, linear discriminant, ensemble learning, and support vector machine). Results from an independent labeled testing data set demonstrate that PA was detected and classified with an accuracy of 99.3%, and APS was detected and classified with an accuracy of 92.7%, whereas the simultaneous occurrences of both PA and APS were detected and classified with an accuracy of 89.9% (relative to actual class labels), and EE was estimated with a low mean absolute error of 0.02 metabolic equivalent of task (MET).The data filtering and adaptive noise cancellation techniques used to mitigate the effects of noise and artifacts on the classification results increased the detection and discrimination accuracy by 0.7% and 3.0% for PA and APS, respectively, and by 18% for EE estimation. The results demonstrate the physiological measurements from wristband devices are susceptible to noise and artifacts, and elucidate the effects of signal processing and feature extraction on the accuracy of detection, classification, and estimation of PA and APS.

Doing nothing and what it looks like: inactivity in fattening cattle.

BackgroundAnimals kept in barren environments often show increased levels of inactivity and first studies indicate that inactive behaviour may reflect boredom or depression-like states. However, to date, knowledge of what inactivity looks like in different species is scarce and methods to precisely describe and analyse inactive behaviour are thus warranted.MethodsWe developed an Inactivity Ethogram including detailed information on the postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears, Eyes, Tail) for fattening cattle, a farm animal category often kept in barren environments. The Inactivity Ethogram was applied to Austrian Fleckvieh heifers kept in intensive, semi-intensive and pasture-based husbandry systems to record inactive behaviour in a range of different contexts. Three farms per husbandry system were visited twice; once in the morning and once in the afternoon to cover most of the daylight hours. During each visit, 16 focal animals were continuously observed for 15 minutes each (96 heifers per husbandry system, 288 in total). Moreover, the focal animals’ groups were video recorded to later determine inactivity on the group level. Since our study was explorative in nature, we refrained from statistical hypothesis testing, but analysed both the individual- and group-level data descriptively. Moreover, simultaneous occurrences of postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears and Eyes) were analysed using the machine learning algorithm cspade to provide insight into co-occurring postures of inactivity.ResultsInspection of graphs indicated that with increasing intensity of the husbandry system, more animals were inactive (group-level data) and the time the focal animals were inactive increased (individual-level data). Frequently co-occurring postures were generally similar between husbandry systems, but with subtle differences. The most frequently observed combination on farms with intensive and semi-intensive systems was lying with head up, ears backwards and eyes open whereas on pasture it was standing with head up, ears forwards and eyes open.ConclusionOur study is the first to explore inactive behaviour in cattle by applying a detailed description of postures from an Inactivity Ethogram and by using the machine learning algorithm cspade to identify frequently co-occurring posture combinations. Both the ethogram created in this study and the cspade algorithm may be valuable tools in future studies aiming to better understand different forms of inactivity and how they are associated with different affective states.

Synchronous occurrence of odontogenic keratocyst and ameloblastoma: A case report and review of the literature.

Odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) and ameloblastomas are distinct histopathologically diagnosed odontogenic lesions of the oral cavity. Both are primarily located in the posterior regions of the mandible, however, they can involve the maxilla as well. The occurrence of both an OKC and ameloblastoma in a patient is very uncommon. This case demonstrated such a lesion in the mandible of a 57 years old female. The diagnostic work-up and features of both lesions are illustrated with special focus on histopathological variances distinguishing OKC from ameloblastoma with the support of immunohistochemistry. This case highlights the importance of identifying accurate diagnoses for such lesions which may prompt clinical implications. Clinico-pathologic understanding of both lesions signifies the need for careful management plan and prevention of recurrence. Previously reported simultaneous occurrences of odontogenic cysts and/or tumors in the oral cavity are also reviewed.

Simultaneous occurrences and false-positives analysis in discrete event dynamic systems

Simultaneous occurrences of events have been a crucial and hard problem since the beginning of the research about automaton and simulation theories of discrete event systems, for more than 50 years. This article addresses some diagnosis problems in industrial processes, situations such as simultaneity of events, false positives, and partial recognition of event sequences. V-nets are presented as a means to model dynamic processes without the state machine concept and, the robustness and capability to identify different sequences of discrete events. With the V-nets formalism, it is possible to identify the evolution of the discrete events, simultaneous occurrences of events, partial recognition, counting the number of times that each discrete event occurred in a temporal sequence and this formalism also has the capability to model sequences of sequences. An example of one industrial application is presented and a comparative analysis of the Time Petri Nets, Timed Automata, and Chronicles with the V-nets is exposed.

Computational Paradigm to Elucidate the Effects of Arts-Based Approaches: Art and Music Studies and Implications for Research and Therapy.

Art therapy and music therapy, as well as other arts-based approaches and interventions, help to mitigate symptoms in serious and chronic diseases and to improve the well-being and quality of life for both healthy individuals and patients. Artistic creation is also researched and practiced intending to empower and understand individuals, groups, and communities. However, much research is required in order to learn how arts-based approaches operate and to enhance their effectivity. The complex and simultaneous occurrences involving the dynamics of the creation work, the client, and the therapist in a typical arts setting are difficult to grasp, consequently affecting their objective analyses. Here we employ our Computational Paradigm which enables the quantitative and rigorous tracking, analyzing, and documenting of the underlying dynamic processes, and describe its application in recent past and current real-world art and music studies with human participants. We aim to study emergent artistic behaviors of individuals and collectives in response to art and music making. Significant insights obtained include demographic variation factors such as gender and age, empirical behavioral patterns, and quantitative expressiveness and its change. We discuss the implications of the findings for therapy and research, such as causality for behavioral diversification and audio-visual cross-modality, and also offer directions for future applications and technology enhancements.

Does Music Help to Stay Focus on the Road?

Attention in the physiological definition in one of several simultaneous occurrences of ideas takes ownership of the mind which means removing certain stuff to cope efficiently with others. Particular attention is required in driving in order to maintain track of the driver's vigilance to prevent the road accident. In this study, the driver's attention is analyzed by their driving performance from both the amplitude and accident rating of Electroencephalographic (EEG). The subjects were stimulated with radio talk, instrumental music and no sound (silent) in three separate recordings. It was found that drivers encounter much fewer accidents while listening to the radio talk compared to the music and worse driving score when driving in silence. This finding could be used as a foundation to develop tips or methodology to avoid the attention deficit while driving.

Coupling Between E Region Quasi‐Periodic Echoes and F Region Medium‐Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances at Low Latitudes

AbstractE region quasi‐periodic (QP) echoes from a VHF coherent backscatter radar, sporadic E (Es) layer from a digisonde, and F region medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) from global navigation satellite systems receivers were simultaneously observed at low latitudes. The results on the night of 3 March 2018 show that the QP echoes in radar height‐time intensity maps were clustered into groups, coinciding with the periods of MSTIDs and strong Es layer. The MSTIDs had phase fronts elongating in the northwest‐southeast direction and propagated southwestward from middle to low latitudes. Similar to the propagation direction of MSTIDs, the low‐latitude Es layers also propagated southwestward. For the QP echoing clusters, a westward drift was seen from the radar multibeam observations. The Doppler velocities of QP echoes show beam dependence, with significantly enhanced positive values (motion away from the radar) in the westernmost beam. Based on a preliminary statistical analysis during the period March–June 2018, it was found that out of a total of 102 nights, there are 32 nights when QP echoes were generated. The simultaneous occurrences of QP echoes and MSTIDs were observed on six nights. We suggest that when the MSTIDs coming from middle latitudes approach low latitudes, the polarization electric fields associated with the MSTIDs could modulate the E region plasma instability producing QP echoes at low latitudes through the E‐F region electrodynamic coupling.

Pre-Signal and Influencing Sources of the Extreme Cold Surges at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Competition Zones

The 24th Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will take place in Beijing in 2022. All three competition zones are vulnerable to extreme cold surges (ECSs), owing to the occurrence of the East Asian winter monsoon. In this paper, a representative competition domain (37.5–42.5° N, 110–120° E) is adopted, with a view to avoiding the differences in both the geographies and the thresholds of ECSs among different zones by considering the probability of simultaneous occurrences. Since 2009, the ECSs in the domain have displayed higher frequency and extremity. Based on all ECS cases in the domain, the dominant circulation is revealed by a quasi “reverse-Ω” pattern, with two strong ridges over the east of the Ural Mountain and the Okhotsk Sea, and a broad, deep trough in East Asia. The influencing sources of the ECSs at the domain could be traced to the Novaya Zemlya by a day-by-day backward analysis. The oblique latitude/longitude–time profiles of both the 500 hPa geopotential height and the 850 hPa air temperature anomalies from the source to the domain clearly indicate that the pre-signal could have a leading influence that exceeds ten days, with a slow accumulation in the first stage and a rapid outburst in the second stage.

Phylogenic study of dinoflagellate Gyrodinium instriatum simultaneous occurrences during redtide of Gonyaulax polygramma isolated from the coastal waters of Ramin (Makoran Sea)

phylogenic study of dinoflagellate Gyrodinium instriatum simultaneous occurrences during redtide of Gonyaulax polygramma isolated from the coastal waters of Ramin (Makoran Sea)

Study of changes in the multivariate precipitation series

Precipitation is one of the most important variables in the global climate system, which is almost surely affected by climate change. Changes in precipitation series might not only affect means, variances and extremes in a single location, but also the spatial and temporal scales. Simultaneous occurrences of precipitation anomalies on the multivariate scale are called unusual precipitation events. In this article, a newly developed method is introduced to identify the occurrence of unusual precipitation events in multivariate datasets. This method is based on a statistical approach using the outlyingness function with the consideration of precipitation values of zero. Several selected precipitation observation stations in Europe were used in this investigation to illustrate the methodology. The investigation was conducted at the different multi-site and temporal scales, with consideration of short time intervals (2–5-day sequences) and the spatial of precipitation series. The results show that the occurrence of unusual precipitation events has a dynamic behavior in the spatial and temporal scales. A high uncertainty of unusual precipitation events was identified at different scales. The statistical significance of the results was tested using a bootstrap-based methodology.

Observations of TEC Depletion, Periodic Structure of TEC, ROTI and Scintillation Associated with ESF Irregularities over South China

The observations of Global Positioning System (GPS) scintillation, Total Electron Content (TEC) depletion, the periodic structure of TEC and Rate of TEC Index (ROTI) over south China were presented. Data were collected from GPS observations at stations of Shenzhen and Guangzhou from 2011 to 2012. This study reported that the ratio of simultaneous occurrences of TEC depletions with strong scintillations was higher than that of TEC depletions with weak scintillations in vernal and autumnal equinoxes of 2011 over South China. The number of the periodic structures of TEC with depletion contained was greater than that with no depletion contained corresponding to strong scintillations. The structure of the slab of plasma irregularities could be responsible for the simultaneous occurrences of TEC depletion with strong scintillations and ROTI. Before and during the occurrences of strong scintillation, there was Large-Scale Wave Structure (LSWS) which provided the seed ionization perturbation to trigger ESF irregularities and contributed to the periodic structure of TEC.